certainly could not but foresee what judgment reasonable persons would form of this report. At best, it was nothing but the soldiers own conjecture, who, by their own confession being asleep when the thing happened, could tell no more of the matter than other people, or, if they pretended to more, it was absurd; for how could they know what was doing, and by whom, while they were asleep? or, knowing it, why did they not awake and prevent it? But the absurdity of this lie was so glaring, that it is a wonder the priests did not rather hire the soldiers to say the disciples filled them so drunk that they fell into a dead sleep; this at least would have rendered it proboble that they stole him away. But even this form of the lie was obnoxious to insuperable ob jections; for though a single person or two may be seduced to betray their trust, a great number are not so easily drawn astray. Among such a number of men as the watch consisted of, some will always be found tinctured with a sense of duty. Moreover, the numerousness of the guard prevented the priests from turning the falsehood into any other shape. The soldiers could not, with any probability, say that the disciples took the body from them by force; for though a handful of people may be so overpowered by a multitude, that they cannot possibly make any resistance, a number of people well armed may fight a superior force; and though they should be overcome, still there will be visible proofs of the attack that was made upon them; lives will be lost, or at least wounds received. In the case of the guards at the sepulchre nothing of this kind was to be seen, whereby it could be made appear that they were attacked; and therefore an assault from the disciples could not be pretended. Nor would the soldiers be prevailed with to spread a report which demonstrated them to have been arrant cowards. In short, the disciples stealing away the body while the guards slept, absurd as it might seem to persons of discernment, was the best colour the priests could put on this affair. Unluckily, however, for the cause of infidelity, it

was

The absurdity of the disciples taking away the body, whether by stealth or force, will clearly appear likewise, if we attend to their temper, and to the circumstances of the case. Far from entertaining any expectation of their Master's rising again from the dead, they understood none of the predictions which he emitted concerning it. And when they were informed of it by the women, their words appeared to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. Nay, when Jesus himself came and stood in the midst of them, they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. In this temper, is it probable that they would form the design of imposing upon the world the belief of their Mas ter's resurrection, an event which they had not the least expectation of themselves? In the second place, when Jesus was apprehended, his disciples were so full of fears for their own safety, that they all forsook him and fled. One of the most courageous of them, who followed him into the high-priest's house, being asked if he was one of his disciples, was so terrified that he denied three times, and with oaths, his having any knowledge

of

was only some of the watch who came to the chief priests to be tutored, the rest had gone to their garrison, where no doubt they told their comrades what had happened. And even those who came to the high-priest had tarried by the way. Part of the night was spent in the house where they had taken shelter, and to the people of that house they had told the true matter of fact. None can doubt this who attends to the nature and operation of human passions. Nor would they be silent as they passed through the streets, if they chanced to meet any one of their acquaintance. Far less would they conceal the matter in the high-priest's palace, while they waited to be called in. It does not appear that the soldiers, either on the score of conscience, or on account of the palpable falsehood of the story they were to propagate, refused the bribe that was offered them by the chief priests. Their love of money, as is common with wicked men, pushed them on headlong. They did not mind the improbability of a numerous guard of soldiers all fast asleep at once, nor the horrid iniquity of the lie. And though they had been greatly confounded with the vision of angels, the panic was by this time worn off. Besides, they did not consider the vision as connected with morality; or if they did, the priests would endeavour to persuade them, that it was nothing real, but the mere effect of their own imagination, terrified by seeing one rise from the dead. The only objection made by the soldiers to the proposal of the priests was, that by publishing such a story they acknowledged the grossest neglect of VOL. II. duty,

4 F

of him. The rest, during his punishment, skulked among the crowd, except John, who ventured to appear among the women at his cross. In the whole they were only eleven; a handful of men who had not been trained to arms. To suppose that a company of this sort either formed or executed the project of stealing away their Master's body, from a sepulchre hewn out of a rock, to which there was only one entry, and that guarded by a numerous band of armed soldiers, is altogether improbable. In the third place, the stealing away of the body by the disciples is absurd, for this reason likewise, that though they had, contrary to all probability, been successful in their design, it would have answered no purpose in the world. The disciples had all along considered Messiah as a great temporal prince, and they had followed their Master in hopes that he would become this great prince, and raise them to the first posts in his kingdom. Accordingly, when they saw him expire upon the cross, their hopes were all blasted at once. This they themselves honestly confessed; "We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel." Wherefore, to have stolen away the dead body of their Master, could serve none of the views by which the disciples were now actuated, even though thereby they could have imposed the belief of his resurrection upon the world. It did not raise him to universal dominion; it did not put them in possession of riches or power. And with respect to the use which they made afterwards of their Master's resurrection, in converting the world, they had not the most distant conception of it at the time they fixed for his resurrection. Upon the whole, the stealing away of the body by the disciples while the guards slept, is, in all the lights wherein it can be viewed, the most idle, inconsistent, and impropable story imaginable.

duty, for which, if the story reached the governor's ears, he would punish them severely. But to make them easy on this head, the priests promised to give such a representation of the matter to Pilate, that no harm should befal them. This only obstacle, therefore, being removed, the soldiers did as they were desired. They told every where the lie which the priests had put into their mouth. A lie the most impudent and barefaced that could be contrived, but which the senate was anxious to have propagated, because they hoped it would be swallowed by many without examination. Nor were they deceived in their expectation; for improbable as the story was, it gained general credit among the enemies of Jesus, and was currently reported at the time Matthew wrote his gospel. Matt. xxviii. 14. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. 15. So they took the money, and did as they were taught. And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. It is evident that, as matters stood, the day must have been pretty far advanced before the soldiers could come into the city. And, therefore, though they fled from the sepulchre about eleven or twelve o'clock the preceding night, we have a better reason for their coming so late in the morning, as is affirmed by Matthew, than if we suppose that Jesus arose when the women went out in a body to the sepulchre at the rising of the

sun."

