He, that led Israel by a pillar of fire into the land of promise, leads the wise men by a star to the promised seed. All his directions partake of that light which is in him: for God is light. This star moves both slowly and low, as might be fittest for the pace, for the purpose of these pilgrims. It is the goodness of God, that, in those means wherein we cannot reach him, he descends unto us. Surely when the wise men saw the star stand still, they looked about to see what palace there might be near unto that station, fit for the birth of a king; neither could they think that sorry shed was it which the star meant to point out; but finding their guide settled over that base roof, they go in to see what guest it held. They enter, and, O God, what a king do they find! how poor! how contemptible! wrapt in clouts, laid in straw, cradled in the manger, attended with beasts! What a sight was this, after all the glorious promises of that star, after the predictions of prophets, after the magnificence of expectations! All their way afforded nothing so despicable as that Babe whom they came to worship. But as those which could not have been wise men, unless they had known that the greatest glories have arisen from mean beginnings, they fall down and worship that hidden Majesty. This baseness hath bred wonder in them, not contempt: they well knew the star could not lie. They, which saw his star afar off in the east, when he lay swaddled in Bethlehem, do also see his royalty further off, in the despised state of his infancy; a royalty more than human. They well knew, that stars did not use to attend earthly kings; and if their aim had not been higher, what was a Jewish king to Persian strangers? Answerable therefore hereunto was their adoration. Neither did they lift up empty hands to him whom they worshipped, but presented him with the most precious commodities of their country, gold, incense, myrrh; not as thinking to enrich him with these, but, by way of homage, acknowledging him the Lord of these. If these sages had been kings, and had offered a princely weight of gold, the blessed virgin had not needed, in her purification, to have offered two young pigeons, as the sign of her penury. As God loves not empty hands, so he measures fulness by the affection. Let it be gold, or incense, or myrrh, that we offer him, it cannot but please him, who doth not use to ask how much, but how good.

CONTEMPLATION V.-THE PURIFICATION.

THERE could be no impurity in the Son of God; and if the best substance of a pure virgin carried in it any taint of Adam, that was scoured away by sanctification in the womb; and yet the Son would be circumcised, and the mother purified. He, that came to be sin for us, would, in our persons, be legally unclean, that, by satisfying the law, he might take away our uncleanness. Though he were exempted from the common condition of our birth, yet he would not deliver himself from those ordinary rites that implied the weakness and blemishes of humanity. He would fulfil one law to abrogate it, another to satisfy it. He, that was above the law, would come under the law to free us from the law. Not

a day would be changed, either in the circumcision of Christ, or the purification of Mary. Here was neither convenience of place, nor of necessaries, for so painful a work, in the stable of Bethlehem; yet, he that made and gave the law, will rather keep it with difficulty, than transgress it with ease.

Why wouldst thou, O blessed Saviour, suffer that sacred foreskin to be cut off, but that, by the power of thy circumcision, the same might be done to our souls that was done to thy body? We cannot be therefore thine, if our hearts be uncircumcised. Do thou that in us, which was done to thee for us; cut off the superfluity of our maliciousness, that we may be holy in and by thee, which for us were content to be legally impure.

There was shame in thy birth, there was pain in thy circumcision. After a contemptible welcome into the world, that a sharp razor should pass through thy skin for our sakes, which can hardly endure to bleed for our own, it was the praise of thy wonderful mercy in so early humiliation. What pain or contempt should we refuse for thee, that hast no spare of thyself for us! Now is Bethlehem left with too much honour there is Christ born, adored, circumcised. No sooner is the blessed virgin either able or allowed to walk, than she travels to Jerusalem, to perform her holy rites for herself, for her son; to purify herself, to present her son. She goes not to her own house at Nazareth, she goes to God's house at Jerusalem. If purifying were a shadow, yet thanksgiving is substance. Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of body and safety of deliverance, if they make not their first journey to the temple of God, they partake more of the unthankfulness of Eve, than Mary's devotion.

