in this manner, must be competent wit netles; if no other exception can lye a gainst them, they certainly fpeak home to the purpose and all that any witness can be defired, or fuppofed to fpeak.

II. As the Apostles could not be de 'ceived themselves, fo they would not deceive others, having no temptation to it, but acting against all the Interefts, and advantages of this world. And thofe, who had denied o: forfook Chrift when he was living, would never have been so zealous and refolute to fuffer for him after he was crucified, if they had not been fully af fured of his Refurrection. It is not to be imagined, they would have fuffered all manner of Torments and Deaths, only to bear witness to a thing, they had known to be falfe; and it has been already prov ed that they could not be deceived in it, but must have known it to be falfe, if it had been fo; and therefore it must be true that Chrift is rifen from the dead, or else we mult fuppofe the Apoftles to have been of fo different a nature from all the rest of Mankind, as to delight in the things, which all others fear and abhor, even in bonds and imprisonments, in infamy and torments, and all the punishments that can be inflicted he that would endure all these for the fake of what he knew to be falfe, muft furely not be of humane na

ture;

this aner, muft be compcture; and we may as well doubt, wheother exception ther the Apostles were men, as we are, they certainly peaks whether Chrift did rife from the me and all that any wiedead.

fuppofed to speak. III. They alledged fuch circumftances, the Apofiles could not as made it impoffible for them to deceive enielves, fo they would thofe, to whom they teftified the Truth her, having no tengrof Chrift's Refurrection, though they againit all the luchad had never fo much mind to do it. of this world. And the They declared that that Jefus whom the do forfook Christ wie Jews had caused to be crucified, and had ld never have been then placed a Guard of Soldiers to secure

it they had not bee him away, was notwithstanding all their e to fuffer for him at his Sepulchre, left his difciples fhould take Relurrection. Itincare rifen from the dead; and that that er would have Report of the Jews, that his Difciples came rments and Dea by night and stole him away while the Watch flept, was utterly falfe; nay that

a thing, they

deceiva

it has been at was a fuborned story, and that the ld not be dame Chief Priefts had given the Soldiers Money herefore imlen, how eafily had all this been disprcwn it to be to fay it. Now if Chrift had not really been om the dead,ved, and what a Provocation was this to the chief Priefts to difprove it? If they could, their Honour and Reputation, and

pollesto

from allther

1 the ththeir Intereft with the People, was higherly concerned to vindicate the Truth of infam the Report, which they had hired the

Souldiers to give out; and if there had

d endurt been no fuch Report, what reafon could kner tot. Matthew have to pretend there was? humane And if against all Reafon and common

X 2

fenfe,

fenfe, he had pretended fuch a report when there had been none, it must have been the greateft diflerviceto hisCaufe,that could have been thought of. But when there was fuch a report amongst the Jews, that his Difciples had ftoln him away by night, if this could have been made good against them, would his Difciples fo foon after in the very City where he had been crucified, declare to the Face of the Chief Priefts affembled in Counfel, the God of our Fathers bash raised up Jefus, whom je flew and banged on a Tree, bim hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, and to give repentance to Ifrael, and forgiveness of fins, and we are his witneffes of these things, A&ts v. 30, 31, 32. Was not this as much as could be said, to challenge them to produce thofe Soldiers, to confront them? But befides the fenfe lefs story, that men fhould be able to know what was done, when they confefs themfelves to have been afleep; the Apoftles could foon have confuted that calumny by the Miracles, which they wrought by virtue of his Réfurrection: if the Soldiers had been afleep, when the Body was ta ken away, yet the Jews were certainly a wake, when they invented and spread the report, and when they faw the Miracles, and heard the ftrange Languages, by which the Apostles proved it to be false,

1

and

and declared, that Chrift was rifen by the Omnipotent Power of God,

Befides, St. Matthew writes, that the & Graves were opened, and many bodies of Saints which fept, arose and appeared unto many, Matt. xxvii. 51, 53. Many faw them, who are appealed to as witneffes of their Refurrection. And the miraculous events at the death of our Saviour, which were fo many certain prefages and fore-runners of his Refurrection; as the Earthquake, and the darkness of the Sun for three hours together, in the midst of the day, contrary to the courfe of Nature, the Moon being in the full; the rending the veil of the Temple and the like; thefe were things which must be notorious, and which could not have been pretended to have happened, but the whole people of the Jews must be appealed to, as witneffes of them.

And it being a cuftom for the Deputies of Provinces to certifie the Emperor of whatever happened confiderable under their Government, the Refurrection of our Saviour, with the Miracles which accompanied it, were fo remarkable, that Pontius Pilate gave an account both of his Miracles and his Refurrection to the Emperor Tiberius; who thereupon propofed it to the Senate, to have him taken into the number of their Gods, and made it punishable to accufe any man for being a X 3

Chri

A

Christian during his Reign. And this information of Pontius Pilate was entred upon Record at Rome; to which Juftin Martyr appeals, in his Apology to the (d) Juftin Emperor Antoninus Pius, and the Senate; Apol. ii. Tertul. A. and Tertullian in his Apology, which was pol. c. iii. likewife prefented to the Senate of Rome,

& xxi.

or at least to the Governours of the Provinces. They both lived in the next Age, and were both educated in a different Religion, and upon thefe and fuch like proofs, became Chriftians; and they were men of excellent Learning and Judgment: but no man, who could write an Apology, can be fuppofed to have fo much confidence, and fo little understanding, as to appeal to that account which Pilate fent to Tiberius, concerning the Refurrection of Chrift in Apologies dedicated and prefented to the Roman Emperor himself, and to the Senate, or the chief Magistrates of the Empire, if no fuch account had ever been fent, or none had been then extant to be produced. But, by the fpecial Providence of God, both the Birth and the Resurrection of our Saviour were inferted into the publick Records at Rome, and were to be feen there for a long time after; and the Heathens, in whofe cuftody they were, are defired. By the Primitive Chriftians to confult them: for they were content to put the matter upon this iffue,

that