"This is the day which the Lord hath made." And if ever day made "to rejoice and he glad in," this is the day. And the Lord "made" it, made it to rejoice in. Tæn Ðpaton pasÓn tÓn merÓtn as holy Ignatius, a day of days, not only "a high day," as the Jewish Easter, but the highest of high days, highest of them all. A "day," in which the sun itself rejoiced to shine; "Came forth like a bridegroom" in the robes and face of joy, and "rejoiced like a giant," with the strength and violence of joy, exultavit, leaped and skipped for joy "to run his course," as if he never had seen day before; only a little "day-spring from on high," as old Zachary saw and sung, never full and perfect day; the kingdom and power of darkness never fully and wholly vanquished till this morning light, till this day-star, or this day's sun arose, till Christ rose from the grave, as the sun from his Eastern bed, to give us light, the light of grace and the light of glory, light everlasting.

And this sun's rising, this resurrection of our Lord and Master, entitles it peculiarly the Lord's making. This "day" of the week, from this "day" of our Lord's resurrection, [112/113] styled Lord's day ever since. And of this day of the resurrection, the Fathers, the Church, the Scriptures understand it. Not one of the Fathers, says that devout and learned Bishop Andrewes, that he had read, (and he had read many,) but interpret it of Easter day. The Church picks out this Psalm to-day, as a piece of service proper to it. This very verse in particular, was anciently used every day in Easter week; evidence enough how she understood it. And for the Scriptures, the two verses just before: "The stone which the builders refused, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes,"- to which this day comes in presently and refers, applied both of them by Christ himself unto himself in three several places,--rejected by the builders in his passion,--made the head of the corner in his resurrection; the first of the verses applied again twice, by S. Peter, to the resurrection. For these doings, these marvellous doings, a day was made,--trade to remember it, and rejoice in it, as in the chiefest of his marvellous works. And being such, let us do it. Let not the Jews outdo us: let not them here rejoice more in the figure, than we in the substance; they in the shadow, than we in the sun. It is now properly Sunday, this "day," ever since, a day lighted up on pur-pose for us, by the Sun himself, to see wonderful things in, and as wonderfully to rejoice in. "Abraham saw this day" of Christ's as well as Christmas: saw it in Isaac's rising from under his hand, from death "as in a figure," says the Apostle; "saw it and was glad" to see it, exceeding glad,--as much at least to see Christ and Isaac delivered from death, as delivered into life. Abraham's children, all the faithful, will be so too, to see the day whenever it comes. It now is come by the circle of the year, let us "rejoice and be glad in it."

I require no more of you than is plainly in the text, to confess the day, and express the joy. Both are here as clear as day. Dies gaudii, et gaudium diei; "a day of joy, and the joy of the day." Easter day, and Easter joy; a day made, and joy made on it; a day ordained, and joy appointed; [113/114] God making the day, we making the joy upon it. Or if you please, ordo diei, et officium diei; "an order for the day, and an office for the day."

The order for the day: "This is the day which the Lord hath made," ordered and ordained.

The office for it: "We will," or, let us "rejoice and be glad in it:" Exultemus et lætemur; an office of thanksgiving and joy ordained and taken up upon it. The first is God's doings, the second ours. And ours ordered to follow his,- our duty his day; the Lord's day requires, sure, the servant's duty. Both together, God's day and man's duty, make up the text, and must the sermon. But I take my rise from the day's rising. The Lord's order for the day: "This is the day which the Lord hath made."

Wherein we have,

(1.) The day designed. (2.) The institution made. (3.) the preeminence given it. (4.) The institutor expressed. (5.) The ground intimated. (6.) The end annexed. "This is," designs the day; God's making, that institutes it; the möra, the "the" gives it the preeminence; the Lord is the institutor; the ground is understood in the "this," this "day" when that was done that went before (ver. 22); and the end, by the annexing joy and gladness to it. Of these particularly and in order; then of the office, exultemus, lætemur, and in ea, outward and inward joy, and our directing and spending both upon it. But hæc est dies, the day designed is our first design. "This is the day."

