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of his righteousness; that is, of his goodness, his justice, his fincerity, his conftancy, and all fuch laudable perfections which may be used in dealing with others; for fo I take righteousness to fignify.)

2. The dignifying and exaltation of our Saviour himfelf; by acquiring unto him (as it were) a new right unto, and inftating him in, an universal dominion; in a transcendent glory, joy, and happiness, accruing to him by defert Rom.xiv.9. and reward; For to this end, St. Paul tells us, Chrift died, ἵνα νεκρῶν καὶ ζώντων κυριεύσῃ, that he might be Lord of the Heb. ii. 9, dead and living; for the suffering of death he was crown10. xii. 2. ed with glory and honour; the Prince of our salvation was perfected by fuffering; for the joy that was fet before him Phil.ii. 8,9. he endured the cross: he was obedient unto death; therefore God exalted him: it was agreed and defigned, that he Ifa. liii. 11. fhould fee the travail of his foul, and be fatisfied. Gal. iii. 13. 3. The falvation of mankind; thereby redeeming us, as Enyga. St. Paul speaks, (or buying us out,) from the curfe of the law, (procuring indemnity and impunity for us,) juftifying us in God's fight, and reconciling us to God's favour; Rom. v. 9. Being justified, faith the fame Apostle, by his blood, we shall be faved by him from wrath: For if, being enemies, we 1 Pet. ii. 24. were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: bearing, taking away, expiating, abolishing, procuring pardon for, Heb. ix. 27. purging the confcience from, cleanfing us from the ftain, John i. 29. and freeing us from the power of fin and dead works: Heb. x. 4. But now, faith the author to the Hebrews, once in the end

of the world hath he appeared, εἰς ἀθετήσιν ἁμαρτίας, to the putting away (or abolition) of fin by the facrifice of him1 Jobni. 7. felf: and, The blood of Chrift, faith St. John, cleanfeth us Rev. i. 5. from all fin: and, Who loved us, and washed us from our Gal. i. 4. fins in his own blood: and, Who gave himself for our fins, Tit. ii. 14. that he might deliver us from this prefent evil world: Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of Rom. viii. good works: Who shall lay any thing to the charge of (who fhall criminate, rís ¿yxaλéσ¤) God's elect? who shall condemn? It is Chrift that died. In fubordination unto, coincidence or concurrence with these ends, our Saviour

1 Pet. i. 18.

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also died, for the reparation of God's honour, recovery of his right, and fatisfaction of his juftice; for the ratifying the new covenant between God and us; (whence his blood is called the blood of the covenant, or new testament;) for the reconciling and pacifying all things in heaven and earth; removing all caufes of diffention, inducing obligations of concord and charity; for pulling out the fting and removing the terror of death; fuppreffing and triumphing over the powers of hell; destroying (or defeat- Col. ii. 15. ing) him that had the power of death, the devil; and deli- Heb. ii. 14, vering them who through fear of death were all their life- xaragyńtime fubject to death; for engaging us to all righteousness and obedience, (especially to the most excellent and most difficult parts thereof, charity, meeknefs, patience, selfdenial, utmost constancy and perseverance,) both from our obligation for what he did, and in imitation of his example; laftly, for atteftation unto and confirmation of divine truth; fealing his heavenly doctrine by his blood, and witneffing before Pontius Pilate a good confeffion. Such ends did the death and paffion of our Saviour aim 1 Tim. vi. at, fuch fruits did grow from it; which the time hath permitted me scarce curforily to mention.

As for the practical influences the belief and confideration thereof fhould have upon us, they are many and great.

σας.

13. John xviii.

37.

Rom. viii.

It should oblige us to the highest degree of love and thankfulness, in regard to this highest expreffion of love to us: it fhould beget in us the greatest faith and hope John xv. in God; for that, He which did not Spare his own Son, but 13. delivered him up (to death) for us all, how fhall he not 32. with him alfo freely give us all things? it fhould work contrition and repentance in us for those fins which murdered our fo good friend and loving Saviour: it should deter and make us carefully to avoid them, as those which in a manner exact another death from him, and crucify him afresh, and vilify the precious blood of the covenant : it Heb. vi. 6. fhould discover to us their heinousness, and produce in us I. 29. a vehement deteftation and dread of them; as having provoked God to fuch a degree of difpleafure; caufing

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him to deal fo feverely with his own moft dear Son; Luke xxiii. For if thofe things were done (fuch punishments were inflicted) upon a green tree, (upon a perfon fo innocent, fo precious, fo little liable to the fire of vengeance,) what Shall be done to the dry, (to us, that are fo guilty, fo combuftible,) if we prefume to difpleafe God? it should engage us to a patient fubmiffion and refignation of ourPhil. ii. 5. felves to God's will and providence; Forafmuch as Chrift hath fuffered for us in the flesh, we should arm ourselves 1 Pet. iv. 1. likewife with the fame mind, as St. Peter advises; and prepare for the deepest mortification, in conformity to his

Phil. iii. 10.

