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After he was taken down from the cross, a seal was put on the door of 
the sepulchre in which he was laid, as the best check against secret fraud; 
and a guard of soldiers was stationed around it, as the best security against 
open violence. In spite, however, of all these precautions the prediction 
was accomplished; the angel of God, descending from heaven with a 
countenance like lightning, and with raiment white as snow; the watch 
shake, and become as dead men; the earth quakes; the stone is rolled from 
the mouth of the sepulchre; the angel sits on it, and our Lord comes forth. 
It was in vain for the Jews to allege that his disciples came in the night, 
and stole him away, while the watch were asleep. One must smile at these 
puerile assertions. How came the disciples to know that the watch were 
asleep; or what excuse had the watch for sleeping, and incurring a punish¬ 
ment which they knew to be capital in the Roman law? and how came 
they, in the name of wonder, to be brought as an evidence for those trans¬ 
actions that happened at the time when they were asleep? 
Whatever credit may be given by modern infidels to this ill-framed 
story, it is past dispute that it had none among the Jewish rulers at the 
time it was current. Not long after our Saviour s resurrection, the apostles 
were called before the council, and threatened with death for teaching in 
the name of Jesus. Their boldness upon that occasion was so provoking 
to the rulers, that the threat would have been instantly put in execution, 
had not Gamaliel, a doctor of the law of high reputation, put them in mind 
of other impostors who had perished in their attempts to mislead the people; 
and concluded a very sensible speech with these remarkable words: “ And 
now, I say unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone; for if this 
counsel, or this work, be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God , 
ye cannot overthrow it, lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.” 
This advice the council followed. But is it possible that Gamaliel could 
have given it, or the council paid the least regard to it, had the story of the 
disciples stealing the body been then credited? Surely some among them 
would have observed, that a work or counsel, founded on imposture and 
fraud, could not be supposed to be of God , and they would unquestionably 
have slain the apostles. 
The story of stealing the body is indeed one of the most senseless 
fictions that ever was invented in support of a bad cause. Our Lord was 
on earth forty days after he arose. He appeared frequently to his disciples. 
He ate and drank in their presence; and when some of them doubted, he 
