When the wife men came into the house and faw the child, they fell down and worshipped him, that is, bowed and proftrated themselves before him, in the eastern manner of doing obeifance to kings. Whether they defigned alfo paying him religious adoration, or how distinct a knowledge had been given them of the nature and rank of the Saviour of the world, we cannot fay; but may be fure, that what they believed and what they did, was at that time sufficient to procure them acceptance with God. Indeed, according to the opinion of fome ancient fathers concerning their prefents, their faith must have been very great. For they represent the incense, as offered to our Saviour as God; the gold to have been paid as tribute to a king; and the myrrh (a principal ingredient used in embalming) brought as an acknowledgment that he was to die for men. But others inter pret the fame gifts very differently, and take them to fignify the three spiritual offerings, which we must all present to Heaven, through Jefus Chrift; the incenfe to denote piety towards God; the gold, charity towards our fellow-creatures; and the myrrh, purity of foul and body; it being highly efficacious in preferving them from corruption. But though either or both these notions may be pioufly and inno cently entertained, yet all we know with certainty is, that in thofe parts of the world no one did then or does now appear before a prince, without a fuitable prefent, ufually of the moft valuable commodities of his country; and that three of the principal productions of the eaft, particularly of Arabia, were gold, frankincenfe, and myrrh. How the wife men were affected with the fight of fo unfpeakably important a perfon, in fuch mean circumstances; or Jofeph and Mary, and all that must flock around them, with fo humble an addrefs from ftrangers of fuch high dig-. nity; and what further paffed in confequence of this on ei ther fide, every one may in fome degree imagine; but no one can undertake to relate, fince the Gofpels do not. We are there only told, that these respectable visitors, having paid their duty in this manner, and being warned of God not to return to Herod,* " departed into their own country another way." * Matth. ii. 12. Thus ends this remarkable piece of history, in which all the circumstances are so perfectly conformable to the manners, the customs, the prevailing opinions and notions of thofe times, in which the narrative is supposed to have been written, that they tend greatly to confirm the truth and credibility of the facred hiftory. I have already in going along touched flightly on some of these circumstances, but it may be useful here to draw them all into one point of view. 1. In the first place, then, the journey of these wife men, and the object of it, namely, to find out him who was born king of the Jews, correfponds exactly to the information given by feveral heathen authors,* that there was in those days a general expectation of fome very extraordinary personage, who was to make his appearance at that particular period of time, and in that particular part of the world. 2. If the birth of this extraordinary perfonage was marked by a new far or meteor in the heavens, it was very natural that it should firft ftrike the observation of thofe called the wife men, who lived in a country where the ftars and the planets fhone with uncommon luftre, where the science of aftronomy was (for that reafon perhaps) particularly culti vated, where it was the peculiar profeffion of thefe very magi, or wife men, and where no remarkable appearance in the heavens could escape the many curious eyes that were conftantly fixed upon them. 3. The manner in which thefe wife men approached our Lord, is precifely that in which the people always addreffed themselves to men of high rank and dignity. They worshipped him; that is, they proftrated themselves to the ground before him, which we know was then and still is the custom of thofe countries. They offered presents to him; and it is well known, that without a prefent no great man was at that time or is now approached. These presents were gold, frankincenfe, and myrrh; and these, as we have before observed, were the natural produc Vid. Tacit Hift. v. 13. Sueton. in vita Vefp. c. 4. tions of that country whence the wife men are fuppofed to have come, namely, Arabia or Sabæa. Even that dreadful transaction, which was the unfortunate confequence of their journey, the murder of the innocents, exactly correfponds with the character of Herod, who was one of the mosft cruel and ferocious tyrants that ever difgraced a throne; and amongst other horrible barbarities had put to death a fon of his own. No wonder then that his jealoufy fhould prompt him to murder a number of infants, not at all related to him. All these circumstances concur to prove that the facred historians lived in the times and the countries in which they are fuppofed to have written the Gospels, and were perfectly well acquainted with every thing they relate. Had not this been the cafe, they must have been detected in an error, in fome of the many incidents they touched upon, which yet has never happened. 