(Continued.)

TOWXsoN.

CRANFIELD.

ARRANGER.

18.
18.

Section XII.

Section XII.

Section XXXIV.

Luke xxiv. 50-53.
Matt. xxviii. Mark xvi. Luke xxiv.
Matt. xxviii. Mark xvi. Lu. xxiv. 50

Mark xvi. 15-20.
44-48.

15.

Acts i. 6, 7. Acts i. 6-12. 19. 15.

2.

Mat. xxviii. 18-20.
20.
16.

19.

15.
49.

20.
16-18.

50, 51. 9-11.

Section XXXV. 17.

19.

John xxi. 25.
18.

52.

xx. 30, 31, 20. 49,

20.

52, 53. 19.

12.
50.

Jo. XX.
19.
51.

30, 31.
52, 53.

xxi, 25. 20:

Joho xx.

30, 31. John xxi. 25.)

John xix.38. Pilate gave him leave.

Jerusalem. Mtxxvii.58. then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered Mark xv.45. he gave the body to Joseph'.

It does not appear necessary to enter into any detailed cxamination of the harmony proposed by Hales, Newcome, Macknight, or Doddridge. The first of these agrees generally with Townson-Newcome's plan is among the number studied by Cranfield, as are also those of Macknight and Doddridge. Since Mr. West's publication indeed, the differences bave been very few, and are so entirely questions of opinion, that their decision does not in the least affect the veracity of the Evangelists (h). Thus it cannot be made evident at what exact time our Lord shewed himself to St. Peter on the day of his resurrection, but all are agreed as to the fact. We may, in short, consider the question respecting the consistency of the four Evangelists, to be completely set at rest by the labours of these learned authors. They have left little more to be done by their successors than to incorporate the results of their labours; and thus make their researches and their discoveries familiar to the common reader. They will always be enumerated among the most eminent illustrators of the sacred volume. They have consecrated their jewels to the service of God, and their offerings will ever shine among the most brilliant ornaments of his holy temple.

(a) mpn from an Arabic root, protuberavit flos, vel pressius, rosa quæ crepantem jam calycem eflindit, indeque eminere, et protuberare incipit. * Hinc transfertur ad oculos, nominatim catuli, quum eos prima vice aperit qua velut calyce effiso patent, nam tunc vibrantissima catulorum acies, deinde hominum, quorum oculi protuberante acie perspicaces facti sunt. Nova V. T. clavis, Joan. Henric Meisner, vol. i. ap. Gen. ii. 5. (6) I have not thought it necessary to allude bere to the curious questions which have been agitated, respecting the nature of the body of Adam before he fell ; and whether we shall rise froin the dead in the same form ; or whether the resurrection body will be sur. rounded with a glory, such as clothed the form of the man who is represented by Ezekiel as appearing between the Cherubim.-Sbe on these points, Lord Barrington's Essay on the Dispensations, 1732, p. 11, note. (c) Horsley's four Sermons on the Resurrection, p. 219. (d) See Schleusner, Cranfield, and Towoson’s notes. (e) Cooke's View of the Evidence of the Resurrection. () Introduction to the Critical Study, &c. vol. i. p. 595, &c. &c. (9) Mr. West observes, that this text, “ I am not yet ascended,” &c. comprehends in a few words a variety of most important hints, which have not commonly been taken notice of in them; particularly that our Lord intended by them to recall to the minds of his disciples the discourse be had with them three nights before, in which he explained what he meant by going to the Father (Joho xvi. 28.); and by twice using the word ascend, designed to intimate, that be was to go up to heaven, not merely in spirit, as the pious dead' do, bat by corporeal motion and translation, and that it would be some time before he took his final leave of earth by this intended ascension : all which weighty expressions and predictions concur with a thonsand other cir cumstances to shew how impossible it was that such an apprebended appearance should have been merely the result of a disordered imagination; a consideration which Mr. West illustrates at large, as he also does the mistaken apprehension of the disciples, who, when some of their companions, whose veracity they could not suspect, testified they had seen the Lord, thought his body was not risen, but that it was only his spirit bad appeared to them. () When this part of the work was going to press, I procured a work entitled “ The New Trial of the Witnesses." It revives many of the exploded and long answered objections-urges no new remarks and does not appear worthy of more especial notice. Assertion supplies the place of argument, as is usual in the great majority of books of this nature.

