The Fountain of Life, Sermon 18
Serm. 18.The EIGHTEENTH SERMON.Opens the necessity of Christs humiliation in order to the execution of all these his blessed Offices for us; and particularly of his humiliation by Incarnation.
PHIL. II.VIII.
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death; even the death of the Cross.
YOU have heard how Christ was invested with the Offices of Prophet, Priest and King, for the carrying on the blessed design of our Redemption; the excution of these Offices necessarily required that he should be both deeply abased, and highly exalted. He cannot as our Priest offer up himself a Sacrifice to God for us, except he be humbled, and humbled to death. He cannot as a King powerfully apply the vertue of that his Sacrifice, except he be exalted, yea, highly exalted. Had he not stooped to the low estate of a man, he had not as a Priest had a Sacrifice of his own to offer; as a Prophet, he had not been fit to teach us the will of God, so as that we should be able to bear it: as a King he had not been a suitable head to the Church: And had he not been highly exalted, that Sacrifice had not been carried within the vail, before the Lord. Those discoveries of God could not have been universal, effectual and abiding. The Government of Christ could not have secured, protected and defended the Subjects of his Kingdom.
The infinite wisdom prospecting all this, ordered that Christ should first be deeply humbled, then highly exalted: both which states of Christ are presented to us by the Apostle in this context.
He that intends to build high, lays the foundation deep, and low. Christ must have a distinct glory in Heaven, transcending that of Angels and men. (For the Saints will know him from all others by his glory, as the Sun is known from the lesser Stars.) And as he must be exalted infinitely above them, so he must first, in order thereunto be humbled and abased as much below them. His form was mar'd more than any mans, and his visage more than the Sons of men. The ground colours are a deep sable, which afterward are laid on with all the splendor and glory of Heaven.
Method requires that we first speak to this state of Humiliation.
And to that purpose I have read this Scripture to you: which pesents you, the Sun under an (almost total) eclipse. He that was beautiful and glorious.foreign. Isai. 4.2. Yea, glorious as the only begotten of the Father, Ioh. 1.14. yea, the glory, Iames 2.1. Yea, the splendor and brightness of the Fathers glory, Heb. 1.3. was so vail'd, clouded, and debased; that he looked not like himself, a God: no nor scarce as a man, for with reference to this humbled state it's said,foreign Desitio virorum abjectus inter viros. Montanus. Psal. 22.6. I am a worm, and no man; q. d. rather write me worm, than man. I am become an abject among men, as that word, Isai. 53.3. signifies. This humiliation of Christ we have here expressed, in the nature, degrees, and duration or continuance of it.
First, The nature of it foreign, he humbled himself. The word imports both are all and voluntary abasement.Lòquitur autem non de simulatae & hypocritica humiliatione, sed de vera & syncera. Zanch. in Loc. Real, he did not personate a humbled man, nor act the part of one in a debased state, but was really and indeed humbled; and that not only before men, but God. As man he was humbled really, as God in respect of his manifestive glory. And as it was real, so also voluntary. It is not said he was humbled, but he humbled himself. He was willing to stoop to this low and abject state, for us. And indeed the voluntariness of his humiliation, made it most acceptable to God, and singularly commends the love of Christ to us.Non ab alio fuit humiliatus, sicut angeli mali à Deo praecipitati in barathrum infernale; sed humiliavit seipsum. Zanch. That he would choose to stoop to all this ignominy, sufferings and abasement for us.
Secondly, The degrees of his humiliation; it was not only so low as to become a man, a man under law; but he humbled himself to become obedient to death, even the death of the Cross. Here you see the depth of Christs humiliation, both specified, it was unto death: and aggravated, even the death of the Cross. Not only to become a man, but a dead corpse, and that too, hanging on the tree. Dying the death of a malefactor.
Thirdly, The duration, or continuance of this his humiliation. It continued from the first moment of his incarnation, to the very moment of his vivification and quickning in the grave. So the terms of it are fixed here by the Apostle. From the time he was found in fashion as a man, that is from his incarnation, unto his death on the Cross, which also comprehends the time of his abode in the grave. So long his humiliation lasted. Hence the observation is.
DOCT. That the state of Christ,Doct. from his Conception, to his Resurrection; was a state of deep abasement, and humiliation.
