the world, for he came to establish a communion between God and men, and to make peace between men and angels. To this must be referred what S. Paul fays, It pleafed the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself. (2) (2) Reconcile all things. Col. i. 20. Reconciliaret omnia, i. e. recolligeret, fub unum caput reduceret, et in anum corpus conjungeret. Tum qua in terra, tum quæ in cœlis. In confeffo apud interpretes eft, homines hic dici, et angelos; nec obftat quod arra hic fit neutrius generis, quia neutrum fæpe pro mafculino ponitur, ut Gal. iii. 22. Conjunctio Te difjunctiva, non hic feperandi, fed diftinguendi tantum, imo et conjungendi vim habet. Grot. είτε The Father proposed to reconcile all things in heaven, and all in earth, unto bimfelf by Jefus Chrift. Calvin rightly calls this magnificum Chrifti elogium, Some fuppofe, S. Paul includes all intelligent creatures, even the devils themselves, in this reconciliation but this fenfe deftroys the doctrine of future punishments. Moft expofitors understand the apoftie to include boly angels: but how they, who never finned, can be faid to be reconciled, is difficult to answer. The mediation of Jefus Chrift, indeed, has opened a communion between angels, and men; the former VOL.I After ferve the latter in this life, and the latter dwell with the former in the next: but this, fays our reformer, does not agree with S. Paul's words; he fays, God reconciled heavenly beings to bimfelf by Jefus Chrift. He underftands it therefore of redeeming grace to men, and confirming grace to elect angels. Calvin in loc. A young minifter, who preaches from fuch texts as this, would do well, methinks, to waive entering on the difficulties, and to take the general idea, as the ground of a fermon. The general idea of this paffage is this, Chriftianity is a conciliating plan. He might, not improperly, compofe a fermon from this paffage on the agreement of chriftianity and civil polity. I fay, not improperly, for perhaps S. Paul's terms earth, heaven, body, may be put figuratively for the church, the populace, and civil governors. The 16th verfe feems to favour this notion. The manner of difcuffing this fubject properly will appear by the following example. Christianity harmonizes with civil polity-not chriftianity debafed by the corrup Na tions After this you may make a proper reflection on the time mentioned by S. Luke, who fays, The Shepherds were abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. You may briefly make the ordinary observation, which is, that, according to all appearances, Jefus Chrift was not born on the 25th of December, as is the common opinion of the Latin church; for that is an improper time to keep flocks in the fields, and to watch them by night: but this need not be infifted on; for it is of no great importance, nor would it be to our edification, to tions of men, on the contrary, they are human inventions, added to christianity, which have produced all the mischiefs in chriftian statesbut christianity as Jefus Chrift and his apostles taught it. Here explication is neceffary. Did Jefus Chrift ordain fanguinary canons? Did he teach inexplicable myfteries, and appoint penalties for not believing them? Did he arm priests with fecular power? Did he excite princes to hate, perfecute, banish, and destroy their fubjects for matters of conscience? Christianity in fcripture is a conciliating plan. Here alfo found civil polity may be explained. To demonftrate that chriftianity agrees with found polity-obferve 1. The fame God is author of both. 2. Jefus Chrift and his apostles never attempted to fubvert civil government. 3. The wellbeing of the whole is the fupreme law in civil polity, fo know it is in christianity. 4. A ftate flourishes, when the people yield a ready obedience to their governors, and venerate the dignity of office; chriftianity teaches its profeffors to do fo. 5. Temperance, industry, content, and other moral virtues, render a state tranquil, and happy; chriftianity forcibly inculcates these. 6. A ftate is happy when difcords do not prevail, and when kind offices to each other abound among citizens; christianity curbs all the paffions, that produce difcords, and enforces the practice of kind offices, &c. &c. I have taken the liberty to put these articles fermon-wife, and to prefix a text to them, to explain my meaning. I took the most of them from an academical exercise excellent in its kind, and not foreign from theology. Puffendorfii Dissertat. Acad. Select. de concordia ver. pal. cum rel. Chrift. know precisely when the Saviour of the world was born: the time is very indifferent to christians. (3) It is more to the purpose to remark, (3)" The time of the birth of Chrift is very indifferent to chriftians. The times of the birth and paffion of Chrift, with fuch like niceties, being not material to religion, were little regarded by chriftians of the firft age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal periods of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary on the 25th of March, which, when Julius Cæfar corrected the calendar, was the vernal equinox: the feast of John the Baptift on the 24th of June, which was the fummer folftice: the feaft of St. Michael on Sept. 29th, which was the autumnal equinox: and the birth of Chrift on the winter folftice Dec. 25th with the feafts of S. Stephen, S. John, and the Innocents, as near it as they could place them. And be cause the folftice in time removed from the 25th of December to the 24th, the 23d, the 22d, and fo on backwards, hence fome in the following centuries placed the birth of Chrift on December 23d, and at length on Dec. 20th: and for the fame reafon they seem to have fet the feaft of S. Thomas on Dec. 21ft, and that of S. Matthew on Sept. 21ft. So alfo at the 1. That entrance of the fun into all the