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XXIII.

SERMON and, in a word, to an universal righteousness, with all the purity we can, with all the strength and resolution we are able. Bless with a cheerful and ready hand; set ourselves ever hereafter merrily to this work.

But remember we all this, while we so use our hands to bless, that we so open and shut, so spread and cross them, that we let not Christ go out the while. Offer we up ourselves and him together. Resolve we, whoever shall take him, shall take us too. We will not part, no not in death; we will live, and die, and sleep, and rise again together; he that will have him shall have us, whether he will or no; he is in our arms, there will we keep him. Yet in lieu of parting with him we will part with ourselves, and offer ourselves for him if that will do it. Yes, and that will do it. Duo minuta habeo, Domine, corpus et animam, says the devout Father. "I have two mites, O Lord," I have two mites to offer, to give thee for thy Son, to offer thee for him—" my soul and my body." Them thou shalt have willingly; I an content to part with them, so I may keep him, and they will content him. Offer them up then "a living, reasonable sacrifice," for it will be "an acceptable service" too, an acceptable blessing of him.

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Yet, as we offer up ourselves, we must now, lastly, offer up Christ too. He gave him to us to be an offering for us; to sanctify all our offerings for a blessing to us; to bless all our blessings. And for the imperfection of all our righteousness, offerings and sacrifices, prayers and praises, and blessings, to make them accepted, which in themselves and their weak performances no way deserve, he was given us to offer. His perfection will make amends for our imperfections, his purity for our impurities, his strength for our weakness; and for them, when we have done all we can to be accepted, we must offer him, or have all rejected. We must, when we begin to bless, turn ourselves, with old Jacob, to this caput [Gen. xlvii. lectuli, this "bed's head," whereon only the soul can rest; or 31.] [Heb. xi. "leaning upon the top of this staff," as the Apostle renders it; the only staff wherein old Israel trusts, the only staff whereon we rely for mercy and acceptance. This is the name of the Angel, in whom only we are to bless, in whom PS. Bernard. Serm. III. in Purificatione B. Mariæ, p. 104 H. ed. Paris. 1640.]

21.]

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only we are blest; in whom either God blesses us, or we him. SERMON This is the sum: he the chief of all our oblations, all our blessings by oblation; and the blessing both of our resolutions and endeavours all; without whom we can do neither the one nor other, neither resolve good nor practise it. He, therefore, is to be offered with all thankfulness to God by us; his merits only to be pleaded by us : and the form of all our blessing thus to run, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy holy Son, the Child Jesus, give the praise." It was not our own arm that helped us to him; it is not our own arms that can hold him; it is not our own strength that can keep him; it is not our own hands that can present any offering worthy of the least acceptance. To God only, therefore, be the praise, to Christ only the merit, of all our blessings.

Thus we are, lastly, to pray too, that God would accept us and our blessing. Bless him with our petitions.

(1.) That he would please to pardon all our sins, or pass by all our weaknesses, in this day's, in every day's performance; our neglects, our coldnesses, our drynesses, our wearinesses, and all the issues of our infirmities any ways.

That (2) he would accept our offerings, and be pleased with us in his Son, accept us in his Beloved.

That (3) he would grant us the benefit of that holy sacrament which we have this day received; all the benefits of his death and passion, the full remission of all our sins, and the fulness of all his graces signified and conveyed by those dreadful mysteries.

That (4) he would particularly arm us, every one of us, against their particular corruptions, with strength and grace proportionable to every one, and effectual to us all. For proper and particular petitions, rising from the sense of our several necessities, are this day proper to be asked, and as easy to be obtained, whilst it is his own day, in which he invited us to him, and will deny us nothing that we shall earnestly, faithfully, and devoutly ask him. For this also, to pray, to petition, is benedicere: and it is a way of blessing God to offer up our prayers; thereby acknowledging and confessing his power and goodness, which is no less in other words than to praise and bless him. "He that offers praise, [Ps. 1. 23.]

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SERMON honours him;" and he that presents prayers, professes and proclaims him Almighty Father, gracious, and good, and glorious God, at the very first dash-" God blessed for evermore."

