RESURRECTION. 



the utinoit importance to mankind, required the fulleft and 

 tnoft unexceptionable evidence. Never, fays our author, 

 was a fact more fully proved; and in ftating this proof, 

 with a brevity correfponding to our limits, and yet, we trull, 

 with a cleamefs anfwerable'to the importance of the fubject, 

 we iliall avail ourfelves of the luminous arrangement which 

 our author has made of the principal arguments that eftabhfh 

 the intereftmg fact of our Lord's refurrection, and that ren- 

 dered it credible to the apoltles and firft difciples ; and by 

 means of their teftimony to perfons of countries and ages 

 remote from thofe in which it occurred. In its reference 

 to the convidion of the apoftles and firft difciples, the firft 

 object of confideration comprehends the characters and 

 difpofitions of the perfons who were themfelves to be con- 

 vinced, and who were to be witneffes of the refurrection to 

 the world in general ; thefecond includes the manner, i. e. the 

 method and order in which the feveral proofs were laid before 

 them ; and the third is the matter of the evidence. The 

 knowledge of the character and difpofition of the apoftles 

 and difciples, for whofe conviction the proofs of the refur- 

 rection were primarily defigned, is neceffary to evince their 

 aptitude and their fufficiency for this purpofe, and will ferve 

 to (hew us, that the manner in which they were adduced, 

 and the matter, or facts, of which they confifted, were fe- 

 lected with coufummate wifdom. The apoftles and firft 

 difciples were, for the moft part, perfons of low birth and 

 mean occupations, unaccuftomed to abftract reafoning and 

 deep inquiry, and ftrongly pofl'effed with the national pre- 

 judices of the Jewilli religion, as it was then taught by the 

 'Scribes and Pharifees. Although it appears from many 

 pafl'ages in the gofpel hiftory, that they were convinced by 

 the numerous miracles which Jefus of Nazareth performed, 

 and by the accomplifhment of many prophecies in the hif- 

 tory of his life, of his being the promifed and expected 

 Mefiiah ; yet they were deluded by the notion prevalent 

 among their brethren, the Jews, that the Mefiiah would be a 

 temporal prince, a redeemer and ruler of Ifrael, who fhould 

 never die. Our Saviour, in many of his difcourfes, laboured 

 to undeceive them ; but their prepoffeflions and errors were 

 fo deeply rooted, that all his efforts for this purpofe proved 

 ineffectual. He had, indeed, moft circumitantially foretold 

 his own fufferings, death, and refurrection : but it fufficiently 

 appears, that they did not underltand thefe predictions, until 

 fome time after their accompliihment. As, in their opinion, 

 immortality and temporal dominion were the characteriftics 

 of the Mefiiah, the fufferings and death of Jefus muft have 

 convinced them, before his refurrection, that he was not the 

 Mefiiah, or that perfon in whom they had truited as the Re- 

 deemer and king of Ifrael. When he actually died according 

 to his prediction, and his enemies feemedto have obtained a 

 complete triumph over him, their minds muft have been agi- 

 tated by prejudice, doubt, perplexity, defpair, and terror. 

