APPENDIX I.a

AT DURHAM HOUSE, 5 JAN. DIE DOMINICO, 1622-[23.]

IN VIGILIA EPIPHANIÆ.

ST. MATTHEW ii. 1, 2.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlem of Judea, in the days of
Herod the king, Behold there came wise men from the east to
Jerusalem.

Saying, Where is He That is born king of the Jews? for we
have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship
Him.

BECAUSE We love to speak tempestivè, I confess this text comes a day too soon, but yet we shall not break square through much in taking of it; for howsoever it be now out of use, the old Church accounted so highly of the feast of our Saviour's Epiphany, as for the more honour of it they had a solemn service in their churches the day before; and all about that only. So in choosing this text to-day, a day before his proper season, we shall do no more than what hath been done before us. And I cannot see how we should have chosen better; for to have taken a text that nothing concerned the time, as some of our new brethren use to do, had been a dishonour to the feast. And to have looked for the Gospel of the day had been to lose our labour, for there is never a Gospel for it; you see the time falls out so as we are fain to go four days backward for a Gospel, and supply it with that of the Circumcision, which we used upon New Year's Lu. 2. 15

a See

p. 1. of the present volume. b See Bingham, xx. 4. § 8, and

Suicer. Thesaur., tom. i. p. 1201.

21.

APPEND. day. Now as that Gospel brought us back to the memory

I.

1 until

2 Judæa

28.

of that day, so will this carry us forward to this feast, the Epiphany of our Lord, that we might be the better prepared to the celebration of it; and for this purpose I have chosen it.

And because we have chosen it for that end, it will not be amiss to say a little of the day, before we come to the text, that you may the more esteem of the greatness of it.

We are still then at the feast of Christmas, for the twelve days are not done yet which all attend upon it, but to-morrow is the last and great day of the feast, as St. John spake of Joh. 7. 37. another, 'In the last and great day of the feast, Jesus stood up,' &c. It has been indeed a feast of joy to us all this while, we cannot but have sense of it, but our fulness of joy comes not while1 now; for all this while it has been EvanLu. 2. 10. gelizo vobis, tidings of joy which the Angels brought to shepherds in Jury' only, men hard at hand; but now upon this feast it is omni populo, news which the star brought to all Acts 28. the world, and to us too, that now salvation was come unto the Gentiles. So, to say well, to-morrow would be our true Christmas-day, that were Gentiles; for howsoever Christ was born eleven days since among the Jews, yet He came not abroad among the Gentiles till now, and so seemed unborn to them till He was this day made known and manifest to them in the persons of these wise men; which was the reason that the Catholic Church hath ever so highly accounted of this feast and made it the greatest of all the twelve, as being the chief and proper feast of the Gentiles, such as, God wot, we all were before the news of this day came. And besides the religious observation that the good Christians had of it, the emperors themselves in their edicts have made it by law, for fear people's devotion should cool, to be ranked with the days of Christ's nativity and His resurrection, to be held in Joh. 7. 37. the same honour as these two are. So because St. John said the last day of the feast was the greatest, I did not amiss at first to call this the great and last day of our Christmas solemnity, that we now do celebrate. Last, you see it is, by the order of the Church, and great withal; for the great and

The Theodosian and Justinian codes, and the laws of the Visigoths,

to this effect, are quoted by Bingham, xx. 4. § 8.

wide world became the better for it, and was blessed upon it with the Day-star from on high, the glad tidings of the Gospel Lu. 1. 78. and of a Saviour's nativity. Nay, at this day came Christ's divinity to be known, for before now there was little talk or heed of any thing but of His humanity only, born in the flesh upon Christmas-day, and circumcised in the flesh of NewYear's-day. But upon Twelfth-day now His Godhead shewed itself from heaven; and therefore as we have had all this time to meditate upon His coming in the flesh That was God, so now the Church would have us meditate upon His being God That was come in the flesh; to turn ourselves from His humanity below to His divinity above; to behold it, not with our eyes-for His divinity cannot be seen-but by such heavenly signs as He sent unto us for that purpose, the star in the firmament.

For because we will be sure to make our feast to-morrow a great and a high day, higher than the rest, if this appearing first from heaven to the wise men will not do it, we have two or three more Epiphanies made upon it, of that eminency that they would make high days of themselves; for this day, saith St. Gregory Nazianzen, was Christ also baptized for us in Jordan, and therefore he calls his oration 'De baptismate Christi,' Epiphania Domini, and the Greek menologies call it the day of His holy baptism; and so went the ancient service of the Church; and accordingly our second lesson at morning prayer to-morrow, where the story of His baptism is read upon purpose. So before, He was shewed as born to us Lu. 3. 1— upon this day, and now He is baptized also.

And so much for the day, which deserved to have somewhat said of it, that so solemn a time might not pass over our head without some special regard of it. And now I come to the text.

The first verse will be all we shall get done to-day, and here we have to consider,

(I.) A journey undertaken from east to west, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; 'there came from the east to Jerusalem.'

(II.) Next, what they were that came; no poor silly pilgrims, or persons of mean quality, but the sages, the wise d S. Greg. Nyssen. Opp., tom. iii.

p. 366.

e See Goar's Rituale Græcorum, p. 467. edit. 1647.

23.

APPEND. and great men of their country. Ecce magi venerunt, 'There came wise men.'

10. 1.

I.

(III.) Let us take in the end of their coming too; they came to enquire after Christ; and then, the suddenness of their coming; presently, as soon as He was born.

(IV.) And lastly, we may add the wonder, to them all, Ecce, Behold,' a matter worth the wondering at; for indeed they be all strange things. For take them all together, and 1 Kings the queen of the south, that came to see Solomon, was nothing to be admired as these kings of the east that came to see Christ, for she came to see and hear, and they to worship besides; she to see Solomon, they saying, 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east, and are come to worship Him.'

We begin then with the words; and we will take them as they lay here in the text, which will bring in all the parts of the division well enough.

When He was born, then, that is the first; we shall have nothing to do but with the word 'when ;' for the words that follow, 'Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in the days of Herod the king,' will fit the day of His nativity better some other time. Cum natus, 'then,' when Christ was come to the world, we presently read that these Gentiles came to Him; for likely as soon as ever they saw the star upon Christmas-day morning, they set out betimes, and by this day had got to Jerusalem; which makes the text once more proper for the day. For if they were this day at Jerusalem, and we this day speaking of their journey and coming thither, I hope we Prov. 15. shall keep Solomon's rule, speak words in season. 'When'

23.

He was born, then. Before Christ was born we read of few or none that came to enquire after [Him,] specially among the Gentiles; but now He is born they come from the furthest part of the world. Before Christ came Himself, admonishing them with this star, the sinful Gentiles, God knows, had no heart to come of themselves. For as long, &c.

So much for the time 'when' Jesus was born. When He was born, 'Behold there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem.' 'Behold,' first, no ordinary matter, sure, but a thing, &c.