confirmed by so many infallible proofs, that the niost sceptical mind. cannot withhold its assent without doing violence to every principle of, sense and reason. It may not therefore be an improper employment of our time to examine, and meditate upon, some of the most striking óccurrences relative to this most important event, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, by which we are begotten again into a lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.* And, in order to ascertain the resurrection of Christ, the certainty of his death must be proved beyond all possible contradic tion. For, if Christ died not, then is he not risen; and the consequence, is that we are yet in our sins. Now, it is very observable that there never was any fact accompanied with so many extraordinary and irrefragable proofs as this. The usual punishment amongst the Jews, for blasphemy, was that of stoning, as appears from the answer of the Jews to the blessed Jesus, when they took up stones to stone him.‡ Many good works," says he, "have I shewed you from my father; for which of those works do ye stone me?", "The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." But, though at one time they declared," We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God;" yet, at another time, when Pilate said unto them," Take ye him, and judge him/according to your law," they answered, "It is not lawful for, us§

• To a lively hope." Quæ oritur ex fide resurrectionis, nimirum Christi. Quia enim Christus, caput nostrum, resurrexit, nos quoque ejus membra, resurgemus. Nam illa Christi resurrectio et rem ostendit esse possibilem, et simul ostendit ipsum esse veracem, qui nobis resurrectionem promisit. Nam quorsum alioqui Deus ipsum resuscitasset! An ad omnes homines fallendos?, Minime id convenit Dei veritate." Grotius,

+"Nec sanctificati, nec justificati; quia hoc a morte Christi pendet; qua peccata expiantur." Sclaterus.

"Blasphemus, secundum processum Synedrii judicialem, lapidandus erat." Lightfoot. # "Dum dicis, te et patrem unum esse."? Piscator.

"Malitiose hic respondent, tum ut Christum per Gentiles occiderent, et sic invidiam et scandalum populi evaderent: tum ut cum mortei crucis plecterent, tanquam sceleratissimum; adcoque infamarent, &c. Non licebat Judæis capite plectere quemquam sine consensu præsidis." Toletus.

*

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to put any man to death."... And all thus was done, if That the, saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which he spake, signifying what death he should die" Joh. xviii. 31, 32. Which prediction is contained in those words of St Matthew, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto t Scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify, him." And this singular mode of punishment, which was practised by the Romans, was prefigured in the days of Moses by the brazen serpent, as is evident from these words of our blessed Saviour; "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in drim should not perish, but have everlasting life." Joh. iii. 14. Which elevation of Christ upon the cross was not only a completion of this prophetical type, the serpent upon the pole, but afforded the most striking demonstration of the reality of his death. For, though the soldiers brake not his legs, because they saw that he was dead already, one of them, with a spear, pierced his side into the very heart, and forthwith came there out blood and water;}} after which it was impossible there could be any remains of life.

The Jews, therefore, could not possibly invalidate this great article of the Christian faith, the death of Christ, by pleading that his disciples took him away before he was actually dead, which they might have done had he been stoned only according to their law; for, the centurion, and the whole band of soldiers which attended the crucifixion, and, at the command of Pilate, delivered the body to Joseph of Arimathea, sufficiently confute so groundless a supposition. But still, though the Jews saw him dead on the cross, and, probably, with their own

* See Sermon on " They shall look on me," &c.

+"Sic in Christo impletum quod de agno Paschali lex edixerat. Exod. xii. 46." Bochart. "Curie erat militum ut sententia Judicis perficeretur. Sed et Deus hoc pacto testatissimam esse voluit Christi mortem, ne de ejus resurrectione dubitaretur," Grotius.

"Quo effuso animal quodvis mori protinus necesse est." Piscator, &c. "Dicitur vulgò, quòd effluxerunt duo sacramenta novi fœderis. Aqua baptismum, sanguis Eucharistiam repræsen tat." Brugensis, &e.

consent

consent given to Joseph for interment, whereby that remarkable pres diction of Isaiah, e. iii. 9," He made his grave with the rich," was fulfilled, their obstinate incredulity might have urged them to say, as inveterate prejudice will say any thing, either that it was not the iden tical person of Jesus but some other person; or, that he was not raised from the dead by his own power, but by virtue of some prophet with whom he was laid, as was the case of the dead man who was cast into the sepulchre of Elisha, 2′ Kings xiii. 21, We are particularly informed, Joh. xix. 41, that," in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new sepulchre wherein was never man yet, laid;* there laid they Jesus, therefore, because of the Jews prepara➡ tion-day, for the sepulchre was nigh at hand :" and, probably, many of the Jews beheld where he was laid, as may reasonably be gathered from Pilate's answer to the request of the chief priests and Pharisees that the sepulchre might be made sure until the third day :,“ Go your way, make it as sure as ye can. So they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting aowatch."

And here it is obvious to remark, that, before they sealed the stone and set the watch, they assured themselves that the body of Jesus was there; for, without this assurance, the last error would have been: worse than the first. And now what farther could possibly be done to prevent any fraud or delusion in this matter? or how could the desciples: of Jesus steal away his body after all this care and caution? Is there

"

Ne quis alius surrexisse crederetur." Grotius, &c.

