It is

possibly surpass the bounds put to it by the merits of the cause, and the measure of the offence. not the effect of mere choice and will, but springs out of the unalterable relation of equality between things and actions. In a word, the same justice of God which required him to deliver Christ to death, did afterwards as much engage him to deliver him from it.

4. The fourth ground of the impossibility of Christ's perpetual continuance under death was the necessity of his being believed in as a Saviour, and the impossibility of his being so without rising from the dead. As Christ by his death paid down a satisfaction for sin, so it was necessary that it should be declared to the world by such arguments as might found a rational belief of it; so that men's unbelief should be rendered inexcusable. But how could the world believe that he fully had satisfied for sin, so long as they saw death, the known wages of sin, maintain its full force and power over him, holding him, like an obnoxious person, in durance and captivity? When a man is once imprisoned for debt, none can conclude the debt either paid by him or forgiven to him, but by the release of his person. Who could believe Christ to have been a God and a Saviour while he was hanging upon the tree? A dying, crucified God, a Saviour of the world who could not save himself, would have been exploded by the universal consent of reason as an horrible paradox and absurdity. Had not the resurrection followed the crucifixion, that scoff of the Jews had stood as an unanswerable argument against him, Mark, xv. 31, Himself he cannot save; and in the thirty-second verse, 'Let

1

him come down from the cross, and we will believe in him.' Otherwise, surely, that which was the lowest instance of human weakness and mortality could be no competent demonstration of a Deity. To save is the effect of power, and of such a power as prevails to a complete victory and a triumph. But it is expressly affirmed, that Christ was crucified through weakness.' Death was too hard for his humanity, and bore away the spoils of it for a time. So that, while Christ was in the grave, men might as well have expected, that a person hung in chains should come down and head an army, as imagine that a dead body, continuing such, should be able to triumph over sin and death, which so potently triumphs over the living. The discourse of the two disciples going to Emmaus, and expecting no such thing as resurrection, was upon that supposition hugely rational and significant. We trusted,' said they, ' that this had been he who should have redeemed Israel: thereby clearly implying that upon his death they had let that confidence fall to the ground together with him. For they could not imagine that a breathless carcass could chase away the Roman eagles, and so recover the kingdom and nation of the Jews, from under their subjection; which was the redemption that even the disciples (till they were further enlightened) promised themselves from their Messiah. But the argument would equally, nay more strongly hold against a spiritual redemption, supposing his continuance under a state of death, as being a thing in itself much more difficult. For how could such an one

12 Cor. xiii. 4.

2 Luke, xxiv. 21.

break the kingdom of darkness and set his foot upon principalities' and 'powers,' and 'spiritual wickednesses in high places,' who himself fell a sacrifice to the wickedness of mortal men; and remained a captive in the lower parts of the earth, reduced to a condition not only below men's envy, but below their very feet?

5. The fifth, and last ground of the impossibility of Christ's perpetual continuance under a state of death, was the nature of the priesthood, which he had taken upon him. The apostle, Heb. viii. 4, says, 'that if he were upon earth he should not be a priest.' Certainly then much less could he be so, should he continue under the earth. The two great works of his priesthood were to offer sacrifice, and then to make intercession for sinners, correspondent to the two works of the Mosaical priesthood; in which the priest first slew the lamb, and then with the blood of it entered into the holy of holies, there to appear before God in the behalf of the people. Christ therefore, after that he had offered himself upon the cross, was to enter into heaven, and, there presenting himself to the Father, to make that sacrifice effectual to all the intents and purposes of it. Upon which account the apostle, to express his fitness for the priesthood infinitely beyond any of the sons of Aaron, states it upon this, that he lives for ever to make intercession for us, and,' upon that very score also, is able to save to the uttermost.'' But surely the dead could not intercede for the living, nor was the grave a sanctum sanctorum. Had not Christ risen again, his blood indeed

1 Heb. vii. 25.

might have cried for vengeance upon his murderers, but not for mercy upon believers. In short, it had spoken no better things than the blood of Abel, which called for nothing but a fearful judgment upon the head of him who shed it. Christ's death merited a redemption for the world, but Christ while dead could not show forth the full effects of that redemption. He made the purchase at his death, but he could not take possession till he was returned to life. Ever since Christ ascended into heaven, he has been pursuing the great work begun by him upon the cross, and applying the virtue of his sacrifice to those for whom it was offered. It is affirmed by some, and that not without great probability of reason, that the souls of the saints who died before Christ's resurrection did not actually enter into a state of complete glory till Christ, the great Captain of their salvation, upon his ascension first entered into it himself, and then made way for others. So that according to that divine anthem of the church, "after that he had overcome the sharpness of death, then," at length, and not till then, "he opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers." And thus I have given five several reasons, why it was not possible that a state of death should finally prevail over Christ, which was the thing to be proved. And I have nothing further to recommend to your consideration, but only two things, which the very nature of the subject seems of itself to imprint upon all pious minds.

1. The first is a dehortation from sin, and that indeed the strongest that can be. For can we imagine that the second person in the glorious Trinity, would concern himself to take upon him our flesh,

and to suffer, and die, and at length rise again, only to render us the more secure and confident in our sins? Would he neither see, nor endure any corruption in his dead body, that we should harbour all the filth and corruption imaginable in our immortal souls? Did he conquer and triumph over death, that we should be the slaves and captives of that which is worse than death? Christ has declared that he will dwell in those, whom he assumes into the society of his mystical body. But can we think, that he who passed from a clean, new sepulchre into an heavenly mansion, will descend from thence to take up his habitation in the rotten sepulchre of an heart possessed and polluted with the love of that which he infinitely hates? It will little avail us that Christ rose from a temporal death, unless we also rise from a spiritual. For those who do not imitate as well as believe Christ's resurrection, must expect no benefit by it.

2. Christ's resurrection is an high and sovereign consolation against death. Death we know is the grand enemy of mankind, the merciless tyrant over nature, and the king of terrors. But, blessed be God, Christ has given a mortal blow to his power, and broke his sceptre. And if we, by a through conquest of our sins and rising from them, can be but able to say, 'O sin, where is thy power?' We may very rationally and warrantably, say thereupon, ' O death, where is thy sting?' So that when we come to resign back these frail bodies, these vessels of mortality to the dust from whence they were taken, we may yet say of our souls as Christ did of the damsel whom he raised up, that she was not dead, but only slept ;' for, in