but that he would suffer himself to be pierced for us who only deserved to be so What should have become of us had he not undergone the punishment due to us Where had we been but for his Passion It is by his stripes that we are healed It is his meritorious Death that hath procured us Life It is his pretious Bloud shed on the Altar of his Cross that hath reconciled us to God that hath vanquished Death and Hell and opened unto us the gates of Heaven having thereby obtained eternal Redemption for us which we shall certainly partake of if we will but look on him whom we have pierced in such a manner as we ought to doe with an Eye of Pity and Compassion of hearty sorrow and contrition of Faith and of Love If we will doe so we may then lift up our heads for our Redemption draweth nigh We may then rejoyce too with joy unspeakable and full of glory looking for that blessed hope the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour at his second coming to deliver us from this present evil World and to restore us to the glorious liberty of the Sons of God But on the contrary if either we will not look at all on Christ pierced for us or so slightly as not to be in the least affected with that sight nay even despise his Sufferings make a mock of Him and of those Sins which pierced Him persecute Him in his Members rend his mystical Body by Discord and his seamless Coat by Schism corrupt the Purity of his Doctrine by Heresie and shame Him and his Gospel by our vile and wicked Lives We shall then have another but a very dismal and uncomfortable sight of Him not only the merciless Jew who actually shed his Bloud but the loose prophane Christian who hath trampled it under foot shall see him then to his eternal horrour and confusion I say shall see him see him whether he will or no. It shall not be in his choice whether he will see him or no. Every Eye says St. John shall then see him even they also who pierced him and all kindreds of the Earth shall wail because of him The whole World then shall be the Theatre on which this sight shall be shown and every Man thereon a several Spectator And what a dreadfull sight shall that be to all unconverted Sinners whether Jews or Gentiles when Christ their Judge shall appear in a visible shape with those Wounds in his Body which they gave him How successlesly shall they then cry unto the Rocks and Mountains to fall upon them and cover them from the presence of this Lamb once dumb before the Shearers but then with his very voice glorious and mighty in operation breaking the loftiest Cedars in pieces In vain doe we now put off this evil day from us and with St. Peter's mockers question the promise of his Coming Behold he cometh saith St. John Revel 1. 7. He is even now on his way and will as certainly come as if he were already present Nay is already come if we may believe St. James Behold the Judge standeth before the door Jam. 5. 9. And who may abide his second Coming when he shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel which his Son preached 2 Thess. 1. 8. His first Coming was in Humility and in Weakness but his second shall be in Majesty and Power How shall the Scene then be changed And with what face shall the enemies of this Cross be able to look on him then whom they had here so often pierced Consider we these things and let us prevent one sight by another and let every one of us prepare to meet our Lord in such a garb and posture as that we may be able to look upon him then with comfort And that we may so doe let us beg of Him to look upon us as once he did upon his Apostle that denied him that with him we may weep bitterly for having pierced him and so fulfill the Prophecy of the Text in the best sense of it in that of the Prophet Zachary and not of our Evangelist in the fore-cited Revel 1. 7. That we may here by Faith see him with St. Stephen sitting at the right hand and there making intercession for us by those Wounds which we have given Him that we may hereafter for ever behold him in Glory Amen A SERMON Preached on Easter-day ACTS II. 24. Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible that he should be holden of it THE precedent Verse and this of the Text represent Christ unto us in a very different condition That in the low ebb of his Exinanition This in a high pitch of his Exaltation In the former we find him under the power of death In the latter raised up to life There a Worm and no Man Here more than Man Declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead Christ had given sufficient evidence of his Manhood in his natural Infirmities and Necessities but above all in his Passion But the main proof of his Divinity was to be taken from his Resurrection A proof at this time most necessary in relation to his greatest Enemies the Jews who were so apt to triumph in his ruine to fancy they had now prevailed against him to say within themselves Now that he lieth let him rise up no more and once more to lay that in his Dish which they objected to him on his Cross He saved others himself he cannot save With these buisy mockers which gnashed upon him with their teeth these Atheists that could say Where is the promise of his return and that had called him in express terms a Deceiver St. Peter had to doe and had not the Holy Ghost appeared a little before in a cloven tongue of fire on his head his own could never have been able to make them credit such a thing as a Resurrection Christ's much less to whom they were so spightfull It was necessary then that so great a Miracle should make way for another as great which was to persuade them into a belief of Christ's Resurrection Men so incredulous that they would not believe though one rose from the dead as Lazarus had done who having brought them news from another World they for his pains would needs have sent him back to the place from whence he came so that nothing now but the sight of him they had so lately crucified if yet that would doe was sufficient to convince them whom though St. Peter could not present to their Eyes yet their Ears hear the certain news of his return from the Grave That he that was dead was now alive That that body which had been sown in weakness was now rais'd in power by a power no less than divine the power of an
