Flavel, Fountain of Life, File 18.
( ...continued from File 17)
Sermon 18. Of the Necessity of Christ's Humiliation, in order to the
Execution of all these his blessed Offices for us; and particularly
of his Humiliation by Incarnation.
Phil. 2:8
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient to death, even the death of the cross.
You have heard how Christ was invested with the offices of prophet,
priest, and king, for the carrying on the blesses design of our
redemption; the execution of these offices necessarily required that
he should be both deeply abased, and highly exalted. He cannot as
our Priest, offer up himself a sacrifice to God for us, except he be
humbled, and humbled to death. He cannot, as a King, powerfully
apply the virtue of that his sacrifice, except he be exalted, yea,
highly exalted. Had he not stooped to the low estate of a man, he
had not, as a Priest, had a sacrifice of his own to offer; as a
Prophet, he had not been fit to teach us the will of God, so as that
we should be able to bear it; as a King, he had not been a suitable
head to the church: and, had he not been highly exalted, that
sacrifice had not been carried within the vail before the Lord.
Those discoveries of God could not have been universal, effectual
and abiding. The government of Christ could not have secured,
protected, and defended the subjects of his kingdom.
The infinite wisdom prospecting all this, ordered that Christ
should first be deeply humbled, then highly exalted: both which
states of Christ are presented to us by the apostle in this context.
He that intends to build high, lays the foundation deep and
low. Christ must have a distinct glory in heaven, transcending that
of angels and men, (for the saints will know him from all others by
his glory, as the sun is known from the lesser stars.) And, as he
must be exalted infinitely above them, so he must first, in order
thereunto, be humbled and abased as much below them: "His form was
marred more than any man's; and his visage more than the sons of
men." The ground colours are a deep sable, which afterwards are laid
on with all the splendour and glory of heaven.
Method requires that we first speak to this state of
Humiliation.
And, to that purpose, I have read this scripture to you, which
presents you the Son under an (almost) total eclipse. He that was
beautiful and glorious, Isa. 4: 2. yea, glorious as the only
begotten of the Father, John 1: 14. yea, the glory, James 2: 1. yea,
the splendour and "brightness of the Fathers glory," Heb. 1: 3. was
so veiled, clouded, and debased, that he looked not like himself; a
God, no, nor scarce as a man; for, with reference to this humbled
state, it is said, Psal. 22: 6. "I am a worm, and no man:" q. d.
rather write me worm, than man: I am become an abject among men, as
that word, Isa 53: 8. signifies. This humiliation of Christ we have
here expressed in the nature, degrees, and duration or continuance
of it.
1. The nature of it, "etapeinosen heauton", he humbled himself.
The word imports both a real and voluntary abasement. Real; he did
not personate a humbled man, nor act the part of one, in a debased
state, but was really, and indeed humbled; and that not only before
men, but God. As man, he was humbled really, as God in respect of
his manifestative glory: and, as it was real, so also voluntary: It
is not said he was humbled, but he humbled himself: he was willing
to stoop to this low and abject state for us. And, indeed, the
voluntariness of his humiliation made it most acceptable to God, and
singularly commends the love of Christ to us, that he would chose to
stoop to all this ignominy, suffering, and abasement for us.
2. The degrees of his humiliation; it was not only so low as to
become a man, a man under law; but he humbled himself to become
"obedient to death, even the death of the cross." Here you see the
depth of Christ's humiliations both specified, it was unto death,
and aggravated, even the death of the cross: not only to become a
man but a dead corpse, and that too hanging on a tree, dying the
death of a malefactor.
3. The duration, or continuance of this his humiliation: it
continued from the first moment of his incarnation, to the very
moment of his vivification and quickening in the grave. So the terms
of it are fixed here by the apostle; from the time he was found in
fashion as a man, that is, from his incarnation, unto his death on
the cross, which also comprehends the time of his abode in the
grave; so long his humiliation lasted. Hence the observation is,
Doct. That the estate of Christ, from his conception to his
resurrection, was a state of deep abasement and humiliation.
