A Century of Sermons

great Schoolman, not to exercise those senses, but for an ornament and complement sake, lest their bodies should seem monstrous and formidable to the beholders. Finally, their bodies after they had appeared to discharge their embassage, vanished into elements never to return again into that composition, but our bodies shall revive out of that dust into which they were dissolved, and live forever in the resurrection of the righteous. Some have so commented upon the Apparitions of Angels in holy Scripture, as if they had not truly taken human shapes, the better to communicate their business to men, but God deluded men's eyes, and bred this thought in their fancy, as if they had seen that which was not visible. I confess there are prophetical Visions in holy Text, when the fancy of certain Prophets was persuaded it saw that which it did not see; it was a Divine passion which made Ezekiel think he saw beasts with wings, and wheels under their feet, chap. 1. It was a mere Divine passion which made Daniel suppose he saw the powerful ram push down all other beasts with his horn on the banks of Ulai, Dan. 8. These objects were conceived by none but by them single Prophets; no other eye could be partaker of it. Now on the contrary that's no prophetical Apparition but a real object which is equally visible to all spectators; therefore the Apparition of Angels was not imaginary, but substantial: for loe the Angel of the Lord was seen of all the Shepherds, and the Angels which Lot entertained were conspicuous, not to Lot only, who was a just man, but equally to all the vicious Sodomites: And so much for the fashion wherein he did appear, not as a spirit, but in the shape of a man; and therefore Ecce Angelus, loe an Angel of the Lord.

4. The next doubtful question is, Quo situ? after what manner the Angel took his place when he came unto them: the Grammarians are at odds, what 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 should mean, whether he hover'd above their heads in the air, or stood in the same level near unto them. Beda prevented this quarrel, and accepts of both interpretations, Sunt juxta nos per amorem, supra nos per authoritatem; they stand near unto us by their love, and they stand above us by their authority. Surely if Christ had not been born to reconcile us to his Father, we had not been worth the coming near, we had been no company for those holy Seraphim: but since he vouchsafed to take flesh and blood, the nature of man came into respect and reverence; the enemy shall not approach to hurt it, but those auxiliary troops of heaven pitch their pavilions round about it, supra, juxta, planting themselves as a fortress for our head, and as a buckler for our arm. And indeed those are the chief things that need good influence and assistance, knowledge and action, head and hand. Some are secret inventors of mischief, plotters and contrivers of disturbance, their brain is a mint of oppression; where is Angelus superveniens? the Angel above? Some know their Masters will, but they do not do it; nay, quite contrary, fear or favor wrings ill effects from them: where is Angelus astans? they want a good Angel at their elbow. Where is Michael the great Prince Qui stat pro filiis populi tui, which standeth for the children of thy people, Dan. 12.1. But whether this celestial Embassador hover'd above their heads, to show the property perchance of a glorified body, or whether he walked and conversed upon the earth as man to note our fellowship with Angels by the Birth of Christ: yet 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 supervenit is one that came suddenly, never looked for at that season; which construction, says Beza, is indifferent to both: and well he doth apply the verse unto it, Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora, an hour of felicity came at an instant upon us which we never dreamed of: and so much for the manner how the Angel took his place.

5. Now follows the fifth interrogatory upon which I shall stay longest, why men were not accepted to do this office to manifest the Birth of Jesus; but loe an Angel of the Lord. There are many reasons for that expediency which I will marshal in their order.

1. As an evil Angel did co-operate to bring death into the world, so a good Angel was a choice instrument to bring the tidings of salvation: for why did the Son of God take flesh? to repair the fall of man. How did man transgress? by the subtlety of the Serpent. Who was the Serpent? our adversary the Devil. Who shall make amends for the mischief which the Devil wrought? one much different in grace, but of the same Essence, and Nature, and Creation, the Angel Gabriel. But you will say no fault was committed by the good Angels, they were neither enticers nor abettors of Adams prevarication, why should they trouble themselves? true, but a kind of blot did stick unto their name, and for a full measure of recompense they would satisfy for that which was none of their transgression. Our first disobedience was occasioned by a tree, our Redemption was purchased upon the tree of the Cross: We were wounded by the appetite of Eve, we were healed by the Womb of Mary: Here was tree for tree, and woman for woman. So an evil spirit tempted us to our loss, and therefore a good Spirit is zealous to be an instrument of our restitution; there's Angel for Angel.

2. They were exceeding busy to declare Christ unto the world many ways, Concipiendum, conceptum, natum, before he was conceived to Mary, when he was conceived to Joseph, after he was born to the Shepherds; for they are willing to partake all good things unto us in the Militant Church, because we shall be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , exalted to be equal to the Angels in the day of Christ's second appearing; Choristers of one Choir to praise the Lord, and members of one triumphant Church forever. They came in human shapes like unto men, nay, they are often called men in Scripture, Ut demonstrent intelligibilem societatem, cum iis habendam in vita futura, because we shall make up one spiritual society and fellowship to sing Hallelujah hereafter. I am not of their mind that say the Cherubims in many things were unresolv'd about the Mystery of Christ's Nativity, and that they came with these messages to instruct both themselves and us. St. Peter doth not make good that fancy, because he says these are things • nto which the Angels desire to look, 1 Pet. 1.12. and Dionysius roves at random, who imputes it to them that they would better understand that point of Faith, because it is written, Isa. 63. Who is this that comes from Edom? but many ancient Fathers do adjudge that the Angels take delight to be present in our Christian Assemblies when we meet in this house together to offer up the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. Paul enforceth modesty to the Corinthian women in the house of Prayer because of the Angels, 1 Cor. 11.10. Angelos testes habent honesti pundoris aut impudentiae, as the most expound, the Angels make one congregation with us, and therefore they are witnesses of their modesty or impudence. Where is then your reverence, your bodily humiliation when you come to God's house? do all things with decency, and well-beseeming devotion; for the Angels are our invisible associates, says holy Bernard. Non ausus es illo present facere, quod me praesente non anderes? Dare you do those unbecoming things where the Angels are by to witness, which you durst not do for fear of censure if the Ecclesiastical Magistrate did look upon you?

3. The Incarnation of Christ is, I may say, the perfection of all things in the world; and therefore good reason that all creatures should have some participation and interest in it. Men did share in him in his own sex and person, women in the Womb that bare him: poor men in the Shepherds, great ones in the sages of the East: the Beasts by the stable wherein he was born: the Earth in the Gold that was offered: the Trees in the Myrrh and Frankincense; and to reckon up no more, the Heavens in the Star that blaz'd: all the works of God, even they which by natural obedience bless him and magnify him forever, did claim some office to make one in the solemnity when their Creator was born. Why surely some room was left for the Angels, it was fit they should be in the train at the Inauguration of this mighty Prince, and their place, according to their dignity was very honorable; they were God's Ambassadors: and as if they had a Patent to use their office frequently, they had many errands from Heaven, to Mary, to Joseph, to the Shepherds; Non satis est semel missum esse, duobus aut tribus testibus stat omne verbum, says St. Ambrose, They came three several turns and no less, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

4. Angelus in carnis specie Christum in carne venturum praenuntiat, says Aquinas, the advent of the Messenger was in some wise a commentary and explication upon the message: the tidings to be opened surpass'd the apprehension of a natural man, though he were the wisest Dictator of Philosophy, that the Eternal should be begotten, the Infinite be contained in the finite, that God who is a Spirit incomprehensible should be made flesh. O unutterable mystery! what visible inducement could be thought of to make man believe it? how should the dull and ignorant apprehend this transcendent operation? Behold God's Nuntio, this Angel that came to the Shepherds, go no farther than him; and you shall have an instance what the Almighty can bring to pass; for the Essence of Gabriel was pure and spiritual, not mixed with elements, no bodily concretion in him; yet he tells his errand to the world in the similitude of flesh and bone, notifying that the Spirit of all Spirits God himself should be made flesh.

5. Angels and Principalities were first upon this Ministry to preach the Nativity of Christ, to honor and countenance their office, who in the same calling do succeed the Angels. Look not upon the poor Fishermen whom Christ did call from the Sea of Tiberius, but estimate your Clergy by the excellency of that heavenly Host who were the first that preached the Gospel to the Shepherds. I take myself off from this discourse in which I might amply proceed, lest you say unto me as one said of Hortensius, that he advanced Eloquence to the skies, craftily meaning that himself might be advanced as an Eloquent Orator in the commendation. If we glory we will glory in our infirmities, and in the Cross of Christ, not presuming upon that amplification of analogy with Angels. I will lay the scene of my reproof beyond the Seas, but I would we were quit of the fault at home: How many exalted Prelates refuse to do that office to teach Christ, especially to poor Shepherds, although a Cherubim of Heaven in my Text did willingly submit himself to do the work. It troubled the Historiographers among our Adversaries to find out one Pope in almost 100 years that was a pulpit man when he became a Pope, that was Pius V, and he but rarely. I may say of such men, as Pliny did of those Emperors who made great suit to be Consuls, and then disdained to discharge the Function. O inscitia verae majestatis concupiscere honorem quem dedigneris, dedignari quem concupieris. O ignorance of duty to affect that honor which they scorned to execute: to scorn to execute that honor which they earnestly affected. Is an Angel no more than fit to preach Christ? and is proud man too good for it?

6. The fancies of men have assaye'd to add this for a sixth reason to the former, that the noble Hierarchies of Heaven do merit some increase and addition of glory by their care and obsequiousness toward the universal body of the Church of Christ; but the matter was better scann'd by Biel, who therefore refutes that sentence of Lombard, Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus, Angelus non habuisset summam suam beatitudinem. Then it would follow that the Eternal Felicity of the Thrones of Heaven did depend upon the creation of man: for except there had been a Church here below to which they might administer, they had wanted occasion to demerit some increase of their glory. Indeed it is an opinion that savors of servility and baseness, as if they that stand always before the face of God would do nothing but upon gain and advantage. Alas, they have no other end of their labor but that which every man should have in charity, the increase and enlargement of the Triumphant Church in Heaven; and therefore our Savior, Luke 12.9. threatens Apostates from the Faith thus, He that denieth me before men, him will I deny before the Angels of God, that is, before the greatest friends and well-wishers of our beatitude.

Lastly, It is an observation not to be omitted, how St. Austin compares three several ways wherein Christ was manifested; to the Shepherds by an Angel, to the Wise men by a Star, to Simeon and Anna devout people that spent their age in the Temple, by the Holy Ghost. Simeon and Anna were exceeding faithful, such as waited and expected every day the salvation of Israel; and therefore the Holy Ghost told them secretly in their hearts as soon as the Babe was brought into the Temple, that this was the Lamb of God which should take away the sins of the world. The Shepherds I presume were just men, but had not so much perfection in the knowledge of the Law to look for and expect a Savior; therefore an extraordinary Nuntio, an Angel was sent unto them: but the Gentiles utter aliens from the Faith were directed to the Manger by signs and wonders from heaven. So says St. Paul, 1 Cor. 14.22. Signs are for them that believe not, and Prophesies for them that believe: And as the axiom is in Philosophy, everything is best collated, when it is fitted ad modum recipientis. Now the Shepherds were Jews, and were taught in the Synagogues concerning the Apparition of Angels; the Magi were Astronomers and better knew the course of Stars: The book of the Creature was sit to teach the Gentiles, but a Divine Spirit was better accommodate to teach a Jew, that they might receive the Gospel even as they had received the Law: and the Law was delivered, says St. Paul, by the ministration of Angels. And so much for the first general part, all the five questions being satisfied, which of the Angels this was, when he came, in what figure and apparition, how he did apply himself to the Shepherds, and lastly, why men were not accepted to do this office, but loe an Angel of the Lord.

The order which I propounded requires now that I speak of the pomp and solemnity which the Angel brought with him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the glory of the Lord shone round about them. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the glory of the Lord fitly rendered in this place by the vulgar Latin, Claritas Domini, a lightsome brightness or splendor which God caused to shine in that place, making the night unto the Shepherds as clear as if it had been day: So when a lightsome pure cloud did appear in the Dedication of Solomon's Temple, the Text says, 1 Kings 8.11. The glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord; therefore it was not properly that essential glory of God, unto which no man in this life can approach, but lux ante gloriam, the consolation of a beautiful light, which was the shadow, and the fore-runner of Glory. But it were a great trespass in Art to run into obscurity and confusion when we are to speak of light. 1. Therefore I will endeavor to show how many ways such brightsome apparitions are observable in holy Scripture. 2. Why this illustrious Glory did shine round about the Shepherds.

When God would beautify and adorn a thing in some excellent manner, I find that in a four-fold fashion he scatters and transfuses the beams of light and splendor either upon it or about it. 1. Let us reflect our remembrance upon [ 1] our Savior's Transfiguration, his face did shine as the Sun, and his raiment was white as the light; as white as snow, says St. Mark: so that no Fuller on earth could make a thing so white. Now we know that Christ was not as yet glorified, his body had not yet put on incorruption: therefore Eluxit splendor à Divinitate, it was the pleasure of his Divinity at this instant to alter his countenance and his garment, and from the union of his Divine nature: this glory did redound upon the outward parts. 2. In the Resurrection, when our flesh shall become an inhabitant [ 2] of the heavens, not only the face, but all the body of man shall look in a triumphant manner, like a pillar of light, which unspeakable beauty shall result from the soul to the blessing and ornament of the body. So I read, Dan. 12.3. They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness [ 3] as the stars forever and ever. 3. This claritude and heavenly semblance hath shined upon some faces, when it redounded from no inward fountain; as in the Transfiguration of Christ from the personal union of the Divinity; or as in the beatitude of the Saints from their Glorification: But God cast a beam of honor upon them from the comfort of his own presence. So in the forty days that Moses was upon the Mount twice he came down to commune with the Children of Israel, and there was no alteration in him; he looked as one of the other people: But when the Almighty passed by him and proclaimed his mighty name in his ears, then when Moses came down the skin of his face did shine, and the people were afraid to come nigh him, Exod. 34 30. as the purple of one ripe grape doth tincture that which is next it with the same color, so that flaming Majesty wherein the Lord appeared did cast a new die of awfulness upon the forehead of Moses. And S. Stephen the Martyr had a glimpse of the Glory of Christ, which like a ray of the Sun darted upon his face, and all that sat in the Council saw his face as it had been the face of [ 4] an Angel, Acts 6. ult. 4. A lightsomness and coruscation hath been shewn from heaven, not resting upon the persons, nothing was changed about them, but upon the place where they stood; in the day time when it appeared it was more glorious than the day, and when it appeared in the night it turned the night into day. So it happened unto Paul at noon-tide as he journeyed unto Damascus; hear his own testimony to Agrippa, Acts 26.13. At mid-day, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me, and them that journeyed with me. So it happened to the Shepherds upon Christmas-day as they kept watch over their flocks by night, when the nights are at the darkest, according to the season of the year: the heavens were spread above them like a glistering Canopy, the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and so many ways in Scripture, four in all, God hath communicated light to glorify his own works, and his Saints that praise him.

You shall hear some opinions what kind of light this was which did spangle in the field, when the Angel came unto the Shepherds. St. Ambrose thinks it was some fulgure of the Stars. Angels, says he, and Shepherds had a voice and a tongue to publish their joy, but the constellations of heaven, Quia voice non poterant, gaudia sua officio protestantur, because they could not utter their joy by a tongue, they express it by their duty to start like lightning into the fields which were near to Bethlehem. And whether he speak it by a figurative amplification or not I know not; but the same Author hath these words, Sol praeter consuetudinem in hac festivitate matutinus illuxit, the Sun prevented the morning watch, and peept upon the earth earlier than he should, to guild all those fields with his light which were adjoining to the Stable where Christ was born: For. says he, why might not the Sun make more haste than natural to offer service to the Son of God, as well as stand still in the firmament to attend a petty Jesus, Joshua the Captain of the Israelites? But with the leave of that holy man I conceive, if the Sun had rose miraculously before the time, the Scripture would have expressed it, even as we find it mentioned that the Sun was eclipsed, and the heavens darkened at the Passion of our Lord.

Others are conceited, because an Angel is a glorified creature, therefore the body which he took upon him did shine triumphantly, as if he had stood in a cloud of light. Hence it comes, says the Cardinal, that among other honors which are decreed to Saints in their Canonization this is one, Pinguntur eorum imagines addito certo quodam lumine in signum gloriae quam habent in coelis: Their images are painted with resplendent rays about them, to signify the light of that glory which they enjoy in heaven. But, beloved, my Text says not, glory did shine about the Angel, or that the glory of the Angel did hallow the place; but the Glory of the Lord did shine about the Shepherds. Therefore I adhere to that learned Author, who says it was Claritas creata prae se ferens divinam majestatem, a clarity of light newly created, which bare the evident show of no created Spirit, but of a Divine Majesty: and some are bold to say that this white glorious cloud which dazzled the Shepherds, afterward being compacted into one body, it made that blazing Star which went before the Wisemen from the East unto Bethlehem; and I leave it indifferent to you, as you think fit to believe them.