 The evidence, therefore, that was adapted to recover them 

 from this ftate, muft, in the manner of its being prefented to 

 them, as well as in its own nature, be of a peculiar kind : other- 

 wife it could not have ferved the purpofe of converting them 

 from being incredulous and ready to defert their Mafter, into 

 believers, teachers, and martyrs of the gofpel. The firft 

 alarm they received was from Mary Magdalene, who, early 

 hi the morning, on the third day from the burial of our 

 Saviour, came running to inform Peter and John, that the 

 ftone was rolled from the mouth of the fepulchre, and that the 

 body of the Lord was removed. Thefe two apoftles haf- 

 tened to the fepulchre, and having entered it, found the fact 

 that had been announced to them actually verified. Thus 

 were their minds prepared for the extraordinary events 

 that afterwards occurred. The life of Jefus, they knew, 



had been a life of miracles ; and his death had been attended 

 with proc-igies and vvonders ; and yet none of them, John 

 excepted, believed that he was rifen from the dead ; for as 

 yet (as that apoftle affures us) they knew not the fcripturei, 

 that he muft rife again from the dead; that is, they did not under- 

 ftand from the prophets, that the Mefiiah was to rife again 

 from the dead ; being, on the contrary, perfuaded, that thefe 

 very prophets had foretold the Mefiiah (hould not die, but 

 abide for ever. The next report they received was from 

 Joanna, and her companions, who acquainted them that 

 angels had appeared to them, and had told them that Jefus 

 was rifen, reminding them, at the fame time, that Chrilt him- 

 felf had, not only from the fpirit of prophecy with which it 

 was known that he was endowed, but from the prophets 

 alfo, predicted his own fufferings and death, and rifing again 

 from the dead on the third day. But then they did not under- 

 ftand what was meant by his " rifing from the dead." In 

 order to explain to them the meaning of the refurrection, 

 they were probably acquainted, in the next place, by Mary 

 Magdalene, that (he had feen, not angels only, but Chrift 

 himfelf. Neverthelefs fome doubts and difficulties ftill re- 

 mained. He had been feen only by Mary Magdalene. To 

 relieve them in this ftate of hefitation and perplexity, nothing 

 could be better calculated than the account given by the 

 Other Mary and Salome, who had alfo been at the lepul- 

 chre, and had there feen an angel, who not only allured 

 them that " Chrift was rifen," but had ordered them to* 

 tell his difciples, " that they fhould meet him in Galilee," 

 agreeably to what he himfelf had faid to them in his life- 

 time. The only fcruple that now remained in the minds of 

 the apoftles, arofe from their not Slaving feen him themfelves ; 

 and till they did, they feemed refolvedto fufpend their belief 

 of his being rifen from the dead, and treated all thofe vifions 

 of the women as fo many idle tales. They were left for fome 

 time to ruminate over the wonderful events that had rapidly 

 occurred, to examine the fcriptures, and to recollect the 

 predictions and difcourfes of their Mafter, to which they 

 were referred both by the angels and himfelf. In order to 

 afiift them in their inquiries, and lead them to the true fenfe 

 of the fcriptures, the only rational means of conquering their 

 prejudice, Chrift himfelf appeared to two of his difciples, 

 on their way to Emmaus, whom he found difcourfing and 

 reafoning as they went upon thofe very topics. The defign 

 of Chrift in his converfation with thefe difciples, and parti- 

 cularly in his expofition of the prophets, was to (hew, that, 

 by the proper exercife of their underftandings, they might, 

 from thofe very fcriptures, whofe authority they allowed, 

 have been convinced that the Mefiiah " ought to have fuf- 

 fered," as they had feen him fuffer, " and to rife from the 

 dead on the third day." That is, Chrift chofe rather to 

 convince them by reafon, than by fenfe ; or, at leaft, to pre- 

 pare their mmds, that their affent afterwards to the tefti- 

 mony of their fenfes, fhould be with the concurrence of their 

 reafon. Having duly prepared them for receiving the tefti- 

 mony of their fenfes, he difcovered himfelf to them by an 

 act of devotion, "in breaking of bread ;" a form of devo- 

 tioH which lie had inftituted in remembrance of his death. 

 Accordingly they were convinced, and '•' returned that fame 

 hour to Jerufalem," where they found the apoftles affembled 

 together, and debating apparently upon the feveral reports 

 they had heard that day, and particularly upon what Peter 

 had told them, to whom, fome time on that day, Chrift had 

 appeared. The apoftles having now had every kind of evi- 

 dence laid before them that was requifite to convince them 

 of the reality of the refurrection of Chrift, and being alfo 

 enabled by the gift of that Spirit, which infpired the pro- 

 phets, to underftand the true meaning of thofe facred oracles 



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