XXII.

all our sins, and sanctify all our righteousnesses; for without SERMON him nothing is righteous, nothing is holy.

Offer we

This day was his offering day-is to be ours. then him, offer we ourselves; take we him up into our arms, into our hands and hearts; having first lighted a candle and swept our houses to receive and entertain him, and having humbly, and cheerfully, and devoutly, and thankfully received him, bless we God.

God be gracious unto us, and purify our hearts and hands, that we may worthily receive him; strengthen our arms, that we may hold him; open our mouths, that we may bless him for him; accept our offering, and Christ's offering for us, his perfect sacrifice, for our imperfect offerings; that we may receive all the benefits of this great sacrifice-the remission of our sins, the cleansing of our souls, the refreshing of our bodies-the fulness of all graces, the protection of our souls and bodies in this kingdom of grace, and the saving them in the kingdom of glory; that as we this day bless him here, so we may bless and praise and glorify him hereafter for evermore.

THE SECOND SERMON

ON THE DAY OF

THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

XXIII.

S. LUKE ii. 28.

Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God.

SERMON AND We have also this day taken him, and are now returned again to bless God. Taken him we have in our hands, in our mouths; et dulcedine replentur viscera, "and our bowels are filled with his sweetness," filled as the moon at the full, and we cannot hold our peace; we must needs give thanks after this holy supper for so royal a feast.

Indeed, were the business, either of the day, or the taking or receiving, done as soon as we had taken him up in our arms, or down into our bowels, Simeon might have spared his blessing, and both you and I all further labour. But receiving so glorious great things at the hands of God, we cannot for shame but return him somewhat, a thanksgiving sermon, or an anthem; and being in the strength of this meat to walk not only forty days before we thus eat again of this kind of bread, or drink of this rock, but forty years perhaps some of us—and all of us all our lives, in the power and strength of this food, in the virtue of this grace this day afforded us, by the efficacy of the offering this day offered for us,-we cannot after it be such unclean beasts but that we will chew the cud, the meat that this day we have taken, and relish our mouths again with the taste and

XXIII.

savour of this day's food; refresh our souls and selves with SERMON a thankful remembrance of this day's mercy, and offer our evening sacrifice of thanksgiving as we have already done our morning.

So that it will not be amiss to take Christ again into our arms, though but to look upon him, and see what we have taken, what we have done; that if we have taken him somewhat untowardly, as people that are not used to handle children seldom but do-as people that are not enough acquainted with the child Jesus, as many do him, as the best handlers of him amongst us cannot altogether excuse ourselves from much imperfection in the doing, we may by a review amend what is amiss and what is past in much weakness in the time of receiving; or before it, in the preparation towards it, may be corrected for the future by a continued taking him into our arms in a holy life and conversation.

For many ways there are of taking him; and that is one which above all is not to be forgotten, as without which all other taking him is to no purpose but to play with him or to mock him. But I must first remember where I left, and come to that in order as I go.

Four particulars I pointed at in the words; four parts of this second general of Christ's reception, or Simeon's gratulatory acceptation of him: suscipiens, suscipiendi modus, susceptionis tempus, and suscipientis benedictio.

The taker or receiver: Simeon, "he."

The manner of taking or receiving him: "took him up in his arms."

The time of this taking: "then," when he was brought into the temple, and presented there.

The taker's or receiver's gratulation or thanksgiving for it: "and blessed God." "Then took he," &c.

The taker or receiver of Christ, "he" comes first to be taken notice of; and Simeon was "he." The common and most received opinion of him is, that he was a priest; for the priest's office it was (1) to receive the offerings of the Lord: and behold, here, "he" it is that takes him into his arms, and receives him at the hands of his parents, as Eli did 1 Sam. i. Samuel of Elkanah and Hannah. And (2) their office it was

25.

23.