But I leave to agitate this point anymore, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , what this shining Glory was, and for some profitable use and application I come to the next thing, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , what use there was of it to celebrate our Savior's Nativity? First, The Lord did put on this glorious apparel, even a robe of light to express the Majesty of his Son who was born to save the world. Mis-conceive not his excellent greatness because he lies in a Manner, but estimate him by this sign from Heaven, that the glory of the Lord did shine round about to honor his Nativity. Christ is obscured in the Stable, says St. Austin, but his messenger shines in the field, Sic opera humilitatis apud nos contemptibilia, illustria sunt in conspectu Dei; so humility may appear contemptible to us, but it is glorious in the sight of God. In the Old Testament, says Hugo, though Angels were sent to men upon sundry occasions, yet they never came with this property, as far as we read, that glory did shine about them. Nunc exorto Sole justitiae tanquam solares radii lucidi & fulgentes apparent: but now the Sun of Righteousness did rise upon the earth; they appear conspicuous in their colors like the beams of the Sun. Nothing could resemble Christ so well as this Claritas Domini the brightness and splendor of the Lord, because he is the brightness of the Fathers Glory, Heb. 1.3. it is a similitude which gives ample occasion unto faith to make fit constructions. The Father is compared to the Sun in the firmament, and Christ his only begotten to the light of the Sun. 1. Non libere à patre procedit, sed naturaliter, says St. Cyril, he comes out from the Father, not of free choice, as if the Father had power not to beget him, but naturally as the light hath an emanation from the body of the Sun; so that the Sun cannot choose but give light. 2. The generation of God the Son is eternal, even as the Father is eternal: we cannot say there was a time when he was not, no more then we can say there was a time when the Sun had no light: Light is of the same time and antiquity with the Sun itself which brings it forth. 3. Damascene collects truly that the Son of God is inseparable from his Father, even as light cannot be taken away or parted from the Sun. 4. Another observes how pure a generation that is with which the Father brings forth the Son; because light though it be but a creature, yet it is a pure and a spiritual quality, and comes forth by no contaminated or polluted procreation. 5. It extends further to resemble how the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, even as that comfortable warmth which cherisheth Plants, and every living thing issues jointly from the Sun itself, and from the light thereof.

By this it appears how suitably a beam of admirable light did concur in the Angels message to set out the Majesty of the Son of God; and I beseech you observe, all you that would keep a good Christmas as you ought, that the glory of God is the best celebration of his Sons Nativity; and all your pastimes and mirth (which I disallow not, but rather commend in moderate use) must so be managed, without riot, without surfeiting, without excessive gaming, without pride and vain pomp, in harmlessness, in sobriety as if the glory of the Lord were round about us. Christ was born to save them that were lost, but frequently you abuse his Nativity with so many vices, such disordered outrages; so that you make this happy time an occasion for your loss rather than for your salvation. Praise him in the congregation of the people, praise him in your inward heart, praise him with the sanctity of your life, praise him in your charity to them that need and are in want. This is the glory of God shining round, and the most Christian solemnizing of the Birth of Jesus.

Secondly, This lightsome apparition about the Shepherds, 'tis Typus claritatis Evangelicae, a type of the light and perspicuousness which is genuine and proper to the Gospel. The Law of Moses was given to the people when the hill of Sinai was full of mists and dark pillars of smoke, for there were many things delivered to that Nation of the Jews which were wrapped in darkness, and in thick pillars of obscurity: Types and Ceremonies were difficile to be understood, but the faithfulness of the Gospel is as clear as the light, and the righteousness of God's promise as the noon-day. The Law was lucerna pedibus meis, a candle unto my feet: and so says Solomon, the Commandment is a lamp, Prov. 6.23. Nay, as if it were not a clear burning candle David says it is Lumen in laterna, Thy word is a lanthorn unto my feet; as if the old Law had been no other then a candle under a bushel, as it is in the Parable: but the Gospel is a light as great as the Sun in the firmament, a candle upon a hill, Posita super candelabrum Catholicae Ecclesiae, says St. Ambrose, and the Catholic Church over all the world is the candlestick to hold it. This is not a splendor upon the face only, as it befell Moses, but it is splendor circumquaque, says my Text, it shines round about, and no corner in all the Church which is Christ's Family, but it hath been enlightened.

A candle will suffice to give all men light that are in the room where it shines, but it is such a light as doth not warm or cherish you. So the Law was a candle whereby he that read might learn, and know the will of God, but it did not warm or comfort a man; nay, it left a man quivering and shaking, extreme chill and cold at the heart: for it is written, Cursed is he that doth not keep all these sayings and do them: therefore the Gospel is a better light, it gives light, and withal heat and comfort, zeal and joy to them that receive it; as it is in the next verse, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy. How proves he that? why, there is born unto you a Savior which is Christ the Lord. It is Bonaventure if I mistake not, that says upon my Text, Claritas Dei circumfulsit non tantum exterius in corpore sed etiam interius in mente; the light shined outwardly to the Shepherds, and inwardly in their hearts, that's round about in full compass both in soul and body. O you all presume that the light of the Gospel hath shined upon you as well as upon another, you know Christ, and his redemption, and that's enough for your share; but do you find any comfort in it? are you warm at the heart? if you be cold in your profession, not caring which way Religion stands or falls, indifferent whether Christ be worshipped this way or that way, then the light doth not shine round about you, you have it without but not within.

Thirdly, The dark night was brightned with a shining Cloud at our Savior's Nativity, to signify that he should be Lumen solatii in nocte tenebrarum, a light of consolation to them that sat in the dark night of persecution, and misery. Mary Magdalene came to the Sepulcher early when it was yet dark, she wept and afflicted her soul that she found not the body of Christ in the Sepulcher; and loe it was very early and yet dark, a season to increase sorrow: but behold an Angel, whose countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow, did enlighten her heart, and cheered her spirits, that Christ was risen from the dead. Thus light did arise unto the faithful in the darkness of their heaviness. Take another instance of sorrow which was hard at deaths door. Peter was kept in chains in prison, and one says he had no better room than the lowest dungeon, Carcer erat teterrimus & obscurissimus & ne die quidquam lucis admitteret, it was such a dark corner, that there was not a chink in it to take in light in the day time; yet an Angel came to him anon before the hour when he looked for death, which was long before the morning, and a light shined in the prison, Acts 12.7. And though no outward beam of light glance miraculously upon the Saints in their chains and captivity, yet the comforter even the Holy Spirit will not fail to lighten their darkness within, as David said, in the midst of my sorrows thy mercies, O Lord, have refreshed my soul. The Fathers of yore who were present at the execution of many Martyrs give us the report, what unspeakable gladness was revealed unto them from above in their fiery trial: the fiery flame which consumed them was like the light and shining of an Angel to solace them. Martyr est velut fracta Gedeonis lagena tunc emicat & vincit: it is the saying of Hugo. Everyone of Gideon's Soldiers had a pitcher and lamp in it, they broke their pitchers, their lamps blaz'd, and they had the conquest of their enemies: so says he, our body is an earthen pitcher, if martyrdom burn in it like a lamp, and the pitcher be broken to pieces, then we shall have victory against our spiritual enemies, and peace with God.

Fourthly, Let us make that use of our Savior's first coming into the world in flesh, which St. Paul doth of his second coming in glory, 1 Cor. 4.5. The Lord cometh who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart; and then shall every man have praise of God. The most obscure things shall be made manifest unto his light, and the thoughts of all hearts shall be revealed unto him. The righteous Lord trieth the very hearts and reins, Psal. 7.10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to try the heart is verbum forense, as when Magistrates examine the truth not by questions only, but by rack and torments, they will have all out in confession: so God is said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to draw out all secrets from our inward breast: And it is impossible to keep the subtilest thread of iniquity concealed. When he came to judgment against Egypt, and sent his Angel to kill their first-born, yet at midnight he knew which was an Egyptian, and which was an Israelite: so though we carry our sins with a demure countenance, and smooth it with subtle hypocrisy, yet his knowledge shineth in the darkness of our hearts as if it were light; and he can distinguish between our inward affections, our thoughts, our fancies, our sighs and yearnings, that this is an Israelite born of the will of God, and this an Egyptian born of the will of flesh. Laban could not find his Idols, because Rachael had laid them privily in her stuff; but the Lord can detect that Idolatry which we keep close in our hearts. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says the Grammarian, the Greeks denominate God from penetrating all things with his eye: and when Christ could see into the profoundness of Nathanaels thoughts, behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile, Nathanael instantly confessed, Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Alas, that we go on still in darkness, and do not understand! are you in your wits that think iniquity is farther from judgment, because it is farther from appearance? do you forget the discovery of Achan's wedge, and Gehazi 's bribery? do you not recall how the Priests of Bel were detected for gluttons and impostors, creeping in at secret doors to gurmandize the junkets prepared for the Idol? deal squarely and without dissimulation; for you think it is night and no man sees, but the glory of the Lord is round about you.

Fifthly, No sooner was the world blest with the Birth of this holy Child, God and Man, but the Angels put on white apparel, the air grows clear and bright, darkness is dispel'd; therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and walk as children of the light: the earth should be more innocently walked on too and fro, because Christ hath trod upon it; our bodies kept clean in chastity, because he hath assumed our nature and blest it. God's word should be heard more respectfully because he hath preached it: finally our conversation should be honest as in the day, because the day-spring from on high hath visited us. Wicked men are groping like the Sodomites to find out mischief, though God have hid it out of the way. The Saints and Angels are in a state of light, wherein they know as they are known, perfectly partaking of the beatifical vision; between these two there is a middle condition of godly men who see into the way of righteousness, though it be darkly as in a glass; but they that dress them by a glass can discern how to mend anything that mis-becomes them; So the Gospel of Grace is a mirror of the light of Glory; it is not the fault of the Gospel, but of our own darkness, if we learn not of it to put on the true wedding garment. The Apostle calls it the putting on of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ubi animus tenebrescere tentationum caligine coeperit, ad lucem gratiae reformatur. When the conscience is overcast with the darkness of temptation, it flies to the looking-glass of Grace, and reforms itself by looking into it: This is to vindicate ourselves from the powers of darkness, and to walk decently as in the day. Works of lewdness come from the darkness of our understanding, they love to be done in privacy and not before the eyes of men: abjiciamus, says St. Paul, as if he would have you fling them away to the Devil, and bid him take his own. As a wise servant would not be found with folly in his hand, if he knew his Master were near: so because our salvation is come as this day in humility, and we know not how little he will defer to come in Majesty; therefore abjiciamus, throw away his filthiness from you, lest Christ should come and find profanation in your mouth, oppression in your purse, false tinctures of art and pride in your face, and disobedience in your heart. Every child of light will have his lamp burning in his hand, and by this he will know you whether you be his Disciple, if you speak the truth and come to the light; as if the glory of the Lord were round about you.

Lastly, A glimpse of some celestial light did sparkle at his Birth to set our teeth on edge to enjoy him who is light of lights, very God of very God, and to dwell with him in that City which hath no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon, to shine in it; for the Glory of God did enlighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. I conclude with St. Paul, Col. 1.12. Let us give thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son. Amen.

THE FOURTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.

T Hat which is every man's salutation, wherewith he greets his neighbor at this time of the year, is the subject of my Text, a merry Christmas; it is it which we wish one to another among our friends and familiers, and it is it which the Angel in my Text wisheth to all kindreds of the world, as if we were all become his friends and familiers, good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. And surely were it not that the Birth of Jesus made us merry at this season, and put gladness into our hearts, all the year beside would be louring and lumpish, without all manner of consolation, Until God sent forth his Son made of a woman we might not receive the adoption of Sons: Without adoption we had no part in the inheritance, without hope of the inheritance what comfort could the children have? we had been all like Esau afflicted, and desperate when we had no share in the birth-right, no part in the blessing of our Father. The Israelites that toil'd like Gally-slaves under the works of the Law, had their New Moons, and their Solemn Feasts of Trumpets, and Tabernacles, had many other gaudy days, which carried a show of gladness, but indeed there was no solid consolation in them; they wanted a Christmas-day, the Nativity of a Savior to make all cheerful: their pleasantness was like the singing of a bird fast locked in a cage, sometimes it chants a sweet note, yet flutters, and is always unquiet, because it is under captivity. Therefore it is to them that Amos denounceth that heavy note, chap. 8.10. The Lord will turn your feasts into mourning: but for our sakes the message is transpos'd, and the Lord will turn our mourning into an everlasting feast. So said the Angel, not only to a few Shepherds, as in the former verse, but to all that watch over their souls, as they did over their flocks, Fear not, &c.

It is very manifest therefore that the scope of my Text bends to this point, how Christ made flesh as this day in the similitude of man, that he might redeem that nature from the curse of his Fathers wrath, which he had taken into the union of his Person, I say, how the Son of God for our sakes incarnate is our crown, and our rejoicing, the consummation of all our felicity, which thus I prove by a true division of the parts. To that eternal happiness, in which we shall rejoice before God forever, two things, say the Schoolmen very rightly, do equally concur; Omnis miseria excluditur; omne desiderium expletur, all misery shall be excluded, all desire shall be satiated, and both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical congratulation. First, the depulsion, or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate, fear not. Secondly, the inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be asked, that's laid open in Evangelizo; good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Privatively the messenger brought no discomfort; nay, positively he brought comfort, which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude.

In the first general branch wherein the Angel promiseth a deliverance, or award from all evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful, I consider these particulars for the explication, 1. What they should not fear. 2. How they should not fear. 3. Why they should not fear: in the first they are incourag'd that three things be not dreadful unto them, Splendor Angelicus, propria indignitas, legis maledictio, tremble not either at the heavenly glory that shone round about them, nor be dejected at their unworthiness, nor be affrighted at the threatenings and maledictions of the Law. In the second we may consider a natural fear which may be too passionate, and immoderate, they must cast off that; and there is a worldly sorrow or fear which is altogether unprofitable, they must fly that; but there is a religious reverential fear, which is not passio, but donum; not a passion of flesh and blood, but a gift of the Holy Spirit: they must pray for that. The next interrogatory was, why they should not fear? and that for two reasons; Propter nuntium, propter nuntiatum, first in a less principal respect, because an Angel came to comfort them; but chiefly in a more principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. The second general branch abounds much above this, where not only evil is dispel'd, but a whole box broken, and all the oil of gladness poured upon their head: wherein you may note, first the Angels Trumpet, with which he proclaims his errand, ecce behold it; then the errand consisting in no less than seven parts of Benediction. 1. Ecce ego, says Gabriel, Behold I bring unto you, the terms were much amended with Heaven and us, that an Angel came upon a peaceable message. 2. Ecce Evangelizo, he was no Law-giver that was terrible, but an Evangelist. 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings, to take up the Cross, and endure unto blood, and death, but these were tidings of joy. 4. Joys are of several sizes, this is a great one, nay, none so great. 5. Joys and great ones are quickly done, this is gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be and continue. 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others, and have no benefit himself; this is gaudium vobis, joy to you, to every ear that hears it. 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing, but desires to have it diffused, and so was this, gaudium omni populo, joy to all people. None of these many circumstances can be omitted, for I must be faithful in making this rehearsal Sermon, as I may call it, and omit nothing of that which the Angel hath preached before me.

Now let us begin again with every parcel divided asunder. The Angel said unto them fear not; what should they not fear? first, non a splendore divino, let not their hearts be troubled because the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Sore eyes are distempered at much light, and it is a sign there is some darkness within us all, which loves not to be discovered; that the best of us all are much perplexed if any extraordinary brightness flash upon us. A glorious splendor filled the mountain where Christ was transfigur'd, and it did amuse Peter, James, and John, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , who carry the name of the chief Apostles, that they knew not what they spake. Out of St. Paul's own mouth concerning his conversion, Acts 22.6. Suddenly from heaven there shone a great light about me, and I fell with my face unto the ground. Well might the Psalmist say, his lightnings gave shine unto the world, the earth trembled, and was afraid. Ever ever shall we be afraid of any surpassing measure of light in this life, because our deeds are darkness. Especially the Shepherds hearts did mis-give them that the Lord himself was in this marvelous light, it is his decking, and his garment when he comes forth in Majesty, Thou deckest thyself with light as with a garment. Now you know Elias, a man of mighty courage, covered his face with a mantle, when a still small voice passed by his ears, and the Lord was in the voice; then it were strange if poor Shepherds should not quake, when they were persuaded that the Lord was in the light that shined upon them. A learned Expositor confirms what I say, Erat claritas creata praeseferens divinam Majestatem, it was a splendor of glory newly made on purpose, which did bear the evident show of no created Spirit, but of a Divine Majesty. And ever since Adam was diffident of himself in the Garden or Eden, and confessed in this wise, Gen. 3.10. extimui, I was afraid and hid myself, ever since that hour the heart of man is cast down, and presageth some evil to come, when God and his Angels appear, though they entreat us peaceably. The main reason is this, Ne dignam suis meritis accipiant retributionem, our own sins rise up against us, as unanswerable accusers, and we ominate and conjecture that God appears for nothing, but to judge and condemn us. When God and his Angels presented themselves to Jacob in a dream, he breaks out into these words, Gen. 28.27. How dreadful is this place! this is no other but the gate of heaven: Peace Jacob, why doest thou not cry out, how comfortable is this place! this is no other but the gate of Heaven; but it's certain that the very comfort of heaven was dreadful, and unpleasant to men in the Old Testament: and our nature is still corrupted, the vessel is still unclean that receives these blessings, and therefore we are afraid of the great mercies of the Lord, as well as of the great punishments.