thereof and yet all this still dull and flat till he quickens it with an active Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he wrought in Christ when he raised him up from the dead An act proper to God the Father who is entitled to it ver 33. and by St. Paul too Gal. 1. 1. Yet so as that he has communicated this Power to his own Son Joh. 10. 17 18. and 5. 21 26. As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will who had a Power to lay down his life and to take it again to dissolve the Temple of his Body and in three days to raise it up so that Christ here did as much rise as was raised up and this the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Luke imports a Verb of an active signification implying a Power in himself to rise and in that respect a certain argument of his being the co-essential and con-substantial Son of God as the Apostle concludes him hence to be Rom. 1. 4. in spight of all those his adversaries who by denying him this Power prove themselves worse enemies to him than the Jews were who robb'd him of his Life whereas these of his Divinity also as far as in them lyes III. The principal and sole Agent then in this great Work was God the Father and the Son And such an Agent was necessary since the task was so difficult the knot which Death had tied being so hard required no less than a God to unloose it Now by Death here is meant not only a seperation of Soul and Body though that be the most natural import of the word but all those sad things that preceded as so many Prologues to his last Tragedy styled Propassiones All those ingredients in the bitter cup he drank of Such as were Christ's natural apprehensions of the terrors of Death the curse of the Law the load of our Sins upon him and a lively sense of God's wrath due to those Sins which put him into an Agony and made him sweat great drops of bloud and to close up all the bitter pangs of that cruel death he underwent to satisfie God's Justice All which are compar'd here to the Pangs of a Woman in travail from which God at last freed him by raising him up to a life uncapable of pain or sorrow making him forget his former Sufferings as a Woman does her Pains when delivered of her Child Joh. 16. 21. This is implied in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But because to loose the Pains seems a hard expression and unloosing properly denoting the untying of some knot and so supposing some chain or cord wherewith Christ was bound and which God dissolved which the following word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems to make good some conceive it better to interpret the word Pains by Bonds as the Syriack does calling them Funes Sepulchri those adamantina mortis vincula in the Poet And the rather because the Psalmist promiscuously useth these words Psal. 116. 3. The snares of Death compassed me round about and the pains of Hell gat hold upon me Both of them signifie no more but the power of death those Shackles and Manacles which the Angel of the Covenant struck off from himself and then from us which could no more hold him than the withy bands could Sampson herein a Type of Christ being but as Flax and Tow to him who was the Power of God and though he might suffer himself to be entangled yet could not possibly be holden of them And that 1. In respect of the Truth of God's Word viz. those many Predictions and Types of Christ's Resurrection which else must have been voided The Predictions are many and clear relating to this point That of Esay 53. 8. That Christ should be taken from his prison That of Hosea 6. 2. After two days will he revive us and in the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his sight see Esay 26. 19. But most expresly that of the Prophet David Psal. 16. 10 11. That his flesh should rest in hope and that God would not suffer his Holy One to see Corruption which Prophecy could not be apply'd to David himself as St. Peter here in the Verses immediately following tells his Auditors because he did see Corruption but only to Christ who did not and who did rise the third day according to the Scriptures Luk. 18. 33. As for those Types too which shadow forth Christ's Resurrection they are many and exactly representative of it As Adam's awaking from sleep a Type of the second Adam's from death Sarah's conceiving when old Isaac's being sacrificed and yet living Gen. 22. 12. An express figure of Christ's Resurrection Heb. 11. 14 17 Joseph's being taken out of the Pit and lifted up out of the Dungeon as Jeremy was too and Daniel out of the Den of the Lions Dan. 6. 23. And more clearly by Christ's own application Jonah's being taken out of the belly of the Whale Mat. 12. 40. All which Types would be meer shadows without their substance and insignificant Types if they had wanted their Anti-types and should not exactly have answer'd them which they could not doe if Christ could have been holden by the pains or cords of death 2. Not possible by reason of that indissoluble tye of Christ's Personal Union so strait that Christ's Body even in the Grave was inseparably united to the Deity which drew it to it For although Death could dissolve his Natural yet not his Personal Union and therefore necessary it was that his Body and Soul should be re-united that so he might become a perfect Man which could not be without his rising 3. Not possible in respect of God's immutable Decree so determining it which being still of force nothing could render ineffectual God had anointed his Son from all Eternity as to be a Prophet and a Priest so a King to accomplish the work of Man's Redemption none of which Offices could be fully executed but upon supposition of his rising from the dead 1. The preaching of the Gospel was to follow that Luk. 24. 47. 2. As was also the preaching of Repentance and Remission of sins through his bloud the Expiation whereof as well as our Justification the not imputing our Sins to us was an effect of his Resurrection Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Justification God having declared by raising his Son from the dead that he had accepted of his Death as of a sufficient ransome for our Sins For if Christ had remained still under the power of Death his satisfaction could not have been perfect neither could he have applied the Vertue thereof to us And in like manner was Christ's Resurrection our Justification For Christ being our true pledge after he had satisfied for us by his Death returning unto Life gives us a clear Evidence and affords us a
