some heir of the blood of the kings of Judah should expel him from the heritage of his fathers, and remount a throne promised to his posterity. With what eye must he then regard men who come to publish, in the midst of Jerusalem, that the King of the Jews is born, and to proclaim him to a people so attached to, and so zealous for the blood of David, and so impatient under every foreign rule! Nevertheless, the magi conceal nothing of what they had seen in the east: they do not soften that grand event by measured expressions less proper to arouse the jealousy of Herod. They might have called the Messiah whom they seek, the messenger of Heaven, or the longed-for of nations; they might have designed him by titles less hateful to the ambition of Herod; but, full of the truth which hath appeared to them, they know none of these timid and servile time-servings; persuaded that those who are determined to receive the truth only through the means of their errors, are unworthy of knowing it. They are unacquainted with the art of covering it with disguises and considerations for individuals, which dishonour it: they boldly come to the point, and demand, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? " and, not satisfied with considering him as the sovereign of Judea, they declare that heaven itself is his birthright; that the stars are his, and make their appearance in the firmament only in obedience to his orders.
The priests and scribes, on the contrary, forced, by the evidence of the Scriptures, to render glory to the truth, soften it by guarded expressions. They endeavour to unite that respect which they owe to the truth, with that complaisance which they wish still to preserve for Herod; they suppress the title of king, which the magi had given to him, and which had so often been bestowed by the prophets upon the Messiah; they design him by a title which, might equally mark an authority of doctrine or of superior power; they announce him rather as a legislator established to regulate the manners, than as a sovereign raised up for the deliverance of his people from bondage. And, notwithstanding that they themselves expect a Messiah, King, and Conqueror, they soften the truth which they wish to announce, and complete the blindness of Herod, with whom they temporise.
Deplorable destiny of the great! The lips of the priests quiver in speaking to them: from the moment that their passions are known, they are temporised with; truth never offers itself to them but with a double face, of which one side is always favourable to them; the servants of God wish not avowedly to betray their ministry and the interests of truth; but they wish to conciliate them with their own interest; they endeavour to save, as it were, both the rule and their passions, as if the passions could subsist with that rule which condemns them. It seldom happens that the great are instructed, because it seldom happens that the intention is not to please in instructing them. Nevertheless, the greater part would love the truth were it once known to them: the passions and the extravagancies of the age, nourished by all the plea-
