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A31258 The Christian's crown of glory, or, Holiness the way to happiness shewing the necessity of sanctity, or a Holy life, from a serious consideration of the life of the Holy Jesus, who is Christ our sanctification : also a plain discovery of the formalist or hyppocrite : together with the doctrine of justification opened and applied. T. C. 1671 (1671) Wing C129; ESTC R10329 137,037 229

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Lord in garments of glory and beauty See Exod. 28. 2 3 4 5. Those garments of gold blew purple scarlet c. did consecrate Aaron to his Priestly Office Those glorious garments without controversie did typifie the pure habitual and actual holiness of our great High-Priest Jesus Christ expressed by his annointing Isa 61. 1. and receiving the Spirit without measure Joh. 3. 34. That unction and unmeasurable effusion of the Spirit upon him did consecrate and sanctifie him to all his Offices he was annointed for us to be a Prophet to us to be a King in us to be a Priest for us which fulness of the Spirit of grace in our Head Christ is reputed to every one sanctified in Christ Jesus for their sanctification or holiness which doth also expiate and purge out of the sight of God all their impurity or unholiness This holy person described by his glorious titles viz. the Son of God the Heir of all things the Maker of the worlds the brightness of his Fathers glory the express Image of his person the upholder of all things by the Word of his Power is said by himself to have purged our sins Heb. 1. 1 2 3. As by the merit of his passive righteousness to purge us from the guilt of sin so by the influential efficacy of his sanctity or inherent righteousness to purge us from the filth of sin and take down the power of it God accepts of believers in themselves impure and imperfect as perfect and compleat in him who is our Head and fulness Thus Christ is our Sanctification by way of Imputation 2. Jesus Christ is our sanctification by way of Union Union with him is the ground or Basis both of our Justification and Sanctification by him He that hath the Son hath life Joh. 1. 5. Dulcius ex ipso fonte 12. With him is the fountain of life Psa 36. 9. by Faith through the spirit a believer hath union with Christs person and so communion with his life He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life Joh. 3. ult Whereupon Jesus Christ is called the life Joh. 14. 6. and our life Col. 3. 4. our life of righteousness our life of holiness our life of glory or happiness and this life is in his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 11. By believing we are united to Christ who is our Head Fountain and Principle of spiritual life or holiness as the Head is the Principle and Fountain of sense and motion Ephes 4. 15 16. From him the Head the Apostle tells us the whole body is fitly joyned and compacted together and so maketh encrease to the edifying of it self in love All the grace that is in us is but a measure or overflowing of his fulness Christ is principle of holiness by which it is wrought and also the rule unto which it is proportioned Dr. Reynolds in his life of Christ Heb. 12. 2. Christ is the Author and finisher of our faith he is the first and the last the Alpha and Omega both the beginner of our sanctification here on earth and the perfecter thereof in heaven As the members by nerves and ligaments are firmly knit to the Head the superstructure to the foundation the branches to the Vine the Wife to the Husband by the Marriage-knot so are the Saints of God firmly and closely united to Jesus Christ in the spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. By vertue of which union they cannot but derive and draw down continual supplies of spiritual life from him for he is the life and he is their life Consider a little the nature of this wonderful Union I shall but touch it in transitu 1. It is an Union of Nature we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Heb. 2. 14. because the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same Christ condescended to assume our Humane Nature that we might partake of his Divine Nature he took upon him our rag of flesh that he might cloath us with his robe of glory 2. It is an union of and in the spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit as man and wife united make one flesh so Christ and believers united in and by the spirit make up one spiritual Christ 3. It is an union of relations and that of the neerest and sweetest Christ is the everlasting Father Isa 9. 6. and begets children to God in his own likeness Christ is the Son of God believers are the Sons of God but Christ is the Son of Gods Nature but we are the Sons of Gods will he by eternal Generation but we by the grace of Regeneration to conformity to whose Image we are predestinated Rom. 8. 29. He is the first-born among many Brethren and is not ashamed to call us Brethren Heb. 2. which relation also bespeaks likeness for brethren for the most part resemble brethren Lastly Christ is our redeeming Kinsman and Husband and we are his redeemed Kindred and Spouse These relations also import similitude and proportion between Christ and us Christ as our Redeemer came to deliver us c. that we might be like him and serve him in holiness and righteousness Luke 1. 74 75. he came not only to justifie but also to sanctifie Tit. 2. 16. he came as Redeemer not only to save from hell but also to save from sin Mat. 1. 