Page images
PDF
EPUB

help us to run that Race that is fet before us with Patience, that we may finish our Course with Joy.

By that fervent Recommendation of thy Holy Soul into the Hands of thy heavenly Father, faying, Father, into thy Hands I commend my Spirit, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners, receive our Souls in the Hour of Death, and fave them from the Powers of Darkness.

By thy loud crying upon the Cross, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners, and fave us from everlasting Pains, and everlasting Cryings.

By all thy unknown Sorrows and Sufferings, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners, and fave us from the Wrath to come.

And now, O merciful God, who art the righteous Fudge of all the World, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners; and remember not against us our Sins, but remember upon Chrift's Sufferings, and that Satisfaction which he hath made to thy Justice for all our Tranfgreffions.

By that ardent and immenfe Love wherewith thou loved thy dear Son from all Eternity, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners.

By all that perfect Obedience which he yielded to all thy Commands, both living and dying, have Mercy upon us, miferable Sinners.

O merciful God, by the Memory of this Day, and by the Merits of all that our bleffed Saviour faid and fuffered from the Day of his Incarnation until this Day of his Paffion, have Mercy on us, miferable Sinners.

By his bloody Death upon the Cross, and his Burial in the Grave; by his Refurrection and Afcenfion, and continual Appearance for us in Heaven, be reconciled unto us, miferable. Sinners, and receive us again into Grace and Favour, through our Lord Jefus Chrift, bleffed for ever. Amen. Our Father, &c.

Eafter

[ocr errors]

Eafter Day.

If in this Life only we have Hope in Chrift, we are of all Men most miferable.

But now is Chrift rifen from the Dead, and become the Firstfruits of them that flept, 1 Cor. 15. 19, 20.

T

[ocr errors]

HIS Feftival muft needs be an high Festival in the Catholick Church: Whence all the Chriftian Sabbaths in the Year have their Rife and Veneration; even the Lord's Day, and the Day which the Lord hath made and marked with a fpecial Honour above all other Days, as it is written, This is the Day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad init. Why? This is the Day of Chrift's Refurrection, and his Refurrection is an Earneft and Affurance of our Refurrection. If we conclude according to the Analogy of Faith betwixt thefe First-fruits which are rifen already on this Day, and thefe After-fruits that fhall follow in their due Order betwixt Chrift the Head, and us the Members of his myftical Body the Church, which upon this Day celebrates the Faith of the one, and the Hope of the other.

[ocr errors]

With these two Arguments of Confolation in the Text, the Apoftle comforts us against all the Miferies of this Life. Wherefore let us first confider the Certainty of Chrift's Refurrection, that from thence we may comfort our felves with the Hope

of

of our own Refurrection, when we have ferved our Generation according to the Will of God, and flept a Rom. while in the Grave with our Fathers: For if we have 6. 5, 8, been planted together in the Likeness of his Death, 24. having the old Man, even the Body of Sin crucified Pfa. 16. with him by Baptifm, as in a Figure, we fhall also be Hof. 6. planted together in the Likeness of his Refurrection, as 2. Branches grafted into the Tree of Life. And again, Jer. 15. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jefus from the Dead 27. dwell in us, he that raised Chrift up from the Dead, fhall alfo quicken our mortal Bodies by his Spirit which 1 Cor. dwells in us; and fo it is written, The first Adam was 15. 45. made a living Soul, the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit.

Now that Chrift rofe from the dead, as it was foretold by the Prophets and himself; fo it was confirmed afterwards by the Apoftles and others that were Eye Witneffes beyond Exception, Men of upright Lives, found Judgments, and intimately acquainted with their bleffed Lord; not two or three, but hundreds of these, many converfing feveral Days with him after his Refurrection in the most familiar and confpicuous A&ts of Life, in eating and drinking, and difcourfing together, allowing those that doubted to touch his bleffed Body, and to thrust their Hands into his Wounds: All which convincing Circumftances, clear as the Light, and fo evident to their Senfes, obliged them to preach this Joh.12. Truth boldly, expofing themselves to the Reproaches 20, 27. and Perfecutions of wicked Men; and in fine, to feal their Teftimony with their Blood, God alfo bearing them Witness both with Signs and Wonders, and withi divers Miracles and Gifts of the Holy Ghoft, according to his own Will: Which had not been confifting with the Veracity of God (whofe infinite Goodness and Knowledge can neither deceive, nor be deceived) if fo

be

CX

be he had not raised Chrift from the dead, whereof he gave fo many evident and undeniable Proof's

As every Article of our Creed is a ftron gArgument to fupport our Faith: So this of Chrift's Refurrection, Acts whereby he hath declared himself to be the Son of 13.33. God with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, as it is written, Thou art my Son, this Day have I begotten Rom. thee Namely this Day of the Refurrection, have I 12. declared thee to be my Son by a new Birth, as it were, and Regeneration from the Grave. This faid the Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift the God of Glory, concerning our bleffed Saviour, when, according to the working -of his mighty Power he raised him from the dead, and hereby gave Witnefs unto the World, that he was his only begotten Son, even the Firft-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth, for though he was crucified through Weakness, yet he liveth by the - Power of God.

L

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

We read of fome that raised others from the dead, yet never of any that raised themselves from the dead; yea and thofe very Perfons, that were raised from the dead, were again to return to Corruption; but Chrift being raised from the dead, dieth no more, Death hath no more Dominion over him: Therefore faid he, Rom. I have Power to lay down my Life, and I have Power to 6. 9. take it again. And elsewhere, fpeaking to the Jews, John Deftroy the Temple, (namely the Temple of his Body) 10. 18. and in three Days I will build it again. Now Chrift is rifen from the dead, even now as upon this Day, the first Day of the Week, very early in the Morning; he cut the Work fhort in Righteousness, and hafted to finish the Work of our Redemption, having loofed the Pains of Death, because it was not poffible he fhould be holden of it, as it is written, My Heart is glad, and my Glory rejoiceth my Flesh alfo shall rest in Hope. For 910,

I

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

thou

Pfa. 16.

II.

(

thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell, neither wilt thou fuffer
thine holy One to fee Corruption; thou wilt few me the path
of Life: in thy Prefence is fulness of Joy, and at thy right:
Hand are Pleafures for evermore.

[ocr errors]

Befides, it was expedient he fhould rife the third Day, from the Dead, not only for his own fake, that his bleffed Body, which had this fpecial Difpenfation and Privilege, not to fuffer Corruption, as was foretold by the Pfalmift, but likewife for our fakes, both to comfort his Difciples, and to convince his Enemies of the time, as well as the truth of his Refurrection: He would reft no longer in the Grave, left his Friends fhould be swallowed up in Sorrow, nor would he rife fooner, left his Enemies fhould have doubted of his Death: But now, on the third Day, he Springs from the Grave, as the Sun from the Eaft, glorious in his Apparel, travelling in the greatness of his Strength, Behold, faid he, I do Cures to Day, and to Morrow, and the third Day I shall be perfected.

Now is the Day that Death loft its Sting, and the Grave its Victory, and Mortality was fwallowed up of Immortality: Now is the Day, that the Son of Righteousness break through the Clouds, and fprang from the Grave, having the Keys of Death, and Hell, befides an innumerable Company of Saints, for his Attendants, which role with him, as it is Written, The Breaker is come up before them; they have broken up and have paffed 2. 13. through the Gate, and are gone out by it, and their King fball pafs before them, and the Lord on the Head of them.

Mic.

Next, let us fee how Chrift's Refurrection infers our Refurrection, which appears very convincingly from this Example, which the Apoftle ufes in the Text, faying, Chrift is become the First-fruits of them that flept. As unLev.25 der the Law the Firft-fruits of the Harveft were wav

ed before the Lord, the Morrow after the Sabbath,

to

« PreviousContinue »