THE SECOND SERMON
ON THE DAY OF
THE PURIFICATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

S. LUKE ii. 28.

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

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 gloriously 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 for 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 savour of this day’s food; refresh our souls and selves with a thankful remembrance of this day’s mercy, and offer our evening sacrifice 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 of thanksgiving for it: "and blessed God." "Then too 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 Samuel of Elkanah and Hannah. And (2) their office it was to bless the people—Aaron’s and his sons’; and that does Simeon; takes the child, and blesses the parents, "he." But the Christian priest does more, blesses the child, too. 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.

But after the blessing, the taking concerns us all; and though 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 just man," dikaios, just and upright in his dealing, "in the 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, that,—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, that 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 him into his arms, has already cleansed his hands by some 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 eulabhs, "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 he appear" either in grace or glory.

"Upon him (4) was the Holy Ghost:" and he only who is the "temple of the Holy Ghost," whose soul is so, whose body is so, shall truly and really touch "the Child Jesus." 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 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 before—approached 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 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 him and all the world. None too old for Christ’s company. Though he be here a Child, he is the "Ancient of days" elsewhere. There is no pretending age against his service. In the old law the priests at fifty were exempted from the service of the tabernacle, the Mosaical service of the law: but nor fifty, nor sixty, nor a hundred, nor any years, can excuse us from the service of the Gospel,—Christ’s service,—nor debar us from it. To that, the outward strength and vigour of the body was necessary: to Christ, the inward vivacity and action of the soul will suffice where the body can do little. And as there is no time too long for Christ’s service, nor from our first childhood to our second; so there is none too late, if but strength to reach out a hand and take that, which is no burden, but an ease to bear, the greatest ease of the sick or weary or aged soul. This is a point may comfort us when all worldly comforts are past us: when, like old Barzillai, we have neither pleasure nor taste in our meat or drink, we may find sweetness in Christ’s body and blood. When "the grasshopper is a burden," this Child is none; when the "keepers of the house tremble," our hands may yet hold Him full fast; when "they that look out of the windows be darkened," we may stedfastly behold him; when "the grinders cease," we may yet eat this bread of life; he that "rises at the voice of the bird," may sleep soundly with this Child in his arms; when "all desire shall fail," this desire of the nations will not leave him; when he is "going to his long home," this Child will both accompany and conduct him to his rest.

Oh the comfort of this Child in our old age, when we are ready to go out of the world, ready to depart!—no comfort like it; no warmth like that which reflects from the flesh of this young Child—his being flesh, made and offered to us, and taken by us. When no Abishag can warm us, this Shunammite can; when none can cherish us, he can "stay us with flagons, and comfort us with apples;" when no earthly fire in our bosoms can give us heat, with this Child in our arms we grow young again, and renew our years unto eternity. Oh comfortable and happy old age, that has his arms furnished with the Child Jesus! "Forsake me not, O Lord, in mine old age," nor draw thyself out of mine arms "when I am grey-headed," and I shall seek no other love, no other embraces.

Thus have I showed you Simeon’s silver head and golden hands; Simeon with Jesus in his arms; an old man holding of a Child, a priest embracing of his King, a servant entertaining of his Lord, the first Adam laying hold upon the Second, the Law catching at the Gospel, the old world courting of the new; age and youth, state and religion, humility and greatness, weakness and strength, rigour and mercy, time and eternity, embracing. It is a happy day that makes this union, where the imperfection of the one is helped out and perfected by the perfections of the other. And it is the happier, in that now, in the next place, it directs us how to bear a part in this union, and communicate in this happiness, (Et ipse accepit eum in ulnas,) by taking Him into our arms from whom comes all this "peace upon earth, and good will among men."

Several are the ways of taking Christ. We take him in at our ears when we hear him in his word; we take him in our mouths when we confess him; we take him into our hearts when we desire and love him; we take him upon our necks when we submit to his obedience; we take him upon our knees when we pray unto him; we take him into our hands when we meditate and think upon him. It is good taking him any of these ways; nay, all he must be taken.

But our business at this time is, in our arms or hands to do it; and so to take him is,

1. First, To believe and hope in him. Faith and hope are the two arms of the soul, whereby we take and entertain whatsoever it is we love. And here Simeon did so: he would not so have "waited for the consolation of Israel," had he not fully believed and hoped strongly to attain it; nor would he either so have stretched out his hands to bless the parents, nor his arms to receive the child, nor his voice to sing so loud salvation to the ends of the world, that Jew and Gentile both might hear it.

2. To take him in our hands and arms, is to receive him in the sacraments. Those are the two arms that the Church opens to take him: Baptism, as the left hand, the weaker, for young weaklings; and the Eucharist, as the right and stronger, for those of riper and stronger years; and in these arms he lies at all times to be found, with them he is taken; and when at any time we duly and devoutly use them, we take him by them. And by the one of them we have, I hope, all of us this day taken him.

