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For a

Christian Spirit when

to contribute to the Relief of their bodily Necessities, that they may share with me in the good Things thou hast bestowed upon me And let me so improve all those Talents, of any Kind, thou hast entrusted me with, for their Advantage, that I may be able to give a good Account of my Stewardship when the great Judge shall appear, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

GIVE

me,

IV.

O Lord, that Wisdom from above that is peaceable, and gentle, and easy to be intreated: that I may never prosecute my Neighgo to Law, bour to gratify the unreasonable Passions of my own or prose- corrupt Nature; nor take delight in his Sufferings

obliged to

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when I can have no other Recompense from his Punishment: Make me willing rather to suffer some Injuries, than expose myself to those Evils and Temptations that I am liable to in procuring legal Satisfaction and whenever I am engaged in such Disputes, grant me, O Lord, the Help of thy Grace, that I may ever contend for Right more than Victory; that no Profit or Advantage may prevail upon me to transgress the Laws of Justice and Charity, nor provoke me to any unchristian Behaviour against my Adversary; but that in all Prosecutions I may preserve a charitable and equitable Disposition. And thou, O God, who art never wanting to those that seek thee with an upright Mind, arm me with Meekness and Fear in all those Debates that relate to thy holy Truth; that I may sincerely desire That may always prevail, and that I may never sacrifice Brotherly Love and Christian Charity in the Defence of it, knowing that the Wrath of Man worketh not the Righteousness of God: Grant this O Lord, for Jesus Christ his Sake. Amen.

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CHAP. XXVI.

"THE NATIVITY OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST.

JUNE 24. iw . be pro

Q. WHAT Festival doth the Church celebrate this Day?

A. The Nativity of St. John Baptist.

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Q. Why doth the Church celebrate his Nativity? 4. Because his Birth was wonderful in itself, as , being foretold by an Angel sent on Purpose to de-Luke i. 7. Jiver this joyful Message, when his Mother Eliza-12, 13. beth was barren, and both his Parents well, stricken in Years; and in that his Father Zacharias had the Assurance of it, confirmed to him by a miraculous ver. 20. Dumbness till it was made good. Besides, it brought great Joy to all those that expected the Messias, it being predicted by the Angel, that many should ver. 14. rejoice thereat,

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Q. What was foretold of him by the Angel?

A. That he should be great in the Sight of the Lord, and should neither drink Wine nor strong Drink; that he should be filled with the Holy Ghost, Ver. 15. even from his Mother's Womb; that he should convert many of the Jews, and prepare the Way of the Lord, and consequently be the Forerunner of our Saviour, and the greatest of all the Prophets.

Q. What mean you by St. John's being the Forerunner of our Saviour?

A. That his whole Ministry tended to prepare the Way for the Reception of our Saviour and his Doctrine: for which he was qualified by adding to the Grace of his Birth an extraordinary Innocence of Life, which he preserved by withdrawing from all the Occasions and Temptations to Evil, and by strict and severe Mortification, whereby he kept his Body in Subjection to his Mind.

Q. How did he prepare the Way for our Saviour's
Reception?

1

Mat. iii. 2.

Isa. xl. 3.

A. By proclaiming to the Jews the Approach of the Messias; that he whom they had so long expected was nigh at Hand, and that his Kingdom was ready to appear; and that therefore they should do well to break off their Sins by Repentance, and by Reformation of Life fit themselves to receive the glad Tidings of the Gospel.

Q. Was this Forerunner of our Saviour foretold by the Prophets?

A. Yes; Isaiah calls him The Voice of him that crieth in the Wilderness, Prepare ye the Way of the Lord, and make strait in the Desert a Highway for Mal, iii. 1. our God; And Malachi styles him, the Messenger

6.

that was to prepare the Way of the Lord: And, farCh. iv. 5, ther, describes him under the Character of Elijah the Prophet, that was to turn the Hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the Hearts of the Children to their Fathers.

Mat. xi. 24.

Q. But how is St. John the Baptist's being the John i. 21. Elias that was to come reconcileable with his own Denial of it?

6.

