SERMON XIV. Preach'd on Eafter-Day, 1690. ACTS XI. 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loof ed the pains of death; because it was not poffible that he should be holden of it. H OW glorious the Refurrection of our Lord was, which we this Day commemorate, how undeniable at that Time, how powerful an Affurance of all his precedent Promifes and Revelations, what Effect it had both in the Minds of his Difciples and his Crucifiers, how effectually it demonftrated to the whole World, the Divinity both of his Miffion and his Perfon; as the whole Series of their Actions immediately fubfequent to it do demonstrate, fo this Declaration, made by them in the Text doth evince. They who before had fled upon his apprehenfion, had loft all their Hopes at his Crucifixion, had either denied or forfaken him; who began to doubt whether it were he that should have redeemed Ifrael, and gave up all for loft, refumed their Courage and their Faith at the news and affurance. of his Refurrection. They now faw that Salvation wrought, which before they had even ceased to hope for. The most incredulous of them could now fay to him, My Lord, and my God; nor did they henceforward admit any doubt of thofe glorious Promises, of which they had herein received fo great a Teftimony. They feared not to profefs their belief in him openly, to arraign the Impiety of the Jews in crucifying an innocent Perfon, and him no other than their own Meffias, the Lord of Life; to denounce to them the certainty of their Deftruction without belief in him; not only to testify his Refurrection in that great concourfe of the Jews met together at the Feaft of Pentecoft, but alfo to declare it impoffible that he fhould not have risen again; as in these Words, whom God hath raised up, having loofed the pains of death; because it was not poffible that he should be holden of it. Which present us with, I. The Affirmation of the Refurrection of Chrift. Whom God hath raised up. II. The Manner of it. the pains of death. Having loofed III. The Reason of it. Because it was not possible, &c. I. The Words affure us of the Truth of Chrift's Refurrection: A Truth both well known to the Apostles, who did then relate it, and attested by many infallible proofs, as it is in the foregoing Chapter, Verse 3; fo that it could not be denied by those who fhould only hear it. Let us take a view of thefe Proofs, both for the Confirmation of our Faith, and to amplify the Glory of that Mystery, to the Memory of which this Day is facred. In relating then the Refurrection of our Lord, the Holy Penmen have been very exact in relating all the Circumstances and the Proofs of it; manifefting that he was really dead after his Crucifixion, and as truly alive again after his Resurrection; that this was known to his Enemies, as well as his Disciples; and attefted from Heaven by the Miniftry of Angels, and by God himself. In a matter of fo great Concern it was ne ceffary that all the Points of it should be clearly proved, and none remain liable to the leaft Exception. In the first place, it was required that af furance fhould be given of his having been really dead. An Article which is fully expreffed in the Creed, the common Profession of of our Faith; wherein we declare him to have been dead and buried, and to have defcended into Hell; that his Soul was truly feparated from his Body; the Places being therein affigned, wherein each were contained from the Time of his Burial to that of his Refurrection. His Body remained in the Grave. His Soul was in the State of other feparated Souls, in Hell; whether we understand thereby, either the ordinary Condition of departed Souls, or the Place of damned Souls. I will not now engage in that Controverfy; it is fufficient to fay, That either Opinion placeth his Soul in that interval of Time among other Souls feparated from the Body. That the Soul of Chrift was thus truly separated, appeareth from the concurrent Judgment of his Enemies, as well as Friends, at that time. The Soldiers fent to break his Legs while hanging on the Crofs, that fo they might haften his Death, whom they fuppofed not yet to have expired, found him already dead. Jofeph of Arimathea, and the devout Women which followed him, taking him down from the Cross, laid him in his Grave, being well affured that he was then dead. His Difciples, who if any thew of Reafon might be offered, would not eafily believe him dead, from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom, yet were fo far perfuaded of it, that at his fift appearing to them, they were affrighted, X 4 and and fuppofed they had feen a Spirit. To thefe Proofs nothing more could be added to evince the Reality of his Death; an Evidence, which is wanting to all the Relations of Men raised from the Dead, opposed by the Heathens to the Resurrection of our Lord. They alledged from Plato the Story of Eris lying for many Days among the dead Bodies, and after that recovering Life again; and pretended that Apollonius Tyaneus, whom they fet up in oppofition to Chrift, had raised a certain Perfon to Life. But the first was not related by any, for more than a thousand Years after the Fact was pretended to be done; and in the fecond Cafe, the Heathen Hiftorian confeffeth, that he dare not affirm that the Perfon was truly dead. Nor after his Refurrection was it lefs evident, that Chrift was truly alive, invested with Soul and Body. All the Actions of Life, and Arguments of a real Body met in his. He was feen by a great number of his Difciples, who judged it to be fuch. He eat and drank with them, which proved his Body not to have been a mere Phantasm or Aerial Apparition. He talked and reafoned with them out of the Scriptures, which demonftrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul. He appealed to their Senfe of Feeling, commanded them to handle him faid to unbelieving Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands, and reach hither thy |