beyond all treasure, St. Matthew's and St. John's Gospels, and the Acts of the Apostles in Hebrew, the reading of which greatly contributed to his conversion.

Thus much of each evangelist in particular: that which is generally observable of the writings of these four excellent persons is this; That the three first of them wrote the whole story from the birth of Christ, till after the resurrection; but two of them more largely, St. Matthew and St. Luke; the third (St. Mark) more succinctly relating the series of the actions rather than the sermons and passages delivered by him. And though none of them agree throughout in observing the order and succession of the matters which they record, yet two of them agree much more constantly than the third with either of them, viz. St. Matthew an apostle and eye-witness, and St. Mark from St. Peter, who also was an apostle and eye-witness: but the third, St. Luke, who compiled his story from collections that he made from others, hath not so exactly observed the order wherein the facts took place, but only set down the facts themselves. And though he sometimes varied from the others in some words or circumstances, (as when St. Matthew and St. Mark say it was a Maid that spake to St. Peter, he reads, another Man, and the like) they are so inconsiderable, and of so little importance to the main matters of faith, and doctrines of the gospel, that they are rather arguments to demonstrate that these wri tings were not contrived by any compact or agreement of one with another, but that each of them wrote separately, without consulting or knowing what the other had done; which is a circumstance that was necessary to make their testimonies distinct, and so to give them the greater authority from their number. As to the fourth evangelist, St. John, his writings seem to have been designed to these two ends: 1. To demonstrate and declare the divinity and eternal pre-existence of Christ, his creation of the world, with other sublime and mysterious truths; as the other three had described his humanity, and cleared the matter of his conception and birth of the blessed Virgin. 2. To add out of his own knowledge some remarkable things, (especially those which tended most to the divinity of Christ) which had been omitted by the other three: to

which purpose he saw it necessary to set down the story of Christ's passion and resurrection as the others had done, that so he might affix those other circumstances which he designed to add to them.

There are some that find fault with his style, as being often mixed with barbarisms, and phrases used in an uncommon sense, making his writings less grateful to the critical and curious. But whatever was wanting in the politeness and elegance of his style, was abundantly supplied in the zeal of his temper, and the excellency and sublimity of his matter; so that as St. Basil and Epiphanius assert of him, he spake and wrote like "a son of thunder."

THE appointed time was now approaching, when the great Creator of the World, intending to restore mankind from that wretched state, into which they were plunged by the apostacy of our first parents, resolved to perform the promises made to the fathers, by sending his Son* to redeem them.

In pursuance of this grand design, he first sent his messenger to prepare the way before the Saviour of the World, who was now about to make his public entry into it; and to render the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning him the more illustrious, and worthy of an Almighty hand, the conception and birth of John Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, was introduced with a stupendous miracle: God hereby not only denoting his omnipotence, which is not circumscribed within the scanty bounds of Nature, but at the same time exciting the minds of men

Son. Jesus was the proper name of the word made Flesh, and given by God himself, Mat. i. 21. Luke i. 31, and ii. 21. Not that it was a name strange or unusual at that time, but more emphatically given him as Saviour of the World; the reason of which is by the heavenly ambassador subjoined in Matthew i. 21, "For he shall save his people from their sins."

Christ is a name of dignity, signifying his office as Messiah, or the anointed; for under the old law, kings, priests, and prophets, were anointed, 1 Sam. x. 1. 1 Kings i. 39. Levit. viii. 12. 1 Kings, xix. 16, And that this was a hame peculiar to the expected Messiah of the Jews, is evident from the High-priest's calling him the Christ, Mat. xxvi. 63. Mark xiv 61. Luke xxii. 67. Messenger. See Isaiah xl. 3. Mal. iii. 1.

to the expectation of something extraordinary from such preternatural means.

In the reign of Herod, king of Judea, lived a certain priest named Zacharias, and his wife Elizabeth; both of the tribe of Levi, but by a peculiar descent; he being of the lot of Abiah,* which was the eighth, according to the division of David, and she lineally descended from the daughters of Aaron. Nor was their character inferior to the excellency of their extraction, being just † before God, and unblameable in their conversation. Yet hitherto God had favoured them with no issue, and being both far advanced in years, they had now no reason to expect any. God, contrary to all the seeming improbabilities of Nature, had determined to make them instruments of his glory, by manifesting on them his omnipotent power in an extraor dinary manner.

