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Suspicion of taking down the Body, a Guard of Soldiers was set to watch it, lest any out of Kindness or Pity should carry it away and bury it. And therefore it may be fitly enough ask'd how our Saviour came to obtain this Privilege? In answer to which,

This Favour was obtain'd partly upon the Interceffion of a great Man in the Country, who begg'd his Body, and partly upon the Request of the Jews, by whose Suit and Importunity he was sentenc'd to undergo this Punishment: and both so order'd by Divine Providence, for fulfilling the Prophecies concerning him.

Tho the Law of the Romans, for the greater Shame and Terror of Crucifixion, requir'd the expofing the Body till it was either devour'd or confum'd; yet that Law was not fo Arict as to admit of no Relaxation, for the Roman Governours had power to mitigate it, and to grant the leave of Burial. Accordingly therefore we read, That Joseph of Arimathea, a rich Man and honourable, and consequently of no mean Interest in his Country, came and befought Pilate that be might take away the Body of Jesus. Pilate was not backward in granting this Request, but commanded the Body to be deliver'd; and indeed, he who so oft declar'd, that be found no fault in him when alive, could not well deny this Favour being dead: and having obtain'd this leave, he took his facred Body from the cursed Tree in order to his Interment. 'Tis said indeed, that this honourable Counsellor came fecretly, for fear of the Fews; doubting left they, who call'd so loudly for his Crucifying, should proceed farther to prevent his Interment : but it prov'd quite otherwise, for the Jews join'd in the Request, and they who clamour'd for his Death, petition'd for his Burial. That which mov'd them hereunto, was the general Custom of the Jews to bury those that were sentenc'd to die, and the same day too that they suffer'd; which Custom was grounded on a Law of Moses, requiring, that if a Man have committed a Sin worthy of Death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a Tree, his Body Shall not remain all night upon the Tree, but thou shalt in any wife bury him that day; Deut. 21. 22, 23. This made the Jews, that his Body might not remain on the Cross the next Day, which was their Sabbath-Day, beseech Pilate that it might be taken away and bury'd: as we read, John 19.31. The Verse before our Text tells us, that Nicodemus a Ruler of the Jews, who at the first came to Fefus by night, now came more openly, and brought a Mix

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ture of Myrrh and Aloes, a hundred Pound weight, to embalm bim.

This Custom of embalming dead Bodies hath been very antient: the Egyptians took more than ordinary Care about it, for we read that they embalm'd their Dead in the most curious and costly manner imaginable; which fome think proceeded from their Hopes of a Resurrection; others ascribe it to an Opinion, that the Soul does not chuse a new Body till the former be corrupted; and therefore to preserve its former Habitation, they us'd the most exquifite and expenfive Art to keep it from Corruption, by which means we read of Bodies, thus preserv'd many hundred Years: yea, we are told of some embalm'd near three thousand Years ago, which are found intire at this day. This Custom we find in our Saviour's days, who commended the Woman, having an Alabaster Box of Ointment very precious, for breaking it and pouring it on his Head; saying, she did this beforehand to anoint bis Body to the Burying; Mark 14. 3, 8. And both Mary Magdalen and the other Mary bought Spices, that they might come and anoint him; Mark 16. 1.

But, befide the Spices, our Text tells us, that his Body was wrapped up in Linen Clothes: this was likewise the antient Custom of arraying the Dead, as appears by Lazarus, who came forth bound Hand and Feet, with the GraveClothes, and his Face bound about with a Napkın: John 11. 44. In like manner, St. Peter, looking into the Sepulchre of our Saviour, saw the linen Clothes lie, and the Napkin that was about his Head; John 20.6, 7.

Thus having, according to the Custom of the Jews, prepar'd his Body for the Sepulchre, Joseph of Arimathea, a good Man and a just, who also waited for the Kingdom of God, prepar'd a Sepulchre for his Body, and such a one too wherein never Man laid; for be bew'd it out of a Rock for his own Tomb ! where having decently laid up the Body of our Lord, he roll'd agreat Stone at the door of the Sepulchre, and departed. Thus was our blessed Saviour honourably entomb'd, and his Body inter'd with all the solemn Rites of Burial.

All which was so order'd by Divine Providence, for the fulfilling the Prophecies concerning him.

He was numbred among Tranfgreffors, by his living and dying with them: After which, according to the Prophecy of Isaiah, he made his Grave with the wicked, by being bury'd after the manner of finful Flesh; and likewise with the

Rich in his Death, being entomb'd in a large hollow Vault, prepar'd for the Burying place of a great and rich Counsellor, where, according to the Prediction of the Pfalmist, bis Flesb did rest in Hope of a glorious Refurrection, which in the space of three Days, before the Body began to putrify, came to pass: thereby verifying the following words, Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to See Corruption. By which the Prophecies concerning him were fully and compleatly accomplish'd.

