Sermons (LXXX Sermons etc.); Holy Sonnets

ISAL vii. 1. Part of the flrst Lesson that Evening. Therefore the Lord shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son» and shall call his naine Immanucl. ST. BERNARD spent his consideration upon three remarkable conjunctions this day. First, a COljunction of God and man in one person, Christ Jesus; then, a conjunction of the incompatible titles, maid and mother, in one blessed woman, the blessed Virgin Mary; and thirdly, a conjunction of faith and the reason of man, that so belJeves and comprehends those two conjunctions. Let us accompany these three with another strange conjunction, in the first word of this text, tere]bre; for that joins the anger of God and his nlercy together. God chides and rebukes the king Ahaz by the prophet, he is angry with hhn, and tere]bre, says the text, because he is angry he will give him a sign, a seal of nlercy, Tlerefore te Lord s«dl.qire you a siy, Beold, a :ir.qin, &c. This terefore, shall therefore be a first part of this exercise, that God takes any occasion to show mercy; and . second shall be, thc particular way of his mercy declaxed here,

 PREACHED ON CIIRISTMA8 DAY. [SlB. II. The Lord shall Rive you a slRn; and thon a third and last, what this sign was, Beold, a viçqin, &c. In these three parts we shall walk by theso steps; having ruade our entrance into the first, wifl that general consideration, flat God's mercy is always in season, upon that station, upon that height, we shall look into the paricular occasions of God's mercy here, what this king Ahaz had donc fo alien God, and to avert his mercy, and in those two branches wo shall determino that part. In the second, we shall also tiret make this gcneral entrance, that God persists in his own ways, goes forward vith his own purposes, and then what his way and his purpose here was, he would give them a sign; and further we shall hot extend that second part. In the third, we have more steps to make; first, what this sign is in general; it is, that thcre is a Rcdeemer given. And then how thus  first, a riçqin shall conceire, sho hall be a vis,gin then; and a virgin shall bring forth, she shall be a virgin then; and ohe shall bear a son, and thercfore he is of ber substance, hot only man, but man of her; and tbis virgin hall call this son Immanuel, God witl us, that is, God and nmn in one person. Though the angel at thc conception tell Josel,b, that he shall call his naine Jesus , and tell Mary heroelf, that she shall call his naine Jesus', yet the blcssed Virgin herself shall have a further reach, a clearer illustration,,S'he shall call his naine Immanuel, God with us: oflmrs were ealled Jesus; Joshua was so, divers othem were so; but, in the Seriptures there was never any but Christ called Immanuel. Though Jesus signify a Saviour, Joseph was able to call this child Jesus, upon a more peeuliar reason and way of salvation than others who had that naine, because they had ved the people from present ealamities and imminent dangers  for the angel told Joseph that he should therefore be ealled Jesus, beeause he should oare the peoplefi'om theb. sins; and so no Joshua, no other Jesus, was  Jesus. But the bleed Virgin saw inore than this; hOt only that he should be such  Jesus as should save them from their sins, but she saw the manner how, that he should be Immanuel, God witl ris, Goal and man in one person; that so, being man, he might suffit, and being God, that should give an infinite value  Matt. i. 21.  Luke i. 31.

§R. ll.] ON THE IA.TIVITYo 23 to his suflerings, accordin to thv contract passed between the Fathcr ald hhn; and  h should be Jesus, a viour, a saviour from sin, and this by this way and means. And then that ail this should be establihed and declared by an infallible sign, with this, Etc, E«old; that whosoever can ca upon God by that naine Immanucl, that is, confess Christ to become in the flesh, that man shall haie an ec, a light, a sign, a token, an assurance that this hnmanel, this Jesus, this Saviour belovgs unto him, and he shall be able to say, Bekold, »ine ey ave seen thy salration. We begin with that which is older than our beginning, and shall over-lire out end, the meoey of God. I will ziq of thy mercy and ju@men$ , ys David; when wv fix oselves upon the meditation and modulation of the meoey of God, even his judgments cannot put us out of tune, but we shall sing and ho cheerful even in them. As God ruade grs for beasts belote he ruade beasts, and beasts for man before he ruade man: as in that first generation, thv creation, so in the regeneration, our recreatiug, he begins with tt which was necessary for that which follows, mercy before judnent. Nay, to say that mercy was first, is but to post-date mercy; to prefer mercy but so, is to diminish mercy; the names of first or lt derogate from it, for first and last arc but rags of time, and his mey llath no relation to time, no limition in time, it is not first nor last, but eternal, eveflasting; let the devil make me so far desperate as fo conceive a tilne when there was no mercy, and ho bath de me so far an atheist as to conceive a time when there was no God; if I despoil him of his mercy any one minutv, and sy, Now God bath no mercy, for that minute I discontinue his ve Goead and his being. Later grammarians bave wrg the naine of mercy out of mise; miericordia prwsumlt nieriam, say these, there could be no subsequent mercy if there were no precedent misery; but the true foot of the vord mercy, through aH tho prophem, is racham, and racham is dili9ere, to love;  long as there bath been love, (and God is lofe,) thero bath been mercy; and mebcy considered externally, and in the prtico and in the effect, began hot at the helping of n, when man was faHen • Pl. ci. 1.

and become miserable; but at the maklng of man, when man was nothing. So then here we consider hot mercy as it is radically in God, and an essentlal attrlbute of his, but productively in us, as it is an action, a working upon us, and that more especially,  God takes all occasions to exercise that action, and to shed that mercy upon us: for particular mcrcies are fcathers of his wings, and tht prayer, Lord let thy merc!/ li.ahten npon us, as out trust i» in thee, is out birdlime; particular mercies are that cloud of quails which hovered over the host of Israel, and that prayer, Lord let th!! mercy liyhten npon us, is out net to catch, our Gomer to fill of those quails. The air is not so full of motes, of atoms, as the church is of mercies; and as ve tan suck in no part of air but ve take in those motes, those stores  so here in the congregation, we cannot suck in a word from the preacher, we cannot speak, we cannot sigh a prayer to God, but that that whole breath and air is ruade of mercy. But we call hot upon you from this text to consider God's ordinary mercy, that which he exhibits to all in the ministry of his church; nor his miraculous mercy, his extraordinary deliverances of states and churches; but we call upon particular consciences, by occasion of this text, to call to mind God's occasional mereies to them; such mercies as a regenerate man will call mercies, though a natural man vould call them accidents, or occurrences, or contingencies: a man wakes st midnight full of unclean thoughts, and he hears a passing-bell; this is an occasional mercy, if he call that his own knell, and consider hov unfit he was to be called out of the world then, how unready to receive that voice, _Fool, tMs nlytt tey sall fetc away tIy soul. The adulterer, whose eye waits for the twilight, goes forth, and casts his eyes upon forbidden houses, and would enter, and secs a Lord kare mercy on ns upon the door; this is an occasional mercy, if this bring him to know that they who lie sick of the plague within pass through a furnace, but by God's grace, to heaven; and he without carries his own furnace to hell, his lustful loins to everlasting perdition. What an occasional mercy had Balaam when his ass catechised him! What an occasional mercy had one thief when the other catechized him so, Art hOt thou afraid, being under the saine cond, mnation? Vhat an occasion»l mercy had all they that saw that vhen the devil' himself fought for the naine of Jesus, and wounded the sons of Sceva for exorcising in the naine of Jesus, with that indignation, with that increpation, Jests we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye? If I should declare what God bath done (done occasionally,) for nay soul, where he instructed me for fear of falling, vhere he raised me when I was fallen, perchance you would rather fix your thoughts upon nay illness, and wonder at that, than at God's goodness, and glorify him in that; rather wonder at my sins than at his mercies, rather considcr how iii a man I was, than hov good a God he is. If I should inquire upon what occasion God elected me, and writ my naine in the book of life, I should sooner be al'raid that it were hOt so, than find a reason why it should be so. God ruade sun and moon to distinguish seasous, and day and night, and we canhot bave the fruits of the earth but in their seasons; but God hath ruade no decree to distinguish the seasons of his mercies; in Paradise, the fruits were ripe the first minute, and in heaven it is always autumn, his mercies are ever in their maturity. We ask our daily bread, and God never says you slaould laave corne yesterday, he never says you must again to-morrow, but to-day if you will hear lis oice, to-day he will hear you. If some king of the earth have so large an extent of dominion in north and south, as that he hath winter and summer together in his dominions, so large an extent east and west, as that he bath day and night together in his dominions, much more hath God mercy and judgnaent together; he bronght light out of darkness, hot out of a lesser light; he can bring thy sunanaer out of winter, though thou have no spring; though in the ways of fortune, or understaudiug, or conscience, thou have been benighted till now, wintred and frozen, clouded and eclipsed, damped and benumbed, smothered and stupified till now, now God cornes to thee, not as in the dawning of the day, hot as in the bud of the spring, but as the sun at noon, fo illustrate all shadows, as the sheaves in harvest, to fill all penuries, all occasions invite his mercies, and ail times are his seasons. If it were hot thus in general, it would never have been so in this particular, in our case, in the text, in King Ahaz; if God •/kct ix. 14, did hot seek ocoesion to do good to ail he would never havv round oecasivn to do good tv King Ahaz. Subjects arc to look upon the fau]ts of 9rinces with thv speccles vf oeiencv an reverence to their plie and çersons; litflv and dak sçectacles, and so their falts and vrrors are to appear little and excable to them; Godes persçective lass, his spectacle, is tire whole worl; c looks hot upon the suu in is sphe vnly, bt as hv works pon the whole earth: and he loos upon king hot only what harm they do at home, but what harm they occasion aroad; and trwgh that sçectacle the faults of çrinces, in Godes eye, are multiplied far bove those of private men. Ahaz had such faults, and yet God sought occasion of mercy. Jotham, his fatller, is called a good ig, and yet ail idolatry was not relnoved in his time, and he was a good king for al[ that. Ahaz is called i/l, both because himself sœerificed idolatrously, (and the king was a commanding person,) and because he ruade the priest Uriah to do so, (and the priest w an exelnplar » person) and because he ruade his son commit the abominations of the heathen; (and the actions of the lings son pierce far in leadig others.) Ahaz had these faults, and yet God sought occasion of mercy. If the ereniy s be red, you promise yourselv a àir day', says Christ; you would hot do so if the evening were black and cloudy; when you sec the fleld u'Mte with corn., you sayharrt is re«dy; you would hot do so if they were white with ost. Il" ye conscrit a«d obey, yoa shall eat the.qood thigs ofthe hznd «, says God in the prophet; shall ye do so if you refuse and rebel [ Ahaz did; and yet God sought occion of mercy. There arise diseases for which there is no probatum t in all the books of physieians; there is scaree any sin of which we have not had experiments of God's mercies; he concludes with no sin, excludes no occion, preeludes no person; and so w« bave donc with out first part, God's general disposition for the rde, deelared in Ahaz" ee for the example. O second pa consists of a rule and an example too; the rde, that God goes foard in his own ways, proceeds as he be,  mercy; the example, what his proceeding, wha s a at , a pemon set for  epl « IatL xx. 2.  John iv. 35. s h i. 19.

