DISC. hath drooped and languished away, but is

XI.

again to be raised from the death and
deformity of winter, to the life and beauty
of fpring, until, by a filent, progreffive ope-
ration, the year be crowned with the loving
kindness of the Lord; are we not hereby
directed to look up by faith to the great
luminary of the intellectual world, who
declareth from his glorious throne," Be-
"hold I make all things new";" befeech-
ing him to arise upon us with healing in
his wings; to visit us with the light of
his countenance, and the joy of his falva-
tion, that fo old things may pass away,
and we may
be renewed in the spirit of our
minds; to difperfe the clouds and darkness
of ignorance; to lay the wintry storms and
tempefts of difordered paffions, and intro-
duce into our hearts the calm and gladfome
fpring of everlasting righteousness and
peace; to pour upon the year all the blef-
fings of that glorious feftival, with which
it commenceth; and, in one word, by
making it HOLY, to make it HAPPY.

e Rev. xxi. 5.

DISCOURSE XII.

THE EPIPHANY.

MATTHEW II.

I, 2.

Now when Jefus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wife men from the east to Jerufalem, faying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews? For we have feen his ftar in the east, and are come to worship

bim.

IN

N this remarkable part of facred story DISC. there are two particulars, on which, at XII. the present season, we are called

upon to employ our meditations. And as they will fuggeft ample matter for that purpose, I shall crave your leave to enter upon a difcuffion of them without any farther preface.

The

DISC.

XII.

The particulars are these :

First, The perfons here mentioned by

St. Matthew.

Secondly, Their journey.

First, then, let us contemplate the perfons here mentioned by St. Matthew, their country and condition.

With regard to their country, the text gives us no farther information, than that they came from the east. Of the antient expofitors, fome mention Chaldea, others Perfia; but others, among whom are Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Epiphanius, with more probability perhaps, affign Arabia Felix, a country lefs distant from Judea, and lying to the fouth-east of it; the fame country pointed out by the Pfalmist, when, predicting the acceffion of the Gentiles, he faith, "The kings of Sheba and "Seba fhall offer gifts:" the country from whence, attended by a train of camels

bearing

a

XII.

bearing fpices, came the queen of Sheba DISC. to the court of the temporary and reprefentative PRINCE OF PEACE; the country particularly specified in the lxth chapter of Isaiah; “All they from Sheba shall "come; they fhall bring gold and incenfe, " and they shall fhew forth the praises of "the Lord:" a country remarkable, by the testimony of historians, for plenty of gold, and of the most precious aromatics: a country, in the neighbourhood of which Balaam uttered and left behind him his famous prophecy, concerning the "Star "that should arife out of Jacob."

As to the condition of these eastern travellers, it is faid by the Evangelift, they were Maya; a term then applied, among all the nations of the eaft, in it's primary and good fenfe, to those who gave themfelves up to the pursuit of wisdom and knowlege, by all the means in their power. They were the great mathematicians, phi

a Sabea-extrema Arabia Felicis regio, Perfico finui proxima. VITRINGA in loc.

lofophers,

DISC. lofophers, and divines of the ages in which XII. they lived, and had no other knowlege but

that which by their own ftudy, and the inftructions of the antients of their fect, they had attained unto. But as their credit in the world, on thefe accounts, was fo great, that a learned man and a Magian became equivalent terms, the vulgar looking on their knowlege to be more than natural, entertained an opinion of them, as if they had been actuated and inspired by fupernatural powers, in the fame manner as has too frequently happened, at other times, and in other places. In the number of these Magi, or learned men, of old, perfons not only of noble but of royal extraction often thought proper to enlist themselves. Many, therefore, have imagined these Magi to have been fuch; and the fuppofition, all circumftances confidered, is not improbable.

But the particular, of which we are certain, in which we are chiefly interested, and which at this time claims our atten