"This"- first, is a sign of a particular. God made all days, all in general, but this in particular. Particular days are of God's making as well as others. God made such from the beginning, all days in the week, but the Sabbath in particular; all days in the month, but the new moons in particular; all days in the year, but the feasts and fasts, the Easter, the Pentecost, the Feast of Tabernacles, the great Kipparim in particular, to his service in particular among the Jews. And among the Christians particular days may be observed too. "He that observes a day, may observe it unto the Lord" And upon particular order we have such, Pascha nostrum immolatum; our Passover is slain, and we must keep a feast, we have an Easter. We have the Lord's [114/115] day thence, and we may be "in the spirit upon" it; a "first day of the week," and we may "break bread," and make col-lections upon it. Panem frangere, and collectas facere, make meetings, and celebrate sacraments upon it. We have the Apostles at their pentecost; S. Paul, after that, making a journey to be at it; the Spirit descending on it, to sanctify particularly to God's service, to take it, as it were, away from the Jewish into the Christian calendar. We have a hodie natus est, a day for Christ's being born, taken up from the examples of an host of angels, by all Christian people (for I can scarce call them Christians any of them that deny it) ever since; a day of his incarnation too, whence the Christian era, all Christian accounts of the year have since ever begun and run; a proof sufficient to show, Christians have their observations of days as well as Jews, particular days and feasts, nay, and fasts too, upon Christ's in diebs illis jejunabunt, his particular injunction of them,--days all particularly made for his own service.

The fault that the Apostle finds with the Galatians, for "observing days, and months, and times, and years," was for the observing the Jewish ones, not the Christian, for falling back to the beggarly rudiments of the law, as he there expresses it in the verse before, as if the Gospel rites were not sufficient, or that they being afraid to suffer for the cross of Christ, studied such poor compliances to avoid it. Else some particular days have been always set apart, to the more especial and particular remembrances of God's benefits and Christ's; many of these days in the devoutest and purest times, in the ancientest calendars. This of Easter in particular among the rest. So particular, that generally all the Fathers and interpreters pitch upon it, as the day designed and deciphered here.

Other secondary interpretations, I confess, they make, some of them, but this the prime, though to some other upon occasion, or by-the-by, they apply it too.

1. To the day of the incarnation first. Then this stone, upon whose exaltation this day is founded, was "cut out of the mountain without hands," ­ Christ's body framed with-out man's help.

2. To the day of his nativity. Then factus est in angulum, [115/116] this stone was made, made more plainly in little Bethlehem, a corner of Judæa.

3. To the day of his passion. Then he was rejected by the builders, the Scribes and Pharisees, and people of the Nolumus hunc, take him who will, "We will not have him;" "disallowed indeed" then "of men," says S. Peter.

4. To the day of the Gospel, the whole time wherein that glorious light displays itself to all the corners of the world.

5. To the weekly Lord's day, the Christian's day of rest and joy, the weekly resurrection day, that rose, as S. Jerome speaks, post tristia Sabbata, out of the sad Jewish Sabbath, after the sad Saturday of Christ's passion, to the primacy over the other days.

6. To the day of the general resurrection, when this stone, "elect and precious," as S. Peter styles it, shall appear in its full brightness and glory to all the corners of the earth; at which day we are bid by our Saviour to "look up, and lift up our heads:" that is, to rejoice and be glad when we see it coming.

7. To Christ himself it is applied, the day in this verse as well as the stone in ver. 22. He is both Daniel's and David's stone; Zachariah's and David's day-spring or day. Ego sum dies, S. Ambrose reads it for Ego lux, "I am the day," and "he that walketh in the day," in me, he "stumbleth not."

Nay, lastly, we find it sometimes applied to any day of famous and notable mercies and deliverances, wherein any great blessing has been given. Thus to the letter, it is here applied to David's coming to the crown, after his long being rejected by Saul's party. Thus, in the Council of Constan-tinople, under Agapetus, for the blessing or election of Cyriacus, a most learned and pious bishop there.

1. But all these, though they may be applications, they are not so properly explications of this "day." To this of Easter it most fully points. Then the stone so lately rejected by the builders, became the head stone of the corner, the head of the Church, to unite both corners of the building, Jews and Gentiles, into one holy temple; then were the hearts of the disciples filled with joy and gladness; the prophecy [116/117] here fulfilled,--the joys completed in the exaltation of the Son of David, which the Jewish people here began for the exaltation of David, but prophesied of Christ's, though perhaps they knew no more than Caiaphas what they said.

