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COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION.

W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational
Union, Edinburgh.

JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh.

THOMAS J. CRAWFORD, D.D., S.T.P., Professor of Divinity, University,
Edinburgh.

D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas's Episcopal Church,
Edinburgh.

WILLIAM H, GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church
History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh.

ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby-
terian Church, Edinburgh.

liBeneral >J2Ditor.
REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinbubgh.

THE COMPLETE WORKS

THOMAS BROOKS.

BY THE REV. ALEXANDER BALLOCH GROSART,

LIVERPOOL.

VOL. IV.

CONTAINING :

THE CROWN AND GLORY OP CHRISTIANITY,,

EDINBURGH : JAMES NICHOL.

LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : G. HERBERT.

M.DCGCJiXVU.

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contents;

Crown and Glory of Christianity, .... 1

The Epistle Dedicatory, ..... 3-34

Text Explained, [Hebrews xii. 14,] .... 35-37
Doct. That real holiness h the only way to happiness. All men
must be holy on earth, or they shall never see the beatifical vision,
they shall never reach to a glorious fruition of God in heaven, . 37

I. What this holiness is •, sixfold, .... 38-47
II. The truth of the proposition, that ' without men are holy,

they can never be happy :' ten arguments, . . 47-77

III. Reasons : five, ...... 77-80

IV. Uses : 1. Conviction: eight, .... 80-95

2. Trial a7id Examination : seven, . . . 95-103
How we shall know whether we have real holiness

or no: sixteen 'marks,' . . . 103-150

3. JExhortation :

(1.) Motives: fifteen, ... . 150-193

# (2.) Counsels: six negative, . . .192-212

„ : ten positive, . . . 212-241

(3.) Objections, 241-323, as follows :
Objection 1 . We have no power to make ourselves holy ; we
are as well able to make a world, to command the winds,
and to raise the dead, as we are able to cleanse our otvn
hearts, or change our oum natures, or sanctify our own
souls; and therefore, to what purpose should we be so
strongly pressed to do that which we have no power to do? 241

Six answers, ...... 241-246

Objection 2. Hut hereafter may be time enough to look after
holiness; I may yet pursue after the pleasures and profits
of tlie world, I may yet spend some years in gratifying
mine own lusts, and in walking after the course of tJie
world; I have time enough before me, and therefore some
years hence may be time enough to look after holiness, . 246

Five answers, ...... 246-249

Objection 3. JBut if we should thus press and pursue after
holiness, then we must take our farewell of all joy and
comfort, of all delight and pleasure, and never expect
to enjoy one merry day more, for we observe that there
are no persons under heaven that live such a melan-
choly, sad, sorrowful, pensive life, as t/iose who press
most after holiness, and who make most stir and noise

• Brooks having departed in his 'Crown of Glory of Christ' from his rule of prefixing
' Contents,' I have given above the leading divisions of the work : the lesser details, as
well as the ' Table ' appended, will be incorporated in the General Index. — G.

VI CONTENTS.

about Iwliness, and therefore if we should resolve to
follow after holiness, ive must resolve to spend our days
in sorrow and sadness, in sighing and mourning, and
this we Imd as lief die as do, (i;c., . . , 249

Eight answers, ...... 249-261

Objection 4. We see that no persons on earth are exposed to
such troubles, dangers, afflictions, and persecutions, as
those are exposed 'o who mind holiness, who follow after
holiness. These are days wherein men labour to frown
holiness out of the world, and to scorn and kick holiness
out of the world; and do you think that we are mad
now to pursue after holiness 1 . . . . 261

Twelve answers, ...... 261-300

Objection 5. We would labour after this holiness, without
which there is no happiness, d:c. But if we should, then
we must resolve to be poor, and mean, and beggarly in the
ivorld, we must resolve then to fare Jutrd, and lie hard,
and labour liard, and live low in the world, for toe shall
nevei' raise an estate to ourselves by holiness and strict-
ness, we shall never grow rich and great in the world
by godliness; nay, by driving this trade of holiness, we
shall lose our trades, our customers, and those estates we
have, and quickly bring a noble to ninepence, dec, . 300

Six answers, . . . . . . 300-307

Objection 6. Should we pursue after holiness, it would be a
disgrace, a disparagement, and dishonour to us who are
high, and great, and rich, and honourable in the earth.
We are gentlemen, we are well-bred and higlh-born, and
holiness seem'i to be too poor and too low a thing for such
as we are to look after, <i:c., .... 307

Five answers, ...... 307-317

Objection 7. Should we pursue after holiness, we shall be sure
to be reviled, slandered, and reproached on all hands;
every one will hoot and hiss at vs, we shall become a scorn
and a byword to all that live in the family with us, and to
all our neighbours round about us, every one will scorn
us, and hate us, and we shall be their table-talk, and
their song, and the butt at which they will shoot in all
their meetings and discourses, dec, . . . 317

Five answers, . . .... 317-323

(4.) To shew forth the reality and power of holiness :

Eight proofs of little holiness, . 323-340

Seventeen 'provocations' to increased

holiness, .... 340-374

[3.] Five arguments for degrees of glory, . 374-379
Two objections, . . . 379-384

[4.] Eight means, helps, and directions, . 384-392
Holiness of God : eight characteristics, 392-398
Signs or evidences of increasing holi-
ness : twelve signs, . . 398-412
Comfort and consolation to all who
have real holiness : twelve con-
siderations, . . . 412-428
Positions concerning holiness, . 428-446

THE

CEOWN AND GLORY

CHRISTIANITY.

VOL. IV.

NOTE.

Issued in the j'ear of the Ejection [1662], the 'Crown and Glory of Christianity'
appears to have been limited to a single edition ; which however must have been
a very large one, as scarcely any of the writings of Brooks is more frequently met with.
This is the most inaccurately printed of Brooks's books. I have carefully corrected his
own list of errata : but besides these, mistakes of words, texts, references, divisions
abound. It may be permitted us to refer to the author's own appeal on this matter
toward the close of his Epistle Dedicatory. The original title-page is given below."" — G.

* The Ceovvn ofc Glokt

CHRISTIANITY :

HOLINESS,
The only way to

HAPPINESS.

Discovered in LVIII. Sermons,
from Heh. 12. 14. Where you have the Ne-
cessity, Excellency, Rarity, Beauty and Glory of
Holiness set forth ; with the resolution of many weighty
Questipns and Cases. Also Motives and Means to perfect
Holiness : With many other things of very high and great
importance to all the Sons and Daughters of men, that had
rather be blessed then cursed, saved then damned.

By Thomas Brooks, late Preacher of the Gospel at

Margarets New Fish-street, and still Preacher of the Word in London,

and Pastor of a Congregation there.

To him that ordereth his conversation aright, will I sheio the salvation of God,

Psalm 50. ult.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, Matth. 5. 8.
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of

the Spirit, and belief of the truth, 2 Thes. 2. 13.

LONDON,

Printed for H. Crips, J. Sims, and H. Mortloch, and are to be sold at their

shops, at the entrance into Popes-head Alley out of Lumbard street,

and at the sign of the Cross-keyes, and at the Phoenix in S'-

Pauls Church-yard, near the little North door, 1662.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

To all the Lords, Knights, Ladies, Gentry, Ministers, and Commons of
England — and the dominions thereunto belonging — that have but the
least desire, the least mind, or the least will, to escape hell, and to go
to heaven, or to be happy in both worlds, &c.

My Lords, Ladies, and G-entlemen, &c., — The philosophers, speak-
ing of happiness, were divided into two hundred [and] eighty-eight
opinions, every one intending something, yet resolving upon nothing ;
and therefore the man in Plutarch hearing them wrangle about
summum honum, the chiefest good — one placing of it in this, and
another in that — went to the market and bought up all that was good,
hoping that among all he should not miss of happiness ; and yet he
missed it ; ^ true happiness being too great and too glorious a thing to
be found in anything below real holiness.

All men in the general, desire to be happy, but all men do not
desire in this or that particular, or in this or that way, to be happy.
Here there is an infinite difference, quot homines, tot sententice, so
many men so many minds.

A desire of happiness is planted in all men by the constitution of
nature. This is so intrinsical and so innate in nature, it is so engraven
in it, that even the fall of Adam, as great as it was, hath not blotted
it out.

This desire of happiness is left in man for a stock to graft holiness
on. God grafts the plant of grace upon the stock of nature. Indeed
happiness, like Kachel, Gen. xxix. 17, is so fair and so beautiful a
thing, that every one is apt to fall in love with it, and earnestly to
desire it, yea, many there be that would serve twice seven years to
enjoy it. 'But by the standing law of that heavenly country above,
the younger sister must never be bestowed before the elder ; you can
never enjoy fair Rachel — heaven and happiness — except you are first
married to tender-eyed Leah — real holiness. Gen. xxix. 17-28. He
that will have heaven, must have union and communion with Christ :
and he that will have union and communion with Christ must be
holy. ' For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness ?

1 'Moralia.'— G.

4 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOHY.

and what communion hatli light with darkness ? And what concord
hath Christ with Behal?' 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15. Of all the many thou-
sands that have travelled to happiness, there is not one to be found
but hath travelled thither in a way of holiness. Now the drift, the
scope of this following Treatise, is to make men holy, that they may
be happy : it is to make men gracious on earth, that they may be
glorious in heaven. Now to prevent all mistakes, rash censures, and
misconstructions, I judge it very convenient and necessary, before I go
any further, to acquaint the reader plainly and honestly with those
arguments that have prevailed with me to dedicate this Book to all
sorts, ranks, and degrees of persons, rather than to any single person^
or to any one sort or rank of men whatsoever. And they are
these six.

I. First, Because all sorts and ranks of men are fallen from that
'primitive holiness that once they had, Ps. xiv. 3 ; Eom. iii. 12. There
are five things that we have all lost by our fall in Adam. First, we
have all lost that holy image that God had stamped upon us ; and so
we are become vile.i Secondly, we have all lost our sonship ; and so
we are become slaves. Thirdly, we have all lost our friendship with
God ; and so we are become enemies. Fourthly, we have aU lost our
communion with God ; and so we are become strangers. And fifthly,
we have all lost our glory ; and so we are become miserable. Some
say that the naked body of man was s'o glorious in his estate of inno-
cency, that all the beasts of the field admired it, and thereupon did
homage to him. Oh, how glorious was his soul then ! Certainly if the
cabinet was so glorious, the jewel within it was much more glorious.
But how glorious soever man was in his primitive estate, it is most
certain that he is now so sadly fallen from the highest pinnacle of
glory to so low a step of misery, that God sometimes sends him to the
pismire to learn instruction, Prov. vi. 6, 7; and sometimes he sends him
to the stork and the swallow to make a right improvement of precious
time, Jer. viii. 7 ; and sometimes he sends him to the ox and to the ass
to learn knowledge, Isa. i. 3 ; and sometimes he sends him to the
fowls of the air to learn confidence, Mat. vi. 25 seq. ; yea, and sometimes
he sends him to the very lilies and grass of the field to learn how to
live without carking and distracting cares. It is true, man's first
estate was a state of perfect holiness, he being made in the image of
God, and after the likeness of God, Gen. i. 27. It was an estate of
perfect light, knowledge, prudence, wisdom, and understanding. It
was an estate of very great honour and dignity, and therefore the
psalmist, speaking of man in this estate, brings him in with a crown
of glory and honour upon his head, Ps. viii. 5, ' Thou hast crowned
him with glory and honour.' Man's first estate was so stately an
estate that he was not so much below the glorious angels, as he was
above all other creatures. God made him the sovereign lord of the
whole creation, God gave him an absolute dominion and authority
both of sea and land, and all creatures in both were subjected to him,
Gen. i. 26 ; Ps. viii. 6-8. Such was the exquisite beauty and perfec-
tion of his body, that from the crown of his head to the soles of his

^ Qui te nou liabet, Domine Deus, totum perdidit.— .Ber»a?-c?. [Serm. on Song of
Songs.— G.]

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 5

feet there was not the least blain or blemish. His outward man was
clothed with all such requisite beauties and abilities that might
render him lovely and comely to every eye. In a word, man's first
estate was a state of perfect happiness. All within him, and aU
without him, and all about him, spoke him out to be completely
blessed. There was nothing within him, but what was very sweet and
desirable ; there was nothing without him, but what was very delight-
ful and amiable ; neither was there anything about him, but what was
serviceable and comfortable. Oh, but now by his fall, his crown is
fallen from his head, and from the heads of all his posterity. Lam. v.
16 ; for Adam was a public person. He was the prince of all man-
kind ; and though all mankind was not actually in his loins when he
fell, yet they were all potentially in his loins when he fell. If two
kings make a league, and the one break it, he makes not only himseK
but all his subjects liable and obnoxious to all the calamities and
miseries that shall follow thereupon. Adam was our common father,
and we are all his sons and daughters. Now we know by the law of
inheritance, that if the father forfeit his lease, he disinherits his pos-
terity. Now Adam forfeited his lease, as I may say, and divine
justice took the advantage^ of the forfeiture, and so hath turned all
his posterity out of doors. So that there is now no way under heaven
to be happy, but by being holy. All sorts and ranks of men are
fallen in Adam, and there is no way to rise but by Christ and holi-
ness, &c.

II. A second reason why I dedicate this Treatise to all sorts and
ranks of persons, is, because the matter contained in this book is of the
greatest and highest concernment imaginable, to all ranks and degrees
of men, from the greatest emperor that ever sat 2 upon a throne, to the
meanest and the poorest wretch that ever lay upon a dunghill. And
doubtless that which is of such a marvellous importance to all, may
very justly and reasonably be dedicated to all.

III. A third reason why I dedicate this Treatise to all sorts and
ranks of perons, is, because God^i7itends to save some of all sorts, ranks,
and degrees. Though greatness and goodness do not always meet,
yet greatness and goodness do sometimes meet; and though riches
and religion do not always meet, yet riches and religion do sometimes
meet ; though not many wise, yet some wise, 1 Cor. i. 26 ; though not
many mighty, yet some mighty ; though not many noble, yet some
noble shall be called, sanctified, and saved. Look, as the sun in the
firmament doth cast his light and warmth upon all sorts, ranks, and
degrees of men, Mat. v. 45 ; so doth the Sun of righteousness shine
upon the understandings and consciences of all sorts, ranks, and
degrees of men, and by his secret and spiritual influences, he warms
and cheers the hearts of high and low, rich and poor, noble and
ignoble. Abraham was very great and very gracious : Joseph was
very high and very holy: Job was very rich and very righteous.
Though most of those kings and princes that we read of in Scripture
were bad, very bad, yet some of them were good, yea, very good.^

1 = Acted on the culpable ' forfeiture.'— G. '' Spelled ' set.'— G.

2 It is a strange saying in Lipsius. * The names of all good princes,' saith he, 'may
easily be engraven or written in a small ring.' — Lipsius dc constantia, lib. IL cap. 25.

b THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

Some of tliem were as famous for grace, righteousness, and holiness :
witness David, Asa, Josiah, Hezekiah, Jehoshaphat, &c., as Saul,
Jehoram, Jehu, Ahab, and others of them were infamous for all un-
righteousness and wickedness. God, for the glory of his own grace, and
the honour of his Son's blood, will have some of all sorts, ranks, and
degrees sanctified and saved : and upon this very ground he engages
his servants to pray for all sorts, ranks, and degrees of men, in 1 Tim.
ii. 1-4. Now where God is resolved to save, there he is resolved to
sanctify : where he is resolved to make happy, there he is resolved to
make holy. And therefore I look upon myself as many ways obliged
to have so large a heart for God, as to do all I can to help on the sal-
vation of all sorts, ranks, and degrees of men in the world. My
heart's desire and prayer for England is, that her princes and nobles
may be sanctified and saved, and that her gentry may be sanctified
and saved, and that all the people of the nation may be sanctified
and saved. 1 I look upon myself as engaged to do all I can, by my
pen and prayers, to help make England holy, that so England may
be truly happy. For of this I am most certain, that if God will
but make England a holy nation, it is not all the powers on earth,
nor all the powers of hell, that shall ever make England a miserable
nation.

IV. A fourth reason why I thus dedicate this Treatise as you see, is,
because m?/ former poor labours and endeavours have been acceptohle
to some of all ranks and degrees, and they have been blest to some of
all ranks and degrees; and I have been encouraged, whetted, and
stirred up by some on all hands, once more to cast in my net. And
now I have done it, oh that it may issue in the drawing of many
souls to Christ ! and in the making of the graceless gracious, the pro-
fane holy ! and in the making of those that are holy, to be yet more
holy! kc.

V. A fiftli reason why I thus dedicate this Treatise as you see, is,
because tlwugh all men are bound to be lioly, yet the great, the rich,
the noble, and the honourable of the earth are hound above all other
men in the world to be holy. God hath laid upon them greater obH-
gations and ties to holiness, than he hath upon any other jmen under
heaven ; and this you may see so clearly and so fully proved in this
book — from page 433 to page 447 ^ — that neither the world nor the
devil, as cunning and as learned a devil as he is, will ever be able to
disprove. This reason alone is sufficient to justify my present prac-
tice. 3

VI. My sixth and last reason why I thus dedicate this Treatise as
you see, is, that it may be a blessed iestiinony and a standitig witness
for Christ in this day of blasphemy, profaneness, looseness, and wick-
edness, against all sorts and ranks of persons into whose hands it may
fall, who, notwithstanding all that is here said, shall continue obsti-
nate and impenitent in their ungodly courses and practices, as men
resolved rather to go to hell than to heaven, and to be for ever unhappy

^ Rom. X. 1. — Paul's copy is not to be despised, but imitated.

^ That is, of the original edition. See General Index, under ' rich' and ' noble.' — G. '
^ Reader, if thou art one that standest upon thy birth, nobility, and greatness, do thy-
self that favour, and thy soul that right, as to read from page 433 to page 447, before
thou goest any further. [As before. — G.J

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 7

rather than they will be holy, Isa. xliii. 10, 12, and xliv. 8. Woe, woe to
them for ever, that had rather be Satan's bond-slaves than Christ's
free-men, that had rather be * vessels of wrath' than vessels of honour
and that had rather be firebrands of hell than glorious saints in heaven
Eph. ii. 12; Rom. ix. 22.

And so I have done with those reasons that may satisfy the reader
concerning my dedication of this Treatise to all sorts, ranks, and degrees
of persons.

Having premised these things in the general, give me leave to say,
that if this Treatise should fall into the hands of any of the learned
judges of this land, or into the hands of any of the justices of this
nation, I would then take the humble boldness to offer this to their
most serious consideration — viz., that if they would discharge the
duties of their places, so as to give up their accounts at last with joy
and cheerfulness to the King of kings and Lord of lords, it highly
concerns them to study this doctrine of holiness, yea, to fall in love
with holiness, and highly to prize it, and earnestly to press after
it, and to be restless in their own spirits, till they have experienced
the powerful operations of holiness in their own souls ; for till then,
they will never be able so to administer justice and judgment as be-
comes those that have the name of God, and the name of profession
upon them, and that judge themselves to be in a higher form than
those heathens^ were, who were famous for justice and righteousness —
and yet never heard of a Christ nor salvation by him — and as be-
comes those that would not stand trembling and quaking in the great
and terrible day, when Christ the Lord-Chief-Justice of heaven and
earth shall pass a righteous and impartial judgment upon all the
judges and justices that ever were on earth, Joel ii. 11, 31 ; Acts xvii.
31; 2 Tim. iv. 1,2.

My Lords and Gentlemen, — You know that the wisest prince that
ever sat upon a throne hath told us that ' righteousness exalts a
nation,' Prov. xiv. 34.2 It is not valour in war, but righteousness ; it
is not policy in government, but righteousness ; it is not wittiness of in-
vention, but righteousness ; it is not civility in behaviour, but right-
eousness; it is not antiquity of forms, but righteousness; it is not
largeness of dominion, but righteousness ; nor it is not greatness of
command, but righteousness, that is the honour and the safety, that is
the renown and the security of a nation. That nation that exalts
righteousness, that nation shall be certainly exalted by righteousness,
Amos V. 24. It is not Ahithophel's policy, it is not Jeroboam's
calves in Dan and Bethel, it is not Jehu's pompous zeal, it is not
Goliath's sword, it is not rich mines of gold and silver, nor maga-
zines, nor armies, nor councils, nor fleets, nor forts, but justice
and righteousness that exalts a nation, and that will make a mean
people to become a great, a glorious, and a famous people in the world.
The world is a ring, and righteousness is the diamond in that ring :
the world is a body, and righteousness and justice is the soul of that

^ Cato, Fabricius, Scipio, Cambyses, &c.

" Where justice is, God is ; and where God is, there is no want of men or fortitude,
said Herod at the head of his army, the better to encourage his soldiers. Justice is con-
servatrix humane^ covjunclionis, quw ad beatitudinem via est, &c.

8 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

body. Ah! England, England! so long as judgment runs downl as
waters in the midst of thee, and righteousness as a mighty stream,
thou shalt not die, but live and bear up bravely against all gainsayers
and opposers ; but if injustice shall grow rampant, and thou shalt
brandish the sword of justice in the behalf of the friends of Baal,
Balaam, and Bacchus, and turn the wheel upon the righteous ; if the
sword of justice shall be a sword of protection to the desperate swearer,
and to the cruel oppressor, and to the roaring drunkard, and to the
cursing monster, and to the gospel despiser, and to the Christ con-
temner, &c. , and shall be a devouring sword to the upright and peace-
able in the land, divine vengeance will dig thy grave, and divine
justice will tumble thee into it, though all the nations of the earth
should labour to prevent it. It is a base and ignoble spirit, to pity
Cataline more than to pity Kome ; to pity any particular sort of men,
more than to pity the whole. It is cruelty to the good, to justify the
bad : it is Avrong to the sheep, to animate the wolves : it is danger if
not death to the lambs, not to restrain or chain up the lions. But from
all these vanities the Lord deliver all your souls ! And oh that you would
for ever remember this, that as the constitution of a man's body is
best known by his pulse : if it stir not at all, then we know he is dead ;
if it stir violently, then we know him to be in a fever ; if it keep an
equal stroke, then we know he is sound, well, and whole : so the estate
and constitution of a kingdom or commonweal is best known by the
manner of executing justice therein; for justice is the pulse of a king-
dom. If justice be violent, then the kingdom is in a fever, in a very
bad estate ; if it stir not at all, then the kingdom is dead ; but if it
have an equal stroke, if it be justly and duly administered, then the
kingdom is in a good, a safe, and sound condition. When Vespasian
asked Apollonius what was the cause of Nero's ruin, he answered,
that Nero could tune the harps well, but in government he did always
wind up the strings too high, or let them down too low.' The appli-
cation is easy.

Now having premised thus much in the general, give me leave to
tell you that there are eight special rules that you are carefully and
faithfully to observe in the administration of justice and righteousness.
And how you will be able to act suitable to those rules without a
spirit of holiness, without principles of hoKness, and without an expe-
rience of the powerful influences and operations of holiness in your
own souls, I cannot for the present understand.

1. Now, my Lords and Grentlemen, the first rule that you are to ob-
serve in your administering of judgment and justice, is this, you must
do justice impay^tially. You are called gods,^ and in this you must be
like to God, who is no accepter of persons. He accepts not the rich
man because of his robes, neither doth he reject the poor man because
of his rags. 3 Dent. i. 17, ' Ye shall not respect persons in judgment,
but ye shall hear the small as well as the great; ye shall not be

^ The Hebrew word Ve.iiggalcliat as here rendered ' run down,' is from 77J Galal, that
signifies to roll down freely, plentifully, plainly, vigorously, constantly: Where justice
thus rolls down, all the world shall never make that nation miserable.

^ Ps. Ixxxii. 1, 6 ; Luke xx. 21 ; Mat. xxii. 16.

' 'Audi alteram partem,' said Lotharius, the second Duke of Saxony.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 9

afraid of the face of man ; for the judgment is God's : and the cause
that is too hard for you, bring it unto me, and I will hear it.' And
so in Lev, xix. 15, 'Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment; thou
shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the
mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour.' The
great man is not to be spared for his might, nor the poor man for his
misery. 1 It is neither the great man's power, nor the poor man's
meanness, that a judge is to mind in judgment. A judge, a justice,
must never out of carnal pity cry out, Oh, he is a poor man ! nor yet
out of base fear cry out. Oh, he is a great man 1 Their eyes are
always to be upon causes, and not upon persons. The statues of the
Theban judges were made without hands and without eyes, to inti-
mate to us, that as judges and justices should have no hands to receive
bribes, so they should have no eyes to see a friend from a foe, a brother
from a stranger. 2 And it was the oath of the heathen judges, as the
orator relates, ^Audiam accusatorem ei reum sine affectibits et person-
arum respectione,' I will hear the plaintiff and defendant, with an equal
mind, without affection and respect of persons. ^ In the twelfth novel*
of Justinian, you may read of an oath imposed upon judges and justices,
against inclining or addicting themselves to either party ; yea, they
put themselves under a deep and bitter execration and curse in
case of partiality, imploring God in such language as this, ' Let me
have my part with Judas, and let the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me,
and the trembling of Cain 'come upon me, and whatsoever else may
astonish and dismay a man, if I am partial in the administration of
justice.' That was a famous act of justice that was performed by
Canutus, king of Denmark, who, when one of the twelve thieves that
he had condemned pleaded that he was of the royal blood, saith the
king. It is reason some favour should be shewed to this person ; where-
upon he commanded that he should be hanged on the highest gibbet:
which was done accordingly. It was Cato's complaint of old, that
those that robbed private men were clapped up and laid by the heels
in cold irons : but, saith he, public thieves that wrong and rob the
commonwealth, they sit in scarlet, with gold chains about their
necks.5 And the Scythian philosopher hath long since complained,
that laws were like spiders' webs, that would take flies but not wasps
or hornets. His meaning was, that if poor mean men offended, they
should be sure to be punished ; but great men that were the makers
of laws, they might be breakers of the laws, and yet never smart for
it. In all ages some or others have poured out sad complaints against
partial justice. Pilate, that unjustly condemned Christ, was afterwards
kicked off the bench by Caius^ the emperor, for partial justice, and

^ ' Bona est misericordia, sed non quum est contra judicium ' — Mercy is good, but not
■when it is contrary to judgment. — Augustine.

* The judges in Egypt were portrayed without hands and without eyes, to signify that
they were not to take bribes, nor to accept men's persons. '* Cicero. — G.

* ' Novel,' from the title ' Novelltz Constitutiones,' or * Novells,' — viz., supplements
to the original Code. — G.

* Cato, ap. Gell., lib. xi. cap. 18. The Eoman orator observed, that the force of justice
is such, and so great, that even thieves and robbers, both by sea and land, who live upon
injustice and rapine, yet cannot live upon their trade without some practice of it among
themselves. ® ' Caius,' Caesar or Caligula. — G.

10 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

for grief and shame he became his own executioner. sirs, God will
one day kick such judges and justices, not only off the bench, but into
hell, who make a trade of partial justice, except there be sound repent-
ance on their sides, and pardoning grace on his, Ps. ix. 17, and
xi. 5. Oh that all the judges and justices of the land would for ever
remember, what the wisest prince that ever swayed a sceptre saith in
Prov. xviii. 5, ' It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to
overthrow the righteous in judgment.' It is not good, that is, it is
bad, it is very bad, yea, it is so exceeding bad, as that it can hardly
be expressed or uttered, i It is so great a wickedness, it is so horrid
and so hideous a wickedness, yea, it is so hellish a wickedness, as can
hardly be imagined, as can rarely be declared. The poet in the Greek
epigram taught the silver axe of justice that was carried before the
Eoman magistrate to proclaim, ' If thou be an offender, let not the
silver flatter thee ; if an innocent, let not the axe affright thee.' The
Athenian judges judged in the night, when the faces of men could not
be seen, that so they might be impartial in judgment. I have read
of Zaleucus, that impartial law-giver and judge among the Locrians,
how that he made a very severe law against adulterers — viz., that
whosoever should be found guilty thereof should have both their eyes
put out. Now it so fell out that his son proved the first offender.
Forthwith sentence was pronounced, and execution ready to be done :
whereupon the people earnestly entreated the judge, his father, that
he would pardon the fact, who upon serious deliberation, put out one
of his own eyes and one of his son's, and so shewed himself to be both
a tender father and an upright and impartial judge at once.^ sirs!
it is your wisdom and work, yea, it is as much your glory as it is your
duty, to be impartial in all your administrations of justice, and not to
favour friends or relations, nor to fear the frowns of enemies, but to
proceed impartially, according to the merits of the cause that is before
you. But,

2. Secondly, As you must do justice impartially, so you must do
justice speedily. Jer. xxi. 12, ' house of David, thus saith the Lord;
Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver him that is spoiled out
of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go out like fire, and burn that
none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.* After exa-
mination, execution is to be done with expedition, Ezra vii. 16. When
men cry out for justice, justice, you must not cry out eras, eras, to-
morrow, to-morrow ; you must do justice in the morning. Noon-jus-
tice and evening-justice is not so acceptable to God, nor so honourable
to yourselves, nor so advantageous to others, as morning -justice is.
You are called gods : and as in other things, so in this, you should be
like to God, who is speedy and swift in the exercise of justice, as you
may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together. ^ To

^ By the figure Liptote, much is to be understood, when there is but little said. [Rather
'Litotes,' by which more is to be understood than is expressed. — G.]

= Aelian V. H. xiii. 24 ; Val. Max. V. 5, § 3.— G.

8 Joel iii. 4 ; Gen. xix ; Num. xvi. ; Psalm ci. 8. The Persian king had one about
him, whose office it was to mind him every morning of his charge, saying, ' Arise, O
king, and have an eye to those affairs for which the great God hath made you king, and
despatch them.'

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. H

delay justice, is worse sometimes than to deny justice. It is an evil
thing and a dangerous tiling, when magistrates, judges, and justices
are as long a-bringing forth their verdicts as the elephant her young.
Delays of justice makes many more irreconcileable. It makes the
client often go with a heavy heart, an empty purse, and a threadbare
coat. It fetcheth heavy sighs and groans from the hearts, and a sea"
of tears from the eyes of the delayed and oppressed. Magistrates,
judges, and justices should be always ready to do justice : they should
he always at leisure to do justice. I have read of one of the kings of
Persia, how that he would many times alight off from his horse to do
justice only to a poor body. It were well if all judges and justices would
WTite after this copy, to be ready to do justice and judgment at all
times, and upon all occasions. sirs ! you may have time to live,
even when you have outlived your seasons and opportunities of doing
justice and judgment ; and what a hell will then your lives be to you !
To prevent this hell, it is good to do justice in the morning. I have
read of a very poor woman, who was very earnest with king Philip of
Macedon to do her justice, but he deferred her, and told her that he
had no leisure to hear her : she replied then. Why have you leisure to
be king ? ^ The poor woman thought that they were very unmeet to
be kings and judges, who could not be at leisure to do justice when the
necessities and miseries of poor creatures cried aloud for justice, justice.
I have read of a famous passage of Theodoric, king of the Komans, who,
when a widow came to him with a sad complaint, that she had a suit
depending in the court three years, which might have been ended in a
few days : the king demands of her the judges' names : she tells him :
he sends a special command to them to give all the speedy despatch
that was possible to the widow's cause, which they did, and in two
days determined it to the widow's liking. This being done, the king
calls for the judges, and they supposing that they should have both
applause and reward for their expedition, hastened to liim full of joy :
but after the king had propounded several things to them about their
former delays, he commanded both their heads to be struck off, because
they had spun out that cause to a three years' length, wliich two days
would have ended.^ Here was royal justice indeed ! ^ Oh that all
the magistrates, judges, and justices of the nation would every morn-
ing lay Prov. xiii. 12 warm upon their hearts ! ' Hope deferred
maketh the heart sick : but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of
life.' The Hebrew word, HDli^OD, that is here rendered deferred, is
from Dli'D, that signifies to draw out at length. Men are short-
breathed and short-spirited, and hope's hours are full of eternity:
and when their hopes are drawn out at length, this makes their hearts
sick ; and ah, what a world of such sick souls lies languishing at
hope's hospital all the nation over, yea, all the world over ! Hope in
tliis text is put for the good things men hope for. Now, when the
good things men hope for — be it justice or a quick despatch, &c. — are

^ Plutarch, Apothegm, in vita Demetrii.
^ Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, tome vi. — G.

=• The poets feign Justice to be the daughter of Jupiter, whom he hath set over the
world to revenge those injuries that one man doth to another, &c.

12 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

deferred and delayed, this makes the poor client sick at heart. A
lingering hope always breeds in the heart a lingering consumption.
The harder travail hope hath, and the more strongly it labours to
bring forth, and yet is deferred and delayed, the more deadly sick the
client grows. But when the desire cometh, that is, when the thing
desired, wished, and looked for, be it justice, be it righteousness, be it
success, &c., is gained, it is a tree of life ; or rather as the Hebrew
hath it, is a tree, D^TT, of lives. All sorts of lives, and all the com-
forts and contents of life, are wrapt up in the enjoyment of the
thing desired. He that hath those things granted to him that
are earnestly desired by him, is once more put into a paradise.
Wilful delays in justice makes the judge umighteous, Luke xviii. 6.
But,

3. Thirdly, As you must do justice speedily, so you must do justice
sincerely. You must do justice out of love to justice, Isa. Ixi. 8.
When the golden angels i appear to draAv you to pervert justice, you
must say as Peter did to Simon Magus, ' Thy money perish with
thee,' Acts viii. 20. Dent. xvi. 20, ' That which is altogether just
shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which
the Lord thy God giveth thee.' Or rather as the Hebrew hath it,
pis, pliJ, tsedeJc, tsedeJc, justice, justice shalt thou follow, that
is, pure justice shalt thou follow. The streams of justice should
be always pure and clear, ' Justice, justice shalt thou follow,' that
is, all manner of justice shalt thou follow, and nothing but justice
shalt thou follow ; and thou shalt follow justice sincerely, exactly,
carefully, and constantly: thou shalt be not seemingly just, but
really just ; not hypocritically just, but entirely just ; not partially
just, but universally just ; not just to some, but just to all ; not
transiently just, but perpetually just ; not sometimes just, but always
just; and so much the geminating of the word 'justice, justice,'
imports. Prov. xxi. 15, ' It is joy to the just to do judgment.'
This argues much sincerity and integrity in a man's spirit, when he
doth not only do judgment, but joys to do judgment. It is a vanity
to do justice slightly, lightly, wantonly; but it is an honour to do jus-
tice from a principle of divine joy. He that joys to do judgment, he
will do justice sincerely, he will do justice out of love to justice ; and
indeed there are no judges, there are no justices to those that do jus-
tice out of love to justice. Mazarinus complaineth of foreign judges,
that they too much resembled the blood-stone, which hath a special
property to stanch blood, but as jewellers observe, it puts not forth
this virtue, unless it be let in or covered over with silver, and so ap-
lied to the vein : but certainly these men were far from doing justice
sincerely, from doing justice out of love to justice. Some judges and
justices there have been, who, for the cleanliness of the conveyance,
would, like mendicant friars, touch no money themselves, but have a
boy or a clerk with a bag to receive it for them. Certainly these
were as far from doing justice out of love to justice, as heaven is from
hell, or as the Pope, the Turk, and the devil are from being real saints.
Doubtless many magistrates, judges, and justices have found that * a
gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous,*
* = Monej'-bribes in coin so-called. — G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 13

Exod. xxiii. 8. Golden dust liath put out more eyes than it hath done
good to hearts. Oh, this golden wedge, this silver squinsie^ hath
made many men silent and speechless in good causes ! Titus Vespa-
sian was so delighted in doing of justice, that if a day had passed over
his head wherein he had done no act of justice, he would cry out,
^ Amici, diem perdidi:' my friends, I have lost a day. And so
Epaminondas, a heathen, though he was very poor, and often tempted
with great bribes and presents to be unjust, yet he refused and scorned
all, and would commonly say, that if the cause were good, he would
do it without a bribe, because it was good ; but if the cause was bad,
he would not meddle with it for a world.^ These heathens will one
day rise in judgment against all such corrupt judges and justices that
will not do justice without a bribe. If this Treatise should fall into
the hands of any such, I would then let them know that God will one
day make good that dreadful word against them that you have in Job
XV. 34, ' For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire
shall consume the tabernacles of bribery ;' or as the Septuagint reads
it. Of men that take gifts fire shall consume : or rather as the Hebrew
hath it. Fire shall eat the tabernacles ; it shall feed on their tabernacles
as greedily as a hungry man doth feed on his meat. Oh, the sump-
tuous buildings and brave structures that have been built by the
hands of bribery shall be set on fire by a hand of justice ! Prov. x.
2, 3, and iii. 33. If bribery brings in a thousand one year, divine
justice will cast away two for it the next year. God will one day burn
up on both hands all the comforts, and all the contentments, and all
the enjoyments of corrupt magistrates, judges, and justices. I have
read of a Polonian judge, that stood up very stoutly and resolutely a
long time for a poor plaintiff against a rich defendant ; but at last he
received from the defendant a great sum of money, stamped with the
usual stamp of that country, which is a man in complete armour ; and
at the next session in open court he adjudged the cause in the favour
of the defendant : and being sharply blamed by his friends for it, he
shewed them his large bribe, and demanded of them. Who could stand
out against so many men in complete armour ? Ah, England, Eng-
land ! it would be better with thee if this spirit did not still survive ;
but alas, what good will all these men's men in armour do them in the
great day of our Lord, when the thoughts of all such corrupt magis-
trates, judges, and justices shall be exceedingly troubled, their coun-
tenances changed, their hearts terrified, their consciences awakened,
their souls amazed, and their knees dashed one against another ! Oh
that all judges and justices would for ever make Isa. v. 23 their daily
companion, ' Woe to them which justify the wicked for a reward, and
take away the righteousness of the righteous from him.' I have read
of Sysamnes, a covetous, tenacious judge, who for filthy lucre pro-
nounced a false sentence ; whereupon Cambyses, king of Persia, com-
manded him to be killed and flayed, and his skin to be nailed over
the tribunal : and then he commanded his son to sit as judge there,
that so this sight might arm him against all injustice, and be a terror
to all that succeeded him. If princes did but exercise such royal just-

^ Same as ' quinsy ' = a tumid inflammatioa in the throat, here used metaphorically.— G.
* Plutarch, sub nomine, — G.

14 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

tice upon all corrupt covetous judges and justices, justice would be had
at a cheaper rate, and poor men would not be so often put to pawn
their coats, nor rich men would not so often empty their purses nor
mortgage their inheritances. But,

4. Fourthly, As you must do justice sincerely, so you must do justice
deliberatehj. You must have one ear for the defendant, and another for
the plaintiff, or else you will tell the world at once that you are both
weak and wicked, Dent. xvii. 4; vide Deut. xix. 17-19. It argues much
weakness and emptiness of spirit, to judge a matter before all is heard
that can be said. Job's piety and prudence shined forth eminently in
this, that the cause that he knew not, he searched it out, Job xxix. 16.
Before God would pronounce judgment upon Adam, he first examines
him, and propounds several interrogatories to him. Gen. iii. And in
those two great and famous acts of justice, when God confounded
Babel's builders, and rained hell out of heaven upon Sodom and
Gomorrah, he tells you that he will go down and see. Gen. xi. and xviii.
You are called gods ; in this it is as much your glory as it is your duty to
imitate the great God. Though Solomon was in all his glory, yet he
had patience to hear both what the mother and the harlot had to say.
The Holy Ghost puts the fool upon him that answers a matter before
he hears it, Prov. xviii. 13. It was the usual custom of Philip, king
of Macedon, to stop one of his ears whilst the accuser was speaking,
that so he might reserve it for the defendant. I have read of some
who have deeply suffered both in their civil liberties and in their con-
sciences, for their rash and hasty passing of judgment upon others.
Why hath God given the judges of the earth two ears and but one
tongue, but tliat they should be swift to hear and slow to speak ? I
have read of Louis, king of France, that when he had through inad-
vertency granted an unjust suit, as soon as ever he had read those words
of the psalmist, ' Blessed is he that doth righteousness at all times,'
Psalm cvi. 3, he presently recollected himself, and upon better thoughts
gave his judgment quite contrary. Certainly all acts of justice ought
to flow from mature deliberation. All magistrates, judges, and
justices, in their administrations of justice and judgment, should
wisely observe by what principles they act, and by what rules they
act, and by what authority they act, and in what manner they act, and
to what ends they act : and how all these important things can be
done without serious deliberation, I cannot for the present understand.
Justice in the emblem is represented with a balance in the one hand,
and a sword in the other, to note that matters must be first deliberately
weighed in the balance before judgment can be passed. i He that only
useth the sword and not the balance, may smite an innocent Naboth,
and acquit a guilty Ahab. The civil law concludes it very unreason-
able for any man to give advice or judgment before he hath considered
and weighed the whole cause.2 And therefore by your own laws you
are bound to deliberate before you give judgment, unless you will tell
the world that you, even you, are unreasonable men, who above all
others should be the masters of the greatest reason, as well as men of
the greatest measures of grace and holiness. But,

^ Quarles and Brooks's favourite ' Emblemata Sacra.' — G.
' Civile dig. 4. de legis senatusque consul. . .

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 15

5. Fifthly, As you must do justice deliberately, so you must do
justice resolutely, courageously, valiantly. As soon as Joshua came
into the office of magistracy, God charges him no less than three
times, in a breath as it were, to be very courageous, in Joshua i. 6-9.
A judge that is timorous will quickly be treacherous. A judge that
is fearful can never be faithful. Solomon's throne was supported with
lions, to shew that magistrates should be men of courage and mettle.
The Athenian judges sat in Mars Street, to show that they had
martial hearts, and that they were men of courage and mettle, Acts
x^di. 22 ; Job xxxi. 31, 34. Job was a judge of rare courage and
magnanimity ; nothing could fear him, nothing could daunt him,
nothing could terrify him, nothing could discourage him from doing
justice and judgment. The Grrecians placed Justice betwixt Leo and
Libra, to signify that as there must be indifFerency in determining, so
there ought to be courage in executing. Where there is courage with-
out knowledge, there the eye of justice is blind ; and where there is
knowledge without courage, there the sword of justice is blunt.
Judges and justices should be men of courage for God and godliness.
Why should not the standard be of steel, and the chief posts in
the house be heart of oak ? I have read of Agesilaus, how that he was
by all concluded fit to be made their king, but that he halted. ^ Men
of the best and choicest accomplishments, if they are not courageous
and magnanimous, but lame and halting, they are no ways fit for
magistrates. Judges and justices should have martial spirits, high
spirits for justice and righteousness. Every judge, every justice,
should have a lion's heart, an eagle's eye, and a giant's arm. Such
men whose dull hearts are faint, whose heads are dull, whose ears are
heavy, whose eyes are dim, whose hands are weak, and whose feet are
lame, are more fit to sit in a chimney corner than to sit judges
and justices upon the bench. It hath been long since said of Cato,
Fabricius, and Aristides, that it was as easy to remove the sun out of
the firmament as to remove them from justice and equity, they were
men of such courageous and magnanimous spirits for justice and
righteousness. No scarlet robe doth so well become a judge as
holy courage and stoutness doth. I have read of Louis the Eleventh,
king of France, who going about to establish some unjust edicts, which,
when some of his chief courtiers perceived, they went altogether to
him in red gowns ; the king asked them what they would have :
the president La Vacqueri answered, We are come with a full pur-
pose to lose our lives every one of us, rather than by our connivancy
any unjust ordinance should take place. The king being amazed
at this answer, and at the courage, constancy, and resolution of those
peers, gave them gracious entertainment, and commanded that
all the former edicts should be forthwith cancelled in his presence.
Courage and resolution may prevent many a public mischief and
misery. But,

6. Sixthly, As you are to do justice resolutely, courageously, so you
are to do justice and judgment exactly. 2 Chron. xix. 5-7, ' And he

1 Agesilaus II. The allusion is to the curiously fulfilled Oracle that warned Sparta of
evils awaiting her under a ' lame sovereignty.' Cf. Xen. Hell. iii. 3 : Agesilaus, Diod.
xiv. XV. : Paus. iii. 9, 10, &c. — Q.

16 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

set judges in the land throughout all the fenced cities of Judah, city
by city. And said to the judges, Take heed what you do: for ye judge
not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment.
Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you ; take heed and
do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect
of person, nor taking of gifts/ God is exact in all his ways, and he is
exact in all his works ; he is exact in all his promises, and he is exact
in all his threatenings ; he is exact in all his rewards, and he is exact
in all his punishments ; he is exact in the exercise of his mercy, and
he is exact in the exercise of his justice.! And therefore you that
are called gods, should in this be like God. sirs, some by force,
others by flattery, some by large presents to your relations, and others
by promising great rewards to yourselves, may endeavour to corrupt
you, and blind you, and induce you to judge rashly, inconsiderately,
irregularly, &c. ; and therefore you have the more cause to be exact in
transacting all your judicial affairs. Oh, remember that the most sharp
and piercing eye of God is still upon you ! Oh, remember that the
severe eye of Jesus Christ, who is the judge of judges, is never off of
you ; and the angels, those princes of glory, are very strict observers of
you. When the Ethiopian judges were set in their seats of judicature,
certain empty chairs were placed about them, into which they con-
jectured the holy angels came and were spectators of all their transac-
tions, and this they thought would work such an awe, such a dread,
such a care, such a fear, and such a resolution in them, that they
could not but manage all their judicial proceedings with much exact-
ness and heedfulness.2 And as the angels have their eyes upon you,
so Satan hath always his eyes upon you ; he hath always a watchful
eye, an envious eye, a malicious eye, a crafty eye, and a revengeful eye
upon you. Witness his dissuading you sometimes from your duty,
and witness his distracting and disturbing of you whilst you are in
your duty, and witness his accusing of you for the neglect of your duty,
and witness his endeavours to pride you and jDuff you up upon
the discharge of your duty. And as the eye of Satan is upon you,
so the eyes of good men are always upon you, and the eyes of bad men
are upon you. And if all this doth not bespeak you to be very exact
and accurate in all your judicial transactions, I know nothing. My
Lords and Gentlemen, if all this will not do, then remember that
the lives, liberties, consciences, rights, privileges, estates, and interests
of persons, next to God and Christ and grace, are the most choice
and precious, the most desirable and delectable jewels that men have
in all the world, and therefore you had need be very exact and
accurate in all your judicial transactions. Yea, once more, remember
that God will one day bring you to an exact account concerning
all your judicial proceedings. That same mouth that tells you that
you are gods, tells you also that you must die like men ; and after
death comes judgment, Ps. Ixxxii. 6, 7 ; Heb. ix. 27. You that

^ Exod. xxiii. 6, 7, 13, The Egyptians had a notable practice : when their judges were
set, they caused the image of a divine Numen, by them called truth, to be hung about his
neck who sat next unto the judges, to make them the more exact and heedful in
judgment,

2 Cave, spectat Cato, was a watchword among the Eomans. Oh, how much more
should Cave, special Dominus, be a watchword amongst you !

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 17

now call others to judgment, shall shortly be called to judgment your-
selves : you that now sit in judgment upon others, shall ere long
be judged by him that will judge the world in righteousness. Acts
xvii. 31. My Lords and Gentlemen, give me leave to tell you that that
judge to whom you must be responsible is no ignorant judge, nor no
covetous judge, nor no partial judge, nor no fearful judge, nor no
doting judge, nor no trifling judge, though such there may be in the
world ; but he is an omniscient judge, an omnipotent judge, an
impartial judge, a holy judge, a courageous judge, a serious judge,
a severe judge, an unbiassed judge, a righteous judge, and a resolute
judge. 1 Alas, sirs, it is not your scarlet gowns, nor your titles of
honour, nor your great estates, nor your interest in princes, nor your
noble relations, nor your applause among men, that will stand you
in stead, when you shall stand before that judge that is a consuming
fire, Heb. xii. 29. Well, Gentlemen, remember this, there is never a
professing judge nor justice in the world that will be able at last to give
up their accounts with joy, and to stand in judgment when the Lamb
Bhall sit upon his throne, but such as have made it their great business
to take the Spirit of the Lord for their guide, and to set up the glory
of the Lord as their great end, and to make the word of the Lord their
principal rule, and to eye the example of the Lord as their choicest and
chiefest pattern ; and therefore it is much to be feared that the num-
ber of such judges and justices, that will be able to stand before the
judge of all the world, will be but few. But,

7. Seventhly, As you must do justice and judgment exactly, so you
must do justice to others as you would have others do justice to you.
For judges and justices to do as they would be done by, is the
royal law, the golden rule, and the standard of equity. Judges and
justices should think of others, as they would have others think of
them ; and speak of others, as they would have others speak of them ;
and do to others, as they would have others do to them. 2 Whatever
by the light of nature, or by the light of conscience, or by the light of
scripture, a judge, a justice, would have another do to him, the same
must he do to another. In all just things — for so this law of Christ is
only to be understood — we must do to others, as we would have others
do to us. As we would have others carry it equally, justly, and
righteously towards us, so we must carry it equally, justly, and
righteously towards others : and as we would not have others to wrong
us in our names, estates, rights, liberties, lives, so we must not wrong
others in their names, estates, rights, liberties, lives, &c. This law of
Christ is the sum of all righteousness. It is the foundation of all justice
and equity. Self-love doth so commonly blind the sons of men, that
to judge righteously, they must change the person, they must put
themselves in others' room. All princes, judges, justices, parents,

' Tennes, the son of Cyrnus, who was worshipped as a god, was so strict and exact in
judgment, that he caused an axe to be held over the witnesses' heads, to execute them out
of hand, if they were taken with falsehood ; and from thence was the proverb, Tenedia
bipennis. [Rather Tennes (T-Zivvris) of Tenedos, a son of Cycnus, not Cyrnus. Cicero,
Q. Fr. ii. 11, 2 : M. Aurel. ap Front. Ep. : ad M. Caesar, i. 9.— G.]

^ Mat. vii. 12. Severus, the emperor, had this scripture often in his mouth ; and
whensoever he punished any of his soldiers for offering of injuries to others, he still
commanded this scripture to be proclaimed by the crier.

VOL. IV. /• B

18 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

masters, subjects, servants, and children, should so act in their
relations, as they would have others act in the co-relation. All
injustice will be repaid one time or another ; and therefore men had
need be just, and do to others as they would have others do to them.
I have read of a citizen of Comun, in the dukedom of Farrara,! who
being cast into prison upon suspicion'of murder, his wife could get no
promise of his deliverance, unless she would give the captain, whose
prisoner he was, two hundred ducats, and yield her body to his plea-
sure ; which, with the consent of her husband, she did ; but after the
captain had his desire, he notwithstanding put him to death. The
Duke Gonzala hearing of it, commanded the captain to restore the two
hundred ducats to the widow, with an addition of seven hundred
crowns ; then he enjoined him to marry her presently, and lastly,
before he could enjoy his new wife, the duke caused him to be hanged
for his treachery and injustice. Sometimes in this life, injustice is
repaid upon the heads of unjust judges. My Lords and Gentlemen,
before I close up this head, give me leave heartily to recommend
to your justice those wrongs and injuries which more immediately
strike at the honour and glory of the great God. God hath put his
name upon you ; Psalm Ixxxii. 6, ' I said that ye are gods : ' yet
it must be granted that you are gods in a smaller letter — mortal gods,
gods that must die like men ; all the sons of Ish are sons of Adam.
And as God hath put his name upon you, so he hath made you his vice-
roys, 2 Chron, xix. 6, ' Ye judge not for yourselves, but for the Lord.'
And therefore God takes all affronts that are done to you, as done
to himself, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin
together.^ And God hath provided for your honour among men;
Exod. xxii. 28, ' Thou shalt not revile the gods,' i.e., the magistrates,
' nor curse the ruler of thy people.' I have read of Fabius Maximus,
who highly reverenced and honoured his own son, being consul. This
heathen will one day rise up in judgment against all such that scorn
to give to magistrates that honour that, by the fifth commandment, is
due unto them. And God is very severe in revenging the wrongs that
are done to you, 2 Pet. ii. 9, 10 ; 1 Sam. viii. 7. He interprets all the
injuries that are done to you, as done to himself. And why then will
you not revenge the wrongs and injuries that are done to the great GodP
Give me leave. Gentlemen, in the behalf of the great Gt)d, a little
to expostulate with you. Shall the least dishonourable word that
is spoken against an earthly prince be severely punished ? and shall all
those horrid and hellish blasphemies, by which the Prince of the kings
of the earth is dishonoured and reproached all the nation over, pass
unobserved ? Shall all affronts that are offered to ambassadors be
deeply resented and justly censured, as high indignities done to the
prince that employed them ? and shall the ambassadors of the great
God — I mean such as are called, commissionated, spirited, gifted, and
graced for that high office by God himself — be scorned, defamed,
injured, reviled, and on all hands evilly entreated, and yet no man
say. Why do you thus wickedly, to provoke the great God to your own
destruction ? 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, seq. Shall it be looked upon as

^ Query * Como' and * Ferarra ?'— G.

2 Rom. xiii. 2 ; Exod. xvi. 7, 8 ; 1 Sam. viii. 7 ; Rom. xiii. 7 ; Josh. iv. 14.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 19

noble and necessary justice, that all insurrections in the state be
punished as rebellion ? and shall those who are daily up in open arms
against the great God, and that daily bid defiance to him, to his Son,
to his ordinances, to his people, to his word, and to his ways, escape
without the least lash, the least censure ? Shall those that rob their
neighbours, though it be but to the value of five shillings, yea less, be
indicted, examined, condemned, and executed ? and shall others that
rob God of his glory, of his Sabbaths, and of his service, &c., escape
without the least shaking of the rod, or without the least danger of the
whip ? Shall all profaneness, looseness, and wickedness, be winked at,
yea, countenanced and encouraged, notwithstanding his Majesty's most
zealous, pious, and renowned declaration against it ? and shall
real holiness and the power of godliness be on all hands scorned, dis-
countenanced, opposed, and reviled, and yet no man say. What means
these things ? Well, my Lords and Gentlemen, for ever remember this :
all those sins that are in this land committed, which by your just
power and gracious examples might have been prevented, all those
sins in the great day shall be charged upon your accounts ; and there-
fore it highly concerns you with all your might to browbeat wicked-
ness, to discountenance ungodliness, and to improve your power to the
uttermost, for the suppressing of all profaneness, and for the coun-
tenancing, encouraging, and promoting of real holiness, that so you
may give up your accounts at last with joy. I have read of king
Ethelbert, how that by his godly example, and by his countenancing
and encouraging such as were godly, and by his discountenancing
of profaneness and wickedness, he drew this whole kingdom once
to look after godliness. my Lords and Gentlemen, if you would
be but shining examples and patterns of holiness to the nation ; if you
would but in good earnest put forth your utmost power for the
encouraging of godliness, and for the suppressing of profaneness : oh,
what a holy nation, yea, what a happy nation should we have ! King
Cyrus commanded the chief officers of his army to keep a strict hand
upon themselves ; for, saith he, that is the best way in the world to
keep the whole army in good order. The application is easy. But,

8. Eighthly, In the exercise of justice, you must look that Justice and
mercy, that justice and clemency go hand in hand. Prov. xx. 28,
' Mercy 'and truth preserve the king : and his throne is upholden by
mercy,' Prov. xxix. 14 ; Ps. ci. 1. Some read the words thus, ' Mercy
and justice preserve the king ; and his throne is upholden by mercy.' l
All justice wUl not preserve the king, nor all mercy will not preserve
the king ; there must be a mixture both of justice and mercy to pre-
serve the king, and to uphold his throne ; and to shew that mercy is
more requisite than justice, the word mercy is doubled in the text.
Justice without mercy turns into rigour, and so becomes hateful ;
mercy without justice turns into fond pity, and so becomes contempt-
ible. Look, as the rod of Aaron and the pot of manna were by God's
command laid up in the same ark, so must mercy and justice be pre-
served entire in the bosom of the same magistrate, judge, and justice.^
Mercy and justice, mildness and righteousness, lenity and fidelity, are

^ It is usual in Scripture, by truth, to understand justice.

^King John thought to strengthen himself by gathering a great deal of money to-

20 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOEY.

a safer and a stronger guard to princes and people, than rich mines,
munitions of rocks, mighty armies, powerful navies, or any warlike
preparations. It is very observable that Christ is called but once the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, in the Book of the Kevelation, and that is
in chap. v. 5 ; but he is called a Lamb no less than nine-and-twenty
times in that book. And what is this but to shew the transcendent
mercy, clemency, lenity, mildness, and sweetness, thatjs in Jesus Christ,
and to shew that he is infinitely more inclined to the exercise of mercy,
than he is to the exercise of justice. It is true, magistrates, judges,
and justices should be lions in the execution of justice ; -and it is as
true that they should be lambs in the exercise of mercy and clemency,
mildness and sweetness : and the more ready and inclinable they are
to the exercise of mercy, where mercy is to be shewed, the more like
to the lamb they are, Seneca hath long since observed that the custom
of anointing kings, was to shew that kings should be above all other
men ,of the greatest sweetness and mildness, their anointing being a
sign of that kingly sweetness and mildness that should be in them.i
Nero's speech hath great praise, who, when he was to subscribe
to the death of any condemned man, would say, Utinam nescirem
literas, I wish I did not know how to write. 2 But,

9. Ninthly and lastly. You must do justice proportionable to the
nature of the offence. Your penalties and punishments must be always
suitable to the offence. To punish any fact more severely tlian it
deserves, is always injustice to the offender ; for so far innocency itself
suffers, as any man is punished beyond the demerit of his offence ; and
to punish less than the fact deserves, may be of dangerous consequence
to the public.^ The ^oman fasces were a bundle of rods with an axe
in the midst, to signify the equity of magistrates in punishing some
only with rods, and others with the axe. The Eomans had their rods
for lesser faults, and their axe for capital crimes. Justice is then re-
miss, when it spares where it ought to punish ; and justice is then too
severe, when it punisheth where it ought to spare. Extreme right
often proves extreme wrong. He that will always go to the utmost of
what the law allows, will too too often do more than the law requires.
It is rare, very rare, to see a man dance upon the brink of the pit, and
not to tumble in. A rigid severity often mars all ; equity is still to
be preferred before extremity. To inflict great penalties and heavy
censm'es for light offences, this is to kill a fly upon a man's forehead
with a beetle.4 In the French history, there is mention made of an
old courtier that would needs depart the court, and retire himself to a
private life ; the king desired him before he went to leave his advice
in some general rules, what was best to be done in the government of

gether ; but neglecting the exercise of mercy, clemency, and lenity, he lost his people's
affections, and so, after many endless turmoils, he came to an unhappy end. [But cf.
Chad wick's recent able * King John of England: a History and Vindication based on the
Original Authorities.' 1 vol., 8vo., (J. E. Smith,) 1865.— G.]

^Z>e dementia: cf. xiii. and xviii., et alibi. — G.

^ Ibid., the Treatise being dedicated to Nero ; cf. lib. ii., cap. i. — G.

* I have read of the river Nilus, that if it either exceed or be defective in its due over-
flowings of the land of Egypt, it causeth famine : the application is easy. Cleobulus,
one of the seven Sages, was wont to say that Mediocrity was without compare.

*Cf. Sibbes's Works in former Series : vol. i. 101. — G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 21

the kingdom. Upon which motion he took a fair paper, and wrote
upon the top of the leaf, Moderation ; and in the middle of the leaf,
Moderation ; and at the bottom of the leaf, Moderation ; signifying
thereby thus much to the king, that the best way in the world to have
his crown set fast, and to keep his kingdom safe, was to manage
throughout all his affairs with moderation. And there is nothing
more evident in scriptin-e and history than this, that many by screw-
ing the pegs of government too high, have broke all in pieces about
their ears.

Now, my Lords and Gentlemen, there are five things or rules that
will be of singular use to help you in this case, to steer such a course
as may be safe and honourable to you, and as may render you a mercy
and a blessing to the nation.

1. And the first is this. Never make those things to he sins, ivhick
God never made to he sins. To make those things to be sins wliich
God hath made to be no sins, is to make gods of yourselves ; yea, it
is to lift up yourselves above God himself, as if you were more holy,
more wise, more just, and more righteous than the Holy One of Israel
is. Indeed the Papists, that are will-worshippers, and commonly
highly conceited of their own wisdom and worth, they frequently
transgress this rule with their ' Touch not, taste not, handle not,' Col.
ii. 21, 23 ; which things have indeed a show of wisdom in wUl- worship,
&c. But why should you, why should you, who have a higher pro-
fession upon you, and a more clear gospel-light shining every day more
strongly upon you ? But,

2. Secondly, Never make those things to he absolute and necessary
duties, tJmt God hath noiohere declared to he such, Isa. xxxiii. 22 ;
James iv. 12. Such things that do neither fall under a general nor
a particular command of God, may not be imposed upon the consciences
of men as absolute and necessary duties to be performed by them. A
faithful observing of these two rules would prevent a multitude of
sins, a sea of sorrows, and a world'of troubles. But,

3. Thirdly, In all your administrations of justice, take the authority
of the ivoi'd icith you. This will yield you most comfort,' most peace,
most security, and most boldness, in the great day of your account.
But,

4. Fourthly, Never put off your own souls with . any such pleas or
arguments now, that are not pleadable in the court of conscience, when
you shall lie upon your dying-beds ; nor that are not pleadable before
the court of heaven, when you shall stand before Christ's judgment-
seat. But,

5. Fifthly and lastly. In all your administrations of justice and
judgment, be sure that you act nothing upon the account of any com-
mand, commission, or authority under heaven, that you dare not oion,
plead, and stand hy hefore the great . authority of heaven, when the
King of kings shall make a narrow inspection into all your judicial
proceedings, and accordingly pass judgment upon you. What though
this command, and that commission, and the other authority, may bear
you out in this world ? yet if they are too weak to bear you out in
the other world, you will curse the day that ever you were born, and

22 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

wish that you had rather been a-turning of spits, or lying under a
hedge, or a-begging at the rich man's door, than that you had ever sat
in seats of judicature, to act upon such grounds as are no ways plead-
able before the Lord Jesus Christ, when he shall come in the glory of
his Father, with all his holy angels, to judge all the kings, princes,
nobles, judges, and justices of the earth. My Lords and Gentlemen, if
these five things or rules were but sincerely, seriously, resolutely, and
constantly followed, no heart can conceive, nor no tongue can express,
the heinous sins, the sore troubles, and the dreadful calamities and
woeful miseries that thereby would be prevented. And thus, my
Lords and Gentlemen, I have done with those special rules that you
are carefully, diligently, faithfully, and constantly to observe in all
your judicial administrations ; but how you will be able to act suitable
and answerable to these rules without a spirit of holiness, without
a principle of holiness, and without an experiment i of the powerful
operations of holiness in your own souls, I am not able to see ; and,
therefore, how much it siknds you upon that want, that holiness, that
this Treatise holds forth, to study holiness, to love holiness, to prize
holiness, to countenance holiness, to encourage holiness, to promote
holiness, and to be restless till you have experienced the power, and life,
and sweet of holiness in your own hearts and lives, I must leave you
to judge. 2 And oh that after all this pains that I have taken upon the
account of your immortal souls, I may not have cause to complain, as
once Marcus Antonius did : Alas, saith he, those graces which the
deity sent down as so many pillars to stay up human societies, viz.,
Faith and Modesty, Justice and Verity, they found such cold entertain-
ment in the world, that they are fled back to heaven. I shall follow
these weak endeavours with my best prayers, that you may all put on
holiness as a royal robe, and that all your judicial administrations may
savour of a spirit of holiness, and of the power and prevalency of holi-
ness, that so you may be as high in happiness above others, as you are
now in power and place exalted above others.

If this Treatise should fall into any of their hands who call and ac-
count themMves the only ministers of Jesus Christ; I mean such who
preach rather to please than to profit ; to tickle the ear than to awaken
the conscience ; that are better at fleecing of their flocks than they are
at feeding of their flocks ; that seek more men's goods than their good ; ^
that set up men's traditions above God's own institutions ; that prefer
human commands before divine commands ; that are very zealous and
warm for mint, anise, and cummin, but are very cold, careless, and
negligent in the great and weighty matters of the law, viz., judgment,
mercy, and faith ; that can bless God in the church, and blaspheme
him in the tavern ; that prefer music in the church before singing of
hallelujahs in heaven ; that prefer a fat benefice before an interest in a
heavenly inheritance ; that can kneel devoutly behind a pillar, and in
their drunken fits rail as stoutly against a post ; that pretend a great
deal of reverence to the name of Jesus, and yet in their lives do daily

^ ' Experience.' — G.

^ If you please to read from page 433 to page 447, you will find many more weighty
arguments to more you to labour after holiness. [As before. — G.]
^Ezek. xiii., read it throughout; Mat. xxiii. 23 ; Mat. xxv. 1-10.

THE EriSTLE DEDICATORY. 23

crucify the Lord Jesus ; that with Judas can kiss Christ and betray
Christ in a breath ; that pretend much kindness to the head, and yet
shew nothing but unkindness to the body ; that preach as if they had
no mind to go to heaven, and live as if they were resolved to go to
hell ; that feast their own bodies, but starve their people's souls ; that
are very devout upon a saint's day, but very loose and profane upon
the Lord's-day ; that think it a greater sin to eat flesh in Lent, than it
is to lie with their neighbour's wife ; that speak ten words for them-
selves, and hardly two for Christ ; and that instead of preaching up holi-
ness, and promoting of holiness, and countenancing and encouraging
of holiness, do all they can to discountenance holiness, to browbeat
holiness, to keep down holiness, to bespatter holiness, to work men out
of love with holiness, and to hinder the growth and increase of holiness :
oh that these men would seriously consider how unlike to the minis-
ters of Jesus Christ they are ! i Do but look, into a scripture-glass, and
you may easily see that hell is not more unlike to heaven, nor sin more
unlike to grace, nor Satan more unlike to God, than you are unlike to
the holy, conscientious, painful, &c., ministers of Jesus Christ. Several
authors in print have proved this to my hand at large, and therefore
I shall not enlarge upon it ; only give me leave to say, that God's holy
things ought to be handled with fear and reverence, rather than with
wit and dalliance. Spiritual niceness is the next degree to unfaithful-
ness. Ministers must not be like the drug that the physicians say is
hot in the mouth and cold in the operation : hot in the pulpit, but
cold, carnal, and careless in their conversations. 2 Those that stand
before princes must be exact in their carriages. God appointed both
the weights and measures of the sanctuary to be twice as large as those
of the commonwealth ; to shew that he expects much more of those
that serve him there, than he doth of others. The souls of priests, I
may say of ministers, must be purer than the sunbeams, saith
golden-mouthed Chrysostom. Gay things in a sermon are only for
men to gaze upon and admire. What are high strains and flashes of
wit, new minted words and phrases, but like gay weeds and blue-
bottles 3 to the good corn ? Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow ;
application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in gene-
rals, but vain, eV BiaXoyiafjLoi'i, in their practical inferences. A gene-
ral doctrine not applied, is as a sword without an edge, not in itself,
but to others ; or as a whole loaf set before children, that will do them
no good. A garment fitted for all bodies, is fit for no body ; and so
that which is spoken to all, is taken as spoken to none. Aaron's bells
were golden bells, Dulce sonantes, sounding pleasantly, and not as
sounding brass or tinkling cymbals, as many of the carnal clergy of
this nation are this day. Many there be that account themselves
the only ministers of Jesus Christ, that are but like empty orators,
that have a flood of words, and but a drop of matter ; of whom we may

1 Gentlemen, if you please to turn to pages 296-299 of this book, you will find more
matter that concerns you. [As before, in the original edition : see General Index, under
' Ministers.' — G.]

* See my ' Precious Remedies against Satan's Devices,' from page 349 to page 357 ;
and see my ' Unsearchable Riches of Christ,' irom page 291 to page 314. [For the for-
mer, in this edition, vol. i., p. 152 seq., for the latter, vol. iii., p. 207 seq.—O.] _

3 A field flower found among wheat : another Shakesperian word, curiously used in 2
Henry IV,, v. 4.— G.

24 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

truly say, Multa loquuntur et nihil dicunt, They speak much, and yet
say nothing, because they say nothing to the purpose. When the
Lacedemonian in Plutarch heard how sweetly the nightingale sang, Oh,
said he, that I had this bird, surely it is a rare dish ! but when he
had taken it, and ate it, and found nothing but a little picking meat,
he concluded with that proverbial saying, Vox es et prceterea nihil :
Now I see that thou art a mere voice and nothing else. How
applicable this is to many preachers in these days, who have good
lungs, but bad brains, and worse hearts and lives, the prudent reader
may easily see. John the Baptist was a burning and a shining light,
as well as a voice. His sermons were stuffed with divine and weighty
matter, &c., and not filled up with big words or strains of wit. Many
there be that have John's voice in the ministry, that have not that
heat and life that John had in his ministry. That great orator — De-
mosthenes — himself could say, that the riches of Greece did not consist
in words. The oracle would have King Philip of Macedon to use
silver lances in winning an impregnable fort, &c. But it is not for
ministers to use golden sentences, strong lines, frothy wit, in winning
of souls to Christ ; for it is iron, and not gold, that killeth in the en-
counter ; it is the steel sword, and not the golden sword, that winneth
the field. Woe to such preachers that darken counsel by words without
knowledge. Job xxxviii. 2, that affect sublime notions, obscure expres-
sions, uncouth phrases, making plain truths difficult, and easy truths
hard ; that seek abstrusities, and love to soar aloft in dark expressions,
and take pleasure to shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads. The
heathenish priests had their mythologies and strange canting expres-
sions of their imaginary unaccessible deities to amaze and amuse their
blind superstitious followers, and thereby to hold up their Popish and
apish idolatries in greater veneration. And is not this spirit now
revived among many ? Certainly men of abstracted conceits, and
sublime speculations, are but wise fools ; and commonly they are as
erroneous as they are curious. Such as mind more the humouring of
their hearers' fancies, than the saving of their souls, do little consider
that of Seneca, jEger non qucerit medicum eloquentem, sed sanantem :
Sick men are not bettered by physicians' sugared words, but by their
skilful hands. The sword of the Spirit never wounds deep, till it be
plucked out of the gaudy scabbards of human eloquence. Mr Glreen-
ham, speaking of non-residents, wisheth that this motto might be
written on their study-doors without, and walls within, on all their
books they look on, on all the beds they lie on, and on all the tables
they sit at, &c. : ' The price of blood, the price of blood, the price of
blood.' 1 A preacher's life should be a commentary upon his doctrine ;
his practice should be the counterpane 2 of his sermons. Heavenly
doctrines should always be adorned with a heavenly life.

' Preachers are the glass, the school, the book.
Where people's eyes do learn, do read, do look.'

Gentlemen, by these short hints you may see, as in a glass, if you wUl
not put a cheat upon your own souls, how unlike to the true, holy, and

1 Fuller, Church History, B. ix. s. n.—G. " ' Counterpart.'— G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 25

faithful ministers of Jesus Christ you are. sirs, do not you know that
the Holy Scriptures, that never spoke treason nor sedition, do clearly
evidence that an ignorant, profane, scandalous, superstitious, insuffi-
cient, and soul-flattering clergy are the greatest pest, plague, affliction,
judgment, &c., that can befall a people, as you may easily see by com-
paring these scriptures together — Micah ii. 11 ; Isa. xxx. 10, 11 ;
Jer.- V. 31 ; Lam. ii. 14 ; Isa. ix. 16 ; Ezek. iii. 18 ; Jer. xxiii. 9, 18 ;
Ezek. xiii. 22 ; Jer. vi. 14, and xxvii. 14, 16 ; 1 Thes. v. 3 ; Jer. xiv.
13-16; Isa. xxviii. 7, 8; Ezek. xxxiv. throughout; Kom. ii. 21-24.
Other judgments, as sword, famine, pestilence, burning fevers, agues,
&€., cannot separate between God and men's souls ; for men may
have very sweet and high communion with Grod under the sorest of
those judgments. Other afflictions and judgments may spring from
the fatherly love of God, and from a gracious design of good to his
people : Kev. iii. 19 ; Prov. iii. 11 ; Heb. xii. 5-8 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 30,
35 ; Job vii. 17, 18 ; but this is a sad fruit of God's judicial anger
and severe indignation against a people. Other judgments often issue
in men's seeking of the Lord, and in men's returning to the Lord.
Isa. xxvi. 16, 17; Hosea v. 14, 15, compared with chap. vi. 1-3,
and chap. ii. 6, 7 ; but this judgment frequently issues in men's for-
saking of the Lord, and in their running from God, and in their walk-
ing contrary to God, and in the hardening of them against God, and
in an everlasting shutting of them out from the presence of the Lord :
as you may see by comparing of these scriptures together — Mat. xv.
14 ; Luke vi. 39 ; 1 Thes. v. 3 ; 2 Thes. i. 7-10 ; Mat. xxiii. 13.
Do not you know that where there is no vision, the people perish ?
Prov. xxix. 18: i^")H)\ that is here rendered pertsA, is from 3^13, that
signifies to be made naked, to be made bare and uncovered. They are
made naked as soldiers are among the shot and weapons of their
enemies, when their armour is not on their backs ; or they are naked
as people that are stripped of their garments, and exposed to perish by
cold in the winter, or to be scorched or roasted by heat in the summer ;
or they are naked, i.e., they are made the objects of shame and con-
tempt to all that look upon them : or they are made naked, that is, of
the grace, blessing, and protection of God : or they are naked, that is,
say others, they are forsaken and cast off ; for every one forsakes and
casts off naked persons, they will have nothing to do with them, Exod.
xxxii. 25. Others render the words thus, ' The people will keep holy-
day, they will have nothing to do but to weep and wail, or they will
do nothing that is good.' Others thus, ' The people shall be stripped
naked, they shall be left as a city without walls, exposed to the fury
of the enemy, as a body without clothes, open to wind and weather.'
Others carry it thus, ' The people shall be discovered ; it will then
appear what is within, whether grace or sin ; it will then be discovered
what pantings, breathings, hungerings, and longings there be in souls
after God, and Christ, and holiness, and ordinances,' &c. Pagnine
thus, ' The people will grow barbarous, rebellious, &c., as experience
in all ages hath fully demonstrated.' Others thus, ' The people shall
be of no esteem, of no repute ; nobody will prize them, nobody will
value them, nobody will regard them ; men set no price, no value upon

26 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

naked persons.' Others thus, ' The people shall be dispersed, scattered,
shivered and shattered ; ' and this in all ages hath been too apparent.
Others thus, ' They shall be drawn away with errors : they shall either
be starved, or else poisoned with God-dishonouring, Christ-denying,
scripture-debasing, conscience-wasting, life-polluting, and soul-damn-
ing opinions.' It is concluded on all hands, that it shall go ill, very ill,
with that people that want vision, that want serious, sincere, faithful,
and powerful preaching ; for where there is no vision, no serious, sin-
cere, faithful, and powerful preaching, there the people perish certainly,
undoubtedly, there they go tumbling to hell thick and threefold ; and
this is evident in the text, ' Where there is no vision, the people
perish.' He doth not say they may perish, but they do perish; or they
are in danger of perishing, but they do certainly perish. Where there
is no serious, conscientious, faithful, powerful preaching, there the
people grow abominably wicked, as woeful experience tells us : and
what the issue of that will be, you may see in Ps. ix. 17, ' The wicked
shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God ; ' or as
the Hebrew hath it, the wicked shall be turned into into hell, that is,
they shall certainly be turned into hell ; yea, they shall be turned into
the nethermost hell, into the lowest dungeon in hell. See Ps. xi. 6.

Where vision fails, there men perish iem/porally ; when vision, when
preaching ceased among the Jews, oh the dreadful calamities and
miseries that came upon that people ! how soon did God burn up all
their outward comforts, contentments, and enjoyments on every hand,
2 Chron. xv. 3, 5, 6, compared with chap. xiii. 9-11, and chap, xxxvi.
15 seq. ; Mat. xxiii. 37, 38. They shut their eyes against all that light
that Christ and his apostles brought amongst them : and what was
the issue of this ? Why, about forty years after Christ's ascension,
the Komans came and took away their city, and sold thirty of them
a-penny, as Josephus writes, &c. ; and ever since that time, which is
above sixteen hundred years ago,i they have been scattered as dung
over the face of the whole earth.

Where vision fails, there men perish totally : both the bodies and
the souls of men perish, where serious, conscientious preaching fails ;
Hosea iv. 6, ' My people are destroyed for want of knowledge." The
Chaldee rendereth it, they are besotted, and so fitted for destruction.
The Papists say that ignorance is the mother of devotion ; but this
text tells us that it is the mother of destruction. The heathens were
wont to say that if their god Jupiter would destroy one, he would first
besot him. So these people were first besotted, and then destroyed,
Kom. vi. 16-19.

Where vision fails, there the people perish insensibly and unex-
pectedly. They flatter themselves that God is made up all of mercy,
and will not believe but they shall go to heaven, till they awake with
everlasting flames about their ears, as you may see in Sodom and Go-
morrah.

Where vision fails, there men perish suddenly : in a moment they
go down to hell. Job xxi. 13-15. As the travail of a woman comes
suddenly upon her when she least expects it, so everlasting pains and
torments come suddenly upon poor sinners when they least expect them,

1 Brooks's date being 1662.— G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 27

Prov. xxiv. 22 ; Deut. vii. 4 ; 1 Thes. v. 3. As God rained hell out
of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah on a sudden, Gen. xviii. ; and
as he swept away the old world on a sudden, Mat. xxiv. 37-39 ; and
as Samuel cut off Agag on a sudden, when he concluded that the bit-
terness of death was past, 1 Sam. xv. 32 : so God casts sinners to hell
on a sudden, he sweeps them away on a sudden, he cuts them off on a
sudden ; and when they say^ Surely the bitterness of death is past, and
everlasting wrath is past, and hell is past, and eternal ruin is past, then
on a sudden God cuts them off, and gives them their portion with
devils and damned spirits, &c.

Where vision fails, there men perish inevitably, irrecoverably: 1
Thes. v.. And they shall not escape; Prov. vi. 15, 'Therefore shall
his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without
remedy.' Here is their dismal doom : They shall not be only bruised,
but broken ; yea, they shall be suddenly broken when they least look
for it, when they do not at all dream of it, or dread it, and this without
remedy. They shall be so broken, as that there shall not be so much
as a possibility of making them up again. If a man lose his estate,
his friend, his child, this loss may be made up again ; but if a man
once lose his soul, there is no repairing nor making up of that loss.

Where there is no vision, there men perish everlastingly, there they
perish eternally, 2 Thes. i. 7-9 ; Jude 7.

Do not you know that God will require the blood of all their souls
at your hands, that perish either by your insufficiency, or neglect, or
bad examples ? Ezek. iii. 18-20, ' Thou shalt surely die,' Moth Tamuth,
in dying thou shalt die ; that is, thou shalt certainly die, thou shalt
eternally die. The ancients commonly interpret it of the death of the
soul.

Do not you know that a man were better have the blood of all the
men in the world upon him, than the blood of one soul upon him ? For
there is no blood that cries so loud, that will lie so heavy, and that will
sink a man so deep in hell, as the blood of souls — I say, as the blood
of souls.

Do not you know that there are ng men upon the face of the earth
that are by office so strictly, so strongly, so universally, so indispens-
ably, and so signally engaged to prize holiness, to countenance holi-
ness, to encourage holiness, to promote holiness, and to practise holiness,
as the ministers of Jesus Christ are ? Do not you know that ministers
are called angels, in respect of their offices ? Rev. ii. Now angels are
spiritual creatures ; their communion is spiritual, their food is spiritual,
their delights are spiritual, their minds are spiritual, their affections
are spiritual, and their exercises are spiritual, Ps. civ. 4 ; and in all
these respects ministers should be Uke to the angels. I3ut are not
many of them spiritual madmen in these days ? — being nothing less
than what they profess to be i — spiritual men in a mockery : such as
many light slight souls call a spiritual pig, that is, the poorest, the
leanest, and the worst of aU the ten ; such a one as hath no substance
in it. So these have no substantial goodness, no substantial holiness
at all in them ; whereas in holiness they should as far exceed all other
men, as the angels in hoUness do exceed them.

That is, they are everything rather than what they profess to be.— G.

28 THE EPISTLE DEDICATOEY.

Do not you know that there is no rank nor order of men on earth
tliat have so enriched hell, that have been such benefactors to hell,
as the ignorant, insufficient, profane, scandalous, and superstitious
clergy? In times of Popery letters were framed and published as
sent from hell, wherein the devil gave the carnal, ignorant, insuffi-
cient, scandalous, and superstitious clergy of those times no small
thanks for so many millions of souls as by their means were daily sent
to hell.

Do not you know that aU the true faithful prophets, apostles, and
ministers of Jesus Christ, that are mentioned in the Old and New
Testament, were men of the greatest holiness ; i and men that made it
their greatest business and work in this world to keep down a spirit of
profaneness and wickedness, and to countenance, encourage, and pro-
mote holiness? Oh, how diligent ! oh, how frequent ! oh, how abundant !
oh, how constant were they in the work of the Lord, that profane per-
sons might be made holy, and that those that were holy might be made
more and more holy, yea, that they might perfect holiness in the fear
of the Lord ! &c. Bishop Latimer, speaking of the clergy of his time
— in a sermon before King Edward the Sixth — tells us that many can
away with prcesunt, but not with bene; if that bene were out of the text,
all were well ; if a man might eat the sweet and never sweat, it were an
easy matter to be a preacher ; if there were not opus but bonum, all
were well too. But every clergyman is, or ought to be, ETrlaKovo^,
that is, saith Augustine, Nomen operis, to be a steward and overseer
in God's house ; and that is an office of great labour, trust, and em-
ployment. Stewards and overseers commonly eat their bread in the
sweat of their brows, and after much beating of their brains ; but how
unlike to such stewards and overseers the clergy are that I am now
expostulating with, I must leave the Christian reader to judge.
Ernestus, Duke of Lunebury,2 caused a burning lamp to be stamped on
his coin, with these four letters, A. S. M. C, by which was meant,
^Aliis serviens meipsum contero : ' By giving light to others, I consume
myself. And such were the Lord's faithful prophets, apostles, and
ministers of old : and such are all his faithful, laborious, and conscien-
tious ministers now. But how unlike to the one or the other they are,
that now I am reasoning with, you may easily perceive, by comparing
them together. I have read of the nobles of Polonia, that when the
gospel is read, they clap their hands upon their swords, and begin to
draw them out, intimating by that ceremony their resolution to defend
the faith, and their willingness to hazard their lives for the gospel's
safety. The faithful prophets, apostles, and ministers of old, were will-
ing to sacrifice themselves for the gospel's sake : but how many are
there in these days that are more ready and willing to make a sacrifice
of the gospel for profit sake, and preferment sake, and honour sake,
and lust's sake, &c., than they are to make themselves a sacrifice for
the gospel's sake ! and how unlike these are to the faithful, conscien-
tious ministers of Jesus Christ that have been in all ages, I must leave
you to judge.

Do not you know that Pharaoh had that tender regard of his cattle,

^ 2 Chron, xxxvi. 15 ; Jer. vii. 25; xxv. 4; xxxv. 15; xi. 7, &c.; 2 Cor. xL, &c.
" Qu. Luneburgh ? — G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 29

as that he thought none fit to be their ruler, their overseer, but sucli
as were known men of activity? Gen. xlvii. 6, 7. Pharaoh would
have none to be his cowherds but men of activity, men of skill, men
that were prudent and diligent, ingenuous and industrious. Shall
Pharaoh be so careful for his cows, and shall not others be as careful
for souls ? What man is there under heaven that hath the use of his
reason, his wits, &c., that when he is to travel, would take a fool, an
ignoramus, for his guide ; and that when he is sick, would send for a
mountebank to be his physician ; or that when he is to ride a danger-
ous way, would make choice of a coward to defend him ; or that when
he hath a lawsuit, would make use of a dunce to plead it ; or that
when he hath a suit of clothes to make, would send for a bungling
tailor to make it ? Surely none. And why then should not men be
as wise for their souls ?

Do not you know that that sort of persons that now I am a speaking
of, have been the greatest instruments of bringing the greatest calami-
ties and miseries, and the sorest desolations and destructions that ever
have been brought upon cities, nations, kingdoms, and countries ?
Compare the scriptures in the margin together, and then let conscience
speak. 1 And who is so ignorant as not to know that it was the high-
priests, scribes, and Pharisees that brought the innocent blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ upon that once great and glorious nation of the
Jews, to their utter destruction and desolation, about forty years
after Christ's ascension, when the Komans came and took their city,
and practised the greatest severity and cruelty imaginable upon them,
as Josephus and other historians shew ? In the Marian days, and in
the massacre of the Protestants in France, how great a hand this sort
of men had that I am now a-reasoning with, all the world knows.
And so the pagan priests stiiTcd up the pagan emperors to be despe-
rate persecutors of the people of Grod that were within their empires ;
which occasioned Tertullian to give that good counsel to Scapula, a
pagan persecutor ; ' Grod,' saith he, ' will surely make inquisition for
our blood, and therefore if thou wilt not spare us, yet spare thyself :
if not thyself, yet spare thy country, wliich must be responsible when
God comes to visit for blood.

Do not you know that his Majesty hath very Christianly, zealously,
argumentatively, and smartly declared against drunkenness, lewdness,
profaneness, &c., and that he hath declared that his resolution is and
shall be to promote the power of godliness, to encourage the exercises
of religion, both public and private, to take care that the Lord's-day
be applied to holy exercises, without unnecessary divertisements ; and
that insufficient, negligent, and scandalous ministers be not permitted
in the church ?

Do not you know that when the great Shepherd our Lord Jesus
Christ shall appear, that he will call you to a pai'ticular and exact ac-
count for every soul that hath miscarried under your charge, either by
reason of your ignorance, insufficiency, profaneness, looseness, or super-
stition, &c. ? and how will you then be able to stand in that day? &c.,
1 Pet. V. 2-4 ; Ezek. iii. 17-19.

1 Jer. xxvi. 8, 9, 11, 14, 15j Lam. iv. 11-13; Amos vii. 10, 11; 1 Kings xxii.; 2 Chron.

30 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

Gentlemen, if you say you know not these things, and that they are
riddles and mysteries to you, how dare you say that you are the minis-
ters of Jesus Christ ? But if you shall say that you know very well
that these things are certainly true, yea, that they are such clear and
undeniable truths that no devil can deny, and yet shall continue in
your ignorance, insufficiency, profaneness, looseness, superstition, &c.,
what man on earth is there that hath but read the scriptures, and that
can but write liis own name, and that would not be begged i for a fool in
folio, will believe you to be the true faithful ministers of Jesus Christ?

Well, Gentlemen, I have read of Alexander the Great, how that he
had a soldier of his name that was a coward, which when he under-
stood, he commanded him either to fight like Alexander, or else to lay
down the name of Alexander.^ So say I to you. Gentlemen, either
preach as the ministers of Jesus Christ ought to preach — viz. , plainly,
spiritually, powerfully, feelingly, fervently, frequently, &c., and live as
the ministers of Jesus Christ ought to live — viz. , heavenly, graciously,
holily, humbly, righteously, harmlessly, and exemplarily, &c., or else lay
down your very names of being the ministers of Jesus Christ, and put
no longer a cheat upon yourselves, nor upon the people, by making
them believe that you are the only ministers of Jesus Christ, when you
have nothing of the spirit of Christ, nor of the anointings of Christ,
nor of the grace of Christ, nor of the life of Christ in you. Gentle-
men, if this counsel be seriously minded and faithfully followed, it will
turn more to your accounts in the great day of our Lord Jesus, and do
you more good then, than all the profits, preferments, and honours of
this world can do you good now. But if you shall slight and despise
this counsel now, I shall be found a true prophet, to your woe and
misery in that great day, &c.

If this Treatise should fall into the hands of any ladies and gentle-
women, as I suppose it may, that have not yet experienced the sweet
and powerful operations of holiness in their own souls, I would then
say.

Ladies and Gentlewomen, your souls are as precious, and as immor-
tal, and as capable of union and communion with Christ here, and of
an eternal fruition of Christ hereafter, as the souls of any men in the
world are. I have read a sad story of one Bochna, a woman which
had but two sons in all the world ; and whilst she was walking with
the one towards the river, she heard the other crying out, and hasten-
ing back, she found a knife sticking in his side, which killed him im-
mediately: then she made haste to the other child, but he in her
absence was fallen into the river and drowned, and so she lost both
her sons at once. Now, ladies, this is your very case ; every one of
you have two children, as I may say, a soul and a body, a life eternal
and a life temporal ; and oh, what a dreadful and unspeakable loss would
it be to lose both these at once ! and yet, as certain as there is a
God in heaven, you will lose them both without holiness.

All know, that know anything of scripture or history, that there

have been many great ladies and gentlewomen, that have been great

lovers of holiness, and great delighters in holiness, and great prizers

of holiness, and great admirers of .holiness, and great countenancers of

^ Qu. ' bagged '=: taken for.— G. ^ Plutarch, s. n.—G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 31

holiness, and great encouragers of holiness, and great promoters of
holiness, and great followers after holiness, and great experiencers of
the sweet and powerful operations of holiness in their own souls. And
oh that this might be all your honour and happiness, to be in all re-
spects as famous for holiness, as any of your sex hath been before you.

Christ hath prayed as much for your souls, as he hath for the souls
of others ; and he hath paid as much for your souls, as he hath for the
souls of others ; and he hath sweat, and wept, and bled as much for
your souls, as he hath for the souls of others ; and he hath suffered,
and satisfied as much for your souls, as he hath for the souls of others ;
and he hath purchased and prepared as great and as glorious things
for your souls, as he hath for the souls of others, if you will be but a
holy people to him : and what doth all this speak out, but an unspeak-
able readiness and willingness in Jesus Christ to sanctify you, and
save you, as well as others ?

All knowing men can tell you, that many ladies and gentlewomen
in all ages have been very famous for all natural, moral, spiritual, and
acquired excellencies ; yea, more famous than many men that yet have
done worthily in their generation ; and by their attainments you may
easily see what is possible for you to attain unto, both in respect of
gifts and grace, i Of all things, gracious examples are most awaken-
ing, convincing, and encouraging ; for in them you may see that both
the attainment of holiness, and the exercise of holiness, is possible,
though difficult ; in eyeing of examples, it is always best to eye the
highest, the holiest, and the worthiest examples ; for, as he that shoot-
eth at the sun, though he falls short of his mark, yet will shoot liigher
than he that aimeth only at a shrub ; so those that set up the highest
examples of holiness for their mark, for their imitation, will certainly
attain to greater degrees of holiness, than those that propose to them-
selves the meanest and the lowest examples of holiness for their .pat-
tern and imitation.

Well, Ladies and Gentlewomen, do you think that it is good going
to hell, that it is good dwelling with the devouring fire, that it is good
dwelling with everlasting burnings, that it is good for ever to be sepa-
rated from the presence of Grod, Christ, angels, and the spirits of just
men made perfect ? Isa. xxxiii. 14 ; 2 Thes. i. 7-10 ; that it is good
for ever to lie a-sweltering under the wrath of an infinite just God,
and to abide for ever and ever under those pains and torments that
are endless, easeless, hopeless, and remediless ? and that it is good to
be associated, and fettered with devils and damned spirits to all
eternity ? Oh no, this cannot be good ; for the very serious thoughts
of these things are enough even to raise a hell a-this-side hell in our
hearts. Oh then. Ladies and Gentlewomen, pray that you may be holy ;
hear that you may be holy ; read that you may be holy ; and with all
your might press after holiness, and pursue hard after holiness as after
the one thing necessary ; for without holiness you will as certainly go
to hell, as holy persons shall certainly go to heaven ; and this you will
find as clearly and fully proved in this following Treatise, as heart can
wish.

^ A man might write volumes on this subject : there is so much said in scripture and
history upon this account; but in an epistle a touch must suffice, &c.

32 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

Oh that you would for ever remember this, that without all perad-
venture you shall never be saved, unless you are sanctified ; you shall
never be truly happy, unless you are really holy: except God should
do five things that are not possible for him to do — viz., 1. Change his
purpose ; 2. Make null and void his decree ; 3. Make a new gospel ;
4. Find out a new way to heaven ; and 5. Ungod himself. God must
undo himself and ungod himself, if ever he make you happy before he
hath made you holy ; and therefore, oh, what infinite cause have you
to read this following Treatise, and to study this Treatise, and to medi-
tate on this Treatise, and to pray over this Treatise, and to look up to
heaven for counsel and strength to make such an improvement of the
means, helps, and directions that are here prescribed for the attaining
of holiness, as that you may be made really holy, that so you may be
everlastingly happy I And to quicken and encourage your hearts in
this work, I could heartily wish, that as soon as you have read over
the epistle, you would read from page 433 to page 447, for there you
will find many arguments that are of a particular concernment to your-
selves, and that ought to be no small obligations upon you to work you
to pursue after holiness with all your might, &c.i

If this Treatise should fall into the hands of any faithful, serious,
gracious, conscientious, laborious ministers' hands, as I suppose it may,
I would then say. Reverend sirs, let my weak endeavours be a spur, a
provocation to you to lay out your choicest and your chiefest gifts,
parts, strength, time, and opportunities to promote holiness of life,
and holiness in doctrine, worship, discipline, and in all your sacred
communions. Certainly, had we all eyed hohness more, and preached
holiness more, and practised holiness more, and cried up holiness more,
and encouraged holiness more, and countenanced holiness more, the
countenance both of God and man might have been set more pleasingly
towards us than they are this day. When once maintenance comes to
be more in ministers' eyes than holiness, and when their studies and en-
deavours are more to make men proselytes to this or that way, this or
that form, this or that party, than to make men holy, it is no wonder
if God writes out ' bitter things ' against them. I doubt not but provi-
dential dispensations have had such a teaching virtue in them, as to
lead you to lay your fingers upon several such-like sores, and to mourn
over them, and to justify the Holy One of Israel, who is holy in all his
ways, and righteous in all his works. 2

Truly, brethren, I have always looked upon the great work of the
ministry to lie in two things : first, in making unholy men holy ; and,
secondly, in making them that are already holy to be more and more
holy. First to beget holiness, and then to nurse up holiness ; first
to bring souls to Christ, and then to build up souls in Christ, is with-
out all peradventure the work of works that should be most in every
minister's eye, and that should always lie nearest and warmest upon
every minister's heart, &c. And, through grace, I have made this my
grand design in the course of my ministry, and throughout all my
writings ; and now it yields me that joy, that comfort, that content,

' As before.— G.

* Be it remembered this was written at the time of the ' Ejection ' of the Two
Thousand, of whom Brooks was one. — G.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, 33

and that satisfaction, that I would not be without for all the world.
Besides, I know it will turn most to my account at the great day.
Oh that all of you that yet have any opportunities and advantages in
your hands to preach the everlasting gospel would make this your
great business, to prompte holiness, and to exalt and lift up holiness
in the world ! For as this great principle of holiness shall gain ground
upon the hearts, consciences, and lives of men ; so all the things of
Antichrist, and all the trade of Antichrist, and all those grand mis-
chiefs and miseries that threaten the sons of men, will fail before it, as
Dagon fell before the ark.

If tliis Treatise should fall into the hands of any of God's sanctified
ones, of what degree or rank soever they are of, as I suppose it may fall
into the hands of many such, I would then say. Dear friends, in this
Treatise you will find many strong motives to provoke you to ' pe^ect
hoKness in the fear of the Lord,' and many special means to enable
you to ' perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord,' and many evidences
whereby you may certainly and infallibly know whether you have
attained to any considerable height of holiness or no; and in the
opening of these things, you will find that great doctrine about degrees
of glory in heaven to be asserted and proved, and the objections
against it to be fairly dismissed, &c.

Reader, if thou art one that to this very day art in an unsanctified
estate, and an enemy to holiness, or a scoffer at holiness, or a secret
despiser of holiness, or a desperate opposer of holiness, or a bitter per-
secutor of holiness, then I would commend this following Treatise,
before any I know extant in the world, to the service of thy soul ; for
I know none that is so calculated and fitted up for that purpose as
this is. Read and judge. This I will assure thee, thou un-
sanctified soul, that the grand design of this book is thy salvation ; it
is to make thee really holy, that thou mayest be eternally happy ; and
of this thou mayest be confident — viz., that I shall follow these poor
labours with my earnest prayers, that they may be blessed to the
internal and eternal welfare of thy soul, and that they may issue in
the conviction, conversion, and salvation of thy soul. I shall send
this Treatise forth into the world with Jacob's blessing and prayer for
his sons, ' God Almighty send thee mercy in the sight of the man,'
Gen. xliii. 14, &c., in the sight of the proud man that he may be
humbled, and in the sight of the hardened man that he may be
softened, and in the sight of the carnal man that he may be spiritual-
ised, and in the sight of the polluted man that he may be washed,
and in the sight of the unsanctified man that he may be sanctified,
and in the sight of the ignorant man that he may be enlightened, and
in the sight of the stubborn man that he may be bowed,_and in the
sight of the unconverted man that he may be changed, and in the sight
of the lost man that he may be saved.

Christian reader, I suppose by this time that I have almost tired
thee in reading, as I have myself in writing, and therefore I shall
presently draw to a close ; only, before I take my leave of thee, give me
leave to say, that I am much of Carthagena his mind, who to those
three things which the ancients held impossible, saith, that to find a
book printed without erratas, should undoubtedly have been added as

VOL. IV. c

34 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY,

a fourth impossible, if the art of printing had been then invented,
though the author had Briareus his hands, and the printer Argus his
eyes. Notwithstanding all the care that hath been taken, thou wilt
find figures misplaced, and some mispointings, with some other mis-
takes of the printer. I hope the ingenuous reader will cast a mantle
of love over the mistakes of the press, and do me that right, and him-
self that courtesy, as to correct such eiTors of the press that the second
impression may prevent. Seneca, 1 remember, is railed upon by slan-
derous tongues for the faults of Nero his scholar. And the scapes ^
of Quintilian's scholars are imputed to Quintilian himself; but I know
the Christian reader, that is daily sensible of the erratas of his life,
hath not so learned Christ.

Jeader, I do not ofier thee that which cost me nothing. This
itise that now I put into thy hand is the fruit of much prayer and
serious study. If thou findest any profit and benefit by it, give Christ
all the glory, the crown of praise becomes no head but his ; only
when thou art in the mount, let me lie near thy heart. Oh, pray
earnestly, pray fervently, pray frequently, and pray unweariedly, that
I may have much of the fresh anointings of the Holy Spirit, that my
communion with a holy God may every day rise higher and higher,
and that all my transactions, both before God and man, may savour
of some heights of hoHness : so thou wilt the more strongly oblige me
to be thy soul's servant in all gospel engagements,

Thomas Brooks.

* = ' escapes,' or faults, or misdemeanours.— G.

THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, AND
BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.

Follolo peace luith all men, and holiness, without ivhich no man shall
see the Lord. — Heb. XII. 14.

I REMEMBER a Saying of golden-mouthed Chrysostpm, ' If I were,' said
he, ' the fittest man in the world to preach a sermon to the whole
world, gathered together in one congregation, and had some high
mountain for my pulpit, from whence I might have a prospect of all
the world in my view, and were furnished with a voice of brass, a
voice as loud as the trumpet of the archangel, that all the world
might hear me, I would choose to preach on no other text than that
in Ps. iv. 2, " mortal men, how long will ye love vanity, and fol-
low after leasing?"' i So I say, had I Clu-ysostom's tongue, head, and
heart, and were I every way advantaged to preach a sermon to the
whole world, I would choose to preach on this text before any other
in the Bible, ' Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which
no man shall see the Lord.'

Beloved ! the salvation of souls is that which should be first and
most in a minister's eye, and that which should always lie closest and
warmest upon a minister's heart. sirs ! our dear Lord Jesus was
infinitely tender of the souls of men. He left his Father's bosom for
souls ; he trode the wine-press of his Father's wrath for souls ; he
prayed for souls ; he paid for souls ; he sweated for souls ; he bled
out his heart's blood for souls ; and he made himself an offering for
souls: 2 and oh, what an encouragement should this be to all his
faithful messengers to woo 3 for ^ouls, to mourn for souls, to pray for
souls, to study for souls, and in preaching to spend and to be spent
for the salvation of souls ! Ah, friends, there is no work nor wisdom
on earth to that of winning souls, Prov. xi. 30, and ' he that winneth
souls is wise.' There is no art, no industry to that of winning souls,
of ' taking' souls, as fowlers take birds, as the Hebrew word np7l

1 On Ps. iv. 2. HomiL— G.

2 Isa. Ixiii. 3; John xvii. 22; Luke iv. 24; 1 Cor. vi. 20; 1 Pet. i. 18-20; Heb. ix.
12-15. " Misspelled ' woe.'— G.

36 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

imports. Now, though there is a great deal of art required to take
birds, yet there is ten thousand times more art required to take souls.
In a word, to convert a soul is a greater work than to sway a sceptre,
or than it is to pour out ten thousand talents into the baskets of the
poor.i

My desigu in choosing this text is the winning of souls, it is the
salvation of souls, it is the bringing in and building up of souls. I
have read of Louis the Ninth, king of France, that he was found
instructing his poor kitchen-boy in the way to heaven ; and being
asked the reason of it, he answered, ' The meanest hath a soul as
precious as my own, and bought by the same blood of Christ.' He
who only went to the price of souls, hath long since told us that a
soul is more worth than a world. Mat. xvi. 26. That I may catch
some poor soul or other by a holy craft, 2 Cor. xii. 16, and establish
and strengthen others in the love and liking of holiness, and in the
power and practice of holiness, I have cast my thoughts upon this
scripture.

But to draw nearer to my text.

As no means hath more enriched hell than beautiful faces, so no
means hath more enriched heaven than the beauty of holiness. Now
that I may discover the necessity, beauty, rarity, and excellency of
holiness, I have chosen this text, ' Follow peace with all men, and
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.' I shall give a
little light into the words, and then come to that main point I intend
to stand upon.

' Follow peace with all men.' The Greek word AccoKere, translated
follow, signifies to pursue and press after peace, as the persecutor
pursues and presses after him he persecutes. It notes an earnest, an
eager, an affectionate, and an incessant pressing and following after
peace with all men; Ps. xxxiv. 14, 'Seek peace, and pursue it.'^
Here the Hebrew word, ^p2, translated seek, signifies to ' seek ear-
nestly,' vehemently, studiously, industriously. Thus peace with God,
and peace with conscience, and peace with men must be sought.
' Seek peace and pursue it.' The word translated pursue, IHS)!'!'),
from ^1"), signifies an ' earnest pursuit.' It is a metaphor taken from
the earnestness of wild beasts, or ravenous fowl, which will run or fly
fast and far, eagerly and unweariedly, rather than be disappointed of
their prey. Though Christians meet with many rubs and remoras,
yet peace must be resolutely pursued. The Spirit of God is a Spirit
of peace, and God delights to be styled Deus pacts, the God of peace,
and Christ affects 3 to be Princeps pads, the Prince of peace, and
King of Salem, i.e.. King of peace. ^ JJbi pax, ibi Christus, quia
Christus pax: Where peace is, tJiere is Christ, because Christ is
peace. Therefore let all that are interested in Christ pursue after
peace. But this is not the point that I have in my eye at this time.
I shall hasten to it ' With all men ;' that is, with all orders, ranks,
and sorts of men.

* And holiness,' &c.5 We must so pursue after peace as that we do

^ Chrysostom. ^ Dtdce nomen pads — The very name of peace is sweet.

» ' Chooses.'— G. * Gal. v. 22; 2 Cor. xiii. 11 ; Isa. ix. 6, 7; Heb. i. 2.

\ A man may be miserable under peace, but never under holiness.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 37

not neglect holiness for peace sake. Better is holiness without peace,
than peace without holiness. Holiness dilFers nothing from happiness
but in name. Holiness is happiness in the bud, and happiness is
holiness at the full. Happiness is nothing but the quintessence of
holiness. A man were better be holy in hell, than unholy in heaven.
Holiness would make hell to be no hell, as the fire was no fire to those
holy worthies, Dan. iii. 27. Look, as unholiness would make heaven
to be no heaven, yea, turn a heaven into a very hell, so holiness would
turn a hell into a very heaven. What holiness this is in the text, I
shall discover to you in the opening of that point I intend to stand -
upon.

' Without which no man.' This expression is exclusive, ' no man,*
be he rich or poor, high or low, honourable or base, young or old, Jew
or Gentile, bond or free, under one form or another, &c.

' Shall see the Lord.' To ' see,' in the Hebrew phrase, is ordin-
arily used to ' enjoy :' Ps. iv. 6, '^ Who will shew us any good ?' The
word in the Hebrew is from HkSi, to ' see,' ' Who will make us to see
any good?' that is, to enjoy any good. 'Without holiness no man
shall see the Lord ;' that is, without holiness no man shall ever come
to a blessed, to a glorious fruition and enjoyment of the Lord. There
was once a holy man [Chrysostom] who professed that the want of the
enjoyment of Grod would be a far greater hell to him than the feeling
of any punishment ; and yet this great hell, every one shall be sure to
feel that lives and dies without holiness. The Jews say of holy Moses,
that he died ad osculum oris Dei, at the kisses of God's mouth, and
in divine embraces, Ps. xxxvii. 37. When a man of holiness dies, he
shall be sure to die in divine embraces, and live for ever in divine
embraces. When Socrates was to die, he comforted himself with
this, that he should go to a place where he should enjoy Homer and
Musaeus, and other worthies who lived before him.i But ah, what an
unspeakable comfort is this to a holy man when he comes to die, to
consider that he is going to a place where he shall see the Lord, not
as now, through a glass darkly, but in all his heavenly bravery, and
in all his divine embroidery and bespangled glory! 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
And let this suffice for the opening of the words.

In my text you have two things : First, An exhortation to ' follow
peace and holiness.' Secondly, The reason or argument to enforce
the duty pressed, viz., ' without which no man shall see the Lord.'
The words will afford us many weighty observations. , I shall onl>
name one, which I intend to insist upon, and that is this — viz. :

Doct. That real holiness is the only way to happiness. All men
must he holy on earth, or they shall never see the beatifical vision, they
shall never reach to a glorious fruition of God in heaven.

For the clearing up, and making good of this great and glorious
truth, I shall endeavour these three things : —

First, to shew you what this holiness is, ' without which no man
shall see the Lord.'

Secondly, I shall, by an induction of particulars, make good the pro-
position.

^ Plato, Phaedo; Xenophon, Mem. iv. 8, § 4, &c.— G.

38 * THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Tliirdly, Give you the reasons of tlie point.

I. First, What is this holiness ' without which no man shall see
the Lord '? I answer, there is a sixfold holiness.

1. First, There is a legal holiness. Now a legal holiness consists
in an exact, perfect, and complete conformity in heart and life to the
whole revealed will of God, and this was the hoHness that Adam had
in his innocency; and this holiness was immediately derived from
God, and was perfect. Adam knew the will of God perfectly, so far
as it was revealed to him, and had a divine principle in him of perfect
conformity to that blessed will. Adam's holiness was as co-natural
to him, as unholiness is now to us ; and had he stood fast in that
glorious condition, we had all been as naturally holy from the womb,
as now we are sinful. Adam's holiness was as natural, and as pleas-
ing, and as delightful to him, as any way of unholiness can be natu-
ral, pleasing, and delightful unto us. But this holiness, which was
Adam's choicest sparkling gem of beauty, and his weightiest crown of
glory, is by Satan's policy long since fallen off from Adam's head,
Ps. li. 5. Now if this legal holiness were the holiness meant in the
text, then woe to man that ever he was born ; for then no man should
ever see the Lord, Kom. iii. 10. For by Adam's fall all men are gone
out of the way, and there is none legally righteous, no not one. Now if
we look upon man as fallen from that holiness which was his greatest
honour, dignity, and excellency, he is become a pile of dust, a puff of
wind, saith one ; a dream of a shadow, saith another ; a shadow of
smoke, saith a third ; a poor silly flea, a worm, a little soul, a curious
nothing ; i yea, man fallen from his primitive glory is become a very
vanity, saith the prophet : Ps. xxxix. 5, ' Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity.' ' Verily ;' this asseveration is only used
in matters of greatest weight and moment, and notes the reality and
certainty of the things delivered. Every man, [din-'?^, ' all Adam,'] or
every son of Adam ; not some man, but every man at his best state,
[ y£l, from Jatsab ;] that is, in his most settled and composed condi-
tion, when he is best constituted and underlaid, when he stands a-tip-
toe, and is in the height and perfection of all creature comforts and
contentments, is altogether, not in some measure, but altogether, vanity,
[chol hebel,] all vanity. Since the fall of Adam every natural man
in his best estate is vanity ; nay, every man is every vanity. Imagine
what vanity you will, fallen man is that. He is a comprehensive
vanity — he is an epitome of all vanity. Man in honour, before his
fall, was the best of creatures ; but since his fall, he is become the
worst of creatures. By his fall he is fallen below the very beasts that
perish, Isa. i. 3, 4 ; Prov. vi. 6 ; Jer. viii. 7 ; Mat. vi. 26. He that was
once the image of God, the glory of paradise, the world's lord, and
the Lord's darling, is now become a burthen to heaven, a burthen to
liimself, and a slave to others, &c., which made one cry out —

* Oh, what is man ?
A scuttleful of dust, a measured span,
Man's breath a bubble, and his days a span ;
'Tis glorious misery to be born a man.' =*

By all wliich you may easily perceive how far we are off from that

^ Greg. Nazianz. ; Pindarus ; .^Eschylus ; Marcus I migrator, " Quarles.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 39

legal holiness that Adam had in innocency. Kabbi Solomon i makes
Adam so high, that he touched heaven with his head. I shall not
dispute the certainty of that ; but certainly the higher he was in holi-
ness, the greater was his fall, and ours in him. This legal holiness
was so lost in Adam, that no son of Adam could ever find it since
Adam fell ; and if this were the holiness without which no man should
ever see the Lord, then farewell for ever to all the sons of Adam. But
this legal holiness is not the holiness in the text.

2. Secondly, There is an imciginary holiness, a conceited holiness,
an opinionative holiness : Pro v. xxx. 12, ' There is a generation that
are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.'
They were very bad, and yet they had a great opinion of their own
goodness. They were very filthy, and yet they stood very much upon
their own purity. Their hands were black, their hearts were black,
their works were black, and their ways were as black as hell, and yet
they durst say that none could say black was their eye. They were
filthy within, and filthy without ; filthy in body, and filthy in soul, and
filthy in spirit. Filthiness had quite overspread them, and yet they
thought to cover their filthiness with a vizard of holiness. The worst
men are commonly best conceited of themselves. 2 Ah, friends, there
hath been no generation wherein there hath not been such a generation
of men who have wallowed in sin like swine in the mire, and yet have
kept up in themselves a strong opinion of their own goodness and
holiness. This generation had neither their souls nor consciences
washed in the blood of Christ, nor sanctified by the Spirit of Christ,
and yet they gloried in their conceited purity and hoUness, as if they
had been purified by Christ. There are many that are shining Chris-
tians, that are pure golden Christians in their own eyes, that are
viler than dross, yea, than smoke in God's eyes : Isa. Ixv. 5, * Stand
by thyself, come not near to me ; for I am holier than thou : these are
a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.'^ They were very
licentious, very ungracious, very rebellious, very superstitious, very
idolatrous, (ver. [2-4,) and yet counted themselves very religious.
They were worse than others, and yet thought themselves better than
others ; they were very bad, and yet judged themselves very good ;
they were more impure, more profane, and more polluted than others,
and yet they reckon themselves more pure and holier than others ;
they stand upon their comparative goodnesses, and yet at the same
time are charged by God of the greatest wickedness. And thus their
kinsmen the Pharisees stand upon their images, forgeries,^ and out-
ward dresses of holiness, when at the same time they practised the
worst of wickedness. Mat. xxiii. 5 ; Luke xviii. 11, 12 ; so those in
Hosea xii. 8, ' And Ephraim said. Yet I am become rich, I have found
me out substance : in all my labours they shall find no iniquity in me/
that were sin, or is sin. Ephraim's iniquities were grown over his
head, as may be seen throughout this whole prophecy, and yet Ephraim

^ R. Solomon on Deuteronomy, c. 3. — G.

* Caelum gratis non accipiam. I will not have heaven but at a rate, said a proud,
impure person.

* Begis animum qulsque intra se habet. Every man hath in him the mind of a king :
is Calvin's note on that, 1 Pet. v. 5.

* ' Fraudulent appearances.' — G.

40 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

cannot bear the being charged with iniquity. It was little less than
sin to charge Ephraim with sin ; though he was notoriously guilty of
the highest crmies, yet he would have you to know that he was as
shy of sin, and as clear of sin, as he that was shyest and clearest.
Ephraim could give good words, when his works were abominable ; he
could pretend much to innocency, when he was guilty of the greatest
impiety. But though Ephraim had his cloak at hand, yet it was too
short to cover his sin ; for Grod saw it, and condemned him for it.
Chrysostom doth elegantly set forth the blindness and brutishness
of such persons. When they lie in the mire, saith he, they think
they are besmeared with some sweet ointments ; when they are
full of vermin, they vaunt themselves, as if they were adorned with
precious stones. And so the Laodiceans were of the same temper of
spirit: Kev. iii. 17, 'Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased
with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art
wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.' They had
a great opinion of their own goodness, worth, and excellent state,
having need of nothing, when they had nothing of a Christian in them.i
Thou sayest thou art ' rich ; ' ay, but thou dost but say so. Thou boastest
and braggest of thy riches, as many proud beggars do of that wealth
they have not. For all thou deemest thyself rich, thou art but poor
and beggarly. It is man's sin and judgment, that ever since he ceased
to be what he should be, he striveth to seem to be what he is not.
Thou sayest thou art ' increased with goods, and needest nothing ; '
ay, but thou dost but say so, thou dost but dream it is so : for thou
art ignorant of thine own wretched and lamentable estate. 'Thou
sayest thou art rich, but I know thou art poor and beggarly. If a
drachm of grace would save thy life, thy soul, thy family, nay, the
whole world,^thou hast it not. Thou sayest thou 'seest'; but thou art
blind, thou art destitute of spiritual eyesight ; thou seest not thine
own wants, nor Christ's worth ; thine own emptiness, nor Christ's ful-
ness ; thine own sinfulness, nor Christ's holiness ; thine own poverty,
nor Christ's riches and plenty ; thine own misery, nor Christ's mercy ;
thine own insufficiency, nor Christ's all-sufficiency ; thine own vanity,
nor Christ's glory, &c. Multi multa sciunt, se autem nemo: Many
know much, but few know themselves, or their own danger, infelicity,
or misery ; and indeed no misery to this. The Chinese used to say of
themselves, that all other nations of the world did see but with one
eye, they only with two ; and of this spuit and temper were those
blind Laodiceans. They thought they knew all things, when they
knew nothing that they should, nor as they should. I3y all which
you may see that there is an imaginary holiness, a conceited holiness,
where there is no real holiness ; but an imaginary holiness will bring
a man but to an imaginary blessedness ; a conceited holiness will
bring a man but to a conceited happiness ; he that doth but dream
that he is holy, he doth but dream that he shall be happy.

Bastards of old were not to inherit, but to be thrust out from among
the true heirs: Gen. xxi. 10; Judges xi. 1, 2, 'Now Jephthah the
Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot :

1 There is a truth in that old saying, Avaro deest tam quod habet, quam quod non
habet : A covetous man wanteth as well that which he hath, as that which he hath not.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 41

and Gilead begat Jephthah. And Gilead's wife bear him sons ; and his
wife's sons grew up, and they thrust out Jephthah, and said unto him,
Thou shalt not inherit in our father's house; for thou art the son of a
strange woman.' Ah, sirs, you that are but bastard Christians, bastard
professors, bastard believers, bastard saints, you shall never inherit
among the heirs of glory, but shall be thrust out for ever from the
presence of the Lord, and the glory of his power, and thrust into utter
darkness, because you have pleased yourselves, and satisfied your spirits,
and blessed your souls in a bastard holiness, in a conceited holiness,
2 Thes. i. 8, 9 ; Mat. viii. 12, and xxii. 13; Deut. xxiii. 2, 'A bastard
shall not enter i into the congregation of the Lord.' He shall have no
fellowship nor communion with the people of God ; the door of admis-
sion shall be shut upon him. The foolish virgins had but a bastard
holiness, a conceited holiness, an outward dress of holiness ; and there-
fore the door of life, the door of hope, the door of help, the door of
grace, the door of mercy, the door of glory was shut upon them,
Mat. XXV. 10-12, vii. 21-23. William the Conqueror was much
slighted and scorned because he was a bastard. God and his people
will slight such, and scorn such, and turn their backs at last upon
such that have no more than a bastardly holiness ; and therefore this
cannot be the holiness here meant. But,

3. Thirdly, There is an outward, external, visible holiness, which
includes men's freedom from scandalous vices, and their ordinary per-
formance of religious duties. Now, in this sense, Zacharias and
Elizabeth were both holy persons : for they ' walked in all the com-
mandments and ordinances of God blameless.' ^ And so the apostles,
1 Thes. ii. 10, ' For ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily, and
justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.'
Answerable to this, is that of the apostle in 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our
rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,
we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to
you-wards.' These precious souls behaved themselves holily towards
God, justly towards the world, and unblameably towards believers.
They were holy in religious work, they were just in their civil affiiirs
and commerce, and unblameable in their private carriage and behaviour
amongst their familiar and most bosom friends. And this is that the
apostle presses upon Christians in Phil. ii. 15, 'That ye may be blame-
less and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,' (or unblemished,)
* in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine'
(or shine ye) ' as lights in the world.' Christians must be the spot-
less sons of God : they must have no spots upon them that are incon-
sistent with sonship or saintship, Deut. xxxii. 5. Now it is certain,
without this outward visible holiness there is no happiness, there is no
fruition of God in everlasting blessedness. They that pretend their
hearts are as good as the best, when their lives are as bad as the
worst, shall experience this truth at last to their shame and cost,

1 Misprinted ' inherit.' — G.

" Luke i. 5, 6, 'A/ie/xTTTot, they were both, saith the Vulgate, sine querela, without
complaint ; their conversation was such as none could justly complain of it. It waa
irreprehensible ; it could not be reprehended.

42 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

that without visible holiness here, there can be no fruition of God
hereafter.

Yet this must be granted, that a man may be visibly holy, that is
not inwardly holy, 2 Tim. ii. 5. A man may be outwardly holy, that
is not throughout holy : a man may have an outward dress of holiness
upon him, that hath not the spirit and vitals of holiness in him.i As
Judas had, and Simon Magus had, and Demas had, and the Scribes
and Pharisees had: Mat. xxiii, 25, 27, 28, 'Woe unto you, Scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make clean the outside of the cup
and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye are like unto
whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are
within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye
also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
hypocrisy and iniquity.' They were outwardly religious, but inwardly
vicious ; they had the semblance of sanctity, but inwardly very full of
impurity; they were fair professors, but foul sinners; they were gracious
vsdthout, but impious within. Look, as they are the worst of vices that
are covered over with the show of virtue ; so they are the worst of sin-
ners that cover over their inward filthiness under the vizards of out-
ward holiness. The Egyptian temples were fair without, but foul and
filthy within. Such were the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's days,
and such are many professors in our days. It is said of Dionysius the
tyrant, that though he loved not the philosophers, yet he would wrap
himself up in their cloaks, that men might have the better opinion of
him : so there be many that put on an outward dress of holiness, that
wrap themselves up in the cloak of holiness, that so others may take
them for holy persons, and yet they love not hohness, they have nothing
of real holiness in them ; but ' as he is not a Jew which is one out-
wardly,' but not inwardly, Rom. ii. 28, 29, and iv. 12 ; so he is not a holy
person who is only so outwardly, but not inwardly ; that hath the
name of holiness upon him, but hath no principles of holiness in him.
Though without outward visible holiness no man shall see the Lord ;
yet a man may have an outward visible holiness, that shall never see
the Lord in happiness. ' I hate him even to hell,' saith the heathen
in Homer, ' that saith one thing with his mouth, and thinketh another
thing in his heart.' ^ So God will at last hate that man to hell, yea,
cast him into the hottest place in hell, that hath a form of godliness
upon him, but nothing of the reality and power of holiness in him.
Outward hohness is good, but it must be throughout holiness that
will do a man good to all eternity.3 It is not the shows but the
substance of holiness that will bring a man to everlasting happiness.
Mere outward holiness will certainly leave a man short of heaven and
happiness ; but throughout holiness will certainly lodge the soul in the
bosom of God for ever. It is true, all men reach not to an outward
holiness, which made Athanasius wish, Utinam omnes essent hypo-

^ They say of Halifax nuts, that they are all shells, no kernels. There are many
that make a glorious show before men, that are abominable in the sight of God, Luke
xvi. 15, that are aurum hominibus, lutum Deo : Gold in man's eyes, dirt in God's sight.
Gregor. Mor. c. 34. 1. 13. * Iliad, ix. 312.— G.

3 Mat. xxiii. 14 ; 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; 1 Cor. vii. 19 ; Phil. iii. 3 ; Gal. v. 6, and vi. 15.

HeB. XIL 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 43

crike! Would to God that all were hypocrites ! Without all perad-
venture it is a very desirable thing that all were outwardly holy ; yet
all that reach to this, must go farther, or else they will sit down on
this side happiness : Mat. v. 20, ' For I say unto you. That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Phari-
sees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.' Now they
were much in works of piety, in works of charity, in works of equity,
and in works of courtesy, by which means they gained so much upon
the hearts of the people, that it was commonly conceited and voted
among them, that if there were but two of all the world that should
go to heaven, the one should be a Scribe, and the other a Pharisee.
Yet your righteousness must exceed theirs, or the gates of glory wUl
be shut upon you. Their righteousness and holiness was only external,
not internal ; it was partial, not universal ; it was rather circumstantial
than substantial ; and therefore heaven's doors were double-bolted
against them. Heaven is for that man, and that man is for heaven,
that is not-only outwardly holy, but throughout holy.

4. Fourthly, There is a relative holiness. Now relative holiness is
a special relation which persons or things have unto God. Eelative
holiness includes two things —

(1.) First, A separation of persons or tilings from common use:
and thus, in the law those things were called holy which were sepa-
rated from common use and set apart for the worship and service of
God — as the oil, shew-bread, first-fruits, incense, altars, vestments;
and in this sense the priests and Le^dtes were called holy, because
they were separated from others to serve in the tabernacle ; i and in
this sense the people of Israel are frequently called a sanctified people,
a holy people, &c. The Greek word Ayco^f, answers to the Hebrew
word ti/lp, which commonly signifies that which is appropriated to a
holy use ; and this is the proper notion of holiness in the Old and New
Testament, as I might shew you out of some hundred places of scrip-
ture. Now certainly without this holiness of special separation from
the common conversation of the world, there is no seeing of God,
nor no fruition of God hereafter : 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, ' Wherefore come
out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch
not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father
imto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.' God will have no communion with any in this world that
are not separated from the sinful practices of the world. God will
look upon none, he will own none, he will delight in none, he will
acknowledge none, he will receive none for his sons and daughters, but
such as are separated from all evil vices and unholy courses. Suitable
to this is Isa. lii. 11, ' Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence,
touch no unclean things ; go ye out of the midst of her ; be ye clean,
that bear the vessels of the Lord.' Estrange yourselves from them
that are estranged from God ; have nothing to do with them that have
nothing to do with God; separate yourselves from them who have
separated themselves from God; have no delightful converse with
them who have no delightful converse with God ; have no bosom com-

^ Deut. xix. 2 ; 1 Kings viii, 35 ; Ezra viii. 28, and x. 11 ; Isa. JxiU 18.

44 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

munion with them that have no bosom communion with God.i Q
sirs, you are to keep yourselves as pure and clean from others' defile-
ments, as you would keep yourselves free from others' punishments.
He that will imitate others in their sins, shall certainly participate with
others in their sorrows. It is true we may live with wicked men in
their cities, but it is as true we must not lie ^ with wicked men in their
enormities. There are many professors that are, like the planet Mer-
cury, good in conjunction with those that are good, and bad with those
that are bad ; but these wound many at once, God, Christ, the gospel,
and their own credits and consciences. These do virtutis stragulam
pudefacere, put virtue to an open shame ; and these are deservedly to
be shamed by your separating from them, and by your renouncing all
intimate communion or fellowship with them. But,

(2.) Secondly, As relative holiness takes in a separation of persons
or things from common use, so it takes in a dedication and devoting
of them to a holy use. And thus the Nazarites, Temple, Mount Zion,
the Sabbath-day, and other festival days are said to be holy under the
law.3 In short, the whole Jewish religion did lie in holy times, holy
places, holy persons, and holy things ; and certainly without this holi-
ness, without this dedicating of ourselves to God, we shall never come
to a glorious fruition of God. He that doth not dedicate himself
really to God, wholly to God, only to God, and always to God on earth,
shall never come to a sight and vision of God in heaven. If we do not
give up ourselves to God, God will never give up himself to us : Hosea
iii. 3, ' And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days : thou
shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man ; so
will I also be for thee.' God will be only theirs that are reaUy his,
and he will be altogether theirs that are wholly his ; he will only be a
husband to them that dedicate themselves to him, as a wife doth to
her husband. He will devote himself theirs who devote themselves
his ; he will avouch himself to be theirs who avouch themselves to be
his: Deut. xxvi. 17-19, * Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be
thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his
commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice :
and the Lord hath avouched thoe this day to be his peculiar people,
as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldst keep all his com-
mandments ; and to make thee high above all nations which he hath
made, in praise, and in name, and in honour ; and that thou mayest
be a holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.' God
will resign himself up to them who resign themselves up to him ; he
will give up himself to them that have given up their names and their
hearts to him ; he will bestow himself as the greatest pearl of price
upon them that shall make a surrender of themselves to him.* There
is no way to be higher than others, happier than others, more noble
and honourable than others, than by making a dedi-gift^ of ourselves to

^ Cicero, though heathen, had rather to have no companion than a bad one.
»Qu. 'live'?— G.

