THE FIFTH SERMON ON CHRISTMAS-DAY. PSALM xlv. 3.1 12 Thou art fairer than the children of men: full of grace are thy 2 Grace is lips, because God hath blessed thee for ever. 3 poured into thy lips. 3 therefore. IX. + So the "My heart is inditing a good matter;" and I could wish SERMON "my tongue" were "the pen" therefore, "of a ready writer," that "I might speak the things I have made touching the King," this day's new-born King, as I ought to speak, as gins, and they ought to be spoken. But, "Non mihi si centum linguæ sint, oraque centum," "Had I a hundred mouths, and as many tongues," and they the tongues of angels too, I could not yet sufficiently set forth the beauty of this Fair One, the majesty of this King, the grace of his person, or the comfort of his day,- this day wherein he came to be first reckoned among the "children of men." Psalm be so the Sermon. vii. 9. Yet something must be said, both for the day's sake, and the Person's. It is a day of good tidings, so the Angel tells us, and then we must not hold our peace: the very lepers, that are to hold their hands upon their mouths, cannot hold them at this; say "We do not well:" if we do, some mis- 2 Kings chief will come upon us." And lips so full of grace will require the return of the lips at least. We can do little, if we cannot speak again when we are spoken to, when God speaks to us, as the Apostle tells us, by his Son; if we will not render a word in answer to this Eternal Word, speak of IX. SERMON the beauty, and grace, and blessing that we see in him, and find by him. God hath blessed him for ever, blessed us to-day, will bless us too, hath already blessed us in blessing him; will bless us more and more in him, to-day and for ever good reason, then, we bless him to-day, who from this day began to bless us for ever. All this while you understand me who I mean, who is so "fair," so "gracious," so "blessed." The question is, whether the Psalmist means the same. Indeed they give it out for an epithalamium, or marriage-song at Solomon's espousals with Pharaoh's daughter. And in such songs the praise and commendation of the bridegroom and the bride, and good wishes to them, are the usual subjects. It is so here; Solomon and his bride commended, blessed, wellwished too in it: but yet, "behold, a greater than Solomon is here," a fairer, graciouser, blesseder than he; Christ married to his Church, or rather the Divinity contracted to the humanity, Christ made the "fairest" of the "children of men," ex as well as præ; more gracious words out of his mouth than ever out of Solomon's; more truly ever-blessed, ȧeì μaκápios, than he; the song sung in a fuller key, the words more punctually appliable, the prophecy more exactly fulfilled, in him than in Solomon himself. The Fathers have so expounded it before us; the Church has added authority to it by the choice of the Psalms for a part of the Office of the Day: nay, S. Paul has so applied it. So I am in no ways singular indeed, I love not to be in such points as Heb. i. 8, 9. these; I tread the ancient track; though I confess I think I can never take occasions enough-nor I, nor any else— to speak of Christ, of his beauty and grace and blessedness, either to-day or any day, though every day whatsoever. : And though I must say with S. Hilary, Filium mens mea veretur attingere, et trepidat omnis sermo se prodere, I can neither think without a kind of fear, nor speak without a kind of trembling, of a person of that glory; yet because it is our Eternal Solomon's, the Word's wedding-day, and the text part of the wedding-song: and in such days and songs the very children, all comers, bear a part; and if they c [Filium mens consternatur attin gere, et trepidat omnis sermo se pro dere.-S. Hilar. De Trinitate, lib. ii. -Op., p. 13. col. 2. D. ed. Paris. 1631.] IX. did not, the stones would do it-indeed, the stones and walls SERMON should this day all ring of it; and if they, I must not be the only senseless stone to hold my peace. Indeed, here is a beauty would make any man an orator; lips that would make the dumb man eloquent, grace would make the most ungracious full of good words and holy language, were they well conceived and considered. That so they may, the words are now to be considered as a part of an epithalamium, or marriage-song, wherein Christ, our eternal Bridegroom, is set forth in all his lustre. Now, in a bridegroom, the chief things we look at are good parts, and a good estate. Our Bridegroom here has both. Fair-faced and fair-spoken, full of grace and beauty for his parts: and a fair estate he has too, God be thanked for it; a blessed lot, a goodly heritage in a fair ground; blessedness itself enstated upon him, and that for ever. Both far above the parts and portions of the children of men; the Son's parts above the parts of the children of men, and the Father's blessing above the blessings of the fathers of men; and neither the one nor the other to be concealed, but even spoken and sung of while you will, by us as well as David; as loud, too, and in as high a key. Run this division upon it if you please, and take these parts, to sing of in their order. I. His beauty, Christ's excellent beauty. "Thou art fairer than the children of men." II. His eloquence, Christ's infinite grace in speaking. "Full of grace are thy lips." III. The original whence they come from God's blessing; eo quod, in one way of rendering, "Because God hath blessed thee for ever:" because he hath blessed thee, therefore art thou so fair, so full of grace. IV. The effect of them, what they cause: God's blessing again so the other rendering the word by propterea, "therefore," that is, because of this excellent grace and beauty; therefore "has God blessed thee for ever." V. The end whither they move and tend, the great business they aim at-even to the blessing of God again. For so the Hebrew writers supply the sense, with a Dico ego: "Therefore say I;" and so say we, or are to say so, "God SERMON John xii. 32. hath blessed thee for ever." Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ, for all this grace, for all this blessing. If our Spouse so fair, then we, sure, should be faithful: if his lips so full of grace, our lips as full of thanks: if he blessed of God, we, again, bless God and him for so great a blessing: so great blessings, so continually descending upon us; so lasting, so everlasting, never sufficiently answered but by all our ways of blessing; and so blessing him always, all our days, whilst we live, for ever. We to sing our parts, and praise him in the song; sing or say, "Thou art fairer," thou, O Christ, art fairer, &c. For this is the sum and whole meaning of the text, to give us a view of Christ's beauty and the Christian's duty both together; so to show and set forth to us the lustre and splendour of Christ's incomparable beauty, and the overflowing fulness of his grace, as to make us really in love with him, to ravish our hearts and tongues and hands to his service and praise, that we may to-day, and every day, serve, and praise, and magnify him all the day long, the only way to blessedness for ever. I begin with his beauty, for that is a principal attractive to him. "When I shall be lift up, I shall draw all men to me," says he himself. That lifting up was upon the cross; and if that be so attractive, if he be so powerful in his humiliation, when his face is clouded with darkness, his eyes with sadness, his heart with sorrow, when his body is so mangled with wounds, deformed with stripes, besmeared with blood and sweat and dust, that "will draw all men to him;" how infinitely prevalent, then, must he needs be when we see him in his excellence, smooth and even and entire in all the parts of his soul and body! For in both, fair he is; formosus, "fair;" formosus præ, "very fair;" formosus præ filiis, “fairer than the fairest and sweetest child," in whom commonly is the sweetest beauty; præ filiis hominum, "than the children of men," when they come to their full strength and manly beauty. By these degrees we shall arrive to the perfection of his beauty; fair he is, very fair, fairer than the sweetest, fairer than the perfectest beauty of the sons of men, so in both his body and his soul. IX. i. In his body first. And fair and comely, sure, must that SERMON body be, which was immediately and miraculously framed by the Holy Ghost; pure flesh and blood that was stirred together by that pure Spirit, out of the purest blood and spirits of the purest virgin of the world. The shadows of that face must needs be beautiful, that were drawn by the very finger and shadowing of the Holy Ghost; those eyes must needs have quid sidereum, as S. Jerome, some star-like splendour in them, which were so immediately of the heavenly making. The whole frame of that body must needs be excellent, which was made on purpose, by God himself, for the Supreme Excellence to dwell in, to reside in, to be united to, so united by the union hypostatical. A body without sin, must needs be purely fair; a body without concupiscence, must needs be sweet; without defect, must needs be lovely; without vacuity, must needs be complete; without superfluity, must needs be so far handsome; without inordination, must needs be perfect; without death, must needs be firm; without dust, must needs be singular; without corruption, must needs be curious and delicate; without any of them, must needs be excellent. And all these were Christ's body— without sin, without concupiscence, without defect, without vacuity, without superfluity, without inordination, death and dust and corruption could not get the least dominion over it; "Thou shalt not suffer my flesh to see corruption," says the Psalm; he did not suffer it to see it, says the Gospel: raised incorruptible it quickly was; went down into the grave, but stayed not there; came not into the dust at all, into any corruption at all; had none all the while it was upon the earth, had none under it. Fair (1) he was in his conception, conceived in purity, and a fair angel brought the news. Fair (2) in his nativity: apaîos is the word in the Septuagint-tempestivus, in time, that is, all things are beautiful in their time. "And in Eccl. iii.11. the fulness of time" it was that he was born, and a fair star pointed to him. Fair (3) in his childhood: he grew up in grace "and favour." The doctors were much taken with Luke ii. him. (4.) Fair in his manhood: Had he not been so, d [S. Hieron. ad Principiam Virginem. explan. Ps. xliv. (xlv.) Op., VOL. I. tom. iii. 71. H. ed. Francofurt. ad K 52. |