The various silly miracles attributed to the Apostles throughout these writings, are so many arguments to prove that the compilations containing them are apocryphal-or, more correctly, spurious; and that they are either the productions of the weakest of men, who were fondly credulous of every report, and had not discretion enough to distinguish between sense and nonsense, or between that which was credible and that which was utterly unworthy of credit; or else that these compilations are the artful contrivance of some who were more zealous than honest, and who thought by these strange stories to gain credit to their new religion.

4. Things are mentioned, which are later than the time in which the author lived, whose name the book bears. Thus the Epistle under the name of our Saviour to Abgarus, is manifestly a forgery; for it relates that to have been done by Christ, which could not possibly have been done till a considerable time after Christ's ascension. Thus, in the beginning of the Epistle, a passage is cited out of St. John's Gospel, I which was not written till a considerable time after our Lord's ascension: the words are; Abgarus, you are happy, forasmuch as you

have believed on me whom you have not seen; for it is written concerning me, That those who have seen me should not believe on me, that they who have not seen might believe and live. This is a manifest allusion to those words of our Saviour to Thomas (John xx. 29.) Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed. Here indeed that which the Epistle says is written concerning Christ, but in no other passage of the New Testament. The same proof of forgery occurs in the Gospel of Nicodemus, in which the Jews style Pilate your highness,-a title which was not known to the Jews or used among them at that time;-in the story of Christ's going down into hell, to recover and bring thence the patriarchs;-in the profound veneration paid to the sign of the cross, particularly the practice of signing with the sign of the cross, which is here said to be done by Charinus and Lenthius, before they enter upon their relation of the Divine mysteries;-and in Christ's making the sign of the cross upon Adam and upon all the saints in hell, before he delivered them from that state. It is to be observed, that the practice of signing with the cross, though very common in the fourth and following centuries, was not at all known till towards the end of the second century, when it was mentioned by Tertullian. Similar anachronisms are pointed out by Mr. Jones, in various parts of his New Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament, to which want of room compels us necessarily to refer the reader. See also § 1. supra, for some additional instances of anachronism.

5. The style of the authors of the New Testament is an indisputable proof of its authenticity; whereas the style of the pseudoevangelical compilations is totally different from, or contrary to, that of the genuine writings of the author or authors whose names they

bear. Every page of the Apocrypbal New Testament confirms this remark; but especially the pretended Gospel of Nicodemus, and the Epistles of Paul to Seneca.

(1.) The names, given in the pseudo-gospel of Nicodemus to those who are represented as being Jews, are not Jewish, but either Greek, Roman, or of other foreign countries. Such are names of Summas, Datam, Alexander, Cyrus, Asterius, Antonius, Carus or Cyrus, Crippus or Crispus, Charinus, and Lenthius; which evidently indicate imposture. Further, the Gospel of Nicodemus is not extant in Greek: that which is now extant is evidently a translation into very bald and barbarous Latin.

(2.) Nothing can be more unlike the known style of the confessedly genuine epistles, than is the style of the spurious epistles bearing their names in the Apocryphal New Testament. This is so obvious to every one who is at all acquainted with those two writers, that it is unnecessary to multiply examples. The epistles attributed to Paul have not the least vestige of his gravity, but are rather compliments and instructions. Further, the subscriptions of the letters are very unlike those used by the supposed authors in their genuine epistles. Thus, in the First Epistle of Seneca, the subscription is, Bene te valere, frater, cupio, I wish your welfare, my brother, which was an appellation exclusively in use among Christians. And in St. Paul's Fifth Epistle to Seneca, he concludes with, Vale, devotissime magister,-Farewell, most respected master; which is not only contradictory to the Apostle's usual mode of concluding his letters, but also most barbarous Latinity, such as did not exist in the Roman language till several hundred years after the time of Paul and Seneca,

(To be continued.)

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE awful and affecting event mentioned by St. Luke, chapter xxii. verse 44-" His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground"-has been the subject of many sceptical objections, to which it is amply sufficient to reply; first, that even if such a circumstance were impossible, the particle won, translated,

as it were," perfectly admits of a figurative meaning; but secondly, that such a circumstance, far from being impossible, has actually taken place in other instances, or at least circumstances so analagous to it, as to render the account in question fully credible, even if it had not the sanction of holy Writ to support it, By consulting Poole and other commentators, the reader will find several examples in illustration of the sacred text,towhich others might be added from modern medical publications: but it is not, I believe, generally known that Voltaire himself has narrated and attested a fact which ought for ever tostop the mouths of infidels of minor magnitude. Speaking of Charles the Ninth of France, in his Universal History, he says"He died in his twenty-fifth year: his disorder was of a very remarkable kind; the blood oozed out of all his pores. This malady, of which there have been other instances, was owing either to excessive fear, or to violent agitation, or to a feverish and melancholy temperament." It is not an unimportant corroboration of the truth of the sacred Scriptures, that they relate with perfect simplicity, and without note or explanation, circumstances which, at the time they were recorded, must have appeared to most readers absolutely incredible, but which have been subsequently illustrated and proved by the researches of Christians, and even by the incidental admission of infidels themselves.

