66 rate examples. The answer given by him, in Saint John*, when the high-priest asked him of his disciples and his doctrine; "I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing; why askest thou me? ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them;" is very much of a piece with his reply to the armed party which seized him, as we read it in Saint Mark's Gospel, and in Saint Luke's: " Are you come out as against a thief, with swords and with staves to take me? I was daily with you in the temple teaching, and took me not." In both answers, we discern the same tranquillity, the same reference to his public teaching. His mild expostulation with Pilate, on two several occasions, as related by Saint John, is delivered with the same unruffled temper, as that which conducted him through the last scene of his life, as described by his other evangelists. His answer in Saint John's Gospel, * Chap. xviii. 20, 21. + Mark xiv. 48. Luke xxii. 52. ye to the officer who struck him with the palm of his hand," If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me*?" was such an answer, as might have been looked for from the person who, as he proceeded to the place of execution, bid his companions (as we are told by Saint Luket) weep not for him, but for themselves, their posterity, and their country; and who, whilst he was suspended upon the cross, prayed for his murderers, "for they know not," said he," what they do." The urgency also of his judges and his prosecutors to extort from him a defence to the accusation, and his unwillingness to make any (which was a peculiar circumstance), appears in Saint John's account, as well as in that of the other evangelists. There are moreover two other correspondencies between Saint John's history of the transaction and theirs, of a kind somewhat different from those which we have been now mentioning. *Chap. xviii. 23. + Chap. xxiii. 28. See John xix. 9. Matt. xxvii. 14. Luke xxiii. 9. The first three evangelists 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 pass from him." This is the particular me taphor which they all ascribe to him. Saint Matthew adds, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done*." Now Saint John does not give the scene in the garden : but when Jesus was seized, and some resistance was attempted to be made by Peter, Jesus, according to his account, checked the attempt with this reply: "Put up thy sword into the sheath; the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it†?” This is something more than consistency; it is coincidence: because it is extremely natural, that Jesus, who, before he was apprehended, had been praying his Father, that "that cup might pass from him," yet with such a pious retraction of his request, as to have added, "If this cup may not pass from me, thy will be done;" it was * Chap. xxvi. 42. + Chap. xviii. 11. natural, I say, for the same person, when he actually was apprehended, to express the resignation to which he had already made up his thoughts, and to express it in the form of speech, which he had before used, "The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" This is a coincidence between writers, in whose nar ratives there is no imitation, but great diversity. A second similar correspondency is the following: Matthew and Mark make the charge, upon which our Lord was condemned, to be a threat of destroying the -temple; "We heard him say, I will destroy this temple, made with hands, and, within three days, I will build another made without hands*:" but they neither of them inform us, upon what circumstance this calumny was founded. Saint John, in the early part of the history, supplies us with this information; for he relates, that, on our Lord's first journey to Jerusalem, when the Jews asked him, "What sign showest thou * Mark xiv. 58. ↑ Chap. ii. 19. unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? he answered, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." This agreement could hardly arise from any thing but the truth of the case. From any care or design in Saint John, to make his narrative tally with the narratives of other evangelists, it certainly did not arise, for no such design appears, but the absence of it. A strong and more general instance of agreement, is the following.-The first three evangelists have related the appointment of the twelve apostles*; and have given a catalogue of their names in form. John, without ever mentioning the appointment, or giving the catalogue, supposes, throughout his whole narrative, Christ to be accompanied by a select party of disciples; the number of these to be twelve†; and whenever he happens to notice any one as of that numbert, it is one included in the catalogue of the other evangelists: and the names principally occurring in the course of his history of Christ, are the names ex * Matt. x. 1. Mark iii. 14. Luke vi. 12. |