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Holy Scriptures, has all thefe Evidences which the Fat of Chrift has: And fo God has thought fitting, that this great Fact, above all other Facts, of the greatest Glory to God, and Importance to Mankind, fhould appear with greater and more undeniable Evidence than any other Fact that ever was in the World.

DE. We are now upon the particular Fact of the Magi or wife Men coming to Chrift. Have you any more to say as to that?

(5.) CHR. It has those fame Evidences that the Truth of the Bible in general has; which are more than can be produced for any other Book in the World. But now as to this Fact in particular; St. Matthew was the first who wrote the Gospel; and it was in the fame Age when this Fact was faid to be done. And can you think it poffible that fuch a Fact as this could have paffed without Contradiction, and a publick expofing of Chriftianity, then fo defirable, and fo much endeavoured by the unbelieving Jews, their High Priests, Elders, &c. as the only Means for their own Prefervation, if the Fact had not been notorious, and fresh in the Memory of all the People then at Jerufalem; viz. That thefe wife Men came thither, and that Herod, and the whole City were troubled at the News they brought of the Birth of the King of the Jews; that Herod thereupon gathered all the Chief Priefis and Scribes of the People together, that they might fearch out of the Prophets, and know the Place where Chrift should be born; and then the Slaughter of the Infants, in and about Bethlehem, and in all the Coasts thereof, which followed-I fay, could fuch a Fact as this have paffed at that very time, if it had not been true? Could St. Matthew have hoped to have palmed this upon all the People, and upon those very fame Chief Priests and Scribes, who, he faid, were fo far concerned in it? Would none of them have contradicted it, if it had been a Forgery? Efpecially when the detecting it would have ftrangled Chriftianity in its Birth. Would not they have done it who fuborned falfe Witnesses against Chrift; and gave large Money to the Soldiers to conceal

(if poffible) his R furrection? Would not they have done it, who perfecuted Chriftianity with all Spite and Fury, and invented all imaginable falfe Stories and CaLumnies against it? Whereas here was one at hand, this of the Magi, which, if false, could have been so easily detected, by appealing to every Man, Woman and Child, I may fay, in Jerufalem, Bethlehem, and even in all Judea, who, no doubt, had heard of the terrible Masacre of fo many Infants, and the Cause of it.

DE. I can give no Account why the Writers against Christianity did not offer to contradict this Fact of the Star and the Magi, which is put in the very Front of this Gospel of St. Matthew: And there it is called his (Chrift's) Star; We have feen his Star in the Eaft-As if God had created a new and extraordinary Star on Purpofe, as the Signal of Chrift hung out in the Heavens, to give the World Notice of his Birth. But did nonę of the heathen Philofophers take Notice of this Star, or of this Relation given of it by your St. Matthew?

(6). CHR. Yes. For Chalcidius, in his Comment upon Plato's Timæus, fpeaking of the Prefages of Stars mentioned by Plato, adds, as a further Proof, Eft quoque alia venerabilior & fan&tior Hiftoria-There is likewife another more venerable and holy Hiftory.-By which I doubt not he means this of St. Matthew; for what he tells feems to be taken out of it. That, by the Rifing of a certain unusual Star, not Plagues and Difeafes, but the Defcent of the venerable God, for the Salvation and Benefit of Mortals, was obferved by the Chaldeans, who worfhiped this God newly born by offering Gifts unto him.

DE. This makes thofe Magi or wife Men to have been Chaldeans, who, I know, were the most noted then in the World for the most curious Learning, particularly in Aftronomy: And they were likewife Eaft of Jerufalem; fo that it might be well faid they came from the Eaft and had feen his Star in the Eaft. But I cannot imagine how they should read the Birth of a God in the Face of a new Star; and how that Star fhould fend them particularly to Jerufalem, though I may fuppofe it pointed them Weftward,

(7.) CHR. This will be easier to you, when you know, that all over the Eaft there was a Tradition, or fix'd Opinion, that about that Time a King of the Jews would be born, who should rule the whole Earth. And the Appearance of this extraordinary Star in the Eaft, was taken by them as a Sign that he was then born. And whither fhould they go to look for the King of the Jews, but to Jerufalem? And when they came thither, they enquired, faying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have feen his Star in the Eaft, and are come to worship him. This made Herod gather the Priefts and Scribes together: And they, by fearching the Prophets, found that Bethlehem was the Place: Whereupon the wife Men went to Bethlehem. And, to convince them that they were right, the Star, which they had seen in the Eaft, appeared to them again, and went before them, till it came and flood over where the young Child was: This made them rejoice with fuch an exceeding great Joy.

