"The light we have now": on the eve of Candlemas
For He had long since made a special promise to us all, that this star, by the name of a star, should arise upon us; orietur stella ex Jacob [Numbers 24:17]. It will take up some time to look upon it well. But there came one from the mountains of the east, fifteen hundred years before, and saw in his prophecy there, (which God Himself had put into his mouth,) the same star that the wise men saw here, and the same light that Simeon saw after, saw it with his eyes; we say one of our hymns for it there every day, in memory that this promise of God was kept, and that this prophecy was fulfilled by it, the prophecy of orietur stella in Jacob; which is all the light we have now or ever they had before us, to bring us all out of the kingdom of sin and darkness to the kingdom of grace and glory; grace here and glory hereafter.
Cosin here sets before us the saying/singing of the Nunc Dimittis at Evensong as a daily recapitulation of tomorrow's feast, drawing us into the light, grace, and glory of the Star which came out of Jacob. His reference to the time pressures he faced in this sermon - "It will take up some time to look upon it well" - was to lead him to cut the sermon short, as he was to state in the next paragraph:
And because both the season is to be regarded, and the Sacrament to be attended, I will therefore suffer the time to take me here off from this sermon.
This itself, however, draws attention to the significance of the daily recitation of the Nunc Dimittis. Day by day the "same light that Simeon saw" is set before us in this canticle, "the light we have now". A sermon on the feast of the Presentation will be limited by (amongst other considerations) time. The Song of Simeon at Evensong throughout the year, however, provides a daily meditation upon and celebration of the Presentation, of the Light which has brought "us all out of the kingdom of sin and darkness to the kingdom of grace and glory".
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