Of what Number the Watch did consist is uncertain. Your Whitby[313] says they were sixty; but he has no Reason nor Authority to think, they were so many. If they had been to be a Guard against Violence, I could easily have believed they were more; but in as much as they were only a Watch against Fraud, and against any casual defacing of the Seals on the Stone, before the Chief Priests came to open the Sepulchre, three or four Soldiers were sufficient, and I don't think, there were any more set to this Purpose.
It is not then at all improbable, that so few Soldiers should be fast asleep at that time of Night, or so early in the Morning, when the clandestine Work was done; especially after keeping such a Gaudy-day as was the Feast of the Passover, which, like the Festivals of other Nations, was celebrated with Excess. Foot Soldiers then, you may be sure, upon the Bounty of one or other, did no more want, than they would scruple to take their Fill, which like an Opiat, lock'd up their Senses for that Night, when the Disciples, being aware of the lucky Opportunity, carry'd the Body of Jesus off safely.
And where's the Absurdity to suppose, that the Disciples themselves might contrive the Intoxication of the Guards? Herodotus tells us a Story of a Deadbody's being stolen away by such an Artifice. And I don't think the Disciples of Jesus either so foolish or conscientious, as not to take the Hint, and enterprize the like Fraud. Peter, who, upon Occasion, could swear and curse like a Trooper, would hardly scruple to fuddle a few Foot-Soldiers. But which way soever it came to pass, the Watch were asleep, which is neither hard to conceive nor believe; and then the Disciples executed that Fraud, which has been the Delusion of Nations and Ages since.
Your Evangelists would hint that the Chief Priests gave Money to the Soldiers to say, they were asleep, when the Disciples stole the Body of Jesus away, as if they were brib'd to a false Testimony; but there neither was nor could be any such thing. If there had been a real Resurrection to their Astonishment and Amazement, as it is represented in your Gospels, no Money could so soon have corrupted them to a false Witness, being under such Fears of God and of Jesus. I don't doubt but our Chief Priests might reward the Soldiers for speaking the Truth, and exhort them to persist in it, with a Promise to secure them against the Anger of Pilate for their sleeping and Neglect of their Duty.
Here then is no Answer to the foresaid Argument or Objection against Jesus's Resurrection. It was not at all impossible for the Disciples, who stole the Body away, to avoid the Guards, who were and may reasonably be supposed to be lull'd asleep, when the Disciples did it. Neither is there any more Force in the
2. Second Answer to it, viz. That tho' the Chief Priests, the Sealers of the Stone of the Sepulchre, were not present, opening the Seals and beholding the Miracle; yet his Resurrection was afterwards made as manifest to them, as if they had been there present.
Ay, this is somewhat like an Answer, if there be any Truth in it. A Manifestation of Christ risen afterwards to our Chief Priests would have been equivalent to their Presence at and Sight of the Miracle. But how was his Resurrection manifested to them? did Jesus ever afterwards appear personally to them, to their Satisfaction, that he was the same Person, whom they crucified and put to Death for a Deceiver and false Prophet? No; this is not once affected by your Evangelists or ever insinuated by any antient or modern Writer. How then was Jesus's Resurrection made manifest to our Chief Priests? Why; your Divines say, what is all that can be said here, that the Words of the Disciples, who, being Men of Honesty, Simplicity and Integrity, would not lye, are to be taken for it. Very fine, indeed! our Chief Priests are to take the Words of the Disciples for Jesus's Resurrection, and look upon them as Men of Veracity, when they knew and experienc'd them to be grand Cheats, not only in stealing the Body of Jesus away, but in the known Imposture of Lazarus's Resurrection, or your Evangelist had never implicitly called it so. When therefore Deceivers will not be Lyars; nor Thieves Dissemblers of the Fact they are accused of, I will own Jesus's Resurrection to have been manifest enough to our Chief Priests. There's no need of more Argument here: He that bellows more Words on it, loses Time.
It has been a constant Objection of us Jews, against the Resurrection of Jesus, that he appear'd not personally afterwards to our Chief Priests, to Pilate and to others his Crucifiers and Insultors, to upbraid them with their Infidelity and ill Treatment of him. Whether Jesus would not have done so, if he really arose from the dead; and whether he ought not in Reason, for the Conviction and Conversion of Unbelievers, to have done so, with me is no Question. Celsus of old[314] in the Name of the Jews made the Objection; and Olibio, a late Rabbi[315] has repeated it. But in all my Reading and Conversation with Men or Books, I never met with a tolerable Answer to it. Origen and Limborch, the Writers against Celsus and Olibio, gently slide over the Objection, as if it was too hot or weighty to be touch'd and handled by them. To recite the poor, short and insufficient Answers of those two Great Authors, to the Objection, would be the Exposing of them, and giving such Strength to the Objection, which it don't want. Therefore I will leave the Objection, which Origen[316] owns to be a considerable one, to the Meditation of your modern Advocates for Christianity; and when they can prove, that Jesus, after his Resurrection did personally appear to his Crucifiers, the Chief Priests and Sealers of the Sepulchre, to their Confutation; or that, according to the Law of Reason, he ought not to have appear'd to them, then I will turn Christian, and grant, that in the Argument above, which proves plain Fraud in the Resurrection, there's no Force nor Truth. In the mean time Jesus's Non-Appearance to the Chief Priests is a Confirmation, that he did not arise from the Dead, but that his Body was stolen away, or he would have waited in the Grave, the coming of the Sealers of the Stone, and their regular opening of the Sepulchre, to the Conviction and Conversion of all there present, and Confirmation of the Faith of all Ages and Nations since. But,
3. A third Answer to the foresaid Argument of Fraud in the Resurrection of Jesus, drawn from the Nature, Use and Design of sealing the Stone of the Sepulchre, is, that tho' the Sealers of the Sepulchre were not present, opening the Seals and beholding the Miracle; yet Jesus did certainly arise from the Dead, or the Belief of his Resurrection could never have been at first propagated by the Apostles, nor would for so many Ages of the Church since have stood its Ground.