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But there is yet a more valuable and certain Reward for this Duty; namely, that which every Faithfull Chriftian knows to be referv'd for it in the World to come. Let us not therefore, as-St. Paul exhorts, be weary in well doing, for in due feafon we shall reap, if we faint not.

For laftly, tho' many days have paft, and we yet meet with no Return here, let us not faint or be difcourag'd. There shall at laft come a Day, when our long Expectation shall be abundantly fatisfy'd, and the Delay of our Reward more than compenfated, by the Greatness and Excellency and Eternity of it. That Day fhall come, when the Grand Inquifition which our Judge will make, fhall be, not How frequent, or How long our Prayers have been, or what Powerfull Preachers with what eagerness we have follow'd; not how often we have said unto him, Lord, Lord; not what Edifying Difcourfes we have liften'd to, or even made; not so much what good things we have faid or heard, as what we have done? What Acts of Mercy and Charity we have exercis'd to our distress'd Brethren upon Earth, What Hungry we have fed, what Naked we have cloath'd, what Sick, what Prisoners we have vifited? It fhall then be made manifeft in the Sight of Angels and Men, how

high a Value our gracious Mafter puts upon the least of these Services perform'd in Sincerity and Love. When a few perishing earthly Things fhall intitle us to Immortal Riches and Everlasting Glory, nay even a Cup of cold Water to a Kingdom. When We shall hear that joyfull Sentence, Come, Te bleffed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepar'd for You from the Beginning of the World; For I was an hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; naked, and ye cloathed me. We shall then, to our unspeakable Comfort find, how prudent a Forecast it was, to remove in time our Effects hence, where we have no abiding, and to transferr 'em into the Country where we were to live for Ever; to lay up before-hand Treafures in Heaven, and, by the righteous Use of the Mammon of Unrighteoufnefs, fecure to Ourselves an Everlasting Habitation.

To which God of his Infinite Mercy bring, us all, thro' Jefus Chrift our Lord, to Whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be afcrib'd, as is moft due, all Might, Majefty, and Dominion, both now and for evermore. Amen.

SERMON II.

SERMON II.

HEBR. II. 16, and part of the 17 Verfe.

For verily He took not on Him the Nature of Angels, but He took on Him the Seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behov'd him to be made like unto his Brethren.

T

HE Incarnation of Our Bleffed Saviour is fet forth in the words that I have juft now read unto you, fo clearly, as to the Evidence of it, and fo advantageously, both as to the Goodness of Willing it, and the Wisdom of Contriving it, that I could not pitch on

any

any more fit for the Subject of your Meditations at this Season, fet apart by the Piety of the Church for the Solemn and Devout Commemoration of this great Mystery of Godliness, God manifefted in the Flefb. For in these words,

1. The Incarnation of the Son of God is fet forth Moft Clearly, as to the Evidence of it; we in them being plainly taught, and beyond allException convinc'd,of the Truth of the Catholick Faith in this important Article; the firft Member of the Text being an invincible proof of the Divinity, as the second is of the Humanity, of Our Bleffed Lord.

ift, We have here an undeniable Argument of the Eternal Divinity of Chrift, before his appearing in the Flesh. For He, in whose free choice it was, to take upon him either of the two Natures, that of Angels, or that of Men, muft,of Neceffity,have been a perfon Exifting before he made that choice, and also of a different Nature from either of those two Natures, One of which he was pleas'd in time to affume into his Own; and therefore not ameer Man, of no Elder Being than from his Birth of the Bleffed Virgin, as most impiously the Socinians, nor even One of the Highest Rank of Angels, before this Visible World's Creation,

yet

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