Jerusalem. So they ran both together: and the other dis- John xx. 4. ciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he, stooping down, and looking in, saw John xx. 5. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and John xx, 6. And the napkin that was about his head, not John xx. 7. Then went in also that other disciple, which John xx. 8. proceeding from different motives, and the circumstances attending them are re- 16 The disciple whom Jesus loved came first to the sepulchre, and when he St. Peter entered and examined the tomb, St. John went in also; and he says of himself, "And he saw and believed (a)." What he saw was the same that St. Peter did: but what did he believe? An answer to this, I trust, we shall be able to collect from some circumstances in the history. When Peter went into the tomb he saw the linen clothes, Kɛiμeva, lying at full length, as when the body was in them; and the napkin, VTetuλiyμévov, folded up in wreaths in the form of a cap (b), as it been when it was upon our Lord's head. The Apostle, Ocwpei, accurately viewed, with some degree of contemplation, the burial clothes lying thus in such remarkable order: and it is no wonder he was astonished at this state of the tomb, which he could not account for; and though it might have seemed to him to border somewhat on the miraculous, yet it does not appear, from this part of the history, that he had any idea of the reality of our Lord's resurrection (c). The astonishment of Peter excited the attention of John, who then went down into the sepulchre, and on seeing that the body must have miraculously slipped out of its grave clothes, which lay in their right order, he saw and believed. St. John's belief, then, of the resurrection arose from what he saw; "He saw and believed:" but, at the same time, he honestly and candidly acknowledges his "slowness of heart to believe the sure word of prophecy;" and seems in a manner to reprehend himself for grounding his belief merely on what he saw, when he should have founded it rather on the unerring prophecies of Scripture, which were written for his learning; but he adds, as an apparent apology, (b) Luke xxiv. 12. (c) Luke xxiv. 25, 26, (a) John xx. 8. John xx. 9. John xx, 10. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he Jerusalem. must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home. "that they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again from the dead." The interpretation contended for, seems to flow in a natural and easy manner from the context of the Evangelist, and shews the inutility of a before iπiEvσ in the Cambridge MS. or version; the Latin translation of which has no negative particle (d). But however we must be allowed to assert, that neither a report nor insinuation of the resurrection was necessary to John's believing it: he might have believed the resurrection, and did believe it, as the context of the Evangelist shows, without any prior report; and he inferred it, as he reasonably might, from the state of the tomb, which afforded to an impartial and thoughtful mind, a very strong presumptive argument of the reality of that miracle. When St. John therefore entered the tomb, and accurately examined the linen clothes, a new combination of ideas must have extorted from him a belief which he could not have had before; a belief of something more momentous than the report that the body had been taken away: and what belief could this have been but of the resurrection? We may observe also, that St. John's believing the resurrection from what he saw, is contrasted with his not knowing, and therefore not believing, it from Scrip ture. If it be said, that when the women told the eleven of the resurrection, the Apostles disbelieved them, and received their report as idle tales, and that this account therefore is inconsistent with St. John's believing the resurrection, it may be answered, it is not necessary to suppose that St. John made a public declaration of his belief; he might have thought it prudent to keep it inwardly to himself; for, "he might have believed that Christ had risen again, though this faith or belief was yet weak, and stood in need of some further proof to confirm it." Therefore, while the women were reporting their glad tidings, and most of the Apostles scoffing at them as idle tales, St. John, who had no positive certainty of the truth of what they asserted, might have held his peace, and said nothing either for or against them; in which case, it might have been then presumed, that he was in the same mood of thinking as the others, though he takes care himself to tell us, that he was not (e). (d) See Doddridge's Family Expositor. Newcome, ap. Bowyer's Conjectures, p. 329. (e) See on this verse Archbishop Jerusalem. SECTION XV. Mary Magdalene having followed Peter and John, remains at the JOHN XX. part of ver. 11. But Mary stood without, at the sepulchre, John xx. ll. ̧ weeping ". SECTION XVI. Mary Magdalene looks into the Tomb, and sees two Angels. JOHN XX. part of ver. 11. ver. 12, 13. and part of ver. 14. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked John xx. 11. into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels 18 in white, sitting the John xx. 12. 17" Mary," says Lightfoot, "stood at the sepulchre without;" that is, within the cave, on the floor, but without that deeper cave, where the r, or "places for the bodies," were deposited. She had followed the disciples, but they had left the sepulchre immediately after they had satisfied themselves of the absence of the body. She now arrived the second time at the tomb, and dis appointed at finding they had left it without communicating the result of their inquiry, she weeps at the supposed profanation of the sepulchre by the unknown hands which had removed the body of her Lord, and at the scene of misery, anguish, and death, to which she had been witness. That Mary was now alone; is evident from the manner in which St. Mark, xvi. 9. describes the appearance of our Lord to her, as well as from the way in which the same narrative is told at greater length by John, xx. 11-14. 