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xlv. 6.

fcribe; whom Mofes and Jofhua, whom David and 3 E R M. Solomon in fo many pat circumftances did forefhadow; whom God would fet upon his holy bill of Sion; the feepter. of whofe kingdom is a mighty fcepter; who P. ii. 6. fhould raife the tabernacle of David that is fallen; be- 1xxii. 11. fore whom all Kings should fall down, and whom all na- Acts. xv. tions fhould ferve; who should reign over the house Jacob for ever, and of whofe kingdom there shall be

end.

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of Am. ix. 11. Dan. vii. 13.

no

Luke i. 33.

Mic. iv. 7.

xcvi.

Now what can be more delightful, or fatisfactory Aug. in Pf. to our mind, than to reflect on this fweet harmony of things, this goodly correfpondence between the old and new world; wherein fo pregnant evidences of God's chief attributes (of his goodness, of his wifdom, of his fidelity and conftancy) all confpiring to our benefit, do fhine? Is it not pleafant to conteinplate how provident God hath ever been for our welfare? what trains from the world's beginning, or ever fince our unhappy fall, he hath been laying to repair and restore us? how wifely he hath ordered all difpenfations with a convenient reference and tendency to this masterpiece of grace ? how steady he hath been in profecuting his defigns, and how faithful in accomplishing his promifes concerning it ?

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If the holy Patriarchs did fee this day, and were glad; Joh.viii. 56. if a glimpfe thereof did caufe their hearts to leap "Hyannawithin them; if its very dawn had on the fpirits of the Prophets fo vigorous an influence, what comfort and complacence fhould we feel in this its real prefence, and bright afpect on us! How fenfibly should we be affected with this our happy advantage above them; the which our Lord himfelf then did teach

Non itaque novo confilio Deus rebus humanis, nec fera miseratione confuluit, fed a conftitutione mundi unam eandemque omnibus caufam falutis inftituit. Leo P. de Nat. Serm. 3.

i Magnam enim jucunditatem tunc carpebant ipfi fancti Prophetæ, cum ea videbant in fpiritu, non jam impleta, fed adhuc futura. Aug. in Pf. xcvi.

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SER M. us to eftimate duly, when he faid, Blessed are your eyes, for they fee; and your ears, for they bear: for verily I fay unto you, that many prophets and righteous men Matt. xiii. bave defired to fee thofe things which ye fee, and have not feen them; and to hear thofe things which ye bear, and have not heard them.

16, 17.

2. Let us confider what alteration our Lord's Eph. ii. 14. coming did induce, by comparing the state of things before it to that which followed it. The old world

then confifting of two parts, fevered by a ftrong wall of partition, made up of difference in opinion, in Afts x. 28. practice, in affection, together with a ftrict prohibition to one of holding intercourfe with the other.

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Of one, and that far the greater part, St. Paul Eph. ii. 12-hath given us these descriptions and characters: They were aliens from the commonwealth of Ifracl, and firangers from the covenant, having no hope, and being withEph. ii. 3. out God in the world; they were by nature the children of wrath, and of difobedience; they were dead in trefpaffes and fins, walking according to the courfe of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit that worketh in the children of difobedience; Eph. iv. they did walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of Gad, through the ignorance that was in them, because of the blindness of their heart; and being paft feeling, did give themselves over unto lafcivioufnefs, to work all uncleannefs with greediness; they had their converfation in the lufts of the flesh, fulfilling the defires of the flesh, Tit. ii. 3. and of the mind; being foolish, difobedient, deceived, (Eph. v. 8. ferving divers lufts and pleafures, living in malice and Col. ii. 13. envy, hateful, and hating one another. Such was the 1 Cor. vi. cafe, the difmally wretched cafe, of the Gentile 2 Cor. iv. 4. world; fuch were our forefathers, (fuch after them of courfe, by fatal confequence, fhould we have been,) 1 Pet. iv. 3. they were in their minds blinded with grofs ignorance, and deluded with foul errors; they were in their wills and affections corrupted with great diforder, perverfenefs, fenfuality, malice; they did in

Eph. ii. 3.

Col. iii. 7.

11.

I Theff. iv.

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Gal. iv. 8. Rom. i. 29.)

ii. 2.

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2 Cor. iv.

2 Tim. ii.

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ii. 15.

their converfation practife all forts of impiety, ini- s ER M. quity, and impurity; their conceptions of God were very unworthy, and their worship anfwerably fuch; (full of fottish, favage, beaftly fuperftitions;) their principles were vain, and their life conformably dif folute; in thort, they lived under the domination and influence of wicked fpirits, who thence are styled lords and princes of this world, of this air, of this fecu- Eph. vi. 12. lar darkness: even of the wifeft among them, (the (John xii. number of whom, notwithstanding the clatter their 3. xiv. 30. writings made, was very small and inconsiderable,) of vi. II. those who by the conduct of natural light ftrove to 4 difengage themselves from vulgar mistakes and mifcarriages, the cafe was little better; for even their Col. i. 13. minds (after all their ftudious difquifitions and de- Acts xxvi. bates) proved dark and giddy; full of ignorance, of 18.) error, of doubt in regard to the main points of religion, and of morality; fome of them flatly denying the existence, or (which in effect is the fame) the providence of God; the natural diftinction between good and evil, the spiritual nature and future fubfiftence of our fouls, the difpenfation of rewards and punishments after this life; others wavering in doubt, or having but faint perfuafions about these matters; few or none having clear notions, or fteady opinions about any fuch things; whence their practice, in correspondence to their rules, muft needs have been very loofe, or very lame; fo that well might our Apostle fay of them, They became vain in their reafonings, and their foolish heart was darkened; ahoyise profeffing themfelves wife, they became fools; and as they p did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave 21-28. them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which

are not convenient.

