Works, Book 1 · Discourse 13
DISCOURSE XIII.
S. LUKE 24. 45, 46.
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures: And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day.
OUR Blessed Saviour, after he was risen from the dead, told his Disciples, not only that his Suffering of death and Rising again the third day was foretold in the Scriptures, but also pointed out those Scriptures unto them, and opened their understanding, that they might understand them; that is, he expounded or explained them unto them: Certain it is therefore, that somewhere in the Old Testament these things were foretold should befall Messiah. Yea S. Paul, 1 Cor. 15. 3, 4. will further assure us that they are; I delivered unto you, saith he, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures: And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. Both of them therefore are somewhere foretold in the Scriptures; and it becomes not us to be so ignorant as commonly we are, which those Scriptures be which foretell them. It is a main point of our Faith, and that which the Iews most stumble at, because their Doctors had not observed any such thing foretold to Messiah. The more they were ignorant thereof, the more it concerns us to be confirmed therein. I thought good therefore to make this the Argument of my Discourse at this time, to inform both you and my self where these things are foretold, and, if I can,Luke. 24. 45. to point out those very Scriptures which our Saviour here expounded to his Disciples.
Which that I may the better do, I will make the words fore-going my Text to be as the Pole-star in this my search: These are the things (saith our Saviour) which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then follow the words I read, Then opened he their understanding, &c. These two events therefore, of Messiah's death and rising again the third day, were foretold in these Three parts of Scripture, In the Law of Moses or Pentateuch, in the Nebiim or Prophets, and in the Psalms; and in these Three we must search for them. And first for the First, That Messiah should suffer death.
This was fore-signified in the Law or Pentateuch, First in the story of Abraham, where he was commanded to offer his son Isaac, the son wherein his seed should be called,Gen. 22. 18. and to whom the promise was entailed, That in it should all the Nations of the world be blessed. What was here acted else but the Mystery of Christ's Passion? to wit, That the promised seed should make all the Nations of the world blessed, by becoming a sacrifice for sin? which that it might be the more evident, the Place is also designed, the region of Mount Moriah; there Abraham was bid to offer his …on Isaac, even where Messiah, who was then in the loins of Isaac, was one day to be offered upon the Cross.
The Second prediction in the Law of Messiah's suffering death, was by the slaying of Beasts, for atonement of sin, in their Sacrifices; which were nothing else but shadows and representations of that Offering upon the Cross which Messiah was one day to make of himself for the sins of the world. Which Mystery of the end of those Legal sacrifices was shewed in the former story of Abraham's offering Isaac: For when he had now brought his son to the place appointed, and had built an Altar, and was now ready to stay him, as he was commanded; the Angel of the Lord stayed his hand, and shewed him a Ram caught in a thicket by the horns; which Ram Abraham took, and offered for a burnt-offering in stead of his son; to signifie, that the offering of the Blessed seed was yet to be suspended, and that God in the mean while would accept the offerings of Bulls and Rams, as a pledge of that expiation which the Blessed seed of Abraham in the loins of Isaac should one day make.
And thus much for the Law. Now I come to the Prophets, wherein I find Three evident Prophecies, That Messiah should suffer death. The first is that famous one, the 53. of Esay, the whole Chapter through; I will not repeat it all, but some two or three passages thereof. Verse 5. He was wounded, saith the Prophet, for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Ver. 7. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a Sheep before her Shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. Ver. 8. He was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken. Now that this Prophecy was one of those by which the Apostles used to prove this Verity, appears by the stroy of the conversion of the Eunuch, Acts 8. unto whom Philip coming, whilst he was in his Chariot, reading this place of Scripture, and he thereupon asking Philip, of whom the Prophet spake these words; the*Verse 35. Text tells us, that Philip began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Iesus.
The Second place in the Prophets which foretells That Christ should suffer, is that in the ninth of Daniel, who pointing out the time of Messiah's coming by Seventy weeks,Verse 25. 26. limits his count, not at his Birth, but at his Suffering, as the most principal moment of his story. From the going out of the commandment, saith he, to restore and build Ierusalem, unto Messiah the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and sixty two weeks— And after sixty two weeks shall Messiah be cut off. What can be more plain than this?
A Third place in the Prophets is to be found Zachary 12. 10. where, at the time when the Iews shall be converted, Christ is brought in speaking in this manner; I will pour out, saith he, upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Hence it follows, that the Iews should have pierced Messiah before they received him to be their Redeemer. And that this place also was one of those applied by the Apostles to this purpose, appears by S. Iohn's twice alledging it: Once in his Gospel, when a Souldier with a Spear pierced our Saviours side; Then, saith he, was fulfilled that Scripture which saith, They shall look upon him whom they pierced: Iohn 19. 37.Again, in the beginning of his Revelation, Behold (saith he) he cometh in the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him.
