unto Cyrus Thou art my Shepherd accordingly Cyrus took order for gathering the scattered sheep of Israel for raising them up from a kind of Civil Death from Slavery to Freedom from Banishment to resettle them in their own Country But allowing this Interpretation of the Text in its first literal meaning it does not follow but a higher sense should be put upon the words the Fathers and learned Antients contend with one voice that Christ is here that his plenteous Redemption his gracious releasing us from the Death of sin his raising us to the Life of Grace of Righteousness and of Glory were prefigured and typified by that restauration and temporal deliverance of the Jews 'T is Christ whose going forth from the bosome of the Father into the World is said in my Text to be prepared as the Morning prepared of God by his ever-fixt and never-failing Decree by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God the very Days of Christ's Incarnation his Birth and his Resurrection were appointed set-days as certain to come as they were surely expected by those that waited for the consolation of Israel who should no more be disappointed in their expectation than those that lookt for the constant returns of the Morning-light and this Day of his was to be as the Morning as the Day-spring from on high to dispel the darkness by the presence of his Light to disperse the Fumes that from ignorance and sin with its mortal effects had so long clouded the minds of men to dilate and spread over all the World the influence of his heavenly Doctrine both of Grace and Glory and as he is likened to the Light so he is also set forth in my Text by that other great Blessing from Heaven upon Earth the Rain And he shall come unto us as the Rain so says the Psalmist He shall come down like the Rain into a Fleece of Wool so gentle so refreshing and so fructifying even as the drops that water the earth an Emblem of Christ that Isaiah delights to use Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness But there is something more implied in his Coming unto us as the latter and former rain unto the earth For in that part of the Earth the Holy Land that flow'd with milk and honey it was one of their Blessings that these Rains came at set-times and seasons not so uncertainly as in these Parts of the World but the former rain about the time of sowing their Seed the latter rain about this very time in the Spring And if Christ be there compared to that former Autumnal and this latter Easter Rain 't is easie from our own thoughts to draw out the parallel That He came like the former Rain at his holy Nativity and like the latter Rain at his new Birth for so His Resurrection is called and thus compared as well as His Eternal Generation The Dew of thy Birth is as the Womb of the Morning The Words being thus explain'd I may prosecute the Design of them either of these two ways as there are two methods of handling any Article of the Christian Faith for Example this of the Resurrection may be treated of either first in an Historical way considering the Matter of Fact it self that makes up the Article so in my Text this Matter of Fact is supposed that Christ revived after two days or was rais'd up again the third day Secondly The Article may be enquired into as it is a Mystery of Faith or as it contains the Effects the consequence of these great things that Christ either acted or suffered for us so the power of his Resurrection as St. Paul calls it is also set down in these words He shall revive us He shall raise us up again and we shall live in his sight He shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth But thirdly Here is an Obligation upon our parts or a Condition imposed upon us if we mean to reap advantage from this revealed Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection and ours then must these Principles be pursued extremely home and we must go on throughout the whole course of our lives to practise accordingly Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. First then I shall consider the Matter of Fact that makes up the Article of Faith as it is contained in this glorious Prophecy and in some others like it For the testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy says St. John the Apostle and it was a great and just Appeal that the Prophet Isaiah made against Idols and their false Prophets Shew the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that ye are Gods Now if ever things to come were plainly and distinctly shewed long before these so important Transactions relating to our Saviours Passion and Resurrection were written as with a Sun-Beam were translated out of Hebrew into Greek by the Command of a Heathen Prince but by Gods special Providence some Ages before their Completion Whose voice could it be if not his that was before David who spake it in his behalf They pierced my hands and my feet Who was so pierced but he with the Nails on his Cross I may tell all my Bones as it follows there Could there be a more proper description of that Distortion he suffered during his Extension upon the cursed Tree 'T is as narally painted out in Isai 25. another of the four Evangelists as I may call the four Great Prophets of the Old Testament And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim that the very Price should be set down beforehand the goodly price at which they valu'd him and what they should do with it Buy the Field of Bloud then that every circumstance of his Death should be so punctually foretold the very words they should contemptuously speak in the midst of his Passion He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he will have him The words stood a long time before where they stand now in the 22th Psalm the Passion-Psalm there you may also find the Souldiers parting his Garments among them and casting lots for his seemless Coat It looks more like a History than a Prophecy yet Greece from the Septuagint attests the words as well as does Judaea from the Original That there should be darkness over the earth and the Sun should not give its light they had warning of it Amos 8. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the earth in the clear day Why there were many Eclipses say the Jews Not one by their good favour when the Moon was at Full as it was always when they kept their Passover and yet this prodigious Darkness is witnessed by several Heathen Writers of
