But further : If Christ be not risen, we, notwith- standing we be believers in Christ, are yet laden with the guilt of all our sins. By believing in Christ, we profess to be delivered from condemnation and to be cleansed from the guilt of all sin : but it has already appeared, that if Christ be not risen, he is a deceiver, his Apostles are false witnesses, the Gospel is an imposition, and the Old Testament itself is false : so
that we must of necessity be under the guilt of our sins as much as ever, unless we can be delivered from it by crediting what is not true. And this is what the Apostle has also said, " If Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins."
I add once more : If Christ be not risen, there neither is nor ever will be so much as one person in heaven. All those eminent saints that we suppose to have been exalted to heaven, died in the faith of Christ ; of Christ, who should come ; or of Christ, who did come. They themselves disclaimed every other hope but through Christ; and if they were deceived by him, woe be to them ; for the Apostle testifies, " If Christ be not risen, ye are yet in your sins ; then they also that are fallen asleep in Christ are perished;" so that not one of them is saved, if Christ be not risen.
We see then of what importance the doctrine of the Resurrection is ! for if it be not true, Christ is an impostor. The Apostles are false-witnesses. The Gospel is an imposition, (and consequently the Apostle's preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain); moreover, ye are yet in your sins, and all the saints that have ever lived have perished. Surely a doctrine of such importance ought to be well considered, and unquestionably proved. I proceed therefore,
II. To the proofs of this doctrine —
Time will not allow us to enter into a large discus- sion of this point ; nor indeed is it as necessary for us to do so, as it was for the Apostles ; for the minds of men in these days are open to conviction, whereas they had to combat with all the prejudices of those who put him to death. A few proofs therefore may suffice. We will prove it then,
First; From the testimony of angels. At the se- pulchre of our Lord there appeared, both to the women and to others, a vision of angels, who told them that he was risen, saying, " He is not here but is risen ; come, see the place where the Lord lay."
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Next; From the testimony oi friends. He appeared to many, and ate and drank with them at different times after he rose from the dead. He suffered them to handle his body, to put their fingers into the print of the nails, and to thrust their hand into his side. And the very incredulity of all his Disciples, and especially of Thomas, convinces us, that they would not have believed it without the fullest evidence. He moreover appeared to above five hundred brethren at once, and in the presence of them all was taken up into heaven.
Next ; From the testimony of enemies. Where did the Apostles begin to preach Christ ? At Jerusalem, the very place where he had been crucified ; and that too within a few days after his death : and so clearly did they prove, that he who had been crucified was risen from the dead, that in the first sermon three thousand of his enemies were converted and became his followers. Paul declared, that the greater part of the five hundred who had seen his ascension, were then alive : now, if it had not been true, it must have been strange that so many should enter into such a conspiracy, from which they could derive no advan- tage, and which would most probably expose them to persecutions and death : and it must be a miracle indeed if neither fear nor interest had induced some one or other of them to discover the cheat, particu- larly since there was one traitor even among the Twelve Apostles. But the very falsehood which the enemies framed on this occasion, was a testimony in favour of what they endeavoured to disprove. They said, " His Disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept :" now this was the most absurd falsehood that ever was contrived; it confutes itself; for it might be asked, ' If you were not asleep, Why did you suffer them to take him away ? and if you were asleep, How could you tell that they did take him ?'