The incarnation, the nativity, the passion, the time of the Gospel, the Sunday or Lord's day, the day of the universal resurrection, the particular days of God's mercy to us, are all days of God's making, and to be kept and celebrated with joy, even the passion itself with spiritual joy and glad-ness; and Christ is the day that gives light to all these days,--enlightens all; yet both day and joy, and the Lord's making of them to us, can fit not one, nor all of them, so properly as this "day" that now shines on us, Easter day.

2. Thus we have found which this day is, what day it is that is here so particularly designed and pointed out, which in the test is said to be made, and now to be considered how or what it is made. Of common days, it is said only that they be or are; so "the evening and the morning were the first day;" and "the evening and the morning were the second day;" and so of all the rest. The evening came and the morning came, light and darkness succeeded one another, so the day came, no making else. But of this, it is punc-tually said that it was made,--something in it or in the making, more than ordinary.

"Made," (1,) that is, made famous by something clone upon it; death, and hell, and all the terrors of darkness, this "day" put to flight for ever by Christ's only resurrection.

"Made," (2,) that is, appointed and ordained for some-thing. So Deus fecit Dominum et Christum, God is said to have made our Saviour "Lord and Christ;" and of Christ, that fecit nos reges et sacerdotes, that he "made us," that is, ordained us, "kings and priests," as God had him both Lord and Christ, and upon this day both; so that it is no wonder if the day too be said to be made,--made or ordained and appointed to be remembered.

"Made" (3) to he celebrated too,--to be kept anniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness, of praises and thanks-givings. Thus, facere diem Sabbat, and pascha facere, is to keep the Sabbath and the passover. What is there in Latin to make the Sabbath and the passover, in our English is to [117/118] keep them, to make up, or make out the day in God's wor-ship and service. When God is said to make a day, it is for himself, and we can make none but to him; mar days we do, when we spend them upon any thing, or any else,---they are never made but when on him. The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made, that both unsaint the saints, and unhallow the days, and profane both; that make hem for all but him, all business but his, as if the holiness of the holiday were the only offence of it, that which made the day, or for which the day was made, the only reason to them to unmake it.

3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made, yet made days there have been many, are, and shall be. Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all, not the Lord's days yet, which yet are but so many little models of this great day. But of "made" days all are not alike; some high days, some not so high, though the one and the other made and constituted for God's service. Of "made" days this is the highest; möra "the day," so we told you out of Ignatius; so we now tell you out of S. Augustine, Principatum tenet, "It is the prime." "As the blessed Virgin among women, so this blessed day among the days," says he. "The most holy feast of Easter," the good Emperor Constantine calls it four times, in one Epistle to all the Churches; solenne nostræ religionis festum, a little after, the "solemn feast of our religion," by which we hold our hopes of immortality--the very day of all our religion and our hope. Illa videtur dies clarion illuxisse, sings Lac-tantius, "The fairest day that ever shone." The sun, which so many hours withdrew its light, and hid its face in sable darkness, went down sooner into night at our Saviour's passion, and to-day rose so much sooner, restored those hours to lengthen, or increased its beams to enlighten this glorious day in the opinion or else rhetoric of Chrysologus, [118/119] Eusebius, and S. Augustine. If so, it was "the day" indeed, none like it ever since; but if not, there were two suns rose to-day to enlighten it--the sun of heaven, and the Son of God, who is also styled "the Sun" in the strictest spelling, "the Sun of righteousness,"--needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light, so many glorious rays.

All days were night before; nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the law of Moses; nothing but a long un-evitable night under the law of nature; nothing but a dis-consolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness: this was the first bright "day" that dispelled all darkness quite. A kind of spring of day, or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel, but men could scarce see any thing; not the disci-ples themselves; their eyes were ever and anon held, not fully opened, till the grave itself was this day opened, and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the resurrection. `H möra, "this is the day," when all this was done, when this marvellous light shone forth, to enlighten all the world. The day of all the days before or since.

4. And now, it may well be so when the "Lord made" it. All his works are wonderful, all perfect and complete, deserve articles and notes to be set upon them. But when he sets the note himself, and gives the article, then to be sure it is somewhat more than ordinary-somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest. And when he entitles himself to it, or challenges it unto himself, day itself is not more clear than that such a "day" must be observed.

