Seven godly and learned sermons preachedSeuen godly and learned sermons preached

And therefore said Christ,¹ Abraham voluit videre diem meum, Abraham would fain have seen my day, & he saw it, & therefore he rejoiced. But how did Abraham see it? with bodily eyes? no, but in faith, & because he was in faith able to see it, therefore he rejoiced. What then if he had with his eyes seen Christ, if he had talked with him, if he might have touched and embraced Christ: what joy would he have made? how would he have rejoiced and been glad? No doubt, as the birth of Christ was most acceptable and welcome to all good men in that time, so was his coming much longed for of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets before time: for they well knew that his time should be a time most acceptable, that then all things should be in quietness, unity and concord in every place, peace through the whole world. And therefore said Isaiah the Prophet,² Et vocabitur ⟨image 69⟩princeps pacis, He shall be called the Prince of peace. And to declare this more plainly, the same Prophet saith,³ Then shall the Wolfe dwell with the Lamb, the Leopard shall lye down by the Goat, Bullocks, Lyons, and cattle shall keep company together, the Cow and the Bear shall lye together: and there shall be no crying, no wailing, no noise heard in the streets. And therefore this Prophet Isaiah in another place, considering the great joy, the great felicity that Christ should bring into the world, when he should be borne, cried out and said, Disrumpe coelos, & descend, ⁴O Lord said he, break the heavens and come down. And so another Prophet in like foreseeing this great felicity that should ensue the birth of Christ, said, Quis vivet, & videbit haec? O who shall live to enjoy this marvellous felicity? When Christ was come into this world, though then not borne, but in his mothers womb, John the Baptist being a babe, and in his mothers belly also, yet at the Majesty of his Lord,⁵ and at the presence of Christ, ⟨image 70⟩