putting off the old man with its lusts r, and putting on the new man with all its characteristic graces s. Be "growing up thus into Christ in all things as your living Head1," till you have arrived at the full measure of the stature of Christ u :" and when you have attained a perfect meetness for the enjoyment of your God, you shall be like him, and with him for everx.]
r ver. 8, 9. s ver. 12, 13. * Eph. iv. 15.
u Eph. iv. 13. x 1 John hi. 2.
Col. hi. 12 — 14. Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ; forbearing one another, and for- giving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any : even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
THE end of Christianity is, to restore man to the Divine image, in order to his ultimate restoration to the blessedness which he has forfeited and lost : nor does God ever accomplish the latter but through the medium of the former. Doubtless the Lord Jesus Christ, by his own obedience unto death, effects our reconciliation with God : that is his work, and his alone. But our " meetness for the inheritance of the saints in light" is the work of his Holy Spirit3; and it is wrought in every one of " God's elect :" for no one is " chosen to salvation but through the sanctifi- cation of the Spirit, united with, and added to, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus ChristV Hence, in the chapter before us, the Apostle marks distinctly wherein that renovation consists : it is " a putting off of the old man, and a putting on of the new man, which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness0." The particular evils of the old man, which are to be put off, are enumerated in ver. 8, 9. The particular graces of the new man, which are to be put on, are stated in the words of my text : and,
a Col. i. 12. b 1 Pet. i. 2. c ver. 9, 10. with Eph. iv. 24.