Project Canterbury
Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology
Lancelot Andrewes Works, Sermons, Volume
One
SERMONS
OF THE NATIVITY.
PREACHED UPON CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1614.
Preached before King James, at Whitehall, on Sunday, the Twenty-fifth of
December, A.D. MDCXIV.
pp
135-152
Transcribed by Dr Marianne Dorman
AD 2001
Isaiah vii:14
Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Ecce virgo concipiet, et pariet
Filium, et vocabitur nomen Ejus Immanuel.
Of all the writers of the Old
Testament, the prophet Esay hath the honour to be the first that is vouched in
the New. And of all the places this place the honour to be the first of all,
even in the first evangelist, St. Matthew, and in the very first chapter of
him. We may well think St. Matthew would be careful to make choice of a very
prime and pregnant place, to set it as it were in the front of his Gospel.
This is much honour St. Matthew doth it.
But the angel Gabriel doth it more,
who takes this verse as it stands, word for word, and makes it serve for his
annunciation or message to the Blessed Virgin without any alteration; not so
much as the ecce left out.
The tenor of it is all about a Child
to be born, a Child with an ecce; in Whom and in Whose birth, God
should be with usNso with us as never before. On Whose so being with us
depends all our well or evil being here, and for ever. For better not to be at
all than be without Him; and having Him we need nothing else, for in Ipso
omnia, O^in him is all.O
The Eunuch's question falls fitly in
here; O^Of whom speaks the Prophet this?O Who is His mother? Who the Child?
St. Matthew will be as good to us as St. Philip was to him; [135/136] who,
where he enrols it, tells us who the mother, the blessed Virgin; who the
Child, our blessed Saviour. Who else? No virgin ever bare child but she; no
child ever nobiscum Deus, and so Deus, but He. There is none
other to lay claim to it but they.
Ecce
hath in it two powers. 1. One for the ear, to awake it to something matter
more than ordinary. 2. Two another for the eye, to direct it by pointing to
some certainty; as here to two certain persons, mother and child. And shows us
two strange sights in them mater virgo, and Deus homo; O^a
virgin to become a mother,O God to become man. A virgin to bear; God to be
born. In both, and in either of them, three points are offered to us.1. Ecce
concipiet; 2. Ecce pariet; 3. Ecce vocabit nomen. Our
Saviour Christ's first triplicity: 1. The mystery of His holy Incarnation, in concipiet;
2. His holy Nativity, in pariet; 3. His Circumcision, vocabit nomen.
And every one of these three makes a several feast. Ecce concipiet, the
Annunciation; et pariet, this feast of the birth of our Lord; et
vocabit nomen, New-year's day, when His name was given.
But we apply it to this feast. So doth
St. Matthew in his inspeximus of it to the birth of Christ. O^The
birth of Christ,O saith he, O^was on this fashion,O and then brings in
this record out of Esay. As if this ecce did in particular point at
this day. As in truth we stand not much upon His conceiving now He is born
specially as born He is, ecce pariet is the point. For then we see Him,
take Him in our arms, then He is O^with usO indeed. And when was that? Ecce
pariet saith the text; Ecce peperit saith the day, this very day.
This is the chief.
But finding them here all, we will
deal with them all. 1. Christ as embryo, in His conception. 2. Christ as rtigu`nhton
bru`foj, a new born babe, but yet nw?unmoj,
O^without a name.O 3. And Christ with His full Christendom, as named; and
named with this name here in the text, the name of O^Immanuel.O
Of which three, ye may reduce the
first two O^conceivedO and O^bornO to His nature; and to make two, to
two of the latter make two more, vocabit and nomen, His name and
His vocationNfor in his name is His vocation. To bring God to [136/137] us,
to make God with us; Him to be with us, that we may be with Him for ever. Nobiscum
Deus, the way; nos cum Deo, the end; which is and so may be the end
of the text, and of the day, and of us all. Nothing more worth our sight than
this birth, nor more worth our hearing than this name.
Ecce
spreads itself over the whole textNmay be repeated at every point of it; but
it first points to ecce Virgo. There we may make a stay, there is a
block in our way by the Jews. In no one place doth that of the Apostles speech
appear, that O^at the reading of the prophecies of Christ the veil is laid
over their hearts;O no where how true the Proverb is, that O^malice will
even blind a man,O as here in this. This verse so dazzles them, as fain
would they turn another way, and not see that they do. They see no virgin
here; Esay's word Alma, say they, is but O^a young woman,O and not
O^a virginO properly. But they say against their own knowledge, in so
saying. For first, beside the nature of the word, the very energy gives as
much. For it is of Alam, and that is O^to cover;O and so properly is
one that is yet covered, and never yet known; opposed to them that have been
uncovered and known, after the Hebrew phrase.
