26 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED airs of fuperiority amongft his brethren and friends;, but meekly condefcended to attend to the meaner} employment, affilling the neceffities ofhis parents withhis labour, and was not defirous of popular ap- plaufe. For as it is to be fuppofed, that he weekly attended on the reading the law and the prop1ìets in the fynagogue, was it not furprifing that he could hear the erroneous expofitions which, no doubt, were frequently made, and remain filent at Nazareth, after he had difputed with the learned doFors in the temple, and filenced the wife men of Jerufalem ? Herein appears the moll profound hu- mility, and the molt confummate wifdom of our Lord, in concealing his fuperior knowledge and underflanding, when he might have gained the admiration and ap- plaufe of his townfinen, and have been juftly revered and efteemed by all. It is fuppofed that Jofeph did not live till CHRIST began his public minifiry, be- caufe he is not mentioned in the Gofpels, after John began to baptize. Some of the ancient writers have pretended to inform us what was the particular fort of car- pentry which Jofeph carried on: they fay, it was making plows, yokes, and infiru- ments of hulbandry for his neighbours. And it is not unlikely, that our Lord lived with his mother, and aflifted her in carrying on the trade, after her hufband's death: and hence, it is fuppofed, he is called by St. Mark, The Carpenter, the Son of Mary. C H A P T E R VII. Of the Death of Elizabeth, and the Murder of Zacharias. The Preaching ofJohn the Bait ; his Office, and Manner of Living : He baptized' in Jordan, and rebuketh the Pharifees. CHRIST is baptized, and received' a Witnefs from Heaven. John the Bapti/t imprifoned and beheaded by Herod, at the In,Jligation ofHerodias. ANTEmull nowpafs over, in the hiflory V of the life of CHRIST, a period of eighteen years; all the account the cvan- gelifls give of our Lord during this time, is, that he dwelt at Nazareth, and was fubjer to his parents. But, having paffed over this time in filence, all the evange- lifts agree in giving the hiflory of his entrance on his public minifiry, and the preparatory preaching of his great fore- runner John the Baptift. When our Lord was about fourteen years of age, the emperor Auguftus died, after a reign of about forty years. Great was the grief of the whole empire at his death, for he was a prince of fuch a difpofition, and reigned with fuch wifdom, juftice, and goodnefs, as gained him the love of his fubjeft.s. He was fucceeded by Tiberius, the fon of his wife Livia, by a former hufband. Tiberius was admitted to a (hare in the government two or three years before the death of Auguflus, and now fucceeded without oppofitión. He was a prince of a difpofition vaftly differ- ent to that ofhis predeceffor, and governed the empire in fuch a manner, as rendered him juftly hated by his fubje&s. Arche- laus, the fon of Herod the Great, had been depofed from the government of Judea about three years before the death of Auguflus, and that country was then reduced into the form of a Roman pro- vince. Rufus, who was governor of Ju- dea, when the emperor died, was recalled in the fecond year of Tiberius, and Va- lerius Gratus was fent to fucceed him. He, having continued in Judea about eleven years, was recalled, and fucceeded by Pontius Pilate, a man of a fierce, irrecon- cilable fpirit, and ofa cruel, covetous difpo. fition, too much like his mailer Tiberius. Herod Antipas, the fon of Herod the Great, was tetrarch of Galilee ; which dig- aity
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=