Things that are exceeding eminent and frill of greatness, wonder, or perfection, are commonly attributed unto God. This "day" is such at least, because it is said "God made" it; a peculiar work and ordinance of his, more than the common ordinance of day and night; and if God made it, what is man that he should max it, or the sore of man that he should unmake it? or how dares man or son of man make little of that which God made so great?

So great as to call it his; so great as to make it the mother of one-and-fifty daughters, of all the Lord's days in the [119/120] year besides. This is the Lord's doing indeed. None could alter the Sabbath into the "Lord's day" but he. None put down that, and set up another; abolish the seventh and set up the first, but the Lord of all, and may do all, what he pleases in heaven and earth, lord it everywhere how he will. Herein he shows he is the Lord, and this "day" the lady of the year, from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name. All the former days God made, the Lord made this, the Lord Christ the ground and author of this day; Christ's rising raising this to that height it is.

Now, God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves, but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority. So Christ tells us, "He that heareth you heareth me;" he that heareth his Apostles, his Church, his Ministers, heareth him himself; their commands are his, their orders his, so long as they are not contrary to his word. And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making.

From the Apostles' times it came. Polycarpus,--that "angel," as is conceived, "of the Church of Smyrna,"--kept Easter, saith Irenaeus, with S. John, and with the rest of the Apostles' The great difference about the time of keeping Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches, was grounded upon the different keeping of it by the two great Apostles, S. Peter and S. John: S. John keeping it after one reckoning, S. Peter after another; S. John keeping it after the Jewish reckoning, upon the fourteenth of the mouth Abib: S. Peter much after the account as now it stands, upon the Sunday following; but all the controversy was about the time, not about the keeping it; none denied or questioned that but Aerius, none left it at liberty but the Cathari, both registered for heretics about it. So confident were they it was from the Lord.

And that from him, at least by the Apostles, Constantine in Eusebius is direct. ñHn ôk prËthj to¦ p£qonj möpaj ®cri to¦ par"ntoj ôfu£xamen: "Which day," says he, "ever since the first day of his passion, we have kept until this present." [120/121] "We have received it of our Saviour," says he a little after. And again, "which our Saviour delivered to us." Thus Do-minus fecit then indeed. And that so it was either from his own command or from his Apostles, the whole practice of the Church is ground enough, in all ages still observing it, even in the hottest times of persecution, some in caves and some in woods, and some on shipboard, and some in barns and stables, and some in gaols, keeping it as they could, says Eu-sebius; so scrupulous were they of omitting that "day "upon any hand, that the Lord "had made" them: and the great contentions about the time of keeping it shows as plain they thought it more than a human institution; they might else have easily ended all the controversy and laid down the day.

But they had not then so learned Christ, had not learned the trick of lightly esteeming days, and places, and things, and persons, and offices dedicated to God's service, which God had made, or were made to him.

5. Especially made upon such an occasion as this "day" was. This "day;"- what day is this? The "day" wherein the "stone" that was disallowed by men was approved of God, and exalted to the "head of the corner;" wherein the chief "corner-stone" of Sion was laid, and Sion begun to be built upon it, when we had ground given to build upon, and stones to build with, by Christ's resurrection; that is the ground and occasion of the day. And a good one too for had he not risen we had had no ground to build upon; we had perished in our sins; been swept all away like so many houses built upon the sand. We had had neither place for faith, nor ground for hope, nor room for preaching; our "preaching vain, your faith also vain,"--all vain, all come to nothing. His being "delivered for our offences" had been nothing, if he had not been "raised again for our justifica-tion," as it is Rom. iv. 25. It is to this day we owe our justification; it is from this day we are made just and holy; from this "stone," being made the "head stone of the corner" we made "lively stones, built up into a spiritual house," or building, as S. Peter speaks. From his be coming this day "the chief corner stone," it is in that we now have confidence, as S. John speaks, and creep not into corners to hide our faces-that we dare boldly look up [121/122] to heaven, and come unto him, and that we call not to the hills to hide us, or to the mountains to cover us from the presence of God, or the face of man or devil. Our faith and hope, our souls and spirits, are all raised by this day's raisin; we are all made by this day's being made; we had else better never have been made, for we had lien marred and undone for ever.

