LIBRARY Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. Case Shelf Book ttiSrip Division Section. .♦.V/..7-^- No,_, .. 7'^^'^--t't' /^j^-' L^ ^^"^^^^-^f^-^^^ff THE GOSPEL NARRATIVE OUR LORD'S NATIVITY HAEMONIZED WITH REFLECTIONS. REV. ISAACrWILLIAMS, B.D. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. ^ecottU Rom. iv. 21. ^ TrXijpocpopiiadu), Rom. xiv. 5. b2 4 THE PREFACE OF ST. LUKE. that St. Luke received his account from eye-witnesses : and also, as Theophylact observes, that St. Luke himself was not of that number. " It hath seemed good to me also,^' he proceeds, " having accurately traced out all things from the very Urst, to iurite to thee in order, most excellent Theophi- lus'^ Here it is remarkable that the inspired Evan- gelist says nothing of his Divine inspirations, or of his commission from God to this office, as the Prophets often do in the Old Testament : but, on the contrary, he seems to refer the reasons of his writing to the purposes of a human vdll ; and he attributes the means of his information to human sources. Nor, indeed, does he ever allude to that higher sanction which is usually supposed to have stamped his Gospel, the superintendence of St. Paul, who received his own knowledge of the Gospel by a direct revelation from Heaven. On the contrary, he seems to assign the means of his information to something less than the ocular testimony which other Evangelists enjoyed, to his accurate instruction in the testimony of others : and the object too is humble and limited, that one person, the Theophilus for whom he writes, may be more fully instructed. Now this it is in which " the Kingdom of Heaven" upon earth differs from the older dispensa- tion ; that it takes up and consecrates common things to deepest mysteries of faith, not superseding human and humble instruments, but adopting and elevating them with the breath of that which is Divine. And this, its inspiration of God, is known of this holy Book by the voice of the Church from the beginning, — a voice from behind saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it;" for his "praise in the Gospel is in all the Churches." In like manner, not even did Christ declare THE PEEFACE OE ST. LUKE. O Himself; but often concealed His Divinity under com- mon human things : and if this Evangelist writes only to one man, Theophilus, so also did Christ often in speaking to one, — a scribe, or a leper, or by name to Peter, to Thomas, to Zaccheus, — instruct hereby all His Church. Thus also the Epistles of St. Paul are to Timothy, and to Titus, and to Philemon, yet not the less addressed to us all. Eor the Church Catholic, like her Divine Master, generalizes not, but deals with in- dividuals, with each one separately, as if there were none else, but all in one and one in all : far different from the world ; " Eor it is not the will of your Eather which is in Heaven that one of these little ones should perish." The appellation indeed attached to Theophilus, "most excellent," or "most noble," is the same as St. Luke records as used by St. Paul, both to Eelix and to Eestus ^, and seems to indicate that the person addressed was one of worldly consideration ; and therefore appears to sanction the use of terms so applied. But whether this Theophilus be a real person, or merely, as the name imports, one "beloved of God," all of us, as Origen beautifully observes, if we are such as to be beloved of Grod, shall be Theophiluses, and they to whom this Gospel is addressed. It is certainly remarkable that the Evangelist seems here to ascribe his information to a source distinct from that of St. Paul ; for one cannot but suppose he must have had his co-operation and sanction. Indeed, Eusebius states, that St. Luke is said to have re- ceived his Gospel from the preaching of St. Paul, as St. Mark from St. Peter ; and St. Chrysostom notices that there is a resemblance in the style of these two •'' Acts xxiv. 3 : xxvi. 25. 6 THE PEEFACE OF ST. LUKE. Evangelists to tliat of tlieir respective masters; St. Luke flowing as St. Paul ; St. Mark sententious as St. Peter. However that may be, in the Acts of the Apostles we certainly have St. Paul's teaching in the very words of St, Luke ; and there seems great reason to beheve that the Epistle to the Hebrews is the writing of St. Luke, at the dictation of St. Paul. The words of the Evangehst, of his "writing in order," seem also to have been too strictly interpreted ; for he does not mean that he does on all occasions adhere to the exact order in which things were done or spoken ; but the expression is to be understood more generally, for the orderly narrative of our Lord's life from the earliest period to His Ascension, in distinction from detached notices of His sayings and life ; such as were perhaps common. Eor the term is pecuhar to St. Luke, and used by him in this sense. But his expres- sion of " accurately tracing out from the very first," is of course peculiarly descriptive of his Grospel; audit may be that in this he alludes to information from the Virgin Mother herself. It has indeed been suggested, that on this account St. Luke has been represented as the Painter of the portrait of the blessed Virgin; from his dehghting to speak of such things as might form a subject for a painter ; and from the Lord's Mother having been her- self the means of his information. Certainly, he intro- duces those early events, of the birth of the Baptist and our Lord's early childhood, in a way that no other Evan- gelist does ; — circumstances which could have been known to no human narrator so well as to Saint Mary herself, and which she with adoring wonder must have ever after delighted to contemplate. And here the Evangelist proceeds to lay down the very end and object of inspired Scripture; " that thou may est THE PREFACE OF ST. LUKE. 7 hioiu the certainty of those things, in tohich thou hast heen instructed,'^ or, as it signifies, in which thou " hast been catechized" by word of mouth. The use therefore of the written Word is as the test and evidence of the truth of those things which have been before taught by oral tradi- tion : nor is this merely spoken of one period, but as the words of the Holy Grhost, always fulfilling and being fulfilled, it is as a law of the Church throughout. For as a matter of fact, so far as the Truth is received it is thus received, even unto this day ; of the doctrine of the Trinity we are acquainted by Tradition, and this doctrine then becomes the key to the Holy Scriptures ; of the Sacraments, and of the New Sabbath of the Lord's day, we are instructed from childhood ; and after having been so instructed we find "the certainty of these" in the Scriptures ; or, at all events, the foundations on which they are built. There is a passage in the Prophet Isaiah, which Eusebius, St. Jerome, and others, have considered to be spoken of St. Luke, and characteristic of his Grospel. "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. The Lord Grod hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning. He waken- eth mine ear to hear as the learned." The clothing of the Heavens with sackcloth is descriptive of the Sacri- fice of Christ which pervades the Gospel of tliis Evan- gelist, and of that penitence connected with it of which he so much speaks. His is " the tongue of the learned," inasmuch as he is considered to have had more human learning, and a more classical style of writing than the others. And speaking " a word in season to him that is weary," may well describe "the beloved Physician" 8 THE A]S'GEL APPEAEING TO ZACHAEIAS. whose Gospel is characterized by compassion, and has been called of old the medicine of the sick or languish- ing soul. And the early waking " morning by morning" may speak of his own early beginning in the knowledge of the truth, or from his tracing his Grospel peculiarly from its early commencement. This renders his Gos- pel the most suitable introduction to the narrative composed of the four sacred "Writers. SECTION II. THE AKGEL APPEAEING TO ZACHAEIAS. The stream of inspiration had now ceased for about four hundred years ; while human events went on de- veloping themselves in a new order of things : and the books of less plenary or doubtful inspiration, which in- tervene in our Scriptures, indicate that there existed deep heart-stirrings in men's minds, and yearnings after something more spiritual than their early religion had found in them. Moreover, the sufferings of the captivity had had the effect, if not of purifying that people, yet of turning their minds to that Law, for the neglect of which they had suffered. It was as " the silence in Heaven for half an hour," before the Angels went forth with the trumpets, and the four had sounded: while suspense and expectation were looking forward to the more immediate coming of that Dehverer,'Wlio had been promised from the foundation of the world : indistinct surmises of some one rising from the dead, and of that Prophet to be raised up from among their brethren, of whom Moses had spoken, instead of the Voice from Mount Sinai, which they intreated to hear no more. And the words with which the Inspired "Writings had closed were remarkable, both from their distinct declaration. THE ATs-GEL APPEAEIIs'G TO ZACHAKIAS. 9 and for the very mysterious manner in wliicli alone it could be fulfilled. As the silence of night came on, and the light of prophecy was going down, it spoke of the rising of " the Sun of Eighteousness" " with healing in His wings ;" and yet not so for all men, hut for them shall He arise "that fear My name." To this it is added, "Behold, I send you Elijah the Prophet, before the com- ing of the great and dreadful day." And although all this was wrapt in such obscurity, that none could foretel the mode of Christ's appearing ; yet the line in which He would be found, and the mode and condition of finding Him, was marked out by the words that pre- faced this declaration: "Eemember ye the law of Moses My Servant." It was then according to those legal ordinances that the forerunner was to be, who was to call to the fulfilment of the Law of Moses, and in that fulfilment Christ Himself to be found. As therefore our Scriptures terminate with the repeated de- claration of Christ's second coming, "Behold, I come quickly;" and our eyes are in consequence turned to the expectation of that event ; so had the minds of the Jews been at that time to some coming of Elias, and this connected with the injunction of their remembering the Law of Moses ; when at length in the Temple, in the line of the Priesthood, and in the fulfilment of legal ordinances, the event now to be recorded took place. The throne of David had to all appearance ceased from the eyes of men, of which it had been said, " his seat is like as the sun before Me." Por in the place of that Eoyal line there was an ambitious and tyrannical usurper, a scion from Edom, who was there placed by the Eomans with the name of king, and shadow of royal authority. But the appointed minis- trations in the Temple were still observed, and per- 10 THE AlS^aEL APPEAEING TO ZACHAEIAS. formed by the Priestly line ; and althougli the office of the High Priest itself had become but an annual Eoman appointment ; yet among the Priests themselves were persons who acted up to the Law which they had re- ceived ; some who in their connexions adhered even to the higher course pointed out by the Law, of marry- ing with the daughters of Aaron. And this was the highest praise of that legal Priesthood ; for the virginal Priesthood of Christ's kingdom, bearing and bringing up spiritual children unto Grod was not yet revealed. But all this is left to be the fruit of our meditation in the simplicity of the Evangelical narrative. " It came to pass in the days of Herod, the King of Jiidea^^ — for Herod the G-reat was called "the king' ' in distinction from his sons, among whom the kingdom was divided, under the name of tetrarchies; — ^Hhere was a certain Priest, hy name Zacharias, of the ward of Ahia.^^ It is called Abijah in the Chronicles, being the eighth course out of the four and twenty which David had appointed : the eighth number seems ever to imply the coming in of the Kingdom, as the number seven was the Jewish period. " And his wife ivas of the daughters of Aaron, and her name loas Ulisabeth''' Although the marriage of Priests with the other tribes was allowed, yet this was the better and more honourable course ; she was not of the tribe of Levi only, which would have been well, but of the family of Aaron, the more noble among them. JSTor was it in this only that they adhered to the righteousness of the Law. " They ivere both right- eous in the presence of God, walking in all the com- mandments and ordinances of the Lord without hiame.'''' They were directing their conduct, not to the approba- tion of man, who judges from the external deportment, but to the all-seeing eye of Grod, as being in His Pre- THE AKGEL APPEAKIK^G TO ZACHAEIAS. 11 sence ; so as to have been well-pleasing to Him in their righteousness, as Origen, Ambrose, and others explain it ; walking before Grod, as being of that circumcision which is inwardly in the Spirit, " whose praise is not of men, but of God." Thus St. Paul said of himself, "touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blame- less." Eor although in some sense, none are without sin, and none are righteous before God, yet in some sense also, " he that is born of God sinneth not." And as Clnist shall " present unto Himself a glorious Church without spot ;" therefore they who compose it must be without spot ; we must be righteous before Him, " without spot and blameless." Such is the account of the parents of the Holy Bap- tist ; of honourable stock, their office the service of God, their lives holy. Such were his parents : and according to the Law, posterity, even unto thousands, are blessed for their parents' sake. To this spot, therefore, might turn with comfort the eyes of those who were looking for redemption in Israel ; thither were they directed according to the last injunction of the closing volume of God, "Eemember the law of Moses." But for themselves, so far as they walked by sight and not by faith, when they carried their views forward, the doorof hope seemed to be closing upon them. " And tlieij had no child, inasmiccli as Elisaheth was larren, and hoth tvere now far advanced in their daysT Yet faith, which " against hope believeth in hope," would not have despaired, for those who wait for God, and are of blameless life ; and by comparing things spiritual with spiritual it might have been obser- ved, that at all times when things appeared to human eyes the most dark and gloomy, the nearer were the deliverances of God ; at such times most of all broke 12 THE AlfGEL APPEABIITa TO ZACHAKIAS. forth the bright beams of His Gospel, Who came at midnight from the grave. As Christ was to be born of a woman contrary to nature ; so after faint similitudes to His marvellous Birth, had holy women of old obtained power to conceive beyond nature ; and saints of Grod were born of parents barren and advanced in years. Such was Isaac, born of Sarah when old and childless ; and Joseph, of E-achel ; and Samuel, of Hannah, who was also barren ; and Samson, of the barren wife of Manoah : much more then might the nearer approach of Christ send such power before Him, that His fore- runner should be born of parents aged and barren. Por nothing in Scripture is altogether sudden and new ; but there are as it were ghmpses or gleams of hght going before the perfect day, or as shadows, more or less distinctly seen, foretelling an approach. " And it came to pass, that as he loas executing the JPriesfs office in the order of his daily service in the pre- sence of God, according to the custom of the Priesthood, it was his lot to hum incense when he entered into the tem- ple of the Lordr For according to the appointment of David, all these things were assigned by lot, leaving it as it were to the decision of God ; thus the land was divided to the tribes by lot *, and Achan was taken by lot ^ ; and the same is carried on in the New Testament, where the number of the Twelve was filled up by lot ^. It was therefore Di\dnely ordered in the appointment of God, that he on this great occasion was to burn incense. " And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the hour of incensed These words, of his entering into " the temple of the Lord," and of the people " praying without at the hour -« Numb, xxxiii. 54. '> Josh. vii. 18. ^ Acts i. 26. THE ANGEL APPEARING TO ZACHAEIAS. 13 of incense," naturally suggest that it might have been on the great day of the Atonement, when the High Priest once a year went into the Holy of Holies ; and the adaptation of the occurrence to that great day would be so very striking, that it renders one very ready to catch at any intimation that it might be so. The ac- count of its observance is given in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus ; first of all of the incense, " that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy-seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not :" and then follow the directions for the " sin offering," to "make an atone- ment for the holy place, because of the uncleanness and transgressions of the children of Israel ;" " and there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation, when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out." And to the lengthened and particular details of this, it is added that it was to be by " an everlasting statute." The higher fulfilment of the same we find in the Eevelation, "there was silence in Heaven about the space of half an hour," and the Angels are then seen with the trumpets ; and before they "prepare themselves to sound," an " Angel came and stood at the Altar having a golden censer ; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of aU Saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne." And the spiritual meaning is evident of the whole, that it signifies Christ entering into the Holy of Holies, or the Heaven of Heavens, having made an atonement, and there to inter- cede for us ; while we also stay without, and, according to the well-known description, " fall down to the earth to worship the Lord God Almighty '';" for the prayers of the 7 Ecclus. 1. 17. 14 THE AXGEL APPEAEIXa TO ZACHAEIAS. saints ascend together with the incense. And the interval before Christ's return is ever represented as a short time, for " half an hour," and a time of prayer and humiliation ; His Church, during that interval, being emphatically called " the House of Prayer." In the mean while there is " silence in Heaven :" there is no further revelation of Grod's will now going on until the end. And our Lord Himself, we may observe, speaks of His kingdom, as the fulfilment of the day of the Atonement at His first preaching at Nazareth. In apparent allusion to this, St. Chrysostom says, " Zacharias entered into the temple to offer prayers for all, as if a mediator between Grod and man." And St. Ambrose, who considers Zacharias as the High Priest, and this as the Day of Expiation, says, " Into the second tabernacle once a year the High Priest alone entered, not without blood, which he offered for himself and the sins of the people. This is that High Priest who is sought for by lot : for the true One is yet un- known." And again, "if, therefore, in the type no witness could be introduced, what else was signified, but that that Priest was to come, whose Sacrifice should not be common with the rest ; Who, in fine, should not sacrifice for us in temples made with hands, but should abolish our sins in the Temple of His own Body ^ ?" Bede also seems without hesitation to suppose it the great day of the Atonement. Certainly the present oc- casion would be a wonderfid, though subordinate, fulfil- ment of that Legal institution ; the great day of the Atonement, the High Priest gone in white garments into the Holy of Holies ; and where should an Angel appear but in such a place, the figure of Heaven itself, and by * Exp. in Luc. lib. i. 23. THE A^'GEL APPEAEIXG TO ZACHAEIAS. 15 the Altar and the Mercy-seat : when Sacrifice is made, and he is engaged in the great prayer of Intercession made once a year, and signified by the Incense ; and when the people also without are praying ? And what could be the object of their united intercessions, but for the coming of Christ ? what else was suggested herein by the Law, and all Legal circumstances attending it ? AVell might the scourge of the captivity be requisite to call them back to the fulfilment of that Law, which contained within it things so great. But still this interpretation is not sufficiently borne out either by authority, or by any thing in the account itself. There is no allusion to its being on that very great and high occasion. Zacharias is not spoken of as the High Priest, but rather one would suppose in dis- tinction, " a certain Priest ^" Add to which, that the Angel appears by "the Altar of Incense ;" and it ap- pears from Exodus \ that this, the " golden altar of incense," stood without the veil, that Aaron was to burn incense thereon every morning and every evening. And it appears from Leviticus^, that on the Day of the Atonement coals were to be taken in the "golden censer" from that altar, and carried "tvithin the veil." It might indeed be said in answer to these objections, that nothing can be argued from the mere silence of Scripture, or absence of express designation : that in the great irregularity and profanation to which the High Priesthood was then brought, its duties may have been performed by lot, as well as those of others. It is said that the last High Priest, Hyrcanus, was also king, and slain by Herod the Great, whom the Eomans made king : 'Itptvg TIC. ^ Exod. xl. 5. 26; xxx. 1. 6', 7. 2 Levit. xvi. 12. 16 THE AliGEL APPEABING TO ZACHAEIAS. both he and they would be jealous of the office of High Priest, and some years after, it was an annual E-oman appointment : its duties therefore at this time may have been performed by the Priestly body by lot. And with regard to the " altar of incense," it might be said that the word thus translated ^, is not unlike that which in the Epistle to the Hebrews is translated " the golden censer ''," which St. Paul there specifies as being "after the second veil." To which it may be added, that the termination of both these words in G-reek usually signifies place, whereas the word for censer in the Septuagint is different ; and that if this word in the Hebrews signifies the place, or altar of incense, it might be by this that the Angel appeared, and there- fore within the veil. Add to which, that in the Eeve- lation, " the golden altar ' " of incense is spoken of as "before the throne of Grod," and one would suppose within the Holy of Holies. Eut perhaps this fulfilment would not have that propriety which we imagine, and would rather distract, than further our views of the higher mystery contained in that the great day of Expiation, — of Christ Himself entering within the veil. And we may acquiesce in the commonly received interpretation of that burning of incense every morning and evening, on the altar be- fore the Mercy-seat. Indeed, the Altar for Sacrifice in the outer court of the Temple has been well sup- posed to signify mortification of the flesh ; and the offering up thereby of the outer and animal man : while the Altar of Incense within, represents those prayers and - Uvffiacrrripiov. * OvjxiaTTjpiov, Heb. Lx. 4. to Trvpuev, Levit. xvi. in LXX. 5 TO 6v(na(j-{]piov to xpvffouv. Rev. viii. 3. THE AIs'GEL APPEAEING TO ZACHAEIAS. 17 devout contemplations of the spirit whicli ascend to Heaven, and enter " into tliat within the veil." " And there tvas seen hj him an Angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense^'' At the right side of the Altar, as on the right side in the Holj Sepulchre, did the Angel appear: and on the right hand of the Power on High does Christ stand, and show Himself to His first martyr, St. Stephen. He appeared on the right hand of the Altar, because bearing, and being himself the signal of Divine mercy, " for the Lord is on my right hand, therefore I shall not fall." '"'■And Zacharias tvas troubled, ichen he saw him; and fear fell upon him.''^ Ever fearful in the sight of sinful man must be the manifestation of that which is holy, or which comes from the Presence of God ; our nature, conscious of sin, must ever tremble at whatever breaks through the veil from the unseen world. Thus of the Angel that appeared to Manoah and his wife, although a messenger of good, yet it is said that his " countenance was very terrible ;" and Manoah said, " "We shall surely die, because we have seen Grod '^." And of an Angel that appeared unto Daniel, he says, " My comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength. Yet heard I the voice of his words '." No wonder, therefore, that the first words of Angelic appearances to man should so often be, " Pear not." At our Lord's Eesurrection, the first words of the Angel that appeared are, '' Pear ye not;" for "trembling and amazement," and "fear" possessed them ^, though his words were of consola- tion. Thus to Abraham God appeared in a vision, saying, " Pear not, Abraham." To Jacob, also, and to 6 Judges xiii. 22. ^ Dan. x. 8, 9. » Mark xvi. 8. C 18 THE ANGEL APPEAEIFG TO ZACHAKIAS. Hagar, and to Grideon, and to Daniel, the Angel says, " Fear not ;" and to Joseph also, and to Mary, and to Zacharias, and to the Shepherds also, and to St, Paul, and to St. John in the Eevelation. So natural is fear to man as a guilty being, with any thing that brings near the unseen : " for even thereafter, as a man feareth, so is Thy displeasure." It is by the instrumentality of Angels, for it is their especial delight, to lessen this fear, which we, as lying in sin, are subject to : for the lot of the guilty is described as fearing, " where no fear was." Which fear is only done away in Christ : and no doubt this, the usual address of Angels, arises from the cir- cumstance that they are so often represented as minis- tering to the Son of Man in His kingdom ; for it is He that in all His approaches to human nature seems to say, " Eear not, it is I." " And the Angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy ^prayer is heard^^ Thy sacerdotal prayer, (as Augustin considers it,) for the Atonement of sins, for the coming of the Messiah, and the transgressions of Israel : but even for himself also might that prayer have been, for that prayer of the High Priest alone on the Day of the Atonement, was " for himself, for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel." Thy secret prayer also for thyself shall have part in the fulfilment of the same ; thy prayer, perhaps of old for children, or thy prayer even now for grace and mercy. '"''And thy wife Elisaheth shall hear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name John,^^ implying one given by the grace and favour of God, or a gracious one, bearing God's favour: well therefore may it be added, ^^ And there shall he joy unto thee and gladness ; and mawy e Lev. xvi. 17. THE AIs^GEL APPEARING TO ZACHARLIS. 19 shall o^ejoice at his hirth.^'^ Great is the attention in Holy Scripture to the giving of names ; not only had the Patriarchs names given, or changed, according to Divine appointment, as that of Israel ; but some had names Divinely appointed before their birth, as Isaac, and Samuel, and Ishmael, and Josias (to say nothing of our Lord Himself above all) : and the giving a name among the Prophets was equivalent to Divine designa- tion. Gi-reat, doubtless, and deep, the mysterious signi- ficancy contained in this giving of names ; and, like pro- phecy itself, it seems to ordain and mark out something in their future life and fortunes. The Grreeks also, ever catching at glimpses of truths higher than they knew from the same sacred source, are continually dwelliag on the sound and syllables of names ; as some- thing mysteriously containing great destinies. Such is familiar to us in their poets \ " For he shall he great in the presence of the Lord;'''' yea, so great that our Lord Himself bears testimony, that " among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist;" and who has been greater than he who baptized Christ, and was his immediate Porerunner, and " the friend of the Bride- groom," and who "heard His voice?" And he shaU be as the Nazarites of old, of whom this separation is appointed ^ ; " and luine and strong drink shall he not drink. And he shall he filled with the Holy Ohost, even from his mother's womh^ As if with some mysterious reference to Sacramental grace, wine is often put in contrast or comparison with the Spirit ; " Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit ;" and Eli thought of Hannah that she was drunk 1 ^sch. Agam. 690. 2 Num. vi. 3. c 2 20 THE AXGEL APPEAEIXG TO ZACHAEIAS. with wine, and the Jews of the Christians that they were drunk ^vith wine, when they were filled with the Spirit, Tea, Christ Himself was called "a wine-bibber;" and if it may be added with reverence, " inebriations of the Spirit" is a common term with the Pathers, from the Septuagint, and the Yulgate version of the Scrip- tures. Thus shall he be filled, it is said, even from the mother's womb, as if in allusion to some secret predes- tination of God, as in the birth of Phares and Zarah, and the preference of Jacob to Esau. Something to this effect is often spoken of the Prophets of God ; as of Isaiah, " The Lord that formed me from the womb to be His servant ^ :" and of Jeremiah, " Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee ; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations*." And St, Paul also, though called so late, was " separated from " his " mo- ther's womb ^" Tea, and even more than this, would it mysteriously seem of John, for even in the womb of his mother did he leap for joy at the salutation of Mary, as if already spiritually hallowed for the herald. "With- out the Spirit, the Jews beheld Him not in His mighty works : by the Spirit, John, as yet unborn, acknow- ledged the presence of the unborn Saviour. " He had not yet," says St. Ambrose, "the spirit of life, but he had the spirit of grace. And in other instances we see the grace of sanctification precede the substance of life. Por the spirit of this life is one thing, that of grace another : the one hath its commencement at birth, its decease at death ; the other is not restrained to times or ages, is not extinguished by dissolution, nor shut out ^ Is. xlix. 5. ■• Jer. i. 5. and Ecclus. xlix. 7. 5 Gal. i. 15. THE AlfGEL APPEARING TO ZACHAEIAS. 21 from the motlier's womb. The holy Mary when filled with the Holy Grhost prophesied: the dead body of Elisha kindled to Hfe a dead man by its touch ; and Samuel, after death, as Scripture testifieth, "foretold things to come"." ^^ And many of the cMldren of Israel sliall lie turn unto tlie Lord tlieir GodP " And Ae" himself " shall go before Him, in the spirit and power of Ellas, to turn the hearts of the fathers unto the children.''^ Before Him whom all hearts expect, shall he proceed as a herald iii His presence ; and he is described in the very words with which the Old Testa- ment ends, as none other than that great Forerunner who is there spoken of. As he was to liye as a l^azarite, in that appointed separation from the existing race of the Jews, he woidd not partake of the spiiit of the age, and the manifold degeneracies of the people ; and there- fore his doctrine will have the effect to restore again in their children the faith of their father Abraham, and the true fulfilment of the Law of Moses, and the spirit of their father David, and in so doing, shall by this re- concOiation brmg down upon the children the blessings promised to then' fathers. " And " thus shall he convert " the disohedient to the loisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.'''' These last words distinctly explain the office and the peculiar teaching of the Baptist ; not that it was to declare the Kame, and point out the Person of Christ, so much as to render the people ready to accept Him, and capable of dis- cerning Hjm at His coming. Perhaps this yet future comiagofElias,before Christ's last Advent, may be found in the Ancient Church being restored in that of the latter days : the fathers and « Expos, in Luc. lib. i. 33. 22 THE AK^GEL APPEARING TO ZACHARIAS. the cliildren being tlius reconciled, in the spirit of austere discipline and severe repentance. Indeed the office of the Baptist, in some mysterious manner, may be fulfilled even now, and always unto the end ; not in Churches only, but in individual members also. On this subject, Origen has the following remarkable sen- timents ; speaking of John as the forerunner of Christ, not only to the living, but also to the dead, he says, " I think that the sacramental mystery of John maybe fulfilled in the world, even unto this day. That the spirit and power of John precedes as the forerunner into the soul of him who is about to believe in Christ Jesus, and prepares a people made ready for the Lord, in the rough places of the heart makes ways smooth, and straight paths. JSTot at that time only are the ways prepared, and paths made straight ; but even to this day, the spirit and power of John precedeth the coming of the Saviour. 0 the mighty mysteries of the Lord, and of His dispensation! Angels" (or Messengers) "precede Jesus : Angels every day either ascend or descend for the salvation of men in Christ Jesus T^ St. Ambrose also beautifully expresses the same reflection. So won- derful indeed are the ways of God in their manifold de- velopments ; so much do things and persons recorded, set forth in visible representation and type the spiritual things that are hidden, and the secret ways of Grod in the heart of man, that this thought may be but the glimpse of some vast truth and analogy in the spiritual kingdom of God. Such was the sublime and wonderful annunciation of the Angel. " And Zacharias said unto the Angel, How shall I know this ; for I am an old man, and my ivifefar ^ Horn. Iv. in Luc. ad lin. THE ANGEL APPEAEING TO ZACHAEIAS. 23 advanced in lier days .'"' Something "has been said of tlie exalted condition of Zacharias, as one of so noble and priestly a family, so honoured in station and privilege, and in life so just and blameless : but worldly greatness is weakness in Christ's kingdom. Not only were the wise and the great for the most part unbelievers ; but even in the most accepted among them there was a weakness of faith and timidity, as in Nicodemus, in Joseph of Arimathea, and others, and perhaps even in Zacharias a want of perfect faith. In the answer of the blessed Mary was the modest and humble inquiry of a spotless Virgin ; in the laugh of Sarah was delightful surprise with wonder, scarce believing for joy, laughing at that incongruity whereby reason and faith were both overwhelmed. But in the Priest there is something of doubt, like that which in St. Thomas requires a sign : and therefore was the sign granted with something of gentle reproof. He was reasoning for want of faith, but the holy Virgin was reasoning upon faith. His very words imply a reasoning from natural causes against faith, the contrary to which we read of Abraham, " he considered not his own body now dead, . . . neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb^" Yet not that the very words intimate altogether unbelief, for Abra- ham asked a sign, and Moses also, and so did Grideon, and were accepted, and the blessed Mother makes in- quiry; and Ahaz was reproved for not requiring a sign in dissimulation of unbelief It depends therefore entirely on the temper of mind in which a sign is either asked or declined. Certainly St. Augustin, Theophy- lact, and the general consent of antiquity, consider that in Zacharias doubt was thereby implied in the eyes of 8 Rom. iv. 19. 24 THE AXGEL APPEAEIXG TO ZACHAEIAS. the all-seeing God. And as of course a doubt argues some question of what the Angel himself might be, to this, the thought of his heart, the reply of the Angel is first directed. " And the Angel answered and said unto him, I am Gabriel, loho stand in the presence of God,'^ not only an Angel, but one come from Grod's imme- diate Presence, one of those who " always behold the Pace" of the " Father which is in Heaven," who have especial love for Christ's little ones ; the same who was sent to Daniel to announce to him the coming of Messiah, the Prince. " And lam sent to speah unto thee, and to lear thee these good tidings. And lehold, thou shalt he silent, and unahle to speak, until the day ivhen these things shall take place ; hecause thou helievedst not my icords, ivhich shall be fulfilled in their season.'^ His silence therefore was not only a punishment but a sign, a sign for which he asked, granted in mercy to him ; but yet a punishment, for it were more blessed not to have needed such a sign. " A?id the people " who were praying without, " tvere expecting Zacharias ; and ivondered that he continued so long in the temple.^' This seems to indicate an unusual continuance there, more than what is recorded will account for ; perhaps he might have been overcome by the vision and unable to move from thence ; or what passed with the Angel may have been more than what is here recorded. Thus also, when our Lord hath entered into the Heaven of Heavens, to us who are without in waiting, shall He appear to be delaying His comuig : and men shall say, " AYhere is the promise of His coming ?" This the Priest's coming out of the Sanctuary was of itself an object of no little solemnity, and described at length with such exquisite beauty in Ecclesiasticus", as if 9 Ecclus. 1. 5. 24. THE AKGEL APPEA.EI^^G TO ZACHAEIAS. 25 replete with sometliing great and prophetic. " How was he honoured in the midst of the people in his coming out of the sanctuary ! He was as the morning star in the midst of a cloud, and as the moon at the full : as the sun shining upon the temple of the Most High, and as the rainbow gi\dng light in the bright clouds." " Then he went down, and lifted up his hands over the whole congregation of the children of Israel, to give the blessing of the Lord with his hps . . . And they bowed themselves down to worship the second time, that they might receive a blessing from the Most High . . . that He would confirm His mercy with us, and deliver us at His time !" But how different was it on this occasion, when the fulfilment of all these things drew nigh ; " And tvhen he came forth he could not speak unto them : and they per- ceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he was maJcing signs imto them, and remained throughout speechless y Thus the Priest was himself a type of the Jewish nation, in which speech had ceased ; as now also before the coming of Elias there is silence in the Church ; and as in Zacharias faith fails. In the manifold wisdom of Grod perhaps this silence answered also other ends ; for thus was it brought about, that the vision and the coming of the Baptist should not be revealed before the time, while the people were awakened to a holy awe and inquiring hope, but the distinct object of it was hidden from them. Thus his silence is in Divine wisdom made eloquent. Origen explains this silence of Zacharias, as signify- ing the silence of Prophets among the Jews. Even unto this day it may be said of them, that they are "making signs," and beckoning as Zacharias, but re- main deaf and speechless. Their religious rites areas 26 THE AIN^GEL APPEAEII^^G TO ZACHAEIAS. mute signs, for which they can afford no reason, as they believe not. For what is circumcision but a mute sign, for which they cannot express the cause ? AVhat is the Passover but a mute sign, of which, if you ask the reason, they are speechless ^ ? St. Ambrose also to the same effect : " Zacharias therefore remained speechless, and was beckoning to them: it was but a certain bodily act without a word, labouring to intimate but not expressing the will, a certain speechless discourse of the dying, vrith voice suppressed in the extremities of death. Does not the Jewish people resemble this case; so bereft of understanding, that they are unable to assign a reason for their actions, as one who in the last departure of vital hope hath lost the voice which he had ; who cannot find utterance, but by the last act of the failing body is desirous to set forth some sign of speech, but not speechitself ^?" Both of these writers intimate, that as Moses who declared himself at first void of speech, but afterwards manifested himself by word and deed, was a type of the Jewish nation beforehand, so also was Zacharias afterwards. " And it came to pass, that tvTien the days of his minis- tration were fulfilled, he departed unto his oicn house. After these days his ivife Elisaheth conceived, and hid herself Jive months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein lie looTced on me, to take away my reproach among menT These are much the same words as those of Eachel on a like occasion^; and the promise of removing barrenness was one of the blessings God pronounced to His people, if obedient^; and barrenness was inflicted as a punishment on the house of Abimelech^, and is so spoken of by the Prophet Hosea^, 1 In Luc. Horn. v. 2 In Luc. lib. i. 4L ^ Gen. xxx. 23. '* Exod. xxiii. 2G. Deut. vii. 14. ^ Gen. xx. 18. ^ i^qs. ix. 14. THE a:s'gel appeaei^^'g to zachaeias. 27 " give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts." But still, as if leading to faith beyond and above the La\r, in like manner, as temporal blessings were promised, yet the Saints of God were most afflicted ; so though barrenness was to them a curse, yet holy women were barren, Sarah, Eebekah, Eachel, the mothers of Samuel and of Samson, Anna, and Elisabeth. It may be observed, that in the words of this favoured Saint there is that faith which attributes all things to God, but no allusion to the greatness of that son whom she was to bear ; from her husband's want of speech she may not have heard it. But there is seldom an argu- ment that can be founded on the silence of Scripture ; it often but incidentally alludes to, sometimes is en- tirely silent respecting great truths, contained in the circumstances it records. And the reason for her con- cealment is not stated ; but we find before the birth of Samson that the Angel gives injunctions to the wife of Manoah before the birth ^, "because he was to be a Nazarite to God from the womb ;" and therefore by the positive injunction of God, or from legal or natural piety, separation from the world was incumbent or suitable. Indeed, retirement for devotion was but the natural conduct in such a Saint of God ; aU great mercies, as great afflictions, dispose the heart to solitude and approaches to God. Thus in the Eevelation, the Woman travailing with child fled into the wilderness from the face of the serpent. Or it may be from a sense of modesty, at the very strangeness of that conception in her old age, as indeed St. Ambrose considers it. And the place of her retirement was probably in those mountains of Judah, or the wilderness, as they are ^ Judg. xiii. 7' 28 THE AKGEL APPEAEING TNTO ST. MAET. called, which were afterwards the retreat of the Bap- tist : for we find that subsequent to the time here specified, when the five months had passed, Mary visits her in the hill country. But whatever great and mysterious doctrines may be contained in these things, whereby the Saints of God are consecrate to Him, and formed by Him in the womb, they doubtless contain religious obligations to us. That parents even before their birth are by se- paration and devotion to labour for the sanctification of their children. For as it is the curse of Eve to "conceive in sin," and to "bring forth in sorrow," such a time is a season for mortification and prayer for the removal of that curse ; and also for the preparation of their own hearts to the right bringing up of their children, whose eternal well-being has been made by Grod to depend so much on their parents. SECTION III. THE AKGEL APPEARING UNTO ST. MAET. Nothing appears more wonderful to a reflecting mind, than the little indication there was on the surface of society at large, respecting these most amazing cir- cumstances. The world went on as usual, neither heed- ing nor hearing of these things that moved so deeply below. The Highest gave His voice ; the depths were troubled ; deep called unto deep ; but the surface was unruffled. Yet still the event that had occurredhad been in a place, and among persons of no mean note, in Jeru- salem, and in the Temple, to persons eminent in that sacred nation, of a Priestly family, and of more than Priestly origin. But otherwise was it with what foUows : THE AXGEL APPEAEIXG TJNTO ST. MART. 29 the throne of David had passed from the sight of men, but not from the eyes of the all-seeing God, nor had His promises been forgotten. For when God speaks of the seat of David being "like the Sun," it is not before men, but " before Me ;" it is in the sight of God that it is ever present ; and it is " as the faithful witness in Heaven," for the Eainbow, though given by an ever- lasting covenant, and depending on unalterable laws, yet appears not always in the sight of men, but only when God wills ; when He looks on the tears of man- kind, then comes forth the emblem of His covenant ^. Yery far from the scene of the former circumstances, in a country proverbially contemptible and poor, and in a village contemptible even in that poor country, there was a maiden of the Eoyal stock of David ; but not on that account of any consideration to attract notice or regard. "We cannot well conceive her according to the imaginary portraitures of painters, with all the fresh- ness and bloom that is lovely in human eyes ; but rather in deportment as one of unsullied purity, of watchful devotion, of austere and penitential holiness. But these are not such things as would have drawn upon her the eyes of the world, in a condition of great obscurity and lowliness. Far different therefore from the aspect in which we now behold her, as the Mother of Him who is our God, in the eyes of all men and Angels so highly exalted above all of human race, and it may be among the creations of God, that it is diffi- cult almost for our thoughts to dwell upon her without wonder and reverence approaching to adoration. And therefore she has been mercifully drawn into the shade, and covered, like Moses, by the overshadowing Hand of 8 Ps. kxxix. 30. %. Isa. liv. 9. 30 THE ATs'GEL APPEAEING ris'TO ST. MART. God. Her watchings, her fastings, her prayers, her pur- suits, her thoughts, words, and deeds of exalted faith ; her birth and her childhood ; the house wherein she dwelt, and the persons, if any, to whom her influence ex- tended; and the attendant circumstances of this interview; whether it was at a well, as holy women of old ; or, as is most supposed, in the secret chamber: all these things are alike wrapt in the silence of the grave, even as the grave of Moses, of whose sepulchre " no man knoweth unto this day." She is hidden with her and our Grod. "Well indeed for us, and blessed be Grod that it is so, however marvellous and full of Divine wonder the con- templation of her I It is but a development and part of a great principle seen in all the deahngs of Grod, "Who is ever hiding that which is good and Divine from the eyes of men, as unworthy to behold it. Even now may there be one of a meeker sex, with spirit bowed down, and clothed in the humility of prayer, with whom the Spirit of Grod so dwells, that her prayers have more influence on the affairs of the world, than all the studies of the wise and enterprises of the great. In whatever way these circumstances may have been, we may well suppose her living in privacy and obscurity, and oc- cupied in the soHtude and silence of devotion ; and little expecting the sudden interruption of events so wonderful, and the appearance of one so great, when the following narrative proceeds. " In the sixth month'' after his appearance to Zacha- rias, or rather after the conception of Elisabeth, " the angel Gahriel teas sent,'' not any angel, but one of the highest of all, and Gabriel, i. e. the Fortitude of God, to declare God Himself, coming to engage and contend with spiritual wickednesses in high places. And in the sixth month, for after six days of toil the Sabbath THE AXGEL APPEAEING TJXTO ST. MART. 31 ensues, and " after six days " was tlie Transfiguration of Christ ; after six days the voice of God was heard in the mount ; Elisabeth had been six months in a situation representing the travail of the world, and the yoke of the Law, when Christ comes. And it may be that six thousand years will be the duration of the world's tra- vail, when Christ returns. AH creation groaning and travailing in pain had waited for this hour : Expecta- tion from the foundation of the world had eagerly bent before, watching for the opening of this door ; Eaith from the beginning hath had her eyes on the horizon, watching for the gleam of light which is now breaking. But simplicity of narrative ever in. holy Scripture attends on the introduction of circumstances of infinite sublimity and majesty. " In the sixth month the Angel Grabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David ; and the name of the Virgin icas JSIaryT There are evident reasons why it should be to a Yirgin " espoused ;" for thus the mysterious economy of God would prevent a thought of scandal even before men, "providing for things honest also in the sight of men ;" as Abimelech said of her husband unto Sarah, "Behold, he is. to thee a co- vering of the eyes." " The Lord preferred," says St. Ambrose, " that men should cast a doubt on His own origin, rather than on His mother's purity." " So that the virginity of the holy Mary was not only of un- tainted purity, but also of unblemished reputation. Eor it becometh the saints to have a good report of them that are without^." The same writer, together with OrigeUj also alludes to another reason, mentioned first 9 Exp. in Luc. lib. ii. 1. 