More particularly, I will show how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory. As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death; it becoming the holy Majesty of God, and conducing ⟨p. 90⟩to the ends of his Government, not to derogate from the dignity of his Law, but to lay the penalty upon his Son, who interposed for us. Now having finished the work of our Redemption by his sufferings, his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion. And 'tis observable that his Resurrection, tho one entire act, is ascribed as to himself,1 so to his Father, by whose consent and concurrence he rose again. Therefore 'tis said, Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of Death: 2since it was impossible he should be holden by it. 'Twas naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person, and legally impossible, because divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life; partly to vindicate his innocence, for he was reputed, and suffered as a Malefactor, ⟨p. 91⟩and principally because he had fully satisfied God. Accordingly the Apostle declares, he died for our Sins, 3and rose again for our Justification. Having paid our Debt, he was released from the Grave, and the Discharge was most solemnly published to the World. 'Tis therefore said, the God of Peace raised him from the dead: 4the act is most congruously ascribed unto God, invested with that title, because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work, after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant. Briefly, Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying, his Triumph by rising again. He foiled our common Enemy in his own territories the Grave. His Death was a Counter poison to Death it self: as a bruised Scorpion is a‖ noble Antidote against its Venom. ⟨p. 92⟩Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection. For 'tis apparently more difficult that the Son of God, who originally possesses Immortality, should die, than that the humane Body united to him, should be raised to a glorious Life. It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections, Impossibility, and Immortality, than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities, Sufferings, and Death.
More particularly, I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory. As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death; it becoming the holy Majesty of God, and conducing ⟨p. 90⟩to the ends of his Government, not to derogate from the dignity of his Law, but to lay the penalty upon his Son, who interposed for us. Now having finish'd the work of our Redemption by his sufferings, his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion. And 'tis observable that his Resurrection, tho one entire act, is ascribed as to himself,1 so to his Father, by whose consent and concurrence he rose again. Therefore 'tis said, Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of Death: 2since it was impossible he should be holden by it. 'Twas naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person, and legally impossible, because divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life; partly to vindicate his innocence, for he was reputed, and suffered as a Malefactor, ⟨p. 91⟩and principally because he had fully satisfied God. Accordingly the Apostle declares, he died for our Sins, 3and rose again for our Justification. Having paid our Debt, he was releas'd from the Grave, and the Discharge was most solemnly publish'd to the World. 'Tis therefore said, the God of Peace raised him from the dead: 4the act is most congruously ascribed unto God, invested with that title, because his Power was exerted in that glorious Work, after he was reconciled by the Blood of the Covenant. Briefly, Our Saviour's Victory over Death was obtained by dying, his Triumph by rising again. He foil'd our common Enemy in his own territories the Grave. His Death was a Counter poison to Death it self: as a bruised Scorpion is a‖ noble Antidote against its Venom. ⟨p. 92⟩Indeed his Death is incomparably a greater Wonder than his Resurrection. For 'tis apparently more difficult that the Son of God, who originally possesses Immortality, should die, than that the humane Body united to him, should be raised to a glorious Life. It is more conceivable that God should communicate to the humane Nature some of his Divine Perfections, Impossibility, and Immortality, than that he should submit to our lowest Infirmities, Sufferings, and Death.
- 1Rom. 1. 11.
- 2Acts. 2. 24.
- 3Rom. 4.
- 4Heb. 13.
- ‖Qui sibi ipse pulcherimum medicamentum. Celsus.