3 So Christ is said to sanctify himself, when he dedicated himself to be a sacrifice for
the sins of his people, &c.

* That is an apt saying of Tertullian, Negotiatio est aliquid amitterc ut majora
lucreris : That is right merchandise when something is parted with to gain more.

* Qu. ' dedication-gift ' ?— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 45

God. He that dedicates himself to God, dedicates all ; he that doth
not dedicate himself, dedicates nothing at all. What ^Eschines once
said to Socrates — Others, said he, give thee gold, silver, jewels, but I
give thee myself ; that must a Christian say to his God, Ah, Lord !
there are some that give thee their lips, but I give thee my heart ;
others give thee good words, good expressions, but I give thee the best
of my affections ; others give thee a few cold prayers, but I give thee
my whole soul ; and had I as many hearts in my body as I have hairs
on my head, I would give them all to thee : for thou art worthy, thou
only art Worthy. What the king of Israel once said to the king of
Syria, ' I am thine, and all that I have,' 1 Kings xx. 4 ; that must a
Christian say to his Christ, ' I am thine, Lord, and all that I have.'
A Christian must cry out with him who cried. Lord, I have two mites,
a soul and a body, and I give them both to thee. — [Bernard.] And
this was the honour and commendations of the Macedonians, that they
gave up themselves to the Lord, 2 Cor. viii. 5. Having no better pre-
sent at hand, they present themselves to God ; and certainly there is
no present more honourable, delectable, and acceptable to God than
this of giving up ourselves to God, Rom. xii. 1. Well, remember this:
that man was never really holy that is not relatively holy ; nor that
man will never be really happy that is not relatively holy. Without
relative holiness there will be ho vision of God in everlasting happiness.
We must be separated from the corruptions and pollutions of the
•world, and we must dedicate ourselves to God, or we shall never come
to a future fruition of God. But,

5. Fifthly, There is an imputative holiness, and that is the holiness
of Christ imputed to us.i For to prevent mistakes, you may please
to take notice that there is a twofold holiness in Christ : first, there is
his essential and personal holiness as he is God. Now this essential
holiness of Christ cannot be imparted nor imputed to any mortal man ;
it is essential to him ; but secondly, there is his mediatory holiness,
or that holiness which he wrought for us as Mediator. Now the holi-
ness of dhrist as Mediator did consist both in the habitual holiness of
his person, in the absence of all sin, and in the rich and plentiful pre-
sence of all holy and supernatural qualities, as also in the actual holi-
ness of his life and death. By his active obedience, by his subjecting
of his heart and life to divine precepts, he perfectly fulfilled the com-
mands of the law ; and by his passive obedience. Ins voluntary sufier-
ings, he fully satisfied the comminations, penalties, and curses of the
law. Now this mediatory holiness of Christ's is ours by imputation,
and by virtue of which we stand recti in curia, justified in the sight of
God : 1 Cor. i. 30, ' But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and re-
demption.' This mediatory hoUness of Christ, reckoned unto a believ-
ing sinner, is that whereby he is constituted holy in foro Dei; and
upon this account they are said to be 'all fair,' Cant. iv. 7; to be
' without spot or wrinkle,' Eph. v. 25-27; to be ' complete in him,'
Col. ii. 10; and to be 'without fault before the throne of God,' Rev.

» Consult these scriptures, Luke i. 35; Mark i. 24; Heb. vii. 26 ; Rom. v. 19 ; Col.
i. 22 ; Rom. ii. 3, 4 ; 2 Cor. v. 21, 22 ; Gal. iii. 13 ; Jer. xxiii. 6.

46 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

xiv. 4, 5.1 And certainly, without this mediatory hohness of Christ
there is no appearing before God, there is no glorious vision nor
fruition of God. God is a God of that infinite purity and holiness,
that no holiness below the imputative holiness of Christ can make a
man stand before him, or bring a man to the fruition of him, Hab. i.
13. It was a very sweet and excellent saying of Bernard, when in his
own opinion he was at the point of death : I confess, said he, I am not
worthy, I have no merits of mine own to obtain heaven by : but my
Lord had a double right thereunto ; a hereditary right as a Son, and
a meritorious right as a sacrifice. He was contented with the one
right himself ; the other right he hath given unto me, by the virtue of
which gift I do rightly lay claim unto it, and am not confounded. 2
Though we cannot lay claim to heaven, nor to a blessed fruition of
God by any inherent holiness in us, it being weak and imperfect, yet
we may lay claim to both by the mediatory holiness of Christ imputed
to us. As Christ's essential holiness gives him a hereditary right to
everlasting happiness, so his mediatory holiness gives us a right to
everlasting blessedness. The costly cloak of Alcisthenes, which
Dionysius sold to the Carthaginians for a hundred talents, was but a
mean and beggarly rag to that embroidered royal robe of Christ's
mediatory holiness that is imputed or reckoned to us. 3 And therefore,
as ever you would come to a vision of God in happiness, you must
labour to be interested by faith in Christ's mediatory holiness. But,

6. Sixthly and lastly, There is an inherent, interTial qualitative
holiness^ Now this inherent holiness Kes in two things.

(1.) First, In the infusing of holy principles, divine qualities, or
supernatural graces into the soul, such as the apostle mentions in Gal.
V. 22, 23, ' But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance ; against such there
is no law.' These habits of grace, which are severally distinguished
by the names of faith, love, hope, meekness, &c., are nothing else but
the new nature, or ' new man, which after God is created in righteous-
ness and true holiness,' Eph. iv. 24. These seeds of holiness, these
habits of grace, are those sweet ointments with which all must be
anointed that shall ever come to a blessed sight or \dsion of God,
1 John iii. 9 ; 2 Cor. i. 21 ; 1 John ii. 27. You may know much of
God, you may hear much of God, you may talk much of God, and you
may boast much of your hopes and interest in God, and yet without
these habits of holiness you shall never come to a blessed fruition of
God in happiness ; without these seeds of holiness you shall never reap
a crop of blessedness. But,

(2.) Secondly, This inherent, this qualitative holiness, lies in a
holy use and exercise of those supernatural graces in a luay of holy
loalking.^ All holy habits must be brought forth into holy acts ;
gracious habits must be attended with gracious motions, gracious
operations, and a gracious conversation. Outward works must be

^ Nemo bonus, qui non ex male bonus. — Augustine.

^ Guliel. Abbas in vita Bern. lib. i. cap. 12. 'As before. — G.'

* Holiness is not any single grace alone, but a conjunction, a constellation of all
graces together.

» Acts X. 35; 1 Jolin i. 3, 7 ; Titus ii. 12 ; Luke i. 73 ; 2 Pet. i. 8; 1 Pet. i. 15, 16;
Isa. XXXV. 8.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 47

suitable to inward habits. It is with spiritual habits as it is with
natural habits ; the more they are acted an'd exercised, the more they
are increased and strengthened. Holy habits are golden talents that
must be employed and improved. Gracious habits are the candles of
the Lord set up in us ; and God hath set up those candles of heaven
not to idle by, not to sleep by, but to work by, and to walk by.
Where there is holiness of disposition, there must be, nay there will
be, holiness of conversation. A holy heart is always attended with a
holy life. You may separate a man from his friend, but you can never
separate, though you may distinguish, acts of holiness from the habits
of holiness. Now it is certain, without this holiness, you shall never
come to a sight or fruition of God in happiness.! And thus I have
shewed you what that holiness is, without which there is no hope, no
possibility of ever seeing the Lord.

II. I come now to the second thing, and that is to prove the truth
of the proposition — viz., that without men are holy, they can never be
happy. Without holiness on earth, none of the sons of men shall ever
come to a blessed vision and fruition of God in heaven. Now this
great and weighty truth I shall make good by an induction of particu-
lars, thus :

1. First, God hath by very plain and clear scriptures bolted and
barred the door of heaven and happiness against all unholy ones.2
Witness 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, ' Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived : neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves
with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor extortioners,
shall inherit the kingdom of God.' Heaven is an undefiled inherit-
ance, and none that are defiled can enter into the possession of it,
1 Pet. i. 4. When the angels fell from their righteousness, heaven
rejected them ; it would no longer hold them ; and will it now accept
of the unrighteous ? will it now entertain and welcome them ? Surely
no. Such sinners make the very earth to mourn and groan now ; and
shall they make heaven to mourn and groan hereafter ? Surely no.
What though the serpent did wind himself into an earthy paradise,
yet none T)f the seed of the serpent, so remaining, shall ever be able to
wind themselves into a heavenly paradise. Witness Gal. v. 19-21,
' Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these : Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, mur-
ders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like : of the which I tell you
before, as I also have told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' Before they go to hell,
he tells them again and again that they shall not inherit the kingdom
of God. By the kingdom of God we are to understand the kingdom
of heaven, the kingdom of glory. Now the kingdom of heaven, of
glory, is called the kingdom of God ; 1. Because he hath prepared it.
2. Because it is a royal gift that he confers and bestows upon his little,
little flock. Mat. xx. 23 ; Luke xii. 32. Augustus, in his solemn feasts,
gave trifles to some, and gold to others.^ The trifles of tliis world God

^ Where there are the seeds of holiness, there will be the flowers of holiness.

=" See also Mat. vii. 21-23, and xxv. 10-12. ' Suetonius, Octavius, c. 75.— G.

48 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14

often gives to the worst and basest of men ; but the kingdom of heaven
he only gives to his bosom-friends, Eev, iv. 10, 11, and xx. 6 ; Dan.
iv. 16, 17. 3. Because that of and under him, the saints hold it and
possess it. 4. Because with him they shall for ever reign in the fruition
of it. And so that in John iii. 3, ' Jesus answered and said unto him,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee. Except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.' To give a little light into the words :

' Verily, verily : ' the Greek is ' amen, amen.' i The word amen is
Hebrew, and in the Old Testament is most commonly used by way of
wishing or imprecation ; but here, and in other places of the New
Testament, the sense of it is altered from precatory to assertory, or
from the way of wishing to the way of affirming. This phrase, ' Amen,
amen,' or ' Verily, verily,' imports,

[1.] First, The truth and certainty of the things delivered ; for the
word ' amen ' doth properly signify truth.

[2.] Secondly, This double asseveration is never used but in matters
of greatest weight and importance : the matters here spoken of are of
a very celestial and sublime nature.

[3.] Thirdly, This gemination, * Verily, verily,' is a vehement con-
firmation of what Christ speaks.

[4.] Fourthly, This gemination calls aloud for the greatest observa-
tion and most serious attention of the soul to what Christ is a-saying.

* I say unto thee : ' 'I,' that thou hast confessed to be a teacher
sent from God ; ' I,' that lie in the bosom of the Father, John i. 18 ;
* I,' that am of the cabinet-council of heaven ; * I,' that know his heart
and all his secrets. Rev. iii. 14 ; ' I,' that am the faithful and true
witness, and cannot lie ; ' I,' that am called the * Amen,' the truth
itself; 'I,' that have the keys of heaven and hell at my own girdle.
Rev. i. 18 ; * I,' that open and no man shuts, and ' I,' that shut and
no man opens ; 'I,' that shall be your Judge in the great day, ' I say
unto thee,' &c.

' Except a man be born again : ' A man, be he old or young, learned
or unlearned, high or low, rich or poor, knowing or ignorant, circum-^
cised or uncircumcised, under this form or that, a member of this
church or that, let his disposition be never so ingenuous, and his parts
never so high, and his conversation as to men never so blameless and
harmless ; yet, except this man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God, Rom. ii. 28, 29.

' Be born again : ' Except a man be first unmade, and new-made up
again ; except he be of an old creature made a new creature, yea, a
new creation of God, 2 Cor. v. 17, there is no seeing of the kingdom
of God. The whole frame of the old man must be dissolved, and a
new frame erected, else there is no heaven to be enjoyed. The kingdom
of God is a divine kingdom, and there is no possession of it without a
divine nature. A new head without a new heart, a new lip without a
new life, will never bring a man to this kingdom of light. That man
is for the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is for that man,
that hath got the kingdom of God within him. 2 If the kingdom of
grace do not enter into thee here, thou shalt never enter into the

^ dfiriv, ifiifv, Truth, truth, or truly, truly
» 2 Pet. i. 4 ; 1 Cor. vu. 19 ; Gal. t. 6 j L

Luke svii. 21; Kom. xiv. 17.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 49

kingdom of glory hereafter. A new heart is for a new heaven, and a
new heaven is for a new heart. ' Except a man be born again/ except
a man be born from above ; and so Cyrill interprets that word dvcodev.^
Generation in some sense is from below, but regeneration is only from
above, and without tliis there is no fruition of God above.

* He cannot see the kingdom of God.' The Scripture speaks of
several cannots.

[1.] Firxst, There is a natural cannot. Now, every son and daughter
of Adam is by nature born under a cannot. They are all born under
a cannot believe, a cannot repent, a cannot love God, a cannot walk
vdth God, a cannot see God, a cannot enjoy God : 1 Cor. ii. 14, ' The
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.' A blind man cannot see colours, nor a natural
man cannot discern spiritual things. They are too high, they are too
sublime for him ; they are mysteries that he cannot understand, that
he cannot unriddle. The natural man can ascend no higher than
nature, as the water can rise no higher than the spring from whence
it comes — Quantum descendit, tantum ascendit. The Scripture sets
such sad souls below the ox and the ass, Isa. i. 3. Take nature civilised
and moralised, refined and raised, sublimated, strengthened, and im-
proved to the utmost, and it cannot enable a man to do a supernatural
action ; nature cannot act ultra spJiceram, above itself. But,

[2.] Secondly, There is a contracted and an habituated cannot ; and
of this cannot the prophet speaks in Jer. vi. 10, ' To whom shall I
speak, and give warning, that they may hear ? behold, their ear is
uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken: behold, the word of the
Lord is unto them a reproach : they have no delight in it.' They had
by their carnality, impiety, sensuality, security, and obstinacy, con-
tracted upon their poor souls such deafness, wretchedness, unteachable-
ness, and untractableness, that they could neither love the word nor
like it ; they could neither take pleasure nor delight in it ; nay, they
could neither hear it nor bear it, though it never so nearly concerned
the internal and eternal welfare of their souls. And of this cannot
the apostle speaks in 2 Pet. ii. 14, ' Having eyes full of adultery, and
that cannot cease from sin ; beguiling unstable souls : an heart they
have exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children.' 2 By their
riot and excess, by their lasciviousness and wantonness, by their loose-
ness and uncleanness which they had habituated and accustomed
themselves unto, they brought upon themselves a cursed necessity of
sinning, so that they could not cease from sin. They mourn over sin,
and yet they cannot cease from sin ; they resolve against sin, yet they
cannot cease to sin ; they pray against sin, yet they cannot cease to sin ;
they make many promises, vows, and covenants against sin, yet they
cannot cease from sin, their souls being habituated and accustomated
thereunto : Jer ii. 20, ' For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and
burst thy bands ; and thou saidst I will not transgress '—I will never

^ On John iii. 3.— G.

* MotxctXis properly, distinctly signifies an adulteress ; and this phrase of having eyes
full of the adulteress answers to that of the rhetorician, who, describing an unchaste,
lascivious person, rhetorically said of him that he had whores in his eyes.
VOL. IV. D

50 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

play the harlot more ; but were they as good as their word? no) — ' for
upon every high hill and junder every green tree they wandered, play-
ing the harlot.' I have read of a man who, in the time of his sickness,
was so terrified in his conscience for his sins, that he made the very
bed to shake upon which he lay, and cried out all night long, I am
damned, I am damned, and made many great promises and protesta-
tions of amendment oi life, if God would be pleased to recover him.
In a little while he did recover, and being recovered, he was as base
and vile, as wretched and wicked, as ever he was before. Custom in
sin takes away all conscience of sin : Jer. xiii. 23, ' Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may he also do good
that is accustomed to do evil.' The Ethiopian cannot make his black
skin white ; he cannot change the hue or the colour of it by washing ;
to attempt this is but labour in vain. Nor the leopard cannot change
his spots : no more can a poor sinner that hath habituated and
accustomed himself to sin, that is desperately enthralled to sin, turn
from his sin. The spots of the leopard are not in him by accident,
but by nature ; and they are such which no art can cure, nor water
wash off ; because they are not only in the skin, but in the flesh and
bones, in the sinews and most inward parts. By custom sin hath
bespotted not only the skin, the life, the outside of a poor sinner, but
also the very heart and soul of a poor sinner, so as that he is never
able to wash off these spots. Ambrose reports of one Theotimus, that,
having a disease upon his body, his physician told him, that except he
did abstain from intemperance, drunkenness, uncleanness, &c. , he was
like to lose his eyes. His heart being habituated to sin, and set upon
vsickedness, he answered. Vale lumen amicum — Farewell sweet light
then.^ But,

[3.] Thirdly, As there is a contracted cannot, an habituated can-
not, so there is 2i judicial cannot. The Lord inflicts a judicial cannot
upon many persons in judgment : they cannot return from their sins,
they cannot withstand a temptation, they cannot lay hold on eternal
life, they cannot make sure work for their souls, they cannot leave
their bosom-lusts, they cannot prefer Christ above all the world, they
cannot make provision for eternity, they cannot see the things that
belong to their peace, &c. ; and this cannot the Lord in wrath hath
brought upon them : Isa. vi. 9, 10, ' And he said, Go and tell this
people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not ; and see ye indeed, but
perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears
heavy, and shut their eyes' (or anoint, besmear, lime their eyes) ; ' lest
they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart, and convert and be healed.' 2 They would not see,
they shall not see ; they would not hear, they shall not hear ; they
would not understand, they shall not understand; they would not
convert, they shall not convert ; they would not be healed, they shall
not be healed. When men are stiffly and desperately resolved upon
their sinful courses, when men grow stubborn, rebellious, licentious,
and will wilfully wink and shut their eyes against the light, and stop
their ears against the truth, God in his just judgment gives them up

^ As before. — G.

* Many men, «aith Bernard, do seek for straws to put out their own eyes.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 51

to dulness, stupidness, blindness, darkness : Isa. xliv. 18, ' They have
not known nor understood : for he hath shut their eyes that they can-
not see ' (or he hath daubed up their eyes from seeing) ; ' and their
hearts that they cannot understand.^ God in his righteous judgment
casts a judicial cannot upon them ; he hath daubed up their eyes that
they cannot see, and he hath shut up their hearts that they cannot
understand the great concernments of their souls. Now whilst men
lie under these sad cannots, they can never see the kingdom of God.
These three cannots, like a threefold cord, bind poor sinners, so as
that they can never come to a sight or fruition of God in grace or
glory, till they are delivered from these cannots by a new birth, by
being born again.

' See the kingdom of God ; ' that is, they cannot enter into it, they
cannot enjoy it, they can have no child's part or portion in it, except
they are new born, except they pass the pangs of the second birth.
Let their education be never so sweet, their illumination never so
great, their profession never so amiable, and their conversation never
so unblameable, yet except they are new born, it had been good for
them that they had never been born. And thus you see by plain
scriptures, that the Lord hath bolted the gates of glory against all
unholy persons.

2. A second argument to prove that without holiness there is no
happiness, &c., is this: Without holiness men are strangers to God;
and therefore, without holiness they cannot be admitted to a cohabit-
ation with God. God loves not to dwell with strangers, nor to associate
himself with strangers. Now such are all unholy persons : Eph. ii.l2,
' That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the com-
monwealth of Israel' (or, being far removed from the citizenship of
Israel), ' and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope,
and without God in the world.' Here are five ' withouts ' in the words,
1. They were without God, the author of hope. 2. They were without
Christ, the foundation of hope. 3. They were without the church, which
was contained in the commonwealth of Israel, the place of hope. 4.
They were without the covenants of promise — that is, they were with-
out the precious promises which God in his covenant had made and
oftentimes renewed with the Israelites, and therefore called covenants
in the plural number — the ground and reason of hope. And, lastly,
They were without the grace of hope : they had no hope of communion
with Christ, no hope of fellowship with the saints, no hope of any
interest in the promise, no hope of reconciliation to God here, nor
no hope of a fruition of God hereafter. And thus you see what
strangers they were to the Lord, and to the great concernments of their
own souls. God of old would not have strangers come into his sanc-
tuary ; and do you think, then, that he will ever admit such into
heaven ? Surely no. Ezek. xliv. 6, 7, 9, ' And thou shalt say to the
rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God ;
ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, in that
ye have brought into my sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart,
and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary to pollute it, even
my house, when ye offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they
^ nZD; daubed or plaifitered.

62 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

have broken my covenant, because of all your abominations. Thus
saith the Lord God, No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncir-
cumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that
is among the children of Israel.' ^ Such as had no holiness within,
nor no holiness without ; such as had no holiness in their hearts, nor
no holiness in their lives, God would not have them to enter into
his sanctuary ; and, therefore, certainly such he will never suffer to
enter into heaven.^ If God shuts the doors of an earthly tabernacle
against such as were strangers to him, to his covenant, to his church,
and to themselves, will he not much more shut the door of his
heavenly tabernacle against such that are strangers to him, and to his
Christ, and to his word, yea, that are strangers to their own souls,
and to all the concernments of another world ? and such are all those
that are uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh. Princes'
palaces are not for strangers, but for sons, friends, familiars, favourites ;
no more is the palace of heaven. We will not admit strangers to
cohabit with us; and will God admit such to cohabit with him,
that never had any acquaintance or familiarity with him ? Surely
no. In history we read of such towns and cities as would not admit
strangers to inhabit among them ; and such a city is that above,
Exod. xxxiii. 12, 17. It hath been long since concluded, that In
coelo nullus erit alienus — In heaven there shall be no strangers : none
shall be admitted into that state but such as God knows by name.
Charon in Lucian, requesting Mercurius to shew him Jupiter's palace
above, How says Mercurius, that such a caitiff as thou, whose con-
versation hath been altogether with black shades and impure ghosts,
shouldst set thy foot in that pure place of light ? What a dishonour
and derogation were that to the place ! The application is easy.

3. Uriholy persons have felloioship and familiarity loiih Satan, and
therefore, doubtless, God will have no familiarity nor fellowship with
them, 2 Cor. vi. 14-16. As righteousness can have no fellowship with
unrighteousness, nor light with darkness, nor Christ with Belial, nor
heaven with hell ; no more can a holy God have any communion or
fellowship with unholy souls, for they are Satan's house, Luke xi. 21 ;
Kev. xviii. 2. He keeps possession of them as a man doth of his house,
and hath familiarity with them as a man hath with those of his house :
he is their father, and they are his children, John viii. 44 ; and look,
what familiarity a father hath with his children, that hath an unholy
devil with unholy souls. A workman cannot be more familiar with
his tools than Satan is with unholy souls ; and therefore he is said to
work in the children of disobedience, as a smith worketh in his forge,
or as an artificer worketh in his shop, Eph. ii. 2. Unholy persons have
bosom-fellowship with Satan : 1 John v. 19, ' And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness;' or in that
wicked one the devil, as the Greek will bear ; they lie, as it were, in
the bosom of Satan, as the child lies in the bosom of the mother, or
as the wife lies in the bosom of the husband, or as a friend lies in the
bosom of his friend. Unholy persons partake with him at his table ;

^ Heaven would be no heaven were there any strangers there. See my ' String of
Pearls.' [Works, vol. i. pp. 399-468.— G.]
2 Mat. vu. 21-23, xxv. 11, 1^, and xxii. 11-13.

HeB. XII, 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 53

they eat with him, and drink with him, and converse with him : 1 Cor.
X. 21, ' Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils:
ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils.'
Ambrose brings in the devil boasting against Christ, and challenging
Judas as his own, thus : He is not thine, Lord Jesus, he is mine ; his
thoughts beat for me ; he eats with thee, but is fed by me ; he takes
bread from thee, but money from me ; he drinks with thee, and sells
thy blood to me. ^ By all which you may see what fellowship and
familiarity there is between Satan and a sinner. Now what is this
less than blasphemy, to assert that a holy Grod will have fellowship
with them that have fellowship with the devil ? Grod hath not cast
Satan out of heaven that he may make room for his familiars in
heaven. If heaven was too holy to hold unholy devils, it will be found
at last to be too ht)ly to hold unholy souls. Certainly they shaU not
lie in the bosom of God who have the devil for their bedfellow.

4, Fourthly, Unholy persons are full of contrariety to God ; their
natures, principles, practices, aims, minds, wills, affections, judgments,
intentions, and resolutions, are contrary to God, his name, nature,
being, truth, and glory. 2 You may as soon bring east and west, north
and south, light and darkness, heaven and hell together, as you shall
bring a holy God and unholy souls together. Antipathies will never
incorporate ; as soon may midnight be married to the noonday, as a
holy God embrace an unholy sinner. That unholy persons are made
up of contrarieties to God, is most evident, as you may see in Isa. xxii.
12, 13, ' And in that day did the Lord God of hosts call to weeping,
and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing sheep, eating
flesh, and drinking wine : let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we shall
die.' These sad souls practise quite contrary to what the Lord calls
for at their hands. He calls them to weeping and mourning, and
behold joy and gladness : he calls them to fasting, and behold here is
nothing but feasting, carousing, and making merry and jovial, and
that in contempt of God and his dreadful judgments, Kom. viii. 7;
James iv. 4.3 Unholy persons are like the rainbow : now the rainbow
is never on that side of the world that the sun is on ; but whensoever
it appears, it is still in opposition against the sun. If the sun be in
the east, the rainbow is in the west, &c. So unholy souls, in all their
actings and walkings, will still be opposite to God ; they will still be
cross and contrary to him : John viii. 38, ' I speak that which I have
seen with my Father : and ye do that which ye have seen with your
father.' Unholy hearts are full of the highest strains of contrariety
and opposition against the Lord. I have read of a king that reigned
in no very remote part of the world, who, having received a blow from'
the hand of God, took a solemn oath to be revenged on him ; and
ordained that for ten years' space no man should pray to him, speak
of him, nor, so long as he was in authority, to believe in him. Oh

^ If Judas was at the sacrament, the greater was his woe. [See General Index under
'Judas.'— G.]

2 Lev. xxvi. 21-24, 27, 28, 40, 41; Isa. Iviii. 4-6; Jer. xliv. 16-18; ii. 25, and
rviii. 11, 12.

3 Pope Julius the Third would have his pork, though it was forbidden him by bia
physicians, in despite of God himself.

54 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the vanity, the contrariety, and blasphemy of this prince ! Now we
will not admit such to be about us, who are made up of contrarieties
to us : and will God, will God ? Heaven and earth, fire and water,
the wolf and the laml), the winds and the sea will sooner accord, than
a holy God and an unholy heart. There can be no amity where there
is a spiritual antipathy.

5. Fifthly, Without holiness no man can have any sph'itvAil com-
munion luith God in this world ; he may hear, but he can have no
communion with God in hearing without holiness ; he may pray, but
he can have no communion with God in prayer without holiness ; he
may come to the sacrament, but he can have no communion with God
in the sacrament without holiness ; he may come into the communion
of saints, but he can have no communion with God in the communion
of saints without holiness ; he may read and meditate, but he can
have no communion with God in reading and meditation without holi-
ness : Deut. xxiii. 14, * For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of
thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee ;
therefore shall thy camp be holy : that he see no unclean thing in thee,
and turn away from thee.' Keep up holiness among you, and you
shall keep me among you, saith God ; but if you turn away from holi-
ness, I wiU undoubtedly turn away from you : a holy God will keep
company with none but those that are holy. Holiness is the bond
that ties God and souls together. God will cleave close to them who
in holiness cleave fast to him ; but if he see uncleanness and wicked-
ness among you, he will certainly turn away from you. The Holy
Spirit gives the lie to those that say they have fellowship with God,
and yet maintain familiarity and fellowship with sin : 1 John i. 6,
' If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we
lie.' The apostle dares give the lie to any man, without fearing the
stab, who pretends to communion with God, and yet walks in dark-
ness. Men may be much in ordinances, and yet, for want of holiness,
may have no communion at all with God in ordinances, Isa. i. 11-18 ;
and though communion with God in ordinances is the very life and
soul of ordinances, yet multitudes who enjoy ordinances can content
and satisfy themselves without that which is the very life, soul, and
quintessence of ordinances. There are many that cry out, ' The temple
of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,' who
have no communion with the Lord of the temple at all, Jer. vii. 4-12,
Though unholy persons may trade much in ordinances, yet they will
never make any earnings, any advantage by all their trading and stir,
because they cannot reach to communion with God in them, which is
the only means of being enriched by them, Isa. xxix. 13 ; Ezek.
xxiv. 21, 22, and xxxiii. 30-32. As many men rise early and go
to bed late, and make a great deal of stir and doi to be rich in the
world, and yet, for want of a stock, nothing comes on it ; they are
poor still, and beggarly still, and low and mean in the world still : so
many rise early, and go late to ordinances, they exercise themselves
much in religious duties, and yet nothing comes on it ; their souls are
poor and beggarly and threadbare still. And no wonder, for they
want a stock of holiness to trade with. Kemigius, a judge of Lorraine,

1 To-do. -G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 55

saith that the devil in those parts did use to give money to witches which
at first did appear to be good and current coin, but after a while it
turned to dry leaves. Ah, sirs, all duties and ordinances to a man
that wants holiness, will be found at last to be but as dry leaves, to
be sapless and lifeless, and heartless and comfortless to him. Now if
without holiness no man can have any spiritual communion or fellow-
ship with God here, then certainly without holiness no man can have a
glorious communion with God hereafter : if without holiness God will
not take us into his arms on earth, then undoubtedly without holiness
God will never put us into his bosom in heaven. But to proceed.

6. Unholy persons are fools ; and what should such do in the pre-
sence of God, who is wisdom itself? The fool and the ungodly man
are synonymous words, signifying the same thing, in Scripture : Ps.
xiv. 1, ' The fool' {i.e., the wicked, the unholy person) ' hath said in
his heart. There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abom-
inable works, there is none that doeth good ; ' Jer. iv. 22, ' For my
people are foolish, they have not known me ; they are sottish children,
and they have no understanding : they are wise to do evil, but to do
good they have no knowledge ;' Prov. i. 7, ' Fools despise wisdom and
instruction ; ' that is, wicked and ungodly men despise wisdom and
instruction. And to shew that the world is full of such fools, he
uses the word in the plural no less than sixteen times in this book of
the Proverbs. I shall open this truth a little more to you, by proving
that they have all the characteristical notes and properties of fools ; so
that one face is not more like another than a fool is like a wicked
man, or than a wicked man is like a fool ; for,

(1.) First, A fool prefers toys and trifles before things of greatest
worth, Prov. i. 29. He prefers a brass counter before a piece of gold,
a fine baby^ before a rich inheritance, an apple that pleaseth the eye
before a pearl of greatest price ; so wicked and ungodly men, they prefer
their lusts before the Lord : Isa. Ixv. 12, ' Therefore will I number you
to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because
when I called, ye did not answer ; when I spake, ye did not hear ; but
did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted
not.' Upon choice, they preferred the honours, the riches, the bravery,
and glory of the world, above their own souls and the great concern-
ments of another world. 2 Such fools were Laban and Nabal, in the
Old Testament, (whose names by inversion of letters are the same,
and the latter signifies a fool,) and such were the two rich fools in the
New Testament, Luke xii. 16-22, and xvi. 19-31. I have read of the
foolish people of the East Indies, in the isle Ceylon, who preferred
a consecrated ape's tooth above an incredible mass of treasure. Such
fools are all unholy persons, who prefer the toys, the trifles of this
world before the pleasures and treasures that be at God's right hand,
Ps. xvi. 11, and Mat. vi. 19, 20. The world is full of such fools. Si
ad mores hominum respicias, mundum universum stidtorum domum
judicabis, saith one : If thou beholdest the manners of men, thou wilt
judge the whole world to be a house of fools. Ah, friends ! what

1 ' Doll.'— G.

^ Such a one was Cardinal Borbonius, who professed he would not leave hii part in
Paris for a portion in paradise. [As before. — G.]

56 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

folly to that of men's spending their time, their strength, their lives,
their souls in getting the great things of this world, and neglecting
that one thing necessary, the salvation of their souls ! Mat. xvi. 26.
Oh, what vanity is it to prefer a smoke of honour, a blast of fame, a
dream of pleasure, a wedge of gold, a Babylonish garment, and such
like transitory trifles and trash, before a blessed eternity !

(2.) Secondly, Fools make no improvement of advantages and oppor-
tunities that are put into their hands: Prov, xvii. 16, ' Wherefore is
there a price in the hand of a fool to get wisdom, seeing he hath no
heart to it ? ' ^ It is to no purpose to put a price into the hand, if folly be
bound up in the heart. If a man had as much wealth as would buy all
the grace, all the peace, all the comforts, and all the wisdom in the
world ; yet if he hath neither wit nor will to make an improvement of
his wealth, what good would his wealth do him ? To what purpose is
the market open, and good pennyworths put into the buyer's hands, if
the buyer hath neither wisdom nor heart to buy ? Unholy persons
are such spiritual fools : though they have a price, an opportunity put
into their hands, which if improved might make them for ever ; yet
they have no heart to make an improvement of the means and advan-
tages that might do them good to all eternity. 2 Ah, what oppor-
tunities have unsanctified persons to get changed hearts, renewed
natures, purged consciences, reformed lives, to get an interest in Christ,
to obtain the favour of God, to procure pardon of sin, to make pro-
vision for their immortal souls ! But they have no hearts to improve
these opportunities, and so by neglecting of them they cut the throat
of their own souls. And this will be the worm that will lie gnawing
of them to all eternity, that they have let slip the opportunities of
grace, that they have trifled away the seasons of mercy. Ah, sirs,
there is no fool to that fool that hath an opportunity put into his hand
to make himself for ever, and yet hath no heart to improve it. The
hottest place in hell will be the portion of such fools. Mat. xi. 21, 22.
The little bee, so soon as flowers appear, goes abroad, views the gay
diapery,3 and the diversity of the flowery fields, sucks the sweetest of
them, freights her thighs, makes a curious comb, and so betimes
hoards up honey in summer against winter. And so the little busy
ant in summer provides food for winter, Prov. vi. 6-8 ; the stork, the
crane, and the swallow know their seasons and opportunities, Jer.
viii. 7. All these poor little creatures are not so much below man
in nature, as they are above sinful man in worth, wisdom, and work.
These improve their summer seasons, their harvest hours; and 'yet
such spiritual fools are wicked men, that they let slip such seasons
of gi-ace and mercy, that cannot be redeemed with ten thousand worlds.
Ah, how is man fallen from his primitive nobility and glory, that these
little busy creatures are propounded as a pattern of diligence and
wisdom unto him ! The ancients painted Opportunity with a hairy fore-

1 Like grasshoppers, they sing and sport away their precious time and opportunities
of mercy, &c.

2 Prov, i. 20, seq. ; Isa. liii. 1 ; Iv. 1, 2 i Mat. xxv. 3, 6, 10 ; xxiii. 37 ; Luke xix. 41,
42, &c. That great conqueror vainly feared that his father Philip's victories would
deprive the son of an opportunity to improve his magnanimity.

=* ' Various colours,' as of a rich-figured robe. Cf. Shakespere, ' Taming of Shrew,
L, induction. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 57

head, but bald behind, to signify that while a man hath it before him,
he may lay hold on it, but if he lets it slip away, he cannot pull it back
again. There is a great truth in what the Rabbi hath long since said,
Memo est cui non sit hora sua : Every man hath his hour, and he who
oversUps his season may never meet with the like again. There are
many thousand spiritual fools in hell, that find this true by experience,
and therefore now they bewail their folly, but all too late, all too late.
(3.) Thirdly, Natural fools are very inconstant; they are never
long in one mind : now they are for this, and anon for that ; now in
this mind, and anon in that, Ecclesiasticus xxii. 11-15. Their minds
are more changeable than the moon ; they turn oftener than the
weathercock, they are only constant in inconstancy: and such
spiritual fools are all unholy persons. For now they are for a right-
eous cause, and anon they are against it : now they are for Grod, and
anon they are against him : now they are for Christ, and by and by
they are against liim : now they cry out ' Hosanna, Hosanna in the
highest,' Mat. xxi. 9, 15 ; but did they hold in this mind long? No,
their mind is presently changed, and they cry out, ' Crucify him,
crucify Mm,' Luke xxiii. 21. Now they are for the saints, and anon
they are against them: they cry up the gospel, and presently they
make opposition against the gospel ; like the kingdom of Congo, who
at first kindly embraced the gospel, but as soon as they found it re-
strain their lusts and carnal liberties, they made fierce opposition
against the gospel. This week they are for ordinances, and the next
they are against ordinances : this hour they will forsake their sins, and
the next hour they will return to their sins as the ' dog to his vomit, and
as the sow to her wallovsdng in the mire,' 2 Peter ii. 20-22. Now they
are for this way, and anon for that : now they are for this opinion, and
anon for that : now they are for this religion, and to-morrow they are
for another rehgion, 2 Kings xvii. 33 ; like Baldwin a French lawyer,
of whom it is said [by Beza] that he had religionem ephemeram, every
day a new religion, but constant to none. This moment you shall
hear them bless, and the next moment you shall hear them curse:
James iii. 9, 10, 'Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and
cursing.' Louis the Second would swear, and then kiss his crucifix,
and then swear again more confidently, and kiss his crucifix again
more devoutly. Now because this age is full of such swearing fools,
and happily this Treatise may fall into some of their hands, give me
leave to say, that it is observable that the word in the Hebrew which
the Scripture useth for swearing, is always used in the passive voice,
i^iu;j, nashabange, to note, say some, that a man should not swear
but when an oath is laid upon him, and he driven to it. The word
also hath a signification of seven, y21D, as having reference, say some,
to the seven spirits of God before the throne, before whom we swear,
and therefore should never swear but in ' truth, righteousness, and
judgment,' Jer. iv. 2 ; Rev. i. 4, and v. 6. One day you shall have
these spiritual fools, these profane fools, crying out, Oh heaven,
heaven, heaven ! Oh that we may go to heaven ! and the next day you
shall see them live as if there were neither heaven nor hell : one day
with Balaam you shall have them wish. Oh that we might die the
death of the righteous ! and the next day with Saul you shall have

58 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

them a-persecuting of the righteous to death : one day you shall have
them cry out, ' What shall we do to be saved ? ' and the next day you
shall see them live as if they were resolved to be damned. Thus these
spiritual fools, like natural fools, are always fickle and inconstant.

(4.) Fourthly, Fools delight to sport and play loith such things as
are most hurtful, pernicious, and dangerous to them, as you all know
that have observed anything of natural fools : Pro v. x. 23, ' It is a sport
to a fool to do mischief.'! Fools take as great delight and pleasure in
doing mischief, as wise men do in their lawful sports or pastimes.
Wisdom is not more a joy and delight to a man of understanding,
than mischief and wickedness is a sport or recreation to a fool. It is
a great contentment and merriment to a fool to do wickedly : Prov,
xiv. 9, 'Fools make a mock of sin;' they make a jeer of that which
they should fear more than hell itself ; they make that matter of sport
which may prove matter of damnation to them ; they make a May-
game, a pastime of that which may make them miserable to all eter-
nity; they make a mock and flout of that on earth for which the devil
will mock and flout them for ever in hell. Justice will at last turn
over such fools to Satan, who will be sure to return mock for mock,
jeer for jeer, and flout for flout. They that love such kind of pastime
shall have enough of it in hell. Now all unholy persons are such
spiritual fools, as that they delight and take pleasure in sin, which is
the most pernicious and dangerous thing in the world: Ps. Ixii. 4,
' They delight in lies,' Prov. i. 22. Though every lie deserves a stab
from God, yet spiritual fools make but a sport of them. Such a one
was Thespis the poet, who being reproved by Solon for lying, an-
swered him that it was not material, seeing it was but in sport : upon
which Solon, beating the ground with his staff, replied, If we commend
lying in sport, we shall find it afterwards in good earnest in all our
bargains and dealings.^ It is said of Epaminondas, a heathen, that
he abhorred mendacium jocosum, a jesting lie ; ^ this heathen in the
great day will put such liars to the blush who delight in lies : Isa. Ixvi.
3, ' Their soul dehghteth in their abomination ; ' 2 Thes. ii. 12, ' They
take pleasure in unrighteousness ;' 2 Pet. ii. 13, ' They count it plea-
sure to riot in the daytime, sporting themselves with their own de-
ceivings.'^ Not that there is any real delight in intemperance ; for if
there were, then Heliogabalus, an exceeding intemperate person, should
have been more happy than Adam in paradise. Apicius was the
greatest glutton that ever was ; at length he hanged himself : ^ such
shall hang in hell at last, who delight to abuse many at once ; the
creatures, their Creator, and their own souls and bodies. Well, sirs,
sin is the poison of the soul, the nakedness of the soul, the disease of
the soul, the burden of the soul, and if mercy do not prevent, will prove
the bane of the soul. Oh, then, how great is their folly that delight in
it, and that make a sport of it !

^ Mischief is the fool's bauble, the fool's fiddle. Fools can rejoice in other men's harms,
and laugh to see others lament.

* Plutarch in the life of Solon. * Ibid. s.n. Epaminondas. — Q.

* There was no flesh so sweet as that which the eagle robbed the altar of.

' He writ a book to provoke the appetite. [Rather Apion the grammarian wrote a
book upon the luxurious labours of M. Gabius Apicius. Cf. among many references
Suidas, 8. n. AvLkos. — G.]

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 59

[5.] Fifthly, Natural fools are taken more with the outward shine,
lustre, beauty, and glory of things, than they are taken loith the intrin-
secal virtue, value, and luorth of them; they are more taken with the
shine and histre of gold, jewels, and precious stones, than they are
with the worth and value of them. So unholy hearts are taken more
with the form of godliness than they are with the power, 2 Tim. iii.
5 ; they are taken more with a name to live, with a name of being holy,
than they are taken with holiness itself. Rev. iii. 1 , 2. Multi Chris-
tianum nomen ad judicium hahent, non ad remedium [Augustine] :
Many have the name of Christians to their condemnation, not to their
salvation, Isa. Iviii. 2-6 ; Mat. i. 21 ; Zechariah vii. 4-7 ; Mat. xxiii.
They are taken more with the outward shine and pomp of duties, than
they are taken with the spiritualness and holiness of duties ; they are
taken more with what of man is in duty, than they are taken with that
of God which is in a duty ; they are taken more with raised notions,
than they are taken with raised affections ; they are taken more with
some witty, rhetorical expressions in duty, than they are taken with
the holy movings and breathings of the spirit in duty, Ezek. xxxiii.
30-32. All which speaks them out to be spiritual fools ; and indeed
no fools to those who are taken more with the shadow of religion than
they are with the substance of religion ; who are taken more with the
outside of godliness than they are with the inside of godliness : for
what is this but to be taken more with the outside of the cabinet, than
with the treasure that is within ? or to be taken more with the purse
that holds the gold, than with the gold that is in the purse ? and with
Democritus the philosopher, to esteem a room covered over with green
branches of trees above the royal palace ?

(6.) Sixthly, Natural fools are all for the present; they cry out,
Spend and Grod will lend ; they only mind and care for the things of
this life : as what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and what
they shall put on. They are all for their bodies, their bellies, their
backs : they take no care, they make no provision for their immortal
souls. 1 A spruce Roman riding on a lean jade, was asked by the
censor his reason : he answered, I look to myself, but my man to
my horse. So fools look only to their bodies ; let who list look to
their souls. Such fools are all unsanctified persons ; they look only
after their bodies, and their outward concernments ; they look not at
the necessities, miseries, and wants of their souls. Such were those in
John vi. 26, 27, who crossed the seas and followed after Christ for
loaves, but never looked after the meat which endureth to everlasting
life. And such fools were those in Hosea vii. 14, ' who howled upon
their beds for corn and wine :' let them have but provender, provant^
for their bodies, and they care not what becomes of their souls ; and
such were they in Phil. iii. 19, 'whose god was their gut.' And such
were the Laodiceans in Rev. iii. 14-19, who had well-fed bodies, but
starved souls ; whose houses were full of goods, but their hearts empty
and void of Christ and grace ; who had threadbare souls under all
their purple robes ; who were rich in temporals, but very poor and
beggarly in spirituals. And such a one was that rich fool in Luke

1 They cry as the epicure cried, Utere temporibus, prcesentibus utere rebus.

* ' Make proTision for,' another Shakesperian word, as 'provand,' Coriolanus II. 1.— G.

60 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EARITY, [HeB. XIT. 14.

xii., who only laid up for his body for this life, but never took care for an-
other life, for a better life ; he makes many years' provision for his body,
and not a day's provision for his soul ; he talks of living many years,
when he had not a day nor a night to live in this world. And being
thus foolish in his reckoning, Christ brands him for a fool to all gene-
rations : ver. 20, 21, ' Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required
of thee : then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided ? '
So is he that heapeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards
God. Every man in the world is a fool that heaps up treasure to
himself, that adds land to land, and house to house, and heap to heap,
and bags to bags, and hundreds to hundreds, and thousands to thou-
sands, and is not rich towards Grod.i fpjiig ^ge is full of such golden
fools, who pamper their bodies, but starve their souls : who trick and
trim up their bodies with gold, silver, and silks, whilst their souls are
naked, and ragged, and destitute of all grace and goodness. The Jews
have a story of a foolish woman that took two children to nurse, the
one very mean, deformed, crooked, blind, and not likely to live long ;
the other a goodly, lively, lovely, beautiful child, and likely to live
long : now this foolish woman spent all her pains, care, diligence, and
attendance upon the worst child, never so much as minding or regarding
the best child. This age is full of such foolish men and women, who,
having two to nurse, their bodies and their souls, spend their time,
their care, labour, and pains in making provision for the flesh, in laying
up for their bodies, and in the meanwhile never regard their souls,
never look after their souls, though they have the beauty of a deity
upon them, and though they are immortal, and capable of union and
communion with God in grace, and of a blessed fruition of God in
glory. Surely no fools to these fools.

[7.] Seventhly, The sharpest and severest course you can take, can-
not separate between a fool and Ms folly. Notwithstanding all your
frowns, threats, checks, knocks, &c., a fool will not leave his folly; nay,
you shall sooner beat a fool to death than you shall beat him off from
his folly: Prov. xxvii. 22, 'Though thou shouldst bray a fool in a
mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart
from him.' 2 The husk doth not stick so close to the grain of corn, as
folly doth to the heart of a fool. There is a possibility of severing the
husk from the flour by beating, but there is no possibility of severing
a fool from his folly. You see it in Pharaoh, who, though he was
often in God's mortar, yet he could not be severed from his folly; nay,
he did choose rather to be beaten to death,'and to see his friends, rela-
tions, favourites, followers, subjects, and soldiers, with their first-born,
beaten to death before his eyes, rather than he would leave his folly.
And such a fool was king Ahaz, who, when God had him in the
mortar, and threatened to beat him and his people to death, yet then
in his distress he sinned more against the Lord, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22,
and therefore for his obstinacy, obdurateness, and irreclaimableness, he
is branded and marked with a black coal by the Lord to all posterity,

^ Plato seeing one over-indulgent to his body, asked him what he meant, to make his
prison so strong.

^ Solomon in this place alludeth to one kind of grinding, which in old time the people
were accustomed to, which was to put their parched corn into a mortar, and to beat it
unto powder.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 61

'This is that king Ahaz.'i And such spiritual fools are all ungodly-
persons ; let God frown, chide, strike, reprove, correct, yet they will
not turn from the evil of their doings : they will rather be consumed
and destroyed, than they will be amended or reformed : Jer. v. 3, ' O
Lord, are not thine eyes upon the truth? thou hast stricken them, but
they have not grieved ; thou hast consumed them, but they have re-
fused to receive correction : they have made their faces harder than a
rock ; they have refused to return.' No smart nor grief, no calamities
nor miseries, can turn obstinate fools from their impieties : Jer, vi. 29,
' The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire ; the founder
melteth in vain' (or in vain melting melteth he, trying trieth he):
* for the wicked are not plucked away.' ^ All the cost and charge that
God hath been at, all the pains and labour that he hath taken to sever
these wicked ones from their wickedness was lost ; they would not be
refined nor reformed. After God's greatest severity, a spiritual fool
will return to his iniquity: Pro v. xxvi. 11, ' As a dog returneth to his
vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly,' or iterateth his folly. It is true,
the comparison is homely, but good enough for those fools to whom it
is applied. Spiritual fools sometimes vomit up their sins when they
are under terrors of conscience, or under the affiicting hand of God, or
upon a dying bed ; but still retain a disposition and purpose to return
to them again : as some say, the serpent vomits up his poison when
he goes to drink, and then takes it in again. Foolish souls say to
their lusts, as Abraham to his servants. Gen. xxii. 5, ' Abide you here,
and I will go yonder and come again to you.' Whatever becomes of
their souls, they are resolved to keep close to their sins, Isa. i. 5. And
as ^sop's foolish fishes leaped out of the warm water into the burning
fire for ease ; 3 so these poor fools will rather adventure a burning in
hell, than they will attempt a turning from their folly.

[8.] Eighthly, Natural fools make the simplest and unJiappiest ex-
changes: they will exchange a pearl for a pippin, things of greatest
worth and value for a feather, a ribbon, a toy, a trifle ; a house to live
in, for a house of clay or a house of cards; and, like Glaucus, a foolish
captain, who changed with Diomedes his armour of gold for Diomedes
his armour of brass. ^ All unholy persons are spiritual fools ; they
will exchange spirituals for carnals, and eternals for temporals ; they
wiU exchange God, Christ, the gospel, heaven, and their souls for a
lust, for the world, nay, for a little of the world's smiles, pleasures, or
profits, Mat. xvi. 26 ; and well may he lay claim to a boatswain's place
in Barclay's ' Ship of Fools,' 5 that will exchange his soul and his soul-
concernments for the toys and trifles of this world.

Now do you think that God, who hath within himself all the wis-
dom of angels, of men, and universal nature — that he who hath all
glory, all dignity, all riches, all treasures, all pleasures, all comforts,

^ They were like those bears in Pliny, that could not be stirred with the sharpest
prickles. [As before. — G.]

^ See Ezra xxii. 18; Jer. ii. 30, 31, and xix. 15; Amos iv. 4, 13; Isa. xxvi. 10, 11 ; 2
Pet. ii. 22.

' The well-known fable of Babrius : I take this opportunitj' of correcting a misprint of
this name in Vol. ii., page 59, footnote 1, where read, not Balarius, but Babrius. — 6.

* The foolish Indians prefer every toy and trifle above their mines of gold.

= Spelled ' Barkley's' : the well-known ' Shyp of Folys of the Worlde,' (1509,) by
Alexander Barclay or Barklay, based on the original of Brandt. — G.

62 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

all delights, all joys, all beatitudes in himself — that that God who is
a super-substantial substance, and understanding not to be understood,
a word never to be spoken, that he will have everlasting fellowship
and communion with fools ? i — that a God whose wisdom is infinite and
unsearchable, will ever debase himself so as to have his royal palace
filled with fools, as to make those his companions in heaven, that
he can take no pleasure in on earth? Eccles. v. 4, ' He hath no plea-
sure in fools.' The wise God would not have his children keep com-
pany with fools : Prov. xiv. 7, ' Go from the presence of a foolish man,
when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge ; ' and will he
keep company with them himself ? Surely no. God hath given it
under his own hand, that such shall not tarry in his sight : Ps. v. 5,
' The foolish shall not stand in thy sight ' [or, as the Hebrew hath it,
before thine eyes] : ' thou hatest aU workers of iniquity.' God will
never admit fools to be his favourites : he will at last shut the door of
glory against them. Mat. xxv. 4-13.

7. A seventh argument to prove that without real holiness there
is no happiness ; that without holiness on earth no man shall ever
come to a blessed vision or fruition of God in heaven, is this. Unholy
persons are to he excluded and shut out from sacred, from special com-
munion and felloivship with the saints in this loorld ; and therefore,
without all peradventure, they shall never be admitted to everlasting
communion and fellowship with God, Christ, angels, and saints in that
other world. That they are to be shut out from having any special
communion with the saints here, is most plain and evident from several
scriptures. Take these for a taste : Lev. x. 10, ' And that ye may put
difi'erence between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean ;'
Ezek. xliv. 23, ' And they shall teach my people the difference between
the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean
and the clean.' And because the priests did not improve their power
and interest to preserve the things of God from profaning and polluting,
the Lord was very much offended and provoked : Ezek. xxii. 26, ' Her
priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things :
they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have
they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have
hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.'
And in chap. xliv. 7, 8, God sadly complains that they ' brought into
his sanctuary strangers uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in
flesh;' and prohibits such from entering into his sanctuary, ver. 9,
' Thus saith the Lord God, No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor
uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger
that is among the children of Israel.' God expects that faithful
teachers should put a difference between person and person, between
the holy and profane, between the clean and the unclean, in all holy
administrations : Jer. xv. 19, ' Therefore thus saith the Lord, If thou
take forth the precious from the vile, then thou shalt be as my mouth :
let them return unto thee ; but return not thou unto them.' Now
certainly if under the ceremonial law natural uncleanness did exclude
and shut out the Israelites from a participation in holy things, then
certainly moral imcleanness may justly exclude and shut out Chris-
^ Dionys. Areop. de divin. novi. cap. 1.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 63

tians from a participation in holy things under the gospel : Mat. vii.
6, ' Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again
and rend you.' Holy things are too precious to be spent and spilt upon
swinish sinners. Gospel administrations are precious pearls, that must
not be given to s"wane. 2 Cor. vi. 17, ' Wherefore come out from among
them, and be ye separate, saitli the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing ; and I will receive you.' ^ Profane, scandalous, blind, and
ignorant persons are very unclean things, and from them we must
come out. As we would be in with God, we must be out with them :
we must reject them as we would have God to receive us : 2 Tim. iii. 5,
' Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof : from
such turn away.' Our Saviour Christ hied him to the wilderness
amongst the beasts, and carried his disciples with him, holding their
fellowship to be less hurtful and dangerous. It is better to live among
beasts, than to live among men of beastly principles and beastly prac-
tices. Now there are ten sorts of persons that Christians must turn
from, that they must have no intimate, no special communion with in
this world.

(1.) First, Unbelievers, 2 Cor. vi. 14-16. We should not close
with them that have not closed with Christ ; nor give ourselves up to
them who have not given up themselves to Christ. Every unbeliever
is a condemned person : the law hath cast him, the gospel hath cast
him, and his own conscience hath cast him ; and what sacred com-
munion, what delightful fellowship can believers have with condemned
persons ? John iii. 18, 36. Every unbeliever is under the wrath of the
great God ; he is under that wrath that he can neither avoid nor abide ;
and what communion can such have who ai*e under love, with those
that are under wrath ? Every unbeliever makes God a liar, 1 John
V. 10 ; and what children will have communion with such who every
day give their father the lie to his very face ? Every unbeliever doth
practically say. Tush ! there is no such loveliness or comeliness, there
is no such beauty or glory, there is no such fulness or sweetness, there
is no such goodness or graciousness in Jesus as men would make us
believe ; and what is this, but to give God the lie ? Tush ! there is
no such favour, there is no such peace, there is no such pardon, there
is no such righteousness, there is no such grace, there is no such glory
to be reaped by Christ as God and men would persuade us ; and what
is this, but to tell God he lies to his very teeth ? And what ingenu-
ous child can take pleasure in such who are still a-spitting in his
father's face ? Every unbeliever is a disobedient person, and there-
fore unbelievers and disobedient are in the Greek expressed by one
word ; and what communion can obedient children have with those
that are disobedient and rebellious ? 2 Every unbeliever is a pagan, a
heathen, in the Scripture dialect ; and what communion can those who

^ Lev. xiii. 46; Num. v. 1-4; Exod. xii. 48; Lev. xxii. 3-7. As oft, said one, as I
have been among wicked men, I return home less a man than I was before. The Doc-
tonean [?] well will quench a burning torch ; so will bad company the most burning and
most shining Christians, as you see in Joseph and Peter, Ps. cvi. 35 ; when they were
mingled among the heathen, they quickly learned their works, Ps. cxix. 115.

» Num. xiv. 11 ; Heb. xi. 31, i.Trei.e-fi<T<x<n; 1 Tim. v. 8; 2 Cor. yi. 14, 15; 1 Cor. xlv.
23, seq.; 2 Tim. iii. 1, 6.

64 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RABITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

are of the household of faith have with pagans and heathens ? Every
unbeliever is a traitor ; he commits treason daily against the crown
and dignity of heaven : and what loyal subjects will hold communion
with traitors ? Unbelievers are the greatest robbers ; they rob God
of his declarative glory, though they cannot rob him of his essential
glory ; they rob him of the glory of his truth and faithfulness ; as if
he would falsify the word that is gone out of his mouth : as if he were
yea and nay ; and as if his credit was so low and contemptible, that
he must needs run a hazard that shall trust to him, or roll himself
upon him. They rob him of the glory of his goodness and mercy, as
if there were any sins too great for him to pardon, or any mercy too
great for him to give, or any wrath too great for him to divert, or any
debt too great for him to satisfy. They rob him of the glory of
his omnipotency and all-sufficiency, as if there were something too
hard for a God. Now what communion can the people of God have
with robbers, with the greatest robbers, with the worst of robbers?
and yet such are all unbelievers. And therefore let no unbelievers
mutter or murmur when the door of admission is shut against them.
But,

(2.) Secondly, Such as have a form, a picture, a mask, a vizard of
godliness, hut deny the power, 2 Tim. iii. 5.

(3.) Thirdly, Such as walk disorderly, that live either without a call-
ing, or idly and negligently in their calling ;^ these make religion
odious, by making religion a mask for their idleness and laziness : 2
Thes. iii. 6, ' Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother
that walketh disorderly.' Now, who they are that walk disorderly you
may see in ver. 11, 'For we hear that there are some which walk
among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.' Such
vagrant professors that live idly, that will have an oar in every man's
boat, a sickle in every man's harvest, a curious eye upon every man's
way and work, are to be shut out of the communion of Christians, and
to be shunned as a man would shun a serpent, an ill air, a contagious
disease, or as the seaman shuns rocks, and sands, and shelves. It was
a great vanity in Dionysius, that would needs be the best poet ; and in
Caligula, that would needs be the best orator ; and in Nero, that
would needs be the best fiddler ; and so became the three worst princes,
minding more other men's business than their own callings ; so it is a
very great vanity in many professors to mind more other men's busi-
ness than their own ; from the society of such saints must withdraw.
No man is too noble to have a calling. If iron had reason, it would
choose rather to be used in labour than to grow rusty in a corner. By
Mahomet's law the Grand Turk himself was to be of some trade. The
hour of idleness is the hour of temptation ; an idle person is the
devil's tennis-baU, tossed by him at his pleasure. God ordained the
neck of the consecrated ass should be broken — Exod. xiii. 13 — instead
of sacrificing him ; peradventure because that creature hath ever been
the hieroglyphic of sloth and laziness. Among the Egyptians idleness

^ Solon made a law, that the son should not be bound to relieve his father when he
was old, unless he had set him in his youth to some^calling. — Plutarch in the Life of
Solon.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 65

was a capital crime. Among the Lucans, he that lent money to an
idle person was to lose it, saith Diphilus.i Among the Corinthians
idle persons were delivered to the carnifex. By Solon's law idle per-
sons were to sniFer death. The ancients call idleness the burial of a
living man. And Seneca had rather be sick than idle. Now shall
nature do more than gi-ace ? Shall poor blind heathens be so severe
against idle persons, and shall Christians embrace them ? Shall they
not rather turn their backs upon them, and have no communion
with them who think themselves too great or too good to hold the
plough?

(4.) Fourthly, Such lohose judgments are corrupt and unsound in
foundation-truths : Titus iii. 10, ' A man that is an heretic, after the
first and second admonition, reject.' ' A little leaven leaveneth the
whole lump : ' and what leaven is more infectious than that of heresy
and error ? 2 John 9, 10, ' Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not
in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God : he that abideth in the doc-
trine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come
any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your
house, neither bid him God speed.' You must have nothing to do
with them who have nothing to do with God, 1 John ii, 22-25 ; Col, ii.
18, 19: your house must be too hot to hold him who holds not fast to
foundation-truths, who holds not close to Christ the head. Eusebius
reports of John the Evangelist, that he would not suffer Cerinthus the
heretic in the same bath with him, lest some judgment should abide
them both. 2 He that had the leprosy in his head was to be pro-
nounced utterly unclean. Lev. xiii. 44. The breath of the erroneous
is more dangerous and infectious than the breath of lepers : for one
infects but the body, but the other infects the soul, and therefore
ought more carefully to be avoided. An erroneous mind is as odious
to God as a vicious life ; and why should it not be so to us also ? Cer-
tainly we should shun the society of erroneous persons as we should
shun a serpent in the way, or poison in our meat : 1 Tim. vi. 5,
' Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the
truth, supposing that gain is godliness : from such withdraw thyself : '
or, as the Greek word d(f>Laraao signifies, stand ofi*, keep at a distance,
as you would from one that hath an infectious disease, or as seamen
stand off from rocks or from a leeshore. It is recorded by Theodoret,
that when Lucius, an Arian bishop, came and preached amongst the
Antiochians his erroneous doctrines, the people went out of the con-
gregation, and would not so much as lend an ear to him. 3 In these
days there are many old errors new vampt, and old Jezebels, old
harlots, new painted. The best way is not to lend an ear to them, but
to serve them as they served Jezebel : they gave her no quarter, but
cast her down and trode her under foot, 2 Kings ix. 10, 30-37.
Errors about the foundation are like the Jerusalem artichokes, which
overrun all the ground where they are planted, and choke the very
heart of it ; and therefore to be abhorred, avoided, and shunned, as a
man would shun hell itself Who but a fool or madman would
exchange one old piece of gold for a hundred new counters ? and what

^ As before, the Lucanians.— G. * Eusebius, 1. iii. c. 25.— G.

^ Eccles. Hist., lib. iv. cap. 20.
VOL. IV. E

66 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

then shall we think of those who willingly and readily exchange old
tried truths for new-minted errors? The society of such must be
shunned.

(5.) Fifthly, Such as cause divisions and discord among the people
of God: Rom. xvi. 17, 'Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them
which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye
have learned ; and avoid them.' ' Mark them;' the Greek word a-Koireiv
signifies such a marking as a watchman useth, that stands on a watch-
tower to descry an approaching enemy. Ah ! with what a wary, with
what a watchful, with what a curious, with what a jealous, with what
a serious, with what a diligent eye doth the watchman watch all the
motions, turnings, and windings of the approaching enemy! With
such an eye we should mark them that cause divisions. ' And avoid
them;' the Greek word eKKkivare signifies a studious, careful declining
of them. A man must decline and shun them as he would decline
and shun such persons or things that are most pernicious, dangerous,
or infectious to him. Divisions are a dishonour to Christ, a reproach
to Christians, a blot upon profession, a block in the way of the weak,
and a sword in the hand of the wicked ; they are Satan's engines, and
an inlet to all destruction and confusion. And therefore the authors
of them are to be shunned and avoided.!

(6.) Sixthly, Such Christiajis as are scandalous and profane in their
lives and conversations: 1 Cor. v. 11, ' But now I have written unto
you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a for-
nicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an
extortioner, with such a one no not to eat : ' 2 with such a brother who
belies his profession, with such a brother whose course and conversa-
tion contradicts his profession, we must not hold Christian communion.
Certainly I may not have fellowship with him at the Lord's table,
whom I may not have fellowship with at my own table : Eph, v. 11,
' Have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather
reprove them;' Acts ii. 40, 'Save yourselves from this untoward
generation.' Wicked company is very dangerous and infectious: 1
Cor. XV. 33, ' Evil communication corrupts good manners.' As he
that walketh in the sun will be tanned, and he that toucheth pitch
will be defiled ; so he that associateth himself wdth the wicked will be
tainted and polluted. Guilt or grief is all you shall gain by bad com-
pany, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8 — witness Lot, David, Joseph, and Peter. s By
bad company Christians come to lose much of the sweetness, serious-
ness, goodness, and graciousness of their spirits. Gold, though the
noblest metal, loseth of its lustre by being continually worn in the
same purse with silver. Familiarity with vain persons hath much
worn off the spiritual lustre, beauty, and glory that hath been upon
many Christians. Bad company will prove a very great hindrance to
you in your Christian course: Ps. cxix. 115, 'Away from me, ye
wicked, for I will keep the commandments of my God.' I cannot

^ The Turks pray daily that the divisions among Christians may be heightened, that
BO they may be the sooner ruined and undone.

* (Tvvai'aiJLlyvvffdai, not to be joined, mixed, or mingled with them, &c. Prov. ix. 6 ;
Ps. XV. 4 ; Eph. v. 7 ; Ps. cxix. 115 ; Prov. iv. 14, 15.

3 Ps. cxx. 7, 8 ; Gen. xlii. 15, 16 ; Mark xiv. 66-72 : 1 Kings xxii. 8 ; 2 Chron. xxiv.
17, 18.

■

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 67

keep my God's commands whilst I keep your company ; I shall never
do my duty till I abandon your society. Divine commands will
never lie close and warm upon my heart, so long as I give you my
hand. How hard is it to keep the commandment of labour among
the slothful, or the commandment of diligence among the negligent,
or that of liberality among the covetous, or that of humility among
the ambitious, or that of love among the malicious, or that of union
among the contentious, or that of chastity among the lascivious, or
that of righteousness among the unrighteous, or that of faithfulness
among the unfaithful, or that of fruitfuLness amongst the unfruitful, or
that of thankfulness among the unthankful, or that of faith among the
doubtful, &c. But,

(7.) Seventhly, A seventh sort of persons that Christians must have
no intimate, no special communion with, is false prophets, false teach-
ers.^ They are not to give such any house-room, 2 John 10, 11, nor
heart-room. Mat. xxiv. 23, 24, 26. They are to shun them and avoid
them, Rom. xvi. 17. It is not safe for a Christian to hear them, or to
have any communion or fellowship with them. Aristotle writeth of a
certain bird called Capri-mulgits, a goat-sucker, which useth to come
flying on the goats, and suck them, and upon that their milk drietli
up, and they grow blind.^ Ah, how many a seeing man hath been
made blind, and how many hopeful thriving Christians have had all
theu' springs of love, of life, of sweetness and goodness dried up in
them, by the sleights, deceits, and insinuations of false teachers ! False
prophets have their peithanology — their good words, and fair speeches,
and subtle devices, whereby they blind many souls, and dry up all the
spiritual milk and moisture that is in them, and therefore they are to
be shunned and avoided. But,

(8.) Eighthly, You must have no intimate, no special communion
with such as are obstinate and refractory, and that will not submit to
Christ's rules and laws : 2 Thes. iii. 14, ' And if any man obey not
pur word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with
tim, that he may be ashamed,' or, that he may turn into himself, as
it is in the original.^ Such as are refractory must be noted with a
brand of infamy ; such must be infamous in your eye, who look with
an eye of contumacy upcm any command or institution of Christ.
The Greek word, arjfMeLovade, signifies to note him so as to make a
sign, as it were, of him ; or to mark him so as to put him to the
blush, to put him to shame. The obstinate, the refractory person
should be a marked person, you must set a cross upon him, that all
may know him and shun him ; the assemblies of the saints are honour-
able, and refractory Christians are to be shut out of them: Mat. xviii.
15-17, ' Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and
tell him his fault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee,
thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, [if he be
refractory,] then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of

1 Mat. xvi. 6, 11, 12; Gal. i. 8; Mat. vii. 15, 13 ; Deut. xiii. 1-3; Titus i. 10, 11.

* Lib. de Animal. [Cf. Catullus, xxii. 10, and Pliny, x. 40, 56, Sec. 115.— G.]

* The Greek word, Xva ivrpair^, is very significant, for it denotes such a perturbation
of the mind, that he who is affected therewith, seeks up and down where he may hide
himself for shame.

68 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

two or three witnesses every word may be established ; and if he shall
neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect to
hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a pub-
lican.' He that shall be refractory under private and public admoni-
tion, is to be shut out from church communion; he that to small
faults shall add contumacy, is to be cut off from the saints' society.
We must turn our backs upon him that turns his back upon the
church. As we would keep ourselves untainted, as we would preserve
the church from being infected, as we would not have the name of
God blasphemed, and as we would have the refractory Christian
ashamed and humbled, we must neither have sacred nor civil society
with him.

(9.) A ninth sort of persons that Christians must have no intimate,
no sacred, no special communion with, are fools: Prov. ix. 6, 'For-
sake the foolish, and live ; and go in the way of understanding ;' chap,
xiv. 7, ' Go from the presence of a foolish man, when thou perceivest
not in him the lips of knowledge;' chap, xxiil 9, ' Speak not in the
ears of a fool ; for he will despise the wisdom of thy words.' i There
is no profit, no pleasure, no delight to be had in the society of fools.
Fools are neither capable of doing good nor of receiving good ; and
therefore what should good souls do among such? A fool hath neither
an ear to hear, nor an eye to see^ nor a heart to understand, nor a
memory to retain, nor a will to choose, nor affections to embrace, any
thing that is good. And therefore their company is to be shunned and
avoided. The society of fools is as dangerous as it is vexatious: Prov.
xiii. 20, ' He that walketh with wise men shall be wise ; but a com-
panion of fools shall be destroyed.' The Hebrew word, ^n"*, that is
here used, signifies to be broken ; yea, to be broken as sometimes an
army is broken by some fierce and sudden surprisal ; a companion of
fools shall be broken in his credit, in his estate, in his name, in his
reputation ; yea, in his very wits, for nothing contributes so much to
make a man a fool as the company of fools.

(10.) The tenth and last sort of persons that Christians must have
no familiarity nor society with, are scortiers. Such as scorn the saints,
and scorn religion, and scorn profession ; such who scorn every way of
Christ, and every institution of Christ: Prov. ix. S, ' Reprove not a
scorner, lest he hate thee.' Wise and gracious reproofs are pearls, that
are not to be cast before scorners.2 Now certainly, if I may not re-
prove scomers, then I may not keep company with scorners : Prov.
xxii. 10, ' Cast out the scorner, and contention shall go out ; yea,
strife and reproach shall cease.' The scorner must be cast out of your
family and out of your company. Strife and contention, shame and
reproach, are the scorner's attendants ; and therefore he that would be
rid of them must cast out him. The Hebrew word, ti^lJ, here trans-
lated * cast out,' signifies not simply to eject or east out ; but to cast
out or drive out, as God did drive Adam out of paradise. Gen. iii. 24,

^ Who would hang a jewel in a swine's ear, or sow precious seed among craggy rocks,
or put sweet liquor into a musty vessel ? &c.

^ Quintinus the libertine was a great scoffer and scorner of the saints ; he called
the apostle Paul a broken vessel ; John a foolish youth ; Peter a denier of God ; and
Matthew a usurer, &c. — Calvin.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 69

for the word is the same ; and this God did, as the Rabbins observe,
with violence and displeasure. So must the scorner be cast out, or
drove out. Look, as God did drive out the Amorite, and the Canaanite,
and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite
before his people, Exod. xxxiv. 11; so must the scorner be driven
out of the society of the saints ; for the Hebrew word is the same in
both places. Look, as Sarah would have Abraham to cast out the
bond- woman and her son, Gen. xxi. 10 ; so must the scorner be cast
out of the company of the saints ; the word is still the same. Look,
as the sea casteth up mire and dirt, Isa.. Ivii. 20 ; so should Christians
cast out scorners from among them ; the word being still the same.
The scorner con8.trues everything to the worst ; he envies those that
excel him ; he disdains those that are below him ; he is never con-
tented, never satisfied, he is still a-quarrelling, still a-fretting, and
still a-perplexing of himself and others ; and therefore you must cast
him out with scoffing Ishmael,. or the house will be too hot to hold
you. Cast out the firebrand, and the fire goes out ; cast out Jonah,
and the storm shall cease ; cast out the bond-woman and her scornful
son, and all will be quiet. David's blessed man is described by this,
Pfi. i. 1^ that he ' sits not in the seat of the scornful.' Scorners are no
companions for blessed men. Of all men the blessed man will never
choose the scorner for his pew-fellow. God himself scorns the scorner :
Prov. iii. 34,. ' Surely he scorneth the scorner,' &c. Of all men in the
world God casts the greatest contempt and scorn upon scorners, and
therefore why should we make such our bosom-associates ? And thus
you see the several sorts of persons that God hath shut out from the
communion of his people. Well, Christians, remember this, dead
stones must not be laid in a living temple. No stones but hewn
stones were ta be brought and laid in the building of Solomon's temple,
which was a type of the church of Christ in gospel-days.^ Certainly
such stones, such souls, as are not hewn by the word and Spirit, are
not fit to be laid in Christ's building. In Josiah's days, when the pass-
over was kept, there were porters at every gate of Jerusalem, that no
unclean or uncircumcised ones might enter, 2 Chron. xxxv. And the

* English Annotations' on Rev. xxi. 27, do say, that in the last church
on earth, discipline in likelihood shall be so strictly executed that no
profane person shall be found there, only elect persons, so far as men
can judge.2 That vain persons are to be shut out from sacred com-
munion with the people of God, is further evident by the judgment of
many approved authors. As,

Chrysostom saith that '- the table of the Lord is that whereon the
carcase is laid, and that we must not sufier chattering jays to come
thereunto ; for only high-flying eagles are to feed thereupon.' There-
upon the same author protested ' that he had rather give his life to a
murderer, than Christ's body to an unworthy receiver, and rather sufier
his own blood to be poured out like water, than to tender Christ's
blessed blood to a base liver.' And again, ' Church-officers,' saith he,

* are to keep the sacrament pure, as a man would keep a pleasant spring
clean whereat he useth to drink, not letting the feet of filthy beasts

1 1 Kings V. 15-18 ; 2 Chron. ii., and ii. 2, 18; 1 Pet. ii. 5.

* 2 vols, folio, 1657 J better known as the ' Assembly's Annotations.' — O.

70 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

and swine to puddle it.' The same author further saith l that in the
primitive times, whenever the sacrament was administered, a deacon
stood up, and cried in the open assembly, ' Holy things to holy men,
holy things to holy men,' thereby debarring all others that were un-
holy, and raising the hearts of the holy.

Justin Martyr, who was about the year after Christ 150 — he lived
not above thirty years after St John — he, in his Apology to Antoninus
the Emperor for Christians, writes thus : ' In our assemblies we admit
none to the Lord's supper but such as being baptized continue in pro-
fessing the true faith, and in leading such lives as Christ hath taught.'
There were three things^ saith this author, that were required of them
that were to be received to the sacrament : ' 1. A new birth; 2. Sound-
ness in faith ; 3. A promise to live well.' 2

Augustine well observes, ' That as many think the eating of an
apple was but a small sin, so many think that the eating of the sacra-
ment is but a small sin. But as many horrid sins were vtrapt up in
that, so are there many wrapt up in this : 1. Here is pride ; else no
man in his wickedness would presume to come to the Lord's table.
2. Here is rebellion and treason against the crown and dignity
of Christ ; their hands and lips adore him, as Judas his did, but their
hearts and lives abhor him, Eom. ii. 22. 3. Here is theft and sacri-
lege ; now if to take away the communion-cup be such a high offence,
such horrid sacrilege^ what is it then to take the bread and wine, set
apart and sanctified for a holy use by the Lord himself ? 1 Cor. xi.
27, 29. 4. Here is murder, the worst murder, the greatest murder,
the cruellest murder ; thou kOlest thyself, thy soul, and as much as in
thee lies, God's dearest Son. Now certainly, in some respects, this
sin is a greater sin than Adam's was : For, 1. Adam's eating was
against a Creator, but thine is against a Kedeemer : now it is more to
redeem a soul than to create a world. 2. His was against the word of
the Lord ; thine against the blood of the Lord. 3. His struck at the
covenant of works ; thine at the covenant of grace. 4. He ate but once ;
but thou eatest often.'

' Yea,' Aquinas saith,^ ' the majesty of church discipline should never
suffer this, to let open and known offenders presume to come to the
table of the Lord.'

It was a worthy saying of Bilson, an approved author,^ ' Suppose any
man,' saith he, ' be he a prince, if he will not submit himself to the pre-
cepts of Christ, but wilfully maintain either heresy or open impurity,
the ministers are to admonish him what danger from God is at the
door ; and if he impenitently persist, they must not suffer him to com-
municate either in divine prayer, or any holy mysteries among the
people of God ; but wholly to be excluded the congregation.' Again,

* Not only the lack of the word and sacraments,' saith the same author,

* but the abuse of either, greatly hazards the weal of the whole church ;
yea, casting* holy things to dogs, &c., procures a dreadful doom as well

^ Chrysostom in Mat. horn. 6. Chrysostom in Mat. horn. 83. ChrvsoBtom in Epist.
ad Heb. horn. 17.

2 ' Apology,' IxxxT. Ixixviii.— G. » S. T., sub verbo ' diflciplina.'— G.

* Bilson'a ' Christian Subject,' par. 3, pp. 63, 64, 74, and c. 52.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 7X

to consenters as presumers, it being the way to turn the house of
God into a den of thieves, if profane ones be allowed to defile the
mysteries and assemblies of the faithful.'

* 1/ said Calvin, ' will sooner die than this hand of mine shall give
the things of God to the contemners of God.' i

Mr Rutherford, that champion for presbyter)', in his ' Divine Right
of Church Government,' page 520, saith ' that they are copartners
with the wicked who dispense the bread to them who are knowingly
dead in sins.' 2 I might multiply many others ; but let these suffice.
For a close, let me only say. How the father can be guiltless of the
death of his child, that giveth him poison to drink, with this caution,
that he telleth him it is poison, I cannot see. Josephus reports of
some that profanely searched the sepulchres of the saints, supposing to
find some treasures there, but God made fire to rise out of the earth,
that devoured them on a sudden.^ Now if God's wrath like fire
breaks forth to consume such as wrong but the sepulchres of his saints,
&c. , oh then with what flames of fury will God burn up such as abuse
not only the sacrament of his Son, but his Son himself ! It was a
very great wickedness in Julian to throw his blood in the face of
Christ ; but for a wicked communicant to take Christ's own blood as
it were running from his heart, and to throw it into the face of Christ,
is most abominable and damnable. By all that hath been spoken, you
clearly see that unholy persons are to be shut out of the special com-
munion of saints here on earth ; and therefore certainly the Lord will
never suffer such to have communion with him in heaven. It will
not stand with the holiness and purity of God to have fellowship with
such in the kingdom of glory, whom he would not have his people have
fellowship with in the kingdom of grace.

8. The eighth argument to prove that without real holiness there
is no happiness ; that without holiness on earth no man shall ever
come to a blessed vision or fruition of God in heaven, is this, The
Scripture, that speaks no treason, styles unholy persons beasts, yea, the
worst of beasts ; and what should such do in heaven ? ^ Unholy per-
sons are the most dangerous, and the most unruly pieces in the world,
and therefore are emblemized by lions, Ps. xxii. 21, and they are cruel ;
by bears, and they are savage, Isa. xi. 7 ; by dragons, and they are
hideous, Ezek. xxix. 3 ; by wolves, and they are ravenous, Ezek. xxii.
27 ; by dogs, and they are snarling. Rev. xxii. 15 ; by vipers
and scorpions, and they are stinging, Mat. xii. 34, Ezek. ii. 6 ; by
spiders and cockatrices, and they are poisoning, Isa. lix. 5 ; by swine,
and they are [still grunting, Mat. vii. 6. No man in this world is
more like another than the epicure is like a swine ; the fraudulent
person a fox ; the lustful person a goat ; the backbiter a barking cur ;
the slanderer an asp ; the oppressor a wolf ; the persecutor a tiger ;
the seducer a serpent. Certainly the Irish air will sooner brook toads
and snakes and serpents to live therein, than heaven will brook such

^ As before. — G. ,

* Samuel Rutherford, the saintly writer of the imperishable ' Letters. — Q.

' Joseph. Antiq., lib. xii. 13, and lib. xvi. cap. 11. , • x *

* Unholy persons are, throughout the Scriptures, branded, to their overlaatmg contempt,
with the worst appellations.

72 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

beasts as unholy souls are to live there. i Surely God, and Christ,
and the Spirit, and angels, and ' the spirits of just men made perfect,'
are not so in love with dogs and swine, &c., as to put them into their
bosoms, or make them their companions. Heaven is a place of too
great state to admit such vermin to inhabit there. When Cyneas,2
the ambassador of Pyrrhus, after his return from Kome, was asked by
his master what he thought of the city and state, he answered and
said, that it seemed to him to be republica regum, a state of none
but great statesmen, and a commonwealth of kings. Such is heaven ;
it is no other state than a parhament of emperors, a commonwealth
of kings. There is not a soul in heaven under the degree of a king,
Kev. i. 6, and every king there hath a robe of honour upon his back,
a golden sceptre in his hand, and a glorious crown upon his head.
And do you think that it will stand with the state of heaven, or with
the state of this commonwealth of kings, to admit such vermin as un-
holy persons are, to be of that noble society ? Surely no. God hath
long since resolved upon it, that no unclean beasts shall enter into
heaven, that no dirty dogs shall ever trample upon that golden pave-
ment. All in heaven are holy : the angels holy, the saints holy, the
patriarchs holy, the prophets holy, the apostles holy, the martyrs holy,
but the Lord himself above all is most glorious in holiness, and there-
fore all those holy ones do, as it were in a divine anthem, sing and
say, ' Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, heaven and earth are full
of the majesty of thy glory,' Rev. iv. 8 ; Isa. vi. 3. Now certainly it
would be a hell to these holy ones to have unholy wretches to be their
companions.^ When the holy angels fell from their holiness, heaven
w^as so holy that it spewed them out, as once Canaan did its unholy
inhabitants, Lev. xviii. 28 ; and therefore certainly there wUl be no
room in heaven for such filthy beasts as unholy persons are. Well,
remember this, that all those stinging expressions and appellations
which disgrace and vilify unholy persons, they were inspired by a holy
Spirit, and penned by holy secretaries, and enrolled in his holy word,
and pubHshed by his holy messengers, and all by his holy appoint-
ment, who, as he is greater than the greatest, and wiser than the
wisest, and better than the best, so he is too pure and too holy to eat
the words that are gone out of his mouth, or to deny or unsay what
he hath spoken, or not to maintain the truth thereof against all gain-
sayers. It is prophesied that when the church shall be restored to
her purity and glory, such beasts shall not be there, Isa. xxxv. 9 ;
Ezek. xxviii. 24. The majesty of church discipline shall be such as
shall keep out all such beasts. ' Jerusalem above ' is too glorious a
habitation for beasts, or for men of beastly spirits, or beastly principles,
or beastly practices. The city of the great God was never built for
beasts. A wilderness and not a paradise is fittest for beasts.

9. The ninth argument to prove the truth of the proposition is
this, God would not have his holy ones in this world to be yoked in

^ It was wont to be a trial whether land belonged to England or Ireland, by putting
in toads or snakes, &c., into it ; if they lived there, it was concluded that the land be-
longed to England ; if they died, to Ireland.

* Rather Cineas (Ki^'^aj) : the embassage to Rome took place after the battle of Hep.
aclea, b.c. 280. Plutarch, Pyrrh. xviii. ; Diod. Exc. Vatic, xxii. ; Livy, xxxiv. 4. Q.

" There are no owla in Crete, nor no wild beasts in Lebanon.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 73

marriage with unholy ones ; and therefore certainly he will never
suffer such to be yoked to himself to all eternity, i That God would
not have his righteous people to be yoked in marriage with the
unrighteous, is most evident by these scriptures : Deut. vii. 3, 6,
' Neither shalt thou make marriages with them ; thy daughter thou
shalt not give to his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son :
for thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God : the Lord thy God
hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people
that are upon the face of the earth:' Ezra ix. 12, ' Now therefore
give not your daughters unto their sons, neither take their daughters
unto your sons.' But did they keep this commandment of the Lord ?
No, as you may see in the second verse of that chapter, ' For they
have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons : so
that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those
lands : yea, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this
trespass.' But how did this operate upon good Ezra? That you
may see in the third verse, ^ And when I heard this thing, I rent my
garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head, and of
my beard, and sat down astonied.' Oh the sorrow, the grief, the per-
plexity, the holy passion, the indignation, the amazement, the astonish-
ment that this abomination begot in the heart of good Ezra ! The like
effect this sin had upon the heart of good Nehemiah, as you may see
in that remarkable text, Neh. xiii. 23-25, compared with chap.
X. 29, 30. So in 2 Cor. vi. 14, 15, ' Be ye not unequally yoked to-
gether with unbelievers : for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness ? and what communion hath light with darkness ?
and what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or what part hath he that
believeth with an infidel ?' It is an evil thing, a dangerous thing, to
be yoked to any who have neither skill nor will to bear the yoke of
Christ. Under the law an ox and an ass might not be yoked or
coupled together, Deut. xxii. 10 — and to this the apostle alludes as
some judge — God would not have righteous souls to be yoked in mar-
riage with those that are unrighteous ; a gracious soul were better be
married to a quartan ague than to an ungracious wife. ' A virtuous
wife is a crown to her husband,' Pro v. xii. 4; she is the life of life.
If thou art a man of holiness, thou must look more for a portion of
grace in a wife, than for a portion of gold with a wife ; thou must look
more after righteousness than riches ; more after piety, than money ;
more after what inheritance she hath in heaven, than what possessions
she hath on earth ; more at what interest she hath in Christ, than at
what interest she hath in creatm'es ; more at her being new-born, than
at her being high-born ; more at her being good, than at all her worldly
goods, 1 Cor. vii. 39. If money makes the match, and she be good
enough that hath but goods enough, thou shalt be sure to have hell
enough with such a wife. In thy choice to err but once is to be un-
done for ever, at least as to the comforts and contentments of thy life ;
once blest or curst must be for ever so : men have not leave to choose

^ Exod. xxiii. 32 ; xxxiv. 12. If you would see the greatness and dangerousness of
this sin, then read Ezra x. and 1 Kings xi., with Exod. xxxiv. 14-16 ; Judges iii. 6-8.
When Dionysius the elder, tyrant of Syracuse, asked Aristides, a Locrian, his good-
will to marry his daughter, I had rather see my daughter dead, said he, than married
unto a tyrant.— Plutarch in the life of Timoleon. The application is easy.

74 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.

or change often. By what hath been said, it is most evident that God
would not have the holy seed to mingle or marry with the unholy.
And do you think that a holy God will mingle and marry with such
in heaven, that he would not have his people to mingle or marry with
on earth ? Surely no. Or do you think that that God, that would not
in the law have an ox and an ass plough together, that he will be
yoked to such wretches, may I say to such asses, whose ungodliness
hath debased them below the very ox and ass ? Isa. i. 3. Surely no.

10. The tenth and last argument to prove that without real holi-
ness there is no happiness, &c., is this; tinholy persons are adjudged,
doomed and sentenced to another place, viz., to hell: Ps. ix. 17, ' The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.'
In the Hebrew there are two ' intos ;' * into,' ' into' hell, that is, the
wicked shall be turned into the nethermost hell, into the lowest and
darkest dungeon of hell : ' They shall be turned into hell,' that is, they
shall be certainly turned into hell ; they shall be vehemently, forcibly
turned into hell : God will, as it were with both hands, thrust them
into hell.i The wicked shall from hell to judgment, and from judg-
ment they shall be turned with a witness into hell. The Photinians 2
hold that there is no heU, and many now-a-days say there is no hell
but what a man finds in his own conscience ; and multitudes with
Caesar 3 do think that all that is spoken of hell is false and fabulous.
They will not believe that there is a hell, till they come to feel them-
selves in hell, till they find everlasting flames about their ears. They
are sentenced to the fire, to everlasting fire, they are doomed to fire
and brimstone: Mat. xxv. 41, ' Then shall he say unto them on the
left hand. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels.' This terrible sentence breathes out
nothing but fire and brimstone, terror and horror, dread and woa
The last words that ever Christ will speak in this world, will be the
most tormenting, and amazing, the most killing and damning, the
most stinging and wounding. ' Depart from me ;' there is rejection :
pack, begone ! get you out of my sight ! let me never see your faces
more ! It was a heavy doom that was passed upon Nebuchadnezzar, that
he should be driven from the society of men, and in an extremity of a
sottish melancholy spend his time amongst the beasts of the field, Dan.
iv. 25 ; but that was nothing to this soul-killing word, ' Depart from
me ;' it was nothing to men's being cast out of the presence of Christ
for ever ; the remembrance of which made one to pray thus, ' Lord,
deliver me at the great day from that soul-kiUing word, depart.'^ And
what saith another,

' This word " depart," the goats with horror hears.
But this word " come," the sheep to joy appears.'*

* Ye cursed :' there is malediction. But, Lord, if we must depart,

^ Matt. xi. 23, and xxiii. 15, 33. The Hebrew word Sheol hath several significations ;
sometimes it signifies the grave, sometimes it signifies extraordinary great anguishes
and distresses ; and sometimes it signifies hell or the place of the damned, as here, and
as in Job xi. 8, and Prov. xv. 11.

* A sect that arose in the fourth century, founded by Photinus, bishop of Sirmium. Q.

3 Sic: perhaps Caesar is named as along with Cicero discrediting the vulgar mytho-
logy of the after-state.— Q.

* Bernard in Psalm xcL » In margin the ' Sphinx' : Quarles ?— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 75

oh let us depart blessed ! No, * depart ye cursed ! ' You have cursed
others, and now you shall be cursed yourselves ; you have delighted
yourselves in cursing, and now you shall be cursed for ever.i You
shall be cursed in your bodies and cursed in your souls ; you shall be
cursed of God, and cursed of angels, and cursed of saints, and cursed
of devils, and cursed of your companions, yea, you shall curse your
very selves, your very souls. You loved not blessing, and therefore
you shall have cursing enough : ' Depart from me, ye cursed : ' all your
curses, all your maledictions shall at last recoil upon your own souls.
Now thou cursest every man and thing that stands in the way of thy
lusts, and that crosses thy designs : but at last all the curses of heaven
and hell shall meet in their full power and force upon thee.

But, Lord, if we must depart, and depart cursed, oh let us go into
some good place ! No, ' depart ye into everlasting fire.' There is the
vengeance and continuance of it. 2 You shall go into fire, into
everlasting fire, that will neither consume itself, nor consume you.
Eternity of extremity is the hell of hell. The fire in hell is like that
stone in Arcadia, wluch being once kindled could never be quenched.
If all the fires that ever were in the world were contracted into one
fire, how terrible would it be ! yet such a fire would be but as a painted
fire upon the wall, to the fire of hell. The greatest and the hottest
fires that ever were on earth are but ice in comparison of the fire
of hell. If it be so sad a spectacle to behold a malefactor's flesh con-
sumed by piece-meals in a lingering fire ; ah ! how sad, how dreadful
would it be to experience what it is to lie in unquenchable fire, not for
a day, a month, or a year, or a hundred, or a thousand years, but for
ever and ever ! ' If it were,' saith one^ ' but for a thousand years, I
could bear it, but seeing it is for eternity, this amazeth and afirighteth
me.* ' I am afraid of hell,' saith another, [Cyril,] ' because the worm
there never dies, and the fire never goeth out : ' it is called ' unquench-
able fire,' Mat. xviiL 8, and ' eternal fire ' in the Epistle of Jude, ver.
7. The torments of the damned are very grievous for the bitterness
of them, but more grievous for the diversity of them, but most of
all grievous for the eternity of them. To lie in everlasting torments,
Mat. XXV. 46, goes beyond all the bounds of desperation. To roar
for ever for disquietness of heart, to rage for ever for madness of soul,
to weep, and grieve, and gnash the teeth for ever for vexation of spirit,
is a misery beyond all expression. ^ Suetonius reports of Tiberius
Caesar, that, being petitioned by a certain offender to hasten his punish-
ment, and to grant him a speedy despatch, he made him this answer,
Nondum tecum in gratiam redii: Stay sir, you and I are not friends
yet.^ So if after a damned soul hath been in hell a thousand years,
he should petition the Lord for a speedy death, the Lord would
answer after the same manner. Stay soul, you and I are not yet friends :
if after thousands and millions of thousands of years, the request
should be renewed, the answer would still be the same. Stay, you and
I are not yet friends. Wronged justice can never be satisfied, and

^ Cursings now are their hymns, but in hell they shall be their woes. Rev. xvi. 9, 11, 21.
' Therefore they do but dream, who think and say that the devil and damned shall be
delivered at last, Ps. xi. 6, Al8ted[iu8.]
3 Dionys. in Apocalypa. xviii. fol. 301. * Lib. iii. cap. 6.

76 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

therefore the sinner must be for ever tormented: the sinner in hell
will sin for ever, and therefore he must be punished for ever. It will
not stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of Grod to cease
punishing, where the sinner ceases not sinning. One tells us of some
devout personages, who caused those words of the prophet, Isa. xxxiii,
14, ' Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? who among
us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? ' ^ to be written in letters of
gold upon their chimney-pieces. The fear of Nebuchadnezzar's fiery-
furnace made men do anything to avoid it, Dan. iii. 8 ; and shall not
the fear of eternal flames, of everlasting burnings, work men to bewail
their sins, to hate all their bitter-sweets, and to lay hold on everlasting
strength, that it may go well with them for ever ? I have read of
a chaste virgin, who being strongly tempted and solicited by a lewd
ruffian to uncleanness, after some discourse, she called for a pan
of burning coals, requesting him for her sake to hold his finger in
them but one hour ; he answered, it is an unkind and unreasonable
request : it is truth, saith she, it is so ; but you ask me a more unkind
and unreasonable request, viz., to satisfy you in a thing for which
I shall not only burn an hour, but burn both body and soul in hell-fire
for ever and ever ; and so overcame the temptation.

But, Lord, if I must go into fire, into everlasting fire, oh let me
have some good company in my misery ! No ! the devil and his
angels shall be your companions. Ah ! who can conceive or express
the misery of cohabitation with devils and damned spirits ! Many
unholy souls would not live in a house haunted with evil spirits one
night for all the world ; and yet they live as if it were nothing to
b^ biUeted with helHsh fiends and furies for ever. If the sight of a
seeming ghost for a moment be such a terror and torment to thee ;
what wiU the horrible sight of devils, and the ghastly sight of the damned
be ? If it was so great an affliction to Job to be a companion to owls,
Job XXX. 29 ; what will it be to thee to be a companion to devils ? If
it was so great a grief and woe to David to sojourn in Mesech, and
to dwell in the tents of Kedar for a time, Ps. cxx. 5 ; what a woe
will it be to unholy souls to dwell with devils and reprobates for ever ?
Ah! how will Satan's deformity, antipathy, and cruelty amaze thee
and torment thee ! How will the damneds' wringing of hands and
gnashing of teeth abash thee and confound thee ! How will thine old
companions' cursing of thee, the sight of thy near relations in misery
with thee, and devils scornfully insulting over thee, and the never-
dying worm feeding perpetually upon thee, be many hells of horror to
thee ! Had an unholy soul as many worlds in his hand to give as
there be stars in heaven, he would give them all for a licence
always to sleep under those pains and torments that will admit of no
intermission or mitigation.2 In Kev. xxi. 8 you have a catalogue of
that damned crew, of that rout of reprobates which shall be your
companions for ever : * But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the
abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth

* Jo. Pet. Camois, B[iBhop] of Betty, in France, in his ' Draught of Eternity.' [Camus,
Bp. of Belly, not Betty : his ' Draught,' was a Puritan favourite in English. — G.]

* As the ancients feign of Endyiiiion, that he got leave of Jupiter always to sleep.

Hi:B. XII. 14 ] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 77

with fire and brimstone : which is the second death.' These com-
panions are the devil's lime-twigs ; they are his scorpions with which
he will torment and whip poor souls for ever. Such companions will
make many hells to meet in one ; they will be the top of the soul's
torments. Thus I have done with those arguments that prove the
point ; viz. , that without holiness there is no happiness, &c.

III. I come now to the reasons of the point, Why is it that without
holiness there is no happiness ; that without holiness on earth no man
shall ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God in heaven ?
Among other reasons that might be rendered, you may please to take
these : —

Reason 1. First, Because God hath said it, who is truth and faithful-
ness itself, and cannot lie. That he hath said it, witness the very text,
and the proofs that are produced to make good the doctrine : and
hath he said it, and shall it not come to pass ? Hath he spoken
it, and will he not accomplish the word that is gone out of his mouth ? i
' God is not a man that he should lie,' Num. xxiii. 19. ' Also the
Strength of Israel will not lie,' 1 Sam. xv. 29. God will make good
every word that is gone out of his mouth. Men sometimes eat their
words as soon as they have spoken them ; they often say and unsay,
but so will not the Holy One of Israel ; that first and supreme being,
that gives being to all others, will certainly give being to all his pro-
mises and threatenings. God himself shall sooner cease to be, than
the word that is gone out of his mouth shall be frustrated. He that
is the faithful witness hath said it, that ' without holiness no man
shall see the Lord.' ' And verily, heaven and earth shall pass away
before one jot or one tittle' (that is, before the least letter or particle of
a letter) ' of God's blessed word shall pass unfulfilled,' Mat. v. 18.
God's ' faithfulness is great,' Lam. iii. 23 ; 'It reaches unto the
clouds,' Ps. xxxvi. 5 ; ' He will not suffer his faithfulness to fail,'
Ps. Ixxxix. 33 ; ' His faithfulness endures through all generations,'
Ps. cxix. 90. God will never suffer his faithfulness to be stained
or blotted, and therefore he will undoubtedly make good the word that
is gone out of his mouth. I had rather, said Plutarch, that men
should say there was never any such person in the world as Plutarch,
than that they should say Plutarch is unfaithful. A man were better
say there is no God, than say that God is unfaithful. A noble spirit
can better bear any charge, than that of being unfaitliful ; and so can
a faithful God.

Reason 2. Secondly, Because real holiness is that great principle
that fits and capa^dtates soicls for communion tvith God, and for a
blessed sight and fruition of God : Mat. v. 8, ' Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God.' 2 Without a principle of purity, of
sanctity, there is no vision of God in glory. If a man be never so poor,
yet if his heart be pure, God will make a house of his heart, wherein
his honour will delight to dwell ; let a man's outside be never so homely,
yet if his inside be but cleanly, God will make it his own habitation.

1 Isa. xlvi. n, and xlviii. 15 ; Jer. xxxii. 24 ; Isa. Iv. 11 ; Zech. i. 6 ; Dan. ix. 12 ;
Ps. cxix. 138.

2 The glory of glory consists in seeing of God, 1 Cor. xiii. 12 ; 1 John iii. 2, as the
hell of hell lies in the soul's everlasting separation from God.

78 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

God is for that man, and that man is for God, that carries about with
him a pure heart. Heart-purity makes a man a darling of heaven.
Many aflfect pure language, pure houses, pure habits, pure hands, pure
air, pure meat, pure drink, pure gestures, &c., who yet for want of
heart-purity shall never see the face of God in glory. Heart-purity
speaks a man eternally happy. Holiness is that noble principle that
fits a man for the happiest sight of God : it makes a man a meet com-
panion for God both here and hereafter. Without this principle no
man can have communion with God in this world, much less can he
have communion with God in heaven, if this precious principle of
holiness be not seated in his heart. It will not stand with the holi-
ness of God, to have anything to do with those that have no principles
of holiness in them. It is a principle of holiness that fits a man for
the service of God, that fits a man for fellowship with God, that fits a
man for walking with God, that fits a man for correspondency with
God, and that fits a man for the delight of God, and that fits a man
for an everlasting fruition of God. And therefore certainly without
holiness there is no happiness ; without a principle of purity there can
be no seeing of the face of God in glory.

Keason 3. A third reason why without real holiness there is no hap-
piness, &c., is this. Because heaven is a holy place, and therefore no
unholy souls can enter there. It is called the ' high and holy place,'
Isa. Ivii. 1.5 ; the inheritance of the saints in heaven is an inheritance
that is incorruptible and undefiled, 1 Pet. i. 4. Holiness dwells in
heaven, 2 Pet. iii. 13, as a man dwells in his house. Heaven is the
house of God's holiness, and therefore certainly without holiness there
is no entering into that house, Kev. xxi. 27. The Holy of Holies in
the temple was a type of heaven.i And as none might enter into the
Holy of Holies that were unholy, so none can enter into heaven, which
is the true holy of holies, but those that are holy. Heaven was so
holy, that it cast out the angels when they fell from their holiness.
Paradise was a type of heaven, and no sooner did Adam lose his holi-
ness, but he was shut out of paradise. Heaven is a city of holiness :
and none can enter into that city but such as are holy. Rev. xxii.
14. Heaven is so holy that it would groan to bear one unholy soul.
Well, heaven is a holy place, and the inhabitants are all holy, and
the work of heaven is holy ; and what then should unholy souls do
there ?

Eeason 4. A fourth reason why without real holiness there is no
happiness, &c., is this. Because unholy persons have no hearts to go to
heaven. Though now and then they may talk of heaven, and now and
then lift up their eyes and hands to heaven, and now and then express
a few cold wishes and lazy desires after heaven, it is no difficult thing
to demonstrate that in good earnest they have no heart to go to heaven.^
For first, How often hath God set life and death, heaven and hell be-
fore them, and they have chosen death rather than life, and hell rather
than heaven ! 2. Do you think that that man hath any heart to
heaven, that will not so much as part with a lust for heaven ? 3.

^ Exod. xxvi. 34 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 69; Heb. ix. 8, and xii. 24.

' Coelum est altera gehenna damnatorum, Heaven is aDOther hell to the damned said
one, Isa. IxvL 3, 4. '

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 79

Will you say that that man hath a heart to go to heaven, that hath
not so much as a hand to lay hold on the opportunities of grace that
might bring him to heaven ? Luke xiii. 33, 34. 4. Will you say that
that man hath a heart to go to heaven, that daily hardens his heart
against him who is the way to heaven ? John xiv. 6 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10.
5. WiU you say that that man hath a heart to go to heaven, who is
still a-grieving, vexing, and quenching that Spirit of holiness, that can
only fit,i frame, and form him for heaven ? 6. Will you say that that
man hath a heart to go to heaven, that rarely spends a serious thought
of heaven, and that lives in this world as if there were no heaven ? 7.
Will you say that that man hath a heart to go to heaven, whose sinful
courses speak him out to be one of those who have made a covenant
with death, and an agreement with hell ? Isa. xxviii. 15, 18. 8. Do
you think that that man hath a heart to go to heaven, that detests
those most that are the best wooers for heaven ? 9. Do you think that
that man hath any heart to go to heaven, who can take no pleasure nor
delight in those that are travelling towards heaven ? Kom. iii. 8 ; 1
Cor. iv. 9, 10. 10. Will you say that that man hath a heart to go to
heaven, that will do nothing affectionately for heaven ; that will not
hear for heaven, nor pray for heaven, nor trade for heaven, nor look
for heaven, nor long for heaven, nor strive for heaven, nor wait for
heaven ? 2 The heart commands aU, it carries all ; if the heart were
bent for heaven, the head would contrive for heaven, the eye would
look out for heaven, and the ear would hear for heaven, and the tongue
would speak for heaven, and the foot would walk towards heaven, and
the hand would do for heaven. By all which it is most evident that
unholy persons are not cordially willing to go to heaven. It is most
certain that unholy persons have no such great mind to go to heaven
as some imagine. When Dives was in hell, his desire was not to be
with Abraham in heaven, but that Lazarus might come and give him
a little ease in hell : he preferred a little ease in hell before his being
with Abraham in heaven, Luke xvi. 24, 27-29. Neither did he
desire that his five brethren might go to heaven, but that they might
be kept out of heU ; and that not out oi love to them, but out of love
to himself, he knowing that their company would be no small increase
of his own torments. Heaven would be a very hell to an unholy
heart. If now the presence of God in his servants, and the presence
of God in his ordinances, be such a hell to unholy souls, ah, what a
hell would the presence of God in heaven be to unholy hearts ! It is
true an unholy heart may desire heaven, as it is a place of freedom
from troubles, afflictions, oppressions, vexations, &c., and as it is a
place of peace, rest, ease, safety, &c., but this is the least and lowest
part of heaven ; but to desire it as it is, a place of purity, of grace, of
holiness, of enjoying of God, &c., is above the reach of an unholy heart.
The company of heaven are all holy, the employments of heaven are
all holy, and the enjoyments of heaven are all holy ; and therefore
heaven cannot but be an undesirable thing to unholy hearts. An un-
holy heart is no ways desirous nor ambitious of such a heaven as will
rid him of his darling sins, as will make him conformable to a holy
God, as will everlastingly divorce him from his old companions, and
^ = That only can fit.— G. * No man ever went to heaven sleeping.

80 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

link him for ever to those gracious souls that he hath scorned, despised,
and persecuted in this world. Ergo, &c.

Reason 5. Fifthly and lastly, Because loithout real holmess men are
good for nothing, they are fit for nothing. Without holiness men are
neither good for church nor state, they are neither fit to rule nor to
be ruled ; to command, nor to be commanded ; to guide, nor to be
guided, &c. Men void of holiness are in the Scripture resembled to
chaff, to dust, to dirt, to briars and thorns, which are things that are
good for nothing, that are fit for nothing.l And what should such
men do in heaven, who are good for nothing on earth ? The horse is
good to carry, the ox is good to draw, the sheep is good for cloth, the
cow is good to give milk, the ass is good to bear, and the dog is good
to keep the house ; but what is a man void of holiness good for ? An
unholy person is good for nothing but to be destroyed, and to make
some room for a better person to stand up in that place which he takes
up in the world. As the hog in the Arabic fable tells us that a butcher,
carrying three creatures upon his horse, a sheep, a goat, and a hog, the
two former lay very quiet and still, but the hog kicked, and cried, and
would never be quiet. Thereupon the butcher said, Why art thou so
impatient when the other two are so quiet? The hog answered.
Every one knows himself; the sheep knows that he is brought into the
city for his wool's sake, and the goat knows that he is brought into
the city for his milk's sake, and so they need not fear nor care ; but,
alas, I know very well that I have neither wool nor milk, but that as
soon as I am come into the city I must be kiUed, for that is all I am
good for. An unholy soul is like a hog, good for nothing but to be
killed. Mat. vii. 6. Certainly heaven-happiness is too great and too
glorious a thing to be possessed by them that are good for nothing.
We look upon such as are fit for nothing, to be worthy of banishment
from the society of men. But oh, how much more worthy are they
to be banished from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of his
power, and to be shut out for ever from the society of angels and
the spirits of just men made perfect, who are fit for nothing but to
dishonour the Lord, undo their own souls, and to treasure up wrath
against the day of wrath !^ 2 Thes. i. 8, 9 ; Heb. xii. 22, 23 ; Rom.
ii. 5. And thus I have given you an account of the reasons of the
point.

IV. Use 1. We shall now come to make some improvement of
this great truth to our own souls. Is it so, that real holiness is the
only way to happiness, and that without holiness here, no man shall
ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God hereafter ? Then the
first use shall be a use of conviction. This, then, may serve to con-
vince the world of several things : As,

1. First, That the number of those that shaU be eternally happy,
the number of those that shall attain to a blessed vision and glorious
fruition of God in heaven, are very few ; for there are but a few that
reach to this holiness without which there is no happiness : Rev, iii. 4,
* Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their
garments ; and they shall walk with me in white : for they are worthy.'
Among the many in Sardis there were but a few that had holy insides

' ^ Ps. i. 4 ; Isa. xli. 2 ; Zeph. i. 17 ; Ezek. ii. 6 ; Isa. ii. 18, x. 6, 17, and Ivii. 27.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 81

and pure outsides.i Among the multitude that made a holy profes-
sion, there were but few that walked answerable to their holy calling ;
and therefore but a few that should walk with Christ in white. White
in ancient times was the habit of nobles : to walk with Christ in white,
is to partake with Christ in his glory. They, and only they, at last
shall be clothed nobly, royally, gloriously, who maintain inward and
outward purity. The holy seed is a ' little, little flock,' Luke xii. 32.
Here are two diminutives in the G-reek, MiKpov ttoi/xviov, ' little, little
flock ;' to shew the exceeding littleness of it. They were little in their
own eyes, and little in their enemies' eyes, and little in regard of that
world of wolves among whom they were preserved, as a spark of fire in
the midst of the wide ocean. When the Syrians came up against
Israel in the time of Ahab, it is said that ' the children of Israel pitched
before them like two little flocks of kids, but the Sjnrians filled the
country,' 1 Kings xx. 27. Holy souls are but like two little flocks of
kids ; but the unholy fill the world. Grracious souls are like the three
hundred men of Gideon ; but graceless souls are as the Midianites,
that were like grasshoppers for multitude, Judges vii. 7, 12. ' Strait
is the gate, and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few there
be that find it,' Mat. vii. 14. The way of holiness that leads to
happiness, is a narrow way ; there is but just room enough for a holy
God and a holy soul to walk together. ' And few there be that find
it.' And no wonder ; for there are but few that minds it, that loves
it, that likes it, or that inquires after it. ' The whole world lies in
wickedness,' 1 John v. 19, and will die in their wickedness, John viii.
21.2 Geographers say, that if all the known parts of the world were
divided into one-and-thirty parts, there will be found but five parts
that do so much as profess the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ :
for at this day, nineteen parts of the world are possessed by unholy
Turks and Jews, which do not, nor will not so much as acknowledge
Jesus Christ to be the King and Head of his church ; and seven
parts of the world is possessed this day merely by heathens, who worship
stocks and stones. And of those five parts that are possessed by Chris-
tians, how many are Papists, atheists, hypocrites, drunkards, swearers,
liars, adulterers, idolaters, oppressors ! How many are proud, covetous,
carnal, formal, lukewarm, indifferent, &c. ! Now, should all these sorts
of sinners be separated, as they shall in the great day, from those that
are gracious and holy, would it not quickly appear that the flock of
Christ is a little, little flock ? Ah, how few among the great ones are
found to be gracious ! How few among the rich are found to be rich
in Christ, rich in grace, rich in good works 1 How few among those
that are high-born, can you find that are new-born 1 1 Cor. i. 16;
1 Tim. vi. 16, 17. It was the saying of one,3 that all the names of good
emperors might be engraven in a little ring. And so saith Lipsius,

^ A few names, that is, a few persons : Acts i. 15, who are all known to Christ by-
name ; as he said to Moses, 'I know thee by name,' Exod. xxxiii. 12, 17. By these scrip-
tures it is evident that few shall be saved, Jer. v. 1 ; Ezek. xxii. 30, and ix. 4, 6, 7 ;
Micah i. 13-15; Luke xxiii. 28, seq.; Rom. ix. 21; Mat. xxii. 14; 1 Cor. i. 20.

* Amongst the millions in Rome, there were but a few senators, and they too none of
the best.

^ In margin Flavus [rather Flavins] Vopiscus, one of the six 'Scriptores Historiaj
Augustte.' — G.

VOL. IV. F

82 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

that the names of all good princes may easily be written in a small
ring. "I I have read of godly Mr Buchanan, that was King James his
tutor, who lying upon his dying bed, desired a nobleman then with
him to teU the king that his old master, Buchanan, was going to a
place where few kings come.^ Kings are as rare meat in heaven as
venison is in poor men's kitchens, saith the Dutch proverb. And how
few among the wise can you find that are wise for heaven, that are
wise for their souls, that are wise for eternity ! And how few among
the learned; can you find that have learned Christ, and learned their
own hearts, and learned to deny themselves, and learned to save their
own souls and others' ! By all which it is most evident that few are
holy, and that few shall be happy. But,

2. Secondly, and more particularly, Is it so that real holiness is the
only way to happiness : and that without holiness here, no man shall
ever come to a blessed vision or fruition of God hereafter ? Then
this may serve to convince several sorts of persons of their woeful and
miserable conditions. As,

(1.) First, All profane persons, who give up themselves to wicked-
ness, who wallow in all ungodliness, and delight themselves in all
manner of filthiness, who commit wickedness with greediness ; who
draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart-rope ;
who weary themselves to commit iniquity ; who are so desperately set
upon wickedness, that neither the rod of Grod, the lashes and checks
of their own consciences, nor the flashes of hell upon their souls, can
reduce them ; who are resolved that they will gratify their lusts, though
they damn their souls ; and who will live wickedly, though they perish
eternally : who by custom in sin have destroyed all conscience of
sin, and contracted such desperate hardness upon their own hearts, as
neither smiles nor frowns, promises nor threatenings, life nor death,
heaven nor hell, ministry nor misery, miracle nor mercy, can possibly
mollify them ; these are gi'own from naught, to be very naught ; from
very naught, to be stark naught ; these souls are sadly left of God, and
woefully blinded by Satan, and fully ripened for ruin.^ Now if without
holiness no man shall see the Lord, what will become of all profane
wretches, who are so far from being holy, that they fall short of com-
mon honesty ? Certainly God will shut the gates of glory upon such
workers of iniquity. Such profane Esaus shall never be blessed with
a sight of God in glory, Mat. vii. 22. A wicked man is a sin-lover ;
he is a sin-maker, he lives in sin upon choice ; the Hebrew word that
is commonly used for a wicked man, ;^Kr"), properly signifies a laborious
sinner, a practitioner in sin, Ps. xi. 5 ; 1 John iii. 8. Now such as
these are, God will have nothing to do with : Job viii. 20, ' Behold
God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil-
doers;' or rather as the Hebrew carries it, he will not take the ungodly
by the hand : that is, he will not have any fellowship, any society, any
familiarity with the ungodly. The holy God will not so much as take
an unholy soul by the hand ; he will not in the least countenance him
nor respect him; he will not welcome him nor entertain him, nor

^ Lips, de Constantia, lib. ii. cap. 25.

> George Buchanan, the Scholar and Historian. — G.

' Job xxi. 14 ; 2 Pet. ii. 20-22 ; Isa. Ixvi. 3 ; Eph. iv. 19 Isa. v. 19 ; Jer. ix. 5.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 83

shew the least favour to him. Now certainly if God will not take the
wicked by the hand, he will never take them into heaven, he will never
take them into his bosom. God will have no commerce nor communion
with those to whom he will not so much as lend a hand. God will
wash his hands of them for ever, to whom he will not give a hand.
Which made Augustine say, that he would not be a wicked man one
half-hour for all the world, because he might die in that half-hour.
God will wash his hands of every man that lives and dies a wicked
man. Mat. xxv. 11, 12. The hearts and ways of wicked men are full
of hells ; and therefore to fill heaven with such, would be to fill heaven
with hells.

(2.) Secondly, This truth may serve to convince those that are
scoffers and mockers at holiness, of their woeful and miserable estate^
2 Pet. iii. 3 ; Jude 18. Holiness is so high and so noble a thing,
that men should rather honour it than deride it — reverence it than
reproach it ; they should rather set a crown of glory than a crown of
thorns upon the head of it. Holiness is the glorious image of God
fairly stamped upon the soul ; and to deride holiness is to deride God
himself. God takes all the afi'ronts that are done to his image as done
to himself ; and this scoffers shall know at last to their eternal woe. If
it was such a heinous crime in Tiberius his days, as Suetonius reports it
was, to carry the image of Augustus upon a ring or coin into any sordid
place, ah, how heinous a crime is it then to cast dirt and filth, scom
and reproach upon holiness, which is the image of the invisible God !
The despite and contempt that is done to the image or coin of a prince
is done to the prince himself, and accordingly he will revenge it. In
old Rome there were near as many statues as there were living people,
and some were made of gold, some of silver, some of brass, some of
ivory, and some of polished marble ; and there was an earli appointed
whose office it was continually to walk up and down in the night,
attended with many soldiers, to see that none did wrong the statues
of those that were set up in the city, and if any such were found that
had done wrong to any of the statues, they were put to death.^ Holi-
ness is the statue of God, and such as shall dare to deface it and wrong
it, God will destroy. The old world scofied and scorned at righteous-
ness, and God sweeps them away with a flood. Ham mocked and
scoffed at righteous Noah, and what did he get by it but a curse ?
Ishmael scoffed at holy Isaac, and what did he get by his scoffing and
mocking but ejection out of Abraham's family ? And what became
of those two-and-forty young scoffers that scoffed and mocked at holy
Elisha ? were they not cursed in the name of the Lord, and torn in
pieces by two she-bears which were more fierce and cruel than others ?
The Jews were given up to scoffing and mocking of the messengers
of the Lord, till there was no remedy : till old and young were de-
stroyed by the sword of the Chaldees ; till their temple and city were
fired and sacked, and thirty of them sold for a penny, &c., and those
that escaped the sword were captivated and enslaved. Sennacherib
scoffed and mocked at the virgin daughter of Sion, but his scoffs
issued in the destruction of his army by the hand of an angel, and in

1 = ' Noble man,' or ' noble officer,' a frequent Shakesperian use.— G.
* Lipsius de Mag. Rom. Imperii.

84 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

his own by the hands of his two sons.^ Julian, the emperor, was a
great mocker and scoffer at the Christians, but G-od struck him with
an arrow from heaven, which made him cry out Vicisti, Galiloee, thou
GaUlean, [meaning our Lord Jesus,] hast overcome me.^ Felix, for one
malicious scoff, did nothing day and night but vomit blood, till his
unhappy soul was separated from his wretched body. Lucian, for
barking against religion as a dog, was by the just judgments of God
devoured of dogs. History tells us of some scoffers that God hath
stricken with madness, others with blindness, others with loathsome
diseases, and some God hath stricken dead, and others he hath left to
be their own executioners. Scoffing at holiness is a metropolitan sin,^
and therefore no wonder if God executes upon scoffers metropolitan
judgments. Mockers and scoffers are the worst of sinners. Among
the three sorts of sinners that David mentions, scorners have the chair,
the chair of pestilence, as the Septuagint translateth it.* Scorners are
the pests of mankind. The eye of the scorner is blinded ; the heart
of the scorner is hardened ; the judgment of the scorner is perverted ;
the will of the scorner is enthralled, and the conscience of the scorner
is seared, and this makes the scorner fall mad upon scoffing at holy
men and holy things. Look, as they are the worst of servants that
will scoff and mock a child in the family, because he is his father's
picture — though they take wages of his father, and live by his father
— so they are the worst of sinners who scoff at holiness, which is the
very picture of God, though they live by him and cannot live without
him. Yet this world is full of such monsters, who count it a grace to
disgrace holiness, and to lade holy ones with all the names of scorn
and contempt that they can invent, or that Satan can help them to.
These are your holy brethren, these are fanatics, these are your holy
sect, these are your pure souls, these are your strict precisians, these
are the saints forsooth, these are the brotherhood ! Erasmus saith
that that proverb, ' A young saint, and an old devil,' was devised by
the devil himself to scoff and mock men out of their holiness. It hath
been the common portion of men most eminent in grace and holiness
to be most scoffed and scorned in all ages. Job xvii. 2 ; Neh. iv. 1 ;
Isa. xxviii. 22 ; Luke xviii. 32. Witness Noah, Isaac, and Elisha but
now cited, and witness Job, chap. xxi. 3, ' Suffer me that I may speak,
and after that I have spoken mock on ;' chap. xii. 4, ' I am as one
mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him:
the just upright man is laughed to scorn.' So David, Ps. xxxv. 16,
' With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they gnashed upon me with their
teeth ;'^ Ps. xliv. 14, ' Thou makest us a byword among the heathen ;'
Ps. Ixxix. 4, 'We are become a reproach and derision to them who are
round about us ;' Ps. cix. 25, ' I am become a reproach to them ; when
they looked upon me they shaked their heads.' So Isaiah, chap. viii. 18,
* Behold, I and the children that the Lord hath given me are for signs
and for wonders in Israel.' So Jeremiah, chap. xx. 7, ' I am in derision

^ Gen. ix. 22, 25, and xxi. 9, 15. The apostle interprets Ishmael's mocking to be
persecution. Gal. iv. 27; 2 Kings ii. 23, 24; 2 Chron. xxx. 10, and xxxvi. 15, 21; 2
Kings xix. 20, seq.

* Theod. iii. 25, and cf. Amm. Marcellinus, xxv. 3. — G.
» = * Capital'.— G.

* Pb. 1. 1. In cathedra pestilentice, [The Greek is ivl KaOiSpq. Xoinw.— Q.']

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 85

daily, every one mocketh me.' So Paul, Acts xvii. 18, * What wiU
this babbler say ?' So the apostles, Acts ii. 13, ' Others mocking, said,
These men are full of new wine.' So those worthies of whom this
Avorld was not worthy, Heb. xi, 36, 'Others had trial of cruel mockings.'
But, above all, how sadly, how frequently, yea, how fearfully was our
Lord Jesus Christ scoffed and scorned by Herod and Pilate, and
flouted by the rascally soldiers ! but the vengeance of his Father over-
took them all.i And in the primitive times, as Tertullian observes,
the saints were called herds of asses, vile fellows, the disciples of a man
crucified : Galileans, Nazarites, eaters of men's flesh, and drinkers of
men's blood.2 The heathens, as the same author observes, painted the
God of the Christians with an ass's head, and a book in his hand ; to
signify that though the Christians pretended to knowledge, yet they
were a company of silly ignorant asses. The libertines of old have
cast much scorn and contempt upon all the apostles : they call Matthew
a usurer, Peter an apostate, Luke a pelting^ physician, Paul a broken
vessel, and John a foolish young man, &c., by way of scorn and con-
tempt; Athanasius was called Sathanasius, and Cyprian w^as called
Coprian, one that gathers up dung ; and so Luther, Calvin, and almost
every one that hath attained to any eminency in holiness, they have
been commonly accounted as the offscouring and refuse among the
people, 1 Cor. iv. 13, 14; Lam. ii. 15, 16, and iv. 2. Now cer-
tainly if holiness be the only way to happiness, &c., then such as
are scorners and scoffers at holiness are out of the very way to happi-
ness ; and how such are like to come to heaven, that scorn the very
path that leads to heaven, I shall leave you to judge. If the ravens
of the valley shall pick out his eyes that mocketh his father, and the
young eagles eat out his eyes that despiseth the instruction of his
mother, as Solomon speaks, then of how much sorer punishment are
they guilty of, who mock and scoff at holiness, which is the very image,
picture, and glory of God himself ! * Holiness is so near akin to God,
that no man can deride holiness but he derides God himself. As he
that ' mocks the poor, derides him that made him,' Prov. xvii. 5, so he
that mocks holy ones derides that God that made them holy. And
will God take this at the scorner's hands ? No, he will retaliate ; he
loves to retaliate scorn upon the scorner : Prov. iii. 34, ' Surely he
scorneth the scorners : God will pay home scorners in their own coin ;
scorners shall be sure to have scorning enough. God so scorns the
persons and prayers of scorners, that he will have nothing to do
with them, Prov. i. 24-33 ; Ps. ii. 4 ; Isa. xxxvii. 36. The angels so
scorn scorners, that instead of being a life-guard to them, they stand
ready prest^ to execute the vengeance of heaven upon them. And
saints are so far to scorn them, by a divine precept, as not to reprove

1 Mat. xxvi. 68, and xxvii. 29, 31 ; Luke xxii. 63, and xxiii, 11 ; Mark xv. 31. Yea,
the philosophers called Christ a magician, and affirmed that he did all by necromancy.—
Calv. Just. Ad vers. Libert., c. 9.

* ' Apology,' c. xvi., et alibi. — G.

3 'Peddling,' = a pedlar; paltry, petty : another Shakesperian word: 'Measure for
Measure,' ii. 2. — G.

* Prov. XXX. 17. The first thing that eagles do when they have found a carcase, is to
pick out its eyes,

' ' Engaged.'— G.

86 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

them : Prov, ix. 8, * Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee/ Yea,
God in his just judgments will make scorners to be an abomination to
all sorts of men : Prov. xxiv. 9, ' The scorner is an abomination to
men ;' that is, to all sorts of men. The scorner is an abomination not
only to holy men, but also to all ingenious ^ men, and to all civil and
moral honest men. As the scorners tongue and hand is against every
man, so every man's tongue and hand shall be against him. Now if
the scorners of men be abominable to men, then much more are the
scorners of holiness abominable to God, and therefore certainly such
shall be shut out from a glorious fruition of God.

3. Thirdly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness, and that
if men be not holy on earth, they shall never come to a blessed vision
or fruition of God in heaven ; then, by way of conviction, this looks
sourly and sadly upon all formalists who Jmve only a form, a show,
a profession of holiness, hut have nothing of the reality, spirit, life, or
power of holiness in them : 2 Tim. iii. 5, ' Having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof ; from such turn away.' They have,
M6p(f)(i)aiv €ucrey3eta<f, a face, a vizard, a mask, a show of godliness,
but they have nothing of the pith, sap, life, or marrow of godliness.
Their devotion, their godliness, lies in good words, and in fair shows,
and in religious gestures, Isa. Iviii. 1-3, and Zech. vii. 4-6. If you
hearken to their voice, if you look upon their eyes, if you observe the
motion of their hands, and the bowing of their knees, and the shaking
of their heads, &c., you would think that they were men of much
religion, of much godliness ; but if you look into their hearts and
lives, you will find them to be the greatest renouncers and deniers of
religion and godliness in the world. They have the semblance of
godliness, but not the substance ; they have the lineaments of godli-
ness, but not the life ; they have the face of godliness, but not the
heart ; they have the form, the shadow of godliness, but not the power.
They are like a well-drawn picture, which hath all the lineaments of
a man, but wants life, wants a principle of motion and operation.^
Mark, 1. The form of godliness is common, but the power of godliness
is rare. 2. The form of godliness is cheap, but the power of godliness
is dear. 3. The form of godliness is easy, but the power of godliness
is difficult. 4. The form of godliness is a credit, but the power of
godliness is a reproach. 5. The form of godliness is pleasurable and
delightful, but the power of godliness is displeasing and undelightful
to the ignoble part of a Christian. 6. The form of godliness will
stand with secret and with open wickedness — as you see in Saul, Jehu,
Judas, Simon Magus, Demas, and the Scribes and Pharisees — but
the power of godliness will not. The power of godliness lays the axe
to the very root of all sin, both secret and open. Rachel was very fair
and beautiful to the eye, but she was barren, and that marred all ; so
the formalist, he is a very fair and beautiful Christian to the eye,
but he is barren Godwards, and Christwards, and heavenwards ; he is
fruitless, sapless, and lifeless, and that mars aU. The formalist takes
up a form of godhness, 1. To quiet his conscience ; 2. To get himself
a name ; 3. To cloak over his sins ; 4. To advance his worldly interest ;

^ * IngenuouV. — G.

