PARISH CHURCH OF ST. JAMES, BRISTOL, Fin aras bujur 9130

ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1809,

9101 OB D-JOW DEA

Society for Missions to Africa and the East."

SERMON III.

MATTHEW ii. 2. FOR we have seen His "Star " in the East, and are come to worship him.”

WHEN, in the fulness of time, the Son of God

came down from heaven to take our nature upon him, many circumstances concurred to celebrate the event, and to render it an illustrious epoch in the history of the world. It pleased the divine wisdom, that the manifestation of the deity should be distinguished by a suitable glory; and this was done by the ministry of Angels, by the ministry of Men, and by the ministry of Nature herself.

First, This was done by the ministry of Angels; for an Angel announced to the shepherds "the glad tidings of great joy which should "be to all people;" and a multitude of the heavenly "host sang Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will toward men." Secondly, It was done by the ministry of Men; for illustrious persons, divinely directed,

came from a far country, to offer gifts, and to do honour to the new-born King.

Thirdly, It was done by the ministry of Nature. Nature herself was commanded to bear witness to the presence of the God of Nature. A Star, or Divine Light, pointed out significantly from heaven the spot upon earth where the Saviour was born.

Thus it pleased the Divine Wisdom, by an assemblage of heavenly testimonies, to glorify the incarnation of the Son of God.

All these testimonies were appropriate; but' the Journey of the Eastern Sages had in it a peculiar fitness. We can hardly imagine a more natural mode of honouring the event than this, that illustrious persons should proceed from a far country to visit the child that was born Saviour of the world. They came, as it were, in the name of the Gentiles, to acknowledge the heavenly gift, and to bear their testimony against that nation which neglected it. They came as the representatives of all the heathen; not only of the heathen in the East, but also of those in the West, from whom we are descended. In the name of the whole world, lying" in darkness, and in the shadow "of death," they came inquiring for that Light which they had heard was to visit them in the fulness of time. "And the Star which "they saw in the East went before them till

"it came and stood over where the young "child was. And when they were come into

the house, they fell down and worshipped “ him; and when they had opened their trea"sures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, "and frankincense, and myrrh.” ↑

Do you ask how the Star of Christ was understood in the East? or why Providence ordained that peculiar mode of intimation?

Christ was foretold in old prophecy, under the name of the Star that should arise out of Jacob; and the rise of the Star in Jacob was notified to the world by the appearance of an actual Star. Starne

1

We learn from authentic Roman history, that, there prevailed" in the East" a constant expectation of a Prince, who should arise out of Judea, and rule the world. That such an expectation did, exist, has been confirmed by the ancient writings of India. Whence, then, arose this extraordinary expectation, for it was found also in the Sybilline books of Rome.

The Jewish expectation of the Messiah had pervaded the East long before the period of his appearance. The Jews are called by their own prophet, the " Expecting people,”* (as it may be translated, and as some of the Jews of the East translate it) the "people looking for

* Isa. xviij. 2.:" The people meted out," in our translation.