And this is an undoubted character of a Christian. The soul that believes in Christ doth not only believe in him for his own sake, to be forgiven of his sins ; but together with believing, feeling the forgiveness of his sins, and that Christ hath so loved him, and done such things for him, he is ambitious to express Christ in all things ; and it stirs him up with desire to be like him ; for, thinks he, is there such love in Christ to me ? and is there such grace and mercy in God to me ? and was Christ so good as to do and to sufter such things for me ? Oh ! how shall I improve things for him ! Oh ! that I might be like him ! lovely in his eyes ! This, I say, must needs be so. These desires are undoubtedly universally in the souls of all those that partake of Christ. It is the nature of the thing to be so. We shall desire to be transformed more and more to Christ; every way to bear the image of the ' second Adam,' who is, as the apostle saith, from heaven, heavenly ; and so shall we be heavenly-minded as he was heavenly- minded on earth, talking and discoursing of the kingdom of heaven, and fitting people for the kingdom of heaven, and drawing others from this world to meditate of a better estate. There is a likeness to these in the soul of every behever ; and that is the reason that Christ's ofiices are put together in all those that he saves, that look, whosoever he is a priest to, to die for their sins — to them he is a prophet to teach them, and a king to subdue their cor- ruptions, and to change them, and alter them, and to rule them by his Spirit.
454 COMMENTARY ON
You hiivc carnal mon in presumption, wliich loads them to destruction ; thov sever things in Christ. Tlu^y will take beni'fit by Christ, but they care not for his likeness ; they will have him as priest, but they respect him not as a king. Now all that are Christ's have the stamp of the Spirit upon them. There are desires wrought in them by the Spirit of God to that pur- ])ose ; and a Spirit of sanctitication that makes them every way like Christ in their proportion.
And that is an evidence of the sealing of such a soul, because the soul of itself hath no such impression : for the soul of itself is a barren wilder- ness, a stone that is cold and incapable of impression. When, therefore, the soul can command nature, being stift', and hard, and dead, we see an impression of a higher nature, a man may know that undoubtedly the Spirit of God hath boon in his soul ; for we see a loving spirit, an humble spirit, a gracious, a believing, a broken spirit, an obedient spirit to every command- ment of God, the soul can yield itself wholly to the will of God in all things. Certainly, I say, the Spirit of God hath been here, for these things grow not in a natural soul. A stone, you know, is cold by natvu'e, and if a man feel a stone to be hot, a man may undeniably gather, certainly, the sun hath sinned upon this stone. Our hearts are very cold by nature ; un- doubtedly, when they arc warmed with the love of God, that they are made pliable to duties, the Sun of righteousness, Christ, hath shined on this cold heart. God's Spirit can work on marble, can work on brass, as Jeremiah saith, Jer. vi. 28. It was the commendations of one of the fathers that he could work on brass. God can work on our souls, which are as brass, and make an impression of grace there ; and therefore when a man sees an im- pression upon such hard metal, certainly he may know that the finger of God's Spirit hath been there. So that the work of sanctificatiou is an un- doubted seal of the Spirit of God.
2. A second use of a seal is distinction. Seals are given for distinguish- ing ; for, you know, sealing is a stamp set upon some few out of many. So this sealing of the Spirit, it distinguisheth Christians from others, as we shall see more at large afterwards.
3. Then again, a seal, it serves for appropriation,' for men seal those things that are their own. Merchants seal those wares that they either have or mean to have a right unto. Men seal their own sheep and not others, and stamp their own wares and not others. God here stoops so low as to make use of terms that are used in human matters and contracts : and by sealing he shews that he hath appropriated his own to himself, chosen and singled them out for himself to delight in.
4. Again, sealing further serves to make thiiufs anthentical, to give aatho- ritij and excellenoi to thinr/s. Magistrates and officers go with their broad seal, and deliver things that they would have carried with authority sealed, and the seal of the prince is the authority of the prince. So that a seal is to make things autheutical, to give validity to things answerable to the value and esteem of him that seals.