Fifthly, Our blessed Lord Jesus was yet more humbled in his life than all this* and that by his own Sympathy with others, under all the burdens that made him groan. For he, much more than Paul, could say, who is afflicted, and I burn not f He lived all his time as it were in an hospital among the sick and wounded. And so tender was his heart, that every groan for sin, or under the ef- fects of sin, pierced him so, that it was truly said, " himself bare " our sicknesses, and took our infirmities," Matth. viii. 16, 17. It was spoken upon the occasion of some poor creatures that were possessed by the devil, and brought to him to be dispossessed. It is said of him, John xi. 33. " That when he saw Mary weeping, " and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in " the Spirit, and was troubled.11 And verse 35. Jesus wept : yea, his heart flowed with pity for them that had not one drop of pity for themselves. Witness his tears spent upon Jerusalem, Luke xix. 41, 42. He foresaw the misery that was coming, though they never foresaw, nor feared it. O how it pierced him to think of the calamities hanging over that great city ! Yea, he mourned for them that could not mourn for their own sins. Therefore it is said, Mark iii. 5. " He was grieved for the hard- " ness of the people's hearts.11 So that the commendation of a good physician,' that he doth as it were die with every patient, was most applicable to our tender-hearted Physician. This was one of those things that made him " a man of sorrows, and acquainted " with grief.11 For the more holy any is, the more he is grieved and afflicted for the sin of others ; and the more tender any man is, the more he is pierced with beholding the miseries that lie upon others. And it is sure, never any heart more holy, or more sen- sible, tender and compassionate than Christ's.
Sixthly, Lastly, That which yet helped to humble him lower, was the ungrateful, and most base and unworthy entertainment the world gave him. He was not received or treated like a Saviour, but as the vilest of men. One would think that he who came from heaven, " to give his life a ransom for many,11 Matt. xx. 28. He that was, " not sent to condemn the world, but that the world
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" through him might be saved," John iii. 17. He that came " to " dissolve the works of the devil," 1 John iii. 8. knock off the chains, " open the prison-doors, proclaim liberty to the captives,1' Isa. lxi. 1. I say, when such a Saviour arrived, O with what accla- mations of joy, and demonstration of thankfulness, should he have been received ? One would have thought they should even kiss the ground he trod upon : but instead of this, he was hated, John xv. IS. He was despised by them, Matt. xiii. 55. So reproached, that lie became " the reproach of men,11 as who should say, a corner for every one to spit in ; a butt for every base tongue to> shoot at, Psal. xxii. 6. Accused of working his miracles by the power of the devil, Mat. xii. 24. He was trod upon as a worm, Psal. xxii. 6, They buffeted him, Matt. xxvi. 67. smote him on the head, Matt, xxvii. SO. arrayed him as a fool, ver. 20. spat in his face, ver. 30. despised him as the basest of men, " this fellow " said,11 Matt. xxvi. 61. One of his own followers sold him, ano- ther forsware him, and all forsook him in his greatest troubles, All this was a great abasement to the Son of God, who was not thus treated for a day, or in one place, but all his days, and in all places. " He endured the contradiction of sinners against him- " self.11 In these particulars I have pointed out to you something of the humble life Christ lived in the world. From all these par- ticulars some useful inferences will be noted.
Inference 1. From the first degree of Christ's humiliation, in submitting to be circumcised, and thereby obliging himself to ful- fil the whole law, it folio weth, that justice itself may set both hand and seal to the acquittances and discharges of believers. Christ hereby obliged himself to be the law's pay-master, to pay its utmost demand ; to bear that yoke of obedience that never any before him could bear. And as his circumcision obliged him to keep the whole law ; so he was most precise and punctual in the observation of it* : so exact, that the sharp eye of Divine Justice cannot espy the least flaw in it ; but acknowledges full payment, and stands ready to sign the believer a full acquittance. Rom. iii. 15. " That God " may be just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus." Had not Christ been thus obliged, we had never been discharged. Had not his obedience been an intire, complete, and perfect thing, our justification could not have been so. He that hath a precious treasure, will be loth to adventure it in a leaky vessel : wo to the holiest man on earth, if the safety of his precious soul were to be adventured on the bottom of the best duty that ever he performed.
* Justification is one individual perfect act, of which all, who are interested in it, partake equally. IKoleb,
242 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SEltM. XIX.
But Chlidfs obedience and righteousness is firm and sound j a bot- tom that we may safely adventure all in.