And beside, the use of the word for a
virgin in other places. Rebecca then a virgin, called by this name. And Miriam
then but six years old, called by it likewise.
And beside their own taking of the
word, they themselves, the more ancient of them, so in their TargumNthis
very word Alamoth they gloss and paraphrase it by Betuloth, the
proper words for virgins; where it stand this day to be seen.
Besides all this, see whither their
malice carrieth them by denying this, even to overturn prophecy, and Prophet,
and all. For he calls us to see a sign, and that with an ecce; and what
is that? if it be but a young woman to conceive, and no virgin, where is the
sign, what is become of the ecce? It is no sign or wonder, unless it be
beside the course of nature; and is it any whit beside the course of nature
for a young woman to be with child? Therefore take away Virgo, and away
with the ecce; down with the sign. Thus, rather than to bear witness to
the truth, sticked they not to expose the word of God, and so God Himself to
scorn; make the Prophet, or as St. Matthew well saith, O^God by the
Prophet,O [137/138] to speak idly; give them a sign that is no sign; tell
them of a marvel not to be marvelled at.
Reject them then, and read confidently
as St. Matthew doth, O^Behold a virgin.O With him rest hardly on the skill
and integrity of all the seventy, that more than an hundred years before it
came to pass turned it parqu`uoj
in Greek, that is O^a virgin;O who could skill of their own tongue better
than any Kimchi, or Albo, or any Rabbin of them all. This, for Ecce Virgo.
And look, what work we had with the
Jew about Ecce Virgo, the like shall we have with the Gentile about Virgo
concipet. To conceive this conceiving, to join these two, a virgin, and
yet conceive or bear; or conceive and bear, and yet be a virgin. For before
the birth, yes, before the conceiving come, the virginity is gone. TrueNin
nature; but this is a sign, and so above nature. And in reason so. But this is
nisi credideritis non intelligetis, O^to be believed, otherwise not to
be understood,O as a little before was said. For what God can do faith can
believe, reason cannot comprehend. But this it can; that we do God no great
favour as well saith St. Augustine, Si Deum fatermur,&c. O^If we
confess God can do somewhat, which we confess our reason cannot reach.O
The blessed Virgin herself while she
stood upon a reason, upon quia non cognosco virum, asked, O^How it
might be?O but rested in the Angel's resolution, and so let us. Which was of
two sorts; first, that the Holy Ghost should be the Agent in it, and O^the
power of the Most High bring it to pass.O That which of itself seemeth not
credible, put the Author to it, put to ex Spiritu Sancto, and it will
seem not incredible.
Specially, and that is the second, if
we set another by it as unlikely as it, and done though; as this ecce
of the Virgin's the Angel exemplifies by another ecce of Zachary's, in
a manner as hard, which yet fell out at the same time. For Elizabeth being
barren, first by nature, then by age, and so wanting power to conceive -she
was then O^gone six months with child.O Now the want of power to conceive
is no less material to hinder the conception every way, than want of soil no
less than the want of seed. He that could supply that could also this. He that
do it without one, do it without the other. They were cousins, the blessed
Virgin and she; and [138/139] their signs were so too. One of them made
credible by the other.
But I ask St. Paul's question, O^Why
should it be thought a thing incredible?O this to the Gentiles? If, as their
religion taught them, they admitted of Minerva's birth, or Pyrrha's progeny,
they need not make strange at this. If they say, The God of nature is not
bound to the rules of nature, we say the same. And yet, even in nature, we see
it made not altogether incredible. The light passing through a body, the body
yet remaining wholeNand it is put therefore into the verse to pattern this, Luce
penetratur, &c. O^The light cometh through the glass, yet the glass
is not perished.O No more than the light of Heaven by His passage violate
any whit the virginity of His mother; if we allow God the Maker of the light
to do as much as the light He hath made.
But I hold ever best to let every
thing rest upon his own base, or bottom; natural upon reason, supernatural
upon faith. And this is supernatural; in which tota ratio facti est in
potentiñ facientis, O^the power of the doer is the reason of the thing
done.O God is the Doer, Cujus dicere est facere, to Whom it is as
easy to do it as to say it.' As the angel concluded, so do I; O^With God
nothing is impossible.O And that of Christ's, O^To faith all things are
possible.O And here are both. And where they meet, they make no less a
miracle than Mater and Virgo, or Deus and HomoNeven
fides and ratio. And this, for Virgo concipiet.
