The guards, the Gentleman says, have confessed the truth, and owned that they were asleep, and that the disciples in the mean time stole away the body.  I wish the guards were in court, I would ask them, how they came to be so punctual in relating what happened when they were asleep? what induced them to believe that the body was stolen at all? what, that it was stolen by the disciples; since by their own confession they were asleep and say nothing, saw no body?  But since they are not to be had, I would desire to ask the Gentleman the same questions; and whether he has any authorities in point, to shew, that ever any man was admitted as an evidence in any court, to prove a fact which happened when he was asleep?  I see the Gentleman is uneasy; I’ll press the matter no further.

As this story has no evidence to support it, so neither has it any probability.  The Gentleman has given you the character of the disciples; that they were weak, ignorant men, full of the popular prejudices and superstitions of their country,which stuck close to them notwithstanding their long acquaintance with their master.  The apostles are not much wronged in this account; and is it likely that such men should engage in so desperate design, as to steal away the body, in opposition to the combined power of the Jews and Romans?  What could tempt them to it?  What good could the dead body do them?  Or if it could have done them any, what hope had they to succeed in their attempt?  A dead body is not to be removed by sleight of hand; it requires many hands to move it:  besides, the great stone at the mouth of the sepulchre was to be removed; which could not be done silently, or by men walking on tip-toes to prevent discovery:  so that if the guards had really been asleep, yet there was no encouragement to go on this enterprise; for it is hardly possible to suppose, but that rolling away the stone, moving the body, the hurry and confusion of carrying it off, must awaken them.

But supposing the thing was practicable, yet the attempt was such as the disciples consistently with their own notions could not undertake.  The Gentleman says, they continued all their master’s lifetime to expect to see him a temporal prince; and a friend of the Gentleman’s has observed, what is equally true, that they had the same expectation after his death.  Consider now their case.  Their master was dead; and they are to contrive to steal away his body.  For what?  Did they expect to make a King of the dead body, if they could get it into their power?  Or did they think, if they had it, they could raise it to life again?  If they trusted so far to their master’s prediction, as to expect his resurrection, (which I think is evident they did not), could they yet think the resurrection depended on their having the dead body?  It is in all views absurd.  But the Gentleman supposes, that they meant to carry on the design for themselves, in the master’s, if they could but have persuaded