Alas, O Lord, for I have seen an Angel of the Lord face to face, says Gideon, and yet for all that fear, Gideon is named a mighty man of valor. Manoah the sire of that race from which Sampson came, the very name of valor; yet he said to his Wife, We shall surely die because we have seen the Lord. The charitable widow of Sarepta was no less afraid of Elias an extraordinary Prophet, Art thou come to slay my son and to call my sins to remembrance? finally Peter drawing a miraculous draught of fish into the Ship as Christ bad him cast out the net, thought of nothing but his own sins, and God's vengeance, Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. But here's a messenger in my Text that bids the Shepherds cashiere all these affrightments, neither to be dismayed at the light that shined about them, nor yet that God was in the glory of that light. First, Not to be troubled at the light, for it was to make this doctrine manifest, as if it had been written with a beam of the Sun, that Christ is the true light which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world: And why, says Bernard, did God ordain that light should be instead of John the Baptist, to usher Christ into the world when he was born? but because he would illuminate him without, Qui interioribus ignorantiae tenebris obducitur, who was overcast with darkness within. In him was life, and that life was the light of men, John 1.4, Quae necdum infundi poterat, at divina saltem circumfunditur claritas, as the light was but spread about their bodies here, so it was a sign, that if they would believe in him that was come to be the Messias, and to save them from their sins, their whole bodies should be transformed into bodies of light hereafter in the Kingdom of Heaven: And as every living thing rejoiceth when the night is past, and the Sun appears upon the earth, so they and we have cause to rejoice that the night of Ceremonies passed away, and the clear evidence of truth did shine abroad, Unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, Mal. 4.2. Therefore according to Bernard's elegancy this is the Angels fear not drawn out at large: timetis phantasma; en adest veritas. You are afraid of some spectrum or vision, fear not, behold we come with the evidence of truth. You suspect this is the lightning that goes before a thunder-clap: No, no, it betokens there is a light risen into the world, which is the comfortable light of men: You suspect death, but I annuntiate life: You fear the gates of Hell, but the Heavens are opened and God is come down among you: You conjecture some perdition, but behold I preach a Savior, that shall save you from your sins. This is the meaning of the light, which did dance at Midnight about the air, when Jesus was born, and the Angel said to them that trembled at the Vision, fear it not.

But what if God himself were in that light? What if it were a fiery Apparition darted from the presence of his Majesty? Why yet Nolite timere, Fear it not. Once it pleased our heavenly Father to keep a distance with man upon these terms, no man hath seen God at any time, and lived. Now the day is come when you shall see he communicates himself more friendly to dust and ashes; so St. John begins his Epistle, That which was from the beginning, yet we have seen it with our eyes, we have looked upon it, and our hands have handled the Word of life. It is not from henceforth, since Christ was born, as it was with the Bethshemites that looked into the Ark, which represented the glory of God, and died for it. Now no man hath so much cause to fear his indignation as he that shuns his presence, and fears lest the Lord should appear before him. How did St. Stephen exult when he saw the heavens opened, and Christ Jesus standing at the right hand of God? Do you think the Martyr was amazed to see the sight? No, my Beloved, ever since the Son of God vouchsafed to take flesh in the womb of Mary, it is not a sign of death to see any part of God's glory, but a good ominous presage of everlasting life. Therefore be it that God was in the light which shined about the Shepherds, yet all is well, says the Angel, Nolite timere, Fear it not.

Secondly, They must take courage, and not be troubled à propriâ indignitate, because of their own unworthiness. Indeed, what might they think within themselves that they were vouchsafed to hear the first Proclamation of this Blessed Nativity. To us these Congratulations? To us, poor Swains, this heavenly Embassage? To us miserable Shepherds these Tidings who are set with the Dogs of the Flock? Tell them to Caesar, or to Herod his Lieutenant, or to the chief Priest; Non nobis Domine, non nobis. We are most desertless Wretches, and why should God bestow such a royal favor upon us? Do you remember, Beloved, how Peter drew our Savior near unto him, by crying out, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, Luk. v. 8. The more he requested him to be gone, the more Christ did abide with Peter; so by how much the Shepherds did abase themselves before the Angel the more did the Angel raise them up, and bade them be encouraged to behold the Glory of God. He that did choose little Infants to be his first Martyrs, and ignorant Fishermen to be his first Apostles, and Mary Magdalene a woman, and a sinner, to be the first Witness of his Resurrection, it may appear that his grace is manifestly toward them who have a quick feeling of their own indignity. The blessed Virgin, when she had conceived her Son, came to her Cosin Elizabeth, that God might prove her lowliness, and thus she expressed it; Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me? Luk. i, 43. Whether John the Baptist learnt this humble confession of his Mother Elizabeth, or whether the Mother spake it in the Spirit of her Son which was in her Womb I know not, but I am sure in the like phrase of speech John gave back when Christ came near unto him, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? Indeed, if none had adjoin'd themselves to our Savior's company, but such as had deserved it, they should have done like the Jews, Joh. viii. 9. all men convicted by their own conscience for their unworthiness should forsake him one by one, and leave Jesus alone.

See how God brings Light out of Darkness, the best encouragement of a dastard fearfulness; the comfort of these poor men was, that they saw nothing in themselves to comfort them; and their reward was great, because they knew they did not deserve it. We use to say, that no man is the nearer to death because he makes his Will, and bequeaths his body to the earth: So no man is the further from heaven because he doth heartily confess himself a miserable sinner, that deserves the condemnation of Hell-fire. If that will please the Lord, as sure it will, better than any burnt Sacrifice, who will not say, with David, Adhuc ero vilior, I will yet be more vile than thus, and I will be base in my own sight? This day is a very Catechism of humility, ask me any question about a lowly, and an humble mind, and I will show how this day shall answer it. Suppose it were demanded what is humility? I would say, a conformity to the likeness of Christ incarnate, Ut videret homo quem sequeretur, Deus factus est homo. Few ensamples of that virtue upon earth, therefore that man might see whom to follow, God was made man. But proceed we in Interrogatories; Is not perfect humility abhorrent from the Pomp of the World? Yes, so was our Savior, who was born without the Pride and Riches of Magnificence. Will it display itself in vain attire? No, he was wrapped in swaddling clouts. Is it t • be found ordinarily in stately Mansions, and Kings Houses? No, he was laid in a Manger. Doth it thirst after the applause of the World? No, upon his first manifestation he was made known to the meanest Shepherds in the field. Did he seek his own praise? No, the Carol of his Nativity was, Glory be to God on high. Did he molest and trouble others? Was he disdainful, as proud men use to be? No, the other part of the ditty speaks him otherwise: Peace on earth, and good will towards men. May a mirable abject Wretch dare to encounter his dreadful Messengers? Yes, with a gladsome courage, it will be an advantage to their lowly mind, that they are guilty of their own indignity, Nolite timere, fear it not.

The third thing which makes every joint of an humble sinner to quake, is Legis maledictio, the Curse of the Law, and unless that be stricken off we shall fear, though all the Angels of Heaven sang Hallelujah, and bade us be cheerful; but this is the greatest piece of alacrity which the birth of Jesus brings with it, that it bids us not to fear the Curse of the Law. With this parcel of comfort St. Paul supplies that which is strictly wound up in the Angels Message. God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, Gal. iv. 5. Yet in a more emphatical Phrase, Gal. iii. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law, being made a Curse for us. First, St. Jerome observes upon it he was factus non natus, not born, but made a Curse. For two things are to be considered in the Manhood of Christ: Both that he was an immaculate Lamb full of grace and truth; and so he was born in the blessing and favor of his Father, This is my well beloved Son in whom I am well pleased, Mat. iii. And also that he took our person, and our guilt upon him, and so the maledictions due to all Mankind were translated upon him. This was the Scape-goat, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that carried away the malediction of our sins into the Wilderness, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. 2. He was not made maledictus, but maledictum, not accursed, but a curse for us. Some expound it by an Hyperbole, that he took upon him maledictionis cumulum, the whole mass of accursedness; but I like it better to be interpreted a Metonymy, semblably to that Text, 2 Cor. v. 21. God made him, that is his Son, to be sin for us, Peccatum non peccatorem, not a sinner, but a Sacrifice for sin; so he was not accursed, but for our sakes made a Sacrifice of malediction. 3. It is remarkable that it is said, Factus est maledictio pro nobis, not nobiscum. It is one thing to be a debtor for debtors, another thing to be a debtor with debtors. No part of his own debt was in the debt which he paid, but it was for us men, and for our salvation. O miserable condition of mankind, but for this most merciful ransom! As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse, and as many as break the Law are under the Curse. How could we be exempted, I do not say from common, but even from desperate fear, unless the Angel had said, Fear not, here is a Propitiation for your sins.

Will you please to attend how Christ was made somewhat for our sakes very differently four manner of ways: 1. Factus est aliquid pro nobis & nobiscum. He was made somewhat for us, and with us also: So this day he was made man for our sakes, and we are also men as he was; the Children have partaked of flesh and blood. 2. Factus est aliquid pro nobis non nobiscum. He was made somewhat for us, but not like as we are; he was made sin for our sakes, but not sinful as we are; him that knew no sin, God made sin for our sakes. 3. Factus est pro nobis, non quod sumus, sed esse debemus. He was that for us which we cannot be now, but that which we shall be hereafter: For us he rose from the dead, ascended up to Heaven, is glorified with Angels, was made obedient to his Father in all things, and we have confidence in Christ that such we shall be; these things he was made that we might be the righteousness of God in him. 4. Factus est pro nobis, quod, nunquam erimus. He was made that for us, which is proper to his own Royalty, and which we shall never be. So he was made our High Priest, our Mediator, our Redeemer, our Sacrifice to make atonement for our sins: but factus pro nobis, that he was made for us is the base and ground of all; there began the death of sin by the life of Christ, and so forth we go on with cheerfulness to abandon fear. The Fathers note it in the Cratch of the Manger where he was laid, a place made unclean with the dung of beasts, but ipsa stercora mundefecit. As his presence did purify the room, albeit the filthiness of the dung; so his Nativity hath cleansed as many as believed in him, albeit the loathsomeness of their iniquities. I have but one thing to say more to this point, noted (as I remember by Gregory ) out of the Genealogy of his birth, Mat. i. thrice fourteen Generations are reckoned up, and but four women incidentarily put into the Catalogue. Judah begat Pharez, of Tamar, Salmon begat Booz of Rahab, and Booz, begat Obed of Ruth, and David begat Solomon of her that had been the Wife of Uriah. No women cited in the Chapter but these four, three of which had been unchaste ones, very Strumpets; to cheer up the penitent sinner, that their sins, and his, and the sins of all that believe are done away by him, by him that is above all names, the Son of God, who came into the world to purge us of our filthiness; therefore the true mirth of Christmas is to say with David, Psal. xxiii. 4. Though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for thou art with me to save me from destruction.

Thus far I have enlarged the Angels comfortable Preface to the Shepherds, Fear not, that they should not be dismayed either at the light of glory which shined about them, or at their own unworthiness, which was a darkness within them, or at the malediction of the Law which pleaded condemnation against them, for the Birth of Christ, as I have shown, was a remedy to take all malignity from them. Perchance if the Angel should come amongst us in these days of slumber, and security, he might spare that part of his Message. For where's the man that humbles himself as he ought, as if there were any evil to come? We are all confident, and void enough from fear, if that be good. Therefore I come now to lay the second part of my Text to the former, how we should not be afraid, not with an immoderate fear, not with a desperate damning fear, which dogs a sullen unrepentant sinner up and down, but there is a pious reverential fear, which well becomes the Saints, and now I proceed to speak of those particulars.

The Schoolmen very rightly consider fear two ways, Quà donum, quà passio, gift of the good Spirit of God one way, and another way as it is merely a natural passion. And first I will speak of it, as it is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Primus in orbe Deos fecit timor, says Statius not so soundly, that fear was the first thing in the world that made a God. But I am sure that want of filial and awful fear is the first thing that will make an Atheist, and persuade a man there is no God. The Prophet Isaiah could say no worse of the Idols made of stocks and stones, but that we should not be dismayed at their Godship, they could neither do good nor hurt. But if we will revereri we must vereri, there can be no true worship of God without a solicitous, and most anxious care not to displease his Majesty. He that is not conscientiously afraid to offend, doth most of all offend. When Zacharias' mouth was opened, and began to divine of this day, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited his people, fear fell upon all that were round about him, Luke i. 65. it fell upon them indeed, even as the Holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles at Whitsuntide, Acts ii. In like manner when the Widows Son of Naim was raised from the dead by the word which Christ spake, Fear came upon all that were there, and they glorified God, Luke xvii. 16. Surely they had not glorified God as they ought if that fear had not come upon them. One instance more, 1 Kings iii. 28. All Israel feared Solomon when they saw the judgment of God was in him: And shall not all the World bow down with reverence and astonishment when they know that the power of all judgment is in God himself? But as for this filial devout fear perhaps we love to hear of it, for the Angels themselves cover their faces with their wings standing before the throne of the most high, Isa. vi. as if the Majesty of God were awful and dreadful unto them. And indeed a sollicitousness to do the will of God because he is good and gracious, the study of the heart which is wary and circumspect not to decline from his Law, if you will call this fillial fear, it may become an Angel, for David speaks of it as if it should endure in heaven, Psal. xix. 9. The fear of the Lord is clean, and endureth forever. This is it to whose perfection we must aspire, to live justly and soberly, though there were no Hell at all, but purely out of the principle of love and zeal to the honor of our heavenly Father; and what a becoming thing it is unto Religion to approach to divine Prayers, especially to the Table of the Lord with an awful duty, as if we were afraid to speak to God, or to touch the crumbs of his heavenly banquet? Is not this better than to thrust ourselves into such coelestial actions with a saucy familiarity, without fear or wit? What is more comfortable than to taste of that Cup which betokens the precious blood that was shed for our sins? And yet the Greek Fathers term it usually 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , tremendum mysterium, a mystery to be trembled at when we partake thereof. Assuredly we may presuppose, that when Mary took the clouts into her hand to wrap about her Infant, when Joseph did assist as it were in the office of a Father, when the Wisemen offered their gifts, when the Shepherds came out of the fields into Bethlehem, and peept in where Christ was laid to see what was done, every action of theirs was mixed with reverent fear and joy, they stood amazed, they prostrated themselves, there was no more spirit left in them, as it is said of the Queen of Sheba when she beheld the royalty of Solomon: therefore the Angel forbids not but after this sort they should dread the Lord, with a filial and reverential fear.

Nay, I go further, the Angel would not disapprove of that fear which trembles at the wrath to come, and endeavors to live unblameable because God is an avenger of unrighteousness; for to discredit this fear by calling it fervile, and to dehort Christians from it, against which stone some I know do stumble, it shall not be my Doctrine, I hold it not safe and warrantable. If they take fervile fear in that notion in which the Sententiaries do take Attrition, that is, to be displeased at our sins only because judgment will follow, but neither sorrowing that God is dishonored, nor declining bad occasions, nor intending renovation of life; this hath not a grudging of true Religion in it, it is no more than the trembling of an unregenerate man's conscience, who hath not tasted of the heavenly gift. But if you say that man hath a servile fear who dares not but do his Masters will lest he be beaten with many stripes, be not ashamed of this fear. Our Savior goes it over and over, and commends it again and again, Luke xii. 4. Fear him which hath power to cast into Hell, yea, I say unto you fear him. The fear of the Lord, says the Wiseman, is the beginning of wisdom. How is it the beginning? Why Faith is the first cause of Religion, and fear is the first effect; as the foundation is the beginning or an house, so after true conversion it begins to go on from virtue to virtue, and this is the first ground work that it lays, Stand in awe, and sin not Psal. iv. It is such a beginning that I will say this, it is impossible to come to a true consolation in Christ without it. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Psal. ii. 11. Timor Domini est fidei fundamentum, & firmamentum, says St. Cyprian, Faith, which includes our hope in Christ, had no firmness, nor sure footing, but that it knows in itself it fears the Lord, Love fell asleep with her beloved in her arms, Cant. iii.i. And her beloved was gone in the mean time; So if their be not a mixture of fear with our love, it falleth asleep, it waxeth secure, and loseth her Beloved. If the comfort of our joy be not allayed with some fear 'tis madness and presumption. Again, if our fear be not intermixt with the comfort of some joy 'tis sullenness and desperation. As the Earth cannot be without Summer and Winter to make it fruitful, the pleasure of the one, and the austerity of the other make up the revolution of a good year, so Faith is the Parent both of a cloudy fear, and a smiling hope: Faith begets fear in us in regard of our own weakness, and hope in regard of the goodness of God; hope ariseth out of the faith of the Gospel, and fear out of the faith of the Law. These cannot be parted.

Indeed, servile fear is an unpleasing word because it grates our memory with this remembrance that our nature is in bondage, and that we are Thralls and Captives to death and punishment; and therefore the words of Aquinas are very weighty, Timor servilis bonus est, sed servilitas ejus est mala; That bondage which makes us liable to judgment is naught; but the fear which issues from a conscientiousness of that bondage flying to God that it may fly from judgment is holy and good Briefly, let them thus be compared together; a filial fear, which loves God for his own goodness, is like a bright day which hath not a cloud to disfigure it: A servile fear, that dreads God because it dreads the wrath to come, is like a day that is overcast with clouds, but it is clearer than the fairest moon-shine night. It is good to have the spirit of Adoption, but it is better to have the spirit of bondage than the spirit of slumber; it is good to be in Canaan, but it is better to be in the Wilderness than in Egypt; it is good to be a Child, but it is better to be a servant than a stranger to the Lord. David most sweetly puts them together, Psal. xxxiii. Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, and that put their trust in his mercy. So I conclude this Point, that the Angels Nolite timere, fear not, doth neither cry down filial fear, which is the modest bashfulness, nor yet servile fear which is the sharp spur of true Religion.

Hitherto we have spoken of fear quà donum, as it is a gift of the holy Spirit. Now, that I may make my discourse complete, I must speak of it, quà passio, as it is a sensitive passion, and so when it is moderate, it is tolerable; when it exceeds, and will not hearken to the governance of reason, it is condemnable. I will speak but a few words of the first. Nature is excusable when it shrinks from those things that would offend it, and desires to save it from harm by fair and direct means, for in such a case our conscience pleads that there is a reasonable cause and occasion. These are Aristotle's words upon the Point, that a man were stupid, or mad, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . That it is neither dismayed at violent tempests on the Sea, nor at earthquakes on firm Land, like the fool-hardy and confident Celts in Scythia: But the day doth admonish me to take my instances from our blessed Savior, and so I can, no example so fit for Allegation. For why did Christ and his Mother fly into Egypt soon after he was born, when Herod was in a fuming chase? Why did the Angel admonish Joseph to do so in a dream? The Lord could have saved him, as he did Elisha the Prophet in the midst of his enemies, whose eyes he blinded, that they could not see him. And again, says the Text, when he returned out of Egypt he went aside to dwell in the Coasts of Galilee, for fear of Archilaus that reigned in Judea in his Father Herod 's stead. Great caution as might be, and yet all this needed not, but because our Savior would allow a circumspect fear in time of persecution to shift for life. Moreover, you must not think that Christ did fear as we do, will nill we, upon the compulsion of necessity, for he had all passions, and human infirmities under subjection, so that he could be cast into no consternation but when his own will did consent and accord unto it, yet he chose a fit time to cast himself into a great agony of fear, when he sweat drops of blood in the Garden, lest we should think it a sin at all times to be afraid upon just occasion.

