WE cannot more properly celebrate the Memory of the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord, (the Pious purpose of our present Assembling) than by fixing our Meditations on the Nature; Reason, and Design of that most wonderful Undertaking and Condescension of the Son of God. This is a sure way to sanctifie our Feast, and make it truly an Holy-Day. Not that we are to neglect the History: The bare Narrative of the thing done affords very proper and useful entertainment for this Season; It refreshes the Memory in all the mighty particulars of this stu­pendious Transaction, and so helps to settle them firmer in the Mind; it raises and warms the Fancy, excites and quickens the Affections of the Soul, all which have very considerable influence upon Practice. This is to keep Holy-day too; to listen with the Shep­herds, to the Glad-tydings of the bright Ambassa­dour of Heaven, and the triumphant Melody of [Page 2] the Celestial Choir, which assisted at that Solemnity; then to accompany the Eastern Sages conducted by a Light held out from Heaven, to behold the place where the infinite Infant lay; to read the wondrous History of the New-born-Babe, as it was fairly writ­ten, long before his Birth, in the Prophecies of the Old Testament, concerning the Tribe, the Family, the Name, the Place, the Time, and the Manner of the Nativity of Him, who was God as well as Man. All this is the work of the Day, and you have done it often, and the Church hath taken care by the Psalms and Lessons, and other parts of the proper Service, that it should never be quite omitted.

But there is still further and more lofty matter of Meditation in the Mercies and Mysteries of this Day: A Day contriv'd from all Eternity, prefigur'd from all Antiquity, which the Fulness of Time produc'd, which Holy Church and Holy Men in all Ages gladly commemorate, which Angels gaze at with Ecstasie and Rapture, and which both Men and An­gels shall eternally celebrate with shouts of Joy and everlasting Hallelujah's. Some part of this abound­ing Theme is presented to you by the words of my Text, in which is contain'd this principal Proposi­tion; That the Law was but an Introduction, or Dis­pensation preparatory to the Gospel; and the Proof of it taken from the Insufficiency of the Law to effect what God mainly propos'd to himself, the eternal Happiness of Mankind. For if there had been a Law given, which could have given life, verily Righ­teousness [Page 3] should have been by the Law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin, that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

In the whole Argument, as it lies in these words, there are, at least, four Particulars or Propositions:

First, That Man of himself has no Title to Im­mortal 1 Life. This is implyed and supposed, because God contrives a way to render him fairly capable of being saved.

Secondly, God sincerely desires the Life, that is, 2 the Salvation of Men, and has propos'd Means re­gularly to Accomplish it.

Thirdly, This was not, could not be, by the Law 3 of Moses; But,

Fourthly, By the Grace and Mercy exhibited to 4 the World in Jesus Christ; or, in the words of the Text, by the Promise, which by Faith of Jesus Christ, is given to them that believe.

As for the first of these; It is very evident, that 1 we are naturally without any plea for Eternal Life. The promise of Immortality was free unmerited Bounty, even to our First Parents, whilst they stood adorned with all the beauties of a spotless Innocence. The longest life of Man all spent in most unble­mished uniform Obedience to his Creators Laws could merit nothing at all, much less the inestimable reward of Everlasting Glory. Death, indeed, is, as we are told, Rom. 6. 23. the natural and dearly earn'd wages of Sin, but Eternal Life is the gift of God. The first [Page 4] and perfectest of our Kind could, at the best, be but an unprofitable Servant to the Infinite Master that he served. Nay, it was the peculiar Privilege and Hap­piness of his Nature, that he was able to perform a steddy and perpetual Obedience to all his Creators Will. Therefore the Psalmist prays for more de­grees of such Spiritual Power, and pleads his being a Creature to move his Maker to bestow them on him. Psal. 119. 73. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandments. Mans own Being, the excellent endowments of his Nature, his very Meat and Drink are liberal and abundant Wages for that Service, which is naturally due from the Creature to the Creator, and is as duly paid by all, Man only excepted, who yet is most obliged to it, as enjoying great Advantages, and even an Imperial Prerogative above all the rest; as if for Him alone the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth had been produc'd. Esai. 48. 13. Mine hand hath laid the foundation of the Earth, and my right hand hath spann'd the Heavens, saith the Lord by his holy Pro­phet, when I call unto them, they stand up together. Good reason, sure, that they should stand up, and be at the Call of Him, who gave them and supports them in their Being. Frogs and Locusts, and all Vermin come and go, as they are commanded off and on by the Sovereign Word of their Almighty Maker. The Ravens feed one Prophet, a Lion tears another; but hungry and ravenous, as they were, those Lions chose to fast and starye rather [Page 5] than hurt a third: A Fish swallows up a fourth, and then harmlesly restores him to Dry-land, and all at the Command of God. Judg. 5. 20. The Stars in their courses fight against Sisera: Psal. 148. 8. Fire and Hail, Snow and Vapour, and Stormy Wind are fulfilling his Word. These and all things else rejoyce in his Commandment, are ready upon Earth when need is, Ecclus. 39. 31. and when their time is come, they shall not transgress his Word, &c. But Man, only Man, like a pamper'd Rebel, grown great and insolent by the abus'd Indulgence of his Prince, boggled at the first and easiest Trial of his Obedience, and proudly disdain'd to acknowledge any Lord over him.

