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 w^as 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 w'ere 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 us 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-
PURCHASED BY HIS HUMILIATION. 3-17
quest ; and then he is a Lord in a nearer relation, he is a Lord as a hushand, ' 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,
Fu'st of all, it shews what ice may expect from Christ, what Christ will do to us, and what we ought to return to him again. For relations are bonds, especiall}' 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.' "VVe 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 ns subject, that he should flow into tis 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 cove- nant 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 aftecting,- 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 com- mands. 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.