this, for he that is actually under Christ's government and acknowledgeth him to be his Lord, he hath ability to live and die to him in some comfortable measure; to deny himself, to go out of himself, to live and to die to the glory of God. The Spirit of God hath given him this victory and triumph over his own heart.

Last of all, if this be so, here see the wondrous secure state of a Christian. Beloved, that as Christ is his Lord both in life and death, and it is his duty to subject himself, so Christ will give him grace so to direct his life. Therefore let us do our duty, attend upon the means, and lift up our hearts to God; let God and Christ alone with all the rest, let Christ alone with ruling us and with enabling us to be ruled by him. He is Lord not only over us, but in us by his Spirit. But the Spirit breatheth where it listeth,' John iii. 8. There must be waiting upon God in his ordinances, till we find ability to holy duties; and those that have so much patience to honour God and Christ so far as to attend in the use of good means till the good hour come, till the Spirit come to subject their spirits to duty, no doubt but God intends well to them. But those that are so shortspirited that if they find not ability to deny themselves and to live to God, and to break off their course of sin, but give over in a kind of base despair, it is just with God to leave them to themselves, that they shall even live and die to themselves; that is, they shall live without respect to Christ, and die without respect to Christ at all, as if there were no Christ to take care for them.

Now out of this branch of holy security, upon the care and power and lordship that Christ hath over us for the time to come, it riseth that a Christian may be assured of his salvation, of his perseverance, because Christ is Lord of all. He is Lord of his heart. He is Lord not only of the things without us, but of our spirits within us, and he will enable us to subject ourselves to him, that neither things present, nor things to come, or anything, shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ,' Rom. viii. 39; not only from God's love to us, but from our love to God.

Beloved, let this encourage us to come under the government of Christ. There is no security or safety but in his government. We are sure of nothing in this world, but we are sure of this, that Christ, if he be our Lord, is our Lord for ever, and that nothing in the world shall ever be able to separate us from him.

I will close with this. You see Christ is ours, whether we live or die.' He is Lord of quick and dead.' Let us labour to live to him, that he may rule over us while we live, else when we come to die, though we never so much-perhaps out of principles of self-love-desire him to be ours, it is to no purpose. While we live, therefore, let us submit to his government, and if we live to him we shall easily die to him. If we do not inure ourselves by daily self-denying and practising of the duties of obedience to live to him, how shall we come to die to him? Our life may be snatched from us against our wills; we may die with a kind of fretting and indignation that we can live no longer, that we can enjoy our pleasures no longer. But to die meekly and quietly, as to a Lord, submitting ourselves to him that is the Lord of life and death, a man can never do it that hath not lived to the Lord. Therefore I beseech you every day be acquainted with the actions of living to the Lord. Whatsoever you do to men, do it as to the Lord, in the Lord's strength to please him, and as it may stand with his favour and no further. And especially take the advantage of your younger

years to root out lusts that will grow to that head else, that God in his judgment, giving you up to yourselves-after long rebellion-you shall never be able to deny yourselves to live to Christ, and, when death comes, to die to Christ; therefore let us inure ourselves to deny ourselves in the practice of every holy duty, as to the Lord betimes, that so we may get the upper hand of our flesh in these holy performances, that they may be easy and sweet to us, as indeed the yoke of Christ is after it is worn a while. The subjection of Christ is the sweetest subjection in the world. It breeds the greatest peace and joy and love and contentment to the soul, and which is more than all, a blessed hope for the time to come. He that is life is inured to holy duties, and hath overcome the rebellions of his base flesh; when he comes to die he can say with Simeon, 'Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace,' Luke ii. 29; that is, Thou Lord of life, now thou wilt have me die, I am even content to die, to resign myself to thee. Who can say so but he that makes Christ his Lord all his lifetime? Then when death comes he is content to yield unto him as a Lord, else it will be just in the hour of death for Christ to say, as it is Judges x. 14, 'Do you come to me and commend yourselves to me ? go to the lords you have served.' You have served the humours of such a one, you have alienated your souls to such a one, you have given your souls to sin and to such men as are instruments of the devil, you have denied your honesty, your faith, your religion; go to him, go to the gods you have served, they are your lords; I am not your Lord, I was not all your lifetime. Though these speeches be not uttered, the effect of them will; the soul will conclude I have served mine own lasts and the humours of others all my lifetime, how can I look that the Lord should take my soul? Therefore let it be our daily practice to live to the Lord, to have the chief aim of our life in our eye to direct our actions so as they may be serviceable to the main, else not to perform them.

Herein consists the main happiness of a Christian, that whether he lives or dies he is not his own, but he is his, that can dispose of him better than ever he could of himself; for if we had the disposing of ourselves, as Adam had, what would become of his ?† What became of Adam when he was master of himself? He lost himself and all. The second Adam' hath bought us with his blood and life, to rule us for ever. us to be disposed of by ourselves? No. Whether his,' if we yield ourselves sweetly to his government, in life and death.