4. It is alfo in the laft place worthy of remark, that every thing is here related with the greatest plainnefs, brevity, and fimplicity, without any of that oftentation and parade which we so often meet with in other authors. Thus, for inftance, a heathen writer would have put a long and eloquent speech into the mouth of the wife men, and would have provided the parents of the infant with a fuitable answer. He would have painted the massacree of the infants in the moft dreadful colours, and would have drawn a most affecting picture of the distress and agony of their afflicted parents. But the Evangelifts have not enlarged on thefe, or any other fimilar topics. They have contented themselves with telling their story concisely and coldly, with a bare fimple recital of the facts, without attempting to work upon the paffions, or excite the admiration of their readers. In fact, it appears from this and a variety of other instances of the fame nature, that neither fame nor reputation, nor any other worldly advantage, had the leaft influence upon their hearts. Their fole object was the advancement of truth, of morality, of religion, of the eternal welfare and falvation of mankind. For thefe great objects they wrote, for these they lived, for these they fuffered, and for thefe they died; on thefe their thoughts were entirely and immoveably fixed, and therefore their narratives justly claim the most implicit belief in every thing that relates to these great, and important, and interefting fubjects. Another obfervation which this part of the Sacred History fuggefts to us, is this; that no perfon ever yet appeared in the world to whom such distinguished marks of honor were paid from his birth to his death, as our blessed Lord. We are often reproached with the mean condition of our Re deemer. We are often told, that He, whom we have chosen for our Lord and Master, who is the object of our adoration, and on whom all our hopes are fixed, was the reputed fon of a carpenter, lived in penury and distress, and at last fuffered the ignominious death of the crofs. All this is true. But it is equally true, that this man of indigence and of forrow appeared through his whole life to be the peculiar favorite of Heaven; and to have been confidered, not indeed by his infatuated countrymen, but by beings of a far fuperior order, the most important perfonage that ever appeared on this earthly scene. At his birth, we are told, that the glory of the Lord fhone round about certain fhepherds that were then keeping watch over their flocks by night; and there was a multitude of the heavenly hoft, praifing God and faying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men."* Not long after this, a new ftar or meteor appeared in the heavens on purpose to announce his birth, which accordingly (as we have juft feen) attracted the notice of thofe illuftrious ftrangers, who came from a distant country to pay their hom age to the infant Jefus; whom, notwithstanding the humili ty of his condition and of his habitation, they hailed as king of the Jews. At his baptifm, the heavens were opened to him, and he faw the fpirit of God defcending like a dove, and lighting upon him. After his temptation, when he had vanquished the prince of darknefs, behold, angels camé and miniftered unto him. At his transfiguration, his face did shine as the fun, and his raiment was bright as the light, Matth. iv. II. * Luke ii, 14. + Matth. iii. 16. and there appeared Mofes and Elias talking with him, and from the cloud which overfhadowed them, there came a voice, faying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him."* At his agony in the garden, there appeared an angel unto him, ftrengthening him.† At his crucifixion, all nature seemed to be thrown into convulfions: the fun was darkened; the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; the graves were opened, and gave up their dead; and even the heathen centurion, and thofe that were with him, were compelled to cry out, “Truly this was the fon of God." Before his afcenfion, he faid to his difciples, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth; and while he yet blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven, and a cloud received him out of their fight." There we are told he fitteth at the right hand of God, making interceffion for the finful race of man, till he comes a fecond time in the glory of his Father, with all his holy angels, to judge the world. There has God"highly exalted him above all principalities and power, and might and dominion, and given him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jefus, every knee fhould bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue fhould confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Fa ther."l 66 When all these circumftances are taken together, what a magnificent idea do they prefent to us of the humble Jefus, and how does all earthly fplendor fade and die away under this overbearing effulgence of celeftial glory! We need not then be ashamed either of the birth, the life, or the death of Chrift, for they are the power of God unto falvation.” And if the great and the wife men, whofe history we have been confidering, were induced by the appearance of a new ftar, to fearch out, with no fmall labor and fatigue, the infant Saviour of the world; if they, though philofophers and deifts (far different from the philofophers and deifts of the prefent day) difdained not to proftrate themselves before *Matth. xvii. 5. Matth. xxviii. 18. Luke, xxii. 43. Matth. xxvii. 54. Philip. ii. 9-14. |