We are now entering upon Christ's humbled state, which I shall
cast under three general heads, viz. his humiliation, in his
incarnation, in his life, and in his death. My present work is to
open Christ's humiliation, in his incarnation, imported in these
words, He was found in fashion as a man. By which you are not to
conceive that he only assumed a body, as an assisting form, to
appear transiently to us in it, and so lay it down again. It is not
such an apparition of Christ in the shape of a man, that is here
intended; but his true and real assumption of our nature, which vas
a special part of his humiliation; as will appear by the following
particulars.
1. The incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliation
of him, inasmuch as thereby he is brought into the rank and order of
creatures, who is over all, "God blessed for ever," Rom. 9: 5. This
is the astonishing mystery, 1 Tim. 3: 16. that God should be
manifest in the flesh; that the eternal God should truly and
properly be called the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. 2: 5. It was a
wonder to Solomon, that God would dwell in that stately and
magnificent temple at Jerusalem, 2 Chron. 6: 18. "But will God in
very deed dwell with men on earth! Behold the heaven, and heaven of
heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have
built?" But it is a far greater wonder that God should dwell in a
body of flesh, and pitch his tabernacle with us, John 1: 14. It
would have seemed a rude blasphemy, had not the scriptures plainly
revealed it, to have thought, or spoken of the eternal God, as born
in time; the world's Creator a creature; the Ancient of Days, as an
infant of days.
The Heathen Chaldeans told the king of Babel, that the
"dwelling of the gods is not with flesh," Dan. 2: 11. But now God
not only dwells with fleshy but dwells in flesh; yea, was made
flesh, and dwelt among us.
For the sun to fall from its sphere, and be degraded into a
wandering atom; for an angel to be turned out of heaven, and be
converted into a silly fly or worm, had been no such great
abasement; for they were but creatures before, and so they would
abide still, though in an inferior order or species of creatures.
The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures, is
but a finite distance. The angel and the worm dwell not so far
asunder. But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things, to
become a creature, is a mystery exceeding all human understanding.
The distance betwixt God and the highest order at creatures, is an
infinite distance. He is said to humble himself; to behold the
things that are done in heaven. What a humiliation then is it, to
behold the things in the lower world! but to be born into it, and
become a man! Great indeed is the mystery of godliness. "Behold,
(saith the prophet, Isa. 40: 15, 18) the nations are as the drop of
a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; he
taketh up she isles as a very little thing. All nations before him
are as nothing, and they are accounted to him less than nothing, and
vanity." If, indeed, this great and incomprehensible Majesty will
himself stoop to the state and condition of a creature, we may
easily believe, that being once a creature, he would expose him to
hunger, thirst, shame, spitting, death, or any thing but sin. For
that once being a man, he should endure any of these things, is not
so wonderful, as that he should become a man. This was the low step,
a deep abasement indeed!
2. It was a marvellous humiliation to the Son of God, not only
to become a creature, but an inferior creature, a man, and not an
angel. Had he taken the angelical nature, though it had been a
wonderful abasement to him, yet he had staid (if I may so speak)
nearer his own home, and been somewhat liker to a God, than now he
appeared, when he dwelt with us: for angels are the highest and most
excellent of all created beings: For their nature, they are pure
spirits; for their wisdom, intelligences; for their dignity, they
are called principalities and powers; for their habitation, they are
stiled the heavenly host, and for their employment, it is to behold
the face of God in heaven. The highest pitch, both of our holiness
and happiness in the coming world, is expressed by this, we shall be
"isangeloi", "equal to the angels," Luke 20: 36. As man is nothing
to God, so he is much inferior to the angels; so much below them,
that he is not able to bear the sight of an angel, though in a human
shape, rendering himself as familiarly as may be to him, Judges 42:
22. When the Psalmist had contemplated the heavens, and viewed the
celestial bodies, the glorious luminaries, the moon and stars which
God had made, he cries out, Psal. 8: 5. "What is man, that thou art
mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him!" Take man
at his best when he came a perfect and pure piece out of his Maker's
hand, in the state of innocence: yet he was inferior to angels. They
always bare the image of God, in a more eminent degree than man, as
being wholly spiritual substances and so more lively representing
God, than man could do, whose noble soul is immersed in matter, and
closed up in flesh and blood: yet Christ chooses this inferior order
and species of creatures, and passeth by the angelical nature; Heb.
2: 16. "He took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of
Abraham."
