Soul, from each other: by which all vital Actions cease, and the Body becomes but a lumpish and lifelefs Carcafe. Now, fuch was the Death which the Son of God under went for as he was truly a Man, confifting of Body and Soul, as we are; and as he was a living Man, in whom those two parts were vitally united, by which he felt the fame Motion and Senfation, and had the fame Paffions and Infirmities that we have: fo he was a mortal Man too, as we are, and had his Soul really feparated from his Body; which was thereby depriv'd of all vital Influence from it, even as it happens to us on our Diffolution. This is in Scripture fometimes exprefs'd by cutting off from the Land of the Living, and going down into the Pit; fometimes by refting and fleeping in the Duft; fometimes by being gather'd to our Fathers, and making our Bed in darknefs; fometimes by departing, and giving up the Ghost: all which Expreffions fignify not a feigned or metaphorical, but a real and proper Death; and being apply'd to our Bleffed Saviour, fhew that he truly and properly died. For the Certainty of his Death, not only the Sacred Writings, but the Roman Hiftory will fully inform us. The very Actors in this Tragedy were the Witneffes of it, and they who wickedly put to death the Lord of Life, were not afham'd to own and publish it. The Scribes and Pharisees that thirfted for his Blood, the Multitude that extorted his Death, Herod and Pontius Pilate that deliver'd him up to it, the Chief Priests and Elders that ef fected it, the Sadducees that rejoic'd at it; all thefe affented to the Truth of it, and declar'd him to be a dead Man. The merciless Soldiers found him dead when they came to dispatch him, and therefore forbore to break his Legs, as they did those that were executed with him: but being enrag'd that their Cruelty was thus prevented, to fhew their fpite they thrust a Spear into his Side; from whence iffu'd forth both Water and Blood, the Emblems of the two Sacraments he instituted. In fhort, the many mortal Wounds he receiv'd, were not only fufficient, but neceffary to difpatch him; and the Violence us'd to his Body, which was in all things (Sin only excepted) like ours, forc'd his Soul out of it, and made a true and real Separation between them. As for the Manner of his Death, the Apoftle tells us, he became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross; VOL. I. R which 242 which was of all others the most painful and the most ignominious way of dying. The Painfulness of his Death may be eafily conceiv'd, if we confider how his tender Limbs were ftretch'd out and tenter'd upon the Crofs, and how long he continu'd in that tormenting pofture. They pierc'd his Hands and his Feet, Parts exquifitely fenfible and tender, and yet being no vital Parts, did not difpatch, but prolong his Pain; by which, for the fpace of fix hours he felt himfelf dying, and endur'd the racking Tortures of a lingring Death: their cruel Scourges all the while fetching blood, and making long furrows on his Back; by which, we may eafily fuppofe that he felt much more than the Pangs of an ordinary Death. And as his Death was thus dolorous and painful, fo was it no lefs ignominious and fhameful too; for he underwent the infamous Punishment of Slaves, Robbers, and the vileft Malefactors, and was put to death with them. Before they led him forth to Execution, they kept him a while to fport themfelves in his Mifery, and to make him the Subject of their Scoffs and Mockery; to which end they platted for him a Crown of Thorns, fetting it on his Head, and putting a Reed into his Right Hand in waggery, bow'd to him, faying, Hail the King of the Jews. After which, they nail'd him to the Crofs, reproaching him with all his former Miracles, and faying, He fav'd others, himSelf he cannot fave. The Multitude came about him, not to pity, but deride him; and as if he had been the vileft Mifcreant upon earth, they spit in his face, and in all his Pain and Anguifh pour'd on him not Tears, but Scorn and Contempt: and when he had thus hung on the Cross from the fixth to the ninth Hour, upon the tender Wounds of his Hands and Feet, he gave up the Ghost. Thus died the Son of God, a real, but withal a miferable,' fhameful, and accurfed Death; refigning up himself to his /Father that fent him, in thefe words: Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit. Now because the bloody Inftruments of his Death rather rejoic'd than repented at his Fall, the whole Creation feem'd to lament the Death of fo great a Perfon: the Sun drew in its Light, as unwilling to behold fo fad a Spectacle; the Earth trembled and quak'd, as impatient of bearing up thofe that occafion'd it; the Heavens were all overcaft, and cloth'd in Black, as the chief Mourners at his Funeral; the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top top to the bottom; the hard Rocks clave, the Graves open'd, and all things but thefe unrelenting Jews were appall'd and confounded at the Paffion of our Lord. Thus having fhew'd the Certainty and Manner of his Death, I proceed, Secondly, To confider the Caufe of it, which, we are here told, were our Sins; Chrift died for our Sins. Our Sins were both the Caufe, and likewife the Effect and End of his Death; the Guilt of them drew this Mifery upon. him, and the Expiation of them was the Effect and End of his Sufferings. 1. I fay, Chrift died for our Sins, as the Caufe and Occafion of his Death: The Wages of Sin is Death, (faith the Apoftle.) Sin is the meritorious Caufe of all Suffering, and calls for it, as any other Work does for its Wages: Death enter'd into the World by Sin (faith the fame Apoftle) and fo Death paffed upon all Men, for that all have finned. Now tho the High, Holy, and Harmless Son of God had no Sin of his own to die for, and confequently could not fuffer it upon his own fcore; yet when he graciously undertook to be our Surety and Saviour, the whole Burden. of our Sins lay upon his fhoulders, and he became answerable to the Juftice of God for the Tranfgreffions of Mankind. Hence was that hard Saying of Luther, who ftyl'd our Saviour, Peccatorum maximus, the greatest of Sinners, viz. not by any perfonal Guilt of his own, but only by Imputation; and having taken fo great a weight of Guilt upon him, it funk him into the Grave, and brought upon him the Bitterness of Death: a Death heighten'd with all the Ingredients of Pain and Shame, that the most ingenious and inrag'd Malice could invent or execute; a Death wherein the Wrath of God, the Spite of Men, and the Rage of all the Powers of Darkness moft fatally confpir'd. And we may ceafe our wonder at the Severity of Chrift's Sufferings, when we reflect on that vaft complicated Guilt that occafion'd them: for if one Sin were enough to turn Adam and his Pofterity out of Paradife, and to fet up a flaming Sword to prevent their Return; if one Sin (whatever it were) was fufficient to throw the lapfed Angels out of Heaven, and to referve them in Chains of Darkness to the Fudgment of the great Day: what an infupportable weight (think you) must be the concurrent Guilt of all Mankind's Tranfgreffions? A Preffure, fure, that muft fink R & the 244 2. But as our Sins were the Caufe, fo was the Expiation of them the Effect and End of his Death: because we could not fatisfy Divine Juftice in our own Persons, he was willing to make his Soul an Offering for Sin; and because without hedding of Blood there is no Remiffion, he was content to fhed his own moft precious Blood to be our allfufficient Ranfom and Atonement. By this means he hath effectually made our Peace, and reconcil'd us unto God by the Blood of his Crofs; which occafion'd that bold Challenge of the Apostle, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect? It is God that juftifieth, who is he that condemneth? It is Chrift that died, yea rather that is rifen again: Rom. 8. 34, 35. From whence I proceed to the Third and laft Thing in our Text, which was to fhew that Chrift's Death for our Sins was according to the Scriptures; that is, according to the Account given of it in the Old Teftament. There we find many Types and Prophecies of the Death of the Meffias, which were all punctually fulfill'd in the Death of our Bleffed Saviour. The Death of righteous Abel the Son of Adam, is by fome made a Type of the Death of Christ the Son of God, only with this difference, that the former call'd to Heaven for Vengeance, the latter for Mercy; for which reafon, the Blood of Christ is faid to speak better things than that of Abel, Heb. 12. 24. Ifaac's being offer'd up in the Intention of Abraham, reprefented the Death of the Meffias; and his being fav'd by a vicarious Sacrifice fignify'd his reftoring to Life again, Gen. 22. Joseph's being fold into Egypt, hated, imprifon'd, and flain too in the Intention of his envious Brethren, represented the Betraying, Imprisoning, and Murder of our Bleffed Saviour. More clearly, the Sacrifices under the Law, where all things were purg'd with Blood, and without Shedding of Blood was no Remiffion; were but fo many Types and Reprefentations of this All-fufficient Sacrifice by the Death of Chrift. But as this was fore-fignify'd in Types, fo was it more plainly foretold in Prophecies. The Prophet Isaiah, in his famous 53d Chapter, gives fuch a lively Defcription of the Death of our Saviour, as if he had feen it acted in his days; telling us of his being cut off from the Land of the Living, of his making his Grave with the Wicked, and his Soul Soul an Offering for Sin; with many other Circumstances of his Paffion. The Prophet Daniel exprefly foretold of the Meffias, that he should be cut off, and make an Atonement for the Sins of the People: by which, as by many other Predictions to the fame purpose, we fee how truly the Apoftle here affirms, that Chrift died for our Sins according to the Scriptures. But befides this, we read in Scripture of a certain Compact and Covenant made between the Father and the Son concerning the Salvation of Mankind, by the Death of a Redeemer; in which God the Father promis'd, that if he would make his Soul an Offering for Sin, he should fee his Seed, and prolong his Days, and the Work should profper in his band; Ifa. 53. Of the Son's Acceptance hereof, the Pfalmift likewife informs us; faying, in the Perfon of our Saviour, Lo! I come, in the Volume of thy Book it is written of me, to do thy Will, O God. Hence he is faid to be the Lamb of God fain before the Foundation of the World, viz. in his eternal Decree and Determination: And St. Pe ter tells us, that he was by the determinate Counsel and Foreknowledge of God, by wicked bands crucify'd and flain; Acts 2. 23. All which plainly fhew him to have died for our Sins, according to the Scriptures. But hath Chrift's dying for our Sins fecur'd us from dying for them? Yes, if we perform the Conditions of Faith and Repentance, upon which he hath promis'd it; otherwife we fhall be fo far from fharing the Benefit and Merits of his Death, that we shall fare the worfe for it, and receive the greater Condemnation: and therefore St. Peter exhorts all Men to repent, that their Sins may be blotted out; Acts 3. 19. Chrift's Death did not purchase for us a liberty to live as we lift, for this would be to fin because Grace bath abounded; yea, to turn the Grace of God into Wantonnefs. No, Chrift died only for the Penitent and Believer; and except we repent, we shall all likewife perish. And this will lead me, in the Laft place, to the Ufe that we are to make of Chrift's Death: which is, 1. To die unto Sin, and to live no longer therein. This the Apostle makes to be the End of Chrift's dying, to kill Sin in us by the Sacrifice of himself, and to vanquish the Dominion of it by the Power of his Grace: He gave himfelf for us, to redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify to R 3 bimfelf |