but, as man and mediator, he learned much from his own experience. By his own temptations,
1. He learned our need of succour —
[He himself, under his own grievous sufferings, " prayed to God with strong crying and tears, and was heard," and strengthened from above ^. Hence then he knows how much we must need assistance under our trials, and how certainly we must faint, if we be not supported by his almighty power.]
2. He acquired a right to succour us —
[We are bought by him with the inestimable price of his own blood. And it was agreed with him in the covenant of redemption, that, " if he would make his soul an offering for sin, he should see a seed ; and the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hands ^" Having then paid the price, he has a right to us as "his purchased possession;" and has therefore a right to convey to us whatever may be needful for the salvation of our souls.]
3. He attained a disposition to succour us —
[We are assured that " he learned obedience by the things that he suffered s." Now, as obedience consists entirely in love to God and man, sympathy, which is the highest office of love, must of necessity have been learned by him, together with every other part of his duty. And how perfectly he had learned it, his address to the persecuting Saul declares ; " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me V And it is worthy of obser- vation, that the Apostle ascribes his sympathy to this very cause ; "his having been tempted in all things like unto us, qualifying and disposing him to feel for us under our infirmi- ties'^." Nay, further, he observes, that there was a necessity for him to be made like unto us in all things, in order that he might he a merciful and faithful High-priest in things per- taining to God ; which office he could not have executed if he had not, by his own sufferings, been enabled to sympathize with us'-]
Address —
1. Those who are conflicting with temptations —
[The Lord's people still are assaulted with manifold temptations. Satan is not idle : he still " desires to sift us as wheat," and still " as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour." There is not a saint whom he does not labour to " corrupt from the simplicity that is in Christ:" and
e Heb. V. 7. with Luke xxii. 42, 43. ^ Isai. liii. 10.
E Heb. v. 8. "^ Heb. iv. 15. » Heb. ii. 17.