than as an act of obedience in the parents, as being “so named of the Angel before he was conceived in the womb;" nor does it appear that the circumcision and naming of a child amongst the Jews was in any degree a religious ceremony, or that it required either temple or priest: but the other ceremony, that of the purification of the mother after the birth of the first-born, was a religious act to be performed in the temple at Jerusalem, and before a priest, required by direct precept in Leviticus, and fixed for the fortieth day after the mother's delivery, in order that the child when presented to the Lord should be redeemed by an offering according to the circumstances of the parents. Those who could afford it were to offer a lamb, but "a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons" was the offering appointed for the poor and destitute, such as were the parents of the Son of Man in the flesh. Our blessed Lord was of poor parents, and was poor upon earth in order that He might render their condition here supportable at least, if not pleasing, when they reflected that their Saviour was as poor as they'. Our Church, in her collect for the Purification of the Virgin, puts us in mind of the only-begotten Son of God being "presented in the temple in the substance of one flesh," and thence teaches us to pray that "we may be

6 Dr. Whitby.

7 Bishop Horne.

presented to God with pure and clean hearts by the same Jesus Christ our Lord." He it is, whose infinite merits, whose prevailing satisfaction the Church in her prayers present daily to God, and through whom alone ourselves and all our oblations are accepted in the heavenly places. We likewise present our children to the Lord when we present them at the font in the presence of the Church; we then solemnly pledge them to the service of God in Christ Jesus. Oh! let all, of whatever age, let the young, instead of yielding to corrupt nature and evil practices, let those who are no longer young and are yet able to pay an intelligent service to their Maker, let all be prepared to say, "We present ourselves unto Thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto Thee'!"

SECT. IX.-The Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.– Matt. ii. 1-23.

THE Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles, generally called The Epiphany, is recorded only by St. Matthew; but we have nothing to direct us as to the time of its occurrence, but that it took place "in the days of Herod the king." It can scarcely have occurred before the presentation of Christ in the temple, because Joseph was distinctly commanded to take the young child and his mother into Egypt, and to

Dr. Hole. 9

9 Bishop Horne.

1

Archbishop Sumner.

remain there till he was directed by God to return to the land of Israel; nor would it have been very reasonable or safe to have carried the child to Jerusalem after the journey of the Wise Men, because their errand had awakened Herod's suspicions, and the disappointment of their return "another way" had aroused an anger, that few people in Judæa could doubt, from bitter experience, would be other than terrible.

The text of St. Luke would lead one to suppose that, when they had performed all things according to the law, they had "returned unto Galilee;" but, it must be remembered, that before St. Luke wrote, St. Matthew had already recorded the journey of the Wise Men, which he did not deem it necessary therefore to repeat: such brief transitions as these are not strange in Scripture, and more especially with that Evangelist. It is then supposed that, as his parents knew that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem, so they also thought it necessary that He should live and be brought

up in that town, because of his alliance to the house of David: accordingly, they did not dare to remove their domicile from Bethlehem, till they had special warrant, as they afterwards received, to go down into Egypt'.

"The Wise Men who came from the East to Jerusalem," on this occasion, were so called, 2 ' Dr. Lightfoot.

E

because they observed the appearances of nature and the heavenly bodies,-subjects much studied in the Eastern countries to which they belonged. The sight of some unusual light in the sky had attracted their attention; and, perhaps, the general expectation which prevailed, "throughout all the East," of some mighty king or deliverer, in consequence of the Hebrew prophecies, led them to the supposition, that this unusual light or star was connected with his coming, and to Jerusalem for the explanation of it 3. But what was the star that the Wise Men saw, and where was it that they saw it? Doubtless this star or great light, (for all know by experience that be it ever so great when near, yet to those who are at a distance every light seems but as a star,) which these Magi or Wise Men saw at the birth of Christ, was nothing else but that glorious and miraculous light that shone about those Bethlehem shepherds, when the Angel came upon them with the tidings of the birth of a Saviour. It is stated to be a star in the East; but these latter words, "the East," mean the place of the men, and not of the star; and we should rather read, "We being in the East have seen his star;" for their beholding it in the direction of the land of Judæa more readily brought them to think it betokened the birth of the King of the Jews. It appears to have

been a general belief among the ancients that stars or luminous bodies appeared at the birth of distinguished persons; and it has been supposed by many that the prophecy of Balaam, "There shall come a star out of Jacob," was known to these Wise Men; but it is certain, from heathen historians, that an expectation very generally prevailed at that time that a king should come out of Judæa that should rule over all the world 6.

It was reasonable enough that "Herod should be troubled" at the information thus received from persons of learning and distinction out of a strange country, who came to Jerusalem persuaded from what they had witnessed that there was "born the King of the Jews;" for, he having been now seven-and-thirty years king of Judæa, and having by so much policy and cruelty laid the foundation of a successive royalty, might well be startled at the information that a wondrous and miraculous light betokened great disappointment and derangement to his fond dynastic ambition'. That "all Jerusalem was troubled with him," is not to be taken for any sympathy or affection for Herod, for he and his family were hated by them; but they were naturally alarmed, not knowing what the consequences of so extraordinary a birth might be';