And thus I believe in Jefus Chrift which was crucified and dead.

W

And Buried.

HEN the moft precious and immaculate Soul of Chrift was really feparated from his flesh, and that union in which his natural life confifted was diffolved, his facred Body, as being truly dead, was laid up in the chambers of the grave: fo that as we believe him dead, by the feparation of his Soul; we also believe him buried by the fepulture of his Body.

And because there is nothing mysterious or difficult in this part of the Article, it will be fufficiently explicated when we have fhewn, firft, that the promised Meffias was to be buried; and fecondly, that our Jefus was fo buried as the Meffias was to be.

333

That the Meffias was to be buried, could not poffibly be denied by those who believed he was to die among the Jews; because it was the univerfal cuftom of that Nation to (q) bury their Dead. We read moft frequently of the Sepulchres of their Fathers and though those that were condemned by their fupreme power were not buried in their Fathers' graves, yet public Sepulchres there were appointed even for them to lie in: and not only they, but all the inftruments which were used in the punishment were buried with them. And yet befides the general confequence of death among the Jews, there was a perfect Type in the perfon of Jonas: for as that Prophet was three days and three nights in the Matt. xii. whale's belly; fo was the Meffias, or the Son of Man, 4°. to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Nor was his Burial only reprefented typically but foretold prophetically, both by a fuppofitive intimation, and by an exprefs prediction. The Pfalmift intimated and fuppofed no lefs, when speaking in

the

10.

Pfal. xvi. g, the person of the Chrift, he faid, My flesh shall reft in hope: for thou wilt not leave my foul in hell, neither wilt thou fuffer thine Holy One to fee corruption. That Flesh is there fuppofed only fuch, that is, a Body (r) dead; and that Body refting in the Grave, the common habitation of the dead; yet refting there in hope that it fhould never fee corruption, but rife from thence before that time in which Bodies in their graves are wont to putrefy. Befide this intimation, there is yet a clear expreffion of the grave of the Ifa. liii. 8, Meffias in that eminent Prediction of Isaiah ;

9.

He

was cut off out of the land of the living, and he made
his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his
death. For whatsoever the true interpretation of the
Prophecy be (of which we shall speak hereafter), it
is certain that he which was to be cut off, was to
have a Grave: and being we have already fhewn
that he which was to be cut off was the Meffias
it followeth, that by virtue of this Prediction the
promised Meffias was to be buried.

Secondly, That our Jefus, whom we believe to be the true Meffias, was thus buried, we shall also prove, although it feem repugnant to the manner of his death. For those which were fentenced by the Romans to die upon the Cross, had not the favour of a Sepulchre, but their Bodies were (s) expofed to the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the field; or if they escaped their voracity, to the longer injury of the (t) air and weather. A guard was alfo ufually (u) fet about them, left any pitying hand fhould take the Body from the curfed tree, and cover it with earth.

Under that cuftom of the Roman Law was now the Body of our Saviour on the Crofs, and the Matt. xxvii. Guard was fet; there was the Centurion and they that were with him, watching Fefus. The Centurion returned as foon as Chrift was dead, and gave teftimony unto Pilate of his death; but the Watch continueth ftill. How then can the ancient Predic

54.

335

tions be fulfilled? How can this Jonas be conveyed into the Belly of the Whale? Where shall be make Ifa. liii. 9. his grave with the wicked, or with the rich, in his death of crucifixion? By the Providence of him who did foretel it, it fhall be fulfilled. They which petitioned that he might be crucified, fhall intercede that he may be interred. For the (x) cuftom of the Jews required, that whofoever fuffered by the fentence of their Law fhould be buried, and that the fame day he fuffered. Particularly they could not but remember the exprefs words of Mofes, If a Deut. xi. man have committed a fin worthy of death, and he be 22, 23. 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. Upon this general cuftom and particular law, efpecially confidering the fanctity of the day approaching, the Jews, that the bodies John xix. Should not remain upon the Crofs on the Sabbath-day, bea 310 fought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. And this is the first step to the Burial of our Saviour.

