nor of necessaries, for so painful a work, in the stable of Bethlehem; yet he, that made and gave the law, will rather keep it with difficulty, than transgress it with ease. Do Why wouldest thou, O blessed Saviour, suffer that sacred foreskin to be cut off, but that, by the power of thy circumcision, the same might be done to our souls that was done to thy body? We cannot be therefore thine, if our hearts be uncircumcised. thou that in us, which was done to thee for us; cut off the superfluity of our maliciousness, that we may be holy in thee and by thee, which for us wert content to be legally impure. There was shame in thy birth, there was pain in thy circumcison. After a contemptible welcome into the world, that a sharp razor should pass through thy skin for our sakes, which can hardly endure to bleed for our own, it was the praise of thy wonderful mercy in so early humiliation. What pain or contempt should we refuse for thee, that hast made no spare of thyself for us! Now is Bethlehem left with too much honour; there is Christ born, adored, circumcised. No sooner is the blessed virgin either able or allowed to walk, than she travels to Jerusalem, to perform her holy rites for herself, for her son; to purify herself, to present her son. She goes not to her own house at Nazareth, she goes to God's house at Jerusalem. If purifying were a shadow, yet thanksgiving is a substance. Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of body and safety of deliverance, if they make not their first journey to the temple of God, they partake more of the unthankfulness of Eve, than Mary's devotion. Her forty days, therefore, were no sooner out, than Mary comes up to the holy city. The rumour of a new king, born at Bethlehem, was yet fresh at Jerusalem, since the report of the wise men; and what good news had this been for any pick-thank to carry to the court! Here is the Babe whom the star sig nified, whom the sages inquired for, whom the angels proclaimed, whom the shepherds talked of, whom the scribes and high priests notified, whom Herod seeks after. Yet, unto that Jerusalem, which was troubled at the report of his birth, is Christ come; and all tongues are so locked up, that he which sent from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to seek him, finds him not, who, as to countermine Herod, is come from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Dangers that are aloof off, and but possible, may not hinder us from the duty of our devotion. God saw it not yet time to let loose the fury of his adversaries, whom he holds up like some eager mastiffs, and then only lets go, when they shall most shame themselves and glorify him. Well might the blessed virgin have wrangled with the law, and challenged an immunity from all ceremonies of purification; What should I need purging, which did not conceive in sin? This is for those mothers whose births are unclean; mine is from God, which is purity itself. The law of Moses reaches only to those women which have conceived seed: I conceived not this seed, but the Holy Ghost in me. The law extends to the mothers of those sons which are under the law; mine is above it. But as one that cared more for her peace than her privilege, and more desired to be free from offence than from labour and charge, she dutifully fulfils the law of that God whom she carried in her womb, and in her arms; like the mother of him, who, though he knew the children of the kingdom free, yet would pay tribute unto Cæsar; like the mother of him whom it behoved to fulfil all righteousness. And if she were so officious in ceremonies, as not to admit of any excuse in the very circumstance of her obedience, how much more strict was she in the main duties of morality! That soul is fit for the spiritual conception of Christ, that is conscionably scrupulous in observing all God's commandments; whereas he hates all alliance to a negligent or froward heart. We The law of purification proclaims our uncleanness. The mother is not allowed, after her child-birth, to come unto the sanctuary, or to touch any hallowed thing, till her set time be expired. What are we, whose very birth infects the mother that bears us? At last she comes to the temple; but with sacrifices, either a lamb and a pigeon, or turtle, or (in the meaner estate) two turtle doves, or young pigeons, whereof one is for a burnt-offering, the other for a sinoffering; the one for thanksgiving, the other for expiation; for expiation of a double sin, of the mother that conceived, of the child that was conceived. are all born sinners, and it is a just question, whether we do more infect the world, or the world us. They are gross flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean. If our lives had no sin, we bring enough with us: the very infant that lives not to sin as Adam, yet he sinned in Adam, and is sinful in himself. But, oh the unspeakable mercy of our God! we provide the sin, he provides the remedy. Behold an expiation well-near as early as our sin; the blood of a young lamb, or dove, yea, rather the blood of Him whose innocence was represented by both, cleanseth us presently from our filthiness. First went circumcision, then came the sacrifice; that, by two holy acts, that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God. Under the gospel our baptism hath the force of both it does away our corruption by the water of the Spirit; it applies to us the sacrifice of Christ's blood, whereby we are cleansed. Oh that we could magnify this goodness of our God, which hath not left our very infancy without redress, but hath provided helps, whereby we may be delivered from the danger of our hereditary evils! : Such is the favourable respect of our wise God, that he would not have us undo ourselves with devotion: the service he requires of us is ruled by our abilities. Every poor mother was not able to bring a lamb for her offering: there was none so poor, but might pro cure a pair of turtles or pigeons. These doth God both prescribe and accept from poorer hands, no less than the beasts of a thousand mountains. He looks for somewhat of every one, not of every one alike. Since it is he that makes difference of abilities, (to whom it were as easy to make all rich,) his mercy will make no difference in the acceptation. The truth and heartiness of obedience is that which he will crown in his meanest servants. A mite from the poor widow is more worth to him than the talents of the wealthy. After all the presents of those eastern worshippers, who intended rather homage than ditation, the blessed virgin comes, in the form of poverty, with her two doves unto God: she could not without some charge lie all this while at Bethlehem; she could not without charge travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Her offering confesseth her penury. The best are not ever the wealthiest. Who can despise any one for want, when the mother of Christ was not rich enough to bring a lamb for her purification? We may be as happy in russet as in tissue. While the blessed virgin brought her Son into the temple with that pair of doves, here were more doves than a pair. They, for whose sake that offering was brought, were more doves than the doves that were brought for that offering. Her Son, for whom she brought that dove to be sacrificed, was that Sacrifice which the dove represented. There was nothing in him but perfection of innocence: and the oblation of him is that whereby all mothers and sons are fully purified. Since in ourselves we cannot be innocent, happy are we if we can have the spotless dove sacrificed for us, to make us innocent in him! The blessed virgin had more business in the temple than her own; she came, as to purify herself, so to present her Son. Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He, that was the Son of God, by eternal generation before time, and by miraculous conception in time, was also, by common course of nature, consecrate unto God. It is fit the holy mother should present God with his own. Her first-born was the first-born of all creatures. It was he whose temple it was that he was presented in, to whom all the first-born of all creatures were consecrated, by whom they were accepted; and now is he brought in his mother's arms to his own house, and as a man is presented to himself as God. If Moses had never written the law of God's special propriety in the first-born, this Son of God's essence and love had taken possession of the temple: his right had been a perfect law to himself. Now his obedience to that law, which himself had given, doth no less call him thither, than the challenge of his peculiar interest. He that was the Lord of all creatures, ever since he struck the first-born of the Egyptians, requires the first male of all creatures, both man and beast, to be dedicated to him, wherein God caused a miraculous event to second nature, which seems to challenge the first and best for the Maker. By this rule God should have had his service done only by the heirs of Israel. But since God, for the honour and remuneration of Levi, had chosen out that tribe to minister unto him, now the first-born of all Israel must be presented unto God as his due, but by allowance redeemed to their parents. As for beasts, the first male of the clean beasts must be sacrificed, of unclean exchanged for a price. So much morality is there in this constitution of God, that the best of all kinds is fit to be consecrated to the Lord of all. Everything we have is too good for us, if we think anything we have too good for him. How glorious did the temple now seem, that the Owner was within the walls of it! Now was the hour and guest come, in regard whereof the second temple should surpass the first. This was his house, built for him, dedicated to him: there had he dwelt long in his spiritual presence, in his typical. There |