2nd. That our Lord ascended from the neighbourhood of Bethany, or some part of the Mount of Olives, and was taken up into heaven, Acts i. 9—12.

3rd. That several women, including the mother of Jesus, had accompanied our Lord from Galilee to Jerusalem, Acts i. 14; xiii. 31.

4th. That Judas, one of the twelve, betrayed the Lord Jesus, and was a guide to those who took him, and died soon after in remorse by a violent death, so that a well-known field at Jerusalem derived its name from the event, and was called, "The field of blood," Acts i. 16, 19.

5th. That our Lord's death was at or near the time of the Jewish passover. This appears from the history by plain inference; for we are told that our Lord rose the third day, that he was seen forty days by the apostles, that the baptism of the Spirit was to be not many days after his ascension, and that it took place on the day of Pentecost. Assuming ten days for the interval, which is indeterminate, the death of our Lord would fall on the very day of the passover.

6th. That Pilate had determined to release Jesus, and was only prevented from so doing by the hatred and obstinacy of the Jewish rulers, Acts iii. 13. That, while they publicly rejected Christ, they desired as a favour the acquittal of a murderer in his stead, ver. 14.

7th. That not only Pilate, but also Herod, and Jews and Gentiles alike, had some active share in the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, Acts iv. 27.

8th. That our Lord rose again the third day, and appeared afterwards, not to all the people, but only to chosen witnesses, and especially to the apostles, Acts x. 40, 41.

9th. That our Lord, before he ascended, promised to send down the Spirit upon his followers before they left Jerusalem, Acts xi. 16.

10th. That the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the two leading sects among the Jews, of whom the Sadducees denied a resurrection, while the Pharisees and the great body of the nation fully believed in it, Acts xxiii. 7, 8; xxiv. 15; xxvi. 6, 7.

11th. That it was predicted of the Christ that he would suffer death, and be the first to rise from the dead, and afterwards become a light of the Gentile nations, Acts xxvi. 23.

No. VIII.

There are a few general remarks, which are naturally suggested by this review of the testimony contained in the book of Acts to the gospel history.

And first, nearly all the facts which the epistles announce respecting our Lord's personal history are confirmed by the book of Acts; while not one contradiction, even in appearance, exists between them.

Secondly, since it is a direct narrative, and mounts twenty years higher than the letters, as far back as to the time of the ascension, the book of Acts reveals many other particulars which do not appear in the letters. Such are the names of the other nine apostles, besides Peter, James, and John, the interval from the resurrection to the ascension, the name of our Lord's mother, his residence at Nazareth, the baptism of John, and the continuance of his disciples more than twenty years after the crucifixion, the treachery of Judas and his fearful end, the concurrence of Herod and Pilate in our Lord's death, the desire of Pilate for his release and the opposition of the Jews, the scene of the ascension, and the conversation of Christ with the apostles after his resurrection.

Thirdly, all these facts, which are contained in the book of Acts, appear again in the four gospels, but with still more copious details. There is no appearance of contradiction, although there are several points where the coincidence is only indirect. Such is the exact length of the interval from the resurrection to the ascension, the end of Judas after his treachery, and the circumstances relating to the field of blood, the exact place of the ascension, the course of our Lord's ministry, beginning in Galilee and closing at Jerusalem, and the upper room where the apostles were assembled at the day of Pentecost. There is here exactly the gradation which we should naturally expect in a direct narrative of our Lord's life, a narrative of events beginning at its close, where some retrospective allusions would be sure to occur, and a series of letters, of which the earliest is more than twenty years later, yet all of them alike based upon the certain truth of a public and notorious history.