We are now entring upon Christs humbled state, which I shall cast under three general heads: viz. his Humiliation in his incarnation, in his life, and in his death. My present work is to open Christs Humiliation in his incarnation:His paucis verbis confirmat quae ante dixerat. De vera hominis natura (quam foreign vocavit) à Filio Dei in unitatem pesonae assumpta: qua similis per omnia excepto peccato factus est homi…ibus. Zanch. imported in these words, he was found in fashion as a man. By which you are not to conceive that he only assumed a body, as an assisting form to appear transiently to us in it, and so lay it down again. It is not such an apparition of Christ in the shape of a man, that is here intended: but his true and real assumption of our nature, which was a special part of his Humiliation: as will appear by the following particulars.
First, The Incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliation of him, in as much as thereby he is brought into the ranck, and order of creatures, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Rom. 9.5. This is the astonishing mysterie, 1 Tim. 3.16. that God should be manifest in the flesh. That the eternal God should truly and properly be called the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. 2.5. It was a wonder to Solomon that God would dwell in that stately and magnificent Temple at Ierusalem, 2 Chron. 6.18. But will God in very deed, dwell with men on the earth! behold the Heaven, and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built? But it's a far greater wonder, that God should dwell in a body of flesh, and pitch his Tabernacle with us. Ioh. 1.14. It would have seemed a rude blasphemy, had not the Scriptures plainly revealed it; to have thought, or spoken of the eternal God, as born in time. The worlds Creator, as a Creature. The Ancient of daies, as an Infant of daies.
The Heathen Chaldeans told the King of Babel, that the dwelling of the Gods is not with flesh. Dan. 2.11. But now God not only dwells with flesh, but dwells in flesh. Yea, was made flesh: and dwelt among us.
For the Sun to fall from its Sphear, and be degraded into a wandring Attom. For an Angel to be turned out of Heaven, and be converted into a silly fly, or worm, had been no such great abasement; for they were but Creatures before, and so they should abide still, though in an inferiour order or species of creatures. The distance betwixt the highest, and lowest species of creatures, is but a finite distance. The Angel and the worm dwell not so far assunder. But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things, to become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all humane understanding. The distance betwixt God, and the highest order of creatures, is an infinite distance. He is said to humble himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven. What a humiliation then is it, to behold the things in the lower world! But to be born into it, and become a man! Great indeed is the mysterie of Godliness. Behold (saith the Prophet) Isai. 40.15, 18. The nations are as the drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the ballance; he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity. If indeed this great and incomprehensible Majesty will himself stoop to the state and condition of a creature, we may easily believe that being once a creature, he would expose himself to hunger, thirst, shame, spetting, death, or any thing, but sin. For that once being man, he should endure any of these things is not so wonderful, as that he should become a man. This was the low stoop, a deep abasement indeed.
Secondly, It was a marvelous humiliation to the Son of God, not only to become a creature, but an inferiour creature, a man, and not an Angel. Had he took the Angelical nature, though it had been a wonderful abasement to him; yet he had staid (if I may so speak) nearer his own home, and been somewhat liker to a God than now he appeared, when he dwelt with us. For Angels are the highest, and most excellent of all created Beings. For their nature, they are pure spirits: for their wisdom, Intelligencies. For their dignity; they are called principalities, and powers. For their habitations, they are stiled the Heavenly Host; and for their imployment, it is to behold the face of God in Heaven. The highest pitch, both of our holiness and happiness in the coming world, is expressed by this, we shall be foreign equal to the Angels. Luk. 20.36. As man is nothing to God, so he is much inferiour to the Angels. So much below them, that he is not able to bear the sight of an Angel, though in an humane shape, rendring himself as familiarly as may be to him. Iudg. 13.22. When the Psalmist had contemplated the Heavens, and viewed the Coelestial bodies; the glorious Luminaries, the Moon, and Stars which God had made: he cries out Psal. 8.5. what is man, that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him! Take man at his best, when he came a perfect and pure piece out of his Makers hand, in the state of innocency; yet he was inferiour to Angels. They alwaies bare the image of God in a more eminent degree, than man, as being wholly spiritual substances, and so more lively representing God, than man could do; whose noble soul is immerst in matter, and closed up in flesh and blood: yet Christ chooseth this inferior order, and species of creatures, and passeth by the Angelical nature. Heb. 2.16. He took not on him the nature of Angels, but the seed of Abraham.
