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The night was originally divided into three parts or watches, Psalm lxiii. 6, xc. 4, Sam. ii. 19; middle watch, Judges vii. 19; morning watch, Exod. xiv. 24.

In the time of our Saviour a fourth watch was introduced from the Romans, Matt. xiv. 25, Mark vi. 48.

N.B. The third hour of the day was our nine A.м. (Mark xv. 25); the sixth our twelve at noon (Luke xxiii. 44); and the ninth our three P.M. (Matt. xxvii. 45), the time of evening sacrifice beginning. St. John (xix. 14) states that Christ stood before Pilate about (woɛi) the sixth hour. Burton is wrong in saying, Mark says (xv. 25) тpirη; for Mark applies τpírη to the crucifixion, three hours afterwards. John had just before said (xviii. 25), it was early when Christ was brought before Pilate. St. John used the Roman notation, which, by the time of his writing his Gospel, had become established. Burton says this will not solve the difficulty: with submission, I maintain it completely solves the difficulty. Bloomfield says, the true reading is T, Tρírη, mistaken for 5, and quotes several MSS.; but this pin is applied by the other evangelists to the crucifixion, and no time is left (if at the same pirn Christ was judged) for the sending of Jesus to Herod, with his return for the remainder of the trial, and the slow and painful passage along the Via Dolorosa.

Adam (Roman Antiq. p. 332) says, the Roman civil day was from midnight to midnight. John's sixth hour was six in the morning, i. e. early, and corresponds well to the transactions. of the whole preceding night, and the denial of Peter at the cock-crowing (gallicinium), which was at the third watch, or three in the morning.

47. Christ without sin. Doctrine of our Articles.

In the fifteenth article Christ is said to be like unto us in all things, sin only excepted, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh and in his spirit; and that being thus a Lamb without spot, he was fitted by the sacrifice of himself to take away the sins of the world. This article is founded in Scripfor we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but he was in all points

ture;

tempted like as we are, yet without sin. 1 Peter ii. 22, Christ did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. On the other hand, all men are sinners, and have need of an atonement; for there is none righteous, no, not one, Rom. iii. 10. All we like sheep have gone astray... and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, Isa. liii. 6. If he had had any sin, he would have required a Redeemer, as well as all men; but (1 John iii. 5) ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him was no sin.

48. Title of the "Son of Man," applied to Christ and to Ezekiel.

The title of Son of Man, applied by Christ to himself, and never by any other person in the New Testament, except once by the dying St. Stephen (Acts vii. 56), occurs sixty-one times in the Gospels. It is taken from Dan. vii. 13, 14, where that name is applied to the Messiah, and everlasting and universal dominion is given to him. The corresponding title, ó viòç Tou Θεοῦ, shews that this belongs to Christ κατ' ἐξοχήν; and both taken together evince the union of his divine and human natures. Against the Gnostics, who affirmed that he was man alone until his baptism, when a spiritual and divine influence united itself to him, and against the Socinians, who wholly deny his divinity, it proves that he was very man and very God. Bishop Middleton says, that this title is employed by our Saviour in speaking of his present humiliation or his future glory, shewing that the human nature did not originally belong to him. Bloomfield's Synopsis on Matthew viii. 20, and Middleton on the Greek Article.

Ezekiel is called Son of Man ninety times in his prophecies, because they were visions communicated to him by Jehovah, who gave him that title, Ezek. ii. 1. God, in holding personal intercourse with a mortal creature, would humble his pride, and bring to his remembrance (Psalm viii. 4), what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? is always considered as more humiliating (as in Psalm viii. 4, Dan. ii. 1) than ; yet St. Paul (Heb. ii. 6) applies this lowly expression to the Saviour humbled and exalted.

49. Roman punishment for sedition.

"Auctores seditionis et tumultûs, concitato populo, pro qualitate dignitatis, aut in crucem tolluntur (as slaves), aut bestiis subjiciuntur" (as rebels).-Wetstein on Matt. xxvii. 22.

The Jews arraigned our Lord for blasphemy before Caiaphas, of which the punishment by their law was stoning, Levit. xxiv. 14; but as the power of capital punishment had passed from them, they next accused him before the Roman governor of sedition, and calling himself king (Luke xxiii. 2); or of stirring up the people (Luke xxiii. 5); for which he was scourged and crucified. Paul and Silas were scourged and imprisoned at Philippi for troubling the city, Acts xvi. 20, 23. Barabbas had been cast into prison for sedition, Luke xxiii. 19.

