SERMON XV. ROMANS XIV. 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. THE public offices of our Church have led us, within a few months, through most of the principal transactions of our blessed Redeemer's life on earth. We have commemorated his condescension to take upon him the likeness of sinful flesh, his submitting to fulfil the righteousness † of the Jewish law, and his early manifestation to the Gentile world; his fasting forty days and nights, and yielding afterwards to be tempted in all points as we are, yet without sint. Many of his wonderful works, many of his gracious instructions, have been rehearsed in our ears; and very lately his most bitter sufferings and death represented, as it were, before our eyes. We have accompanied him, from his sorrows and agonies in the garden, through all the sad variety of disgrace and pain that he underwent, till he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost § on the cross. We have seen his dead body pierced to the heart with a spear, taken down and interred, the sepulchre closed, sealed up, and guarded; his disciples, though continuing to honour him, quite in despair about him: and yet we find him this day risen again, to die no more. Rom. viii. 3. ↑ Heb. iv. 15. + Matth. iii. 15. § John xix. 30. Surely it is time we should ask ourselves what was the meaning of so unparalleled a transaction, to which the attention of all mankind hath been called so solemnly ever since? It could not be merely to move our compassion with a piteous history, that God sent his Son from Heaven, to live in wretchedness and die in torment; nor to fill us with a vain admiration, that he raised him from the grave, and hath placed him at his own right hand. What then was the view and use of this most extraordinary dispensation? the text informs us. To this end Christ both died and rose and revived; or, as it should be translated, and is elsewhere in the New Testament, lives again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living. Every thing he did or suffered was ordained to accomplish that merciful and awful scheme of Providence, our Saviour's universal dominion over all; to make the obedient good and happy, and reward the disobedient according to their works. portant doctrine I shall I. Explain and prove. Then shew, II. Under what obligations it lays us. This im I. Christ indeed, as the eternal Son of the Father, had original glory and dominion before the world existed; was in the beginning with God, and was God. But the Apostle speaks not here of that dignity and power which his divine nature always possessed, but which his human nature acquired, by dying and rising and living again. It is true, the former part of his life contributed greatly, both by his doctrine and example, to set up that kingdom of righteousness, over which he was to reign. And even then the Father had given all things into his hand †, and committed all judgment to him. But this being ↑ John iii. 35. * John i. 1. VOL. II, John v. 22. done in consideration of his future sufferings, on them the foundation of his authority is laid in Scripture. Thus St. Paul teaches, that, because being in the form of God, he was willing to take upon him the form of a servant, an inferior and ministering nature, as ours is; and then, being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself yet lower unto the death of the cross: therefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name *. But elsewhere he more determinately grounds his sovereignty on his passion alone: We see Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour †. And justly doth it entitle him to an authority over us, since it gained him a property in us. For sin both subjecting men by its guilt, as debtors and criminals, to the just sentence of God, and by its dominion, as captives and slaves, to the unjust empire of the devil; our Saviour, by delivering us in each of these respects, hath obtained a double right to us. By giving his life a ransom to divine justice, he hath bought us to himself with the price of his blood; so that we are his in right of purchase. And having destroyed the tyranny of the wicked one over us, by the holiness of the precepts which his death confirmed, and the effi cacy of the grace which it procured, we are his again in right of conquest. This authority, thus acquired, his resurrection openly proclaimed; attesting, not only in general the truth of his mission, but in particular the acceptance of his sufferings for our redemption: and consequently his title to govern us, and his power to raise us up again according to his promise, as he had raised himself. Hence, during the remainder of his continuance on earth, he founded and gave laws to † Heb. ii. 9. * Phil. ii. 6-9. his church; and being yet more solemnly invested with fulness of power on his ascension to Heaven, he ever lives to rule and protect it. Nor doth his sovereignty extend over mankind alone, but the whole creation. For God, as St. Paul assures us, having raised him from the dead, hath set him at his own right hand, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and hath put all things under his feet*: that in the name of Jesus, as he adds in another place, every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lordt. In these words he is described, both as the high priest and the king of the universe. His possession of the former office is expressed by saying, that every knee shall bow in his name; for so it should be translated, not at his name, when his name is mentioned: though that be a practice, both unexceptionable and reverent. To bow the knee is to pray. So, Eph. iii. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you to be strengthened by his Spirit in the inner man. Therefore to bow the knee in the name of Jesus, is to pray in his name, as the person qualified and appointed to present our petitions to God, and derive his blessings upon us. The remaining part of the passage declares his kingly office: And every tongue confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord; or, as St. John more emphatically styles him, Lord of lords, and King of kings t. Nor are men only, but all the angels of God, required to worship him as such. Created beings, of how exalted rank * Eph. i. 20, 21, 22. + Phil. ii. 10, 11. Rev. xvii. 14. § Heb. i. 6. soever, can only be faithful as servants in the house of God, but Christ as a son over his house, which himself hath builded*. Men he governs, who receives the obey, and no one In what manner he governs the rest of his works we are not concerned to inquire. by giving laws, which every one, knowledge of them, is bound to may add to, diminish, or alter; by forming those, who submit to him willingly, into a regular society, or universal Church, provided with fit means of instruction, discipline, and grace; by improving them in all goodness, and strengthening them against all temptation; by providing, that in the worst of times the gates of hell shall not prevail† to abolish true religion; and gradually bringing on, according to his promise, that happy age, when the kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall take to himself his great power and shall reign. But however illustrious his dominion may then appear, the full manifestation of it, (for which every other act of his regal authority is opening the way) will be in that hour, when he shall come with the holy angels to sit upon the throne of his glory, and all nations being gathered before him §, shall sentence the wicked, both men and devils, to everlasting punishment, but bestow on the righteous life eternal. After which, the ends of this whole dispensation being now accomplished, he shall deliver up his kingdom of grace to God even the Father ||, in whose kingdom of glory he shall still reign, with him and the Holy Spirit, over his saints and angels, for ever and ever ¶. Rev. xi. 15. 17. · + Matt. xvi. 18. 1 Cor. xv. 24. Heb. iii. 3. 5, 6. § Matt. xvi. 27. xix. 28. xxv. 31, 32. Rev. xi. 15. |