Thirdly, Moreover, Jesus Christ did not only neglect the Angelical, and assume the humane nature; but he also assumed the humane nature, after sin had blotted the original glory of it, and withered up the beauty, and excellency thereof. For he came not in our nature before the fall, whilst as yet its glory was fresh in it; but came as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 8.3. in the likeness of sinful flesh, (i. e.) in flesh that had the marks, and miserable effects, and consequents of sin upon it. I say not that Christ assumed sinful flesh, or flesh really defiled by sin. That which was born of the Virgin was an holy thing. For by the power of the highest, (whether by way of manufacture, as some; or the energetical command and ordination of the Holy-Ghost, as others; or by his benediction and blessing, I here dispute not) that whereof the body of Christ was to be formed, was so sanctified that no taint or spot of original pollution remained in it. But yet though it had not intrinsecal native uncleanness in it, it had the effects of sin upon it; yea, it was attended with the whole troop of humane infirmities, that sin at first let into our common nature. Such as hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, mortality, and all those natural weaknesses and evils that clog our miserable natures, and make them groan from day to day under them.
By reason whereof, though he was not a sinner, yet he looked like one: and they that saw and conversed with him, took him for a sinner, seeing all these effects of sin upon him. In these things he came as near to sin, as his holiness could admit. O what a stoop was this! to be made in the likeness of flesh, though the innocent flesh of Adam, hed been much; but to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh, the flesh of sinners, rebels; flesh though not defiled, yet miserably defaced by sin: Oh what is this! and who can declare it! And indeed, if he will be a Mediator of reconciliation, it was necessary it should be so. It behoved him of assume the same nature that sinned, to make satisfaction in it. Yea, these senseless infirmities were necessary to be assumed with the nature, for as much as his bearing them was a part of his humiliation, and went to make up satisfaction for us. Moreover, by them our high-priest was qualified from his own experience, and filled with tender compassion to us.
But oh the admirable condescentions of a Saviour, to take such a nature! to put on such a garment when thread-bare and ragged▪ did this become the Son of God to wear? Oh grace unsearchable!
Fourthly, And yet more, by this his incarnation he was greatly humbled, in as much, as this his incarnation so vailed, clouded, and disguised him; that during the time he lived here, he looked not like himself, a God; but as a poor sorry, contemptible sinner, in the eyes of the world; they scorned him. This fellow said, Matth. 26.61. Hereby he made himself of no reputation, Phil. 2.6. it blotted his honour and reputation. By reason hereof he lost all esteem and honour from those that saw him, Matth. 13.55. is not this the Carpenters Son? To see a poor man travelling up and down the Country, in hunger, thirst, weariness, attended with a company of poor men; one of his company bearing the bag, and that which was put therein. Ioh. 13.29. Who that had seen him, would ever have thought this had been the Creator of the world; the Prince of the Kings of the Earth? He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Now which of you is there that would not rather choose to endure much misery as a man, than to be degraded into a contemptible worm, that every body treads upon, and no man regards it? Christ looked so unlike a God in this habit, that he was scarce allowed the name of a man; a worm rather than a man.
And think with your selves now, was not this astonishing self-denial? that he who from eternity had his Fathers smiles, and honours; he that from the creation was adored, and worshipped by Angels, as their God; must now become a footstool for every Miscreant to tread on; and not to have the respects due to a man! sure this was a deep abasement. It was a black cloud that for so many years darkned, and shut up his manifestative glory that it could not shine out to the world; only some weak raies of the Godhead shone to some few eyes, through the chinks of his humanity, as the clouded Sun sometimes opens a little, and casts some faint beams, and is muffled up again. We saw his glory, as of the only begotten Son, but the world knew him not, Ioh. 1.14. If a Prince walk up and down in a disguise, he must expect no more honour than a mean Subject. This was the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, this disguise made him contemptible, and an object of scorn.