Omnipotent God a power able to break in pieces the chains even of death its self strong ones indeed to hold all others but weak to hold him who was as well God as Man Whom God hath raised up c. From which words Four things are to be gather'd 1. The Certainty of Christ's Resurrection set down here as matter of fact Hath raised up 2. The principal Agent or rather the sole efficient Cause of Christ's Resurrection God Whom God hath c. 3. The Manner how 't was done Removendo impedimentum by taking away whatsoever might obstruct it the rowling away the stone as it were from the door of the Sepulchre the untying of a hard knot Having loosed the pains of Death 4. And lastly the Necessity of all this a most convincing and irresistible Argument and therefore brought up in the rear to make all sure Because it was not possible he should be holden of it Of these in their order and of such practical Inferences as doe arise out of them And first of the first Particular the Certainty of Christ's Resurrection in these words Hath raised up 1. There is not any truth in Scripture which God has been so carefull or as I may so say curious to secure as that of his Son's Resurrection Which he did as by taking away all grounds of doubting of it so by making use of all manner of proofs to ascertain it For first whereas Sceptical Men might have questioned whether Christ died truly or no or if so whether his disciples did not come by night and steal him away These two grounds of suspition God took care to remove The first by that Evidence the Centurion gave in to Pilate of his real dying besides that of so many Spectators who beheld that stream of bloud wherein he poured forth his Soul unto death And the second by the exact care of the High Priest who caused a vast stone to be rowled before the door of the Sepulchre adding his Seal and Souldiers of his own chusing to guard it from the attempts of the Disciples who had they had a will had neither power nor courage to break open a Sepulchre hewen out of a new entire Rock or force such a strong guard as kept it much less Money to bribe their silence as the High Priests and Scribes did And to say that his Disciples stole him away while the stout Watch-men slept was surely no better than a Dream or rather not a Dream but a studied Lie and yet such a Lie too as does most clearly confirm the truth of our Lord's Resurrection But then secondly As God took away all cause of doubt so did he draw Arguments from all Topicks to prove this great Truth Heaven and Earth here gave in their Evidence For not only the Souls of Holy Men were fetcht thence to be united to their Bodies for proof of that Resurrection by which themselves were raised but the Blessed Inhabitants of Heaven the Angels came down on purpose to publish it to the Women as these did to the Apostles to whom Christ shewed himself alive too after his Passion by many infallible proofs and expos'd himself to their very Senses who did not only see and hear but converse and eat with him after he was risen from the dead that they might not mistake his Body as once they did for a Phantasm or Christ for a Spirit having flesh and bones as they found he had and retaining still the marks and prints of the nails and spear to shew the Identity as well as Reality of that Body which arose The very Infidelity of an Apostle being not the least confirmation of our Faith too in this particular Not to mention other instances the Earthquake the empty grave the stone rowled away the linnen cloths curiously wrapt up together as dead Witnesses when there were so many living ones Angels and Men and among these such as were ready to seal this Truth with their dearest Bloud of such credit and honesty too as might highly recommend their Testimony to our belief of such Prudence Experience and Holiness withall as neither could betray them to Error nor suffer them to abuse the credit of others Such were the Holy Apostles who with great power gave witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus and whose principal office it was to doe so as appears upon the Election of St. Matthias into the place of Judas grounded upon this necessity Act. 1. 21 22. To whom we may add no less than five hundred Brethren at once all agreeing in the same story Nemo omnes neminem omnes fefellerunt which made their Evidence rise to such a strong demonstration as was sufficient to stop the mouths of Christ's most contradicting Enemies and open ours to confess with the Disciples and Primitive Christians The Lord is risen indeed Luk. 24. 34. Thus we see how exact the Holy Ghost was as in removing all such Doubts as might in the least obstruct our Faith so in using all manner of Arguments to confirm and establish the undoubted Truth of Christ's Resurrection not only to show the possibility of a Resurrection in general by so pregnant and visible an Example but the importance of it in regard of ours whereof our Lord 's was the Fountain and Pledge 1. I say the clearing of the Truth of Christ's Resurrection was absolutely necessary in regard of the slowness and indisposition of most Men and in all times to admit of the possibility of a Resurrection The Philosopher we see could not digest it To the Stoicks and Epicureans it became matter of laughter who took it for some new Goddess Act. 17. 18 32. Nay some of the Disciples themselves lookt upon it as a Fable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 24. 11. A considerable Sect too among the Jews the Sadducees utterly deny'd it Act. 23. 8. Simon Magus and the Gnosticks were of the same persuasion and so was Marcion as Tertullian informs me who deny'd the truth of Christ's flesh and consequently his Nativity and Resurrection as Valentinus's Disciple did the Resurrection of that Flesh he convers'd in Some there were who affirm'd 't was already past as Hymenaeus and Philetus Others turn'd it into a meer Allegory a Renovation Matth. 19. 28. A state of the Gospel call'd a New Heaven and a new Earth 2 Pet. 3. 13. And the World to come Heb. 2. 5. And lastly how doe all loose Christians decry it as a thing utterly inconsistent with their interest It was requisite then that this foundation should be laid very deep in men's Hearts which the Holy Ghost fore-saw so many would endeavour to over-throw 2. 'T was absolutely necessary to clear this Truth in regard of the importance of it to Christ's glory and the happiness of all true Christians 1. To Christ's glory which in the esteem of Men being much eclipsed by his Death was to shine out brighter by his Resurrection for nothing but this could take