by his Enemies into extreme danger of Death which he commonly expresseth by the same or the like words as Psal. XVIII 4. The sorrows of death compassed me and Verse 5. The sorrows of hell compassed me about and Psal. CXVI 3. The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Yet trusting in the Promises of God amidst all these Calamities he rested assured of Deliverance and expresseth his Confidence of it in the words cited by the Apostle in the following Verses My flesh shall rest in hope because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see Corruption It was a Matter at that time received and on all hands granted by the Jews that David was a Type of the Messias that his Actions Sufferings and Deliverance prefigured the Office the Death and Resurrection of Christ who should descend from him and particularly the Apostle sheweth how this Passage was much more evidently and literally fulfilled in Christ than in David He indeed was delivered from his Enemies and died in Peace yet die he did and after Death his soul was left in hell that is among the Dead or in the place of departed Souls and his Body did see Corruption having been buried many hundred years But as for Christ he died indeed yet his soul was not left in hell neither did his Body see Corruption His Soul was presently reunited to the Body and even during the Separation not left by the Divine Nature which still continued to be joyned to it neither was his Body corrupted but raised up and united to the Soul in less than forty hours in which time the Bodies of deceased Men are wont to be corrupted According to the second Interpretation Christ was raised from a painful Death to an opposite State to a condition of Glory Happiness Power and Immortality The Sufferings of our Lord so lively described to us in the Holy Offices of the last week we cannot forget and over all these he eminently triumphed in his Resurrection upon this day He was then made subject to Death but is now become the Lord of life and set above the reach of Death For Christ being raised from the Dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Rom. VI. 9. He then bore the wrath of God for the sake of Man He now dispenseth the Favours of God granted to Men. He was then subjected to the Contradiction of Sinners to the Will of his own Creatures appeared as the vilest of Men suffered as a Malefactor he is now entred upon his Kingdom raised above the Earth seated at the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him 1 Pet. III. 22. The words explained in their third Sense infer the overthrow of the Power and Dominion of Death effected by the Resurrection of Christ. The whole Design of our Lords Incarnation of his Death Burial and Resurrection was as it is expressed Hebr. II. 14. That he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil To do this all the parts of his Life contributed He converted Sinners from the Error of their way He confuted the Mistakes of the seduced World He founded a Church wherein open Enmity should be professed to the Devil He took upon himself the guilt of Death due to the sins of Men and all this Dispensation he gloriously finished in his Resurrection Therein he literally broke the bonds of Death he led Captivity Captive baffled the opposition and triumphed over all the Assaults of the Devil who had vainly imagined that by procuring the ever Blessed Jesus to be given up into the hands of wicked Men he had put an end to the Salvation of Mankind But to our eternal Happiness and to the Glory of our Redeemer his Designs and Attempts promoted that very end which he so much dreaded he knew not that it was the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God as it is in the precedent Verse that Christ should both die and rise again to perfect our Salvation that he was for a while to be subject to Death but that it was impossible he should be holden of it III. This was the third thing proposed to Discourse of that it was not possible that Christ should continue in the state of Death The Apostle foundeth the impossibility of it in this place upon the Determination of God to the contrary so that here it was not possible is no more than it was not Consonant to the decree of God it was not fit just or convenient as it is said Matth. IX It is not possible for the Children of the Bride-Chamber to mourn as long as the Bridegroom is with them that is it is not fit or convenient In this Sense then I shall consider it and 1. It was not possible or convenient that Christ should be holden of death because he was both God and Man the Divine was united to his Humane Nature It would have appeared surprizing to our Reason and been an Argument of little affection of God to Mankind if he should have suffered that very Body which had the Honour to be joyned to his own Nature wherein the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily to continue in Hell in the common state of Mortality or to see Corruption It was not possible that the Divinity should suffer that Nature to be corrupted or lye neglected among the Dead to which it self continued to be united even in the Grave This we of the Catholick Church do believe and if any should oppose this wonderful Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in the person of Christ his very Resurrection will convince their Error For to raise a dead Body to Life again must be allowed to be no less than the work of Omnipotence that it can be effected by God alone Yet it appeareth from the express words of Scripture that Christ had Power to raise up his own Body He saith of himself to the Jews John II. 19. Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Speaking of the Temple of his Body as the Evangelist subjoyns And again John X. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Our Lord who came into the World to do the Will of his Father and to glorifie him would never have claimed this Power had it not been inherent in himself He therefore by his own Power reunited his Soul to his Body I mean not in Exclusion to the other persons of the Blessed Trinity who all concurred therein For Power being an essential Attribute of the Divine Nature continueth undivided in the Persons of it And therefore it is no Objection against the Truth of this that the Father is said in many places of the New Testament to have raised up his Son since he is the chief Person in that Blessed Trinity
by whose Power the Soul of Christ was rejoyned to the Body 2. Christ was the Author of our Salvation the Founder of a revealed Religion and therefore it was not possible not convenient he should be holden of death The Resurrection of Christ was to be the ultimate and chief Proof of the Divinity of his Mission and Authority of his Revelations so clear a Testimony that the Reason of Man should not be able to withstand the Evidence thereof To this therefore he at all times refers as to the last and greatest Proof of his Mission This was the only Sign which he would give to the Jews demanding a Miracle in Confirmation of his Authority that as Jonas was three days and three nights in the Belly of the Whale so the Son of Man should be three days and three nights in the heart of the Earth Upon this he had fixed the Expectation of his Disciples and of all his Hearers and by this he was to set the Truth of his Doctrine and the Divinity of his Person beyond all Contradiction Had he left his Body in the Grave after all these Assurances the Jews might have insulted over his Disciples with as much Reason as Christians do over the Followers of Mahomet who promised to rise again after a Thousand years little imagining that his Name or Religion should continue so long in the World although now after more than a Thousand years expired the Impostor still lieth in Hell Had Christ not risen again the Apostle confesseth 1 Cor. XV. 14. Their preaching had been vain and your faith also vain But when so illustrious a Testimony of Divine Authority hath intervened when Heaven it self hath declared it so eminently to deny Assent would be to fight against God The Jews in the most violent Execution of their Hatred and Malice engaged to believe on him if he would come down from the Cross and save himself It had been no less easie for our Blessed Lord to have descended from the Cross than to have ascended