Now to the three particulars; and
first, concipiet. To make Him man, it is well known there wanted not
other ways: from the mould, as Adam; from a rib of flesh, as Eve. No need then
of concipiet. YesNfor He was not to be man only, but to be `the Son
of man;' the name in the text, Filius, and the name that for most part
He giveth Himself, and seemeth most to delight in. But Adam was not son to the
mould, nor Eve daughter to Adam. And O^a SonO no way but by concipiet.
And howsoever of the body of man there may engender that which is not of the
same kind, yet by way of conception there cometh of man nothing but man;
nothing but of the same nature and substance with that he was conceived of.
[139/140]
This we are to hold; to conceive is
more than to receive. It is so to receive as we yield somewhat of our own
also. A vessel is not said to conceive the liquor that is put into it. Why?
because it yieldeth nothing from itself. The blessed Virgin is, and therefore
is because she did. She did both give and take. Give of her own substance
whereof His body was framed; and take or receive power from the Holy Spirit,
whereby was supplied the office and efficacy
of the masculine seed. This is concipiet.
And this word is the bane of diverse
heresies. That of the Manichee, that held, He had no true body. That had been,
virgo decipet, not concipiet; notNconceive Him, but deceive
us. And that of the Valentinian, revived lately in the Anabaptist, that held
He had a true body, but made in Heaven and sent into her. That had been recipiet,
but not concipiet; received Him she had, conceived she had not.
From which His conceiving we may
conceive His great love to us-ward. Love, not only condescending to take our
nature upon Him, but to take it by the same way and after the same manner that
we do, by being conceived. That, and no other better beseeming way. The womb
of the Virgin is surely no such place, but He might well have abhorred it. He
did not; pudorem exordii nostri non recusavit, saith Hilary; O^He
refused not that ourselves are ashamed of;O sed nostr3/4 contumelias
transcurrit, O^Obut the very contumelies of our nature (transcurrit
is too quick a word) He ran through them;O nay He stayed in them, in this
first nine months. I say the contumelies of our nature not to be named, they
are so mean. So mean indeed as it is verily thought they made those old
herectics I named, and others more who yet yielded Him to be Man, to run into
such fancies as they did; only to decline those foul indignities as they took
them, for the great God of Heaven to undergo.
This therefore, even this, would He
have set down in terms terminant, of concipiet and pariet.
Trusting we would wisely judge of them, and love Him never the less, but the
more even for these. Mu^
dELo toOto Ltimoj, i^ti di se tapeinILj:
O^Honour Him nevertheless, because He laid down His honour for thy sake.O
No; but, quanta ille minus debita, tanto ego magis debitor; O^the less
due He took on Him, the more due from me to Him.O In a word, quanto pro
me vilior, tanto mihi charior; [140/141] O^the lower for me, the dearer
to me.O It brings to mind King David vilior adhuch fiam, and how God
even for that regarded him the more. Concipiet et pariet, to conceive
and bring forth in us love, honour, and due regard, even for them. It reaches
both.
This sure is matter of love; but came
there any good to us by it? There did. For our conception being the root as it
were, the very groundsill of our nature; that He might go to the root and
repair of our nature from the very foundation, thither He went; that what had
been there defiled and decayed by the first Adam, might by the Second be
cleansed and set right again. That had our conception been stained, by Him
therefore, primum ante omnia,to be restored again. He was not idle all
the time He was an embyroNall the nine months He was in the womb; but then
and there He even ate out the core of corruption that cleft to our nature and
us, and made both us and it an unpleasing object in the sight of God.
And what came of this? We who were
abhorred by God, filii irae was our title, were by this means made
beloved in Him. He cannot, we may be sure, account evil of that nature, that
is now become the nature of His own SonNHis now no less than ours. Nay
farther, given this privilege to the children of such as are in Him, though
but of one parent believing, that they are not as the seed of two infidels,
but O^are in a degree holy,O eo ipso; and have a farther right to
O^the laver of regeneration,O to sanctify them throughout by O^the
renewing of the Holy Ghost.O This honour is to us by the dishonour of Him;
this the good by Christ an embyro.
Et pariet;
and this no more than needs. There may be concipiet, and no pariet
follow. Venerunt filii ad partum, &c. saith the Prophet, O^The
children came to the birth, and no strength to deliver.OO Pariet makes
all sure.