At the time when Zacharias was to officiate in his course, and to burn incense in the temple, the angel Gabriel ap peared to him, standing on the right side of the altar. The peculiarity of the sight struck Zacharias with surprise and fear, which the angel soon dispelled, by assuring him of the favour which he and his wife had found with God; who, notwithstanding their great age, intended to bless them with a son, whose birth should be the occasion of great joy not only to themselves but to many others; foretelling at the same time the dignity of his office.That being from his birth inspired with the Holy Ghost, he should go before the Lord in the spirit and power Elias, to turn the hearts of the children of Israel, and make

of

Abiah. 1 Chron. xxiv. 10.

† Just. Luke i. 6.

Altar. As the daily sacrifice represented the sacrifice of Christ, and the incense the prayers of the saints, Rev. viii. 1, 4, the incense was ordered to be burnt while the sacrifice was offering, to teach mankind that it was through the sacrifice of Christ they had access to the Deity. Accordingly the sacrifices and incense, both morning and evening, were fitly accompanied with the prayers of the people, and that not in the temple only, but every where else, pious men choosing to put up their supplications at the hours of sacrifice, while the ministers of religion interceded for the nation. Hence these hours were called the hours of prayer, Acts iii. 1.

-ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zacharias, by rea son of his own and his wife's great age, questions the truth of the divine message: but the angel, to confirm the authority of his embassy, tells the diffident priest, that he should be dumb till these things were fulfilled; which immediately happened, for when he came out of the temple he was speechless, and continued so till the time of his wife's delivery.

Zacharias's time of waiting being expired, he returns home, where, soon after, his wife Elizabeth conceived, which for five months she concealed, not that she doubted of the promise God had made to her by the angel; for she well knew her husband's incredulity was punished with loss of speech, but to avoid the rumours that her being with child might occasion, whom the world, by reason of her great age, might naturally suppose to be barren.

God having thus miraculously removed from Elizabeth the reproach of barrenness in her old age, by her conception of the Baptist, the birth of the Messiah is ushered into the world by no less wonderful, but rather more extraordinary means. For a woman generally esteemed barren, and in years, to bear a child was within the verge of -possibility. Sacred History affords instances in the birth of Isaac and Samson: but that a virgin, who had never known man, should conceive and bear a child, exceeded all natural reason, and could be nothing but the product of divine power. This the Almighty had promised,† and now most punctually performed; for, within six months after Elizabeth had conceived, the angel Gabriel, who to her had been the happy messenger of glad tidings, is sent by God on the same errand to a virgin named Mary, a cousin of Elizabeth in Nazareth, a city of Galilee, who not long before was espoused to Joseph; and both of them were of the house of David. The angel entering the house where she then was, (for as yet she was not brought home to her espoused husband Joseph) salutes her with the heavenly benediction: "Hail thou that art

Rumours. Grot. Luc. Brug. Marlorat, &c.

† Promised. Isa. yii. 14.

Hail. Luke i. 28.

VOL. II.

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highly in favour with God, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women." This glorious vision af fected her with amazement and surprise; which Gabriel soon removes by assuring her of the favour that she had found with God, who had appointed her to be the mother of the Saviour of the world.

The holy Virgin, in confidence of her own virtue, ob'jects to the celestial messenger the impossibility of the event which he predicted; but he removes her doubts by assuring her that the Holy Ghost, by his Almighty influ ence, should cause her to conceive; and by her cousin Elizabeth's miraculously being pregnant in her old age, he convinces her of the omnipotence of God, with whom nothing is impossible. The blessed Virgin humbly acquiesces in the reasons of the divine visitor: upon which he leaves her, and she with eager haste repaired to Hebron, where her cousin Elizabeth dwelt, not out of any distrust of the angel's report, but that she might not neglect the opportunity of strengthening her faith in that prediction which she had thus received from God by the angel. Being arrived at the house of Zacharias, she had no sooner saluted Elizabeth, than the babe in her womb sprang as it were with joy-a motion which is to be ascribed, not to a common, but a supernatural cause.

In this visit of the Virgin Mary to Elizabeth, we may observe a most exact harmony, and which can no where be found or expected, but in such extraordinary transactions. Elizabeth had no sooner received the blessed Virgin's compliment, but, being influenced by the Holy Ghost, in return she accosted her with the very words in which the angel Gabriel had before saluted her "Blessed art thou among women;" and as if she had been acquainted with the whole conversation between the angel and her virgin-cousin, she declares her being with child of the Messiah, and calls her the "Mother of her Lord.”

• Nothing. The vulgar Latin translates it WORD, because the Greek term Logos does often so signify; but since it answers to the Hebrew word Debhar, which is very equivocal, and signifies sometimes a word, sometimes a thing, sometimes a reason, &c. we must necessarily determine its signification according to the matter which is spoken of.