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SER M. fhew and fignalize itself. The power of God doth brightly fhine in the creation, the wifdom of God may clearly be difcerned in the government of things: but the incarnation of God is that work, is that difpenfation of grace, wherein the divine goodness doth most confpicuously display itself: how indeed poffibly could God have demonftrated a greater excefs of kindness toward us, than by thus for our fake and good fending his deareft Son out of his bofom into this fordid and fervile eftate, fubjecting him to all the infirmities of our frail nature, expofing him to the Pfal. xxxvi.worft inconveniencies of our low condition? What

6. cviii. 4. expreffions can fignify, what comparisons can fet out the ftupendous vaftness of this kindness? If we fhould imagine, that a great prince fhould put his only fon (a fon moft lovely, and worthily moft beloved) into rags, fhould difmifs him from his court, fhould yield him up into the hardest flavery, merely to the intent that he thereby might redeem from captivity the meaneft and baseft of his fubjects, how faint a refemblance would this be of that immenfe goodness, of that incomparable mercy, which in this inftance the King of all the world hath declared toward us his poor vaffals, his indeed unworthy rebels!

And what greater reafon of joy can there be, than fuch an affurance of his love, on whofe love all our good dependeth, in whofe love all our felicity confifteth? What can be more delightful than to view the face of our Almighty Lord fo gracioufly fmiling upon us?

k Apparuerat ante potentia in rerum creatione, apparebat fapientia in earum gubernatione; fed benignitas mifericordiæ nunc maxime apparuit in humanitate. Bern. de Nat. Serm. 1.

Semper quidem diverfis modis, multifque menfuris humano generi bonitas divina confuluit, et plurima providentiæ fuæ munera omnibus retro feculis clementer impertiit; fed in noviffimis temporibus omnem abundantiam folitæ benignitatis exceffit; quando in Chrifto ipfa ad peccatores mifericordia, ipfa ad errantes veritas, ipfa ad mortuos vita defcendit, &c. P. Leo M. de Nat. Serm. 4.

Should

I.

Should we not be extremely glad, fhould we not s ER M. be proud, if our earthly prince by any fignal mark would exprefs himfelf kindly affected to us? How much more fhould we refent fuch a teftimony of God's favour! how worthily may our fouls be tranfported with a fenfe of fuch affection!

Gal. iii. 22.

Leo de Nat.

4. We may confider our Lord's nativity, as not only expreffing fimple good will, but implying a perfect reconciliation, a firm peace, a fteady friendship established between God and us; or that it did not only proceed from love, but did alfo produce love to us. We did ftand at a great distance, in eftrangement, yea in enmity toward God; our firft parents had by prefumptuous difobedience revolted from him; and we, infifting on the footsteps of their apostasy, continued in defiance of him; All men had finned, Rom. iii. and fallen fhort of the glory of God-There was not a 2+. ix. 23. righteous man upon earth, that did good, and finned not: Eccl. vii. whence unavoidably the wrath of the moft holy God 20. was incenfed, the juftice of the moft righteous Lord Serm. 2. was engaged against us; thence did iffue a fad doom, thence a juft fentence of capital punishment was denounced on us; no pretence of favour, no overture of peace, no hope of redrefs did then appear; we nowife being able to expunge our guilt, to repair our offences, to recover out of that corruption in mind and will, which did feal us up to ruin, indifpofing us either to find, or to entertain mercy : but our Lord's coming did appeafe that anger, did mollify that juftice, did fufpend. that condemnation, did close the breach, and flay the enmity; God (as the Eph. ii. 15, Apostle fpeaketh) fending his Son in the likeness of finful 16. flesh, and for fin did condemn fin in the flesh': for, how 2 Cor. v.

1 Αδύνατον γέγονε τῇ φύσει λογικῇ ἔσῃ, καὶ ἱκεσίως ἁμαρτησάσῃ, καὶ ὑπὸ καταδίκην θανάτε γινομένη, ἑαυτὴν ἀνακαλέσαθαι εἰς ἐλευθερίαν. Atb. p. 638.

̓Αδύνατον ἑτέρως τὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀναμάρτητον ἐπ ̓ ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως παραδεχθῆναι, εἰ μὴ θεὸς ἐν σαρκὶ πισεύοιτο εἶναι, ὁ τὴν ἀναμάρτητον δι zatoróvny els nóopor sloayaydı, Sc. Atb. de Incarn. Verbi.

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Ro. viii. 3.

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(1 Pet. i.

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Heb. vii. John xiv.

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ἐκ ἔχει ἐδέν.

αἰτίαν.

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SER M.Can God now avert his face from us, whom his only dear Son hath vouchfafed to make and own for his brethren? How can he look with an eye of dif pleasure on that nature, wherewith that Son of his love ftandeth clothed before him? How can he abide offended with our race, in which pure innocence and perfect obedience are found"; he now appearing with us, and for us, in whom not the ftricteft juftice nor the fhrewdeft malice can defery any John xix. fault or blemish; in whom therefore God is thoroughly 6-well-pleafed? Since we have Emanuel, God with us,God manifefted in our flesh-The Lord our righteousness, Mait. iii. partaker of our infirmity, interceffor and advocate 1 Tim. iii. for his own flesh and blood, ready to do and fuffer whatever God pleafeth to require on our behalf, how 6. xxxiii. can God be against us? Shall God and man perfift at diftance or dilaffection, who are fo closely related, who are indeed fo intimately united in one perfon? Shall heaven and earth retain enmity, which have fo Pfal. lxxxv. kindly embraced and kiffed each other; fince truth bath fprouted from the earth, and righteousness bath looked down from heaven? Shall the war go on, when the great Mediator and umpire of peace is come; preachYa. ix. 6. ing peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are Acts x. 36. near? Can death any longer reign over us, or our Cor. i. 8.difgrace and mifery continue, now that the Prince of life, the Lord of glory, the Captain of falvation doth appear for our relief?

