II.

SERM. fcure Figure that by Virtue of fome fingle Perfon arifing first of all, from the Dead, and presenting himself to God in the Name of all that fleep in the Earth, all that fleep should be fanctified and rendered clean, and qualified to share in the fame Resurrection in their due Seafon and Turn. By whofe Holiness and Merits the Sanctification fhould be wrought, was plainly forefhewed by the Lamb of the firft Year without Blemish or Spot, which the fame Law required to be offered to God, when the Omer was waved. For this fhewed that it was the Lamb of God, the appointed Meffiah, through whom this Benefit was to be expected and received. And as he, we know, is in every Circumftance, all in all; fo here he is not only the Lamb that fanctifies the Sheaf when brought, and the Priest that brings it, but the Sheaf alfo itself, in Virtue of his Body which God has prepared, and which under this Character he raifes and offers to God from the Dead. For fo (faith St Paul exprefsly in my Text,) He is rifen from the Dead, and become the First-Fruits of them that. Jeep. And moft harmoniously to fulfil the feveral Circumftances of the Type, behold he rifes on the very Day which the Law prescribes, i. e. on the 16th of Nifan, the Morn

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*

ing after the Sabbath, or great Day of the SERM. Paffover, and at the very Moment as far as we II. can learn, when the Firft-Fruits were cut down. For the Jews themselves tell us that the First-Fruits were reaped in the Night, and the Evangelifts all unanimoufly agree, that our Saviour was rifen in the End of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the firft Day of the Week, very early in the Morning, while it was yet dark.

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But I obferved (you may remember) that the Sheaf of the Firft-Fruits was not only cut down, and brought to the Priest; but was also waved by the Prieft before the Lord in the Temple: i. e. the Priest when he offered and presented it to God, folemnly moved it towards the four Quarters of the Earth, to intimate that by Virtue of the Oblation of this Sheaf, the Fruits were every where accepted and bleffed. This therefore, muft further foreshew, that Chrift was not only to rise first from the Dead, but muft alfo (to render himfelf compleatly the First-Fruits) folemnly prefent and wave himself to God, in behalf of all the reft that fleep.

And this he is imagined by fome to have done at the Earthquake, which St Matthew See Ainsworth on Levit, xxiii. 10.

fays,

SERM. fays, Matt. xxviii. 2. happened at his RefurII. rection, which might wave or shake him as

the Type forefhewed. But now befides, that the gathering and waving the First-Fruits, were two different Acts, and therefore not to be fulfilled and compleated by the meer Refurrection of Chrift, which was truly but one; we find that the Sheaf of the First-Fruits under the Law, was not to be waved in the Place where it was cut down; but to be carried into the outward Court of the Temple, and there to be folemnly prefented to God. This would lead us to imagine that Chrift, after he should be rifen as the Sheaf or FirftFruits from the Place where he was laid, was to afcend into the Heavenly Temple above, at leaft into that outward or lower Part, of which the Court where the Sheaf was offered was a Type, and there was to wave or offer himself to God, in the Name, or on the behalf, of the reft of the Dead, in order to fanctify and reconcile them to his Father.

And should we fuppofe that Chrift did really do this: i. e. that he did really afcend, and fhew himself to his Father as foon as rifen; I don't know that it would contradict any one Text of Scripture; whereas it would be of use for the explaining of one which has

hitherto

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hitherto been generally reckoned among the SER M. hard ones. The Text I mean, is our Lord's II. Words to Mary Magdalen, at his first appearing after his Refurrection. She being furprized to see him alive, and offering to embrace him, Jefus faith unto her, touch me not, for I AM not (or rather as it is in the Original, *πw jag avaße 3nxx, I have not) yet afcended to my Father: But go to my Brethren, and fay unto them, I afcend (or again as it is in the Greek, dvaßairw, I am afcending) to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God, John xx. 17. The Reason of our Saviour's fo cautiously forbidding Mary to touch him, viz. because he had not yet afcended to his Father, has pretty much perplexed all our Commentators: The Solutions they give of it are very various and different, and moft of them trifling and foreign to the Reafon which our Lord affigns. I fhall not trouble you with them all, but shall only produce that which appears to be the most common and plaufible. And this, in the Words of a modern Commentator, is thus expreffed: " Ma

ry, thou needft not be follicitous to touch "or hold me now: Thou wilt have Time. "fufficient to converse with me, and to ex"perience the Truth of my Refurrection:

For

SERM. "For I fhall not immediately afcend, but II. "fhall ftay fome Time with you here on

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to my

"Earth *. Therefore go first to my Bre"thren, and fay to them, I am shortly to af"cend to my Father and their Father, and God and their God +." But now befides, that the præterperfect and prefent Tenfes are here changed for the Future, without any manner of Foundation or Authority; there are four several Difficulties, which plainly lie against the Interpretation here given: For in the first Place, this Paraphrafe plainly fuppofes Mary to have imagined that our Lord was just now going to afcend; whereas we have no Reafon to think she had any notice of his Afcenfion at all; fince it appears that fhe was furprized to find that he was rifen. And then fecondly, if we admit of this Explanation, we shall find it hard to account why our Lord fhould fend a Meffage by Mary Magdalen to his Difciples, concerning his afcending forty Days afterwards, when he knew he should have a great many Opportu nities before that Time, to tell them of it himself.

Again, Thirdly, though Mary might have other Opportunities to touch and embrace

*Whitby's Notes.

+ Whitby's Paraphrafe.