' A form of godliness is England's epidemical disease.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 87

and, 5, To avoid opposition and persecution from the world, the flesh,
and the devil ; 6. And to conform to old customs. And what should
such formalists do in heaven ? A formal Christian is but a figure, a
flauntji a flourish, a flash, and all he doth is but the shadow of what
he should do. A formalist is more light than life, more notion than
motion, more head than heart, more outside than inside, more leaves
than fruit, more shadow than substance. A formalist is a blazing
comet, a painted tomb, a stage-player, a white devil, or a devil in an
angel's habit ; and what should such devils do in heaven ? Certainly
if without real holiness no man shall see the Lord, then the formalist,
that hath only the shape, the show, the form of godliness, but nothing
of the reality and power of it, shall never be blessed with such a sight.
A formalist is neither hot nor cold. Of all sorts of sinners he is the
worst ; and God so loathes him, that he is resolved he will rid his
stomach of him: Rev. iii. 16, 'I will spue thee out of my mouth;*
and certainly heaven is too holy a place to lick up that gorge Grod hath
cast up. Lukewarm water cannot be so loathsome to our stomachs
as a formalist is to God's. God is never at such ease as when he hath
cast up and cast out the formal Christian. I have read of Anastasius
the emperor, how God shot him to death with a thunderbolt because
of his lukewarmness and formality. 2 God hath a thunderbolt for
every formalist, by which he will at last certainly strike them down
to the lowest hell. A formalist is too loathsome a thing, too heavy
a burden, for heaven to bear.

4. Fourthly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ; if men must
be holy on earth, or else they shall never see the face of God in heaven ;
then this truth, by way of conviction, looks sourly and sadly upon all
those who please and satisfy themselves with civility and common
honesty ; who are good negative Christians, who bless themselves that
they are no swearers, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, nor adulterers,
&c. ; they pay every man his own, they are just and righteous in their
dealings ; no man can say black is their eye ; their carriage is civil,
comely, harmless, and blameless.3 ' They make a fair show in the flesh,'
Gal. vi. 12, or as the Greek hath it, they set a good face on it. But as
good a face as they do set on it, I must crave leave to tell them that
civility is not sanctity; civility rested in is but a beautiful abomination,
a smooth way to hell and destruction. I may truly say of all civil men —
who are destitute of that real holiness that leads to happiness — what
Erasmus said of Seneca : If you look upon him as a heathen, then he
seemeth to write as if he were a Christian ; but if you look upon him
as a Christian, then he seemeth to write as a heathen. So if you look
upon many civil, moral men's lives, you will find them so full of
ingenuity,* equity, righteousness, sweetness, and justice, that you will
be ready to say. Sure these are holy men. But then do but observe
how unacquainted they are with God, with Christ, with the Scripture,
with the way and working of the Spirit, with the filthiness of sin, with
the depths and devices of Satan, with their own hearts, with the new

1 ' Finery ' = display, another Shakesperian word : Winter'B Tale, iv. 3.— Q.

' Magdeburg Cent. 5.

3 Luke xviii. 10-14; Mat. v. 21, and xix. 20-22.

* ' Ingenuousness.' — G.

88 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

birth, and with the great concernments of eternity, and you will judge
them to be mere heathens, to be men void of all principles of grace
and holiness, and to be mere strangers to union and communion with
Christ, and to the more secret and inward operations and workings of
the Spirit of Christ, and to the most spiritual duties and services that
are commanded by Christ. Civility is very often the nurse of impiety,
the mother of flattery, and an enemy to real sanctity. A high conceit
of civility keeps many a man from looking after inward and outward
purity. Moral honesty proves to many men a bond of iniquity, i
There are those who are so blinded with the fair shows of civility,
that they can neither see the necessity nor beauty of sanctity ; there
are those that now bless themselves in their common honesty, whom
at last God will scorn and cast off for want of real holiness and purity,
Mat. XXV. 3, 11, 12. Many of the heathens were so famous for justice
and righteousness, for equity, fidelity, and sobriety, for civility and moral
honesty, that it would put many professors to the blush to read what
is written of them; and yet there was such a tincture of popular
applause, of pride and vainglory, of hypocrisy and self-flattery, upon
their civility and moral honesty, that, for anything we can find in
Scripture to the contrary, there is cause to fear that they shall be
miserable to all eternity : for all their civility and moral honesty, they
were left in a damnable, I will not say in a damned, condition : he that
rises to no higher pitch than civility and moral honesty shall never have
communion with God in glory. 2 Naaman was a great man, but a leper,
2 Kings V. 1 ; Naaman was an honourable man, but a leper ; Naaman
was a mighty man, but a leper ; Naaman was a victorious man, but a
leper ; Naaman was in high favour and esteem with his prince, but a
leper. This hut he was a leper stained all his honour, and was a blot
upon aU his greatness and glory, both at court and in the field, both in
the city and in the country. So it is a stain, a blot upon the most moral
honest man in the world, to say, he is a very civil honest man, but
Christless ; he is a very just man, but graceless ; he is a man of much
moral righteousness, but he hath not a drachm of real holiness, &c.
This hut is a fly in the box of ointment, that spoils all. Well, sirs,
remember this, though the moral honest man be good for many things,
yet he is not good enough to go to heaven, he is not good enough to
be made glorious. Mat. v. 20. Certainly there is nothing in all the
world, below real sanctity, that will ever bring a man to the possession
of glory. And though it may grieve us — to speak after the manner of
men — to see sweet natures, to see many moral honest men, take many
a weary step towards heaven, and to come near to heaven, and to bid
fair for heaven, and yet after all to fall short of heaven ; yet it will be
no way grievous to a holy God to turn such sweet natures into hell,
Ps. ix. 17. Moral honesty is not sufficient to keep a man out of eternal
misery ; all it can do is to help a man to one of the best rooms and
easiest beds that hell afibrds. For, look, as the moral man's sins are
not so great as others', so his punishments shall not be so great as
others'. This is all the comfort that can be afforded to a moral

^ Mat. V. 19, 20; Acts vii. 54, xiii. 50, and xvii. 17, 18; Eom. viii. 7.
' As Aristides, so Socrates, Plato, Titus Vespasian, Tully, with multitudes of others,
amongst the Lacedemonians, Grecians, Eomans, &c.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 89

man, that he shall have a cooler hell than others have : but this is
but cold comfort. Moral honesty without piety is as a body with-
out a soul ; and will ever God accept of such a stinking sacrifice ?
Surely no.

5. Fifthly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ; if men
must be holy on earth, or else they shall never come to a fruition of
God in heaven ; then this truth, by way of conviction, looks sourly
and sadly upon all neuters, who divide their hearts hetiveen God and
mammon, Mat. vi, 19 ; who halt between God and Baal, 1 Kings
xviii. 21 ; who divide their souls between heaven and earth, between
religion and their lusts, Zeph. i. 5, like the Samaritans, who both
worshipped the Lord, and the Assyrians' idols too, 2 Kings xvii. 32, 33,
and xviii. 11. A neuter is a monster ; he hath two tongues, two
minds, and two souls : he hath a tongue for God, and a tongue for the
world too ; he looks up to God, and saith. Certainly thou art mine ;
he looks down upon the world, and saith. Surely I am thine ; he hath
a mind to be religious, and a mind to save his own stake in the world
too.i He hath a soul reaching after the happiness of another world :
' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like
his,' saith Balaam, Num. xxiii. 10 ; and he hath a soul strongly
reaching after this evil world too, as if heaven and happiness were
wrapt up in it. As you may see in the same person, ' he loved the
wages of unrighteousness : ' he loved it as his portion, he loved it as his
life, he loved it as his happiness, he loved it as his all ; he loved it as
his soul, yea, he loved it above his own soul, for he damned his soul to
gain it. 2 It is true, when he was under a divine restraint, he professed
that he would not curse the people of God for a house full of gold ; but
when he was from under that restraint, his heart was so set upon the un-
righteous reward, that he would have cursed them for a handful of gold.
The neuter, as the Komans paint Erasmus, hangs between heaven and
earth ; he is neither fit to go to heaven, nor yet worthy to live on earth.
If Meroz was to be certainly cursed, to be bitterly cursed, to be uni-
versally cursed — as the Hebrew phrase, ' cursing curse ye Meroz,'
imports, in Judges v. 23 — for standing neuter when they should have
come forth to the help of the Lord ; do you think that neuters in
religion shall be blessed ? Do you think that ever such shall go to
heaven, who are indifferent whether they go to heaven or no ? or that
ever such shall be happy, who are indifferent whether they be holy or
no ? or that ever such shall see the face of Christ with joy, who are
indifferent whether they have an interest in Christ or no? or that
ever such shall be admitted into the kingdom of glory, who are in-
different wherever 3 they have any entrance into the kingdom of grace
or no? Certainly heaven is too holy to hold any such indifferent,
irresolute, neutral souls. In the university, not long since, there were
three doctors, heads of houses ; one of them was accounted an inno-
vator ; the second a Puritan ; the third a neuter. A witty scholar
presented them thus to the world : the first in a coach driving to Eome ;

^ James i. 8. A double-souled man, Mat. xix. 16, 26.

' Callenuceus tells us of a nobleman of Naples, that was wont profanely to say that
he had two souls in his body, one for God, and another for whosoever would buy it.
' Qu. ' whether ever ' ? — G.

90 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the second driving to Geneva; the third running on foot, begging
sometimes the one, sometimes the other to receive him, but both
refused him. Neuters shall be refused on all hands at last.i God
will refuse them, because he loathes halting ; angels will refuse them,
because they loathe halving ; good men will refuse them, because they
loathe lukewarmness ; and bad men will refuse them, because they
pretend to goodness, though they live in wickedness. Ambo-dexters
in religion are ignominious disgracers both of the name and profession
of Christians ; they are prodigious traitors to the crown of heaven ;
they are the greatest enemies to the power of godliness ; they are the
very offspring of Judas ; and in the day of account it will be found
that it had been good for them that they had never been born. Neu-
trality is the spiritual adultery of the heart. 2 Neuters are spiritual
harlots ; they have their hearts divided between God and mammon,
betwixt Christ and other lovers. Now harlots in ancient time were to
be burnt. Gen. xxxviii. 24. Certainly heU is for the neuter, and the
neuter for hell. God will be as severe, yea, more severe, in punishing,
spiritual whoredom, than ever men have been in punishing corporal
whoredom. God looks upon every neuter as a man in arms against
him: Mat. xii. 30, 'He that is not with me, is against me;' and,
therefore, martial law shall be executed upon them. God will blot
out their names, and hang them up as monuments of his justice and
vengeance. Sirs, do not deceive your own souls ; no man was ever
yet carried to glory in the chariot of neutrality or mediocrity : he that
is not throughout holy, is not really holy, and he that is not really
holy, can never be truly happy : it is only throughout holiness that
entitles a man to everlasting happiness, 1 Pet. i. 15 ; 2 Pet. iii. 11.
The true mother would not have the child divided ; she would have
all or none ; you must be for all holiness, or for none. Neuters now
divide and cut those things asunder that God hath closely joined
together ; but at last God will suit their punishment to their sin, and
cut them asunder. Mat. xxiv. 51, and Luke xii. 46. Now the neuter
chooses here a piece, and there a piece ; and at last God will cut him
in pieces, as Samuel did Agag, 1 Sam. xv. 33. Well, neuters, now
you divide one command from another, one duty from another, one
promise from another, one threatening from another, one ordinance
from another, and one way of God from another. But the day is
a-coming wherein God will divide your souls from your bodies, and
both from himself, his Son, his saints, and his glory for ever.

6. Sixthly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ; if men must
be holy on earth, or they shall never come to a fruition of God in
heaven; then this truth, by way of conviction, looks sourly and sadly
upon all hypocrites, who have only a seeming holiness, a feigned holi-
ness, a counterfeit holiness. The apostle speaks of a true holiness,
Eph. iv. 24 — or holiness of truth, as the Greek reads it, 'Ev oalorijTL
rri<i d\7]6eui<i — in opposition to that feigned and counterfeit holiness
that is in the world. Pretended holiness is most opposite to the holi-

^ Neuters are traitors; they betray Christ for the world's sake, and the world for
Christ's sake ; and themselves for sin and Satan's sake. And who will not refuse and
scorn traitors ?

* Aut totum mecum tene, aut totum omitte. — Greg. Nazien.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 91

ness of God. Hypocritical holiness is the greatest unholiness ; and as
God hath, so certainly God will still suit the punishment to the sin.
If it was death in Moses his law, to counterfeit that ceremonial and
figurative ointment, Exod. xxx. 32, 33 ; what shall it then be to coun-
terfeit the spirit of life and holiness ?i Dissembled sanctity is double
iniquity. He that professeth religion without being religious, and
godliness without being godly; he that makes counterfeit holiness
a cloak to impiety, and a midwife to iniquity; he that is a Cato
without and a Nero within, a Jacob without and an Esau within, a
David without and a Saul within, a Peter without and a Judas within,
a saint without and a Satan within, an angel without and a devil within,
is ripened for the worst of torments: Mat. xxiv. 51, ' And shall cut him
asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites ; there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth,' Hypocrites are the freeholders of
hell ; all other sinners do but hold under them. None have so large
a portion in hell as hypocrites have. No man at last will be found
so miserable as he that hath the name of a saint upon him, but not
the divine nature in him ; that hath a profession of holiness upon him,
but no principles of holiness in him ; that hath a form of godliness,
but not the power; that can cry up godliness, and court godliness,
but in practice denies it ; that is a Jew outwardly, but an atheist, a
pagan, a devil inwardly. Who had a greater name for holiness, and
who made a greater show of holiness, and who did more despise
and insult over men for the want of holiness, than the Scribes and
Pharisees? And who so miserable now as they? Mat. xxiii. 14,
' Woe unto you. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye devour
widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers ; therefore ye
shall receive the greater damnation.' Pretended holiness will double-
damn souls at last. 2 Sirs, do not deceive your own souls. A painted
sword shall as soon defend a man, and a painted mint shall as soon
enrich a man, and a painted fire shall as soon warm a man, and a
painted friend shall as soon counsel a man, and a painted horse shall
as soon carry a man, and a painted feast shall as soon satisfy a man,
and «, painted house shall as soon shelter a man, as a painted holiness
shall save a man. He that now thinks to put off God with a painted
holiness, shall not fare so well at last as to be put off with a painted
happiness. The lowest, the hottest, and the darkest habitation in
hell will be his portion whose religion lies all in shows and shadows.
Well, spiritual counterfeits, remember this, it will not be long before
Christ will unmask you, before he will uncase you, before he will dis-
robe you, before he will take off your vizards, your hoods, and turn
your rotten insides outward, to your eternal shame and reproach before
all the world. Counterfeit diamonds may sparkle and glister, and
make a great show for a time, but their lustre will soon wear off. Nil
fictum est dmturnum — Nothing counterfeit wiU last long. Maud,
mother to King Henry the Second, being besieged in Winchester
Castle, [anno 1141,] counterfeited herself to be dead, and so was

' Who can with patience see apes in the habit of nobles ? saith Lucian.

' Hypocritis nihil est crudelius, impatientius, et vindictoB cupidius. — LiUJier. There
is not a more cruel creature, more impatient and yindictive, than a hypocrite, said he
that had the experience of it in his own person.

92 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HEB. XII. 14.

carried out in a coffin, whereby she escaped ; at another time, being
besieged at Oxford in a cold winter, by wearing white apparel she
got away in the snow undiscovered ; but at last vengeance did over-
take her. So, though hypocrites may for a time seem to be dead to
sin, and dead to the world, though they may clothe themselves with a
snow-like purity, and with the white satin of seeming sanctity, yet
God at last will unmask and unmuffle them, and vengeance will with
a witness overtake them. Job xvii, 8, and xxxvi, 13 ; Isa. xxxiii. 14.
Hypocrites are like blazing stars, which, so long as they are fed with
vapours, shine as if they were fixed stars ; but let the vapours dry
up, and presently they vanish and disappear. As the joy of the hypo-
crite, so the goodness of the hypocrite is but for a moment ; it is as a
morning cloud, and as the early dew. A hypocrite is a mere comet, a
flaunt, a flash. Principles of holiness are lasting, but hypocrisy makes
a man only constant in inconstancy, Job xx. 5 ; Hosea vi. 4.

7. Seventhly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ; if men
must be holy on earth, or they shall never come to a fruition of God
in heaven ; then this truth, by way of conviction, looks sourly and
sadly upon such who please and bless themselves with common gifts
and common grace, loith a gift of 'knowledge, a gift of faith, a gift of
prayer, a gift of utterance, a gift of memory, dec, lohen they have
Tvothing of real holiness in them. Like those in Mat. vii. 22, 23, who had
great gifts, but were so far from real sanctity that they were workers
of iniquity; they had a flood of gifts, but not a drop of grace ; they
had many gifts, but not one saving grace ; they could work miracles,
but that miracle of holiness being not wrought in them, Christ takes
an everlasting farewell of them, ' Depart from me, ye workers of ini-
quity.' So they in Heb. vi. had enlightened heads ; but where was
their humbleness and holiness of heart ? They had silver tongues ;
but where was their sanctified souls ? They had some smack, some
tastes and relishes of heaven's glory ; but where was their inward and
outward purity ? Notwithstanding all their extraordinary gifts of
speaking with tongues, casting out of devils, and opening of prophe-
cies, yet were they not renewed, regenerated, and sanctified by the
Holy Ghost. ^ Their gifts might be of singular use to the enlighten-
ing, quickening, edifying, comforting, and encouraging of others, and
yet never have any influence upon their own hearts, to the changing,
renewing, and sanctifying of tbem. Men of greatest gifts are not
always men of greatest holiness. The Scribes and Pharisees, Judas,
Demas, Tertullus, and Simon Magus, were men of great gifts, and
yet they had no real holiness. They had the ninety-nine of gifts
which Christ looks not after, but wanted the one, viz., real holiness,
which vdth Christ is all in all. The devil hath greater gifts than any
man on earth, and yet he is a devil still. Gifts without holiness wiU but
make a man twice told the child of hell. Mat. xxiii. 15.^ The more of
gifts here, the more, without holiness, of hell hereafter. The greatest
scholars have often proved the greatest sinners, the stoutest opposers,

1 As nurses' milk is of use to others, but of none to themselves.

' Augustine trembled when he considered the extraordinary gifts and parts that were
in his base child, to think what God meant in infusing so precious a soul, and in giving
Buch rare gifts to such an impure creature.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 93

and the worst of persecutors. There are none so wicked as he that is
wittily 1 wicked. The highest gifts many times prove but the fairest
paths to the chambers of death. As the richer the ship is laden with
bars of silver and gold the deeper it sinks, so the richer the soul is
laden with silver parts and golden gifts, and yet not balanced with
real holiness, the deeper it sinks under wrath and misery. And no
wonder, for, 1. Gifts do but tickle the ear, they do not cleanse the
heart. 2. They do but stir the affections, they do not kill corruptions.

3. They are but ornaments to a man's profession, they have no saving
influence upon a man's conversation. They tempt a man to take up
with the world, but they never help a man to overcome the world.

4. They make a man wise to deceive, and wise to delude both him-
self and others. Kare accomplishments are many times turned into
beautiful ornaments to adorn the devil and error withal, 5. The
gifted man cares not who is most holy, so he may be most honoured ;
who is highest in favour with God, so he may be highest in favour
with men ; who is most serviceable, so he may be most acceptable ;
who gets most of another world, so he may have most of this world :
and what should such a one do in heaven ? Gifts differ as much
from real holiness, as an angel in heaven differs from a devil in hell.
6. Gifts makes a man work for life, but holiness makes a man work
from life, Zech, vii. 5, 6. 7. Gifts work a man to set up for himself,
and to deal and trade for himself, but holiness works a man to deal
for God, and to trade for God and his glory, Kom. xiv. 6-8. 8. Gifts
takes up in ingenuous civilities and outward formalities, but holiness
takes up only in that Holy One, Hab. i. 12. 9. Gifts only restrains the
soul, but grace renews and changes the soul. 10. Gifts puffs the soul,
but holiness humbles the soul. 11. Gifts makes a man beautiful, like
Kachel, but holiness makes a man fruitful, like Leah. 12. Gifts makes
a man most studious and laborious about mending and reforming
other men's hearts and lives, but holiness makes a man most studious
and industrious in mending and reforming his own heart and life. ] 3.
Gifts makes all glorious without, but holiness makes all glorious within.
14. Gifts makes a good head, but holiness makes a good heart. 15. Gifts
envies, lessens, darkens, obscures, and disparages with ' buts,' and ' ifs,'
and ' ands,' the excellencies of others ; but holiness makes a man rejoice
in every sun that outshines its own, John iv. 14. 16. Gifts are fading
and withering, but holiness is an everlasting spring that can never be
drawn dry, 1 John iii. 9. 17. Gifts draws from God, but holiness
draws to God, 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 6. Though men of gifts may bid fair
for heaven, yea, come so near as to hear the music of heaven, yet
without holiness they shall never enter into heaven. When night
comes, the father will only take in his own chUd into his house, and
though another child which may be much like his own should attempt
to come in, yet the father will keep him out, and wish him to repair
to his own home ; so when the night of death comes, the Father of
spirits will only take into the family of heaven his own child, viz., the
chUd of holiness ; but now if the child of gifts, which is so like the child
of holiness, should press hard upon God to come in, as that child of
gifts, Baalam, did, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my

1 =' Wise,' and yet wicked. — Q.

94 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

last end be like his,' Num. xxiii. 10, God wiU answer him, No I He
will say to him, as he did to that child of gifts, Judas, Go to your
own place, Acts i, 25 ; Mat. viii. 12. In the night of death and judg-
ment, the children of the kingdom shall be cast out — the children of
the kingdom, that is, of the church. Now the children of the king-
dom are children of gifts, and yet there will come a day when these
children shall be cast out. As Abraham put off the sons of the con-
cubines with gifts, but entailed the inheritance upon Isaac, Gen.
XXV. 6, &c. ; so God puts off many men now with gifts, but he entails
the heavenly inheritance upon hohness : Ps. xxiv. 3, 4, ' Who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ?
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up
his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.' Heaven is for that man,
and that man is for heaven, who hath clean hands and a pure heart,
whose holy conversation is attended with heart purification. A pure
heart is better than a golden head ; a heart full of holy affections is
infinitely beyond a head full of curious notions. There is no jewel,
there is no anointing to that of holiness. He that hath that hath
an, and he that wants that hath nothing at all. But,

8. Eighthly and lastly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ;
if men must be holy on earth, or they shall never come to a blessed
fruition of God in heaven ; then, by way of conviction, let me say that
this truth looks very sourly and angrily upon those who are so far
from heing holy themselves, that they cannot endure holiness in those
that are about them, or any ways related to them. Ah, how many un-
holy people be there that cannot endure holiness in their ministers !
and how many imholy husbands are there that cannot endure holiness
in their yokefellows ! and how many unholy parents are there that
cannot endure holiness in their children ! and how many unholy mas-
ters are there that cannot endure holiness in their servants ! The
panther, say some, when she cannot come at the man, she rendeth and
teareth his picture in pieces ; so many unholy husbands, unholy
fathers, and unholy masters, when they cannot rend and tear the per-
sons of their relations in pieces, ah, how do they do their best to rend
and tear the image of God upon them, viz., holiness, in pieces ! These
forlorn souls will not be holy themselves, nor suffer others to be holy
neither ; they wiU neither go to heaven themselves, nor suffer others
to go thither who are strongly biassed that way. Mat. xxiii. 14, 15 ;
2 Sam. vi. 16, 20. Some despise their gracious relations, even eo
nomine, for that very reason, because they are holy. Sometimes you
shall hear them speak at such a rate as this : Well, our relations are
wise and witty, but so holy ; they are very knowing and thriving, but
so precise ; they have good parts and sweet natures, but they are so
strict ; they are so round ^ that they will not endure an oath, a lie, &c.,
and therefore I cannot abide them, I cannot endure them. These are
like he in Seneca, which was so fearfully idle that his sides would ache
to see another work. So these are so fearfully wicked, that it makes
their sides, their heads, their very hearts ache, to see others holy.
How far these are in their actings below heathens, you may see in
Kom. xvi. 10, 11. Aristobulus and Narcissus, that are spoken of in
^ = 'Complete/ 'perfect'— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 95

this scripture, were both heathens, and yet they had in their famihes
those that were in the Lord, those that were gracious, &c. Heathens
were so ingenuous, that they would not despise that holiness in others
that they wanted in themselves ; they were so noble, that they would
give holiness house-room, though they knew not how to give it heart-
room. So Potiphar, though he was a heathen, yet he gave holy
Joseph both house-room and heart-room. Gen. xxxix. 1-4. These,
and several other heathens of the like spirit with them, will one day
rise in judgment against many in these days that are so far fallen out
with holiness, as that they will not endure it under the roof of their
houses, yea, as that they make it the greatest matter of scorn and
derision. Like those in Lam. ii. 15, 16, ' All that pass by clap their
hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of
Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call the perfection of
beauty, the joy of the whole earth ? All thine enemies have opened
their mouth against thee ; they hiss and gnash the teeth ; they say,
We have swallowed her up,' &c. Ah, how many such monsters are
there in these days, who express their derision, disdain, and contempt
of holiness and holy persons, by all the scornful gestures, postures, and
expressions imaginable; that clap their hands, that hiss, that wag
their head, that gnash their teeth, and that say, Lo, these are your
saints, these are your holy ones, your perfect ones, your beautiful ones !
It is very sad to want holiness, but it is saddest of all to deride holi-
ness, to disdain holiness. Of this evil spirit Salvian complained in
his time. What madness is this, saith he, amongst Christians, that
if a man be good he is despised as if he were evil ! if he be evil, he is
honoured as if he were good ! i And as great cause have we to com-
plain of the prevalency of the same evil spirit in our times. If the
wife be holy, how is she despised by her unholy husband as if she
were wicked ! 1 Cor. vii. 16 ; if she be wicked, how is she honoured
as if she were holy ! So if the child be gracious, how is he disdained
as if he were graceless ! if he be graceless, how is he admired as if he
were gracious ! So if a servant be godly, how is he scorned as if he
were godless ! if he be godless, how is he applauded as if he were
godly ! Certainly God will never endure such to stand in his sight,
who cannot endure the sight of holiness, Ps. i. 5. Doubtless God
will never give them any room in heaven, who will not so much as
give holiness a little house-room, I say not heart-room, here. He that
now despises and disdains holiness in others, shall at last be eternally
despised and disdained for want of holiness himself

Use 2. — The second use is a use of trial and examination. Is it so,
that real holiness is the only way to happiness ? must men be holy on
earth, or else they shall never come to a blessed vision or fruition of
God in heaven ? Oh then, what cause hath every one to try and
examine whether he hath this real holiness, without which there is no
happiness, or no ! Now because this is a point of great importance,
and a mistake here may undo a man for ever ; and considering the
great averseness and backwardness of men's hearts to this noble and
necessary work, I shall therefore in the first place propose some con-
siderations to provoke all your hearts to fall in good earnest upon

^ Salvian de Quber., lib. iy.

96 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

this great point of trial and examination. Now to this purpose
consider,

1. First, It is 'possible for you to know whether you have this real
holiness or not ; it is possible for you by the light of the Spirit, by the
light of the word, and by the light of your own consciences, to see
whether holiness, which is the image of God, be stamped upon your
souls or no.i Though it be impossible for thee to climb up to heaven
to search the records of glory, to see whether thy name be written in
the book of life, yet it is possible for thee to go down into the cham-
bers of thine own soul, to enter into the withdrawing-rooms of thine
own heart, and there to read what impressions of holiness are upon
thee. Though this work be hard and difficult, yet it is noble and
possible ; though the heart be deceitful and full of shifts, yet it is
possible for a man to make such a curious, such a narrow, such a
diligent, such a faithful, and such an impartial search into his own
soul, as that he may certainly know whether he hath that real holi-
ness that is the pledge of immortal happiness or no ; it is possible for
him that hath this jewel, this holiness, to know it, to find it, and in
the beautiful face of holiness to read his own everlasting happiness.
I might call in the experiences of many precious saints — as Abraham,
Noah, Jacob, David, Job, Paul, and others — to bear witness to this
truth ; but I suppose it is needless. What great and weighty, what
high and hard, what hazardous and dangerous things do many sol-
diers, saUors, sick patients, and others, attempt and undertake, upon
the mere account of a possibility ! It is possible that the soldier may
win the field; it is possible that the mariner may make a happy
voyage ; it is possible that the sick patient may recover ; it is possible
that he that strives for mastery may overcome, &c. Now upon this
very account, that it is possible, what will they stick at ? what will
they not attempt and endeavour to effect ? And why then should not
Christians, upon the account of a possibility, make a diligent search
after that holiness that will at last throne the soul in everlasting hap-
piness? Well, Christians, as a possibility of obtaining grace and
mercy should bear up your hearts against despair ; as a possibility of
obtaining a pardon should keep up your hearts in a seeking and a
waiting way; and as a possibility of salvation by Christ should be
argument sufficient to work a soul to venture itself upon Christ ; so a
possibility of knowing whether you have this pearl of price, holiness,
should work you to make a diligent search and inquiry after it. 2 Let
no man do more upon the account of a possibility for this world, than
you will do upon the account of a possibility for another world : let
no man do more upon the account of a possibility for his body, than
you will do upon the account of a possibility for your souls : let no
man do more upon the account of a possibility for temporals, than you
will do upon the account of a possibility for eternals. It is possible
for you to know whether this babe of giace, holiness, be formed in your
souls or no ; and therefore search and inquire after it.
2. Secondly, Consider this, that it is a point of very great concem-

^ See my Treatise of ' Assurance,' page 1 to 26, where you have this truth made fully
evident. [In this edition, vol. ii. pp. 318, seq. — G.]
» Mark x. 27, xiv. 36, and ix. 23 ; Luke xviii. 27.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 971

ment to you to knoio ivhetJier you liave this real holiness or no. Your
souls lies upon it, eternity lies upon it, your all lies upon it, and an
error here may make a man miserable for ever. It is good for thee to
know the state of thy body, the state of thy family, the state of thy
flock, but it is of infinite more consequence for thee to know the state
of thine o^vn soul. Multi midta sciunt, se autem nemo — No man lives
so miserable, nor no man dies so sadly, as he that lives and dies a
stranger to his own soul. It is good for thee to set all reckonings even
between thyseK and others, but it is far better to set all reckonings
even between God and thine own soul. Ah, how many are there who
are better known to others than they are to themselves I and who are
able to give a better account of their lands and lordships, of their
treasures and manors, yea, of their horses, hawks, and hounds, than
they are of the state of their souls ! i Ah, how many are there that
are very inquisitive to know things to come, to know what will be
hereafter, to know whether they shall be great and rich in the world,
Eccles. vii. 10, to know whether they shall be prosperous and suc-
cessful in their undertakings, to know whether they shall be crowned
with length of days, or whether they shall be cut off in the flower of
their age ; to know the secret counsels of princes, and what will be the
issue of such and such mutations and revolutions that have happened
amongst us ; and yet are not at all inquisitive after the state of their
souls, nor whether they have this real holiness, without which there is
no happiness ! ^ They never inquire what will become of them here-
after ; they never inquire what state they shall enter upon after death,
whether upon a state of eternal woe or a state of everlasting bliss. Of
all acquaintances in this world, there is none to that of a mans being
acquainted with the state of his own soul. A mistake about my out-
ward condition may trouble me, but a mistake about my spiritual con-
dition may damn me. There are many ways to make up my mistakes
about temporals, but there is no way to make up my mistakes about
eternals. If at last I shall be found to be mistaken in the great con-
cernments of my soul, I am undone for ever. Well, sirs, you are in a
state of nature or in a state of grace ; you are in a state of darkness or
in a state of light ; you are in a state of life or in a state of death ;
you are in a state of love or in a state of wrath ; you are either goats
or sheep, sons or slaves ; you are either in the broad way to destruc-
tion or in the narrow way of salvation ; and therefore what can be of
greater concernment in this world to you than to know in which of
these two spiritual estates you are in ? How can you order aright
your prayers, or your praises, or any religious services, till you come
to know in which of these two spiritual estates you stand? — whether
you be in a state of nature or in a state of grace, in a state of sin or in
a state of holiness: for all religious duties must be ordered according to
men's spnitual estates. If a man be in a state of nature, his work
lies one way ; if he be in a state of holiness, his work lies another way ;
by all which it is most evident that it very nearly concerns you to
search and try whether you have this bird of paradise, holiness, in your

^ Luke xii. 16-21, and xvi. 19, 26. , . ,

^ Job xxi. 23, 24 ; Isa. xli. 22, 23, and xliii.9, 10. The heathens did admire that say-
ing as an oracle, Nosce te ipsum — Know thy own self. , .
VOL. IV. Q

98 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

bosoms or no. And for a close, let me say, that a mistake about your
spiritual estate will at last be found not only insufferable and inexcus-
able, but very terrible and damnable.

3. Thirdly, Consider that a cordial willingness to enter upon this
loorh of trial, is a hopeful evidence of your real integrity and sanctity.
Unsanctified souls hate the light ; they had rather go to hell in the
dark, than come to be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, John
iii. 20. As pure gold fears neither fire nor furnace, neither test nor
touchstone, neither one balance nor another, so a pure heart, a sancti-
fied soul, dares venture itself upon trial, yea, upon the very trial of
God. For he knows that God never brings a pair of scales to weigh
his graces, but only a touchstone to try the truth of his graces ; he
knows if his gold be true, though it be never so little, it will pass for
current with God.^ As bankrupts care not for casting up their ac-
counts, because they know aU is naught, very naught, stark naught
with them ; so unsanctified souls they care not to come to the trial, to
the test, because they know that all is naught, yea, worse than naught
with them. They have no mind to cast up their spiritual estates, be-
cause at the foot of the account they must be put to read their neck-
verse, * Undone, undone, for ever undone.' 2 And, therefore, as old de-
formed women cannot endure to look into the looking-glass, lest their
wrinkles and deformity should be discovered ; so unsanctified souls can-
not endure to look into the glass of the gospel, lest their deformities,
impieties, and wickednesses should be discovered and detected. I have
read of the elephant, how unwilling he is to go into the water, but
when he is forced into it, he puddles it, lest by the clearness of the
stream he should discern his own deformity ; so unholy persons are
very unwilling to look into their own hearts, or into the clear streams
of Scripture, lest their souls' deformity and ugliness should appear, to
their own terror and amazement. And therefore, as you would have
a hopeful evidence of your integrity and sanctity, fall upon this work
of trial. For as it is a hopeful evidence that the client's cause is good,
when he is ready and willing to enter upon a trial, and as it is a hope-
ful sign that a man's gold is true gold, when he is willing to bring it
to the touchstone, and that a man thrives, when he is willing to cast
up his books ; so it is a hopeful evidence that a Christian hath real
holiness, when he is ready and willmg to bring his holiness to the test,
to try whether it be true or no — when he is willing to cast up his books,
that he may see what he is worth for another world, Gal. vi. 4, 5.

4. Fourthly, Consider that there are very many that deceive them-
selves about their spiritual estates. It is the easiest thing in the world
for a man to deceive himself, Job xv. 34, and Pro v. xxx. 12. There are
those that do but think that they stand, (1 Cor. x. 12,) and these at
last come to fall from their seeming standing into a real hell — yea,
from their highest standing into the lowest hell. There are many that
think themselves to be something, when they are nothing, Gal. vi. 3.
There are many that have a form of godliness, but none of the power,
2 Tim. iii. 8. There are many that have a name to live, but are
dead, Rev. iii. 1. There are many that are very confident of their in-
tegrity, and yet are full of horrible hypocrisy. There are many that

* Job xxxi. 6, 6 } Pa. xxvi. 2 ; cxxxiz. 23, 24 j Mat. xii. 20. « Aa before.— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 99

carry the lamps of profession, that have no oil of grace in their hearts.
There are many that take a good nature for grace, civility for sanctity,
and a garb of godliness for real holiness — ^yea, there are those who
dare say that they excel others in holiness, when, in truth, they ex-
ceed most men in wickedness i — yea, there are many now in hell who
have had a great confidence of going to heaven. There are many that
cry out with Agag, ' Surely the bitterness of death is past,' wrath is
past, and hell is past, and damnation is past, whenas vengeance is
ready to fall on them, and hell stands gaping to devour them. The
heart of man is full of self-love, full of self-flattery, and full of hy-
pocrisy, and therefore many a man who is only a Jew outwardly,
thinks himself to be a Jew inwardly, Eom. ii. 28, 29. Many a man
thinks himself to be as good a Christian as the best, and to be as happy
as the best, and to be as fair for heaven as the best, till he comes to
hear that tormenting word, ' Depart, I know ye not.' As many are
kept off from Christ by a conceit that they have him already, so many
are kept off from holiness by a conceit that they have it already. And
therefore it doth very much concern you to make a diligent inquiry
whether you have that holiness without which there is no happiness,
or no. I have read of Plato, that when he did walk in the streets, if
he saw any disordered in speech, disguised in drink, or otherwise out
of frame, he would say to himself, Num ego talis? — Am I such a one
as this is ? Am I such a swearer as this is ? Am I such a drunkard
as this is ? Am I such a wanton as this is ? Am I such a riotous
person as this ? &c. So should every Christian say when he hears
of any that doth but think that they stand, Num ego talis? — Am I such
a one as this is ? When he sees one that thinks himseK something
when he is nothing, he should say, Am I such a one as this is ? When
he sees a man to have a form of godliness, but no power, he should say,
Am I such a one as this is ? When he hears of a man that hath a
name to live, but is spiritually dead, he should say, Am I such a one
as this is ? &c. And when he hears or reads of one that is really holy,
he should say, Am I such a one as this is ? As you would not put a
cheat upon your own souls, it highly concerns you to try whether you
have real holiness or no. Look, as many young children catch many
a fall out of a strong conceit of their abilities to go, so many a man,
out of a strong conceit that he hath holiness when he hath none, catches
many a fall in an eternal fall at last. The best way to prevent an
everlasting miscarriage, is to make a privy search after holiness in
thine own heart.

5. Fifthly, Consider that there is a great deal of counterfeit grace
and holiness in the world. There is not more counterfeit coin this
day in the world than there is counterfeit holiness in the world.
Look, as many Bristows2 stones, and counterfeit gems, do so shine and
sparkle like true jewels, that if a man be not very careful he may
be easily cheated; so counterfeit grace, counterfeit holiness, doth so
shine and sparkle, they do so nearly resemble real holiness, and the
sanctifying and saving graces of the Spirit, that a man may be easily
mistaken, if he do not make a narrow search. Doth the gracious soul

1 Isa. ix. 17, xxix. 13; Jer. vii. 4, 8-11; Kev. iii 16-18; Iaa.lxy. 2-5; Mat xxv.
'Query ' Bristol" ?—G.

100 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. li.

abstain from gross sins ? so doth the formahst too. Do saints fast
and pray ? so do Pharisees too. Doth Peter shed tears ? so doth
Esau too. Doth Peter repent ? so doth Judas too. Doth CorneHus
give ahns ? so do the Pharisees too. Doth Zaccheus believe ? so doth
Simon Magus too. Doth David confess his sin ? so doth Saul
too. Doth David delight in approaching to God ? so doth
Isaiah's hypocrites too. Doth Hezekiah humble himself? so doth
Ahab and the king of Nineveh too. Doth a gracious soul hear the
word with joy ? so did Herod too. Doth a gracious soul receive the
word with joy ? so did the stony ground too. Doth a gracious soul
delight in his teacher ? so did Ezekiel's worldlings too. Is a gracious
soul in closet duties ? so is the Pharisee too, &c.i When counterfeit
coin is abroad, you will not take a piece but you will try it ; you will
bring every piece to the touchstone. Ah that you would deal so by
your holiness ! There is a great deal of counterfeit holiness abroad,
and therefore you had need bring yours to the trial. As all is not gold
that glisters, so all is not holiness that men take for holiness, that men
count for holiness. The child is not more like the father, nor one
brother like another. Wine in the bottle is not more like to wine in
the butt, nor water in the cistern more like to water in the river, nor
fire in the forge more like to fire in the chimney, nor milk in the
saucer to milk in the breasts, than counterfeit grace and hohness is like
to that which is real. Counterfeit faith doth so nearly resemble true
faith, and counterfeit love true love, and counterfeit repentance true
repentance, and counterfeit obedience true obedience, and counterfeit
knowledge true knowledge, and counterfeit holiness true holiness, that
it is not an easy matter to discover the one from the other. The
Cyprian diamond, saith Pliny, looks so like the true Indian diamond,
that if a man do not look warily to it he may easily be deceived and
cheated. sirs, true grace and counterfeit, true holiness and counter-
feit, look so like one another, that, without a divine light to guide you,
you may be easily cheated and deceived for ever. In these days of
profession there is abundance of false ware put off. Satan is a subtle
merchant ; and where profaneness will not pass for current coin, there
he labours to furnish his customers with the shows and resemblances
of grace and holiness, that so he may hold them the faster in golden
fetters, and put them off from looking after that real holiness, without
which no man can be blessed here, or happy hereafter. And there-
fore it nearly concerns every man to search and try whether he hath
real holiness or no.

6. Sixthly, Consider, if upon trial you slmll find in you iliis real
holiness that paves the ivay to happiness, it luill turn exceedingly to
your accounts. Thy happiness depends upon the real being of holi^
ness in thee, but thy comfort depends upon thy seeing of hohness.
Keal holiness will yield thee a heaven hereafter ; but the seeing of
holiness will yield thee a heaven here. He that hath holiness and

' Mat. XXV. 1-4; Ezra viii. ; Esther iv. ; Daniel ix. ; Mat. vi. 16; Luke xviii. 11;
Mat. xxvii. ; Heb. xii. ; Mat. vi. ; Acts x. 1-4; Luke xix. 11 ; Acts xxi. 8 ; 1 Sam. xv.
24; Isa. Iviii. ; 2 Chron. xxxii. 26 ; 1 Kings xxii. 15; Jonah iii. ; Mark vi. ; Ezek.
xxxiii. 30-33 ; Luke xviii. 11. The diflference between these true and counterfeit graces
18 largely discovered in my Treatise on ' Assurance.' [In Works, vol. ii., pp. 319, seq.— G.]

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 101

knows it, shall have two heavens — a heaven of joy, comfort, peace,
content, and assurance here, and a heaven of happiness and blessed-
ness hereafter ; but he that hath holiness and doth not know it, shall
certainly be saved, yet so as by fire ; he shall have a heaven at last,
but he must pass to it by the flaming sword, 1 Cor. iii. 11, 16. When
Ti person is heir to a great estate, and knows it, when a person is son to
a king, and knows it, when a person is highly in favour, and knows it,
when a person is out of all hazard and danger, and knows it, when a
person's pardon is sealed, and he knows it, then the spring of joy and
comfort rises in him ; so when a man is holy, and knows it, then the
spring of divine joy and comfort rises in his soul, as the waters rise in
Ezekiel's sanctuary, Ezek. xlvii. 2-5. The knowledge of the goodness
and holiness of thy estate will make heavy afflictions light, long afflic-
tions short, and bitter afflictions sweet, 2 Cor. iv. 16-18 ; 1 Cor. xv.
58. The knowledge of the goodness and holiness of thy estate will
make thee frequent, fervent, constant, and abundant in the work of
the Lord. The knowledge of the goodness and holiness of thy estate
will strengthen thy faith, raise thy hope, inflame thy love, increase
thy patience, and brighten thy zeaL The knowledge of the goodness
and holiness of thy estate will make every mercy sweet, every duty
sweet, every ordinance sweet, and every providence sweet. The know-
ledge of the goodness and holiness of thy estate will rid thee of all thy
sinful fears and cares ; it will give thee ease under every burden, and
it will make death more desirable than life, Phil. i. 22, 23 ; 2 Cor. v.
1, 10. The knowledge of the goodness and holiness of thy estate will
make thee more strong to resist temptation, more victorious over op-
position, and more silent in every condition. The knowledge of the
goodness and holiness of thy estate will turn every winter night into a
summer's day, every cross into a crown, and every wilderness into a
paradise. The knowledge of the goodness and holiness of thy estate
will be a sword to defend thee, a staff" to support thee, a cordial to
strengthen thee, a plaster to heal thee, and a star to lead thee. And
oh, who then will not take some pains with his own heart to know the
goodness and holiness of his own estate ? Well, remember this, next
to a man's being holy, it is the greatest mercy in this world to know
that he is holy. But if upon trial a man shall find that his estate is
bad, and that his holiness is not of the right stamp, yet this will be
many ways a mercy and an advantage to him. For the way to be
found, is to see yourselves lost : the way to infinite merpy ;§ to see your
own misery ; the way to Canaan is througvVthe wilc|erii6ss ; the way to
heaven is by the gates of hell. Upon the kno\^ledge of the badness and
sadness of thy estate, thou wilt be awakened out of thy security and thou
wait be alarmed to loathe thyself, to judge thyself, to condi^n^n thyself,
to be sick of sin, to break with Satan, and to cloMa with Christ. Now
the daily language of thy soul will be, ' Men and brethren, what shall
I do to be saved ? ' Acts il 37, 42, and xvi. 22, 35. Oh, what shall I do
to get my sinful nature changed, my hard heart softened, my blind
mind enlightened, my polluted conscience purged, and my poor naked
soul with grace and holiness adorned ? Now the daily language of
thy soul will be that of the martyr, ' Oh, none but Christ, none
but Christ ! ' Oh, none but Christ to pardon me ; none but Christ

102 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

to justify me ; none but Christ to command me ; none but Christ to
save me ; and none but Christ to reign over me. Now the language
of thy soul will be this, Oh, though I have formerly thought myself
to be wise, yet now I see myself to be a fool ! Oh that Christ would
be wisdom to me ! 1 Cor. i. 30, 31. Oh, now I see myself to be red
with guilt, and black with filth ! Oh that Christ would be righteous-
ness to me 1 Oh, now I see myself to be unclean, unclean ! Oh that
Christ would be sanctification to me 1 Oh, now I see myself to be in
a damnable condition ! Oh that Christ would be redemption to me !
Eev. iii. 16-18. Oh, now I see myself naked ! Oh that Christ would
clothe me ! Now I see myself poor and miserable ! Oh that Christ
would enrich me ! Now I feel myself to be hungry ! Oh that Christ
would be bread of life to feed me ! Now I perceive myself to be lost !
Oh that Christ would seek me ! Now I fear that I am perishing !
Oh that Christ would save me 1 Now the language of your souls wiU
be that of the lepers, ' If we stay here, we die,' 2 Kings vii. 3-6 ; if we
stay in our unsanctified and unrenewed estate, we die ; if we stay in
our sins, we die ; if we stay on our duties, we die ; if we stay on a
conceited or counterfeit holiness, we die ; if we stay on a form of god-
liness, we die ; if we stay on a name to live, we die ; if we stay where
the world stays, we die ; if we stay in anything a-this side Christ and
real holiness, we die, we eternally die ; and therefore, let us arise and
make a venture of our souls upon Christ, and pursue after that holi-
ness without which there is no happiness. But,

7. Seventhly and lastly. Consider that there are many that are
truly holy, that have real holiness in them, and yet for want of a nar-
row search, a diligent inquiry into their spiritual estates, they come to
he sorely and sadly afflicted with fears and doubts about their wants of
holiness. As the treasures of this world often lie obscure and hid in
the bowels of the earth, so the treasures of holiness often lie obscure
and hid in many a gracious soul, for want of a privy search. As it is
one mercy for me to believe, and another mercy for me to know that
I do believe, 1 John v. 13 ; as it is one mercy for me to be beloved,
and another mercy for me to know that I am beloved, Ps. iv. 6, and
li. 1-3 ; as it is one mercy for me to be pardoned in the court of glory,
and another mercy for me to know that I am pardoned in the court of
conscience ; as it is one mercy for me to have my name written in the
book of life, and another mercy for me to be told that my name is
written in that book, Luke 'x. 20 ; so it is one mercy for me to have real
holiness in me, and another mercy for me to see it and to know it. As
we many times complain of the want of those things that we have in
om* hands, so many dear Christians complain of the want of that holiness
that they htive in their hearts. As the well, the spring of water, was
near to Hagaj: though, she saw it not. Gen. xxi. 16-19 ; so the sprmg
of holiness is near to many a Christian, yea, it is in many a Christian,
and yet he sees it not, he knows it not. As Jacob once said, ' The
Lord was in this place, and I knew it not,' Gen. xxviii. 16 ; so many
a precious soul may say, I had real holiness in my heart, and I knew
it not. As the face of Moses did shine, but he saw it not, he knew it
not, though others did see it and take notice of it, Exod. xxxiv. 29-35 ;
so holiness shines in many a Christian's heart and life, yet corruptions

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 103

raise such a dust in his soul that he sees it not, he knows it not, though
others can see it, tal^e notice of it, and bless and admire the Lord for
it. As there be some that think they are rich, when they are not ;
and that say they are rich, when they are not, Kev. iii. 16, 17 ; Prov.
xiii. 7 ; so there be others that are rich, and yet they will not say it,
nor beheve it ; so there be some that think they have holiness, when
they have not, yea, that say they have holiness when they have not,
Isa. Ixv. 3-6 ; Mark viii. 18 ; so there be others that have real
holiness, and yet they dare not think so, they dare not say so ; yea,
they are apt, in times of temptation, desertion, sore afflictions, and
when they are under the sensible stirrings of strong corruptions, to
conclude that they have no holiness, no grace, when indeed they
have. Witness Job, chap. xiii. 24, and xix. 9 ; witness David, Ps.
xxii. 1, 2; witness Asaph, Ps. Ixxvii. 2, 11; witness Heman, Ps.
Ixxxviii. 1, 17; witness Jeremiah, Lam. iii. 18; witness the whole
church, Isa. xlix. 15, 16 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 11, 12 ; and witness the dis-
ciples, John xiv. 4, 5, 7-9, 20, compared. To know ourselves to
be holy, is very desirable ; but woe were to many precious Christians
if they might not be holy and yet not know it, if they might not have
holiness in their hearts, when the appearance of holiness is hid from
their eyes. Look, as sparks and coals of fire are often hid under the
ashes, and we see them not ; and as in winter the sap and life is hid in
the root of the tree, and we perceive it not ; and as precious flowers
are hid in their seeds, and we discern them not ; so when it is winter
with a Christian, his holiness may be so hid and covered under fears,
doubts, sins, &c., that he may not be able to see it, to discern it, or
conclude that he hath it. As the air is sometimes clear and some-
times cloudy, and the sea sometimes ebbing and sometimes flowing ;
so the holiness of the saints is sometimes so clouded, and at so low an
ebbj that a Christian can hardly discern it, he can hardly say, Lo, here
is my holiness ! The being of holiness in the soul is one thing, the see-
ing of holiness in the soul is another thing ; the being of holiness is
one thing, the feeling of holiness is another thing. A Cliristian may
as safely conclude that there are no stars in the sky in a dark night,
because he cannot see tliem ; and that there is no treasure in the
mine, because he cannot discern it, nor come to the feeling of it, as he
may conclude that he hath no holiness in his heart, because he cannot
see it, he cannot feel it. As the treasures of this world, so the trea-
sures of holiness oftentimes lie low : a man must dig deep before he
can come at them, Prov. ii. 3-6. As the babe lives in the womb,
but doth not know it ; and as the sun often shines into the house,
and a man doth not see it: so the babe of grace may be formed
in the soul, and yet a Christian not know it ; and the sun of holi-
ness may shine in his soul, and yet he not see it. ^ Oh, therefore,
how greatly doth it concern Christians to make a diligent, a narrow,
and a serious search into their own hearts, whether they have this
jewel of glory— holiness— in their souls or no ! And if these argu-
ments will not provoke you to faU upon this work of trial, I know not
what will.

But methinks I hear some of you saying, sir, how shall we do to
know whether we have this real holiness or no ? we see it is our very

104 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, ItARITY, [HeB, XII. 14.

great concernment to know whether God hath sown this heavenly seed
in our souls or no : but how shall we come to know this ? Now to
this I answer, there are several ways whereby this may be dis-
covered. As,

1. First, A person of real holiness is much affected and taken tip in
the admiration of the holhiess of God. Unholy persons may be some-
what aiFected and taken with other of the excellencies of God ; but it
is only holy souls that are affected and taken with the holiness of God :
Exod. XV. 11, * Who is like unto thee, Lord, amongst the gods?
Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing won-
ders?' In this stately description of God, holy Moses is most taken
up in magnifying and admiring the holiness of God. Holiness is that
glory of the Creator that holy ones most delight to glory in. So holy
David : Ps. Ixxi. 22, ' Unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou
Holy One of Israel : ' so Isa. xii. 6, ' Cry out and shout, thou inhabi-
tant of Zion : for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee:'
so Ps. Ixxviii. 41, and Lxxxix. 19, &c, ; Isa. xliii. 3, and xlix. 7.
The inhabitants of Zion must shout and hoUow out, (as the Hebrew
word carries it,) in token of joy, because he that is great and in the
midst of them is the Holy One of Israel. So Hab. i. 12, ' Art not
thou from everlasting, Lord my God, my Holy One?' Among holy
ones, none to the Holy One : yea, the more holy any are, the more
deeply are they affected and taken with the holiness of God : as you
may see in Isa. vi. 3, ' And one cried unto another' — or this cried
to this — and said, ' Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts ; the whole
earth is full of his glory.' The holy seraphims, by trebling the accla-
mation of his holiness, ' Holy, holy, holy,' do denote not only the
superlative eminency, glory, and excellency of God's holiness, but also
they do discover how greatly, how abundantly they are affected and
taken with the holiness of God. To the holy angels, the holiness of
God is the sparkling diamond in the ring of glory. But now unholy
persons are rather affected and taken with anything than with the
holiness of God. The carnal-secure sinner is affected and taken with
the patience, forbearance, and long-suffering of God : Oh, saith he,
what a God of patience is this, that hath waited so many years for my
repentance ! that he that might long since have damned me, waits
still to save me ! that he who might long since have cast me into hell,
is still willing that I should go to heaven ! The presumptuous sinner
is much affected and taken with the mercy and goodness of God. Well,
saith the presumptuous sinner, though I have sinned thus and thus,
yet God hath been merciful to me ; and though I do sin daily thus
and thus, yet God is still merciful to me ; and though I should still
go on to sin sevenfold more, yet he would be merciful to me, Deut.
xxix. 18-21 ; Eccles. viii. 11. He doth not delight in the death
of a sinner, nor in the damnation of souls ; oh, what a merciful
God is God ! The prosperous sinner, he is taken with the bounty and
liberality of God. Oh, saith he, what a bountiful God, what a liberal
God is this, who fills my barns, who fills my bags, who prospers me
at home and abroad, who hath blest me with a healthful body, a fair
estate, a saving wife, a full trade, laborious servants, and thriving

HtB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 105

children ! &c. But where is there a sinner in all the world that is
affected and taken with the holiness of God ? Certainly there is no-
thing that renders God so formidable and terrible to unholy persons
as liis holiness doth: Isa. xxx. 11, ' Get you out of the way, turn
aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease fi-om before
us.' Oh that you would not preach so much, nor talk so much to us
of the Holy One of Israel ! Oh that you would once cease from molestr
ing and vexing us with message upon message from the Holy One 1
Why cannot you as well talk and preach to us of the merciful one, the
compassionate One, the affectionate One, the pitiful One, &c., as be still
a-talking to us of the Holy One, the Holy One 1 Ok, we love not to hear it !
Oh, we cannot tell how to bear it ! Nothing strikes the sinner into such
a damp as a discourse on the holiness of God; it is as the hand-
writing upon the wall, Dan. v, 4-6 ; nothing makes the head and heart
of a sinner to ache like a sermon upon the Holy One ; nothing galls and
gripes, nothing stings and terrifies unsanctified ones, like a lively setting
forth of the holiness of God, Hab. i. 13. But now to holy souls, there are
no discourses that do more suit them and satisfy them, that doth more
delight and content them, that doth more please and profit them, than
those that do most fully and powerfully discover God to be glorious in
holiness. Well, this is an everlasting truth ; he that truly affects
the holiness of God, and affects God for his holiness, is certainly made
partaker of his holiness. If you are really holy, you are much affected
and taken with the holiness of God. Souls, what say you to this ? But,
2. Secondly, True holiness is diffusive. Bonum est sui communica-
tivum ; it doth extend, diffuse, and spread itself all over the soul ; it
spreads itself over head and heart, lip and life, inside and outside : Ps.
xlv. 13, ' The king's daughter is all glorious within, her clothing is of
wrought gold.' Inward holiness is the inward glory of the king's daugh-
ter. The king's daughter is ' all glorious within ;' her understanding is
hanged with holiness, her mind is adorned with holiness, her will is
bowed to holiness, and all her affections are sprinkled, yea, clothed with
holiness. Her love is holy love, her grief is holy grief, her joy is holy
joy, her sorrow is holy sorrow, her fear is holy fear, her care is holy care,
her zeal is holy zeal ; and her clothing is of ' wrought gold ' — that is, her
life and conversation, which is as visible to others as the clothes she
wears, is very sparkling and shining in grace and holiness. True sancti-
fication is throughout, it reaches to soul, body, and spirit, 1 Thes. v. 23.
True holiness is a divine leaven, which leavens the whole man. Mat. xiii.
33. Look, as leaven diffuses itself through the whole dough, so true
holiness diffuses itself through the whole man. Look, as Absalom's
beauty was spread all over him, even from the crown of his head to
the sole of his foot, 2 Sam. xiv. 25, so the beauty of holiness spreads
itself over every member of the body, and every faculty of the soul.
Look, as Solomon's temple was glorious both within and without,
so holiness makes all glorious both within and without. Look, as
Adam's sin spread itself over the whole man, so that holiness that we
have by the ' second Adam ' spreads itself over the whole man ; so
that that man that is not all over holy, that is not throughout holy, that
man was never truly holy, 1 John i. 16. Look, as that holmess which was

106 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

in Christ did diffuse and spread itself over all Christ ; so that his person
was holy, his natures were holy, his heart was holy, his language was
holy, and his life was holy ; so real holiness spreads itself over head,
hand, heart, lip, and life, 1 Pet. i. 15. The fruit of the Spirit is in all
goodness, Eph. v. 9 ; he that is truly good, is all over good ; he hath
goodness engraven upon his understanding, and goodness engraven
upon his judgment, and goodness engraven upon his will, and goodness
engraven upon his affections, and goodness engraven upon his inclina-
tion, and goodness engraven upon his disposition, and goodness engraven
upon his conversation. He that is not all over good is not really
good. There are those that have new heads but old hearts, new
words but old wills, new expressions but old affections, new memories
but old minds, new notions but old conversations ; and these are as far
off from true holiness, as the Pope, the Turk, and the devil are from
real happiness. In every holy person there are many divine miracles :
there is a dead man restored to life, a dumb man restored to speech,
a blind man restored to sight, a deaf man restored to hearing, a lame
man restored to walking, a man possessed with devils possessed with
grace, a heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh, and a life of wicked-
ness turned into a life of holiness. If it be thus with thee, I dare
write thee, and caU thee both holy and happy. But,

3. Thirdly, Persons of real hoHness do set the highest price and the
greatest value and esteem upon those that are holy; they do not, as
the blind world do, value persons by their great places, names, profes-
sions, arts, parts, gifts, gay clothes, gold chains, honours, and riches, but
by their holiness.^ As a holy God, so holy souls look not how rational
men are, but how religious ; not how notional, but how experimental ;
not how great, but how gracious ; not how high, but how holy ; and,
acccordingly they value them : Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to the saints that are
in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my dehght.' Prov.
xii, 26, ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.' It is
holiness that differences one man from another, and that exalts one
man above another. A holy man is a better man than his neighbour,
in the eye, account, and esteem of God, angels, and saints. There is
no man to the holy man. The sun doth not more excel and outshine
the stars, than a righteous man doth excel and outshine his unrighteous
neighbour : Prov. xxviii. 6, ' Better is the poor that walketh in his
uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.'
A man of holiness prefers a holy Job, though upon the dunghill, before
a wicked Ahab upon the throne ; he sets a higher price upon a holy
Lazarus, though clothed with rags, and full of sores, than upon a rich
and wretched Dives, who is clothed gloriously, and fares sumptuously
every day ; as King Ingo valued poor, ragged Christians above his
pagan nobles, saying, that when his pagan nobles, in all their pomp
and glory, should be cast down to hell, those poor Christians should
be his consorts and fellow-princes in heaven. This blind, mad world
rates and values men according to their worldly interest, greatness, glory,
and grandeur ; but men of holiness rate and value men by their holiness,
by their inward excellencies, and by what they are worth for another

^ Chrysostom called some holy men in his time iy^tKoi, earthy angels; and so Dr
Taylor looked upon holy Bradford aa an angel.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 107

world. The world judgeth him the best man in the parish that is
most rich ; but a holy man judgeth him the best man in the parish
that is most righteous. The world counts him the best man in the
town that is clothed most gorgeously ; but a holy man counts him
the best man in the town whose inside and outside, whose heart
and life, whose body and soul is clothed with sanctity and purity.
The world reckons him the best man in the city whose bags are fullest,
and whose estate is largest ; but a holy man reckons him the best
man in the city whose heart is fullest of holiness, and who hath most to
shew for a fair estate in the other world. Certainly, to a holy man,
there is no wife to a holy wife, no child to a holy child, no friend to
a holy friend, no magistrate to a holy magistrate, no mim'ster to a
holy minister, nor no servant to a holy servant. Internal excellencies
carries it with a holy man, before all external glories. The Jews say
that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as
much worth as all the seventy nations in the world. Doubtless
seventy holy persons, in the esteem and judgment of those that are holy,
are more worth than a whole world, yea, than seventy worlds, of un-
righteous souls. ^ A soul, truly holy, sets the highest price upon those
that are holy. Holy Paul prized holy Onesimus as his son, Philem.
10, as himself, ver. 17, yea, as his own bowels, ver. 12; 2 Sam.
xxii. 27, 'With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure,' or (as the
Hebrew will bear it) ' with the choice thou wilt shew thyself choice.'
Pure souls are the choicest souls in all the world : they are choice in
every eye but their own. All worldly excellencies, in the judgment of
a holy man, are but as copper, brass, tin, and lead ; but holiness is the
tried silver, the gold of Ophir, the pearl of price, in his eye that hath
purity in his heart. They only rate and value men aright, who rate
and value them according to their holiness ; and if men were thus
rated and valued, most men in the world would be found not worth
the money that Judas sold his Master for. If thou prizest others for
their holiness, thou art a holy person. No man can truly prize and
highly value holiness in another, but he that hath holiness in his own
heart. Some prize Christians for their wit, others prize them for their
wealth ; some prize them for their birth and breeding, others prize them
for their beauty and worldly glory ; some prize them for the great things
that have been done by them, others prize them for the good things
that they have received from them ; some prize them for their eagles'
eyes, others prize them for their silver tongues ; but he that is truly
holy prizes them for their holiness, he values them for their purity
and sanctity. But,

4. Fourthly, He that is truly holy will be still a-reaching and
stretching himself out after higher degrees of holiness; yea, a man that
is truly holy can never be holy enough ; he sets no bounds nor limits to
his holiness ; the perfection of holiness is the mark that he hath in
his eye ; he hears, and prays, and mourns, and studies, and strives
that he may come up to the highest pitch of holiness.2 Phil. iii.
12-14, * Not as though I had already attained, or were abeady per-

1 Plato could say, that no gold or precious stones doth glister bo gloriously as the
prudent spirit of a good man.

=> Pb. Ixxxiv. 7, and cxix. 106 ; Col. i. 10; 2 Cor. vii. 1, seq.

108 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

feet : but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I
am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to
have apprehended : but this one thing I do, forgetting those things
which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.' i Received measures of holiness will not satisfy
a holy soul ; so much holiness as will keep hell and his soul asunder
will not satisfy him ; nor so much holiness as will bring him to happi-
ness will not satisfy him ; he will be still reaching and stretching out
after the highest measures of holiness ; his desires are for more holi-
ness, Ps. xxvii. 4. The beauties of holiness do so aifect him and
inflame him, that he cannot but desire to be more and more holy.
Lord, saith the soul, I desire to be more holy, that I may glorify thy
name more, that I may honour my profession more, and that I may
serve my generation more. Lord, I desire to be more holy, that I
may sin less against thee, and that I may enjoy more of thee ; I would
be more holy, that I may be more prevalent with thee, and that 1 may
be more victorious over all things below thee. And as a man of holi-
ness desires more holiness, so a man of holiness earnestly prays for
more holiness, Ps. li. 2, 7. He prayeth that he may be filled with
the fruits of righteousness, and that he may go on from faith to faith,
and from strength to strength, Job xvii. 9, and Prov. iv. 18 ; he
prayeth that his spark of holiness may be turned into a flame, his
drop of holiness into a sea, and his mite of holiness into a rich
treasury ; he prayeth that he may, like the eagle, fly higher and higher,
and that his soul may be like the rising sun, that shines brighter and
brighter till it be perfect day ; he prayeth that he may, like the giant
refreshed, rejoice to run his course, and that holiness in his soul, like
the waters in Ezekiel's sanctuary, may still be rising higher and
higher. It was Beza's prayer, ' Lord, perfect what thou hast begun
in me, that I may not suffer shipwreck when I am almost at heaven.'
And as a man of holiness prayeth for more holiness, so a man of holi-
ness believes for more holiness. Ps. li. 7: in your translations you
read the words prayerwise, but in the Hebrew the words run in the
future thus : ' Thou wOt purge me from sin with hyssop, and I shall
be clean : thou wilt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.' In
the sense of all his sinfulness and vileness, he believes that God will
give out greater measures of purity and sanctity to him : ' Thou wilt
purge me, and I shall be clean : thou wilt wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow.' So in Ps. Ixv. 3, ' Iniquities prevail against me :
as for our transgressions, thou shalt purge them away.' Though for
the present iniquity did prevail, yet he had faith enough to believe
that God would purge him from his transgressions, and that he would
mortify prevailing corruptions. And as a man of holiness believes for
more holiness, so a man of holiness hopes for more holiness, 1 John
iii. 2-4. In every ordinance he hopes for more holiness, and under
every providence he hopes for more holiness, and under every muta-
tion and change of his condition he hopes for more holiness, 2 Pet.
iii. 14. When he is in prosperity, he hopes that God will make him

^ A metaphor from runners in a race, who strain and stretch out themselves to the
utmost, that they may take hold on the mark or prize that is set before them.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 100

more zealous, thankful, cheerful, fruitful, and useful ; and when he
is in adversity, he hopes that God will inflame his love, and raise his
faith, and increase his patience, and strengthen his submission, and
quiet his heart in a gracious resignation of himself to God. I dare
boldly say that that man was never truly holy, who endeavours not to
get up to the highest pitches of holiness. Ille non est bonus, qui non
vult esse melior. True holiness knows no restrictions nor limitation.
But now counterfeit holiness is either like Hezekiah's sun, which went
backward ; or like Joshua's sun, which stood still ; or hke Ephraim's
morning cloud, which soon passed away. No round but the highest
round in Jacob's ladder will satisfy a holy soul. True holiness makes
a man divinely covetous. Look, as the victorious man can never
make conquests enough, nor the ambitious man can never have honour
enough, nor the voluptuous man pleasure enough, nor the worldUng
mammon enough, nor the wanton vain embraces enough, no more can
a man of holiness have ever holiness enough in this world. As the
grave and the barren womb are never satisfied, they never say it is
enough. Pro v. xxx. i5, 16; so a holy man, whilst he is a-this side
eternity, he is never satisfied, he can never say that he hath holiness
enough.

5. Fifthly, Where there is real holiness, there is a holy hatred, de-
testation, and indignation against all ungodliness and wickedness, and
that upon holy accounts : ^ Ps. cxix. 101, ' I have refrained my feet
from every evil way.' But why ? ' That I may keep thy word ; '
ver. 104, ' Through thy precepts I get understanding : therefore I
hate every false way.' The good that he got by divine precepts
stirred up his hatred against every false way : ver. 128, ' Therefore I
esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right ; and I hate
every false way.' His high esteem of every precept raised up in him
a holy indignation against every evil way. A holy man knows that
all sin strikes at the hoKness of God, the glory of God, the nature of
God, the being of God, and the law of God ; and therefore his heart
rises against all ; he looks upon every sin, as the Scribes and Pharisees
that accused Christ ; and as that Judas that betrayed Christ ; and
that Pilate that condemned Christ ; and those soldiers that scourged
Christ ; and as those spears that pierced Christ ; and therefore his
heart cries out for justice upon all. He looks upon every sin as having
a hand in the death of his Saviour, and therefore he cries out, Crucify
them all, crucify them aU ; he looks upon every sin as a grieving of the
Spirit, as a vexing of the Spirit, and as a quenching of the Spirit ; and
so nothing will satisfy him but the ruin of them all. 2 He looks upon
every sin as a dishonour to God, as an enemy to Christ, as a wound to
the Spirit, as a reproach to the gospel, and as a moth to his holiness ;
and therefore his heart and his hand is against every sin. But now,
if you will but look into the Scriptures, you shall find that all those that
have been but pretenders to holiness, their hearts have been always
engaged to some one way of wickedness or another, Isa. Iviii. 1, 9 ;
Zech. vii. 4-7. Jehu was very zealous against idolaters ; but yet
his heart was engaged to his golden calves. Herod hears John Baptist

^ True hatred is irpJs to. yevri, against the whole kind. [As before. — 0.]
= Eph. iv. 30 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10 ; 1 Thes. v. 19.

110 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII, 14.

gladly, and reforms -many things, Mark vi. &c. ; but yet his Herodias
must still lie in his bosom. Judas was as forward in religious services
as any others, but yet money did bear the mastery with him, John
xii. 6. The Pharisees made long prayers, that they might the better
make a prey upon widows' houses. Mat. xxiii. 19, and xxvi. 23.
The young man offered fair for heaven, but yet his possessions had so
possessed and locked up his heart, that Christ could get no entrance.
Though Simon Magus believed, and was baptized, and wondered at
the miracles and signs which were done by Philip ; yet for all these
shows of godliness, he was a prisoner to his lusts ; his condition was
dangerous, poisonous, and odious ; he was in the gall of bitterness and
bond of iniquity, Acts viii. 13-23. So those in Mat. vii. 21-23,
though they complimented with Christ, saying, ' Lord, Lord;' though
they prophesied in Christ's name, and cast out devils in Christ's name;
yea, though they did not a few, jjut many wonderM works in Clirist's
name ; yet all this while they were workers of iniquity, they were
artists in sin ; they were so addicted to sin, that they made a trade of
sin.i Look, as every lion hath his den, every dog his kennel, every
sow her sty, and every crow her nest ; so every unholy person hath
one sin or another, to which his heart is engaged and married ; and
that sin will undo him for ever. As Lysimachus lost his earthly king-
dom by drinking one draught of water, 2 so many lose a heavenly
kingdom by indulging some one sin or other. One flaw spoils the
diamond, one treason makes a traitor, one turn brings a man quite
out of the way, one leak sinks the ship, one wound strikes Goliath
dead, one Delilah betrays Samson, one broken wheel spoils the whole
clock, and one fly spoils the whole box of ointment. And as one
bastard destroyed Gideon's seventy sons. Judges viii., so one pre-
dominant sin is enough to destroy the soul for ever. As by taking
one nap Samson lost his strength, and by eating one apple Adam
lost paradise ; so many men, by favouring one sin, lose God, heaven,
and their souls for ever. He that favours any sin, though he frowns
upon many, doth but as Benhadad, recover of one disease and die of
another ; yea, he takes pains to go to hell. Sin favoured ever ends
tragically. And as no unholy heart rises against all sin, so no unholy
heart disdains sin or rises against sin upon noble accounts, upon holy
and heavenly accounts. Sometimes you shall have an unholy person
angry with sin, and falling out with sin, because it hath cracked his
credit, or clouded his honour, or hindered his profit, or embittered his
pleasure, or enraged his conscience, or exposed him to shame here and
hell hereafter : but never because a righteous law is transgressed, a
holy God is dishonoured, a loving Saviour is afresh crucified, or the
blessed Spirit grieved. It is between a holy and an unholy soul, as it is
between two children ; one will not touch the coal because it will smut
him, and the other will not touch it because it will burn him. A holy
heart rises against sin because of its defiling nature ; but an unholy
heart rises against sin because of its burning and damning nature.
A holy man is most affected and afflicted with the evil that is in sin ;

^ Qui hahet unicum Tntium, habet omnia: He that hath any one vice, hath all other
with it, saith Seneca truly.
* Plutarch : de ser : num. vindict : as before.— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. Ill

but an unholy heart is most affected and afflicted with the punishment
that is due to sin. A holy person hates sin because it pollutes his
soul ; but an unholy person hates it because it destroys his soul. A
holy person loathes sin because it makes against God's holiness ; but
an unholy person loathes it because it provokes God's justice. A holy
person detests sin because of the hell that is in sin ; but an unholy
person detests sin because of the hell that follows sin. A holy heart
abhors all sin ; but an unholy heart is still in league with some sin,
Kom. xii. 9, and vii. 15, 19 ; Isa. xxviii. 15, 18. Now because
this is a point of great concernment, I shall a little more open and
evidence the truth of it, in these three particulars : —

(1.) First, The heart of a holy man rises against secret sins, against
such as lie furthest off from the eye of man : Ps. cxix. 113, 'I hate
vain thoughts, but thy law do I love.' What more secret than vain
thoughts ? and yet against these the heart of a holy man rises. When
Joseph was tempted to be secretly wicked with his mistress, his heart
rises against it : Gen. xxxix. 9, 'How can I do this great wickedness,
and sin against the Lord ? ' Hezekiah humbled himself for ' the pride
of his heart,' 2 Chron. xxxii. 24-26. Heart -sins lie most close
and secret ; and yet for these a holy man humbles himself. Job would
not suffer his heart, in an idolatrous way, secretly to kiss his hand.
Job xxxi. 26, 27. The heart of a holy man rises against wickedness
in the dark, against folly in a corner, against sin [in] a closet. So
Paul was much affected and afflicted with the operations of sin within
him, * with the law in his members rebelling against the law of his
mind,' Kom. vii. 23, 24. Paul, after his conversion, never fell into
any scandalous sin. Those sins that did most trouble him and dis-
tress him were of his own house, yea, were in his own heart. A holy
man knows that secret sins are sins, as well as those that are open,
Ps. xix. 12. He knows that secret sins must be repented of as well
as others ; he knows that God takes notice of secret sins as well as
of open: 2 Sam. xii. 12, 'Thou didst it secretly;' He knows that
secret sins do often interpose between God and his soul : ' Thou hast
set our iniquities before thee : our secret sins in the light of thy coun-
tenance,' Ps. xc. 8. He knows that secret sins will quickly become
public, except they are presently loathed and speedily mortified.
Gen. xxxviii. 24-27. He knows that secret sins, like secret diseases
and secret wounds, do oftentimes prove most dangerous and pernicious ;
he knows that secret sins are the price of blood, as well as open sin-
nings. He knows that secret sins are a grief to the Spirit, as well as
those that are manifest. He Imows that sometimes God punishes
secret sins with manifest judgments, as you may see in that great in-
stance of David, 2 Sam. xii. 10, 18. Upon all which accounts, a holy
heart rises in a detestation of secret sins. But,

(2.) Secondly, The heart of a holy man rises against tJie least sins,
as well as against secret sins, in a strict sense. I know there is no sin
little, because there is no little hell, no little damnation, no little law,
nor no little God to sin against ; but yet some sins may comparatively
be said to be little, if you compare them with those that are more
great and gross, that are more heinous and odious, Mat. xxiii. 24.
Now the hatred of a holy man rises against the least: Ps. cxix. 163,

112 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

* I hate and abhor lying : but thy law do I love/ I hate, I abhor with
horror, I loathe, I detest, I abominate lying as I do hell itself : so much
the original word imports. David's heart smote him for the cutting
off the lap of Saul's garment ; and his heart smote him again for
numbering of the people ; and yet neither of these sins were heinous
or scandalous, 1 Sam. xxiv. 5, and 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. Some write, that
there is such a native dread and terror of the hawk implanted in the
dove, that it detests and abhors the very sight of the least feather that
hath grown upon the hawk. Certainly, there is such a holy dread of
sin implanted in the heart of a saint, that he cannot but detest and
abhor the least sin, yea, the very appearance of sin : his soul rises
against the least motions or inclinations to evil, though they are
silvered over with the most specious shows, and most glorious pre-
tences : for he knows that the least sins are contrary to a righteous
law, a holy God, and to his blessed Saviour, and the Spirit his only
Comforter.!

[1.] First, A holy man knows that little sins, if Twt prevented, will
bring on greater. David gives way to his wandering eye, and that led
him to those scandalous sins for which God broke his bones, hid his
face, and withdrew his Spirit, 2 Sam. xii. 26, seq. So Peter first
denies his Master, and then forswears him, and then falls a-cursing
and damning of himself. Mat. xxvi. 70-75; as the Greek word
KUTavadefiaTi^eLv imports, he imprecated the wrath of God to fj^U upon
him, and that he might be separated from the presence and glory of
God if he knew the man ; and then concludes with a most incredible
lie, ' I know not the man ; ' whenas there was hardly a Jew which
knew not Christ by face, he being very famous for the many miracles
that he daily wrought before their eyes. Ah ! to what a height will
sin suddenly rise ! So Jacob, first he tells three lies in a breath. Gen.
xxvii. 19, 20 : 1. 1 am Esau ; 2. Thy firstborn ; 3. I have done accord-
ing as thou badest me : and then he dissembled, in calling his meat
' venison ; ' and then he takes the name of God in vain, by entitling
God to that he did: ' The Lord thy God brought it to me.' Ah, of
what an encroaching nature is sin ! how insensibly and suddenly doth
it get ground upon the soul ! ^ I have read of a young man that was
tempted to three great sins, viz., to kill his father, to lie vnth. his
mother, and to be drunk ; judging the last to be the least, he yielded
to it, and being drunk, he killed his father,, and ravished his own
mother.3 Lesser sins usually are inlets to greater : as the little thief
let in at the window opens the door, and makes way for the greater ;
and the little wedge makes way for the greater. When Pompey
could not take a city that he assaulted by force, he pretended that he
would withdraw his army : only he desired that they would entertain
a few of his weak and wounded soldiers, which accordingly they did.
These soldiers soon recovered their strength, and opened the gates of
the city, by which means Pompey's army entered and subdued the
citizens. So little sins yielded to soon gather strength, and open the

^ 1 Cor. viii. 13 ; Gal. ii. 3, 4 ; Jude 23.

* So Austin confesseth that his mother Monica, by sipping and supping when she filled
the cup to others, came at last to take a cup of [wine] nimis sometimes. — PltUarch,
' As before : see Wanley, xviii., § 1.— G.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 113

door to greater ; and so a conquest is made upon the soul. This a
holy heart well understands, and therefore it hates and abhors the
least sin.i But,

[2.] Secondly, A holy heart knows that Httle sins have exposed both
sinners and saints to very great punishments. A gracious soul re-
members the man that was stoned to death for gathering of sticks on
the Sabbath-day. He remembers how Saul lost two kingdoms at
once, his own kingdom and the kingdom of heaven, for sparing of
Agag and the fat of the cattle. He remembers how the unprofitable
servant, for the non-improvement of his talent, was cast into outer
darkness. He remembers how Ananias and Sapphira were stricken
suddenly dead for telling a lie. He remembers how Lot's wife, for a
look of curiosity, was turned into a pillar of salt. He remembers how
Adam was cast out of paradise for eating an apple ; and the angels
cast out of heaven for not keeping their standings. He remembers
that Jacob smarted for his lying to his dying day. He remembers
how God followed him with sorrow upon sorrow, and breach upon
breach, filling up his days with grief and trouble. He remembers how
Moses was shut out of the Holy Land, because he spoke unadvisedly
with his lips.2 He remembers the young prophet who was slain by a
lion for eating a little bread and drinking a little water, contrary to
the command of God, though he was drawn thereunto by an old pro-
phet, under a pretence of a revelation from heaven, 1 Kings xiii. He re-
members how Zacharias was stricken both dumb and deaf, because he
believed not the report of the angel Gabriel, Luke i. 19-62. He re-
members how Uzzah was stricken dead for staying up the ark when
it was in danger to have fallen. Yea, he can never forget the fifty
thousand men of Beth-shemesh who were slain for looking into the ark,
2 Sam. vi. 7, 8 ; 1 Sam. vi. 19-21. Now, ah, how doth the remembrance
of these things stir up the hatred and indignation of a gracious soul
against the least sins ! A drachm of poison diffuseth itself to all parts,
tUl it strangle the vital spirits, and separates the soul from the body ;
a little coal of fire hath turned many a stately fabric into ashes ; a
little prick with a thorn may as well lall a man as a cut with a drawn
sword ; a little fly may spoil all the alabaster box of ointment.
General Norris having received a slight wound in his arm in the wars
of Ireland, made light of it, but his arm gangrened, and so he lost
both arm and life together. Fabius, a senator of Kome, and lord
chief-justice besides, was strangled by swallowing a small hair in a
draught of milk. Three fits of an ague carried away Tamerlane, who
was the terror of his time. Anacreon, the poet, was choked with the
kernel of a grape. An emperor died hj the scratch of a comb. One
of the kings of France died miserably by the chock ^ of a hog; and
his brother, with a blow of a ball at tennis, was struck into his
grave. And thus you see little things have brought upon many great
miseries. And so little sins may expose and make persons very liable

^ The preceding and succeeding paragraphs on * little sins ' combine recollections of
Spencer's * Things New and Old '—the famous folio— and of Herbert Palmer's ' Chris-

« Num. XV. 30, 37, 38 ; 1 Sam. xv. 23 ; Mat. xxv. 25, 31 ; Acts v. 3, 4 ; Gen. xix. 26
and iii. and xxvii,
* ' Part of the neck,' usually applied to ' veal.' — 0.
VOL. IV. H

114 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

to great punishments : and therefore no wonder if the heart of a holy
man rises against them. Those sins which are seemingly but small,
are very provoking to the great God, and very hurtful to the immortal
Boul : and therefore they cannot but be the object of a Christian's hatred.

[3.] Thirdly, A holy heart knows that a holy God looks and expects
that the least sins should he shunned and avoided. He looks that the
cockatrice should be crushed in the egg. God looks that Babylon's
little ones should be dashed against the stones, Ps. cxxxvii. 9. Not
only great sins, but little ones, must be killed, or they will kill the soul.
The viper is killed by the little ones that she nourishes in her own
bowels ; so many a man is eternally slain by the little sins that he
nourishes in his own bosom. As a little stab at the heart kills a man,
so a little sin, without a great deal of mercy, will damn a man. God
expects that his children should ' abstain from all appearance of evil,'
1 Thes. v. 22.1 ^g thou wouldst neither wound thy conscience nor
thy credit, God nor the gospel, thou must keep off from the very
appearances of evil A Christian is to hate not only the flesh, but the
garment ; and not only the garment which is besmeared, but the very
garment that is but bespotted with the flesh, Jude 23. Our first
parents were not only forbidden to eat of the forbidden fruit, but they
were forbidden to touch it, Gen. iii, 3. And certainly he that would
not gape after forbidden fruit, must not gaze upon forbidden fruit ;
he that would not long after it, must not look upon it ; he that would
not taste it, must not touch it. The pious Nazarite was not only com-
manded to abstain from wine and strong drink, but also from eating
grapes, whether moist or dry; yea, he was prohibited from eating
anjrthing that was made of the vine-tree, from the kernels even to the
husk. Num. vi. 3, 4, lest by the sweet and contentment of any of these,
he should be tempted or enticed to drink wine, and so forget the law,
and break his vow, and make work for hell or repentance, or the Phy-
sician of souls, Prov. xxxi. 5. Siu is so hateful a thing, that both the
remote occasion, and the least occasion that might draw the soul to it,
is to be avoided and shunned, as a man would avoid and shun hell itself. 2
He that truly hates the nature of sin, cannot but hate the least sin,
yea, all appearances of sin. A holy heart knows that the very thought
of sin, if not^ thought on, will break forth into action, action into cus-
tom, custom into habit, and then body and soul are undone for ever.
Look, as nothing speaks out more sincerity and real sanctity, than
shunning the very appearances of vanity ; so nothing speaks out more
indignation against sin, than the avoiding the occasions of sin. But,

[4.] Fourthly, A holy heart knows that the indulging of the least
sin is ground sufficient for any man to question his integrity and in-
genuity towards God. He hath much reason to suspect himself, and
to be suspected by others, who dares break with God, and with his
own conscience, for a trifle. He that will transgress for a morsel of
bread, will be ready enough to sell his soul for a groat, Prov. xxviii. 21.
He that will pervert justice for a few pieces of silver, what will he not

^ Bernard glosseth Quicquid est male coloratum : Whatsoever is of an ill show, or ill
report.

* Difficile ijuis venenum bibet et vivet : A man can hardly drink poison and live. —
Cyprian. 3 Qu. < but ' ?— Ed

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 115

do for a hatful of gold ? he that will sell the poor for a pair of shoes,
will destroy the poor for a brace of angels, ^ Amos ii. 6. He that will
sell souls dog-cheap, that will slay the souls that should not die, and
save the souls alive that should not live, for handfuls of barley and
pieces of bread, will make no bones of making merchandise of souls
for silver and gold, Ezek. iii. 19. He that will sell his Saviour once
for thirty pieces of silver, will sell him as often as you please for a
greater sum, Zech. xi. 12. He that makes no conscience of betraying
Christ into the hands of sinners for thirty shillings, will make no con-
science of betraying his own soul into the hands of the devil at the
price of a halter. He that dares lie to save a little of his estate, what
will not he do to save his life ? These things a holy heart well under-
stands, and the serious remembrance of them stirs up in him a holy
indignation against the least transgression. But,

[5.] Fifthly and lastly. Take many things in one: a holy heart
knows that the least sin cost Christ his dearest blood: Heb. ix. 22,
' Without shedding of blood there was no remission ;' no remission of
great sins, nor no remission of httle sins. He knows that the blood of
Christ is as requisite to cleanse the soul from the least sin, as it is to
cleanse it from the greatest : 1 John i. 7, ' And the blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all our sins.' It is not the casting of a
little holy water upon us ; it is not the Papists' purgatories, nor their
whippings, nor St Francis his kissing or licking of our sores, nor a
bishop's blessing, nor a few knocks on the breast, nor a few tears
dropping from our eyes, that can cleanse us from the least sin. No,
it is only the blood of Christ that cleanseth us from all our sins.^
There is not the least spot in a Christian's heart that call be washed
out but in the blood of the Lamb. When Satan appeared and pre-
sented to a djdng man in a long parchment roll lus idle words, his
false words, his angry words, his wanton words, and his more wicked
words and deeds ; the dying man answered. All this is true, Satan,
but yet there is one thing more for thee to set down under all my sins,
and that is this, ' The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all our sins.' Whereupon the devil vanished, as being vanquished.^
Certainly, there is not a vain thought, nor an idle word, nor an angry
word, nor a wanton word that can be pardoned or cleansed but by the
blood of Jesus Christ ; the remembrance of which cannot but stir up
a holy indignation in a gracious soul against the least corruption.
When Julius Caesar the emperor was murdered, Antonius brought
forth his bloody coat, and shewed it to the people, which stirred up in
them such an indignation against the murderers, that they cried out,
Slay the murderers : and went and burnt their houses, and aU that was
in them.* So when a holy heart looks upon his sins, yea, his little
sins, as those that have murdered the Prince of glory, ah, what an in-
dignation doth it raise in the soul against them ! A holy heart knOws
that there is not the least sin, but doth in a measure estrange the
soul from God. As little clouds do somewhat interpose between the

1 'Coin' so-called.— G.

2 About little sins you may see more in my ' Precious Remedies afrainst Satan's De-
vices,' pp. 22, 34. [Vol. i. pp. 19-23.— G.] ^ Told of Luther.— G.
* Cf. Shakespere's Julius Ceesar, iiL 2. — G.

116 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

sun and us ; so little sins do somewhat interpose between God and our
souls : and as sometimes a little matter, a mistake, or lending an ear,
or a word out of joint, or an act of forgetfulness, doth occasion some
distance between dearest friends, Acts xv. 36-41 ; so sometimes little
sins do occasion some distance between our dearest God and our
souls, Prov. xvi, 28, and xvii. 9. A holy heart knows that Christ
looks upon those sins as great, which the blind world accounts but
little. Christ accounts hatred murder, 1 John iii. 15 ; a wanton eye
adultery, Mat. v. 28 ; and he reckons the officious lie and the merry
lie amongst the most monstrous sins, and condemns it to the lowest
hell, Kev. xxi. 8. The consideration of all which raises no small in-
dignation in a holy heart against the least, the smallest sin. But now
unholy hearts make nothing of little sins : with Achan they will be
bond-slaves for a wedge of gold ; with Gehazi they will be servants of
unrighteousness for a talent of silver and two changes of garments ;
with Adam they wiU transgress for an apple ; and with Esau they will
seU their birthright of grace here, and of glory hereafter, for a mess
of pottage. The hearts of unholy persons may rise against gross sins,
such as are not only against the law of God, but against the light and
laws of nature and nations. Their souls may rise in arms against
those sins that makes them liable to the laws of men, or that lays
them open to shame, fear, grief, or loss ; but as for vain thoughts, idle
words, petty oaths, sinful motions, and frequent omissions, they look
upon these as trifles, motes and gnats that are not to be regarded or
bewailed. But,

(3.) Thirdly, As a holy heart rises against the least sins ; so a holy
heart rises against hosom-sins, against constitution-sins, against those
that either his calling, former citstom, or his present inclination or
condition, do most dispose him to. It is true, a prodigal person may
abhor covetousness, and a covetous person may condemn prodigality :
a furious person may hate fearfulness, and a fearful person may detest
furiousness. But now the hearts of those that are holy rise against
complexion sins, against darling sins, against those that make for pre-
sent pleasure and profit, against those that were once as right hands
and right eyes ; that were that to their souls, that Delilah was to
Samson, Herodias to Herod, Isaac to Abraham, and Joseph to Jacob :
Ps. xviii. 23, ' I was also upright before him ; and I kept myself from
mine iniquity;' that is, from my darling sin, whereunto I was most in-
clined and addicted. What this bosom-sin was that he kept himself
from, is hard to say. Some suppose his darling sin was lying, dis-
sembling ; for it is certain, he often fell into this sin : others suppose it
to be some secret iniquity, which was only known to God and his own
conscience : others say it was uncleanness, and that therefore he prayed
that ' God would turn away his eyes from beholding vanity,' Ps. cxix.
37 : others judge it to be that sin of disloyalty, which Saul and his
courtiers falsely charged upon him. It is enough for our purpose that
his heart did rise against that very sin, that either by custom or some
strong inclination he was most naturally apt, ready, and prone to fall
into. Idolatry was the darling sin of the people of Israel;! they
' Jer. xliv. 15, 20 ; Isa. i. 29, and Ivii. 5 ; Jer. xvii. 1, 2 ; Hosea ii. 8 ; Isa. xxxi. 6, 7.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 117

called their idols delectable, or desirable things, Isa. xliv. 9 ; they did
dearly affect and delight in their idols ; but when God should come to
put a spirit of holiness upon them, then their hearts should rise in
hatred and detestation of their idols, as you may see in Isa. xxx. 18,
25 ; mark ver. 22, ' Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven
images of silver, and the ornament of thy molten images of gold : thou
shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it, Get
thee hence.' They were so delighted and enamoured with their idols,
that they would deck them up in the greatest glory and bravery ; they
would attire them with the most rich, costly, pompous, and glorious
raiment. Oh, but when a spirit of holiness should rise upon them,
then they should defile, deface, and disgrace their idols, then they
should so hate and abhor them, they should so detest and loathe them,
that in a holy indignation they should cast them away as a menstruous
cloth, and say unto them, Get ye hence, pack, begone, I will never have
any more to do with you.i God hath now made an everlasting
divorce between you and me. And so in Isa. ii. 20, ' In that day ' —
that is, in the day of the Lord's exaltation in the hearts, lives, and
consciences of his people, ver. 17 — ' a man shall cast his idols of silver,
and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship,
to the moles and to the bats.' In the day of God's exaltation they
shall express such disdain and indignation against their idols, that
they shall take not only those made of trees and stones, but even their
most precious and costly idols, those that were made of silver and
gold, and cast them to the moles and to the bats ; that is, they shall
cast them into such blind holes, and into such dark, filthy, nasty, and
dusty corners, as moles make underground, and as bats roost in : so
when holiness comes to be exalted in the soul, then all a man's darling
and bosom sins, which are his idols of silver, and his idols of gold,
these are with a holy indignation cast to the moles and to the bats ;
they are so loathed, abandoned, and cashiered, that he desires they
may be for ever buried in oblivion, and never see the light more.
Idols were Ephraim's bosom-sin : Hosea iv. 17, ' Ephraim is joined,' or
glued, 'to idols, let him alone ;' but when the dew of grace and holi-
ness fell upon Ephraim, as it did in chap. xiv. 5-7, ' Then saith Eph-
raim, What have I any more to do with idols ?' ver. 8. Now Ephraim
loathes his idols as much or more than before he loved them ; he now
abandons and abominates them, though before he was as closely
glued to them, as the wanton is glued to his Delilah, or as the en-
chanter is glued to the devil, from whom by no means he is able to
stir. Ephraim becoming holy, cries out, ' What have I any more to
do with idols ? ' Oh, I have had to do with them too long and too
much already ! Oh, how doth my soul now rise against them 1 how
do I detest and abhor them ! surely I will never have more to do with
them. But now unholy hearts are very favourable to bosom-sins ;
they say of them, as Lot of Zoar, ' Is it not a little one ? and my soul
shall live ! ' Gen. xix. 20. And as David spake of Absalom, 2 Sam.

^ After the return of the Jews out of Babylon, they bo hated and abhorred idols, that
in the time of the Romans they chose rather to die than to suffer the eagle, which was
the imperial arms, to be set up in their temple. [As before. — G.]

J18 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

xviii. 5, ' Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with
Absalom.' ' Beware that none touch the young man Absalom,' ver.
12. ' And the king said. Is the young man Absalom safe ?' ver. 29.
An unholy heart is as fond of his bosom-sins as Herod was of his Hero-
dias ; or as Demetrius was of his Diana ; or as Naaman was of the
idol Rimmon, which was the idol of the Syrians ; or as Judas was of
bearing the bag ; or as the Pharisees were of having the uppermost
seats, and of being saluted in the market-place with those glorious
titles, ' Rabbi, rabbi.' Bosom-sins have at least a seeming sweetness
in them ; and therefore an unholy heart will not easily let them go.
Let God frown or smile, stroke or strike, lift up or cast down, promise
or threaten, yet he will hide and hold fast his darUng sins ; let God
wound his conscience, blow upon his estate, leave a blot upon his
name, crack his credit, afflict his body, write death upon his rela-
tions, and be a terror to his soul, yet will he not let go his bosom-lusts.
He will rather let God go, and Christ go, and grace go, and heaven
go, all go, than he will let some pleasurable or profitable lusts go. An
unholy heart may sigh over those sins, and make war upon those sins,
that war against his honours, profits, or pleasures, and yet at the same
time make truce with those that are as right hands and right eyes ;
an unholy person may set his sword at the breasts of some sins, and
yet at the same time his heart may be secretly courting of his bosom-
sins. But now a holy heart rises most against the DeHlah in his
bosom, against the Benjamin, the son, the sin, of his right hand. And
thus you see how a holy heart hates and disdains all sins ; he abhors
small sins as weU as great, secret sins as well as open, and bosom-sins
as well as others that have not that acquaintance and acceptance with
the soul. Real hoUness will never mix nor mingle itself with any sin,
it will never incorporate with any corruption. Wine and water will
easily mix, so the wine of gifts and the water of sin, the wine of civility
and the water of vanity, the wine of morality and the water of impiety,
will easily mix ; but oil and water will not mix, they wiU not incorpor-
ate ; so the oil of grace, the oil of holiness, will not mix ; it will not
incorporate with sin, the oil of holiness will be uppermost, Mark,
natural and acquired habits and excellencies, as a pregnant wit, an
eloquent tongue, a strong brain, an iron memory, a learned head, all
these, with some high speculations of holiness, and some profession of
holiness, and some commendations of hoHness, and some visible actings
of holiness, are consistent with the love of lusts, with the dominion of
sin: witness the Scribes and Pharisees, Judas, Demas, and Simon
Magus ; but the real infused habits of true grace and holiness, will
never admit of the dominion of any sin, whether great or little,
whether secret or open. But,

6. Sixthly, Persons of real holiness are cordially affected avid
affiieted, grieved and troubled, about their oivn vileness and unholi-
ness, Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26, 31. You may see this in holy Job, chap,
xl. 3-5, ' Then Job answered the Lord and said. Behold, I am vile ;
what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Once have I spoken ; but I will not answer : yea, twice ; but I will
proceed no further.' So holy Agur : * Prov. xxx. 2, 3, ' Surely I am
more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 119

man.l I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the
holy.' Though all men are brutish, yet holy men are most sensible
of their brutishness, and most affected and afflicted with it ; wicked
men are more brutish than the beasts, yet they see it not, they bewail
it not ; but holy Agur both sees his brutishness, and bewails it.
Holy Agur, looking upon that rare knowledge, that depth of wisdom,
and those admirable excellencies that Adam was endued with in his
integrity and innocency, confesses himself to be but brutish, to be as
much below what Adam once was as a brute is below a man. So holy
David cries not Ferii, I am undone, I shall perish, but peccavi, * I
have sinned, I have done foolishly,' Ps. li. 3. And so for his being
envious at the prosperity of the foolish, Ps. Ixxiii. 2, 3, how doth he
befool and be-beast himself! Ps. Ixxiii. 22, 'So foolish was I, and
ignorant : I was as a beast before thee.' The Hebrew word Behemoth,
l£at is here rendered beast generally, comprehends all beasts of the
greater sort. 2 As an aggravation of his folly, he conf esseth that he
was as a beast, as a great beast, yea, as an epitome of all great
beasts. So the holy prophet Isaiah complains that he was undone, that
he was cut off, not upon any worldly account, but because he was a man
of unclean lips, and dwelt in the midst of a people of unclean lips, Isa.
vi. 5. So holy Daniel, chap, ix., complained not that they were re-
proached and oppressed, but that they had rebelled. So Peter, Luke
V. 8, ' Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, Lord : ' or as the
Greek hath it, I am a man, a sinner. Lord depart from me, for I
am a mixture and compound of aU vileness and sinfulness. So holy
Paul cries not out of his opposers or persecutors, but of the law in his
members rebelling against the law of his mind, Kom. vii. 23, 24.
Paul's body of death \\'ithin him put him to more grief and sorrow
than all the troubles and trials that ever befell him. A holy heart
laments over those sins that he cannot conquer ; a holy person labours
to wash out all the stains and spots that be in his soul, in the streams
of godly sorrow ; that his sins may never drown his soul, he will do
what he can to drown his sins in penitential tears. A holy person
looks upon his sins as the crucifiers of his Saviour, and so they affect
him; he looks upon his sins as the great incendiaries, make-baits,
and separatist between God and his soul, and so they afflict him, Isa.
lix. 1,2. He looks upon his sins as so many reproaches to his God,
blemishes to his profession, and wounds to his credit and conscience,
and so they grieve and trouble him ; he looks upon his sins as those
that make many a righteous soul besides his own sad, whom God
would not have saddened ; and that opens many a sinful mouth that
God would have stopped, and that strengthens many a wicked heart
that God would not have strengthened ; and so they fetch many a
sigh from his heart, and many a tear from his eyes, Ezek. xiii. 22.
When a holy man sins he looks upwards, and there he sees God
frowning ; he looks downwards, and there he sees Satan insulting ; he
looks within himself, and there he finds his conscience either a-bleeding,
raging, or accusing; he looks without himself, and there he finds
gracious men lamenting and mourning, and graceless men deriding and

^ Ulik ny2, the understanding of Adam.

" Therefore the elephant is called Behemoth in Job xl. 15.

120 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

mocking ; the sense of which doth sorely and sadly afflict a gracious
soul. Some say that St Peter's eyes, after his great falls, were
always full of tears, insomuch that his face was furrowed with continual
weeping for his horrid thoughts, his desperate words, his shameful
shifts, and his damnable deeds, which made him look more like a
child of hell than like a saint whose name was written in heaven.
Some say of Adam, that when he turned his face towards the garden
of Eden, he sadly lamented his great fall. Some say of Mary Magda-
lene, that she spent thirty years in Galba in weeping for her sins.
David's sins were ever before him, and therefore no wonder if tears
instead of gems were so constantly the ornaments of his bed. Wicked
Pharaoh cries out, Oh take away these filthy frogs, take away these
dreadful judgments ; but holy David cries out ' Lord, take away the
iniquity of thy servant.' Pharaoh cries out because of his punish-
ments, but David cries out because of his sin. Anselm saith that
with grief he considered the whole course of his life : ' I found,' saith
he, ' the infancy of sin in the sins of my infancy ; the youth and
growth of sin in the sins of my youth and growth ; and the ripeness
of all sin in the sins of my ripe and perfect age ; ' and then he breaks
forth into this pathetical expression, 'What remaineth for thee,
wretched man, but that thou spend thy whole life in bewailing thy
whole life ! ' By all which it is most evident, that holy hearts are very
much affected and afflicted with their own unholiness and vileness.
Now certainly those persons are as far off from real holiness, as hell is
from heaven, who take pleasure ia unrighteousness, who make a scoff
and mock of sin, who commit wickedness with greediness, who talk
wickedly, who live wantonly, who trade deceitfully, who swear horribly,
who drink stiffly, who lie hideously, and who die impenitently. But,

7. Seventhly, Keal holiness naturalises holy duties to the soul; it
makes religious services to be easy and pleasant to the soul. Hence
prayer is called the prayer of faith, because holy faith naturaliseth a
man's heart to prayer, 1 Pet i. 2, and James v. 15. It is as natural
for a holy man to pray, as it is for him to breathe, or as it is for a bird
to fly, or fire to ascend, or a stone to descend : and hence it is that
obedience is called the oliedience of faith, because holy faith naturalises
a man's heart to obedience, Kom. xvi. 26, and Ps, cxix. 166. As soon
as ever this plant of renown was set in the heart of Paul, he cries out,
' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?' Acts ix. 6. And hence it is
that hearing is called ' the hearing of faith,' because this holy principle
naturalises a man's heart to hearing. Ps. cxxii. 1, ' I was glad when
they said unto me. Let us go into the house of the Lord.' And so in
Isa. ii. 3, ' And many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go
up to the mountam of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ;
and he wUl teach us of his ways, and we wiU walk in his paths : for
out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from
Jerusalem.' And hence patience is called ' patience of hope,' because
this holy principle of hope naturalises a man's heart to a patient wait-
ing upon God, 1 Thes. i. 3. Kom. viii. 25, * But if we hope for that
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' So holy love natu-
ralises the soul to holy service ; in 1 Thes. i. 3, you read of ' the labour
of love.' Holy love is very laborious. Nothing makes a Christian more

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 121

industrious, painful,! and diligent in the service and ways of God, than
holy love. Holy love will make us to pray and to praise, it will make us
wait and work, it will provoke souls to study Christ, to admire Christ,
to live to Christ, to lift up Christ, to spend and be spent for Christ, and
to break through all difficulties that it may come nearer to Christ, and
cleave closer to Christ, Kom xiv. 7, 8, and 2 Cor. xii. 14-16. As Jerome
once bravely said, ' If my father,' said he, ' should stand before me,
my mother should hang upon me, and my brethren should press about
me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my mother,
tread under feet my father, that I might the faster cleave unto Christ
my Saviour.' Oh the laboriousness of holy love ! So far as a Christian
is holy, so far holy services will be delightful and easy to him : Eom.
vii. 22, ' I delight in the law of God after the inward man ;' ver. 25,

* So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God ;' Ps. cxix. 16,

* I wiU delight myself in thy statutes : I will not forget thy word ; *
ver. 35, * Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ; for
therein do I delight ; ver. 47, ' And I will delight myself in thy com-
mandments which I have loved ;' ver. 92, ' Unless thy law had been
my delights, I should then have perished in mine affl.iction ; ' ver. 143,
' Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me : yet thy command-
ments are my delights.' Sirs, honour is not more suitable, delightful,
and pleasing to an ambitious man, nor pleasure to a voluptuous man,
nor flattery to a proud man, nor gold to a covetous man, nor excess
to an intemperate man, nor revenge to an envious man, nor pardon to
a condemned man, than religious duties and services are suitable,
pleasing, and delightful to a holy man, Ps. xxvii. 8, and Ixxxi. 8-16.
But now unholy hearts are very averse to holy duties and services : they
are averse to hearing, averse to praying, averse to reading, averse to
meditating, averse to self-judging, averse to self-examining, averse to
holy worship, averse to holy Sabbaths : Amos viii. 5, ' When will the
new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the Sabbath, that we
may set forth wheat?' Isa. xxvi. 10, 11, and Jer. v. 1, 6. You may
sooner draw a coward to fight, or a malefactor to the bar, or a bear
to the stake, than you shall draw unholy hearts to holy services.^ But
if at any time, by the strong motions of the Spirit, the close debates
of conscience, the powerful persuasions of the word, the education of
godly parents, the pious example of bosom friends, the rich treasures
in precious promises, the dreadful evils in terrible threatenings, or if
at any time by the displeasure of God, the smarting rod, the bowels
of mercy, the wooings of love, or if at any time by some flashes of
hell, or glimpses of heaven, or by the heavy sighs, the deep groans,
and the bleeding wounds of a dying Saviour, their hearts are wrought
over to religious services — Isa. Iviii. 1-5 — ah, how soon are they
weary of them ! What little delight or pleasure do they take in them I
Isa. xliii. 22, ' But thou hast not called upon me, Jacob' — ^that is,
thou hast not worshipped nor served me sincerely, faithfully, feelingly,
heartily, affectionately, humbly, holily, as thou shouldest and as thou
oughtest — ' but thou hast been weary of me, Israel ;' that is, thou
hast been weary of my worship and service, and thou hast counted

^ 'Painstaking.' — Q.

• Wicked hearts are habitually averse to all that is good, &c.

122 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

it rather a burden than a benefit, a damage than an advantage, a
reproach than an honour, a disgrace than a favour, a vexation than
a blessing ; and for all thy formal courtings and complimentings of
me, thou hast been secretly weary of me. So in Mai. i. 12, 13, ' Ye
say. The table of the Lord is polluted ; and the fruit thereof, even his
meat, is contemptible. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it !
and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts/ &c. They did God
but little service, and that they did was after the worst manner too,
and yet they snuff, and puff, and blow, and sweat, and swell, and fall
into a fustian fume, as if they had been over-tired and wearied with
the burden and weight of those sacrifices which they offered up to the
great God. A holy heart thinks all too little that he doth for God ;
but an unholy heart thinks every little too much that he doth for
God. A holy heart, like the holy angels, loves to do much and make
no noise ; but an unholy heart makes most noise when he doth least
service ; an unsanctified soul hath a trumpet in his right hand, when
he hath but a penny to give in his left hand, as here. But,

8. Eighthly, Where there is real holiness, there will be the exercise
of righteousness towards men from righteous principles, arid upon reli-
gious accounts, viz., the honour of God, the command of God, the will
of God, the credit of the gospel, &c. Keal holiness towards God is
always attended with righteousness towards men : Eph. iv. 24, ' And
that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteous-
ness and true holiness,' or, hoKness of truth ; Tit. ii. 11, 12, ' For the
grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godlily in this present world.' These
words'contain the sum of a Christian's duty ; to live soberly towards
ourselves, righteously towards our neighbours, and godlily towards
God, is true godliness indeed, and the whole duty of man. So holy
Abraham in Gen. xxiii. 16, ' And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron,
and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in
the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, cur-
rent money with the merchant.' i It is recorded to holy Abraham's
everlasting honour and fame, that he paid for the field that he bought
of Ephron current money, not counterfeit, pure, not adulterate shekels
of silver, not shekels of brass silvered over ; he paid the price that was
pitched, and he paid it in such coin as would go current in one
country as well as another. So holy Jacob, in Gen. xliii., supposing
that the money that was returned in the sacks of corn that his sons
brought out of Egypt was through some mistake or oversight, he
very honestly and conscientiously ordered them to carry the money
back again. Ver. 12, ' And take double money in your hand : and
the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry
it again in your hands ; peradventure it was an oversight.' A holy
heart will not, a holy heart dares not, take an advantage from
another's error to do him wrong; it is but justice to return and

^ The common shekel is about twentypence, so then four hundred shekels amount to
thirty-three pounds six shillings and eightpence, after five shillings sterling the ounce.
And in this purchase is prophetically shewed that Abraham's posterity should have the
inheritance of that land : as Jeremiah's buying of his uncle's field was a sign of the
Jews' return, and of their policy there again to buy and sell.

HeB. XII. 14,] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 123

restore to every man his due. So holy Moses, in Num. xvi. 15, * And
Moses was very wroth, and said unto the Lord, Respect not thou their
oflFering : I have not taken one ass from them, neither have I hurt one
of them.' He sought their good, not their goods ; he preferred their
safety before his own life ; he did right to every man, he did wrong to
no man ; he did every man some good, he did no man the least hurt.
So holy , Samuel, in , 1 Sam. xii. 3-5, 'Behold, here am I: witness
against me before the Lord, and before his anointed : whose ox have I
taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded?
whom have I oppressed ? or of whose hand have I received any bribe
to blind mine eyes therewith ? and I will restore it you. And they
^id, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou
taken aught of any man's hand. And he said unto them, The Lord is
witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have
not found aught in my hand. And they answered, He is witness.' He
makes a solemn protestation before the Lord, before his anointed, and
before the people, that he had so lived in the exercise of justice and
righteousness amongst them, that they could not accuse him of the
least unrighteousness, they could not say black was his eye, they
could not say that he had lessened them to greaten himself, or that he
had impoverished them to enrich himself, or that he had ruined them
to raise himself ; upon his appeal they unanimously declare his inno-
cency and integrity. So holy Daniel, in Dan. vi. 4, 5, ' Then the
presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel con-
cerning the kingdom, but they could find no occasion nor fault : foras-
much as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in
him. Then said these men. We shall not find any occasion against
this Daniel, except we find it against him concerning the law of his
God/ Though envy be the father of cruelty and malice, the mother
of murder and ambition, the plotter of others' destruction, yet holy
Daniel was so just and righteous, so innocent and prudent, so careful
and faithful in the administration of his high office, that none of his
envious, malicious, and ambitious enemies could, after their unity in
a hellish and cniel conspiracy, charge him with the least spot of in-
justice or show of righteousness ; i they narrowly scanned all his
administrations, and diligently weighed all his actions, and yet them-
selves being judges, Daniel is found innocent. They could not so
much as charge him with a colourable fault. So Zacharias and
Elizabeth, they walked in aU the commandments and ordinances of
the Lord blameless, Luke i. 5, 6 ; they walked not only in the ordi-
nances, but also in the commandments of the Lord, and they walked
not only in some commandments, but in all the commandments of the
Lord ; they walked in the commandments of the second table, as well
as in the commandments of the first table; they were as well for
righteousness towards man, as they were for holiness towards God.
So the apostles, in 2 Cor. vii. 2, ' Receive us ; we wronged no man, we
have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.' The apostle
would have the Corinthians to make room for them in their hearts
and houses, as the Greek word ^w/jT^craTe imports, for that they had
wronged no man in his name or reputation, as the false apostles had ;
^ Qu. ' unrighteousness'? — Ed.

124 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

neither had they corrupted any man in his judgment by false doc-
trines or evil examples, as the false apostles had ; neither had they
defrauded any man in his estate, as the false apostles had, who made
a prize of their followers and hearers. Of the same import is that of
the apostle in 1 Thes. ii. 10, 'Ye are witness, and God also, how
holily, justly, and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that
believe.' He takes God and them to witness, that they had lived
holily in respect of God, and righteously in respect of the world, and
unblameably in respect of them that believe. By all which it is most
evident, that where there is real holiness towards God, there will be
the exercise of righteousness towards men.

But now, where there is but the shows and appearances of holiness,
there persons make no conscience of exercising righteousness towards
men. Witness the Scribes and Pharisees, who, under a pretence ot
praying, made a prey of widows' houses ; who, under a pretence of
piety, exercised the greatest covetousness, unrighteousness, and cruelty,
and that upon widows, who are usually the greatest objects of pity
and charity ; they made no bones of robbing the widow, under pre-
tence of honouring of God, Mat. xxiii. 14. So Judas, who was a
Cato without, but a Nero within, who, under a pretence of laying up
for the poor, robbed the poor, John xii. 6 ; he made use of counterfeit
holiness, as a cloak to cover all his thievish villanies ; he pretended to
lay up for the poor, but he intended only to lay up for himself, and to
provide against a rainy day. It is like he had no great mind to stay
long with his Lord, and therefore he was resolved to make the best
market he could for himself; that so when he should lay down his
stewardship, he might have something to live upon. Judas acted the
part of a saint in his profession and discourses, that so he might be
the less suspected to act the part of a thief in his more secret prac-
tices. Judas had not been long in office, before he put conscience out
of office, and conscience being put out of office, Judas sets up for him-
self, and, under a cloak of holiness, he practises the greatest unfaith-
fulness. Though the eagle soars high, yet still her eye is upon her
prey ; so though Judas did soar high in profession, yet his eye was
still upon his prey, upon his bags, and so he might have it, he cared
not who went without it ; so he might be rich, he did not care
though his Lord and his retinue grew never so poor. Judas had
Jacob's voice, but Gehazi's heart and hands, and therefore he screws
up his conscience tUl he makes all crack again. Under all his shows
of sanctity, he had not so much as common honesty in him. Coun-
terfeit holiness is often made a stalking-horse to the exercise of much
unrighteousness. Certainly that man is as far from real holiness, as
the devil himself is from true happiness, who lives not in the exercise
of righteousness towards men, as well as in a profession of holiness to-
wards God. Well, Christians, remember this, it were better with the
philosopher to have honesty without religion, than to have religion
without honesty. But,

9. Ninthly, He that is truly holy will labour and endeavour to make
others holy. A holy heart loves not to go to heaven alone, it loves not
to be happy and blessed alone. A man that hath experienced the
power, excellency, and sweetness of holiness, will strive and study how

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 125

to make others holy. When Samson had tasted honey, he gave his
father and mother some with him, Judges xiv. 8, 9. Holiness is so
sweet a morsel, that a soul cannot taste of it but he will be a-commend-
ing of it to others.i As you may see in holy Moses, in Num. xi. 29,
' And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake ? Would God
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put
his Spirit upon them.' A holy soul will never make a monopoly of
holiness. The prophets, you know, were men of greatest grace and
holiness ; now holy Moses is very importunate and earnest with God
that he would not only make the two that prophesied, but all the Lord's
people eminent and excellent in grace and holiness. Such was Moses
his holiness and humbleness, that he desires that all others might either
equal him or excel him in gifts and grace. A heart eminently holy is
so far from envying of the gracious excellencies of others, that it can
rejoice in every sun that outshines his own ; and every light that burns
more dim than his, he desires that it may be snuffed, not put out, that
so it may give a clearer and a greater light to others. So holy Paul
in Acts xxvi. 29, ' And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou,
but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether
such as I am, except these bonds,' True holiness is no churl ; nothing
makes a man more noble in his spiritual desires, wishes, and actings
for others, than hoHness. Keal hohness, like oil, is of a diffusive na-
ture ; like light, it will spread itself over aU ; like Mary's box of oint-
ment, it fills all the house with the sweet scent thereof. Art thou a
holy father ? then thou wilt, with holy Abraham, labour to make thy
children holy, Gen. xviii. 17-19. A holy heart knows that both by
his first birth, but especially by his new birth, he stands obHged to
promote holiness in all, but especially in those that are parts and pieces
of himself. Art thou a holy master ? then thou wilt, with holy Joshua,
labour to make all under thy charge holy : Josh. xxiv. 15, ' But as for
me, and my house, we will serve the Lord.' True holiness cannot be
concealed ; it will be a-stirring and a-provoking of others to be holy :
as a holy man doth not love to be happy alone, so a holy man doth not
love to be holy alone. A holy master loves to see a crown of holiness
set upon every head in his family. Holiness is a very beautiful thing,
and it makes those beautiful in whom it is. In a holy master's eye,
there is no servant so lovely and beautiful as he that hath the beauty
of hoHness upon him. A holy magistrate will labour to make both
his servants and his subjects holy: as holy David, holy Asa, holy
Isaiah, and holy Hezekiah did ; he knows that the souls of his servants
and subjects are the choicest treasure that God hath committed to his
care ; he knows that every soul is more worth than his crown and king-
dom ; he knows that he must one day give up an account for more
souls than his own, and therefore he improves his power and interest
every way for the making of all holy under him ; 2 as Louis the Ninth,
king of France, took pains to instruct his poor kitchen-boy in the way
to heaven, and being asked the reason of it, he answered. The meanest

1 Lilmod le lammed, We therefore learn that we may teach, is a proverb among the
Eabbins. The heathen could say, I do therefore lay in and lay up, that I may draw
forth again for the good of many.

* George, prince of Anhalt, his family is said to have been ecclesia, academia, curia :
A church, a university, and a court.

126 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XIL 14.

have a soul to save as precious as mine own, and bought by the same
blood of Christ. It is said of Constantino that in this he was truly-
great, that he would have his whole court gathered together, and cause
the Scriptures to be read and opened to them, that they might be made
holy courtiers, and so fitted for the court of heaven, into which no un-
clean person or thing can enter, Kev. xxi. 27. It grieved an emperor
that a neighbour of his should die before he had done him any good.
Ah, it is the grief of a holy magistrate to see others die before they
are made holy. The great request of a holy magistrate, living and
dying, is this, Lord, make this people a holy people ! Oh, make this
people a holy people ! Art thou a holy kinsman, a holy friend, then
thou wilt labour to make thy kindred holy, and thy friends holy : as
holy Cornelius did, as you may see in Acts x. 24, 27, ' And the mor-
row after they entered into Cesarea. And Cornelius waited for them,
and had called together his kinsmen and near friends. And as Peter
talked with him, he went in, and found many that were come together.'
And in ver. 33, saith Cornelius to Peter, ' Thou hast well done that
thou art come. Now therefore we are all here present before God, to
hear all things that are commanded thee of God.' i Devout Cornelius
gets his kinsmen and near friends together, that they also might be
partakers of the grace and mercy of God with him. He had ex-
perienced a work of grace and holiness upon his own heart, and he uses,
his best endeavours that they might experience the same on theirs.
A holy Christian is like a loadstone, that draws to itself first one iron
ring, and that another, and that a third. As there is a natural instinct
in all creatures to propagate their own kind, as in beasts, birds, and
fishes, so there is a holy, a spiritual instinct in all gracious hearts to
propagate grace and holiness in whatever hearts they can. Look, as
fire will assimilate and turn everything that comes near it into its own
nature, so will a holy heart labour to make all that comes near him
like himself. Look, as one drunkard labours to make another, and one
swearer another, and one wanton another, and one thief another, and
one idle person another, and one fearful person another, and one doubt-
ful person another, and one erroneous person another, &c., so one holy
heart labours to make another, one gracious heart labours to make
another.2 He that is humble will labour to make others humble, he
that is sincere wiU labour to make others sincere, he that is faithful will
labour to make others to be faithful, he that is fruitful will labour to
make others fruitful, and he that is watchful will labour to make others
watchful. A heart that is truly holy wiU labour, by prayers, reproofs,
tears, example, counsel, and commands, to make others like himself.
He knows that there is no love, no wisdom, no care, no pains, next to
that which he takes with his own heart, to that which is laid out to
make unholy hearts holy. And therefore he prays and weeps, and
weeps and prays, that holiness may be written upon all that his name
is written upon ; he learns and teaches, and he teaches and learns, and
all that he may teach and learn others to be holy ; he counts it not

1 So in John i. 39, 49, and iv. 28-30.

' It is a true saying in natural philosophy, that it is Naturalissimum opus viventia
generate sibi simile : The most natural act or work of every living thing to produce
another like unto itself.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 127

worth while to live in this world, were it not for the glory of God, and
the good of his own and others' souls. But now, what shall we say of
those persons who are so far from being holy, who are so far from
drawing others to be holy, that they do what they can to make those
that are holy to become unholy, and who strongly tempt those that are
unholy to be more unholy ? These are factors i for hell, and cer-
tainly such solicitors shall at last be most dreadfully handled by hellish
tormentors. But,

10. Tenthly, He that is really holy, will be holy in the use of
earthly and common things, as well as in the use of spiritual arid
heavenly things, Titus i. 15. He will be spiritual in the use of carnal
things, and heavenly in the use of earthly things. There is a silver
vein of sanctity that runs through all his worldly concernments. If
you look upon him in his eating and drinking, you shall find him holy,
1 Cor. X. 31. If you look upon him in his buying and selling, in has
paying and receiving, you shall find him holy : Isa. xxiii. 18, ' And her
merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord.' Before Tyre's
conversion, she laboured to enrich herself by hook and by crook : all
was fish that came to Tyre's net. Tyre could say anything, or do any-
thing, or be anything, for gain. Oh, but when Tyi-e is converted and
sanctified, then all her merchandise and hire, then all her gettings and
earnings, shall be holiness to the Lord. Tyre now shall write holiness
upon all her wares and commodities. Tyre shall buy nothing, nor sell
nothing, nor exchange nothing, but there shall be holiness written upon
it. And Tyre shall be as well holy in using and improving of her
merchandise and hire, as she hath been holy in the getting of them ;
for so it follows in the same verse, * It shall not be treasured nor laid
up ; for her merchandise shall be for them that dwell before the Lord,
to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.' Tyre, before her conver-
sion, hoarded up riches, and laid up her merchandise to spend upon
her lusts, to spend upon her pride, and wantonness, and luxuriousness,
&c. But now, being converted, she uses and improves what she hath
in the service of the Lord, and for the comfort, support, and relief of
the poor and needy. When Tyre is once made holy, then Tyre will
be holy in the use of all her earthly enjoyments. If you look upon a
holy man going to war, then you shall find holiness written upon the
bridles of his horses : Zech. xiv. 20, 21 , 'In that day shall there be
upon the bridles, or bells, of the horses. Holiness unto the Lord. Yea,
every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord
of hosts.' 2 Here is holiness written upon the bridles of the horses they
ride on, and holiness written upon the cups and pots they drink in.
A holy heart will be holy in the use of the meanest things that are for
common use. Every piece of his civility ^ shall savour of sanctity, and
in aU the parts of his common conversation you shall be able to dis-
cern something of the power of religion : Job v. 24, ' And thou shalt
visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.' Thou shalt be holy in thy
commerce, and holy in thy converse. Holiness shall be written upon

^ ' Agents,' ' instruments.* — G.

" Calvin renders it stables of horses, which are the most stinking and contemptible
places ; and yet these should be holily used.
'^ = Morality. — G.

