Sermon Xviii.
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The Fountain of Life. suspension of the care of Christ for one hour, that hour would be thy ruin.
Thousands ofevils stand round about thee, watching when Christ will but remove his eye from thee, that they may rush in and devour thee.
Could we thus study the providence of Christ in all the good and evil that befals us in the world, then in every state we should be content, Phil. iv. 11.
Then we should never be stopt, but furthered in our way by all that falls out ; then would our experiences swell to great volumes, which we might carry to heaven with us ; and then should we answer all Christ's ends in every state he brings us into. Do this, and say, Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
SERMON XVIII.
Opens the Necessity of Christ's Humiliation, in order to the Execution of all these his blessed Offices for us; and particularly of his Humiliation by Incarnation.
PHIL. ii. 8. 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 execution of these off i-
ces necessarily required that he should be both deeply abafed, 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 virtue 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 asutable 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
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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.
ま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 fun is known from the lesser stars.) And, as he must be exalted infinitely above them, fo he must first, in order thereunto, be humbled and abased as much below them: " His form was marred more than any man's, and " his visage more than the sons of men."
The ground colours are a deep fable, 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 presents you the Son under an (almost) total eclipse.
He that was beautiful and glorious, Isa. iv. 2. yea, glorious as the only begotten of the Father, John i. 14.; yea, * the glory,
James ii, 1.; yea, the splendor and " brightness of the Father's " glory," Heb . i. 3. was so vailed, clouded, and debased, that he looked not like himself; a God, no, nor scarce as am an ; for, with reference to this humbled state, it is said, Psal. xxii. 6.
" I am a worm, and no man;" q. d. rather write me worm, thanman : I am become an abjelt among men †, as that word,
Ifa. liii. 3. signifies.
This humiliation of Christ we have here expressed, in the nature, degrees, and duration or continuance of it.
1. The nature of it, εταπεινωσεν εαυτον, he humbled himself.
The word imports both a real and voluntary abasement †.
Real; he did not perfonate a humbled man, nor act the part of one, in a debased state, but was really, and indeed humbled ;
יבעל דיבכלו * The Hebrew words in Ifa. iv. 2. literally, signify, for beauty or for glory.
The words Ιησε Χρισε της δόξης, in James ii. 1. signify, Jesus Christ, the glory. απαύγασμα της δοξης» is, brightness of his glory .
† The scorn of men, an abject among men.
† But he speaks not of a feigned and counterfeit but of a true and real humiliation.
Zanch. in loc.
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and that not only before men, but God. As man, he was humbled really, as God in respect of his manifestative glory : and, as it was real, so also voluntary : * It is not faidhe was humbled, but he humbled himself; he was willing to stoopto 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, that he would chuse to stoop to all this ignominy, sufferings and abasement for us.
2. The degrees of his humiliation; it was not only so low as to become a man, am an under law; but he humbled himself to become " obedient to death, even the death of the cross "
Here you fee the depth of Christ's humiliation,both specified, it was unto death, and aggravated,even the death of the cross : notonlytobecome a man but adeadcorps, and that too hanging on a tree, dying the death of a malefactor.
3. The duration, or continuance of this his humiliation : it continued from the first moment of his incarnation, to the ve. ry moment of his vivification and quickninginthe grave.
So the terms of it are fixed hereby the apostle; from the time he was found in fashion as a man, that is, from his incarnation, untohisdeath 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, from his conception to hisre. furrection, was a state of deep abasement and humiliation.
WearenowenteringuponChrist's 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 Christ's humiliation, in his incarnation, imported in these words, He was found in fashion as a man.
By which you are nottoconceivethathe onlyaffumed a body, as an assisting form, to appear tranfiently to us in it, and so lay it down again.
It is not fuchanapparition of Christ in the shape of am an, that is here intended; but his trueandreal affumptionofournature,
* He was not humbled by another, like the fallen angels who were by God thrown headlong into the infernal pit.
I bid.
† In these few words he confirms the things he had said before ' of the true nature of man (which he calls the form ofa servant) affumedby the Son of God into unity of person, by which he was made like to men in all things, fin excepted. Zanch.
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which was a special part of his humiliation; as will appear by the following particulars.
1. The incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliationofhim, inasmuch as thereby he is brought into the rank and orderofcreatures, who is over all, " God blessed for ever,"
Rom. ix. 5. This is the astonishing mystery, 1,Tim. iii. 16. that Godshouldbe manifest in the flesh; that the eternalGodshould truly and properly be called the MAN Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. ii. 5.
Itwasawonderto Solomon, thatGodwoulddwell in that stately and magnificent temple at Jerusalem, 2 Chron. vi. 18. "But will
" God inverydeed dwell with men on earth ! Behold the heaven, and heaven of heavens cannotcontainthee; how much
" less this house which I have built?" But it is a far greater wonder, thatGodshoulddwell inabody of flesh, and pitch his tabernaclewith us, John i. 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 world's Creator as a creature; the Ancient of Days, as an infant of days.
The Heathen Chaldens told the king of Babel, that the " dwelling of Gods is not with flesh," Dan. ii. н . But now
God not only dwells with flesh, but dwells in flesh; yea, was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
For the fun to fall from its sphere, and be degraded into a wandring atom; for an angel to be turned out of heaven, and be convertedintoa filly fly or worm, had been no such great
abasement; for they were but creatures before, and so they would abide still,though in an inferior order or species of crea. tures.
The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures, is but a finite distance.
The angel and the worm dwell notfofar asunder.
But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things, to become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all human 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.
Whatahumiliation then is it, to behold the things in the lower world ! but to be born into it, and become am an ! Great indeed isthemysteryofgodliness. "Behold,(faith the prophet, Isa. xl.
" 15, 18.) the nations are asthedropofa bucket, andarecoun- " ted as the small dust of the balance; he taketh up the isles
" as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing " and they are accountedtohimless than nothing, and vanity."
If, indeed, this great and incomprehensible majesty will himself Hh 2
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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, spitting,death, or any thing but fin. For that once being man, he should endure any of these things, is no so wonderful, as that he should become a man. This was the low step, a deep abasementindeed!
2. It was a marvellous humiliation to the Son of God, not only to become a creature, but an inferior creature, a man, and not an angel.
Had he took the angelical nature, though it had been awonderfulabasementto him,yet he had staid (it I may fo speak) nearer his own home, and been somewhat liker to a God, than now he appeared, when hedwelt with us: for angels are the highest, and most excellent of all created beings: For their nature, they are pure spirits ; for their wisdom, intelligences ; for their dignity, they are called principalities and powers ; for theirhabitations, they are stiled the heavenly host ; and for their employment, it is tobeholdtheface of God in heaven.
The high- ' est pitch, both of our holiness and happiness, in the coming world, is expressed by this, we shall be ισαλγελοι, " equal to the " angels," Lukexx. 36.
As man is nothing to God, so he is much inferior to the angels ; so much below them, that he is not abletobearthefightof an angel, though in a human shape, rendering himself as familiarly as may be to him, Judges xiii . 22.
When the Pfalmist had contemplated the heavens, and viewed the celestial bodies, the glorious luminaries, the moon and stars which God had made, he cries out, Psal. viii. 5. "What isman,
" 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 andpurepiece outofhisMaker'shand, in the stateofinnocency; yet he was inferior to angels. They always bare the image of God, in a more eminentdegreethanman, as being wholly spiritual substances, and so more lively representing God, than man could do, whosenoblefoul is immers'd in matter, and closed up in flesh and blood: yet Christ chuseth this inferior order and species of creatures, and passeth by the angelical nature ; Heb. ii. 16. "He took not on him the nature of angels, but the feed
" of Abraham ."
3. Moreover, Jesus Christ did not only neglect the angelical, and assume the human nature; but he also assumed the human 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 he came, as the apostle speaks, Rom. viii. 3.
66 In the likeness of sinful flesh," i. e. in fiesh that had the
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marks, and miserable effects, and confequents of fin upon it.
I say not that Christ assumed sinful flesh, or flesh really defiled by fin.
That which was born of the Virgin was a holy thing.
For by the power of the Highest (whether by the energetical command and ordination of the Holy Ghost, as some ; or by hisbenediction and blessing, I here dispute not) that whereof the body of Christ was to be formed, was so sanctified, that notaint or spot of original pollution remained in it.. But yet though it had not intrinfical native uncleanness in it, it had the effects of fin upon it; yea, it was attended with the whole troop of human infirmities, that fin at first let into our come mon nature, such as, hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, mortality, and all these natural weaknesses and evils that clog our miserable natures, and make them groan from day today 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 fin upon him.