32 THE AlJfGEL APPEAETNG UlfTO ST. MAKT. by St. Ignatius, that our Lord'sbirtli of an immaculate Virgin was a secret unknown to the devil, and that this circumstance had the effect of keeping it so. The supposition is highly interesting in this point of view, that it turns our thoughts to things infinitely surpassing the wisdom of man in the reasons that regulated the Divine economy. St. Ambrose moreover suggests a type and mystery in this circumstance : he observes that her being " betrothed and a Virgin is a type of the Church, which is married yet immaculate. A Virgin hath conceived us of the Spirit. A Virgin brings us to birth without a groan." " And the Angel entered in unto her and said, Sail, thou that art highly favoured ! The Lord is with thee I jBlessed art thou among ivomen.'''' Surely, never to mor- tal before was salutation like this. To Daniel, indeed, in the midst of his humiliations and confession the same Angel appears, and says, " Daniel, greatly be- loved!" To him also and to Grideon there is a salu- tation given by the Angel, " Peace be unto thee ' !" Such indeed may be forms of worldly salutation, and as man speaks to man, the superiorto his inferiors; asBoazto his reapers, "The Lord be withyou^!" butalthough they maybe worldly forms, yet when spoken from Grod, they are "not as the world giveth V' but as Christ pronounces, and in pronouncing gives, " peace." But these words to the blessed Virgin have something in them even more than salutation, something that sounds of gracious and awful admiration, "Hail, thou highly favoured!" or "thou that art full of grace!" as it is in the Latin. "To Mary alone," says St. Ambrose, "was this 1 Dan. X. 19. Judg. vi. 23. » Taitli ii. 4. ^ John xiv. 27. THE ANGEL APPEAEI:N^G TNTO ST. MART. 33 salutation reserved. Tor she alone is well said to be full of grace, who alone hath attained such grace as none other hath done, to be filled by the Author of grace." Such words of exaltation might well fill with consternation the meek and virginal spirit of one whose humility was according to her unspeakable greatness. Por in every example throughout Holy Scripture, humility is in proportion to the faith, and according to the acceptance with Grod. " And she ivhen she saw him, was troubled at his saying ; and was reasoning of vjhat nature this salutation might heT Thus also at the last Day, those who are accepted of G-od, are represented as almost doubting that high acceptance, from the sense of their unworthiness, as drawing back with something of reverential fear. " Lord, when saw we Thee an hun- gred, and fed Thee ? or thirsty, and gave Thee drink?" as if from profoundness of humility, unable without questioning to apprehend their greatness. It is more- over worthy of notice, that no sooner is St. Mary mentioned, than we have an instance of that thought- fulness which so often appears in her, and is perhaps the most marked feature in her character. This reason- ing on matters of faith and Scripture may also be traced through the hymn of the blessed Virgin. Such is seen in the highest instances of faith, as in St. John, when he saw the linen clothes lie, and reasoned with himself and believed. Ancient writers compare and contrast this obedience of the blessed Virgin with the conduct of Eve; as Irenaeus, Ambrose, and Tertullian. And now indeed, as well as at our Lord's Passion, was the higher fulfilment of the mysterious words, " let us make man in Our Own Lnage," and also of the devil's false promise, " ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil*." Wonderful * See Vol. on the Passion, p. 242. 3) 34 THE ANGEL APPEAEING ITKTO ST. MART. indeed is it to reflect witli the Tatliers, how Satan was hereby overreached. So that although by the sin of Eve man in his pride is to himself as a God, and labours to be as God, and comes thereby to know evil ; yet through the Seed of the blessed Virgin is he elevated to the right hand of God, to be in Christ as God, and to know also the good, the infinite good- ness of God. But all is not well between us and Heaven, and fear ever awakens at tidings from thence. ^^And the Angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary : for thou hast found favour with God: and, hehold, thou shalt conceive in the womh, and shalt hring forth a Son, and shalt call Sis na/ine Jesus."" The Name above every name, at which every knee shall bow : the Name given of God, and which, therefore, conveys the gift of all the Name implies : and which is prophetic of the life and charac- ter of Him on whom it is bestowed. So even the ex- pression " they shall call," or " He shall be called," in the sacred idiom indicates the thing itself designated by the word, as spoken by Him " Who calleth things that be not, as though they were." Tor His declaration that it shall be, is equivalent to the performance, and conveys the thing signified: and therefore "no ivord shall be impossible with God." Nothing impossible for Him to say, and there is nothing that He can say, but the thing shall be. Thus, words are with God equivalent to things, and things to words, for they also speak His lai%uage. ^^ He shall he great:'''' such is the simphcity of the words that speak of His infinite power, and Godhead, and salvation ; which speak of Him, of whose greatness "there shall be no end." "Go up to Heaven," says Origen, " see there how His greatness has filled the heavenly places ; carry thy thoughts down to the deep, behold, THE AXGEL APPEAEING TJIfTO ST. MAET. 35 there too He lias descended. If thou seest this, then beholdest thou fulfilled in very deed, He shall be great ^" " And He shall he called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David. '^ Thus long before the Nestorian heresy arose, and the Council of Ephesus had cut off that error from the Church, this passage of itself de- clares the one undivided nature of Christ, confessing, as St. Irenseus observes^, that this same Person, who is the Son of the Most High, is also the Son of David. The Evangelical Prophet, in the same manner, combines the two throughout the whole of his wonderful descrip- tion. Por he seems alternating, as it were, from Heaven to earth, from Grod to man ; and combining the two in intimate union ; when he says, " Por unto us a Child is bom, unto us a Son is given : and the government shall be upon His shoulder : and His name shall be called "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty Grod, The everlast- ing Pather, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, . . . from henceforth even for ever ^." Indeed, the very first words with which it is stated imply the same, for He is the " Child" of Mary, but the " Son" of God. It is to Him, as such, that God shall give all authority and power, and "put all things in subjection under His feet ;" as is so often declared of His Eesurrection and Ascension. " All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth;" that is not of course as God; — for as such He says, " before Abraham was I AM," equal to the Pather in power and glory — but as God and Man, overcoming the powers of darkness, and exalted far 5 Aur. Cat. « irgn. 1. iii. 18. "> Isa. ix. 6, 7- D 2 36 THE ATs'GEL APPEARING UNTO ST. MAET. above all principality and power. Thus shall all the promises made to David be fulfilled — in man indeed, yet not after a human, but after a Divine manner, and sur- passing the thoughts of man. " And He shall reign^' it is added, " over tlieliouse of Jacohfor ever; and of His hingdom shall there he no end' ' " The house of Jacob" indicates the twelve Patriarchs and twelve tribes ; and the twelve tribes signify the whole world, or the spiritual Israel ; for the number twelve signifies perfection, the fulness of the Chris- tian Church. Thus Isaiah speaks of the stranger as " calling himself by the name of Jacob," and " sur- namiug himself by the name of Israel." Even to the house of Jacob after the flesh is His kingdom preached; and then in the deeper fulfilment does it pass to that house of Jacob which is composed of " Israelites indeed," and the true children of Abraham. For as Christ is first preached to Judah, so is He also to the ten tribes that are scattered abroad : for as lost in the world, when the world is preached to, they also are called into the kingdom ; and thus St. James, in writing to all composing Christ's kingdom, greets " the twelve tribes scattered abroad." The sea of Baptism in Christ's Temple is set on the twelve sacrificial oxen of the house of Israel. Those that are sealed in the Eternal City are of the twelve tribes. Thus is His kingdom without limit and without end ; for all things in Him are true, of which earthly things are but the shadows. His sceptre " is a right sceptre," His kingdom a true kingdom, in comparison with which all others are but unreal. The very words intimate something infinitely exalted of the Messiah, such as the Prophets indeed ex- pressed, but the Jews knew not ; and the faith of the THE A:S-GEL APPEAEIKG unto ST. MAET. 37 blessed Virgin already takes hold of tlie mysterious greatness of His words : for as one espoused to Joseph, she might, humanly speaking, have supposed that it was to be one naturally born of that union; but her thoughts are arising above such an human interpretation to some- thing infinitely holy and pure. "And Ilary said unto the Angel, How shall this he, since I hioio not a man?'''' Her question arises from the greatness of her faith, not from the want of it. She doubted not in unbelief, as all Catholic writers agree, but inquired of the mode, for she knew it not, and could not tell, unless it was declared to her. For, in asking how it was to be, she expressed her belief that it was to be. And, indeed, the unbelief of Zacharias in that which was beyond nature, enhances by the contrast the faith of the Virgin in that which is contrary to nature. She had, perhaps, read that a Virgin should conceive, and believed ; but how a Virgin was to conceive, she had not heard, and knew not. But, as Grregory jSTyssen beautifully observes, "the tables of our nature, which guilt had broken, the true Lawgiver has formed anew to Himself from our dust, creating a body capable of taking His divinity, which the finger of Grod hath carved, that is to say, the Spirit coming upon the Virgin ^" " And the Angel answered and said unto her, The Soly Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Fower of the Most Sigh shall overshadow thee ; loherefore also that Holy Thing which is horn of thee shall he called the Son of Godr " The Power of the Most High" appears equivalent to the former expression, " The Holy Grhost," as in other places, and in the Doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer. But St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Gregory, say that the Power of the Most High is Christ 8 Aur. Cat. St. Luke, Ox. tr. 38 THE AKGEL APPEAEINa UKTO ST. MAET. Himself: and it is well supposed that tlie terms, " the Most High," " the Power,' ' and the " Holy Ghost," speak of the Three Persons in One Grod ; as is also set forth at His Baptism. The term " overshadow " is often in Holy Scripture applied to Grod's Power, as " Hide me under the shadow of Thy wings," "in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me." If we may say it with reverence, it expresses that image which our Lord has taken to Himself^, " as a hen" by the warmth and pro- tection of her wings overshadowing brings her offspring to the birth. And thus, in this our Lord's birth, is there a resemblance to that of Christians at Baptism, " who are bom not of the will of man, nor of the wiU of the flesh, but of Grod :" and this was set forth at our Lord's Baptism, by the Spirit's overshadowing as of a Dove, and the Voice from Heaven declaring the Son of Grod. It has before been noticed that the blessed Virgin seems a type of the Church, as married, yet a virgin, an im- maculate Bride " without spot or wrinkle or any such thing," yet bearing children unto Grod : and perhaps in this also, that the holy Mary, though married to one, yet conceived not by him, but bore supernaturally : as the Church to external appearances is joined to the world by its visible and temporal Priesthood, but in reality is filled with Spirit and with Grace. Thus in the Eeve- lation, though we doubt not " the woman clothed with the sun^" to be the Church, yet it contains an apparent allusion to the Virgin Mother, for" she brought forth a Man Child, who was to rule all nations." " Bom oftJiee,'' says the Latin and English translation; and al- though the words " of thee" are not found in the Greek, but only "that Holy Thing which is born;" yet the 5 Matt, xxiii. 37. ^ Rev. xii. 1. THE AKGEL APPEAEITTG TNTO ST. MAET. 39 expression" of thee," is not without Scriptural autho- rity. For this, as St. Basil observes, is what St. Paul says, that Grod sent His Son born, not through or by a woman, but " of a woman," signifying thereby com- munion of nature with us. And St. Athanasius, " we confess It to be of the nature of man, and a most real Body, the very same according to nature with our own body. Eor Mary is our sister, since we are all de- scended from Adam." But the expression " that Holy Thing," indicates that in this He differs from aU man- kind, that He is born Holy; for David in lamenting his uncleanness says, " in sin hath my mother conceived me:" but this conception being infinitely holy and pure, and therefore unlike that of aU mankind, He is in this place called "that Holy Thing :" being Holy as no child of man is holy. But the Angel, to support and strengthen her faith for an event so infinitely great, and to afford the infor- mation due to her, adds a sign close at hand in one of her own kindred : and the circumstance confirms what has been said of the barrenness of holy women being typical of the Virgin state of our Lord's Mother. He mentions not, says St. Chrysostom, Sarah, or Eebecca, or Eachel, which were the more ancient examples, but one more near home, and a fact then approaching. " And, heJiold, Elisabeth thy kinswoman ; she herself also hath conceived a son in her old age ; and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For loith God nothing shall he impossible.'''' " Was called barren" ofcourse merely signifies she that was, and was known to be so, as this word has been before explained : and this fact is given as a confirmation of that Almighty Power which can do all things for them who believe, with Abraham, that "what He hath promised He is able 40 THE ANGEL APPEAEI5TG UNTO ST. MAUT. also to perform." All things are possible witli Grod, as St. Augustin explains it, excepting those things to be able to do which would be an indication not of power but of want of power, and to be able to do which would be not to be Almighty. For " it is impossible for God to lie." ^^ And Mary said, BeTiold the liandmaid of the Lord ; te it unto me according to thy word.''' Behold the handmaid of the Lord, that is to say, one that is His and not her own. All thought of self is lost in God, there is no reflection of herself, but as belonging unto Him, as His property, His handmaid and servant ; having no will but His will; as passive in Him. There is no instance of ready obedience, of devout acquiescence, of entire resignation on record more beautiful than this. Great is that humility which speaks not of itself, or speaks of itself only to condemn and deprecate. But greater is that humiHty which passes on from thought of self altogether, and is able to speak of self without self- reflection or self-esteem. Thus St. John can make men- tion of himself as the "beloved disciple," and St. Paul can speak of himself as not behind the chiefest of Apo- stles, though he be nothing. So does the blessed Virgin lose herself in the thought of God and of His service. Humility and faith, although thinking themselves un- worthy of the least of God's mercies, yet they shrink not from the magnitude of " the Unspeakable Gift." This wonderful greatness, together with the wonderful littleness of our nature, is the greatest mystery in the complex nature of man, a combination in itself inex- plicable, and the source of numberless contradictions in morals : yet both of them are at the same time realized by faith : both find rest in Him Who is both God and man; and the most humble of men. The Heathen moralist THE AXGEL APPEAEIXG UKTO ST. MAET. 41 had caught a glimpse of this great truth, though it filled his system of Ethics with inextricable difficulties, when he made " greatness of soul" the crown of liis virtues, and the chief point in his perfectly wise and good man to be, that he should deem himself capable of great things, and yet that this high sense of his own capa- bilities should not be beyond the truth ^. This was the very point in the faith of Abraham, when first his home and country, — and then an earthly Canaan, and then the child of his old age, and all things temporal — were trivial to him ; while in profoundest humility he looked to the greatest things which Grod could bestow, thinking of nothing less than Grod Himself, his " exceeding great reward." So was it with the faith of aU the Saints of old, as described in the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews ; they sought " a better country," they " looked for a City that hath foundations," they despised the pleasures of sin, looking for "greater riches," and as " seeing Him who is invisible." Thus the spies who were rejected, and the children of Israel, deemed them- selves incapable to contend with the Anakims, and un- worthy of the good things which God had promised. Thus the Jews afterwards had very low ideas of what they might attain through Christ : judging themselves "unworthy of everlasting life^:" thinking of nothing higher than of that kingdom which the Eomans could take away: like the unprofitable servant in the parable, like Lot who could not escape to the mountain of re- fuge, like Judas who could not raise his desires beyond thirty pieces of silver. Thus also with those accepted of Christ in the Evangelical narrative, their humility and their faith were only equalled by the greatness of - Arist. Ethic, lib. iv. iii. ' Acts xiii. 46. 42 MAEY YISITIK^a ELISABETH. their requests. They that asked little had little faith, and received but httle: they that asked much had much faith, and received much. Thus the Centurion, thus the Canaanitish woman, thus the penitent thief: they asked and received great things. As Origen, in his Treatise on Prayer, records it as a saying of our Lord's, " ask for great things, and small things shall also be given you." So mysteriously are humility and faith combined : for if Grod gives grace to the humble, how humble must she have been who was pronounced " full of grace :" if faith alone can receive great things of G-od, what must her faith have been who was thus privileged ? ^^And the Angel departedfrom her,'^ SECTION IV. MAEY TISITII^G ELISABETH. The feelings of the blessed Virgin upon the departure of the Angel, her fear, her love, her self-abasement and devotion, are all hidden from our view in that Divine care which hath veiled her from human sight. But the intelligence of the Angel fills her with a holy in- terest for another, who was in some degree a partner with herself in being made an instrument in the won- derful works of God, which had been kept secret from the foundation of the world. Teehngs of overwhelm- ing joy and fear vrill ever seek for a vent : there was one only with whom she could rightly communicate respecting these mysterious circumstances : and in the condition to which she was now raised, to visit her rather than be visited by her, was a part of humility and MAET VISITING ELISABETH. 43 charity. The distance was great, about a hundred of our miles ; but distance and time seemed annihilated in the greatness of the things which were now coming to pass ; and in which thej were to bear so signal a part. It was not the birth of a king, nor the gaining of a kingdom, but the secret with which her bosom was labouring, was something infinitely higher than any thing of which a human breast had ever yet been made the receptacle. She knew it not; for it surpassed her thought ; but in adoring faith and wonder, she was as one of those happy spirits to whom it will be said at the last Day, " enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." Still as she proceeds in thought, she is lost in the sub- limity and depth of the immensity of that mystery, and the more overwhelmed in her own lowliness and nothingness as she advances more profoundly into its immeasurable depths. And perhaps the way she had to go, over that wild and mountainous tract, was in itself soothing to a spirit thus full. It was the time of spring, when all nature, which had been made from the beginning to t}^ify and prefigure this event, was har- monizing with her condition ; in signs of Him "Who is the true Light that Hghteth every man that cometh into the world ; Who is Himself the Eesurrection and the Life. All nature was conceiving and bringing to birth, and in the gladness that pervades all sights and sounds in the wild natural world, it would seem as if the curse itself denounced on the ground was suspended ; or that all things gave indications that it would be overcome. It was the season when light, day by day, is mastering the darkness, and the lengthening days seem to indicate a time, when in the true Light there would be perfect Day, and "no darkness at aU." The circumstance itself of this visit, thus disclosed by the narrative of 44 MAET YISITI^^G ELISABETH. St. Luke, breaks forth as a light amid the clouds that envelope that period of the sacred history, and seems to disclose the figure of the blessed "Virgin herself, hastening over the mountains. " A7id Mary rose up in those days, and ivent into the Mil country with haste, into a city of Juda : and entered into the house of Zacharias, and saluted Elisabeth j'^ But from the Evangelist let us turn to the Prophet (for here also is the Virgin type of the Church) : " 0 Zion, thou that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain ; — lift up thy voice with strength, say unto the cities of Judah, Behold youi' God." " Break forth into singing, ye mountains, 0 forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob." " Sing, 0 Heavens ; and be joyful, 0 earth ; and break forth into singing, 0 mountains ; for the Lord hath comforted His people!" " How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings * !" In the Hghter strains of the Latin Hymn — Ye mountains, bend ye low, O'er which the Virgin flies, To whom the starry skies Would their glad summits bow. In maiden fear conceal'd, Long hid in quiet home, She now abroad doth come, With charity her shield. She flies without delay, — She flies from human eyes, — Not to be seen, she flies, And fears lest aught betray. < Isa. xl. 9; xliv. 23 ; xlix. 13; hi. 7- MAET VISITING ELISAEETH. 45 Blest earth, whereon she trod, Put forth your fragrance sweet ; — Blest hills that felt her feet, The mother with her God ! More blest ye friends, whose guest She now doth silence break. Of heavenly things to speak. And where her footsteps rest ! She rose up, and hastened to the mountains : she arose, " not as incredulous concerning the oracle," says St. Ambrose, " nor uncertain about the message, nor doubtful of the example ; but as rejoicing in the fulfil- ment of her wishes, full of piety, and hastening for glad- ness, she proceeds to the mountains, Eor whither but to those things that are above should she hasten who is filled with Grod ^ ? " The expression of her "rising up," as in the Prophet Jeremiah, seems to signify great zeal and earnestness, as " rising up early and sending them," "rising up early and speaking," "rising early and protesting," And together with the word " hastening," indicates something of great zeal in her character, which, like that of St, John the Evangelist, seems to combine great fervour with pensive contemplation. " The grace of the Holy Spirit," says Ambrose, " knows not slow endeavours." It was at the call of duty she hastened to one sanctified to Grod's service, and now in travail. "She before," says the same writer, "was dwelling alone in inmost sanctuaries, but maiden modesty now stops not her call abroad, nor roughness of mountains her zeal, nor the length of journey her duty." Deep was, doubtless, the thrill of reverential awe and joy, when the aged Elisabeth found her, whose holy feet had touched her threshold ; nor was it merely the 5 Expos, in Luc. lib. ii. 19. 46 MAEY TISITING ELISABETH. human feeling of devotion, however fervent ; for He Who " despised not the Virgin's womb," already was manifesting His awful presence. Through all the Prophets that had gone before, and through all the Jewish state, and through all the sufferings of creation laboring and travailing in the mighty womb of nature, there had been joyful anticipations and gleams of His Coming, blending joy and mercy with sorrow and judg- ment ; so that, although the curse of sorrow had passed on the world, yet even that curse of sorrow was alle- viated by prophetic anticipations, and an instinctive consciousness of His Approach. And in like manner now did the great Porerunner, feeling the nearer coming of Christ, prophesy while yet unborn : as the Law of old. Divinely prescient and inspired beyond reason, and as the Prophets of old rejoiced to see the day of Christ, saw it afar off and were glad. " A7id it came to pass that when JElisaheth heard the salutation of Mary, the Babe leaped in her womb.'''' And surely meet and sig- nificant was the circumstance, as predictive of the coming of that kingdom whose mysteries are revealed unto babes ; into which none shall enter but they who are as little children. And as the children in the Temple celebrated Christ's coming, though they knew not what great things it portended ; and their prophetic gestures were accepted by Him, Who "out of the mouths of very babes and sucklings hath perfected praise :" even so now was the child delighted at com- ing into being, feeling already (as Lazarus in the grave) the gladness of His presence Who is the Eesurrection and the Life, Who knew and beheld him in the womb. " Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect. How dear are Thy counsels unto me ! 0 how great is the sum of them !" MAET TISITITia ELISABETH. 47 The sacred mother also of the Prophet was her- self filled with the Holy Grhost, " "Who no doubt," says St. Augustin, " revealed unto her what the exultation of the infant signified, viz. that the mother had come of Him whose forerunner and preacher he was about to be ! " " Nor is it without a meaning,' ' says St. Ambrose, " that before John was born Elisabeth prophesies, and Mary before the birth of the Lord, for the preludes of human salvation are already creeping on. For as sin begun with woman, so also from women good things commence." And as it is described in the Prophet, " thou that bringest good tidings lift up thy voice with strength :" — for the loud voice, as the loud voice of our Lord at His death, indicates, that it is with Divine and not human power that she spake ; — " And Misaheth was filled ivith the Soly Ghost, and cried with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women .'" using the very same words as the Angel had used to her be- fore, for it was the same Holy Spirit that spake in both, declaring the same both by Angels and men. " Blessed among women," that is with a peculiar blessedness, so as to be indeed blessed above all women, but still "among women," one with women, not to be elevated above humanity; for he that doeth the will of Grod more perfectly, shall be more blessed even than she. " And blessed is the fruit of thy womh ;" the fruit of thy womb, "for," says St. Ambrose, "Mary is the rod that shall come forth from the stem of Jesse, and Christ the Plower which shall proceed from its root ^." And it was said of David, " of the fruit of thy body will I set on thy seat." And from this expression, Severua justly argues, " that Christ was Very Man, of the sub- " Isa. xi. 1. Septuag. Trans. 48 MAET VISITING ELISABETH. stance of His motlier, for the fruit is of tlie same sub- stance with the tree." But the humility of Elisabeth is in accordance with her holiness and faith, and kindled by her grati- tude ; the more thou art exalted, the more humble thy- self. And as the Baptist himself afterwards said, " I have need to be baptized of Thee, and com est Thou to me?" so Elisabeth now exclaims, ^^ And from whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me ;" who am I, to obtain honor so great ? for that thou art thyself the mother of my Lord the great harbinger within me hath already intimated, "/or, behold, when tJie voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, there leaped for exceeding gladness the hahe in my womh.''^ The expression of leaped seems taken from the in- stinctive and playful movement of lambs, as from a secret kindling within at the presence of the great Sun of Righteousness. Nothing is more mysterious or inca- pable of marked separation than the distinction between sentient and unconscious nature; both blend imper- ceptibly, both are in the hands of the great Spirit, and capable of His inspiring power. Jacob and Esau strove together in the womb, as feeling the coming on of their divided characters and destinies. The be- calmed sea, the darkened sun, the shaken earth, the spirits of the deep, the diseases of men, knew Him ; much more His own great forerunner, though unborn ; by exultation in the womb answering the salutation of the mother of the Lord. " And blessed,'' adds the inspired mother, " is she that believed;'" — if we might venture to interpret it on a subject so replete with danger, (as the experience of the Church bears witness, and as Scripture by its silence and its admonitory caution seems to intimate,) we MAEY TISITi:S'G ELISABETH. 49 sliould say " slie that believed," i. e. pre-eminently among, and in consequence blessed above women. And doubtless the humility of the blessed Virgin was such as supported her without falling in heights so great above humanity ; but not so are we ; and we cannot contem- plate her, or our own common nature in her, without becoming giddy at the contemplation of it, and falling into depths the more dangerous from that exaltation. " And blessed is she that believed," who hath had faith to realize, and by that realizing faith to bring about the fulfilment of those promises : " For tliere shall he an accomplishnent of those things loJiich are spoken unto her from the Lord'' " Blessed is she that beHeved ;" we cannot think of the words without being warned by our Lord's own declaration on the subject, AVho to the words, •'blessed is the womb that bare Thee ;" added, "yea, rather blessed are they who hear the word of Grod and keep it." Thus St. Ambrose says on this passage, " And ye also are blessed who have heard and believed ; for whatsoever soul hath believed, both conceiveth and bringeth forth the A-Vord of God, and acknowledgeth His works. In each let there be the sonl of Mary, that it may magnify the Lord ; in each let there be the spirit of Mary that it may rejoice in Grod. If according to the flesh the Mother of Christ is but one ; yet, according to faith, the fruit which all bear is Christ." " And Mary said, My soul doth magiufy the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savioii^r. Be- cause He hath looked on the humiliation of His servant:''* of one, who although of the Eoyal stock of David, hath now been in obscurity, and perhaps among the humblest of the people. " For, l)ehold,from henceforth all genera- tions shall esteem me blessed.' ' Her first expressions, or E 50 MAET VISITING ELISABETH. something equivalent to them, are often found in the Psalms. With the words of David she seems to say, " O praise the Lord with me, and let us magnify His Name together;" and again, " praise the Lord, 0 my soul ; and all that is within me praise His holy Name." Very suitable was it that she, of the seed of David, and one herself, if we may venture to say it, " after Grod*s own heart," and who had probably ever lived in the Psalms, should throughout this Hymn use words so like those of that sacred Book. The pause indeed in each verse resembles that of the Psalms. " For Se that is powerful Tiath done to me great things:'' yet even here she allows not a thought to rest on herself, but adds, " and holy is His Name'' It may be observed, that she speaks of Him that is Mighty, and Holy is His Name, and thus proceeds, but without mentioning the Name of Grod, excepting in the first verse, from a sort of reverential reserve, whereby men utter not that name of which their hearts are most full. Then as if attributing the favour she had thus derived, not to herself, but to Abraham and to David, and the covenant and promise made to them, she adds, " and His mercy is to generations of generations unto them that fear Him'' It is the mercy of Grod and His tenderness to the lowly, which the humble mind most dweUs upon; for considering that it has nothing in itself worthy of His regard, it attributes all to His unmerited compassions. And still ill language resembling that of her Eoyal father, " He hath made strength with His arm," for "the arm" of Grod is of itself an expression often used in the Psalms. " He hath scattered the haughty in the 'purpose ofthei/r hearts." So was it with the Jews, who MAET V1SITI^"G ELISABETH. 51 in their pride were looking for a temporal kingdom, beiQg lifted up with their descent from Abraham, and in this the purpose of their heart, bent on views of ambition and covetousuess : and He hath scattered them into all lands by the strength of His arm, that is by Christ Crucified, for He, the " arm of the Lord," was not " revealed " unto them '. Thus He hath dispersed the proud Jews, hath exalted the humble Gentiles ; and thus hath He in numberless ways given to the meek to tread on scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy. St. Cyril considers the evil spirits themselves to be the proud whom He has dispersed in their imagina- tions : Theophylact thinks the Jews ; other writers, all the proud whose hearts He hath revealed. According to the beautiful coincidences of Scripture, we may take it in all these senses alike. The past tense by which it is spoken may, according to the Hebrew idiom, be pro- phetic ; or it may be expressive of custom or habit, and therefore a principle in God's ways observed by faith, and which therefore becomes predictive, as such ways of God are but precursory of higher fulfilments. ^^ He liatli put down potentates from tlirones, and set on JiigJi them that are loiv.^' Thus He turned His favour from proud Saul to the humble David, as he kept the sheepfolds ; thus, from proud Pharisees to babes ; from proud Jews to humble heathens. The same exercise of His power was observed in His Providence among the nations of the world, to whatever nominal cause they might have attributed it, as the early Greek historian to the envy of the gods ; the late Latin poet to fortune *. But it is the very characteristic of His kingdom, that it shall make low the mountains, and exalt the valleys. 7 Isa. liii. 1. " Hor. lib. i. Ode xxxv. E 2 52 MAET YISIT^G ELISABETH. How great therefore must have been the humility of the Virgin herself to have been so highly exalted ; how deep the contrition ; that the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity should have so signally dwelt with her ! " The hungry lie hath Jilled with good things, and the rich Se hath sent away empty. '^ The Jews, who were rich in the promises of God and all the covenanted blessings of Jerusalem, He hath sent away empty ; but the hungry from among the Grentiles, represented by the Prodigal son, He hath filled with good things. And in the Church generally, them that hunger and thirst after righteousness He filleth : to those that deem them- selves already full He imparts nothing of His grace or gifts. But more particularly at His second Advent in judgment, the hungry shall be "satisfied" with the riches of His house. This Hymn indeed is remarkable, as being the first clear annunciation of these peculiar doctrines of the Grospel, as they are afterwards set forth more fully in the Sermon on the Mount. " He hath taken hold of Israel His child,^^ or His servant, — but it is child in Hosea, " when Israel was a child, then I loved him^," — so as " to have remenibered His mercy, ^* or to show to mankind that He had not forgotten, as the word seems to be sometimes applied to the Almighty, as of His remembering our sins ; and of His being mindful of His covenant. " As He spaTce unto our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for everJ^ Now at length is the great fulfilment of that promise, made to Abraham more than eighteen hundred years before, of the blessing to be on his seed : already are his seed " as the dust of the earth ^;" but that is not all ; they shall not only 3 Hosea xi. 1. J Gen, xiii. 16. MAET VISITING ELISABETH. 53 people earth, but also Heaven ; they shall likewise be, in the express words of the promise, " as the stars of Heaven ^." Tor they "that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake." " And they that turn many to righteous- ness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever ^." This is the Hymn to which nothing can be added and nothing taken from it : embracing all the Grospel ; its mercies, its doctrines, its precepts, its judgments, its covenant with the true Israel of Grod, and the fidfilment of all the prophecies going before. The Hymn of the Church, the Hymn of our Lord, the Hymn of all Hymns: the Hymn Evangelical; "the perpetual in- cense" of the evening sacrifice; rising daily before Grod " with the prayers of the Saints." " And Mary remained with lier about three months.^' Thrice the moon had filled her horn amidst those wdld and desolate mountains, while the blessed Virgin and Elisabeth thus conversed in Hymns and Psalms, making melody in their hearts to the Lord; and in prayers and humiliations prepared themselves for those mighty events, which were on the point of now opening on Israel, having been " kept secret from the founda- tion of the world." But though these events were so heart-stirring and inspiring, and it may be said exciting, yet there appears something in the blessed Virgin herself calm, and clear, and meek in spirit ; no hasty word, no sound of excitement escapes her. In the atmosphere of " a meek and quiet spirit," which is in the sight of Grod of such great price, she seems to walk as above this world ; for such a heart the thought of God, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, fills with tranquillity ; as the bird is supported calm and 2 Gen. XV. 5 ; xxii. 17- ^ Dan. xii. 2, 3. 54 MAEX YISITING ELISABETH. motionless in tlie infinite expanse of Heaven. If little is said of her, so she herself also, in the instinctive re- serve of a pure and thoughtful mind, says but little, but " pondered these things in her heart." The obscure Nazareth, the lonely mountains of Judea, and this the natural partner of her sympathies, are all the society in which her retiring and thoughtful spirit seems to move. It has been well said of her, she was not insensible of the incomparable honour, yet not at all transported with it into any vain complacencies, but submits to it rather as a mysterious dispensation which she could not tell how to comprehend, than glories in it as a privi- lege. " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to Thy Word." It is in the Hymn of the Magnificat that the blessed Virgin is disclosed to us more than by any other passage in Scripture, as ex- pressive of her feelings and character; and it is remark- able as dropping in her exceeding exultation the thought of self — her joy is not in herself, but in God her Saviour : and from the overwhelming sense of His mercies to herself, in her lowly condition, she passes at once to the contemplation of these mercies in God, as evinced in this instance to herself : thus does she forget her own greatness in the aboundings of those mercies to others, and loses the individual instance, although that was herself, in the archetype itself of those eternal mercies in God ; and especially on the manifestation of those mercies in the lowest estate of others. This cir- cumstance renders this Hymn, even humanly speaking, so suited to the use of the Church, from its being the expression of those humble feelings whereby the indi- vidual is lost in that which is universal. To this may be added another point indicating the humility and piety of the blessed Virgin, that the MAET YISITING ELISABETH. 55 Hjmii itself is not one freely and independently com- posed of her own words, but founded on that of Miriam and Hannah in the Old Testament. But then we know that in a higher view it is the Hymn of the Holy Spirit, one and the same in different women, at different periods of time. And this consideration immediately connects it with another subject of great interest, before alluded to ; how these holy women in Scripture, and especially the blessed Virgin herself, are in a mysterious manner made to typify and represent the Church. This Hymn throughout seems to be spoken in the person of the Church, and full of great and deep signification in this sense, as she whose spirit rejoices in Grod her Saviour, whom all generations shall call blessed, in which God exalts the humble and sets down the proud. So har- monious and coinciding, so full of Divine ordering and design are all things in Scripture. Thus numberless points seem to fall in with this mysterious figure of the Church being set forth as a woman. It may be ob- served that Heathen nations are represented under dif- ferent figures ; Egypt is " the great dragon that Heth in the midst of his rivers V' and " the dragon was wroth with the woman ^" Tyre as a ship which "the east wind hath broken in the midst of the seas "." Moab "the dove that maketh her nest in the sides of the hole's mouth ^" Assyria as the cedar, " with a shadow- ing shroud and of an high stature '." Eomeas the goat or the eagle. But the faithless synagogue of Israel as an unclean woman or an adulteress ^. And the true Church as a woman immaculate and spotless, yet betrothed : as desolate, yet with " many more children than she that hath an husband \" * Ezek. xxix. 3. ^ Rev. xii. 17. ^ Ezek. xxvii. 26. " Jer. xlviii. 28. 8 Ezek. xxxi. 3. ^ Ezek. xxiii. 29. 43. i Gal. iv. 27- 56 THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. Since therefore, as it lias been well said, the most fertile source of error arises from mistaking of the symbol for the thing signified, it is not to be wondered at that the blessed Virgin should have been by degrees exalted so far above humanity ; and from thence im- perceptibly to have become the great object of Divine worship. Such is the perversity and obliquity of the human heart, that every high doctrine can alone be rightly received by the good : in the minds of the gene- rality, which are evil, it assumes some form of error. And thus the consideration of a visible Church which should have influenced their hearts, takes hold of a sensible form, selecting for the object of its worship the most exalted of mankind ; and fastens thereon with that exclusive and intense corruption which is engendered in the many : while on the other side the Church itself becomes embodied with temporal power, infallible in human, tangible shape, not in that spiritual union which is of faith. " And she returned unto lier own home.^^ SECTION V. THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. " But to JElisabeth the time was noiv fulfilled for her delivery; and she brought forth a son^ A birth so extraordinary must necessarily have created great in- terest, and much sympathy and congratulation from those to whom she was related or known : but the great- ness of the child, and the miraculous interposition which had attended his birth, were not at all communicated unto them. ^^ And the neighbours and her Vmdred heard that the Lord had magnified upon her His mercy ; THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. 57 and they rejoiced with her.'''' So that this was already a pledge of the fulfilment of that which the Angel had foretold, that " many" should " rejoice at his birth." " They rejoiced," says St. Ambrose, "for the birth of the saints hath the joy of many ; for it is a good com- mon to all : righteousness is a virtue of which all derive the benefit. Therefore on the rising of the just man the sign of his future life is sent beforehand ; and the grace of the virtue which is to follow is represented by the rejoicing of neighbours, which prefigures the same ^." " And it came to ^oass that on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child :^' they came to the house of Zacharias, not to the synagogue, for Elisabeth could not have gone forth for three and thirty days\ And cir- cumcisions recorded in Scripture, as of Abraham, of the son of Moses, and others, were not in the synagogue. Eor the rite itself in its institution preceded the Law and the Temple. " And they called him hy the name of his father Zacharias : and his mother answered andsaid, A^o, hut he shall he called John.'''' The circumcision first took place, and afterwards the giving of the name ; " Because first," says St. Chrysostom, " the Divine seal is imposed, and afterwards the human appellation ; or because no one is worthy to be admitted into the book of life unless he first cast aside things carnal, which circumcision signifieth'*." His kindred would ihipose on him the Priestly name, as adhering to the Law : but his mother through the Spirit imposes upon him a name signifying the grace of God, and setting aside the Law: or setting aside the name given according to the line of succession as to one of Priestly parents ; and giving him a new name as herald of the Priest according to the order 2 In Luc. lib. ii. 30. ^ Lgvit. xu. 4. * Horn. 39. 58 THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. of MelcMsecIec. Por in thus speaking she doubtless was silently instructed by the same Spirit who spake by the Angel to Zacharias ; and thus Eebecca and Eachel were perhaps Divinely controlled to assign namesto their children, symbols given before of Divine superintend- ence, and like stars presiding over their birth and desti- nies. So important was the giving of a name. Not that the name always indicated the future condition of the child, for often it appears an acknowledgment of Grod's mercies to the parents. Thus Eve gave the name of Cain because she had " gotten a man from the Lord ;" and the name of Seth, because God had " appointed another seed instead of Abel:" and Sarah gave the name of Isaac because Grod "hath caused" her "to laugh;" and Moses gave the name of Grershom because he had been " a stranger ;" and that of Eliezer because the God of his father was his " help ;" and Joseph gave the name of Manasseh, for God had made him to " forget " all his toil ; and Ephraim because God had caused him to be " fruitful ;" and the name of Samuel was given because he was " asked of God." AH of which names seem to have had reference to their parents : and according to which the name of John might have reference to the " graciousness " of God now shown to his parents ; so that many shall " rejoice" at his birth. Thus Maldona- tus takes it. But stiU these names had also a prophetic signification secretly contained in them, besides the in- tention of the parents. Thus Samuel signifies " asked of God," but he was afterwards remarkable for inter- cession or for " asking of God." Sometimes the latter is the point mentioned, thus Noah was so named because he " shall comfort us ;" but especially was this the case in names given of God Himself, as Israel. In hke man- ner therefore the name of John may be prospective, and THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. 59 signify tlie graciousness of Grod to be shown in tliat child, or the grace to be given him. " And tJiey hechoned to his fatlier tvliat he would ivishfor him to he called. Aoid having asked for a tablet, he wrote saying, John is his name ;''^ not shall be, but is his name, the name which he has already received of God. " He has a nam- ing," says St. Ambrose, "which we have acknowledged, not which we have chosen." And thus, as observed else- where of the Title written upon the Cross by Pilate, it was providentially brought to pass, that the name is written, and doubly declared as unalterable, by the very circumstances which rendered it a matter of dispute, " And they all marvelled ;''' they marvelled that al- though Zacharias could not have heard the name that Elisabeth had given, yet he gave the same ; they mar- velled that both should give a name so peculiar and new; they marvelled at the recovery of his speech by Zacha- rias under circumstances so unwonted and remarkable. AH indicated something mysterious and Divine pre- siding over the birth of this child, himself bore beyond nature. The very writing of this name was in itself an act of faith, and immediately the sign of his unbelief was removed. "And his mouth teas opened immediately and his tongue. And he spahe, praising God.'' As if by anticipation of the time which was approaching, when "the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped," and "the tongue of the dumb shall sing," And indeed, it maybe true of this infliction also, that it was not that he had "sijined or his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Nor is it bodily relief only, but with the faith by which the deafness is removed shall they receive spiritual blessings. "Behold," says St. Ambrose, "how good is God, and ready to forgive sins ; 60 THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. not only does He restore wKat had been taken away, but vouclisafes also unlooked for blessings. He who had been aforetime dumb, prophesies ; for this is the great- est grace of Grod, when men confess Him whom they have denied. Let no one therefore distrust, no one conscious of past sins despair of divine rewards." Beautiful indeed, as Bede observes, is this figure, that Zacharias speaks on the eighth day, the day of Christ's Eesurrection, when the secrets of the legal Priesthood were laid open and revealed. And Origen still more particularly ; for speaking of John as " the voice in the wilderness," — the voice that precedes the Word, — he says, " perhaps on this account Zacharias having dis- believed of the birth of that Voice which manifests the "Word of Grod, loses his voice, receiving it again when the Voice, the forerunner of the Word, is born \" And perhaps in this as also in other things, Zacharias may be a figure of the Jewish people, that after their unbehef their tongue shall at last be loosed, and they shall con- fess Christ. Already in Zacharias, in Elisabeth, and St. Mary, and soon after in Joseph, there appears one fulfilment of the promise made to their forefathers, " your sons and your daughters shall prophesy ; your old men shall dream dreams ; your young men shall see visions ; and also upon the servants and upon the hand- maids in those days will I pour out My Spirit ^" Thus, not the coming only, but tlie mysterious Presence of Christ already begins to show indications of itself. And it must be remembered, that duringthe interval before St. John'sbirth our Lord's motherhadbeen with them. "For the three months," says Origen, "Mary remained with Elisabeth, after the Angel had spoken, that by some in- 5 In Joan. Tom. ii. 26, and Tom. vi. 10. ^ Joel ii. 28. THE BIETH OP THE BAPTIST. 