away? See the heavens passing away with a great noise, and the elements melting with fervent heat; the earth also, and the things that are therein, burnt up. Did he foretel a judgment? See the judgment set, and the books opened. A resurrection? See the dead, small and great, stand before God. Did he promise rich and varied happiness to his people? Read his faithfulness in their songs of joy, their crowns of glory, and garments of salvation.

Even the infidel shall then be driven from his infi

delity, and all the delusive quiet it afforded him; and, like the devils to whom he allied himself in rebellion and destruction, he shall believe and tremble. All speculative unbelief shall be ended; and they who formerly despised, shall now behold, and wonder, and perish. The proof shall then be completed; but no longer can it profit sinners in persuading them to repent and believe the gospel. It is here only that conviction may lead to salvation. Let the signs, then, be considered ere they depart, and mercy with them; and let all behold through this ordinance, while it lasts, 'The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!'

APPENDIX.

NOTE A, PAGE 21.

ON THE TIME WHEN CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES OBSERVED THE PASSOVER.

MANY able expositors think that Christ conformed to the mode of celebrating the Passover then in use, except as to the time. They suppose him to have observed it a day sooner than the Pharisees and their adherents. In explanation of this difference, they conjecture that the nation in general had fallen into a chronological error on the subject, and that our Lord restored the solemnity to its proper season; or, that for wise and sufficient reasons, he changed the time in adaptation to his convenience. This view of the

*

case has been supported by an appeal to the thirteenth chapter of John's gospel, where Christ is represented as eating the Supper with his disciples before the feast of the Passover. In reply, it has been urged by Dr Whitby, that the Supper which Christ then ate was not the Passover, but a common meal. He said to Judas in the course of it, 'What thou doest, do quickly;' and some of the disciples understood this

*John xiii. 1.

saying to mean that Judas'should buy those things which they had need of against the feast,'* an interpretation which they could not have put upon the words if the feast had already come, and was then in the act of being observed by them. Why should Judas prepare for an event which had already arrived? Dr Jennings agrees with Dr Whitby that Christ ate the Passover at the usual time when the rest of the Jews did, but the objection founded on the thirteenth chapter of John is answered by him in a different manner. He admits, with Drs Doddridge and Guyse, that the Supper there spoken of was the Passover, and argues that this admission does not establish any priority of time in our Lord's observance of it. He remarks that, 'as for the phrase, "Before the feast of the Passover" (ver. 1), it need only be understood to mean before the feast begun, or before they sat down to supper; and deipnou genomenou, which in our version is, “ supper being ended" (ver. 2), may be better rendered, "supper being come."

As

to Judas buying things against the feast, it is easy to be understood of the sacrifices, and whatever they would need to celebrate the ensuing festival, or the feast of unleavened bread.'

In behalf of the idea that Christ observed the Passover a day earlier than the Jews in general, it has been further argued, that on the day of our Lord's crucifixion, the Jews went not into the judgmenthall, lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the Passover;'t so that their Passover was still in prospect, whereas Christ had observed it on the night preceding. In reply, it has been stated, that the eating of the paschal lamb was followed by many sacrifices and peace-offerings throughout the days of unleavened bread, and that all these were popularly comprehended under the general name of the Pass

*John xiii. 29.

† John xviii. 28.

over. The Jews, then, may have eaten the paschal lamb at the same time with Christ, and yet have been disinclined to contract ceremonial defilement, and so disqualify themselves for succeeding oblations related to the Passover, and classed with it in common diction. That our Lord anticipated, by one day, the general celebration of the Passover, has been finally contended for on the ground that the day of his crucifixion is designated, in John's gospel, 'the preparation of the Passover.'* Does not this show that the Jews were preparing for the Passover while Christ hung upon the cross? In reply, it has been observed, that if this argument were valid, it would prove a difference of two days instead of one; for Christ ate the Passover the day before he was crucified, and if the day of his crucifixion was not the season of celebration to the Jews, but only of preparation, they must have kept the feast another day later, that is, on the third day after Christ. This is a conclusion which none are prepared to adopt, and, therefore, some mistake must lie in the premises. Why, then, should the day of Christ's crucifixion be called the preparation? It was the day before the Jewish Sabbath, and was called the preparation, inasmuch as it was preparatory to the Sabbatical services.

Such are the arguments by which a difference of time in the celebration of the Passover, as observed by our Saviour and by the Jews, has been defended; and such are the answers by which those arguments have been met. Taking a simple and unprejudiced view of the case, it appears highly improbable that our Lord kept the feast on a different day from the generality of the nation. No evidence has been produced that the Jews had any controversy on this subject. Not a hint is given by any of the evangelists, that national opinion was wrong, and that our Lord cor

*John xix. 14.