and invoked; that they offer prayers to God for us; and that their reliques are to be venerated.

"I most firmly assert, that the Images of Christ, and of the Mother of God, ever virgin, and also of the other Saints, are to be had and retained; and that due honour and veneration are to be given to them.

"I also affirm, that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in the Church; and that the use of them is most wholesome to Christian people.

"I acknowledge the holy, catholic, and apostolical Roman Church, the mother and mistress of all churches: and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, the successor of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, and the vicar of Jesus Christ.

"I also undoubtedly receive and profess all other things, delivered, defined, and declared by the sacred canons, and the general councils, and particularly by the most holy Council of Trent: and at the same time I likewise condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church.

"This true Catholic faith, out of which no one can be saved, which I now freely profess and truly hold, I, N——, promise, vow, and swear, that I will most constantly hold and profess the same, whole and inviolate, with God's assistance, to the end of my life; and that I will procure, as far as lies in my power, that the same shall be held, taught, and preached by those who are under me, or by those the care of whom shall belong to me, by virtue of my office. So help me God, and these, God's holy gospels."

J. H.

EVIDENCES OF THE RESURRECTION STATED AND

DEMONSTRATED.

THE grand proof of Christ's Messiahship is his resurrection from the dead. His parables, his miracles, his very conversation,-for never man spake like this man,”—all have a strong tendency towards demonstrating, that the Son of Man, called Jesus, was the Son of God, the promised Messiah, whom the Jews had for so many ages and generations been expecting. The most prejudiced among the Jews, including the chief priests and the Pharisees (Matt. xxvii. 62), seem to have had a conviction that the Messiahship was established in the person of Jesus, and they feared the proofs of it. The clamour for his death on their part indicates this feeling; and the main proof which they so much apprehended, was his promised resurrection on the third day. St. Matthew informs us, that they went in a body to express their fears of this event to the Roman governor. The force of their apprehension is indicated by the severity of their language :-"Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again:"-and they desired,— almost demanded,-such precaution to be taken by Pontius Pilate,

as should, in their opinion, frustrate the event prophecied. They had a watch, which they required to use more than ordinary vigilance, lest some of our Lord's disciples should come by night, and steal away the body of their Master, and then say, "He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first," i. e., the resurrection shall be proof demonstrative of the Messiahship of Him who is now dead. A guard of sixty soldiers was too effective to admit of the truth of the declaration so wickedly prompted by the chief priest, and procured with money, "Say ye, his disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept." The absurdity and weakness of the statement is self-condemnatory. Here we have the dead body of the crucified Redeemer laid in a new tomb, so that in case a resurrection should take place from that tomb, there could not be any mistake as to the identity of the person; and its never having been used for sepulture, prevents its being said that the body was raised by touching the bones of some prophet. 2 Kings xiii. 21. The tomb was in the solid rock, and therefore it seems more probable that there was but one entrance to it, hence collusion in secreting the body is rendered impossible. The seal upon the stone at the entrance to the tomb prevented the soldiers practising any fraud, had they been so disposed. Thus did the enemies of Christ, (whose wickedness had demanded his death), provide by their precautions, undesignedly, the most unexceptionable evidence of the reality of the resurrection from the dead.

St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, declares the importance of the doctrine of the resurrection, by calling it the Gospel. "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures ;-and that He was seen of Cephas; then of the twelve; after that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once;-after that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And, last of all, He was seen of me also." 1 Cor.

In other places this apostle speaks of the resurrection as being at once the substance and the evidence of Christianity; for this stupendous miracle was the seal of the Almighty Father to "the reality of the Divine mission of His Son, and to the truth of his doctrines." In the address of St. Peter delivered soon after the ascension of our Lord, that apostle eminently sets forth the importance of this event. To supply the place of Judas, St. Peter enjoined upon the disciples that one must be ordained to be witness with us of his resurrection." And to prove this event to the Jews occupied the chief attention of the apostles in their daily discourses, as we are informed by Luke. "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus," Acts iv. 33. To adduce further evidence of the importance of the resurrection, it may be stated, that each of the evangelists has recorded the fact, and they have also narrated his

L

several appearances upon the earth between the period of his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven.

No human eye was witness to the fact of the resurrection; and although the keen vigilance of a Roman watch was exercised day and night, yet when the angel came as with a rush of glory from heaven to roll away the stone from the sepulchre, an earthquake terrified these iron-sinewed soldiers, and they became as dead men; the gaze of mortality was not equal to the sight of the Immortal God bursting the barriers of the tomb, and, with sublime victory, spoiling death and leading captivity captive. He rose from the tomb invisible, and in the solemn hour of night. "An eye-witness was not necessary unto the act of his resurrection, but it was necessary unto the act of his ascension. It was sufficient that Christ showed himself to the apostles alive after his passion; for seeing they knew Him before to be dead, and now saw Him alive, they were thereby assured that He rose again; for whatsoever was a proof of his life after death, was also a demonstration of his resurrection." The exact time of the resurrection no one knows. It was on the third day after his crucifixion, and before the sun had risen. The time is thus stated by the Evangelists:

