originally and really; and from him it is commimicated mito iis by the \^'ord. We are thereby taught and do learn it, for thereby, as the apostle proceeds, " we are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and do put on the new man, which after God is created in righteous- ness and true holiness," verses 23, 24. First, the truth is in Jesus, then it is expressed in the word ; this word learned and believed be- comes grace in the heart, every way answering unto the Lord Christ his image, from whom this transforming truth did thus proceed. Nay, this is carried by the apostle yet higher, namely, unto God the Father himself, whose image Christ is, and believers his through the word : 2 Cor. iii. 18, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord;" whereunto add chap. iv. 6, " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our liearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The first pattern or example of all truth and holiness is God himself; hereof "Christ is the image," verse 4. Christ is the image of God, " The brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person," Heb. i. 3 ; " The image of the invisible God," Col. i. ] 5. Hence we are said to " see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ;" because he being his image, the love, grace, and truth of the Father are represented and made conspicuous in him: for we are said to " behold it in his face," because of the open and illustrious manifestation of the glory of God in him. And how do we behold this glory? In a glass, — "As in a glass;" that is, in the gospel, which hath the image and likeness of Christ, who is the image of God, re- flected upon it and communicated unto it. So have we traced truth and grace from the person of the Father unto the Son as a mediator, and thence transfused into the word. In the Father it is essentially; in Jesus Christ originally and exemplarily; and in the word as in a transcript or copy. But doth it abide there? No ; God by the word of the gospel "shines in our hearts," 2 Cor. iv. 6. He irradiates our minds with a saving light into it and apprehension of it. And what thence ensues? The soul of a believer is " changed into the same image" by the effectual working of the Holy Ghost, chap. iii. 18; that is, the like- ness of Christ implanted on the word is impressed on the soul itself, whereby it is renewed into the image of God, whereunto it was at first created. This brings all into a perfect harmony. There is not, where gospel truth is effectually received and experienced in the soul, only a consonancy merely between the soul and the word, but between the soul and Christ by the word, and the soul and God by Christ. And this gives assured establishment unto the soul in the things that it doth believe. Divine truth so conveyed unto us is firm, stable, and immovable; and we can say of it in a spiritual sense, " ' That which
458 AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM cxxx. [Ver.4.
we have heard, that which we have seen with our ej'es, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life/ we know to ho true." Yea, a heliever is a testimony to the certainty of truth in what he is, much beyond what he is in all that he saith. Words may be pretended ; real effects have their testimony insepar- ably annexed unto them.
(3.) Hence it appears that tltere must needs he great assurance of those truths which are thus received and believed; for hereby are "the senses exercised to discern both good and evil," Heb. v. 14. Where there is a spiritual sense of truth, of the good and evil that is in doctrines, from an inward experience of what is so good, and from thence an aversation unto the contrary, and this obtained bia rnv 'i^iv, by reason of a habit or an habitual frame of heart, there is strength, there is steadfastness and assurance. This is the teaching of the unction, which will not, Avhich cannot, deceive. Hence many of old and of late that could not dispute could yet die for the truth. He that came to another, and went about to prove by sophistical reason- ings that there was no such thing as motion, had only this return from him, who either was not able to answer his cavilling or unwill- ing to put himself to trouble about it, — he arose, and, Avalking up and down, gave him a real confutation of his so2:)histry. It is so in this case. When a soul hath a real experience of the grace of God, of the pardon of sins, of the virtue and efficacy of the death of Christ, of justification by his blood, and peace with God by believing ; let men, or devils, or angels from heaven, oppose these things, if it cannot answer their sophisms, yet he can rise up and walk, — he can, Avith all holy confidence and assurance, oppose his own satisfying experience unto all their arguings and suggestions. A man will not be disputed out of what he sees and feels; and a believer will abide as firmly by his spiritual sense as any man can by his natural.