21. not only to deliver us from eternal condemnation but also from our vain conversation 1 Pet. 1. 18. not only to proclaim liberty to the Isa 61. 1 2 3. Captives and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound but also to pull off their rotten rags their nasty prison garments and to cloath Zech. 3. 3 4. them with change of rayment to cleanse and wash them from the pollution of sin and put upon them a robe of righteousness and renew them with inward holiness and so to present them as beautiful and glorious without spot or wrinkle c. To shew consent I shall take the boldness M. Jeremy Burroughs in his Saints Treasury p. 46. to transcribe the words of a Famous man now in heaven Our Sanctification saith he is not only from Christ meritoriously but efficiently and in a kind materially too he doth not only merit it and work it by his spirit but through our union with him there is a kind of flowing of Sanctification from him into us as the principle of our life as from the liver there flows blood into all the parts of the body so through our union with Christ he having the fulness of the Godhead in him from him as from a Fountain sanctification flows into the souls of Saints their sanctification comes not so much from their strugling and endeavours I wish all disconsolate souls desponding for want of holiness would in the strength of the Lord take his counsel vows and resolutions as it comes flowing to them from their closing with
Christ and union with him There may be saith he a great de● of striving and endeavouring that may be utterly ineffectual for want of having recourse to Christ as the Spring and Well-head of all grace and holiness Thus Jesus Christ is our Sanctification by union with him we are sanctified in him and daily receive supplies of grace from him 3. Jesus Christ may be said to be our Sanctification and to be given of God for our Sanctification in regard of Assimilation 1. As Christ is the Author so Christ is the 1 Christ is the pattern of our Sanctification Rule and Pattern of our Sanctification formal and compleat Sanctification consists in a souls conformity to Jesus Christ as the Exemplar or Pattern of his obedience Heb. 12. 3. Consider him that endured c. i. e. consider him as the Pattern and President of your obedience both active and passive Wherefore ye shall find that Christ propounds his own example as the pattern of our obedience Ioh. 13. 15. I have given you an example i. e. of meekness and humility that you should do as I have done to you So Mat. 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly Again Phil. 2. 5. Let the same mind be in you as was in Christ i. e. the same opinion judgement affections compassions Once more 1 Pet. 1. 15. As he who hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Christ throughout his whole life was a standing rule a walking Bible a visible Commentary on Gods Law whose ordinary communicable works and duties are recorded for our imitation 2. Holiness is the Image of Christ Now as 2. Holiness is the Image of Christ the face is both the fountain of that Image or Species which is shed upon the glass and likewise it is the exact pattern and example of it too so Jesus Christ is both the principle of holiness by whom it is wrought and the pattern to which it is conforme Now in an Image there are two things 1. Proportion 2. Deduction 1. Proportion A similitude of one thing to another 2. Deduction A derivation or impression of similitude upon the one from the other and with relation thereunto Now our Renovation is after the Image of Christ 1 Cor. 15. 49. As we have born the Image of the earthly so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly Adam begat a Son in his own likeness i. e. his Son was like him in corruption and mortality so in the Regeneration Christ begets children to himself in his own likeness i. e. like him in grace and holiness in spirituality and immortality for the seed of which we are begotten is incorruptible When man had lost that glorious Image 1 Pet. 1. 23 of God wherein he was created he became an ugly and a miserable creature presently ugly because he had lost his holiness miserable because full of guilt and horror he durst no more draw neer to the most holy inaccessible Majesty than stubble before the flames No man can see his face and live We all by sin are come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deficiuntur short of Gods glory Rom. 3. 23. both of the glory of his Image and of the glory of his Kingdome Now unless the Lord be pleased to exhibit this Image to us through some glass or veil we must be for ever both desolate and destitute And this the Lord hath graciously been pleased to do by the veil of Christs flesh he is God manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. The glory of God now shines in upon us and before us in and from the face of Iesus Christ 2 Cor. 4. 6. Christ is the Image of Col. 1. 15. the invisible God and he that hath seen him hath seen the Father So that now by the Incarnation of the Son there is a Vision of Gods glory and a restauration of Gods Image Ioh. 1. 18. No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him The glittering beamings of the Invisible and Eternal Glory did and do shine most resplendently through the transparent medium of Christs Humane Nature which seen and taken in by the eye of Faith do strangely irradiate and enlighten beautifie and glorifie the soul of man and renew it according to the Image Ephes 4. 