* That is, ' moral.'— G. % That is, ' tendency toward.'— G, [1 Qu. ' heart ' ?— Ed. t Qu. ' seeming ' '? — Ed, § That is, ' skill.' — G.
43G A FOUNTAIN SEALED.
3. The use of ix seal is likewise for appropriation. Merchants use to seal their wares they -would not have others have any right unto.
A Christian is God's in a more peculiar manner than others. There is not only a witness of the Spirit that God is his ; hut the Spirit works in him an assent to take God again. There is a mutual appropriation : ' I am my helovcd's, and my beloved is mine,' Cant. ii. IG. When the soul can say, ' Thou art my God,' it is not frustrate, because God saith before, ' I am thy salvation,' Ps. xxxv. 3. Where the Spirit seals, God appropriates. ' God chooseth the righteous man to himself,' Ps. iv. 3. And we may know this appropx'iation by appropriating God again : ' "Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and what have I in earth in comparison of thee ? ' Ps. Ixxiii. 25. There is no action that God works upon the soul, but there is a reflect action by the Spirit to God again. If God choose and love us, we choose and love him again. God appropriates us first. We are his and we are Christ's. We are God's, because he hath given Christ for us. We are Christ's, because he hath given himself for us. We are, as the apostle saith, a people of acquisition, ' a people purchased,' Acts xx. 28 — pur- chased at a dear rate by the blood of Christ. Those that are Christ's, the Spirit appropriates them. This appropriation is by sealing.
4. Again, We use to set our seal only upon that we have some estimation of. * Set me as a seal,' saith the church in the Canticles, ' upon thy right band,' viii. 6 ; have me in thy eye and mind as a special thing thou vainest.
The witness and work of the Spirit shews God's estimation of us. The Scripture is abundant in setting forth the great price that God sets on his children. They are his children, his spouse, his friends, his portion, his treasure, his coin. He sets his mark, his likeness on them. They are things hallowed and consecrated. They are first fruits. ' Israel is a holy thing,' Jer. ii. 3. Their titles shew the esteem that God hath of them. He values them more than all the world besides, which are as chaff and dross : ' The righteous man is more excellent than his neighbour,' Prov. xii. 26. As there is a difference of excellency between precious stones and other common stones, between fruitful and barren trees, so there is amongst men. And in this regard, God sets a higher esteem upon some ; and thence it is that they have those honourable and glorious titles in Scripture, of ' sons,' ' heirs,' ' kings,' and * co-heirs with Christ ;' when others are termed ' dross and dung,' and thorns,' and have all the base terms that may be.
Now this estimation, by ' sealing,' is known to us by the grace God works in us. Common gifts and privileges and favours of the world are no seal of God's estimation. If God should give a man kingdoms and great monarchies, it seals not God's love to him at all ; but when God makes a man a spiritual king to rule over his base lusts, this is a seal of God's valuing him above other men. Therefore we should learn how to value others and ourselves, not by common things that castaways may have, but by the stamp of God set on us by the Spirit, which is an argu- ment that God intends to lay us up as coin for another treasury, for heaven. It is the common grand error of the times to be led with false evidences. Many think God loves them, because he spares them and follows them with long patience, and makes them thrive in the world. Alas ! are these fruits of God's special love ? What grace hath he wrought in thy heart by his Spirit ? ' He gives his Spirit to them that pray,' Luke xi. 13 ; insinuating that next the gift of his Son, the greatest gift is the Spirit, to fashion and fit us to be members of his Son. This is an argument of God's love and esteem.
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5. Seals likewise arc used for sccrcaj, as in letters, &c. So this seal of the Spirit is a secret work. God knowcth who are his. They are only known to him and to their own hearts : ' The white stone is only known to him that hath it, and the hidden manna,' Rev. ii. 17. None so infallibly can know the state in grace, as those that have the gracious work them- selves. Holy men in some degree are known one to another, to make the communion of saints the sweeter. There is a great deal of spiritual like- ness in Christians; ' face answereth to face,' Prov. xxvii. 19, that one hath strong confidence of the salvation of another. But the undoubted certainty of a man's estate is known only to God and his own soul ; nay, sometimes it is hidden from a man's self. There are so many infirmities and abase- ments and troubles in the world, that this life is called a ' hidden life ' in Scripture : ' Our life is hid with Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3. It is unknown to the saints themselves sometimes, and the world alway : ' They neither know him that begets, nor them that are begotten,' 1 John v. 1.