And yet surely, if any man could, _Paul_ himself might have attained thereto by that wisdom. For we can hardly conceive any, who was more highly favoured with all the gifts both of nature and education. Besides his natural abilities, probably not inferior to those of any person then upon the earth, he had all the benefits of learning, studying at the university of _Tarsus_, afterwards brought up at the feet of _Gamaliel_, the person of the greatest account both for knowledge and integrity, that was then in the whole _Jewish_ nation. And he had all the possible advantages of religious education, being a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, trained up in the very straitest sect or profession, distinguished from all others by a more eminent strictness. And herein he had _profited above many_ others, _who were his equals in years, being more abundantly zealous_ of whatever he thought would please God, and _as touching the righteousness of the law blameless_. But it could not be, that he should hereby attain this simplicity and godly sincerity. It was all but lost labour; in a deep, piercing sense of which he was at length constrained to cry out, _The things which were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord._ Phil. iii. 7, 8.
15. It could not be that ever he should attain to this, but by the _excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ_, our Lord: or _by the grace of God_; another expression of nearly the same import. By _the grace of God_ is sometimes to be understood, that free love, that unmerited mercy, by which I a sinner, thro’ the merits of Christ, am now reconciled to God. But in this place it rather means, that power of God the Holy Ghost, which _worketh in us both to will and to do, of his good pleasure_. As soon as ever the grace of God, in the former sense, his pardoning love is manifested to our soul, the grace of God, in the latter sense, the power of his Spirit, takes place therein. And now we can perform, thro’ God, what to man was impossible. Now we can order our conversation aright. We can do all things in the light and power of that love, thro’ Christ which strengtheneth us. We now have _the testimony of our conscience_, which we could never have by fleshly wisdom, _that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have our conversation in the world_.
16. This is properly the ground of a Christian’s joy. We may now therefore readily conceive, how he that hath this testimony in himself, _rejoiceth evermore. My soul_, may he say, _doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour_. I rejoice in him, who of his own unmerited love, of his own free and tender mercy, _hath called me into this state of salvation_, wherein thro’ his power I now stand. I rejoice because his Spirit beareth witness to my spirit, that I am bought with the blood of the Lamb, and that believing in him, “I am a member of Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.” I rejoice because the sense of God’s love to me, hath by the same Spirit wrought in me to love him, and to love for his sake every child of man, every soul that he hath made. I rejoice, because he gives me to feel in myself _the mind that was in Christ_: simplicity, a single eye to him, in every motion of my heart; power always to fix the loving eye of my soul on him who _loved me, and gave himself for me_, to aim at him alone, at his glorious will, in all I think or speak or do: purity, desiring nothing more but God, _crucifying the flesh with its affections and lusts, setting my affections on things above, not on things of the earth_: holiness, a recovery of the image of God, a renewal of soul after his likeness: and godly sincerity, directing all my words and works, so as to conduce to his glory. In this I likewise rejoice, yea and will rejoice, because my conscience beareth me witness in the Holy Ghost, by the light he continually pours in upon it, that I _walk worthy of the vocation wherewith_ I am _called_: that I _abstain from all appearance of evil, fleeing from sin as from the face of a serpent_; that as I have opportunity, I do all possible good, in every kind, to all men; that I follow my Lord in all my steps, and do what is acceptable in his sight. I rejoice because I both see and feel, through the inspiration of God’s holy Spirit, that all my works are wrought in him, yea and that it is he who worketh all my works in me. I rejoice in seeing, thro’ the light of God which shines in my heart, that I have power to walk in his ways, and that thro’ his grace, I turn not therefrom, to the right hand or to the left.