Ver. 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem] The house of bread, that bread of life that came down from heaven, John 6:50, and dwelt among us in this city of David, otherwise called Ephrata, that is, fruit bearing; and situated (they say) in the very navel and centre of the earth, because in him all nations should be blessed: here was Jesus born, by mere accident in regard of his parents (who were brought hither by a tyrannical edict of the emperor, forcing all, even great bellied women, to repair to their own city to be taxed, though it were in the deep of winter), but by a sweet Providence of God, to fulfil the Scripture and to settle our faith. In the days of Herod the king] When the sceptre was departed from Judah, and the times were grown deplored and desperately wicked. Joseph found his brethren in Dothan, i.e. in defection; so did Christ, when he came: scarcely were there four, or fewer, found, that waited for the consolation of Israel. Then, also, when among the poor Gentiles a plentiful harvest, a very great number of elect, were ready ripe, Matthew 9:37 Lu 10:2 Joh 4:35. Then, when cuncta atque continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit, aut pactio (Flor.), then came the Prince of Peace into the world, when all was at peace throughout the world. Behold, there came wise men] Neither kings no r cunning men, but sages of the East, Θεωρητικοι, contemplative persons, philosophers, interpreters of the laws of God and men (μαγοι, םינהמ). The tale of the three kings of Cullen is long since exploded. To Jerusalem] So misreckoning of a point they missed the haven, and had like to have run upon the rocks. Had they met with the shepherds of Bethlehem, they had received better intelligence than they could from the learned scribes of Jerusalem. God hath chosen the weak of the world to confound the wise, 1 Corinthians 1:27,28. Surgunt indocti et rapiunt coelum, et nos, cum doetrinis nostris, detrudimur in Gehennam (August. Confess. viii. 8). None are so far from Christ, many times, as knowing men. Some of the scribes and Pharisees were very atheists, for they knew “neither the Father nor the Son.” Ulpian the chief lawyer, Galen the chief physician, Porphyry the chief Aristotelian, Plotinus the chief Platonist, Libanus and Lucian the chief orators of that age, were all professed enemies to Christ. No Church was founded at Athens, Acts 17:16, which yet Demosthenes calls the soul, sun, and eye of Greece, Euripides the Greece of Greece, Thucydides and Diodorus the common school of all men, the mart of good learning, &c.; ψυχην, και ηλιον, και οφθαλμον ελλαδος. ελλαδυς ελλαδα. κοινον παιδευτηριον παντων ανθρωπων. The greatest clerks are not always the wisest men in the affairs of God. Howbeit, learned Nathaniel, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus, masters in Israel, were disciples to our Saviour; lest, if he had called simple men only, it might have been thought, quod fuissent ex simplicitate decepti, that they were deceived out of their simplicity, saith one.
Ver. 2. Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?] As presupposing a common notice. But the “kingdom of God cometh not by observation,” Luke 17:21, neither is it of this world. Christ is somewhat an obscure King here, as Melchisedec was; and his kingdom consists in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which the stranger worldling meddles not with, Proverbs 14:10 Ro 14:17. The cock on the dunghill esteems not this jewel. For we have seen his star in the East] Some rumour of the star of Jacob they had heard and received, likely, either from Balaam’s prophecy, Numbers 24:17, who was an East countryman; or from the Chaldean sibyl, or from the Jews in the Babylonish captivity; and now they make their use of it. (Hugo. Postill.) But the Scripture giveth more grace, James 4:6. Only take heed that “ye receive not the grace of God in vain,” 2 Corinthians 6:1. And are come to worship him] With a religious worship; to kiss at his mouth, as the word signifieth; and as Pharaoh said to Joseph, they shall all kiss at thy mouth. Woe worth to us, if we kiss not the Son with a kiss of faith an d love (προσκυνειν), since he is now so clearly revealed unto us, not by the sight of one star only, as to these, but by a whole heaven bespangled with stars, though not in every part, yet in every zone and quarter of it, as one saith of our Church. We have a word of prophecy (how much more is this true of the holy Gospel?) more sure than the voice that came from heaven in the holy Mount (saith St Peter), whereunto we shall do well to take heed, as unto a light shining in a dark place, 2 Peter 1:19. Besides the works of God, those regii professores, as one calleth them, those catholic preachers, Psalms 19:2,3, those real postills of the divinity, Christ is purposely compared to sensible objects, as to the sun, stars, rose, rock, &c., that through the creatures, as so many optic glasses, we might see him that is invisible, having the eyes of our mind turned towards Christ, as the faces of the cherubim were toward the mercy seat.