Exposition of the Principal Scriptures Used in our English Liturgy, Part 23
Luke 2. 29.
Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace.
kOuid epist. Hero. 7. epist.Sic vbi f…ta vocant, vdis abiectus in herbis,
Ad vada Maeandri conci…it albus olor.
As the Swanue, so Simeon in his old age, readie …o leaue the world, did sing more sweetly then euer he did before, Lord now lettest &c.
The which Hymne is a thanksgiuing to God, for giuing his Sonne to redeeme his seruants.
And it hath two principall parts: in the
1. He reioyceth in regard of his owne particular: vers. 29. 30.
2. In regard of the generall good our Sauiour Christ brought to ye whole world: vers. 31. 32.
In the first note 2. things especially:
1. His willingnes to die: Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace.
2. The reason of this willingnes: For mine eyes hauehave seene thy saluation.
Lord] The Papists often in their life,Lord. specially at their death, vse to commend themselues and their soules vntounto the protection of the blessed Virgin: Maria mater gratiae, tu nos ab hoste protege, & horamortis susc…pe. This is their doctrine, lLib. de beatitudine Sanctorum, cap. 17.Bellarmine auoweth it: this is their practise; Father Garnet at his execution vsed this forme of praier twice publiquely. But old Simeon heere forgetting our Lady, though she were present, commends his soule to the Lord, who rede…med it, Lord now lettest thou &c.
Now] Simeon assuredly was not afraid to die before: but because amLuke 2. 26. reuelation was giuen vntounto him from the holie Ghost that he should not see death, vntill he saw the Messias, he was exceeding desirous to liue, that he might see the word of the Lord fulfilled.nCaluin. in loc. And therefore men abuse this example, saying they will be contented to die, when such and such things come to passe, when all their daughters be well married, and all their sonnes well placed. Old Simeon had a reuelation for that he did, whereas we hauehave no warrāt from God, for many things we fondly desire; so that whether God grant them, or not, we must submit our selues vntounto his good pleasure, Now and euer ready to depart in peace, when he doth call: taking vntounto vsus the resolution of Iob; The Lord giueth, & the Lord taketh, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Lettest thou] We may not our selues loose our soules,Lettest thou. but let God let them out of prison. We must seeke to mortifie the flesh, and to cast the world out of vsus: but to cast our selues out of the world, is anoThomas 22 ae. quaest. 64. a…t 5. offence against
God.
Our neighbour.
Our selues.
Against God: who saith, Thou shalt not kill: if not another, much lesse thy selfe.pLuke 10. 27. For thou must louelove thy neighbor as thy selfe: first thy selfe, then thy neighbour as thy selfe. The neerer, the deerer. IqDeut. 32. 39. kill, and giuegive life, saith the Lord: we are not masters of our life, but only stewards: and therefore may not spend it, or end it, as we please: but as God, who bestowed it, will.
Ag…inst our neighbours: because men are not borne for themselues alone, but for other also: being all members of one common-weale and politike body: so that (asr1. Cor. 12. 26. Paul saith) if one member suffer, all suffer with it.sArist. Ethic. lib. 5. cap. vlt. Homo quilibet est pars communitatis: EueryEvery particular person is part of the whole State. This is the true reason, why the King doth take so precise an account of the death euen of his basest subiect, because himselfe, and the whole kingdome had interest in him.
Against our selues: Because by naturall instinct euerie creature labours to preserue it selfe; the fire striueth with the water, the water fighteth with the fire, the most sillie worme doth contend with the most strong man to preserue it selfe: and therefore we may not butcher our selues, but expect Gods leasure and pleasute to let vsus depart in peace.
Thy seruant] It is not a seruile seruice,Thy seruant. but a perfect freedome to serue the Lord. And therefore as the good Empetour Theodosius held it more noble to be membrum Ecclesis, q…caput Imperij: so may we resolue that it is better to be a seruant of God, then Lord of all the world. For while we serue him, all other creatures on earth and in heauen too serue vsus: Heb. 1. 14.
In chusing a master, eueryevery man will shun principally three sorts of men: his
Enemie.
Fellow.
Seruant.
