continue in Capernaum, or wherever else he was, without any memorable occurrence, until the time of their return. The mention, indeed, of this return', so instantly after the charge, is a presumptive proof to the same effect. Nor, when our Lord came to follow in their steps, is it necessary to suppose he visited every place, which they had visited before him, but simply that he visited himself no place, which they had not visited before him; and that every place, which they had visited before him, lay somewhere upon the route in which he followed after them; so that all, who had heard the preaching of the Seventy, (which was doubtless the effect consulted by their mission,) might be prepared to expect, and be ready to resort to, his own. It was not, in fact, possible that one man, however indefatigable his exertions, should singly have travelled over the same ground, or performed the same work, as thirty-five, or thirty-six, except in a proportionably longer time; or not by visiting in person every place, which they might have visited, but by visiting in person simply the principal places of that description, and passing in the vicinity of the rest.

The first event recorded after the return is the question of the Lawyer, Luke x. 25: which must have happened while our Lord was teaching; and, consequently, in some private house, or in the synagogue. It might have happened, therefore, in Capernaum itself-and so have preceded the commencement of the circuit. But the next-or Christ's reception into the house of Martha "-shews that he was actually on his journey, or that the circuit was now begun.

From this point, to the time when he was certainly arrived in Judæa, there are clear internal evidences, scattered up and down the narrative, the united effect of all which is to determine the nature and character of the period, to which they all alike belong, as one and the same—and that, the concluding period of our Lord's public ministry in general: and those parts of the whole, concerning whose chro

nological position there is commonly the greatest doubt, are the very parts, which upon examination supply these indications the most decidedly.

During all this period, too, there are, as we observed at the outset, similar intimations-beginning at Luke x. 38. when our Lord is first seen to be upon the road, and extending to xix. 1. when he is seen to have passed through Jericho-which all shew that he was journeying, and journeying in the direction of Jerusalem. There are others, not so direct, which nevertheless shew that he was journeying somewhither or other-and some of them, as plainly as the more direct, that he was journeying to Jerusalem.

For example, xi. 1. and xi. 14: at the former of which periods he was by himself—at the latter, in the company of the multitude-xiii. 10. and xiii. 32-35: from the last of which it is impossible to doubt that he was both journeying at the time, and journeying expressly to Jerusalem, and very probably not far off from it, when he delivered those words-xiv. 1: as a different occasion, and, consequently, a different time and place, from those of the similar incident mentioned xi. 37; xiv. 25. xvii. 6: from the last of which we may conclude he was in Lower Galilee at the time. If the distinction, laid down by the Rabbinical writers, is true, sycamine trees were to be found in Lower Galilee only; and, where they first began to grow, discriminated Lower Galilee, from Upper Galilee, itself ▾.

And with regard to the intimations of time or place, which are furnished by particular passages, in addition to those which have been already pointed out, I shall shew hereafter that Luke x. 38-42. did not happen in Bethany, as it is commonly supposed, but in some village, most probably of Galilee, and certainly different from that. I shall shew, too, that Luke xi. 14-36. is not to be confounded with Matt. xii. 22-45. If the substance also of Luke xi. 37-54. be compared with Matt. xxiii. throughout, which belongs beyond a question either to the Tuesday, or to the Mishua. i. 189. 2. Relandi Palæst. i. 306. 1 Kings x. 27. 1 Chron.

Wednesday, in Passion-week, no person of moderate judgment will consider it probable that our Lord would have provoked the hostility of this proud, inveterate, and influential, sect, by so open and so sharp an attack, except at a time when he knew it was no longer necessary to be careful about giving them offence—that is, until the conclusion of his ministry was arrived, or not far distant.

