of the reft; and it was in

ferent from any of the rest;

direct. We only discover Chrift's conduct through the upbraidings of his adverfaries. But all this ftrengthens the argument. I had rather at any time furprise a coincidence in fome oblique allusion, than read it in broad affertions,

VI. In our Lord's commerce with his difciples, one very obfervable particular is the difficulty which they found in understanding him, when he spoke to them of the future part of his hiftory, especially of what related to his paffion or refurrection. This difficulty produced, as was natural, a wish in them to ask for further explanation; from which, however, they appear to have been fometimes kept back, by the fear of giving offence. All these circumftances are diftinctly noticed by Mark and Luke, upon the occafion of his informing them (probably for the first time) that the son of man fhould be delivered into the hands of men. "They understood not," the evangelifts tell us," this faying, and it was hid from them,

that

1

that they perceived it not; and they feared to afk him of that faying." Luke ix. 45. Mark ix. 32. In St. John's gospel we have, upon a different occafion, and in a different inftance, the fame difficulty of apprehenfion, the same curiofity, and the fame reftraint:" A little while and ye fhall not fee me, and again a little while and ye fhall fee me, because I go to the Father. Then faid fome of his difciples among themfelves, What is this that he faith unto us? A little while and ye fhall not fee me, and again a little while and ye fhall fee me, and because I go to the Father? They said, therefore, What is this that he faith, a little while? We cannot tell what he faith. Now Jefus knew that they were defirous to ask him, and faid unto them," &c. John xvi. 16 et seq.

VII. The meekness of Chrift during his laft fufferings, which is confpicuous in the narratives of the three firft evangelists, is preferved in that of St. John under separate examples. The anfwer given by him, in

St.

St. John*, when the high priest afked him

of his difciples and his doctrine, " I spake "I openly to the world, I ever taught in the fynagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always refort, and in fecret have I faid nothing; why afkeft thou me? Afk them which heard me, what I have faid unto them;" is very much of a piece with his reply to the armed party which feized him, as we read it in St. Mark's gofpel, and in St. Luke's: "Are ye come out as against a thief with fwords and with ftaves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and ye took me not." In both anfwers we difcern the fame tranquillity, the fame reference to his public teaching. His mild expoftulation with Pilate upon two several occafions, as related by St. John ‡, is delivered with the fame unruffled temper, as that which conducted him through the laft fcene of his life, as defcribed by his other evangelifts. His an

* xviii. 20.

+ Mark xiv. 48. Luke xxii. 52.

‡ xviii. 34. ix. II.

fwer,

fwer, in St. John's gospel, to the officer who ftruck him with the palm of his hand,

"If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if well, why fmiteft thou me *?" was fuch an answer, as might have been looked for from the perfon, who, as he proceeded to the place of execution, bid his companions (as we are told by St. Luke †) weep not for him, but for themselves, their pofterity, and their country; and who, whilft he was fufpended upon the cross, prayed for his murderers, "for they know not (faid he) what they do." The urgency alfo of his judges and his profecutors to extort from him a defence to the accufation, and his unwillingness to make any (which was a peculiar circumstance) appears in St. John's account, as well as in that of the other evangelifts ‡,

There are moreover two other correfpondencies between St. John's history of the

* xxviii. 23.

+ xxiii. 28,

See John xix. ç. Mat. xxvii. 14. Luke xxiii. 9.

tranf

tranfaction and theirs, of a kind fomewhat different from thofe which we have been now mentioning.

The three first evangelifts record what is called our Saviour's agony, i. e. his devotion in the garden immediately before he was apprehended; in which narrative they all make him pray, "that the cup might pafs from him." This is the particular metaphor which they all afcribe to him. St. Matthew adds, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done*." Now St. John does not give the scene in the garden; but when Jefus was feized, and some resistance was attempted to be made by Peter, Jefus, according to his account, checked the attempt with this reply: "Put up thy fword into the fheath; the cup which my Father hath given me, fhall I not drink it†?” This is fomething more than confiftency: it is coincidence: because it is extremely

* xxvi. 42.

† xviii. 11.

natural,