more. This is that everlasting priest after the order of Melchizedek. This is he whom so many kings and pro phets have desired to see. And now is he come who so How blessed and happy therefore Ye may well rejoice and clap For he is not born to be unto you a tyrant, a fierce lord, and cruel judge, or an extreme revenger; but a sweet Saviour, a gentle Lord, a bounteous favourer, a merciful forgiver. Which thing ye may well perceive by his name, for his name is Jesus, given unto him of God his Father, by the angel, which by true interpretation is a Saviour. For he it is that shall save his people from their sins. Mark, he shall save them, and not condemn them. If he had a rigorous name, ye might well have been afraid of him, but his name is full of sweetness, pleasure, delectation, and comfort. And because ye should not fear to come unto him, behold he is not born royally, after the manner of worldly princes, set out with gallant pomp; but humbly, meekly, and lowly. For he lieth simply in a manger, wrapped in mean clothes, when, notwithstanding, he is Lord over all things, both in heaven and in earth. But his kingdom is not of this world, for he has not so much as a place where he may lay his head. Thus is he become poor, that by his poverty ye should become rich. Oh how much are ye bound to this your new King and Saviour, who when he was in the form of God, yea, very God himself, took upon him the form of a servant, and became very man for your sake! If he had not done thus, certainly ye had been damned for ever and ever; for your sin was so heinous and great, that it could not otherwise be taken away, but only by him. By him, yea, by him alone, are all your sins put away. He it is, yea, he it is alone, that putteth away your iniquities for his own sake, and will remember them no more. A righteous God, and such a one as saveth, is there none but he alone. is that Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He is that Saviour who is come into the world to save sinners. He it is, in whose name, and in no other under heaven, men must be saved. He Moreover, divers grave, weighty, and serious causes are there, why it was convenient that this your Saviour should be born: First, that inasmuch as ye all are grievous sinners, and have broken all the commandments of God, he should fulfil the law for you, delivering you from the curse of the law whereunto ye are bound, or else by no means could ye be saved. And this shall this child, who is now born, do for you, I mean, satisfy the law, before he ascend again unto his Father, and set you free from the malediction and curse of the law. For Christ is the perfect fulfilling of the law unto justification for every one that believeth. Christ shall redeem you from the curse of the law, while he is made accursed for your sake. For it is written, Cursed be every one that hangeth upon a tree. Oh what joyful tidings are these for you to hear: that Christ shall deliver you from the curse of the law, and restore you unto life, who before were dead! Secondly, seeing that the world is without all knowledge of God, corrupt with idolatry, poisoned with their own imaginations, drowned with hypocrisy, and altogether set on wickedness, the head-priests, bishops, lawyers, scribes, and pharisees, corrupting the Holy Scriptures in such a manner with their pestilent glosses; it is necessary that this Christ, the wisdom of the Father, come down and redress these great absurdities, reducing and bringing the divine Scriptures again to their true sense, that men may forsake all idolatry, all ungodly doctrine, all wicked customs, and learn to know the true God. And surely as he is come from God to be a Master and Teacher, so will he undoubtedly teach godly things. For he that cometh from heaven is above all men. And what he hath seen and heard, that will he testify; for he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God; for God giveth him not the Spirit in a measure. But the Spirit of God is plenteously upon him, because he hath anointed him, to preach glad tidings to the poor; he hath sent him, that he should heal the broken in heart, preach deliverance to prisoners, and sight to the blind, freely set at liberty them that are bruised, and declare that acceptable year of the Lord. The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. All nations shall resort unto him: they shall say one to another, Come, let us go up to the mount of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he shall teach us his ways, that we may walk in his paths. The people that now walk in darkness, shall see a great light, and they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, shall have the light shine upon them. Christ shall multiply the people and increase their joy also. He shall make them to rejoice even as men that make merry in harvest; and as men that have gotten the victory when they divide the spoil; for he shall break the yoke of the people's burden. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the cat of the mountain shall lie with the goat. The calf, the lion, and the sheep shall dwell together, and the young child shall not once be afraid of them. The calf and the bear shall feed one with another, and their younglings shall take their rest together. And the lion like as the ox shall eat chaff. And the infant, so. soon as it is weaned, shall lie playing upon the holes of adders; and the child that is weaned shall put his hand into a cockatrice's nest. They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all God's holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, even as though the water of the sea flowed over the earth. Oh what a singular pleasure is this for you, who hitherto by blind guides have been led blindly in all kinds of idolatry and wickedness, to the great danger and peril of your soul's health; for if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the ditch-for you to have such a heavenly Teacher coming down from the bosom of God the Father, who cannot lie, but will purely and sincerely teach you all truth; that ye may undoubtedly know