SERMON VII. PREACHED ON CIIRIST3tAS DAl'.
JoH x, 10. I ara corne that they might bave lffe, and that they n,ight bave it more abmdant]y. TuE church celebrates this day, the birth of out Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, blessed for ever; and though it fall amongst the shortest davs in the yem., yet of ail the fstivals in the year, it is the longest: it is a day that consists of twelve days; a day hot measured by the natural and erdinarv motion of the sun, but by a supernatural and extraordinary star, which appeared to the wise men of the East, th]s day, and brought them to Çhrist, at Bethlehem, upon Twelfth Day. That day, Twelth Day, the clmrch now calls the Epiphany; the ancicnt church called this day (Çhristmas day) the Epiphauy. Bth days together, and all the days between, this day, when Christ was manifested to the Je, in the shepherds by the angels, and Twelfth Day, when Christ vas manifested to the Gentiles in those wise men of the East, make up the Epiphany, that is, the manifestation of God to man. And as this day is in such a respect a longer day than others, so, if we make longer hours in this day. than in other days; if I
SZR. Vn.] o a'tVTV. 1.o7 extend this sermon, if you extend your devotion, or your patience, beyond the ordinm T time, it is but a due, and a just eelebration of the day, and some accommodation fo the text, for, I ara corne, as he, in whose naine and power I came, came; and he tells you, that He came tkat you i9kt kare IoEe, and mkt hae it ore abondant O. God, who vouehsafed fo be ruade man for nmn, for man vouehsffes also to do all the oee of man towards man. He is out Father, for he ruade us': Of what of elay; so God is fi9ulus, in the prophet; so in the apostle . God is out porter. God stamped his image upon us*, and so Goal is statuarius, out minter, out statuary. Goal elothed us , and o i vestl«rius; he bath opened his wardrobe unto us. God gave us all the frui of tho eth to eat , nnd so is wconomu.% out teward. God poufs Iris oil, and his wine into out wounds , and so is medicus, and eicinus, that physieian, that neighbour, that Sanmritan intended in the parable. God plants us, and waters , and weeds us, and gives the inerease; a»d so God is hortulanus, out gardener. God builds us up into ehureh , and so God is archictus, out arehitt, out builder; God watehes the eity '" when it is built; and so God is specul«tor, out sentinel. God fishes for men ', (for ail his Johns, and his Andrews, and his Peters, are but the nets that he fishes withal) God is the fisher of men; and here, in this ehapter, God in Christ is out shepherd. The book of Job is a repoesentation of God, in a tragie-eonledy, lamentable beginnings eooEortably ended: the book of the Cantieles is representation of God in Christ, as bridegroom in marriagsong, in a epi- alamion: God in Christ is represented to u, in divers forms, in divers places, and this ehapter is his pastoral. The Lord is out shephel'd, and so ealled, in more places, than by any other naine; and in this chai»ter, eibits some of the oces of a good shepherd. Be pleased to taste a few of them. First, ho says, T« yood seerd cornes in at tA door , the right way. If he oeme in at the window, that is, always clamber after preferment; if he corne in at vaults, md cellars, that is, by clandestine and m Mal. ik 10. Isai xv. 9. om. . 21. Gen. i. 27. Gen. iii. 21. « Gen. i. 29. Luke x. a I Cor. . 6. Ac xx. 2. mo Ps. cxxvii. 1. m Matt. iv. 19. m John !.
secret contracts with his patrou, he cornes hot the right svav: when he is in the rlght way, Hfs seep ear Ms rofcetS: first there is a volte, he is heard; igamrance doth hot silence him, nor lazine, nor abundance of preferment; nor indiscreet, and distempered zeal does hOt silence him: (for to induce, or occasion silencing upon ourselves, is as iii as the igmorant, or the la silence) there is a volte, and («ays that text) it is his voice, hot ahvays another in his room; for (as if is added in the next verse) Tke skeep g'o«, his roice ', whieh they could hOt do, if they heard it hot often, if they were not used to it. And thcn, tbr the best testimony, and consummation of all, he says, Tke ood shepkerd pires kis l(/èbr his see la. Every g»d shepherd gives his lire, that is, spends his life, wears out his lire fi)r his sheep: of which this may be one good argument, that there are hot so many craz}g so many sickly men, men that so soon gmw old in any profession, as in ours. But in this, Christ is out shepherd in a nmre pecullar, and more incomnmnicab]e way. that he is pastor humati eterls esca; first, that he feeds not one parish, nor one dioceoe, but humatum çeaus, a mankind, the whole world, and then fes us so, as that he is hoth out pastor, and out pasture, he feeds and feeds us with himself, for, His.fle.sk is meat indeed, atl blood is dritk itdeed «. And therefore, kotot" celebratttr totius y/reie, per annt«a èsta pastork: as often as we COUle fo celo brute the coming of this shepherd, in giving that honour, we receive an honomç because that is a declaration, that we are the sheep of that pasture, and the body of flat hel. And so much 1)eing hot impeinently said, tbr the connexion of the words, and their complication with the day, pass we now to the more particular distri])ntion and explication thereoL [ ara corne that they mikt hue« IoEe, attd tkat thel/ might hure it more abudattll/. In these rds, out pas will be three; for first we must sider the persons, the shepherd and the sheep, God and man, him and them, them indeitely, all them, a]l naen, [ came, ys Christ. I alone, tkat tkç¢, a they mikt haee loEe: and secondly we consider the actiou itselL it is xsrapped up in this word, I came; for that is first, that he who was alwa)'s omnipresent, every where before, did yet study a new way of coming, and com- s John x. 3. * Velç 4. a Ver. 11. e John ri. ; Leo.