128 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

thy dealings with thy servants, and holiness shall be written upon thy
carriages towards thy children, and holiness shall be written upon all
thy behaviours towards thy friends. Whatever thou puttest thy hand
to in thy habitation, shall have holiness written upon it : thou shalt
make a Jacob's ladder of all thy earthly enjoyments ; all the comforts
that be in thy habitation, shall be as so many bright morning stars to
lead thee on in a way of holiness, and to lead thee up to a holy Grod.
Look upon a holy man in his calling, and you shall find him holy :
look upon him in the use of the creatures, and you shall find him
holy : look upon him in his recreations, and you shall find him holy.
The habitual frame and bent of his heart is to be holy in every earthly
thing that he puts his hand unto. A spirit of holiness runs and shines
in all the common actions of his Hfe. But now look upon those who
have only the shows and appearances of holiness, and you shall find
that they have but a common spirit in common things. Take them
out of their duties, and you shall find them in a course to be earthly
in the use of earthly things, and carnal in the use of carnal things,
and worldly in the use of worldly things. All their religion, all their
holiness, lies in a few duties ; take them out of these, and you shall
find them as carnal, as vain, as foolish, as filthy and as frothy, as light
and as slight, as those that have not so much as a cloak of hohness
upon them. But he that is really holy, will be holy as well out of
duties as in duties. If you look narrowly upon him in all his worldly
concernments, you shall find some footsteps of the awe, fear, dread,
authority, and glory of God upon his spirit. Look, as an unholy heart
is carnal in spiritual things, and earthly in heavenly things, and un-
holy in holy things ; so a man that is truly holy, he is as well holy in
the ordinary affairs and actions of this life, as he is holy in any of the
exercises of religion. But,

11. Eleventhly, True holiness is conformable to the holiness of Christ.
The holiness of Christ is that first and noble pattern that real holiness
makes us conformable to : 1 John iv. 17, * Herein is our love made
perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because
as he is, so are we in this world.' There is no grace in Christ which
is not in some degree formed in a holy heart, 1 John ii. 6 : and there-
fore the work of grace and holiness is caUed a forming of Christ in the
soul, Gal. iv. ] 9. Holy hearts have the very prints, stamps, and im-
pressions of the graces of Jesus Christ upon them : John i. 16, * Of his
fulness we have all received grace for grace.' ^ Look, as face answers to
face, so the graces that are in real Christians answer to the graces thaft
are in Jesus ; there is such love as answers to the love of Christ, and
such lowliness as answers to the lowliness of Christ, and such heavenly-
mindedness as answers to the heavenly-mindedness of Christ, and such
meekness as answers to the meekness of Christ, and such patience
as answers to the patience of Christ, and such faith as answers to the
faith of Christ, and such zeal as answers to the zeal of Christ, and such
fear as answers to the fear of Christ, in truth and reality, though not
in degree and quantity. Look, as in generation the child receives

^ Gratiam super gratiam, say some ; Gratiam gratia accumalatam, say others. Cer-
tainly Christ is a seminar}' of graces. He is clara epitome virtutum, an exact epitome of
graces.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 129

member for member ; or as the paper from the press, letter for letter ;
or the glass from the face, image for image ; or as the wax from the
seal, stamp for stamp ; so holy hearts receive from Christ grace
for grace. Look, as wine in the bottle is conformable to that in the
butt, and as water in the cistern is conformable to that in the river,
and as light in the air is conformable to that in the sun, and as milk
in the saucer is conformable to milk in the breasts, and as money
in the pocket is conformable to money in the bag, so the graces that
are in a holy Christian are conformable to the graces that are in
Christ, 2 Cor. iii. 17, 18. To be a philosopher, saith Plato, is to know
God, to be in love with God, and to imitate God. So say I, to be a holy
person is to know a holy Christ, to be in love with a holy Christ, and
to imitate the virtues of a holy Christ. It was the height of Caesar's
glory to walk in the steps of Alexander ; and of Selymus,! a Turkish
emperor, to walk in the steps of Caesar ; and of Themistocles to walk
in the steps of Miltiades ; so it is the height of a Christian's glory
to tread in the virtuous steps of his dearest Lord. And as Scipio
accounted it no small disparagement for him to walk one foot awry
from that course of life which Cyrus in Xenophon had gone before
him in, so a holy heart counts it no small disparagement to him
in the least to step awry from that holy pattern that Christ hath set
him. Look, as the holy prophet did lay his mouth to the Shunammite's
child's mouth, and his eyes to his eyes, and his hands to his hands,
2 Kings iv. 34; so a holy Christian lays his mouth to the mouth
of Christ, and his eyes to the eyes of Christ, and his hands to the
hands of Christ, and his breasts to the breasts of Christ, and his heart
to the heart of Christ : that is, he doth in all things labour to resemble
Christ, to be like to Christ ; especially in those holy virtues which were
most shining in the heart and life of Christ, 1 Pet. ii. 9. Now
certainly they are far from being holy who count it a crime to be
virtuous ; and so are they who walk directly contrary to Jesus Christ.
He was holy, but they are profane ; he was humble, but they are
proud ; he was heavenly, but they are earthly ; he was spiritual,
but they are carnal ; he was zealous, but they are lukewarm ; he was
meek, but they are contentious,; he was charitable, but they are
covetous ; he was courteous, but they are malicious. Will you caH
these men holy ? Surely no. But,

12. Twelfthly, He that is truly holy is much affected and afflicted
loith the unholiness of others :^ Ps. cxix. 53, ' Horror hath taken hold
upon me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law ;' ver. 158, 'I
beheld the transgressors, and was grieved, because they kept not thy
word ;' ver. 136, ' Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they
keep not thy law.' By this hyperbolical phrase he sets forth the great-
ness of his sorrows, and that not because his enemies had wronged him,
but because they had dishonoured his God. It was a great grief to him
to see others a-grieving his God. So Jer, ix. 1-3, ' Oh that my head
were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day
and night ! oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfar-
ing men, that I might leave my people, and go from them.' But why

1 Solyman (?)— G.

2 Josh. vii. 9 ; Ps. Ixix. 9 ; Ezra ix. 3 ; Nch. ix; Dan. ix; Micah i. 8 ; Jer. xiii. 17.
VOL. IV. * I

130 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

doth the holy prophet thus take on ? why doth he thus lament ? why
doth he wish himself turned into waters, and into a fountain of tears ?
why doth he prefer a habitation amongst the wild beasts, before
his habitation among his own people ? Why, the cause you have
m the following words, ' For they be all adulterers, an assembly of
treacherous men, and they bend their tongues like their bow for lies :
but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth ; for they proceed
from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord.' So
Ezek. ix. 4, 'And the Lord said unto him, Gro through the midst
of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the
foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations
that be done in the midst thereof.' There were holy hearts in
Jerusalem that did sigh and cry, and cry and sigh for the wickedness
of the times ; the abominations of the times did lie in such full weight
upon them, that they did fetch many a sigh from their hearts, and
many a tear from their eyes. Holy hearts are able to tell you many sad
stories of the groans, griefs, and gripes that other men's sins hath cost
them. When most were a-sinning, God's marked ones were a-mourn-
ing ; when others were with a high hand a-cursing, blaspheming, and
a-rebelling, God's marked ones were deeply sorrowing ; they mourned
cordially, they sighed greatly, they grieved wonderfully, they groaned
lamentably, and that not for some, but for all, for all court sins,
and church sins, and city sins, and family sins. And so holy Faul
could not with dry eyes make mention of those belly-gods and earth-
worms that were in his time, Phil. iii. 18. So holy Lot was much
affected and afflicted with seeing and hearing of the wickedness of those
among whom he lived, 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8. The Greek word for vexed, in
ver. 7, KaTanrovov/jLevov, signifies to be oppressed under the wanton
and wicked conversation of the ungodly Sodomites, as^a man that
is oppressed under a heavy burden which he labours under, and would
fain be delivered from ; or to be oppressed, as the Israelites were under
their cruel Egyptian taskmasters. Ah, the sins, the wickedness of
others sets hard upon the hearts of the saints ! The Israelites did not
more labour and sigh and groan under all their loads and oppressions,
than many holy hearts do labour and sigh and groan under the load of
wicked men's sins. And the Greek word for vexed, in ver. 8, i^aard-
vit,ev, signifies to be tortured, tormented, and racked. ^ Oh, their wicked-
ness did torment and rack his righteous soul; he could not see nor
hear of their wickedness, but his soul was as upon a rack. Pambus, in
ecclesiastical history, wept when he saw a harlot take so much pains
to deck and dress herself in curious and costly apparel, and all to enter-
tain a wanton lover, and so to make work for hell. Oh, it cannot but
grieve a gracious soul to see what pains poor sinners take to go to hell !
A holy heart looks upon other men's sins as great dishonours done to
his father, his king; and therefore he cannot but cry out with Croesus his
son, who though he was born dumb, yet seeing some going about to kill
his father, his tongue-strings unloosed, and he cried out, ' Oh kill not
king Croesus, kill not my father.' ^ Oh kill not my God, and my
King ! Oh kUl not, oh dishonour not my dear Father and Saviour,

^ It is a metaphor taken from engines that they did torment people withal.
' As before.— G.

HeB. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 131

saith a holy heart. Such is the love and high respects that holy-
hearts bear to their heavenly Father, that they cannot but grieve, and
mourn, and cry out when they see others to act treason against the
crown and dignity of heaven. Elijah had rather die than to see Ahab
and Jezebel to cast contempt and dishonour upon his God.

[1.] A holy heart mourns for sin as sin, he weeps over the very
nature of sin ; he grieves for sin as it is the breach of a holy law, and
as it is a dishonour to a holy God, &c., and therefore he cannot
but mourn for other men's sins as well as his own.i He that hates a
toad as a toad, will hate a toad in other men's bosoms as well as
his own ; he that hates poison as poison, wiU hate poison in another
man's hand as well as his own : so he that hates sin as sin, will hate
it wherever he sees it ; and he that mourns over sin as sin, cannot
but mourn over sin wherever he observes it.

[2.] By other men's sins a holy man is put in mind of the badness
of his own heart. Bernard makes mention in one of his Homilies of an
old man, who, when he saw any man sin, wept and lamented for him,
and being asked why he grieved so for other men s sins, answered, Ille
hodie, et ego eras; He fell to-day, and I may fall to-morrow. The
faUs of others puts a holy man in mind of the roots of bitterness that be
in himself Other men's actual sins are as so many glasses, through
which a holy man comes to see the manifold seeds of sin that be in his
own nature, and such a sight as this cannot but melt him and break
him.

[3.] A holy heart knows that the best way to keep himself pure
from other men's sins, is to mourn for other men's sins.^ He that
makes conscience of weeping over other men's sins will rarely be
defiled with other men's sins. He that mourns not over other men's
sins is accessary to other men's sins : and first or last may find them
charged upon his account. He that mourns not for other men's sins is
in danger of being ensnared by other men's sins. And how then can
a holy man look upon other men's sins with dry eyes ?

[4.] A holy man looks upon other men's sins as the crucifiers of his
Saviour. He looks upon the proud man's pride as that which set
a crown of thorns upon the sacred head of Christ, and this makes him
sigh ; he looks upon the swearer's oaths as the nails that nailed his
blessed hands and feet to the cross, and this makes him grieve ; he
looks upon scomers as spitting upon Christ, and worldlings as prefer-
ring Barabbas before Christ, and this makes him groan ; he looks upon
hypocrites as kissing and betraying of Christ, and he looks upon
drunkards and wantons as giving gall and vinegar to Christ, and this
makes him mourn ; he looks upon other men's sins as having a hand
in all Christ's torments, and this puts him upon the rack, and makes
his very soul heavy, even to the death.

[5.] A holy heart knows that by mourning for other men's sins,
he may be instrumental to keep off wrath, Ezek. ix. 4, 6. How oft
did holy Moses by his tears quench the wrath of an angry God I
However, if wrath should break forth upon a nation, yet_ they that
mourn for the abominations of the times, they shall be hid in the day

^ He that hates a thief as a thief, will hate a thief in another man's house as well as
in his own. * 1 Tim. v. 22 j 1 Cor. v. 1-3 ; Eph. v. 11.

132 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

of God's public visitation, Isa. xxvi. 20. When the house is on fire,
the father hath a special care to provide for the safety and security of
his children ; when the lumber is on fire, a man will be sure first to
secure his box of jewels. In times of common calamity, God will be
sure to look after his jewels, his mourning ones. Though the lumber,
the wicked, be burnt up on every hand in the day of God's wrath, yet
he will be sure to preserve his jewels in the midst of the flames. ^
Augustine, coming to visit a sick man, found the room full of mourners ;
he found the wife sobbing, the children sighing, and the kindred
lamenting ; whereupon he suddenly breathed forth this short, but
sweet ejaculatory prayer, ' Lord,' saith he, ' what prayers dost thou hear,
if not these?' So in times of common calamity, holy hearts may
look up and say. Ah, Lord, whose sighs, whose groans, whose tears
wilt thou hear, if not ours ? Who are mourners in Sion, and who
wilt thou save and secure, in this day of thy fierce indignation, if not
we, who have laboured to drown both our own and other men's sins in
penitential tears ?

[6.] A holy heart looks upon sinners' sins to contribute very much
towards the bringing in of sore and sad changes upon a land and
nation, Ps. cvii. 33, 34. He knows that sinners' sins may turn rivers
into a wilderness, a^d water-springs into dry ground, and a fruitful
land into a barren wilderness ; he knows that sinners' sins may have a
deep hand in provoking God to rain hell out of heaven upon a sinful
nation, as he did of old upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and this sets him
a-mourning. If one sinner destroys much good, as Solomon speaks,
Eccles. ix. 18, Ah, saith he, what a world of good will a world of sin-
ners destroy then ! The serious thoughts of this makes him sigh. 2

[7.] A holy heart looks upon other men's sins as their bonds and
chains. Acts viii. 23, and this makes him mourn. When Marcellus, the
Koman general, saw the multitude of captives that were taken in the city
of Syracuse, the tears trickled down his cheeks. Ah, how can tears but
trickle down a Christian's cheeks when he sees multitudes, fast bound
with the cords of their iniquity, trooping to hell ? Who can look upon
a sinner as a close prisoner to the prince oi darkness, and not bemoan
him ? Now if holy persons thus mourn for the wickedness of others,
then certainly they are far from being holy who take pleasure in the
wickedness of others, who laugh and joy, who can make a sport, a
pastime of other men's sins. These are rather monsters than men.
There are none so nearly allied to Satan as these, nor none resemble
Satan to the life so much as these. The devil always joys most when
sinners sin most.^ Neither doubtless are they holy who tempt and
entice others to be unholy ; nor are they holy who only cry out of
other men's sins, but never sigh for other men's sins ; nor are they holy
who insult over the iniquities of others, but never mourn for the iniqui-
ties of others ; nor are they holy who can rail, reproach, and revile others
for their sins, but have neither skill nor will to lament over others'
sins : and yet this age is full of such wretches. Certainly that man's

^ Isa. xliii. 2, 3; Dan. iii. 17-28.

^ Witness Achan, Manasseh, Jeroboam, Saul, Herod, Ahab, &c.

^ To applaud to them, and take pleasure in them wlio take pleasure in sin, is the
highest degree of ungodliness.

HeB. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 133

holiness will be found to be of the right stamp at last, who can evan-
gelically mourn for other men's sins as well as his own. But,

13. Thirteenthly, He that is truly holy, he loves the loord, and is
affected and taken with the loord for its holiness and purity: Ps. cxix.
140, ' Thy word is very pure, therefore thy servant loveth it.' A
pure heart embraces the word for its purity, 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; Ps. xii. 6,
7, and xviii. 30.^ So holy Paul in Kom. vii. 12, ' Wherefore the law
is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.' Well, and
what then ? Why, saith he, ver. 22, * I delight in the law of God after
the inward man.' But is this all ? No, saith he, ver. 25, ' With the
mind I myself serve the law of God.' Holy Paul delights in the law
as holy, and serves the law as holy, just, and good. A holy heart is
taken with the word for its spirituality, divinity, and purity. So in
Ps. xix. 8-10, ' The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart :
the commandment of the Lord is pure^ enlightening the eyes. The
fear of the Lord is clean,' (that is, the doctrine that teacheth the true
fear of God,) ' enduring for ever : the judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether ; more to be desired are they than gold, yea,
than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb:'
or, as the Hebrew hath it, sweeter than the dropping of honeycombs.^
The whole word of God, as it is a pure word, a clean word, so it
rejoices a holy heart ; and so it is sweeter than the very droppings of
honeycombs. It is more sweet than those drops which drop imme-
diately and naturally, without any force or art, which is counted the
purest and the sweetest honey. There is no profit nor pleasure to that
which the purity of the word yields to a holy heart. But now unholy
hearts they are affected with the word as it is dressed up with fine
high notions, which are but mysterious nothings : they are taken with
the word, as it is clothed with arts, parts, and elegancy of phrase ; they
are pleased with the word, as it is appareUed with a spruce wit, or
with silken expressions, or with some delicate elocution. Augustine
confesseth that the delight which he took before his conversion in St
Ambrose's sermons, was more for the eloquence of the words than the
substance of the matter •,^ so many are taken more with the wit, elocu-
tion, action, high notions, and far-fetched expressions that be in a
sermon, than they are taken with the spirituality, divinity, weight,
and holy worth that is in a sermon ; these are like those children who
are more taken with the fine flowers that are strewed about the dish,
than they are with the meat that is in the dish ; and that are more
taken with the red weeds and blue-bottles that grow in the field, than
they are with the good corn that grows there.* But now, as the prudent
farmer is taken more with a few handfuls of sound corn, than he is
with all the gay weeds that be in the field ; so a holy heart is more
taken with a few sound truths in a sermon, than he is taken with all

' Sacrse ScriptursD tuse sunt sanctse deliciae mese. — Augiistine.

" These several titles — law, statutes, testimonj', commandments, judgments — are used
promiscuously for the whole word of God, commonly distinguished into law and gospel.

'' Cf. Sibbes, s. n. : and Confessions.— G.

* In great fairs and markets, the pedlar and the ballad-singer who sell toys and trifles,
have most children and fools hanging upon them ; but they that are wise and prudent
attend those shops where there is best and richest commodities. You know how to
apply it.

134 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the strong lines, and high strains, and flourishes of wit with which a
sermon may be decked up. Some are taken with the word, as the
profession of it brings in customers into their shops, and keeps up their
credits in the world. Others are taken with the word, as it seems to
tickle their ears and please their fancies. Some are affected with
sermons because of the elegancy of the style, delicacy of the words,
smoothness of the language, and gracefulness of the delivery. And
these deal by sermons as many men do by their nosegays, that are
made up of many picked sweet flowers, who, after they have smelt to
them a while, cast them into a corner. So these, after they have com-
mended a sermon, after they have applauded a sermon, they cast away
the sermon : they smell to the sermon, and say it is sweet, it is sweet,
and presently they throw it by, as a nosegay that is withered, and of
no further use. When a man that is sick, crazy, and unsound, is at a
table that is furnished with variety of dishes, you know he easily and
readily passes over all the most wliolesome and nourishing dishes, and
falls a-piddlingi and picking here and there upon kickshaws 2 and puff-
paste, that have little or no substance in them. So unsound, unholy
hearts, when God hath prepared his table, and made a feast of fat
things for their souls in the ministry of his word, they can easily and
readily pass over those sound, solid, and savoury truths that are pre-
pared for their strength and nourishment, and fall a-piddling and
picking upon some new-coined phrases, or some quaint expressions,
or some seraphical notions : and no wonder, for they are not sound
within, they are under a great distemper: as the Israelites would not
be satisfied with wholesome diet, but they must needs have quails as
picking meat; well, they had them, and whilst they were at their
picking meat, the wrath of God came upon them. The application
is as easy as it is dreadful. But now a holy heart savours the word,
and relishes the word, and is affected and taken with the word, as it
is a holy word, a substantial word, a pure word, a clean word,
and as it begets holiness, and cherishes holiness, and increases holi-
ness, and as it works towards the completing and perfecting of
holiness.

Quest. But how may a person know whether he loves the word, and
is affected and taken with the word, as it is a holy word, or no ?

Ans. [1.] First, By what hath been already said. But because the
question is weighty, I further answer

[2.] In the second place, He that loves the word, and that is affected and
taken with the word as it is a holy word, he loves the whole word of
God, and he is affected and taken with one part of the word as well as
another. Every law of God is a holy law, and every statute is a holy
statute, and every command is a holy command, and every promise is a
holy promise, and every threatening is a holy threatening, and every
exhortation is a holy exhortation; and, therefore, he that loves any part
of the word as a holy word, he cannot but love every part of the word,
because every part of the word is holy.3 And indeed he loves no part

» ' To eat daintily.'— G.

' 'A made dish in cookery:' another Shakesperian word, 2 Henry IV., v. 1, and
Twelfth Night, i. 3.— G. > j , >

* As the wise philosopher delights in all Aristotle, and the prudent physician in all
Galen, and the grave orator in all Tully, and the understanding lawyer in all Justinian ;

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 135

of the word as holy who loves not every part of the word as such. Every
chapter in the book of God is a holy chapter, and every verse is a holy
verse, and every line in that book is a holy line, and every word in every
line is a holy word. He that loves a chapter as it is a holy chapter,
he loves every verse in that chapter as a holy verse ; and he that loves
every verse as a holy verse, he loves every Hne as a holy line ; and he
that loves every line as a holy line, he loves every word in every line
as a holy word. Upon easy commands he reads holiness, and upon
difficult commands he reads hohness ; upon comfortable commands he
reads holiness, and upon costly commands he reads holiness, and upon
dangerous commands he reads holiness, and therefore he loves all, and
closes with all, and endeavours a conformity to all. A holy heart
dares neither to dispute with that word, nor make light of that word,
where he reads holiness engraven upon it. To a holy heart there is no
command of God unjust or unreasonable. But now an unholy heart,
though it may for some worldly advantages court and cry up some
parts of the word, yet it is ready, with Judas, to betray and crucify
other parts of the word. The whole Scripture is but one entire love-
letter, despatched from the Lord Clirist to his beloved spouse on earth ;
and this letter is written all in golden letters, and therefore a holy
heart cannot but be taken and affected with every line in this letter.
In this love-letter there is so much to be read of the love of Christ,
the heart of Christ, the kindness of Christ, the grace of Christ, and
the glory of Christ, that a holy heart cannot but be affected and taken
with it. The whole word of God is a field, and Christ is the treasure
that is hid in that field ; it is a ring of gold, and Christ is the pearl
in that ring, and therefore a holy heart cannot but be taken with the
whole word of God. Luther was wont to say that he would not take
all the world for one leaf of the Bible. And Kabbi Chija, in the Jeru-
salem Talmud, says that in his account all the world is not of equal
value with one word out of the law.

[3.] Thirdly, A man that is affected and taken with the word as
it is a holy word, he is always affected and taken with it ; he loves it
and takes pleasure in it, as well in adversity as in prosperity : Ps.
cxix. 59, ' Thy statutes have been my songs' — ay, but where? — 'in
the house of my pilgrimage,' or ' pilgrimages,' as the Hebrew hath it.i
When David was in his banishments, by reason of Saul, Absalom, and
others, now the word of God was music to him, now it was matter of
joy and rejoicing to him ; his whole life was the life of a pilgrim and
stranger ; now as a pilgrim he sojourns here, and anon as a stranger
he sojourns there. No man could take more pleasure, joy, and con-
tentment in the rarest and choicest music than David did in the
word of God, and that not only when he was in his royal palace, but
also when he was in the house of his pilgrimage. He that loves the
word, and that delights in the word for its holiness and purity, he will
love it and delight in it in health and sickness, in strength and weakness,
in honour and disgrace, in wealth and want, in life and in death. The

so a holy man delights in all the Bible. The Jewish Eabbins were wont to say that
upon every letter of the law there hangs mountains of profitable matter.

^ The saints have commonly looked upon themselves as pilgrima and strangers in this
world, Gen. xlvii. 9, 39 ; Ps. lii. 19 ; Heb. li. 9, 10, &c

136 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

holiness of the word is a lasting holiness, and so will every man's affec-
tions be towards it who affects it, and is taken with it for its holiness and
pureness. Some there be that cry up the word, and that seem to be much
affected, delighted, and ravished with the word, — as Herod, Ezekiel's
hearers, and the stony ground was,Ezek. xxxiii. 30-33, and Mark iv. and
vi.,&c,, — whilst the word is either a cheap word to them, or a profit-
able and pleasing word to them, or whilst it is courted and countenanced
in the world, or whilst it is the path to preferment, or a key to enlarge-
ment, &c. But when the word gets within them, and discovers their own
sinfulness and wretchedness to them, when it shews them how Christ-
less, and graceless, and lifeless,, and helpless, and hopeless they are; when
it discovers how far they are from heaven, and how near they are to
hell, Jer, xliv. 15, 29 ; oh, then their hearts begin to rise against it,
and to cry out. Away with it ; it was never good days since we have
had so much preaching and hearing: or when the word comes to
be scorned, slighted, disgraced, opposed, or persecuted, oh, then they
turn their backs upon it, and quickly grow weary of it. As the
lassians i in Strabo delighted themselves with the music of an ex-
cellent harper till they heard the market-bell ring, and then they
run all away save a deaf old man, that could take but little delight in
the harper s ditties ; so let these men but hear the bell of lust, or the
bell of profit, or the bell of pleasure,, or the bell of applause, or the bell
of honour, or the bell of error, or the bell of superstition sound in
their ears, and presently they will run from the sweet music of the
word, to follow after any of these bells. But now a man that loves
the word, and that is affected and taken with the word as it is a holy
word, no bell can ring him from the word, no disgrace, no affliction,
no opposition, no persecution, can take him off from affecting the word,
and from taking pleasure in the word. The cause of his love is abid-
ing and lasting, and therefore his love cannot but be lasting and con-
tinuing. Not but that a holy heart may sometimes be more affected
and taken with the word than at other times : as first, when a man
enjoys much communion with God in the word ; or second, when God
speaks much peace and comfort to the soul by the word ; or third,
when God assures a man more clearly and fully of the goodness and
happiness of his condition by the word ; or fourth, when God lets in
very much quietness, or quickness, or sweetness, or seriousness, or
spiritualness into a man's spirit by the word. Oh, then a man may
more than ordinarily be affected and taken with the word. But now,
though a holy Christian is not at all times in the same degree and
measure taken with the word, yet take such a Christian when he is
at worst, and you shall find two things in him : (1.) you shaU find
in him a holy love to the word ; and (2.) you shall find in him a real
love to holy Christians.

[4.] Fourthly, He that loves the word, and that is affected and
taken with the word as it is a holy word, he is most affected and taken
with those parts of the word that do most incite to holiness, that
do most promote hoHness, and that do most provoke to holiness.
As 1 Pet. i. 15, 16, * But as he which hath called you is holy, so be
ye holy in all manner of conversation ; because it is written, Be ye

^ Strabo, lib. xiv.^

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. " 137

holy, for I am holy.' [I shall give you light into these words when I
come to open the holiness of God to you.] So Mat. v. 48, ' Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' i
Our summum bonum in this world consists in our conformity to the
heavenly pattern. In all imitations it is best to choose the most per-
fect pattern. There is nothing more laudable and commendable than
for a Christian to endeavour more and more to resemble his God in
the highest perfections of righteousness and holiness. So Eph. v. 15,
16, ' See then that ye walk circumspectly, [a/cpt/Seo?,] not as fools,
but as wise ; redeeming the time, because the days are evil.' Chris-
tians must walk precisely, curiously, exactly, accurately. As the
carpenter works by line and rule, so a Christian must walk by line and
rule ; he must labour to get up to the very top of godliness ; he must
go to the utmost of every command, as the original word importeth.
So Phil. ii. 15, ' That ye may be blameless and harmless,' or sincere,
' the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and per-
verse nation, among whom ye shine,' or shine ye, ' as lights in the world.'
God's sons should be spotless sons,^ as the Greek imports, that is, they
should be without aU such spots as are inconsistent with sonship or
saintship. And so in Col. ii. 6, ' As ye have therefore received Jesus
Christ the Lord, so walk ye in him.' They had received Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Law-girer, they had received Christ as a ruling
Christ, as a reigning Christ, and as a commanding Christ ; and now
the great duty incumbent upon them is to walk at such a rate of
holiness as may evidence that they have thus received Christ. And
so in 1 John ii. 6, ' He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself
also to walk even as he walked.' Christians are to set all Christ's
moral actions before them as a pattern for their imitation, John xiii.
15. In His life a Christian may behold the lively picture or linea-
ments of all virtues, and accordingly he ought to order his conversa-
tion in this world. To walk as Christ walked is to walk humbly,
holily, justly, righteously, meekly, lowly, lovingly, fruitfully, faithfully,
uprightly, with an 'as' of quality or similitude, but not with an
' as ' of equality ; for that is impossible for any saint on earth — to walk
so purely, so holily, so blamelessly, so unspottedly, so spiritually, so
heavenly as Christ walked ; that is, with an ' as ' of equality. To
walk as Christ walked is to slight the world, and contemn the world,
and make a footstool of the world, and to live above the world, and
to triumph over the world as Christ did ; that is, with an ' as '
of quality, but not with an 'as' of equality. To walk as Christ
walked is to love them that hate us, to pray for them that persecute
us, to bless them that curse us, and to do good to them that do evil
to us ; but still with an ' as ' of similitude, but not with an * as ' of
equality, Mat, v. 44-47. To walk as Christ walked is to be patient,
and silent, and submissive, and thankful, under the vilest reproaches,
the heaviest affictions, and the greatest sufferings, 1 Pet, ii. 20-23 ;
with an ' as ' of quality, but not with an ' as ' of equality. Now a
holy heart that is taken with the holiness of the word, he is certainly
taken most with those parts of the word that do most call for holi-

^ Ad similitudinem, non sequalitatem. — Calvin.
' AfienvToi, i.e., Sine querela, Bine reprehensione.

138 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

ness, and that do most strongly press the soul to make a progress in
holiness. I have given you a taste of some of the most principal
scriptures that do incite most to holiness, and I shall leave it to your
own consciences to give in witness for you or against you, according
to what you find in your own spirits. Certainly to a holy man there
are no prayers, no sermons, no discourses, no conferences, no books,
nor no parts of scripture, to those that do most encourage and provoke
to holiness. But,

[5.] Fiftlily and lastly, He that loves the word, and that is affected
and taken with the word as it is a holy word, he highly prizes and
values the holy dispensers of the word for their work's sake. Acts x.
24-26 ; Gal. iv. 14. Isa. Hi. 7, ' How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace ;
that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation ; that
saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!' If the very feet of those that
brought good tidings, though they were afar off, and sweaty, dusty,
and dirty with traveUing upon the mountains, were so desirable
and amiable, honourable and comfortable, oh then what was their
faces, what was their messages ! Surely they were much more ami-
able and desirable. So in 1 Thes. v. 12, 13, ' And we beseech you,
brethren, to know them which labour among you in the Lord, and
admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly' (or, more than
abundantly, as the Greek hath it^) ' in love for their work's sake; and
be at peace among yourselves.' Their work is to bring Christ and
your souls together, and to keep Christ and your souls together.
Their work is to turn you from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan to Jesus Christ. 2 Their work is gradual : first, they are to
bring you to a saving acquaintance with Christ ; and then they are to
bring you to a holy acceptance of Christ ; and then they are to bring
you to a willing resignation of yourselves to Christ ; and then they
are to bring you to a sweet and blessed assurance of your interest in
Christ, and so to fit you and prepare you for a glorious fruition of
Christ ; and therefore certainly their work is high and honourable,
excellent and eminent, laborious and glorious ; and why, then, should
you not have a high and honourable esteem of them, even for their
work's sake ? I have read of Ambrose, that being once to leave the
church of Milan, the people of the place flocked about him, laid hold
of him, protesting that they had rather lose their lives than lose their
pastor, beseeching him to remain, and to promote among them the
gospel and government of Christ, professing and promising, for his
encouragement, their ready submission to Christ. Chrysostom's hearers
were wont to say, that they had as good be without the sun in the
fij-mament, as to be without Chrysostom in the pulpit. Some of the
ancients have long since concluded that Herod might have kept his
oath, Mark vi. 23, and yet have spared John Baptist's head, because
John's head, John's life, was more worth than all Herod's kingdom.
O sirs, shall Titus Sabinus his dog bring meat to the mouth of his

^ virepeKirepiffcrou.

' ActB xxvi. 16-18. If a minister had as many eyes as Argus to watch, as many heads
as Typheus to dispose, and as many hands as Briareus to labour, he might find employ-
ment enough for thpm all in the faithful diacharge of his ministerial function. [Of.
vol. i., p. 3, footnote 1. — G.]

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 139

dead master, and hold up his head in Tiber from sinking, because
sometimes he gave him a crust of bread ; and will not you highly
love, honour, and esteem of those pastors who feed your souls with
the bread of life, yea, with that bread that came down from heaven ?
Certainly the more any man is affected and taken with the holiness
of the word, the more highly they will honour and prize the holy and
faithful dispensers of the word. Holy men know that their place is
honourable, their calling honourable, and their work honourable ; and
therefore they cannot but honour them. Holy men know that if they
do not honour them, they dishonour him whose ambassadors they are.
Holy men know that Christ takes all the affronts that are put upon
them as put upon himself, and will accordingly revenge them, as you
may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.^ Am-
bassadors are inviolable by the law of nations. David never played
any such harsh part as he did to the Ammonites, that despitefuUy
used his ambassadors that he sent unto them, when they shaved off
one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, &c.

1 have read that Rome was destroyed to the ground for some abuses
that were offered to an ambassador that was sent unto it. And the
Romans sacked the famous city of Corinth, and razed it to the ground,
for a little discourtesy that they offered to their ambassadors.^ No
wonder then if God deal so severely with those that slight his ambas-
sadors, who come with messages of grace and favour from the King
of kings and Lord of lords, and whose great work is to make a firm,
an everlasting peace between Grod and sinners' souls, and that all dif-
ferences between God and them may be for ever decided, and a free
trade to heaven fully opened and maintained. As for such as slight,
scorn, and despise the holy and faithful dispensers of the word, I think
they are as far from real holiness as hell is from true happiness. And
so, doubtless, are they that grumble at the expense of a penny for the
maintenance of that divine candle that wasteth itself to give light to
them, that will rather die to save charges than spend a little money
to save their lives, yea, their souls, 2 Cor. xii. 14-16.

14. In ihe fourteenth place, A man that is really holy will be holy
among the unholy. He will retain and keep his holiness, let the times
be never so unholy. Principles of grace and holiness are lasting ; they
are not like the morning cloud nor the early dew, Ps. cxix. 112, and
cvi. 3 ; 1 John iii. 9, 10. Holy Abraham was righteous in Chaldea ;
holy Lot was just in Sodom ; holy Job was upright in the land of Uz,
which was a place of much profaneness and superstition ; holy Nehe-
miah was courageous and zealous in Damascus; and so was holy
Daniel in Babylon. The several generations wherein these holy men
lived were wholly devoted to wickedness and superstition, and yet
these precious souls had wholly devoted themselves to godliness. ^ And
of the same spirit, mind, and metal was holy David: Ps. cxix. 20,
' My soul breaketh for the longing it hath to thy judgments at all
times.' Let the times be never so dangerous, licentious, superstitious,
or erroneous, 'yet David's heart was strongly carried forth to God's judg-

^ Luke X. 16 ; Mat. ixii. 4, 8, xxi. 33, 44, and xxiii. 37-39; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 14, 22 ;

2 Sam. X. 1, 7, compared vith xii. 31.
* Aa before. — G.

140 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14,

ments— that is, to his word ; for under this title, 'judgments,' you are
to understand the whole word of God. And so there were some in Sar-
dis that were of the same spirit with the worthies above mentioned :
Eev. iii. 4, ' Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not
defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they
are worthy.' In polluting times pure hearts will keep themselves
pure. A holy heart will keep himself undeiiled, even in defiling
times ; when others are besmeared all over, he will keep his gar-
ments white and clean. Let the times never so often turn, you shall
find that he that is really holy will be holy under every turn. No
turns shall turn him out of a way of holiness : Job xvii. 9, ' The right-
eous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be
stronger and stronger.' Finis coronal opus. A man that is really
holy will be holy among the holy, and he will be holy among the
unholy. If you look upon him among unholy friends, unholy chil-
dren, and unholy servants, you shall find him holy ; if you look upon
him among unholy neighliours, you shall find him holy ; and if you
look upon him among unholy buyers and sellers, you shall find him
holy ; if you take him at his table, you shall find him holy ; if you
take him in his shop, in his commerce, you shall find him holy ; if
you take him in his family, you shall find him holy ; if you take him
in his closet, you shall find him holy ; if you take him in his jour-
neyings, you shah, find him holy ; or if you take him in his recrea-
tions, you shall find him holy. True holiness is like that famous
Queen Elizabeth, Semper eadem, always the same. The philosopher's
good man is (jerpajovos) four square. Cast him where you will, like
a die, he falls always sure and square. So cast a holy man where you
will, and into what company you will, yet still he falls sure and square
for holiness. True holiness is a part of the divine nature ; it is of such
a heavenly complexion, that it will never alter. If the times should
be so sad and bad that holy persons should not be able to hold fast
their estates, their liberties, their trades, their lives, their religion, yet
they will stiU hold fast their holiness. A holy Christian is like gold.
Now cast gold into the fire, or into the water ; cast it upon the
dunghill, or into the pleasant garden ; cast it among the poor or
among the rich, among the religious or among the licentious ; yet still
it is gold, still it retains its purity and excellency : so cast a holy
Christian, a golden Christian, into what condition you will, and into
what company you will, yet still he will retain his purity, his sanctity ;
yea, the worse the times are, the more a holy man studies holiness, and
prefers holiness, and prizes holiness, and practises holiness, that he may
keep up the credit of holiness, and the credit of a holy God, and the credit
of his holy profession in the world. But now such as have only a show
of holiness, an appearance of holiness, these will be religious among
the religious, and vicious among the vicious, Isa. ix. 17. They will
be righteous among the righteous, and licentious among the licen-
tious ; they will be as the company is amongst which they are cast.
With the good they will be good, and with the bad they will be bad ;
with the zealous they will be zealous, and with the superstitious they
will be superstitious ; and with the lukewarm they will be lukewarm,
&c. They are for all times and tides ; they are for any turn that will

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 141

serve their turn ; for any mode that will bring pleasure or profit to
them ; they are like Alcibiades, of whom it was said that he was omnium
horanim homo, a man for all times ; for he could swagger it at Athens,
and take any pains at Thebes ; he could live most sparingly at Laci-
dsemon, and bibi among the Thracians, and hunt among the Persians.
So these men can accommodate themselves to the times, and comply
with them, whatever they be. With Proteus they will transform
themselves into all shapes ; as the times change, so will they ; what
the times favour, that they will favour ; what the times commend,
that they will commend ; and what the times cry up and admire, that
they will cry up and admire ; and what the times frown upon and
condemn, that they will frown upon and condemn. Look, as curious
and well-drawn pictures seem to turn their eyes every way, and to
smile upon every one that looks upon them : so these can turn with
the times ; they can look as the times look, and smile as the times
smile ; they can say with the times, and sail with the times. Some-
times they can act one part, and sometimes another part, as the times
require. If the times require a large profession, they can make it ;
if the times require a rigid spirit against such as cannot comply with
the times, they can act it ; if the times bespeak them to leave their
religion at the church door, they can leave it, &c. If the times caU
upon them to worship God according to the prescriptions of men, they
can do it. Oh , but give me a man that is really holy, and he will be
holy though the times should be never so unholy ; yea, the more licen-
tious the times are, the more gracious he will labour to be.

15. In the fifteenth place, He that is really holy propounds ordi-
narily to himself holy aims and ends in his actings and undertakings.
The glory of God is the mark, the white that holy men have in their
eyes: Kom. xiv. 7, 8, They live not to themselves, but they live to him
who lives for ever ; they live not to their own wills, lusts, greatness,
and glory in this world, but they live to his glory, whose glory is
dearer to them than their very lives. ^ They make divine gloiy their
ultimate end : 2 Cor. iv. 5, ' We preach not ourselves, but Christ
Jesus the Lord ; ' that is, in our preaching we woo not for ourselves
but for Christ.3 We are no kin to those who speak two words for
themselves, and hardly one for Christ. In all our preaching we eye
the glory of Christ, we design the honour and exaltation of Christ.
Keal holiness is commonly attended with a single eye, as counterfeit
holiness is commonly attended with a squint eye ; squint-eyed aims,
and squint-eyed ends, do usually wait upon double hearts. Take a
holy man in the exercise of his gifts and graces for the good of men's
souls, or take him in the exercise of charity for the good of men's
bodies, and in both you shall find his eye fixed upon the glory of God:
suitable to that, 1 Pet. iv. 11, 'If any man speak, let him speak as the
oracles of God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability
which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through
Jesus Christ ; to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.

' ' Live riotously.' — G.

2 John vii. 18 ; Gen. xli. 16; Dan. ii. 23; Titus ii. 10, 38; 1 Cor. x ; Kev. xii. 11.

3 Quod non actibus sed Jinibus pensantur officia : That duties are esteemed not by
their acts but by their ends, is most certain.

142 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Amen.' Look, as bright shining golden vessels do not retain the
beams of the sun which they receive, but reflect them back again upon
the sun ; so those that are really holy, they do return and reflect back
again upon the Sun of righteousness the praise and glory of all the
gifts, graces, and virtues that they have received from him, Kom. xiii.
7. The daily language of their souls is, Non nobis Domine, non nobis
Domine, ' Not unto us, Lord, not unto us. Lord, but to thy name be
all the glory.' Holy men make conscience of giving men their dues ;
how much more then do they make conscience of giving God his due ?
1 Chron. xxix. 10, 18. Now glory is God's due, and God stands upon
nothing more than that we give him the glory due unto his name, as you
may see in Ps. xxix. 1,2; so in Ps. xcvi. 7, 8. There are three ' gives'
in those two verses, ' Give unto the Lord,' ' give unto the Lord,' ' give
unto the Lord the glory that is due unto his name ;' glory is God's
right, and he stands upon his right ; and this holy men know, and
therefore they give him his right ; they give him the honour and the
glory that is due unto his name. Holy hearts do habitually eye the
glory of Christ in all things. When they eat, they eat to his glory ;
and when they drink, they drink to his glory, 1 Cor. x. 31 ; and when
they sleep, they sleep to his glory ; when they buy, they buy for his
glory ; and when they sell, they sell for his glory ; and when they
give, they give for his glory ; and when they recreate themselves, they
recreate themselves for his glory : so when they hear, they hear for
his glory ; and when they pray, they pray for his glory ; and when
they fast, they fast for his glory ; and when they read, they read for
his glory ; and when they come to the Lord's table, they come to his
glory. In all natural, moral, and religious actions, holy hearts have
an habitual eye to divine glory. i Do not mistake me; I do not say that
such as are really holy do actually eye the glory of Christ in all their
actions : oh no, this is a happiness desirable on earth, but shall never
be attained till we come to heaven. By and base ends and aims will
too often creep into the holiest hearts, but holy hearts sigh and groan
under them ; they complain to God of them, and they cry for justice,
justice upon them : and it is the strong and earnest desires of their
souls to be rid of them. But take a holy Christian in his ordinary,
usual, and habitual course, and so he hath holy aims and ends in all
his actions and undertakings. But now such whose holiness is coun-
terfeit, they never look at divine glory in what they do ; sometimes
their eye is upon their credit, and sometimes their eyes are upon ap-
plause ; sometimes they have pleasure in their eyes, and sometimes
they have profit in their eyes, and sometimes they have preferments in
their eyes, &c. , Mat. vi. 5 ; John vi. 26 ; Zech. vii. 5-7. They will be
very godly when they can make a gain of godliness ; they will be very
holy when holiness is the way to outward happiness ; but this religious
wickedness will double damn them at last. This is most certain, that
some carnal or worldly consideration or other, always acts him who
hath not real principles of holiness in him ; but he that is really holy
makes the glory of God his centre. Propter te Domine, propter te, was
once, and is still a holy man's motto.

Quest. But how may a person know when he makes the glory
^ Quicquid agas, propter Deum agon, waa an Eastern apophthegm, saith Drusius.

HeB. Xll. 14.] AND BEAUTY OE HOLINESS. 143

of God his aim, Ms end, in this or that service which he performs ?
I shall answer this question briefly thus : —

Am. [1.] First, Such a man as makes the glory of God his aim, his
end, he luill do duty when all outward encouragements to duty fail.
When the eye of men, the favour of men, the respects of men, and all
other encouragements from men fails, yet then a holy man will hold
up, and hold on in his work and way ; yea, when all outward encour-
agements from God shall fail, yet such a person will keep close to his
duty: Hab. iii. 17, 18, ' Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, nei-
ther shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour of the olives shall fail, and
the fields shall yield no meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold,
and there shall be no herds in t^e stalls : yet 1 will rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of mpsalvation.' When all necessary and
delightful mercies fail, yet he will not fail in his duty. Though God
withholds his blessings, yet he will not withhold his service : in the
want of a livelihood he will be lively in his duty ; when he hath no-
thing to subsist by, yet then he will live upon his God.i Though war
and want come, yet he will not be wanting in his duty. There are
three things in a holy heart that strongly incline it to duty when all
outward encouragements fail. The first is a forcible principle, divine
love, 2 Cor. v. 14 ; the second is a mighty aid, the Spirit of God, Phil,
iv. 12, 13 ; the third is a high aim, the glory of God. But now it is
otherwise with those that have only a show of godliness. Let but their
outward encouragements fail them ; let but the eye, the ear, the ap-
plause of the creature fail them ; if they cannot make some gain of
their godliness, some profit of their profession, some advantage of their
religion, they are ready, with Demas, to throw up and throw off all.
Profit and applause are usually the baits that these men bite at ;2 and
if they miss these baits, then farewell profession, farewell religion,
farewell all. But now look, as Ruth kept close to her mother in the
want of all outward encouragements, Ruth i. ; so souls that eye the
glory of God in duties, they will keep close to duties when all outward
encouragements fail. Though outward encouragements be sometimes
as a side-wind, or as oil, or as chariot wheels, means to move a Chris-
tian to go on more sweetly, easily, and comfortably in the ways of
God, yet when this wind shall fail, and these chariot wheels shall be
knocked off, a real Christian wiU hold on his way, Job. xvii. 9.

[2.] Secondly, When a man aims at the glory of God in what he
doth, then he labours to hide and conceal all his human excellencies,
that may any ways tend to obscure, eclipse, or darken the glory of God :
1 Cor. ii. 3-5, ' And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in
much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit,
and of power : that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God.' Holy Paul handled holy things in
such a manner, as much of God, and little or nothing of man could be

1 Antimachus the famous poet held on in his exercise, when all his hearers had left
him but Plato ; saying, Plato est viihi pro omnibus, Plato is to me instead of all. So a
holy minister, when he is deserted by some, and cast off by others, yet he will hold on in
his work. [Told also of Antagoras the Rhodian : see Welcker, Der Epische Cyclus, p.
105.— G.]

* H(Bc omnia tibi dabo, was the devil's great argument to prevail with Christ.

144 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

perceived. In religions exercises, Panl seems to say to human eloquence
and fleshly wisdom, to affected rhetoric and flattering oratory, Stand
afar off, come not near ; I have now to do with God, and to do with
souls, and to do with eternity, and therefore what have I to do with
you ? Paul had an eye to divine glory in what he did, and therefore
he durst not tip liis tongue and store his head with airy notions, or
with ' the enticing words of man's wisdom.' Of all the apostles, Paul
was most eminent and excellent in all human arts, parts, and gifts,
and yet in religious exercises he lays them all by: 1 Cor. xiv. 18, 19, 'I
thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all. Yet in the
church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that
by my voice I might teach others also , than ten thousand words in an
unknown tongue.' The church o^H^th excelled all other churches
in gifts, I do not say in grace, an^H^y among them prided them-
selves up in the exercise of their gifts and tongues in their church
assemblies, that so they might win the more credit and repute to them-
selves, of being men of great learning, reading, and parts ; but the holy
apostle by his own example labours to win them to decline all vain
ostentation, and to work them to express themselves so as might be
most for the information, conviction, edification, and salvation of their
hearers' souls. Holy Paul had much learning, and yet in religious
exercises he used little. The Corinthians had less, and yet made such
shows and flourishes of it, even in their religious duties, as if in their
breasts all the libraries in the world had been locked up. This puts
me in mind of what once I have read concerning a Rabbi, that had
but little learning, and less modesty and ingenuity ; for he usurping
all the discourse at table where many were, one much admiring of
him asked one of his friends in private. Whether he did not take such
a man for a great scholar ? to whom he answered, For aught I know
he may be learned ; but I never heard learning make such a noise.
The more learning, the less noise ; the less learning, the more noise
men will make. The sun shews least when it is at the highest ; and
those waters are most deep that run most silent : they usually are
men of the greatest parts that use them least in religious works, i
Famous Mr Dod was wont to say that so much Latin was so much
flesh in a sermon. The gilt upon the pill may please the eye, but it
profits not the patient ; the paint upon the glass may feed the fancy,
but the room is rather the darker than the lighter for it. Painted
glass in chm-ches is more glorious, but plain glass is most perspicuous.
When men come to church-work, to pulpit-work, all plainness must
be used. Starched oratory may tickle the brain, but it is plain doctrine
that informs the judgment, that convinces the conscience, that bows
the will, and that wins the heart. That sermon hath most learning
in it, that hath most plainness in it. And therefore a great scholar
was wont to say, ' Lord, give me learning enough that I may preach

^ At a festival time, when Bernard had preached very eloquently, and the people much
admired and applauded him, he was much sadded ; the next day he preached a plain
and powerful sermon without any rhetorical dresses, at which many curious, itching
eara were unsatisfied, but himself and his meaner-capacitated auditors were much pleased
and delighted ; and being asked the reason of it, he returned this answer, Heri Bernar-
dum, hodie Jesum Chriatum: Yesterday I preached Bernard, but to-day, Jesus Christ.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 145

plain enough.' 1 Silly, ignorant people are very apt to dote upon that
most, and admire that most, which they understand least ; but prudent
Christians judge of ministers not by their lungs, but by their brains ;
not by their throats, but by their hearts and lives ; not by their voices
and tones, but by the plainness, spiritualness, suitableness, and useful-
ness of their matter : like Demosthenes, who when he heard an orator
bellowing with a loud and roaring voice, said, Non quod magnum est
bene est, sed quod bene est magnum est, I mark rather the goodness
than loudness of an oration. 2 It is observable throughout the
Scriptures, that the profoundest prophets, and the greatest apostles,
yea, and Christ himself, did commonly accommodate themselves to
their hearers' capacities. 3 The^^pt in and kept under all those
human excellencies, the discodflP of which might anywise cloud
divine glory. Men that hav^J|pir eyes upon divine glory, do know
that the more any acquired parts, gifts, and excellencies do appear in
holy exercises, the more the name, honour, and glory of God is clouded,
and the more those that have most of the indwellings of God are dis-
satisfied and disadvantaged ; and therefore those that have real respect
to divine glory, they draw as it were a curtain between all their
human excellencies and religious exercises, 1 Cor. ix. 3. That none
may think this is my private opinion, let me add a few sayings of
theirs that have been eminent in acquired excellencies. Gregory
Nazianzen, a holy and a weighty writer, compares curiosity and novelty
of speech in the things of God unto lascivious dancing, and the arts
of jugglers, whereby they deceive the senses of those that look on ;* and
further saith that simple, proper, genuine language was in holy things
wont to be esteemed godliness. And it was a remarkable saying of
golden-mouthed Chrysostom, as some caU him, ' When I first began
to preach,' said he, ' I was a child, and delighted in rattles, in the
applause of the people ; but when I was a man, I began to despise
them.' New phrases and expressions do many times make way for
the introducing of new doctrines, as learned Parseus in his comment
on 1 Cor. i. 1 observes : ' For the most part,' saith he, ' those who in
points of divinity devise new terms and unusual expressions, do hide
under them some new and strange doctrines; they wrap up their
error in some intricate words and distinctions.^ When our words in
preaching differ from the style of the Holy Ghost, the people be in
danger of turning aside to vain jangling, saith Danaeus-^ Loquamur
verba scripturce, &c., said that incomparable man, Peter Kamus: Let
us speak the words of scripture, let us make use of the language of
the Holy Ghost, and for ever abominate those that profanely disdain
at the stately plainness of God's blessed book, and that think to correct
the divine wisdom and eloquence with their own infancy 7 and sophistry. 8
Non quanta eloquentia, sed qu/xnta evidentia, saith Augustine. Melius

^ Dr John Kainolds (?)— G. ^ Erasmus.

" Holy Moses covered his glistering face with a veil when he spake to the people.

* Eusebius tells us of some in his days, who to win upon the minds of men, did amaze
them with new words. — Euseb. Hist. 1. iv. c. 7.

* Geneva : mdccxlvi folio, with his other ' Commentarii.' — G.

* Lambertus Danseus. — G. ' ' Childishness.' — G.

8 The orators of Athens were then suspected, when they began to make excursions
with florid expressions.

VOL. IV, K

146 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

est ut nos reprehendant grammatici, quam ut non intelligant populi:
the same author on Ps, cxxxviii. Such as mind more, saith another,
the humouring of their hearers' fancies than the saving of their souls,
do little consider that of Seneca, ^ger non qucerit medicum eloquen-
iem, sed sanantem: Sick men are not bettered by physicians' sugared
words, but by their skilful hands. Dr Sibbes was wont to say, that
great affection and good affection seldom go together. Truth is like
Solomon's spouse, all glorious within ; she is most beautiful when
most naked, as Adam was in innocency. The king of Persia^ having
sent to Antalcidas, the Lacedemonian captain, a garland of roses
wonderfully perfumed with spices and other sophistications, he accepted
of his love, but misliked the present, and sent him word : Rosarum
odorem artis adulteraiioneperdidisti: Thou hast marred the sweetness
of the roses with the sweetness of thy perfumes. So many mar the
sweetness of the word, by perfuming it with their human eloquence
and oratory. For a close, remember that God himself, the great
master of speech, when he spake from heaven, he made use of three
several texts in a breath : Mat. xvii. 5, ' This is my beloved Son,'
Ps. ii. 7 ; 'In whom I am well pleased,' Isa. xlii. 1 ; ' Hear ye him,'
Deut. xviii. 15 ; which you may note against the curious queasiness^
of such nice ones as disdain at the stately plainness of the Scriptures.
But,

[3.] Thirdly, If thou dost really and actually aim at the glory
of God in what thou dost, then the glory of God will swallow up all
by-aims and ends that may thrust themselves in upon the soul whilst
it is at its work.^ Look, as Aaron's rod, Exod. vii. 10-12, swallowed
up the magicians' rods, so the glory of God will swallow up all
carnal aims and ends. Look, as the sun puts out the light of the fire,
80 the glory of God will put out and consume all other ends. This is
most certain, that which is a man's great end, that will work out all
other ends. If thou settest up the glory of God as thy chief end, that
will by degrees eat out all low and base ends. Look, as Pharaoh's lean
Mne, Gen. xli. 4, ate up the fat, so the glory of God will eat up all
those fat and worldly ends that crowd in upon the soul in religious
work. The keeping up of the glory of God as thy great end, will be
the keeping down and the casting out of all other ends.

[4.] Fourthly, He that really and actually aims at the glory of God
in what he doth, he will he doing what God commands, though nothing
for the present comes of it. If his eye be truly fixed upon divine glory,
a command of God shall be enough to carry him on in his work.*
Ps. xxvii. 8, * When thou saidst. Seek ye my face, my heart said unto
thee, Thy face. Lord, will I seek.' When the glory of God is a man's
mark, his heart will sweetly echo and graciously comply with divine
commands : Jer. iii. 22, ' Keturn, ye backsliding children, and I will
heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee ; for thou art the
Lord our God.' God's commands fall with great power and force
upon that man's heart, that hath divine glory in his eye. One word
from God will command such a soul to a gracious compliance with

^ Tirabazus.— G. » < Niceness,' ' squeamisliness.' — G.

' Christus opera nostra non tain actibus quam finibus pensat. — Zanchius.
* Rom. xvi. 19, Obedientia non discutit Dei mandata, sed facit. — Prosper.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 147

what God requires : Ps. cxix. 4,5,' Thou hast commanded us to keep
thy precepts diligently. Oh that my ways were directed to keep thy
statutes ! ' As soon as God lays a command upon a Christian, he
looks up to heaven for power to turn that precept into practice.! Oh
that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes ! Oh that I were as
holy as God would have me to be ! Oh that I were as humble and
lowly as God would have me to be ! Oh that I were as heavenly and
spiritual as God would have me to be ! Oh that I were as pure and
perfect as God would have me to be ! So ver. 48, * My hands will I
lift up to thy commandments, which I have loved.' Many there be
which thrust away with all their might thy commandments, but
I lift up my hands to thy commandments. Many there be that
will strain themselves to take a comfort, but I strain myself to lift
up thy commandments. 2 Many there are who will stretch out their
hands to take a reward, but I stretch out my hands to take hold on
thy commandments. To give a little more light into these words:
Sometimes the lifting up of hands betokens admiration ; when men
are astonished and ravished they lift up their hands : ' I will lift up
my hands to thy commandments,' that is, I will admire the goodness,
the holiness, the righteousness, the purity and excellency of thy com-
mandments. Again, we lift up our hands when we betake ourselves
to refuge : why ! God's commands are the saint's refuge. When they
house and shelter themselves under the wings of God's commands
they are safe. Again, men lift up their hands when they take hold
on a thing. Now gracious souls do take hold on God's commandments
to do them, to practise them, and to express the life and power of
them. Again, men hft up their hands to those things that are high
and above them. Now the commands of God are high, they are
sublime, they are above us. They are sublime and high in regard of
their original, they come down from God ; they are sublime and high
in regard of the matter of them, they are heavenly oracles, they are
dictates of divine wisdom ; they are sublime and high in regard of the
difficulty of keeping of them, they exceeding all human strength; and
they are sublime and high in regard of their situation, they are situ-
ated in heaven : * Thy word,' says David, * endures for ever in heaven.'
But yet as sublime and as high as they are, a man that hath his eye
upon divine glory will lift up his hands unto them ; he will do all he
can to express the pleasure that he takes in them, and the readiness
of his soul to a holy compliance with them. A man that hath his eye
upon divine glory, he will keep close to his work, to his hearing work,
to his praying work, to his mourning work, to his repenting work, to
his believing work, to his waiting work ; though nothing comes on it,
though he make no earnings of it, though comfort doth not come,
though joy and peace doth not come, though assurance doth not come,
though enlargements do not come, though answers and returns from
heaven do not come, though good days do not come, though deliverance
doth not come, yet such will keep close to their work that have their

' Tola vita honi Chriatiani sanctum desiderium eat : The whole life of a good Chris-
tian is a holy wish. — Augustine. mi. u- e

^ Prior est autoritas imperantis quam utilitas servientis : The chief reason of obe-
dience is the authority of the lord, not the utility of the servant.— Ttr^ttZKon.

14^ THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RA.RITY, [HeB. XII. 14

eye upon divine glory. But now such who eye not the glory of God
in what they do, they quickly grow weary of their work ; if they can
make no earnings of their seekings and fastings and prayings they
are presently ready to throw up all, and to quarrel with God himselt,
as if God had done them an injury, Isa. Iviii. 1-4.1

[5.] Fifthly and lastly, A man that really aims at the glory of God
in this or that duty, he cannot he satisfied nor contented with Hie per-
formance of duties, without some enjoyments of God in duties. With-
out some converse and communion with God in duties, his soul cannot
be satisfied ; his soul thirsts and longs to see the beauty and the glory
of the Lord in his sanctuary, Ps. Ixiii. 1-3 ; and without this sight he
cannot be quieted. Here is the ordinance, but where is the God of
the ordinance? Here is prayer, but where is the God of prayer?
Here is the duty, but where is the God of duty ? Here is enlarge-
ments, but where is the God of enlargements ? Here are meltings
and breakings of spirit, but where is the God of these meltings and
breakings ? Ps. Ixxxiv. 2, ' My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the
courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living
God.' The courts of the Lord, without spiritual converses with the
living God, could not satisfy his soul : Oh, saith he, here be the courts
of the Lord, the courts of the Lord, but where is the living God ?
where is the living God ? where is that God that makes men to live,
and that makes ordinances to be living and lively ordinances to his
children's souls ? Oh, the courts of the Lord are very desirable, but
the living God is much more desirable ! The courts of the Lord are
precious and glorious, but the living God is infinitely more precious
and glorious ! Here is the mantle of Ehjah, but where is the God of
Elijah? 2 Kings ii. 12-14. Here are the courts of the Lord, but
where is the Lord of these courts ? It was the speech of holy Mr
Bradford,2 ' that he could not leave a duty till he had found com-
munion with Christ in the duty ; he could not give off a duty till his
heart was brought into a duty frame ; he could not leave confession till
he had found his heart humbled and melted under the sense of his sin ;
he could not give over petitioning till he had found his heart taken with
the beauties of the things desired, and strongly carried out after the
enjoyment of them. Neither could he leave thanksgiving till he had
found his spirit enlarged, and his soul quickened in the return of
praises.' And so it was with holy Bernard, who was wont to say, ' O
Lord, I never come to thee but by thee ; I never go from thee without
thee.' 3 A man that hath his eye upon the glory of Christ, he cannot
put off his soul with anything below communion with Christ, in those
religious services and duties that he offers up to Christ. Though the
breasts of duty are sweet, yet those breasts will not satisfy the soul,
except Christ lies betwixt them. Cant. i. 13. But now men that have
base, poor, low, and by-ends in what they do, they can come off easily
from their duties ; though they find no spirit, no life, no warmth in
duty, yet they can come off with content from duty. Though they

^ Compare these scriptures together : Ps. xliv. 12, 20; Cant. iii. 1-3 ; Isa. xxvi. 8, 9,
and lix. 8-11 ; Hab. ii. 1-3 ; Micah vii. 7-9 ; Lam. iii. 8, 44, compared with ver. 24-26,
31, 32, 40, 41, 55.

* Mr Foxe, Acts and Mon. [5«6 nomine. — G.]

^ Nunquam abs te absque te recede. — Bern. Meditat.

HeB. XII. 14,] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 149

have no communion, no converse at all with God in duty, though they
have no pledges of grace, no pawns of mercy, no tastes of love, no
relishes of heaven in a duty, yet they can come off from the duty with
content and satisfaction of spirit ; let but others applaud him, and his
own heart hug him, and he hath enough.

16. In the sixteenth and last place, A man that is really holy
speaks a holif language.^ A holy heart and a holy tongue are insepar-
able companions ; if there be grace in the heart, there will be grace in
the lips ; if the heart be pure, the language will be pure. Christ says
his spouse's lips are like a thread of scarlet ; they are red with talking
of nothing but a crucified Christ ; and they are thin like a thread, not
swelled with other vain discourses. And ver. 11, he tells you that
' the lips of his spouse drop as the honeycombs,' or drop honeycombs ;
and that ' honey and milk are under her tongue.' You know that
Canaan was a land that flowed with milk and honey. Why ? the lan-
guage of the spouse was the language of Canaan ; her lips were still
dropping such holy, spiritual, and heavenly matter, as was as sweet,
pleasant, profitable, desirable, and delectable to men's souls, as ever
honey and milk was to men's palates or appetites ; and as many were
fed and nourished by milk and honey, so many were fed and nourished
by the holy droppings of her lips : Ps. xxxvii. 30, * The mouth of the
righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.' If
the heart be holy, the tongue will be a-talking wisely, fruitfully, feel-
ingly, affectionately of that which may profit both a man's self and
others : Prov. x. 20, ' The tongue of the just is as choice silver ; the
heart of the wicked is little worth.' Good men's words are of more
worth than wicked men's hearts : and look, as choice silver is known
by its tinkUng, so holy men are known by their talking. And as
choice silver giveth a clear and sweet sound, so the tongue of the just
soundeth sweetly and pleasantly in the ears of others. Look, as choice
silver is highly prized and valued among men, so is the tongue of the
righteous among those that are righteous : and look, as choice silver
allures and draws the hearts of men to a love and liking of it ; so the
tongues of the righteous do allure and draw the hearts of men to a
love and liking of virtue and goodness.^ Ver. 21, 'The lips of the
righteous feed many.' They feed many by their exhortations, instruc-
tions, admonitions, and counsels. The mouths of the righteous are
like the gates of some hospitable persons, where many are fed. The
lips of the righteous are a free and well-furnished table, at which many
are fed and nourished with the dainties of heaven to eternal life.
Kighteous men keep open house, they keep free hospitality for all
comers and goers ; and if they have not always bread in their hands,
yet they have always grace in their lips, to feed many. Though they
may be outwardly poor, yet they haJ^e a treasure within to enrich
many. The tongue is the instrument of a Christian's glory, and is so
interested in the quality it expresseth, that in the original it is taken
for it, cavod signifying both glory and the tongue — by the authority

' Ps. xlv. 1, 2 ; Zeph. iii. 9 ; Cant. iv. 3. Compare these scriptures together — Prov. xi.
30, xii. 18, and xxv. 11 ; Mat. vii. 6, and xii. 35 ; Col. iv. 6; Eph. iv. 29; Acts xxvi.
25; John vi. 25; 1 Pet. iv. 11.

' Quod hominis dignitas et excellentia nulla alia re magis cognoscitur quam oratione.
. . . Qui in Christum credunt, loquuntur novis. — Peter Martyr, ii. 4.

150 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

of no less Kabbins than Jacob and David — as thereby intimating that
the chiefest glory of man is his tongue. The primitive Christians
talked so much and so often of high and heavenly things, that the
Ethnicksi began to surmise that they affected the Koman empire,
when indeed their ambition was of another, a nobler and a higher
nature. But now men that have only a show of godliness, they do
practically say, Our tongues are our own, and who shall' control us ?
Their speech is so far from administering of grace to their hearers,
that it administers usually either matter of carnal mirth, or of con-
tempt, or of scorn, or of sorrow and mourning. Certainly they have
no holiness in their hearts who have so much of hell, and the devil,
and lusts in their mouths. 2 I may say to most. You are unholy per-
sons, your speech bewrays you, your worldliness, your profaneness,
your cursing, your swearing, your lying, your slandering, your reviling,
your railing, your deriding, &c., doth plainly evidence that you have
no holiness in you. Well ! remember this, a tongue that is set on fire
from hell, is in danger to be set on fire in hell. Hell is for that man,
and that man is for heU, that hath so much of hell in his mouth ; the
devil is for that man, and that man is for the devil, that hath so much
of the devil in his mouth ; damnation is for that man, and that man
is for damnation, that hath so much of damnation in his mouth ; the
world is for that man, and that man is for the world, that hath so
much of the world in his mouth. Whatever is in the heart will break
out in the lips ; if wickedness be in the heart, it will break out in the
lips. Physicians say that the nature of diseases is as well known by
the tongue as by the pulse or urine. The spiritual diseases that be in
the heart will quickly discover themselves by the tongue. Wherever
holiness is in the heart, it wiU break forth in the lips. A holy heart
and a holy tongue are married together, and it is not in man to put
them asunder. You shall sooner separate the soul from the body, than
you shall separate a holy tongue from a holy heart. And thus I have
done with this use of examination. The Lord make you wise to lay
these things to heart, that so you may know how it is like to go with
you in another world.

Use 3. — The third use shaU be a use of exhortation, and that both
to unsanctified and sanctified ones. First, let me speak to unsanctified
ones. Is it so, that real holiness is the only way to happiness, and
that without men are holy on earth, they shall never come to the
beatifical vision or blessed fruition of God in heaven ? Oh then, how
should this provoke and stir up all unholy persons to strive and
labour, as for life, after this real holiness, without which they shall
never come to have anything to do with God in everlasting happi-
ness! &c.

Now that I may the better prevail with unsanctified souls, I shall,

First, propound some motives to stir and provoke their hearts to
look and labour after real holiness, &c.

Secondly, I shall propose some means for the obtaining of holiness.

Thirdly, I shall endeavour to answer those objections, and remove
those impediments, that hinder and keep men ofi" from labouring after
real holiness.

1 ' Heathen.'— Q. « James i. 26, 27, and iii. 8, 12; Mat. xxvi. 73. . . .

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 151

I. For the first, I shall propound these following considerations to
provoke all unsanctified persons to look after holiness.

1. First, Consider the necessity of holiness. It is impossible that
ever you should be happy, except you are holy. No holiness here, no
happiness hereafter. The Scripture speaks of three bodily inhabitants
of heaven — Enoch, before the law ; Elijah, under the law ; and Jesus
Christ, under the gospel ; aU three eminent in hoKness, to teach us,
that even in an ordinary course there is no going to heaven without
holiness. There are many thousand thousands now in heaven, but
not one unholy one among them all : there is not one sinner among
all those saints ; not one goat among aU those sheep ; not one weed
among all those flowers; not one thorn or prickle among all those
roses ; not one pebble among all those glistering diamonds. There is
not one Cain among all those Abels ; nor one Ishmael among all those
Isaacs ; nor one Esau among all those Jacobs in heaven. There is
not one Sethi among all the patriarchs ; not one Saul among all the
prophets; nor one Judas among all the apostles; nor one Demas
among all the preachers ; nor one Simon Magus among all the pro-
fessors. ^ Heaven is only for the holy man, and the holy man is only
for heaven : heaven is a garment of glory, that is only suited to him
that is holy.3 God, who is truth itself, and cannot lie, hath said it,
that ' without holiness no man shall see the Lord.' ^ Mark that word
' no man :' without holiness the rich man shall not see the Lord ; nor
without holiness the poor man shall not see the Lord ; without holi-
ness the noble man shall not see the Lord ; nor without holiness the
mean man shall not see the Lord ; without holiness the prince shall
not see the Lord ; nor without holiness the peasant shall not see the
Lord ; without hoHness the ruler shall not see the Lord ; nor without
holiness the ruled shall not see the Lord ; without holiness the learned
man shall not see the Lord ; nor without holiness the ignorant man
shall not see the Lord ; without holiness the husband shall not see the
Lord ; nor without holiness the wife shaU not see the Lord ; without
holiness the father shaU not see the Lord ; nor without holiness the
child shall not see the Lord ; without holiness the master shall not
see the Lord ; nor without holiness the servant shall not see the Lord.
' For faithful and strong is the Lord of hosts that hath spoken it,'
Josh, xxiii. 14. In this day some cry up one form, some another ;
some cry up one church state, some another ; some cry up one way,
some another ; but certainly the way of holiness is the good old way,
Jer. vi. 16 ; it is the King of kings' highway to heaven and happiness :
Isa. XXXV. 8, ' And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall
be called, The way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over it ; but it
shall be for those : the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err
therein.' Some men say, Lo, here is the way ; other men say, Lo, there
is the way ; but certainly the way of holiness is the surest, the safest,
the easiest, the noblest, and the shortest way to happiness. Among
the heathens, no man could enter into the temple of honour, but must

iQu. 'Ham'?— Ed.

^ Recollection, almost translation of the often-recurring illustrations of the mediajval
preachers. — G. » Rev. v. 11, and vii. 9 ; Heb. xii. 22, 23.

* Those that would be immortally happy, they must live holily and justly, saith
Antisthenes, the heathen.

152 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

first enter into the temple of virtue. There is no entering into the
temple of happiness, except you enter into the temple of holiness.
Holiness must first enter into you, before you can enter into God's
holy hill. As Samson cried out, 'Give me water, or I die:' or as
Kachel cried out, 'Give me children, or I die;' so all unsanctified
souls may well cry out. Lord, give me holiness, or I die: give me
holiness, or I eternally die.i If the angels, those princes of glory, fall
once from their holiness, they shall be for ever excluded from ever-
lasting happiness and blessedness. If Adam in paradise fall from his
purity, he shall quickly be driven out from the presence of divine
glory. Augustine would not be a wicked man, an unholy man, one
hour for all the world, because he did not know but that he might die
that hour : and should he die in an unholy estate, he knew he should
be for ever separated from the presence of the Lord and the glory of
his power. sirs, do not deceive your own souls; holiness is of
absolute necessity ; without it you shall never see the Lord, 2 Thes. i.
8-10. It is not aljsolutely necessary that you should be great or rich
in the world ; but it is absolutely necessary that you should be holy :
it is not absolutely necessary that you should enjoy health, strength,
friends, liberty, life ; but it is absolutely necessary that you should be
holy. A man may see the Lord without worldly prosperity, but he
can never see the Lord except he be holy. A man may to heaven, to
happiness, without honour or worldly glory, but he can never to
heaven, to happiness, without holiness. Without holiness here, no
heaven hereafter : Kev. xxi. 27, ' And there shall in no wise enter into
it anything that defileth.' God will at last shut the gates of glory
against every person that is without heart-purity. Ah, sirs ! holiness
is a flower that grows not in nature's garden. Men are not born with
holiness in their hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths :
holiness is of a divine offspring : it is a pearl of price, that is to be
found in no nature but a renewed nature, in no bosom but a sanctified
bosom. There is not the least beam or spark of holiness in any
natural man in the world : Gen. vi. 5, ' Every imagination of the
thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually ; ' Job xxv. 4, ' How
can man be clean that is born of a woman? '2 The interrogation
carries in it a strong negation, ' How can man be clean ?' that is, man
cannot be clean that is born of a woman : man that is born of a
woman, is born in sin, and born both under wrath and under the
curse. ' And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean ? ' Job
xiv. 4 ; Isa. Ixiv. 6, ' But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags ;' Rom. iii. 10, 11, ' There is none
righteous, no not one ; there is none that understandeth, there is none
that seeketh after God.' Every man by nature is a stranger, yea, an
enemy to holmess, Rom. viii. 7. Every man that comes into this
world, comes with his face towards sin and hell, and with his back
upon God and holiness. Such is the corruption of our nature, that,
propound any divine good to it, it is entertained as fire by water or
wet wood, with hissing. Propound any evil, then it is like a fire to

' Ps. XV. throughout.

* I have read that the Isle of Arren in Ireland hath such a pure air that it was never
yet infected with the plague, but such is not the nature of man.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 153

straw ; it is like the foolish satyr that made haste to kiss the fire ; it
is like that unctuous matter which, the naturalists say, sucks and
snatches the fire to it, with which it is consumed. All men are born
sinners, and there is nothing but an infinite power that can make
them saints. All men would be happy, and yet they naturally loathe
to be holy. By all which you may clearly see that food is not more
necessary for the preservation of natural life, than holiness is necessary
for the preservation and salvation of the soul. If a man had the
wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Samson, the courage of Joshua,
the policy of Ahithophel, the dignities of Haman, the power of
Ahasuerus, and the eloquence of Apollos, yet aR these without holi-
ness would never save him.

2. Secondly, Consider there is a possibility of obtaining holiness.
Holiness is a golden mine that may be come at if you will but dig,
and sweat, and take pains for it, Prov. ii. 2-7. It is a flower of para-
dise that may be gathered ; it is a crown that may be put on ; it is a
pearl of price that may be obtained, if you will but part with the
wicked man's trinity — the world, the flesh, and the devil — to enjoy
it, Rom. xiii. 12-14. Though some of the attributes of God be in-
communicable, yet holiness is a communicable attribute; and this
should mightily encourage you to look after holiness. Well ! sin-
ners, remember this, it is possible that those proud hearts of yours
may be humbled ; it is possible that those hard hearts of yours may
be softened; it is possible that those unclean hearts of yours may
be sanctified ; it is possible that those blind minds of yours may be
enlightened ; it is possible that those stubborn wills of yours may be
tamed; it is possible that those disordered affections of yours may
be regulated ; it is possible that those drowsy and defiled consciences
of yours may be awakened and purged; it is possible that those
vile and polluted natures of yours may be changed and purified.
There are several things that do witness that holiness is attainable ;
as,

[1.] Witness God's promise to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask
it.' Luke xi. 13, * If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children : how much more shall your heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?' The Holy Spirit is a gift
more worth than a world, yea, than heaven itself, and yet, to make
men holy, God is willing to give his Holy Spirit upon very easy
terms — they shaU have it for asking. The Spirit is a spirit of holi-
ness ; he is holy in himself, and the author of all that holiness that is
in man.l It is he that most powerfully moves and persuades men to
holiness ; it is he that presents holiness in its beauty and glory to the
soul ; it is he that sows seeds of holiness in the soul ; and it is he that
causes those seeds to grow up to maturity and ripeness. Nil nisi
sanctum a sancto Spiritu prodire potest, Nothing can come from the
Holy Spirit but that which is holy. The Holy Spirit is the great
principle of aU the holiness that is in the world ; and this Holy Spirit
God hath engaged himself to give to those that are unholy : Ezek.
xxxvi. 25-27, ' I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be
clean ; from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse
^ John Hi. 6 ; Titus iii. 5 ; 1 Cor. vi. 11.

154 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

you. A new heart will I also give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spu'it within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judg-
ments and do them.' The Holy Spirit is a gift, a free gift, a noble
gift, a precious gift, a glorious gift, that God will bestow upon the
miclean, upon the unsanctified, that they may be cleansed and sancti-
fied, and so fitted for the Lord's service and use. It is possible that
you may be holy, 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; witness,

[2.] His holy word, tlmt lie liath given on purpose to make men holy,
and to keep men holy. His commandments are holy, just, and good ;
his threatenings are holy, just, and good ; and all his promises are holy,
just, and good.^ The Holy Scriptures were written with a finger of holi-
ness, so as to move to holiness, and to work holiness ; the whole word of
Grod is an entire love-letter to provoke to holiness, and to promote holi-
ness. Holy commands should sweetly persuade us to holiness, and holy
threatenings should divinely force us to holiness, and holy promises
should effectually allure us to the love of holiness, to the embracing of
holiness, and to the practice of holiness. The great design of God,
in sending this sacred volume in golden letters from heaven, was to
enamour men with the love and beauty of holiness. Again, it is possible
that you may attain to true holiness ; witness,

[3.] Those holy ambassadors that he hath sent on purpose to turn
men from ' darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to Jesus
Christ;' their great business and work is to treat with you about
holiness ; it is to woo you to match with holiness, and to follow after
holiness ; it is to remove all lets and impediments that may anywise
hinder your embracing of holiness ; and it is to propose all manner of
encouragements that may win you over to make holiness your great
all, Acts xxvi. 18, and 2 Cor. v. 18-20. Again, it is possible that
you may be holy ; witness,

[4.] The holy examples of all the patriarclis, prophets, apostles, aTid
saints that are left on record, on purpose to provoke you to an imita-
tion of them in holiness. Their holy examples, as so many shining
stars, are left upon record to influence us to holiness.^ In the holy
examples of those that are now triumphant in heaven, you may run
and read that holiness is attainable. In their holy examples, as in so
many looking-glasses, you may see that holiness is a jewel that may
be procured. By that holiness that others have reached to, sinners
may see that it is possible that they may be made saints. Again, it
is possible that you may be holy ; witness,

[5.] All those notorious sinners that the Scripture declares have
been sanctified and made holy. To instance only in a few : Adam,
you know, was created in an estate of innocency, integrity, and perfect
holiness, Gen. i. 26 ; he being made in the image of God, and after
the likeness and similitude of God. It was agreed upon in the parlia-
ment of heaven that man should be made glorious in holiness ; and
so he was, for he was made after God's own image. And this the
apostle clearly and fuUy evidences in that famous scripture, Eph. iv.

1 Deut. iv. 6-9 ; Eom. vii. 12 ; Luke i. 70-76.

* Prsecepta decent, exempla movent. [As before.— G.]

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 155

22-24.^ That Adam was invested and endowed with righteousness
and holiness in his first glorious estate ; with righteousness, that he
might carry it fairly, justly, evenly, and righteously towards man ;
and with holiness, that he might carry it wisely, lovingly, reveren-
tially, and holily towards God ; and that he might take up in God as
his chiefest good, as his great All, might be sufficiently made good
out of this scripture last cited ; but I shall not now stand upon the
discovery of Adam's beauty, authority, dominion, dignity, honour, and
glory, with which he was adorned, invested, and crowned in innocency.
Let this satisfy, that Adam's first estate was a state of perfect know-
ledge, wisdom, and understanding ; it was a perfect state of holiness,
righteousness, and happiness. There was nothing within him but
what was desirable and delectable ; there was nothing without him
but what was amiable and commendable ; nor nothing about him
but what was serviceable and comfortable ; and yet, in the height of
all his glory he falls to apostasy and open rebellion against God ; he
takes part with Satan against God himself; he transgresses his right-
eous law, he affronts his justice, he provokes his anger, he stirs up his
wrath against himself and his posterity. The sin of Adam was a
voluminous sin ; all kinds of notorious sins were bound up in it, as
backsliding, rebellion, treason, pride, unbelief, blasphemy, contempt
of God, unthankfulness, theft, murder, and idolatry, &c. The philo-
sopher being asked which was the best member of the body, answered,
The tongue ; for if it be good, it is the best trumpet of God's glory.
And being asked again which was the worst, answered, The tongue ;
for if ifc be bad, it is the worst firebrand of hell. So if any should
ask me, Which was the best creature of God ? I would answer,
Man in honour before his fall. If you should ask me, Which is the
worst ? I must answer, Man in his fall, Adam was once the wonder
of all understanding, the mirror of wisdom and knowledge, the image
of God, the delight of heaven, the glory of the creation, the world's
great lord, and the Lord's great darling ; but being fallen, ah how
low, how poor, how miserable, how sottish, how senseless, how brutish,
yea how much below the beast that perisheth was he ! and yet God
pardoned, changed, and sanctified him, and stamped his image of
holiness afresh upon him, when he made a covenant with him in
Christ, Gen. iii.

So Manasseh, he was a notorious sinner, he was a sinner of the
greatest magnitude ; his sins reached up to heaven, his soul was ripe
for hell, he had sold himself to work aU manner of wickedness, as you
may see in 2 Chron. xxxiii. In ver. 3, ' He reared up altars for
Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and
served them;' ver. 4, ' he built altars in the house of God;' ver. 5,
' yea, for all the host of heaven did he build altars in the courts of the
house of God.' This was a horrid piece of impudence, to provoke
God to his very face, by equalizing his altars to God's altar. Ver. 6,
* And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of
the son of Hinnom.' Here was inhuman superstition, and inhuman

^ In this scripture he speaks plainly of the renovation of that knowledge, holiness,
and righteousness that Adam sometimes had, but lost it by his fall, Ps. viii. 4-6 ; Gen.
ii. 20.

156 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14,

cruelty, to offer his own children in sacrifice to the devil. * Also he
observed times, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit,
and with wizards : he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord, to
provoke him to anger ;' ver. 9, ' he made Judah and Jerusalem to err,
by his example, and to do worse than the heathens.' The actions of
rulers are most commonly rules for the people's actions, and their
example passeth as current as their coin. The common people dare
practise the very worst of wickedness that they see acted in a scarlet
robe ; they are like tempered wax, easily receiving impressions from
the seals of great men's vices ; they make no bones on it to sin by
prescription, and to damn themselves with authority. i^ The heathen
brings in a young man, who hearing of the adulteries and wickednesses
of the gods, said. What, do they so, and shall I stick at it ? 2 So
say most, when great ones are greatly wicked. Why, they do thus and
thus, and why should we stick at it ? The Egyptians esteemed it
graceful, and their duty, to halt on that leg on which their king limped ;
most men think it a grace to imitate the greatest authority in their
most graceless actings, which made the poet say,

* Subjects and kingdoms commonly do choose
The manners that their princes daily use.'

Ver. 10, ' And the Lord spake unto Manasseh, but he would not
hearken.' He was settled in idolatrj'^, and stopped his ears against all
the counsel and admonitions of the prophets that were sent to reclaim
him. Now who would ever have thought that one so abominably wicked
and wretched should ever have obtained such favour with God, as to
be pardoned, renewed, and sanctified ? and yet, ver. 12, 13, 'he
besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly before the Lord, and
prayed unto him, and God was entreated of him, and heard his suppli-
cation, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then
Manasseh knew that the Lord he was God.' He now acknowledges
Jehovah to be the true God, and renounces all other gods, that he
may cleave to God alone. There is no heart so wicked but grace can
make it holy.

So Paul was once so great a sinner, that had he stepped but one step
further, he had fallen into the unpardonable sin against the Holy
Ghost.

In 1 Tim. i. 13 you have a brief survey of his great transgres-
sions. He was a blasphemer: he blasphemed God and Christ, and his
ways and truth ; he made a mock and scoff at holiness ; he made
nothing of blaspheming that God that he should have feared, and of
blaspheming that Christ that he should have sweetly embraced,
and of blaspheming those truths that he should have readily enter-
tained. Paul was a great proficient in the school of blasphemy, he
made nothing of belching out blasphemy in the very face of heaven.
And he was a persecutor too : he persecuted holiness to the death. Acts
ix. and xxvi. 11 ; yea, he was mad in persecuting the poor saints and
servants of Christ ; he did all he could to make their lives a hell, and

* The complaint is ancient in Seneca, that commonly men live not ad rationem, but ad
similitudinem, —Seneca de vita beata, cap. i.
' Aristophanes an"d Lucian. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 157

to rid them out of this world ; he thought them not worthy to live,
though they were such worthies of whom this world was not worthy,
Acts viii. 3 ; he was a ravening and an untired wolf that was never
weary in worrying Christ's little flock, and in sucking out the blood of
his lambs. Yea, and he was an injurious person too : he made no
conscience of wronging others, or of squaring his carriage by that
golden rule, * Do to others as you would have others do to you,'
Mat. vii. 12. This royal law, this standard of equity, he regarded not ;
he made nothing of haling men and women to prison, and of compel-
ling them to blaspheme by his cruelty and wicked example ; he spared
no sex, but practised the highest cruelty upon all that had anything of
sanctity in them ; he would adventure the torments of hell rather
than not be a tormentor of the saints here ; and the more active
any were in holiness, the more injurious was he to them. And yet
behold this blasphemer, this persecutor, this injurious person, became
a sanctified Christian, an eminent saint, a pattern of holiness to all
Christians in all ages.

Once more, witness that sad bed-rool l of unsanctified persons that
are mentioned in 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, ' Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God ? Be not deceived, neither
fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.' These
monstrous sinners and prodigious sins were enough to have brought
another flood upon the world, or to have provoked the Lord to rain hell
out of heaven upon them, as once he did upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
or to have caused the ground to open and swallow them up, as once it
did Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and yet behold some of these are
changed and sanctified ! ver. 11, ' And such were some of you, but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name
of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' Oh, the infinite
goodness ! oh, the infinite grace ! oh, the infinite wisdom and power of
God, that hath pardoned, washed, sanctified, and cleansed such guilty,
filthy, and polluted souls ! The worst of sinners should never despair
of being made saints, considering what unholy ones have been made
holy. 2 It is possible that you may be made holy ; witness,

[6.] All those sanctified ones among whom you live, who once were
as unholy, or more unholy, it mn/y be, than ever you were. The
sanctified husband is a clear witness to the unsanctified wife that she
may be sanctified, 1 Cor. vii. 14, 16 ; 1 Pet. iii. 1,6: the sanctified
father is a witness to the unsanctified child that he may be sanctified ;
the sanctified master is a witness to the unsanctified servant that he
may be sanctified ; the sanctified prince is a witness to his unsanctified
people that they may be sanctified ; and the sanctified minister is
a witness to his unsanctified hearers that they may be sanctified ; the
same Spirit, the same grace, the same power, the same presence
that hath sanctified any of these, may sanctify all of these ; there is no
heart so unholy but a holy God can make it holy ; there is no spirit

^ ' Bead-rule or bed-rule,' = catalogue or roll. — G.

* Matthew, Zaccheus, Mary Magdalene, the jailer, and the murderers of Christ, Acts ii
are clear instances of this truth.

158 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

SO unclean but a Holy Spirit can make it clean. Well, sinners ! there
are many living and standing witnesses of divine grace among you,
and about you, that do sufficiently declare that it is possible that you
may be sanctified and saved. Again, it is possible that you may
be sanctified and made holy ; witness,

[7.] The oath of a holy God : Ezek. xviii. 31, 32, and xxxiii. 11,
* Say unto them. As I live, saith the Lord Grod, I have no pleasure in
the death of the wicked ; but that the wicked turn from his way
and live : turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways ; for why will ye die, O
house of Israel ? ' ' As I live ' is the form of an oath, and is much
used in the Scripture by God himself. Wicked men are very hardly
persuaded to believe that God is willing that they should be sanctified
and saved ; and therefore God takes his oath on it, that he is infinitely
more willing that wicked men should turn from their evil ways and be
sanctified and saved, than that they should perish in their sins and be
damned for ever. ' As I live ' is a weighty oath, and imports the
certainty of that which follows: it is absolute, without evasion or
revocation ; as sure as I live and am God, I have no pleasure in
destroying and damning of souls, but desire that they would turn from
their evil ways, and that they would be sanctified and saved ; let me
not live, let me be no longer a God, if I would not have the wicked
to live and be happy for ever. The possibility of your being holy,
God hath confirmed by an oath, and therefore you may no longer
question it. The Egyptians, though heathens, so hated perjury, that
if any man did but swear by the life of the king, and did not perform
his oath, that man was to die, and no gold was to redeem his life.i
And do you think that a holy God doth not stand more upon liis oath
than heathens, yea, than the worst of heathens ? Certainly he doth.
Lastly, it is possible that you may be holy ; witness,

[8.] The great designs and undertakings of Jesus Christ to make
lost man holy. His great design in leaving his Father's bosom
and coming into this world, was the destroying, the dissolving of the
works of the devil : 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.' 2 Sin
is Satan's work, and Christ comes to destroy it, and break it all
in pieces. Men's sins are Satan's chains, by which he links them fast
to himself ; but Christ was therefore manifested that he might loose
and knock off these chains. Satan had knit many sinful knots in our
souls, but Christ comes to untie those knots ; he had laid many snares,
but Christ comes to discover and to break those snares. It was
the great design of Christ in the divesting of himself, as it were, of his
divine honour, glory, and dignity, and in his taking on him the nature
of man, to destroy Satan, and to sanctify the souls of men, Phil. ii.
6-8, 15 ; Heb. ii. 11, 14, 15. It was the great design of Jesus Christ in
giving of himself for us — in giving his soul, his body, his life, to
justice, to death, to wrath for us, ' that he might redeem us from all
iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good
works,' Titus ii. 14. The crown of holiness was fallen from our heads,
and Christ freely and willingly uncrowns himself, that once more

^ As Paulus Fagius observeth in his comment on Genesis.
^ Mfft), dissolve, unravel the works of the devil.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 159

we might be crowned with holiness, immortality, and glory. Christ
was resolved that he would lose all that was near and dear unto him,
but he would recover our lost holiness for us. Christ knew that
heaven had been but a poor purchase, had he not purchased holiness
for us. As heaven is but a low thing without God, so heaven is but a
low thing without holiness. It is holiness that is the sparkling diamond
in the ring of happiness ; a man were better be holy in hell than
unholy in heaven ; and therefore Christ ventures his all for hohness.
The great design of Christ in redeeming of souls with the choicest,
the purest, the costliest, the noblest blood that ever run in veins, was
that they should ' serve him in righteousness and holiness all the days
of their lives,' Luke i. 74, 75. In a word, Christ had never taken
so great a journey from heaven to earth, but to make men holy ;
he had never taken upon him the form of a servant, but to make
us the servants of the most high God. He had never lain in a manger,
he had never trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath, but to
make you holy. He prayed, he sweat, he bled, and he hung on the
cross, and all to make you holy. He was holy in his birth, and holy
in his life, and holy in his death, and holy in all his sufferings; and all
to make you holy. The great design of Christ in aU he did, and
in all he suffered, was to make man holy. And thus you see by
all these arguments that holiness is attainable.

3. Thirdly, Consider this, that real holiness is the honour and the
glory of the creature; and therefore the apostle links hohness and
honour together : 2 Cor. iii. 18, and Eph. v. 27 ; 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4,
' For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication ; that every one of you should know how to
possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.' The vessel is man's
body — ^which is the great utensil or instrument of the soul, and con-
tains it as in a vessel. Now the sanctity and chastity of this vessel is
the honour of a Christian. Even bodily purity is a Christian's glory.
He that keeps his vessel in holiness, keeps it in honour. Holiness is
the greatest dignity that mortal man is capable of; it is man's highest
promotion, it is his highest exaltation. Holiness is the true gentility
and the true nobility of the soul : i Deut. xxvi. 19, ' And to make thee
high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name,
and in honour, and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord
thy God.' There is nothing that lifts a people so high, and that makes
them so truly famous and glorious, as holiness doth. Holiness is the
praise, the renown, the crown, and glory of a people. Holiness is
the diadem, the beauty, and the excellency of a people. Holiness
is the strength, the honour, and the riches of a people. Holiness is the
image of God, the character of Christ. It is a beam of the divine nature,
a spark of glory, it is the life of your lives, and the soul of your souls ;
it is only holiness that makes men to excel in honour all other people
in the world. Look, as God's holiness is his glory, and the angels'
holiness is their glory, and the church's holiness is their glory, Exod.
XV. 11 ; Isa. vi. 2, 3 ; Ps. xciii. 5 ; Eph. v. 27 ; so the hohness of any
particular person is the glory of that person. Why was Jabez reputed

^ A heathen could say, Ndbilitas sola eat atque unica virtus: Virtue is the only true
nobility.

160 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB, XII. 14.

more honourable than his brethren, but because he was more holy
than his brethren? 1 Chron. iv. 9, 10, ' And Jabez was more honour-
able than his brethren ; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying.
Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of
Israel, saying. Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my
coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst
keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me ! And God granted him
that which he requested.' Holiness is the truest and the greatest
nobility and honour in the world. It is very observable that among
• Turks, Jews, Indians, Persians, and Papists, the strictest and holiest
among them are most highly esteemed and honoured, Komanus, the
martyr, who was born of noble parentage, entreated his persecutors
that they would not favour him for his nobility ; for it is not, said he,
the blood of my ancestors, but my Christian faith that makes me
noble. 1 David thought it not so happy nor so honourable a thing to
be a king in his own house, as to be a door-keeper in God's house.
Solomon did prefer the title of Ecclesmstes, that is, a soul reconciled
to the church, before the title of the king of Jerusalem. Holy
Theodosius, the emperor, preferred the title of memhrum ecclesice, a
member of the church, before that of caput imperii, the head of the
empire, professing that he had rather be a saint and no king, than a
king and no saint. And holy Constantine rejoiced more in being the
servant of Christ, than in being the emperor of the world. And
Luther had rather be Christianus rusticus, than ethniciis Alexander ^
a Christian clown than a pagan emperor. These holy men well knew
that holiness was the top of all their honour and glory. Well, sinners,
remember this, that holiness is the high and ready way to the highest
honour ; and therefore, as ever you would be traly honourable, labour
to be truly holy. Great swelling titles are but as so many rattles, or
as so many feathers in men's caps, without holiness. He that can be
content to live without holiness, must be contented to see his honour
entombed whilst he lives. Honour without holiness is but a wind
that will blow a man the sooner to hell. Honour without holiness is
but magnum nihil, a great nothing, a glorious fancy. 2 Many a man
hath been the worse, but where lives that man that hath been ever
the better, for his worldly honour? A man swelled with honour,
without holiness, is like a man in a dropsy, whose bigness is his
disease. Well, let ambitionists, and all others who hunt after the
breath of popular applause, know that that honour which attends
holinesfi is the truest honour, the highest honour, the greatest honour,
the happiest honour, the surest honour, the purest honour, and the
most lasting and abiding honour. Mollerus,3 upon Psakn Ixxiii. 20,
concludes that wicked men's earthly honours and dignities are but
as idle dreams, and their splendid braveries but lucid phantasies.
Adonibezek, a mighty prince, is quickly made a fellow-commoner with
the dogs. Judges i. 7. And Nebuchadnezzar, a mighty conqueror,
turned a-grazing among the oxen, Dan. iv. 28. And Herod reduced

^ Clarke, as before. — G.

^ Acts XXV. 23. MerA ttoXX^j (pavrafflas, with great phantasy or vain show; all the
honour, pomp, and state of this world is but a phantasy.
^ MDCLXi. folio. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. » 161

from a conceited god to be the most loathsome of men, a living carrion
arrested by the \'ilest of creatures, upon the suit of his affronted
Creator, Acts xii. 23. And great Haman feasted with the king one
day, and made a feast for crows the next, Esth. vii. 10. But that
honour that waits on holiness is honour that will abide with a man,
that will to the grave with a man, yea, that will to heaven with a
man. Some heathens have been weary of their honours — Maximus,
&c., but the honour that attends holiness is no burden to a Christian ;
and others have rejected honours when they have been offered them,
because of the cumber and danger that attends them. High seats are
never but uneasy, and crowns are usually stuffed with thorns. But
the honour that attends holiness is a rose without prickles, it is a
crown without thorns. That honour that springs from a root of holi-
ness shall be both sanctified and sweetened by God, so as that it shall
not hurt nor harm a gracious soul. Ah, sinners ! sinners ! if you will be
ambitious, be ambitious of that honour that comes in upon the foot
of holiness, for there is no honour to that honour. The Eomans were
insatiable in their desires after worldly honour, which is but as a blast,
a shadow, a dream. Oh, how much more insatiable should you be in
your desires and endeavours after that honour that is linked to holiness,
and that is substantial and lasting !

To stir you up to look after real holiness, consider, 4. Fourthly,
That holiness is very attractive, drawing, and loinning. It draws
love, it draws desire, it draws delight. Holiness is like a precious
perfume, whose savour spreads itself, and is pleasing and delightful
to all that come near it : 2 Kings iv. 9, 10, ' And she said unto her
husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God,
which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber,
I pray thee, on the wall ; and let us set for him there a bed, and a
table, and a stool, and a candlestick ; and it shall be, when he cometh
to us, that he shall turn in thither.'^ The holiness of the pro-
phet's spirit, the holiness of his principles, the holiness of his
behaviour, and the holiness of his conversation, did so allure and
win upon this great lady, that she becomes an importunate suitor to
her husband that he might be lovingly, freely, courteously, and
commodiously entertained and accommodated as often as he came that
way. So Acts ii. 46, 47, ' And they continued daily with one accord
in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their
meat with gladness and singleness of heart ; praising God, and having
favour with all the people.' That which did grace and ingratiate
these holy converts into the favour of the people, was the exercise of
their grace and holiness. It was their sweet unity, their noble charity,
their holy familiarity, their blessed harmony, their singular sincerity,
and their Christian constancy, that brought them into favour with all
the people. Visible holiness is a loadstone that will draw eyes and
hearts after it: 1 Pet. iii. 1, 'Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to
your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may
without the word be won by the conversation of the wife.' A holy
conversation is a winning conversation, Phil. ii. 15, and 1 Cor. vii. 16.

1 History tells us of many infidels that have been won to the Christian faith by the
holy lives of the saints, &c

VOL. IV. ^

162 • THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

The holy conversation of the wife may be the conversion of the hus-
band ; the holy, the wise, the watchful, the circumspect conversation
of the wife may issue in the salvation of the husband. Many a
husband hath been won to Christ by the holy conversation of the wife ;
and many a wife hath been won by the holy conversation of the
husband. Many a servant hath been won by the holy conversation of
the master ; and many a master hath been won by the holy conversa-
tion of the servant. Sozomen reports, that the holy life of a poor
captive Christian maid, made a king and all his family to embrace the
Christian faith. I have read of Cecilia, a poor virgin, who, by her
holy and gracious behaviour in her martyrdom, was the means of con-
verting four hundred to Christ. i Many a soul hath been won by the
dumb oratory of a holy life.^ Justin Martyr confesseth that the con-
stancy of Christians in their piety and sufferings was the chiefest
motive that converted him to Christianity. ' For I myself,' saith he,
' was once a Platonist, and did gladly hear the Christians reviled : but
when I saw they feared not death, nor any of those miseries which did
most frighten all other men, I began to consider with myself that it was
impossible for such men to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of
piety ; and that made me first think of turning Christian.' 3 There is
nothing that hath that influence upon the judgments of men to
persuade them, upon the consciences of men to awe them, upon the
mouths of men to stop them, upon the hearts of men to convince them,
and upon the lives of men to reform them, as holiness, 1 Pet. ii. 12.
What Plato once said of his moral virtue — viz., that if it could be
seen with bodily eyes it would be beloved of all, and draw all hearts
to itself — that is most true of this theological grace, holiness. Holi-
ness is so beautiful and so lovely a thing, that it renders men amiable
and lovely in the very eyes of their enemies. Tilligny, for his rare
virtues, was rescued from death by his greatest enemies at the massacre
of Paris. 4 Holiness makes a man's face to shine, as it did Moses his,
and Stephen's. Nothing pleases the eye nor wins the heart like
holiness. What is gold to godliness, gifts to grace, parts to piety ?
A spai'k, a ray, a beam of holiness, will certainly have an influence
upon the spirits of men, either to restrain them or change them, or
allay them or sweeten them, or win them, or one way or another to
better them. Look, as the unholy lives and conversations of many
professors do occasion some to blaspheme God, others to belie God,
others to withstand God, and others to forsake God; look, as the
looseness of many Christians doth work some to reproach Christ,
others to deny Christ, others to refuse Christ, others to revile the good
ways of Christ, and others to oppose and despise the faithful followers
of Christ : as Lactantius reports, that the loose lives of many Christians
was made by the heathens the reproach of Christ himself, Quomodo
bonus magister, cujus tarn pravos viderrms discipulos f How can we
think the master to be good, whose disciples we see to be so bad ?

^ Clarke, aa before. — G.

' Monica won her husband Patricia from being an impure Manichee, not by force of
argument, but by purity and chastity of life, saith Augustine.
^ As before. — G.
* Vide the French History in the life of Charles the Ninth. [As before.— G.]

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 1G3

And Salvian also complains that the loose walking of many Christians
was made by the heathen the reproach of Christ himself, saying, If
Christ had taught holy doctrine, surely his followers had led better
lives. And further, the same author relates how the heathens did
reproach some Christians, who by their lewd lives made the gospel of
Christ to be a reproach: Where, said they, is that good law which
they do believe ? Where are those rules of godliness which they do
learn ? They read the holy Gospel, and yet are unclean ; they hear the
apostles' writings, and yet are drunk; they follow Christ, and yet
disobey Christ ; they profess a holy law, and yet do lead impure lives. 1
Now I say, look, as the hoHness of many professors 2 is a dishonour to
God, a reproach to Christ, a scandal to religion, a blot to profession,
and a grief to many whom God would not have grieved, Ezek. xiii. 22 ;
so the power of holiness, the practice of holiness, is very influential
upon the worst of men, to win and work them to the Lord, and to a
love and liking of his ways. The holy lives of the saints made the
very heathens to say. Surely this is a good God, whose servants are so
good. Ambrose his holiness did very much draw out the heart of
Theodosius, the emperor, to him ; and the holiness of Paphnutius did
very much draw out the heart of Constantino the Great to him. There
is nothing that gives a man that heart-room and that hearty room in
the souls of others, as holiness. It is the holy man that is a man of a
thousand. 3 But,

5. Fifthly, Consider that real holiness is the excellency of all a mans
excellencies. As holiness is the glory of God, a part of the divine
nature, a spark of heaven, a ray of glory, so it is the excellency of all
a man's excellencies : it is the excellency of all our natural excellencies,
it is the excellency of all our moral excellencies, and it is the excel-
lency of aU our intellectual excellencies. Look, as ^ God's holiness is
the excellency of all his excellencies, as the angels, who best know what
is the top of his excellency, do evidence by that threefold repetition,
* Holy, holy, holy,' Isa. vi. 3 ; these multiplied acclamations of holi-
ness denote the superlative eminency, excellency, and perfection of
God's holiness.^ Both among the Hebrews and among the Grecians
the holiness of God is the excellency of his omnisciency, omnipotency,
and omnipresence. It is the excellency of his eternity, immutability,
and fidelity ; it is the excellency of his wisdom, love, care, and good-
ness : Ps. cxi. 9, ' Holy and reverend is his name.' God's name
comes to be reverend by holiness. If his name were not holy, it would
never be reverend ; and why is God called so often ' the holy one,' but
to shew us that holiness is the very top of all his glory and excellency.^
God could not be glorious in anything if he were not glorious in holi-
ness. That which speaks his power to be glorious power, is his holi-
ness ; and that which speaks his wisdom to be glorious wisdom, is his
holiness ; and that which speaks his mercy to be glorious mercy, is his
holiness, &c. Were not the power of God a holy power, it could never

1 Salvianus de G. D., 1. 4. ^ Because of the low kind of ' holinesB ' manifested.— O,
3 2 Thes. i. 3-6, read it.

* The ' as ' here is to be connected with the * so ' on next page, line 3d from top. — G.
^ Rev. iv. 8. Some Greek copies have the word, "A710S, holy, nine times over, &c.
6 Exod. XV. 11. That which God accounts his highest honour is his holiaess.

164 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

be a glorious power ; were not the wisdom of God a holy wisdom, it
could never be glorious wisdom ; and were not the mercy of God holy
mercy, it could never be glorious mercy, &c. So the holiness of a man
is the glory and excellency of all a man's excellencies ; it is the per-
fection of all a man s perfections. In paradise, man's perfect holiness
was his perfect blessedness ; and in heaven, man's perfect hohness will
be his perfect happiness, Heb. xii. 23. Holiness adds an excellency
to all a man's excellencies. That which adds an excellency to a man's
wisdom is holiness. When a man's wisdom is a holy wisdom, then it
is excellent wisdom. So holy courage is excellent courage, and holy
zeal is excellent zeal, and holy' knowledge is excellent knowledge, and
holy faith is excellent faith, and holy love is excellent love, and holy
fear is excellent fear. It is the adding of holiness to all these that
renders these virtues truly excellent ; it is holiness that is the top of
all these royalties. Look, as all ciphers signify nothing except you
add a figure to them ; so all the excellencies that be in men, whether
they are natural, moral, or acquired, they signify nothing except you
add holiness to them. Birth and breeding, wit and wealth, honour
and learning, are but the shadows and shapes of nobleness and true
excellency ; it is holiness that is the soul and substance of all ; and
without holiness all other things are of no worth, all other excellencies
have no excellency at all in them.i Naaman was general of the
king's army ; he was a man in great favour with his prince, a man
much honoured among the people for being a saviour and deliverer to
them. He was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper, 2
Kings V. 1. This ' hut he was a leper ' was a cloud upon all his glory ;
it was a veil upon all his honour, greatness, and nobleness. So to say,
there is a wise man, but unholy ; and there is a great man, but unholy ;
and there is an ingenuous man, but unholy ; and there is a noble man,
but unholy ; and there is a valiant man, but unholy ; and there is a
good-natured man, but unholy ; and there is a learned man, but un-
holy, &c., — ^what is this * hut unholy,' but a cloud of darkness upon
all the excellencies that are in these persons ? But let now holiness
be but added to each of these, and then they will shine as so many
suns. Holiness is a garment that sets off arts, and parts, and all
other excellencies that be in man ; let but this garment be wanting,
and the nakedness of all things will quickly appear. And this made
Jerome to say that he had rather have St Paul's coat with his
heavenly graces, than the purple of kings with their kingdoms. Look,
as a precious jewel set in gold makes that much more conspicuous
and glorious which was glorious before; so holiness adds beauty,
splendour, and glory to a man's parts, birth, honour, and estate, &c.
But,

6. Sixthly, Consider that holiness is not only an honour and an
ornament to the person that hath it, hut it is also an honour and an
ornament hath to the persons and places to loJwm he stands related.^
The holiness of the father is an honour and ornament to the child ;
80 was Abraham's to Isaac : and the holiness of the child is an honour

^ 0000000— these signify nothing ; but if you do but add a figure to them, 10000000,
then they signify much.
' So holy Eliakim was a throne of glory to his father's house, lea. xxii 23.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 165

and an ornament to the father ; so was Isaac's to Abraham : the holi-
ness of the husband is an honour and ornament to the wife ; so was
Abraham's to Sarah : and the holiness of the wife is an honour and
an ornament to the husband ; so was Sarah's to Abraham. So, in
Prov. xii. 4, ' A virtuous woman is a crown to her husband.' i A
crown is the top of honour, it is the top of royalty and glory ; why ! a
virtuous wife is such a thing ! A sweet, a good-natured wife is as a
gold ring upon her husband's finger ; a gifted wife is as a gold chain
about her husband's neck; but a holy virtuous wife is as a crown upon
her husband's head. The holiness of the prince is an honour and an
ornament to the people ; and the holiness of the people is an honour
and an ornament to the prince. The holiness of the master is an
honour and an ornament to the servant; and the holiness of the ser-
vant is an honour and an ornament to the master. And the holiness
of one brother is an honour to another brother. Jude glories- in this,
that he was the brother of James, ver. 1. James was famous for his
sanctity ; for his holiness he was called the Just, as Eusebius writes. 2
His holiness did so sparkle and shine, that the Jews were generally
convinced that in holiness he was more eminent and excellent than
others. Now Jude took it for a very high honour to be related to one
so eminent in holiness. Holy persons reflect a credit and an honour
upon their relations. It was the speech of a heathen notably qualified,
though but meanly bred and born, to a dissolute person well born, up-
braiding him with his birth, ' I am a grace to my stock, but thou art
a blot to thy lineage/ Yea, holy persons are an honour to the places
where they have been born and bred : Ps. Ixxxvii. 5,6, ' And of Zion
it shall be said. This and that man was born in her : and the Highest
himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth
up the people, that tliis man was born there. Selah.' God seems to be
very much affected and taken with the very places where holy men are
born ; he loves the very ground that holy men tread on, and he delights
in the very air that holy men breathe in. Holy persons reflect honour
upon the very places where they were born. The holy patriarchs,
prophets, and apostles were the honour and the glory of the ages and
places where they lived. ^ They were as so many bright morning stars,
they were as so many rising suns in the places where they were bred
and born. Melanchthon was called the phoenix of Grermany, and Luther
was the glory of the age wherein he lived. And so were many of the
ancients before them, and many since, who have been burning and
shining lights in the places of their abode. Look, as an unholy person
is a plague and a curse to the very place he lives in, and hastenetb
down wrath and vengeance upon it, as Bias the philosopher hath lon«
since observed ; for he being at sea in a great tempest among many
profane debauched fellows, and perceiving them to call upon their
gods, as the worst of men usually do in such cases, he comes to them,

^ The Hebrew is, a woman of strength, or a valiant woman ; that is, a woman that is
made strong and valiant by grace, by holiness, to withstand sin, to conquer temptation,
and to triumph in affliction, &c.

^ Euseb., lib. ii. c. 23, where you have many memorable things concerning the holi-
ness of his life, and the manner of his death.

=* Some antiquaries say that the primitive church had her public tables, wherein the
names of the persons that were most noted for piety and holiness were recorded.

166 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and desires them to hold their peace, lest the gods should take notice
that they were in the ship, and so not only themselves, but others also,
should suffer for their sakes.i It was the wickedness of the wicked
that brought the sweeping flood upon the old world ; and it was the
wickedness and filthiness of the Sodomites that caused God to rain
heU out of heaven upon the cities where they lived. Let men be never
so honourable, or never so potent, or never so witty, or never so
wealthy, &c., yet if they are profane, if they are wicked, they will
hasten down the wrath and vengeance of God upon the places of their
abode. So a holy person is an honom- and a blessing to the very place
he lives in, as you may see in Jacob and Joseph, who were choice and
noble blessings to the very families where they lived. sirs, as ever
you would be an honour to your relations, to your country, and to the
places of your abode, labour for holiness ! Some venture life and limb,
and many a better thing, to reflect honour upon their relations, and
upon their country — as many of the Komans did ; and why then shoiUd
not you venture far, and venture high for holiness, which will be not
only an honour to yourselves, but also an honour and a glory to all
persons and places that you have relation to ?

7. Seventhly, Consider that hohness is the very ear-marh, the very
livery and badge of Ghrisis servants and subjects: Isa. Ixiii. 8, ' For
he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie : so he
was their Saviour ;' and ver. 18, they are called ' the people of his
holiness.' God's people are too holy to lie ; they will not lie for his
glory, nor for their own worldly good. 2 They wUl rather die than lie,
with that brave woman that Jerome writes of, who being upon the
rack, bade her persecutors do their worst, for she was resolved rather
to die than lie. Neither the merry lie, nor the jesting lie, nor the
officious lie, nor the pernicious lie, will down with those that are the
people of God's holiness, or that are his holy people. Saith God, I
have been at so much cost and charge about them, I have carried it
so kindly, so bountifully, so sweetly, so favourably, so nobly to them ;
I have been such an all-sufficient Saviour, such a mighty preserver,
and such a glorious deliverer of them, that certainly they will not lie,
they will not deceive my expectation, they will not deny me, they will
not deal disloyally nor unworthily by me.^ They are of Augustine's
opinion, who hath long since told us, that we must not tell so much
as an officious lie, though it were to save all the world. So Jer. ii. 3,
* Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of his increase :
all that devour him shall ofiend ; evil shall come upon them, saith the
Lord.' Holiness to the Lord is the mark that God sets upon all his
precious ones : Ps. iv. 3, ' Know that God hath set apart him that is
godly for himself.' God hath wonderfully, gloriously, marvellously,
yea, miraculously set apart the pious, the holy, the merciful, the godly
man, the gracious saint, by some mark of distinction for himself, that
is, for his own honour, and glory, and service, and delight.* Look, as
Rahab's house was known by a red thread, Josh. ii. ; and the Ephraim-

^ Afl before. — G. ' Job xiii. 7; Eom. iii. 7, 8 ; Rev. xiv. 5.

^ It is said of golden-mouthed Chrysostom that he never lied ; answerable to this,
laa. Ixiii 8. * The Hebrew word, chasid, imports as much.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 167

ites by their lisping, Judges xi. ; and Jehu by his driving, 2 Kings ix. ;
and Peter by his speaking. Mat. xxvi. ; so real Christians are known
by their holiness. Holiness is King Jesus his livery, by which all his
subjects and servants are known and differenced from all other persons
in the world. And in the primitive times, a Christian was known
from another man only by the holiness of his conversation, as Ter-
tuUian witnesses. Look, as our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of
holiness raising him up from the dead, was declared to be the Son of
God, Rom. i. 4 ; so it is the spirit of holiness, it is principles of holi-
ness, it is the life and practice of holiness, that declares us to be the
sons of God, 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18. Holiness is that golden character by
which God differences and distinguisheth his people from all others in
the world. Look, as the worshippers of the beast are known by the
mark of the beast that is upon them ; so the worshippers of Christ,
the people of Christ, are known by that mark of holiness that Christ
hath set upon them. This title, this compellation, ' saints,' is given
fourscore times to the people of God in Scripture, as if God took a
greater delight to have his children known by this badge and livery
than by any other. As for such that have the name of saints upon
them, but nothing of the nature of a saint in them ; that have a name
to be holy, and yet are unholy ; that have a name to be gracious, and
yet are graceless ; that have a name to live, and yet are dead ; these
God will in that day unmask, when he shall lead them forth with the
workers of iniquity. i An unholy saint is a white devil, he is a monster
among men. Christ sweat, and prayed, and died, and was raised to
make sinners saints, to make the rebellious religious, and the licentious
conscientious. All he did and suffered was to stamp the seal and im-
press of holiness upon them. And therefore, as ever you would be
owned and honoured by Christ another day, look that the Holy Spirit
sets the seal of holiness upon you. If the impress of holiness be upon
you in the day that the Lord makes up his jewels, he will declare you
to be his before all the world. He will say. These are my sheep,
these are my sons, I know them by that mark of holiness that I find
upon them. But,

8. Eighthly, Consider this, that a man of holiness, or a holy man,
is a common good, a common blessing. All fare the better for a holy
man. All in the family, all in the court, all in the city, all in the
country, fare the better for the holy man's sake. All in Laban's
family did fare the better for Jacob's sake ; and all in the city of
Zoar did fare the better for Lot's sake ; and all Pharaoh's court, and
the whole country of Egypt, did fare the better for Joseph's sake.
Sodom was safe whilst holy Lot was in it: holy Elijah was the
chariots and horsemen of Israel. Whilst holy Moses stood in the
gap, destroying judgments were diverted : when holy Phinehas took
up his censer, and stood between the living and the dead, the plague
was stayed.2 Holy persons are public mercies, public blessings : Job

1 Rev. xiii. 16 ; xiv. 9, 10, and xix. 2C. A man were better be a beast, than to have
the mark of the beast upon him. The title of a saint is but an empty thing without
holiness.

* Gen. XXX. 27; xix. 21-24, and xli., &c. ; 2 Kings ii. 12; Ts. cvi. 23; Num. iivi.

46, 49.

168 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

xxii. 30, ' He shall deliver the island of the innocent : and it is
delivered by the pureness of thine hands : ' or, as some read the words,
' the innocent shall deliver the island ;' that is, the inhabitants of the
island.^ The innocent shall deliver those that are not innocent ; had
there been but ten innocent, but ten righteous persons in Sodom,
Sodom might have been a glorious city to this day ; had there been
but ten righteous souls among them, God would never have rained
hell out of heaven upon them ; Gen. xviii. 32 to the end. The guilt-
less shall deliver the guilty in an island ; the guiltless, by Kfting up
pure hands to God in prayer, shall stay the hand of God, that it
destroys not the guilty. It is the holy seed that upholdeth the civil
state : Isa. vi. 13, ' But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return,
and shall be eaten : as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is
in them, when they cast their leaves : so the holy seed shall be the
substance thereof.' ^ The holy seed were the stay and prop of their
land, and this the Lord evidences by a very familiar instance or simili-
tude. It is as if he should say. You see the way or causey, leading
from the king's house to the temple — spoken of in 1 Kings x. 5 ;
2 Kings xii. 21 ; 1 Chron. xxvi. 16, 17, and 2 Chron. ix. 11 — how by
reason of the oaks and trees on either side thereof the earth between
is stayed and held up firm, which otherwise would fall to decay and
moulder away : so saith God, it is the holy seed that bears up the
whole state, and were it not for them, desolation and destruction
would come in as a flood upon you : Prov. x. 25, ' The righteous is an
everlasting foundation.' The Hebrew doctors sense it thus, The
righteous are the foundation of the world, which would soon shatter
and fall to ruin but for their sakes. The whole world fares the
better every day for the righteous' sake. If it were not for this holy
seed, the chaff of this world would soon be set on fire. If the number
of the holy seed were but called and converted, God would quickly
turn the whole world into flames and ashes. It is they that bear up
the pillars of the earth : Ps. Ixxv. 3, ' I bear up the pillars of the
earth.' Holy persons are the true Atlases both of church and state ;
they are the pillars on whom all do rest, the props on whom all do
lean ; do but overturn these pillars, and all will fall about your ears,
as the house did about the Philistines when Samson shook it. Let
but kingdoms and commonwealths wreck these, and they shall quickly
be shipwrecked themselves. There is not a sinner in the world but
fenjoys his estate, his relations, his outward accommodations, yea, his
very life, upon the account of the saints; and therefore they must
needs be bewitched, or fools, or madmen, that are still a-lifting and
a-thrusting at these very pillars that bear them up. Look, as Samson's
strength did lie in his locks, so the strength and safety of the nation
lies in the holy seed: they are the bulwarks and ammunition of the
nation ; the safety and felicity of the whole is bound up in them. It
is not armies, nor navies, nor walled cities, nor fortified castles, nor
golden mines, nor grave counsels that will secure a nation, if once the
people of God's holiness be cast by as broken pitchers. It is their

^ God will Bometimes deliver a whole country for the sake of the innocent, &c.
^ I will seek thy good, was holy David's royal and religious resolution, Ps. cxxii. 9.
Kings are for kingdoms, not kingdoms for kings.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 1G9

piety and prayers that keeps off sweeping judgments from a nation,
and that brings down variety of mercies upon a nation. ^ Holy persons
are the clouds that water the earth as a common blessing ; and they
are the rising sun that scatters all clouds and darkness. A holy man
is Kolvov arfadov, a public diffusive blessing in the place where he
lives. Look, as one sinner destroys much good, Eccles. ix. 18, so one
saint may save a land, a country : Jer. v. 1, ' Run ye to and fro through
the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad
places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth
judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.' Though
Jerusalem was far larger and more populous, I say not only than
Sodom, but than all the other cities that sinned and perished with it,
yet God makes so large and noble an offer, that if there could be
found in it but one man divinely qualified, but a man of justice, a
man of faithfulness, a man of uprightness, a man of holiness, the Lord
would pardon it ; that is, he would spare it, he would not destroy it,
nor ruin it. God once made an offer to Abraham, that if there were
but ten righteous souls in Sodom, he would save it ; but here he falls
so low as to make an offer, that if there could be but one righteous
soul found in Jerusalem, he would not destroy it.2 One saint may
save a city, yea, a world of sinners, from confusion and destruction.
Luther, whilst he lived, by faith and prayer, kept off troubles from
Germany, but soon after he was gone to his grave in peace, oh, the
wars, the miseries and mischiefs, the distractions and confusions that
came in like a flood upon them ! Possidonius, in the life of Augustine,
tells us that the famous city of Hippo could never be spoiled whilst
Augustine lived. The flood could not drown the old world till holy
Methuselah was laid up in peace. sirs ! as ever you would be a
public blessing, labour to be holy. But,

9. Ninthly, Consider the antiquity of holiness. Holiness is of the
greatest, highest, and ancientest antiquity. The first suit that ever
was put upon the back of man's nature was holiness. Sin is of a
later edition than holiness ; holiness was when sin was not, Deut.
xxxii. 7, &c. ' Let us make man,' saith God, ' in our own image.'
Sin is against nature, it is a defect in nature, it came in by a lie, and,
by-the-bye, through the subtlety of the father of lies. Gen. i. 26. God
stamped his image of holiness upon man before ever Satan assayed to
tempt him. HoKness is of the ancientest house, of the greatest anti-
quity, John viii. 44. Sin is but an upstart, holiness is the firstborn ;
the way of holiness is the oldest way : Jer. vi. 16, ' Thus saith the
Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where
is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your
souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.' The way of holiness
was that old way in which Adam at first, and in which all the holy
patriarchs and prophets walked. 3 In this sense it is most certain
that the oldest way is the best way ; the way of sanctity is of greatest

1 Lam. iv. 1, 2, and Esther iv., and chap, the last, compared.

' If among the rabble, if among the noble, if among the rich, if among the learned,
a man could have been found that loved holiness, that was stout for righteousness, and
that practised uprightness, God would have spared Jerusalem.

* Linshiboth gnolam — paths of eternity, the paths of piety ; the paths of purity are
paths of eternity, &c.

170 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

antiquity. Let Papists and carnal superstitious Protestants cry up
their superstitious ways as ways of greatest antiquity, yet when they
have said all they can, there is no antiquity to that of holiness. The
way of will-worship was not the first way of worshipping God in the
world. Many carnal men cry out that they are for the good old way,
they care not for this new way, they care not for this new religion, as
they call it ; they say that we have never had good days since there
hath been so much praying, and so much preaching, and so much
fasting, and so much printing, and so much ado about close walking
with Grod. 'Tis most certain that a carnal religion is best pleasing to
a carnal heart ; and this you may see evidently among the Turks,
whose religion gives much carnal liberty to the professors of it ; and
whose religion promises them a paradise of sensual pleasures in
another world. And the same is very observable among the Papists,
and all the carnal Protestants in the world, who cry up that for the
best religion, and for the true rehgion, and for the good old religion,
that is most suitable to their carnal reason, and most pleasing and
indulging to their lusts. Socrates is sufficiently condemned for his
prescribing of men to worship Grod according to the manner of the
country where they lived ; and what was this but to gratify the lust of
men, by subjecting the rule of God's worship to the laws and customs
of men ? But from the beginning it was not so. Holy Noah, holy
Enoch, and the rest of the holy patriarchs, prophets, and apostles,
walked only in ways of piety and purity. Holy Abraham, holy Isaac,
and holy Jacob, never walked in those ways that are now by loose,
formal, carnal, and superstitious persons cried up for the good old
way, but in ways of holiuiess and righteousness, I have read of the
Cretians, that when they cursed their enemies, they did not wish their
houses on fire, nor a sword at their hearts, but that they might be
delighted and given up to an ill custom. It is one of the greatest and
bitterest curses and woes to be delighted and given up to ill customs ;
and the older the custom is of evil, the worse it is ; and ah, how many
are fallen under these curses in these days, wherein multitudes are
addicted and given up to carnal and superstitious customs, and choose
rather to follow an ill custom, though it be never so absurd, irregular,
vain, and superstitious, than to walk in a way of peace and holiness !
Well, sirs, shall the antiquity of holiness provoke you to be holy ?
Many will do much for antiquity sake ; and why, then, should not you
do much for holiness sake ? Holiness is God's firstborn ; it is as
ancient as the ancient of days. The way of holiness is gray-headed,
and of ancientest institution ; all other ways are but of yesterday; they
are but new ways to the way of holinesk And oh that this might
alarm you to look after holiness ! The Gibeonites cheated Joshua with
their old clouted shoes, and with their old sacks, and old boots, and
old garments. Josh. ix. 4, 5 ; and so doth Kome this day cheat and
delude multitudes of poor, blind, ignorant souls, with their old cus-
toms, and with their old ceremonies, and old traditions, and old inven-
tions, under a pretence of the good old way, and the good old religion ;
but certainly the way of holiness, the way of purity, is of the greatest
antiquity, and therefore, oh embrace it 1 oh, walk in it ! Look, as the
stamp of antiquity upon some things is a disparagement and a dis-

HeB. XII. 14,] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 171

honour to them — as an old garment that is past wearing, and an old
house that is past mending, and an old ship that is past rigging ; so
the stamp of antiquity upon other things is a praise and an honour to
them — as old gold, old friends, old manuscripts, old monuments, old
scars, and old holiness. The stamp of antiquity upon hohness is the
praise and honour of holiness. Look, as it is an honour to a man to
be descended of an ancient house ; so it is an honour to a man to
be allied to holiness ; because sanctity is of greatest antiquity ; and
therefore, above all gettings, get holiness. But,

10. Tenthly, Consider, that of all things, holiness will render you
most beautiful and amiable. As holiness is the beauty of God,i and
the beauty of angels, so it is the beauty and glory of a Christian too.
Holiness is a Christian's greatest honour and ornament : Ps, xciii. 5,
* Holiness becometh thine house ' — that is, thy church — ' Lord, for
ever.' There is no garment that suits the church, that becomes the
church, like the garment of holiness. It is sanctity that is the church's
excellency and glory ; it is purity that is the church's ornament and
beauty. Holiness is a beauty that beautifies the church; it is the
gracefulness and comeliness of the church. Holiness is so beautiful
a thing that it puts a beauty on all things else. As holiness is the
greatest ornament of the church triumphant, so it is the greatest
ornament of the church militant, Eph. v. 26, 27. The redness of the
rose, the whiteness of the lily, and all the beauties of sun, moon, and
stars, are but deformities to that beauty that holiness puts upon us.
If all natural and artificial beauty were contracted into one beauty,
yet it would be but an obscure and an unlovely beauty to that beauty
that holiness puts upon us : Ps. xxix. 2, ' Give unto the Lord the glory
due unto his name ; worship the Lord in the beauty of hoHness : ' Ps,
xcvi. 9, '0 worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:' Ps. ex. 3,
' Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauty of
holiness.' You see beauty and holiness is by God himself still linked
together ; and those whom God hath so closely joined together, no
man may put asunder. The scripture last cited doth not only speak
out holiness to be a beautiful thing, but it speaks out many beauties
to be in holiness. Those Christians that are volunteers in the beauties
of holiness, they shall be very beautiful and shining through holiness.
Holiness casts such a beauty upon man as makes him very amiable
and desirable. The holiness of parents renders them very amiable and
desirable in the eyes of their children ; and the holiness of children
renders them very amiable and desirable in the eyes of their parents,
Isa. xxii. 21. When that incomparable lady, Cornelia, presented her
sons to the commonwealth, she said, Hcec sunt mea ornamenta — These
are my jewels ; these are my ornaments. Holy children are their pa-
rents' crown, their parents' ornaments ; no glistering gold, no sparkling
diamonds, no shining or glittering apparel, renders children so amiable
and lovely in the eyes of their parents as holiness doth. 2 The holiness
of the husband renders him very amiable in the eyes of the wife, and

^ Exod. XV. 11. Plato called God the horn of plenty, and the ocean of beauty, with-
out the least spot of injustice. God is ipsa essentialis pulchritudo, beauty itself, the
very essential idea and pure sampler of all beauties.

