will also appear in Person to our Salvation because he hath by the same Resurrection overcome Death which was the Punishment of Sin The Conquest of that was a sufficient Declaration that Sin hath lost its Power over those who by obedient belief on his Name are made one Body with him They may be satisfied that it can no more hold them for ever in its Chains than it could him whose Members they are And consequently that their Sins of which Death as I said was the Punishment are certainly cancelled and blotted out so that they may comfortably wait upon God for his Son from Heaven whom he hath raised from the Dead even Jesus which delivers us from the wrath to come 1 Thess 1. 10. Whereas if he had not risen from the Dead we could have had no assurance no not by his Death and Passion of Remission of Sin Because there would have been no Proof that the Punishment of it viz. Death was taken away without which we cannot be said to be forgiven No St. Paul openly professes 1 Corinth XV. 17. If Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your Sins They are not remitted that is but we are still liable to undergo the Punishment of them It is not apparent that we shall be acquitted and freed from that Obligation to suffer the Punishment of Sin unless we believe Christ's Resurrection He made indeed a new Covenant in his Blood which promises Remission of Sin But what Assurance can we have that his Blood is accepted with God for this End and that Christ hath Power to make good his Promise to pardon our Sins to release us from the Punishment of them by delivering us from Death and from the Wrath to come if he be not risen from the Dead None at all but as St. Paul there asserts just before v. 15. If Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain We have no ground to publish nor you to receive such great things as we promise unless we are as sure of this as we are that Christ died Therefore this was absolutely necessary to be established and settled in the Minds of Believers by all the Labour and Pains the Apostles could take that as Christ was delivered for our Offences they are the Words of the same St. Paul IV Rom. ult so he was raised again for our justification But further I must add that IV. Fourthly The Resurrection of Christ was necessary to be established in Mens Belief and in their Remembrance because it was the verification of the whole Gospel the great Proof of all that Christ had taught his Diciples the Christian Religion in an Epitome The Doctrine of Christ in one word Which is the ground of that Speech of the Apostle X. Rom. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved This he makes to be the Summ of Christian Belief because he that was perswaded of this and openly acknowledged it must unavoidably believe and own the whole Gospel The truth of which Christ sealed by his Blood and God the Father sealed by raising him from the Dead Which assured all that believed it there was no other way to Life and Happiness but that alone which the Lord Jesus who is the way the truth and the life had delivered And a far greater Testimony this was which God gave to the Gospel than had been given to the Law of Moses for after he was buried we hear no more of him till our Saviour saw him in the holy Mount together with Elias where they discoursed with him of his glorious decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Moses indeed wrought Miracles he heard Voices from Heaven there were Appearances of Angels to him upon some Occasions his Face shone as our Saviour's did when he was transfigured But as most of these were more frequent and all of them more glorious in the giving of the Gospel so besides them all the Author of it rose from the Dead as he said he would to prove that God who had sent Prophets before had now sent his Son to publish his Will unto the World If we believe this then we are obliged and there is no way to avoid it to entertain all his Doctrine to lay to Heart his Commands to take upon us his Yoke and submit our selves to the Government of his Laws and that as we hope to obtain remission of Sins and eternal Bliss which are promised to none but the Obedient On the contrary Tribulation and Anguish Indignation and Wrath are threatned to all those that do Evil which the Resurrection of Christ assures us he will not fail to inflict upon them And here it will be fit to observe these two things which are very manifest First That the Resurrection of Christ most evidently proved that no Man was bound any longer to observe any Laws formerly in force which are not contained in the Law of the Gospel But Secondly That we are all thereby necessarily and indispensably tied strictly to observe this Law which Christ hath laid upon us I. First I say it proved the Dissolution of all former Laws though of God's own making and solemnly delivered by Moses unto the Jewish Nation Who were very hard to be perswaded that they needed no longer to trouble themselves with those carnal Ordinances which required them to make a difference of Meats to wash their Bodies after several Defilements to wear only a certain kind of Garment and offer such Sacrifices as Moses prescribed which were a very heavy burden to them but only give up themselves to Christ to be ruled by his easie and gentle Laws of Temperance and Chastity Meekness and Humility Justice and Charity being ready to do good and to forgive as well as to worship God in Spirit and in Truth For unto this the Jews objected that God had made a Covenant with their Fathers by the Ministry of Moses requiring such Observances And that they could not absolve themselves from that Bond which they had received by being circumcised but stood in dread of being cut off as the Law threatened if they did not receive that Obligation by Circumcision to observe the whole Law of Moses Unto which the Apostle St. Paul gives satisfaction after this manner VII Romans beginning a Law as you all know who are bred up under the Discipline of the Law can have dominion over a Man no longer than he lives under that Law As for example a married Woman cannot be bound by the Law to her Husband any longer than he lives If he die she is so loose from her Husband that though while he lived she could not honestly marry another man yet he being dead she may give her self in marriage to another person and be no Adulteress This is the sense of the three first Verses of that Chapter To which the Jews might
