though they do not need a mediator in the same sense that we do. But I have not time to enlarge upon this. You now see the reasons of the joy of angels on this occasion : and it is no wonder they sung, "Glory to God in the highest, for peace proclaimed on earth, and good-will towards men." But how ought we to improve this subject more immediately for our own advantage? This is our great concern; for we are personally interested in it, which the angels were not; at least, not in the same degree. Hence then, We may learn how we ought to celebrate the birth of Christ celebrate it like angels, not with balls and assemblies— not with revelling and carousing, and all the extravagancies that are usual at this season; as if you were celebrating the birth of Venus or Bacchus, or some patron of iniquity; not with the sound of bells, muskets and cannons, and the other demonstrations of joy, upon occasions of a civil nature. Some of these are not innocent upon any occasion, and have a direct tendency to make men still more thoughtless, and giddy, and to prevent the blessed effects of this illustrious birth. Others of them, though lawful upon seasons of public national joy, for temporal blessings or deliverances, yet are impious and profane, when practised in honour of the incarnation of the holy Jesus. You will all grant, no doubt, that religious joy ought to be expressed in a religious manner; that the usual mirth, festivity, and gaiety of a birth-night, in honour of our earthly sovereign, are not proper expressions of joy for the birth of a spiritual Saviour—a Saviour from this vain world-from sin and hell. Therefore, I say, celebrate it as the angels did; giving glory to God in the highest, in your songs of praise; giving him glory by dwelling upon the wonders of redemption, in delightful meditation; by giving him your thoughts and affections; and by a life of devotion and universal obedience. Celebrate the birth of this great Prince of peace, by accepting that peace which angels proclaimed. Give a welcome reception to this glorious stranger. Do not turn him out of doors, as the Bethlemites did; but entertain him in your hearts. Let every faculty of your souls open to receive him. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors, that the king of glory may come in." O let every heart cry, "Come in, thou blessed of the Lord : * Psalm xxiv. 7. wherefore standest thou without ?"* He came to procure and restore peace between God and man; therefore I, his poor ambassador, " pray you in his stead, be ye reconciled to God." No longer continue in arms, rejecting his authority, trampling upon his laws, and refusing the offers of his grace: otherwise, this peace will not extend to you; but war, eternal war, will continue between you and the Lord God omnipotent. But if the boldest rebel among you this day submit to his government, you shall enjoy the blessed peace, which angels proclaimed at his entrance into the world, and which he left as a legacy to his friends, when he was about to leave it. Make peace also with your own conscience; and scorn to live at variance with yourselves. How ill do you take it, when others condemn you? and can you be easy, while perpetually condemning yourselves? Let conscience have full liberty to exercise its authority upon you, as Jehovah's deputy, and dare not to disobey its orders. Live in peace also with one another. Silence; ye noisy brawlers: the Prince of Peace is born. Peace! be still! ye contentious, angry passions: the Prince of peace is born. Away slander, backbiting, quarrelling, envy, malice, revenge-away to your native hell: for know ye not, that the Prince of peace has entered into this world, and forbid you to appear upon it? Thus, brethren, celebrate the birth of the Saviour, and that not only upon this day, but every day through all your lives: and thus you may have a merry Christmas all the year round. To conclude. What encouragement may this angelic proclamation afford to trembling desponding penitents? Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy; for to you is born a Saviour, Christ the Lord. Oh do not your hearts spring within you at the news? I have somewhere heard of a crowd of criminals under condemnation, confined in one dungeon and upon a messenger's arriving from their king, and proclaiming a pardon, they all rushed out so eagerly to receive the pardon, and see the publisher of the joyful news, that they trod and crushed one another to death. And shall there be no such pressing and crowding to Jesus Christ in this assembly to-day? Shall there be no such eagerness among us to receive a pardon from his hands? Alas! will any of you turn this greatest blessing of heaven into a curse? Was it your destroyer that was born, when the angels * Gen. xxiv. 31. + 2 Cor. v. 20. + John xiv. 27. sung the birth of a Saviour? Indeed, if you continue to neglect him, you will find him such to you; and it would have been better for you, that neither you nor He had ever been born. Even the birth of the Prince of peace proclaims eternal war against you. I therefore now pray you in his stead to be reconciled to him. Amen. AN HYMN. The Nativity of Christ. By Dr. WATTS. “SHEPHERDS, rejoice, lift up your eyes, Jesus, the God whom angels fear Comes down to dwell with you; To-day he makes his entrance here, No gold, nor purple swaddling bands, Thus Gabriel sang, and straight around "Glory to God that reigns above, Lord! and shall angels have their songs, O! may we lose these useless tongues, Glory to God that reigns above, We join to sing our Maker's love, SERMON 80. CHRISTIANS SOLEMNLY REMINDED OF THEIR OBLIGATIONS. JOSHUA Xxiv. 22.