labour to serve him, to aspire after the enjoyment of him, should methinks appear to every one, even on the slightest reflection, a bond of union too strong to be broken by the different apprehensions that one or another of us may entertain, (perhaps too after diligent inquiry,) concerning the exact sense of some of the doctrines he taught, or the circumstantial forms of some of his institutions. An humble sense of dur own weakness, and of the many imperfections of our character, which will never be more deeply felt than when we consider ourselves as standing before our divine Master, will dispose us to mutual candour, will guard us against the indecency of contending in his presence, and will, as St. Paul with admirable spirit expresses it, dispose us to receive one another, as Christ hath received us. Yea our hearts will be so eagerly desirous of employing our life in serving him to the best purpose we tan, that we shall dread the thought of mispending, in our mutual animosities, accusations, and complaints, the time that was given us for ends so much nobler, and which is capable of being employed to the honour of our common Lord, and for the benefit of the church and the world.

I hope, I have not forgot, in the ensuing work, this lesson which I have on every occasion been so solicitous to inculcate on others. It would have been almost impossible, on some texts which have fallen before me, especially in this third volume, not to have shewn my sentiments on some points of discipline, in which, if they were not different from those which generally prevail, my known conduct in continuing among the Protestant Dissenters would be equally foolish and wicked. Yet, in handling these texts, I have not only conscientiously abstained from all reproaches, to which indeed I am on no occasion inclined, and which I should esteem peculiarly indecent where the religious establishment of my country is in question, and above all where a body of men would be affected, many of whom have been, and are, among the ablest advocates and brightest ornaments of our common Christianity : but I have also been careful to adjust my expressions with as much tenderness and respect, as integrity and that reverence which an honest man would owe to the judgment of his own conscience, were it much more singular than mine, would admit. On these principles I have chosen to content myself, with giving what I take to be the true and genuine sense of the scripture in question, rather than to point out any society or body of men that seem to have mistaken it.

I have also been obliged, in many of my interpretations, to differ from writers of various countries, and of various denominations in our own, whom I greatly esteem, and from whom on other passages I have received much light; but I have in such cases been careful not to drop any severe word: as indeed I think, where we have reason to believe that a writer sincerely intends to illustrate Scripture, and to inform the world, he has so far at least a title to our candour and respect; though VOL. 3.

2

we may imagine him to be much mistaken in his judgment, and may think it our duty to endeavour to point out his mistake, and to guard others against it. I hope, such a conduct will need no apology to the living writers with whom I have taken such a liberty; nor shall I take it amniss to be animadverted upon by any of them, with the same spirit: and, if I may by this means be led to rectify any mistakes into which I may have unwarily fallen, I hope I shall be duly sensible of the obli gation: For I esteem an endeavour to set a man right in religious opinions, which we ourselves apprehend to be important, the second office of Christian friendship, as that of attempting to reform his morals is undoubtedly the first.

No offence will, I hope, be taken at the method I have thought myself obliged in honour and conscience to have recourse to, for solving some of the difficulties which have occurred, and which I knew not how to account for candidly any other way, than by supposing, that here and there our received reading hath varied from the original. I believe, it will be allowed by every competent judge, that there is no one manuscript now in the world unexceptionably exact. And it is some satisfaction to me to reflect, that critics of the first character for modesty, piety, and orthodoxy, have not only made use of this expedient, but have abundantly justified it in their writings: among whom I cannot forbear mentioning those two justly celebrated critics, as well as accurate divines, Calvin and Beza; the latter of which has expressed his sentiments on this head in so judicious, correct, and elegant a manner, that I cannot forbear inserting his own words at the bottom of the page, though I have had obvious reasons in this work for taking care not to load the margin with quotations from the learned languages.*

I am sensible, how much I am indebted to the public for the kind reception it was pleased to give to the two former volumes. I hope they who favoured them with their patronage and encouragement, and

Beza in his note on Acts vii. 14, when he proposes the conjectural emendation of Tales instead of revle, adds, "Neque vero hujus erroris observatio quenquam debet offendere, vel in dubium revocare verbi divini auctoritatem ; quum et ex Hebræa veritate, ut diximus, emendetur, & salva nihilominus, tum doctrinæ, tum etiam historiæ ipsius, fides permaneat: & res ipsa clamat, non uno loco, temporis injuria, persecutionum acerbitate, adversariorum veritatis fraude, hæreticorum audacia, pastorum denique inscitia & oscitantia, numerorum notus labefactari, & alia periculosiora in sacros libros invehi potuisse : Quæ tamen eruditi & sancti homines, tum ex aliorum locorum collatione, tum ex fidei analogia, partim animadverterunt, & emendarunt ; partim etiam posteris observanda, & corrigenda reliquerunt: Sic prospiciente suæ ecclesiæ Domino, ut quamvis integri non pauci libri interciderint, & errata de quibus dixi irrepserint, tamen salutis doctrinam totam his ipsis libris certissime & verissime comprehensam habeat ecclesia, et ad finem usque sæculorum sit habitura."

Calvin on Mat. xxvii. 9, Harm. Evang. pag. 354, speaking of the insertion of Jeremiah's name (as he thinks) for Zechariah's, says roundly, "Quomodo Hieremiæ nomen obrepserit, me nescire fateor, nec anxie laboro. Certe Hieremiæ nomen errore positum esse pro Zecharia, res ipsa ostendit, quia nihil tale apud Hiereniam legitur, vel etiam quod accedat." And on Acts vii. 16, where the name of Abraham seems to be put for that of Jacob, he says, “In nomine Abrahæ erratum esse palam est: Quare hic locus corrigendus est."

