Jews. The same had not consented to their counsel and doings, who also himself looked for the kingdom of God. This man came and went in boldly to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. But Pilate wondered that he should be already dead, and sending for the centurion, he asked him if he were already dead. When he had understood it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph, [who] came and took away the body. And Nicodemus also came-he who at first came to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes (20), about an hundred pound weight. Joseph buying fine linen (21), and taking Jesus down, wrapped him up in the fine linen ;--they bound the body in linen cloths with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury."

(a) "Now there was in the place where he was crucified, a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein no man yet had been laid. There therefore, because of the parasceve of the Jews, because the sepulchre was nigh at hand (22) he laid the body in his own new monument which he had hewed out in a rock; and he rolled a great stone to the door of the monument, and went his way. It was the day of the parasceve, and the Sabbath drew on.

(a) St. John, xix. 41, 42; St. Mark, xv. 46; St. Matthew, xxvii. 60, 61; St. Luke, xxiii. 54-56.

religion secret without ceasing to be a good and a just man. Since Scripture thus denominates Joseph of Arimathea, this is a truth which we are not permitted to doubt, but it is very easy to make an abuse of it.

(20) Whilst the declared disciples fly and conceal themselves, the concealed appear and declare themselves. The first is a proof of human infirmity; the second displays the virtue of the cross.

(21) The sheet was also of linen. Hence arose the custom, at the sacrifice of the Mass, to lay the body of Jesus Christ upon linen, to the exclusion of every other texture. St. Jerome made this remark nearly 1400 years ago.

(22) Every occurrence which appears here accidental, is arranged by Providence; for it was requisite that the sepulchre should be near to Calvary, in order to give time for bearing thither the body of Jesus, and inclosing it therein, before the repose of the Sabbath commenced. It was also proper that this sepulchre should be entirely new, and that no person should have been hitherto interred there, in order that it might imitate in its way the purity of Mary, and that no question might ever be mooted as to whether the man who arose from the dead was not some other person besides Jesus. It was also necessary that it should be hewn out of a rock, lest any suspicion should arise of its having been broken open, and the body carried secretly away.

There were there Mary Magdalen and the other Mary that were come with Jesus from Galilee, sitting over against the sepulchre. They saw the sepulchre, and how his body was laid," for it was with this design that they "were following after" the funeral procession. "And, returning, they prepared spices and ointments; and on the Sabbath-day they rested, according to the commandment (23).”

The enemies of Jesus were not so scrupulous. These rigid observers of rest on the holy day-who had so often impeached the Saviour with the crime of having violated it by operating miraculous cures now violated it in their turn with the design of burying his religion and its author in the same tomb. Jesus, as we have seen, had often foretold that he would rise again the third day after his death. His disciples had forgotten it; but not so his persecutors. Doubtless they had no idea that the prophecy would be accomplished; therefore they could scarcely have any other intention than to attest the non-accomplishment, in order to demonstrate thereby to the whole universe that Jesus was a false prophet: for, the apprehension of any attempt on the part of his disciples had too little foundation to be any thing else than a pretext. Whatever might have been their motive, (a) "The next day, which followed the day of the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying: Sir, we have remembered that that seducer (24) said, while he was yet alive: After three days I will

(a) St. Matthew, xxvii. 62-66.

(23) The bodies were usually embalmed by women. These women could not effect it. Circumstances had obliged them to relinquish the care to men. They hoped indeed to return to it, and to finish perfectly an operation which they deemed to have been rather precipitately done. Jesus Christ was well pleased with their zeal, but he did not permit them to proceed with the execution of their project.

(24) Jesus Christ has suffered himself, said St. Augustin, to be called a seducer, for the consolation of his servants, whenever it occurs that the same denomination is affixed to them. The name is also given to real seducers; and in all disputes concerning faith, the orthodox and the heretic mutually assign the epithet to each other. It is truth upon one side, and calumny upon the other. Nor is it always easy for the people to discriminate between both; and yet it is of paramount importance to them not to be mistaken in the matter. To whom, then, shall the people have recourse? To the Church. Let the people consult the Church, and let them rest assured that he whom the Church recognizes as orthodox is orthodox, no matter who may style him a

rise again. Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day inclusively, lest his disciples come, and steal him away, and say to the people: He is risen from the dead; so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said to them: You have a guard; go, guard it as you know (25). They departing made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting guards."

