SERMON III. PREACHED AT DATCHET NEAR WINDSOR, ON THE SECOND SUNDAY AFTER SERM. III. ST. JOHN ii. 1, 2. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the Mother of Jesus was there : And Jesus was also called, and His disciples, unto the marriage. Ir is a marriage day with us, and it is a marriage day with the text; a marriage appointed you, whom it concerns, I doubt not by the care and providence of God; a text appointed me by the care and order of the Church, for you see how it falls out to be that portion of Scripture here which the Church hath allotted to be universally read for the Gospel of this very day. The Gospel of the Sunday is, or should be, the theme of all our sermons through the revolution of the whole year. And this day is, or may be thought at least, the fittest of all other days of the year to celebrate a marriage on, it being the very day wherein Christ celebrated one Himself, with His own presence at it. The choice of this day then, for your purpose, hath saved me the choice of a text for mine, for it hath given me one here ready to my hand, while the Church's intention met Prov. 15. both so happily together. And it being Solomon's rule that men should speak their words as near as might be in season, Heb. 3.13. and while it is called to-day, as St. Paul speaks; sure if ever 23. a In 1631 the manor of Datchet, described as having formerly been parcel of the possessions of the castle and honour of Windsor; and the manor of Datchet St. Helen's, which had belonged to the Priory of St. Helen's, and had been afterwards annexed to the honour of Windsor, were granted by Charles I. to Sir Charles Harbord and others, by whom they were conveyed to Sir W. Wheeler, in whose family the estate continued till 1681. In the parish church are many monuments of the family of Wheeler. See Lyson's Magna Britannia, Buckinghamshire, p. 548. It appears from a pedigree of the Wheeler family contained in the Visitation of Bucks in A.D. 1639. (Harl. MS. 1102, fol. 54.) that this Mary was the fifth daughter of Sir Edmond Wheeler of Rideing Court, county of Bucks, knight, by Elizabeth daughter and heiress of Richard Hanberry of London, and that Abraham Delane, to whom she was married, was of the highly respectable family of Delane of Sharstede, in the county of Kent. b St. John ii. 1-11. is the passage of Scripture appointed for the Gospel of the day. The different Epiphanies of our Lord. 45 we shall keep his rule, as we shall keep it to-day, and speak of opus diei in die suo, bring the day and the work of the day together; for he that runs may read some happy correspondence between the work of this day, and the words of this text; that at least for the text's sake, (however the sermon proves, for the text's sake, and for the Gospel's sake you may say, as they seem, sicut audivimus, sic etiam vidimus, as Ps. 48. 8. we have heard so have we seen, and as we have seen so have we heard here in the house of our God. The text then being thus fixed to the present occasion, before we proceed to that business, it would be suited in the words to the present time too, according to the revolution of the year; for whether we had had a marriage here to-day or no, we should have had the same Service, the same Sunday, the same Gospel, and, if a sermon, the same text. Howsoever, the second Sunday after the Epiphany would have come and gone for all that; and this Gospel must have been read upon it and we must have a care to observe the order and solemnity of the Church Service and the Church Sunday, as well as of any marriage day whatsoever. You are to know, then, that this is Epiphany time. You see they are called the Sundays of the Epiphany; and Epiphany time is the time of Manifestation, the time when Christ was pleased to manifest Himself, and make His glory known to the world. According to which, the Church hath suited her office, and fitted us with a course of service, that might help to bring into our minds in order, the things themselves, as they were done here by Christ our Saviour while He was upon the earth. Thus there were three great and prime manifestations that He made of Himself. The Church begins with them at Twelfth Day. The first, that He made to the Gentiles; and accordingly propounds to you the Gospel of the star that Mat. 2. 1, appeared in the East, with the Collect, O God, Which didst seqq. manifest Thy only begotten Son to the Gentiles.' The next was the first manifestation we read of which He made of Himself to the Jews, while He sate with them in the Temple, and shewed them what He was, even at twelve years of age; CO God, Who by the leading of a star, didst manifest Thy only begotten Son to the Gentiles, mercifully grant, III. Lu. 2. 41, seqq. S E R M. and accordingly did the Church propound that story for the Gospel the last Sunday, which was the first after the Epiphany. The third was the first manifestation that He made of Himself to His disciples, who had been called but a little before, and were now invited with Him to the marriage at Cana. Answerable whereunto is the Gospel propounded unto us by the Church this third day, and the third day there was a marriage in Cana,' so it begins; and at it, Jesus 'manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him,' so it ends. There were other miracles whereby Christ manifested Himself too, and they have their times hereafter; Joh. 2. 