He serueth his greatest enemie, who serueth the Diuell: his fellow, who serueth the lust of his flesh: his seruant, who serueth the world. It is a base seruice to serue the world: for that is to become a vassall vntounto our seruant. It is an vncertaine seruice to serue the flesh: this master is so cholericke, so weake, so sickly, so fickle, that we may looke eueryevery day to be turned out of his doores: and that which is worst of all, he is least contented, when he is most satisfied. Like to the Spa…ard, a bad seruant, but a worse master. It is an vnthriftie seruice to serue the Diuell, all his wages is death: the more seruice we doe him, the worse is our estate. But he that serues God, hath the greatest Lord, who is most able; and the best Lord, who is most willing to prefer his followers: and therefore let vsus say with Simeon, and boast with tPsal. 116. 14.Dauid: O Lord I am thy seruant, I am thy seruant. See the Epistle on Simons and Iudes day.
Depart]Depart. Here first note the soules immortalitie: Death is notuCyprian serm. de mortalitate. exitus, but transitus; not obitus, but abitus; not a dying, but a departing, a transmigration and exodus out of our earthly pilgrimage, vntounto our heauenly home.xIbidem & August. epist. 6. Fratres mortui, non sunt amissi, sed praemissi:yTertull. lib. de patientia. profectio est, quam p…tas mortem: A passage from the valley of death, vntounto the land of the liuing.
z2. Sam. 12. 23.Dauid said of his dead child, I shall goe to him, but he shall not returne to mee. aMatth. 22. 32.Christ confirmes this: HaueHave you not read what is spoken of God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isack, and the God of Iacob? Now God, saith Christ, is not the God of the dead, but of the liuing. Abraham then is aliue, Isack aliue, Iacob aliue; they cannot be said truly dead: but (as Simeon here) departed.
The two receptacles of all soules after this life, Hell and Heauen, infallibly demonstrate this point.bLuke 16. 22. Lazarus dieth, and his soule is presently conueied by blessed Angels vntounto the bosome of Abraham: vnhappy Diues dieth and his soule is setcht and snatcht away by foule fiends vntounto the bottomlesse pit of hell.
As Gods eternall decrees hauehave an end without a beginning: so the soules of men hauehave a beginning without an end. The soule and body part for a time, but they shall meete againe to receiue an irr…uocable doome, either of, Come yee blessed, or, Goe ye cursed.
Secondly, note that dying is thecTheophylact. loosing of our soule from her bonds and fetters: our flesh is a sinke of sinne, the prison of the mind,dPlato in cratylo. foreign quasi foreign.ePetrarcha de remedys, lib. 1. dialog. 5. Qui gloriatur in viribus corporis, gloriatur in viribus carceris. And therefore when Plato fFicinus in vita Platonis.saw one of his schoole was a little too curious in pampering his body, said wittily: What do you meane to make your prison so strong?
So that a soule departed is set at libertie: like a bird that is escaped out of a cage.
The world is so full of euils, as that to write them all, would require another world so great as it selfe.gPetrarcha praefat. in lib. de remedijs vtriusque fortunae. Initium vitae caecitas & obliuio possidet, progressum labor, dolor exitum, error omnia: Childhood is a foolish simplicitie, youth a rash heate, manhood a carking carefulnesse, old age a noisome languishing. DiuhHieron. epist. Paulino, tom. 1. pag. 102. viuendo portant funera sua, & quasi sepulchra dealbata plena sunt ossibus mortuorum. It may bee said of an old man, asiPlato in Axioc…o. Bias of the Marriner: Nec inter viuos, nec inter mortuos: (and as Plutarch of Sardanapalus, and S.k1. Tim. 5. 6. Paul of a widow liuing in pleasure) that he is dead and buried euen while hee liueth: and so passing from age to age, we passe from euill to euill; it is but one waue driuing another, vntill we arriue at the hauen of death.lAltercatio cum Hadriano Imperat. Epictetus spake more like a Diuine then a Philosopher: Homo calamitatis fabula, infoelicitatis tabula. Though a King by warre or wile should conquer all the proud earth, yet hee gets but a needles point, a mote, a mite, a nit, a nothing. So that while we striue for things of this world, wee fight as it were like children, for pins and points. And thereforemPhil. 1. 23. Paul desired to be loosed, and to be with Christ▪ and … (as some Di…nes obserue) praieth here to be dismissed, (asnCom. in Lucam lib. 2. cap. 2. Ambrose doth read) Dimitte: Lord let loose.oSer. de mort. Cyprian andpHom. 15. in Lucam. Origen, dim…tes, in the future: as if he should say, Now Lord I hope thou wil… suffer me to depart. Howsoeuer the word in the present, imports that death is aqBeauxamis in locum. goale-deliuery: Nunc dimi…isseruum: Now Lord thou settest free thy seruant: as foreign is vsed, Act. 16. 35. Luke 23. 17.
rMantuan. in 1. part…enic. Marian. In peace.Nam quid longa dies nobis, nis… longa dolorum
Colluuies? longs patientia carceris aets.