23 24. of God in righteousness and true holiness 4ly and lastly Jesus Christ is our Sanctification by way of influence and communication This is more general and hath some connexion with and dependance upon the former Ye have received an Vnction from the Holy One i. e. Christ c. Ioh. 1. 2. 20. This Unction is like that oyntment that ran down from the head of Aaron unto the skirts of his garments to note the plentiful effusion of the Spirit on Christ and from Christ unto his lowest members 1. The Spirit of holiness was Christs right jure proprio by vertue of the personal union so that Christ had a plenitude or fulness of the spirit in him like the fulness of a fountain but to us the spirit belongs by an inferiour union So Bishop Down●m in his Justification through Christ our Head by way of influence from Christ our Head from the grace of the Spirit is derived in such proportion as Christ is pleased to communicate yet 't is the same holiness for truth and substance As it is the same light which breaketh forth in the dawning Simile of the day with that which inhereth in the body of the Sun shining in his strength 't is in Christ in fulness in us in measure The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 3. 18. We are changed into the same likeness with Christ by the Spirit of the Lord. 2. Of this fulness of the Spirit which is in Christ believers do receive and grace for grace Ioh. 1. 16. As the Child receives member for member from the Father and as the paper receiveth letter for letter from the Press c. so a sanctified soul receives grace for grace i. e. all manner of grace exactly and proportionably from Jesus Christ The glorious Image of Gods holiness in Christ fashioneth and produceth it self in the hearts of the faithful as Simile an Image or species of light shining on a glass doth from thence fashion it self upon a wall by reflexion As the head communicates real influences to the body so Iesus Christ who is both an head of eminence and of influence communicates his spirit grace light life comfort to his Body the Church for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are both of one As they are one in Nature so one in Spirit and in spiritual likeness also For the farther explication and illustration of this deep and illustrious truth viz. The Jesus Christ is our Sanctification Before I come to the definition of Sanctification I shall subjoyn these particulars Causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
sanctity and a spirit of magnanimity indeed his sanctity is his Magnanimity which makes him so high that the world cannot master him and so holy that Inimicos dei jam hoc ipso quod non cessimus vicimus Cyprian the VVorld cannot in some sence defile him Thus in his measure he keeps himself unspotted from the world James 1. ult by the world is here meant whatsoever resists the Commands of God Neither the worlds frowns nor favours neither its Comminations nor its Invitations neither the fears of the world not Quicquid mandatis Dei resistit Polan the flatteries of the world can turn a regenerate person from the faith of Christ nor from obedience to the Gospel nor bring him unto their Bow In the German Reformation when some perswaded Erasmus to write to Luther to bring him back to Popery or else at least wise to write against his Doctrine Erasmus answers ●uther was too great for him to write to or against A Gracious spirit is too great a spirit for the great Ones of the world to force by power or to bribe by favour into a base compliance with them against the honour of their God and the conscience of their Duty The Aegyptians were wont to paint their Judges without hands and eyes without hands they must not take bribes without eyes in judgment they must not be partial Thus a godly man that hath made God his portion is hand-less and eye-less he is hand-less the world doth not shall not bribe him he is eye-less he beholds none of the worlds Terrors so as to daunt him Thus a sanctified or regenerate person in the strength of Christ overcomes the world 6. A regenerate or sanctified person hath the honour of Sonship Sanctification layes the foundation of our Adoption when we are born again we are born Gods Children we bear the Image of Christ by grace as we have have borne the Image of Adam by nature when we are converted ipso facto we are adopted Regeneration is the root or stock from which and on which this Peer-less and never fading flower Adoption grows When a sinner becomes a Saint at that very moment a childe of wrath is made a son of God a member of the first is made a member of the second Adam a relative change is contemporary with a real Behold ye Saints this priviledge with admiration Behold What manner of love is this that we should be called 1 Joh. 3. 1. the sons of God c. When Christ had converted the Paralytick he cals him Son When Christ had converted Mat. 9 2. the Menstruous woman which appears by her faith in touching him and drawing in vertue from him he cals her daughter daughter be Mark 5. 34. of good chear c. The new creature hath both the white stone and the new name the white stone of Absolution the new name of Adoption There be some Honours a man can never attain to unless he be born of Nobles or descended of the blood of Princes I cannot Fortuitum est nasci a principibus teach you to be Princes in this sense 't is a rare thing to be born of Princes but sure I am unless ye be born again not of bloods or of the will of man but by the will and of the Spirit of God 1 John 13. 