CLIV. Mary Magdalene, and the company of women, returs from their several interviews with Jesus. Peter runs to the sepulchre a second time, and as he returns, sees the Lord. Mark xvi. 10, 11. Luke xxiv. 12. John xx. 18. 1 Cor. xv. 5.

"THE Company of women having tarried a while with Jesus on the road, by the time that they got back to the apostles, not only Peter and John, but the other disciples were returned from the sepulchre. Perhaps Mary Magdalene likewise was come, for she might easily pass by the women if she travelled in another road. Besides, it is natural to think that she would make all the haste possible, especially as Jesus, for this very purpose, had not permitted her to embrace his knees, as was observed above. Or we may suppose that Mary Magdalene overtook the women on the road, and brought them up with her, after spending a little time in relating to one another what they had seen. It is not material, however, which of them came first, only arriving about the same time, they confirmed each other's accounts. John xx. 18. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples (Mark, as they mourned and wept) that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. But if the things which the women formerly told concerning the vision of angels, appeared in

the

the eyes of the disconsolate disciples as idle tales, what they now! said was reckoned much more so. Mark xvi. 11. And they, when they heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, be lieved not. Only Peter, to whom they repeated the angel's message, because he had been absent when they first came with it, was disposed by his sanguine temper to give a little more credit to their words than the rest seem to have done. For on hearing that the heavenly beings had named him in particular, as one to whom the news should be told, he was much elated with the honour they had done him. And though he was but just come from the sepulchre, he thought proper to go thither a second time, hoping perhaps to see Jesus, or at least the angel who had distinguished him by making mention of his name. Luke xxiv. 12. Then arose Peter, and ran into the sepulchre; and stooping down he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass."

Luke relates Peter's second visit immediately after the account which he has given of the women's first report. But it does not follow from hence, that this visit was made immediately after that report, or in consequence thereof; as those who are acquainted with the manner of writing peculiar to the evangelists very well know. Peter indeed made a visit to the sepulchre, in consequence of Mary Magdalene's first information concerning the body's being taken away, the history of which John has given. But it was different from this. 1. Because he then had heard of nothing but the taking away of the body; whereas now the women had told him of the vision of angels, which said that Jesus was risen. 2. Because at the visit mentioned by John, he went down into the sepulchre, and searched it; whereas at this he only looked in, knowing that if the angels had been visible, they would have appeared immediately. And as for the body, he had fully satisfied his curiosity at the first visit, and was confirmed in the belief of its being away, by seeing the clothes in the same situation as before. 3. Because in returning from this second visit, he is represented as wondering at that which was come to pass; a circumstance which might more naturally be expected to happen now than formerly. The reason is, when he made the first visit he had no thought of the resurrection, and so considered the taking away of the body only as an ordinary occurrence; but now that the women had told him of their having seen angels who assured them that Jesus was alive, he viewed the absence of the body, and the posture of the clothes, in a quite different light, and was struck with wonder. See more on this subject in the Commentary on Luke xxiv. 24. § 153. Our Lord's appearance to Peter, mentioned 1 Cor. xv. 5. may have happened as he was returning from the sepulchre this second

time; for we are certain that the favour was vouchsafed to him on the day of the resurrection. See Luke xxiv. 33, 34.

$ CLV. Jesus appears to two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus. Mark xvi. 12, 13. Luke xxiv. 13,-35.

"THE same day on which Jesus arose, one of his disciples named Cleophas or Alpheus, the husband of Mary who was sister to our Lord's mother, and who, in the history of his resurrection, is called Mary the mother of James, was travelling to Emmaus, a village about seven miles distant from Jerusalem, in company with another disciple whose name is not mentioned, and who, for that reason, is by some supposed to have been Luke himself. The two were in the utmost dejection on account of their Master's death, insomuch that their grief appeared visible in their countenances, Luke xxiv. 17. Moreover, as they went along, they talked of the things that sat heaviest on their spirits. Luke xxiv. 13. And behold two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs. 14. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15. And it came to pass, that while they communed together, and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them, έγγισας συνεπορεύετο. He overtook them as coming himself from Jerusalem. See ver. 18. Probably the disciples had just left the city when Jesus came up with them; for on any other supposition, he could not have had time to deliver all the things which the evangelist tells us he spake to them. See ver. 27. It seems he shewed himself to them immediately after he left the company of women. 16. But their eyes were holden * that they should not know him: They were held by his miraculous power; or they mistook him by reason of his appearing to them in an unusual dress. Mark seems to intimate this circumstance in the account which he gives of the matter. Mark xvi. 12. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked and went into the country. Or the phrase in Luke, according to the force of the Hebrew idiom, may denote the effect, without any intimation of the cause at all. By the alteration which Jesus could easily make in the tone of his voice, while speaking, and by his new dress, he might be concealed from them, especially as they still believed he was dead, and had no expectation of his re

surrection.

Ver. 16. But their eyes were holden.] In the nineteenth book of the Odyssey, we have an instance exactly parallel to this, in Euryclea's discovery of Ulysses. For though it was made in the presence of Penelope, and was attended with such circumstances as might have engaged her attention, and led her to know that her guest was her husband, yet she did not then discover who he was. This the poet represents as the effect of Minerva's diverting her attention, or employing it otherwise; that is to say, Pene lope at that instant was wholly intent on something else, and did not ats tend to what was passing.