50. Divinity of the Holy Ghost.

Ananias, Satan hath filled thy heart to lie to the Holy Ghost (Acts v. 3), compared with ver. 4, Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, &c.; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God, Luke i. 35. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 1 Cor.

iii. 16.

51. Christianity not an invention of the apostles.

We are here to consider, 1st, The system and plan of Christianity; and, 2d, The persons who are supposed to have devised it.

Christianity was a system intended to overthrow all the false religions of the world, and to bring in a new era; to put an end to the ordinances of the Jewish law, by introducing a new explanation of them; humbling to the pride of those who expected temporal dominion and prosperity; and irksome to the carnal affections of those who were now taught to spiritualise in their mind all those outward ceremonies in which they had concentrated their obedience. It was intended to silence the wisest philosophers, and to draw them into its light by convincing them of their darkness. It was intended to produce a thorough

moral reformation in the whole world-to propose an eternity of happiness, prepared, not for the conquering warrior, the brilliant orator, the proud philosopher, the wealthy giver of largesses; but for the peace-makers, the merciful, the pure in heart to substitute purity of thought for ostentation of conduct to preach a religion, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness. It was intended to unfold the moral disease of man, and to propose the remedies-to reveal mysterious doctrines, suited to the wants of men .to clear up doubt-to console sorrow-to make death welcome -and to adapt itself to all ages, countries, conditions, and characters.

Now, secondly, who are supposed to have devised so magnificent a scheme?-Twelve simple men, illiterate fishermen and mechanics; too honest in their general character to incur the suspicion of imposture; endowed with plain sense, but not gifted with scholastic literature or intellectual cultivation; men, too, replete with Jewish prejudices. Such was the rush that was to be a lever to overturn the world, and that too (according to the sceptic's hypothesis) without supernatural assistance; for the moment such assistance is mentioned, the supposition of imposture is given up. God would not yield assistance to impostors; and Satan also would not assist men employed in overturning his own kingdom.

These men, to form so wild a plan with means so weak, must have been the most presumptuous of all impostors; and the more so, if they considered the opposition they might every where expect from magisterial power, priestly interest, Jewish prejudice, and pagan depravity; or, when they began to experience opposition, incarceration, stripes, torture, rejection, and mockery, without any enjoyment of advantage, or any hope of earthly good in return (for, on the supposition of a lie, hope of heaven was out of the question), they must, to avoid death, have returned to silence. Yet we know they bore and courted the most ignominious and cruel deaths. What else could they expect, with the death of their leader before their eyes? What else did they continually experience? and yet without retraction.

If there had been a compact of deceit among the apostles,

their different characters and occasional differences would have broken it. They could not have been all consistent in the common falsehood; some one would have blabbed, or become fainthearted, or contradicted himself. Again, if they forged the New Testament history, they must have forged the Old; they must have accompanied and dictated prophecy in all ages; lived with Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets; arranged all the types and sacrifices; and influenced Daniel to fix even the precise time of the Messiah's appearance. But the Old Testament existed in the Greek of the Septuagint two hundred years before the apostles; and we know that the New is a continuation and fulfilment of the Old Testament.

The character of the apostles, if they had invented Christianity, must have been that at once of the most virtuous and the most wicked of men. Either disbelieving a future state, and daily braving death which would terminate prematurely in torments the only life they had to enjoy; or having some faint notion of futurity, and of its rewards to virtue, their whole life must have been one continued scene of perjury, their solemn declarations blasphemy, and their whole behaviour madness. Nor would the impiety of such a course have been inferior to its inhumanity-that of persuading men to leave all, and to lay down their lives in support of one they knew to be an impostor. Christianity is a system of spiritual freedom by truth, and of love to God and man. Can all the advocacy of truth as essential to salvation come from the lips of deliberate falsehood - all that breathes benevolence from the heart of wickedness? To all this we add the success of the Gospel, as a proof that neither the apostles, nor any power merely human, could have framed it; as a proof that it came from, and was supported by, God. If it were not supported and forwarded by miracles, its wonderful and rapid success without them is itself a greater miracle than any we are called upon to believe.

Se 'l mondo si revolse al' Christianesmo

Diss' io, senza miracoli, quest' uno

E tal', che gli altri non sono 'l centesmo.

DANTE, Paradiso, cant. xxiv.

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