him, before he should take leave of her and S ER M. the World; yet ftill (according to this Inter- II. pretation) why fhould our Lord forbid her doing it now, when her Tranfport upon finding him again alive, must make her at this Time more earneft and eager? It would have hindered no Time, only to have touched him: Nor would the Favour have been greater than what he was pleafed afterwards frequently to vouchfafe: For we read that the fame Day he suffered her and the other Mary, to hold him by the Feet, and feveral Times before his final Afcenfion, permitted Thomas and any of the rest to handle him as they pleased. Matt. xxviii. 9. John xx. 27. Luke xxiv. 39. But fourthly, and above all, the Words in their natural Conftruction imply, not that she should have Opportunities enough to touch him hereafter, before he afcended; but directly the contrary, that he was afcending just then, and that it was not lawful for her to touch him till he had. Thefe Reasons forbid us to interpret thefe Words of our Saviour to Mary, of his final Afcenfion, and incline us to imagine they must be meant of an immediate one. And if fo; why may we not think that this immediate Afcenfion was to wave himself to God as the Firft-Fruits of the

VOL. III.

D

Dead,

SERM. Dead, in which Capacity we know he a

Such a Suppofition would enable us to affign a better Reason than has hitherto been given, why Mary fhould be fo cautiously forbid by our Lord to touch him. For according to the Type, we have already obferved, it was not lawful for any Man to eat or partake of the new Corn, 'till after the Firft-Fruits had been folemnly offered and presented to God. And therefore in the Antitype, we may reasonably fuppofe it might not be lawful for Mary to touch, or to have any Privilege whatsoever, with our Lord after his Refurrection, before he had afcended to wave and present himself before his Father in Heaven, and so had confecrated and fanctified himself to the Ufe of his Church. Accordingly he fays to her, Touch me not, for I have not yet afcended to my Father, alledging, as it feems, his not having afcended as a Reason why she should not touch him then, and intimating withal, that after be bad afcended the might; which yet, fhe never did, if he did not ascend 'till that great, and folemn, and final, Afcenfion, when his Disciples faw him born away by a Cloud.

All these Circumftances concurring together, would induce one to think, that as foon

as Mary was fent away, our Lord might af- SER M. cend directly to wave and offer himself to his II. Father, as the Firft- Fruits of the Dead, and then come down, and fubmit himself to be touched and handled by his Difciples, and to converfe with them as ufual, at feveral Times, before his final Afcenfion.

However, I prefume to offer this only as a Conjecture: It is no Article of our Creed: Nor do I build the Doctrine of my Difcourfe upon it, any further than if it was neceffary for the waving of the Firft-Fruits in the Temple, under the Law, that Chrift, as the Firft-Fruits, thould as foon as rifen, wave and present himself before his Father in Heaven; we then don't want a plaufible Hint or Intimation that he did fo: But if the Waving might any other wife be answered; we need `not have recourse to Conjectures for the Proof of the Doctrine in general, which we have already established by direct Authority, viz. That our Lord was really and truly the FirstFruits of them that fleep. I fhall therefore now proceed to fhew the Benefits and Advantages which they that fleep hereby obtain.

In order to this, we muft again look back upon the First-Fruits prefcribed in the Law, and see what Advantage the Oblation of these D 2 procured

SERM. procured to the reft of the Fruits of the Ground.

II.

Now we have already obferved, that 'till the First-Fruits were folemnly offered, all the Fruits of the Earth were unclean: They were to be used neither in the Service of God nor of Man; but were deemed to be under the Sentence or Curfe paffed upon them, by the Occafion of Adam's Sin; from which they could not be fanctified or cleansed, but by the Blood of the Lamb, which was offered and flain when the Firft-Fruits were waved; by Virtue of which Blood, the First-Fruits became accepted, and by Virtue of that Acceptance, the rest of the Fruits might be reaped or gathered as the Seafons ferved, and as their Occafions required.

Juft fo; 'till Christ arofe and offered himfelf to God, as the First-Fruits of the Dead; all the Dead were in a State of Impurity: They were doomed to Corruption by Adam's! Fall, from whence they could no ways recover or revive, but by the Blood of Jefus, the holy and immaculate Lamb of God, which was fhed to purge them from their Uncleanness and Sin, and by Virtue of which both Chrift himself arose from the Dead, and was accepted by his Father, in the Name of all that he

left

A

1

left in the Grave; and confequently they alfo, s E R M. in and through him, are intituled to the Pri- II. vileges of a like Refurrection, being re-inflated in the Favour of God.

The Caufe of

their Diffolution into Rottennefs and Duft, was now forgiven: Their meritorious Redeemer, by undergoing the fame Fate with them, had made that Fate a fufficient Satişfaction for the Sins that occafioned it. And therefore, as an Acknowledgment that God was pleased with it, Chrift, as our Surety, is first released, and a Security, by that Means, given to all for whom he was bound; that they alfo fhall, in Time, be released: Their Rottennefs fhall be made found; their Corruption fhall be cleansed; their scattered Duft fhall be united again in proper Form; Death and the Grave fhall deliver up the Dead which at prefent are in them, and the Prisons from thenceforth, as no longer of ufe, fhall be caft into the Lake of Fire to be burnt, Rev. xx. 13, 14.

And to convince us that Chrift wants neither Power nor Will to ensure these Benefits to his Members as well as to himself, as foon almost as risen, we find him raising others with him, as a Pledge and Security that he has the fame Ability and the fame Intent with D 3 regard