He was poor in death especially, for when life is gone all is gone. ' He gave himself to death for us.' In death he was poor every way. They stripped him of all his clothes ; he had not so much as a garment to cover him. He was poor and destitute in regard of friends. They all forsook him when he had need of them most of all, as he foretold that they all should leave him, John xvi. 32. And as he was thus poor in respect of his body and condition, so he was poor in soul in some respects ; and indeed the greatest poverty was there. For the greatest riches that Christ esteemed, it was the blessed communion that he had with his Father,, which was sweeter to him than all things in heaven and earth. When his Father hid his face from him, that he felt his displeasure, becoming our surety, in the garden before his death, the sense of God's displeasure against sin afi"ected him so deeply that he sweat water and blood, Luke xxii. 44. He was so poor, wanting the comfort of his Father's love, that an angel, his own creature, was fain to come and comfort him, Luke xxii. 43. And at his death, when he hung upon the cross, besides the want of all earthly comforts, wanting the sense of their sweet love that he alwa3's enjoyed before, it made him cry out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ?' Mark xv. 34 ; not that indeed God had forsaken him in regard of pro- tection and support, or in regard of love and favour, but in regard of solace and comfort that he felt before, in regard of the sense of divine justice being then upon him that stood surety for sin. When he was dead he had no tomb of his own to lie in ; he was fain to lie in another man's tomb, Mat. xxvii. 60 ; and then he was held under the captivity of the grave three days. So that, from his birth to his death, there is nothing but a race of poverty.
And which adds to this abasement of Christ, it was from an excellent * Qu. ' own ■ ■? — Ed.
500 THE cnuRcn's kiches.
condition to so low a state ; as we say it is a miscroblc thing for a man to Lave been liappy ; it makes him more sensible of his misery than in other men. For Christ, who was alway in the presence and favour of heaven, to come into the virgin's womb ; for him to stand in need of the necessities of this life ; for life to die ; for riches to become poor ; for the glory of heaven and earth to be abased ; for the Lord of all to become a servant to his own servants — it must needs be a great abasement to him that was so highly advanced to become so poor.
But though Christ became thus poor, yet ho ceased not then to be rich, but that his riches was veiled with our flesh. The sun, though he be kept from our sight by clouds, he is the sun still, and hath his own proper lustre still. He is as glorious in himself as ever he was, though he be not so to us. So Christ veiled his divinity under our human nature and under our misery ; he became man and a curse ; therefore though he were ' the Son* of righteousness,' glorious in himself, yet to appearance he was otherwise, ' he became poor.'
The papist would have him a beggar. Bellarmine, to countenance begging friars, would have Christ to be so (h). It is a disgraceful false conceit. If we divide his life before he was thirty years old that he was invested into his office, he lived with his parents in that calling and sub- mitted to them ; he was no beggar. Afterward he lived by ministering the word of God, and this was not eleemosi/nari/, but honour. It is not charity that is given to governors, especially ministers. It is not alms to receive temporal things for spiritual, but it is due. Besides, he had somewhat of his own. He had a bag, and Judas was good enough to carry it, John xii, 6. He gave to the poor ; therefore he w-as not a beggar. For he that came to fulfil the law would not break the law. The law forbids beggars. It was one of Moses's laws, ' There shall not be a beggar among you,' Deut, XV. 4.|- So much briefly for that, ' Christ was rich, and became poor.'
The next point is, the parties for whom this was.
Doct. 3. For your sakes.
Why doth not the apostle say ' for our sakes,' and so take himself in the number. He applies it to serve the argument in hand, being to stir up the Corinthians to bounty. He tells them ' Christ was poor for their sakes ; ' that they might be assured of their salvation by Christ, that his example might be more eflectual. The example of those whom we have interest in is effectual ; therefore he saith, ' for your sakes he became poor.' This should teach us, when we speak of Christ, to labour for a spirit of application, to appropriate Christ unto ourselves, or else his example will not move us.