61 effable virtue the present Saviour should instruct not onlj John, but Zacharias also ; as the evangelical nar- rative now indicates '." " A)id there came a fear upon all them that dwelt round about. And in the whole of the hill country of Judea all these sayings were spoken of And all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What therefore shall this child he ? And the hand of the Lord loas with hirn.^^ After this statement of the effect of these things, the Evangelist now returns to give that Hymn which he had before spoken of, when the tongue of Zacharias was loosed and he praised God ; or it may be the account of a more formal hymn afterwards delivered by him. " And Zacharias his father ivas filled ivith the Soly Ghost, and prophesied.'^ The Hymn indeed does not distinctly foretel things that are to come : but in the sense in which the term " prophesying" is used of Divine inspi- ration and miraculous agency, nothing could be more prophetic ; for it speaks of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom, in a manner that was quite unknown to the Apostles themselves, even after Christ had been vsdth them for years ; and even after the Holy Spirit had been given. For it speaks of " the knowledge of salvation," " the forgiveness of sins," deliverance from the hands of spiritual enemies, so as " to serve Him without fear," the fidfilment in the highest sense of every Evaugehcal promise. And it may be observed, that it is not of his own son that Zacharias speaks, excepting towards the close of the Hymn, and then only as a subordinate sub- ject, only as the object before him, which led his thoughts to those promises, as coming in, itself but a small part, 7 In Luc. Horn. x. 62 THE BIETH OE THE BAPTIST. and the first indication of that great and approaching dispensation with which his mind is absorbed. He prophesied, " saying, Blessed he the Lord God of Israel, for lie hath visited and made redemption for Sis people ;^' for His people Israel after the flesh, for He came to seek " the lost sheep of the house of Israel," of whom He had said, that He would be their Grod, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and they should be His "people:" but more especially for the true Israel of Grod, His faithful children scattered through- Out the world ; to redeem them from that captivity, whereby they are sold under sin, and in bondage to divers lusts. " And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us, in the house of David, Sis childy The " horn of salvation," more than once occurs in the Old Testa- ment ; and the word "horn" is we know of very fre- quent occurrence throughout the Scriptures in this metaphorical sense, " mine horn is exalted in the Lord," said Hannah, and " He shall exalt the horn of His Anointed." And the figure from which it is taken ap- pears evident from expressions such as, " my horn shalt Thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn ;" and from the horns of the beasts in the visions of Daniel, in all of which places it signifies power. The expression is fur- ther hallowed to sacred use by " the horns of an altar," and " the horn of sanctifying oil." It seems therefore in the first case, an emblem which God hath given to nature of that power which overcomes the world ; and afterwards as a power apparently cut oW, which seems to represent the power that goeth forth in the Sacrifice of Christ ; having lost indeed its natural, but found a spiritual strength ; such is its meaning in the horns of the altar and the graces of His Spirit from the horn of oil. Indeed in both senses is it often found, as in the THE BIETH OP THE BAPTIST. 63 Prophet Daniel, and in the Eevelation of St. John. " According as lie liath spohen tlirougli ihe month of Sis lioly JBrojpJiets ivJiich Tiave lean from the beginning ; — salvation from our enemies^ and from the hand of all that hate us^ That like Joshua of old from whom He is named, He shall deliver us from those enemies we know not of, and place us in His own land, "the land of the living :" where all shall Uve to Him and serve Him in holiness. " Let us not think," says Origen, " that this is spoken of bodily but of spiritual enemies. Tor the Lord Jesus hath come mighty in battle to destroy all our enemies, and to set us free from their snares and temptations." That somehow or other we should be redeemed from our great enemy, who alone worketh against us all temporal and eternal harms ; but what that deliverance, and what those adversaries may be, has been always kept as the secret of God, and revealed only to those that fear Him. " To perforon His mercy on us together loith our fathers, and to remember Sis holy covenant;'''' the fathers by their faith co-operating ; in promise receiv- ing; united with their children in the fulfilment of that mysterious promise which He has been pleased to call His covenant with mankind, or with the Israel of God. " Together with our fathers," says Origen, " because, as I suppose, our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the choir of holy Prophets and just men, enjoyed the benefits of Christ's presence. For if He made peace through the blood of His Cross of things in earth and things in Heaven, according to the Divine Apostle ; why do you hesitate to receive that even to our fathers this visitation came : which was wrought by His going down to Hell." But Theophylact, that the grace of Christ extends even to those that are dead ; 64 THE BIETH OP THE BAPTIST. for tlirougli Him not we only, but they wlio before have died shall rise again. And that He hath showed mercy with them in that He hath fulfilled their hope and long- ing. " The oath which He sware unto Ahraham, that He would give us'' — that oath beyond all oaths of which St. Paul speaks, that because He could swear by nothing greater, He sware by Himself; ^Hhat ivithout fea7\ de- livered out of the hand of our enemies, toe onightdo Him service in holiness and righteousness hefore Him all the days of our life'' Origen seems to understand it of our deliverance without fear, — of our merciful rescue from the jaws of those enemies which we feared, from which he would translate us in a moment of time into His inheritance and portion. But it seems rather spoken of our serving Him "without slavish fear," by receiving the adoption of sons : and by walking in righteousness " before Him," not before men as the Scribes and Pha- risees, but walking before Grod in the Hght of the living; fulfilling what was said of Enoch, and what was said to Abraham, " walk thou before Me and be thou perfect ;" walking "as strangers and sojourners with Grod." And here does the Priestly Prophet dis- close the " great mystery of godliness," not only that secret of the calling of the Gentiles which had been kept unrevealed for so many generations ; but also, the spiritual nature of the Messiah's kingdom : that it is to sanctify to Himself " a pecuhar people zealous of good works," by means of Immanuel or God with us. This is the great Deliverer, whom the true Israelites, circumcised in heart, could alone look for in the Holy Ghost: for God's commandments were dearer to them than thousands of gold and silver ; better than the corn and wine of an earthly Canaan. And they were taught by the Spiiit, that " the world passeth away and the lust THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. 65 thereof, but he that doeth the will of Grod abideth for ever." ^^ And tJwu, child, sJialt he called,^'' and accord- ing to that calling shall in truth be, " a prophet of the Most High ; for thou shalt go hefore the face of the Lord, to mahe ready Sis ways :" as a herald that pre- cedes the advance of a great Prince or royal army. But as he had before spoken of serving Grod in holiness, and there can be no acceptable service without past transgression being blotted out, even this too is now revealed by the Spirit ; " to give knowledge of salvation to Sis people hy the remission of their sins'' As the Evan- gelist of the Gentiles, this St. Luke also mentions in the preaching of the Baptist, that it was "for the remission of sins." " Through the haivels of mercy of our God, hy which hath visited us the rising from on high.'" Yea, He Him- self hath visited us who is called the Bising in the Grreek Scriptures, or the Day-spring. And because, says Theo- phylact, God hath forgiven sins not on account of our works, but of His own mercy, therefore it is added, " through the bowels of mercy of our God." " For God could not have been known," says the same writer, " but by His forgiving their sins unto the people : for it is the part of God to forgive sins." How else in- deed could He be manifested unto sinful creatures, so that they could live under that manifestation of Himself? And, therefore, we may observe, that when God was manifested before Moses, it was proclaiming Himself, " The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering ; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity." And Bede says on this passage, "but the Jews prefer to wait for Antichrist than to receive Christ ; for they desire not to be inwardly liberated from the dominion of sin, but outwardly from the yoke of human slavery." " The Day-spring from on high hath visited us ;" and 66 THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. not of this only does the Prophet speak ; but even that mysterious dispensation, which not only the Jews gene- rally understood not, but which even Apostles were so long in learning, and could not comprehend, is now darkly revealed to Zacharias, speaking in the Spirit : for he makes use of words similar to those which speak ex- pressly of the call and coming of the Grentiles, " who sat in darkness and the shadow of death :" words so used by the Prophet, and so applied afterwards by the Evan- gelist, on our Lord's first preaching in their borders. " To give light unto tliemivJio are sitting in darkness and the shadow of death : to direct our feet into the way of peace. '^ Outward darkness and night are themselves shadows of temporal death; and temporal death itself a shadow of the worse death which is eternal : and the darkness and death of the soul in sin are the beginning of that worse death : on the contrary, day and light are shadows of the Heavenly day and substantial light : and temporal life of that life which is in God : and Christ is already the true Light and the Siui of righteousness. He now shines on those that are sitting in darkness; but in the fulness of His next coming, that Day shall come as a snare on all that sit on the face of the earth. Li the meanwhile they on whom the light arises have their feet directed by it into the way of peace ; this is that light that lighteneth the path of the just, which will burn more and more brightly unto the perfect day. Such was the Hymn of Zacharias, being himself a Priest and a Prophet, belonging to the old dispensation, and appearing in the way of legal righteousness ; repre- senting the Law and the Prophets, inasmuch as both by his silence and his speech he preached the Grospel, and bore testimony unto Christ. And it was on the day of Circumcision that he thus spake, that rite which be- THE BIETH OF THE BAPTIST. 67 longed to the Law, but especially contained within it the germ of the Grospel, being a pledge of that mortifica- tion which shall be in the true disciples of Christ, a part of that Sacrifice which was perfected on the Cross, and in itself preparatory as it were to the Crucifixion. Being moreover on the eighth day, this Hymn sets forth also the Eesurrection of Christ; the new dispensation wherein old things are passed away, and all things are become new : speaking of holiness of life and remission of sins, as gifts to be vouchsafed in the Christian King- dom now coming in, that " new Heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness." After this detailed account of his miraculous birth, the holy Baptist is now entirely withdrawn from our eyes for thirty years : his childhood is described in a few words, and those the same with which our Lord's childhood is also spoken of. " But the child greio and waxed strong in spirit."" There is no scriptural or traditional account of him : but painters have de- lighted to give vent to that imagination by which we are naturally wont to picture the child, as seen in company with our Lord Himself as a Child. That thus they should have been found together as children it is natural to suppose, from the circumstance of the visit of Mary to Elisabeth, from their connexion by kindred, and still more by a holy sympathy, arising from a mysterious sense of the depth of those things among which they walked. And the interest already Divinely indicated in the Forerunner before his birth, at the presence and voice of our Lord's mother, affords a reasonable intima- tion on which a devout imagination may dwell ; and infers a continuance of the same. Such may be supposed to abide as a halo of Divine light, unseen by man, around the infancy of our Lord, when in company with that r2 68 THE ANGEL APPEAEING TO JOSEPH. child who was to be His forerunner and herald. But if the Baptist is in his life " hidden with Christ in Grod," so was it also with his infancy and childhood; he is throughout withdrawn from the sight of men into the wilderness. Holiness of heart and life may be shown before men, and is exercised among them, but it can scarcely be acquired and formed before men, but re- quires silence, retirement, and solitude. " And he was in the wilderness until the day of his shewing unto Israeli (Luke.) Thus Moses was trained in the wil- derness before his coming forth to Israel ; thus Israel was exercised and proved in the wilderness before the land of promise ; thus David before his kingdom was prepared by trial and desolation; thus Elijah; thus Christ, before His teaching, for forty days in the wilder- ness shadowed forth the period of probation ; thus St. Paul was for two years in Ai'abia. It is in the desert that Grod and His Angels are most near ; as nature it- self indicates ; for who is there that in solitary places is not conscious of the presence of unseen beings ? SECTION VI. THE ANGEL APPEAEING TO JOSEPH. When the blessed Virgin had now returned from her cousin Elisabeth to her home at Nazareth, trying and perplexing were the circumstances in which she was placed. Erom the depth of her feeling, and greatness of her piety, it was her custom to ponder things in her heart, rather than to disclose the mercies of Grod to herself, with that sort of virginal retirement of spirit which we find in " the beloved disciple," and in Daniel. " My cogitations," says the latter, " much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me : but I kept the THE AKGEL APPEAEI:N'G TO JOSEPH. 69 matter in my heart ^" And indeed it has been observed among holy men, that a characteristic of true visions and favours of God is an inchnation to conceal them ; of false visions and delusions of the enemy to display and divulge. But here secrecy was accompanied with shame the most afflicting to a sensitive mind ; and with the unjust suspicion and consequent pain of one to whom she was betrothed : yet to whom she ventured not to speak on a subject so full indeed of Divine greatness and exultation, yet at the same time of a nature so dehcate. And thus did our blessed Saviour's shame and suffering for our sakes already begin ; for His holy Mother is already under suspicion in human eyes, and even to those most dear : as if setting forth in figure those in whom Christ shall be born, who shall say, " Eor Thy sake have I suffered reproach : shame hath covered my face." Thus He also Himself had to endure the reproach of blasphemy, because He was the Son of Grod, This painful position of the Holy Vii'gin continued till this effect was already produced in the mind of Joseph, and he must necessarily have been in much distress and difficulty. It is at such emergencies, and not till such have occiu-red, that God interferes : when the very trouble and perplexity prepares the mind to receive a messenger from God. Such Divine interference in the season of extremity is shown throughout the whole of the Old Testament : when the Egyptian bondage was most severe, then Moses was the most nigh; when the chariots of Pharaoh were behind, and the sea before stopping up their way, their supernatural escape was open : the Philistine had seemed to prevail before David appeared : and throughout the history of the 8 Dan. vii. 28. 70 THE ANGEL APPEAETJfG TO JOSEPH. Judges, it was not till the Israelites were in great straits that the miraculous aid was vouchsafed. And indeed so much has that been noticed in the dealings of Provi- dence with mankind, that it was proverbial among Heathens, so as to lend a figure to Epicurean philosophy, and a rule for the fictions of poets, that there must be a knot to untie to justify the interference of a Grod ®. " Now the hirth of Jesus Christ was thus. For Sis 3fother, 3lary, having been espoused to Joseph, hejbre they came together^'' (Matt.) Tor she had been absent now at the house of Elisabeth ; or it may signify before the marriage was solemnized, and that, as St. Chrysos- tom observes, "being betrothed persons they lived in the same house together." But Maldonatus endeavours to controvert this opinion. " ^he was found with child ly the Holy Ghost, ^' i. e. through the operation of the Spirit, for "it is the Spirit that quickeneth," but not as Grod the Eather. " And Joseph her hushand heing a just inan,''^ i. e. either one full of considerate charity and mercy ; or a conscientious observer of the Law, which by specific commands in particular cases, gave general principles to guide men's actions, and had thus stamped all impurity ; from which a righteous Israelite would keep clear as from legal pollution or uncleanness. Thus, therefore, was he desirous to observe the Law, ^^ and yet not wishing to onaJce her a puhlic example,'' as the severity of the Law might have justified, " he was wish- ing privately to put her awayT " St. Matthew has beautifully taught," says St. Ambrose, "how a righteous man ought to act who has detected his wife's disgrace ; so as at once to keep himself guiltless of her blood, and yet pure from her defilements." And St. Augustin, 9 *' Nee deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus." Hor. A. P. 191. THE AKGEL APPEAEING TO JOSEPH. 7l " Joseph, being a just man, with great mercy spared his wife, in this great crime of which he suspected her. The seeming certainty of her unchastity tormented him, and yet because he alone knew of it, he was willing not to publish it, but to send her away privily ; seeking her benefit rather than the punishment of the sinner \" St. Chrysostom seems rather to take the term "just man," not as an observer of the Law, by which she was liable to be stoned to death, (and not only to dismissal,) but as including charity ; as one acting by a higher rule, and above the Law. May it not be taken in the spiritual and better sense in which Christ expounds the Law itself, as implying purity and also mercy ? So that Joseph in thus acting, was righteous according to the Law in the better sense : as pure and not wishing to cohabit with one defiled ; and likewise at the same time as merciful also, and free from jealousy ; of which it is said that "jealousy is cruel as the grave ^." But Origen seems to suppose a higher cause than that of a sus- picion of infidelity. "He sought to put her away, because he saw in her a great sacrament, to approach which he thought himself unworthy." And hence St. Jerome also, that " Joseph, knowing her purity, and wondering at what had happened, covers in silence that mystery which he could not explain ^." '^ And while he ivas considering these things,'" — con- sidering with anxious religious apprehension, as the word generally implies, — " Behold, an An^el of the Lord in a dream appeared unto him.''^ It was not till he was in this state of mind that the Angel appeared : to the con- trite, despairing of human aid, Grod manifests Himself; when the cloud seems to be the most dark, then breaks 1 Aur. Cat. Ox. Tr. - Cant. viii. 6. ^ Com. Matt. 1. i. cap. 1. 72 THE ANGEL APPEAEIXa TO JOSEPH. forth the light of His countenance. But there is a difference in the appearance of the Angel on this occa- sion to that of the two preceding, to Zacharias and St. Mary : for now and three times afterwards to Joseph, it is in a dream ; but in the two former instances it does not appear to have taken place in a dream. It may be that the open appearance in waking hours implied greater nearness and higher acceptance and honour, than the more veiled manifestation by a dream. Thus we read, " If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches." And yet in all the instances re- corded of supernatural visitations in Scripture, there does not appear sufficient to mark this distinction be- tween that which is by dream, and that which is by more open Divine manifestation. To Abimelech, to Pharaoh, to Nebuchadnezzar, to Laban the Syrian, to the Midianite, whom Grideon heard ; but also to Abraham, to Jacob, to Joseph, to Solomon, to Daniel, to St. Peter, and St. Paul, communications were made by dream. Nor is there any marked difference in the nature of the things thus communicated ; excepting so far as the necessity of the case required. And St. Chrysostom seems to attribute the differences here in the mode of communi- cation to this circumstance : that thus the Angel ap- peared only in a dream to Joseph, as not needing the more open visitation ; which the Virgin and Zacharias did from the nature of those discourses, and the Shep- herds did from their ignorance. It is here sufficient to observe, that dreams are the more frequent mode of Divine communication : in sleep more especially, and in THE AKGEL APPEAEIIS^G TO JOSEPH. 73 dreams, access is found into the spiritual world, and the soul is admitted into the land of spu'its *. Hence, no doubt, arose the respect paid to dreams in all parts of the Heathen world ; derived from traditional beHef of communications having been thus made ; and an awful sense of this is most to be observed in the earliest writers, as in Homer and in ^schylus. As access into the deeper world of spirits is then most found, so no where does conscience speak more fearfully than in dreams : for the dream of Clytemnestra in JEschylus, is not less appalling than that of the remorseful Queen in our own great Poet and Tragedian. And we may be- lieve not only that there were true Divine interferences among the Heathen by dream : but also, as in all other matters of rehgion, that the devil should pervert such sacred truths to his own evil purposes. From whence the Wise man saith, " If they be not sent from the Most High, in thy visitation, set not thine heart upon them. For dreams have deceived many, and they have failed that put their trust in them\" No doubt all such supernatural agencies closely touch upon the sub- ject of moral philosophy : evil habits are in the Scrip- ture designated evil spirits : and we find that Aris- totle speaks of the moral faculties being alive in dreams : for he says, " that in those movements of the soul in sleep, the dreams of the good are better than those of ordinary men^." We may suppose, therefore, that as our moral nature is awake, and operating in dreams as well as in waking hours : so spiritual agencies are active in both : but as the outer senses are then closed, the more ready access is then found into the spiritual world. And when do we expect such supernatural * See Vol. Pass. p. 254, 255. ^ Ecclus. xxxiv. 6, 7. ^ Ethics, lib. i. c. xiii. 74 THE ANGEL APPEARITs^G TO JOSEPH. interferences, but on the eve of great coming events : and in states of perplexity and doubt ? The Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, " saying, Joseph, thou son of David /" Eor David shall never be forgotten, and there is some mysterious inten- tion in Joseph also being the son of David, as well as the Virgin Mary, as the genealogies intimate. " Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy ivife, for That Which is con- ceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall hring forth a Son."*' And thou also shalt be highly exalted as the guardian of His childhood, and adopted father, and as such shall declare His name. " And thou shalt call Sis name Jesus, ^^ or Jehovah Saviour, and the reason of the name is given, "/or Se shall save His people from their sins.'" Thus the same Spirit had also expressed the same by Zacharias, " to save us from our enemies, and from the hands of all that hate us." This also will imply His Godhead, for " who can forgive sins but Grod only ?" And it was set forth in the type of His name of old, who led His people into the land of promise : for " Moses called Oshea the son of Nun, Jehoshua V' indicating, what the Angel with the drawn sword ex- pressed, that " it was not their own arm that helped them," but G-od their Saviour. But that this saving us from our enemies and our sins, was not as a warrior only, is set forth by that other type of the same name, " Joshua the High Priest," at the building of the second Temple. He is " clothed in filthy garments," with " Satan standing at his right hand," as bearing our sins, and clothed with our humanity ; which He shall lay aside in the grave, and be " clothed with a change of raiment ^" Leprous as the hand of Moses when he ' Numb. xiii. 16. ^ Zech. iii. 4. THE AFGEL APPEAEING TO JOSEPH. 75 thrust it into his bosom ; but restored again pure of leprosy, when He rose with His glorified Body. And now St. Matthew, as writing for the Jews, who knew not of this miraculous conception, writing at the request of Jews, and himself a Hebrew, introduces as he usually does, and as our Lord Himself does when speaking to the Pharisees, the testimony of their own Prophet. " But all this was done^'' — according to that all-creative word, which had gone forth from G-od, the Breath of the Spirit that quickeneth all things ; — " that it might he fulfilled^ ivhich was spoJcen hy the Lord through the Prophet, saying, Behold, a Virgin shall le with child, and hring forth a Son, and they shall call Sis name Im- manuel, ivhich is, being interpreted, Godioith us.^^ This reference indeed to the Prophet is taken by St. Chry- sostom as a continuation of the Angel's speech. " The Angel," he says, " to make what he said easy to be received, brings in Isaiah." But it seems rather as an observation of the Evangelist. The expression " they shall call His name" is but the sacred language for He shall be : " it is customary," says St. Chrysostom, "in Scripture, to substitute the events that take place for names ; therefore to say ' they shall call His name Immanuel,' means nothing else than that they shall see Grod amongst men." As it is said, the city " shall be called the City of righteousness," not that it shall be so called, but should be so after a Divine manner. But the prophecy itself is one, the fulfilment of which may be taken as an instance of the manifold and progressive senses of Scripture. Por the primary fulfilment of it in the promise made to Ahaz was of course in a very inferior and subordinate sense ; which was simply this, that the events which were to ensue, viz. the deliverance from two hostile kings, will make it appear that they have " Grod" present " with them," as 76 THE AKGEL APPEAEING TO JOSEPH. St. Jerome explains it. But now in the fulness of time, when God Himself hatli come to walk with men, and to be with us, in greatness inconceivable is it ful- filled : when " Grod was manifest in the flesh" forgiving sins : when " the "Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, the glory as of the Only Begotten Son of Grod." But this itself was but the pledge and earnest of a higher fulfilment, when being taken from us in sight. He came to be more intimately with us in spirit. This was surely in a higher sense, " Grod with us ;" when "there came a sound as of a rushing mighty wind;" and "the taber- nacle of Grod" was come to be " with men ;" and with the promise that " He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and Grod Himself shall be with them, and be their Grod." As He said Himself of His faithful disciple, " I will manifest Myself unto him." " "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him." This therefore was a still greater accomplish- ment of the promise, " Grod with us." But yet this itself is but a faint and feeble earnest of that ulterior fulfilment, when Grod shall have taken mankind to be with Him in Heaven, when they " shall ever be with the Lord," when they shall ever be with Him and " see His face," when they shall " see Him as He is;" for now "we see in a glass darkly, but then face to face." And this present state at best is spoken of as " absence from the Lord," in contradistinction from that departing hence which is "far better." And all this is intended by the words of the Prophet, for without this as contained within it, there is no true fulfilment ; the less hath in it the greater ; the greater ariseth out of the less, and could not be without its prior fulfilment : nor would the prior fulfilment avail any thing without the fulness of the entire and final consummation thereof. THE A2fGEL APPEAEIIfG TO JOSEPH. 77 " Then Joseph, when he awohe out of sleep, did as the Angel of the Lord commanded him, and took unto him his ivife. Andhe knew her not until she brought forth her Son, the First-horn. And he called his name Jesus. ""^ He so named Him, i. e. at the circumcision, but St. Matthew mentions it here out of the order of time, to indicate the faithful obedience of Joseph to this Divine message. We do not of course suppose by the term " the Eirst- bom," that she afterwards had children by Joseph; for there is no evidence of this, and to suppose it without evidence is abhorrent to natural feeling and piety, con- trary to the opinion of all good writers, and highly dero- gatory to the holiness of Joseph. " They are most de- praved," says St. Hilary, "who suggest such an opi- nion." And St. Jerome, " from the words, her First-born Son, some most perversely suspect that Mary had other sons, saying, that first-born can only be said of one that has brethren. But this is the manner of Scripture, to call the first-born not only one who is followed by brethren, but the first-birth of the mother." "Her Son, the First-born," is the same title by which St. Luke also speaks of our Lord at His birth. That is to say, the Antitype of all that which the Law prefigured when " that which openeth the womb among the children of Israel" was " sanctified and set apart to the Lord," as saved by Him when all the first-born in the land of Egypt were slain. And afterwards the Levites were taken instead of the first-born among the children of Israel. But when the Levitical Priesthood ceased, and the High Priest rent his clothes in token that the Priesthood of Levi was rent from them, then the Eirst- born Himself of the children of Israel must be taken by the sacrifice of Christ : and " they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," "as one that is in bitterness 78 THE ANGEL APPEAEIIs^G TO JOSEPH. for liis first-born^." This was prefigured by the sacri- fices of the Law : and even long before the Law, by the sacrifice of Abel, which was "the firstling of his fiock." Thus as the first-born of Egypt, so now the first-bom of Israel after the flesh shall fall by the destroying Angel ; while the first-born of the true Israel of Grod is saved, and sanctified as a living sacrifice unto Him. More- over, it is to be observed, in connexion with these sacrifices, that when the first-born are set apart, and afterwards when the Levites are taken in lieu of them, express and emphatic mention is made of the first-born " of beast " as well as of man, — "that which openeth the womb among the children of Israel, and among their cattle," from that time when "all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast," were slain \ And the Levites are taken for the first-born of the children of Israel, and the cattle of the Levites instead of their cattle ^ It seems to be in allusion to this that Christ is spoken of by St. Paul, as " the Eirst-born of every creature," or of all creation, i.e. of man and of beast. It seems also in mysterious reference to the same, that the Everlasting kingdom of Christ is represented, as having some connexion with the new creation both of man and of beast in subjection to Him. " Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet ; all sheep and oxen : yea, and the beasts of the field." And both at His birth in the manger, and after His baptism in the wilderness, He was "with the beasts;" as the true Eirst-born ofiering Himself for them, the Eirst- born of both man and beast. And as it is at Christ's ^Resurrection, especially, that all these things are put in subjection under His feet, in the above-mentioned » Zech. xii. 10. » Exod. xii. 12. « Numb. iii. 45. THE ANGEL APPEARIX& TO JOSEPH. 79 description, so it is to the Eesurrection tliat this expres- sion of the rirst-born is applied. All these typify Him as the First-born of the new creation, for He is " the Eirst-born from the dead," "the First-born among many brethren :" and in the Psalms, with reference to His Eesurrection and Ascension, " I will make Him, My First-born, higher than the Kings of the earth." But what the Law prefigured is to be found not in Christ only, but in His Church also ; in which the command has its spiritual and deeper fulfilment, " be thou fruitful and multiply." For as the first-born in Israel were many, and as the Levites were many, so also is Christ ; for His Church is described as " the Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven." The first-born who have the inheritance, who are of the Eoyal Priest- hood ; named on the eighth day, the day of Eesurrec- tion, with the new name which no man knoweth, " save he that receiveth it :" being risen together with Him Who is the " First-born from the dead." Many were the types and shadows going before, but the Archetype and Verity, the true First-born, is but One ; but in Him being One there are many; many who are sancti- fied and have the inheritance in Him : as it is said of Israel, though many, " Israel is My son, even My first- born." And of the Israel in the Spirit, that they are " the first-fruits unto Grod and the Lamb." These con- siderations are sufficient to show, that when it is said that she brought forth her Son, the First-born, Scrip- ture speaks of things infinitely vast and Divine, and not as indicating other subsequent children, as some would extract from the expression ; an implication as unworthy of the holy words of Scripture, as it is de- rogatory to our Lord's mother, and His reputed father or natural guardian. 80 SECTION VII. THE CITY or DAVID. The prophecies going before had so strongly marked out the line and throne of David, as that of which Christ was to be born, that it seemed requisite to designate clearly the fulfilment of this circumstance; more espe- cially so, as the house of David had now disappeared from the sight of men. It does not appear that there were any of that race in Judea itself ; at all events, an heir living in great obscurity in a distant and ignoble country, would have little power of maintaining that claim by assertion only. Eor though the blessed Virgin Mary had been pronounced to be " of the house of David :" and Joseph also the " son of David," by the voice of an Angel, yet some proof of this in the sight of all men was needed. It so happened, that in the first mention of David, the place of his birth is recorded, " the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite ;" and then the same is distinctly kept in remembrance, and interwoven with prophecy. Humanly speaking, however, there appeared now no means of establishing this lineage; but all means are in the hands of Omnipotence; none too great to further this dispensation ; all things are for Christ and His elect ; for them are empires formed and increased; the hearts of kings are in His hand, " as the rivers of water He turneth them wheresoever He will" for the sake of His Church; although, as is often the case, they are but unwilling and unconscious agents in His hand. Eor the restoration of the temporal Israel, Grod stirred up a G-entile King ; much more now should He do the same for the restoration of the time Israel. We read in the Book of Ezra "that the THE CITY OF DAVID. 81 word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing^." For much greater cause is the empire of Eome now put in move- ment. All the world was still and silent, an universal peace reigned, and one Emperor over all. Even the edict itself, as coming from Augustus, and the sub- jection to it of the nation and heirs of David, indicated that the sceptre had departed from Judah, and the law- giver from between his feet : the period therefore had arrived when Shiloh should come. The very dominion itself of Eome, founded on wrong and tyranny, indi- cated the need of Him Who should deliver mankind from all enemies on earth, and from spiritual wicked- nesses in high places. The world was still. " Those whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth, answered the Angel of the Lord, and said,We have walked to and fro through the earth, and behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of Hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem "* ?" The world was still ; it was like that stillness in Heaven before the trumpets sounded; all things seemed to say "be still, and know that I am Grod." The Eoman Emperor was thus called upon to bear witness to the King, the King of the Jews ; to Whom the utmost parts of the world are given for a possession: as the Eoman Emperor, by his go- vernor, bore witness also to the true King at His death. " And if came to pass in those days, there went out a decree from Ccesar Augustus, for all the loorld to he taxed,'' or enrolled in the census. " This taxing " or 3 Ezrai. 1. ^ Zech.i. 10. 12. 82 THE CITY OF DAVID. enrolment ^^ first tooh 'place ivTien Cyrenius was gover- nor of Syria.'" But as it is said that tliis Cyrenius, or Quirinus, does not appear to have been appointed governor of Syria till ten years later, perhaps we might have translated it, "this was the first taxing under Cy- renius, the governor of Syria." And indeed Origen, if we may judge from his words, extant in the Latin ^, seems thus to translate the passage, without being aware of the chronological difficulty the other reading gives rise to. " And all went to he enrolled, each unto Ms oivn city^ The world is enrolled, and each goes unto his own place, at the birth of Him who begins now to enrol His citi- zens of Heaven, and to set them their place in eternity. He Who is here in a manger, vrill be there on a throne: He that humbleth Himself here shall be there exalted ; and of them who are babes upon earth shall His king- dom there be formed. " Spiritually in type," says St. Ambrose, "His own people were bringing together their names to Christ." And Origen, " to the more ear- nest inquirer, it appears to intimate some sacred mys- tery, that Christ must be enrolled in the census taken of the world, that written with all He might sanctify all, that being enrolled together Tvdth the world. He might afford to the world the participation of Himself; that after this enrolment He might enrol men out of the world with Himself, in the book of the living, so that they who believed in Him might henceforth be enrolled in Heaven ^" And the holy Eamily too, as the patriarchs of old, liv- ing as strangers and pilgrims upon earth, must be en- rolled, and entered as citizens of the City of David, the City which is above, where the seat of David is — which 5 •* Hsec fuit descriptio prima, a preside Syrise Cyrino." ^ la Luc. Horn. xi. THE CITY OF DAYID. 83 shall be "like as the sun before Me," — and "as the days of Heaven :" and this their enrolment below is a type of that their more abiding citizenship in that which is alone truly to them "their own city." ^^ And Joseph went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, into Judea,unto a city of David, which is called JBethlehem ; hecause of his heing of the house and lineage of David : to he enrolled ivith Mary, the ivife espoused to him, heing great with child J^ Thus, in the vastness of Divine eco- nomy, were these things fulfilled as it were in secret, unknown and unnoticed of men : and perhaps even the holy persons themselves were not observing the fulfil- ment, any further than that they felt doubtless that, in these and all other matters, they were walking in the depths of a vast ocean of things unsearchable and im- measurably great. And as the hearts of kings, so also are the times and seasons in His own power ; so that they should wait on each other in the ftdfilment of Divine counsels. For we read " And it came to pass, ivhile tJiey ivere there, that the days were fulfilled for her heing delivered. And she hrought forth her Son, the First-horn. And she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid JEEim in the manger, for there teas not room for them in the inn.'^ Not having the means for paying for it which others had, at the time of so great a con- course. And thus even in the city of their father David were they as poor strangers : their lineage, which was thus remembered of Grod for His servant David's sake, afforded them no privilege or respect among men: so forgotten was David their king among the Jews, that respect for his memory could not obtain a human roof for his descendants. But a mansion it was well suited to His estate, Who throughout His life had not where to lay His head. It was a cave in the native city G 2 84 THE CITY OF DAYID. of David, according to tte account of Justin Martyr, Origen, and others ; for such the stables in that country often are. And thus as He was buried, so also was He born in a cave in the rock : that we may learn to hide ourselves in the rock till the tyranny be overpast. But these circumstances of our Lord's humiliation seem to have been accidental ; and it may be observed, that through life the sufferings that our Lord endured seem often to have been owing, humanly speaking, to the force of contingencies. Yet perhaps none of these were altogether without the pride and persecution of men: for to such, the wanton pride of an ambitious Emperor, is owing the long and compulsory journey of the holy Mother at such a time, with much doubtless of privation and hardship ; as it is thus accidentally dis- closed. And to such, the pride of man, was it owing that our Lord, of the seed of David, is born in a stable ; for there were none in the inn disposed to give room to a poor and houseless woman, even on such an occasion. It is here much worthy of observation, that there is one point of what may be esteemed human greatness, which appears not to have been set at nought by the example of our Lord. Although Christ took on Him- self every shape of human shame and sorrow, extreme poverty, an evil name, humiliation, and pain, and ignominy, clothing Himself all over with them all, sanc- tifying them by taking them as His own portion ; by which He appears setting at nought, and stamping its true value on all that is esteemed great by the world. But in one respect, even in human eyes. He is great, in His Eoyal extraction, as one of noble and of Princely birth. One thing He had which is considered gratifying even to worldly pride, in His earthly genealog}^ and lineage, in being born in descent from them who have THE CITY OF DAYID. 85 been great because tbey have been good. There are, in- deed, some in the line of opprobrious report, as E-utb, a Heathen woman, and Eahab of ill name, and Tamar ; whereby He is supposed to take on Himself human shame ; but even these are all lost in the lustre of the Eoyal line, and the shadow of Abraham and David resting upon all. For among those that had been born of women, who had been greater than Abraham ? "Who more illustrious than David, the unconquered Captain, the King, and Prophet, and "sweet Psalmist of Israel:" the Father of a long line of kings ? In this one point, therefore, our Lord does not appear to have set aside that which is great in human eyes, by being born of such high and glorious lineage. And as no truth stands isolated in Scripture, but in some way or other comes forth again and again, and is infused into the whole, so it is with this, for it is supported by many cognate and collateral circumstances. Thus nothing is of more frequent occurrence in the Old Testament his- tory, than the mention which Grod makes of His keep- ing in memory forefathers, in order to bring thereby a blessing on their descendants ; of His remembering thousands in them that love Him, and His mercy being vouchsafed to children's children. For Abraham's sake and for David's sake did He continue to bless the Jews tlu-oughout all their disobedience, for their sakes de- ferring His judgments and continuing His care. The benefit therefore of good lineage is not imaginary, but mysteriously coimected with the secret dealmgs of Pro- vidence for good in after generations. Hence therefore it is, that men are led with an instinctive feeling, and are allowed with a sort of innocent pride to rejoice in their ancestors ; and such feeUng is after a faint image or resemblance of God's love for them being continued to their posterity. But this consideration, while it re- 8b THE CITY OF DAYID. fleets worth on liigli and good lineage, speaks evil of higli and evil lineage. For while wicked men indeed rejoice in ancestors even more wicked than themselves, and seize their names, and boast the insignia and heraldic bearings of their progenitors, who were notorious only for the greatness of their crimes, bringing down on their own souls the guilt and infatuation of the same ; yet it may be observed in these cases, that the curse of Grod often works in a manner the least heeded, but the most awful of all, by carrying on in those successors the wicked principles of those wicked ancestors. For in those who are humbled and abased at the sins of their forefathers, and boast them not, Grod also, according to His ways of mercy, remembers them not. But never- theless, the good name of forefathers rests as a protect- ing shade on their descendants, they rejoice in its keep- ing, while its shadow remains on them fresh in the dews of God's blessing. If the name of Abraham threw its sheltering arm over his children, and the name of David was a tower of strength, such were but tokens and types of Him whose Name among all posterities is a city of refuge. But if great was the human extraction of Him "Who now lies as a helpless Infant in the stable, with no purple royalty, but poor and vile swaddling clothes ; with no courtly attendants but the poor cattle of the stall, and they that waited on the poor herd; yet what was He in His Divine lineage? Faith leaves imagination and the sublimest thoughts the human soul is capable of far behind : for to conceive it rightly is to embrace the Infinite. And doubtless so far is it transcending, in the depth of the Divine compas- sions, all thought that man is capable of, that of this stupendous miracle of lowliness especially is it written ; " As the Heavens are higher than the THE CITY OF DATID. 87 earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and Mv thoughts than your thoughts '." His Nativity of itself points as it were to the Cruci- fixion by the Infant finger of Christ, points from Beth- lehem unto Calvary : both are equally planted in the depths of Divine lowliness. It might indeed be doubted, at which most of all Eaith would delight to fix her habitation, at the cradle of His birth, or at the tree of His death : by His infant cries of helplessness, or at His dying lamentations*. The former speaks of the de- lights of innocency, of the tenderness of compassion, and the milk of human charities : the latter speaks of Divine consolation when innocency hath gone, of Di- vine compassions, and the blood of Divine remission overflowing human cruelty. The former hath more the hope of morning, fragile and human ; the latter hath the hues of Divine charity, blended with the mysterious terrors of the unseen future. The former speaks of the curse of nature taken off", and a Birth without pain : the latter, of the travail pains of our Lord's agony before we can be born again in Him. The former speaks of the love and tenderness of child- hood, hallowed to Divine afiections, stretching forth its hands of compassion with infant tears to all mankind. The latter of early affections gone by, when patience hath had her perfect work, and experience hath brought forth that more stable hope that maketh not ashamed. Here virginal chastity may light her torch ; there peni- tence may find a home. But both are in some measure alike; deep calleth unto deep in the sea of Grod's mer- cies : who can compare the morning with the evening light ? The Cross is also in our thoughts blended with the Manger, and throws upon that also its own light of 7 Isa. Iv. 9. 8 See Vol. on Pass., p. 421. 88 THE CITY or DAYID. ctarity ; as the sun at parting sheds his gleam on the place of his rising. The one hath more of vernal hope, the other of autumnal resignation : both most meet for man ; both needful to support each other. 0 wonderful abandonment ! 0 inconceivable empty- ing of all greatness! the little Stranger is He whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain ; He Who clotheth all things with beauty by the emanation of His own light, is wrapt in hay-bands rude: He is in the manger, whose palace is the Heaven of Heavens. Words are weak, and thought fails, and can no more embrace what is infinite in the Divine compassions, than what is infi- nite in the Divine greatness. Even animal nature seems to partake of the overflowings of the same ; it is in a stable ; and sacred antiquity hath represented the ass and the ox as present there. Tulfilling thereby in the letter, the words of His Prophet ^, and teaching us that where His love is, it will embrace also the brute crea- tion in its tender charities. In this our brief sojourn of mortality. He hath set us on this earth as in an Inn, replete with all things needful for our comfort : but He hath Himself deigned to be in the out-house of that Inn; dwelling even as His owti brute creatures, without hu- man consolations and appliances. " I am become weak, that I may gain the weak." " He therefore," says St. Ambrose, " was a little Infant, that thou mayest be able to be a perfect man. He was wrapped in swaddling clothes, that thou mayest be freed from the bands of death : He was in a manger, that thou mayest be at Altars : He was in earth, that thou mayest be in Heaven : He had no other place in that Inn, that thou mayest have more abundant mansions in the 9 Isa. i. 3. THE CITY OF DAYID. 