At the birth of this wondrous child, certain simple and unsuspecting shepherds, engaged in their lawful and innocent occupations, but wholly ignorant of any extraordinary occurrence, are surprized with a visit from a heavenly choir, and informed, in the most sublime language and harmonious strains, of the love of God to man.

The shepherds, with astonishment, visit the stable and the manger by direction of the messengers of Heaven, and find the more than royal babe, agreeably to their information.-They publicly announce the glad tidings, and publish abroad the fulfilment of ancient prophecy.

The wise men from a distant and eastern country, under the influence of tradition, added to a divine revelation, and the supernatural appearance and direction of a new star in the Heavens, attend the new born babe with magnificent presents, and hail him king of the Jews.*

Chalirdius the Platonist, a pagan historian who wrote, soon after the coming of Christ, his Commentary on Timæus, says, "There is another more holy and more venerable history, which relates the appear

* Abul-Pharagius, an Arab writer mentioned in the Historia Dynastarium, page 54, tells us, that "Zoroaster, the head of the Persian magians, (or clergy) foretold to his magians the coming of Christ, and that at the time of his birth there should appear a wonderful star, which should shine by day as well as by night, and therefore left it in command with them, that when that star should appear, they should follow the directions of it, and go to the place where he should be born, and there offer gifts and pay their adoration unto him: And that it was by this command that the three wise men came out of the east-that is, out of Persia, to worship Christ in Bethlehem." Dean Prideaux says, this author, though an Arab, professed the Christian religion, and supposes it as most likely, that he took this idea from them, though he assigns no reasons for his belief.

ance of a new star, not to foretel diseases and death, but the descent of a venerable God, who was to preserve mankind, and to show favour to the affairs of mortals; which star the wise men of Chaldæa observ. ing as they travelled in the night, and being very well skilled in viewing the heavenly bodies, they are said to have sought after the new birth of this God; and having found that majesty in a child, they paid him worship, and made such vows as were agreeable to so great a God."

Baalam, on the arrival of the Israelites from Egypt into the wilderness, had prophesied of the coming Messiah, by declaring, that "a star should come out of Jacob, and a sceptre rise out of Israel;" and no doubt but the knowledge of this prophecy was preserved in the east, and, with other historical facts, handed down by tradition. The people of the east had also the advantage of the knowledge and piety of Melchizedeck, Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob and Job, and his friends; the worship and example of the Hebrews in Egyptthe account of all the miracles performed by Mosestheir supernatural deliverance from that house of bondage-the remarkable destruction of the Egyptians in the sea-the miraculous support, in the wilderness, of three millions of souls for forty years, with their unexampled success, against all the united force of the kings of Canaan, with their numerous hosts, according to the express predictions of Moses-the final settlement of the Hebrews in the promised land—the celebrity of David, Solomon, and the kings of Judah and Israel-the conduct and prophecies of Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets—with all the various decrees of the kings of Babylon, acknowledging

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the God of Israel, to be the God of all the earth, as did many of the neighbouring nations from time to time. All these extraordinary means of knowledge, and the occurrences consequent thereon, must have turned the attention of the wise men of every nation, to the history and religion of a people thus favoured of God; and hereby it is reasonable to suppose they became acquainted with the leading facts of revelation.

Strabo, another heathen historian, in his 16th book, mentions Moses and the ancient Jews with commendation. He says, "That many, in honour to the divine majesty, went out of Egypt with Moses, rejecting the worship of the Egyptians and other nations, inasmuch as Moses had instructed them that God was not to be worshipped by any image, and that he would reveal himself only to the pure and vir He observes, "That Moses had great success in the establishment of his government, and the reception of his laws, among the neighbouring nations; and that his successors, for some ages pursued the same methods, being just, and truly religious."

tuous."

Varro, the most learned Roman historian, though a heathen, much approved of the Jewish worship, as being free from that idolatry, which he could not but dislike, in the heathen religion.*

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, were mentioned of old in Philo Biblyus, out of Sanchionathan, who wrote about 200 years after Moses-in Berosus, a priest of Belus, who lived about 300 years before Christ-Hecatæus-Nicolaus Damascenus-Artipanus-Eupolemus-Demetrius-the Orphic verses

* St. Aug. in Civ. Dei, lib. iv. ch. xxxi.

and in Justin, out of Trogus Pompeius; all of whom relate the history of Moses, and his principal acts.*

This fact is also confirmed by the language of Rahab, the harlot of the city of Jericho, to the spies. "And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you: for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red-Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did to the two kings of the Amorites, that were over the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed, for the Lord your God, he is God in Heaven above, and on earth beneath." The learned bishop Tillotson says, "The gentiles had, from the prophecies of the Sybils, an expectation of a great king, that was to appear in the world." So Virgil says, "that the time of Augustus was the utmost date of that prophecy, ultima cumai venit jam carminis Ætas."

These wise men then, under all these advantages, might, on the appearance of this star, about the time of the completion of Daniel's four hundred and ninety years, have been fully convinced of the truth of the prediction, and the certainty of his being born, who should literally become the king of all the earth. They therefore did not enter Judea in a secret manner, or make a mystery of their mission. Their application is not to the parties concerned, or friends engaged to make out the truth of the fact; but as ambassadors from a foreign prince, they with confidence apply to Herod, the king of the country, and under a

* Grot. de Verit.

↑ Joshua, chap. ii. 9th, 10th and 11th ver.

conviction of the certainty of their mission, with an air of authority demand to know, "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." This was unwelcome and alarming news, to the cruel, jealous, and tyrannical Herod. He did not rejoice in the glorious confirmation of all their hopes, founded on ancient prophecy, and endeavour to countenance the idea, and the general expectation of the people, but "he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." The people had often experienced the dreadful effects of revolts, and therefore, without considering the difference between these times and events, trembled at the extraordinary tidings. The chief priests and scribes, are all solemnly convened by the king's order, that he might know from them, with precision, the place pointed out by the inspired penmen of their sacred writings, where Christ, or their expected Messiah, should be born. They do not hesitate about, or deny the facts, but unanimously answer, "In Bethlehem of Judea." The wise men no sooner receive the answer, than they repair to that place, and lo! the star, which they had seen in the east, again appears to them, and directs to the most unlikely place in the world, in human apprehension, (a stable and a manger) to look for a royal infant, the expectation of a great nation, and the hope of the world.

$ As soon as this extraordinary child is brought into the temple, (most likely with many others, without distinction) Simeon the priest, an order of men among the Jews, not famous for countenancing the humble Jesus, and Anna, a prophetess, under the influence of a prophetic spirit, single out the blessed