Burkitt:

1) Hebrews 2:9:

9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man

Observe here, 1 The wonderful humiliation and abasement, the exinanition and deep depression, of the glorious Jesus: he was made for a little time lower than the angels: that is, he was made man, and mortal, and did suffer death. Observe, 2 The manner of our Lord’s death: he tasted it, he did really taste of it, and but taste of it; he tasted death, that is, he died really, and not in appearance only, he lasted it. Implying that he underwent the bitterness of it: he found out experimentally what death was by dying, as a man finds out the bitterness of a thing by tasting. Again, he did but taste of it, he was not finally overcome and vanquished by it; he continued but a short time under it, it was not possible that he should be long holden of it; the dignity of his person rendered a short continuance of him under the power of death sufficient for our redemption. Observe, 3. The persons for whom he tasted death, or died: for others, not for himself; that is, for their room and stead; he underwent that death in our stead, which we should have undergone in our own persons. Observe, 4. The extent of Christ’s death; he tasted death for every man; that is, Christ by his death has made God propitious to every man, made sin remissible, and every man saveable; the death of Christ renders God willing to be reconciled unto all sinners; faith renders him actually reconciled. The reason why every man doth not obtain salvation, is not for want of a sufficient propitiation. Observe, 5. The moving cause which inclined God to deliver up Christ to death, and to transfer our punishment upon him, and that was his own grace and free good-will, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Observe, 6. The glorious reward of our Lord’s sufferings with reference to himself. We see Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor. As Christ’s meritorious sufferings for us, so shall our patient suffering for him, be rewarded with the highest glory in heaven, 1 Pet. V. 10. “The God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect,” &c.   William Burkitt, Expository Notes With Practical Observations on the New Testament (Philadelphia: Published by Thomas Wardle, 1835), 2:586-587.589. [Some spelling modernized, italics original, and underlining mine.]

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Prosper:

At the time Abraham was justified through this faith, he had not yet received God’s command about the circumcision; and though he was then in his natural uncircumcision, his faith was reputed to justice. That same faith received the sign of the circumcision in the part of the body through which the seed of procreation was to advance to that flesh of which, without the seed of the flesh, the Son of God, God the Word, was made flesh and was born of Abraham’s daughter, the Virgin Mary. By His birth among men He made all men His brothers, who would be reborn in Christ through the Spirit and would have Abraham’s faith. But up to the day that the seed should come of which it had been said, In thy seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed this faith remained confined to the people of one race, and there with the true Israelites the hope of our Redemption was kept alive. For although there were some men of other races whom, whilst the Law was in force, the truth deigned to enlighten, yet they were so few that we can hardly know whether there were any. But notwithstanding the fact that the abundance of grace which now floods the whole world did not then flow with equal bounty, this does not excuse the Gentiles who, being aliens from the conversation of Israel,… having no hope,… and without God in this world, have died in the darkness of their ignorance.

St Prosper of Aquitaine, The Call of the Nations, trans., & annot., by P. De Letter. (Westminster Maryland: The Newman Press, 1952), 113-114.

Charnock:

Man is to be considered as respited from the present suffering this sentence by the intervention of Christ; whereby he is put into another way of probation. So those common notions in our understandings, and common motions in our wills and affections, so far as they have anything of moral goodness, are a new gift to our natures by virtue of the mediation of Christ. In which sense he may be said to ‘taste death for every man,’ Heb. ii. 9, and be ‘a propitiation for the sins of the whole world.’ By virtue of which promised death, some sparks of moral goodness are preserved in man. Thus his ‘life was the light of men;’ and he is ‘The light that lightens every man that comes into the world,’ which sets the candle of the Lord in the spirit of man a-burning and sparkling, John I. 9, and upholds all things by his mediatory as well as divine power, Heb. I. 3, which else would have sunk into the abyss. By virtue of this mediation, some power is given back to man, as a new donation, yet not so much as that he is able by it to regenerate himself; and whatsoever power man has, is originally from this cause, and grows not up from the stock of nature, but from common grace.

Stephen Charnock, “A Discourse of the Efficient of Regeneration,” in Works, [1865], 3:210.

Mr. Obadiah Hughes (Annotator)

Heb 2:9:

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels [Phil 2:7. 8, 9.] for [or by] the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour [Acts 2:33.]; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man [Jn 3:16 & 12:32; Roms 5:18, & 8:32, 2 Cor 5:15; 1 Tim 2:6, 1 Jn 2:2.].

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels: this second application of the psalmist’s words demonstrates Jesus, the gospel Prophet, to be the man or Adam intended by the Spirit there; and his humiliation and exaltation to be the matter asserted of him: see ver. 7.

For the suffering of death. crowned with glory and honour: the reason or end of his diminution, in respect of angels, for a little while, and of his necessity of his being man, was, that he might be crucified and die, Phil. ii. 7-11, and thereby merit for himself n crown of honour and glory. This was given him for his giving himself to be a sacrifice for sin, and by his own blood to expiate it.

That he by the grace of God; the principle determining. which was God’s good pleasure; he alone, out of his free love and favour to sinners, ordered this, as John iii. 16; 1 John iv. 9. Therefore the Hebrews had no reason of being offended with him as they were, 1 Cor. i. 23.

Should taste death; a metaphor to express to die as a sacrifice, making satisfaction to Divine justice, and expiating sins, Isa. liii.10. All his sufferings in body and soul, which were many and bitter, are here intended, and their completion by death, Matt. xxvi. 39, 42, intimating by his taste of this deadly cup, his sipping of it, but not having swallowed it: and it is a metaphor allusive to the Grecian customs, who put men to death by giving them a cup of poison, as the Athenians executed Socrates.

For every man; to render sin remissible to all persons, and them salvable, God punishing man’s sin in him, and laying on him the iniquities of us all, Isa. liii. 4-6; 1 John ii. 2; and so God became propitious and pleasable to all; and if all are not saved by it, it is because they do not repent and believe in him, 2 Cor. v. 19-21: compare John x. 15. This was evident to and well known by these Hebrews,, as if they saw it, the work, concomitants, and effect of it demonstrating it. And this now in the gospel is evident to faith: it was so certainly visible and evidently true, as not to be denied but by infidels.

Heb 2:14:

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also [Jn 1:14; Rom.8:3. Phil. 2:7] himself likewise took part of the same [I Cor. 15: 51.55; Col. 2:15; 2 Tim. 1:10.] that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood: the Spirit having proved the children and brethren sanctified by Christ to be men, proceeds to prove, that the Sanctifier of them was of the same nature with themselves; and so confirms what he asserted, ver. 11, that. they were of one: forasmuch as those were chosen, born of God, and given to him, adopted into his sonship and heirship, and by this, as well as by their humanity, derived jointly with his own from Adam, his brethren, kekoinoneke, these having it in common. The word imports the reality, integrity, unity, and community they all have of the human nature; they are all truly, only, and fully men, and every individual person hath this humanity. These flesh and blood metonymically set out the whole human nature, though the body only be literally expressed by it, a body subject to many infirmities.

He also himself likewise took part of the same; God the Son himself paralesios, had the next and nearest correspondent condition with theirs, even the same as to the kind of it, as like as blood is to blood, properly and truly, only freed from our sinful infirmities, as ver. 17; chap. iv. 15; this word diminisheth him not, but showeth his identity: metesche, took part, he became a partner with the children, and took their nature. It is not the Same word as before, kekoinoneke, as the Marcionites and Manichees corrupt it, as if he had this nature only in common with them, making him only man. But being God, besides his Divine nature, &c., to it he took the human, even their true and full nature, consisting of a body and a soul, and so united them. that in him they became one person; so that hence results a double union of Christ with man. By his incarnation he is of one nature with all the human race, and so is the Head of them: and by his dying for them all the human race are made salvable, which angels are not; and those who repent and believe on him, are actually sanctified and united to him, as his elect and chosen body, and shall be saved by him.

That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death: by his dying on the cross as testator of God’s covenant, and not by his power as a God, (which was most glorious to himself, but most ignominious to the devil, according to the promise, Gen. iii. 15,) did he abolish, or bring to nought, and render powerless without any recovery, not by taking away the immortal life and being, but the kratos the strength and power to kill. For the exousia he authority, right, and command, the keys of death, are in Christ’s hand only, and he useth the strength of this execution in it, as to his enemies; when sinners become penitent believers, then his death satisfying God’s justice for their sin, hath executed the paver as to death, which the devil had by law against them: 1 Cor. xv. 56, 57,

The sting of death is sin, that gives him power; and the strength of sin is the law, that, unless satisfied for, takes part with sin; but Christ by dying takes away the law’s enmity, removes sin, as to guilt. stain, and power, and so brings to nought this power.

That is, the devil; the prince himself, set here collectively for all the rest of his evil spirits, Matt. xxv. 41, who by his lies drew man into sin, and by sin stings him to death; having therefore such power to seduce to sin, he powerfully renders men obnoxious to death; and then, as executioner, having them by the law delivered into his hands, putteth forth his strength to torment and destroy them. Christ by his death doth with price and power redeem them out of his hand, and destroys all his works, takes possession of them, and brings them through death to eternal life.