Messiah by the name of the Branch, as the same Hebrew word signifies also the East.

I need not here detail the whole unbroken line of prophecy, which brings the birth of our expected Saviour immediately before our eyes. If we are satisfied that one prophet assures us, that "the desire of all nations shall come 1;" in conformity with another, which declares that Shiloh shall not come till the sceptre shall depart from Judah, and that then "shall the gathering of the people be "," we have at once a connected evidence of this great event; and no longer wonder that Herod, king of the Jews, should be jealous of such an expectation, and commit an atrocious deed of accumulated murder, to silence, as he vainly imagined, the voice of prophecy, by extirpating the expected cause.

That this was the feeling which then prevailed in Judea needs no further confirmation. But it appears, that there was a difference of opinion relative to the person and character of him who was thus expected. The Jews believed that the Messiah would be a temporal prince, who should free them from the Roman yoke. "The Jews," says Josephus, "rebelled against the Romans, being encouraged thereto by a famous prophecy in their Scriptures, that about that time a great prince should be born among them that should rule the world";" and flatters the Emperor Vespatian

1 Hag. ii. 7.

2 Gen. xlix. 10.

3 Josephus.

that he should be the man. Indeed, the followers of the blessed Jesus himself entertained the same suspicion. The mother of James and John requested that her two sons might be promoted to situations of distinction in his kingdom'. And even in our Lord's last interview with his disciples, these secular notions were not extinct. "Lord! wilt thou at this time (for still they thought it not too late) restore again the kingdom to Israel2 ?”

Under another view, both the Jews and Heathen took an exception to the character of Jesus as he appeared amongst them. "Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness 3" Both were dissatisfied, but for very different

reasons.

"The Jew thought that the mean appearance and condition of our Saviour was unsuitable to the power of God, and the Heathen, that it was not agreeable to the wisdom of man." But the God of Jews and Gentiles, of Heathen and Christians, is able to reconcile all things unto himself.

Nothing of this is wonderful under the peculiar circumstances of the case. A grand purpose of divine providence was then in operation; a plan, formed by the Almighty from the day that our first parents fell from the elevation of primitive holiness, and involved their posterity in the fatal trammels of an original corruption. It is not for man to break asunder one

1 Matt. xx. 20.

2 Acts i. 6.
4 Tillotson, s. 192.

31 Cor. i. 23.

link of this mighty chain; or to inquire of his Maker, why hast thou made me thus? Here is our lamentable history; but here also is the happy prospect of our restoration to favour and affection. One is as inexplicable as the other; but both resting on the veracity of God, the believer in the word of revelation, needs no other interpreter to unravel the intricacies of this extraordinary narration.

The point at which we have now arrived is that, when the holy Child Jesus broke upon the world in the stable of an obscure inn at Bethlehem. This very incident indeed, unimportant as it might appear, was foretold by prophecy, and, consequently is an evidence that this babe was indeed the person expected at this very interesting period. I have said that, a warrior was looked for with an unusual ardour, even in that age when military glory was in such high estimation. No wonder that the poor and humble child was rejected, though born of the stem of Jesse, and in the royal city of his tribe.

The Evangelist St. John, warm with the contemplation of his high descent, and indignant at the coldness of his reception, draws the striking comparison; "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not; he came unto his own, and his own received him not1." The history of his life is not now the object of our attention, but

the expectation of his coming is. We have seen how grossly both Jew and Gentile mistook his character. The acknowledgment of the latter, indeed, was not now to be expected. But the case of the Jews was of a different nature; and their hardened hearts drew upon them the most exemplary punishment that ever was inflicted on any nation.

The destruction of the Jewish nation, and the dispersion of the Jews into every remote country that is known, constitute a standing miracle in favour of the religion of Jesus. But were there none of his countrymen ready to receive the friendless infant? Were there none impressed with those prophecies which supported the good men of many generations with a sense of expectation, very different from the Herods and Vespatians of that age? Were there none in the cities of Judea who remembered the delightful promises of Moses and the prophets? Were there none looking for him who was to turn their spears into pruning-hooks, and swords into plough-shares; who was to introduce peace and comfort into all their borders? Were there none who looked beyond the blood of bulls or of goats, and beheld the distant prospect of a spiritual dominion? Were there none that could distinguish that the ceremonies of the law were emblems only of a future reality, of a future substitute for sin; and though their eye was satisfied with a present sacrifice, their heart could only rest upon another more beneficial, though equally mysterious victim?

Oh ! yes, the Jews.

God's hand was not shortened even among There were within the walls of Jerusalem a little flock, who were aware, in the true spiritual sense, that it was the Father's good pleasure to give them a kingdom. Go to the temple, when it was to be done for the infant Jesus according to the law. A good man was led by the Holy Spirit to the same spot to receive him a man, who had waited for the consolation of Israel; an expression explained by the occasion, "mine eyes have seen Thy salvation," for the Holy Ghost had informed him, that "he should not die till he had seen the Lord's Christ." He could never have announced by any anticipation, that the infant then in his arms was the desire of all nations, without a specific revelation of God's Holy Spirit. Equally wonderful was it that Anna, a pious and an aged woman, a prophetess, who was present, confirmed these glad tidings of salvation; and, as she was well read in the Jewish Scriptures, explained from them, the causes of his belief, and "spake of him to all them who looked for redemption in Jerusalem 1."

Here then was already collected a little flock, who were to be saved by faith: a faith of the same description with that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the prophets; who, "not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them "."

1 Luke ii. 38.

2 Heb. xi. 13.