But what if he does his best? What has he of his own to offer to his God? Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompenced unto him again? Adam himself had nothing but what was given him, why should he glory then as if he had not received it? But then, again, what proportion is there between finite Performances and infinite Rewards? Nay, tho we undergo the sharpest afflictions in the discharge of our Duties, Rom. 8. 18. we are to reckon with St. Paul, that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be com­pared with the glory which shall be revealed, as in one place; 2 Cor. 4. 17. that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory, as he expresseth it in another. So that it must be agreed, as a thing evident both from Scripture and right Reason, that Man has no Natural and Ori­ginal Title to an happy Everlasting Life. But, yet, for all that, it is most certain that God did bestow [Page 6] on him an Immortal Soul, not with a design to destroy it again, but on purpose that he might live for ever with himself in Eternal Glory. But the Apostate Seraphim envied so great a Privilege to a New-made Creature, so far inferiour to himself, and Man was presently cheated of it, soon tempted to forfeit his Inheritance by violating an easie Precept, that had been given him as a trial of his Obedi­ence and the Condition of all the Happiness that was promised; which leads to the Second Proposition contained in the Text.

2 For to our Comfort we know, that God did not desert Man, miserable Man, fal'n, as he was, helpless and hopeless in himself, but immediately reach'd down his hand from Heaven, and rais'd him from the groveling condition wherein he lay, set him on his feet again, and bid him look up and make a new Adventure for a Crown of Glory. He remits the forfeiture of the broken Covenant, and vouchsafes to enter on a new Treaty with his revolted Creature, affording him a better Hope, Heb. 7. 19. a better Covenant, esta­blished upon better Promises. Heb. 8. 9. Thus was it the happiness of the Creature, that God still proposed and pur­sued, in all his dispensations towards the Sons of Men.

It is true, indeed, that under the Oeconomy of the Law the Kingdom of Heaven and Eternal Life were but imperfectly discover'd through Veils, and Signs, and Types, Mysteries and Metaphors, Sha­dows, Clouds and Darkness, suitable to the meaner [Page 7] genius of that Discipline, which was but imperfect, as Eusebius expresseth it, [...]. Euseb. Dem. E­vang. lib. 1. c. 6.— [...]. Id. ibid. and agreeable to the weak­ness of that Childish People, who were to be ma­naged and conducted by it. But it is absurd to con­clude from thence, That the utmost Felicity pro­posed to the Jews was only a fat Land and a long Life, Milk and Hony, Peace and Plenty, and, at the last, the Burial, perhaps, of Men, but the Death of Bruits. If this were all, the Swine they loath'd were as happy as themselves. But they were Men, a Nation highly favour'd and honour'd by God, far above all other Families of the Earth, a Peculiar and Chosen People, to whom were committed the Oracles of God; and to whom pertained the Adoption, and the Glory, and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the Service of God, and the Promises: whose are the Fathers, and of whom, as concerning the Flesh, Christ came. They were our Elder Brothers, as it were, and the First-born of the World; and that Inhe­ritance, which we now all so happily enjoy in com­mon, seemed, for a good while, to be entail'd only on the House of Jacob.

The very Points in controversie between the Pha­risees and the Sadduces sufficiently prove, that the Expectations of another Life had been of old re­ceiv'd and entertain'd by that People. And our Saviour put to silence those that ventur'd to deny it, by a plain proof of the Matter drawn from the very Pentateuch, that small Portion of Scripture, which the Sadduces would own for Authentick Canon. [Page 8] Many places there are in the Books of the Prophets, which cannot receive a full Interpretation without the supposition of a Future State, amongst which Prophyrie himself cannot hinder, but that of Daniel will still be one: Dan. 12. 2, 3. Many of them that sleep in the Dust shall awake, some to Everlasting Life, and some to Shame and Everlasting Contempt; St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 20. c. 23. to which, as the Father observes, our Saviour makes a just Parallel in those words: John 5. 28, 29. All that are in the Grave shall hear his Voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the Resurrection of Life, and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of Damnation. The famous Petition of the Thief on the Cross, and our Saviours gracious Reply to it, together with many plain and direct Passages in Josephus and the most Ancient Rabbins, concerning a Future Felicity for the Pious, and Misery for Irreligious Persons, put it out of all doubt, that the Doctrine of a Future Life was far from being so strange and unreceiv'd a Thing amongst the Jews, as some would represent it. We need not therefore wonder to find in the Catalogue of Old Testament-Saints, recorded in the Epistle to the Hebrews; Heb. 11. 35. Many that were tortured, not accepting deli­verance, that they might obtain a better Resurrection. But then these gracious Purposes of God for our Eternal Good were far more illustriously manifested in the Gospel, through which Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light. [...] Tim. 1. 10. And that makes way for our Third Proposition.

[Page 9] That the Life intended for, and proposed to man 3 could not be obtain'd by the Law of Moses; and therefore all must be devolv'd on the Fourth, the Mercy and Promise of God, which, by Faith of Jesus Christ is given to them that believe. I need not lead you from the Text or Chapter, of which it is a part, to find abundant proof of the Impotency of the Law of Moses: It is the Argument almost of every Verse. Verse 10, 11. As many as are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse. No Man is justified by the Law in the sight of God. The same had been avouch'd twice or thrice in the former Chapter. Chap. 2. 16. It is needless to allege more Testimonies of the Truth of a thing so evident. It is the Argument not only of this Epistle, but, in a manner, of the whole Book of God: It is the very Foundation of the Gospel: If it be otherwise, Christ died in vain, Heb. 8. 2. and our Faith is vain. For if that first Covenant had been faultless, there should no place have been sought for the second.

