26. if he had not done, the strength and power of the whole Law had still remained: for all the people had said Amen to the Deut. xxvii. curse upon every one that kept not the whole Law; and Nehem. x. 29. entered into a curse and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord their God, and his judgments and his statutes. Which was in the nature of a bill, bond, or obligation, perpetually standing in force against them, ready to bring a forfeiture or penalty upon them, in case of non-performance of the condition. But the strongest obligations may be cancelled; and one ancient custom of cancelling bonds was, by striking a nail through 208 the writing: and thus God, by our crucified Saviour, blotted col. ii. 14. out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to Thirdly, Hereby we are to testify the power of the death that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of Rom. vi. 6. Fourthly, By the acerbity of this passion we are taught 1 Ενόησα γὰρ ὑμᾶς κατηρτισμένους ἐν ἀκινήτῳ πίστει, ὥσπερ καθηλωμένους ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστ τοῦ σαρκί τε καὶ πνεύματι. S. Ign. Epist. ad Smyr. § 1. St Augustine speaking of the church: Mundatur, ut non habeat maculam; extenditur, ut non habeat rugam. Ubi eam extendit fullo, nisi in ligno? Videmus quotidie a fullonibus tunicas quodam- that by the worst of deaths he hath overcome all kinds of death'; and with patience and cheerfulness to endure whatsoever he shall think fit to lay upon us, who with all readiness and desire suffered far more for us. Fifthly, By the ignominy of this punishment, and universal infamy of that death, we are taught how far our Saviour descended for us, that while we were slaves and in bondage unto sin, he might redeem us by a servile death: for he Phil. ii. 7, 8. made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant; and so he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; teaching us the glorious doctrine of humility' and patience in the most vile and abject condition which can befal us in this world, and encouraging us to imitate him, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame; and withal deterring us from that fearful sin of falling from him, lest we should crucify unto ourselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to cn open shame, and so become worse than the Jews themselves, who crucified the Lord of life without the walls of Jerusalem, and for that unparalleled sin were delivered into the hands of the Romans, into whose hands they delivered him, and at the same walls in such multitudes were crucified, till there wanted room for crosses, and crosses for their bodies3. Heb. xii. 2. Hleb. vi. 6. Lastly, By the public visibility of this death, we are assured that our Saviour was truly dead, and that all his enemies were fully satisfied. He was crucified in the sight of all the Jews, who were made public witnesses that he gave up the ghost. There were many traditions among the heathen, of persons supposed for some time to be dead, to descend into hell, and afterwards to live again; but the death of those persons was never publicly seen or certainly known. It is easy for a man that liveth, to say that he hath been 1 Mori voluit pro nobis: parum dicimus; crucifigi dignatus est, usque ad mortem crucis obediens factus. Elegit extremum et pessimum genus mortis, qui omnem fuerat ablaturus mortem; de morte pessima occidit omnem mortem.' S. August. Tract. 36. in Ioan. [§ 4. Vol. III. part 2. p. 545 F.] 2 Humilitatis enim magister est Christus, qui humiliavit semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.' S. August. in Ioan. Tract. 51. [§ 3. Vol. I. part 2. p. 635 D.] 8 Προσήλουν δ' οἱ στρατιῶται δι ὀργὴν καὶ μίσος τοὺς ἁλόντας, ἄλλον ἄλλῳ σχήματι πρὸς χλεύην, καὶ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος χώρα τε ἐνελείπετο τοῖς σταυ ροῖς, καὶ σταυροὶ τοῖς σώμασιν. Joseph. de Bell, Jud. 1. v. c. 11. § 1. dead; and if he be of great authority, it is not difficult to 209 persuade some credulous persons to believe it. But that which would make his present life truly miraculous, must be the reality and certainty of his former death. The feigned histories of Pythagoras and Zamolxis, of Theseus and Hercules, of Orpheus and Protesilaus, made no certain mention of their deaths, and therefore were ridiculous in the assertion of their resurrection from death'. Christ, as he appeared to certain witnesses after his resurrection, so he died before his enemies visibly on the cross, and gave up the ghost conspicuously in the sight of the world. And now we have made this discovery of the true manner and nature of the cross on which our Saviour suffered, every one may understand what it is he professeth when he declareth his faith, and saith, I believe in Christ crucified. For thereby he is understood and obliged to speak thus much: I am really persuaded, and fully satisfied, that the only-begotten and eternal Son of God, Christ Jesus, that he might cancel the handwriting which was against us, and take off the curse which was due unto us, did take upon him the form of a servant, and in that form did willingly and cheerfully submit himself unto the false accusation of the Jews, and unjust sentence of Pilate, by which he was condemned, according to the Roman custom, to the cross; and upon that did suffer servile 1 This is excellently observed and expressed by Origen, who returneth