[2.] To give us a pledge of the tenderness of his love and com- passion towards us ; for he that is our kinsman, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, will not be strange to his own flesh ; especially since he is one that is so, not by necessity of nature, but by voluntary choice and assumption. We could not have such familiar and confident recourse to an angel, or one who is of another and different nature from ours, nor put our suits into his hands with such trust and assurance. It is a motive to man : Isa. Iviii. 7, ' Thou shalt not hide thyself from thine own flesh.' A beggar is so, though through pride and disdain we will not think of it. Degenerate men may shut up their bowels, hide themselves from their own flesh, but Christ hath our nature in perfection. This made Laban, though otherwise a churlish man, kind to Jacob : Gen. xxix. 14, ' Surely thou art my bone and my flesh.'
[3.] Divine justice required it, that the same nature that sinned should suffer for sin; and that as the offence was done in human nature, so also the satisfaction should be given to God in the same nature ; for to man the law was given. The apostle telleth us, Eom. viii. 3, that ' God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, for sin condemned sin in the flesh.' Christ was not a sinner, but he came in the likeness of a sinner, with a mortal body, in which God condemned our sin ; that is, showed the great example of his wrath against it, punishing our sin in the flesh of Christ, and so representing his wrath and engaging by his love at the same time. It being done in our nature, it is the better warning to us, and the fittest way of satisfying God, and reckoned as if we had suffered in our own persons.
[4.] That we might find a fountain of holiness in our nature. God hath poured out upon his human nature such a measure of holiness
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that he might be a common fountain to all the elect : John i. 16, ' Out of his fulness have we all received, and that grace for grace.' Christ, as God-man, is the fountain from whence we receive all grace. His human nature was a pledge and pattern of what should be bestowed upon us according to our measure ; for as the head is, so shall the members be.
[5.] To answer the types of the law. The priests of the law, that sauctified others, were of the same nature with the people whom they sanctified, all of one stock and kindred. The first-fruits were of the same nature with the things represented by them ; as, for instance, the first-fruits of the barley did not sanctify the darnell, nor the cockle weeds, or any other kind of grain. Well, then, as priest and people were of one stock, firstlings and beasts of the same kind, first-fruits of the same mass, so ' God will raise you up a prophet among your brethren,' Deut. xviii. 15 ; Christ, that was a man, as we are men.
[6.] To make a way for nearness between God and us. Christ condescended to be nigh to us, by taking the human nature into the unity of his person, that we might be nigh unto God, that we might draw near to him now in the evangelical state, and be everlastingly nigh unto him in heavenly glory. The children of Israel are said to be ' a people near unto him,' Ps. cxlviii. 14 ; the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and contrite spirit ; Ps. cxlv. 18,
* The Lord is nigh unto all that call upon him, that call upon him in truth ; ' Eph. ii. 13, ' Ye were sometimes afar ofi", but now ai-e made nigh by the blood of Christ.' This is but a preparation for everlasting nearness to God : 1 Thes. iv. 17, ' Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air ; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.'
[7.] Christ taking our flesh, and being of our stock, is become the head of the mystical body, and suited to it, and so fit to convey the Spirit to us as an head.
Use 1. To consider Christ's love. He would not entrust our sal- vation with an angel, but come himself in person ; not only to treat with us, as the apostle of our profession, but die for us: 1 Peter ii. 21, 'He himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree.' Oh, how irksome is it to us to go back two or three degrees in pomp or honour !
2. It presseth us to be as willing to have Christ's name and nature as he was willing to have our name and nature : 2 Peter 1. 4,
* Whereby are given unto us exceediog great and precious promises, tliat by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.' If he was born of a woman, let us seek to be born of God ; let us endeavx)ur that ' Christ may be formed in us,' Gal. iv. 19.