not produce the body, they replied,
that it would be as utterly impossible for them to produce the body of
Jesus, as it was for the soldiers who had charge of Joseph of Arimathea
to bring him back into his prison again. They spoke with the greatest
firmness and courage; promises and menaces were equally ineffectual.
They declared that they would speak the truth and nothing but the
truth; that the sentence of death which had been passed upon Jesus was
both unjust and iniquitous; and that the crime which was perpetrated in
putting him to death was the sole cause of the interruption in the
Paschal solemnity. The Pharisees, being perfectly furious, caused the
four soldiers to be arrested and thrown into prison, and the others,
who had accepted the bribes they offered, then affirmed that the body
of Jesus had been carried off by the disciples while they slept; and
the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians endeavoured to disseminate this
lie to the utmost of their power, not only in the synagogue but also
among the people; and they accompanied this false statement by the most
slanderous lies concerning Jesus.

All these precautions, however, availed but little, for, after the
Resurrection, many persons who had been long dead arose from their
graves, and appeared to those among their descendants who were not
sufficiently hardened to be impervious to grace, and exhorted them to
be converted. These dead persons were likewise seen by many of the
disciples, who, overcome with terror, and shaken in faith, had fled
into the country. They both exhorted and encouraged them to return, and
restored their drooping courage. The resurrection of these dead persons
did not in the slightest degree resemble the Resurrection of Jesus. He
arose with a glorified body, which was no longer susceptible of either
corruption or death, and ascended into heaven with this glorified body
in the sight of all his disciples; but the dead bodies of which we
spoke above were motionless corpses, and the souls which once inhabited
them were only allowed to enter and reanimate them for a time, and
after performing the mission given them, the souls again quitted these
bodies, which returned to their original state in the bowels of the
earth, where they will remain until the resurrection at the day of
judgment. Neither could their return to life be compared to the raising
of Lazarus from the dead; for he really returned to a new life, and
died a second time.