'gathered themselves together against the Lord, and against his anointed; for the doctrine of God confounded the wisdom of the one, and overcame the folly of the other. If we survey the stupendous works of the creation, we shall find that few arrived at perfection at once. This observation is amply confirmed by the various productions in the natural, and changes in the moral world. The Supreme Being, who conducts all his operations according to his infinite wisdom, appears to have retained the same maxim in regulating his kindest dispensations to the sons of men. The divine will was not revealed at first, in its clearest evidence and fullest splendour. The dawn, in a spiritual as well as in a natural sense, preceded the meridian glory; the former revelation was but a type or earnest of the latter, and, in comparison with it intricate and mysterious. The all-gracious God, as it seemed best to his unerring wisdom, was pleased, by degrees, to open and unfold his glorious counsels; and man, by degrees, attained to the knowledge of the great plan of salvation, and the means used by its great Author to promote and establish it. Some time before the incarnation of the blessed Jesus, an opinion prevailed among the pious part of the Jews, that the great Jehovah would condescend to favour them with a clear revelation of his divine will, by the mission of some eminent person, qualified from above, to instruct them in the same. This opinion was founded, on the predictions of the ancient prophets, who had described, with the utmost beauty and clearness, the person, character, and glory of the Messiah, appointed by God, in his own good time, to declare his eternal counsels to mankind. Relying on the fulfilment of these prophecies, the devout persons among the Jews imagined the time appointed by God near at hand, and that the promised Messiah would shortly make his appearance, and therefore are said to have “waited night and day for the consolation of Israel." These people, at that time grievously oppressed by the Roman power, and consequently anxious of regaining their liberty, as well as revenging themselves on their tyrannical oppressors, waited the accomplishment of the prophecies with the most solicitous desire. But this opinion of the approach of a general deliverer extended much farther than the country of the Jews; for through their connexions with so many countries, their disputes with the learned men among the heathens, and the translation of the Old Testament into a language now almost general, their religion greatly prevailed in the east; and, consequently, their opinion that a prince would appear in the kingdom of Judea, who would dispel the mists of ignorance, deliver the Jews from the Roman yoke and spread his dominion from one end of the world to the other. While the eastern world was fraught with these sanguine hopes, the angel Gabriel, who had appeared to Daniel the prophet, with certain information as to the period of the Messiah's coming, as well as his transactions in this lower world, was sent to Zacharias, a pious priest, while he was executing his office before God, in the order of his course, (which was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord,) to foretel that a child should spring from him and his wife Elizabeth, though they were stricken in years, who should be endowed with extraordinary gifts from heaven, and honoured with being the forerunner of the Saviour of the world. Zacharias, when he saw the angel, though he knew him to be of heavenly extraction, could not judge the subject of his mis. sion, and therefore discovered a mixture of fear and surpris but the heavenly ambassador cheered his desponding soul with this kind address: "Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John." That he waited day and night for the consolation of Israel, he well knew, which is all we can understand by his prayer being heard; for it was unnatural for him to think that he and his wife Elizabeth, who were advance in years, should have a son; nay, he intimates his doubt con cerning it in these words: "Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years." Besides. he was a priest of the course of Abiah, whose particular office was to pray in behalf of the people, for public and national blessings; so that it is very reasonable to think, that on all occasions of public worship, he prayed most earnestly for the accomplish. ment of the prophecies relative to the appearance of the long. expected Messiah, who was promised as a general blessing to all the nations of the earth. That this was the great subject of his prayer, appears from the declaration of Gabriel: The prayer thou hast directed with sincerity to an almighty ear, concerning the coming of the Messiah, is heard; " and behold thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son," who shall prepare the way for the mighty Redeemer of Israel. The old priest, indeed, was as much astonished at the subject of the mission, as he was at the appearance of the messenger; and esteeming it impossible that his wife, thus advanced in years, should conceive a son, weakly demanded a sign, to confirm his belief in the fulfilment of the promise, though he knew the authority of the angel was derived from the God of Truth. But as it is the lot of humanity to err, Zacharias had, from that time, forgot that nothing was impossible to Omnipotence, as well as that it was not the first time the aged were caused to conceive, and bear a child. The least reflection would have reminded him, that Sarah conceived and bore Isaac, when she was far advanced in years; and that Samuel was born of a woman, who had been for a long time reputed, and even called barren. His curiosity was, indeed, gratified, but in a manner that carried with it, at once, a confirmation of the promise, and a punishment of his unbelief. As he had verbally testified his doubt of the fulfilment of the prediction of the angel, he was punished with the loss of his speech, which was to continue to the very day in which the prediction should be accomplished: "Behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season." Zacharias soon received an awful testimony of the divinity of the mission of Gabriel, who was no sooner departed, than he was struck dumb; for when he came to pray, in the course of his office, during the oblation of his incense, he could not utter a word, and was under the necessity of making signs to the people, that an angel had appeared to him in the temple, and that he was deprived of the faculty of speech, as a punishment for his doubting the fulfilment of an event which had been foretold concerning him. Soon after Zacharias departed to his own house, (the days of his ministration being accomplished,) his wife Elizabeth, according to the prediction of the angel, conceived, and retired into a private place, where she lived five months in the uninterrupted exercises of piety, devotion, and contemplation on the mysterious providence of the Almighty, and his amazing goodnesss to the sinful children of men. When Elizabeth was advanced six months in her pregnancy, the same heavenly ambassador was sent to a pool virgin, called Mary, who lived in obscurity in Nazareth, under the care of Joseph, to whom she was espoused. This man and woman were both lineally descended from the house of David, from whose loins it was foretold the great Messiah should spring. This virgin being ordained by the Most High to be the mother of the great Saviour of the world, was saluted by the angel in the most respectful terms: "Hail! thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women!" Such an address from so exalted a being, greatly alarmed the meek and humble virgin, to allay whose fear, and encourage whose heart, the angel related, in the most rapturous terms, the subject of his embassy, which was to assure her, that she was chosen by God to the greatest honour which could be conferred on a mortal, and which would perpetuate her memory; an honour no less than that of being the mother of the promised and long |