from the Grave But first the Design of his Sufferings did not permit it since he was to lay down his Life as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the World and then he would not suffer the Exercise of Divine Power manifested in restoring himself to Life to Labour under any doubts Had he descended from the Cross before he died he could not have attoned for the Guilt of our sin Had he descended immediately after his Death it would have been pretended that he had not died yet even this they would have Confessed to be miraculous but perhaps referred the Cause of it as they did his former Miracles not to a Divine Power but to Magical Operation Whereas this Pretence did wholly vanish in the Miracle of his Resurrection Since no Magick or Diabolick Power remaineth after Death In short so great was the Evidence of the Divinity of Christ arising from his Resurrection so undeniable the Fact and so important that the Apostles in all their Sermons imployed this as the chief Argument of Conviction And when they chose Matthias to the Apostleship described his Office to be no other than to witness the Resurrection of Christ. God had more than once before his Crucifixion declared him by Voices from Heaven by constant Miracles to be his Son yet so far is the Evidence of this inferiour to that Proceeding from his Resurrection that he is in many places said to have then adopted Christ for his Son because he then eminently declared to him be so As Acts XIII 33. The Promise made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled in that he hath raised up Jesus again as it is in the Psalm II. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And Rom. I. 4. Jesus Christ our Lord declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the dead He was from all Eternity his Son as to his Divine Nature he was from the Incarnation his Son as to his Humane Nature but the Truth of this appeared to the World chiefly in his Resurrection 3. By the Resurrection of Christ we are assured chiefly that we also shall rise again and therefore it was not convenient that he should be holden of Death Christ had promised to his Disciples That where he was there they should be also When he therefore rose from the Dead and ascended into an incorruptible State of Glory they then raised their Hopes and conceived full assurance of Immortality Till then Mankind had found by long Experience that there was no Redemption from the Grave and by this alone could be convinced that either their Nature was capable of Immortality or that God would vouchsafe to confer it on them They might perceive in the Person of Christ the Dissolution of Death the Capacity of their Nature and the Favour of God and then considering their own Relation to Christ might hope to partake of the same Happiness Christ is the Head of his Church and what more natural than for the Members to follow their Head He was by his Resurrection declared to be the Son of God and himself hath often promised that his faithful Followers should be Co-heirs with him He is called the first born from the Dead the first fruits of the Resurrection which being accepted by God Entitled the whole Mass the whole race of Mankind to the same Favour Only it is required and that justly if that we desire to follow him in his Resurrection we must also imitate him in his Death For so the Promise runs in the whole VI. Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his Death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection If we crucifie our Sin as it is there expressed if we as fully forsake all vicious Habits as he who dieth is bereaved of vital Actions if farther we imitate the Death of Christ in the Perfection of it that as he died but once but liveth for ever so we henceforward be dead unto sin but alive unto righteousness then we may reasonably assure our selves that we shall follow the Example of him the forerunner in our Resurrection which we have so nearly expressed in our Death we are then truly Members of himself the Head being made conformable to his Sufferings we are sanctified by the gracious Acceptation and raising up of him the first fruits of them that slept while we inviolably continue our Relation to him Others indeed were before him raised from Dead to Life as those raised by Elijah Elishah and by Christ before and at his Crucifixion But these were all to die again and so thereby gave no assurance of immortality to Mankind It was Christ alone who being raised from the dead dieth no more who in behalf of Mankind hath taken Possession of immortality which he hath acquired for us and will communicate to us unless we chuse rather to imitate the imperfect Resurrection of those mortal Men
before mentioned that is unless we rise from Sin to die again Lastly the Justice of God and the incomparable Humility and Patience of Christ manifested in his Sufferings rendred it not possible not fit that he should be holden of Death He died not for his own but for the Sins of others and to demonstrate that his own Guilt drew not that Punishment upon him it was agreeable to the Justice of God to raise him up to relieve the Cause of oppressed Innocence and not suffer his Persecutors any longer to triumph in their wickedness Further by his exact Obedience by his inimitable Patience in suffering the Pains and his admirable Humility in undergoing the Shame of the Cross he did deserve to be raised up that as he had humbled himself in so extraordinary a manner so he should be exalted to a no less illustrious Glory And therefore the Sufferings and Humility of Christ are frequently assigned as the meritorious Cause of his Exaltation It was long before Prophesied of him Psal. CX 7. He shall drink of the brook in the way therefore shall he lift up his head And after his Passion and Ascension it is said of him by St. Paul Philip. II. He humbled himself and became obedient to death even the deash of the Cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him The first step of his Exaltation was his Resurrection which therefore was to relate to both those parts of his Humane Nature which had undergone that meritorious Humiliation Not only his Soul had suffered Agonies and the Contradiction of sinners had resigned it self intirely into the hands of God and submitted quietly to the Execution of that bitter Sentence which was inflicted on him as the Representative of sinful Men had endured the Shame of the Cross the insults of his Enemies a violent Separation from the Body with invincible Patience and Charity But also his Body had partaken in his Agony had sweat drops of Blood had endured Scourgings and Buffettings Crucifixion and the wound of the Spear Both Soul and Body therefore were to share in the Reward of all these Sufferings which began to be bestowed on him in his Resurrection His Body was to be raised from the Grave and his Soul being in no other Sense capable of Resurrection was to be reunited to the Body and both to continue for ever joyned since by his Death and Resurrection he is become the Mediator of a new and eternal Covenant Thus I have passed through the several parts of the Text and from the whole I shall make but one Inference proper to the Solemnity of this day If the Resurrection of Christ be the great and ultimate Confirmation of the Christian Religion that upon which our Faith is founded our hopes are raised that by which the Mystery of our Redemption is compleated the Author of it Crowned and advanced to be the Head of all the faithful who look for the same Resurrection it becomes us to celebrate this Festival Dedicated to the Memory of it with a suitable Religion We are not to account it an Arbitrary institution or the invention of the Church that this day is accounted Sacred beyond all others of the Year Our Lord hath made it so by rising from the Dead and compleating the Redemption of Mankind on it No revealed Religion was yet ever professed in the World which did not celebrate some certain and solemn Festivals at fixed times of the year and to cast off the publick Solemnization of those Festivals upon which the most illustrious Acts of the Life of our Saviour were performed is no other than in Fact to deny all belief in him and relation to him It is not enough to say that he hath declared he will be worshipped in Spirit and