* That is, == ' conveyed.' — Ot.
ABOVE THE I.AW. 2G9
(5.) Again, in that Christ is the image to which we are changed, let us learn, if we would see a)njthiur/ excellent and comfortable in ourselves, see it in Christ first. There is nothing comfortable in man but it is in Christ first, as the first image, the first receiver of all, Christ Jesus himself. If wo would see the love of God, see the love of God in Christ our head first, in him that is Gcd's beloved ; if we would see the gifts that God hath blessed us with spiritual blessings, but it is in Christ. We have it from our head first. If wo would see God's favour, ' This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,' Mat. iii. 17. I am well pleased in him, and in all his, that are one mystical body with him. If we would see comfortably our ill done away, our sins removed, see it in Christ abased, in Christ crucified, and made a curse. See them all wiped awny in the cross of Christ. If we would see glory upon the removal of our sins, see it in Christ first. He is first risen, and therefore we shall rise. He is ascended, and sits in heavenly places, therefore we ascend and sit in heavenly places with him. All that we have or look to have comfortable in us, see it in the first pattern and platform in Christ. The reason is clear in Eom. viii. 29. We are elected and predestinate * to be comformed to the image of his Son.' We are piredestinate to be conformed to Christ in all things, to be loved as he is, to be gracious as he is. To rise to be glorious, to be freed and justified afterward from all our sins, as he our surety was. We are ordained to be conformable to him every way. In a word, the flesh of Christ it was holy, it was a sufi'cring flesh, and then a glorious flesh, now it is glorious. So our nature must be like this image. It must be sanc- tified flesh, by the same Spirit that sanctified the mass that he was made of in the womb. It must be sufiering flesh, in conformity to him ; for the flesh that he took was sufiering flesh, and he had a kingdom of patience before he had a kingdom of glory. So we must go through a kingdom of patience to the kingdom of glory, and then upon conformity in holiness with Christ comes our conformity in glory. When we are content to be conformed to Christ in our sufiering flesh, then we shall be conformed to Christ in our glorious flesh ; for our flesh must be used as his was. It must be holy and patient and sufiering, and then it shall be glorious. So in all things we must look to Christ first ; he must have the pre-eminence.
Beloved, of all contemplations under heaven, there is no contemplation so sweet and powerful as to see God in Christ, and to see Christ first abased for us and ourselves abased in Christ, and crucified in Christ, and acquitted in Christ. And then raise our thoughts a little higher. See ourselves made by little and little glorious in Christ. See ourselves in him rising and ascending and sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly places. See ourselves, by a spirit of faith, in heaven alreadj'' with Christ. What a glorious sight and contemplation is this ! If we first look upon ourselves what we are, we are as branches cut off from the tree ; as a river cut ofi" from the spring, that dies presently. What is in us but we have it by derivation from Christ, who is the first, the spring of all grace, the sum of all the beams that shine upon us ? We are as branches cut ofi\ There- fore now to see Christ, and ourselves in Christ, this transforms us to be Uke his image. It is the sweetest contemplation that can be.
AVe see this change is wrought by beholding. The beholding of the glory of God in the gospel, it is a powerful beholding ; for, saith he, ' we are changed, by beholding,' to the image of Christ. Sight works upon the imaginations in brute creatures ; as Laban's sheep, when they saw the parti- coloured rods, it wrought upon their imaginations, and they had
270 KXCELLENCY OF THE GOSPEL
lambs suitable.* "Will sight work upou imagination, and imagination work a real change in nature ? And shall not the glorious sight of God's mercy and love in Christ work a change in our soul ? Is not the eye of faith more strong to alter and change than imagination natural ? Cer- tainly the eye of faith, apprehending God's love and mercy in Christ, it hath a power to change. The gospel itself, together with the Spirit, hath a power to change. We partake by it of the divine nature.
This glass of the gospel hath an excellency and an eminency above all other glasses. It is a glass that changeth us. When wo see ourselves and our corruptions in the glass of the law, there we see ourselves dead. The law finds us dead, and leaves us dead. It cannot give us any life. But when we look into the gospel and see the glory of God, the mercy of God, the gracious promises of the gospel, we are changed into the likeness of Christ whom we sec in the gospel. It is an excellent glass, therefore, that hath a transforming power to make beautiful. Such a glass would be much prized in this proud world ; such a glass is the gospel.