Those that are the Lord's live to the Lord, and do all particular actions to the Lord. Such must not be harshly censured, because they are the servants of the Lord.
Quest. In the third place. How doth he prove that they are the Lord's that Uve and die to him ?
* Qu. ' they that ' ?— Ed.
826 cnniST's exaltation
Jns. Ho proves it from the main grouiid iu the text : ' For, for tliis end Christ bolli died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.' Ho you see the dcpendenee of the reason, they eat or cat not to the Lord. "Why ? ' Because they arc the Lord's.'
But how is it they are the Lord's ? It is the end of the three actions of Christ here. * Christ died, and rose again, and revived, for this end, that ha might be the Lord of the dead and of the living.' So you see the connec- tion of these words with the former.
In the words you have air/tnnriUiim- ct arf/itmrnti ratio, the argument, and the reasoning from the argument ; the ground, and the inference from the ground. The ground is : ' Christ died, and rose again, and revived.' What is the inference from that ? ' That ho might be Lord of the dead and of the living.'
In the words tlierefore we will consider the argument itself, and the ground itself, and then the inference.
' For, for this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived.'
There are three branches of the ground.
Christ died, rose, revived.
Of the inference we will speak afterwards, and shew how these gi'ounds enforce that inference, that he should bo * Lord both of the dead and of the living.'
' Christ died.'
1. First of all, you must know that Chrifit died here as a public person, or else the inference were not good. Christ took upon him the person of no man, but the nature ; for this end, that he might be a public person. If Christ had taken the person of any body, there had been two persons of Christ. He had died iu one person and not in another. Now having the nature that is common to all men, and not the person of Peter or James, &c., when he died the person died in that nature wherein he might die ; so when it is said, ' Christ died,' we must consider Christ as a public per- son, not taking the particular person of any man, but the general nature of man into union with the second person. Christ died as a public person.
2. Secondly, Christ died as the ' second Adam.' The spring of all misery and death was from the ' first Adam,' but the ' second Adam' waa a quickening Spirit, 1 Cor. xv. 45. He died as a public person, and the * second Adam.'
We must know, moreover, that he died as the great High Priest of the church, offering to God the Father a sacrifice that made him Lord over all, as we shall see after. He died as a priest, as indeed he that was foresignified by all the sacrifices and priests. He was both priest and sacrifice : Heb. ix. 14, ' By the eternal Spirit, the Godhead, he offered himself to his Father.'
3. Again, He died a voluntary death, for else he had not died in obedience. His death was violent in regard of them that forced it, but it was voluntary in regard of them that he offered himself for, as a sweet sacrifice to his Father. That voluntariness made his death a sweet sacrifice ; for what- soever the Father did to him, he joined with the Father in it. The Father gave him ; he gave himself. The Father appointed him to be so and so ; and he joined with the Father in all things. ' No man takes away my life from me,' saith he himself, John x. 18. It was a voluntary death in regard of his freedom ; nay, he thirsted after it, as you have it in the Gospel. He longed after it, upon high considerations, howsoever in a lower considera- tion, as it was a tormenting thing and a bitter cup, he had a desire that it might pass ; but it was upon lower respects. Upon higher respects, the
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•will of his Father aud the salvation of mankind, he thirsted to drink of that cup.*
A man may will and nill the same thing upon presenting different objects and respects, and reasons. That which a man may dechne, as we say, in this respect, looking to a particular end, that a man may desire, looking to a higher end ; because man is framed so to yield to the stronger reason alway. Thereupon that is no objection, ' he seemed sometime a little un- willing.' It was looking upon something presented to him that made him in that respect unwilling ; but looking upon other respects he gave himself willingly ; the Father and he joined together.
And therefore by the way, when they talk of the active and passive obedi- ence, there was action in all his passion'; chiefly in his passion there was action; for if it had been mere sufi'ering without voluntary obedience, what obedience had that been ? A beast may so suffer, but against his will ; but his voluntary obedience was the chief in all his passion. ' He humbled himself to the death of the cross,' as it is Phil, ii, 8.