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Light up now your candles at this evening service, for the glory of your morning sacrifice: it is Candlemas. Become we all burning and shining lights, to do honour to this day, and the blessed armful of it. Let your souls shine bright with grace, your hands with good works; let God see it, [Ephes. v. and let man see it; so bless we God. Walk we as children 8.] of the light," as so many walking lights; and offer we ourselves up like so many holy candles to the Father of Light. But be sure we light all our lights at this Babe's eyes, that lies so enfolded in our arms; and neither use nor acknowledge any other light for better than darkness, that proceeds from any other but this Eternal Light, upon whom all our best thoughts, and words, and works, must humbly now attend like so many petty sparks, or rays, or glimmerings, darted from and perpetually reflecting thankfully to that glorious Light; from this day beginning our blessing God, the only lightsome kind of life, till we come to the land of light, there to offer up continual praises, sing endless Benedicites and Alleujas, no longer according to the laws or customs upon earth, but after the manner of heaven, and in the choir of angels, with holy Simeon, and Anna, and Mary, and Joseph, all the saints in light and glory everlasting. Amen, amen.

He of his mercy bring us thither, who is the light to conduct us thither; he lead us by the hand, who this day came to lie in our arms; he make all our offerings accepted, who was at this feast presented for us; he bless all our blessings, who this day so blessed us with his presence that we might bless him again; and he one day, in our several due times, receive our spirits into his hands, our souls into his arms, our bodies into his rest, who this day was taken corporally into Simeon's arms, has this day vouchsafed to be spiritually taken into ours,-Jesus the Holy Child, the Eternal Son of God the Father. To whom, with the Holy Spirit, be all honour, and praise, and glory, and blessing, from henceforth for evermore. Amen.

A SERMON

ON THE

FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT.

2 COR. vi. 2.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of

salvation.

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AND truly such a "time" is worth beholding. For the SERMON business of it here being of no less concernment than "God's reconciling us to himself"-the "committing the word and 2 Cor. v. 18, office of this reconciliation to his ministers"-the persuading 2 Cor. v. 20. us "not to receive this grace in vain”—the time, certainly, 2 Cor. vi. 1. wherein we may thus be reconciled, thus accepted to salvation, is worth the seeing, worth a "behold," and a "behold;" worth laying hold on, too; a "time" to be "accepted," being a "day of salvation."

And "now is the time," says the text we are fallen upon; and now is the time," say the days we are fallen among : times of reconciliation, both; "days of salvation," both. Indeed, the whole "time" of the Gospel is no other. Yet the Apostle applies it here to the age he wrote in. We may draw it down to ours we live in. But the Church, more particularly yet, applies it to the time we are now in keeping, the holy time of Lent; a time wherein the office of reconciliation is set open to receive sinners in; a "time" when the " ambassadors for Christ," as the 2 Cor. v. 20. Apostle styles us, we that are "workers together with him," 2 Cor. vi. 1.

SERMON
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are more earnestly to beseech the people, and the people more especially to bestir themselves by the works of mortification and repentance, to reconcile themselves to God; a time when in the Primitive Church notorious sinners were put to open penance, and punished in this world, that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord," says our Church in the Commination; and she herself, by making these words part of her Epistle for the First Sunday in Lent, she cries out to us, as it were, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation;" this very "time:" make much of it, and lay hold upon it.

I shall give all their right; take in all the time we can, that, seeing an "accepted time" there is, a "day of salvation" to be had, still to be had, we may be sure not to miss it. It is no idle, trivial business, this; we cannot be too careful for it. General and particular days and times all to be taken, and all little enough to obtain salvation; not to be thought much of, though it were much more, so we may but compass that at last.

I shall not therefore spend so precious time to study curiosity in a business so serious, or to torture the text into nice divisions. It shall suffice to show you in it these particulars :

I. That an "accepted time" there is, some time above others, wherein God is most ready to accept us.

II. That this "accepted time" is a "day of salvation" too; wherein we shall not only merely be "accepted," but "accepted" so far also as to "salvation,"-one or other. "Now is the day of," &c.

III. That "now is the time," this "is the day." It is before us, it is in present: we need look no further.

IV. That God himself here points us to it; bids us "behold" it; sets an ecce, a mark upon it—a red letter, as it were, upon the "day," that we might mark and mind it, mind it above all other days besides.

V. That we are therefore to do accordingly. "Behold," and "behold" it; "now" and again "behold" it, again and again; and so "behold" it as to "accept" it and apply us to it; bring all ends of the text together, that we may find

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