should be a staflf to support us, and a cordial to comfort us in all our sorrows and miseries. It is between Christ and his church as it is between two lute strings that are tuned one to another ; no sooner is one struck but the other trembles :i Isa. Ixiii. 9, 'In all their afflic- tions he was afflicted.' These words may be read interrogatively thus : was he in all their afflictions afflicted ? Christ took to heart the afflictions of his church, he was himself grieved for them and with them. The Lord, the better to allure and draw his people to himself, speaks after the manner of men, attributing to himself aU the affec- tion, love, and fatherly compassion that can possibly be in them to men in misery. Christ did so sympathise with his people in all their afflictions and sufferings, as if he himself had felt the weight, the smart, the pain of them all. ' He was in all things made like unto his brethren,' not only in nature, but also in infirmities and sufferings, and by all manner of temptations, that thereby ' he might be able,' ex- perimentally, ' to succour them that are tempted.' He that toucheth them toucheth not only his eye but the apple of his eye, which is the tenderest piece of the tenderest part, 2 to express the inexpressible tenderness of Christ's compassion towards them. Let persecutors take heed how they meddle with God's eyes, for he will retaliate eye for eye, Exod. xxi. 24 : he is wise in heart and mighty in strength, and sinners shall one day pay dear for touching the apple of his eye. Christ counts himself persecuted when his church is persecuted ; * Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?' Acts ix. 4. And he looks upon himself as hungry, thirsty, naked, and in prison, when his members are so. Mat. xxv. 35, 36 ; so greatly does he sympathise with them. Hence the afflictions of Christians are called varepi]- fiara, ' the remainders of the afflictions of Christ,' Col. i. 24 : such as Christ, by his fellow-feeling, suffereth in his members, and as they by correspondency are to fill up, as exercises and trials of their faith and patience. Christ gave many evidences of his sympathy or fellow-feeling of our infirmities when he was on earth, as he groaned in his spirit and was troubled, John xi. 33 ; when he saw those that wept for Lazarus he wept also, ver. 35 ; as he did over Jerusalem also, Luke xix. 41. It is often observed in the Gospel that Christ was moved with compassion ; and that he frequently put forth acts of pity, mercy, and succour to those that were in any distress, either in body or soul. Christ retaineth this sympathy and fellow-feeling with us now he is in heaven ; and does so far commiserate our distresses as may stand with a glorified condition. Jesus Christ grieves for the afflictions of his people ; ' the angel of the Lord answered and said, 0 Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem,' Zech. i. 12. The angel here is that Jesus who is our advocate with the Father, 1 John ii. 1, 2. He speaks as one intimately afi'ected with the state and con- dition of poor Jerusalem. Christ plays the advocate for his suffering people, and feelingly pleads for them ; he being afflicted in all their afflictions, it moved him to observe that God's enemies were in a better case than his people ; and this put him upon that passionate
^ Tf we perish, Christ perisheth with us. — Luther.
' Zech. ii. 8, Ishon of /sh, it is here called Bath, the daughter of the eye, because it is as dear to a man as his only daughter.
THE DIVINITY AND HUMANITY OF CHRIST. 195
expostulation, ' 0 Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem ! ' Alexander the Great applied his crown to the soldier's forehead that had received a wound for him; and Constantine the Great kissed the hollow of Paphnutius's eye that he had lost for Christ. What an honour was it to the soldier and to Paphnutius that these great men should have fellow-feeling of their sufferings, and sympathise with them in their sorrows ! but, oh then ! wiiat an honour is it to such poor worms as we are, that Jesus Christ, who is God-man, who is the Prince of the kings of the earth, that he should have a fellow-feeling of all our miseries, and sympathise with us in all our troubles ! Kev. i, 5. But,