3 John 3. ye shall not see the Kingdome of God much less become the sons of God or Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1 6. and least of all live and reign as Princes and Peers of state in Glory Now every sanctified soul to his great Comfort may draw up this Syllogisme He that hath the disposition and the Affections and doth the work of a childe of God is a childe of God But I have the disposition and the Affections and do the work of a childe of God Therefore I am a child of God If ye are right in the Assumption ye are thrice happy in the Conclusion 7th Effect of Sanctification Holinesse brings the soul to its right frame and Temper Psalm 23. 3. He restoreth my soul c. Sanctification 〈◊〉 the souls restauration not only to joy and comfort but also to its former soundness health and vigour which was impaired by the fall The health of the Bodie consists in the right and sound constitution of of it when all the members are in their due positure and all the humours in their right temperature then the body is in health so the health of the soul consists in the rectification or right Constitution of all the faculties So Dr. Sybs By the fall they all suffered deordination disorder deformity confusion by Regeneration they are set in joint again renewed rightly ordered and re-inclined to their proper and right objects Grace coming into the soul like Physick taken down into the body works out the peccant humours heals 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul of its old distempers cleanseth it of its former filthiness and superfluity of naughtinesse repairs nature by restoring to it the divine Nature and so makes the soul hail and healthful in Gods service for indeed none but the vessel of Honour which is sanctified is meet for the Masters use Sin is the souls sickness what sickness is to the body that sin is to the soul Sin is compared to the worst of sicknesses to the plague of the heart the noysome pestilence the running Leprosie A sick person cannot walk nor work with comfort nor rellish the sweetness of meat and drink nor enjoy himself in any of his enjoyments Wherefore health is counted the greatest temporal blessing far greater than wealth honour beauty c. Now sin being a spiritual distemper like a disease Physicians call a Corruption Corruptio totius substantiae of the whole substance of animals vitals naturals an unholy sinner cannot walk in Heavens way nor work the works of God nor savour the things of the Spirit nor rellish the sweetness of Communion with God nor the pleasures of Piety his spirit is corrupted this internal Palate and appetite are vitiated the whole man is quite out of frame and order he loves like a Swine to rowt in the dung and filth and cannot delight in God not in his holy Law Things that are in themselves most excellent the great and glorious Mysteries of the Gospel he looks upon as things contemptible and vile but sin in in its lusts and acts viler than the vilest filth he lives in as his Element and counts his greatest pleasure and Glory he glories in his Phil. 3. 11 19. shame O Lord how sadly is man fallen But in sanctification the man is quite altered the minde is informed the will is reformed the affections are rightly ordered the conscience is purged the Inner-man is recovered to its right temper yea the members of the body which before were weapons of unrighteousness are now made sub-servient to the Spirits Dictates And the whole man body soul and spirit being
not 't is wrought in us by the power of the Holy Ghost 2. Sanctification is not a common work the making of man at first was not a Common but a special work let us make man after Gen. 1. 26 our own likenesse the making of other creatures was by the word of power but the making of man was an act of counsel And sure I am the forming of Christ in the soul the new workmanship created in Christ Jesus to good Ephes 2. 10 works is one of the greatest and most glorious works of God farre surpassing the Creation of Heaven and Earth Wherein God shews himself an Artist to the uttermost Sanctification is the decking of the soul with Christs Image a representation of God in his highest Excellency and this is not a common but a special Priviledge a divine Ornament which God bestows on none but upon his choice Favourites a special and peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 9. Use 4 Let all such that are in some measure sanctified or that truely desire to be sanctified wait on God till the work be accomplished Though your wills be perverse and obstinate God can bend and bow them God never made a Creature too strong for himself he that hath begun the good-work in you will Phil. 1. 6. perfect it he is able to do this thing in us and for us and he is faithful in the performance of his Promises to us 1. He is able Who hath resisted his will His Rom. 9. 19 Isa 59. 1 Phil. 3. 21 1 Thes 5. 24. Heb. 10. 