Fifthly, Again, Christ was greatly humbled by his incarnation, in as much as thereby he was put at a distance from his Father, and that ineffable joy and pleasure he eternally had with him. Think not Reader, but the Lord Jesus lived at a high and unimitable rate of communion with God, while he walked here in flesh; but yet to live by faith as Christ here did, is one thing; and to be in the bosom of God, as he was before, is another thing. To have the ineffable delights of God perpetuated and continued to him, without one moments interruption from eternity, is one thing; and to have his soul sometimes filled with the joy of the Lord, and then all overcast with clouds of wrath again; to cry, and God not hear, as he complains, Psal. 22.2. nay, to be reduced to such an ebb of spiritual comforts, as to be forced to cry out so bitterly, as he did, Psal. 22.1. my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? This was a thing Christ was very unacquainted with, till he was found in habit as a man.
Sixthly, and Lastly, It was a great stoop and condescention of Christ, if he would become a man, to take his nature from such obscure parents; and choose such a low and contemptible state in this world, as he did. He will be born, but not of the blood of Nobles, but of a poor woman in Israel, espoused to a Carpenter: yea, and that too, under all the disadvantages imaginable. Not in his Mothers house, but an Inn; yea in the stable too. He suited all to that abased state he was designed for: and came among us under all the humbling circumstances imaginable. You know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ, (saith the Apostle) how that though he was rich, yet, for our sakes he became poor, 2 Cor. 8.9. And thus I have shewn you some few particulars of Christs humiliation in his incarnation. Next we shall infer somethings from it, that are practical.
Inference 1.
Hence we gather the fulness and compleatness of Christs satisfaction, Infer. 1.as the sweet first fruits of incarnation. Did man offend and violate the Law of God? Behold God himself is become a man to repair that breach, and satisfie for the wrong done. The highest honour that ever the law of God received, was to have such a person as the man Christ Jesus is, to stand before its Bar, and make reparation to it. This is more than if it had poured out all our blood, and built up its honour upon the ruines of the whole creation.
It is not so much to see all the Stars in Heaven overcast, as to see one Sun eclipsed. The greater Christ was, the greater was his humiliation; and the greater his humiliation was, the more full and compleat was his satisfaction; and the more compleatness there is in Christs satisfaction, the more perfect and steady is the Believers consolation. If he had not stoopt so low, our joy and comfort could not be exalted so high. The depth of the foundation, is the strength of the superstructure.
Inference 2.
Infer. 2.Did Christ for our sakes stoop from the Majesty, glory and dignity he was possessed of in Heaven, to the mean and contemptible state of a man; what a pattern of self-denial is here presented to Christians! What objection against, or excuses to shift off this duty can remain, after such an example as is here propounded? Brethren, let me tell you, the Pagan world was never acquainted with such an Argument as this, to press them to self-denial. Did Christ stoop, and cannot you stoop? Did Christ stoop so much, and cannot you stoop in the least? Was he content to become any thing, a worm, a reproach, a curse; and cannot you digest any abasements? Do the least slights and neglects rancle your hearts, and poyson them with discontent, malice and revenge? O how unlike Christ are you! Hear, and blush in hearing what your Lord saith in Joh. 13.14.Obligat nos ad rat…onem exempli, magis quam ad individuum actum. Chamier. Tom. 3. l. 19. c. 7. If I then your Lord and Master, wash your feet; ye also ought to wash one anothers feet. This example obliges not (as a learned man well observes) to the same individual act, but it obliges us to follow the reason of the example. That is, after Christs example we must be ready to perform the lowest and meanest Offices of love and service to one another. And indeed to this it obliges most forcibly, for it is as if a Master seeing a proud sturdy Servant, that grudges at the work he is imployed about, as if it were too mean and base, should come and take it out of his hand, and when he hath done it, should say; doth not your Lord and Master think it beneath him to do it, and is it beneath you? I remember it is an excellent saying that Bernard hath upon the nativity of Christ.Quid magis indignum, quid detestandum, amplius, quid gravimus puniendum; quam ut videns Deum parvulum factum homo se magnificet? Intolerabilis est impudentia, ut ubi sese exiaanivit majestas, vermiculus infletur; & iatumescat. Bern. Serm 1. de Nativ. Saith he, what more detestable, what more unworthy, or what deserves severer punishment, than for a poor man to magnifie himself, after he hath seen the great and high God so humbled, as to become a little Child? it is intollerable impudence for a worm to swell with pride, after it hath seen majesty emptying it self. To see one so infinitely above us, to stoop so far beneath us; Oh how convincing and shaming should it be▪ Ah how opposite should pride and stoutness be to the spirit of a Christian! I am sure nothing is more so to the Spirit of Christ. Your Saviour was lowly, meek, self-denying, and of a most condescending Spirit. He looked not at his own things, but yours. Phil. 2.4. And doth it become you to be proud, selfish and stout? I remember Ierom in his Epistle to Pamachius, a godly young noble-man; adviseth him to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame; yea saith he, if need be, I would not have you refuse to cut wood, and draw water for the Saints; and what saith he is this, to buffeting, and spetting, to crowning with thorns, scourging, and dying! Christ did undergo all this, and that for the ungodly.
Inference 3.
Did Christ stoop so low as to become a man to save us? Infer. 3.Then those that perish under the Gospel must needs perish without apology. What would you have Christ do more to save you? Loe, he hath laid aside the robes of Majesty, and glory; put on your own garments of flesh, come down from his Throne, and brought Salvation home to your own doors. Surely the lower Christ stooped to save us, the lower shall we sink under wrath, that neglect so great Salvation. The Lord Jesus is brought low, but the unbeliever will lay him yet lower, even under his feet: he will tread the Son of God under foot, Heb. 10.28. for such (as the Apostle there speaks) is reserved something worse, than dying without mercy. What pleas, and excuses others will make at the Judgement Seat,Vide Morning exercise at Giles in the fields. p. 256. I know not; but once it's evident, you will be speechless. And as one well observes, the vilest sinners among the Gentiles; nay, the Devils themselves, will have more to say for themselves, than you.
I must be plain with you; I beseech you consider, how Iews, Pagans and Devils will rise up in Judgement against you. The Iew may say, I had a legal yoak upon me, which neither I, nor my fathers were able to bear. Christ invited me only into the garden of nuts, where I might sooner break my teeth with the hard shells of Ceremonies, than get the kernel of Gospel-promises.— In the best of our Sacrifices, the smoak filled our Temple: smoak, only to provoke us to weep for a clearer manifestation.— We had but the old edition of the Covenant of grace, in a character very darkly intelligible; you have the last edition, with a Commentary of our rejection, and the worlds reception, and the spirits effusion. You had all that heart could wish.— I perish eternally may the poor Pagan say, without all possibility of reconciliation; and have only sinned against the Covenant of works; having never heard of a Gospel Covenant, nor of reconciliation by a Mediator. O had I heard but one Sermon! had Christ but once broke in upon my soul, to convince me of my undone condition, and to have shewn a righteousness to me▪ but wo is me, I never had so much as one offer of Christ. But so have I, must you say, that refuse the Gospel. I have, or might have heard thousands of Sermons: I could scarce escape hearing one or other shewing me the danger of my sin, and my necessity of Christ; but notwithstanding all I heard, I wilfully resolved I would have nothing to do with him.
I could not endure to hear strictness prest upon me. It was all the hell I had upon earth, that I could not sin in quiet.
Nay, may the Devil himself say, it's true, I was ever since my fall malitiously set against God; but alas, as soon as I had sinned, God kickt me out of Heaven, and told me he would never have mercy upon me; and though I lived in the time of all manner of gratious dispensations, I saw Sacrifices offered, and Christ in the flesh, and the Gospel preached: yet how could all this choose but enrage me the more, to have God as it were say, look here Satan, I have provided a remedy for sin, but none for thine. This set me upon revenge against God, as far as I could reach him; but alas, alas, had God entred into any Covenant with me at all, had God put me on any terms, though never so hard, for the obtaining of mercy; had Christ been but once offered to me: what do you think would I have done? &c.
O poor sinners, your Damnation is Just, if you refuse grace brought home by Christ himself, to your very doors. The Lord grant, this may not be thy case who readest these lines.
Inference 4.
Moreover,Infer. 4. here it follows, that none doth or can love like Christ. His love to man is matchiess. The freeness, strength, antiquity, and immutability of it puts a luster on it beyond all examples. Surely it was a strong love indeed, that made him lay aside his glory, to be found in fashion as a man; to become any thing, though never so much below himself for our Salvation. We read of Ionathans love to David, which passed the love of women. Of Iacobs love to Rachel, who for her sake endured the heat of summer, and cold of winter. Of Davids love to Absalom. Of the Primitive Christians love to one another, who could die one for another. But neither had they that to deny that Christ had; nor had he those inducements from the objects of his love, that they had. His love like himself is wonderful.
Inference 5.
Did the Lord Jesus so deeply abase,Infer. 5. and humble himself for us, what an engagement hath he thereby put on us, to exalt and honour him, who for our sakes was so abased! Quanto pro me vi ior, tanto mihi charior. B…rn.It was a good saying of Bernard, by how much the viler he was made for me, by so much the dearer shall he be to me. And O that all to whom Christ is dear, would study to exalt and honour him, these four ways.
First, By frequent and delightful speaking of him, and for him. When Paul had once mentioned his name, he knows not how to part with it; but repeats it no less than ten times, in the compass of ten verses, in 1 Cor. 1. It was Lamberts motto, none but Christ, none but Christ. It's said of Iohannes Molius, that after his conversion, he was seldom or never observed to mention the name Iesus, but his eyes would drop: so dear was Christ to him. Mr. Fox never denied any begger, that asked an alms in Christs name, or for Jesus sake. Iulius Palmer when all concluded he was dead, being turned as black as a coal in the fire; at last moved his scorched lips, and was heard to say, sweet Iesus, and fell a asleep.Plutarch in vita Tit. Elam. Plutarch tells us that when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Graecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressions; and the Herald was to proclaim in their audience the Articles of peace he had concluded for them; they so pressed upon him, (not being half of them able to hear) that he was in great danger to have lost his life in the press; at last, reading them a second time, when they came to understand distinctly how their case stood; they so shouted for Joy, crying foreign, a Saviour, a Saviour; that they made the very heavens ring again with their acclamations; and the very Birds fell down astonisht. And all that night the poor Graecians with instruments of musick, and songs of praise, danced and sang about his Tent; extolling him as a God that had delivered them. But surely you have more reason to be exalting the Author of your Salvation, who at a dearer rate hath freed you from a more dreadful bondage. O ye that have escaped the eternal wrath of God, by the humiliation of the Son of God, extol your great Redeemer, and for ever celebrate his praises.
Secondly, By acting your faith on him, for whatsoever lies in the promises yet unaccomplished. In this you see the great and most difficult promise fulfilled, Gen. 3.15. The seed of the woman shall break the Serpents head. Which contained this mercy of Christs incarnation for us in it; I say you see this fulfilled, and seeing that which was most improbable and difficult is come to pass; even Christ come in the flesh: methinks our unbelief should be strangled for ever, and all other promises the more easily believed. It seemed much more improbable, and impossible to reason that God should become a man, and stoop to the condition of a creature; than being a man, to perform all that good which his incarnation and death procured. Unbelief usually argues from one of these two grounds, can God do this? or will God do that? It's questioning either his power, or his will: but after this, let it cease for ever to cavil against either. His power to save should never be questioned by any, that know what sufferings and infinite burdens he supported in our nature. And surely his willingness to save, should never be put to a question, by any that consider how low he was content to stoop for our sakes.
Thirdly, By drawing nigh to God with delight through the vail of Christs flesh. Heb. 10.19.20. God hath made this flesh of Christ a vail betwixt the brightness of his glory and us▪ It serves to rebate the insupportable glory, and also to give admission to it,Decursus & recursus igratiarum. as the vail did in the Temple. Through this body of flesh which Christ assumed, are all out-lets of grace from God to us, and through it also must be all our returns to God again. It's made the great medium of our communion with God.
Fourthly, By applying your selves to him under all temptations, wants and troubles of what kind soever; as to one that is tenderly sensible of your case, and most willing, and ready to relieve you. Oh remember this was one of the inducements that perswaded and invited him to take your nature, that he might be furnished abundantly with tender compassion for you, from the sense he should have of your infirmities,Ha…d igra… malis, miseris succurrere disco. in his own body. Heb. 2.17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethen, that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God; to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. You know by this argument the Lord pressed the Israelites to be kind to strangers, for (saith he) you know the heart of a stranger. Exod. 23.9. Christ by being in our natures, knows experimentally what our wants, fears, temptations and distresses are; and so is able to have compassion. O let your hearts work upon this admirable condescention of Christ, till they be filled with it; and your lips say,
Thanks be to God for Iesus Christ.