of the PERSON of CHRIST. D:eM$?,:Cs,rKIM! .a.4M, ;:1=?::3:t1ÄE's.e, 4.'s,!li+;I:ï *NF W." fa:5:r...::3:i!::iri:,'/':5,:.+5.:..'4,:47,;.::.%:.::ar...<..4::ti III CHAP. XV. Conformity unto CH R Is T, andfollowing his Example. H E third thing propofed to declare the ufe of the person of Chrift in religion, is that conformity which is required of us unto him. This is the great defign and projeftion of all believers. Every one of them hath the idea or image .L J of Christ in his mind; in the eye of faith, as it is repre- fenced unto him in the glafs of the gofpel. Kmrmrlegcehm %r bb n, Kue,bs, 2. COP. iii. t8. Ire behold his glory in a glafs, which implants the image of it on our minds. And hereby the mind is transformed into the fame image, made like unto Christ fo reprefrated unto us, which is the confor- mity we fpeak of. Hence every true believer hack his heart under the conduit of an habitual inclination and defireto be like unto Christ. And it were eafy to demonstrate that where this is not, there is neither faith nor love. Faith will call the foul into the form or frameof the thing believed, Rom. vi. 17. And all fincere love worketh an aífimulation. Wherefore the bell evidence ofa real principle of the life of God in any foul, of the fincerity of faith, love and obedience, is an internal cor- dial endeavour, operative on all occafrons, after conformity unto Jefus Christ. There are two parts of the duty propofed. r. The first refpefls the internal grace and holiness of the humane nature of Christ. 2. The other his example in duties of obedience. And both of them, both materially, as to the things wherein theyconflit, and formally, as theywere his, or in him, belong an o the conftitution of a true difcíple. i. internal conformity unto his habitual grace and holinefs, is the fun- damental defign of a chriftian life. That which is the belt without it, is a pretended imitation of his example in outward duties of obedience. I call it petended, becaufe where the first defign is wanting, it is no more but fo ; nor is it accept-ible to Chrift, nor approved by him. And there- fore an attempt unto that end hath often isfued in formality, hypocrify and fuperitition. I (hall therefore lay down the grounds of this defign, the nature of it, and the means of its purfuit. God, in the humane na- ture of Christ did perfeftly renew that blessed image of his on our nature, which we loft in Adam, with an addition of many glorious endowments which Adam was not made partaker of. God did not renew it in Isis nature, as though that portion of it whereof he was partaker, had ever been destitute or deprived of it, as it is with the faine nature in all other perfons. For lie derived not his nature from Adam in the faine way that we do; nor was he ever in Adam as the publick reprefentative of our nature as we were. But our nature in hint had the image of God implan- ted in it, which was toff and feparated from the fume nature, in all other inftances
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=