For though, by the common rule of the Roman Law, those which were condemned to the Cross were to lose both Soul and Body on the tree, as not being permitted either Sepulture or (y) Mourning; yet it was in the power of the Magiftrate to indulge (z) the leave of Burial: and therefore Pilate, who crucified Chrift only because the Jews defired it, could not poffibly deny him Burial when they requested it; he which profeffed to find no fault in him while he lived, could make no pretence for an acceffion of cruelty after his death.

Now though the Jews had obtained their request of Pilate, though Chrift had been thereby certainly buried; yet had not the Prediction been fulfilled, which exprefsly mentioned the rich in his death. For as he was crucified between two Thieves, so had he been buried with them, becaufe by the Jews there

was

1

John xix.

was appointed a public place of Burial for all fuch as fuffered as Malefactors.

Wherefore to rescue the Body of our bleffed Sa

viour from the malicious hands of thofe that caused Matt. xxvii, his crucifixion, there came a rich man of Arimathea, Mark xv. named Jofeph, an honourable counsellor, a good man and Luke xxiii. a just; who also himself waited for the kingdom of God, being a difciple of Fefus, but fecretly for fear of the Fews: this fofeph came and went in boldly unto Pilate, and befought him that he might take away the body of Jefus. And Pilate gave him leave, and commanded the body to be delivered: he came therefore and took the body of Jefus.

John iii. 1,

10. and xix.

39, 40.

3, 8.

Befide, there came alfo Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jefus by night, a man of the Pharifees, a ruler of the fews, a master of Ifrael; this Nicodemus came: and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jefus, and wound it in linen clothes, with the fpices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.

And thus was the Burial of the Son of God performed, according to the custom of the People of God. For the understanding of which there are three things confiderable: First, What was done to the Body, to prepare it for the Grave; Secondly, How the Sepulchre was prepared to receive the Body; Thirdly, How the Perfons were fitted by the interring of our Saviour to fulfil the Prophecy.

As for fulfilling the custom of the Jews as to the preparation in respect of his Body, we find the fpices Mark xiv. and the linen clothes. When there came a woman having an alabafter box of ointment of Spikenard, very, precious, and fhe brake the box and poured it on his head; Chrift made this interpretation of that action, he is come before-hand to anoint my body to the burying.: Mark xvi. 1. When Chrift was risen, Mary Magdalen and the other Mary brought the fpices which they had prepared, that they might come and anoint him. Thus was there an interpreted and an intended unction of our Saviour,

Luke xxiv.

1.

but

but really and actually he was interred with the fpices which Nicodemus brought. The custom of wrapping in the linen clothes we fee in Lazarus rifing from the grave; for he came forth bound band and foot with John xi. 44. grave-clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. In the fame manner when our Saviour was rifen, Simon Peter went into the fepulchre, and faw the John xx. 6, linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his head," not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Thus, according to the cuftom of the Jews, was the Body of Chrift bound in (a) feveral linen clothes with an aromatical compofition, and fo prepared for the Sepulchre.

Mark xv.

As for the preparation of the Sepulchre to receive the Body of our Saviour, the custom of the Jews was alfo punctually obferved in that. Jofeph of Arimathea had prepared a place of burial for himself, and the manner of it is expreffed: For in the place Matt. xxvii. where he was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new fepulchre, wherein never man was laid, which Jofeph had hewn out of the rock for his own tomb: there laid they Jefus, and rolled a great ftone to the door of the fepulchre. And fo Chrift was buried after the manner of the Jews, in a vault made by the (b) excavation of the rocky firm part of the earth, and that vault secured from external injury by a great maffy stone rolled to the mouth or door thereof. After which stone was once rolled thither, the whole funeral action was performed, and the Sepulture completed: fo that it was not (c) lawful by the cuftom of the Jews any more to open the Sepulchre, or disturb the interred Body.

Thirdly, Two eminent Perfons did concur unto the Burial of our Saviour, a (d) Ruler and a Counfellor, Men of those orders among the Jews as were of greatest authority with the People; Jofeph of Arimathea, rich and honourable, and yet inferior to Nicodemus, one of the great Council of the Sanhedrim: These two, though fearful while he lived to acVOL. I. knowledge