28.—And as a farther Evidence of his actual dying there, we add likewife, that he was

Buried; which was done in fuch a Manner, as to fulfil Ifaiah's Prophecy of him in this Particular, liii. 9. for he made his Grave with the Wicked, and with the Rich in his Death.—With the Wicked, in dying as a common Malefactor; and with the Rich, in that Jofeph, a rich Man of Arimathea, begged his Body of Pilate, and having wound it in Linen Clothes with Spices, as the Manner of the Jews is to bury, laid it in a new Sepulchre, wherein was never Man yet laid, John xix. 38, &c. And these Particulars of his Death and Burial are likewife neceffary to be mentioned, both to ascertain his Death against those wicked Men, who afferted that he only fuffered in Appearance; and alfo in order more fully to evince the Reality of his raifing himself from the Dead.-The laft Words of this Article are, that

He defcended into Hell; which being capable of very different Interpretations, and having actually been fo interpreted; whilst the Church, in her third Article, adopts none of those Interpretations, but leaves every one to understand them as the Words will bear, and as he thinks most agreeable to the Holy Scripture; all I fhall obferve of them fhall be this,

That the original Words, which we translate Hell, do both in the Old and New Testament, most commonly fignify the Grave only, or at moft the Place or Habitation of departed Souls.

That

That the Paffage Acts ii. 31. on which this part of the Article feems to be founded, and where St. Paul fays of Chrift, that his Soul was not left in Hell; that, I fay, this Paffage is certainly here interpreted by St. Paul to fignify that he was not fuffered to continue long in a State of Death; but his Soul was so soon united to his Body, as to prevent its being corrupted.

That they who understand this of the Defcent of our Saviour's Soul to the place of the Damned, and of what he did there, have no Warrant at all from the Holy Scriptures for any fuch Interpretations, but appear fond of Enquiries into what we neither are taught, nor are concerned to know; and therefore

That it is at leaft very fafe and very fufficient to understand thefe Words as I do, to fignify no more than this: That as our Blessed Lord was actually dead and buried, fo he continued fome Time in that State; his Body being laid and remaining in the Sepulchre, and his Soul being all that Time feparated from it, and continuing in the fame State as those of good Men will do during the Time of their Separation.

VOL. II.

A a

LECTURE

LECTURE III.

The fifth Article.

The third Day he rofe again from the Dead.

H

AVING thus attended our Bleffed Lord through his State of Humiliation, and declared our Faith of what he suffered for us as Man, we now proceed to his Glorification, which begun with his Refurrection from the Dead.-And on this Article we may observe the Time of his Rifing, and the Certainty, and the Importance of it. The Time of his Refurrection was

The third Day after he died, reckoning inclufively of both.-The Jews meant by Days a Day and a Night, as we do, when we fay there are so many Days in a Week, Month, or Year; and by a very common Figure in moft Languages of taking a Part for the Whole, they faid any thing lafted fo many Days and Nights, which lafted any part of the first and laft Day of that Number.—And în this Senfe our Lord is faid in Scripture-Language to have lain three Days and three Nights, that is, three Days according to their Manner of computing, in the Heart of the Earth, Matt. A a 2

xii.

xii. 40. because he was buried before the first of the three Days ended, and did not risẹ again till the last of the three Days was be

gun.

-So that as he was buried on Friday in the Afternoon, which was the latter Part of their fifth Day of the Week, he rose again the Beginning of their first Day of the Weck, which was the next Sunday Morning. -And for this Reason, in Memory of this glorious Victory of our Lord over Sin and Death, the Apostles themselves appointed that Day for their publick Affemblies [Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. xvi. 2.] and celebrating the Holy Sacrament; and St. John therefore called it the Lord's Day, Rev. i. 10. And from their Time to this the Chriftian Church has conftantly observed it as the Christian Sabbath; the Deliverance and the Bleffings being much greater which we receive by our Lord's Refurrection, than those of the Jewish Deliverance from Egypt, or the Creation, in Memory of which the Jewish Sabbath and the Jewish Year were fettled by God himself.-The Reason why he lay fo long in the Grave was to fulfil the Predictions which he had given his Difciples, that he fhould rife again the third Day, Matt. xvi. 21. and the Reafon why he lay no longer there was, that his Body might not fee Corruption, Acts ii. 31.

The Certainty of this great Event cannot be doubted of, if the Witneffes to it be impartially heard.Our Lord first appeared to the

Women,