89 Heavenly habitation. He, ' when He was rich, for our sake became poor, that we by His poverty might be made rich.' That poverty therefore is my patrimony ; and the weakness of the Lord is my strength. He preferred to be in want Himself, that all by Him might abound. The weeping of that crying Infant washed me: those tears have cleansed my offences. More therefore, 0 Lord Jesu, do I owe to Thy bereavement that I am redeemed, than to Thy works that I am created." The year itself, with days that now begin to increase, seems to sympathize with the birth of the Lord, as at the time of the holy Baptist's birth the days began to wane. And thus the periods of the year themselves seemed, as it has been said, to set forth in type the ex- pression of John the Baptist himself; " He must increase, but I must decrease;" the Baptist repre- senting nature and the Law, and Christ opening the kingdom of grace and the Gospel. To this the turn of winter, and lengthening of the days at Christ's birth, Prudentius beautifully alludes in his Hymn. '* Why doth the Sun now leave on high His circuit lessening day by day .-' Is it that Christ along the sky Brings in the Everlasting ray ? The wintry Day, with short-lived grace, Hasten'd to wane and late arose ; As if his high ethereal race Was verging gradual to a close. Now let the sky be glad and bright. And Earth responsive own the sign. For step by step the opening light Now climbs again his former line. 90 THE CITY OF DAYID. Emerge, thou gentle Little One, Of stainless Mother born to earth, Free from all wedded union, The Mediator's twofold birth. What joys to the vast universe In that chaste Maiden's womb are borne ? Ages set free from sorrow's curse Spring forth, and everlasting morn. That Infant cry with prelude deep Speaks of the world's eternal spring, From dark decay and wintry sleep Rising in new apparelhng. Methinks the Earth which feels Him nigh Breaks forth with flowers around His feet ; And desert sands of Araby With spikenard breathe and nectar sweet. All things then felt Thee, Holy Child, E'en sternest natures own'd Thy power. And rugged crags, austere and wild. Served but to shade some rising flower. Sweet honey now the rocks dispense, The rigid oak's dry stock distils The aromatic frankincense. And tamarisks the balsam fills. Meek cradle ! hallow'd manger ! when The King of the eternal halls Committed was to evil men. And to mute-gazing animals. The Ox hath now his Master known. The Ass His crib of lowly birth : The Gentile too his Lord shall own Whose face now brute-hke bends to earth. THE ANGELS AND SHEPHEEDS. 91 Sinner, this hiding-place obscure, And cries of feeble Infancy, A Mother maid, a cradle poor, Have given thee One thy King to be. Him once shalt thou behold again On clouds enthroned in majesty, Thyself cast down, and all in vain For unrepented sins shalt cry. Then shall the mighty Trumpet call, And summon forth the burning world, The Universe's flaming wall Sink on the earth in ruin hurl'd. Then raised aloft, in glory bright. He their deserts to all shall tell, To these the everlasting light. To those the never-ending Hell. Judea then herself shall know His light'ning Sign in Heaven reveal'd, Shall see Him Whom her wrath below Hath from her sight in death conceal'd." Cathemerinon. Hymn xi. SECTION VIII. THE ANGELS AND SHEPHEEDS. While thus tlie Glod Who made the worlds, and holdeth the deep in the hollow of His hand, was bom in want and obscurity, and in a stable ; He chose also men of a lowly and similar condition in life to join the highest Heaven of Heavens in singing Hallelujahs at His birth. Por if when the foundations of the world were laid, " the morning stars sang together, and the sons of aod shouted for joy," much more when the 92 THE ANGELS AND SHEPHEEDS. pillars were laid of that " new Heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness," shall they sing toge- ther ; nor is it to be wondered at that on such an occasion they should make mankind also, for whose sake these great things were done, partakers of their joy, and take them into fellowship and communion of their jubilant Hymns, on this marvellous nativity. And thus the Prophet joins the Heavens and the earth, — for the earth is ever in nature responsive to the skies in par- taking of their gloom or gladness — " Sing, 0 ye Heavens ; for the Lord hath done it : shout, ye lower parts of the earth : break forth into singing, ye mountains." " The norning stars" that " sang together," sent forth one 50 lead mankind to enter into their gladness ; and the •' sons of God" that " shouted for joy" have now called m those among men who may most aptly sympathize Tith Him Who is born in a stable. For whom among nankind should the Grreat Grod, now appearing as a lelpless Babe, select for this purpose, but those little ones to whom the Kingdom is revealed ? to whom should He first communicate the tidings of the coming of the great Shepherd, and of the true Lamb of God, but to these the types and symbols of His spiritual pastors ? And moreover, humanly speaking, who should the Eod that springeth from the stem of Jesse, have more appropriate to celebrate His kingdom, than those shepherds who, like David of old, were tending their sheep by night ; and perhaps in the same place where, by miraculous prowess of faith, he slew the lion and the bear, in type of what the true David, the good Shepherd Who layeth down His life for the sheep, should hereafter do, in destroying the power of him who, like " a roaring lion and ranging bear," " walketh about seeking Avhom he may de- vour." So mysteriously does God remember His THE AKQELS AKD SHEPHEEDS. 93 saints, that in this He seems mindful of him, whom He " took away from the sheepfolds. As he was following the ewes great with young ones He took him ; that he might feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inherit- ance." In type of Him "Who says, " Behold, I, even I, will both search My sheep, and seek them out ; as a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered." " I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant Da\id : he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their Grod, and My servant David a prince among them." De- scended from one who was once a despised shepherd of Bethlehem, to whom should He announce His coming, but to the lowly shepherds that were there ? " And there ivere sJieplierds in that country abiding in the fields, and watching through the watches of the night over their flock. And lehold, an Angel of the Lord came upon them, and the Glory of the Lord shone round about them'^ One ray of light broke in from the Heaven of Heavens, as if they could not contain themselves on that marvellous night, and the flood of glory issued forth through those impassable barriers which hide from our sight the heavenly beings that surround us ; — that same glory of which St. Paul spake, as being " at mid-day above the brightness of the sun." On Jacob's return to the Holy Land, the Angels of Grod met him at Mahanaim, as if unable even then to restrain their joy at his return, which spoke of good things to come ; much more should they now hail this approach of the kingdom. " And they feared with great fear T For such a manifestation is the prelude to that which is full of the most fearful of all fears, the second coming of Christ ; therefore every manifestation of Divine glory is terrible. But it was 94 THE AISTGELS A:P^D SHEPHEEDS. not now, as tte guilty world might expect, tliat the win- dows of Heaven were opened, with the tempests of the Flood, nor with the fires of Sodom, nor with the terrors of Mount Sinai, but with sounds of sweetness and peace " And the An^ el said unto tJiem, Fear ye not ; for heliold, I hear you good tidings of great joy, which shall he to all people. For there hath heen horn to you, this day a Saviour, lohich is Christ the Lord, in the city of David. And this is to you the sign : ye shallfind a Bahe wrapped in sivaddling clothes, laid in a manger.'' All this was but the voice and the appearance of one Angel alone ; but no sooner were these words spoken, than the flood of joy which is in Heaven, overflowed around the Angel ; and he was lost with many others, visibly or sensibly disclosed to mortals, together with those unutterable harmonies which man hath not by ear heard nor in heart conceived. " And suddenly there was with the Angel a multitude of the celestial army, praising God, and saying, Glory in the most high to God, and upon earth peace, among men good-icilir In these words was aU the Grospel contained, and the mystery of Christ manifest in the flesh : thus, before His death did He and the Voice from Heaven speak of glorifying Grod; thus did He leave His peace on His disciples as His last legacy ; and by His death did He seal good- will from God to man, and good- will towards each other among men. And the life of the Christian is to correspond with the same, in hving to the glory of Grod, promoting peace on earth, and that good-will among men, which may be responsive to the good-will to men which Grod hath shown. It appears from the account that the light was seen, and the voices were heard, and not merely as in a dream ; a light which seemed to embrace themselves, for it shone around them, and voices so clear and marked, that the words could be THE AXGELS A2^D SHEPHERDS. 95 distinguished and understood. 'No poetry or painting hath ever equalled this circumstance, as recorded in the simple and concise sublimity of the Divine narrative. Heaven opened upon earth ; the great Deliverer born, Grod come down to visit His creatures : light and sound in the darkness and silence of night ; in the solitary sheep-walks, while the rest of mankind were asleep : the spot where David fed his sheep ; the sheep themselves, the emblems of all meekness : the stars in the distance seem to partake of consciousness; while man throughout the globe is insensible of the approach of his great Deliverer. But the Heavens themselves from henceforth take up the strains, the commencement of those songs in Heaven, when " all His servants " shall praise God, " both small and great," " as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings," " for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready \" And in faint echo here on earth doth the Catholic Church join " with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of Heaven," when as it were in type below at the Eucharistic Table, " the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." " Like circles widening round Upon a clear blue river, Orb after orb, the wondrous sound Is echoed on for ever." " This day is born to you a Saviour ! " All the saints of old were saviours to set forth the Saviour ; Noah was a saviour from the flood ; Joseph from famine ; Abraham from idolatry ; Moses from Egyptian bondage ; Joshua from Canaanitish enemies : but this is a Saviour from spiritual foes ; — "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord ;" ^ Rev. xix. 5. T. 96 THE ANQELS A^B SHEPHEEDS. ' — " I, even I, am the Lord ; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, — je are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was I am He ^" This day is born to you a Saviour; that which hath been always future is now present. Ancient Time, from clays of yore, Eagerly hath bent before, And hath watch'd the opening door. Haste thou on, approaching morn, And Thou, glorious Child, be born ; Only hope of earth forlorn •'' ! " And it came to pass, loTien the angels were departed from them into Heaven, the men, the shepherds, said one to another. Let us go over unto Bethlehem, and see this great matter ichich hath tahen place, ivhich the Lord hath made known unto us.'' How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of them who bring good tidings. Angelical, Evangelical tidings. Hasten ye shepherds before the dawn, the Eastern sun is making preparation for His appearing ! As it was said of His eternal generation of old, so even now in some sense, His bii'th from the womb is as the dew of the morning ; yea, even now bright on the hills are the dews of the everlasting morn. Blessed and honoured above their fellows were these men of the field, to whom such a Divine communication was given, who alone upon earth have heard Angelic harmonies, and who showed themselves worthy of the same, by being "not disobedient to the Heavenly vision." " And they hastened, and came, and found hoth Mary and Joseph, and the Bale lying in a manger.'' It might indeed, as some say, be translated stable, but as the mention of it always occurs as that of the place - Isa. xliii. 11—13. 3 Lat. Hymn. Par. Brev. THE A^'GELS AXD SnEPHEEDS. 97 where the Holy Babe was laid, and not where EQs parents were, it seems that the common translation is right ; the word occurs three times in the Septuagint, where it is rendered in our version by the word " crib," as in the remarkable passage in the opening of Isaiah, said to be spoken of this occasion, and which might be thus rendered, "the ox knoweth his owner, and the ass the manger of the Lord ; but Israel hath not known Me; and My people hath not comprehended Me." This place is supposed to have been a sort of out-house, not walled in, but a cave rudely inclosed for the pro- tection of cattle ; and of course it might be understood that the Babe was there laid, while the parents them- selves needed no other covering or shed but what was necessary for the Infant. A " crib" by which such animals are fed is perhaps now best rendered by the word "manger." "And when they had seen it, they published abroad the saying which was told them concerniny This Child.^* Nor need we be surprised that even this miraculous in- terposition produced no lasting impression which is on record, nor this publication of it here mentioned. It was probably among persons in their own station in life, and dwelling in the country, and not so as to have reached the people or the court at Jerusalem ; for such wonderful disclosures of the Divine dealings would soon, as they passed from the immediate eye-witnesses and narrators, be lost among superstitious tales with the in- habitants of a wild and mountainous region, where truth is indistinguishably blended with falsehood: so that even the greatest of Divine revelations would be but the sub- ject of passing wonder. " And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds'^ Light cares, according to the Latin pro- h: 98 THE ciecumcisio:n'. verb, find utterance, vast ones are silent. Wonder and amazement will soon find a voice, when the immediate awe of the moment subsides ; but there are thoughts deeper in the heart, which it broods over in silence, breeding holy contemplations ; such as are not dis- closed but in action, and diffused over the whole cha- racter. " But Mary hept all these sayings, ponder ing^^ comparing, turning them over, " in Tier heart ^"^ Deeply interesting are these accounts of the state of mind of the blessed Virgin, as if unable to comprehend the depth of that dispensation to which she was ministering, and in awe and adoration contemplating the greatness of these mysteries, as they were being disclosed to her by little and httle. And St. Ambrose seems to speak of this gathering up in her heart, and keeping secret the things of faith, as a part of her virgin modesty and chastity of spirit. " And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for all the things which they had heard and seen, as it had been spoJcen imto them.^^ There is no intima- tion given of the distance which their homes were from Bethlehem. It would seem from the account of the Evangelist, that the previous mention of their publish- ing abroad what was told them, and of the wonder occasioned by their statements, indicated what took place while they were at Bethlehem before their return. SECTION IX. THE CIECUMCISION. " And when eight days were accomplished for the cir- cumcising of the Child, Sis Name was called Jesus, which was so named of the Angel before lie was conceived in the womiy (Luke.) He was circumcised on the eighth day, for the eighth is the coming in of that which is THE CIECUMCISIOIT. 99 spiritual ; the seven speaks of tliat which is temporal, the eighth of that which succeeds to it, which is eter- nal ; the seven is of the Law ; the eighth is of the G-ospel, and the Eesurrection of Christ. The circum- cision is the Grospel in secret and in mystery ; for it was significative of the cleansing from sin, of the putting off the old man ; — " the stripping off the old birth," as St. Athanasius calls it, and " the signs of the future Baptism through Christ." It was the type of that true circumcision in Christ which St. Paul speaks of, " a circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ; being buried with Him in Baptism:" — "the circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter." And therefore it was on the eighth day, the day of Christ's Eesurrection, on which " the glowing gift of the full and perfect circumcision poured itself into the human breast." And as St. Cyril says, " On the eighth day Christ rose from the dead, and con- veyed unto us a spiritual circumcision, saying, ' Gro ye and teach all nations, baptizing them.' " It was therefore on the eighth day, to which the seventh day of the Law gave way, for the Sabbath was set aside in order that the eighth day of circumcision might be kept ; on the seventh day the walls of Jericho feU down, that the Israelites might on that day enter into the enjoyment of their earthly Canaan ; on the eighth day the Captain of our salvation, being made perfect through suffering, trampled under His feet all the power of the enemy. In token of which, even now, on the eighth day His garments are dyed with blood. " When the seven thunders have uttered their voices," the Angel which stands upon the sea and upon the earth, " lifted up his hand to Heaven, and sware by Him that liveth for H 2 100 THE CIECTJMCISIOIT. ever and ever," " tliat there should be time no longer." In the days of the voice of the seventh Angel, the mys- tery of God shall be finished ; when seven Angels had poured forth seven vials of wrath, there came a voice saying, " It is done*." Seven were the years of the Egyptian plenty, and seven the years of famine that ensued. Seven years did Jacob serve for his wives ; seven years for Leah, and seven for Eachel. Seven were the days of mourning for the dead ; seven months was the ark with the Philistines ; seven years was Solomon building the temple ; seven were the days of separation and legal uncleanness ; seven times did Naaman the unclean leper wash in Jordan ^ The flood, the type of Christian Baptism, came after seven days of warning, and Noah the eighth person was saved : much more is circumcision then itself also, as the type of Baptism, on the eighth day, and fulfilled in Christ Who is the eighth Himself, the Resurrection, " the First and the Last." Thus of the first-born of oxen and sheep it is ordered, " seven days it shall be with his dam ;" on the eighth day "thou shalt give it Me." And in the Law it is said to the High Priest, " seven days shalt thou prepare a goat for a sin-offering," and " seven days Bhall they purge the altar," and " upon the eighth day the Priest shall make the peace-offerings, and I will accept them ^" And what is the peace-offering that shall be accepted on the eighth day, but He "Who is " our peace ?" And what sacrifice shall be truly acceptable but the First-born ? " Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy unto the Lord." But how holy ? for as Job says, "how can he be clean who is born of a woman?" they were only holy in figure and type of * Rev. X. G ; xvi. 17. 5 2 Kings v. 14. « Ezek. xliii. 27. THE CIECUMCISIOK. 101 Him of Wtom the Angel said, " that Holj Thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of Grod." Now although there was in Christ no putting away the filth of the flesh which He had not, being without sin, yet was He Himself circumcised, in token that He was to fulfil the whole Law, being " born of a woman, born under the Law," for "every one that is circum- cised is a debtor to fulfil the whole Law." He said of Himself, that it behoved Him " to fulfil all righteous- ness ;" that He was come, "not to destroy the Law but to fulfil ;" and if we might say it with Origen, in some sense to destroy it by fulfilling it ; destroying the legal circumcision by bringing in the true circumcision. As St. Ambrose says, " Bodily circumcision is the sign of spiritual circumcision ; therefore the sign remained till the Truth had come. The Lord Jesus hath come, "Who hath said, " I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." He hath circumcised the whole man. " AVhen that which is perfect is come, then that which was in part shall be done away." Eor it is written, "whoso- ever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me!" This is the perfect circumcision ; the redeeming of the soul by the oflfering up of the body '. And Origen also ^; " Christ, in that He died, died for sin, not that He Himself had sinned, — for in Him was no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth ; but He died, that we who were dead, by His dying might no longer live in sin. As there- fore it is written that by His dying we are dead with Him, by His rising are risen with Him, so also with Him are we circumcised, and after circumcision cleansed vdth a solemn purgation. "Whence we need not now a carnal circumcision. And that for our sakes He was circumcised, hear Paul most clearly testifying, "In ' De Abraham, lib. i. cap. iv. 29. * In Luc. Horn. xiv. 102 THE CIRCUMCISIOIf. Him dwelleth," saith lie, " all tlie fulness of tlie god- head bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power: in Whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands." They who receive in Christ this spiritual circum- cision, shall in Him also receive a new name according to the predestination of Grod, a name which is written in the Book of Life ; being enrolled as citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem. For after His circumcision He received His name, that Name at which " every knee shall bow ;" and as He was born, "not of blood, nor of the wiU of the flesh, nor of the will of man," so also was He named, not by His earthly parents, " nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." They alone who are truly in the spirit circum- cised with Him shall receive that incommujiicable Name, by which they are known unto Grod : and as they partake of His circumcision, they shall partake also of that salvation which is in the Name of Jesus. This circumcision therefore on the eighth day, — the day of the new Creation, made anew in the image of God, — is a sign of the Church of "the Eirst-born, whose names are written in Heaven," of those who are of the spiritual circumcision, being crucified with Christ ; typifying those who as little children are admitted into the kingdom of God, those to whom as babes mysteries are revealed : and the same also sanctifies the sufferings of childhood itself unto an excellent mystery. Few things are more moving than to witness the natural suf- ferings to which infants are especially subject ; their first voice is the cry of pain, and their early age is beset with diseases: indicating, even in their comparative innocence, the penalty derived from Adam, and marking the presence of sin. But still there is much that is THE GENEALOGIES. 103 mysterious in these sufferings: it is important to observe, that by this painful rite, Holy Scripture is, as in all things, responsive to the voice of nature ; and both together seem to teach us, that there is some- thing, as it were, sacramental in such sufferings ; for such little ones are rendered thereby partakers of Christ's Cross, they have the badge of His elect : as they are made also sharers of His kingdom. Circum- cision, moreover, is a sign of that painful training which childhood must undergo, of that mortification of the flesh and subjugation of the spirit, which must begin early and be continued, until they come " to the fulness of the stature of Christ ;" — that stature which is in the fulness of pain, which is stretched out upon the Cross ; which is to drink more fully of His cup ; to suffer with Him, that they may reign together : having the whole body of sin mortified and crucified "together with Him." SECTION X. THE GEKEALOGIES. The Circumcision of our Lord, at which He received His human Name, affords a suitable opportunity for in- troducing the two Grenealogies ; as it is not so convenient in an harmony to adhere to either of the places where they occur in the two Evangehsts ; and this affords an intermediate opportunity for combining the two. In St. Matthew it occurs at the opening of his Gospel, as in writing to the Jews it was his first object to show that He was that promised Messiah, in Whom the Covenant to Abraham and to David was fulfilled ; the Seed of Abraham, the father of the faithful, to whom the pro- mises of the Church were given ; and the kingly Heir of David, to whom Christ Himself was promised; — 104 THE GENEALOGIES. Abraliam being both priest and prophet ; and David both prophet and king : and Christ combining in Himself the offices of the two. But David, as he to whom Christ is promised, is, as St. Ambrose supposes, mentioned before Abraham, as he to whom the Church alone is promised. St. Matthew traces the descent from Abraham and David, as an Israelite would naturally do, following downwards the course of the Di\ine cove- nant and lineage. But as St. Luke is writing to the G-entiles, when at our Lord's Baptism, He is declared by a Voice from Heaven to be the Son of God, it is then suitable to show to all mankind His lineage up to Adam, to whom the first promise was made, as being Himself the second Adam, in "Whom it is fulfilled. This affords an obvious reason for the difference of place which the Grenealogy occupies in the two ; and explains why in St. Matthew it should descend in the downward Hue, and that not from Adam but from Abraham ; and why in St. Luke, it should ascend up- ward, and not to Abraham only, but to Adam and to God, — the Father of aU mankind, as received and adopted by Him, and His reconciled children in Jesus Christ. But independently of this diversity of arrangement, in the place which the lineage occupies, and the opposite order of descent and ascent, when we come to compare the two together we find other points of distinction. There are four different parts into which the entire line and order may be broken and classified. The first is the line from Adam to Abraham, which occurs in St. Luke only, and therefore is free from all difficulty or diversity. The second is the lineage between Abra- ham and David, in .which the two Evangehsts mainly coincide. The third is the continuation from David to the Captivity, in which the two lines are quite distinct throughout. In the fourth division, from the Captivity THE GENEALOGIES. 105 to Cliristj the names are also quite different, except m the mention of two persons on the return from captivity, in which they coincide. St. Matthew's Gospel begins at once with this proof of the Messiah. " The Book of the gene7'ation of Jesus Christy the Son of David^ the Son of Abraham J' As the book of Genesis received its name from the creation of the world, which occupies only the first part of the first chapter, it seems suitable and expressive that the life of our Lord should be designated by the same name, "the book of" His "generation," although His lineage and birth only occupies, in like manner, the commence- ment of that Gospel. From this therefore, St. Matthew proceeds with the descent down from Abraham. But as both Evangelists coincide m mentioning Abraham, we may perhaps pass from this poiat into the genealogy of Abraham, in the very order and series in which it is given by St. Luke, who iu tracing the line upwards, when he comes to Abraham, proceeds by adding, " who was " the son " of Thara." "The son of Abraham'' (Matt. Luke), '' of Thara, of JVachor, of Saruch, of Bagau, of Phalec, of Seber, of Sala, of Cainany It is remarkable that the name of Cainan is not found in the Hebrew Scriptures, either in the book of Genesis or in the Chronicles, but it occurs in the Septuagiat version. " Of Arphaxad, of Sem, of Noe, of Lamech, of Mathusala, of Enoch, of Jared, of Maleleel, of Cainan, ofJEnos, of Seth, of Adam, of God " (Luke). The construction of the Greek would allow the words "which was the son of" to intervene between each of these successive names; some indeed wouldunderstand " Christ Which was the son of" to be supplied to each successively: but this seems a forced interpretation. "We must therefore consider the last clause to signify Adam 106 THE GENEALOGIES. the son of Grod ; for Adam and all mankind are in Christ adopted sons of God, " G-od sent forth His Son, bom of a woman, bom under the Law, that He might redeem those who are under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons ^." It is remarkable that the whole of St. Luke's genealogy has been supposed to be by the line of Law and adoption through Eli, the adopted or legal father of Joseph : and indeed, the term " begat " in St. Matthew is more strongly expressive of natural genera- tion. And thus, in wonderful condescension to man, does He reckon Himself as the son of Adam, and as such the Son of Grod, in whose likeness Adam was made, and to which likeness we are to be restored in Christ : saying again, or fulfilling in ample meaning the saying of the Father, "let Us make man in Our own Image." For aU are in Adam sons of God by nature, but having lost that natural sonship, we are made the sons of God by grace and adoption in the second Adam, "Who " of His own will begat us by the word of truth, that we might be a sort of first-fruits of His creatures ^°." Thus have we the order of generation from Abraham up to Adam, as it occurs in St. Luke alone. In the next place we have the line from Abraham down to David, as in St. Matthew, and from David up to Abraham, as in St. Luke ; and except from this diversity of the ascend- ing and descending scale in the mode of narrating, there occurs no material discrepancy. By transposing the order in St. Luke the two will run thus. — Ahraham hegat Isaac ; , , Abraham; , . Isaac ; Isaac hegat Jacob; , . Jacob; Jacob begat Judas and his brethren ; . . Juda ; 3 Gal. iv. 4. 10 James i. 18. THE GEKEALOaiES. 107 And Judas hegat Fhares and Zara of Thamar ; . . PJiares ; PJiares hegat JEsrom ; . . Esrom ; Esrom hegat Aram ; . . Aram ; And Aram hegat Aminadah ; , . Aminadah ; Aminadah hegat Naasson ; . . Naasson ; N'aasson hegat Salmon ; ... Salmon ; Salmon hegat Booz, of Hachah ; . , Booz ; Booz hegat Ohed, ofButh; ,. Ohed; And Ohed hegat Jesse ; . . Jesse ; And Jesse hegat David ; . . David ; the King. (Matt.) (Luke.) In tliis catalogue there is little diversity, and only tliat of addition in St. Matthew ; but this which occurs, may furnish occasion for one or two remarks. St. Matthew seems, as it were, to go out of his way to introduce the mention of three women, as also of another afterwards ; and these four women are, it may be observed, lying under reproach. Thamar, one guilty of incest, sitting to deceive in the attire of an harlot ; Eahab known as " the harlot," and one of the accursed City ; andliuth, the Moabitish woman; and a fourth instance afterwards occurs in the words " of her that had been the wife of Urias," the adulteress. And doubtless, we may well suppose, with St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome, that as Christ came to carry our shame and sin, for this cause did He set forth these stains in His lineage. " For He was born," says St. Chrysostom on this passage, " not to escape our dishonours, but to bear them away." Perhaps also it may have been in order to show to the Jews, that even their forefathers were in sin ; for if He is of the Patriarchal and Eoyal 108 THE GENEALOGIES. line, jet even from Judali it is by Tamar ; and even from David it is by an adulteress. But we may see also in it a higher mystery ; for as most of the remark- able women in the Old Testament were types of the Church, which has been taken from unclean Hea- thenism; guilty before of incest and abominable adulteries ; but accepted of Grod and washed clean, to bear spiritual sons unto Grod, being clothed with the Sun, and cleansed as by fire of the Holy Ghost. " As those of old," says St. Chrysostom^ "took harlots for wives, even so God espoused unto Himself the nature which had played the harlot." As Booz did Euth, so hath Christ received the Church, an ahen and in much poverty, and abhorred not her low estate. "Porget thine own people and thy father's house, so shall the Ejng have pleasure in thy beauty." "What is said more- over of David is often intended of Christ, "I have found David My servant, with My holy oil have I anointed him:" as such He is married to the Church of the Syna- gogue, unclean and an adulteress, as she is so often de- scribed, " committing adultery with stocks and stones," or as Tamar of old, attiring herself as an harlot, and " trimming her way to seek love ^." Such may be also types of our Lord's human mother, (as indeed most types of the Church are,) representing His unspeakable conde- scension, in having taken one from the unclean seed of Adam, lying under the wrath of God. The mention also of these women by St. Matthew may fall in with St. Augustin's consideration, that St. Matthew records Christ as bearing our sins ; St. Luke as atoning for them*. "Luke," says St. Ambrose, "has avoided the mention of them, that he might set forth the Priestly race without » Horn, in Matt. iii. 6. 2 Jer. ii. 33. ^ See Vol. Stud. Gosp. p. 58. THE GEIfEALOGIES. 109 sin." And we may see in this tlie infinite compassions of Grod, that His Church should be set forth under such types of former uncleanness till washed by Him ; for who is there who must not use of himself the affect- ing exclamation of St. Ambrose*, when he takes up the expression of Judah concerning Tamar, and so often emphatically repeats, " she is more righteous than I ?" The other points of diversity in this catalogue, how- ever apparently slight, are not without great and divine purport. To the name of " Judas ' 'St. Matthew adds, " and his brethren," comprehending thereby all the sacred nation for whom he wrote ; of whose lineage according to the flesh Christ came ; the twelve pillars of Christ's kingdom^ supporting His throne, the twelve tribes out of which, as in the Eevelation, His Bedeemed are sealed. And to the name of " David" he adds " the king," as it was his especial object to point out the kingdom of the Messiah, of Whom it is said, " and I will give unto Him the throne of His Father David." Why Zara should be added as well as Phares,may be questioned : but all must allow it to be with some great and hidden meaning. St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others, reasonably suppose it to contain the mystery of the two people, the Jew and the Gentile, alluding to the remarkable circumstances recorded of their birth, and of the struggle in the womb which should have the pri- mogeniture, of whom Christ should be bom : and the almost doubtful issue of their claims. Zara, which sig- nifies "the East," comes first, and is marked by the scarlet thread, and retires for Phares, which signifies " division " or the " breach." Patriarchal piety, which is from the East, saw afar the day of Christ, and was glad, being bound with the scarlet thread, having re- * De Poenit. lib. ii. cap. viii. 110 THE GENEALOGIES. ceived the promise, and retired ; then came the Law, the separation and " division" preceding, and of whom Christ is born ; but "the East" shall follow. Grace or Paith in anticipation appeared to be coming forth ; but the Law intervened, and Christ was bom under the Law ^ But "the East "is also Christ Himself, slain indeed before the foundation of the world ; but mani- fested in the fulness of time, in the calling of all man- kind ; for the " division " caused by the Law had sepa^ rated one people for a time, when He Himself, the re- pairer of the " breach," appears. But now the next scale in the descent, from David to the Captivity, is entirely different, as may be seen by the juxta-position of the two Evangelists. In order to do so we must again change the order of St. Luke. 'Now though the discrepancy may be naturally accounted for by supposing the two to be taken from two different public records of genealogy, through two distinct lines, yet this leaves the matter still unexplained with regard to any Divine purpose, or practical instruction con- tained in such a variation. Erom David it proceeds. David the King legat Solomon, of her that had been the wife of Urias ; , . Nathan ; Solomon leg at Boloam ; . . Mattatha ; Rohoam hegat Ahia; ,, Menan; Alia hegat Asa ; . , Melea ; Asa hegat Josaphat ; . . Eliahim ; Josaphat hegat Joram ; , . Jonan ; Joram hegat (Ochozias ; . . Joseph ; Ochozias begat Jonan ; . . Juda ; * See Chrys. Horn, in Matt. ii. Horn, in Gen. Ixii., and Ambrose in Luc. lib. iii. 29. THE GE^'EALOGIES. 111 Jonan begat Amasias ; . . Simeon ; Amasias begat) Ozias ; . . Levi ; Ozias (or Azarias) legat JoatJiam ; . . Matthat ; Joatham legat AcJiaz ; . . Jorim ; Achaz legat Ezehias ; . . Eliezer ; Ezehias legat Manasses ; . . Jose ; Manasses legat Amon ; . . Er ; Amon legat Josias ; . . Elmo dan ; Josias (begat Joacbim ® ; . . Cosam ; Joachim) legat JecJioniasa7id This .. Addi ; hrethren alout the time that . . Melchi ; they tvere carried away to , . Neri. Babylon. (Matt.) (Luke.) There is no son of Josias named Jecbonias recorded in Scripture, and therefore St. Ambrose, Augustin, and others, have supposed that Jecbonias maj be another name for Joachim, the second son of Josias, and indeed it so occurs in the book of Esdras \ and that there was a father and son of the same name. It is of course an easy supposition, and mentioned by Epiphanius, that the word Jecbonias twice occurring, or words very simi- lar, as Joachim and Jecbonias, should one of them be dropped by the error of transcribers. But St. Augustin argues on another supposition, that Jecbonias is the same person twice mentioned here and afterwards. It has been also suggested that Joachim is not mentioned, because he was made king by Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and there is certainly great reason for this opinion, as in a former instance three names are omitted between Joram and Ozias, for which the reason assigned by St. Hilary, on this passage, and by others is, that they were of the seed of Ahab, on the mother's side, and therefore 6 1 Chron. iii. 16. ? 1 Esd. i. 37. 112 THE GENEALOGIES. dead in the sight of Grod : according to the judgment pronounced by the Prophet Elijah. Thus far, therefore, it is evident that the descent from David to the Captivity is throughout two distinct courses of genealogy : but they are now found on the return from Babylon to emerge in one person : but only to combine the same for three generations ; when the lines are again perfectly distinct, till they correspond in the person of Joseph. And after they were hr ought to Babylon Jechonias hegat Salathiel; . . Salathiel; Salathiel hegat Zorolabel ; ,. Zorahahel; Zoroidbel hegat Ahiud ; . . Bhesa ; Ahiud hegat JEXiahim ; . . Joanna ; Eliahim hegat Azor ; . . Juda ; Azor hegat Sadoc; . . Joseph ; Sadoo hegat Achim ; . . Semei ; Achim hegat JEliud ; . . Mattathias ; Eliud hegat Eleazar ; . . Maath ; Meazar hegat Matthan ; " ^^gg^'y Matthan hegat Jacob; .. Esli; . . Naum ; • • Amos ; . . Mattathias ; . . Joseph ; . . Janna ; . . Melchi ; . . Levi ; .. Matthat; .. rnii; ' And Jacob hegat Joseph, the , . Joseph, of whom husband of Mary, of whom Jesu^ was horn Jesus, Who is was supposed to he called Christ. (Matt.) the Son. (Luke.) THE GEIS^EALOGIES. 113 The reason for this entire difference in the two lines is not evident, nor is there any account adequately supported by opinions of weight, beyond the general supposition that one adheres to the natural, the other to the legal descent, or one to the Eegal, the other to the Sacerdotal line. It seems a reasonable explanation to suppose that Jechonias begat Salathiel by the daughter of Neri, who was the son of David through the line of Nathan, as Jechonias was through that of Solomon. So the genealogy of St. Luke, together with the other, serves to show the genealogy of David through the twofold line of Solomon and Nathan. And although sons of Jecho- nias are mentioned in Scripture^, yet as it was divinely said of him, "write this man childless^;" whether this was literally fulfilled, or only an expression of the Divine displeasure on his line, it maybe a reason why the sacred genealogy should pass into a line more worthy of the promise, as an undercurrent more pure. In con- firmation of this, it is said that it was provided by David, that on the failure of the line of Solomon, it was to pass into that of Nathan. And the reason why Jechonias' s "brethren" are mentioned may be, — not only because they also were kings of Judah, as Joanan for three, and Zedekiah for eleven months, — but in order to separate the line from the posterity of one on whom the denunciation was passed, of his being written " childless;" for what less could this signify, than that the Child expected on the throne of David should be of another line ? For if in one case the three generations mixed with the race of Ahab, on whom the curse was, are not mentioned by St. Matthew, in like manner St. Luke passes over to another line, from that king of * 1 Chron. iii. 17. ^ Jer. xxii. 30 ; xxxvi. 30. I IM THE GENEALOGIES. Trhom it was said, ""Write this man cliildless;" — or " no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David \" And all this, perhaps, according to some secret mysterious sense ; for if St. Luke numbers not the kings, it may be because Christ's kingdom is not of this world, but more in secret, in the sense in which the throne of David is spoken of, as when it is ;Said, "His seed shall remain for ever;" in the sense in which the Angel said to Mary, " He shall give unto Him the throne of His father David." " So all the generations from AhraTiam to David are fourteen generations ; and from David to the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen g enervations ; and from the carrying away intoBahylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. "" (Matt.) It is here evident that St. Mat- thew does not attempt to give an exact genealogy, but such as may be sufficient in each case to support the general division of fourteen generations under each head. By the mention of which he seems to indicate some mysterious dispensation that regulated these things ; and doubtless, there is some secret sense in such num- bers and divisions. We may observe that each of these fourteen are distinct dispensations of God ; the first under Patriarchs and Judges ; the second under Kings ; the third under Priests and Governors ; as the three missions until Christ comes, set forth in the Parable of the Vineyard. As we find numbers have affinities be- tween their natural and sacred significations, (as twelve Apostles make up the Church, and twelve months the Year,) the observation of Maldonatus is remarkable; that in fevers the fourteenth day is considered by physicians as critical, and implies a change for good or evil. So in each of these periods there is a great change, and in the ^ See Ambrose in Luc. lib. iii. 46. THE GENEALOGIES. 115 last the old nature is dead, and Christ the New Man comes. " Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." This scriptural intimation in the number seven has been before shown ^. A repetition also three times is usually supposed to designate mystery. It may further be observed, that according to the exact number (of 3 x 14), — considering that Jechouias is not twice mentioned, but as St. Jerome thinks, that the first mentioned is the same as Joachim, and the second his son ; and taking in the name of Christ ; — it will be forty and two. Now the number forty and two seems to signify the wrath of Grod abiding, before it be taken away by Christ's appearing. Thus in the Eevelation, for " forty-two months" the holy City shall be trodden imder foot ^. And power is given unto Antichrist for " forty and two months *." Forty and two children were destroyed for mocking Ehsha: which seems some mysterious warning against those who shall blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Porty-two were the journeys of the Israelites in the wilderness \ which St. Jerome applies to these forty-two generations, say- ing, of the forty-two in St. Matthew, " through these runs the true Hebrew, who hastens to pass from earth to Heaven ; and having left the Egypt of the world, entereth the land of promise. And no wonder that in the mystery of this number we arrive at the kingdom of Heaven ; for in this number the Lord and Saviour cometh down from the first Patriarch to the Virgin, as to the Jordan which overflowed with the grace of the Spirit ^" But St. Augustin comments on the supposition that in the entire number forty only, (omitting Christ, and supposing Jechonias to be 2 See p. 99. ^ Rev. xi. 2. * Dan. xii. 5. ' Numb, xxxiii. 6 De Quadrag. duab. mansion. Epist, cxxvii. I 2 116 THE GENEALOaiES. the same repeated,) and not fortj-two are specified. Which number " forty," of course, designates as usual the period of human humiliation and suffering, until the Day-star shall arise, and the manifestation of Grod ; which the Law and the Prophets signified by the fast of Moses and Elias, and the Grospel by that of Christ, for "forty days." St. Matthew therefore, recording the human extraction of the King, specifies forty gene- rations. And those generations are in St. Matthew's catalogue marked with legal uncleanness, as forty are the days of purification. If moreover the number forty signifies mortification and tribulation, so must we " through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God;" and the King Himself is in the meanwhile to rule " with a rod of iron," " scourging every son whom He receiveth," until that coming in of the new king- dom in which aU enemies shall be put under His feet. And St. Chrysostom, likewise, seems to suppose the number to be forty, and not forty-two, for he speaks of only twelve being put in the last place instead of fourteen, taking the Captivity as occupying the place of one of that number, and Christ Himself the other. St. Augustin, in hke manner, goes on to notice, that the number recorded in St. Luke, taking in the name of Gj-od at the first, and that of Christ at the last in the catalogue, the number will be seventy and seven, which signifies remission of sins, the subject of St. Luke's Gospel: for the Lord Himself shows, that by the number seven is signified the infinite mercy of God, in commanding us to forgive seventy times seven. Here we find every thing consistent throughout, in the opinion of St. Augustin, who considers them both as lines from Joseph ; that St. Matthew mentions the real progenitors according to the flesh ; St. Luke the THE GENEALOGIES. 117 adopted and reputed relatives of Joseph. And to tiie reasons for the latter, this also may be added, that Christ Himself was as the reputed and adopted son of Joseph : as we are also in Him the adopted and reputed sons of God. St. Matthew therefore mentions natural parents, according to the flesh : St. Luke reputed and adopted, according to the Law. The reputed son of Joseph is the commencement ; the adopted Son of Grod the close. Again ; as the genealogy in St. Matthew is from the Birth, women are mentioned : in St. Luke from the Baptism, and they are omitted : St. Matthew descends as pointing out Christ to the Jews : St. Luke ascends as shoeing the restoration of man to Grod. St. Matthew shows that Christ was the promised King of the Jews through Solomon. St. Luke, that He was also through Nathan the Son of David. In St. Matthew, if we may so say, the fathers are reconciled unto their children, while he brings them down unto Christ ; in St. Luke the children are reconciled unto their fathers, while they bring Christ up with them to Adam and Grod : so that both genealogies combined fulfil the office of Elijah, and prepare the way for Christ. Introduced at the natural birth by St. Matthew, it is all of humiliation and humanity. Introduced at the Baptism by St. Luke, it is all mysteriously replete with the New Birth and Baptismal adoption ; introduced at Christ's own Baptism, whereby we in Him, and He in us, are adopted children of the Father, restoring Adam to his first sonship, and the image of God. Our Lord descends through the stock of Solomon, of whom evil is written, and through others marked with sin, as bear- ing our inheritance of shame : but He ascends through the line of adoption, as one said to be, but not being in truth, the son of Joseph, through Nathan, of whom 118 THE GENEALOGIES. no evil is written, — passing by Jechonias as cut off from that high inheritance by God's word, — unto Adam, as he was before the fall, and is again in Christ, the son of God. And Adam also was a type of Christ. Adam was made of the ground without seed ; Christ was supernaturally born of God. In Adam Christ was predestined to be born ; and to Adam promised. " The first man is of the earth earthy ; the Second Man is the Lord from Heaven." But here it may be asked, how is it that the extrac- tion from Joseph should be given at aU, when he was not the real parent of our Lord ? There may be some- thing mysterious in the matter beyond our comprehen- sion. It is alluded to by St. Ignatius, Chrysostom, and others, that our Lord's being born of a Virgin was one of the secret things not made known to the Jews, and wrapt in impenetrable mystery from evil spirits. And it may be, moreover, according to the Hebrew custom, not to give the genealogy of the woman : but as «) oseph was of "the house and lineage of David," and it was not lawful for them to marry out of their tribe ; and as Joseph was "a just man" and keeper of the Law, it would be equivalent to her genealogy. St. Ambrose mentions it as the Scriptural custom, to give the genealogy of the man, as of Elkanah^ the husband of Hannah, though she was most known as the mother of Samuel. " For," says St. Ambrose, " being born according to the flesh, the custom of the flesh must needs be followed, and He who came into the world must be described according to the custom of the world ; especially since the origin of Joseph is that of Mary also, as marrying her who was of his kindred according to the Law; and A^ith her, there- fore, expressly Joseph goes to be enrolled ^" Such 7 1 Sam. i. 1. ^ Tn Luc. lib. iii. 4. THE GENEALOGIES. 