sr.a. vm] or IZ tvy. 1,9.o9 munieating himselï with man, I came, that is, I came by new wy; nd then, that he, who fed his former floek but with pr pheeies, aad promises, that he wod corne, fs us now with tual performances, with his rel presenee, and the eibition of himsdf. And laly wo shall eonsider he end, the puose, the nefi of his eoming, which is loEe: and first, that he might We file, bring lire, offer lire fo the world, (whieh one meoey) and en, that we might havo it, embraee it, possess it, (which is anothe 0 and, after both, greater than both, that we might bave this lire more abundantly; which is, first, abunantiut illit, moto bundanfly han other men of this world, nd then abundati iFtit, moto bundntly flan we ourselves hd it in this world, in the world to corne; for, therefore e mme, tkat we mçqt hae 1, and miçkt hare if me abundantly. Firt hen, our first pnrL we eonsider h perns, the shepherd and the sheep, him and them, God and man; of whieh per- ns, the one for his eatness, God, the other for his littlenes, m, ean earee fall under nny eonsideration. Whae eye ean fix itself upon east and wet at once And he must cee more than mst and west, that secs God, for God spreads infinitely beyond th: God alone is aH; not only aH that is, but ail that is hot, ail that might:be, if he would We it . God is too large, too immense, and then man is too narrow, too little to be considered; for, who canxis eye upon an atom And he must sec a less thing tn an atom, that secs man, for man is nothing. First, for the incomprehensibleness of God, the understanding of man th a fimited, a determined latitude; it is an intelligence able to more that sphere whieh it is fixed to, but could hot nmve a greater: 1 can coml)rehend aturam mturotam, created nature, but that «otura tat,«rm, s, God himself, the understanding of man cannot comprehend. I tan sec the sun in a looking-glass, but e nature, and the whole working of the sun I cannot sec in that glass. I can sec God in the cmature, but the nature, the essenoe, the secret purpooes of God, i cannot sec there. There is doEatçaatio in i«tdlectualibus, says tire saddest and soundt of the Hebrew rabbins , the sonl may be tired, as well as the body, and the understanding dazzled, a well as the eye. If is hot R. Moses. $'OL. I. K needïul for thee, to see the things that are in secret, says the wise man 9; thou needest not that knowledge: thou mayest do well enough in this world, and l)e God's good servant, and do well enough in the next world, and be a glorious saint, and yet never search into God's secrets. Te decet hymnus l°, (so the vulgar reads that place) to thee, O Lord, belong our hymns, our psalms, our praises, out cheerful acclamations; and conformal)ly to that, we translate it, Pra;se caiteth for thee, 0 God, in ATon: but if we will take it according to the original, it must be, tibi silentium laus est, Thy praise, O Lord, consists in silence: that that man praises God best, that says least of him; of him, that is of his nature, of llis essence, of his unrevealed wiLl, and secret purposes. 0 tat men would lraise te Lord, is David's provocation to us al], but how. O tat men wold oraise te Lord, a declare is wondrous wort{'» to te sons of men t. l)ut hot to go about to declare his Ullrevealed decrees, or secret purposes, is as good a way of praising him, as the other. And therefore, O that men would praise the Lord so as to lori)car llis Iajesty, when ho is retired into himself, in his decrees, and ma&mify his Iajesty, as he manifests himself to us in the execution of those decrees; of which tllis in our text is a great one, that he that is infinitely more than all, descended to him, that is infinite|y less than nothing; which is the other person whom we are to cousider in this part, I to them, God to us. The Hêbrew doctors almost every where repeat that adage of theirs, lex loqultur linguam filiorum hominum, God speaks men's language, that is, the Holy Ghost in the Seriptures descends to the capaeity and understanding of man, and so presents God in the faeulties of the mind of man, and in the lineaments of tho body of man. But yet, say they, there is never brain, nor liver, nor spleen, nor any other inward part ascribed to God, but only the heart. God is ail heart, and that whole heart, that inexhaustible fountain of love, is direeted wholly upon man. He cornes to us, God to man; ail to nothing: for upon that we insist first, as the tiret disproportion between us, and so the first exaltation of his merey towards us. 3lan is, says the prophet Isaiah, As a drop pon the bucket . Man is not ail that, » Ecclus. iii..'23, t0 l's. txv. 1. i Isaiah x. xv.
8ERo Vll.] ON Trie.,T[vn'Y. 11 hOt so much as that, as a drop upon the bucket, but something, some little thing, wards it; and what is a drop upon the bucet, to a river, a sea, to the waters above the firmament [ Man to God [ 3la is, mys the saine prophet in the saine place, ua»i mometum staterw; we translate it, s small d on tke balance: man is hot ail that, hot tt small grain of dust; but qui, me little thing towards it: and what can a ain of dust work in governing the balance Vhat is man that God should be minoEul of him Vanity soems to be the lightest thing, that the Holy Ghost could naine; and when he had named that, hc sn)' and ), and says, often, very, very often, All is atity. But when he cornes to weigh man with vanity itse] he fin man lighter than vanity: Tag'e, says he, yeat ment, attd mean nwn altoether, atd alffetker they are lihter tkan vatitff . XVhen that great apostle says of himself, that he was in nothiny bekind the very cki«t tke apostles , and yet, for all that, says ]le w nothing; who can think himself any thing, for being giant in pportp, a magistrate