In peace]sLexicon Theolog. verb. pax. There are three kinds of peace:
Externall
Internall
Et…rnall
Peace of
World.
Mind.
God.
Or more plainly, peace between
Man and man.
God and man.
Man and himselfe.
The last kind is meant here, though assuredly Simeon had all three: for our peace with God, and so farre as is possible louelove toward all men, breedes in vsus a third peace, the which is the contentation of our minde and peace of conscience: for which eueryevery man ought to labour all his life; but at his death especially, that comfortably departing he may sing with old Simeon: Lord now lettest &c.
I know many men hauehave died discontent and rauing, without any sentiment of this comfortable peace, to mans imagination, and yet notwithstanding were doubtlesse Gods elect children. For, astDe doctrina Christiana, lib. 1. cap. 14. Augustine, many works of God concerning our saluation are done in, and by their contraries. In the creation, all things were made, not of something, but of nothing, cleane contrary to the course of nature. In the worke of redemption, he doth giuegive life, not by life, but by death, and that a most accursed death. Optimum fecit instrumentum vitae, quod erat pessimum mortis genus. In our effectuall vocation, he calles vsus by the Gospell, u1. Cor. 2. 23.vntounto the Iewes a stumbling block, vntounto the world meere foolishnes, in reason more likely to driue men from God, then to winne and wooe men to God. And when it is his pleasure that any should depend vponupon his goodnesse and prouidence, he makes them feele his anger, and to be nothing in themselues, that they may relie altogether vponupon him. And thus happily the child of God, throughxActs. 14. 22. many tribulations, and, to our thinking, through the gulfe of desperation, enters into the kingdome of heauen. The louelove of God is like a Sea, into which when a man is cast, he neither seeth banke, nor feeleth bottome.
For there is a two-fold presence of God in his children:
1. Felt and perceiued.
2. Secret and vnknowne.
Sometime God is not only present with his elect, but also makes them sensibly perceiue it, as Simeon here did: and therefore his mourning was turned into mirth, and his sobs into songs.
Againe, sometime God is present, but not felt: and this secret presence sustaines vsus in all our troubles and temptatations: it intertaineth life in our soules, whē as to our iudgment we are altogether dead, as there is life in trees when they hauehave cast their leaues. And therefore let no man bee dismaied, howsoeuer dismaied: for God doth neuer leaue those, whom he doth louelove: but his comfortable spirit is a secret friend, and often doth vsus most good, when wee least perceiue it: Esay 41. 10 &c. 43. 2.
According to thy word.]According to thy word.] If God promise, we may presume, yNumb. 23. 19.for he is not like man, that he should lie: neither as the sonne of man, that he should repent. This should teach vsus to be hoiie, zLeuit. 19. 2.as God our Father is holy,aEphes. 5. 1. being followers of him as deare children. As he doth euer keepe his word with vsus; so let vsus euer keepe our othes and promises one with another. It is well obserued, that aequinocation and lying is a kind of vnchastitie: for the mouth and minde are coupled together in holie mariage: Matth. 12. 34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. And therefore when the tongue doth speake that which the heart neuer thought, our speech is conceiued in adulterie, and hee that breedes such bastard children, offends not only against charity, but also against chastitie.
Men say they must lie sometime for aduantage, but it is a good conclusion both in religion, and common experience, that honestie is the best policie, and truth the only durable armour of proofe. The shortest way commonly, the foulest, the fairer way not much about. bPsal. 15.Lord who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest vponupon thine holy hill? euen he that speaketh the truth from his heart, he that vseth no deceit in his tongue, hee that sweareth vntounto his neighbour, and disappointeth him not.
For mine eyes hauehave seene thy saluation] I hauehave seene the Messias,The reason why Simeon was willing to die. in whom, and by whom thy saluation is wrought and brought vntounto vsus. As Simeon saw Christs humanitie with the eies of his body: so he saw Christs Diuinity long before with the pearcing eies of faith. He knew that the little babe which he lulled in his armes, was the great God, whom the heauen of heauens could not containe: and therefore beleeuing in the Lord of life, hee was not afraid of death: but instantly breakes forth into this sweete song, Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace, for mine eyes hauehave &c.
