view, inasmuch as it would leave phenomena of the most remarkable nature wholly unexplained, and would operate to the utter exclusion of all inquiry. Estoppels are odious, even in judicial investigations, because they tend to exclude the truth; in metaphysics they are intolerable. So conscious was Mr. Hume himself of the weakness of his general and sweeping position, that in the second part of his 10th section he limits his inference in these remarkable terms, 'I beg the limitations here made may be remarked, when I say that a miracle can never be proved so as to be the foundation of a system of religion; for I own that otherwise there may possibly be miracles or violations of the usual course of nature of such a kind as to admit of proof from human testimony.'

"In what way the use to be made of a fact, when proved, can affect the validity of the proof, or how i can be that a fact proved to be true is not true for all purposes to which it is relevant, I pretend not to understand. Whether a miracle, when proved, may be the foundation of a system of religion, is foreign to the present discussion; but when it is once admitted that a miracle may be proved by human testimony, it necessarily follows, from Mr. Hume's own concession, that his general position is untenable; for that, if true, goes to the full extent of proving that human testimony is inadequate to the proof of a miracle, or violation of the laws of nature."

THE

RESURRECTION.

ORDER OF EVENTS, AS RECORDED BY THE FOUR

EVANGELISTS.

In the unanswered and unanswerable treatise of GILBERT WEST, Esq. on the resurrection, all seeming contradictions in the narratives of the Evangelists are so fully explained, and the whole subject of the resurrection so amply and ably presented, that it forms one of the most convincing proofs of the truth of Christianity. The reader who would thoroughly examine the subject, is referred to the volume itself. Only the outline of the order of events as presented by the author is here given.

Having thus cleared the way, (he says, section 9,) I snall now set down the several incidents of this wonderful event, in the order in which, according to the foregoing observations, they seem to have arisen; after premising that our Savior, Christ, was crucified on a Friday, (the preparation, or the day before the Jewish Sabbath,) gave up the ghost about three o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, and was buried that evening, before the commencement of the Sabbath, which among the Jews was always reckoned to begin from the first appearance of the stars on Friday evening, and to end at the appearance of them again on the day we call Saturday: that some time, and most probably towards the close of the Sabbath, after the religious duties of the day were over, the chief priests obtained of Pilate, the Roman governor, a guard to watch the sepulchre till the third day was past, pretending to

apprehend that his disciples might come by night and steal away the body, and then give out that he was risen, according to what he himself had predicted while he was yet alive; that they did accordingly set a guard, made sure the sepulchre, and to prevent the soldiers themselves from concurring with the disciples, they put a seal upon the stone which closed up the entrance of the sepulchre.

The order I conceive to have been as follows:

Very early on the first day of the week (the day immediately following the Sabbath, and the third from the death of Christ) Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, in pursuance of the design of embalming the Lord's body, which they had concerted with the other women who attended him from Galilee to Jerusalem, and for the performing of which they had prepared unguents and spices, set out, in order to take a view of the sepulchre, just as the day began to break; and about the time of their setting out, "there was a great earthquake; for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and sat upon it: his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men," during whose amazement and terror Christ came out of the sepulchre; and the keepers being now recovered out of their trance and fled, the angel, who till then sat upon the stone, quitted the station on the outside, and entered into the sepulchre, and probably disposed the linen clothes and napkin in that order in which they were afterwards found and observed by John and Peter. Mary Magdalene, in the meanwhile, and the other Mary, were still on their

;

way to the sepulchre, where, together with Salome (whom they had either called upon or met as they were going,) they arrived at the rising of the sun. And as they drew near, discoursing about the method of putting their intent of embalming the body of their Master in execution, "they said among themselves, who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre ? for it was very great ;" and they themselves (the two Maries at least) had seen it placed there two days before, and seen with what difficulty it was done. But in the midst of their deliberation about removing this great and sole obstacle to their design, (for it does not appear that they knew any thing of the guard,) lifting up their eyes, while they were yet at some distance, they perceived it was already rolled away. Alarmed at so extraordinary and so unexpected a circumstance, Mary Magdalene, concluding that, as the stone could not be moved without a great number of hands, so it was not rolled away without some design, and that they who rolled it away could have no other design but to remove the Lord's body; and being convinced by appearances that they had done so, ran immediately to acquaint Peter and John'with what she had seen and what she suspected, leaving Mary and Salome there, that if Joanna and the other women should come in the meantime, they might acquaint them with their surprise at finding the stone removed and the body gone, and of Mary Magdalene's running to inform the two above-mentioned apostles of it. While she was going on this errand, Mary and Salome went on, and entered into the sepulchre, "and there saw an angel sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto

them, Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth which was crucified; he is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples, and Peter, that he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. And they went out quickly and fled from the sepulchre, for they trembled and were amazed; neither said they any thing to any man, for they were afraid." After the departure of Mary and Salome came John and Peter, who having been informed by Mary Magdalene that the body of the Lord was taken away out of the sepulchre, and that she knew not where they had laid him, "ran both together to the sepulchre, and the other disciple [John] outran Peter, and came first to the sepulchre; and he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter, following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw and believed; for as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain; and they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself