Make presents to him, and return home another way. unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. 81 xii. Mat. sures, they presented at all offended at its meanness; but, falling down SECT. on their faces before him, they paid him their homage: And, as it was customary in those countries to offer some present to any illustrious II. 11. personage they came to visit?, they opened their treasures, which they had brought along with them for this very purpose, and presented him with the choicest produce of their country, fine gold, and frankincense, and myrrhr. ed of God in a dream . 19 And, being warn- And, after this, they were preparing to go 12 back to Jerusalem, as Herod had desired them; that they should not but God, who knew the barbarous intent of the return to Herod, they departed into their own king, interposed for the preservation of his Son country another way. and for their security and comfort. So, being divinely admonished in a dream that they should not go back to Herod, they returned into their own country another and more direct way, not at all solicitous as to the consequence of Herod's resentment. IMPROVEMENT. Let us observe, with pleasure, this farther honour which God Ver. did to his only begotten Son in ordering a new star to appear as 2 the signal of his birth, and in calling these illustrious persons from afar to pay their early adorations to him. No doubt they thought such a discovery, as brought them to the feet of their infant Saviour, an ample recompence for all the fatigue and expence of such have been born in the family of Herod; at least, we may be sure it was some surprise to them to find him accommodated only like a carpenter's child: but they wisely considered that such miraculous honours as the star gave him were far beyond any external circumstance, and therefore paid him their homage as readily as if they had found him in the richest palace. An amiable example of that humble ingenious temper which fits a man for the reception of the gospel. P Customary in those countries to offer some present to any illustrious personage they came to visit.] That this was customary appears from many passages of the Old Testament. (Gen. xliii. 11-25. 1 Sam. ix. 7, 8. x. 27. 1 Kings x. 2. Psalm 1xxii. 10. and Prov. xviii. 16.) And Maundrel, Chardin, and many other modern writers of the best credit, assure us the custom is yet retained. See also Elian. Var. Hist. lib. i. cap. 31, 32, 33. q Gold, frankincense, and myrrrh.] This was a most seasonable providential assistance to furnish Joseph and Mary for so long and expensive a journey as that Another and more direct way.] This s Such a discovery of their infant Saviour.] I take it for granted here that they had some divine intimation or human instruction, (which Joseph or Mary might indeed have given them,) that Christ was to save his people from their sins, and was Emmanuel, God with us. Surely God would not have guided them in this extraordinary manner merely to pay a transient compliment to Jesus. Their prostrations probably expressed religious adoration as well as civil respect and it is not unlikely that their report might in due time make way for the reception of the gospel in the Country 32 Reflections on the wise men's visit to Christ. SECT. Such a journey. They were exceedingly transported when they saw xii. the star. So let us rejoice in every thing which may be a means Ver. of leading our souls to Christ, and of disposing us to cast our10 selves down before him with humility and self-resignation! 6 Let us look upon this circumstance of the sacred story as a beautiful emblem of that more glorious state of the Christian church when the Gentiles shall come to its light, and sages and kings to the brightness of its rising; when the abundance of the sea shall be converted to it, and the wealth of the Gentiles shall be consecrated to its honour. The multitude of camels shall cover it, the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah; all they from Sheba shall come; they shall bring gold and incense, and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. Isa. lx. 3, 5, 6. How wonderful was the honour conferred upon so obscure a town as Bethlehem when it was made thus illustrious among the thousands of Judah! Happy they who consecrate not only their 11 gold and their other possessions, but also their souls and their bodies to their great Ruler, whose office it is to feed and govern the Israel of God: under whose conduct and care they shall receive blessings infinitely more valuable than all the treasures of the east or the west! But oh, the fatal power of carnal influence on the heart! This engaged Herod to receive the news of a Redeemer's birth with horror; and with execrable cruelty and vile hypocrisy, to contrive 8 his murder under the specious form of doing him homage. Vain and self-confounding artifice! Let us rejoice in the thought, that there is no understanding, or wisdom, or counsel against the Lord : no scheme so artfully disguised that he cannot penetrate it, or so politically formed that he cannot with infinite ease confound it. To what perplexity and grief might these sages have been 12 brought had they been made even the innocent instruments of an assault on this Holy Child! But God delivered them from such an alarm, and happily guided their return; so that, through his care and favour, they carried home, in the tidings of the new-born Messiah, far richer treasures than they had left behind. Thus shall they, who in all their ways acknowledge God, by one method or another find that he will graciously direct their paths. country from whence they came.