inhabitants individually. Farther, if our Lord's age were two years at the date of that edict, he was more than 30 years old in the 15th of Tiberius, or the first of John's miniftry. But this character of time ftands, and muft ever remain, invariably fixt on the infallible bafis both of prophetical and historical evidence.

SECONDLY; fuppofe Herod to have lived two years after the execrable maffacre at Bethlehem, the whole chronology of his life, above adjusted by coexiftent events, almost to the exactness of a single day, is totally unhinged; a compact chain difunited, and the coherence of every link violently broken. By what?-the authority of a bold and paradoxical conjecture.

FINALLY; in the fpirit of licentious furmife, which affumes every thing, but proves nothing, be it poftulated, in direct oppofition to the testimony of two evangelifts, that Jefus was born in the fourth year before the vulgar era, as stated by Archbishop Ufher, the confequences must be admitted; fuch as, the crucifixion did not fall within the procuratorship of P. Pilate, neither in the reign of Tiberius Nero; though that great man has protracted both these magiftracies three years beyond their final period, if the computation proceed by the true years of the world.

THE feason of that year, which was fignalized by the manifestation of Chrift in human nature, is now, if poffible, to be ascertained. It has already been shewn that this event, if fixed, as is ufually done, to the 25th, and the tragical executions in fo many families at Beth

lehem,

lehem, to the 28th of December, immediately before the death of Herod, the flight into Egypt was prior both to these executions, and to the 40th day of Chrift's life, or fecond of February, the time appointed for his presentation in the temple. It was in like manner fuggefted, that the time affigned for the laughter of the innocents, contradicts no report of hiftory, common or canonical; but ftill this conceffion doth not affert the truth of the computation.

"THE times of the birth and paffion of Chrift, with fuch like niceties, being not material to religion, were but little regarded by the Chriftians of the first age. They who began first to celebrate them, placed them in the cardinal points of the year; as the annunciation of the Virgin Mary, on the 25th of March, which, when Julius Cæfar corrected the calendar, was the vernal equinox*." Whether the primitive fathers, either from ignorance of exact periods in reckoning, or from inattention to terms clearly defined, or laftly, from a predilection in favour of usages, previously established by prescription, is a frivolous enquiry. Certain it is, that in matters of chronological precision, their works, or fragments of them, ftill preserved, do not prove them expert, much less infallible. The great author proceeds: "Neither was there any certain tradition about the years of Chrift. For the Chriftians, who firft began to enquire into fuch things, as Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Tertullian, Jul. Africanus, Lac

* Sir Ifaac Newton on the Prophecies, p. 144.

tantius,

tantius, Jerom, Auftin, Sulp. Severus, and as many as place the death of Chrift in the 15th or 16th of Tiberius, make Chrift to have preached but one year, or at moft but two." What confidence is due to the arrangements of thofe men, in other good qualities however venerable, who connect the time of the paffion with the 15th or 16th of Tiberius? Yet with just as little deference to the opinion of the paffing and fubfequent generations, certain authors, of no fubordinate rank in the fcale of literary fame, venture to honour, with their fanction, the no lefs abfurd conclufion, that Chrift's miniftry was comprised within the narrow space of one or two years. Short indeed was the feafon of his life and usefulness. But why circumfcribe both within a compass disproportionate to his hiftory?

In the eastern churches one feftival only was appropriated to the commemoration of the nativity and epiphany, or manifestation of Chrift to the Gentiles, in the perfons of the wife men from the Eaft. The 25th December was firft obferved as the anniversary of the incarnation in the weft. The more remote in local fituation, the lefs is the authority of this ufage. But those of the proteftant churches who adopt it, rather confider it as an inflance of conformity to ancient prefcription, than exprefs their conviction that the particular day, so observed, is the true chronological date.

WHATEVER be faid as to the time affigned for the martyrdom of the babes at Bethlehem, the date of the nativity, of the presentation in the temple, and of the flight into Egypt, must be placed as much higher as the

gofpel hiftory requires, to give confiftency to its parts. Forty days are fufficient; and this correction, obvious to common fenfe, will connect the time of our Lord's birth with the 15th November.

As this alteration is proposed for rectifying the chronology, not for introducing innovations in practice; and, as both prophecy and history are filent concerning the precife day of the event now under investigation, it may be requifite, with the Chriftian fathers, to prefer fome one of the four cardinal points, in coincidence with fome one prefigurative fervice of the Jewish church. The Feast of Booths, both in the contiguity of the time, and in the fimilarity of prefigurative ceremonies, is the moft probable of all.

THE pafchal lamb, with one of its appendant obfervances, the oblation of the firft fruits was, as an infallible interpreter of the Hebrew ritual affirms, a striking representation of "Chrift, our paffover, facrificed for us, and then rifing from the dead as the first fruits of them that flept." The feaft of weeks, kept on the 50th day from the offering of the first fruits year by year, together with the giving of the law from Sinai, on the first year of its inftitution, adumbrated the communication of the Holy Ghoft, in his wonderful operations, on the day of Pentecoft, at Jerufalem. In both these cafes, the antitype realifed every circumstance in the types, that of the time not excepted. Scarcely is it fuppofable, that the Feaft of Tabernacles had no reference to the incarnation of Chrift. Those who maintain the negative, will be reduced to the abfurdity

of

of putting a very frigid glofs on a very fignificant allufion of an evangelift, "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt (oxvwoev, pitched his tent) among us; and we beheld his glory," &c. Exclude the circumstance relative to the appointed season of this folemnity, the analogy is obvious. But connect it with the reft, the encampment, the pillar of fire, a temporary refidence during a pilgrimage, to which Chrift's natural life was nearly equal, the allufion acquires propriety, refemblance, fignificance, and energy.

To omit the words of an eminent writer in the past century, than whom few poffeffed more original ideas, and none surpassed him in the faculty of interpreting figurative language, were unpardonable.

"IT is incredible that this principal feast should not be a type of fome principal thing concerning Chrift, as well as the reft; it being as folemn as either of the other two, nay, rather the chief of the three, as having a more extraordinary courfe of facrifices than either of the other; yea, one day's more continuance, it having eight days. To it nothing but his incarnation and nativity can be applied; and it may be the eighth day was added, as figuring the time of his circumcifion *. But it will be objected, that the birth of Christ was in December; and the feast of tabernacles was kept the

The worthy author might have mentioned another circumftance of pre-eminence peculiar to this ordinance. It was ushered in with the apparatus of a great day of expiation for all Ifrael. For the Redeemer a body was prepared, that he might be capable of suffering for the fins of the world.