very commencement of his ministry, he said, " Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again ^." This was not understood at the time : but, by his enemies, it was brought against him as a charge at the close of his life ; and, after his resurrection, it was recollected by his friends as a prediction of the event which had actually taken place. At another time, when urged by the unbelieving Pharisees to give them some greater sign than they had already seen, he told them, that *' no other sign should be given them than that of the Prophet Jonas; for, as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so should the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth '^." On several other occasions, also, he spake of his resurrection as the destined evidence of his Messiahship'^: and this was the foundation of all the precautions that were used against an imposition which might be practised by his Disciples. It was feared that they might come by night and steal away the corpse, and then say that he was risen from the dead: and, to prevent it, the tomb was sealed with Pilate's seal, and guarded by a band of soldiers. This was a wise precaution: for, if the third day should pass away, and he be found in the grave, he would be proved an impostor at once; and all his influence would die away. But he rose at the appointed time, and thereby de- monstrated that he was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. This is what St. Paul has plainly affirmed: " He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by his resurrection from the dead®."
Come then, I say, and inspect the tomb; and learn from tliat, that Jesus was indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.]
2. The sufficiency of his mediation —
[The Lord Jesus undertook to expiate the guilt of a ruined world, and to redeem them to God by his blood. Under the sins of men he died. But who could be sure that his atonement had prevailed for the end for which it had been oiFered? He had mediated, it is true: but who could tell that his mediation had been accepted? How could that point be satisfactorily ascertained ? His resurrection proved it be- yond a doubt. If a man, who has undertaken, as a surety, to pay a debt, be liberated from prison, you conclude, of course, that he has fulfilled his engagement : his discharge is an evi- dence that the creditor has no further claim upon him. So, when we see him raised from the grave, to which he had been committed for the sins of men, no doubt can remain upon our minds but that he satisfied all the claims of law and justice in
b John ii. 19. " Matt. xii. 38—40.
fi Luke xxiv. 6 — 8. " Rom. i. 4.