duct of the apostles, every page of their writings, shews most indisputably, that they themselves sincerely believed the truth of what they taught: yet, in defiance of the strongest possible moral evidence, in defiance of the first principles of our sensitive nature, such is the credulity of the infidel, that he finds it more easy to deem them impostors than to acknowledge them as the inspired messengers of heaven.

3. It will be asked, what, at this second stage of the propagation of the Gospel, could have specially induced the apostles and their companions to act the part which they did act. On the death of their master, they were scattered and their whole conduct and language at that time shewed, that they had given up in despair the project of procuring his acknowledgment in the character of the promised Messiah. Yet, suddenly, their despair was changed into confidence: and, notwithstanding he had been violently removed from them, they still persisted in maintaining that he was the great prophet whom their countrymen were then universally expecting. What could produce this extraordinary revival of a project, when all hope seemed to have been previously extinguished?

Christ himself, we are told, had ventured to predict during his life-time, that, although the chief priest and the scribes would deliver him to the Gentiles for the purpose of effecting his crucifixion, he would nevertheless rise again the third day.* This prophecy was no secret, nor was the knowledge of it by any means con

fined to his own disciples: on the contrary, it was speedily divulged; and soon came to the ears of his determined enemies, the chief priests and Pharisees. Thus fortunately placed upon their guard, they now had it in their power to bring his pretensions to an easy issue. Accordingly, the day after his burial, they came together to Pilate, in order that the necessary precautions might be taken against any fraudulent attempt to bring about an apparent accomplishment of the prophecy. Sir, said they, we remember, that that deceiver said while he was yet alive; After three days I will rise again. Command therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day; lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people; He is risen from the dead. So the last error shall be worse than the first.* No arrangement could have been better conceived. Christ had publicly declared, that he would rise again on the third day. Nothing more therefore was necessary to confute his pretensions, even on his own principles, than to convince the whole nation that he did not then rise again and, to secure this confutation, the only thing requisite was to set a guard, who should effectually prevent any trick on the part of the disciples, and who should thus enable the Jewish high-priests to exhibit the dead body after the specified time had fully elapsed. The declaration of Christ was public: and the precautions taken were equally public. Hence the matter was brought to a regular issue: and the entire question, whether he was or was not the

Matt. xxvii. 63, 64.

Messiah, hung suspended on the naked fact, whether he did or did not rise again on the third day.

What then happened, when the fated third day arrived? It is natural to expect, if the Gospel were an imposture, that the dead body of Christ would have been produced and triumphantly exhibited, to the entire conviction of every rational inquirer, and to the utter confusion of his now confessedly deluded followers. This was the obvious course for the high-priests and the Pharisees to take: and indeed all the precautions, to which they had previously resorted, plainly enough shewed that they meant to take this course. Did they then take it? Nothing of the sort. Notwithstanding the guard of Roman soldiers which had been set to watch the sepulchre and to prevent the possibility of any fraud on the part of the disciples, the body was missing and could not be produced. Such was the fact and the problem was, how this fact was to be satisfactorily accounted for.

The story told by the Jewish rulers was, that the disciples of Christ came by night, and stole away the body while the soldiers slept: and their statement was corroborated by the declaration of the soldiers themselves.

This mode of accounting for the disappearance of the dead body seems, at first, not a little plausible: but, if examined somewhat more closely, it is by no means unattended with serious difficulties. The soldiers well knew for what purpose they had been stationed; for no less extraordinary a purpose, than to see, whether a dead man would be restored to life and

would come forth from the sepulchre in which he had been laid. Hence, when we consider the ordinary workings of superstition in regard to a reappearance of the dead, and when we duly weigh the thrilling curiosity which the duty imposed upon the soldiers could not but excite, we must of necessity think it rather incredible, that not merely a single individual of the guard, careless and incurious, should have dropped asleep, but that the whole company with one accord should have been seized with this unaccountable and most inopportune somnolency. Nor is this the only difficulty. The sepulchre was not a mere grave dug in soft and yielding mould, which might easily be opened without any unusual noise: but it was hewn out in a rock, and was secured by a great stone with which its mouth was carefully closed. Such being the case, it is clear, that the disciples could not steal the body without rolling away the stone; and it is equally clear, that they could not roll away the stone without producing a very considerable noise. Yet so sound and deep was the sleep of the Roman soldiers, one and all, if we may credit the Jewish account of the matter, that not a single person awoke, though the rumbling of a huge stone violently put in motion was sounding full in their ears, and though the trampling bustle of removing a dead body was going on in their very presence. The story now begins to look somewhat suspicious and incredible : for the reception of it involves facts, which are enough to stagger even the most determined belief. But another unaccountable circumstance yet remains behind. The severity of Roman

discipline is well known: death was the punishment of the centinel, who slept upon guard: yet not one of these most culpably negligent soldiers was animadverted upon. That Pilate and the Jewish rulers would be alike provoked at the disappointment which they had experienced through the careless drowsiness of the watch, cannot for a moment be doubted: whence it can be as little doubted, that they would be eager and prompt to wreak their vengeance upon the culprits. Not one of them, however, received the least punishment: instead of their lives being forfeited, they were seen at large just as if they had committed no military offence whatsoever. And now let any person, accustomed to weigh legal evidence, put these several circumstances together; and then say, whether the Jewish story does not wear fraud and suspicion upon its very face. So ill does it hang together, that it would not, I am persuaded, for a single moment be admitted in any court of law, as affording sufficient ground to build a decision upon.

Such was the Jewish mode of accounting for a fact, in the truth of which all parties were agreed; the fact of the disappearance of the dead body: let us next attend to the Christian mode.

Jesus as it was universally known, had foretold that he would rise again on the third day : on this third day his dead body was not to be found and his lately terrified and scattered disciples now came boldly forward; and declared, that he had, actually risen from the dead, and had thus accomplished his own prophecy. Their declaration rested upon the alleged circumstance, that they themselves had repeatedy seen him