—And Joshua said unto the people, ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen to yourselves the Lord to serve him. And they said, we are witnesses. SHOULD we view the conduct of mankind towards God, we should be tempted to think, they are under no obligations to him, but entirely at their own disposal, and at liberty to act as they please. Who would imagine that he is their God, when they are so careless about his worship; their master, when they are so negligent in his service; their father, when they are so regardless of their duty to him; or their ruler, when they follow their own wills, without consulting his pleasure? And much less should we imagine, they have voluntarily taken upon them the most sacred and solemn obligations to him. But is this really the case? Are they indeed quite lawless and unobliged? Have they a right to use the proud language of Pharaoh, "Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice?" No; let them act as they will, let them think what they please, they are under the strongest possible obligations to the great God: nay, they have generally assumed voluntary obligations upon themselves. This is our case in particular; especially since the solemn transaction of the last Lord's day : a transaction which I would now help you to review, that you may the better improve it in future life. In this view, I may accommodate to you the words of my text, " Ye are witnesses against yourselves, that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him." And you cannot but confess with the Israelites, that you are witnesses. Joshua, the brave general of the people of Israel, had not only settled them in the promised land, but had used all his influence, during his life, to engage them to the Lord. And when by the course of nature, he must take his farewell of them, and could use his personal influence with them no longer, he is solicitous to leave them so fast bound to the Lord, that he might die with the pleasing hope, that they would continue in his service from generation to generation. For this end he calls them together, and makes his last speech to them, which, I think, is a pattern of persuasive oratory, not equalled by any of the ancient Greeks and Romans. After drawing them on to choose the Lord for their God, and bind themselves to his service, over and over, by their own personal act, and of their own free choice, he takes them at their word, and holds them fast. And to render the obligation more solemn, and strike them with greater horror at the violation of it, he addresses them as witnesses against themselves, that they had chosen the Lord to serve him. Accommodating the words to our circumstances, I intend, I. To shew, that we are under obligations to serve the Lord from our own choice, or voluntary engagements. II. To inquire, how and when, or in what respects, and at what periods of time, we are witnesses against ourselves, that we have thus chosen the Lord to serve him. I. I am to shew, that we are under obligations to serve the Lord from our own choice, or voluntary engagements. Here I would premise, that though voluntary obligations, taken upon ourselves by our own act, have something of a peculiar force in them, yet they are not the only obligations we are under to serve the Lord. We are bound to be his servants, whether we will or not. His character as our creator, our preserver and benefactor, and as a being of supreme excellency, gives him the most firm and indisputable right to our obedience. And our relations to him as his creatures, his beneficiaries and dependants, lay a foundation for obligations, which are not suspended upon our consent. Our consent is not a matter of favour, but of indispensable obligation. We are born his servants, and must continue so, as long as we exist. We can no more dissolve our obligations to him, than we can destroy that being which we received from him. If children do naturally owe duty to their parents, who begat them and who provide for them; if subjects owe obedience to their sovereign, in return for his protection; certainly we are by nature under the strongest ties of duty to our heavenly Father and supreme King. The case is not here as among equals, who are under no obligations to one another, till they enter into them by voluntary contract. But here, the obligation is founded in nature, and therefore prior to, and independent upon, all acts of our own. It is naturally our duty to serve the Lord, whether we consent or not : and our not consenting is so far from keeping us free from obli |