Her forty days therefore were no sooner out than Mary comes up to the holy city. The rumour of a new king, born at Bethlehem, was yet fresh at Jerusalem, since the report of the wise men: and what good news had this been for any pickthank to carry to the court? Here is the Babe whom the star signified, whom the sages inquired for, whom the angels proclaimed, whom the shepherds talked of, whom the scribes and high-priests notified, whom Herod seeks after. Yet, unto that Jerusalem, which was troubled at the report of his birth, is Christ come; and all tongues are so locked up, that he, which sent from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to seek him, finds him not, who, as to countermine Herod, is come from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Dangers that are aloof off, and but possible, may not hinder us from the duty of our devotion. God saw it not yet time to let loose the fury of his adversaries, whom he holds up like some eager mastiffs, and then only lets go, when they shall most shame themselves, and glorify him.

Well might the blessed virgin have wrangled with the law and challenged an immunity from all ceremonies of purification. What, should I need purging, which did not conceive in sin? This is for those mothers whose births are unclean; mine is from God, which is purity itself. The law of Moses reaches only to those women which have conceived seed; I conceived not this seed, but the Holy Ghost in me. law extends to the mothers of those sons which are under the law; mine is above it. But as one that cared more for her peace than her

The

privilege, and more desired to be free from offence than from labour and charge, she dutifully fulfils the law of that God whom she carried in her womb, and in her arms like the mother of him, who, though he knew the children of the kingdom free, yet would pay tribute unto Cæsar; like the mother of him, whom it behoved to fulfil all righteousness. And if she were so officious in ceremonies, as not to admit of any excuse in the very circumstance of her obedience, how much more strict was she in the main duties of morality! That soul is fit for the spiritual conception of Christ, that is conscionably scrupulous in observing all God's commandments; whereas he hates all alliance to a negligent or froward heart.

The law of purification proclaims our uncleanness. The mother is not allowed after her child-birth, to come unto the sanctuary, or to touch any hallowed thing, till her set time be expired. What are we whose very birth infects the mother that bears us! At last she comes to the temple but with sacrifices, either a lamb and a pigeon, or turtle, or (in the meaner estate) two turtle-doves, or young pigeons, whereof one is for a burnt-offering, the other for a sin-offering: the one for thanksgiving, the other for expiation: for expiation of a double sin, of the mother that conceived, of the child that was conceived. We are all born sinners, and it is a just question, whether we do more infect the world, or the world us. They are gross flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean. If our lives had no sin, we bring enough with us: the very infant that lives not to sin as Adam, yet he sinned in Adam, and is sinful in himself. But, O the unspeakable mercy of our God! we provide the sin, he provides the remedy. Behold an expiation well-near as early as our sin; the blood of a young lamb, or dove, yea, rather the blood of him whose innocence was represented by both, cleanseth us presently from our filthiness. First went circumcision, then came the sacrifice; that, by two holy acts, that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God. Under the gospel our baptism hath the force of both : it does away our corruption by the water of the Spirit; it applies to us the sacrifice of Christ's blood, whereby we are cleansed. O that we could magnify this goodness of our God, which hath not left our very infancy without redress, but hath provided helps, whereby we may be delivered from the danger of our hereditary evils.

Such is the favourable respect of our wise God, that he would not have us undo ourselves with devotion: the service he requires of us is ruled by our abilities. Every poor mother was not able to bring a lamb for her offering: there was none so poor, but might procure a pair of turtles or pigeons. These doth God both prescribe and accept from poorer hands, no less than the beasts of a thousand mountains. He looks for somewhat of every one, not of every one alike. Since it is he that makes differences of abilities, (to whom it was as easy to make all rich,) his mercy will make no difference in the acceptation. The truth and heartiness of obedience is that which he will crown in his meanest servants. A mite, from the poor widow, is more worth to him than the talents of the wealthy.

After all the presents of those eastern worshippers, who intended rather homage than ditation, the blessed virgin comes, in the form of

poverty, with her two doves unto God: she could not without some charge lie all this while at Bethlehem, she could not without charge travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem. Her offering confesseth her penury. The best are not ever the wealthiest. Who can despise any one for want, when the mother of Christ was not rich enough to bring a lamb for her purification? We may be as happy in russet as in tissue.

While the blessed virgin brought her son into the temple with that pair of doves, here were more doves than a pair. They, for whose sake that offering was brought, were more doves than the doves that were brought for that offering. Her son, for whom she brought that dove to be sacrificed, was that sacrifice which the dove represented. There was nothing in him but perfection of innocence: and the oblation of him is that whereby all mothers and sons are fully purified. Since in ourselves we cannot be innocent, happy are we, if we can have the spotless dove sacrificed for us, to make us innocent in him!

