think of troubling them with a roll of lineage about his pedigree, nor with many quotations from ancient Prophets, except to let them know that he had been the subject of ancient prophecy, and mention a few instances to show that these prophecies had been most exactly fulfilled in him. He would introduce John the Harbinger merely as a man sent from God." If he spoke of the people of Canaan, he would simply call them Jews. If he introduced any He. brew names, such as Rabbi or Messiah, he would interpret them. If any of the sacred institutions of the Jews' religion, such as the Passover, was introduced, he would call it a feast of the Jews. If he referred to any of the usual customs of the Jews, he would explain them, such as the Jewish manner of purifying. If he spoke of places in that country, he would give a geographical description of them, such as Bethany upon the Jordan. If he alluded to the sectarian feelings of these people, he would describe to what extent they were carried, by informing his readers that the Jews had no intercourse with the Samaritans. Nay, he would adopt the style of the East, as far as compatible with a lucid statement of facts; and as light was a favorite topic of the Asiatics, he would, under this similitude, introduce to their consideration Jesus as "the light of the world." In affording them the evidences of the mission of this wonderful personage, knowing that they would argue much from the reception which Jesus met with at home in his own country, he would be particular in narra., ting the miracles wrought in, and near to, the metropolis; and the different arguments and debates to which they gave rise; and as they would be more likely to have heard his fame from the people that visited Jerusalem at the great annual festivals and convocations, he would more minutely detail what happened on those occasions. Such would be some of his peculiarities in addressing a people so great strangers to the Jewish history.

With similar varieties both Luke and Mark are distin. guished, but for the same reasons, and subordinate to the same ends; and are just as easily understood as those of Matthew and John, when all the preceding considerations are attended to.

The Christian, who sincerely desires to understand these narratives, will not only most unfeignedly present his supplications and prayers to him who gives his Holy Spirit to them that ask him; but he will exercise those faculties of understanding which God has given him, and to which he has adapted all his communications, since man became a transgressor He will apply the same rules of interpreta

PREFACE.

25 tion to these compositions, which he would apply to any other writings of the same antiquity. He will consider the terms, not otherwise explained by the writers, as conveying the same ideas which they are wont to convey in common acceptation. He will always keep the design of the writer before his mind: and for this purpose he will attend to all circumstances requisite to ascertaining his design-such as the character of the writer himself, the cir cumstances of the people whom he addressed, or amongst whom he published his writings, their peculiar prejudices, views, and feelings at the time of his writing to or for them; his own most explicit avowals with regard to his motives and intentions in making any communications to them. All these things will be attended to, and the wri tings examined in the natural order in which they are presented; noting every allusion and incident with the greatest circumspection, whether it regard time, place, or character. But above all, the most prominent object which the writer has in view, will be the most prominent in the considera. tion of a rational reader of his writings. And when diffi. culties occur, not to be satisfactorily solved by the mere import of the words, that meaning which best accords with the design of the whole writing, or with the particular passage, will be preferred.

But, as yet, we have not called the attention of the reader to the ultimate design of these narratives. We have, indeed, noticed that their immediate design is to con. vince the reader that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God-and that this object is subordinate to another design, viz. that THE READER MIGHT, THROUGH THIS CON. VICTION, ENJOY EVERLASTING LIFE.

Reader! This is the glorious end of these sacred histories. On the following pages is inscribed the most astonishing narrative ever read; the sublimest and the simplest story ever told. But this is not all. It is designed to accomplish an object superlatively grand, transcending-in degrees inexpressible-the most magnificent scheme that created intelligence ever conceived. To convert a race of polluted, miserable, and dying mortals, into pure, happy and glorious immortals; to convert the gates of death into the gates of immortality; to make the pathway to rottenness and corruption, a high road to deathless vigor and incorruptible glory; to make the grave the vestibule, the antechamber, to a "house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens;" to make the dying groans of sin-worn nature a prelude to ecstacies unalloyed. Yes, this is the benevolent and glorious design of these Testimonies. Books, written

with such a design, with a design to purify, elevate, and glorify the debased and degraded children of men; to prepare, furnish, and adorn them for the society of principalities and powers, for the society of their God and King, in a world of perfect bliss, most assuredly come with a divine character to man. Their claims on the attention and examination of those to whom they are presented, most certainly are paramount to all others. And the bare hypothesis, to say nothing of the moral certainty, that they came from God, with such a design, is quite enough, methinks, to woo our whole rational nature, to constrain all our moral powers, to test their high pretensions to a char acter so philanthropic and divine.