And pariet makes all appear. We
could not tell it was Filium; knew not what it was, or what it would
be. Till He came into the world He was as thesaurus absconditus; though
we had it, we had it not. But when He was born, when come into the world, we
see Him and handle Him; then He was O^with usO indeed. O^With us,O not
as conceived of the same nature with us, but as born and now a Person among
us. That which was potential in concipiet, made actual by pariet.
[141/142]
So that this is the QeofanELa,
when He came forth, O^as a Bridegroom out of His chamber, or as the Sun from
His tabernacle to run His race.O And it was with a visitavit ab alto.
Thence and angel cried Ecce, and sounded it on earth; and a star cried Ecce,
and proclaimed it from Heaven. Poets in the West write of it; and wise men in
the East saw it, and came a long journey upon to see Him. And what did this pariet
bring forth. No sooner born, but a multitude of heavenly soldiers sung
O^Peace to the earthONbelike there had been war before, but O^peaceO
now. Nay, more than peace, eo^dkELa::
that God had conceived a good liking, was well please with men. The same term
to men that He useth to Christ Himself, O^in Whom I am well pleasedO eo^dokELa
to both. And what would we more. What lack we now? His name.
And now He is born, might we not leave
here, and go no farther. Rem tenemus; what care we for the name? Yes,
we must; for Christus anonymus will not serve. Therefore Esay,
therefore the angel are careful to bear Him to His baptism, to add His name;
the Prophet to intimate it, St. Matthew to interpret it. For though we have
said much of Christ an embryo, and Christ a new-born nameless babe, yet
nothing to that that followethNto the Ecce of His name.
This name, if it had been of man's
giving, I wot well little heed had been to be taken of it. Men set great
titles upon empty boxes. Nay, many times the names given by wise men fall out
quite contrary. Solomon called his son Rehoboam, O^the enlarger of people;O
he enlarged them from ten to two. But His name, St. Matthew tells us the
Prophet but brought, it was God who sent it. And the names of His imposing,
there is no surer place in logic than from them. His nominals be reals. As His
dicer, facere, so His dici, fieri; what is said in them comes
surely to pass.
Now there were divers names given him
at divers times. To express all His perfections, no one name was enough. There
was Jacob's name, Shiloh, that was in respect of His Father, by Whom and from
Whom He was sent. There was Paul's name, Messiah, Christ; that was, regard had
to the Holy Ghost, by or wherewith He was anointed. But what were these? quid
ad nos? We have no part in them. In this we have; and [142/143] till this
came all was in nubibus, as they say. But in this Immanuel, here come
we in first. For in Immanu is annu, and in Nobiscum nos.
And this is the first Nobis, and the first cum we find in any
name of His; and therefore of all other we are to make much of it. A virgin to
bear, God to be bornNmatter of wonder, but no benefit at all. But when we
hear it, it is O^with us,O and for us, that Ecce makes us look up to
it.
Before I come to it, I would clear a
doubt or two of it. 1. One of the name itself; 2. the other of interpretation,
or meaning of the name.
1. It will be said, this was not His
name in the end for all this, but Jesus. True; and St. Matthew knew that well
enough, for he sets it down so. Yet even in that place he sets it down,
presently he vouches this of Esay of Immanuel, as if Immanueal and Jesus both
came to one, as indeed they do; one infers the other. Immanuel, O^God with
us.O Why? To what end? To save us from our sins, and from perishing by them.
If there be any odds, it is in Immanuel which is of larger compass. O^God
with usO to save us, though that be worth all, yet not that way only, but
O^with usO other way besides; and all in Immanuel.
2. O^God with us;O why, was He not
also with the Patriarchs and Prophets, and Esay himself, as well as with us?
He was; but not as well. Some prerogative we must allow this name, if it be
but for this ecce. No ecce belongs to these. Somewhat more to
St. Matthew's gospel than to Esay's prophecy. This name must needs imply a
secret antithesis to His former being with us. We say nothing in saying, He is
now with us, if He be not so with us now as never before. With them in types
and figures of Himself; His shadow was with them; but now He Himself. With
them He was even thus, in this very Immanu; but how? in the furture
tense, concipiet pariet; as things to come are made present to hope.
Nut now, conceptus est, partus est; re, not in spe; all is past
and done. So that now ita nobiscum ut de nobis; nay, ut ipsi nos,
So O^with usO as even of us now; of the same substance, nature, flesh and
bone that we. O^With usO in concipiet, conceived as we; O^with
usO in pariet, born as we. Now true as never till now; now so as
never so before. [143/144]
And now, to look into the name. It is
compounded, and to be taken in pieces. First, into Immanu and El; of
which, El the latter is the more principal by far; for El is God.
