SERM. to understand it; for it is by faith in his blood that we are XXVII. justified, and by knowing Chrift crucified we shall be chiefly

Rom. iii.
25.
1 Cor. ii. 2.

10.

edified; the word imparting this knowledge being the power of God to falvation. It therefore I mean now, by Rom. i. 16. God's assistance, to explain and apply; the which I shall Philip. iii. do generally and abfolutely; without any particular accommodation of my discourse to the words of this text; yet so as to comprehend all the particulars observable in them. The death of our Lord then is my subject, and about it I shall confider, 1. Its nature, or wherein it did confift. 2. Some peculiar adjuncts and respects thereof, which commend it to our regard, and render it confiderable to us. 3. The principles and (impressive and meritorious) causes thereof. 4. The ends which it aimed at; together with the fruits and effects of it. 5. Some practical influences, which the confideration thereof may and should have upon us.

1. As for the nature of it we must affirm, and believe assuredly, that it was a true and proper death; in kind not different from that death, to the which all we mortal creatures are by the law and condition of our nature fub

Pf. lxxxix. ject, and which we must all fometime undergo; for, What man is he that liveth and shall not fee death; that shall deliver his foul from the hand of the grave? that death, which is fignified by cessation from vital operations; (of all motions natural or voluntary, of all sense and knowledge, appetite and paffion;) that death, which is caused by violent difunion, or diflocation, by distempering, or however indifpofing the parts, humours, spirits of the body, fo that the foul can no longer in them and by them continue to exercise those functions, for which its conjunction thereto was intended, and cannot therefore fitly reside thereina; that death, which is supposed to consist in the dissolution of that vital band, whatever it be, whereby the foul is linked and united to the body; or in that which is thereupon confequent, the separation, department, and ab

7.

fence of the foul from the body; each of that couple, SERM. upon their divorce, returning home to their original prin- XXVII. ciples, as it were; the body to the earth from whence it Gen. iii. 19. was taken, and the Spirit unto God who gave it. Such Ecclef. xii. causes antecedent are specified in the story; fuch signs Pr. civ. 29. following are plainly implied, fuch a state is expressed in the very terms, whereby our death is commonly fignified : the fame extremity of anguish, the fame dilaceration of parts, the fame effufion of blood, which would destroy our vital temper, quench our natural heat, stop our animal motions, exhaust our fpirits, and force out our breath, did work upon him; necessarily producing the like effects on him, as who had assumed the common imperfections and infirmities of our nature; in regard to which violences inflicted upon him he is said, ἀποκτείνεσθαι, to be killed or Acts iii. 15. Παίη; διαχειρίζεσθαι, το be dispatched; ἀναιρεῖσθαι, to be made Dan. ix. 26. away ; ἀπολέσθαι, to perish, or be destroyed; ἐξολοθρεύεσθαι, Ifa. liii. 8. to be cut off, as it is in Daniel; σφάτλεσθαι, to be flaugh-4. xi. 50. tered; θύεσθαι, to be facrificed; which words do all of Rev. v. 9. them fully import a real and proper death to have enfued

upon those violent usages toward him.

viii. 33.

John xviii.

33.

And by the ordinary figns of death, apparent to sense, the foldiers judged him dead; and therefore, ὡς εἶδον αὐτὸν ἤδη τεθνηκότα, Seeing him already dead, they forbare to break John xix. his legs: by the fame all the world was fatisfied thereof; both his spiteful enemies, that ftood with delight, waiting for this utmost success of their malicious endeavours to destroy him; and his loving friends, who with compaf- Mark xiv. fionate respect attended upon him through the course his fuffering; and those who were ready to perform their 27. laft offices of kindness, in procuring a decent interment of 25. his body.

41. of Luke xxiii.

John xix.

His tranfition also, and abiding in this state, are expressed by terms declaring the propriety of his death, and its agreement with our death. St. Mark telleth us, that ἐξέπνευσε, animam efflavit, he expired, breathed out his Mark xv. foul, or his last breath; St. Matthew, ἀφῆκε τὸ πνεῦμα, απί-Μα mam egit, he let go his spirit, or gave up the ghost; 50. St. John, παρέδωκε τὸ πνεῦμα, he delivered up his fpirit into John xix.

SERM. God's hand; the which St. Luke expresseth done with a XXVII. formal refignation; Father, said he, into thy hands I comLuke xxiii. mend (or I depose) my spirit; he doth also himself frequently express his dying by laying down his life, and Παρατίθε- bestowing it as a ransom, which sheweth him really to John xv.13. have parted with it.

46.

μαι.

x. 15, 18.

xiii. 37. His death also (as ours is wont to be denoted by like 1 John iii. 6. phrases) is termed ἔξοδος, excessus e vivis, a going out of

life, or from the society of men; (for Mofes and Elias are Lukeix.31. faid to tell, τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτῶ, his decease, which he should ac2 Peti. 15. complish at Jerufalem ;) and μετάβασις, a paffing over, or Ads xx. 29. translation from this into another world; (When, faith John xiii.1. St. John, Jefus knew that his time was come, ἵνα μεταβῇ,

"Αφιξις.

that he should depart from this world.) His death also was John ii. 19. enigmatically described by the destruction or demolishment Matt. xxvi. of his bodily temple, answerable to those circumlocu2 Cor. v. 1. tions concerning our ordinary death; the difssolution of our earthly house of tabernacle, or transitory abode, in St. Paul; 2 Pet. i. 14. the ἀπόθεσις τῶ σκηνώματος, laying down, or putting off our tabernacle, in St. Peter.

