in their way; for fo, with all the commentators, I understand there words of St. Mark, "neither faid they any thing to any man, for "they were afraid." That this teftimony therefore of the angel to the refurrection of Chrift, and the affurance given to the difciples, that they should see their master in Galilee, might not be loft, either by the women's forgetting, through the greatness of their amazement, what the angel had faid to them, or through a fufpicion of its having been a mere illufion, neglecting or fcrupling to tell it, Chrift himself thought proper to appear to them, to calm their minds, difperfe their terror, obviate their doubts. With this view he first accofts them with the gracious falutation of “All hail!" then fuffers them not only to approach him, but to "hold him by the feet and worship him;" and, laftly, bidding them difmifs their fears, orders them, in confirmation of what the angel had faid to them, to tell his disciples from him to "go into Galilee," affuring them with his own mouth, "that they "fhould fee him there." Every word, we fee, tended to infpire them with courage and confidence; and the gracious influence of every word upon their minds could not but be rendered still more powerful and efficacious by his fuffering them to embrace him. After this familiar inftance of his favour and complacence, and this fenfible proof of his being really and bodily risen from the dead, there could be no room left for doubt or terror: conviction, certainty, and joy, muft have banished those uneafy paffions for ever from their breafts. And hence it appears, that the different conduct of Christ, on these two occafions, was owing to the different circumftances attending them; to which it was moft wifely fuited. Mary Magdalene's grief (the only diforder of mind fhe then laboured under) for the fuppofed lofs of her mafter's body, was foon difperfed, upon her hearing him call her by her name, and feeing him ftand by her; he was immediately convinced that it was Chrift, and teftified her conviction by giving him the title of "Rabboni, my mafter." She wanted not (and therefore there was no need of giving her) any farther proofs: but, satisfied with what he had feen and heard, he went to the difciples, and told them fhe" had feen the Lord;" and that he had faid fuch and fuch things to her. But terror, the moft untractable of all paffions when exceffive, had feized upon the other Mary and Salome: a terror, which, had it proceeded from the unexpected and fupernatural appearance of an angel, was more likely to be confirmed than removed by the tike appearance of Chrift, had he not proceeded gently with them, and by his gracious words and demeanour given them encouragement and permiffion to familiarize themselves with him by degrees, and take, in their own way, what procfs they thought proper to remove their fears or doubts, and convince them that their affectionate and beloved Mafter was in reality restored to them again from

the grave.

But befides the affurance given by Chrift to his difciples in the words here fpoken by Mary Magdalene, of his intention to perform his promifes of coming to them again, &c. I cannot help thinking he had a farther meaning, which, though not fo obvious, is, however, in my

opinion,

ww

66

a little

opinion, equally deducible from those words with the other juft now
mentioned. That remarkable expreffion, " I afcend to my Father,"
Christ undoubtedly made use of upon this occafion to recall to his dif-
ciples minds the difcourfe he held to them three nights before, in
which he explained fo clearly what he meant by "going to his Fa-
"ther," that they faid to him, "Lo! now fpeakeft thou plainly, and
"speakest no parable*." But this was not the only expreffion that
puzzled them; they were as much in the dark as to the meaning of,
a little while and ye shall not fee me, and again a little while and ye
"shall see me,” which they likewise confeffed they did not understand.
But Chrift did not think fit to clear up their doubts at that time, and
left those words to be expounded by the events to which they feverally
related, and which were then drawing on apace. For that very night
he was betrayed, and feized, and deferted by his difciples, as he him-
felf had foretold but a very few hours before, upon their profeffing
"to believe that he came forth from God:" the next day he was
crucified, expired upon the crofs, and was buried. Upon this me-
lancholy catastrophe the difciples could be no longer at a lofs to under-
ftand what Chrift meant, when he said to them," a little while and
ye fhall not fee me:" he was gone from them, and, as their fears
fuggefted, gone for ever, notwithstanding he had exprefsly told them,
that he would come to them again; and to those words,
"while and ye shall not fee me, he added, "and again a little while
"and ye fhall fee me." This latter expreffion, one would think,
was full as intelligible as the former; and as the one, now expounded
by the event, was plainly a prophecy of his death, fo muft the other
be understood as a prophecy of his refurrection from the dead. But,
if they understood it in that fenfe, they were very far from having a
right notion of the refurrection from the dead; as is evident from
their imagining, when Chrift firft fhewed himself to them after his
paffion, that they faw a fpirit; even though they had just before de-
clared their belief that he was rifen indeed, and had appeared to Si-
"mon," The refurrection of the body, it should seem from this in-
ftance, made no part of their notion of the refurrection from the dead:
to lead them therefore into a right understanding of this most important
article of faith, Chrift, in speaking to Mary Magdalene, and by her
to his difciples, makes ufe of terms which ftrongly imply his being
really, that is, bodily, rifen from the dead. "I am not yet," fays
he,
"afcended to my Father; but go unto my brethren, and say unto
"them, I afcend unto my Father," &c. The words " I go to my
"Father," Chrift, as has already been obferved, explained by the
well-understood phrafe of leaving the world; and to this explanation
the words immediately foregoing give fo great a light, that it is im
poffible to mistake his meaning. The whole paffage runs thus, "I
66 came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; and again
"I leave the world, and go to the Father." By the expreffion, "I
"am come into the world," Chrift certainly meant to fignify his be-
ing and converfing visibly and bodily upon earth; and therefore by the