119 indeed seems to be the opinion of aU ancient writers, from St. Irenseus to St. Jerome ; that the fact heing well known that they were of the same family, and next of kin, the Evangelists not only give the extraction of the man, according to the Jewish custom, but do not even at the end of it specify Mary as the link between the progenitor and Christ — but Joseph. Although St. Matthew does indeed at the end add, " the husband of Mary, of whom was born Christ," as specifying the reason of the genealogy. Whereas both of these Evan- gelists record the Divine conceptions; so that there must be some reason for their both substituting Joseph for Mary: and their being nearest of kin is the most obvious and most generally received interpretation. To this it may be added, that " the head of the woman is the man," and they are "both one flesh," according to the Divine Law by marriage, although not as parents of Christ. And it is of a piece with all this, that St. Luke in other places speaks of Joseph as the father of our Lord ; as where he says, " and His parents went up yearly to Jerusalem," and He " was subject unto them," and even in the mouth of the blessed A^irgin, " Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." And St. Luke does not speak of Mary going up to be taxed at Bethlehem, be- cause she was " of the house and lineage of David," but of Joseph going up " together with her." "Whatever reasons there may have been for our Lord being bom not only of a Virgin, but of one betrothed, and having a legal husband, the same may be the reason in the un- fathomable Divine counsels, why the genealogy should be by the husband. And in her particularly might it be fulfilled, " he is to thee a covering of the eyes ^" It is remarkable that it is by the Angel especially that 9 Gen. XX. 16. 120 THE GEIfEALOGIES. Mary is spoken of as the wife of Joseph, " fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife." But, as St. Hilary observes, when Mary is spoken of together with Joseph, it is often as the mother of our Lord, not as his wife, as in St. Matthew, "take the Child and Mary His mother, and fly into Egypt," and "return with the Child and His mother;" and in St. Luke, "Joseph and His mother knew not of it." In all which he appears but as the guardian of the Holy Child. All this is upon the supposition that both pedigrees are those of Joseph. The most obvious explanation of the discrepancy between the two, and which must occur to every one, is that one is the genealogy of St. Mary. It would appear not unreasonable to suppose, that if St. Matthew gives the genealogy of the man according to the Hebrew custom ; that St. Luke being more free from such observances, should give the extraction of St. Mary : and the more so as this Evangelist introduces so much respecting her. And indeed St. Augustin mentions it as an opinion which he did not disapprove of, that Heli, recorded by St. Luke, was the father-in-law of St. Joseph, and the father of the blessed Virgin. But the very obviousness and reasonableness of this opinion renders it probable that it is not the true one, for the Eathers mention generally another explanation, although this must have occurred to them. The opinion pre- valent among the ancients, and mentioned by Africanus as one that received the sanction of our Lord's kindred, is this, that Jacob and Heli were maternal brothers ; but the one dying without issue, the other married his wife, " to raise up seed to his brother." Joseph there- fore, the off*spring of this marriage, was the legal son of the one, and the natural son of the other : perhaps the legal son of Heli j but St. Ambrose takes it the reverse. THE COMIIfG OF THE MAGI. 121 This however is supposed to account for the two different lines, humanly speaking : whatever greater Divine pur- pose there may also be contained in the circumstance. SECTION XI. THE COMING OF THE MAGI. Theee is great uncertainty as to the time when the "Wise men appeared. Some suppose this event to have taken place many months after our Lord's birth ; and some even two years, among whom are Eusebius and Epipha- nius. If either of these opinions were adopted, it would require no further change in this Harmony, than to place this narrative after the Purification ; for the only ques- tion here necessary to be decided is, which of these events is to precede the other ; and it is necessary to state the reasons for here placing it after the Circum- cision and before the Purification. There seems no reason for the last opinion stated above, but the age of the Infants slain by Herod, which is said to be of "two years old and under," "after he had diligently enquired of the Wise men." "Whereas there is every reason to beUeve, that such an act of fury was carried on in much ignorance; all that is stated is, that he enquired carefully of the "Wise men, not when the Child was born, for that they could not tell, but when "the star appeared." Nor is it said how soon after he slew the infants ; nor would the bounds of such an act of insane cruelty be any point to depend on. Some, in- deed, understand it, not that the star had appeared for two years, but that Herod added two years to the time he had accurately ascertained of the star, for greater security : in like manner as to the place of Bethlehem, he added for the same reasons all the boundaries there- 122 THE COMING or THE MAGI. of. Such an opinion would, moreover, imply that the holy parents continued to reside for two years at Bethlehem, and had not returned to Nazareth ; which it must be allowed derives some probability from their thinking of returning to Judea, on coming back from Egypt ; but there is no evidence to support it besides this circumstance. And what St. Luke says imme- diately after the Purification, of their returning to Nazareth, would seem to indicate at least their inten- tion of returning to Nazareth, but for the intervention of the flight into Egypt, rather than the continued sojourn in Bethlehem. The offerings of the holy Mother at the Purification, which indicated poverty, might afford a reason to infer, that they had not then been enriched by the presents of the eastern Kings ; but on the whole of this subject, and of the nature of those offerings of the Wise men, we are in such igno- rance, that no argument can be founded upon it : piety itself would suggest to us, that those presents would be considered by the holy parents as sacred and set apart to God: and, therefore, an indication of their poverty is no proof that they had not then been visited by the Magians. At all events, in the absence of further evidence, it seems better to adhere to the traditional usage in the Western Church, which has always com- memorated this event on the twelfth or thirteenth day ; and there is the combined authority of both St. Chrysostom and St. Augustin for adhering to this time. Chrysostom speaks throughout of their finding the Cliild in His swaddling clothes and the manger : he supposes that the appearance of the star preceded our Lord's birth by two years ; and that it was thus divinely ordered that they should appear at the very Birth : that the wrath and dread of Herod for greater THE COMING OF THE MAGI. 123 security added to the time, that none might escape; and that all he had ascertained was the period of the star appearing, not of the Child's birth. St. Augustin, in like manner, seems to take it for granted, that their coming was at this time, and that after the appearance of the Magi the attention of Herod had been turned to other objects, till the subject was again brought be- fore his notice, by the sensation occasioned in Jeru- salem at the presentation in the temple. The Scriptural account affords no definite clue to the exact time, as it states the whole occurrence in a general manner : " Now when Jesus was horn in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.'' St. Matthew does not even aUude to the cause that had brought the Holy Family to Bethlehem, nor afford any intimation that it was not their usual place of abode ; "behold!'' — the very word " behold" appears to intimate the circum- stance as occurring at the immediate time of His birth; — "behold. Magi from the East were come to Jeru- salem, saying, Where is He that is lorn King of the Jews .^ " He of whom it is written, " the Gentiles shall come to Thy light, and kings to the brightness of Thy rising." " For we have seen His star in the East,'' — not a star that indicates His birth, but one pecuharly His own, and unlike other stars. " And have come to ivorshi]) Him." Not to do obeisance only to Him as a King ; for what had these Magi from the distant East to do with a mere King of Judea? but moved and guided by a Divine impulse within, as by a Divine star without, unto that great Kiag Whose sovereignty is in the hearts of men ; they had come to pay their adoration unto Him as Grod, and then to return. We have seen His star " in the East," for the East is ia some mysterious way connected with Christ ; He is Himself called the East ; He is to arise as the Sun of 124! THE COMING OF THE MAGI. Eighteousness, with healing in His wings ; (and this figure marks out the East ;) He says of Himself, " I am the root and offspring of David ; and the bright and morning Star\" Erom the East He called Abra- ham'; and the custom in ancient Liturgies has descended even to our own Church of turning to the East ; but we, as they of old, know not why this has been taught ; but there has ever been in the Church a mysterious expectation of Christ that turns to the East. The East is first stirred at His coming, Grod hath not for- gotten Abraham His servant; a thousand years are with Him as one day ; and it may be that the family of Abraham, once left in idolatry, are the first brought by faith to acknowledge his true seed. Great men were they, no doubt, in the East, for the Magi of Persia, as Maldonatus observes, were as the Philosophers among the Greeks, the Pontifices in Italy, the Brachmins in India, Chaldeans in Babylon, Hierophants in Egypt, Druids in Gaul. Priestly therefore, probably, in office, as also of Kingly dignity and Princely station ; as in- deed their coming to Herod the king, and their mode of acceptance indicate. Such the Fathers very gene- rally consider them, perhaps in consequence of the ex- pressions in the Old Testament, such as " the kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts." As God moved the heart of Abraham, as He stirred up Cyrus to build His temple, as He prepared the East by the captive Israelites, by Daniel and others ; so now does He prepare the hearts of kings, which are in His hand. As the Queen of the South, and as the men of Nineveh, so are these also brought nigh to stand in the judgment with this generation. Ear therefore in the East was this star seen ; and by whom should it be seen but by those Chaldean sages, 1 Rev. xxii. 16. THE COMma OF THE MAGI. 125 whose studies made them conversant with the Heavenly bodies ? Tor stars they worshipped as Gods : stars they supposed to preside over the births and the comings of kings'. And here may be seen the great tenderness and compassionate condescension of God, that as these Magi were given to astrology and the worship of the Heavenly bodies, yet through their own superstition God is pleased to lead them unto Himself ; not that they might continue in the same, but that He might lead them by those things out of these vanities to things more worthy of Himself. By the calling of each God caUs them, even when He would have them leave the same ; the Apostles by a draught of fishes. Astrologers by the stars. This He has often done, as St. Chrysos- tom observes ; in like manner did St. Paul teach the Athenians, taking occasion from that " unknown God," whom they ignorantly worshipped ; thus the Ark was sent back to Israel by the five cities of the Philistines, through the advice of their own soothsayers, who were the instruments of prophecy : thus by the witch of Endor was Saul reproved : thus Balaam also, the an- cestor of these people of the East, became the Prophet even to Israel, and spoke of the Star that should arise out of Jacob. Thus were the Jews themselves instructed by ceremonial rites, which have been supposed to have been composed for them, and hallowed to higher mean- ings, out of Gentile superstitions. And perhaps more extensively still, for thus through their own philosophy did God teach the Greeks a higher wisdom, through Socrates and Plato and the Stagyrite, speaking " of temperance, and righteousness, and judgment to come." Thus to the Romans, through hardihood and discipline 2 Ecce Dionaei processit Csesaris astrum. Virg. 126 THE COMING OF THE MAGI. did He teach somewliat of the power of Christ crucified, and of long life given to filial piety. And peradventure in these Princes of the East, as in many G-entiles spoken of in the Gospels, some better thing was found, that they should be the first-fruits of the nations ; the first from the East, as others afterwards from the West, and the North, and the South, shall sit down with the Patri- archs; as in the movement of the Israelitish camp Judah was towards the East and went first. "WTien the gather- ing of the Church of Christ is spoken of, it is first said, " I will bring thy seed from the East." So that it had pased into almost a proverbial prophecy. " 0 Jerusa- lem, look about thee towards the East, and behold the joy that cometh unto thee from God^" " Erom the ris- ing of the sun shall My name be great among the Gen- tiles*." And with mysterious reference to things future in the Eevelation also, " that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared." Every dispensation of God has its precursors and preparatory shadows, even as in nature all thiugs are gradually developed: and the changes of the dawn and varied irradiations of light precede the rising of the sun. Thus, perhaps, this was first shown in " the righteous man " who came "from the East," and whose seed shall be "as the stars of Heaven." And the movement of this star is as the pre- lude to that time when the sun and moon and the twelve stars shall do obeisance to the true Joseph : — those mysterious stars that " in their courses fought against Sisera:" — the sun and moon that stood still, obedient to the call of Joshua : — as the sun of this world shall defer its going dovni, till the enemies of the true Joshua shall be overcome. But not as other stars is this star, for it is " His star," the star that shall 3 Baruchiv. 36. * Mai. i. 11. r THE COMING OF THE MAGI. 127 arise out of Jacob. Its course is not that of other stars ; it appears by day and not merely by night : it journeys with man from place to place ; a star that moves and stands still at man's need, as knowing the thoughts of those it leads ; which appears and disappears from view, not according to the laws of natm-e, but as if instinct with a soul beyond nature : as the Pillar of fire in the wilderness, that advanced or was stationary, and changed its appearance: a star with a light more Divine than that of the sun, as able to overcome his beams and to shine before him. It comes not as the star seen on mountains afar off, still mocking and eluding the sight, and ever equally distant to the wanderer, as all earthly good ; but it comes near and stands by, and marks one little town out of the thousands of Judah, and one little shed. Such is the Star of Bethlehem, mysterious Star, and mysterious stranger Ejngs and Priests, as they are supposed to have been ! they too appear and dis- appear as Melchizedek, the King and Priest of old ; and no one knows who or whence they are, but that they wait as shadowy guests on the true Melchizedek. But " Salvation is of the Jews ;" and the tidings must go forth from the holy City ; they of Jerusalem shall pubhsh it, though they believe it not ; they shall declare it ; the Grentile writes up from their own mouth His Title, " This the King of Jews." Though Israel re- ject, yet Prophets and Apostles are of the Jews ; " the Law shall go out of Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." He is first in order preached to the Jews ; for the Magians are in darkness till the Jews point out the way to Bethlehem, though they leave the Gentiles to go first. The Grentiles come, but in order to be taught of Israel : the Grentiles are led by faith, but are as bHnd men at the door itself, and Jerusalem must 128 THE COMING OF THE MAGI. teach them from her oracles. As Moses of old led to the borders of the promised Canaan, but entered not in : so the Law now leads the waj, and " opens the door of faith to the G-entiles," but enters not in: Jesus and they that are with Him pass over. Israel is warned, but without faith. The Grentile knocks at the door by faith, but without knowledge. The Jew clothes the Grentile with his own Scriptures, in order that the Gen- tile may go in before him : Jacob must put on the rai- ment of his elder brother, in order that he may obtain the blessing : the Prodigal son must have the best rai- ment brought out from his father's house, in order that he may suitably appear before him. But even in Israel is there a remnant according to grace ; her little ones believe: "Israelitish Shepherds," says St. Augustin, " Grentile Magians, one from far, the other from near, hastened to the one Corner-stone." The poor and ignorant of Israel : the learned and great among the nations. But now both Jews and Grentiles must mutually instruct each other ; the Gentile by the star informs the Jew ; the Jew teaches the Gentile by prophecy. Even the wicked shall serve Him and do His will : for as Pontius Pilate was made the instrument to declare the King of the Jews ; so likewise now Herod is the means to bring forth the declaration of the Chief Priests and Scribes, expounding the Prophets; and to introduce the Gentiles pointing the way to Bethlehem. " And when Herod the Iciiig heard it, he was troubled^ and all Jerusalem ivith him.'''' The unfathomable depths of the Divine counsels were moved ; the fountains of the great deep were broken up : " the healing of the nations" was issuing forth. Butnothing was seen on the surface of human society but this slight rippling of the water : the course of human things went on as usual, THE COMINa OF THE MAGI. 129 while each was taken up with httle projects of his own. The tyrannical usurper from Idumea, unmoved by the mii'aculous interposition, thinks only of his own power as endangered thereby : and as Edom of old rejoiced over the destruction of Jerusalem, so is he of Edoni now troubled at its good. And Jerusalem also par- takes of his dismay, thinking nothing worthy of God and of His dispensation ; but as of old, they are turn- ing back to Egypt their oppressor, and thinking " scorn of that pleasant land :" as afterwards they were troubled in unbelief at the presence of their DeHverer, lest the " Eomans should come and take away their place and nation ;" or lest in any way they should be interfered with by the mysterious counsels and inter- positions of God. Thus the wicked are ever by a mys- terious fear " troubled" at His presence : they are "hke the troubled sea, when it cannot rest." "^ And collecting together all the chief priests and scribes of thcpeople^ he inquired of them lohere Christ is to he horn. And they said unto him^ In Bethlehem of Judea. For so isitivritten hy the Prophet, And thou Bethlehem, land of Judar Not that these are the words of the Pro- phet, for he says, "Bethlehem Ephratah," but they served to designate the place in a manner more gene- rally known, thereby explaining it to the king, as dif- ferent from the other Bethlehem in Zabulon ; and this designation introduced other prophecies, as that of Jacob, that He should be of Judah. " Eor so is it written of the Prophet, And thou Bethlehem, land of Juda, hy no means the least art thou among the princes, or ruling cities, of Juda''' Or as it is in the Prophet Micah, " though thou be but little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Euler in Israel ; Whose goings forth have 130 THE COMIKG OF THE MAGI. been from of old, from everlasting." " Out of thee shall come forth a Governor^' He of whom Isaiah spoke, that "the Government shall be upon His shoulder," and " of the increase of His Government there shall be no end ;" — " Who shall o^ule My peojole Israel.''^ It is not said, we may observe, that He shall, dwell at Bethlehem, or be an inhabitant of that place, but that He shall "come forth" from thence : from Bethlehem shall He come forth as the Child of Mary ; but as the Son of God, His " goings have been from everlasting." For " to us a Child is born" — in Bethlehem ; " to us a Son is given" — from Heaven. It is the High and Lofty One Wlio inhabiteth eternity, yet maketh His dwelling with the lowly. As Nazareth was despised, so Bethlehem is little, little among a thousand. It is known for its very lowliness, for it is " little ;" this is the day of humility ; " the day of small things ;" lowly and humbled to the dust is the state of oppressed Judah ; little among the thousand captive estates of Kome : little in her own state, for she has an Edomite on her throne ; Httle in Judah is the City of Beth- lehem : little at Bethlehem is the manger, and the Babe ; and low the estate of the Handmaid of the Lord : the very year itself is at its lowest verge of decline. But though little among a thousand, it is itself greater than aU ; for " a little one shall become a thousand ^" It is Bethlehem "Ephratah," i.e. Beth- lehem the fruitful, or fertility itself. It is the very " Church of the First-born," of which it is said, We found it at Ephratah ^. It is Bethlehem, the House of Bread, the House of that true living Bread which came down from Heaven : and it is Bethlehem " the fruit- ful," because it is that Bread which is multiplied ; 5 Isa. Ix. 22. 6 Ps. cxxxii. 6*. THE COMING OF THE MAGI. 131 whicTi giveth life unto the world ; yea, and peopleth Heaven with stars. The very place by its lowliness is significative of those mean Elements in which Christ, "the true Bread," is found. But these Jews pointed out the House, yet entered not in : like those who built the ark of Noah, as St. Augustin observes, yet entered it not, providing a refuge for others, while they themselves perished in the flood. Yet still "the priests' lips keep knowledge," although it is not in their hearts : the living oracles of Grod were committed unto them, the Urim and Thum- mim had not departed : in the gathering together of the Chief Priests and Scribes there was truth. As usual they rightly knew and interpreted, but they knew not the mysteries of Grod, on account of their carnal lives ; they are right in the interpretation of the literal Scripture, but fail of its higher expressions of mystery : and thus the Divine part of the prophecy they forget. For the Prophet proceeds to speak of the eternal Son- ship and generation of Christ, " Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting," In the fierce cruelty of Herod the Great we find something of the same wiliness which afterwards marked the character of his son Antipas. He brings not the light of the Divine Star into the assembly of Israel ; but as he had now obtained one object, he secretly endeavours to come to the knowledge of the other. And herein he displayed that wonderful infatuation in iniquity, which afterwards appeared/ in. the conduct of his son : for he acknowledges the dispensation to be Divine and true, while he deals witH it as if it were a matter in which he could overreach and overthrow those very Divine counsels by which he gained his knowledge. If the Star and the Prophecies were not K 2 132 THE COMIJfG OF THE MAGI. of Grod, and true, he liad no reason for alarm : if they were of God, and true, how could he overthrow them ? Such always is "the mystery of iniquity." From the Divine prophecies alone, and not from facts of human occurrence, he learns the place : from the supernatural star the age and birth of the Child of Heaven ; while he thinks by overreaching God to destroy Him. In like manner, Herod Antipas wished to see a miracle done by Christ in order to mock Him, which miracle would have proved His Divine power, while he wished to mock Him as a powerless victim. Wonderful deceitfulness of sin ! And most miserable family, even to the third generation, from father to son, and to son's son, to be imbued so deep beyond any other in blood ; one steeped in the blood of Infant Martyrs, the other in that of the Baptist ; and the third, who slew James the Apostle with the sword : all three con- spicuous in the persecution of Christ ! O most execrable of kingly families, to usurp authority, and then to obtain thereby this eminence in crime ! " Then Herod having secretly called the Magi, accu- rately inquired from them the time of the star appearing.''^ For, of course, the star must have appeared for some time to have brought them so far. The term " accu- rately inquired" (yKpljjioffe) applied to this point, but not to the former inquiry of the place of birth, does, it must be allowed, appear to indicate that he intended by such inquiry to ascertain the age of the Infant, as it is afterwards alluded to when he slays the infants. "And he sent them unto JBethlehem, and said, Go ye and thoroiiglily search out concerning the Child. Andivhen ye shall have found Him hring hack tidings unto one, that I also may come and worship HimP Even here again do his very expressions indicate the adoration that would THE COMIltfa OF THE MAGI. 133 be due to One thus Divinely born, at the very time while he was contriving to deceive and destroy Him. Such is the belief of devils, who " believe and tremble," and yet, in trembling, act as if they believed not. " So, when they heard the king, they departed. And, behold, the star lohich they had seen in the JEasf'' again ap- peared, and " loent hefore them, until it came and stood over where the Child ivas ;'^ shedding as it were its flood of Divine moonlight upon the Inn, and the walls of the hallowed shed, and on the Holy Babe and Mother within. ^^ And when they saw the Star'' thus restored to them, and miraculously manifesting itself for their guidance, " they rejoiced exceedingly ivith great joy."" It is evident from this account, that on their arrival at the Holy Land, the Star had disappeared from them, and left them in much concern and perplexity, in con- sequence of which they appealed to the holy nation. Thus by miracles and signs the Grentiles are brought (for signs are, as St. Paul says, for unbelievers) '' ; they are thus brought to the sacred people, among whom the oracles of G-od are ; and then these miracles that brought them cease, and are superseded by the light of pro- phecy, the "light shining in a dark place,"— not of itself the fulness of joy, but " to which ye do well to take heed, until," being itself superseded again, "the day-star arise in the heart," and the dawn appear from the presence of the Sun of righteousness. He who consults the Prophets and believes is led on by a star in the heart, — for it is said, " I will give unto him the morning-star ^," — and by a promised voice behind him saying, "this is the way," till he comes to the fuller manifestation of Christ. Thus the Cloud by day, and PiUar of fire by night, led the Israelites to the Holy Land, and then ceased. This is ever the way of God ; 7 1 Cor. xiv. 22. « Rev. ii. 28. 134 THE COMIJfG OF THE MAGI, He manifests Himself and then retires, leaving man to search Him out ; thus Christ gleamed forth at His birth, and then withdrew His light, till His Baptism. Thus also "He spake, and did hide Himself from them^." All this narrative is but a token and type of what it has been with us Gentiles ; we are brought by miracles ; we study the Scriptures ; and it may be, if found faithful, are assisted by Angelic visitations and warnings of God. Great was their joy at having the object of their long search thus Divinely again designated ; nor is any disappointment or doubt expressed at the mean- ness of the abode in which they found the holy Mother and Divine Babe ; they looked in faith to something more than human greatness in Him Who had a Star to wait on Him in Heaven, and therefore rejoiced with exceeding joy. Balaam of old, when he had his eyes opened to behold the Star out of Jacob, and the Sceptre out of Israel, exclaimed, " I shall see Him, but not now ; I shall behold Him, but not nigh." But they may say with the Church, " The King hath brought me to His chambers." "I have found Him "Whom my soul loveth \" " Nigh," even at the doors : and " now," at this present time, shall I see and behold Him. St. Matthew, having said nothing of the manger in which our Lord was born, does not here introduce the mention of it ; or they might have now removed from the shed or cave in which they were found by the shepherds. " And iclien they had come to the house, they found the Child with Mary His Mother, and they fell down and worshipped Him^'' No speech is recorded of these mysterious visitants, they inquire but speak not. They are of uncircumcised lips, not hallowed by the coal from God's altar ; but Judah speaks, — "He is born at Bethlehem;" the Shepherds » John xii. 36. i Cant. i. 4 : iii. 4. THE COMIXG OF THE MAGI. 185 speak, Elisabeth and Mary, Anna and Simeon speak — there are prophetic hymns from their mouths, but the Gentiles worship in silence. Yet the act of their worship itself speaks with sufficient eloquence. " Mer- chandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto Thee ; — they shall fall down unto Thee, they shall make supplication unto Thee, saying, Surely Grod is in Thee, and there is none else, there is no Grod. Verily Thou art a Grod that hidest Thyself, 0 Grod of Israel, the Saviour ^" Or again, " The Grentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers ha^^e inherited lies I" "There is none like unto Thee, 0 Lord. "Who would not fear Thee, 0 King of nations ? Eor to Thee doth it appertain ; forasmuch, as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none Hke unto Thee. The Lord is the true God ; He is the living God, and an everlasting King *." Their fathers have been worshippers of the Heavenly Bodies, yet led by a purer faith, they think not of worshipping this star : the men of the East make not Gods of men, yet these are taught of God to worship the new-born King; in anticipation of that time, when " all kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall do Him service." When the four-and-twenty " fall down before Him that sat on the throne, . . . and cast their crowns before the throne ^" And these offerings of the Gentiles seem to express their -^-illingness to build Him a Temple, if He will take up His abode among them. ^^ And having opened their treasures, they offered unto S^im gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh '^ " The kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts;" "the 2 Isa. xlv. 14, 15. ^ Jer. xvi. 19. * Jer. x. 7-10. ^ Rev. iv. 10. 136 THE COMING OF THE MAGI. daugliter of Tyre," she whose merchants are princes and the honourable of the earth, the types of this world's wealth, " shall be there with a gift." Kot the East only, though it be the first, but the "West also ; not Arabia only, and the children of the East, but " the kings of Tharsis and of the isles shall bring presents." And the gifts themselves are specified ; " they shall bring gold and incense ^." And these very gifts being symbolical as unto Grod, prove, as St. Chrysostom observes, " that they worshipped Him as God, not as man ; coming like those in Scripture who come to the house of the Lord " with ofierings and incense in their hand "." " Many nations shall come from far to the name of the Lord God, with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of Heaven ^" And indeed, what were those gifts to a Child, unless that Child was God ? for there were no kingly Parents to be won by such gifts ; but One in Heaven. All ancient writers indeed suppose these ofierings to be replete with Divine significancy, St. Irenaeus, and St. Chrysos- tom, and Augustin, and Hilary, and Gregory. The gold ever implies kingship and royalty ; — " Thou shalt set a crown of pure gold on His head ;" and " upon Thy right hand did stand the Queen in a vesture of gold ;" — the King's daughter hath her " clothing of wrought gold." And the frankincense is ever the ofieringmade to God throughout the Law; and even in the Eevelation, " the smoke of the incense ascended up before God." And myrrh indicates humanity, and therefore mortifica- tion, " wine mingled mth myrrh," did they give Him to drink at death : and with myrrh did they wrap up His Body when dead. In the Psalms, " Thy garments smell of myrrh :" and in the Canticles, He is "perfumed with c Isa. Ix. 6. 7 Jer. xli. 5. « Tobit xiii. 11. THE COMIT^G OF THE MAGI. 137 myrrli and frankincense^." St. Hilary carries on tlie same thought still further. " The oblation of their gifts," he says, " expressed an understanding of His entire nature ; by gold confessing the King, by frankincense God, by myrrh the Man." To which he adds, " and thus, through the means of their worship, was there in each of these the indication of a great Sacrament, in Man of death ; in God of Eesurrection; in the King of Judgment \" The subject is incorporated into the Eoman Services, in a Hymn which has been thus happily translated. " Magians see the Star, and bring their choice Eastern offering, And with supphant knee unfold myrrh, and frankincense, and gold ;— Gold, a Monarch to declare, frankincense that God is there, Myrrh, to tell the heavier tale of His tomb and funeral." Surely faith alone could have led them here, there was no external sign of Eoyalty to indicate the Child, but the Heavenly star seen by faith : and there had been nothing to mark out the sacred nation from afar to Eastern kings, but the presence of God discerned by faith: and when they were now in Jerusalem there was nothing to guide, but faith in God's prophecies. Like Abraham of old they had left kindred and home and country for Christ's sake, in type of the true children of faith ; seeking One in the midst of danger, from Whom they could gain no worldly interest, Whom once to have seen is all they need : all their labours are to do Him service, offering the best gifts that earth can supply, and then to depart in peace. By the costliness of their gifts they seem to say, like the man after God's 5 Cant. iii. 6. ^ Com. in Matt. cap. 1. 138 THE COMITfG OF THE MAGI. own heart, " I will not offer unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing ^" And thus, as Zaccheus was a true " son of Abraham," and Nathanael was " an Israelite indeed," so may these be said to have partaken of the Kingly anointing and Princely heart of David, and to have been true princes after his Eoyal line. Such is the pictiu-e now presented before us, the three kneeUng Strangers, their costly gifts, and the Divine Child. He is an Infant, but their Grod and King. All infancy is hallowed by a sight so wonderful : the hallowed memory of this infancy is on all Baptized infants ; they only are pure and spotless, unsoiled and clean as the Heavens, when fresh in Christ's Blood. How does this Infancy in itself speak aU the mysteries of the Kingdom ? Not only does He receive worship, but seems as from a teacher's seat to preach unto them ; if less fearfully, yet not less lovingly than afterwards from His cross ; and to His cradle and His cross also win He point from His seat of judgment. From this manger He seems to say, " suffer the little children to come unto Me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." Truly the first-fraits of His kingdom must these be who could worship a Child in swaddling clothes — innocent Babe, helpless Child, in appearance, yet at the same time " The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace ^!" But the Divine mission and guidance of these mys- terious visitants is performed, as that of Melchisedec was when he offered the Bread and Wine, and spoke nothing, but disappeared again. The Evil one would render them his unconscious instruments, while they, being guileless themselves, suspect no evil; but God 2 2 Sam. xxiv. 24. ^ Isa. ix. 6. THE PEESEXTATIOIf IX THE TEMPLE. 139 protects tlie simple in their simplicity. Guileless souls have, as " Israelites indeed," the vision of God : blessed for their obedience, not with the warning of an Angel, but with that of God Himself; which of itself intimates in what favour these Gentile strangers were with God. " And being warned in a dream not to turn back to Herod, by another loay they returned into their oivn country.'''' All things speak to us, and every movement around the cradle is replete with instruction and doctrine: their being forbidden to return the same way to Herod and Judea teaches us, as St. Hilary says, " that we are not permitted to seek knowledge from Judea, but are ad- monished to place all salvation and hope in Christ, and to abstain from the course of our former life *." Advice indeed which was given to the disobedient Prophet in vain^, but not to these. They return not to Judea, they return not to the righteousness which is by the Law, and thereby fall from grace : they return not to Herod, the very type and principle of evil, and of the prince of this world, but they return by another and Heaven- directed way unto their own country, the East, the region of Paradise. SECTION XII. THE PEESETfTATIOI^ IN THE TEMPLE. ^^ And iclien the days of her purification,^'' — for this seems, no doubt, the right reading, and not "His," as some Greek manuscripts have it, nor "their purification," as Origen, Theophylact, and others read ;— " when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were fulfilled, they brought Him to Jerusalem to pre- * Horn, in Matt. cap. i. 5. ^ 1 Kings xiii. 17. 140 THE prese:n'tatio:n' in the temple. sent Him to the Lord' ' (Luke) . " In sin hath my mother conceived me," says David, speaking of his uncleanness in the sight of Grod ; but not so He that was born with- out sin of an immaculate Virgin, not conceived in sin, but in the sanctification of the Ever-blessed Spirit. Yet as Christ submitted to Baptism, though He needed not washing ; and to Circumcision, though He needed not mortification ; much more does His Mother fulfil that Purification, though she needed no cleansing from that Birth : and Christ Himself to the Presentation in the Temple, though ever present in Heaven. And in so doing were they fulfilling and setting forth mysteries. The forty days which mark the usual period of purgation and trial and absence from the light of God's coun- tenance are completed. Ten is tlie multiplier of indefi- nite number, and four the Divine dispensation regulating the same. As for forty days the floods descended, and on the fortieth day, "in the self-same day," Noah entered into the ark : so for forty days Christ continued upon the earth after HisEesurrection, and on the fortieth day, " in the self-same day," Christ entered into Heaven, and the ark of His Church was let loose upon the waters of Baptism, to find rest in that new Heaven and new earth. So now on the fortieth day is Christ presented in His Temple. Forty days has He been absent from His Father's house, as Moses was forty years in the house of Pharaoh, and forty years in exile. And it may be that this prefigures another and final fulfilment in this, that after its forty days of human trial shall be the purifica- tion of His Church from all her uncleanness, and pre- sentation of His elect before Grod. But it is after the Circumcision, for mortification and circumcision of the heart and spirit must precede our appearing before God. And even now is it being spiritually fulfilled in this, THE PEESENTATIOIS" ITi THE TEMPLE. 141 tliat the Church of the G-entiles, purified from her un- cleanness, presents Christ in the temple of the human soul. " As if is ivritten in the Law of tlie Lord, Every male that openeth the womh shall he called holy to the Lord'' This is the First-born that is due unto the Lord, " the First-born of every creature." For He hath taken the Levites in place of the first-born of Israel, whom the Lord hallowed unto Himself, " on the day that He smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt :" and for the firstling of unclean animals He took the Lamb, the clean animal. But when the Levitical Priest- hood shall cease, and the Lord takes again His own, the First-born, then shall He no longer claim unto Himself the pair of turtle doves, nor the lamb from the Jewish nation. He shall restore them to us : but He restoreth not out of His treasures according to the same measure as man giveth, but according to the exceeding abundance of His repayment ; the dove that He shall restore is His own hallowing Spirit that descended like a dove, when His own Son, "the First-born " and "TVell-be- loved," was accepted by Him as His true Priest, in place of the order of Levi — was accepted first of all at His Baptism, and afterwards at His Ascension into Heaven. Then shall He give back the dove out of His abundance ; and where the Church is rich in His gifts, even the cost- lier offering of the Lamb, bestowed upon us at the Holy Eucharist, who have with us the Church, the mo- ther of the First-born, rich in blessings and Heavenly treasures. But now they must offer the typical offering of the Law, for it is the " day of small things," which faith despises not : " And to present an offering, accord- ing to that ivhich is said in the latv of the Lord, Apair of turtle doves, or two yoiong pigeons'' For although the Law first mentioned the lamb, together with a young 142 THE PEESENTATION ZN" THE TEZSIPLE. pigeon or turtle dove, yet in case of poverty, it speci- fied this. And liere the poverty of the needy, like the poor widow in the Temple, hath given more than all the rich, and such as shall abound unto the riches of her liberality ; for the poor Virgin Mother hath presented the true Lamb of Grod ; and out of the superabundance of her deep poverty, the two turtle doves also. But the number two ever waiteth for a third, and here the two signifies the coming of a Third, the Spirit who shall descend in likeness of a dove, Who is already mys- tically present to hallow the offering of the true Lamb. Nor shall the Law fail, for the " remnant, accord- ing to the election of grace®," fulfil its behests, and enter into its spiritual promises. And now, when there takes place that great fulfilment of the Law, which was known unto Grod only, out of those who were righteous according to the Law He calls chosen witnesses of the same. A Virgin Mother submits to the purification of the Law, though she alone hath needed it not ; for she alone hath conceived without sin, and, if the tradition be true, hath borne without those birth-pangs which are the penalty of the daughters of Eve : and He, Who by being circumcised, hath undertaken to fulfil the Law, does now, for the first time, fulfil it. The Holy Spirit, on such an occ^ion, leads His own true worshippers as solemn witnesses of the scene. " And, heJiold, there icas a man in Jerusalem, tvhose name was Simeon ; and this man ivasjnst and devout, icaitingfortheconsoJation of Israel.'''' By obedience to all the statutes and ordinances of the Law, looking forward to the true fulfilment of its pro- mises, as it is written, " to him that ordereth his con- versation aright will I show the salvation of God :" and of those that serve the Lord, and love His Name, " I will make them joyful in My house of prayer ^" " And 6 Rom. xi. 5. ^ Isa. Ivi. 7. THE PRESETiTTATIOlSr IN THE TEMPLE. 143 tJie Holy Gliost teas ujpon him.''' "We are indeed after- wards told that tlie Holy Spirit was not yet given ^, that is, in His fulness, in the true fulfilment of the water flowing from the smitten E-ock, as it was kept in memory in the great day of the feast of Taber- nacles ; but the true Light that lighteth every man that Cometh into the world still enhghtened all, according to the measure of each. " And it was revealed unto him hy the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death hef ore he hadseen the Lord's Christ '' To see and be able to discern, not, perhaps, Christ the Lord, for this was reserved for the fulness of faith, to see Christ as Grod; but to see Him as the Lord's Christ, as the Anointed of Grod, the true Priest, Prophet, and King, " anointed with the oil of gladness " above His fellows, with the unction of the Holy Grhost, not by measure given unto Him : Him whose very " Name is as ointment poured forth \" Anointed, not for His own sake, but for that of others; — " He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel unto the poor ;" that others may partake of His anointing, "the oil of gladness," and "enter into the joy of their Lord." But never was Prophet so designated as being under the influence of the Holy Spirit, as by this description ; — that upon his life was "the Holy Spirit " shed ; that this promise was revealed to him "by the Spirit:" and that this his coming into the Temple was "by the Spirit." ^'■And He came hy the Spirit into the temple" As " no one can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Grhost," none but He could prepare this saint to discern Him. And he came by His guidance, for " they who are led by the Spirit of G-od, they are the sons of God." And yet, perhaps, no sight more ordmary to 8 Jolm vii. 40. ' Cant. i. 3. 144 THE PEESENTATIOTf IN THE TEMPLE. Imman eyes; an aged man coming as usual to the Tem- ple, and poor parents bringing an infant according to the custom of the Law ; such a scene would not have attracted even a transient look of regard from the Phari- sees that passed by ; unless peradventure one standing in the Temple to pray might contrast his own greatness with their meanness, as with that of the Publican in the parable. But that Pharisee could not know the conso- lation of them that mourn, which was with the Publican, and unknown to him was the deep and heartfelt joy of those little ones with whom the Holy Spirit delights to dwell. It is not mentioned what the immediate circum- stances were, which, humanly speaking, led this aged Saint to this recognition, or whether there may have been any beside the instinctive teaching of God. Whe- ther he had known the Eoyally-descended pair, or had heard any of the circumstances of this Birth, or of Elisabeth, and the Baptist, or of the Shepherds, or of the Magi, such lesser matters are all lost in the greater, that the Holy Spirit was with him. Thus was there no place without a witness, the Star among the Gentiles, prophecy among the Scribes, the Angels' song in the country; in the king's court there are the Wise men ad- ducing the Star, and the Priests the prophecy; among the humble worshippers in the Temple, are Simeon and Anna. " And when the 'parents hrought in the Child Jesus^ that they might do for Him according to the custom of the Law, he himself tooh Him up in his armsJ^ As this holy man in type, so did the Eighteousness of the Law, which appeared now growing old and ready to fail, receive Christ into its arms. We read hereafter of others, that Christ took them up into His arms when children (as of Ignatius Christophorus); but of this Saint THE peesektatio:n" it?^ the temple. 145 alone that lie took up Christ into his arms ; — took as an Infant into his arms Him Whom the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain ; — and broke forth into singing and pro- phecy. The " babes" sang in the Temple when our Lord entered as Priest and King ; showing hereby the nature of His Kingdom : and he who now praises God has the Holy Child in His arms —all is of holy childhood. And now is the Psalm fulfilled — " let Thy priests be clothed with righteousness," for this was the priest after the order of Melchisedec, the " King of righteousness ;" — " and let Thy saints sing with joyfulness." " He hlessed God, and said, Now dost Thou dismiss Thy servant, 0 Lord, according to Thy word, in 'peace''' According to that word of promise by the Holy Spirit, to which in faith he had clung through great difficulties and trials ; but he that liveth by faith shall come to sight also ; and at length be filled with the pleasures of Grod's house. "Let thy servant depart in peace," after all perplexing thoughts, in peace to welcome death ; in peace for the sake of Israel ; in peace of Grod, which passeth all un- derstanding : — that peace which our Lord at His depart- ing declared to His servants, and now gives to the just man at his own departure : " not as the world giveth, give I unto you :" that " peace on earth" which the Angels had already declared. The Israel after the Law is about to depart, because he hath found the true Joseph. " And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face." -For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, — not the Saviour only, but Him Who is Himself Salvation and Life, — '^ ivhich thou hast prepared lefore the face of all people ; a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Lsrael'' Nor has this Evangelical Prophet, speak- ing by the Holy Grhost, and with Christ in his arms, L 146 THE PEESET^TATIOIT Ilf THE TEMPLE. any low and carnal notion of the Messiah ; but in the illumination of faith he goes beyond Apostles, and sees what the first of Apostles, even after the out-pour- ing of the Holy Spirit, was slow to believe ; — the mys- tery of the calling of the Gentiles. As the Prophet had said, " I will also give Thee for a light to the Grentiles, that Thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth ^." Eor before this, he had been in the Spirit -waiting for the consolation of Israel, but now, as if filled with the radiance of that Child Whom he bears in his arms, he sees already the light of the Grentiles in that Child, He sees with blessed eyes that which Prophets and kings have desired to see, and have not seen, — "the desire of all nations;" and holding in his arms Him Who comes to set loose the captive, his chains drop off*, he is abeady released and set free; released from the law of sin and of death ; for to see Christ be- fore death, is to die in peace. More blessed than his bodily eyes were those eyes of his soul, whereby in seeing that Holy Infant, he could see salvation. " AVrite, From henceforth blessed are they that die in the Lord! even so saith the Spirit," "The promise that he should see Christ implied," says Origen, "some advantage in that sight; and a secret gift of Grod was contained therein, which blessed Simeon received. A woman touched the hem of His garment and was healed : and what, therefore, must we think of Simeon, who received Him as an Infant into his arms, and rejoiced, seeing the Little One he carried was He Who had come to let loose the captive : know- ing that no one could release him from the prison of the body with the hope of a future life, tut He Whom he held in his arms ^" "Let him who \^dshes to depart," 2 Isa. xlix. 6. 