The Tenderness of Christ, Book III: How His Heart Is Touched with Our Sins

Tins scruple satisfied: -how his heart can be fcdinglj touched with our lirw, (our greatest infirmities) iccing he wa* tempted without tin.

There remains one great unsatisfaction to be removed, which cannot but of itself arise in every good heart. You told us (may they say) that by infirmities, .sins were meant, and that the Apostle ‘» acope was to encourage us against them also; and theypare indeed the greatest discomforts and discouragements of any other. Now against them, this which the Apostle here speaks affordeth us but little, seeing Christ knoweth not how experimentally to pity us therein, for he knew no sin. Yea, the Apostle himself doth here except it: he was tempted in all things, yet without tin. It may comfort us, in deed, that Christ doth and will pity us in all other infirmities, because he himself was subject to the like; but lie never knew what it was to be under sin, and vexed with a lust, as I am; and how shall I relieve myself against that, by what the Apostle here epeaks of him? I shall endeavour to give some satisfaction and relief in this, by these follow ing considerations.

First, The Apostle puts in, indeed, that he wa* tempted, yet without tin; and it was well for us that he was without sin; for he had not been a fit Priest to have saved us else. So Heb. vii. 2.3, Such an Jli-h Priest became us, who wax holy, harmless, separate from sinwr*, &c. Yet, for your relief withal, consider, that he came as near in that point as might be: — he was tempted in all points: — so says the text; though without sin on his part, ye tempted to all sin, so far as to be afflicted in those temptations, and to see the misery of those that are tempted, and to know how to pity them in all such temptations. Even as in taking our nature, in his birth, he came as near as could be, without being tainted with original sin, as namely, by taking the very same matter to have his body made of that all our’s are made of, &c. So in the point of actual sin also, he suffered himself to be tempted as far as might be, so as to keep himself pure. He suffered all experiments to be tried upon him by Satan, even as a man who hath taken a strong antidote, suffers conclusions to be tried on him by a mountabank. And, indeed, because he was thus tempted by Satan unto sin, therefore it is on purpose added, yet without sin. And it is as if he had said, Sin never stained him, though he was outwardly tempted to it. He was tempted to all sorts of sins by Satan, for those three temptations in the wilderness were the heads of all sorts of temptations, as Interpreters upon the Gospels do shew.

Then, Secondly, to fit him to pity us in case of sin, lie was vexed with the filth and power of sin in others •vvhom he conversed with, more than any of us with sin in ourselves. His righteous soul was vexed with it, as Lot’s righteous soul is said to have been with the impure conversation of the Sodomites. He endured the contradictions of sinners against himself, Heb. 12. 3. the reproaches oj them that reproached thee

TO HIS MEMBERS ON EARTH. I “j

(that is, upon his God) fell upon me, Rom. xv. 3. It was spoken by the Psalmist of Christ, and so is quoted of him by the Apostle; — that is, every sin Went to his heart. So as in this, there is but this difference between him and us, that the regenerate; part in us is vexed with sin in ourselves, and that as our own sin; but his heart with sin in others only; yet so as his vexation was the greater, by how much his soul was more righteous than our’s, which makes it up; yea, in that he sustained the persons of the elect, the sins which he saw them commit, troubled him, as if they had been his own. The word here translated tempted, is read by some vexed.

Yea, and, Thirdly, to help this also, it may be said of Christ whilst he was here below, that in the same sense or manner wherein he bore our sicknesses, Matt. viii. 17, (who yet was never personally tainted with any disease) in the same sense or manner lie may be said to have born our sins; namely thus, Christ when he came to an elect child of his that was sick, whom he healed, his manner was, first by a sympathy and pity to afflict himself with their sickness, as if it had been his own: thus at his raising of Lazarus, it is said that he groaned in spirit, fyc. and so by the merit of taking the disease upon him self, through a fellow-feeling of it, he took it off from them, being for them afflicted, as if he himself had been sick. And this seems to be the best inter pretation that I have met with, of that difficult place in Matt. viii. 1C, 17, where it is said, lie healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet, saying, Himself took our wjir-

18 J U mities, and bare our sicknesses. Now in the like way or manner unto this of bearing our sicknesses, he might bear our sins too; for he being one with us, and to answer for all our sins, therefore when he saw any of his own to sin, he was affected with it as if it had been his own. And thus is that about the power of sin made up and satisfied.

