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in the soul, should the title Christ gives reeable to the wisdom is Son, to cast about sending of Christ, to and to let the honour h, his gift of grace, of man.

and finisher of faith, gether; and therefore is engaged to be the e; the smallest star eservation of it from greatest magnitude. and pattern of grace. standard or standing believers should be him: "Whom he did inate to be conformed he might be the firstRom. viii. 29; to the e image of the most in the world. Not to with God, nor Noah, teousness in his time; and the believer's ho was free from all purity made him fit y sin, 1 John iii. 5; against sin, Jesus hn ii. 1; so also to be ll believers should be habitual grace is a well as the strongest, perfected in heaven,

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because hereby he shows more of his art, (as masters reserve the completing of a work to themselves for the honour of their own skill,) and manifests more of his faithfulness to God, which is more evident in the perfection of a thing, than the first draught of it. And perhaps this may be meant by that expression: "He learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him," Heb. v. 8, 9. He learned by his sufferings the necessity and the acceptableness of obedience to God in this mediatorial work, and therefore will not be wanting to that part of faithfulness and obedience, which is still due, in being the author of eternal salvation, by his being made perfect in heaven, as he was the author of faith by his being humbled upon the earth. And indeed that grace which he gives is eternal life, for so he calls it, John xvii. 2, 3. What he calls eternal life, which he had power to give, he calls, ver. 3, the knowledge of God, and Jesus Christ whom God had sent. The knowledge of God in Christ, a gracious affectionate knowledge of faith, spiritually to know him as sent by God, for such great ends, is faith and eternal life. Though it be but a bud in this world, subject to storms and winds, mixed with much ignorance and many doubts, yet it is life, and eternal life too. For there is no essential difference between grace and glory, but only in degree; therefore Christ saith so frequently in John: "I give unto them eternal life;" I give; not I will give, but I give at present; and he that believes hath eternal life, not shall have; for grace is a preserving principle, which shall overpower the corruptive principle of sin. If this knowledge

of God in Christ, implanted in the soul, should perish, it cannot then deserve the title Christ gives it. And indeed it is not agreeable to the wisdom of God, and the honour of his Son, to cast about so much, and contrive the sending of Christ, to bestow only a perishing gift, and to let the honour and fruit of his Son's death, his gift of grace, depend upon the mutable will of man.

Well then, to be the author and finisher of faith, are his two titles combined together; and therefore where he is the author, he is engaged to be the finisher of the weakest grace; the smallest star receives its light, and the preservation of it from the sun, as well as that of the greatest magnitude.

5. Christ is the exemplar and pattern of grace. God set up Christ as the great standard or standing copy, according to which all believers should be framed and wrought just like him: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren," Rom. viii. 29; to the image of his Son; not to the image of the most glorious man that ever was in the world. Not to Enoch, that signal walker with God, nor Noah, the only loyal preacher of righteousness in his time; nor Abraham, God's friend and the believer's father. But his own Son, who was free from all taint of sin. As his perfect purity made him fit to be a sacrifice to take away sin, 1 John iii. 5; to be an advocate to plead against sin, Jesus Christ, the righteous," 1 John ii. 1; so also to be the idea according to which all believers should be framed. Now the weakest habitual grace is a begun conformity to Christ as well as the strongest, and as well as that which is perfected in heaven,

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and hath in its own nature all the parts of that grace which is in Christ. As an infant in his body hath the lineaments of his father, as well as the grown son: "And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace," John i. 16. Grace in us suited to that grace which is in Christ, as some well express it; as the paper receives the image of every letter set in the press. The highest believer in the world was not wrought according to a more exact mode, than the lowest. The meanest branch of God's affectionate fore-knowledge is conformed to Christ, and the highest cannot have a more excellent pattern. The Spirit in drawing grace in the soul fixeth his eye upon Christ in every line he draws, and forms the lineaments of habitual grace in some proportion to that original. Here we are said to be ovμμoppor, of the same spiritual form and shape with the image of his Son. It is therefore called "a forming of Christ," Gal. iv. 19,

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a changing into the same image,” 2 Cor. iii. 18; μεταμορφώμεθα, metamorphosed from our natural into a spiritual shape, from glory to glory, from grace, glory begun, to glory, grace perfected. There is not only the shape of Christ, as a limner draws the picture of a man, but not the intellectual or moral endowments; but in this draught of grace in some measure there is. Believers are therefore said to have the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 9. The same dispositions of holiness, &c. which were in Christ. The same mind which was in Christ, Phil. ii. 5. And to be partakers of Christ, Heb. iii. 14. Not of a part of Christ; partakers of his purchase, of his grace, of his nature; and that by faith, by holding the beginning of our confidence, our first ground of faith, and our first act of faith,

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