SERMON II:: Christ'S Exaltation Purchased By
body broken, and of his blood poured out for us, that he might be Lord over us? The more communion and fellowship you have with Christ, the more assurance you shall have that you are his, which is indeed the grand comfort of all, that we are Christ's, that Christ is ours; for then heaven and earth is ours, all is ours. Now God hath ordained these sacraments for this end. The word is the sceptre of his kingdom whereby he rules. The sacrament is the seal of the word.
Therefore all good subjects, that submit themselves to the kingdom of Christ, must submit themselves to this sweet ordinance of Christ, that he hath ordained for our good, the word and the sacraments.
Thereby we shall find the effectual working of his Spirit in us, subjecting the whole inward man to his gracious government. But having spoken of this subject at large heretofore, I only desire you to raise up your thoughts to consider whom you have to deal with; with him that is Lord of the quick and of the dead. We have to deal with the mighty Monarch of heaven and earth, Christ. Therefore come, as with faith, because he hath ordained these things to strengthen faith; so come with reverence, knowing with whom we are to feast and to deal. Consider of these things; and then I hope that God will vouchsafe a blessing answerable to the intendment† of his ordinance.
SERMON II:
CHRIST'S EXALTATION PURCHASED BY
HUMILIATION
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.
14:9.
I shewed the dependence in the forenoon; a Christian, by the Spirit of God in him, he hath a blessed aim at all times. Howsoever he may fail in particulars, yet his aim is right.
This doubt rose from difference of aims, whether he should please God or man. His doubt rose in pleasing of God, what might please him most; and because he sees not always what might please him, therefore he carries this honesty, that whatsoever he doth he will do it to the Lord, and whatsoever he doth not he will not do it to the Lord. His aim is for good at all times.
Now this is proved from the general disposition of Christians. They live and die to the Lord. Therefore their particular actions must be to the Lord. If their whole life and death be to the Lord, their actions must be to him.
Now he proves their whole life and death are to the Lord, because they are the Lord's. How doth he prove that they are the Lord's—that is, Jesus Christ's? Because the text saith here, 'For this end Christ both died, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.'
And surely he is Lord. He will not miss of his end. God never misseth of his end, because he can remove all impediments between him and his end. Now it being Christ's end to be Lord of the quick and of the dead, he is Lord. If he be Lord, then those that are under him, and led by his Spirit, aim both in life and death to glorify him in all things. This in a word be spoken, for the inference of the words.
'To this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived.'
Here you have a ground and an inference; an argument and a reasoning from it.
The argument or ground is, 'Christ died, and rose, and revived.'
That that riseth thence is, 'That he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.'
In the ground itself I told you how Christ died as a public person, as the 'second Adam,' &c.; and now here you are to take notice likewise
that he rose again as a public person, as the 'second Adam,' &c.
And likewise he revived, not to die again, as in his first life. When he began to live, he began to die; but when he revived he did not die again. He lives for ever to make intercession for us in heaven. Christ never dies again, Rom. 6:8, seq. He rose to a life that shall never end; for the divine nature doth flow into his human nature, and doth immediately inspire such a spiritual life into it, as it lives for ever, by virtue of the Spirit of Christ actuating, and stirring, and moving him, as his natural life did here, when he was upon the earth.
'Christ died, and rose, and revived.'
To what end is all this? What is grounded hence? That Christ therefore is Lord of quick and dead? This is inferred from all three.
'Christ died,' that he might reconcile us to God by his death, satisfying justice; and so justice being fully satisfied, he might have his end in being Lord of his church. He had a mind to marry us, but he could not till he had rescued us. Therefore to rescue us out of divine justice, and from the tyranny of Satan, God's jailor, he made satisfaction to divine justice. As for Satan he brought us out of his kingdom by strong hand; and so doth continually by the power of his
Spirit. Now hereupon it must needs be that he must be Lord of that he paid so dear a price for.
And then he rose again for this end, that he 'might be Lord,' because, howsoever he had a title to be Lord of the church,—by the union of the human nature with the divine, he was Lord alway,—yet in regard of the exercise of his lordship, it was deferred till his glorious resurrection and ascension. Then that that lay hid before, Christ's divine power, majesty, and lordship, that appeared and manifested itself, as it is Rom. 1:4, 'He was mightily declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.' He was the Son of God before; but then it was a kind of begetting, because it was then manifest. Things are said in Scripture and divinity to be when they
are apparent to be. So this day of the resurrection Christ was begotten; because it was apparent then by raising himself from the dead, that he was the only-begotten Son of God. Now that made way for his lordship; for after his resurrection God gave him power over all things in heaven and earth; and then upon the resurrection he had the Spirit in more abundance, having conquered all enemies between God and us. Therefore he was fit to be Lord by that, because he could give the Spirit to them over whom be meant to rule.