Now, for any thing yet said in concipiet and pariet, all is but
man with us; not O^God with usO till now. By the name we take our first
notice that this Child is God. And this is a great addition, and here, lo, is
the wonder. For, as any for any child of a woman to O^eat butter and
honey,O the words that next follow, where is the Ecce? But for El,
for God to do itNthat is worth an Ecce indeed.
El is
God; and not God every way, but as the force of the word is, God in His full
strength and virtue; God, cum plenitudine potestatis as we say, O^with
all that ever He can do;O and that is enough I am sure.
For the other, Immanu; though El
be the more principal, yet I cannot tell whether it or Immanu do more
concern us. For as in El is might, so in Immanu is our right to
His might, and to all He hath or is worth. By that word we hold, therefore we
to lay hold on it. The very standing of it thus before, thus in the first
place, toucheth us somewhat. The first thing ever that we look for is nos,
nobis, and noster, the possessives; for they do mittere in
possessionem, O^put us in possession.O We look for it first, and lo, it
stands here first: nobiscum first, and then Deus after.
I shall not need to tell you that in nobiscum
there is mecum; in nobiscum for us all a mecum for
everyone of us. Out of this generality of O^with usO in gross, may every
one deduce his own particularNwith me, and me, and me. For all put together
make but nobiscum.
The wise Man out of Immanuel, that is nobiscum
Deus, doth deduce Ithiel, that is mecum Deus, O^God with
meONhis own private interest. And St. Paul when he had said to the
Ephesians of Christ, O^Who loved us, and gave Himself for us,O might with
good right say to the Galatians, O^Who loved me and gave Himself for me.O
This Immanu is a compound
again; we may take it in sunder into nobix and cum; and so then
have we three pieces. 1. El,.the mighty God; 2 and anu, we, poor
weNpoor indeed if we have all the world beside if we have not Him to be with
us; 3. and Im, which is cum, and that cum in the
[144/145] midst between nobis and Deus, God and usNto couple
God and us; thereby to convey the things of the one to the other. Ours to God;
alas, they be not worth the speaking of. Chiefly, then, to convey to us the
things of God. For that is worth the while; they are indeed worth the
conveying.
This cum we shall never
conceive to purpose, but carendo; the value of with no way so
well as by without, by stripping of cum from nobis. And so let nobis,
us, stand by ourselves without Him, to see what our case is but for this
Immanuel; what, if this virgin's Child had not this day been born us: nobiscum
after all will be the better esteemed. For if this Child be Immanuel,
O^God with us,O then without this Child, this Immanuel, we be without God.
O^Without Him in this world,O saith the Apostle; and if without Him in
this, without Him in the next; and if without Him thereNif it be not Immanu-el,
it will be Immanu-hell; and that and no other place will fall, I fear
me, to our share. What with Him? Why, if we have Him, and God by Him, we need
no more; Immanu-el and Immanu-all. All that we can desire is for
us to be with Him, with God, and He to be with us; and we from Him, or He from
us, never to be parted. We were with Him once before, and we were well; and
when we left Him, and He no longer with us, then began all our misery.
Whensoever we go from Him, so shall we be in evil case, and never be well till
we back with Him again.
Then, if this be our case that we
cannot be without Him, no remedy then but to get a cum by whose means nobis
and Deus may come together again. And Christ is that cum to
bring it to pass. The parties are God and we; and now this day He is both. God
before eternally, and now to-day Man; and so both, and takes hold of both, and
brings both together again. For two natures here are in Him. If conceived and
born of a woman, then a man; if God with us, then God. So Esay offered his
O^sign from the height above, or from the depth beneath:O here it is.
O^From above,O El; O^from beneath,O anu; one of us now.
And so, His sign from both. And both these natures in the unity of one Person,
called by one name, even this name Immanuel.
Vocabit nomen.
I told you, in His name is His vocation, or office -to be cum, to come
between, that is, to be a Mediator, [145/146] to make Him who was contra
nos, nobiscum again. O^A mediator is not of one, but God is One.O God
and man are two; and they were two, as they say. Were two, and two will be,
till He make them one; recapitulate and cast up both into one sum; to knit anu,
that is O^we,O and El, that is O^God,O with His Im, into
oneNone word and one thing, univoce again.