This then is another fear which belongs to our allowance, but there is a fear which hath a Nolite set before it, an immoderate horror of heart, a symptom of desperation, or at least of infidelity and diffidence; this is that quivering with which God strikes his enemies, as a tree is shaken by the wind to unfasten it from the root. That mark which he set upon Cain was a continual trembling at the sight of man and beast. Pharaoh was never at rest in his mind lest the Children of Israel should grow too fast, and multiply so much that they would be too potent for the Tyrant that oppressed them. He sent darkness to astonish the Egyptians, and they were troubled with strange Apparitions, Wisd. xvii. 3. He sent such a Panick fear among the Syrians, that they verily believed they heard the noise of an Host, and Chariot wheels, when there was no such thing, so they fled, and left to besiege Samaria. The fear of the wicked it shall come upon him, says Solomon, Prov. x. 14. The Jews were very scrupulous with Christ's Doctrine lest the Romans should come and take away their Nation; in conclusion the Romans did come and lead them away in captivity. Timuerunt Judei perdere terram, & perdiderunt coelum, says St. Austin, Cowards as they were, they were so fearful that they might not lose their possession upon earth that they lost their possession both in earth and heaven. But I come to take the instance of the Day into this Doctrine. How foolishly, how rashly was Herod troubled, because such Miracles concur'd at the birth of Christ, lest his Kingdom should be translated from him? And Eusebius makes Domitian the Emperor to concur with Herod in this Point; for hearing much talk of the Savior, and deliverer of those that put their trust in him, he was afraid lest the Christians had a King in store to depose him; but afterwards desisted from his persecution, being certified, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that his Kingdom was not of this world, but an heavenly, and Angelical. Nothing, you see, is comfortable to them that have not the true comforter, the holy Spirit in their soul.

I have given myself large scope to run into this Point that I might join some Use for your instruction with the celebration of the Day. And now I will sum it up when I have discussed one thing how we may know a godly fear, which the Angel would allow, from a tyrannous molesting fear which He would inhibit. And this we must inquire into à posteriori, by the several effects on this wise according to Aquinas, Vel propter mala quae timet ad Deum accedit, vel propter mala quae timet à Deo recedit. Either for fear of some loss or harm it approacheth unto God, and that's a religious fear; or else for fear of some harm it forgets God, and departeth from him, and that's a criminous and a sinful fear. The Devils fear and tremble, says St. James, but they are never the nearer to be good. Diabolus habet timorem affligentem, non à penâ cohibentem. Satan feels some horror that gnaws and torments him, but he feels not the blessing of that fear which should discipline him from sin, and amend him. I will give another difference of this fear according to the gestures of men as they were good or bad. Abraham fell forward on his face when the Lord spake unto him; in all probability so did St. Paul, when at his Conversion the light from heaven did shine about, so that he and all that were with him fell flat to the ground, and were sore afraid. These in their fear fell towards God, and towards the throne of his footstool: But those ungracious servants of the High Priests that came to lay hold of our Savior, and to bind him, as soon as Christ had said unto them, Whom seek ye? I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; as old Eli trembled when he heard the Ark was taken, and fell backward from his Seat upon the ground, and brake his neck. This is a naughty fear which recoils from God, and runs back from his Commandments. Now in the close of this Doctrine: I know every man will desire to know what manner of fear this was which the Angel did repel in the Shepherds; I answer, that in all probability it was mixed of good and bad. There was both an affection of reverence in it to the glory of God which shined in the light which was round about them; and an immoderate passion of human frailty, which did indispose them to receive any tidings from heaven. No face can be seen in a troubled water; and no message can arrive intelligently at his ear who is perplexed with trembling and astonishment; therefore to quiet their mind, that the Word of grace might receive the fairer impression, the Angel said unto them fear not. Which is the period of my second observation, how they should, and how they should not fear.

The third interrogatory, which is all I will dispatch at this time, is a question that comes nearer to them, why they should not fear, and that for two reasons, Propter nuntium, propter nunciatum. First, in a less principal respect, because an Angel came to comfort them, but chiefly in a more principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. A good messenger is a good medicine, says Solomon, Prov. xiii. 17. and the condition of this messenger is very comfortable like a lenitive medicine; his congratulation runs, as if he had said, fear not me, as if I were that Cherubin who was appointed to stand at the entrance of the Garden to keep you from the Tree of Life; no, I am sent to prepare his way who is born of a Virgin this day to bring you into Paradise. I have said it, be not afraid, for I am one that stand always before the face of your father which is in heaven, I know that his thoughts are full of mercy and compassion towards you. Moses and the Prophets spake concerning Christ to come, that he should deliver his people from their sins; but they were sinners themselves, which had utterly disabled their testimony but that they were inspired from God. The Law will reclaim that the same man should be testis, and reus, the person impleaded for guilty, and yet a witness in the fact; therefore an Angel who was guilty of no disobedience, of no breach against the Law, his testimony was unsuspected to testify the birth of a Savior. Not as if such as they be were stipulatores, sureties unto men for the Promises of God, for because the Lord can swear by none greater he swore by himself, and because he can promise by none greater, he promiseth by himself. It is not for man's sake, or for an Angels sake, but for his own truth and mercy sake that we believe Jesus was born in the similitude of man to be Mediator between God and man; and since the Son of God hath come among us in the flesh we may reply unto this heavenly Messenger, as the Samaritans did to the woman that drew water for Christ, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.

But you will object, what trust is there in any Creature, be he never so glorious, that he can promise comfort, and say we should not fear? Why, Beloved, we must not set light, or despise their help that God hath set to be our Guardians and Defenders, to pitch their Pavilions round about us. The Prince of the air and his evil Spirits are never wanting to entrap us. But what said Elisha to his Servant in the mountain, when Chariots of horsemen and heavenly succors do present themselves before him, Plures nobiscum, there are more that be with us than against us; Our friends do exceed the number of our enemies, therefore we may be courageous. Besides, the name of Gabriel, supposed to be that Messenger that came to the Shepherds, his name by interpretation is Fortitudo Domini, the strength of God, as if he were a great Bulwark on our side, Quoniam bellum indictum est Daemonibus, upon Christmas day began open hostility against the Devil, therefore it is a good Omen, a blessed presage, that the trumpet of Gabriel blew these tidings abroad, who is fortitudo Domini, a valiant Prince, such a one as Michael was, that conquered the Dragon; as his name is, so is himself the strength of God. Finally, we may be sure that what he said to encourage us was solid comfort without flattery, no false alarm, no smoother of sweet words where there is no cause; for there are Mountebanks in Divinity, that will promise many sorts of remedies to a sin-sick soul where there is none at all; As Jeremy describes those false blandishing Prophets, They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying peace peace, when there is no peace. Slightly, or verbis leviculis, says Vatablus, with gibing frumps, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 read the Septuagint, scornful, despising them, whom they seduced with lying hopes. Periculosiora sunt animae secura, quàm corpori adversa, says St. Austin; security is more perilous to the soul than affliction to the body. But such messengers, as my Text speaks of, cannot publish a falsehood, because they are ever enlightened with the spirit of truth; we may build upon a rock of confidence if they say Nolite timere, fear not.

One touch more and this Point is done: You hear that the Tongues of Angels are cheerful, comfortable Tongues, their tidings are no flattery, yet they are words of mirth and gladness. Then it were good me thinks that discretion, and the consideration of Christ's merciful Gospel did mitigate their zeal, who think they are bound to thunder nothing so much to the people as fears, and terrors, like the writer of Iambiques that spote anger and poison to put Archilochus into desperation. Let Vices be threatened, but let the hope that accompanies true repentance go together; Let Judgment be put home to the obdurate conscience, but let Mercy be an Advocate for the broken in heart: Let the strictness of Law and the Curse thereof fetch a tear from our eyes; but let the ransom of our sins be set before us, and that Christ will wipe all tears from our eyes. St. Paul wisht himself at Corinth, not to affright them, but to rejoice with the Brethren; as it was said of the mild nature of the Emperor Vespasian, Neminem unquam dimisit tristem; he never sent any man from him discontent, but gave him some comfort and satisfaction: So the Gospel is such a sweet demulcing Lesson, that if it be truly preached it must always revive the heart, it cannot leave a sting behind it; You see the Angel delights not to scare, but to comfort the Shepherds, Fear not.

I shall lead your patience no further than one thing more, why they should not fear, Propter nuntiatum, that's the most principal regard, because Christ was born to be their comfort. This is to be descanted at large hereafter upon the remainder of this Text, and for the present I will prevent what I shall say hereafter but with this one observation, that concerning all such as are terrified, and perplexed in mind, we can do no more than the Angel hath done, preach Christ unto them for their comfort; if the joy of his Nativity will not allay their disconsolate, melancholy desperation, then there is no Balm in Gilead to help them, that's all the infusion of solace which the Angel did pour into the world when it was cast down with sin. Poor soul, that art terrified with a condemning conscience, tell me to what end was Christ born but to seek and to save them that were lost? Was not he partaker of flesh and blood as thou art? And dost thou surmise that he made any for condemnation whose nature he took upon him, unless by their own infidelity they make themselves reprobates? Did he come among us to bring great joy unto all people? And wilt thou thrust thyself out of the number? Did not he weep in his Cratch that thou mightest sing in heaven? Did not he fly from Herod, that thou mightest fly from Satan? Was not he brought forth amongst us in great humility and misery, that thou mightest be translated out of misery into glory? Be not like Rachel that would not be comforted. Fear not little flock, it is your Fathers pleasure to give you a Kingdom. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that justifieth, who shall condemn us? It is Christ that was born, and died, and rose again to deliver us from all evil; it is he that was made man, that thou mightest be made a glorious Saint, a fellow Citizen with Angels. AMEN.

THE FIFTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.

I N the same Text where we ended the old year, let us begin the new, Jesus Christ last year, and this year, and the same forever. To speak of our Savior's Nativity, says Bernard, is as new at these days as it was in the first Twelfth-tide after he was born. Semper novum est quod semper innovat mentes, nec unquam vetus est quod fructificare non cessat. That's justly esteemed a new meditation which prepares us to newness of life; neither can we say a tree grows old by standing long in the soil, which fructifies continually as much as ever it did before. In the imagination of our Faith Christ seems to be offered up again so often as we remember his Death and Passion in the Sacrament: so he seems as verily to be born again so often as we do faithfully annuntiate his Incarnation. Once we have done that work already in the day itself; the time is not yet expired which belongs to that Solemnity: now we are come once more to the same business to dispatch it, that you may see the difference between the antiquation of the Old Law plucking out the sting of fear, and the publication of the new Covenant the Gospel which breaths unspeakable gladness. First, I have preached upon these words how we should purge out the old leaven of distrustful fear, now I come to show what it is to have a new heart created full of spiritual joy.

I observed unto you upon the whole verse, that as much might be said from hence to extol the benefit which we receive by Christ's Nativity, as is usually delivered to express that everlasting felicity which we shall enjoy with God in the highest Heavens, to that beatitude of the Saints, say the Schoolmen very rightly, two things must concur, Omnis miseria excluditur, omne desiderium expletur: All misery shall be excluded from our happy estate, and all our desires fulfilled. And both these two are most remarkable in this Angelical Congratulation: First, the depulsion or sending of all manner of evil and misery from our blessed estate in these words, The Angel said unto them, fear not. Secondly, The inclusion of all those joys and solaces that can be asked, that's laid open in Evangelizo, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Privatively the messenger cashier'd all discomfort, nay, positively he brought great comfort, which twain put together make up the complement of our final beatitude, and are both deduced from the blessing of the Incarnation of our Lord and Savior Christ. The first general branch wherein the Angel promised a deliverance, or award from all manner of evil that might make the Shepherds sorrowful, I have done with that, and there I leave it. I come now to the second general branch which abounds much above the former, where not only evil is dispel'd, but a cheerful benediction succeeds in the place, Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Wherein that no title may be lost of such heavenly comfort, first, note the Angels Trumpet, with which he proclaims his errand, Ecce, behold. Secondly, the errand consisting in no less than seven branches of benediction. 1. Ecce ego, says the Angel, Behold I bring unto you; the terms were much amended between Heaven and us, that the Angel came unto us upon a peaceable message. 2. Ecce Evangelizo, he was no Lawgiver that was terrible, but an Evangelist. 3. The sweet air of the Gospel hath some harsh tidings, to take up the cross and endure unto blood, and death; but these were tidings of joy. 4. Joys are of several sizes, this is a great one, nay, none so great. 5. Joys, and great ones are quickly done; this is gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be, and continue. 6. A man may be a conduit-pipe to transmit joy to others, and have no benefit himself; this is gaudium vobis, joy to you, to every ear that hears it. 7. A good nature would not engross a blessing, but desires to have it diffused; and so was this, Gaudium omni populo, joy to all people. And of these severally as I have put them in a rank.

Before the Law was delivered at Mount Sinai, the voice of a Trumpet was heard in the Camp of Israel, which sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Exod. xix. 19. A Trumpet was a sign of hostility, and of warlike preparation. The Law indeed came like an enemy to condemn us, for we were not able to stand before it; but Christ, who was the end of the Law, made way to his own manifestation by the articulate voice of an Angel, as if it had been the voice of a man, to intimate that the Prince of Peace was approached near unto us, ecce, behold. Out of which word standing in this place I note three things, admiration, demonstration, and attention. 1. Ecce, see and admire this is the greatest wonder that ever was. Name anything unto me that ever was made, and I am confident to say this is stranger to man's apprehension than anything that ever was made, the Incarnation of the Son of God. If you love to cast your eyes upon that which is miraculous, look this way, and see the greatest miracle that ever was brought to light. In the beginning was the word, and no word can utter how it was made flesh in time. The eternal Creator was made man of the substance of a woman, and yet his hands did make and fashion the substance of his Mother. The word by which the world was made became an Infant in the cradle, and could not speak. He that bears up the pillars of the earth was born in the arms of Joseph, and carried into Egypt. The Infinite Majesty that hath made the bounds of heaven and earth, being himself without limits or circumscription was bound with swaddling clouts, and laid in a manger. It is not safe to proceed into many of these inquisitions, lest astonishment overwhelm us: St. Paul was wary, and came off thus from the wonderment thereof; Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh: as who should say, the Temple of Solomon had things of much secrecy within the Veil, the Ark, the Cherubims, the Propitiatory, the most Holy of Holies; the Church of the New Testament hath things as wonderful and mysterious as those, arcana fidei, recluse and admirable secrets of Faith, the manifestation of Christ in the form of man, Ipsi quoque Angelorum primati incognita, says Dionysius, the Primate of Angels in the triumphant Church is not able to sound the depth of it. So then you see this word is a preface to an extraordinary miracle, ecce, behold.

Secondly, To cry out unto the Shepherds, behold, is an Adverb of Demonstration; things hard by make us look towards them more than those that are further off; we sit still and muse upon that which we hope will come to pass, but when we hear the bridegroom coming then we busle and look out. The Prophet would not say barely, Thy King cometh, O Zion, but Ecce Rex tuus, behold thy King cometh. O what an alteration this was, when the invisible God came to an ocular demonstration; and though he be now ascended up to Heaven, yet he hath left his Spirit in our hearts, that we may say with the Apostle, Dominus prope est, the Lord is at hand. And though the senses of our body do not fix themselves upon him, yet Faith will perceive him strongly and certainly that he is truly present: Faith will assure itself how he stands at the door and knocks, and how it hears his voice. Furthermore let this demonstrative direction put you in mind to live so justly, and inoffensively as if you did always behold God in the flesh. Elias made the right use of this doctrine when he took an oath, Vivit Dominus in cujus conspectu • sto, as the Lord liveth in whose presence I stand. Well says Rubanus upon it, the just Prophet demeans himself as one that stands in God's presence in this life, and he shall surely keep his rank in the same place in the life to come. Ecce natus, says the Angel, Behold the tidings of a Savior, as if nothing else had been worth our consideration: and how many be there that demean themselves, as if they cared not whether they heed it or no.

But thirdly, Ecce, behold, it doth not beg, but command attention: when the Lord sends a messenger, is it not fit to note him diligently, and to ponder his sayings in your mind? Philo says that those two words of Moses, Deut. xxvii. 9. Take heed and hearken O Israel are the sum of all the precepts in the Law. Hearken O daughter and consider, incline thine ear, says David. What's this inclination of the ear? we cannot bow, or stir that part as we may the hand, and the knee, Aures hominum sunt immotae, ut sit velox ad audiendum, says one, the ears of man are not to be wagg'd and moved like the ears of a beast, to the end there may be no impediment in attention, but that he may be swift to hear. But he is said to incline his ear, who hath a submissive heart, and listens diligently to that which is spoken. If a frivolous tale, suppose the feigned pilgrimage of some Errant Knight be told us, every syllable shall be marked so heedily, that you will be able to repeat it, Conticuere omnes, intentique ora tenebant: But if God do send his servants to narrate his will and pleasure, how many disturbances shall they find in their relation of heavenly things? Sarah laughed at the Angel, Pharaoh chafed and interrupted Moses, the Jews mis-interpreted Christ himself, Gallio marks not a word that's said, Eutyches sleeps, the Athenians flout at Paul, and say what means this babbler; who will take the pains to tell a message anymore to him that will abuse it so neglectfully? and if God should take away the preaching of his word from this people, let them thank themselves who were so defective in all due and reverent attention. But, says John the Baptist, The Friend of the Bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegrooms voice, John iii. 29. And so much for this word behold, as it is a note of admiration, of demonstration, and lastly of attention. Behold I bring, &c.