18 The doctrine of the ministry of angels, so much esteemed by the primitive Church, as well as by the most eminent and pious Christians of all ages, has now become one of those which, without any one well founded argument, is to be reasoned away. The repeated appearances of angels, both in the old and new dispensations, seem designed to point out to us the near, though mysterious, connexion of the invisible state with that which we now inhabit. And what can be more consolatory to the believer than the idea which this, and other passages of Scripture, appear so much to corroborate, than the belief that the angels of heaven are around us, the ministering spirits of God, for our good watching over us, and fulfilling the wisdom of his providence? Why should this opinion be disclaimed? Angels were present at the creation; they have been repeatedly manifested to man. To Isaiah the Seraphim appeared veiling their faces with wide-spreading wings. The form that was visible to Ezekiel had the semblance of a lambent flame, enveloping what seemed its body. To the women they appeared in shining garments, and to the keepers at the sepulchre as lightning, with raiment white as snow. They are the happy possessors of that blessedness to which the spirits of the departed hope to be admitted. And they shall be again visible in their thousands of thousands, at that magnificent John xx. 13. John xx. 14. one at the head, and the other at the feet, where Jerusalem, 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 back, and saw Jesus standing. SECTION XVII. Christ first appears to Mary Magdalene, and commands her to inform the Disciples that he had risen. Mark xvi. 9. MARK XVI. 9. JOHN XX. part of ver, 14. and ver. 15-18. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magda-Luke vili. 2. lene 19, out of whom he had cast seven devils. and glorious triumph, when the Ancient of Days shall sit on the throne of his glory, and the assembled universe be summoned before his high tribunal. Is it impossible, then, that they are the invisible, yet efficient agents, in many of those innumerable events which are attended with moral and religious benefit to individuals, and to the world; which are but too generally ascribed to incidental circumstances, or to the well laid plans of human policy? The soul of man is gifted with powers and properties which are distinct from the human body, and which it possesses in common with superior beings. I cannot believe, therefore, that idea to be irrational, which represents the manner of our present union with the invisible world by the following ingenious and curious image. Suppose a number of lighted lamps were placed in a room, one of which only was covered with an earthen vessel, the lamp so encumbered, as soon as the covering was either broken or removed, would find itself in the same state and condition with the other lamps. So it may be with the accountable spirit of man. The earthen vessel of the body may be broken by violence, or silently destroyed by sickness or age, but, as soon as the veil or the covering of the body is removed, the unfettered spirit finds itself the companion of kindred spirits, which, though now unseen, are continually surrounding it. The time is not far hence, when we shall know, even as we are known; in the mean time, the very attempt to speculate upon these things, elevates and purifies the mind (a). 19 ON THE RESURRECTION. As woman brought death into the world, a woman was made the first witness of the resurrection of life. Of the manner of Christ's existence after he arose from the dead we can form no adequate conception. The manner of the resur (a) On the subject of angels, see Wheatley's Sermons; Hammond on the Angelic Life, a very curious and valuable work; a sermon of Bishop Bull's, &c. &c. John xx. 14. Jerusalem. and [she] knew not that it was Jesus. John xx. 14. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest John xx. 15. rection of the same body was, and is, one of the most incomprehensible difficulties of Christianity; and our Lord therefore has condescended to teach the doctrine, not, like the generality of his other doctrines, by arguments and reasoning, but by repeated facts, and those of the most undeniable nature. And he taught it, lastly, by his appearing to his disciples after his resurrection. Before that time our Lord had lived among his disciples as a man among his companions. He was in all points like unto them, sin only excepted. After that event his body, though to appearance the same as it had ever been, assumed various properties and powers which it had not before possessed. We read, that when the disciples had assembled in a room, the doors of which were shut for fear of the Jews, Jesus suddenly stood in the midst. On the evening of the day of his resurrection, he joins himself to two of his disciples as they were going to Emmaus. He enters into conversation with them. He talks of the Scriptures and of himself, till their hearts burn within them. But their eyes were holden, and they did not know him. When they came to their own home, he sat down with them, and then it was, in breaking the bread, that he made himself known; but at the very instant, when they were filled with joy, he became invisible: he vanished out of their sight. Before his resurrection our Lord had conversed familiarly with his disciples; after that event he was seen only occasionally among them, in a more solemn and mysterious manner. His great object on these occasions seems to have been, to increase their faith, and to convince them that the same body they had beheld committed to the ground, was now raised to life again, in a glorified form. He proves to them that a door, or a wall, or the sides of a grave, could not oppose his progress. He passes through solid matter as through the yielding air, yet he had still a body which they could touch and handle, bearing the marks of the spear and the prints of the nails. The day of his ascension arrives, Christ ascends by his own power. No horses of fire, no chariots of fire, elevated him. Of himself, he raised himself, a divine and glorious being, into the blue firmament of heaven; and he ascended where he still remains, with his Father, and our Father, with his God, and our God. This doctrine of the resurrection of the body, which our Lord and Saviour thus taught by action, is explained in the Epistles of St. Paul, by the most powerful and eloquent reasoning. "Some man will say, how are the dead rasied up, and with what body do they come? That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain." That is, as the labourer may commit to the ground, in the winter or in the spring, the seed of a flower, or a grain of wheat, which in the course of its appointed time rises from the ground in a different and superior form, with the beautiful blossom, and the fragrant flower; so also the mouldering body, which is committed to the ground, may be called the seed of that body which shall be raised from the grave in glory. We are removed from the sight of our nearest kindred and our dearest friends. "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." But the pale and corrupting corse, the cold clay, the fading features, and the icy limbs, shall burst from the tomb of earth, and be clothed with the beauty of holiness! "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual |