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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

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1 Cor. ii, 2.

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commodation of my discourse 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 subject, 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 confiderable to us. 3. The principles and (impreffive and meritorious) 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 muft 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 subPl. 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 sense and knowledge, appetite and paffion;) that death, which is caused 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 exercise thofe functions, for which its conjunction thereto was intended, and cannot therefore fitly refide therein; that death, which is fuppofed 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 πρῶτα λίπῃ λούκ ̓ ὀσία θυμός Ψυχὴ δ', οΰτ' ὄνειρος, αποπταμένη πεπότητας.

Hom. Ody, A.

7.

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. caufes antecedent are specified in the ftory; fuch figns Pf. civ. 29. following are plainly implied, such a state is expressed 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 destroy our vital temper, quench our natural heat, ftop our animal motions, exhaust our fpirits, 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, &ToxTelveras, to be killed or As iii. 15. Παίη; διαχειρίζεσθαι, to be difpatched; ἀναιρείσθαι, to be made away ; àñoλéodai, to perish, or be deftroyed; oxogeúeo, Ifa. liii. 8. to be cut off, as it is in Daniel; opáτleodai, to be flaugh- 4. xi. 50. tered; Júsodai, 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 usages toward him.

viii. 33.

Dan. ix. 26.

John xviii.

33.

And by the ordinary signs of death, apparent to sense, the foldiers judged him dead; and therefore, ws sidov aútòv Hôŋ Tedmuóta, 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 deftroy him; and his loving friends, who with compaf- Mark xiv. fionate respect attended upon him through the course 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.

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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 izveσe, animam efflavit, he expired, breathed out his Mark xv. foul, or his last breath; St. Matthew, açдxs тò veμa, animam egit, he let go his fpirit, or gave up the ghoft; 50. St. John, wapedwxɛ tò @veïμa, he delivered up his spirit into John xix.

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Matt. xxvii.

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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 also himself fre46. quently exprefs his dying by laying down his life, and beftowing it as a ranfom, which fheweth him really to John xv.13. have parted with it.

Παρατίθε

μαι.

X. 15, 18. ziii. 37.

1John iii. 6.

2 Pet. i. 15.

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 Luke ix.31. faid to tell, Tηv odov auto, his deceafe, which he should ac"Αφιξις. complish at Jerufalem;) and μerábaσis, a paffing over, or Acts xx. 29. translation from this into another world; (When, faith John xiii.1. St. John, Jefus knew that his time was come, iva μeтaby, 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, answerable to thofe circumlocu2 Cor. v. 1. tions concerning our ordinary death; the dissolution of our earthly house of tabernacle, or tranfitory abode, in St. Paul; 2 Pet. i. 14. the άódeois të oxyváμatos, laying down, or putting off our tabernacle, in St. Peter.

Matt. xxvi.

61.

6.

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 philofophers and more accurate speakers, are either exprefsly applied, or by confequence are plainly applicable to the death of our Saviour; fuch, for inftance, as thefe 1 Tim. iv. in Scripture; váλvos, being refolved into our principles, Phil. i. 23. or the returning of them thither whence they came; anóLuke ii. 29. Avos, a being freed, licensed, or difmiffed hence; xdquíce 2 Cor. v. 8. Ex T σúuaтos, a going, or abode abroad; a peregrination, or abfentment from the body; an exduris, putting off, or Acts xiii. being divested of the body; an apaviouòs, disappearance, 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 livlxxxviii. 4. ing; going down into the pit; lying down, resting, sleeping Jer. xi. 19. in the duft; making our bed in darkness: these and the like

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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.

phrafes occurring in Scripture (which might be paralleled SERM. out of vulgar fpeech, and out of learned difcourfes) defcrib- XXVII. ing either the entrance into, or the abiding in the state of that death, to which all men are obnoxious, might eafily be shewed applicable to the death of our Saviour. His refurrection doth imply the reality of his death; for otherwife it had not been miraculous, it had not been a pledge of our refurrection. But I will not farther needlessly infift upon explicating or confirming a point fo clear, and never misunderstood, or queftioned, except by fome wild and prefumptuous heretics.

Our Saviour's death then was a true, real, and proper death, fuitable to that frail, paffible, and mortal nature, which he vouchfafed to undergo for us; to the condition. of finful flesh, in the likeness whereof he did appear; fever- Rom.viii. 3. ing his foul and body, and remitting them to their original fources; his paffion was indeed ultimum fupplicium, an extreme capital punishment, the highest, in the last refult, which in this world either the fierceft injuftice or the feverest justice could inflict: for, to kill the body is, as Matt. x. 28. our Lord himself taught, the utmoft limit of all human power and malice; the most and worst that man can do ; they have not ρσóτepóv TI, any thing beyond that which they can attempt upon us; and fo far did they proceed with our Lord. Such was the nature of his death; such indeed as was requifite for the accomplishment of the ends and effects defigned thereby.

2. Let us now confider thofe peculiar adjuncts and refpects of our Lord's death, (together with his whole paffion, whereof his death was the chief part and final completion,) the which do commend it to our regard, and amplify the worth thereof: fuch are, 1. Its being a result of God's eternal refolution and decree. 2. Its being a matter of free confent and compact between God the Father and his only Son. 3. Its being anciently prefigured and predicted. 4. Its being executed by God's hand and providence guiding and governing it; and by man's action concurring. 5. Its being the death of a person so holy

Luke xii. 4.

SERM. and innocent, so high and excellent, of God's Son, of God XXVII. the Son.

1. It was a result of God's eternal counsel and decree; it was no cafual event, no expedient fuddenly devised, or flipt from providence, but a well-laid defign, from all eternity contrived by divine wisdom, refolved upon by divine goodness. As God did (by the incomprehenfible perfection of his nature) from thence foresee our lapfe and mifery, fo he did as foon determine our remedy and means of falvation. As the whole of that myfterious difpenfation concerning Chrift, fo especially did this main Ephef. ii. part thereof proceed κατὰ πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων, according to an eternal purpose, as St. Paul speaketh; for our Saviour Rev. xiii. 8. was a Lamb flain (in defignation irrevocable slain) from

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the foundation of the world; as it is faid in the Revela1 Pet. i. 19. tion: and, We, faith St. Peter, were redeemed by the precious blood of Chrift, as of a lamb without blemish, and without fpot, προεγνωσμένο μὲν, foreordained indeed before Luke xxii. the foundation of the world: and our Saviour went, as he telleth us himself, to fuffer, xатà тò úρισμévоv, according to A&ts ii. 23. what was determined: and, It was by the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God, faith St. Peter, that he was delivered up into thofe wicked hands that flew him; nor did the confpiracy of Herod and Pilate, with the nation and people of the Jews, effect any thing about it, beΑθις iv. 28. yond ὅσα ἡ χεὶρ, καὶ ἡ βελὴ Θεῖ προώρισε γενέθαι, whatever the hand and counfel of God (or God's effectual purpose) had predetermined to come to pass. Such an especial care and providence of God, concerning this matter, so exprefsly and fo frequently recommended to our observation, do argue the very great moment and high worth thereof. What God declareth himfelf to have had fo early and earnest a care of, must be matter of highest confideration and importance.

Acts

2. It was a matter of free consent and compact between God and his Son. God did freely and graciously (out of merciful regard to our welfare) proffer, that if he would please to undertake to redeem his (loft and enflaved) crea

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