So by the virtue of his resurrection I am conformable more and more to the graces in him ; for as the power of God's Spirit raised him up when he was at the lowest, when he had been three days in the grave, so the Spirit in every Christian raiseth them up at the lowest to comfort, to a further degree of grace, more and more ; nay, when they are fallen into any sin or any affliction for sin, the same power that raised Christ when he was in the grave, for our sins, in the lowest humiliation that could be, it raiseth them from their sins daily, that they gather strength from their sins. The power that raised Christ at the lowest raiseth a Christian at the lowest in sin and in affliction for sin ; for when he is tripped and undermined by his corruptions, God by that power that raised Christ at the lowest recovers and strengthens him, and makes him afresh revenge himself upon his sin. And when he is at the lowest, in the grave, the same power will raise him, like Christ every way. So you see how we are changed to the likeness of Christ.
How shall we know then whether we have the image of Christ stamped upon us or no ?
If we be changed into the likeness of Christ, we shall be changed in our understandings, to judge of things as he did. His aim was to please his Father in all things. If we have the same ends, and the same opinion and esteem'of things, . . ,* He judged matters of grace and of the king- dom of God above all other ; for the soul is more worth than the whole world. See the judgment that he passed upon things : ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all other things shall be cast upon you,' Mat. vi. 33. We must be changed in our judgment if we will have his image upon us. We must be like him in our will, in our choice, in the cleaving, and pur- pose, and resolution of our will. We must have the bent of our soul as his was. Our souls must be edged and pointed as his was, wholly for heaven and the kingdom of God. And so for our affections, there must be a change in them, in our love, and joy, and delight. We must love and joy and delight in whatsoever he did.
Now the way to stir us up to this is to see what image we naturally carry, and to see ourselves in the glass of the law. If a man consider thus, if Christ's image be not upon me, I carry the image of the devil, this would make him labour to get another image upon him. For, beloved, at the day of judgment Christ will not own us if he see not his image upon us. Caesar will own Caesar's coin if he see his image upon it. ' Whose image and superscription is this ? Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar's,' Mat. xxii. 20. If Christ see his stamp on us, he will own us at the day of judgment, or else not. Naturally we are all opposite to Christ; naturally we are full of pride and malice ; of the spirit of the world and the devil. Get out this by all means, or else Christ will not own us at the day of judgment. He will not look on us. He cannot abide to see us if we have not his image. We must bear the image of the second Adam as we did the image of the first.
Again, the law of God was written in Adam's heart, it is expressed and copied out. There see ourselves. There see all the curses. There see * Sentence unfinished. — G.
ABOVE THE LAW.
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ourselves guilty of the breach of every commandment. If we understand the law spiritually, that desire of women and revengeful thoughts are murder and adultery. Understand the law spiritually, and see ourselves in that glass, see ourselves utterly condemned. This will make us fly to the glass of the gospel, that we may be changed into the image of Christ.
There is another image that we more desire to be changed into. We are transformed into the likeness of the world, cast into the mould of the times. We labour to have those opinions that the times have, and those ways of getting and rising to preferment that the world hath, and to have that carriage and disposition every way that the world hath, and so frame to the spirit of the world in all things, that so we might not be observed by others, and crossed in our pleasures, and preferments, and profits. Well, this desire to be transformed into the likeness of the world, to have the spirit of the world, what will it come to in the end ? The world shall be condemned. If we will be condemned with the world, let us labour to be transformed into the opinion of the world, and to go with the stream and errors of the time if we desire to be damned. The world must be condemned. It is the kingdom of Satan, wherein he rules. Therefore there is no image or likeness for us to be transformed into, if we will be saved and have comfort, but the image of Christ ; and can we have a better likeness to be transformed into than the image of him by whom we hope to be saved ? than to be like him, from whom we hope for so great a matter as salvation is ?