have subverted the foundations of the gospel, and built their superstructure on the shifting sands of human will and effort. And thus each party bears witness to the clearness of those truths which the other rejects; while both are condemned by the example of those who embrace the truth in the same proportions and combinations as those in which the Scriptures present it. In no way is the necessity of personal holiness more strikingly enforced, or the beauty of holiness more richly illustrated, than in connexion with the character of our blessed Lord. Is the salvation of his people the subject of God's eternal purpose? They are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he may be the first-born among many brethren."* Did he walk through this world in the ordinary intercourse of men, and according to "the way of all the earth?" It was to "leave us an example that we should follow his steps, who did no sin, neither was Rom. viii. 29.

Did he give

guile found in his mouth."* himself a sacrifice for us? It was to "purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works?" Is he seated at the right hand of God, presenting in our nature a union of the highest excellence with the richest glory? It is, that when "we see him as he is," we may be altogether “like him;" that our souls may be "changed into the same image from glory to glory," and "our vile bodies fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself."

In endeavouring to draw a faint outline of this illustrious pattern, I would

I. Direct your attention to the springs of action, the faculties and feelings of the inner man; and,

II. To their outward manifestations in the exercise of duty to God and man. 1. In discoursing on the character of the

* 1 Pet. ii. 21, 22.

+ Tit. ii. 14.

1 John iii. 2. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 21.

Christian, as a temple of the Holy Ghost, I briefly turned your attention to this view of the subject. Let us now enter into it more fully, as it is exhibited in the example of our blessed Lord; for he is, as it were, the pattern temple to which his people are to be conformed.

The three principal powers of the inner man, are the understanding, the will, and the affections. According to our original constitution, the office of the understanding was to perceive, that of the will to choose, and that of the affections to love and rejoice in all that is most excellent. Through the fall, these powers are all thrown into disorder. The understanding of "the natural man perceiveth not the things of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."* He perceives not the glory of God nor the loveliness of the Divine character; nor does he see the beauty of any thing which

* 1 Cor. ii. 14.

is conformed in its measure to the image

of God.

He is blind to the finest and

most attractive exhibition of it that the world ever beheld, the character of Christ, who "is the image of the invisible God,"* "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." The light shined in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not." He had "no form nor comeliness" in the eyes of men, and when they "saw him, there was no beauty in him, that they should desire him. And the necessary consequence of this perversion of the understanding, is the corruption of the will and the affections. Men can neither love what they do not know, nor choose what they do not love. The first charge that God brings against a guilty world is, "There is none that un

derstandeth;" the next,

that seeketh after God."||

"There is none

The understand

Heb. i. 3.

§ Isa. liii. 2.

ing of professing Christians is, indeed, now so far enlightened, that they admire much of the character of Christ as it shines forth in the gospel, amid the scenes of other times, and in his intercourse with other men. But were the Son of Man again to appear on earth, walking contrary to "the course of this world," in its present prevailing features, bearing his testimony against the fashionable sins of the day, and reproving its common errors, the admiration of these idol worshippers would be turned into hatred and contempt; they would give the same proof that the Jews of old gave, that their understanding, their will, and their affections, are all alike "alienated from God."

Now, in all these component parts of the inner man, our blessed Lord was a perfect pattern of his renewed people.

1. His understanding was thoroughly enlightened to know God and his truth. "No man," says he of himself, "knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom