of his kingdom.Three things are here to be attended to. I. The battle.. III. The purfuit.After which, IV. I fhall fubjoin fome practical improvement. I. WE fhall confider the battle betwixt death and the Lord of life.-And, 1. Under what character has the Lord of life fought this battle? He fought it, (1.) As the Head and reprefentative of the elect world, as their Mediator,who took burden on himself for all that the Father had given him; for otherwife he had nothing to do with death; nor had it any concern with him: John, v. 15. "I lay down my life for the fheep." Adam, the head of all mankind, had betrayed us all into the fnare of death, we were not able to break it, or to make our escape thence; but Chrift undertook it for the elect, as their Head, and fo fought death in their room and stead: 1 Tim. ii. 6. "Who gave himfelf a ranfom for all." "But he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed," Ifa. liii. 5. He bare what we should have borne, ftood the fhock which would have ruined us; he was wounded and bruifed in this battle, but all for us: ver. 8. For the tranfgreffion of my people was he ftricken." And hence we are reckoned in law to have died in him: Rom. vi. 10. 11. "For in that he died, he died unto fin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewife reckon ye alfo yourselves to be dead indeed unto fin, but alive unto God, through Jefus Christ our Lord.” (2.) As their Redeemer and Deliverer: Hofea, xiii. 14. "I will ranfom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death: 0 death! I will be thy plagues; O grave! I will be thy deftruction." By fin we fell a prey to devour ing death, the broken law concluded us under the power of it. The prey could not be taken from this mighty one, without both price and power; fo Chrift engaged with death, and by his death ranfomed death's prifoners: Heb. ii. 15. "That through death he might deftroy death, and him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime fubject to bondage." He fpoiled it of its power, that they might get free. The kingdom he had received of his Father could not be recovered, nor the captives fet free, without ftroke of fword, his overcoming death, that held them faft; therefore he fought the battle. (3.) As a Captain or General on the head of his people Heb. ii. 10. "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many fons unto glory, to make the Captain of their falvation perfect through fufferings." God has defigned that the elect fhall fight their way to heaven, and therefore has given them Chrift as a Leader and Commander: Ifa. lv. 4. "Behold I have given him for a Leader and Commander to the people." They must march through the Red Sea of death to the upper Canaan ; but Chrift goes before, drying up the waters. There are cords of death on the most lively believer, yet he muft fet himfelf to break them; but Chrift has made them like a thread of flax, when it toucheth the fire. They must encounter the king of terrors; but the King of glory, marching in the front, front, has received all the deadly fting.--I fhall confider, 2. The attack made upon him by death. Death, finding the Mediator standing in sinners stead, advances against him with all its forces, with which it was furnished by the breach of the first covenant; and, when managing this conteft, (1.) Death brings up its ftrength against him, that is, the law, I Cor. xv. 56. "The fting of death is fin, and the ftrength of fin is the law," which, finding him a finner by imputation, cut him down, Gal. iv. 4. "God fent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law." The Law cries for juftice against fin, and Juftice takes the Mediator by the throat, faying, Pay what thou oweft; then he "reftored what he took not away," Pfal. lxix. 4. The law brings up against him a black band of curfes, and pours into his foul: Gal. iii. 13, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curfe for us." It foon began to fhoot out its arrows against him. When he was born, he must be born in a ftable, laid in a manger, for there was no room for him in the inn; perfecution is raised against him in his infancy; he must be all along a man of forrows, poor, not having where to lay his head; he is hungry, thirsty, weary, &c. At length the battle grows hotter, the heavens are black above his head; and in the garden, and on the cross, fhowers of arrows dipt in the curfe fly at him. He fweats bloody drops, falling down to the ground,- cries out, "My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me ?" (2.) Meanwhile he that has the power of death (Heb. ii. 14.) advances against him, Satan fets upcn him in the wilderness with most grievous temptations, Matth. iv. Being beat back, he returns, and renews the affault: Luke, iv. 13. "And when the devil had ended all the temptations, he departed from him for a feafon." At length the hour and powers of darkness come, and then the bands of hell exert their utmoft vigour against him, ftorms from hell blow hard upon him, the fountains of the great deep are opened on him: John, xiv. 30. "Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." Col. ii. 15." And having fpoiled principalities and powers, he made a fhew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (3.) The congregation of men dead in trefpaffes. and fins ftir up themselves against him: Ifa.liii. 3. "He is defpifed and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we efteemed him not." Judas betrays him, the Jews gape on him like a lion, crying, Crucify him; Pilate condemns him; he is fcourged, crowned with thorns, fmitten on the crowned head, his body racked till it was all out of joint, nailed to the crofs, hangs there mocked, and pierced with a fpear. (4) Death comes with its fting upon him, and pierces him to the heart, and cafts him down dead: 1 Cor. xv. 56. "The fting of death is fin;" this gives it the power of hurting any. The guilt of all the fins of the elect lay upon him, which could not but make the fting of death inexpreffibly fharp and piercing. Thus a thousand deaths in one met together on him, for the Lord made the iniquities of us all to meet on him ; and all the arrows that should have pierced all the elect for ever, have entered into his bowels; and, having fallen under death, he was carried prifoner to the grave... II. LET us confider the victory Christ obtained. He He tells us he has fought and overcome: Rev. iii. 21. "To him that overcometh will I grant to fit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am fet down with my Father in his throne." Yea, he has triumphed over his enemies in his glorious afcenfion into heaven. Confider, 1. How this victory over death was obtained. It was obtained, (1.) By his death. This was the decisive stroke: Heb. ii. 14. "That through death he might destroy death, and him that had the power of death." It was such a victory as Samfon's last victory over the Philistines, when he pulled down the house, and died himfelf with the Philiftines in the fall of it; and therefore he cried upon the crofs, "It is finished." Death has done its utmoft, and can do no more; by his death he fatisfied the law in all it had to demand of him as the elect's Surety; he paid the debt, and removed the guilt. Sin being removed, and the law fatisfied, death has no more that ftrength or fting wherewith it fet upon him at firft; and fo it fell with him. (2.) By his refurrection. Thereby he got up above death, which had loft its power, and could hold him no longer, Acts, ii. 24. "Whom God hath raised up, having loofed the pains of death, because it was not poffible that he fhould be holden of it." He stood a Conqueror in the grave, death's own quarters; he broke afunder its iron bars, and brought away its keys; behold they hang at his girdle, Rev. i. 18. " And have the keys of hell and of death." So death's dominion over thofe that are his, got an irrecoverable stroke, and he that had the power of death as to the elect, namely, as an executioner, viz. the devil, was alío destroyed.—I next inquire, 2. What |