Henry Airay (c. 1560–1616) was an English Puritan pastor and professor who strongly opposed schismatic Puritans and what he saw as the Catholicization of the Church of England by William Laud (1573–1645).

In this passage from his lectures on Philippians, Airay marvels that the Son of God, true God from true God, condescended to become a human being. Through the unity of Christ’s two natures in his person, believers are drawn into life with God. Airay exhorts us to mirror Christ’s humility, by serving and loving our neighbors—even our enemies.

Henry Airay

Henry Airay

Here we may most clearly observe the great humility of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Even this one description of his incarnation may both present it in a lively way before our eyes and be a most clear pattern to us as to how we ought to be minded toward one another. He that was true God, of the substance of the Father, glorious in majesty, wonderful in power, only wise, of right, and without any injury to the Godhead at all, every way equal to God the Father, of himself deigned to descend from his high and glorious majesty and to take into the unity of his person the nature of a human being, even the base condition of a servant, and in everything that concerns humanity’s nature to be like all other people, sin only excepted.

Here is love passing the love of women, and here is humility beyond all comparison. Who does not know this? And yet who follows this pattern of Christ Jesus set before us? He, when we were enemies to him, deigned to come to us; which of us will deign to go to our enemy and be reconciled to him, though the commandment is that the sun should not go down on our anger?

Philippians, Colossians, ed. Graham Tomlin, Reformation Commentary on Scripture, NT Vol. XI, p. 47