hims, was part of the lesson for the day, that passage was taken from the fifty-third of Isaiah, and the time, when he was reading it, was soon after the feast of Pentecosth. The sixty-first of Isaiah, therefore, could not well have been in course before the feast of Pentecost, if the fifty-third was so after it; and if either of them had been in course then, neither could well have been in course at the feast of Tabernacles, more than four months later.

This leads me to observe, that the proceedings at Nazareth, on the occasion in question, at least with respect to our Saviour's conduct, though produced and justified by the special reasons of the case, were yet entirely out of course. He was preparing shortly to commence his ministry; and he prepares so to commence it by citing an illustrious prophecy-applicable solely to himself-but as the Messias of Israel, and as the Saviour also of mankind. There is no one particular, in that enumeration of the various offices to which he declared himself anointed-that is, ordained and commissioned-which must not be understood in a spiritual sense; there is none which, without an absurdity, could be literally received and construed. And they are spiritual purposes, and spiritual benefits, which, though they might be notified or proclaimed in the lifetime of Christ, could be verified only after his death. The reference also to the Spirit of God, as the efficient cause of the unction, by which the Christ had become consecrated to one and all of these functions, is more apposite, a priori, to the supposition of the feast of Pentecost, than of any other period; for that was a time which the previous history of the Jews, in the Dispensation of the Law, and the future history of Christianity, in the Dispensation of the Gospel, shew to have been especially, and, xar' oxǹv, appropriated to the agency of the Spirit. The exordium of the prophecy ought to be rendered thus: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the purpose whereunto he hath anointed me. He hath sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor:

and the rest.

Acts viii. 32.

h Vol. i. Diss. xiii. 549.

It is said, indeed, that, when he stood up to read, the book of Isaiah was put into his hands; but, unless it could be shewn that every separate book of the Old Testament was contained in a separate roll, and not the whole, or many parts of the whole, in one, which is the case with the most ancient manuscripts, both Hebrew and Greek, still, this circumstance would prove nothing on the point at issue: the offering of the book of Isaiah would imply no more than the offering him the volume of the Scriptures in general, or the volume of the prophets in particular. Be this, however, as it may, the volume, it is certain, was put into his hands closed, or rolled up; for he had to unfold it for himself; and, it is manifest, that he unfolded, or opened, it expressly to find out the passage in question. Whether, then, the preliminary act of delivering him the book of Isaiah was regular, or irregular, his finding out, and reciting aloud, the first part of the sixty-first chapter was clearly his own doing, and, obviously, to be accounted for by the appositeness of the passage recited to the time and occasion of a formal commencement of his ministry. It is evident, also, that as he rolled up the book, and gave it back again to the minister, after he had read this verse, and no more, he always intended to read only this verse, and no more; but it would be absurd to suppose only this verse, and no more, the proper lesson for the day; the different sections, as they now stand, being generally of much greater length than our own divisions into chapters, which are intended for the same purpose: in which case, it may well be questioned whether he was reading any part of the lesson for the day at all.

Nor can it be said that, perhaps, he was doing no more than what, on such occasions, might usually have been done; viz. first reciting a verse, and, then, proceeding to expound it; for it would be false to say that any exposition, even of this verse, is actually subjoined; and, it must be evident, from his closing the book, and returning it to the servant, to be restored to its place, that, when he has

means to recite no more. The circumstance mentioned immediately after, that, when he had done each of these things and was sat down, but before he had yet added a word, the eyes of all in the synagogue were steadily fixed upon him, is an intimation that what he had just been doing was something novel and unexpected; the nature of such an exordium raised the anticipation of more of the like kind to follow it, and sharpened the attention of the observers accordingly. When, therefore, they heard him proceeding to apply the scripture directly to himself, though they wondered at the gracious words which issued from his mouth, yet, the reflection immediately occurring, who it was that spoke them, the scandal, produced by this reflection, was too strong even for the natural impression, which had preceded, from the words themselves, and from the manner of him who delivered them.

