of his preaching, was Christ crucified: And therefore that which the Scripture calls the writing of the law in our hearts, it calls The forming of Christ in us; to note, that Christ is the sum and substance of the whole law. He came to men first in his word, and after in his body; fulfilling the types, accomplishing the predictions, performing the commands, removing the burdens, exhibiting the precepts of the whole law, in a most exemplary and perfect conversation.

Now for our farther application of this doctrine unto use and practice: We may hence first receive a twofold instruction; First, touching the proportions wherein our holiness must bear conformity unto Christ; for conformity cannot be without proportion. Here then we may observe four particulars, wherein our holiness is to be proportionable unto Christ's: First, it must have the same principle and seed with Christ's, namely his Spirit. As in Christ there were two natures, so in either nature there was holiness after a several manner. In his divine nature, he was holy by essence and underivatively; in his human, by consecration, and unction. with the Spirit. And in this we are to bear proportion unto him. Our holiness must proceed from the same Spirit, whereby he was sanctified; only with this difference:-the Spirit of holiness was Christ's, 'jure proprio,' by virtue of the hypostatical union of the human nature with the divine, in the unity of his person; by means whereof, it was impossible for the human nature in him, not to be sanctified, and filled with grace: but to us, the Spirit belongs by an inferior union unto Christ as our head, from whom it is unto us derived and dispensed in such proportions, as he is in mercy pleased to observe towards his members. But yet though we have not as he, a plenitude of the Spirit, yet we have the same in truth and substance with him: as it is the same light which breaketh forth into the dawning of the day, and inhereth in the glorious body of the sun, though here in fulness, and there but in measure. So the apostle saith, "We are all changed into the same image with Christ, by the Spirit of our God:" and, "he that is joined unto the Lord, is one Spirit ;" and that there is but "one body, and one spirit

between Christ and his members "."

i Jere. xxxi. 33. 2 Cor. iii. 18.

j Gal. iv. 19. m 1 Cor. vi. 17.

κ γράμματι καὶ σώματι. Clem. Αlex. n Eph. iv. 4.

Secondly; Our holiness must be conformable to Christ's in the ends of it.

First, The glory of God. "Father," saith he", "I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." Wherein there are three notable things for our imitation: first, That God must first give our works, before we must do them: we must have his warrant and authority for all we do. If a man could be so full of self-zeal (if I may so call it), of irregular and unprescribed devotion, as to offer rivers of oil, or mountains of cattle, or the firstborn of his body for the sin of his soul, should neglect and macerate his body, and dishonour his flesh into the ghastliness and image of a dead carcase; yet if the Lord have not first shewed it, nor required it of him, it will all prove but the vanity and pride of a fleshly mind." Secondly, As we must do nothing but that which God requires, and gives us to do, so we must therein aim at his glory; as his authority must be the ground, so his honour must be the end of all our works. And thirdly, God is never glorified but by finishing his works. To begin, and then fall back, is to put Christ to shame."

X

Secondly, All Christ's works were done for the good of the church. He was given and born for us; he was made sin and curse for us." For our righteousness and redemption, he came; and for our expediency he returned again. When the apostle urgeth the Philippians", "not to look to their own things, but every man also on the things of others," he presseth them with this argument,—" Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.”—“ He thought it no robbery to be equal with God;" and therefore to him there could be no accession; all that he did, was for his church. And this St. Paul sealeth with his own example, "If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all." And elsewhere, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved." Only here is the difference; Christ's obedience was meritorious for the redemption of his church,-ours, only

b

ministerial for the edification of the church. "We do all things," saith the apostle, "for your edification." When the apostle saith, "I fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for his body's sake, which is the church"," we are not to conceive it, in our adversaries' gloss, that it was to merit, expiate, satisfy for the church; but only to benefit and edify it. Let him expound himself: "The things that happened unto me, namely, my bonds in Christ, have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." And again, "I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they may also obtain the salvation, not which my sufferings merit, but which is in Christ Jesus." To note, that the sufferings of the saints are ministerially serviceable to that salvation of the church, unto which the sufferings of Christ are alone meritorious and available.

Thirdly, Our holiness must be proportionable to Christ in the parts of it. It must be universal: the whole man must be spiritually formed and organized unto the measure of Christ. Every part must have its measure, and every joint its supply. Holiness is a resurrection; all that which fell, must be restored :-and it is a generation; all the parts of him that begetteth, must be fashioned. "The God of peace sanctify you throughout; and I pray God that your whole spirit, soul, and body, may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Lastly, Our holiness must be proportioned unto Christ in the manner of working: I shall observe but three particulars of many.