in wer, a rabbi iii learning, an ole in connsel Let man be sonething; how poor, and inconsiderable a rag of fllis xd is lllan Man, whom Parace]sus " would bave undertaken to bave ruade, in a liinbeck, in a furnace: man, who, if they were ail together, ail thc men, tht ever were, and a, and shll be, wou]d hot hve the power of one angel in them all, whereas all the angels, (who in the sdool are conceived to be more in number, than hOt only ail the speeies, but the individuals of this lower world) have hot hl them ail, the power of one finger of God's hand: inan, Of whom when David had said, (as the lowest diminution that he could put upon him) I ara a u'om atd o an , he might bave gone lower, and id, I ara a man and no wonn; for mn is so much less than a wo, as that worins of his own production, shl feed upon his dead body in the grttve, and an innnoioEal woma gnaw his con- ience in the torments of hell. And then, if that which God, and God in the council and concurrence, and coperation of the mholc Trinity hath ruade thee, man, be nothing, can thon be pud of tha or think that any thing, which the king hath ruade P i. 9. a 2 Co:xii. 1 I. L. i. De r¢rum 9erat. P xii. 6. K 2
139. P aÇ os thee, lord, or which thy wife bath ronde thee, rich, or which thy fiches bave mae thee, an ocer As Job sys of impeinent comfoers, miserable comfoers, so I sy of these creations, miserablc creations are they all. Only as thon mayest be a new creature in Christ Jesus, thon mayest be something nobler, and a barder creation than the fil'st clod of red cash in Iris hnd, to make me in Adaul, he morc towards his end, than when he hath me, an unregenemte, and rcbel]ious sonl, to malo nev creature in Christ J. And yet to this man cornes this God, God tllat is infinitely more tllan all, to man that is infinitely less than nothing, which w our first disproportion, and the first exaltation of his mercy; and the next is, that this God came to this man, then when this man w professed enemy to this God. 8i cotrarit«m Deo qt«wras tihil et, sys St. Angustine. If thon ask me wht is contrary to Goal, I cannot sy, tht any thing is so; for, wllatsoever is anv thing, bath being, and wlmtsoever hath so, bath in that very being some affinity th God, some assimilation to God; so tiret nothing is COlltrary to God. If thon ask me, Quis hostis, Vllo is an enemy to God, I cannot say tiret of any thing in this wor]d, but nmn. Tht viper that flev at St. Paul tht viper did hot direct itself upon St. Paul, as St. Pul ws useful and a necesry instrument of Christ; but St. Paul himself was a direct cnemy to Christ himself, thou Tersectest me, says Christ himself unto him. And if we be hot all encmies to God in such a direct opposition, as that we sin therefore, bau that sin violates the majesty of God, (and yet truly every habitual, and deliberated sin amounts to alnmst as much, because in every such sin, we seem to try conclusions, whether God can see a sin, or be affected with a sin, or can, or tares to punish a sin, as though we doubted whether God cre a present God, or a pure God, or a poxverful God, and so consequently whether there be any God or no) if we be hot all enemies to God, in this kind, yet in adhering to the enemy we are cnemies; in out prevarications, and easy betrayings, and surrendering of ourselves to the enemy of his kingdom, Satan, we are his enemics. For small l!!11, val.J o TIIE NATIVITY. 133 wages, and ill-paid pensions we serve him and lest any man should flatter nd delde himself, in sayin, I have my wages, nd my reward bcforehand, my leres in this lire, the ishment, (if ever) hot till the next, the apostle destmys that dream, wifl that question of confusion, lVhat.?uit had you the in tose thi»gs, which yo are new ashamed Certainly sin is hot a gainful way; wit]lout doubt more men are impoverished, and beggar by sinful coumes, than enriched; What fruit had they mys the apostle, and sin cannot be the way of honour, for we dame hot a,ow out sans, but are ashamcd of them, when they donc; fruitlessness, uq»rofimbleness bcfore, shame and dishonour afr, and yet for these we are enemies to God; and yet for all flfis God cornes to us; the Lord of Hosts, to naked and disarmed man, the God of peace to this enemy of God. Some men will continue kind, where they find a thankful reiver, but G kind te tke utkatftl , sa) Christ himself. There may be found a man that will die for his friend, )'s.he; but God died for his encmies: theu when ye were enemies, you were reconeiled to God by the dead of his Son. To corne so in-gloriously, he flat is infinitely more than ail, to him that as infinitely less than nothing, (that was our first dispropoion, and the first exalmtlon of his mercy) to conm, (shall wc vcnture m say so) so selt2 prMimriously, as to bctray himself and deliver himself to lais enemies, (that was out second) as equallcd, at lcast, in a tllird, he to tkem, that as, he alolm for the salvation of all men, as it as express]y said, for this word in out text, they, bath no limitation, I came, I alone, that the)ç ail they, might be thc better. Some of the ancient ththers, delivering the mercies of God, so, as file Articles of out church enjoin them to be dclivered, that as, generally, t]]ey are delivel'ed au the Scriptures, have delivered them so over-generally, that they have seemed loath to think the devil himsëlf excluded from all benefit of Christ's coming. Somc of the later auflmrs iu the Roman 4mrch, (who, as pious pretend to be towards the fathers, are apter to discover the nake& ness of the fathers, than we are) have noted in Justiu 5Iartyr, and in Epil)hanius, and in Clement of Alexandrin, and in Oecumenius, (and Oecunlenius as no Sillgle father, but tater ; Rom. . 21. Lte va. 35.