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G. I

Sabbato sequente sepultura non permittebatur: Judeos enim longe strictius obligabat sabba→→ ti dies quam quivis alius festus, etiam Pasche." Brugensis.

"Signantes lapidem; ul. Dan, vi, 17. Quo loco adducor; ut eredam Pilati annulo et hunc lapidem signatum, hoc Deo agente, ut res anteactæ res Christi adumbrarent." Grotius. « Hoco pacto cautum volebantɔnè Jesus aut auffertur, aut resurgeret, aut, si forte resurgeret, occluso exitu, retentus sepulchro cogeretur aut recidere in mortem, aut post 3 diem, nemine credituro, exire. Ita cum Deo ipso: pugnant si forte superiores evaderent. Sed vicit Dei concilium, et illi his gestis resurrectionem, quam obscurare: volebant, reddebant certiorem, nullique calumniæ obnoxiam." Brugensis, &c.

the

the least foundation to suppose that a few dastardly men, who had all* a little before forsook him and fled, would have engaged in so danger ous an enterprise as to break open the door of the sepulchre, when it was guarded by a band of Roman soldiers who could not neglect their duty but at the peril of their lives? Is it in the least probable, that, if they were awake, they could all be bribed to connive at the taking away the body of Jesus? or can it be imagined that they were all at the same time so sound asleep as not to have been awakened at the rolling away of the stone, which was very great, from the door of the sepulchre? The fabrication, therefore, of that story of the Jews, that the disciples of Jesus came by night and stole him away while the soldiers slept, carries its own confutation with it. And St Augustin's expostulation with the: soldiers on this occasion was remarkably appo-. site:"Ye wicked, corrupt, senseless, wretches! either ye were awake or asleep; if awake, it was your business to secure the body from being stolen away; if asleep, then your own words disprove you; for, grant-ing this, it was impossible 'you should either know what was done or who the persons were who did it."

1

...That they had deft their station before the sepulchre, contrary to the injunction of the chief priest and Pharisees, is evident, from the appea rance of Mary Magdalane and the other Mary at the sepulchre; for, if the soldiers had been there, they would not have ventured to approach. ¡ And what could have induced the soldiers, one and all, to have abandoned their duty at that critical time, when they ought to have been more particularly on the guard? The only probable account of this extraordinary circumstance is what St Matthew furnishes, who tells us,

••* Omnes, incil pleriqué: nam sequebantur ipsum Petrus, 58, et Johannės, c. xviii. 15, vel omnes statim diffugerunt, sed hi redierunt." Maldonet. 21. KEN

Loquitur de Romanorum militum custodia, qua jam usi fuerant ad crucem: hæc, inquit, vobis præsto est ad nutum, et quasi vestra est, eâ utaminî et ad sepulchrum." Brugensis.

(

"Quis credet, tot milites, vigiliis perpetuis assuetos, circumfusos sepulchro, in rei tánta momenti, summæque exspectationis, in tanto strepitu saxi amoti, discipulorum accedentium et efferentium cadaver, &c. jucuisse omnes quasi letharge sepultos. Sed esto, quomodo ergo id testari i possent?" Brugensis.

that

66

that "there was a great earthquake; for, the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it: his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; and for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And, when they were recovered from their panic Some of the watch," as the evangelist afterwards adds, 66 came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done:+" but gave not the least intimation that the body had been taken away. But, as it was foreseen, by the great Disposer of all things, that the invincible malice of the Jews against the holy Jesus would instigate them to fabricate this incredible falsehood, that his disciples came by night, and stole him away while the soldiers slept, two remarkable circumstances stand upon record to obviate every the least suspicion of such an attempt. One of which is that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, were the first personst who went to see the sepulchre. Which is the strongest proof that no such design could ever. have entered into the minds of the disciples; for, if it had, they would never have permitted the women to have gone before them, which might have wholly frustrated their intention. And, if they could possibly have formed such a scheme, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary could not have been unacquainted with it: but this was so far from being the case, that, when Mary Magdalene came to the sepulchre, and saw that the stone was taken away, "She runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved,|| and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.§" This extraordi

Contremuerunt. “Timore tum humano, ne pœnas luerent corporis negligenter custoditi; tum præcipue divino, ne a Deo punirentur, ut qui Judæis operam præstarent." Brugensis. ↑ "Terræ motum, visum cœleste, devolutum lapidem, corpus non repertum." Grotius, &c. "Mulieres deliguntur futuræ resurrectionis testes, ut et fraudis et violentiæ omnis abesset suspicio, quibus resurrectio persuaderi vix potuerit, tantum abest ut eam finxerint." Brugensis. "Ad omnes quidem discipulos numero undecim, sed ita ut cum his, tanquam eminentibus, peculiariter sermonem conferret." Grotius.

§ "Ubi relictum sit corpus, in via, an in sepulchro alio, in loco decenti, an indecenti." Grot. &c. nary

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