SER M. tinued to infult him, as did the Jews; XIII. he faved others, himself he could not fave: And his Friends, that loved his Doctrine, and hoped for the Salvation of God, could but have joined with his defponding Difciples; we trufted it had been he which Should have redeemed Ifrael. In a word; as St Paul expreffes it in the Text, had not Chrift rifen again, then had our whole Preaching been vain, and your Faith alfa

in vain.

THE Refurrection of Chrift therefore, being a Fact of fo great importance, on which the Evidence of the Truth of the whole Revelation finally depended; it was neceffary, in the Wisdom of Providence, and in the Reason of Things, that the Proof of this great Fact should be made unanswerably strong. In the following Discourse therefore, I fhall 1 endeavour to set before you briefly, and in one view, the particulars of that great and fingular Care, which was taken to make the Proof of the Fact undeniable, that our Saviour did really rife from the Dead. 2dly, I fhall confider what were the Effects of This his Refur

Resurrection, with respect to Chrift him-SER M. self; and 3dly, what were the Effects of XIII. it with regard to Us.

It, As to the extraordinary Care that was taken, to make the Proof of the Fact itself undeniable, that our Saviour did really rife from the Dead; there was (1ft) in the first place Notice given of it antecedently, by the Prophecies of the Old Testament delivered long before. Pf. xvi. 10. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, that is, in the State of the Dead; neither wilt thou fuffer thy Holy One to see Corruption. That This was an express Prediction of our Saviour's Refurrection; the Apostles, in their application of it in the Book of the Acts, fhow by the following Argument. The words thus fpoken by David, muft of neceffity be meant, either of Himself, or of fome Other Perfon. Of Himself, they could not literally be meant, because it was not true that He was raised before he faw corruption. And if they were meant of any other Perfon, the Jews themselves (notwithstanding all their Prejudices) would readily acknowledge

SER M. knowledge, that That other Perfon fo XIII. mentioned by way of Eminence, could,

according to the Analogy of the Prophetick writings, be no other than the Meffiah. This Argument is ftrongly urged by St Peter, Acts ii, 29. Men and Brethren, let me freely Speak unto you of the Patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his Sepulchre is with us unto this day; That is, He did certainly fee corruption: But being a Prophet, and knowing that God had fworn with an Oath to him, that of the fruit of his Loins according to the Flesh, he would raise up Christ to fit on his throne; He, feeing This before, fpake of the Refurrection of Chrift, that his Soul was not left in Hell, nor his flesh did fee corruption. And by St Paul in the fame book, ch. xiii. 36, David (fays he,) after he had ferved his own generation by the will of God, fell on fleep, and was laid unto his Fathers, and faw corruption: But be whom God raised again, faw no corruption : Therefore these words of the Pfalmift, Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to fee corruption, were fpoken, not

of

XIII.

of David himself, but of the Refurrec- SER M. tion of Christ. After This, and other antient Prophecies; there were, (2dly,) in the next place plain Notifications given by our Lord himself, to his Difciples before his Suffering; that they should expect his Rifing from the Dead. And because it was a matter of the greatest Importance, he therefore repeated This Admonition to them feveral times. First, before his Transfiguration, (Matt. xvi. 2 1.) From that time forth began Jefus to show unto his Difciples, how that he must. Suffer many things, and be killed,

and be raised again the third day. Then again, after his Transfiguration, (ch. xvii. 9,) As they came down from the Mountain, Jefus charged them to tell no man the vifion, till the Son of man be risen again from the dead. Again, at his last going up to Jerufalem, (ch. xx. 17,) he took the twelve difciples apart in the way, and faid unto them.-The Son of man shall be betraied unto the chief Priefts,---and they shall condemn him to death,----and the third day he Shall rise again. Befides which plain ad

monitions

SER M. monitions to his Difciples, he gave fome XIII. obfcure hints of it to the whole People

alfo; when, upon the Jews requiring of him a Sign, at one time he faid unto them, (Joh. ii. 19,) Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up; and at another time, (Matt. xii. 39,) To an evil and adulterous generation, there shall no Sign be given, but the Sign of the Prophet Jonas; For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Whales belly, fo fhall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the Heart of the Earth. The Defign and Use of which Predictions, though not at all understood at the time they were spoken, is declared to us by the Evangelist, Joh. ii. 22, When therefore he was risen from the dead, bis difciples remembred that be bad faid this unto them; and they believed the Scripture, and the word that Jefus bad faid. And, Luke xxiv. 6, Remember, faid the Angel to the perfons which came first to the Sepulchre, Remember how he spake unto you,----faying, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of finful men, and be crucified, and

the