* Xenophon in Plutarch never prayed that his son Qryllus might be long lived, but
that he might be a good man.

172 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the holiness of the wife renders her very desirable in the eyes of her
husband. The holiness of the master renders him very lovely in the
eyes of his servants, and the holiness of the servants renders them very
comely in the eyes of their masters, &c. Jewel's holiness, Bradford's
holiness, and Bucer's holiness, rendered them very amiable and lovely,
not only in the eyes of their friends, but also in the eyes of their
enemies. There is nothing in this world that will render all sorts
and ranks of people so glorious and famous in the eyes of one another,
as holiness wiE do. Were all ranks and orders of men more holy, they
would certainly be more lovely in the eyes of one another. Oh that
all men would cease from being injurious one to another, and labour
to be more holy ! and then, I am sure, they would be more comely in
one another's eyes. Holiness is lovely, yea, loveliness itself. Purity
is a Christian's splendour and glory. There is no beauty to that of
sanctity ; nothing beautifies and bespangles a man like holiness. Holi-
ness is so lovely and so comely a thing, that it draws all eyes and hearts
to an admiration of it. Holiness is so great a beauty, that it puts a
beauty upon all other excellencies in a man. That holiness is a very
beautiful thing, and that it makes all those beautiful that have it, is
a truth that no devil can deny ; and, therefore, sirs, as ever you
would be beautiful and lovely, labour to be holy. The natural beauty
of Sarah, Kebekah, Rachel, Joseph, and Absalom, was no beauty to
that beauty, lustre, and glory that holiness puts upon a man. Deme-
trius, saith Plutarch, was so passing fair of face and countenance, that
no painter was able to draw him.i Holiness puts so rare a beauty upon
man, that no painter under heaven is able to draw him. Scipio
Africanus was so comely a person, that the barbarians in Spain stood
amazed at his comeliness. Mark vi. 20, Holiness puts such a comeli-
ness, and such an amiableness upon a person, that many admire it,
and stand amazed at it. sirs, as ever you would be amiable and
desirable, be holy ; as ever you would be lovely and comely, be holy ;
as ever you would be famous and glorious, be holy ; as ever you would
outshine the sun in splendour and glory, labour to be holy. Many
have ventured their names, their estates, their liberties, their lives,
yea, their very souls, to enjoy a lovely Bathsheba, a fair Helena, a
beautiful Diana, a comely Cleopatra, &c., whose beauties have been but
clay well coloured.^ Oh, how much more, then, should you be pro-
voked to labour and venture your all for holiness, that will imprint
upon you that most excellent and most exquisite beauty, that will to
the grave and to glory with you, yea, that will render you not only
amiable and excellent in the eyes of men, but also lovely and comely
in the eyes of God ! I remember Bernard, writing to a noble virgin
that was holy, tells her that others were clothed with purple and silk,
but their consciences were poor and beggarly ; they glistered with
their jewels, but were loose in their manners; but you, saith he, are
without meanly clad, but within shine exceeding beautiful, not to
human, but to divine eyes, Ps. xlv. 13, 14. Both in the eyes of God,
angels, and men, none shine and glister so gloriously as those that are
holy, Ezek. xvi. 1, 12. Unholy souls are foul souls, ugly souls, de-

' Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius.

* David, Theseus, Prince Paris, Mark Antony, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 173

formed souls, withered souls, wrinkled souls; they are altogether
unlovely and uncomely souls. I have read of Acco, an old woman,
who seeing her deformity in a glass, run mad. Should God but shew
unholy men their deformity in the glass of the law, it would either
make them spiritually mad, or else it would make them fall in love
with holiness, that so they might be made comely and lovely by being
made pure and holy. But,

11. Eleventhly, Consider this to provoke you to be holy ; that holi-
ness is the most gainfullest and the most thriving trade in the world.
Now that every one cries out that all trading is gone, oh that every
one would settle to the trade of holiness ! Oh, there is no gain, there is
no advantage, to the gain that comes in upon the account of godliness !
1 Tim. vi, 6, ' But godliness with contentment is great gain.' Though
godliness itself be great gain, yet godliness brings in a great deal of
gain besides itself.^ The godly man is still of the gaining side, his piety
brings him in the greatest plenty : chap. iv. 8, ' Godliness is profitable
to all things.' A man is as well able to tell the stars of heaven, and to
number the hairs of his head, as he is able to tell the several commo-
dities, or to number up the variety of blessings, or multitude of mer-
cies, that comes flying in upon the wings of godliness. Godliness hath
the promise of both lives, that is, both of earthly favours and of eternal
blessings also. It is profitable, not for some things, but for everything ;
both temporal, spiritual, and eternal blessings do grow upon this tree
of life — holiness. There is no trade to the trade of godliness : Prov.
xxii. 4, * By humility and the fear of the Lord, are riches, and honour,
and life.' Godliness hath the promise of gold as well as of grace, of
honour as well as of heaven ; of life and happiness here, as well as of
glory and blessedness hereafter. The good things of this life, as well
as the great things of a better life, follows holiness hard at heels. Holi-
ness is not a barren but a fruitful womb ; it is like that tree in Rev.
xxii. 2, which did bear twelve manner of fruits, and that yielded fruit
every month. What is of greater value among men than riches ? and
what is more glorious among men than honour ? and what is more sweet
among men than life ? Why, all these fruits, and ten thousand more,
grow upon the tree of holiness. The bag of riches, the robe of honour
and life, that is, the comfort and sweet of both, hangs all upon the back
of holiness. But that I may the more effectually win upon you, and
provoke you to look after holiness, let me by an induction of particu-
lars further confirm the truth of this last consideration, especially con-
sidering that there is no argument under heaven that is so taking with
all men as this of gain. Profit is a bait that all bite at ; it is the
great god of the world.2 And therefore thus,

(1.) First, Consider that holiness brings m present gain; and what
gain to present gain ? There are many that lay out much, and ven-
ture far, and run the hazard of all, and yet it is long before they see
returns. Oh, but holiness, that brings in present profit : Rom. vi. 22,
• But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye

1 Godliness is the greatest riches, the best treasure, the highest honour, and the most
lasting fame.

^ There is no argument to that which is drawn ab utili. ' Haec omnia tibi dabo,' said
Satan to Christ.

174 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.' The
apostle doth not say, ye may have your fruit unto holiness, but ye have
your fruit unto holiness ; he doth not say, ye shall have your fruit unto
holiness, but ye have your fruit unto holiness ; he doth not say, oh that
ye had your fruit unto holiness, but ye have your fruit unto holiness.
So Ps. xix. 11: Not only for keeping but also in keeping of his com-
mands there is great reward. Holiness is its own reward. Whilst a
Christian is in the very exercise of holiness, oh what blessed sights,
what sweet tastes, what glorious incomes,^ from heaven hath he ! Oh
the secret visits, the secret whispers, the secret joggings, the secret
love-tokens that Christians meet with in the very practice of holiness !
Holiness brings in present comfort and joy: 2 Cor. i. 12, 'For our
rejoicing is this, the testimony of our consciences, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,
we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to
you-ward.'2 There is no mirth, no joy, to that that holiness brings in.
Let a man's load be never so heavy, yet holiness will bring in that joy
that will make him bear up bravely and cheerfully under it. Holiness
brings in present peace ; hence it is that you read of ' the peaceable fruits
of righteousness,' Heb. xii. 10, 11. And holiness will bring in present
communion with God : 1 John i. 7, ' But if we walk in the light, as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another :' that is, God and
we have fellowship together, as it is ver. 3. Now to walk in the light
as he is in the light, what is it but to walk in holiness, to walk in
paths of sanctity ? for only in such paths the Lord walks. And there-
fore as you love present gain, labour after holiness. But,

(2.) Secondly, As holiness brings in present gain, so holiness brings
in the best and greatest gain ; and this I shall evidence thus :

[1.] First, Holiness will make a man rich in the midst of poverty,
James ii. 5 : Kev. ii. 9, 'I know thy poverty, but thou art rich ;'
though the church of Smyrna was poor in goods, yet she was rich
in grace, she was rich in faith, and rich in hope, and rich in patience,
and rich in contentment, &c. ; she was rich in Christ her head,
and rich in promises, and rich in experiences ; she had spiritual
riches in possession, and glorious riches in reversion. So in 2 Cor.
vi. 10, ' As poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and
yet possessing all things.' A holy man cannot be a poor man. A
holy man is still the richest man. But this is a riddle the world
understands not. The riches of a Christian have no bottom ; all
a saint's bags are bottomless bags. Experience tells us that un-
holy men's bags, purses, coffers, and mints, may be drawn dry ; but
the treasury, the riches of a saint, can never be exhausted, for he
still possesses all things in Christ and with Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23;
though he hath nothing in hand, yet he hath all things in hope ; though
he hath nothing in the cistern, yet he hath all things in the fountain. 3
Gen. xxxiii. 9, Esau could say, {Li Rah,) 'I have much;' and

^ ' In-coinings.' — G.

" Seneca, a heathen, hath confessed, that the best receipt to drive away sadness, was to
live well.

' Recollections of Sibbes are very apparent throughout this paragraph. Cf. under
' Treasure.' — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 175

it was much that an Esau should say he had much ; but says holy
Jacob, ver. 11, {Li col,) 'I have all.' Esau had much, but Jacob
had all, because he had the God of all : he had him that was all in
all. It hath been said of the great Duke of Guise, that though he
was poor as to his present possessions, yet he was the richest man in
France in bills, bonds, and obligations, because he had engaged all
the noblemen in France to himself, by preferring of them. A holy
man is the richest man in the world in promises and obligations, for
he hath the great and glorious God engaged by many thousand pro-
mises to own him, to bless him, to stand by him, to give grace and
glory to him, and to withhold nothing from him that may be good
for him, Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, 11. When wicked men brag of their lordships
and manors, and boast of their great possessions, and glory in their
thousands a year, a holy man may make his boast of God, and say,
God is mine, God is mine ; he is my great all ; he is my all in all ;
and therefore I am richer and a greater possessor than any wicked man
in the world, yea, than all wicked men in the world put together. But,
[2.] Secondly, By holiness you will gain a good report, a good name:
Heb. xi. 39, ' And these all having obtained a good report through
faith, received not the promise.' Nothing raises a man's name and
fame in the world like holiness. The seven deacons that the church chose
were holy men, Acts vi. 5 ; and they were men of good report, ver. 3 ;
they were men well witnessed unto, well testified of, as the Greek word
imports. 1 Cornelius was a holy man. Acts x. 1-4 ; and he was a man
of good report among all the nation of the Jews, ver. 22. Ananias
was a holy man. Acts ix. 10, 20 ; and he was a man of a good report.
Acts xxii. 12, Gains and Demetrius were both holy men, and they
were men of good report ; witness that third epistle of John. The
patriarchs and prophets were holy men, and they were men of a good
report: Heb, xi. 1, 2, ' For by it the elders obtained a good report;'
their hoHness did eternalize them. The apostles were holy men,
1 Thes. ii. 10 ; and they were men of a good report, 2 Cor. vi. 8.
Now certainly it is none of the least of mercies to be well reputed and
reported of. Next to a good conscience, a good report is the noblest
blessing. Good fare doth not more rejoice and strengthen the out-
ward man, the ignoble part of man, than a good report doth rejoice
and strengthen the inward man, the noble part of man : Prov. xv. 30,
' A good report makes the bones fat.' Yea, and I may add, it makes
the heart fat too. It is no small pleasure to a man to know that
others are pleased with him. Beautiful objects do not more delight
the eyes than a good report delights the ears. sirs, as ever you
would obtain a good report, you must labour after holiness. You may
obtain a great report without holiness, but you can never obtain a
good report without holiness. There is no such way to perpetuate
your names as to labour after holiness. Holiness will embalm ^ your
names, it will make them immortal : Ps. cxii. 6, * The righteous
shall be in everlasting remembrance ;' Prov. x. 7, ' The memory of
the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.' Wicked

^ A good renown is better than a golden girdle, saith the French proverb.
' Spelled •inbalm.'—G.

176 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITy, [HeB. XII. 14.

men many times outlive their names, but the names of just men out-
live them. When a holy man dies, he leaves his name as a sweet
and as a lasting scent behind him ; his fame shall live when he is
dead.i According to the Hebrew, the words may be read thus, ' The
memory of the just shall be for a blessing.' The very remembering
of the just shall bring a blessing upon them that remember them.
Whilst the just, the holy man lived, he was a blessing to those amongst
whom he lived, and when he is dead, his memory is a blessing to pos-
terity. But the name of the wicked shall rot. Whilst a wicked man
lives, he lays his name under disdain and disgrace, and when he dies,
he leaves it under an odious stink. Wickedness corrupts not only
the heart, but the name. And look, as wickedness makes a man's
soul stink in thQ nostrils of God, so wickedness makes a man's name
stink in the nostrils of men. Look, as a wicked man's body, when he
is dead, stinks under ground, so his name stinks above ground. His'
very name casts forth so stinking a savour, that all the perfumes in
the world, and all the spicery of hell, can never sweeten it. Well,
once more remember that these words, ' the name of the wicked shall
rot,' are a metaphorical speech taken from a tree, which, though for
a time it grows green and flourishes, yet at length it grows rotten ;
so though wicked men may flourish and be green and glorious for a
time, yet at last they shall rot, their names shall rot on earth, their
bodies shall rot in the grave, and their souls shall rot in hell ; but the
memory of the just shall be blessed. Next to a holy man'^ soul, there
is nothing so near and dear to him as his name ; and this God will so
perfume as that the fragrancy of it shall last for ever. The name of
a holy man shall be always as an ointment poured forth ; but the
name of a wicked man shall be always as a stinking jakes. sirs,
what a deal of stir do many men make to get a name, to get a name
to be wise, a name to be knowing, a name to be learned, a name
to be skilful, a name to be rich, a name to be great, a name to be
mighty, and a name to be valiant, &c., as Nimrod, Cain, Absalom,
Alexander, Pompey, Adrian, &c. And why then should you not
labour after holiness, that so you may get a good name, which is
rather to be chosen than riches, Prov. xxii. 1, and which is better than
precious ointment ? Eccles. vii. 1. sirs, shall many Romans and
others run the hazard of damning their souls to immortalise then-
names, and will not you labour after holiness to eternalize yours ?
There is no way to a good name, to a good report, but by getting of
holiness.

[3] Thirdly, By holiness you will gain a hiding-place, a shelter, a
refuge in stormy and tempestuous times : Prov. xi. 6, ' The righteous-
ness of the upright shall deliver them : but transgressors shall be
taken in their own naughtiness.' Let a holy man's enemies, dangers,
snares, hazards, be never so many, yet his righteousness shall shelter
him against all, Isa. iii. 10, and xxvi. 20, 21. In the midst of
trouble, holiness will keep a man from trouble ; and in the midst
of dangers, holiness will keep a man from dangers, Isa. xliii. 2-4 ;
John xiv. 1. Holiness is the most sovereign antidote in the world

Holy Abel hath been dead above this five thousand years, and yet his name is as
fresh and fragrant as a rose to this very day, Heb. xi. 4.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 177

against all the troubles of tliis life. Noah's sanctity was Noah's safety
in the midst of a deluge : and Lot's piety was Lot's security in the
day of Sodom's ruin and misery : and the three children's innocency
was a waU of fire about them in the midst of the fiery furnace : i and
David's integrity was a shield and buckler against Saul's rage and
cruelty. So in Pro v. xiii. 6, ' Righteousness keepeth him that is
upright in the way : but wickedness overthroweth the sinner.' There
is no guard, no protection against troubles and dangers, to that of
righteousness. Righteousness and holiness is the most puissant army,
and the strongest tower of defence against all hazards and enemies.
The Hebrew word that is here rendered keepeth, is from natsar, that
signifieth to keep with the greatest care, diligence, and vigilancy that
can be ; it signifies to preserve and keep, as a man would preserve and
keep the apple of his eye, which is the chiefest and the tender est piece
of the tenderest part, Deut. xxxii, 14 ; and it signifies to keep, as
a man would keep ammunition and provision from fire, or from
treacherous hands, when a powerful and enraged enemy is drawing
near, Nah. ii. 1. Why, says he, look how careful and diligent, &c.,
men are to keep and preserve those things that are most near and dear
unto them, and that are most highly prized and valued by them ;
so will righteousness and holiness preserve and keep the righteous man
in times of trouble and danger. So in Ezek. xiv. 14, 20, ' Though
these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should
deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord.
Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God,
they shall deliver neither son nor daughter ; they shall but deliver
their own souls by their righteousness.' ^ These three, Noah, Daniel,
and Job, were very holy men, they had great interest in God, and
were very prevalent with God. But the decree being gone forth, they
could not prevail with God for others ; yet their righteousness should
be their own perservation, safety, and security, in days of calamity and
misery. So in Isa. xxxiii. 15, 16, ' He that walketh righteously, and
speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth the" gain of oppressions, that
shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from
hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing of evil, he shall
dwell on high ; his place of defence shall be the munition of rocks,
bread shall be given him, his waters shall be sure.' Let us dive a
little into this admirable promise: 'He shall dwell on high;' but
rather as the Hebrew hath it, ' He shall dwell on heights.' If the
holy man were among his enemies, he might be in danger, but he
shall dwell on heights, on many heights, and many ascents, he shall
be out of harm's way, out of gun-shot, he shall be above the reach of
danger. Oh! but his enemies may raise up mounts, and so get as high
as he is. Well, grant that, but yet they shall not hurt him ; for he is
in a place of defence. Oh! but though he be in a place of defence,
yet his defence is not so strong but it may be broken down and
destroyed. No, not so, for his place of defence shall be the munitions

^ They walked up and down in the fiery furnace, as a man walks up and down in a
pleasant garden.

^ Saints may prevail with God for themselves, when they cannot prevail with him for
others.

VOL. IV. M

178 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

of rocks ; many rocks, and many munitions of rocks, shall be the place
of his defence ; and therefore his defence is impregnable and invincible.
Oh ! but though his defence be munitions of rocks, yet he may be
famished, he may be starved out, for rocks are barren places, and
there is no ploughing and sowing upon rocks. No, he shall not be
starved nor famished out of his strong place of defence ; for bread shall
be given him, God will spread a table for him. Oh ! but though he
hath bread, yet he may perish for want of water ; for he hath no faith,
skill, nor power to fetch water out of a rock : Moses had not, and he
hath not, and therefore he may be forced to deliver up his place of
defence for water to quench his thirst, as king Lysimachus and others
have done.^- No, not so, for he shall have water too. Ohl but his
water may be spent, his water will not always last, his well, as well as
Hagar's bottle, may be dry, his pipes may be cut off, or the water
that now supplies him may be turned another way. No, not so, for
his water shall be sure. Oh ! the safety and security of holy men !
Plutarch, in the life of Alexander, tells us, that when he came to
besiege the Sogdians, a people who dwelt upon a rock, or such as had
the munition of rocks for their defence, they jeered him, and asked
him whether his soldiers had wings or not ; for, said they, except
your soldiers can fly in the air, we fear you not. Such is the safety
of God's holy ones, that they need not to fear. There are no ladders
long enough to scale their place of defence, nor no artillery or engine
strong enough to batter down their munitions of rocks. There is an
apologue how the dove made moan to her fellow-birds of the tyranny
of the hawk ; one counsels her to keep below ; but saith another, the
hawk can stoop for his prey ; another advised her to soar aloft ; but
saith another, the hawk can mount as high as she ; another wished
her to shroud herself in the woods, for there she should be secure ; but
saith another, alas ! there is the hawk's manor, the place where he
keeps court ; another bids her keep the town ; but saith another, that
is to become a prey to man ; but at last one bids her rest herself in
the holes of the rock, and there she should certainly be safe, for
violence itself could not surprise her there, and there she was safe.
Dove-hke saints, they have their munitions of rocks to fly to, and there
they shall be safe. sirs 1 there is no breastplate to that of right-
eousness, there is no armour of proof, no munitions of rocks, to that of
holiness. Noah's holiness was an ark to save him, when Nimrod's
Tower of Babel, which was raised five thousand one hundred forty-
six paces high, could not secure him. 2 And therefore as you tender
your own safety and security in times of trouble and calamity, oh,
labour to be holy.

[4.] Fourthly, By holiness you will gain deliverance from death in
death : Prov. xi. 4, ' Kiches profit not in the day of wrath : but right-
eousness delivereth from death ;' and chap. x. 2, 'Treasures of wicked-
ness profit nothing, but righteousness delivereth from death.' Many
treasuries of the most precious jewels that be in the world cannot
ward off a blow, a disease, a sickness in the day of God's wrath. It
is not the crown of gold that can cure the headache; nor the golden
sceptre that can cure the palsied hand ; nor the necklace of pearl that

* As before.— G. » Hejlin. Cosm., lib. iii.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 179

can cure the aching teeth ; nor the honourable garter that can ease
the gout ; nor the purple robe that can chase away the burning fever ;
nor the velvet slipper that can heal the kibe-heel : 1 no more can
treasures of gold or silver deliver from wrath, or help in a day of
death. Oh, but righteousness, that delivers from death. Look, what
the sword, the shield, the helmet, the breastplate, the coat of mail, is
to the soldier in the heat of battle, that, all that, and more than
that, is righteousness to the righteous in the day of death. 2 Eight-
eousness or holiness of affection, of action, of life and conversation,
delivers from spiritual death, and from eternal death, yea, it dehvers
from the evil, the hurt, the horror, the terror, the dread, and the
sting of temporal death. Piety delivers not only from the second
death, but also from all the evils and miseries of the first death
too. As the righteousness of the righteous wiU be a royal protection
to him, both against the day of wrath, and the wrath of the day ; so
the righteousness of the righteous will be a royal protection to him,
both against death, and against all the evils of death. Kighteousness
unstings death, it takes away the venom, the poison and bitterness of
death ; it turns that curse into a blessing, that punishment into a
benefit, that night of darkness into a day of light, that wilderness
into a paradise, that hell into a heaven : Prov. xii. 28, ' In the way
of righteousness is life, and in the path thereof there is no death.'
In the way of righteousness is (chaum) lives ; so the Hebrew hath it,
in the way of righteousness there are many lives : in that way there is
spiritual life, and eternal life, and natural life, and all the comforts,
and sweets, and blessings, and happiness of that life, without which
man s life would be but a lingering, a languishing death ; yea, a hell
rather than a heaven unto him. ' And in the path thereof there is no
death.' There is no spiritual death, there is no eternal death, yea,
there is no corporal, no temporal death to hurt or harm them, to
sting or terrify them, to damage or disadvantage them : for death is
an outlet and an inlet to a holy man : it is an outlet to sin, to sorrow,
to shame, to suffering, to afflictions, to temptations, to desertions, to
oppressions, to confusions, and to vexations ; and it is an inlet to a
more clear, full, and constant fruition of God and Christ, and an inlet
to the sweetest pleasures, the purest joys, the highest delights, the
strongest comforts, and the most satisfying contentments. Death is
the funeral of all a holy man's sins and miseries, and it is the resurrec-
tion of all his joys, and the perfection of all his graces and spiritual
excellencies.3 Death to a holy man is nothing but the changing of
his grace into glory, his faith into vision, his hope into fruition, and
his love into perfect comprehension. The Persians had a certain day
in the year in which they used to kill all serpents and venomous
creatures: such a day as that will the day of death be to a holy
man. Feccatum erat obstetrix mortis, et mors sepulchrum peccati: '

^ 'Bruised' heel. — G.

* Nugas the Scythian king despised the rich presents and ornaments that were sent
unto him by the Emperor of Constantinople, because they could not ward off sorrow,
sickness, diseases, death.

2 Death is not mors hominis, but mors peccati, not the death of the man, but the
death of his sin : Phil. i. 23; 2 Cor. v. 12, and iv. 7, 8. Death is a Christian's quietus
est, it is his discharge from all trouble and misery.

180 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Sin was the midwife that brought death into the world, and death
shall be the bearers that shall carry sin out of the world. When
Samson died, the Philistines died together with him : so when a holy
man dies, his sins die with him. Death came in by sin, and sin goeth
out by death. As the worm kills the worm that bred it ; so death
kills sin that bred it. Death cures all diseases, the aching head and the
unbelieving heart : the diseased body and the defiled soul.i At Strat-
ford Bow were burned in Queen Mary's days a lame man and a blind
man ; after the lame man was chained, casting away his crutch, he
bade the blind man be of good comfort ; for, saith he, death will cure
us both ; it will cure thee of thy blindness and me of my lameness.
Death will cure the holy man of all natural and spiritual distempers.
Death is the holy man's jubilee, it is his greatest advantage, it puts
him into a better estate than ever he had before. It is God's gentle-
man-usher to conduct us to heaven ; it will blow the bud of grace into
the flower of glory. Oh, who would not go through hell to heaven !
who would not go through a temporary death to an eternal life ! who
would not willingly march through mortality to immortality and
glory ! 2 sirs ! holiness will make you look upon death as a welcome
guest, a happy friend, a joyful messenger. It will make you kiss it
and embrace it, as Favinus the Italian martyr kissed and embraced
his executioner : it will make you desire it, and long after it with tears,
as holy Bradford did. By all this you see that holiness will deliver
you from death in death ; and therefore I shall close up this head, as
that wise and witty man, Sir Francis Bacon,^ closed up a paper of
verses : —

' What then remains, but that we still should cry.
Not to be born, or being born, to die ? '

[5.] Fifthly and lastly, By holiness you shall gain the greatest bold-
ness in the day of judgment, Job xix. 25. Nothing will embolden a
man in that great day like holiness ; holiness will then make the
face to shine indeed : 1 John iv. 17, ' Herein is our love made perfect,
that we may have boldness in the day of judgment ; because as he is,
so are we in this world.'* That which will make Christ's last appear-
ance delightful to Christians, will be their likeness to Christ in holi-
ness : in nature and grace likeness begets the greatest boldness. As
there is no child so bold with the father, as he that is most like the
father, so there is no Christian so bold with Christ, as he that is most
like to Christ. A holy Christ is most familiar with a holy Christian ;
and a holy Christian is most bold with a holy Christ. The more a
Christian is like to Christ in holiness of heart and life, in holiness of
affection and conversation, the more divinely bold and famiHar will
that man be with Christ, both in this world and in the great day of

^ Ultimus morborum medicus mors. [Foxe] Acts and Mon., fol. 1733.

2 Death is but an entrance into life. Miseri infideles mortem appellant, fideles vera
quid nisi pascham ? Miserable unbelievers call it death, but to faithful believers, what
is it but a passover, but a jubilee? — Bernard.

" Spelled, as frequently by contemporaries,'/ Bakon.' See Works of Bacon by Spedding,
vol. vii. p. 272.— G.

* Ilafif>7]<rla signifies boldness of face, a lifting up of the face and countenance, in the
sight or face of many beholders. It signifies a freedom and liberty of speech.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 181

account ; when he that was a brat of Satan's is made a saint, when he
that was like hell is made like heaven, when he that was most ugly
and uncomely is made like him that is the holy of hohes ; this is that
which gives boldness both here and hereafter. sirs, it is not wit
nor wealth, but holiness ; it is not race nor place, but holiness ; it is
not power nor policy, but holiness ; it is not honour nor riches, but
holiness; it is not natural excellencies nor acquired abilities, but
holiness, that will give boldness in the day of Christ's appearing : 1
Pet. i. 5-7, ' A well-tried faith,' which is but a branch of holiness,
* shall be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ.' At the coming of Christ, holiness shall be a man's
praise and honour and glory. In that great day when shame and
everlasting contempt shall be poured forth upon the great monarchs
of the world, who have made the earth to tremble, ' when the kings
of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief cap-
tains, and the mighty men, &c., shall cry out to the mountains and
rocks to fall upon them, and to hide them from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,' Kev. vi. 15-
17 — then, I say, ' then shall the righteous shine as the sun in the firma-
ment,' Dan. xii. 1-3. In life and death, and in the day of account, a
righteous man will be as bold as a lion, Prov. xxviii. 1. Beal holiness
will make a man death-proof, and hell-proof, and judgment-proof. The
day of judgment will be to a holy man a marriage-day, a day of redemp-
tion, a day of coronation, a day of exultation, and therefore hq may well
lift up his head and rejoice. Look, as the Israelites who had the blood
of the pa ssover on their door-posts, though the destroyer was abroad, and
a dreadful cry was all over Egypt, yet they were not slain, not stricken,
Exod. xii. 7, 11; they did not fear nor tremble, but had their loins
ready girt, and staves in their hands, boldly and cheerfully expecting
when the happy and joyful hour of their redemption would come, Heb.
ix. 14: so those that have the door-posts of their hearts and con-
sciences sprinkled with holiness, in this terrible day of the Lord, they
shall with boldness and cheerfulness lift up their faces, because the
day of their redemption is come. And this made Luther say that he had
rather never have been born, than not to be in hope of this day.i This
day to God's holy ones will be melodia in aure, juhilum in corde, Like
music in the ear, and a jubilee in the heart. It is true, the un-
godly shall not stand in judgment, Ps. 1. 5 ; 2 Thes. ii. 7-10. Stand
they must to be arraigned, sentenced, and condemned. Stand they
shall, but not with any boldness or cheerfulness, comfort or content.
Stand they shall, but not to be approved, acquitted, or absolved.
Chaff and stubble cannot stand before that God that is a consiuning
fire, Heb. xii. 29. When Belshazzar saw the handwriting upon the
wall, oh, how was he affrighted, how was his countenance changed, his
joints loosed, and his knees dashed one against another ! Dan v. 5, 6.
Oh, how do many ungodly men now tremble at a thunder-crack in the
clouds, and at a flash of lightning in the air! but how will they
tremble and quake when the whole frame of heaven and earth shall
break in pieces, and be set in a flame about their ears ! Oh, what
trouble of mind, what horror and terror of conscience, what weeping
^ Sermon de Signis prse. extr. Jud.

182 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XTI. 14.

and wailing, what crying and roaring, what wringing of hands, what
tearing of hair, and what gnashing of teeth will there be among the
ungodly in this day, when they shall see their sins charged on them
on the one side, and divine justice terrifying them on the other side !
when they shall look upward, and there see an angry God frowning
upon them, and look downward, and there see hell gaping ready to
receive them, and look inward, and there find conscience accusing and
gnawing of them ! when they shall look on their right hands, and
there behold the good angels standing with so many flaming swords
to keep them out of heaven, and look on their left hands, and there
behold the devil and his angels ready pressed to drag them down to
the lowest hell ! oh, now how will they wish for the rocks to fall
upon them, and the mountains to cover them ! how will they wish
that they had never been born, or that they might now be unborn ! how
will they now wish that their immortal souls were mortal, or that their
souls might be turned into the nature of beasts, birds, stones, trees, or
air, or anything rather than what they are ! I have read ^ a story of
two soldiers, who being in the valley of Jehoshaphat, in Judea, the one
said to the other. Here in this place shall be the general judgment,
and therefore I will now take up my place where I wiU then sit ; and
so, lifting up a stone, he sat down upon it, as taking possession
beforehand; but being sat, and looking up to heaven, such a quaking
and trembhng fell upon him, that, falling to the earth, he remembered
the day of judgment with horror and amazement for ever after. But
alas ! what heart is able to conceive, or what toiigue is able to express,
the fear and dread, the horror and terror, the astonishment and
amazement that will fall upon all ungodly persons in this day ! And
yet even now Grod's holy ones shall lift up their heads and hearts :
they shall be bold and steadfast, they shall be far from fear, shame, or
trembling. And thus you see that godliness, that holiness is the most
gainful trade. And therefore, sirs, as you love gain, as you tender
your own profit and advantage, labom- to be holy. But,

12. Twelfthly, Consider this, that holiness will put the greatest splen-
dour and majesty upon persons that can possibly be put upon them,
Job xxix. 8-11 ; Pro v. xii. 26. There is nothing that imprints
such a reverence and majesty upon man as holiness doth. There is
nothing that is such a grace to man as grace. It is holiness that puts
the greatest excellency and majesty upon man : Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to
the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all
my delight.' Saints are the most excellent ones. The Hebrew word
(veadire from adar) that is here rendered excellent, signifies (magni-
Jicis) the magnificent ones, or the noble, glorious, or wonderful ones. 2
Saints or holy persons are the most excellent, magnificent, noble, and~
glorious ones ; and in Dan. viii. 24 the holy people are called mighty,
because there are no people upon the earth that have might and
majesty stamped upon them as they have : Cant. vi. 10, ' Who is she
that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners ?' 3 The light, grace, glory, and

1 Holcot. [Qu. 'Murcot'?— G.] ^ Arias Montanus, Junius, &c.

2 Some by the moon understand inherent righteousness, and by the sun they under-
stand imputed righteousness.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. l83

holiness of the church rises by degrees : and this makes her terrible
to all her enemies. Every degree of holiness is terrible to the unholy;
but the higher the church rises in holiness, the more terrible and
majestical it grows. Holiness puts such a splendour and graceful
majesty upon all persons that have it, as even dazzles the eyes some-
times of wicked men, and begets in them an awe and reverence ; as it
is evident in Saul : 1 Sam. xxiv. 17, ' And Saul said to David, Thou
art more righteous than I : for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas
I have rewarded thee evil.' So Herod : in Mark vi. 20, it is said
that he ' feared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy, and
observed him.' Holiness is very majestical. The greatest monarchs
fall down before it. Herod reverences John, not for his birth or
breeding, but for his holiness : not for his arts or parts, but for his
holiness : not for his scholarship or greatness, but for his holiness. So
that great monarch king Joash fell down before the holiness of
Jehoiada whilst he lived, 2 Kings xi. 1, 2, &c. And so did the holiness
of the three children command respect and honour from that great
monarch Nebuchadnezzar. And so did the holiness of Daniel cause
king Darius to reverence him, and to cast a favourable aspect upon
him, Dan. iii. And so did the holiness that was written upon Judas
the high priest cause Alexander the emperor to reverence him, and
to fall down before him.i In hoUness there is such a sparkling lustre,
that none can behold it but must admire it, and bow before the
graceful majesty of it. It is not greatness but grace, it is not riches
but righteousness, it is not outward pomp or splendour, but hoHness,
that can overawe the vain spirits of men. A holy life is the upbraid-
ing of that which is corrupt : Wisdom ii. 15, 12, ' He is grievous unto
us, even to behold him ; for his life is not like other men's, his ways
are of another fashion, he upbraideth us with our offending the law.'
Grace wiU make a man majestical among those that have no grace.
Bradford was had in so great reverence and admiration for his holi-
ness, that a multitude that never knew him but by fame, greatly
lamented his death, yea, and a number of Papists also wished heartily
his life. 2 Holy men have a daunting presence and majesty with them,
as Athanasius had, and Basil had ; for when Valens the emperor
came to surprise him, he being in holy exercises, such a splendour and
majesty was upon him, that it struck such a terror into the emperor
that he reeled, and had fallen backward, had he not been upheld by
those that were with him.s Henry the Second, king of France, being
present at the martyrdom of a certain tailor, who was burnt by him
for his religion, and so terrified by the boldness of his countenance,
and by his holy and gracious behaviour in his sufferings, that he
swore at his going away that he would never be present at such a
sight more.* It is very observable, that the moral virtues of the
heathen did put a great deal of splendour and majesty upon them :
to instance only in Cato ; Cato was a man of much justice and integ-
rity ; he was a man of an unspotted conversation and of high reputa-
tion among the Komans.^ Now his morahty put such a splendour

1 Quintus Curtiua evi nomine.— Q. * [Foie] Acts and Mon., page 1458.

» Greg. Orat. de laude Basilii. * Epiet. Hiflt. Gall., 82.

* Valer. Max., lib. ii. cap. 5.

184 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and majesty upon him, that when he was present the very worst
of the worst durst not in speech or gesture discover any impiety or
immodesty, any wantonness or wickedness. Now certainly if morality
puts such a splendour and majesty upon men, true sanctity will put
much more upon them. And therefore, sirs, as ever you would have
a splendour and majesty upon you, labour to be holy. Maximilian the
emperor had such a presence and majesty with Mm, that a stranger
that never saw him before, pointed him out among thirty great per-
sons. sirs, it is not the gray beard, nor the purple robe, nor the
grim look, that makes a man so much a man of presence and majesty,
as holiness doth ; and therefore as you would indeed be men of pres-
ence, men of majesty, labour to be holy. But,

13. Thirteenthly, Consider that the times and seasons ivherein ive
live call aloud for holiness. Many say the times are bad, very bad,
extreme bad : ay, and let me teU you that your hearts and lives are
bad, very bad, extreme bad ; and it is these that have made the times
so bad, so very bad, so extreme bad. It is in vain to talk of better
times, or wish for better times, till you mend your manners, and get
better hearts. The times would quickly mend, if every man would
but in good earnest labour to mend one. If your hearts and lives
were but more holy, the times would quickly be more happy. You
say you shall never have peace and prosperity till all be brought to
uniformity in religion; but I say you shall never have any lasting
peace, felicity, or prosperity till you come to be holy : 2 Kings ix. 22,
' And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace,
Jehu ? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of
thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?' The interro-
gation carries with it a strong negation, ' What peace ? ' that is, there
is no peace to such a wicked wretch as thou art : thou mayest wish
for peace, and dream of peace, and long for peace, and look for peace,
and pursue after peace, and yet thou shall be far off from peace.
What Jehu said to Joram, I may say to all unholy persons. What
peace and what prosperity can you expect whilst your drunkenness,
and uncleanness, and worldliness, and lukewarmness, and dead-heart-
edness, and wantonness, and wickedness remains? what good days,
what happy year can you look for, whilst your formality, and indiffer-
ency, and hypocrisy, and infidelity, do bear witness against you ? So
when Israel was very superstitious and vain in her worship, then
' there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in,
but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of the countries. And
nation was destroyed' (or beaten in pieces) ' of nation, and city of city ;
for God did vex them with all adversity,' 2 Chron. xv. 5, 6.1 When
men are unholy, God will vex them ; he will vex them with adversity,
he will vex them with all adversity. When nations are ungodly, God
will destroy them ; he will beat them in pieces, he will beat them in
pieces one against another. When there is no holiness in him that
comes in, nor in him that goes out, then there shall be no peace to

^ Ver. 3 doubtless relates to Jeroboam's and the ten tribes' first revolt from the house
of David, and from the house of God, and from all his ordinances ; and this was a very
wicked and unholy time, as is evident in several scriptures.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 185

him that goes in, or to him that goes out. When all is said that can
be said, and when all is done that can be done, wicked men will still
be as unquiet as the raging and foaming sea, Isa. Ivii. 20, 21. God
will one day or another be still at war with that man that is at peace
with his sin. It is said of the locusts that came out of the bottomless
pit, in Rev. ix. 7-9, that ' they were like unto horses, and on their
heads were as it were crowns of gold, and their faces as it were faces
of men, and their hairs as the hair of a woman, and their teeth were
as it were the teeth of lions,' &c. Here are quasi horses, qtiasi crowns
of gold, quasi faces of men, quasi hairs of a woman, and quasi teeth
of lions, &c. Now just such things are all the comforts and content-
ments of unholy persons : their gold and silver, is but as it loere gold
and silver ; and their prosperity and plenty, is but as it were prosperity
and plenty ; their peace and tranquillity, is but as it were peace and
tranquillity ; and their victories and triumphs, are but as it were vic-
tories and triumphs ; and their joys and rejoicings, are but as it were
joys and rejoicings. But mark, when the holy evangelist comes to set
down a description of the locusts' tails, he doth not say that there were
as it were stings in their tails, but in plain, positive, downright terms
he tells you that there were stings in their tails ; ver. 10, he tells you
that their stings were true stings, real stings, certain stings. And so
while men remain unholy, there are sure and certain stings in the tails
of all their comforts, contentments, and enjoyments. The best way on
earth to have a sure, a sound, a solid, a lasting peace with God, with
ourselves, and with others, is to put on holiness as a robe upon us,
Job xxix. 14, and to put all iniquity far from us, Job xi. 13, 20.

O sirs, the worser the times are, the better should every man
labour to be. Many complain of burdens, taxes, oppressions, and
vexations ; and they say with those, that ' judgment is turned back-
ward, and that justice standeth afar off, and that truth is fallen in the
street, and that equity cannot enter, and that he that departeth from
evil maketh himself a prey ; that judgment is far from us, and that
justice doth not overtake us ; that we wait for light, but behold
obscurity ; for brightness, but behold darkness ; that we grope for the
wall like the blind, that we grope as if we had no eyes, that we
stumble at noonday, that we roar all like bears, and mom-n sore like
doves ; that we look for judgment, but there is none ; and for salva-
tion, but it is far off from us,' Isa. lix. 9-11, 14, 15. These and a
thousand more such complaints may be found amongst us. This
scripture last cited, puts me in mind of a strange, but yet of a very
true saying, viz., that there is more justice and equity in hell, than
there is in France : for in hell the oppressor is oppressed ; in hell he
that would not give a crumb of bread, shall not have a drop of water.
In hell such as shed innocent blood, have blood to drink ; in hell there
are no bribes ; in hell there is none to plead an unrighteous cause ; in
hell there is no respect of persons ; in hell every man hath accord-
ing to his deserts : but in France it is otherwise, &c. And do not
the strong cries, tears, sighs, groans, and complaints of the poor
and needy, of hirelings, orphans, and widows, &c., in most nations
strongly demonstrate that there is more justice and equity in hell, than

186 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

there is in most of the nations of the earth ? But now what is the
choicest salve for all these sores ? Certainly holiness. What is the
most sovereign remedy against all these maladies ? Nothing but
holiness. sirs, the more holiness rises in a nation, the more will
righteousness run down as mighty streams, and the more the hearts of
the poor and needy will leap and sing for joy. There is no way to
make a nation happy, but by making of it holy. sirs ! as you are
men, as you are Englishmen, as you love your country, as you honour
your king and country, and as you desire the peace, prosperity, and
felicity of your country, labour to be holy. England, England, it
is holiness that will be a wall of fire about thee, and a glory in the
midst of thee : it is holiness that will make thee happy at home, and
prosperous abroad. Among all Englishmen, there is no man to the
holy man. Certainly that man that is most busy about mending his
own heart and life, contributes most to the mending of the times.
There are many sturdy blades i that will talk stiffly for their country,
and that say that they will stand stoutly for their country, and yet by
their daily ungodliness they do undo their country. These men
destroy by their lives what they seem to build with their hands. And
therefore, as ever you would have all things that are out of order in
order, labour for a weU-ordered heart, and a well-ordered life. Holi-
ness of conversation is the best means under heaven to prevent con-
fusion and desolation.

Again, if you wUl look upon the present times as times wherein the
judgments of God are abroad in the world — I say, if you will thus look
upon them, then, I say, the times call aloud upon you for holiness : Isa.
xxvi. 9, ' When thy judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants
of the world will learn righteousness.' sirs ! when garments are
rolled in blood, when the sword devours the flesh of the slain, when
justice lays heap upon heap, when pestilence and famine destroys all
on the right hand and on the left, oh ! then every one will say. Come,
let us break off our sins, let us turn to the Lord, let us mend our ways,
and reform our lives, and get holiness into our hearts. We behold
many sorer, heavier, and worse judgments than these are upon us this
day, if we had but eyes to behold them. Oh, that hardness of heart,
that barrenness of soul, that blindness of mind, that searedness of con-
science, that perverseness of spirit, that superstitious will-worship, and
that looseness of life that multitudes are given up to this day ! Oh,
those God-dishonouring, those Christ-denying, those ordinance-despis-
ing, those conscience-wasting, those life-corrupting, and those soul-
damning opinions, principles, blasphemies, and practices that multi-
tudes are given up to this day ! Oh, the spiritual decays, the spiritual
witherings, the spiritual slumberings, the spiritual faintings, the
spiritual languishings that are to be found among a professing people
this day! ^ Now certainly there are no judgments to spiritual judg-
ments ; none reach the soul like these, none separate between God and

^ ' Active young men.' — G.

" Ps. Ixxviii. and Ixxxi. 12. That which was wont to be said of Africa, that it was
ever a-producing some new monster or other, may be said of the age, yea, of the land
wherein we live, 2 Thes. i. 8, 9; Amos viii. 11, 12.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 187

the soul like these, none lay men open to temporal and eternal judg-
ments like these. Spiritual judgments are the most insensible judg-
ments, they are the most dreadful judgments, they are the most incur-
able judgments, they are the most damningjudgmentsof all judgments.
Spiritual judgments have most of wrath, and most of horror, and most
of heU in them. Oh that now these terrible judgments are abroad in
the earth, you would learn righteousness, that you would learn to be
holy ! For as there is no such sense against temporal judgments as
holiness, so there is no such sense against spiritual judgments as holi-
ness. Oh, the spiritual strokes, the spiritual arrows, the spiritual dis-
eases, the spiritual sicknesses, the spiritual plagues that are abroad in
the world ! and oh that the dread and sense of these might provoke
you and prevail with you to labour after real holiness, to labour after
the power of godliness, which will be your greatest security against
these most deadly and soul-killing maladies !

Again, the days and times wherein we live call aloud for holiness.
If you look upon them as days and times of grace, what greater and
higher engagements to holiness were ever put upon a people, than those
that God hath put upon us, who enjoy so many ways, means, and helps
to make us holy ? Oh, the pains, the care, the cost, the charge, that
God hath been at, and that God is daily at, to make us holy ! ^ Hath
he not sent, and doth he not still send his messengers, rising up early,
and going to bed late, and all to provoke you to be holy ? Have not
many of them spent their time, and spent their strength, and spent
their spirits, and spit up their lungs, and spent their very lives to make
you holy ? sirs f what do holy ordinances call for, but holy hearts
and holy lives ? What do days of light call for, but walking in the
light, and casting off the deeds of darkness ? What is the voice. of aU
the means of grace, but this. Oh, labour to be gracious ? And what
is the voice of the Holy Spirit, but this. Oh, labour to be holy ? And
. what is the voice of all the miracles of mercy that God hath wrought
in the midst of you, but this, ' Be ye holy, be ye holy ' ? sirs, what
could the Lord have done that he hath not done to make you holy ?
Hath he not lifted you up to heaven in respect of holy helps ? Hath
he not to this very day followed you close with holy offers, and holy
entreaties, and holy counsels, and holy encouragements, and all to
make you holy ? And will you be loose still, and proud still, and
worldly still, and malicious still, and envious still, and contentious
still, and unholy still ? Oh, what is this, but to provoke the Lord to
put out all the lights of heaven, to drive your teachers into corners, to
remove your candlesticks, and to send his everlasting gospel, that hath
stood long a-tip-toe, among a people that may more highly prize it,
and dearly love it, and stoutly defend it, and conscientiously practise
it, than you have done to this very day ? Eev. ii. 4, 5 ; Isa._ xxxii. 25. By
what hath been said, I suppose there is nothing more evident than that
the times and seasons wherein we live calls aloud upon every one to look
after holiness and to labour for holiness ; never complain of the times, but
cease to do evil, and labour to do well, and all will be well ; get but

1 Jer. vii. 13, 25; ixv. 3, 4; and xxiv. U, 15; Isa. xlix. 4, 5; 2 Cor. xu. 14, 15; Kom.
xiii. 11-14.

188 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

better hearts and better lives, and vou will quickly see better times,
Isa. i. 16-19.

14. Fourteenthly, Consider that holiness will render you most like
to a holy God, a holy Christ, and to holy angels. God is frequently
called the Holy One in Scripture ; he is called the Holy One above
thirty times in the Old Testament. Angels are holy, and saints are
holy, but it is God alone that is the Holy One.i His person is holy,
Isa. vi. 3 ; his name is holy, Luke i. 49 ; his works are holy, Ps. xlv.
17; his judgments are holy, Ps, xxii. 1-3; his habitation is holy, Isa.
Ivii. 15; his temple is holy, 1 Cor. iii. 17; his kingdom is holy. Rev.
xxi. 27; his word is holy, Ps. xix. 7; and his Sabbaths are holy, Exod.
xvi. 23. Now this is God's own argument, ' Be ye holy, for I am
holy,' Lev. xix, 2 ; 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. Concerning the holiness of God,
I shall speak at large, by divine assistance, when I come to press you
upon perfecting of holiness ; and therefore let this touch suffice for the
present. Sirs, you cannot be h'ke to God in many other things, but
you may be like to God in this one thing, in this noble thing, in this
most necessary thing — holiness ; and therefore labour after it.

Again, as holiness will render you most like to a holy God, so holi-
ness will render you most like to a holy Christ, The apostle calls him
*the Holy One,' 1 John ii, 20. Christ is essentially holy, he is infinitely
holy, he is originally holy, he is singularly holy, he is eminently holy,
he is perfectly holy, he is transcendently holy, and he is immutably
holy. And so much the devil himself confesseth, in Mark i. 24, * I
know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God,' or rather as the Greek
hath it, a7to9, that Holy One, by way of excellency and eminency —
alluding, as some think, to Exod, xxviii. 36. Yea, Christ takes de-
light to characterise himself by this title : in Rev. iii. 7, ' These things
saith he that is holy ; ' and in Dan. ix. 25, he is called ' the most holy;'
or as the Hebrew hath it, * the holiness of holinesses.' These abstracts
speak out the vigour and strength, the eminency and excellency of .
Christ's holiness. Christ is holiness itself, yea, holinesses ; and what
do these abstracts speak out, but that perfect and complete holiness
that is in Christ ? The angels, in Isa. vi. 3, do three times iterate or
repeat, ' holy, holy, holy.' Now though some do conceive that this
threefold repetition hath reference to all the three persons, holy Father,
holy Son, and holy Spirit, yet they that will but compare the text with
John xii. 37-41, shall plainly see that it relates only to our Lord Jesus
Christ ; and so the threefold repetition denotes only the superlative
eminency of Christ's holiness. Christ is holy in his natures, in his
offices, in his purposes, in his counsels, in his word, and in his works.
His conception was holy, his conversation was holy, his converse was
holy, &c,. Acts iv. 23; Luke i, 35; Eph, iv. ; Gal. ii. 20. Holiness is
the image of Christ, it is the picture of Christ, the perfection of
Christ, it makes a man conformable to the life of Clnrist. Christ's
holiness is that noble copy after which we should all endeavour to
write. Subjects may without treason or offence attempt to be like
their prince, in wisdom, goodness, righteousness, holiness, peace, piety,

1 Gold being the most precious metal, you lay it over those things that arc most
precious to you; so doth God lay holiness over all those things that are most precious
to him.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 189

clemency, and sanctity ; though they cannot without rebelHon and dis-
obedience endeavour to be like him in power, greatness, might, majesty,
splendour, and glory : so we may safely and honourably attempt to be
like to Jesus Christ in wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, &c. ;
though we may not, attempt to be like him in his miracles, signs, and
wonders. 1 sirs ! some have counted it their greatest honour and
glory in this world, that they have been like such and such, who have
been high and glorious in the world ; and why, then, should not you
reckon it your greatest glory and happiness to be like to Christ in holi-
ness, though not in measure or quantity, yet in truth and reality ? As
you would resemble Christ to the life, labour to be holy; in other
things you cannot be like to Christ, but in holiness you may. You
cannot be like to Christ in his greatness, majesty, or glory, nor yet in
his omnipotency, omnisciency, nor omnipresence, nor yet in his general
or special providence, nor in a thousand other things, but you may be
like to Christ in his holiness. Look, as face answers to face, as Solo-
mon speaks, so you may reach to that holiness that in reality may
answer to the very holiness of Christ ; and this is your only way to be
like to Christ.

Again, as holiness will render you most like to a holy Christ, so
holiness will render you most like to the blessed angels. The blessed
angels are holy in their nature, and holy in their offices, and holy in their
actings.^ They are called holy angels : Mat. xxv. 31 , ' When the Son
of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him;'
and so in Rev. xiv. 9, 10, ' Aid he that worshippeth the beast, or that
receives his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, he shall be tor-
mented \7ith fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels,
and in the presence of the Lamb.' The angels' holiness is their con-
formity to the original pattern of purity and excellency. The crown
of holiness was set upon the heads of angels at their creation. Those
princes of glory were crowned with holiness, as it were, in the cradle.
The angels are holy in their praises, and holy in their waitings, and
holy in their operations, and holy in all their ministrations. Bodin
tells a story of one who desired of God the guidance and assistance of a
holy angel, and accordingly he had sensible manifestations of a holy
spirit that assisted him, and followed him to his death. If in com-
pany he spake any unwary words, he was sure to be advertised and
reproved for it by a dream in the night ; or if he read any book that
was not good, the angel would strike upon the book, to cause him to
leave reading in it. When that sorcerer Balaam went to curse the
people of God, a holy angel stood in the way, drew his sword upon
him, and jostled his bones against the wall, and all to prevent the
execution of his wicked and cursed intentions. Num. xxii. 22. Oh,
how much more, then, do they stand in the way of the saints, to pre-
vent those weaknesses and miscarriages which Satan and their own cor-
ruptions would otherwise carry them to ! And doubtless as they have

^ It ia Christ's particular honour to be imitated in all morals absolutely.

' All angels, in respect of their nature, are alike ; but what the particular differences are
between angels, archangels, principalities, and powers, and what their distinct offices are,
I confess, with Austin, I understand not, neither is it my duty to know, nor my danger
to be ignorant of these things, &c.

190 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

a hand to restrain the saints from evil, so they have an eye and an
influence upon them for good: 1 Tim. v. 21, 'I charge you before
God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,' &c. The holy
angels have their eyes and their influences upon us ; they are our
observers and overseers ; they are called watchers in Dan. iv. 17, for
they watch our words, and they watch our works, and they watch our
ways ; they watch us before duties, and they watch us in duties, and
they watch us after duties. They watch us before duties, to see how
we prepare and fit ourselves to meet with God ; and they watch us in
duties, to see how our graces are acted upon God, and how our hearts
and afi'ections are running out after God ; and they watch us after
duties, to see whether we walk worthy of God, and worthy of our duties,
and worthy of our profession, and worthy of our high calling, i In
times of health, strength, peace, prosperity, &c., they watch to see
how wisely, holily, humbly, fruitfully, cheerfully, and thankfully we
will walk with God ; and in times of adversity, they watch to see how
believingly, how contentedly, how self-denyingly, and how patiently
we wiU submit to God, &c. ; all which speaks out the holiness of the
angels. sirs, you cannot in this world be like to the angels in power,
strength, might, nor in agility, activity, splendour, beauty, or glory ;
but yet you may be like to them in purity and sanctity. Sirs, do not
deceive yourselves. You shall never be like to the angels in glory, if
you will not be like to them now in grace. If you will not with them
now put on the robe of holiness, you shall not with them hereafter put
on the crown of happiness. We are to foUow the examples of the
best men not an inch further than they were followers of Christ, 1 Cor.
xi. 1. Christians, saith father Latimer, are not bound to be the
saints' apes, they are not to imitate them in everything. Where their
examples were good, it is good to imitate them, and where they were
bad, it is duty to decline them. The fairest copies that ever were
written by saints have their blots, their blurs, and their erratas; and
therefore it is best, it is safest, it is noblest, to set the most exact, the
most perfect, and the most excellent copy of the angels before us, who,
as they excel in strength, so they excel in holiness also : Ps. ciii. 20,
' Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his com-
mandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.' The angels obey
divine commands readily, cheerfully, faithfully, universally, reveren-
tially, humbly, afi'ectionately, and unweariedly. sirs, such obedi-
ence, such holiness will be your honour here, and your happiness here-
after. To gather up all, as ever you would be like to a holy God, a holy
Christ, and the holy angels, labour to be holy. In hoHness you may
be like them, in other things you cannot resemble them. But,

15. In the fifteenth and last place, To provoke you to labour after
holiness, consider the stinging argument in the text, viz., that without
it no man shall see the Lord. The expression is exclusive. Now to
* see' is a Hebraism, and implies both vision and fruition. Now
without holiness, no man, be he high or low, noble or ignoble, rich
or poor, &c., shall ever come to a blessed acquaintance with God here,
or to a glorious fruition of God hereafter. friends, if it were so

^ 1 Cor. xi. 10 ; Heb. i. 14 ; Rev. xiii. 9. The angels watch you in all places, cases,
and conditionB, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 191

great a misery to Adam to be cast out of paradise, and so great a
punishment to Cain to be cast out of his father's family — which was
the only visible church of God on earth — and such a sore affliction
for the lepers in the law to be shut out from all converse with
men, and so great a trouble and torment to Absalom to be banished
his father's court, and so great a hell to Jonah to be seemingly cast
out of God's sight, and so great a tribulation to John to be confined
to the isle of Patmos ;i oh, how great a misery, how great a punishment,
how great an affliction, how great a trouble and torment, how great a
tribulation, how great a hell, will it be for aU unholy persons for ever
and ever to be banished the court of heaven, and to be shut out from
the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ! 2 Thes.
i. 7, 11. If it were such an unspeakable grief and misery to the
primitive Christians, as indeed it was, to be debarred of one another's
society and company, by being confined to isles, and mines, and
strongholds; oh, then, what an unspeakable grief and misery will it be
to all unholy persons to be for ever debarred of the blessed society of
God, Christ, angels, and saints, and to be everlastingly confined to the
strongholds of hell, and to the society and company of that damned
crew who will be still a-cursing and a-blaspheming of God, and adding
to one another's torments ! sirs, it is the sight of God in heaven
wherein man's happiness and blessedness doth consist ; it is the frui-
tion of God in heaven that is the life, the honour, the crown, and glory
of angels and saints. Heaven itself would be but a low thing, yea, it
would be but magnum nihil, a great nothing, without the sight and
fruition of God there. Now without holiness there is no seeing of
God, there is no possessing or enjoying of God, there is no possibility
of ever obtaining a part or portion in God. Ah, friends ! without
holiness all is lost. Thy soul is lost, thy Christ is lost, thy God is
lost, thy crown is lost, thy heaven is lost, thy glory is lost; and what
are all other losses to these losses? Demorrathus of Corinth 2 saith, they
lost the chiefest part of their lives' happiness that did not see Alex-
ander sit on the throne of Darius ; but what was their loss to that
unconceivable and unexpressible loss that all imholy persons must
sustain, who shall never see the King of kings in his beauty, who shall
never behold the Lord on the throne of his glory ? Well, sirs, if none
of these arguments can prevail with you to labour after holiness, I
must conclude that divine justice hath hardened you, and that Satan
hath blinded you, and that your lusts have besotted you, and that this
world hath bewitched you, and that it had been ten thousand thou-
sand times better for you that you had never been born, than to live
without holiness, and to die without holiness, and to be everlastingly
damned for want of holiness. And thus much for the motives.

I come now to lay down some means and helps to holiness. Sup-
posing that the language of some of your souls may be this : Oh, what
shall we do to be holy ! Oh, what course, what way, what means
must we use that we may obtain this holiness, without which we now
clearly see that we shall never come to a fruition of happiness!
Methinks I hear some of you crying out, Oh, none but holiness, none

» Gen. iii. and iv. 13; Lev. xiv. ; 2 Sam. xiv. 13, 14; Jonah ii.; Rev. i. 9.
* More accurately Demaratus : Plutarch, Alexander IX. — G.

192 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB, XII. 14.

but holiness ! as that martyi* once cried out, ' Oh, none but Christ,
none but Christ ! ' Methinks I hear you crying out, Oh, give me holi-
ness, or I die : as Samson once cried out, ' Give me water, or I die \
or as Kachel once cried out, ' Give me children, or I die/ So you cry
out. Oh, give us holiness, or we die ; give us holiness, or we eternally
die. Oh, what shall we do to be holy ! we see we are undone without
holiness, we shall be damned without holiness. Oh that we were but
made holy, that hereafter we may be assuredly happy !

Well, then, if you are in good earnest resolved to be holy, I would
thus advise and counsel you: First, take heed of some things: Secondly,
Labour to put in practice other things. The things that you are to
avoid and shun, even as you would shun poison in your meat, or a
serpent in your way, yea, as you would shun the devil himself, or hell
itself, are these —

I. 1. First, Take heed of mistaking some particular scriptures, as
that of Ezek. xiv. 6 ; xviii, 30-32, and xxxiii, 11, 14, 16, 19. From
these and such like scriptures, many unholy hearts are apt to conclude
that they can repent when they please, and that though they do defer
their repentance, yet it is no such difficult thing to confess their sins at
last cast, and to be sorry for their sins at last cast, and to forsake their
sins at last cast, and to beg the pardon of their sins at last cast ; and
that if they do so, God hath given his word for it, he hath given it under
his own hand, that he will pardon their sins, and save their souls. Now
to prevent these soul-undoing mistakes, thou must know, sinner,

[1.] First, That thou canst as well wash a blackamoor white at
pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well raise the
dead at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well
make a world at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst
as well stop the course of the sun at pleasure, as thou canst repent at
pleasure ; thou canst as well put the sea in a cockle-shell at pleasure,
and measure the earth with a span at pleasure, as thou canst repent at
pleasure : witness the proofs in the margin.! \ confess that if to repent
were to hang down the head like a bulrush for a day, or to whine
with Saul for an hour, or to put on sackcloth and walk, softly with
Ahab for a short space, or to confess with Judas, ' I have sinned,' or
to say with Simon Magus, ' Pray to the Lord for me,' or to tremble
with Felix for a moment — I say, if this were to repent, doubtless you
might repent at pleasure ; but alas ! friends, to repent is another thing,
to repent is the hardest and difficultest work in the world ; and that
will appear in the next particular. And therefore,

[2.] Secondly, To repent is to turn a flint into fl^sh, it is to turn
darkness into light, hell into heaven ; and is this easy ? To repent is
to make all clean : inside clean, and outside clean ; it is to make a clean
head and a clean heart ; a clean lip and a clean life : and is this easy? 2
True repentance includes a true sense of sin, a deep sorrow for sin,
a hearty loathing of sin, and a holy shame and blushing for sin ;
and is this easy ? To repent is for a man to loathe himself as well as
his sin ; and is this easy for man, that is so great a self-lover, and so

1 Jer. xiii. 23, and xxxi. 18; Lam. v. 21 ; Acts v. 31 ; Eph. i. 17-19 ; 2 Tim. ii. 25 ;
Acts xi. 18.

a Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26; Actfl xxvi. 18; Ezek. xvi. ^1-63, and xxix. 43; 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 193

great a self-exalter, and so great a self-admirer, to become a self-
loather .? To repent is to cross sinful self, it is to walk contrary tor
sinful self, yea, it is to revenge a man's self upon himself ; and is this
easy ? To repent is to pluck out right eyes, and to cut off right hands,
and offer up only Isaacs; and is this easy ? True repentance is a daily
turning of the soul further and further from sin, and a daily turning of
the soul nearer and nearer to God. It is a repentance not to be
repented of ; it is a repentance from sin, as well as a repentance for
sin. Sin hath cast the soul at such a distance from God, that though
the soul be every day a-turning nearer and nearer to God, yet it can
never, in this life, get so near him as once it was, and as in heaven it
shall be. And now tell me, soul, is this such an easy thing, to be
every day a-turning thy back upon sin, and a-turning thy face nearer
and nearer to God ? Surely no. True repentance lies in a daily dying
to sin, and in a daily living to him who lives for ever. The very life
of repentance is f he repentance of the life : and is this easy ? But,

[3.] Thirdly, True repentance is a turning, not from some sin, hut
from every sin : Ezek. xviii. 30, ' Kepent, and turn yourselves from all
your transgressions ; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.' Every sin
strikes at the law of God, the honour of God, the being of God, and
the glory of God ; and therefore the penitent must strike at all. Every
sin fetcheth blood from the heart of Christ, and every sin is a grief
and vexation to the Spirit of Christ ; and therefore the penitent must
set upon crucifying of all.l Every sin is an enemy to a man's peace,
and to a man's comfort, and to a man's confidence, and to a man's
assurance, and to a man's communion with God ; and therefore he
must set upon forsaking of all. If ever thou art saved, man, thou
must repent as well of thy Achans as thy Absaloms, of thy Kimmons
as of thy Mammons, of thy Davids as of thy Goliaths, of thy secret as
well as thy open sins, of thy loved as well as of thy loathed lusts, of
thy babe-transgressions as well as of thy giant-like provocations. If
thy repentance be not universal, it wUl never be effectual. If a ship
spring three leaks, and only two be stopped, the third will certainly
sink the shij) ; or if a man hath two dangerous wounds in his body,
and takes only order for the cure of one, the other will undoubtedly
kill him ; or if a man hath two grievous diseases upon him, and will
only deal with the physician for remedies against the one, he will
without all peradventure perish by the prevalency of the other.
Herod turned from many sins, but not from his Delilah, his Herodias,
which was his ruin. Judas, you know, was a devil in an angel's
habit ; he seemed to be turned from every sin, but he was not ; he was
a secret thief, he loved the bag ; and that golden devil, covetousness,
choked him, and hanged him at last. Saul for a time turned from
several evils, but his sparing one, Agag, cost him his soul and ,his
kingdom at a clap. I have read a story of a devout man, who
amongst other gifts had the gift of healing, and many persons resorted

^ Ezek. xviii. 21, 31, and xx. 43. He that had the spot of leprosy in anj' one part of
his body was accounted a leper, although all the rest of his body were sound and whole.
Lev. xiii. ; so he that hath but one spot, one sin which he doth not endeavour to wash
out in the blood of Christ, and in the tears of true repentance, he is a leper in the
account of God. It was an excellent saying of Luther, Optima et aptissima poeni-
tentia est nova vita.

VOL. IV. N

194 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

to him for cure. Among the rest, one Chromatins, who being sick,
«ent for him, and told him of his sickness, and desired that he might
have the benefit of cure, as others had before him. The devout man
replied, I cannot do it till thou hast beaten all the images in thy house
to pieces. Oh, that shall be done, said Chromatius. Here, take my
keys, and where you find any images, break them in pieces ; which
accordingly was done. Upon this the devout man went to prayer, but
no cure was wrought ; whereupon the sick man cried out. Oh, I am as
sick as ever ! oh, I am very weak and sick still ! It cannot be other-
wise, replied the devout person, neither can I help it, for there is
doubtless one idol yet in your house undiscovered, and that must be
defaced too. True, saith Chromatius, it is so indeed, it is all of
beaten gold, it cost £200. I would fain have saved it, but here take
my keys again, you shall find it fast locked up in my chest, break it
also in pieces ; which being done, the devout man prayed,^ and Chro-
matius was healed. The moral of it is good ; the sin-sick soul must
break, not some, but all its idols in pieces, before a cure will follow.
It must deface its golden idols, its most costly idols, its most darling
idols ; the returning sinner must make head against all his sins, and
trample upon all his lusts, or else he will die and be undone for ever ;
and though this be as difficult as it is noble, yet it is no more than
what God hath engaged to do, and to see done, as you may see by
comparing Ezek, xxxvi. 25-27 with Isa. xxx. 21, 22. Now is this
an easy thing, to turn from every sin, to loathe every sin, and to
abandon every sin, with a ' Get you hence,' for what have I more to
do with you ? Hosea xiv. 8. Surely no. As Nehemiah cast out Tobiah
and all his household stuff, in Neh, xiii. 6-8 ; so true repentance, it
casts out Satan and all his retinue. As Moses would not leave so
much as a hoof behind him, Exod. x. 26 ; so true repentance will not
leave so much as a lust behind. A dispensatory conscience is always
an evil conscience; he that can dispense with one sin, will, when
opportunity presents, commit any sin. And as the flood made clean
work, it swept away all Noah's friends, and drowned all his servants ;
so the flood of penitent tears makes clean work, it sweeps away every
lust, it drowns every corruption in respect of love and dominion. And
as some conquerors would not give so much as one of their enemies
quarter, so true repentance will not give one lust quarter; it falls
heavily upon the bones of every sin, and nothing but the blood and
death of sin will satisfy the penitent soul. The true penitent is for
the mortifying of every lust that hath had a hand in crucifying of his
dearest Saviour. It was worthily and wittily said by one, that true
repentance strips us stark naked of all the garments of the old Adam,
and leaves not so much as the shirt behind. Well, sirs, remember
this, to repent of sin, and yet to live in sin, is a contradiction ; and if
thou repentest with a contradiction, saith TertuUian, God will pardon
thee with a contradiction. Thou repentest and yet continuest in thy
sin, God will pardon thee, and yet send thee to heU ; there is a pardon
with a contradiction. Again,

[4.] Fourthly, If repentance be such an easy work as you suppose, I
beseech you tell me, why do many men lie under such horrors and
terrors of conscience as they do, for not repenting, whenas repentance

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 195

would quickly give them ease, and turn their hell into a heaven ? I
was last winter with a young man, who upon his dying bed for several
hours together, being in a dreadful agony, lay crying out, I am
damned, I am damned, I am damned, I am damned ! Ah, how soon
would this poor wretch have got out of this hell, if it had been so easy
a thing to have repented, as you imagine it is ! and how many, when
they have been pressed to repent, have professed, that if they might
have a thousand worlds to repent, they could not repent 1 And will
you say that repentance is easy ? How many have sought repentance
with tears, and would have bought repentance with the price of their
dearest blood, but could not obtain it ! and will you say that repent-
ance is easy ? sirs, is it good to be damned ? is it good to go to
hell ? is it good to dwell with a devouring fire, and to live in ever-
lasting burnings ? Is it good to have your habitations amongst devils
and damned spirits ? Is it good to be banished the court of heaven,
and to be separated for ever from the glorious presence of God, and
the sweet enjoyments of Christ, and the blessed society of angels and
saints, and the fruition of aU the happiness that heaven affords ? Oh
no ! oh no ! Oh, why then do not men prevent all this by repentance,
if it be such an easy thing to repent ! But,

[5.] Lastly, If repentance be such an easy work, ivhy then do your
hearts so rise both against the doctrine of repentance, and against those
that preach it and press it? Of all words, is not the word of repent-
ance the hardest word to read ? John vi. 60. And of all sayings and
sermons, is not that of repentance the hardest to hear and bear?
Luther confesses that before his conversion he met not with a more
displeasing word in all the Scripture, nor in all his study of divinity,
than that word repent. man ! if repentance be so easy, why doth
thy spirit rage, and why doth thy heart so swell and rise against those
that preach repentance unto life ? Of all preachers, there are none
that do so displease and move thee, that do so cut and gall thee, as
those that are still a-crying out, ' Kepent, for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand,' Mat. iii. 2. Repentance is the vomit of the soul ; and ah,
how do sinners' hearts rise against that physic, and those that bring
it ! Repentance is the bleeding of the soul ; and ah, how do wicked
men storm and take on at that hand that lets them blood ! You love
those that preach pleasing things, that tickle your ears, though they
never touch your hearts ; that please your fancies, though they never
meddle with your consciences ; and one sermon of mercy you prefer
before a thousand sermons of repentance.^ Now certainly if repent-
ance were so easy to you, the doctrine of repentance would be more
pleasing to you. For a close, know that that white devil who now
presents repentance to thee as the easiest thing in the world, he will
at last cast, to work thee to despair, and to cut the throat of thy soul,
present it not only as a hard and difiicult work, but as an impossible
work. Oh that these things may be so blessed unto you, as to preserve
you from being deceived and deluded with a conceit that repentance is
easy, and so by this means keep you from labouring to be holy !

Now as to that part of the plea, from the scriptures formerly cited—
viz., that hereafter will be time enough to repent — I shall thus reply:
1 Isa. XXX. 10 ; Jer. v. 30, 31 ; xiv. 14, and xxiii. 11 to the end.

196 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

1. First, Certainly the present call of God, the uncertainty of the
Spirit's motion, and the danger of delay, calls upon thee for present
repentance. It is a dangerous thing to deal with God, as ill debtors
do by their creditors ; first they put them off one week, and then another
week, and then a third week, &c., till at last they provoke their creditors
to cast them into prison, and to practise all severity upon them. They
that thus deal with God shall be as severely dealt with by God, as you
may see in Prov, i. 24-32. The ancient warriors would not receive an
old man into their army ; and dost thou think, vain man ! that when
thou hast spent thy time, and wasted thy strength, and exhausted thy
spirits in the work of Satan, and in the service of thy lusts, that God
will receive thee to his grace and favour ? If thou dost thus flatter
thyself, it is ten thousand to one but that thou wilt deceive thyself ;
that God, that hath made a promise to late repentance, hath made no
promise of late repentance ; and though true repentance is never too
late, yet late repentance is seldom true. Ah, how many millions are
now in hell, who have thought, and resolved, and said that they
would repent hereafter, but that hereafter never came ! Thou sayest
to-morrow, to-morrow thou wilt repent, when thou knowest not what
a to-morrow will bring forth. Alas ! how many thousand ways may
death surprise thee before to-morrow comes ! Though there be but
one way to come into the world, yet there is a thousand thousand ways
to be sent out of the world. "^ Oh, the diseases, the hazards, the dangers,
the accidents, the deaths, that daily, that hourly attend the life of
man ! A Jewish Rabbin, pressing the practice of repentance upon his
disciples, exhorted them to be sure to repent the day before they died ;
to which one of them replied, that the day of a man's death was very
uncertain ; to which the Rabbin made answer. Repent, therefore, every
day, and then you shall be sure to repent the day before you die. O
sirs, except you do repent to-day, you cannot tell that you shall repent
the day before you die ; for who knows to-day but that he may die
to-morrow ? It was once demanded of one, [Augustine,] what he
would say of a wicked man who had lived loosely but died penitently,
&c. ; to whom he replied, What would you have me to say ? That he
is damned ? I will not, for I have nothing to do to judge him. Shall
I say that he is saved ? I dare not, for I would not deceive thee.
What then ? Why, this. Repent thou out of hand, and thou art safe,
whatever is become of him. Ah, friends, you are never safe till you
repent ; it is repentance that puts you out of all danger of miscarrying
for ever. Shall the husbandman take his present seasons for sowing
and reaping ? shall the good tenant repair his house while the
weather is fair ? shall the careful pilot take his advantage of wind and
tide, and so put out to sea ? shall the traveller mend his pace when
he sees the night comes on ? and shall the smith strike when the iron
is hot ? — and shall not we take the present opportunity of repenting
and turning to the Lord, rememberiag that there will be a time
when time shall be no more ; and when there shall be no place found
for repentance, though it should be sought carefully with tears, Heb.

^ It is reported that God should say to a man who desired to repent in his old age,
Ubi conaumpsisti farinam, ibi consume/ur/urem : Where you have spent your flour, there
go spend your bran, &c.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 197

xii. 17; and remembering that there will be a time when thy glass
will be out, and when the door will be shut, and when there will
be no entrance at all, Luke xiii. 24, 27; and remembering that it
is a safer course, with prudent Prometheus, to foresee a danger and
shun it, than, with foolish Epimetheus, to go on unadvisedly and be
punished ? i

Ah friends ! it is a dangerous thing to make repentance, which should
be the practice of all your days, to be the task of old age. Doth not
common experience tell us that the longer the ship leaketh, the harder
it is to be emptied ; and that the longer the house goes to decay, the
worse it is to repair ; and that the further the nail is driven, the harder
it will be to get out ? and so certainly the longer any man defers his
repentance, the more difficult it will be for him to repent ; his heart
will every day grow more and more hard, and his will more and more
perverse, and his judgment more and more corrupted, and his affec-
tions more and more disordered, and his conscience more and more
benumbed or enraged, and his whole life more and more defiled and
debauched. Friends, do not deceive yourselves, old age is but a sad, a
sandy, a tottering and sinking foundation for you to build your hopes
and happiness upon — for you to build your everlasting condition, your
eternal making or marring upon. Are the dog-days of old age, are
the trembling hands, the wrinkled face, the dazzled eyes, the stinking
lungs, the fainting heart, the feeble knees, and the failing legs — are
these a sacrifice worthy of God ? is a body full of sores, aches, and dis-
eases, and a soul full of sin, an offering becoming a God ? Surely no.
Oh, what madness, what wickedness is this, to serve Satan, your lusts,
and this world with full dishes, and to put off God with scraps ! to
serve these in the flower, in the prime and primrose of your days, and
to put off God with the dregs of old age ! Certainly repentance is
rather a work for youth than old age, it is a work rather for strength
than weakness, and for health than sickness.^ Oh, do not let Satan
deceive you, do not let your own hearts delude you, but fall upon the
work of repentance presently, knowing that as you have one day more
to repent of, so you have one day less to repent in. What a piece of
vanity is it, that while the ship is sound, the tackling sure, the pilot
well, the sailors strong, provisions laid in, and the wind favourable,
that the mariners and passengers should lie in the road,^ carding,
drinking, dicing, dancing, and idling ; and when the ship is leak[y],
the pilot sick, the mariners faint, provisions spent, and the winds
boisterous, then to weigh anchors, and hoist up sail, to make a voyage
into a far country 1 And yet such is the vanity of most men, who in
the days of their youth, health, and strength, who when their memories
are strong, and their fancies quick, and their reason ripe, &c., do sin
away, and fool away, and trifle away the day of grace, the offers of
mercy, the motions of the Spirit, and the entreaties of Christ ; and
when old age comes, when their wits are cracked, their souls distracted,

^ What madness and folly is it for a man that hath many young, strong, stout horses,
and a long journey to go, to let these pass by, and to lay up his carriage, and get him-
self upon an old feeble jade that can hardly bear himself ! The application is easy,
Mai. i. 13, 14.

* Spelled ' rode/ meaning ' a harbour for ships.' — G.

198 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

their senses stupified, their hearts astonied, their minds darkened, and
their bodies diseased and distempered, oh, then they think to leap into
heaven, with a ' Lord have mercy upon me' in their mouths : and
though they have Hved like devils, yet they hope they shall die like
saints ; and though they never took no care of God's honour, yet they
hope that God will take care of their souls ; but when the thread of
their lives is cut, the next news that ever you shall hear of these is,
that they are gone to hell.

I have read of a young man, who being admonished of the evil of
his way and course, and being pressed to leave his wickedness, and to
break off his sins by repentance, upon the consideration of judgment,
eternity, and death a-coming : he answered, What do you tell me of
these things ? I warrant you I will do well enough, for when death
comes I wiU speak but three words, and that will help aU, and so he
went on in his wickedness : but in the end coming to a bridge on
horseback to go over a deep water, the horse stumbling, and he labour-
ing to recover his horse, could not, but at last he let go the bridle,
and gave up himself and his horse to the waters, and was heard to
say these three words, ' Devil take all.' Here were three words with
a witness ! And oh that aU that think to repent at last, with a ' Lord
have mercy upon me,' would lay this instance to heart ! The light of
thy Hfe may be put out before thou canst once say, Miserere mei Deus,
Lord be merciful to me a sinner ! Though the chariot wheels run all
the day long very near one another, yet they never overtake one
another. Oh, take heed of delaying thy repentance, for the more thou
delayest it, the more will thy account be increased, thy debt augmented,
Satan strengthened, thy body enfeebled, thy lusts emboldened, thy
soul endangered, and all the difficulties of conversion more and more
multiplied. By delaying of thy repentance thou goest the way to
gratify Satan, to cozen thyself, to lose the opportunities of grace, and
to damn thy soul for ever and ever. Well, remember this, if thou
wilt not repent to-day, God may swear in his wrath to-morrow, that
thou shalt not enter into his rest ; and then woe to thee that ever thou
wert born ! And thus much for the preventing of these sad mistakes
about repentance, which mistakes keep oiff many a man from look-
ing and labouring after that holiness without which there is no
happiness.

2. Secondly, If ever you would be holy, oh, then kike heed of a
ivitch. Take heed of the world. The world often swells the heart
with pride; it makes men forget God, neglect Christ, slight ordinances,
and despise holiness, Deut. xxxii. 15, 22. Ah, the time, the thoughts,
the strength, the spirits that this enticing world hath made many to
spend and consume, whilst their souls have lain a-bleeding, and eternity
hath been posting upon them ! Oh, the deadness, the barrenness, the
listlessness, the heartlessness to anything that is good, that doth attend a
worldly temper ! Many men are so bewitched with the profits, pleasures,
and honours of the world, that they mind not holiness, they regard not
holiness, they care not for holiness, nor the means that lead to holiness :
Phil. iii. 18, 19, ' For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and
how I tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of
Christ ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose

HeB. XII. 14 ] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 199

glory is their shame, who mind earthly things.' i Who were those that
walked disorderly? why, those that minded earthly things. Who
were those that fetched tears from the apostle's eyes ? why, those that
minded earthly things. Who were those that were enemies to the
cross of Christ ? why, those that minded earthly things. Who were
those whose end is destruction? why, those that minded earthly
things. Who were those whose god was their belly ? why, those that
minded earthly things. Who were those whose glory was their shame?
why, those that minded earthly things. SicUy is so full of sweet
flowers, that dogs cannot hunt there, [Diodorus Siculus] ; and what
do all the sweet contents and delights of this world, but make men
lose the scent of heaven and holiness? The world proves silken
halters to some, and golden fetters to others : to some it is like the
swallows' dung that put out Tobias's eyes ; to others it is like the
waters of Nilus, that makes the inhabitants deaf. All the flowers of
this world are surrounded with many briers. The world is all shadow
and vanity ; it is like Jonah's gourd — man may sit under its shadow
for a while, but it soon decays and dies. He that shall but weigh
man's pains with his pay, his miseries with his pleasures, his sorrows
with his joys, his crosses with his comforts, his wants with his enjoy-
ments, &c., may well cry out, 'Vanity of vanity, and all is vanity.'
The whole world is circular, the heart of man is triangular, and we
know a circle cannot fill a triangle. 2 sirs, if your hearts be not
filled with holiness, they will be filled with the world, the flesh, and
the devil. Either holiness or Satan must possess you. Some there
be that have much holiness, and much of the world too ; as Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, David, Hezekiah, Daniel, &c. ; and others
there be that have no holiness, nor nothing of the world neither : these
men are fair for two hells — a hell of misery here, and a hell of torment
hereafter. Some have much of the world, but not a spark of holiness ;
as Saul, Haman, Dives, Herod, &c., who had a world of wealth, but
not a drachm of grace ; and others have a great deal of holiness that
have but little or nothing of the world ; as the apostles and Lazarus,
&c., James ii. 5 ; Mat. xi. 5. Now is it not infinitely better to have
holiness without the world, and so be happy for ever, than to have
much of the world without holiness, and so be damned for ever ?

A man bewitched with the world will lose many precious opportu-
nities of grace, which are more worth than a world : witness rich Felix,
who had no leisure to hear poor Paul, though the hearing of a sermon
might have saved his soul. Acts xxiv. 24, seq. A man bewitched with
the world has his sinning times, and his eating times, and his sleeping
times, and his trading times, and his feasting times, and his sporting
times, &c. ; but he has not his hearing times, nor his praying times,
nor his reading times, nor his mourning times, nor his repenting times,
nor his reforming times, &c. He can have time, yea, and he will have
time, for everything, but to honour his God, and to make himself happy
for ever.

A man bewitched with the world will, when it is put to his choice,

^ That cardinal was wretched as well as rich, that would not leave his part in Paris
for a part in paradise. [As before. — G.]
* If the whole earth were changed into a globe of gold, it could not fill thy heart..

200 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

rather part with Christ to enjoy the world, than part with the world
to enjoy,Christ: witness the young man in the Gospel, who preferred a
drop before a sea, a crumb before a crown, and his treasure on earth
before treasure in heaven, Mat. xix. 16, 23. He would not leave that
on earth which he could not long keep, for the enjoyment of that in
heaven which he should never lose ; rather than he would let his pos-
sessions go, he would let God and Christ go, and heaven go, and all
go, &c. If heaven can be had at no cheaper a rate than parting with
his possessions, Christ may keep his heaven to himself, and make the
best on't he can if he wiU, for he 11 have none on't upon those terms.

Again, a man bewitched with the world will prefer the most base
and contemptible things before the Lord Jesus Christ ; he will, with
the Gergesenes, prefer his very swine before a Saviour, Mat. viii. 28,
seq. ; when they saw what a sad market their hogs were brought to,
they desired Christ to depart out of their country ; these Gergesites
had rather lose Christ than lose their porkers ; they had rather that
the devil should possess their souls than that he should drown their
pigs ; they prefer their- swine before their salvation, and present a
wretched petition for their own damnation ; they besought him that
he would depart out of their coasts ; though there be no misery, no
plague, no cm*se, no wrath, no hell to Clirist's departure from a people,
yet men bewitched with the world will desire this. Men bewitched
with the world will prefer a Barabbas before a Jesus ; they will with
Judas betray Christ, and with Pilate condemn Christ, and with the
Scribes and Pharisees they will cry out, ' Crucify him ! crucify
him ! ' away with this Jesus, away with this Jesus ; let Barabbas live,
but let Jesus die ; let Barabbas be saved, but let Christ be hanged.
Ah, what incarnate devils will such men prove, who are bewitched
with this world !

A man bewitched with the world will gain no good by the ministry
of the word : witness Ezekiel's hearers, Ezek. xxxiii. 31-33 ; and
witness the stony ground. Mat. xiii. 22 ; and witness Christ's fol-
lowers, John vi. Some writers say that notliing will grow where gold
grows ; certainly where the love of this world grows, there nothing
will grow that is good. A heart filled either with the love of the
world, or the profits of the world, or the pleasures of the world, or the
honours of the world, or the cares of the world, or the businesses of
the world, is a heart incapacitated to receive any divine counsel or
comfort. It is a heart shut up against God and holiness, it is a heart
possessed with many devils ; and therefore no wonder if such a heart
loathes the honeycomb of holiness ; yea, it is no wonder to see such a
heart to deride and scorn holiness as the greatest foolishness, Luke
xvi. 14. The poets tell of Lycaon being turned into a wolf; but
when a worldling is made holy, there is a wolf turned into a man,
yea, a devil turned into a saint ; therefore the Holy Ghost, speaking
of Zaccheus, who had long been bewitched by the world, brings him
in with an Ecce ! — ' Behold ! ' — as if it were a wonder of wonders that
ever such a worldling should be made holy.

A man bewitched with the world will venture the loss of his soul to
enjoy the world. Mat. xvi. 26 ; as that pope that sold his soul to the
devil for the enjoyment of the j^opedom six years. We hate the Turks

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 201

for selling of Christians for slaves ; but ah, how many be there among
us that call themselves Christians, who yet sell themselves and their
souls to the devil for slaves for half-a-crown, yea, for a halfpenny 1
Look, as Shimei, by seeking his servant, lost his life ; so many, by
seeking of the world, have lost their souls. Now though of all losses
the loss of the soul is the greatest, the saddest, the "sorest, the
heaviest, and the most intolerable, inconceivable, and irrecoverable
loss, yet a man bewitched with the world will run the hazard of
losing it, of damning it, to enjoy the world. You know the Keuben-
ites in Joshua xxii. preferred the country that was commodious for
the feeding of their cattle, — though it were far from the temple, where
they might have fed their souls, and have got heaven and holiness
for their souls, — before their interest in the land of promise. Well,
so men that are bewitched with this world in these days, oh, how do
they prefer their sensual delights, their brutish contentments, and
their carnal enjoyments, before the heavenly Canaan, and before the
beauties of hohness, and before the temple of God's holiness, where
holiness sparkles and shines in all its bravery and glory, and where their
souls might be abundantly satisfied and delighted with the most
ravishing joys, the most surpassing delights, and the most tran-
scendent pleasures which are at God's right hand! To draw to a
close, the Arabic proverb saith that Mutidus cadaver est, et petentes
eum sunt canes — The world is a carcase, and they that hunt after it
are dogs. If this proverb be true, what a multitude of professors will
be found to be dogs, who hunt more after earth than heaven, who
hunt more after terrestrial than celestial things, who hunt more after
nothingnesses and emptinesses, than they do after those fulnesses and
sweetnesses that be in God, Christ, heaven, and holiness! Well,
friends, as ever you would obtain that real holiness, without which
there is no happiness, take heed of a witch, take heed of this world ;
and to that purpose, oh that you would always look upon the things
of this world, as you will look upon them when you come to die ! Oh
that you would now look upon all the pomp, state, bravery, and glory
of the world as you will look upon it when your souls shall sit upon
your trembling lips ! Oh, with what a disdainful eye, with what a
weaned heart, do men look upon those things then ! Do so now, and
I dare assure you, that though the world may trouble you, yet it shall
never bewitch you. I have read of a man that, lying in a burning
fever, professed that if he had all the world at his dispose, he would
give it all for one draught of beer ; at so low a rate do men value the
world at such a time as that is. If men were so wise to value the
world at no higher a rate in health than they do in sickness, in life
than they do at the time of their death, it would never bewitch them,
it would never be as a wall of separation between holiness and them.
As ever jou would be holy here, and happy hereafter, take heed of
this witch, and believe it to be a witch before it hath bewitched you,
or else you may believe it too late.

3. Thirdly, If ever you would be holy, then tahe heed of comparing
yourselves ivitJi those that are, at least supposedly, loorse than your-
selves. Many there be who by comparing themselves with those that
are bad, very bad, think themselves to be good, very good, yea, to be

202 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

too good to go to hell, and yet they are not good enough to go to
heaven ; and many there be who are worse than others, and yet by
comparing themselves with those they suppose very bad, they conclude
themselves to be very good. Such a one was that proud Pharisee in
Luke xviii., who thought himself a far better man than the poor
publican, and yet he was not half so honest, nor half so just, nor haK
so righteous, nor half so good as he was. The poor publican was
ashamed of himself ; he loathed himself, he abased himself, he judged
himself, and he condemned himself. The poor publican acknowledged
God, he adored God, he dreaded God, he admired God, and he justified
God ; in all which he exceeded the proud Pharisee ; and yet, oh how
scornfully does this proud Pharisee look upon him ! and how disdain-
fully and disgracefully does he speak of him ! And this was the
general frame and temper of the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought
no man's penny so good silver as their own, who thought themselves
better than the best, when they were the very worst of the worst ; for
publicans and harlots believed and repented, and entered into the
kingdom of God before them. Mat. xxi. 31, 32. And so they in that
of Isa. Ixv. were naught, very naught, yea, stark naught ; they were
the basest among the base, they were the vilest among the vile, they
were the most rebellious among the rebeUious, and the most supersti-
tious among the superstitious : witness ver. 2-4. And yet, oh how
do they stroke themselves, and bless themselves, and commend them-
selves, and cry up themselves, and exalt themselves as the only holy
ones, ver. 5 ; they could deify themselves, and yet damn and devilify
others, though they were such monsters as God abhorred, ver. 6. Ah !
how many be there who, by comparing themselves with those that are
worse than themselves, do judge themselves to be good enough, and
holy enough ! They are good negative Christians, and they think
that is enough to bring them to heaven ; they bless themselves that
they are no Nabals for drunkenness, nor no Sodomites for filthiness,
nor no Hamans for haughtiness, nor no Amnons for lustfulness, nor
none of the old world for idleness, nor no Zaccheuses for covetousness,
nor no Laodiceans for lukewarmness, &c. They bless themselves that
they are no Gehazis for lying, nor no Shimeis for cursing, nor no
Joabs for swearing, nor no Rabshakehs for railing, nor no Doegs for
cruelty, nor no Judases for treachery, nor no Demases for apostasy, &c.
And thus they cheat themselves, and find out fine ways to delude and
damn their own souls ; they think it grace enough, and holiness enough,
that they have attained to this — viz., not to be so bad as the worst,
though they fall infinitely short of coming near unto the best. Well, sirs,
remember this, if you are not so great sinners as others, your horrors,
your terrors, your torments, your hell shall not be so great, nor so hot
as others', but without holiness you shall be as certainly damned as
others ; and what a cold comfort is this, to have a cooler and a lighter
hell than others ; and yet this is all the comfort that can be handed
to unholy hearts. But,

4. Fourthly, Take heed of flatterers. Ah ! how good might many
men have been, who are yet exceeding bad, had they not sold their
ears to flatterers. Flatterers are soul-murderers, they are soul-undoers,

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 203

they are like vain chirurgeons, that skin over the wound, but kill the
patient. Flattery is the very mother of folly, and the very nursery of
all impiety. Flatterers will cry up those for religious who are only
superstitious, and those for wise men who are foolish, and those for
knowing men, who are ignorant, and those for virtuous men who are
vicious, and those for holy men who at best are but civil, and those
for happy men who are certainly miserable. Flatterers dare call the
proud happy, and bless them whom God has cursed ; they dare call evil
good, and good evil ; they dare call darkness light, and light darkness ;
they dare say that that man has grace that has none ; yea, they dare
swear that such and such shall be saved, though for the present they
live as if they were resolved to be damned ; they dare take upon them
to tell you that such and such men's names are written in heaven, and
that such and such belong to the election of grace, though their lives
speak them out to be void of all grace. Ah ! how many a man has
been kept off from the thoughts of holiness, and from the ways of holi-
ness, and from the love and liking of holiness, by flatterers who have
flattered them, that doubtless they are in the favour of God, and that
certainly God did not make men to damn them, and that without all
peradventure they have an interest in Christ, and that there is no
question but that their hearts are as good as the best, and that their
conditions are good, and their souls happy ; yea, they are so confident
of their happiness, that they dare venture a-going to hell, if ever such
should go to hell whom they fondly flatter ; they dare pawn their
souls and their salvation on it, that such shall never miscarry ; and by
these flatteries they harden men in sin, and arm them against holiness.
Flattery is that sweet poison that has destroyed many a soul. Witness
Eehoboam, Ahab, Herod, Nero, Alexander, &c. So true is that of
the wise man : Prov. xxvi. 28, ' A lying tongue hateth those that are
afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.'i A flattering
mouth ruins name, fame, estate, life, body and soul ; it ruins a man
both temporally and eternally; it often undoes a man in both worlds ;
it makes a man miserable both here and hereafter. Flatterers are
devouring caterpillars : flatterers' tongues do more mischief than per-
secutors' swords, for their swords can but destroy the bodies of men,
but flatterers' tongues destroy the souls of men. Flatterers are the
greatest soul-cheaters and soul-undoers in the world. Flatterers dare
call vice virtue, they dare call pride neatness, covetousness good hus-
bandry, drunkenness good-fellowship, prodigality liberality, wantonness
a trick of youth, passion zeal, revenge courage, &c. They dare call
enormities infirmities, and wickednesses weaknesses ; they dare call
great sins little sins, little sins no sins ; they gild over all their poison-
ous pills with gold, they draw the fairest glove upon the foulest hand,
they lay their neatest colours upon the filthiest sores, they put their
best paint upon the worst faces, and the richest robes upon the most
diseased bodies; and by these devices they entangle many to their
utter ruin: Prov. xxix. 5,. *A man that flattereth his neighbour

1 The Hebrew word Dachah signifies to throw down, to drive on forwards till a man
falls into destruction ; none drive so furiously to the ruin and destruction of souls as
flatterers do.

204 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

spreadeth a net for his feet.' The Hebrew word — Machalik from
Chalak — that is here rendered flatterer, signifies a smooth-boots, a
soft, butter-spoken man ; because flatterers, the better to deceive, do
use to oil their tongues and to butter their lips, that so by their smooth,
soft speeches they may the more insinuate themselves into men's affec-
tions, and so make way for their destruction. Flatterers have their
silken nets to ensnare and entangle poor souls to their eternal ruin.
Look, as fowlers strew corn and lay baits to draw birds into their nets ;
or look, as hunters spread their nets, that they may take beasts and
prey upon them, or make a prey of them ; so flatterers, they spread
their nets that they may catch poor souls, and either prey upon them,
or else make a prey of them. Flattery is the devil's invisible net ; and
happy is that soul that escapes it. The flatterer's net is worse than
his sword, for his sword may be the more easily seen, feared, and
avoided, than his net. Of aU arms the flatterer's net is the most
perilous and dangerous, both to the lives, estates, and souls of men.>
It were ten thousand times better to trample a flatterer under a man's
feet, than for a man to sufier his feet to be taken in the flatterer's net.
A flatterer is a sore enemy in the habit of a friend, he is a wolf in
sheep's clothing, he is a devil transformed into an angel of light ; and
■what punishment can be too great for such ? The severity of many
ieathen princes and emperors has been very great against flatterers.
Take one instance for all : Alexander Severus commanded one Turinus,
a great flatterer, to be tied to a stake and stifled with smoke, with a
herald standing by, and proclaiming to aU the people, that it was but
just that he that lived by the smoke of flattery should die by smoke. i
Now what a shameful thing is it that such as are called Christians
should afiect to be flattered, when heathens have so severely punished
flatterers. WeU, sirs, as ever you would be holy, take heed of flatterers,
and take heed of flattery ; let Solomon's counsel be always in your eye,
and let it always lie warm upon your hearts : Pro v. xx. 19, ' He that
goeth about as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets : therefore meddle not
with him that flattereth with his lips.' A man that loves his soul,
and would be happy in another world, should shun flatterers as he
should shun a thief, a serpent, a wolf, a lion, a devil. Till thou
stoppest thine ears against a spirit of flattery, there is little hopes that
ever thou wilt be holy.

5. Fifthly, If ever you would be holy, oh ! then toike heed of put-
ting the day of death far from you. Man is a creature naturally prone
to look upon death at a distance, to look upon death afar off", and to
say with those in Ezekiel, ' Behold, they of the house of Israel say, The
vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of
the times that are afar off,' Ezek. xii. 27. So the rich man in the
Gospel reckoned upon many years, when he had not many months,
no not many weeks, no not many days, no not many hours, to live in
tills world. Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh
said to Moses, ' Get thee from me, and let me see thy face no more,'
Exod. X. 28. When death knocks at the poor man's door he sends it
to the rich man's gate, and the rich man translates it to the scholar,

^ Augustus Caesar, and Tiberius Csesar, and Sigismund, tlie emperors, all were great
enemies to flatterers.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 20.')

and the scholar posts it away to the citizen, and the citizen to the
coiirtier, and the courtier to his lady, and his lady to her maid, and so
death is posted away, as it were, from one to another, every one crying
out to death. Oh, let me not see thy face ! oh, let me not see thy face 1 It
was even a death to Queen Elizabeth, Sigismund the emperor, Louis the
Eleventh of France, Cardinal Beaufort, and others, to think of death,
or to hear of death ; and therefore they strictly charged all their ser-
vants about them, that when they saw them sick, they should never
dare to name that bitter word death in their ears. And Pashur can-
not cast his eye upon death, but he is presently a Magor-missahih, a
terror to himself, Jer. xx. 3. And Saul, though he was a valiant
king, yet at the news of death he falls on his face, 1 Sam. xxviii. 20.
And so Belshazzar, though he was a mighty emperor — Dan. v. 1-7 —
yet a letter to him, from him whom Bildad calleth the king of terrors.
Job xviii.l4, ah, how does it amaze, astonish, affright, and terrify him I
and how many are there who, with Meecenas in Seneca, had rather live
in many diseases than die ; and, with the most famous heathens, prefer
the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another
world ; like Achilles, who had rather be a servant to a poor country
clown here, than to be a king to all the souls departed ; i or like Withi-
poll, a rich and wretched man, who, when he was in danger of death,
earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years, though it were
but in the shape of a toad.^ Near Lewes in Sussex, a woman being
ill, one of her neighbours coming to visit her, told her that if she died
she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ, and with
angels and saints ; the sick woman answered, that she had no acquaint-
ance there, she knew nobody there, and therefore she had rather live with
her and her other neighbours here, than to go thither to live amongst
strangers. And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death,
which is a common lot, and to say to it, as Ephraim did to his idols,
' Get you hence, what have we more to do with you ?' But this is and
must be for a lamentation, that men put off the thoughts of their lat-
ter end to the latter end of their thoughts. Man naturally is a great
life-lover, and therefore he will bleed, sweat, vomit, purge, part with
an estate, yea, with a limb, ay, limbs, to preserve his life ; like him that
cried out, ' Oh, give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you
spare my life.' And upon this account it is that he desires that such
a guest as death may not knock at his door ; but ah ! that all such vain
men would consider, that by putting the day of their death far from
them, they do but gratify Satan, strengthen their sins, provoke the
Lord, and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult,
and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction.

Well, sirs, remember this, the serious thoughts and meditations of
death, if anything, will work you to break off your sins, to mend your
lives, and to look to the salvation of your souls. There is nothing
that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any-
thing, and to a holy care of pleasing God in everything, than the
serious meditation of death. Though that text, ' Remember thy latter

^ Homer: Odyssey, li. 488.— G.

* Vitellius, looking for the messenger of death, made himself drunk to drown the
thoughts of it.

206 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

end, and thou shalt never do amiss,' be apocryphal, yet the truth
asserted is canonical, i I have read a story of one that gave a young
prodigal a ring with a death's-head, on this condition, that he should
one hour in a day, for seven days together, think and meditate upon
death, which accordingly he did, and it bred a great change and alter-
ation in his life and conversation. man ! thou dost not know but
that the serious thoughts of death may work that desirable thing in
thee, viz., holiness, which yet has not been wrought in thee by all the
holy counsels, the gracious examples, the fervent prayers, and the
sorrowful tears of thy dearest friends. Thou dost not know but that
the serious meditation of death may do thee more good than all the
sermons that ever thou hast heard, or than all the books that ever
thou hast read, or than all the prayers that ever thou hast made, or
than all the sighs or groans that ever thou hast poured out ; and why
then shouldst thou put the thoughts of death far from thee ? Cer-
tainly as he is a sinner in grain that dares look death in the face and
yet sin, that dares cut a purse when the judge looks on ; so he is a
monster rather than a man, that dares look death in the face, and yet
satisfy himself to live without hoKness ; that dares look death in the
face, and yet say I '11 drink and be drunk, I '11 swear and swagger,
I '11 roar and whore, I '11 cheat and cozen, I '11 hate and oppose, I '11
quarrel and kill, and my hands shall be as bloody as my heart, and
let death do her 2 worst ; if such a person be not in the ready way of
being miserable for ever, I know nothing.

1. Firstly, Well, sirs, remember these three things:
[1.] First, That there is nothing more certain than death. That sta-
tute law of heaven, ' Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,'
Gen. iii. 19, will take hold of all the sons of men. ' There is no man
that lives and shall not see death,' Ps. Ixxxix. 48. Though Jacob
wrestled with an angel and prevailed, yet death was too hard for
him, Gren. xxxii. ; though Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe,
yet he could not outrun death, and Absalom could not outride it, nor
Pharaoh outdrive it; though Saul and Jonathan were as swift as
eagles, and as strong as lions, yet were they slain among the mighty :
it was not Solomon's wisdom that could deliver him, nor Samson's
strength that could rescue him, nor Haman's honour that could secure
him, nor Goliath's sword that could defend him, nor Dives's riches that
could ransom him from the grave ; and therefore why should men put
this day so far from them ? But,

[2.] Secondly, As there is nothing more certain than death, so there
is nothing more sudden than death. When the old world, when
Sodom, when Pharaoh, when Hagar, when Amalek, when Haman,
when Nebuchadnezzar, when Belshazzar, when Dives, when the rich
fool, and when Herod, were aU in their prime and pride, when they
were in their most flourishing estate, when they were at the very top
of their glory, ah, how suddenly, how sadly, how strangely, how unex-
pectedly, and how wonderfully were they brought down to the grave,
yea, to hell ! Oh, the thousand thousands of crosses, losses, diseases,
sicknesses, calamities, dangers, and deaths which attends the life of

^ Ecclesiasticus vii. 36. — G.

* First occurrence that I have found of ' death' as feminine.— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 207

man, and by the least of which, he may be suddenly surprised and
carried into another world ! and therefore why should man cry out
eras, eras, to-morrow, to-morrow, when he does not know whether he
shall have a to-morrow, when he does not know but that he may die
before he has begun to live ? Waldus, a rich merchant of Lyons, in
France, seeing one suddenly drop down dead in the streets, went
home, repented, changed his life, studied the Scriptures, and became
a worthy teacher, father, and founder of the Christians called the
Waldenses, or poor men of Lyons. And oh that the serious
thoughts of the suddenness of death might have that happy effect
upon your souls, as to work you to break your league with sin, and to
fright you, as it were, into a love of holiness, and into a life of holi-
ness ! swearer, what dost thou know but that death may seize on
thee whilst the oath is in thy mouth ? And what dost thou know,
O drunkard, but that death may step in between the cup and the lip,
as it did to Belshazzar ? And what dost thou know, adulterer, but
that a poisoned dart may strike through thy liver whilst thou art in
the very flagrancy of thy lust, as it did through Zimri's and Cozbi's ?
And what dost thou know, proud Haman, but that thou who art
thus nobly feasted one day, mayest be a feast for the crows the next
day ? And what dost thou know who art so crafty, Ahithophel, but
that if thy subtle counsel be rejected one hour, thou mayest hang thy-
self the next hour ? And what dost thou know, thou opposing and
murmuring Korah, but that the earth may suddenly open and swallow
thee up ? and therefore why should you put that day so far from you,
that may so suddenly overtake you ?

Berline, in Germany, charged St Paul with a lie in the pulpit,
and was suddenly smitten with an apoplexy, and fell down dead in
the place. 1 And what dost thou know, who art so apt to charge the
people of God with lying, but that God may strike thee both dumb
and dead whilst the lie is in thy mouth ? Bibulus, a Roman general,
riding in triumph in all his glory, a tile fell off from a house in the
street and knocked out his brains. And what dost thou know,
vainglorious man, but that whilst thou art triumphing in thy world-
glory, by some unexpected blow thou mayest be sent into another
world ?

Lepidus and Aufidius stumbled at the very threshold of the
senate and died ; the blow came in a cloud from heaven. God by an
irjvisible blow may send thee out of this visible world.

Sophocles died suddenly by excessive joy, and Homer by immode-
rate grief ; excessive joy or excessive grief may suddenly bring thee
to thy long home. Olympus the Arian heretic, speaking against the
Holy Trinity as he was a-bathing himself, was struck dead by a
threefold thunderbolt. 2 We may run and read some men's sins in
the very face of their punishments. Mr Perkins speaks of one who,
when it thundered, scoffingly said, it was nothing but Tom Tumbrel
a-hooping his tubs, &c., and presently he was struck dead with a
thunderbolt from heaven. There would be no end of recounting the
several judgments that have suddenly surprised all sorts of sinners.

^ Scultet Annal.

" Theatre of God's Judgments, lib, i. cap. 9, p. Qi.

208 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XIT. 14.

Let these few instances suffice to stir up every unholy heart to take
heed of putting far off the day of death. But,

[3.] Thirdly, As there is nothing more sudden than death, so there
is nothing more short than life ; and why then should you put the
day of your death so far from you ? i If you consider the life of man
absolutely, it is but short, it is but as a span, a shadow, a dream, a
bubble, a blast, a puff of wind, a pile of dust, a fading leaf, or a tale
that is told, &c. The life of man is as a dream that vanisheth when
one awaketh, it is a wind that goeth away and cometh not again, it is
as a cloud that is soon dispersed with the wind, it is as a vapour that
appeareth for a time, and then vanisheth away, it is as the grass that
soon withereth, it is as the flower that soon fadeth, it is as the candle
that every light puff of wind bloweth out. The life of man is rather
made up of days than years : Ps. xc. 12, 'So teach us to number our
days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.' Moses does not say,
Lord, teach us to number our years, but ' Lord, teach us to number
our days.' Fallen man is apt to misreckon, and to compute days for
years ; and therefore this holy prophet desires that God would teach
them this divine arithmetic, of numbering their days, it being a lesson
that none but a God can teach. So Job xiv. 1,2,' Man that is born
of a woman is of few days,' or short of days, ' and full of trouble. He
cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down : he fleeth also as a shadow,
and continueth not.' He speaks not of an age, nor of years, nor of
many days, but of a few days. Man's days are short in themselves,
and shorter in respect of the troubles that attends this present life.
Man's life is so short, Austin doubteth whether to call it a dying life,
or a living death.^ Now these few days of man's life are upon the
Aving, hastening and flying from us as the eagle hasteneth to his prey;
and therefore man had need set a greater price upon every moment
and minute of time, than he does upon all the world, and accordingly
improve it.

2. Secondly, If you consider the life of man comparatively, it is but
short, and that will appear briefly thus :

[1.] First, If you compare the life of man to what man might have
reached to had he continued in his primitive glory. Had man stood
fast in innocency, he had never known what death and misery had
meant. Death is a fall that came in by a fall. Had man kept sin
out of the world, he had kept death out of the world. Had maA kept
fast his holiness and purity, he had remained a piece of immortality to
this day ; death could never have carried man out of the world, had
not man first let sin into the world, Eom. v. 12, seq.

[2.] Secondly, If you compare the life of man to the long lives of
the patriarchs before the flood, then the life of man is but short:
threescore years and ten is man's age, Ps. xc. 10. And where one
man lives to this age, how many thousands die before they come to it !
But what is this age to the age that men lived to in former times ?
Enoch lived as many years as there be days in the year, and Adam
lived nine hundred and thirty years, and Methuselah lived nine hun-
dred sixty and nine years. Gen. v. JS'ow what were Plato's eighty

1 Job viii. 9 ; Ps. cii. 11, Ixxiii. 20, and xc. 5 ; Job xx. 8, and vii. 7.
* Aug., 1. i. Confess.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 209

years, or Thomas Paris's one hundred and sixty years, or Johannes de
Temporibus, John of the Times's, tliree hundred threescore and one
years, to the long Hves of the patriarchs? And though in David's
time old age and seventy often shook hands, yet it is otherwise in our
times ; for as men's wickedness do more and more increase, so their
days do more and more decrease. The more wicked any generation
is, the shorter hved that generation shall be. God will quickly
despatch them out of the world who make quick despatches in ways of
wickedness.

[3.] Thirdly, The life of man is but short, if you compare it to what
it shall be after the morning of the resurrection. Oh, then man's
days shall reach to eternity ! Eternity is that unum perpetuum hodie,
one perpetual day that shall never have end. When men after the
resurrection begin to live, they shall never die after that day ; every
man shall live in everlasting bliss or in everlasting woe ; when the
last trumpet has sounded, man shall live for ever and ever.

[4.] Fourthly, The life of man is but short, if you compare it with
the days of God : Ps. xxxix. 5, ' Mine age is nothing before him ;' all
time is nothing to eternity ; man's life is but a minute, it is but a point
of time to the days of eternity. What head, what heart can conceive
or reckon up the duration of God, who ever was, who still is, and who
ever will be ! Every child and every fool can tell you their age, but
what man on earth or what angel in heaven can tell you the years of
the Most High ? Surely none.

[5.] Fifthly and lastly. The life of man is but short, if you compare
it with the lives of other creatures. Some say that it is neither age
nor sickness that killeth the eagle ; she casteth her feathers yearly,
and so gets new, whereby her youth and strength is renewed, by which
means she will live till she be a hundred years old ; she dies not till
her upper bill be so grown over her under that she cannot take in her
meat, and so at last she is starved, i And some elephants live three
hundred years ; witness ^lian, Solinus, and Strabo, &c. : by all which
you see the brevity of man's life. And why then should man be so
weak, so vain, as to put the day of his death so far from him ? I
have read of the birds of Norway, that they fly faster than the fowls
of any other country ; they knowing, by an instinct that God has put
into them, that the days in that climate are very short — not above
three hours long, say some — do therefore make the more haste to
their nests. And oh that all that hear me this day would learn by
these birds of Norway, to make haste to believe, and to make haste
to repent, and to make haste to love God, and to make haste to be
holy, &c., seeing their day of life is so short, and their night of death
is posting towards them.

And as the life of man is very short, so it is very considerable that
a very small matter, a very little thing, may quickly put an end to
man's life. When the emperor threatened the philosopher with death,
he replied, What is that more than a Spanish fly may do ? 2 An
ordinary fly flying casually into the mouth of the proud Pope Adrian,
stifled him that made the highest state then in the Christian world

^ Pliny, Augustine, Calvin, Ps. ciii. 5.

' Conrad., Vesperg., Naucler., and Jo. Boel. in Adrian. Paulus Jovius, Elog.. lib. ii.
VOL, IV. O

210 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

stoop, even to the holding of his stirrup. Tamerlane, a Scythian cap-
tain, the terror of his time, died with three fits of an ague. Anacreon
the poet was choked with the kernel of a grape, ^schylus was killed
by the shell of a tortoise which fell from an eagle's talons, who,
as some conceive, took his bald head for a white rock. The Lord
Montaigne tells us of a duke of Brittany that was stifled to death in
such a throng of people as is m some great congregations on the
Lord's-day. An emperor died by the scratch of a comb ; and one of
the kings of France died by the chock i of a hog ; and one that was
brother to a great lord, playing at tennis, received a blow with a ball
a little above the right ear, which struck him into his grave. There
is nothing so small but may be a man's bane. The paring of a toe,
the cutting of a corn, the scratch of a nail, the prick of a pin, a fish-
bone, a hair, a drop of water, a crumb of bread, a bad air, or an evil
smell, may bring a man to his long home, yea, a little smoke may soon
stifle him, or his own spittle, let down unwarily, may suddenly choke
him.

And oh that all I have spoken upon this account might be so blessed
as to work you to take heed of putting the day of your death so far
from you ! The evil servant, when he thought his master was gone
afar off, then he lays about him, distempers himself, and beats his
fellow- servants, Luke xii. 45. And so the lewd woman in the
Proverbs, chap. vii. 19, 20, when the goodman was gone a long
journey, when he was far from home, then she grew wanton, vain, and
secure ; so when men put afar off the day of their death, then they
grow more loose, profane, and unholy ; "whereas a serious and frequent
eyeing and minding of death as at hand, as at a man's elbow, would
alarm a man to break off his sins by repentance, and to labour for
holiness, as a man would labour for life itself I have read of the
women in the Isle of Man, that the first web they make is their
winding-sheet, wherewith they usually gird themselves when they go
abroad, to shew that they are still mindful of their mortality. Ah,
friends, a constant minding of your mortality would contribute very
much towards the making of you holy. He that daily looks upon
death will be daily a-looking after holiness. The oftener any man
looks into the grave, the oftener that man will be looking up to
heaven, and a-begging that God would make him holy even as he is
holy. But,

6. Sixthly and lastly, Take heed of settling yourselves under a lewd
and scandalous ministry, or ofJiaving any inwardness with such whose
lives give the lie to their doctrine. An ill-lived preacher is the greatest
destroyer of the souls of men. He that preacheth well, but lives ill,
does what he can to murder all his hearers at once. There is no
greater bar to holiness than ministers' lewdness : an unholy life mars
the soundest and the sweetest doctrine: Isa. ix. 16, 'The leaders of
this people have caused them to err.' The sins of teachers are the
teachers of sins ; as the corrupt glosses, so the lewd practices of many
preachers makes many to stumble at that word, and to shuff,2 and
chat, and contest, and kick against that word whereby they should be
made holy and happy for ever. A scandalous minister is the greatest
^ Ab before, ' neck.' — G. ' * Push ; ' sometimes ' sliuft.' — G. .

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 211

pest, the worst plague, and the sorest mischief that can be to a people ;
for his enormities, his wickednesses, will have the strongest influences
upon the souls and lives of men, to make them miserable in both worlds.
His falls will be the fall and ruin of many ; for people are more prone
to live by examples than by precepts, and to mind more what the
minister does than what he says, and to eye more how he walks than
how he talks. It was said of one, long since, that was an excellent
preacher, but a very bad liver, that when he was in the pulpit it was
pity he should ever come out of it, he preached so well ; and when he
was out of it, it was pity that ever he should go into it, he lived so ill.
Certainly it is pity that ever such should go into a pulpit who preach
well but live ill, who have much of God in their mouths, and much of
the devil in their lives ; who have the earth as much at their fingers'
end as they have heaven at their tongue's end, who puts a loud lie
upon the truth, and whose lives puts their words to a blush ; who have
much of heaven in their expressions, and nothing of heaven in their
conversations ; who have much holiness in their books, but none in
their bosoms, and much holiness in their lips, but none in their lives.
The lewd lives of such persons causes people to slight and abhor the
holy things of God, 1 Sam. ii. 17; yea, their bad lives often raise
doubts in their hearers' hearts whether those things be true that they
preach or no. Hearers will be ready to object and say. If these things
be true that the minister says, why does he not practise what he
preaches ? why does he not do as well as say ? and with what face or •
coufidence can he appear against that in the pulpit, which he coun-
tenanceth and patroniseth in his life ? Who will credi^ that man's
doctrine, who has Jacob's voice, 'but Esau's hands ; who is a saint, yea,
.an angel, in the pulpit, but a debauched sinner, yea, an incarnate
devil, out of it ? I have read of a woman who, living in professed
doubt of the Godhead, after better illumination and repentance, did
often protest that the vicious life of a great scholar, under whose
ministry she did live, did conjure up those damnable doubts in her
soul.i There is nothing that brings holy truths so much into question
as the unholy conversations of such preachers ; neither is there any-
thing that exposes a minister's person and office to so much scorn and
contempt as an unholy life. Let a minister be never so learned, solid,
quaint, elegant, zealous, judicious, sententious, &c., yet if he be carnal,
covetous, worldly, vain, and loose in his life and conversation, his
hearers will rather deride his doctrine than reform by his doctrine,
they will rather contemn it than study how to profit by it ; therefore
he said right that said —

' Turpe est doctori, cum culpa redarguit ipsum.'

' Unto a teacher it 's no small disgrace
When his own faults reprove him to his face.'

There is nothing in all the world that is more powerful and prevalent
to corrupt and mislead unholy men, and to harden, strengthen, and
encourage them in ways of wickedness, than the looseness of their
lives whose office binds them to look to the salvation of their souls,
Ezek. xiii. 22, and Jer. xxxiii. 15 : Mai. ii. 8, ' Ye are departed out

^ Mr [Samuel] Ward's Sermons.

212 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

of the way ; ye have caused many to stumble at the law.' When the
preacher departs out of the way of holiness, the people will quickly
stumble at the law of holiness; when ministers are as wandering
stars, no wonder if their hearers wander from all that is good. He
whose life is not a standing reproof to sin, will, by his life, encourage
sinners more and more in a way of sin. There is nothing that keeps
men so off from a good opinion of holiness, and from the love of holi-
ness, and the liking of holiness, and from the pursuing after holiness,
than the unholy lives of their teachers ; and therefore, as ever you
would be holy, fly their tents, and abandon their company and society.
Ministers whose lives are lewd, though their parts may be high, are
like a stone gutter, that conveyeth water into a garden, but receiveth
no benefit itself thereby ; or like a harp that maketli others melody,
but heareth nothing itself; they are like those carpenters that built
the ark to save others, and were drowned themselves ; or like porters
at great men's gates, that let in others, but lodge without themselves ;
or like sea-marks, that rot themselves, and yet give others warning to
avoid shipwreck ; or like Caesar's soldier, that digged a fountain for
Caesar, and perished himself for want of water. ^ Oh, the folly and
madness of such ministers that give light to others, and yet walk in
darkness themselves ; that feast others' souls, but starve their own ;
that rescue others from a devouring enemy, and yet suffer themselves
to be devoured ; that forewarn others of the horrible pit, and yet fall
into it themselves ; that give good counsel to others, and yet can't
take good counsel themselves ; that study and strive to bring others
to heaven, a^d yet have no mind to go thither themselves ! Certainly
society and company with such upoif choice can't but be a mighty
hindrance to holiness : he that is in good earnest resolved to be holy, .
must resolutely be resolved to have nothing to do with such unholy
persons. And thus you see the several things that you must decline,
if ever you would be holy. But,

II. Secondly, As there are several things that you must decline if
ever you would obtain that real holiness without which there is no
happiness ; so there are several things that you are to do, that you are
to put in practice, without which you will never be holy here, nor
happy hereafter. Quest But what are they? Ans. They are these : —

(1.) First, Greatly lament and mourn over thine own unholiness,
over thine own wickedness. The first step to holiness is melting and
mourning over a man's own unholiness. Go to thy closet, and fall
down before the most high and holy God, and mourn bitterly over
the unhohness of thy nature, the unholiness of thy heart, the unholi-
ness of thy affections, the unholiness of thy intentions, the unholiness
of thy resolutions, the unholiness of thy expressions, and the unholiness
of thy conversation : Joel ii. 12, ' Turn ye to the Lord with weeping
and with mourning.' The foundation of a thorough reformation must
be laid in a deep humiliation. The best way to be holy is to accuse,
indict, arraign, and condemn thyself for thy unholiness.2 You shall
as soon espouse light and darkness, and marry midnight to the noon-
day, as you shall espouse or marry a holy God to an unhumbled sinner.
Oh, who can look upon sin as an offence against a holy God, as the

* Augustine.— G. ^ Ezra ri. 2 ; Jer. 1. 4 ; Ps. li. 5.