Now the first of seven things which are remarkable in the message, is that which hath met us often before in all the Texts upon this Gospel, the consideration of the person, that the Angel is sent unto us upon a peaceable entreaty: Ecce ego, Behold I bring you good tidings. The children of men have so often provoked God to send Angels with a sword of vengeance to the earth, that no doubt Gabriel was pleased to bring a welcome message with him. A messenger cannot help it, if he come with sorrowful news; and yet for the most part men will be displeased at such a one, whose tongue doth bode discomfort and infelicity. Joab did tender the welfare of Ahimaaz the son of Zadok, when he would not let him be the first that should certify David how Absalom was dead; says he, Thou shalt bear tidings another day: but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the Kings Son is dead. Therefore if you mark it, Angels that came to inflict punishment, or to threaten some ensuing mischief, came single for the most part, or never above two at once; but to do a good office to men upon earth, to protect Elisha from the Aramites, to annuntiate that the Messias was come into the world they came by troops, and multitudes; no less in this chapter then a multitude of the heavenly host. There were three with Abraham in his tent to tell him that Isaac the son of promise should be born unto him of Sarah in their old age; and we cannot but take notice how one of the three vanished, and was gone when they went into Lot 's house, to warn him that Sodom should be destroyed with fire and brimstone. How far are they from this Angelical benevolence, that gird other men with the remembrance of their misfortunes, and insult over their miseries, as Shimei used David in his affliction? a curse will fall upon them that love to be instruments to undo men, rather than to raise them up; that delight in the crosses of their brother rather than in their consolation. Miserable comforters, as Job said of his Friends, that poured vinegar into his wounds to vex them, not to heal them.

But these holy ones that are sent from above delight to be the Ambassadors of joy; the first of them all that I read of in holy Scripture came to administer help, and succor to the distressed; and that was the Angel that came to Hagar to cheer up her drooping spirits, and to put her into the way of safety, when she and Ishmael the child were almost ready to perish. And now one of them comes in my Text with good news to show that a perfect friendship was made up between all parties, in this verse between Angels and Men; for Ego Evangelizo, I come to rejoice with you as a friend, I bring you good news. 2. A friendship between God and man; for a Savior is born unto you which is Christ the Lord. 3. Friendship and amity between man and man, between Kingdom and Kingdom, between one Nation and another people, at the 14. verse. On earth peace, and good will towards men. Yet when our sins cry out for vengeance this truce is broke of all sides. The sword of our enemies shall be unsheath'd, and all peace shall be dissolved between man and man: our Savior shall become our angry Judge, neither shall the blessing descend from God to Man. Lastly, the Angel shall draw his sword, and cause the pestilence to cut down thousands upon thousands; as the Mower shears down the grass of the field. I am sure the fury of such an angry Angel sticks still in our remembrance. Therefore let every man for his part keep fast the bond of his tripartite friendship, by sanctification and obedience; then the Angels will come unto us not in fury, but in mercy, saying, Ecce ego, &c.

I proceed to the next circumstance, Ecce Evangelizo, we render it to bring good tidings, but it is as if he had said, I come to be an Evangelist, I am no Law-giver whose voice was terrible, I am a messenger of a better Covenant, of the Gospel of Grace. At this Text, beloved, the Spirit of God doth enter the word Gospel, or Evangel, quite to alter the state of the Church from what it had been before. For the better understanding hereof, I pray you mark it attentively, in what manner God did dispence his will and pleasure to his Church from the beginning of the world to the end of all times. And for order sake I will reduce it all to three heads, to a Law which was given by God to Adam, to a Law which was given by Moses to Israel, and to these glad tidings, to wit the Gospel of the New Testament which was given by Christ to all Nations from one end of the earth to the other. 1. Now I buckle to the first of these, a Law was given by God to Adam. That Law was short and commandatory, fac, & vive, do this and live; therefore that is rightly called the Law of Works; but the Gospel says if thou believest thou shalt be saved: therefore that's called the Law of Faith. The same God was the author of both these; both were revealed to men, and to no other creature; both of them according as we perform them promise the same reward; both of them have the same end to make us magnify God for his Wisdom, Goodness, and Justice. Nay, I add, compare the Law of Works imposed upon Adam, and the Law of Faith imposed upon Christians; and both of them are possible to be done: For the first man according to the integrity wherein he was created, and by the virtue of supernatural Grace bestowed upon him, might have obeyed the Commandment given, if he had not turned to disobedience: and by the Divine help of the same grace, we, to whom God hath preached the glad tidings of his Son, are endued with power to believe that we may be saved. Now in a word let us lay the difference of these two one against another: God gave the Law in Paradise as a King in his Justice, but he gave the Gospel in Zion as a Father of Grace and Mercy; according to that Law the reward had been given ex debito, by debt, and due, say the Schoolmen; but to him that believes, the reward is given by mere Grace which excludes boasting. He that disobey'd that Law was to look for the most strict severity of Justice; so condemnation belongs likewise to the unbeliever according to Justice; but perhaps it shall be tempered with some moderation for Christ's sake. Finally, this is the main disagreement, the first Covenant made with Adam did exclude all hope of remission of sins; but the second Covenant made in Christ runs in this tenor to them that live by Faith: your sins shall be blotted out, and your iniquities forgotten.

After you have understood the first point, how there was a Law imposed upon Adam when he was created and endued with original Justice, you must now give ear to the next thing in order, what heavy and astonishing matter is contained in that Law which was given by Moses to the Children of Israel: and remember that I consider the Law delivered in the two Tables at Mount Sinai, Seorsim, and by itself, separated from all the promises contained in the Prophets, and in the Psalms of David. These then are the remarkable differences between the Covenant written in Tables of stone, and this Covenant of the New Testament in the Blood of Christ. First, God gave the Law at Sinai being wrath with our sins; for whereas we had lost both the wisdom of our understanding, and the loyal obedience of our will by the transgression of our first parent, yet God imposed his Commandment upon us, and exacts such measure of holiness which we are not able to perform: Therefore that Law was given in the barren Wilderness, because it is not able to bring one soul unto God; likewise it was delivered with signs full of wrath, thunder, and lightning, and a dreadful noise, to show that God was full of indignation when he laid it upon us. On the contrary, he made the new Covenant of peace being reconciled to them that were lost, or at least proffering reconciliation in his beloved Son. Read this Doctrine, Heb. xii. from the 18. to the 24. verse. Ye are not come to the Mount, that might not be touched, and that burnt with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words, which they that heard entreated they might hear it no more: They could not endure that which was commanded: And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake; but ye are come to Mount Zion, and to the City of the living God, &c. Wherefore the Gospel was presented with manifest tokens of love, and benevolence, Ecce Evangelizo, behold, I bring you good tidings. 2. There's a difference arising between the first Testament, and the last, from the several Mediators that came between God and the people. Moses was a servant, faithful in the Family, and he was the Mediator of the Old Testament; Christ is the Son and Heir of all, he was the Mediator of the New: The Law was given by Moses, Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. 3. The old Covenant was ratified with the blood of Beasts; but loe the New Covenant doth much surpass it, which was ratified with the precious Blood of that immaculate Lamb which took away the sins of the world, which is therefore called the Blood of the New Testament. 4. The old Law in St. Paul 's phrase contained poor and beggarly rudiments, not able to bring to life: It was a killing letter, the ministry of death and condemnation, it worketh wrath, it entered that sin might abound; it is like Hagar which gendereth children unto bondage, Gal. iv. 24. The Gospel is the power of salvation to everyone that believeth, a quickening Spirit; it purgeth us from our sins, it speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. 5. That which Moses brought was an heavy burden, which neither the Fathers nor the Children could bear: but of the Gospel Christ saith, his yoke is easy, and his burden is light, and in it you shall find rest for your souls. Lastly, the Old Testament endured unto Christ, and no longer; wherefore because it passed away it is called the Old: the New Testament remaineth forever; so says St. Paul of our Blessed Savior taking flesh, who is not made after the Law of a carnal Commandment, but after the power of an endless life. No passage or comparison can be made between them, but the Law given at Mount Sinai will appear to be an harsh, and most unwelcome injunction; and that which doth clear us from the curse thereof is Evangelium the best tidings that ever arrived at the ear of man.

Hitherto I have considered the Old Testament in no respect, but as it contains the killing letter of the Law; but you must not mistake that the Holy Spirit hath interlaced many fast-holdings of Faith, and promises Evangelical almost everywhere in the Prophets, and in the Psalms of David. Nay, the Old Testament is rather Promise than Law; yet it was fit the rigor of the Law should be repeated that it might more appear how necessary the promise of Grace was, that we could not live without it, and that every man being convicted in his conscience by the sentence of the Law, we might more ardently fly to Grace; for the end of the Moral Law is double, to set us a rule what we should endeavor to do, and to discover our own impotency unto us, what we are not able to do, that we may seek a remedy in the satisfaction of Christ. But this I say that the darkness and obscurity of the Old Testament was enlightened with many excellent promises, that the believing Israelites might be partakers of Faith, and of everlasting life; they had the same Gospel which we have, the same Christ, the same Faith, the same Spirit, sealing the truth of promise unto them. Where is then the privilege? you will say that the tidings are better to us, then unto them, or far surpassing on our side every way. Israel that believed in the promised seed was an heir, but under age, nothing different from a servant. The faithful since the coming of Christ are adulti heirs come to age, such, I may say, as have sued out their livery, past pupillage, past the pedagogy of Ceremonies; for the yoke of Ceremonies was most troublesome, that the coming of Christ which cancelled such things might the more be desired. Then they beheld a Messias in types, and shadows, now he is manifest in his own person; then Faith was obscurer, now it is more clear; then the Spirit was given scantily, now it is poured out in full abundance, Abundantia spiritus est elogium regni Christi: then the preaching of Faith was included in the Kingdom of Israel, now it is diffused throughout all the world. Mark it now I beseech you, how these three do differ. The Law did terrify and astonish, there were no good tidings in that. The promise of Grace and Mercy was an annuntiation of good news worth the hearing, and it was fit that a promise should go before, that the day of Christ might be longed for, and much desired before he came: yet this did cool the comfort that hope deferred doth afflict the soul. Wherefore when the desire of our eyes did come into the world, to satisfy the Law for us, and to satisfy he expectation of all promises, then it became Evangelium, good tidings, happy news; nothing shall be heard anymore to vex us, or to trouble us, unless for want of Faith we would vex ourselves.

And what ear will not listen to good tidings? when old Jacob heard that Joseph was living, his spirit revived, and Israel said it is enough, Joseph my son is yet alive. Joseph was advanced in Egypt by the wonderful providence of God, that he might receive his brethren in the great distress of famine: these were good tidings to Israel: but is it not much better to hear of this sound out of Ephratah, that Christ is come into the world to feed his brethren in the time of dearth with the bread of life? O quoties & quae nobis Galataea locuta est? as a passionate woer longs to hear of a sweet message from the party whom he loves, so the Spouse which is the Church rejoiceth to hear glad tidings from the Bridegroom, that so it might enjoy his presence here, that she might dwell with him hereafter forever. Calisthenes approached towards Alexander the Great portending much alacrity in his countenance; what says Alexander, An Homerus revixit iterum, are there any tidings to be brought which make you so merry unless Homer were alive again? all that he could pitch upon for good news was, if that divine Poet were alive again to record his story in a long lasting Poem. O how infinitely do these good tidings surpass that ambitious fancy! Christus natus est, a Savior is born to write our names forever in the book of life. St. Paul took out this lesson from hence, Quam speciosi pedes! Rom. x. 15. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of things! The Prophet Isaiah spoke of them that foretold of the delivery of Israel out of the Babylonish captivity: and if those messengers were welcome that uttered things concerning bodily felicity, much more shall their coming be acceptable, that solace the inward man, the heart and soul. Beauty is that which attracts affections to it, so the Apostles are said to be beautiful, because they drew the world unto them: and it was proper concerning them to say how beautiful are their feet, rather than their lips; for they did not rest in one place, but took the whole world for their circuit, from City to City; and because of their dangerous and painful travel by Sea and Land, the Prophet said, How beautiful are their feet? Despise not therefore such as succeed them, though much unworthy in the same errand, but have them in honor for their welcome message. Though Christ hath not washed our feet to make them beautiful, as he did his Disciples, yet the very word that we have to say doth honor our lips, for they are good tidings, no things in the world compared to the comfort of the Gospel, they are good tidings, &c.

The main drift of the Text did hang upon this word, how the Angel did Evangelize, that is to say, bring good tidings; now we are cleared, and come off from that: and although there are many things in the Gospel very harsh to flesh and blood, as to leave all and follow Christ, to suffer persecution, &c. Yet these things as I noted in the third place produce joy, joy of a grand size in the intention, great joy, joy of an infinite measure in the extension, everlasting joy, joy that shall be, says the Text: and these are now to be considered together; and first that the Birth of Christ bids us rejoice, and be glad. Can the Children of the Bridechamber mourn when such a Bridegroom is come unto them? he came unto the world like ripe fruit in the fullness of time; whereupon says St. Ambrose, Christus tanquum maturitas advenit, ut nihil acerbum, nihil immaturum, nihil immite sit. He came when all the fruits of comfort were mellow, and delicious, that nothing might be sower, or harsh, or distasteful to his beloved. I alleged the Text of Isaiah before, How beautiful are the feet of them that brought tidings of him: The Septuagint according to some Editions read it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 what a spring there was in the Mountains when he was preached: whereupon says S. Cyril, as the Spring cheers up the hearts of men, beautifies the earth, and the fields after the desolating frosts of a wastful Winter; so the preaching of this Nativity made everything to flourish after the bitter blasting frosts of the Law. If there were such joy at the birth of Isaac, that they called him Isaac from laughter, then let all the earth clap their hands and rejoice, when he was manifested in the flesh that made the laughter of Isaac.

For our more orderly proceeding, I must consider joy three manner of ways, 1. What true joy doth properly result from the Birth of Christ. 2. What joy may be allowed and indulged to Christians. 3. What joy is condemnable. For the first, that joy which doth properly result from the Birth of Christ, is, Risus ex serenitate conscientiae, the mirth and delight of a good conscience; for he that hath given us his only Son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Rom. viii. 32. The Israelites were confident of victorious success when the Ark of God was in their Camp. The Ephesians thought themselves safe and secure when they had but an Image which fell down from Heaven. This was but a fiction like him that dreams of comfort, and loe he is in desperate extremities: but our case is most clear, and happy, to whom the God of God's made his approach as one friend that visits another, who is the brightness of his Fathers glory, and the express image of his person. Upon those words of the Apostle, Col. iv. 18. the salutation of me Paul with my own hand, says S. Chrysostom, it was great comfort to the brethren to see salutations, and greetings, and wishes under Paul's own hand. Some comfort it might be, but far short of this, to see not only the word of salutation, but the word of salvation dwell among us, the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth. As Pliny said to Trajan of his virtuous Wife, Nihil sibi ex fortuna tua nisi gaudium vendicat, she desired no further interest in his good fortune, but to rejoice, and to be glad at his felicity; so the righteous man leaves the wide world for the children of the world to share it among them, Nihil sibi nisi gaudium vendicat, all that he challengeth for his own is the Blessed Virgins solace, and My spirit rejoiceth in God my Savior. O my beloved, it cannot be uttered what tranquility and joy is in that heart which seriously apprehends those evident signs that God is reconciled unto us. Those heavens which Pythagoras spoke of that they were never without consent and harmony, that Fable being moralized is agreeable to nothing but to that soul which is comforted in the mercies of Christ. Semper illic serenum est, it is like the state of the world above the Moon, it is ever fair, and clear in that place without any storm or tempest; it is like the tribe of Zabylon, situated in a safe harbor close unto the tumultuous Seas, Aliorum videt naufragia, sed ipse salvus est, it looks forth upon the Seas, and sees how some are tost in perilous waters, how some are shipwrecked and cast away, but itself is safe under the shadow of Christ, and in no such terror or calamity. The ordinary comforts of this world which concur to the being, and to the well-being of nature may be wanting perchance to a true servant of God; these may a little abate the courage perhaps: it makes us appear, says St. Paul, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as sorrowful, 'tis but as if it were so, Tanquam lugentes, as sorrowful, but always rejoicing. The tongues of men and Angels are not able to devise a message of joy more sweet and allective than this, that our severe Judge hath sent his Son to be our Mediator, and that Mediator to be our Judge, and that Judge to be our Brother; for so he calls us by that term of intimate affection. This is such a demulcing comfort to a sin-wounded conscience, that it leaves our heart in St. Austin's phrase to be, Thalamus Dei, palatium Christi, habitaculum Spiritus sancti, the marriage-chamber of God, the courtly Palace of Christ, and the habitation of the Holy Ghost. This is the proper joy of Christ's Birth, with which the Angel did accost the Shepherds, the delight and serenity of a good Conscience.

