A Sermon for Christmas

GEMMS Sermon ID
GEMMS-SERMON- 11595
(old series: GEMMS-SERMON-12167)
Sermon Title
A Sermon for Christmas
Extent
ff. 1-40
Autograph
Composition Date
ca. 1600 - 1625
Primary Language
Sermon Genre
Sermon Type
Bible Text
Galatians 4:4 - 4:4
Preachings
(old) - England - Christmas
Additional Material

There is no dedicatory epistle. However, the following note is written on the title page: 'To the vertuous & therefore worthy Mris Anne Sadleir of Standon, all increase of spirituall graces and temporall blessings is wished By hir trew & loving frende Alexander Strange.'

Description

The sermon is written in a rather hasty cursive hand. The running headers vary according to the structure of the sermon, e.g. ff. 1v-2r ('The text pertinent to the tyme'); ff. 2v-5r ('The perticulers of the text'); ff. 27v-28r ('Papists giue vndew honour to the blessed Uirgin Mary'). There are biblical citations in the margins. Strange argues that his chosen text 'puts vs in mynde of the ending of Christ in the flesh' (cf. f. 2r).

Source of Data

J. Conway Davies, ed., Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Library of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, Volume I: The Petyt Collection: MSS. 502-533 (Oxford University Press, 1972), p. 330; Hannah Yip

Other Note

Precise date and location unknown. It is conjectured that this sermon was written in the first quarter of the seventeenth century; see J. Conway Davies, Catalogue, p. 330. The sermon's theme of hospitality is discussed briefly in Heather Falvey and Steve Hindle, eds, "This Little Commonwealth": Layston Parish Memorandum Book, 1607-c. 1650 & 1704-c.1747 (Hertford: Hertfordshire Record Society, 2003), pp. xxxix-xl (n. 105).

GEMMS record created
June 8, 2018
GEMMS record last edited
July 12, 2024