6. But by this "day" it seems we are not: for this rejoic-ing and gladness that now follows close upon it shows what a kind of day it is, for what it is made, even to be glad and to rejoice in, a feast or festival. God is no enemy to thee Church's feasts, whoever be; calls to us to blow up the trumpet for feasts, as well as bid us to proclaim a fast. Indeed he more properly makes the feast and we the fast, for he only gives the occasion of the one and we of the other; he benefits, and we sins; Deus vobis hæc otia fecit. So no wonder that the "day" that he has made be a good day,--a day of good things, such as we may well rejoice in- a festival.

Yea, and a set one too. His making, you heard, was an appointing or instituting it. Though God would sometime have free-will offerings lie will not always trust to then. If he leave all to the wills of men, the fires will oft go out upon his altars, his house stand thin enough of people, and his priests grow lean for all the fall of his sacrifices, if he come once to the mercy or courtesy of men. They would quickly starve him and his religion out of doors. But set feasts he always had; set services and offerings; would not leave himself or his worship to man's devotion, for "he knew what was in man." He made this "day," made it a feast,--a day of joy and gladness. Let us now, therefore, to our office, to "rejoice and be glad in it;" that is the second general, thither now are we come.

Three points we told you we would consider in it, exul-temus, lætemurr, and in ea. Three parts in our office-rejoic-ing, gladness, and the right ordering both. Outward expression, inward gladness, and right playing them. Both words, I confess, ¢galliasËmeqa and efrauqÓmen, in the Septuagint, and exultemus and lætemur in the Latin, have something outward in them; yet exultemus is more for the [[122/123] outward, læetemur somewhat more within; a joy of the heart with some dilatation only of it, lætitiaa quasi latitia, a stretching out the heart and sending forth the spirits; exultatio of saltatio, a kind of skipping or leaping for joy, the spirits got into all the parts and powers, ready to leap out of them for joy.

Being thus both involved one in the other, I shall not trouble myself to distinguish them, but only tell you hence, that, first, the joy that God requires in the things that he has made, or any time makes for us, is not only inward, it must out into outward acts; out into the mouth to sing forth his praise, "in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs;" out into the hands to "send portions to the poor for whom nothing is prepared;" out into the feet to go up to the house of God with the posture as well as the voice of joy and gladness, to go up with haste, to worship with reverence, to stand up cheerfully at the hymns and songs of praise; our very bones, as David speaks, to rejoice too; the very clattered bones to clatter together and rejoice; all the parts and powers of the body to make some expression in their way and order.

But not the powers of the body alone, but all the powers of the soul too: "Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy name." Our souls magnify the Lord, our spirits rejoice in God our Saviour; our memories recollect and call to mind his benefits and what he has clone for us; our hearts evaporate into holy flames and ardent affections and desires after him; our wills henceforward to give up themselves wholly to him as to their only hope and joy. It is no perfect joy where any of them is wanting. It is but dissembled joy where all is outward. It is but imperfect gladness where all is within. It must be both. God this day raised the body, the body therefore must raise itself, and rise up to praise him. He this day gave us hope he would not leave our souls in hell; fit, therefore, it is the soul should leave all to praise him that sits in heaven. He is not worthy of the day or the benefit of the day, worthy to be raised again, who will not this day rise to praise; not worthy to rise at the resurrection of the just who will not rise to-day in the congregation of the righteous to testify his [123/124] joy and gladness in the resurrection of his Saviour, and his own. He is worthy to lie down in darkness in the laud of darkness, who loves not this day, who stands not up this day to sing praises to him that made it.

And now I shall give you reason for it out of the last words, in ea, "in it." In it, and for it. As short as they are they contain arguments and occasions, as well as time and opportunity to rejoice in.

Rejoice, first, (1,) in it," because this day it is, a particular day of gladness and rejoicing. Let us do what the day requires. It is a day of joy, designed for it, let us therefore "rejoice in it."

Rejoice, (2,) because the "Lord made" it. All the works of the Lord are matters of joy to the spiritual man, even sad days too, much more glad days such as this.

Rejoice, (3,) because the Lord's people have ever made it such. God has always made them to rejoice in it, to contend and strive who should do it best or nearest to the point.