3. Moreover, Jesus Christ did not only neglect the angelical,
and assume the human nature; but he also assumed the human nature,
after sin had blotted the original glory of it, and withered up the
beauty and excellency thereof. For he came not in our nature before
the fall, whilst as yet its glory was fresh in it; but he came, as
the apostle speaks, Rom. 8: 3 "In the likeness of sinful flesh,"
i.e. in flesh that had the marks, and miserable effects, and
consequent of sin upon it. I say not that Christ assumed sinful
flesh, or flesh really defiled by sin, That which was born of the
Virgin was a holy thing. For by the power of the Highest (whether by
the energetical command and ordination of the Holy Ghosts as some;
or by his benediction and blessing, I here dispute not) that whereof
the body of Christ was to be formed, was so sanctified, that no
taint or spot of original pollution remained in it. But yet though
it had not intrinsical native uncleanness in it, it had the effects
of sin upon it; yea, it was attended with the whole troop of human
infirmities, that sin at first let into our common nature, such as
hunger, thirst, weariness, pain, mortality, and all these natural
weaknesses and evils that clog our miserable natures, and make them
groan from day to day under them.
By reason whereof, though he was not a sinner, yet he looked
like one: and they that saw and conversed with him, took him for a
sinner; seeing all these effects of sin upon him. In these things he
came as near to sin as his holiness could admit. O what a stoop was
this! to be made in the likeness of flesh, though the innocent flesh
of Adam, had been much; but to be made in the likeness of sinful
flesh, the flesh of sinners, rebels; flesh, though not defiled, yet
miserably defaced by sin! O what is this! and who can declare it!
And indeed, if he will be a Mediator of reconciliation, it was
necessary it should be so. It behaved him to assume the same nature
that sinned, to make satisfaction in it. Yea, these sinless
infirmities were necessary to be assumed with the nature, forasmuch
as his bearing them was a part of his humiliation, and went to make
up satisfaction for us. Moreover, by them our High Priest was
qualified from his own experience, and filled with tender compassion
to us.
But O the admirable condescensions of a Saviour, to take such a
nature! to put on such a garment when so very mean and ragged! Did
this become the Son of God to wear? O grace unsearchable!
4. And yet more, by this his incarnation he was greatly
humbled, inasmuch as this so veiled, clouded, and disguised him,
that during the time he lived here, he looked not like himself, as
God; but as a poor, sorry, contemptible sinner, in the eyes of the
world; they scorned him. This fellow said, Matth. 26: 61. Hereby "he
made himself of no reputation," Phil. 2: 6. It blotted his honour
and reputation. By reason hereof he lost all esteem and honour from
those that saw him, Matth. 13: 55. "Is not this the carpenter's
son?" To see a poor man travelling up and down the country, in
hunger, thirst, weariness, attended with a company of poor men; one
of his company bearing the bag, and that which was put therein, John
13: 29. Who that had seen him, would ever have thought this had been
the Creator of the world, the Prince of the kings of the earth? "He
was despised, and we esteemed him not." Now which of you is there
that would not rather chose to endure much misery as a man, than to
be degraded into a contemptible worm, that every body treads upon,
and no man regards it? Christ looked so unlike a God in this habit,
that he was scarce allowed the name of a man; a worm rather than a
man.
And think with yourselves now, was not this astonishing self-
denial? That he, who from eternity had his Father's smiles and
honours, he that from the creation was adored, and worshipped by
angels, as their God, must now become a footstool for every
miscreant to tread on; and not to have the respects due to a man;
sure this was a deep abasement. It was a black cloud that for so
many years darkened, and shut up his manifestative glory, that it
could not shine out to the world; only some weak rays of the Godhead
shone to some few eyes, through the chinks of his humanity, as the
clouded sun sometimes opens a little, and casts some faint beams,
and is muffled up again. "We saw his glory, as of the only begotten
Son:" but the world knew him not, John 1: 14. If a prince walk up
and down in a disguise, he must expect no more honour than a mean
subject. This was the case of our Lord Jesus Christ, this disguise
made him contemptible, and an object of scorn.
