be contrary to sound reason. And we may justly conclude, that in the final issue of things, the wisdom as well as righteousness of this part of the divine administration will most illustriously appear." END. Footnotes [1]: Compare Ps. cxxxii. 11. Isa. xi. 1. Jer. xxiii 5, and xxxiii. 15. Gen. xii. 3, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, and xxviii. 14. [2]: Lowth's Isaiah, ch. xi. translation and notes, VOL. II. [3]: DODDRIDGE. [4]: There are, according to the Jews, four angels that surround the throne of God--Michael, Uriel, Raphael, and Gabriel. The latter they place, conformably with his expression to Zacharias, [Hebrew], _before him_, or _in his presence._ [5]: The Ethiopic version, instead of "in those days," renders the expression in the thirty-ninth verse of 1st chap. of Luke, "in that day." [6]: Selden. Uxor. Heb. lib. ii. cap. 1. [7]: This remarkable time cannot be stated with any certainty. The earliest antiquity determines nothing upon the subject. Towards the end of the second, or beginning of the third century only, was this attempted; when those who were most curious in their researches fixed it about the twentieth of May. Clemens Alexandrinus thinks that it was the twenty-eighth year after the battle of Actium; that is, the 41st year of Augustus; but Joseph Scaliger places it in his forty-second year; and, after a most laborious investigation, shows that Christ was born about the autumnal equinox, the latter end of September, or beginning of October. SCALIG. Animad. ad Chron. Euseb. p. 174, et seq.--It was not till the fourth century that this great event was believed to have occurred on the twenty-fifth of December. They have not failed to assign what they deemed important reasons for this decision. As the sun, they say, is then beginning to rise on our hemisphere, and again to approach our pole, it is the proper period to which the rising of the Sun of Righteousness should be referred. The Romans have another reason, deduced from the preceding. At the return of the sun the feast of the Saturnalia was celebrated at Rome. It was thought proper to substitute in the place of this feast, which was distinguished by its profane rejoicings, that of our Saviour's birth, for the purpose of inducing the people to separate joy from riot. It is, however, the _event_, and not the _day_, we celebrate. Comp. SAURIN, Discours Historiques, Critiques, &c. continuez par Beausobre, tom. ix. p. 146-148, 8vo. [8]: Compare Lev. xii. 2, 4, 6, 8. Numb. viii. 16, 17. xviii. 15, 16. Five shekels amounted to about twelve shillings and sixpence of our money.