All these measures were necessary to render incontestible the miracle of the resurrection, and never did human passions better second the designs of Divine Providence. Nevertheless, him whom they so carefully guarded was (a) "free amongst the dead, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit;" and he whom the Jews regarded as their captive, was actually breaking the fetters of a whole people. (b) "Descended into the lower parts of the earth, he preached to those spirits that were in prison," and the Gospel penetrated with him into those gloomy regions. It is thought that his holy soul spent there all the time that it was separated from his sacred body. It was occupied there in unfolding to the just therein detained, the great mystery of the redemption which had just been wrought, and announcing to them their deliverance and their approaching entry into heaven which was now at last to be thrown open, after having been so long closed against human nature. Of this they had already a foretaste in the joy which his presence gave them. It is even held, and this opinion is the most common and the best authorized, that he communicated to them even then the clear vision of God, which constitutes the essential felicity of paradise, and that it was also in this sense that he promised to the good thief that on that very day he should be with him in paradise.

(a) Psalm lxxxvii. 5; 1 Peter, iii. 18.

(b) Ephes., iv. 9; 1 Peter, iii. 19.

seducer; and that he whom the Church treats as a seducer is a seducer, even if he were regarded as orthodox by the rest of the world.

(25) They had a guard at their command, for the purpose of guarding the temple. Pilate's answer naturally leads us to believe that this is the guard which he permits them to make use of. What may have rendered his permission necessary is, that this guard was not to be employed beyond the precincts of the temple without the consent of the governor.

CHAPTER LXIX.

THE RESURRECTION.THE ANGEL OF THE LORD.—THE SOLDIERS FRIGHTENED.—THE STONE RAISED. JOURNEY OF THE WOMEN.-RACE OF PETER AND OF JOHN.APPARITION TO MAGDALEN.—APPARITION TO THE OTHER WOMEN.-RETURN OF THE GUARDS TO JERUSALEM, AND THEIR DEPOSITION.

WE have now arrived at that great event which the Saviour's enemies had so dreaded, and for which his disciples scarcely dared to hope. His humiliations ended with his mortal life. His glory, which shall never end, commences with the immortal life which he resumes on the third day after his death and burial. God has not chosen to reveal to us the precise moment of its occurrence, so that we can only form conjectures on this point. It is commonly thought that the resurrection took place before sunrise, but not till after the dawn. We have already remarked that Jesus had declared in formal terms that he should be three days and three nights in the bowels of the earth. In order that the prophecy might be literally accomplished, it was necessary that he should still be there on the third day until there was already light upon the earth to enable a person to say positively-it is day. As one instant was sufficient for this, so the appearance of the light was quite enough. It was therefore in the interval between dawn and sunrise that Jesus Christ arose by his own power, leaving on the floor of his sepulchre the linen cloths in which he had been wrapped, so that they might be as witnesses both of his death and his resurrection. He arose without noise and without any visible splendor, and went forth from the tomb without hurt or fracture, even as he had come from the womb of his blessed mother. The stone was not displaced, but penetrated by the subtility of his glorified body. The guards did not perceive it, and the terror in which they are represented at the sight of the Man-God emerging from the tomb is merely the imagination of painters. That which caused their fear was the earthquake and the apparition of the angel, as we are now about to see in the recital of what occurred immediately after the Saviour's resurrection.

(a) "When the Sabbath was past" (that is to say after sunset on the Sabbath day), "Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought sweet spices, that coming, they might anoint Jesus." They had prepared them on the previous evening; but, obliged by the repose of the holy day to interrupt their preparations, they availed themselves, in order to complete their work, of the first moment when it was permitted them so to do. It was necessary, however, before they set out on their journey, to tarry until the night was past; but yet they did not wait for the clear light of day. (b)"The first day of the week, when it was yet dark, they came very early in the morning, bringing the spices which they had prepared, to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen." They were not aware that the Jews had set guards there: wherefore, fancying that they had no other obstacle to meet, "they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? For it was very great." They were thus expressing their embarrassment, when the Lord removed in a moment every obstacle. (c) "Behold there was a great earthquake. For an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and coming, rolled back the stone, and sat upon it. His countenance was as lightning, and his raiment as snow. For fear of him, the guards were struck with terror and became as dead men." But they speedily recovered the use of their senses, and fled with all haste. Meantime, (d) "the women came and found the stone rolled back from the sepulchre." The angel—the sight of whom would have terrified them-being not yet visible to their eyes, nothing appeared any longer to hinder the execution of their pious designs. But, "going in, they found not the body of the Lord Jesus (1)."

(1) The visit of Magdalen and the holy women to the sepulchre, and the coming of the two disciples; the apparitions of the angels, and that of Jesus Christ, as well to Magdalen as to the holy women, are positive facts, since they are reported by the sacred writers; but it is extremely difficult to arrange them all in order, and we think we may say, that not one of all the systems imagined by the interpreters is free from some objection. Neither can we assert that that which we have followed is preferable to others: it is arbitrary like all the others, but it was necessary for us to adopt some system.