23 hand is not shortned He by the mighty power of his Spirit can subdne us and all things to himself 2. He is faithful Faithful is he that hath promised who also will do it Believe O ye doubting desponding Souls in the veracity fidelity and immutability of the great and good God Hear what God and not what the Tempter speaks God hath promised to work in you to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. That Assertion carries along with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Et velle perficere These words are a Meiosis it the nature of a Promise Hath not the living and true God Promised in the New Covenant to sprinkle you with clean water to circumcise your hearts to put his Law into our mindes to write his Law in our hearts to take away the heart of stone to give us the ministration of his Spirit not to quench the smoaking Flax that is to kindle it not to break the bruised Reed that is to strengthen it and to send forth Judgement unto Victory that is to carry on the work of Sanctification in the Soul in spight of all opposition till it be compleat in Glory Oh then What remains but that we should all act Faith upon Gods power and faithfulness in making good his Promises or else wee shall discomfort our selves needlesly and dishonour God exceedingly And withal remember 't is very expedient to turn these Promises into Prayers and act Faith on them in Prayer The Promises are as so many Bills under Gods own hand which in the name of Christ we ought to present to the Father and to put them in suit at the throne of Grace Thus come in Faith and ye shall go away with Comfort Use 5 As a consequent of the former let such as are distressed through the sense of Sin and for want of holiness look up to Christ Jesus for Sanctification he of God is made unto us Sanctification believe in the Joh. 6. Joh. 14. 1 Mediatour in him whom God hath sent honour the Son as ye honour the Father God hath so appointed it Look up to him all ye the ends of the Earth and be saved so look Isa 45. 22 up to him and ye shall be also sanctified be daily looking up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of your Faith the Alpha and Omega of your holiness Heb. 12. 2. Look up to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aspicientes in illum Isa 61. 1. 1 Joh. 1. 7 Christ for the Spirit of Sanctification from Christ if ever ye would partake of his Unction The Christal stream wherein we are washed and made clean flows out of Christs own heart The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin Faith makes Application of this blood and so it purifies you may be poring long enough on your own filthiness and be filthy and dejected still unless you look up to this Fountain and see Christ given of God for your Sanctification you must apprehend him as the Lord your Righteousness and also as the High-Priest of your holiness else your Consciences will never be pure nor peaceable Naaman by the Prophets order was to go down and dip himself seven times in Jordan if he would be cured 2 Kings 5. 10. So by Gods order and appointment you must go down daily by the renewed Acts of believing to this Fountain and bathe and wash thy unclean Soul in the streams of this Jordan I mean Christs blood if ever thou wouldest be healed of thy sinful Leprosie Use 6 My sixth Use shall be to press us all to a serious sense of our absolute need of holiness Sanctification is not a thing indifferent which a man may have or not have and yet be happy no such matter You must be holy if ye will be happy 't is the unum necessarium the one thing needful Luk. 10 42 Prov. 4. 7 Sanctification is the principal thing Sanctification is the Wedding-Garment which renders ye amiable in the eyes of the King of Heaven without this the King will say Binde him hand and foot and cast him into outer darkness Mat 22. 12 13. Certainly this Wedding-garment is woven of the glorious beams of the Sun of Righteousness 't is both the Righteousness of Christ imputed and imparted Christs Righteousness say others with Faith and Holiness So Calvin and other Modern Writers The Graces of the Spirit are as Parliament Robes The Peers say some by rule of Peereage are not to sit in Parliament without their Robes The Graces of the spirit are the Jewels of the Covenant and Robes of Heaven No living or reigning there no sitting in Heaven as Peers of State as Kings and Priests without these Robes of Glory the Righteousness of Christ for Justification and the Graces of Christ for S●nctification without all this white Linnen the Righteousness of the Saints Sanctification is the Seal or Mark of Heaven There is a Necesse est put upon Sanctification 1. For the honour of God of each Person in the Trinity ● For our own happiness 1. For the honour of the Father that his choice be not disparaged 2. For the honour of the Son that his Members be not deformed nor polluted 3. For the honour of the Holy Spirit that his charge may not miscarry or fall short of Glory 1. For the Honour of the Father whose choice we are we are chosen in Christ to be holy Ephes 1. 4. and
Angellorum Candidati of Gods Glory is the Saints heaven Swine know not what to do with Pearls nor carnal creatures with the life and joyes above Suppose that which is not to be supposed were it possible an unsanctified person should go to heaven that holy place and holy Company would be an hell to him he would be as Coelum est altera Gehenna damnatorum weary of heaven as ever water was of running according to the Proverb If the faint Image of God in his Saints if the glympse of Gods presence in his Ordinances be so irksome and unpleasant to an unholy soul here Oh how terrible and contrary to his spirit would the most glorious Presence of God in heaven be where the Seraphims cry continually Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth c where God displayes his holiness in the greatest splendor and glory God is perfect light Isa 6. 3. Revel 4. 8. 1 Joh. 1. 