2 Mark xv. 42. ófías yevouévns, the early evening being now

Mark xv.46.
And he bought fine linen, and

Jerusalem.
John xix.38. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
Mtxxvii.59. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it

in a clean linen cloth, Jobn xix.39. there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to

Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and

aloes, about an hundred pound weight. 40.

Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in
clean linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the

Jews is to bury.
41. Now in the place where he was crucified there was a

garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre,
Mtxxvii.60. And (Joseph) laid it in his own new tomb, which he

had hewn out in the rock 3:

come, or being immediately past, for the word yevouévns has
both these meanings. The early evening began at three in the
afternoon, and continued till sunset; or till about six, and a
littte after. The late, or second evening, began at six, and
lasted till nine. Both evenings are called byia: but St. Luke
describes the earlier evening by a periphrasis, and that which
began at sunset by the proper name among the Greeks, dotépa,
Luke xxiv. 29.

3 In Isaiah liii. 9. we read, He made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death. On referring to the
original, it will be observed that the word O'yin may be the
dual number, and that twy is the singular. The construction,
therefore, may be, “ His death shall be with two criminals, and
with one rich man (a).” This rendering adds great force to
the prophecy

The peculiar providence of God ordained, that our Lord should
suffer on a day succeeded immediately by the Jewish sabbath, and
in a place where an honourable disciple of his bad a sepulchre,
so lately hewn in the rock, that no one had ever been laid in it.
These things decided at once where the body should be depo-
sited, when leave to dispose of it had been obtained by Joseph.
His own new sepulchre was nigh at hand. Had it been at a
distance, the case would have been altered. The followers of
our Lord would have been inclined to carry bis body first to the
house of some friend, where they would naturally suppose they
could perform the ceremonies previous to interment with more
honourable tokens of respect. But, while they had bec stu-
dying to complete them with order and decorum, the sabbath
would have come on: and then, wherever the body was, it
must have remained till that day of rest was over, and the third
was begun, on which he was to rise from the dead. A provi-
dential concorrence of circumstances compelled them to take
'it directly from the cross to a place that best saited the great
event of the third day: and where, in the mean while, the
Jewish rulers had access to it, and before the beginning of that
day set a guard upon it, as a testimony against themselves. If
Joseph of Arimathea had not begged the body, it would have
been buried in the common grave with the malefactors. In
making this request, it is not probable that he could have been
actuated by the idea that he was thereby fulfilling a prophecy,
We must consider the circumstances as one of those minute, and
apparently accidental events, wbich demonstrate to us that the
providence of God overrules all the actions of man, to the ac.
complishment of bis own purposes.

Jerusales.

John xix.41. wherein was never man yet laid.

42.

There laid they Jesus therefore, because of the Jews

preparation-day, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand. Lu, xxii.54. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath

drew on.

Mtxxvii.60. and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre,
and departed.

MATT. xxvii. part of ver. 57, 58.
57 When the even was come-who also himself was Jesus
disciple :
58 He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus-

MARK XV. part of ver. 43. 46.
43 Joseph of Arimathea--which also waited for the kingdom
of God

46 -took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid
him in a sepulchre which was bewn out of a rock, and rolled a
stone unto the door of the sepulchre.

LUKE Xxiii ver. 50. part of ver. 51, 52. and ver. 53.
50 And, behold, there was a man named Joseph, a counsel-
lor; and he was a good man, and a just :

51 –he was of Arimathea, -
52 -went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.

53 And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it
in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man be-
fore was laid.

JOIN xix. part of ver. 38. 38 - Joseph of Arimathea.

