[3.] This lordship and dominion which the Eedeemer is possessed of is comfortable and beneficial to us; and the end of it is to effect man's cure and recovery. God had a full right to govern us, which could not be vacated by our sin ; and it was so great that it cannot be greater ; yet it was not comfortable to us. It was but such a right as a prince hath over rebels to punish them. We renounced God's ser- vice, and that interest which we had in his gracious protection as our Lord ; therefore was this new interest set afoot to save and recover fallen man, that God might have such an interest in us as might be comfortable to us. So lordship and government is spoken of in scripture as medicinal and restorative, to reduce man to the obedience of God that made him : Acts x. 36, ' Preaching peace by Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.' It is such a lordship as conduceth to make peace between God and man, that we may enjoy his favour and live in his obedience : Acts v. 31, ' He hath exalted him to be a prince and saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.' This new lord hath made a new law of grace, which is lex remedians, a remedying law, which is propounded as a remedy for the recovering and restoring of the lapsed world of mankind to the grace and favour of God, grant- ing thereby free pardon, and a right to blessedness to all that sincerely repent and believe in him ; but sentencing them anew to death who' will not embrace him, John iii. 16-18 ; all which considerations do mightily enforce obedience. It is a beneficial law ; it is a remedying law. They are peremptorily concluded under everlasting death who will not submit to it ; namely, as the old sentence is bound more upon us, and ratified by a new curse.
2. How this right of lordship and empire accrueth to him ? I answer — Partly by his purchase. This was that Christ aimed at in his death : Kom. xiv. 9, ' For to this end Christ both died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.*" It was the fruit and consequent of the humiliation of the Son of God. And partly by the grant of God : Acts ii. 36, ' God hath made this Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.' ' Made,' that is, appointed or ordained.
3. How we come to be concerned in this lordship, or are related to him ? I answer — By our voluntary consent, acknowledging him to be Lord, and submitting ourselves to him as the Son of God and our sovereign : ' He is thy Lord ; worship thou him/ Ps. xlv. 11. There is a passive subjection and voluntary submission.
VER. 8.] SERMONS UPON PHILIPPIANS III. 29
[1.] A passive subjection ; so all creatures at all times are under the power of the Son of God and our redeemer ; and amongst the rest, the devils themselves, though revolters and rebels, are not exempted from this dominion ; and he hath a ministry and service for them to do as well as for the good angels. So ' at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, whether of things in heaven, or things on earth, or things under the earth,' Phil. ii. 10.
[2.] We are under his dominion by voluntary submission. Those only are subjects, and admitted into this kingdom, who willingly give up themselves to God the Kedeemer, that they may be saved upon his terms, and in the way he hath appointed : 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' They first gave their ownselves to the Lord.' So that the devils and wicked men are his against their wills ; but all Christ's people are his by their own consent, to be guided and ordered by him. Well, then, all that have not subjected themselves to God as redeemer are strangers at least, if not enemies.
4. The next thing I shall speak of is both the privileges and immunities on the one hand ; secondly, the duties on the other, of those who are subjects to this Lord.
[1.] Their privileges and immunities are great. Their immunities are freedom from the curse and rigour of the law : Gal. v. 18, ' Ye are not under the law.' From the guilt of sin : Col. i. 13, 14, 'Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son ; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin.' We do not actually partake of the privileges of Christ's kingdom till we are first his subjects. Christ and his people are an opposite state to the devil and his instruments. While we are under the opposite power, we belong not to Christ ; the privileges of his kingdom belong not to us. But as soon as translated, and put into another state, then presently we partake of the privilege of remission of sins ; so from the flames of hell : 1 Thes. i. 10, ' Even •Jesus, who hath delivered us from wrath to come.' Privileges positive ; grace and glory. We enter as subjects into this kingdom, that we may be reconciled to God, and renewed and fitted to serve and enjoy liim. This Christ doth by degrees. He fits us to serve him now by ' putting his laws into our hearts and minds,' Heb. viii. 10, or giving us repentance ; and doth prepare us for the full enjoyment of God more and more. Christ doth not immediately effect our deliverance, but bringeth us into the kingdom of grace first, that he may perfect our cure there, that after we have for a while resisted the devil, and approved our fidelity to him, we may have an inheritance among the sanctified, Acts xxvi. 18 ; and so he may deliver us into the kingdom of glory, when the devil and his instruments shall be cast into hell.