So upon this point, in these three
pieces there be three persons; so a second kind of TrinityNGod, we, and
Christ. El is God, anu we; for Christ is nothing left but Em,
that is Cum, or with. For it is He who makes the unity in this
Trinity; makes God with us, and us with God; and both, in and by Him, to our
eternal comfort and joy.
Thus is He O^with us;O and yet all
this is but nature still. But the nobiscum of His name bodeth yet a
farther matter. For indeed the O^with usO of His name is more than the
O^with usO of His nature. If we make a great matter of that, as great it is
and very great, behold the ecce of His name is far beyond it. O^With
usO in His nature, that is O^with usO as manNthat is short. We are
moreNsinful men; a wretched condition added to a corrupt nature. Will He be
O^with usO in that too? Else this of nature will smally avail us.
What, in sin? Nay, O^in all things,
sin only except.O Yea, that is in being O^like us,O but not in being
O^with us.O For in being O^with usO except sin, and except all; the
ridding us of our sin is the only matter, saith Esay after. Therefore to be
with us in all things, sin itself not except. St. John's caro factum est,
will not serve, St Paul's fuit peccatum must come too. In O^with usO
there too. I say it over again: unity of nature is not enough, He is to be
O^with usO in unity of Person likewise. So He was. The debtor and surety
make but one person in law. That He was, and then He was Cum, O^with
us,O throughly, as deep in as we.
And this is the proper Immanu
of His name. And this the Immanu indeed. And till He was thus O^with
us,O no name He had; He was Christus anonymus, O^Christ unchristened,O
as it were. For His name came not till He become One O^with usO in person;
not till His circumcision; not till for us and in our names, He became debtor
of the whole Law, principal, forfeiture, and all. To the O^hand-writing,O
He then signed with the first-fruits, of His blood. And then, name the Child,
and [146/147] give Him this name, Immanuel. For this He was a right
Immanuel, truly O^with us.O O^With usO as men; O^with usO as sinful
men; O^with usO in all things, sin itself not excepted.
May I not add this? It is said in the
text, O^She shall callO?O^She,O that is His mother. Why O^She?O To
let us understand, that she might give Him the name while He undertook this
for us. But His Father, till all was discharged and the O^hand-writing
cancelled,O till then all He suspended, He gave it Him not. His mother she
did, when He dropped a little blood as the sealing of the bond. But He was
fain not to drop blood, but to sweat blood, and to shed His blood, every drop
of it, ere this O^with usO were full answered. And then His Father did it
too, dedit Illi nomen super omne nomen; then, and not before. His
mother now, His father not till then. But then He had proved Himself fully, with
us per omnia, when neither womb nor birth, cratch nor cross, cross
nor curse, could pluck him away from us, or make Him not to be O^with us.O
Then vocabit illi nomen, both she and He; mother, Father, and all.
O^With usO to eat O^butter and honeyO seemeth much; and it is so for
God. What say ye to drink O^vinegar and gall?O that is much more, I am
sure; yet that He did I cannot here say O^with us,O but for us. Even drunk
of the cup with the dregs of the wrath of God, which passed not from Him, that
it might pass from us and we not drink it.
This is the great O^with us;O for
of this follow all the rest. O^With usO once thus, and then O^with usO
in His oblation on the altar of the Temple; O^with usO in His sacrifice on
the altar of the cross; O^with usO in all the virtues and merits of His
life; O^with usO in the satisfaction and satis-passion of His death;
O^with us' in His Resurrection, to raise us up from the earth; `with us' in
His Ascension, to exalt us to O^heaven; `with us' even then, when He seemed
to be taken from usNthat day by His Spirit, as this day by His flesh. Et
ecce vobiscum, and lo, I am true Immanuel O^with youO by the love of My
manhood; O^with youO by the power of My Godhead, still O^to the end of the
world.O
One more yet. He won it, and He wears
this name; and in it He wears us. He won it, and He wears this name; and in it
He wears us. And it is both a comfort to us and a glory that so He wears us.
That He is not, cannot be named [147/148] without us; that when He is named, et
nos una Tecum Domine, O^we also are named with Him.O In Immanu is
anu, and that is we. This is not it, but this; that He hath set us in
the forepart of it; Immanu before El, Nobiscum before Deus.
This note is not out of place in this place, where precedence is made a great
matter of; that Immanu is before El; that is, we first, and God
last.
