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ture, an honourable and comfortable fuccefs to his enter- SERM. prife; that he would accept his performances, and that XXVII. the defign should profper in his hand he did willingly embrace the proposal, and applied himself to the performance: When thou shalt make thy foul an offering for fin, Ifa. liii. 9, thou shalt fee thy feed, and prolong thy days, and the pleafure of the Lord shall profper in thy hand: thou shalt fee of the travail of thy foul, and fhalt be fatisfied; that, in the Prophet's language, was God's propofition: and, Lo, I Heb. x. 7,8. come to do thy will, O God; that was our Saviour's reply in correspondence and confent thereto. God, in confideration of what our Lord would obediently fuffer, did, as our Saviour telleth us, diariodai Barinelav, covenant to Luke xxii. him a kingdom; committing a fovereign authority, affigning an univerfal dominion to him; in virtue of which transaction it was that Jefus, for the fuffering of death, Heb. ii. 9. was crowned with glory and honour; that because he poured Isa. liii. 12, out his foul unto death, God divided him a portion with the

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great; that he being obedient to the death, God exalted Phil. ii. 8, 9. him, and gave him a name above all names. In this re- Rom.xiv.9. gard are God's elect and faithful people faid to be given unto him as a retribution to him, who gave himself for them; (Thine they were, faith our Lord to his Father, John xvii.6. and thou gavest them me ;) hence are we said to be bought with a price; hence is the Church purchafed by his blood: Gal. iii. 13. there was therefore a covenant and bargain driven be- 1 Cor. vi. tween God and his Son concerning this affair; and of 1 Pet. i. 19. huge confideration furely muft that affair be, wherein Acts xx. 28, fuch perfons do fo deeply intereft themselves, trafficking, and, as it were, standing upon terms with one another.

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3. That the great excellency and efficacy of our Saviour's death and paffion might appear, it was by manifold types foreshadowed, and in divers prophecies foretold. Indeed moft of the famous paffages of providence (especially the fignal afflictions of eminent perfons representing our Saviour) do feem to have been prefigurations of, or preludes to, his paffion. The blood of the righteous protomartyr Abel, shed by an envious brother, for Gen. iv. 10.

Luke xi. 51.

xi. 4.

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Heb. v. 9.

SERM. acceptable obedience performed by him to God's will, XXVII. and crying to heaven, might prefigure that blood, which Heb.xii. 24. cried also, although with another voice, Speaking better things than the blood of Abel; not fad complaints, and fuits for vengeance, but fweet entreaties and interceffions Heb. xi. 7, for mercy. Ifaac, the only fon, the fon of promife, his oblation in purpose, or death in parable, as the Apostle to the Hebrews fpeaketh, did plainly represent our Saviour, the promised feed, his being really offered, and afterward miraculously restored to life. Jofeph's being fold, and put into flavery by his envious brethren, being flanderPfal. cv. 18. Ously accused, and shut in prison, (whofe feet they hurt with fetters; the iron entered into his foul;) and this by God's difpofal, in order to his exaltation; and that he Gen. xlv. 5. might be a means of preferving life, and preparing a convenient habitation for the children of Ifrael, doth well reLuke xxiv. femble him, who by fuffering entered into his glory; who thereby being perfected, became author of falvation to his John xiv. 2. brethren, all true Ifraelites; who went to prepare manfions of rest and light, a heavenly Gofhen, for them. David's perfecutions foregoing his royal dignity and profperous Pfal. xviii. ftate; which he expreffeth in such strains as thefe; The forrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid; the forrows of hell compassed me about, and the fnares of death prevented me; how they may adumbrate the more real extremities of our Lord's afflictions, previous to his glorious exaltation, I leave you to confider; as alfo the reft of fuch paffages, having a mysterious importance accommodable to this purpose. However, all the facrifices of old, inftituted by God, we may with fuller confidence affirm to have been chiefly preparatory unto and prefigurative of this most true and Heb. ix. 23. perfect facrifice; by virtue whereof indeed those modelyμata, and oxial, umbratic representations (or infinuations) did obtain their fubftance, validity, and effect: if they did not fignify this in defign, they could fignify nothing in Heb. ix. 22. effect; for as without Shedding of blood there was no remiffion, (God's anger would not be appeafed, nor his Levit. xvii. juftice fatisfied without it; it being blood, which, accord

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viii. 5.

