MR. TAYLOR' S THIRD REPLY. 223 



A " learned Harmonisfs" error. " The third" appearance of Jesus. 



* The first appearances of our Lord to his Apostles appear to 

 have tåken place uniformJij on the first day of the week/'' 

 (p. 185.) Indeed ! — " Wot ye not what the Scripture saith?'' 

 ^* After these things Jesus shewed himself again to the dis- 

 ciples at the sea of Tiberias. . . And he said unto them, Cast 

 the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. . . This 

 is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disci- 

 pleSj after that he was risen from the dead.^' {John xxi. 1, 6, 

 14.) Here, remarkably enough, we have an actucd preccpt; 

 and since my friend has labored so long and fruitlessly to find 

 a warrant of example, I hope he will seize upon it with eager 

 gratitude. I hope that forthwith collecting a chosen few upon 

 some plcasant Sunday, he will say, with Simon Peter of old, 

 "I go a fishing ! — not as a ^fisher of men/ but with literal 

 net, and in literal boat." — " "We also go with thee.'' We shall 

 have the gratifying encouragement, that ^Hhe first appearances'' 

 of Jesus '' took place uniformly on the first day of the week /"* 

 On that agreeable occasion, J. N. B. will have merited at least 

 the praise of consistency, and will have vindicated the sincerity 

 of his regard for apostolic precedent. The writer he has so 

 approvingly quoted will hardly acknowledge himself guilty of 

 such " verbal trifling^^ as to apply the strong term " uniform- 

 ly^^ to two appearances ! Alas, that a ^' learned Harmonid^ 

 (like the supercilious Sadducee) should so egregiously ^* err^ 

 not knowing the Scriptures !" 



But, granting that the first appearance of Jesus to Thomas 

 did occur just one week after the preceding appearance to the 

 eleven, what will it prove ? That appearance, as we have seen, 

 was certainly upon the Jewish " second day'' of the week : 

 whence my friend' s hypothesis inevitably establishes this one 



■5^ "Even supposing, howeyer, that it hacl been so, still the assigning 

 this as a reason for the institution of a new Sabbath is matter solely of 

 human inference ; since no commandment on this subject, nor any 

 reason for such institution is found in all Scripture." Milton. [Chris- 

 tian JDoctrine, Book ii. chap. 7.) 