5. Again, Christ was greatly humbled by his incarnation,
inasmuch as thereby he was put at a distance from his Father, and
that ineffable joy and pleasure he eternally had with him. Think
not, reader, but the Lord Jesus lived at a high and inimitable rate
of communion with God while he walked here in the flesh: but yet to
live by faith, as Christ here did, is one thing; and to be in the
bosom of God, as he was before, is another. To have the ineffable
delights of God perpetuated and continued to him, without one
moment's interruption from eternity, is one thing; and to have his
soul sometimes filled with the joy of the Lord, and then all
overcast with clouds of wrath again; to cry, and God not hear, as he
complains, Psal. 32: 2. nay, to be reduced to such a low ebb of
spiritual comforts, as to be forced to cry out so bitterly, as he
did, Psal. 22: 1. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This
was a thing Christ was very unacquainted with, till he was found in
habit as a man.
6. And lastly, It was a great stoop and condescension of Christ
if he would become a man, to take his nature from such obscure
parents, and chose such a low and contemptible state in this world
as he did. He will be born, but not of the blood of nobles, but of a
poor woman in Israel, espoused to a carpenter: yea, and that too,
under all the disadvantages imaginable; not in his mother's house,
but an inn; yea, in the stable too. He suited all to that abased
state he was designed for; and came among us under all the humbling
circumstances imaginable: "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ (saith the apostle) how that though he was rich, yet for our
sakes he became poor," 2 Cor. 8: 9. And thus I have shown you some
few particulars of Christ's humiliation in his incarnation. Next we
shall infer some things from it that are practical.
Inference 1. Hence we gather the fullness and completeness of
Christ's satisfaction, as the sweet first-fruits of his incarnation.
Did man offend and violate the law of God? Behold, God himself is
become man to repair that breach, and satisfy for the wrong done.
The highest honour that ever the law of God received, was to have
such a person as the man Christ Jesus is, to stand before its bar,
and make reparation to it. This is more than if it had poured out
all our blood, and built up its honour upon the ruins of the whole
creation.
It is not so much to see all the stars in heaven overcast, as
to see one sun eclipsed. The greater Christ was, the greater was his
humiliation; and the greater his humiliation was, the more full and
complete was his satisfaction; and the mote completeness there is in
Christ's satisfaction, the more perfect and steady is the believers
consolation. If he had not stooped so low, our joy and comfort could
not be exalted so high. The depth of the foundation is the strength
of the superstructure.
Inf. 2. Did Christ for our sakes stoop from the majesty, glory
and dignity he was possessed of in heaven, to the mean and
contemptible state of a man? What a pattern of self-denial is here
presented to Christians? What objection against, or excuses to shift
off this duty, can remain, after such an example as is here
propounded? Brethren, let me tell you, the pagan world was never
acquainted with such an argument as this, to press them to
self-denial. Did Christ stoop, and cannot you stoop? did Christ
stoop so much, and cannot you stoop at the least? Was he content to
become any thing, a worm, a reproach, a curse; and cannot you digest
any abasement? Do the least slights and neglects rankle your hearts,
and poison them with discontent, malice and revenge; O how unlike
Christ are you! Hear; and blush in hearing, what your Lord saith in
John 13: 14. "If I then your Lord and Master, wash your feet; ye
ought also to wash one another's feet." "The example obliges not,
(as a learned man well observes) to the same individual act, but it
obliges us to follow the reason of the example;" i.e. after Christ's
example, we must be ready to perform the lowest and meanest offices
of love and service to one another. And indeed to this it obliges
most forcibly; for it is as if a master, seeing a proud, sturdy
servant, that grudges at the work he is employed about, as if it
were too mean and base, should come and take it out of his hand; and
when he has done it, should say, does your Lord and Master think it
not beneath him to do it; and is it beneath you? I remember it is an
excellent saying that Bernard has upon the nativity of Christ: saith
he, "What more detestable, what more unworthy, or what deserves
severer punishment, than for a poor man to magnify himself, after he
has seen the great and high God, so humbled, as to become a little
child? It is intolerable impudence for a worm to swell with pride,
after it has seen majesty emptying itself; to see one so infinitely
above us, to stoop so far beneath us." O how convincing and shaming
should it be! Ah how opposite should pride and stoutness be to the
Spirit of a Christian! I am sure nothing is more so to the spirit of
Christ. Your Saviour was lowly, meek, self-denying, and of a most
condescending spirit; he looked not at his own things, but yours,
Phil. 2: 4. And does it become you to be proud, selfish, and stout?
