Let the conduct of the wife men, on this occafion, be a leffon to us, to obey the commands of God rather than those of

men.

We are too apt to excufe ourselves from the performance of our duty, where it does not exactly fuit our wifhes, or our interefts, under the plea that it would give displeasure to fome great perfon, or difoblige fome friend; and that therefore, if we omit it, the fault does not rest on us, whofe inclination' would have led us to do right, had not the fear of giving offence prevented us. This may fatisfy ourfelves, but is too fhallow an evafion to impofe even upon the world: how much less on that Being who knows the fecrets of all hearts! It can only prove, that we prefer the interefts of this world to thofe of the next, and are more afraid of offending man than God. To the world, therefore, we must look for our reward.

13. And when they were departed, "behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth

"to

"to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise and "take the young child and his mother, "and flee into Egypt, and be thou there " until I bring thee word: for Herod will young child to destroy him."

66

feek the young

The poor and humble fituation of Jofeph and Mary, might have made it inconvenient for them to have taken so long and unexpected a journey without fome affiftance. The Almighty removed the difficulty by natural means, in the gifts presented to them by the wife men.

The custom of presenting gifts when we approach superiors, continues in the East to this day, and is confidered as a mark of refpect and reverence.

What an exaltation to the Gentiles, that these wife men fhould thus publicly own and adore the faviour of the world, and be made the happy inftruments of fupporting him in his exile!

66

14.

When he arose, he took the 66 young

H

young child and his mother by night, " and departed into Egypt;

66 15. And was there until the death of "Herod that it might be fulfilled which "was fpoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, out of Egypt have I called 60 my fon.

"16. Then Herod, when he faw that "he was mocked of the wife men, was

exceeding wroth, and fent forth and "flew all the children that were in Beth

66

lehem, and in all the coafts thereof, from

two years old and under, according to “the time which he had diligently enquired of the wife men."

It is not poffible to read the above account of the defperate pitch of wickednefs to which Herod had now attained, without feeling the utmost horror. This ought to be a warning to us all, to avoid the first step in the path of vice. No man ever became extremely vicious, any more than virtuous, at once. Bad habits, as

well

well as good ones, are formed by practice, and gain additional ftrength by every repetition. Herod must have long indulged himself in the paffions of anger and cruelty, dreadful in all perfons, but more fo in princes, whofe power extending in many countries even to life and death, enables them to commit the greatest mischiefs. Our paffions fhould be carefully governed, from the earliest infancy; nor can parents do a greater injury to their children than, from an abfurd fondnefs, to indulge them in their ill-humors and ftruggles for fuperiority; but more than all in acts of cruelty, which children practise at first from want of thought, but which as they grow up change into evil habits and harden the mind against all the beft feelings of humanity. I would particularly warn parents against suffering their children to engage in thofe sports which confift in tormenting fome animals, and depriving others of their young; which, however common, and therefore unattended to, have, I am perfuaded, often H2 been

been the cause, in more advanced life, of cruelties to their own species.

We are affured that the greatest monfter who ever governed the Roman empire begun his cruelties in infancy, in the torture and deftruction of harmless flies. Paffionate people muft neceffarily often commit acts of injuftice; for when we lose the guidance of reason, on what can we depend?

any

The abfurdity discoverable in the conduct of Herod is no less striking than the wickedness of it, and may ferve to fhew us. what a weak, fenfelefs being man is, when left to the guidance of his passions. We can scarce conceive rational mind fo totally buried in darkness and error. The Meffiah was promised as foon as man had finned, and the promise had been confirmed, in a very particular manner, to the Jews, on the firft establishment of their religion: all men in that part of the world, as I have before obferved, were in daily expectation of him, to which was owing the number of pretenders to that