In introducing to the notice of the British Public, Mr. Professor Greenleaf's Harmony of the Four Gospels, the publishers have much satisfaction in announcing, that it has become a Standard Work in the United States of America: and its intrinsic value has induced them to make it known, in the hope of promoting its circulation, in this country. The spirit of infidelity is far more restless and active on the other side of the Atlantic, than, happily, it has been in our highly-favoured land: and, i

Gentlemen, The subject of the following work I hope will not be deemed so foreign to our professional pursuits, as to render it improper for me to dedicate it, as I now respectfully do, to you. If a close examination of the evidences of Christianity may be expected of one class of men more than another, it would seem incumbent on us, who make the law of evidence one of our peculiar studies. Our profession leads us to explore the mazes of falsehood, to detect its artifices, to pierce its thickest

The arrangement of the Gospels by Dr. Robinson was adopted in this work, it being the latest published in the United States, and by a scholar of the highest reputation. But by comparing his order with that of Archbishop Newcome, as shown in contiguous columns in the Table of Contents and Synopsis of the Harmony, it will be found that they differ only in a very few unimportant particulars, not at all affecting the general scheme or structure of the Harmony, or the purposes of this examination. I

§ 1. In examining the evidences of the Christian religion, it is essential to the discovery of truth that we bring to the investigation a mind freed, as far as possible, from existing prejudice and open to conviction. There should be a readiness, on our part, to investigate with candour, to follow the truth wherever it may lead us, and to submit, without reserve or objection, to all the teachings of this religion, if it be found to be of divine origin. “There is no other entrance,” says Lord Bac

§ 3. The present design, however, is not to enter upon any general examination of the evidences of Christianity, but to confine the inquiry to the testimony of the Four Evangelists, bringing their narratives to the tests to which other evidence is subjected in human tribunals. The foundation of our religion is a basis of fact—the fact of the birth, ministry, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. These are related by the Evangelists as having actually occurred, within thei

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Time. Forty days . The title of this section in inserted, for the sake of preserving the series of Dr. Robinson, whose arrangement has been followed in this Harmony; but as the appearances of Jesus which are here referred to, are related only by Luke in Acts, i. 3-8, and by Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 7, the particular insertion of those passages is omitted, for the reasons already given. See § 137, note. The subject of this and the eleven preceding sections, respecting the resurrection of Jesus, is disc

The title of this section in inserted, for the sake of preserving the series of Dr. Robinson, whose arrangement has been followed in this Harmony; but as the appearances of Jesus which are here referred to, are related only by Luke in Acts, i. 3-8, and by Paul in 1 Cor. xv. 7, the particular insertion of those passages is omitted, for the reasons already given. See § 137, note. The subject of this and the eleven preceding sections, respecting the resurrection of Jesus, is discussed in the Note o

§ 2. The Visit of the Women to the Sepulchre. Matt. 28: 1-8. Mark 16: 1-8. Luke 24: 1-11. John 20: 1, 2. The first notices we have of our Lord's resurrection, are connected with the visit of the women to the sepulchre, on the morning of the first day of the week. According to Luke, the women who had stood by the cross, went home and rested during the sabbath (23:56); and Mark adds that after the sabbath was ended, that is, after sunset, and during the evening, they prepared spices in order to go

Defeated in this attempt to commit him politically, their next endeavour was to render him obnoxious to one or the other of the two great religious sects, which were divided upon the doctrine of the resurrection, the Pharisees affirming, and the Sadducees denying, that the dead would rise again. The latter he easily silenced, by a striking exposition of their own law. They asked him which, of several husbands, would be entitled in the next world to the wife whom they successively had married in

Jesus was born of a family of small fortune; Joseph, his supposed father, perceived that his wife was big before they had come together. If he had brought her to trial, in the ordinary course of things, Mary, according to the 23rd verse of the 22nd chapter of Deuteronomy, would have been condemned, and Jesus, having been declared illegitimate, could never, according to the 2nd verse of the 23rd chapter, have been admitted to a seat in the Sanhedrim. 366 But Joseph, who, to save his wife from dis

The author's attention, however, had been withdrawn from this subject for several years, when it was again brought under his notice by the work of Mr. Salvador, a copy of which was sent to him by that writer, with a request that M. Dupin would give some account of it. Accordingly, says the latter, “it is in compliance with his request , and not from a spirit of hostility, that I have made this examination of his work;” and he gives ample proof of his good feeling towards Mr. Salvador, with whom,

Judicare and judicari , to judge and to be judged, express the rights of every Hebrew citizen; that is, no one could be condemned without a judgment, and every one might, in his turn, be called upon to sit in judgment upon others. Some exceptions to this principle are explained; but they do not affect the rule. In matters of mere interest each party chose a judge, and these two chose a third person. If a discussion arose as to the interpretation of a law , they carried it to the lower council of

In the subsequent chapter the author announces: “That according to this exposition of judicial proceedings he is going to follow out the application of them to the most memorable trial in all history, that of Jesus Christ.” Accordingly the chapter is entitled: The Trial and Condemnation of Jesus . The author first takes care to inform us under what point of view he intends to give an account of that accusation: “That we ought to lament the blindness of the Hebrews for not having recognised a God