16.

Jer. xxiii.

16.

14.

Eph. ii. 17.

Now then what can be more worthy of joy, than fuch a bleffed turn of affairs? How can we otherwife than with exceeding gladnets folemnize fuch a peace? a peace accorded with him, who in forces fo infinitely doth overmatch us; who at his pleature

π Τὸ τῷ ̓Αδὰμ σύμπτωμα εἰς ἀσύγκριτον ἀνάγημα Χρισὸς ἀνεσήσατο, ἐν ὁμοιώματα σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας ὀφθείς, και κατακρίνας τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ἐν τῇ cues. th. p. 620.

Εἰ ἢ μὴ ἐν τῇ ἁμαρτησάση φύσει ἡ ἀναμαρτησία ὤφθη, πῶς κατεκρίθη ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐν τῇ σαρκί ; Id. p. 363.

can

I.

can utterly quell us; who with the greatest eafe, s ER M. with less than a word of his mouth, can dafh us to nothing, or hurl us down into an abyfs of remedilefs woe how can we avoid being extremely fatisfied at the recovery of his favour and friendship, which alone can be the foundation of our fafety and welfare, which is the fole fountain of all good, of all comfort, of all felicity?

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5. Our Lord's nativity doth infer a great honour, and a high preferment to us: nowife indeed could mankind be fo dignified, or our nature fo advanced as hereby no wisdom can devise a way beyond this, Eph. üi. whereby God fhould honour his moft fpecial favour- 10, 19. ites, or promote them to a nearnefs unto himself. For hence we become allied to God in a moft ftrait (Hμá® affinity, his eternal Son being made our brother: hence as touching the blood-royal of heaven we do dà in dignity o'ertop all the creation; fo that what the Ath. p. Pfalmift uttered concerning man is verified in the 612.) moft comprehensive fenfe; Thou haft crowned him with Pfal. viii. 5, glory and honour, and haft fet him over the works of thy Heb. ii. 7, hands; thou haft put all things in fubjection under bis 8. feet for now the Son of man, being alfo the Son of God, is the head of all principality and power, is the Col. ii. 10. Lord of all things, is the fovereign Prince of all the Acts x. 35. world, is placed far above all principality, and power, Eph. i. 21. and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, 1 Pet. iii. not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. 22. This is a peculiar honour, to which the highest angels cannot pretend; for he took not the nature of an- Ileb. ii. 16. gels, but he took the feed of Abraham; whence thofe noble creatures are become in a manner inferior to poor us; and, according to juft obligation, willingly Heb. i. 6. to adore our nature; for, when God brought his firften. begotten Son into the world, he faid, Let all the angels of Ath. p. 597. God worship him: is not indeed our fleth become Totum coradorable, as the true Shechinah, as the everlafting pus implet palace of the fupreme Majefty, wherein the fulness of tas. Leo de the Godhead dwelleth bodily; as the moft holy fhrine Nat. Serm,

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Phil. ii. 9.

Ἡ σὰρξ έθεσ

Col. ii. 9.

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iii. 34

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SER M.of the Divinity; as the orb of inacceffible light; as more than all this, if more could be expreffed, or if we could expound that text, the word was made flesh, John 1. 14.and dwelt in us? May not our foul worthily claim the highest refpect, all whole faculties (being endued with unmealurable participations of the holy Spirit) have been tuned to a perfect harmony with the all-wife understanding and the moft pure will of God? yea, which hath been admitted into the nearest confort hip, into the ftricteft union with the eternal word; hath become an ingredient of him, Cor. i. 24 who is the wisdom and the power of God? It was a great dignity that man fhould be made according to the image of God; but it is a more fublime glory, that God fhould be made after the image of man, Heb. ii. 17.xxтa závra porweis, being made like to us in all things, bating only fin, which is no part of us, but an unnatural excrefcence, or a deflection from our nature": how could we be fo raifed up to God, as by his thus stooping down to us? What can be imagined more honourable to us, than that God fhould deem us worthy of fuch condefcenfion? This, this indeed is our exaltation, that God for us fhould exprefs not only fo vaft charity, but fo prodigious humility.

And is it not good matter of joy to be thus highly graced? When are men better pleafed, than when they are preferred; then etpecially, when from the Pfal. cxiii. meaneft ftate, from the dunghill, or from the duft, they 1 Sam. ii. are raised to be fet among princes, and made to inherit the throne of glory? Wherefore this being our case, that we fons of earth, children of corruption, and bre

7.8.

8.

Job xvi.

"Qui cam origini humanæ multum dederit, quod nos ad imaginem fuam fecit, reparationi noftræ longe amplius tribuit, cum fervili formæ ipfe fe Dominus coaptavit. Leo de Nat. Serm. 4.

Exultent ergo in laudem Dei corda credentium, et mirabilia ejus confiteantur filii hominum, quoniam in hoc præcipue Dei opere humilitas noftra cognofcit, quanti eam fuus conditor æftimarit. Leo Serm. 4.

thren