Truth He was himself then going up to Jerusalem to celebrate a solemn Festival when he spake those words And surely unless there be solemn times and places of worshipping him in Spirit and Truth it will never appear that he is so worshipped nor is he worshipped in Truth when Men pay no external Acknowledgments of those eminent Benefits which he hath truly obtained to them Himself hath consecrated this day by his rising from the Grave on it The Apostles have Dedicated it to this sacred Use by their own and by Divine Authority The Jews had before celebrated one day in seven in Recognition of their adoring that God who had created the World in Six days and rested on the Seventh and that Seventh day which they celebrated rather than any other of the Week was sanctified in Memory of their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon that day as it is Deut. V. 15. Remember that thou wast a Servant in the Land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm Therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day As the Jews therefore dated their Seventh day for ever from that day of their Deliverance out of Egypt so the Apostles began and the Church hath to this day continued to date their Seventh day from the day upon which their Redemption was compleated A Redemption so far greater than that given to the Jews from the Bondage of Egypt that well might the day instituted in remembrance of their Deliverance give way to the day celebrated in Honour of our Redemption This change therefore was made by the Apostles immediately upon the Resurrection of our Lord and even before his Ascension and so no doubt by his personal Direction and Approbation For all the religious Assemblies we find of them both before and after his Ascension were upon the first day of the Week That so as the Jews acknowledged their belief in God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and manifested their Worship of that God who brought them out of Egypt by Solemnizing for ever that Seventh day in which he brought them out So we Christians should declare that we worship the same God the Creator of the World by celebrating one day in seven and also manifest that we worship him in and through Jesus Christ by Sanctifying for ever that Seventh day upon which the great and last Act of our Redemption wrought by him was performed which is therefore in Scripture called the Lords Day Rev. I. 10. Farther as the particular Day of the weekly Festival of the Jews was determined by their Deliverance out of Egypt wrought upon the Seventh day so the far greatest of their Annual Solemnities was instituted in Commemoration of that Deliverance effected in the first Month of the year This God did institute by a special Command which was at large repeated to you in the first Lesson of this day And exacted the Observation of it with so great Rigour that he declared That Soul which did not keep this annual Feast should be cut off from Israel And can we imagine that God should require such eminent external Testimonies
uncontrouled Tyranny in the World He had withdrawn the far greatest part of Mankind from the worship of the true God and caused the worship of himself to become the publick Religion of all Nations except the Jews Even the Jews he had often seduced to Idolatry and Disobedience to the Divine Commands and had newly instigated them to imbrue their hands in the Blood of their Messias All these enormous Crimes this continued Rebellion against God and particularly the last and greatest the Death of Christ did require from the Judge of all the World a severe Punishment which is therefore called Judgment in the Text because a Sentence proceeding from the Rules of Justice This Sentence was to be executed under the Gospel of Christ as we are told above in the XII 31. Now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out The Execution of it was to be performed by the Preaching of the Gospel which should destroy the Powers of Hell free Men from the Captivity of Sin and withdraw the World from the Worship of Devils This to those proud Spirits was the sharpest Punishment which could possibly be inflicted and this was begun by the Mission of the Holy Ghost and carried on and compleated by the Gifts and Graces derived down and continued to the Church from his blessed Influence From the Blessings of this day it was that the Apostles received Abilities and Courage to preach the Gospel to the uttermost parts of the Earth to beat down the strong holds of Sin to ruin the power of Satan to turn Men to the Knowledge and Obedience of God From the Continuation of these Blessings the Church hath been always defended from the secret and open Assaults of these infernal Spirits the Governors and Ministers of the Church have been enabled to preach the Truth and discharge their Office successfully and all the Members of the Church have been established in the Faith and supported against all the Temptations of wicked Spirits So eminently did God upon this day exercise Judgment upon the Prince of this World that thenceforward his Kingdom continually decreased his Oracles were silenced his Altars abandoned his Worship relinquished his Disciples diminished until a glorious Church was founded in all parts of the Earth which by a solemn Engagement her Vow in Baptism professeth Enmity unto him Upon all these accounts did the Holy Ghost as a most faithful Advocate at his first Mission plead the Cause of Christ against his Adversaries whether the Devil or the Jews his Persecutors and upon the same accounts doth that blessed Spirit who was promised to remain with the Church till the end of the World and execute the Office of Advocate till the Consummation of all things still continue to plead the Cause of Christ against all his Enemies and that he should do so is highly requisite The Devil still assaults the Church by open Force or secret Temptations and to these the Holy Spirit opposeth his Gifts and Graces Infidels and Hereticks still profess Unbelief to the Doctrines of it and to these he opposeth the same Arguments of Conviction which were before manifested to have proceeded from his Mission All these remain yet in their full force Lastly even in the bosom of the Church among the Professors of Christianity are many to be found against whom it is necessary that the Holy Spirit should still plead the Cause of Christ which they discredit by their Sins and blaspheme by their Lives crucifying afresh the Lord of life and putting him to an open shame In that no less guilty than all those Enemies of Christ which the Holy Ghost at his first Mission was to convince For did the Jews disbelieve the Doctrine of Christ before the undeniable Confirmation added to it in the Mysteries of this day These Men by their Actions proclaim their Unbelief even after the Reception of this Confirmation Did the Spirit of God take so much pains to manifest the unerring Justice of God in the distribution of Rewards and Punishments After all these Men live insensible of either slighting his Rewards and defying his Punishments Did Christ come into the World and die a painful Death Did God exert his Power in so many Miracles Did the Holy Spirit descend as upon this day to put an end to the Empire of the Devil These Men by Perseverance in Sin endeavour to re-establish it in the World and do effectually restore it in their own Souls Justly therefore may this Eternal Advocate implead these Men before the last Tribunal I have conveyed the Knowledge of the true God even to these Sinners I have convinced them of the Truth of the Christian Faith at least they will pretend themselves to have been convinced I have nourished this Knowledge by causing the Holy Scriptures to be writ for their Edification I have endeavoured the Improvement of it by the constant Exhortation of those my Officers which I have settled in the Church I have assisted it by the grant of all necessary Graces as often as desired yet notwithstanding all this they have lived as if they knew not of it much less as if they were convinced of it All my Graces and Sollicitations of them have produced no other effect than to render their Sin the more hainous in that they have wilfully disobeyed my Commands slighted my Directions contemned my Exhortations and stifled my Motions All false Perswasions