Thieves And whose Life was not valued by the wise Men of their Nation so much as the Life of a seditious Murderer The Gentiles also thought this Foolishness a meer sottish Humour of some dull People to addict themselves to the Service of a Man that hung upon a Gibbet and there made a most shameful End And so they might have thought still if it had not been for his Resurrection which took away this Scandal and made it appear that it was no Folly nor Disgrace to honour one whom God had most highly honoured above all other Men. His Glory now shone the brighter because the most base ignoble and infamous Death of all others could not obscure it He appeared now like this Sun which after it hath been a while wrap'd up in a very thick Cloud breaks forth with the greater Splendor This therefore was to be asserted and firmly setled because it advanced him above all other Law-givers whatsoever who still lie in their Tombs if their Ashes have not been long ago scattered into the Air and blown no body knows whether They have a Memory indeed in Story but it is that they are dead and have no Authority now to demand Obedience to their Laws This exalts our Blessed Lord and Saviour above the greatest Kings and Conquerors that ever have been in the World who after all their Atchievements over others were at last utterly defeated by Death and so vanquished as never to recover their Thrones any more Search after the Sepulchres of all the Caesars read their Inscriptions if there be any remaining and that which seems to raise their Names and to make them great in truth depresses them and lays them low since after the loftiest Titles upon their Monuments they confess them to to lie buried underneath Hic jacet terrarum Dominus Here lies the Lord of all the Earth was the highest Stile wherein the goodliest Monuments of Earthly Monarchs could speak But our Saviour's Tomb spake another Language or rather the Angels of God told his Disciples when they came to visit it Surrexit non est hic He is risen he is not here Why seek ye the living among the Dead XVI Mark 6. XXIV Luk. 5. He is Caelorum Dominus the Lord of the Heavens as well as of the Earth whether you shall see him ascend and there he shall live for evermore This great Lord never ceases to reign He hath no Successor in his Kingdom But as God himself sitteth King for ever and ever Which when the Nations of the World heard and it was substantially prov'd how could they chuse but say notwithstanding the Scandal of the Cross as they do in the Book of the Revelation Who would not fear thee O LORD thou King of Saints who would not glorifie thy Nome for thou only art Holy or Sacred Thy Throne O God as it is else where is for ever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter Thou lovest Righteousness and hatest Iniquity therefore God even thy God hath anointed thee with the oyle of gladness above thy Fellows that is raised him above all the Kings that ever were Thus with respect to Christ himself we ought to commemorate his Resurrection with the greatest Joy as I might show if it were not time to proceed to the other Particulars because it was in Order to his own Advancement to the Throne of Glory as the Reward of his ignominious Sufferings III. Thirdly As his Resurrection did him more Honour than his Death had done him Disgrace so it proved likewise that by his Death he had given to God all the Satisfaction that he desired And therefore is most necessary to be firmly believed and stedfastly preserved in our Memories that we who do confess him may all rest assured that by his Blood which he shed upon the Cross for us he hath made a compleat Propitiation for the Sins of all the World He himself said before he died VI. Joh. 51. that he would give his Flesh for the Life of the World that is offer up his own Body unto God a voluntary Sacrifice to preserve us from eternal Death For he laid down his Life of himself as he professed X. Joh. 18. and without his Consent no Man had power to take it away And he truly laid it down as the Blood of the New Testament for the Remission of Sins as he likewise himself speaks just before his Death XXVI Mat. 28. Now if his Blood had not been an acceptable Sacrifice unto God upon this Account for which it was offered or if there had remained any thing more to be done which God required or expected from him for the Expiation of our Sins which was the End he tells us of his Sacrifice God would not have raised him out of his Grave For that was not only to acquit him of all the pretended Crimes for which the Jews unjustly condemned him But to free him also from the Iniquity of us â—â—l which the Lord as the Prophet speaks LIII Isa â— laid upon him and to declare Publickly to alâ—â—â—e World that he had received full Satisfactiâ—n for them and demanded no more Nay by his Resurrection God not only testified that his Blood was most Precious in his Sight and had obtained what he intended but also enabled him to go with it himself into the Heavens there to perpetuate this Sacrifice to the End of the World and by Virtue of it make Intercession for us For we are to look upon his rising again after he was slain to be in order to his doing just as the High-Priest under the Law did who taking the Blood which had been shed at the Altar on the great Day of Atonement carried it into the most Holy Place where the Glory of the LORD resided and there presented it unto him From whence if he came forth alive it was a final Declaration that God was well pleas'd with the Sacrifice and was at Peace with his People In like manner did our Blessed Lord and Saviour who is both our great High-Priest and also our expiatory Sacrifice after his Blood had been shed upon the Cross gather it up again at his Resurrection and go with it into the highest Heavens there to appear with it in the Presence of God for us And from thence hath already begun to bless us by sending the Holy Ghost to us as an undoubted Testimony that his Blood hath made the Atonement which he designed Whereof we shall be more assured at the consummation of all things when we shall see him come in Person out of the most Holy Place at the last Day and appear alive the second time without Sin unto Salvation IX Heb. ult But for the present it is Evident by his Resurrection and his sending the Holy Ghost which Tertullian well calls his Vis vicaria or his Power which supplies his Place till he come again that he hath fully expiated our Sins so as to obtain an Eternal Redemption for us and
