was to fulfil Scripture, he was at liberty to spend one thought upon himself.

XIX. 36.

These things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled: "A bone of him shall not be broken."

Nothing can be more express than this language, if we insist on interpreting it without regard to idiom and usage. The words of the Old Testament, "Neither shall ye break a bone thereof," were "fulfilled" by the forbearance of the soldiers to break the legs of Jesus; and not only so, but the forbearance of the soldiers to break the legs of Jesus was to the very end "that the Scripture should be fulfilled." If ever there was a case in which the reductio ad absurdum was conclusive, it is so in the present instance to show that the popular interpretation of the phraseology relating to a fulfilment of Scripture cannot be sustained. The ceremony of the Paschal Feast was designed to commemorate the hasty departure of the Israelites from Egypt. It was accordingly full of indications and symbols of haste. "Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste." (Ex. xii. 11.) They were not even to stop to break the bones of the lamb, so as to taste the marrow. (Ibid. 46; comp. Numb. ix. 12; "Lectures," &c., Vol. I. p. 138.) And this direction, relating to a subject so entirely different, is said by the Evangelist to be "fulfilled" in the omission of the guard to break the legs of Jesus as he hung dead upon the cross. It is palpable to sense that his only meaning was, that the words, transferred from their original signification, might be applied to what he was relating.

XIX. 37.

And again another Scripture saith, "They shall look on him whom they pierced."

In the prophecy of Zechariah, God is represented as declaring that his unmerited clemency will melt his people to repentance and contrition. Self-condemned and abased, he says, they will turn back to the Divine Benefactor whom they have grieved and wounded by their impieties; "they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced." (Zech. xii. 10; comp. "Lectures," &c., Vol. III. p. 493.) This had nothing whatever to do, nor did the Evangelist imagine it to have any thing to do, with the stabbing of the side of Jesus by the spear of a Roman soldier. But the words occurred to his memory as he wrote, and he set them down, as a rhetorical accommodation, not as a mystical criticism.

XX. 9.

As yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must rise again. from the dead.

No wonder if they did not understand the Scripture as declaring that the Messiah was to rise again from the dead. For nowhere had the Old Testament Scripture so declared. But this was not the Apostle's meaning. What he meant was, that they hitherto so interpreted the Scriptures, as to make it incredible to them that the Messiah should suffer and die, which death was indispensable to his rising again. Like others of the most religious part of their countrymen at that period, they erroneously ascribed to the later writers of their nation, the Psalmists and the Prophets, an authority similar to that of the original revelation embodied in the Law of Moses. The Psalmists and Prophets had erroneously spoken of the Messiah as a

magnificent, and sometimes, perhaps, as an immortal prince, in such terms as to misguide the opinions of simple men, of the class to which John and Peter belonged. Possessed with these views of the authority and interpretation of the national writings later than Moses, - their minds occupied with incorrect conceptions of the Messiah drawn from those writings," as yet they knew not the Scripture" in such a manner as to allow them to entertain the idea that he must rise again from the dead." They had not learned to reconcile the Scripture with that idea. It was not that Scripture had declared that he would so rise. It had declared nothing of the kind. But they supposed that it had authoritatively declared the contrary. And this confounded them. (Comp. Mark ix. 32.) Afterwards they knew better. (Also with ypapń comp. yeypaμμévov, as explained above, p. 117.)

SECTION V.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.

I. 15-22.

In those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, .....“ Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus. .... . For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein'; and His bishopric let another take.' Wherefore of these men. . . . . must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection."

Peter quoted on this occasion from two of the vituperative Psalms (lxix., cix.). Nothing more is necessary

than to read them, to be satisfied that in neither had the writer any reference to Judas, or to any future person, but that both, on the contrary, contained the expression of personal resentment against personal enemies. In one, the quotation is by no means exact; so far from it, that, instead of a single person being spoken of, — a point most material for the common explanation, — the language of the original is, "Let their habitation be desolate, and let none dwell in their tents." In both, if Judas was intended at all, he was intended throughout, for the same person or persons are spoken of from the beginning to the end of the compositions respectively. What harm had Judas done to the writer of these poems? Yet the persons of whom it is wished that their "habitation" may "be desolate" (lxix. 25), and that another may "take their office" (cix. 8), are the same who had given to one writer "gall for his meat," and "vinegar to drink" in his thirst (lxix. 21), and who had opened against the other "the mouth of the deceitful," and spoken against him "with a lying tongue" (cix. 2).

But the case is too plain for argument. All that is requisite, in order to be satisfied what the original writers intended, is to read their poems with an unbiased mind. As to Peter's purpose in quoting from them, I think it is somewhat lost sight of in consequence of incorrect punctuation and translation of his words, as recorded by Luke. I would represent the first of the sentences containing Peter's proposal thus: "Men and brethren, the Scripture which the Holy Spirit by the mouth of David anciently spoke, must needs be fulfilled concerning Judas [must have a fulfilment in Judas], who was guide to them that took Jesus." What was this Scripture? It consisted in periods which he quotes, relating to vacating a place,

and being superseded in it by another: "Let his habitation be desolate," and, "His bishopric let another take." And how was that Scripture to be fulfilled? By proceeding, as Peter proposes, to an election to fill the vacant office: "Of these men ordained to be a witness with us."

must one be

"This Scripture . . . . . must needs be fulfilled concerning Judas," &c. Rather, it is fit, or it has become fit, that the words should be verified in the case of Judas; that is, by the filling of his office. The word rendered "must needs," is the same common word (de) which in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians (ii. 3), for instance, is rendered, “I ought to rejoice," or it is fit that I should rejoice.

"This Scripture..... which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before." Spake before (TpoεTE) signifies spoke formerly or anciently. (See 2 Cor. vii. 3; Gal. i. 9, v. 21; 1 Thes. iv. 6; Heb. x. 15.)- The Holy Ghost spake by the mouth of David ; that is, the spirit of holy indignation in David's heart gave itself utterance in these words of his. We say, a patriotic, a devout, a selfish, a treacherous spirit spoke by a man, meaning that the man gave utterance to such a spirit, that he spoke in such a frame of mind. We say, "There spoke the spirit of martyrdom"; "There was the utterance of the spirit of '76."

II. 14-21.

Peter, standing up with the eleven, lift up his voice, and said unto them, "Ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, (saith God,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young