6.

It were also not hard to shew, how all other phrases and circumlocutions, by which human death is expressed, either in holy Scripture or in usual language, or among philosophers and more accurate speakers, are either expressly applied, or by consequence are plainly applicable to the death of our Saviour; fuch, for instance, as these

1 Tim. iv. in Scripture; ἀνάλυσις, being refolved into our principles, Phil. i. 23. or the returning of them thither whence they came; ἀπόLuke ii. 29. λυσις, a being freed, licensed, or dismissed hence; ἐκδημία 2 Cor. v. 8. ἐκ τῶ σώματος, a going, or abode abroad; a peregrination,

or absentment from the body; an ἔκδυσις, putting off, or Acts xiii. being divested of the body; an ἀφανισμός, disappearance, Gen.xxv. 8. or cessation in appearance to be; a going hence, and not xlix.33,&c. being seen; a falling on fleep, resting from our labours, Pfal. xxxix leeping with our fathers, being added, and gathered to our xxviii. 1. fathers; being taken, or cut off out of the land of the livlxxxviii. 4. ing; going down into the pit; lying down, refting, fleeping Jer. xi. 19. in the dust; making our bed in darkness: these and the like phrafes occurring in Scripture (which might be paralleled SERM. out of vulgar speech, and out of learned discourses) defcrib- XXVII. ing either the entrance into, or the abiding in the state of that death, to which all men are obnoxious, might eafily be shewed applicable to the death of our Saviour. His refurrection doth imply the reality of his death; for otherwife it had not been miraculous, it had not been a pledge of our refurrection. But I will not farther needlessly infift upon explicating or confirming a point so clear, and never misunderstood, or questioned, except by some wild and presumptuous heretics.

Our Saviour's death then was a true, real, and proper death, fuitable to that frail, passible, and mortal nature, which he vouchsafed to undergo for us; to the condition of finful flesh, in the likeness whereof he did appear; fever- Rom.viii. 3. ing his foul and body, and remitting them to their original sources; his paffion was indeed ultimum fupplicium, an extreme capital punishment, the highest, in the last refult, which in this world either the fiercest injuftice or the feverest justice could inflict: for, to kill the body is, as Matt. x. 28. our Lord himself taught, the utmost limit of all human Luke xii. 4. power and malice; the most and worst that man can do; they have not περισσότερόν τι, any thing beyond that which they can attempt upon us; and fo far did they proceed with our Lord. Such was the nature of his death; fuch indeed as was requifite for the accomplishment of the ends and effects defigned thereby.

2. Let us now confider those peculiar adjuncts and respects of our Lord's death, (together with his whole paffion, whereof his death was the chief part and final completion,) the which do commend it to our regard, and amplify the worth thereof: fuch are, 1. Its being a result of God's eternal resolution and decree. 2. Its being a matter of free consent and compact between God the Father and his only Son. 3. Its being anciently prefigured and predicted. 4. Its being executed by God's hand and providence guiding and governing it; and by man's action concurring. 5. Its being the death of a person so holy

SERM. and innocent, so high and excellent, of God's Son, of God XXVII. the Son.

11.

1. It was a result of God's eternal counsel and decree; it was no cafual event, no expedient suddenly devised, or flipt from providence, but a well-laid design, from all eternity contrived by divine wisdom, refolved upon by divine goodness. As God did (by the incomprehenfible perfection of his nature) from thence foresee our lapse and misery, fo he did as foon determine our remedy and means of falvation. As the whole of that mysterious difpenfation concerning Christ, so especially did this main Ephef. iii. part thereof proceed κατὰ πρόθεσιν τῶν αἰώνων, according to an eternal purpose, as St. Paul speaketh; for our Saviour Rev. xiii. 8. was a Lamb flain (in designation irrevocable flain) from the foundation of the world; as it is faid in the Revela1 Pet. i. 19. tion : and, We, faith St. Peter, were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish, and without Spot, προεγνωσμένο μὲν, foreordained indeed before Luke xxii. the foundation of the world: and our Saviour went, as he telleth us himself, to fuffer, κατὰ τὸ ὡρισμένον, according to Acts ii. 23. what was determined: and, It was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, faith St. Peter, that he was delivered up into those wicked hands that flew him; nor did the conspiracy of Herod and Pilate, with the nation and people of the Jews, effect any thing about it, be

22.

Ats iv. 28. yond ὅσα ἡ χεὶρ, καὶ ἡ βελὴ Θεῦ προώρισε γενέθαι, whatever the hand and counsel of God (or God's effectual purpose) had predetermined to come to pass. Such an especial care and providence of God, concerning this matter, so expressly and fo frequently recommended to our obfervation, do argue the very great moment and high worth thereof. What God declareth himself to have had fo early and earnest a care of, must be matter of highest confideration and importance.

2. It was a matter of free confent and compact between God and his Son. God did freely and graciously (out of merciful regard to our welfare) proffer, that if he would please to undertake to redeem his (lost and enslaved) crea