And although the body of Christ might be removed
by fraud, and for the purposes of fraud, yet without any such intention,
and by sincere but deluded men (which is the representation of the
apostolic character we are now examining), no such attempt could be
made. The presence and the absence of the dead body are alike
inconsistent with the hypothesis of enthusiasm: for if present, it must
have cured their enthusiasm at once; if absent, fraud, not enthusiasm,
must have carried it away.
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* "And this saying," Saint Matthew writes, "is commonly reported amongst
the Jews until this day" (chap. xxviii. 15). The evangelist may be
thought good authority as to this point, even by those who do not admit
his evidence in every other point: and this point is sufficient to prove
that the body was missing. It has been rightly, I think, observed by Dr.
Townshend (Dis. upon the Res. p. 126), that the story of the guards
carried collusion upon the face of it:--"His disciples came by night,
and stole him away while we slept." Men in their circumstances would not
have made such an acknowledgment of their negligence without previous
assurances of protection and impunity.
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