ciling him to men, who by sin were alienated from him this topic dilated on.

Other subordinate designs and effects of our Lord's death stated; as, the reparation of God's honor; the ratification of the new covenant; the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth; the defeat of death, and of the powers of darkness; the engaging us to the practice of all righteousness and obedience; for attestation to, and confirmation of divine truth.

V. Some of the practical influences which a consideration of this point should have on us. 1. It should beget in us the highest degree of love and gratitude towards God, and our Saviour. 2. It should raise in us great faith and hope in God, excluding all distrust or despair. 3. It should comfort and satisfy us in regard to our sins, supposing that we heartily repent of them. 4. It discovers to us their heinousness, and thereby should move our detestation of them. 5. It should work in us a kindly contrition and remorse for them; 6. and engage us carefully to avoid them, as crucifying him afresh. 7. It should engage us to patience and resignation to the will of God. 8. It obliges us to the deepest mortification, in conformity with Christ's death, being with him crucified to the lusts of the flesh. 9. It is also a strong engagement to the fullest measure of charity towards our brethren. 10. We are hence obliged to yield ourselves wholly up to the service of our Saviour, to the promoting of his interest and glory; since, as St. Paul observes, we are not our own; being bought with a price, &c, Conclusion.

Dead and Buried.

SERMON XXVII.

I CORINTHIANS, CHAP. XV.-VERSE 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.

ST. PAUL, meaning in this chapter to maintain a 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, év púтois, 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 on the same foundations with Christianity itself, on 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 consequence, so it much concerneth us both firmly to believe it and well to understand it; for it is by faith in his blood that we are justified, and by knowing Christ crucified we shall be chiefly edified; the word imparting this knowlege being the power 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 to 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 on 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 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 knowlege, appetite and passion;) that death, which is caused by violent disunion, or dislocation, by distempering, or however indisposing the parts, humors, spirits of the body, so that the soul 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 therein; that death, which is supposed to consist in the dissolution of that vital band, whatever it be, whereby the soul is linked and united to the body; or in that which is thereon consequent, the separation, department, and absence of the soul from the body; each of that couple, on their divorce, returning home to their original principles, as it were; the body 'to the earth from whence it was taken,' and 'the spirit unto God who gave it.' Such causes antecedent are specified in the story; such signs following 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 on 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 on him he is said, ἀποκτείνεσθαι, to be killed or slain ; διαχειρί Zeola, to be dispatched; avaipeiola, to be made away; άлоλéσαι, to perish, or be destroyed; éžoλo@peveσlaι, to be cut off, as it is in Daniel; opárreolaι, to be slaughtered; Oúcola, to be sacrificed; which words do all of them fully import a real and proper death to have ensued on those violent usages toward him.

And by the ordinary signs of death, apparent to sense, the soldiers judged him dead; and therefore, is eldov avτòv ĥdη Te0ηkóra, seeing him already dead, they forbare 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 endeavors to destroy him; and his loving friends, who with compassionate respect attended on 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.

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, breathed out his soul or his last breath; St. Matthew, dρñкe тò πveõμa, animam egit, he let go his spirit, or gave up the ghost;' St. John, Tapédwкe тò πνεῦμα, Veupa, he delivered up his spirit into God's hand; the which St. Luke expresseth done with a formal 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 life,' and 'bestowing it as a ransom,' which showeth him really to have parted with it.

His death also (as ours is wont to be denoted by like phrases) is termed ëtodos, excessus e vivis, a going out of life, or from the society of men; (for Moses and Elias are said to tell, Tv ěodov avrou, his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem ;) and μeráßaris, a passing over, or translation from this into another world; ( When,' saith St. John, 'Jesus knew that his time was come, iva μeraßã, that he should depart

from this world.") His death also was enigmatically described by the destruction or demolishment of his bodily temple, answerable to those circumlocutions concerning our ordinary death; the dissolution of our earthly house of tabernacle,' or transitory abode, in St. Paul; the άróleois тov σkηvwμаros, laying down, or putting off our tabernacle, in St. Peter.

It were also not hard to show 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; áváλvois, being resolved into our principles, or the returning of them thither whence they came; áróλvois, a being freed, licensed, or dismissed hence; exonuía ék тou owμaros, a going or abode abroad; a peregrination, or absentment from the body; an ěkdvσis, putting off, or being divested of the body; an apaviouòs, disappearance or cessation in appearance to be; a going hence, and not being seen ; a falling on sleep, resting from our labors, sleeping with our fathers, being added, and gathered to our fathers; being taken, or cut off out of the land of the living; going down into the pit; lying down, resting, sleeping in the dust; making our bed in darkness: these and the like phrases occurring in Scripture (which might be paralleled out of vulgar speech, and out of learned discourses) describing either the entrance into, or the abiding in the state of that death, to which all men are obnoxious, might easily be showed applicable to the death of our Saviour. His resurrection doth imply the reality of his death; for otherwise it had not been miraculous, it had not been a pledge of our resurrection. But I will not farther needlessly insist on 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, suitable to that frail, passible, and mortal nature, which he vouchsafed to undergo for us; to the condition of 'sinful flesh, in the likeness whereof he did appear;' severing his soul and body, and remitting them to their original sources; his passion was indeed ultimum supplicium, an extreme capital punish