subsequent mercy te Ahaz was. One of the nmst convenient hieroglyl)hics of God is a circle, and a circle le endlese; whom GI loves, ho loves te the end; and net only te their own end, te their death, but te his end, and his end ie, that he might lo-e them still. His hailstonee and his thunderbolts, and his showers of blood, (embloms and instrnments of Iris judgments,) fMI down in a direct line, and afl'ect and strike seine one person or place; his sun, aud moon, and stars, (emblems and instruments of his blossings,) novo circularly, and communicate themsel,-es te all. His church is his chariot; in that he moves more gloriously than in the sun; as much more as his bogotten Son exceeds his created sun, and his Son of glory and of his right hand, the sun of tho firmament; and this church, his chariot, moves in that communicable motion circularly; it began in the east, it came te ns, and is passing new, shining out new in the farthost west. As tho sun does uot set te any nation, but withdraw itself, and roturn again, God, in the exorcise of his mercy, does net set te thy seul, though ho benight it with an affliction. Remember that out Saviour Christ himself, in many actions and passions of out human nature and infirmities, smothered that divinity, and sufl'ered it net te work, but yet it was always in him, and wrought most powerfully in tho deepest danger; when he was absolutely dead it raised him again; if Christ slumbered tho Godhead in himsclf, the mercy of God may be slumbered, it nmy be hidden frein his ser'ants, but it cannot bc takcn away, and in the greatest necessities it shall break out. The blessed Virgin was o,ershadowed, but it was with the Holy Ghost that overshadowcd her; thino understanding, thy conscience may be se too, and yet it may be tho work of tho Iloly Ghost, who moves in thy darkness, and will bring light even out of that, knowledgo out of thine ignorance, clearness out of thy scrnples, and consolation out of thy dejection of spirit. God is thy portion, says David; David does net speak se narrowly, se penuriously, as te say, God hath gin'en thee thy portion, and thou must look for no more; hut, God is th!/portio, and as long as he is God, he hath more te gL'e, and as long as thou art his, thou hast more te recelé'e. Thou canst net bave se good a title te a subsequent blessing as a former blessing; where thou art an ancient tenant,

, PREACHED ON" CHIISTIMAS DAY. [SER. I1. thou wilt look to be preferred before a stranger; and that is thy title to God's future mercies, if thou bave been formerly accustomed to them: The sun is not weary with six thousand years shining; God canuot be weary of doing good; and therefore never say, God bath given me tbese and these temporal rhino, and I have scattered them wastefully, surely he will give me no more; these and thcse spiritual graces, and I have neglected them, abused them, surely he will give me no more  for, for things created, we bave instruments to measure them; we knov the compass of a meridian, and the dêpth of a diameter of the earth, and we know this, even of the uppermost sphere in the heavens; but when ve corne to the throne of God himself, the orb of the saints and angels that see his face, and the virtues powers that flow from thence, we have no balance to weigh them, no instruments to measure them, no hearts to conceive them; so for temporal things, we know the most that man can bave; for we know ail the world; but for God's mercy and his spiiitual £races, as that language in which God spake, the Hebrew, bath no superhtive, so that vhich he promises, in all that he bath spoken, his mercy, hath no superlative; he shows no mercy which you can cal] his greatest mercy, his mêrcy is never at the highest; whatsoever he bath done for thv soul, or for any other, in appl.ng himself to it, he can exceed that. Only he can raise a tower whose top shall reach to heaven  the basis of the hihest building is but the earth; but though thon be but a tabernacle of earth, God shall raise thee piece by piece into a spiritual building; and after one story of creation, and another of vocation and another of sanctification, he shall bring thee up to meet thyself in the bosom of thy God, where thou wast at first, in au eternal election; God is u circle himself, and he will make thee one  go hot thou about to square either circle, to bring that which is equal in itself to angles and corners, into dark and sd suspicions of God, or of thyself, that God can give, or that thou canst receive, no more mercy than thou hast had already. This, then, is the course of God's mercy, he proceeds as ho begun, which was the first branch of this second part  it is always in motion, and alwa.ys moving towards all always per- pendicular, rlght over every one of us, and always circular, always communicable to all; and then the particular beam of this mercy shed upon Ahaz here in our text is, Dabit siyum, The Lord shall yive you a siyn. It is a great degree of mercy that he affords us signs. A natural man is hot ruade of reason alone, but of reason and sense; a regenerate man is hot made of faith alone, but of faith and reason; and signs, external things, assist us all. In the creation it was part of the office of the sun and moon to be significative; he created them for signs, as well as for seasons; he directed the Jews to Christ by signs, by sacrifices, and sacraments, and ceremonies and he entertains us with Christ by the same means too; we know where to find Christ; in his bouse, in his church; and we know at what sign he dwells; where the word is rightly preached, and the sacraments duly administered. It is truly and wisely said,,S'ic abendafldes erbo Dei, ut s&sidia minime contemnamus; we must so far satisfy ourselves with the word of God as that we despise hot those other subsidiary helps which God in his church bath afforded us; which is true (as of sacraments especially,)so of other sacramental, and ritual, and ceremonial things, which assist the working of the sacraments, though they infuse no power into the sacraments. For, therefore does the prophet say when Ahaz refused a sign, Is it a small thing to weary (or disobey) men, but that you will weary (disobey) God M»self '°? He disobeys God in the way of contumacy, who refuses hi signs, his outward assistances, his cerenmnies which are induced by his authority, derived from him, upon men, in his church, and so ruade a part, or a help, of his ordinary service, as sacraments and sacramental thillgS are. There are signs of another sort, not fixed by God's ordinance, but signs which particular men have sometimes desired at God's hand, for a farther manifestation of God's will, in which it is not otherwise already fully manifested and revealed. For to seek such signs in things which are sufficiently declared by God, or to seek them with a resolution that I will leave a duty undone except I receive a sign, this is to tempt God, and to seek a way o Calin. ° Ver. 13.

0 PREACIIED 09 CIIIIISTMAS DA¥. [sll. II to excuse myoelf br hot do[ng that whch I wns bound to do by the streh of an old commmlmeut, and ouht hot fo look for n new s;. But the grestest fault h tlfis khd is, that if Oo«l, of his abundant goodness, do ivc inc a sign for my clearer dircdtions, and I resist that si,, I dispute ngalust tiret si, I tm'n it another way, upon nature, upon fortune, upon mistaking, that so I may go mino owu way, and n«,t be bound, by believiug that sign to be ri.oto God, to go that wav to whieh God I»y ihat sign calls lle. And this was Ahaz" case; Goal spoke uuto him, and said, Ak a 8im", (that he would deliver him from the enemy dmt besieged Jerusalcm.) aud he said, I u.ill ot a" a in, or tempt God  for though St. Augustine and some with him, ascribe this l.Cflsal of Ahaz fo a religious modesty, yet St. Hierome, and with him the greatest party, justly impute this tbr a fault fo Ahaz; both becauso the sign was oflçred him ri-oto God, and hot sought hy himself, (which is the case that is most subjcct to error.) and because the prophet, who understood God's mind and the kins mind too, takes knowledge of it  of a great fault, In thi thon at contemned and rearied hot man but od. For thouh there be but  few cases in xvhich wo may put God fo give a sign, (for Christ calls the l'harisees a» eril and an adu#erous en'at;on , therefore because they ouht a »in,) yet God gave Moses s si of a rod ehanged into a serpent TM, and a sign of good flcsh changed into leprous, and leprous into good, unasked; and after Al,raham, asks a sign, Wherd»y shall I know that I shall inherit the land[ And God gve him a si.gn. So Gideon, in a luodest timorousness, asks a sign ', and presses God to a second sign; first, he wonld have ail the dev upon the fieece, and then uone of the dew upon the ficece. God does give signs, and when he does so, he gives alto irradiations, illustrations f the uuderstanding, that they my be discerued to be his sis; and when they are so, it is but  pretended modesty to say we will hot tempt God fo ask a sign, we will hot trouble God to tell us whether this be  sign or no, but against all significations fm God go on as though all were but natul accidents. God gins sis fo them that ask them upon due ounds, (so fo Abraham, so to Gideon,)and it is too long for this rime to n Ver. 11, s Mati, . 39.  od. iç  Gem xv. 0. »Jud. d. 36.

