The worthy of Ephratah represented in a sermon at the funerals of the Right Honorable Edmund Earl of Mulgrave, Baron Sheffield of Botterwic. In the church of Burton-Stather, Sept. 21. 1658. / By Edward Boteler, sometimes fellow of Magdalen-Colledge in Cambridge, and now rector of Wintringham in the county of Lincoln.

2.

The second is the place where such a person is resident: Ephratah. Do thou worthily in Ephratah.

In Ephratah: Where's that? Enquire of a neighbor-word, and it will tell us,

Ephratah is a disjointed name, there is half of it behinde, Beth-lehem belonging to it, Beth-lehem and Ephratah are both one. The Spirit of God using the like elegancy of expressing one place by two words elswhere; At Salem is his Taber∣nacle, and his dwelling place in Zion: Both which speak but one Jerusalem. There was another Beth-lehem in Zebulon, the birth-place of Judge Ibzan; from which that it might be distinguished, this of the Text is called sometimes Beth-lehem Judah, sometimes Beth-lehem Ephratah.

This is that Beth-lehem of Judea, so called by St. Matthew, where some time after, the Wise men sought the Sun by Star-light, and found him, without whom the world was lost. Nor did the blood of Innocents here shed by Herod, stain, but illustrate the place, it being the field, where those little Champions who could not fight, conquered and are crowned, and by the charity, and upon the credit of the Primitive Church are acknowledged to lead in the Van of the Noble Army of Martyrs which have been since Shiloh came.

It is observed to be situate on the very Umbilical point of the Earth; from

whence as from a Center, the Lines of comfort might go out through all the Earth, and the Word here made flesh, to the ends of the World.

Sometimes you have both these names in one. And thou Beth-lehem E∣phratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.

Sometimes one for both, Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephratah, which is Beth-lehem.

Sometimes both for one, as here, Do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth-lehem.

Ephratah was so called from Ephrath the wife of Caleb, say some; others, and St. Hierome among the rest, A fertili∣tate, quâ locus ille aliis praestabat; from that great and notable fruitfulness in which it excelled other places; and so it is well coupled with Beth-lehem the house of Bread; a fruitful Land makes Houses of Bread: And most deservedly was this place called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, fruitful, especi∣ally if we look at that fruit which sprang here from the Root of Jesse, David, and Jesus the Son of David, the best fruit that ever the Earth bore. Hath not the Scripture said, That Christ cometh of

the seed of David, and out of the Town of Beth-lehem where David was? It shall be said of Beth-lehem Ephratah, that this and that man were born in her, and the Highest himself came out of her; excellent things are spoken of thee, O City of God!

I cannot speak much of it now; only thus: It was a near neighbor to Jerusa∣lem, the place which God chose out of all the tribes to put his name there, having that advantage which S. Paul speaks of, that to them above many and among few others, were committed the oracles of God; to them pertained the a∣doption, and the glory, and the Covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God and the promises; of whom as con∣cerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever, Amen. It was a City in whose palaces God was known for a refuge: It was a City of Judah, and in Judah is God known, his name is great in Israel. Here must Boaz do worthily, here especially, here if any where; such a Theatre is only for worthy actions. Do thou worthily in Ephratah.

Men and brethren! We live in E∣phratah, a fruitful land, and our houses

are like Beth-lehem, houses of bread; The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places, and we have a goodly heritage: The fountain of Jacob is upon a land of corn, and milk, and honey, also our heavens drop down dew: God crowns our years successively with his goodness, and his clouds drop fatness. And which is beyond all these, how are we warmed with the glorious and desireable days of the Son of man! Does not man eat An∣gels food, and are we not dieted with the bread of heaven? What a rich con∣fluence of evangelical enjoyments have we lived under? He hath not dealt so with every nation: He hath fed us with the finest of all the wheat, and satisfied us with the very honey out of the rock of goodness.

And now, O man, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do worthily? worthy of God, his Gospel, his goodness, the Ephratah, the Beth∣lehem thou livest in: Let not all this favor be shewed thee, and yet thou not learn righteousness: Let it not be charg'd upon thee, that in the land of uprightness thou still dealest unjustly, and wilt not behold the majesty of the Lord. The

cities wherein most of the mighty works were done, were upbraided, and no less then a woe will serve Chorazin and Beth∣saida, because Tyre and Sidon, under such manifestations and visits from heaven, would have repented long before in sack∣cloth and ashes. It was that which ren∣dred the rape of the Gibcathites more odious, because it was folly in Israel; they did evil in a good land. And it was the emphatical goodness of Jeroboam's son, that in him was found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam; he was good in an ill house. Considering where we live, should make us consult what we do. Places do nota∣bly circumstantiate actions; remember Ephratah, and do worthily: Do thou wor∣thily in Ephratah.

That for the second motive to doing worthily, the place where this great per∣son was resident, Ephratah: Do worthily in Ephratah.

Notes

• Psa. 76.2.
• Josh. 19.15. Judg. 12.8.
• Marth. 2.1.
• Aetas rec dum ha∣bilis ad pugnam idonea ca∣titit ad coronam. Hier.
• Psa. 19.4.
• Mic. 5.2.
• Gen. 35.19.
• 1 Chron. 2.19.
• ••p. ad Eust. 27.
• Isa 11.1.
• John 7.42.
• Ps. 87.5.
• Deut 12.5.
• Ro. 3 2. Ro. 9.4, 5.
• Deut. 33.28.
• Ps. 65.11.
• Ps. 147.20.
• Ps. 81.16.
• Isa. 26.1••
• Mat. 11.20, 21.
• Judg. 20.10.
• 1 King. 14.13.