Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A42045
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E[p]i[ph]ania, or, A discourse upon the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles by the appearance of a star by Francis Gregory, D.D. and rector of Hambleton in the county of Bucks.
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Gregory, Francis.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing G1891; ESTC R43221
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29,752
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52
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ΕΠΙΦΑÎΙΑ OR A Discourse upon the Manifestation of CHRIST to the Gentiles By the Appearance of a STAR By FRANCIS GREGORY D. D. And Rector of Hambleton in the County of Bucks Printed for THO. BOWMAN Anno Domini 1678. To the Right Honourable HENRY LORD ARLINGTON Lord High Chamberlain of his Majesties Houshold One of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable Privy Councill c. My Lord SHOVLD I say any thing in this Publick manner of Your Lordships Merits Worth and Parts both Natural Acquired though Flattery it could not be yet Vanity it would because it were to say no more than that whereof every man who is not a stranger to your Person is already satisfied And to tell the world how much in what way your Lordship hath obliged me is but an Easy and Trivial kind of Gratitude But as mean a Return as it is I must make This or None For as your Honours Soul is too Generous to expect and your Fortunes too ample either to need or admit a just Recompense so are mine too slender to make one The truth is where there is an utter Impossibility to repay a Kindness it would be something like Ingratitude so much as to attempt it and he who doth but offer at a Return for Great mens favours doth thereby derogate from them he makes them less by thinking them capable of being recompensed But though it be too great a Presumption in such a case to attempt a Satisfaction yet that debt which can never be discharged must be upon all Occasions and now is upon This Gratefully acknowledged But had your Lordship never obliged me by any considerable Kindness to make this Publick Adress had not Gratitude nivited me to it yet even Prudence would For such is the main Subject of this Discourse that it can not be Entitled to any Person for its Patron so fitly as to your Honour For the Persons concerned herein are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wise men of the East And if this Character of theirs be as several Authours think and our own Translation intimates not only free from all imputations but an Elogy and Title of Honour to whom could I have more properly recommended the Story of these Great Sages then to your Lordship who are in this and all other their Laudable Endowments so hugely like them a Person of such eminent Prudence Wisdome and understanding as to be singled out of Three Nations as the fittest man therein to be made the Principal Secretary of State and still to have the same Influence upon the Kin g of Great Britain France and Ireland as these Wise men once had upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Persian Monarch Besides the Thing much concerned in this little Tract is a Star which being with us the highest Badg of Honour it was not possible for me to Dedicate a subject of this nature to any fitter Person than your Lordship there being no man whose bloud is not Royal that doth more highly deserve to wear one But whilest I do thus Publickly acknowledge my Obligations to your Lordship I shall only contract upon my self new scores and render my Debt so much the greater For if it shall please your Honour to permit these Papers to walk abroad under the Protection of your Great Name it will yet further oblige their mean Authour to pray for the continuance of your Lordships Prosperity in this world and the Assurance of your Felicity in the next which is and ever shall be the Earnest Petition of Your Lordships most obliged and humble Servant Fran. Gregory St. Matth. 2. 2. We have seen his Star in the East and are come to worship him AS the day of our blessed Saviours Nativity is commonly stiled by Ancient Writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Appearance of God so this day which is the Twelfth from that and the last of our Christmas Festivals is usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Epiphany or Manifestations The Names of Festivals ordinarily running in the Plural Number as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Grecians and the Saturnalia among the Romans and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Jews we are the less concerned to assign a Reason why our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should do so too And yet St. Austine and perhaps from him St. Bernard have left us this account Tres apparitiones Domini legimus c we read of Three Manifestations of our Lord that to the Wise men of the East by the Appearance of a Star at or near his birth That to St. John Baptist by a voice from Heaven and the visible Descent of the Holy Ghost upon him at his Baptism and that by the Miraculous Transubstantiation of Water into Wine to the Guests and Waiters at a Wedding And if all these Appearances of Christ according to the Tradition of Antiquity did happen as St. Bern. tells us Vna quidem die sednon uno tempore though not in the self same Year yet upon one and the same Day we have a sufficient reason why that Greek Father might stile it in the Plurall number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day of Appearances The Solemn Observation of this Festival is no kin to any of those Jewish Feasts which were Antiquated and Abolished at and by the coming of Christ nor yet is it any late Superstitious invention of any Party of men but an Antient and laudable usage of the Christian Church Indeed I read of some who refused to observe it Saint Austine tells us Diem istum Donatistae nunquam celebrare voluerunt The Donatists those notorious Schismaticks of those times whose Progeny and Spawn are some of ours would by no means keep thisday But as for himself and indeed the whole Catholick Church he thus professeth Nos hunc diem hodie celebramus we do now celebrate this Festival and that In unitate Gentium according to the uniform practice of all Christian Nations And that the Observation of this day was more Antient than St. Austin's time is evident as from that forenamed instance of Gregory Nazianzen so from that elder expression of St. Cyprian too who mentions Epiphania Solennia the solemn Celebration of the Epiphany That which gave the first occasion to the Annual observation of this day and is still the ground of its continuance was and is the great mercy of God in revealing the Birth of his Son and offering salvation by him as well to the Gentiles as to the Jews Those Select Persons of the Pagan world to whom God was pleased so early to manifest the Nativity of his Son and so to bring them unto Bethlehem are stiled by the Fathers Primitiae Gentium the first fruits of the Gentiles And who these men were and what information they had that the so long expected Messias and King of the Jews was now actually and newly born we have this fair intimation given us by the