13ut cases, when a man may or may hot çut God to a slgn; he gi-es signs also without being asked, to illustrate the ce, and to eonfl the person, and so he did to Moses. Both these are high expressions of his mercy; for what binds God fo begin with mn, and give him a si before he ask; or to wait upon man and give it him when he asks $ But the highest of all is, fo per- evere in his mercy so far as to give a sign, though upon the offer thereof it be refused; and that is Ahaz" case; Ask ye, says God, and I «ill hot, says Ahaz, and then it is hot çuamvis, for all that, though thou refuse, but it is propterea, teroEore, because thou refusest, the Lord MmseoE »all give thee a »iyn. His fault is carried thus high, because he had treasure to pay an amy, because ho had contraeted with the Assyrians to assist him with men, therefore he refuses the assistance offered by the prophct from Goal, and would fain go his own ways, and yet would have a religious pretcxt, he u'ill hot tempt God. Nay his fault is carried thus much hiher, that which we read, n tentabo, [ «ill hot tempt, is in the original, asas, and nasas is on etollam, non yloroEcabo, I will hot glorify God so much, that is, I will hot be beholden to GÇd for this victory, I will hot take him into th0 league for this action, I will do it of myself; and yet (and then who shall dvubt of the largeness of God's mercy ) God proceeds in his purpose; yire you a sçq; because you will do nothing for yourself, the Lord shall do all; which is so tmnendant a mercy as that howsoever God afforded it to Ahaz here, we can promise it to no man hereafter. We are corne to out third part, which is more peculiar to this day; it is first, what the sign is in general, and then some more particular circumstances, ehold a riryin shall conceire, &c. In general, then, the sign that God gives Ahaz and that there shall be a lessias, this future thing, (there shall be a lessias,) a sign of their present deliverance from that siege  Fifa, in the notion of the prophet it was hot a future thing; for as in God's in their sight, to whom he opens himself, futée things are present. So this prophet says, i»gieen'; hewas hot iven, he was hot born n sx hundred)'ers nfter thnt; but uch i the clenrnes of  propheCs siht, such is the infllibility oï God's declred purpoee. So then, iç the prophet could hve ronde the-inK believe with such an nuredness s iï he hnd seen t donc, tlmt God would ive a deliverance to 11 mankind by a Messias, that had been sign enough, evidence enough to have ared thereupon, that God who had donc so much  greater wor, would also give him  deliverance from that enemy that l,ressed him then; if I tan fix myself, with the strenh of faith, upon that whieh God bath donc for man, I cannot doubt of his merey in any distress; if I laek a si, I seek no other but this, that God was ruade man for me; whieh the ehurch and church writers have well expreed by the word incarnation, for that acknowledges and denotes that God was ruade my flesh; it were hot so strange that he who is spirit should be ruade my spirit, my sonl, but he was made my flesh; therefore bave fle fathe delighted themselves in the variation of tha word; so far as that Hilary calls it cororationem, that God assumed my body; and Damascen calls it inumaationem, that God became,this man, soul and body; and Irenoeus ealls it adunationem, and yssen contemperationem,  mingling, ys one, an uniting, says the other, of two, of God and man in one pern. Shall I ask what needs ail this  what needed God to have put hilnself to this I may say with St. Austine, lio modo poterat Det«s nos liberare, sed si aliter facer«t, similiter etrw stultitiw di.,Tliceret; wht other way soever God bath taken for our salvation, our curiosity xvould no more have been satisfied in fiat way than in this; but God having ehosen th« way of redemption, which was the way of justice, God could do no otherwise; 57 homo on ¢icisset nimicum hninis, non juste ictus esset ininticus, says Irenoeus; as if a man should get a batfle by the power of the devil without fighting, this were hOt a just victory; so if God, in man's behalf, had conquered the devil without man, without dying, it had not been a just conquest. I must not asl why God took this way to incarnate his Son; and shall I ask how this was donc $ I do not

sk how rhubarb, or how aloe» came by this or this virtue, to purge this or this humour in my body: In talibus rebus, tota ratio facti, est totentiafacientls ml. Even in natural things ail the reason of all that is doue is the power and the will of him who infused tlmt virtue into that creature; and therefore much more when we corne te theo snperatural points, such as this birth of Christ, we embrace St. Basil's modesty and abstinence, iVativitas "ista »ilentlo honoretur, This mystery is net se well celebrated with our words and discourse, as,vith a holy silence and mediration: Immo potius ne coyitationibus lpermittatur, Nay (says thut father) there nmy be danger in giving ourselves lcave te think or study too much of it. h'e dixeris quando (says he) yrwterl banc interro.qationem, Ask net thyself over-curiously when this mystery was accomplished: be net over-vehement, over-peremptory (se far as te the perplexing of thine own reason and understanding, or se far as te the despishig of the reasons of other men) in calculating the time, the day, or heur of this nativity. rwteri hmw bterro.qatlonem, pass over this question in good time, and with convenient satisfaction, quando, when Christ was born; but noli inquirere quomodo (says St. Basil still) never corne te that question how it vas doue, cure ad oc nihll sit quod responderi ¥osgit, for God bas given us no faculties te comprehend it, no way te answer it. That is enough which ve llave in St. John: Frery sTirit that coŒEèses that ]esus is corne i theflesh is of Godm; for sinee it was a eoming ofJesus, Jesus was belote: so he was God; and sinee he came in the flesh, lle is now ruade man; and that God and man are so lnet, is a sign to me that God and I shall never be parted. This is the sign in general; that God bath had such a eare of ail men is a sign to me that he hath a eare of me; but then there are signs of this sign, divers, ail these: a riryin shall conceie, a virgin shall brlng forth, bring forth a son, and (whatsoever have been prophesied before) she shall call his naine Immauuel. First, a virgin shall be a mother, which is a very particular sign, and was seen but once. That which Gellius and Pliny say, that a virgin had a chihl ahuost two hundred years belote Christ; that whieh Geuebrard sys, that the like fell out in m; Augustine. me John 1 iv. 2. VOl,. I. D

 pRE,CIIED ON CIIIIS'I'AS nAYo [SE; II. France in his time, are not within our faith, and they are without our reason; our faith stoops hOt down to them, and our reason reaches hot up to them. Of this virgin in our text, if that be truc, xxhich Aquiuas cites out of the Roman o, that in the rimes of Constantine and lrene, upon a dead body found in a sepdchre there was round this inscription, in a plate of gold, 6'hristns nascetur e ciyine, et eyo credo in eum, Christ shall be born of a virgin, and I believe in that Christ, with this addition in that inscription, O,ç'ol, sub Irene, et Constantini t«mporlbus, iterum me ridebis, Though 1 be now buried from the sight of the sun, yet in Constantine's rime the sun sha sec me again; if this Le truc, yet our ground is hot upou sueh testimony: if God had hot said it, 1 would never have bdieved if. And therefore I must have leave to doubt of that 'hieh some of the Roman easuists have delivered, that a virgin may continue a virgin upon cash, and receive the partieular dignity of n virgin in heaven, and yet have have a ehild, by the insinuation and praetice of the devil, so that there shall be a father and  mother, and yet bh they, vilains. That this mother in out text was a virgin, is a pecdiar,  singular sign, given as ch by God, never done but then; and it is a singular testimony how acceptable fo God that ate of virginity is. He does uot dishonour physie tht magnifies health, nor does he dishonour marriage that praises virginity: let thelu embraee tllat ate that ean, and eeainly many more might do it than do, if they would try whether they eould or no; and if they would çollow St. C)rian's way, lïrffo non tadum esse, sed et intelli9i esse d«bet, et credi; if is not enough for a vigin to be a virgin in her own knowledge, but she mmt govern herself so as that others may sec that she is one, and see that she bath a desire and a disposition fo continue  still, lta, tt nemo cure irinem riderit dubitet an sit rbffo, says that father, she must appear in sueh garments, in sueh langage, and in such motions (for as a wife may wear other elothes, so she may speak other words than  virgin may do) as they that see her may hot question nor dispute whether she be a maid or no. The word in the text is derived d latendo, from retiring, from privateness; and Tertullian, ho makes the note, notes withal, that Ipsa concupiec«ntia non l«tendi, non eet udica. The very concupiscence of conversation and visits is hot chaste: «tudium cat[on si, clt«tr, says the sae author; crios dressings are for ublic eyes, and the virin that desires to pub]ish herself, is wea o that state. It is sefu]ly added by him, c«titur ocdis alienis, fros durat«r, et udor terltur, the eyes of others, that strike upon ber (if sho bo lling to nd out that battery) dry up that blo that should blush, and wear out that ehastity which should be preseed. So precious is virginity in God's eye, as that he loeks upon that wlth a more jealous eye than upon other states. The blessed mother of God in out text was a viin: when ryo cowipiet, says our text, a riryin skall coweire; when she conceived she was a virgin. There are three heresies, all noted by St. Augustine, that impeach the virginity of this most blessed woman. The Cerinthians said she conceived by orna generation; Jovinian said she was delivered by ordinary means; and Helvidius said she had children after: all ainst all the world besides themselves, and against one another. For the fir, that is enough xvhich St. Basil says, that if the word virgin in out text signified no more but adolescettMam, a young woman (as they pretend)it had been an impeinent, an absurd thing for the prophet to bave ruade that a si and a wonder, that a young woman should bave a child. This is enough, but that is abundantly enough, that St. Matthew, who spoke with the same spirit that Esay did, says in a word, which can admit no misinterpretation, that that was fulfilled which Esay had id, a eirin shall conceire '. St: Matthew's word, without queion, a virgin, and hot a young woman, and St. Matthew took Esay's word fo be so too; and St. Matthew (at let he that ake St. Mmthew) did hOt, could hot mistake, and mistake himself, for if was one and the saine Holy Ght that spake both. Christ says therefore of himself, vermis um, I am a wornl"; but says St. Ambrooe, ermis de nanna, a worm out of a pure substance, a holy man from a blessed virgin, riro cowe2it, she was a virgin then, then when she had conceived. She was w so too, i partt«, then when she was delivered; Jovinian denied that: a better than he (Tertlian) denied if,  Itt i. 23. s» p 22 D 2

