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SERMON I.

The Nativity of our Lord, Tidings of great
Joy.

LUKE ii. 10.

And the Angel faid unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people".

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I.

HE proper business of a festival is fpiritual s ER M. joy, conceived in our hearts, by reflection on fome notable bleffing conferred on us; accompanied with a grateful fenfe and expreffion, anfwerable to the special bounty and mercy of God, in due proportion to the nature and degree of that bleffing. Such joy is a duty, or a part of religious devotion, 1 Theff. v. required by God, and very acceptable to him: for 16. as God would have his fervants perpetually content, 12. well fatisfied, and cheerful in all states, and upon all Phil. iv. 4. occurrences; fo he doth efpecially demand from us, that we should entertain his favours with delight and complacence; it being proper, it being feemly, it being juft, fo to do: for fince joy is a natural refult of our obtaining whatever we do apprehend

2 Ιδὲ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν χαρὰν μεγάλην, ἥτις ἔσαι παντὶ τῷ λαῷ. VOL. II.

good,

Rom. xii.

I.

SER M. good, or esteem and affect; the conception of it is a plain argument, that we do well understand, do rightly prize, do cordially like, do thankfully embrace God's favours; as, on the contrary, a defect of it doth imply, that we do not mind them, or take them to be little worth, that we do not fenfibly relith them, or accept them kindly. And if ever we are obliged, if ever we are concerned fo to rejoice, then surely it is now; when the fairest occafion and highest cause of joy that ever was is prefented to us; when certain news from heaven, and the best that ever came from thence, of the most admirable, the most glorious, the moft bencficial event, that ever happened in the world, is in a manner fuitably rare conveyed to us; for, Behold, faith the Angel, I bring you tidings of great joy, which fhall be to all people.

Upon which words (each whereof is emphatical, and pregnant with matter obfervable) we fhall firft make a brief defcant or paraphrafe, fupplying the room of a curious analyfis; then we fhall urge the main duty couched in them.

'Id, Behold: This is a word denoting admiration, exciting attention, intimating affurance: Behold, and admire; it is no mean, no ordinary matter, that I report, but a most remarkable, a very marvellous event: Behold, and attend, it is a business not to be paffed over with fmall regard, but most worthy your confideration, of high moment and concernment to you. Behold, and fee; it is no uncertain, no obfcure thing; but that whereof you may be fully affured, as if it were moft evident to your fenfe, and which by confpicuous proofs fhall be demonftrated; in the mean while you have no flight authority for it : For

EvayleníCopas, I bring good tidings; I, an angel, a fpecial meffenger of God purpofely fent on this errand, that by the ftrangeness of my apparition I may, excite you to regard it, by the weight of my

teftimony

1.

teflimony I may incline you to believe it, by the s ER M. dignity of my nature I may declare the importance of it; I, a faithful fervant of God, and a kind friend to men, very willing at his command to perform good offices to them, do bring a meffage well becoming an angel's mouth, worth my defcent from heaven, and putting on this visible fhape: for I bring

Εὐαγ[ελίζομαι χαρὰν μεγάλην, good tidings of great joy: I bring tidings, that may gratify the curiofity of any man, the mind of man naturally being greedy of news: good tidings; thofe are welcome to all men, and apt to yield more pleasure than any knowledge we had before: tidings of joy; fuch as may not only minister a dry fatisfaction to your reafon, but fenfibly touch your affections, by the comfortable nature and beneficial tendency of them: tidings of great joy; as not touching any indifferent or petty bufinefs, but affairs of nearest concernment and highest confequence to you: (fuch, indeed, as you fhall understand, which do concern not the poor interests of this world, not the forry pleasures of fenfe, not any flender advantage of your prefent life and temporal state; but your fpiritual welfare, your everlasting condition, the future joy and happiness of your fouls ;) tidings, indeed, the moft gladfome that ever founded upon earth, that ever entered into mortal ear: these I bring

Tuiv, to you to you Shepherds; perfons of mean condition, and fimple capacity, leading this innocent and humble fort of life, employed in your honeft vocation, undergoing toilfome labour and fore hardfhip; witness the open field, witnefs the cold feason, witness the dark night, in which I find you watching, Luke ii. 8, and guarding your fheep'; to you, who could expect no very welcome tidings; who are little concerned in any great transactions, and can have finall

Pauperibus atque vigilantibus, &c. Bern, de Nat. Serm. 5.

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I.

SER M. ambition or hope of bettering your condition by any changes here; even to you (not in the first place to the mighty princes, to the crafty fatefmen, to the fage philofophers, or learned rabbies, to the wealthy merchants, or fine citizens, who now are warm in their houses, enjoying their eafe and pleafure; repofing on their beds, or fitting by their fires, or revelling at their banquets and sports; but to you) poor, harmless, filly, induftrious fouls; who well may reprefent the greater and better part of mankind, in this furprifing and abfolute free way, the gracious Lord of heaven by me his fpecial minifter doth vouchsafe to fend from thence tidings of great joy which fhall be

Matt. xv. 24. X. 6.

47.

Harri Txap, to all people; or rather to all the peoRom. ix. 4. ple; that is to God's ancient and peculiar people, in Luke xxiv. regard to which it is faid, I was not fent but to the loft Acts xiii. Sheep of the house of Ifrael; to that people, I fay, espe45. cially, primarily, and more immediately this joy did Zech. ix. 9. appertain; it, by a clofer relation to God, and fpeRom. ix. 4. cial intereft in his promifes, having plaineft title

Ifa. ii. 3.

thereto; it, from anticipations of knowledge, faith, and hope, being more capable to admit fuch an overture; it indeed being the reprefentative of all the spiritual Ifrael, or faithful feed of Abraham, for whom the benefits which thefe tidings import were defigned; to it first indeed, but mediately and confequentially to all people difperfed on the face of the earth. The expreffion feemeth adapted to the prefent conceits of that nation, which apprehended nothing about God's favourable intentions to the community of men: but in effect it is to be understood extenfively in reference to all people: for the Saviour, the Chrift, the Lord, of whom this good news did report, was not only to be the Redeemer and Governor of that fmall people, but of the world, of every nation, of all mankind: here indeed we have mari rộ hay, to all the people; but in the nunc dimitLuke ii. 31. tis of old Simeon, we have Tvr Tv λav, of all the

peoples;

I.

ii. 32.

Ifa. xlix. 6.

peoples: Mine eyes, faid he, have feen thy falvation, s E R M. which thou haft prepared before the face of the peoples: As he was the glory of his people Ifrael; as in him God did vifit and redeem that his people; fo he was made Luke i. 68. a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be for falvation 10 Acts xiii. the uttermoft ends of the earth: he was the expectation 47of Ifrael; but he was likewife the defire of all nations: xlii. 6. he was destined to rule in Sion; but the Heathen alfo Luke ii. 38. were given for his inheritance, and the uttermoft parts of Pal. ii. 8. the earth for his poffeffion: he was the root of felle, Mic. V. 20 which fhould ftand for an ensign of the people, to which the Gentiles fhould feek; he was that royal Perfon, of whom the Pfalmift did fing, men fhall be bleffed in him, Pfal. Ixxii. all nations fhall call him bleffed.

Hag. ii. 7.

17.

v. 2.

He was to be born by nation a few, but a man by nature; the Son of man, was a ftyle which he commonly did own and affect, no lefs than the Son of Abraham, or of David; he was born indeed under the Gat. iv. 4. law, but of a woman; and therefore brother to us all, as partaker of the fame flesh and blood: hence was Ileb. ii. 14. he endued with an human compaffion, and with a fraternal affection toward all men; hence was he difpofed to extend the benefit of his charitable and gracious performances unto them all.

Judea therefore must not engross this angelical Gofpel; it is of importance moft univerfal and unlimited, reaching through all fucceffions of time, and all extenfions of place; filling all ages and regions of the world with matter and with obligation of joy : hence even by Mofes anciently (according to St. Paul's interpretation) were all nations upon this ac- Rom. xv. count invited to a common joy; Rejoice, faid he, 10. O ye nations with his people. Hence, in forefight of this event, the holy Pfalmift (as the Fathers expound pfal. xcvii. him) did fing, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice, 1. xcvi. 1.

- Την προτέραν το σωτῆρος ἐπιφάνειαν προλέγει.

Totum ad Chriftum revocemus, fi volumus iter recte intelligentiæ tenere. Aug. in Pf. xcvi. 7.

Deut. xxxii.

43.

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