deavor to penetrate into the spirit of it, and dive to the bottom of the mysteries which it contains.

I. We begin with attempting some elucidation of the letter of the text. And,

1. Our first remark turns on the time which the evangelist assigns to the first events which he is here relating from the sixth hour, says he, there was darkness unto the ninth hour: and about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and so on. Respecting which it is to be observed, that the Jews'computed the hours of the day from sunrising. The first from sun-rising was called one hour; the second two, and so of the rest: from the sixth hour to the ninth hour; in other words, from noon till three of the clock afternoon.

But what merits a more particular attention, is this that the evangelists appear here to vary in their testimony: at least St. Mark tells us, chap. xy. 25. that part of the events which the other evangelists say took place about the ninth hour, happened at the third hour. A single remark will resolve this difficulty. The Jews employed another method in computing time, besides that which we have indicated. They divided the day into four intervals. The first comprehended the space from the first to the third hour of the day inclusively : the second, from the end of the third hour of the day to the sixth and so of the rest. This mode of computation, if certain doctors are to be credited, took its rise from the custom which was observed in the temple, of presenting prayers and sacrifices at the third, the sixth, and the ninth hour. Now the Jews sometimes denominated the whole of this first interval, which contained three hours of the day, one hour, or the first hour. The second interval they denominated two, or the second hour,

which contained the second three hours, and so of the rest. This remark solves the apparent difficulty which we pointed out. Some of the evangelists have followed the first mode of computation, and others have adopted the second. The ninth hour, in the style of St. Matthew, and the third hour, in the style of St. Mark, denote one and the same season of the day; because the one computes the hours elapsed from sun-rising, and the other that third interval of three hours, which commenced precisely at the ninth hour.

2. Our second remark, will lead us into an examination of certain questions started, relative to the prodigies recorded by our evangelist. It is said,

(1) That there was darkness over all the land. It appears from astronomical calculation, and from the very nature of solar eclipses, which are occasioned by the interposition of the body of the moon between us and the orb of day, which can take place only at the change, whereas it was then at the full, being the fourteenth day of the month of March; it appears, I say, from these considerations, that this darkness was not an eclipse properly so called, but an obscuration effected by a special interference of Providence, which we are unable clearly to explain.

If we are incapable of assigning the cause, we are equally incapable of determining the extent of this wonderful appearance. The expression in the original, there was darkness over all the land, or, according to St. Luke's phraseology, over all the earth, ch. xxiii. 44. which presents at first to the mind an idea of the whole globe, frequently restricted in scripture, sometimes to the land of Judea, sometimes to the whole Roman empire; and this ambiguity, joined to the silence of the sacred

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historians, renders it impossible for us to decide, whether the darkness overspread the land of Judea only, or involved all the rest of our hemisphere.

Neither do we deem it of importance to dwell on an examination of the monuments supposed to be found in antiquity respecting the truth of the prodigy of which we have been speaking. Among those which are transmitted to us on this subject, there is one which bears visible marks of forgery. I speak of the testimony of Dionysius, falsely denominated the Areopagite, who affirms that he himself saw, in Egypt, the darkness mentioned by the evangelists, which drew from him this exclamation: Assuredly, either the God of Nature is suffering, or the frame of the universe is going to be destroyed. The learned have so clearly demonstrated that the author of this book is an impostor, who, though he did not live till the fourth century, would nevertheless pass for the Dionysius who was converted to Christianity by the preaching of St. Paul on Mars-hill, Acts xvii. 34. that this author, transfixed with a thousand wounds, is fallen, never to rise again.

Much more dependance is, undoubtedly, to be placed on what is said by Phlegon, surnamed the Trallian, the emperor Adrian's freedman. He had composed a history of the Olympiads, some fragments only of which have reached us: but Eusebius, the historian, has preserved the following passage from it: In the fourth year of the two hundred and second Olympiad, there was an eclipse of the sun, much greater than any one which had ever before been observed. The night was so dark at noon-day, that the stars were perceptible; and there were such violent earthquakes in Bithynia, that the greatest part of the city of Nicea was swallowed up by it. These are the words of Eu

sebius: but the inquiries to which they might lead, could not be prosecuted in an exercise like the present, and they would encroach on that time which we destine to subjects of much higher importance. (2) The evangelist tells us in the second place, that the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. There were two vails in the temple at Jerusalem: that which was suspended over the door that separated the holy place from the exterior of the temple, which Josephus calls a Babylonian hanging, embroidered curiously with gold, purple, scarlet, and fine flax. There was also a vail over the door which separated the holy place from the Holy of Holies. The expression in the text, the vail, described in Exodus xxvi. 31. and denoted the vail by way of excellence, makes it presumable that the second is here meant.

(3) The evangelist relates, that the graves were opened; and many bodies of saints which slept, arose, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. This has induced interpreters to institute an inquiry, Who those dead persons were? It is pretended by some that they were the ancient prophets; others, with a greater air of probability, maintain that they were persons lately deceased, and well known to those to whom they appeared. But how is it possible to form a fixed opinion, when we are left so entirely in the dark?

(4) Our last remark relates to the interpretation affixed to the Syriac words which Jesus Christ pronounced: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani; and which St. Mark gives in the Chaldaic form. The evangelist tells us, that some of those who heard Jesus Christ thus express himself, said, that he called for Elias. The persons who entertained this idea, could not be the Roman soldiers who assisted at the execution. By what means should they have

known any thing of Elias? They were not the Jews who inhabited Jerusalem and Judea: How could they have been acquainted with their native language? They must have been, on the one hand, Jews instructed in the traditions of their nation, and who, on the other, did not understand the language spoken at Jerusalem. Now this description applies exactly to those of the Jews who were denominated Hellenists, that is to say Greeks: they were of Jewish extraction, and had scattered themselves over the different regions of Greece.

But whence, it will be said, did they derive the strange idea, that Jesus Christ called for Elias? I answer, that it was not only from the resemblance in sound between the words Eli and Elias, but from another tradition of the Jews. It was founded on those words of the prophet Malachi: behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet. . . . and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, ch. iv. 6. an oracle which presents no difficulty to the Christian, whom Jesus Christ has instructed to consider it as accomplished in the person of John Baptist. But the Jews understood it in the literal sense: they believed that Elias was still upon Mount Carmel, and was one day to re-appear. The coming of this prophet is still, next to the appearance of the Messiah, the object of their fondest hope. It is Elias, as they will have it, who shall turn the heart of the fathers unto the children, and the hearts of the children unto their fathers. It is Elias who shall prepare the way of the Messiah, who shall be his forerunner, and who shall anoint him with the holy oil. It is Elias who shall answer all their enquiries, and resolve all their difficulties. It is Elias, who, by his prayers, shall obtain the resurrection of the just. It is Elias, who shall do for the Jews of