Now for the Third division of Scripture, the Psalms, the chief, at least,A…oc. 1. 7. and principal place there which I dare warrant is that of the 16. Psalm, v. 9, 10. quoted both by S. Peter and S. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles: My …lesh shall rest in hope; For thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave, neither suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Acts 2. 26, 27. & Chap. 13. 35.For David, as S. Peter and S. Paul say, was buried, and his body saw corruption; therefore it cannot be spoken of him, but of Messiah in the person of David, as a Type in whose loyns Messiah was. Now then if Messiah's body were to be laid in the grave, it follows he was to die, and to be in the state of the dead.
AND thus I have done the First part of my task, and proved That Messiah was to suffer death, according to the Scriptures, namely, foretold in that Threefold division of Scripture mentioned here by our Saviour, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms. Now I come to prove the other part, That it behoved him also to rise again the third day, according to the Scriptures.
And this was first foreshewn in the same story of Isaac, wherein his sacrifice or suffering was acted… For from the time that God commanded Isaac to be offered for a burnt-offering, Isaac was a dead man; but the third day he was released from death. This the Text tells us expresly, that it was the third day when Abraham came to Mount Moriah, C…n. 22. 4.and had his son, as it were, restored to him again; which circumstance there was no need nor use at all to have noted, had it not been for some Mystery. For had there been nothing intended but the naked story, what did it concern us to know whether it were the third or the fifth day that Abraham came to Moriah, where he received his son from death? Now, that I have not misapplied this figure, S. Paul is my witness, who expresly makes this release of Isaac from slaughter a figure of the Resurrection: For thus he speaks of this whole story, Hebrews 11. 17, 18, 19. By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only-begotten Son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
The same was foreshewed by the Law of Sacrifices, which were to be eaten before the third day; some Sacrifices were to be eaten the same day they were offered, but those which were deferred longest, as the Peace-offerings, were to be eaten before the third day. The third day no sacrifice might be eaten, but was to be burnt: If it were eaten, it was not accepted for an atonement, but counted an abomination: namely, to shew that the Sacrifice of Messiah, which these Sacrifices represented, was to be finished the third day by his rising from the dead … and therefore the Type thereof determined within that time, beyond which time it was not accepted for atonement of sin, because then it was no longer a Type of him.
Thus far the Law. As for the Prophets, I find no express Prediction in them for the time of Christ's rising (For that of the case of the Prophet Ionah, I take to be rather an Allusion than a Prophecy:) only in general, That Christ should rise again, is implied both in that famous Prophecy of Esay the 53. and that of Zachary 12.Esay 53. 10. In the former, forasmuch as it is said, that after he had made his soul a sacrifice for sin, he should see his seed, and prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand: And again, that the Lord should divide him a portion with the great, and that he should divide the spoil with the strong, because he had poured out his soul unto death: Ver. 12.Which argues that he should not only live again, but be victorious after he had died. In that of Zachary it is said,Zach. 12. 10. the Iews should look upon, or see, him whom they had formerly pierced; and, that in that day he would pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplication: therefore he was to live again after they had pierced him.
I come to the Psalms, where not only his Rising again is prophesied of, but the Time thereof determined; though at first sight it appears not so: namely, in that fore-alledged passage of the sixteenth Psalm, Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hell, nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. All men shall rise again, but their bodies must first return to dust, and see corruption. But Messiah was to rise again before he saw corruption: If before, then the third day at farthest; for then the Body naturally begins to see corruption. This may be gathered by the story of Lazarus in the Gospel, where Iesus commanding the stone to be rolled from his Grave,*Iohn 11. 3…. Vid. M…rsu Glo…ar. Graeco-barbarum, in foreign …. Martha his sister answered, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four days. Also by that Rule given by the Masters of Physick, That those who die of the Apoplexie, suffocation of the Mother, or like sudden deaths, should not be buried till seventy two hours were past; because within that time they might revive; and Examples are given of those who have done so. They give also a reason of it in nature: Because, say they, in that time the Humors of the Body make their revolution; the Phlegm in one day or twenty four hours, the Choler in two days or forty eight hours, the Melancholy in three days, which is seventy two hours; and this to be the reason why an Ague founded in an inflammation of Phlegm returns every day, an Ague which comes from Choler every other day, an Ague from Melancholy every third day. Now if a Body may be kept so long unburied, it is supposed it may continue so long uncorrupted; (namely where a corruption is not begun before death, as in some diseases) but longer it will not continue. When therefore it is so often inculcated in the New Testament, that our Saviour should rise again the third day; the Holy Ghost, in so speaking, respects not so much the number of days, as the fulfilling of Scripture, That Messiah's body should not see corruption, but should rise before the time wherein dead bodies begin to corrupt: and indeed our Saviour rose again within forty hours after he gave up the Ghost, and was not two full days in the grave. Therefore, if there be any other Scripture which implies Messiah should rise before his Body should see corruption, that Scripture, whatsoever it be, shews he should rise again within three days.