We shall therefore, in the next place, proceed to inquire on what grounds it is that faith doth thus approve of the whole will of God, as imto our holiness and obedience; as also, how it evidenceth itself so to do. And these grounds are two : — the one respecting God ; the other, our own souls.
First, Faith looks on the holiness required of us as that which is suited unto the holiness of God himself, — as that which it is meet for him to require, on the account of his own nature, and the infinite per- fections thereof. The rule is, " Be ye holy, for I the LoED your God am holy ;" — " I require that of you which becometh and answereth my own holiness; because I am holy, it is necessary that you should be so ; if you are mine in a peculiar manner, your holiness is that which becometh my holiness to requii'e."
We have before declared Avhat this gospel holiness is, wherein it doth consist, and what is required thereunto; — and they may be all considered either as they are in us, inherent in us, and performed by us; or as they are in themselves, in their own nature, and in the will
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of God. In the first way, I acknowledge that, by reason of our weak- nesses, imperfections, and partial renovation only, as to degrees, in this life, with our manifold defects and sins, they make not a clear representation of the holiness of God; however, they are the best image of it, even as in the meanest of believers, that this world can afford. But in themselves, and their own nature, as it lies in the will of God, they make up the most glorious representation of himself that God ever did or will grant in this world ; especially if we com- prise therein the exemplification of it in the human nature of Christ himself: for the holiness that is in believers is of the same nature and kind with that which was and is in Jesus Christ, though his exceed theirs inconceivably in degrees of perfection.
Wherefore we are required to be holy, as the Lord our God is holy; and perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect : which we could not be, but that in our holiness and perfection there is a resemblance and answerableness unto the holiness and perfection of God. And if a due sense hereof were continually upon our hearts, it would influence us unto gi'eater care and diligence in all instances of duty and sin than, for the most part, we do attain unto and preserve. If we did on all occasions sincerely and severely call ourselves to an account whether our frames, ways, and actions bear a due resemblance unto the holi- ness and perfections of God, it would be a spiritual preservative on all occasions.
Faith, I say, then, discerneth the likeness of God in this holiness, and every part of it, — sees it as that which becomes him to require ; and thereon approves of it, reverencing God in it all : and it doth so in all the parts of it, in all that belongs unto it.
1. It doth so principally in the inward form of it, which we before described, — in the new creature, the new nature, the reparation of the image of God that is in it : in the beauty hereof it continually beholds the likeness and glory of God. For it is created %ara Qi6v, — according unto God, after him, or in his image, — " in righteousness and true holi- ness," Eph. iv. 24. " The new man is renewed after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 10.
When God first created all things, the heavens and the earth, with all that is contained in them, he left such footsteps and impressions of his mfinite wisdom, goodness, and power, on them, that they might signify and declare his perfection, — his eternal power and Godhead ; yet did he not, he is not said to have created them in his own image. And this was because they were only a passive representation of him in the light of others, and not in themselves ; nor did they represent at all that wherein God will be principally glorified among his crea- tures,— namely, the universal rectitude of his nature in righteousness and holiness. But of man it is said, peculiarly and only, that he Nsaa
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made in the image and likeness of God : and this was because, in the rectitude of his nature, he represented the hohness and righteousness of God; which is the only use of an image. This was lost by sin. Man in his fallen condition doth no more represent God; there is nothing in him that hath any thing of the likeness or image of God in it; all is dead, dark, perverse, and confused. This new nature, whereof we speak, is created of God for this very end, that it may be a blessed image and representation of the holiness and righteousness of God. Hence it is called the " divine nature," whereof we are par- takers, 2 Pet. i. 4. And he that cannot see a representation of God in it, hath not the light of faith and life in him.