guishing persons? Behold, the great Physician, endued with admirable skill, and furnished with infallible remedies, is come, to cure us of our maladies and ease us of our pains; to bind up our wounds, and to pour in balm, the most sovereign balm of his own blood, into them; to free us not only from all mortiferous diseases, but from mortality itself: he, who was "sent to bind up and heal the broken-hearted;" he, who "himself took ou infirmities, and bare our sicknesses;" he, of whom the prophet, in relation to corporal, and much more to spiritual infirmities, did foretell, "God will come and save you; then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped; then shall the lame man leap as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing;" he whose art no disease can resist, who is able to cure our most desperate, our most inveterate distempers; to heal the corruptions and impotency of our nature, to avoid the ignorances and errors of our understanding, to correct the stupidity of our hearts, the perverseness of our wills, the disorder of our affections; to mitigate our anguish of conscience, and cleanse our sores of guilt; by various efficacious medicines, by the wholesome instructions of his doctrine, by the powerful inspirations of his grace, by the refreshing comforts of his Spirit, by the salutary virtue of his merits and sufferings.

Is mirth seasonable on the day of marriage? Behold, the greatest wedding that ever was, is this day solemn

1 Isa. XXXV. 5.

ized: heaven and earth are contracted; Divinity is espoused to humanity; a sacred and indissoluble knot is tied between God and man, "The bridegroom is come forth out of his chamber" (Verbum Dei de utero Virginali), clad in his nuptial garment of flesh, and ready to wed the Church his beloved spouse: "Let us therefore be glad and rejoice; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready."

Is the access of a good friend to be received with cheerful gratulation? Behold, the dearest and best Friend of all mankind, most able, most willing, most ready to perform all good offices; to impart wholesome advice, needful aid, sweet converse, and seasonable consolation, is arrived to visit us, to sojourn with us, to dwell with us for ever.

Is opportune relief grateful to persons in a forlorn condition, pinched with extreme want, or plunged in any hard distress? Behold, a merciful, a bountiful, a mighty Saviour and succourer, undertaking "to comfort all that mourn;" inviting all such to receive from him a plentiful supply for their needs, a comfortable ease in their pressures, a happy riddance from their calamities ; who crieth aloud, "If any one thirsteth, let him come to me and drink: Come to me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

Is the sun-rising comfortable, after a tedious, darksome, and cold night? See, "the Sun of righteousness is risen with healing in his wings," dispensing all about his pleasant rays and kindly influences: "The Day

spring from on high hath visited us," diffusing a universal light upon the souls of men, whereby the night of ignorance is dispelled, the spectres of error are vanished, the mists of doubt are scattered, whereby we clearly and assuredly discern all truths of importance to us, and worthy of our knowledge; concerning the nature and attributes, the works and providence, the will and pleasure of God; concerning ourselves, our nature and original, our duty and interest, our future state and final doom: "Our light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon us;" "the light of the world," " the true light," "enlightening every man ;" by whose lustre "all flesh may see the salvation of God,” and “which guideth our feet in the way of peace," doth visibly shine forth upon us.

Never, indeed, did heaven with so fair and serene a countenance smile upon earth, as then it did, when this bright and Morning-star did spring up above our horizon, bringing this goodly day, and with it shedding life and cheer among us.

From this auspicious day did commence the revocation of that fatal curse, by which we were expelled from paradise, adjudged to death, and committed to hell; from thence we became reinstated in a condition of hope, and in a fair capacity of happiness; from thence is to be dated a return of joy into this region of disconsolateness. In this nativity mankind was born, or did revive from manifold deaths; from a legal, a moral, a natural, an eternal death; from lying dead in irreparable guilt, and

under an insuperable power of sin; from having our bodies irrecoverably dissolved by corruption, and our souls immersed into that second more ghastly death, of perpetual incurable anguish.

It is in effect therefore the birthday of the world; the beginning of a new, better, eternal life to men, offered to all, and effectually bestowed on those who will embrace it, which we now do celebrate. All reason, therefore, we have to rejoice most heartily and most abundantly; as the goods thence accruing to us are in multitude innumerable, in quality inestimable, in duration immense; so in some correspondence should our joy be very intense, very effuse, very stable; the contemplation of them should infuse somewhat of that unspeakable joy, whereof St Peter speaketh; we should "be filled," according to St Paul's expression, "with all joy and peace in believing" them; we should "hold fast," as the apostle to the Hebrews adviseth," the confidence and rejoicing of hope," grounded on them, "firm to the end."

Having so many, so great causes of joy, are we not very stupid, are we not strangely cross and perverse, if we neglect so pleasant a duty?

To conclude: Of all the days that rise upon us this undoubtedly is the queen, crowned by God's own hand with sovereign blessings; God hath avowed it to be the day of his peculiar making, and therefore of our special rejoicing; for thus of old the inspired Psalmist did teach and exhort us to keep Christmas, "This is the day which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad therein."

THE

PASSION OF OUR BLESSED SAVIOUR.

And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.-PHIL. ii. 8.

WHEN, in consequence of the original apostasy from God, which did banish us from paradise, and by continued rebellions against him, inevitable to our corrupt and impotent nature, mankind had forfeited the amity of God-the chief of all goods, the fountain of all happiness, and had incurred his displeasure-the greatest of all evils, the foundation of all misery :

When poor man, having deserted his natural Lord and protector, "other lords had got dominion over him," so that he was captivated by the foul, malicious, cruel spirits, and enslaved to his own vain mind, to vile lusts, to wild passions:

When, according to an eternal rule of justice, that sin