To proceed though the ministry of our Saviour, so far as concerned the assumption of his character as the Messias, and his beginning to act in that character, had certainly commenced in Judæa, and so early as the last Passover, still he had never yet done that which is meant by Preaching, or Proclaiming, the Gospel of the kingdom; and calling on all men, by repentance and amendment of life, to prepare for its manifestation: because John, who had been hitherto the proper instrument in the discharge of this commission, before this return into Galilee, had not yet been cast into prison. The beginning, continuance, and final completion, of such a ministry, on his part, from this time forward-the mission of the Twelve, and of the Seventyeach in their proper order of time, and both agreeing, in their final end and purpose respectively, with the description of the ministry of our Lord, at this very period, and of that of the Baptist, long before-demonstrate, as we have argued at length elsewhere, an unity of design and of functions in the common ministry of all. The kingdom of heaven, in each of these instances, as the subject of one and the same proclamation, is necessarily one and the same also; and being what the Baptist, and the Messias-what the

Twelve, and the Seventy-each in their proper order, concurred to announce in common, and to announce as future, it can be understood of nothing which was to come to pass in the lifetime of Christ; it can be understood of nothing, therefore, but of the future Dispensation of the Gospel. The actual promulgation of the Christian religion, that is, the first open establishment of the kingdom of heaven, took place on the day of Pentecost-from which the actual Dispensation of the Gospel begins to be dated. With reason, then, might the first intimation of its futurity, the first public and authoritative declaration of the tidings of this kingdom, which proceeded from the mouth of our Lord himself, have coincided with the same period also. Besides, the great business of our Lord, as a moral teacher, while he continued among mankind, was to revive, reinforce, and enlarge, the moral part of the ancient Law: the first sermon delivered from the mountain would alone be sufficient to prove this. Hence, as the Law was originally given and instituted at this period of the year, and the feast of Pentecost itself was appointed in commemoration of that event, we have here an additional proof of the propriety with which the revival and republication of the Law, as made by the teaching of our Saviour, might coincide with the same period. Nothing could tend more directly, in the estimation of all observing and reflecting persons, to point him out as the original and independent Lawgiver-promised by Moses, like unto himself-or as the great Prophet and Teacher, who should come into the world, than such a coincidence.

These preliminary considerations having been thus disposed of, we may observe, that from the time of the formal commencement of our Saviour's ministry in Galilee, it admits of no other distribution than into the times and occasions when he was resident at Capernaum; the times and occasions when he was making the circuits of Galilee; and the times and occasions when, though doing neither of these things, he was yet, for special reasons, travelling in Galilee,

taken for a common purpose, are still to be distinguished into such as were general, or extended to the whole of the country; and such as were partial, or extended only to some portion of it. Subject to these limitations this ministry will now be considered; not so as every where to descend into particulars, but to be satisfied with the outline of things; and more especially with a view to determine, as accurately as either the general reasons of probability, or the special reasons of the case, may allow, the times and the places, belonging to each separate transaction, through the several years of its duration in order to which, we may premise that the earliest intimation of the commencement of the first year, though really upwards of five weeks later than its actual date, which occurs in the three first Gospels, is the return into Galilee, after the imprisonment of John: the earliest intimation of the beginning of the second is the walking through the corn-fields on the sabbath; and the earliest intimation of the arrival of the third is the question concerning eating with unwashen hands: all of them notices not merely of such integral periods in themselves, as the several years of the ministry of Christ, but, what is equally remarkable, supplied, and each in the same relative order, by all the three first Evangelists; or only in the last instance of all, and that for a reason which is easily to be assigned, omitted by St. Luke in particular. Some of the topics, which would thus have come within the present scheme, will be found to have been already anticipated; in which case, we must be allowed to refer to the results of former enquiries: and some will require to be discussed by themselves hereafter; in which case we must reserve their proper consideration for another opportunity.

If, then, our Lord, as we have conjectured k, came into Galilee not before, not yet, possibly, much later than, the thirty-sixth day from the sixteenth of Nisan, he came thither about fourteen days before the feast of Pentecost; and the first things done, after the return, as we have also seen,

k Vol. ii. Diss. vii.