which might betray them to Sin and Disobedience I have long since corrected If they imagine the Disbelief or which is all one the Neglect of my Doctrines to be no hainous Crime I have long since convinced the World of Sin If they fancy God not to be an unerring and infallible Judge in the Dispensation of Rewards and Punishments I have long ago reproved the World of Righteousness If they pretend the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil to be irresistable I have long since judged the prince of this world taken away his Kingdom and limited his Power These then are the most criminal Enemies of the Name of Christ who being by me convinced of their Duty to obey his Laws refused to perform them who serving under his banner and kindly intreated by him deserted his Service and delivered up themselves to his and their own Enemy from whose Tyranny I had before freed them What then shall we plead in behalf of our selves at that dreadful day Shall we alledge want of Conviction That we pretend not to or if we should the Holy Ghost hath by the Wonders and Benefits of this day effectually confuted that pretence Shall we say that we believed not God to have been in earnest when he allured us with Rewards or threatened us with Punishments That Plea is removed by the Assertion of the Righteousness of God made upon this day Or shall we excuse our selves with want of extraordinary Assistances and Graces of the Holy Spirit enabling us to perform our Duty and overcome
that there is no Duty so difficult which they would not practise no Pleasure so grateful which they would not Renounce if God would satisfie their Doubts raise their Attention and awaken their Thoughts by some extraordinary Admonition or Operation such as the working of a Miracle or sending one from the Grave to assure them of the reality of another State from his own Experience That Men should make such Pretences for their Irreligion is no wonder sin appears odious and ugly to all even at the first Sight and ever wants some Cloak to hide its Deformity or that their Curiosity should prompt them to such unreasonable Fancies is not strange The Desires of Men are wanton and 't is not the Body alone that hath irregular Lusts attending it It is only to be admired that Men should not easily discover the Vanity of this Pretence for the discovery of which our Lord hath plainly marked out the way to us in this excellent Parable wherein the Example of a rich voluptuous Man is proposed to us either disbelieving or at least putting far from him the Thoughts of another Life and therefore busying himself wholly in the Pleasures of this World On the other side we have a poor despised and afflicted Man who in prospect of the Rewards of another Life patiently endured the Afflictions of this Then the event of this different Conduct is proposed to us the one translated to the bosom of Abraham that is either to an eminent Station in Heaven as some expound it or to a Condition of Peace and Tranquility as others The other condemned to a State of Torments to a Punishment so rigorous that therein even the most inconsiderable Refreshment would appear to him the greatest Happiness and that altho' received by the means of one whom he had formerly so much contemned desiring only that Lazarus might be sent to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool his tongue He now becomes sensible of the certainty of those different States after Life which he had before either disbelieved or not considered The Rewards of good Men he finds in Lazarus whom he seeth afar off in Abrahams bosom The Punishments of bad Men he experienceth in himself and to compleat his Misery is assured from Abraham that the State of each is wholly unalterable an unpassable gulf being fixt between them In this miserable Condition he cannot but reflect upon his own unhappiness his incessant Pains will not permit him to lay aside those Thoughts and then it is but natural to recal to Mind and bewail the Causes of it He remembers that all which now befalls him had been indeed foretold unto him but that himself had not while alive entred into a serious Consideration of it as not being favoured with any extraordinary Admonition which might strike his Thoughts and fix them to a serious reflection on his Duty The Conscience of his own Misery maketh him desirous that none dear unto him should fall into the same Calamity and then judging that what had been the occasion of his unhappiness might also become their Ruin the disbelief or inconsideration of a future State he desireth to prevent it begging of Abraham to send Lazarus from the dead to his five brethren to testifie unto them least they also come into this place of torment But in return to this he is told that his desire is unreasonable since God hath provided an ordinary means for their Instruction They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Ver. 29. and that even altho' granted it would be unsuccessful For if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead The Parable was spoken to the Jews to whom nothing was expresly revealed concerning the Rewards or Punishments of another Life So that it may be admired how Abraham could remit the Brethren of Dives to Moses and the Prophets for Satisfaction in this Matter when Moses and the Prophets have nothing express concerning it To this we may answer That the opinion of future Rewards and Punishments was at that time universally entertained among the Jews and that drawn from the Law of Moses and Writings of the Prophets and inspired Men by Interpretations generally received among them Their Scribes and Doctors to whom our Saviour sends the People for Instruction and from whom they received without scruple the Explication of their Law resolved all the Promises and Threats of God into this Sense so that those to whom our Lord spoke made no doubt but that all this was to be learned from Moses and the Prophets and that it might be indeed deduced by just Inference we may be satisfied from that Argument of our Saviour wherewith he convinced the Sadducees and on which the Author of the Hebrews so largely insisted after him the not performing of any extraordinary Benefits to the Patriarchs in this Life by God after the bestowing of very ample and magnificent Promises of Rewards upon them Whence it infallibly followed that since God was true and could not be false to his Promise he reserved the performance of it to another Life But we need not go so far to justifie this Expression of our Saviour since his Design in this place was not so much to treat of the Nature or certainty of Rewards or Punishments after Death as to confute the Pretence of those Sinners who in defence of their Sins alledged the want of extraordinary Conviction For since God had prepared ordinary means of Conviction and those abundantly sufficient for their designed end in vain were any extraordinary means desired Since if the Threats and Promises of God whether relating to this or another Life contained in the Writings of Moses and the Prophets if all the Arguments whereon the Truths of those Revelations were at first established could not engage Men to the Practice of their Duty could not induce them to the belief or desire of those Promises and to the fear of those Threats if this ordinary method of Conviction proved ineffectual neither would the extraordinary Attestation of the Divine Will by constant Miracles or of the consequences of it by the Apparition of deceased Men who had experienced them have any better Success In Prosecution therefore of our Lords design in these words I will shew I. That the Desire of extraordinary Conviction is unreasonable II. That such extraordinary means of Conviction would be unuseful and unsuccessful As to the First It is the Property not of God alone but of all rational Agents also not to Act in vain but always for some Cause and in Prosecution of some Design When therefore God hath ordained sufficient means for the Conviction of all Men in the ordinary methods of Salvation which he hath established it would be vain and trifling to practise extraordinary Methods since this could tend to no end every reasonable end being supplied by the ordinary Means and that the ordinary means doth supply the end