the true God, which is everlasting life, and consummate or perfect righteousness. Can any news be brought unto you more joyful than these? He truly is too much brutal that rejoices not at the hearing of them. Thirdly, He shall not only, with all sincerity, inform you of the divine will of his celestial Father, but he shall also work many strange and wonderful miracles among you to confirm his doctrine, and to show that he is unfeignedly the true Messiah, who so many years before was promised to come. For he shall restore the sick to their health; the blind to their sight; the deaf to their hearing; the dumb to their speaking; the halt to their going; the mad to their whole mind; the possessed of the devil to their perfect state; the dead to their life; the sinful to grace and virtue. Then, as the prophet says, shall the eyes of the blind be made to see, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened. Then shall the halt skip as the hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be loosened. They shall walk as persons delivered and set at liberty of the Lord. They shall turn and come to Sion with praise, and everlasting gladness shall be upon their heads. Joy and mirth shall they have, sorrow and mourning shall flee from them. Whose heart rejoices not to hear these most pleasant and comfortable news? Fourthly, He shall watch, pray, and fast, exercising all kinds of beneficence and virtue; yea, and that not for himself shall he do these things, but for you, for your health, for your profit and salvation. All that ever he shall do, shall be done for your sake. His watching, fasting, praying, almsdeeds, and all that ever he doth shall be done for you. All his good deeds shall be yours; his righteousness, holiness, and godly life shall be yours. Christ's deeds must need be yours, for Christ himself is yours. This child is born for your sake, and this Son is given unto you. He is your NEW YEAR'S GIFT. He that hath not spared his own Son, but hath given him for you all, how is it possible but that, with this his Son, he must needs give you, all things? Who shall now therefore charge any sin against you that are the elect and chosen people of God? It is God that justifieth and maketh you righteous, who then is he that can condemn you? Oh most blessed and joyful tidings! Fifthly, when he hath full godly in this manner, both lived virtuously, and also preached purely, the divine will of his celestial Father, the bishops, the head-priests, the scribes and pharisees, who, through their obstinate blindness and causeless malice, shall ever hate him, lay in wait to entangle him in his sermons, calumniate his most godly doctrine, and obscure his most pure and irreprehensible name,-shall at the last grow into such. and so great a malice and fury against Christ, that they shall never cease until they have cruelly slain him. For they shall report him to be a glutton, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, one that casteth out devils by the help of Beelzebub prince of the devils, a Samaritan, one possessed with a devil, one altogether set a madding, a seducer and deceiver of the people, a destroyer of God's temple, a heretic, a traitor, and one that forbids to pay tribute to Cæsar. They shall make his own disciple betray him through gifts and rewards. They shall bring in false witness against him to condemn him to death. They shall bring him before the temporal judges. They shall lay many things to his charge unjustly. They chall mock him, they shall rail on him, they shall spit on him, they shall buffet him, they shall scourge him, they shall put a crown of thorns on his head, they shall nail him to a cross; they shall thrust him even to the heart with a spear; they shall, for very despite, hang him between two thieves and cruel murderers, as though he were the chief and principal. No kind of torment or villany can be invented, but the very same shall they exercise upon him. For from the sole of his foot to the top of his head shall there be no whole place in his most blessed body. Oh cruel fury and furious cruelty! All these things shall he suffer, not for his own, but for your sake, for your health and salvation; yea, and that willingly: he shall give his body to them that strike, and his cheeks to them that pluck them. His face shall he not turn away from them that rail and spit on him. Like as a sheep shall he be led to be slain, and like a lamb before the shearer shall he hold his peace, neither shall he once open his mouth. Thus, because it is his pleasure shall he offer himself upon the altar of the cross, and by his most precious blood pay your ransom. By this his glorious passion, shall he take upon him your infirmities and bear away your sins. By his most blessed wounds shall all your iniquities be put away. All your sins shall be laid on his back. His blood shall make you clean from all your sin. By his blood shall ye have remission of your sins. By the precious blood of this Christ, as of an immaculate and pure lamb, shall ye be redeemed from the tyranny of Satan. By the oblation of Christ shall ye be made free from all wickedness, delivered from the power of darkness, and carried into the glorious kingdom of God. For he is the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. This is that Son of man, who is come to save that which was lost, and not to destroy the souls of men, but to save them. And all this shall come to pass by the oblation and offering of his own most precious and blessed body. For he shall be your bishop, not such an one as also shall have need to offer for his own sins, but for yours only; neither shall he be like the bishops of the old law, who offer daily for the sins of the people, such sacrifices as can never take away sin, nor yet make men perfect. But this your bishop shall be godly, innocent, faultless, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who shall not need, as the other bishops do daily, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins, and afterwards for the sins of the people. For he, being without all sin, shall once |