In these things he came as near to fin 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, had 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 fin !
Owhat is this! and who can declare it! And indeed, if he will be a Mediator of reconciliation, it was necessary it should be fo.
Itbehoved him to assume the fame nature that finned, to make satisfaction in it.
Yea, these sinless infirmities were necessary to be affumedwith the nature, forasmuch as his bearing them was a part of his humiliation, and went to make up satisfaction for us.
Moreover, by them our Highpriestwas quali fied from his own experience, and filled with tender compassion to us.
ButO the admirable condescensions of a Saviour, to take such a nature! to put on such a garment when to very mean and ragged! Did this become the Son of God to wear ? O grace un search able !
: 4. And yet more, by this his incarnation he was greatly hum bled, inasmuch as this so vailed, clouded, and disguised him, that during the time helivedhere he looked not like himself, as God; but as a poor sorry contemptible sinner, in the eyes of the world; they scorned him.
This fellowfaid, Mat. xxvi . 6r.
Hereby " he made himself of no reputation," Phil. ii. 6. It blot tedhis honour and reputation.
By reason hereof he loft all e steem andhonour from those that saw him, Mat. xiii. 55. "Is
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" not this the carpenter's 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; John xiii. 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 ?
64 He was despised, and we esteemed him not." Now which of you is there that would not rather chuse 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 to unlike a God in this habit, that he was scarce allowed thenameofa man ; a worm rather than am an.
And think with yourselves now, was not this astonishing self-denial ? That he,who from eternity,had his Father's smiles and honours ; he that from the creation was adored, and worshippedbyangels, as their God,mustnowbecomea footstool for every miscreant to tread on; and not to have the respects due to am an; sure this was a deep abasement.
It was a black cloud that for fo many years darkned, and shut up his manifeftative glory, that it could not shine out to the world ; only some weak rays oftheGodheadshone tosomefew eyes, through thechinksofhishumanity : As thecloudedfun 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, John i. 14. If a prince walk up and down in a disguise, hemusl expect no morehonour thanamean subject.
This was the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, this disguise made him contemptible, and an object ofscorn.
5. Again, Christ wasgreatlyhumbledbyhis incarnation, inasmuch as thereby he was putatadistance from his Father, and that ineffablejoyandpleasureheeternallyhadwith him. Think not, reader, but the Lord Jesus lived at a high and unimitable rate of communion with God while he walked here in the flesh :
But yet to live by faith, as Christ here did, is onething ; and to be in the bosom of God, a she was before, is another.
To have the ineffable delights of God perpetuated and continued to him, withoutone moment's interruption from eternity, isonething ; 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 Godnothear, as he complains, Psal.xxxii. 2. nay, to be reduced to such a low ebb of spiritual comforts,as to be forcedtocryout fobitterly, as he did, Psal. xxii. 1. "My God, my God, why
*" haft thou forsaken me?" This was a thing Christ was very unacquainted with, till he was found inhabit as am an.
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6. And lastly, it was agreatstoop andcondescensionofChrift if he would become am an, to take his nature fromfuchobscure parents, andchuse 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 mother's 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 Jesus Christ," (faith the apostle) " how that tho' he was rich, yet for our fakes he be66 came poor," 2 Cor. viii. 9. And thus I have shewn you some few particulars of Christ's humiliation in his incarnation.
Next we shall infer some things from it that are practical.
Inference 1. Hencewegather thefulness and compleatness of Christ's satisfaction, as the sweet first fruits of his incarnation.
Didman offend and violate the law of God? behold, God himself is become man to repair that breach, and satisfy 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 itshonour upon the ruins of the whole creation.
It is not so much to fee all the stars in heaven overcast, as to seeone fun eclipsed. ThegreaterChristwas,thegreaterwashis humiliation; and the greater his humiliation was,the more full and compleatwas his satisfaction ; and the more compleatness there is in Christ's satisfaction, the more perfect and steady is the believer's consolation.
Ifhehadnot 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. Did Christ for our fakes stoopfrom the majesty, gloryanddignity he was possessed of in heaven, to the mean and contemptibleftate of am an? What a pattern of self-denial is be represented to Christians ? What objection against, or excuses toshiftoff this duty, can remain, after such an example as is here propounded? Brethren, let me tell you, the paganworld 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 contenttobecomeany thing, a worm, a reproach, a curse; and cannot you digest any a basements ? Do the least flights and neglects rankle your hearts, and poison them with discontent, malice and revenge ? O how unlike Christ are you !