upon his constant Guard least he should at any time be surprized And surely a Surprize is hard to be avoided where so many passages must be guarded when the Enemy may enter in by the Senses or Imagination by the Operation of external Objects or the suggestion of internal Thoughts and all these as numerous and various as are the Objects from whence they proceed or about which they are imployed Scarce in the best of Men may we not discover some Passion predominant to the rest and which might he be allowed to indulge he would confidently undertake for the good Behaviour of all the rest But this Liberty Christianity denieth to him injoyneth him an universal Conquest of all his Passions a general performance of the whole Will of God forbids the Omission of any one Duty upon Pain of incurring the Guilt of all And this is truly so great a Difficulty that we need not seek any farther Reasons why the best Christians of all Ages are but hardly saved I proceed to the Difficulties peculiar to the latter Ages of Christianity and which more nearly concern us I will mention but two 1. The want of an universal Example and 2. The want of Miracles By these the ancient Christians converted the Heathen World and through want of these we are almost returned to Heathenism It could not but be a powerful Argument of Vertue to all ingenuous Men when they could not so much as retain the Character they had undertaken without a diligent Exercise of Piety when to be a vicious Christian was to be a Monster in the account of the World when Vice was a Singularity and Dissent from all others of the same Denomination Whereas in latter Ages the whole hath been inverted the Character universally retained without any regard to the Conditions of it A pious Christian must dissent in the Course of his Life from the greater part of the Christian World and Vertue is become a Singularity inasmuch as what cannot be sufficienty lamented many ingenuous Minds have been betrayed to sin to which otherwise they were not inclined least they should appear uncivil and morose And when unlawful Customs can acquire the Esteem of Civilities among Christians we cannot but confess an extreme Degeneracy of the true Spirit of Christianity It may truly be said of Examples in general that they have more influence upon the greater part of Mankind than Reasons or Arguments Men of ordinary Capacities such as make up the Body of Christendom take their measures of Christianity from the Practice of the Professors of it as Men do of the Laws of any Countrey from the Practice of the Courts of Justice and will hardly be perswaded that Christianity is so severe and serious a Matter when they perceive the far greater part of Christians trifle with it It is natural for Men to hope for impunity in a multitude to fall into impiety when no shame restrains them when a prevailing Example leads them As for Men of more raised Understandings it is impossible they should thus deceive themselves about the Obligation of their Religion yet even those escape not this universal Contagion they fear to be accounted singular are forced to dissemble and perhaps at last to stifle their Knowledge as not being able to withstand the force of such a mighty Torrent This Difficulty receives yet farther Aggravation if we reflect that it proceeds from our own Guilt that our selves are the Authors of it The Difficulties of the Apostolick Age were purely extraneous for which those Christians were not accountable They brought not their Persecutions upon themselves and their Sins committed before Conversion could not afterwards be justly imputed to them as Christians Whereas this disadvantage we now complain of is the Effect of our Sins committed in the Profession of Christianity to which every one of us have contributed somewhat and besides the internal Guilt of the Crime committed have upon that account increased our sin The Sense of which ought to be a Motive to us to endeavour by the Exemplariness of our future Conduct I will not say to remove this Difficulty and retrieve the glorious Example of former times for that can scarce be hoped but to compensate the Injury which we have done to the Christian Religion by our sinful Deportment The other disadvantage of the present Age which I mentioned the want of Miracles cannot indeed be ascribed to any Fault of ours nor yet be retrieved by us Yet a sensible disadvantage it must be acknowledged when we compare our selves with former times whose Faith and Zeal were constantly awakened kept up and enlivened by the frequent sight of Miracles which confirmed to them the Truth of what they had received the certainty of what they expected and the Power and the Favour of that God they worshipped But I wave the farther Consideration of this Difficulty because the removal of it is not in our Power Yet this use we may make of it to take occasion from it to reflect upon the infinite Goodness and most Wise Providence of God which hath so contrived the advantages and disadvantages of former and latter Ages that both of them have very near equal Assistances and Difficulties in the Prosecution of their Duty that so he might without derogation to his Justice perform what our Lord Promiseth in the Parable of the Housholder in the XX. of St. Matthew reward those whom he had called in the eleventh hour equally with those whom he had hired in the Morning who had born the heat and burden of the day which the Fathers generally expound of this very Case For now those whom he called first who underwent such grievous Afflictions and fierce Persecutions for the defence of the Faith cannot justly complain that we are equally rewarded with them who endured none of those Calamities The Church indeed in latter Ages hath enjoyed Peace and Quiet hath not maintained the Faith of Christ with the expence of her Blood so neither doth she enjoy those Miracles with the sight of which they were Blessed The remembrance of the eminent Example the Miracles and the Sufferings of our Lord were yet fresh in the minds of Men the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were every where Conspicuous the Apostles yet alive who spoke and writ by the immediate impulse of God and even after their death the same Gifts and Miracles were continued till Peace was given to the Church All these advantages we want which they enjoyed Peace and Security we have which was denied to them If we proceed in the Comparison we want also that glorious Example of universal Piety which shone forth in their Days But then on the other side we enter not upon the Profession of Christianity with the same Prejudices and Habits of Vice with which they did They felt not the mischief of an ill Example prevailing among Christians So neither did they enjoy the benefit of a Christian Education Thus God hath most wisely in all Ages made
his Enemies as well as Friends at that time The Soldiers sent to break his Legs while hanging on the Cross that so they might hasten his Death whom they supposed not yet to have expired found him already dead Joseph of Arimathea and the devout Women which followed him taking him down from the Cross laid him in his Grave being well assured that he was then Dead His Disciples who if any shew of Reason might be offered would not easily believe him dead from whom they then expected a temporal Kingdom yet were so far perswaded of it that at his first appearing to them they were affrighted and supposed they had seen a Spirit To these 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 set up in opposition to Christ had raised a certain Person 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 second Case the Heathen Historian confesseth that he dare not affirm that the Person was truly Dead Nor after his Resurrection was it less evident that Christ was truly alive invested with Soul and Body All the Actions of Life and Arguments of a real Body met in his He was seen by a great number of his Disciples who judged it to be such He eat and drank with them which proved his Body not to have been a meer Phantasm or Aerial Apparition He talked and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which demonstrated that Body to be indued with a rational Soul He appealed to their Sense of feeling commanded them to handle him said to unbelieving Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side which