What indications of the same fact are supplied by xii. throughout, and by xiii. 1-9. will also appear hereafter. The discourse, which ensues xiii. 23–30. in answer to the question, εἰ ὀλίγοι οἱ σωζόμενοι, becomes much more signifcant and impressive, if the period of our Lord's ministry was rapidly drawing to its close. But, with regard to the rest of the chapter, from verse 31. downwards, referring to an incident, which happened the same day, the mere perusal of the words must be sufficient to prove that Jesus was journeying at the time, and journeying to Jerusalem, on an occasion which would be followed by his death and passion. Go, and say to that fox, Behold, I am casting out devils, and I am performing healings, this day, and to-morrow; and the third day I am perfected: only I must journey this day, and to-morrow, and the next day; because it is not possible for a prophet to perish out of Jerusalem. What can be the meaning of this declaration, unless our Lord, when he delivered it, was both going to Jerusalem, and, by that unhappy necessity which rendered Jerusalem the destined scene of the destruction of the prophets, was going thither to perish? Every one, at least, will allow that it becomes, on this construction, wonderfully natural and apposite-a construction too, which has nothing to do with the further question in what sense the terms, to-day, to-morrow, and the next day*, are to be understood. Whether these are literal notes of time, or not, the drift of the answer remains the same-that Jesus, however long he might be in travelling through the dominions of Herod,

* There may be an allusion in this number of days to the three years of his personal ministry.

would yet be safe; because, being a prophet, he could not perish except in Jerusalem.

It will be admitted, also, that the pathetic apostrophe which follows, as it must have been produced by some association of ideas with what goes before, so would be as naturally produced by no association, as by that of the idea of his approaching death. It must be evident, likewise, that the effort, which he was now making, and still should make, to gather her children together, was the last effort of the kind -upon the failure of which, their house should be left unto them desolate. Besides which, it is declared that they should not see him again, until the time should come, when they should say, Blessed is he, who is coming in the name of the Lord: a declaration, which a comparison with Matt. xxiii. 39. proves not to have been fulfilled merely when he entered Jerusalem in triumph w; but to belong to some period much later even than that. As now delivered, therefore, it was clearly proleptically delivered—and, if this present occasion of the journeying to Jerusalem was the last occasion of all, the prolepsis itself is naturally accounted for. For the whole journey, wheresoever it might have begun, and wheresoever it might end, and whatsoever course it might take between, was still one occasion from first to last-directed to a single purpose, that of producing, by a final effort, the conversion and repentance of the Jews: at the end of which, if it failed, and at any period of which, if it was foreseen that it would fail, (both which things are true of the last circuit,) it might be said with an equal propriety, Ye shall see me no more again, as ye have seen me heretofore, until ye shall be prepared to say, Blessed is he, who is coming in the name of the Lord! Could it have been said, however, with the same consistency at any time before the feast of Dedication-after which the Jews were to see our Lord on three several occasions, at least, making three several efforts for their conversion-first, at the feast of Dedication-secondly, at the raising of Lazarus—and, thirdly, at the last Passover?

The address to the multitude, xiv. 26-35. argues the existence at the time of a more than usual expectation that his kingdom-such as they all anticipated-was at hand; the same expectation, which produced the question of the Pharisees the ambitious petition of the sons of Zebedee—and the parable of the minæ-and gave occasion to that concourse of the people from all parts, and to that publicity of our Lord's motions and proceedings, alluded to before as characteristic of the last journey to Jerusalem in particular. Traces of the same peculiarity are perceptible also in the places noted below y; during all which time he was yet in Galilee, or, up to xviii. 30. (which Matt. xix. 29. 30. xx. 1. proves to have converged directly upon the parable of the labourers hired for the vineyard) was still in Peræa. Nor is the subject-matter of the prophecy, xvii. 20-xviii. 1-8. so readily accounted for on any principle, as on that of our Lord's speedy departure, and of its consequent speedy fulfilment by the event. A similar prophecy was afterwards delivered, but only on the last day of his appearance in public, and as a part of the discourse on Mount Olivet. Yet this also there are Harmonists who assign to a period earlier than the feast of Dedication itself.

With so many internal evidences as these, all pointing distinctly to one and the same conclusion-both that of the unity and regularity of all this portion of St. Luke, and that of the time and place in the course of the Christian ministry, which it ought to be supposed to occupy-to doubt whether it belongs to the last six months of the Gospel-history, and to the last portion of those six months, or no-appears to me the perfection of scepticism and incredulity. I shall conclude, therefore, with the assumption of this point, as sufficiently proved-and confine the remainder of the present Dissertation to the consideration of the probable period when the three accounts, after having continued so long