The blessed virgin had more business in the temple than her own; she came, as to purify herself, so to present her son. Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He, that was the Son of God, by eternal generation before time, and by miraculous conception in time, was also, by common course of nature, consecrate unto God. It is fit the holy mother should present God with his own. Her first-born

was the first-born of all creatures. It was he whose temple it was that he was presented in, to whom all the first-born of all creatures were consecrated, by whom they were accepted; and now is he brought in his mother's arms to his own house, and, as man, is presented to himself as God. If Moses had never written law of God's special propriety in the first-born, this Son of God's essence and love had taken possession of the temple: his right had been a perfect law to himself. Now his obedience to that law, which himself had given, doth no less call him thither, than the challenge of his peculiar interest.

He, that was the Lord of all creatures, ever since he struck the firstborn of the Egyptians, requires the first male of all creatures, both man and beast, to be dedicated to him, wherein God caused a miraculous event to second nature, which seems to challenge the first and best for the Maker. By this rule God should have had his service done only by the heirs of Israel. But since God, for the honour and remuneration of Levi, had chosen out that tribe to minister unto him, now the first-born of all Israel must be presented to God as his due, but by allowance redeemed to their parents. As for beasts, the first male of the clean beasts must be sacrificed, of unclean, exchanged for a price. So much morality is there in this constitution of God, that the best of all kinds is fit to be consecrated to the Lord of all. Every thing we have is too good for us, if we think any thing we have too good for him.

How glorious did the temple now seem, that the Owner was within the walls of it! Now was the hour and guest come, in regard whereof the second temple should surpass the first. This was his house, built for him, dedicated to him: there had he dwelt long in his spiritual presence, in his typical. There was nothing either placed, or done within those walls, whereby he was not resembled and now the body of those shadows is come, and presents himself where he had been ever repre

sented. Jerusalem is now every where. There is no church, no Christian heart, which is not a temple of the living God: there is no temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to his Father. Look upon him, O God, in whom thou art well pleased, and in him and for him be well pleased with us.

Under the gospel we are all first-born, all heirs; every soul is to be holy unto the Lord; we are a royal generation, a holy priesthood. Our baptism, as it is our circumcision, and our sacrifice of purification, so it is also our presentation unto God. Nothing can become us but holiness. O God, to whom we are devoted, serve thyself of us, glorify thyself by us, till we shall by thee be glorified with thee.

CONTEMPLATION VI.-HEROD AND THE INFANTS.

If he

WELL might these wise men have suspected Herod's secrecy. had meant well, what needed that whispering? That which they published in the streets, he asks in his privy chamber: yet they, not misdoubting his intention, purpose to fulfil his charge. It could not, in their apprehension, but be much honour to them to make their success known. that now both king and people might see it was not fancy that led them, but an assured revelation. That God, which brought them thither, diverted them, and caused their eyes shut to guide them the best way

home.

These sages made a happy voyage: for now they grew into further acquaintance with God. They are honoured with a second messenger from heaven. They saw the star in the way, the angel in their bed. The star guided their journey unto Christ, the angel directed their return. They saw the star by day, a vision by night. God spake to their eyes by the star, he speaks to their heart by a dream. No doubt they had left much noise of Christ behind them. They, that did so publish his birth at Jerusalem, could not be silent when they found him at Bethlehem. If they had returned by Herod, I fear they had come short home. He, that meant death to the babe for the name of a king, could mean no other to those that honoured and proclaimed a new king, and erected a throne besides his. They had done what they came for: and now that God, whose business they came about, takes order at once for his Son's safety and for theirs. God, who is perfection itself, never begins any business but he makes an end, and ends happily. When our ways are his, there is no danger of miscarriage.

Well did these wise men know the difference, as of stars, so of dreams : they had learned to distinguish between the natural and divine; and once apprehending God in their sleep, they follow him waking, and return another way. They were no subjects to Herod; his command pressed them so much the less: or, if the being within his dominions had been no less bond, than native subjection, yet, where God did countermand Herod, there could be no question whom to obey. They say not, We are in a strange country, Herod may meet with us, it can be no less than death to mock him in his own territories; but cheerfully put them