The amount of the argument, then, in so far as regards the motives of the first witnesses of Christ's resurrection, may be thus stated: if they had been impostors they would have had more sense, and more regard to their own interest, than to publish and persist in such an improbable and unprofitable doctrine; and if they had been enthu siasts, they would have had more honesty than to affirm as truth what they knew to be false; for a man cannot be an enthusiast, and at the same time a wilful deceiver.
But let its look for a moment to the features of the fact, as stated by the sacred historians, and not denied by the enemies of Christianity. The Jewish rulers were fully aware that our Lord had declared that he would rise again on the third day after his death.
We have already shown that the disciples could not understand this, because they could not allow themselves to think that the Messiah was to die. But the Jews, who had all along been bent on his death, had no such prejudices to obscure their con ceptions. Judas, too, who had become their agent, and who had none of the views and feelings of the other apostles to prevent him from understanding the distinct intimations which our Lord gave of his resurrection, would doubtless put his employers in full possession of all these particulars; and they were not lost upon them; for they took the most judicious precautions to prevent an event which, if accomplished, they foresaw would render abortive all that they had clone. The chief priests and Pha risees, therefore, went to Pilate, and said, " Sir, we remember that this 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." Pilate readily assented to their propo sal; " so they went and made the sepulchre sure, scaling the stone and setting a watch." Yet notwithstanding of all these precautions, the body of Christ did disappear on the third day, as the Jews themselves confess, and no infidel has been hardy enough to deny it. And how do they account for the circumstance? The only account they have ever attempted to give is, that the disci ples came and stole away the body whilst the guard was asleep. If they could possibly have invented any other feasible story, or if falsehood could ever find a secure asylum, they never would have pub lished an account so full of improbabilities and contradictions. For, in the first place, it is in the highest degree improbable that so many men as composed the guard (the number we do not exactly know, but we may be sure it was such as was deem ed sufficient to defeat all attempts on the part of the disciples to carry off the body either by strata gem or force) should have all been so fast asleep as not to be awakened by the noise of persons rolling a large stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, and carrying a dead body through the midst of them. And, in the next place, consider who they are who give the account? The soldiers themselves were the only persons qualified to give any account of the business; but had the report which they circu lated been true, they would have been the last per sons in the world to confess a delinquency which they must have expiated by their lives. Besides,
their account, like most falsehoods, contains in its bosom its own refutation; for if they were actually asleep, how could they know whether the disciples carried off the body or not? This could only be an inference; and, in the circumstances of the case, a very improbable one. For they who had univer sally forsaken their master when they foresaw his destruction, were not likely to risk much for him after he was actually dead. The evidence, then, stands thus, even on the admission of Jews and un believers; the resurrection of Christ is attested by hundreds who declare that they saw him frequently after that event, and 'with their eyes open, and all their senses in exercise; whilst the contrary state ment, that the disciples stole away his body, is only attested by sleeping witnesses, who, in such circumstances, were certainly incapable of bearing testimony to any thing but their own dreams.
It may indeed be said, that the statement the have given rests on the authority of the apostles and evangelists. It does so; but it has never been con tradicted, and it carries with it internal evidence of its truth. The Evangelist Matthew gives a most natural account of the whole transaction. He tells us that some of the guard ran instantly to the chief priests and told them all they had seen; upon this a council was held, and it was thought best not to make a show of punishing the soldiers for their supposed neglect, because they knew they would die declaring the truth. The council therefore agreed to bribe the soldiers; and they gave them, we are told, a large sum to induce them to propa gate the unlikely story which we have been exa mining; and as they knew that the soldiers must do this at the peril of their lives, they said to them, " If this come to the governor's ears, we will per suade him and secure you," which they knew it would not be difficult to do, as Pilate could not be supposed to have any partiality for Christianity, though he was perfectly convinced of the innocence of its author. "So," the evangelist adds, "they took the money and did as they were taught; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews till this day." That is, it was commonly said among the Jews at the time when Matthew's ac count was published, that our Lord's disciples took away his body when the guard was asleep. Thus the author, at the time he publishes his history, which was within thirty years of the time when the event happened, appeals to the whole country of Judea where his work was circulated, for the truth of what he stated as to the Jewish account of the resurrection. No author in his senses would have made such an appeal, had not this been the current edition of the story among the Jews; for every man living could have contradicted him, and such a palpable misstatement would have offended the friends, and given every possible advantage to the enemies of Christianity. But the statement is not denied; it is the common account among unbeliev ers down to the present day; and we have endea voured to show that it carries in its face falsehood and contradiction.