2. Christ is compassionate towards them in their afflictions: “In all their affliction he is afflicted,” Isa. lxiii. 9; yea, it seems that all our afflictions (at least those of one sort, — namely, which consist in persecutions) are his in the first place, ours only by participation. Col. i. 24, We “Τῶν παθημάτων Christi duo sunt genera: προτερήματα, quæ passus est in corpore suo, et ὑστερήματα, quæ in sanctis.” — Zanc. in loc. “fill up the measure of the afflictions of Christ.” Two things evidently manifest this compassionateness in Christ:—