Be wife therefore in Time.

Make no tar

rying to turn to the Lord, and put not off from Day to Day. Be ftedfaft, and diligent in the Work that is commanded you, in Piety, in Righteousness, in Temperance. Take heed to yourfelves, left at any Time your Hearts be overcharged with Surfeiting, and Drunkenness, and Cares of this Life, and fo that Day come upon you unawares.

God give us all the Grace to be prepared for it, and by a patient Continuance in well-doing to wait for it all the Days of our appointed Time for the fake of Jefus Chrift our Lord.

VOL. II.

H

SER

SERMON IV.

LUKE . II.

Unto you is born this Day, in the City of Davids a Saviour, which is Chrift the Lord.

HOUGH the Existence of Jefus

TH

Chrift our Saviour be a Fact the most undoubted in History, attested alike by the Followers and the Enemies of the Religion which he established; yet not only the Day, but the precife Year of his Birth, hath long been Matter of great Difpute. We learn from St. Jerom, who lived in the fourth Century, that even at that early Period there was no fettled Opinion or Certainty in this Affair, and that the World was divided about the true Day, Month, and Year of

his Nativity; there being as many different Opinions concerning it as there was Variety of Traditions. + In vain therefore is it to expect any exact Knowledge of this important Event, as to the precife Time of it. To give you however what Satisfaction I am able upon a Subject that is, I think, rather curious than useful,---I fhall enquire

1.---What Information may be gathered from Antiquity concerning the Time of our Saviour's Nativity:

2.---What are the Reasons of appointing the twenty fifth Day of December for the Commemoration of this Nativity: And I fhall offer

3.---An Obfervation more immediately belonging to the Occafion of the prefent Affembly

That a Day was obferved to the pious Remembrance of our Saviour's Birth, we

↑ See Bishop Chandler's Vindication, P. 447.

have

have very early Intimations among antient Writers. The Antiquity of this Festival may be traced up to the fecond Century; it being mentioned by Theophilus, Bishop of Cæfarea, who lived about the Time of the Emperor Commodus. That it was folemnly kept in the Reign of Dioclefian, in the third Century, there is a fad and memorable Inftance upon Record. For Dioclefian, who kept his Court in Nicomedia, being informed that the Chriftians were affembled in great Multitudes to celebrate the Nativity of our Saviour, ordered the Doors to be fhut, and the Church to be fet on fire, which in a fhort time confumed both the People and the Building to Ashes. The Churches of the Eaft obferved this Festival on the fixth Day of January, celebrating both the Birth and the Epiphany of our Saviour on that Day. A Custom this, which they faid was derived to them from the Apostle St. James; and it will hardly bear a Difpute, that the general Practice was conformable thereto for fome

+ See Dr. Cave's Primitive Chriftianity, P, 124.

Centuries