John xvi. 29.

other

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other expreffion, "I leave the world," he muft have intended to denote the contrary to all this, viz. his ceafing to be and converfe vifibly and bodily upon earth; and fo undoubtedly the difciples underftood him to mean, when they faid to him, "now fpeakeft thou plain"ly, and fpeakeft no parable." But as they very well knew that the ufual road, by which all men quitted this world, lay through the gates of death, and were affured their mafter had trodden that irremeable path, they might naturally conclude, that what he had faid to them. about leaving the world and going to his Father" was accomplished in his death; and confiftently with that notion might imagine that, by his coming to them again, no more was intended, than his appearing to them in the fame manner as many perfons have been thought and said to appear after their deceafe. To guard against this double error, which Chrift, to whom the thoughts of all hearts are open, perceived in the minds of his difciples, he plainly intimates to them in the words, "I am not yet afcended to my Father, but I do "(or fhall) afcend to my Father," that his dying, and his final leaving of the world, were diftinct things, the latter of which was ftill to come, though the former was paft: he had indeed died, like other mortals, and had, like them, left the world for a season, as he himself had often foretold them fhould come to pass; but he was now rifen from the dead, returned into the world, and fhould not leave it finally till he afcended to his Father. Of his being returned into the world, his appearing to Mary Magdalene was doubtlefs intended for a proof; and yet of this it could be no proof at all, if what the faw was no more than what is commonly called a fpirit; fince the fpirits of many people have been thought to appear after their deceafe, who, notwithstanding are fuppofed to have as effectually left this world by their death, as those who have never appeared at all. Lazarus, like Chrift, had died, and was by his quickening word recalled to life, which confifts in the animation of the body by its union with the foul. Now had Chrift called up nothing but the spirit of Lazarus, and left his body to putrefy and perifh in the grave, would not Lazarus, I ask, have still been reputed dead, and confequently confidered as out of this world, though his fpirit had appeared to a thoufand different people? If Chrift therefore was rifen from the dead, as the angels affirmed he was; if he had not yet finally left the world, as the words, "I am not yet "afcended to my Father," plainly import; and if his appearing to Mary Magdalene was intended for a proof of thofe two points, as undoubtedly it was; it will follow that he was really, that is, bodily, rifen from the dead; that he was ftill in the world in the fame manner as when he came forth from the Father, and came into the "world ;" and that it was he himself, and not a fpirit without flesh and bones, that appeared to Mary Magdalene.

Before I conclude this argument, I must beg leave to make one obfervation more upon the term "afcend," twice ufed by our Saviour in the compass of these few words.. In the difcourfe here alluded to by Chrift, he told his difciples that he fhould go to his Father, and he now bids Mary Magdalene tell them that he fhould afcend to his

Father;