Thus we have brought the Son of God to his Grave, in which he was laid by a Counsellor and Ruler of the Jews, the whole Action being perform'd as the manner of the Jews is to bury; where we must leave him, with a Band of Soldiers watching the Sepulchre, and fee what we may learn from his Burial. And,

1. Christ's Burial may fully confirm us in the Truth of his Death, and the Verity of his Resurrection; for Men are not wont to bury any but those that are dead, nor are any faid to rise again that were never bury'd. Pilate was very inquifitive of those who requested the Body of Jesus, how long be had been dead; and was fully fatisfy'd of his Death, before he consented to the Delivery of him to be buried : And we too may be as thorowly convinc'd that he was a dead Man, when he was thus publickly and folemnly laid in his Grave by those that effected it; and as firmly believe his Resurrection, when he was after found alive by those that expected it.

2. Christ's Burial should teach us a Conformity to it by being dead and buried unto Sin, and his rifing again should make us walk in Newness of Life. There is a mystical Meaning and Design in all the great Transactions, both of our Saviour's Life and Death; and we are to learn many great and weighty Lessons from both. The Apostle minds us, That we are buried with him in Baptism, that the Body of Sin might be destroy'd; and elsewhere, that we are bury'd with him unto Death, that henceforth we should die unto Sin, and live unto him who dy'd for us. By this we shall make a right use of the Death of our Saviour, and our Sorrow for Sin is our best Mourning at his Funeral.

Lastly, From our Saviour's Burial, and the Solemnities us'd about it, we may learn the decent Care that is to be taken of our dead Bodies, and the due Honour and Respect that is to be paid to them. This is no more than what hath been observ'd in all Times and Nations, who have ever paid

fome

some Respects to the Remains of the Dead, and laid them up fafe in the Repofitories of the Grave; and to be depriv'd of it, hath been ever reckon'd one of the greatest Punishments that could be inflicted on the worst of Malefactors. But this decent and laudable Practice is so well observ'd among us to this day, that little else needs to be spoken to it; but only to admonish some upstart Sectaries lately risen up amongst us, whose want of Understanding is the sole Cause of that great Neglect, and the little Regard they shew in this matter.

DISCOURSE XVII.

ACTS ii. 27.

Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell.

W

E are yet upon the Fourth Article of the Creed, which contains the several Steps and Degrees of our Saviour's Paffion.

In the Expofition whereof, having seen our Blessed Saviour crucified, dead, and buried; I proceed to the last and lowest step of his Humiliation, contain'd in these words, He descended into Hell.

The Belief of this Branch of the Article is grounded on these words of Holy Scripture, Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hett. They are part of St. Peter's excellent and successful Sermon to the Jews, wherein he minds them of their great Cruelty in crucifying and putting to death the Lord of Life; which had that good effect upon them, that many hundreds of them were prick'd at the Heart with the Sense and Remorse of their Sin, and ask'd what they should do to be fav'd from the Guilt of it ?

In this Sermon, after some short account of what David foretold of the Death and Burial of the Messias, St. Peter brings him in saying, in the Perfon of our Saviour, Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell. Which words, by reason of the Ambiguity of the word Sheolin Hebrew, and Hades in Greek, both which are in English translated Hell, have fomewhat a difficult and obscure fignification: and therefore, in explaining of them, I must,

First, Shew the most probable Sense and Meaning of this Article. And,

Secondly, See what Use we are to make of it. For the

First, Divers Senses have been given of Christ's descending into Hell; the principal whereof, I shall discover and examine, that we may the better come to the knowledge of the Truth in this matter. And,

1. Some, because the Extremity of Pain is in Scripture sometimes express'd by Hell, as in that of the Pfalmist, The Pains of Hell got hold upon me, have thought this Expression to refer to those grievous and almost insufferable Pains which Christ indur'd in his Soul in the Garden, when in his Agony he sweat great drops of Blood, and groaning under the horror of the Dereliction, he cry'd out in the anguish and bitterness of his Soul, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! Which Pains being attended with some kind of Despair, and confequently of the fame nature with the Torments of the Damn'd, are compar'd to, and express'd by Hell.

But these being antecedent to his Crucifixion, and going before both his Death and Burial, cannot be his descending into Hell; which, both in Holy Scripture, and the Creed, plainly relate to something that came after and follow'd both.

2. Therefore others, because the word Sheol, here translated Hell, is in Scripture frequently us'd to fignify no more than the Grave; as in that of facob, I will go down mourning to my Son in Hell; that is, in the Grave; Gen. 37. 35. and again, Ye shall bring down my grey Hairs with forrow to the Grave, the fame word which is here render'd Hell, Gen. 42. 38. I say others, for this reason, have thought his descending into Hell to be no more than his going into the Grave, or the lower parts of the Earth.

But this importing no more than his being buried, which is mention'd before, it cannot reasonably be conceiv'd, that in this short Summary of the Christian Faith, the fame thing should be repeated again in a different Phrafe, if no more were intended by it.

But that which gives fome feeming credit to this Opinion, is, that in some Creeds, where his Burial is mention'd, his Descent into Hell is left out; and in others, where his Descent into Hell is mention'd, his Burial is omitted: of

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