First, If Jesus was not risen, he was an impostor. Our Lord, in his discourses, had frequently foretold his resurrection : sometimes he reminded his hearers of the Prophet Jonas, who, as a type of him, was three days and three nights in the belly of a whale : at other times he declared it in still plainer terms ; " Destroy this Temple (viz. his own body), and in three days I will raise it up again :" and to his Dis- ciples he said repeatedly, that he must be crucified, and that on the third day he would rise again. Now, though his Disciples understood none of these things, yet there was evidently, amongst his enemies, some expectation of his resurrection ; because they made sure the sepulchre, sealed the stone, and set a guard to prevent it, or at least to prevent his being stolen away ; that so, by ascertaining that he was not risen, they might prove him a deceiver. And, had he not risen, they had accomplished their utmost wishes : they had detected him in deluding his followers, and thereby discovered him to be an impostor. But by rising according to his own word, he manifested that he was no impostor ; but, as the Apostle says, he declared himself to be the Son of Gocl, " with power by his resurrection from the dead."
Again : If Jesus rose not, the Apostles were false witnesses. It was the grand truth which they were to establish : for when another Apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas, the traitor, they were to " take one who had accompanied them all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them, beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day wherein he was taken up from them, that he might be ordained a witness, zvith them, of His resurrection." Accordingly, they " went everywhere, giving witness of the resur- rection of the Lord Jesus." When some among the Corinthian Church denied the resurrection of the dead, Paul proved it from the resurrection of Christ ; and that again he proved by the most undeniable arguments: and then he very justly added, " If Christ be not risen, we are found false-witnesses of God."
Again : If Christ be not risen, the Gospel is an
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imposition. The very ground-work of all the Gospel is, the resurrection of Christ ; " that he died for our offences, and was raised again for our justification ;" for as his death was necessary, because he had under- taken to pay our debt, so his resurrection was also necessary, to shew that he had fully discharged it : if therefore he be not risen, all preaching of the Gospel, all credit given to it, and all hope of deliver- ance through him is vain ; and this is what the Apostle himself has said, " If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith-is also vain."
Again: If Christ be not risen, the Old Testament is also false — It is said, " He rose again according to the Scriptures ;" His resurrection was typified, perhaps in the exaltation of Joseph from the prison to the government of the Egyptian kingdom ; probably also in the live bird which was dipped in the blood of one that had been sacrificed and let loose into the air : there can be little doubt but that Isaac's restoration, as it were, from the dead, was intended to prefigure it ; and it is absolutely certain, that Jonas was a type of Christ in that particular : that type, therefore, must be fulfilled in Christ, or else it was false. It had also been foretold by David ; " Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption :" by this passage the Apostle Peter, in his first Sermon, convinces three thousand of the Jews that Jesus was to rise : and indeed it intimates the time of his continuance in the grave ; for in Judea bodies began to corrupt on the fourth day ; so that he must rise before that time, because he was to see no corruption. Thus the Old Testament, as well as the New, must be false, if Christ be not risen.