398 The NEW and COMPLETE LIFE of our BLESSED LORD was, in order to come and worship the babe, though his real defign was to eut him off, from a jealoufy- ofhis rivalling that artful monarch in his fovereignty over the Jews. The time of Mary's purification being now come, that is, forty days after the birth ofJESUS, she went, to Jerufalem, to prefent her fon in the temple, and there to offer the facrifice appointed by the law, for the purification of women after child- birth. At that time there wasat Jerufalem an old man named Simeon, who was full of the Holy Gho[t ; and had received a fecret affurance, that he fhould not die till he hadPeen CttE t sr the Lord : accordingly, he 'came into the temple by the impulfe of the Spirit of God, and taking the child JEsus in his arms, he bleffed the Lord ; and then addrelling himfelf to Mary, faid, This child is feat for the riling and falling of many in Ifrael; andfor afegn which (hall be fjioken againjt : even fo far as that thy own foul [hall be pierced , as with a fword, that the fecret thoughts in the hearts of many may be difcavered and laid open. When Jofeph and Mary were preparing, afterwards to return to their own country of Nazareth, the angel of the Lord ap- peared to Jofeph in a dream, bidding him to retire into Egypt with Mary and the child, becaufe Herod had a defign to de. 'troy JEsus. Jofeph obeyed the admoni- tion, and continued in Egypt till after the death ofHerod; when both he and Mary returned to. Nazareth, not daring to go to Bethlehem, becaufe it was in the jurifdic- tion of Archelaus, the fon and fucceffor of Herod the Great, who was a cruel prince. Now it being the confiant practice of Jofeph and Mary to go every year to Je- rufalem, to the feaft of the paf over: and when JEsus was twelve years of age, they brought him with them to the capital. When the days of the feftival were ended, they fet out on their return home; but the child JEsus continued at Jeriafalem, with- out their perceiving it, and, thinking that 2 he might be with force of the company, they went on a day's journey ; when not finding him amongft their acquaintance, they returned to Jerufalem, Peeking for him: three days after, they found him in the temple, fitting amongft the donors, hear- ing them, and aaking them queflions. When they faw him, they were filled with afto- nifhment ; and Mary Paid to him, My fon, why haft thou ferved us thus.? Behold thy father and myfelf, who have fought thee in great affliaion. JEsus anfwered them, Whydid you reek me ? Did not you know that I muff be employed about my Father's bufinefs ?''Afterwards he returned with them to Nazareth, and lived- in filial fubmif jon to them : but his mother laid up all there things in her heart. The gofpel lays' no- thing more of the virgin Mary, till the marriage at Cana of Galilee, where fhe was prefent with JEsus her fon. The bleffed Jesus, in the thirtieth year of the vulgar atra, refolved to manifefi himfelf tothe world, and, therefore, went to be baptized by St. John, from thence into. the wildernefs, and thence to the above-mentioned wedding, to which he, withhis mother and difciples, had been in- vited. At this entertainment, the provi- fion of wine being fomewhat fcanty (pro- bably becaufe the friends of the married couple were but mean) CHRIST'S mother told her fon, they had no wine, not doubt- ing ofhis power to fupply them : to which JEsus anfwered in terms which had Tome appearance of a rebuke, Woman, what have 1 to do with thee? mine hour is notyet come. Six great [tone pitchers being in the room, JEsus ordered them to be filled brim-full of water; and afterwards com- manded the fervants to fill out and carry it to the matter of the feaft, who, on tailing it, found it was excellent wine. This is the firft miracle JEsus wrought at the beginning of his public miniftry ; and from hence our Lord went to Capernaum with his mother and brethren. It is true, we learn from the third chap- ter of St. Mark, that on a certain day in the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=