St. Matthew-" In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week”

St. Mark-" Very early in the morning, the first day of the week, at the rising of the sun,"

St. Luke-"Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning,

St. John-The first day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene, early, when it was yet dark"

Five times during that day on which he left the tomb, the Redeemer appeared to, conversed with, and once partook of food with the holy women, and his disciples. But not to hasten from the sepulchre, we find a band of armed men forbidden to sleep under pain of death, they are prostrate, affrighted, speechless, and for a time sightless, by reason of the earthquake, and the majestic glory of the heavenly messenger. When they recover, the grave is open, no human power could have done it, nor could such agency have approached the spot. The dead body of Him that had laid therein was gone; who could have taken it? or how could it have been removed amidst such visitations? The watch is changed, Matt. xxviii. 11; and on the approach of the relieving guard, they discover the open and unoccupied tomb, and hasten into the city to inform the chief priests of what they had seen. They might receive the money of the chief priests, and declare what was really a falsehood; but it surely cannot be that the soldiers who were in that garden when the

angel appeared, participated in the wickedness of their conduct; they could not so soon have forgotten the fearful glory of that scene, have thrown off such terror as then seized them, have acted with guile, and declared a lie.*

Mary Magdalene is now in the garden. Mark says, "Mary the mother of James, and Salome," were with her. Finding the sepulchre open, they were afraid the body had been stolen, and Mary Magdalene hastens back to tell her fears to the weeping disciples in the city. Mark xvi. 10. Her companions remain, and soon after they see the angel in the sepulchre, " and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here:-go,-tell his disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into Galilee." Mark xvi. 5-7. Mary Magdalene having told the disciples what had occurred, Peter and John hasten to the place, but John, being a young man, outran Peter. John xx. 2-4. They see the linen clothes lie in the cave, but could not understand the mystery; so they return. John xx. 10. Mary Magdalene soon after arrives again, and, "looking into the sepulchre,' she saw "two angels in white, where the body of Jesus had lain." They enquired the cause of her weeping, and before she had fully replied, she turned" and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus." To Him, however, she addressed her enquiring reply, intended for the angels, and to relieve her deeply anxious mind, the merciful Jesus called her by name. The well-known voice startled her; she recognised her Lord, who then revealed himself more fully, and disappeared. John xx. 14-18. This was his first appearance. Mark

xvi. 9.

The women who had received the message from the angel to the disciples, were now on their way to the house where they abode. "And as they went,-Jesus met them, saying, All Hail. And they came and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee; and there shall they see Me." Matt. xxviii. 9, 10. The women evince no surprise, but meet their risen Lord with reverence and composure. This was the second proof of the resurrection.

To Peter, and to the rest of the disciples, these accounts of both Mary and her companions, "seemed as idle tales, and they believed them not." Luke xxiv. 11. Further consideration appears to have changed the mind of the apostle Peter, who ran a second time to the tomb, in which "he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves, and departed, wondering in himself at that which was come to pass." Luke xxiv. 12.

We cannot agree with this view. The language of the Scripture does not seem to us to point to any change in the watch.-ED.

To remove his suspense, to enlighten his understanding, and to confirm the reports of the women, the Lord Jesus appeared to the apostle on his return to the city; but beyond the fact of the appearance, nothing is recorded in detail of this third proof of the resurrection. "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." Luke xxiv. 34. St. Peter declared in the house of Cornelius that he had seen Jesus of Nazareth. His words are demonstrative,-"Him God raised up the third day, and showed Him openly,—even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the dead." Acts x. 40, 41.

On the same day, two disciples go from Jerusalem to Emmaus, one of them was Cleopas, (Luke xxiv. 18,) the other most probably Luke himself, he being the only evangelist who relates the events of this journey. They were overtaken by a stranger, who joined them in conversation, (Luke xxiv 27,): arriving at Emmaus, the stranger entered the house with the disciples, and "as He sat at meat with them, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew Him; and He vanished, (Luke xxiv. 30-31.) This was the fourth proof of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

These disciples immediately returned to Jerusalem, a journey of about eight miles, and found the other disciples with their friends assembled together, but Thomas was absent. They were immediately informed that "The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." They then related the events of their journey to Emmaus, and how they also had seen Jesus. Whilst they were thus speaking, "Jesus stood in the midst of them," Such an unexpected and sudden appearance terrified them-they thought they had seen a spirit, but the Redeemer assured them of his identity; "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see Me have," (Luke xxiv. 39.) He sat down and shared with them their supper of fish and honey-comb, thus giving proof that He had resumed his real body: as saith the fourth article of the Church of England:-" Christ did truly rise again from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith He ascended into heaven." Their joy was complete; and their understandings were opened, that they might understand what was written by Moses, by the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Him. "And He said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and ye are witnesses of these things." (Luke xxiv. 46-48.) He then breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost:" (John xx. 22.) The risen Saviour then withdrew from the assembly. This was the fifth proof of his resurrection.