MANGER, wherein they laid the Infant Jesus just after his Birth. Saint Luke Luke ii. 7.relates, that the Holy Virgin and Joseph could not have any Accommodation in the publick Inn wherein they were, and therefore were obliged to take up with a Stable, where the Virgin Mary brought forth Jesus Christ, and having swaddled him up, she laid him in the Manger. The antient Fathers1, who speak of the Birth of our Saviour, all concur that he was born in a Cave dug within a Rock. Justin2 and Eusebius3 say, that this Place is not in the City of Bethlehem, but in the Countrey, and near to this City. They ought to be better acquainted with this Circumstance than others, because Justin was a Native of that Countrey, and Eusebius had dwelt there. Saint Jerom4 places this Cave in the Suburbs of the City of Bethlehem, towards the South.
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