The next thing I observe is this, that
Doct. 2. Christ became poor.
The poverty of Christ reacheth from his incarnation to his resurrection. All the state of his humiliation, it goes under the name of his poverty. The resurrection was the first step or degree of his exaltation. He wrought our salvation in the state of humiliation, but he applies it in the state of exaltation.
1. The incarnalion of Christ it ivas an exaltation to'''- our nature, io be united to God, to the second person in Trinity. It was a humiliation of God, for the divine nature to stoop so low as to be vailed under our poor nature. So that God could stoop no lower than to become man, and man could be advanced no higher than to be united to God ; so that in regard of God, the very taking upon him of our nature, it was the first degree and passage of his humiliation.
2. But when did he take upon him our nature ? He took it iipon him after it was fallen; when it was passible, f obnoxious to sutlering ; not as it was in innocency, free from all misery and calamity, but when it was at the worst. And,
3. He not only took our nature, but our condition. ' He took upon him the form of a servant,'' Phil. ii. 7. He was not only a servant in regard of God, but in regard of us ; for he came into the world not to be ' ministered nnto,' but to ' minister.' He took upon him our nature when it was most beggarly, and with our nature he took our base condition. Nay, that is not all.
4. He took upon him ow miseries ; all that are natural, not personal. He took not the leprosy and the gout, &c., but he took all the infirmities that are common to the nature of man, as hunger, and thirst, and weari- ness ; he was sensible of grief.
5. He took upon him likewise our sins, so far as there is anything penal in sin in respect of punishment. You know there is two things in guilt ; there is the demerit and desert of it ; and there is an obligation to punishment. Now the obligation to punishment he took upon him, though the meritj and desert he took not : ' He became sin,' Phil. ii. 8 ; that is, by sin, he became bound to the punishment for sin. He took not the demerit ; for in respect of himself he deserved no such death as he underwent. To clear this a little further. He took upon him our nature, that he might become sin for us ; he took upon him the guilt as far as guilt is an obligation to punishment. The son of a traitor, he loseth his father's lands, not by any communion of fault, but by communion of nature, because he is part of his father. So Christ took the communion of our nature, that he might take the communion of our punishment, not of our fault ; as the son is no traitor, but because he is part of his father that was a traitor, by his
* That is, = ' of.' — G. f That is, ' capable of suffering.' — G.
X That is, ^ blame. — G.
THE church's riches. 499
nearness and communion ^vitll bis fixther he is wrapped in tlie same punishment.
In a city that is obnoxious to the king's displeasure, perhaps there are some that are not guilty of the oti'enco that the body of the city is, yet being all citizens, they are all punished by reason of their communion ; so in this respect Christ became poor ; he took upon him our nature, and by communion with that nature, he took upon him whatsoever was penal, that belonged to sin, though he took not, nor could take, the demerit of sin.
* He was made sin for us.' We cannot have a greoiter argument of Christ's poverty than to be made sin for us. Sin is the poorest thing in the world, and the cause of all beggary and poverty and misery He was made under the law, and so became a curse for us ; he was made sin, a sacrifice for our sin. In particular, ho was born of a poor virgin, and instead of a better place, he was laid in an inn, and in the basest place in the inn, in the manger. As soon as he was born, his birth was revealed to poor shepherds, not to emperors and kings ; not to Cassar at Rome. Then presently after his birth he was banished together with his mother into Egypt, Mat. ii. 19. When he came home again, he was fain to be behold- ing to a poor woman for a cup of water w^hen he was thirsty, John iv. 7, seq. Again, when he was to pay tribute, he had not wherewith to pay it, but was fain, as it were, to be beholding to a fish for it. Mat. xvii. 27. And though he made heaven and earth, yet he had no habitation of his own. ' The foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, but the Son of man had not where to lay his head,' Mat. viii. 20. When he was to ride in pomp to Jerusalem, he had not a beast of his son ;* he was fain to- send for and ride upon another man's ass. All his life was a state of poverty.