undoubted credit For the time when all this should come to pass that Messiah the Prince should be cut off and to make an end of transgression 't is so exactly set down in the Prophecy of Weeks in Daniel that I may call that Prophecy a persect Gospel The very time of Lent of fasting and mourning for our sins is expresly predetermined as I may say in the Prophecy of Zechariah chap. 12. ver 10 11. applied by the Apostle directly to the passion of our Lord They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the Valley of Megiddo But that mourning in Jerusalem certainly was for that excellent King Josiah an undoubted Type of Christ And since it is here foretold that the Church of Christ the true Jerusalem should so mourn for Christ as the Jews did for Josiah it follows forcibly That as the mourning for Josiah was an annual or yearly Solemnity so ours for Christ must be and so is our Good-Friday and indeed the whole Great Week as 't is usually styl'd before this Capital Feast in memory of his Resurrection As for his Resurrection it self what Prediction more plain and clear than the Text in the 16th Psalm on which St. Teter made his Sermon Acts 2. on which St. Paul preach'd Acts 13. Therefore my heart Christs heart was glad and my glory rejoyced my flesh also shall rest in hope for why Thou shalt not leave my soul in Hell neither shalt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Whoever can but say his Creed may in that Verse find most of the prime Articles of the Christian Faith the Death and Burial of Christ his Descending into Hell his rising again from the Dead to which if my Text be added After two days he will revive us in the third day he will raise us up then what is wanting in this Confession that we ought to believe as Fundamental in the Dectrine of the Resurrection Some indeed think themselves most learned when they can shew these Prophecies literally fulfill'd in the Types of Christ as this in David himself Be it so but yet says the Apostle David saw corruption implying strongly that it was applicable to David in so poor and so low a sense it could hardly be so applied that even according to the Letter as we say it was more truly as well as more gloriously accomplish'd in Christ the Son of David To tell you the worst thought that can arise in an unbelieving heart It has been thought by some or said at least That some Enthusiastick Spirits writ these strange things we call the Prophecies of the Old Testament and then some others either as much transported with devout Phancies or else far engaged in design to set up a new Divinity have adapted those Characters and alluded from these seeming Predictions to such and such Passages in the Life and Death of Christ which Passages either they really credited in pious ignorance or cunningly pretended to do so But if we consider how undeniably prov'd are these Matters of Fact in the Story of Christ that answer to those Prophecies then I hope all is firm then the Foundation of God is sure Now 't is too short an expression to say we have the same assurance of the truth of these things in the Life of Christ as of any thing in the Life of Alexander the Great whose Victories and Monarchy were foretold and show'd him in the Prophecy of Daniel had we none but Quintus Curtius and the other Heathen Writers of the Greek Story we had reason enough to believe there was such a Conqueror as Alexander because indifferent persons have recorded it such as liv'd so near his time they could not be deceived nor could they have any interest to deceive us this may create a Humane Faith that 't is morally impossible such a Matter of Fact should be false But we have more reason by far to give credit to things attested by such persons as are mightily concerned and engaged by their Party to gainsay them Now 't is the peculiar strength of the Christian Faith that two Parties which hate it most I mean the Jews and the Heathens do very strongly support it and prove it against their Wills For the Jews confess and contend that such Prophecies as these were left them nay the most learned Jewish Doctors Ancient and Modern interpret most of these Prophecies to concern their Messiah whom they expected to come and to suffer many things though not Death But then our other Adversaries the Heathens Celsus and Julian and the rest cannot but acknowledge many of Christ's Miracles though most unreasonably they impute them to his skill in some forbidden Arts And for those Miracles which they are loth to confess yet they dare not deny but his Followers dy'd to attest not only their constancy to such a belief for so have Jews and Heathens done but to attest such Matters of Fact as they had seen with their eyes as well as such Matters of Faith once delivered to the Saints and such Evidence as this impossible not to be true must be allow'd as sufficient to found a Divine Faith upon which the Church is built as upon a Rock and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against it For first I suppose that if Christ wrought such Miracles and rose from the Dead and gave his Apostles like power to raise the Dead then all that believe a God and his Providence must admit the whole Christian Faith For Miracles and especially raising the Dead are the Great Seals which God keeps in his own hands to set to his Truth when he sees occasion If the Devil himself were able to raise the Dead why has he never done so once at least after the Executioner has done his Office dextrously upon some one of his faithful Servants He has had above 1600. Years to try but could never shake Christianity as he might have done by raising the Dead so as the act might have born the Test of a fair and full Examination Secondly Then I suppose it possible for men of common sense to be infallibly sure of some notable and very remarkable Matter of Fact which they all believe and think that they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and their hands handle at the same time For if we cannot be sure of so much as this comes to then we may all be dead men or no men but beasts for any thing we can discern But if we can be certain of thus much then we must allow it as possible for those who pretended to have seen Christ raised from the Dead to be as infallibly certain that they were not mistaken Thirdly I suppose it very possible for some
