difficulty extirpated at last. At this time too there are in the Church many who dishonour their holy profession ; nor can the tares be in any tolerable degree separated from the wheat ; but at that day "Jerusalem shall be altogether holy1/' and in the Lord's highway no unclean thing or person shall be found k.
From the text thus explained, we may see,
I. The true character of the Gospel dispensation —
The law was holy ; and not the moral law only, but the ceremonial law also : for though, in compa- rison of the Gospel, it consisted only of poor and "beggarly elements," yet it tended to render sin odious, and to impress on the mind the fear and love of God. But the Gospel is yet more holy, being itself the substance of those things of which the law was only a shadow. The whole character of it is holiness :
1. It displays above all things the holiness of God —
[See what an atonement was offered for sin ! nothing but the blood of God's only dear Son could make satisfaction for
it What a holy God must he be, who required such a
sacrifice ! ]
2. It proposes to us no lower pattern than God himself —
[We are required by it to " be holy, as God is holy ; " and " perfect, as our Father which is in heaven is perfect." Far as we are from this, we must press forward for it, and rest in nothing short of it ]
3. The holiness which it requires of us, it promises to us —
[It makes not any one perfect in this life ; but it delivers us from the dominion of all sin and transforms us into " the Divine image in righteousness and true holiness," and that " from one degree of glory to another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord1." This it does for all who receive it aright : for " every one that has a good hope in Christ, purifies himself, even as he is pure™" •]
To illustrate this yet farther, we shall mark,
1 Joel iii. 17. k Isai. xxxv. 8. and lx. 21.
1 2 Cor. iii. IS. m 1 John iii. 3.