3 Horn, in Luc. xv. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. 147 says St. Ambrose \ " come into tlie Temple, let him come to Jerusalem : let him wait for the Lord's Christ ; let him take in his hands the "Word of God, embracing Him by the arms of faith." Nothing is so incomprehensible and wonderful to our contemplation, as the state of mind of Joseph and the holy Mother : we endeavour in vain to realize the condition of persons so situated, to whom such a Reve- lation had been made ; but it appears throughout, that their minds did not rise to the fulness of that exalted privilege, to comprehend the Godhead in that myste- rious Infant. Things communicated to them as to the Israehtes of old, and to disciples afterwards, concerning our Lord's Divinity, seem to have left them still to search out by degrees, and to come to the comprehension of that mysterious greatness with which they were conver- sant— the rays of Godhead and of glory that broke forth filled them with wonder and adoration ; while knowing they knew not what they knew ; and in beheving, still by observation and comparison and reflection, ever as- cending to the heights of that Divine knowledge, which still was not far from them, in their mouth, and in their heart. Thus we also, though we know the great things of the Gospel long before, are persuaded of them, and have embraced them, yet on every fulfilment before our eyes and with us, in the development of those pro- mises, we marvel and wonder as at some new thing ; gaining new eyes to see that which we had before seen and confessed, and yet knew not. As the blessed Apostles confessed Christ as God, yet still so needed to know Him more, as if all they had known was but igno- rance of Him: that even His Besurrection itself " appeared to them as idle tales " after all, although it * Expos, in Luc. lib. ii. 59. l2 148 THE PRESE^fTATION" I'S THE TEMPLE. had been so frequently before (at least six times) de- clared to tliem. And tbus we read, " And Josejyh and His onotlier icondered at those things lohich ivere s'polcen concerning Him.'" Yet bow could tbey have thus marvelled, if tbey could bave fully comprebended tbe mystery declared to tbem, and of wbicb tbey were made tbe believing and wondering and adoring instru- ments,— of Immanuel or Grod witb us, or of Jesus tbe Saviour ? But saddening and sobering tbougbts are mixed vritb exalting tidings in Scripture. ''^ And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary, Sis Mother, Behold This One is set for the falling and rising again of many in Israel ; and for a sign that shall he spoken against . . .so that the thoughts of many hearts shall he revealed^ Tbis Evangelical Propbet is tberefore not ignorant of tbat Cross wbicb even disciples could not comprebend ; and of tbat mystery of Cbrist Crucified wbicb is to try tbe bearts of all. Eor tbis manifestation of Cbrist Cruci- fied pervades mysteriously all His life ; and tbis dispen- sation sball be tbe trial of men's spirits in tbe wonder- ful wisdom of Grod, Wbose tbougbts are not as our tbougbts. Nor sball even tbose tbat are nearest in approach, and bigbest in privilege and knowledge re- vealed to tbem, escape tbe searching and fiery trial of tbis mysterious probation. '-'■And even thine own soul also a sword shall pierce.'" For tbis is He of AVbom it is written, and even now in part fulfilled, tbat " He sball suddenly come to His Temple, and sball sit" — or continue there, " as a refiner and purifier of silver." "But who may abide the day of His coming?" For even His blessed Mother herself shall scarce in faith rise above tbat trial : as even now, in tbis His coming to tbe Temple beyond tbe thought of man, who is THE PEESE2s'TATI05f TS THE TEMPLE. 149 there tliat understands, or can abide the test ? Wliere is all Jerusalem that has waited for Him ? Where the Scribes and Pharisees that might know the Babe of Bethlehem, as they so lately declared Him to be ? As it was said of Joseph, that " the iron entered into his soul ;" so the iron that pierced Christ's tender Body entered into her tender soul ; of His enemies it is writ- ten, " swords are in their lips," so their cruel words to Him pierced her : and thus all His Passion was as a sword in her soul. "Whether this implies doubt in her faith seems uncertain. St. Chrysostom, Augustin, Basil, Origen, and others, think it does. And the con- text seems to imply it. Therefore, over and above this first application to her sorrows, it may be, as St. Ambrose understands it, that " the Word of Grod, sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart," should open and disclose in her also the mystery of this trial of faith, and the unsearch- able Eye of Grod in her soul. And St. Augustin, that she " looked with doubt and astonishment at the death of her Lord, seeing the Son of God so humbled, as to come down even to death. And as a sword passing close by a man causes fear, though it does not strike him ; so doubt also causes sorrow, though it does not kill," He shall be " for a sign that shall be spoken against," not in Himself only, but also in His members to the last ; wherever He is manifested in His followers, there is He spoken against by the world, even as a sign to which is pointed the finger of contumely : in like man- ner as all that He did in the flesh was spoken against. Where the preaching of Him in every place is not a savour of life, it is a savour unto death ; a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to the houses of Israel, 150 THE peeseis^tatio:n' it^ the temple. while a light to the Gentiles. And the object of all this mysterious dispensation is, "that the hearts of many may be revealed" before the Eye of their Judge in every place. As St. Ambrose says on this passage, " Behold, Simeon prophesies that the Lord hath come for the ruin and resurrection of many ; that He may discern the merits of the just and the unjust, and according to the quality of our actions, may, as a just and true Judge, determine either punishments or rewards." But all circumstances, however apparently accidental, are overruled by a Divine control ; and another also must be joined to this sacred band, that by the mouth, of two or three witnesses every word may be established. " And tJiere teas Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Jrhaiiuel, of the tribe of Aser. She tvas advanced in length of dags, having lived with an husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about eighty four years, who departed not from the Temple, with fastings and with prayers serving God night and day."" The very pattern indeed of her who is " a widow indeed," not only under the Law, but as St. Paul de- scribes, under the Gospel, who " continueth in supplica- tions and prayers night and day \" And under the Law, the very type of what the Law required of those who should obtain the promises of God, to whom He will show His covenant, " unto which our twelve Tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come®;" in type and earthly semblance of those " who serve God day and night in His Temple ^" A widow, a prophetess, one that worshipped night and day ; — like the Jewish Church herself that had lost her husband the Law, as St. Paul says, her seven years being accomplished, when ^ 1 Tim. V. 5. ° Acts xxvi. 7- ^ Rev. vii. 15. THE presexta.tio:n' ii< the temple. 151 on tlie eighth day Christ arose. Of the tribe of Asher, of whom Moses said, "let Asher be blessed with children," " and as thy days so shall thy strength be ;" for "the barren" shall have "more children than she that hath an husband," while " she that hath borne seven, languisheth :" she that is feeble with age, shall be renewed as the eagle, and feel beneath her the Everlasting arms. ^' And she at that very instant having come in together'^ with Simeon " made confession unto the Lord ;'' — she joined also with him in her own holy Hymn of thanksgiving, for she was herself a Pro- phetess. And thus, as at our Lord's Crucifixion, though He was overwhelmed by multitudes, and every portion of the nation took part in His death, yet in each there was a remnant according to grace, so now also, there was one to prophesy of each class. As St. Ambrose observes, " Simeon prophesied, a Virgin hath prophesied, the married woman hath prophesied, a widow also must prophesy ; that no profession and no sex may be wanting." For this purpose is she introduced, for nothing more is said of her. " And she spake of Sim to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. ^^ Such are the holy Israelites of those days, waiting for the consolation of Israel ; waiting for Grod is the very character of their worship. To such the holy widow spake, not to all ; " to witnesses chosen of God, not to all the people," as our Lord manifested Himself at His Resurrection, being seen of them for forty days. And such He declared to be the law of all His spiritual manifesta- tions, that if any will keep the commandments of Grod and do His will. He will manifest Himself unto them, and not unto the world. And here, as at all times in His house of Prayer, few are the worshippers of God, 152 THE PEESEIfTATION IN THE TEMPLE. when worship is the object of their coming. So homely and ordinaiy was this scene in human eyes, but how different did it appear to the invisible creations of Grod ! " Orders of incorporeal spirits," says St. Gregory of Nyssa, " bowing the neck, were invisibly preparing a pomp suitable to God ; were adoring the ocean of vsdsdom unspeakable : and waiting for the fulfilment of the appointment of the letter of the Law, in the manifestation of the mystery which was hidden in God, the Maker of All." The words of St. Luke, after the account of what took place at the Purification, seem to indicate an in- tention of returning to jSTazareth after that event ; and the custom of the Jews of going up to Jerusalem for re- ligious services, and again returning to distant parts of the country, occurs so frequently and so incidentally throughout the Gospels, that it is natural to suppose it may have been their intention to do so. Eor alluding to that ceremony he proceeds : " And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord^ they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth^ But St. Augustin supposes, that this occasion, and the sensation produced at Jerusalem, as mentioned at the Purification, with the circumstance of its being thus noised abroad again, aroused the attention of Herod ; who now finds that the Magi had departed \vithout re- turning to him. Here, therefore, at this period we must fix the slaughter of the Infants and the flight into Egypt, at a time when they were returning or intending to return to Galilee, or indeed, possibly after they had returned. Por St. Chrysostom seems to think, that they returned to Nazareth before they went to Egypt. " He would not," he says, " have brought them down thither before the Purification, in order that nothing should be THE PEESEXTATIOX IIS THE TEMPLE. 153 done contrarT to the law, but he waited for her to be pui'ified, and to go to Xazareth, and that then they should go down to Egypt®." But it is of coiu-se very- possible that St. Luke may merely introduce the men- tion of the return to Xazareth, in order to connect it with the incident he is about to introduce in our Lord's subsequent childhood. For he does thus proceed in the narrative, without allusion to times and circum- stances intervening, in many cases. An instance pre- cisely similar to this occurs, when he speaks of our Lord's coming to G-alilee after the Temptation. " AYlien the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season ; and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee." Here it might seem as if he was mentioning things immediately continuous in point of time, although it appears from St. John's account, that nearly the space of a year must have inter- vened. Another instance of this may be found in the last chapter of his Gospel, where the narrative of the Eesurrection is in such a way combined with that of the Ascension, as to induce one at first sight to think it to be all a continued series of narration. St. Augustin does not at all suppose that they went to iSTazareth before going to Egypt. It may indeed be allowed that it is exceedingly like the order of things in St. Matthew, to proceed by association of circumstances ; and therefore speaking of Herod and the Wise men, to proceed to the slaughter of the Infants, although many days, or weeks, or months may have intervened be- tween that and the return of the Magi : yet certainly the words of St. Luke, imder any interpretation, seem inconsistent with the supposition, that after the Purifi- cation they should continue for two years at Bethlehem, 8 Horn, in Matt. ix. 4. 6. 154 THE FLIGHT II^TO EGYPT. and that witli the intention of continuing there. We must therefore here resume the narrative of St. Matthew. SECTION XIII. THE ELIGET IIS'TO EGYPT. It is in a dream that Grod again regulates and guides their motions. The dreams of the good are visited by holy aspirations and thoughts of safety, and thus as well as waking thoughts affect their secret destinies ; so likewise under the veil of slumber Angels appear to them, and thus regulate their waking conduct ; and the two worlds of visible and invisible agents co-operate together, as well in the regions of slumber as in the outer world : both alike wait on the Son of Man, and minister to those who are found in Him, and are heirs of His salvation. "And lolien they had departed,''' i. e. when the Magi had returned to their own country, " hehold, an Angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph, saying, Arise, and tahe the young Child, and His Mother, and flee into Egypt; and he thou there until I shall tell thee ; for Herod is about to seeh the young Cliild to destroy Him^'' How mysterious and unsearchable are the ways of God : Egypt that once destroyed the male children of Israel, now saves the true Pirst-born of Israel. And as the Lord said to Pharaoh, " Israel is My son, even My first-born," " if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy first-born ;" so the destroying Angel slew the first-born of Egypt, and saved the first-born of Israel ; the king of Judea, in return, now slays the infants of Israel, and Egypt shelters the Holy Infant from his cruelty. Herein too was a great mystery, that Christ begins by returning good for evil j blessings to Eg}^pt THE TLiaHT IKTO EGYPT. 155 which had persecuted His Israel. The Lord " Who keepeth not His anger for ever," says an ancient writer, " remembered the woes He had brought upon Egypt, and sent His Son that He might heal the ten plagues of Egypt, and that the nation which had been the persecutor might be the guardian of His Eirst- born." " Since Babylon and Egypt," says St. Chry- sostom, " were most in all the earth burnt up with the flames of ungodliness, He sent the AYise men to the one ; He Himself, with His Mother, visited the other ; signifying from the first that He means to correct and amend them both, and hereby leading the whole world to expect His bounties^." And how are all things now reversed ! they who had light in Groshen are left in darkness : and Egyptian darkness has the true Light. " Moses before," says St. Augustin, " had shut up the light of day from the Egyptians ; Christ by going down thither, brought back light to them that sat in darkness." Judea persecutes ; Egypt, the very type of idolatry, "worshipping," says Hilary, " monsters of all kinds for gods," the very scorn and ridicide of the Heathen \ protects ; Babylon, the very figure of Antichrist, worships ; as in the end, the first shall be last and the last first. Already does that mystery break forth of Israel after the flesh persecuting Israel after the spirit ; and Israel, who was pursued of Pharaoh, becoming himself as Pharaoh and as Egypt, partakes of his persecutions and of his condemnation, being that Israel "which is spiritually called Egypt"." " The fury of Herod," says St. Hilary, " and his slaying the infants, is a type of the rage of the Jewish people against the Christians, under the notion, by the slaughter of the blessed Martyrs, of extinguishing the Name of 9 Matt. Horn. viii. 3. ' Juv. Sat. xv. ^ Rev. xi. 8. 156 THE FLIGHT IIS^TO EGYPT. Christ from tlie faith and profession of all men." To stifle as it were the infant Church by the blood of her little ones. And already does that mystery show forth itself, to be afterwards interwoven with all the history of the Messiah, that His " foes shall be of His own household ;" that "a Prophet is not received in his own country." Already gleams the mystery of Christ Crucified ; by the Law He is stamped as the victim by circumcision, whereby His blood as a pre- libation is shed; the other mark also needful is the persecution of the world. And here is set forth another truth, that persecution is the outward mark of Grod's elect after the Spirit ; as circumcision is the mark of His elect after the Law. But as yet He is a Child, and hath done nothing to call on Him the enmity of the world and the devil, unless it be the holiness of His supposed Parents, known already to the latter; and the Mighty Arm of the Lord, which hath already begun to be revealed. Por the troubles and afflictions of the holy Mother arise from her thus nearly ap- proaching Him, and partaking of His Cross. And how throughout is greatness and lowliness, the Son of God and the Son of Man, combined ; the Son of God, and the Child of Mary ; the poor Carpenter, and David the king ; the Star in the Heavens, and the flight into Egypt ; Eastern Chiefs, and poor Shepherds : the Shepherds in the field, and the Angels from on high ; the Presentation as of a poor infant ; the prophecies of Simeon as of God our salvation : the pair of turtle doves as from a poor mother ; the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, as to the King of kings ! " And he arose, and took the young Child and Sis Mother hy night, and departed into Egypt.'" The very words, thus following on those of the Angel's command, THE FLIGHT IKTO EGYPT. 157 indicate the readiness of his obedience, for the words of the fulfihnent are the very words of the command ; as of Abraham it is said, "and they went forth into the land of Canaan : and into the land of Canaan they came." And it was "by night," making night the only witness of their way ^, which intimates the suddenness and se- crecy of their departure ; night is the very emblem and type of evil ; as Egypt is the place of evil and t}^e of darkness ; and these receive Him Who is " the Light of the world," in Whom there is "no darkness at all." But from Egypt, the refuge of Christ, we return to Bethlehem, the place of His birth. " Then Herod, when he perceived that he had heen mocked hy the JSIagi^'' — had been deluded by them, and so overreached in his secret design, which self-reproach and disappointment interpret as mockery, — " he tvas exceedingly enraged ; and sent forth, and slew all the children which were in Bethlehem, and in all the Ijorders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time he had accu- rately inquired of the Magi.'" Nature itself, or rather the fatherly tenderness of God, has endued all young creatures with interest and touching beauty in all their ways and appearances, in order to arrest and win for them fostering care and gentleness ; they have no voice but that which is a cry for help ; every thing human, therefore, must be destroyed in the heart, the milk of humanity utterly dried up, before men are steeled against infants. But this is a true descendant of that Edom which " in the day of Jerusalem, said, Down with it, even to the ground ;" and rejoiced with that Babylon which threw their " children against the stones." He who fails of greatest good falls into greatest sin, as Judas ^ vvKTi KoivwffavTSQ odov, Pind. 158 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. did ; to this favoured king, the first of all in that sacred nation, is the announcement made of the birth of Him for whom all Creation had longed and yearned since the fall ; and yet the effect of this knowledge which Hea- ven had vouchsafed to him, is a crime at the atrocity of which even the heathen world stands aghast. There is a saying* reported of the Emperor Augustus, which im- plies that the knowledge of it had come to him, and the cry of the infants had penetrated the imperial palace. He has become the chief representative of the evil one, " the dragon stood before the woman, for to devour her child as soon as it was born \" Already in the fall of Herod does the prophetic sign appear, of Him who is to be for the faU of many, and for the rising again of many ; for of these martyred infants good is foretold, — "they shall come again from the land of the enemy." Already appears the sign of Him who is not to reign by an earthly life, as Herod apprehended, but to conquer by death ; therefore, all things around Him speak of death, and of those sufferings and sorrows which sit in the vestibule of death. 0, the unrelenting madness of superabounding cruelty! not in Bethlehem only, but in all the coasts ; not just born infants only, but all under two years. Thus of that other Herod we read, that " when he had sought for Peter, and found him not, having examined by torture the guard, he commanded that they should be put to death ^" But it may be asked. How is it thab God permits the innocent to suffer thus ? To which it must be answered, that no one, indeed, as far as he is innocent, can suffer wrong, for * Mentioned by Macrobius, that Augustus, on being told that Herod had a son of his own killed among the infants of two years old, said it was better to be to him vv fi viov. 5 Rev. xii. 4. " Acts xii. 19. THE TLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 159 suffering brings remission of sins or a great gain : " K ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye ; and be not afraid of their terror." And to them that suffer good is requited for evil^ But the inspired Evan- gelist himself will explain this dispensation of God, as no human words can do : " Then ivas fulfilled tliat wliich teas spoken hy Jeremiah the prophet, saying, A voice ivas heard in Eama, lamentation, and weeping, and great onourning ; Rachel weeping for her children, and w'ould not he comforted, because they are not^ The Evangelist here, as is often the case in the New Testa- ment, rather refers to the passage than quotes the whole of it ; for the entire chapter, and the preceding one, speak with indescribable sweetness and beauty of the restoration of the true Israel of God out of all their troubles ; and the continuation of the words referred to are the best comment on their intention. " Thus saith the Lord, Eefrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord ; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their ovm border ^" Herein, therefore, was contained a vast and ineffable mystery, set forth long ago in figure ; and in that figure there was comfort given by the Holy Ghost through the prophet ; yet throughout looking forward to and speaking of this event. Eor when Israel was carried away captive to Babylon, so great was the distress, that Kachel, by whose tomb they were taken, might be said to be mourning in her grave at the sad issue of such high promises to Jacob's seed. But the Lord in the ^ 2 Sam. xvi. 12. ^ Jer. xxxi. 15—17. 160 THE PLIGHT ITsTO EGYPT, Prophet bids lier not to weep, for thej shall again return from the laud of the enemy. In their fall and cap- tivity there is a wide difference between the chosen people of God and the nations. " I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee : though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee^." Nay, it is the tribe of Judah alone in which the power of renovation more especially resides, because in Judah is the pro- mised Shiloh, AVho is the E-esurrection and the Life. And what does this signify, (for it was not of private interpretation,) but that for those who are truly the children of Grod there is hope in temporal death. That we are not to mourn for Christ's little ones who depart to the grave, " even as others who have no hope." For Bachel, in her grave, shall be comforted, and they shall return ; " them that sleep in Christ shall God bring with Him," — " from the land of the enemy." "Awake and sing, ye that sleep in dust ^°." "I will be thy Ejug." " I will ransom them from the power of the grave : I will redeem them from death : 0 death, I will be thy plagues; 0 grave, I will be thy destruction." And where shall we find more sweet and pure representa- tives of Christ's flock, than in these little ones ? Where shall we find such praise as is given of those who thus died ? " These are they which were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb \" They are the very types and first-fruits of those who shall enter into the kingdom. ° Jer. XXX. 11. " Isa. xxvi. 19. ' Rev. xiv. 4. THE FLiaHT INTO EGYPT. 161 " Suffer little cMdren to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." These blessed spirits throng, as it were, around the infant Child, the cradle of the Yirgin-born : martyrs, if not in will, yet in deed ; martyrs most meet to attend His Throne : they minister unto Him their King, not in life, but by dying ; for by death He reigns, and in dying conquers ; and by death opens His kingdom. His death, as by a sort of sacramental mystery, hal- lows the deaths of infants ; and not their deaths only, but all those various sufferings in infancy, which in- troduce them into life with the savours of death. The Eastern Sages set forth in type the call of the Grentiles, as Simeon and Anna of just men according to the Law; so were these types of the " little ones" of His kingdom — those to whom Grod hath revealed things hidden from the wise and prudent. They alone have not partaken in the wicked deeds of that Israel which is Sodom and Egypt. These mark the door into Christ's kingdom with their blood, that door into which we must " enter through much tribulation ;" the very door is sprinkled with the blood of lambs. "What sacrifice could more resemble that of the Lamb without spot, than these innocent victims ? Innocent lambs have bled since the world began, but as it draws nearer unto the mani- festation of Christ, they are innocent children that bleed. These blossoms are taken to bloom in Heaven, before they are blighted by the world ; they lie on the threshold of the everlasting morning : as the Poet of Martyrs says, — •' Little flowers of martyrdom, Whom the ruthless sword hath torn On the threshold of the morn, Rosebuds by the whirlwind shorn ! 162 THE FLIGHT IlfTO EGYPT. All regardless of their doom, 'Neath the altar where they lay, With their palm and chaplets gay, Little simple ones, they play." Prudent. Hym. Epiph. But the Holy Child has now found that safety in Egypt which Palestine afforded not, as St. Matthew, before he records the slaughter of the infants, thus mentions : ^^ And Heivas there till tTie death of Herod : that it might le fulfilled ivhich ivas spohen of the Lord hy the Prophet, saying^ * Out of Egypt have I called My Son.''' Even as the world shall receive His Church till the persecuting Israel after the flesh is dead. He went into Egypt to prepare a place among the Gentiles, as Joseph of old went down to prepare bread for the chosen people. And the inspired Evangelist himself points out that this was not as a mere acci- dental human contingency, but all a part of the great dispensation and ordinance of God, as His Word of old by His prophets had shown. For when the Pro- phet Hosea said, " When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt ^;" it was of far more than the Patriarchs or the temporal Israel that he spoke : for he pointed out in that history the tTue Israel, the Child born of the Virgin, and the Son of God given unto us ; of Whom it was said, " I wiU set My love upon Him," and " This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." And the prophet Balaam, when he speaks of God " bringing him forth out of Egypt ^" says, " He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a EJing 3 Hosea xi. 1. ^ Numb, xxiii. 22 ; xxiv. 8. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. 163 is among tliem." But it is evident that in tliat carnal Israel of old He had seen nothing but iniquity and per- verseness : and they had no King, — but the Star that should arise out of Jacob. Thus St. Chrysostom weU observes, that Israel after the flesh was not the true son of Grod ; for " he that worships a calf, and is joined to Bael-peor, and sacrifices his sons to devils, is not so truly the son of Grod, as He that is a son by nature, and honours Him that begat Him. So that the pro- phecy could not have received its due fulfilment but in Christ. As the Evangelist intimates by saying, ' that it might be fulfilled,' implying that it would not have been fulfilled unless He had come*." Thus Egypt had been marked out of old as the place of retreat : here Abraham found refuge from famine ; here Joseph fled from death ; here the family of Israel was nurtured ; here by the house of Pharaoh was Moses preserved. And now were fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah concerning Egypt ^ — "He shall send them a Saviour, and a Grreat One." — "The Lord shall be known to Eg^^t, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day." — " They shall return even unto the Lord, and He shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them." Jeremiah also hath said, " I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt ; and He shall burn them, and carry them away captives : and He shall array Himself with the land of 'Egypt, as a shep- herd putteth on his garment, and He shall go forth from thence in peace ^" "What is all this but a type of the Church, which is called out of the G-entile world, in which she finds refuge at Christ's death r for as far as Israel goes, He is already slain : but escaped by death * In Matt. Horn. viii. 5. ^ isa. xix. 20. 22. ^ Jer. xliii. 12. M 2 164 THE PLIGHT IlfTO EGYPT. out of tlieir hands, for Grod took Him : He is gone away, as tlie scape-goat into the wilderness, devoted to death, but not dead. The woman that was delivered of the Man Child is fled into the wilderness, but " her Child is caught up unto Grod and His throne ^" What is it but a type of the Church spiritually called out of the world, " out of the house of bondage," even as a child, to serve God : arrayed in her spoils, in order to do Him worship. Thus of the spoils of Egj'pt was the Tabernacle made in the wilderness : thus was Moses arrayed with all the wisdom of Egypt ; thus was the Ark kept by the Philistines, and in the house of Dagon, and of Obed- edom the Grittite ; thus the wood and the workmanship of the Temple was by Hiram of T^to ; thus were the sacred vessels of the Temple preserved in Babylon ; thus the decree of Cyrus the Persian built the Temple of Jerusalem ; thus Nebuchadnezzar gave protection to Jeremiah from the persecutions of Israel ; thus of Bahab the Canaanite, and of Euth the Moabite was Christ descended ; thus Caesar Augustus ministers to the birth at Bethlehem by the decree of the taxing. Thus St. Paul in the Heathen Arabia spent the pre- paration for his Grospel ; and from the palaces of the lleathert Emperor most effectually preached the same. Thus afterwards most signally Egypt, spiritually the desert, "blossomed hke the rose." St. Chrysostom, on the passage, dwells on this contrast, — that the saints and monasteries, and the blessed and great Antony, were the first-fruits of this land ; which was afterwards as rich in faith as it had been before rank in wickedness. Perhaps in all this is contained agreat mystery in morals also, as it hasbeen elsewhere shown ^ That the Christian character, "^ Rev. xii. 5. ^ See on Stud. Gosp. P. vii. § v. THE FLIGHT TSTO EGYPT. 165 by grace, becomes formed from the opposite by nature, out of tbe Egypt and Babylon of the natural heart, is brought forth the New Jerusalem, in which Christ dwells. Thus "her wilderness" becomes "like Eden ; her desert, like the garden of the Lord." " Instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree." " To the solitary place," " the glory of Lebanon shall be given ; the excellency of Carmel and of Sharon ; they shall see the excellency of our God°." He is ever wont, as St. Chrysostom says, to accomplish His dispensations by means of their contraries ; thus it is amidst murders the most bitter, with His birth-place in distress. His mother in flight, that the Prince of peace, the Saviour, He that overcometh the world, is born. " And when Herod was dead, heJiold, an Angel of the Lord in a dream appears to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, take the Child and His mother, and go into tlie land of Israel ; for they are dead who sought the life of the Child. And he arose and took the Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel."'' Thus, with great simplicity and without comment does Holy Scrip- ture speak of the most awful of crimes, "they who sought the Child's life !" as on many other occasions, leaving such things by its silence to the judgment of God, when that judgment shall be at last revealed. And in wonderful expressiveness of language does it again describe the Divine command, and the obedience of Joseph, in a manner similar to what it had done in the going down to Egypt ; speaking in almost the same words of the Angel's injunction and its fulfilment, as it had done before. On the former occasion, "Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and flee into 9 Isa. li. 3 : Iv. 13 ; xxxv. 2. 166 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Egypt " — " And lie arose, and took the young Child and His mother." And now it is, " Arise, and take the young Child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel. And he arose, and took the young Child and His mother, and came into the land of Israel." And now, when they had arrived at the Holy Land, we read, ^^But when Tie heard that Archelaiis reigned in Judea in the place of Herod his father, he teas afraid to go thither."" It appears therefore, that had it not been for this obstacle which they found on arriving there, that they now intended to make Bethlehem itself or Jerusalem the place of their future abode ; either as ad- hering to the strict letter of the command they had received, to return to the land of Israel ; or from a natural and pious wish of making the sacred nation the abode of the Messiah. However that may be, it was according to the rule of all our Lord's dealings, not to retire from the sacred city and sacred nation, till forced to do so by fear of persecution and the rejection of the Jews ^°. St. Joseph's being commanded to go to Israel and his attempt to do so, and his requiring a fresh in- terference of the Angel to decide him against doing so, — all these things seem to intimate that such attempts were not without a design. The circumstance confirms this yearning over Israel in all the dealings of Christ, as afterwards so signally shown. Thus St. Hilary speaks of it as requiring explanation, that the Angel had given him a command to return to Israel, and therefore he ought not to fear to fulfil it, or the Angel ought not to have given a command necessary to be re- called. He explains it by supposing a typical mean- ing to be contained in it, by Joseph representing the >o See on Stud. Gosp. p. vi. § 1. THE PLIGHT TSTO EGYPT. 167 Apostles, bearing Christ about, entrusted to tbeir care. For when Herod was dead, i. e. when the Jewish nation was destroyed by the death of Christ, they were com- manded to preach to the Jews ; for they were sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel : but while the do- minion of that inheritance of infidelity still existed, they fear to do so, and return. But being warned by a vision to confer the gift of the Holy Spirit on the Gen- tiles, they thither transfer Christ, who is sent to Judea, but called the life and salvation of the Gentiles \" Now the extraordinary correspondence of this type seems to have arisen from the general principle here stated, that all measures are first taken with Israel, and not without earnest remonstrance are they transferred to the Gen- tiles. JN'or is this inference excluded if we were to take St. Augustin's supposition, that it was from mis- understanding the command of the Angel, and supposing Israel to signify the land of Judea, that the Holy Family proceed thither; till finding that Archelaus reigned there, he considered that Galilee might be considered as a part of it^ For in either case it would be equally true that an attempt is made to bring Christ into Judea, but they find in consequence that they are unable to do so. Humanly speaking, however, the parental guardian of the Holy Child is now in difficulty ; and as in a mat- ter so great and divine he could not venture to trust his own reason, but as in all his former perplexities, so in this also, the supernatural Divine guidance must regu- late all things with respect ta Christ. ^-Btd heing ivarned of God in a dream, he retired into the parts of Galilee ; and came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth; that it might he fulfilled which was spoken hy the Frophets, 1 Com. in Matt. cap. ii. i. ^ Consen. Evan, xi. 9. 168 THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. Se shall he called a NazareneP Not that the fulfil- ment of prophecy was their object, for they were re- turning to their former abode, but that it was thus ful- filled. The well-known difficulty is, that the prophecy is no where found ; and this is explained by supposing, as an ancient writer suggests, that it may be among Prophets not admitted into our Canon, as Nathan and Esdras. This appears to have been the opinion of St. Chrysostom, who appeals to the mention of lost books in the Chronicles ^. But the objection to this ex- planation is this, that the prophecy could not have been known to the Jews, who were so well acquainted with the letter of the Scriptures, for Nathanael says, " Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" and the Pha- risees to Nicodemus, "Search and see, for out of Gralilee ariseth no Prophet." And St. Jerome well observes, that if he had referred to any distinct pro- phecy he would not have said " by the Prophets," but by the Prophet. It may be noticed, moreover, that the prophecy lately quoted from Jeremiah is not given by St. Matthew according to the Hebrew, nor according to the Septuagint ; which proves that the Evangelist does not refer to the exact words of the prophecy he quotes, but to the sense, and often to the latent sense to be found on consideration : in the same manner therefore now he may be called a Nazarene. Thus St. Jerome refers the expression, not to the mere word, but to the sense ; for Nazarene means Holy. And the typical order of legal sanctity of which Samuel was, had, we know, this name. But St. Jerome also refers to the possibility of its being found in the exact letter of the Hebrew in Isaiah, " There shall come a rod out of the 3 2 Chron. ix. 29 ; xii. 15 ; xiii. 22. THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. 169 stem of Jesse, and a Nazarene shall grow out of his roots" — by the change of one letter in the Hebrew into another not altogether different in sound ; but it does not seem a natural interpretation. However it may be explained, it is evident that the fulfilment of prophecy in this point must always have been after a secret and mysterious manner ; for, as before observed, the Jews did not perceive it. Certainly, this title of our Lord's is strongly marked afterwards as peculiarly His : it is inscribed on His Cross, and He is by this name often spoken of by the Apostles ^. The very name is con- nected with the "great mystery of godliness ;" the word itself signifies Holy ; but the place designated by it is proverbial for every thing ignoble and despised. For at Jerusalem, — the Holy City, — the palace of Kings, — the seat of David, — the placeof the oracles of Grod, — the residence of the Prophets, — theSion and Temple of God, — the glory of the world, — the chosen people of Grod, had rejected Him, He "chooses weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath Grod chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are." So that His elect also in Him may say, " Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities ; that the power of Christ may rest upon me" — " For when I am weak then am I strong." SECTION XIV. THE CHILDHOOD OE CHEIST. "We have often occasion to notice the custom of Holy Scripture, to withdraw from our view things in them- selves most holy and full of the deepest interest, and to * Acts ii. 22 ; iii. 6 ; iv. 10 ; vi. 14. 170 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST. cover witli a cloud of impenetrable silence tlie comings and goings of Him, Whose ways are in the deep waters. But that silence is to us most suitable and awe-inspiring, and often occurs before the coming of great events ; as in the compassing of Jericho with the Ark before the trumpet sounded, and as the silence of half an hour in Heaven. But in the meanwhile, the things which break forth from that silence are as the Voice of Grod from the Cloud, to which we listen with the more devout attention. And if the Form of the Son of God is visible beneath the Cloud, full of glory unspeakable, it is only witnessed by a few, and they are forbidden to divulge the same, but partially and after a time ; like St. Paul when he had been in the third Heaven, and heard words which it is not lawful for man to utter. And indeed the doings of G-od are especially in secret ; the formation of the secret spirit, and gradual unfoldings of the same under the hand of God, are wrapt around by that Hand which folds up the bud till its appointed time, and secretly fashions the body in the womb ; and all seems emblematical of this our state, where the soul is being formed in secret, and out of the view of man till the great manifestation. God has hid from view the workings and developments of the spirit of man. Thus, after our Lord's earliest infancy and birth. He retires from our view, and until thirty years of age nothing is known of all the events of His infancy and childhood and youth. They are wrapt up in that re- serve and secrecy which marks the opening bud, the natural retirement of youth, the awful modesties of holi- ness and sorrow. One circumstance and one occasion alone breaks through that silence, when He was twelve years of age ; and that indeed, though replete with the deepest interest and instruction, yet leaves on the mind THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. l7l the strongest impression tliat there is more signified by it than the mere narrative bears on the surface — some hidden mystery or prophecy or doctrine, and probably all these together. It is St. Luke that mentions all these circumstances of our Lord's birth and early years which are of a domestic nature, as if, as some suppose, instructed in these things by the Virgin Mother ; and this incident is certainly one which to the blessed Mary herself must have appeared afterwards a subject of touching reflection ; as the ways of Providence appear to us on the retrospect, which were at the time most deep and inscrutable, but were found eventually most full of mer- ciful intervention. St. Luke passes to the account immediately from that of the Purification. ^^ And when they had accomplished all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned unto Galilee, to their own city Nazareth ;''"' to that ignoble country, and to that little obscure village among the mountains, and to a rude, no doubt, and quiet cottage, more suited to the condition of man, and far better for man in this his condition than the houses of the wealthy; not only setting at nought human pride, but hallowing the lowly habitations of retirement and poverty. This was the abode of the most blessed Virgin, the haunt most beloved of highest Angels, the dwelling-place of the Prince of Peace and Everlasting God. Here, in retire- ment and privacy, " the Child grew, and was strengthened in spirit, heing filled with wisdom^'' "The Lord is great, and worthy to be praised, there is no end of His greatness," says the Psalmist ; and the greatness of which there is no end admitteth not of increase. But like the other children of Adam, " the Son of Man" grew from an infant to the state of childhood, and from the state of childhood to manhood ; and as He grew in 172 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST. that human body and human soul which He was pleased to take for our sakes, so was He strengthened in His spirit in the inner man ^ "For this is the " Eod out of the stem of Jesse," of "Which it is said, "the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding," "and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord ^ ;' ' where it is evidently of "the Son of Man" and of the Child of Mary that it is written. As His human Body grew from childhood to maturity, so did His human Soul also, having to " learn obedience by the things which He suffered ;" for infirmities and sufferings His Divine nature could not know : by subjection He had to learn obedience ; by pain He had to learn patience ; by infirmities reliance on Grod. So that by these He gained the victory, and had authority and power and a kingdom given unto Him, and prepared for Him from before the foundation of the world : so that He says, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame." The very same words being before used by this Evangelist con- cerning the Baptist, that he "grew and was strengthened in spirit," seem to imply that they are spoken of Christ, in that which He had in common with His servant — the nature of man. But here alone it is added, " being filled with wisdom." The fulness of wisdom as a child is not human, Origen observes, but Divine. Being ab-eady " filled," for " in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" " of His fulness have all we received." But of the term "increase," applied to Him, Origen beautifully observes, " He had humbled Himself in taking the form of a servant, and in that power in which He had humbled Himself He increases. He had appeared weak because He had taken to Him- * Eph. ui. 16. 6 Isa. xi. 1—3. THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. 173 self a weak body, and on that account He again is strengthened. The Son of G-od had emptied Himself, and therefore He is again filled with wisdom ^" " And the grace of God was upon Sim.^^ " JVoiv His parents went up yearly to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover y This the Law had required of all the holy nation, for at Jerusalem must be the great Sacrifice ; there shall all nations come when the holy Jerusalem shall have prepared that Sacrifice ; for " many nations shall come and say. Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob ^" In sign of which, according to the Law, every male in the sacred nation had thither to go up three times in every year — three in one in mys- terious sanctity of number. The blessed Virgin, also, went with her Son, though not required of the Law, in abundant fulfilment, according to the superabundant graciousness of Grod ; for " A woman shall compass a man." " And when Se was twelve years of age. ''^ Twelve is the perfect number ; twelve years of age was the damsel raised from the dead ; twelve years had the woman that was healed suffered from an issue of blood ; in the twelfth year came to Ezekiel the prophecy of the fall of Egypt ^ ; at the end of twelve months ISTebuchadnezzar was glorying when he fell ^°. In the twelve stones, and twelve pHlars, and twelve oxen — in the twelve Tribes, and twelve Prophets, and twelve Apostles, it is Christ in the twelve ; as the sun in the twelve months of the year. " At the twelfth year," says St. Ambrose, "the Lord began to dispute in the temple ; because twelve must needs be the number of Evangelical teachers for "^ Horn, in Luc. xix. ^ Micah iv. 2. 9 Ezek. xxxii. II. i" Dan. iv. 7- 174 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. preaching the faith." " Twelve," say^ Bede, " signifies universahty in. things and times ; and the glory of Christ, by which all things and times are to be filled, here takes its beginning \" '^ And ivlien they liad gone up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, and had finished the dags'' — having continued there for seven days, as the ordinance of the feast required — " as they icere returning, the child Jesus remained in Jeru- salem. And Joseph and Sis mother Icnew not of it. But thinking He ivas m the company'' — for very large was the caravan or company that proceeded to Jerusalem on these occasions, as there was the same definite period for their coming and returning to all — " they proceeded a day' s journey ; and were seeking for ILim among their kinsfolk and acquaintance." It was naturally the case in such large and promiscuous assemblages, for persons of the same household to be found rather among their acquaintance than with one another ; particularly when persons of the same country, city, and village would be travelling iii companies together. ^^ And ivhen they found Him not, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him. And it came to pass after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the Teachers, ioth hearing them and asking them questions." God shall ever be found in His temple ; the Son of Grod is ever there — but as a Child, with infinite lowHness con- descending to meet us in our infirmities ; and we as a little child must seek Him, or we shall not find Him there. Bishop Taylor beautifully supposes that in their perplexity at not finding Him, they came to the temple to pray ; being confident that if they found Grod, they would not be far from Christ ^ " And all ivho heard Him luere astonished at His understanding and answer s^ ^ Aur. Cat. in Luc. p. 93. 