SERM. welfare. Perhaps Chrift died with intention to do me LXXIV. good; perhaps he never did mean any fuch thing. Perhaps thofe expreffions of kindness founding fo generally do not include me; perhaps I am excluded, and only deluded by them. When a man cannot say to Christ, O my Saviour!-O my Mediator! &c. nor ufe his interceffion with God for the procurement of faith, of grace, of any good thing.

7. It is a ground and motive of charity; there arifing thence a more confiderable relation between all men; being all the objects of Chrift's love and mercy should endear men to one another; it rendereth every man valuable in our eyes, as dear and precious in God's fight. It should make his falvation defirable to us.

Pray for all men, faith St. Paul.

The contrary opinion removeth this ground of charity; and fo cooleth it.

8. It should confequently render us careful to promote the falvation of others, and fearful to hinder it by ill example, by ill doctrine, by any misbehaviour. So doth St. Paul argue, when he faith, Destroyeft thou him for whom Chrift died?

9. It is a piece of justice to acknowledge the right and intereft of every man in his Saviour.

A wrong to exclude any; to confine and appropriate this great bleffing; to engross, to inclose a common; to reftrain that by forging diftinctions, which is fo unlimit edly expreffed.

The undertakings and performances of our Saviour did refpect all men, as the common works of nature do; as the air we breathe in, as the fun which fhineth on us; the which are not given to any man particularly, but to all generally; not as a proper inclosure, but as a commonthey are indeed mine, but not otherwise than as they do belong to all men.

A gift they are to all equally, though they do not prove to all a bleffing; there being no common gift, which by the refufal, neglect, or ill use of it may not prove a curfe -a favour of death.

SERMON LXXV.

THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD, TIDINGS OF
GREAT JOY.

LUKE ii. 10.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people a.

THE proper business of a feftival is fpiritual joy, con- SERM. ceived in our hearts by reflection on fome notable bleffing LXXV. conferred on us; accompanied with a grateful fenfe and expreffion, answerable to the special bounty and mercy of God, in due proportion to the nature and degree of that bleffing.

16.

Phil. iv. 4.

Such joy is a duty, or a part of religious devotion, re- 1 Theff. v. quired by God, and very acceptable to him: for as God Rom. xii. would have his fervants perpetually content, well fatisfied, 12: and cheerful in all states, and upon all occurrences; fo he doth especially demand from us, that we should entertain his favours with delight and complacence; it being proper, it being feemly, it being just, so to do: for fince joy is a natural refult of our obtaining whatever we do apprebend 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

· Ιδὲ γὰρ εὐαγγελίζομαι ὑμῖν χαρὰν μεγάλην, ἥτις ἔσαι παντὶ τῷ λαῷ.

SERM. we do not mind them, or take them to be little worth, LXXV. that we do not fenfibly relish them, or accept them kindly.

7

And if ever we are obliged, if ever we are concerned so to rejoice, then surely it is now; when the fairest occafion and highest cause of joy that ever was is presented to us; when certain news from heaven, and the best that ever came from thence, of the most admirable, the most glorious, the most beneficial event, that ever happened in the world, is in a manner suitably rare conveyed to us; for, Behold, faith the angel, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

Upon which words (each whereof is emphatical, and pregnant with matter obfervable) we shall first make a brief defcant, or paraphrase, supplying the room of a curious analysis; then we fhall urge the main duty couched in them.

'18, 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 small regard, but moft 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 most evident to your sense, and which by confpicuous proofs shall be demonstrated; in the mean while you have no flight authority for it: for

Evayyeλígoμaι, I bring good tidings; I, an angel, a special meffenger of God purposely fent on this errand, that by the ftrangeness of my apparition I may excite you to regard it, by the weight of my teftimony I may incline you to believe it, by the 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 shape: for I bring

Εὐαγγελίζομαι χαρὰν μεγάλην, good tidings of great joy : I bring tidings that may gratify the curiofity of any man,

LXXV.

the mind of man naturally being greedy of news: good SERM. 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 minifter 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 consequence to you: (fuch, indeed, as you shall 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 spiritual welfare, your everlasting condition, the future joy and happiness of your fouls ;) tidings, indeed, the most gladsome that ever founded upon earth, that ever entered into mortal ear: thefe I bring

lantibus,

de Nat.

Tu, to you: to you fhepherds; 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 hardship; witnefs the open Luke ii. 9. field, witnefs the cold feafon, witness the dark night, in which I find you watching and guarding your sheep; Pauperibus to you, who could expect no very welcome tidings; who atque vigiare little concerned in any great tranfactions, and can &c. Bern. have small ambition or hope of bettering your condition Serm. 5. by any changes here; even to you (not in the first place to the mighty princes, to the crafty statesmen, to the fage philofophers, or learned rabbies, to the wealthy merchants, or fine citizens, who now are warm in their houses, enjoying their ease and pleasure; repofing on their beds, or fitting by their fires, or revelling at their banquets and sports; but to you) poor, harmless, filly, industrious fouls, who well may reprefent the greater and better part of mankind; in this furprising and abfolutely free way the gracious Lord of heaven by me his fpecial minifter doth vouchsafe to fend from thence tidings of great joy: which shall be b. Havrì tộ xaq, to all people; or rather to all the people ; Matt. that is, to God's ancient and peculiar people, in regard to 24. x. 6. which it is faid, I was not fent but to the loft sheep of the Luke xxiv.

xv.

Rom. ix. 4.

47. Acts xiii. 46. Ifa ii. 3. Zech ix. 9. Rom. ix. 4.

LXXV.

SERM. houfe of Ifrael; to that people, I fay, especially, primarily, and more immediately this joy did appertain; it, by a clofer relation to God, and fpecial intereft in his promises, having plainest title thereto; it, from anticipations of knowledge, faith, and hope, being more capable to admit fuch an overture; it indeed being the representative of all the spiritual Israel, or faithful feed of Abraham, for whom the benefits which these 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 present 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 extensively 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 Luke ii. 31. have avτ T λaw, to all the people; but in the nunc dimittis of old Simeon, we have Tάvtwv twv λam̃v, of all the peoLuke ii. 30. ples: Mine eyes, faid he, have seen thy falvation, which thou haft prepared before the face of all the peoples; As he Luke ii. 32. was the glory of his people Ifrael; as in him God did vifit i. 68. and redeem that his people; fo he was made a light to Ifa. xlix. 6. lighten the Gentiles, and to be for falvation to the uttermoft Luke ii. 38. ends of the earth: he was the expectation of Ifrael; but he Hag. ii. 7. was likewise the defire of all nations: he was deftined to Mic. v. 2. rule in Sion; but the Heathen also were given for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his Ifa. xi. 10. poffeffion: he was the root of Jeffe, which should ftand for an enfign of the people, to which the Gentiles should seek ; he was that royal Person, of whom the Pfalmist did fing, Pfal. Ixxii. Men fhall be blessed in him; all nations fhall call him blessed.

Acts xiii.47.

xlii. 6.

Pfal. ii. 8.

17.

He was to be born by nation a Jew, but a man by nature; the Son of man was a style which he commonly did own and affect, no lefs than the Son of Abraham, or of Gal. iv. 4. David; he was born indeed under the law, but of a woman; Heb. ii. 14. and therefore brother to us all, as partaker of the fame