B. R. F.

FAMILY SERMONS.-No. CLVIII. Luke xix. 41, 42.—And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace; but now they are hid from thy

eyes.

THE circumstances under which these words were uttered, were very remarkable. It was the time of the Passover; and our Lord was approaching Jerusalem with a view to celebrate its appointed rites. His way lay across the Mount of Olives, which was to the eastward of that city, at the distance of a few furlongs, and commanded a magnificent prospect of the temple and other public buildings. He had arrived at the descent of this mount when the multitude around him "began to rejoice, and to praise God with a loud voice, for all the mighty works which they had seen him perform, saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord; peace in heaven, and glory in the highest." Thus entering in triumph the city where his prophets had been so often despised, and where he himself had been persecuted and rejected, what were the thoughts that employed his mind? Was he elated with the honours that were paid him? with the applauses of the multitude who scattered branches of the palm tree in his way and exclaimed, "Hosannah to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord ?" Or was be proudly enjoying the triumph thus afforded him over the scribes and pharisees, who were ever envying and discouraging every demonstration of the public regard to his sacred person? Or was he dwelling with secret satisfaction on the speedy ruin that was coming on the inhabitants of that devoted city, for their obstinate rejection of his Divine mission? Or, what was a yet more affecting subject, was he absorbed

in the contemplation of the awful sufferings which he knew awaited him there within a few days; when he should be despised, and buffeted, and spit upon, and crucified, for the redemption of an ungodly and ungrateful world? No. Such thoughts, however natural, were

far removed from the bosom of the compassionate Saviour. He beheld the city; it awakened in his mind many painful reflections; and he wept over it. Not all the provocations he had hitherto borne, not all the cruelties that were soon to be added to them, could restrain his feelings of pity, when he reflected on the doom that was about to fall on his wilfully blinded countrymen, and uttered the solemn exclamation in the text, which may be thus paraphrased, "Oh, unhappy and devoted city, would that even at length, in this thy last and latest hour of grace, thou wouldst repent and turn to God! Then should thy former rejection of prophets and righteous men even yet havebeen forgiven! Then would a merciful Saviour even yet have rescued thee from destruction! Oh that thou hadst known, even thou, the long-beloved and favoured city of Jehovah, where his choicest mercies were richly poured out, and bis repeated warnings exhibited, the things that belong to thy peace! But now they are hid from thine eyes! O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between me and my vineyard! What could have been done more unto my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, why brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard; I will take away the hedge thereof; and it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down; and I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also command the elouds that they rain

no rain upon it." Or, in the words that follow the text; "The days shall come upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another, because thou knewest not"—that is, thou didst not lay to heart-" the time of thy visitation." "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee! how often would I have gathered thy children toge ther, even as a ben gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you desolate."

But, while the passage before us thus leads us to admire the tenderness and compassion of Christ, it should also awaken another train of reflection in our minds. As with the people of Jerusalem, so with each of us; there are things that belong to our eternal peace; a space is given for us to become acquainted with them; too many neglect this opportunity; and to those who do so, a time will come when the things that belong to their peace shall be for ever hid from their eyes. May our meditation on these points be blessed by the Spirit of God, to excite in us a salutary dread lest we neglect so great salvation; and to lead us to an earnest resolution, by his grace assisting us, to lose no time in applying ourselves to make our calling and election sure.

disclose in his word ample information on these points; and it is necessary for our everlasting safety that we should become acquainted with what he has thus communicated.

The case of the Jews, as described in the text, will shew us the nature of the things that belong to our peace. For, what was the ground of their guilt? What was the message that they refused to receive? It was the message of peace through the death and merits of a crucified Saviour. They wilfully rejected the Lord of life and glory. They felt not their need of him: they would not come unto him that they might have life: they thought themselves safe in an outward profession of religion, and boasted of their spiritual privileges, while they remained ignorant of God and of themselves, and shewed no desire either to receive the record of his Son, or to submit themselves to his holy and self-denying law. It is thus with too many persons in every age; they may not indeed, like the Jews, openly reject the Messiah, the anointed of God, and the Prince of Peace but they slight his message; they live contentedly in a state in which there is no true safety; they are ignorant of that divinely revealed plan of mercy by which God is reconciled to man, and man to God; they despise the offer of spiritual peace; they are unmindful of the blessings of that peace; they are at war with the Majesty of Heaven, and have no well-grounded hope of God's favour either here or hereafter. In a word, they neglect both the doctrines and the precepts of Christianity: they neither betake themselves to a crucified Saviour for pardon, nor endeavour to fulfil his righteous commands. Yet there is no peace with God on any other terms: his language is, Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt