April 4

Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature,—2 Peter 1:4.

THE promises were given, the text tells us, that we might be partakers of the Divine nature. So it was at first. Man was created in the image of God. And so it shall be again. Man shall be renewed in the image of him that created him, in righteousness and true holiness.

The moral nature of God, thus to be participated by believers, may be summed up in the three terms, knowledge, holiness, and love. On each of these we may briefly dwell.

1. Knowledge. The power of knowing is the property of spiritual beings. It is not merely to perceive, in the low degree which belongs to irrational animals, but to apprehend, to remember, to compare, to infer, and from particular, to bring out general truths, which are to be laid up in the mind for meditation or action. In this respect, all rational creatures bear an image, though a faint one, of God the infinite intelligence. That knowledge, however, in which St. Paul says we are created anew, after the image of God, is not mere intellectual capacity. This we may have before this spiritual renovation; and though, in this world, religion may profitably exercise it, it is not always that even religion improves it. This knowledge is the knowledge of things as good or evil, as right or wrong, as tending or not tending to our own happiness, and that of the whole creation. Infinitely perfect is this knowledge in God. He can not mistake the nature and tendencies of things; and it is this which gives his laws their perfection. He can not enjoin evil, and he restrains us from nothing good. What he commands, is necessary; what he inhibits, prejudicial to our own welfare, and the harmony and blessedness of the whole universe of being. But man has lost this knowledge; and the consequence is sin, disorder, and misery, both in himself and in the world. Every act of a sinner is a stab to his peace and real interest, and to those of society at large. These precious promises, however, open to us the restoration of what we have lost. God himself, by his own revelations, "hath showed thee, O man, what is good." He has marked the moral differences of things, in order to our choice of that which is excellent. And by the indwelling of his teaching Spirit, opening the truths to our mind, and rendering us discerning to apply them, he makes us partake, in our degree, of his own knowledge, his infallible judgment of things. Then it is that we walk in the light. Our path becomes an open path. We no more put good for evil, or evil for good. We are no more cheated and deluded by mere appearances. We find a sure way for our feet, and so are enabled to escape the snares of death.

2. Holiness. This is essential to God. It is that principle in him, whatever it may be, which has led him to prescribe justice, mercy, and truth, and to prohibit their contraries under penalties so severe; that principle, which is more than a mere approval of the things which he enjoins; which makes him love righteousness, so that his countenance doth behold the upright with complacency, and the wicked with such displeasure and abhorrence, that even their prayer is an abomination; that, for the restoration of which among his creatures, he sent his own Son into the world. This we call holiness.

The holiness of a creature, as to actions, is conformity to the will of God, which is the visible declaration of his holy nature. That conformity implies justice, a rendering to all their due;—a large duty, referring, not only to man, but likewise to God, to whom are to be given the honor and worship he requires from us: perfect truth and sincerity in every thing, so that all outward acts shall concur with the heart, and the heart with them: and the strict regulation of every temper and appetite, so that they may be kept within the bounds prescribed, beyond which they become impurity and sin. But there must be principle from which all this must flow, or it is only external and imitative; and that principle is found only in the new man, that which comes from this participation of the Divine nature. It is that new disposition and tendency of all his faculties and affections, produced by the inward working of the Spirit of God, which makes him approve of what is right, and true, and excellent, universally, and disapprove of what is contrary. This sacred influence lays hold of the will, and so causes the will to lay hold of whatever is holy; it lays hold of the affections, and holiness thus becomes a delight, an object of love, desire, and enjoyment. This is the state to which the gospel calls us, so that our regard to holiness is not to be partial and unsteady, or implying a cold approbation of what is right, but full and affectionate, flowing from the new nature which God gives, and which God must by his presence sustain. Thus shall we be holy in all manner of conversation.

3. But the Divine nature is love. Who can doubt this, when he sees the happiness of the creatures so manifestly the end of their creation? when we can trace all misery to another source? when we see the mercies he mixes with his judgments, always bringing some good out of evil? when he spared not his own Son, but gave him freely for us all? when he so con-

9* descends to us, is so forbearing, so slow to anger, so ready to forgive, so abundant in goodness and truth? Brethren, if there be any moral beauty and glory in being thus like God; if meekness is to be chosen before anger, patience before petulance, kindness before severity, a forgiving disposition before implacability, a delight in the feelings and acts of benevolence before the diabolical pleasure of doing ill or refusing good; then is it our exalted privilege thus to be partakers of the Divine nature. For resemblance to God in this particular respect comes to us in the same way as the rest. Our nature can not be raised to this by the mere imitative virtues. These Divine virtues are the fruit of the Spirit, living in us, implanting his own graces, and exalting our nature by the infusion and mighty energy of his own vital influences.