SERM.

XIII.

SERMON XIII.

Of the Resurrection of Chrift, and our own Resurrection.

ISAIAH xxvi. 19.

Thy dead Men fhall live, together with my dead Body fhall they arife: awake and fing, ye that dwell in the Duft.

T

HE Words are Part of the the Song of the Prophet Ifaiah, and contain a comfortable Meffage from Chrift to his Church; in the Delivery of which, the Prophet expreffes his hafty and earnest Defire, to declare thofe good Tidings; his Breaft fwells with an holy Zeal, and every Word feems ambitious to break out foremost, and hereby his Speech and Phrase is rendered broken and interrupted. Thy dead Men fhall live, together with my dead Body

Shall

Shall they arife awake and fing, ye that SERM. dwell in the Duft.

IN which Words are contained,

Į. A PROPHECY concerning our Saviour's Refurrection.

II. AN Affurance that our Bodies fhall alfo be raised from the Dead.

III. THE Ufe and Improvement which ought to be made of both these Truths: That therefore we ought to honour God, by an humble and vigilant Service; and to glorify him, with Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving: Awake and fing, ye that dwell in the Duft.

I. HERE is a Prophecy concerning the Death and Refurrection of our Saviour Christ. When he fays, With my dead Body fhall they arife, fome Interpreters are of Opinion, that the Prophet fpeaks of his own Body, which he foretold fhould arife whole and intire, though mangled and fawn asunder by the Command of King Manafes. But, fince the Refurrection of our bleffed Saviour is the only fure Foundation of our Comfort, the only rational Argument to induce us to believe the Refurrection of our own Bodies, which, as they themselves confefs, is the Design of

XIII.

the

SERM, the Text, I fhall therefore follow the geXIII. neral Current of Commentators, and take thefe Words for a Prophecy concerning the ample Completion of that great Miracle of the Refurrection of our Saviour Chrift; which is, as it were, the Corner-Stone, by which the whole Chriftian Religion is fupported, and the Bafis upon which it refts. AND, that I may fix this Truth more firmly upon your Minds, I fhall confider,

First, THE Truth.

Secondly, THE Power. And,

Thirdly, THE Glory of our Saviour's Refurrection.

I. CONSIDER the Truth and Certainty of our Saviour's Refurrection. How plainly it was foretold. in the Old Testament, and how punctually it was fulfilled in the New. Obferve all the Circumftances: He arofe the third Day; and this was exprefly foretold, After two Days will be reHofea vi. vive us, and in the third Day he will raife us up, and we shall live in his Sight. Of this Jonah was a Type; for as Jonah was three Days and three Nights in the Whale's Belly; fo was our Saviour three Mat. xii. Days and three Nights in the Heart of the Earth. This, that he was to arise in the Pf. cx. 3- Morning, was alfo prophefied of, The Dew.

2.

40.

4

Ifa. lvii.

Dew of thy Birth is of the Womb of the SERM, Morning: And again, I myself will a- XIII. wake early; or, as it is otherwife rendered, excitabo Auroram, I will raise up the 8. Morning. Which was literally accomplifhed, if what St. Chryfoftom tells us was true, that, This Day the Sun rose sooner, and before his Time, and put on his most glorious Apparel, and arrayed himself in his brightest Luftre. He remained three Days in the Grave, that all Men might be affured, that he was really dead; and he rofe the third Day, that he might suffer no Putrefaction; that fo the Prophecy of the Pfalmift might be accomplished, thou fhalt not fuffer thine holy One to see Cor- Pf. xvi. ruption. It was foretold, that the Sinners I. xxxiii. in Zion fhould be afraid, and Fearfulness 14. fhould furprize the Hypocrites. And we Mat. read, that the Soldiers, who watched the xxviii. 4. Sepulchre, were frighted and became as dead Men, when they felt the Earthquake, at which Time, the Earth and the Multi- Pf. xcvii, tude of the Ifles (as the Pfalmift foretold) danced as it were for Joy, because the Lord was King.

I.

AGAINST the Certainty of this great Miracle, we find it objected by the Jews, that the Disciples of our Saviour Christ Mat. came by Night, and ftole his Body away,

xxviii. 13.

SERM. whilft the Soldiers were asleep. And thereXIII. fore, inftead of punishing the Soldiers, for the Neglect of their Duty, they gave them Money, to countenance this Fable, and to atteft this ill-contrived Story. For what can be more ridiculous, than to imagine, that the whole Band of Soldiers fhould all fall afleep; that none of them fhould be awakened by the Rolling away of that great Stone which lay at the Entrance of the Sepulchre, or by the Earthquake which happened at that Time? It is not at all probable, that they should be fo careless, fo negligent of their Duty, and buried in fo deep a Security, when, but a little while before, they were fo ftrictly charged, fo apprehenfive of being impofed upon, and that our Saviour's Difciples would attempt to fteal him away; when they were assisted by fo many Jews, who were very follicitous, and impatiently waited the Succefs of this Affair. If the Soldiers were fo fast asleep, how could they tell what was done, how could they give fuch an exact Account what had happened in the mean While? How did it appear that our Saviour's Difciples ftole him away? But farther, how improbable is it, that the Difciples of the crucified Jefus should fteal him away? Can we imagine, that

thefe