This was her second journey, when she saw two angels, and then Jesus himself, as here related; and immediately after Jesus appeared to the other women, as they returned to the city. (Mat. xxviii. 9, 10.) In the mean time Joanna and her company arrived at the sepulchre, when two angels appeared to them, and addressed them as the one angel had done the other women. (Luke xxiv. 1—10.) They immediately returned to the city, and by some means found the apostles before the others arrived, and informed them of what they had seen; upon which Peter went a second time to the sepulchre, but saw only the linen clothes lying. (Luke xxiv. 12.) See Markland, Lampe, Tittman, &c.*

ment.

Mark xvi. 5. "And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted." This appears to have been a different angel from that mentioned by St. Matthew. The latter sat in the porch of the tomb, and had assumed a terrible appearance to overawe the guard (Matt. xxviii. 1.); but this appeared as a young man, within the sepulchre, in the inner apartThe two angels spoken of by St. John (chap. xx. 11.) appeared some time after these; but whether they were the same or different cannot be ascertained; neither can it be affirmed that the angels which manifested themselves to the second party of women, recorded by St. Luke, (ch. xxiv. 4.), were the same or different.+ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary saw only one angel in white, sitting on the stone which he had rolled from the door of the sepulchre; but the women here mentioned (Luke xxiv. 4.) saw no angel till they had entered the sepulchre, when two appeared to them in garments shining like lightning,' as the word imports. This, and several other variations, shew there were two distinct companies of women, who went successively to the tomb on the morning of the resurrection; which renders the whole account clear and consistent.

See supra.t

Luke v. 3-11. This account of the calling of Peter and Andrew, James and John, will be found, as Dr. Townson observes, on a near inspection to tally marvellously with the preceding ones of Matthew and Mark; and is one of the evidences, that the Evangelists vary only in the number or choice of circumstances, and write from the same idea of the fact which they lay before us. Though St. Matthew and Mark do not exactly tell us, that St. Peter was in the vessel when he was called by Christ, they signify as much in saying that he was casting a net into the sea; and though only St. Luke informs us that James and John assisted Peter in landing the fish, yet it is implied, for Mark says, that when Christ had gone a little further, he saw them mending their nets, which had been torn by the weight of fish hauled on shore.+

Luke xxii. 34. "And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.' St. Matthew (ch. xxvi. 34.) and Mark (ch. xiv. 30.) say, 'this night;' but both

expressions are right, because the Jewish day of twenty-four hours began with the evening, and ended with the evening of the following day.*

Luke xxii. 58. "And after a little while another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not." A maid challenged Peter in the second instance according to Matthew and Mark, the latter of whom says expressly, ʼn waidɩoên, ‘the maid,' not the one mentioned in v. 62, but aλλŋ, another, as St. Matthew states, (ch. xxvi. 71.) her who was the janitrix, or door-keeper, (John xviii. 17.)† yet here it is said ɛɛpos, another (man) and he also answers to a man. But ετερος, as Wetstein shews, may be, and is in innumerable instances, applied to a female; and Matthew says, 'she said to them that were there,' and Mark, 'she began to say to them that stood by.' So that the maid gave the information to those around her, and some man charged Peter with it. Probably several joined in the accusation, though he answered to an individual, for St. John says, 'They said unto him,' &c.*

Luke xxiv. 33, 34. "And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." From Mark xvi. 13, we learn that the Apostles did not believe the testimony even of the two disciples from Emmaus, while it is here asserted they were saying, when they entered the room, 'The Lord is risen,' &c. This difficulty is removed by rendering interrogatively, 'Has the Lord risen,' &c.*

Jno. xix. 19. “And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS." The apparent discrepancy between the accounts of this title given by the Evangelists, which has been urged as an objection against their inspiration and veracity, has been most satisfactorily accounted for by Dr. Townson; who supposes, that, as it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, it might have slightly varied in each language; and that, as St. Luke and St. John wrote for the Gentiles, they would prefer the Greek inscription, that St. Matthew, addressing the Jews, would use the Hebrew, and that St. Mark, writing to the Romans, would naturally give the Latin.*

Jno. xix. 14. "And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your king!" Instead of εTMŋ, sixth, several MSS. and Fathers have rpurn, third, as in the parallel place, Mark 15. 25, 33, 34.*

Jno. xix. 29. “Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth." This hyssop is termed a 'reed' by Matthew, (ch. 27. 34, 48.) and Mark, (ch. 15. 36.); and it appears that a species of hyssop, with a reedy stalk, about two feet long, grew about Jerusalem. See Bochart.* Acts i. 12. "Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey." A sabbath day's

journey was 7 furlongs; and the town of Bethany (whence our Lord ascended, according to Luke 24. 50.) was 15 from Jerusalem. But the first region or tract of mount Olivet, called Bethphage, extended from the city a sabbath day's journey, where the tract called Bethany began; and from this place our Lord ascended. See Lightfoot.*

Acts vii. 4. “Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell." From Gen. 11. 26, it appears that Abram was born when Terah was 70 years of age; and he departed from Haran when 75, (Gen. 12. 4.); while Terah lived to the age of 205 years, (Gen. 11. 32.) Instead of 205, however, the Samaritan has 145, which reconciles this discrepancy; but it is not improbable, that Abram was in reality born when his father Terah was 130 years old; and that he is merely mentioned first in Gen. 11. 26, by way of dignity.*

Acts vii. 6. "And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years." St. Stephen here uses the round number 400, leaving out the odd tens; for it is evident, from the parallel passages, as well as Josephus, (Ant. l. ii. c. 1. § 9. Bel. l. v. c. 9. § 4.) that the real number of years was 430.*

