SECTION VI.
LUKE Chap. II. from Ver. 1. to Ver. 40.
[World. 3928] [Rome. 754] [Augustus. 31] [Herod. 35] CHRIST Born.
LUKE maketh the coherence clear, when he interposeth nothing betwixt the Birth of the Baptist and the Birth of Christ: and indeed there is nothing to be found in any of the Evangelists that can interpose.
The four Monarchies which Daniel had told should be, and should expire, before the coming of Christ, have now run their course, and a fifth is risen far more potent and fully as cruel as all the four put together, and therefore it is pictured with the badges of all the four, Rev. 13. 2. compared with Dan. 7. 4, 5, &c.
A Decree of Augustus given out at Rome, becomes an occasion of accomplishing a De∣cree of the Lords, namely of the Birth of the Messias at Bethlehem. He is born under a Roman taxation, and now that Prophesie of Chittim or Italy afflicting Heber, Numb. 24. 24. beginneth livelily to take place.
The time of his Birth was in the Month Tisri [which answereth to part of our September] and about the Feast of Tabernacles, as may be concluded upon by obser∣ving that he lived just two and thirty years old and an half, and died at Easter. That Month was remarkable for very many things. In it the World was created, the Ta∣bernacle begun, and the Temple consecrated: and as the Jerusalem Gemarists well observe, In it were the Fathers [before the Flood] born: In Rosh hashanah fol. 56. cap. col. 4.
His Birth was in the night, and attended with the Song of a whole Quire of Angels, [as Heb. 1. 6. and compare Job 38. 7.] and with a glorious Light about Bethlehem Shepherds, to whom this great Shepherd is first revealed.
At eight days old he is Circumcised, and made a Member of the Church of Israel: At forty days old, he is presented in the Temple in the East Gate of the Court of Israel, called the Gate of Nicanor; and Maries poverty is shewed by her Offering, (com∣pare ver. 24. with Lev. 12. 6, 8.) yet her Child is owned as the consolation and expecta∣tion of Israel.
The first year of his Age and Infancy Christ spent at Bethlehem: for whereas the Lord by the Prophet had appointed his Birth there, Mich. 5. 2. his Parents had no warrant for his Education in any place but there, till the Lord should give them an express for it, which he did by an Angel, Mat. 2. 22. Therefore how the words of Luke in chap. 2. ver. 39. are to be understood, we shall observe upon the next Section.