First, It must be done with self-denial; he that will follow Christ, must deny himself. Christ for us denied himself, and his own will; his natural love towards his own life yielded to his merciful love towards his members; "Not as I will," in my natural desire to decline dissolution, "but as thou wilt," in thy merciful purpose to save thy church. Many men will be content to serve God as long, as they may withal advantage themselves: but to serve him and deny themselves, is a work which they have not learned. "Ephraim loveth to tread out the corn," saith the prophet." You know

the mouth of the ox was not to be muzzled that trod out the corn; he had his work and reward together: but ploughing is only in hope; for the present it is a hungry and a hard work. So saith he, While Ephraim may serve me and himself, make religion serve his other secular purposes, he will be very forward; but when he must plough, that is, serve in hope of a harvest, but in pain for the present, he hath an easier plough going of his own; as it follows,-" Ye have ploughed wickedness."

Secondly, It must be done in obedience unto God. Christ emptied himself, and became obedient. It was his meat and drink to do the will of his Father. Even unto that bitter work of his passion, he was anointed with the oil of gladness: to note, that though, as made of a woman, partaker of the same passions and natural affections with us, he did decline it, and shrink from it; yet, as made under the law, he did most voluntarily and obediently undertake it. "Thou hast prepared me a body: In the volume of thy book it is written of me, Lo I come to do thy will, O God."" . Lastly, Our holiness must have growth and proficiency with it; "Grow in grace. Let these things be in you and abound;" as it is said of Christ, that "he increased in wisdom and favour with God and men ;" and that "he learned obedience by the things which he suffered."P-If it be here objected, that Christ was ever full, and had the Spirit without measure even from the womb; for inasmuch as his divine nature was in his infancy as fully united to his human as ever after; therefore the fulness of grace, which was a consequent thereupon, was as much as ever after;To this I answer, that certain it is, Christ was ever full of grace and spirit; but that excludes not his growth in them, proportionably to the ripeness, and, by consequence, capacity of his human nature. Suppose we the sun were vegetable and a subject of augmentation; though it would never be true to say that it is fuller of light than it was, yet it would be true to say that it hath more light now, than it had when it was of a lesser capacity: even so Christ, being in all things,

i1 Cor. ix. 9. Heb. x. 5, 7. de Eccl. p. 152.

k Phil. ii. 8.
o Luke ii. 40, 52.

1 John iv. 34.
P Heb v. 8.

m Heb. i. 9. 4 Vide Cameron.

save sin, like unto us, and therefore like us in the degrees and progresses of natural maturity, though he were ever full of grace, may yet be said to grow in it, and to learn; because as the capacity of his nature was enlarged, the spring of grace within him did rise up and proportionably fill it.

Secondly, From this doctrine of our conformity in holiness to the life of Christ, we may be instructed touching the vigour of the law, and the consonancy and concurrency thereof with the gospel. True it is, that Christ is the end of the law, and that we are not under the law, but under grace: yet it is as true, that Christ came not to destroy the law, and that no jot nor tittle thereof shall fall to the ground.' We are not under the law for justification of our persons, as Adam; nor for satisfaction of divine justice, as those that perish; but we are under it as a document of obedience, and a rule of living. It is now published from Mount Sion as a law of liberty, a new law, not as a law of condemnation and bondage. The obedience thereof is not removed, but the disobedience thereof is both pardoned and cured. Necessary is the observation of it as a fruit of faith, not as a condition of life or righteousness. Necessary, ‘necessitate præcepti,' as a thing commanded, the transgression whereof is an incurring of sin; not necessitate medii,' as a strict and indispensable mean of salvation, the transgression whereof is a peremptory obligation unto death. Three things Christ hath done to the law for us.

1. He hath mitigated the rigour, and removed the curse from it, as it is a killing letter, and ministry of death.

2. He hath by his Spirit conferred all the principles of obedience upon us; wisdom to contrive, will to desire, strength to execute, love to delight in the services of it: the law only commands, but Christ enables.

3. He hath, by his exemplary holiness, chalked out unto us, and conducted us in, the way of obedience: for all our obedience comes from Christ; and that either as unto members, from his Spirit,-or as unto disciples, from his doctrine and example. We see then the necessity of our being in Christ, not only for righteousness, but for obedience; for we must have life, before we can have operation. "If we live in the Spirit, let us walk also in the Spirit."

■ Gal. v. 25.