And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to Dead and Buried. SERMON XXVII. I COR. XV. 3. For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Chrift died for our fins, according to the Scriptures. ST. Paul, meaning in this chapter to maintain a very fun- SERM. damental point of our religion (the refurrection of the XXVII. dead) against fome infidels or heretics, who among the Corinthians, his scholars in the faith, did oppofe it; doth, in order to the proof of his affertion, and refutation of that pernicious error, premise those doctrines, which he having received both from relation of the other Apostles, and by immediate revelation from God himself, had delivered unto them, év páros, in the first place, or among the prime things; that is, as moft eminent and important points of Chriftian doctrine; the truth whereof confequently (standing upon the fame foundations with Chrif tianity itself, upon Divine revelation and apoftolical testimony) could nowife be difputed of, or doubted, by any good Christian. Of which doctrines (the collection of which he styleth the Gospel; that Gospel, by embracing and retaining which they were, he faith, to be saved) the firft is that in our text, concerning the death of our Lord, undergone by him for our falvation: which point, as of all others in our religion it is of peculiar confequence, so it much concerneth us both firmly to believe it and well SERM. to understand it; for it is by faith in his blood that we are XXVII. juftified, and by knowing Chrift crucified we shall be chiefly Rom. iii. edified; the word imparting this knowledge being the power of God to falvation. It therefore I mean now, by Rom. i. 16. God's affiftance, to explain and apply; the which I fhall Philip. iii. do generally and abfolutely; without any particular ac 25. 1 Cor. ii. 2. 10. 48. commodation of my difcourfe to the words of this text; yet fo as to comprehend all the particulars obfervable in them. The death of our Lord then is my fubject, and about it I fhall confider, 1. Its nature, or wherein it did confift. 2. Some peculiar adjuncts and respects thereof, which commend it to our regard, and render it confidera ble to us. 3. The principles and (impreffive and merito rious) caufes thereof. 4. The ends which it aimed at ; together with the fruits and effects of it. 5. Some practical influences, which the confideration thereof may and fhould have upon us. 1. As for the nature of it we must affirm, and believe affuredly, that it was a true and proper death; in kind not different from that death, to the which all we mortal creatures are by the law and condition of our nature fubPf. lxxxix. ject, and which we must all sometime undergo; for, What man is he that liveth and shall not fee death; that shall deliver his foul from the hand of the grave? that death, which is fignified by ceffation from vital operations; (of all motions natural or voluntary, of all fenfe and knowledge, appetite and paffion ;) that death, which is caufed by violent difunion, or dislocation, by diftempering, or however indifpofing the parts, humours, fpirits of the body, fo that the foul can no longer in them and by them continue to exercife thofe functions, for which its conjunction thereto was intended, and cannot therefore fitly refide therein; that death, which is supposed to consist in the diffolution of that vital band, whatever it be, whereby the foul is linked and united to the body; or in that which is thereupon confequent, the separation, department, and ab - Επεί κι πρώτα λίπῃ λεύκ ̓ ὀσία θυμός Ψυχὴ δ', ήτ' ὄνειρος, αποπταμένη πεπότηται. Hom. Odyff, A. fence of the foul from the body; each of that couple, SERM. upon their divorce, returning home to their original prin- XXVII. ciples, as it were; the body to the earth from whence it Gen. iii. 19. was taken, and the Spirit unto God who gave it. Such Ecclef. xii. causes antecedent are specified in the ftory; fuch figns Pr. civ. 29. following are plainly implied, fuch a state is expreffed in the very terms, whereby our death is commonly fignified: the fame extremity of anguifh, the fame dilaceration of parts, the fame effufion of blood, which would deftroy our vital temper, quench our natural heat, ftop our animal motions, exhaust our spirits, and force out our breath, did work upon him; neceffarily producing the like effects on him, as who had affumed the common imperfections and infirmities of our nature; in regard to which violences inflicted upon him he is faid, anоxтeiveσai, to be killed or Acts iii. 15. Main; διαχειρίζεσθαι, to be difpatched; ἀναιρείσθαι, to be made away; ¿ñoλéodas, to perish, or be destroyed; oogsúsoda, Ifa. liii. 8. to be cut off, as it is in Daniel; opáτleodai, to be flaugh- 4. xi. 50. tered; Júzodai, to be facrificed; which words do all of Rev. v. 9. them fully import a real and proper death to have enfued upon those violent ufages toward him. viii. 33. Dan. ix. 26. John xviii. 