manifests that the Body which he then offered to that Tryal was that very Body which had suffered on the Cross and still retained the Print of the Nails and the Impression of the Spear That this same Body and Soul reunited was also joyned to the Divinity as before his Passion appeared from his many Miracles wrought after his Resurrection Thus we have a true proper and real Resurrection And that all these things were so we have the Testimony first of his own Disciples the Faith of whom although so nearly related to him cannot be called in question since they laid down their Lives in Confirmation of it Nor can it be imagined that any Men should die for the Testimony of what they knew to be false Of these the pious Women were first Blessed with the sight of him whether it were in Reward of their maintaining their Love and Fidelity to him when his Apostles had forsaken him or that they came into the Garden where the Sepulchre was immediately after the Resurrection and before he was yet departed out of it They saw him knew him and saluted him held him by the feet and worshipt him The Apostles being advertised of it by them hasted to see their Master and received not only a transient view of him but conversed with him for forty days together and by many infallible proofs were assured of the truth of it Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred at once and at last ascended up to Heaven in the presence of them all To the witness of Friends we will add the Testimony of his Enemies which in all Cases is allowed to be of great weight The Soldiers who were employed by the Jews to watch his Sepulchre plainly saw the Effects of Divine Power which accompanied his Resurrection although being astonished and confounded at such unusual Prodigies they did not well perceive it or perhaps were not suffered by their Fears to stay till Christ should proceed out of the Sepulchre They felt the Earthquake which removed the stone rolled to the mouth of the Sepulchre they saw the countenance of an Angel like lightning and his raiment white as snow upon which they did shake and became as dead Men and coming into the City shewed to the chief Priests all the things that were done as we read Matth. XXVIII II. The Angels and heavenly Hosts had before joyned with Men in celebrating the Nativity of Christ and they here concurred in witnessing his Resurrection The Women coming to the Sepulchre betimes in the Morning presently after the Resurrection and looking for the Body of their beloved Lord in the Sepulchre found there two Angels in white sitting one at the head the other at the feet where the Body of Jesus had lain who said to them why seek ye the dead among the living he is not here he is risen come see the place where the Lord lay Lastly If we should imagine both his Friends and Enemies the report of Sense oft-times repeated to have been deceived in the Opinion of his Resurrection God hath been pleased to confirm the Truth of it and to set his Seal to it This he hath done not only by his Holy Spirit comforting enabling and encouraging the Apostles in Preaching the Mystery of Christ's Refurrection but also in confirming their Testimony with concurrent Miracles As it is Acts IV. 33. With great power gave the Apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus They openly affirmed it upon their own Knowledge and then in Proof of the truth of their Affirmation wrought Signs and Miracles which to the Spectators did as fully evince the Truth of the Relation as if they had seen it done with their own Eyes since it was impossible that God should exert his omnipotent Power in working Miracles for the Attestation of a Lye Thus much for the reality I proceed in the second place to the II. Manner of the Resurrection expressed in those words having loosed the pains of death which are variously interpreted some maintaining that they imply only a Deliverance from Death and rescue from the Grave others that they point out the dolorous Sufferings by which our Lord was brought to the Grave and raising him up to a state opposite to that Humiliation a third sort understanding by them a Destruction of the Power and Dominion of Death All these Opinions are supported with great Reasons nor will it here be proper to enter into a strict Examination which of them rather is to be embraced They are all rational Consonant to the Design of the Apostle and Significative of the manner of Christ's Resurrection I will therefore apply them all The first Opinion includeth only a Deliverance from Death that is a reunion of Soul and Body separated by Death In which Sense it chiefly referreth to the words of David and the Promises made to him here alledged by the Apostle David had been often brought
his Justice and at the same time to defraud oppress and injure to own his Goodness and at the same time to deny Compassion to his Creatures made in his own Image to intercede with him for new Benefits and employ those already granted in opposing his Authority to acknowledge the having received Life and Being from him and not to yield him any Service for it to confess his unlimited Knowledge and Presence and therewith retain secret Resolutions of sinning All these are as hainous Provocations as the Soul of Man can possibly form all yet are the necessary Consequence of Praying with impure Hearts and Minds and all yet receive this farther aggravation that they are performed in the immediate Presence of God that is in Prayer Such are the universal Reasons of lifting up holy hands in Prayer but to those who profess Belief in Christ there is a peculiar Reason no less weighty than the former Namely that the Efficacy of our Prayers consists in our Relation to Christ and are granted merely for his Sake and through his Merits which is acknowledged in the Conclusion of all Christian Prayers and if our selves should not acknowledge it yet the Scripture would abundantly inform us that he is our only Mediator and that in him and through him all good things are derived from God to us No Christian therefore hath any other Title to the Favour of God than his Relation to his Lord and Master the Son of God which Relation cannot consist without intire Obedience to his Laws and Doctrines which are all directed to promote Purity Justice and Holiness The want of these Conditions breaks off the Relation between Christ and Man who then in vain supplicates in the name of Christ when by disobedience he ceaseth to be his Disciple He may plead the Merits of the Death of Christ to be All-sufficient but himself hath no share in them he may fly to the Mercy Seat but will find no High Priest to intercede for him who by his Sins hath cast off the Yoke of Christ and even Crucified him afresh and put him to an open Shame II. The Second Condition of Prayer is that it be offered up without wrath that is without Malice or Hatred which is no other than Anger grown inveterate The Passion of Anger is indeed no less unlawful to those that apply themselves to Prayer but that is not so much respected by the Apostle in this place because it is scarce credible that while the heat of that Passion continueth any one should be disposed to Pray While that Commotion of the Spirits which attendeth Anger lasteth the Mind can attend to nothing else and cannot direct its thoughts and desires to God in Prayer so that during that time it is not only impious but unnatural to undertake it In Prayer the Soul ought to engage its whole strength and intention and offer them up to God which it cannot do when the Affections of it are divided between Prayer and Anger It ought at the same time to compose it self in a sedate and quiet Disposition to receive the Communications of the Divine Presence and Favour which it cannot do while disordered by any Passion Which Reason will also make Prayer unbefitting and Devotion in Prayer impossible not only in the heat of Anger but also in such an Hatred as by Reason of the violence of it continually employeth the Passions of the Mind especially where the person hated is present to it and alloweth to it no intervals of Calm and Quiet until it be either satisfied with Revenge or expireth with long time Such a degree of Hatred is a constant uninterrupted Anger which for the former Reason excludeth all possibility of Prayer during the continuance