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kath no more Dominion over Him. And this peculiar Exception that Apoftle obferves to have been punctually foretold by Ifaiah. And, as concerning that Ged raised him up from the Dead, now no more to return to Corruption, he faid on this wife, Iwill give you the fure Mercies of David.

Ifai. Iv. 3.

Acts xiii. 34.

Luke i. 32, 33.

Ifai. ix. 7.
Acts v. 30, 31.

Now by thefe jure Mercies of David, are meant those Bleffings, for which Almighty God had engaged his Truth; and of the full Attainment whereof David fo often expreffes his entire Confidence. Particularly That of an everlafting Kingdom, to be continued to His Pofterity. Now this having manifeftly failed in the first and temporal Senfe; It follows, that the Promife must have a fecond and more fublime Senfe, belonging to it. Such as imports a Spiritual and Eternal Kingdom; The fame, which Ifaiah forefaw in his Ninth Chapter; And which the Holy Angel at our Saviour's Incarnation declared, fhould be vefted in the wonderful Son of that Virgin Mother. He fhall be great, and fhall be called the Son of the Higheft. And the Lord fhall give unto Him the Throne of his Father David; And be fhall reign over the Houfe of Jacob for ever, and of his Kingdom there fhall be no End. This Inveftiture the Apoftles declare to have commenced from his RefurreEtion; The God of our Fathers, fay they to the Jewish Sanhedrim, bath raised up Jefus, whom ye flew and banged on a Tree, Him hath God exalted with his Right Hland to be a Prince and a Saviour. Now from hence it follows, that he could not rife to die a Second Time, becaufe fuch Death must put a Period to his Reign. And confequently, That Kingdom not being everlafting, thefe Mercies of David were not fure; that is, The Promife would not be made good, in the juft Extent, and most valuable Sense of it.

As to the particular time of our Lord's Refurrection, tho' fome Paffages in the Prophets are very juftly in

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terpreted

terpreted of it; Yet, because I find no exprefs Application of them, by the Writers of the New Testament: I fhall content my felf with that one Type, produced by Chrift himself to the Jews, which at once prefigured both the Thing, and this Circumftance of it. And this was fo remarkable, that our Lord refers that obftinate People hither, as to the last, and most awakening Miracle, which God referved for their Conviction, and would hold Them inexcufable, upon whom it should have no effect. As Jonas was three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly, so shall the Son Matth. xii. 39, of Man be three Days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth. The Men of Nineveb Shall rise in the Fudgment with this Generation, and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold a greater than Jonas is here.

40, 41.

Thus have I laid before you Some of the Principal Prophecies and Types, by which God fignified long before, that the Meffiab fhould fuffer, and rife again from the Dead. Such as, we may probably conjecture, our Lord expounded, in his Conferences with the Dif ciples; Because we find them infifted upon afterwards, in their Reasonings with the Jews. It were very easy to enlarge yet more, by producing Others of the fame kind, with reference to the Other Parts of our Lord's Exaltation, and the Administration of his Spiritual Kingdom. But I confine my self to these two Subjects of his Death and Refurrection, as proper to this Seafon. I fhall now defcend briefly to the Second Branch of my Divifion upon it, which is,

2. To fhew, wherein the Strength of this Argument, drawn from fuch Predictions and Prefigurations, confifts: And upon what Account it was proper, for bringing over thefe Difciples, to a Belief of Jesus therefore being the Christ, because he did actually thus fuffer, and thus rife again from the Dead.

Now

See Gospel on

Quinquagefima

Sunday.

Now in order hereunto we must observe, 1. First, That the Perfons, to whom our Lord directed this Difcourfe, had been all along bred up in the Knowledge and Practice of the Jewish Religion; and had received the Writings of the Old Teftament, as the Oracles of God, and the Rule and Standard of their Faith. Now the greater their Skill in these things was, the more firm their Perfuafion would be of a Meffias to come. One, who should fulfil all the glorious things fpoken of him there; and was to be known, and diftinguished from all falfe Pretenders, by doing fo. For of the Chrift thofe Words of Mofes are to be understood, and were conftantly understood by the Ancient Jews: A Prophet fhall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your Brethren like unto Me, him shall ye bear. And it shall come to pass, that every Soul, which bearkeneth not unto that Prophet, fhall be cut off from his People. Since then their Obedience to this great Prophet was enjoined under fo fevere a Penalty; It muft needs be, that God left them not utterly in the Dark in this moft important Affair; but gave them fome particular Marks and Characters, by which they might be able to difcern that Prophet, to whom fuch Obedience was due.

