God find themselves uneasy under all his visitations, and never expect any good from him. They trust in their own power, as the Roman guards trusted in their weapons therefore God resisteth them, and they are disappointed and confounded. They have nothing to do but to make their escape for a time, and put the best face they can upon their own miscarriages, as we shall find it happened in the present case. But to the friends of God all his visitations are attended with the information and comfort they wish for and however they may be tried and perplexed for a time, their sorrow is turned into joy. A great sight and a great event had agitated the spirits of those holy women; but their fear had such a mixture of joy with it, that there is not one amongst us who would not be glad to feel himself in their situation. All things shall be after the same pattern, when Jesus Christ shall descend from heaven at the last day. When he shall appear in the clouds, the most devout saint upon earth shall be amazed, and tremble inwardly at the sight; but what comfort shall he feel at the same time, when he now sees that his Redeemer liveth, and is come to stand in the latter day upon the earth. On the other hand, the wicked shall feel that the day of vengeance is come; that their own power is blasted, and that the sight which appears brings nothing to them but terror: so they can only desire to make their escape, and hide themselves from the face of their judge. But now let us consider how the two parties who attended the sepulchre were employed. The women are called upon to see the place where the Lord lay; the guards are fled from it to their friends in the city. The women are instructed to bear the glad tidings of the resurrection to the disciples: the soldiers are bribed to report a lie about it, to make their friends easy, and furnish an excuse to all the enemies of Jesus Christ. As the women went to tell the disciples, Jesus himself met them: and we may well suppose that the sight of him affected them as it had never done before. They were now assured that he was immortal and divine; so they fell down before him with fear and reverence, and worshipped him as their Lord and their God. But he saith unto them, be not afraid; go tell my brethren, &c. How comfortable is this message to us as well as to them?-Go tell my brethren.--For he who saith this was raised from the dead only as the first-born of many brethren; and with him thus raised, we are begotten to a new life, and made the sons of God. While they were delivering these blessed tidings to the Apostles, the soldiers had carried their information to the Chief Priests, and had thrown them into no small confusion. They met together immediately; but rather privately as we may suppose; and without any noise, consulted together what was best to be done. Consider first what they had heard, and then you will understand the nature of their plot better, and see farther into the wickedness of the human heart, and the cause of its most evil workings. You will see, that mistakes in religion, though lightly spoken of, as things only of a speculative concern, make people more wicked, more false, cruel and malicious in their actions, than any sensual affection. The soldiers, it is said, shewed unto the Chief Priests all the things that were done. They shewed them, that while they were keeping watch, and broad awake, as guards were obliged to be at the peril of their lives, a light beyond the brightness of the sun, came upon them all at once; and an Angel marched through them up to the sepulchre, and rolled away the stone from the mouth of it, though too weighty for any man to stir it; and that they had seen him sit down upon it when he had done, while they were unable to stir from the ground, and were terrified out of their strength, and nearly out of their senses. That the sepulchre being now open, the body of Jesus was certainly gone, while they were under this state of fear and amazement, and that he was actually risen from the dead. Had the Chief Priests felt in their minds as you feel at the hearing of these things, they would have been pricked to the heart with the sense of their own guilt and folly; and have said-" Then is Jesus of Nazareth our true Messiah, whose doctrine we contradicted, whose person we persecuted, and put him to death at last as a malefactor and a felon! Let us turn then from our errors; let us forsake our evil ways, and pray that he will pardon our ignorance, and receive us to his favour, that we may at last partake of his salvation." Thus you would have said. But what did they say? Instead of confessing their sin, they added to all their other counsels and plots, one more, which was the last and worst of all: they hired the soldiers, who had been witnesses of his resurrection, to deny it, and to confirm the slander they had published before, that his disciples would come by night, and steal him away, and then pretend that he was risen from the dead. I shall not stay to examine the folly and absurdity of this lie; which tells us, that soldiers were asleep, who were to be punished with death for confessing it; that they knew what was done while they were asleep that the Disciples who had fled with fear : when their Master was condemned in the judgment hall, had turned mad all of a sudden, and exposed themselves to the arms of the Roman guards, to make the desperate attempt of stealing away the body of their master; that is, to bring death upon themselves if they should succeed, and everlasting contempt upon him and his religion and moreover, that in the hurry of their theft, they had time to lay all the linen clothes by in an orderly manner, and to fold up the napkin that was bound about his head, as they were found by those who visited the sepulchre. These things are so obvious that it is not worth while to insist upon them. I shall therefore desire to consider what was the cause of this vile conduct of the Chief Priests? They had fallen into many religious notions, which were contrary to the preaching of Jesus Christ, and therefore they could not endure him or his doctrine. They would not believe him; and they could not answer him nor resist the force of his miracles. Under this state of things, there arises a battle between truth and falsehood and when proud men fail of argument, they have nothing to depend upon but lying; and one lie produces another, till they are involved and embarrassed past all recovery. Thus it hath always been, and always will be. Mistakes in religion make men wickeder than any other principle upon earth. Religious blindness is the worst of ignorance; and religious pride is more cruel and mischievous than any other. When the mind is under religious delusion, especially such delusion as flatters the evil passions of avarice, lust, and ambition; they mistake their wickedness for godliness; and so become incapable of shame or remorse. This was the case of the Jews and the Heathens; and therefore, in opposing the Gospel, they perpetrated more outrageous acts of falsehood, injustice, and cruelty, than men had ever done upon any other principle before. Did the world ever hear of two such shameless lies, as those of the Jews? That Christ cast out devils by the power of Belzebub: and that when he was raised from the dead he was stolen away by his disciples? and when one wicked wretch has invented a lie, the rest of his party fall into it, and spread it abroad. Thus you find, that when one assembly had invented the lie which the soldiers were to publish, the whole body of the Jews afterwards took up the story and held to it: for the Evangelist adds, "and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews to this day." God deliver us therefore from pride, malice, and ignorance, which when united together form what we call religious bigotry. No falsehood can be too absurd for this bigotry to propagate; no action can be too unjust or cruel for it to perpetrate. When we think on these things, we cannot but lament that the hearts of men are so miserably divided by false opinions. Hence we shall be led to set a greater value upon truth; which never fails to unite them. But best of all it is, to look with pity and compassion upon those who are in error, and to pray for them; that their pride may be humbled, their ignorance informed, and their hearts turned to peace and charity; for so long as we can pray for men, we shall never be angry with them, how great soever may be their errors and offences. We must expect, that some for malice, as the priests; and some for interest, as the soldiers; will go on lying to the end of the world: and the appearance of an angel from heaven would not cure them: for the more the truth is manifested, the more will some |