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Hear; and blush in hearing, what your Lord faith in John xiii.
14. " If I then, your Lord and Master, wash your feet ; ye ought also to wash one another's feet."
" The example obliges not, (as * a learned man well observes) to the same " individual act, but it obliges us to follow the reason of the στ " example;" that is, after Christ's 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 employed about, as if it were too meanandbafe, should come and take it out of his hand; and when he has done it, should say, doth your Lord and Master think it not 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; faith he, " What moredeteftable, what more unworthy,
" or what deserves feverer punishment, than for a poor man to " magnify himself, after he hath seen the great andhighGod,
" so humbled, as to become a little child? It is intolerable
impudence for a worm to swell with pride, after it hath seen " majesty emptying itself; to seeone so infinitely above us, to stoop so far beneath us." O 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, felfdenying, and ofa most condescending spirit; he looked not at his own things, but yours, Phil. ii. 4. And doth it become you to be proud, selfish, and stout ? I remember Jerom, in his epistle to Pamachius, a godly young nobleman, advised him to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame; yea, faith he, if need be, I would not have you refuse to cut wood, and draw water for the saints : And what, faith he, is this to buffeting and spitting upon, to crowning with thorns, scourging and dying ! Christ did undergo all this, and that for the ungodly.
Inference 3. Did Christstoopso low as to become am an tofave us? Then those that perish under the Gospel, must needs perish without apology.
What would you have Christ do more to fave * Obligas nos ad rationem exempli, magis quam ad individuum altum.
Chamier. Tom. 3. 1. 19. c. 7.
+ Quid magis indignum, quid deteftandum amplius, quid gravius puniendum, quam ut videns Deum parvulumfactum, homose magnificet ?
Intolerabilis est impudent i a, ut ubifefe exinanivit majeftas, vermiculus infletur, et intumefcat.
Bern. Serin. 1. de nativ.
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you ? Lo, he hath laid aside the robes of majesty and glory, put on your own garments of flesh, camedownfrom his throne, and brought salvation home to your own doors.
Surely, the lower Christ stooped to save us, the lower we shall fink 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 . x. 28.
For such (as the apostle there speaks) is refervedsomething worse than dying without mercy.
What pleas and excuses others will make at the judgment-feat, I know not ; but once, it is evident, you will be speechless . And, as † one well observes, the vilest sinners among theGentiles, nay, the Devils themselves, will have more to say for themselves than you.
I must be plain with you ; I beseech you consider, how Jews, Pagans, and Devils will rise up in judgment against you.
The Jewmay say, I had a legal yoke 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 world's reception, and the Spirit's effusion.
You had all that heart could with.
I perish eternally, may the poor Pagan fay, without all possibility of reconciliation, and have only finned against the covenant of works ; having never heard of a gospel covenant, nor of reconciliation by a Mediator.
O had I but heard 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 of other shewing me the danger of my fin, 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 pressed upon me : It was all the hell I had upon earth, that I could not fin in quiet.
Nay, may the Devil himself say, it is true, I was ever since my fall maliciously set against God.
But alas ! as soon I had finned, + Vide Morning exercise at St. Giles's in the Fields, p.256.
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God threw me outofheaven,and told me he would never have mercy upon me : and tho I lived in the time of all manner of gracious dispensations, I saw sacrifices offered, and Christ in the flesh, and the gospel preached; yet how could all this chuse but enrage me the more, to have God, as it were, say,
Look here, Satan, I have provided a remedy for fin, but none for thine ! This set me upon revenge against God, as far as I could reach him.
But alas ! alas ! had God entered into any covenant with me at all; had God put me on any terms, tho' never fohard, for the obtaining of mercy; had Christ been but once offered to me, What do you think would I not have done? &c.
O poor sinners ! Your damnation is just, if you refuse grace broughthomeby Jesus Christ himself to your very doors.
The Lord grant this may not be thy case who readest these lines .
Inference 4. Moreover; hence it follows, that none doth, ar can love like Christ: His love to man is matchless.
The freeness, strength, antiquity, and immutability of it, puts a luftre on it beyond all examples.
