her, and speaking familiarly and affectionately to her, to distinguish her as his constant follower in his life-time, and one on whom he had worked a great miracle of healing.

This, I imagine, might very justly be termed — he appeared first to Mary Magdalene — To appear first to any one of a company, as I take it, is to come up to, or stand before some particular person, in order to speak to such person. This, in my imagination, removes the difficulty, and reconciles Mark to Matthew: but to this explication I prefer the women's being at second times at the sepulchre; that is, Mary Magdalene a second time, when Peter and John went to the tomb, on what she had earnestly told them apart: and afterwards, the other Mary, Salome, Joanna, etc. a second time. The gospels, in my opinion, make this very plain (42.)
What has been said, (Mr. Berrisfort told me), seems plausible, nd ought to satisfy every honest man. It gives me content: but there is one thing still that perplexes me,

and that is, the various lections of the New Testament. Do they not hurt the book?
No: (Jack Buncle replied), notwithstanding the cry of infidels, and that some learned men of the church of Rome have endeavoured to shake the credit of the two testaments, and to bring the people to the papal chair, to know the truth, on account of the various readings; yet, nevertheless, they are rather an advantage and security to the sacred text than a detriment to the written word. They corroborate the authority of the sacred book, and give it additional advantages.
It is a truth that there are many various readings in Terence, Livy, Virgil, Caesar, Thucydides, Homer, Plutarch, etc. and yet who denies the genuineness and great use of those noble authors of sense and politeness? who is so hardy as to question whether the works universally ascribed to them be their own and the product of those immortal wits? On the contrary, men of thought and clear heads, conversant in those studies, will agree that those authors of antiquity of which there are the most various readings, are rendered the most pure and correct. And why should not the various readings of the bible rather lead men of sound learning and judgment to the true meaning of the divine writers, than endanger their mistaking their genuine language and sense.

Where there are several readings, it is highly probable one of them is the original;