The guards, the gentleman says, have confessed the truth, and owned that they were asleep, and that the disciples, in the mean time, stole away the body. I wish the guards were in court, I would ask them how they came to be so punctual in relating what happened when they were asleep? what induced them to believe that the body was stolen at all? what that it was stolen by the disciples, since, by their own confession, they were asleep, and saw nothing, saw nobody? but since they are not to be had, I would desire to ask the gentleman the same questions, and whether he has any authorities in point to shew that ever any man was admitted as an evidence in any court to prove a fact which happened when he was asleep? I see the gentleman is uneasy; I will press the matter no further.

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As this story has no evidence to support it, so neither has it any probability. The gentleman has given you the character of the disciples, that they were weak, ignorant men, full of the popular prejudices and superstitions of their country, which stuck close to them notwithstanding their long acquaintance with their Master. The apostles are not much wronged in this account; and is it likely that such men should engage in so desperate a design, as to steal away the body in opposition to the combined power of the Jews and Romans? what could tempt them to it? what good could the dead body do them? or if it could have done them any, what hope had they to succeed in their attempt? A dead body is not

to be removed by slight of hand, it requires many hands to move it; besides, the great stone at the mouth of the sepulchre was to be removed, which could not be done silently, or by men walking on tiptoes to prevent discovery; so that if the guards had really been asleep, yet there was no encouragement to go on in this enterprize; for it is hardly possible to suppose, but that rolling away the stone, moving the body, the hurry and confusion in carrying it off, must awaken them.

But supposing the thing practicable; yet the attempt was such as the disciples consistently with their own notions could not undertake. The gentleman says, they continued all their Master's life time to expect to see him a temporal prince; and a friend of the gentleman's * has observed, what is equally true, that they had the same expectation after his death. Consider now their case; their master was dead, and they are to contrive to steal away his body; for what? did they expect to make a king of the dead body if they could get it into their power? or did they think if they had it they could raise it to life again? if they trusted so far to their master's prediction as to expect his resurrection (which I think is evident they did not) could they yet think the resurrection depended on their having the dead body? It is in all views absurd. But the gentleman supposes that they meant to carry on the design

*Grounds, page 33.

for themselves in their Master's name, if they could but have persuaded the people to believe him risen from the dead; but he does not consider that by this supposition he strips the disciples of every part of their character at once, and presents to us a new set of men, in every respect different from the former : the former disciples were plain, weak men; but these are bold, hardy, cunning, and contriving; the former were full of the superstition of their country, and expected a prince from the authority of their prophets; but these are despisers of the prophets, and of the notions of their countrymen, and are designing to turn these fables to their own advantage; for it cannot be supposed that they believed the prophets, and, at the same time, thought to accomplish or defeat them by so manifest a cheat, to which they themselves at least were conscious.

But let us take leave of these suppositions, and see how the true evidence in this case stands. Guards were placed, and they did their duty; but what are guards and sentinels against the power of God? an angel of the Lord opened the sepulchre, the guards saw him, and became like dead men ; this account they gave to the chief priests, who still persisting in their obstinacy, bribed the guards to tell the contradictory story, of their being asleep, and the body stolen.

I cannot but observe to your lordship, that all these circumstances so much questioned and suspected, were necessary circumstances, supposing the

resurrection to be true; the seal was broken, the body came out of the sepulchre, the guards were placed in vain to prevent it; be it so, I desire to know whether the gentleman thinks that the seal put God under covenant? or could prescribe to him a method of performing this great work? or whether he thinks the guards were placed to maintain the seal in opposition to the power of God? If he will maintain neither of these points, then the opening the seals, notwithstanding the guard set upon them, will be an evidence, not of the fraud, but of the power of the resurrection; and the guards will have nothing to answer for, but only this, that they were not stronger than God. The seal was a proper check upon the guards; the Jews had no other meaning in it; they could not be so stupid as to imagine that they could, by this contrivance, disappoint the designs of Providence; and it is surprising to hear these circumstances made use of to prove the resurrection to be a fraud, which yet could not but happen, supposing the resurrection to be true.

But there is another circumstance still, which the gentleman reckons very material, and upon which I find great stress is laid; the resurrection happened, we are told, a day sooner than the prediction imported; the reason assigned for it is, that the execution of the plot, at the time appointed, was rendered impracticable, because the chief priests, and probably great numbers of the people, were prepared to visit

the sepulchre at that time; and therefore the disciples were under a necessity of hastening their plot.

This observation is entirely inconsistent with the supposition upon which the reasoning stands. The gentleman has all along supposed the resurrection to have been managed by fraud, and not by violence; and indeed violence, if there had been an opportunity of using it, would have been insignificant; beating the guards, and removing the dead body by force, would have destroyed all pretences to a resurrection. Now surely the guards, supposing them not to be enough in number to withstand all violence, were at least sufficient to prevent, or to discover fraud; what occasion then to hasten the plot for fear of numbers meeting at the tomb, since there were numbers always present sufficient to discover any fraud? the only method that could be used in the case.

Suppose then that we could not give a satisfactory account of the way of reckoning the time from the crucifixion to the resurrection; yet this we can say, that the resurrection happened during the time that the guards had the sepulchre in keeping, and it is impossible to imagine what opportunity this could give to fraud; had the time been delayed, the guards removed, and then a resurrection pretended, it might with some colour of reason have been said, why did he not come within his time? why did he choose to come after his time, when all witnesses, who had patiently expected the appointed hour,