Good manners would in a name compound
of Him and us, that He should have stood before us, and it have been Elimmanui
at leastNDeus nobiscum, and Deus before nobiscum; not
Immanuel, nobiscum before Deus. He before us; He the priority of
the place in all reason. Booz he placed them so, and so should we I dare say,
if it had been of our imposing, Elimmanu. It had been great arrogancy
otherwise. But He giving it Himself would have it stand thus; us set before
Him. There is a meaning in it. And what can it be but this? That in the very
name we might read that we are dearer to Him than Himself; that He so
preferred us, and that His own name does no less, but give out to all the
world the ecce of St. John's Gospel, Ecce quomodo dilexit! the ecce
of his Epistle. Ecce quantam charitatem habuit! O^See, how He loved
them!O O^Behold, how great love He bare to them!O See it in His very
name. We are a part of it; we are the forepart of it, and He the latter; He
behind, and we beforeNbefore Himself, and that by order from Himself: He
would have it Immanuel. O! Whether was greater, humility or charity in Him !
Hard to say whether, but both unspeakable.
Let us examine this sine nobis,
a little. How came God from us? Nay, ask not that; but how we came from Him.
For we went from Him, not He from us; we forsook Him first. Jonas tells us
how; O^By following lying vanities, we forsook our own mercy.O
If we went from Him first, then should
it be in reason nos cum Deo, not nobiscum Deus; we to Him, not
He to us. Did we so? No, indeed. We sought not Him, He was fain to seek us. Nos
cum Deo, that would not be; it must be nobiscum Deus first, or nos
cum Deo will never be. This second then; that we began the
separationNthat long of us; but He begins the reconciliation. [148/149]
Who hath the hurt if God be without
us? we, not He, Who gets by nobiscum? What gets God by nobiscum? Nothing
He. What get we? Multum per omnem modum. Why then doth He begin, doth
He seek to be with us? No reason but sic dilexit, and no reason of
that.
But when He sought and offered to be
with us, did we regard it? Nor that neither. You see, the Prophet here offers
Ahaz a sign, bids him ask it; Ahaz would none. And as he to the sign, so we to
the signatum, O^the thing signified;O care as little for Him or His
being O^with us,O as Ahaz did for His sign. We can be content He in any
sort will cease from us, come not at us so long as the world can be with us or
we with it; care not for His being with us, till world and all forsake us. How
He was fain even to force it on him!
Cast up these then; that He forsakes
not, but being forsaken first. That being forsaken, yet He forsakes not
though. That He Which should be sought to, seeks first, and seeks us by whom
He shall get nothing. Yea, when we neglect Him so seeking, when Ahaz will no
sign, tells him He will give him one, whether he ask or ask not; that is, will
do us good not only without our seeking, but even in a manner against our
wills. And tell me, if there be not as much love in nobiscum, as in all
the rest.
O^With us,O how we see. Now,
O^with usO why, or to what end? To more than I have now time to tell you
of. Two only I name. 1. One, that of the placeNO^to save them from their
enemies;O as them, so us. Them from Razin and Romely's son; us from the son
of Romely, or Romulus, or whomsoever. If He O^with usO on our side, then
will He be against them that are against us; and that let us never fear
neither our own weakness, nor the enemies strength. For though we be weak and
they be strong, yet Immanuel I am sure That is O^with us' is stronger than
they.
Our fear most-what groweth, both in
sin and in danger, that we look upon ourselves as if it were only nobis;
as if never acum; or that cum were not El, O^the mighty
God.O As if with that great El all the inferior els were not
attendant, Micha-el, and Gabri-el; and if He will, O^twelve legions of
Angels.O Or as if He alone with one word of His mouth, one Ego sum,
could not blow them all down, could not make them all as those in the text, as
the tails of a couple of fire-brands [149/150] that have spent themselves,
smoke a little, and there is all. No; if He be O^with us,O we need not fear
what these two, nay not what all the fire-brands in hell can do against us.
And sure strange it is, the saints of
God what courage and confidence they have taken, from this very name Immanuel.
Go to, saith Esay in the next chapter, O^Take your counsel, it shall be
brought to nought; pronounce a decree, it shall not stand,O Why? For
Immanuel, O^God is with us;O nothing but this name. For as it is a name, so
it is a whole proposition, if you will. And after, in the fiftieth chapter, he
seeks for enemies; calls them out, O^Who will contend with me?' Where is my
adversary? let him come near;Nso little doth he fear them. And these were
ghostly enemies; and this was in the point of justification. This for the
Prophet.