]. PIEACnED ON CHIIISTMXS DAY. [ER. VII. a manifold father, eomplieated father, a father that eolleeted fathers) and even in St. Jerome himself, and St. Ambrose too, some inelinations towards that opinion, that the devil retaining still his faeulty of free will, is therefore capable of repentanee, and so of benefit by this eoming of Crist; and those authom of the Roman ehureh, that modify the nmtter, and excuse the fathers herein, excuse them no other y but this, that though that opinion and doctrine of those ththers, be hOt truc in itself, yet it was never eondenmed by anv eouneil, nor by anv aneient father. So ve far did very many go, in enlarëing the mereies of God in Christ to all. But waiving this ovevlarge extenon and plfusion thereof, and direeting it upon a more poible, and nlore eredible object, that is, nlan; St. Cyril of Alexandria, eaking of the possibility of the salvation of aH men, says, by way of objection to himself, How ean all be saved since ail do not believe [ But, says he, because actually thev do hOt believe, is it therefore impossible they shouhl believe{ And for actual belief, says he, though all do hot, yet so many do, that, by God's goness, more are saved, than lost, savs that father of tender and large bowels, St. Cyril. And howsoever he may seem toe tender, and t lar.ee herein, yet it is a good piece of eounsel, which that rabbi whom I named before, gives, be hOt apt to call any opinion false, or heretical, or damnable, the contrary whereof cannot be evidently proved. And for this particular, the general poibility of salvation, all agree that the merit of Christ Jesus is sucient for ail. XVhether this all-suciency grow out of the very nature of the merit, the diity of the peton being considered, or grow out of the acceptation of the Father. and the contract between him and the Son, for that, let the Thomists and the ScoEists in the Roman church wrangle. Ail agree, that there is enough donc for ail. And would God reeeive enough for ail, and then exclude me, of himself, without any relation, any eonsideration of sin God forbid. Man is caHed by vers names, names of loe enough, in the Scriptures; but, by the naine of Enosh, Enosh that signifies mere misery, man is never called in the Scriptures, till after the fall of Adam. Only sin aher, and not any ill purse in God before, ruade man miserable The manner of expressing the mercv of God, in the frame and course of Scriptures, expresses evermore the largeness of that lnercy. Very often, in thc Scriptures, you shall find the person suddenly changed; and when God shall have" aaid in the beginning of a entenee, I will show mercy unto them, them, as though he spoke of other presently, in the sme sennce, ho will say, my loving kindness will I hot draw from thee; hot from thee, hot from them, hot ri'oto any; that so whensoever thou hearest of God's mercy propod to them, to others, thou mighte bdieve that mercy te be meant te thee, and whensoever they, others, hear that mercy proposed te thee, they might believe it te ho meant te flmm. And se much may, te go p- poee, be observed out of seine other pas of this chapter, in another translation. In the third verse itis id, tlis eep hear his voice, in the Arab translation itis o audit, Ms seep in the plura], does ear, in the sinlar. God is a plural God, and effets himse]f te alL collectively; God is a singular God, and offers himself te every man, distributive]). Se also it is said ere, nominibus sue, he calls kis sheep by thelr names; it is ames in the plural, and thelrs, in the sinlar: whatsoever God pr poses te any, ho intends te all. In whieh contemplatiou, St. Augustinc breaks out into that holy exclamation, 0 bone omnipotens qui sic curas »um9uemque ostrum, tanquam olum cures, et sic ombres tam9uam si»yolos, 0 good and mighty God, who art lov]ng to eve T man, as to all mankind, and meanest as well to ail maakind, to any man. Be plead tomake your n of this note, for the better imprinting of this largeness of God's mercy. Moses desires of God, that he wod show him,
Itis ways °, his proceedings, llis hc calls aftcr, His ylory °, how God promises him in the next dealings with mên; that which he glorifies himseF upon man, verse, that he will show him lll kis.aooJness 3', God hath no way towards man but goodness, God glorifies himself in nothing upon man, but in his own goodness. And therefore when God cornes te the performance of this promise, in the ncxt chapter 3, he shows him his way, and his glory, and his goodness, in showing him that ho i a merciful God, a gracious God, a long-suffering God, God that forvea sins and iniquities, and (as the Hebrew doctors note) there are thirteen « F, xod. xxxiii. 13. ao Ver. 18. a Ver. 19, a.Exod. xxxiv. 6.
]Ô PEEACnED ON CHEISTMA8 D,A,'. [SIR. ¥11. attributes, thirteen denotations of God specified in that place, and of a|l those thirteen, there is bnt one that tstes of jndgment, (that he will punish the sins of fathers npon children.) Ail the other tvelve are merely, wholly mcrcy; snch a proportion bath his mercy above his justice, such a proportion, as that there is no canse in him, if ail men be hot partakers of it. Shall we say, (says St. Cyril) it were better there were no tillage, than that weeds should grow, better that God had ruade no men, than that so many shonld be damned. God ruade none to be damned; and thereïore though some would expnnge out of our Litany, that rogation, that petition, That thon wouldst hve mercy npon all men; as thongh it were contrary to God's pnrpose to bave mercy upon all men; yet St. Augnstine enlarges his charity too far, Libera nos l)omine, qui jam nocamns te, deliver us, O Lord, who do now call upon thee, Et libera els qui nondum inrocant, rit in'ocent te, et liberes eos, And deliver them vho do not yet call upon tlaee, that they may call upon thee, and be farther delivered by thee. But it is time to pass from this first part, the consideration of the persons, that God who is infinitely more than ail, would corne to man who is infinitely less than nothing; that God who is the God of peace, would corne to man his professed enen»y; that God, the only Son of God, would corne to the relief of man, of ail men, to out second general part, the action itsdf, so far as if is enwrapped in this word, I came that th.eff mi.qht hare lire. Through this second part, I came, we must pass apaee; because, upon the third, the end of his coming, (that they hare li.lè)we must neeessrily insist sometime. In this therefore, we make but two steps; and this the first, that that God who is omnipresent, always every where, in love to man, studied a new way of coming, of communicating himself to man; 1 came, so as I -as never with man before. The rule is worth the repeating, God speaks man's language, that is, so as that he would be understood by man. Therefore to God, who always fills ail places, are there divers positions, and motions, and tlnsitions ascribed in Scriptures. In divers places is God said to sit; The Lord dtteth bi».a for e:er ». Howsoever the kings of z Psai. xxix. 10.