Here therefore happily begins our Fourth Parti­cular, 4 the Oeconomy of the Gospel. Rom. 11. 32. For God hath concluded all under Ʋnbelief, that he might have mercy upon All: Or in the words of my Text, The Scripture hath concluded all under Sin, that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. There was no room for Repentance, for second Thoughts, allowed by the Tenour of the former Covenants: In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. That was the unrelenting Rigour of the first Law; and the rigid Condition of the Law of [Page 10] Moses is carefully remembred by the Apostle in this Chapter: Gal. 3. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things, which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. A very uncomfortable and frightful Sanction it is, sufficient, of it self, to represent that Law as a Schoolmaster, as it is stil'd, qualified not only to bring, but to drive us unto Christ.

Thanks be therefore to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who by the propitious Mystery of this Day, and the saving Consequences of it, hath re­deemed us from the Curse of the Law, Himself being made a Curse for us; who did all that could be re­quir'd in the greatest Rigour, and yet suffer'd too the greatest; that we, who of our selves could do nothing, as we ought to do, might yet suffer no­thing; but, being by him enabled to do all things, may be made Heirs, even joynt Heirs with himself of Eternal Glory. And this it is, that makes up our present Rejoycing. The Birth of Christ was the Death of the Law: For He was the End of the Law, and put an end to it also, as it is taken in competition with the Gospel.

For we well know that it is not always so, and therefore can easily reconcile those different and contrary Accounts, which are given of it in the New Testament.

As it is considered absolutely in it self, without regard and subordination to our Blessed Lord, who gives strength for the fulfilling of the Moral part of it, and is the substance and accomplishment of the [Page 11] Ceremonial; it is represented full of Terrors as to Man, and under Characters of Disparagement and Diminution to it self. Thus it is said to be abolished and disannull'd, that it was but until John; that it was given by Moses, who was faithful, but as a Servant; whereas Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ, who is Lord and Heir of all things: That it stops every Mouth, and makes all the World become guilty before God; that it cannot Justifie or make Righteous: It is not only reflected on as a less excellent Ministry, a Covenant not faultless, unprofitable, decayed, waxen old, a Shadow, and vanishing away; but it is likewise severely censured as an unsupportable Yoak, and that which worketh Wrath and Death: It is said indeed to be weak; but for all that we are told, that it is the strength of Sin, a Letter that killeth, and the Ministra­tion of Condemnation and Death; that it is a Curse and Emnity, which Christ abolished and slew, the oldness of the Letter, and dead; that there was made of neces­sity a change of the Law, and accordingly that we are not now under the Law, but under Grace. At this rate is it expos'd and vilisied, when consider'd as opposite to, or distinct in part or in whole from the Dispen­sation of the Gospel.

But there is another view of it, and a much better prospect, when it is represented as it was intended to be a Dispensation preparatory and subordinate to the Gospel; A Law of Life and Manners, im­prov'd, fulfil'd and enforced by our Saviour, who plentifully furnisheth out Grace and Strength, to enable [Page 12] us to live up to the Precepts of it in an Evangelical Perfection. And thus it will soon appear, that the Law is not against the Promises of God, according to my Text. For we find our Blessed Saviour making a solemn and very early Protestation, even in his first Sermon, that he came not to destroy, but to fulfil the Law, that not a jot of it should be unfulfill'd; that it is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away, than one tittle of the Law to fail. And St. Paul establish'd the Christian Faith by the Law of Moses, as well as by the Prophets; and thus now the Doers of the Law shall be justified; and we read often of the Righteousness of the Law, and that it is not made void through Faith: God forbid, saith St. Paul, yea, we establish the Law. And thus the Law is holy, and the Commandment holy, and just and good. Thus too it is Spiritual, to be delighted in, a Commandment ordain'd unto Life, and a means to bring us unto Christ. King David himself, who composed so many Hymns on pur­pose to celebrate and adorn the Law, and that long Alphabetical Octonary, the 119th Psalm, on that single Subject, could not say more in honour of it, than what I have already, or may further be alledged for that purpose, from the Scriptures of the New- Testament. But then the Law is understood to be a kind of Gospel, a Dispensation typical and significa­tive of Christ: According to what the Great Father tells us Quid est enim quod dicitur Testamentum Vetus nisi oc­cultatio Novi? Et quid est aliud quod di­citur Novum nisi Veteris revelatio? St. Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 16. f. 26., That the Law was but the Gospel mask'd, and the Gospel nothing else but the Law reveal'd. Indeed the whole Old Testament, in a manner, is a Mysterious [Page 13] Shadow, a Prophetical and Figurative Representation of the New: Which some observing, and finding what excellent use our Saviour and his Apostles made of the History and Prophecies of the one Testament to confirm and illustrate the Doctrines of the other; have indulged so long and unwarily to the con­temptation of the Allegorical, that they have quite neglected, and, at last, utterly lost and even re­nounc'd the first and Literal Sence. But this is an unreasonable affection of an extravagant and sot­tish Extreme.

It was the infinite Wisdom and Power of God, that so contriv'd, ordered, and overrul'd Affairs in the first Ages of the World, that they might aptly prelude, typifie, and represent that great Under­taking, which he was to set on foot in the latter Times. Hereby making the Age of the Patriarchs and the Law, but a long Preface or Introduction to that of the Gospel. Indeed, to speak properly, we are to Date the Gospel from the time of the first Publication of it, which was immediately after the Fall, as we all know: From that happy Moment all the hopes of Heaven, of a future Endless Life of Bliss depended wholly on the Birth and Death of the Messias. Christianity therefore commenced a­bout Four Thousand Years before the first Christmas, [...]. Euseb. Dem. Evang. l. 1. c. 8. Il [...]. I mean, before the actual Incarnation and Nativity of the Son of God. It is then no Novel and Upstart Doctrine, not a Modern or New invented Discipline; but far the most Ancient, the Senior Religion of the World.

