But they both come to the fame thing, because among the Jews the pedigree of the hufband was confidered as the legal pedigree of the wife; and as Mary and Jofeph were nearly related, and were of the fame tribe and family, their genealogies of course must run nearly in the fame line.

After the genealogy of Chrift, follows an account of his birth, which, as we may eafily fuppofe of fo extraordinary a perfon, had fomething in it very extraordinary. Accordingly the evangelift tells us, "that the angel of the Lord appeared unto Joseph in a dream," saying, "Jofeph, thou fon of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost: and fhe fhall bring forth a fon, and thou fhalt call his name Jefus (that is a Saviour;) for he fhall fave his people from their fins."*

This undoubtedly was a moft wonderful, and fingular, and unexampled event. But it was natural to imagine, that when the Son of God was to appear upon the scene, he would enter upon it in a way fomewhat different from the fons of men. And in fact we find him appearing upon earth in a manner perfectly new, and peculiar to himfelf; in a manner which united in itself at once the evidence of prophecy and of miracle. He was born of a virgin, and what is no lefs wonderful, it was predicted of him feven hundred years before that he should be fo born. "Behold," fays Ifaiah, "a virgin shall conceive and bear a fon, and they fhall call his name Immanuel ;"+ a Hebrew word, fignify. ing, God with us. What man, but a prophet, infpired of God, could have forefeen an event fo completely improbable, and apparently impoffible? What impoftor would have hazarded fuch a prediction as this? and, what is ftill of more importance, what impoftor could have fulfilled it? What less than the power of God could have enabled Jefus to fulfil it? By that power he did fulfil it. He only, of the whole human race, did fulfil it, and thus proved himself to be at the very moment of his birth, what the whole course of his future life, his death, his refurrection, and his ascension inte heaven, further declared him to be, THE SON OF GOD.

And as fuch he was foon acknowledged, and due homage paid to his divinity by a very fingular embaffy, and in a very fingular manner. For the evangelift proceeds to tell us in the beginning of the fecond chapter, that " when Jefus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, there came wife men from the eaft to Jerufalem, faying, where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have feen his ftar in the east, and are come to worship him." As this is a very remarkable, and very important event, I fhall employ the remaining part of this lecture in explaining it to you at large, fubjoining fuch reflections as naturally arise from it.

The name of these persons, whom our translation calls wife men, is in the original magoi, in the Latin language, magi, from whence is derived our English word, magicians. The magi were a set of ancient philofophers, living in the eastern part of the world, collected together in colleges, addicted to the study of astronomy, and other parts of natural philosophy, and highly esteemed throughout the east, having juster fentiments of God and his worship than any of the ancient heathens: for they abhorred the adoration of images made in the form of men and animals, and though they did represent the Deity under the fymbol of fire (the pureft and moft active of all material fubftances) yet they worshipped one only God; and fo blameless did their studies and their religion appear to be, that the prophet Daniel, fcrupulous as he was to the hazard of his life, with refpect to the Jewish religion, did not refuse to accept the office which Nebuchadnezzar gave him, of being master of the magi, and chief governor over all the wife men of Babylon.* They were therefore evidently the fittest of all the ancient heathens to have the first knowledge of the Son of God, and of falvation by him imparted to them.

The country from whence they came is only described in St. Matthew as lying eaft from Judea, and therefore might be either Perfia, where the principal refidence of the magi was, or else Arabia, to which ancient authors fay they did, and undoubtedly they easily might extend themselves; which it is well known abounded in the valuable things that their

* Vid. Dan, v, II.
E

prefents confifted of; and concerning which the feventy econd Pfalm (plainly fpeaking of the Meffiah) fays, "The kings of Arabia and Saba, or Sabæra (an adjoining region) fhall bring gifts;" and again, "unto him fhall be given of the gold of Arabia."

Suppofing this prophecy of the Pfalmift to point out the perfons whofe journey the evangelift relates, it will also determine what their ftation or rank in life was, namely kings, "the kings of Arabia and Saba." Of this circumftance St. Matthew fays nothing directly, but their offerings are a fufficient evidence that their condition could not be a mean one: and though there is certainly no proof, there is, on the other hand, no improbability, of their being lords of fmall fovereignties, which might afford them a claim, according to the ancient ufage of that part of the world, to the name of kings. For we read in Scripture not only of fome fmall* towns or tracts that had each of them their king, but of fome alfo which could not be very large, that had each of them feveral.t

What number of the wife men, or magi, came to our Lord, is entirely unknown, and perhaps that of three was imagined for no other reafon, than because the gifts which they brought were of three forts. The occafion of their coming is expreffed by St. Matthew in their own words: "Where is He that is born king of the Jews? for we are come to worship him."

