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II. SECONDLY, That there is notwithstanding, great Danger of offending at such Seafons. Job faid, It may be that my Sons have finned and cursed GOD in their Hearts. And therefore,

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III. THIRDLY, That after such Seasons, it ought to be the Duty of every Person to reflect upon his Behaviour as to what had passed, and to examine himself and those under his Care, in order to atone for what has been done amiss, and reconcile himself and them to GOD. And it was fo, when the Days of their Feasting were gone about, that Job fent and fanctified his Sons, and rose up early in the Morning, and offered Burnt Offerings according to the Number of them all.

I. The FIRST Thing then which the Words of the Text suggest to our Minds as more especially seasonable to be treated of at present is, That Feasting, Mirth and Society are not inconsistent with the Practice of Virtue and Religion. And this I say we may infer from the Practice of Job's Sons, who went and feasted in their Houses every one bis Day, and fent and called for their three Sisters to eat and

and to drink with them. And that this was SERM.

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with the Indulgence, Consent and Approbation of their good Father we have very good reason to believe: It is fet down as one of the chief Bleffings of Job's Life, and doubtless it could be no fmall Comfort to a Father to fee such Tokens of Love and Amity among his Children. From hence then we learn that a freer Conversation than ordinary, and a more plentiful Use of God's good Creatures than is at all times requifite, is sometimes a Thing lawful in itself, and not repugnant to the Duties of Religion. But how often and upon what Occafions we may allow ourselves this Indulgence, does not appear from the Text: All which it says is that Job's Sons went and feasted in their Houses every one his Day: But what is there meant by Day is not so clear. Some Interpreters indeed understand by it their Birthday, and tell us that Job's Sons, every one upon his own Birth-day, made a Feast and Entertainment for the rest of his Brethren: and That indeed carries with it something of Probability; because at the Beginning of the third Chapter of this Book Job is faid to curse his Day, which from the following Verses appears to have been his Birth-day. But notwithstanding this, other Interpreters again would perfuade

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SERM. fuade us that these Seasons of their Feasting I. were upon other folemn Occafions, and in Commemoration of some Spiritual Blessings which they celebrated at certain Times agreed upon amongst themselves, Which of these to depend on we cannot tell, I shall therefore shew from other Instances what Times are most convenient and suitable for the Business we are discoursing of.

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And here the uninterrupted Examples of Holy Men in all Ages will be undoubtedly a safe and sufficient Guide for us to follow, especially in such Things as were allowed and commanded by Gop. To begin then with God's peculiar People the Jews, we find amongst them many Occasions of Joy and Feasting: Some of which were stated and continual, and related to them as a Nation; and others only accidental and peculiar to private Families and Persons, The first of these were what they were under an indispensable Obligation of observing; they being appointed and commanded by the express Word of Gop, who was pleased to make the Observation of them an essential Part of their Religion. Of these, befides the Weekly Return of the Sabbath, they had several Yearly ones, as the Feast of Paffquer, of Pentecost, of Trumpets, of Taberna

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cles and the like. Most of these Feasts lasted SER M. for seven Days together; during which Time, befides the more folemn Duties which they were then especially obliged to, they were not allowed to eat any Leavened Bread, nor to do any fervile Work, but were commanded to rejoice before the LORD their God, and to make a Feast unto the LORD. The Occafions of these Festivals we all know, or may eafily inform ourselves of, by consulting the Law which abounds with Statutes relating to them. I shall therefore only observe further, that they were all celebrated in Commemoration of fome signal Mercies bestowed upon That People, and may therefore be a fit Precedent to us Christians, to appoint as folemn Festivals upon as folemn Occasions. For if They, by the express Command of GOD, celebrated the Paffover every Year in Commemoration of his smiting the Egyptians, and delivering them from a Temporal Bondage; sure we have much more Reason to sanctify an Easter in Remembrance of the Rising of Jesus Chrift from the Dead, who thereby overcame our Spiritual Enemies, Death and the Grave. If again the Feast of Pentecost was of great Eminency among the Jews in Memory of the Mofaick Law's being at that Time given on Mount

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Sinai;

SERM. Sinai; a Whitsunday ought surely to be of no I. less Note amongst us, who on the same Day

received the new Evangelical Law from Heaven, by the Administration of the Holy Ghost, descending in the visible Appearance of fiery Tongues, and conferring miraculous Powers upon the Blessed Apostles. If lastly the Dwelling of the Children of Ifrael in Booths, when the LORD brought them out of the Land of Egypt, was by the Divine Wisdom thought worthy to be kept in perpetual Remembrance by a Feast of Tabernacles; shall not God's Humbling Himself to become Flesh and to Tabernacle with us, deserve a Christmas, to be folemnized by a Christian Festival? In these and all other Cases, the Mercies the Jews fo folemnly commemorated, were only Figures of those Bleffings which we Christians enjoy: Why then are some Men so warm and zealous to deny that Honour to the Substance, which was so strictly commanded to be given to the Shadows?

But another End of my taking Notice of the Practice of the Jews in this Cafe, was to let you fee, that those Feasts which GOD Himself commanded did not consist barely of a Spiritual Joy and thankful Commemoration of his Mercies, expressed only by some more folemn