Iiryo 9uantum à h'o, non quontum à partu, says he, she was such a virn as knew no man, hOt such a virgin as needed no midwife: ITiryo concépit, says he, it yartu nuTsit, a virgin in ber conception, but a wife in the deliverance of ber son. Let tbat be wrapped np amongst Tertnllian's errors; he had many: the text clears it, 21 zirgln shall conceiré, a zirgin shall béar a on. The Apostle's ereed elears it, says St. Augustine, when it says, born of the 15"rgin lIary; and St. Ambrose elears it, when he says, with sueh indignation, De ia iniquitati produntur dicere, ziryo cowepit, ed no ziryo generarit, It is said that there are some men so impious as to deny that she remained a virgin at the birth of ber son. St. Ambrose wondered there should be, scaree believed it to be any other than a rumour or a slander, that there could be any so impious as to deny that; and yet there bave been some so impious « as to charge Calvin with that impiety, with denying ber to be a virgin then. It is true he nmkes it hot a matter of faith to defend ber perpetual virginity; but that is hot this case, of ber virginity in ber deliverance; and even of that (of ber perpetual virginity) he says thus, Aemo u«quam questionem morebit, «isi curiosus, temo pertinaciter ineiotet, ni»i contetio»u ixator; he is over-eurious, that will make any doubt of it, but no man will persist in the denial of it, but a eontentious wrangler; and in that very point St. Basil says fully as much as Calvin; but at his birth, and after llis birth, there is evidence enough in this text; A viryin shall conceire, a viryin shall briny forth, a riryin shall call him Immauel. In ail those future and subsequent acts still it is the saine person, and in the same condition. Parler, et larlet fllium, she shall bring forth a son; if a son, then of the substance of his mother; that the Anabaptists deny; but had it hOt been so, Christ had hOt been true man, and then man were yet unredeemed. He is her son, but not ber ward; his Father cannot die; ber son, but yet he asked ber no leave to stay at Jerusalem, nor fo dispute with the doctors, nor to go about his Father's work. His settling of religion, his governing the church, his dispensing of his graces, is not by wartant from her; they that call upon the bishop of Rome, in that  CI'amerris.

s. u..l os TU i,i.TivrrY. 37 voice, »era regibus, eommand kings and emperors admit of that vo/ce, fmerafilio, fo her, that she should command ber son. The natural obedience of children fo parents holds hot in such civil things as are public. A woman may be a queen-dowager, and yet a subject; the blessed Virgin Mary may be in a high tank, and yet no sovereign; Blessedart tlou mnongs women 22, says the ange1 fo ber, amongst women, above women, but hot above any person of the Trinity, that she should command her son. Luther was awake and risen, but he was hOt ready: he had seen light, and looked toward it, but yet saw hOt so clearly by it, then when he sa/d, that the blessed virgin was of a middle condition, between Christ and man; that man hath his conception and his quickening (by the infusion of the soul) in original s/n; that Christ had it in neither, no sin in his conception, none in his inanimation, in the infusion of his sou1. But, says Luther, howsoever it were at the conception, ceoEainly at the inanimation, at the quickening, she was preoerved from original fin. 'oxv what needs this  May I hOt say that I had rather be redeemed by Christ Jesus than be innocent, rather be behdden to Christ's death for my salvation, than fo Adam's standing in his innocency Epiphanius said enough, par detrimentum afferunt religion/, they hu religion as much, that ascribe too little to the blessed v/rg/n, as they who ascribe too much. Iuch is due fo her, and this among the rest, that she had so clear notions above all others, what kind of person her son was, that as Adam gave namea aceording fo natureg so the prophet here leaves if fo her to naine ber son aeeording fo his office, she shall call his naine Immanu«l. $Ve ld you at first, that both Joseph and Mary were told by the angel that his name was to be esus, and we told you also, that others besides him had been call by that name of esus, but, as though others were ealled 2esus (for 2oshua is call so, Heb. iv. 8. I]'Jesus kadgiren them test, that is, if 2oshua had, &e., and the son of osedech is called so throughout the prophet Aggai) yet there is observed a difference in the pointing and sounding of those names from this our Jesus; so, though other women were ealled Mat)" as well as the blessed v/rg/n, yet the Evangelists evernlore make  difference between ber naine and s Luke i. 28.

the other Maries, for ber they call aam, and the rest Maria. ow this Jus, in th person, is a reaL an actual Saviour, he that th already really and actually accomplished out lvation. But the blcssed Virin had a clearer illustration than ail that, for she only knew, or shc knew best, the capacity in hich he could be a Saviour, that is, s he is Immantel, God with ; for she, and she only, knew that ho was the son of God, and hOt of natural generation by man. How much is cnwral)ped in this naine hnmanucl, and how littlo rime to uufold it  I ara afraid none at all: a minute will serve to repot that which St. Bernard says, and a day, a lire, will not serve to comprehend it; for to comprehend is not to know a thing as far as I can know it, but to know it as far as that a thing can be known, and so only God Call comprehend God. [mmauel est verbum ioEs, )'s the Father; he is the ancient of days, and yet in mi»ority; he is the word itself, and yet speechless: he that is all, that all the prophets s]»oke of, cannot speal« He adds more: he is Tuer »apie», but a child, and yet wiser than the elders, wiser in the cradle than they in the chair; he is nmre, de«» lactes, God, at whose breasts all creatures suck, sucking at his mothers breast, and such a mother as is a maid. Immanuel is God with us, it is hot we with God: God seeks us, cornes to us belote we to him, and it is God with us, in that notion, in that teination EI, which is Deu» fortis, te Towerf«l God, hot only in infiity, as when he died in our nature, but as he is Des rt:s, able and ready to assist and deliver us in all encumbrances; so he is with us; and with us, usque ad cosummatlonem, till the end of the world, in his word, and in the Sacraments; for though I may hot say, as some have said , that by the word of consecratlon, in the administration of sacrament, Christ is so infallibly produced, as that if Christ had never been incarnate belote, yet at the pronouncing of those words of consecration, he must necessarily be incarnate then, yet I may say, that God is as eflbctually present with every worthy receiver, as that he is not nmre eflctually present with the sain in heaven. And this is tbat, which is intlmated in that word, which wo seposed at first, for the last of all, ecce, behoM; behold a ¢iryin * Co4ius.

shall ¢oneive, 'c. Goal does hot furnish  room, and le,ve it drk; ho sers up lights in it; his first care was, that his benefits should be seen; he ruade light first, and then cretures, to be seen by that light. Ho sheds himself from my mouth, upon the wholo ditory here; ho poufs himself from lny hand, fo ail the communicants at the table; I can sŒEy to you ail bore, Te y/race OE our Lord Jesua Crist be with you, and remain with you all; I ean say to them ail therc, Tke body er our Lord Je, sus Chrlet, wMch was 9iven for you, preeer»e you to everlastin l/è; I ean bring it so ncar; but only the worthy hearer, and the worthy reeciver, ean eall this Lord, this Jes, this Christ, Immanuel, God with ; only that virn soul, devirginated in tlm blood of Adam, but restored in the blood of tho Lamb, hath this erre, this testimony, this auranee, that God is with him; they that bave this erre, this testimony, in a reetified conscience, are godfathers to this ehild Jesus, and my eall him I»matuel, God with us; for, as no man ean deeeive God, so God ean deeëive no man; God eannot lire in the dark himself, neither tan lac leave those who are his in tho dark. If he ho with thee, he will make thee seo that he is with thee; and never go out of thy sight, till he hve brought thcc, wheçe thou eanst never go out of his.

