port made to Abraham; it being certain that those people retained traditional knowledge of this promise, from the words of Balaam, who was an Arabian prophet: "There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel," &c. which every impartial reader must acknowledge rather refers to the appearance of the Messiah, than any other incident what

ever.

The other eastern nations derived their expectations of the Messiah from their commercial connexions with the Jews and Arabians, but more especially from the Jews, who being scattered over the whole country of the East, spread their religion wherever they went, which occasioned several Roman historians to take notice of the prevalence of that opinion.

Nay, the expectations of the Messiah being born in Judea, was strongly impressed on the minds of the followers of Zoroaster, who reformed the religion of the Persians, being a servant to the prophet Daniel, and particularly favored with revelations concerning the appearance of the Messiah.

From these considerations, it evidently appears that this opinion prevailed throughout the East; and that the Magi might with great reason, on the appearance of the star, repair to Jerusalem in quest of that promised Saviour of Israel.

But to leave this subject, as not immediately appertaining to our purpose. The whole city of Jerusalem was alarmed at the unexpected arrival of the Eastern Magi; an event which much perplexed the tyrant Herod, whose ambitious mind maintained the utmost aversion to the very thought of a rival or a competitor, and consequently could not brook a report that favored the news of the birth of the King of the Jews.

Disguising, however, his sentiments, he received the Magi with seeming respect, attended to the design of their errand with affected complacency, and to gratify their curiosity, summoned a general council, and demanded of them, Where Christ should be born? The council kept him no longer in suspense, for well remembering that the prophets had particularly foretold the place of his birth, they replied to the demand of their monarch," In Bethlehem of Juda ;" and to confirm their answer, cited prophetic authority: And thou Bethlehem in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel."-Matt. ii. 6. The tyrant king, in consequence of the reply from the supreme council of the nation, directed the Magi to Bethlehem, as the place according to ancient prophecy, designed for the honor of Christ's nativity, earnestly entreating them at the same time, immediately on their finding out the child, to send him word, that he might repair thither, and pay his adoration to him also.

"And when they were come into the house, they san the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."-Matt. ii. 11.

But this was mere pretence, and vile hypocrisy; for so far was Herod from entertaining any religious regard for the infant Jesus, that he vowed in his heart to destroy him as soon as he should be found; looking on him as designed for a temporal prince, who would expel him, or his descendants, from the throne of Judea, instead of a prince whose kingdom was wholly spiritual, and whose throne was not to be established upon earth, but in the heavenly Jerusalem.

We cannot have a more convincing evidence of the divinity of our Saviour's mission, than his miraculous preservation from the designs of the ambitious Herod. The tyrant, in this case, acted with the utmost subtilty; he declined accompanying the wise men in person; nor did he even send attendants with them, who, under the guise of honoring them, might have secretly informed him of the abode of the Messiah.

However, the Magi having obtained the intelligence they sought in Jerusalem, set forward, under the guidance of the same star that conducted them from their own country, but had left them on their arrival in Judea, which was the cause of their directing their course to the capital, in order to seek that information, which, by the desertion of the star became requisite.Thus it appears the design of the Almighty, in directing the eastern Magi to the capital of Judea, was, that the whole nation might be made acquainted with the cause of their journey.

Accordingly, they had no sooner proceeded from Jerusalem on their way to Bethlehem, than their kind conductor again appeared, went before them to the very city, and fixed on the habitation of the heavenly infant. Guided by this celestial conductor, they entered the house, and prostrating themselves at the sacred feet of their spiritual king, presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Having thus accomplished the design of the expedition, they proposed, according to promise, returning to Jerusalem; but being diverted from that intention by a dream, in which they were warned by God of Herod's design, they pursued another course, towards their own country, and by those means defeated his malicious purpose.

But it is natural and reasonable to suppose, that the end of the divine wisdom, in directing these eastern Magi to the kingdom of Judea to worship the child Jesus, was not merely to gratify the curiosity of the wise men, because the event promoted many other very important designs, some of which we shall mention.

It proved to succeeding ages, the great expectation the Gentiles formed of the appearance of the Messiah, and consequently established the truth of those prophecies, which related to that event, as well as excited in the minds of men the most sanguine hopes, and longing desires.

As these Magi doubtless reported, on their return to their own countrymen, the particulars they had heard and seen in the kingdom of Judea, relative to the Messiah, such report must certainly have promoted the belief of the gospel in those parts, when afterwards preached there by the apostles. The expedition of the wise men was the cause of the answer of the Sanhedrim, in which it was unanimously declared to be the opinion of all the Jewish Rabbis then living, that according to ancient prophecies, Bethlehem was the place appointed by the Almighty to give birth to the promised Messiah.

It also contributed to another valuable purpose, in that the offerings of the wise men procured a subsistence for the holy family in Egypt, whither they were soon after warned to fly, in order to escape the vengeance of the enraged king; for no sooner had the wise men departed from Bethlehem, than Joseph was warned by a heavenly messenger, of the barbarous purpose of Herod, and commanded to flee into Egypt with the young child and his

mother.

Joseph, in obedience to the Almighty's command, rose that very night, and fled into Egypt; " and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord, by the prophet; Out of Egypt have I called my Son." This prophecy, which is quoted from Hosea, seems originally to refer to the Israelites; though the Evangelist's reference will be amply justified, by considering that the Egyptian captivity alludes to the subjection of the Israelites to great hardships, and their deliverance from the same, by an Almighty hand.

et,

Now, as the departure of the Holy family into Egypt, was in obedience to the divine command, in order to protect the Holy Jesus from the incensed Herod, the application of the proph"Out of Egypt have I called my Son," appears very just, as well as elegant. The King of Judea long waited, with the most earnest expectation, the return of the wise men, anxious to glut his full resentment on the innocent Jesus; till, from their long delay, he began to suspect a delusion, and that his designs were frustrated by some extraordinary interposition of Providence.

At length, irritated by disappointment, he resolved to accomplish by cruelty, a resolution he could not effect by art, and accordingly issued orders to a large party of soldiers to go throughout Bethlehem, and all the neighboring villages, and massacre all the children they could find therein that were two years old, and under; thinking that the infant Jesus, whom as a prince, he both envied and dreaded, would fall in the general slaughter.

But the heavenly missionary was sheltered from above; nor was the relentless king permitted to impede the design of an Almighty Creator.