And when he came and saw Daniel safe, and his seal untouched, he was satisfied.  And indeed if we consider the thing rightly, a seal thus used imports a covenant.  If you deliver writings to a person sealed, and he accepts them so, your delivery and his acceptance implies a covenant between you, that the writings shall be delivered and the seal whole; and should the seal be broken, it would be a manifest fraud, and breach of trust.  Nay, so strongly is this covenant implied, that there needs no special agreement in the case; it is a compact which men are put under by the law of nations, and the common consent of mankind.  When you send a letter sealed to the post-house, you have not indeed a special agreement with all persons through whose hands it passes, that it shall not be opened by any hand , but his only to whom it is directed; yet men know themselves to be under this restraint, and that it is unlawful and dishonorable to transgress it.

Since then the sepulchre was sealed; since the seal imported a covenant, consider who were the parties to this covenant.  They could be no other than the chief priests on one side, and the apostles on the other.  To prove this, no special agreement need be shewn.  On one side, there was a concern to see the prophecy fulfilled; on the other, to prevent fraud in fulfilling it.  The sum of their agreement was naturally this, that the seals should be opened at the time appointed for the resurrection, that all parties might see and be satisfied, whether the dead body was come to life or no.

What now would any reasonable man expect from these circumstances?  Don’t you expect to hear, that the chief priests and the apostles met at the time appointed, opened the seals, and that the matter in dispute was settled beyond all controversy one way or other?  But see how it happened, The seals were broken, the body stolen away in the night by the disciples; none of the chief priests present, or summoned to see the seals opened.  The guards, when examined, were forced to confess the truth, though joined with an acknowledgement of their guilt; which made them liable to be punished by Pilate:  they confessed that they were asleep, and in the mean time that the body was stolen away by the disciples.

This evidence of the Roman soldiers, and the far stronger evidence arising from the clandestine method of breaking up the seals, are sufficient proofs of fraud.

But there is another circumstance in the case, of equal weight.  Though the seals did not prevent the cheat entirely, yet they effectually falsified the prediction.  According to the prediction, Jesus was to rise on the third day, or after the third day.  At this time the chief priests intended to be present, and probably would have been attended by a great multitude.  This made it impossible to play any tricks at that time; and therefore the apostles were forced the hasten the plot:  and accordingly the resurrection happened a day before its time; for the body was buried on the Friday, and was gone early in the morning on Sunday.