3. It stirreth us up to be serious and in good earnest in religion. God is in good earnest, for he seudeth his Son ; and shall we slight the great things he came about?
4. What an ample foundation is here for faith against the improba- bility of the blessedness offered !
[1.] It facilituteth the belief of the great privileges offered in the gospel. We may the better expect tlie exaltation of the creature when we consider the abasement of the Son of God. If he were clothed
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with our flesh, we may the better expect to be apparelled with his glory.
[2.] It is an answer to the plea of unworthiness. He took our natures, though the crime of our first parents had made it hateful to God, and the consequent miseries showed it was not to be valued. He that was a judge would become a party, and appear for us, and answer in our nature what might be required of us.
[3.] It supports against the terribleness of God's majesty. How can men dwell with God ? stubble with devouring burnings ? If our nature be taken into a personal union with God, it rendereth it more reconcilable to our thoughts. God incarnate, born of a virgin, carried in the womb, rocked in a cradle, sucking of a breast, growing up by degrees, going up and down' and doing good, then dying on the cross, lying in the grave, it mightily abateth our fears.
[4.] Against the pollution of our natures, which is so engrained that it cannot be easily wrought off. His own holy nature is a pledge of the work of grace. He that separated our nature in his own person from all the pollution of his ancestors, he can purify our persons and heal our natures, how polluted soever. So many begets as there are in the story of Christ's nativity (Mat. i.), so many miracles there are of grace, in that he prevented the infection conveyed by such and such a one.
[5.] Against the mindlessness which unbelief supposeth to be in God of human affairs, especially of the calamities of his people. Now Christ hath taken the communion of our natures and miseries as a pledge and sign of his pity : Heb. ii. 17, ' He was made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest.' He would entender his heart by experience, and inure himself to all our sorrows.
[6.] Against the doubt of sti'angeness, and that he will take no notice of our request, being so remote from him. We may with the more confidence go to him with whom we communicate in nature. There is a natural bond between him and us; we are of the same stock and substance.
[7.] Against the fear of arrogancy in the assuming of the privilege of adoption. Surely he will bestow this privilege on a returning sinner ; for if he be not ashamed to call us brethren, God will * not be ashamed to be called our God,' Heb. xi. 16.
Use 2. Think of this for your comfort. We have an unity with Christ in nature, that we may be encouraged to look after the gifts which he dispenses, that we may be x)ne with him in spirit. We may the more cheerfully come to him, because he took our nature for this end and purpose. Especially does this concern you that come to the Lord's table. The meat that is set before you is the flesh of Christ ; his human nature is the food of your souls. It is not enough that Christ the Son of God was partaker of our flesh and blood, but we must also be partakers of his flesh and blood ; i.e., there must be a true union and communion with that flesh and that body and that blood which Christ assumed into his person, and delivered up to death for us all ; for Christ, as the Son of man in our flesh, is head of the mystical body of which we are members. The human nature is the
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cistern in which the Spirit dwells without measure, and of whose fulness we all receive grace for grace ; that is, the temple in which the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily ; the tree of life, whose leaves heal the nations. In this temple must we dwell ; into this tree must we be grafted, that we may become one with him, and live by him. So the apostle tells us, Eph. v. 30, ' For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones ; ' that is, not only of one nature with, him, which is common to them with all mankind, but as members of one mystical body with him ; not as God, but as God-man. We all draw our spiritual life and nourishment from those things which Chris ^ has done in our flesh. For this end was the Lord's supper instituted, that we might be partakers of the flesh and blood of Christ. Not only of bread and wine, but flesh and blood itself. How so ? Not with our mouth and teeth, but spiritually by faith, with an hungry con- science and spiritual desires. That which we do receive is not only the benefits which flow from Christ, but the very body and blood of Christ ; that is, Christ himself crucified. As none can be partakers of the virtue of the bread and wine to his bodily sustenance unless he do first receive the substance of those creatures, so neither can any be partaker of the benefits arising from Christ to his spiritual relief except he first have communion with Christ himself. We must have the Son before we have life : 1 John v. 12, ' He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life,' And we must eat him if we will live by him, John vi. 57. Well, then, this is our great business, to be partakers of Christ. Now, in partaking of Christ, we begin at his human nature, his flesh and blood, John vi. 53 ; his cross and hia death, his body and blood: 1 Cor. x. 16, 'The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?' Christ, as dying, becomes fit food for hungry sinners ; so only is he suitable to their necessities. Certainly the hunger is not that of the body for a meal, but that of the conscience for a saviour. In this sense ' the flesh profits nothing, but the spirit quickens,' John vi. 62. A man is not better, nor a jot the holier, nor the further from the second death, if he had filled his belly with it. It is a spiritual eating by" faith that brings quickening and life, an applying of Christ as a saviour in our nature. Well, then, his flesh was given as the price of life : John vi. 51, ' The bread which I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' This is the first receptacle of our spiritual life ; and being laid hold on by faith, is the conduit to convey life to us; but the author of all is his Spirit being and dwelling in us. That same flesh and human nature of Christ which was offered up a ransom to justice is also the bread of life for souls to feed upon, though the quickening efficacy and virtue flow from the Godhead to which his flesh is united.