3. But there is yet a way, and arms, every day to take him with. Good works are the hands; and the two branches of charity—divine charity and brotherly love, that divide the two tables of the law betwixt them—are the two arms that embrace him: the good works that proceed from the first are the hands of the one, and they that issue from the second are the other. And I may have leave to call the Ten Commandments the ten fingers that make the hands that received him. Only here is one thing to be observed—and worth it too—that these hands and fingers, the duties of the moral law, are to take Christ to them; his merits to supply their defects, his strength to actuate their weakness, his faith to raise their flagging dulness and earthy heaviness, which till then looks not high enough beyond worldly interests, ere they can reach heaven.

But by these hands, thus ordered, purified, and lifted up, no fear of taking Christ wholly, with his greatest benefits and utmost relations. You need not fear the hands, or doubt the virtue of them that are thus first enabled by Christ, but that they are the truest power we hold him by. Let but our goodness die, our righteousness fail, our good deeds vanish out of sight,—and Christ does too; he that is the Eternal Wisdom will not dwell in a body that is subject unto sin, that is the vassal of satan, under the dominion or habit of any iniquity.

By those hands, therefore, you are daily to embrace him. These are the hands that keep him, too, that hold him fast. So long as our good works, so long continues he; so long our sanctification; if the one goes, the other does not stay—no, is not remembered, says God. God himself forgets it as if it had not been, when once the righteous turns from his righteousness and turns wicked. This day, my beloved, you have taken Christ by the hand of the holy sacrament: that was your morning service: take him now henceforward by continuance in well-doing, by loving God, by loving your neighbour—those two arms of charity—and by all the fingers and joints and nerves of good works, all sorts of good works, that you never more be deprived of him.

And yet suscipere is somewhat more—sub capere, et sursum capere; or in the English, to take him up. Take up his cross and follow him. Put your neck under even his hardest yoke, if he point it out; that is capere sub and super too; to take on and up; to deny yourselves, and submit to any affliction—any cross, any persecution, any loss of liberty, or limb, or life, or goods, or friends, or any thing—rather than part with Jesus, than part our arms to let him go; than any way part with our part, any part or portion in him.

And then, lastly, sursum capere, take him up and offer him again unto his Father; offer him as our lamb for a burnt-offering; offer him as our turtle for sin-offering—for he is our turtle, of whom it is said, "The voice of the turtle is heard in our land:" offer him as our dove for a sacrifice of thanksgiving, for he is our "love" and "dove;" offer him for our meat-offering, for he is our meat, the very "bread that came down from heaven," fittest therefore of all bread to be offered to heaven again.

Offer we him as our turtur in our solitude and requirement; (turtus avis solitaria, the turtle is solitary bird;) offer him as our dove in company and in our congregations; (columba avis gregaria, doves fly by flocks together;) offer him in our contemplation, and offer him in our practical conversation.

And offer we up ourselves together with him—for it is an offering day, and we must not stand out nor come in empty;—offer up, I say, ourselves as turtles and doves; some, their single estate with the turtle; others, their married with the dove;—offer we up the turtle’s sighs instead of wanton songs; the turtle’s chastity and purity and the dove’s simplicity. Let our lives be full of sorrow for our sins, and compassions to our brother—full of purity and innocency. Keep we still this sursum in suscipere upon the tops of the mountains with the turtle, as near heaven as can be; set no more our foot upon the green trees our boughs, as the turtle does not when his mate is dead; rest we no more upon the green and flourishing, the light and leafy pleasures of the world, but spend the residue of this mournful life in bewailing the widowed Church, our lost both spouse and mother, our deceased Husband and Father too. Thus taking Christ and his offering, and proportioning ours according to it, our heaviness may again be turned into joy, a joyful light spring up again; our Purification become also a Candlemas, an illustrious day of lights and glories.

It is Candlemas-day, I tell you again. Let it be so henceforward with you for ever, perpetual Candlemas, perpetual Christmas; your good works perpetually shine before men, that they also may glorify your Father by that light; and nothing be henceforth heard of but Christ, in your hands and arms and mouths, all your words and works and lives and deaths, nothing but Christ, nothing but Christ, as if you were wholly full this day—as Simeon’s arms with the Child Jesus—with the Lord’s Christ.

This work is never unseasonable. Christ may at all times be taken so with reverence into our mouths, or arms, or hearts, or any part about us. Yet he has a proper time besides, and that is when he is presented in the temple after his circumcision and his mother’s purification.

At such a time as that, when our hearts are purified by repentance and faith,—when the devout soul, which like his mother conceives and brings him forth, has accomplished the days of her purification, and offered the forementioned offerings of the turtle and the dove, and we circumcised with the circumcision of the Spirit, all our excrescent inclinations, exorbitant affections, and superfluous desires cut off,—we may with confidence take him into our arms; but until then it is too much sauciness to come so near him; at least presumption to conceive we have him truly in our arms, that he is truly embraced by us, whilst we have other loves, other affections which cannot abide with him, already in our arms, and too ready in our hands.