6, &c.

death, dying after him to the lufts and affections of the flesh, to the fashions and delights of the world; to the 1 John iv. fullest measure of charity; For if God fo loved us, (so as to 11. iii. 16. die for us,) then ought we, as St. John tells us, to love one 1 Pet. iv. 2. another, in a degree answerable; for, he adds, If he laid Rom. vi. 5, down his life for us, then ought we alfo to lay down our Gal. ii. 20. lives for our brethren: in fine, we are hereby obliged to yield up ourselves wholly to the fervice of our Saviour; to the promoting of his interest and glory; fince, as St. 1 Cor. vi. Paul teaches us, we are not our own, being bought with a price; and therefore must glorify God in our body and in our Spirits, which are God's; (by a purchase so dear and 2Cor. xv. 5. precious;) fince, as he again tells us, Chrift died for all,

V. 24.

ult.

that they which live might not live to themselves, but to 1 Pet. i. 18. him that died for them; fince, as St. Peter urges, we know that we are not redeemed by things corruptible, by filver and gold, but by the precious blood of Chrift, as a lamb without blemish or spot, from our vain conversation.

Buried. He defcended into Hell.

THESE two particulars (which in the ancient Roman Creed, and in all the oriental forms, as alfo in other more ancient fummaries of Chriftian doctrine) do appear either to have been conjoined and comprehended in the former of them, (buried,) or at least the latter to have been wholly omitted; it being afterwards inferted here out of the Aquileian form, (which in a manner had it, in the room of the former, that saying, instead of sepultus eft, de

fcendit in inferna,) or from elsewhere, (the latter ages mentioning both, either for more fulness and fecurity, that nothing anywife material, touched in Scripture, concerning our Saviour's perfon or performances, efpecially done in that great feafon of action preceding his last farewell to this world, might feem neglected,) or perchance upon occafion of (in favour to, or compliance with) fome opinions about our Saviour's doings in the interval between his death and refurrection, current and paffable in those times these particulars however, I fay, may seem added in respect chiefly (for the clearer illuftration and furer confirmation) of those great articles precedent and fubfequent concerning our Saviour's death and refurrection. For (as to the firft) our Saviour's body being committed to the grave, the common repofitory of bodies, it plainly demonftrates the truth of his death, the reality and wonderfulness of his refurrection. No life could continue in a body shut up under ground till the third day: (fequeftered from that air which ventilates and keeps from fmothering our vital flame; from that comfortable light which excites and cherishes our natural heat; from that food which fuftains and repairs our decaying parts ;) therefore he must, being thus lodged in the chambers of death, be really dead: and to raise him thence, to rear the temple of his body from that utmost state of dejection, must be a work of divine and moft wonderful power. And to this purpose, I suppose, St. Paul mentions our Saviour's burial as a point, which, among other great articles of our religion, he did ufe to preach and inculcate as a matter of faith; I delivered unto you first of all, faith he 1 Cor. xv. 3, to the Corinthians, that which I alfo received, that Chrift died for our fins; and that he was buried, and that he rose again according to the Scriptures. His burial interceding gave light and confirmation to his death foregoing, and his refurrection following it, according to the Scriptures, St. Paul adds: for it had feemed good to God both by typical representation to forefhew and exprefsly to foretell our Saviour's interment; As Jonas (faith he himself, Matt. xii. the best expofitor of God's meaning in fuch myftical ad

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umbrations) was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, fo fhall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth: the whale's belly Jonas Jonas ii. 2. himself terms the belly of hell, (Out of the belly of hell

10.

Ifa. liii. 9.

πονηροὺς

φῆς αὐτοῦ.

Heb.

δώσει

cried I, and thou heardeft my voice: the belly of hell, Pf. xvi. 9, or of the grave:) and, My flesh (faith David, as reprefenting our Saviour) shall rest in hope; for thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, nor fuffer thine Holy One to see corruption. The grave was the bed wherein our Saviour's flesh did reft in expectation foon to rife again before any corruption fhould feize thereon: and the Prophet Isaiah treating upon his paffion, with the causes, the manner, the confequences thereof, doth not omit the mention of this point; For, fays he, he made his grave with the Awra Tous wicked, and with the rich in his death. So God preorἀντὶ τῆς τα dained, and so predicted concerning our Saviour's burial, LXX. for the confirmation of our faith, though perhaps other ends might fall in therewith, and other not inconfiderable ufes may be made thereof. He did thereby yield a farther inftance of condefcenfion, a final fubmiffion to the law of human nature, in being brought to the duft, and returning to the ground, according to the general doom Gen. iii. 19. pronounced once upon mankind; Duft thou art, and to 1 Cor. xv. duft thou shalt return. He reprefented thereby, as the firstfruits from the dead, and the pattern of his followers, the John v. 28, common manner how, and whence we fhall arife; when the time comes, that all which are in the graves Shall hear his voice, and go forth, as it is in the Gofpel: how all men being, as it were, fown in the ground, fhall fpring up again to another life. He did also thereby fignify that myftical fepulture, which we undergo in baptism, being Col. i. 12. therein buried with him, as St. Paul fpeaks, being feRom. vi. 4. cluded from the pleasures of fin, and having the vanities of the world removed from our eyes: the immerfion in baptifm was a kind of burial, and its being done thrice (according to primitive use) correfponded (as the ancients suppose) to our Saviour's lying three days in the grave: Τὸ γὰρ καταδύσαι τὸ παιδίον ἐν τῇ κολυμβήθια τρίτον, καὶ ἀναςήσαι, τοῦτο δηλοῖ τὸν θάνατον, καὶ τὴν τριήμερον ἀνάςασιν τοῦ Χριστοῦ:

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