SERMON VI.

MATTHEW ii. 2.

Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him.

THE peculiar wisdom of the sacred historians, does not any where appear in a stronger point of view, than in their relation of the events attendant on the incarnation and childhood of our blessed Lord.

Volumes indeed, they might have written regarding this period of his life on which the pious Christian would have dwelt with admiration and with love; but their providential and intimate acquaintance with the perversions of the human mind, taught them to withhold the narration of those circumstances, which might minister alone to the gratification of unmeaning curiosity, or to the encouragement of vulgar superstition. The events which they related were few, but those few were of the deepest importance. Every incident is pregnant with evidence, and collectively

they conspire to frame the strongest body of testimony in favour of that incarnation, on which the whole fabric of Christianity is founded. A more powerful instance cannot occur, than in the fact recorded in the chapter from which my text is taken; a fact, which has called forth in the support of Christianity, the most remarkable examples of collateral evidence, and has furnished in itself the most decided vindication of the universality of that all-powerful, and all-extensive system of redemption, which was displayed even in the cradle of its divine Author.

Thus, then, is our attention directed to two points; first, to the circumstances actually attending the event in question; and secondly, to the important consequences resulting from this early manifestation to the Gentile world of their Saviour and their God.

It will be our first part to consider from whom the question came, "Where is he who is born king of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him." It came from those, who were wholly unconnected with the Jewish nation, manners, and customs; it came from those, who lived at far too great a distance, to have the slightest acquaintance with the transactions of so remote a country. The wise men from the east could be but little known to the inhabitants of Judea, and were they known

at all, they would be known only as the objects of detestation and hatred, from the sad remembrance of the long captivity once endured by the tribes of Israel in eastern lands. From Judea, therefore, immediately, could no expectation of a future monarch be derived. Yet that such an expectation must have existed among the wise men, the fact itself supposes. That it did exist, is confirmed in the most remarkable manner by two Roman historians, one of whom (Tacitus I mean) actually states, that an expectation of an ancient date was constantly maintained throughout the whole of the east, that some one potentate should arise out of Judea, who would possess the dominion of the universe. From whence did this expectation spring? Doubtless from those many prophecies, which during the long captivity of the Jews at Babylon were promulgated, and which among the surrounding nations, ever fond of diving into the regions of futurity, met with a ready reception and a faithful preservation. From these sources we doubt not but that the many remarkable predictions in the Sibylline verses were ultimately derived; and that those predictions which had caused so strong an impression on the eastern nations, had from them been transmitted to the archives of the Roman superstition. Were the magi then in possession of these prophetical writings? The

fact is immaterial. From detached portions of them, the expectation might have originally sprung; and a prediction so remarkable, could find no surer home, than in the breasts of those who were so deeply imbued with the love of dark and legendary strains. The prophecy might still survive, by faithful transmission from generation to generation, long after the memory, the name, or even the nation of the prophet, was buried in the dust.

Our next consideration is called to the miraculous appearance of that star, which directed the magi first to the country, then to the place, of that almighty Monarch, who claimed in the right not of inheritance, not of conquest, but of his birth, the kingdom of Israel. "Where is he who is born king of the Jews?"-A nation whose sages from the earliest times were famed afar for their knowledge of the heavenly bodies; for an accurate calculation of the periods of their appearances, and the times of their changes; a nation on whose science was engrafted a superstitious attachment to the arcana of astrological research, then so renowned in the heathen world, could not but stand amazed at the appearance of a new star among the host of heaven, a star which according to their notions, portended the birth of a new king, and the rise of a mighty monarchy upon earth. A voice from heaven could not

have spoken so intelligibly to their minds, or in such conformity with the train of their ideas, as the appearance of this new luminary in the firmament. Under the influence therefore of this celestial guide they repaired to the holy city, and by their anxious enquiries awakened the dormant expectations of the children of Israel, and the murderous jealousy of their stranger king. "When lo! the star which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over the place where the young child was; and when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy."

A curious and interesting collateral testimony is afforded by a Platonic philosopher of those days, who expressly mentions, the unusual appearance of a star in the heavens, at the same time that the miraculous light in the east, guided the magi to the feet of the long expected Monarch of the world. Thus, then, has the narration of this extraordinary event, called forth in the support of the sacred historians some most remarkable coincidences in the heathen writers; afforded by them at least in impartiality, because afforded in ignorance.

It would be easy to enlarge on the many other circumstances of this wonderful history, were not our attention summoned to the mighty consequences which it was designed so powerfully to prefigure; the manifestation of Christ to the Gen