5. the man is darkness they could never agree together An unsanctified person indeed may desire Heaven as a disproportionate good as a place better to be tolerated than the torments of hell he may desire heaven as a privation of suffering and misery but not as a privation of all sin nor as the perfection of Grace and holiness nor as it is the nearest union of the soul with God and the highest fruition of the chiefe good Thus for him to desire or long for Heaven is against the very grain and hair of his spirit altogether inconsistent with and contrary to his old untenewed nature Now on the contrary the Saints whose eyes are enlighted with the eye-salve and by the prospective of Faith have Rev. 3. 18. had a view of this King and Kingdome these Isa 33. 17. make a right Scheam or draught of Heaven and their believing hopes of interest in this 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Gloria quam habebunt conformem Christi corpori corpori incomprehensibilis est Calv. in Phil. 3. 21. Kingdome and of communion with this Company that is above do engage them to purification 1 John 3. 2 3. He that hopes and longs to see Christ as he is and to be like him both for constitution of soul and temper of body he must ever labour to be holy and he will be trying and practising here on earth to conform to Christ before-hand He that expects that his vile body shall be made like Christs Glorious body 1 in spirituality purity clarity strength splendor and Glory he will possess his Vessel in sanctification and honour hee dares not use his body meerly as a streiner for meats and drinks nor as an unclean channel for lusts to pass through but he will honour it as a Temple of the holy Ghost his mind that shall see God he will not fill with chaffe and vanity with worldly cares or unclean thoughts his affections that should cleave to God intensively and inseparably he will not prostitute to every base object he will labour to keep his garments clean to walk without spot and blamelesse till the coming of the Lord. Thus with respect to the fruition of our hopes and the attainment of our happiness we are engaged and not engaged only but enclined and sweetly constrained also to habitual and actual holiness or as the Apostle excellently phraseth it to cleanse our selves from all fil hiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiliness 2 Cor. 7. 1. in the fear of the Lord. Use 7. In the seventh place This point informs us of the excellency of Sanctification or Holiness ye have heard already much of its absolute necessity now something of its transcendent Excellency Holiness is the Name of God the Will of God the Work of God the Seed of God the Nature of God the Image of God the life of God the Glory of God the lustre and splendor of the soul the health and vigour of the soul the soul of man is the Physical Image of God but the holiness of the soul is the Ethical or qualitative image of God 'T is the seed of Glory the beginning of Heaven the first fruits and fore-runners of eternal Life 'T is a known Maxim That which partakes of the nature of the whole is Quicquid participat de naturâ totius est pars totius a part of the whole the filings of Gold are Gold ramenta auri sunt preciosa Grace is very precious true sanctifying saving grace is Glory The holy people are the most precious honourable people in the world Since thou wast precious Isa 43. 4. in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee c. The righteous is more excellent Prov. 12. 26. than his Neighbour See how many honourable Titles God doth honour his Saints in Scripture with 1. They are his portion Deut. 32. 9. 2. They are his pleasant portion Jer. 12. 10. 3. They are his inheritance Isa 19. 25. others are the works of his hands but the Saints are his inheritance 4. They are the dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12. 7. 5. They are his Treasure his peculiar treasure Exod. 19. 5. and his peculiar people 1 Pet. Segallah et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same 2. 9. Titus 2. 14. 6. They are the Apple of his Eye Zech. 2. 8. whoso toucheth you toucheth the Apple of mine Eye 7. They are his Glory Isa 46. 13. 8. They are the house of Gods Glory Isa 60. 7. 9. They are a Crown of Glory Isa 62. 3. 10. They are the Throne of God Exod. 17. 16. the words may be read thus because the hand upon the Throne of the Lord and so by many they are translated 11. The Throne of Glory Jer. 4. 21. 12. The Ornament of God Exek 7. 20. 13. The Beauty of his Ornament Exek 7. 20. 14. The Beauty of his Ornament set in Majesty Ezek. 7. 20. 15. A Crown of Glory Isa 62. 3. 16. A Royal Diadem Isa 62. 3. 17. Lastly The excellent in the Earth Psalm 16. 3. the Saints that are in the earth are the excellent in the earth the Jewels of the world you may enlarge in your own Thoughts This then serves to inform the mistaken and blind world that Grace is no disgrace that holiness is no dis-enobling but a most generous princely and glorious thing Brave spirits as the world accounts them think preciseness an inglorious and the power of Godliness a base thing that taketh off from their Grandure and Generosity * Coguntur esse mali ne viles habeantur Salvian Salvian complains that in his time the Great Ones were deter'd from serious holiness because it was Contemptible It was Gentleman-like to be wicked but Peasant or Vassal-like to be Godly whereas the service of God is the noblest and sweetest liberty but the service of sin the vilest slavery Though your jolly spirits think they are the freest men on earth The Apostle nips their Courage