Discourses, or, Sermons on several Scriptures

Use I First then, If it was impossible for Christ not to have risen from ⟨p. 122⟩the Dead, it is evident then that Christ is the true Messiah: For had he been an Impostor, or False Prophet, it would have been so far from an Impossibility that he should not have been raised, that it would have been a very Impossibility for him to have risen again; for neither could he have raised himself, being a mere Man; neither would God have raised him, being a mere Impostor and Cheat. When therefore the Jews called for a Sign from Christ, to prove him to be the true Messiah, he gives them the Sign of his Resurrection, in Matth. 12.38, 39. Master, ¹say they, we would see a Sign from thee. He answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous Generation seeketh after a Sign, and there shall be no Sign given to it, but the Sign of the Prophet Jonah: For as Jonah was three Days and three Nights ⟨p. 123⟩in the Whale's Belly, so shall the Son of Man be three Days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth. So again, when they tempted him at another time, for a Sign of his being the Messiah, he still instances in his powerful Resurrection from the Dead, in Joh. 2.18, 19. ²The Jews answered and said unto him, What Sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things. Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this Temple, and in three Days I will raise it up So that still he made his Death and Resurrection to be the infallible Proof of his being the true Messiah.

Use I First then, If it was impossible for Christ not to have risen from ⟨p. 122⟩the Dead, it is evident then that Christ is the true Messiah: For had he been an Impostor, or False Prophet, it would have been so far from an Impossibility that he should not have been raised, that it would have been a very Impossibility for him to have risen again; for neither could he have raised himself, being a mere Man; neither would God have raised him, being a mere Impostor and Cheat. When therefore the Jews call'd for a Sign from Christ, to prove him to be the true Messiah, he gives them the Sign of his Resurrection, in