THE THIRD SERMON.

Will he then suffer we live or die, we are

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living.-Rom. XIV. 9.

In these words, as you heard heretofore at large, the apostle labours to stay the thoughts and affections of men concerning the things of indifferency, that they should not be hasty to censure another's servant, who stands or falls to his own master, as you have it in verse 4.

The reason is, because whatsoever they do they do it to the Lord. 'He that regards a day, regards it to the Lord; he that regards not a day, regards it not to the Lord.' Some things are of that nature that the right aim puts a qualification upon the actions. A good end cannot qualify many actions, but some actions are of that nature that a good end doth not altogether * Qu. ' in '?-ED. † Qu. 'us'?-ED.

justify it, but it frees the person from some censure; he doth it to God. Some upon some conceit may abstain from a thing for religious ends, and are not to be censured; some again perform it, and are not to be censured, because they do it to the Lord; that is, out of religious respects.

How doth he prove that they do it to the Lord? He proves it more generally, ver. 7, None of us live to ourselves, nor none of us die to ourselves,' which I spake of before.

Then he proves that we are the Lord's, because it was the end of Christ's dying and rising and reviving, 'that he might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living; and if he be the Lord, then we ought to live to this Lord of the quick and dead.'

·

We see Saint Paul here makes use of a general truth, of a grand principle, that we are the Lord's, and therefore live to him and die to him, and do particular actions to him, or not do them to him, to shew that we should have in mind information on sound general truths, that are the ground of all particular practice, as we shall see after.

For to this end Christ both died, rose, and revived,' &c.

The words they are Christ's universal government of the dead and of the living, inferred from the end of his death, reviving and rising again, a comfortable inference from a strong ground.

We considered the particulars, Christ's death, rising and reviving.

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Christ died as a second Adam,' as a public person, in whom dying all died. When other men die particular men die; when Paul was dead, Paul died and there was an end, only there was an exemplary good in his death. But there is more than an exemplary good in the death of Christ. Christ died alone and singular in this respect; because in him dying all died that were his, that the Father gave him to die for. For they go parallel, God's gift and Christ's death. He did all by commission, and he would not transgress his commission, and he died a violent and cursed death, because otherwise he could not have saved us that were under a curse. So as a second Adam' he rose, and as a public person. Therefore we see in the resurrection of Christ many rose. It is like enough they died again. It was for a particular dispensation, to shew that Christ rose as a public person; and it is not strange to think so that to honour God they should be content to live a while, when Christ himself that was God was content to be man, and to be abased to death. That grand mystery makes all other things credible. He rose, therefore, as a public person, to give life to all that he died for.

So he revived. That is more than to rise again, never again to lay down his life, as you have it excellently set down among other places, Rev. i. 18, 'I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold I live for evermore, Amen ;' and he seals it too, I have the keys of hell and of death;' that is, the dominion of hell and death; for indeed Christ is life itself, and life cannot die. As God he could not die, and therefore he took upon him that nature, wherein he might die for us; and now having done that dispensation, that office, there is a perpetual influence of life from the fountain of life, his Godhead, to his humanity. So he never dies any more. Then here follows the scope and end of all,

That he might be Lord of the dead and of the living.'

The three offices of Christ, they have this order in regard of manifestation. First, he was a prophet to instruct and teach his in himself, and likewise by his ministry. And then a priest to die for those that are his, to make intercession now for ever in heaven. And then a king. First, a

prophet, then a priest, and then a king. He was all at once. The very union invested him in all these, but in regard of manifestation he was first a prophet to instruct us of the end of his coming into the world; and then a priest to do that grand office that we have most comfort by; and then a king to rule us. He could not be otherwise, for if he had manifested himself a King and a Lord in his glory, where had been his abasement? If they had known him to be the Lord of glory, they would never have crucified him. Only some sparkles of his Godhead and lordship and kingdom and royalty over all flesh break out in his miracles; yea, in his greatest abasement there were some sparkles, I say. Even when he lay in the manger, kings came to adore him. When he paid tribute, he had it out of a fish by a command, by majesty. When he was on the cross he converted the good thief. So somewhat brake out of him that he was a person more than ordinary, but that was for special ends. Ordinarily he went on in a course of abasement, and all that he might perform the great work of redemption. Therefore he made a stop of his glory and kingly office, that he might not manifest himself in that relation and office; that he might do the office of a priest to die for us. Therefore you have it here in the due order. Christ died and rose again, as the high priest of his church, 'that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living.' He was so before, but he was not manifest before. Therefore he is said to be manifest to God by the resurrection, Rom. i. 4. He was God from eternity, but he was born then: This day have I begotten thee,' Ps. ii. 7. It is spoken of the resurrection. So you see here Christ's offices, the state and condition of his humiliation and of his exaltation, and the use and end of all, that he might be Lord of the dead and of the living.'

