knowledge after the image of him that created him." 5 And since Christ is "the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person," "the image of the invisible God," therefore whom God" did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son."

It is true, indeed, that it was in this image that man was originally created; but how has it become marred by our original and actual corruptions! and now it is not by our own efforts that we can reproduce the defaced impress upon our souls. The seal is the Spirit's. We may force our soul into certain frames, and exhibit a form of godliness, without the Holy Spirit's power; but this is not the seal which alone is authentical and valid. It is God the Father who has made us, and not we ourselves; it is God the Son who has redeemed us, and not we ourselves; and it is God the Holy Ghost who must seal us, and not we ourselves: "By grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast: for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works."

Nevertheless, there are certain means by a recourse to which you will not fail of attaining to 5 Col. iii. 10.

this blessedness. By your baptism and consequent confirmation, you are, as it were, brought into contact with the seal; and now, in coming under the preached Gospel, and in bringing your minds into contact with the written word, as also in your attendance at the Lord's table, you have the seal impressed upon your hearts, in order to their renewal after the divine image. If these means of grace you employ with a meek surrender of your heart's affections, and prayer for a blessing from on high, then will the Lord put his laws into your mind, and write them in your hearts. "God be thanked," saith St. Paul," that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you;" or rather, as you read in the margin of your Bibles, "whereto ye were delivered:" ye were delivered, that is, into the mould of christian doctrine, as wax is cast into the mould of the seal. And how the impress made by the word corresponds to the seal itself in the hearts of the Lord's people, is

6 The term "seal" was applied to baptism by many of the early fathers. See Suicer's Thes. Eccl. s. v. σφραγίς.

7 The term "sealing" is applied also to confirmation in Eusebius.-See Suicer, s. v. σopayísw. Bingham's Eccles. Ant., b. xii. chap. 1.

8 Rom. vi. 17.

beautifully described in the experience of the psalmist: "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart answered, Thy face, Lord, will I seek."9 How exactly was the impress here the counterpart of the stamp! This was he to whom the Lord" gave testimony, and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart." "" 1 You have seen, then, the means which the Lord has provided for the exhibition of Christ to the apprehension of your faith. If, in the exercise of these means, you study Christ, if you look off to him, the Author and Finisher of your faith, then doubt not that, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, you shall be changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Believe only in Christ; cleave unto him with full purpose of heart, and then shall ye be sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.

And beyond all doubt there are many here present who can bear testimony from their own experience to the efficacy of the grace of Christ. Doubtless there are many on whose character his image is impressed; on whose thoughts, and words, and actions, is stamped "holiness to the Lord." You are not ignorant that the features of this new creation are love" and "joy, peace,

9 Ps. xxvii. 8.

Acts xiii. 22.

long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." Your privilege it is to be conformed to Christ; to have your will melted into the will of Christ, as wax into the seal; to be of one mind with him; to be planted with Christ in the likeness of his death, and also of his resurrection; with him to be crucified to the flesh; dead to the appliances of temptation; buried to the vanities of the world; risen to a new and spiritual life; and, being raised and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ, to have your citizenship3 in heaven. All this conformity to Christ is the effect of the sealing of the Spirit.

But, in the second place, the term "seal" is here applied to the Spirit, because the believer is hereby marked as the Lord's peculiar property, belonging to the fold of Christ. It is not enough that you are redeemed by Christ; you must be sealed also by the Spirit. "Christ without the Holy Ghost is as a deed without a seal; as a testator without an executor." 4 The Holy Spirit it is who conveys to you your personal interest in the eternal redemption which Christ has wrought out in your behalf. By him ye are sealed to the

2 See Howe on the Blessedness of the Righteous, IV. ii. 9.

day of redemption; without him ye are left blank for the day of perdition. The seal of the Jewish covenant was external-it was circumcision; the seal of the Christian covenant is internal-in the heart and mind; it is a spiritual circumcision. The Israelite was sealed in the flesh to the possession of the corruptible Canaan: the Christian is sealed in the inward man, by the incubation of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, to the enjoyment of that inheritance which is "incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away." "Examine," then," yourselves, beloved brethren, whether ye be in the faith; prove your ownselves; know ye not your ownselves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" And what means the apostle, when he thus denounces as reprobates those in whom Christ is not? He speaks of them as the refiner of reprobate metal; when weighed in the balances, it is found wanting; when tried by the touchstone or other test, it is found to be dross, and is cast away as refuse, unprofitable, and base. Even so, "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his ;" when weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, he is found wanting; when tested by the touchstone of God's unerring word, he is rejected as dross; however fair the show which he may have made in the flesh, when tried in the fire which "shall