Be glad, (4,) for the occasion of it, the resurrection of our Lord and Master, and the hopes thereby given us of our own; all benefits of Christ were this day sealed unto us, all his promises made good, all so hang upon this day that with- out it, "we, of all men," says the Apostle, had been "most miserable;" none so fooled, so wretched, so undone, so miserable as we.

Rejoice, (5,) because God bids us ; it is an easy and pleasant precept. If we will not he glad when lie commands us, cer-tainly we will do nothing that he commands us, especially when he gives us so great occasion of joy when he com-mands it.

Rejoice, (6,) because the very Jewish people do it here. They had but little cause of joy compared to ours; they saw but a glimmering of this joy at most, saw the resurrection but afar off, and yet you hear they cry out, "We will rejoice and be glad in it." And is it not a shame that we Christians, who see it clearly, and pretend to believe it fully, should not as much exceed them in our joy as in our sight, in our glad-ness as in our faith ? Clearly so it is.

Rejoice, (7,) because "it is a good thing to rejoice;" to rejoice in God's mercies and favours to us, in Christ's crown [124/125] and glory, in Ins day and way. The very angels themselves put on this day the white garments of joy and gladness, we find them in them.

Rejoice, lastly, to-day, because this day is the first of all our Lord's days ever since. We count them feasts and days of joy, and we meet together upon them to rejoice in, to give God praise, and thanks, and glory. It is a piece of worse than nonsense to say we are to do it upon these days, and not on this, from which only and no other they had their rise and being. All that we commemorate or rejoice in on every Sunday is more eminently and first in this,--this the great yearly anniversary of that weekly festival, the time, as near as the Paschal circle can bring it to the time, that the resur-rection fell upon.

For these, and for this day, so made to mind us of all these, let us now take up the resolution of these pious souls,--"We will rejoice and be glad in it,"--in the day, and on the day, and for the day; that is the very work and business of the day, opus diei in die suo, " the proper work of the day in the day itself."

And here is now a way particularly before us to rejoice in. Lætari is taken sometimes for lætè epulari. To rejoice is to eat and drink before the Lord in his house or temple. "And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thy household." Here now we are before him,--the table spread, and our banquet ready: let us eat, drink, and be merry, and rejoice before him; only rejoice in fear, and be glad with reverence. "This is the day which the Lord made," and all Christians observed for the celebra-tion of this holy banquet and communion ; never let the day pass without it; excommunicated them that did not, one day or other of or about Easter, receive the blessed Sacrament; the greatest expression of our communion with God, and Christ, and all his saints, and our rejoicing in it. You may see this people, in the Psalm, within one verse, blessing him that "cometh in the name of the Lord," blessing the minister that comes with it, wishing him and all the rest that be of the house of the Lord, good luck with their business, God's assistance in his office and administration. And in the next verse calling out aloud, "God is the Lord which hath showed [125/126] us light; bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar:" God has showed us light, and made us a day; let us now bind the sacrifice, the living sacrifice of our souls and bodies, with all the cords of holy vows and resolutions, "even to the horns of the altar," and there sacrifice and offer up ourselves, even unto our bloods, if God call to it; all our fat and entrails, the inwards of our souls, our hearts and all our inward spirits ; the fat of our estates; our good works and best actions, the best we have, the best we can do, all we have, or are, even at the altar of our God with joy and glad-ness ; glad that we have anything to serve him with, anything that he will accept; that we have yet day and time to serve him, that he has not cut us off in the midst of our days, but let us all live to see this day again, and have the liberty as well as occasion, yet to rejoice in it. Upon this comes in David now presently with-- "Thou art my God, and I will thank thee; thou art my God, and I will praise thee." O let us do so too: cry out one to another, as the Psalm concludes, "O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is gracious, and his mercy endureth for ever." Turn all our rejoicings into thanks and praise, make it a day of praise, that so rejoicing worthily this day, we may be thought worthy to rejoice in that day; opening and dilating our hearts and mouths with joy to-day, in this day of Christ's particular resurrection, we may have them filled with joy and gladness at the day of the general resurrection; this day of the Lord convey us over happily to that, these our imperfect joys be advanced or translated into everlasting ones, into a day where there is no night, no sorrow, but eternal gladness and rejoicing for evermore.

Project Canterbury