And if we be anything offended with that abasement, that God should die, look to his rising and reviving and lordship over all, both quick and dead; and if we be dazzled with his glory, look back again to God in our flesh, and God in our flesh abased, even to the death of the cross. Oh, it is a sweet meditation, beloved, to think that our flesh is now in heaven, at the right hand of God; and that flesh that was born of the virgin, that was laid in the manger, that went up and down doing good, that was made a curse for us and humbled to death, and lay under the bondage of death three days; that this flesh is now glorious in heaven, that this person is Lord over the living and the dead. It is an excellent book to study this. Beloved, study Christ in the state of humiliation and exaltation. 'That he might be Lord of the dead,' &c.

How is Christ Lord? He is Lord of the dead, those that died before he was born, and of the living, those that are since. He is 'yesterday,' that is, to those that were before he was; and 'to-day,' that is, when he was; and 'to-morrow' and for ever the same.' Therefore he saith of the dead and of the living; of the dead, that is, in reference to former times Christ; is the 'Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8. By what title is he Lord ?

By a title, beloved, not as God, but by a title of conquest as a redeemer, for he died that he might be Lord. We are a bloody spouse' to Christ. We are the price of his blood. He died that he might be Lord. He must win us before he could have us. Thereupon dying and purchasing us, now he is Lord of his church and children by marriage. Before he could marry he must be born in our nature, for the husband and wife must be of one nature; and being in bondage to a contrary king, to Satan, he must redeem and purchase us out of Satan's hands. So he is a Lord by con

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quest; and then he is a Lord in a nearer relation, he is a Lord as a husband, He is Lord both of the dead and of the living.'

But the point is sweetest in the use of it; only know for a ground that 'Christ is Lord of the dead and of the living,' as mediator, God-man, not as God, but as God-man, God in our nature; and hereupon we have divers sweet comforts, as for example,

First of all, it shews what we may expect from Christ, what Christ will do to us, and what we ought to return to him again. For relations are bonds, especially when they are so founded as this of Christ's is, to be Lord over us both in life and death. It is founded upon redemption and upon our spiritual marriage. Relations are bonds, and therefore they tie on his part to shew what we may expect from him. He is Lord of the living and of the dead.' We may expect on his part all that a gracious Lord should do to provide for his church and children. We may expect that from him that we can from none else, that he should not only be Lord over us, but that he should make us subject, that he should flow into us by his Holy Spirit. For here is the prerogative of Christ, that he is such a head as quickeneth dead members. He is such a husband as makes his spouse beautiful. He puts glory upon her; no other husband can do it. Moses married a black woman, but he could not alter her hue, much less her disposition. It is not in the power of any man. A king cannot alter his subjects; but he is such a King as alters the nature of his subjects. He makes them subject, he takes them out of a contrary kingdom, as being not born his subjects, but born anew by the Spirit.' He doth all provision, protection, the changing of our natures, the beginning of a good work; and where this Lord begins a good work he finisheth it to his own day. For, beloved, know this for a ground, that now in the second covenant we are not left, as Adam was, in the hands of our own free will to stand or fall, but now in the second covenant that is founded upon Christ's death and satisfaction for us, Christ gives grace. He gives his Holy Spirit to bring us within the compass, and performs both our part and his too. He makes good his own to be a gracious Saviour to us; and he performs our part too, or else the second covenant, the covenant of grace, should be frustrate as the first was, if it were left to our freedom. Therefore that is that that We may expect from this lordship of Christ, the performance of the covenant of grace in writing his law in our hearts,' Jer. xxxi. 33. Other kings give laws and write them in tables, but they cannot write them in the hearts of their subjects. But he is such a lawgiver as writes his own will in the heart; he teacheth the very heart obedience. We are taught of God to love one another.' I will write my law in their bowels, and in their inward parts;' that is, they shall not only know what they should do, but they shall know the doing, the affecting, and performing of the things. They shall be able to do the things. So Christ is a Lord over us, not only teaching us what we should do, and enjoining us in a kind of superiority, this is your duty, and not this; but enabling us to do that that he commands. He gives us the very doing, the affections and loving. He teacheth our hearts to love. I say this we may expect from him in the use of means, and subjecting to his ordinances; which is a wondrous prerogative to those who will submit to his law.

We may expect again from this Lord advancement. He is such a Lord as makes all his subjects kings. The meanest man that is a subject to Christ, that hath the Spirit of Christ, is a king. Now he is a king over

That is, loving, choosing.-G.