(4.) Fourthly and lastly. Our Lord Jesus Christ took our infirmi- ties upon him. When Christ was in this world he submitted to the common accidents, adjuncts, infirmities, miseries, calamities, which are incident to human nature. For the opening of this, remember there are three sorts of infirmities ; (1.) There are sinful infirmities : James V. 7 ; Ps. Ixxvii. 10. The best of men are but men at the best. Wit- ness Abraham's unbelief, David's security. Job's cursing, Jonah his passion. Thomas his unbelief, Peter's lying, &c. Now these infirmities Jesus Christ took not upon him ; for though he was made like unto us in all things, yet without sin, Heb. iv. 15. (2.) There are personal infirmities, which from some particular causes befall this or that per- son ; as leprosy, blindness, dumbness, palsy, dropsy, epilepsy, stone,
REASONS WHY CHRIST DID PARTAKE ^F BOTH NATURES. 175
gout, sickness. Christ was never sick. Sickness arises from the unfit or unequal temperature of the humours, or from intemperance of labour, study, &c., but none of these were in Christ. He had no sin, and therefore no sickness. Christ took not the passions or infirmities which were proper to this or that man. (3.) There are natural in- firmities which belong to all mankind since the fall ; as hunger, thirst, wearisomeness, sorrowfulness, sweating, bleeding, wounds, death, burial. Now these natural infirmities that are common to the whole nature, these Jesus Christ took upon him, as all the evangelists do abundantly testify. Our dear Lord Jesus he lay so many weeks and months in the Virgin's womb ; he received nourishment and growth in the ordinary way ; he was brought forth and bred up just as common infants are ; he had his life sustained by common food, as ours is ; he was poor, afflicted, reproached, persecuted, tempted, deserted, falsely accused, &c. ; he lived an afflicted life, and died an accursed death ; his whole Hfe, from the cradle to the cross, was made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings ; and thus you see that Jesus Christ did put himself under those infirmities which properly belong to the com- mon nature of man, though he did not take upon him the particular infirmities of individuals.! Now what do all these things speak out, but the certainty and reality of Christ's manhood ?
Quest. But ivhy must Christ 'partake of both natures? was it absolutely necessary that he should so do ? Ans. Yea, it was absolutely necessary that Christ should partake of both natures ; and that both in respect of God, and in respect of us : (1.) First, in respect of us : and that, *
[1.] First, Because man had sinned, and therefore man must he punished. By man came death, therefore by man must come the resurrection of the dead, 1 Cor. xv. 21. Man was the offender, there- fore man must be the satisfier ; man had been the sinner, and there- fore man must be the sufferer. It is but justice to punish sin in that nature, in which it had been committed. By man we fell from God, and by man we must be brought back to God. By the first Adam we were ruined, by the second Adam we must be repaired, Rom. v. 12. The human nature was to be redeemed, therefore it was necessary that the human nature should be assumed. The law was given to man, and the law was broken by man, and therefore it was necessary that the law should be fulfilled by man. But,
[2.] Secondly, That by this means the justice of God might be satisfied in the same nature ivhich had sinned, tuhich was the nature of man. Angels could not satisfy divine justice, because they had no bodies to suffer. The brutish sensible creatures could not satisfy the justice of God, because they had no souls to suffer. The sensible creatures could not satisfy divine justice, because they had no sense to suffer. Therefore man, having body, soul, and sense, must do it ; for he had sinned in all, and he could suffer in all.
(2.) Secondly, There are reasons both m respect of God and in respect of ourselves, why Jesus Christ should be God, and God-man also ; and they are these five : —
[1.] First, That he might be a meet mediator between God and ^ Printed curiously * indiriduums,' the Latinised and transition form. — G.
176 REASOXS WHY CHRIST DID