On such a theme, who would not wish to be eloquent! But how can we equal in style a subject which, when but faintly and in prospective viewed, exhausted the sublimest strains of heaven-taught propnets, and of poets fired with God's own inspiration-whose hallowed lips tasted not the fabled springs of Pagan muses, but the fountain of living waters, springing from eternal love! Yet even these failed to lisp its praise. Nay, the brightest seraph that burns in eavenly light, fails in his best effort, and, in profound hought, pores upon the marvellous theme. The compason of the eternal God, the benevolence and philanthropy of the Father of the whole family in heaven and in earth towards us, the fallen children of his love, has transcended the loftiest grasp of the highest intelligence, and has made to falter the most expressive tongue in all the ranks of heavenly powers. In all the rapturous flights of these morning stars of creation, in all the ecstatic acclamations of these elder Sons of God, the theme has not been reached; and though they have tuned their harps a thousand times, and swelled their voices in full chorus in countless efforts, yet the theme is still unequalled, and, as it were, untouched. Vain, then, would be the attempt, and fruitless every effort, to express, in corresponding terms, a subject so divine. Indeed, we have no language, we have not been taught an alphabet adapted to such a theme.

"Come, then, expressive silence, muse its praise!"

HINTS TO READERS.

IT has been often noticed, that the grand laws of the nat ural world, the fundamental principles of the philosophy of nature, are few and simple; that all sciences predicated upon God's works are reducible to a few leading or general principles. The same may be said of the grandest of all systems, of the noblest of all sciences-God's own system of virtue, and his own science of happiness.

All the law and all the prophets were founded upon two general principles, according to the reasoning of the Author of the Christian religion. In the estimation of the same person, the whole Christian religion is based upon one fact. But this fact is of such an astonishing nature that it affects both heaven and earth. Its meaning is every thing that regulates, or, it is the very principle upon which is founded the moral government of the world. It affects the gov ernment of God over all men, and the cheerful and accep table allegiance of any part of them. It is, to the moral system and to the moral empire, every thing that the Sun is to the solar system and to the globe which we inhabit. It is the centre around which all pure and gracious affec tions in human hearts revolve; and it is the source of light and life to a benighted and dying world. It attracts to itself every happy eye in the universe, and draws to itself every pious emotion in every human breast. The eyes of all saints, in all lands, are gladdened by its light; and the hearts of all are cheered and warmed by its vivifying pow. ers. That the Christian religion should be based upon such a fact is every way worthy of its Author, and exhibits it, to the rational inind, as altogether glorious and divine.

When one question of fact is answered in the affirmative, the way to happiness is laid open, and all doubts on the nature of true piety and humanity are dissipated. The question is one, which the following histories alone can answer. The fact is a historic one, and this question is of the same nature. It is this-Was Jesus the Nazarene, the Son and Apostle of God? This question is capable of being converted into various forms, such as-Are the subsequent narratives true? Did Jesus actually and literally rise from the dead after being crucified and interred? Did

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he ascend into heaven in the presence of his disciples? Is he constituted the Judge of the living and the dead? Or, Was he an impostor and a deceiver of men? It may be proposed in many a form; but it is still a unit, and amounts to this-Is Jesus the Nazarene, the Son of God, the Apos tle of the Father, the Saviour of men? When this question is answered in the affirmative, our duty, our salvation, and our happiness are ascertained and determined.

Although the subsequent writings of the Apostles add an immense weight of evidence to that afforded by these histories, still the fact on which the whole system is built, is exhibited and attested in the following narratives; and from these primarily, if not exclusively, its truth and certainty must be decided.

Any hints, therefore, which may arrest the attention of the youthful reader, and direct his inquiries in a fair and impartial examination of these witnesses, appear to us of primary importance. For if these histories are not understood and believed, there is no enjoyment of the glad tidings which they announce-Philanthropy cannot exhibit itself to so much advantage on the theatre of this life, as in calling the attention, and in directing the pursuits of the young and the thoughtless, in the acquisition of what may be emphatically called the true knowledge.

In addition to the remarks on this subject, found in our preface to the four following narratives, we will subjoin a few important hints, derived from various sources which we cannot, at this time, enumerate. These are designed to aid the youth who are desirous of understanding the following testimonies in their minute and diligent researches into these mines of salvation.

I. Not one of these four historians wrote with any design of improving upon the others, of detailing the things omitted by them, or of supplying any defects which he observed in their statements.

From this it would follow, that none of these writers had any concern or thought, when writing, how his testimony would correspond with any other, or how it might be viewed as an improvement upon it. We know that this is not generally noticed, and that many "Harmonies" and "Sketches of the Life of Jesus," taken from these narratives, are founded upon the supposition that each subsequent history was written with some design to supply the defects of the preceding. But amongst the arguments which support the above position, one is chief; and, in our judgment, alone sufficient to make it manifest to all. For example-Let it be supposed that Luke or John wrote