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A41726
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A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall on Christmas-Day, 1684 Humfrey Gower ...
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Gower, Humphrey, 1638-1711.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing G1459; ESTC R3870
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19,094
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36
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Periods to have been ignorant of it those Illustrious Heroes I mean to whose Faith and Vertue he himself gave such ample and honourable Testimony Nor after the Law given do we find that the neglect of its positive Prescripts was ever objected to those Nations whose Sins were yet distinctly reckon'd up by the Prophets that were sent unto them as the Ninevites Egyptians Chaldaeans Idumaeans Moabites and such others The expiration of the Institutions peculiar to the Law was not so properly their destruction or abolition as their accomplishment consummation and attainment of that End for which they were by God instituted and intended What was meerly Shadow must needs become useless and vanish at the appearance of the Substance Yet several Usages and Institutions under the Law were adopted and introduc'd into the Church being by our Saviour and his Apostles improv'd and sublimated into a more Reasonable Service Circumcision was advanced into a better Sacrament more useful more easie more extensive in its Application The Sabbath became the Lords-Day on which as it is the Seventh part of Time we still commemorate Gods Rest on the Seventh Day and as it is the First Day of the Week we celebrate our Redemption from Spiritual Egyptian Bondage and the full Assurance of a compleat Victory over Death and the Grave by the Resurrection of our Lord on that Day This therefore is become to us a greater Feast than the Jews could observe on their Sabbath The great Feast of Atonement as well as all other bloody Sacrifices of the Law was finally accomplished on the Cross and the memory of That the Church solemnly recollects on Good-Friday But in this Feast of the Atonement there was something peculiar and of very extraordinary signification that of the Scape Goat I mean on which Aaron was to lay his hands and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel Lev. 16. 20 21. putting them on the head of the Goat and then send him into the Wilderness Thus was Christ on whom God laid the Iniquities of us all presently after his Baptism led into the Wilderness carrying with him all the Sins that had been confess'd by Jerusalem and Judah at St. Johns Baptism Mark 1. 12. And thus it is that not the Goat indeed but the Lamb of God takes away the Sins of the World John 1. 29. as the Baptist had declared concerning him I am sensible that the pleasant contemplation of these Divine Mysteries would easily transport me beyond the proportion of the Time I must not therefore insist upon any of the rest Not on Aaron the High Priest his Mysterious Vestments and more Mysterious Consecration nor any of the Oral Prophecies concerning the great Business of this Day those immediately from God to Adam and Abraham or those of Jacob Moses and the Prophets down to the express Testimony of St. John Baptist the immediate Harbinger and Forerunner of the Lord. And I am sure I need not put you in mind of that which is daily in your Ears the melody of the Psalms those lofty inspired Hymns which are at once a very History of the Birth Life and Death of the Messias and also the most fervent Petitions and devoutest strains of Thanksgiving that the Mouth of Man can utter or his Heart conceive Thus Great thus Holy thus Divine are the Triumphs of this Day It is the Birth-day of GOD the New-birth of the whole World It is the Day which the Lord hath made and which Abraham saw It is not a Private or a Modern Feast We have heard already that it is as Ancient as the Fall of Adam 2 Tim. 1. 9. Nay we read of Grace given in Christ Jesus before the World began Ephes 3. 11. according to the Eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is what was from all Eternity decreed and presently after the beginning of Time happily put in practice For Christ is the Way and the Door by which both the first and last Man and all other that come thither must enter Heaven Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby Adam or any of his Off-spring have or can be saved God himself therefore could not apply more seasonable or effectual Comfort to our drooping Parents languishing and astonished under the shame and horrour of their Fall than to tell them of the Seed of the Woman the wonderful Birth of this Day Thus do both our Testaments run one into the other They exhibit one and the same thing even the Common Salvation only under diverse circumstances suitable to the differences of Persons and Time (a) Unius igitur ejusdem substantiae sunt omma Iren. adv Haeres lib. 4. cap. 21. The substance of things is the same both in the Old and the New Testament (b) Non alterum quidem Vetera alterum quidem proferentem Nova docuit sed unum cundem Id. ibid. St. Matt. 13. 52. It is one and the same Great Housholder that brings forth things both new and old as Irenaeus applieth to this Matter that Parable of our Lord. (c) Servis quidem adhuc indisciplinatis condignam tradens Legem liberis autem fide justificatis congruentia dans Praecepta filiis adaperiens suam haereditatem c. Ibid. The same Lord and Christ is exhibited in both the Books dispensing to his Children and Servants Laws and Rules suitable to their several Capacities and Ages Well may we therefore be fill'd both with wonder and delight when we listen to the ravishing Harmony of those two Books of God (d) Quis hanc â—…etitiam divinorum Sacramentorum cùm sanae doctrinae luce claresâ—unt non praeferat universis hujus mundi Imperiis etiam inusitatâ felicitate pacatis An Employment and Contemplation in the Opinion of St. Austin to be prefer'd before the peaceable enjoyment of the Empire of the whole World (e) Nonne tanquam duo Seraphim c. St. Aug. ad Jan. Epist 119. Do not the two Testaments says he as the two Seraphims call and cry to one another Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth That great and good Man seems to have wrought himself up into a kind of Transport or Ecstasie by dwelling long and thinking deeply on such things as these From the Considerations which I have now mentioned and very many such like which in this vast and inexhaustible Subject may be brought to illustrate one Testament by the other I might observe as Irenaeus on the same occasion in the place forecited and also the 43 Chapter of that Book how justly our Saviour requires that his Disciples and Apostles who went to instruct others in the Christian Faith should themselves be Scribes well instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven and like the Great Master of the Family able to bring forth out of their Treasure things new and old that is saith the
Excellent Writer without all dispute the Old and the New Testament Ea autem quae de Thesauro proferunt Nova Vetera sine contradictione duo Testamenta dicit Very pleasant it is and a great satisfaction to consider that we are in the self same way to Heaven which the first and best of Men have so happily trodden and with this advantage to us that now it is become far more visible and plain It was only describ'd at a distance shewn and pointed at to them but we are brought and led into it and may discern the very Footsteps of our Saviour and tread in them too if it be not our own fault The Guide walks before us and w cannot miss either of our Way or our Reward at the End of it if we do but follow our Leader the Victorious Captain of our Salvation There was never at any time but one true Religion in the World and that since the Fall has been no other but Christianity either shadowed and covered or open and like it self There is no difference between Israel of Old and the present Israel of God but a few years and a clearer Revelation They had another Law indeed but that did them no good nor afforded any true Comfort but as it was sweetned and improv'd by a saviour But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Rom. 3. 21. They were to expect no remission of Sins without shedding of Blood Heb. 9. 22. 10. 4. 10. But it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin Therefore we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all There is a Christmass in both the Testaments The first Authors of Mankind our Fathers both before and after the Flood could not be happy by any other means than we their late Posterity or as St. Peter expresseth it in the first General Council Through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Acts 15. 11. St. Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew proves that Christians are properly the Israelites from some places in Isaiah as also from the Notation of the word A Notion in the main of it confirmed by our Saviour and his Apostles in what they teach concerning the Seed of Abraham of Israelites indeed and the Circumcision of the Heart I have not time to repeat the Texts The Sum is that Christ was at the bottom and at the end of all Our claim and theirs is in and through one and the same Messias who tenders Salvation equally to all that will acceept of it on his own best that is Evangelical Terms The Patriarchs and Prophets as well as Apostles and other Christians were saved by Faith in Christ as the Early Martyr * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Philad Iren. adv Haer. lib. 4. cap. 2. 13. 45. Ignatius avers in several places of his Epistles and the same is at large prov'd by Irenaeus And Clemens of Alexandria in his Sixth Book of Stromata hath the same with something more of his own concerning Christs descending into Hell which I shall not offer unto you But thus have we seen Rom. 15. 4. that whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that when the Veil is taken from the Face of Moses he shines forth nothing but Grace and Gospel And this Veil is now done away in Christ 2 Cor. 3. 14. In Christ I say The Almighty God the Everlasting Father Esai 9. 6. the Prince of Peace Alpha and Omega the First and the Last the Beginning and the End who was and who is and who is to come Heb. 13. 8. the same yesterday and to day and for ever the Almighty Child of this Day A Day so plainly foretold by the Ancient Prophets particularly by the Greatly beloved Daniel Five Hundred years before the time Dan. 9. that the whole People of the Jews were in eager Expectation and even on the gaze for their Messias at the very time when he appeared in the World And yet alas though he stood full before them and their Great Baptist pointed at him proclaiming aloud that it was He though the Devils falling down before him or flying from him in groans and yells published who He was and He himself avouch'd the same thing and testified it both by Word and Deed yet did their Sins make the Old Curse stick so close to them Esai 6. 9 10. their Heart so fat their Ears so heavy and their Eyes so dim that they understood not what they heard nor perceived what they saw No noise of Prophecies and Miracles could wake them out of their Golden Dreams of a Temporal triumphant Prince with Earthly Crowns and Scepters Dominion and Greatness Such must their Messias be and bring or he is no Messias for their purpose But he is for ours I hope even just so as he did and was to come into the World But then What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness 2 Pet. 3. 11. It was the folly and misery of Gods first People the Jews that they trusted to their Priviledge of being so stil'd they took up with that and gloried abundantly in the Temple of the Lord without ever considering what great Obligations were thereby laid on them for Holiness and Obedience A Prince has little reason to be satisfied with the loud Professions of Loyalty and Obedience from such as take no care to express those boasted Vertues in any thing but in words Nor will the King of Kings accept of the demure Hypocrisie of those who as the Prophet expresseth it Come before him as his People cometh Ezek. 33. 31. and sit and hear but will not do It is Mockery and not Religion to have Lord Lord in the Mouth and no fear and reverence of him in the Heart Judas could cry Master Master when he kiss'd his Lord and then betrayed him If I be a Master where is my Fear saith the Lord of Hosts We are all ready to claim a share in the Mercies and Blessings of this Day some interest in and relation to the Saviour that was born in the City of David even Christ the Lord. We are willing to take our denomination from him at the least we would be call'd Christians and he must be esteem'd and stil'd our Lord. But he disowns and renounces all such Relation and even Acquaintance with those that conform not to his Laws Luke 6. 46. 13. 27. Why call ye me Lord Lord says he and do not the things which I say I know not whence you are depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity That peculiar People of God found by woful experience that he is no respecter of persons but that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him And that