this answer to the objection made by the Jews in Celsus, of those fabulous returns from the dead: Φέρε παραστήσωμεν, ὅτι οὐ δύναται τὸ κατὰ τὸν Ἰησοῦν ἱστορούμενον, ἐκ νεκρῶν ἐγη· γέρθαι, τούτοις παραβάλλεσθαι. Εκαστος μὲν γὰρ τῶν λεγομένων κατὰ τοὺς τόπους ἡρώων βουληθεὶς ἂν ἐδυνήθη ἑαυτὸν ὑπεκκλέψαι τῆς ὄψεως τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ πάλιν κρίνας ἐπανελθεῖν πρὸς οὓς καταλέλοιπεν· Ἰησοῦ δὲ σταυρωθέντος ἐπὶ πάντων Ιουδαίων, καὶ και θαιρεθέντος αὐτοῦ τοῦ σώματος ἐν ὄψει τοῦ δήμου αὐτῶν, πῶς οἴονται τὸ παραπλήσιον πλάσασθαι λέγειν αὐτὸν τοῖς ἱστορουμένοις ἥρωσιν εἰς ᾅδου καταβε βηκέναι, κἀκεῖθεν ἀνεληλυθέναι; φάμεν δ ̓ ὅτι μήποτε πρὸς ἀπολογίαν, τοῦ ἐσταυρῶσθαι τὸν Ἰησοῦν καὶ τοιοῦτο λέγοιτ ̓ ἄν, μάλιστα διὰ τὰ περὶ τῶν ἡρώων ἱστορηθέντα τῶν εἰς ᾅδου καταβεβηκέναι βίᾳ νομιζομένων· ὅτι εἰ καθ ̓ ὑπόθεσιν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἐτεθνήκει ἀσήμῳ θανάτῳ, οὐχ ὥστε δῆλος εἶναι ἀποθανὼν ὅλῳ τῷ δῆμῳ τῶν Ἰουδαίων, εἶτα μετὰ τοῦτ ̓ ἀληθῶς ἦν ἀναστὰς ἐκ νεκρῶν, χώραν εἶχεν ἂν τὸ ὑπονοηθὲν περὶ τῶν ἡρώων καὶ περὶ τούτου λεχθῆναι· μή ποτ ̓ οὖν πρὸς ἄλλοις αἰτίοις τοῦ σταυ ρωθῆναι τὸν ̓Ιησοῦν καὶ τοῦτο δύναται συμβάλλεσθαι τῷ αὐτὸν ἐπισήμως ἐπὶ τοῦ σταυροῦ ἀποτεθνηκέναι, ἵνα μηδεὶς ἔχῃ λέγειν, ὅτι ἑκὼν ὑπεξέστη τῆς ὄψεως τῶν ἀνθρώπων, καὶ ἔδοξεν ἀποτεθνηκέναι, οὐκ ἀποτέθνηκε δέ· ὅτ ̓ ἐβουλήθη πάλιν* ἐπιφανεὶς ἐτερατεύσατο τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν. Cont. Celsum. 1. ii. [§ 56. Vol. 1. p. 430 D.] [* For ὅτ' ἐβουλήθη πάλιν the Benedictine edition has ἀλλ'.] punishment of the greatest acerbity, enduring the pain; and DEAD. THOUGH crucifixion of itself involveth not in it certain death, and he which is fastened to a cross is so leisurely to die, as that he being taken from the same may live; though when the insulting Jews in a malicious derision called to our Mark xv. 30. Saviour to save himself, and come down from the cross; he might have come down from thence, and in saving himself have never saved us; yet it is certain that he felt the extremity of that punishment, and fulfilled the utmost intention of crucifixion so that, as we acknowledge him crucified, we believe him dead. For the illustration of which part of the Article, it will be First, then, we must consider what St Paul delivered to 1 Cor. xv. 3. the Corinthians, first of all, and what also he received, how 210 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; Rev. xiii. 8. that the Messias was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and that his death was severally represented and foretold. For though the sacrificing Isaac hath been acknowledged an express and lively type of the promised Messias; though, after he was bound and laid upon the wood, he was preserved from the fire, and rescued from the religious cruelty Heb. xi. 17. of his father's knife; though Abraham be said to have offered his only-begotten son, when Isaac died not; though by all this it might seem foretold that the true and great promised Seed, the Christ, should be made a sacrifice for sin, should be up fastened to the cross, and offered up to the Father, but not suffer death: yet being without effusion of blood is no remission, Heb, ix. 22. without death no sacrifice for sin; being the saving of Isaac alive doth not deny the death of the Antitype, but rather suppose and assert it as presignifying his resurrection from the dead, from whence Abraham received him in a figure: we may Heb. xi. 19. safely affirm the ancient and legal types did represent a Christ which was to die. It was an essential part of the paschal law, that the lamb should be slain: and in the sacrifices for sin, which presignified a Saviour, to sanctify the people with Heb. xiii. 11 his own blood, the bodies of the beasts were burnt without the camp, and their blood brought into the sanctuary. 12. 10. Nor did the types only require, but the prophecies also foretell, his death. For he was brought (saith Isaiah) as a Ṭsai. liii. 7, 8, lamb to the slaughter: he was cut off out of the land of the living (saith the same prophet); and made his soul an offering for sin. Which are so plain and evident predictions, that the Jews shew not the least appearance of probability in their evasions1. Being then the obstinate Jews themselves acknowledge one Messias was to die, and that a violent death; being we have already proved there is but one Messias foretold by the prophets, and shewed by those places, which they will not acknowledge, that he was to be slain; it followeth by their unwilling confessions and our plain probations, that the promised Messias was ordained to die; which is our first assertion. Secondly, We affirm, correspondently to these types and 1 That this place of Isaiah must be understood of the Messias, I have already proved against the Jews out of the text, and their own traditions. Their objection particularly to these words is, that the land of the living is the land of Canaan. So Solomon Jar From מארץ חיים היא ארץ ישראל,chi the land of the living, that is, the land of Israel. And D. Kimchi endeavours to prove that exposition out of David, כי נגזר מארץ חיים כאשר גלה מארצו שנקראת ארץ חיים כמו אתהלך לפני י'בארצות החיים as if the land of the living must be the land of Canaan, because David professeth he will walk before the Lord in the land of the living: whereas there is no more in that phrase than that he PEARSON. will serve God while he liveth. As |