I remember Jerome, in his epistle to Pamachius, a godly young
nobleman, advised him to be eyes to the blind, feet to the lame;
yea, saith he, if need be, I would not have you refuse to cut wood,
and draw water for the saints: And what, saith he, is this to
buffeting and spitting upon, to crowning with thorns, scourging and
dying! Christ did undergo all this, and that for the ungodly.
Inf. 3. Did Christ stoop so low as to become a man to save us?
Then those that perish under the gospel must needs perish without
apology. What would you have Christ do more to save you? Lo, he has
laid aside the robes of majesty and glory, put on your own garments
of flesh, come down from his throne, and brought salvation home to
your own doors. Surely, the lower Christ stooped to save us, the
lower we shall sink under wrath that neglect so great salvation. The
Lord Jesus is brought low, but the unbeliever will lay him yet
lower, even under his feet: he will tread the Son of God under foot,
Heb. 10: 28. For such (as the apostle there speaks) is reserved
something worse than dying without mercy. What pleas and excuses
others will make at the judgement seat, I know not; but once, it is
evident, you will be speechless. And, as one well observes, the
vilest sinners among the Gentiles, nay, the devils themselves, will
have more to say for themselves than you.
I must be plain with you; I beseech you consider, how Jews,
Pagans, and Devils will rise up in judgement against you. The Jew
may say, I had a legal yoke upon me, which neither I nor my fathers
were able to bear; Christ invited me only into the garden of nuts,
where I might sooner break my teeth with the hard shells of
ceremonies, than get the kernel of gospel promises. - In the best of
our sacrifices, the smoke filled our temple; smoke only to provoke
us to weep for a clearer manifestation. We had but the old edition
of the covenant of grace, in a character very darkly intelligible:
You have the last edition, with a commentary of our rejection, and
the world's reception, and the Spirit's effusion. You had all that
heart could wish. - I perish eternally, may the poor Pagan say,
without all possibility of reconciliation, and have only sinned
against the covenant of works; having never heard of a gospel
covenant, nor of reconciliation by a Mediator. O had I but heard one
sermon! had Christ but once broke in upon my soul, to convince me of
my undone condition, and to have shown a righteousness to me! But
woe is me! I never had so much as one offer of Christ. - But so have
I, must you say that refuse the gospel: I have, or might have beard
thousands of sermons; I could scarce escape hearing one or other
shewing me the danger of my sin, and my necessity of Christ. But
notwithstanding all I heard, I wilfully resolved I would have
nothing to do with him. I could not endure to hear strictness
pressed upon me: It was all the hell I had upon earth, that I could
not sin in quiet. - Nay, may the devil himself say, it is true, I
was ever since my fall maliciously set against God. But alas! as
soon as I had sinned, God threw me out of heaven, and told me he
would never have mercy upon me: and though I lived in the time of
all manner of gracious dispensations, I saw sacrifices offered, and
Christ in the flesh, and the gospel preached; yet how could all this
chose but enrage me the more, to have God, as it were, say, Look
here, Satan, I have provided a remedy for sin, but none for thine!
This set me upon revenge against God, as far as I could reach him.
But alas! alas! had God entered into any covenant with me at all;
had God put me on any terms, though never so hard for the obtaining
of mercy; had Christ been but once offered to me, What do you think
would I not have done? &c.
O poor sinners! Your damnation is just, if you refuse grace
brought home by Jesus Christ himself to your very doors. The Lord
grant this may not be thy case who readest these lines.
Inf. 4. Moreover; hence it follows, that none does, or can love
like Christ: His love to man is matchless. The freeness, strength,
antiquity, and immutability of it, puts a lustre on it beyond all
examples. Surely it was a strong love indeed, that made him lay
aside hit glory, to be found in fashion as a man, to become any
thing, though never so much below himself, for our salvation. We
read of Jonathan's love to David, which passed the love of women; of
Jacob's love to Rachel, who for her sake endured the heat of summer,
and cold of winter; of David's love to Absalom; of the primitive
Christians love to one another, who could die one for another but
neither had they that to deny which Christ had, nor had he those
inducements from the object of his love that they had. His love,
like himself, is wonderful.