11. but these were the first, in every kind, as St. John says, 'This was the beginning of miracles that He did;' and therefore hath the Church appointed the three first days after His Nativity, for the solemn memory and anniversary celebration of them. These things, if they were better heeded by us, and known to us, than they are, I suppose we should affect the office and love the service of the Church better than we do: while the ignorance of them makes us esteem of God's solemn service, so divinely disposed as it is, no otherwise than as if it were a bare reading of so many lines, to spend away time, as in some places it is accounted; or an introduction to usher in a sermon, and wait upon it like a handmaid upon her mistress, as in others; while God knows it is the greatest happiness that we, His poor servants, can attain to here on earth, orderly, and duly, and solemnly, to serve Him as the Angels do in heaven, that is, day by day to magnify Him, to do Him honour and public homage, to send up prayers, as Angels from earth, and to receive down blessings, as Angels from heaven, · Αγγέλοις ἔργον δοξολογεῖν Θεόν, πάσῃ τῇ στρατιᾷ τῶν ἐπουρανιών ἐν τοῦτο ἔργον, δόξαν ἀναπέμπειν τῷ Κτί σavTI. Basil. in Ps. xxviii. Opp. 1. 179. fol. Paris. 1618. • Ipsi nos Angeli sancti desiderant; nonne de vermiculis istis et de pulvere isto restaurandi sunt muri cœlestis Hierusalem? putatis quantum desiderant cives cœlestes instaurari civitatis suæ ruinas? quomodo solliciti sunt ut veniant lapides vivi, qui coædificentur eis? quomodo discurrunt medii inter nos et Deum, fidelissime portantes ad Eum gemitus nostros, et Ipsius gratiam nobis devotissime reportantes? S. Bernardi Serm. 2. in Vig. Nat. Domini, Opp. 1. 746. edit. Mabill. fol. Par. 1719. Hi sunt cives beatæ civitatis supernæ Hierusalem, quæ sursum est mater nostra, . . . ut . . . confortent quoque, et moneant, et orationes filiorum Tuorum deferant, et offerant in conspectu gloriæ majestatis Tuæ... et solliciti discurrentes inter nos et Te, Domine, gemitus nostros et suspiria referentes ad Te, ut impetrent nobis facilem Tuæ benignitatis propitiationem, et referant ad nos desideratam Tuæ gratiæ benedictionem. S. Augustini (?) Soliloq. Opp. vi. 577. edit. Antv. 1700. to commemorate His mercies, and to hear with our ears, what our fathers (that is, the priests and ministers of God) shall tell us, the noble acts that He did, in the old time before us. Ps. 44. 1. Among which, this that the Church hath propounded to-day for the Gospel, and which I have propounded to-day for my text, is a chief one; the first noble act, the beginning of miracles, as St. John says a little forward, that Christ did Joh. 2. 11. after His baptism. And now the text is suited to the time, both for the occasion which we have to celebrate, and for the day which the Church is to celebrate. It divideth itself into these parts: The solemnizing of a marriage, And there was a marriage,' the first. The place where it was, ' at Cana,' the second. The time when it was, 'upon the third day,' and the third point too. They were invited to The guests that were at it, Mary the Mother of Jesus, Jesus Himself, and Jesus's disciples, the fourth point. And lastly, how they came there. it, And Jesus was also called, and marriage.' His disciples, to the The end of all will be that we make the same use of it which they did, and then we shall be sure to have the same benefit which they had, even the presence of Christ and blessing of Almighty God among us. Of these then, or of as many of these as the time will suffer us that we may speak, to the honour of God's most Holy Name, &c. &c. &c. I shall desire &c. 'And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.' 'There was a marriage.' That is the first. Whose marriage this was, that we cannot tell. They did but shoot at rovers, those old friars, that out of an old apocryphal gospel were wont to tell us the story how that St. John fTo shoot at rovers,' without any particular aim, see Johnson's Dict. The following extract from the 'Vita Jesu Christi' by Ludolphus 48 The persons who were married at Cana. III. SER M. the Evangelist was the man, and the Virgin Mary's niece was the woman, that were to be married here in Cana, but that when the feast was done, Christ called away the bridegroom, and made a disciple of him; and St. Jerome must be brought in to make up the case, when, as God knows, there is no such meaning in the Father h; and it seems they forgot that St. John was called long before this time, and was one of the first disciples that was called, as he says himself here, His disciples were called with Jesus to the marriage. What could become of them? curious wits forsooth must be searching, and lose their wits for their labour. What have we to do with that which God and His Gospel have not been pleased to tell us? It is enough, be the marriage whose soever Heb. 13. 4. it was, we are told that marriage is an honourable estate of Gen. 2.24. life in all men, a state ordained by God Himself in paradise, a state without which there can be no society in this world durable; and albeit single life be a thing more angelical and divine', yet because the replenishing of the earth first with Quamvis autem dubium sit cujus Pars i. cap. xxv. The reader who is anxious to pursue the investigation of this subject will find numerous authorities, in which it is discussed, pointed out by Wolfius, Curæ Phil. in S. Johan. cap. ii. v. 1. h It is admitted by Baronius, A.D. xxxi. § 31, that no such passage is to be found in the writings of Jerome. It occurs in two ancient prologues prefixed to the Gospel according to St. John, of which the former is ascribed to St. Jerome, the other to St. Augustine. Both may be found in the Glossa Ordinaria; (edit. fol. Antw. 1617, tom. v. 1001. 1003;) the former is also extant in the Complutensian Polyglott, and in the works of the Venerable Beda, (edit. Basil. 1563. iii. 515.) It is there stated that 'Johannem de nuptiis volentem nubere vocavit Dominus.' In the second these words occur. 'Iste est Johannes, quem Dominus de fructivaga nuptiarum tempestate vocavit.' Thomas Aquinas (2a 2æ q. 186. a 4), Bonaventura, Lyra (who says 'Dicitur etiam communiter quod istæ nuptiæ fuerunt Joannis Evangelistæ,' edit. 1617. col. 1045), and all the middle age theologians, adopted this opinion. See passages to this effect collected from the Fathers, both Greek and |