' Into the same image.'
The pattern to which we are changed is the image of Christ. It is a rule, and a tx'ue rule, the first in every kind is the measure of all the rest. It is the idea, the pattern, and platform of all the rest. Now Christ is the first, for he is the ' fu-st-born,' the ' first fruits,' the 'iirst beloved.' There- fore he is the pattern of all the rest, and the measure of all other. The nearer we come to Christ, the better we are ; for that is the measure of a thing, the nearer it answereth to that the better. Now Christ is the best, and our nature in Christ is joined to the Godhead in one person. There- fore we are changed to the likeness of Christ, ' the second Adam ;' for as before we are changed, we are corrupted and depraved according to the like- ness of the first Adam after his fall ; and as before his fall, if he had not fallen, we had been born according to his likeness, that is, good and right- eous ; so now being fallen, as soon as by faith we are planted and grafted into the second Adam we are changed into his likeness. Christ as it were is God's master-piece, that is, the excellentest work, and device, and frame of heaven that ever was, to set up such a Mediator, to reconcile justice and mercy in bringing God and man into one person. Now Christ being God's master-piece, the best and most excellent frame of all, he is fit to be the * A misprinted ' by' here. — G.
260 EXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
pattern of all excellency whatsoever. Therefore he is the image, the idea, the pattern and phitform of all our sanctification.
Christ tho second Adam is the image into which we arc changed. We are not changed to the image of tho first Adam by grace, but to the image of the second Adam. There is from him a derivation of all good, opposite to all the ill wc drew from the first Adam. We drew from the first Adam tho displeasure of God ; by the second we obtain the favour of God by his death and satisfaction. With the wrath of God we drew corruption from the first Adam, in the second we have grace. From the first Adam we have death, and all the miseries that attend death and follow it. In the second Adam wo have life and all happiness, till it end in glory. In a word, whatsoever ill we have in the first Adam, it is repaired abundantly in the second, when we are changed into his image. Therefore, when you read of the imoge of God in the New Testament, it must be understood of the image of God in Jesus Christ, the second Adam.
Now this image consists in knowledge, in holiness and righteousness. If we compare Col. iii. with Eph. iv., this was perfect in Christ, who was the image of his Father, and we must be like Christ the second Adam in sanctification.
Now the grounds why we must be conformable to the image of the second Adam, and not to the first, are these :
Because the second Adam is far excelling the first Adam ; and as I said, we must be conformed to the best image. As we have borne the image of the first, so we must bear the image of the second, as it is in 1 Cor. xv. 49.
And then the image of God in the second Adam is more durable. For all excellencies and grace is more firmly set on Christ than ever they were upon Adam. It is set upon him with such a character and stamp as shall never be altered. When God set his image on the first Adam it was rased, and decayed, and lost, by the malice of the devil, because it was not set on so firmly, Adam being a man and a good man, yet he was a man, change- able. But Christ is God-man ; in one nature God hath set such a stamp of grace on the human nature, being eternally united to the Godhead, that shall never be altered. Therefore we are renewed according to the image of God as it is stamped on Christ, not as it was stamped on the first Adam.
And that is the reason why the state of God's children is unalterable, why being once gracious they are so for ever. If God set the stamp of the Spirit of Christ on them, it is firm, as it is upon Christ. It never alters in Christ, nor in those that are members of Christ. The alteration is in growth from better to better. God's children sometimes a little deface that image by sin, security, and the like. But as a piece of coin that is a little defaced, yet it hath the old stamp still, and is acknowledged for good coin, so a Christian in all desertions, in the worst state, he hath the stamp still. Though it be darkened by his carelessness, yet after it receives a fresh stamp it is an everlasting stamp. When once we are God's coin we are never reprobate silver. And all is, because we are ' renewed accord- ing to the image of Christ,' and grace is firmly set in our nature in Christ BO sure that all the devils in hell cannot rase it out. And he is the ' quickening Spirit,' and therefore able to transform us to his likeness better than the first Adam was. Therefore the image of God is the likeness of the second Adam, and we are changed into that.