Mtxxvii.57. named Joseph,

rection of Christ, they went and related it to the chief priests,
who bribed them with money, promising to secure their per-
sons from danger, and charged them to affirm that Christ's
disciples stole his body away while they were sleeping. (Matt.
xxxiii. 4. 11-15.) This flight of the soldiers, their declara-
tion to the high priests and elders, the subsequent conduct of
the latter, the detection and publication of their collusion with
the soldiers by the apostles, and the silence of the Jews on that
subject, who never attempted to refute or contradict the de-
clarations of Christ's disciples-are all strong evidences of the
reality and truth of his resurrection. A few additional consi-
derations will suffice to show the falsehood of the assertion made
by the chief priests.

On the one hand, the terror of the timid disciples, who were
afraid to be seen, and the paucity of their number; -on the
other hand, the authority of Pilate and of the Sanhedrim-the
great danger attending such an enterprprise as the stealing of
Christ's body-the impossibility of succeeding in such an at-
tempt, both from the number of armed men who guarded the
tomb, and also from the lightness of the night, it being the
time of full moon, at the great annual festival, when the city
was full of people, and many probably passed the whole night
(as Jesus and his disciples had done) in the open air-the se-
pulchre also being so near the city as to be inclosed within the
walls-all these circumstances combine to render such an im-
posture as that, which was palmed upon the Jews, utterly un-
worthy of credit. For, in the first place, is it probable that so
many men as composed the guard would all fall asleep in the
open air at once? 2. Is it at all probable that a Roman guard
should be found off their watch, much less asleep, when, ac-
cording to the Roman military laws, it was instant death to be
found in such a state? 3. Could they be so soundly asleep as
not to awake with all the noise which must necessarily be made
by removing the great stone from the mouth of the sepulchre,
and taking away the body? 4. Is it at all likely that these
timid disciples could have had sufficient time to do all this,
without being perceived by any person? How could soldiers,
armed, and on guard, suffer themselves to be over-reached by
a few timorous people? 5. "Either," says Augustine," they
were asleep or awake: if they were awake, why should they
suffer the body to be taken away? If asleep, how could they
know that the disciples took it away? How dare they then de-
pose that it was stolen ?" From the testimony of the enemies
of Christianity, therefore, the resurrection of Christ may be
fully proved.

Further, the conduct of the priests and elders towards the
soldiers evidently implies a conviction that our Saviour was
actually risen. They were now certain that he was not in the
grave. If there had been any suspicion that his disciples were
in possession of the dead body, these rulers, for their own cre-
dit, would instantly have imprisoned them, and used means to
recover it, which would have quashed the report of his resur-
rection for ever. There can be no doubt, therefore, of their
conviction that he was actually risen from the dead. If Jesus
had appeared to the priests and rulers, it could have served no
good purpose, as they were already convinced of the fact, but
would not acknowledge it to the people. Supposing that his
appearance to them, after his resurrection, would have changed
their minds, and induced them publicly to confess the truth, the
testimony of the priests and rulers would have been very sus-

Jerusalem.

Mark xv. 43. an honourable counsellor,

picious to posterity; it would have been said that they were
influenced by some political motive. Besides, this would have
weakened the testimony of the disciples; for the men who
bribed the soldiers could secretly have bribed them; therefore
the support of the priests and rulers would have rendered the
declaration of the chosen witnesses suspicious. Their invete-
rate opposition to the cause, and violent persecution of the
Christians, remove all suspicion of priestcraft and political
design. If the disciples had agreed to impose upon the world
in this affair, common sense would have directed them, first to
spread the report that our Lord was risen from the grave, and
then to employ an individual, whom they could trust, to per
sonate him, and to appear before the multitude in such a man-
ner and at such times as would not endanger a discovery: as
our Lord never appeared to the multitude after his resurrec-
tion, this removed all suspicion that the disciples had contrived
a scheme for deceiving the people.

These considerations show that our Saviour's appearance,
after he rose from the dead, only to a competent number of
witnesses, who were intimately acquainted with him before his
decease, is a circumstance highly calculated to establish the
truth of his resurrection to posterity.

The character of the apostles also proves the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and there are nine considerations which give their evidence sufficient weight, viz.

1. The condition of these witnesses. They were not men of power, riches, eloquence, or credit, to impose upon the world. They were poor, and mean, and despised: they were also incredulous of the fact itself. It is evident, that though our Saviour foretold his resurrection, yet after his death the disciples did not expect it, and therefore were with difficulty convinced of its reality. But as it was a subject of the highest importance to them and to the world, they obtained the fullest satisfaction of its truth. Intimately acquainted with his person after his resurrection, they felt his body, frequently examined his person, renewed the private conversations which he had with them before his decease, and enjoyed an intimacy with him, that removed the possibility of their being deceived.

2. The number of these witnesses.-This was more than sufficient to establish any fact. When St. Paul published a defence of our Lord's resurrection, he declared to the world that Jesus appeared to five hundred witnesses at one time, and he appealed to a number of them, who were then alive, for the truth of his assertion. Could all those men agree voluntarily to maintain a vile falsehood, not only altogether unprofitable, but also such as involved them in certain dishonour, poverty, persecution, and death? According to their own principles, either as Jews or Christians, if this testimony, to which they adhered to the last moment of their lives, had been false, they exposed themselves to eternal misery. Under such circumstances, these men could not have persevered in maintaining a false testimony, unless God had wrought a miracle in human nature to enable impostors to deceive the world.

3. The facts, which they themselves avow ;..not suppositions, distant events, or events related by others, but real facts which they have beheld with their own eyes. "That....which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of Life....declare we unto you." (1 John i. 1. 3.)

4. Observe the tribunals before which they gave evidence.

Jerusalem.

Lu.xxiii.50, and he was a good man, and a just:

The members of these tribunals were Jews and heathens, phi-
losophers and rabbies, courtiers and lawyers. If they had been
impostors, the fraud would certainly have been discovered.

5. The place in which they bore testimony.-It was not at a
distance where it would have been difficult to detect them if
they asserted a falsehood; but at Jerusalem, in the synagogue,
in the prætorium.

6. The agreement of their evidence.-These witnesses were separated from one another: many of them were imprisoned, separately examined, severely tried, and cruelly tortured, yet they all agreed in every part of their testimony. In no instance whatever did they contradict either themselves or one another; but cheerfully sealed with their blood this truth, that they saw and conversed with Jesus after he was risen from the dead. Every person, possessed of common sense, must see the absolute impossibility of this agreement among the witnesses, if the subject of their lestimony had been a falsehood.

7. The time when this evidence was given.-It was not after the lapse of several years, but only three days after our Saviour's crucifixion, that they declared he was risen-yea, even before the rage of his enemies was quelled, and while Calvary was yet dyed with the blood they had shed. If the resurrection of Christ had been a fraud, it is not likely that the apostles would have come forward in open day, and thus publicly have affirmed it.

8. Consider the motives, which induced them to publish the fact of Christ's resurrection:-It was not to acquire fame, riches, glory, or profit. By no means. On the contrary, they exposed themselves to sufferings and death, and proclaimed the truth from a conviction of its importance and certainty.

9. Lastly, the miracles performed by these witnesses in the name of Jesus, and in confirmation of their declaration concerning the resurrection of Jesus, are God's testimony to their veracity. No subject was ever more public, more investigated, or better known, than the transactions of the apostles. St. Luke, an historian of great character, who witnessed many of the things which he relates, published the Acts of the Apostles among the people who saw the transactions. It would have blasted his character to have published falsehoods which must instantly be detected; it would have ruined the credit of the Church to have received as facts notorious falsehoods. Now the Acts of the Apostles were written by St. Luke, received by the Church, and no falsehood was ever detected in that book by Jew or Gentile. The primitive fathers attest its truth and authenticity, and heathen authors record some of the important facts which are related by the sacred historian. In the second chapter, we are informed that the apostles, who were known to be unlearned fishermen, began to speak the several languages of those people, who at that time were assembled at Jerusalem from different countries. When the people were astonished at this undoubted proof of inspiration, the apostles thus addressed the multitude: "Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also knowthis Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses." To the gift of tongues, as a proof of inspiration, was added a number of undoubted miracles, in confirmation of this testimony concerning Jesus Christ, which are related in the Acts of

Jerusalem.

Lu.xxiii.51, who also himself waited for the kingdom of God.

the Apostles, and were published among the people who wit-
nessed them.

Though these arguments are apparently sufficient to satisfy
the most determined sceptic, we are by no means contented to
rest the merits of this cause upon general statements alone. As
the Evangelical narrative has been so frequently objected to by
the opponents of Christianity, many writers who have been as
willing as the most resolute sceptic to abandon the cause of
Christianity, if they had deemed it on inquiry to be unworthy
of support, have devoted so much attention to this part of the
inspired history, that every incident recorded, and every word
that relates it, have been repeatedly examined with the most
acute and diligent criticism; and the result has been, to place
the authenticity of the sacred story on the firmest foundation.