Finally, these retrospective allusions, while they include all the main elements of the gospel history, are so imbedded in the narrative, and are presented in such various forms, that

they cannot be set aside without a rejection of the whole narrative. Some of them occur in the statements of the historian himself; but others in the discourse of Peter after the ascension, others on the day of Pentecost, others in the address to Cornelius, others in the discourse of Paul at Antioch, and others in the history of his stay at Ephesus, and others, finally, in his defence before Agrippa. The woof of Divine truth is so skilfully woven, that the attempt to get rid of one thread can only succeed by a desperate determination to sacrifice the whole. The epistles and the Acts, by mutual comparison, prove their own truth and authenticity, and then, by their joint allusions, they establish the main facts of the evangelical narrative, before we enter on the internal testimony of the gospels themselves.

CHAPTER III.

THE INTERNAL COINCIDENCE OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.

THE allusions in the book of Acts and in the epistles of St. Paul, it has now been clearly shown, establish the truth of the main outlines of the Gospel history. To complete the line of reasoning adopted in the "Horæ Paulinæ," we should now consider the undesigned coincidences in the four gospels themselves. This inquiry, however, to be pursued thoroughly, would require a distinct work, and a full investigation of their probable dates, their mutual relations to each other, the proper mode of harmonizing their narratives, and the other main questions which have occupied harmonists and critics in every age of the church until now. In this closing chapter a few only of those coincidences will be selected which are most capable of a separate exhibition, apart from all deeper research into the order and connexion of the whole evangelical history. It will merely be assumed that the fourth gospel, of St. John, was composed later than the others, and that these were in existence before the latest epistles of St. Paul were written. No. I.

Matt. viii. 16. "When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick.”

There is here no reason assigned why the sick were not, on this occasion, brought to Jesus until the evening. On turning, however, to the narrative in the other gospels, Mark i. 32;

Luke iv. 40, 41, this reason is apparent. We are told that on the sabbath day Jesus entered into the synagogue at Capernaum, and taught; that immediately on leaving it he entered into the house of Simon, and it was the very same evening on which this crowd of applicants for mercy were gathered at the door. Now from Matt. xii. 10, it also appears that the opinion was common among the Jews, that it was not lawful to heal on the sabbath day. We have thus a clear reason why the people waited until the evening, but one of which no trace exists in Matthew's narrative, taken alone.

No. II.

Matt. x. 2. "Now the names of the twelve apostles are these the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphæus, and Lebbæus, whose surname was Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.”

In the two other gospels, the seventh and eighth names occur in a different order. Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, where the distinctive title, the publican, is also wanting. The whole list is composed of six pairs of names, the order of which seems to have been determined by the order of their call, whether to be disciples or apostles. Matthew places his own name second in the pair to which it belongs, and adds the offensive epithet, the publican. Mark and Luke, on the contrary, place his name before that of his comrade, and withhold the title which he himself has added in a feeling of humility. This minute difference is naturally explained by the modesty of the evangelist, and thus becomes a pledge for the genuineness of the whole Gospel where it appears. No. III.

The four gospels, without any direct assertion, lead us to the same conclusion, that Joseph was dead before our Lord's ministry began. This will appear by collating the passages.

John ii. 1, 2, 12. "And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days."

Matt. xii. 46, 48. "While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren ?"

Ch. xiii. 55, 56. "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us?"

Mark iii. 31. "There came then his brethren and his mother, and standing without, sent unto him, calling him.” Ch. vi. 3. "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?"

Luke viii. 10. "Then came to him his mother and his brethren, and could not come at him for the press.'

"John xix. 25. "Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home."

There is thus no mention of the presence of Joseph at the feast in Cana, or the return to Capernaum, during the message of our Lord's relatives, the visit to Nazareth, or the crucifixion. All the four narratives agree, indirectly, in leading to the same conclusion, that the death of Joseph was earlier than our Lord's ministry. This agreement is unlikely to have occurred in fictitious narratives, and is therefore one mark, in the gospels, of their historical reality.

No. IV.

Matt. xiii. 2. "And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into the ship (rò πλočov) and sat."

The meaning of the definite article in this passage is so far from being evident, that our translators have omitted it entirely. No ship has been mentioned in this context, to which it can be referred. How, then, can the peculiar expression be accounted for?