fions of that country whence the wife men are fuppofed to have come, namely, Arabia or Sabaa. Even that dreadful tranfaction, which was the unfortunate confequence of their journey, the murder of the innocents, exactly corresponds with the character of Herod, who was one of the most 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 should 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 Gofpels, 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 last place worthy of remark, that every thing is here related with the greatest plainness, 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 maffacree of the infants in the most dreadful colours, and would have drawn a moft affecting picture of the diftrefs and agony of their afflicted parents. But the Evangelifts have not enlarged on thefe, or any other fimilar topics. They have contented themfelves with telling their ftory concifely 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 inftances 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 these their thoughts were entirely and immoveably fixed, and therefore their narratives juftly 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 Redeemer. We are often told, that He, whom we have chofen 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 fcene. 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 just feen) attracted the notice of thofe illustrious ftrangers, who came from a diftant country to pay their homage to the infant Jefus; whom, notwithstanding the humility of his condition and of his habitation, they hailed as king of the Jews. At his baptifm, the heavens were opened to Lim, 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 came and ministered unto him. At his transfiguration, his face did fhile as the fun, and his raiment was bright as the light, Matth. iii. 16, Matth. iv. I. *Luke fi, 14, and there appeared Mofes and Elias talking with him, and from the cloud which overshadowed 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, "Tru ly this was the fon of God." Before his afcenfion, he said to his difciples, "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth; and while he yet bleffed 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 second 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 should confefs that Jefus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Fa ther." 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 splendor fade and die away under this overbearing effulgence of celestial 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, whose 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 deills of the present day) difdained not to proftrate themfelves before Matth. xxvii. 54. Philip. ii. 9-16 • Matth. xvii. 5. + Luke, xxii. 43. him, and prefent to him the richeft and the choiceft gifts they had to offer; well may we, when this child of the Moft High is not only grown to maturity, but has lived, and died, and rifen again for us, and is now fet down at the right hand of God (angels and principalities and powers being made fubject to him) well may we not only pay our homage, but our adoration to the Son of God, and offer to him oblations far more precious than gold, frankin-· cense and myrrh; namely, ourselves, our fouls and our bo dies," as a reasonable, holy and lively facrifice unto him ;" well may we join with that innumerable multitude in heav en, which is continually praifing him and faying; "Bleffing, and honor, and glory be unto him, that fitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”* Rev. v. 13. ï MATTH. CHAP. iii. T HE fubject of this lecture will be the third chapter of Saint Matthew, in which we have the hiftory of a very extraordinary perfon called JoHN THE BAPTIST; to dif tinguish him from another John mentioned in the New Teftament, who was our Saviour's beloved difciple, and the author of the Gospel that bears his name; whence he is called JOHN THE EVANGELIST, As the character of John the Baptift is in many respects a very remarkable one, and his appearance bears a strong testimony to the divine miffion of Chrift and the truth of his religion, I fhall enter pretty much at large into the particu lars of his hiftory, as they are to be found not only in the Gofpel of St. Matthew, but in the other three Evangelifts; collecting from each all the material circumftances of his life, from the time of his firft appearance in the wilderness to his murder by Herod. St. Matthew's account of him is as follows:* In those days came John the Baptift, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, repent ye, for the kingdom of heavFor this is he that was fpoken of by the en is at hand. prophet Isaiah, saying, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths ftraight. And the fame John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locufts and wild honey. And there went out to him Jerufalem and all Judea, and all the regions round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan confeffing their fins." Here then we have a perfon, who appears to have been fent into the world, on purpofe to be the precurfor of our * Matth. iii, 1-6. |