a Mic. v. 2. b Isai. ix. 6. c Isai. vii. 14. d Ps. xxii. 6. VOL. XII. R
his birth had no other mansion than a stable, no other cradle than a manger, that same Jesus, I say, was " God manifest in the flesh e," even " God over all blessed for everf. We more- over declare unto you, that he is " the Saviour of the world," and that " there is no other name given under heaven whereby we can be saved, but the name of Jesus Christ6."]
From the regard which the shepherds paid to this event, we proceed to shew you,
II. The inquiries to be made concerning it —
No message that comes from God ought to be treated with contempt ; much less should one that is of such mysterious import, such universal concern.
Inquire then into,
1. The truth of the fact —
[There is something so marvellous, and almost incredible, in the idea of God becoming man, in order to save a ruined world, that it should not be hastily embraced, no, not even though it were declared by an angel from heaven. It becomes us to examine what can be adduced in confirmation of it. We should, with the Bereans, " search the Scriptures daily, to see if these things be soh." We should inquire whether the prophets spake any thing respecting this great event'; whether they gave any reason to believe, that God would ever take upon him our nature, and accomplish our salvation in so strange a wayk. We should inquire what proof the Apostles had, that they were rightly informed ; and what evidence there is, that, in relating these things to us, they were divinely inspired1. In short, we should, if I may so speak, " go to Bethlehem," and see for ourselves ; yea, we should " make haste " to do so, lest we lose the opportunity afforded us, or become indifferent to the report itself.]
2. The grounds and reasons of it —
[It cannot be that such an event should ever have taken place without some urgent necessity. We should therefore inquire what occasion there was for it. If we do this, we shall find that among the various reasons that will occur to the mind, there are two peculiarly prominent, two that will sufficiently account for the whole mystery ; and these are, Mans happi- ness, and God's honour. Without the incarnation and death of the Son of God, man could never have attained to happiness. He was reduced to the state of the fallen angels in respect of
e 1 Tim. iii. 16. f Rom. ix. 5.. s Acts iv. 12.
h Acts xvii. 11. i 1 Pet. i. 10, 11.
k Mic. v. 2. Isai. ix. 6. and vii. 14. i 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Pet. i. 21 .