True grace makes all glorious within and without. ‘The King’s daughter is all glorious within; her clothing is of wrought gold’ (Psalm 45: 13). True grace makes the understanding glorious, the affections glorious. It casts a general glory upon all the noble parts of the soul: ‘The King’s daughter is all glorious within.’ And as it makes the inside glorious, so it makes the outside glorious: ‘Her clothing is of wrought gold.’ It makes men look gloriously, and speak gloriously, and walk and act gloriously, so that vain souls shall be forced to say that these are those who have seen Jesus. God brings not a pair of scales to weigh our graces—but a touchstone to try our graces. Purity, preciousness, and holiness is stamped upon all saving graces. Acts 15: 9; 2 Peter 4: 1; Jude 20.
As grace is a fire to burn up and consume the dross and filth of the soul, so it is an ornament to beautify and adorn the soul. True grace makes all new, the inside new and the outside new: ‘If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature’ (2 Cor. 5: 17), but temporary grace does not this. (The Greek signifies ‘a new creation’: new man, new covenant, new paradise, new Lord, new law, new hearts, and new creatures go together.)
True grace changes the very nature of a man. Moral virtue does only restrain or chain up the outward man, it does not change the whole man. A lion in a cage is a lion still; he is restrained—but not changed, for he retains his lionlike nature still. So temporary graces restrain many men from this and that wickedness—but it does not change and turn their hearts from wickedness. But now true grace, that turns a lion into a lamb, as you may see in Paul (Acts 9), and a notorious strumpet into a blessed and glorious penitent, as you may see in Mary Magdalene (Luke 7).
Thomas Brooks. Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.