-And if, Lord Jesus Christ, (which might be fact, though the letters now remaining should be supposed spurious,) it is very possible the report of these sages, preserved by tradition (if they were then dead,) might add weight to that of Christ's miracles, (about thirty years after,) and dispose that prince to take the greater notice of him. SECT. Joseph is warned to flee with Jesus into Egypt. SECT. XIII. The flight into Egypt; the slaughter of the infants; and the settlement of the holy family at Nazareth after Herod's death. Mat. II. 13-23. MAT. II. 13. AND when they were departed, be hold the angel of the seph in a dream, say MAT. II. 13. 83 AND after the return of the wise men, when SECT. they had paid their homage unto Christ and xiii. Lord appeareth to Jo- were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord ap-Mat. ing, Arise, and take peareth to Joseph in a dream, with a message from 11.13. the young Child and heaven, saying, Rise up without any delay, and take with thee the Infant and his mother, and flee directly into the land of Egypt, and continue there till I shall give thee notice to return; for Herod, alarmed by the extraordinary circumstances which have lately happened, is about to make a strict search after the young Child to destroy him, lest he in time should prove a formidable rival to his family. his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy him. 14 When he arose, he took the young into Egypt: And Joseph, rising from his bed, immediately 14 Child and his mother obeyed the heavenly vision; for he took the Inby night, and departed fant and his mother by night, and withdrew, with as hasty a flight as their circumstances would allow, into the land of Egypt, near the borders 15 And was there of which Bethlebem lay. And they continued 15 until the death of He- there till after the death of Herod, which happened rod; that it might be not till several months after; that what was spoken of the Lord by spoken of the Lord by the prophet Hosea, on an fulfilled which was the a Flee into the land of Egypt.] This circumstance doth not at all agree with the conjecture of Grotius, that this vision might appear after their return to Nazareth; or then (as Le Clerc justly observes) it is much more probable that they would have been ordered to flee into Syria, which was much nearer to Nazareth than Egypt; to which they could not have passed from thence without going through the very heart of Herod's dominions, unless they had taken a very large circuit with great expence and danger. The great number of Jews which resided in Egypt would make their abode there so much the more comfortable. b Alarmed by the extraordinary circumstances which have lately happened.] When the wise men had come so far to pay their homage to a new-born Prince, the several reports of what had lately happened, would, upon this occasion, be revived, and the behaviour of two such celebrated persons as Simeon and Anna, on the presenta other tion of Christ in the temple, which might c Which happened not till several months d Out 84 xiii. Mat. The infants are slain at Bethlehem. Out of Egypt have I SECT. Other occasion, might thus, as it were, be fulfilled the prophet, saying, anew; and that in this appointment of the place called my Son. where Christ should take up his abode, there II. 15. might appear to be a manifest allusion to that saying, (Hos. xi. 1.) "Out of Egypt have I called my Son," Christ being in a much higher and nobler sense the Son of God than Israel, of whom the words were originally spoken. 16 16 Then Herod, was mocked of the Then Herod, seeing that he was deluded, and that a great affront (as he imagined) was de- when he saw that he signed him by the sages, as there was now no wise men, was exceedfarther prospect of their returning to him, was ing wroth; and sent exceedingly enraged; and, in order to make the forth, and slew all the destruction of this unknown Infant as sure as possible, he sent forth a band of murderers, and inhumanly slew all the male children that were d Out of Egypt have I called my Son.] It is well known that, from the time of Julian at least, the enemies of Christianity have been cavilling at the application here made of a prophecy to Christ, which in its original sense seems to belong to the people of Israel, Learned men have laboured with great solicitude to prove it literally applicable to Christ.-Mr. Pierce's hypothesis (see in his Dissertation on this text, added to his paraphrase on Philippians, p. 103, 108.) that the prophet is pursuing two subjects together, and alternately treating of each, which must therefore be read interchangeably, one part referring to the people of Israel, and the other to Christ (as if it were designed by God that the prophecy of Christ's being called out of Egypt should be obscured by such a method) appears indeed to be very ingenious: But I fear, if such liberties were to be allowed, it would render the Scripture the most uncertain book in the world.-Bishop Chandler (in his Defence of Christianity, p. 294.) supposes that calling out of Egypt is a proverbial expression for being delivered from imminent danger; which might have been said to have its accomplishment in Christ's escape, though he had fled into Syria, Arabia, or any other country: But, with all due deference to so great a name, I must observe, that neither Isa. x. 26. Deut. xxviii. 68. or Zach. x. 11. seem sufficient to prove the use of such a phrase; and I apprehend that, if the use of such a proverb were proved, the passage before us would still seem a plainer reference to Hos. xi. 1. than to such a general form of speech; so that the difficulty would still remain.