Sermon LVIII.
[CVIII. Ben.]
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 35, “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps
burning; and be ye yourselves like,” etc. And on the words of the 34th Psalm, v. 12, “what man
is he that desireth life,” etc.
1. Our Lord Jesus Christ both came to men, and went away from men, and is to come
to men. And yet He was here when He came, nor did He depart when He went away, and
He is to come to them to whom He said, “Lo, I am with you, even unto the end of the
world.”3417 According to the “form of a servant” then, which He took for our sakes, was He
born at a certain time, and was slain, and rose again, and now “dieth no more, neither shall
death have any more dominion over Him;”3418 but according to His Divinity, wherein He
was equal to the Father, was He already in this world, and “the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not.”3419 On this point ye have just heard the Gospel, what admon-
ition it has given us, putting us on our guard, and wishing us to be unencumbered and
prepared to await the end; that after these last3420 things, which are to be feared in this
world, that rest may succeed which hath no end. Blessed are they who shall be partakers of
it. For then shall they be in security, who are not in security now; and again then shall they
fear, who will not fear now. Unto this waiting, and for this hope’s sake, have we been made
Christians. Is not our hope not of this world? Let us then not love the world. From the love
of this world have we been called away, that we may hope for and love another. In this world
ought we to abstain from all unlawful desires, to have, that is, “our loins girded;” and to be
fervent and to shine in good works, that is, to have “our lights burning.” For the Lord
Himself said to His disciples in another place of the Gospel, “No man lighteth a candle and
putteth it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that it may give light unto all that are in the
house.”3421 And to show of what He was speaking, He subjoined and said, “Let your light
so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is
in heaven.”3422
2. Therefore He would that “our loins should be girded, and our lights burning.”3423
What is, “our loins girded”? “Depart from evil.”3424 What is to “burn”? What is to have our
3417 Matt. xxviii. 20.
3418 Rom. vi. 9.
3419 John i. 10.
3420 The troubles through the incursions of the barbarian tribes, as heralds of the end. See St. Cyprian, Ad
Demetr. 2, p. 201, Oxf. tr.; De Mort. v. 2, p. 216, 7.
3421 Matt. v. 15.
3422 Matt. v. 16.
3423 Luke xii. 35.
3424 Ps. xxxiv. 14.
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 35, ‘Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and be ye yourselves like,’ etc. And on the words of the 34th Psalm, v. 12, ‘what man is he that desireth life,’ etc.
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On the words of the Gospel, Luke xii. 35, ‘Let your loins be girded about,…