It is agreeing to the solemnity of this time to speak also of the other branch of joy which is sufferable, and may be warranted, which is called, Risus ad naturae recreationem, pastimes and delightful exercises to refresh the sadness of the heart. And if there be any man whose strictness will allow of no sports, or pleasurable jocundities at this season of our Savior's Nativity, let me tell him that such austerity is groundless, and hath no foundation in the Word of God; and to censure all innocent relaxation of mirth, because with some men, and in some places it is done with excessive vanity and riot, he wants a grain of Charity. Shall we build no houses to put our head in, because fools built a Babel? shall we plant no Vineyards because Noah was overseen? shall we forswear courtesy because Absalom 's kindness was full of flattery? what is another man's sin to my harmless mirth? Joy is in the Text, and if there be harmless joy in the time, no judicious man will disallow it: But why do sickly men imagine that all meats taste rank and unsavory? it is the ill affection of their own palate: Why do Boat-men think that the shore goes from them? because they go from the shore. So the heart of churlish men is undelightsome, and that makes them to think all delight is vicious. There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh, says the Wise man, Eccles. iii. 4. And what time more convenient for rejoicing than this? when Solomon dedicated his Temple to the Lord, first he magnified God in a solemn prayer, then all Israel kept a Feast, and a joyful holy day. This Temple was but a figure of Christ the everlasting Priest: these are the days wherein we celebrate the dedication of this Temple, and after we have magnified God's name in solemn Prayer for his mighty work, we may cheer and refresh ourselves with joy in a lawful measure of innocence and sobriety. Why should we lowre and look sad like those hypocrites the Pharisees? who had nothing in them but a form of outward austerity. True joy cannot contain itself in a contemplative meditation; it will exult, it will break forth like John the Baptist in his Mothers womb, who rejoiced in the Spirit that Mary had conceived the Messias in her Womb. Nor was that all, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the Babe sprang, and leapt for gladness. Whatsoever mirth is honest and lawful, whether spiritual or civil joy, the Angel gives liberty to the Shepherds to use it, Behold I bring you tidings of great joy.

The spiritual, and the innocent civil joy are both native and proper to these festival days of the Birth of Christ: but by our abuse that which is most frequent and common is the third member of the distinction, which is sinful, Risus ex immoderata & turpi laetitia, a mirth bestain'd with riot, and all kind of offensiveness. It is time to cry down the noise of all immoderate and wicked pleasures with an heavenly song. How different are our tunes of beastliness from that which the children of Jerusalem did sing upon the Advent of Christ? Hosanna to the Son of David, Hosanna in the highest. How different were their modest garments from that pomp and pride which divers of us do bear upon our backs? they spread their garments in the way to entertain the King of Glory: Christ would not have honor'd yours with his feet, he would not have trod upon your Peacock attire which is so vain and alterable. O beloved what an incongruity is this? Christ came down from Heaven to dwell among us, and you rake Hell for merriment to make him welcome. If a Jubilee come once a year wherein you have indulgence for a sweet relaxation in Sports and Festivals, must you needs lose your wits? exeat Cato, as if no sober man all that while were fit for our company: If you will spend a few days of solace and recreation so wickedly, so untowardly, do you not deserve that God should turn your Feasts into mourning, and never suffer you to see a joyful day more? Take heed you use not your liberty for a cloke of licenciousness. Take heed of mid-night revels. The Shepherds were not dancing, but keeping watch over their flocks. The Poet Virgil hath billited the sinful joys of the world mala mentis gaudia, with Famine, and Poverty, and the very Haggs of Hell: and indeed a vicious pleasure is a devilish thing: for lawful and moderate pleasure is the preservative of nature, filthy and corrupt pleasure destroys the glory of our nature: I mean the soul. And so much for this point, that the coming of Christ doth inhibit all extravagant voluptuousness; but for spiritual and bodily pleasure which is lawful, the Angel brought tidings of joy, of great joy which shall be to all people.

Now I must speak of the two supporters of this joy, 1. That it is great for the size. 2. That it is of long continuance for the measure, gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be unto you. Great joy, says the Angel; he passed it over without a word of comparison, lest he should seem to the Shepherds to have boasted; but yet he meant there was no joy like to this, to attain to such felicity as to have a Savior born. Other things may make us glad, this is only a vehement, and intensive exultation. Let a carnal man pamper his skin with gluttony, satiate the desires of the flesh with filthy fornication, decline all industrious labor in pleasurable idleness; let him have all things wherein fortune can favor a sensual Epicure. Suppose that neither War, nor Famine, nor Death, nor Dishonor, nor Poverty eclipse his content, yet for all this there is a Melancholy Fiend of Hell that upon sundry frivolous occasions will fret his heart, and break his sleep, and make his passions jar within themselves; and he hath no firm and stable argument to persuade his soul to get out of this heaviness. But if any discontent creep upon him, that hath set up a steadfast Faith as a pillar in his heart, and hath engraven these words upon it, Jesus is my Redeemer; this supports the soul that it shall not be cast down, but it recovers itself from all pensiveness, even as David chid all anguish from his heart; Why art thou so sad, O my soul, and why art thou so disquiet within me? still trust in God, for he is the help of my countenance, and my God. Una est ratio vincendi inimicum, laetitia spiritualis, This spiritual gladness and festivity is the principal assistance to vanquish Satan, and all desperate doubts with which he would perplex our conscience: it is a royal joy which comforts us that we shall be heirs of a glorious Kingdom; it is a sanctified joy which gives us promise that we shall not only be Kings but Priests forever, to offer up the sweet odors of our prayers to God; it is a superlative joy which cries down all other petty delights, and makes them appear as nothing; it is endless joy of durance and lasting forever, and ever: for my Text says, it is Gaudium quod erit, joy that shall be unto you.

All the joy upon earth is gaudium quod est, now it is, and anon it is not; joy for a spirit and away, Eccles. vii. 8. as the crackling of thorns under a pot so is the laughter of a fool. Like a gol-sheave all of a flame, and out again suddenly. The end of mirth, that is of worldly mirth is heaviness, Prov. xiv. 13. Times of feasting have a period, every man is glutted at last: he that hath his fill of sport is weary by the late of night, and glad to take his rest. But the joy that you have in Christ is with you all the year, in all your sorrows, in all your adversities; it sleeps with you, it grows old with you, it will change this life with you, and follow you into a better: And my joy shall no man take from you, says our Savior, John. xvi. 22. Christmas joy was not only for the first twelve days when the Son of God was born, but for all the twelve months of twelve hundred years, and many hundreds after them unto the worlds end. So St. Peter doth solace us, 1 Pet. i. 8. Though now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, Eccles. xi. 9. Mark I pray you how much line this Syren world gives a voluptuous man to play with, Rejoice O young man in thy youth, and let thine heart cheer thee, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but when the hook is in his jaws, observe how it is twicht and snatched up at last, Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee unto judgment. So that let the wicked speed never so well in his frolicks, and jocundities, he returns home as Theseus did, with black sails of sorrow; as if he had never made a saving voyage. All their laughter is like the joy of Herod's Birth-day, dancing, and revels, and offering of great gifts last for a while, but before evening you shall see an alteration; and when their surfeited Tables are removed away, the last service in the platter is the Head of John the Baptist. But the mirth which we have in the Mediator of our salvation is a song which hath no rest in it, nor ever shall have a close. We begin the first part here, that we may sing the other part in Psalms and Hallelujahs with the Saints forever. As Christmas is celebrated part of the new year, and part of the old, so it is joy that is in this life, and shall be in the life to come.

Our last peroration upon the Text is to meditate upon the persons to whom these glad tidings and great joy are directed, Vobis & omni populo, to you, and to all people. And personally to those Shepherds the joy was great, I do not question it; for the Angel did not light upon them casually, as if he took the first he met: chance and fortune are words made by our ignorance, things of no being in the providence of God, but certainly they were picked out rather than any others, because they were men of just and holy conversation, fit to receive glad tidings from Heaven: they were of an humble and a lowly spirit, not of a proud and stiff opinion that would dispute against the Scriptures, which said Jesus was the Christ, like the Scribes and Pharisees; they were useful men to the Commonwealth in which they lived, painful in their vocation, and watching over their flocks by night: Out of all these premises we may collect that God had a respect to them in particular; unto such belongs the Kingdom of Heaven, the good tidings fell upon their head. They did apply the benefit of Faith to themselves, and that Savior which was born was their Redeemer. And vobis Judaeis, to you Jews; the Text will bear that I am sure; better tidings to you Israelites, than to any other Nation, if you will accept them. The Son of God came of their Fathers according to the flesh: in their Country he came to preach daily, and nowhere in the world beside; in their eyes he wrought his Miracles, and upon their bodies he practice'd his wonderful power to cure their Diseases, to make their Blind to see, and their Lame to walk. He professed himself to be more devoted to their welfare, than to all the earth beside, before the Canaanitish woman, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. They were his, he did acknowledge it; he was theirs, but they denied it: he came to his own, but his own received him not. To abreviate my discourse in this point, Evangelizo vobis, they are glad tidings to you, because it is given to you to hear the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven; for blessed is the ear that heareth the things which you hear. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. It is flat cheating in the Devil to put dubitation into man's fancy on this wise, I am partaker of the outward word, but I know not whether God have gone any further with me to give me his inward Spirit to quicken that seed unto immortal life. Beloved, as Christ did institute both Bread and Wine to be the outward Elements of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood; Bread is the substance of food, Wine causeth the concoction, and makes it comfortable food. So the word preached is the food of life, and God never lets it go alone without some drops of the Wine of his Grace to make it nourishing and beneficial, Jude xiii. 23. Manoah the Father of Sampson cries out to his Wife, we shall surely die because we have seen God. Nay, says she, If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not receive a burnt-offering at our hand. Neither would he have shown us all these things, nor would at this time have told us such things as these. So let me answer all dubitative Christians, unless the Lord did desire thy salvation he would not put his Word into thy ear, nor his Sacrament into thy mouth. The Gospel is an happy annuntiation to everyone that hears it, unless he quench the Grace which is offered unto him. Evangelium omni populo, the tidings are auspicious to all people.

To all people? Trahit sua quemque voluptas. There are so innumerous many fond pleasures, desires, vanities, affections in several appetites; can anything satisfy them all? yes, it is relishable to every palate that will taste it: though the true delight apprehended is included among the small number of the Elect: yet it is given to all, and no man shall say he is lost for want of a Redeemer, and a sacrifice for his sins. Cum omnibus scriptus significavit omnes, says Origen. He was taxed in his Mothers Womb by Augustus Caesar, when all the world was taxed, to intimate that he did communicate himself to all the world; that after that conscription of their names in Caesar's enrollment, whosoever believed in him, his name might be written among the Saints in the book of Life. In the first lesson read upon Christmas-day, thus you have it, Isa. ix. 3. They joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil. A good Harvest is not welcome to one Village, but it is gladsome to the whole Country round about; and when spoils are divided after the vanquishing of an Enemy, every Soldier is enriched, and hath his share: Such a communicative blessing is our Savior's Incarnation, every man fills his bosom with the sheaves of the harvest: every Christian Soldier that fights a good warfare plucks somewhat from the spoils of the Enemy. The dew of thy birth is as the womb of the morning: A learned Father of our own Church transposeth the Versicle on this wise, Thy birth from the Womb is as the morning dew, which waters the whole earth. As the walls of Jericho fell down before the sound of the rams horns, so the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, methinks it fell down flat to the ground at this blast of the Angels trumpet in my Text, that these were glad tidings, not toti populo, but omni populo, not to the whole people of the Jews, but to all the people of the world. The wall of discord is taken away in the universe, which parted those two great houses, and shall not the sweet welcome of the Birth of Christ take away a wall of partition between thee, and thy neighbor which is in thy heart. Can you out of enmity and hatred wish sorrow unto any, when God wisheth joy, great joy unto all? dost thou envy at the prosperity of thy brother, when the Lord would have the same glad tidings common to you both? Lay down old grudgings and quarrels with the old year, and begin the new year with a new reconciliation in love unfeigned, and true meaning Charity, and the Lord renew a right spirit in us all. Amen.

THE SIXTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.

T HE Angel hath made a brief Sermon upon a great occasion. The occasion is the Incarnation of our Lord: and who can be so copious upon that subject as the Mystery requires? yet the Sermon which the Angel preacheth, is neither a whole Chapter, nor a whole Gospel, but three verses of a Gospel. In the multitude of words a great deal is lost unto the hearer: the good application of a little, whatsoever we think, will yield the best fruits of increase. But for such divine joy as is here proclaimed, it was fit to roll it up in a small pill, and to minister it to the audience in a little quantity. How is it possible for frail flesh to subsist, and not to be dissolved for gladness, if the Angel had continued his tidings with such matter as he begun? a Savior is born; unto you a Savior is born; no petty redeemer, but the Lord strong and mighty, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. O it was provident care, after the Shepherds had heard a little, to tell them no more at once, but rather to send them away into the City, that they might see the rest. After Israel had shaken off the Chaldean slavery, and the Lord had turned the captivity of Zion, David knew not how to express their astonished joy, but thus, they were like unto them that dream: as Livy says of the Grecians, when the Romans that conquered them sent them unexpected liberty, Mirabundi velut somni speciem arbitrabantur, they received the tidings, as if it had been a pleasing dream, and themselves scarce awake. So our sins have so much discomforted our hearts, that our spirits are confused, and faint, if we receive all the comfort that God sends at once, like a strong perfume the sweetness overcomes our sense. Here's one line for a copy, and enough to be taken out at one time, Unto you is born this day, &c.

The Text cannot be divided into equal parts, for here is one word among them, which not only in this place, but wheresoever you find it, it is like Saul, higher by head and shoulders then all the rest. As Painters and Guilders write the names of God in glass, or upon the walls with many rays, and flaming beams to beautify it round about, so the name of Savior is the great word in my Text; and all that is added beside in other circumstances is a trail of golden beams to beautify it. First then with reverend lips, and circumcised ears let us begin with the joyful tidings of a Savior. 2. Here's our participation of him in his Nature, natus, he is born, and made like unto us. 3. It is honorable to be made like us, but it is beneficial to be made for us; and natus vobis, unto you is born a Savior. 4. Is not the use of his Birth superannuated, the virtue of it long since expired? no, 'tis fresh and new; as a man is most active when he begins first to run, hodie natus, he is born this day. 5. Is he not like the King in the Gospel who journeyed into a far Country, extra orbem solisque vias, quite out of the way in another world? no, the circumstance of place points his dwelling to be near, in civitate David, he is born in the City of David. 6. Perhaps to make him man is to quite unmake him; shall we find him able to subdue our enemies, and save us, since he hath taken upon him the condition of human fragility? yes, the last words speak his excellency and power, for he is Christus Dominus, such a Savior as is Christ the Lord, for unto you is born this day in the City of David, &c.

The beginning of our days work is from that word, which magnifies him that is the word of God above all things; for he is a Savior. Time was when the children of Israel had rather Moses should speak unto them than God: Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die, Exod. xx. 19. Now let Israel say, let not Moses speak with us, nor the Law, for then we shall surely die. Above all tongues let the Angel speak with us, that proclaims a Savior, and we shall surely live. If all comfort in the world were forgotten, nothing but darkness, and weeping, and captivity over all the earth, yet here's a word which is enough to turn all that sorrow into gladness, yea, to turn Hell itself into Heaven; This day is born unto you a Savior: it comprehends all other names of Grace, and blessing; as Manna is said to have all kind of sapors in it to please the taste. When you have called him the glass in which we see all truth, the fountain in which we taste all sweetness, the ark in which all precious things are laid up, the pearl which is worth all other riches, the flower of Jesse which hath the savor of life unto life, the bread that satisfieth all hunger, the medicine that healeth all sickness, the light that dispelleth all darkness; when you have run over all these, and as many more glorious titles as you can lay on, this one word is above them, and you may pick them all out of these syllables, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. Abraham could endure to live in a strange Land, nay, he could endure to want his only Son Isaac if God pleased: Elias could want his bodily sustenance for forty days: John the Baptist could want the comfort of all society in the Wilderness: Peter could leave all he had and want his substance: Paul could live in bonds and want his liberty: Paphnutius could want his eyes, yea, the Martyrs for Christ's sake could want their lives; but they could not be without the redemption of their soul, they could not want a Savior.

The Prophet Isaiah hath foretold that the heaven and earth should join their strength together to make a Savior, Isa. xlv. 8. Drop down the heavens from above, and let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, that's the effect: and the 15. verse speaks of the person, O God of Israel the Savior. The heavens must drop down from above, and the earth must open and concur beneath, the whole universe must be put together, the Divine Nature and the Human, tantae molis erat, to make a Savior. To confuse the Jews with this place. I have read of a learned Scribe of theirs, one Rabbi Accados, who wrote thus before the coming of Christ, that the Messias should come into the world to save men, and the Gentiles should call him Jesus, or the Savior of the world. Indeed the Gentiles did not only do so after our Savior's ascension into Heaven, being taught unto it by the Apostolical preaching, but in the time of Idolatry, which is very strange. Tully says in the 4. Oration against Verres, that he saw an Image at Syracuse in Sicily with this Inscription upon it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Savior, and he admires at the strong significancy of the word, Hoc quantum est magnum est, ut latin exprimi uno verbo non possit, to give salvation or to be a Savior is such an appellative, that all the Latin tongue was not furnished with a word to set it forth. But what if their language could have fit it? that's nothing unless the soul do unite it to itself, and write it upon the tables of the heart. But that the name may not be an empty sound to us as it was to them, consider these three things. 1. With what honor it was imposed. 2. What excellency it includes. 3. What reverence it deserves.

