* That is, ' doiug honour.' — G.
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Quest. You will say, How can he be pitiful ? There are many infirmities that he took not upon him ; he took not upon him all infirmities.
Alts. I answer, by proportion to those that he took, he knew how to be pitiful to those ho took not. He is inhnitely wise. He knows how to make the proportion. It is often set down, in Heb. ii. 18 and Heb. iv. 15, as one cud of his taking our nature upon him, that he might be a pitiful and merciful redeemer.
Obj. But some will say. Indeed, he took my nature and the general infir- mities, as weariness, and hunger, and the like ; but I am sick and troubled in mind and conscience.
A)is. Though he felt not all particular grievances, yet notwithstanding, having taken our nature upon him, that he might be pitiful and merciful, according to the proportion that he felt himself, he knows how to pity us in our sicknesses, and losses, and crosses, every way. And for the chief, the trouble of mind, alas ! he knew it in that great desertion, when he cried out, ' My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me ! ' So we may comfort ourselves that we have a merciful, and pitiful, and gracious Saviour, ' God in the flesh.' He hath taken our flesh upon him for that purpose, that he might have experimental knowledge of our infirmities and weak- nesses, and from that he might be the more sweet, and kind, and gentle to us. He was not sick himself; but by experience of labour, and thirst, and the like, he knew what it was to be sick by that he felt. He knew not what it was to sin and to be troubled for sin, because he felt it not in himself ; but being our surety for sin, and feeling the wrath of God for it, he had experience to be compassionate from this. He was weary, to pity those that are weary ; he was hungry, to pity them that are hungry ; he was poor, to pity those that are so ; he was misused and reproached, to pity those that are in the like condition. You can name nothing, but he can out of his own experience be merciful and pitiful unto.
In that God, the second person, appeared in our nature, in our weak and tainted disgraced nature after the fall ; from hence comes,
1. First of all, the enriching of our nature with all graces in Christ, as it is in Col. ii. 3, ' All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in him,' in our nature. In Christ there is abundance of riches. Our nature in him is highly enriched. Hence comes again,
2. The ennobling of our nature. In that God appeared in our nature it is much ennobled. When our nature is engrafied into a higher stock, a mean grafi" or syens,* into so glorious a stock as Christ, it is a high dignity. That now our flesh is married to the second person, it is a wondrous advancement of our nature, even above the angel call, ' He took not the nature of angels,' Heb. ii. 16. It was a great exaltation to our nature, that God should take it into the uuitj^ of his person, for the human nature of Christ had no subsistence but in the second person. And this doth not any way debase the human nature of Christ, that it had no subsistence but in the Godhead. Peter, and James, and John, &c., had a subsistence of their own, but Christ had no subsistence but in the second person. And yet, I say, it did no way demean the human nature of Christ, because it was advanced to a higher stock, where it hath a glorious subsistence and being.
3. In the third place, hence comes the enabling of our nature to the trork of salvation that icas wrougJtt in our nature. It came from hence, ' God was in the flesh.' From whence was the human nature enabled to suffer ?
* That is, ' scion ' = graft G.
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Whence was it upheld in suffering, that it did not sink under the wrath of God ? ' God was in the flesh.' God upheld our nature. So that both the riches, and dignity, and the ableness of our nature to be saving and meritorious, all came from this, that God was in our nature.
4. And hence comes this likewise, that n-hatsocvcr Christ did in our nature, God did it, for God appeared in our nature. He took not upon him the person of any man, but the nature. And therefore our flesh and the second person being but one person, all that was done was done by the person that was God, though not as God. Therefore when he died, God died ; when he was crucified, God was crucified. If he had been two persons, he had died in one person, and the other had not died. Now, being but one person, though two natures, whatsoever was done in the [one] nature, the person did it according to the other nature. He could not die as God. Therefore, because in love he would die, and be a sacrifice, he would take upon him such a nature wherein he might be a sacrifice. This is a great dignity, that our nature is taken into the unity of the person of the Son of God. Therefore hence it comes, I say, that whatsoever was done in our nature God did it.