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'The immediate view of God, face to face': Atterbury's sermon on Christmas Day 1710

On Christmas Day 1710, Francis Atterbury's preached his 'Sermon on the Incarnation of our Lord'. The sermon set forth why the "Doctrine of the Day" brought forth festive joy, as we share in the in praises of the angelic host:

All Thanks and Praise therefore be given given to him, that our Tongues can possibly express, or our Hearts conceive! Abraham, at a mighty Distance, and upon a very Dim and Imperfect View of it, rejoiced to see this Day:  The Angels, who themselves had no Interest in this Deliverance, yet were highly pleased with the Prospect of those Blessings it derived on their Fellow-creature, Man; and therefore sang that Hymn on this Occasion, which the Evangelist has Glory be to God on High, on Earth Peace, Good-will towards Men. And shall not We, for whose Sake this Peace was sent on Earth, and to whom all this Good-will was meant, shall not We also give Glory to God on high, and rejoice before him with Reverence? Surely this is News, at which (as Isaiah prophesies of the Miraculous Effects that should take place in the Kingdom of the Messiah) the Lame Man should Leap as an Hart, and the Tongue of the Dumb should sing.

This surely emphasises how an early 18th century English Christmas, shaped by the Book of Common Prayer, knew deep joy in the saving grace of the Incarnation. The reference to sharing in the praises of the angels is particularly significant, anticipating the carols that would become a crucial part of Anglican piety at Christmas.

Atterbury continues with a glorious account of the Incarnation as the means by which we behold the transfiguring Glory of the Lord:

to have the same Influence upon us, that the enjoying the immediate View of God, Face to Face, once had upon Moses: It will make us shine with Part of that Lustre we are looking upon, and transform us into some Kind of Resemblance with it. We all with open Face, beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord, that is, viewing carefully the Image of Our Lord's Life, as it is drawn to us in  the Glass of the Evangelists, and studying to express it in ourselves, we shall be changed (as it follows) into the same Image from Glory to Glory; from one Degree of Virtue and Perfection to another, till at last we arrive at the very Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ.

This declaration of our transformation by the Incarnation of the Word is deeply patristic roots, suggestive of how the witness of the Fathers shaped 18th century Anglicanism. We might push this further and describe it as a 'Greek' or 'Eastern' account of the Incarnation, again pointing to how a tradition of divinity in the post-1662 Church of England, drawing on the 'Origenist moment' associated with, for example, Cambridge Platonist and Taylor protege George Rust, drunk deep from the wells of the Christian East. 

The sermon concludes with an aspect of 18th century Anglican divinity too often casually and wrongly dismissed as 'moralism'. Atterbury, invoking the Apostle's teaching that the purpose of the revelation of the "mystery of godliness" is that "we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world":

Let us remember, that the last Scope of the whole Mystery of Godliness, is, to oblige Mankind to be good and virtuous; and to lead Lives answerable to such bright Discoveries and Motives, as Revelation has proposed to us. And therefore let me exhort and beseech every one of you this Day, as ye would not (as far as in you lies) frustrate the Design of our Saviour's Birth; as ye would not baffle the Truth of those Prophecies concerning the Innocence and Purity of the Lives of Men under the Reign of the Messiah; and as ye would not hereafter wish, that your Saviour had never been born, nor you yourselves neither; to be careful for your Parts to answer the great End of his Incarnation, and to live as becomes a People, that have been thus Redeemed of the Lord.

Such is "the great End of his Incarnation", that we, "daily ... renewed by thy Holy Spirit" (the collect of Christmas Day), may be those who lives witness to the glory of the Lord and to the redemption He has wrought for us. To dismiss this as 'moralism' is to entirely overlook the glorious purpose of the grace and truth of the Incarnation dawning upon us, transfiguring us, calling us into the divine life and light, that we might show forth the kingdom of the Lord.

Atterbury's Christmas Day 1710 sermon is a fine expression of 18th century Anglicanism, exemplifying its theological richness and devotional seriousness, grounded in creedal orthodoxy, rejoicing in the feast of the Incarnation, drawing deeply from the Christian East's vision of the Word made flesh, and setting forth an attractive moral vision in the light of Eternal Word assuming humanity. 21st century Anglican Christmas sermons could be much worse than learn from Atterbury. 

(The picture is of Rochester Cathedral, Atterbury's see 1713-23.)

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