For the first of these, an honor in the imposition of a name will ever stick by the person, and the origen hereof came from the chiefest, that is above all, Phil. ii. 9. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. It was ever of old in the right of the Father to give a name unto his child: Zacharias when he could not speak called for writing tables to appoint the name of John the Baptist; therefore Christ having no Father on earth, his Father gave him a name from Heaven. His Father gave it, but he did commit it to the trust of an Angel to bring it; for the Angel was the first that ever mentioned it to Joseph the husband of Mary in a dream. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins, Matth. i. 21. God gave it, the Angel brought it, and men did assign it the eighth day when he was circumcised, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the Womb. Hereupon Bernard casts in two observations. 1. It appears in St. Matthew that the Angel called him Jesus before he was born, yea, before he was conceived, Luke i. 31. it was Gabriel's message to Mary, Thou shalt conceive in thy Womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Men called him so after he was born, and circumcised, Idem quippe & Angeli salvator & hominis, hominis ab incarnatione, Angeli ab initio creaturae: for the same Lord is the Savior both of Angels and Men; of Angels before he was born, from the beginning of the world; of Men in the fullness of time after he was born: That is, the second person in Trinity being the eternal Son of the Father, did confirm the good Angels in grace, that they should never fall; and the same person incarnate, being the Mediator of God and Man, did redeem the Elect, that they should rise again from their sins, and reign with him in glory. 2. The complete imposition of the name was at his circumcision, when he first shed his Blood, as if his Death had been foretold, as soon as he was born; it would cost him blood, not a few drops of the foreskin, but the very blood of the heart to be called Jesus. In Circumcision he was called a Savior, at his Passion the word Jesus was wrote upon the Cross: then his enemies confessed he was a Savior, In circumcisione non fuit actu perfecto, sed destinatione salvator; in Circumcision it was told by destination what he should be, and incompletely, and by inchoation what he was. It was a sign of servitude, and of taking the guilt of sin to be Circumcised; it was a sign of ignominy, and reproach to be Crucified: but this name exalted him, and defended him against the bad opinion of the world, when he was called at the one time in the Temple, and entitled on the Cross at the other, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews. To drive this point no longer about the honor of the imposition of the name, this is the sum; Angels and Men had their several shares in the dignity to give this attribute to our Lord, but the name was grounded in his own nature of exceeding mercy, and in his office of reconciliation; therefore God alone could give him this name: Innatum est ei nomen hoc, non inditum ab humana, aut Angelica natura, says Bernard, the name was bred with him, and not imposed by men or Angels.

A name so royally imposed must include a great deal of excellency, that's the next point. Gallio the Deputy of Achaia was a great scorner of Religion, and because Paul magnified Christ, and the Jews blasphemed him, Gallio said it was a controversy of words, and names, and he would not meddle with it; it was not worth the while. The name of Christ was beyond Gallio 's reach to judge upon it. David makes a great account of that which he did villify, Thou hast magnified thy name, and thy word above all things, Psal. cxxxvii. The names of God, Jehovah are his names as a Creator, and yet to be magnified above all things; but the name of Jesus adds above his power of creation, his goodness of saving and redemption, Nihil nasci profuit, nisi redimi profuisset, it had been unbeneficial to be created, unless we had been happily redeemed: His Words, his Actions, his Miracles, his Prayers, his Sacraments, his Sufferings all did smell of the Savior. Take him from his Infancy to his Death, among his Disciples and among the Publicans, among the Jews, or among the Gentiles, he was all Savior.

The Jews were under the condition of thralldom at this time when Christ was born, under the thralldom of their enemies; and the tidings of a Savior was sweet news at such a season: yet the Shepherds could not so mistake that an Infant born but that day could go out with their hosts to subdue their enemies. No person upon earth hath such need of a Savior as a sinner, whether it be peace or war, Pandora 's box of mischiefs; all the miseries that can be named are the just reward of a sinner: therefore the Angel doth not specify to the Shepherds, from what calamities he should redeem them; and be called a Savior indefinitely and absolutely from all. A few particulars would but derogate from the honor of his salvation, he sweeps away all evil at once, like a Spiders web, ab omni malo, he saves us from the whole mass of evil, a Savior which is Christ the Lord, Jer. xxiii. 7. It shall no more be said the Lord Liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought the house of Israel from the North Country, the land of Chaldea. Alas, both these are easy redemptions, to that which calls him Jesus in the New Testament; the Lord liveth who saveth his people from their sins: there begins his mercy at that point, to break the heavy yoke of sin from our necks, to repress the dominion of the flesh rebelling against the spirit, to take away earthly desires from our will, and affections; in a word, to clear us in God's Court, that our iniquities may no more be imputed to us, Who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, Revel. i. 5. 2. He is a Savior that delivers us from the sting and punishment of sin, which is death: He destroyed our death by dying on the Cross, and repaired our life again by his own Resurrection. 3. He is a Savior that delivereth us from the power of Satan, that although the enemy tempt and oppose vehemently, yet he should not overcome his Saints. Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world be cast forth, John xii. 32. and so cast forth that he shall never renew his tyranny again, For through death Christ did destroy him that had the power of death, the Devil, Heb. ii. 14. 4. He is a Savior that frees us from the wrath of God: and when we were enemies we were reconciled unto God by the death of his Son, Rom. v. From sin, from death, from Satan, from the wrath of God. These are the four heads of our Redemption, and these are the excellencies included in the name of Savior.

After these things thus declared, methinks the third point should fall in directly without any contradiction: Methinks of ourselves without bidding men should strive to do abundant reverence at the hearing of this word, a Jesus, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. We have not that feeling of our sins which we ought to have, nor of the wrath of God; for if we had, we would hear this name with greater joyfulness: but the destruction is not near enough to affect us, Hell and damnation are not represented before our face: if those things were so nigh, that we did feel their horror, we would not captiously gainsay that Ceremony of the Church, to veil the head, and bend the knee, and to prostrate ourselves to the earth, in giving honor to Christ for our salvation. Both the Saints in heaven, and the Faithful on earth, and the Dead departed under the earth, all these hath God ordained to bow the knee at the name of his Son Jesus, Phil. ii. 10. Indeed to do it toties quoties, at every repetition of the name is not necessarily infer'd from thence perhaps; say it be no more than a pious Institution of the Church, to keep us in a faithful remembrance that we do not forget it; yet a dutiful Child will hearken to the voice of the Church, and not wave her Authority and neglect it; as if the Spirit of God had not directed her to prescribe outward things in a decent manner to the setting forth of God's glory. Isaiah could not speak of a Savior in the Old Testament, but this comes in, Unto me shall every knee bow, and every tongue shall swear, Isa. xlv. 23. and lest the world might suppose, they may be bold and saucy with a merciful Savior, St. Paul admonisheth how that Savior shall be a Judge, Rom. xiv. 11. We shall all stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ; for it is written, As I live saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Beloved now ye are in God's Temple, judgment you neither see nor fear; but imagine with me, the Lord were coming in the clouds, every man's innumerable sins laid open before him to condemn him, in this distraction of amazement is there anything to put life into your terrified souls, but the name of a Savior? then let an Angel preach before you, There is no name under heaven by which you can be saved, but only the name of Jesus. Tell me from your own heart what you think if in that case your head would not uncover, your knee bend, yea, your face grovel upon the earth; confess this and amend your stubbornness: it is nothing but the forgetfulness of destruction which makes ye so unregardful to do reverence at the name of salvation. One thing more, and I shall have said enough to this, Zanchi and others allow that soon after the first 300 years it was a custom ungain-said in that ancient Orthodox Church, to put S. Paul 's item in practice; and more than that, to bend and uncover at the name of Jesus, and this done, to let the Arians see, that all worship and honor was due to the eternal Son of God. Though I trust there be now no Arians among us, is it not fit to hold the Ceremony, that we may keep simple, and perverse men from being Arians? Princes do not use to lose any part of the honor which was once given them upon any occasion, and will not God look to have that honor maintained which was once laudibly ascribed unto him by all men's confession? he cannot grow less to have his honor impaired, howsoever there may be a mutability in occasions. I will end with St. Austin's words, Hoc nomen salvatoris mei in ipso adhuc lacte matris cor meum pie biberat, my heart did drink in this name of Savior with piety and reverence, even from my Mothers breasts. So much for the honor of imposition, the benefit of application, and that worship of reverence which is due to be done at the name of Savior.

Now I may say I have built up the Tower in my Text, the strong Tower of David our chief defense; that which remains is but the raising of the Walls, to compass it about: And you remember what we must deal with next, he comes so near unto us that he participates of our nature, Salvator natus, he is a Savior that is born: born might the Shepherds say? what an Infant whose mouth was not yet opened, so that an Angel spake for him? can this be that wonderful one ye talk of, that shall deliver us? Ecce venit equitans, that had been more probable to be believed; behold he cometh riding, though it were in despicable humility, Beheld he cometh riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass: But to be born an Infant, though it were his diminution, it was our glory and exaltation. He was born and made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted; not to give us a natural life, such as he took after our image, but to make us partakers of his Divine Excellency, that as we have carried the image of the earthly, we might carry the image of the heavenly. We rejoice at the birth of our own children; the Psalmist calls them arrows in our quiver, as if they were the might of our strength: Yet alas for their birth it would be unto nothing but eternal sorrow, unless it were for the Incarnation of this Infant in my Text, we might curse the day wherein we were born, with Job, and wish the day quite blotted out with Jeremy, but that we cast off our former birth as it were, and begin our life again at Baptism in the name of our Savior.

How wisely the Almighty doth fold one work in another, and one counsel in another to perfect the body of the Saints, is past our finding out. Yet it is sweet to inquire into the method of our salvation, and to ask after this mystery among others, why the Son of God would destroy sin in the nature of man? and why he would be born in the similitude of corruptible flesh, to gain for us an immortal inheritance? I must prefer St. Paul 's reason in the first place, because it is direct Scripture, Heb. iv. 15. We have not an High Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So that Christ as he was God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, he knew our misery and infirmity; but as he was man of the substance of his Mother, born in the world, so did he feel our afflictions, and compassionate our infirmities: He knoweth whereof we be made, and remembereth that we are but dust. When the bones of the poor cleave to the skin in time of famine and scarcity, when the blood waxeth wan and pale with sickness, when the body is under the torments of a tyrant, in these extremities we may fly to Christ with boldness, and plead unto his mercies. O our Savior that wert incarnate, thou thyself didst take a corruptible body into the unity of thy person, the chastisement of our peace was upon thy flesh; thou knowest what we are able to suffer, thou knowest our weakness and our frailty.

As for other causes why he would be conceived in the womb of a mortal woman, and be born to be a Savior, I will briefly go along with Damascene, who reduceth them to these four heads, that God might demonstrate the goodness of his Love, his Justice, his Wisdom, and his power.

1. To the first of these the heathen spake somewhat, but knew not well what they said, Amor Deum gubernat, amoris omne regnum est. Love did rule God himself, love swayed all things in the world: We know and admire the meaning, that the love of the Son turned the enmity of the Father into peace; it turned threatenings into forgiveness, and death into life. Poise everything in a right scale, and mark the heavy weight of our undeservings, and the nature of man might stink in God's nostrils, which had so much offended him to believe a Serpent; nay, to believe the Devil in a Serpent rather then the lively Oracle of his own mouth: Yet love took away that distastefulness, which the whole Trinity had conceived against sinful flesh; and the second Person became flesh for our sakes, and was made sin for our sakes; by imputation that we might be made sons, and righteous before God, nay, that we might be made the righteousness of God, Rom. v. The Athenians were proud of Pompey 's love, that he would write his name a Citizen of their City: for a princely person to accept a freedom in a mean Corporation is no little kindness; how much more doth it aggravate the love of Christ to come from heaven, and be made a Citizen of this vile earth, to be born after a more vile condition than the most abject of the people.

2. It is not so proper to say God did love us by Christ, for God is love, and in himself, and for his own goodness sake he could not but love the work of his hands; but this is the true and proper understanding of it, that notwithstanding his love to his own justice through the merit of our Savior's humility he forgave us our sins; therefore his love toward mankind, and his love toward his justice went hand in hand, and could not be parted. He satisfied the vehemency of his love toward sinful man, that he gave his Son to be born of a Virgin, and to become our Mediator: he satisfied the love he hath to his own Justice, and the hatred he hath against sin, when he did impose this office of a Mediator upon his beloved Son, not without shedding of blood. Justice cried out it was meet mercy should not rule all; Adam and his posterity ought to die, or who will answer for them? not an Angel or Spirit, and therefore not the Son of God as he is God; for God is a Spirit. Meet it is everyone should bear his own burden: the nature that sinned let it bear the curse of its own sin. Mans nature had sinned, man's nature ought to suffer; but that which our nature should bear, our nature by a fit adequation of recompense could not bear. Our sufferings were not enough to satisfy the wrath of God due to sin. The Son of God is a most valuable person, but not passable: man is passable but not valuable: the one nature ought to suffer but could not, the other could suffer but ought not. That he might be liable to all contempt he was born a Savior and made a child, that he might be able to pay the price; he was perfect God as well as perfect man, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

3. Love and Justice are mightily declared, that a Savior was born, and the eternal Wisdom of the Father comes in for her part to be magnified. It is beyond our understanding to say nay, but that the Father might have made a creature fit to satisfy his Justice, to have clearly paid the price of our Redemption, and so to have spared his Son: yea, but wisdom interposed, it was not fit that man should owe his redemption to any other, than to whom he owed his creation; for the value of that benefit would compel us to love our Redeemer, better than our Creator. So Bernard, Plus nos ad charitatem excitat redemptio quam creatio; Therefore God would not so dispose the mystery of our souls health, that occasion should be given to love an Angel or Saint, better than himself the King of Glory. The Son that sits at his right hand by whom he made the worlds, let him restore all things, and the blessing of our Creation, Redemption, and all other good gifts shall meet in one center. This is pretii difficilimi decentissima solutio, say the Schoolmen, a most convenient payment of a most difficult ransom.

4. The boundless power, and infinite virtue of the Godhead, I confidently pronounce it, did never appear so much in any other work, as when a Savior was born. He that knew no beginning, but was from all eternity, to begin to be a man; he that speaks to the world in thunder to cry in a cradle, Verbum infans: he that decketh himself with light as with a garment to be wrapped in swaddling clouts, he that opens his hand, and filleth all things with plenteousness to suck for a few drops of milk at a woman's breasts, we are able to answer nothing to this, but with the Angel to cry out, Rev. v. 12. Dominion and power to the Lamb, and to him that sitteth on the throne for evermore. And so far of the second point.

The next word to be considered in the Text is like the flesh-hook which the Priest had to draw a portion of the Sacrifice unto himself, To you a Savior is born, says the Angel, Vobis natus, the good turn shall be yours, the blessing yours, you ought to be affected with joy at this wondrous work, for he is your Savior. Tell the Shepherds that a Savior is born, and they cannot but understand he is de nobis, like unto us in nature; but tell them, unto you a Savior is born, that's a great deal more than they understand that he is born for their redemption. It is honorable to be made like us, but advantageous in the highest degree that he was made for us. Let us work upon this mine, and here we shall find the precious metal, fit to pay the price of our debts to God in our steed when we were bankrupts.

First, we learn from hence, he was born to you, and not unto himself; to your glory, to his own abasement, and exinanition: for his own part he was begotten of God before all times, so noble a Nativity, that when the Father bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith, And let all the Angels of God worship him, Heb. i. 6. Therefore for himself he needed no other birth to be born at all, especially to be thus basely born in the manger of a stable. He took a body as it were sown in dishonor, that we might reap the harvest, and be magnified: Likewise he is called a Savior, not in respect of his own person; indeed he was his own destroyer, and our Savior, when the High Priests servants sought to lay hold of him in the Garden; neither doth he go about to escape, or to deny himself: but whom seek ye? I am he. No man would put himself into the hands of barbarous enemies that meant to be his own Savior: all the salvation that he brought with him looked another way, Titus ii. 14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.

Some few persons are culled out here, for all that shall be shielded under the buckler of this Savior; unto you a Savior is born, says the Angel, speaking only to the Shepherds; that's because no more were in the way: But to as many as read these words, and mark them, the word speaks continually, and is never silent; the message is as properly brought to you as ever it was to the Shepherds, to you a Savior is born. The Prophet Isaiah allows him to all the Sons of Adam, that will lay claim unto him, unto us a Child it born, and unto us a Son is given, Isa. ix. 6. 'It is a kind expression to rejoice at the good news of another man's prosperity, 'tis incident to a sweet nature to do so: And indeed if Angels were so enlightened with the gladsomness of our benefit, that when they had said it over, they could not choose but sing it also in the verses after my Text, Cum de aliena gratia Angeli exultent, quae nostra est stupiditas? If the blessed Cherubims exult for the grace that we find in God's eyes, what stupidness is in us, if our hearts do not triumph for gladness? for the benefit flows unto us, and not unto the Angels. The Devils fretted and roared out against Christ, because he came into the world for man's sake, and not for their deliverance. Quid nobis & tibi? What have we to do with thee Jesus thou Son of God? we renounce thee, Mat. viii. 29. The evil spirits rage that he is not theirs, the good Spirits of God rejoice that his Father hath made him all ours, being secure of their own glorious estate; they triumph that we shall be exalted to the fellowship of their happiness.

Well then, to you he is born, not only to the Shepherds, but inclusive to all men; so you have heard in the former verse, his birth was gaudium omni populo, joy to all people; only they are excluded that exclude themselves by infidelity. Facit multorum infidelitas ut non omnibus nasceretur, qui omnibus natus est, says St. Ambrose, the infidelity of many (now infidelity is properly imputed to those within the Church, who had the means to believe and did not) the infidelity of many is a bar, that the Incarnation of Christ pertains not to all men, although he was born for all men. Every man therefore must strive so to love Christ, and to keep his Commandments, that he may feel the joy of this day particularly enter into his heart, and the Spirit testifying to his spirit, unto me a Savior is born. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Greeks, it comes of the possessive, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tuus, a Savior restoreth every man to himself; for a sinner is lost not only to God, and the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven, but he is lost to himself, and to the comfort of a good conscience, until Christ restore him again to joy and peace within his own heart, that he may say to himself as Philip did to Nathanael, I have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, &c. Oportet uti nostro in utilitatem nostram, & de servatore salutem operari, says Bernard. Let us make our profit from that which is our own, and let every man collect his own salvation from his own Savior, To you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings, Mal. iv. 2. The Sun enlightens half the world at once, yet none discern colors by the light but they that open their eyes; and a Savior is born unto us all, which is Christ the Lord: but enclasp him in thine heart as old Simeon did in his arms, and then thou mayst sing his Nunc Dimittis, or Mary's Magnificat, My spirit rejoiceth in God my Savior.

