Secondly, In the next place we are to enquire, in what things all who profess Christ are obliged to the imitation of him ; or what those excellent graces in the life of Christ were, which are pro- pounded as patterns to the saints.
The life of Christ was a living law ; all the graces and virtues of the Spirit were represented in their glory, and brightest lustre in his conversation upon earth -f* : Never man spake as he spake;
* Primum ci optimum in vnoquoque genere est regula et mensura ccelerorum.
f What have you to do with virtues, who are ignorant of Christ's \irtue"'
THE METHOD OF GRACE. SEHM. XXIX,
never any lived as he lived. " We beheld bis glory (saith the evan- " gelist) as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of Xi grace and truth," John i. 14. But to descend to the particular, imi table excellencies in the life of Christ, which are high patterns and excellent rules for the conversation of his people, we shall, from among many others, single out the ten following particulars, which we are obliged to imitate.
Pattern 1. And first of all, the purity and holiness of the life of Christ is proposed as a glorious pattern for the saint's imitation. 1 Pet. i. 15. " As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy " in all manner of conversation ;" ev z:acrt ava?(,o<pri, in every point and turning of vourselves. There is a two-fold holiness in Christ, the holiness of his nature, and the holiness of his practice; his holy being and his holy working : This obligeth all that profess interest in him to a two-fold holiness, viz. holiness in actu prima, in the principles of it in their hearts, and holiness in actu secimdo, in the practice and exercise of it in their conversations. It is very true we cannot in all respects imitate the holiness of Christ, for he is es- sentially holy ; proceeding, by nature, as a pure beam of holiness from the Father ; and when he was incarnate, lie came into the world immaculate, and pure from the least stain of pollution : There it was said, Luke i. 25. " That holy thing which shall be born of " thee shall be called the Son of God." In this we can never be like Christ, in the way of our production ; for " who can bring a " clean thing out of that which is unclean ? Not one." The Lord Jesus was also efficiently holy, i. e. he makes others holy ; therefore his sufferings and bkod are called a fountain opened ;* for sin and for uncleanness," i. e. to cleanse other men's souls, Zech. xiii. 1. In this Christ also is inimitable ; no man can make himself or others holy. That is a great truth, though it will hardly go down with proud nature, Minus est te fecisse hominem, quam sanctum ; we may sooner make ourselves to be men, than to be saints. Beside Christ is infinite! v holy, as he is God ; and there are no measures set to his holiness, as Mediator. John iii. 34. " For " God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." But notwith- standing these excepted respects, the holiness of Christ is propound- ed as a pattern for our imitation six ways.
First, He was truly and sincerely holy, without fiction or simula- tion ; and this appeared in the greatest trial of the truth of holi- ness that ever was made in this world. John xiv. 30. " The prince " of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me :" When he Mas agitated and shaken with the greatest temptations, no dregs ap-
Vv'here. pray \ou, is true prudence, but in Christ's doctrine? Or true temperance, hut La Christ's life ? Or true fortitude, but in Christ'* passion?
SERM. XXIX. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 409
peared ; he was like pure fountain- water in a chrystal glass. The hypocrite makes shew of more holiness than he hath, but there was more holiness in Christ than ever appeared to the view of men. We may say of the way of Christ what the* philosopher saith of the milky way in the heavens ; and those faint streams of light which we see there, are nothing else but the reflection of innumera- ble stars which shine there, though they are invisible to us. There was much inward beauty in him, and so there ought to be in all his followers ; our holiness, like Christ's, must be sincere and real, Epli. iv. lM. shining with inward beauty towards God rather than towards men.
Secondly, Christ was uniformly holy at one time as well as an- other ; in one place and company as well as another : He was still like himself, an holy Christ ; one and the same tenor of holiness ran throughout his whole life from first to last: So must it be with all his people, holy in all manner of conversation. Christians, look to your copy, and be sure to imitate Christ in this ; write fair after your copy ; let there not be here a word and there a blot : one part of your life heavenly and pure, and another earthly and dreggy; or (as one expresses it) now an heavenly rapture, and by and by a fleshly frolic.
Thirdly, Christ was cxcmplarily holy; a pattern of holiness to all that came nigh him and conversed with him : O imitate Christ in this. It was the commendation of the Thessalonians, that they " were ensamples to all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia ; " and that in every place their faith to God-ward was spread " abroad,1'' 1 Thes. i. 7, 8. Let no man go out of your company without conviction or edification, So exemplary Were the primitive Christians, Phil. hi. 17.
Fourthly, Christ was strictly and precisely holy : " Which of you " convinceth me of sin f The most envious and observing eyes of his greatest enemies could not pick a hole, or find a flaw in any of his words or actions : It is our duty to imitate Christ in this. Phil h. 15. " That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of " God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse " nation, among whom ye shine (or, as the word may be rendered imperatively, tpamtfc w; $uzr,geg, among whom shine ye) as lights " in the world.1' Thus it becomes the followers of Christ to walk circumspectly, or precisely ; " for so is the will of God that with " well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men," 1 Pet. ii. 15.
* The Galaxy is a very great multitude of stars of the smallest size, whose smalluess hinders their being perceived by us distinctly like the other stars, and their beams arc mutually intermingled and confounded. Conimh. de Meteor, cap. 2.
404 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XXIX.
Fifthly, Christ was perseveringly holy, Holy to the last breath; as he began, so he finished his whole life in a constant course of holiness : in this also he is our great pattern. It becomes not any of his people to begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh ; but ok the contrary, their last works should be more than their first: " Let him that is holy, be holy still," Rev. xxii. 11.