:

SERMON to bless the people-Aaron's and his sons'; and that does XXIII. Simeon; takes the child, and blesses the parents, "he.” Numb. vi. But the Christian priest does more, blesses the child too. Luke ii. 34. No priest of the law could do that it is the minister of the Gospel only that can do that; that has that authority, to consecrate, and bless, and take, and all. He it is that blesses the dead elements, and quickens them into holy things by the ministration of his office, by the virtue of his function. Till he blesses, they are but common bread and wine; when he has taken and offered them, then they are holy; then they are the means, and pledges, and seals of grace; then they convey Christ unto the faithful receiver's soul. This is the mystery of the Gospel and so I speak it; not literally of Christ's person, but mystically of his body and blood, as offered and taken in the sacrament.

Luke ii. 25.

But after the blessing, the taking concerns us all; and though perhaps it concerns us not whether Simeon was a priest or not, yet it both concerns us (1) that he that blesses and offers be a priest, as much as it concerns us that it be the sacrament we would have, which cannot be offered but by the hands to which Christ committed that power and authority; and (2) that we ourselves that take be some way qualified in the same respects as old Simeon here, of whom we may be certain of his sanctity, whatever of his priesthood.

The Holy Spirit bears witness to him (1) that "he was a [Phil. iii. just man," díkaιos, just and upright in his dealing, “in the 6.] righteousness which is by the law unblameable," as S. Paul of himself; yet has even such a one need of Christ; is not fully and completely righteous till he take Christ into his arms by faith, till he add the righteousness which is by faith. Yet is that other so good a disposition to this, th it, -whatever some men, to excuse their own laziness or looseness, and the devil to encourage it, have ungodly vented to the world, that the moral, righteous, honest man is further off from Christ than the most dissolute and debauched sinner, yet, we see, the first that takes hold on Christ is said to be a "just," that is, a moral, honest, man, who does all right and justice, no wrong or injury to his neighbour; and, whoever he is that Christ suffers to take

XXIII.

him into his arms, has already cleansed his hands by some SERMON works of repentance and at least stedfast resolution to be what is said of Simeon-homo justus, to be righteous and just. Without such purposes, at least, no taking him, to be sure. He is (2) styled evλaßns, "devout" and pious: homo timoratus the Latin renders it, a man timorous" to offend God, and reverently respecting holy things. And with such affections, devotion and reverence and fear and trembling, are we to approach the table of the Lord, to receive and take him : we shall else take nothing but the rags he is wrapped in, himself will vanish out of our hands.

He (3) was that "he" that "waited for the consolation of Israel." And none but such a "he,"-one that waits, and looks, and longs, and thirsts and hungers after Christ, the "consolation of Israel" and all the isles of the Gentiles too,-none but he shall have the honour and happiness of Christ's embraces; "to them" only "that look for him will [Heb. ix. he appear" either in grace or glory.

"Upon him (4) was the Holy Ghost:" and he only who is

28.]

the "temple of the Holy Ghost," whose soul is so, whose [1 Cor. vi. body is so, shall truly and really touch "the Child Jesus." 19.] He will not dwell or come into those arms which the Holy Ghost has not made holy. Holy things must not be cast to dogs, to the unclean and impure, nor be laid up in unclean places; nor indeed can any receive him, or so much as call him by his name, "but by the Holy Ghost," how fain soever [1 Cor. xii. he would call or come.

This point would have done well to have been considered before your receiving, and I hope you did; but it is seasonable too now, that if you have purified yourselves beforeapproached in righteousness, with devotion, reverence, with hungering and thirsting, believing and hoping for him, and in the power of the Holy Ghost-you may so continue: if you have been deficient in any, you may reinforce yourselves, ask pardon, and set yourselves the more strictly to righteousness and devotion, good desires and holy practices, hereafter.

As there is none too young to be brought to him, so there is none too old to come and take him. Old Simeon, now ready to depart the world, has yet strength enough to hold this Child in his aged arms; him that by being held, upholds

3.]