to be the Messiah, was a sin in them obviously distinct from all their other sins. Because, after those last infallible and decisive tests of divine interposition, it evinced a most incurable wickedness and perverseness of mind, a most unconquerable and impious aversion, to refuse " being brought to faith in Christ.”

"But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."-Matthew xii. 36.

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By straining the sense of this declaration of Jesus, commentators lose all sight of those qualities of compassion and love for the welfare of mankind, which so eminently distinguished his doctrines. "My yoke* easy, and my burthen is light," is the benevolent and consoling assurance of our Divine Master. Now, to interpret literally the above declaration, must produce no other effect than that of exciting horror and disgust towards the Christian religion, in the minds of the dissolute, but enlightened; and of in

The close similarity between this expression and the following of Plato's, is worthy of notice :—Μετρια ἡ Θεω δέλεια; ἀμετρος δὲ ἡ τοις Ipwross.—Epist. viii.

fusing scruples even among those who are the least in danger of imbibing the poison of infidelity. From the manner, indeed, in which some have expounded this declaration, we might even be led to infer, that it is sinful to talk of news, rain, weather, or any of those indifferent matters, which cannot be said to do either harm or good. To such trifles, this awful menace of our Lord was certainly not intended to apply.

The proper explanation of the subject we take to be this: That men should give an account, at the day of judgment, of all the wicked and impious words which they have spoken; and that the Pharisees especially should be answerable to God for the blasphemies which they uttered against his miracles. There is a passage of Plato, in his Treatise de Fato, where he observes, "Grievous is the damage of light and frivolous words." Now, by κεφων, και κενων λόγων, the philosopher evidently means words spoken against parents, or the defamation of persons to whom a due reverence ought to be paid. The πur phμa άpy can admit, then, of no other meaning, than wicked, impious, scandalous, or false*,

* Puto autem non eum sermonem hic notari qui quoque modo sit inutilis, sed eum qui veri solidatate careat. Grotius Annot. on Matt. p. 132. See likewise Archbishop Newcombe's Observations on our Lord's conduct, p. 41.

words. Upon the same ground that we object to the literal interpretation of the above passage, we must, likewise, enter our protest against those who consider that the word fool, in the following sentence, is to be received according to the modern acceptation of that word "But whosoever shall say, unto his brother, thou fool! shall be in danger of hell fire." Matthew v. 22. Since the word fool, here, plainly signifies a profane and wicked person, as it is shewn in the Psalms: "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." "Arise, O God, maintain thine own cause; remember how the foolish man blasphemeth thee daily."

"For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."-Matthew xii. 40.

THE historical, as well as the moral part of the New Testament, has been alike exposed to the impotent attacks of the flagitious. But, surely, those who raise objections against the truth of these words, must be ignorant that the Jews used the phrase, 'three days and three nights,' to denote what we understand by three days. “I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights." Genesis vii. 4.-"That Egyptian

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did eat no bread, nor drink water, three days and three nights." 1. Samuel, xxx. 12.—" Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights." Exodus xxiv. 18. Instead, then, of saying three days and three nights, let us simply say three days, and we think there will be no more seeming defectiveness of the fact of Christ being three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, in the heart of the earth. We are not, however, to be understood as saying, that he was in the grave the whole of either Friday or Sunday. But Grotius* and Lightfoot+ tell us, that it was a received rule among the Jews, that part of the day was put for the whole; so that, according to their computation, he might be truly said to have been in the grave three days and three nights+.

"The Son of man goeth, as it is written of him, but we to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man, if he had not been born."-Matthew xxvi. 24.

* Annot. in Matth. p. 133.

+ See his Exercit. upon St. Matthew, vol. II. p. 191, 192.

See likewise some learned and ingenious illustrations upon this subject, in Gilbert Wakefield's Commentaries on St. Matthew, p. 181, 182.

FEw passages in the Gospel have produced a more infinite variety of opinions, than this. Some have thought it incumbent upon them to believe, that Judas was created for no other purpose but to betray the Son of God; or, in other words, that it was absolutely decreed, by the will of our Heavenly Father, that he should be as one of those vessels that were made to wrath, before the foundations of the world were laid. But they who refuse their assent to this doctrine of absolute election and reprobation, have, nevertheless, not dissembled the difficulty of reconciling this prediction of our Lord, with the common notions of divine mercy and justice. It appears to us, that we should entertain a very erroneous notion of the divine œconomy, in supposing that an antecedent necessity was imposed upon Judas, of betraying Christ, in consequence of his having foretold that event. For we cannot listen with patience to the opinion, that a Being, as wise and benevolent as he is omnipotent, should arbitrarily select one portion of the human race for eternal happiness, and consign the other to eternal misery.

To reconcile, then, the above declaration with the great fundamental doctrine of Scripture, that the Son of man descended from Heaven to redeem all mankind, we must deny, entirely, all partial providence in God,