GALATIANS iv.  and 5. But when the fuInes of time was corne, God sent forth his Son, ruade of a woman» ruade under the law, to redeem them that wea tmder the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. V. are met here to celcbrate the generation of Christ Jesus; but says the prophet , who ehall declare his generation, his age. for, for his essential generation, by whieh he is the Sox of God, the ngels, who re lmost six thousand years older than we ure no nearer to tht eneration of his, than if the hnd been mde but yesterday. Eteruity hath no such distinctions, no limits, no periods, no seasons, no months, no years, no days; Methusalem, who was so long lived, was no elder in respect of eternity, than David's son by Bathsheba, that died the first week. The firstfiat in the creation of Adam, and the last note of the blowing of the trumpets to judment, (though there be between these, as it is ordinarily reeeived, two thousand years of nature between the creation and thc giving of the law by Moses, and two thousand years of the law between that and the coming of Crist, and tvo thousand years of grace and gospcl between Christ's first and his second coming,) yet this creation and this judgment are hOt a minute asundcr in respect of eternity, which bath no minutes. $Vhence then arises all our vexation and labour, all our anxieties and angnishes, all our suits and pleadings for long leases, for many lires, for many years" purchase in this world, when, if we be in our way to the eternal King of the eternal kingdom, Christ Jesus, all we are hOt yet, all the world shall never be, a minute old; yénerationem ejus qufs enarrabft, what tonemae tan declare, what heart can conceive his generation, which was so long before any heart or tongue was made. But we tome hot now to consider that eternal generation, hot Christ merely as the Son of God, but the son of Mary too; and that generation the Holy Ghost hath told us was in the fuless of time: lVhen the ftlness of rime cas corne, God sent fortl, In which words we bave these three considerations: first, the time of Christ's coming, and that was the fulness of tirae ¢ and then the manner of his eoming, which is expressed in two degrees of humiliation: one, that he was nade of a eoman; the other, that he was marie nder the lae. And then, the third part is, the purpose of his coming, which also was twofold; for first, he came to rêdeem them «ho were undêr the law,—all; and seeondly, he came that we (we the elect of God in him,) might reeeive adoption; «hen the fnlness of time «as corne,,'c. For thc lu11 consideration of this fidnês of rime, we shall first consider this fiflness in respect of the Jews, and then in respect of all nations, and last/y iu respect of ourselves. The Jcws might

SER. lll.J ON THE NATIVITY. bave seen thefi«bwss of tlme, the Gentiles did (in some measure,) see it, and we must (if we will bave any benefit by it,) see it too. It is an obsetion of St. Cyril, that none of the saints of God, nor such as were noted to be exemplarily relious and mnctified men, did ever celebrate with any festival solcmnity their own birth-day. Pharaoh celebratcd his owu nativity, but who vould make Phamoh his example  And besides he polluted that festival with the blood of one of his servants. Herod cel brated his nativity, but who would think it an honour to be like Herod  And besides, he l)olluted that festival with the blood of John Baptist. But the just contemplation of the miries and calamities ofthis life into which out birth-day is the door and the entrance, is so far from ving any just occasion of a festival, as it bath often transpoed the best dissed saints and servants of God to a distemper, to a malediction, and cursing of their birthday a. Ctrsed be the day wherei I was born, ad let hot that daff whrei my mother bare me be blessed. Let the day perishw]terei I was born., let that daff be dar'ess, ad let hot God regard it from abore'. How much misery is preged to us, wheu we come so genemlly weeping into the wor]d, that, perchance, in the whole body of history we read but of one child, Zoroaster, that laughed at his birtb. Vbat miseble revolutions and changes, what downfalls, what break-necks, and precipitations may we justly think ourselves ordined to, if we consider that in our coming into this world out of our mother's womb, we do not make account that a child cornes right, except it corne with the head forward, and thereby prefigure that headlong falling into calamities which it must surfer after  Though therefore the days of the mart3s, which are for our examl»le celebrated in the Christian church, be ordinarily called natalitia martffrt, the birth-day of the mayrs, yet that is hot intended of their bih in this world, but of their bih in the next; when by death their sos were new delivered of their prisons here, and they newly born into the kingdom of heaven; that day, upon that reason, the day of their death, was called their birth-day, and celebrated in the church by that name. Only to Christ Jesus, the tl»wss OE ti«e was at his bih; not becau he also had not a painful lire to pass through,  Gen. xl. 22.

,-'. PI1EACH'£D O.'/ ClIRI.qTM8 DAY. [SER. 111. but because the work of out redemption was an entire work, and all that Christ id, or did, or suflbd, concurred to our salvatlon, as well his mothers swathing him in little clouts,  Josephs shroding him in • funeral heet; as well his cold lylng in the manger, as Iris cold dying upon the cross; as well the puer nat, as the couummatum est; as well his blrth, as his death, la said to have been te f«hess OE time. First, wo conslder it to bave been so to the Jews; for thls wa tt fi«be.¢s, in which all the propheeies concerning the Messiah were exactly fulfilled:That he must corne whilst the monarchy of Rome flourislled»; and before the temple of Jerusalem was destroyed; that he must be born in Bethlehem; that he must be born of a virgin his person, his actions, his passion so distinctly prophesied, so exactly accomplished, as no word being left unfulfilled, this must necesrily be a dnes of rime. So fully was the time of the 3Iesiah's coming, corne, that though some of the Jews say now, that there la no certain time revealed in the Scriptures when the Meiah shall corne, and others of them say that there was a time determined and revealed, and that this time was the time, bat hy reason of their great sins he did hot corne st his time; yet, when they examine their own snplmtations, thcy are so convinced with that evi«lence that this was that ful- »ess OE t;me, that now they expre a kind of conditional acknowledgment of it, by this barbaroas and inhuman castom of theirs, that they alwavs keep in ladiness the blood of some Christian, with whlch they anoint thc body of any that dies amongst them, with these words, If Jesus Christ were the Messiah, then may the blood of this Christion avail thee to salvation; so that by their douht, and their implied consent in this action, this was te.t)Jess OE time, when Christ Jesus dld corne, that fle leiah should corne. It was so to the Jews, and it was so to the Gentiles too. It fiHed those wise men which dwelt so far in the east, that thay followed the star from thenee to Jerusalem. Herod was so full of it, that he filled the country with streams of innocent blood, and lest ha should spare that one innocent child, killed all. The txvo empetors of Rome, Vespasian and Domitiau, were  full of it, that in  D. ii. « Hagg. ii.  Mich. v.  Iiah x.

jealousyof a Messiah to corne then, ïrom that rce, theytook speclal cave for the destructiou of all of the postcrity of David. All the whole people were so full of it, that divers false Iessiahs, 9 Barcocab and Moses of Crete, and others, se up, and drew and deceived the peoœle, as if they had been dru Messiah, because that vas ordinarily known and received  be the time of his coming. And the devil himself was so full of it,  that in his oroeles he gave that answer, that an Itebrew child should be God over ail gods; and brought the emper to erect an altar to this Messiah, Christ Jesus, though he knew hot what he did. This was the fulness that filled Jew aud Gentile, kings and philophers, strangers and inhabitants, counterfeits and devils,  the expectation of a Messiah; and when cornes this dness of tire« to us, that wc feel this 3Iessiah born in ourselves  In this fulness, in this coming of our Saviour into us, we hould find a threefold fulness in ourselves; we should final  fulness of nature, (because hot only of spiritual but of natural and temporal thins, all the right which we have in this world is in, and for and by Christ, for so we end ail out prayers of ail rts with that clause, per Domium gwstrum Jesum Christum; Grant this, 0 Lord, for out Lord ad,5'ariour Christ Jesus" sake) and we should find a fulness of grace, a daily senoe of improvement, groh in grace, a filling of all former vacuities, a supplying of all emptinesses iu out sou]s, till we came to Stephen's fulness", FuY of the I[o 0 (;host and wisdom, and fidl of the we should corne to find a fulness of glory, that is, an apprehension and inchoation of heaven in thls life; for the glory of the next world is hot in the measure of that glory, but in the measure of my capacity; it is hot that I shall bave as ranch as any ul hath, but that I shall bave as much as my soul can receive; it is not in an equality with the test, but lu a fulness in myselL And so as I shall have a fulness of nature, that is, such an ability and snch a use of natural faculties, and such a portiou of the natural things of this world, as shM1 serve to fill up God's purpooe in me. And as I shall have a fidness of ace, tt is, such a measure of  Bahochebas, a Je% who caied on his imposte  ETt. o Acts ri. 3.  Veç 5 and 8.

