3. And then with dedication, there is an inivard qualification to inablef him with hght never to forget the image of God. Herein this saintship stands, especially in this inward qualification, whereby we resemble Christ the King of saints. All our sanctification comes from him. As Aaron's ointment went down from his head to his beard, and so to his skirts, Ps. cxxxiii. 2, so all our sanctification is from Christ. Every saint is quahfied from the Spirit of Christ. ' Of his fulness,' John i. 16, we receive this in- ward qualification, that we have another judgment of things than this world hath ; what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false, what is comfortable and what tends to discomfort. He hath another conceit of things. He hath another light than he had before, and than other carnal men have. He hath a heavenly light. He hath another language. He gives himself to prayer and to thanksgiving. He is given to savoury dis- course. He hath other courses in his particular calling and in his general calling than other refuse \ company have, or than himself had before his calling. This is from his qualification.
4. And this qualification and conversation go together. He hath a new
* That is, ' compliment ' = fine manners. — G. t That is, ' enable ' = endow.— G. 1 That is, ' worthless.' — Q.
14 COMMENTABY OW
conversation. He carries himself even like to him that ' hath called him out of darkness into marvellous light,' 1 Pet. ii. 9. So a true saint, as every professor of religion ought to be, he is dedicate to God, and he is qualified in some degree, as Christ was, by his Holy Spirit. He is a new creature. * He that is in Christ is a now creature,' 2 Cor. v. 17, and he shews this by his conversation, or else ho is no saint.
Quest. How shall we know a saint from a mere civil* man ? (as there be many that live and die in that estate, which is to be pitied ; and one main «nd of our calling is not only to reduce profane men to a better fashion of life, but to shew civil men their danger.)
Ans. A mere civil man looks to the second table. He is smooth in his carriage and conversation with men, but negligent in his service to God. A civil man he looks to his outward carriage, but he makes no conscience of secret sins. He is not ' holy in all manner of conversation,' as St Peter saith, 1 Pet. i. 15. ' Be ye holy in all manner of conversation,' in private, in public, in your retired carriage. He makes no conscience of his thoughts, of his speeches, of all.
You may know an hypocrite so, that carries himself smoothly and ac- ceptably in the eye of the world ; but he makes no conscience of his thoughts, he makes no conscience of his affections, of his desires, of his lusts, and such things. He makes no conscience of lesser oaths, nor per- haps of rotten discourses. No ; they are all for this, that they may pass in the world, that they may carry themselves with acceptance. As for what belongs to the ' new creature,' to saints, they care not ; for they have vain conceits of these, and judge them as hypocrites. Because such a one knows himself should be an hypocrite, if he should do otherwise than he doth, therefore he thinks that others that are above his pitch are hypocrites, and they make a show of that that is not in them ; because if he should make show of that, his heart would tell him that he were an hypocrite.
A true saint differs fi'om an hypocrite in many respects ; but in this one mainly, that a tnie saint of God is altered in the inward frame and quahfi- cation of his soul. He is a ' new creature.' Therefore there is a spring of better thoughts, of better desires, of better aims in him than in other men. And he labours more after the inward frame of his heart than after his outward carriage. What he is ashamed to do, he is ashamed to think, he is ashamed to lust after. What he desii-es to do, he desires to love in his heart. He labours that all may be true in the inward man ; because gi-ace, as well as nature, begins from the heart, from the inward parts.
An hypocrite never cares for that. All his care is for the outward parts. He is sale-work. So his carriage be acceptable to others, all his care is taken. He lives to the view. Therefore he looks not to the substance and the truth, but to the shadow and appearance.
Now I come to the salutation itself.
YERSE 2.
* Grace be trnto you,'' &c. 'Grace' doth enter into the whole conver- sation of a Chi'istian, and doth sweeten his very salutations. Which I observe, because many men confine their religion to places, to actions, and to times. There is a relish of holiness in everj'thing that comes from a Christian ; in his salutations and courtesies. St Paiil salutes them, * That is, • moral.'— G.