For one deep gush of love
From a sermon by the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. 1848.
Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-82) is one of the best known fathers of the Oxford Movement. Suspended from university preaching for two years after a sermon in which he asserted the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, this great linguist and scholar of both Scripture and the Fathers maintained a conservative theological stance against the liberal hermeneutics with which ancient texts were increasingly approached in the academy. The Oxford house that bears his name was founded two years after his death and maintains its mission of Anglo-Catholic chaplaincy and witness to this day. In this sermon, he calls for deeper self-examination and true confession, that we awaken in Advent to our hidden sins, both the ones we have forgotten and those that have become so habitual that we no longer even regard them as sins. He points out also those sins which, like the Devil appearing in the form of an angel of light, are dressed in godly piety and good intention, but mask self-interest, hiding it even from ourselves. His ascetic theology is entirely consonant with the Prayer Book tradition, and he not only taught it, but lived it in humble simplicity. May he pray for us that we might follow the example of His Lord and ours, that He might be our one desire and final reward. —T.P.
My brethren, may God more and more keep you from the evil one; yea, would that it were so, that many or most of you may have been kept from such deep wounds, the memory of which remains as a burden and a sorrow through the whole life. Yet too many, it is to be feared, would they examine their past lives by God’s all-holy law, and pray to see themselves as God seeth them, might find there, even deadly sins, which they had smoothed over until they had forgotten their deadliness. An awakened heart will feel one deadly sin more than others will such loads of sin as might well break them down, or would break a less strong heart.
Yet short of this, who may not discover a long dreary period, wherein perhaps he was loving himself only and the world, while he thought he was loving God; was subtly seeking man’s praise, while he thought all was right with God; was rich in his own sight, while with God he was poor, and naked, and blind, and miserable; allowed one unheeded besetting sin to canker all which was good in him; has toiled perhaps, but for the wind. … Blessed they, if they be yet awakened, who have not been suddenly startled as out of a deep sleep, seen life wasted, when they thought all safe, deadly inroads made into their souls, “while they said, peace, peace;” found themselves benighted, as in a strange land, while they thought they were in their journey heavenward; found that they had scarce set out, or had all to undo; doubted even whether they had any love to God, so chill were their devotions; any faith, so dim and confused were their thoughts of Him, the Object of our faith; any trust in the Cross, for how could they think they believe in Him Whom they seem so little to love; any penitence, while their very penitence is so hard, arid dry, and impenitent. “All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them” would they give for one deep gush of love, that they might know that they loved and lived.
To such and each of us, amid our several sins, our Lord says, in those gracious words, “Seek Me in My poor, and ye shall find Me. Ye cannot gain for yourselves the gift of tears; ye cannot warm your own chilled hearts; cannot gather together your own distracted thoughts; ye cannot undo what has been done, or regain what has been neglected; ye have spent your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not; ye have squandered your substance, and now these swine-husks will not satisfy you; but feed Me in My poor, and I will give you anew Angels’ food; in them give Me to drink, and ye shall never feel that parching fire where no drop of water cools the tongue; clothe Me, in My naked ones, and I will clothe you anew in My ‘best Robe,’ the Robe of My Righteousness, that all your shame be not seen; visit Me, in My sick, and I will visit you now by the secret inspirations of My grace, in Paradise, by My Presence, and in the Day of Judgment I will look upon you, and will own you; receive one little child in My Name, and ye shall receive Me, born, as it were, as a little Child, in your hearts, renewing your decay, converting you, that ye should become again as little children, giving you back childlike hearts, childlike faith, and love, and trust, and purity, and innocence; ye shall receive Me, to dwell in your hearts by love, that, when ye fail, I may receive you into everlasting habitations, I may be, in the Day of Judgment, the Everlasting Rock, pierced for you, wherein to hide you, I, in Eternity, your Reward.”
Read the full sermon at https://anglicanhistory.org/pusey/advent1848/2.html