from the law, till all be fulfilled." At the time the Gospels were written, the apparent tendency of Christ's mission was to diminish the authority of the Mosaic code, and it was so considered by the Jews themselves. It is very improbable, therefore, that, without the constraint of truth, Matthew should have ascribed a saying to Christ, which, primo intuitu, militated with the judgment of the age in which his Gospel was written. Marcian thought this text so objectionable, that he altered the words, so as to invert the sense.* Once more (Acts xxv. 18, 19.) "They brought none accusation against him, of such things as I supposed, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." Nothing could be more in the character of a Roman governor than these words. But that is not precisely the point I am concerned with. A mere panegyrist, or a dishonest narrator, would not have represented his cause, or have made a great magistrate represent it in this manner; i. e. in terms not a little disparaging, and bespeaking, on his part, much unconcern and indifference about the matter. The same observation may be repeated of the speech which is ascribed to Gallio, (Acts xviii. 15.) "If it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters." Lastly, where do we discern a stronger mark of candour, or less disposition to extol and magnify, than in the conclusion of the same history? in which the evangelist, after relating that Paul, on his arrival at Rome, preached to the Jews from morning until evening, adds, "And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not." The following, I think, are passages which were very unlikely to have presented themselves to the mind of a forger or a fabulist. Matt. xxi. 21. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done unto the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this Lardner, Cred. vol. xv. p. 422. mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, it shall be done; all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, it shall be done."* It appears to me very improbable that these words should have been put into Christ's mouth, if he had not actually spoken them. The term "faith," as here used, is perhaps rightly interpreted of confidence in that internal notice, by which the apostles were admonished of their power to perform any particular miracle. And this exposition renders the sense of the text more easy. But the words, undoubtedly, in their obvious construction, carry with them a difficulty, which no writer would have brought upon himself officiously. Luke ix. 59. "And he said unto another, Follow me: but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." This answer, though very expressive of the transcendent importance of religious concerns, was apparently harsh and repulsive; and such as would not have been made for Christ, if he had not really used it. At least some other instance would have been chosen. The following passage, I, for the same reason, think impossible to have been the production of artifice, or of a cold forgery "But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgement; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire (Gehennæ)." Matt. v. 22. It is emphatic, cogent, und well calculated for the purpose of impression; but is inconsistent with the supposition of art or wariness on the part of the relater. The short reply of our Lord to Mary Magdalen, after his resurrection, (John xx. 16, 17.) "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father," in my opinion, must have been founded in a reference or allusion to some prior conversation, for the want of knowing which, his meaning is hidden from us. This very obscurity, however, is a proof of genuineness. No one would have forged such an answer. John vi. The whole of the conversation recorded in this chapter, is, in the highest degree, unlikely to be fabricated, especially the part of our Saviour's reply between the fiftieth and the fiftyeighth verse. I need only put down the first sentence: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever and the bread that I will give him is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Without calling in question the expositions that have been given of this passage, we may be permitted to say, that it labours under an obscurity, in which it is impossible to believe that any one, who made speeches for the persons of his narrative, would have voluntarily involved them. That this discourse was obscure, even at the time, is confessed by the writer who had preserved it, when he tells us, at the conclusion, that many of our Lord's disciples, when they had heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can bear it?" Christ's taking of a young child, and placing it in the midst of his contentious disciples, (Matt. xviii. 2.) though as decisive a proof as any could be, of the benignity of his temper, and very expressive of the character of the religion which he wished to inculcate, was not by any means an obvious thought. Nor am I acquainted with any thing in any ancient writing which resembles it. The account of the institution of the eucharist bears strong internal marks of genuineness. If it had been feigned, it would have been more full; it would have come nearer to the actual mode of celebrating the rite, as that mode obtained very early in Christian churches; and it would have been more formal than it is. In the forged piece, called the Apostolic Constitutions, the apostles are made to enjoin many parts of the ritual which was in use in the second and third centuries, with as much particularity as a modern rubric_could have done. Whereas, in the history of the Lord's supper, as we read it in Saint Matthew's Gospel, there is not so much as the command to repeat it. This, sure. new. grateful servant, and of the Pharisee and publican, of which parables no one but a man of humanity could have been the author: the mildness and lenity of his character is discovered, in his rebuke of the forward zeal of his disciples at the Samaritan village; in his expostulation with Pilate; in his prayer for his enemies at the moment of his suffering, which, though it has been since very properly and frequently imitated, was then, I apprehend, His prudence is discerned, where prudence is most wanted, in his conduct on trying occasions, and in answers to artful questions. Of these, the following are examples :-His withdrawing, in various instances, from the first symptoms of tumult,|| and with the express care, as appears from Saint Matthew, of carrying on his ministry in quietness; his declining of every species of interference with the civil affairs of the country, which disposition is manifested by his behaviour in the case of the woman caught in adultery,** and in his repulse of the application which was made to him, to interpose his decision about a disputed inheritance :†† his judicious, yet, as it should seem, unprepared answers, will be confessed in the case of the Roman tribute;‡‡ in the difficulty concerning the interfering relations of a future state, as proposed to him in the instance of a woman who had married seves brethren,|||| and, more especially, in his reply to those who demanded from him an explanation of the authority by which he acted, which reply consisted in propounding a question to them, situated between the very difficulties into which they were insidiously endeavouring to draw him.¶¶ Our Saviour's lessons, besides what has already been remarked in them, touch, and that oftentimes by very affecting representations, upon some of the most interesting topics of human duty, and of hu man meditation upon the principles, by which the decisions of the last day will be regulated ;*** upon L Luke ix. 55. Luke xii. 14. t John xix. 11. Luke v. 16, 16. Luke xxiii. 84. *** Matt. xxv. 31, &c., ** the superior, or rather the supreme, importance of religion:* upon penitence, by the most pressing calls, the most encouraging invitations ;t upon selfdenial, watchfulness, placability, confidence in God, the value of spiritual, that is, of mental worship,tt the necessity of moral obedience, and the directing of that obedience to the spirit and principle of the law, instead of seeking for evasions in a technical construction of its terms.‡‡ If we extend our argument to other parts of the New Testament, we may offer, as amongst the best and shortest rules of life, or, which is the same thing, descriptions of virtue, that have ever been delivered, the following passages: "Pure religion, and undefiled, before God and the Father, is this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." "Now the end of the commandment is, charity, out of a pure heart and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."¶¶ "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.*** Enumerations of virtues and vices, and those sufficiently accurate, and unquestionably just, are given by Saint Paul to his converts in three several Epistles.ttt The relative duties of husbands and wives, of pa rents and children, of masters and servants, of Christian teachers and their flocks, of governors and their subjects, are set forth by the same writer,‡‡‡ not indeed with the copiousness, the detail, or the distinctness, of a moralist, who should, in Mark viii. 35. Matt. vi. 31---33. Lake xii. 4, 5. 16---21. † Luke xv. Matt. xxiv. 42.---xxv, 13. Matt. xviii. 33, &c. Mark xiii. 37. Luke xvii. 4. **Matt. vi. 25---30. tt Matt. v. 21. TTI Tim. i. 5. tt John iv. 23, 24. James i. 27. *** Tit. ii. 11, 12. tt Gal. v. 19. Col. iii. 12. 1 Cor. xiii. Eph. v. 33. vi. 1. 5. 2 Cor. vi. 6, 7. Rom. xii. |