II. NATURAL. [The natural qualifications of Jesus Christ to be our high priest.]
This leads me to the second head, namely, to his natural qualifications. And,
First, this is one thing that I urge, he is not of a nature foreign to that of man; the angels love us well, but they are not so capable of sympathising with us in our distresses, because they are not partakers of our nature. Nature hath a peculiar sympathy in it; now he is naturally one with us, sin only excepted, and that is our advantage too. He is a man as we are, flesh and blood as we are: born of a woman, and in all points made like unto us, that excepted which the Holy Ghost excepteth. 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he likewise took part. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but on him the seed of Abraham' (Heb 2:14,16). This doth qualify him much; as I said before, there is a sympathy in nature. A man will not be so affected with the hurt that comes to a beast, as he naturally will with the hurt that comes to a man: a beast will be more affected with those attempts that are made upon its own kind to hurt it, than it will be with those that are made upon man. Wherefore? Why, there is a sympathy in nature. Now that Christ, the high priest of the house of God, is naturally one with us, you see the Scriptures plainly affirm. 'God sent forth his Son, made of a woman' (Gal 4:4); he was 'made of the seed of David, according to the flesh' (Rom 1:3); from the fathers of whom, 'as concerning the flesh Christ came,' &c. (Rom 9:5; 2 Tim 2:8). And this must needs then to make him a well-qualified high priest (Heb 2:14,15). We will not now speak of the necessity of his taking upon him the human nature, to wit, that he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver his people; for that would be here too much beside our matter, and be a diversion to the reader. We are now upon his High Priest's office, and of those natural qualifications that attend him, as to that; and I say, nature is a great qualification, because in nature there is sympathy; and where there is sympathy, there will be a provocation to help, a provocation to help with jealousy and indignation against those that afflict. A bear robbed of her whelps is not more provoked than is the Lord Jesus when there are means used to make them miss of life eternal, for whom he hath died, and for whom he ever lives to make intercession. But,
Second. As there is natural sympathy in Christ to those for whom he is an High Priest, so there is relative sympathy; he has not only taken to or upon him our nature, but he is become one brotherhood with us; now you know brotherhood will carry a man further than nature; so then, when nature and relation meet, there is a double obligation. 'For both he that sanctifieth,' which is Christ, 'and they who are sanctified,' his saints, 'are all of one,' which is God; and they are all of God, as children of a Father; 'for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, amid the church will I sing praise unto thee' (Heb 2:11,12). Now, a relation is much more natural, most of all. Why, here is a natural relation betwixt Christ the High Priest, and those for whom 'he ever liveth to make intercession'; a natural relation, I say, and that concerning the humanity which is the nature subject to affliction and distress; 'Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same' (Heb 2:14). So then it is for a brother that he is engaged, for a brother that he doth make intercession. When Gideon knew by the confession of Zeba and Zalmunna that the men whom they slew at Tabor were his brethren, his fury came into his face, and he swore they should therefore die (Judg 8:18-21). Relationship is a great matter. And thus it is repeated, 'In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful High Priest' (Heb 2:17). A brother is born for adversity; and a brother will go far. This, therefore, is a second thing or another qualification, with which Christ Jesus is furnished to be a High Priest; he is a brother, there is a brotherly relation betwixt him and us; therefore, by virtue of this relation, he maketh intercession for us more affectionately.
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