[Page 14] Almighty God, for wise and weighty Purposes, did not think fit to put the Gospel Dispensation pre­sently in practice, with all the Power and Demonstra­tion, all the Lustre and Advantages, with which, in the Fulness of time, it was to appear and be recom­mended to the World. This Delay left room for many previous Passages and a preparative Dispen­sation, which did help to introduce the Gospel with the more efficacy and glory. Hence we have great confirmation of our Faith from many and plain Prophecies, whereby we are enabled effectually to silence and shame both the Jewish and Heathen Ad­versaries of our Faith. For none now can resist the force and clearness of the Evidence, that ariseth thence; but such who wilfully shut their Eyes, and chuse Darkness rather than Light: It is to the great advantage of the Gospel, that it succeeds the bur­densom Oeconomy of the Law, the Pedagogy of which Discipline sets off the grace and sweetness of that Liberty, with which Christ hath made us free. But tho the Messias was not presently to appear; yet the Providence of God so order'd it, that almost every great Thing that hapned after the Fall should conduce to make up a more solemn Apparatus and Sacred Pomp, as it were, to Usher-forth the Great Bridegroom out of his Chamber, and introduce him into the World.

The two first Notable Periods are from Mans banishment out of Paradise to the time of the Flood, and from thence to the giving of the Law. In the [Page 15] former, Mankind had many sad Proofs and Expe­riences of the corruption of their own Natural Inclinations, and consequently of the great Neces­sity of a Saviour. Whilst Almighty God thus in times past suffer'd all Nations to walk in their own ways, as St. Paul and Barnabas told the Men of Lystra, he left not himself without Witness, though they were without Excuse, but sent unto them Enoch and Noah, and other Preachers of Righteousness: so that their Condemnation was most just, and Death reigned from Adam unto Moses, over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams Transgression. This was so Evangelical a Work, that St. Peter, according to a well grounded Interpretation of that somewhat obscure place, seems to ascribe it to Christ himself, who, by the Spirit, went and preached unto those that were disobedient, when the Long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah. Indeed Repentance, and Mercy, and pardon of Sins were the peculiar Con­ditions of the Gospel; Therefore it was very fit that those gracious Indulgences should be tender'd to the World by the Author of the Gospel, the Mediator of that Covenant, even the Holy One of God: But this bountiful Offer was obstinately rejected by that obdurate and irreclaimable Age. Upon this the Divine Justice proceeded to the long threatned Judgment, opened the Floodgates of Heaven, and showred down Vengeance on the Rebellious World, in a Deluge of Waters, as he will, one day, of Fire, on unrepenting Sinners.

[Page 16] This was a serious and sad Period, and must not pass without a new Intimation of a Saviour. And accordingly we learn from St. Peter, Pet. 3. 21. that the Ark floating on the surface of the Waters, and so pre­serving Eight Persons from the Common Ruine, was an early Type of Christian Baptism, by which we are initiated into the Church, signified by that Ark, which contain'd in it all the Church God then had in the World. He had destroyed the Enemies of this Little Flock by a mighty Ruine. And so will it happen, but more eminently and compleatly, in the Antitype. None will escape the All-devouring Gulph, not of perishing Waters, but of unquench­able Fire, but those only that get into the Ark of God, or, at least, put no wilful Obstacle or Bar against their admission thereinto. This Parallel of the Ark and the Church, together with the Doctrine that attends it, runs through the Writings of many of the Ancient Fathers; but I must not stay to trace it, or to lament, that so important a Point is no more consider'd than it seems to be in this Age.

The next remarkable Adventure we meet with, is that of Babel, a fit Emblem (and so received by the Church) of what was afterwards transacted at Jeru­salem. For as God then by dividing the Languages of the daring Builders, blasted the insolent Attempt of that Rebellious Crew; so did He at the Feast of Pentecost, by Cloven and Divided Tongues, another wonderful multiplication of Languages, baffle and [Page 17] confound the combined Opposition of Jews and Gentiles, against himself and his Holy Child Je­sus.

In the next place I may mention to you those two famous Types and Forerunners of Christ and the Christian Faith, Melchisedek and Abraham; One of which bore the express Character of our Savi­our's Person; and the Adventures of the Other, toge­ther with those of his Family, made up a long and large Exemplification of his Life and Doctrine. Abraham desired to see the Day of the Messias, and he saw it and was glad: John 8. 56. Here then we have a Christmass in the Old Testament. For Abraham saw this Day and kept it holy: The Feast (it seems) rejoyc'd the Heart of that Great and Religious Prince. He receiv'd an explicit Promise of the Messias, Gen. 12. 3. 18. 18. 22. 18. and that more than once, and had a Revelation made to him of the Gospel-state. This was that [...], which the Apostle refers to, Galat. 3. 8. when he tells us, That the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all Nations be blessed. Thus did Abraham become the Great Patriarch of the Christian Faith, the Father of the Faithful, an Honour not unworthy the Friend of God, as he is stil'd by God him­self.

