RESURRECTIOX. 



itipulate for forbearance lor the nights as well as- d 

 and, tliereforc, in reckoning, two days, and two days and 

 two nights, are the fame thing. That the exprc-lfion, 

 " after three days," means inclufive days, is proved by 

 Grotius in Matth. xxvii. 63, and others. The prediction, 

 therefore, was that he would rife on the third day. Now , 

 he was crucified, as we have already tlated, on Friday, and 

 buried ; he lay in the grave the « hole of Saturday, and rofe 

 early on Sunday morning. But as the objedtors lay, he- 

 ought not to have rifen till Monday : let us try what the 

 of common language requires to be underitood, in a like 

 cafe. Suppofe you were told that your friend fickened on 

 Friday, was let blood on Saturday, and the third day he 

 died : what day would you think he died on ? If you have 

 nay doubt about it, put the queilion to the firft plain man 

 you meet, and he will refolve it. The .lews could have no 

 doubt in this cafe ; for lo they practifed in one of the 

 higheft points of their law. Every male child was to be 

 circumcifed on the eighth day. How did they reckon the 

 days ? The day of the birth was one, and the day of the 

 circumcifion another ; and though a child was born towards 

 the very end of the fir.'l day, he was capable of circumcifion 

 on any time of the eighth day. And, therefore, it is not 

 new nor ftrange, that the third day, in our cafe, fhould be 

 reckoned into the number, though Chriit rofe at the very 

 beginning of it. It is more ftrange to reckon whole years 

 in this manner ; and yet this is the cor.ilant method ob- 

 ferved in Ptolemy's canon, the molt valuable piece of an- 

 cient chronology, next to the Bible, now extant. If a 

 king lived over the firlt day of a year, and died the week 

 after, the whole year is reckoned to his reign. 



The order of the incidents our author conceives to have 

 been as follows. Very early on the frfl day of the week (the 

 day immediately following the fabbath, and the third from the 

 de: tli of Chrill), Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, in 

 purfuance of the delign of embalming the Lord's body, 

 which they had concerted with the other women who at- 

 tended him from Galilee to Jerufalem, fet out, in order to 

 take a view of the fepulchre, juft as the day began to break ; 

 and about the time of their Letting out " there was a great 

 earthquake," e<c. (Matth. xxviii. 2-4.) During the 

 amazement and terror that occurred, Chriit came out of the 

 fepulchre ; and the keepers recovered from their trance and 

 fled, when an angel, who till this time fat upon the (lone, 

 quitted his ilation on the outfide, and entered into the fepul- 

 chre ; and probably dilpofed the linen clothes and napkin in 

 that order in which they were afterwards found, and ob- 

 ferved by John and Peter. Mary Magdalene, in the mean 

 while, and the other Mary, were Hill on their way to the 

 fepulchre, where, together with Salome (whom they had 

 either called upon, or met as they were going), they arrived 

 at the riling of the fun. And as they drew near, " they faid 

 among themfelves, Who mall roll us away the ftone from 

 the door of the fepulchre ? tor it was very great :" and 

 they themfelves (the two Maries at lealt) had ken it plao '1 

 there two days before, and feen with What difficulty it was 



done. But wlfilft they were deliberating (for it does not 

 appear that they knew any thing of the guard ), " lilting up 

 their eyes," being yet at fome dlftance, they perceived it 

 already rolled away. Alarmed at fo extraordinary and Co 

 unexpected a circumftance, Mary Magdalene, conclud 

 that, as the Itone could not have been moved without a great 

 number of hands, it mull have been rolled away with E 

 delign ; and that this delign could have been no other but to 

 remove the Lord's body ; and being convinced by appear- 

 ances that this was the cafe, ran immediately to inform Peter 

 and John of what (lie had (ecu, and what (lie fufpectcd ; 



leaving Mary and Salome there, fo that, if Joanna and tie 

 other women fhould come in the mean time, they might ac- 

 quaint them with their furprife at finding the llone removed, 

 and the body gone, and of Marv Magdalene's running to in- 

 form the two above-mentioned apollles of it. While (he 

 was going on this errand, Mary and Salome went on and 

 entered into the fepulchre ; and there law an angel " fit- 

 ting on the right fide," &c. (Mark, xvi. 5 — S.) After 

 the departure of Mary and Salome came John and Peter, 

 who, laving been informed by Mary Magdalene, that 

 the body of the Lord was taken away out of the fe- 

 pulchre, and that (he knew not where they had laid him, 

 " ran both together to the fepulchre," &c. (John, xx. 

