To fave his rebel; though he did not need,
He feeks thy love, becomes a Man to bleed
And die for thee, an enemy that never
So much as asked help, and to deliver

Thy foul from endlefs death, and with his own
Abafement to procure for thee a crown.
And tell me now, if ever any thing

Could be contrived by lefs than Heaven to bring
Man to return and love his God, that fits

So well our frame, or that fo kindly hits

Our best affections ftrings. Sure none but he,
Who knew, because he made our hearts, could fee
What might endear it moft, exactly knew
All the approaches, every avenue

That gives access to it, could only frame
A means fo fuitable to win the fame.
Methinks in this defign I cannot tell
Whether the Wisdom or the Love excell;
Both wonderful, and both may jufily move
And raise our admiration and our love.
And he that thinks but of it, and yet can
Deny his dear-bought Love, hath put off Man.

VI.

CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1665.

THE Sun of Righteousness, when he arose In our horizon here, did not disclose

Hinfelf with fplendor: There's no court prepared,

Nor ftately edifice, or ftructure reared

For his reception: This great Potentate,

And Prince of Heaven and Earth, affumes no ftate
When he affumes our nature, but conceals

His oriental luftre under veils

And clouds of lowlinefs: First he takes,

Not the Angelic nature, but he makes

Our

Our fleth his mantle, where he doth infold
That light which Seraphims cannot behold
Without amazement; and this he affumes
Not from fome Princess decked with plumes
Of honour and of wealth; but from a low
And poor, though noble Virgin. And if now
We think his birth in fome great Court to find,
We are deceived, poor Bethlehem is defigned
For his firft breath; and in that town an inn,
And in that inn a ftable; there begins
This bleft Epiphany; the world affords
No better room to entertain her Lord.
And now, if only on the Hiftory
We gaze, we look too fhort, the Myflery
Is fruitful: Chrift began to teach

And be at once, and ere he fpake to preach.
It doth command thy Faith, when thou doft fee
Effects of greatest weight produced to be

From things without all human grandeur, then
Thou must subscribe, the power is not of men
But God. Great confequents do then speak beft
Almighty God, when Man they do fpeak leaft.
Again, it gives thee a true estimate

Of worldly pomp, bids thee not over-rate
That pageantry: the Lord, who can best try
And value what is beft, did pafs it by.
Again, thy Saviour's infant-pattern tells
What his disciple's duty is, how well
Humility becometh thee, when he,

The Prince of Life and Glory, chofe to be

Thus humble; when he put on flesh, it chides

And checks, and fhames poor foolish mortal's pride. Lafly, this miracle of love fhould fire

Thy heart with love again, and with defire

Of

Of fuitable returns; and yet if ftill

It doth exceed thy power, as fure it will,
Yet fuch a heart becomes a facrifice
Accepted, and thy other wants fupplies.

VII.

CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1663.

WHEN the great lamp of Heaven, the glorious Sun, Had touched his fouthern period, and begun To leave the Winter tropic, and to climb The Zodiac's afcending Signs, that time The brighter Sun of Righteoufnefs did choofe His beams of light and glory to disclose To our dark lower world; and by those rays To chafe the darknefs, and to make it day. And left the glorious and refplendent light Of his Eternal Beam, might be too bright For mortals eyes to gaze upon; he shrouds And clothes his fiery pillar with the cloud Of human flesh, that in that drefs he may Converse with men, acquaint them with the way To Life and Glory, fhew his Father's mind Concerning them, how bountiful and kind

His thoughts were to them; what they might expect
From him, in the obfervance or neglect

Of what he did require; and then he fealed
With his dear blood, the truth he had revealed.

VIII.

CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1657.

WHEN the Almighty doth his first-born bring

Into the world, behold how every thing

Doth

Doth ftrive to bear him witness', and proclaim
That this was he on whose most healing name
Man's reftitution lay; the woman's feed
Promised in Eden. Thus it was decreed
To print an eminence upon that day
Within whose womb fo great concernment lay.
And first, those prophecies that seemed to lie
In a long fleep, the Day-fpring from on high 3
Summons them up; to Bethlehem they are fent,
And there they read their own accomplishment.
Here Abraham finds his promifed feed 4, in whom
The nation's blifs was wrapt 5; David his fon,
And yet his Lord; Jacob's dim aged eye
Beholds his wifhed Shilo; Jeremy,
The Lord our Righteousness; Ezekiel,

His Kingly Shepherd 9; Isaiah, Immanuel,
The Virgin's Son 10; wife Daniel, while he feeks
He finds within the compass of his Weeks
Meffiab's Birth, where Micah's Prophecy 12
Before precifely fixt it. Malachi,

The laft of all the ancient Prophets, here
Of the New Covenant finds the Meflenger 13,
These, and an army more of Prophecies,
Like stars of feveral magnitudes arise

From feveral periods, and then fix their station,
Conjoined in one great conftellation,,
Juft over Bethlehem with that eastern star,
And jointly fing, We here fulfilled are.
Hither comes alfo Moses, with a train

Of types and facrifices 4, which contain
Shadows of that great prophet he foretold 15;
This day unveils their face and his, unfolds

'Heb. xii.

Gen. xii. 3. 7 Gen. xlix. 10. 10 Isa. vii. 14. Mal. iii, 1.

Matth. i. 21. Jer. xxiii. 5. Jer. xxiii. 6. 11 Dan. ix. 25. 14 Heb. x. 1.

3 Luke i. 78.

6 Psalm cx. 1.
9 Ezek. xxxiv. 25.
1 Micah v. 2.
15 Deut. xviii. 15.

Their Myfteries; and here with one confent
They publish all, Lo! this was he we meant.
The bleffed Angels from the Heavens defcend,
The Prince of Heaven's Birth-day to attend ;
And clothed with Light and Giory, they became
The Heralds thofe glad tidings to proclaim
Unto the watchful shepherds: forthwith they
To Bethlehem, as directed, hafte away,
And find as they were told, and every where,
What they had feen and heard they do declare.
And that the Heavens, as well as Angels, may
Contribute fomewhat to this folemn day,
A Star is born, that never before appeared,
Whofe courfe fo wifely through the air is fteered
To Bethlehem, that by it, as by a thread,
The Eaflern Wife-men thither juft are led *;
And there it makes a halt, and fo do they,
To Jacob's ftars while they their homage pay.
When after Mary to the temple went,
Her, and her Maker's firft-born to prefent,
Thither by fecret Providence are brought
Simeon and Anna, that of long had fought
For Ifrael's confolation; there they fee
The hope they fought, and witnefs this is he.
Thus did our Lord no fooner land among
Us mortals, but immediately a throng
Of ftrange and wonderful conjunctures fwarm
To this divine attractive, and alarm
The unexpecting world, that he for whom
The world was made, into the world is come.
A thing exceeding wonder, therefore fit

That wonders fhould atteft and publish it.

'Luke ii. 9, 15.

Luke ii. 25. Col. i. 15.

Luke ii. 15.

Num. xxiv. 17.

Mat. ii.