Surely it was a strong love indeed, that made him lay aside his glory, to be found in fashion asa man, to become any thing, though never so much below himself, for our salvation. We readofJonathan's love to David, which passed the love of women; of Jacob's love to Rachel, who for her sake endured the heat of summer, and cold of winter ; of David's love to Abtalom; of the primitive Christians love to one another,who could die one for another : but neither had they that to deny which Christ had, nor had he those inducements from the object of his love that they had.
His love, like himself, is wonderful.
Inference 5. Did the Lord Jesus so deeply abase and humble himself for us ? What an engagement hath he thereby put on us, to exalt andhonourhim, who for ourfakes was so abused ? It was a good saying of * Bernard, " By how much the viler he was
" made for me, by so much the dearer he shall be to me."
And Othat all, to whom Christ is dear, would study to exalt and honourhim, these four ways.
1. By frequent and delightful speaking of him, and for him.
WhenPaulhadonce mentionedhisname,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. i.
It was Lambert's motto, " l'one " but Christ, none but Christ."
It is said of Johannes Miltas, that after his conversion, he was seldom or never observed to ‡ Quantopro me vilior, tantomihi charior.
Bern..
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mention the name of Jesus,but his eyes would drop; so dear was Christ to him.
Mr. Foxneverdeniedany beggar that asked an alms in Christ's name, or for Jesus sake.
Julius 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 fay, Sweet Jesus, and fell asleep.
Plutarch|| tells us, that when Titus Flaminiushad freed the poorGrecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressors, and the herald was toproclaimintheir audience the articlesofpeace, he had concluded for them,they sopressedupon 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 understanddistinctlyhow their case stood, they shouted for joy, crying, Σωτηρ, Σωτηρ, "a' Saviour,
" a Saviour," that they made the very heavens ring again with their acclamations, and theverybirds felldownastonished. And all that night the poorGrecians, with instruments of music, and songs of praise, danced and fang about his tent, extolling him as a god thathaddeliveredthem. Butfurely you have more reason to be exaltingthe author of your salvation, who, at adearerrate, hath freed you from a more dreadful bondage.
Oyethat have escaped the eternal wrath of God,by the humiliation of the Son of God, extolyourgreatRedeemer, and for ever celebrate his praises!
2.Byactingyourfaithonhim,for whatsoever lies in the promises yet unaccomplished.
In this you fee the great and most difficult promise fulfilled, Gen. iii. 15. "The feed of the woman shall
" break the serpent's head;" which contained this mercy of Christ's 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 removed for ever, and allotherpromisesthemore easily believed.
It seemed much more improbable and impossible to reason, thatGodshouldbecome am an, and stoop to the condition of a creature, than being am an, to perform all that good which his incarnation and death procured.
Uubelief usually argues fromone of these two grounds, Can God do this ? or, Will God do that ? It is 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 infiniteburdenshe supported in our nature :
Ii 2 Plutarch in vita Titi Flamirii.
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SERM . XVIII.
and surelyhiswillingness to save shouldneverbeput to a question, by any that confider how low he was content to stoop for our fakes.
3. By drawing nigh to God with delight, " through the veil of " Christ's flesh," Heb. x. 19. God hath made this flesh of Christ a veilbetwixtthe brightness of his glory and us : it serves torebate the unsupportable glory, and also to give admission to it, as the veil did in the temple.
Through this body of flesh, which Christ assumed, are all decursus et recurfus gratiarum,
" outlets of grace from God to us, and through it, alío, must " be all our returns to God again."
It is made the great medium of our communion with God.
4. By applying yourselves to him, under all temptations, wants and troubles, of what kindfoever, as to one that is tenderly sensible of your case, and most willing and ready to relieve you.
O remember, this was one of the inducements that persuaded 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 in his own body *. Heb. ii . 17. " Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like
66 unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful " High priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconcili- " at i on for the fins of the people." You know by this argument the Lord pressed the Ifraelities to be kind to strangers ; for,
(faith he), " you know the heart of a stranger," Exod. xxii, 9.
Christ, by being in our nature, 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 condescension of Christ, till they be filled with it, and your lips say, Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
* Haud ignara mali, miferisfuccureredifco.
Virg.
Like you, an alien in a land unknown, I learn to pitywoes, so like mine own.
Drydena