But then in his own person, he rising, triumphed over all opposite enemies whatsoever; over death the last enemy, and over Satan, sin, and the law, having cancelled all. Surely [since] he hath overruled all for himself, he will overrule all for his church and people; and therefore he rose again to be 'Lord of quick and dead;' and he may well be, because he is Lord of 'quick and dead' in his own person. He is Lord over all in his own person, and therefore he is Lord over the church, and all the enemies of the church. So far as the enemies seized upon his person, so far he over came them all. He hath as much care of his mystical person the church, as he had on* his own body; and more too, for he gave that for the other.
And then he revived to be Lord over all; that is, he lives for ever to make good what he hath gotten by his death. He will not lose the price of his own blood. He is in heaven to appear before God, and sits at the right hand of God, and rules there till he have made his enemies his footstool, till he draw his church home to heaven, to himself. 'He lives for ever,' as the apostle saith, 'to make intercession,' Heb. 7:25. Hereupon it must needs be that by living for ever he is fitly qualified to be Lord over all the 'quick.' Now I proceed.
'That he might be Lord both of quick and dead.'
Christ is Lord both of the dead and of the living. You see upon what ground he is Lord of all, as well as of his church. He is an eternal
Lord over the dead and the living. He is a transcendent Lord, above all other lords whatsoever; and he is independent. He is not
obnoxious † to any. All have power from him; and in some sort indeed Christ hath redeemed even all other creatures. They are
Christ's. And in some sort even proud wicked men, that live in the church, that have perhaps some parts (which are the occasion of their damnation, because of and by them, they are proud and insolent), they are redeemed by Christ, thus far to be serviceable to his church, to use their parts to his own ends. They go a great way in salvation, that so by their parts they may be fit to do service to the church. So he is Lord not only over the church, but of others for the service of the church.
Now this point, that Christ is Lord of the dead and of the living, it yields many comfortable uses. I spake of some things in general, and then we came to some particulars, as, 1. First, Seeing Christ is Lord of the quick and of the dead, we may comfort ourselves under the sovereignty of Christ. To be Solomon's servant was accounted a great happiness. Those that did observe the government of Solomon did think so, as the Queen of Sheba, 1 Kings
10:8. Alas! what shall we think of those that are under Christ, who 'is greater than Solomon,' Mat. 12:42, a most great, a most wise, a most loving, a most gracious and powerful Lord over all. Therefore it is a most comfortable condition, here in this life, to add a little to that point, however it be service. It is against the nature of man to serve a man, yet not to serve a more noble; to serve God is to reign.
Besides, while we live here, such is our disposition, such is the weakness of base sinners, that they must be ruled by another; and indeed our happiness and security consists in being ruled by another higher than ourselves. We are not fit to be our own governors. St Paul saith to the Galatians, 'an heir in his non-age differeth little from a servant,' Gal. 4:1. So it is with Christians. Till they be in heaven they differ little from servants; and therefore they must be under tutors and government.
And as it is a comfortable, so it is an honourable condition; for Christ's servants are so many kings. Christ is served of none but kings, and such kings as do not rule over slaves, but such kings as in Christ rule over the greatest and terriblest enemies of all. A Christian can think with comfort and encouragement upon those enemies that make the greatest tyrants of the world to quake; he can think of death, of sin, of damnation, of judgment, of the law: of all these things Christ's kingdom is another manner of kingdom than the kingdom of the world. They are poor kingdoms; their monarch's head must lie as low as the basest subject they have. They know not how soon, and perhaps have a more terrible account to give than any other under them. It is not so in Christ's kingdom.
Therefore those Christians that are afraid of death, they forget their dignity; they forget him on whom they depend, for Christ is Lord
'both of the quick and of the dead.' If so be Christ be their Lord when they die, what need they fear to die? And therefore let us comfort ourselves when God calls for us. He is our Lord as well when we die as while we live, and more too; for then our souls have more immediate communion with him. Can there be more comfort than this, that we have a Lord ever that died for us, that rose for us, and lives for ever, and doth immortalise his subjects too? Join these together, an ever-living Lord and ever-living subjects, co-existent, I mean, for the time to come. We indeed have a beginning—Christ hath none as God—but we have an eternal state to be for ever, and an eternal Lord to rule us for ever, and to make us happy for ever. What comfort is more than this, that howsoever there be variety of conditions in this world, we live, we die, we are in prosperity, we are in misery; yet here is no variety in the state of salvation. Christ is not a Lord to-day and none to-morrow; but 'yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever,' Heb. 13:8.
