eir eyes, and by an inward grace,
that spoke to their hearts, they cut off all worldly consultations,
human reasonings, and delays, and postponed every thing of this kind to
the will of God. Neither any affairs to be left unfinished, nor the care
of their provinces or families, nor the difficulties and dangers of a
long and tedious journey through deserts and mountains almost
unpassable, and this in the worst season of the year, and through a
country which in all ages had been notoriously {097} infested with
robbers: nothing of all this, or the many other false lights of worldly
prudence and policy, made use of, no doubt, by their counsellors and
dependents, and magnified by the enemy of souls, could prevail with them
to set aside or defer their journey; or be thought deserving the least
attention, when God called. They well know that so great a grace, if
slighted, might perhaps have been lost forever. With what confusion must
not this their active and undaunted zeal cover our sloth and cowardice!

The wise men being come, by the guidance of the star, into Jerusalem, or
near, it, it there disappears: whereupon they reasonably suppose they
are come to their journey's end, and upon the point of being blessed
with the sight of the new-born king: that, on their entering the royal
city, they shall in every street and corner hear the acclamations of a
happy people, and learn with ease the way to the royal palace, made
famous to all posterity by the birth of their king and Saviour. But to
their great surprise there appears not the least sign of any such
solemnity. The court and city go quietly on in seeking their pleasure
and profit! and in this unexpected juncture what shall these weary
travellers to? Were they governed by human prudence, this disappointment
is enough to make them abandon their design, and retreat as privately as
they can to screen their reputation, and avoid the raillery of the
populace, as well as to prevent the resentment of the most jealous of
tyrants, already infamous for blood. But true virtue makes trials the
matter and occasion of its most glorious triumphs. Seeming to be
forsaken by God, on their being deprived of extraordinary, they have
recourse to the ordinary means of information. Steady in the resolution
of following the divine call, and fearless of danger, they inquire in
the city with equal confidence and humility, and pursue their inquiry in
the very court of Herod himself: _Where is he that i