PREFACE.

xi have an opportunity of perusing this, will find by what I now offer them, that the indulgence shewn me, far from making me indolent, hath rather quickened my diligence. If God grant me life and health, I propose concluding the whole in three volumes more; in which I shall still endeavour, by the divine assistance, uprightly to illustrate what I in my conscience believe to be the true sense of the sacred wrilers; and shall at the same time labour, to the utmost of that ability which God may give me, to elevate, to animate, and to unite the hearts of my fellow Christians, that I may subserve the grand plan of the gospel, and give the most substantial proof, that I have not studied its doctrines in vain. May I ever reap the first fruits of the attempt in my own soul! And if the slender and precarious thread of my life be cut short, before, in the midst of so many other necessary employments, such a work can be completed, may God graciously accept a purpose with which I trust he has inspired a breast unfeignedly devoted to his service! And may he in that case raise a much abler hand to execute a task, at the prospect of which, though after the preparation of more than twenty years, I feel a secret kind of terror, mingling itself with all the delight with which I am springing forward to undertake it!

Northampton, Dec. 11, 1746.

SINCE I

POSTSCRIPT.

I first published the two former volumes of the Family FXpositor, I have taken the Harmony under an attentive review; but though the publication of this volume, which has long since gone through the press to the end of the Chronological Table, has been delayed so many months beyond my expectation, yet during all this time I have not met with any convincing reasons for transposing one section of it. A variety of necessary engagements have prevented my taking the new and elaborate work of the Reverend Mr. Pilkington on this subject under that accurate examination which the learning, ingenuity, and candour apparent in it on the slightest view may well demand. I hope I shall soon have the pleasure of doing it, and shall receive much light and benefit from it. In the mean time, as a speci men of the readiness with which I shall make my acknowledgments on any such occasion, for farther instruction on subjects on which I have publicly delivered my own thoughts, I cannot but mention the great pleasure with which I have traced the illustration which the account of our Lord's resurrection has received, from those very weighty and accurate observations which have been made upon it, with so much sagacity, delicacy, and candour, by Gilbert West, Esq.

It is a great satisfaction to me, to find that we agree in several very important circumstances of the story, in which some late very ingenious writers on this subject have differed from us both; as it likewise is to see, that several of those versions and criticisms which I had proposed and pleaded for, have the sanction of Mr. West's concurrence in them. But as this gentleman has advanced several very material things relating to this very important part of the Harmony of the Evangelists, which were wholly unthought of by me or any other commentators that I have perused, and which also seem to carry along with them a very high degree of probability, in the happiest manner to agree with each other, and greatly to illustrate other scriptures, I shall here give my reader a brief view of Mr. West's scheme, referring to his invaluable work itself for a more particular account of it, as well as for a variety of most solid and important remarks, relating to the evi. dences of this great fact, and of the truth of Christianity in general which is so inseparably connected with it.

The scheme proposed there, so far as I can recollect it from an attentive perusal, is this: That during the time of our blessed Redeemer's lying in the grave, several of the pious women who had attended him from Galilee, together with some of their female friends and acquaintance at Jerusalem, agreed to meet at his sepulchre early on

POSTSCRIPT.

xiii the morning of the third day, to embalm the body. Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome, and Joanna, were principal persons in this appointment: The chief care of preparing, that is, pounding, mixing, and melting the spices, was left to Joanna and her company, who were to be there about sunrising; whereas the two Maries and Salome (of whom Matthew and Mark chiefly write) came thither pa, before the appointed time early in the morning, or as the day dawned, in order Tapos to view the sepulchre, that they might judge whether they and their companions could be able to remove the stone which closed it, or whether it would be necessary to call in other assistance, as they then knew nothing of the guard which was set upon it. While these three women last mentioned, were on the way, Jesus arose, when the angel had opened the sepulchre and struck the guards into amazement and consternation; the consequence of which was, that some of them went to the Jewish rulers, and joined in contriving and propagating the senseless falsehood of the body being stolen, and others went into other parts of the city, and told the matter as it really was. In the mean time the angel dissappeared, and Mary Magdalene approaching the sepulchre, discerned from some distance that the very large stone that stopped it was rolled away, and concluding from thence that the body was removed, left the other Mary and Salome to wait for Joanna and her company, while she herself ran to Peter and John to acquaint them with what she had discovered. While she was gone, these two, (the other Mary and Salome,) went toward the sepulchre, and entering into it, saw, to their great astonishment, an angel, who told them, that Jesus, whom he knew they sought, was not there, but was risen from the dead, and gave it them in charge to go and acquaint his disciples with it, and to let them know that he would give them a meeting in Galilee. The greatness of their consternation prevented them from saying any thing immediately to any one, even to some of their own company, who might pass and repass within their view at least, and so occasioned a delay which left room for some other circumstances. Just as they were on their return, Peter and John came, (perhaps passing by them at some distance,) and Mary Magdalene following them. John at his first arrival only looked into the sepulchre; but when Peter came and entered it, John went in too, and from the circumstances in which he saw things, believed that Jesus was risen; though the angel (who could appear or dissappear at pleasure) did not render himself visible to either. They returned to the city, and Mary Magdalene, who was now alone, stooping down to look into the sepulchre, saw two angels; but (perhaps imagining they were young men, whom curiosity or accident might have brought thither) took little notice of them, and continued weeping in deep thought and distress, till Jesus appeared, and made himself known to her in those very remarkable words, John xx. 17, which Mr. West illustrates with some very