The Types are still plainer as you descend lower; As in Isaac his Son, his only Son, as he is stil'd, the Son whom he loved, the Son of the Promise, born by Prophecy, the Prediction of an Angel, of a Womb [Page 18] that was dead, as was that of Sarah; then led to death with his Typical Cross on his back, to be Sacri­ficed near the very place, where his great Archetype, our blessed Redeemer, was afterwards actually Sacri­ficed upon the Cross. The Day as well as your Pa­tience would fail me, if I should tell of Sarah and Hagar, and the Twelve Patriarchs. Indeed, the whole succession of this Family seems designed for so many Types and Symbols of the Messias and the Gospel-state. Jacob and Esau in the Womb, and several Passages of their Lives signified that Great Event, which was to come to pass in After-times, that the Younger should be prefer'd before the Elder, the Gentile should get the Blessing from the Jew; the very thing we hap­pily experience at this Day. There was a famous Visit of Angels, as they are stil'd, made to Abraham long before this, which I might have remembred to you; of which, One is universally concluded to be the Son of God; even He of whom afterwards it is said, Gen. 19. 24. [...] Jehovah from Jehovah, the Lord from the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha Brimstone and Fire out of Heaven. And that Fire and Brimstone, that Sodom and Gomorrha are Types sadly and certainly significative of that Infernal Lake of Fire and Brim­stone, which shall Eternally burn all those that resist the merciful Overtures and Manifestations of the Gospel. The famous Wrestling of Jacob with the Angel, interpreted by the Ancients to be the Son of God, serv'd as a Type of Christ's Sufferings and Temptations. Joseph was another remarkable Type [Page 19] of Christ, appears by his Bloody Coat, his Inno­cence, his Chastity, his Sufferings, his Advancement unto Honour, and his Feeding of the People.

And now we are come within view of the So­journing of the Children of Israel in Egypt, and their Slavery there, a Subject which makes up a considerable part of the Old Testament, and is copi­ously insisted on in the New, for the History and Mystical Interpretation of it.

I do not pretend to lay down the Reasons of Divine Wisdom in singling out one Family of the whole World, for the Object of his greatest Mer­cies, and his severest Judgments. Such Speculations are apt to tempt Men to venture too far, and to a too curious Examination of the Methods and Mo­tives of Gods Wisdom in the Administration of the World. That's an Attribute out of our reach: Whatever Appeal he hath been pleased to make to us concerning the Justice and Equity of his Ways, I do not find, that he ever submitted his Wisdom to the Trial and Judgment of a Man. But thus it actually was in the Case before us. All Mankind were equally the Sons of God; but amongst all these it pleased him to pitch on the House of Jacob, to make it a Sign and an Example to the rest of Men. Upon these, on certain Conditions, he heaps mighty and miraculous Mercies; and upon these, when highly provok'd, he poureth forth his Vengeance in dreadful and stupendious Judgments. The Account of this their diverse and double Condition makes up [Page 20] the greatest part of the History and Prophecies of the Old Testament. The New gives us an account of the last Attempt of Heaven to reclaim that People, and of their last concluding Provocation, the Mur­der of their Messias; which, as it was foretold, by filling up the Measure of their Sins, ripened them for that woful Final Desolation of their People, Govern­ment, City and Temple, which had been long before predicted by the Prophets, and was then more ex­presly foretold and denounc'd by Christ and his Apostles. All which ruine, the Romans, in Gods ap­pointed time, brought upon that Devoted People; and the World, at this Day, with astonishment be­holds, to which that forlorn Nation hath been for this Sixteen Hundred Years a Mocking, an Hissing, a By-word and an Abomination.

This was the People, that long continued the Type and Emblem of the Christian Church: And a little Consideration will enable us to expound and apply to our selves the several Dispensations of God to them. The Devil is the afflicting Pharaoh; our Lusts and Sins the Taskmasters and Bondage. The Blood of Christ is the Red Sea; Redemption to us, but Ruine to the Devil and his Instruments. Moses and Joshuah did evidently Personate our Jesus, that conducts us to the Land of Canaan, the Heavenly Jerusalem; through the Wilderness of the World. He is the Rock that is smitten for us, and supporteth us in our Journey. He is the Brazen Serpent lifted up on High on the Cross, to Cure us of all the [Page 21] venemous and malignant bitings of the Old Ser­pent.

But, before we had brought the Israelites thus far on this their Mystical March, we might have ob­served the Blood sprinkled on the Posts of their Doors, to secure them from the Stroak of the Destroying Angel; as likewise their Paschal Lamb, of which not a Bone must be broken any more than of the Lamb of God. But their Food from Heaven, their Celestial Manna did plainly signifie that true and living Bread, which came down from Heaven, and which stands now upon our Altars prepared for the Spiritual re­past of Devout Receivers.

But I must not stay to enlarge on so known a Theme. Universa, quae ex Aegypto profectio fuit populi, fiebat à Deo, typus & imago pro­fectionis Ecclec­siae, quae erat futura ex gen­tibus. Irenaeus tells us, in short, that the coming forth of that People out of Egypt, and their whole Progress, was ordain'd by God to be a Type and Representation of the Original and Progress of the Christian Church, which was to be gathered from among the Gentiles. Iren. lib. 4. c. 50. But it will concern us to have a care, that we do not carry on the Metaphor too far, and provoke God, as those Typical Christians did, by Murmurings and Rebellion; For the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews observes, Heb 3. 17, 18. that the Carkases of those that sin'd, fell in the Wilderness, God having sworn that they should not enter into his Rest.

Thus have we taken an hasty View of much above two Thousand Years, so thick set with Figu­rative Indications of the Kingdom of the M [...] [Page 22] that it looks like the very Age of Christ himself, the Copy or Pattern of the Gospel. And it was, indeed, a kind of Primitive or Patriarchal Christendom. So that when our Saviour took our Flesh upon him, and, as on This Day, appeared upon Earth in order to the establishment of the Gospel in all its parts, He was but [...], [...]. Euseb. Dem. Evang. as Eusebius expresseth it, a Restorer of the most Ancient Religion, that which had been the Religion of the World before Moses.

By this Order and Disposition of things God made it manifest that the Law, [...]. Id. ibid. as meerly Positive, was not necessary to Salvation, that Man could be well without it, that it was to be but a long Paren­thesis, as it were, between the first and second Christen­dom, the Age of the Patriarchs and that of the Mes­sias, something that might have been left out, and well spared, as for any intrinsecal Excellency of its own; a meer Interim, an Expedient for the present, a kind of Interregnum, or a Temporary Constitution. And, indeed, the whole Frame of it look'd forward, and was apparently founded on Relation; the chief­est use of it being to point and direct to a better Covenant, something greater and more desirable than it self. If you abstract it from that Typical and Re­lative respect, it will soon appear much unworthy of its Great Author, the most trifling as well as the most burdensom Constitution that ever was. So that it is no wonder that the Heathens found it easie to pick Quarrels with it, and raise Objections against it of that nature. These Philo, amongst others, learnedly [Page 23] labours to remove, but all in vain, because he him­self was a Stranger to the true use and signification of the Law.

That it was mutable, not established as a necessary, or intended for a perpetual Rule, may be collected even from the lateness of its Date. Had it been otherwise, God would not have suffer'd the Re­nowned Patriarchs of the former Periods to have been ignorant of it; those Illustrious Heroes I mean, to whose Faith and Vertue he himself gave such ample and honourable Testimony. Nor after the Law given, do we find that the neglect of its positive Prescripts was ever objected to those Nations, whose Sins were yet distinctly reckon'd up by the Prophets that were sent unto them, as the Ninevites, Egyptians, Chaldaeans, Idumaeans, Moabites, and such others.

The expiration of the Institutions peculiar to the Law was not so properly their destruction or abo­lition, as their accomplishment, consummation, and attainment of that End for which they were by God instituted and intended. What was meerly Sha­dow, must needs become useless, and vanish at the appearance of the Substance. Yet several Usages and Institutions under the Law were adopted and introduc'd into the Church, being by our Saviour and his Apostles improv'd and sublimated into a more Reasonable Service. Circumcision was advanced into a better Sacrament, more useful, more easie, more extensive in its Application. The Sabbath became the Lords-Day, on which, as it is the Seventh part of [Page 24] Time, we still commemorate Gods Rest on the Seventh Day; and as it is the First Day of the Week, we celebrate our Redemption from Spiritual Egyptian Bondage, and the full Assurance of a compleat Vi­ctory over Death and the Grave by the Resurrection of our Lord on that Day. This therefore is be­come to us a greater Feast than the Jews could ob­serve on their Sabbath. The great Feast of Atone­ment, as well as all other bloody Sacrifices of the Law, was finally accomplished on the Cross; and the memory of That, the Church solemnly recol­lects on Good-Friday. But in this Feast of the Atone­ment there was something peculiar and of very ex­traordinary signification, that of the Scape Goat, I mean, on which Aaron was to lay his hands, and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel, Lev. 16. 20, 21. putting them on the head of the Goat; and then send him into the Wilderness. Thus was Christ, on whom God laid the Iniquities of us all, presently after his Baptism, led into the Wilderness, carrying with him all the Sins that had been confess'd by Jerusalem and Judah at St. Johns Baptism: Mark. 1. 12. And thus it is, that (not the Goat, indeed, but) the Lamb of God takes away the Sins of the World, John 1. 29. as the Baptist had decla­red concerning him. I am sensible, that the pleasant contemplation of these Divine Mysteries would easily transport me beyond the proportion of the Time: I must not therefore insist upon any of the rest: Not on Aaron the High Priest, his Mysterious Vestments, and more Mysterious Consecration; nor any of the Oral Prophecies [Page 25] concerning the great Business of this Day; those immediately from God to Adam and Abraham; or those of Jacob, Moses, and the Prophets down to the express Testimony of St. John Baptist, the imme­diate Harbinger and Forerunner of the Lord. And I am sure I need not put you in mind of that which is daily in your Ears, the melody of the Psalms, those lofty inspired Hymns, which are at once a very History of the Birth, Life and Death of the Messias, and also the most fervent Petitions, and devoutest strains of Thanksgiving, that the Mouth of Man can utter or his Heart conceive.