SECTION II.
Mary Magdalene, and the other Mary, and the Women

from Galilee, observe where the Body of Christ was
laid“.

MARK XV. 47.-LUKE xxiii. 55.
Mark xv.47. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses

beheld where he was laid.

(a) See Doddridge in loc. and Schoetgen, on the manner in which the ancient Jews interpreted the passage Horæ Hebraicæ, vol. ii. p. 552, 553.—Lightfoot's Harmony, 8vo. edit. vol. iii. p. 168.

* As these are the first passages in which the different women
are severally referred to, we may take the opportunity of in-
quiring whether that opinion may be considered as correct,
which has within the last century been so strenuously defended,
that there were two parties of women who attended at the
sepulchre. We must first examine the accounts of the number
which were present at the crucifixion, and at the interment of
the body.

The women named in this part of the Gospels, besides the
Virgin Mother of our Lord, are these:

Mary Magdalene, whose name occurs in all the Gospels, and
except John xix. 25. is constantly mentioned first.

Mary the mother of James the Less, and Joses, supposed to be Mary the wife of Cleophas, the sister of our Lord's mother, John xii. 35; and, if so, the Evangelists all speak of her.

Salome, the mother of Zebedee's children ; compare Matt.

Lu. xxiü.55. And the women also, which came with him from Gali- Sernsalem.

xxvii. 56. with Mark xv. 40. St. Mark only bas given us her

name.

Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, mentioned by
St. Luke only viii. 3. and xxiv. 10.

The blessed Virgin, mother of Christ, baving been recom-
mended by Chrsit while she stood by his cross, to the protectiou
of St. John; the mother of this his beloved disciple, seems
pointed out by that recommendation, as the proper person to
attend and support her in the extremity of her grief, and to be
with her at his abode, when he had conducted her thither; and
it is further probable that Salome bore this part in the melan-
choly offices of that evening, because St. Matthew mentions
only the two Maries, with whom she is usually joined, as sitting
over against the tomb after the interment: St. Mark also men.
tions only these two on that occasion; whence we presume that
she was not with them when they followed the body to the se-
pulchre.

The Galilean women who had attended the body of our Lord to the sepulchre, and seen how he was laid, then went back to the city, to prepare spices and ointments before the commencement of the sabbath, that they might be ready for use on the morning after it. To prepare these spices was probably little more than to purchase them according to a remark of Dr. Lardner, for in so populous a city as Jerusalem, where there was a constant, and often, a sudden demand for them, they would be sold ready compounded. Short therefore as the time was before the sabbath began, it would be sufficient for this purpose. And that the women did so employ it, is manisest from St. Luke, whose words literally translated run thus : " And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid ; and being returned, prepared spices and ointments. And they rested in. deed the seventh day, according to the commandment; but on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they went into the sepulchre, carrying the spices which they had prepared.” (Luke xxiii. 55, 56. xxiv. 1.) On which words Grotius observes, that nothing can be clearer than that the spices were purcbased by these women on the evening before the sabbath, and not after it. But this, which is so clear of the Galilean women in general, is to be understood with an exception of three of them; Salome, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James.

It is probable, as hath been shewn, that Salome was not in the procession to the sepulchre; and it is no less probable, that the two Maries did not quit it with the other Galilean women. Matt. xxvii. 59–61. The words of St. Matthew seem to imply, that even after the closing of the sepulchre they still lingered near it, till it was too late to purchase their spices that evening. The fact is certain that they purchased none till the sabbath was past.

Let us now consider the objections which have been, or may be made to this arrangement.

It may be said, if we divide the women into two parties, it is not easy to apprehend how they could have been at the sepulchre without any sight of each other ; since all the Evangelists assign nearly the same time for their coming thither. It is to be remembered, that the verb čexomas, used by the Evangelists, bears the sense of going as well as coming; and it here means, the time when the women went from their several houses : in which case there is no difficulty in conceiving the means that