Now for the Apostle. Never did
champion in more courageous manner cast his glove than doth he to his ghostly
enemies, to O^height,O to O^depth,O to O^things present,O to
O^things to come,O to all, that none of them O^shall be able to sever
himO from this Cum, from His love. And all in confidence of si
Deus nobiscum; in Whom He makes full account to conquer; nay, conquer will
not serveNmore than conquer he, Ppernikhmen.
The reason is set down, Proverbs 30,
when he betakes himself to Ithiel first, which is but a slip of
Immanuel, Deus mecum; and then to Ithiel straight joins Ucal,
O^I shall prevail;O not I, but El with me. Ithiel goeth never
alone; Ical attends it still. Get Ithiel be with us, Ucal
will not be away, for Ithiel and Ucal part not.
Is this all? No; there is another in
the very body of the word itself. O^With usONto make us that to God that
He was this day made to man. And this indeed was the chief end of His being
O^with us;O to give us a posse fieri, a capacity, O^a power to be
made the sons of God,O by being born again of water and of the Spirit; for Origenem
quam sumpsit ex utero Virginis posuit in fonte Baptismatis, the same
original that Himself took in the womb of the Virgin to us-ward, the same has
He placed for us in the fountain of Baptism to God-ward. Well therefore call
the womb of the Church so`otoicon
to the Virgin's womb, with a power given it of concipiet et pariet filios
to God. So His being conceived and born the Son of man does conceive and bring
forth (filiatio filiationem,) [150/151] our being born, our
being born, our being the sons of God. His participation of our human, our
participation of His Divine nature.
And shall He be O^with usO thus
many ways, and shall not we be with HimNas many ways, and shall not we be
with HimNas many I say not, but some, as many as we can? We with Him, as He
with us? Specially, since upon this issue the Prophet puts King Asa, O^The
Lord is with you, if you be with HimONwith you to save you, if you with
Him to serve Him. It holds reciproce, in all duties of love, as here
was love if ever. O^Immanuel, God with us,O requires Immelanu, O^us
with God,O again.
He O^with usO now I hope, for
O^where two or three are gathered together in his Name, there is He with
them.O But that is in His Godhead. We are with Him; our prayers, our praises
are with Him; but that is in our spirits whence they come.
These are well, but these are not all
we can; and none of these, the proper O^with HimO of the day. That has a
special Cum of itself, peculiar to it. Namely, that we be so with Him,
as He this day was with us; that was in flesh, not in spirit only. That flesh
that was conceived and this day born, that body that was this day fitted to
Him. And if we be not with Him thus, if this His flesh be not with us,
if we partake it not, which way soever else we be with Him, we come short of
the Im of this day. Im otherwise it may be, but not that way
which is proper to this feast. O^Thy land, O Immanuel,O saith the Prophet
in the next chapter; and may not I say, This Thy feast, O Immanuel? Sure no
being with Him so kindly, so pleasing to Him, so fitting, as to grow into one
with Him; as upon the same day, so the very same way He did with us.
This, as it is most proper, so it is
the most straight and near that can beNthe surest being withall that can be.
Nihil tam nobiscum, tam nostrum, quam alimentum nostrum, O^nothing so
with us, so ours, as that we eat and drink down,O which goeth, and groweth
one with us. For alimentum et alitum do coalescere in unum,
O^grow into an union;O and union is inseparable ever after. This then I
commend to you, even the being with Him in the Sacrament of His BodyNthat
Body that was conceived and born, as for [151/152] the other ends so for this
specially, to be O^with you;O and this day, as for other intents, so even
for this, for the Holy Eucharist. This, as the kindliest for the time, as the
surest for the manner of being with .
And this is the farthest; and this is
all can come toNupon earth. But this is not all; there is a farther to come
still. For we are not together; we are parted, He and we. He in heaven, and we
in earth. But it shall not always so be. Beside this day Emmanuel has
another day, and that day will come; and when it does come, He will come and
take us to Himself. That as He has been our Emmanuel upon earth, so He
may be our Emmanuel in heaven; He with us, and we with Him, there for
ever.
This of the Sacrament is a preparative
to that; will conceive and bring forth the other. For immediately after He had
given them the Holy Eucharist, He prayed straight that they had so been with
in the blessed Sacrament; O^Father, My will is,O My prayer, My last prayer,
O^that where I am they may be also.O
And He is in Heaven, in the joy and
glory there; and there He would have us. So nobiscum Deus in terris
brings us to nos cum Deo in Coelis, even thither. Thither may it bring
us, and thither may we come and there beNHe O^with us,O and we with Him
for ever. Immanuel is the end of the verse; the same be our end, that
so we may be happy and blessed without end!
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