the earth be troubled, and raised, and thrown down again, and troubled, and raised, and thrown down by him, yet the Lord sitteth king for ever. The Lord dwellet in tlw heaeens ', and yet ho sits pon the compass of this eartl 8». Where no earthquako shakes his seat; for sedet in confusione (as one translation reads that place, Psalm xxi. 10.) The Lord sitteth we read it) what confusions soever disorder the world, what floods soever surround and overflow the world, the Lord sits safe. Other phrases there are of like denotation. Behold the Lord cometlt out of his place 8; that is, ha produces, and bring to ligh, things whieh he kept secret before. And so, I rill.qo, and return to »yloIace; that is, I will withdraw tho light of my eountenance, my presence, my providence from them. So that heaven is his place, and then is he said to corne to us, when he maaaifests himself unto us in any new manner of working. In such a sense was God corne to us, when he said, I lift up my hands to hea:en, a»d say, I lire for erêr '. x, Vhere was God when he lifted up his hands to heaven. Here, here upon earth, with us, in his church, for out assurance, and our establishment, making that protestation (denoted in the lifting up of his hands to heaven) that he lived for ever, that he was the everliving God, and that therefore we need feai nothing. God is so omnipresent, as that the Ubiquitary will needs have the body of God everywhcre: so omnipresent, as that the Stancarist will needs bave God hot only fo be in everything, but to be eveDthing, that God is an angel in an angel, and a stonc in a stone, and a straw in a straw. But God is truly so omnipresent, as that he is with us before he cornes to us: Quid peto nt 'enias in me, qni non essem, si non esses in me '? SVhy do I pray that thou wouldst corne into me, who could hOt only hOt pray, but could hOt be, if thou wert hOt in me before. But his coming in this text, is a new art of particular mercy, and therefore a new way of conling. SVhat way. by assuming our nature in the blessed Virgin. That that paradoxa rir.Eo, (as Amelberga the wife of one of the earls of Flanders, who lived continently even in marriage, and is therefore called aradoxa 'ir.qo, a virgin beyond opinion) that s* Psal. cil 13. as Isa. XL. 22. Isa..xvi. _'21. 7 lIose, v. 15. Deut. xxxiL 40. » Avgustine.
]S PREACHED ON CilRISTMAS DAY. [SER. 'IIo this most blessed Virgin Mary should hot on]y hve a son, (for Manes, the patriam'ch of that great st of heretics, the Mauichs, boasted himself to be the son of a virgin, and some casuists in the Roman church bave ventured to say, that by the practice and intervention of the devil there mmy be a child, and yet both parents, father and mother main vim'gins) but that this Son of this blessed Virgin, shouhl also be the Son of the eternal God, this is such comh of him who was here belote, as that if it had hot arisen "in his own goodness, no man would ever bave thought of it, no mau might ever bave wished or prayed for such a coming, that the ody Son of God should corne to die for ail the sons of men. For aliud est hic esse, aliud hic tibi esse "°; it is one thing for God to be here in the world, another thing to be eome hither for thy sake, born of a woman for thy salvation. And this is the first aet of his merey wrapped up in this word, I eane, I who was always present, studied a new way of eoming, I who never went from thee, came again to thee. The other aet of his merey enwrapped in this word, I came, is this, that he that came to the old world but in promises, and prophecies, and figures, is aetually, really, personally, and presentially COlne to us; of whieh differenee, that man will bave the best sense, who languishes unde the heavy expeetation of a reversion, in offiee, or inheritanee, or hath felt the joy of eoming to the aetual possession of sueh a reversion. Christ was the lamb slain from the beginning of the world; appointed for a saerifiee ri'oto that first promise of a Messiah in Paradise: long belote that; from ail eternity. For, whensoever the eleetion of the elect was, (date.it when you will) Christ was at that eleetion; and not only as the second person in the Trinity, as God, but Christ eonsidered as man, and as the propitiation aud saerifiee for man; for whosoever was eleeted, was eleeted in Christ. Christ was always eome in God's purpose; and early eome in God's promise; and eontinually eoming in the succession of the prophets; with sueh a confidence, as that one of them says, A child is yiren uuto us, a son is born unto u.«; born and given already; beeause the purpose of God, in whieh he was born, eannot be disappointed; the promise of God, by whieh he was,o Augustine.
SR. WL] O H WT'. 19 given, cannot be frustrated; the prophets of God, by whom he ws presented, cannot be mistken. ut yet, still it was a future thing. Christ is often cMled the expectation of the world; but it was all fllat while but an expectation, but a reversion of a future thing. So God fed that old world with expectation of future things, as that that very naine by which God notified himself most to that people, in his commission by Moses to Pharaoh", was a future naine; howsoever out translations and expositions run upon the present, as though God had said, my name is I AM, yet in truth it is, raff name is, I SHALL BE. They had evidences enough that God was; but God was pleased to establish in them an assurance that he would be so still; and not only be so still as he was then; but that he would be so with them hereafter as he was never yet, he would be ImmaÆuel, God with «, so that God and man should be one person. It was thon a fair assurance, and a blessed comfort which the children of Israel had in that of Zachary, Rjoice ye dau.qhters of,'io, and shout ye dauyhters of Jerusalem, Behold thy kino cometh ridin.q unto thee, uTon an ass% But yet this assurance, though deli-ered as in the present, produced not those acclamations, and reeognitions, and Hosannas, and Hosanna in the highest, to the Son of David '*, as his personal,,and actual, and visible riding into Jerusalem upon Palm-Sunday did. Amongst the Jews there was light enough to diseern this future blessing, this coming of Christ; but they durst hot open it, nor publish it to others. Ve see the Jews would die in defenee of any part of tlleir law, were it but the eeremoniil; were it but for the not eating of swine's flesh; what unsuflèrable torments suffered the seven brothers in the Maecabees, for that! But yet ve never find that any of them died, or exposed themsehes to the danger or to the dignity of martyrdom, for this doctrine of the Messiah, this future eoming of Christ. lay, we find that the Septuagint, who first translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, for Kiug Ptolemy, disguised divers places thereof, and departed from the original, rather than propose this future coming of the Son of God to the interpretation of the world. A little candle they hml for themselves, but they durst not light anothers" eandle at it. So also « Exod. iii. I.L Zcch. ix. 9. * Matt. xxi. 9.