That a very extraordinary person was to appear under this character about that time, was a very general perfuafion throughout the caft; as not only Jewish but heathen writers tell us, în conformity with the New Teftament. And that this person was to have dominion over the whole earth, I was part of that perfuafion, founded on predictions of the cleareft import. I need produce but one, from the abovementioned 72d Pfalm, which, as I before obferved, plainly relates to Chrift. "All kings fhall fall down before him; all nations fhall do him fervice." There were Jews enough even in Perfia, and much more in Arabia, to propagate this doctrine, and fhew it to be contained in their facred books; † Jerem. xxv. 20-26.

* Josh. x. 5.

from whence therefore the wife men may well be fuppofed to have received it.

But their knowledge that he was actually born, must stand on fome other foundation; and what that was, themfelves declare, "We have feen his ftar in the east."* This mult plainly mean some new appearance in the sky, which they, whofe profeffion (as is well known) led them peculiarly to the study of aftronomy, had observed in the heavens. Now any appearance of a body of light in the air, is called by the Greek and Latin authors a flar, though it be only a meteor, that is, a tranfient accidental luminous vapor, neither of confiderable height, nor long continuance; in which fenfe alfo the Scripture fpeaks of ftars falling from Heaven.t And fuch was that which the wife men faw, as will appear from a circumftance to be mentioned hereafter. Poffibly indeed the firft light which furprized them, might be that mentioned by St. Luke, when the glory of the Lord defcending from Heaven, fhone round about the fhepherds, and his angel came upon them, to bring them the news of our Saviour's nativity. For that glory, feen at a distance, might have the appearance of a star; and their seeing the star in the eaft, is not to be understood as if they faw it to the eastward of themselves; but means, that they being eastward of Judea, faw the ftar, feeming probably to hang over that country.

Now fuch an uncommon fight alone, fuppofing their expectation of him raised (as there was then a general expectation of him) might naturally incline them to think he was come ; and especially as it was a current opinion amongst perfons profeffing fkill in thefe matters, that the fhining forth of a new star denoted the rife of a new kingdom, or of a great and extraordinary prince; whence, as Pliny relates,|| Auguftus the Roman emperor faid, that the comet which appeared on Cæfar's death, whom he fucceeded, was born for him, and that he was born in that comet; for fo it feems he expreffed himself.

*Matth. ii. 2. Luke, ii, 9.

+ Matt. xxiv. 29. Mark, xiii. 25.

Vid. Plin. Nat, Hift. L. ii Ch. 25.

This, I fay, being a current opinion, the wife men would be apt enough to conclude, that the prefent ftar betokened the birth of that prince, of whom (as they might eafily have heard) it had been so very long foretold, "There shall come a ftar out of Jacob, and a fceptre fhall rife out of Ifrael."* And it is a very remarkable circumstance, that one of the ancient commentators on the Timæus of Plato,t alluding to this very flar, expreffes himself in these words: "There is a still more venerable and facred tradition, which relates, that by the rifing of a certain uncommon ftar, was foretold, not diseases or deaths, but the defcent of an adora. ble God for the falvation of the human race, and the mellioration of human affairs; which ftar, they fay, was ob ferved by the Chaldeans, who came to prefent their offerings to the new-born God."

On their arrival at Jerufalem, and making the enquiry they come for, Herod, we find, was troubled, and all Jerufalem with him. That fo jealous a tyrant as Herod fhould be troubled at this event is no wonder; and it is no lefs natural that the people also should be disturbed and alarmed, not knowing what the confequences of fo extraordinary a birth might be. Herod, therefore, calls the chief pricfts and fcribes together, and demands of them, whether it were known where THE CHRIST fhould be born; and having learnt from them, that, according to the prophet Micah, Bethlehem was the place appointed by Heaven, fends the wife men thither with a request that they would inform him when they had found the child, that he alfo might go and pay him due homage, intending all the while to destroy him, when he had obtained the requifite intelligence. Accordingly the wife men proceeded on their journey from Jerufalem to Bethlehem; when the fame luminous appearance, which they had obferved in their own country, now attended them again to their very great joy, and conducted them at length to the very house where the child was; which probably (as is common in villages) had no other house contiguous to it, and therefore might be easily marked by the situation of the

meteor.

Numb xxiv 17.

+Chalcidius.

See Brucker's Hiftory of Philofophy, v. iii. p. 47io