DE. This would go down in fome measure with me, if you could make good your firft Poftulatum, of fuch a current Tradition or Opinion in the Eaft: But for this you have given no fort of Proof: And all the reft, which you have inferred from thence, must come to the Ground with it, if it be not supported. I confess it would feem as ftrange to me, as the Star to the wife Men, if God had (we know not how, it is unaccountable to us) fent fuch a Notion into the Minds of Men, and at that time only, of fuch a King to be born; and that he should be a few (the then most contemptible People in the World, fubdued and conquered by the Romans) and that he was to be King of the Jews, and thence to become King of all the Earth, and conquer his Conquerors. The Romans would have looked with Difdain upon fuch a Notion of Prophecy as this; it would have made fome Stir among them, if they had heard of it, or given any Credit to it.

(8.) CHR. You argue right. And I will fhew you what Stir it made among them; and I hope you will take their Word, as well for this Eaftern Tradition, a

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for the Effects it had among themfelves: Nay they wanted not the fame Tradition among themfelves, and exprefs Prophecies of it in their Sibyls, and otherwise. So that the fame Expectation of the Meffiah was then current over all the Earth, with the Gentiles as well as with the Jews.

Tacitus, in his Hiftory, 1. v. c. 13. fpeaking of the great Prodigies that preceded the Deftruction of Jeru falem, fays, that many understood thefe as the Forerunners of that extraordinary Perfon, whom the antient Books of the Priests did foretel fhould come, about that Time, from Judea, and obtain the univerfal Dominion; his Words are, Pluribus Perfuafio inerat, antiquis Sacerdotum Literis contineri, eo ipfo Tempore fore, ut valef ceret ORIENS, profectique JUDA Rerum potirentur, i. e. Many were perfuaded that it was contained in the old Writings of the Priefts, that at that very Time the EAST fhould prevail, and the Jews fhould have the Dominion. And Suetonius, in the Life of Vefpafian, c. 1. n. 4. fays, Percrebuerat ORIENTE toto vetus & conftans Opinio, effe in Fatis, ut eo Tempore, JUDEA profecti Rerum potirentur; i. e. That it was an antient and conftant Opinion (or Tradition) throughout the whole EAST, that at that Time thofe who came from JUDEA fhould obtain the Dominion; that is, That fome Jew should be universal King. Therefore Cicero, who was a CommonwealthsMan, in his fecond Book of Divination, speaking of the Books of the Sibyls, who likewife foretold this great King to come, fays, Cum Antiftibus agamus, & quidvis potius ex illis Libris, quam Regem proferant: quem Roma poft hæc nec Dii, nec Homines, effe patientur: i. e. Let us deal with thefe Priefts, and let them bring any thing out of thefe Books rather than a King; whom neither the Gods nor Men will fuffer, after this, at Rome.

But he was mistaken, and had his Head cut off for writing against Kingly Government. And others, more confiderable than he, laid greater Strefs upon these Prophecies, even the whole Senate of Rome, as I come to fhew you.

Whether thefe Sibyls gathered their Prophecies out of

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the Old Teftament, is needlefs here to examine. I am now only upon that general Expectation, which was then in the World, of this great and univerfal King to come about that Time.

(9.) The fame Year that Pompey took Jerufalem, one of thefe Oracles of the Sibyls made a great Noile, which was, That Nature was about to bring forth a King to the Romans. Which, as Suetonius relates, in the Life of Auguftus, c. 94. did fo terrify the Senate, that they made a Decree to expofe, that is, deftroy, all the Children born that Year; Senatum exterritum cenfuiffe, ne quis illo Anno genitus educaretur: That none born that Year fhould be brought up, but expofed; that is, left in fome Wood or defert Place to perish. But he tells how this dreadful Sentence was prevented; Eos qui gravi. das Uxores haberent, quod ad fe quifque Spem traheret, curaffe ne Senatus confultum ad Ærarium deferretur: That those Senators, whofe Wives were with Child, because each was in hopes of having this great King, took care that the Decree of the Senate fhould not be put into the Erarium, or Treafury; without which, by their Constitution, the Decree could not be put in Exe. cution. And Appian, Plutarch, Saluft, and Cicero, do all fay, That it was this Prophecy of the Sibyls which raised the Ambition of Corn. Lentulus at that time, hopeing he should be this King of the Romans. Virgil, a few Years before the Birth of Chrift, in his 4th Eclogue quotes a Prophecy of one of thefe Sibyls, fpeaking of an extraordinary Perfon, to be born about that Time, who should introduce a golden Age into the World, and reftore all Things, and fhould blot out our Sinsqua manent Sceleris Veftigia Noftri-And calls him, Chara Deum Soboles, Magnum Jovis incrementum. Dear Offspring of the Gods, and great Son of Jove. He defcribes a new State of Things, like the new Heavens and new Earth, Ifai. Ixv. 17. Magnus ab integro Seclorum Nafcitur Ordo. A great Order of Ages does begin, wholly New. And as Isaiah describes the happy State in the new Earth; that the Lion and the Lamb fhould feed together, the Serpent eat Duft, and that they fhould

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