some of the more speculative philosophers had got seine beanas of this light, but beeause they saw it would net be believed, they let it alone, they said little of it. Honte is it that St. Augustine says", if Plate and his disciples should fise from the dead, and eome new into out streets, and sec thoso great congregations, which thrust and throng every Sabbath, and every day of lloly convocation, te the vorship of out Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, this it is likely they would say, says he, Hwc sunt, 9tw ¥opulis yersuad«re non ausi, consuetudini cessimus, This is that religion, which because it consisted se much in future things, we durst net propose te the people, but were ïain te leave them te those present, and sensible, and visible things, te which they had been accustomed before, lest when we had shaken them in their old religion, we should net ho able te settle, and establish them in the new; and, as in civil government, a tyranny is better than an anarchy, a hard king better than none, se when we consider relions, idolatry is better than atheism, and superstition better than profaneness, lot that the idolater shall any more be saved than the atheist; but that the idolater having been accustomed te seine sense and worship of God (of God in his estimation) is thercfore apter te receive religious impressions, than the atheist is. In this then consists this second act of Chrisçs mercy te us in this word, I came, I ara actually, really, personally, presentially corne, se that those types and figures and sacrifices, which represented Crist te the old world, were net more visible te the eye, lnore palpable te the hand, more obvious te the very bodily senses, that Christ himself bath been since te us. Therefore St. John does net only rest in that, That which was frein tke be.qinnln.q", (Christ was always in purpose, in prophccy, in promise) ner in that, That which we hare heard, (the world hcard of Christ long before they saw him) but he proceeds te that, Tkat which we bave seen, and looked upon with our e!/es, and handled with our hands, that declare we unto you. Se that wo are new delivered frein that jealousy that possessed thoso Septuagint, those translators, that they durst net speak plain, and delivered frein that suspicion that possessed Plate, and his disciples, that the people wero incapable of that doctrine. "Ve know that « De vera rcliff, cap. 4. » 1 J viro i. 1.
Christ is came, and we avow it, and we preach it, and ve affirm, that itis hot only as impious, and irreligious a thing, but as scnseless, and as absurd a thing to deny that the Son of God hath redeemed tho vorld, as to deny tht God bath ereated tho world; and that he is as formally, and as gloriously a martyr that (lies for this article, the Son of God is came, as ho that dies for this, there is God. And theso two aets of his merey, euwrapped in this oue word, I came, (first, that ho who is always present, out of an abmtdant love to man, studied a new way of eotning, and then, that he who was but betrothed to tho old world by way of promise, is married to us by an actual eoming) will ho farther explieated to us, in that, which only remains and constitutes our third, and last part, the end and purpose of his coming, That they miyht haie lire, and ndyItt haie it more abundantly. And thoug, h this last ]»art put forth many handles, we can but take them by the hand, and shake them by the hand, that is, open them, and sa leave them. First then in this last part, we eonsider the "gift itself, tho treasure, life, l'hat they miyht haie life. Towlitb is the eharaeter by whieh Christ specifieates and denominates himself; life is his very naine, and that naine by whieh ho consummates all his other names, I a» the w«y, tle tr««th, and tle lif««; and thcreforo does Peter justly and bitterly upbraid the Jcws with that, Ye dedred a nmrderer, (an enemy to life) to be m#ted ttnto you, and killed the Prince of Li.tè ". It is an houour to anything that it may ho sworn by; by vulgar and trivial thiugs men miEht hot sv,'ear, Ho)c shall I oardo) them tlds. sa-s God, they bave sz«or by thi»ys tha are ot.aods. ` And therefore God, who in sa many ])lees professes to swcar by himself, and of vhom the apostle says, That becanse he coMd,w,,ar by »o.q'eater, he swore by himsel.f ", beeause ho eould propose no greater thing in himself, no clearer notion of himself than life, (for his lifo is his cternity, and his eternity is himself,) does therefore through all the law and the prophets still swear in that form, As I lire, saith the Lord, and as the Lord livétlt; still ho swears b)" his own life; as that solemn oath whieh is mentioned in Diniel, is conceived in that form , H« IoEt p Ms iyht hand and Ms l hand to eaen, a swoee by him that li for eer ; that is, by God, and God in that notion aa he is lire. Ail that tha queen and council could wish and apprecate to the king, was bug that, lire, 0 kin, lieef eer . God is lire, and would no tha death of any. We are not sure that stones llave hOt lire; stones may bave lire; neither (to speak hulnanly) is it unreanably thought by them, that thought the whole xvorld be iuanimated by one ul, and to be one entire living creature; aud in that respect does St. Augustine prefer fly before the suu, because a fly hath lire, and the sun hath hOt. This is the worst tha tire apostle sa of the young wann widow, That " he lire in Tleasare, she is dead wMlst she lires ». So is that magistrate that studie nothiug but his own honour, and diity in his place, de in his place; aud that priest that studies nothiug but his oxvn ease, and profit, dead in his living; and that judge that dates hot condemn a ilty pern, and (which is the lder transession) dares condemn the innocent, deader upon the beuch, then the priner at the bar; God hath included all that is od, in the naine of lire, and all that is ill in the naine of death, when he sa), 6çe, I ave set bore thee lè and good, death a»d eril . This is the reward proposed to out faith *, to lire by our faith; and this is the reward proposed to our work¢ to lire by our works; ail is lire. And this fness, this consmnmation of happines lire, and the lire of lire, spiritual lire, and the exaltation of spiritual lire, eternal lire, is the end of Chrisçs coming, I caoe that te might hare lire. And first, that he might We lire, bring lire into the world, that there might be life to be had, that the world might be redeemed from that loss, which St. Austine savs it was fallcn iuto, that we had ail lost ail poibility of lire. For the heaven aud the earth, and all that the poet wod call chao was hot a deader lump before the Spirit of God rnoved upon the face of the waters, than mankind was, belote the influence of Chfist's coming wrought upon it. But now that God loved the word, as that he gave his Son, noxv that the Son so loved the D. . 7. a* D. v. a 1 T. v. 6. Deut. 15. a, IIeb. ii. 4.
