SER M. more Martyrs and Saints, than the Year would
XIV. fuffice us to commemorate fingly; and fince

the few Festivals which our Church retains,
have, either through Careleffness, Indifference,
or Sloth in the Bufinefs of Religion, or else,
through too diligent, and earnest an Applica-
tion to the Business of the World, been paffed
over entirely neglected and forgot; or at most
(if observed or took notice of at all) obferved
in fuch Manner, as is far from answering their
End or Defign; therefore in the Clofe, or
fhutting up
of the Year, one general Festival is
folemnly fet
apart and added to the rest, to the
End that we may have an Opportunity, at one
and the fame Time, both to correct our Inde-
votion with respect to those Saints whofe Me-
mories fhould have been kept more religiously
before, and alfo to fhew fome general Regard
with Refpect to thofe whom we have not
Time to keep any fpecial Remembrance of at
all. And this is the Feftival which we cele-
brate this Day; a Feftival appointed to glori-
fy God for the bright Example of all his
Saints; to yield him (as it was expreffed in our
old Common-Prayer Books. *) most high
Praife, and bearty Thanks for the wonderful

* Prayer for the whole State of Christ's Church, in King FPWARD's first Book, compared with the Scotch Liturgy.

Grace

S

Grace and Virtue, declared in all bis Servants s ERM. from the Beginning of the World; for the Ex- XIV. ample of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apoftles, and Martyrs, who have been the Lights of the World in their feveral Generations. To affift you therefore, to improve this Solemnity to the facred Uses for which it was ordained; I fhall endeavour to excite your Affections and Zeal in a holy Life, from the Faith and Practice, the Patience and Sufferings, the Glory and Reward, of all those antient Heroes in Religion, thofe eminent Worthies both of the Old Testament and the New, which the Church, this Day, proposes to your Emulation. To this End, I have taken my Text from a Portion of Scripture which was read to you just now, as a Leffon for the Day, and in which the holy Penman (after enumerating many of the antient Patriarchs and Saints, that lived before and under the Law, and celebrating diftinctly the feveral heroick Actions and Virtues, for which they were renowned) concludes at laft his Eulogy and Praise, with an Exhortation to the Hebrews, to whom he writes, to take Courage from them, refolutely to perfift in the fame holy Course, with a thorough Affurance of the fame Help and Succefs. So that I prefume,

the

SERM.the Words of the Text will be fufficiently XIV. explained, and the Design of the Festival fufficiently anfwered (as fufficiently I mean as the Preacher can answer it) if I take and duly improve these Heads for the Subject of my Discourse, viz.

I. First, To fhew who are the Witnesses referred to in the Text, and whom the Church this Day commemorates.

II. Secondly, To enquire what it is they are Witneffes of, or what we commemorate, or celebrate them for. And then,

III. Thirdly, To fhew, by way of Application, what Influence their Memory should have upon us in the Profecution of our Chriftian Course.

I. First then, I am to fhew who are the Witneffes referred to in the Text, and those whom the Church this Day commemorates. And to find out those referred to in the Text, we need do no more than turn back a Leaf, and run our Eyes over the Chapter foregoing. For there we find, that the Author of the Epiftle was speaking of Abel, of Enoch and Noab, of Abraham and Sarah, of Isaac and Jacob, of Jofeph and Mofes, of Rahab, and

many

many others whom he wanted Time to en- s ERM. large on; fuch as Gideon, and Barach, and XIV. Samfon, and Jephtha, fuch as David also, and Samuel, and the rest of the Prophets. These few he names (as he intimates himself) as Some Inftances only of the Power of Faith, produced instead of many more that might justly have been mentioned. Aaron and Phinebas, Joshua and Caleb, Elijah and Elisha, Jofas and Hezekias, Nehemiah and others, are added to the Lift in the Book of Ecclefiafticus, by the Son of Sirach: Ecclus. xliv. to chap. xlix. And yet put all these Names together, and they are nothing ftill, to that innumerable Company of Reverend Patriarchs, Holy Prophets, Religious Kings, and Pious Saints, who, having all obtained a good Report through Faith, well deferve to have their Names still kept in Memory,

And these are the Witnesses the Holy Penman means in the Text. But this Day's Solemnity calls on us to enlarge the Catalogue ftill, by a further Addition of those chofen and fanctified Veffels of Grace, with which the Church (fince the New Testament commenced) has been further adorned. We are now to take in those glorious, burning and Shining Lights, of which the leaft that stands

on

SERM, on the Roll, is greater far than the greatest of XIV. all that had been before them; Matt. xi. 11.

Peter and Paul, James and John, and all the
great Apoftles of the Lamb, the Foundation,
and Pillars of the Chriftian Faith; Mark and
Luke, Clement, and other Fellow-Labourers
with the Apostles, whofe Names are written
in the Book of Life; Stephen, and all the
Martyred Hoft that have confirmed and feal-
ed the Faith that was delivered to them, at
the Expence of their Blood; the Confeffors,
that bravely gave up their All, and offered
their Lives rather than renounce it; the Saints
that have adorned it with their holy Conver-
fations, and wifely preferred it to every Thing
befides; Gal. ii. 9. Ephef. ii. 20.
1 Tim.
iii. 15.
All these must be taken into our
prefent Lift, in order to make it full and per-
fect. For though their Bodies are buried in
Peace, their Names fhall live for evermore;
the People will tell of their Wisdom, and the
Congregation will fhew forth their Praise;
Ecclus. xliv. 15, 16.

And thus having feen the Witnesses in the
Text, and the additional Witneffes which the
Church this Day commemorates; I fhall pro-
ceed in the,

II. Second