2 Worthy Commun. Introd. THE CHILDHOOD OF CHKIST. 175 For as the Evangelist had said before, " the grace of God was upon Him," in some marvellous manner ; and hereby was the fulfiUing of that prophecy^ before alluded to, that "the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him," "and shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord ; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears." They were astonished at His doctrine : " wondering," says Bede, " at the high things they hear, and the lowly things they see ; knowing not the mys- tery, that unto us a Child is born, who is the Ever- lasting God *." It was, moreover, humanly speaking, an age when the words and ways are noticed and remembered ; especially if connected with circumstances of great promise ; for then, as at the time of birth, the development of future destinies may be, and character begins to be marked. Here, also, appears in one point of \dew the first indication of that which was after- wards so remarkable ; that " the people were astonished at His doctrine ;" that "all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded from His mouth;" that they said, "never man spake like this Man." Moreover, this was ever afterwards His mode of teaching the Scribes and Pharisees, by asking them questions, thus to lead them to the understanding of their own Scrip- tures, according to the light within which He fur- nishes to those who wait for Him^ This was not teaching them in that manner which He might have done, but with that suitableness which became a child's age, "hearing them and asking them questions;" "giving us an example," as Gregory well observes, " that the weak presume not to teach ; if that little Child was willing to be taught by asking questions, 3 Isa. xi 3. * Isa. ix. 6. ^ ggg Vol. Pass. p. 193, 194. 176 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. Who througli tlie power of His Divinity Himself sup- plied to those very doctors the word of knowledge." And Origen, also, long before, " Because He was a little Child He is found in the midst of teachers, hal- lowing and instructing them. And as being a little Child, He is found amidst them, not teaching them but asking questions. And this He did according to the duty of His age, to teach us what is saitable for chil- dren, however wise and learned they may be ; that they should rather desire to hear their masters than teach them." " And Sis parents ivJien they saw Sim were amazed. And,'' when they had retired from the concourse and were alone, " Sis mother said unto Sim, Child, what hast Thou thus done unto us?'' words not of reproof but of wonder and sorrow, " Behold, Thy father and I have sought for Thee sorrotving." It was seeking Him as we seek God in the Scriptures, with difficulty per- haps and sorrow at not succeeding in our search, yet not from distrust in God ; knowing indeed that He is there ; but sorrowing, perhaps, with some impatience, that we cannot find Him ; and possibly with something of misgiving ^ Eut it is said with surprise and grief by the holy Mother, " Behold, Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing." And siu-ely, humanly speak- ing, it was strange that He should have caused them this sorrow, unless some great and Divine purpose was to be answered thereby, not only in God's designs towards His Church, but to themselves also. " And Se said unto them. Sow is it that ye sought Me ?" In this your search and your sorrow there was a want of faith : it is not the apparent absence of Christ from you to which you are to assign your grief ; but your not suffi.- '' Ori^. in Luc. Horn. xix. THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. 177 cientlj seeing and confiding in His gracious dealings towards you. It is He that bereaves parents of their children, not that they might have sorrow (for in their afflictions He is afflicted), but that they might have faith in Him, "Who seems thereby to say to them, as now to His earthly parents, " what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." " Knoio ye not that it behoves Me to he in My Father* s house,''' or in My Fa- ther's business. Origen, St. Augustin, Epiphanius, and others, consider it to signify, in My Father's house or temple ; but the expression seems to intimate that, and more than that, in the original, and may equally well be taken in either of these senses or in both ; whereas an English translation would necessarily confine it in either way. It was His meat to do the will of His Eather that sent Him, to be doing His work, this it is that He opposes to all things else. Correcting also the saying of His mother, who spake of Joseph as His father. He makes mention of His true Eather in Heaven: correcting rather than reproving, but in the accents of reproof teaching. And thus also His own disciples He seems to reprove for want of knowledge, when that knowledge implied faith. It is elsewhere observed, that in all our Lord's replies to His mother on record, it ap- pears mysteriously indicated that in the things of Grod she is not to interfere. " "Woman, what have I to do with thee ?" " There are in Christ," says St. Ambrose, " two generations ; the one that of His Eather, the other of His mother : that of the Eather Divine, but that of the mother which descends to our labour and usage. And therefore those things which take place beyond nature, beyond age, beyond custom, are not to be ascribed to human virtues, but to be referred to Divine powers. Eor on another occasion His mother impels to 2s' 178 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. a mystery : liere His mother is reproved, because she still requires things which are human ^" " And they understood not the saying that He spaJce unto them."" For who can by searching find out God ? " Though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it ; yea farther, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it *." But it was not of this the hidden knowledge of Grod that they under- stood not, but more after a human manner of speaking ; they could not comprehend in any manner conduct so mysterious, that it behoved Him to be in His Father's house ! It was like His Divine teaching afterwards, when not only of the unbelieving Jews was it said, that " they understood not that He spake to them of the Father," but even of the disciples at the last : for after St. Peter had confessed Him to be the Son of Grod, and our Lord had declared his blessedness in having this revealed to him of the Father : yet in His last discourse in St. John's Gospel, they understood not His high and deep sayings of the Father. We need not, therefore, wonder, that even in the case of the blessed Virgin her- self, although the spirit was willing, yet the flesh was weak, to comprehend the greatness of those things, of which she had been made the high and mysterious instrument. The whole transaction is indeed marked with something very deep and Divine. He is only seen once as a Child, and then it is in the Temple ; as the child Samuel prefigured ; as children singing in the Temple proclaimed His Kingdom ; and follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth in Heaven. Once only from His Childhood is the holy veil withdrawn, and we see Him in His Temple ; His parents seeking Him for three ' Expos, in Luc. lib. ii. 64. " Eccles. viii. I7. THE CHILDHOOD OP CHEI3T. 179 days sorrowing, while He is in His Father's business ; engaged in the mighty work of Grod in the Eedemption of man. One prefigurative and solemn effect of this incident has been shoAvn in another placed They sought for Him among His kinsfolk and ac- quaintance, but He is not among His kindred of the flesh, for "His brethren believed not on Him V' and in seeing saw Him not. Nor is He to be found in the mixed multitude ; but He is to be found in the Temple ; He is among those that sit in Moses's seat, though they know Him not, nor by what authority He is there. As a Child, He teaches the Doctors, and with all the do- cility and simplicity of a Child, asking them questions ; showing thereby the nature of His kingdom, the mys- teries of which are revealed unto babes, and hid from the wise and prudent, who have to learn of babes. " He is found after three days in the temple," says St. Ambrose, " that it might be an indication, that after the three days of His triumphant Passion He, AVho was believed to be dead, should rise again, and offer Him- self in the Heavenly seat and Divine honour to our faith ^." He is in His Father's house and in His Father's business after three days' disappearance, when they had accomplished the seven days of the Jewish festival : and blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed. Thus, at the E-esurrection He appears to say to them, how is it that ye sought Me sorrowing ? " O ye of little faith, wherefore did ye doubt?" " And JTe went doivn with them ;" — these very words "He went down with them," Origen thinks mysteriously expressive of His humility ; — " and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them.'''' Here also have we the per- «>■ See Vol. Pass. p. 338. ^ John vii. 5. ^ i^ Luc. lib. ii. 36. N 2 180 THE CHILDHOOD OP CHEIST. feet pattern of obedience, honour, and subjection unto parents, excepting where it interferes with duty to God ; and then it is set aside, and we are taught that higher lesson, that " he that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me :" that the fifth commandment, though great in its promises, and the foundation of all duty to men, yet comes after the four which contain our duty to God — the four pillars of the world. Therefore He stayed in Jerusalem while they knew not of it, on account of the greater duty He owed to God — by a Divine purpose. Obedience is the perfection of man ; and if in this case it was shown to inferiors, as occupy- ing parental place ; so also was Christ's obedience to the Law perfect and entire in all respects, although Himself infinitely above it. And if this subjection was shown not to parents only, but even to a reputed father also ; so, in like manner, was it when He sent Peter to obtain the means requisite for discharging the tribute money, yet He first taught him that it was over and above what could be rightly claimed of Him, for the children were free^. By aU this, was He teaching us no doubt the perfection of filial obedience, as Origen observes : and that " if we have not parents, we should be subject to those who have the age of parents. And why should I speak of parents ? If Jesus the Son of God is subject to Joseph and Mary, shall I not be sub- ject to my Bishop, who has been constituted my father of God ? Shall I not be subject to my Priest, who is set over me by the vouchsafement of the Lord ? Let every one therefore observe, that an inferior person is often set over those that are greater than he *." Here again we have an intimation of that pensive and » Matt. xvii. 2G. * In Luc. Ilom. xx. THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST. 181 reflecting spirit, the marked cliaracteristic of the blessed Virgin, noticed not bj this Evangelist alone ; the dis- ciple of her own Child, as His handmaid, while she received from Him perfect obedience as His mother ; storing up His words and reflecting upon them, desirous to know, and coming by degrees to understand their Divine fulness. " And Sis mother kept all these sayings in her heart ;" it is not exactly the word this Evangelist had before used, for the former expression was rather " kept to herself " ((rvren/oei) in distinction from the Shepherds, but this is rather " persevered in keeping " (lttTi)cni). " She was suspecting," says Origen, " some- thing more than of man ; wherefore she preserved all His words in her heart, not as of those of a child of twelve years of age, but of Him "VMio was conceived of the Holy Ghost." ''And Jesus advanced in tcisdom and stature. ^^ In this state of subjection He advanced in wisdom, not as God the Word, but as !Man, for to perfect manhood growth and increase is needful ; but as the separation and distinction between our Lord's Godhead and human Soul is a mystery infinitely above us, and to look into which too curiously, is to look into the Ark of God ; so this increase in wisdom is mysterious ; but no less mys- terious would it have been, if He had not grown in wis- dom, and unhannonious with the other parts of Catholic truth. He was Almighty in Godhead, yet His Body and Soul received increase ; thus not only in bodily afiections, but in affections of the soul also. He was as Man ; He learned obedience ; He marvelled ; He felt surprise as at the breaking in of new knowledge : or as St. Cyril says, He appeared to men as partaking of these bodily aff'ections which we see in man. '"Xot," says St. Cyril, " as if that nature, which was perfect from the 182 THE CHILDHOOD OF CHEIST. beginning, received increase, but that by degrees it was manifested. For tbe law of nature brooks not tbat man should have higher faculties than the age of His body permits. The AVord (made man) was perfect : but He manifested Himself as Man with a Body, gradually ad- vancing in growth; and was daily thought wiser by those who saw and heard Him ^" "And,'' not only in Soul and Eody did He advance, but also "in favour with God mid man:'' fulfilling thereby the words of Solomon, which were truly spoken of Him alone, as the only perfect pattern of obedience — " My Son, let thine heart keep my com- mandments ; — let not mercy and truth forsake thee ; — so shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man *.*' He was already advancing to that perfection and fulness of stature, to which testimony was afterwards borne, " this is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." But how, it may be asked, could He advance in favour with man ? for " all that live godly shall suffer persecution." It may be that men suffer for righteousness' sake, when the light of their example becomes a witness against others or excites their envy : but the virtues and hohness of a child consist so much in meekness and subjection, that they kindle love and excite interest among elders : the witness of goodness which displeases, and the env;^^ it excites, are to be found more among equals in age. Or it may be even as is said of Him after- wards, that He was " glorified of all ;" that they " won- dered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth;" that they " hung upon " His words: for even under persecution there is always unwilhng testimony to the intrinsic loveliness of virtue. * Cyril, Thess. 1. x. c. 7. ^ Prov. iii. 4. 183 PART II. THE BAPTISM IN JOED AN. " Who layeth tlie beams cf His chambers in the waters." SECTION I. THE ETEENAL GENEEATIOJT OE CHEIST. The account has as yet been confined to St. Matthew and St. Luke ; and has been that of our Lord's human generation, and His early years on earth. "We come now to St, John, of His Divine generation, — of that King and Priest Who is " without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life." For this Evangelist commences not as the others from below, but from above. " In the 'beginning was tlie Word^' the Word unspeakable, the manifesta- tion of the Eather to His creatures : but if existing before ah things, where was He ? He was with Grod. " And tlie Word was with God,'' in union incomprehen- sible, co-equal, and co-eternal, in unity of Substance, but distinct in Person. " In the beginning," in God the Beginning of aU things ; in. eternity which was before aU things. He therefore never had beginning, for in the beginning He ims ; " in the beginning the Heavens and the earth were made," but then He ^^was,'' was already 184 THE ETEEIfAL GEIfEEATION OP CHEIST. in being. As our Lord Himself speaks to the Father in His prayer, " the glory which I had with Thee before the world was \" As under the Name of "Wisdom, He says, " The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from ever- lasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths," " before the mountains were settled," "while as yet He had not made the earth," "when He prepared the Heavens," "then I was byHim^" The AYord — it is the ineffable Name surpassing compre- hension, communicated alone unto him who leaned on His breast ; who passed from the knowledge of Him as seenintheflesh,to His unspeakable G-odhead: in thoughts to which he gave utterance, by that which though formed by sensible organs isthe mostincorporealof all things, the Word. As shadow expresses the presence of outward substance, as light and heat the presence of fire, as the stream flows from the foimtain, being the same as that from which it flows, so words express outwardly the inner man, execute its intentions, communicate its sub- stance. But He is the Son, not according to sonship such as we know of, but after some inconceivable man- ner coeval with the Tather, for the Son never had begin- ning no more than the Father, as light ever flows from fire, nor had the fire existence, but coeval with it ; as shadow is coeval with and inseparate from substance ; so, though He be the Son, yet not according to mortal thought or expression. Nor is He the Word according to our words, but with power inherent to execute, for "the Word goeth forth, conquering and to conquer;" with power to discern, for the Word " discerneth the 1 John xvii. 5. 2 Prov. viii. 22. 30. THE ETEENAL GENEEATIOIT OF CHEIST. 185 fhoughts ;" It is the Eoundation and tlie Crown, tlie Be- ginning and the End of all things. His Name is such, " that no man knew but He Himself," says St. John, yet in the next verse he says, that " His JN^ame is called the "Word of G-od." His Name then is unspeakable, but to us He is the Word. The Word by Whom God created all things, and by Whom He redeemed all things, for by and in and for the Word is the new creation. As He spake, and the earth and the Heavens were made : so "He hath spoken unto us by His Son;" and His "Word shall not return unto Him void." He is the Word, as St. John himself explains, for " He Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." Though He is ever revealing Him on earth, yet the Word is with the Eather, for there are Three that bear record in Heaven — the Eather, the Word, and the Spirit. Tet He goeth forth, sitting upon the White Horse, " clothed with a vesture dipped in blood : and His Name is called the Word of God." But not only was the Word with God. " And tie Word tvas God." This also is the great eternal verity, which to believe rightly is everlasting life ; for many believe in the Word of G-od — Yerbum Dei — but the Catholic Church only in G-od the Word — Yerbum Deus — in all its fulness and harmony of doctrines ; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance : for He was " with God," therefore is there plurality of Persons: but also He "was G-od," therefore is there unity of Substance. Nor is this union in time only, but before all time and all creation : " Se was in the legin- ning with God,'' at that period of which Moses speaks in Genesis, " in the beginning." " All things icere made hy Him ;" but as if even this was not sufficient to de- clare His eternal existence before all things, and strict 186 THE ETEENAL GEIfERATION OF CHEIST. unity of Substance with the Eather,the Evangelist adds, " And ivithout Him loas not any thing made that was made.'" Thus is it again and again repeated by the Evangelist, taking up his own words, and putting them in another form, as in legal title-deeds, or as in great Articles of faith, or as in some solemn chant ; for as the Church stands on this truth, faith in the Son of God, this is first laid down as the title to our inheritance, the great Catholic verity, the new song of faith. But an- cient writers speak of different punctuations on this passage, taking away the stop at "made:" the first of these is, " that which was made was life in Him ;" which St. Augustin and many Latin writers adopt, as Tertullian, Cyprian ; and some Greek, as Origen, Cy- prian, Clemens Alexandrinus. Another is, " without Him was not any thing made which was made in Him." But that which we now have in use is the one approved of by St. Chrysostom, and most Greek writers, and many Latin, as by St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, whereby we carry on the words "in Him" to the succeeding clause and the next verse. Eor after declaring His eternal Godhead, the beloved disciple proceeds to speak of that Godhead in Its manifestation to mankind. " In Sim was life ; and the life ivas the light of men i"" the light, not of angels, not of any other creatures on earth, but of men ; for although, as Origen says, " He is the light of Angels," yet of men only does the Evangelist here speak. He is according to His own declara- tion, the true Life and the true Light ; for " as the Eather hath life in Himself, so hath He given the Son to have lile in Himself;" essential life in Himself, as no creature hath life, the self-existing Substance. " Wlio only," saith St. Paul, " hath immortality." Eor this life is the first and great attribute of God, "I AM;" "I THE ETEEIfAL GENEEATIOI?" OF CHEIST. 187 live, saith tlie Lord." It has been well observed bow St. John delights in this word "Life," as applied to Christ, frequently repeating it, not only in his Gospel, but also in his Epistles. Thus, as if interpreting this passage, he says in the latter, " Grod hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life." And St. Paul in like manner, " Tour life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ AVho is our life shall appear." Thus, passing beyond sensible and material things in Divine contemplation, this Evangelist descends from them to things human ; speaking as none others have spoken, as one who having once known Christ after the flesh, now knows Him no more, but speaks of the "Word as God and with God. Step by step does the Divine teacher descend from highest Heaven to earth : "in the beginning" — the AYord with God — then the creatures made — then He is the Life of those creatures — then the Light — then made Elesh — then dwelling in them ; and the human witness the Baptist. ^' And the Light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended It notT As on the first day of creation He made the light and gave it to be with the darkness, day alternating with night ; so on the first day of the new creation, at His Eesurrection, He the true Light arose and shineth in the darkness : darkness and li^ht are both on earth — His kingdom of light is in that ,/orld which lieth in wickedness. He is in the world, but manifests not Himself to the world. " The light cometh on the darkness," says Origen, "is pursued by it, and is plotted against, not apprehended nor over- taken." And they also who, partaking of that light, are themselves enlightened, communicate light to others: therefore He saith to His own, " Ye are the light of the world." They are genuine light, but have no fountain 188 THE ETEETfAL GENEEATION OE CHEIST, of light within themselves ; thej are as the moon and stars, warm and radiant, but not with their own light. " Being the Light of the world," says the same writer, " He lighteneth not bodies ; but by his bodiless power enlightens the bodiless mind. So that each of us, en- lightened by that Sun, may be able to discern all things spiritual^." And the darkness is of course put for those that live in darkness, as " Ye were once darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord." " Foolish hearts," saith St. Augustin," receive not the Light; but let them not therefore think that the Light is absent, because they cannot see ; for they on account of their sins are dark- ness. The man that is blind cannot see in the sun; but the sun is not on that account the less present. Cleanse from thine eye whatever is evil, that thou may est behold the Light of thine eyes ; for the pure in heart shall see GodV But His comings and His goings are not as Grod but as man. For Grod is every where present ; God comes as man that we might know Him as Grod ; He comes in a cloud, hid in the cloud of humanity, and therefore as hidden He needeth testimony ; as Grod He needeth not that any should testify, but as manifest in the flesh, as man. And when Christ took upon Himself His kingdom, on His entering into Jerusalem and teaching in the Temple at the last. He first of all appealed to the testimony of John the Baptist, which He had also before adduced to the Jews, " Te sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth;" for there must needs be a wit- ness— " If I bear witness of Myself My witness is not true." According, therefore, to the example of his Divine Master, this Evangehst commences with reference to 3 In Joan. Tr. i. 24. " In Joan. Tr. i. 19. THE ETEET^AL GEIfEEATION OF CHRIST. 189 tlie Baptist's testimony : " There was a man sent from God whose name icas John.'''' All things are in Divine order and commission, as our Lord Himself appeals so frequently to His own Apostleship, as being sent from God : " He Whom Grod hath sent speaketh the words of Grod;" "Neither came I of Myself, but He sent Me ;" and a mission also the same as that of the Apos- tles, " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you." And even of the Holy Spirit the same is said, "Whom the Father will send in My name." Thus, also, was it in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, as in Isaiah ', " I heard the voice of the Lord, saying. Whom shall I send ? " and to Jeremiah, " Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee ^ ;" and to Ezekiel, " Son of man, I send thee'." In like manner is this mission of the Baptist frequently set forth, " Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face." And this Divine sending and apostleship is for the purpose of bearing witness. The Holy Spirit " Whom the Father ^ill send in My name," is the great A¥itness : of the Apostles it is said, " Ye are mtnesses :" the Law was to be " for a witness ^ :" the Grospel is sent forth " as a witness to aU nations :" and the crown of the Grospel is martyrdom, or the bearing witness to the Light. All these, as the holy Baptist himself, are sent not only "to prepare a people made ready for the Lord," but to do so by bearing witness. " Se came for a loitness, that lie might hear tvitness concerning the Light, in order that all men through Him might lelieve^'' — might through Christ come to the faith and see God's salvation ; or rather vdth St. Chrysostom, which seems the best interpretation, through him the forerunner might believe in Christ. " That aU men," for it was not - Isa. vi 6. 6 Jer. i. 7. ? Ezek. ii. 3. » Deut. xxxi. 26. 190 THE ETEEIfAL GE:NEEATI0]S- OE CHEIST. only for a few, but for Pharisees, Sadducees, and Boman soldiers and publicans, preparing tbe reception in tbe hearts of men, that they might " all" see the salvation of God. " He was not tlie Liglit, hiif he came as the forerunner, " that he might hear ivitness conceiving the Lights Tor whatever light the Baptist had was not his own light ; he was but as the star which precedes the sun ; and is only radiant with the light which he receives from Him, the true Light; but this Light lightens the Baptist also, so that he was as Christ tes- tified, " a burning and shining light." But " ife," Christ Himself, " was the true Light that lighteth every man that corneth into the ivorld,^^ He enlighteneth all men, for whoever is enhghtened is enlightened by none but by Him, as St. Augustin takes it ; or all men that are willing to receive His light, as St. Chrysostom and others understand the place : perhaps we may explain it in both senses ; for He enlightens all men in some sense — more perfectly His own disciples only — those to whom He manifests Himself as not unto the world. Or, as Origen says, " He spiritually lighteneth all those who tlirough the regeneration of grace, which is given through Baptism, come into the world invisible :" — in that manifestation of Christ for which all creation waiteth, of which all manifestations beforehand are but forerunners. He enlighteneth all men that come into the world ; for all have conscience or the moral sense ; although in darkness and the shadow of death, yet in that darkness the Hght shineth. He enlighteneth by Baptism, for that is "the HLumination ;" He en- lighteneth by repentance, for " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light ;" He enlighteneth by obedience, for " the commandment of the Lord giveth light unto the eyes ;" THE ETEE^'AL GENEEATIOIC OF CHKIST. 191 He enlighteneth bj the natural conscience, for, as St. Paul says, " That which may be known of God is mani- fest in them ;" He enlighteneth by His external provi- dence, for, " He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, and gave us rain from Heaven." In all times, therefore, is it according to His own declara- tion, " I am the Light of the world, He that folio weth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." In aU times and in every nation there hath been in the heart of man a Light, revealing itself ac- cording to their obedience to the Witness therein — in the philosophy of the Greeks, and in the piety or natural dutifulness of the Eoman, though nearly over- whelmed with the darkness ; but wherever, in sage or poet, in man or child, a better spirit hath shone, it hath been Christ giving hght. And in the Law, with life- less rites and sacrifices, the glimpses and guesses of better things, and the acceptableness of all offerings, have been only through Christ ; " The secret of the Lord, which is with them that fear Him," and to whom " He shows His covenant;" for "In Thy light," says the Psalmist, " shall we see light." And if revealed of old to both Jew and Gentile according to their obedience, so now is He hidden excepting to obedience ; for " he that says he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness." Before He "was made Flesh, and dwelt among us," He was in the world by His providence, by His Spirit, and His servants, ruling, controlling, warning, punishing, and was seen or known in such — but even now by many not seen, nor known in the same. " JSe teas in the ivorld, and the world ivas made hy Sim, and the tvorld knew Him not.'' The creature was made by Him, but knew Him not ; for man, the rational lord of that creation, had by sin fallen, and could not 192 THE ETEETfAL GET^ERATIOiN- OP CHEIST. acknowledge liis Maker. Other creatures, indeed, knew Him — the sun, the earth, the sea, the stars, they acknow- ledge Him ; but they in whose hearts the creature is rather than the Creator — they in whose hearts the world is, they are called "the world," as they in whose hearts God is are called "the sons of Grod." "Did not the creature," says St. Austin^, " acknowledge its Creator ? The Heavens gave testimony by the star ; the sea gave testimony by bearing its walking Lord ; the winds gave testimony and were stilled at His command; the earth gave testimony by trembling at His crucifixion : but the world means those that love the world, in whose heart the world is." " Se came unto Sis own, and Sis own received Sim notP He came not to Angels, but as the Son of man to men, and they received Him not. So some ancient writers explain it, as St. Irenseus, Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus : others, as St. Cyprian, Cyril, Chrysostom, Augustin, that He came unto His own nation. His own Holy City, His own appointed Priest- hood, but they were the first to condemn Him. And even in lesser matters was it shown that " a man's foes shall be those of his own household;" for neither did His brethren believe in Him^; Nazareth cast Him out^; one of the twelve. His chosen household, betrayed Him. Thus every sentence of this Evangelist, in sublime simplicity of Divine language, contains greatest truths ever known in the world, pervading all time, and more or less developed according to the various dispensations of God. But in all these cases, although rejected by His own, yet a remnant hath been found. " But as many as received Sim, to them gave Se ■power to hecome the sons of God, even to those that believe on Sis JVame.^' ^ In Joan. Tr. iii. 5. » John vii. 5. ^ L^ke iv. 29. THE ETEENAL GEIS-EEATION OF CHEIST. 193 For by faith is He received into the heart, and those who receive Him partake of His Sonship ; for by His Spirit in their souls they instinctively cry, "Abba, Father!" They receive Him and become His inherit- ance, as the Psalmist had promised ; and He in return becomes also their inheritance, says Augtistin. " The Lord Himself is the portion of mine inheritance." "Heirs of Grod, and joint-heirs with Christ." "AVhe- ther they be servants or free, whether Greeks or Bar- barians, whether ignorant or wise, whether women or men, whether children or aged, all are made worthy of the same honour — so great his lovingkindness." Sons " tvJiich'^ were born, " 7tot ofhJoocV — not of bloods, as it is in the original, that is not of certain descents by which earthly inheritance and sonship is transferred, as the Jews expected from the blood of Abraham and David, by natural lineage, the inheritance of the promises : — ^^nor of the will of flesh,' ^ whereby the offspring of sinful Adam are propagated : for " that which is born of flesh is flesh," and " flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of Grod:" — ^^ oior of the ivill of man,''' according to the adoption or birth of legal or of natural heirs, — " hut ivere lorn of God.''' He sets forth, as St. Chrysostom says, the vileness of the first birth, in order to contrast with it the loftiness of the second. "And the Word hecame Flesh'' — for the flesh hath sinned, soul and body have sinned, therefore He assumes soul and body, that both maybe sanctified. " And the "Word became Flesh, and tahernacled among us ;" for " the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." As He tabernacled of old with His chosen in the wilderness, not in a fixed temple, or house " that hath foundations,' ' but sojourning in a Tabernacle. For in order that He might show us that He would have 19^ THE ETEElfAL GEitfERATIOX OF CHRIST. US to be in tabernacles "as strangers and pilgrims" upon earth ; He sojourned with His own people in a Tabernacle, to be but as a stranger and pilgrim on earth like ourselves : and thus did He make the flesh His tabernacle, dwelling bodily among us for a time. Or we may read it that He "tabernacled within us," for " the Kingdom of Grod," said our Lord, " is within you." For the Word becoming flesh hath mysteriously united Itself \^'ith us ; communicating Himself from Heaven to body and soul in the Eucharist, entering into the temple of the inner man, as His tabernacle did of old into the Temple at Jerusalem. Thus too even now by His Spirit He sojourns in the Church His tabernacle. '^ And tve have seen Sis glory.'''' St. John saw His glory when He was transfigured on the Mount ; of which St. Peter also bears witness, " for we have not followed cunningly devised fables, but were eye-wit- nesses of His Majesty ;" and at the opening of his Epistle, St. John breaks forth into a similar exclamation, " That Which was from the beginning. Which we have seen with our eyes, Which we have looked upon." Not only sensibly, but spiritually also the Apostles say, "We have seen His glory;" as St. Paul also bears witness, " but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord ;" and again, " what eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, Grod hath revealed unto us by His Spirit." " In order that we might be able to behold His Glory," says St. Chrysostom, " He was made Man ; for otherwise no man can see His Glory and live." " By that nativity," says St. Augustin, " He made eye-salve, by means of which our eyes and our hearts might be cleansed, that we might be able tlu'ough His Humanity to see His Majesty." "We beheld His Glory, the Glorij as of the Only-hegotteii of the Father'^ Such as THE ETEE:S"AL GEXERATIOX or CHEIST. 195 could alone belong to Him ; a natural, inherent glory, sucli as would prove Him of one Substance with and the Only-begotten of the Father. Not as the glory of Moses, a borrowed and reflected lustre, "a horned glory," as it is said, and like the waning moon, but such as could only belong to the true Son of Grod. Thus did He tabernacle among us, not in the severity and shadows of the Law, but all Divine love and Heavenly reality, ^^full of grace and trutliy Pre- eminently in Him was no guile— all stable, substantial, true. He is the Truth, for all things else when compared with Him are not real ; they are shadows, He the Sub- stance ; they are types. He the Archetype ; they the semblances, He the Eeality. He is the true Light, the true Vine, the true Bread, the living "Water. And He is "full of grace," because He only is Love, compared with Whom men are evil. The Law, indeed, was by Moses, but that was not the true tabernacle '% nor the true sacrifice, nor the true High Priest, nor the true Temple of Grod ; but all things that are true are in Christ. And He is "full of truth" because He ful- filled the Law, "fuU of grace" because he fulfilled the promise given before the Law— infinitely gracious and true. " John hearetli loitness of Him, and cried, saying. This was He of Whom 1 sjiake, He that cometh after me was hefore one ; for He ivasfirst,'^ or before me. Por He is indeed pre-eminently the first, " the Pirst and the Last *." St. John here mentions that even the Baptist had alluded (perhaps in the presence of himself and a few more, or, it may be, proclaiming aloud to all) to this His pre-existence. There is, indeed, in thus taking the passage, something like tautology ; but it is an ex- 3 Heb. viii. 2. ^ Rev. i. 17; xxii. 13. 0 2 196 THE eter:n-al gei^eeation of CnEIST. pressive and empliatic mode of speech common with this Evangelist. There hajre always been some who thus translate it ; yet the consent of antiquity seems in favour of our common version, " is preferred before me, for He was before me" — i. e. was greater than I — " was more illustrious," says St. Chrysostom, " and honour- able than I am." The original Greek seems to com- bine the two senses, as no translation can do. St. Cynl seems peculiar in taking it, " He that cometh after me — i. e. He that appears inferior to me — was before me — i. e. far above me :" thus giving a sense diflerent from ours to the first clause of the sentence. The beloved Disciple now resumes his former words, after inserting this testimony of the Baptist to His pre- existence ; recurring to the same most Divine strain in which he had been speaking concerning his Lord, in words that appear but the continuance and explanation of his former statement. But St. Augustin, Chrysos- tom, Athanasius, and Theophylact, seem to take the words for those of the Baptist down to the expression " no man hath seen Grod ;" and Origen still ftu-ther, including the following verse also, down to the words, '• hath declared Him," all of which he ascribes to the testimony of the Baptist. But we may suppose the Evangelist himself to be thus proceeding with his own words, ^^ And of His ful- ness have all tve received, and grace for graced He had before stated He was " full of grace and truth," he now therefore adds, " and of His fulness have we re- ceived." He fulfilled the Law, and out of His fulness He gave to us ; we are no longer imder the Law, which He fulfilled in truth, " but under grace ;" all is grace to us, free goodness and bounty of Grod, giving all good- ness by Himself now, and crowning all goodness by THE ETEEKAL GENEEATION OF CHEIST. 197 Himself hereafter. According to tliis His grace we also receive by our nearness to Him " according to the measure of the gift of Christ." "We receive grace ac- cording to and corresponding with His grace, in pro- portion to His abundance and fulness. " For the Law was given hy Moses,^^ being but the shadow of good things to come, and the preparation of men's hearts to receive the same — " lut the grace and the truth was hy Jesus Christ ^ " iVb 07ee" — i. e. no man — " hath seen God at any time;'' for to see His face is described as the perfec- tion of bliss in Heaven. "They shall see His face;" " We shall see Him as He is," says St. John. And perhaps, indeed, even to angels and saints in Heaven it is Christ alone AVho reveals the Father, according as each is capable of receiving Him. However that may be, of those that are compassed with the flesh it is said, " Thou canst not see My face ; for there shall no man see Me and live ^" For although, indeed, it is said that Moses talked with Grod as friend with friend, yet this was but through sensible signs and by the creature. "Moses saw the cloud," says St. Augustin^, " saw the Angel, saw the fire ; all this is the creature ; it bore the t}^e of its Lord ; it exhibited not the presence of the Lord Himself" " The only-begotten So7i, Wliich is in the hosoni of the Father,'' — i. e. as Augustin says, " in the secret of the Father ;" in that bosom in which He is and ceases not to be, though on earth. " I£e hath declared Him." They of old " received the Law by the disposition of angels'," but to us of these last days, " He hath spoken by His Son \" 5 Exod. xxxiii. 20. ^ In Joan. Tr. iii. 17. 7 Acts vii. 53. « Heb. i. 2. 19S SECTION II. THE YOICE IN THE "SVILDEEXESS. Tnrs does St. Jolin commence his Grospel, as also his Epistle, with the pre-existence from everlasting and the eternal generation of the AYord ; and thence descends to the Word made Plesh and dwelling among us, and to His Divinelj-commissioned harbinger and witness, the Baptist. As St. Luke commences with the birth, St. Mark does with the teaching of this the Divine herald. " Tlie beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; as it is written in the Prophets, Behold, I send My messenger hefore Thy face'' (Mark). There seems something very great and important in this preparation of John the Baptist : the termination of the Old Testa- ment points to this ; in this the New commences by a general consent of the four Evangelists ; this the Jews and the Scribes themselves expressed as the essential preliminary — "the Scribes say that Elias must first come :" this is the testimony to which our Lord Him- self so solemnly appeals, applying to him this verse from Malachi, in the very same words with which it is here quoted, " before Thy face," and "before Thee." It may be observed, that in the Prophet it is " before Me," and the change in the expression indicates that He "Who sends the messenger, and He before "Whom he is sent, is One with the Eather, and with the Spirit "Which spake by the Prophets ; for it is evident that "before Thee" and "before Me" are spoken of One and the Same Person. St. Luke not only records particularly the circum- stance of St. John's birth, but when he comes to speak of his preaching at the full period of his ministry, he THE VOICE lis THE WILDERNESS . 199 does it witli a formal introduction, as of an eventful crisis, tlie most important in the world ; and indeed it seems as if tlie two former chapters were but preliminary, and that this might be taken as the commencement of his Gospel. It was "in the Jifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Ccssar, Pontius Pilate being governor ofJudea,^^ after the deposition of Herod Archelaus ; " and Herod'" Antipas " being tetrarch of Galilee ; and Philij) his bro- ther tetrarch of Ittcrcsa and the country of Trachonitis ; and Lysanias being tetrarch of Abilene ; Annas and Caiaphas being High Priests.''' The Prophets of old had commenced their books with the names of Jewish ktQgs ; but St. Luke's Grospel beiag addressed, not to the children of Israel alone, but to all the world, the rulers of both are included ; and the Priesthood also, as the character of this Gospel is sacerdotal. " In the word of prophecy, spoken to the Jews alone," says Origen, "the Jewish kingdom only is mentioned, as the vision of Esaias, in the days of TJzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. But in the Gospel, which was to be proclaimed to the whole world, there is mentioned the empire of Tiberius Caesar, who appeared to be the master of the world." The two names oc- curring as High Priests is common with Josephus ; and we have an instance long before in Zadoc and Abiathar, so frequently mentioned iq the time of David : whether in this case one of these had held the office under the Eomans, and had been deposed, as Zadoc was raised by Saul when Abiathar fled to David ; or whether one was in some respect a ruler, as Zorobabel combiQed with Joshua, seems uncertain. It was at this period that, " the ivordofGod came unto John., the son of Zacharias, in the loilderness.^' (Luke.) In the wdderness where he had been brought up, "until 200 THE VOICE IN THE WILDEENESS. his showing forth unto Israel ;" in that mountainous country, listening for the still small voice of Grod, as Elijah had in the wilderness and Mount Horeb of old; and here disciplined and prepared from a child for thirty years, under the guidance of that Holy Spirit, Who was training him for his great mission ; for not in the populous Jerusalem, but here in the solitude of the mountains, God pleads with His people. The word of the Lord came to him there, as to the Prophet Micah, when he exclaims, " Hear ye now what the Lord saith ; Arise, contend thou before the mountains, and let the hills hear thy voice. Hear ye, O mountains, the Lord's controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth ; for the Lord hath a controversy with His people, and He will plead with Israel." Thus does St. Luke record that Divine mission from above, which the Baptist him- self afterwards alludes to in St. John's Gospel. " He That sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me." Intimating thereby Divine communications. " In tliose days cometh John tlie Baptist, preacliing in the wilderness ofJudea " (Matt.), and as St. Mark says, " John ivas laptizing in the loilderness.^^ But we may suppose it was rather on the outskirts of the wilderness, in which he had hitherto dwelt, that he now came forth to baptize and preach ; as St. Chrysostom says, like an angel from Heaven, coming down into their cities, as a wrestler into the contest, long trained to holiness : for St. Luke, after mentioning the call of God coming to him in the wilderness, seems to intimate his going forth to the borders ; for he proceeds, " and he came into all the country roundabout Jordan^'' (Luke), '■'■preaching the haptisni of repentance for the remission of sins " (Mark, Luke), ^^ and saying, Itepentye,for the king- dom of Heaven hath come nearP (Matt.) THE TOICE i:S' THE WILDEE2TESS. 201 It is not the forgiveness of sins that he preached, for that Christ only could bestow, but repentance to pre- pare *for that forgiveness. "John verily," says St. Paul, " preached a baptism of repentance ;" he says not, ob- serves Chrysostom, of remission, but of repentance ; but it is for remission, inasmuch as it is in order, "that they should believe on Him that should come after him." His preaching was of repentance, and his baptism was the baptism of repentance. He came under the Law to those who were brought up under the Law, and to the fulfilment of the Law he called them ; for he who will do the will of Grod, as expressed by the Law, shall know of the doctrine of Christ. It was therefore of Moses that our Lord said, " if ye believe not his writings, how can ye beheve My words?" Thus St. Andrew, St. John, St. Peter, Nathanael, and St. Paul, were evidently righteous according to the Law, when they found Christ. The Scribe who perceived that the love of Grod and of man was the keeping of the com- mandments, was not far from the kingdom. To another our Lord said, " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments," i. e. as given by Moses. Por the Law was the schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ. More- over, as coming to those who were under the Law, the teaching of John, like that of the Prophets and aU the school of the Law, is as much by action as by word, his baptizing of itself preached more powerfully than lan- guage. They were accustomed to ablutions and wash- ings, in daily life, before Divine services, after legal pollutions and leprosies ; and to require baptism as the initiation of Heathens into their covenant, whereby they were made to forget their former country, and kindred, and name. This Baptism, therefore, proclaimed the need of entire washing for the children of Abraham, 202 THE YOICE i:?? THE WILDEEKESS. wliicli they required of tlie Gentile, before tliey came to appear in the Presence of Christ and God. And the preaching of repentance at the same time, spoke of what was needful before that forgiveness of sins which it in- timated, but which, being of the Law, it had no power to bestow. For as the sacrifices of the Law indicated an ex- piation, which they could not afford ; so were all its rites external signs, but not means of conferring what they signified. Such was the Baptism of John. " St. John himself," says St. Ambrose, " is considered a type of the Law; inasmuch as the Lawcould denounce sin, but could not pardon it." But St. Cyril of Jerusalem and some others speak of John's Baptism, as if remission of sins was obtained by it ; but not the gift of grace. St. Matthew, in speaking of St. John the Baptist's teaching, adds, '''■for this is he that is spoJten of hy Esaias the Frophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the ivilderness ;" which seems to intimate that the holy Baptist did bear this testimony of himself, for it occurs in continuation of his own words, " repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand, for this is he." And we afterwards find it stated in St. John's Gospel, that the Baptist does appeal to this testimony of the Prophet, in answer to an embassy from Jerusalem. The other two Evangelists only mention that this was the fulfilment of that prophecy ; " as it is ivritten in the prophets, Behold I send J^Ly messenger before Tliy face, ivho shall prepare Thy icay hefore Thee " (Mark), or with a more par- ticular designation, " as it is written in the hook of the words of Esaias the Prophet, saying ^^ (Luke). And here all three Evangelists together concur in declaring the fulfilment of the prophecy, taking it up as it were in one solemn chant, — " the voice of one crying in the ivil- derness, Prepare ye the ivay of the Lord, make His paths THE TOICE IS THE TTILDEEXESS. 