Thus Great, thus Holy, thus Divine are the Tri­umphs of this Day. It is the Birth-day of GOD, the New-birth of the whole World. It is the Day which the Lord hath made, and which Abraham saw. It is not a Private or a Modern Feast: We have heard already that it is as Ancient as the Fall of Adam: 2 Tim. 1. 9. Nay, we read of Grace given in Christ Jesus before the World began, Ephes. 3. 11. according to the Eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is what was from all Eternity decreed, and presently after the beginning of Time happily put in practice. For Christ is the Way and the Door, by which both the first and last Man and all other that come thither must enter Heaven. Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men, whereby Adam or any of his Off-spring have or can be saved. God himself therefore could not apply more seasonable or effectual Comfort to [Page 26] our drooping Parents, languishing and astonished under the shame and horrour of their Fall, than to tell them of the Seed of the Woman, the wonderful Birth of this Day. Thus do both our Testaments run one into the other: They exhibit one and the same thing, even the Common Salvation, only under diverse circumstances suitable to the differences of Persons and Time. Unius igitur & ejusdem substantiae sunt omma. Iren. adv. Haeres. lib. 4. cap. 21. The substance of things is the same both in the Old and the New Testament: Non alterum quidem Vetera, alterum qui­dem proferentem Nova docuit, sed unum & cundem. Id. ibid. St. Matt. 13. 52. It is one and the same Great Housholder that brings forth things both new and old; as Irenaeus applieth, to this Matter, that Pa­rable of our Lord. Servis quidem & adhuc indisciplinatis condignam tradens Legem, liberis autem & fide justificatis congruentia dans Praecepta, filiis adaperiens suam haereditatem, &c. Ibid. The same Lord and Christ is exhibited in both the Books, dispensing to his Children and Servants Laws and Rules suitable to their several Capacities and Ages. Well may we therefore be fill'd both with wonder and delight, when we listen to the ravishing Harmo­ny of those two Books of God; Quis hanc [...]etitiam divinorum Sacra­mentorum, cùm sanae doctrinae luce clares [...]unt, non praeferat universis hujus mundi Imperiis, etiam inusitatâ felicitate pacatis? An Employment and Contem­plation, in the Opinion of St. Au­stin, to be prefer'd before the peaceable enjoyment of the Em­pire of the whole World. Nonne tanquam duo Seraphim, &c. St. Aug. ad Jan. Epist. 119. Do not the two Testaments, says he, as the two Seraphims, call and cry to one another, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth? That great and good Man seems to have wrought himself up into a kind of Transport [Page 27] or Ecstasie by dwelling long and thinking deeply on such things as these.

From the Considerations which I have now mentioned, and very many such like, which, in this vast and inexhaustible Subject, may be brought to illustrate one Testament by the other, I might ob­serve, as Irenaeus on the same occasion in the place forecited, and also the 43 Chapter of that Book, how justly our Saviour requires, that his Disciples and Apostles, who went to instruct others in the Christian Faith, should themselves be Scribes well in­structed unto the Kingdom of Heaven, and, like the Great Master of the Family, able to bring forth out of their Treasure things new and old; that is (saith the Excellent Writer) without all dispute the Old and the New Testament. Ea autem quae de Thesauro pro­ferunt Nova & Vetera, sine con­tradictione duo Testamenta dicit. Very pleasant it is, and a great satisfaction to consider, that we are in the self same way to Heaven, which the first and best of Men have so happily trodden; and with this advantage to us, that now it is become far more visible and plain. It was only describ'd at a distance, shewn and pointed at to them; but we are brought and led into it, and may discern the very Footsteps of our Saviour, and tread in them too, if it be not our own fault. The Guide walks before us, and w cannot miss either of our Way or our Reward at the End of it, if we do but follow our Leader, the Victorious Captain of our Salvation.

There was never at any time but one true Reli­gion in the World, and that since the Fall has been [Page 28] no other but Christianity either shadowed and cover­ed, or open and like it self. There is no difference between Israel of Old, and the present Israel of God, but a few years and a clearer Revelation. They had another Law, indeed, but that did them no good, nor afforded any true Comfort, but as it was sweet­ned and improv'd by a saviour. But now the Righteousness of God without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. Rom. 3. 21. They were to expect no remission of Sins without shedding of Blood: Heb. 9. 22. 10. 4. 10. But it is impossible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin. Therefore, we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all: There is a Christmass in both the Testaments: The first Authors of Mankind, our Fathers, both before and after the Flood, could not be happy by any other means than we their late Posterity, or as St. Peter ex­presseth it, in the first General Council, Through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Acts 15. 11. St. Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Tryphon the Jew proves, that Christians are properly the Israe­lites, from some places in Isaiah, as also from the No­tation of the word; A Notion, in the main of it, confirmed by our Saviour and his Apostles, in what they teach concerning the Seed of Abraham, of Israelites indeed, and the Circumcision of the Heart. I have not time to repeat the Texts. The Sum is, that Christ was at the bottom, and at the end of all: Our claim and theirs is in and through one and the same Messias, who tenders Salvation equally to all that will [Page 28] acceept of it on his own best, that is, Evangelical Terms. The Patriarchs and Prophets as well as A­postles and other Christians, were saved by Faith in Christ, as the Early Martyr [...]. Ignat. Ep. ad Philad. Iren. adv. Haer. lib. 4. cap. 2. 13. 45. Ignatius avers in several places of his Epistles; and the same is at large prov'd by Irenaeus: And Clemens of Alexandria in his Sixth Book of Stromata hath the same, with something more of his own concerning Christs de­scending into Hell, which I shall not offer unto you.

