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mercy_n holy_a lord_n miserable_a 3,749 5 9.4412 5 true
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A27517 A sermon upon the Epiphany preach't at Christ-Church in the city of Dublin, 1672 by Richard Berry ... Berry, Richard. 1672 (1672) Wing B2046; ESTC R14245 13,293 36

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to go up to the top of the Victorial Mountain so called and there abiding three dayes were wont to wash themselves over and pray to God that he would manifest unto them that Star of which Balaam had prophesied Upon the day of the Nativity therefore abiding upon the Hill full of expectations the Star appears unto them in the shape of a fair lovely Boy with a Cross shining over his Head and saying Make all the haste you can into the Land of Judaea and there you shall find that King whom you so greedily look after Whether there be any Truth in this story or not it matters not much We cannot but blame however the vain and profane Confidence of impious Astrologers in avouching That the Wise men attain'd unto the knowledge of Christ his Nativity by the Rules and Methods of that their Science which is chiefly conversant about the natural and ordinary Stars For never was it heard of that any other Star but this did ever signifie the Birth of Christ Jesus Neither can it be believed that this it self could do it effectually of it self unless the Holy Ghost had infus'd into their minds at the same time the true Notions of this heavenly knowledge and had sown in their hearts the seeds of a sound Faith that they should believe it But not to be beholding to any the least suspected Author we have besides a very ancient and authentick one to enlighten us about this Star Chalcidius by name a Platonick Philosopher who liv'd and wrote a little after Christ He Commenting upon Plato his Timaeus after he had recounted many strange portentous things about the Stars subjoins a relation of this at last Est alia sanctior venerabilior historia quae perhibet ortum Stellae insolitae c. There is sayes he a more holy and venerable story which gives out the rise of a new Star not foretelling Mortality or any fatal Accidents to Mankind but the descent of God Incarnate for grace and salvation to sinful Mortals The observation of which by the Chaldeans they verifie who presented the same God-man with gifts of Gold Frankincense and Myrrhe Having now given you a sufficient account of the Star in the Text. Our Meditations as to practical Inferences shall fix and expatiate themselves thus You have taught us O ye wise Princes of the East or rather that Star that taught you hath instructed us to sympathize with you in the real manly expressions of an exceeding rejoycing triumphant joy We fall down therfore and with humble adorations congratulate the riches of thy mercy O Lord of life for that thou wast pleased through the miraculous conception of holy Mary to give unto us the assurance of eternal happiness by the word Incarnate and to declare the same by the apparition of a new created Star to those first fruits and forerunners of us miserable Gentiles From the conduct of whom by the light of this material One to thee O holy Jesus who art that Star of Jacob foretold that bright morning Star acknowledged from thine own mouth Rev. 22. 16. We who are of the same stock and lineage as we do share in the same priviledges by faith so do we exult with an equal gladness and unspeakably great joy For that a Star should be lighted up on purpose a Star that portends not only temporal but everlasting happiness to the forlorn Souls of Rebel criminals and such a Star as leaves them not till it have brought them to the child Jesus even to God himself This affords matter sure for exceeding great joy For if we are bound to pay unto God all chearful homage and adoration for that his general providence over us in making the ordinary Stars to dance attendance upon us to shine to lead to fight sometimes in their courses to effectuate health in our bodies and fertility in the Fields for our sakes Which made holy David contemplating that spangled Canopy now our covering hereafter to be our Footstool in an holy extasie to cry out Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of man that thou thus visitest him visitest him with Stars What a noble joy and gratulation should the consideration of God's especial Providence over us Gentiles produce in our Souls in sending us a Star in setting up for us a Standard of light to invite and guide us to warm and cherish us to support and replenish us with the All-healing Benedictions of a far more glorious Star our Sun of Righteousness How exactly to our great comfort be it spoken do the Type and the thing Typified agree In that God who of Old was pleased to lead the children of Israel through the Wilderness into the Regions of the Gentiles by the pillar of a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night here now in like manner he leads the Magi the Forefathers of the Gentiles into the Land of Judaea by the conduct of a Star To shew That both people as well Jewes as Gentiles must become one sheepfold under Christ the one great shepherd of their souls Neither is the Prediction Isa 60. 1 3. less clearly verified Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee And the Gentiles shall come to thy light and Kings to the brightness of thy rising Alas what were we we were a people sitting in darkness and might have continued unto this day groveling in the thick darkness of Ignorance Infidelity and horrours of Idolatry Was it not now a manifestation of miraculous mercy a matter of superabundant joy that God should thus discriminate us of the latter Times from Nations far more worthy than our selves pulling us like Brands out of the fire and setting us above others as a Candle upon a Bushel and enkindling this Candle with a Star When we lay stinking dead in Trespasses and Sins he said unto us Awake and live by the light and life of this Star When we were without hope and without God in the world as the Apostle tells us strangers to the Covenant of promise Aliens to the Commonwealth of Israel wilde Olive-trees Dogs under the Table in our Saviours terms poor blind miserable and naked Orphans even then was he pleased to espouse us unto himself in the bonds of an everlasting kindness and to make us the subjects of the liberal effusion of his graces and the sweet influences of a saving one pointed at by a material Star By the light of this we are surrounded with all other pure profitable benign and pleasing lights with the splendour of Christ Jesus his personal excellencies with the pure lustre of God's holy Word to guide our Feet into the wayes of peace with the refreshing Rayes of supernatural grace faith and hope through his merits with the quickning vertue of his Ordinances Sacraments Letanies and Prayers of the Holy Church All which make up a Constellation of sweet Influences of the power of God unto our