IS the wonderful Nativity of my blessed Saviour this day commemorated by a solemn Festival, and shall my stupid Soul not endeavour by some awakening Meditations, to blow the sparks of her gratitude into flames of Love and Wonder for such a Miracle of mercy?

Festivals; tis true, are proper seasons of Mirth and Gladness, nor does Religion delight in that Sower look and unsociable po­sture wherein slie Hypocrites represent her; Tis possible the Conduit on some occasions may lawfully run wast, and since a good Conscience is a continual Feast, there is no doubt but we may be Merry with it; yet certainly he who only minds his Good Ch [...]er in this days Solem [...]ity speak; himself more an Epi­cure than a Christian, and may be said to celebrate Bacchus his drunken Revels, rather than the Birth of the Holy Jesus.

This was that glorious Moment which God in infinite mercy had promised our first Parents immediately after their unhappy Fall from primitive Innocence, and which the Church had now sighed for, near four thousand years, wherein was born the ex­pectation of Nations, and the long long'd for Redeemer of the World, did (as his Prophetick Harbingers had foretold) rend the Heavens, and come down from Mansions of Glory in the vesture of Humanity; Thou, Oh my dearest Lord! that by the virtue of the highest, were conceived in the womb of an In­violate Virgin, of all women the m [...]st blessed, and yet more blessed by being thy Daughter and thy Servant, than in being thy Mother.

Thou at whose Birth the whole Quire of Heaven did sing Hallelujahs, and Angels in kindness to mankind, made hast to acquaint ever Shepherds with the blessed News; But on my God! why wouldst thou be first made known to the meanest condi­tion of men? Why were they sent to see their Saviour, not in some gorgeous Palace but in the [...]ilest Room of a common Inn? And (instead of a Cradle deckt with rich Embroideries) ly­ing in a despicable Manger? Way didst thou not choose for the place of thy blessed Mothers Delivery, either Athens the Learned, or Rome the Emperial, or Jerusalem the holy City? Or since poor Bethlehem to verify thy Prophets prediction, must receive that Honor; Why didst Thou not send Millions of Cherubins and Seraphins before thee for thy glorious Harbin­gers?

No my God! It was thy Will, it was thy Will (which is the highest of Reasons) by thy low beginning in the Flesh to confound all Pride, and reach the glories of the Earth to Blush. Disobedient Adam had destroy'd us by Ambition, and thou wilt Save us by thy Humility: He thinking to become like God, had precipitated us all into an Abyss of Death and Mi­sery, and thou, the God of Compassions by becoming like to Man, hast restor'd us to Life Eternal.

Yet thu [...] privately born, and thus homely received, denyed admittance into the Inn, and forced by worse than brutish men, to take up a lodging amongst Beasts; Behold a new Star descend­ing to Illustrate thy Obscurity, and conduct the wise men of the East (now wise indeed) with their choicest presents to Adore thee: On strange appearence in the Heavens! and yet one more strange and glorious on the Earth! Did ever Hippocri­tus, Ptotomy, the famous▪ Tresmegist or the greater Moses, or all the Aegyp [...]ian Stargaz [...]rs ever contemplate before such a Pla­net? So Irregular! so Ex [...]entrical, and yet constant to its de­signed end▪ as if the Celestial lights has forsaken their proper [...]ions and natural positions to welcome the Lord of all Na­ture [Page 5]into the World! Thus, oh my Lord! didst thou descend to Earth, that thou mayst raise us to Heaven, Envelloping thy self in clouds of Obscurity, to Crown us with Light and Im­mortality, participating of humane Nature, that we might partake of that Divine, and cloathing thy self with our Flesh, that we might be invested with thy Spirit.

In the whole course of thy precious Life, what shall I first, what shall I most admire? All is Wonder, all Amazement, and forces my nonplust Reason in a holy Extasy to that Sanctuary of thy servant Paul; Oh the Height! oh the Depth! &c. Shall I first celebrate Thy ever blessed Name, for convincing the great Doctors of the Law at twelve years of thine Age? When thy divine Essence began to Blaze, which had layn before as it were slumbring in the vail of thy Humanity? Or shall I pass from this miracle of Knowledge to thy miracles of Charity, in healing the Blind, the Lame, the Deaf, the Dumb? Or shall I more contemplate the Acts of thy Power, in checking the unru­ly Winds unto a calm; walking on the Waves, raising the Dead, and casting forth unclean Spirits! Or shall I remain Stupifyed (as all the Learnedst part of the World was, which lay gro­veling in the contemplation of inferior Causes) that at thy coming, all their false Oracles; and prophetick Delusions were strucken mute, and no more answers could be had from Delphos or Hammon? Or shall I run my thoughts from thy Cradle to thy Cross, and consider how at thy passion all Nature did suffer, the Earch shaking; Graves opening; and the Heavens by a Preternatural Eclispe of the Sun all over Invelloped with an af­frighting Darkness? Or lastly; after thou hadst Triumphed over Death and Hell (whose Keys are in thy Hand alone) shall I glorify thy Assumption into the highest Heavens?

Yes, blessed Lord! all this and much more there is than the whole World can contein if it were Written; Yet one thing remains even after thy gloriou [...] Departure, for the com­fort of our Souls, that thou hast dispensed thy saving Doctrine, [Page 6]not by Eloquent Sophists, or subtle Schoolmen (such as have since distracted and torn thy Church in pieces) but by the sim­plest and seemingly contemptible Instruments, so that it must needs be thy Divine truth since it was impressed by no humane means: How should we have known, or how should we have apprehended thy eternal Generation? If thou hadst not been pleased to vouchsafe a silly Fitherman to lean on thy Breast, and inspire him to tel us, That In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Therefore to Thee, Thou Incarnate Word! do we with an humble confidence, Address our selves disowning all other Me­diators; Thou only true Messias! The wisdom of the Father in whom all Prophecies are accomplished, and the Will of God, and Desires of Men fulfilled; teach us to contemplate thy Nati­vity, not vainly or Superficially as we do a curious Picture or pleasant History, but to improve the same to the advan­tage of our Souls; Let the meditation of thy Birth, inflame us with desires to be born again, and may we read in thy Incarna­tion, the true model of our own Regeneration. Look down upon us thy unworthy Creatures, from thy Throne of Glory: Teach us thy Love, but such a Love, as doth fear to offend thee; teach us thy Fear, but such a Fear as first doth love thee; And endue us with thy Grace, whilst by thy Permission we walk on this Globe which thy blessed Feet have trodden, to Solemnize this Day of thy Nativity, not with vain Delights or wanton Jollities, but with Hymns of Joy, and Meditations of like Comfort.