[1st.] Honour. It is by holiness that we are made like unto God, and his image is renewed again in us. This was our honour at our creation, this exalted us above all our fellow-creatures here below, — we were made in the image of God. This we lost by sin, and became like the beasts that perish. To this honour, of conformity to God, of bearing his image, are we exalted again by holiness alone. “Be ye holy,” says God, “for I am holy,” 1 Pet. i. 16; and, “Be ye perfect” (that is, in doing good), “even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,” Matt. v. 48, — in a likeness and conformity to him. And herein is the image of God renewed; Eph. iv. 23, 24, therein we “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” This was that which originally was attended with power and dominion; — is still all that is beautiful or comely in the world. How it makes men honourable and precious in the sight of God, of angels, of men; how alone it is that which is not despised, which is of price before the Lord; what contempt and scorn he hath of them in whom it is not, — in what abomination he hath them and all their ways, — might easily be evinced.