2. Besides soundness of constitution and comeliness of proportion, there is a grace of colour that maketh beauty, which ariseth out of the other. So that soundness and goodness of constitution, together with the exact pro- portion of the variety of parts, having with it this gracefulness of colour and complexion, makes up that which we call beauty. In a word, then, this carnation colour, white and ruddy, may be understood of that excellent and sweet mixture that makes such a gracefulness in Christ. In him there is wonderful purity and holiness, and yet a wonderful weakness. There is God the ' great God' and a piece of earth, of flesh in one person; a bloody, pierced, and a glorious shining body ; humility and glory : justice, won- derful justice, and yet exceeding love and mercy : justice to his enemies, mercy to his children.
Obs. Christ is a most beautiful person, not as God only, but as man, the Mediator, God and man. The person of the Mediator is a beautiful person, as Ps. xlv. 2, there is a notable description of Christ and of his church, ' Thou art fairer than the children of men, grace is poured into thy lips,' &c.
But the loveliness and beauty of Christ is especially spiritual, in regard of the graces of his Spirit. A deformed person, man or woman, of a homely complexion and constitution, yet, notwithstanding, when we discern them by their conversation to be very wise and of a lovely and sweet spirit, very able and withal wondrous willing to impart their abilities, being wondrous useful ; what a world of love doth it breed, though we see in their outward man nothing lovely ? The consideration of what sufficiency is in Christ, wisdom, power, goodness, and love, that made him come from heaven to earth, to take our nature upon him, to marry us, and join our nature to his (that he might join us to him in spiritual bonds) : the consideration of his meekness and gentleness, how he never turned any back again that came to him, should make us highly prize him. Indeed some went back of them- selves (as the young man in discontent. Mat. xix. 32), Christ tm-ned them not back ; nay, he loved the appearance of goodness in the young man, and embraced him. He is of so sweet a nature that he never upbraided those that followed him with their former sins, as Peter with denial, and the like. He is of so gracious a nature that he took not notice of petty in- firmities in his disciples, but tells them of the danger of those sins that might hurt them : being of so sweet a nature that ' he will not quench the smoking flax, nor break the bruised reed,' Isa. xlii. 3 ; his whole life being nothing but a doing of good, ' he did all things well ' (as the gospel speaks), excellent well, Mark vii. 37.
Now, the consideration of what a gracious Spirit is in Christ, must needs be a loadstone of love, and make him beautiful. Therefore Bernard saith well. When I think of Christ, I think at once of God, full of majesty and glory ; and, at the same time, of man, full of meekness, gentleness, and sweetness. So, let us consider of Christ as of the ' mighty God,' powerful ; and withal consider of him as a gentle and mild man, that came riding
Cant. V. 9, 10.] ' my beloved is white and ruddy.' 139
meekly on an ass, as the Scripture sets him out,' Mat. xxi. 5. He was for comers, and gave entertainment to all : ' Come unto me, all ye that are weary and hea\7- laden,' &c., Mat. xi. 28. For the most weak and miserable person of all had the sweetest entertainment of him, ' He came to seek and to save that which was lost,' Luke xix. 10. Let us, I say, think of him both as of the great God, and withal as of meek man : the one to establish our souls, that he is able to do great matters ; the other to draw us to him because he loves us. We are afraid to go to God, ' a consuming fire,' Heb. xii. 29 ; but now let us think we go to bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, to our brother, to one that out of his goodness abased himself of pm-pose that we might be one with him : who loved us more than his own life, and was contented to carry the curse for us, that we might be blessed of God for ever, and to sufier a most painful and shameful death, that so he might make us heirs of everlasting life.
Christ is spiritually lovely, ' the chiefest of ten thousand.' The church sets him out by comparison, ' a standard-bearer,' a carrier of the ' banner often thousand.' For, as the goodliest men use to carry the ensign, the banner ; so he, the goodliest of all other, is the standard-bearer.
Obs. Whence we gather, that Christ, as he is beautiful and good, so he is incomparably, beyond all comparison good ; ' He is a standard bearer, one among ten thousand ; anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7.