Inf. 5. Did the Lord Jesus so deeply abase and humble himself
for us? What an engagement has he thereby put on us, to exalt and
honour him, who for our sakes was so abused? It was a good saying of
Bernard, "By how much the viler he was made for me, by so much the
dearer he shall be to me." And O that all, to whom Christ is dear,
would study to exalt and honour him, these four ways.
1. By frequent and delightful speaking of Him, and for Him.
When Paul had once mentions(I his name, he knows not how to part
with it, but repeats it no less than ten times in the compass of ten
verses, in 1 Cor. 1. It was Lambert's motto, "None but Christ, none
but Christ." It is said of Johannes Milius, that after his
conversion, he was seldom or never observed to mention the name of
Jesus, but his eyes would drop; so dear was Christ to him. or. Fox
never denied any beggar that asked an alms in Christ's name, or for
Jesus' sake. Julius Palmer, when all concluded he was dead, being
turned as black as a coal on the fire, at last moved his scorched
lips, and was heard to say, Sweet Jesus, and fell asleep. Plutarch
tells us, that when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Grecians from
the bondage with which they had been long ground by their
oppressors, and the herald was to proclaim in their audience the
articles of peace he had concluded for then, they so pressed upon
him, (not being half of them able to hear), that he was in great
danger to have lost his life in the press; at last, reading them a
second time, when they came to understand distinctly how their case
stood, they shouted for joy, "Soter, Soter", "a Saviour, a Saviour,"
that they made the cry heavens ring gain with their acclamations,
and the very birds fell down astonished. And all that night the poor
Grecians, with instruments of music, and songs of praise, danced and
sung about his tent, extolling him as a god that had delivered them.
But surely you have more reason to be exalting the Author of your
salvation, who, at a dearer rate, has freed you from a more dreadful
bondage. O ye that have escaped the eternal wrath of God, by the
humiliation of the Son of God, extol your great Redeemer, and for
ever celebrate his praises!
2. By acting your faith on him, for whatsoever lies in the
promises yet unaccomplished. In this you see the great and most
difficult promise fulfilled, Gen. 3: 15. "The seed of the woman
shall break the serpent's head;" which contained this mercy of
Christ's incarnation for us in it: I say, you see this fulfilled;
and seeing that which was most improbable and difficult is come to
pass, even Christ come in the flesh, methinks our unbelief should be
removed for ever, and all other promises the more easily believed.
It seemed much more improbable and impossible to reason, that God
should become a man, and stoop to the condition of a creature, than
being a man, to perform all that good which his incarnation and
death procured. Unbelief usually argues from one of these two
grounds, Can God do this? or, Will God do that? It is questioning
either his power or his will; but after this, let it cease for ever
to cavil against either. His power to save should never be
questioned by any that know what sufferings and infinite burdens he
supported in our nature: and surely his willingness to save should
never be put to a question, by any that consider how low he was
content to stoop for our sakes.
3. By drawing nigh to God with delight, "through the veil of
Christ's flesh," Heb. 10: 19. God has made this flesh of Christ a
veil betwixt the brightness of his glory and us: it serves to rebate
the unsupportable glory, and also to give admission to it, as the
veil did in the temple. Through this body of flesh, which Christ
assumed, are all decursus et recurs us gratiarum, "outlets of grace
from God to us; and through it, also, must be all our returns to God
again." It is made the great medium of our communion with God.
4. By applying yourselves to him, under all temptations and
troubles, of what kind soever, as to one that is tenderly sensible
of your case, and most willing and ready to relieve you. O remember,
this was one of the inducements that persuaded and invited him to
take your nature, that he might be furnished abundantly with tender
compassion for you, from the sense he should have of your
infirmities in his own body. Heb. 2: 17. "Wherefore in all things it
behaved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful High-priest, in things pertaining to God, to
make reconciliation for the sins of the people." You know by this
argument the Lord pressed the Israelites to be kind to strangers;
for, (saith he) "you know the heart of a stranger," Exod. 22: 9.
Christ, by being in our nature, knows experimentally what our wants,
fears, temptations, and distresses are, and so is able to have
compassion. O let your hearts work upon this admirable condescension
of Christ, till they be filled with it, and your lips say,
Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
(continued in file 19...)
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file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-09: flafn-18.txt
.