 4 — 17.) After the appearance of Chrill to Mary Ma 

 lene, to whom, as St. Mark fays exprefsly, he appeared lnil, 

 the other Mary, and Salome, who had (led from the fepul- 

 chre with fuch terror and amazement, that " they faid not 

 any thing to any man," (Mark, xvi. S. ), that is, as the 

 expreilion may be uuderttood, had not told the medage ot 

 the angel to fome (probably John and Peter, who were 

 running with Mary Magdalene to the fepulchre, about the 

 time that thefe women were dying from it, and whom in their 

 fright they- might not immediately recollect), whom they r 

 met, and to whom they were directed to deliver it, were 

 met on their way by Jefus Chriit himfelf, who faid to them, 

 " All hail!" &c. (Matth. xxviii. 9, 10.) Thefe feveral 

 women, and the two apoltles, being now gone from the 

 fepulchre, " Joanna, with the other Galilean women, and 

 others with them," &c. (Luke, xxiv. 1 — 9, 11.), Peter, 

 who, upon the report of Marv Magdalene, had been at the 

 fepulchre, had entered into it, and, with a curiofity that bc- 

 fpoke an expectation of lomething extraordinary, and a de- 

 fire of being fatisfied, had obferved that the linen clothes in 

 which Chrill was buried, and the napkin that ruas about his 

 head, were not only left in the fepulchre, but carefully wrap- 

 ped up, and laid m feveral places, and who, from thefe circum- 

 itances, might begin to fuipect, what his companion St. John 

 from the fame circumltances feems to have believed : — Peter 

 we fay, hearing from Joanna, that lite had feen a vilion of 

 angels at the fepulchre, who had allured her that Chriit was 

 rifen, llarting up, ran thither immediately ; and knowing 

 that the angels, il they were -within the fepulchre, might be 

 difcovered without hie going in, he did not, as before, enter in, 

 butjlooping down, looked lo far in as toy,'.- the linen clothes ; 

 and " departed, wondering in himfelf at that which 

 come to pafs." (Luke, xxiv. 12.) And either with Peter, 

 or about that time, ivent fome other difciples, who were pre- 

 fent when Joanna, and the other women, made their report ; 

 " and found it even lo as the women had laid." — " The 



fame day, two" of the difciples "went to a village called 

 Emmaus," &c. (Luke, xxiv. 13 — 35.) Su< h, according 

 to Mr. Weft, is the order in winch thi E vi ral incident abo\ 

 ■ I appi ar to have arifen : and he coi dudes, that b] ; 



order, in which all the different event:, naturally and ealilv 

 follow, and, as it were, rife out ol one another, the narration 



ot the evaugelifta is cleared from all confuflon and incop- 

 Qllencies; and, moreover, the proof oi th refiirrccjion i 

 bi it' 1 eftablifhed by thus feparating the women into two or 

 more divifions, than upon the contrary fuppofition, which 

 brings them all together to the fepulchre; for, in the lall 

 cafe, inftcad ol three different appearances oi angels i" the 



women, and tli) "I I. In Chrill, we Ihould have but 1 n, ol 

 each ; whereas, in the Fbrmei . thl r. 1 a train of witncll'cs, a 



fucceflion oi miraculous events, mutually [lengthening and 



1llullr.1t ing- each other, and equally and joir.tl) concurring 



to prove one and the Came fafl : — a fact, which, as it v>. 



ature more allonilhing, and in its confequencc "i 