The fourth thing to be considered, is, what early tidings the Shepherds had of our Savior's birth, hodie natus, I do not tell it to you, says the Angel, after a month, or after a week, go to Bethlehem and search, and ye shall find this is the first day that his Mother bore him, This day is born unto you in the City of David, &c. Before the blessed seed was promised, for a long while ye have had a state in reversion, that Christ should come in the flesh to save his people from their sins; now the act is accomplished, ye have a state in being, enter upon your happiness and possess it, reckon from henceforth that you have your joy in hand, this day the great deliverer hath taken up a poor Palace in the City of David. According to a natural computation of days we forget the nights, though an Infant be brought forth in the still hours of darkness; yet from thenceforth we call it the Birth-day, and not the birth-night of such an Infant, In such accounts (I know not how) we speak of nothing but day, for that's the Dialect of the Kingdom of Heaven, where there is day forever, and no darkness. So the Shepherds kept watch over their flocks by night, and after the first hour the morning began, as the general conjecture runs, our Savior was born; yet since a natural day comprehends darkness as well as light, the Angel was pleased to say, This day he is born. This is literal and to the plain meaning; yet I refrain not their allusions altogether, that say, the darkness was removed away by that radiant glory which shone round about the Angels, and that the night was as clear in those parts, as if the Sun had risen upon the earth: therefore upon the comfort of that miraculous illumination the messenger says, This day is born unto you. And David by some men is made to speak to this allusion, Psal. cxxxviii. The night is as clear as the day; which was true, say they, at our Savior's Incarnation. Others take their liberty to guess, that good tidings make the night be called day, and sad tidings make the day be called night. Heavy misfortunes indeed have fallen out in the night, for the most part. Sennacheribi great host slain in the night, Thou fool this night thy soul shall be taken from thee: a threatening to the rich Epicure, yet it holds not always: But if Christ be the day-star, and his Birth turns night into day, it will become us as the Apostle says to walk as children of the light.

Curiosity hath gone too far in one question touching this part of my Text, why this late day was esteemed most expedient in God's wisdom to send his Son in the flesh; four thousand years had almost expired, since the seed of the Woman was promised to bruise the Serpents head: and yet no sooner then hodie, say they, that will search in to all causes: the Angel said today; but why he came punctually on that day, or in that year, he did not learn the Shepherds; nay, I speak it with modesty, I do not think he could teach himself: Therefore I recoil back from that nicety, and lay down my doctrine in this large lesson, it was expedient that many revolutions of years should run out from the promise of Christ's Birth, unto the actual accomplishment. 1. So great a matter was worthy much expectation, [ 1] and many predictions of the Prophets. So St. Austin, Quanto major Judex veniebat, tanto praeconum series longior praecedere debebat, the greater the Judge that was to come, the greater troop of Harbingers and Apparitors should go before him. 2. His [ 2] Incarnation is fitted to the fullness of time, because it falls out equally to try their Faith, that should believe in Christ to come; and to try their Faith who ought to believe that he is come, that he is dead, and risen again, and ascended into glory. 3. Between the time of Adams disobedience, and the Birth of the Lamb [ 3] of God, a long space of years doth interlope, that man might have time enough to see, and feel his misery, before the medicine was made to apply unto his sore. 4. God is pleased to confer great honor upon our human nature, at three extreme [ 4] distances; in the beginning of the world, toward the midst of it, and in the end of all things. In the first creation God made man after his own Image, so began our excellencies; then he made his own Son in the similitude of man, a long distance went between these two. Hereafter at the period of all things we are sure to have a glorified body, and that our mortal shall put on immortality. Now Christ's Incarnation comes in the midst, because he is the center of all God's mercies towards us. 5. The Jews, whom Christ above all others calls his own, ( He came unto his [ 5] own, &c.) they did sustain at this time, and for some years had sustained a bondage under the Roman Conquest (perhaps it is our Savior's pleasure that a great part of the Church shall be under a Romish thralldom against his second coming.) But this bondage was bitter to the Jews, even at this day, when Christ was born, Caesar's taxes were very grievous: (for Mary being ready to lie down, was compel'd to come to Bethlehem to be taxed) now in this day of oppression, when the Jews, I believe, thought the yoke of captivity to be more intolerable than their sins, and that they wisht for a victorious champion to fight for them, then did God send them a greater Savior than they wisht, or looked for; not to acquit them from the Roman Dominion, but from the pit of Hell. And this is all that can be modestly conjectured about the opportunity of time, &c.

This day is born unto you, and as near as we can observe the course of the year by Astronomical skill this was the very day; yet it is not that hodie of which the Angel spake unto the Shepherds: then is not this part of the Text utterly unappliable to us? no beloved, but appliable to us also in the nearest degree: for as we say of the sin of Adam, Actu transiit, manet reatus, the act past away at the first, but the guilt remains upon his posterity: so our Savior was born upon one particular day which is past, but the merit and virtue of it is never past, but abides forever. Wherefore to them that make the right use of this blessing, St. Paul says, it is out of date at no time, but now is the acceptable time (now, when you will yourself) now is the day of salvation. The Prophet Isaiah says the joy of this birth it like the joy of men in harvest; that's for the universality of all those that belong unto the field; but for the extension of time it is not for the season of harvest alone; but for all the year, not gaudium in annum, but gaudium in sempiternum. Not an harvest joy for the plenty of one year: but this is the bread of life, whose plenty rejoiceth the eartn unto all ages. It is as good news upon any day, as it was upon one day, says Bernard, that Christ is born. That day comes always anew to them that are renewed in the spirit of their mind; and he is born every day to them, in whose hearts he lives by Faith.

I must here cut off the circumstance of time, and because the Sacrament must have a time to be celebrated, I will speak but a few words upon the place and conclude. The Angel directs the Shepherds to the City of David, and thither did all the Scribes and High Priests direct Herod with full consent: Bethlehem of Judea was the place where Christ must be born, for so it was spoken by the Prophet. Now Bethlehem is that City of David. I know in the Old Testament the Tower of Zion is sometimes called the City of David, a strong fortress in Jerusalem which David built to curb the Jebusites; but that famous Metropolis of Jerusalem had nothing to do with this birth: Little Bethlehem is here called the City of David, where David was born. Take notice I pray you that the Angel could have called it Bethlehem, to take away all mistaking; but it makes more to the matter to show that Christ came of the house and lineage of David, which was foretold, Psal. cxxxi. Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy seat. And mark how it falls out agreeably, that Joseph and Mary came to no other Town but this to pay Tribute unto Caesar: Had they been only of the Tribe of Judah as David was, no nearer allied unto him, they might have gone up to many other Cities, much more famous than this to be taxed: but being of the stock of David, and indeed the nearest living in blood unto him, therefore they go up to no City but to Bethlehem, the City of David. And thus you see the Angel confer'd with the Shepherds in such words as were very proper; they knew the place, it was the next at hand; they knew it belonged to him that should be the Savior of his people, who according to the Scriptures belonged to David by blood, and to the City of David for his Country.

A poor caskenet to contain so great a Jewel. Thou Bethlehem, says the Prophet Micaiah, the least among the Princes of Judah; yet big enough to contain the Prince of Heaven and Earth. Little Zoar, says Lot, and yet Zoar was big enough to receive him and his Children safe out of the fire of Sodom. Poor Bethlehem, which had but one Inn for strangers in it all it seems, and that of small capacity, which had no room, no by-corner for a woman to be delivered in, but only the manger of the stable. Mean Bethlehem, unless the Angel had spoke it, the Prophet foretold it, and the Star had shown it to the Wise men, who would not have gainsaid that the Savior of all men could be laid in such a Village? The Roman Historian made a marvel that so noble an Emperor as Alexander Severus was, could come out of Syria, Syrus Archisynagogus, as they called him in scorn. Behold that Emperor 's Lord, comes not only out of Syria, but out of the homeliest corner in Syria, out of the despicable tributary City of David. And as it is in the next verse, not so well born as in the City; but natus in praesepi, born in a dunghill-stable, in Civitate, born in a City? what, a Citizen of this world? no, the words following correct it, he had no room given him among men, but among beasts, a pilgrim and a foreiner on earth; his Kingdom lay not here.

In a word for all. Joseph and Mary were a poor couple. Bethlehem, a little City, the stable a place of the meanest account in all that City, Shepherds of the lowest condition that were sent to visit him: all things were little, and humble about Christ at his Birth, that nothing might be proud and insolent, and vain-glorious about us, if we would be born the Sons of God: but alas how unconformable are we to this lowly fashion of our Savior? the Feasts of many rich men are for pomp, to let as rich as themselves see their munificence, and not for charity to the poor, who stand in need of refreshment. Apparel superlatively costly, most vain, and most effeminate; how generally it is to be seen upon all people's shoulders, to what excessive bravery is the pride of the whole Kingdom raised in less than the revolution of thirty years, not only in this luxurious City, but in little Bethlehem, in every village of the field. But I am sure the costly pride of the LandLords apparel shall make the poor Tenant humble: Bethlehem the house of bread, the poor Farmers grange shall be made small enough, with these new invented expenses. And where men are become lovers of themselves altogether, not lovers of God, not lovers of the public weal, not lovers of the poor members of Christ; in these there is no fruit to be seen of true humility. What a revenue it would be to help the needy, if the tenth of Christmas gaming and dicing were bestowed upon them; yet they that will not give a shilling to the hungry are free enough to dice a pound. Perdere norunt, donare nesciunt, Men know how to be loosely wasteful, but not wisely liberal. Among lawful and good pastimes of this Festival time, it is strange that dicing is crept in among them. The miscreant Soldiers that crucified Christ cast lots, which some interpret to be throwing the Dice for his garments (generally it is so painted) more likely therefore to be a sport for them that keep a Feast for joy that Christ was crucified, than for joy that Christ was born. Beloved, let the greatest part of your Christmas joy be according to the Angels pattern; first ascribing glory to God, then some friendly pastimes may resemble peace, and joy on earth; but put off all strife, debate, and envy; so you shall observe good will towards men: but at every turn remember the little City of David, remember humility. Bethlehem honora parvam quae te inducit in paradisum, says Nazianzen. Make honorable esteem of little Bethlehem, of lowliness and humility, and that will bring you into Paradise, into the Kingdom of Heaven, where the Lamb of God, this day born in the flesh, sits upon the Throne for evermore. Amen.

THE SEVENTH SERMON UPON THE INCARNATION.

G Ood Christians have ever observed to keep this feast of the Birth of Christ with some decency in Apparel more than ordinary, with bounty of Fare, with Carols of joy, and many other circumstances of cheerfulness. I am sure the decorum of a fit Text for the day is as much, and more requisite than anything that I have named. A word spoken in season ought to taste better upon the palate of our understanding than meat in season. I have gone that way hitherto, and still continue in it, to teach you some remarkable passage which fell out when our Savior was born, upon this blessed Day and Season wherein he was born. This portion of St. Luke's Gospel, which by appointment is the second Lesson for our Morning Prayer, hath been the Theme of my Doctrine sundry times, it afforded me to speak of the Nativity itself, next of the Humility, afterwards of the Sermon which the Angel preached upon it, fourthly, of the poor Shepherds to whom these glad Tidings were first published. Now for a conclusion, here is an Host of Angels to confirm all for truth, which one of their Order had said before, and to make the Tidings sweeter and joyfuller by their congratulation. Indeed, all that goes before is made so complete and full by that which they have added, that our Church hath made a stop there, and bids us read no further. The Message which one Angel brought made it known that a Savior was born in the City of David; had it not been for him the birth was so obscure and private, and indeed so unlikely to be the same which it was, we cannot guess how it should ever have come to light, and been published: But those Tidings which that Angel brought were so strong, so far above reason, so far beyond the deservings of miserable sinners, that unless a multitude of Angels had seconded all that was said before, we cannot guess how it should ever have been believed. The shepherds never said one to another, let us go unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass for that which one Angel told them; they stirred not out of the field to go see the wonder until an Army of those heavenly Watchmen concorded to it, and chanted it out with a merry noise, Glory to God, &c.

This convinceth the truth of the Incarnation of Jesus far more than that Text which I handled the last year, though that, as I shown, was a very powerful evidence. For Wisemen to come from the East to Jerusalem, and to have a strange Star for their Leader raised a mighty fame of the Nativity, both in that City, and perhaps in a great part of the world: But if all the Stars of heaven had gone before them, and all the wise Gymnosophists had made a journey, it were but a mean Demonstrance to this, that all the Angels of heaven (I conceive no less of this multitude than of all) should make an Apparition in the air, and Carol the coming of Christ into the earth. The Stars of the Firmament are sometimes figuratively called the Host of heaven; these Apparitors in my Text are not called, but are so, literally and properly. The Wisemen were but Questionists, and raw Disciples, where is he that is born? These say the word when and where, with all other requisite additions, and put it out of question. The Wisemen adored him with costly Gifts after the manner of an earthly Prince: The Angels glorify him with Hymns and Praises after the Majesty of God. In every respect this is the greatest testimony of Christ in all the Scripture, excepting where God used his own voice immediately from Heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. These things are but said now, I will prove it in the prosecuting of the parts, which are these: The Messengers, the preparation to the Message, and the Message itself; or the Choristers, the preparation to their Music, and then the Anthem. The Choristers are 1. Heavenly ones; 2. A multitude; 3. An Host or an Army of them. Their preparation is twofold: With much suddenness, suddenly there was with the Angel; and with much cheerfulness, for they were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , singing praise unto God. The Anthem itself hath three rests in it, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and good will towards men.

And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the heavenly Host; these are the Choristers that sung the Carol, and the first thing we note in them, is, that they were heavenly ones. Many things in the former Verses of this Chapter were exceeding mean, if I may not say vile and sordid, touching our Savior's Nativity: but this portion of the story is of another nature and very honorable; the more his Divinity had hid itself in Clouts, in Flesh, in a Manger, the more it is illustrated by a glorious testimony. The Earth afforded him one of the worst places it had, the Heavens afforded him their very best attendance, the Angels. These heavenly Spirits, you see, gaze not upon the Work of our Redemption, nor upon the Economy of the Church as idle Spectators, but they were employed from the beginning in all the works of the Lord, Job xxxviii. 7. Who laid the corner stone of the earth, when the morning Stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy? Some Expositors infer from hence, that the Angels applauded and praised the Lord for the Creation of the world; for the Chaldee Paraphrase instead of the Sons of God reads it Acies Angelorum, the Army of Angels: And the Septuagint 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , when the corner stone of the earth was laid, all my Angels praised me with a loud voice. St. Chrysostom says upon it, that the Angels admired to see the beauty of the world beneath, they were astonished to behold the degrees of the Elements, the multitude of all sorts of Creatures, their Order, Number, and measure: And by so much were they transported with the beauty of God's Excellency more than we, and of all his Works, by how much they did better perceive that they were wrought with infinite and inexplicable wisdom. This apprehension of the Fathers upon those words of Job I think is not to be refused. Anastasius Sinaita is cited to go a great deal further, that on the fourth day of the Creation the Angels saw the Sun rise in the morning from under the interposition of the Earth, and presently they bethought them how Christ, Sol justitiae, should be born of a pure Virgin, and dwell upon the earth, and immediately they sung this very Song, Gloria in excelsis, as a prevention or prediction what should be sang upon this day, almost four thousand years before it came to pass. But this conjecture supposeth one of these two things scarce to be admitted, either that these heavenly ones foresaw the fall of Adam before it came to pass, as well as God, and that the Son of God should be given in the flesh for a Propitiation to be the remedy; or else another scholastic quidlibet must be received, that Christ was so the head of the Angels, that he should have been Incarnate, and the Angels saved by faith in that Incarnation, though Adam had never fallen; which is but harsh in the delivery.

This is the true Doctrine, and the right descant upon the Point, these Spirits that dwell in Heaven rejoiced for the Creation of the Earth, when the Foundations of it were laid, as Job says, how much more would they bear a part, and triumph for our sakes at the Restauration, and the Redemption of the Earth? Yet now we are at the truth, mistake not the reason of their joy as some have done; let me but touch upon a petty error, and so proceed to the true causes. It is supposed by many that the Angels are ready to attend the Church with all their help and diligence, and exceeding glad in our prosperity, because they receive an augmentation of their blessedness by their pious Ministry towards the Sons of men. Now this savors of a little servility, me thinks, as if those holy ones did not communicate themselves to be safeguards and watchmen over us without expectation of reward; but Biel presseth it further, Tum sequitur si homo non fuisset creandus, Angelus non habuisset beatitudinem; It would follow, that Angels had never come to the height of their beatitude unless men had been created; nay, it will follow further, they should come short of their full beatitude unless man had sinned, and disobeyed God's Commandment.

Let me lay down more sufficient reasons therefore for your further satisfaction.

First, The Angels had always done their best to pitch their Pavilions round about us, and to keep us from the tyranny of the Devil, but they perceived that their protection was not a saving Medicine, it would not cure, it would not keep us in life; but it bred them great content and joy when Christ did manifest himself in flesh upon the earth to heal our sores and bruises, and to overcome that strong man for us, and spoil him, generally to supply in himself whatsoever was defective in their abilities. This is Origen's reason, and his Simile follows, as if many unexpert, but well affected Physicians, should spend their pains to no profit about a sick person whom they would fain recover, and hearing that one of renowned skill, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , was come into the City, who would undoubtedly restore the languishing party, all the rest that had attempted it did much congratulate his coming: So our heavenly Friends the Angels could not speed us as they desired, but as soon as they saw the