2. Again, As it is a point of comfort, so it is also of duty. If Christ be our Lord in life and death, our duty is to look to him in life and death, to live and die to him. For our aim must answer his aim, if we ever intend to come to heaven; for we are understanding creatures,
and have a communion with him in a poor measure. Therefore what he will make his end must be our end. His end was that whether we live or die he might rule over us. Our end should be, in life and death to be ruled by him.
How shall we live to Christ?
We live to Christ—this is a ground of all other duties that follow— when we know and acknowledge Christ hath a full interest in us, by being our head, by being our husband, by being our king, our elder brother. He hath all the sweet interest to us that any relation can inright* (g) him to; for all other relations among men are but shadows of that grand relation. There only is the reality of things. He is a true head, a true king, a true elder brother, a true husband to his church. All ours are but poor representations of those glorious things. Then know and acknowledge so much. That is the ground of all living to him.
Upon knowing and acknowledging issues all other obedience in our life to Christ. Those that thus acknowledge Christ, they must be directed by his will, and not their own. As a servant as far as he is a servant, and a wife so far as she is a wife, they have no will of their own, so he that lives to Christ and acknowledgeth him to be a Lord, he must have no will of his own, but he must live according to the will of Christ, as you have it excellently set down, 1 Peter 4:1, 2,
'Christ suffered for us in the flesh. Let us arm ourselves therefore with the same mind; for he that suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh, to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.' It is a comment upon this place, 'Christ died, and rose, and revived, that he might be
Lord of the quick and of the dead;' that is, that we might live according to his will, and not after our own. Do you think our
Saviour Christ would so far deny himself to leave heaven, to take upon himself our base nature, and be so far abased in it, to let us live as we list? Oh no; we must live the rest of our days, not according to the lusts of men, or our own lusts, but according to the will of God;
and therefore as the apostle admonisheth, Rom. 12:2, we must search 'what is the acceptable will of God in all things.' What is the end of our hearing sermons, of our reading, and all the pains we take in the means of salvation? Not only to know what God will do to us, but what he will have of us. He will have the directing of our lives; and therefore if we live to Christ, we must labour to know his good pleasure to us; what he means to do for us and so his good pleasure with us; what he will have us do again by way of thankfulness. Christ squared his life immediately according to his Father's will. 'It is written in the volume of thy book, that I should do thy will, O God,'
Ps. 40:7. So all that are Christ's must have the same spirit, to direct all their lives according to his will. Now the most grand things of his will—for his will is in the Scriptures—are that we repent. He commands all to repent. His will is that we believe in him. His will is our sanctification, as it is 1 Thes. 5:23. His will is that we suffer, and in suffering submit ourselves to him; and the Scriptures is express in many other particulars, but these especially are named, to shew something wherein we must direct ourselves according to his will.
But, not to insist upon particulars, in all things we must labour to direct our lives according to his will.
Secondly, That we may live to God, we must aim at the glory of Christ in all things, and at the credit of religion, not at our own credit. If Christ be Lord of the quick and dead, while we live we must not seek our own glory but his. The contrary to this the apostle complains of:
'All seek their own,' saith he, 'and not the things that are of the Lord Jesus Christ,' Phil. 2:21. We must consider what is for the credit of religion and the honour of Christ; and not what is for our own advantage. Is it not good reason that we should seek the glory of him that is Lord over us? Naturally proud man is led with a spirit of selflove; and he seeks himself in all things, even in his religion. So far as it stands with his own lusts he will be religious, and no further. So long as God's will is not contrary to his, he will do God service; but if it cross his will once, then he will give God leave to seek him a servant.
Thus man makes himself an idol; he sets up himself in the room of God; he doth all things, as from himself, so for himself; nor indeed can he do otherwise, till he put off himself wholly, and deny himself
—a man cannot go beyond himself but by grace, that raiseth a man above himself. It makes him have an eye to some excellency, out of himself, conformity whereto and interest whereinto will make him happy.