8ER. VIl. l ON Tn ^TWT'. 143 world, as that he ave himself, as David says of the sun of the firmament , the father of nature, there is nothing hid i'om the heat thereof; so we say of this Son of God the Father v the tithful in far higher sense than Abraham ws called so, there is nothing hid from him, no place, no person excluded from the benefit of his coming. The Son bath paid, the Father hath reived enough for M1; hot in single money, for the diharge of thy lesser debts, thy idle words, thy wantou thoughts, thy unchaste lks, but in my talents, to discharge thy crying debts, the clamours of those poor whom thou hast oppressed, and thy thundering debts, those blasphemies by which thou hast tor at Father that ruade thee, that Son that redeemed thee, that holy Ghost that would comfort thee. There is enough given; but then, as Hiram sent mterials sufficient for the building of the temple, but them was somethitg els« to be done, for the fitting and placing thereof; so ther« is lire enough brought into the world, for all the world, by tlm death of Christ, but then there is something else to be done for the application of this lire to particular persons, inoended in this word in out text, came TNAT THEY IGtlT HAVE LIFE. There is ah" enough in the worhi to give breath to everything, though everything do hot breathe. If u tree, or u stone do hot brthe, it is hot because it wants air, but because it wants mns to receive it, or to return if. All egs are hot hatched dmt the hens sits upon; neither could C]]rist himself get ail tire chickens that were hatched, to corne, and to star mder his wings. That man that is blind, or that will wink, shall see no more sun upon St. Brnabie's day, than upon St. Lucie's; no nmre in the summer, thon in the winter solstice. And therefore as there is a plentihd re, h«nption bmught into the world by the death of Christ, so (as St. Paul found it in his paicular conversion) there is a gmat and powerful light exhibited to us, that we might see, and lay hold of this lire, in the ordinances of the church, in the confessions, and absolutions, and services, and rmons, and sacraments of the church: Christ came that hc mght bring lire nto the world, by his death, and then he instituted his church, that by the mea thereof this lire might Psm x. 6. 1 Kh i. .
be infused into us, and infused se, as the last word of our text de]i-ers it, I came, tkat tkey miykt lare lire o avu»aTY. Donaris Domine, ut eis, quibus debita dimitt, , pomi»- sionib tuis, debitoremfaci , This, 0 Lord, is thine abundant proeeeding; first, thou forvest me my debt te thee, and then thou kest thyself debtor te me by thy large promises; and, after all, pertbrmest those promises more largely than thou madest them. Indeed, God tan de nothing scantily, penurioly, singly. Even his maledictions, (te which God is ever loath te cern 0 his first commination was plural, it vas death, and death upon death; Iorte morieris. Death nmy be plurl; but this benediction of lire cannot adroit singular; Chajim, which is the word for I, hth no singular number. This is the difference between God's mercy, and his judgments, that sometimes his judgments may be plurl, complicated, enwrapped in one another, but his mercies are always se, and canner bo otherwise; he ves them more al, undantly. More abundantly thon te whom The natural man hath tho image of God imprinted in his ul; eternity is God himself, man bath net that, net eternity; but the image of eternity, tt is immortality, post-eterlfity there is in the seul of man. And then, man is all seul in Moses' expression; for ho does net say that man had, but that man. became a liziny seul . Se that tho natural man hath lit more abundantly than any other creature, (howsoever oaks, and crows, and has my be said te out-lire him) bause he hath a litb after this lit. But Christ came gi'e life more abundantly than this. That ho did, when he came te the Jews in promioes, in types, and fires, and sacrifices: he gave lit more bundantly te the Jew, then te the Gentile, because he gave him better nleans te prese-e tht lit, better means te illustrate that image of God in his seul, that is, te make his immortlity immortal happiness, (tbr otherwise our immorlity were our greatest ourse) better mens te confo himself te God, by hving paicr law for the direction of all his tions, which the Gentiles had net. For, therein espeeially confisted the abundant faveur of God te fle Jews, as it is expressed by Moses, Unto what nation are tkeir Auste. » Gen. ii. 7.
. vn.] o ,, ^w. l gods corne o near unie hem, as t Loed r Go is c unto ? And in what consied this nearness In this, lat tion bath laws aM statu se rlghtus as we bave? God gave man lire more abdantly an oer creatures, beeame ho gave m immoality; God gave the Jews lire more abundantly than other men, by ng them a law te make their immoality immoral happiness, and yet there is a further abundantius, Christ came te ve m, us Christians, lifo more abdantly than Gentile, or Jew. Justin Mayr denies, that ever any understood the truc God, till Chri OEme. Ho goes upon the mme ound that St. Paul does, Whilst y were without Christ, you were without God; that i¢ without such an evidence, such a manifestation, such an assurance of God, as faith reqres, or as produces faith. For, the ceremonial law of the Jews c as many shadows as it did lights, d burdened them in eing them. Whemas tho Christian religion is, as Greg. Nazianz. says, 5'implex d nuda, nisi prae in artem dcillimam converteretur: It is a plain, an casy, a ricuous truth, but that the perverse and uncharitablo nglings of psionate and froward men, haro ruade religion a hroE an intricate, and a perplexed art; se that new that religion, which carnal and worldly men, haro by an i life discreditcd and mme hard te ho believed, the passion and perverness of schoolmcn, by controversies, bath ruade hard te ho uudemto. Whereas the Christian religion, is of ilf a eet, and an easy yoke, and an abdent and a controed doctrine; for, where &e Jews d ail abridged in ton wor ( Moses calls the Ten Commanents) the Christian bath all abridged into two words, love God, loee thy neiyhbr. Se Christ bath given us, us Chfiians, lire more abundantly than te the Gentile, or te e Jew; but there is a further abundance yet; ail this is but more abundantly than te others, but Christ bath given us life more abundantly than te ouroelv. That is, in the Christian chureh, ho bath given us mes te ho bezef day than yeeay, and tmorrow than toeday. That oee which God effets m in the church, does net only that mpaeity, which we bave, but give us a greater capky tn wo had: and it is abme of God's e, net improve if, or net VOL. 1. L to procure such faher ace, as that prent ace make capable of. As it is an improvident, and dangero tng to spend upon the stock, is it to rely upon that poion of oee, which I think I had in my election, or that measure of nctification, which I came to in my last sickness. Chfi gives us bcoEer m of eternal lire than Gentile or Jew, and betr, that i nearer assance, in out groh of e, and cree of nctifition every day, than in the considetion of nhing done by God in our behalf heretofore. ow, with these abundances (in which, we exceed others, and oselves) Christ cornes to us in ts, that he bath cotitud, and esblished a church; and therefore we consider his abundt proeeeding in that work. From this day, which tho first stone of that building, the church, was laid, (for, though the fodations of the church were laid in eternity, y that was under ound, the first stone aove ound, that i the manifestation of God's purpose to the world was lid this day, in Christ's birth) from this day, the incala6on of rist, (for, of a those mcs, by which the ancients design this day, Cistmas day, Athanasi caing it the subsntiation of Chri; Teullian, the incorpo tion of Christ; Damasoene, the hanation of Cist; of aH thooe fifty names, which re coHected out of the father for th dy, most concur in that naine, the incarnation of Christ) from this day, God proeceded so abundanfly in enlarging his chuoeh, as that within two hundred years, Tean was able to y, The very hoitals of the Chriians are more and more sptuous]y built, and more richly endowed, than the ve temples of the idols, or than the p]aces of idolatrous princes. And more aundantly, hot fo compare only with idolators, ut the Jews themselves, and with them, in that wherein they magnified themselves most, their temple. That church, which Justinian the emperor built at Consntinople, and dedicated to Sophia, to the sdom of God (and the wisdom of God is Chri Cris te oer of God, ad te isdon of GodS',) is fod by them, who have written that story, in bies and in beauty, to bave cxceeded Solomon's temple: though that there were cmploy for ny years, thiy thousund carpenter and foy 1 Cor. L 24.