Deut. xviii. 15.

Acts iii. 22, 23.

John vii. 31.

2. Secondly, It is likewife obfervable, that the Jews acknowledged, and understood thefe Signs of the Meffiah, as incommunicable to any Other. Hence is that Saying, When Chrift cometh, Will He do more Miracles than thefe which this Man hath done? Hence the Appeal our Lord makes to his own Miracles, in order to fatisfy that Queftion of John's Difciples, Art thou be which should come, or do we look for another? The plain meaning whereof is, first, that One famous Perfon was expected, entitled by way of Eminence, He that should come; and alfo, that the Greatnefs, and Number, and

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Matt. xi. 3, 4, 5.

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Quality of his Miracles were a fufficient token, to point and fingle him out, when he did come. So that our Lord's Argument, (as I have formerly obferved) lies thus. He, who does thofe many and mighty Wonders, foretold by the Prophets, is He that fhould come. Your own Senfes are Judges, whether I have done these Wonders or not: And therefore, if your Senfes convince you, that I have wrought fuch things; there cannot remain any reafonable doubt, but that I am He that should come.

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3. Thirdly, Allowing fome fuch Characters to be laid down concerning the Meffiah; It will follow, that, if any of thofe Prophecies were in fome Senfe fulfilled in any of the eminent Men of old; yet there was ftill another and fublimer Senfe, peculiar to the Meffiah, which must be fulfilled in Him; and that, till this should be done, the utmost intent of thofe Prophecies was not Satisfied. This is the Method taken by the Apoftles, particularly by St. Peter and St. Paul, in their Difcourfes upon our Lord's Refurrection. They prove, that the Paffages of David and Ifaiah were not fully made good in the Perfons, who spoke them; not in the Letter, and moft immediate Signification: Confequently that, fuppofing a double Senfe, and Them to have any part in them, they had another Perfon in view, who fhould give them their utmost accomplishment. Therefore, till that were done, the Truth of God, who dictated those Expreffions, had not fully discharged it felf. That there ! were many Predictions, relating to the Meffiah, is a Principle confeffed by the Jews: Either therefore the Meffiah was never Prophefied of, nor Prefigured at all by fuch; (which the Jews will not all agree in :) Or elfe, fome Prophecies and Prefigurations, contained in the Old Testament, will require, and do contain, a future and myftical, even in the Opinion of Them, who admit a prefent and ftricter, Interpretation. And if fo; then that Perfon, in whom that highest and ulti

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3 mate Construction is accomplished, ought to be received, as the promifed Meffiah. That this was a method of Expounding the Old Teftament, received among the Jews, feems probable from hence; That, when our Lord and his Apoftles made ufe of it, the Enemies of the Gospel are never faid to have objected against it, as an unfair way of arguing. For all Evafions of this Nature, which we now meet with, are only fuch miferable Shifts, as the Jews of later Ages have taken Sanctuary in. Who, to cover their incorrigible Unbelief, have thrown off thofe Texts, which heretofore were univerfally acknowledged to point at the Chrift. So that

4. Fourthly, The Whole turns at laft upon the Veracity of Almighty God, the Divine Authority of the Prophetick Writings, and the Agreement of what happened to our Jefus, with thofe remarkable things foretold of the Meffiah. If God be true, whatever He hath declared fhall be, muft certainly come to pafs. If the Prophets wrote, as they were infpired and directed by the Holy Ghoft; Whatever they have laid down concerning the Meffiah, muft needs be accomplished in his Perfon. But the Prophets did declare, That the Messiah fhould be cut off from the Land of the Living; That He fhould die, under fuch and fuch Circunftances; That, after He was thus dead, He fhould rife again. The Perfon therefore, who in all Points made good thefse Predictions, is undoubtedly the Chrift. Now Jefus did thus die, and thus rife again; No other Perfon, befides himself, ever did fo; And confequently Jefus, and no other Perfon, is the Chrift of God. Since therefore these Difciples confeffed, that fuch things were dictated by God Himself, and foretold of the Meffiah; And fince they faw them punctually made good in their own Mafter; His Sufferings and Death ought not to difcourage or weaken their Faith, because these were necefiary to the Character and Office of Chrift. Nay, had he not fo

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