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A42901
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A sermon of the nativity of our Lord preached before the Queen Dowager in her chappel at Somerset-house on Christmas Day, 1686 / by Thomas Godden.
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Godden, Thomas, 1624-1688.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing G921; ESTC R28640
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15,433
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36
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improves that which is but a Sign into a Command because the Will performs it exactly This is the Happy State of Men of Good Will Let them but have a Sign an Intimation of what they are to do Their Hearts are ready and they presently set themselves to put it in execution What moved the Wisemen of the East to undertake so long and dangerous a journey to find out and adore the New-born King of the Jews All the Account they give of it is vidimus stellam ejus that they had seen his Star that is his Sign in the East They had heard if not read what Balaam had prophesied of old that a star should arise out of Jacob. They expected the rising of this Star and no sooner did it appear but as the Church represents their devotion in one of her Antiphons they said one to another Hoc signum Magni Regis est This is the Sign of the Great King who is to be born Eamus inquiramus eum let us go and enquire him out offeramus ei munera Aurum Thus Myrrham and offer to him Gifts Gold Frankincense and Myrrh And what can be more Parallel to the devotion of the Shepherds in my Text No sooner had the Angel given them a Sign by which they might find out the same New-born Saviour of the World but presently they said one to another Transeamus usque ad Bethlehem Let us now go even to Bethlehem Those wisest of Kings saw but the Sign and went without delay vidimus venimus These faithfullest of Shepherds heard but hoc vobis signum this shall be a Sign to you and went with hast venerunt festinantes O the Incomparable Devotion both of Kings and Shepherds How happy should we be would we follow their Example and not neglect or which is yet worse reject so often as we do the Holy Inspirations which God is pleased from time to time to give us for the amendment of our lives and setling our selves after a more serious manner to his service to comply with the modes of the world and our own Ease and Humour O how different is this Comportment from that of these Kings and Shepherds A Sign is to them a Precept and an Intimation in lieu of a Command And by whom may we think were they inspired with this devotion but by the Divine Infant himself whom they went to seek of whom Albertus Magnus saith Voluntas Complacentia Patris Summum Praeceptum fuit that the Good Will and Pleasure of his Father in order to man's Redemption was to him as the greatest and strictest of Commands God when he vouchsafes to speak to us of himself is pleased to speak to us after our own manner and in our own language And we can speak no otherwise of him Whatever we affirm says the Great St. Dennis of God is by reason of the narrowness both of our thoughts and words incompetent and unsuitable to what he is in Himself as always carrying some tincture of Imperfection in it Whilst therefore I endeavour as I may to express what my own low Thoughts have been able to conceive of this Gracious Concurrence of the Son with the Good Pleasure of his Father in relation to the great design of his Incarnation and perhaps in words not reaching my own Conceptions your Pious and Charitable attention will I hope help to supply the defect of the one and make allowance for the other The Eternal Father whose Goodness is equal to his Knowledge fore-seeing from all Eternity the Fall of Man out of the Bowels of his Mercy design'd forthwith to repair it and that by the Incarnation of his Son This amongst many other means which were present to his Infinite Wisdom he was pleased to make choice of as most conducing to his own Honour and the redress and advantage of man But how was this Great Design to be brought about By laying a Command on his Son to take our Nature upon him No For as St. Thomas observes a Command supposes Inferiority in the Person to be commanded and Catholic Faith tells us that in the most Holy Trinity there is no Inferiority or Subjection No one of the Persons Higher or Lower Greater or Less than another but as they are All Co eternal in Duration so are They Co-equal in Dignity and Authority There could be no place for a Command where there was no Inequality Nor even for Counsel as supposing an Advantage of Wisdom in the Giver in respect of the Person to whom it is given What then remain'd but if I may be permitted to speak according to our imperfect and