 PREACHED ON CHIIISTMAS DAY. [ER. Ill. grace as shall make me discern a temptation, and resist  temptation, or at least repent it, if I have hot effectually resisted it  so even here I shall have a fulness of glory, that is, as much of that glory as a wayfaring soul is capable of in this world. Ail these fulnesses I shall lmve, if I tan find and feel in myself tllis birth of Christ. His eternal birth in heaven is inexpressible,,vhere he vas born withÇut  mother; his birth on earth is inexpressible too, where he was born without a fatller; but thou shalt feel the joy of his third birth in tlly soul most inexpressible this day, where he is born this day, if thou wilt, without father or nother; that is, without any former, or any other reason than Iris own mere goodness that should beget that love in him towards thee, and without any matter or mcrit in thee which should enable thee to conceive him. He had  heavenlv birth, by which he was the eternal Son of God, and without that he had hot been a person able to redeem thee; he had a human birth, by which he,vas the son of llam T, and without that he had hot been sensible in himself of tlline infirmities and necessities; but this day, if thou wilt, he hath a spiritual birth in thy soul, without which both his divine and llis human birth are utterly unprofitable to thee, and thou art no better than if there had never been Son of God in heaven, nor son of Mary upon earth. Even ' the tork in the air bnocêth ber al,lgointed timê, and the turtle, and tac crane, and the swallow obserre the rime of their comi»y, ut my leolle knoceth hot the judymets of tac Lord. For if you do know your time, you know that now is your.fulness " rime; this is your particular Christmas-day; when, if you be but as careful to cleanse your souls, as you are your bouses: if you will but follow that counsel of St. Austine, Quicuid non ris inrêniri in domo tua, non inreniat 1)eu in anlna tua; That uueleannes which you would be loth your neighbour should find in your houses, let not God nor his angels find in your souls, Christ Jesus is certainly born, and will as certainly grow up in your ouls. e pss from thi. to our second part, the nmnner of his comin; vhcre we proposed two derees of Christ's humi|iation, that he wzs m«« "  wo«n, nnd m« un«r t« lac. In the s. m.] o. T TVT'. 45 first alone are two degrees too, that he takes the name of the son of a woman, and wanes the glorions naine of the Son of God; and then, tht he takes the naine of the son of a woman, and wanes the miracnlons naine of the son of a virgin. For the tiret, Christ ever refers himself to his Father; as he says, T Fatker which sent me, gave me a comnandment what I êhould say, and what I should apeak I,: oe for ail that whieh he did or suft'ered, he says, My meat is to do fils will tkat sent me, and to finisk kiswork 1": and so, though he say, I ara corne out from the Father, and ara corne into tke world»: yet, be where he will, still he and his Father were ail one. But divesting that glory, or slumbering it in his flesll, till the Father glorify him again with that glory which he had with him from the beginning, in his ascension, he humbles himself here to that addition, Tke son of a conwtn, ruade of a coman. Christ waned the glorious naine of Son of God, and the miraeulous naine of Son of a virgin too; whieh is hOt omitted to dmv into doubt the perpetual virginity of the blessed Virgin, the mother of Christ; slle is not ealled a woman, as though sho were hot a maid; when it is said,.Joseph knêw ller hot, donee peperit, till she brotçoht Jbrth ker son, this did not imply his knovledge of ber after, no more than when Go] says to Christ, donee ponam, sit at my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool, that imports that Christ should remove from his right hand after; for here is a perpetual donee in both places; for evermore, the aneient expositors bave understood that place of Ezekiel to be intended of the perpetual virginity of Mary: This 9are shall be shut, and si, ail no be otened, and.no an shall enter by it. Solomon bath an exclamation, Is tkere any tkDçq whereof a man may my, Behold this is,tew? and he answers himself immediately before, There is o netc tldng under the sun. But behold, here is a greater than Solomon, and he says, now in action, by being born of  Virgin, as he had said long bet'ore, in prophesy, The Lord bath created a new tkiny ujoon eartk, a woman shall compa a m*t«. If this had been spoken of sueh a woman as were no maid, this had been no new thing; as it was, it was without example, and wlthout natural reaon; si ratio reddi Tosset, (says  Joh xii. ' John iv.  John 16. « Jer.,xxi. 2.

'6 PREACUED ON CHRISOEIIAS DAY. [$1I!. III. St. Bernard,) on eesê nirabile, yinyulare; if there were reason for it, it were no miracle, if there were preeedents for it, it were hot singular; and God intended both, that it should be a miracle, and that it hould be donc but once; we sec in nature, trees do bud out, and there is an emision and emanation of flowers and fruits without auy help of man, or any act donc by him to that tree; we read in Geuesls, that the earth had produced ail plants and herbs before either any rain fell upon it, or any man tilled it. And these are good helps and illusrations to us, after we bave believed that a Virgin brought forth a son; but nothing deduced out of nature could prove this at tirst to any man, except he believed it before. And therefore blessed be God, that hath given us that strength which the Egyptian midwives said the women of Israel had, that they brought forth children without the llelp of midwives; that we can humbly believe these mysteries of out religion, by faith, without the hand and help of reason;,$'i nondum néns idonea, abstrusa invéstigare, sine h(t''itatione crédantur, says St. Au,masfine, in things which are hot subject to any faculty of ours to be discerned by reason, there is a present cxercise of ottr faith. As we know it fo be truc that the bush in which God spake to hloses was full of tire, and did burn but not consume, because God hath said so in his book, but)'et we do hot know how that was donc; so we know (by the ame evidence,) that the mother of our Saviour was a virgin; but for the manner of this mystery, we rest iipOll Epil,hanius' rule, Qua'cunoEue dicit 1)êue, credamts ttod sint; quomodo, soli Deo co.onltum: whatsoever God in his word ays,,vas donc, let us believe it to be donc; how it was donc, as we know that God knows, so we are content not to inquire more thaa if hath been his pleasure to communicate to us. She vras then, and he was always a virgin; but because this text is of his humiliation, he leaves that naine that proceeds ri'oto miracle, and descends to that lower naine of nature, nade of a coman. The pirit of God foreaw that the issue between the church and the heretics would not be lïryn or no I'ry;n, but whether Christ were nadé of a u'oman. Some heretlcs did question the tiret; the ttelvidiaus denied ber perpetual virginity;

SER, |.] ON T|IE NATIVITY. but that heresy, and some others that oposed ber virit)', vanished in  shot rime. But the Maihees, that lasted long, ad spread far in the old tiges, and the Aahaptists, whih abond yet, den tha Christ as ruade of  o; they th Christ passed thugh ber as çaer through a ppe, bu took nothig of ber substauee; d theu if he took ot the ature of maukind, he bath ot redeemed makid. Ad therefore in tha propheey of eremiah that Christ should be born aud this ospel, in out text, that Christ was bor, the Ho]y maintaius and continues that phrase, acle of a «oman; and where he begins to express his divinity in miracles, at the marriage in Cana, there Christ himse]f ca]fs ber hy no other naine, tIman,.«at are I to do u'it tee'F And 'hcn he had drawu all his miracles toa glorious constmmatttm et upou the cross, he ealls ber there by that naine too, lVoman, bAoM ty on *'. Here, then, vas no such eurious insisting upon styles and titles, and names of dignities, no unkindness, no displeasure takeu, as if one should leave out a right honourable or right worshipful, or an addition of an oee or dignity; the powerthlness of Christ's birth consists iu this, that he is ruade of God; the miraeulousness ofChrist's hirth consisted in this, that he was ruade of a virgin; and yet the prophet aud the apostle, two principal seeretaries of the 1toly Ghost, present him with this addition, ruade  a t'oman. Christ had one privilege in his birth which never any priuce had, or shall have, that is, that he chose what mother he xvould bave, and might have been born of what woman he xvould bave chosen. And in this large and universal choiee, though he chose  woman full of grace tobe Iris mother, yet that he might give spiritual eomfort to ail sorts of women, first to those who should be unjustly suspected and insimulated of sin and ineontinency, -hen indeed they were innocent, he content fo corne of  mother xx-ho should be subjeet to that suspicion, and whom ber husband should think tobe with child before he married her, and thereupon purpose to put ber away »; and then to fill those women who had been guilty of that sin with relief in their consciences against the wrath of God, and with reparation of thcir reputation and good naine in the world,  Jo ri.  dm .  latt. i.