of it But such a Degree is monstrous the most ordinary Case of Hatred alloweth frequent Intervals of Serenity to the Mind frets not the thoughts continually and hath this immediate effect only that whensoever the Memory of it doth return or the Causes upon which it was first founded are recalled to Mind either Resolutions or Desires of Revenge are conceived and a Purpose formed of not forgiving Even this moderate and most ordinary Case of Hatred rendereth the Soul unfit for Prayer and always defeateth the Success of it For in Prayer if directed and conceived aright Man is supposed to resign up his Affections and Faculties intirely to the Disposition of God to acknowledge him to be the supreme Judge of the World and Lord of all But he who nourisheth Hatred in his Mind on the contrary neither resigneth up himself nor confesseth the Dominion of God For that very Affection he retaineth in opposition to his Will and by seeking or desiring Revenge he maketh himself a Judge of the Merits of other Men and the measure of the Punishment due to the Malice of their supposed Injuries and thereby invades the Office and usurps the Authority of God who if he be indeed the supreme Lord and Judge of all hath the only right to exercise such a Judgment This Confession therefore of Subjection and Self-resignation which is so necessary in Prayer cannot consist with Hatred And indeed the Sense of a Prayer joyned with Hatred can be no other than this Lord I resign up my self to thy disposal but will not commit my Cause to thy Decision I devote my Affections and Faculties to thy Service but will not quit my hatred for thy command I acknowledge thee to be the Sovereign Lord and Judge of all Mankind but reserve to my self a right to judge and punish by Revenge my Enemy who yet is my equal and thy subject So absurd incongruous and repugnant are the thoughts and Petitions of a malicious Soul compared together as do not only justly defeat the Success of the Petition but also deserveth an eminent Punishment for daring thus to collude with God But the chief Reason of the inconsistency of Hatred with Prayer is yet behind Namely the institution of God who may justly affix whatsoever Condition himself pleaseth to his own Favours And to the assurance of Success in Prayer he hath above all other Qualifications pre-required Freedom from Envy Hatred and Malice and forgiveness of Injuries This he hath commanded to be done before any Act of Worship and especially that solemn one of Prayer be paid to himself as in Matth. V. 23. If thou bring thy Gift to the Altar and there remembrest that thy Brother hath ought against thee Leave there thy Gift before the Altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy Brother and then come and offer thy Gift He hath made this the indispensable Condition of Pardon to Mankind Forgive that ye may be forgiven For if ye forgive Men their Trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if not neither will your Father forgive your Trespasses Matth. VI. 14. He hath inserted this Condition into that Prayer which he hath given both as a Form and as a Pattern to all Christians Forgive us our
the Miscarriage of either if it concerns matters of Obedience to himself or of ordinary Duty In which case it is no less Fatal or Criminal to pervert the Understanding than to corrupt the Will and then to plead Ignorance or a mistaken Conscience will be no more allowed than to plead Drunkenness for Crimes committed in that absence of right Reason There is not in all History a more enormous Sin to be found than the Infidelity of the Jews and the Crucifixion of their Messias by them none so severely branded in Scripture or punished with so remarkable a Judgment in this Life Yet our Saviour hanging on the Cross declared that those his Persecutors knew not what they did And altho' he then out of the abundance of his Charity interceded for their Pardon yet the Justice of God would not grant it much less continue to them the former Favours of Heaven And such would have been the visible and publick Preaching of Christ after his Resurrection Farther the Honour of God was engaged herein nor was it agreeable to the Divine Majesty that the Person of Christ after his Resurrection should be exposed to the publick view of the Nation of the Jews Reason did require and all the Prophets had foretold that the Messias should pass through a double State that is of Humiliation and Glory In his State of Humiliation before his Death he had undergone all the Miseries Ignominies and Calamities to which humane Nature is subject He was pressed with the want of the Necessaries of Life was afflicted with the Insults Provocations and Injuries of the Jews was delivered up into the Hands of wicked Men to be treated at their Pleasure To these meritorious Sufferings was to ensue a State of Glory wherein Christ should be placed far above the Rank and the Power of mortal Men should be exempted from the infirmities of Nature and enter upon an everlasting Kingdom This State of Exaltation was begun in his Resurrection perfected by his Ascension and continued without interruption to all Ages It was not then agreeable to the Divine Honour that the Sacred Body of the ever Blessed Jesus now exalted to a State of Glory should be again subjected to the Attempts and Persecution of the Jews That it should be exposed to the rage of Men and reduced to his former mean Condition Yet all this could not have been avoided if Christ had appeared publickly among the People after his Resurrection The same Hatred and Persecution would have returned unless he had pleased by a Miracle to rescue his Body from their Attempts A Miracle indeed was no less easie to his Almighty Power than any other ordinary Operation Yet the Honour of God is concerned not to work Miracles but for great Reasons and the Impiety of that People deserved not to have a Miracle conferred on them Or had Christ appeared openly among them even altho he could have been secured from their Persecution it must either have been in his former meek and humble Habit and as such they would have despised him or what they greedily expected as a glorious Prince armed with Power and temporal Greatness and that was contrary to his Design who declared his Kingdom not to be of this World Nor in this respect only was the publick appearing of Christ after his Resurrection contrary to his Design for which he came into the World To have then publickly manifested himself for this purpose to have removed the incredulity of the Jews and convinced them of the Truth of his Mission would have been to have continued his Prophetical Office after his Crucifixion For therein did his Prophetical or Ministerial Office consist in declaring the Will of God in preaching of Repentance in converting of Sinners This Office was to expire with his Life and after his Resurrection his State of Glory and therewith his Regal Office was to commence Upon which account himself when ready to expire upon the Cross said It is finished All the parts of his Ministerial Office were now fully compleated not to be personally renewed again He had performed all that the Divine Wisdom had determined to be effected by him in Person towards the Conversion and Salvation of the World the rest he was to commit to his Apostles and their Successours Himself was no longer to remain in the form of a Servant which he had taken on him but entring upon his Kingdom to govern that Church which he by his former Preaching and Death had founded I proceed to the second Proposition namely II. That even if Christ after his Resurection had appeared and conversed Publickly it would yet have failed to produce an universal Conviction and remove all Doubts This is undeniably manifest in respect of our selves for whom we are most concerned and of all Ages subsequent to that time For allowing that the whole Nation of the Jews had been ocular Witnesses of the Resurrection of Christ yet all other Persons both of that and all succeeding Ages would have had no other Proof than what we now have that is the Testimony of those who saw him after his Resurrection All others even in that case would have equally wanted the Demonstration of Sense and must have depended upon the Relation of others So that all the certainty which any can have of Matters seen and