---I once thought the words KI NEHHAR ISRAEL DEAHEBU might be rendered and paraphrased after this manner: "Though Israel be a child, that is, wayward and in children that were in Bethlehem, troublesome like a little infant, yet I have loved him, and, in token of my tenderness to him, will call (Jesus) my Son out of Egypt; having there preserved him from the dangers which threatened his infancy, that he may at length accomplish my great intended salvation." I still think that this conjecture deserves some consideration, as much more probable than any other solution of this kind I have ever met with. But, on the whole, especially considering the context, I chuse to take them, as Grotius, Heinsius, and many of the best critics do, for a mere allusion; and the rather, as I am fully convinced that the next quotation, in ver. 17. must necessarily be taken in this sense. e Seeing that he was deluded.] The word EveTaxon, which properly signifies to be played with, well expresses the view in which the pride of Herod taught him to regard this action, as if it were intended to expose him to the derision of his subjects, and to treat him as a child, rather than a prince of so great experience and renown. f Sent forth a band of murderers, and slew all the male-children.] A very ingenious and learned friend of mine has attempted to account for Josephus's silence as to this remarkable fact, by a conjecture, that instead of sending forth (as it was in the first edition) a detachment of soldiers, (of which, he justly urges, nothing is expressly said in the text) he might only send private orders to have the children taken off as secretly as possible; so that it might not make any public noise and come to the notice of the Jewish historian. But, in answer to this (not to insist upon the argument from Macrobius, Saturnal. lib. ii. cap. 4. that the Emperor Augustus had heard of it at Rome) I would observe that An allusion here to the prophecy of Jeremiah. xiii. 85 Bethlehem, and in all in Bethlehem, and in all the confines of it, from SECT. the coasts thereof, from their entrance upon the second year, and under: two years old and under, according to the time as that, according to the time of which he had got Mat. which he had diligently exact information from the sages, must include 11. 16. inquired of the wise all that were born there since the appearance of men. 17 Then was ful filled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, the star. And then, as this cruel execution extended 17 it is certain nothing of such privacy in the dispatch of these children can be inferred from the word avλew, since it is also used to express the crucifixion of our Lord, (Acts ii. 23. x. 39.) the stoning of Stephen, (Acts xxii. 20.) and the beheading of James the Apostle, (Acts xii. 2.) all which were public executions; as well as the intended assassination of Paul by a band of armed men. (Acts xxxiii. 15.) And if it be considered, on the one hand, how difficult it is privately to murder children under two years old, as they are hardly ever left alone; and on the other, how ill such a cautious and uncertain procedure would have agreed with the furious disposition of Herod and the haughty rage in which these orders were given, I believe few will incline to this hypothesis. As for the silence of Josephus, it is to be considered that Bethlehem was but a small place; and therefore, in a reign of so much cruelty, the slaughter of its infants might not be taken very much notice of. Josephus was not old enough to remember it himself; and if he did not find it in the Memoirs of Nicholas of Damascus (that flattering historian, of whom we know he made great use in compiling the life of Herod), he might be unwilling to introduce it, even if he were particularly acquainted with it; lest the occasion might have led him to mention what generally at least he is solicitous to decline, I mean Christian affairs. On the whole, if we compare contemporary historians of every age we shall find some material fact or another omitted by each of them; yet that silence of one is never urged as an argument against admitting the express testimony of the rest. See Dr. Lardner's Credib. Part I. Vol. II. book ii. chap. 21. p. 746. & seq. 8 From their entrance upon the second year.] The reasons which determined me to render an dies thus, may be seen in Sir Norton Knatchbull's excellent note on this place. It is probable that Herod in his passion ordered the slaughter of the infants as soon as he perceived that he was disappointed in his expectation of the return of the wise men, lest otherwise the Child he was so jealous of might be removed; and as his cruelty extended even to those who had entered on the second year, which is expressly said to be according to the time of which he had got exact information from the sages, it must be natural to conclude from hence, that it was not till some considerable time after the birth of Christ that he was visited by the wise men, even though we should allow the first appearance of the star to have been (as some suppose) about the time of Christ's conception. Compare note n on Matt. ii. 11. For the version of axpbow, see note i on ver. 7. h Which they were originally intended to describe.] It is very evident from the following clause, (Jer. xxxi. 17.) Thy children shall come again to their own border, that these lamented persons were not slain, but carried into captivity; and it is well known that Ramah was the place where they were assembled to be led away to Babylon. (Jer. xl. 1.) So that it is certain this can only be an allusion, as it is intimated in the paraphrase. And I look upon this as a sure argument, that a passage in scripture, whether prophetical, historical or poetical, may, in the language of the New Testament, be said to be fulfilled, when an event happens to which it may with great propriety be ac commodated. See Dr. Sykes on the Truth of Christianity, chap. xiii. p. 217, & seq. i Rachel, |