reply True if we were no more bound to Moses his Law than a Wife is bound to her Husband when he is dead your Argument would be good But how doth it appear that the Law of Moses is dead as it supposes For if it be not dead we are still tyed to it by your own Confession Unto this the Apostle goes on to give satisfaction in the following Words v. 4. Wherefore my Brethren i. e. if you allow my Principle then thus I demonstrate your Obligation to the Law ceases ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye should be married to another even to him who is raised from the dead that ye should bring foâ—th fruit unto God In which Words he asserts that by the Death of Christ for that he means by his Body there was an end put to their Law From all Obligation to which they were as much released as a Wife is from her Husband when he is gone out of this World that 's the meaning of ye are become dead to the Law by the body of Christ for the whole Law of Moses depended upon their Sacrifices which all having respect to the Sacrifice of Christ his Body being offered up put a Conclusion to them which could have no effect if they continued them and demonstrated they had no Obligation to observe that Law But were left free now to subject themselves to a new Law which he calls being married to another and they might easily know whose Law that was even his who is raised from the dead They were really absolved from the Mosaical Religion by the Death of Christ's Body as much as a Wife is from her Husband when he is extinct But that which fully convinced them of it and moved them to embrace a New Religion was the Resurrection of that Body of Christ from the dead They could not have believed their Freedom and so none would have forsaken their old Discipline and betaken themselves to Christ if his Resurrection had not followed his Death which solidly proved the Efficacy of it to abolish the Law of Moses For this being established none could see any good Reason to adhere still to their former Rites and Ceremonies there being such a powerful Proof of the Authority of Christ to take them all away and settle a better way of living in their room which the Apostle calls bringing forth fruit unto God And as this was an Argument to perswade the Jews to forsake their Rites though appointed by God so it effectually prevailed with the Gentiles to renounce their idolatrous Worship as we read 1 Thess 1. 9 10. Ye know what manner of entrance we had unto you and how ye turned from Idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead c. We have all great reason so to do and to be exact and faithful in his Service looking upon our selves as most strictly tyed to the Observance of those Laws which are confirmed to be the Will of God by such a Demonstration as the Resurrection of him that gave them from the dead This evidently shews which is the other thing I mentioned II. That they are utterly inexcusable who break loose from the Laws of Christianity which hath excused us from all other Obligations For that very reason we are the more strictly bound to obey the Gospel because we are thereby absolved from the Law of Moses The Resurrection of Christ doth not more effectually prove for instance that the Sacrifices which he ordained and such like Rites are all abolish'd than it proves the indispensable Obligation that is upon us to offer unto God continually the Sacrifices which Christianity prescribes Which are principally these First The Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Heart truly grieved for our Sins past and sincerely resolved to do better for the time to come That is unfeigned Repentance which was ever necessary before that Law was given Secondly The Sacrifice of our own Body XII Rom. 1. That is of our selves to God which we must devote to him in Purity and Holiness Temperance and Soberness Meekness and Humility and such like Vertues which are infinitely more acceptable than all the Beasts in the World Thirdly The Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God XIII Heb. 15. who hath made us Partakers of his Grace in Christ which shews us the way to be more happy than we could possibly invent had we the whole World at will Fourthly The Sacrifice of all our Animosities and angry Resentments which must be intirely given up to God for this Reason Because Christ our Passover or Paschal Lamb is offered for us Therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth 1 Corinth V. 7 8. which was part of the Anthem yesterday For it is vain to pretend to love God if we hate one another The Praises we bestow upon him will signifie nothing if we jarr and quarrel among our selves This will spoil all the Melody of our Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs wherein at this Festival we laud his Holy Name Lastly The Sacrifice of Alms seems to be the chief of all which the Apostle would no more have us to forget than the Resurrection of Christ from the dead XIII Heb. 16. But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased He had been proving in the foregoing part of the Epistle that Christ being risen from the dead was not only gone into the Heavens but there made an high Priest at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the Heavens VIII 1. whereby he can by vertue of his Sacrifice once offered do that for us which the Priests of old could not by all the Sacrifices which they offered daily Bring us i. e. into that high and holy place by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh which he offered for us From whence he infers that as all Christians should hold fast their Profession with a true Heart and pure Conscience constantly induring with such a stedfast Faith as was in the ancient Worthies whatsoever God pleases Having Christ especially in their eye the author and finisher of our faith c. So he at last in the Conclusion of all presses the great Duty of Charity v. 1. of this XIIIth Chapter Let brotherly love continue Which he illustrates by some instances in the two following verses and then after some other instructions renews his Exhortation in these famous Words I have now mentioned But to do good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased And let me press the same Duty upon you before I proceed any further as both the Feast which we keep and the Place where we are assembled and the Occasion of our meeting