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thus acknowledging what CHRIST had declared, they gave a convincing proof, that they were not without some suspicion at least, if they had not a firm belief, that there was truth in his words*.

Their request to Pilate that he would command the sepulchre to be made sure only until the third day ended, showed that they understood our LORD's expression of rising after three days to be (as indeed it was) equivalent to a declaration that he would rise on the third days.

His disciples, say they, may come by night, and steal him away, and say that he is risen. Was this at all probable? that a number of armed soldiers should be in the least afraid of a few unarmed men, dispirited and disheartened as they were, by the late execution of their beloved Master? Surely not. Rather were these petitioners to Pilate convinced in their own consciences, that CHRIST Would rise again; and, to prevent it, they desired Pilate would command that the sepulchre should be made sure‡.

Pilate's answer to them was, Ye have a watch, go your way, make it as sure as you can. It has been thought by some,

* See Poole's Annotations. + Doddridge. + Poole.

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that Pilate, between the time of CHRIST'S death and the coming of the chief priests and Pharisees to him, had had some conversation with the centurion, and that he had thereby been induced to believe, as the centurion did, that truly CHRIST was the Son of GOD; and therefore that the answer he gave them was only to banter their fears, by bidding them be sure to set a strong guard over a dead man; or their hopes, by intimating, that if he were a God, do what they would, he would rise in spite of them and their guards; thus tacitly deriding them for thinking to secure the sepulchre upon him, who had so lately rent the rocks, and made the earth to quake*.

If, after having thus made the sepulchre sure under the governor's permission -if, after they had thus set a strong guard consisting of no less than sixty persons, and had moreover affixed their own common seal on the stone of the sepulchre, -their public seal which no one would dare to break-if, after all these precautions against the possibility of a fraud, the dead body could not be found at the time when JESUS had declared that he would rise again; what shall we say, but

* Henry.
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that it had escaped all these bonds of imprisonment, by a supernatural and irresistible power; and that the very means which were used to confine it, are, every one of them, an additional evidence of the fact. The guard appointed by Pilate to be in waiting on the day of the crucifixion; the seal affixed with great care by the chief priests; the watch set near the sepulchre with more than ordinary exactness; and the chief priests themselves leaving the sepulchre, throughly satisfied that every thing was perfectly secureall these circumstances conjointly, and each of them separately, are incontestible proofs, when the body could not be found in the sepulchre, that their attempts to secure it there, had been baffled by more than human agency; and show at the same time, the vanity and folly of the expectations of the chief priests; as if the same power which was necessary to raise and quicken the dead, could not also remove the seal, and break through the watch which they had so presumptuously set, to guard the sepulchre. But by this their excessive care and diligence, instead of preventing Christ's resurrection, as they intended, they have confirmed the truth and belief of it to all the world*.

* Poole.

Infatuated men! thus to contend with the Almighty by an attempt, in which could they have succeeded, or if the resurrection could not beyond all contradiction be proved, man would be, of all creatures; and the followers of CHRIST, of all men, the most miserable*!

This act of the chief priests in attempting to defeat the grand designs of Providence, which happened on the Jewish sabbath-day, that is on saturday, concludes the transactions of that week, not to be parallelled by any other occurrences, since the world began, or that shall be, before it be destroyed. This act therefore completes the design which I undertook, and by GoD's blessing have been able to bring to a conclusion; and however imperfect the manner may have been, in which I have conducted the discourses, which have lately been delivered, I am confident that those who have attended them with a desire of edification, cannot have attended in vain.

I wish however to be rightly understood: I do not mean to say, that your edification is to be attributed solely to my instructions, (for they could contribute towards it but in a very small degree,) but

* 1 Cor. xv. 19.,

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to the subject itself; from which, whenever you will study it with care, it is impossible but that you must receive improvement. I have done little else than to give you the history of the last week of the life and sufferings of our blessed Saviour, by throwing together what has been related by the four several evangelists in a continued series of events, as they happened in the course of the week; and in doing this I have received very great assistance from different authors whom I have had occasion to consult, and whose thoughts and even words I have very frequently interspersed with my own observations on the subject which I had in hand.

I concluded my last discourse by promising to introduce what happened on the saturday with the great event of this day, the day of the ressurrection of JESUS from the dead. I find, however, that it is impossible to do it in the same manner as I have the occurrences of the preceding day, by combining the relations of the different evangelists; for that would require more time than we have now at command.

I shall therefore content myself with the relation, which St. Matthew gives of the resurrection, in the ten first verses of

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