And, Fourthly, as for the guilt of sin, and the temptations from it, he knows more of that than any of us. He tasted the bitterness of that, in the im putation of it, more deeply than we can, and of the cup of his Father’s wrath for it, and so is able experimentally to pity a heart wounded with it, and struggling under such temptations. He knows full well the heart of one, in his own sense, forsaken of God, seeing himself felt it when he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!

USES OF ALL,

USE I.

THUS that which hath been said may afford us the strongest consolations and encouragements against our sins of any other consideration whatsoever, and may give us the greatest assurance of their being removed off from us, that may be: for,

First, Christ himself suffers, (as it were) at least is affected, under them, as his enemies; which there fore he will be sure to remove, for his own ouief s sake. His heart would not be quiet, but that he knows they shall be removed. As God savs in the Prophet, so may Christ say much more, — J/y bowels arc troubled for him, I remember him still. Jer. xxxi. 20.

Secondly, there is comfort concerning such infirmities, — in that your very sins move him to pity more then to anger. This text is plain for it, for he suffers with us under our infirmities, and by infirmities are meant sins, as well as other miseries, (as was proved) whilst therefore you look on them as infirmities, (as God here .looks upon them, -and speaks of them in his own) and as your disease, and complain to Christ of them, and do cry out, O miserable matt, that 1 am, who shall deliver me? so long, fear not. Christ takes part with you, and so far from being provoked against you, as all his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it; — yea, his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is to a child that hath some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body thzt hath the leprosy; he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease, and that provokes him to pity the part afiected the more. What shall not make for us, when our sins that are both against Christ and us, shall be turned as motives to him, to pity us the more? The object of pity, is one in misery whom we love; and the greater the misery is, the more is the pity, when the party is beloved. Now, of all miseries, sin is the greatest; and, whilst yourselves look at it as such, Christ will look upon it as such only also in you. And he loving your persons, and hating only the sin; his hatred shall all fall, and that only upon the sin to free you of it by its ruin and destruction, but his bowels shall be the more drawn out to you; and this as much when you lie under sin, as under any other affliction. Therefore fear not, — What shall separate us from Christ’s love?

USE II.

WHATEVER trial, or temptation, or misery we are under, we may comfort ourselves with this, that Christ was once under the same, or some one like unto it, which may comfort us in these three differing respects that follow; by considering-First, that we are thereby conformed to his exam ple, for he was tempted in a 11; and this may be no small comfort to us.

Secondly, we may look to that particular instance f Christ’s being under the like, as a meriting cause to procure and purchase succour for us under, the same now; and so in that respect may yet further comfort ourselves. And

Thirdly, his having once borne the like, may relieve us in this; that, therefore he experimentally knows the misery and distress of such a condition, and so is yet further moved and quickened thereby to help us.

USE III.

As the doctrine delivered is a comfort, so the greatest motive against sin; and persuasive unto obedience, to consider, that Christ’s heart if it be not afflicted with, (and how far it may suffer with us we know not) yet for certain hath less joy in us, as we are more or less sinful, or obedient. You know not lpy sinning what blows you give the heart of Christ; If no more but that his joy is the less in you, it should move you, as it useth to do those that are ingenuous. And take this as one incentive to obedience, that if he retain the same heart and mind for mercy towards you which he had here on earth; then to his love, endeavour you to have the same heart towards him on earth, which you hope to have in heaven; and as you daily pray, thy will be done ft/i earth as it is in heaven.

USE IV.

IN all miseries and distresses you may be sure to know where to have a friend to help and pity you, even in heaven, Christ; one whose nature, office, interest, relation, — all, do engage him to your succour. You will find men, even friends, to be oftentimes unto you unreasonable, and their bowels in many cases shut up towards you. Well, say to them all, if you will not pity me, chose; I know one that will; one in heaven, whose heart is touched with the feeling of all my infirmities, and I will go and bemoan myself to him. Come boldly, (says the text) even with open mouth, to lay open your complaints, and you shall find grace and mercy to help in time of need. Men love to see themselves pitied by friends, though they cannot help them. Christ can and will do both.