Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 13
S. LUKE 24. 45.Luke 24. 45.
Then opened be their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. 46. 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 onelyonly 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 the 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 received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. 4. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. Both of them therefore, are somwhere 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 Jews most stumble at, because their Doctors had not observed any such thing of 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, 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 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 Messiahs death and rising again the third day, were foretold in these three parts of Scripture, in the Law of Moses, or Pentateuch, in the Neb im, or Prophets, and in the Psalmes; 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, 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 Christs Passion? to wit, that the promised seed should make all the Nations of the world blessed, by becomming 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 son Isaac, even where Messiah, who was then in the loins of Isaac, was one day to be offered upon the Crosse.
The second prediction in the Law, of Messiahs suffering death, was by the slaying of Beasts, for the atonement of sin in their sacrifices; which were nothing else but shadows and representations of that offering upon the Crosse, which Messiah was one day to make of himself for the sins of the world. Which mystery of the end of those legall sacrifices, was shewed in the former story of Abrahams offering Isaac: For when he had now brought his son to the place appointed, and had built an Altar, and was now ready to slay 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 Buls and Rams, as a pledge of that expiation, which the blessed seed of Abraham in the loyns of Isaac, should one day make.
And thus much for the Law; now I come to the Prophets, wherein I finde three evident Prophecies that Messiah should suffer death. The first is that famous one in the 53. of Isay the whole Chapter through; I will not repeat it all, but some two or three passages thereof: ver. 5. He was wounded, saith the Prophet, for our transgressions, he was bruised for … in…quities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed: And ver. 7. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, … as a Sheep before his Shearers is dumb, so he opened noi his mouth. Ver. 8. He was cut off out of the Land of the living; for the transgression of my people was … smitten. Now that this Prophecy was one of those by which the Apostles used to prove this verity, appears by the story of the conversion of the Eunuch Acts 8. unto whom Philip comming whilst he was in his Chariot, reading this place of Scripture, and h… thereupon asking Philip, of whom the Prophet spake these words, the Text tels us, that Philip began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Iesus.
The second place, which foretels that Christ should suffer, is that in the ninth of Daniel, who pointing ou… the time of Messiah's comming by seventy weeks, limits his account, not at his birth, but at his suffering; as the most principall moment of his story. From the going out of the commandement, saith he, to restore, and build Ierusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and sixty two weeks:—and after sixty … weeks, shall Messiah be cut off: what can be more plain then this?
A third place in the Prophets, is to be found Zachary 12. 10. where, at the time when the Jews shall be converted, Christ is brought in speaking in this manner; I will poure 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 Jews 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. Iohns twice alledging it. Once in his Gospel, when a Souldier with a Spear pierced our Saviours side; Then, saith he, was fulfilled that Ioh. 19. 37.Scripture, which saith, They shall look upon him whom they have pierced. Again, in the beginning of his Revelation, Apol. 1. 7.Behold (saith he) he commeth 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 principall place there which I dare warrant, is that Acts 2. 26, 27. 13. 35.of the 16. Psalm, quoted both by S. Peter, and S. Paul in the Acts of the Apostles; My flesh shall rest in hope, for thou wilt not leave my soule in the grave, neither suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 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 Messiahs 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 tels us expresly, that it was the third day, when Abraham came to Mount Moriah, 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 witnesse, who expresly makes this release of Isaac from slaughter, a figure of the Resurrection: For thus he speaks of this whole story, Hebrews 11. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that received the promises, offered up his onelyonly begotten Sonne. Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be cal led. 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 foreshewn 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: 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 finde no expresse prediction in them, for the time of Christs rising (for that of the Prophet Ionah, I take to be rather an allusion, then a Prophecie:) onelyonly in generall it is implyed, that Christ should rise again; both in that famous Prophecie of Esay, the 53. and that of Zachary 12. In the former it is said, that after he had made his soul a sacrifice for sin, He should see his seed, and prolong his dayes, 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 spoile with the strong, because he had poured out his soul unto death: which argues that he should not onelyonly live again, but be victorious after he had died. In that of Zachary it is said, the Iews should look upon, or see him whom they had formerly pierced; and, that in that day he would powre 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 onelyonly 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 *vi. Meurs…i Glos. sar. Graeco. barba. rum, in foreign. citat ev Triodio.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, Martha his sister answered, Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath been dead four daies. 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 humours of the body make their revolution; the flegme in one day, or twenty four hours; the choler in two dayes, or forty eight hours; the melancholy in three dayes, which is seventy two hours: and this to be the reason why an Ague, founded in an inflammation of flegme, returns every day; an Ague, which comes from choler, every other day; from melancholy, every third day: Now if a body may be kept so long unburied, it is supposed it may be kept 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 dayes, as the fulfilling of Scripture, that Messiahs body should not see corruption, but should rise before the time, wherin 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 dayes 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 daies.