and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c. g:, in the Eafl, and her nativity on the eighth of September. An anniverfary feffival of her prefentation in the temple is kept like- wife on the twenty-firft of November; and it is commonly believed, that fhe was con- fecrated to God at three years of age : but not to build upon uncertainties, thus . much we are allured by the teflimony of an angel, that fhe was happy above all other women in the divine favour; that (he was full ofgrace ; and that the Lord was in a peculiar manner with her. Whether the holy virgin immediately after the annunciation, went up to the paffover at Jerufalem (as fome have ima- gined, this being the feafon of the year for it) or not, we have no account from the evangelift St. Luke: but this he affures us, that a little while after fhe fet out for Hebron, a city in the mountains ofJudah, in order to vifit her coufin Elizabeth, to congratulate her upon her pregnancy, which the had learned from the angel, at an agewhen fuch ableffing was not ufually to be expeaed. No fooner had Mary entered the houfe, and began to fpeak, than, upon Elizabeth's hearing the voice of hercoufin's falutation, her child, young John the Baptift, tranf- ported with fupernatural emotions of joy, leaped in her womb ; whereupon (he was filled with the Holy Ghoft, and being by divine infpiration acquainted with the myffery of the incarnation, the re-faluted Mary, and cried out, Bleed art thou among/i women, and bleed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my ;LordAuld come to me ? For lo, as foon as the voice of thy faluta- lion founded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my wombfor joy. And bleffed isfhe that believed: for there -fhall be a performance of thofe things which were told her from the Lord. Then Mary, filled with ac- knowledgments and fupernatural light, praifed God, faying, My foul Both magni- fy the Lord, and my fpirit hath rejoiced in Godmy Saviour, &c. Mary having continued here about three No. 34. months, till Elizabeth was delivered, as St. Ambrofe thinks; that fhe might fee him on whofe account fhe principally made that vifit, returned afterwards to her own houfe at Nazareth, waiting for the time of her delivery: but when fhe was ready to be delivered, anedia was publifhed by Cmfar Auguftus, in the year of the world 4000, the firft of CHRIST, and the third before the vulgar æra ; which decreed, that all the fubjeéts of the Roman empire fhould go to their refpe&ive cities and places; thereto have their names regiftered accord- ing to their families. Thus Jofeph and Mary, who were both of the lineage of David, repaired to their city ofBethlehem, the original and native place of their fa- mily : but while they were in this city, the time being fulfilled in which Mary was to be delivered, fhe brought forth her firft- born fon, wrappedhim in fwaddling- clothes, and laid him in the manger of the fiable, whither they had retired ; for they could find no place in the public inn, becaufe of the great concourfe of people that were then at Bethlehem on the fame occafron ; or they were forced to withdraw into the fiable ofthe inn, not being able to get a more convenient place for her to be deli- vered in more commodioufly. The angels made the birth of CHRIST known to the fhepherds,, who were at this time in the fields near Bethlehem, andwho came in the night to fee Mary and Jofeph, and the child lying in the manger, inorder to pay him their tribute ofadoration. Mary took notice ofall thefe things, and laid them up in her heart. Some time after came ehe Magi, or wife men from the Eaft, and brought to JESUS the myfierious pre - fents of gold, frankincenfe, and myrrh, having beendireEted thither by a !tar which led the way before them to the very houfe wherethe babe lay. After this, being warned by an angel that appeared to them in a dream, they returned into their own coun- try by a way different from that by which they carne, without givingHerod the intel- ligence he wanted ; which he pretended 5 D was,
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