Matter of Fact that was not seen with ones own eyes suppose it be done in the next room to be so undeniably witnessed as shall abundantly supply the want of ocular demonstration Lastly I assume That if we can be sure of any Matter of Fact which we did not see with our own eyes then we may be infinitely surer of the wonderful Works of Christ and especially of his Glorious Resurrection That Christ was openly crucified or nailed to a Cross before a multitude of Enemies That after exquisite pains he gave up the Ghost Then to make all sure That he was thrust into the vital parts that the water gush'd out of his side without which Cooler he must needs have been parch'd to death if he had not undergone many deaths before that the Apostle St. John who saw this with many others bare record That their record is true That the Enemies of Christianity knew it to be so uncontroulably true as to the point of this Dying that scarce any Jew or Heathen has ever been so impudent as to deny the certainty of his Death That this extraordinary Person so publickly executed was closed and sealed up in a Sepulchre and his Body guarded by Orders thus strictly issued forth Ye have a Watch go make it as sure as you can That after three days he appeared alive again in the same Body That he appeared several times in divers places to many Spectators at once to above five hundred Persons That he had threatned his Foes beforehand that he would unbar the Gates of Death let them do what they could to debar or hinder him for it was their own Deposition before Pontius Pilate himself Sir we remember that this Deceiver said while he lived The third day I will rise again That he provok'd some that believed not for joy and some that obstinately disbelieved to feel his Pulse to handle and see the print of the nails and to thrust their hands into his side till the most incredulous man assented whether he would or no These Matters of Fact were immediately proclaim'd and preach'd to all the World by such Eye-Witnesses every where as not only were ready to seal it with their bloud That this Testimony of theirs was true but God also set to his Seal That many of those who were ready thus to lay down their lives and who took it upon their deaths that they saw Christ raised from the Dead should themselves be enabled to work undeniable Miracles and even to raise the Dead No wonder then if the Gospel spread so fast For if a man of God how contemptible soever should revive but one Malefactor after he had been openly put to death it would not be many Months e're the whole World would have an account of it But then their working of Miracles as a demonstration that their Witness was most true who affirmed they had seen Christ risen comes to be as unquestionably asserted by many other Eye-Witnesses and by so many others that had it from the mouths of these they made up a Noble Army of Martyrs who lov'd not their lives in comparison of this Truth which they advanc'd by their deaths viz. That they had seen the Apostles or Apostolical men confirming the Word by Signs following And lastly That there were such a Glorious Company of Martyrs such as endured a thousand indignities and as it were died often with this Testimony of Jesus in their mouths this Testimony I say of the Martyrs is confess'd and acknowledged by all the adverse Parties no Jew no Pagan no Persecutor of Christianity no Atheist no Devil had ever the hardiness to deny what themselves had inflicted and for what these men had suffered And all this put together were enough one would think to secure the Doctrine of the Resurrection and by consequence the Christian Faith No It is said That one man may possibly deceive or be deceived If one then two then three then thirty then thirty thousand then all the whole Company of Martyrs Truly 't is extremely hard to conceive that in things so gross and palpable and of highest consequence any one man of common sence could be impos'd upon much less deceitfully impose on others and those that were dearest to him where he could have no imaginable interest to do so as it was in this Case of the Primitive martyr'd Christians But what if humane Nature might admit of this highest depravation of sence and reason in one single Example What if an Heap of Corn being poured out at randome on a large Threshing-Floor it may happen after many tryals that some of the Grains may fall into some regular Figure would it follow thence that this whole World of Beauty and Order could have been composed by a casual motion of Atoms What if a Printers Characters being thrown together at all adventures it may come to pass after ten hundred thousand essays that such of the Letters may accidentally meet as may make up the two or three first words of my Text yet could it enter into the heart of man to think it possible for them so to be joined by mere chance as to make up all this Divine Prophecy of Hosea or to put the Case yet higher to make up all the Sacred Volumes of the Old and New Testament To cut the matter short Can Chance produce effects as wise as any God can produce But if all reason abhors the Atheist's wild supposition That such blind Causes as an Heap of Corn or a Printers Letters that have no greater tendency one way than another should produce effects so extravagantly wise by Chance only then if we follow the Grain of the same Argument and pursue it home it runs more clearly and ends in a more infallible Conclusion against the Deists as they love to style themselves or the Disbelievers of the Resurrection and Christianity than against the Atheists For that a World of knowing and rational Beings or Men at least of common sense that have a natural appetite an inseparable inclination to their own happiness which those inanimate things have not that all of them could act so extreme unnaturally in an Affair that concerned all their good in this life as well as in the next as all of them wilfully to deceive the Children of their own Bowels or all of them to be so senselesly negligent as to suffer themselves to be perpetually abused when they needed but open their eyes to discover the imposture if there had been any in these Matters of Fact this is utterly impossible to conceive and is really beyond the reach of all imagination If it be possible I say but if still if it be possible for any very considering man to debauch his Reason into a real disbelief of the Resurrection and of those things which are most surely believed among us and upon many infallible Proofs as St. Luke declares that man can have no reason in the world to conclude there is any thing real nay all