Dead and Buried.

SERMON XXVII.

1 COR. XV. 3.

For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures.

XXVII.

ST. Paul, meaning in this chapter to maintain a SERM. very fundamental point of our religion (the resurrection of the dead) against some infidels or heretics, who among the Corinthians, his scholars in the faith, did oppose it; doth, in order to the proof of his assertion, and refutation of that pernicious error, premise those doctrines, which he having received both from relation of the other apostles, and by immediate revelation from God himself, had delivered unto them, ἐν πρώτοις, in the first place, or among the prime things; that is, as most eminent and important points of Christian doctrine; the truth whereof consequently (standing upon the same foundations with Christianity itself, upon Divine revelation and apostolical testimony) could nowise be disputed of, or doubted, by any good Christian. Of which doctrines (the collection of which he styleth the Gospel; that Gospel, by embracing and retaining which they were, he saith, to be saved) the first is that in our text, concerning the death of our Lord, undergone by him for our salvation: which point, as of all others in our religion it is of peculiar

XXVII.

SERM. consequence, so it much concerneth us both firmly to believe it and well to understand it; for it is by Rom. iii. faith in his blood that we are justified, and by 1 Cor. ii. 2. knowing Christ crucified we shall be chiefly edified; Rom. i. 16. the word imparting this knowledge being the power Philip. iii.

25.

10.

of God to salvation. It therefore I mean now, by God's assistance, to explain and apply; the which I shall do generally and absolutely; 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 consider, 1. Its nature, or wherein it did consist. 2. Some peculiar adjuncts and respects thereof, which commend it to our regard, and render it considerable 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 consideration 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 subject, and which we must Ps. lxxxix. all sometime undergo; for, What man is he that liveth and shall not see death; that shall deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? that death, which is signified by cessation from vital operations; (of all motions natural or voluntary, of all sense and knowledge, appetite and passion ;) that death, which is caused by violent disunion, or dislocation, by distempering, or however indisposing the parts, humours, spirits of the body, so that the soul can no

Eccles. xii.

longer in them and by them continue to exercise SERM.
those functions, for which its conjunction thereto XXVII.
was intended, and cannot therefore fitly reside there-
in; that death, which is supposed to consist in the
dissolution of that vital band, whatever it be, where-
by the soul is linked and united to the body; or in
that which is thereupon consequent, the separation,
department, and absence of the soul from the body;
each of that couple, upon their divorce, returning
home to their original principles, as it were; the
body to the earth from whence it was taken, and Gen. iii. 19.
the spirit unto God who gave it. Such causes an-7.
tecedent are specified in the story; such signs fol. Ps. cit. 29.
lowing are plainly implied, such a state is expressed
in the very terms, whereby our death is commonly
signified: the same extremity of anguish, the same
dilaceration of parts, the same effusion of blood,
which would destroy our vital temper, quench our
natural heat, stop our animal motions, exhaust our
spirits, 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 vio-
lences inflicted upon him he is said, ἀποκτείνεσθαι, to Acts iii. 15.
be killed or slain ; διαχειρίζεσθαι, to be despatched; Dan. ix. 26.
ἀναιρεῖσθαι, to be made away; ἀπολέσθαι, to perish, or
be destroyed; ἐξολοθρεύεσθαι, to be cut off, as it is in 4. xi. 50.
Daniel; σφάττεσθαι, to be slaughtered ; θύεσθαι, to be
sacrificed; which words do all of them fully import
a real and proper death to have ensued upon those
violent usages toward him.

And by the ordinary signs of death, apparent to
* -Ἐπεί κε πρῶτα λίπῃ λεύκ ̓ ὀστέα θυμός·
Ψυχὴ δ ̓, ἠὔτ ̓ ὄνειρος, ἀποπταμένη πεπότηται. Hom. Od. A. 220.

viii. 33.

Isa. liii. 8.
John xviii.

Rev. v. 9.

SERM. sense, the soldiers judged him dead; and therefore, XXVII. ὡς εἶδον αὐτὸν ἤδη τεθνηκότα, seeing him already dead,

John xix. 33.

41.

they forbear to break his legs : by the same all the world was satisfied thereof; both his spiteful enemies, that stood with delight, waiting for this utmost success of their malicious endeavours to de

Mark xiv. stroy him; and his loving friends, who with comLuke xxiii. passionate respect attended upon him through the course of his suffering; and those who were ready to perform their last offices of kindness, in procuring a decent interment of his body.

27. John xix. 25.

Mark xv.

His transition 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, Matt. xxvii. breathed out his soul, or his last breath; St. Matthew, ἀφῆκε τὸ πνεῦμα, animam egit, he let go his John xix. spirit, or gave up the ghost; St. John, παρέδωκε τὸ

50.

30.

πνεῦμα, he delivered up his spirit into God's hand;

the which St. Luke expresseth done with a formal Luke xxiii. resignation; Father, said he, into thy hands I commend (or I depose) my spirit; he doth also himself frequently express his dying by laying down his x. 15, 18. life, and bestowing it as a ransom, which sheweth 1 John iii.6. him really to have parted with it.

46. ΠαρατίθεJohn xv.13.

μαι.

xiii. 37.

His death also (as ours is wont to be denoted by like phrases) is termed ἔξοδος, excessus e vivis, a

going out of life, or from the society of men; (for Luke ix.31. Moses and Elias are said to tell, τὴν ἔξοδον αὐτοῦ, his 2 Pet. i. 15. decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem ;) Acts xx. 29. and μετάβασις, a passing over, or translation from John xiii. 1. this into another world; (When, saith St. John,

Αφιξις.

Jesus knew that his time was come, ἵνα μεταβῇ, that he should depart from this world.) His death also

Matt. xxvi.

was enigmatically described by the destruction or SERM. demolishment of his bodily temple, answerable to XXVII. those circumlocutions concerning our ordinary death; John ii. 19. the dissolution of our earthly house of tabernacle, 61. or transitory abode, in St. Paul; the ἀπόθεσις τοῦ σκη- 2 Pet. i. 14. νώματος, laying down, or putting off our tabernacle, in St. Peter.

2 Cor. v. I.

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; such, for instance, as these in scripture; ἀνά- 1 Tim. iv. λυσις, being resolved into our principles, or the re-Phil. i. 2.3. turning of them thither whence they came; ἀπόλυσις a being freed, licensed, or dismissed hence ; ἐκδημία ἐκ τοῦ σώματος, a going, or abode abroad; a peregrina- 2 Cor. v. 8. tion, or absentment from the body; an ἔκδυσις, put

6.

Luke ii. 29.

ting off, or being divested of the body; and ἀφανι- Acts xiii. σμὸς, disappearance, or cessation in appearance to Gen. xxv.8. be; a going hence, and not being seen; a falling px 33, &c. on sleep, resting from our labours, sleeping with 13. lii. 5. our fathers, being added, and gathered to our fa-cxliii. 7. thers; being taken, or cut off out of the land of Jer. xi. 19. the living; going down into the pit; lying down, 18. xxvi.19. resting, sleeping in the dust; making our bed in Ezek. xxvi. darkness: these and the like phrases occurring in Dan.xii.12. scripture (which might be paralleled out of vulgar xvii. 16. speech, and out of learned discourses) describing 26. xvii. 13. either the entrance into, or the abiding in the state of that death, to which all men are obnoxious, might easily be shewed applicable to the death of our Saviour. His resurrection doth imply the reality of