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ing to God's prescription, did make atonement for the SERM. foul,) as the appointment of thofe facrifices did fpeak and XXVII. fignify; fo it was impoffible that the blood of bulls and Heb. x. 4. goats fhould take away fin; that thofe legal gifts and fa- ix. 9, 15. x. crifices should perfect the confcience of him that did the fervice; that is, should entirely affure him of pardon and impunity, or raise in him a strong and clear hope of God's favour the lives of beafts were not in value answerable, nor could fitly be fubrogated instead of men's fouls, which had offended, and thence were liable to death; the effufion of their blood could not reasonably fatisfy a man's confcience, fenfible of guilt and fearful of God's displeasure, that by it God was fully appeased; they must therefore refer unto a xpeíttav dvoía, a more ex- Heb. ix. 23. cellent facrifice; one more fufficient in itself, and more acceptable to God; in virtue of which, and in regard thereto, fin might be thoroughly expiated, God's wrath might be propitiated, divine vengeance might be removed, the mind of man therefore might be comforted and contented. The high priest's entrance once a year into the holy of holies, not without blood to atone for his own and Heb. ix. 7. the people's ignorances, (or miscarriages,) did imply, that *. 24. our great High Priest should make one bloody atonement for the offences of mankind, and, paffing through the veil of mortal flesh, should enter into the true fanctum fanctorum of heaven, there to appear in the presence of God for us; exhibiting the virtue of his meritorious paffion, together with his effectual interceffion for mercy toward us. Efpecially the pafchal lamb, in its fubftance, (as a lamb, meek and gentle,) in its quality, (as without blemish and spot, pure and innocent,) in its manner of preparation and dreffing, (being killed by all the affembly, having its blood sprinkled upon the doors of every house, being roafted with fire, having bitter herbs for its fauce,) with other obfervable circumftances about it, was a moft appofite emblem of Christ our paffover; who not only by 1 Cor. v. 7. his death did fignify, and mind us of, but did really achieve our deliverance from the myftical Egypt, our ftate of fpiritual bondage. So did ancient types exhibit

SERM. and represent; plain predictions alfo did express the same XXVII. death and fuffering of our Lord: Those things, faith St. A&ts iii. 18. Peter, which God before had fhewed by the mouth of all Пgoxarny- his prophets, that Christ should fuffer, he hath so fulfilled;

γειλε.

not one prophet only, not fome few; but all, faith he, (that is, either plainly or covertly, either directly or by confequence,) have forefhewed (or foretold) it: it is our negligence, or stupidity, if we do not difcern it in them; as our Lord intimated, when he thus fpake to his difciLuke xxiv. ples: O fools, and flow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! ought not Chrift (ought he not, acA&ts xiii. cording to their prefignifications and predictions) to have fuffered these things, and fo to enter into his glory? That

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xviii. 31.

27. xxvi.

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David, an illuftrious reprefentative of the Meffias, doth often describe as belonging to himself, mortal agonies and Pfal. xxii. fufferings, not well applicable xarà λév, or in direct histo

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rical meaning, to his own person, and therefore in reason, according to a more high and perfect fenfe, to be understood of the Meffias himself; that Daniel plainly foretelleth, that in a certain time the Meffias fhould be cut off; that Isaiah doth in feveral places infinuate, and in the famous 53d chapter of his prophecy doth clearly describe, the manner and kind of our Saviour's paffion, is fo evident, that even thofe of the Jewish doctors, who have been most earnest opposers of our Lord, have been forced to acknowledge, that there is to be as well one Meffias to fuffer, as another to prosper, and reign in glory; being fo grofs as not to apprehend, or fo perverfe as not to acknowledge, the consistency between antecedent suffering Luke xxii. and consequent glory; between a night of darkness and forrow, and a day of light and joy breaking out from it; not being able or willing to distinguish between an external pomp in this world, and an external majesty in the future ftate. But unto us God's fo forward care, by the Spirit of Chrift in his prophets, @poμapτúpeσdai, to fore-wit1 Pet. i. 11. nefs (as St. Peter fpeaketh, or to testify before hand) the fufferings of our Saviour, and the glories fucceeding, doth imply, with what diligence of attention we should regard, with what firmness of faith we should embrace, with what

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fatisfaction of heart we should entertain this great and SERM. XXVII.

admirable dispensation.

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4. We may confider, that this death was compaffed by God's efpecial providence directing and difpofing it, although not without the active concurrence of men: the treacherous difpofition and covetous appetite of Judas; the envious humour and blind zeal of the fcribes and priests; the wanton fickleness and wild rudeness of the people; the fearful and selfish temper of the governor, were but inftruments, whereby God's own hand did inflict Acts iv. 28. this fore chastisement upon his Son for us: it was the Ifa. liii. 6, Lord that laid upon him the iniquities of us all; by God *• he was ftricken, fmitten, and afflicted; Pilate, it is faid, had no power to do what he did, but what was given him John xix. from above; the Jews with their rulers proceeded rafhly 1 Cor. ii. 8. and ignorantly; otherwife, as St. Paul affirmeth, they A&s iii. 17. would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but God advisedly, as St. Peter told them, did accomplish it; He did 32. not fpare his own Son, but delivered him up for us: he, as it were, fufpended his bowels of pity toward him, he withdrew his face of kindness from him, out of compaffion and benignity toward us; he used him feverely, that he might deal favourably with us.

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xiii. 27.

Rom. viii.

Yet did man actively concur therein; all mankind in a fort, by its representatives, was involved, as principally in the guilt for which, fo in the guilt by which he suffered; there was a general confpiracy of Jew and Gentile prac-. tifed against the life of their common Saviour. Of a truth, A&s iv. 27. faith St. Peter, against thy holy child Jefus, whom thou haft anointed, were gathered together both Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and with the people of Ifrael: in the Jews the horrid ingratitude of men, in the Gentiles their wretched infirmity did appear; the which, by their active efficacy toward our Lord's death, did fignify the meritorious influence they also had upon it; that it was our iniquity and corruption which did cause it: fo as a work of divine Providence, (the most admirable work ever accomplished by Providence,) as an act of human pravity, (the

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