related by others we have unless we imagine that five hundred cannot as certainly judge of a plain Matter of Fact as so many millions And even if so many millions had seen it we should not have expected that every one should severally commit it to writing and so testifie it to us we must still have relied upon the Testimony of some few Historians and that in this case we have So that notwithstanding the number of ocular Witnesses was then confined to five hundred we who were not Blessed with that Sight have the same Evidence of it as if all the Members of Mankind then living had seen it Whatever force therefore the Objection might have in that Age it hath none in ours We have sufficient Arguments offered to us to prove the Truth of it equal and even Superiour to those upon which we believe the Truth of any Matter of Fact which our selves did not see And if we reject these Arguments it is not probable that even Demonstration would move us if it could be had For whatever Men may pretend in excuse of their Infidelity it is most certain that he who will not believe what is proposed to him upon reasonable altho ' but probable Motives will not even yield to Demonstration if the Truth proposed opposeth his Lusts and Passions And this indeed is the true cause of all those Doubts which unreasonable Men produce in defence of their unbelief It would be too gross and shameless to assign the true Cause and alledge that they will not submit to the Yoke of Religion because it checks their Vices restrains their Lusts forbids the Gratification of many beloved Passions They
Miracle wrought by him was yet present to confess he came in the Flesh while his Body was yet visible to acknowledge his Resurrection from the Dead when the Senses of every Man proclaimed no less all this would have been so slight an Argument of the right use of Reason so little deserving any Commendation or Reward that it would be no more than the necessary result of the Faculties and even not in the Power of the Will to avoid But when the Object is removed from the Sense and yet discovered by Reason when the Eye doth not see what the Affections still embrace when the Soul ceaseth not to hope upon probable and just Motives what it never received by Demonstration of Sense this is indeed a noble Act of right Reason worthy of a spiritual Being and worthy of a Divine Reward And such a Reward hath our Lord annexed to it pronouncing Joh. XX. 29. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed This Blessedness Christ by his Ascension hath communicated to the whole Church which without that had wanted the Qualification of a rational and well grounded Faith to acquire the Favour of God Further the Ascension of our Lord and therein his Exaltation to the supreme Degree of Glory was in Justice due to his precedent meritorious Sufferings which are therefore assigned as the cause of his Exaltation by St. Paul Phil. II. He made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant c. wherefore God also hath highly exalted him c. The Humility manifested by him in his Incarnation in the whole Course of his Life and in his Passion infinitely surpassed all the Examples of former times That the Son of God should vouchsafe to descend from his Seat of Glory in Heaven to leave the Bosom of the Father and cloath himself with the Infirmities of humane Nature that in this Nature he should not take upon him the Majesty of a Prince nor so much as allow himself the ordinary Satisfactions and Pleasures of it but live an afflicted Life and die a shameful Death and all this for his own Creatures who far from deserving such a Favour from him had rebelled against him from their Creation would lay violent hands upon themselves and continue their Contempt of his Authority till the Dissolution of all things this was such an extraordinary Humiliation that none other but the Son of God could have effected And therefore was in Justice to be Crowned with such a Reward as none but the Son of God could receive namely that that Body which had been thus depressed should be raised above all Creatures should be placed above Angels and Archangels should be advanced to the immediate Presence of God should for ever remain united to the Divine Nature and therewith be translated into the principal Seat and Throne of the Deity that is into Heaven Lastly To name no more Reasons it was necessary for Christ to ascend into Heaven that so he might fulfill all righteousness perform all which the ancient Prophets had foretold of the Messias or he had denounced of himself It was long since Typified by the Ceremonies used by the High Priest among the Jews in the Day of Propitiation which represented the Final Attonement to be made by Christ for the Sins of the World It was commanded by God that the High Priest should enter but once every year into the Holy of Holies that is upon that Day when with the Blood of the Sacrifice he passed thro' the Tabernacle and the parts of it into that place It was a received Opinion among the Jews that the Holy of Holies represented the Heaven of Heavens and the Tabernacle this visible World From which Opinion joyned with the legal Ceremonies of that day it appeared as the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews argueth IX 11 12. That the High Priest of the good things to come by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands was to enter into the holy place having obtained eternal Redemption for us That he should lay down his Life as an Expiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of the People and being slain should pass thro' all the Stages of this World here below and ascending into the highest Heavens the Throne of the Divine Majesty should there present his Blood Blood of that inestimable value as need not be shed and presented every year but as he once appeared in the lower World to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself so once for all he ascended into the higher Heavens not to appear again until he shall come in the Clouds with Majesty and great Glory to judge the quick and Dead The same was fortold by the Prophet David Psal. LXVIII 18. and from thence urged by St. Paul Ephes. IV. 8. Thou hast ascended up on high into Heaven as it is in the common Acceptation of the Original word thou hast led Captivity Captive thou hast received Gifts for Men. A Prophesie which notwithstanding all the Pretences of the Jews can neither be applied to Moses nor to Joshua nor to David himself nor to any illustrious Conqueror of that Nation who never ascended into Heaven but to Christ alone who really and bodily ascended into the highest Heaven unto the Throne of the Majesty of God By his Death and Resurrection he subdued Sin Death Hell and the Devil and in his Ascension visibly triumphed over them and led them Captive When that Body which by the Sacrifice of it self had destroyed Sin was in Reward of that meritorious Suffering advanced into Heaven there to be continually present with God when that Body which had been subjected to Death and afterwards was raised from it received now a certain Proof of its Immortality was raised into Heaven where is no place of Corruption left when the Captain of Man's Salvation visibly ascended unto the eternal Place of Happiness having first Promised to draw all his faithful Followers after him and from whence he dispensed the precious and glorious Gifts of the Holy Ghost to the Sons of Men. If these Prophesies and Types foretelling and prefiguring the Ascension of the Messias should seem obscure yet it cannot be denied that the Messias was to receive a glorious Kingdom This we are well assured the Nature of our Lords Office the Design of his Coming the Dignity of his Person permitted him not to receive on Earth and therefore it was necessary he should ascend into Heaven there to take Possession of it It had been a mean Reward to his Humility Patience and Sufferings preceding his Resurrection to have been advanced to a temporal Kingdom to be dignified with a Reward common oft-times to the worst of Men. The greatness of this World was inconsistent with his Design the Pleasures of it were contemned by him and that Divinity which was no longer to be clouded or depressed but to shine forth in its full Lustre could find no fit Habitation upon Earth which in