The principal embarrassment in the history of the resurrection, arises from the account of the time at which the women came to the sepulchre. It was long supposed that they came there together, and a great difficulty was consequently felt, as to the one angel mentioned by Matthew and Mark, and the two mentioned by St. Luke. Lightfoot has endeavoured to reconcile this apparent discrepancy, by supposing that they saw one angel, as they went together, sitting on the entrance stone, and another in the inside, a solution which appears by no means satisfactory. The reasoning by which the later harmonizers have concluded that there were two, and not one party of women only, will be given in the notes to the second section.

By one of those singular coincidences which sometimes occur, three competent and learned men were engaged at the same time in studying the scriptural account of the resurrection. These were Pilkington, a country clergyman, whose work is a monument of patient investigation; Doddridge, the well known author of the Family Expositor; and West, a layman; whose treatise on the resurrection will always be valued by those who would understand the evidences of their religion. These three writers, unknown to each other, all came to similar conclusions respecting two companies of women. Mr. West's work was actually published when Pilkington's was ready for publication; and the latter has directed his reader to correct one of his sections, in consequence of Mr. West's observations on the resurrection. The section itself had been printed off. Dr. Doddridge had but just published the part of his Expositor, containing the Gospels, and at the end of his postscript to this part of his work he thanks Mr. West for the advantage he had derived from his labours, and points out in what respects they had differed from each other. The only variation with respect to the two parties of women is, that Doddridge supposed them to have left the city by different ways, and therefore that they did not meet till they arrived at the tomb.

As it may seem necessary to give some account of the several theories of the three authors who have so deeply studied this subject, (before the plan I have adopted be considered) I shall give here the abstract of the harmonies of the resurrection proposed by West and by Dr. Townson; the elaborate work of the latter being a correction, and a more systematic arrangement of the whole account laid down by the former. To these I shall add that of Mr. Cranfield, of Trinity College, Dublin, who, in a prize essay on the subject, proceeded with great attention once more through the whole mass of reading necessary to enable him to decide on some minute points in which he differs with Dr. Townson. In the disposal of each event in this arrangement

Jerusalem.

Joh. xix. 38. being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, for fear of the Jerusalem.
Jews,

no notes will be requisite where the harmonizers are agreed;
where they differ, the reasons will be assigned.

I have endeavoured to express in the titles to the sections,
the conclusions to which I have been led from the perusal of
these anthors.

The best abstract of Mr. West's plan, is that compiled by Dr. Doddridge, in the postscript to the first part of the Family Expositor.

"During the time of our blessed Redeemer's lying in the grave, several of the pious women who had attended him from Galilee, together with some of their female friends and acquaintance at Jerusalem, agreed to meet at his sepulchre early on the morning of the third day, to embalm the body. Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, Salome, and Joanna, were principal persons in this appointment: the chief care of preparing, that is pounding, mixing, and melting the spices, was left to Joanna and her company, who were to be there about sun-rising; whereas the two Maries and Salome (of whom Matthew and Mark chiefly write) came thither wow before the appointed time early in the morning, or as the day dawned, in order Gewonoa to view the sepulchre, that they might judge whether they and their companions could be able to remove the stone which closed it, or whether it would be necessary to call in other assistance, as they then knew nothing of the guard which was set upon it. While these three women last mentioned were on their way, Jesus arose, when the angel had opened the sepulchre and struck the guards into amazement and consternation; the consequence of which was, that some of them went to the Jewish rulers, and joined in contriving and propagating the senseless falsehood of the body being stolen, and others went into other parts of the city, and told the matter as it really was. In the mean time, when the angel disappeared, and Mary Magdalene approaching the sepulchre, discerned from some distance that the very large stone that stopped it was rolled away, and concluding from thence that the body was removed, left the other Mary and Salome to wait for Joanna and her company, while she herself ran to Peter and John, to acquaint them with what she had discovered. While she was gone, these two, (the other Mary and Salome) went toward the sepulchre, and entering into it, saw, to their great astonishment, an angel, who told them that Jesus, whom he knew they sought, was not there, but was risen from the dead, and gave it them in charge to go and acquaint his disciples with it, and to let them know that he would give them a meeting in Galilee. The greatness of their consternation prevented them from saying any thing immediately to any one, even to some of their own company, who might pass and repass within their view at least, and so occasioned a delay which left room for some other circumstances. Just as they were on their return, Peter and John came, (perhaps passing by them at some distance,) and Mary Magdalene fullowed them. John at his first arrival only looked into the sepulchre; but when Peter came and entered it, John went in too, and from the circumstances in which he saw things, believed that Jesus was risen; though the angel, (who could appear or disappear at pleasure) did not render himself visible to either. They returned to the city, and Mary Magdalene, who was now alone, stooping down to look into the sepulchre, saw two angels; but (perhaps imagining they were young men, whom curiosity or accident might have brought thither) took