HeB. XII. 14 ] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 213

breach of a holy law, as the wounding and crucifying of a holy Saviour,
as the grieving and sadding of a holy Sanctifier, and as an eternal loss
and undoing of his own soul, and not mourn over it ? Oh, who can
cast a serious eye upon the nature of sin, or upon the exceeding sinful-
ness of sin, or upon the aggravations of sin, and not have his heart
humbled, his soul grieved, and his spirit melted for sin? Oh, who
can look upon sin as it strikes at the honour of God, the name of God,
the being of God, the glory of God, and the design of God, and not
have his mouth full of penitential confessions, his eyes full of peni-
tential tears, and his heart full of penitential sorrow ? Some, as they
say of witches, cannot weep for sin ; but they that weep not for sin
here, where there are handkerchiefs in the hands of Christ to wipe off
their tears, shall weep out their eyes in heU hereafter. It is better to
weep bitterly for thy sins on earth, than to weep eternally for thy folly
in hell. Ah, how hard is that heart that can sadly lament and bewail
the loss of a groat, a chick, a child, a sheep, a ship, a friend, &c., and
yet can't let fall a tear to save a lost soul ! Jacob weeps and prevails
with God, Hosea xii. 4 ; his tears made a happy conquest upon God.
Jacob weeps and prevails with God for his life ; and what dost thou
know but that by thy penitential tears thou mayest prevail with God
for thy soul ? He weeps and prevails with God for temporals ; and
why mayest not thou by weeping prevail with God for eternals ? He
weeps and prevails with God for some outward happiness ; and why
mayest not thou by weeping prevail with God for inward holiness ?
It is an old observation, that the tears of repenting sinners are the
wine of angels. Certainly God himself can smile to see a sinner grieve
for his sins, and to see him grieve that he can grieve no more, for that
he has sinned against a God so great, so gracious, so bountiful, so
merciful, &c., Ps. li. 17. Though God be displeased with a sinner's
sins, yet he is very well pleased with a sinner's tears, and therefore as
he has a bag for the one, so he has a bottle for the other. It cannot
but be a pleasure to God to see a sinner drown his sins in a deluge of
penitential tears. Though tears of indignation, as was Esau's, and
tears of dissimulation, as was Ishmael's, and tears of desperation, as
was Judas's, be abominable to God, yet tears of godly compunction
and contrition are acceptable and delightful unto God. A sinner
never looks so sweetly, as when he weeps most penitentially : witness
Mary Magdalene, Manasseh, and those murderers of Christ, Acts ii.
A sinner 8 face never shines so beautiful, as when it is bedewed with
penitential tears. Tears have a voice as well as blood, Ps. vi. 8. And
God has an eye as well upon a man's tears as upon his prayers. Peni-
tent tears are divine ambassadors, that never return from the throne
of grace without answers of grace, Isa, xxxviii. 5. Peter said nothing,
but went out and wept bitterly, and obtained mercy. Mat. xxvi. 75.
Tears are a kind of silent prayers, that will at last prevail for mercy.
Naaman the Syrian was cleansed of his leprosy by the waters of Jordan ;
penitential tears may do much towards the cleansing of thy leprous
soul from sin. He that really grieves that he cannot grieve for sin,
is grieved for sin ; he that is truly sorry that he cannot be sorry for
sin, is in a measure sorry for sin ; he that truly desires to drown his
Mns in his tears, he has in divine account drowned his. sins in his

214 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

tears. The maid in Scaliger swooned at the sight of a lily. Oh, how
much more should you at the sight of your unholiness ! Basil wept
when he saw the rose, because it brought to his mind the first sin
from whence it had the prickles. Oh, how should a sinner fall a-weep-
ing when he looks upon the greatness of his wickedness and his want
of holiness ! As ever you would be holy, mourn over your own unholi-
ness. But,

(2.) Secondly, If ever thou wouldst be holy, thou must seek iJie
Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the efficient cause of all that holiness that
is in the world. The Spirit of God is a spirit of holiness, Rom. i. 4;
he is frequently called the Holy Spirit : ' Cast me not away from thy
presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me,' Ps. li. 11 ; 'But they
rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit,' Isa. bdii. 10 ; ' And grieve not the
Holy Spirit of Grod, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption,'
Eph. iv. 30 ; 'He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but
God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit,' 1 Thes. iv. 8 ;
' In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed by the Holy Spirit
of promise,' Eph. i. 13. To make a man holy is more than to create
a world ; it is a work too high and too hard for angels or men ; it
becomes none, and it can be done by none but by the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification is made the Spirit's personal operation, in that 2 Thes.
ii. 13, and in that 1 Pet. i. 2. It is the great work of the Spirit to
shape, form, and fashion the new creature holiness, in all the vessels of
glory. The Spirit is the root of all holiness ; and therefore the several
parte of holiness are called the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. v, 22. It is
true, Grod purposes holiness to his people, and Christ has purchased
hohness for lus people ; but it is only the Spirit that is the efficient
cause or worker of holiness in his people. Though the Father, Son,
and Spirit hath designed to re-imprint holiness upon man's heart, yet
the Spirit has the greatest hand in that work. When man was in his
primitive glory, holiness was his loveliness and his Likeness to God ;
but being now fallen, that image is so broken and marred, that no
hand can repair it or restore it but the hand of the Spirit. The great
principle of holiness which was in Christ, as to his human nature, was
the Holy Spirit, which he had above measure ; for he was anointed
with the unction of the Spirit above his fellows. So that, look which
way you will, the Spirit still appears to be the great principle of holi-
ness. Holiness is the very picture of God, and certainly no hand can
carve that excellent picture but the Spirit of God. Holiness is the
divine nature, and none can impart that to man but the Spirit. A
man never comes to see his sins, nor to be sick of his sins, nor to loathe
his sins, nor to arraign his sins, nor to condemn his sins, nor to judge
himself for his sins, evangeKcally, till he comes to be possessed of the
Holy Spirit. A man never comes to spit out the sweet morsels of sin,
he never comes to make a sacrifice of his only Isaac, and to cut liis
delicate Agag in pieces, and to strangle his Delilah, and in good
earnest to set upon an utter extirpation of those sins that his constitu-
tion, inclination, custom, calling, and interest does most incline him
to, till a Spirit of holiness comes upon him. Till this Holy Spirit,
which is a spirit of judgment and burning, falls upon the hearts of
sinners, they will never be fired out of their pride, formality, carnality.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 215

sensuality, and security. When this Holy Spirit comes as a spirit of
glory and power to change thy heart, to destroy thy sins, to reform
thy ways, and to save thy soul, &c., oh, then cry out, let him still go
on conquering and to conquer, till all his enemies are made his foot-
stool. Oh, let him cut off every right hand, and pluck out every right
eye, &c., that does offend ! Oh, let him do justice upon every sin,
upon every open sin, upon every secret sin, upon every bosom sin,
upon every pleasing sin, and upon every gainful sin ! Oh, sot your-
selves under the celestial influences and sweet distillings of the Holy
Spirit ! Oh, prize his motions ! oh, welcome his motions ! oh, comply
with his motions ! oh, follow his motions, that so you may be holy and
happy for ever. When David asked counsel of Grod, whether he
should go up against the Philistines or no, he received this answer :
' When thou hearest the noise of one going in the top of the mulberry-
trees, then remove, for then shall the Lord go out before thee to smite
the Philistines,' 2 Sam. v. 24. So should every one wisely observe,
when the Spirit sweetly and strongly moves them to mind holiness, to
fall in love with holiness, to press after holiness ; when the Spirit
moves them to leave off their sins, to turn to God, to open to Christ,
to tremble at threatenings, and to embrace promises ; oh, make much
of these holy motions ! oh, cherish these divine breathings 1 oh, don't
quench these heavenly sparks, lest the Spirit never move thee more,
nor never strive with thee more, Gen. vi. 3. Oh, when thou hearest a
voice within thee, or a voice behind thee, saying, ' Come with me from
Lebanon, my sister, my spouse,' &c., Isa. xxx. 21, and Cant. iv. 8,
come away from thy cups, thou drunken wretch ! come away from
thy wanton Delilahs, thou unclean wretch ! come away from thy sin-
ful pleasures, thou voluptuous wretch ! come away from thy bags, thou
worldly wretch ! come away from thy honours, thou ambitious wretch !
and come away from thy fraud, thou cheating wretch ! oh hearken to
this voice ! oh obey this voice, that it may go well with thy soul for
ever ! If now thou strikest whilst the iron is hot, if now thou hoistest
up sail whilst the wind is fair, thou mayest be made for ever. In that
John V. 4, there were certain times when the angel came down and
troubled the waters, and whosoever did then step in, was healed of
whatsoever disease he had: so there are certain times and seasons
wherein the Spirit of holiness stirs the heart and affections, and moves
and breathes upon the soul. Now if men were wise to observe these
times and seasons, they might be happy for ever. The time of the
Spirit's moving is the acceptable time ; if you observe it you are made,
if you neglect it you are marred. All the movings and motions of
the Spuit are in order to an eternity of felicity and glory, Spiritus
sanctus est res delicata. Oh, therefore don't grieve the Spirit, don't
cross the Spirit, don't vex the Spirit, don't tempt the Spirit, don't
quench the Spirit, don't oppose the Spirit, don't resist the Spirit, don't
deal harshly or unkindly with the Spirit, by sinning against illumina-
tion, conviction, resolutions and promises of reformation. Oh, be more
tender of the gracious motions of the Spirit, than thou art of thy name,
thy estate, thy liberty, thy life ; for he designs thy internal good in
this world, and thy eternal good in the other world ; and therefore
don't affront him, nor carry it unworthily towards him. If thou

216 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

shouldst, it may be as mucli as thy life and tliy soul is worth ; if a
man slip the opportunity of a favourable gale, he may lie wind-bound
tiU all be spent. When the Spirit moves salvation, and all the glory
of heaven stands waiting at thy door, if now thou will but open, the
King of glory will enter in, and bless thee for ever. Saul, by neglect-
ing his opportunity, lost an earthly kingdom. Take heed lest thou, by
slighting the motions of the Spirit, comest to lose a heavenly kingdom.
The letting slip one season when the Spirit moves may undo a man
in both worlds ; and some think Felix found it so. Well, sirs, as
ever you would be holy, you must labour for a spirit of holiness ; and
for your encouragement remember this, that though the Holy Spirit
be the great jewel of glory, yet God is more ready to give it than you
are to ask it : witness that 11th of Luke, from the 9th to the 14th
verse. But,

(3.) Thirdly, If ever you would be holy, then you must wait upon
the word. The word of God faithfully preached, is the ordinary means
by which holiness is wrought in sinners' hearts. The word is that
triumphant chariot of the Spirit, wherein he rides conquering and to
conquer the souls of men. The holy word is designed by God to be-
get holiness in sinners' hearts, and to countenance, cherish, nourish,
and strengthen holiness where it is begotten : John xvii. 17, ' Sanc-
tify them through thy truth : thy word is truth.' And for their sakes,
&c., ' I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the
truth,' ver. 19. So chap. xv. 3, ' Now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken to you.' The ordinary way of making unclean
souls clean, unholy souls holy, is the ministry of the word, Phil. v. 26.
As there is a cleansing virtue in the blood of Christ, 1 John i. 7, so
there is a cleansing virtue in the word of Christ : Ps. cxix. 9, ' Where-
withal shall a young man cleanse his way ? by taking heed thereto
according to thy word.' Of all men, the young man is usually most
Avild and wicked, most licentious and rebellious ; and yet the word of
God is the power of God to his conviction and conversion, to his sanc-
tification and salvation. Though the cleansing of a young man's
heart be one of the hardest works in the world, yet this may be done
by the word. There are no lusts so strong but the word can cast
them down, nor no stains so deep but the word can wash them out.
Three thousand sinners were made saints by one sermon, Acts ii. 41 ;
and five thousand more were converted and sanctified by another ser-
mon, chap. iv. 4, Here were eight thousand men cleansed, sanctified,
and saved by two sermons, and doubtless most of them were young.
O sirs, as ever you would have holy principles laid in your souls, and
holy afi'ections raised in your souls, and holy ends aimed at by your
souls, hear the word in season and out of season. Oh attend it ! oh
wait on it I It wUl be soap to cleanse you, and fire to purge you, and
■water to wash you, and a wind to turn you from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ, Acts xxvi. 16-24. The
gospel preached hath been the power of God to the salvation of multi-
tudes of souls, Rom. i. 16. The word is that immortal seed by which
holiness, which is not only a grace but the conjunction of all graces,
is formed in the soul, 1 Pet. i. 23. It is the word that gives a spiritual
birth and being to men, Gal. iv. 19. The v/ord enlightens the eye,

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 217

Ps. cxix. 105 ; it softens the heart, Deut. xxxii. 2 ; it purges the con-
science, and it converts the soul, Ps. xix. 7 ; it dethrones Satan, it
casts down strongholds, 2 Cor. x. 4, 5>; it quickens the dull, Ps. cxix.
50 ; and it raises the dead, John v. 24, 25. Oh, therefore, hear it, and
wait on it, and come to it, that you may be made holy by it. Many
come to hear the word to censure it, others to mock at it, others to
enrich their curious notions by it, and others come to catch the min-
ister at it ; but do thou come to it that thou mayest be made holy by
it, and doubtless first or last thou shalt obtain thy end. Yea, it is good
for a man to come to the word, though his design in coming be bad ;
it is good for a man to sit under that great ordinance of the word,
though he sits upon thorns, as it were, all the while he is there. They
that come to see who hath got the newest fashions, may have their
hearts fashioned into a conformity with the word. They came to
catch, but were caught in that, John vii. 46. Austin coming to Am-
brose to have his ears tickled, had his heart touched and turned.
' Come,' saith old Father Latimer [1550,] in a sermon before king
Edward the Sixth, ' to the public meeting, though thou comest to sleep,
it may be God may take thee napping.' When thou comest, though it
be but to taste the minister's spirit, yet then God may take hold on
thy spirit, and make it the day of his power upon thy soul. Though
thou comest with a heart full of prejudices against Christ, yet by the
word thou mayest be brought to a love of Christ, to a liking of Christ,
and to a choice of Christ, and to a blessed close and resignation of thy-
self to Christ. They that came to surprise Christ, were so taken with
Christ, that being filled with admiration they could not but proclaim
his divine excellencies ; ' Never man spake like this man.' The word
is the word of the Lord, let the hand be what it will that brings it.
When gold is ofiered, men care not how noble or ignoble, how great
or how base he is that offers it ; so men should not look so much at
the hand that brings the word, as at the word itself. The word of the
Lord was as much the word of the Lord in the hand and mouth of
Amos, who was raised a prophet from amongst the herdsmen of Tekoa,
as it was the word of the Lord in the hand and mouth of Isaiah, who,
as some think, was a prophet of the blood-royal. Ambrose observes
of the woman of Samaria, John iv. 7, that she came peccatrix to Jacob's
well, but she went away prcedicatrix ; she came a sinner, but she
went away a prophetess. sirs, let nothing hinder you from coming
to the word ! oh come to the word ! though you come sinners, yet
come, for though you do come sinners, yet you may go away saints ;
though the dew of heaven hath richly and sweetly fallen upon your
hearts, and yet, like Gideon's fleece, you are still dry, yet come to the
word still, for who can tell but that by the very next sermon God
may make thy soul like a watered garden, and Hke a spring of water
' whose waters fail not,' Isa. Iviii. 11. It is reported of young king
Edward the Sixth, that being about to lay hold on something that
was above the reach of his short arm, one that stood by espying a
great bossed Bible lying on the table, offered to lay that under his
feet to heighten him, but the good young king disliked the motion,
and instead of treading it under his feet he laid it to his heart, i Oh

^ Sir John Hayward in vita.

218 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

come to the word, but come not to trample upon it, come not to scoff
or mock at it, come not to despise it or to revile it, but come and lay
it to your hearts, and it may do you good for ever. There is no better
way to make thee holy than to attend on the holy word. But,

(4.) Fourthly, If ever you would be holy, then associate yourselves
with those that are holy. Look, as he that walks with the wise shall
be wise, so he that walks with the holy shall certainly be pressed and
provoked to be holy, Prov. xiii. 20. As Socrates made it his business
to better others by his company, so a holy man will make it his busi-
ness to make others holy by his counsel, prayers, and example. He
knows that it is one of the most noble and divine employments in the
world to make others holy, and therefore he sets upon that work with
aU his might. Look, as there is no greater a hindrance to holiness
than the society of the wicked, so there is no greater a help to holi-
ness than the society of those that are godly, Ps. cxix. 115, and i. 1.
Look, as the beginning of ungodliness is to keep company with those
that are ungodly, so the beginning of holiness is to keep company
with those that are holy. Look, as one drunkard makes another, and
one swearer makes another, and one proud person makes another, and
one worldling makes another, and one formalist makes another, so one
holy man makes another ; or look, as one sober man makes another,
and one prudent man makes another, and one resolute man makes
another, and one zealous man makes another, and one heavenly-minded
man makes another, so one holy man makes another. Ah, sinners !
sinners ! there are no companions in the world that will pity you as
these, that will weep and mourn over you as these, that will strive and
wrestle with God for you as these, Kom. x, 1 ; there are none that will
be so tender of your salvation as these, nor none that will labour so
much for your conversion as these, nor none that wiU so spend them-
selves to prevent your damnation as these, 2 Cor. xii. 15. sirs,
upon trial you will find that there are none so able to counsel you, nor
none so faithful to reprove you, nor none so ready to help you, nor
none so compassionate to sympathise with you, nor none so strong to
support you, nor none so advantaged to convert you, as those that are
holy ; and why then will you not labour to be one of this society ? O
sirs, of all fellowships the fellowship of saints is the most noble, the
most honourable, the most pleasant, the most amiable, the most de-
sirable, the most profitable, and the most commendable fellowship ;
and why then will you still live strangers, yea, enemies, to this fellow-
ship ? Ah sirs, holy men will still be awakening and alarmiag of
your drowsy spirits, they will be still a-knocking at the door of your
hearts, and asking of you whether it be good going to hell ; they will
still be inquiring of you what provision you have made for another
world, and how all things stand within ; they will still be jogging at
your elbows, that you may not die in your sins ; and they wUl still be
whispering in your ear, that your souls may live for ever. The Jews
have a proverb, that ' two dry sticks put to a green one will kindle
it.' Oh, there is nothing in all the world that contributes so much to
the kindling, to the firing, and to the inflaming of men's hearts after
holiness, as the society of those that are holy. Algerius, an Italian
martyr, ' had rather be in prison with Cato, than to live with Ceesar in

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 219

the senate-house.' Oh, it is ten thousand times better to live with
those that are holy, though in a dark prison, than to live amongst
those that are unlioly, though in a royal palace. Urbanus Eegius,
having one day's converse with Luther, tells us, ' that it was one of
the sweetest days that ever he had in all his life.'i sinners, did
you but experience for one day the sweet and happiness of the com-
munion of saints, you would then cry out, ' Oh, there is no society to the
society of Grod's holy ones.' And therefore, as ever you would be holy,
let holy men have more heart-room and house-room with you. But,

(5.) Fifthly, If ever you would be holy, then dioell mitch upon those
solemn vows and covenants tliat you have formerly made in the days
of your distress. Ah, how often have you, in the days of your calamity
and misery, and in the days when sicknesses and weaknesses did hang
upon you, and when the terrors of death were upon you, how fre-
quently in those days did you solemnly vow and promise that, by the
strength and assistance of the Lord, you would break oflf your sins by
repentance, and that you would make it your greatest care, and your
greatest business and work in this world, to mind holiness, and to
press after holiness, and to give your souls no rest till you had expe-
rienced the power, excellency, and sweetness of holiness ! As David
by an oath bound himself to keep God's righteous judgments : Ps.
cxix. 106, ' I have sworn, and I wdl perform it, that I wiU keep thy
righteous judgments/ — a religious vow is nothing else but a solemn
promise or oath, whereby a man engages himself to the great God,
that he will decline such ways, means, and methods as lead to wicked-
ness, and that he will set in good earnest upon the practice of all the
ways and means of holiness, by the strength and assistance of divine
grace — so you have by many vows and promises engaged yourselves
' to cast oft' the works of darkness, and to put on the armour of light,'
— suitable to the apostle's exhortation, Kom. xiii. 12. And as the
people in Nehemiah's time did enter into a curse and an oath to walk
in God's law, and to observe and do all his commandments, Neh.
x. 29 ; so you have in the times of your outward and inward distresses"
vowed to the Lord, that you would observe all his statutes, and walk
in all his holy ways, and do all his righteous commandments. Job
once made a covenant with his eyes, that he would not lustfully look
upon a maid. Job xxxi. 1,2; but how often have you made a covenant
with your thoughts, that you would not think of vanity, and with your
eyes, that you would not behold vanity, and with your ears, that you
would not hear vanity, and with your tongues, that you would not
speak vanity, and with your hearts, that you would not contrive
vanity, and with your hands, that you would not act vanity; now
your vows and your covenants are upon you, oh that you would not,
with the strange woman in the Proverbs, chap. ii. 17, forget the cove-
nant of your God ! Oh, it is better ten thousand times not to vow, than
to vow and not to pay, Eccles. v. 5. God can take no pleasure in such
as are off and on with him, nor in such who are forward to vow, but
make no conscience to pay their vows. These are fools in folio, and
therefore God cannot but detest them, and turn his back upon them. If
good Jacob, who is called ' the father of vows,' was so backward to pay

^ Adam in vita Regii, p. 78.

220 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

his VOWS, that God was forced, not only to round him in the ear again
and again with a * go up to Bethel, and there build me a chapel,' but
also severely to punish his delays, both in the rape of his daughter,
and in the cruelty of his sons, &c.. Gen. xxxv., ah, how severely then
may God deal with such who do not only delay the paying of their
vows, but who live also in the daily breach of their vows ! Most men
have need of that counsel which the bishop of Colen i gave Sigismund
the emperor, that asked him what he should do to be happy ; ' Live/
said he, ' as you promised and vowed to do when you were last sick of
the stone and gout.' Ah, that all men would make more conscience
of living out, and of living up to the covenants, vows, and promises
that they have made to God in the days when the hand of the Lord
has gone out many ways against them, and when terrors of conscience
have been strong upon them ! Oh, what repentance ! oh, what refor-
mation ! oh, what amendment have they promised in those days !
and yet no sooner have these outward and inward storms been over,
but they have been as vain and loose and base as ever. In the time of
the great sweat in king Edward's days, as long as the heat of the plague
lasted, oh how did every one cry out, peccavi, pBccavi, I have sinned, I
have sinned ; mercy, Lord ! oh mercy ! mercy, good Lord ! Then lords
and ladies, and people of all sorts, cried out to the ministers, for the
Lord's sake, sirs, tell us what shall we do to avoid the wrath of the
Lord ? what shall we do to be safe in this evil day ? Oh take these
bags, and pay so much to such a one whom I have deceived ! and
restore so much to such a one whom I have in bargaining over-
reached ! Oh give so much to the poor, and so much to other pious
uses, &c. But after the sickness was over, they * returned with the
dog to the vomit, and with the sow to the wallowing in the mire
again ; and so their latter end was worse than their former.' There
was a very great sinner, who in the time of his sickness was so sorely
terrified in his conscience for his many heinous sins, that he made the
very bed to shake upon which he lay, and cried out all night long, ' I
am damned ! I am damned ! I am damned!' &c. ; and in this his sick-
ness he made many great protestations of amendment of life, if God
would but be pleased to recover him, and prevent his going down to
the grave at this time. Well, in a short time after he did recover,
and being recovered he was as base, wretched, and wicked as ever he
was before. This man, with those that were cited before him, were
like that cunning devil, of whom the epigrammatist thus writeth ; —

'jEgrota dmmon, tnonachus tunc esse volebat,
Convaluit dcumon, monachus tunc esse nolebat:'

Which is thus Englished : —

The devil was sick, the devil a monk would be ;
The devil was well, the devil a monk was he.'

But those who are now like to Satan in sin, may hereafter be like
to him in torment. Such who now outUve their vows, shall, when they

^ Query, Cologne ? — G.
' Otherwise : —

'jEgrotat daemon, monachus tunc esse volebat ;
Daemon convaluit, dcemon ut antefuit' —
Lines composed in the Middle Ages.— G.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 221

die, have hell enough. You count it a very shameful thing to break
promise or covenant with men ; but is it not far more shameful to
break with God ? The Egyptians, though heathens, so hated perjury,
that if any man did but swear by the life of the king, and did not
perform his oath, that man was to die, and no gold was to redeem his
life. When the Romans made covenants, they took stones in their
hands, and said, ' If I make this covenant seriously and faithfully,
then let the great Jupiter bless me ; if not, so let me be cast away
from the face of the gods as I cast away this stone, i Covenant-
breaking was a sin greatly detested and abhorred among the very
heathens ; and shall Christians make nothing of breaking their vows,
promises, and covenants with the great G-od ? Well, sirs, remember
this, those sins that you have vowed against must be deserted, and
that holiness which you have vowed to follow must be pursued, or a
worse thing than the curse of Meroz must be expected ; Judges v. 23
compared with that John v. 14. But,

(6.) Sixthly, If ever you would be holy, then dwell much upon
the worth and preciousness of your souls. Christ, that only^ went
to the price of souls, hath told us that one soul is more worth than all
the world. Mat. xvi. 26. Christ left his Father's bosom, and all the
glory of heaven, for the good of souls ; he assumed the nature of man
for the happiness of the soul of man ; he trode the wine-press of his
Father's wrath for souls ; he wept for souls, he sweat for souls, he
prayed for souls, he paid for souls, and he bled out his heart-blood for
souls. The soul is the breath of God, the beauty of man, the wonder
of angels, and the envy of devils ; it is of an angelical nature, it is a
heavenly spark, a celestial plant, and of a divine offspring, it is a spirit-
ual substance, capable of the knowledge of God, and of union with
God, and of communion with God, and of an eternal fruition of God.
There is nothing that can suit the soul below God, nor nothing that
can satisfy the soul without God ; the soul is so high and so noble a
piece, that it scorns all the world in point of acceptation, justifica-
tion, satisfaction, and salvation. What are all the riches of the East
or West Indies ? what are rocks of diamonds, or mountains of gold,
or the price of Cleopatra's draught, to the price that Christ laid down
for souls ? 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Christ made himself an offering for sin,
that souls might not be undone by sin ; the Lord died that slaves may
live, the Son dies that servants may live ; the natural Son dies that
adopted sons may live, the only-begotten Son dies that bastards may
live ; yea, the Judge dies that malefactors may live. Ah, friends, as
there was never sorrow like Christ's sorrow, so there was never love
like Christ's love, and of all his love none to that of soul-love. In a
word, the spiritual enemies which daily war against the soul, the
glorious angels which hourly guard the soul, and the precious ordin-
ances which God hath appointed as means both to convert and to
feed the soul, do all speak out the preciousness and excellency of the
soul. There was once a great contest among some nations about
Homer, an excellent poet — ^they severally pleaded their interest in
him ; and truly so it is this day about the soul of man : many lay claim

1 As Paulus Fagius observes in his Comment ou Genesis, &c. [As before.— G.]
» ' Alone.'— G.

222 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

to it, — sin lays claim to it, and the world lays claim to it, and Satan
lays claim to it, and Christ and holiness lays claim to it, and oh that
Christ and holiness might have it before all others ! sirs, there is
no wisdom nor policy to that of securing our precious souls, for they
are jewels of more worth than all the world ! All the honours, riches,
greatness, and glory of tliis world are but chips and pebbles to these
glorious pearls ; therefore, before all and above all other things, make
sure work for your souls ; if they are safe all is safe, but if they are lost
all is lost. Other things cannot be made sure ; riches cannot, for as
they are lying, so they are flying vanities, they make themselves wings,
and they fly away ; honours cannot : Haman is feasted with the king
one day, and made a feast for crows the next ; Herod is one hour cried
up for a god, and the next hour he is eaten of worms. Princes' courts
are very slippery : a man may quickly get a fall there, that may easily
break both back and neck, as many in all ages have experienced ; the
applause and favour of creatures cannot, for many men's favours are
got with an apple, and lost with a nut. Judas his heart was hardly
warmed with the high-priest's favour, before they shut their doors
upon him, with a * what is that to us ? look thou to that,' Mat. xxvii.
4, 5. Most men's favours are as light as a feather, and so tossed up
and down with every breath of windy vanity. The moon does not so
often vary and change, as the respects of most men do vary and change.
How many men have had their names written in golden characters one
year, and in letters of blood the next ! What is the favour of man but
a blast, a sunshine-hour, a puff of wind, a magnum nihil, a great
nothing? and who then would spend an hour's time to secure it? Near
and dear relations cannot, for the delight of Ezekiel's eyes is taken
away with a stroke, Ezek. xxiv. 16 ; and all Job's children are snatched
away in a day, Job i. 10. All our nearest and dearest relations are
like a nosegay, which the oftener we smell to it, the sooner it withers.
But now holiness may be made sure : witness the spirits of just men
made perfect in heaven, Heb. xii. 23; and witness the many thousands
of Christians this day in the world, who do experience the principles
of holiness in their hearts, and who do evidence the power of holiness
in their lives. sirs, if the serious consideration of the preciousness
and worth of your souls will not draw you out to study holiness, to
love holiness, to prize holiness, and to press after holiness, what will ?
sirs, it is only holiness that is the happiness of the soul, the safety
and security of the soul, the prosperity and felicity of the soul, and
the lustre and glory of the soul ; and therefore why should you not
labour, as for life, after this inestimable jewel, holiness ? Oh, let the
remembrance of the preciousness of your souls be an effectual means
to draw you to hear that you may be holy, and to pray that you may
be holy, and to read that you may be holy, and to mourn that you
may be holy, and to sigh and groan after holiness, as after that which
is the soul's only happiness. sirs, there is nothing below heaven
so precious and noble as your souls ; and therefore do not play the
courtier with your souls. Now the courtier does all things late — he
rises late, and dines late, and sups late, and repents late. Oh, do not
poison your precious souls by gross enormities ! oh, do not starve your
souls by the omission of religious duties ! Oh, do not murder and

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 223

damn your souls by turning your backs upon holy ordinances ! I have
read of a woman, who, when her house was on fire, so minded the
saving of her goods, that she forgot her only child, and lefb it burning
in the fire ; at last, being minded of it, she cries out, ' Oh, my child !
oh, my poor child !' but all too late, all too late. So there are many
men now so mad upon the world, and so bewitched with the world,
that they never mind, they never regard their poor souls, till they come
to fall under everlasting burnings, and then they cry out. Oh, our
souls ! oh, our poor souls ! Oh that we had been wise for our souls !
Oh that we had got holiness for our souls ! Oh that we had made
sure work for our souls ! but aU too late, all too late. The Lord
make you wise to prevent soul-burnings at last. If he be rather a
monster than a man that feasts his slave but starves his wife, what
shall we say of those that pamper their bodies but starve their souls,
and that have threadbare souls under silk and satin clothes, and that
please themselves with deformed souls under beautiful faces? Surely it
had been good for these that they had never been born. I have read
of a Scythian captain, who, having for a draught of water yielded up
the city, cried out, Quidperdidi! quidprodidi! What have I lost !
what have I betrayed ! So all unholy persons wiU at last cry out, We
have betrayed our immortal souls, we have lost a precious Father, we
have lost a dear Redeemer, we have lost the company of glorious
angels, we have lost the society of ' the spirits of just men made per-
fect,' and we have lost all the pleasures and joys and delights that be
at the right hand of the Most High ! We have lost these, we have
lost all these, and we have lost them for ever and ever : surely there
is no hell to this hell ! For a close of this direction, remember this,
that as the soul is the life and excellency of the body, so holiness is
the life and excellency of the soul, and as the body without the soul is
dead, so the soul without holiness is dead. * This my son was dead,
and is alive.' If you get holiness into your souls, your souls shall live
for ever, but if you die without holiness, your souls shall die for ever
and ever. I have read that there was a time when the Romans did
wear jewels on their shoes. Oh that in these days most men did not do
worse ! oh that they did not trample under feet that matchless jewel,
their precious souls ! But,

(7.) Seventhly, If ever you would be holy, then set in good earnest
upon reading of the Holy Scripture. Many a man has been made holy
by reading of the holy word. The Bible is the book of books, it is the
only book ; all other books in the world are but waste paper to it.^
Augustine cries out, Away with our writings, that room may be made
for the book of Grod. Notwithstanding the greatness and multiplicity
of the affairs of princes, yet they were diligently to read the word :
Deut xvii. 19, 'ibid it shall be with him, and he shall read therein
all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to
keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them.' God
looks that the greatest princes on earth should make use of this
library. Though David was a great prince, and had a multitude of
weighty businesses upon his hand, yet he was so much in reading and
meditating on the word that he made it his counsellors : the word was
1 Luther Comment : in Qen. xiz.

224 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

David's learned counsel, Ps. cxix. 24, to which he resorted for connsel,
advice, and comfort, in all his necessities and miseries. Alphonsus,
king of Arragon, hath been highly extoUed for reading the Scriptures
fourteen times over, with glosses and expositions, notwithstanding his
great public employments. And Alphonsus, king of Naples, read over
the Bible forty times, notwithstanding many great affairs were upon
his hand. Theodosius the emperor, and Constantine the Great, were
much taken up in reading of the Scriptures. So Queen Elizabeth,
when she passed in triumph through the streets of London after her
coronation, and had the Bible presented to her at the little conduit in
Cheapside, she received the same with both her hands, and, kissing it,
laid it to her breasts, saying, ' that the same had ever been her
chiefest delight, and should be the rule whereby she meant to frame her
government.' ^ And it is very observable, that the eunuch was reading
the Scripture when Philip was commanded, by commission from the
Holy Ghost, to join himself to his chariot, and to instruct him in the
knowledge of Christ, which proved his conversion and salvation. Acts
viii. 26, 40. And Junius was converted by the reading of that first
of John, ' In the beginning was the Word,' &c., being amazed with the
strange majesty of the style, and the profound mysteries therein con-
tained. And Augustine 2 was strangely converted by hearing a voice
from heaven, saying, Tolle lege, tolle lege — Take and read, take and
read ; and taking up the Bible, the first passage of Scripture that he
cast his eyes upon was that Kom. xiii. 13, 14, ' Let us walk honestly
as in the day ; not in gluttony and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts
thereof; ' and no sooner had he read the verses but the work of con-
version was finished, and pious resolutions for a thorough reformation
of life was settled in him. The gospel read is sometimes the power of
God to salvation, as well as the gospel heard, Kom. i. 16. Cyprian
confesseth that he was converted from idolatry and necromancy 3 by
hearing the history of the prophet Jonah read and expounded by
CecUius, whom therefore he calleth the father of his new life. And «
Luther confesseth that he was converted by reading. I have read of
a scandalous minister that was struck at the heart and converted in
reading that Kom. ii. 21, 22, ' Thou therefore which teachest another,
teachest thou not thyself ? thou that preachest a man should not steal,
dost thou steal ? thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery,
dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou
commit sacrilege ? ' There is a scholar now alive, who being per-
suaded by an honest poor man to leave reading of poetry, and to fall
upon reading of the Bible, did so, and before he had read out Genesis
his heart was changed, and he was converted. sirs, as you tender
your conversion, your salvation, make more conscience of reading the
Scripture than ever you have done ; be often in whetting of these scrip-
tures upon your hearts, Deut. vi. 6-9, and xxxi. 11, 12 ; Jer. xxxvi.
6, 7 ; John v. 39. In these scriptures God requires all sorts of people,
both men, women, children, and strangers, both learned and unlearned,

* Speed's Hist. • Lib. viii. Confessions, chap. xii.

3 Spelled ' negromancy.'

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 225-

to read the Scriptures, and to search after the heavenly treasures that
are laid up in them, as men search for gold and silver in the ore. And
Paul charges Timothy that he give attendance to reading, 1 Tim. iv.
13. ' And blessed is he,' saith John, ' that heareth and readeth the
words of this book,' Kev. i. 3. Yea, Christ himself hath highly
honoured reading with his own example ; for coming to Nazareth, as
his custom was, he stood up to read the Scriptures, Luke iv. 16, 21 ;
and the Bereans, for reading and searching of the Scriptures, are styled
' more noble than the Jews of Thessalonica,' or as the Greek has it,
they were better born and bred, they were better gentlemen, they were
of a more noble and ingenuous disposition, though they did belong to
the country town of Berea, than the Thessalonians were who dwelt in
the rich and stately city of Thessalonica, Acts xvii. 11, ivryevia-Tepoi.
Sometimes there is more true nobility and ingenuity i under a russet
coat than there is under a satin suit. The Holy Ghost gives a very
large encomium and high commendation of the Scriptures in that
2 Tim. iii. 15, 'And that from a child thou hast known the holy
Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through
faith which is in Christ Jesus.' It is observable that in these words
you have not simply lepa ypdfifiaTa, holy Scriptures, but ra lepa
ypdjjLfMara, the holy Scriptures. The article rd there is very emphat-
ical, and it is used by the Holy Ghost to distinguish these sacred
writings from all profane writings, and to note the eminency and
excellency of the holy Scriptures above all other men's writings what-
soever. Now the Scriptures have this adjunct, this epithet 'holy'
given them in five respects.

1.] In respect of their author and original, viz., a holy God.
2. J They are holy in respect of the penmen, who were holy men of
God, 2 Pet. i. 21.

[3.] They are holy in respect of their matter ; they treat of the holy
things of God ; a vein of holiness runs through every line of Scripture.
The Scripture calls for holy hearts and holy lives ; it calls for holy
principles and holy practices, holy words and holy works, holy aJBFec-
tions and holy conversations, 1 Pet. i. 15.

[4.] They are holy in respect of their effects and operations ; they
are a means to effect and work holiness, and they are a means to
complete and perfect holiness. Job xvii. 17. The word is not only a
pure word, but also a purifying word ; it is not only a clean word, but
also a cleansing word, Ps. xix. 8, 9.

[5.] They are called holy by way of distinction, and in opposition
not only to all human and profane wiitings, but also to the writings
of the best and choicest men that ever wrote ; for they have had their
failings, weaknesses, and infirmities, and therefore must have their
many grains of allowance ; but the holy Scripture is most perfect and
complete. Now, sirs, if ever you would be holy, it stands upon you
to make more conscience of reading the holy Scriptures than ever yet
you have done. Many a man has been made holy by reading the holy
Scriptures ; and why mayest not thou also be made holy by reading of
the same holy word ? Certainly aU the angels in heaven, and all the
men on earth, can't tell to the contrary, but that thou mayest be made

^ 'Ingenuousness.' — G.
VOL. IV. »

226 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

holy even by reading of the holy word. The Holy Ghost is a free
agent, and he can as well work holiness in thy heart by reading as by
hearing, and therefore set thyself about this noble and necessary work.
Ah, friends, the Scriptures are God's epistle ; they are God's love-letter
to the sons of men ; and why then will you not read them ? Count
Anhalt, that princely preacher, was wont to say that the Scriptures
were Christ's swaddUng- bands, the child Jesus being to be found
almost in every page, in every verse, and in every line. Oh, who
would not therefore be often in looking upon and in handling of these
swaddling-bands ! sirs, there are no histories that are comparable
to the histories of the Scripture.

[1.] First, For antiquity. Moses is found more ancient than all
those whom the Grecians make most ancient, as Homer, Hesiod, and
Jupiter himself, whom the Greeks have seated in the top of their
divinity.

[2.] Secondly, For rarity.

[3.] Thirdly, For brevity. Here you have much wrapped up in a
little room : here you have Homer's * lUads' comprised in a nutshell. i

[4.] Fourthly, For perspicuity. The foundations of religion and
happiness are so plain and clear, that every one may run and read
them. It was a true saying of Augustine, Inclinavit Deus Scripturas,
ad infantium et lactentium capacitatem — That God hath bowed down
the Scriptures to the capacities even of babes and sucklings.

[5.] Fiftlily, For harmony. Though there may seem to be a con-
trariety between scripture and scripture, yet there is a blessed harmony
between all the parts of Scripture ; the contrariety is seeming, notjreal.
As when a man is drawing water out of a well with two vessels of a
different metal, the water at the first seemeth to be of a different
colour, but when he draweth up the vessels nearer to him, the diversity
of colours vanish, and the water appeareth to be of one and the same
colour, and when he tasteth them, they have one and the same relish ;
so though at first sight there may seem to be some contradictions in
the Scriptures, yet when we look more nearly and narrowly into them,
and compare one place with another, we shaU find no contrariety, no
repugnancy in them at all, but a perfect harmony, and a full and sweet
consent and agreement between one place and another, between text
and text, scripture and scripture.

[6.] Sixthly, For verity. The Scriptures are most sure and certain ;
heaven and earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle of the Scripture
shall pass unfulfilled.

[7.] Seventhly, For variety. There are no varieties to those that
are to be found in Scripture ; as in Noah's ark all sorts of creatures
were to be found, so in this heavenly ark, the Scriptures, aU varieties
are to be found. Here you may find physic for every disease, and
balm for every wound, and a plaster for every sore. Here the lamb
may wade, and here the elephant may swim ; here is milk for babes,
and here is meat for strong men ; here is comfort for the afflicted, and
succour for the tempted, and support for the distressed, and ease for
the wearied ; here is a stafi" to support the feeble, and a sword to de-
fend the mighty. That which a Papist reports lyingly of theii- sacra-

. ^ As before. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AI^D BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 227

ment of the mass — viz., that there are as many mysteries in it as
there are drops in the sea, dust on the earth, angels in heaven, stars in
the sky, atoms in the sunbeams, or sands on the sea-shore, &c. — may
be truly asserted of the holy Scriptures ; there are many thousand
thousand varieties in this garden of paradise, the Scripture.

[8.] Eighthly, For fulness. The Scriptures are full of light, and
full of life, and full of love ; they are full of righteousness, and full of
holiness, and full of all goodness. It was a weighty saying of Tertullian,
Adoro plenitvdinemScripturarum — I adore the fulness of the Scripture.
Many men talk much of the philosopher's stone, that it turns copper
into gold, and of cornucopia, that it had all things necessary for food
in it, and of the herb panaces, that it was good for all diseases, and of
the drug cathoUcon, that it is instead of all purges, and of Vulcan's
armour, that it was full proof against all thrusts and blows ; but that
which they vainly attribute to these things for bodily good, may safely
and honourably be attributed to the blessed Scriptures in a spiritual
manner. The Scriptures turns hearts of copper into hearts of gold ;
it is a paradise that is full of the trees of life, and these trees of life are
both for food and physic ; here is all manner of fruit to feed you and
fill you, to delight you and satisfy you, and the very leaves of these
trees are singular medicines to heal you and cure you, Kev. xxii. 2.
The Scripture prescribes the choicest drugs to purge you, viz., repent-
ance and the blood of Christ ; and it is the Scripture that furnishes you
with the best armour of proof against all principalities and powers,
and against all spiritual wickednesses in high places, Eph. vi. 11, 18.
Oh, how should the consideration of all these things work you to be
much in reading of the holy Scriptures ! If you will but make trial,
you should be sure to find in them stories more true, more various,
more pleasant, more profitable, and more comfortable than any you
will find in all ancient or modern writers. Ah, friends, if you would
but in good earnest set upon reading of the holy Scriptures, you may
find in them so many happinesses as cannot be numbered, and so great
happinesses as cannot be measured, and so copious happinesses as can-
not be defined, and such precious happinesses as cannot be valued ;
and if all this won't draw you to read the holy Scriptures conscientiously
and frequently, I know not what will.

It is said of Mary, that she spent the third part of her time in read-
ing of the word ; and Cfecilia, a Roman maiden of noble parentage,
carried always about her the New Testament, and spent much time in
reading it. Alfred, once king of England, compiled psalms and
prayers into one book, and called it a Manual, which he always carried
about him, and spent much time in the perusal of it. Augustine
caused David's penitential psalms to be drawn upon the walls of his
chamber, that he might read them as he lay in his bed ; he read and
wept, and wept and read.i Well, if all this wUl not prevail with you
to be much in reading of the Scriptures, consider that Agesilaus, an .
excellent king of Sparta, would never go to bed, nor rise up, before he
had looked into Homer, whom he called amasium suum, his sweet-
heart ; but what was Homer's books to God's book, which is the book
of books, as Charles the Great did signify when he crowned it with

^ Vide Pos. in vita Aug.

228 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

his own crown. And Scipio Africanus was much commended for
that he usually had in his hands the books of Xenophon.^ But oh,
how much more commendable will it be for you to have always in
your hands the book of God 1 Alphonsus had always in his bosom
the Commentaries of Csesar, and he was so much delighted with the
history of Titus Livius, that he once commanded certain musicians,
that were very skilful in that art, to depart his presence, saying, he
could read a more pleasant story out of Livius. Alas ! what are Livius
his stories to the blessed stories that be in the Bible! sirs, if
Lipsius, when he did but read Seneca, thought that he was even on
the top of Olympus, above mortality and human things ; and if Julius
Scaliger thought twelve verses in Lucan better than the German
empire, oh, then, of what infinite worth and value is the blessed Scrip-
ture ! Shall heathens take such pleasure in reading of the works of
heathens, and shall not Christians take as much pleasure in reading
of the holy Scriptures, wherein there is so much of the Spirit, hand,
and heart of God ? Shall they set so high a price upon the books of
heathens, and shall we so slight and undervalue the book of God as
not to think it worth a-opening once a day ? Verily, I am afraid, I
am afraid, that there are some among us that hardly open their Bibles
once a week, and others that hardly open their Bibles once a month,
and not a few that hardly open their Bibles once a quarter, &c. Cer-
tainly as the rustiness of some men's gold will be a witness against
them in the great day of the Lord, so the mustiness of some men's
Bibles will be a witness against them in that great day, James v. 1-3.

Quest. But is it not lawful for a, man to read other men's books, to
read other men's holy works ? &c.

Ans. Doubtless it is lawful ; and that,

[1.] First, Because other men's holy works, so far as they are holy,
are but the fruits, products, and operations of the Holy Spirit, &c.

[2.] Secondly, Because their holy labours are of singular use for
the clearing up of many hard, difficult, and mysterious scriptures, &c.

[3.] Thirdly, Because they have been the means of many men's
conversion. John Huss confesseth that the reading of Luther's works
was the main cause of his conversion. 2 And whilst Vergerius read
Luther's books with an intent to confute them, himself was converted
by them. I doubt not but that there are many now in heaven, and
multitudes now on earth, that have been converted by the books and
writings of holy men ; and therefore it cannot but be lawful to read
such books, &c.

[4.] Fourthly, Though it be lawful to read other men's holy works,
yet the holy Scriptures must still have the pre-eminence, they must be
firstly, chiefly, and mostly read. All other books in comparison of the
book of God must be cast by ; it is God's book that is indeed the book
of books. Josephus, in his book of Antiquities,^ makes mention of
one Cumanus, a governor of Judea, that, though he were but a
heathen, and a wicked man, yet he caused a soldier to be beheaded for
tearing a copy of the book of Moses's law, which he found at the

^ Plutarch, Moralia.

' An oversight : Huss long preceded Luther. Reverse the names. — G-.

3 Lib. XX. cap. 4.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 229

racking of a town. And venerable in all ages and among all nations
have been the books wherein the laws either of their belief or polity
have been contained ; as the Talmud among the Jews, and the laws
of the twelve tables among the Eomans, and the Alcoran among the
Turks, yea, all pagans have highly valued the laws of their legislators ;
and shall not Christians much more set a high esteem upon the holy
Scriptures, which are the map of God's mercy, and man's misery, the
touchstone of truth, the shop of remedies against all maladies, the
hammer of vices, and the treasury of virtues, the displayer of all sen-
sual and worldly vanities, the balance of equity, and the most perfect
rule of all justice and honesty? What Chrysostom said of old to his
hearers — viz., ' Get you Bibles, for they are your souls' physic' — that I
say to you all. Oh, get you Bibles, for they are your souls' physic, your
souls' food, your souls' happiness. Ah, friends, no book becomes your
hands like the Bible, It was this book that made David wiser than
his teachers ; this is the book that makes the best preachers, and this
is the book that is the best preacher. This book, this preacher will
preach to you in your shops, in your chambers, in your closets, yea, in
your own bosoms. This book will preach to you at home and abroad,
it will preach to you in all companies, whether they are good or bad,
and it will preach to you in all conditions, whether they are prosperous
or afflictive. By this book you shall be saved, or by this book you
shall be damned ; by this book you must live, by this book you must
die, and by this book you shall be judged in the great day, John
xii. 48. Oh, therefore, love this book above all other books, and
prize this book above all other books, and buy this book before all
other books. In King Henry the Eighth's time, and in Queen Mary's
days. Christians would have given cartloads of hay and corn for a
few chapters in the New Testament ; and will not you part with three
or four shillings to buy a Bible, that may save your souls, that may
make you holy here and happy hereafter ? And read this book before
all other books, and study this book more than all other books ; for he
that reads much and understands nothing, is like him that hunts much
and catcheth nothing. And let this suffice for this seventh direction.
(8.) Eighthly, If ever you would be holy, then be much in prayer.
Prayer is the most prevalent orator at the throne of grace. Many
that have gone to that throne with tears in their eyes, have come
away with "praises in their hearts ; and many that have gone to that
throne with hearts full of sin, have returned with hearts full of grace.
Jacob wept and prayed, and prayed and wept ; and in the close as a
prince he prevailed with God, Hosea xiv. 4 ; so many a sinner has
wept and prayed, and prayed and wept, and in the close as a prince
he has prevailed with God. Ah, sirs, it may be that there are but a
few weeks, nay, a few days, peradventure but a few hours, between
your souls and eternity, between your souls and everlasting burnings,
between your souls and a devouring fire, between your souls and
damnation ; and will you not then pray and mourn, and mourn and
pray, for that holiness, without which there is no happiness, yea,
without which hell and destruction will be for ever your portion? Oh,
take that blessed promise, Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27, and urge God with it ;
oh, tell him that he has said that ' he will sprinkle clean water upon

230 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

you, and that ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and that from
all your idols he will cleanse you', &c. Oh, tell him,

First, That he stands engaged by promise to give his Holy Spirit
to them that ask it, Luke xi. 13.

Secondly, Oh, tell him that none can make an unholy heart holy,
but a holy God.

Thirdly, Tell him that surely it is no sin to beg holiness of a holy
God.

Fourilily, Tell him that ha has made such who were once notorious
in wickedness to become eminent in holiness : witness Manasseh, Mary
Magdalene, Paul, the murderers of Christ, and those vile Corinthians,
1 Cor. V. 6, 9-11.

Fifthly, Tell him that he has given holiness to them that have not
sought it, and how then can it stand with his honour to deny it to
them that seek it ? Surely if he has been * found of them that sought
him not,' he will not hide himself ' from them that seek him,' Isa.
Ixv. 1, 2.

' Sixthly, Tell him that thou hadst rather that he should deny thee
anything, than that he should deny thee holiness ; say to him, Lord,
health is the prince of outward mercies, and wealth is the spring of
many mercies, and wife, children, and friends are the set-oflfs of mer-
cies, the cream of mercies, and that liberty is the sweetener of all thy
mercies, and yet tell him that thou hadst rather that he should strip
thee of any of these, nay, that he should deny thee all of these, than
that he should deny thee holiness.

Seventhly, Tell him that thou didst never read of any man that did
ever make a hearty request for holiness, but his request was granted.
The leper would fain be clean, and Christ's answer is, * I will ; be thou
clean,' Mat. viii. 2, 3. Christ does neither delay him nor deny him.
The poor leper could no sooner desire to be clean, but Christ com-
mands him to be clean — ' I will ; be thou clean.' His prayer was short
and sweet, and his answer was sudden and gracious.

Eighthly, Tell him that thou art unwilling to be miserable for
ever, tell him that thou canst not bear the thoughts of an eternal
separation from him, and yet this must be thy portion, except he will
glorify the riches of his grace in bestowing of that pearl of price,
holiness, upon thee. Oh, tell him that thy want of holiness is now
thy greatest hell ! tell him that thou art now fully resolved to give
him no rest till he has changed thy heart, and made thee in some
measure to be what he would have thee to be, &c.

It is observable amongst the worst of men, the Turks, yea, amongst
the worst of Turks, the Moors, that by their law it is a just exception
against any witness, that he hath not prayed six times every natural
day, it being a usual custom with them to pray for day before the day
brake, and when it is day they give thanks for daylight, and at noon
they give thanks to God that half the day is past, and then at last
they pray that they may have a good night after their day. Ah,
sinners, sinners, shall not these Turks rise up one day in judgment
against you that think not holiness worth a-praying for ?

Object. But the prayers of the ivicked are an abomination to the
Loi'd, Prov. XV. 8, and xxviii. 9 ; and he casts their sacrifices as dung in

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 231:

their faces, Isa. i. 11-16, and Iviii. 1-7 ; their very prayers are sinful, and
therefore they were better neglect prayer till God shall work graciously
and savingly upon them, than to pray, and so to sin as often as they
pray, &g. To this I answer,

(1.) First, The prayers of the wicked may be materially good, when
they are not formally good, yea, when they are theologically evil, 2
Chron. xxv. 2. Amaziah did that which was perfect in the sight of
the Lord, as to the matter, but not with a perfect or sincere heart.
He failed not in the matter, but in the manner. He did not do that
good he did from principles of faith, love, &c., nor to a right end,
divine glory. Many unsanctified persons may have the gift of prayer,
that have not the spirit of prayer, nor the grace of prayer, Mat. vii.
21, and xxiii. 14.1 Now certainly where God gives such a gift,
he requires the use of it. The gift of prayer is from the Spirit, as well
as the grace of prayer ; and who can tell but that upon the use of the
gift of prayer, the Spirit may give the grace of prayer ? However, it
is dangerous to neglect a gift. The slothful servant was not cast
into utter darkness for rioting out his talent, but for not improving of
his talent, Mat. xxv. 30. That the prayers of a wicked man are not
formally good, must be granted, yea, that they are abominable and
ineffectual, cannot be denied ; they are like the precious stone Diac-
letes, which though it hath many excellent sovereignties in it, yet it
loseth them all if it be put in a dead man's mouth ; so prayer, though
it hath many virtues and excellencies in it, yet it loseth them all
when it is performed by a man that is spiritually dead — that is, dead
God-wards, and Christ-wards, and heaven-wards, and holiness-wards ;
but if you consider the matter of a wicked man's prayers, so they may
be good, yea, so good as that they may prevail with a good God for
much temporal good, as I shall shew you before I close up all my
answers to this objection. But,

(2.) Secondly, It is a less sin for an unholy person to do a religious
duty, than it is to omit it. Now of two sins, whereupon, not God, but
a man's self hath inevitably put him to commit one of them, he must
choose the least, he must choose rather to sin in the manner, in not
doing of it so well as he should, than to fail in the matter, and so quite
neglect the duty itself. For this is most certain, when God commands
a duty absolutely to be done, it is a greater sin not to do it at all, than
to do it amiss, and the reason is evident, because our disobedience is
total in not doing at all, and but only partial in doing it otherwise
than we ought. As for a man wilfully and peremptorily to refuse to
hear the word, is a greater and fouler fault than to hear it with a
forgetful or disobedient heart, there being more hope of the latter than
of the former ; for some that have come to catch, have been caught by
the word, John vii. 46. And therefore ' come,' saith Latimer, ' to the
word ; though thou comest to sleep, it may be God may take thee nap-
ping.' When Mr Henry Sulphen was preacher at Bremen,^ several
Roman Catholics sent their chaplains to trap him in his words ; but
the power of God was so wonderfully seen in his preaching, that the
greatest part of them that came to ensnare him were converted by

1 Ps. Ixxviii. 36, 37 ; Prov. i. 27, 28; Isa. Iviii. 1-4.
^ Joh. Sleidani. Comment.

232 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

him. It is good to come to the word, though a man comes with an
ill intent ; to come, though he should come with a purpose to catch,
for in so coming he may be catched, as Augustine was by Ambrose.
Without doubt there is no disobedience to that which is total. Partial
disobedience is no disobedience to that which is total. That wife
that totally disobeys her husband, and that child that totally disobeys
the father, and that servant that totally disobeys his master, is much
more to blame, and do much more provoke, than those that are only
partial in their disobedience ; and so it is between God and sinners, &c.

(3.) Thirdly, If there were any strength in this objection, it would
lie as strong against a ivicked man's civil actions, as it does against
his religious actions : Prov. xxi. 4, ' The ploughings of the wicked is
sin;' not only the prayers of the wicked, but also the ploughings of
the wicked are sin, not only the spiritual but also the natural and civil
actions of a wicked man are sin ; and therefore, according to their
arguing, a wicked man must not exercise himself in his caUing, in his
ploughing and sowing, &c. , because that his civil actions are sinful as
well as his religious ; and it is as impossible for him to please God in
the one, as it is to please him in the other ; but surely all men that
are in their wits, will either sigh or laugh at such kind of reasonings.
But,

(4.) Fourthly, This objection lies as strong against wicked men's
natural actions-^xiz., their eating, drinking, and sleeping, &c. — as it
does against their praying. When a wicked man eats, he is to eat to
divine glory, and when he drinks, he is to drink to divine glory, 1 Cor.
X. 31 ; and when he recreates himself, he is to recreate himself to
divine glory ; and when he sleeps, he is to sleep to divine glory ; in all
these natural and common actions, he is to make the glory of God his
supreme scope. Now there is not a wicked man on earth that does
or can eat or drink, &c., to divine glory ; he does not nor cannot set
up the glory of God as the chief and ultimate end of his natural and
common actions. Now who but fools in folio will reason thus : wicked
men are to eat and drink, &c., to divine glory, but this they cannot
do, Titus i. 15 ; and therefore wicked men must neither eat nor
drink, &c. But,

(5.) Fifthly, The force and spirit of this objection, if there were any
in it, lies as flat and full against all other religious duties, as it does
against prayer. It lies as strong against hearing, reading, and medi-
tating on the word, &c., as it does against prayer ; and who but such
who are sadly left of God, and woefully blinded by Satan, will be so
wretched as to say, wicked men must neither hear the word, nor read
the word, nor meditate on the word, because they cannot do these
actions in faith, * and whatsoever is not of faith is sin,' Kom. xiv. 23.
But,

(6.) Sixthly, There are those that can say by experience, that the
first special work of God tliat ever they perceived 07i their own hearts,
was ivhile they were pleading with God at the throne of grace. There
are those that have brought proud hearts to the throne of grace, but
have returned with hearts humbled, and that have brought hard
hearts, but have gone away with hearts graciously broken and melted,
and that have brought carnal hearts, but returned with spiritual

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 233

hearts, and that have brought worldly hearts, but returned with
heavenly hearts. God sometimes hears prayers for his own sake, and
for his Son's sake, and for his glory's sake, and for his promise sake,
when he will not hear prayers for the sinner's sake. But,

(7.) Seventhly, Sinful omissions lead to sinful commissions, yea,
sometimes they lead to ruin ; as you may see in the angels that fell
from the highest heaven to the lowest hell, and in Adam, who fell in
paradise from the highest pinnacle of glory to the lowest step of sin
and misery. Those reprobates in that 25th of Matthew did not rob
the saints, but only omitted the relieving of them, and this proved
a damning to them ; rich Dives did not rob the poor, but his not
relieving of them was his ruin, Luke xvi. Moab and Ammon were
banished the sanctuary to the tenth generation for a mere omis-
sion, because they met not God's Israel in the wilderness with
bread and water, Deut. xxiii. 3, 4, 6. Look, as the omission of
good diet breeds natural diseases in the body, so doth the omission
of good duties breed spiritual diseases in the soul. All sinful omis-
sions make work for hell, or for the physician of souls. man !
thou dost not know what deadly sin, what deadly temptation may
follow upon a mere single omission. Origen, going to comfort
and encourage a martyr that was to suffer, was apprehended by the
officers, and constrained either to offer to the idols or to have his body
abused by a blackamoor that was ready pressed for that service. Being
thus hard put to it, to save his life, he bowed to the idols ; but after-
wards, when he came to himself, he sadly bewails his sin, and con-
fesseth that he went forth that morning without making his prayers
unto God, which sinful omission God did so severely punish, by leav-
ing of him to fall into so great a sin, which pierced his soul through
with many sorrows. I am apt to think that many a sin, many a snare,
and many a faU might have been prevented, if such and such reli-
gious duties had not been omitted. Sinful omissions prepare the way
to sinful commissions, and both prepare the way to a fatal destruction.
I believe many men had never been so abominable vicious, if they
had not first cast off religious duties. He that lives in the neglect of ♦
prayer, tempts more devils than one to beset his soul, yea, to destroy
his soul, &c. But,

(8.) Eighthly and lastly, There are several iveiglity arguments tJiat
may be produced to prove that it is the duty of wicked and unconverted
men to perform religious duties, as to pray and seek the Lord, &c.
Among the many that may be brought forth, I shall only give you
these six:

[1.] First, This is evident from divine commands, as you may clearly
see by comparing of these scriptures together, Isa. Iv. 6, 7 ; Acts viii.
21-23 ; Ps. Ixv. 21. 1 Thes. v. 17, ' Pray without ceasing,' is an inde-
finite injunction ; and who art thou, man, that darest to prohibit
what God commands ? Are not his commands obliging ? and may
not disobedience to the least of them cost thee thy life, thy soul, thy
all ? God's commands are neither to be slighted, censured, nor ne-
glected. Woe to him that looks upon great commands as little com-
mands, and little commands as no commands, Mat. xxiii. sirs,
it is a very dangerous thing to act or run counter-cross to God's ex-

234 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

press command ; it may cost a man dear, as you may see in that sad
story, 1 Kings xiii. 24. The heathens, indeed, would frequently run
cross to their gods' commands, for when their gods commanded them
to oflfer up a man, they would offer up a candle ; and so Hercules,
when he was to offer up a living man, he offered up a painted man ;
but does it become Christians to deal thus with the great Grod, with
the living God, with the God of gods, as the heathens did by their
gods ? Surely no. God's commands are not like imto the commands of
the heathens, that might be contradicted and changed, but they are like
to the commands of the Medes, that cannot be reversed nor changed ;
they must be evangelically obeyed, or you will be eternally destroyed.
The Rechabites were very rigid observers of their father's commands ;
and will you make slight of God's commands ? Jer. xxxv. 2, 5-7.
And ' the angels that excel in strength do his commandments,' Ps.
ciii. 20 ; and will you despise them ? Why should the peasant scorn
that work in which the prince himself is engaged ? But,

[2.] Secondly, Prayer is a viatural worship, and is incumbent upon
all men, as they are created by God, Prayer is a duty which the very
law of nature, as well as the law of the word, lays upon men. And
this you may see in those pagans, Jonah i. 5, ' The mariners cried
every man to his god.' That there is a God, and that this God is to
be called upon, are lessons that are taught in nature's school : Isa.
xlv. 20, ' They pray to a god that cannot save,' For any man to say
a wicked man ought not to pray, is to say a wicked man ought not to
worship God, nor acknowledge him to be his maker ; and who but
such who are either blind or mad dare speak such language ? Cer-
tainly they that live in the neglect of prayer under the gospel sin
against a double light, the light of nature and the light of the gospel,
and therefore they shall be double-damned. There is no heU to these
men's hell who sin against a double light, &c. But,

[3.] Thirdly, The neglect of prayer is charged upon wicked persons
as their sin ; as you may see by comparing of these scriptures to-
gether, Ps. xiv. 2, 4, and x. 4 ; Jer. x. 21 ; Hosea vii. 7 ; Zeph. i. 6.
Now doubtless if it were not a duty for unregenerate persons to pray,
it could never stand with the holiness, justice, and righteousness of
God, to charge the omission of prayer upon them as a sin, and there-
fore, without peradventure, it is their duty to pray. But,

[4.] Fourthly, Wicked and unregenerate persons are again and
again imprecated against for not calling upon the Lord: Ps. Ixxix. 6,
' Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and
upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name ; ' so Jer.
X. 25, ' Pour out thy^fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and
upon the families that call not upon thy name.' Now certainly if
prayer were not a duty incumbent upon wicked men, they would never
be thus imprecated against for the omission of it. To imprecate
that vials, that full vials, that full vials of wrath and fury should be
poured forth, as water is poured forth, suddenly and plentifully, upon
those kingdoms and families that do not call upon the name of the
Lord, is so dreadful a thing, that it had never been mentioned in the
Scripture, had it not been to alarm the worst of men to the work of
prayer. But,

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 235

[5.] Fifthly, If absolute py^omises, or precious promises of special
grace and mercy ^ he made to sinners, as sinners, then sinners may in
prayer plead out those promises, and urge God upon making good his
promises; but absolute promises, or promises of special grace and favour,
are made over to simiers, as sinners, ergo, that such promises are made
over to poor sinners, as sinners, is evident by comparing these scriptures
together, Isa. Ivii. 17-19. These words drop nothing but myrrh and
mercy. If Ennius could pick gold out of a dunghill, oh, what gold,
what comfort, may be picked out of these golden promises ! In these
words, let us consider two things : first, the precious promises that
are here made ; secondly, the persons to whom they are made. In
the words you have four precious promises of special grace and favour ;
they are as so many streams of grace flowing from the covenant of grace.

I. The precious promises that are here made.

First, You have here a promise of healing : ver. 18, * I have seen
his ways, and will heal him,' or, as you may read the words, though I
have seen his ways and courses, and well observed how unworthily,
how untowardly, and how obstinately he has carried it, ' yet I will
heal him,' — ' I will heal his backsliding nature.' Though his disease
be dangerous, though it be very dangerous, yet to an almighty physi-
cian no disease is incurable. I will heal his inside by pardoning his
sin and purging his conscience, and I will heal his outside by remov-
ing of judgments and calamities from him ; and all this I will do
upon the account of my promise and covenant : Hosea xiv. 4 ; Jer.
xxxii. 38, and xl. 2, compared ; Ps. ciii. 3 ; Jer. iii. 22 ; Mai. iv. 2.

Secondly, You have in the words a promise of leadiTig ; ' 1 will lead
him also,' or, as the Hebrew hath it, ' and I will lead him, I will con-
duct him in safety to his own country.' So some sense it, but you
may understand it, doubtless, of a spiritual, as well as of a providen-
tial leading. I will lead him by my word, and I will lead him by
my Spirit, and I will lead him by my counsel, suitable unto many
precious promises of grace that are scattered up and down in the
Scripture.

Thirdly, In the words you have a promise of comfort; * I will restore
comforts to him,' not comfort, but comforts ; that is, in the room of
all those discomforts, sorrows, calamities, and miseries that he has been
exercised with, I will, says God, lay in abundance of comfort, yea, I
will store him with all sorts of comforts, both temporal, spiritual, and
eternal, suitable to that word of grace that you have in Isa. xl. 1, 2.

Fourthly, In the words you have a promise of peace: ver. 19, ' I
create the fruit of the lips ; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to
him that is near,' saith the Lord. The gemination of the word
Shalom, shalom, peace, peace, imports a large extent of peace ; it
notes true peace, firm peace, sure peace, great peace, abundance of
peace, yea, constant and lasting peace. Under the name of peace in
the Hebrew is denoted all manner of prosperity, and the geminating
of the word always notes a large measure of tranquillity, plenty, pros-
perity, and felicity. sirs, peace with God, and peace with con-
science, and peace with the creatures, are all the products of God's
creating power and grace, Eph. ii. 16-18, and so must be referred to
the covenant of grace.

236 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

Let us consider,

II. The persons to whom these precious promises are made ; and
here let us observe these three things.

First, Their sin ; and this you have in ver. 17, ' For the iniquity
of his covetousness I was wroth.' The sin that is charged upon him
is a very great and grievous, it is a very vile and heinous sin ; it is called
not only covetousness, but the iniquity of his covetousness, to shew the
height and transcendency of this their wickedness ; for covetousness is
a mother-sin, it is a breeding sin, it is a sin that has all sin in the womb
of it ; it is a sin not only against the light and law of grace, but also
against the light and law of nature, for it makes the soul terrene which
should be celestial ; and therefore the Persians, though heathens, have
a law that no man ought to covet what belongs to any other man ; and
they have another law, that they ought not to be worldly-minded. No
sin lays men under greater woes, 1 Tim. vi. 10. Woe to him that
joineth house to house ; and woe to you Scribes, Pharisees, and hypo-
crites. Mat. xxiii. It is an evil that subjects men to the basest and
vilest evils ; it is the root of all evil — it makes a man a fool : Luke
xii. 20, ' Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be taken from thee.' It
robs a man of all true peace, comfort, content, and quiet ; it brings
men into snares which drowns their souls in perdition ; it renders men
unsatisfied under aU their outward enjoyments. Though a covetous
wretch may have enough to sink him, yet he can never have enough
to satisfy him ; first he wishes for a bag-fuU, and then a chest-full, and
then a chamber-full, and then a church-full, &c. The plague of
unsatisfiedness is none of the least of plagues that covetous men are
under. Certainly you shall as soon fill a triangle with a circle, and a
chest with grace, and the body with air, as you shall be able to fill and
satisfy a covetous mind with money. In a word, covetousness is a sin
that renders a man unserviceable in his generation. A covetous man
is like a swine, that is good for nothing whilst he lives. The horse is
good to bear and carry, the ox is good to draw, the sheep is good for
cloth, the cow is good to give milk, and the dog is good to keep the
house, but the hog is good for nothing whilst he lives ; so a covetous
man is neither good for church nor state — he is nowise serviceable in
his generation, only when he is dead. That scripture often proves
true, viz., that 'the riches of a sinner are laid up for the just,' Job
xxvii. 17. By all which you may see the greatness of this sin of
covetousness that is so closely charged upon them. But,

Secondly, They grew worse under the afflicting hand of God; ' I
was wroth, and smote him, and he went on frowardly in the way
of his heart.' They were like peevish, fro ward, stubborn children, that
grow more cross, crooked, and perverse under all the chastenings of
their father ; and this was no small aggravation of their sin, that they
grew worse under the rod. Plutarch writes i that it is the quality
of tigers, that if the drums or tabors sound about them, they will
grow mad, and rend and tear their own flesh in pieces ; and so it was
with these sinners in the text. Oh, how did they fret and fume, and
tear, and take on, when they were under the rebukes of God ! But,

Thirdly, They persevered and went on against all gainsayings ; ' I
^ Lib. de super*titione.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 237

have Been his ways,' that is, I have seen his obstinacy and incorrigi-
bility in sin. Ah, poor creature ! says God, he sees not his present
misery and slavery, he takes no notice of his own folly and vanity, of
his own frowardness and peevishness ; he scorns to bend or bow under
my mighty hand, he is resolved to stand it out to the death, he will
persist on in his own ways, though he eternally perishes — though hell
stands at the end of his ways, yet on he will. Well ! what is the issue
of all this ? God saith, ' I have seen his ways, and will heal him.'
It is not, I have seen his ways, and will curse him, no, but ' I have
seen his ways, and will heal him.' It is not, I have seen his ways, and
will never have any more to do with him ; no, but ' I have seen his
ways, and will heal him.' It is not, I have seen his ways, and will
damn him ; no, but ' I have seen his ways, and will heal him.' Oh the
freeness, oh the unsearchableness, oh the riches of Grod's grace ! And
thus you see that the precious promises last cited are promises that
are made over to sinners as sinners. And this is further evident
in that Isa. xliii. 22-25. For sins of omission and sins of commission,
what can be more charged upon a sinful people than here is charged
upon them ? They were not only negligent of his worship and service,
but they were also weary of his worship and service, and counted
it rather a burden than a benefit, a toil than a pleasure. In all
their outward observances they did but court the Lord, they did but
compliment with God ; for whilst they were in his service, their hearts
were secretly weary of his service ; and by their sinful commissions, oh,
how did they grieve, vex, oppress, and burden the Holy One of Israel !
And yet, in ver. 25, God does passionately and emphatically proclaim
their free pardon, ' I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.' The metaphor
is taken from men's blotting out of debts out of their debt-book. Now
when a debt is blotted out of the debt-book, it is never charged upon
the debtor more, it is never regarded nor remembered more ; so when
God proclaims the sinner's pardon, when he forgives him his trans-
gressions, he blots, he rases, he crosses his books, and cancels all
bonds, so as that he will never object his sins against him, and never
charge his sins upon him; but being once forgiven, they shall be
for ever forgotten, they shall never come into his remembrance more.
And all this he will do for his name sake, and for the praise and
glory of his own free grace. So in Ezek. xxxvi. 26-28, 37, compared.
Now by all these scriptures it is most plain and evident that the
precious promises of special grace and mercy are made over to sinners
as sinners ; and if so, then doubtless sinners may lawfully put these
promises into suit. sirs, don't you know that desire is the soul of
prayer ? and who, but such as are witless and graceless, will say that
a wicked man may not desire the accomplishment of God's gracious
promises, that wiU say an unregenerate man may not desire to be par-
doned, sanctified, and renewed; and that the Lord would bestow
his Spirit upon him, and that, by the finger of the same Spirit, the law
of the Lord may be written in his heart, that he may observe his
statutes, and do them ? These are things that God has engaged him-
self to do for poor sinners, and therefore certainly sinners may put
God in mind of his engagements. But,

238 THE IsTICESSITT, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

[6.] Sixthly and lastly, God would never have encouraged and
rewarded with temporal favours wicked and unregenerate mens
religious duties and services as he has done, if he would not have had
them exercise themselves in religious duties. Now that he has thus
encouraged and rewarded wicked and unregenerate men, is evident in
these instances, 1 Kings xxi. 19 ; Jonah iii. 4, seq. ; 2 Chron. xxvi.
5. Uzziah sought God in the days of Zechariah ; and when he sought
the Lord, God made him to prosper. Had he been really godly, had he
had the root of the matter in him, had he been a sincere, a throughout
Christian, he would have sought the Lord all his days, he would have
held on and held out in well-doing ; but being carnal, hypocritical, and
unregenerate, his religion dies with Zechariah. Another instance you
have of this among the sailors, that usually are the worst of sinners,
Ps. cvii. 23-30 ; and another you have in that known case of Jehu.
From all which we may well conclude, that God expects and
looks that wicked men, that unregenerate men, should be found in the
exercise of religious duties. It is an excellent observation of Calvin
upon God's rewarding the Kechabites' obedience : Jer. xxxv. 19,
* God,' saith he, ' oft recompenseth the shadows and seeming appearances
of virtue, to shew that complacency he takes in the ample rewards he
hath reserved for true and sincere piety.' To conclude, it was as easy
for Boaz to have given Ruth as much corn at once as would have
yielded her an ephah of barley, and so have sent her home without any
more ado, but he would not, being resolved that she should use
her endeavour to gather and glean it, and beat it out too when she had
gleaned it ; so it is as easy a thing for God to give his Christ, to give
his Spirit, and to give his grace immediately to poor sinners without
their using of the means, but he won't, being resolved that they shall
use the means of hearing, reading, praying, and conference, &c., and
when they have done, leave the issue of all their labours and endeavours
to his good-will and pleasure. I have taken the more pains fully and
clearly to answer this objection, that it may never more have a resur-
rection in any of your souls.

(9.) Ninthly, If ever you would be holy, then, when you have done
all, wait. Oh, hear and wait, and wait and hear ; pray and wait,
and wait and pray ; read and wait, and wait and read ; confer, and
wait, and wait and confer ; watch and wait, and wait and watch.
sirs, shall the husbandman wait for a good harvest ? and the merchant
for good returns ? James v. 7, 8 ; and the watchman for the dawning of
the day ? and the patient for a happy cure ? and the poor client for a
day of hearing ? &c. ; and will not you wait for Christ, and wait for
the Spirit, and wait for pardon, and wait for grace, and wait for
glory? &c. sinners, sinners, remember you are at the right
door, and therefore wait. Oh, remember that whilst you are waiting
for mercy, God is preparing of mercy. Oh, remember that it is mercy
that you may wait for mercy. Devils and damned spirits can't wait
for mercy. Wait they must ; but, oh, it is for more wrath, anger, and
fiery indignation. Oh, remember your condition bespeaks waiting, for
you are poor, halt, lame, blind, and miserable creatures. Oh, re-
member that mercy is sweetest when it comes after a patient waiting:
Deut. xxxii. 13, 'He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 239

oil out of the flinty rock ; ' that is, he made him to suck water that
was as sweet as honey out of the rock, out of the flinty rock. Oh, re-
member that a patient waiting for mercy is the only way to greaten
your mercy. The longer, said the emperor's son, the cooks are
a-preparing the meat, the better the cheer will be. His meaning was,
the longer he stayed for the empire, the greater it would be. So the
longer a soul waits for mercy, the greater and the better it will be
when it comes ; as you may see in that famous instance of the poor
man that lay eight and thirty years at the pool of Bethesda, John v.
2, 16. Famous was the patience of Elijah's servant, who, in obedience
to his master's command, went seven several times up and down steep
Carmel, 1 Kings xviii. 8, which could not be without danger and
difficulty, and all to bring news of nothing, till his last journey, which
made a recompense for all the rest, with the tidings of a cloud arising.
Oh, so do but patiently wait upon the Lord, and that grace, that
favour, that mercy, will come at last, which will fully recompense you
for all your waitings. Kemember that the mercies of God are not
styled the sioift^ but the sure mercies of David, Isa. Iv. 3, Mercy may
be sure, though it be not presently upon the wing flying towards us.
And the same prophet saith, ' The glory of the Lord shall be thy
rere-ward,' Isa. Iviii. 8. Now this, we know, comes up last, to secure
and make good all the rest, for where grace leads the front, glory at last
wiU be in the rear. Oh, do but patiently wait, and he that shall come
will come, and will not tarry, Heb. x. 37 ; not a year, not a quarter,
not a month, not a week, not a day, no, not an hour beyond the pre-
fixed time that he hath set of shewing mercy to poor sinners. Oh,
how sad was it that Saul should lose his kingdom for want of two or
three hours' patience ! but oh, how much more sad will it be if thou
shouldst lose all the prayers that thou hast made, and all the sermons
that thou hast heard, and all the tears that thou hast shed, and all
other pains that thou hast taken, and all for want of a little more
patience ! yea, how woeful-sad would it be if thou shouldst lose thy
God, and lose thy Christ, and lose thy soul, and lose an eternity of
glory, and all for want of a little patience to wait the Lord's leisure !
Oh, therefore resolve to hold on waiting to the death, and if thou must
perish, to perish in a waiting way, which if thou shouldst, thou
wouldst be the first that ever so perished. Oh, remember that if God
should come, and mercy come, and pardon come, and grace come,
when thy sun is near setting, when thy glass is almost out, and when
there is but a short step between thee and eternity, it will infinitely
recompense thee for all thy waiting ; and therefore wait still. And
to keep up thy spirits, and to uphold thy soul in a waiting way, oh
that thou wouldst make these following promises thy daily food, thy
daily friends, thy daily companions : Ps. xxvii. 14, ' Wait on the
Lord : be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart ; wait,
I say, on the Lord ; ' Prov. xx. 22, ' Wait on the Lord, and he shall
save thee ; ' Isa. xxx. 18, ' And therefore will the Lord wait, that he
may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he
may have mercy upon you : for the Lord is a God of judgment.
Blessed are all they that wait for him ; ' chap. xl. 31 , ' But they that
wait upon the Lord shaU renew their strength : they shall mount up

240 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall
walk and not faint ; ' chap. xlix. 23, ' They shall not be ashamed that
wait for me ; ' and chap. Ixiv. 4, * For since the beginning of the
world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear ; neither hath the
eye seen, God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that
waiteth for him ; ' Prov. viii. 34, ' Blessed is the man that heareth
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.'
Oh, how should these precious promises encourage your hearts to wait
on the Lord ! Oh, how should they lengthen and draw out your
patience to the utmost ! But,

(10.) Tenthly and lastly, Divell much upon the memorable judg-
ments of God, that even in this life has fallen upon unholy persons.
' Remember Lot's wife,' Luke xvii. 32. Oh, remember her sin and
punishment, that so fearing the one, you may learn to take heed of the
other : Isa. xxvi. 9, ' When thy judgments are in the earth, the in-
habitants of the world will learn righteousness ; ' that is, they should
learn righteousness — for so the words may be read — they should learn
to fear thee, and learn to turn unto thee, and learn to forsake their
sins and amend their lives : when thy judgments, thy memorable
judgments, are abroad in the world, it highly concerns all the sons of
men to look after holy dispositions, holy affections, and holy conversa-
tions, that so it may go well with them in the day of the Lord's wrath.
Others sense the words thus : When thy judgments are on the earth,
the inhabitants of the world, that is, sinners as well as saints, shall
learn righteousness, that is, they shall learn to fear thee upon the ac-
count of thy righteous judgment; suitable to that. Job xxxvii. 23, 24,
' Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out : he is excellent in
power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice. Men do therefore
fear him ; he respecteth not any that are wise of heart ; ' and to that,
Eev. XV. 4, ' Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy name ?
for thou only art holy : for all nations shall come and worship before
thee, for thy judgments are made manifest.' The judgments of God
upon Antichrist shall so awaken, alarm, and affect the nations, that
they shall cast off all false ways of worship, and worship the Lord in
a more pure, spiritual, high, and noble way than ever yet they have
done. God is a free agent, and he can make sinners saints, as well by
judgments as by mercies. Waldus, from whom the Waldenses had
their name, when many were met together to be merry, seeing one
among them suddenly fall down dead, it struck so to his heart, that he
went home a penitent, and proved a very precious holy man. Pharaoh
was not a pin the better for all the plagues that came upon him ; i
but Jethro, taking notice of God's heavy judgments upon Pharaoh,
and likewise upon the Amalekites, was thereby converted, and became
a proselyte, as some observe. sirs, who can tell but that a fixed
eye upon the remarkable judgments of God that has been inflicted
upon notorious sinners, may be a means to change you and turn you
to the Lord ? Forget not the plagues that came upon bloody Pharaoh.
Remember how crafty Ahithophel, and proud Haman, and covetous
Judas, came all to the halter. Forget not how the earth opened her
mouth and swallowed up Korah and his companions. Forget not the
^ Kabbi Solomoa on Prov. ix. 15.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 241

angel that drew upon Balaam, nor Samuel's sword that cut Agag in
pieces, nor the royal oak on which Absalom was hanged, nor the
javelin by which Phinehas, in his zeal for God, thrust through Zimri
and Cozbi. Kemember how Ananias and Sapphira were struck dead
with a lie in their mouths. Kemember how God rained hell out of
heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Kemember how suddenly, how
unexpectedly, and how inevitably the flood came upon the old world ;
and remember how the angels that kept not their first station of holi-
ness are now in chains under everlasting darkness. Oh, who can
seriously dwell upon the severe judgments of God upon these persons,
and not resolve upon breaking off his sins, and pursuing after that
holiness, without which there is no happiness 1 1 Oh, remember that
God is as holy a God as ever, and as just a God as ever, and as jealous
of his glory as ever ; and therefore turn from the evil of your doings,
that your souls may live. Oh that the dreadful judgments of God
that has been executed upon others might so alarm all unholy hearts,
that they may with all their might cast off the works of darkness, and
put on the armour of light, that so they may be children of the light,
and their souls may live for ever ! And thus much for the means
whereby men may reach to that holiness, without which there is no
happiness.

I come now, in the third place, to answer those objections which
usually are made against men's pursuing after holiness. As,

Object. 1. First, We have no power to make ourselves holy; we are
as well able to make a world, to command the winds, and to raise the
dead, as ive are able to cleanse our own hearts, or change our own
natures, or sanctify our own souls ; and therefore, to what purpose
should ive be so strongly pressed to do that which we have no poiver to
do ? Now to this objection I shall give these following answers :

1. First, That thou hast no power to perform any supernatural
act, as to believe or love God, or repent, or to change thine own heart,
or to sanctify or make thyself holy, must be granted; that by nature
thou art dead in trespasses and sins, and hast lost all thy spiritual
senses of seeing, hearing, tasting, and feeling, can't be denied, Eph.
ii. 1. It is certain that thy nature is so corrupted that thou canst
not think a good thought, nor speak a good word, nor do a good
work ; thou art not sick, but dead, God-wards, and Christ-wards, and
heaven-wards, and holiness-wards, &c.2 I have read of the lioness,
how that she brings forth her whelps dead, and so they remain, till,
after some time, by her roaring aloud over them, they come to live.
Certainly all unholy hearts are spiritually dead, and till Christ, the
Lion of the tribe of Judah, comes to roar over them, by uttering his
voice in the gospel, they cannot live, John v. 25. It is Christ only
that can quicken the dead. It was never known since the creation of
the world that ever a dead man could make himself alive. Sin in
dominion is the plague of the heart, 1 Kings viii. 38. Now as there
is no disease so deadly as the plague, so there is no plague so deadly
as the plague of the heart. Oh, this is a disease that none can cure

1 See the ' Theatre of God's Judgments,' by Dr Beard and Dr Taylor : and see Mr
Clarke's ' Looking-glass both for Saints and Sinners.'
' 2 Cor. iii. 5 ; Mat. xii. 34 ; John vi. 44 ; 1 Cor. IL 14.
VOL. IV. Q

242 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb XII. 14.

but he who is the physician of souls. An unsanctified person is not
half-dead, as the Pelagians, Arminians, and Papists say ; but as to
spirituals he is stark dead, Col. ii. 13. An unsanctified soul is dead.

[1.] Bespectu operis, In respect of working, and therefore his works
are called dead works, Heb. ix. 14. There is death written upon all
he does.

[2.] Bespectu Iwnoris, He is dead in respect of honour ; he is dead
to all privileges, he is not fit to inherit mercy. Who will set the
crown of life upon a dead man's head ? The crown of life is for the
holy Christian, and the holy Christian is for the crown of hfe, Kev.
ii. 10 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8. When he in Plutarch had tried all manner of
ways to raise a dead man, and to make him stand upon his feet, and
saw he could not do it, then he cried out, There must be something
within, there must be something within ; so when men have said
and done all they can, there must be something within, there must be
something of the power and spirit of Christ within, that must raise
up spiritual life in those that are spiritually dead. But,

2. Secondly, I answer, That God gave thee ability and power in
Adam to obey him in all his commands, and thoiigh by Adam's fall
thou hast lost thy poioer to obey, yet God has not lost his right and
power to command thee to obey A Suppose a father should furnish a
child with moneys and all other necessaries to go a journey, and he
should be drawn in by some strong temptation to spend his money,
his time, and his strength, so as that now he is not able to go his
journey; whose fault is this ? Will you now say that the father hath
lost his power to command, because his son hath lost his power to
obey ? Surely no. It is no iniquity in God to require that of us,
which once he gave unto us. It is no injustice in the creditor to caU
for his debt, when the debtor is fallen into extreme poverty through
his own default. But,

3. Thirdly, I answer. Though an unsanctified person be not able to
perform any theological or spiritual action, as to believe or repent, &c.,
yet he is able to perform all natural actions, as to eat, drink, work,
walk, dtc, and he is able to perform all political actions also, as to
trade, bargain, buy, sell, plant, and build, &c. The soul even in an
unsanctified person is not dead, but a living principle; and there-
fore it is able to understand, wHl, desire, discourse, reason, and to
attend the means of grace. Though he be not able to work grace in
his own heart, yet he is able to attend on the means of grace. An
unsanctified person may as well go to a sermon as to a tavern, he
may as well read the Scriptures as read play-books and pamphlets, he
may as well associate himself with those that fear an oath, as he does
with those that delight to blaspheme that name that all should
tremble at, &c. Man's impotency lies in his obstinacy. Man pre-
tends he cannot believe, nor he cannot come to Christ, nor he cannot
repent, &c., when he is resolved that he will not believe, nor he will
not come to Christ, nor he will not repent, &c.2 Christ in the gospel
comes and offers pardon and peace and reconciliation, and thou
turnest thy back upon him ; he woos and entreats and beseeches thee

1 Gen. i. 26 ; Eccles. vii. 29 ; Ps. viii. 4, seq.

^ Mat. xxiii. 37 ; Luke xiii. 34 j John v. 40 ; Acts vii. 5.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 243

by his ambassadors, but thou wilt not hear, &c. He sets life and
death, heaven and hell, mercy and misery before thee, but thou slightest
all, 2 Cor, v. 18-20. Christ brings a cordial in one hand to strengthen
thee, and a remedy in the other hand to cure thee, but thou despisest
both. Christ offers tried gold to enrich thee, and white raiment to
clothe thee, and precious eye-salve to enlighten thee, Eev. iii. 18,
and thou shuttest up thy heart against all his offers. Well, sirs !
remember this, in the great day all unsanctified persons will be
damned, not for cannots but for loill-nots; it is neither men nor devils —
it is neither the greatness of thy sins, nor the numberless number of thy
sins that can damn thee, were it not for thy wifulness in sin, Hosea
xiii. 9. sinners, sinners, if you are but heartily willing to forsake
your sins, and to accept of Christ as your Lord and King, and to
resign up yourselves to him to be really his, to be wholly his, to be
only his, and to be eternally his, he will certainly change you, and
sanctify you, and save you ; but if you will not be holy, if you will
not be happy, if you will not be sanctified, if you wiU not be saved,
if you will not go to heaven, but are resolved upon going to hell,
what can be more just with God than that you should be Satan's
bond-slaves, and firebrands of hell, and vessels of wrath to all eternity ? i
But,

4. Fourthly, I answer. If thou dost hut stir up thyself to obey the
command as loell as thou canst, thou dost not know but that a power
may go forth with the command, that may enable thee to act suitable
to the command. In that Mat. ix. 1-9, Christ bid the palsy man
' rise and walk, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.' The
palsy man might have objected, Alas 1 I am carried by four, I am not
able to stir a limb, much less to rise, but least of all to take up my
bed and walk, &c. Oh 1 but he puts forth himself as well as he could,
and a power went forth with the command, that enabled him to do
what was commanded. So in that Mat. xii. 10-14, there was a poor
man that had a withered hand, and Christ commands him to stretch
forth his hand. He might have objected. My hand is withered, and
if I might have a thousand worlds to stretch it forth I could not
stretch it forth, yea, if my life, if my salvation did lie upon stretching
forth my withered, arm, I could not stretch it forth. Oh ! but he
throws by all objections, and complies as well as he could, and a
power went forth and healed his hand. God commanded Moses to
go and deliver his people out of Egypt. Moses might have objected
his old age, the power of Pharaoh, and his want of an army to force
their way, &c. But he turns his back upon these objections, and
addresses himself to the work, and such a mighty power went along
with him as did effect it. He commanded the Israelites to take
rams' horns, and with them to go and blow down the walls of Jericho,
Joshua vi. They might have said. Lord, these are weak and con-
temptible means, yea. Lord, if we may speak after the manner of men,
they are such ridiculous means as will expose us to scorn and laughter ;
but they pass over these things, and apply themselves to those weak
and despicable means that God had appointed, and such a divine
and glorious power went along with the means as made the walls of
' Prov. xxviii. 13 ; 1 John i. 9 : Luke xix. 41, 42.

244 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Jericho not only to tremble, but to tumble down before them. Christ
commanded Lazarus to come out of the grave, and there went a
divine power and virtue with that call of Christ, which made him to rise.
The means are the Spirit's triumphing chariot, in which he pleases
to ride conquering and to conquer the souls of men, 2 Cor. ii. 14.
' While Peter yet spake, the Holy Ghost fell on aU them that heard
the word,' Acts x. 44. man, thou canst not tell but that whilst
thou art in the use of divine helps, a secret power of the Spirit may
break in upon thee, and make the means effectual to thy conversion
and salvation. Many thousands have found it so, and therefore
address thyself to the use of the means, and wait at the pool ; thou
canst not tell how soon the Spirit may come and move upon thy
soul ; it may be this day, this hour, yea, this very moment wherein I
am thus speaking to thee. But,

5. Fifthly, I answer. That the sense of thine own inability, insuffi-
ciency, and impotency, should provoke thee to run to Christ, and to
lay hold on his everlasting strength, and to pAy the throne of grace, and
to give God no rest, till he has renewed and sanctified thy soul, till he
has effectually turned thee ''from, darkness to light,' Acts xxvi. 18,
till he has bespangled thy soul with grace, and filled thee with his
Spirit, and made thee partakers of his holiness, Heb. xii. 10. It was
a good saying of one, I)a quodjuhes, etjube quod vis. Give what thou
commandest, and command what thou wilt.i Oh, go to God, and tell
him that what he has commanded in some scriptures, he has promised
to give in other scriptures, and therefore press him to make good his
promises, that so you may obey his precepts. Oh, tell him that if he
will but ' sprinkle clean water upon thee, and put his Spirit within
thee, and give a new heart unto thee,' according to his promise, that
then ' thou wilt walk in his statutes, and keep his judgments, and do
them,' Ezek. xxxvi, 25-28. Oh, tell him that if he will but ' put his
fear into thy heart,' according to his promise, that then ' thou wilt
never depart from him,' Jer. xxxii. 40. Oh, tell him that he has com-
manded thee to beheve, and that he has also promised to give thee
faith, and therefore if he will but make good his promise, thou shalt
be sure to obey his precepts, Phil. i. 29 ; James v. 17. Oh, tell
him that he has frequently commanded thee to ' repent,' Acts v. 31,
and that he has also graciously promised to give * repentance,' 2 Tim.
ii. 25, and therefore if he will but perform his promise, thou shalt
not fail to obey his precepts, &c. Oh, tell him that thou hast no mind
to be damned, tell him that thou tremblest at the thoughts of hell, tell
him that thou canst not without much horror think of ' dwelling with
a devouring fire, of dwelling with everlasting burnings,' Isa. xxxiii.
14 ; 2 Thes. i 7-10. Oh, teU him that thou dreadest an eternal
separation from him, and therefore earnestly beseech him, for his Son's
sake, and for his glory sake, and his promise sake, and thy soul's sake,
that he would renew thy nature, and sanctify thy soul, that so thou
mayest not perish to all eternity. But,

6. Sixthly and lastly. What disingenuity, yea, what injustice and
unrighteousness is this, that thou shouldst lie complaining of the loant
of power ^ when thou dost not use and improve the power thou hast.,

* Augustine.

.HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 245

Without the power and assistance of special grace, thou hast power to
attend religious duties and services ; thou hast power to turn thy back
upon the infectious and dangerous society of wicked and ungodly men ;
thou hast power to keep at a distance from the * harlot's door/ thou
hast power to keep thy mouth of blasphemy shut, thou hast power to
keep thy hands from stealing, and thy feet ' from being swift to shed
innocent blood;' thou hast power to bring thy body to an ordinance,
though thou hast not power to bring thy soul to the ordinance. 1 The
noble Bereans brought their bodies to the ordinance, and they took
the heads of the apostle's sermon, and compared them with the Scrip-
ture, and yet they were in an unrenewed and unsanctified estate, Acts
xvii. 11, 12. sirs, you have power to come to public ordinances,
and to set yourselves under the droppings of a gospel powerful min-
istry ; you have power to lie at the pool of Bethesda, and there to wait
till the cure be wrought ; but where is the unsanctified soul that im-
proves the power he has ? Tell me, vain man, why should God
trust thee with a greater power, when thou makest no conscience of
improving that power thou hast ? Why should God trust thee with
ten talents, when thou hast no heart to improve the two that he has
already trusted thee withal ? What wise father or master will trust
that child or servant with hundreds or thousands, who makes no con-
science of improving far lesser sums to the honour and advantage of
the father or the master ? How dost thou know, man, but that
upon the faithful improvement of that power thou hast, God may add
a greater power to thee ? If thou wilt but go that two miles thou
canst, God may strike in with thee, and enable thee to go ten. It is
a dangerous thing to neglect the doing of that which thou canst do,
because that thou canst not do everything that thou shouldst do.
Suppose a father or a master should say to his son or servant. Take
such and such wares and commodities, and carry them to such and
such places, for such and such chapmen ; and the son or servant should
say. Well, though there be some small light burdens that I can well
enough carry, yet there are many heavy burdens that I cannot carry,
and therefore I will carry none at all : may not the father of such a
son, or the master of such a servant, in much justice and righteousness
severely punish such a son or servant ? Doubtless yes. Why, this is
the very case of all unsanctified souls. God commands them to be-
lieve and repent, and to love him with all their hearts, and to set him
up as the object of their fear, and to give him the pre-eminence in all
things, &c. But these are supernatural acts, beyond their power ; and
he commands them to attend on the means of grace, and to wait at
wisdom's door. He commands them to apply themselves to public
ordinances, and to keep close to family duties, and to turn their backs
upon such and such vicious societies, &c., and these are things they
can do ; and yet because they cannot do the former, they wilfully and
wickedly refuse to do the latter ; because they cannot bear the heaviest
burden, they are resolved they will bear none at all; and because
they cannot do everything they should, they will do nothing at all,
except it be to complain that God is a hard master, and expects to
reap where he does not sow. Now how just and righteous a thing it

' James iii. 10; Eph. iv. 28 ; Kom. iii. 15.

246 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

is with God to deal severely witli such, I will leave you to judge.
And let this suffice for answer to the first objection.

Object. 2. But hereafter may he time enough to look after holiness ;
I may yet pursue after the pleasures and profits of the world, I may
yet spend some years in gratifying mine own lusts, and in walking
after the course of the world ; I have time enough before Tine, and
therefore some years hence may be time enough to look after holiness,
Now to this objection I shall give these answers :

1. First, Tliou ivilt not say that thou canst be saved too soon, nor
happy too soon, nor blessed too soon, nor pardoned too soon, nor in the
favour of God too soon, nor out of the danger of lorath, hell, and ever-

lasting burnings too soon; and if so, then certainly thou canst not be
holy too soon; for thou canst never be truly liappy till thou art truly
holy. No man wiU be so foolish and mad as to say he may be rich too
soon, and great too soon, and high and honourable in the world too
soon, and in favour and esteem with men, especially with great men,
too soon ; and why then shouldst thou be so mad and foohsh, as prac-
tically to say that thou canst be holy too soon ? and yet thus much
thou dost proclaim upon the house-top, when thou criest out. Here-
after, hereafter will be time enough to seek after holiness. But,

2. Secondly, I answer. That it is thy wisdom and thy work to set one
may-be against another ; thou say est now, that hereafter may be time
enough to look after holiness, Eccles. vii. 14. Oh, set another may-be
against this may-be, and say, If I now neglect this season of grace,
may-be I shall never have another, Isa, Iv. 6 ; if I now slight the offers
of mercy, it may be I shall never have such offers more ; if I now
despise this day of salvation, it may be I shall never have such another
day ; if I now withstand the tenders of Christ, it may be Christ will
never make a tender to me more ; if I now resist the strivings of the
Spirit, it may be the Spirit will never strive with my soul more, and
then woe, woe to me that ever I was born ! ^ Oh, don't put off God, don't
put off thy soul, don't put off the thoughts of holiness, don't put off
eternity with may-bes, lest ' the Lord should swear in his wrath, that
'thou shalt never enter into his rest,' Heb, iii. 18 ; and seeing that thou
wilt not suffer holiness to enter into thee, thou shalt never enter into thy
master's joy. Oh, why shouldst thou put off thy poor soul, so as thou
wouldst not have God to put it off? Thou wouldst not have God to
put off thy soul with may-bes ; as with a may-be I will pardon thee,
it may be I will lift up the light of my countenance upon thee, it
may be I will change thy nature and save thy soul, it may be I will
fiU thee with my Spirit and adorn thee with my grace, it may be I
will bring thee to my kingdom and glory. Oh, thou wouldst not have
God to put thee off with such may-bes ! and why then shouldst thou
deal more hardly and cruelly with thine own soul than thou wouldst
have God to deal with thee ? But,

3. Tliirdly, I answer, It is a clear argument that thou art not truly
nor throughly sensible of thy present condition and danger, who thus
objectest. Wert thou but truly sensible of thy lost and undone estate
out of Christ ; didst thou but indeed know what it is to live one hour
in a Christless and graceless condition ; didst thou but see that wrath

^ Prov. i. 20-33 ; Heb. ii. 1-3 ; Luke xix. 41-45 ; Gen. vi. 3.

HeB. XII. 14,] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 247

that hangs over thy head ; didst thou but read the curses that are
pronounced in the book of God against thee ; didst thou but behold
how hell gapes to devour thee ; didst thou but see how far off thou
art from God, Christ, the covenant, and all the glory and happiness of
another world ; ah, how wouldst thou every day cry out, Give me holi-
ness or I die, give me holiness or I eternally die ! Acts ii. 39 ; Eph. ii.
12. The patient that is truly sensible of his disease will not say,
hereafter will be time enough to send for the physician ; nor the
wounded man will not say, hereafter will be time enough to fetch the
surgeon ; nor the condemned man will not say, hereafter will be time
enough to sue for a pardon ; nor the needy man will not say, hereafter
will be time enough to look for relief; nor the fallen man will not say,
hereafter will be time enough to lift me up ; nor the drowning man will
not say, hereafter wiU be time enough to bring a boat to save my life.
Now this is the very case of all unsanctified persons in the world ;
and why then should they cry out, hereafter, hereafter will be time
enough to be holy ? The boar in the fable, being questioned why he
stood whetting his teeth so when nobody was near to hurt him, wisely
answered, that it would then be too late to whet them when he was
to use them, and therefore he whetted them so before danger that he
might have them ready in danger. Ah, sirs, there is nothing more
dangerous than for you to have your holiness to seek, when temporal,
spiritual, and eternal dangers are at your heels. There is no wisdom
to that which leads men forth to a present pursuit after holiness, nor
no hell to that for a man to have his holiness to seek when he should
use it.

4. Fourthly, I answer, Tliat the brevity, shortness, and preciousness
of time, calls alovd upon thee to pursue after holiness without delay}
Time past is irrecoverable, time to come is uncertain, the present time
is the only time, and on this moment of time depends eternity. This
very day is a day of grace ; oh that thou hadst but grace to take notice
of it. This very time is an acceptable time ; oh that thou hadst but a
heart to accept of it, and to improve it. He that hath a great way to
go, and a great deal of work to do in a Kttle time, had not need to
trifle away his time ; and this is the case of every unsanctified soul.
Oh, the sins that such a soul hae to repent of ! oh, the graces that such
a soul has to seek ! oh, the evidences for heaven that such a soul has
to secure ! oh, the miseries that such a soul has to escape ! oh, the
mercies that such a soul has to press after, &c. ; and therefore of all
men in the world, it stands upon unsanctified persons well to husband
and improve their present time. Oh, it is a dangerous thing to put off
that work to another day which must be done to-day, or else thou
mayest be eternally undone to-morrow. The old saying was, Nunc
aut nunquam : Now or never ; if not now done, it may be never done,
and if so, then thou art undone for ever. Many sinners are now in
hell, who when they were on earth were wont to put off the motions
of the Spirit by crying out, eras, cra^, to-morrow, to-morrow. Time
is so precious a thing that mountains of gold and rocks of pearl cannot
redeem one lost moment; which that great lady [Queen Elizabeth]
well understood, when on her death-bed she cried out, ' Call time
^ Sumptus pretiosiasimus trempus. — Theoj>hrastu$,

248 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

again, call time again ; a world of wealth for an inch of time/ Ah,
what a precious and gainful commodity would time be in hell, where
for one day to repent, yea, for one hour to seek after holiness, a man
would give ten thousand worlds, were they in his hands to dispose of.
Time is so costly a jewel that few know how to value it and prize it at
a due rate. Witness that sad and frequent complaint among many,
Oh, what shall we do to drive away the time ? come, let 's go to cards
to drive away the time ! or let 's go to tables to drive away the time !
or let 's go to the tavern, and take a pint and a pipe to drive away
the time ! or let 's go and take a walk in the fields to drive away the
time ! &c. Thus most are lavishly and profusely prodigal of that
precious time which is their greatest interest to redeem. Time is a
precious talent, and the non-improvement of it God will charge upon
men at last, as he did upon Jezebel, Eev. ii. 20, 21, especially upon
such who trifle away, who play away, who idle away, yea, who grossly
sin away their precious time. How many are there like children, who
play till their candle be out, and then they go to bed in the dark !
So these play and fool away their precious time, till the candle of life
be out, and then they go to their beds, they go to their graves in
sorrow, yea, they go to hell in the dark. I have read of a young man
who, living vainly and loosely, was very fearful of being in the dark,
who after falling sick and could not sleep, cried out, ' Oh, if this dark-
ness be so terrible, what is eternal darkness ! ' i He that makes no
conscience of trifling away his precious time, shall one day experience
the terribleness of eternal darkness. The poets paint time with wings,
to shew the volubility 2 and swiftness of it.^ sirs, if the one sense
of the brevity, shortness, and preciousness of time did but lie in its
full weight upon your spirits, it would certainly put you upon a speedy
and earnest pursuit after holiness ! Oh, then you would never say,
hereafter, hereafter will be time enough to seek after holiness ; but you
would address yourselves to a fervent and a constant pressing after
holiness as the one thing necessary, and be restless in your own spirits,
till you had experienced the power and sweetness that is in holiness !
But,

5. Fifthly and lastly, I answer. That it is the greatest folly and mad-
ness in the luorld for thee to put of^ the great God and the great
concernments of thy soul, so as thou darest not put off thy superiors.
Where is the subject that dares put off a lawful duty urged upon
him by his prince with a may-be, or with a hereafter it may be I will
do it, or hereafter I wiU do it ? or where is that servant that dares
put off his lord's present commands with a may-be, or with a here-
after it may be I will do it, or hereafter I will do it ? or where is the
ingenuous child that dares put off a present duty pressed upon him by
his parents with a may-be, or with a hereafter it may be I will do it,
or hereafter I will do it ? or where is the affectionate wife that dares
put off the just desires and requests of her husband with a may-be, or
with a hereafter it may be I will answer your desires, or hereafter I
will answer your requests ? sirs, you dare not put off your superiors

^ Drexellius. ['Considerations on Eternity,' a favourite of the Puritans, as translated
by Winterton.— G.] " ' Kapidity.'— G.

* Sophocles, Phocilides, &c. [Aa before. — G.]

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 249

with may-bes, or with hereafters, and how then do you dare to put off
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, with may-bes and with here-
afters ? it may be I will look after holiness, it may be I will study
holiness, it may be I will prize holiness, or hereafter I will press after
holiness, I will pursue after holiness, hereafter I will follow hard after
holiness. Oh, remember that as there is nothing that does more
incense, enrage, and provoke a prince against his subjects, a lord
against his servants, a father against his child, and a husband against
his wife, than the putting off of their services and commands with
may-bes or with hereafters ; so there is nothing that does more incense,
inflame, and provoke the great God, than to put him off with may-bes,
or with hereafters ; as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the
margin together, i And oh that for time to come you would tremble
at the very thoughts of a may-be, and at the very mentioning of a
hereafter, that so you may never put off the commands of God, to
pursue after holiness with a may-be, or with a hereafter any more.
And let this suffice for answer to this second objection.

Object. 3. Thirdly, But if we should thus press and pursue after
holiness, then we must take our farewell of all Joy and comfort, of all
delight and pleasure, and never expect to enjoy one merry day more,
for we observe that there are no persons under heaven that live such a
melancholy, sad, sorrowful, pensive life, as those ivho press most after
holiness, and wlio make most stir and noise about Jioliness, and there-
fore if we should resolve to follow after holiness, we mu^t resolve to spend
our days in sorrow and sadness, in sighing and mourning, and this we
had as lief die as do, &c.

Now to this grand objection, I shall give these eight answers :

1. First, It may he thou loohest only on the dark side of the cloud,
and not on the bright ; thou lookest only on thy left hand, where the
mourners in Zion stand, but didst thou but cast an eye on thy right
hand, there thou wouldst see many of the precious sons and daughters
of Zion rejoicing and triumphing. 2 Now thus to look, what is it but
to look for a straw to thrust out thine own eyes with. sirs, it is
neither wisdom nor righteousness to look only upon those who mourn,
and not upon those that rejoice, upon those that sigh, but not upon
those that sing, Isa. Hi. 8, 9 ; Jer. xxxi, 7, 12. Before you pass a
judgment upon the people of God, or the good ways of God, look on
both hands, I say again, look on both hands, and then you will be sure
to see some saints in their wedding attire, as well as others in their
mourning weeds ; no man in his wits will argue thus, because such and
such men of such a calling or trade are in their mourning weeds,'
therefore all men of that calling or trade are in their mourning weeds;
and yet so witless are many men as thus to argue against the people
of God, and the ways of God. But,

2. Secondly, I answer, As there are tears of sorroiv, so there are
tears of joy? Jacob weeps over Joseph, but it was with tears of ex-
ceeding joy. The sweetest joy is from the sourest tears. Tears are

^ Pa. xcv. 6, to the end. Heb. iii. 7, to the end.
2 Isa. Ixi. 1-3, 10, 11, and xixv. 10.

' Compare these scriptores together; Gen. xliii. 30, xlv. 2, and xlvi. 29, 30; 1 Sam.
i. 13-20.

250 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the breeders of spiritual joy. A holy man's heart is usually fullest of
joy when his eyes are fullest of tears. When Hannah had wept, she
went away and was no more sad. The bee gathers the best honey of
the bitterest herbs. Christ made the best wine of water : the best, the
purest, the strongest, and the sweetest joys are made of the distilled
waters of evangelical repentance. Gospel mourning is no way incon-
sistent with holy joy. Though it must be granted that the love of
sin and true joy are inconsistent, and that the reign and dominion of
sin and true joy are inconsistent, yet it must be confessed that mourn-
ing for sin and holy joy are consistent in one and the same heart ; and
though legal terror and evangelical joy are inconsistent, yet evangelical
sorrow and evangehcal joy are consistent in one and the same soul.
The same eye of faith that drops tears of sorrow, drops also tears of
joy, Zech. xii. 10 ; 1 Pet. i. 8. A clear sight of free grace, of
pardoning mercy, and of a bleeding dying Saviour, will at the same
time fill the soul both with sorrow and joy, as the experiences of a
thousand Christians can testify. A Christian always joys most, and
mourns most, when he is most under the sense of divine love, the
influences and incomes of heaven, the hopes of glory, the reports of
mercy, and the precious sealings of the blessed Spirit. Look, as physic
is the way to health, so godly sorrow is the way to holy joy; and look, as
a wicked man's joy ends in sorrow, Prov. xiv. 13, so a godly man's sorrow
ends in joy : Isa. Ixi. 3, ' To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment
of gladness for the spirit of heaviness, that they may be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.'
Godly sorrow is the parent of holy joy ; a godly man's mourning time
is his most joyful time. I have read of a godly man who, lying upon
his dying bed, and being asked which was the joyfullest time that ever
he had in all his life, cried out, ' Oh, give me my mourning days again,
oh, give me my mourning days again, for they were the joyfullest days
that ever I had.' The more a Christian ' sows in tears,' the greater,
even in this world, shall be his 'harvest of joy;' his merry days
shall be always answerable to his mourning days, Ps. cxxvi. 6.
But,

3. Thirdly, I answer. That this is a false charge, a mere slander, an
unjtist calumny that Satan and his bond-slaves have cast upon holiness,
and the ways of holiness, on purpose to hinder men from pursuing and
following after holiness. The language of the objection is quite con-
trary to the language of the holy Scripture ; witness that Ps. cxxxviii.
5, ' Yea, they shall sing in the ways of the Lord ; for great is the
glory of the Lord.' When the kings of the earth shaU be generally
converted and sanctified, as it is in verse the 4th, ' then they shall
sing in the ways of the Lord.' When they shall come to experience
and taste the power, excellency, and sweetness of holiness, ' then they
shall sing in the ways of the Lord.' Conversion and sanctification
administer the highest grounds of joy and rejoicing : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For
our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity
and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,
we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to
you-wards.' A holy conversation affords the greatest ground of

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 251

rejoicing. There is no joy to that which springs from the testimony
of a sanctified conscience. God has given it under his own hand, that
* the ways of wisdom' (which are always ways of holiness) ' are ways
of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,' Prov. iii. 17. There is
no pleasure nor felicity to that which flows from the ways of sanctity.
The sweetest roses, the strongest comforts, and the greatest pleasant-
ness, is to be found in the ways of holiness. Oh the joy, the peace,
the tranquillity, the serenity that attends the ways of purity. I
might call in many millions of saints, who from their own expe-
riences are able to give the He to this objection, and further to tell
you, that they have met with more comforts, sweetness, and plea-
santness in one hour's communion with God, in one hour's walking
with God, than ever they have found in aU the ways of ungodliness
and wickedness, wherein they have wandered. Oh, they are able
to tell you, that when they walked in ways of impiety, they found
by experience that God had made a separation between sin and
peace, between sin and joy, between sin and assurance, between sin
and the light of his countenance, &c., Isa. Ivii. 20, 21; and they are
able to tell you from what they have found, that there is no fear, no
terror, no horror, no gripes, no grief, no stings, no hells to those that
attend the ways of ungodliness ; and this were enough to blow off this
objection, Kom. vi. 21. But,

4. Fourthly, I answer, Tlud the joy of the saints is chiefly and mainly
an inward joy, a spiritual joy, a joy that lies remote from a carnal
eye. The joy of a Christian lies deep, it cannot be expressed, it cannot
be painted. Look, as no man can paint the sweetness of the honey-
comb, nor the sweetness of a cluster of grapes, nor the fragrancy of the
rose of Sharon ; so no man can paint out the sweetness and spiritual-
ness of a Christian's joy, it lies so deep and low in a gracious heart.
And look, as the life of a Christian is ' hid with Christ in God,' Col.
iii. 3 ; so the joy of a Christian is ' hid with Christ in God.' As their
life is a hidden life, so their joy is a hidden joy. The joy of a Christian
is ' hidden manna,' it is the ' new name and white stone, that none
knoweth but he that has it,' Rev. ii. 20 ; Prov. xiv. 10, ' The heart
knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with
his joy.' The joy of a saint is a jewel that falls not under a stranger's
eye. Look, as the greatest terrors and torments of the wicked are
inward, so the greatest joys and comforts of the saints are inward ; and
look, as the heart of man is deep, so holy joy is a treasure that lies
deep, and it is not every man that has a golden key to search into this
treasury, Jer. xvii. 9, 10. As a man standing on the sea-shore sees a
great heap of waters, one wave riding upon the back of another, and
making a dreadful noise, but all this while, though he sees the water
rolling, and hears it raging and roaring, yet he sees not the wealth,
the gold, the silver, the jewels, and incredible treasures that lie buried
there ; so wicked men they see the wants of the saints, but not their
wealth, they see their poverty, but not their riches, their miseries, but
not their mercies, their conflicts, but not their comforts, their sorrows,
but not their joys, 1 Cor. ii. 14. Oh, the blind world cannot see the
joys and rejoicings, the comforts and consolations of the saints, that
lie at the bottom of their souls. Their joys are inward and spiiitual^

252 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and so must the eye be that discerns them. The joy of the saints is
like ' a garden enclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed,' Cant. iv.
12 ; and as the glory of the church is inward, Ps. xlv. 13, so the joy
of the church is inward. The waters of consolation lie deep in the
wells of salvation, Isa. xii, 3. The richest veins of ore lie deepest
under ground ; and so does the strongest and the choicest joys of the
saints lie deep. The moon is often dark to the world, when yet that
part which faceth the sun is very lightsome, beautiful, and glorious ;
so many times, if you look upon the outside of a Christian, which is
his dark side, you may see his countenance clouded, and his carriage
and behaviour as to the world either damped or obscured ; but if you
could but now look upon his inside, which is his best side, and which
faces the Sun of righteousness, oh, then you should see the light of joy
and comfort sweetly and gloriously shining forth. sirs, look, as
there are many rich men in the world, who make no show of it by
their garb, or table, or attendance, &c., so there are many Christians
that are rich in divine consolations, who yet don't shew it in such or
such an outward carnal way as the men of the world do usually express
their joy in : and look, as many a wicked man has heaviness in his
heart when he has laughter in his face, as the wisest of princes has
long since observed, in Pro v. xiv. 13, ' Even in laughter the heart is
sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' The heart often
weeps when the mouth laughs. Every laughter is not hearty, for
laughter being but a sign of joy, the sign may be where the substance
is not. Many wicked men are inwardly sad when they are outwardly
glad, 2 Cor. v. 12. The false apostles did glory in the face,i and not
in the heart ; they set a good face on it, and seemed to be upon a merry
pin, and yet all their smiles were but counterfeit smiles, all their joys
were but skin deep ; the joy that was in their faces was nothing to the
terrors, horrors, and torments that were in their hearts ; so the godly
many times rejoice in heart, when sadness and blackness seems to
cover their faces : 2 Cor. vi. 10, ' As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing,'
&c. It is very observable that the apostle brings in the sorrow of the
godly with a quasi, as it were sorrow, not that it is sorrow indeed,
but ' as sorrowful,' as if their sorrow had been rather a painted sorrow
than a real sorrow ; but when he speaks of their joy, there is no quasi,
but true joy; he does not say ' as rejoicing,' but ' always rejoicing.'
Their joy was a real joy, but their sorrow was but a seeming sorrow, to
the weak and childish opinions of vain men. When a Christian is at
worst, as to the eye of the world, he may say of his joy, as Christ
speaks of his meat, &c., when he said, ' I have meat to eat that you
know not of,' John iv. 33 ; so he may say, I have joy, I have great
joy, that the world knows not of. Look, as there is life and sap and
juice in the root of the tree, even in the winter season, when there is
no leaves, nor blossoms, nor fruit hanging on the tree ; so there is joy
and comfort and peace in the heart of a saint, when there are no
outward visible discoveries of it to others ; and you may as rationally
conclude that there is no life, sap, and juice in the root of the tree,
because the tree has no leaves, blossoms, or fruit on it, as you may
conclude that the saints have no joy in their hearts, because they do

^ iy Trpoffwvu, in the face.

SeB. XIL 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 253

not express it in such outward visible acts as may convince the world
thaiii they have it, &c. But,

5. Fifthly, I answer, That it is horrid injustice and disingenuity
in thee, and in such as thou art, to make the hearts of the righteous
sad, ivJiom God would not Imve sadded, hy your pride, profaneness,
looseness, wickedness, worldliness, lukeivarmness, pithiness, camalness,
dec, and then to cry out against them, that they are the saddest and
uncomfortahlest people in the ivorld, Ezek. xiii. 22, 23. What is this
but, with Nero, to set the city of Kome on fire, and then to lay it upon
the Christians, and punish them for it ? What is this but to deal by
the saints as the devil deals by them ? He loads them and follows them
with most sad, grievous, blasphemous, horrid, and hellish temptations,
on purpose to make them walk heavily, mournfully, and uncomfort-
ably, and when he has accomplished his design, then he accuses them
sometimes to God, sometimes to themselves, and sometimes to others,
for their heavy and uncomfortable walking, Kev. xii. 10. Oh, what
inhumanity, cruelty, and vanity was it in the Egyptians to double
the Israelites' tale of bricks, and to take away their straw, and then
to cry out ' that they were idle, they were idle,' Exod. v. 8, 17 ; so, oh
what inhumanity and cruelty is this in unsanctified persons, to sad,
grieve, and afflict the people of God with their drunkenness, wanton-
ness, and lewdness, and with their cursing, swearing, and lying, and
with their scorning and scoffing at godliness, and with their slandering
of the Lord, his people and ways, and with their resisting and quench-
ing of the blessed motions of the Spirit, and with their shifting off the
glorious offers of grace and mercy, and with their treasuring up of
wrath against the day of wrath, &c.,^ and then to cry out. Oh, how sadly,
oh, how mournfully, do these men walk ! oh, what uncomfortable lives
do these men live ! oh, what sorrow and pensiveness does still attend
them ! But is this just ? is this fair ? Suppose a husband should do
a,ll he could to afflict and grieve his wife, and a father his child, and
a master his servant, and a friend his friend, &c., and when they had
done, then fall a-complaining that there were none so melancholy, nor
none so sad and sorrowful as they ; oh, what folly, what madness, and
what injustice were this ! and yet this is the common dealing of un-
sanctified persons with the people of God, Dan. iv. 27. Ah, sinners,
sinners, if you would but break off your sins by repentance, and cease
from doing evil, and turn to the Lord with all your hearts, and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and fall in with the ways of God, and
trample upon this wicked world, and seek after the things of a better
life, oh, how soon would the saints' sighing be turned into singing, and
their mourning into rejoicing 1 Oh, the music, the mirth, the melody,
that your conversion would make, both in their hearts and in their
ears ! It is very observable that Abraham made a feast at the
weaning of his son Isaac, Gen. xxi. 8. He did not make a feast on
the day of his nativity, nor on the day of his circumcision, but on that
day when he was taken from his mother's breast. sirs, if you were
but once weaned from your lusts, and from the vanities of this world,
if you were but once weaned from old corrupt customs, and from fol-
lowing after your sinful lovers, oh, how would all God's faithful
' Ps. cxix. 136, 158 ; Jer. ix. 1, 2 j 2 Pet. ii. 7, 8 ; Rom. ii. 4, 5.

254 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.

Abrahams rejoice ! 1 Pet. i. 18, 19 ; Hosea vi. 7. Oh, what a feast
of fat things ! oh, what a heavenly banquet would this make in aU
their hearts ! About three hundred years after the apostles' time, Caius
Marius Victorius, an old pagan, was converted from his paganism,
infidelity, and impiety, and brought over to the Christian faith;
which, when the people of God saw, there was wonderful rejoicing,
and shouting, and dancing for gladness, and psalms were sung in
every church, ' Caius Marius Victorius is become a Christian, Caius
Marius Victorius is become a Christian!' This was written as a
wonder, and sung as a wonder, that this old pagan, this gray-headed
pagan, should become a gracious Christian, that he should in his old
age be renewed and sanctified. Ah, friends, if you were but once
converted and changed, if you were but once turned from darkness to
light, if you were but once brought to Christ, if the people of God
could but once see that you had passed the pangs of the new birth,
and that Christ and holiness was but formed in your souls, ah, how
would their hearts be filled with joy, and their mouths with laughter !
Oh, what songs of salvation would they sing ! Oh, how would the
high praises of God be in their mouths ! Thou sayest. Oh there are
none so sad and sorrowful, &c., as such and such Christians ; but what
is the cause of their sorrow and sadness ? is it not thy wickedness and
ungodliness ? is it not thy unconverted and unsanctified estate ? Surely
yes. Oh that thou wouldst therefore cease from complaining against
them, and fall amending of thine own heart and ways ! and then all
tears wUl be quickly wiped away from their eyes. But,

6. Sixthly, I answer. That all the joys, delights, and pleasures that
holiness debars men of, are sinful joys, delights, and pleasures.^ Unsanc-
tified souls take pleasure in unrighteousness ; they rejoice to do evil, they
make a sport of sin, and delight to dishonour their God, and damn
their own immortal souls : Prov. ii. 14, ' They rejoice to do evil, and
delight in the frowardness of the wicked/ And this is brought in as
an aggravation of Jerusalem's sin : Jer. xi. 15, ' When thou doest
evil, then thou rejoicest.' Ah, how madly-merry are they that can
take delight and content in that which is their shame and misery !
ah, how is man fallen from his primitive glory, that he can now
rejoice in that which is a dishonour to God, a reproach to Christ, a
grief to the Spirit, a provocation to divine wrath, a blot upon his
name, a curse upon his estate, a wound upon his conscience, and a
plague upon his soul ! Now what a mercy must it be to be taken off
from that carnal mirth that ends in mourning, and from those vain
delights that ends in unspeakable torments, and from that foolish
jollity that leads to everlasting misery! Rev. xviii, 17. I have read of
king Lysimachus, that when he and his army were besieged in one of
his cities, and in great danger of perishing by thirst, for a cup of cold
water he delivered up the keys of the city to his enemy, which cold
comfort he had no sooner tasted but his tongue bewrayed the grief
of his heart, saying, ' Oh that, in lieu of so momentary a pleasure, I
should be made of a sovereign a servant, of a king a captive ! ' 2 Ah,
what folly and madness is it for men to run the hazard of losing the

1 Rom. i. 32 ; 2 Thes. ii. 12 ; Amos vi. 13 ; Zeph. iii. 11 ; 2 Pet. ii. 13.
^ Plutarch, as before. — G.

HeK XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 255

kingdom of heaven, and the pleasures that be at God's right hand,
Ps. xvi. 11, for those short-lived pleasures that are but like a blaze, or
like the lightning, or like a morning cloud, or the early dew which
soon passeth away ! i Ah, who would endure an ocean of torture for
a drop of sensual pleasure, or for a few bitter sweets ? And therefore
doubtless God can't do the soul a greater pleasure than to take it off
from such vanishing pleasures. All sensual pleasures defile the soul,
they debase the soul, yea, they debauch the soul; they take off the
heart from God, and they deaden the heart towards God. The
widow whilst she lived in pleasure is reckoned dead, 1 Tim. v. 6. She
is dead God- wards, and dead Christ- wards, and dead duty-wards, and
dead heaven-wards, and dead hoHness-wards, &c. Aristotle writes of a
parcel of ground in Sicily that sends forth such a strong, such a sweet
smell of fragrant flowers, that no hounds can hunt there ; 2 so the
carnal pleasures of this world do send forth so strong a scent, that
unsanctified persons cannot hunt after God, nor Christ, nor holiness,
nor the great concernments of another world ; and therefore it is rather
man's felicity than his misery to be taken off from such vain pleasures.
Sensual pleasures and delights cannot satisfy the soul of man ; they
are but frothy and flashy, they only wet the mouth, they never warm
the heart. A man may sooner break his neck than satisfy his heart
with sensual pleasures. They are Junes in the pursuit, and but clouds
in the enjoyment. Xerxes being weary of his sensual pleasures, pro-
mised great rewards to them that should invent new pleasures ; and
when they had invented new pleasures and delights, yet then he could
not be satisfied nor contented ; he would fain have had one pleasure
to have taken off the weariness of another, but it could not be. There
is nothing in carnal delights but imagination and expectation; for
they can neither fill the heart nor satisfy the heart.

O sirs, there is no real pleasure in sin. All the pleasures of sin are
counterfeit pleasures ; they are but the shapes and shadows of pleasure ;
they are the seeds of future grief ; they are but an earnest laid down
for sorrow or ruin. It is observed by the mythologists that pleasure
went on occasion to bathe herself, and having stripped off her clothes
by the water-side, sorrow having hid herself at hand, steals the clothes
away, puts them on, and so departs ; so that carnal pleasures are
nothing but sorrow in pleasure's clothes. Certainly if there were the
least real delight in sin, hell could never be hell, yea, then it would
follow that hell should be the greatest place of pleasure, for doubtless
hell is the greatest place of sin. Oh, don't deceive your own souls ! there
can be no real joy in sensual pleasures. What real delight or pleasure
can there be in tippling and fuddling in an ale-house or tavern, in
swaggering and swearing, in dicing and carding, in dancing, masking,
and whoring, in slighting of Sabbaths, in scoffing at saints, in despis-
ing of ordinances, and in pursuing after lying vanities ? Surely none.
And as for those seeming pleasures that attend the ways of sin, ah, how
soon do they vanish and leave a sting behind them ! Now all the
pleasures that holiness deprives you of are only such that you may
better ten thousand times want than enjoy. Look, as all the pleasures

^ Momentancum est quod delectat, aeternum quod cruciat. — Bernard.
• Aa before. — G.

256 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

that manhood takes a man off from are babyish and toyish pleasm-es ;
as from delighting in a rattle, a pipe, a feather, a hobby-horse, a
wooden sword, &c. ; so all the pleasures and delights that holiness
takes a man off from, they are babyish and foolish, yea, they are base,
dangerous, and devilish ; and therefore it must needs be rather a high
felicity than a misery for God to take thee off from such sinful
pleasures and delights, by laying principles of holiness into thy heart.
Oh ! remember that holiness will be no loss unto thee ; it will be only
an exchange of sinful delights for those that are holy, and of carnal for
those that are spiritual, and of earthly for those that are heavenly.
Isaac was not to be sacrificed, but the ram. All the delights that
hoKness will put thee upon to sacrifice are but the rammish and rank
delights of sin and the world, which may better be sacrificed than
aspared. Holiness will secure thy Isaac — that is, thy spiritual laughter,
thy spiritual joy, and thy heavenly delights and pleasure. Well, for a
close, remember this, that sensual pleasures are below a man. Witness
TuUy, who saith that he is not worthy of the name of a man, qui unum
diem velit esse in voluptate, that would entirely spend one whole day
in pleasures ; and witness Julian the apostate, who professed that the
pleasures of the body were far below a great spirit. He that delights
in sensual pleasures shall find at last his greatest pleasures to become
iis bitterest pains. All that holiness will do is but to ease thee of thy
pains, and therefore thou hast more cause to pursue after it than
to turn thy back upon it. But,

7. Seventhly, I answer. That it may be their present case and con-
dition, bespeaks rather the exercise and evidence of sorrow and of grief,
than of gladness, Joy , and triumph.

[1.] For first. It may be some wound or guilt at present may lie hard
upon their consciences, as once it did on David's, Ps. li.i And
who then is able to rejoice under a wounded conscience, a guilty con-
science ? As long as Adam did fast in paradise, he stood fast ;
but having once wounded his conscience by eating the forbidden
fruit, though he tarried a while in paradise, yet he could take no
dehght nor content in paradise. It is true the sun did shine as bright
as ever, and the rivers ran as clear as ever, and the birds sang as
sweetly as ever, and the beasts played as pleasantly as ever, and the
flowers smelled as fragrantly as ever, and all the trees and fruits
of the garden did flourish as bravely as ever, &c. Ah, but now Adam
had contracted guilt upon his conscience, and this mars his joy, and
spoils his delight, and unparadises paradise to him ; his fall had made
so deep a wound in his conscience, that he could take no delight
in any of the dehghts of paradise. Guilt as an arrow did stick so fast
in his conscience, that instead of sucking sweetness from the fairest
fruits, he runs to hide himself under the broadest leaves, Gen. iii. 10.
Guilt makes a man a Magor-missabib, Jer. xx. 3, a terror to himself.
Put never such stately robes upon a wounded man, he minds them not ;
set never such dainty fare before a wounded man, he relisheth it not ;
lay him on never so soft a bed, yet it pleaseth him not ; and let him
hear never such sweet music, yet it delights him not ; the smart

^ Multi conscientiam habent, non ad remidium, aed ad judicium, saith one. And
Tolle conscientiam, tolle omnia, saith another.

