A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…

2. It was in those days manifest by his known Genealogy. For by the Providence of God his Parents were Publicly enrolled of that Tribe and of the Family of David in the Tax and Recognition of the people appointed by Augustus Caesar, Luke 2. 4. And this was made yet more Famous by the Cruelty of Herod, seeking his Destruction among the Children of Bethlehem, Mat. 2. And the Genealogies of all Families, whilst the Jewish Common-wealth continued in any condition, were carefully preserved, because many legal Rights and Constitutions did depend thereon. And this Preservation of Genealogies was both appointed of God, and fenced with Legal Rights for this very End, to Evidence the accomplishment of his Promise in the Messiah. And unto this End was his Genealogy written and recorded by two of the Evangelists, as that whereon the Truth of his being the Messiah did much depend.

2. It was in those days manifest by his known Genealogy. For by the Providence of God his Parents were Publickly enrolled of that Tribe and of the Family of David in the Tax and Recognition of the people appointed by Augustus Caesar, Luke 2. 4. And this was made yet more Famous by the Cruelty of Herod, seeking his Destruction among the Children of Bethlehem, Mat. 2. And the Genealogies of all Families, whilst the Jewish Common-wealth continued in any condition, were carefully preserved, because many legal Rights and Constitutions did depend thereon. And this Preservation of Genealogies was both appointed of God, and fenced with Legal Rights for this very End, to Evidence the accomplishment of his Promise in the Messiah. And unto this End was his Genealogy written and recorded by two of the Evangelists, as that whereon the Truth of his being the Messiah did much depend.

Sundry of the Ancients had an apprehension that the Lord Christ derived his Genealogy from both the Tribes of Judah and Levi, in the Regal and Sacerdotal Offices, as he who was to be both King and Priest. And there is a Story inserted in Suidas, how in the days of Justinian the Emperor, one Theodosius, a principal Patriarch of the Jews, acquainted his Friend, one Philip, a Christian, how he was enrolled by the Priests in their Order, as of the Linage of the Priests, by the Name of Jesus the Son of Mary and of God; and that the Records thereof were kept by the Jews at Tiberias to that very time. But the whole Story is filled with gross effects of Ignorance and incredible Fables, being only a Dream of some Superstitious Monastic. But the Ancients grounded their imagination on the Kindred that was between his Mother and Elizabeth the Wife of Zechariah the Priest, who was the Daughter of Aaron,