Death is vnwelcome to carnall men, ascArist. Ethic. lib. 3. cap. 9. Aristotle said, Of all Terribles the most Terrible. dPhilip Morney Treat. of life and death.They crie out vponupon the miseries of life, and yet when death commeth, they doe as little children, who all the day complaine, but when the medicine is brought them, are nothing sicke: as they who all the weeke runne vp and downe the house with paine of the teeth, and seeing the Barbor come to pull them out, feele no more torment: as tender bodies in a pricking plurisie call, and cannot stay for a Surgeon, and yet when they see him whetting his lancet to cut the throte of the disease, pull in their armes and hide them in the bed. And the true reason hereof is want of faith, because they doe not vnfainedly beleeue that Christ IesuseEphes. 4 8. hath led captiuitie captiue, f1. Cor. 15. 54.that he hath swallowed vp death in victorie by his death, and opened vntounto vsus the gates of eternall life. gLuke 23. 42.The blessed theefe vponupon the Crosse died ioyfully, because hee saw Christ, and beleeued also that he should passe from a place of paine to a paradise of pleasure.hActs 7. 56. S. Stephen died ioyfully, because he saw the heauens open, and Christ standing at the right hand of the Father. Here S…meon departed ioyfully, because his eyes saw the saluation of the Lord.
As there are two degrees of faith, so two sorts of Christians; one weake, another strong. The weake Christian is willing to liue, and patient to die: but the strong patient to liue, and willing to die.
That a man may depart in peace, two things are requisit:
1. Preparation before death.
2. A right disposition at death.
Both which are procured onelyonly by faith in Christ. If a man were to fight hand to hand with a mightie Dragon, in such wise that either he must kill or be killed, his best course were to bereaue him of his poison and sting. Death is a Serpent, and the sting, wherewith he woundeth vsus, is sinne: so saithi1. Cor. 15. 56. S. Paul, The sting of death is sinne. Now the true beleeuer vnderstands and knowes assuredly that Christ Iesus hath satisfied the law, and then if no law, no sinne: and if no sinne, death hath no sting: well may death hisse, but it cannot hurt:kPsal. 32. 1. when our vnrighteousnes is forgiuen, and sinne couered, Christ both in life and death is aduantage: Philip. 1. 21.
Faith also procureth a right disposition and behauiour at death: for euen as when the children of Israel in the wildernes were stung with fierie Serpents, and lay at the point of death,lNumb. 21. 9. they looked vp to the Brasen Serpent, erected by Moses according to Gods appointment, and were presently cured: so when any feele death draw neere with his fiery sting, to pearce the heart, they must fixe the eye of a true faith vponupon Christ exalted on the Crosse, beholding death not in the glasse of the Law, which giueth death an vglie face: but in the Gospels glasse, setting foorth death, not as death, but as am1. Cor. 11. 30. sleepe only. Faith is the speare which killeth our last enemie: for when a man is sure that hisnIob 19. 25. redeemer liueth, and that thiso1. Cor. 15. 54. corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortall immortalitie; well may he sing with old Simeon, Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace: and triumph ouer ye graue with Paul; O death where is thy sting! O hell where is thy victory! The sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law: but thanks be giuen vntounto God, which giueth vsus victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. And thus much of the reason, why Simeon was not afraid of death: namely, for that he did hold in his armes, and behold with his eyes, the Lord Christ,pIohn 11. 25. who is the resurrection and the life: he could say with a true heart vntounto God,qPsal 31. 16. thou art my God: and his soule did heare God saying vntounto him by his word,rPsal. 35. 3. I am thy saluation.
Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.] The second part of this Hymne, concerning the generall good our Sauiour brought to the whole world.
Wherein two points are to be noted especially:
1. What are his benefits.
2. To whom they belong.
The benefits are saluation, light, and glorie. So that the world without Christ, lieth in damnation, darknesse, and shame. Iesus is a Sauiour,sActs 4. 12. neither is there saluation in any other: he is thetIohn 1. 9. & 8. 12. light of the world, and sunne of righteousnes, without whom all men sit in darknesse, and in the shadow of death, as Zacharias in his song: hee is our glorie, without whom nothing belongs vntounto vsus butuBaruch. 1. 15. confusion and shame. These benefits are so great, that they ought to bee had in a xPsal. 111. 4.perpetuall remembrance. Christ himselfe commanded his last supper to be reiterated often, and the Church inioyneth this Hymne to bee sung dailie, in a thankfull memoriall hereof.