HlB. XII. 14] AND^BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 257

and sense of his wound takes off the sweet of all : and so does a wound
in the conscience take off the sweet of all a man's enjoyments and con-
tentments. A guilty conscience, like Prometheus's vulture, lies ever
gnawing. 1 What the probationer-disciple said to our Saviour — viz.,
' Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest,' Mat. viii. 19 — that
a guilty conscience says to a fallen sinner : if thou fast I will follow
thee, and fill thy mind with black and dismal apprehensions of God,
of justice, of hell ; if thou feast I will follow thee, and shew thee the
handwriting on the wall that shall make thy countenance to change,
thy thoughts to be troubled, and thy joints to be loosed, and thy knees
to be dashed one agaiust another, Dan. v. 5 ; when thou goest forth I
will follow thee with terrors, and when thou returnest home I will
follow thee with horrors ; when thou goest to board I will follow thee
with stinging accusations, and when thou goest to bed I will follow
thee with terrifying and affrighting dreams. Job vii. 14. Now what
joy can be in such a man's heart ? what gladness can be in such
a man's face ? Surely none. I remember a saying of Luther, Una
gutiula rmilce conscientice totum mare mundani gaudii absorbet, One
drop of an evil conscience swallows up the whole sea of worldly joy.^
Oh, it is better with Evagrius to lie secure on a bed of straw, than to
lie with a guilty conscience on a bed of down, having the curtains
embroidered with gold, and the fringes bespangled with pearls. Sin
brings such a stain and such a sting with it, as spoils all a man's joys
and delights. And if this be the present case of a Christian, as it
may, then never wonder to see him hang down his head, and to walk
mournfully before his God. Or,

[2.] Secondly, This may arise from some great and heavy afflic-
tion, which for the present may sadly distress and oppress a saint's
spirit ; as Job's did his, or as Hezekiah's did his, or as Jacob's did
his, &C.3 The disease may be so violent, the physic may be so strong,
the wound may be so deep, the plaster may be so corroding, the melt-
ing pot may be so hot, the iron chains may be so heavy, the gall and
wormwood may be so bitter, that a Christian may be so far from joy
and rejoicing, as that he may for the present be so shut up under
trouble and amazement, and under sorrow and grief, as that he may
not be able, if you would give him all the world, to open his case unto
you ; his eyes may in some sort tell what his tongue can in no
sort utter, Ps. Ixxvii, 4. Usually they are the smallest miseries, when
he that hath them can presently teU all the world of them. The
greatest sorrow hath for the most part the deepest silence attending on
it. What Christian ever had joy in his heart or gladness in his face,
when God was carrying of it harshly and roughly towards him ? Or,

[3.] Thirdly, It may be they are deserted, happily ^ God is with-
draion from them, and he that should comfort them stands afar qff.^
Ah, what Christian can rejoice when the countenance of God is
not towards him as of old ? who can be pleasant when God is dis-

^ Desperare est in infernum descendere. — Isidore.

' It was guilt that made that despairing Pope say that the cross could do him no good,
he had so often sold it. " Job iii. 38 ; Isa. ix. 16 ; Gen. xxxvii. 30, to the end.

* ' Perhaps.'— G.

' Lam. i. 16 ; Gen. xxxi. 2, 5 ; Ps. xxx. 7 ; read the 77th and the 88th Psalms ; Iga.
viii. 17 ; Micah vii. 7-9, 17 ; Ps. iv. 6, and xlii. 5, 11, &c.

VOL. IV. B

258 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

pleased ? who can smile when God frowns ? who can sing when God
sighs ? who can be merry when God is sorry ? Surely none that have
ever experienced what the shinings of his face means ! sirs, the
proper work of a deserted soul lies not in joy and rejoicing, but in
mourning and waiting, and in seeking and suing at the throne of
grace, that God would lift up the light of his countenance, and cause
his face to shine, and his favour to break forth, that the bones that he
has broken may rejoice : as Hudson the martyr, when he was deserted
at the stake, he slipped from under his chain, and praying earnestly, he
was comforted immediately, and suffered valiantly. ^ Look, as when
Samson's locks were cut off, his strength was gone ; so when God
is gone, a Christian's locks are cut off, his strength is gone, his strength
to joy and rejoice in God is gone, his strength to delight and to take
pleasure in God is gone ; and as Samson, when his locks were cut off,
and his strength was gone, fell to prayer, Judges xvi. 28, ' And
Samson caUed unto the Lord, and said, Lord God, remember me, I
pray thee, only this once, God, that I may be at once avenged of the
Philistines for my two eyes ; ' so when God is gone, the work of a
Christian lies more in praying than it does in rejoicing. Though
Joseph's heart was as full of love to his brethren as it could hold.
Gen. xlii. 7-25, yet when he looked sourly upon them, and spake
roughly to them, they were much afflicted and distressed ; so though
the heart of Jesus be as full of love to his people as it can hold, yet
when he looks sourly, and speaks roughly to them, they can't but
be grieved and sadded.2 But,

[4.] Fourthly, It may be they are sadly tempted and strangely huf~
feted hy Satan, as Paul luas, and from thence their present sadness
may arise, 2 Cor. xii. 8-10. Tempted souls can tell you that it is one
of the hardest works in the world to rejoice in the school of temptation,
and to be merry when Satan's fiery darts stick fast in the soul. Adam's
tempting-time was not his rejoicing-time, but his sinning-time ; and
David's tempting-time was not his rejoicing-time, but his miscarrying-
time, 1 Chron. xxi. ; and Job's tempting-time was not his rejoicing-
time, but his complaining-time, Job iii. ; and Peter's tempting-time
was not his rejoicing-time, but his cursing and blaspheming-time.
Mat. xxvi. ; and Paul's tempting-time was not his rejoicing-time, but
his humbling-time, 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8.3 The best men are most tempted,
and oftentimes they are followed with the saddest, darkest, vilest, basest,
and most amazing, affrighting, tormenting, and astonishing tempta-
tions ; and how is it possible that they should be able to rejoice and
be glad, when such dreadful storms beat upon them ! Certainly the
work of a Christian in the day of temptation lies in his putting on
the whole armour of God, Eph. vi. 10, 11, 16-18, and in a prudent
handhng the sword of the Spirit and the shield of faith, and in ear-
nest praying and vigilant watching, and a stout resisting of all Satan's
fiery darts; for he who thinks, by disputing and reasoning, to put
Satan off, does but shoot with him in his own bow, and wUl find to his
cost that Satan will be too hard for him. It is open defiance, it is
downright blows that makes Satan fly, and that secures the victory,

^ Clarke, as before. — G. ' See the 3d and 5th chapters of Solomon's Song.

^ Our whole life, says Austin, is nothing but a continued tentation.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 259

James iv. 7; 1 Pet. v. 9. Now joy and rejoicing attends not the com-
bat, but the conquest. The Romans never used to ride in triumph,
but after conquests obtained. A Christian's triumphing time is his con-
quering time. Joy is most seasonable and suitable when a Christian has
beaten Satan out of the field. The cock in the Arabic fable began to
crow and clap his wings, as if he had obtained a perfect conquest, but,
behold, on a sudden a vulture comes, and snatches this great conqueror
away. They that triumph and rejoice over Satan before they have
overcome him, are in no small danger of being worsted by him. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, To gather up many things together. I say
that their present sorrow and sadness may arise from their going astray
into some by-path of vanity and folly, wherein they have got a fall, or
broke a bone, or put their souls out of Joint. As children sometimes
get a fall, and then they come home by weeping cross ; so Christians
too often go astray and get a fall, and then they are fain to weep it
out.i When men keep not the king's highway, they are often robbed
of their money, and stripped of their clothes, and wounded too, as he
was in the Gospel who fell among thieves ; so when Christians keep
not in the King of kings' highways, which are ways of righteousness
and hohness, then they are often robbed of their comfort, and joy, and
peace, and assurance, and communion with God, &c., and sorely
wounded and bruised, and then it is no wonder if they are brought
home with tears in their eyes. Or it may be their evidences for
heaven are so blotted and blurred that they cannot read their title to
heaven, and then it is no wonder if they are perplexed and grieved ;
or it may be they call in question former grants of favour and grace ;
or it may be a deeper sense of misspent time Kes harder than ever
upon them ; or else the littleness and smallness of their graces under
such soul-enriching opportunities and advantages do sorely oppress
them ; or else the lateness of their conversion may sadly afflict them,
&C.2 Now how absurd and unreasonable a thing is it for any men to
argue thus, that surely godly men have no joy, no delight, no pleasure,
&c., because there are some particular cases and conditions wherein
they may be cast which rather bespeaks sorrow than joy, grief than
gladness, mourning than mirth ! Certainly you may as rationally and
as righteously expect mirth, joy, and gladness from carnal, worldly,
and ungodly wretches when they are under burning fevers, loathsome
diseases, or violent pains of the stone or gout, &c. , as you may expect
upon a rational or religious account, joy and gladness, &c., in the
saints in the forementioned cases that are incident to them. It was a
very unreasonable request that they made to the people of God in that
Ps. cxxxvii. 3, 4, ' For there they that carried us away captive re-
quired of us a song ; and they that wasted us required of us mirth,
saying. Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the
Lord's song in a strange land?' And it is as unreasonable to expect
or look that the people of God should sing and be merry, rejoice and
be glad, when they are under soul distresses, and under the sore
rebukes of God, and poured from vessel to vessel, &c. Music in

^ Gal. vi. 1, KaTaprl^ere. Set him in joint again ; it is a metaphor from chirurgeons
and bone-Betters, who handle their patients gently and tenderly.
» Luke X. 30; Isa. xut, 8; Ps. cxix. 176.

260 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

times of mourning is as unreasonable as it is unseasonable and un-
savoury, Jer. xlviii. 11 : Prov. xxv. 20, ' As he that taketh away a
garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that
singeth songs to an heavy heart.' Music and mourning, singing and
sorrow, agree like harp and harrow. There is such a contrariety be-
tween singing and sorrow, that he that sings does but add weight to
his sorrow that cannot sing. sirs, as there is a time for rejoicing, so
there is a time for mourning, Eccles. iii. 4; as there is a time to
laugh, so there is a time to weep ; and as we must rejoice with them
that rejoice, so we must mourn with them that mourn, and weep with
them that weep, Eom. xii. 15. The condition of God's people in this
life is a mixed condition. In this life they have their rejoicing times
and their mourning times, their laughing times and their weeping
times, their singing times and their sorrowing times, &c. It is true,
in heaven there is all joy and no sorrow, all gladness and no sadness ;
and in hell there is all sorrow and no joy, all grief and no gladness,
all howling and no singing, all madness and no mirth ; but in this life
it is otherwise, for if there should be nothing but joy, many would
look for no other heaven ; and if there should be nothing but sorrow,
most would look for no other hell. If men should have nothing but
joy, how sadly would they be puffed up ! And if they should have
nothing but sorrow, how easily would they be cast down ! But now,
by a divine hand, our sorrows being mixed with our joys, our hearts
come to be the more effectually weaned from the vanities of this life,
and to long more earnestly after the pure and unmixed joys of a better
life, &c. But,

8. Eighthly, I answer. That it is possible that the sadness, sorrow,
and grief of those particular saints that thou hast thine eye upon may
arise from the natural temper and constitution of their bodies.'^ Many
saints are often cast into a melancholy mould ; for though grace
changes the disposition of the soul, yet it alters not the constitution of
the body. Now there is no greater enemy to holy joy and gladness
than melancholy, for this pestilent humour will raise such strange
passions and imaginations, it will raise such groundless griefs, and
fears, and frights, and such senseless surmises and jealousies, as will
pasily damp a Christian's joy, and mightily vex, perplex, trouble, and
turmoil, daunt, and discourage a Christian's spirit. A melancholy
constitution is Satan's anvil, upon which he forms many black, dark,
and dismal temptations, which do exceedingly tend to the keep-
ing down of divine consolation from rising high in the soul.2 This
black, dark, dusky humour disturbs both soul and body ; it tempts
Satan to tempt the soul, and it unables the soul to resist the tempta-
tion ; yea, it prepares the soul to hearken to the temptation, and to
close and fall in with the temptation, as the experiences of aU melan-
choly Christians can testify. Look, as coloured glass makes the very
beams of the sun seem to be all of the same colour with itself — if the
glass be blue, the beams of the sun seems to be blue ; if the glass be
red, the beams of the sun seems to be red ; or if the glass be green, the

^ The cure of melancholy belongs rather to the physician than to the divine, to Galea
than to Paul.

^ It is an old saying that melancholia eat vehiculum dcemonum.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 261

beams of the sun seems to be green — so tliis black melancholy humour
represents all things to the eye of the soul as duskish and dark, and
as full of horror and terror, yea, many times it represents the bright
beams of divine love, and the shinings of the Sun of righteousness, and
the gracious whispers of the blessed Spirit, as delusions, and as sleights
of Satan, to cozen the soul. I have read of a foolish melancholy
bird that stands always but upon one leg, for fear her own weight,
though she be very small, should sink her into the centre of the earth,
and holding her other leg over her head, lest the heavens should fall
upon her and crush her. I shall not dispute the credibleness of the
relation ; but certainly there is nothing that fills a Christian so full of
fears and frights as a melancholy humour does ; and all know that
know anything, that there are no greater adversaries to joy and glad-
ness than such fears and frights. Now how absurd and unreasonable
is it to father that upon holiness, or upon all holy persons, that pro-
ceeds from the special constitution of some particular saints ! and yet
this is the trade that unsanctified souls drive. And let thus much suf-
fice for answer to this grand objection ; and oh that this objection may
never have a resurrection in any of your hearts more ! But,

Object 4. Fourthly, Some may further object, and say, We see tJiat no
persons on earth are exposed to such troubles, dangers, afflictions, and
persecutions, as those are exposed to who mind holiness, who follow
after holiness. These are days tvherein men labour to frown holiness
out of the world, and to scorn and kick holiness out of the tvorld ; and
do you think that we are mad noiv to pursue after holiness? Now to
this great and sore objection, I shall give these following answers :

1. First, It must be granted that afflictions and persecutions has
been the common lot and portion of the people of God in this tvorld A
Abel was persecuted by Cain, 1 John iii. 12, and Isaac by Ishmael,
Gal. ix. 29. That seems to be a standing law, ' All that will live
godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution,' 2 Tim, iii. 12. A man
may have many faint wishes and cold desires after godliness, and yet
escape persecution ; yea, he may make some essays 2 and attempts as if
he would be godly, and yet escape persecution ; but when a man is
thoroughly resolved to be godly, and sets himself in good earnest upon
pursuing after holiness and living a life of godliness, then he must
expect to meet with afilictions and persecutions. It is neither a
Christian's gifts nor his graces, it is neither his duties nor his services
that can secure him. Whoever escapes, the godly man shall not
escape persecution in one kind or another, in one degree or another.
He that will live up to holy rules, and live out holy principles, must
j)repare for sufferings. All the roses of holiness are surrounded with
pricking briers. The history of the ten persecutions, and that little
book of martyrs, the 11th of the Hebrews, and Mr Foxe his Acts and
Monuments, with many other treatises that are extant, do abundantly
evidence that from age to age, and from one generation to another,
they that have been born after the flesh have persecuted them that

^ Witness the sufferings of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and saints in all ages :
Acts vii. 52 ; Rev. xii. 13 ; Acts ix. 10 ; Lam. v. 5. The common cry of persecutors
have been, Christiani ad Leones.

* Spelled ' assays. '— G.

2G2 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

have been born after the Spirit, Gal. iv. 20, and that the seed of the
serpent have been still a-multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the
woman. 1 Would any man take the church's picture, saith Luther,
then let him paint a poor silly maid sitting in a wilderness, compassed
about with hungry lions, wolves, boars, and bears, and with all manner
of other cruel, hurtful beasts, and in the midst of a great many furious
men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition
in the world. As certain as the night follows the day, so certain will
that black angel, persecution, follow holiness wherever it goes. In the
last of the ten persecutions, seventeen thousand holy martyrs were
slain in the space of one month. And in Queen Mary's days, or, if
you will, in the Marian days, not of blessed, but of most abhorred
memory, the Popish prelates in less than four years sacrificed the lives
of eight hundred innocents to their idols ! and oh that that precious
innocent blood did not still cry to heaven for vengeance against this
nation ! But,

2. Secondly, Christ and Ms apostles hath long since foretold us that
ajffiictions and persecutions will attend us in this world. The Lord
hath long since forewarned us, that we may be forearmed, and not
surprised on a sudden when they come. Christ hath shot off many a
warning piece in his word, and sent many a harbinger, that so we may
stand upon our guard, and not be surprised nor astonished when
afflictions and persecutions overtake us : Mat. x. 22, ' And ye shall be
hated of all men for my name's sake : but he that endureth to the
end, the same shall be saved.' Chap. xvi. 24, ' Then said Jesus unto
his disciples. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his cross, and follow me.' Luke xxi. 12, ' But before all these,
they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you
up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and
rulers for my name's sake.* John xv. 20, ' Kemember the word that
I said unto you, The servant is not greater than the lord. If they
have persecuted me, they will also persecute you ; if they have kept
my saying, they will keep yours also.' Ah Christians, since they
have crowned your head with thorns, there is no reason why you
should expect to be crowned with rosebuds.2 Godfrey of Bouillon,
first king of Jerusalem, refused to be crowned with a crown of gold,
saying, that it became not a Christian there to wear a crown of gold,
where Christ for our salvation had sometime worn a crown of thorns.
John xvi. 33, ' These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation : but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world.' Acts xiv. 21,22, 'And
when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many,
they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirm-
ing the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the
faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the king-
dom of God.' As there was no way to paradise but by the flaming
sword, nor no way to Canaan but thi'ough a wilderness ; so there is no

^ Within the first three hundred years after Christ, all that made a profession of the
apostles' doctrine were cruelly murdered.

" Non potest qui pati timet, ejus esse qui passiis est — He that is afraid to suffer, can-
not be his disciple who suffered so much. — TerluUian.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 263

way to heaven but by the gates of hell, there is no way to a glorious
exaltation but through a sea of tribulation. i They do but dream and
deceive their own souls who think to go to heaven upon beds of down,
or in a soft and delicate way, or that think to be attended to glory
with mirth and music, or with singing or dancing. The way to happi-
ness is not strewed with roses, but full of thorns and briers, as those
of whom this world was not worthy have experienced. Ecclesiastical
histories tells us that all the apostles died violent deaths. Peter was
crucified with his heels upward — Christ was crucified with his head up-
wards, but Peter thought this was too great an honour for him to be
crucified as his Lord, and therefore he chose to be crucified with his
heels upward ; and Andrew was crucified by Egeus king of Edessa ; and
James the son of Zebedee was slain by Herod with the sword. Acts xii. 2 ;
and Philip was crucified at Hierapolis in Asia ; and while Bartholomew
was preaching the glad tidings of salvation, multitudes fell upon him
and beat him down with staves, and then crucified him, and after all
this, his skin was flayed off, and he beheaded ; Thomas was slain with
a dart at Calumina in India ; 2 and Matthew was slain with a spear,
say some, others say he was run through with a sword ; and James
the son of Alpheus, who was called the Just, was thrown down from
off a pinnacle of the temple, and yet having some life left in him, he
was brained with a fuller's club ; Lebbeus was slain by Agbarus king
of Edessa ; and Paul was beheaded at Kome under Nero ; and Simon
the Canaanite was crucified in Egypt, say some, others say that he and
Jude was slain in a tumult of the people ; and Matthias was stoned to
death ; and John was banished into Patmos, Kev. i. 9, and afterwards,
as some histories tells us, he was by that cruel tyrant Domitian cast
into a tun of scalding lead, and yet delivered by a miracle. Thus all
these precious servants of God, except John, died violent deaths, and
so through sufferings entered into glory ; they found in their own ex-
perience the truth of what Christ had foretold concerning their suffer-
ings and persecutions. About the year 1626, a book formerly printed,
and intituled, A Preparation to the Cross of Christ, composed by John
Frith, martyr, was brought in the belly of a fish to the market in Cam-
bridge, and that a little before the commencement-time ; when there
was a confluence of much people from all places of the land, which
was construed by them that feared the Lord to be no less than a
heavenly warning to all the people of England to prepare for the
cross. 3 But, ah, since that year, who can recount the heavy crosses
that has generally attended the people of this nation ? Most have
walked cross to God, and cross to one another, and God has walked as
cross to them. You have crossed the commands of God, and the
truths of God, and the ways of God, and the works of God, and the
designs of God, and God has crossed you in your hopes, desires, prayers,
and endeavours, and God gave you warning of this beforehand by a
fish, by a miracle, to provide for the cross, but you would not, and
therefore it is that the cross lies so heavy upon you this day. When Mr

^ Loddela Corda computeth forty-four several kinds of torments wherewith the pri-
mitive Christians were tried. — Adv. Sacr. cap. 128. [Query — Maurice de la Corde, the
Huguenot scholar and physician ? — G.]

" Sic ; cf . Butler's ' Lives of the Saints.' Dec. 21.— G.

> Mr Jer. Dyke, in a Fast Sermon at Westminster.

264 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Bradford was told that his chain was a-buying, and that he must be
burnt, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, I thank God for it ; I
have looked for this a long time ; it comes not to me suddenly, but as
a thing waited for every day, yea, every hour in the day ; the Lord
make me worthy thereof. If upon God's warning you will but pre-
pare for sufferings, you will never fear nor faint under sufferings, yea,
then you will be able under the greatest persecutions to bear up
bravely, and with holy Bradford bless the Lord that has called you to
so high an honour as to count you worthy to suffer for his name. But,
3. Thirdly, I answer. That all the troubles, ajfflictions, and persecu-
tions that do befall you for holiness sake, shall never hurt you nor harm
you, they shall never prejudice you, nor wrong you in your main and
great concernments : Exod. iii. 2, ' And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush ; and he looked,
and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not con-
sumed.' 1 Here you have a bush, a dry bush, a bramble- bush all on
a-light fire, and yet not consumed. This burning bush was an excellent
emblem of the church in the fire of tribulation and persecution.
Though the church may seem to be all on fire by reason of afflictions
and persecutions, yet it shall be preserved, it shall not be destroyed.
Though God be a consuming fire, yet he will never consume the
bramble-bush. The bush was on fire, and yet the fire did not in the
least hurt or harm the bush, it did not one whit prejudice or wrong
the bush, Deut. iv. 24 ; Heb. xii. 29 : so though the church of God
be on fire by the means of fiery trials, yet these fiery trials shall never
hurt nor harm the church, they shall never prejudice it nor wrong it :
Ps. cv. 12-15, * When they were but a few men in number ; yea, very
few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another,
from one kingdom to another people ; he suffered no man to do them
wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying. Touch not
mine anointed, nor do my prophets no harm.' ^ God would not suficr
his anointed ones, his sanctified ones, so much as to be touched, hm-t,
or harmed by those who had malice enough in their hearts, and power
enough in their hands, not only to hurt them, but even to destroy
them.3 Sanctified persons are sacred persons, and they that touch
them touch the apple of God's eye, and whosoever shall be so bold to
touch the apple of God's eye shall dearly smart for it. It was no small
affliction to have no settled habitation. To fly from place to place,
from kingdom to kingdom, and from nation to nation, was without all
peradventure an afflicted condition. Doubtless many fears and frights,
many hazards and dangers did attend them, when they considered
that they were as lilies among the thorns, and as a few sheep among a
multitude of wolves. In the land of Canaan there were seven mighty
nations, Deut. vii. 1. Now for the people of God, who were so few in
number that they might easily and quickly be told, to sojourn and
wander among these, could not but be very dangerous and perilous ; and
yet such was the love of God to them, and the care of God over them,

^ The Hebrew word, H^Dj signifies a dry bush, a bramble-bush, and therefore it was
the more strange and miraculous that it was not consumed.
' That is, the king of Egypt and the king of Gerar.
* Gen. xii. 17, xx. 3, and xxxv. 5j Zech. iL 8.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 265

that he suffered no man, whether he was high or low, honourable or
base, rich or poor, civil or profane, to hurt or harm them : Dan. iii.
25, 27, ' And the king answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose,
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form
of the fourth is like unto the Son of God. And the princes, governors,
and captains, and the king's counsellors, being gathered together, saw
these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair
of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell
of fire had passed on them.' i Though these holy men were cast into
a furnace, into a fiery furnace, into the midst of a hot fiery furnace,
yet God will work a miracle, yea, a glorious miracle, rather than the
fire shall in the least hurt or harm them. God gives a commission to
the fire to burn those mighty men that made the fire, and that cast
his children into the fire, and whom the king would have to be spared
and saved ; and he lays a law of restraint upon the fire, that it should
not hurt nor harm them whom the king would have destroyed. Those
whom the King of kings will not have hurt, shall not be hurt, let
kings and princes do their worst ; that fire that burnt their bonds had
no power to burn, no nor to touch, their bodies. God would not suffer
the fire to singe a hair of their heads, nor to change the colour of their
coats, nor to leave so much as an ill smell upon his people, that those
heathen princes might see how tender he was of them, and how will-
ing he was to put forth his almighty power rather than he would see
them wronged or harmed. So chap. vi. 21-23, * Then said Daniel
unto the king, king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angels,
and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me : foras-
much as before him innocency was found in me ; and also before thee,
O king, have I done no hurt. Then was the king exceeding glad for
him, and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den.
So Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no manner of hurt was
found upon him, because he believed in his God.' Holiness, innocency,
and integrity will preserve a man even among lions. Daniel preferred
the worship of his God before his life. He made no great reckoning
of his life when it stood in competition with divine glory, and there-
fore, rather than Daniel shall be hurt, God will by a miracle preserve
him, he will stop the mouths of the hungry lions, and he will tame
their rage, and overmaster their cruelty, rather than a hair of Daniel's
head shall perish. When Daniel was taken out of the den, there was
no hurt, no wound, no sore, no bruise found upon him. Daniel was a
harmless man, and God keeps him from harms in the midst of harms :
Acts xviii. 9, 10, ' Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision.
Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace : for I am with thee, and
no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this
city.' Paul met with many trials and troubles, bonds and prisons, op-
positions and persecutions, and yet none of all these hurt him, but God
miraculously preserved him even to old age. Acts xx. 23. All the
troubles, afflictions, and persecutions that attends holiness, can never

^ As David laid a charge upon his soldiers, (2 Sam. xviii. 5,) that by no means they
should hurt his son Absalom ; so God laid a prohibition upon the enemies and perse-
cutors of his people, that they should not touch them, that they should not in the least
hurt or harm them.

266 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

reach a Christian's soul, they can never diminish a Christian's trea-
sure ; they reach the shell, not the kernel, the case, not the jewel, the
lumber, not the goods, the outhouse, not the palace, the ribbon in the
hat, not the gold in the purse. The most fiery trials and persecu-
tions can never deprive a Christian of the special presence of God, nor
of the light of his countenance, nor of the testimony of a good con-
science, nor of the joys of the Spirit, nor of the pardon of sin, nor of
fellowship with Christ, nor of the exercise of grace, nor of the hopes
of glory, Ps. xxiii. 4; 2 Cor. i. 8, 9, 12; and therefore certainly they
can't hurt a Christian, they can't wrong a Christian in his greatest and
chief est concernments. Christian, let persecutors do their worst,
they can't reach thy soul, thy God, thy comfort, thy crown, thy para-
dise, &c. ; and therefore let no man be kept off from pursuing after
holiness because of afflictions or persecutions, seeing none of these
can reach a Christian's great concernments. When the emperor
Valens threatened to confiscate Basil's goods, and to torment him, and
to banish him or kill him, Basil makes this noble reply : He needs not
fear confiscation of goods that hath nothing to lose, nor banishment,
to whom heaven only is a country, nor torments, when his body may
be dashed with one blow, nor death, which is the only way to set him
at liberty. The emperor, hearing of him thus undauntedly to speak,
told him that he was mad, to whom he replied, Opto me, in cetemum
sic delirare — I wish that I may be for ever thus mad. Basil knew
that no torments nor sufferings could hurt him or harm him, and
therefore he bravely triumphs over them. They may kill me, said
Socrates of his enemies, but they cannot hurt me. So may a saint
say, They may kill my body, but they cannot hurt my soul ; they
may take away my natural life, but they cannot take away my spiritual
life, for that is hid with Christ in God, Col. iii. 3; they may take away
this and that outward comfort, but they cannot take away my Christ ;
they may take away my costly ornaments, but they cannot take away
that robe of righteousness that Christ has put upon me ; they may
take away my earthly crown, but they cannot take away that crown of
righteousness which Christ the righteous judge has laid up for all that
love his appearing, 2 Tim. iv. 8. Methinks, said one of the martyrs,
[Vincentius,] I tread upon pearls, when he trod upon hot burning
coals ; and I feel, said he, no more pain than if I lay in a bed of
down, and yet he lay in flames of fire. I have read of Nero, that he
had a shirt made of a salamander's skin, so that if he walked through
the fire in it, it would keep him from burning, it would keep him from
being hurt or harmed by the fire. Our Lord Jesus Christ is this sala-
mander's skin, that will keep the saints from burning, yea, from being
hurt or harmed by the most fiery afflictions and persecutions that can
befall them in this world. But,

4. Fourthly, I answer. That the condition of persecutors, of all
conditions under heaven, is the most sad and deplorable condition ;
and this will appear by the consideration of these five things :

[1.] First, By the prayers and indictments that the saints have
jfyref erred against them in the highest court of Justice, I mean in the
parliament of heaven: Ps. xxxv. 3-9, i ' Draw out the spear, and stop

1 Ps. Ixix. 22, 29 ; Neh. iv. 3-5, turn to it.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 267

the way against them that persecute me : say unto my soul, I am thy
salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after
my soul : let them be turned back and brought to confusion that de-
vise my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind ; and let the
angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery,' or
darkness and slipperiness ; ' and let the angel of the Lord persecute
them. For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit,
which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction
come upon him at unawares ; and let his net that he hath hid catch
himself: into that very destruction let him fall' i So in that 83d
Psalm David sighs out his sad complaints against his persecutors, from
verse 2d to verse the 9th ; and from verse the 9th to verse the 18th he
prays against them. Turn to it ; it is a text that is worthy of your
most serious meditation : Ps. cxix. 84, ' How many are the days of thy
servant? when wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute
me ? ' Jer. xv. 15, ' Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit
me, and revenge me of my persecutors ; take me not away in thy long-
suffering : know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke : ' chap. xvii.
18, ' Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be
confounded ; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed ; bring
upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction,*
or break them with a double breach : Lam. iii. 61, seq., ' Thou hast
heard their reproach, Lord, and all their imaginations against me.
The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me
all the day. Behold their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their
music,' or I am their song. ' Kender unto them a recompense, O
Lord, according to the work of their hands. Give them sorrow of
heart, thy curse unto them. Persecute and destroy them in anger,
from under the heavens of the Lord : ' 2 Tim. iv. 1 4, ' Alexander the
coppersmith did me much evil ; the Lord reward him according to his
works.' Thus you see how the hearts of the saints have been drawn
out against their persecutors. Prayers are the arms that in times of
persecution the saints have still had recourse to. The Romans being
in great distress were put so hard to it, that they were fain to take the
weapons out of the temples of their gods to fight with their enemies,
and so they overcame them ; so when the people of God have been
hard put to it, by reason of afflictions and persecutions, the weapons
that they have fled to has been prayers and tears, and with these they
have overcome their persecutors, as is evident in the three children in
Daniel, and many others, &c. I3ut,

[2.] Secondly, Persecutions do but raise, ivhet, and stir up a more
earnest and vehement spirit of prayer among the persecuted saints : 2
Rev. vi. 9, 10, ' And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under
the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and
for the testimony which they held : and they cried with a loud voice,
saying. How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and.
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? ' The blood of

^ Both good and evil angels are at God's beck, ready to execute rengeance upon hla
and his people's enemies and persecutors ; and therefore the text may be understood of
both.

^ See Acts It. 17, 21, 29, 31, compared ; and Luke ztUL 7 ; Lam. v. 59-61, &c.

268 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the persecuted cries aloud for vengeance upon the persecutors.! By
the ' souls under the altar,' you are to understand the persons of the
saints which were martyred and lay slain upon the ground, like sacri-
fices at the foot of the altar, under the Roman persecuting emperors.
There is no blood that cries so loud, and that makes so great a noise
in heaven, as the blood of the martyrs, as the blood of butchered per-
secuted saints. Persecutors, like these Roman emperors, in all ages
have causelessly and cruelly destroyed the people of Grod ; they delight
in the blood of saints, they love to wallow in the blood of saints, they
take pleasure in glutting themselves with the blood of saints, they make
no conscience of watering the earth, nor of colouring the sea, nor of
quenching the flames with the blood of the saints, yea, if it were pos-
sible, they would willingly swim to heaven through their hearts' blood,
whom Christ has purchased with his own most precious blood — ^as all
historians know, and as you may all know if you would but search a
little into ecclesiastical histories — and therefore it is no wonder if
the blood of the martyrs cry aloud for vengeance upon such des-
perate persecutors. The blood and prayers of persecuted saints will
first or last bring down wrath and ruin upon their persecutors.
Persecution puts an edge, yea, a sharp edge, upon the prayers of the
saints : Acts xii. 5, ' Peter therefore was kept in prison ; but prayer
was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.' 2 The
Greek word e/crei^? signifies earnest and stretched-out prayer. When
Peter was in prison, sleeping between two soldiers, and bound with
two chains, and the keepers standing before the prison door, oh, how
earnest ! oh, how instant ! oh, how fervent ! oh, how vehement ! oh,
how constant were the saints in their prayers for his deliverance!
oh, their hearts, their souls, their spirits were in their prayers ! oh, their
prayers were no cold prayers, no formal prayers, no lukewarm prayers,
nor no dull or drowsy prayers, but their prayers were full of life, and
full of warmth, and full of heat. They knew Herod's bloody intention
to destroy this holy apostle by his imprisoning of him, and by the
chains that were put on him, and by the strong guards that
were set upon him, and by his bathing of his sword in the
innocent blood of James, that his hand might be the more apt and
ready for further acts of murder and cruelty ; and oh, how did the con-
sideration of these things whet and provoke their spirits to prayer ! ^
Oh, now they wUl have no nay, now they will give God no rest
till he has overturned the tyrant's counsel and designs, and sent his
angel to open the prison doors, and to knock ofi" Peter's chains, and to
deliver him from the wrath and fury of Herod ; and their prayers were
successful, as is evident in the 12th verse, ' And when he had con-
sidered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John,
whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together pray-
ing,' or rather, as the original has it, ' where many thronged together

^ Blood hath as many tongues as drops to cry for vengeance, which made king James
say, that if God did leave him to kill a man, he would think God did not love him, 1 Cor.
vi. 20 ; 1 Peter i. 18, 19.

2 All these circumstances do wonderfully declare the power of God in his deliverance.
Some say he had sixteen, others say he had twenty soldiers for his guard ; the greater
was his deliverance.

3 James was the first of the apostles that died a violent death.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 269

to pray.' l The violence and rage of their persecutors did so raise,
whet, and encourage them to prayer, that they throng together, they
crowded together to pray, yea, when others were a-sleeping they were
a-praying, and their prayers were no sleepy prayers, they were no lazy
dronish prayers, nor they were no book-prayers, but they were power-
ful and prevalent prayers ; for as so many Jacobs, or as so many
princes, they prevaOed with God ; they prayed and wept, and wept
and prayed ; they called and cried, and cried and called ; they begged
and bounced, and they bounced and begged ; and they never left
knocking at heaven's gates till Peter's chains were knocked off, and
Peter given into their arms, yea, their bosoms, as an answer of prayer.
Oh the power and force of joint prayer, when Christians do not only
beseech God, but besiege him, and beset him too, and when they will
not let him go till he has blessed them, and answered their prayers and
the desires of their souls ! I have read that Mary Queen of Scots,
that was mother to king James, was wont to say, ' that she was more
afraid of Mr Knox's prayers, and the prayers of those Christians that
walked with him, than she was of a knocking army of ten thousand
men.' And that is a remarkable passage of the psalmist, Ps. cix. 3,
4, ' They compassed me about also with words of hatred ; and fought
against me without a cause. For my love they are my adversaries :
but I give myself unto prayer ; ' or as the Hebrew has it, ' but I am
prayer, or a man of prayer.' 2 Persecuted saints are men of prayer,
yea, they are as it were made up all of prayer. David prayed before,
but, oh, when his enemies fell a-persecuting of him, then he gave up
himself whoUy to prayer. Oh, then he was more earnest, more
fervent, more frequent, more diligent, more constant, and more
abundant in the work of prayer ! When Numa, king of the Komans,
was told that his enemies were in arms against him, he did but laugh
at it, and answered, ' And I do sacrifice ; ' 3 so when persecutors arm
themselves against the people of God, they do but divinely smile and
laugh at it, and give themselves the more up to prayer. When men
arm against them, then they arm themselves with all their might
to the work of prayer ; and woe, woe to them that have armies of
prayers marching against them. But,

[3.] Thirdly, It will appear that the condition of persecutors is the
most sad and deplorable condition of all conditions under heaven, if
you loill but seriously consider and lay to heart the sore Judgments that
are threatened, and that have been executed upon them : Deut. xxx. 7,
' And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies,
and on them which hate thee, which persecuted thee ;' Neh. ix. 9-11,
' And didst see the afflictions of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest
their cry by the Bed Sea : and shewed signs and wonders upon Pharaoh,
and on all his servants, and on the people of his land ; for thou knewest
that they dealt proudly against them. So didst thou get thee a name,
as it is this day. And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that
they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land ; and their

^ This house is thought by many to be the house where the apostles commonly had
their meetings.
- The like speech you have in that Pa. cxx. 7. Vaani uzephillah, But I prayer.
=* Plutarch in the life of Numa.

270 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty
waters. '1 Pharaoh and his princes and people were very great oppres-
sors and persecutors of God's Israel, and therefore God visited them
with ten dreadful plagues, one after another ; but when, after all these
plagues, God saw that their enmity against his people was as great, or
rather greater than ever, and that they were still set upon persecuting
of his people, then God takes up Pharaoh and his mighty host, and
throws them as a stone into the mighty waters, Exod. xv. 10 ; Ps.
vii. 11-13, ' God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the
wicked every day. If he turn not, he will whet his sword ; he hath
bent his bow, and made it ready. He hath also prepared for him the
instruments of death; he ordaineth his arrows against the persecutors.'
God whets before he strikes, he bends his bow before he shoots, he
prepares instruments of death before he brings men down to the grave,
his hand takes hold on judgment before his judgments take hold of
men ; but if all these warnings will not serve their turns, God will
overturn them with a witness. ' He ordaineth his arrows against the
persecutors,' or as the Hebrew has it, ' against the hot burning per-
secutors.' 2 God hath his hot burning arrows for hot burning perse-
cutors. Let persecutors be never so hot against the saints, God will
be as hot against them; and let them be never so much inflamed
against the people of God, God will be as much inflamed against them:
Jer. XX. 10, 11, ' For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every
side. Keport, said they, and we will report it. All my familiars
watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and
we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one : therefore my per-
secutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail, they shall be greatly
ashamed, for they shall not prosper ; their everlasting confusion shall
never be forgotten.'^ When malicious and mischievous persecutors
have done all they can to vex and fret, to daunt and affright, to dismay
and discourage the people of God, then God will terrify the most
terrible among them, and ' they shall not prevail nor prosper, yea,
they shall stumble and fall, they shall be ashamed and confounded.'
Isa. xxxiii. 1, ' Woe to thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled;
and dealest treacherously, and they dealt not treacherously with thee :
when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled ; and when thou
shalt make an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously
with thee.' When the time is expired that God has prefixed for his
people's sufferings, then God will retaliate upon their persecutors, then
they that spoiled his people shaU be spoiled, and they that dealt per-
fidiously and treacherously with them, shall be dealt perfidiously and
treacherously withal : 2 Thes. i. 6, ' Seeing it is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.' It is but
justice that God should trouble those that are the troublers of his
people ; it is but justice that persecutors should be punished, and that

^ As you may see in the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and twelfth chapters of Exodus.

' Q^p7^7, from p7l, and from dalah is daleketh, that signifies a burning ague.

* After the reign of Decius, under whom the seventh persecution began, God sent a
plague ten years together, which made divers places of the world desolate, especially
where the persecution most raged, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 271

the persecuted should be righted ; it is but justice that God should
trouble them in both worlds, who would be troublers of his people in
both worlds ; it is but justice that God should trouble them to all
eternity, who would be a-troubling of his people to all eternity, if their
power were but answerable to their malice. And God has even in
this life been a swift witness against the persecutors of his people.
Cain was a persecutor, and his brother s blood pursued him to hell ;
Pharaoh was a great oppressor and persecutor of his people, and God
followed him with plague upon plague, and judgment upon judgment,
till he had overthrown him in the Ked Sea ; Saul was a persecutor,
and falls by his own sword ; Haman was a great persecutor of the
saints, and he was feasted with the king one day, and made a feast for
crows the next ; Pashur was a great persecutor, he smote the prophet
Jeremiah, and put him in the stocks, and God threatened to make
him a Magor-missdbih, a terror to himself and to all his friends, Jer.
XX. 1-3; Zedekiah was a persecutor, he smote the prophet Micaiah-
on the cheek for dealing plainly and faithfully with the kings, and in
the day of trouble and distress he goes from chamber to chamber to
hide himself, 1 Kings xxii. ; Jezebel was a great persecutor, she slew
the prophets of God, and she was thrown out of a window, and eaten
up of dogs, 1 Kings xviii. 4-13 ; 2 Kings ix. 30 ; Herod the Great,
who caused the babes of Bethlehem to be slain, hoping thereby to
destroy Christ, shortly after was plagued by God with an incurable
disease, having a slow and slack fire continually tormenting his inward
parts ; he had a vehement and greedy desire to eat, and yet nothing
would satisfy him ; his inward bowels rotted, his breath was short and
stinking, some of his members rotted, and in all his members he had
so violent a cramp that nature was not able to bear it ; and so growing
mad with pain, he died miserably. i

Herod Antipas, who beheaded John Baptist, not long after falling
into disgrace with the Koman emperor, with his incestuous Herodias,
the suggester of that murder, they were banished, and fell into such
misery and penury, that they ended their wretched lives with much
shame and misery.^

Herod Agrippa was a great persecutor of the saints, and he was
eaten up of worms. Acts xii. In the third year of his reign, as Josephus
observes, he went to Caesarea to keep certain plays in the honour of
Caesar.s The gown he was in, as the same author relates, was a gown
of silver wonderfully wrought, and the beams of the sun reflecting
upon it, made it so glister that it dazzled the eyes of the beholders ;
when he had made an end of his starched oration in this his bravery,
his flatterers extolled him as a god, crying out, * It is the voice of a
god, and not of a man,' Acts xii. 21-23 ; whereupon he was presently
smitten by the angel of the Lord, and so died vrith worms that ate up
his very entrails. The blow the angel gave him was an inward blow,
and so not visible to others, and his torments more and more increasing
upon him, the people put on sackcloth and made supplication for him,
but all in vain, for his pains and torments growing stronger and
stronger ever}' day upon him, they separated his wretched soul from
his loathsome body within the compass of five days ; and it is very pro-

^ Eusebius. ' Ibid. > Josephus : Antiq., lib. xiic cap. 7.

272 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

bable that the prayers of the persecuted church did help to speed this
persecutor out of the world. Caiaphas, the high priest who gathered
the council and suborned false witnesses against the Lord Christ, was
shortly after put out of his office, and one Jonathan substituted in his
room, whereupon he killed himself.^

Not long after Pontius Pilate had condemned our Lord Christ, he
lost his deputyship and Caesar's favour, and being fallen into disgrace
with the Roman emperor, and banished by him, he fell into such
misery that he hanged himself.^

Nero, that monster of men, who raised the first bloody persecution,
to pick a quarrel with the Christians, set the city of Rome on fire, and
then charged it upon them ; under which pretence he exposes them to
the fury of the people, who cruelly tormented them, as if they had
been common burners and destroyers of cities, and the deadly enemies
of mankind ; yea, Nero himself caused them to be apprehended and
clad in wild beasts' skins, and torn in pieces with dogs ; others were
crucified ; some he made bonfires of, to light him in his night-sports ;
to be short, such horrid cruelty he used towards them, as caused many
of their enemies to pity them ; but God found out this wretched per-
secutor at last, for, being adjudged by the senate an enemy to mankind,
he was condemned to be whipped to death ; for the prevention whereof
he cut his own throat.

Domitian, the author of the second persecution against the Christians,
was, by the consent of his wife, slain by his own household servants
with daggers in his privy chamber, his body was buried without honour,
his memory cursed to posterity, and his arms and ensigns were thrown
down and defaced.

Trajan raised the third persecution against the church, and the
vengeance of God followed him ; for first he fell into a palsy, then lost
the use of his senses, afterwards he fell into a dropsy, and died in great
anguish.

There was not one of those persecuting emperors that carried on
the ten bloody persecutions against the saints, but came to miserable
ends ; yea, histories tell us of three and forty persecuting emperors,
who fell under the revenging hand of God, and came to untimely
ends. Among the many thousand thousands of instances that might
be given of the judgments of God that have fallen upon the perse-
cutors of the people of God in these latter days, I shall only give you
a few. Faelix Earl of Wartenburge^ was a great persecutor of the
saints, and swore that ' ere he died he would ride up to the spurs in
the blood of the Lutherans ; ' but the very same night wherein he had
thus sworn and vowed, he was choked with his own blood : nothing
would serve him but the blood of God's people, and God makes him
drunk with his own blood. Sir Thomas More, once Lord Chancellor
of England, was a sworn enemy to the gospel, and persecuted the
saints with fire and faggot ; and amongst all his praises, he reckons
this the chief estj that he had been a persecutor of the Lutherans, i.e.,

^ Josephus : Antiq., lib. xviii. cap. 7. Thales Milesius, the prime wise man of Greece,
being demanded what he had observed to be of most difficulty in the world, answered,
Tyranmim senem, To see a tyrant live to be an old man.

* Euseb. Hist., lib, ii. cap. 7. ' Qu. ' Wurtemburg ' ?— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 273

the saints ; but what became of him ? He was first accused of
treason, and then condemned, and at last beheaded. Judge Morgan
was a great persecutor of the people of God ; but shortly after he had
passed the sentence of condemnation upon that virtuous lady, the
Lady Jane Grey, he fell mad, and in his mad raving fits he would
continually cry out, ' Take away the Lady Jane, take away the Lady
Jane from me ; ' and in that horror he ended his wretched life.
Drahomira, after the death of her husband, usurped the government
of Bohemia, and was a cruel persecutor of the people of God ; but by
a righteous hand of God it so fell out, that on that very place where
the minister's bones lay unburied, the earth opened of itself, and
swallowed her up alive, with her chariot and those that were in it,
which place is now to be seen before the castle of Prague. The Arch-
bishop of Tours was an earnest suitor for the erection of a court
called Chamber-Ardent, for the condemning of the French Pro-
testants to the fire, but before he died he had fire enough, for he was
stricken with a disease called ' the fire of God,' which began at his
feet, and so ascended upward, which occasioned one member to be cut
off after another, and so he ended his miserable days.i Thomas
Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, was a grievous persecutor of the
people of God, and a great suspender and silencer of good ministers ;
he made use of his tongue, brains, and power to stop the mouths and
tie up the tongues of God's faithful ministers ; but God in his
righteous judgment so struck him in his tongue, that it swelled so
big that he could neither swallow nor speak for some days before his
death, and so he was starved, choked, and killed by tliis strange

tumour of his tongue. I have read of one Mr W , who was veiy

busy in prosecuting an indictment against his minister at a quarter
sessions, for omitting the cross in baptism ; and being a man in high
favour with the justices, he made no question of prevailing. At night,
according to his usual manner, he falls to drinking, till he was so
extreme drunk that he was fain to be carried home ; in the morning
his wife began mildly to blame him for his acting against the minister
the day before, at which he with fearful oaths swore that ' he would
soon rid the town of that Puritan ; ' but behold the hand of God, for
as this wretched man was about to rise, and having put one arm in
his doublet, even as the oaths were uttering, he was taken speechless,
yea, and senseless, and so died.2 To conclude, the judgments of God
upon the persecutors of the saints in Bohemia was such, that it was
used as a proverb among the adversaries themselves, ' that if any man
were weary of his life, let him but attempt against the Piccardines ' 3 —
for so they called the saints — ' and he should not live a year to an
end.' And thus you see by these instances, that most severe judg-
ments have still followed the persecutors of the people of God. Let
me close up this argument thus : look, as in princes' courts they are
judged but silly, shallow-brained men that profess open and mortal
hatred to the greatest favourites of the king, because in so doing they
take the right and ready way to ruin themselves and families ; so they
are doubtless the most silly, shallow-brained men in the world, how

1 [Foxe] Acts and Mon., 1911. 2 jjj. Grove's Glcaniugs, pp. Il.5, 156.

^ From ' Picardy,' — G.

VOL. IV. S

274 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

wise soever they may be in their own eyes, or in others' eyes who are
like unto themselves, who persecute the favourites of the King of
kings, that being the ready way to their own ruin and destruction. But,
[4.] Fourthly, It ivill appear that persecutors are in the most sad
and deplorable condition, if you do but consider that there is a day
a-coming luherein God iv ill fully reckon ivith all persecutors for their
persecuting of his saints : Ps. ix. 12, ' When he maketh inquisition
for blood, he remembereth them ; he forgetteth not the cry of the
humble.' There is a time when God will make inquisition for inno-
cent blood. The Hebrew word doresh, from darash, that is here ren-
dered inquisition, signifies not barely to seek, to search, but to seek,
search, and inquire with all diligence and care imaginable. i Oh,
there is a time a-coming, when the Lord will make a very diligent
and careful search and inquiry after all the innocent blood of his
afilicted and persecuted people, wliich persecutors and tyrants have
spilt as water upon the ground; and woe to persecutors when God
shall make a more strict, critical, and careful inquiry after the blood
of his people than ever was made in the Inquisition of Spain, where
all things are carried with the greatest diligence, subtlety, secrecy, and
severity. persecutors, there is a time a-coming, when God will
make a strict inquiry after the blood of Hooper, Bradford, Latimer,
Taylor, Kidley, &c. There is a time a-coming, wherein God will
inquire who silenced and suspended such and such ministers, and who
stopped the mouths of such and such, and who imprisoned, confined,
and banished such and such, who were once burning and shining
lights, and who were willing to spend and be spent, that sinners
might be saved, and that Christ might be glorified. There is a time
when the Lord will make a very narrow inquiry into all the actions
and practices of ecclesiastical courts, high commissions, committees,
assizes, sessions, &c., and deal with persecutors as they have dealt
with his people : Ps. xii. 5, ' For the opprcvssion of the poor, for the
sighing of the needy, now will I arise,' saith the Lord ; ' I will set
him in safety from him that puffeth at him.' When oppressors and
persecutors do snuff and puff at the people of God, when they defy
them, and scorn them, and think that they can with a blast of their
breath blow them away, then God will arise to judgment, as the
Chaldee has it ; at that very nick of time when all seems to be lost,
and when the poor oppressed and afflicted people of God can do
nothing but sigh and weep, and weep and sigh, then the Lord will
arise and ease them of their oppressions, and make their day of
extremity a glorious opportunity to work for his own glory, and his
people's good : Mat. xxii. 6, 7, ' And the remnant took his servants,
and entreated them spitefully, and slew them: but when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth ; and he sent for his armies, and de-
stroyed those murderers, and burnt up their city.' Christ sent his
apostles and disciples to invite the Jews to a marriage-feast, to a
stately feast, to a feast made by a king, upon the account of his son,
of his only son, of his beloved son, of his Son that is King of kings
and Lord of lords, but they entreated them spitefully, calling them

' D^O"T> Damim, bloods, in the plural ; it notes the killings and murderings of God's
afflicted ones, Gen. iv. 10 ; 1 Kings ix. 26 j 2 Chron. xxiv. and xxii.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS.. 275

pestilent fellows, and movers of sedition, and some they imprisoned
and scourged, and others they put to death, as Stephen and James,
&c. ; and oh, what spitefulness and ingratitude was this, to return evil
for good, to requite them with reproaches, prisons, scourges, and
death, for their endeavouring to save their souls, and to make them
happy for ever ! i But will this great King put up these injuries,
indignities, and abuses that are done to his servants ? No, he will not:
for as soon as he heard of it, he was wroth, and sent forth his armies to
be revenged on them. The murderers in the text were the Jews, and
the armies were the Romans. Now they are called ' God's armies,' Dan.
ix. 26, because God employed them as the executioners of his wrath
upon Jerusalem. Now these Roman armies did burn up their city,
which was once the paradise of the world, and brought to ruin and
destruction eleven millions of men, women, and children, besides mul-
titudes that were sold for slaves, and others that were scattered among
all nations ; and thus God took vengeance on these persecutors, and
turned their temple and city into ashes.^ Plutarch, writing of the
quality of tigers, saith, that if drums or tabors sound about them,
they will grow mad, and rend and tear their own flesh in pieces."*
Oh, there is a day a-coming when the last trumpet shall sound, and
then all the persecutors of the saints will grow mad ! oh, then they
will fret and fume, and tear and torment themselves, and wish for the
mountains and rocks to fall upon them, and to hide them from the
wrath of the Lamb, who in that day wiU with a witness avenge all his
aflSicted and persecuted ones ! Rev. vi. 15-17. Alas, all the sorrows,
troubles, afiiictions, vexations, torments, and punishments that befall
the persecutors of the saints in this life, they are but qvMsi tales, as it
were such, they are but the beginnings of sorrows, they are but types
and figures of those easeless, endless, and remediless torments and
pimishments that will at last inevitably fall upon all the persecutors
of the saints. But,

[5.] Fifthly and lastly. Persecutors at present are under an evident
token of perdition and destruction; they have the marks and signs of
divine displeasure upon them: Phil. i. 28, ' And in nothing terrified
by your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of perdition,
but to you of salvation, and that of God.'^ Persecuted Christians
ought not to be disheartened or discouraged, but rather to take heart
and courage, by all the persecutions that are raised against them,
because they are most certain witnesses and evidences from God him-
self, both of their own salvation, and of their persecutors' perdition and
destruction. A state of unbelief, hardness of heart, blindness of mind,
searedness of conscience, perverseness of spirit, slighting and despising
of that which is good, hating of the light,^ and a mans being given
up to the ways and lusts of his own heart, are dreadful tokens of per-
dition, and fearful witnesses and evidences of destruction : and these
tokens and evidences all persecutors are under, though it may be they

' Rev. i. 5 ; compare these Bcripturea, Acta v. 40, vii. 58, xii. 2, and xxi. 32 ; 2 Cor.
xi. 24; Heb. xi. 37, 38. » Josephus, Antiq., lib. xx. c. 8.

*. Plutarch, lib. de superditione.

* Mr Bradford looked upon his sufferings as an evidence to him that he was in his
right way.

" John iii. 18-36 ; lea. vi. 9, 10 ; 1 Tim. iv. 2 ; John iii. 19, 20 ; Ps. Ixxxi. 12.

276 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

want eyes to see them, and hearts to be affected with them. Plain
and evident tokens of wrath and ruin are stamped in Roman characters
upon all persecutors, and did they but see those tokens, they would
be as so many handwritings upon the wall against them. And thus
you see by these five things, that there is no condition under heaven
that is so sad and deplorable a condition, as the condition of persecutors
is. But,

5. Fifthly, I answer, Thxit God loill hear his people company in all
their afflictions and persecutions. If the bush, the church, be all on
a-light fire, the angel of the covenant will be in the midst of it : Isa.
xliii. 2, ' When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee ;
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt ; neither shall the
flames kindle upon thee.'^ Both in the waters of affliction, and in
the fire of persecution, God Avill bear his people company. So in
that Dan. iii. 24, 25, ' Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied,
and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors. Did
not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They
answered and said unto the king, True, king. He answered and
said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and
they have no hurt ; and the form of the fourth is like unto the Son of
God.' Christ is never so near to his people as when they are in their
fiery trials ; and the hotter the furnace is, the more eminently present
will Christ be with his people. Saints never enjoy so much of the
supporting, emboldening, comforting, and encouraging presence of the
Lord, as they do when the sun of persecution shines hottest upon them.
Though Mr Glover wanted the presence of God for a time, yet when
he came near to the stake where he was burnt, he clapped his hands for
joy, and cried out, ' He is come, he is come.' 2 Cor. iv. 8, 9, ' We
are troubled on every side, yet not destroyed ; we are perplexed, but
not in despair ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but not
destroyed.' Divine help is nearest when a saint's danger is greatest.
It is the deriding question which persecutors put to the saints in the
time of their trials and troubles, Uhi Deus f Where is now your God ?
Ps. xlii. 10 ; but they may return a bold and confident answer. Hie
Deus: ' Our God is here,' our God is nigh unto us, our God is round
about us, our God is in the midst of us, our God has given us his
promise ' that he will never, never leave us, nor forsake us,' Heb. xiii. 5 ;
in every trouble, in every danger, in every death, the Lord will be
sure to keep us company. God will bear his children company, not
only whilst they are in a delightful paradise, but also when they are
in a howling wilderness, Hosea ii. 14, When a company of poor Chris-
tians were going into banishment, one standing by to see them pass
along, said that it was a very sad condition that those poor people
were in, to be thus hurried from the society of men, and to be made
companions with the beasts of the field. True, said another,^ it were
a sad condition indeed, if they were carried to a place where they
should not find their God; but let them be of good cheer, for God goes
along with them, and will exhibit the comforts of his presence whitherso-

1 Exod. iii. 2, 6; Mat. x. 17-20; Acts vt. 9, 10; Kom. viii. 33-35.
^ Augustine de Civit. Dei., lib. ii. cap. 39.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 277

ever they go ; his presence is infinite, and filleth all places. The Eabbins
put Makom, which signifies place, among the names of God ; Bythner
brings them in expounding that text, Esth. iv. 14, thus, ' Deliverance
shall arise from another place,' that is, from God. Now they called
God place, because he is in every place, filling heaven and earth with
his presence. Wherever God scatters his people, he will be a little
sanctuary to them : Ezek. xi. 16, 'Therefore say. Thus saith the Lord
God, Although I have cast them far ofi" among the heathen, and
although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to
them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.'l
The heathens were wont to say of a valiant man, Omne solum forti
patria : Every soil is his country ; so I may say of a Christian. Every
country is his home who enjoys the presence of God with him, who
finds God to be a little sanctuary to him. Persecuted saints shall be
scattered nowhere but God will be a little sanctuary to them ; in the
want of a visible sanctuary, God will be an invisible sanctuary to them ;
in the want of outward ordinances, they shall have the presence of his
grace and favour. God will be a protection to them, and a spring of
joy and comfort in them. His power shall be as a wall of fire about
them, and his Spirit shall be the guide and leader of them. Though
the Jews at Jerusalem, who enjoyed their glorious temple, and their
pompous worship, and solemn assemblies, and precious ordinances,
looked upon their brethren in Babylon as a poor, miserable, despicable,
forlorn, and forsaken people, yea, as a people without God, and without
his worship and ordinances, and as those that had nothing to do with "
their magnificent temple, -they having no outward splendour or glory
at all upon them ; yet says God by Ezekiel, I will have them to know
that I have other thoughts, and better thoughts, concerning their
captived brethren; for I have thoughts of grace, and thoughts of
mercy, and thoughts of love, &c. ; for I will dwell among them, and
be a little sanctuary to them, and make up the want of all outward
ordinances and privileges to them. I have read of the Tyrians, that
they bound their gods with chains, that they might not leave them in
their greatest need ; but our God has bound himself with many golden
chains, [I] mean promises, that he will never leave nor forsake his
people in their greatest necessity and extremity. 2 Theodoret had a
precious presence of God with him in his sufferings ; ior he found so
much sweetness when he was on the rack, in the midst of his tortures,
that he professed he did not find any anguish in his torments, but a great
deal of pleasure ; and when they took him down from the rack, he
complained that they did him wrong in taking of him down, and in
ceasing to torment him ; ' For,' said he, ' all the while I was on the
rack, and you were venting your malice against me, I thought there
was a young man in white, an angel that stood by me, which wiped
off the sweat, and I found a great deal of sweetness in my sufierings,
which now I have lost.' Christians, in all your sufferings the angel
of God's presence will bear you company, and he will sweeten the most
cruel torments, and wipe off all the sweat, and take away all the pain,
yea, he wiU turn your pains into pleasure, Isa. Ixiii. 9. If Joseph be

^ A little sanctuary is opposed to that fair and glorious one that was at Jerusalem.
" Josh. i. 5; Ps. Ixxxix. 33, 34; Jer. xxxii. 38-41.

278 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

cast into prison, the Lord will be with him there, Gen. xxxix. 20, 21.
If Jeremiah he thrown into the dungeon, the Lord will be with him
there, Jer. xxxvi. G-14. If David walk through the valley of death,
God's rod and his staff shall comfort him, Ps. xxiii. 4, 5. If the
three children be cast into a fiery furnace, the presence of the Son of
God shall preserve them ; if Daniel must to the lions' den, God will
keep him company there, and chain up the lions' nature, and sew up
the lions' mouths, and lay a law of restraint upon the lions' paws, that
they shall not have so much as a disposition to touch him, or in the
least to hurt him or harm him ; if Paul be brought before Nero's
judgment-seat, God will stand by him, though all men forsake him,
and bring him off with credit and triumph, 2 Tim. iv. 16-18. Thus
you see that in all the afflictions and persecutions that do befall the
people of God, God will not fail to keep them company ; and therefore
let not troubles trouble you, let not afflictions afflict you, nor let not
persecutions discourage you. But,

6. Sixthly, I answer. That he shall he sure to suffer from Christ that
re/uses to suffer, or that is afraid to suffer, for Christ's sake, or holiness'
sake, or the gospel's sake. No man can suffer so much for Christ as
he shall be sure to suffer from Christ, if he disdain and refuse to suf-
fer for Christ : Mark viii. 35, ' For whosoever will save his life, shall
lose it ; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, and the gospel's,
the same shall save it.' He that shall attempt to save his life by
crossing his light, by shifting off of truth, or by forsaking of Christ,
shall lose it.l He that thinks to shun suffering by sinning, shall be
sure to suffer with a witness. It is a gainful loss to suffer for the
truth, it is a lossful gain, by time-serving and base complying with
the lusts and humours of men, to provide for our present safety, secu-
rity, plenty, peace, and ease, &c., either by denying the truth, or by
betraying the truth, or by exchanging the truth, or by forsaking the
truth. When Henry the Fourth of France had conquered his ene-
mies, he turned Papist, and gave this reason of it, ' That he might
settle himself in peace and safety.' Ravilliak,^ who slew him as he
was riding abroad in his coach to refresh himself, confessed that the
reason why he stabbed him was, because he was of two religions ; and
thus, by endeavouring to save his life, he lost it. One Philbert Ham-
lin, in France, having converted a priest to the profession of the truth,
was, together with the priest, apprehended and cast into prison at
Bourdeaux ; but after a while, the priest, being terrified with the pri-
son and fear of death, renounced Christ, and was set at liberty ; where-
upon Philbert said to him, ' unhappy and more than miseraljle man,
is it possible that, to save your life for a few days, you should so deny
the truth ? Know, therefore, that though you have avoided the cor-
poral fire, yet your life shall not be prolonged, for you shall die before
me, and you shall not have the honour to die for the cause of Christ,
but you shall be an example to apostates ; ' and accordingly, as he
went out of the prison, two gentlemen that had a former quarrel with
him met him, and slew him ; and thus he also lost his life by endea-
vouring sinfully to save it. Though life be sweet, and every creature

^ That husbandman that keeps his wheat loses his wheat, but he that bows his wheat
renews his wheat. si Ravillac, as before. — Q.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 279

makes much of it, from the highest angel to the lowest worm, yet woe
to him that is set upon saving of it, when Christ calls upon him to be
divinely prodigal of it. No fool to him who thinks to avoid a less
danger by running himself into a greater danger, who thinks to save
his body by losing his soul, and to save his temporal life by losing
eternal life. There is no loser to him who, by sinful attempts to save
liis life, shall lose a better life than ever he can save. So ver. 38,
' Whosoever, therefore, shall be ashamed of me, and of my words, in
this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man
be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy
angels.' Ah, friends, what are prisons and dungeons, and racks and
flames, to Christ's being ashamed of a man in the great day, when he
shall be attended with troops of saints and millions of angels ? wlien,
in the face of the court of heaven, when all the princes of glory shall
sit upon their thrones, Christ shall disdain a man, and scorn so much
as to look upon him, or take any notice of him, or shew the least re-
spect or favour towards him. Oh, what a sea of sorrow and a hell of
horror will this raise in him ! I have readi that when Sapor, king
of Persia, raised a violent persecution against the Christians, Ustha-
zares, an old nobleman, and one of king Sapor's eunuchs and cour-
tiers, being a Christian, was so terrified that he lefb off his profession,
and sitting at the court gate when Simeon, an aged holy bishop, was
led to prison, and rising up to salute him, the good bishop frowned
upon him, and turned his face with indignation from him, as disdain-
ing to look upon a man that had denied the faith ; upon this Ustha-
zares fell a-weeping, and went into his chamber, and put off his
courtly garments, and then brake out into these like words. Ah, how
shall I appear before that Grod that I have denied ? with what face
shall I behold that God of whom I have been ashamed, when Simeon,
my old familiar acquaintance, will not endure to look upon me, but
disdains to bestow a civil salute upon me ? If he frown now, oh, how
will Grod behold me when I shall stand before his tribunal seat !
And this physic so wrought with him, that he recovered his spiritual
strength, and went boldly and professed himself a Christian, and died
a glorious martyr. The application is easy. Well, sirs, remember
this, it is infinitely better to suffer for God, than to suffer from God :
1 Pet. iii. 17, ' For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer
for well doing, than for evil doing.' 2 It is better to suffer for well
doing from men, than to suffer for ill doing from God. Cyprian, in his
sermon de lapsis, makes mention of divers, who, forsaking the profes-
sion of their faith, were given over by God to be possessed by evil
spirits, and so died fearfully and miserably. The Angrognians that
yielded and complied with the Papists that came against them, were
more sadly and cruelly handled by them than their neighbours that
continued constant in the truth. Under the fourth persecution there
were some Christians who, for fear of torments and death, denied their
faith and sacrificed to idols, yet did not their bloody persecutors spare

^ Sozom. Hist., lib. ii. c. 8. You may see the same story in Mr Foxe his Book of Mar-
tyrs, fol. 97, 98.

* Non poena, ged causa facit martyrem, It is not the punishment, but the cause,
that makes the martyr. — Acts and Monu., fol. 835.

280 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

them ; and it was observed that, being full of guilt, they went to their
deaths with dejected and ill-favoured countenances, so that the very
Gentiles took notice of it, and reproached them as degenerous persons,
and worthy to suffer as evil doers. West, that was chaplain to Bishop
Ridley, refusing to die in Christ's cause with his master, said mass
against his conscience, and soon after pined away with sorrow.l A
smith in King Edward the Sixth's days, called Richard Denson, was
a forward professor of religion,^ and by his Christian instructions the
happy instrument of the conversion of a young man to the faith ; after-
wards, in the reign of Queen Mary, this young man was cast into
prison for his religion, who, remembering his old friend and spiritual
father, the smith, to whom he always carried a reverent respect for the
good that he had received by him, sent to know whether he was not
imprisoned also, and finding that he was not, desired to speak with him ;
and when he came he asked his advice, whether he thought it best for
him to remain in prison ? and whether he would encourage him to
burn at a stake for his religion ? To whom the smith answered, that
his cause was good, and that he might with comfort suffer for it. But
for my part, said the smith, I cannot burn. But shortly after, he that
could not burn for religion, by God's just judgment was burned for
his apostasy, for his shop and house being set on fire, and he over-
busy to save his goods, was burnt in the flames. They that will not
burn for Christ when he calls them to it, shall burn whether they will
or no. Oh, how much better had it been for this smith to have burnt
for Christ, than that Christ should set his house on fire, and burn
him in the midst of it ! He that will not suffer for Christ shall be
sure to suffer worse things from Christ than ever he could have suf-
fered, for Christ ; and therefore Doctor Taylor, the martyr, hit it: If I
shrink from God's truth, said he, I am sure of another manner of
death than Judge Hales had, who, being drawn for fear of death to
do things against his conscience, did afterwards drown himself. 3

In the Bohemian persecution, John Campan, the famous poet,
having forsaken his religion, said to his wife, this day is salvation
come to our house; whereunto she answered, this day a curse is
brought into our house ; and so it proved, for he ended his life in
despair.

Those apostates that left Galeacius to enjoy their sinful pleasures
and delights, &c., were taken by the bloody Inquisition, and forced
pubHcly to recant and abjure their religion, and when they had done
it, they became the subjects of misery and infamy, and were equally
odious to both parties,

Christ seems to say to all that refuse to suffer for him, as king Re-
hoboam said to the ten tribes, the order of the words being only in-
verted, ' My little finger shall be thicker than your persecutors' loins,
and I will add to your yoke, and whereas they would have chastised
you but with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions,' 1 Kings xii.
10-15. my friends, it is ten thousand times worse to be given
up to a proud heart, a hard heart, a worldly heart, a formal heart, a
hypocritical heart, a persecuting heart, an impenitent heart, or a de-
spairing heart, &c. — for this is to be whipped with scorpions — than it is
^ Foxe's Acts and Mon., fol. 1570. " Ihid., fol. 873. » lUd., fol. 1382.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 281

to be given up to prisons, or racks, or lions, or flames, or banishment,
&c., for this is only to be chastised with whips, yea, with such whips
that can only reach our bodies, but can never touch our immortal
souls. And therefore, as you would not suffer such hard things from
Christ, oh take heed of being unwilling to suffer anything for Christ's
sake, or the gospel's sake ! But,

7. Seventhly, I answer, That great are the advantages that will
redound'^ to you hy all the troubles, affiictions, and persecutions that
shall befall you for righteousness' sake, for holiness sake, Luke xxi. 13.
Persecutions are the workmen that will fit you and square you for
God's buildings ; they are the rods that will beat off the dust, and the
scullions that will scour off the rust from your souls ; they are the fire
that will purge you from your dross, and the water that will cleanse
you from your filthiness. Physicians, you know, apply horse-leeches
to their distempered patients. Now the horse-leech intends nothing
but to satiate and fill himself with the blood of the sick patient, but
the physician has a more noble aim, even the drawing away of that
putrified and corrupt blood that endangers the life of his patient ; so
though persecutors aim at nothing more than to draw out the heart-
blood of God's people, that they may satiate and fill themselves with
it, yet God has other thoughts and other aims, even the drawing
away of that corrupt blood, that pride, that self-love, that worldli-
ness, that carnalness, and that lifl^ewarmness, that otherwise would
endanger the life, the health, and welfare of their souls. But this
great truth I shall make more evident by an induction of particulars.
Thus :

[1.] First, Hereby you will give an evident proof of the sound-
ness and uprightness of yotir oicn hearts, Phil. i. 27-29. Afflictions
and persecutions will discover what metal men are made of. All is
not gold that glisters : many there be that glister, and look like golden
Christians, but when they come to the fire, they prove but dross : he ia
a golden Christian indeed, who remains gold when under fiery trials.
The stony ground did glister and shine very gloriously, for it received
the word with joy for a time, but when the sun of persecution rose
upon it, it fell away. Mat. xiii. 20, 21. Men that now embrace the
word, will, in times of persecution, distaste the word, if it be not rooted
in their understandings, judgments, wills, affections, and consciences.
Men may court the word, and compliment the word, and applaud the
word, and seemingly rejoice in the word, but they will never suffer
persecution for the word, if it be only received into their heads, and
not rooted in their hearts. The house built upon the sand was as
lovely, as comely, as goodly, and as glorious a house to look upon as
that which was built upon the rock ; but when the rain of affliction
descended, and the floods of tribulation came, and the winds of perse-
cution blew and beat upon that house, it fell, and great was the fall
of it, Mat. vii. 26, 27. No professors will be able to stand it out in
all winds and weathers, but such as are built upon a rock. All others
will sink, shatter, and fall when the wind of persecution blows upon
them, Mai. iii. 2 ; as sure as the rain will fall, the floods flow, and the
winds blow, so sure will an unsound heart give out when trials come.

^ Spelled ' redown.' — G.

282 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

No heart but a sound heart will hold out bravely when hardships
attends holiness on both hands ; no heart but a holy heart will bear
the brunt of persecution for holiness' sake. The three children,
Shadrach, Meshech, and Abed-nego, would rather burn than bow, they
would rather suffer than sin, Dan. iii. 17, 18, which was an evident
proof of their sincerity and ingenuity. They would be nonconformists,
though court, city, and country cried up conformity, which was a sure
argument of their integrity ; but now unsound hearts will exceedingly
shuffle and shift to shift off persecution. Witness those false teachers
in Gal. vi. 12, 'As many as desire to make a fair show,' or as the
Greek has it, evTrpoacoTrf/aac, ' to set a good face on it,' ' in the flesh,
they constrain you to be circumcised ; only lest they should suffer per-
secution for the cross of Christ.' At this time the Jews, out of zeal
to their law, did sorely persecute those that did either preach or prac-
tise anything contrary to their law. Now these false teachers set a
good face on it, and made a fair show, as if they were all for carnal
rites and ceremonies, and they urged circumcision upon the Galatians,
but not out of any affection or zeal that they did bear to the law, but
only to procure favour on the one hand, and to avoid and escape the
malice and persecution of the Jews on the other hand. They that
were no Jews, to avoid persecution, would comply with them that
were ; they would seem to be very earnest for Judaism, but not for
Christianism, that so they might escape the fury of the Jews.
Unsound hearts will say anything, and do anything, and be anything,
to avoid persecution, and to ingratiate themselves with persecutors.
The Samaritans, as long as the Jewish religion flourished and was in
honour, caused a temple to be built on Mount Gerizim, that therein
they might not be inferior to the Jews ; and they boasted themselves
to be of the progeny of Joseph, and worshippers of God with them ;
but when they perceived that the Jews were cruelly afflicted and per-
secuted by Antiochus Epiphanes for worshipping of the true God, and
fearing lest they should be handled in the like manner, they changed
both their coat and their note, affirming that they were not Israelites,
but Sidonians, and that they had built their temple not unto God, but
to Jupiter. 1 Thus times of affliction and persecution will distinguish
the precious from the vile, it will difference the counterfeit professor
from the true. Persecution is a Christian s touchstone, it is a Lapis
Lydius that will try what metal men are made of, whether they be
silver or tin, gold or dross, wheat or chaff, shadow or substance,
carnal or spiritual, sincere or hypocritical. Nothing speaks out more
soundness and uprightness than a pursuing after holiness, even then
when holiness is most afflicted, pursued, and persecuted in the world :
to stand fast in fiery trials argues much integrity within. But,

[2.] Secondly, All the troubles and persecutions which Satan or
his instruments raise against the saints of the Most High shall not
diminish their number, hut rather increase them. The more the
Israelites in Egypt were oppressed, afflicted, and persecuted, the more
they increased and multiplied, Exod. i. 10-13. Come, say they, let
us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply; let us increase their task,

^ Joseph. Hist., lib. xiii. [See Sibbes, iii. 475, where will be found more exact refer-
ences. — Q.] .

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 283

let US lay lieavy burdens upon them, &c. ; and accordingly they did,
thinking by this means to cow out tlieir spirits, and to have brought
them low, and to have lessened their number ; but did this stratagem
prevail ? Oh no, as you may see in ver. 12 ; but the more they afflicted
them, the more they multipHed and grew.i There were but seventy
souls that went down to Egypt, but they multiplied to six hundred
thousand, besides children, as is evident by comparing Exod. i. 5, 7
with xii. 37, 38. So the Jews that were carried captive to Babylon
were but twelve thousand six hundred, but they returned forty-two
thousand three hundred and threescore, besides their servants and
their maids, of whom there were seven thousand three hundred and
thirty-seven, Neh. vii. G6, 67, &c. ; Ezra ii. 64, 65. The kingdom of
Christ is set forth by a little stone cut out of a mountain without
hands, Dan. ii. 34, 35 ; and though in all ages there has been many
hammers at work to break this little stone in pieces, yet they have
not been able to do it, but this little stone has proved a growing stone,
and, in spite of the devil and a persecuting world, will grow more and
more, till it comes to be a great mountain, and filleth the whole earth.
In the 8th chapter of the Acts you read of a great persecution, and the
storm beat so hard upon the churches, that it dispersed and scattered
them up and down ; and this was so far from lessening of the number
of believers, that it did mightily increase their number ; witness vers.
4-6, 8, ' Tlierefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere
preaching the word. Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria,
and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave
heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the
miracles which he did. And there was great joy in that city.'
Samaria was a very wicked, corrupt place, and bewitched by the
sorceries of Simon Magus, yet God had his people there, and by the
ministry of Philip — not Philip the apostle, but Philip the deacon —
who was a persecuted brother, he called them home to be partakers
of his Spirit and grace, vers. 14-17. And thus the scattering of the
church was the great advantage and increase of the church. The
persecution of one church may be the gathering, edifying, multiplying,
and erecting of many churches. 2 Such ministers who have been by
persecution driven from their own churches have been eminently
instrumental in the planting of many other churches. Though the
gospel, and the faithful preachers and professors of it, was by the
Scribes, Pharisees, high priests, elders, and great Council exploded,
blasphemed, and persecuted at Jerusalem, which was once the holy
city, yet it was with joy received in the polluted, bewitched, scorned,
and despised city of Samaria. Oh, the freeness, oh, the riches of grace !
Persecution is the multiplication of the people of God ; in all ages the
more the saints have been afflicted, oppressed, and persecuted, the
more they have increased. The removing of the seven churches in
Asia brought the gospel to Europe and Africa. During the ten cruel
persecutions of the heathen emperors, the Christian faith was spread

1 Cyprian, speaking of the Christians and martyrs in his time, saith, Occidi poterant,
sed vinci non poterant — They may kill them, but they cannot overcome them.

" Witness Faber, Farellus, Ruff [injus, and many others in France ; and witness our
brethren who were forced to fly to New England.

284 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

through all places of the empire ; because the oftener they were mown
down, the more they grew, as TertuUian witnesseth ; and the more
we are cut down by the sword of persecution, saith the same author,
the more still we increase. Persecuted saints are like camomile,
which grows and spreads by being trod upon ; the more persecutors
tread upon the people of God, the more they will spread and grow.
Austin has long since observed, that though there were many thou-
sand Christians put to death for professing Christ, yet they were never
the fewer for being slain. Julian the apostate devised all manner of
torments to terrify the people of God, and to suppress them, and yet
they increased and multiplied so fast, that at last he thought it his
best course to give over persecuting of them, and this he did, not out
of love to them, but because the more they were persecuted, the more
they increased.

In Dioclesian's time, under whom the last and worst of the ten per-
secutions fell — for then Christian religion was more desperately opposed
and persecuted than ever — and yet then religion prospered and pre-
vailed more than ever ; so that Dioclesian himself, observing that the
more he sought to blot out the name of Christ, the more legible it
was, and the more he laboured to block up the way of Christ, the
more passable it was, and that whatever of Christ he thought to root
out, it rooted the deeper, and rose the higher : thereupon he resolved
to engage no further, but retired to a private life.i

And it is very observable, that the Eeformation in Germany was
much furthered by the very opposition that the Papists made against
it ; yea, and it is not to be forgotten, that when two kings wrote against
Luther — viz., Henry the Eighth of England, and Ludovicus of
Hungary, this kingly title being entered into the controversy, made
men more diligently and curiously to examine the matter, by which
means there was stirred up in men a general inclination to Luther's
opinion.

I have read of one who, observing the Christian religion to be so
furiously persecuted by bloody Nero, concluded that surely that must
needs be good, yea, very good, which was so cruelly persecuted by
Nero, who was so bad, so very bad. If men would sit down and
study which way to make most proselytes to such and such opinions
and practices that are diflPerent from their own, certainly they cannot
pitch upon a better way than to persecute those that differ from them.
It is the sword of the Spirit, and not the sword of persecution, that
will reduce the erroneous. When the disease lies in the head, the
remedy must be answerable to the disease. Certainly a man shall as
soon conquer a castle by spiritual arguments, as he shall conquer a
conscience by club-law. When our Lord Jesus Christ sent forth his
disciples to make a conquest upon an ignorant, erroneous, and deluded
world, he did not send them forth with swords, pistols, or any such
military weapons. Oh no ! but he sent them forth under the choice
anointings of his Spirit, and with his everlasting gospel, and by these
means he turned the world upside down, — these were the means by
which he turned sinners from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan to Jesus Christ, Acts xxvi. 18. The weapons that the

^ Ruffiuus.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 285

apostles used were not carnal, but spiritual : 2 Cor. x. 4, 5, ' For the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down ima-
ginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the know-
ledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ.' i Satan had many strongholds, and sin had
many strongholds, and carnal reason had many strongholds, and the
world had many strongholds in sinners' hearts ; and yet all these
strongholds, forts, towers, castles, &c. , were not able to stand before the
apostles' spiritual weapons ; they all come tumbling down before the
Spirit and the word of the Lord in the mouths of his faithful minis-
ters ; by the spiritual weapons Satan was disarmed, and rebellious
transgressors were conquered, captivated, and subdued to the obedience
of the Lord Jesus. But,

[3.] Thirdly, The troubles, afflictions, and persecutions that be/all
you in the pursuit after holiness, may issue in the conversion and
salvation of others ; as is evident in Acts viii., which chapter I recom-
mend to your most serious perusal. So in that 2 Tim. ii. 9, 10,
' Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil doer, even unto bonds, but the
word of God is not bound,' (though Paul was fettered, yet the word
was free,) ' therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that
they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with
eternal glory.' 2 Paul, for preaching of the gospel clearly and faith-
fully, was imprisoned at Kome, and handled as if he had been a male-
factor, all which he was contented to suffer upon these very grounds,
that the elect might be called, converted, saved, and glorified. It is
very observable, that though Paul was a prisoner, yet he preached ;
though he was in bonds, yet he preached; and though he was ac-
counted as an evil-doer, yet he preached, that the elect might be
sanctified and saved. Though his persecutors did lay irons upon his
legs, yet they did not lay a law of silence upon his lips ; and though
they shut him up from going to others, yet they did not shut out
others from coming to hear him ; for even in bonds he exercised his
ministerial office. As cruel as his persecutors were, they would not
shut the prison doors upon them that waited on his ministry. 3 So
Philemon^ was converted by Paul when he was in bonds : Philem. 10,
' I beseech thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my
bonds.' Paul had a blessing going along with his ministry, when he
was in bonds, as well as when he was at liberty. Onesimus was con-
verted when Paul was a prisoner. God made Paul's prison to be a
paradise to Onesimus ; Paul by his preaching, patience, and cheerful-
ness in suffering, converts Onesimus to the faith. Prisons in these
times were turned into churches ; and so they were in Queen Mary's
days,5 for as bloody as her reign was, most of the prisons in England
were turned into Christian schools and churches, saith Mr Foxe : so
that there was no greater comfort than for Christians to resort to
prisons, and to hear the martyi's to pray and preach, and to behold
their holy, humble, heavenly, gracious conversation. 6 So the afilic-

^ Vide Calvin, Beza, and Estins. ' StA touto, For this cause.

3 Several of Paul's epistles were written when he was in bonds.

<Qu. 'Onesimus'?— Ed. « [Foxe] Acts and Mon., fol. 1457. ^ Ibid., 1381.

286 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EARITY, [Heb. XII. 14,

tions and persecutions of the saints in the primitive times issued in
the conversion and salvation of many souls. We read that Cecilia, a
poor virgin, by her gracious behaviour in her martyrdom, was the
means of converting four hundred to Christ. Adrianus, by seeing the
martyrs suffer so patiently and cheerfully, was converted to the faith,
and afterwards sealed to the truth with his blood. Justin Martyr was
also converted in the same way. In the third persecution, Faustus
and Jobita, citizens of Brixia, suffered martyrdom with such invincible
patience, courage, and cheerfulness, that Calocerius cried out, Vere
magnus Deus Christianorum, Verily, great is the God of the Chris-
tians. Upon which words he was presently apprehended, and so
suffered martyrdom with them.i And that was a remarkable saying
of Luther, Ecclesia totum mundum convertit sanguine et oratione, The
church converteth the whole world by blood and prayer. Now if by
your troubles, afflictions, and persecutions, and the exercise of grace
under them, you shall be instrumental to convert and save a soul or
souls from wrath to come, it will turn wonderfully to your advantage,
and you shall ' shine as the stars for ever and ever,' Dan. xii. 3. That
same power, presence, wisdom, and grace, that converted others by the
sufferings of former saints, is able to accomplish the same glorious
effects by the sufferings of the saints of this generation ; and therefore
bear up bravely, and neither fear nor faint under your present suffer-
ings. But,

[4.] Fourthly, The troubles, afflictions, and persecutions that Chris-
tianas meet with in their pursuit after holiness, will furtlter the increase
and growth of their grace. Grace never rises to so great a height as
it does in times of persecution. Suffering times are a Christian's
harvest times, Ps. Ixix. 7-9, 12. Let me instance in that grace of
zeal : 1 remember Moulin speaking of the French Protestants, saith,
' When Papists hurt us for reading the Scriptures, we burn with zeal
to be reading of them ; but now persecution is over, our Bibles are
like old almanacs,' &c. All the reproaches, frowns, threatenings,
oppositions, and persecutions that a Christian meets with in a way of
holiness, doth but raise his zeal and courage to a greater height.
Michal's scoffing at David did but inflame and raise his zeal : ' If this
be to be vile, I will be more vile)' 2 Sam. vi. 20-22. Look, as fire in
the winter burns the hotter, by an avTL7repiaTaai<i, because of the cold-
ness of the air ; so in the winter of affliction and persecution, that
divine fire, the zeal of a Christian, burns so much the hotter, and
flames forth so much the more vehemently and strongly. In times of
greatest affliction and persecution for holiness' sake, a Christian hath,
first, a good captain to lead and encourage him ; secondly, a righteous
cause to prompt and embolden him ; thirdly, a gracious God to relieve
and succour him ; fourthly, a glorious heaven to receive and reward
him ; and certainly these things cannot but mightily raise him and
inflame him, under the greatest opposition and persecution. These
things will keep him from fearing, fawning, fainting, sinking, or flying
in a stormy day ; yea, these things will make his face like the face of
an adamant, as God promised to make Ezekiel's, Ezek. iii. 7-9, and
Job xU. 24. Now an adamant is the hardest of stones, it is harder
^ Clarke, as before, p. 28. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 287

than a flint, yea, it is harder than the nether-millstone. The natural-
ists [Pliny] observe, that the hardness of this stone is unspeakable :
the tire cannot burn it, nor so much as heat it through, nor the ham-
mer cannot break it, nor the water cannot dissolve it, and therefore
the Greeks call it an adamant from its untameableness ; and in all
storms the adamant shrinks not, it fears not, it changeth not its hue ;
let the times be what they will, the adamant is still the same. In
times of persecution, a good cause, a good God, and a good conscience
will make a Christian like an adamant, it will make him invincible
and unchangeable. When one desired to know what kind of man
Basil was, there was presented to him in a dream, saith the history, a
pillar of fire with this motto. Talis est Basilius, Basil is such a one,
he is all on a-light fire for God. Persecutions will but set a Christian
all on a-light fire for God. Look, as well-water is warmest in the
winter time, so real Christians are warmest for God, his glory, truth,
and ways, in the winter of afiliction and persecution. True grace
rises by opposition and persecution. Many a man had not been so
good if the times had not been so bad. Many a man had not been so
gracious, if the times had not been so dangerous. Many a man had
not been so holy, if the times had not been so profane. Many a man
had not been so zealous, if the times had not been so lukewarm.
Many a man had not been so stout and resolute against bowing the
knee to Baal, if multitudes had not been worsliippers of Baal. All the
afflictions and persecutions that befall the people of God do but add
to their spiritual life, light, and lustre. Rev. xiv. 1-6. As stars shine
brightest in the darkest nights, and as spices smell sweetest when
pounded, and as vines are the better for bleeding, and gold the brighter
for scouring, and palm-trees the better for pressing ; so the graces of
the saints shine brightest, and smell sweetest, and rise highest in times
of affliction and persecution. The naturalists have long since observed,
that though the south wind be more pleasant, yet the north wind is
more healthful ; for the south wind with his warmth raiseth vapours,
which breed putrefaction and cause diseases ; but the north wind with
his cold drieth up those vapours, purging the blood, and quickening
the spirits : so the north wind of affliction and persecution contributes
most to the drying up of sinful vapours, and to the quickening up of
a Christian's graces. Though the wind may blow, and the rain in
stormy weather may beat upon a painted post or sign, whose colour is
laid in oil, yet the wind and rain is so far from blowing or washing off
the colour or beauty that is upon the post or sign, that it rather adds
to their beauty, and makes them shine more beautiful than before ; so
the rain of affliction and the wind of persecution do rather add to the
beauty and lustre of a Christian's graces, than any way cloud them, or
take off the spiritual beauty and glory of them. But,

[5.] Fifthly, Persecuting times are uniting times. Oh I the dis-
cord, the division, the wrangling, biting and quarrelling that is to be
found among professors in times of peace and prosperity ! but when
affliction and persecution comes upon them, this unites them together. ^

' In persecuting times the saints have been but as one man ; which made their very
persecutors to say, Ecce ut invicem fie diligunt ! Sec how these Christians love one an-
other, see how they knit and, close together ! — Eusebius in Hist.

288 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Though the sheep in sunshiae days feed at a distance, and wander
one from another ; yet when a storm comes, or the wolf comes, then
they run all together ; and so it is with Christians. Some religious
bishops, that could by no means agree when they had their freedom
and liberty, yet could well enough agree when they were in prison to-
gether. Though children in a family may fall out among themselves,
yet they quickly unite when a common enemy assaults them. Perse-
cuting times unite Christians closer together in their affections, resolu-
tions, and prayers. They who formerly could hardly be brought to
eat together, or trade together, or live together, or walk together, in
persecuting times will be brought to hear together, and pray together,
and fast together, and communicate experiences together, and stand
together, and fall together, and rise together, &c., Ps. Ixxxiii. 3-9.
When Gebal and Ammon and Amalek did combine, the people of
God kept close together ; for they very well knew that broken forces
were soon dissipated, 2 Chron. xx. 1, 4, 12. I have read of Ptolomeus
Philadelphus king of Egypt, that he caused the Bible to be trans-
lated by seventy interpreters, which seventy were severally disposed
of in seventy several cells, and though they knew not the names of
one another, nor never saw the faces of one another, yet they did so
well agree in their several translations, that there was no considerable
difference betwixt them in rendering the text : so when the people of
God shall be put into cells and prisons and jails, then they will so
agree together, that there will be little or no difference betwixt them.
As all the stones that came about Stephen s ears did but knock him
closer to Christ the corner-stone, Acts vii. ; so all the stones that come
about the saints' ears will but knock them the nearer to Christ, and
the closer one to another. But,

[6.] Sixthly, As persecuting times are uniting times, so persecuting
times are truth-advancing times. Veritas vincit, Truth thrives most
when it is most opposed and persecuted : Phil, i. 12-14, ' But I would
ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto
me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel ; so
that my bonds. in Christ are manifested in all the palace, and in all
other places ; and many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident
dy my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.'
Both court, city, and country did ring of Paul's bonds, and the cause
thereof. Paul's iron chain made more noise, and was more glorious,
and wrought more blessed effects, than all the golden chains in Nero's
court ; for by his bonds and chains many of the brethren were mightily
emboldened and encouraged to preach the word without fear. The
brethren, when they saw that Paul preached, and kept up the exercise
of his ministry, though a prisoner, and though he was in bonds and
chains, could not but reason thus with themselves : if Paul a prisoner
holds up and holds on in preaching the word, though he be in bonds
and chains ; ah, how much more ought we who are at liberty to hold
up and hold on in preaching the truth, and advancing the truth, and
in spreading of the truth.i There were many that took an occasion
from ^Paul's imprisonment, bonds, and sufferings, to disgrace his

^ Si Veritas est causa discordiw, inori possum, tacere non possum : If truth be the
cause of our discord, I may die, but I may not be silent, said Jerome to Helvidius.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 289

apostleship. The apostle meets with these, and tells them, that
though they designed and intended the disgrace and hindrance of
the gospel by his imprisonment and bonds, ydt God had by his won-
derful providence and goodness so ordered the matter, that his bonds
and imprisonment turned to his great honour and fame, and an occa-
sion of further spreading and advancing the gospel. Though Satan
and his instruments may disturb the truth, yet they cannot suppress
it ; for. Magna est Veritas et prcevalebit, Great is truth, and shall pre-
vail. So upon the persecution of Stephen many of the brethren
preached the word far and near, and the hand of the Lord was with
them to the conversion of many: Acts xi. 19-23, 'Now they which
were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen
travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the
word to none but the Jews only. And some of them were men of
Cyprus and Cyrene, which, when they were come to Antioch, spake
unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the
Lord was with them : and a great number believed, and turned unto
the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the
church which was in Jerusalem ; and they sent forth Barnabas, that
he should go as far as Antioch. Who when he came, and had seen
the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose
of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. For he was a good man,
and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith : and much people were added
unto the Lord.' The brethren that were dispersed and scattered by
reason of persecution, fall upon preaching of the Lord Jesus ; and
though they were laymen, yet the hand of the Lord was mightily with
them, so that a great number believed and turned to the Lord. God
is a free agent, and can work the hearts of men over to himself by
what hand he pleases, and many times he doth the greatest works by
the most despised hands, as it is evident in this instance. The
apostles did not fret, and fume, and storm, and take on because these
brethren preached the Lord Jesus without ordination to the work of
the ministry. Oh no ; but they were glad, and rejoiced in their bring-
ing in of souls to Christ, and they made it their work to exhort,
encourage, and build up those that were brought in ; neither did they
prohibit these brethren from preaching, because they had not apos-
tolical hands laid on them, 1 Cor. i. 21, 25, 27. By these laymen's
preaching Christ is revealed, and multitudes are converted, and truth
is advanced, and the apostles are gladded. Now, by what hath been
said, it is most evident that persecuting times are truth-advancing
times. But,

[7.] Seventhly and lastly, As persecuting times are truth-advancing
times : so persecuting times are a Christians rejoicing times. A
Christian's heart is never so full of joy, as it is when he is under
sufferings : Acts v. 41, ' And they departed from the presence of the
council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for
his name.' They counted it an honour to be dishonoured for Christ ;
they took it as a grace to be disgraced for Jesus. Stephen found the
joys of heaven in his heart as the stones came clattering about his
ears. Acts vii. 55, 5Q. So Paul and Silas, when they were in prison,
their hearts were so full of joy that they could not hold, but at mid-

VOL. IV. T

290 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14,

night when others were a-sleeping, they must fall a-singing out the
praises of the Most High, Acts xvi. 25.1 They found more pleasure
than pain, more joy than sorrow, more comfort than torment in their
bonds. The rods with which they were whipped were as rods made
up all of rosemary branches. Divine consolations rise so high in their
souls, that their prison was turned into a palace, yea, into a paradise.
Paul was a man that took a great deal of pleasure in his sufferings for
Christ : 2 Cor. xiL 10, ' Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's
sake.' He did not only bear his sufferings patiently, but cheerfully
also. He often sings it out, * I Paul a prisoner/ as you may see by
comparing the scriptures in the margin together,2 ' of Jesus Christ;'
not, I Paul an apostle, nor I Paul rapt up in the third heaven, nor I
Paul that have more gifts, parts, and learning than others ; but ' I Paul
a prisoner^ to shew how much he rejoiced in his bonds and suffer-
ings for Christ. Chrysostom did not hold Paul so happy for his rap-
ture into paradise, as he did for his imprisonment for Christ. So
Rom. V. 3, 4, ' And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also,
knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience experience,
and experience hope.' Old soldiers could not glory and joy more in
their marks and scars of honour, than these saints did in their tribu-
lations and persecutions for Christ's sake. Eabbi Simeon Ben Jochai
lived twelve years in a dark dungeon for fear of the Eoman persecu-
tion in the reign of Trajan the emperor ; and he called his dark dun-
geon Zohar, that is, splendour, because God had turned his darkness
into light, and made up the want of the light of the sun by the light
of his countenance, and by the shinings of the Sun of righteousness
upon his soul. Eusebius tells us of Algerius the Italian martyr, how
that, writing to his friend from a stinking dungeon, he dates his letter
'from my delicate orchard;' such were his divine consolations, that they
turned his dungeon into a pleasant orchard. ' I with my fellows,'
saith Mr Philpot, ' were carried to the coal-house, where we do rouze^
together in the straw, as cheerfully, we thank God, as others do in
their beds of down.'^ Mr Bradford put off his cap, and thanked the
Lord, when his keeper's wife brought him word that he was to be
burned the next day : and Mr Taylor fetched a frisk when he was
come near to the place where he was to suffer. Henry and John, two
Augustine monks, being the first that were burned in Germany, and
Mr Rogers, the first that was burned in Queen Mary's days, did all
sing in the flames. If men did but know by experience the sweet
that is in suffering for Christ, they would desire with Chrysostom, if
it were put to their choice, rather to be Paul a prisoner of Jesus Christ,
than Paul rapt up in the third heaven. One of the holy women that

* Oh, how my heart leapeth for joy, said Mr Philpot, that I am so near the apprehen-
sion of eternal life !

2 Eph. iii. 1, and iv. 1; 2 Tim. i. 8; Phil. i. 9, 23; Col. iv. 10; Eom. xvi. 7. Paul
rattles his chain which he bears for the gospel's sake, and was as proud of it as a woman
of her ornaments, saith Chrysostom.

» 'Lie in filth .'—G.

* Acts and Mon., fol. 857. And Master Glover, the martyr, wept for joy of his im-
prisonment. William Hunter's mother, that suffered under Bonner, told him that she
was glad that ever she was so happy as to bear such a child as could find in his heart to
die for Christ's sake.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 291

suffered martyrdom in this nation, rejoiced that she might have her foot
in the same hole of the stocks in which Mr Philpot's had been before.
And Luther reports of that famous martyr St Agatha, that as she
went to prisons and tortures, she said she went to banquets and nuptials.
Vincentius, laughing at his tormentors, said that death and tortures
were to Christians jocularia et ludicra, matters of sport and pastime,
and he joyed and gloried when he went upon hot burning coals, as if he
had trod upon roses, i Philip Landsgrave of Hesse, being a long time
prisoner under Charles the Fifth, it was demanded, what upheld him
all that time, and he answered, that he felt the divine consolations of
the martyrs. Basil, in his oration for Barlaam, that famous martyr,
saith, that he delighted in the close prison as in a pleasant green
meadow, and he took pleasure in the several inventions of tortures, as
in several sweet flowers. William Tims, martyr, in a letter to a friend
of his a little before his death, writeth thus, ' Now I take my leave of
you till we meet in heaven, and hie you after ; I have tarried a great
while for you, and seeing you are so long in making ready, I will tarry
no longer for you : you shall find me merrily singing. Holy, holy, holy
Lord Grod of Sabaoth, at my journey's end,' &c. And when they
kindled the fire at the feet of James Bainham, ' Methinks,' said he,
' you strew roses before me ; ' and Hawkes the martyr lifted up his
hands above his head, and clapped them together when he was in the
fire, as if he had been riding in state and triumph ; and holy Mr
Saunders, speaking of his consolations in his sufferings, saith, that he
found a wonderful sweet refreshment flow from his heart unto all the
members of his body, and from all the parts of his body to his heart
again.^ By all these instances it is most evident that persecuting-
times are the saints' rejoicing-times. God reserves the best and
strongest wine of consolation to a day of persecution ; suitable to that
2 Cor. i. 3-5, ' Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercy, and the God of all comfort, who
comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them which are in trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us,
so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.' Oh, the sweet looks, the
sweet words, the sweet hints, the sweet in-comes, the sweet joggings,
the sweet embraces, the sweet influences, the sweet discoveries, the
sweet love-letters, the sweet love-tokens, and the sweet comforts that
Christians experience in their sufferings for Christ ! In all their
afflictions and persecutions, they may truly say, we have sweetmeats
to eat, and waters of life to drink, and heavenly honeycombs to suck,
that the world knows not of ; and indeed, when should the torch bo
lighted, but in a dark night ? and when should the fire be made, but
when the weather is cold ? and when should the cordial be given, but
when the patient is weak ? and when should the God of comfort, the
God of all kinds of comfort, and the God of all degrees of comfort,
comfort his people, but under their afilictions and persecutions ? for

^ Fire, sword, death, prison, famine, are all pleasures, they are all delightful to me,
saith Basil. Modestus, lieutenant to Julian the emperor, told him, that when the Chris-
tians suffered they did but deride them ; and the torments, said he, with which Christians
are tormented, are more terrible to the tormentora, than they are to the tormented.

' Clarke, as before, sub nominibus. — G.

292 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

then comfort is most proper, necessary, seasonable, and suitable, and
then God will be sure to pour in of the oil of joy into their hearts.
And thus you see the great and glorious advantages that will re-
dound 1 to the people of God by all their afflictions and persecutions.
But,

, 8. Eighthly, I answer, That to suffer affliction and persecution
for holiness sake, is the greatest and highest honour that you are cap-
able of in this world. The crown of a martyrdom is a crown that the
angels, those princes of glory, are not capable of winning or wearing ;
and oh, who art thou ! what art thou, man ! that God should set this
crown upon thy head ! 1 Pet. iv. 14, ' If ye be reproached for the name
of Christ, happy are ye ; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon
you ; on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.'^
The very suffering condition of the people of God is at the present a glori-
ous condition, for * the Spirit of glory rests upon them,' and they must
needs be glorious, yea, very glorious, upon whom the Spirit of glory
dwells. The sufferings of ' the three children,' Dan. iii., tended very
much to their honour and advancement, even in this world ; and had
those vessels of honour slipped their opportunity of suffering, they had
lost their glory.3 The apostles all along counted their sufferings for
Christ their highest honour. And that is a remarkable scripture that
you have in that Heb. xi. 36-38, ' And others had trial of cruel mock-
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were
slain with the sword ; they wandered about in sheep-skins and goat-
skins, being destitute, afflicted, and tormented.' Oh ! but these were
surely the most sad, miserable, wretched, and forlorn creatures in all
the world. Oh no ! and that is most evident if the testimony and
judgment of the Holy Ghost may be received ; for, ver. 38, ' They were
such of whom the world was not worthy.' The persecuting world was
not worthy of their love, nor worthy of their prayers, nor worthy of
their presence, nor worthy of their fellowship ; and therefore God
called them home, and set them down upon thrones by himself. And
to me it is very observable, that when that great apostle Paul would
glory in that which he accounted his honour, glory, and excellency, he
does not glory in his high office, nor in his being rapt up in the third
heaven, nor in the interest that he had in the hearts of the saints, nor
in his arts or parts, &c. ; but he glories in his sufferings, in that 2 Cor.
xi. 23-27, 'In stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in
deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered
shipwreck : a night and a day have I been in the deep. In journey-
ing often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren. In

^ Spelled ' redowne. ' — G.

* To die for Christ is the greatest promotion that God can bring any in this vale of
misery unto, said Mr Philpot the martyr.

^ In the primitive times, when some good people came to comfort some of the martyrg
that were in prison, and ready to suffer, they called them blessed martyrs ; Oh no, said
they, we are not worthy of the name of martyrs. These boly, humble hearts thought
martyrdom too high an honour for them.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 293

weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in
fastings often, in cold and nakedness.' Thus you see that this blessed
apostle looks upon his sufferings as his greatest glory. To suffer for
Christ is the greatest honour and promotion that God gives in this
world, said old Father Latimer. John Noyes took up a faggot at the
fire and kissed it, saying, ' Blessed be the time that ever I was born
to come to this preferment.' When they had fastened Alice Driver with
a chain to the stake to be burned, ' Never,' said she, ' did neckerchief
become me so weU as this chain.' Balilus i the martyr, when he was
to die, requested this favour of his persecutors — viz., that he might
have his chains buried with him, as the ensigns of his honour.
When Ignatius was to suffer, ' It is better for me,' saith he, 'to be a
martyr, than to be a monarch.' What are we poor worms, full of
vanities and lies, that we should be called to be maintainers of the
truth ? for sufferings for Christ are the ensigns of heavenly nobility,
said Calvin. It was a notable saying of a French martyr, when the
rope was about his fellow, ' Give me,' said he, ' that golden chain, and
dub me knight of that noble order.' ' I am the unmeetest man for this
high office of suffering for Christ that ever was appointed to it,' said
blessed Sanders. I shall conclude this head with that excellent say-
ing of Prudentius ; ' Their names,' saith he, ' that are written in red
letters of blood in the church's calendar, are written in golden letters
in Christ's register, the book of life.' And thus you see on all hands
that suffering for Christ is the highest honour that you are capable of
in this world : and, therefore, there is little reason why a Christian
should shrink or shrug at sufferings. But,

9. Ninthly, I answer, That the affiicticms, persecutions, and suffer-
ings that attend Christians in these days, are nothing to the fiery trials
that the saints and martyrs of old have met with: for sevenfold harder
measure has been measured forth to them than is this day measured
forth to us. Our sufferings are hardly to be named in the day wherein
those sore and heavy things are mentioned, that those precious and
famous worthies of old have suffered. I may say to most Christians,
as the apostle did to the Hebrews, Heb. xii. 4, ' Ye have not yet
resisted unto blood, striving against sin.' Many have, but you have
not ; you have only met with hard words, when others have met with
blows and wounds ; you have been only a-contending with men, when
others have been a-contending with beasts ; you have been only whipped
with rosemary branches, when others have been whipped with scor-
pions ; you have been only bound with silken bands, when others have
been bound with iron chains. Will you be so favourable to yourselves
as to compare your sufferings with the sufferings of former saints;
and that you may, let me give you a little breviate of their sufferings
' of whom the world was not worthy.' History tells us, that in the
ten primitive persecutions, they exercised all manner of cruelty and
torments that could be devised against the Christians: — 1. In the
reign of Hadrian the emperor, there were ten thousand Christians
crucified in the Mount Ararat, crowned with crowns of thorns, and
thrust into the sides with sharp darts. 2. Others were so whipped,
that their very inward arteries and veins appeared, and their entrails

1 BabUas.— G.

294 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and bowels were seen, and afterwards they were set upon sharp shells,
taken out of the sea edged and sharp, and certain nails and thorns
were sharpened and pointed, called Ohelisci} for them to go upon, and
after all this cruelty they were thrown to wild beasts to be devoured.
3. Multitudes were banished. 4. Others were drawn asunder with
wild horses. 5. Some were racked with bars of iron. 6. Others were
cast into loathsome dungeons. 7. Some were burnt in the fire. 8.
Others were knocked down and had their brains beat out with staves
and clubs. 9. Some were pricked in their faces and eyes with sharp
reeds. 10. Others were stoned to death with stones, as Stephen was.
11. Some were dashed in pieces against millstones. 12. Others had
their teeth dashed out of their jaws, and their joints broken. 13. Some
were cast down from very high places. 14. Others were beheaded.
15. Some were tormented with razors. 16. Others were slain with
the sword. 17. Some were run through with pikes. 18. Others were
driven into the wilderness, where they wandered up and down, suffer-
ing hunger and cold, and where they were exposed to the fury both of
wild beasts, and also to the rage of the barbarous Arabians. ] 9. Some
fled into caves, which by their persecutors were rammed up with stones,
and there they died. 20. Others were trodden to death by the people
21. Some were hanged on gibbets, with fire under their sides. 22. Others
were cast into the sea and drowned. 23. Some were slain in metal
mines. 24. Others were hanged by the feet, and choked with the
smoke of a small fire, their legs being first broken. 25. Some were
powdered with salt and vinegar, and then roasted with a soft fire.

26. Others were hung by one hand, that they might feel the weight
of their whole bodies, scorching and broiling over burning coals.

27. Some were shot through with arrows, and afterwards thrown into
stinking Jakes. 28. Others were stripped stark naked as ever they were
born, and turned out of doors in cold, frosty nights, and burnt the
next day. 29. In Syria, a company of Christian virgins were stripped
stark naked to be scorned by the multitude, then shaved, then covered
with swill and draff, and then torn in pieces and devoured by swine.
30. Lastly, many women had one joint of their bodies pulled from
another, and their flesh and sides scratched with talons of wild beasts
to the bones, and their breasts seared with torches till they died. And
thus you have an account of thirty several ways by which the precious
sons and daughters of Zion have formerly been afflicted, tormented,
and destroyed ; and what heart of stone can read over this bill of
particulars with dry eyes? 2 And now tell me, sirs, whether your
sufferings are worth a naming in that day, wherein the sufferings of
the precious servants of God in the primitive times are spoken of ?
Oh, no 1 Well then, take heed of making molehills mountains, and
of crying out. Is there any sorrow to our sorrow, or any sufferings to
our sufferings ?^ But,

10. Tenthly, I answer. That unholy persons have suffered as great
and grievous things for the satisfying of their lusts and humours, and

^ From the Greek d^eXlcrKos, = a small spit. — G.

' In making up his roll, Brooks seems to have had his eye on the quaint engrayings
of his favourite folio, Clarke, as before. — G.

^ And another cruelty that they practised in the primitive times was this, they would
make fathers to kindle Ihe faggots to burn their own children, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 295

for the compassing of some loorldly good, as you have suffered, or are
like to sujfer,for your pursuing after holiness^ Oh the hazards, the
dangers, the deaths that many have run through to gratify their lusts !
Petrus ]31esensis has long since observed, that the courtiers of his time
suffered as many vexations, with weariness and painfulness, with
hunger and thirst, and with all the catalogue of Paul's afflictions that
is reckoned up in that 2 Cor. xi., as good Christians did for the truth.
I have read of a Roman servant, who knowing his master was sought
for by officers to be put to death, he, to save his master's life, put him-
self into his master's clothes that he might be taken for him, and
accordingly he was taken and put to death for him, and all this out
of a humour of vainglory. The Romans' desire of the praises of men,
saith Augustine, made them bountiful of their purses, and prodigal of
their lives. Servetus, at Geneva, gave all his goods to the poor, and
his body to be burnt, and all for a name, for a little glory among men,
saith Calvin. 2 Ah what cutting, what lancing, what bleeding, what
vomiting, and what searching will many men endure upon the advice
of their physicians, and all for a little health, a little strength, or to
preserve a wretched life for a few days, yea, for a few hours sometimes 1
Oh the tortures and torments that many Romans and others have
undergone, sometimes out of love to their country, and sometimes to
maintain their credit and reputation among men, and sometimes out
of an affectation of future fame and renown, and to eternalize their
names ! and why then should Christians think so much of suffering
afflictions and persecutions for holiness' sake, the least drachm of which
being more worth than a thousand thousand of those ihings, for which
they have suffered such exquisite pains and torments ? Ah ! what great
things, what hard things do many men daily suffer to gratify their
own lusts, and to satisfy the lusts of others ! Ah ! how frequently do
many venture their lives, their estates, their names, their consciences,
yea, their very souls, to court a Delilah ! Oh the hell of horrors and
terrors, which are worse than a thousand deaths, that many a sinner
daily wades through to enjoy his sin ! and why then shouldst thou be
startled in thy pursuit after holiness, because of afflictions and perse-
cutions that may attend thee ? when they are nothing to what many
suffer from within and without, to enjoy that which will undo them to
all eternity, &c. But,

11, Eleventhly, I answer. Though persecutions may attend the pur-
suit of holiness, yet God has a thousand thousand ways to preserve his
people from being ruined and destroyed by persecuting hands. Several
afflictions and persecutions befell Paul at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra,
' but out of them all the Lord delivered him.'^ As a righteous cause
led him into sufferings, so a righteous Grod led him out of sufferings.
Both Jews and Gentiles, barbarians and Grecians, princes and people,
were as madly set upon persecuting of him, as he was once madly set
upon persecuting of the saints, but God delivered him from every hand
of violence. Divine power and wisdom wrought gloriously for him ;
both in six troubles and in seven it brought him clearly off, and bravely

^ Witness Jehu, Ahab, Jezebel, Balaam, Judas, &c.

' This was in anno 1555, &c.

' 2 Tim. ill. 11, compared with that liii. and xiv. of the Acts.

296 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

out, not of some, but out of all his dangers and distresses, afflictions
and persecutions, &c. Now,

[1.] First, God sometimes preserves his people from being ruined
and destroyed, by laying a law of restraint upon the spirits of their
persecutors, as he did upon Laban's and Esau's, that they could not
hurt him ; yea, instead of kicking and killing, behold kissing and
embracing. 1 God tied up those cursed dogs, and laid such a restraint
upon their wrath, rage, and malice, that they could not so much as
touch a hair of Jacob's head. God stopped their mouths and bound
their hands, that they were not able to act anything to the prejudice
of Jacob. That God that laid a restraint upon the fierce wild creatures
in Noah's ark, that they might not prey upon the tamer, and that
chained up the lions from preying upon Daniel, that God chained up
these two lions, that they could not make a prey of innocent Jacob.
But,

[2.] Secondly, God does this sometimes by setting persecutors one
against another. When the Moabites were confederated with the
Ammonites and those of mount Seir against Judah, God made them
turn their swords into one another's bowels, and so they mutually be-
came their own executioners, and by this means poor Judah escaped. 2
God sometimes saves his lambs by setting the wolf and the dog to-
gether by the ears. When that wolf Saul was even ready to devour
David the lamb, God lets loose those dogs the Philistines upon Saul,
and so by this means David was preserved and secured, 1 Sam. xxiii.
27. And so Paul, by setting the persecuting Pharisees against the
persecuting scribes, he escaped persecution. Acts xxiii. 6-8. And so
the Lord, by stirring up the Persians against the Babylonians, he
brought about the deliverance of the Jews out of their captivity ; and
afterwards by stirring up the Grecians against the Persians, and the
Komans against the Grecians, and the Goths and Vandals and other
barbarous nations against the Romans, he brought about the deliver-
ance of his people. In all ages God, by engaging one furious lion
against another, has preserved his sheep in quiet. When the emperor
of Germany threatened utter ruin to all the Protestants within his
empire, God let loose the Turk to fall with great fury upon his empire,
and by that means diverted the emperor's rage, and preserved his poor
people, which were as sheep appointed to the slaughter. Ah England,
England ! if God had not set thine enemies together by the ears, year
after year, how had they combined and conspired together to have
swallowed thee up long before this day ! But,

[3.] Thirdly, God does sometimes save his people from persecutions
by passing a sentence of death upon their persecutors : and thus by
his sudden and fearful judgment upon Herod he gave rest, liberty, and
quiet to his people, Acts xii. 23, 24. And so by his vengeance on
persecuting emperors he gave rest to his people. When Julian the
apostate had vowed to make an oblation of all the lives of the- surviv-
ing Christians, as Gregory Nazianzen reports,^ God struck him with
an arrow from heaven, so that he died reviling of Christ, and casting
up his blood to heaven as if he would have cast it into the very face of

^ Gen. xli. 32, xi. 33, iv., and xxxi. 29,'compared.

' 2 Chron. xx. 22-24; Judges i. 22, and ix. 55-57, compared. ^ (jrat. iv,, in Jul.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 297

Christ. And when Eugenius the t}Tant endeavoured to destroy the
armies of the Christians under the emperor Theodosius, God gave the
very winds a command to wrest the weapons out of their enemies'
hands, and so preserved his people. And in '88, how did God make
the very winds to fight for his people, and so saved them from that
bloody invasion, by causing his winds to blow, and their enemies to
sink as lead in the mighty waters ! i And by giving Ahithophel rope
enough, he preserved David from perishing. But,

[4.] Fourthly, God does this sometimes by altering and changing
the very hearts and natures of their persecutors. And thus by chang-
ing Paul's nature, by turning that wolf into a lamb, that devil into a
saint, he gave the churches rest throughout all Judea, Galilee, and
Samaria, Acts ix. 31 ; and this is one of the most desirable things in
the world, that God would save his people from outward ruin by ruin-
ing their persecutors' sins, and by changing their hearts and saving
their souls. This way God has taken, and this way God may take,
being a free agent to work when and where and how and on whom he
pleases, but I cannot turn to a promise wherein he has engaged himself
to make converts of persecutors. His common way of dealing with
such is to give them up to blindness of mind, and hardness of heart,
and searedness of conscience, and perverseness of spuit, that so their
hell may be the hotter at last. But,

[5.] Fifthly, God does this sometimes by taking persecutors' feet in
the same snares that they have laid for others: Ps. ix. 16, 'The
wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah ; '
Ps. Ivii. G. Higgaion selah signifies matter of great admiration, and of
deep meditation ; that the wicked should be snared in the work of his
own hands is matter of perpetual admiration, and of most serious medi-
tation. Who will not admire that Goliath should be slain with his own
sword, and that proud Haman should hold Mordecai's stirrup, and be
the herald of his honour : Ps. vii. 15, 16, ' He made a pit and digged it,
and is fallen into the ditch which he hath made. His mischief shall
return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down
upon his own pate.' 2 The wicked shall be undone by their own do-
ings ; all the arrows that they shoot at the righteous shall fall upon
their own pates. Maxentius built a false bridge to drown Constantino,
but was drowned himself. Henry the Third of France was stabbed
in the very same chamber where he had helped to contrive the cruel
massacre of the French Protestants. 3 And his brother Charles the
Ninth, who delighted in the blood of the saints, had blood given him
to di'ink, for he was worthy. Soon after Thomas Arundel, Archbishop
of Canterbury, had condemned Sir John Oldcastle,^ a godly knight, it
pleased the Lord to strike the archbishop so in his tongue that he
could neither swallow down any food nor speak a word before his death,
and so he was starved to death. The Duke of Somerset, in King
Edward the Sixth's days, by consenting to his brother's death, made
way for his own, by the same axe and hand that beheaded his brother.

^ 1588, ' The Armada.'— G.

' Histories would furnish us with many hundred instances of this nature.

^ Murdered by Jacques Clement, August 1, 1589. — G.

* Afterwards he was made Lord Cobham.

298 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

It is usual with God to take persecutors in the snares and pits that
they have laid for liis people, as many thousands in this nation have
experienced; and though Rome and her confederates are this day
a-laying of snares and traps, and a-digging of pits for the righteous,
who will rather burn than bow to their Baal, yet do but wait and
weep, and weep and wait a little, and you shall see that the Lord will
take them in the very snares and pits that they have laid and digged
for his people. But,

[6.] Sixthly and lastly, God sometimes preserves his people from
persecuting hands, by providing cities of refuge to shelter them, and
by providing hiding-places to hide them in : Mat. x. 23, ' If they per-
secute you in one city, flee to another.' God has always found one
city of refuge or another to shelter his persecuted people in. And so
when bloody persecuting Jezebel had cut off many of the Lord's pro-
phets, God provided an Obadiah to hide a hundred of them by fifty
in a cave, 1 Kings xviii. 4, 13. . God never wants a chamber of pre-
sence, a chamber of providence, a chamber of protection, a chamber of
salvation to hide his people in, Isa. xxvi. 20. i I have read of one that,
in the time of the massacre at Paris, crept into a hole to hide himseK,
and as soon as he was in there came a spider and weaved a web before
the hole ; the next morning the murderers came to search for him.
Search in that hole, said one, and see if he be not there ! no, said
another, he can't be there, for there is a cobweb at the hole's mouth ;
upon which they did not suspect his being there, by which means he
was preserved from the rage and fury of those men of blood. 2 Con-
stantius the emperor promised a reward to those captains or soldiers
that should bring Athanasius' head to him, but God hid him in a pit,
and fed him there a long time by the hand of a friend ; but being at
last discovered by a maid-servant, the very night before his adversaries
searched for him, the providence of God opened a way for his escape,
and sent him into the west, by which means he was preserved from
the rage and fury of his adversaries. I think no men under heaven
have had larger experience of this truth than Englishmen. Ah, what
cities of refuge, what hiding-places has God provided for them to
hide them from the wrath and rage of their persecutors for many
years ! And thus I have given you a brief account of some of those
ways which God takes to deliver his people out of persecuting hands.
But,

12. Twelfthly and lastly, I answer, That all the persecutions that you
meet with on earth shall advance your glory in heaven.^ The more
saints are persecuted on earth, the greater shall be their reward in
heaven ; as persecutions do increase a Christian's grace, so they do
advance a Christian's glory : Mat. v. 10-12, ' Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theirs is the kingdom of

^ The learned judge that there were several others in Israel that kept other prophets
of the Lord from Jezehel's fury besides those that Obadiah hid. Three years before
Titus Vespasian besieged Jerusalem, there was a voice frequently heard, ' Go up to Pella,
go up to Pella,' which very many of the Jews did, and were saved. — [Josephus, as before
«. «.— G.I

* See Sibbes, vol. iv. 487, 488, note, for curious legends of the 'spider and cobweb.' — G.

'* Quisquia volens detrahU/amce mece nolens addit mercedi mece, saith Augustine.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 299

heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Eejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for great is your reward in heaven :
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.' Luke vi.
22, 23, ' Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, and when they shall
separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out
your name as evil, for the Son of man s sake. Kejoice ye in that day,
and leap for joy ; for, behold, your reward is in heaven, for in the like
manner did their fathers unto the prophets.' ^ They that are now
opposed and persecuted by men, shall at last be owned and crowned
by God ; yea, and the more afHictions and persecutions are multiplied
upon them in this Avorld, the greater shall be their recompense in
another world. The original words, ar/aXkLaade in Matthew, and
a-KipTijaare in Luke, signifies exceeding great joy, such as men usually
express by skipping and dancing ; let your hearts leap, and let your
bodies leap for joy, for great is your reward in heaven. Look, as
wanton young cattle in the spring, when everji^hing is in its prime and
pride, do use to leap and skip for joy ; so says Christ, do you leap and
skip under all the afflictions and persecutions that befalls you for
righteousness' sake, for great is your reward in heaven. Bernard,
speaking of persecutors, saith, that they are but his Father's gold-
smiths, who are working to add pearls to the saints' crowns. It is to
my loss, said Gordius the martyr, if you abate me anything of my
present sufferings ; sufferings for Christ are the saints' greatest glory ;
they are those things wherein they have divinely glorified.^ Crudelitas
vestra gloria nostra : Your cruelty is our glory, say they in Tertullian ;
and the harder we are put to it, the greater shall be our reward in
heaven. Chrysostom liit the nail when he said, If one man should
suffer all the sorrows of all the saints in the world, yet they are not
worth one hour's glory in heaven. By the consent of the schoolmen,
all the martyrs shall appear in the church triumphant, bearing the
signs of their Christian wounds about them, as so many speaking
testimonies of their godly courage, that what here they endured in the
behalf of their Saviour, may be there an addition to their glory.
Christians, all your sufferings will certainly increase your future glory ;
every affliction, every persecution will be a grain put into the scale of
your heavenly glory, to make it more weighty in that day, wherein he
will richly reward you for every tear, for every sigh, for every groan,
for every hazard, and for every hardship that you have met with in
the pursuit of holiness, &c. For light afflictions you shall have a
weight of glory ; and for a few afflictions you shall have as many joys,
pleasures, delights, and contents as there be stars in heaven or sands
on the sea-shore ; and for momentary afflictions you shall have an
eternal crown of glory, 2 Cor. iv. 16-18. If you have suffering for
suffering with Christ on earth, you shall have glory for glory with
Christ in heaven. Ah Christians, your present sufferings are but the
seeds of your future glory, and the more plentifully you sow in tears,
the more abundant wiU be your harvest of glory. Cyrus, in a great

^ Excommunicate and anathematise 3'ou as notorious, shameful, and abominable
offenders. ' That is, ' gloried.' — G.

