It is related in the history, what indeed the story of the
resurrection necessarily implies, that the corpse was missing out of the
sepulchre: it is related also in the history, that the Jews reported
that the followers of Christ had stolen it away.* And this account,
though loaded with great improbabilities, such as the situation of the
disciples, their fears for their own safety at the time, the
unlikelihood of their expecting to succeed, the difficulty of actual
success,+ and the inevitable consequence of detection and failure, was,
nevertheless, the most credible account that could be given of the
matter. But it proceeds entirely upon the supposition of fraud, as all
the old objections did. What account can be given of the body, upon the
supposition of enthusiasm? It is impossible our Lord's followers could
believe that he was risen from the dead, if his corpse was lying before
them. No enthusiasm ever reached to such a pitch of extravagancy as
that: a spirit may be an illusion; a body is a real thing, an object of
sense, in which there can be no mistake. All accounts of spectres leave
the body in the grave.
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