But thus have we seen, Rom. 15. 4. that whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that when the Veil is taken from the Face of Moses, he shines forth nothing but Grace and Gospel: And this Veil is now done away in Christ: 2 Cor. 3. 14. In Christ, I say, The Almighty God, the Everlasting Father, Esai. 9. 6. the Prince of Peace, Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Be­ginning and the End, who was, and who is, and who is to come; Heb. 13. 8. the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever; the Almighty Child of this Day. A Day so plainly fore­told by the Ancient Prophets, particularly by the Greatly beloved Daniel Five Hundred years before the time, Dan. 9. that the whole People of the Jews were in eager Expectation, and even on the gaze for their Mes­sias at the very time when he appeared in the World. And yet, alas! though he stood full before them, and their Great Baptist pointed at him, proclaiming aloud that it was He; though the Devils falling down before him, or flying from him in groans and yells, published who He was, and He himself a­vouch'd [Page 30] the same thing, and testified it both by Word and Deed; yet did their Sins make the Old Curse stick so close to them, Esai. 6. 9, 10. their Heart so fat, their Ears so heavy, and their Eyes so dim, that they un­derstood not what they heard, nor perceived what they saw. No noise of Prophecies and Miracles could wake them out of their Golden Dreams of a Tem­poral triumphant Prince, with Earthly Crowns and Scepters, Dominion and Greatness: Such must their Messias be and bring, or he is no Messias for their purpose.

But he is for ours, I hope, even just so as he did and was to come into the World. But then, What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? 2 Pet. 3. 11. It was the folly and misery of Gods first People the Jews, that they trusted to their Privi­ledge of being so stil'd, they took up with that and gloried abundantly in the Temple of the Lord, without ever considering what great Obligations were thereby laid on them for Holiness and Obedi­ence. A Prince has little reason to be satisfied with the loud Professions of Loyalty and Obedience from such as take no care to express those boasted Vertues in any thing but in words: Nor will the King of Kings accept of the demure Hypocrisie of those, who, as the Prophet expresseth it, Come before him as his People cometh, Ezek. 33. 31. and sit and hear; but will not do. It is Mockery and not Religion to have Lord, Lord in the Mouth, and no fear and reverence of him in the Heart. Judas could cry Master, Master, when [Page 31] he kiss'd his Lord and then betrayed him. If I be a Master where is my Fear, saith the Lord of Hosts. We are all ready to claim a share in the Mercies and Bles­sings of this Day, some interest in, and relation to the Saviour, that was born in the City of David, even Christ the Lord. We are willing to take our deno­mination from him, at the least; we would be call'd Christians, and he must be esteem'd and stil'd our Lord. But he disowns and renounces all such Rela­tion and even Acquaintance with those that conform not to his Laws. Luke 6. 46. 13. 27. Why call ye me Lord, Lord, says he, and do not the things which I say: I know not whence you are; depart from me all ye workers of Iniquity. That peculiar People of God found by woful experience, that he is no respecter of persons, but that in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him. And that it is most just for God so to do, seems to be the main design of that so much disputed and mi­staken Chapter, the Ninth of the Epistle to the Ro­mans: But, if God spared not the Natural branches, on the like provocations, most certainly, he will not spare us. And, if they escaped not, who refused him that spake on Earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from Heaven. The Pro­mise was made unto Abraham and to his Seed, not the Natural Seed of his Body, but the Children of his Faith: For they which are of the Faith, the same are the Children of Abraham; as we are told in this Chapter of my Text. And if we do the Works of Abraham, then are we the Children of Abraham, John 8. 39. according to the esti­mation [Page 32] of our Blessed Saviour, who best could judge of such a matter. It is greatly our concern then to clear up our Title to the Saviour of this Day, which can no way be done but by the observation of his Laws, the imitation of his Practice, and walking wor­thy of him, who hath called us with an holy Calling: This is truly to keep Christmass, the most Christian, and to God the most acceptable way of celebrating the Nativity of our Lord. St. Paul does not only assure us, Rom. 11. 4. that whatsoever things were written afore­time were written for our learning; but more particu­larly, that the Punishments of the Jews were record­ed, 1 Cor. 10. 6. that they might be Examples to us; nay, that they hapned unto them for examples, Ver. 11. and are written for our admonition. Therefore that I may still use the words of that Apostle of the Gentiles, Let not us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed. 9.

What can we imagine was the meaning of this Eternal Consultation of Heaven, this operose Pro­vision, and almost unconceivable Condescension that was made to bring about this wondrous Day, big and swell'd as it is with Miracles of Mercy. We cannot conceive, that God, who never needlesly contradicts or discomposeth the Order that he himself hath establish'd in Nature, would thus heap Wonder upon Wonder for mean and little purposes, much less for any thing unbecoming the Purity and Perfection of his Nature. He did not then descend from his Eter­nal Throne, and step into the Womb of a poor Vir­gin, become an impotent Infant, and a Man as mi­serable [Page 33] as Earth and Hell could make him, meerly that afterwards, there might arise a Generation of Men who should be only stil'd Christians. The Effect was to bear more proportion to the Cause. The design of Heaven was upon our Natures, not our Names. God propos'd to himself the Salvation of our Souls, and, Tit. 2. 14. in order thereunto, to redeem us from all iniquity, and purisie to himself a People zealous of good works. He took our Nature upon him, that we might take his, that is, be made partakers of the Divine Nature and Eternal Glory. For these great Purposes he liv'd and died; for this he preach'd, published and bequeath'd to the World the most perfect Precepts, the most incompa­rable Example, the most glorious Promises, the most dreadful Threatnings, together with all sort of the most inviting, convincing, and perswasive Arguments, that the Wisdom, Goodness and Power of Heaven could contrive and furnish out for the benefit of Mankind.

May we therefore all sincerely endeavour to cast away the Works of Darkness and put upon us the Armour of Light, now in the time of this Mortal Life, in which our Saviour came to visit us in great humility, and let us purifie our selves even as he is pure, that in the last day when he shall come again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto him in his Eternal and Glorious Kingdom, where he now liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, to which undivided and ever blessed Trinity be all Honour and Glory, Power and Deminion, now and for ever. Amen.