incompetent manner of conceiving in this Life an Intimation of the Fathers Good Pleasure to his Son presenting him in the Comprehensive Knowledge which he communicated to him of all things both Future and Possible together with his Essence a Prospect as I may call it of a Humane Body so to be framed as might serve for a decent Tabernacle for the Divinity to dwell in and a fit and proper Instrument for Him who was the Word to accomplish the Redemption of man by uniting himself to it How readily he concurred with his Consent to this Gracious Intention of his Father thus communicated to him is seen by the Blessed in Heaven in the Unity of one and the same Will in Both but can be discern'd only by us in this state of Obscurity in it's Effect as in a Glass which reflects rhe Beams that are darted upon it And such is the account which the Royal Prophet gives of its Execution in his 39th Psalm where he represents the Son at his coming into the World addressing himself to his Father in these words Sacrificium Oblationem noluisti I see O my Eternal Father that Sacrifices and Oblations are rejected by thee as insufficient to make satisfaction for the sins of men and to appease thy wrath so justly enkindled against them But withall I see Corpus aptasti mihi that thou hast framed a Body fit for me and me alone as the means thou hast made choice of for this great work And what follows then but Ecce venio Behold I come Nor was a like concurrence of the Holy Ghost wanting to the compleating this Great Design as may be gather'd from those words of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin on the day that it was to be put in execution when he told her that the Holy Ghost should come upon her and the Power of the Most High should over-shadow her and therefore the Holy Thing which should be born of her should be called the Son of God Thus as the Great St. Leo excellently observes Divisit sibi opus nostrae reparationis misericordia Trinitatis the Three Persons of the most Sacred Trinity in that co-eternal and mutual design they had of repairing lost man divided as I may say the work of his Redemption amongst them not by way of Command but out of that pure
Charitatem Learn of me to love your Neighbours for my sake since I who am true God of true God have made my self man for yours Discite denique verum bonorum omnium hujus saeculi contemptum Lastly Learn of me a true and real contempt of all the Goods of this World since I who am the wisdom of God have despised and rejected them as false and counterfeit to teach you by my example the true way to Heaven These are the Lessons which this divine Word preaches to our Eyes from the Pulpit of his Cribb And if the Scholars of Pythagoras had so great a veneration for their Master that whatever he said they believ'd it because he said it quia ipse dixit Now that a greater than Pythagoras is here now that God himself is become both our Master and Pattern in his own Person shall we not much rather do what we see him do quia ipse fecit because he has done it and not only so but quia ipse factus est because himself was pleased to be made man that we might see him with our Eyes and learn from his Example the true way to Bliss And when shall we do it if we do it not now Holy David astonish'd as we may say to see the general depravation of Mankind in his time how their hearts were bent upon nothing but the Love of the things of this world as their only happiness calls upon them to bethink themselves of their Error in these words Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde Ut quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium O ye sons of men how long will you let your hearts lye groveling upon the Earth Why will you set your affections upon vanity and seek after a lye meaning the transitory and deceitful goods of this world And St. Austin to extenuate as it were in some measure their fault subjoins Saltem usque ad adventum Filii Dei error vester duraverit that possibly this error of theirs might continue till the coming of the Son of God into the world But then considering the depraved lives of too many Christians he changes the Prophets usquequo and crys out himself Quid ultra graves corde estis O ye sons of men why are your hearts still possessed with this Error now that the Son of God is come in the Flesh to teach you the true way of Life Quando habituri finem fallaciarum si praesente Veritate non habetis O when will you make an End of suffering your selves to be cheated with the Fallacious Maximes and Fashions of the world if you do it not now that Truth it self has taken a Body and presents it self visible to your very Eyes to teach you by its own Example what you are to chuse and what to avoid Is it possible dear Christians that we can think that to be Good and desirable which He who is Truth