Micah v. 2. Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be Ruler in Israel ; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
IN estimating the degree of credit due to pro- phecy, we naturally ask, Of what kind the prophecies were ? Were they numerous ? Were the persons who delivered them unconnected with each other ? Were the things which were foretold unlikely of themselves to be accomplished? or were they such as might easily, by the united efforts of interested persons, be
brought to pass ? If they were such only as might be the subjects of reasonable conjecture, or such as might by a confederacy of persons be easily devised and easily fulfilled, they would have but little weight ; but if they were inconceivably varied, and absolutely incapable of being either feigned by impostors or ful- filled by friends, they will then carry proportionable evidence along with them. Such then were the pro- phecies relating to our blessed Lord : they were such as no deceivers could invent, and such as no confede- racy whatever could cause to be fulfilled. Many of the most important of them were fulfilled by persons who sought to disprove the pretensions of Jesus to the Messiahship, and who unwittingly established what they laboured to overthrow. Others were accomplished through the instrumentality of persons who could have no conception whatever of the ulti- mate consequences which their actions would produce. Of this kind was the prediction before us ; it declared that the Messiah should be born at Bethlehem ; not at the Bethlehem in the land of Zabulon, but at that which was in the land of Judah. This, as will be seen presently, was so generally known, that the parents of our Lord might have known it, if they had been at all anxious to make the inquiry. But so little did they advert to it, that they never thought of going up to Bethlehem, till they were compelled to it by a decree of Augustus Caesar. They were living at Nazareth, and would, if no such unforeseen edict had been issued, have continued there till the birth of Jesus. But the Scripture could not be broken ; and God was at no loss to provide means for its accom- plishment. He wrought therefore on the ambition of the Roman emperor, and prompted him to exercise his authority over the Jewish people, and to order that all of them should go and be enrolled in the different cities to which they belonged. This con- strained Joseph (who was of the house and lineage of David) to go up to his own city, Bethlehem, to be enrolled there : and during his stay there (some un- foreseen occurrences probably having necessitated