CHAP. I.

Nature and Importance of the Inquiry.

IN opening the volume of the New Testament. to peruse the historical records of our Saviour's life, one of the first inquiries we naturally make is into the period which the gospel history occupies; into the true time of the birth, baptism and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And this is an inquiry to which we are alike prompted by the curiosity, the difficulty, and the importance of the subject.

Whatever be the feelings with which we contemplate the rise and progress of Christianity; whether we believe the religion of the Gospel to be true or false, it is impossible to regard its rapid increase, its continued stability, and the mighty moral effects which it has every where produced, without acknowledging it to be a wonderful, if not a divine thing. That an illiterate peasant, without the advantages of leisure or education, should form in his mind the conception of a

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religion, which has been found capable of accommodating itself to the manners and customs of the most distant and dissimilar people, and of flourishing under every system of civil government and ecclesiastical polity-of monarchy and republicanism, of presbyterianism and episcopacy;—that this illiterate peasant should then, without the influence of rank and power, have been able to plant and propagate his religion, in direct opposition to the prejudices of his countrymen, the scepticism of philosophy and the opinions of mankind; and that this religion thus inauspiciously begun should have triumphed over every other mode of worship and form of belief, and still continue to maintain its ground without any visible signs of external danger or internal decay; these are circumstances so contrary to the general experience of the world, that they cannot fail to excite in the most sluggish minds a mingled feeling of astonishment and admiration, and make every thinking man most anxiously inquisitive into the minutest particulars connected with the author of so singular a work; and of course, in the first place, into the time in which he lived.

It is more than probable however that if the critic who makes this inquiry be not animated with the faith and zeal of a very earnest Christian, he will either content himself with some loose and

inaccurate conclusions, or else feel the ardour of pursuit checked by the uncertainty of the subject, and shrink weary and disappointed from the painful task. So many are the doubts and difficulties which accompany the investigation of evangelical chronology. For there are only two authentic and contemporary sources from which we can draw any circumstantial information concerning the precise time and peculiar manner of our Saviour's birth; and those are the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. In the first two chapters of each of these we have a detailed account of several circumstances which ought, if accurate, to determine the very year in which the founder of Christianity appeared upon the earth. By a careful examination of these chronological marks, we may indeed easily obtain such a general idea of the commencement of the life of Christ, as is sufficient for all the common purposes of history. But if we seek for any thing more than an approximation to accuracy; if we endeavour by a laborious comparison of sacred with profane historians, to fix the exact point of time at which the Son of God condescended to assume the form of man, and suffer for man, we shall meet with several apparent contrarities, and in attempting to reconcile the various authors with each other, have to struggle with real and unexpected difficulties.

For the resolution of every question in critical theology we almost instinctively turn to those numerous and learned writers, who have piously devoted their lives and talents to the exclusive consideration of subjects connected with the revelations of God. And if made in the spirit of humble sincerity, I believe, the appeal will seldom issue in an unfavourable result. In the instance, however, which is now before our view, the case is unfortunately the reverse, and a veil of fatal obscurity seems hitherto to have hung over the chronology of the gospels, which many a hand has attempted, but none been able to withdraw. Upon the birth, and baptism, and death, upon the duration of the life and ministry of Christ, there have been almost as many opinions as writers, and yet no one has been able to give perfect satisfaction either to the world or to himself. After

all his labours and all his cares each man has found his own hypothesis liable to some insuperable objections, and the means which he had perhaps successfully adopted to harmonize a variety in one point, have served but to create a more positive and decided contradiction in another.

Now this harrassing uncertainty in the subject itself, and these uniformly unsuccessful efforts to give a clear and unimpeachable chronology of our Saviour's life, are what principally contribute

to establish the importance of our present inquiry.

Perhaps to the real believer and sound Christian-to the Christian who has been duly instructed from his earliest youth to be able to give a reason of the hope that is in him, the great uncertainty which still prevails respecting the true time of our Saviour's birth or death is a matter of very little consequence. The general and solid arguments by which he has been already convinced of the truth of his religion, will most probably support his faith under all difficulties. But the case is very different with the unconfirmed Christian, who is wavering perhaps between Deism and Christianity. The accuracy and soundness of our conclusions depend in every thing, but especially in moral and religious questions, where the passions exercise so strong an influence over the judgement, almost as much upon the order of our inquiries, as upon their nature and the manner in which they are conducted. Any man, therefore, and any young man especially who commences his investigation of the truth of Christianity, by directing his attention, as is generally the case, to the doubts with which it has been assailed, and the difficulties with which it is in many parts attended, will receive a very improper bias against the arguments by which it may be maintained. For