Διαλογίσα

Rom. i.

As for the other part, or little parcel of men, the condition of that was alfo very low: if the rest of the world did lie in dark night, they did live but in a dufky twilight; their religion was much wrapt up in fhadow and mystery; they had but dilute ideas 5. x. 1.

of

Col. ii. 17. Heb. viii.

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SER M. of God's nature, and fcant difcoveries of his will; their law or rule of practice in divers refpects was defective and infirm; they were locked under the difcipline of childish rudiments, fuiting their raw capacities, and under the bondage of flavish yokes, befitting their ftubborn difpofitions; which defailances in notion their practice commonly did outstrip being fond, corrupt, hypocritical, void of interior, fubftantial and genuine righteoufnefs; as the old Prophets did often complain, and as our Lord, with his Apoftles, did urge.

Rom. xi. 32. iii. 9. 19.

Matt. iv.

15, 16.

Such was the state of the world in its parts, and Gal. iii. 22. jointly of the whole it may be faid, that it was but up under fin and guilt, under darknefs and weak nefs, under death and corruption, under forrow and woe: that no full declaration of God's pleasure, no clear overture of mercy, no exprefs grant of fpiritual aid, no certain redemption from the filth or the force of fin, from the ftroke of death, from due punishment hereafter; no encouragements fuitable to high devotion, or strict virtue, were any wife in a folemn way exhibited or difpenfed before our Lord's appearance fo that well might all men be then repreIfa. ix. 1. fented as Cimmerians, fitting in darkness, in the region and fhadow of death; well may we fuppofe all ages foregoing to have teemed with hope and defire of Rom. viii. this happy day; or that (as St. Paul faith) the whole creation (that is, all mankind) groaneth together, and travaileth together until now; as labouring with pangs of implicit defire, or under a painful fenfe of needing a Saviour; well might Ifaiah thus proclaim his comfa. lx.1, ing; Arife, fhine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rifen upon thee: for behold darkness fhall cover the land, and grofs darkness the people; but the Lord fhall arife upon thee, and his glory fhall be seen upon thee; and the Gentiles fhall come to thy light, and Pfal. xcviii. kings to the brightness of thy rifing: for, now, the Lord hath made known his falvation, his righteousness bath he openly herved in the fight of the heathen. The

22.

2,3.

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Lord

Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the SER M. nations, and all the ends of the earth do fee the falvation of our God.

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II.

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Now we are all children of the light, and of the day; 1 Theff. v. all do know God from the least to the greatest; the rar- 5. (2 Cor. iii. eft, the deepest notions are grown common and ob- 18. iv. 6.) vious; every child is inftructed in the highest truths, Heb. viii. every peasant is become a great philofopher, (beyond Jer. xxxi. Ariftotle, or Plato, or Epictetus,) fkilful of the best 34 knowledge, able to direct his life in the best way, capable of obtaining the beft good.

Tit. ii. 11.

Now the fpirit of God (the fpirit of direction, of Acts ii. 17. fuccour, of comfort fpiritual,) is poured upon all foc ii. 28. flesh. Now the grace of God, that bringeth falvation, Luke xxiv. bath appeared to all men; fully inftructing them in 47. their duty, and ftrongly enabling them to perform it, freely offering them mercy, mightily encouraging them with hopes of moft bleffed rewards.

Now Jew and Gentile are reunited and com- Eph. iii. 6. pacted in one body; walking in the fame light, and ii. 15. under obligation to the fame laws; fharing in a common redemption and inheritance; being infeparably linked together with the bands of faith, of charity, of fpiritual fraternity; thus old things are paffed 2 Cor. v. away, behold all things are become new, in virtue and '7 confequence of our Lord's appearance: in contemplation of which fo great, fo general, fo happy a sparis. change, how can we forbear to rejoice?

But farther, that we may yet more nearly touch the point,

17.

Heb. ix. 10.

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3. Let us confider that the nativity of our Lord is a grand inftance, a pregnant evidence, a rich earnest of Almighty God's very great affection and benignity toward mankind: for, In this (faith St. John) the 1 John iv. love of God was manifefted, that God fent his only be-3 gotten Son into the world; and, Through the tender mer- 17. cies of our God (fang old Zechariah) the day-Spring Luke i. 73. from on high did vifit us: this indeed is the peculiar experiment, wherein that moft divine attribute did

thew

John iii. 16,

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