it self has rejected and contemned or that to be vile and contemptible which He has made choice of and embraced If our Judgment and Conduct be not conform to his one of the two must follow Either that he was deceived or we are mistaken And no doubt but the mistake will be found to be on our side if we think to go to Heaven by any other way than that by which He went himself If He who was Innocent chose not only to walk upon Thorns in this World but wore them for a Crown upon his Head must we who are the Criminals expect to have the way strew'd with Flowers and our Temples crown'd with Garlands of Roses Let me tell you dear Christians that 't is as much an Article of our Faith to believe the way to Heaven as to believe Heaven it self And if He who has told us there is such a Place prepared for us as Heaven if we take the Right way to it has told us also that that way is no other than what himself calls The strait way viz. the mortifying of our sensual appetites renouncing the Pomps and Vanities of the World crucifying the Flesh with its inordinate desires bringing the body into subjection to the spirit by Praying Fasting and other Penitential Works giving what is above necessity and true Christian decency in Alms to the Poor denying our own Wills patiently bearing the Afflictions and Crosses which God sends meekly forgiving those that offend us and the like Christian Duties either we believe this to be the only way to Heaven or we do not If we do not why do we believe there is such a Thing as Heaven at all since He who has told us the one has told us the other also When he said of himself Ego sum via veritas vita I am the Way the Truth and the Life he placed Truth in the middle between the Way and the End as Equally engag'd for both But then again if we do believe the strait way and which himself made choice of to be the only way to Heaven why do we chuse to walk in the Broad and beaten Road of the world as if that would bring us thither Is it by pleasing the Senses pampering the Body mispending the time which God has given us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling in indulging to our own ease the best part of the day and throwing away the rest in vain and too often Criminal Conversations and Pastimes and the Riches He has bestowed upon us to secure our own Salvation by relieving his poor and necessitous Brethren in purchasing to our selves all that may conduce to the gratifying of our Fancies and the satisfying of our sensual appetites Is it I say by doing these things that we can think at last to arrive at Heaven O no we are convinc'd of the contrary both by the Doctrine and Practice of God himself made Man for our sakes And when shall we put an End to this fatal Cheat if we do it now Let us then no longer suffer our selves to be deluded with the vain and transitory things of this world But transeamus usque ad Bethlehem passing over let us with the devout Shepherds go to Bethlehem and see this Word which is made Flesh for our sakes which our Lord hath shown unto us Let us in a word see and do according to the Pattern which is shown us in the Manger purifying our hearts from all sinful affections and transcribing those Vertues of which this fair Original has given us so lively an Example into the Copy of our own lives So shall we be prepared worthily to receive him here under the Sacramental Veils in which he lies wrapped upon the Altar no less truly than he did in his Swadling-clothes in the Manger and be found worthy when he shall come the second time into the world with great Power and Majesty to behold him face to face in his Glory which God of his Infinite Mercy grant us all to whom in Unity and Trinity be all Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS Psa 138. 11. Stabulum visum est esse Coelum in Terra Epiphan Orat. de Deipera Exod. 2. Isai 9. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum quod semper erat videamus quomodo pro nobis factum sit Quod enim videre non poteramus dum erat verbum videamus factum quia Caro est Sum. 22. q. 82. a. 1 o. Psal 1. Psal 36. 31. 1 Tim. 1. 9. St. Aug. in Psal 1. De Sermon Dom. c. 21. St. Aug. In Psal 59. Froenum quo pulchrè agitur St. Chrisost Hom. 2. in 1 Tim. 1. In morali Psal 2. 9. Psal 44. 8. Num. 24. 17 Affirmationes de Deo sunt incompactae St. Dionys St. Tho. 1. p. q. 43. Serm. 3. Pentecost Hom. 61. ad Pop. Antioch Ego autèm non ita sed carnibus meis alo meipsum vobis appono vos omnes generosos esse volens c. Volui Frater vester fieri Vobis vicissim ipsam Carnem Sanguinem per quae Cognatus vester factus sum trado St. Greg. Hom. 8. in Evang. Conc. Agath An. 506. Conc. Turon 3. An. 813. St. Cyril Alex. l. 4. in Jo. c. 17. Rom. 1. 23. Serm. 147. S. Aug. l. 83. Quaest Q. 25 Serm 1. de Nat. Dom. Phil. 2. 3. Psal 4. 3. St. Aug. in Psal 4. Matth. 7. 14. Joh. 14. 6.