48 tACHEO O. CHXS'r,S V,'. [sm. it was his unsearchable will and pleasure that in ail that genealoy and pedigree whieh he and his spirit hath inspired the evangelists to record of his ancestors, there is hOt one woman named, of whom Christ is descended, who is hOt dangerously noted in the Seriptures, to have had some aspersion of incontinence upon her; as both St. Hierome, and St. Ambrose, and St. Chrysostonte observes of Thamar, of Bathsheba, and of Ruth also. So then Crist Jesus, who came only for the relief of sinners, is content to be known to have corne hot only of poor parents, but of a sinful race; and though he exempted Iris blessed mother more than any from sin, yet he is now content to be born again of sinful mothers; in that soul that accuses itself most of sin, in that soul that ealls now to mind (with remorse, and hOt with delight,) the several times, and places, and ways wherein she hath oflbnded God; in that soul that acknowledgeth itself to have been a sink of uneleanness, a tabernacle, a synagogue of Satan; in that soul that bath been, as it were, possessed with Mary Magdalen's seven devils, yea with him whose naine was Legion, with ail devils; in that sinfnl soul would Christ Jesus fain be born this day, and mal, e that soul his mother, that he n»ight be a regeueration to that souI. We canuot aflbrd Christ such a birth in us as he had, to be born of a virgin; for every one of us well nigh hath married himself to some particular sin, some beloved sin, that he can hardly divorce himself from; nay, no man keeps his faith to that one sin that he bath married himself to, but mingles himself with other sins also. Though covetousness, whom he loves as the wife of his bosom, bave ruade him rich, yet he will commit adultery with another sin, with ambition; and he will part even with those riches for honour; though ambition be his wife, his married sin, yet he xvill commit adultery with another sin, with licentiousness, and he wiL1 endanger his honour to fulfil his lust; ambition may be his wife, but lust is his concubine. XVe abandon all spiritual chastity, ail virginity, we marry out particular sins, and then we dividi out loves with other sins too; Thou hast multiplied tlyfornications, and yet art hot satis)qed °, is a complaint that reaches us ail in spiritual fornications, aud goes ver), far in carnal. And yet, for  Ezek. xvL

SER. III'.] ON Z ATVZ£. 49 all this we are capable of this conception, Christ may be born in us for all this. As God said unto the prophet, Tak thee a woEe of fornicatiozs and cMldre of fornications, sois Christ Jesus oent¢nt to tak¢ out sos, though toe often mothers of fornications;  long as w are united and incorrated in his belov¢d sus, the church, eonform ourselves to ber, grow up in ber, hearken to his word in ber, feed upon his sacraments in her, knowlg¢  s¢al of ronciliation by the absolution of the minister in her, so long (how unclean soever we llave been, if we abhor and forsake oto" uncleanness now)we participate of the chastity of that spouse of his, the church, and in ber are ruade capable of this conception of Christ Jesus, and so it is as true this hour of us, as it was when the Apostle spoke these words, This is the fulaees  tlme wkea God sent his,Sbn, 6"c. Now you remember that in this seeond part (the manner of Christ's eoming) we proposed two degrees of humiliation, one whieh we bave handled in a double respect, as he is lnade flli« mulieris, no» Dei, the son ot" a woman, and hot the son of God; the other as he isfilius mulieris, non 5"rgi»is, the son of a woman, and hot ealled tlle n of a virgin. The second remains that he was sub le9e, under the lau'; now this phrase, to be under the law, is not always so narrowly limited in the Seriptures as fo signify only the law of Moses, tbr so ouly the Jews were under the law, and so Christ's eoming for theln who were under the la% his death and merits, should belollg only m the Jews. But St. Augustine observes, that when Christ sent the message of his bih fo the wise men in the east by a star, and fo the shepherds about Bethlehem by an angel, In pastoribt J«dœei, ia magis, Gentes vocati, the Jew had their ealling in that manifeskztion to the shephel'ds, and the Gentiles in that to the wioe men in the east. But besides that Christ did submit himself to all the weight even of the eeremonial law of Moses, he was under a heavier law than that, under that lex decreti, the eontraet and eovenant with God the Father; under that oportuit pari, tkis he ou9kt to szër, boEore he could enter into.olorll; so that his being under the law may be aeeounted, hot a part of his humiliation, as his being marie of a woman was, but l'ather t]le wholc history and ri'ame of his humiliation; all that VOL, l. E

0 v^cHv ON CnaSTX^S VA'. [SS. m. concerns his obedience, e'en to that law which the Father had laid upon him: for the ]ife and death of Christ, from the laria to the conaummatu» est, from his coming into this world in his conception to his transmigration npon the cross, w all under this law, heavier thau any law that any man is under: namely, the law of the eontract and eovenant between the Fther and him. Though therefore we may think, judging by the law of reaoen, that since Christ came to gather a church, and to draw the wod to him, it would more ha-e ad-aneed that purpo of his to have been born at Rome, where the seat of the empire and the confluenee of ail nations was, than in Jey, and (if ho would oflèr the GoEpd first to the Jews) better to have been born at Jerusalem, where ail the outward, public, solemn worship of the Jews vas, than at oboeure Bethlehem, and in Bethlehem, in some better place than in an inn, in a stable, in a manger; though we may think thus in the law of rein, yet no co9itationes oe citationes restrw, says God in the prophet, «lly tkou9hts are hot your thouyht, nor my latç« your laws *, for I ana sub leye deereti, under another manncr of law than falls within yo reading, under an obedieneo to that covenant, vhieh hath passed between my Father and me, and by those degrees, and no other waq w my humiliation for your redemption to be expressed. Though we may think in the law of reason, that his work of propagating the gospel would bave gone better forward, if he hnd taken for apostles, some Tullies, or Hoensii, or Seneeas, great and lm suading orators, instead of his Peter, and John, and Matthew, and those fishermen, and tent-makers, and ll-gatherers; though we might think in reason and in piety too, that when he would humble himself to take out sal'ation into his eare, it had been enough to bave been under the law of Moses, to li-e innently and righteously without the shedding of his blood; if he would shed blood, it might bave been enough fo bave done so in the Cireumeision, and seourging, without dying; if he would die, might have been enou.g to have died some less aeeursed and less iominous death than the death of the Cross; though we might reanably enough and piously enough think thus, yet, non  Isaiah v.

coy/tat/ones zestrw, cog/tat/oues mew, says the Lord, your way is hot z# way, your law is hot my law; for Christ was sub [e#« decreK, and thus s he did, and no other way, t ecame h/m o fi«! al[ r/gkteousn«ss, tht is, ail that decree of God which he had accepted and acknovledged as righteous, tte was so much under Moses' |w as he would be; so much uuder that law, as that he suffered that lav to be wrested against him, and to be pretended to be broken by him, and to be indicted and condemned by that lady. The Jews pl'essed that law, on sine :eneficum 'ivere, Thou shalt ot surfer a witch to lire , when they attributed ail his glorious miracles to the power of the devil; and the Romans were incensed against him for treason and sedition, as though he aliened and xvithdrew the people from Coesar. But he was under a heavier law than Jews or Romans, the law of his Father and his own cternal decree, o far as that he came to that sense of the weight thereof: Eli, Eli, my God, my God, wky kast tkou forsakea me? and was never delivered from the burden of this law, till he pleaded the performaree of ail conditions between his Father and him, and delivered up all the evidenee thereof in these words, in manus tuas, Into th!! kands, 0 Lord, I yie ny spiritç and so presented both the righteousness of his soul whieh had fulfilled the law, and the soul itself whieh was under the law. He died in exeeution, and so diseharged all; and so wo bave done with out" second part, the manner of his coming. We are eome now in out order to our third part, the purposo of Chl'iSt's eoming, and in that we eonsider two objeets that Christ had, and two subjeets to work upon, two kinds of work, and two kinds of persons; first to redeem, and then to adopt. Those are Iris works, his objeets; and then to reàeem those that u'ere uiMer the law, that is, ail, but to adopt those whom ]le had chosen, us; and those are the persons, the subjects that he works upon by his coming. First then (to ben with the persons) those of the first kind, tkose that were under tke l«w, for them (as we told you before) the law must hot be so narrowly restrained here as fo be intended only of Moses" law, for Christ's purpose was hot only upon the Jews, for else Naaman the Syrian, by whom God fought great - Exod. xfii. 18.

5— ° PREACHED ON CIIRISTMAS nAY. [SEB. III. battles belote he was cured of his leprosy, and who, when he was cured «, was so zealo of the worship of the true God, that he would needs carry holy earth to make aitars of from the place where the prophet dwelt; and else Job, who, though he were of the land of Hus, bath good testimony of being an upright and just man, and one that feared God; and el the widow of Sarep ', whose meal and oil God presers'ed unwasted, and whose dead son God raised again at the prayer of Elijah; ail these, and ail others whom the searching spirit of God seals to his service in ail the corners of the earth, because they are strangers in the land of Israel, should hot be under the law, and so should bave no profit by Christ's being ruade under the law, if the law should be under»tood only of the laxv of Moses; and therefore to be «»ee te lw signifies here, thus much, to be a debtor to the law of nature, to have a testimony in our hearts and coniences that there lies a law upon us, which we has'e no power in ourseh'es to perform; that to those laws, To love God with ai1 out powera, and to love otr wighbotr as otradvêa, and to do as we would be done to, we find ourseh'es naturally bound, and yet we fiud otselves naturally unable to perform them, and so to need the aistanee of another, whieh must be Christ Jesus, to perform them for us; and so ail men, Jews and Gentiles, are under the law, beeause naturally they feel a lav upon them whieh they break, and therefore wheresoever out power beeomes defeetive in the performance of this law, if out will be not defeetive too, if we eome llOt to say God hath given us an impossible law, and therefore itis lost labour to go about to perfornl it, or God hath given us another to perforln this law for us, and therefore nothing is required at out hands; if we abstain from theso quarrels to the law, and these murmurings at out own infirmity, we shaH find that the fulne of time is this day eome, this day Christ is eome to ail that are uMer the law, that is to all mankind: to ail, bause all are able to perform that law, weh they ail see, by the light of nature, tolie upon them. These then be the persons of the first kind, ail, ail the world, God so loved the worM that he.qave his,Sn for it, for MI the wodd, and aeeordin#y, enit aal¢are mu,dum, the obedienee of t 2 Kgs v.  1 Kin xvii.

