to be our meetness to appear before him; for without holiness no soul can see the Lord; the second is, our appearing without blame, irreprovable and irrebukable; and the third blessing is love; in which, when perfected, there is no fear. But holiness is what I must consider. We know there is no real holiness but in God; he is the holy one, in and of himself; and the fountain of holiness to all others that are holy, whether they be holy angels, the spirits of just men made perfect, or holy men, called holy brethren, partakers of the holy calling.

And this holiness is not a ceremonial holiness, obtained by sanctifying or purifying the flesh with the blood of bulls and goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean. For nothing of this sort could make the comers unto them clean as touching the conscience, much less make them holy.

Nor is this holiness to be obtained by works of righteousness done in obedience to the moral law. None could stick closer to that than some of the Jews did; as the young man in the gospel, who had kept all these things; and the elder son in the parable, who had never transgressed. Nicodemus and Paul also. And indeed that whole generation was pure in their own eyes, though never washed from their filthiness, Prov. xxx. 12.

Nor does this holiness consist in an external reformation made by the preaching of the gospel, as when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, and

the man finding the house empty, or the devil departed from it, sets about sweeping and garnishing of it with a little legal repentance, or the motions of natural passions stirred up, as of sorrow, as they had who howled upon their beds, Hosea vii. 14; or the passion of joy moved, as the stony ground hearers had who heard the word, and anon with joy received it; for these things, together with light in the head, knowledge, zeal, and spiritual gifts, either to converse, pray, or prophesy, will never make a man holy no, nor yet a conformity to any of the outward ordinances of the gospel; such as joining a church, making a public profession and confession of Christ, submitting to baptism as Simon Magus did, or receiving the sop as Judas did; no, nor filling up our places in God's house, nor walking constantly in fellowship with the saints, though it be to the end, as the foolish virgins did. There is no real holiness in all this, nor in any of these things, though there are thousands and tens of thousands that are wrapped up and secure enough in these webs. But this is not the holiness that the elect were chosen unto, nor is it any thing like it; it is like Jezebel's painted face; and many are as pleased with it as she was; but it has not the least resemblance of that inward and all-glorious adorning of the king's daughter, Psal. xlv. 13. Whatever this holiness is, it is something that is to be experienced and enjoyed in Christ Jesus. Without being united to him there is no holiness in any man; so says Paul," According as he hath chosen

us in him, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." Hence it is plain that those who are out of Christ can know nothing about holiness experimentally, but what they know .naturally; and as natural knowledge puffeth up, so men, by such knowledge, corrupt themselves, by soaring aloft in self-love or self-admiration, as Satan did, till he fell into condemnation for his pride. And we are informed, that in the last days there shall be a great deal of this in professing men; "Men shall be lovers of themselves, proud, boasters," &c.; and we have plenty of these in our days. In Christ Jesus God hath chosen his people, that they might be holy; and interested in his salvation must every one be who participates of this holiness. Christ is made sanctification to us, as well as wisdom and righteousness; and it is not without cause that he is so often called The Holy One of Israel; because all true Israelites have their holiness in him, and of his fulness do all the children of God receive it. But as I shall have occasion to speak more fully upon this point when I come to treat of the lost image of Christ being restored to men by the Holy Ghost, I shall pass on to consider,

4. The next heavenly lineament in this image of Christ, and that is glory. "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory," 2 Tim. ii. 10. Here the apostle connects election, salvation, and eternal glory, to

gether. And well he may, for we are appointed, by the decree of election, unto both, as will appear by the following quotations: Take for an helmet the hope of salvation, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by. our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us," 1 Thess. v. 9, 10. And, as glory seems to be the last and finishing stroke of Christ's image in man, that seems to be more fully expressed than of the former; " And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles." This glory will consist chiefly of light. The light that shined on Moses' face is called glory, the glory of his countenance; which glory, says Paul, is done away in Christ. And the light that shined round about Paul at his conversion he calls glory, and says he could not see for the glory of that light, Acts xxii. 11. The prophet Isaiah, when he was illuminated, prophesies to others, from his own experience, what Christ would do for them: "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of God is risen upon thee, and the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and thy God thy glory; and thy sun shall no more go down." And again; "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee; and his glory shall be seen upon thee, and the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising," Isa. lx. 2, 3. This

most brilliant and illustrious appearance, in which the Saviour visits his church, is the native hue, or natural complexion, of the Son of God; and this may be seen on mount Tabor, where it is said that our Lord took with him three of his disciples, Peter, James, and John, and was transfigured before them. But in truth, his mean appearance that he continually made in the days of his flesh was rather a transfiguration: for he was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death; though at the same time, as lord and the creator of angels, he had more than twelve legions of them at his beck and call. Indeed, he styles himself lower still; "I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him," Psalm xxii. 6-8. And if the Lord of life and glory appearing in this servile form, and in the midst of such reproach, contempt, and scorn, be not a transfiguration, I know not what is; for sure no being could ever be more altered, changed, or transformed, than his figure and likeness was; especially if we compare the appearance that he has at times made, as described by Ezekiel, Daniel, Isaiah, and John, with that which he made in his suffering circumstances. Ezekiel the first chapter, Isaiah the sixth, and the first of the Revelation by John, contain the best portraits of his natural hue or complexion; and, though