SERMON II PREACHED AT DATCHET NEAR WINDSOR, ON THE SERM. III. ST. JOHN ii. 1, 2. And the third day there was a marriage in Ir is a marriage day with us, and it is with the text; a marriage appointed you, w I doubt not by the care and providence of pointed me by the care and order of the Ch how it falls out to be that portion of Scrip the Church hath allotted to be universally rea of this very day. The Gospel of the Sund be, the theme of all our sermons through tl the whole year. And this day is, or may be t the fittest of all other days of the year to celeb on, it being the very day wherein Christ celebr self, with His own presence at it. The choice of this day then, for your purpo me the choice of a text for mine, for it hath here ready to my hand, while the Church's Prov. 15. both so happily together. And it being Solom men should speak their words as near as might Heb. 3. 13. and while it is called to-day, as St. Paul speaks 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 pedigr family contained in Bucks in A.D. 1639. fol. 54.) that this Ma daughter of Sir Edm Rideing Court, county by Elizabeth daughter Richard Hanberry of ] Abraham Delane, to married, was of the hig family of Delane of Sh county of Kent. b St. John ii. 1-11. of Scripture appointed of the day. ve 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 ogether; for he that runs may read some happy correspondence between the work of this day, and the words of this ext; 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 The text then being thus fixed to the present occasion, efore we proceed to that business, it would be suited in the words to the present time too, according to the revolution of year; for whether we had had a marriage here to-day or o, we should have had the same Service, the same Sunday, he same Gospel, and, if a sermon, the same text. Howoever, the second Sunday after the Epiphany would have ome and gone for all that; and this Gospel must have been ead upon it and we must have a care to observe the order ad solemnity of the Church Service and the Church Sunday, s well as of any marriage day whatsoever. You are to know, then, that this is Epiphany time. You e they are called the Sundays of the Epiphany; and Epiany time is the time of Manifestation, the time when hrist was pleased to manifest Himself, and make His glory hown to the world. According to which, the Church hath ited her office, and fitted us with a course of service, that ight help to bring into our minds in order, the things emselves, as they were done here by Christ our Saviour ile He was upon the earth. Thus there were three great and prime manifestations that e made of Himself. The Church begins with them at welfth Day. The first, that He made to the Gentiles; and cordingly propounds to you the Gospel of the star that Mat. 2. 1, peared in the East, with the Collect, O God, Which didst seqq. nifest Thy only begotten Son to the Gentiles". The next s the first manifestation we read of which He made of mself to the Jews, while He sate with them in the Temple, shewed them what He was, even at twelve years of age; Coutiles mercifully grant III. Lu. 2. 41, seqq. 46 Church Services neglecte SER M. and accordingly did the Church propound Gospel the last Sunday, which was the phany. The third was the first manifesta of Himself to His disciples, who had been before, and were now invited with Him t Cana. Answerable whereunto is the G unto us by the Church this third day, ' there was a marriage in Cana,' so it begins 'manifested forth His glory, and His dis Him,' so it ends. There were other miracl manifested Himself too, and they have thei Joh. 2. 11. but these were the first, in every kind, as St was the beginning of miracles that He did;' a the Church appointed the three first days af for the solemn memory and anniversary cele These things, if they were better heeded b to us, than they are, I suppose we should aff love the service of the Church better than w ignorance of them makes us esteem of God's so divinely disposed as it is, no otherwise tha bare reading of so many lines, to spend av some places it is accounted; or an introduc a sermon, and wait upon it like a handmaid tress, as in others; while God knows it is the ness that we, His poor servants, can attain to orderly, and duly, and solemnly, to serve Him do in heaven, that is, day by day to magnify H honour and public homage, to send up prayers, a earth, and to receive down blessings, as Angels d Αγγέλοις ἔργον δοξολογεῖν Θεόν, πάσῃ τῇ στρατιᾷ τῶν ἐπουρανιών ἐν τοῦτο ἔργον, δόξαν ἀναπέμπειν τῷ ΚτίσavT. 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 mini, Opp. 1. 746. Par. 1719. Hi sunt tatis supernæ Hierus est mater nostra,.. quoque, et moneant, et Tuorum deferant, et of gloriæ majestatis Tu discurrentes inter nos gemitus nostros et s ad Te, ut impetrent no benignitatis propitiatio ad nos desideratam T dictionem. S. Augus Opp. vi. 577. edit. Ant commemorate His mercies, and to hear with our ears, what ir fathers (that is, the priests and ministers of God) shall ll us, the noble acts that He did, in the old time before us. Ps. 44. 1. mong which, this that the Church hath propounded to-day r the Gospel, and which I have propounded to-day for my ext, is a chief one; the first noble act, the beginning of iracles, as St. John says a little forward, that Christ did Joh. 2. 11. ter His baptism. And now the text is suited to the time, both for the casion which we have to celebrate, and for the day which he Church is to celebrate. It divideth itself into these parts: The solemnizing of a marriage, 'And there was a marage,' the first. The place where it was, ' at Cana,' the second. The time when it was, 'upon the third day,' and the third The guests that were at it, Mary the Mother of Jesus, The end of all will be that we make the same use of it Of these then, or of as many of these as the time will ffer us that we may speak, to the honour of God's most oly Name, &c. &c. &c. I shall desire &c. 'And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of lilee.' 'There was a marriage.' That is the first. Whose marriage this was, that we cannot tell. They did but oot at rovers, those old friars, that out of an old apocryal gospel were wont to tell us the story how that St. John To shoot at rovers,' without any 'Vita Jesu Christi' by Ludolphus III. SER M. the Evangelist was the man, and the was the woman, that were to be married that when the feast was done, Christ call groom, and made a disciple of him; and brought in to make up the case, when, as no such meaning in the Father h; and it that St. John was called long before this of the first disciples that was called, as he His disciples were called with Jesus to the could become of them? curious wits searching, and lose their wits for their lab we to do with that which God and His Gos pleased to tell us? It is enough, be the mar Heb. 13. 4. it was, we are told that marriage is an hon Gen. 2. 24. life in all men, a state ordained by God Hir a state without which there can be no soci durable; and albeit single life be a thing m divine', yet because the replenishing of the Quamvis autem dubium sit cujus Pars |