Epiphany Eve: 'the neighbourhood of fruition'

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down and worshipped him - Matthew 2:10-11, from the Gospel appointed for The Epiphany.

Mercifully grant, that we, which know thee now by faith, may after this life have the fruition of thy glorious Godhead - from the collect of The Epiphany.

The wise men prosecuted the business of their journey, and having heard the king, they departed, and the star (which as it seems attended their motion) went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was; where, when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. Such a joy as is usual to wearied travellers when they are entering into their inn; such a joy as when our hopes and greatest longings are laying hold upon the proper objects of their desires; a joy of certainty immediately before the possession: for that is the greatest joy, which possesses before it is satisfied, and rejoices with a joy not abated by the surfeits of possession, but heightened with all the apprehensions and fancies of hope, and the neighbourhood of fruition; a joy of nature, of wonder, and of religion - Jeremy Taylor in The Great Exemplar I.IV.11.

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