figns in the Julian calendar they placed the days of other faints; as the converfion of Paul on Jan. 25th, when the fun entered Aquarius; S. Matthias on Feb. 25th, when he entered Pifces; S. Mark on April 25th, when he entered Taurus; Corpus Chrifti on May 26th,when he entered Gemini; S. James on July 25th,when he entered Cancer; S. Bartholomew on Aug. 24th, when he entered Virgo; Simon and Jude on Oct. 28th, when he entered Scorpio; and if there were any other remarkable days in the Julian calendar, they placed the faints upon them, as S. Barnabas on June 11th, where Ovid feems to place the feast of Vefta and Fortuna, and the goddess Matuta; and S. Philip and James on the first of May, a day dedicated both to the Bona Dea, or Magna Mater, and to the goddefs Flora, and fill celebrated with her rites. which fhews that these days were fixed in the first chriftian calendars by mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition; and that the chriftians afterwards took up with what they found in the calendars, All Neither 1. That while these shepherds were bufy in their calling, God fent his angel to them; and that, Neither was there any certain tradition about the years of Chrift. For the chriftians who firft began to enquire into these things, as Clement of Alexandria,, Origen, Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Lactantius, Jerom, S. Auftin, Sulpicius Severus, Profper, and as many as place the death of Chrift in the 15th or 16th year of Tiberius, make Chrift to have preached but one year, or at most but two. At length Eufebius discovered four fucceffive paffovers in the gospel of John, and thereupon fet on foot an opinion that he preached three years and an half, and fo died in the 19th year of Tiberius. Others placed his death in the 17th and 20th years. Neither is there any greater certainty in the opinions about the time of his birth. The first chriftians placed his baptifm near the beginning of the 15th year of Tiberius: and thence reckoning thirty years backwards placed his birth in the 43d Julian year, the 42d of Auguftus, and 28th of the Actiac victory. This opinion obtained till (the year 527 when) Dionyfius Exiguus mifinterpreting Luke iii. 23. invented the vulgar account. There is therefore relating to thefe things no tradition worth confidering." Sir Isaac Newton on Dan. Chap. 11th, however The famous Jefuit-chronologist, who fixes the birth of Chrift in the year of the world 3984, acknowledges, he has only conjecture to fupport his calculation,-majori ex parte conjectura nititur. Petavius, lib. ii. ep. 2. ad Arnold. Cathium. The learned Fabricius gives a catalogue of one hundred and thirty-fix different opinions concerning the year of the birth of Chrift. He fupposes, that Jefus was born in the year of the world 4000: but adds, " it is impoffible to know certainly the number of days or years from the beginning of the world to the birth of Chrift without a particular revelation from heaven-citra peculiarem revelationem divinam." Fabricii Bibliograph. Antiq. cap. vii. . 9, 10. De Script. Chronol. It seems, at first fight, very easy to fix, at leaft, the year of the birth of our Saviour; for S. Matthew fays, chap. ii. 1. he was born in the reign of Herod. And S. Luke adds, chap. iii. 23. 1. he began to be about thirty years of age in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius. There is, however, a difference of feveral years in the calculations of learned men. No queftion in chronology has been more difputed. Difficulties arife however fimple and mean the employments of men may be, it is always very pleafing to God when they discharge them with a good confcience. (4) arife from contemporary writers---from medals---from the meaning of the words of St. Luke iii. 23-from what writers of thofe times do fay concerning decifive articles, the taxing of Auguftus, the government of Cyrenius, the taking of Jerufalem by Herod, the death of this prince, the year of the crucifixion, the deftruction of Jerufalem, &c.---And from what they do not fay, the time from which the reign of Tiberius is to be reckoned, the time of the beginning of Herod's reign, &c. &c. A divine may make himself and his flock quite eafy on this article. A point in chronology is not an object of faving faith, nor is the obfervation of a feftival of human apointment, and of doubtful time, any part ofthat holinefs, without which we cannot fee the Lord. Jefus Chrift was not born in December, for it is an improper time to keep flocks in the night. Voffius has fhewn, that it cannot be inferred, from the fhepherds watching their flocks by night in the open field, that Chrift was not born in December. De Nat. Chrifti. The birth of Chrift has been placed in every month in the year. The Egyptians 2. God placed it in January---Wagenfeil in February---Bochart in March---fome, mentioned by Clement of Alexandria, in April---others in May--Epiphanius fpeaks of fome, who placed it in June---and of others, who fuppofed it to have been in July---Wagenfeil, who was not fure of February, fixed it probably in Auguft--Lightfoot on the 15th of September---Scaliger, Cafaubon, and Calvifius in October---others in November--But the Latin church, being infallible in judgment, and fupreme in power, has fettled the matter by declaring, that Jefus Chrift had two nativities, one before the world began of his deity of the father, the other of his humanity of the virgin on the twenty-fifth of December. See Labbai Concil. Fabricii, Bibliot. Antiq. cap. x. (4) God is pleafed when men discharge the duties of theircalling. A proper attention to this plain but ufeful truth would have prevented that fcandal of christianity, a monaftic life. The reformation of this abuse will be an eternal praise to the reformers, and the protection of it a perpetual reproach to the church of Rome. Monks |