SER. IILJ ON Trie N.TIVITY. 53 the Son was as large as the ]o'e of the Father; he came to save ail the world, and he did sae all the -or]d: God would bave ail men, and Christ did ave al] men. It is therefore fearfu]]y (and scarce allowab]y said) that Christ did contry to is Fafler's will, when e ca]led those to grace of whom he knew his Fateçs pleasure to be that they should bave no grace; it in fearfully and dangerously said, Absurdton non ese, Deum interdum fala loqui, et fabum loquetti eredendum, that it is not absurd to y (tht is, that it may truly be said) that God does sometimes speak untruly, and that we are bound to believe God when he does for if we eonsider the vereign balm of out souls, the blood of Christ Jesus, there is enough for ail the world; if we eonsider the application of this physie by the ministers of Christ Jesus in the ehurch, he bath given us that spreading commission, to go and preach to every creature, we are bid to offer, to apply, to nfinister this to all the world. Christ bath exeommunieated no nation, no sbire, no house, no man: he gives none of his ministers lenve to say to any man, thou art hot redeemed; he gives no wounded nor affiicted conscience leave to y to itself, I ara hot redeemed. There may be meat enough brought into the hoe for ail the house, though some be so weak as they cannot (which is the case of the Gentiles) some so stubboru as they will hot eat (whieh is the case of the carnal man, though in the Christian church.) He came to ail; there are the persons, and to redeem ail; there is his errand, but how to redeem  St. Hierom says, Gentes non redimuntttr, sed emttntur. The Gentiles, says he, are hot properly Christ's, by way of redeeming, but by an absolute purchase; to which purpose those words are a.lso applied which the Apostle says to the Corinthians, Ye are bought citk ar[ce*; St. Hierom's meaning therein is, that if we compare the Jews and the Gentiles, though God permitted the Jews, in punishment of their rebellions, to be captivated by the devil in idolatries, yet the Jews were but as in  mogage, for they had been God's peeuliar people belote. But the Gentiles were as the devilM inheritanee, for God hd never elaimed them, nor owned them for lais, and therefore God says to Christ, Ask OE me, and 1,cill yiee thee the nations for thine htheritance *, as though they were t! Cor. ri. 20, hot his yet, or hot his by that title as the Jews were; so tht in St. Hieroms construction, the Jews, whieh were Godes people before, were proper]y redeemed, the Genti]es, to whom God ruade no title before, are rathcr bought than redeemed. But, ullum temptt occurrit rçqi, against the King of killgS there runs no preription; no man eau dlvest his allegiance to his prince, and say h« will be subject no louger, and therefor« sine« Gentiles were his by his first title of creation (for it is ke tkat bath marie u,, and hot we otoç«dres, nor the devil neither) when ail we, by out general revoit and prevarieation (as we were ail collectively in Adam's loins) came fo be under that law, Tko ekolt die tke d«atk, when Christ came in the fidness of time, and delivered us from tho sharpest and heaviest clause of that law, which is the second death, then he redeemed us properly, becaus« (though hot by the saine tit]e of covenant as the Jews were) yet we were his, and sold over to his enemv. These, then, were persons; all, 0one tan say that he did hot need him, none tan say that he may hot bave him.) and this was his first work, to redeem, to viudicate them from the usurper, fo deliver them from the intruder, fo emancipate them from the tyrant, fo eancel the eovenaut between hell and tlmm, and restore them so far fo their liberty, as that they might corne would: flfis was reàeemin. But in his other work, which is persons were more particular, hot fo their first Master if they adoption, and where the all. but we, Christ bath taken us fo him in a straiter and more peculiar title than redeeming; for a serrando serti, men who were bv another man's valour saved and redeemed from the enemy, or from present death, they beeame thereby servants fo him that saved and redeenaed them. Redemption makes us (who were but subjects belote, for ail are so by creation) servants, but it is but servants; but adoption makes us, who are thus ruade servants by redemption, sons: for adoîgtion is z'erbum forense; though it be a word which the Holy Ghost takes, yet he takes it from a civil use and siguifieation, in whieh if expresses in divers circumstauces out adoption iuto the state of God's children. First, he that adopted another, must by that law be a man who had no children of his own; and this was God's case towards us: he had no children of his own, we were al] te chiMren ofwrat] 7, hot one of us could be sid to be the child of God by nture, if we had hot hal this ado]tion in Christ. Secondly, ho who by that ]av might dopt, must be a man who had had, or naturlly might bave had childrcn; for an infant under ycars, or a man who by nature was disabled from hving chi]dren, could hot adpt anther  aud this was God's case towards us too, for God had lmd childrcn without adoption; for by out crcation in innocence, we werc the sons of (od, till we died ail in one transression, and lot all riht, and ail life, and ail means of regaining it, but by this way of adoi)tiot in Christ Jesus. Again, no man lnight adopt au elder lnau than himself, and so our Father by adol»tiot is not only antiçuus diertm, the ancient of days, but antigulor dibus, aci¢nter than tmy days, belote time was. Ho is (as Damascene forces himself to express it) Suler-l»rinciloale ]rincilffunt, the beginning, and tho first beginning, and belote the first beginning: ho is, says ho, wternus and prŒE-wternns, eternal, and elder than any eternity that we tan take into out imagination. So likewise no man might adopt a man of bctter quality than hinlself, and llere we are so far from comparing, as that we cannot comprehen,1 his greatness and his goodness, of whom and fo whom St. AugtLstino says well, Quid mihi es? If I shall go about to declare thy goodness, hot to the world in general, but çuid miki es, how good thou ar to me,.llserere rit loqua', says ho, I must bave more of thy goodness, to be able to tell thy former goodness: be merciful unto me again, that I may be thereby able to declare how merciful thou wast to me before: except thou speak in me, I cannot declare what thou hast done for me. Lastly, no man might ho adopted into any other degree of kiudred, but into the naine and right of a son: ho could hot ho an adopted brother, nor cousin, nor nephew. And this is especially out dignity; we bave the spirit of adoption, whereby we cr!t Abba, Father, so that as here is a fidness of time iu the text, so there is a fiduess of persons, ail, and a ftdness of the work belonging to them, redeemi»ff emaneipation, delivering from the chains of Satan (ve were his by creation, we sold ourselves for nothing, and he redeemed us withotlt money, that is, without an)" cost of ours), but beeause 7 Eph. ii.

for ail this general redemtion, we may turn from him, and snmit onrselves to other services, therefore e ath aote «, drawn into his fami]y and into his more esecial care tose who arc choscn by him to be his. Now that redemtion reached to ail, there was enogh fo ail: this dispenation of tat redemption, this «Joton reaches, only to us: ail this is donc, ta w mçq receive tke adoption qf ons. But who are this ll  why, they are the elect of G. But who are they, who are these elt{ Qui Hmidè gat, doter neyare; if a man ask me with a didenee, ean I be the adopted on of God that bave rebe]Ied against him in al] my affections, that bave trodden upon his conmandments in all mine actions, that have divoled myself fmm him, in preferring the love of his creatures befooe himself; that bave murmured at his corrections, and thought them too much; that bave undervalued his benefits, and thought them too little; that have abandoned and prostituted my body, his temple, to ail uncleanness, and my spirit to indevotion and contempt of his ordinances; can I be the adopted Son of God, hat bave donc this   timidè oyes, ask me not this with a diffidence and distrust in God's mercy, as if thou thoughtest, with Cain, thy iniquities were eater than could be forgiven; but ask me with that holy confidence which belongs to a truc conven, am hOt I, who, though I am never without sin, yet ara never without hearty remorse and repentance for my sins; though thc weakne of my flesh sometimes betrays me, the strenh of his spirit still recovers me; though my body be der the paw of that lion that seeks whom he may devour, yet the lion of Ju,lah raises again and upholds my soul; though I wound my Safiour with many sins, yet ail these, be they never so many, I strive against, I lament, confess, and forsake as far as I ara able; ana hot I the child of God, and his adopted son in this state  oya fi&nter, ask me with a holy confidence in thine and my God, et doces offrmare, thy very question gives me nfine aner to thee; thou teachest me to say, thou art. God himse]f teaches me to say so b$ his Apostle, The.foundation f God is sure, and this is the seal; God koweth who are his, and let them that call pon kis rame depart ri'oto ail iniq«ity. He that departs so far, as to repent forlner sins, and shut up the ways which he knows in his conscience do lead him into temptations, he is of this quorm, one of us, one of them who are adopted by Christ to be the sons of God. I am of this OEuorrn, if I preach the Gospel sincerely, and lire thereafter (for he preaches twice a day that follows his own doctrine, and does as he sys), and yon are of this çurum, if you preach over the serinons xvhich you hear, to your own souls in your meditation, to yonr familles in your relation, to the world in your conversation. If you corne to this place to meet the Spirit of God, and not to meet one another; if you bave sat in this place with a delight in the word of God, and hot in the words of any speaker; if you go out of this place in such a disposition as that, if yon should meet the last trumpets at the gates, and Christ Jesus in the clouds, you would hot entrent him to go back, and stay another year; to enwrap al] in one, if you bave a reliions and sber assurance that you are his, and,valk according to your belief, you are his and, as the fnlness of time, so the fu]ness of grace is corne upon you, and you are not only within the first commission, of those who were nder the law, and so redeemed, but of this uor,m, who are se]ected out of them, the adopted sons of that God, who never disinherits those that forsake not him.