Christ should not cheat them in his own resurrection. Surely this is a
most singular case. When the people thought him a Prophet, the chief
priests sought to kill him, and thought his death would put an end to
his pretensions: when they and the people had discovered him to be a
cheat, then they thought him not safe, even when he was dead, but were
afraid he should prove a true Prophet, and, according to his own
prediction, rise again. A needless, a preposterous fear!

In the next place, the Gentleman tells us how proper the care was
that the chief priests took. I agree perfectly with him. Human policy
could not invent a more proper method to guard against and prevent all
fraud. They delivered the sepulchre, with the dead body in it, to a
company of Roman soldiers, who had orders from their officer to watch
the sepulchre. Their care went further still; they sealed the door of
the sepulchre.

Upon this occasion, the Gentleman has explained the use of seals
when applied to such purposes. They imply, he says, a covenant, that
the things sealed up shall remain in the condition they are till the
parties to the sealing agree to open them. I see no reason to enter
into the learning about seals: let it be as the Gentleman has opened
it; what then?

Why then, it seems, the apostles and chief priests were in a
covenant that there should be no resurrection, at least no opening of
the door, till they met together at an appointed time to view and
unseal the door.

Your Lordship and the court will now consider the probability of
this supposition. When Christ was seized and carried to his trial, his