203 straiglif^ (Matt., Mark, Luke). He is the voice — that emanation which hath no existence of itself but with reference to him that sends it forth, it is the voice sent forth from Grod for the manifestation of "the Word." The voice of itself maybe inarticulate, it declares nothing without the word that follows ; and the embassy of John is nothing without Christ. He is the voice, because the dispensation of the Baptist was peculiar in this, that "John worked no miracles ;" and in this respect con- trasted with that of our Lord Himself, Who to the dis- ciples of John appealed to His works ; and those works performed among the cities of men. He therefore was the voice, and the voice in the wilderness ; a heavenly voice amidst the desolations of humanity ; " as show- ing," says Gregory, "to deserted and forlorn Judea the coming of her Eedeemer." And it was the voice " of one crying," as if he cried aloud ; thus St. John says of him, "John cried, saying, This is He of whom I spake." And it was a "voice crying in the wilderness," not " a still small voice," as to Elijah ; nor like Him of whom it is said, " He shall not cry, nor lift up His voice ;" but the loud and stern call to repentance, such as should be heard from the austere Preacher, above the waters and winds of the mountains. " Cry aloud ; spare not: lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." And the very subject of his cry is as the loud proclama- tion of a Eoyal herald, of preparing and making straight the way as for a Eoyal Conqueror. " Every valley shall he filled'' (Luke), to form the princely highway, " and every mountain and hill shall he made loiv."" "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord!" " Thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff." And as in that beau- 204 THE VOICE IN THE WILDEENESS. tiful description of the Coming of Grod with His chosen. " They shall not hunger nor thirst . . . Por He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them. And I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be exalted." The same is expressed less figuratively in the words of the blessed Virgin ; " He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble and meek." And the types of this soon appear, when the proud Pharisees are rejected, and the lowly Publicans press into the king- dom : from that discipline of the Grospel which consists in "casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." ^^ And the crooJcecl shall he made straight T All who come to Christ, come with restitution and re- paration ; in Him all ambiguities are made plain ; all difficulties to salvation done away ; crookedness of human will rectified. " And the rough ways smooth,^' "when fierce and savage dispositions," says Grregory, " by the influence of Divine grace return to gentleness and meekness." Thus only can the hearts of men be prepared, so that they may acknowledge the Messiah when He comes ; and so far as their eyes are thus cleansed by repentance, shall they see Grod in His Incarnation. " And all flesh shall see the salvation of God'"' (Luke). The words "all flesh" seem to indicate, as St. Chrysostom observes, the calling of the GTentiles. " No longer Jews and Pro- selytes only," he says, " but also all earth and sea, and the whole race of men." The words may likewise be spoken of that mysterious coming of Eliasbefore Christ's second Advent; when all flesh shall indeed see the sal- vation of Grod, after the preparation of the great fore- THE VOICE ly THE TTILDEEXESS. 205 runner, or those messengers who majbe designated by his name. For " every eve shall see Him." " I in my flesh shall see Grod," says Job, " and mine eyes shall behold Him" — the salvation of G-od. And if the pkce of the holy Baptist's teaching was so in harmony with the subject of it, no less so was his appearance and manner of life : in both alike did he indicate the hidden Ehas. '^ AndJolin (himself ,'' ^Isitt.) "ivas clothed with'' Qlark), ''had his clothing of' (Matt.), '' cameVs hair, and a leathern girdle ahmtt his loins'' (Matt. Mark). " What manner of man" (said the king) " was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words ? And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said. It is Elijah the Tishbite ^" And to Isaiah we read as if spoken of his usual apparel, " Go and loose the sackcloth from off* thy loins ^°." And in speaking of the Messiah's kingdom, Zechariah says ", that they shall no more " wear a rough garment," or " a garment of hair " "to deceive." For so much were such the received habiliments of prophets, that false prophets assumed the same ; as false prophets among Christians shall come "in sheep's clothing," and in the gentleness of the Lamb of God. And what was this but carrying on, through the Law, the appointment of God made to our first parents, expressive indeed of desolation and death, yet combining with mortification a better hope, when on their exile from Paradise " the Lord God made them coats of skins, and covered them." But it is not merely vdth the skins of beasts, but with the clothing of that foreign animal, which indicated his coming in strange apparel, as from afar ; not of the tame and 9 2 Kings i. 8. ^o Chap. si. 2. ^ Chap. xiii. 4. 206 THE TOICE IN THE ^VILDEKNESS. domestic animal, nurtured among the home habitations of the Jews : it was from a creatiu-e hke himself, strange and foreign, the child of the desert, patient to bear, yet swift to execute, and long-enduring: and which scents a far off the waters of the desert ; such is he whose preaching is of mortification and perseverance, and to go forth unto the ends of the world. And what does the leathern girdle signify but, as St. Hilary says, an apparelling efficacious for every good work; that we should be in will girded for every service of Christ ? Or to intimate, as St. Ambrose says, that the flesh is no longer to be an incumbrance and weigh down the mind, but to be the girdle of our loins in Christ : that we have no further confidence in the flesh ; but hang our harps, as the Psalmist says, on the willows \ It is sufficient to observe with St. Hilary, that the place, the preaching, the food, are in John wor- thy of notice; while at the same time we remember that the verity of such transactions is not impaired, although in the performance of them an interior sense is laid up : matter found therein both for example and for meditation ^. " And his food was''' (Msitt.)/' and he did eaf (Mark) " locusts and loild honey " (Matt. Mark), the locusts of which there is express mention in the Law, " the locust after his kind, and the bald locusts thou may est eat\" And the honey of which it is said, " with honey out of the stony rock have I satisfied thee." His clothing and food were nothing but that which Grod had provided as all that was needful for his wants ; as teaching in the wilderness and li\dng on what the wilderness freely yielded. But as one bearing the true cii'cumcision of » In Lucam, lib. ii. 0. 2 i^ j^j^tt. cap. ii. 2. ^ Ley. xi. 22. THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS. 207 the heart, and inwardly a Jew, he looked to the better things they signified, the sacrificial clothing which God would provide for the soul ; the commandments of Grod which were sw^eeter than honey to his mouth : for, in some sense, he might say with his blessed Master, that his " meat was to do the will of Him that sent him, and to finish His work*." And the locusts, the false prophets and destroyers ^, the instruments of Grod's punishment, shall be with the honey, combined for the nutriment of the great Prophet ; the locusts of Grod's ^Tath for the Law disobeyed ; the honey of His .love for the Grospel of forgiveness : repentance and remission of sins are combined in his teaching : the Law that killeth with the Gospel which giveth life. The desert yields honey ; the wilderness and solitary place are glad, and the desert blossoms as the rose : instead of the brier comes up the myrtle tree ; out of the strong came forth sweetness ; from the lion of Judah, now in some sense expiring, comes forth the Gospel. The friend of the Bridegroom, and preparing himself and others to hear His voice, he spends his time in fastings and prayers ; with loins girded, and like unto men that wait for their Lord. " And'' (Mark) ''then " (Matt.) " went out to Mm;'— for he required them to come to him, and not that he should go to them, — ''Jerusalem'"' (Matt.) "they of Jerusalem" (Mark) "and all" {the land of, Mark) " Judea" (Matt. Mark), "and all the country round ahout Jordan" (M.att.)," and tvere" («ZZ,Mark) "baptized of him in" (the river, Mark) "Jordan, confessing their sins" (Matt. Mark). Such was, even now, the begin- ning of the fulfilment of the prophecy of Jeremiah, of the return of Israel from the captivity of sin, " they * John iv. 34. ^ Rev. ix. 3. 208 THE TEACHIIs'G OF THE BAPTIST. stall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them : I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble ; for I am a Father to Israel, and Ephraim is My first- born ^" SECTION III. THE TEACHING OF THE BAPTIST. It appears, therefore, that all the teaching of the Baptist is contained in the word " repentance," and that it was accompanied with " confession of sins ;" such was the great preparation of mankind that they might see in Christ the salvation of Grod. This leads us to inquire what was the nature of that repentance which he taught. As he himself lived in a manner different from others, dwelling in the solitudes alone with Grod, it might have been expected that he would call upon others to adopt the same retirement and external renunciation of the world. As he required them to be baptized, in order to find entrance into the vestibule of the new covenant, as they had requii^ed Heathens, in order to enter into theii'S, so it might have been supposed that he would call upon them, as Isaiah did on his countrymen while living among the Babylonians, " depart from among them, and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I wiU receive you^" But this was far from being the case, for although his more immediate disciples appear to have adopted his austerities, even while living among men ; yet his teaching of the people in general consisted in no- thing more than in calling on each to amend his daily life, in those points in which it was most open to temptation. ^ Jer. xxxi. 9. 7 jga. Hi. n. 2 Cor. vi. 17. THE TEACHING OF THE BAPTIST. 209 First of all are seen tlie Pharisees and Sadducees, wliose characters are afterwards so pre-eminently and so fear- fully shown; they come to him with more apparent respect and deference than they afterwards show to oui' Blessed Lord, on account, probably, of his high Priestly descent, and the great reverence in which he was held by the people, as one of austere life, and a Prophet. The awful words, by which they were addressed by the Baptist, might appear from St. Luke to have been also spoken to the Jews generally ; but we find St. Luke does sometimes flrop the particular designation in a more general term, (as that of Herodians in those " who should feign themselves just men ;") and it would appear from both, that there were Pharisees and Sadducees, who came in great numbers. " He said therefore to the multitudes ivho ivent forth to he hcqjtized of him'' (Luke), " and when he saw many of the Pha- risees and Sadducees coining to his Baptism, he said unto them'' (Matt.), " O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to fiee from the wrath to come?" (Matt. Luke.) AU is now at once new and quite different from the Prophets of old, for it is not of a land flowing with milk and honey, nor of Babylon; nor as with EHas of kings to be cut off, and drought and famine ; but of Heaven and of HeU ; " the kingdom of Heaven is at hand," "the fire unquenchable," and " the wrath to come." Por although the wrath to come hero spoken of may have some primary allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem, yet it seems to mean no less than that of which our Lord warns them, " the damna- tion of HeU." And this very appellation, "ye genera- tion of vipers," is more than once applied to them by Christ Himself, speaking also of their resemblance to their fathers, "ye serpents, ye generation of vipers ;" p 210 THE TEACHING OE THE EAPTIST. whereas St. Ambrose seems to tliink the term here spoken to their commendation as differing from their fathers : but it clearly appears not. Indeed, our Lord seems to supply the meaning of the term in a denuncia- tion still more terrible, " ye are of your father the devil, and tlie lusts of your father ye will do," children of that old serpent. Children were they also of those their fathers who killed the Prophets, as Christ Himself tes- tified of them ; children of those whom the Psalmist describes as having " the poison of asps under their Hps ;" yea, and they are "like the' deaf adder that stoppeth her ears : which refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely :" they will hear it not, notwithstanding all these appearances of their coming to the voice of wisdom. And the holy Baptist seems to express surprise at their coming, " Who hath warned you?" as if he thought, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots ? Then shall ye who do evil learn to do weU ^ ;" and, "Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians ?" says Amos ®. JSTor is John deceived by their unstable appearances of good, and that dissimulation which marked their characters, for he adds, ^'' Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance'" (Matt. Luke). The test ever given of the heart is, " By their fruits ye shall know them," " Every tree is known by its fruit;" to this, therefore, he now appeals ; and three years after our Lord came, seeking fruit, and found none. And the Baptist immediately proceeds to the root of all the evil, their calculating so much on the external privileges of their race ; for it appears throughout the Gospels, and from aU the teaching of St. Paul, that this was their great stumbhng- block. "And begin not'' (Luke) or "and think noV 8 Jer. xiu. 23. ^ Chap. k. 7. THE TEACHING OE THE BAPTIST. 211 (Matt.) " to say in yourselves, loe Tiave Abraham for our father ; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise uj) children unto Ahraliam'" (Matt. Luke). Nothing more easy than to raise up children to Abraham ; nothing more difficult than to raise up children to Christ. " Look unto the rock from whence ye are hewn, and unto the hole of the pit from whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you. For I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him'"." But who are ye ? barren and unfruitful as the stones, on which the dew of Heaven falls in vain, and the sun shines. Te are indeed children of Abraham after the flesh, but what of that ? Te yourselves are raised of stones in the wilderness ; of those stony-hearted Jews of old who hardened their hearts in the desert, though Abra- ham's seed. Or it might be interpreted thus, Abraham shaU not want children, though you be cut off" ; the stony hearts of the Gentiles shall be softened by the piercing influence of His grace. He Who could quicken Sarah's womb and Abraham when old, can supply him with truer sons than you. Thus St. Hilary and St. Ambrose apply the expression to those Gren- tiles who are to be called the true children of Abraham, and consider it an allusion to the building of the rising Church, which is constructed not of rocky crags, but of living stones, for an habitation of Grod. Eor God was preparing to soften the hardness of our minds, and out of stones of offence to raise up religious worshippers. " And now also is the axe laid to the root of the trees ; every tree, therefore, that iringeth not forth good fruit is cut doion and cast into the fire''' (Matt. Luke). Thus does the Evangelical forerunner speak with more awful 10 Isa. li. 1, 2. P 2 212 THE TEACHING OF THE BAPTIST. severity and sternness than all tlie Prophets had done before, of the axe at the root, and of being cast into the fire ; for the higher the privilege is, the more imminent the danger ; and it is not to the Jewish nation only as a body that he speaks, as the Prophets had usually done, but to all the trees that are therein, to each individual separately, to " every tree." But first is it fulfilled, and more palpably, in the Jewish nation itself, as the type, for the axe is at the root of the Jewish nation ; and now the Intercessor pleads for it and carefully tends it for three years, but He finds no fruit at the end; and for forty years afterwards did His Holy Spirit plead with it, but still He found no fruit. " I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and behold, a Watcher and an Holy One came down from Heaven. He cried aloud, and said thus. Hew down the tree, and cut off" his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit, nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth ^\" And now the same is said to the Christian Church also, which has been grafted upon that destruction; "the axe is laid at the root;" "If some of the branches be broken off, and thou wert graffed in among them, boast not against the branches ; because of unbehef they were broken ofi", and thou standest by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear \" Such, therefore, was the plainness and severity of his teaching of the weU-instructed but hard-hearted Pha- risees ; speaking by the same Spirit which had appealed to them by the Prophets as " rulers of Sodom," and "people of Gomorrah^;" by the sublime appeals of Isaiah, and the tears of Jeremiah ; and afterwards with the warnings and tears of Christ ; by the stern rebukes ii Dan. iv. 14. ^ Rom. xi. 20. 2 jga. i. lo. THE TEACHIN'G OF THE BAPTIST. 213 of St. Stephen, and the earnest expostulations of St. Paul. And now they " are willing for a season to rejoice in his light ;" they sent to him, " Te sent unto John;" they came to his baptism, but they "rejected the counsel of Grod against themselves, being not bap- tized of him ^ ;" he came " in the way of righteousness, but they believed him not *." It would seem as if the holy Baptist in surprise saw them coming unto his baptism, and instead of encouraging, met them with searching and austere reproof, demanding the fruits of repentance, and not the claim of being Abraham's children. For he saw them coming unto his baptism, St. Matthew says, but, says our Lord in St. Luke, they were "not baptized of him." Or it may be that our Lord speaks of the Pharisees generally, whereas some of them did now come to the baptism of John. Origen thinks that they were not baptized of him, but rejected by those words, " O generation of vipers ..." while he received those who came confessing their sins ^ St. Chrysostom thinks that these were baptized: " Prom aU these things," he says, " it is manifest that they came indeed and were baptized, yet they did not abide in the belief of that which was preached." He sup- poses that all their conduct was hypocritical ; and when they sent unto him demanding if he were the Christ, when it is said "they who were sent were of the Pharisees," he thinks that even this was only as a snare, and with an evil intent. And so Origen also. "We may observe that it is hypocrisy especially that Christ lays to their charge, and to him they come with, simulations of good. Probably, as in other cases, they are deceivers rather of themselves than of others. Men of religious profession if bad are . 3 Luke vii. 30. ^ Matt. xxi. 32. ^ Hoq^^ j^ L^c. xxiv. 214i THE TEACHING OF THE BAPTIST. worse tlian others — more hardened, impenitent, irre- claimable. But not so the multitude ; for they were struck with the piercing severity and majesty of his call, both his general summons to repentance, and his warning decla- ration to the Pharisees, " of righteousness and temper- ance and of judgment to come ;" and with the iustinctive impulse of an awakened conscience they come iudi- vidually and severally to ask what points in their con- duct he would have them to amend, with sincere inten- tions of doing accordingly : as they who, pricked iq heart, said to St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" — as the cawakened gaoler to Paul and Silas, " Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" or as St. Paul himself, trembling and astonished, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?" or with Samuel, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth." " And the multitude asked him, saying, What therefore shall loe do ? He answereth and saith unto them, JELe that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none ; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise'" (Luke). Here again was the axe laid to the root of the tree, for " the root of all evil" is covetousness ; here is the new law, " bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ ;" for by obeying this law ye will learn to believe in Him, when ye see Him ; here is the first precept of Evangelical charity, " thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," on which, together with the other golden rule, hang all the Law and the Prophets ; for he that loveth his neighbour as himself, will impart to him what he hath. And the greatness of that mercy which is here placed as the first, is intimated, though in a manner more latent, in the Law, " I will have mercy and not sacrifice." It approaches, it may be observed, to the THE TEACHING OE THE BAPTIST. 215 injunction given to the Apostles, " Take not two coats apiece:" yet most needful for every penitent, for "charity shall cover the multitude of sins;" "give alms of vi^hat ye have, and lo, all things are clean unto you." And therefore such were the first-fruits of righteousness in the Church, when " not any of them said that ought of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things common." And these are the first-fruits in Heaven also, as our Lord declares in the words of the Judge, " I was hungry and ye gave Me meat ; naked, and ye clothed Me;" " forasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Eood and raiment are put as the bounds of our legitimate desires, " having food and raiment, let us be therewith content :" and the prayer each day for "daily bread," is the extent of desire expressed for things temporal. St. Jerome applies the words of St. Paul as the best commentary on this pas- sage, " I mean not that other men be eased, and ye bur- dened ; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance may also be a supply for your want ; that there may be equality." It may further be observed that all these commands of the holy Baptist have a re- ference to the second Table, as all the commandments which our Lord set before the E-ich young man, and specified, were from this second Table, when He had first stated, " if thou wouldst enter into life, keep the commandments." This is very observable. " A7id there came also publicans to he hajptized, and they said unto him, Master, what shall we do ? And he said unto them, Exact no more than that which is ap- pointed you ^ Now this appears a less strict command than the former j for the former was as it were a 216 THE TEACHIITG OF THE BAPTIST. " counsel of perfection," to give away all but that which was actually needful ; a part of that charity that " seeketh not her own;" but this is to abstain from acts of injustice. And here appears the gentleness of this Divine Prophet, in contrast with the Pharisees : they bound heavy burdens and grievous to be borne on men's shoulders, but they themselves would not touch them with one of their fingers. He taught nothing but where he had himself done more than he required others to do. He bore himself the burden of mortification, and had more than fulfilled the higher command that he gave, for he had not for himself either coat or food ; but he laid not this burden on others, nor poured the new wine of Evangelical charity into the old bottles of the natural man. Of poor publicans immersed in ignorance all he required was, that they should cease to do evil ; that so ceasing to do evil they might learn to do well : from doing wrong to no man might be led on, like the good publican Zaccheus, to restore fourfold on seeing Christ, and bestow half of their goods to feed the poor: or even with the Evangelist St. Matthew, to leave all, and to follow Christ. " And the soldiers likewise demanded of Tiim, saying And what shall we do ? And he said unto them, Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely ; and he content loith your wages'''' (Luke). Here also the re- pentance is apparently easy, and light the request, from one whose own life was so austere ; even among the soldiersthereforeof this world, the soldiers of the Cross maybe found; and thus afterwards of the good Centurion our Lord Himself testifies that He had not found such great faith, no, not in Israel, and yet reproved not his occupation : and the prayers and alms of the Centurion Cornelius arose as a memorial before Grod. These THE APPEOACH OP CHEIST POEETOLD. 217 were soldiers, and living among soldiers. Even this state may be a school of virtue, and lay the foundation of faith in discipHne and hardship and obedience. This was the preparation of each, abiding in the state wherein he is called, laying aside that sin which doth most easily beset him, and thus in repentance waiting for God ; whose kingdom cometh not by observation, but is within the heart. These are given as specimens of the teaching of the Holy Baptist, and of the nature of that repentance which he taught, as directed to the life and cu'cumstances of each whom he addressed, when tliey came " confessing their sins ;" to which St. Luke sub- sequently adds, " Ajid many other things in his exhorta- tion he preached to the people.'''' SECTION IV. THE APPEOACH OP CHEIST POEETOLD. Such was the awful sanctity, and such the teaching of the great Eorerunner ; touching the consciences of all with a sense of great alarm, Hke the voice of approach- ing Judgment heard in the wilderness of the human heart ; but nothing had he yet disclosed concerning himself, and nothing had he yet distinctly said of Christ. The same awful suspense also hangs for a long time over the Person of Christ Himself during His ministry, so that some could say that He was Elias, and some John the Baptist risen from the grave. iS'or does the holy Baptist acknowledge himself to gratify their curiosity, but in order to decline the too exalted estimation which they had conceived of him ; knowing, as Origen ob- serves, that undue admiration of persons is detrimental to those who entertain the same, and to those who are 218 THE APPROACH OP CHEIST POEETOLD. the objects of it ; and the chief cause of heresies. But he speaks of himself for the same reason that St. Paul gave for his forbearing to do so, " lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth of me." JPor this lowliness of mind is the uni- versal characteristic of every Sauit. The reason of this high estimation they entertained of him, was perhaps partly owing to the austerity of his life and majesty of his preaching, as one inspired ; but especially from his baptizing, as appears from the mention of it in St. John by the Pharisees, and from his own immediate introduc- tion of that subject here. " And as the people ivere in expectation, and all men ivere musing in their hearts concerning John, whether he were the Christ ornot, John answered them all and said'"' (Luke), or as St. Mark introduces it, ^^ lie preached, saying ^^ (Mark). This expression, of his saying in his preaching, and that of St. Luke, of the people doubting in their hearts concerning him, indicates that this occasion of the holy Baptist's announcement is not the same as that declaration made in answer to the Pharisees sent from Jerusalem, which St. John afterwards records ; and which appears to have been after our Lord's Baptism, from its connexion with other events. But now it is in answer to the unexpressed thoughts of the people, that he says, '"'' I indeed haptize^^ (have })aptized,^1.2iYV) ^^ you ivith water"" (Matt., Mark, Luke) ^'unto repentance"" (Matt.), "^for his baptism was especially that of repentance, not of remission," says Chrysostom, "not of grace," says St. Ambrose, "as that of Christ." " ^ut there cometh One mightier than J" (Mark, Luke) " after me " (Mark), or " hut He that cometh after me is mightier than J" (Matt.), ''^for Whom I am not worthy " (Matt., Mark, Luke) " to stoop down (Mark) " and loose the latchet " (Mark, Luke), and THE APPEOACH OF CHKIST FOEETOLD. 219 ''to hear'' (Matt.) "His shoes'' (Matt., Mark, Luke) ^ Some would observe mystical and latent meanings con- tained in the form of expression of" loosing the latchet" and "bearing the shoes," but the mind passes from the language itself to the living picture of lowhness pre- sented by it, and the infinite diiference between that Prophet who was the greatest of them that are born of women, and the Son Himself : as one not only unworthy to be His servant, but even the very meanest of His servants: intimating, it may be, what our Lord Himself afterwards said, that "the least in the kingdom of Heaven is gi'eater than he " — even as Elisha was greater than Elijah, and as a double portion of the Spirit shall rest on those who behold the coming of the Comforter. He therefore, who administers this Baptism of repentance, is meaner than the meanest of those who shall receive the Baptism of the Holy Grhost and of fire. But still He AYho is infinitely greater, surpasses the inferior in nothing more than His infinite lowliness : for He Him- self unties the latchet, and bears the shoes, and washes the feet of His own servants, girding Himself as a slave ; for as His majesty is, so is His mercy. And the in- finite difference which exists between this harbinger and the Messiah Himself, is expressed by the infinite differ- ence which exists between the Baptisms of the two ; of which one is as much above the other as Heaven is above earth; as a living power above its external symbol; as the regeneration of the soul, and the fiery laver of the Spirit of God, is above that washing of the body, which is lifeless but significative. " He shall laptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (Matt., Mark, Luke). "Having set forth," says St. Chrysostom, "the little value of his own Baptism, and shown that it had nothing more than to lead men to repentance, he sets forth 220 THE APPROACH OF CHRIST FORETOLD. Christ's, which is fuU of the Unspeakable Gift ^" A Baptism by water indeed, but also with the Holy Grhost and with fire. A Baptism, not like the external rites of the Law, but life-giving, powerful, terrible. Here Christ Himself is said to baptize ; and in St. John's Gospel we read, " when the Pharisees had heard that Jesus baptized more disciples than John," and although he adds the explanation, " yet Jesus Himself baptized not, but His disciples ;" yet much is contained in the ex- pression, for it intimates that in all true Christian Bap- tism it is Christ baptizing ; and therefore Baptism is rightly understood to be the work of the Bishop in the Church, when performed by his deputy the Priest or Deacon in his name, or by his consent. One in many is the character of the Church visible, repre- senting Christ in His servants baptizing, and con- ferring with all reverence and order the Gift Un- speakable. But as the Baptism of John is put for the whole dispensation of John's ministry, it may be that the Baptism of Christ is here intended to signify His Gospel and kingdom, where He baptises throughout with His holy influences and fiery probation. Thus in the Apocalypse, "a sea of glass mingled with fire''." "Indicating," says Chrysostom, "by the metaphor of baptizing with the Holy Ghost the abundance of the grace; and by fire, the vehement and uncontrollable power of that grace.' ' But the word fire, as it is variously explained by different writers, and even at different times by the same writer, so it may signify manifold manifes- tations of the Spirit in the various modes of which fire is descriptive. As in old time the manifestations of God to His people were by fire, so is it now with the trials of His Saints ; that mighty power of the Spirit accompany- " Horn, in Matt, ad loc. 7 Rev. xv. 2. THE APPEOACn OF CHEIST TOEETOLD. 221 ing His Baptism is seen in manifold developments and qualities ofwhich fire is the emblem. As the flamingBush in which Grod spake to Moses: as the Pillar of fire hj night b J which He led them through the waters of the sea and the wilderness : as the fire of Mount Sinai in which God talked with them : and as He appeared to Ezekiel on the Cherubims : and as He was seen to envelope His own people with fire. "With regard to some it may be spoken of the fire of persecution, as "think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that shall try" you, but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings." Christ Himself speaks of His own sorrows as a Bap- tism of suffering. In other cases, it may signify quickening and enlightening, as the tongues on the day of Pentecost seem to denote : so that as all nature is warmed by the sun, so shall He enliven and invigorate all things in His spiritual kingdom. Thus of His Saints it is said, " as gold in the furnace hath He tried them, and received them as a burnt-offering^ :" and of Him- self in His kingdom, that "He is like a refiner's fire," and that " He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." And as He Himself says of His Grospel, " I am come to send fire on the earth : and what will I, if it be abeady kindled ® ? " But even here also, this expression* of baptizing with fire may have some reference to an- other expression of the Baptist's which follows it, of the " fire unquenchable :" — for the Grospel is not only a savour of life, but also unto death. " Our Grod is a con- suming fire." " With the breath of His mouth shall He slay the wicked." And of Tophet, " ordained of old," it is said, " that the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it'"." Such is the case with natural 8 Wisd. iii. 6. ^ Luke xii. 49. i" Isa. xxx. 33. 222 THE APPROACH OF CHRIST FORETOLD. fire itself, the visible emblem it may be of what here is signified : for fire gives life and destroys ; the snn that quickens the living branch, withers and dries up that which is parted from the stock of the tree. The fire that harmed not the Three Children slew the servants of Nebuchadnezzar. The pillar of fire which saved the Israelites, was death to the Egyptians. Christ Himself is " set for the fall and rising again of many." "If thou shouldst be holy," says Origen, "thou shalt be bap- tized with the Holy Ghost : if a sinner, thou shalt be immersed into fire : and one and the same Baptism to the unworthy and to sinners shall be turned into con- demnation and fire : but to those who are holy, and with entire faith are converted unto the Lord, the grace and salvation of the Spirit mil be vouchsafed. There- fore He that thus baptizeth hath "the fan in His hand." Here Origen goes on to connect it with the expression of the "unquenchable fire." But again, fire is spoken of as that which shall hereafter try the works of us all, "fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." " Every sacrifice shall be salted with fire." And there- fore some would explain it as a purgatorial fire for all our works : as if the first regeneration were by the Baptism of water, and the second regeneration were by the Baptism of fire. Thus Origen says, " that he who has been before baptized with water and the Spirit shall be baptized hereafter with fire also." "That as St. John now stands by the river Jordan, baptizing those who are admitted into the kingdom, and rejecting others, so the Lord Jesus shall stand in the fiery stream of the flaming whirlpool, that whosoever on his departure from this life needs purgation, and desires to pass into Paradise, He baptizes him with this stream, and sends him to the object of his desires ; but those who have no sign of THE APPEOACH OF CHEIST FOEETOLD. 223 their former Baptism, He baptizes not with fire.' ' Words, which if poetically applied in figure to the troubles of this world, might A^ith force and beauty describe the trials and chastenings endured by Christ's elect, par- taking of His Baptism, and our souls bathed all over with the fiery baptism of His Spirit ; by which all that is earthly must be dead and burnt up in us, and afford fuel to the Spirit that cleanseth ; by which we are walk- ing as the Three Children with Christ in the fiery furnace of this oiu' spiritual probation, which Christ hath sent forth, according to His own expression, " as afire" upon earth. But St. Hilary also applies it in like manner to a purgatorial fire of the Judgment. " He designates," says he, " the time of oiu* salvation and of our judgment in the Lord ; for it remains for them who are baptized by the Holy Grhost, to be perfected by the fire of the Judgment'." " Whose fan is in His hand ; and He will throughly clear out His threshing-floor ^ and will gather'''' (Matt. Luke) " His wheat into the lam " (Matt.), ''the wheat into His lam " (Luke) ; " lut the chaff He ivill lurn with fire unqiienchalle'^ (Matt. Luke). And now He is as "the Lord of the harvest," or " the husbandman " with His fan, after no human manner, but as in the sub- lime picture of the Prophet ^. " Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff". Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them." " Our Grod shall come, and shall not keep silence ; there shall go before Him a consuming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about Him." Thus with Christ's first coming is His second coming spoken of in immediate connexion, as if both 1 Com. in Matt. ii. 4. 2 jga. xli. 15. 224 THE APPROACH OP CHEIST POEETOLD. were in a manner but one and the same. And here the herald speaks of the first advent in terms that describe the second ; He is spoken of as baptizing with the Holy Grhost, and immediately afterwards as the Judge ; as the Prophet Malachi had done before, " The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, the mes- senger of the covenant, whom ye delight in. But who may abide the day of His coming ? " And no doubt that which is more closely fulfilled in the second Coming has its fulfilment also throughout this dispensation, which is called "the days of the Son of Man." Already is He in His kingdom with His fan in His hand, purging His floor, and separating the wheat from the chaff", as tokens or rehearsals of the great and final separation. Already, even now, " one is taken, and another left ;" in every department of life are these severings, and that for ever; by death, by disagreement, by change of life or of cha- racter, "in the field," "at the mill," "in bed," abeady are these partings off", never to be restored. And ob- serve how closely the mention of the fire unquenchable comes after the baptizing " with the Holy Grhost and with fire ;" a fire of which nature presents the daily token in the sun, which burns but is not consumed ; and Holy Scripture in the bush that burned, but was not destroyed. And what is the winnowing and the wind, but His Holy Spirit doubtless, which " bloweth where it listeth," which came down as " the sound of a rushing mighty wind ? " In the hour of temptation He cometh, and in the temptation the separation is made: then is the discernment as of St. Peter and the rest, " Satan hath desired to have you and to sift you as wheat." "When the winds blow, then is the house known, whether it be built upon a rock or upon the sand : then the wheat sown by the Son of Man is parted from the chaff". The THE APPEOACH OF CHEIST POEETOLD. 225 chaff, indeed, is often the figure of the wicked, as ex- pressive of external resemblance to the good, but de- ceitful and vain, and found wanting in the balance. In the Old Testament it is "as the chaff before the wind," scattered by the Angel of the Lord; "as the chafi" which is cbiven by the whirlwind ^ ;" " like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors, and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them *:" but in the Gospel it is to be "burned with imquenchable fire," and of which it is said in Malachi, " all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up." And here it is to be observed that the Gospel of good tidings opens with terrors before un- knoAvn to the world, as the most awful of all dispensa- tions : the axe at the root ; hewing down ; casting into the fire, the fire unquenchable. Eor it is on account of the mercy that is with God, says the Psalmist, that He is to be feared. Empty intentions, empty objects of pursuit, empty reputations, empty riches, empty ap- pearances of good, these make the chafi", these are shaken off by the wind, and the good seed is found. " By this comparison," says St. Ambrose, " it is shown that the Lord on the day of Judgment shall distinguish the fruits and deservings of solid virtue from the un- fruitful levity of empty boasting and of scanty deeds ; about to place men of more perfect virtue in the hea- venly mansion. For He is Himself the more perfect fruit, "Who hath fallen as a grain of wheat, that He might bring forth in us much fruit : hating the chafi*, and not friendly to empty merits ; therefore before Him shall a fire burn^" And Gregory, "After the thresh- ing is finished in this life, in which the grain now groans 3 Hos. xiii. 3. < Dan. ii. 35. s jn Luc. ii. 82. Q 226 CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. under the burden of tlie chaff, the fan of the last Judg- ment shall so separate between them, that neither shall any chaff pass into the granary, nor shall the grain fall into the fire which consumes the chaff*'." To this we may add the words of Him Whose coming shall be " like a refiner's fire." " Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not^" SECTION V. CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. But among the crowd which from all parts were flocking to John, there was One now appeared, the be- holding of "Whom made the great Master of liepentance to shrink himself, under the sense of his need of a higher washing than he himself could confer. Por although, in the highest sense of all, as yet he knew Him not, yet in one sense he knew Him, for he had acknowledged Him in the womb ; and since then and now he knew enough of His holiness to know that he was himself unworthy to approach Him, and stood abashed before Him. But on this subject there will be occasion to speak more at length hereafter, when wo come to the declaration of the Baptist, that " he knew Him not." " And it came to pass in those days, came Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee''^ (Mark), or in the words of St. Matthew, ^Hhencometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan imto John, to he haptized ofhiin.'" He came from Nazareth of Galilee, where He had hitherto been living unknown to the world, and where not even did His own brethren believe in Him, being now at the * Mor. xxxiv. 5 ; ap. Aur. Cat. in Matt, ad loc. ^ ^Mal. iii. 18. CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. 227 legal age ^ for taking on Him His ministry. St. Luke therefore adds to the account he had given of His bap- tism, '^AndJestis Himselfhegan to he about thirty years of age.'' Having for thirty years fulfilled the Lavr in perfect obedience, He comes to Jordan, to pass over from legal to Evangelical righteousness. The very num- ber of His years, as Bede observes, may contain in it mysterious wisdom; for thrice ten consists of the number of the Blessed Trinity and the Decalogue combined, and may therefore also serve to set forth Christian Baptism in the JSTame of the Trinity, and which through that Name gives the power of fulfilhng obedience. " But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me?'' (Matt.) It was in the Baptist a private expression of his own unworthiness ; but it was also Divinely spoken, as by him who was the Preacher of Eepentance, and represented the voice of the Law, in testimony of Christ as of One without sin, "Who needed no washing, and had no evil to confess. '^ And Jesus answered and said unto him, Suffer it to be so now;" — "now," in the days of His humiliation — "now," while He had to fulfil the Law, and this one thing alone remained unfulfilled — "now," before He Himself shall baptize with the Holy Grhost, and be Him- self baptized with a baptism of blood : — " sufier it to be so now, for so it is meet for us to fulfil all righteousness" Having come to do away with the curse for the trans- gression of the Law ® and having now fulfilled all legal righteousness. He comes to this the last act of all, and thereby opens the Heavens and brings in the new dis- pensation, and the blessings for the fulfilment of the Law for those that are found in Him. For the Baptism of John was not exactly a washing of the Law, but ' See Numb. iv. 3. ^ Deut. xxvii. 26. Q 2 228 CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. something beyond, as having confession of sins, and laying open in some measure thereby the secret spirit ; the secret spirit, into which the Grospel enters ; being the Baptism of one who was himself greater than all the Prophets of the Law. And though Christ was "without sin," yet, as "He bore the sins of many," He thus indicated that those sins of the many whicli He bore, would be washed away in Him : " That in Him," as Nazianzen says, " the old Adam might bo buried, and the new man raised : that as bearing the sins of all. He needed washing, as He needed also for the same a baptism of sufferings." Or as St. Am- brose, St. Hilary, and St. Augustin suppose, " Not that He Himself needed washing, but that He might thereby hallow water to the washing away of our sins : for as He sanctified our flesh by taking the same, so did He sanctify water by being washed thereby." He sanctified water, as the Baptismal Office of the Church expresses it, "to the mystical washing away of sin." For thus He gave water a power of cleansing the reins and the heart, which no washing of the Baptist could reach ; that " the rivers of the flood thereof might make glad the City of Grod." His being baptized, moreover, as St. Jerome observes, "gave His own Divine sanction to the Baptism of John:" "it was inculcating by His own example," says St. Ambrose, "what He required His disciples to do ; for fulfilling righteousness is doing that which we require of others." " Not that He re- quired purgation," say the Apostohcal Constitutions ^ " but to testify the truth of John's Baptism, and to afford us an example." " Consecrating thereby," says Augustin, "His own Sacrament." Tor thus did He bring down the Holy Spirit on our flesh and our Bap- » L. vii. ch. 22. CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. 229 tism, wMcli He in His fulness needed not. And thus does our Lord's Baptism unite in itself the two dispen- sations ; as, in like manner, in tlie appointment of the other great Sacrament, which (St. Chrysostom has ob- served) was the Passover according to the Law con- verted into the Eucharistic Feast of the Grospel; so now the Baptism was that of John, of a Priestly family, and a Prophet of the Lay according to legal righteous- ness ; but the opening Heavens and descending of the Spirit were of the new. " Acting with a view to both," says St. Chrysostom, " He brought the one to an end, but to the other He gave a beginning ^." As He came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law, so with the external fulfilment did He combine the internal Spirit that sanc- tifies the same ; showing the spiritual manner in which both the ceremonial and the moral Law would be ful- filled by Him, and by those that are in Him. St. John the Baptist, therefore, though at first re- luctant, at this gracious appeal submits to wash Him ; in like manner, as St. Peter afterwards, though at first reluctant and declining, submits to be washed by Him, acquiescing in love and obedience to the mysterious command of their Lord, although it was to their own exaltation by His unspeakable humiliations. " TJien lie suffers Him,'' adds St. Matthew, ^^ and He was bap- tized of John in Jordan " (Mark), or rather into, i. e. by going into Jordan, as the expression signifies. The words in St. Luke afibrd a still more lively picture of this great scene of humiliation, " And it came to pass lolien all the people were baptized {" for thus do we be- hold Him, in a scene brought before our eyes, going down with that promiscuous crowd, as a man amongst 2 Horn, in Matt. xii. 230 CHEIST IS BAPTIZED. men, as a sinner amongst sinners, Himself tlie Maker and the Judge of all: as "the Lamb of Grod" among the sheep of His pasture. '^ And Jesus hei7ig baptized''^ (Matt. Luke), ^^ ascended straigJitway out of the water'' ^ (Matt.) " and straightway ascending out of the loater''^ (Mark) : so mysterious, and as it were by immediate consequence, is the ascending of Christ and the descend- ing of the Spirit connected. And St. Luke again adds a circumstance still more descriptive and expressive of the moment, " and praying :" a circumstance which he so emphatically records also at the Transfiguration, as of our great High Priest whom his Grospel describes. "And lehold,^' as if instantly on His ascending, " the Heavens were opened unto Sim^ and He saw the Sjnrit of God'' (Matt.), or as St. Mark, " He saio the Heavens cleaving asunder, and the Spirit descending'' St. Luke again adds to the descriptiveness,"Itcame to pass," "that the Heaven wms opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape" (Luke), " as it ivere a Dove" (Matt. Mark, Luke), "and coming" (Matt.) "upon Him" (Matt. Mark, Luke). "And behold" (Matt.) " titer e came" (Mark, Luke), "a Voice from Heaven" (Matt. Mark,Luke),"5«yiwy," (Matt.Luke), "Thisis" (Matt.) "Thou art" (Mark, Luke) " Mj Son, the Beloved, in WJiom I am well pleased" (Matt. Mark, Luke). The Beloved, or, as St. Athanasius and others explain it, the Only-begotten, the One and Only, as this word in Greek often signifies, an object cherished because one and the only one of a kind. It is so rendered in Genesis, where there are in the Greek precisely the same words spoken to Abraham, " take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest ^ " as in Isaiah, " Mine elect, in whom My ^ Xot/3i rhv vibv