Now that we may aim at Christ in all things, it is good to call ourselves to account for our aims. Wherefore we live and wherefore we have, are or do anything, either in grace or nature, it is or should be, not only that we may be saved ourselves, but that Christ in all may be glorified. We need not sever these; for Christ joins them both together; and he that seeks his own salvation seeks the glory of God, because God will be glorified in saving us. The end hath a main influence into all actions; and as it differenceth man from other creatures, that though he do the same action as a beast, he eats and drinks and sleeps, all for another end, for an end beyond himself, because he is a reasonable creature, whereas other creatures rest in themselves. So it differenceth between natural men and Christians; they differ in their aims, not in their actions. Both do the same thing.
One doth it for base ends of his own; keeps within the circle of those ends. The other having a light discovering excellencies better than the world can afford, and having another spiritual life above, he is thereby directed to further aims in all; yea, even in his civil actions.
Saint Paul gives a rule, that 'whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we should do all to the glory of God,' 1 Cor. 10:31. Though the action be common and civil, not tending directly to the glory of God, as eating, &c., yet our aim should be in it, at Christ and at God, that the body thereby being refreshed may be fit to serve God.
And indeed there is not the commonest action of this life, but we may shew that we have a good end in it, and therein glorify God.
Therefore in Scripture it is put as a kind of limitation: 'Obey in the Lord,' 'marry in the Lord,' do all things in the Lord; that is, in Christ.
He shews that we should do all such things, intimating that as we must go about such enterprises with invocation of the name of the Lord, &c., so chiefly we should do them so far, and no farther, as they may stand with the favour and glory of Christ. In subordinate things, the rule of subordinate things is to do them so far as they may help to the main end. Now the service of all other is subordinate to the service of Christ, and all other bonds are serviceable to the main bond in marriage, or whatsoever may not prejudice the bond of marriage in the Lord; marry not rich, nor honourable, but in the Lord, All things must have their limitation to be done in the Lord; that is, so far as they may stand with pleasing the Lord. Thus we see what it is to live to the Lord with his good pleasure and likening.*
Now an assistant help—of living to the Lord—is a perpetual selfdenial of our own wisdom, will, and affections in all things, else we shall live to ourselves, and to the Lord we shall never attain.
But you will say this is a hard saying. True. But consider this one thing, that we are the greatest enemies to ourselves of all; and we carry in ourselves a cursed enmity to all that is divine and supernatural. Naturally we are trained up to our own will, therefore we cannot endure the yoke of Christ without supernatural strength.
Again, Divine things perpetually cross the liking of the soul; whereupon there is an antipathy between us and Christ, and divine things. Therefore there must be self-denial of necessity. Now the knowledge of this will be a good means to enable us to the duty.
Another help to this, of living to Christ, is to complain of ourselves to Christ, as Saint Paul, Rom. 7:24, 'O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me?' &c.; to inform against our rebellions, that we live too much to the flesh and too little to the Spirit, too much to ourselves and too little to Christ, by reason of that principle of flesh and blood, and to desire him to captivate all,* and bring all in subjection by his Spirit. This is alway a sign of a man led by the Spirit, that it directs him to Christ. The Spirit, as it comes from
Christ, and the Father, so it directs to Christ, to the pleasing of the Father, and of Christ in all things.
Here I might take just occasion to reprove a company of men that live under the gospel, that will be saved by Christ forsooth, but will not have Christ a Lord to rule over them. They will be ruled by rules of state, or rules of flesh and blood, and their own lusts, by the rules of hell sometime, so that they may have their own aims, their own ambition satisfied, and raise themselves to their own pitch; a disposition cursed, and opposite to that religion which they profess.
For our life should be a living to Christ, and under Christ a living to the church and state. But say they, 'Let us break their bonds, and cast their cords from us,' Ps. 2:3. What! do they think we will be awed with a company of poor preachers? Away with them! We will have our own wills; let us break their bonds in sunder. Christ sits in heaven, and laughs them all to scorn, Ps. 2:4. They shall know at length he will be no Saviour where he is no Lord. If he may not rule them by his Spirit and holy directions while they live, he will not own them when they die. For you see the text joins both here, 'he died,' and 'he is Lord.' When he died there came water and blood out of his side, to shew that he came not only to shed his blood, to die, and to satisfy divine justice, but by water to cleanse us, and to fit us to be subject to his government. Therefore those that take him as a priest to die, and will not have him as a Lord, they rent† his offices. I do but touch these now.
We see what it is to live to Christ. Let us see what it is to die to the Lord?
(1.) 'To die to the Lord' is to know and acknowledge that Christ hath power over us when we die; thereupon to submit ourselves to him, and not to murmur and fret, when he comes to call for our life and soul, as if we were unwilling to part with them.