sm. vrai ov zns vzvrrv 17 thousand masons, and (other cndowments of rich vcsse]s being proportlonable to it) more than twenty thousand bowls, and goblets of gold, and silver, yet Justinian's church at Constantinople exceeded tht: nnto the riches of this wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, fiowed all the treasure of the world, and upon this wisdom of God, Christ Jesus, waited all the wisdom of tho world. For, at that time, when Christ came into the world, was learning at that height, as that accounting from Cicero and Virgil, (two great masters in two great kinds) to tho two Pliuies, (which may shut -ap one age) we may reckon te that one state, under whoso government Christ was born, lome, seven or eight score authors, more than ever they had before or after. Thi8 i8 the «?ay which the Lord bath ruade, we will rejoice, and be ylad i it «°. And as Constantine ordained, that upon this day, the chureh should bure no oil, but balsamum in her lamps, se let us ever celebrate thi day, and with tlmnkful aeknowledgment, that Christ, who is the Anointed of the Lord, bath anointed us with the oil of gladneas above out fellows, and given us life more abundantly than others, in making us partakers of these means of salvation in his ehureh. But I bring it eloser than se; new, and hem, within theso 'alls, and at this heur, cornes Christ unto you, in the offer of thi8 abundance; and with what penuriousness of devotion, penuriousnessofreverenee de you meet him here. JDeue stetit, says David, God standeth in the co.qregation «; does God stand there, and wilt thou sit. sit, and never kneel. I would speak se, as the congregation should net know whom I mean; but se, as that they whom it eoneerns might know I mean them, I would speak: for, I must say, that thero tome seine persons te this church,and pensons ofexaznple te many tha¢ tome with them, of whom, (excepting seine few, who must therefore bave their praise iront us, as, no doubt, they bave their thank8 and bleaings frein God) I never saw toaster ner ervant kneel, ai his eoming into thi8 church, or at any par of divlno service. David had sueh a zeal te God's service, au that he was content te be thought a fool, for his humility towarda the ark. St. Paul wau content te be thought mad; 8o was our blessed Saviour himseff, net on]y by hls enemie, but by hi8 own Isal i. I$, 24. l PII LgY, XI|.!. L 2
Maker. Humiliation is the beginning of sanctification; and as without this, without holiness, no man shall see God, though he porc whole nights upon the Bible; so without that, without humility, no man shall hear God speak to his soul, though ho hear three two-hour2 serinons every day. But if God bring theo to that humiliation of soul and body here, he will improve, and advance thy sanctification more abundantly, and when ho bath brought it to the best perfection, that this life is capable of, ho will provide anothcr manner of abundanco in the life to corne; which is the last beating of the pulse of this text, the last panting of the breath thereof, out anhelation, and panting after the joys, and glory, and eternity of the kingdom of heaven; of which, though, for the most part, I use to dismiss you, with saying something, yet it is always little that I can say thereof; at this time, but this; that if all the joys of all the martyrs, from Abel to him that groans now in the inquisition, were condensed into one body of joy, (and certainly the joys that the martyrs felt at their deaths, would nmke up a hr greater body, than their sorrows would do,) (for though it be said of our great Martyr, or great Witness , (as St. John calls Christ Jesus) to whom, ail other martyrs are but sub-martyrs, witnesses that testify his testimony, there vas never sorrow like unto hs sorrow , it is also true, (there was never joy like unto tlmt joy which was set belote him, when he endured the cross 7;) if I had ail this joy of all these martyrs, yet I shall haro a joy more abundant, than even this superlative joy, in the world to corne. What a dira vespers of a glorious festival, what a poor half-holyday, is Methusalem's nine hundred years, to eternity . What a poor accourir bath that man ruade, that says, this land bath been in my naine, and in my ancestors from the conquest. What a yesterday is that. not six hundred years. f I could believe the transmigration of souls, and think that my soul had been successively in some creature or other, since the creation, what a yesterday is that. hOt six thousand years. Vhat a yesterday for the past, what a to-morrow for the future, is any terre, that tan be comprehended in cypher or counters. But as, how abundant a lffe soever any man bath in this world for temporal abundances, I have lire more abundantly than ho, if I bave the spiritual lire of grace, se that what measure soever I haro of this spiritual life of grace, in this world, I shall have that more abundantly in hcavcn, for thcro my term shall ho a terre for thrce lires; for those three, that as long as tho Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost lire, I shall net die. And te this glorious Son of God, and tho most Almighty Father, &c.