lists, naturally fixed the eyes of mankind more upon their writings. They became continually the subject of discussion, so as to make any fraud or concealment in a manner impossible. We have further the testimony of many Christian writers in their favour, who flourished at various periods, from the first century downwards; and even the enemies of our faith have unwittingly, done this good to the cause of Christianity. They have in their controversial writings, some of which have descended to our times, made copious remarks touching the facts stated by the Evangelists, thereby proving the existence of the books in which those facts were brought forward; they have also made ample and numerous quotations from the sacred volume, which quotations, agreeing with our present text, in like manner prove indubitably the authenticity and genuineness of the sacred records. Q. But might not the carelessness of transcribers lead to numerous inaccuracies, and throw a doubt upon the true reading? A. Mill, Kuster, Griesbach, and others, have compared many hundred manuscripts with the • Vide Lardner's works, vols. viii. ix. These manuscripts were found in different countries, widely distant from each other, and are many hundred years old; certainly of a date anterior to the discovery of printing. greatest caution and labour, and it is most satisfactory to find how accurately, all things considered, the copies agree. There are scarcely any material errors to be found affecting a point of doctrine; and in the very few instances where such errors do occur, the true doctrine is easily discoverable by a reference to other passages and other manuscripts. Q. Was it foretold that Christ should suffer? A. The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah contains • The most minute care and attention have been employed in collating the manuscripts of the whole and of every part of the New Testament, and a considerable number of various readings have been discovered; but they are not of such a nature as to affect any essential article of our faith, or any indispensable rule of life." Bp. Tomline's Elements, vol. i. p. 273. The Bishop, in a note, adds the testimony of Kuster (Prof.) as follows: "Et sane, ut dicam quod res est, ex præstantissimâ hâc N. T. Editione Millianâ (ad quam nunc nostrâ operà accessio haud spernenda facta est.) Vel hic præcipuè fructus ad Ecclesiam redundat, quod nunc demum scire liceat, ple rasque tot codicum MSS. lectiones variantes ita comparatas esse, ut parum vél nihil inter eas intersit." Dr. Bentley, whose knowledge of ancient authors, and whose authority on questions of criticism is so unquestionably great, observes, that no writings have suffered so little by the errors of transcribers, as the books of the New Testament. The zeal of the friends of Christianity, and the watchfulness of its opposers, have both contributed to this end: thus both, however different their views and motives, have assisted in the preservation of the sacred text in its purity. this clear prediction: "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniqui ties. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, for he was cut off out of the land of the living; and he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich, in his death." The twenty-second Psalm of David also, the first verse of which our Saviour himself applied, when hanging on the cross, to his own agonizing state of suffering, cannot be read without the deepest interest, as shadowing forth, in language the most eloquent and affecting, the humiliation, and trials, and passion of the Son of God. To Peter, James, and John, as they accompanied Christ to the mount, where he was transfigured before them, he said, It is written (i. e. foretold in the Scriptures) of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought"." He said also to the two whom he met as they "Vide Bp. Horne's Commentary on the Psalms, in loco. Mark ix. 12. were going to Emmaus, " O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken: ought not Christ (according to the Scriptures) to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory." Further he observed to the eleven, "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer " Q. Did Jesus Christ fulfil all the prophecies concerning the Messiah? A. "If we compare," says Bp. Pearson, "the particular predictions with the historical passages of his sufferings; if we join the Prophets and Evangelists together, it will most manifestly appear, the Messias was to suffer nothing which Christ hath not suffered. Never was there any suffering type, which he outwent not; never prediction of any passion, which he fulfilled not; never any expression of grief and sorrow, which he felt not1." 1 Q. Was the Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate one and the same with the Messias, the Son of God, expected by the Jews? A. Assuredly he was. For proof see art. ii. sect. i. of this work ". Q. How could so exalted a person as the Son of God be liable to suffering? 1 Luke xxiv. 25, 26. Luke xxiv. 46. Bp. Pearson, art. ii. p. 142; art. iv. p. 289. A. The Son of God, as God, was indeed impassible and immortal. But the Son of God, as our Redeemer, Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee, united in himself two natures, the human and the divine; the former of which was subject to all the laws of mortality. This union of natures was such as to form but one person; though, at the same time, without confusion or commixtion of properties. Keeping this distinction in view, we may say, Christ suffered for us every species of mortal affliction, without incurring the risk of blasphemy in bringing down the Godhead to a level with mortality, or raising mortality to share in the honours and properties of the Deity.. Q. What were Christ's sufferings? A. The answer to this question is to be found throughout the four books of the Evangelists. To give any thing like a correct abstract of Christ's sufferings in the compass of a few lines, would be impossible. It is enough to say here, his sufferings were most acute, most agonizing; "for the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all "." Q. Why did he suffer? A. Why? alas, was there not cause enough? He suffered to wash away the stain of guilt which attached to all mankind, through the sin of Isaiah iv. 6. |