captivity to real glory again in Christ. St. Matthew, intending to deduce Christ's legal descent from David and Abraham, reckons by the line of Joseph, the espoused husband of Mary; but St. Luke, composing his Gospel for the use of the Gentiles, and intending to prove that Christ was the Seed of the woman, reckons by the line of his mother Mary, the daughter of Heli. As it was not usual in the Jewish genealogies to mention the names of females, Mary is not mentioned, but only intimated or included in the name of her father Heli 3.

SECT. V.-The Year of our Lord.

IT is to be observed that according to the chronological division of time known as the year of our Lord, the birth of the Saviour is stated to have taken place in the fifth year before the era which is vulgarly assigned for that event, and from which the dates of our years are usually reckoned. The fact is, that the practice of dating from the birth of Christ did not begin in the early times of Christianity, and was not generally adopted among Christians till about the eighth century. It is now the universal opinion of learned men, that, at its first adoption, an error of about four years was made in fixing the era from which the dates are computed '.

Dr. Lightfoot.

• Mant and D'Oyly.

SECT. VI.-The Parents of Jesus Christ.-Luke i. 26-56. WHEN the Angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary she is said to have been "espoused to a man whose name was Joseph." It appears that this expression, although always repeated to describe the previous relation of Joseph and Mary, is to be considered as what is more commonly called (amongst us) a betrothal, or keeping company, and that in the East this often takes place a good while before the wedding. Amongst the Jews a year generally intervened between the betrothal and the actual marriage; but, during that time, the woman was, legally, as much the man's wife as if she had been taken home and actually married. The infidelity of a betrothed wife was regarded and treated as adultery, which was punishable amongst the Jews with death by stoning. But the law of divorce modified the severity, by allowing an alternative; the adulterous woman might be put away by a bill of divorce; this divorce, however, if it were a public transaction, would of course consign the woman to ignominy and shame. This seems to have been the public example from which Joseph desired to spare the suspected Mary: but it was not necessary that it should be a public transaction, or that any cause should be assigned for the divorce, but only that the "bill of divorce" should be executed before two witnesses; and this method is supposed to explain

D

the expression that Joseph "was minded to put her away privily "."

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The honour conferred upon the pious Virgin by blessing her womb to bear the sun of righteousness was doubtless great; but yet she was called by the miraculous conception to a peculiar measure of patience and resignation. Protestants do not perhaps sufficiently weigh the extraordinary qualities, and the astounding trial of faith in the blessed Virgin; she has been exalted by the Romanists to so unreasonable a height, that her character is undervalued by those Christians who do not permit themselves to reflect on her story, so full of wonder and of such remarkable faith. What could she have expected when her pregnancy appeared, but the scorn and contempt of all her friends and relations, and more especially of the man she loved? nay, in the very degree that he was "a just man," would be the severity of the loss of his affection and esteem. What could she expect but reproaches, perhaps death, as a base adulteress ? Yet Mary already realized by anticipation the encomium of her Divine Son, when she felt that the womb that bore Him and the paps that He had sucked was an inferior blessing “to that of hearing the word of God and keeping it." She cheerfully submitted the event to God,

' Pictorial Bible.

and trusted Him with the care of her character and life. Ah! how few possess such a disposition! How few are willing to acquiesce in those dispensations of God, or engage in those divine services which may bring them into difficulties! Her situation Her situation upon its discovery would doubtless have exposed her to many ignominious censures, had not Joseph, “whilst he thought on these things," been warned of God in a dream that the story, however hard to be believed by sensual worldly men, which doubtless Mary had given of her condition, was to be credited," Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife." Joseph therefore believed the angel of the Lord, and did not hesitate to take home Mary as his wife, thus screening her from all suspicion in the world's eye, and affording her the countenance of his protection; in the fullest confidence of the words of the Angel, that "that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost "." It is very clear therefore that when Joseph is spoken of as a just man, the word translated "just" means more than the being merely attentive to the rules of equity in ordinary dealing; that it also means

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righteous" in the most extensive sense, including every essential part of a good character'; and that, although born to the humble • Dr. Campbell.

Dr. Robinson.

condition of daily labour as a handicraftsman, Joseph was one of those, who, like Simeon, "waited for the consolation of Israel," that he looked forward to behold Him whom the Jews and all the world did look for, the promised Messiah, the glory of the Lord's people Israel'.

But, although Joseph and Mary were thus distinguished above other mortals by being the reputed parents, in the flesh, of the incarnate God; and although they appear to have walked in all the commandments of God blameless, and to have been devout and good Jews in every respect, yet they were not exalted like John the Baptist, as greater than the prophets, nor were they endowed with any gifts of the Spirit that we read of. Of Joseph, indeed, the Scriptures record so little, that it is generally supposed he must have died soon after the journey to Jerusalem, when Christ disputed with the Doctors, since at that time Mary mentions him, saying, "Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing;" whilst at Christ's first miracle "the mother of Jesus was there," but nothing is said of the father: and as at the Cross our blessed Lord consigned her to the care of his beloved disciple St. John, it bespeaks her to have been at that time, at all events, a widow. Of her, the Holy Scriptures record that she was a person eminent for holy contemplation, by observBishop Horne.

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