Father; a variation in the phrafe, which I am perfuaded had its pařticular meaning, and that not very difficult to be difcovered. For as by the former expreffion he intended, as we have seen, to fignify in general his final departure out of this world, fo by the latter is the particular manner of that departure intimated; and doubtless with a view of letting his difciples know the precife time after which they fhould no longer expect to fee and converse with him upon earth, but wait for the coming of that Comforter which he promised to fend them in his room, and who, unless he departed from them, was not to come. Jefus made frequent vifits to his difciples after his paffion*, "being feen of them, fays St. Luke, "forty days, and fpeaking of "the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." Between fome of thefe vifits were pretty long intervals t, during which he seems to have disappeared, i. e. not to have refided upon earth. Had Chrift therefore left his difciples without any mark or token by which they might be able to diftinguifh his final departure from those that were only temporary, they would probably have taken each vifit for the Jaft; or have lingered after his final departure, in a fruitless expectation of seeing him again; either of which ftates of uncertainty, and efpecially the laft, were liable to many inconveniences, to doubts and jealoufies, and fears, which it was goodness as well as wisdom in our Saviour to prevent. Nor was the preventing these evils the only advantage that flowed from this early intimation of the manner of Chrift's final departure out of this world, implied in the words, "I afcend "to my Father," and verified in his afcenfion into heaven. For as this could not have been effected without the power of God co-operating with him, fo neither could it have been fore-known by him, without the communication of that spirit which only knows the counfels of God. When the difciples therefore beheld their mastert "taken up into heaven, and received out of their fight by a cloud of glory," they could not but know affuredly that this was the event foretold about forty days before to Mary Magdalene; and knowing that, could no longer doubt whether it was Chrift himself who appeared and spoke those prophetic words to her; how little credit foever they had given to her, when the firft told them the "had feen "the Lord."

66

And thus, (as I have endeavoured to make appear) in these comprehenfive words of Chrift spoken to Mary Magdalene, "Touch me not, for I am not yet afcended to my Father; but go to my bre"thren, and say to them, I afcend to my Father," are implied three particulars. ft, A renewal of the several promises made by him to his difciples, the night in which he was betrayed; one of which was the promise of coming to them again before his final departure out of this world. Of his intention to perform which promife, I take his forbidding Mary Magdalene to touch or embrace him, to be an earnest or token. 2dly, An intimation, that as his death and his final departure out of this world were two distinct things, the latter of which

* A&s, ch. i. and iii. f See John xx. 21.
† Acts, ch. i. ver. 9. See Whitby on this place.

was

was yet to come; fo, by his rifing from the dead, they were to underftand his returning and being in the world, in the fame manner with those who have not yet quitted the world by death, and confequently, that he was really, that is bodily, rifen from the dead, of which his appearing to Mary Magdalene, and faying thofe words, was an undoubted evidence. And, 3dly, a prophetical account of the manner of his departing finally out of the world, viz. by afcending into heaven. From which feveral particulars it was impoffible, as I faid before, for the disciples to draw any other conclufion than that it was Chrift himself who appeared and fpoke to Mary Magdalene. I do not fay the difciples muft neceffarily have perceived, at the very firft hearing these words, the feveral inferences which I have drawn from them; but when they came to confider them attentively, to reflect upon what their Mafter had faid to them in the night in which he was betrayed (to which those words evidently referred), and when, after having handled his feet and hands, they were by their own fenfes convinced that he was bodily rifen from the dead; and, laftly, when they had feen those words, "I afcend to my Father," verified in his afcending into heaven before their eyes; then, I think, they could hardly avoid perceiving the feveral inferences, and drawing from them the conclufion above mentioned. For if it was not Christ who appeared to Mary Magdalene, it must have been some spirit, either good or bad; or fome man, who, to impofe upon her, counterfeited the person and voice of Chrift; or, laftly, the whole muft have been forged and invented by her. The firft of these fuppofitions is blafphemous; the second, abfurd; and the third, improbable. For, allowing her to have been capable of making a lie, for the carrying on an imposture from which the could reap no benefit, and to have been informed of what our Saviour had spoken to his difciples the night in which he was betrayed, which does not appear, it must have been either extreme madness or folly in her to put the credit of her tale upon events, such as the appearing of Chrift to his difciples, and his afcending into heaven, which were fo far from being in the number of contingencies, that they were not even within the powers and operations of what are called natural caufes.

The fame answer may be made to the fuppofition, that the appearance of Chrift to the other Mary and Salome was likewife a forgery of those women; and with this I fhall conclude the fecond head.

$15. 3dly, Of the many appearances of Chrift to his difciples, for the forty days after his paffion, the facred writers have mentioned particularly but very few; imagining, doubtless, thofe few sufficient to prove that fundamental article of the Chriftian faith, and refurrection of Jefus. And, indeed, whoever attends to the nature and variety of the evidence contained even in those few particulars which they have tranfmitted to us, cannot, I think, but acknowledge that thofe who were appointed to be the witneffes of the refurrection, had every kind of proof, that in the like circumstance either the moft fcrupulous could demand, or the moft incredulous imagine. This I doubt VOL. V.

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