33. And by the ordinary figns of death, apparent to sense, the foldiers judged him dead; and therefore, s elkov aúτòv Hôn Tedvηuóta, seeing him already dead, they forbare to break John xix. his legs: by the fame all the world was fatisfied thereof; both his fpiteful enemies, that flood with delight, waiting for this utmoft fuccefs of their malicious endeavours to destroy him; and his loving friends, who with compaf- Mark xiv. fionate refpect attended upon him through the courfe of Luke xxiii. his fuffering; and those who were ready to perform their 27; laft offices of kindness, in procuring a decent interment of 25. his body. John xix. His tranfition alfo, and abiding in this ftate, are expreffed by terms declaring the propriety of his death, and its agreement with our death. St. Mark telleth us, that ÉÉÉTVEUσe, animam efflavit, he expired, breathed out his Mark xv. foul, or his laft breath; St. Matthew, axe тò veμa, ani-37; mam egit, he let go his fpirit, or gave up the ghost; 50. St. John, wapedwns тò @vsupa, he delivered up his fpirit into John xix. Matt. xxvii. 30. SERM. God's hand; the which St. Luke expreffeth done with a XXVII. formal refignation; Father, said he, into thy hands I comLuke xxiii. mend (or I depose) my spirit; he doth alfo himself fre46. quently exprefs his dying by laying down his life, and Παρατίθε- beflowing it as a ranfom, which fheweth him really to Johnxv.13. have parted with it. μαλα X. 15, 18. 1John iii. 6. 2 Pet. i. 15. xiii. 37. His death alfo (as ours is wont to be denoted by like phrases) is termed odos, exceffus e vivis, a going out of life, or from the fociety of men; (for Mofes and Elias are Lukeix.31. faid to tell, Thy odov aute, his decease, which he should ac¬ "Αφιξις. complish at Jerusalem ;) and perábaσ, a paffing over, or Acts xx. 29. tranflation from this into another world; (When, faith John xiii.1. St. John, Jefus knew that his time was come, Iva petaby, that he should depart from this world.) His death also was John ii. 19. enigmatically described by the deftruction or demolishment of his bodily temple, anfwerable to thofe circumlocu2 Cor. v. 1. tions concerning our ordinary death; the diffolution of our earthly house of tabernacle, or tranfitory abode, in St. Paul; 2 Pet. i, 14. the åñódeois tõ oxyvúpatos, laying down, or putting off our tabernacle, in St. Peter. Matt. xxvi. 61. 6. Phil. i. 23. It were also not hard to fhew, how all other phrases and circumlocutions, by which human death is expreffed, either in holy Scripture or in ufual language, or among philosophers and more accurate speakers, are either exprefsly applied, or by confequence are plainly applicable to the death of our Saviour; fuch, for inftance, as these 1 Tim. iv. in Scripture; άváλvos, being refolved into our principles, or the returning of them thither whence they came; άñóLuke ii. 29. Avσs, a being freed, licensed, or difmiffed hence; xdquía 2 Cor. v. 8. ix tỸ aúμaros, a going, or abode abroad; a peregrination, or abfentment from the body; an exduais, putting off, or Acts xiii. being divefted of the body; an apaviouòs, disappearance, 36. or ceffation in appearance to be; a going hence, and not xlix. 33,&c. being feen; a falling on fleep, refting from our labours, 13. lii. 5. Neeping with our fathers, being added, and gathered to our xxviii. 1. fathers; being taken, or cut off out of the land of the livIxxxviii. 4. ing; going down into the pit; lying down, refting, fleeping Jer. xi. 19: in the duft; making our bed in darkness: these and the like Gen.xxv.8. Pfal. xxxix. cxliii. 7. Ifa. xxxviii. 18. xxvi.19. Ezek. xxvi. 20. Dan. xii. 12. Job vii. 21. xvii. 16. xx, 11. xxi. 26. xvii. 13. |