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IV. The Means by which he accomplished that End. By the Sacrifice of himself.

V. The Difference of His Sacrifice from the Jewish ones. His was but once performed; theirs were every Day repeated. If his Sacrifice had been like theirs; then (as you have it in the former Part of the Verfe) must he often have suffered fince the Foundation of the World; But now once in the End of the World, bath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himSelf. This is the juft Refolution of the Text into its feveral Particulars, of each of which I fhall discourse as briefly and practically as I can.

I. I begin with the Firft, The Appearance of our Lord in general. Now bath he Appeared. Let us here confider, First, Who it was that appeared: And then, How he did appear.

The Perfon appearing, we will confider both as to his Nature, and as to his Office.

He that appeared, as to his Nature, was God and Man; both thefe Natures were united in him, and made one Perfon. He was God with us. So the Angel ftiles him in the First of St. Matthew.

He was the Word that was with God, and was God, and by whom all Things were made. He was, I fay, that Word made Flesh, and dwelling among us: So St. John ftiles him in the First of his Gospel.

Lastly, He was God manifefted in the Flefb; fo St. Paul ftiles him in the First Epistle to Timothy.

This was the Perfon that the Text faith, Now appeared; that is, the Son of God in Hu man Nature. God, of the Substance of his Father, begotten before all Worlds; and Man of the Subftance of his Mother, born in the World. Perfect God, and perfect Man, and yet but one Perfon. For as the Reasonable Soul and the Body make one Man, fo here God and Man make one Christ; as our Creed expreffes it.

And this leads me to his Office. This Divine Perfon God Man, that the Text here faith appeared, was, by his Office, the Christ, the Meffias; that is, that great Minister of God, that Anointed King, and Priest, and Prophet, which, from the Beginning of the World, he promised to fend down upon Earth for the Salvation of Mankind; who was Believed in by the Patriarchs; Typified by the Law Foretold by all the Prophets; Shadowed out in all the Oeconomy of the Jewish Nation; Expected by all the Ifraelites; and Wifhed for by the best of the Heathen World.

This Perfon, invefted with this Office, at last appeared; and in what manner, you all know from his Story in the Gospel.

He was by the Holy Spirit of God, conceived in the Womb of a Virgin, as was fore told of him by the Prophets; of which an Angel of the higheft Order in Heaven, first brought the happy Tidings to the Virgin herself.

This Virgin, by as ftrange a Providence, when the Time of her Delivery drew near,

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was brought from her own City and Habita tion in Galilee, to Bethlehem, a City of Judah, where the brought forth this illustrious Babe; and thereby fulfilled another Prophecy concerning him, namely, That he should be born in Bethlehem, which alfo the Scribes at that Time acknowledged.

The Circumftances, indeed, of his Birth, were far from any outward Pomp and Magnificence. The Virgin his Mother was poor, and a Stranger, and ill befriended; that in the Confluence of People, with which the City was then crowded, fhe was able to procure no better a Lodging than the Stable of an Inn: So that a Manger was the Place that firft received the Lord of Glory. This Slur, this Affront God then thought fit to put upon all that external Splendor and Grandeur, which ufually doth fo much dazle the Eyes of mortal Men.

But God failed not to make abundant Amends for the Meannefs of his Birth, by giving fundry other demonftrable Evidences of the Dignity of the Perfon that was then Born.

For the Magi from the Eaft (Princes fhall I call them, or Philofophers?) being conducted by a new Star, came and pay'd their Homage, and brought their Offerings to this King of the World in a Manger: And the Shepherds, that were watching the Flocks in the Fields by Night, were furprized with the Glory of the Lord fhining round about them, and an Angel that thus spoke to them; Fear not, for be

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hold I bring you Tidings of great Joy, which shall be to all People for unto you is born, this Day, in the City of David, a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord. And this shall be a Sign unto you, Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in fwaddling Cloaths, lying in Manger. And Juddenly there was with the Angel, a Multitude of the Heavenly Hoft, praising God, and faying, Glory to God in the Higheft, on Earth Peace, Good Will towards Men.

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After this Manner was the Appearance of our Saviour, and much after the fame Manner was his following Life. It was a Life of much Poverty and Meannefs as to outward Circumftances; but it was a Life, in every Period of it, fraught with Wonders. Whether we confider the admirable Goodness and Charmingnefs of his Temper; or the exemplary Vertue and Piety that did fhine out in all his Converfation; or the Divinity of his Sermons and Doctrines; or his prodigious inimitable Miracles; or the Atteftations which were given him from Heaven; or the Ufage he received from Men; or the Events which followed upon all thefe Things in the World.

But it is his First Appearance in the Fleb, that we are this Day met together to Commemorate. And never had Mankind fo Noble an Argument given them, to exercise their Thoughts and Meditations upon.

If we confider the Quality of the Perfon appearing, that he was no other than the Eternal Son of God; How ought we to be raptur'd with Wonder and Aftonishment, at the Infiniteness of the Divine Condefcenfion? How VOL. I. ought

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ought we to be affected with Love and Thankfulness, at fuch a never-to-be-parallelled Inftance of God's Kindness to us, that he fhould fo love us, as to fend his only begotten Son into the World, that we might live through him?

If we confider, that this Son of God refolving to appear in the World, of all other Ways, chose to do it in our Flesh, and fo united both the Deity and Humanity in one Perfon; O what a Senfe ought this to imprefs upon us, of the Honour that is here done to our Nature, and the Dignity it is advanced to? And how ought that Senfe, either to fright us, or to fhame us from proftituting this our Nature, to any vile unworthy Mixtures and Communications, which God did not difdain to take into fo near a Relation to himself.

If we confider that this God, in Humane Flefb, came as the Meffiah, the Saviour of the World, fo long before promised, and fo long expected; How ought this to fill our Hearts with Joy and Thankfulness? How should it move us to pour out our Souls in Benedictions. to God, for having thus Vifited and Redeemed his People? And putting us into that Difpenfation, which fo many Holy Men, for fo many Ages, wifhed to fee, but did not fee it; nay, and which the Angels themselves defired to look into; and which the Jews for rejecting, at the Time it was published, are to this Day a ftanding Monument of God's Displeasure and Vengeance?

If we confider the many Evidences, that this our Saviour gave at his Appearance, of

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