" The new man is renewed in knowledoe after the imao'e of him that created him," Col. iii. 10. That this saving light and know- ledge is the spring and principle of all real evangelical holiness and obedience, the apostle declares in that description which he gives us of the whole of it, both in its beginning and progress. Col. i. 9-11, " We desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God ; strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long- suftering with joyfulness." It is a blessed account that is here given us of that gospel holiness which we inquire alter, in its nature, ori- ginal, spring, progress, fruits, and effects ; and a serious consideration of it as here proposed, — a view of it in the light of faith, — will evi- dence how distant and different it is from those schemes of moral
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434 EVIDENCES OF THE
virtues which some would substitute in its room. It hath a glory in it which no unenlightened mind can behold or comprehend ; the foundation of it is laid in the knowledge of the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. This is that spiritual, saving light whereof we speak ; the increase hereof is prayed for in believers by the apostle, Eph. i. 17, 18, even " that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto you the spirit of wis- dom and revelation in the knowledge of him : the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints;" which here is called "increasing in the knowledge of God," verse 10. The singular glory of this saving light, in its ori- ginal, its causes, use, and effects, is most illustriously here declared : and this light is in every true believer, and is the only immediate spring of all gospel holiness and obedience ; for " the new man is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," Col. iii. 10.
This light, this wisdom, this spiritual understanding, thus commu- nicated unto believers, is the rectitude and perfection of their minds in this world. It is that which gives them order, and peace, and power, enabling them to act all their faculties in a due manner, with respect unto their being and end. It is that which gives beauty and glory to the inward man, and which constitutes a believer an inhabitant of the kingdom of light, — whereby we are " delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love," Col. i. IS ; or " out of darkness into his marvellous light," 1 Pet. ii. 9.
That which is contrary hereunto, is that ignorance, darkness, blind- ness, and vanity, which the Scripture declares to be in the minds of all unregenerate persons ; and they are really so, where they are not cured by the glorious working of the power and grace of God before men- tioned.
Now, faith discerneth these things, as the spiritual man discern eth all things, 1 Cor. ii. 15. It sees the beauty of this heavenly light, and judgeth that it is that which giveth order and rectitude unto the mind ; as also, that that which is contrary unto it is vile, base, horrid, and to be ashamed of As for those who " love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil," — it knows them to be strangers unto Christ and his gospel.
2. Again : there is required unto this holiness, a principle of spiri- tual life and love unto God. This guides, acts, and rules in the soul, in all its obedience; and it gives the soul its proper order in all its operations: that which is contrary hereunto is death, and enmity against God. Faith judgeth between these two principles and their
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operations: the former in all its actings it approves of as lovely, beau- tiful, desirable, as that which is the rectitude and perfection of the will ; and the other it looks on as deformed, fro ward, and perverse.
3. The like may be said of its nature and operations in the affec- tions, as also of all those duties of obedience which proceed from it, as it is described in the place before mentioned.
It remaineth only that we show by what acts, ways, and means, faith doth evidence this its appi'obation of gospel holiness, as that which is lovely and desirable in itself, and which gives all that recti- tude and perfection unto our minds which they are capable of in this world. And it doth so, —
1. By that self-displicency and abasement which it works in the mind on all instances and occasions where it comes short of this holiness. This is the chief principle and cause of that holy shame which befalls believers on every sin and miscarriage, wherein they come short of what is required in it: Rom. vi. 21, "Those things whereof ye are now ashamed." Now when, by the light of faith, you see how vile it is, and unworthy of you, what a debasement of your souls there is in it, you are ashamed of it. It is true, the principal cause of this holy shame is a sense of the unsuitableness that is in sin unto the holiness of God, and the horrible ingratitude and dis- ingenuity that there is in sinning against him ; but it is greatly pro- moted by this consideration, that it is a thing unworthy of us, and that wherein our natures are exceedingly debased. So it is said of provoking sinners, that they " debase themselves even imto hell," Isa. Ivii. 9 ; or make themselves as vile as hell itself, by w^ays unworthy the nature of men. And this is one ground of all those severe self- reflections which accompany godly sorrow for sin, 2 Cor. vii. 11.