And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.
Ver. 11. And when they were come into the house] Not a palace prepared for the purpose, as the Porphyrogeniti in Constantinople had, but in an inn was Christ born, as ready to receive all that come unto him (πανδοχειον); and in a hole of the earth, an underground den, as Justin Martyr, Epiphanius, Eusebius, and Origen witness. In hoc terrae foramine (saith St Jerome, ad Marcell. tom. 1) coelorum conditor natus est, hic involutus pannis, hic visus a pastoribus, hic adoratus a Magis, hic circumcisus, &c.: In this cell or hole was the world's Creator born, swathed, visited, adored, circumcised.
They saw the young child] For this Ancient of days, by joining his majesty to our vileness, his power to our weakness, suspended and laid aside his own glory, wherewith he was glorified with the Father before the world began, and voluntarily abased himself to the shape and state of a poor, feeble, helpless infant, that we might come to the fulness of the age in Christ. Ephesians 4:13 .
With Mary his mother] Without any other assistance or attendance. Joseph haply was at work, or otherwise absent, lest the wise men should mistake him for the true father of the child.
And when they had opened their treasure, they presented unto him gifts] No great matters to make him rich; for then, what needed the holy Virgin, at her purification, to have offered two young pigeons, as a token of her penury, that could not reach to a lamb? Yet something it was, gold, frankincense, and myrrh (sent them in by a special providence of God), to help to bear their charges into Egypt, whither they were now to flee.
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh] The best commodities of their country, doubtless; thereby (as by a peppercorn or trifle, in way of homage or chief rent) they acknowledged Christ to be the true Proprietary and Lord of all. Of the elephant it is reported, that coming to feed, the first sprig he breaks he turns it toward heaven. Of the stork Pliny tells us, that she offers the firstfruits of her young ones to God, by casting one of them out of the nest. a God is content we have the benefit of his creatures, so he may have the glory of them: this is all the loan he looketh for, and for this, as he indents with us,Psalms 50:15, so the saints promise in return, Genesis 28:22. But he cannot abide that we pay this rent to a wrong landlord, whether to ourselves, asDeuteronomy 8:17, or to our fellow creatures, as they to their sweethearts, Hosea 2:5 .
Gold, frankincense, and myrrh] Aurum, Thus, Myrrham, Regique, Hominique, Deoque. A little of each, as Genesis 43:11. Lycurgus made a law that no man should be too costly or bountiful in his offering of sacrifice, lest at length he should grow weary of the charge, and give God up. b Ought we not (saith one) often in soul to go with the wise men to Bethlehem, being directed by the star of grace, and there fall down and worship the little King; there offer the gold of charity, the frankincense of devotion, the myrrh of penitence; and then return, not by cruel Herod or troubled Jerusalem, but another way, a better way, unto our long and happy home? (Sutton's Disce Virere.)
a Hinc pietatis cultrix a Latinis dicitur, Hafida ab Hebraeis. Amasii Trem.
b ινα μηποτε τιμωντες το θειοιν καταλειπωσιν. Plut.