Preached at Brancepath, on the Second Sunday after Trinity. ST. LUKE xiv. 16—20. A certain man made a great supper, and bade many ; And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. But they all at once began to make excuse. The first said, I have bought a farm, and I must needs go see it; I pray thee have me excused. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come, &c. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, they shall prosper that love it. APPENDIX V. (Page 343.) ST. MATTHEW xiii. 27, 28. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it those tares? He saith unto them, The envious man hath done this. Preached at Paris, the Gospel for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, 1651. ST. MATTHEW Xiii. 24. Simile est regnum cœlorum homini seminanti in agro, &c. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, The enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and weed them up? But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together till the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye first the tares, and bind them together in bundles to be burnt; but gather the wheat into my barn. APPENDIX VII. Preached at Paris, on the First Sunday after Trinity, June 11, 1651. ST. MATTHEW xiii. 24, 25. Simile est regnum cœlorum homini seminanti in agro, &c. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the SERMON I. PREACHED AT ST. EDWARD'S IN CAMBRIDGE, JANUARY THE SIXTH, A.D. ST. MATTHEW ii. 1, 2. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, Behold, there came Wise Men from the East to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is He That is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him. 23. I CHOSE my text for the time, the celebration of this day, that we may keep Solomon's rule, verbum diei in die suo; Prov. 15. and therefore before I come to the text I will say a little of the day, this Epiphany, this manifestation of our Lord and Saviour. We are still at the feast of Christmas, and this is the last and great day of the feast, as St. John said of another. A Joh. 7. 37. feast of joy it has been all this while, but this day was given us that our joy might be full. They were tidings of joy that the Angels brought, a while since, to the shepherds, Jews, hard at hand; but when the glad tidings of the Gospel came abroad once to all the people, as this day they came so, then were they no more tidings of ordinary, but of great joy. 'Behold, I bring you tidings,' saith the Angel, but not to you alone; though to you, yet to others as well as you, 'which shall be to all people.' Hitherto, then, it was Evan- Lu. 2. 10. gelizo vobis, vobis Judæis, but to-day it was omni populo; that now a Saviour was born unto us all, Which was Christ the Lord. And indeed this is our Christmas-day, that were See Appendix No. 1. b See Bishop Overall's Annotations COSIN. "Of the High and Great Feast of B I. 1 Judæa * until 2 પે Various Epiphanies of our Saviour. SERM. Gentiles; for though Christ was born twelve days since in Jury', yet He came not abroad the world while now, and to us He seemed as yet unborn (being but like a rich treasure in a man's field, at this time not known to be so,) till He was this day manifested unto us in the persons of these Wise Men, the first fruits of the Gentiles. Book ver There were many Epiphanies before this, for it was made manifest many times before. To the Blessed Virgin first, for she knew it nine months before, and then to John Baptist, before he was born himself, for he could seem in the Lu. 1.41. womb to point at Him, when His mother came, Ecce Agnus Joh. 1.29. Dei, Qui tollit peccata mundi. And after He was born, the shepherds had tidings of the Lamb of God too. But all these were the Epiphanies of some few persons only, and the new Morning Star was seen but a little way, as far as Mary's Ps. 97.4. family, or a field hard by, and no further. Now to-day His Prayer lightnings gave shine unto the world, and at His Epiphany sion. not a few persons at home, or near at hand, but the nations abroad, even at the ends of the earth, had news brought them of it from heaven; and now this day not Jury only, (that was too straight for Him who must have the heathen given Him for His inheritance,) but the whole world was the better for Christ's nativity. A true Christmas-day this, and Christmas rejoicing right, when all fare the better for it. Before, the heathen were about the hedges, shut quite out of doors; but to-day the gates were set open for them, as well as for the Jews. Which community was well figured, as the commond note is, in the place that Christ would have His nativity happen in, even in a common inn, where every one might come, the Gentile as welcome as the Jew; and because perhaps they would not be together in one chamber, (for we read that Joh. 4. 9. the Jews meddle not with the Samaritans, nor keep their Ps. 8. 1. company,) therefore Christ would be born in the stable, where there is no distinction made, but all put together in one room. Or if an inn be not large enough, there is another figure will hold all the world, and that is the time of taxing Illi magi, quidnam fuerunt nisi primitiæ gentium. S. August. Serm. 4. de Epiphan. Opp. v. 637. His divinæ gratiæ mysteriis eruditi, diem primitiarum nostrarum et inchoationem vo cationis gentium rationabili gaudio celebremus. S. Leo, Bibl. Patr. v. ii. 814. d See Suarez in 3 part. S. Thomæ, q. xxxv. art. 7 and 8. sec. iii. § 'Secundo dicitur.' Reasons for rejoicing at this time. 3 the whole earth, as St. Luke says, just at this time, wherein Lu. 2. 1. Christ would be born, to tell us that He came to be the Saviour of the whole earth. For though it was but in a little town, saith St. Leo, yet the great world fared the better for His nativity; nay, it is but a small thing, saith God Himself, in Isaiah, to raise the tribes of Jacob, or to restore the decays of Israel, I will give Thee a light to the Gentiles, and a salva- Isa. 49. 6. tion unto the end of the world. There He promised it, and this day He was as good as His word, for now, even this day, our eyes have seen His salvation, which He hath prepared, not for Jacob or Israel only, but before the face of all people, and to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, as well as to be the Lu. 2. 30. glory of His people Israel. And we have heard with our ears, O God, and our fathers have told us of old, how Thou Ps. 44.1, 2. hast not driven out the heathen, as David there speaks, but planted them in, fetched them home that were gone astray before, fetch [ed] them to Thy blessed flock, that we might be Joh. 10.16. all one fold under that great Shepherd, That would give His life for His flock. This then is the day which the Lord hath made, made it and made us with it too; indeed He had made us before, but we had marred His workmanship; now to-day we came to be made again, and our second making made us for ever, we were now become His workmanship in Christ Jesus, as Eph. 2. 10. St. Paul calls it. This is the day that the Lord hath made for us, and therefore this should be the day that we should make for Him too; rejoice and be glad in it, as it follows Ps.118.24. there in the Psalm, and as it follows here in the Gospel too; for St. Matthew says, a little after the text, that when they saw the star they rejoiced exceedingly, and so they proved the Mat. 2. 10. Angel's words true, tidings of great joy. And now I know Lu. 2. 10. there is no question but that most of us will rejoice too; nay, the world shall know that we do not mean to pass this day away without that. But such joy we commonly use as, God knows, will end with weeping and gnashing of teeth: our mouth shall be filled with laughter, if ye will, and we will Ps. 126. be like them that dream, as the Prophet speaks, but not for the turning of our captivity this day from bondage, a worse e S. Leo, Serm. in Nativ. ap. Bibl. Patr. v. ii. 815. 1, 2. |