John Trapp on Matthew 2:1

CHAP. II.

Verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem.] THe house of bread, that bread of life that came down fromJoh. 1. 14. Heaven, and dwelt amongst us in this City of David, otherwise called Ephrata, that is, fruit-bearing; and situate (they say) in the very navell and center of the earth, because in him all Nations should be blessed: Here was Jesus born, by meer accident, in regard of his parents, (who were brought hither by a tyrannicall edict of the Emperour, 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 fulfill the Scripture, and to settle our faith. In the daies of Herod the King] When the Scepter was departed from Judah, and the times were grown deplored and desperately wicked. Josoph found his brethren in Dothan. 1. in defection: so did Christ, when he came: Scarce were there four, or fewer found, that waited for the consolation of Israel. Then also, when among the poor Gentiles, a plentifull harvest, a very great number of elect were ready ripe. Mat. 9. 37. Luk. 10. 2. Joh. 4. 35. Then, when cuncta [illegible: 1 word] continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit, [illegible: 1 word] Plot. [illegible: 1 word] lib. [illegible: 1 word]. pactio, then came the Prince of peace into the world, when all was at peace thorowout the world. Behold there came wise-men] Neither Kings nor cunning men, but sages of the East, [non-Latin text not transcribed], contemplative persons, Philosophers, [non-Latin text not transcribed] interpreters of the Laws of God and men. The tale of the [non-Latin text not transcribed] three Kings of [illegible: 1 word] is long since exploded. To Jerusalem] So misreckoning of a point, they mist the haven, and had like to have run upon the rocks. Had they met with the Shepherds of Bethlehem, they had received better intelligence,1 Cor 1. 27, [illegible: 1 word]. then they could from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem. God hathAugust. confess lib. 8. cap. 8. [illegible: 1 word] the weak of the world to confound the wise. Surgunt indocti & rapiunt coelum, & nos, cum doctrin is noctris, [illegible: 1 word] in Gehennam. 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. Uspian the chief Lawyer, Galen the chief Physician, Porphyry the chief Aristotelean, Plotinus the chief Platonist, Libanius and Lucian the chief Oratours of that age, were all profest enemies to Christ. No Church [non-Latin text not transcribed] was founded at Athens, Acts 17. 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. The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest men in the affairs of God. Howbeit, learned Nathanael, Ioseph 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, quòd fuissent ex simplicitate decepti, that theyJoannes de [illegible: 2 words]. were deceived out of [illegible: 1 word] simplicity, saith one.