(2.) Then again, to die to Christ, is when upon any good occasion he calls for our lives in standing for a good cawse—for the church or
state—to be ready to lay it down. There is not the least tittle of truth, but that it is better than a man's life. A man may not only die, in case of martyrdom, but in case of justice and truth, and so he must be willing to die if he will die to Christ.
(3.) Again, We die to the Lord when we carry ourselves so when death comes, as we may express some graces to glorify God, even in our very death; when we study to do all the good we can, that we may die fruitfully; out of this consideration, my time is short, I will labour to be sowing to the Spirit as much as I can, not to die like fools, but wisely, knowing that there is no further opportunity. Here is the time of seed; hereafter will be the time of reaping. Therefore there is no Christian that is master of himself at the hour of death, if some disease disable him not, but he studies how to shew himself as fruitful as he can at that time; as you see our Saviour when he was to die, what long chapters there are, three together, of his demeanour, how he strengthened his disciples, what an excellent prayer he made to God. See Moses, how he carried himself at his death, what excellent admonitions he gives; and good Jacob, what an excellent will he made; and St Peter, knowing he must put off his earthly tabernacle, 2 Peter 1:14, he labours to put them in mind 'to glorify
God,' as Saint Paul saith, 1 Cor. 6:20.
A Christian ought to end his days in faith and obedience; in faith that God will take his soul, when he commits it to him, and he shall reign for ever in heaven. In obedience thereupon, because he believes, he dies in faith, he will die in obedience. I even offer myself to thee, because I believe thou wilt care for me when I am gone hence; for thou art the Lord of life and death, and thou art the Lord of me when
I live, and when I am dead.
Well, as it implies duty, so it implies a gracious effect, that we shall be enabled to this duty. He indeed in himself is a Lord. We ought to acknowledge him so, nay, we shall have the Spirit if we be his, to cause us to acknowledge him. You have a notable place, 2 Cor. 5:15, to this purpose, 'The love of Christ constrains us, because we thus
judge, if one died for all, then we are all dead.' If he died to redeem us from death, to what end did he die? He died for all, that 'they might not live to themselves, but to him that died, and rose again,' 2
Cor. 5:15. It is nothing but this in the text, 'we should live to him.'
Now this, that we should live to him, it is not an aim of ours only, but an effect that he works in us. He died 'that we might live to him.' For he died and rose that he might obtain the Spirit. By this Spirit he enableth us to live and die to God: as you have it, Rom. 8:8, at large proved. Those that are Christ's have the Spirit of Christ, and are led with it.
Beloved, it is a part of the new covenant, that whatsoever our duty is, we shall have ability to perform it by the Spirit of Christ; for all the gracious promises of the gospel are not only promises upon condition, and so a covenant, but likewise the covenant of grace is a testament and a will (a will is made without conditions; a covenant with conditions), that as he hath made a covenant what he would have us to do, so his testament is, that we shall have grace to do so; he will put his Spirit into us, and circumcise our hearts, or else, beloved, there would be no more strength of the covenant of grace than there was of that of nature in Adam. Why did Adam fall? He had not the Spirit to uphold him, nor had he the promise of it to keep him that he should not fall. Therefore the covenant of works was frustrate. But now the covenant of grace is this, that whatsoever God requires he will give his Spirit to enable us to do it, that the covenant may not be frustrate. If God should not make good our part as well as his, we should not be saved. Therefore, now in the covenant of grace we may boldly go to God and Christ; and allege unto him, when any duty is pressed upon us, and when we are about to perform any duty, and find want of strength, 'Lord, thou knowest I have no strength of myself, I am a barren wilderness; but thou hast entered into a covenant of grace with me, which covenant now is a testament, a free will, that thou wilt give what thou requirest, Lord, in the use of means that thou hast ordained; in attending upon thee, and looking up to thee, I desire that thou wouldst give me strength to submit to thee, to live and die to thee, to direct my course as I should.' This
should be the course of a Christian, and not to set upon things in his own strength; but when duty is discovered, look to the promise of grace and of the Spirit, and put them into suit, and allege them to Christ in the use of sanctified means, as reading, hearing, holy conference, and the like; and he will enable us to do that that is our duty.
Therefore a man may know who is indeed under Christ's government by 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 3:8. 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 short-spirited 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. 8:39; 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 2:29; 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 10:14,
'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 lusts 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. Will he then suffer us to be disposed of by ourselves? No.
Whether 'we live or die, we are his,' if we yield ourselves sweetly to his government, in life and death.