But vntounto whom appertaine these benefits? VntoUnto all. So saith the text, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people.yEsay. 52. 10. The Lord hath made bare his holie arme in the sight of all the Gentiles, and all the ends of the earth shall see the saluation of our God. Christ is set vp as azEsay 11. 10. signe to the people, and happily for this cause, among other, hee was borne in a aLuke 2. 7.common Inne, frequented by men of all sorts: and the first newes of the Gospell was preached in open fields, Luk. 2. as prepared before the face of all people.
But here we must obserue, that albeit saluation pertaines to all, yet all pertaine not to it: none pertaine to it, but such as take benefit by it: and none take benefit by it, no more then by the brasen Serpent, but they who fix their eies on it. If we desire saluation, light, and glory, we must (as old Simeon) imbrace Christ ioyiully, and hold him in our armes of faith stedfastly.
To be a light to lighten the Gentiles.] If any shall demand why Simeon here calles Christ the light of the Gentiles, and glory of the Iewes, rather then the glory of Gentiles, and light of the Iewes: answer is made that there is a two-fold darknes:
Sinne.
Ignorance.
Sinne is called in holy Scriptures a worke of darknes for diuers respects:
1. Because it is committed against God,b1. Epist. Iohn 1. 5. who is light, through the suggestion of Satan,cEphes. 6. 12. who is the prince of darknesse.
2. Because sinne for the most part is committed in the darke:e1. Thes. 5. 7. They that sleepe, sleepe in the night, and they that are drunken, are drunken in the night.
3. Because sinne deserueth eternall darknesse:fMatth. 25. 30. Cast that vnprofitable seruant into vtter darknes.
4. Because sinne is committed especially through the darknesse of vnderstanding: for Satan vsually blindeth our eies of reason, and religion, and makes sinne appeare not in it owne name and nature, but vnderunder the name and habit of vertue.
Now in regard of this kind of darknes, Christ was a light to the Iewes, as well as to the Gentiles: Esay 60. 1. Arise O Ierusalem, be bright, for thy light is come. Iohn 1. 9. Christ doth lighten eueryevery man that commeth into the world.
The second kind of darknesse is ignorance: the light of the body is the eye, so the eye of the soule is the vnderstanding: and therefore as Christ saith, if the light that is in thee be darknes, how great is that darknes? The Iewes in this respect were not in such darknesse as the Gentiles; hauing the Law, the Prophets, the sacrifices and exercises of holy religion: In Iurie was God knowne, his name great in Israel, at Salem was his Tabernacle, his dwelling in Sion: whereas the gEphes. 2. 12.Gentiles were strangers and aliens from the couenants of promise, without hope, without God in the world: but now Christ hEsay 42. 6.the light of the Gentiles, yea of the whole world, hath broken downe the partition wall, and made ofiEphes. 2. 14. Both, one; all people, Gods people. For as thekMatth. 5. 45. naturall Sunne shineth indifferently vponupon the good and euill: so thelMal. 4. 2. Sunne of righteousnes sheweth his glorious sauing light before the face of all people; to lighten and open our eies, that we may turne from darknesse to light, from the power of Satan vntounto God: Acts 26. 18.
Howsoeuer Christ be the light of all people, yet (as it followeth) he is The glory of his people Israel, vntounto whom pertained themRom. 9. 4. adoption, and the glory, and the couenants. He was promised vntounto them, borne of them, bred vp them, he liued, preached, acted his great wonders among them: in all which respects, he may be fitly called Israels glory.
Hence we may learne, first, that the Gospel is the greatest honour of a State.
Secondly, that all our glory depends on Christ our head, who is the King of glory.
Thirdly, that a good man, especially a good Preacher, is a great ornament to the Country wherein the liueth: Athanaius isnNazianzen ad Herenem. called the eye of his time;oBaronius Annal. tom. 9. fol. 338. Albinus, Englands Library; pBucanus praefat. loc. com.Melancthon, the Phenix of Germany; Christ, the glory of Israel.