authors of the report. Did they attempt to refute it? Did they seek to arrest and to punish us for this impu tation, though chargeable with high treason for having broken the seal of Cæsar? If we stole the body, then the soldiers who informed them of the wonders at the tomb, were guilty of a high crime in deceiving them merely to cover their own neglect. Did they apply to Pilate to have the guard tried and executed for this heinous offence? But mark their characteristic malice: they connived at the baseness of the soldiers who were their agents in circulating this absurd falsehood, while they caused the soldier who pierced our Saviour, but who was now with the disciples, to be arrested and put

to the torture.

Q. But if the report was such as no one could credit, why should you be at the trouble to record and contradict it?-A. The wisdom of God overruling the malice of our enemies, made it instrumental in establishing the truth. That the body of Jesus had left the grave was a fact, essential to the validity of the testimony given by us to his resurrection: and the priests and Pharisees verified this fact beyond contradiction, by propagating the report that we had stolen it. I recorded it therefore as the evidence of enemies who were on the spot, that the Lord Jesus was no longer a tenant of the tomb.

Q. Well, Matthew, there still remains one serious difficulty on which we hope you will throw some light. The four Evangelists relate a miraculous, and therefore a highly incredible event: yet while you agree in your testimony to the main fact, you all so vary in the detail, that the variation has often been urged as a proof that the event it selfis not true.-A This I grant is a serious objection, and I will remove it with all possible brevity. The resurrection of Jesus, if minutely related in all its circumstances, would have demanded a narrative of considerable extent. Our object as witnesses to that important fact, was to establish it beyond reasonable

doubt; and in doing this, each of us selected from one large mass of materials in his possession only such leading incidents as he was best qualified to attest, or were best adapted to the views of the people among whom we published our respective Gospels. We did not act in concert, we did not consult each other in the composition; we were concerned only to state what we knew to be true; and having done this, we were utterly indifferent about discordances in our several Gospels. These discordances are apparent only, and proceed from omis➡ › sions, which when supplied reduce the four accounts into perfect harmony.

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Q. We shall be able to judge of this, if you give a short but connected statement of the event, and supply the circumstances which, as you say, have been omitted. -A. Mary Magdalene and the other women who fol lowed Jesus from Galilee, having made preparations to: embalm the body, agreed to go to the grave early on the morrow, in separate parties, that they might not attract observation. The first of these amiable women regarded her divine Master with an affection and reverence bor dering on idolatry: and the intenseness of her feelings filled her with fear, lest their common enemies should prevent the last honour intended for their departed Lord, either by refusing them liberty to enter the sepulchre, or removing his body to another place. Under this apprehension, she with one companion went a full hour earlier than the time agreed upon, to watch at the grave, till the rest should arrive. Just before she reached the tomb, which was about the dawn, an angel had descended from heaven, causing the ground to rock, and the stone to roll away. The angel, intending to drive the guard away, assumed a terrific appearance. This had taken place when Mary, yet at some distance from the grave, saw the stone rolled away; and her predominant fear of the body being removed, recurred to her mind. She instantly runs, not to the disciples, but to

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John, who had a house in Jerusalem, and with whom Peter lodged, to acquaint them with the cruel act. By the time she arrived at John's house, the other women met at the grave, just at the rising of the sun, according to appointment. The angel, which terrified the guard, now assumed a benign aspect, and was sitting as a young man upon the stone. He tells them, "Be not astonished; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: see the place where they laid him." With this he leads them within the sepulchre, where another angel was waiting for them: and these two, like two men, in shining garments, said to them, "Why seek ye him that is living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen." The women, terrified at the thought that these were real angels, but at the same time alarmed, lest this might be a snare laid by their enemies to entrap the followers of Jesus, ran some of them to inform the disciples of their danger. The rest, however, remained behind to see whether they could discover the body. Mary had previously gone with similar news to Peter and John, whose house was in a direction somewhat different: but the women now running, went to the nine disciples who were accompanied by other two. All these, on the information that the body was removed, were filled with consternation: they recollected the prediction of their Master, that he was to be crucified, and that they must take up their cross and follow him. They calculated therefore now, with certainty, that the eleven at least would instantly undergo the same fate. They determined, however, not to disperse : but they thought that the two with them who were not in the number of the twelve, should not stay a moment, but save themselves for the sake of their wives and families. Accordingly these two departed instantly for Emmaus, a village eight or ten miles from Jerusalem. In the mean time, after the women that had staid behind were gone some distance from the tomb, Peter and John, with Mary after

them, reached it. They entered and found the body gone; and they returned: but Mary now staid behind in hopes of finding the body, and while "weeping, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white, stationed one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, 'Woman, why weepest thou?' She saith unto them, 'Because they have taken away my Lord.' And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, 'Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?' She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, 'Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him.' Jesus saith unto her, 'Mary.' She turned herself, and saith unto him, 'Master." John xx. 1-17. At this time the other women were, like Mary, in search of the body, but not in sight of the tomb and Jesus discovered himself to them also, telling them to go and inform the disciples, and especially Peter, that he was risen, and that agreeably to his prediction he would go before them into Galilee. John with Peter had then returned, and joined the disciples in order to consult with them what to do. The women, in order to fulfill the message of Jesus, repaired thither also. Peter, finding a message brought expressly to himself, again returned with all haste to the sepulchre, which he did not a second time enter; but "stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed." Luke xxiv. 12. Jesus however appeared to him on his return.

The two disciples who thought it prudent to escape, were now on their way to Emmaus: and Jesus, in disguise, presenting himself as they went, joined in their conversation: but he did not make himself known to them till he had shown from Moses and the Prophets that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and rise again from the dead. On recognising him, they returned

to Jerusalem to inform the disciples. But Jesus had already appeared to them when assembled. Thomas, however, was not present; who was not a little mortified that his divine Master had made himself known to every one of his friends, except himself. He then said, more in the spirit of pique than of scepticism, he should not believe, unless he too should have the same evidence. Our Lord virtually complied with this request : for eight days afterwards he again appeared in the midst of his disciples, and, gently rebuking Thomas for his stubbornness, said, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." Our doubts being at length removed, he went before us into Galilee, and made himself known to a great multitude, who followed him and were dear to him, in that country. For forty days he continued to instruct the Apostles how most effectually to fulfill the arduous commission intrusted to them; and having completed all that he had to do, our blessed Lord led us to the mount of Olives, where, in the presence of his apostles, he ascended to heaven.

Here we cannot but admire the wisdom and goodness displayed in the conduct of Divine Providence on this awful occasion. The resurrection of Christ was an event not more extraordinary in itself, than important to the human race. In order to place its evidence on grounds the most solid and satisfactory, and to preclude all suspicion of imposture or delusion on the part of Jesus and his disciples, it was necessary that he should show himself to the witnesses, not at once, or in one and the same place, but separately. The design of appearing to them at different intervals, and in succession, was brought about by means the most natural and simple. The fear of Mary, lest their enemies should remove the body, brought her to the grave a full hour before her companions. This circumstance divided the women into two