A. It being the general Persuasion of that Age, as it had been all along the prevailing Notion among the Jews, that Elias should, in his own Person, come to prepare the Way for the Messias; St. John the Baptist might very well, as he did, deny himself to be that very Elias who had lived in the Time of King Ahab, of whose second coming into the Ch. iv. 5, World the Shanhedrim then enquired, according to their mistaken Construction of the Prophecy of Malachi. Now this no Ways contradicts our Saviour's affirming him to be the Person foretold under the Name and Character of Elias, in the true Signification of that Prophecy; which all Christian Interpreters think very applicable to St. John the Baptist, so like Elias in Temper, Office, and other Circumstances, that the Resemblance might be a sufficient Ground for the calling him by that Name. James v. The Business of both was to promote a general Reformation of Manners among those who should rexvii. 1. ceive their Doctrine. They were both eminent Pro

17, 18.

1 Kings

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xvii. 4, 16.

2

1 Kings

Luke i.

15, 16, 17.

10, &c.

phets, superior to those of the same Character in Mat. xi. 11. their own Age. Both of singular Abstinence and Kings Austerity, retired from the World, and distinguish-xix. 6, 7, 8. ed from the Fashions of it by a particular Habit. Luke i. 80. They were both courageous and zealous in opposing Mat. iii. 4. the prevailing Corruptions of their own Times, xvi. though the Great and Powerful were the Sup- Mat. iii. porters of them. All this plainly proves, that the Baptist came in the Spirit and Power of Elias. Mat. xi. Which Sense is abundantly confirmed by all those Mat. xvii. Applications that are made of Malachi's Prophecy 10, &c. in the New Testament to St. John the Baptist. And by returning Answer to that Demand, Who he was? That he was the Voice crying in the Wilderness, prophesied of by Esaias, he did in Effect, and by necessary Consequence, affirm himself to be Malachi's Elias, though not that Elias they Mark i. 1, erroneously expected; because that Prophecy of 2, 3, 4. Esaias was acknowledged to point at the same Person with the other in Malachi.

Q. What was St. John's Education and Manner of living, till he entered upon his Office?

John i. 23.

A. After he had providentially escaped the Executioners of Herod in his Childhood, he retired early into the Deserts, where he led a solitary and mortified Life; his Habit was a rough Garment made of Camel's Mat. iii. 4. Hair, and a leathern Girdle; his Food was Locusts and wild Honey. By Locusts some understand Grasshoppers; others, the Tops of Plants and Herbs, though there may be no great Necessity for the Change of the Word, if we consider that some Lo-Lev. xi. 22. custs are counted clean Meat in Scripture; and that they were a common Meat, not only in the Eastern and Southern Parts, but even in Palestine itself, is proved by Bochartus, and Ludolphus in his Ethiopic Hieroz. History. The Wild Honey is conceived to be such par. 2. 1. 4. as the Bees had stored up in hollow Trees or Caverns, and ordinary Provision to be found in the Woods. Q. What Character doth our Saviour give of St. John Baptist?

c. 7.

Mat. xi.

11.

Mat. iii.

A. That among them that are born of Women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; and that he came neither eating nor drinking, which implies a Way of Living more than ordinarily rigorous and austere.

Q. Wherein did St. John the Baptist exceed those Prophets that went before him?

4. In the Excellency of his Office, which was to i fit and prepare the Minds of the Pepple for the John i. 7. immediate Reception of Christ and his Doctrines 29, 32, 33. both which were attested by St. John in a plainer Manner than by any of the old Prophets. In that he was honoured with more signal Revelations, and his Doctrine attended, with greater Success and Efficacy, almost the whole Nation flowing in to his Baptism, and confessing their Sins.

5, 6.

Q. How was St. John Baptist called to his Office? Luke iii. 2. A. The Word of God came to him; which Phrase, as used in the Scriptures, implies the Prophetic Spirit communicated to those that were to be extraor dinary Preachers to the People; but whether imparted to him by Vision or Dream, or any other Way, is not so material to enquire, as difficult to resolve; only we may observe, that whereas the Spirit of Prophecy seemed to be ceased among the Jews, since the Death of Malachi, it was now revived in John the Baptist, and was to be continued by the great Prophet and his Apostles..

Mat. iii.

5, 6,

Q. What Success had St. John's Ministry ?>

A. His resolute Preaching, joined with the Seve, rity of his Life, drew to him many Hearers from c Jerusalem and Judæa, and from the Region round about Jordan; and great was the Number of his Proselytes, who were baptized of him, confessing their Sins. For his first Preaching was in the Wilderness of Judæa, the Towns and Cities that were about the Place of his Education: and from thence he made Converts round about Jordan; the River whereof supplied him with a Conveniency for baptizing the great Number of his Followers..

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