Acts vii. 14. “Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls." In the Hebrew text, (Gen. 46. 27.) the number of persons is threescore and ten; but St. Stephen quotes from the Septuagint, which adds the five sons of Ephraim and Manasseh to the account.* After Gen. 46. 20, the Septuagint adds, 'These were the sons of Manasseh, whom his Syrian concubine bore unto him; Machir; and Machir begat Galead. The sons of Ephraim, Manasseh's brother; Sutalaam and Taam: and the sons of Sutalaam, Edem.* Threescore and six were before mentioned, (ver. 26.) so that Joseph and his two sons together with Jacob himself, complete the seventy persons enumerated in ver. 27; and the numbers in verses 15, 18, 22, 25, amount to that number. The addition of five persons in the Septuagint, in ver. 20, was either the cause or the consequence of another difference in this verse; for in that version, the number is seventy-five.*

Acts vii. 15, 16, "So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers. And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem." Of the two burying places of the patriarchs, one was at Hebron, the cave and field which Abraham purchased of Ephron the Hittite, (Gen. 23. 16, &c.); the other in Sychem, which Jacob (not Abraham) bought of the sons of Emmor, (Gen. 33. 19.) To remove this glaring discrepancy, Markland interprets apa, from, as it frequently signifies with a genitive, and renders, And were carried over to Sychem ;

Comprehensive Bible, Note in loco.

and afterwards from among the descendants of Emmor the father, or son, of Sychem, they were laid in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money.' This agrees with the account which Josephus (Ant. 1. ii. c. 8.) gives of the Patriarchs; that they were carried out of Egypt, first to Sychem, and then to Hebron, where they were buried.*

Acts vii. 43. "Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon." In the passage of Amos, (ch. 5. 27.) to which St. Stephen refers, it is beyond Damascus ; but as Assyria and Media, to which they were carried, was not only beyond Damascus, but beyond Babylon itself, he states that fact, and thus fixes more precisely the place of their captivity.*

6. From the multitude of Miracles, which nothing but the infinite power of God could effect.

As, however, erroneous notions have obtained respecting miracles, I beg leave to present the excellent definition, and explanation of their nature nearly in the language of Professor Lee. "A miracle is an event such as to exceed the power of man to effect, brought about either for the purpose of fulfilling something predicted in a former revelation, or for furthering its objects and ends in one way or other.”

“These additional restrictions have been given for the following reasons; first, Miracles do not appear to have been afforded, except in cases where they were absolutely wanted, that is to say, either for the purpose of furnishing man with a revelation at the first, or of fulfilling such parts of it as consisted of predictions, and stood in need of such fulfilment, and thus to make it binding upon all."

"Another reason for these restrictions is: God cannot be inconsistent with himself. Every thing, therefore, laying claim to the authority of a miracle, but tending in any degree to thwart or contradict the declarations of a prior revelation, must be false; and in this case too, of whatever date such pretended miracle might be, we can have no possible doubt that it was an imposture."

"It will be necessary here to show in what respects the usual definition of miracles appears to be defective, in order to justify the proposal of another. If then we define a miracle by saying, That it is something which must suspend or contravene the ordinary operations or laws of nature, we shall lay down a condition which will prove useless in a great variety of cases, and inapplicable in many others. We have, for example, numerous predictions and other revelations made in the Bible, in which not so much as one law or operation of nature has either been suspended or contravened. Such are all or most of the prophecies delivered; and the same may be said of many of the miraculous events

brought about: such as the Babylonian captivity, with its termination and the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, the fall of the Jewish polity, &c. which, taken in connection with their several circumstances, were truly miraculous; but in which, nevertheless, none of the general laws or operations of nature were either suspended or in any way contravened. Besides, it may be justly doubted, whether we have knowledge enough to determine, in a great variety of cases, when the ordinary laws of nature are suspended or not: and, although we may lay claim to some general knowledge on this head, yet it will never be in our power to affirm, whether many of those things which appear to us to have been thus brought about, do in truth contravene or suspend any of the primary laws, under which it has pleased the Almighty to place this system of things. But we can determine with sufficient accuracy and certainty, how far the exertion of human powers, properly so called, will go we may, therefore, safely rest our question on these grounds."*

In addition to the miraculous displays of divine power already detailed, (see pp. 53-60, 104-114 supra) the following may be more particularly adduced in this place.

(1.) The miraculous destruction of Sodom and the cities of the plain. In perfect accordance with the annunciation of this event by the Lord to Abraham, (Gen. xviii.) and Lot, (Gen. xix. 1—23.) the sacred historian relates, ver. 24, 25; “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." The word rendered brimstone,' (q. d. brennestone, or brinnestone, id est, burning-stone,) is always rendered by the LXX. 'sulphur,' and seems to denote a meteorous inflammable matter. 'We may safely suppose,' says Dr. A. Clarke, ' that a shower of nitrous particles might have been precipitated from the atmosphere, here, as in many other places, called heaven, which by the action of fire, or the electric fluid, would be immediately ignited, and so consume the cities.'+

66

The Psalmist, describing the providence and justice of God, (Ps. xi. 6.) says, Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup." The word snares, □, pachim, Bp. Lowth (Prælect. xii.), explains by balls of fire, bolides, (Pliny, 1. xi. 26.), or simply lightning. This is a manifest allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.†

(2.) The miraculous change of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. The command of the Lord was : 66 Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed," (ver. 17.) But, in total disregard of this merciful warning, Lot's "wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." Tarrying too long in the plain, she was, most probably, struck dead with