300 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

expedition against his enemies, the better to encourage his soldiers to
fight, in an oration that he made at the head of his army, promised,
upon the victory, to make every foot-soldier a horseman, and every
horseman a commander, and that every officer that did valiantly
should be highly rewarded ; but Christ our General promises more,
for he promises a crown, Kev. ii. 10, and a throne, iii. 21, to all his
afflicted and persecuted ones, which are the greatest rewards that a
God can give or that man can crave. It troubled one of the martyrs
when he was at the stake, that he was going to a place where he should
be for ever a-receiving of wages for a little work. Aristippus being
demanded in a storm why he was not as fearful as others were,
answered that there was great reason for it ; for, saith he, they fear the
torments due to a bad life, but I expect the reward due to a good life.
Ah Christians ! shall not the hopes of that great reward that attends
suffering saints bear you up bravely, and carry you out sweetly under
all the storms that may beat upon you whilst you are sailing heaven-
wards and holiness-wards ? Surely yes. I have read that Lycurgus could
draw the Lacedemonians to anything by temporal rewards ; and oh then
how much more should I draw all your hearts to a readiness and willing-
ness to do anything, to be anything, and to suffer anything for Christ's
sake, and holiness' sake, upon the account of that great reward, that
sure reward, and that eternal reward, that attends suffering saints !
And let thus much suffice for answer to this fourth objection. I hope
none of you will think that I have been too long in answering this
objection, considering the present times. But,

Object 5. Fifthly, Others may object and say, We would labour
after this holiness, without luhich there is no happiness, dtc. But if
we should, then we must resolve to be poor, and mean, and beggarly in
the tvorld, we must resolve then to fare hard, and lie hard, and labour
hard, and live low in the ivorld, for we shall never raise an estate to
ourselves by holiness and strictness, we shall never grow rich and
great in the world by godliness ; nay, by driving this trade of holi-
ness, we shall lose our trades, our customers, and those estates we have,
and quickly bring a noble to ninepence, &c. Now to fence and arm
you against this objection, give me leave to propose these six follow-
ing considerations :

[1.] First, - Consider that it is not absolutely necessary that you
should be rich, or high, or great in this world ; but it is absolutely
necessary that you should be holy. The want of riches can only
trouble you, but the want of holiness will certainly damn you. You
may be happy in another world, though you are not high in this
world. Many a man has gone to heaven without a penny in his
purse, or good clothes on his back ; and doubtless it is infinitely better
with ragged, naked Lazarus to go to heaven, than it is with Dives to
go rich and bravely clad to hell, Luke xvi. 19-31. It is better to go
to heaven poor, and halt, and maimed, than to go to hell sound and
rich. Poverty and outward misery with salvation, is far better than
worldly prosperity and felicity with everlasting perdition. Holiness,
and not riches, is the one thing necessary. If thou hast holiness,
nothing can make thee miserable ; but if thou wantest holiness, no-
thing can make thee happy. Outward blessings are no infallible

HeB XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 301

evidences of a blessed estate. Was Abraham rich ? so was Abimelech
too. Was Jacob rich ? so was Laban too. Was David a king ? so
was Saul too. Was Constantino an emperor? so was Julian too.
It is only holiness that sets the crown of happiness upon a Christian's
head. But,

[2.] Secondly, Consider that it is not sanctity, but impiety, it is not

holiness, but wickedness, that exposes men to the greatest poverty and

misery : Prov. vi. 26, ' For by the means of a whorish woman a man

is brought to a piece of bread.' Whoredom is a very costly sin, Prov.

xxiv. 33, 34, and xxviii. 19, 22 ; the prodigal had quickly spent his

portion among his harlots, Luke xv. Whoredom cannot be a greater

paradise to the flesh, than it is a purgatory to the purse, and many

great ones have found it so. Herod, that old fornicator, was so

inflamed and bewitched with the immodest wanton dancing of his

damosel, that he swore he would give her to the half of his kingdom,

Mark vi. 23, 24. And it is very observable, that whilst Solomon, in

his younger days, kept holy, chaste, and pure, silver and gold was as

plenteous at Jerusalem and at court as the stones of the street ; but

when Solomon had given himself up to his concubines, they quickly

exhausted his treasuries, and brought him to so low an ebb, that he

was forced to oppress his subjects with such heavy taxes, burdens,

and tributes, which occasioned the revolt of the ten tribes. i Josephus,

in his Antiquities, tells us of one Decius Mundus, that offered to give

so many hundred thousand drachms, that came to six thousand pounds

English money, to satisfy his lusts one night with a whore, and yet

could not obtain his desire. There is no sin that has brought more

men, and greater men, to beggary and misery than this has. It is a

great misery to be brought to a piece of bread, to a scrap, a little bit

of bread; but to be brought into so low a condition by harlots,

doubles the misery ; for he that is by a whorish woman brought to a

piece of bread on earth, shall be brought to a drop of water in hell,

except there be found repentance on his side, and pardoning mercy

on God's. Take another instance in that Prov. xxiii. 20, 21, 'Be not

among wine-bibbers ; amongst riotous eaters of flesh : for the drunkard

and the glutton shall come to poverty : and drowsiness shall clothe a

man with rags.' 2 Many dukes, earls, lords, and gentlemen of great

estates, have sadly experienced the truth of this scripture. Society

and luxurious company hath brought many a man to extreme poverty.

The full cup makes an empty purse, and the fat dish makes a lean

bag ; he that fills thee wine with one hand, and sets before thee

dainty dishes with the other hand, will be sure to pick thy pockets

with both hands ; and this Caligula, the Koman emperor, found by

experience; for his gluttony brought him to incredible poverty.

Diogenes, hearing that the house of a certain prodigal was offered to

sale, said, I knew that house was so accustomed to surfeiting and

drunkenness, that ere long it would spew out the master. Excessive

drinking is now so great in England, that the Germans may fear

1 1 Kings X. 27, 28 ; 2 Chron. i. 15-17; 1 Kings xii. 1-20.

* The glutton and the drunkard were to be stoned to death, Deut. xxi. 20, 21. Basil
calls drunkenness a self-chosen devil. When jEschines commended Philip king of
Macedon for a jovial man that would drink freely, Demosthenes, being by, told him
that was a good quality in a sponge, but not in a prince.

302 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HEB. XII. 14.

the loss of their charter. There was a street in Kome called viciis
sobrius, the sober street, because there was never an ale-house in it ;
but this, I think, is hard to ,say of any street in London, yea, of any
street in England. It is an observation amongst the mariners, that
as the sea grows daily shallower and shallower on the shores of Holland
and Zealand, so the channel of late waxeth deeper and deeper on the
coasts of Kent and Essex. Ah, sirs ! what is more evident than this,
that as drunkenness ebbs in Holland, so it flows in England ! Oh,
what a deal of ground has this sin got within this few months upon
English hearts ! There was a time when drunkards were as rare in
England as wolves, but now they are as common as swine. Ah,
what staggering, reeling, and shameful spewing is to be found, both
among the great ones, the priests, and people of this nation ! The
prophet Hosea complained in his time, that the princes, upon their
king's day, made him sick with bottles of wine, Hosea vii. 5. This
day of their king was either his birthday, and so Pagninus rendereth
it here, Die natalis ejus; or his coronation day, and so the Chaldee
Paraphrast carrieth it ; or the day wherein their king Jeroboam set
up his golden calves at Dan and Bethel, as some others conceive.
Now in this day of their king there was such carnal triumphing, and
such pampering of the flesh, and such roaring, carousing, and drink-
ing of bottles of wine, that the princes drank themselves sick, drown-
ing their bodies and souls in bottles and butts of wine. Memorable
is the king's late proclamation against all such debauched persons,
who, pretending to drink his health, destroy their own by a shameful
abusing of the precious creatures of God.i But if the prophet Hosea
were now alive in this nation, ah, what cause would he have to com-
plain that both high and low, men and women, young and old have
given themselves to this beastly sin, that unmans a man, and that
besots the soul, and that destroys the body, and that proves a canker-
worm to men's estates ! What are most ale-houses but hell-houses,
but the devil's houses, in which the name of God is notoriously blas-
phemed, religion scorned, the saints derided, the Sabbaths profaned,
young ones impoisoned, and old ones hardened, and many thousand
families impoverished ? And why, then, should it be almost as easy
a task to conquer the West Indies, to overcome the Turk, and to
bring down the Pope, as it is to bring down such wretched ale-houses,
as are the very nurseries of aU sin, and the synagogues of incarnate
devils, and the very sinks of all misery, poverty, and beggary. By
these instances it is most clear that it is not holiness, but wickedness
that exposes men to the greatest poverty and misery. But,

[3.] Thirdly, Consider that God can make a little with holiness go
a great way} A little with holiness shall serve the turn, and then
enough is as good as a feast. God can make a handful of meal in the
barrel, and a little oil in the cruse, hold out a long while, 1 Kings xvii.
10-17. So Deut. viii. 4, ' Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee,

^ Richard the Third drowned his brother in a butt of sack. If one may credit rela-
tions, many have drunk themselves dead within this few months.— [1661, 1662. — G.]

* Mr Foxe in his Acts and Mon., p. 1874, edit. wZ<., speaks of a poor woman, who being
threatened that she should have but a little bread one day, and a little water on the next,
replied, If you take away my meat, I hope God will take away my hunger, and then it
will be all one as if I had meat.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 303

neither did thy foot swell these forty years.' Chap. xxix. 5, ' And I
have led you forty years in the wilderness : your clothes are not waxen
old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.' Their
raiment in forty years time was not the worse for wearing, their gar-
ments were not worn out with wearing, in all that time they were not
gro'wn old and so unfit to wear. Oh no ; but they were as fresh and
strong, and fit for use at the last, as they were when they first came
into the wilderness, and this was by a divine power that preserved them
from decay. God supplied all the backs and bellies of the Israelites
in such state, as if every Israelite had been a prince. When God
brings his people into a wilderness condition, he will make their
mercies last and hold out as long as their wilderness condition con-
tinues. Some of the learned are of opinion, that the garments and
shoes of children and young men grew up with their persons ; so that
as their stature increased, so their apparel and shoes waxed larger and
longer. But I suppose that it is not safe for us to imagine or multiply
miracles without necessity "and clear warrant from Scripture ; and,
therefore, I shall rather fall in with those worthy men who thus judge
— viz., that when any began to outgrow their apparel and shoes,
they laid them aside, and took others that were fit for their present
stature, and that those which they laid aside were as sound and fresh,
and fit for service, as when they first began to use them, and so those
they put off were fit for others to put on that were of a less stature ;
and thus God lengthened out their mercies in their wilderness condi-
tion. So in that Prov. xv. 16, 17, ' Better is a little with the fear of
the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a
dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred there-
with.' 1 Chap. xvi. 8, * Better is a little with righteousness, than great
revenues without right.' Chap. xvii. 1, 'Better is a dry morsel and
quietness therewith, than a house full of sacrifices with strife.' Ps.
xxxvii. 16, ' A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the
riches of many wicked.' Where there is a holy God, and a holy heart,
a little of the world will go far. A little will be a sufficiency to him,
who with it enjoys that Holy One that is all-sufficiency itself, Phil. iv.
11-20. Though a whole world will never fill nor satisfy an unsanc-
tified heart ; yet a little, a very little of the world will satisfy and con-
tent a holy heart. There are two things that an unholy heart can
never find, it can never find any sweetness in spirituals, nor it can
never find any satisfaction in temporals ; but a holy heart always finds
the greatest sweetness in spirituals, and is as easily satisfied with the
least and meanest of temporals, Esth. v. 9-14. Gen. xxviii. 20, 21,
' And Jacob vowed a vow, saying. If God will be with me, and will
keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and
raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace,
then shall the Lord be my God.' Holy Jacob does not indent with
God for costly apparel, or delicate fare ; he does not make a bargain
with God to be housed bravely, and fed daintily, and clothed gorge-
ously, and lodged easily, and waited on nobly.^ Oh no ; bread to eat

^ Sheep can live upon bare commons, where fat oxen would be quickly starved, &c.
* Bread and water with the gospel is good cheer, said holy Greenham. He is rich
enough that lacketh not bread, and high enough that is not forced to serve. — Jerome.

304 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XIL 14,

and clothes to wear is as much as holy Jacob looks after. Ah friends,
a little will serve nature, and less will serve grace, though nothing will
serve or satisfy an unsanctified man's lusts. sirs, the very pulse and
locusts which a holy man eats, relishes better than all the glutton's
delicious fare ; and the very sheep-skins and goat-skins which he
wears, wear softer and finer than all the purple and soft raiment that
is in princes' houses ; and the very holes, and caves, and dens wherein
holy men live, are more pleasant and delightful than the stately
palaces of the great ones of the world, i Godliness and contentment
does so sweeten and so lengthen out all a Christian's mercies, that he
cannot but reckon himself a happy man, though he may be the poorest
among many men. Let me conclude this third answer thus —

This world's wealth that men so much desire,
May well be likened to a burning fire ;
Whereof a little can do little harm,
But profit much our bodies well to warm :
But take too much, and surely thou shalt burn;
So too much wealth to too much woe does turn.

But,

[4.] Fourthly, Consider that worldly riches and holiness do ojien
meet together. A man may be a very holy man, and yet a rich man
too. Abraham and Lot were as wealthy men as most in their time,
and yet behind none for faith and holiness. Gen. xiii. ; David, and
Solomon, and Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah had crowns on their heads and
sceptres in their hands, and very great revenues at their commands, and
in all these grace and greatness sweetly meet.^ Job was a very holy
man, and yet a very rich man. Job i. 3, 8. If you cast your eye upon
the first of Job, and survey his estate, you shall find that he had seven
thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five
hundred she- asses, and a very great family ; but if you will look into
the last of Job, and survey his estate, there you shall find it doubled.
Joseph, Nehemiah, Mordecai, Daniel, and the three children, were very
gracious, and yet very high and great in the world. As every wicked
man is not a rich man, so every holy man is not a poor man. If you
wiU but set the gracious against the graceless, the holy against the
profane, I doubt not but for one holy man whose estate is low and
mean, you will find thousands of wicked men whose conditions are
beggarly and low in this world. God many times delights to confute
the devil's proverb — viz., that plain dealing is a jewel, but he that
useth it shall die a beggar. Now God by heaping up riches and hon-
our and greatness upon the righteous, gives the devil the lie, and lets
the world see that holiness many times is the ready way to worldly
greatness.

It is observable, that when all the sons of Jacob returned with corn
and money in their sacks from Egypt, Benjamin had not only corn
and money in his sack, but he had over and above the silver cup put
into the mouth of his sack, as a singular pledge of his brother Joseph's
favour. Gen. xliv. ; so God many times gives to his Benjamins, the
sons of his right hand, not only as much of the world as he does to

^ It is great riches not to desire riches, and he hath most that covets least. — Socratea.
' Isa. xli. 2. Abraham is called the righteous man.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 305

others, but more of the world than he does to others ; he does not only
give them corn and money in common with others, but he also gives
them the silver cup, the grace cup ; he puts in some singular temporal
blessings into their sacks more than into other men's ; for he is the great
Lord of all, and therefore may dispose of his own as he pleases. But,
[5.] Fifthly, Consider that most men are best in a low condition.
David was never better than when he was in a wilderness condition,
for degrees of grace, and for the exercise of grace, and for communion
with the God of grace. It was best with David when his condition
was low in the world, Ps. Ixiii. 1-4. It was never better with Jacob
than when he passed over Jordan with a staff in his hand, Gen. xxxii.
10. Job's graces never shined so gloriously as when he sat upon a
dunghill, and could bless a taking God as well as a giving God, Job i.
Though John was poor in the world, yet the Holy Ghost tells us that
he was the greatest that was born of women. Mat. xi. 11. Paul was
but a poor tent-maker, and yet his conversation was in heaven, Phil,
iii. 20. The church of Smyrna was the poorest church, but yet the
best of all the seven churches in Asia, Kev. ii. 8, 9. Christ knew very
well that his disciples would be best in a low condition, and therefore
he fed them but from hand to mouth. He that could have turned
stones into bread, could as easily have turned stones into gold, and so
have made his disciples rich and great in the world, but he would not.
Christ could easily have changed their rags into robes, and their
cottages into stately palaces, and their barley loaves into costly ban-
quets, but he knew that their hearts would be best when their condition
was lowest ; and therefore he makes them live upon short commons.!
As there was none so holy as Christ, so there was none so poor as
Christ, Mat. viii. 20, 21. Christ lived poor and died poor, for as he
was born in another man's house, so he was buried in another man's
tomb. Austin has long since observed, that when Christ died he
made no will ; he had no crown lands ; all he had was a coat, and
that the soldiers parted amongst them. Had there been any true
happiness or blessedness in gold and silver, gay clothes, stately man-
sions, brave attendants, or in well-furnished tables, &c.,2 Christ, who
was, and still is, the Lord of all, would certainly have been so favour-
able to himself, and so kind to his disciples, as not to have deprived
himself or his family of that happiness and blessedness which they
might have enjoyed, by enjoying the brave things of this world ; but
he very well knew that true happiness and blessedness was too great
and too glorious a thing to be found in any such worldly enjoyments,
and upon that foot was willing to be without them himself ; and in
his wise providence he so ordered the affairs of his own house, that
those whom he loved best should have least of those things wherein
there was no true happiness. Lazarus was very poor, but very holy ;
he was houseless, but not Lordless ; his body was clothed with rags,
but his soul was adorned with grace ; he had no bread to eat, and yet
he had bread to eat that the world knew not of : whilst he lived, the
dogs, being more kind than then- master, licked his sores, but when he

^ Learned Ainsworth had but ninepence a week to live on whilst he wrote his excellent
Commentary on the Pentateuch.
' If there were any happiness in riches, the gods would not want them, said Seneca.
VOL. IV. U

306 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

died, the angels carried him into Abraham's bosom. In all ages this
has been an experienced truth, that most men are best in a low condi-
tion. Pope Martin reports of himself, that whilst he was a monk, and
lived in the cloister, he had some evidences for heaven, but when he
was a cardinal, then he began to fear and doubt whether ever he should
go to heaven ; but afterwards, when he came to be pope, he utterly
despaired of ever going thither. Ah, how holy, how humble, how
heavenly, how gracious, how serious, how zealous, how prudent, how
vigilant, and how diligent have many men been in these late years,
whilst their condition was low, and poor, and mean in the world ! but
when under various changes they changed their brass into silver, their
copper into gold, their cottages into palaces, their shops into lordships,
and their sheep-skins into scarlet, &c., ah, how proud, how stately, how
earthly, how carnal, how careless, how cold, how formal, how luke-
warm, how indifferent, how light, how slight, how vain, how loose, did
they generally grow ! I think since Christ was on earth there has
not been a more evident proof of men's being best when their con-
dition was lowest than what has been given within these late years.
Mandrobulus, in Lucian, offered to his god the first year gold, the
second year silver, and the third year nothing at all ; so many in our
times, who were forward in the days of their poverty and adversity to
offer gold and silver, I mean prayers and praises, to God, yet in the
days of their prosperity and worldly glory, they offered either nothing
to God, or else that which was next to nothing. I have read of the
pdne-tree, that if you pull off the bark it will last a long time ; but if
the bark continue on, it will rot the tree. Ah, how has the bark of
honour, the bark of riches, the bark of pleasure, the bark of success,
the bark of applause, and the bark of preferment, &c., rotted, and cor-
rupted, and worsened many glorious professors in these days! And oh
that, now their bark is taken off, they may with the pine-tree grow better
and better ! Oh that now they may grow more holy than ever, and
more humble than ever, and more heavenly than ever, and more
spiritual than ever, and more watchful than ever, and more faithful
than ever, and more friendly than ever, and more united than ever !
&c. Now if most men are best in a low condition, then there is no
reason why any man should turn his back upon holiness because of
poverty, that often treads upon holiness' heels. The cypress-tree is
high, but barren ; and the olive-tree is low, but fruitful. Ah, Christ-
ians, it is infinitely better to be an olive-tree, low and fruitful, to be
low in the world, and full of the fruits of righteousness and hoUness,
than to be a cypress-tree, high in honours, riches, and worldly great-
ness, &c., and to be barren of all grace and goodness. But,

[6.] Sixthly and lastly, Consider that spiritual riches, ivhich are the
test of riches, do commonly wait on the poorest saints. Usually there
are none so rich in spirituals, as those that are poorest in temporals ;
there are none that have so much to shew for another world as those
that have least to shew of this world : James ii. 5, ' Hearken, my be-
loved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in
faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that
love him ? ' i Though they have never a penny in their purses, nor
* Solus sapiens dives^ saith the philosopher.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 307

never a rag to hang on their backs, nor never a bit to put in their
bellies, yet they are rich heirs, and their heads are destinated to the
diadem. Usually the poorest saints are the richest Christians in com-
forts, in graces, in promises, in experiences, and in spiritual enjoy-
ments, &c., 2 Cor. viii. 1-5 ; Rom. v. 3. The holy soul drives the freest
and the greatest trade heavenwards ; the holy soul may sail to any
port that lies in God's dominions, and trade freely, — and what enriches
men like a free and a full trade ? There are infinite treasures laid up
in precious promises, and all these treasuries lie open to the holy soul.
A Christian may lade his soul as deep as he pleases with the precious
commodities of heaven. I have read of Tiberius the emperor, in the
year of our Lord 577, who, seeing a cross set in a marble stone lying in
the ground, commanded it to be digged up ; and when it was digged
up, he found a rich treasure under the cross. sirs, under the cross
of poverty there are treasures, spiritual treasures, lasting treasures, and
satisfying treasures to be found. Though holiness may be attended
with cross upon cross, loss upon loss, and misery upon misery, and
calamity upon calamity, and sorrow upon sorrow, and vexation upon
vexation, &c., yet under every cross and every loss, &c., a Christian
shall be sure to find such spiritual and heavenly treasure, that for
weight, worth, use, delight, and duration, all the treasures of the world
are not to be compared to it.

sirs, what is a cup of pleasant wine to a condemned man ? or a
ship's lading of gold to a drowning man ? or a sumptuous feast to a
sick man ? or royal robes to a diseased man ? &c. ; no more are all the
riches or treasures of this world to those spiritual riches and heavenly
treasures that attends the poorest saints. Austin hath long since told us
that divitice corporales paupertatis plence sunt : Earthly riches are full
of poverty. They cannot enrich the soul, for oftentimes where the
purse is full of gold, the heart is empty of grace, and under many
silken coats there are threadbare souls to be found. Now what are
all the riches of this world to those riches of consolation, and riches of
sanctification, and riches of justification, and riches of salvation, and
riches of glorification, that attends the poorest saints ? Suppose that
poverty should break in upon you like an armed man whilst you are
in the pursuit of holiness, yet if the best of riches, if spiritual riches,
shall attend your poverty, as certainly they shall, what cause have you
to be discouraged? Surely none. And let thus much suffice for
answer to this fifth objection.

Object. 6. But sixthly. Some may further object, and say, SJiould
ive pursue after holiness, it would he a disgrace, a disparagement, and
dishonour to us ivho are high, and great, and rich, and honourable in
the earth. We are gentlemen, ive are well-bred and high-born, and
holiness seems to be too poor and too low a thing for such as we are to
look after, &c.

Now to fence and arm you against this objection, give me leave to
propose to your most serious thoughts these following considera-
tions, &c.:

[1.] First, That holiness is man's greatest honour and excellency —
and this I have made evident at large in the third motive to holiness ;
yea, holiness is the crown, excellency, and glory of all a man's excel-

308 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

lencies and glories, as has been fully proved in the fifth motive to
holiness ; yea, and that which is yet more, holiness reflects honour, not
only upon a man's own person, but it reflects honour also upon a man's
near and dear relations, yea, upon the very country, city, or town where
he was born, as is made good at large in the sixth motive to holiness,
to which I refer you for more full and complete satisfaction to this
objection. 1 But,

[2.] Secondly, Ah, how is man fallen from his primitive glory, that
looks noiv upon holiness as his disgrace, as his discredit and dishonour,
which in innocency ivas the top and crown of all his glory and
felicity ! 2 Ah, how has sin blinded, bebeasted, and besotted the sons
of men, that they should look upon that to be their, reproach which is
their highest honour in this world, and to look upon that to be their
disgrace which alone puts a grace upon them, and to look upon that
to be their discredit which can only bring them into credit with God,
angels, and good men ! Augustine confesseth that it was just thus
sometimes with him, for he was stricken with such blindness, that he
thought it a shame unto him to be less vile and wicked than his com-
panions, whom he heard boast of their lewdness, and glory so much
the more, by how much they were the more filthy ; ^ therefore, saith
he, lest I should be of no account, I was the more vicious, and when I
could not otherwise match others, I would feign that I had done those
things which I never did, lest I should seem so much the more abject
by how much I was the more innocent, and so much the more vile by
how much I was the more chaste. Ah, what will not a soul blinded
by sin say and do, when the work of holiness is not formed in him !
Sin has certainly cast that sinner into a woeful lethargy, who is the
father of this objection. Now, it is observed of those that are fallen
into a lethargy, that their bodies are subject to a continual drowsiness,
and their memories are so weak that they cannot remember anything
that they speak or do ; nay, it does so far debase them that they forget
the very necessary actions of life : and just so has sin dealt with these
objectors' souls, it has cast them under such a spiritual drowsiness, yea,
it has cast them into such a deadly and fearful sleep, that it makes
them forget the unum necessarium, the one thing necessary — viz.,
holiness. Souls under a spiritual lethargy forget their lost and
lamentable condition, they forget how far ofi" they are from God, Christ,
heaven, and salvation, and they forget how near they are to hell, to
ruin, to everlasting burnings, and to utter perdition and destruction.
It is observable of the smith's dog, that neither the noise of hammers
by him, nor the sparks of fire flying about him, nor those that light
upon him, do any whit awaken him, but he snorts and sleeps on
securely in the midst of all ; so sin has cast the sinner into so deep a
sleep, that though the sparks of hell-fire in the threatenings fly about
him, and the hammers of God's judgments make a noise on all sides
of him, yet he is so stupefied and benumbed that nothing will awaken

^ In the other motives you will find holiness to be the honour of God, Christ, and
angels, &c.

* Mercury' could not kill Argus till he had cast him into a sleep, and with an en-
chanted rod closed his eyes ; bo the devil can never hurt the soul, nor kill the soul, till
he has cast the sinner into a deep sleep of carnal security.

' August. Confess., lib. ii. cap. 3.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 309

him to behold his spiritual and eternal hazard, but he sleeps on
securely, and so is like to do, if infinite grace and mercy does not pre-
vent, till he awakes with everlasting flames about his ears. When a
man is in a deep lethargy, if you pinch him with pincers, or prick
him with needles, he feels it not ; if you scourge him he cries not, if
you threaten him he fears not, or if you speak him fair he regards it
not, &c. Now this is the condition of such that are in a spiritual
lethargy ; let the judgments of God be denounced, and let the terrors
of the law be preached, they tremble not ; let the flames of hell-fire
flash upon their souls, they regard it not, for they are sermon-proof,
and judgment-proof, and hell-proof. Now this is thy very case,
sinner ! who criest out that the pursuit of holiness will turn to thy dis-
grace and discredit in the world ; for were thy eyes but open to see the
necessity, beauty, and excellency of holiness, oh, then thou wouldst
call for holiness, and cry for holiness, and search for holiness, and
press for holiness, as that which is the chiefest ornament, and the only
honour and glory of the creature. But,

[3.] Thirdly, I answer, Thxit it is not holiness, hut ivickedness, it is
not sancity, hut impiety, that is tJie reproach, the dishonour, the dis-
grace, and disparagement of man : Prov. xiv. 34, ' Kighteousness
exalts a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any people,' or as the Hebrew
has it, ' to nations.' ^ The world usually accounts either beggarliness
of estate, or badness of situation, or rudeness of behaviour, or changes
in government, or dulness of invention, or a disuse of arms, or some
suchlike imperfections, to be the reproach of nations ; but the Holy
Ghost tells us that it is sin, it is sin that is the reproach of nations,
that is the shame of nations, that is the contempt and scorn of nations,
and that blots and blurs all the excellencies and glories of nations.
Impious persons makes the nations infamous ; and the more impious
any nation, city, or person is, the more infamous that nation, city, or
person is : Prov. vi. 32, 33, ' But whoso committeth adultery with
a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his
own soul. A wound and dishonour shall he get ; and his reproach
shall not be wiped away.' 2 There is nothing that is such a blemish
and such a wound to a man's honour as sin. Sin leaves such a blot,
such a blur, and such a reproach upon a man's name, fame, and re-
putation, that no art, no pains shall ever be able to wipe it out. All
the water in the sea cannot wash away, nor all the rubbing in the
world cannot wipe away the disgrace, disdain, and contempt, that
enormities, that wickednesses lays a people under : Jer. xxiv. 9, * And
I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdopis of the earth
for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in
all places whither I shall drive them.' It was not for their holiness,
their godliness, but for their wickedness and ungodliness, that God
was resolved to make them a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a
curse in all places : Prov. x. 7, ' The memory of the just is blessed ;
but the name of the wicked shall rot.' The wickedness of the wicked
heaps so much disgrace, disparagement, and dishonour upon them,

1 D''QM7, nations or peoples.

5 What an indelible blot was this still upon David — viz., that his heart was upright
in all things save in the matter of Uriah.

310 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

that it makes their very names to rot and stink above-ground ; their
carcases do not more rot and stink under-ground, than their very names
do rot and stink above-ground. The wickedness of the wicked will
make their very names such a detestation and such an abhorring, that
they shall either not be remembered at all, or if they be, they shall
be only remembered as a rotten, stinking, putrified thing. As the
curse of God follows the soul of a wicked man to hell, so the curse of
God follows the name of a wicked man on earth, so that it becomes
most noisome and loathsome among the sons of men. Sin does so
debase and bebeast the great ones of the world, that the prophets, as
Grotius hath rightly observed, use to set forth wicked kings by the
names of beasts — as the goat, the ram, the leopard, the bear — to note
the beastliness of their conditions, and because they commonly maintain
and exercise their government by brutish violence and tyranny, Dan.
vii. 3-7 ; Prov. xxviii. 15, 16. And Christ himself, who never spoke
treason nor sedition, terms king Herod a fox in that Luke xiii. 32,
* And he said unto them. Go ye and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out
devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I shall
be perfected.' Herod was as crafty and as subtle as a fox, he was as
cruel and as fradulent as a fox, and therefore he is very fitly termed
by Christ a fox. And so Paul describes Nero by the name of a lion :
2 Tim. iv. 17, ' And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion ' —
that is, out of the mouth of Nero, who for his power and cruelty was
like a lion, for he was a most cruel and desperate persecutor of the
Christians, and made a bloody decree, that ' whosoever confessed him-
self a Christian, should without any more ado be put to death as a
convicted enemy of mankind.' Now, by what has been said, you see
that it is not holiness but wickedness that is the greatest disgrace,
dishonour, and disparagement imaginable to the sons of men ; and
therefore there is no reason why the great ones of the world should
disdain to pursue after holiness upon the account of this objection.
But,

[4.] Fourthly, I answer. That this objection savours strongly of
cursed pride, and of hellish loftiness and stateliness of spirit ; for who
art thou, great mountain ! who are thou, great man ! or what art
thou, mighty man ! Zech. iv. 2; but that thou mayest be dishonoured
and disparaged for holiness' sake ? What are thy great swelling titles,
but as so many rattles ? what are thy honours, but as so many
meteors ?^ and what is all thy worldly greatness, but a wind that may
blow thee the sooner to hell ? All thy glory is but a glorious fancy, a
magnum nihil, a great nothing ; and this Haman and Herod found by
experience, and so did Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, who gave
a charge to the prgetors of Rome, that they should not suffer his name
to be worn threadbare. Bajazet, who was one of the greatest com-
manders in the world, was carried about in an iron grate to be a foot-
stool to an insulting conqueror. And Belisarius, the most famous
general that the latter age of the Roman empire knew, and in greatest
favour with Justinian his prince, was reduced to that great want that
he was fain to beg his bread. And thus in all ages men have quickly

^ Calvin hath this note on that 1 Pet. v. 5, viz., Regis animum quisque intra ae habet.
Every man hath in him the mind of a king.

HeB. XIL 14 ] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 311

fallen from the highest pinnacle of honour,. to sit with Job upon the
dunghill. The true honour of a soldier lies not in boasting of the
nobleness of his lineage, nor in the blaz[on]ing of his arms, nor in tell-
ing of large stories of his pedigrees and genealogies, nor in his brave
clothes, nor in his rich plunder, &c., but his honour lies in a torn
buckler, a cracked helmet, a blunt sword,i and in the scars and wounds
that he has received in the defence of his country; so thy true honour,
thou great piece of vanity ! that makest this objection, does not lie
in thy coat of arms, nor in thy great titles, nor in thy great lordships
and manors, nor in thy high birth, &c., but in thy interest in Christ,
in thy new birth, in thy being an heir of the promises, in thy title to
heaven, and in thy pursuit after holiness ; and verily, if you should live
and die without these things, it had been ten thousand times better
that you had been brought up in a cave, than that you had been
brought up at court ; and that you had all your days lain under a
hedge, than that you have sit so long upon seats of honour ; and that
you had begged your bread from door to door, than that you have
had your full cups and full tables ; and that you had been clothed with
rags, than that you have put on costly robes ; and that you had rather
been a-turning of spits, than a-tossing of pots or pipes, for the great
things of this world does but lay men the more open to great tempta-
tions, and to great provocations, even to commit the greatest abomi-
nations. sirs, suppose a criminous 2 person, who is led to execu-
tion, should engrave his coat of arms upon the prison gate, would he
not be accounted vain and mad ? and yet such is the madness and
vanity of the great ones of this world, that they endeavour with the
greatest industry to leave monuments of their dignity in the prison of
this world, but take no care to make provision for another world, Ps.
xlix. 10-15; and all this is out of the horrid pride and loftiness of
their spirits : Ps. x. 4, ' The wicked, through the pride of his counte-
nance, will not seek after God : God is not in all his thoughts.' There
is nothing that hinders a man from seeking after a holy God, and from
pursuing after holiness, like pride. A proud heart is too stout to think
of holiness, or to mind holiness, or to prize holiness, or to press after
holiness. ' Who is the Lord,' says proud Pharaoh, ' that I should
serve him?' Exod. v. 2. So says the proud heart. Who is holiness,
and what is holiness, that I should seek it, and press so hard after it ?
As there is no sin that fortifies the heart against holiness like pride, so
there is no sin that weakens and disenables the heart to pursue after
holiness like pride. you proud and lofty ones of the world, who
look upon holiness as a poor, low, contemptible thing, tell me, what
are all your noble births, and great estates, &c., but trifles that God
bestows upon the worst and basest of men ? ' The whole Turkish
empire,' says Luther, ' is but a crust that God casts to a dog.' Tell
me whether the fly and the worm, yea, the most contemptible creature,
if there be any such, was not man's elder brother at his first creation;
and if so, why then should vain man be proud ? Oh, tell me whether
thou hast ever laid to heart that soul -abasing and soul-humbling text,
Ps. xxxix. 5, ' Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity.

' Of these Biron the French marshal boasted at his death. And so did many of the
Romans. * ' Criminal.' — G.

312 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Selah.' ' Verily' lets that in, and ' Selah ' shuts that up ; ' verily every
man' — not some man, but 'every man;' Col Adam, Col Hebel, All
Adam is all vanity, or every man is every vanity. i Every man is a
comprehensive vanity, every rich man is every vanity, and every great
man is every vanity, and every mighty man is every vanity, and every
noble man is every vanity ; yea, and that which is yet more, ' every
man at his best estate,' not in his childhood or decrepit age, but in his
best estate, when he is best constituted and underlaid, when he is
most firmly fixed and settled on his best bottom, yet even then he is
vanity. The original runs [^^J] thus, ' every man standing,' that is,
as some carry it, standing a-tiptoe in all his gallantry and bravery, in
all liis beauty and glory, and in all his pomp and majesty, is vanity,
yea, every vanity. Well sirs, remember this, that as rotten wood and
glow-worms make a glorious show in the night, but when the day ap-
pears they appear to be poor, despicable, base creatures ; so though
now the high, the great, and mighty ones of the earth shine and
gloriously sparkle in the darkness of this world, yet in that day when
the Sun of righteousness shall arise, and manifest the secrets of all
hearts to the world, and strip the great ones of aU their titles of hon-
our, and their noble parentage, and their rich and royal robes, and
their troops and trains, and their crowns and chains, then they will
appear to be but base and despicable creatures ; then their poverty and
misery, their nakedness^and vileness will appear to all the world ; then
the world shall see that riches without righteousness, power without
piety, and greatness without holiness, will do the gods of this world
no good. Oh that thou hadst now a heart to weep over that pride of
heart that keeps thee from pursuing after holiness, that so thou mayest
not weep to all eternity in utter darkness ! But,

[5.] Fifthly and lastly, I answer. That there are no persons under
heaven that stand so much obliged to look after holiness, and to press
with all their might to obtain holiness, as the rich, the great, the
mighty, and the honourable of the earth. For, first, why has God
made them greater than others, but that they should labour to be
better than others ? They are therefore higher than others, that they
may be holier than others. The greatness of their outward glory calls
aloud upon them to excel in sanctity; and woe to them that are re-
solved to be worse than others, because Grod has done more for them
than he has for others. Secondly, They of all men have more time,
leism'e, and advantages to hear much that they may be holy, and to read
much that they may be holy, and to pray much that they may be holy,
and to confer much with aU sorts and ranks of men, that they may be
holy ; and therefore it concerns them above all other men in the world
to be holy. Other men have neither the time nor the advantages to
gain holiness as these men have. The poor people in Sweden say that
it is only for gentlemen to keep the Sabbath. But thirdly. Their ex-
amples are most powerful and prevalent with the people, either for
much good, or for much evil, Prov. xxix. 12. If the mountains over-
flow with waters, the valleys are the better ; and if the head be full of
ill humours, the whole body fares the worse. The actions of rulers
are most commonly rules for the people's actions, and their examples

1 The original runs elegantly, Q-jj^ ^3 ^^H ^3-

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 313

passeth as current as their coin.l If their examples are evil, there are
none so dangerous as theirs. Jeroboam the son of Nebat is never
mentioned in the Scripture, nor never read of in the chronicles of Israel,
but he draws a tail after him, like a blazing star, * who made Israel
to sin.' A sick head disordereth all the other parts, and a dark eye
benights the whole body. The evil examples of great men corrupts
the air round about. The common people are like tempered wax,
easily receiving impressions from the seals of great men's vices. If a
peasant meet with luxury in a scarlet robe, he dares be such, having
so fair a cloak for it. If the vulgar people meet with drunkenness
under a black cassock, they dare be such ; they make no bones on it
to sin by prescription, and to damn themselves with authority. Austin
brings in some excusing their compliances with the sinful customs of
those times in drinking healths, thus. Great personages urged it, and
it was at the king's banquet, where they judged of loyalty by luxury,
and put us upon this election, drink or die. They thought it a suffi-
cient excuse to plead the examples of great men.

And if their examples are virtuous, there are none so winning and
drawing as theirs. 2 It is observable in the very course of nature, that
the highest spheres are always the swiftest in their motion, and carry
about with them the inferior orbs by their celerity ; so men that are
high and eminent in authority, power, and dignity, and eminent also
in grace and holiness, they carry the inferior people by their examples
to a liking of holiness, and to a love of holiness, and to a pursuit after
holiness. As the biggest stars in the firmament are always the
brightest, and gives the greatest lustre to those of a lesser magnitude ;
so those that, in respect both of greatness and grace, are so many
shining stars, they give the greatest light and lustre to others by their
shining conversations. Oh, what a world of good will the gracious
example of a good prince provoke unto ! It was the saying of Tra-
janus, a Spaniard, Qualis rex, talis grex, Subjects prove good by a
good king's example. Stories tells us of some that could not sleep
when they thought of the trophies of other worthies that went before
them. The gracious examples of great men are very awakening,
quickening, and provoking to that which is good, as is most evident
in all those kingdoms, countries, cities, and villages where such men
live. And therefore great men are the more obliged to be good men,
and honourable men to be holy men. But, fourthly, of all men
under heaven you will have the greatest accounts to make up with
God ; and therefore you have the more cause to seek after holiness.
Where God gives much there he looks for much, Luke xii. 48.3 O
sirs, God will bring you to an account for that talent of honour, and
that talent of wealth, and that talent of birth, and that talent of
power, and that talent of authority, and that talent of interest, and
that talent of time, &c., that he has entrusted you with ; and how will

^ Vide Esth i. 10, 11, 15-18. It is noted in King Alphonsus's sayings, that a great
man cannot commit a small sin.

' Carus the Roman emperor used to say, Bonus dux bonus cornea, A good leader makes
a good follower. — [Carus M. Aurelius. Vopiscus, Carus. — G.j

'^ It was excellent counsel that the heathen orator gave his hearers — Ita vivamus ut
rationeni nobis reddendam arbitremur, Let us so live as those that must give an account
of all at last.

314 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

you be able to stand in the day of account without holiness in your
hearts ? King Philip the Third of Spain, whose life was free from
gross evils, professing that he would rather lose all his kingdoms than
offend God willingly ; yet, being in the agony of death, and consider-
ing more thoroughly of his account that he was to give to God, fear
struck into him, and these words brake from him : ' Oh, would to God
I had never reigned ! Oh that those years I have spent in my king-
dom I had lived a private life in the wilderness ! Oh that I had
lived a solitary life with God ! How much more securely should I
have now died ! How much more confidently should I have gone to
the throne of God ! What does all my glory profit me, but that I
have so much the more torment in my death ! Well, gentlemen, there
is a day a-coming wherein the Lord will call you to a strict account,
both for the principal, and also for the interest of all those talents of
honour, riches, and greatness, &c., that he has put into your hands,
and how will you be ever able to hold up your heads in this day of
account, without you experience principles of holiness in your hearts,
and hold forth the power of godliness in your lives ? If Baul was
astonished when he heard Jesus of Nazareth but calling upon him,
Acts xxii. 7, 8 ; if Herod was affrighted when he thought that John
Baptist was risen from the dead, Mark vi. 16 ; if the Philistines were
afraid when they saw David's sword, 1 Sam. xxi. 9 ; if the Israelites
were appaUed when they saw Aaron's rod. Num. vii. 10; if Judah
was ashamed when he saw Thamar s signet and staff. Gen. xxxviii. 2 ;
and if Belshazzar was amazed when he saw the handwriting on the
wall, Dan. v. 9, oh, how astonished, how affrighted, how ashamed,
and how amazed will the great ones of the world be, who live and die
without holiness, when God shall bring them to the bar, and com-
mand them to give an account of all the talents that he has put into
their hands ! If the Carthaginians were troubled when they saw
Scipio's sepulchre ; if the Saxons were terrified when they saw Cad-
wallon's image; and if the Komans were dashed when they saw
Caesar's bloody robe ; ah ! how will all the great unholy ones of the
earth be troubled, terrified, and dashed in the great day of their
accounts ! There are none that will have such large accounts to give
up as the great ones of the world, and therefore there are none that
stand so strongly engaged to look aiter holiness as they do. But,
fifthly, the greater any men are on earth, if they live and die without
holiness, the greater will be their torments in hell ; all their great-
ness, glory, and gallantry will but sink them the lower in hell. The
Scribes and Pharisees were the rich, the high, and the great ones of
the times, and these Christ lays under the greater damnation. Mat.
xxiii. 14. The Germans have this proverb, ' The pavement of hell,'
say they, ' is made of the bare skulls of the priests, and the glorious
crests of gallants.' Their meaning is, that the more eminent any are
in church or state, and do not employ their eminency, power, and
authority in ways of piety and sanctity, the lower they shall lie in
hell, yea, these men, of all others, shall lie lowest in hell, Rev. xviii. 7.
' How much,' or inasmuch as, ' she hath glorified herself, and lived
deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her ; for she saith in
her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow,'

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 315

Isa. xlvii. 8. Babylon's torment and sorrow must be suitable to her
sin. Babylon excelled all others in pride, haughtiness, luxury, and
blasphemy, &c., and her punishments must be answerable ; so the
great, the rich, the high, and the mighty men of the world, they
usually exceed all others in pride, drunkenness, uncleanness, filthi-
ness, oppression, vainglory, gluttony, and tyranny, &c,, and answer-
able to their sins will be their torments and their punishments in
hell : Isa xxx. 33, ' For Tophet is ordained of old,' ay, it may be
for the poor, mean, and beggarly of the world ; ' yea, for the king it
is prepared ; he hath made it deep and large : the pile thereof is fire
and much wood ; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
doth kindle it.' i Alas ! the brick-kilns of Egypt and the furnace of
Babylon were but as a blaze of straw to this tormenting Tophet, that
has been prepared of old for the great and mighty ones of the earth 1
Oh, how dreadful must that fire be that is prepared by God himself,
and that is kindled by the breath of the Lord, and that shall never
be quenched ! and yet such is the fire that is prepared for the great
and mighty ones of the world 1 Oh, the easeless, the endless, the
remediless, the unsufierable, and yet the inevitable torments that are
prepared for those that are great and graceless ! In hell their wanton
eyes shall be tormented with ugly and fearful sights of ghastly spirits ;
and their ears, that used to be delighted with all delightful music,
shall now be filled with the hideous cries, bowlings, and yellings of
devils and damned spirits ; and their tongues of blasphemy shall now
be tormented with drought and thirst ; and though with the glutton
they cry out for a drop to cool their tongues, yet justice will deny
them drops who have denied others crumbs ; and their hands of
bribery, cruelty, and tyranny shall now be bound with everlasting
chains, and so shall their feet, which were once swift to shed innocent
blood. In a word, their torments shall be universal, they shall
extend to every member of the body, and to every faculty of the soul.
Ah, sirs ! fire, sword, famine, prisons, racks, and all other torments
that men can invent, are but as flea-bitings to those scorpions, but as
drops to those vials of wrath, and but as sparks to those eternal flames
that all unsanctified persons shall lie under. Look, as the least joy
in heaven infinitely surpasseth the greatest comforts on earth, so the
least torments in hell do infinitely exceed the greatest that can be
devised here on earth. For a close remember this, as there are
degrees of glory in heaven, so there are degrees of torment in hell ;
and as those that are most eminent in grace and holiness shall have
the greatest degrees of glory in heaven, so those that are most vile
and wicked on earth shall have the greatest degrees of torments and
punishments in hell.2 Now common experience tells us that the rich,
the great, the high, the honourable, and the mighty ones of the world
are usually the most excelling in all wickedness and ungodliness ; and

^ Tophet is the name of a place in the valley lying on the south side of Jerusalem,
Joshua xviii. 16. Now in this vale stood Tophet, wherein the idolatrous Jews used to
burn their children in sacrifice to the idol Moloch, and it had that name from the
drums or tabrets that their idolatrous priests used to beat upon at the time of their
detestable services, to drown the hideous shrieks and lamentable cries of the poor sacri-
ficed children.

* Mat. X. 15, and xi. 22; Luke xii. 47, 48.

316 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

therefore their condemnation will be the greater, they shall have a
hotter and a darker hell than others, except they labour after this
holiness, which will be their only fence against hell, and their sure
path to heaven. But, sixthly and lastly, of all men on earth the rich,
the great, and the honourable will be found most inexcusable. The
poor and the mean ones of the earth will plead their want of time, and
want of means, and want of opportunities ; they will be ready to say.
Lord, we have risen early, and gone to bed late, Ps. cxxvii. 1, 2, we
have laboured, and sweat, and droyled,^ and all little enough to get
bread to eat, and clothes to wear, and to keep the sergeant from the
door, and to pay every man his own. Had we had but the time, the
means, the advantages that such and such gentlemen have had, and
that such and such nobles have had, and that such and such princes
have had, &c.,2 oh, how we would have minded holiness, and studied
holiness, and pressed after holiness ! But seeing it has been other-
wise with us, we hope, Lord, we may be excused. But what excuse
will you be able to make, ye great ones of the earth, who have had
time, and opportunities, and all advantages imaginable, to make your-
selves holy and happy for ever, and yet you have trifled away your
golden seasons, and forgotten the one thing necessary, and given your-
selves up to the lusts and vanities of this world, as if you were resolved
to be damned ? Let me a little allude to that John xv. 22 : ' If I had
not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but now they
have no cloak or excuse for their sin.' So will God one day say to the
great ones of the world : Had I not given you riches, and greatness,
and honour, &c., to have encouraged you to look after holiness, and that
you might have time, and leisure, and opportunity to seek holiness and
pursue it, you might have had some cloak, some excuse for your neglect-
ing so great, so glorious, so noble, and so necessary a work. Oh ! but
now you have no cloak, no excuse at all for your sin. Now you can
shew no reason under heaven why an eternal doom should not be
passed upon you ; and ah how silent, how mute, how speechless, and
how self-condemned, will all the great ones of the world be, when God
shall thus expostulate with them ! ^ Oh that such would seriously
lay to heart that Mat. xxii. 11, 12: 'And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding gar-
ment : and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not
• having a wedding garment ? And he was speechless.' By the wedding
garment the learned understand holiness of heart and life. Now when
the king questions him about the want of this wedding garment, he is
speechless, or as the Greek word i^tfidoOr) imports, ' he was muzzled
or haltered up,' that is, he held his peace, as though he had a bridle
or a halter in his mouth ; he was not able to speak a word for himself,
his own conscience had passed a secret sentence of condemnation upon
him, and he sat silent under that sentence, as having nothing under
heaven to say why he should not be cast into utter darkness. And

1 'Drudged.'— G.

' As the poor people on the northern borders, when, to suppress their thieveries, some
pressed upon them the eighth commandment, they, to excuse themselves, replied that
that commandment was none of God's making, but thrust into the Decalogue by King
Henry the Eighth.

^ Titus iii. 11. Ai/roKartiKpiTOi, self-condemned, or self-damned.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 317

this will be the very case of all the rich, the gi'eat, and the mighty
ones of the world, who shall be found without the garment of holiness,
when the Lord shall enter into judgment with them. And thus you
see by these six arguments, that there are no persons under heaven
that are so eminently engaged to look after holiness, as the rich, the
great, and the mighty ones of the earth. But,

Object. 7. Seventhly and lastly. Others may object and say, Should
we pursue after holiness, we shall he sure to he reviled, slandered, and
reproached on all hands; every one loill hoot and hiss at us, we shall
hecome a scorn and a hyword to all that live in the family luith us,
and to all our neighbours round about us, every one will scorn us, and
hate us, and ive shall he their tahle-talk, and their song, and the butt
at lohich they will shoot in all their meetings and discourses, &c.

Now that you may be sufficiently armed against this objection, I
desire you seriously to consider of these five following answers :

[1.] First, That those that revile and reproach holiness, are such
that have never knoiun the necessity nor the excellency of holiness;
they have never experienced the power nor the sweetness of holiness ;
they speak evil of things they know not, of things they understand
not, Jude 10 ; 1 Tim. i. 7. Not to know is man's misery, but to speak
evil of that which a man understands not is the height of folly ; and
this these revilers do. ' Had they known,' saith the apostle, * they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory,' 1 Cor. ii. 8 ; so I say, had these re-
vilers known the splendour, the beauty, and the glory of holiness, they
would never have reviled it and scorned it.^ Had the Jews known
the Godhead of Christ, the divinity of Christ, the glory of Christ, they
would never have cried up Barabbas, and have railed on Jesus as they
did : so, had these railers but known the worth and the weight of
holiness, they would never have cried up wickedness, and decried
holiness as they do. Now, oh what shame, what folly, what vanity is
it for a man to turn his back upon holiness because such revile it and
scorn it, who never knew feelingly, nor experimentally, what holiness
was ! Would not a man either sigh or laugh at him that should turn
his back upon riches, honours, and preferments, &c., because the blind,
poor, and beggarly sort of people, who never experienced what these
things mean, casts dirt, dung, scorn, and reproach upon them ? and
is not this the present case ? Surely yes. The fox in the fable, when
H| he could not come at the grapes, cried out, that ' they were sour, they
™ were sour ; ' so men that cannot reach to the riches, the honours, and
the great things of the world, oh, how do they cry out against these
things ! oh, what disgrace, scorn, and contempt do they cast upon
these things ! and all because they cannot reach them, because they
cannot grasp them. The application is easy. It is men's ignorance of
holiness that makes them cry out so much of holiness. That heathen,
Aristotle, hit the mark when he cried out, Ignorat sane improhvs
omnis, Ignorance is the source of all sin ; the very well-spring from
whence all wickedness flows ; for ignorance enslaves the soul to Satan,
it lets in sins by troops, and then locks them up in the heart, and it
shuts out all the means of recovery, &c. And who then will wonder
to see ignorant persons let fly at holiness ? Suppose a geometrician
^ Scicntia non habet inimicum prseter ignorantem.

318 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XIT. 14.

should be drawing of lines and figures, and there should come in some
silly, ignorant fellow, who seeing him, should laugh at him, would the
artist, think you, leave off his employment because of his derision ?
Surely no ; for he knows that his laughter is but the fruit of his ignor-
ance, as not knowing his art, and the grounds upon which he goes ;
and therefore he holds on drawing, though the silly fellow should hold
on in his laughing. sirs, though ignorant persons deride holiness,
and laugh at holiness, yet be not you ashamed of holiness, but hold on,
and hold out in your pursuit after holiness, for they understand not
the rules and principles by which you are acted ; and therefore it is
that they throw dirt in the face of holiness ; but it will be your wisdom
to wipe that off, and so much the more to pursue after holiness, by how
much the more the silly ones of the world slight holiness, and laugh
at holiness. But,

[2.] Secondly, There is no fence against an evil tongue. A man
may fence himself against an evil eye, and against an evil hand, and
against an evil head, &c., but there is no fence against an evil tongue.
An evil tongue is such an unruly, such a mischievous, such a dangerous,
such a killing, and such a destroying member, that there is no fence
against it. A man may fence off the stroke of a sword, the thrust of a
rapier, and the shot of an arrow, but he can never fence off the reproach
and the reviling of an evil tongue. If the heart be sanctified the
tongue is the best member in the body ; if the heart be unsanctified it is
the worst, ^sop being by his master sent to buy up all the best meat
he could get in the market, bought up all the tongues ; and being
sent again to buy up all the worst meat he could get in the market, he
bought up all the tongues again ; and when he was asked why he
did so, he answered, that there was no flesh better than a good tongue,
nor no flesh worser than a bad tongue ; which the apostle confirms
fully in that James iii. 2-12.1 An evil tongue is wilder than the
wildest beast. The horse, the ass, the camel, the elephant, yea, the
lion, the leopard, the bear, and aU other beasts, have been tamed by
man ; but the tongue, no man, no monarch, on earth have ever been
able to tame. Aja evil tongue, in some respect, is worse than the
devil ; for the devil may be shunned and avoided, but an evil tongue
no man can shun ; and if you resist the devil he will fly from you, but
the more you resist an evil tongue the more it will fly upon you:
Prov. xvi. 27, ' An ungodly man diggeth up evil : and in his lips
there is a burning fire.' An ungodly man, or a man of Belial, as the
original has it, ' digs up evil.' Such old evils that have been long
since buried in the grave of oblivion and forgetfuhiess, he digs up
to cast in the saints' dishes, and to reproach them with. The teeth of
malice will be still a-digging to find out something against the people
of God, and if they can pick up anything out of the dunghill of false
reports to object against them, their hps presently are as so many
burning beacons to discover it to all the world. Now their tongues
will be set on fire of hell, and now they will labour to fire the hearts
and tongues of others against the people of God. A wicked tongue, as

Bias, one of the 8eV<:.*^ wise men, told Amasis king of Egypt, that the tongue was the
best or worst member of the body. Tota vita hominis UngucB delictia est referta ; The
whole life of man is made up of the sins of the tongue. — Basil,

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 319

Bernard observes, kills three at once : first, it kills his name and fame
by ill report who is slandered ; secondly, it kills his belief with a lie to
whom the report is made ; thirdly, it kills the slanderer himself with
the sin of detraction. David, who fell oftener under the sad lashes of
evil tongues, compares reviling tongues to three fatal weapons : a razor,
a sword, and an arrow. 1. To a razor in that Ps. lii. 2. Now you
know a razor meets with every little hair, and many times instead
of shaving the hair it slashes the flesh ; and sometimes by missing the
beard it endangers the throat. And so the reviling tongue will take
the least advantage imaginable to slash and cut the names and reputa-
tions of those that fear the Lord in a thousand pieces. 2. To a sword,
Ps. Ivii. 4, that cuts and wounds deep ; and so does the reviler's tongue
cut deeply into the names, fames, and credits of the people of God ;
and, 3. To an arrow, Ps. Ixiv. 3. The sword only cuts when we are
near, but the arrow hits at a distance ; the sword cannot cut except we
be at hand, but the arrow may hit us when we are afar off. The
re viler can easily shoot his arrows of reproach a great way off ; he can
shoot them from one town to another, from one city to another, from
one kingdom to another, yea, from one end of the earth to the other,
Ps. Ixxiii. 9. When the hands are manacled, and the feet fettered and
stocked, the tongue travels freely all the world over, and loads the
names of men with what reproaches it pleaseth. The tongue is
the great interpreter of the heart ; the tongue is the key that unlocks
those treasures of wickedness that be in the heart ; the corruptions of
men's hearts commonly breaks forth at their lips, Mat. xii. 34. Look,
as a pimpled face discovers a distempered liver, and as a stinking
breath discovers corrupted lungs, so a reviling tongue discovers a base
rotten heart. i When the pump goes you may quickly know whether
the water that is in the fountain or well be clear or muddy, sweet
or stinking ; and when the clapper strikes you may soon guess of what
metal the bell is made of ; and so by men's tongues you may easily
guess what is in their hearts. If the tongue be vird,^ the heart is so ;
if the tongue be bloody, the heart is so ; if the tongue be adulterous,
the heart is so ; if the tongue be malicious, the heart is so ; if the
tongue be covetous, the heart is so ; and if the tongue be cruel,
the heart is so, &c. Men's minds are known by their mouths. If the
mouth be bad, the mind is not good. He that is rotten in his talk, is
commonly rotten in the heart. Of all the members of the body there
is none so serviceable to Satan as an evil tongue ; and therefore when
all the body is full of sores he will keep the tongue from blisters, that
so a man may the more freely and fully curse God and die.^ And
this was the reason why Satan spared Job's tongue, when he sadly
paid * all other members of his body, that so his grand design, which
was to provoke Job both to curse God and to charge him foolishly, might
take place ; but Job's tongue be-oiled with grace, proved his glory
in his trying hour ; and instead of cursing, he blesses a taking God,
an angry God. sirs, the world is as full of evil tongues as Nilus
of crocodiles, or as Sodom of sulphur, or as Egypt of lice ; and there

^ That man has commonly most of the devil in his heart that has most of the devil in
his mouth. The strokes in music answer to the notes that are pricked in the rules.
* ' Vile.'— G. ■^ Cbrysostom, Drexelius, and others. * Query, ' pained ? ' — G.

320 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB, XII. 14.

is no fence, no guard against these evil tongues ; and therefore why
should any man be discouraged from pursuing after holiness, because
of the revilings of evil tongues ? Munster writes of men in India which
speak not like men, but bark like dogs ; and who regards such men ?
no more should we regard such foul-mouthed persons who are still bark-
ing against holiness, as the dogs bark against the moon ; but as the
moon runs her race and holds her course, though all the dogs in the town
bark never so much at it ; so should you pursue after holiness, though
all the tongues in the town should be barking and scoffing at you. But,

[3.] Thirdly, Consider that those that now reproach holiness will
ere long he of another mind, they that now revile and reproach holiness
will in a short time change their minds and their notes. When these
very men who revile holiness shall come to fall under terrors and
horrors of conscience, and when they shall come to lie upon their
dying beds, and to have their immortal souls sit trembling and quaking
upon their pale lips, and when they shall appear before the great God,
and awake with everlasting flames about their ears, oh, how will they
then wish that they had never reviled holiness ! How will they then
wish that they had prized holiness, and that they had spent their all in
pm'suing after holiness ! Num. xxiii. 10. Oh, how will they then charge
themselves, and censure themselves, and arraign and condemn them-
selves, for their scorning and condemning of holiness ! Oh, how will
they then wish that they had never heard of holiness, nor read of
holiness, nor thought of holiness ! Oh, how will they then wish that
their mothers' wombs had proved their tombs, and that they had
rather lived and died in a land of darkness, than thus to live and die
without holiness ! Now, oh, what folly and madness is it for thee
to neglect the pursuit of holiness, because such and such revile it, who
perhaps before the next year, the next month, yea it may be the next
Sabbath comes about, will wish ten thousand times over and over that
they had pursued after it, and that they had made it their greatest
work in this world to obtain it ! But,

[4.] Fourthly, Such persons who are revilers, deriders, and haters of
holiness, should rather he divinely contemned, scorned, and slighted, than
anyivays gratified, encouraged, pleased, and strengthened in their evil
ways hy thy neglect of holiness, and hy thy non-pursuance after holi-
ness. Oh, how may thy neglect of holiness upon the account of revil-
ings and scornings strengthen the hands and the hearts of revilers and
scorners ! &c., Ezek. xiii. 19, seq.; and therefore it is much better
divinely to slight and disdain them, than by sinful omissions to gratify
and please them. See how slighting Elisha carries it to wicked
Jehoram, though he was a king : 2 Kings iii. 13, 14, ' And Elisha
said unto the king of Israel, What have I to do with thee ? get thee to
the prophets of thy father and prophets of thy mother, i And the king
of Israel said unto him. Nay: for the Lord hath called these three kings
together, to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said. As
the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that
I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not
look toward thee, nor see thee.' It was not the great distress and

^ The prophets here spoken of were the remaining prophets of Baal, of the idolatrous
groves, and of the calves of Jeroboam.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 321

danger that they were in, being like to perish for want of water, nor
the dignity of kings, nor the number of three, but the goodness, the
graciousness, and holiness of Jehoshaphat, that wrought upon Elisha
to work a miracle to preserve them and their people alive. The holy
prophet carries it very high towards this unholy prince, for had it not
been for Jehoshaphat, he would not have honoured him with a look,
no, not with a cast of his eye. These words, ' I would not look toward
thee, nor see thee,' are words of a very high strain, and speak out a
great deal of holy loftiness, state! iness, and contempt towards king
Jehoram. And the same spirit was working in Mordecai towards
wicked Haman, as you may see in that Esth. iii. 2, ' And all the
king's servants that were in the king's gate bowed and reverenced
Haman, for the king had so commanded concerning him ; but Mor-
decai bowed not, nor did him reverence.' ^ The Persian kings, as many
other heathenish kings, were reverenced by their subjects with a kind
of divine honour or service ; and such reverence and honour the king
commanded should be showed to his great favourite Haman ; but this
renow^ied Mordecai refused to do. He was so divinely noble and
stout, that he would not reverence such a wicked wretch in his heart,
nor yet yield to him that outward worship that was required by the
king, it being more than was due to a man. Some of the Kabbins
say, as Aben Ezra, &c., that Haman had the image of some false god
about him, and that therefore Mordecai would not bow before him,
lest he might seem to bow to the idol that Haman carried about him :
others of the Rabbins say, as R Solomon, &c., that Haman did make
himself a god, and required such worship as was due only to the true
God, and that therefore Mordecai would not reverence him, nor bow
before him. And so Junius and other expositors say that it was more
honour than did belong to a man that they gave to Haman ; and that
therefore Mordecai refused to bow to him. And it is very remarkable
that some of the wisest and best of heathens have forborne to come
into their king's presence, because there was expected greater honour
and worship to be done to their kings than was meet to be done to a
mortal man. But that which is most considerable, and most probable,
is this, that therefore Mordecai refused to reverence Haman, and to
bow unto him, because he was a wicked Amalekite, and a bitter enemy
to the people of God, and of that nation and of that stock whose
remembrance God would have blotted out under heaven, Exod. xvii.
14 ; Deut. xxv. 19 ; and with whom the Lord had sworn that he
would have war from generation to generation, until they were utterly
wasted and destroyed, Exod. xvii. 16, compared with that 1 Sam.
XV. 3.

It has been usual with the saints to slight such who have been
slighters of Christ and holiness.2 When Amphilochius the bishop
came into the presence of the emperor Arcadius and his son, who
was then partner with his father in the empire, he saluted the emperor

' The Persians' manner was to kneel down and reverence their kings, and such as ho
appointed in chief authority, which Mordecai would not do to this proud, ambitious,
wicked Haman, though all the courtiers, and the king's lifeguard, and all that had
occasions to attend the court did.

^ I shall look upon Auxentius no otherwise than as upon a devil, so long as he is an
Arian, said holy Hilary.

VOL. IV. X

322 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

with all reverence, but slighted his son, whereupon the emperor was
very much displeased, and demanding the reason why he so slighted his
son ? the bishop answered, because he had slighted and neglected the
eternal Son of God, he being at that time a professed Arian ; where-
upon the emperor received the bishop again into favour, and banished
all Arians out of his dominions. I have read of one Maris, a godly
bishop of Chalcedon, who, being blind, and Julian, that apostate
emperor, giving him some opprobrious words, calling him blind fool,
because he had rebuked him for his apostasy, the good man answered
thus, ' I bless God that I have not my sight, to see such an ungracious
face as thine is/ Do your worst, do your worst, said Justin Martyr
slightingly to his persecutors, but this I tell you, you may put all that
you are like to gain by the bargain into your eye, and weep it out
again. When a great lord of this land, who was as graceless as he was
great, met Mr Fox in London streets, and asked him how he did, Mr
Fox said little or nothing to him ; whereupon says this great lord.
Sir, do you not know me ? No, not I, said Mr Fox ; says the lord, I
am such a one ; Sir, said Mr Fox, I desire to know nothing but Jesus
Christ, and him crucified. Polycarpus meeting at a certain time with
Marcion the heretic : says Marcion, Don't you know me ? Yea, said
Polycarpus, I know thee to be primo-genitum diaholi, The first-begotten
child of the devil, i And indeed, why should we prefer him before a
piece of copper, that prefers a piece of gold before his God, yea, that
prefers his lusts and every toy and trifle before Jesus Christ, his im-
mortal soul, and the great concernments of another world? God
commanded in the old law that whatsoever did go with its breasts
upon the ground, should be an abomination to us. Oh, how much
more should we abominate that man whose heart and soul is glued
unto a piece of earth, or to this or that defiling and destroying lust :
Prov. xxix. 27, ' An unjust man is an abomination to the just : and
he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.' The
quarrel between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is
almost six thousand years old. Gen. iii. 15. Light and darkness,
heaven and hell, are not more opposite and contrary one to another,
than these are contrary one to another. That seed of enmity that was
at first between them is now grown up on both sides to an abomina-
tion, and an abhorring of each other. 2 The just man saith, What have
I to do with thee, thou son of Belial ? and the unjust man saith. What
have I to do with thee, thou son of David ? The original in the text
last cited is observable, the just abhorreth, b^V ^^"i^, viriniquitatis, the
man_ of iniquity, i.e., the man that is made up of iniquity, that is,
nothing but iniquity. Now, this shews that it is iniquity in the
man that makes the man to be an abomination to the just ; but now
wicked men they abhor the upright for their very uprightness, they abhor
him that is upright in the way, and could wish him quite out of the
way, and will do what they can to make him away. The uprightness
of the upright is such a terror to the wicked that they cannot but
abominate and abhor the upright ; and therefore, no wonder if the

* Eusebiua.

' The antipathies that are ia nature between the elephant and the boar, the lion and
the cock, &c., is nothing to that which ia between the just and the unjust.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 323

upright abominate them ; and indeed, who can look upon wicked men,
as enemies to God, as adversaries to Christ, as murderers of their own
souls, as fighters against the church, as champions for Satan, and as
pests and plague of a nation, and not abhor them, and not abomi-
nate them ? sirs, not to contemn the wicked is an argument that
you yourselves are wicked ; and not to contemn the wicked is a means
to make them more wicked ; not to contemn the wicked is to encourage
and tempt the wicked to be sevenfold more wicked ; yea, not to contemn
the wicked, who contemn God, Christ, heaven, and holiness, &c., is to
contemn God himself. As for such that advance the wicked, that
magnify the wicked, that flatter the wicked, that strengthen the
hands of the wicked, that are most in with the wicked, that joy and
glory in the prosperity of the wicked, and that sigh and mourn,
that stamp and take on at the downfall of the wicked ; these are
certainly wicked, yea, they are eminently wicked, and therefore the
more to be slighted and scorned by men of integrity and sanctity.
But,

[5.] Fifthly and lastly, To neglect the pursuit of holiness upon the
account of this objection, is to debase the great God, and to overvalue
vain man, as if there were more power, ability, policy, and malice, dtc,
in worthless man to hurt and harm thee, than there is power, all-suf-
ficiency, wisdom, goodness, and graciousness in God to defend thee,
and secure thee, and arm thee against all the reproaches and revilings
of slandei\)u^ tongues. Now who art thou, and what art thou,
vain man ! that thou shouldst dare to lessen God and greaten man, to
debase God and exalt man, yea, to set up man above God himself, and
to ungod him as much as in thee lies ? And yet all this thou doest
when thou turnest thy back upon holiness, because of the revilings
and reproaches of wicked men.

But I shall say no more to this objection, because I have spoken
very largely to this objection in my former books. If you desire
further satisfaction to this objection, turn to that treatise called 'Apples
of Gold,' &c., and from page 311 to page 327, you will find seven
more distinct answers to it. And see also my ' Mute Christian under
the Smarting Kod,' and from page 304 to page 326 you will find
eight answers more to this objection, i I confess several other objections
might be made against your pursuing after holiness, but because I
have spoken to them at large in my former writings, therefore I shall
not trouble you with them here ; and therefore let thus much suffice
for answer to those objections that usually men make when they are
pressed home to follow after holmess.

And so I shall come now to the second part of the exhortation, and
that relates to God's holy ones, to his sanctified ones, to those that
have obtained holiness, that have experienced the principles, the
power, the life, and the sweetness of holiness. And here let me exhort
such,

1. First, To express, declare, evidence, and hold forth both the
reality and power of holiness ; and that,

[1.] ^'iv&t. By keeping yourselves free from gross enormities, from
scandalous wickednesses, Rom. ii. 23-25. Oh, remember that one scandal-
1 Vol. i. pp. 264-269, and pp. 379-385.— G.

324 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14

ous sin will obscure and cloud all your graces and spiritual excellencies.!
Look, as one spot in the face spoils all the beauty, and one blot upon
the copy obliterates the whole copy, and as one drop of ink coloureth
a whole glass of clear water ; so one scandalous sin wiU blot and blur
all former acts of piety and holiness, it will stain all a man's duties
and services, it will deface all a man's contentments and enjoyments,
it will dash and rase out all those golden characters of righteousness
and goodness that have been stamped upon the soul. The Babylonians
beholding the enormities of the Jews, cried out, ' These are the people
of the Lord, these are come out of the Lord's land,' Ezek. xxxvi.
20. David's one act of folly with Bathsheba made the enemies of
the Lord to blaspheme. When one commended Alexander for his
many noble acts, another objected thus against him, Ay, but he killed
Calisthenes : he was valiant and successful in the wars ; ay, but he
killed Calisthenes : he overcame the great Darius ; ay, but he killed
Calisthenes : his meaning was, that this one unjust and unrighteous
action clouded and darkened all his most noble deeds. 2 A Christian
cannot after his conversion fall into a scandalous sin, but it will be
objected against him by every one, to the defacing and darkening of
all his spiritual glory. When Naaman the Syrian was cured, and as
some think converted, by the prophet Elisha, he offers gold and rich
garments, but he bows in the house of Rimmon ; he seems to be very
devout and religious, but he bows in the house of Rimmon ; he pro-
mises to offer to none but the Lord, but yet he bows in the house of
Rimmon. This Rimmon, like the fly in the alabaster box, spoiled all
his best intentions and highest resolutions ; and thus one scandalous
vice disgraceth all the noble virtues that be in a Christian, 2 Kings
V. 1.3 Oh, such a man is a very holy man, but — and such a one is a
very gracious, experienced disciple, but — and such a one is a very wise
and understanding man, but — and such a one is a very active, stirring
saint, but^&c, and this ' hut' mars all. If there be but one crack in
the honey-glass, there the wasp will be buzzing ; and if there be but
one scandalous sin that a Christian falls into in all his life, how will
the wicked be still a-buzzing of that about, both in city and country !
O sirs, there are no sins that opens so many mouths, and that sads
80 many hearts, and that swells so many eyes, and that endangers so
many souls, as scandalous sins do ; and therefore above all keeping
keep off from them. sirs, as you would not harden sinners, as you
would not encourage sinners, as you would not tempt sinners, as you
would not stumble sinners, yea, as you would not have a hand in the
damnation of sinners, take heed of scandalous sins, Rom. xiv. 13.
sirs, as you would not provoke the great God, 1 Kings xi. 9, as you
would not crucify afresh the Lord of glory, and put him to an open
shame, as you would not set the Comforter a-mourning, that alone can
comfort you, as you would not raise a hell in your own consciences,
and as you would not darken the church's glory, fly from scandalous
sins as you would fly from hell itself. I have read of holy Polycarp,

^ The Bchoolmen say that if a sow do but wallow in one miry or dirty hole, she ia
filthy, &c. » Plutarch in vila.

* One flaw in a diamond takes away the lustre and the price of it ; and if we fall
but once into a puddle, it will defile us, and make every one point at lu.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 325

that religious martyr and bishop of Smyrna, how that in the time of
the fourth persecution, under Marcus Antonius Verres, when he was
commanded to swear but one oath, made this answer, ' Fourscore and
six years have I endeavoured to do God service, and all this while he
never hurt me, and how then shall I speak evil of so good a lord and
master, who hath thus long preserved me ? ' And being further urged
to swear by the pro-consul, he answered, ' I am a Christian and cannot
do it ; let heathens and infidels swear if they will, I cannot do it were
it to the saving of my life/ 1 This holy man would rather sacrifice his
life than fall into a scandalous sin. Christians, pray and watch,
and watch and pray, that you may never be left to stain your own
honour, or the honour of your profession, by falling into scandalous
sins ! Well, friends ! remember this, it is not infirmities, but enormities,
it is not weaknesses, but wickednesses, that will cast the crown from
ofi" your heads, and that will strip you of all your glory ; and therefore,
as you would hold fast your crown, keep at an everlasting distance
from scandalous sins, &c. But,

[2.] Secondly, Declare and evidence the reality and poiver of holi-
ness hy your cordial thankfulness for so rare ajeioel, and for so great
a mercy. ^ sirs, one drop, one spark of holiness is more worth tban
heaven and earth, and how then can you but be thankful for it?
Wilt thou be thankful to that God that made thee a man ? and wilt
thou not be thankful to the same God that made thee a saint ? Wilt
thou bless him that made thee a creature ? and wilt thou not bless
the same God that has made thee a new creature ? Wilt thou praise
him for the heavens that are but the workmanship of his hands ? and
wilt thou not praise him for holiness, which is the workmanship of his
heart ? Ps. viii. Tell me, Christian, is not holiness a soul-mercy ?
and what mercies wilt thou be thankful for, if not for soul-mercies ?^
Tell me, Christian, is not holiness of all mercies the most neces-
sary mercy ? The want of other mercies might have troubled thee,
ay, but the want of holiness would have damned thee ; and wilt thou
not be thankful for holiness, which is the one thing necessary ? Tell
me, Christian, is not holiness an incomparable mercy ? What is
thy health, thy wealth, thy wit, to holiness ? Darest thou mention
thy birth, thy breeding, thy arts, thy parts, thy honour, thy greatness,
or thy advancement in the world, in that day wherein holiness is
spoken of P Surely no. And wilt thou not then be thankful for such
an incomparable mercy as holiness is ? Tell me, Christian, is not
holiness a peculiar mercy, a peculiar treasure that God entrusts but
few men with ? Does not the world lie in wickedness ? 1 John v. 19.
Are not the multitude in all places strangers, yea, enemies to holiness ?
And how then canst thou but be thankful for holiness ? Yea, once
more tell me, Christian, is not holiness a mercy-sweetening mercy ?
Is it not the beauty of holiness that puts a beauty upon all thy mercies ?
Is it not holiness that bespangles all thy comforts and contentments ?
Oh, how sour would all thy mercies taste, and how pale and wan would

^ Euseb. Hist., lib. ii. cap. 15, [Rather iv, 15 : and see the ' Circular Epistle ' on the
* Martyrdom. ' — G.]

* Ps. ciii. 1-5, or, as the original \rill bear, ' bow the knee, my soul.'

* Augustine writ his 49th ep. to one called Deo gratiat.

326 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

all thy mercies look, were it not for holiness ! It is the want of holi-
ness that makes all a man's mercies look as ill-favoured as Pharaoh's
lean kine, and it is the fruition of holiness that makes all a man's
mercies look as well-favoured as Pharaoh's fat kine, Gen. xli. 2-4 ;
it is holiness that both puts a colour upon all our mercies, and that
gives a taste and a relish to them. All our mercies, without holiness,
will be but as the waters of Marah, bitter, Exod. xv. 23-25 ; it is only
holiness that is the tree that will make every bitter sweet, and every
sweet more sweet ; and how then canst thou but be thankful for holi-
ness ? Oh, remember how far oif thou wert from God, and Christ,
and the promise, and heaven, and happiness, when thou wast without
holiness in this world, Eph. ii. 12. Oh, remember what a child of
wrath, what a bond-slave to Satan, what an enemy to God, and what
an apparent heir to hell thou wert, when thou wert an opposer of holi-
ness, and a secret despiser of holiness, and then be unthankful for
holiness if thou canst ! Oh, remember that now by holiness, of a slave
thou art made a son, and of an heir of wrath thou art made an heir of
heaven, and instead of being Satan's bondman, thou art now made
Christ's freeman ; thy iron chains are now knocked oflf, as sometimes
Joseph's were, and the golden chain of holiness is now put upon thee,
John viii. 36. And what does all this call aloud for but thankfulness ?
Thales, a heathen, gave thanks to God for three things: 1. That he
had made him a man, and not a beast ; 2. That he had made him a
man, and not a woman ; 3. That he was born a Greek, and not a
barbarian. 1 And, oh then, what cause of thankfulness hast thou for
thy supernatural being, and for all those noble principles of holiness
that the Lord has stamped upon thy soul ! &c. Shall the husband-
man be thankful for a plentiful harvest, and the merchant for quick
returns, and the shopkeeper for a full trade, and the mariner for a
good voyage, and wilt not thou be much more thankful for holiness ?
Shall the beggar be thankful for a crust to feed him, and shall the
blind be thankful for a dog to lead him, and shall the naked be thank-
ful for rags to cover him, and shall the aged be thankful for a staff to
support him, and shall the diseased be thankful for a cordial to raise
him, and wilt not thou be thankful for holiness, yea, for that holiness
that is bread to strengthen thee, and a guide to lead thee, and raiment
to clothe thee, and a staff to support thee, and a cordial to comfort
thee ? Ingratum dixeris, omnia dixeris. Oh, remember that ingra-
titude is a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, and a paradox
in grace, damming up the course of all donations, both divine and
human. Lycurgus, as Musculus observes, among all his laws, made
none against the ungrateful, because ingratitude was thought a thing
so prodigious as not to be committed by man. And the Persians and
Athenians condemned the ungrateful to death. Ah, unthankful
Christians, how can you think of these heathens, and not blush !
Shall they bless God for crumbs, and will not you bless God for crowns ?
Shall they bless God for the gifts of nature, and will not you bless God
for the gifts of grace ? &c. Next to a holy Christ, holiness is the
greatest gift that God can give, and therefore be thankful for it, &c. But,
[3.] Thirdly, Evidence and declare your holiness, hy the reality of
^ This saying is also fathered on Socrates, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 327

your constant pursuit after holiness, hy your holding up and holding
on in a way of holiness, by your perseverance in holiness. This exhor-
tation, ' Follow peace with all men, and holiness,' Heb. xii. 14, was
given forth to such as had a spirit of holiness, and principles of holi-
ness in them ; and these are the men that the holy apostle presses to
press after holiness.^ That holiness will do us no good that is not
made good by perseverance. O sirs, shall the ambitious person j)ur-
sue after his honours, and the voluptuous person after his pleasures,
and the worldling pursue after his gain, and the wanton pursue aft^r
his harlots, and the drunkard pursue after his full cups, &c. ; and
shall not Christians much more pursue after holiness ? Not to go
forward is to go backward, non progredi est regredi, and not to grow
better is to grow worse, and not to gi'ow more holy is to grow less holy.
The crown, the new name, and the white stone, is for him that holds
out, and that holds on in his pursuit after hoLiness.2 A progress in
holiness is fitly compared to a building, to a race, to the morning light,
and to the increasing moon. Now, you know, houses are raised from
the foundations to the walls, and from the walls to the first storey, and
then to the second storey, and then to the third, and so higher and
higher, till you come up to the roof ; and in a race, you know, men
run on till they come to the goal ; and the morning light shines
brighter and brighter till it be perfect day ; and the moon increaseth
more and more till it come to the full ; and so must Christians per-
severe and hold on in adding grace to grace. Christians ! you
must not be like to a morning cloud, nor to the early dew ; you must
not stand still in the ways of holiness, as the sun stood still in Gibeon,
Josh. X. 13 ; much less are you to go back, like the sun on Ahaz's dial,
1 Kings X. 11 ; but as a bridegroom which cometh out of his chamber,
and rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, Ps. xix. 5 ; so must you
delight to run the ways of God's commands, Ps. cxix. 32 ; you must
maintain your progress in piety, whatever comes on't. sirs, the way
of holiness is the safest way, the noblest way, the sweetest way, the
cleanest way, the pleasantest way, and the happiest way, Prov. iii. 17;
and therefore hold on, and hold up in that way, though the world, the
flesh, and the devil should cry out, ' There is a lion in the way, there
is a lion in the way,' Prov. xxvi. 13. It is said of Hannibal, that not-
withstanding the rough rocks, and the craggy clifts of the Alps, yet
he proceeded onward in his design for Italy, with this resolution, that
he would either find a way or make a way ; and so must Christians
hold on in a way of holiness, notwithstanding all the rocks and lets^
and difficulties that they meet with in that way. It is an observation
of some of the learned, that those that were marked to be preserved in
Jerusalem, were marked with the letter n, tau, which is the last of
all the Hebrew letters, to signify that they must run the race of holi-
ness even to the last, Ps. xliv. 17-22 ; Ezek. ix. 4. sirs, in the face
of all your sins and unworthiness, God holds on in ways of mercy
towards you ; and why then should not you hold on in ways of
sanctity towards him ? Shall Satan persevere in his enmity against

1 Hosea vi. 3; 1 Thes. iii. 12, 13 ; 2 Pet. i. 5-10; Phil. iii. 14-16; 2 Pet. iii. 17,
18 ; 1 Thes. iv. 1.
» Rev. ii. 10, 17 ; Jude 20 ; 1 Cor. ix. 24 ; Heb. xii. 1, 4. « ' Obstacles.'— G.

328 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

holiness ? and shall wicked men persevere in their opposition to holi-
ness ? and shall formalists persevere in their neglect of holiness ? and
will not you persevere in your pursuit of holiness ? A good husband-
man will not give over sowing till he has sowed all his land ; nor a
good physician will not give over his patient till he has cured him ;
nor a good workman vidll not give over his work till he hath finished
it ; no more should a good Christian give over his pursuit of holiness,
till he is come up to the highest perfection of holiness. Look, as God
carried on the work of creation from day to day till he had finished
it, Gen. i., and as Christ carried on the work of our redemption from
day to day till he had completed it, John xvii, ; so Christians should
look to a daily carrying on of the work of holiness in their hearts and
lives, till that work be perfected and completed. The philosopher
being asked in his old age, why he did not give over his practice, and
take his ease ? answered, Wlien a man is to run a race of forty fur-
longs, would you have him sit down at the nine-and-thirtieth, and so
lose all his pains, and the prize for which he runs ? Surely no.
Christians, you are racers, and you must run to the end of your race,
Heb. xii. 1 ; i it is not enough to begin well, and to run well for a time,
but you must hold out in running till you come to the goal, or else
you will lose all the pains and labour that ever you have taken in
religion, you will lose all the prayers that ever you have made, and
you will lose all the sermons that ever you have heard, and you will
lose all the fasts that ever you have observed, and you will lose all the
tears that ever you have shed, and you will lose all the alms that ever
you have given, if you do not hold out to the end. If you do not per-
severe in well-doing, you will lose your crown, and be undone for ever
after all your doings. A progress in holiness is requisite not only to
your consolation, but also to your salvation, Mat. xxiv. 13. But,

[4.] Fourthly, Evidence and declare the truth and reality of your
holiness, by a resolute standing up for purity of religion, and for
purity of loorship and ordinances, in opposition to all mixtures and
corruptions iohatsoever. sirs, the great God stands upon nothing
more in all the world than upon purity in his worship, James i. 27.
There is nothing that does so provoke and exasperate God against a
people as mixtures in his worship and service, Mat. xxi. 12, 13 ; John
ii. 15-17. Pollutions in worship do sadly reflect upon the name of
God, the honour of God, the truth of God, and the wisdom of God ;
and therefore his heart rises against them. The very spirit, life, and
soul of the second commandment lies in these words, ' Thou shalt
not make to thyself any graven image,' &c. In matters of divine wor-
ship God abhors that men should mix their water with his wine, their
dross with his gold, their chaff with his wheat, &c. When once men
come to be so bold as to defile his worship with their mixtures, then
God is resolved to be a swift and a terrible witness against them, as
you may clearly see by comparing those notable places of Scripture
together in the margin, 2 There is no sin that does so incense and

^ What had it availed Peter to have escaped the first and second watch, if he had stuck
at the iron gate, and liad not passed through that also ? Finis coronat opm.

» Lev. X. 1, 2; Ezek. v. 11, 12, and xxiii. 38, 39; Jer, vii. 29, 30; Ezek. viii. 17, 18;
Kev, ii. 22, 23; Deut. iv. 2, and xii. 32.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 329

provoke God to jealousy and wrath against a people, as mixtures in
worship. God can bear with defilements anywhere rather than in his
worship and service : and that,

First, Because mixtures in worship are cross to God's express
commands ; and who art thou, man ! that darest run cross to his
commands, who can command thee into the dust, yea, into hell, at
pleasure? &c.

Secondly, Because this is to accuse the blessed Scripture of insuffi-
ciency ; for if the Scripture be a sufficient rule to order, guide, and
direct us in all matters of worship, then how dost thou, man ! de-
tract from the sufficiency of the Scripture, who minglest thine own or
other men's inventions with divine institutions, and settest up thy
posts by God's posts ? sirs, the Scriptures are sufficient to direct
us fully in everything that belongs to the worship and service of God ;
so as that we need not depend upon the wisdom, prudence, care, or
authority of any men under heaven to direct us in matters of worship:
2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, ' All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, throughly fur-
nished unto all good works.' The Scriptures are sufficient to inform
the ignorant, to confute the erroneous, to reform the vicious, and to
guide and direct, support and comfort those that are gracious. Here
a lamb may wade, and an elephant may swim ; here is milk for babes,
and meat for strong men ; here is comfort for the afflicted, and succour
for the tempted, and ease for the troubled, and light for the clouded,
and enlargement for the straitened, &c. Oh, how full of light, how full
of life, how full of love, how full of sweetness, how full of goodness,
how full of righteousness and holiness, &c., is every chapter, and every
verse in every chapter, yea, and every line in every verse ! ^ The Rab-
bins say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word of Scripture,
yea, upon every tittle of Scripture. God never sends his people to the
shop of men's traditions and inventions, but he still sends them to the
Scripture : Isa. viii. 20, ' To the law and to the testimony ; if they
speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light, or
no morning, in them.' Chap, xxxiv. 16, 'Seek ye out of the book
of the Lord, and read ; no one of these shall fail, none shall want
her mate ; for my mouth it hath commanded, and his Spirit it hath
gathered them.' And in the New Testament Christ sends his hearers
to the Scriptures : John v. 39, ' Search the Scriptures, for in them ye
think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.'
The Greek word epewdre, that is here rendered search, signifies a
strict, narrow, curious, diligent search. We must search the Scrip-
ture as we would search for gold, or for some precious stones which
we would fain find ; we must search the Scriptures as hunters seek
and search out their game. And so the apostle sends his hearers to
the Scriptures, 2 Pet. i. 19-22, as to a surer word than that of revel-
ation. All which speaks out the sufficiency of the Scripture to direct

^ The Scriptures are sufficient to direct us as to all the parts of worship. As, 1. That
of public prayer. 2. And that of reading and expounding. 3. And that of preaching.
4. And that of singing. 5. And that of the seals both of baptism and the supper of the
Lord,

330 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

US in all matters that concern our internal or eternal welfare. Oh that
you would for ever remember these two things :

(1.) First, That that which bred the Popish religion, superstition,
idolatry, and pompous worship, was men's departing from the word,
and not cleaving to the word as a sufficient rule to direct them in
all matters of worship. And,

(2.) Secondly, That that which hath occasioned all those discords,
divisions, heats, heart-burnings, animosities, and contentions, &c.,
about ceremonies, liturgy, forms, gestures, &c., has been men's not
keeping close to the blessed word of God. When men forsake this
perfect rule, whither won't they run ? and what won't they do ? Ah,
who art thou, vain man ! that accuseth the holy Scriptures of insuf-
ficiency ? and how wilt thou blush, and be ashamed and confounded,
when in the great day the Lord shall plead the excellency, and vindi-
cate the sufficiency and authority of his blessed book, in opposition to
all the mixtures of men's traditions with divine institutions ?

Thirdly, God won't nor can't bear with mixtures in his worship and
service, because to bring them in is to accuse and charge God luith weak-
ness and folly, as if God ivere not careful enough, nor faithful enough,
Heb. iii. 4-6, nor mindfid enough, nor wise enough, nor prudent nor
understanding enough, to order, direct, and guide his people in the
matters of his worship, hut must he beholding to the ivisdom, prudence,
and care of man, John iv. 23, 24, of vain man, of sinful man, of vile
and unworthy man, of weak and foolish man, to complete, perfect,
and make up something that was wanting in his worship and service,
Ps. xxxix. 5, &c.

Fourthly, God won't bear with mixtures in his worship and service,
because all mixtures debases the worship and service of God, and
makes the worship a vain worship, Isa. xxix. 13, 14 ; Mat. xv. 3, 6,
8, 9. As the mixing of water with wine is the debasing of the
wine, and the mixing of tin with silver, or brass with gold, is the
debasing of the silver and gold ; so for men to mix and mingle their
traditions and inventions with God's institutions, is to debase the wor-
ship and service of God, and to detract from the excellency and glory
of it. The kings and princes of this world have most severely pun-
ished such, who, by their base mixtures, have imbased their coin ; and
there is a day a-coming wherein the King of kings will most severely
punish all such who have imbased his worship and service by mixing
their Eomish traditions with his holy institutions : Kev. xxii. 18, ' For
I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of
this book. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto
him the plagues that are written in this book.' And no wonder !
For what horrible pride, presumption, stoutness, and baseness of
spirit is it in foolish man to be so bold with the great God, as to dare
to mix anything of his own with his worship and service, which, ac-
cording to divine institution, is so perfect and complete ! God will
never bear it, to see men lay their dirt upon his gold, and to put their
rags upon his royal robes. Ah, Christians, Christians, evidence your
holiness by standing up for holy ordinances and pure worship, in
opposition to all mixtures whatsoever. Oh, don't you touch a
polluted worship, don't you plead and contend for a polluted wor-

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 331

ship, but let Baal plead for Baal ; and though all the world should
wander after the beast, yet don't you wander ; and though every fore-
head should have the mark of the beast upon it, yet do you abhor his
mark, and whatever else it be that does but smell and savoiu- of the
beast. It is observable that in kings' and princes' courts, children,
fools, and the rude rabble, are much taken with fine pictures, and rich.
shows, and glistering gaudy cloths, &c. ; but such as «,re wise, serious,
grave statesmen, they mind not, they regard not such poor things,
they look upon those things as things that are much below the noble-
ness and the greatness of their spirits, who have honourable objects,
and the great and weighty affairs of the state to busy themselves about:
so, my brethren, though the children, the fools, and the rabble of the
world are much affected and taken with such pollutions and mixtures
as makes up a glorious pompous worship, yet you that have a spirit
of holiness, and principles of holiness in you, oh, how should you slight
such things, and pass by such things as things below you, as things
not worthy of you, who have a holy God, a holy Christ, a holy gospel,
and a holy worship to busy your thoughts, your minds, your heads,
and your hearts about. But,

[5.] Fifthly, Evidence the truth and reality of your holiness, by he-
wailing and lamenting the loss of holiness. Ah, how is this crown of
holiness fallen from our heads ! Lam. v. 16. Oh the leanness of souls !
Oh the spiritual witherings and decays in grace and holiness that is
to be found among many Christians this day ! Some complain of the
loss of trade, and others complain of the loss of estate ; some complain
of the loss of credit, and others complain of the loss of friends ; but
what are all these losses to the loss of holiness ? And yet how few
be there that complain of the loss of holiness. l Holiness is fallen in
our hearts, in our families, in our streets, and in our churches ; and
yet how few are there to be found that laments the fall of holiness.

sirs, will you lament such as are fallen from riches to poverty, from
honour into disgrace, and from the highest pitch of prosperity to the
lowest step of beggary and misery ; and will you not lament such who
are fallen from the highest round to the lowest round in Jacob's lad-
der ? sirs, will you mourn over a decayed estate ? will you weep
over decayed friends ? and will you sigh and sob over a decayed body?
and will you not much more lament and mourn over decayed souls ?
&c. Ah, how many have lost that love, that life, that heat, that zeal,
that readiness, that forwardness, and that resoluteness that once they
had for God and godliness ! Rev. ii. 4, 5. Some are fallen from their
holiness by giving themselves elbow-room to sin against the checks
and lashes of conscience, Ps. li. ; others are decayed in holiness by
their secret resisting and smothering the gracious motions of the
Spirit, Acts vii. 51 ; some are fallen from holiness, either by their
neglect of precious means, or else by their heartless using of the means,

1 Thes. V. 20 ; others are fallen from their holiness, either by the
allurements and enticements of a tempting world, or else by the frowns
and threatenings of a persecuting world, 2 Tim. iv. 10; some are
fallen from holiness by their non-exercise of grace; and others are

^ It is verj' uncomfortable to see the days grow slorter, and to sec friends grow be-
hindhand in the world.

332 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

fallen from holiness by not discerning their first decays in grace. So
that, upon one account or another, multitudes in these days are fallen
from that holiness which was once their glory. If you look into
families, there you shall find masters complaining that their servants
are so careless, foolish, frothy, light, slight, slothful, unfaithful, proud,
and lofty, that they are not to be spoken to nor trusted ; and if you
look again into the same families, there you shall find servants com-
plaining that their masters and mistresses are so exceeding froward,
peevish, passionate, worldly, neglective of duties, and careless of their
souls, that it is even a hell to servants to live with them. Now, what
speaks all these sad complaints, but either a total want of holiness, or
else a very great decay of holiness ? And if you look among all other
relations, as husbands and wives, parents and children, magistrates
and people, ministers and Christians, oh, what sad divisions, what
fiery contentions, and what fearful jars are there to be found ! oh, what
slightings, what revilings, what under-valuings, what heart-risings,
what heart-swellings, and what heart-burnings are to be found amongst
them ! And what do all these things declare, but that the glory of God
is departed from Israel, and that holiness is fallen to a very low ebb ?
Ah friends, were there but more holiness among you, there would be
more union among you, and more love among you, and more sweetness
and tenderness among you, and more forbearance and patience among
you. Oh, then you would never be snarling one at another, nor biting
one of another, nor plotting one against another, nor devouring one of
another any more. Again, if you look among men whose parts are
great, whose gifts are high, whose profession is glorious, and whose
expressions and notions are very seraphical, ah, what a little holiness
will you find ! sirs, shall the men of this world vex and fret, shall
they weep and wail, and shall their lamentation and mourning be like
that of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, 2 Chron. xxxv, 24, 25,
and that for the loss of a little wealth, or for a punctilio of honour, or
a day of pleasure, or the smiles of a prince, &c. ? and will not you
lament and mourn for the loss of holiness, which is the choicest jewel
in a Christian's crown ? Tears, instead of gems, were the ornaments
of David's bed when he was fallen from his holiness, Ps. li. And
though the Persian kings would have no mourning nor mourning
apparel worn in their presence, yet the King of kings loves to see his
people a-mourning for the falls of holiness, as well as for the heights
of wickedness. When news was brought to Xenophon of his son's
death, he put off his crown from his head, and wept."i my brethren,
who can hear of the death of holiness, and behold the death of holi-
ness in men's hearts, lives, and families, and not put off his crown,
and weep, and not put ofi" his ornaments, and weep till he can weep
no more ? &c. But,

[6.] Sixthly, Evidence the truth and reality of your holiness, by
pursuing, pressing, and following after the highest degrees of holiness.
Oh, sit not down satisfied with some drops or sips of holiness, but labour
after the perfection of hohness.2 Oh, don't content yourselves with

^ Val. Max., lib. v. c. 10.

' Bernard, in Canticles, cries out, I would not upon the sudden attain to my highest
pitch, but grow towards it by little and little.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 333

SO mucli holiness as will bring you to happiness, or with so much
holiness as will keep wrath and your souls asunder, or hell and your
souls asunder, or eternal ruin and your souls asunder. The exhorta-
tion in the text, ' Follow peace with all men, and holiness,' Heb. xii.
14, is an exhortation that was given out to saints that were holy
before, and the life and force of it lies in this, that those that were
holy should labour to be more and more holy, they should still be
adding of grace to grace, holiness to holiness, they should still be
a-going on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength.! As
holiness hath its conception, birth, and infancy, so it hath its full
growth, and after that all Christians must strive. Holiness is not like
to Jonah's gourd, that shot up in a night, but it is like plants and trees
that grows up by degrees,'^ (Ps. xcii. 14,) and after the highest degrees
we must endeavour. After the prophet Elias had travelled a day's
journey in the wilderness, he sat down and slept under a juniper-tree,
and there God calls upon him, ' Up and eat,' 1 Kings xix. 4, 5 ; and
when he found him the second time he calls again upon him, ' Up and
eat, because thou hast a gi-eat journey to go,' ver. 7. Christians, you
have a howling wilderness to travel through, you have a great journey
to go, you have many a mountain to walk over, and many an enemy
to vanquish, even the world, the flesh, and the devil, and many a cross
to bear, and many a mercy to improve, &c., and therefore you have
very great cause to up and eat, I say, to up and eat, that is, to grow
stronger and stronger in holiness, and to walk from grace to grace, and
from virtue to virtue, and to come off from your milk, and to feed
upon strong meat, Heb. v. 12-14, that you may hold out to the end of
your journey, and not faint nor fall short of that great salvation which
attends perfection of holiness. And this progress in holiness is that
main thing that the apostle presses upon the believing Corinthians in
that 2 Cor. vii. 1 , ' Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting
holiness in the fear of God.' The apostle having in the former
chapter armed the believing Corinthians with many strong arguments
against all communion and fellowship with idolaters, he comes at last
to touch upon those great and glorious promises which, upon the
account of their high and holy calling, they were interested in, ver.
16-18 ; and he presents them as singular motives, and as choice
and precious encouragements, to move them to perfect holiness in the
fear of God. There is no work on earth that so well becomes the
heirs of such precious promises as that of cleansing themselves from all
filthiness on the one hand, and that of perfecting holiness in the fear
of God on the other hand. Now this being a point of the highest con-
cernment, and of the greatest importance imaginable to the saints,
I shall therefore endeavour these three things :

I. First, To lay down some motives to provoke you to perfect
holiness in the fear of God, &c.

II. Secondly, I shall propound some means, some directions, that
may help you to make a progress in holiness, &c.

III. Thirdly, I shall shew you how you may know whether you

1 2 Pet. i. 6-13 ; Rom. i. 17 ; Ps. Ixxxiv. 7.

* Muabrooms grow up to perfection in one night.

334 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAJilTY, [HeB. XII. 14.

have attained to such a perfection of holiness as we are all to strive
after, &c.

I shall first begin with the motives that may whet and stir up your
spirits to labour after greater degrees and higher measures of holiness
than yet you have attained to ; and to that purpose, I beseech you
seriously to consider of these following particulars :

(1.) First, Consider that notwithstanding all the means, and all the
advantages, and all the opportunities that you have enjoyed to work
you to perfect holiness in the fear of God, yet you have obtained but to
very small measures of holiness. You are rather babes than men
in holiness, you are rather shrubs than cedars in grace, you are rather
dwarfs than giants in godliness to this very day ; and this sad charge
I shall briefly make good against you by an induction of eight par-
ticulars, thus :

[1.] First, The strength, the power, the activity, and the prevalency
of sin in you to this day does witness to your faces that you have yet
obtained but small measures of holiness, Rom. vii. 22-24; Isa. lix. 12.
my brethren, are not many of your corruptions as powerful and as
strong as they were five, ten, yea, twenty years ago ; notwithstanding
all the prayers that you have made, and all the sermons that you have
heard, and all the tears that you have shed, and all the resolutions
that you have taken, and all the promises that you have made, and all
the conflicts that you have had ? And what does this speak out but
that holiness is at a low ebb in your souls ? sirs, were but
holiness risen to a greater height in your souls, how readily would you
trample upon your lusts ! Rom. viii. 10 ; and how easily would you
lead captivity captive ! As the house of David grew stronger and
stronger, so the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker, 2 Sam. iii. 1 .
As holiness rises in the soul by degrees, so sin dies in the soul by
degrees ; and the more any man abounds in holiness, the more he
abounds in his spiritual conquests over the world, the flesh, and
the devil. Gal. viii. 14. sirs, your pride testifies to your faces, and
your self-love testifies to your faces, and your worldHness testifies
to your faces, and your passion testifies to your faces, and your diffidence
testifies to your faces, and your hypocrisy testifies to your faces,
and your carnality testifies to your faces, &c. , that yet you are not got
up many rounds in Jacob's ladder, that your degrees in holiness may
be easily cast up, Hosea v. 5, and vii. 10. But,

[2.] Secondly, You have not attained to much holiness; witness that
high price that you set upon the toys, the trifles, and the vanities of
this world, as Jonah did upon his gourd, Gen. xxiv. 30, 31. Ah, at what
a rate do men value the empty honours, the fading riches, and the
declining greatness of this world ! Democritus, the philosopher,
esteemed his room covered over with green branches above the royal
palace. And did not Peter prefer a tabernacle on earth before a
royal palace, not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens ? But
what do I talk of Peter, when this disease had again and again
and again overspread the hearts of all the disciples, as you may
evidently see by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.i

1 Mat. xvii. 4 ; 2 Cor. v. 1, 2 ; Mat xviii. 1, 2 ; Mark ix. 33-36; Luke ix, 46, 47, and
xxii. to xxriii.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 335

They had dispute upon dispute, which of them should be accounted
greatest ; they had often sharp contests among themselves, which
of them should have the greatest honour, the best office, and the
highest perferment in Christ's earthly kingdom ; and indeed their
thoughts, heads, and hearts were so taken up about an outward king-
dom, a worldly kingdom, that they little minded either the spiritual
kingdom of God within them, or the glorious kingdom of God above
them. As the foolish Indians prefer every toy and trifle before
their mines of gold, so many Christians, who are low in holiness, pre-
fer the trifling vanities of this world before the glorious treasures and
endless pleasures that be at God's right hand, Ps. xvi. 11. Oh, but
where holiness is risen to any considerable height, there men will make
a very footstool of their crowns, for Christ to get up and ride in
triumph. There all the glory and bravery of this world will be but as
dross and dung, Phil, iii, 7, 8 ; there men would, like the woman, the
church, in the Revelation, ' trample the moon^' that is, all the things
of this world, which are as changeable as the moon, ' under their feet,'
Rev. xii. 1. Were there but more holiness in your hearts, all the gay
and gallant things of this world would be more contemptible in your
eyes. sirs, if Midas was condemned to wear ass's ears, because he
preferred Pan's pipe before Apollo's lute, that is, human policy before
divine providence, how severely are they to be censured who prefer the
poor, low, empty nothings of this world before all the glory and happi-
ness of another world ! &c. But,

[3.] Thirdly, You have attained to but little holiness ; witness your
fears and fainting s in a day of adversity. Though there be as many
fear nots, as there be fears in Scripture, yet in a day of calamity, how
easily and frequently does your fears get above your faith ! Isa. li.
12, 13, and xli. 10, 14 ; and what fainting-fits does then attend you !
Prov. xxiv. 10, ' If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is
small,' or as the Hebrew has it, ' thy strength is narrow or straitened.' i
Look, as bodily faintness discovers bodily weakness, so soul faintness
discovers soul w^eakness. It is troubles that are the trials of a Chris-
tian's strength. Afflictions will try what sap and life we have within
us. As the man is for holiness, so is his strength under trials. He
that has no holiness, has no strength, and he that has but a little holi-
ness, has but a little strength : but he that has much holiness, has
much strength, and accordingly will bear up bravely in a day of trial ;
his bow, with Joseph's, will then abide in strength, Gen. xlix. 23, 24.
Though Noah in the building of his ark met with many a sore trial,
and many a sad affront, and many a broad jest, and many a bitter
Bcofi"; and though the people generally laughed at the good old man,
thinking that he did not only dote, but dream, not of a dry summer,
but of a wet winter, as we say ; yet Noah, being eminent in holiness,
his bow abode in strength, and he held on building of the ark, till he
had finished the work that God had commanded. But oh the sadness,
the weakness, the faintness that attends most persons in the day of
their adversity 1 Jer. viii. 18, 21, ' When I would comfort myself
against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. For the hurt of the daughter

^ Tiar, *il{. It signifies to be etraitened, aa men are straitened that are closely besieged
in time of war, &c.

336 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

of my people am I hurt ; am I black ; astonishment hath taken hold
on me/ Chap. xlv. 3, ' Thou didst say, Woe is me now ! for the
Lord hath added grief to my sorrow ; I fainted in my sighings, and I
find no rest.' Lam. i. 22, ' For my sighs are many, and my heart is
faint.' Chap. v. 17, ' For this our heart is faint, for these things our
eyes are dim.' Now this faintness in the day of adversity speaks out
much spiritual weakness ; for where holiness is risen to a noble height,
there men will bear up courageously, even in a day of calamity. The
eagle is the king of birds, and therefore the Komans, who were the
greatest potentates on earth, still bore the eagle in their standards.
Now the naturalist observes concerning this royal bird, that whereas
all other birds make a noise when they are hungry, this princely bird
makes no noise at all, though he be never so hungry, for such is the
greatness and the nobleness of his spirit, that whatever befalls him,
he won't cry, and whine, and repine, as other birds will do when they
want their food; his princely spirit carries him above all hunger,
thirst, or danger, i So men that are eminent in holiness, are men of
such noble, princely spirits, that they won't faint, nor vex, nor fret,
nor complain, nor whine, whatever their wants, trials, or straits may
be. Such afflictions as would break other men's hearts, cannot so
much as break their sleep ; they still hold on their way, and whatever
they meet with, they will be still a-mounting nearer and nearer to
heaven. But now where there is but a little holiness, there men will
be like the common fowls of the air, still a-making a noise, they will
still be a-crying, whining, and repining under every trial and trouble
they meet with. But,

[4.] Fourthly, You have but a little holiness ; witness your easy,
your ready, arid your fi-equent fallings before temptations and motions
to sin. sirs, when the temptation does but touch and take, when
you are no sooner tempted but you are conquered, no sooner assaulted
but you are vanquished, certainly holiness is at a very low ebb in your
souls. That garrison, without all peradventure, is very weak, that is
taken at the first assault, and that ship is but meanly manned, that is
carried at first boarding, and that soldier is but slightly armed, that is
run through at the first thrust ; and so that Christian has but little
spiritual strength in him, who is worsted and vanquished upon the first
appearance of a temptation. When men's understandings are easily
corrupted with error, or their judgments with levity, or their wills
with frowardness, or their affections with disorderedness, or their con-
sciences with unrighteousness, it is a very great argument that there is
but little holiness within. sirs, men eminent in holiness, in their
ordinary course, have been always eminent in the resisting and with-
standing of temptations, as is evident in Joseph, Job, Daniel, the
three children, &c.2 Austin thanks the Lord that his heart and the
temptation did not meet together. The devil tempting Bonaventure,
told him that he was a reprobate, and therefore persuaded him to drink
in the present pleasures of this life, for, saith Satan, thou art excluded
from the future joys with God in heaven ; to whom he answered. No,
not so, Satan, for if I must not enjoy God after this life, I will labour

^ Aristotle, lib. ix. de Historia Animalium, &c.
' Gen. zxzix : Job i. ; Dan. iii. and vi.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 337

to enjoy him as much as I can whilst I live. When one of the martyrs
was offered riches and honours if he would recant, he gave this excel-
lent answer, Do but offer me somewhat that is better than my Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall see what I will say to you.i When Valens
the emperor offered large preferments to Basil, and told him what a
great man he would make him, he answered. Offer these things to
children, and not to Christians. When Bernard was tempted, Tell
me not, Satan, said he, what I have been, but what I am and will be
through grace. And so when Beza was tempted in the like case, he
answered, Whatsoever I was, I am now in Christ a new creature, and
that is it which troubles thee, Satan ; I might have continued in my
sins long enough ere thou wouldst have vexed at it, but now I see
thou dost envy me the grace of my Saviour. And when Augustine
was sadly reviled by the Donatists for the wickedness of his youth, he
answered. The more desperate my disease was, so much the more I
admire the physician. Thus men eminently holy have stood their
ground in the face of all temptations and motions to sin ; but, alas ! in
these times how easily, how readily, and how frequently do multitudes
fall before every temptation ! As soon as Achan had but cast his eye
upon the Babylonish garment and shekels of silver and wedge of gold,
his fingers itched to be handling of them. Josh. vii. 21 ; so many in
these days, as soon as they do but see the way to honour or preferment,
or a great place, or a high office, &c., oh, how do their fingers itch,
how do their souls long after these things ! and though they savour
and smell never so strong of Babylon or of Rome, yet have them they
must. Such persons may do well to remember, that Achan's Babylon-
ish garment was but a shroud to shroud him, and his golden wedge
was but a wedge to cleave him, and his shekels of silver were but
shekels to hold him the faster, both under the wrath of God and man.
Such as can turn with every wind, and close with every worship, and
bow to every idol that man sets up, have either no holiness, or else
but very little holiness, in their hearts. Such as easily and readily fall
before temptations from within or without, have never attained to
any great measures of holiness. But,

[5.] Fifthly, You have but a little holiness ; witness the strange be-
haviour and carriage of your souls, when the Lord smites you in some
near and dear enjoyment. If the Lord does but frown upon your
Joseph, or touch your Isaac, or call for your Benjamin, or wither your
gourd, oh, now with Rachel you will not be comforted, or with Jacob
you will go mourning into the grave, or with David you will cry out,
' Absalom, my son, my son ! would God I had died for thee ! ' or
with Jonah you will tell God to his face that you do well to be angry .2
Oh, now you can't look up and trust in God, you can't look up and
delight in God, you can't look up and hope in God, you can't look up and
solace yourselves in God, you can't look up and lie down in the good
pleasure of God, you can't look up and justify God, you can't look up
and say God is your God, &c. Oh, now God has touched you in your
fii'st-born, you can neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep ; now you can

^ And the young convert when he was tempted, answered, Ego non sum ego, I am not
the man that I was, &c.

' Jer. xxxi. 15 ; Gen. xxxvii. 35; 2 Sam. xviii. 33; Jonah iv. 9.
VOL. IV. Y

338 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14

taste no sweet, nor take no comfort, nor find no content in any of all
your enjoyments ; now God has touched the apple of your eye, you can
neither think well of God, nor speak well of God, nor carry it well
towards God. Oh, now nobody can please you, nor nothing can satisfy
you ; now you think that there is no sorrow to your sorrow, no cross to
your cross, nor no loss to your loss, &c. ; now every sweet is bitter, and
every comfort is a cross ; and accordingly you carry it both towards
God and towards man. Lam. i. 12, 18 ; all which speaks out holiness
to be at a very low ebb in your souls. sirs, were holiness but risen
to some considerable height in your souls, you would with Job, who
was eminent in holiness, bless a taking God, as well as a giving God,
Job i. 21 ; and you would carry it sweetly and ingenuously towards
God, as well when he writes bitter things against you as when he is
a-multiplying of favours and kindnesses upon you ; but if when the rod
smarts you kick, and fling, and fret, and fume, and vex, and tear your
comforts in pieces, and your souls in pieces, and yom* God in pieces,
as much as in you lies, certainly the streams of holiness runs low in
your souls. But,

[6.] Sixthly, You have but little holiness ; witness the ebhings and
the flowing s of your spirits according to the ivorldng of secondary
causes. As secondary causes work, so you are up and down, high and
low ; now you are full of hopes, and anon you are full of fears ; now
you believe, and anon despair ; now you are steadfast, and anon you
are wavering ; now you say, surely God will once more own us, and
anon you say, verily God has forsaken us ; now you say you see the
clouds begin to scatter, and anon you say you see the clouds grow
darker and thicker ; now you say the winter is past, and the singing
of birds is come, and anon you say your winter is like to be longer
than ever ; ^ now you say there is balm in Gilead, and anon you say
your wound is incurable ; now you say all is your own, and anon you
are ready to give up all as lost, &c. ; and thus your hearts rise and
fall according to the working of second causes. When you have full
purses, and powerful armies, and subtle counsellors, and great allies,
then you are ready to say, surely our mountain is strong, and we shall
never be removed, Ps. xxx. 6-8 ; but when your bags are empty,
and your forces broken, and your counsels dissipated, and your allies
fallen off, then you are ready to cry out. Oh, now there is no hope, there
is no help ! Oh, but now were you eminent in holiness, then, under
the saddest and Grossest workings of second causes, you would say with
Asa, ' Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or
with them that have no power,' 2 Chron. xiv. 11 ; and with Elisha, ' They
that be with us are more than they that be with them,' 2 Kings vi. 16,
17 ; and with Moses, ' Stand still and see the salvation of God,' Exod.
xiv. 13 ; and with David, ' The Lord is on my side, I will not fear
what man can do unto me,' Ps. cxviii. 6. Holiness in any consider-
able height will set the power of God in opposition to all the power of
the world, and then divinely triumph over them, Ps. Ixv. 6-11.
Pompey once gloried in this, that with one stamp of his foot he could
raise all Italy up in arms ; 2 but the great God with one stamp of his
foot, or with one word of his mouth, can raise not only Italy, but also

^ Cant. ii. 11, 12 ; Jer, viii. 22, xlvi. 11, and H. 8. * Plutarch in vita Pomp.

He B. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 339

all the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth, in arms at his
pleasure ; and in the power of this God, raised holiness will enable a
m an to glory all the day long. Where holiness is weak, there men
stand and fall as second causes work, but where holiness is eminent,
there men will live upon the first cause ; and, however second causes
may wheel about, yet such a man will live upon him, and look up to
him that hath a wheel within every wheel, Ezek. i. 15-22. But,

[7.] Seventhly, You have but little holiness ; witness that soul-lean-
ness, barrenness, and unfruitfulness that is among you at this very
day, Ps. cvi. 15. Ah, how may most cry out with the prophet Isaiah,
' Oh my leanness, my leanness ! ' Isa, xxiv. 16, and x. 16. Oh our lean-
ness, our leanness, our barrenness, &c. ! though God has waited many
three years for fruit, yet behold nothing but leaves. I have read of the
Indian fig-tree, how that its leaves are as broad as a target, but its fruit
is no bigger than a bean.i Ah, how many Christians be there in these
days whose leaves of profession are very broad, but their fruits of
righteousness and holiness are very small ; and as the Indian fig-tree,
though it be of fair and goodly dimensions, yet it riots out all its sap
and juice into leaves and blossoms. So many in these days, who,
though they carry it fair, and make a goodly show, yet they riot out
all that spiritual sap and life that is in them into the mere leaves and
blossoms of an empty profession. Ah, how are many of our hearts
like to the isle of Patmos, which is so barren that nothing that is good
will grow on it ; all the good things that grow there is from the earth
that is brought from other places. Look, as a company of ants are very
busy about a molehill, running to and fro, and wearying themselves
in their several movings and turnings, this way and that, and yet
never grow great ; for after all their motions and stirring, they are still
the same as to the slender proportion of their bodies : so many Chris-
tians in these days run to and fro, they run from one duty to another,
and from one ordinance to another, and from one opinion to another,
and from one principle to another, and from one minister to another,
and from one church to another, and from one way to another, and
from one notion to another, and yet they make little progress in holi-
ness, they grow but little in the love, the life, the likeness, and the
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Pet. iii. 18 ; they are like
those silly women that Timothy speaks of, who were ever learning,
and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, 2 Tim. iii.
6, 7 ; and they are like Nazianzen's country of Ozizala, [?] which
abounded with gay flowers, but was barren of corn ; so these abound
in gay notions, and flourishing parts, but are barren of grace and
holiness. Seneca hath long since observed that as the philosophers in
his time grew more and more learned, so they grew less and less
moral ; and is there anything more evident in these days than this,
viz., that as men grow more and more in empty airy notions, and in a
pompous religion and profession, so they grow less and less zealous and
religious. The reason, say some, why Christ cursed the fig-tree,
though the time of bearing fruit was not come, was because it made a
glorious show with leaves, and promised much, but brought forth
nothing. What is a barren tree, a barren ground, or a barren womb,

^ Athenseus; Deipnosophistce, lib. iii.

340 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

to a barren heart ? Many in our days are like the cypress-tree, which,
the more it is watered, the more it is withered ; so the more many are
watered with the means of grace, the more they wither ; the more the
dews of heaven falls upon them, and the more heavenly manna is daily
rained round about them, the more lean, fruitless, and barren they
grow. Such souls may do well to remember that those trees that
are not for fruit are for the fire, John xv. 6 ; Heb. vi, 8. For a
close, let me tell you that I fear, with that Father, [Augustine,] that
many grieve more for the barrenness of their lands, than they do for
the barrenness of their lives, and for the barrenness of their trees,
than they do for the barrenness of their souls, and for the loss of
their cattle, than they do for the loss of God's countenance. But,

[8,] Eighthly and lastly. You have but little holiness ; witness that
great indifferency and inco7istancy that is to he found among you.^
Ah, how many Christians are there in these days of gospel light who
are indifferent who they hear, or what they hear, who are indifferent
whether they pray or not, or walk in gospel order or not, or keep Sabbaths
or not, or maintain closet communion with God or not, or enjoy the Lord's
supper or not, &c., and oh, what inconstancy is to be found among many
in these days ! Many persons are only constant in inconstancy. Now they
are for ordinances, and anon they are against them ; now ordinances are
precious and glorious things, and anon they are poor low things ; now
they cry up this and that for glorious truths, and anon they cry down
the same things as dangerous and pernicious errors ; now they cry up
Paul and cry down Apollos, and anon they cry up Apollos and cry
down Paul ; now they are for this form, and anon they are for that ;
now they are very zealous, and anon they are very lukewarm ; now
they are for worshipping of God according to rule, and anon they are
for worshipping of God according to the prescriptions of men ; now
they have their gales of devotion, and anon they are quite becalmed ;
now they are full of life, and anon they are very lumpish ; now they
stand fast, and anon they are wavering ; now they are confident all
will be well, and anon they give up all as lost ; now they will lay down
their lives for Christ, and anon they are afraid to own Christ, &c.
Now what does this indifferency and inconstancy speak out, but either
a total want of holiness, or else that holiness is at a very low ebb in
these men's souls ? Now these eight arguments do clearly evidence
that many, oh that I could not say that most. Christians have attained
but to small measures and degrees of holiness. But,

(2.) Secondly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider ^/iai it is possible for you to attain to greater mea-
sures of holiness tJian any yet you have reached unto. Though the
work be hard, yet it is possible ; and what great things won't men at-
tempt upon the account of a possibility. Now that it is possible that

wL may attain to a greater perfection of holiness, I shall evidence

ablie five ways :

the 1 First, By many precious promises that are scattered up and

Pompey o.

raise all Italy ''t kept both great favour and places under Henry the Eighth, a Papist,
foot or with On^"^*^ *^® Sixth, a Protestant, and under Queen Mary, a Papist, and
' a Protestant, and being asked how he could do so, he answered

Cant. 11. 11, 12 ; Jer. -, billow and not the oak.

Heb. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 341

down in the blessed Scriptures; as that Job xvii. 9, 'The righteous
shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger
and stronger;' or as the Hebrew has it, [VQ>i ^ D"!,] 'he shall add
strength,' that is, he shall go on from one degree of spiritual strength
to another, he shall go on from a lesser degree to a greater degree, and
from a lower degree to a higher degree, of spiritual strength. A holy-
man shall not only have his spiritual strength maintained, but in-
creased ; he shall not only retain that spiritual strength he has, but he
shall be still a-adding of strength to strength, Ps. Ixxxiv, 7. They go
from strength to strength, or from power to power, or as tlie word may
be read, from company to company, or from troop to troop, in allusion
to the custom of the Jews, when all the males went up thrice a year
to Jerusalem ; now when they went up to Jerusalem, they went up
with their flocks, and in troops. Now those that were lively, active,
and strong, they overtook this company and that, and this troop and
that, and so they went on, their power and strength increasing daily
more and more, till they appeared before God in Zion ; i or look, as
the bee goes from flower to flower to gather honey, so those that had
a principle of grace and holiness in them, they went from one good
company to another, from one troop of Christians to another, still
gathering up heavenly honey as they went. sirs, there is no such
way to perfect holiness, as to be still a-going on from duty to duty,
and from ordinance to ordinance ; from praying to hearing, and from
hearing to praying ; from reading to meditating, and from meditating
to reading ; from public duties to closet duties, and from closet duties
to public duties, &c. : Ps. xcii. 12-14, ' The righteous shall flourish
like the palm-tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that
be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our
God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat
and flourishing.' Ille non est homes, qui Twn vult esse melior. The pro-
mise of flourishing is three times repeated in these verses — they shall
flourish, they shall flourish, they shall flourish — to note the more than
ordinary flourishing estate of the saints, even in their old age. I have
read of an old Christian, who being asked whether he grew in good-
ness or no, answered, I believe I do, because the Lord has promised
that his people shall bring forth fruit in old age. Pliny, writing of
the crocodile,''tells us that she grows to her dying day; so Christians that
are rooted in Christ, and planted in the house of the Lord, they will
be still growing up in grace and holiness even to their dying day. It
is with real Christians as it is with wine, the older the better, or as it
is with the sun, which shines most gloriously and amiably when it is
near setting. Gracious souls are like the laurel, or the bay-tree, whose
leaves are always green, not only in the summer of youth, but also in
the winter of old age. The palm-tree is always green, it never loseth
his leaves or fruit, and the more it is loaded the deeper it is rooted ;
and so it shall be with throughout Christians. So in that Isa. xlvi. 3,
4, God has promised to carry us on to old age, ' Hearken unto me,
house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the liouse of Israel, which are
borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb. And

^ '^^H-VK 'P^riQ, properly signifies vigour, courage, alacrity, power, success, and au
army, wherein usually most power is required and manifested.

342 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

even to your old age I am he, and even to hoar hairs will I carry you :
I have made, and I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you.'
That God that begins a work of grace and holiness in his people's
hearts, that God will perfect and carry on that work. Mothers and
nurses express their tender care, love, and delight, by carrying 'their
babes in their arms till they can go alone ; but God surpasses them
in his love, care, tenderness, and divine fondness, for he will carry
them even to hoary hairs. This word ' I,' that is six times repeated
in verse the fourth, is doubtless of very great importance, and signifies
not only God's eternal essence, and that he will be ever like himself, but
also his unchangeableness in regard of us ; for whatever our thoughts
may be concerning God, yet we shall always find him one and the same ;
he will be as good to his people at last as he was at first, even to old age
he will carry them. So in that Prov. iv. 18, ' But the path of the
just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the per-
fect day.' A holy man proceeds from grace to grace, from virtue to
virtue ; he goes from faith to faith, and from strength to strength, till
at length he shines as the sun in his strength. So in that Hosea xiv.
5-7, ' I will be as the dew unto Israel : he shall grow as the lily, and
cast forth his root as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his
beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They
that dwell under his shadow shall return, they shall revive as the
corn, and grow as the vine : the scent thereof shall be as the wine of
Lebanon.' The growth, the fruitfulness, and the flourishing estate of
the saints in grace and holiness, is set forth by a sevenfold metaphor
in these words. The similes are all plain and easy, and you may easily
dilate upon them in your own thoughts ; and therefore I shall pass
them. I shall conclude with that precious promise, John iv. 14, ' But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst :
but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.' The Spirit in its gracious opera-
tions shall be a constant spring in believers' hearts, and it shall every
day rise higher and higher, like the water in Ezekiel, till grace be
swallowed up in glory, Ezek. xlvii. 1-7. And thus you see by these
choice promises, that it is possible for you to attain to a greater mea-
sure of holiness. But,

[2.] Secondly, The prayers that have been put up upon this very
account, do clearly evidence the same. Certainly the people of God
would never have prayed for higher degrees of grace and holiness, if
they had not been attainable. Now it is very observable that the
spirits of the saints have run out much this way, as is evident in these
instances, Phil. i. 9-11, ' And this I pray, that your love may abound
yet more and more, in knowledge, and in all judgment. That ye may
approve things that are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without
offence till the day of Christ : being filled with the fruits of righteous-
ness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.' l
Col. i. 9, * For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not
cease to pray for you, and desire that ye might be filled with the know-
ledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.' Chap,
iv. 12, * Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you,
* Oratio brevis penetrat coelum.

Heb, XII, 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 343

always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand per-
fect and complete in all the will of God/ The Greek word TreTrX?;-
pcofievo^;, is a metaphor from a ship, whose sails are filled with wind.
Epaphras was a humble petitioner that the souls of the Colossians
might be filled with the highest degrees of grace and holiness, as the
sails of a ship are filled with wind : 1 Thes. iii. 12, ' And the Lord
make you to increase and abound in love one towards another, and
towards all men, even as we do towards you.' The apostle, by doubling
his word, increase and abound, discovers himself to be an importunate
suitor, that a double portion of grace and holiness might be given out
to the Thessalonians. So in that Heb. xiii. 20, 21, ' Now the God of
peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great
shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you
that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory for ever and ever. Amen.' The apostle cannot beg anything
for these believing Hebrews below perfection. And the apostle Peter
puts up the same requests for those blessed converts that were scat-
tered throughout ' Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.'
In that 1 Pet. v. 10, ' But the God of all grace, who hath called us
into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have sufiered a
while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.' God is
called ' the God of all grace,' because he is the giver of all kinds of
grace, and of all degrees of grace. Now nothing will satisfy this great
apostle, when he comes to plead for these saints, below perfection.
Though they had as much grace as would bring them to heaven, yet
he begs such a perfection of grace as might raise them high in heaven.
And thus it appeareth by the prayers of these holy men, that saints
may still be rising in grace and holiness. But,

[3.] Thirdly, The experience of other saints does clearly evidence
this, that you may attain unto higher degrees of grace and holiness
than those that yet you have attained unto : Gen. vi. 9, ' Noah was a
just man and perfect in his generation, and Noah walked with God.'
Noah was not only perfect with perfection of parts ; nor only perfect in
respect of desires, endeavours, and aims ; nor only perfect in respect of
his justification before God by imputed righteousness ; nor only perfect
in respect of God's approbation, acceptation, and delight ; nor only per-
fect in respect of God's design and intentions to make him so in another
world ; nor only perfect in respect of those gifts and graces with which
he was adorned and furnished for the discharge of his place, office,
and work to which the Lord had called him ; nor only comparatively
perfect, in regard of that profane, ungodly, and debauched generation
among whom he lived ; but also he is said to be perfect in respect of an
eminent progress that he had made in grace and holiness. He had
attained to considerable degrees and measures of grace and holiness ;
and though his proficiency in the exercise of grace and practice of
piety fell short of complete perfection, yet it rose to such a height
that God could not but crown him and chronicle him for a perfect
man.i In all ages of the world there has been four several ages of

1 Ps. xxxvii. 37 ; Phil. iii. 11-16; Cant. iv. 7; Eph. v. 26, 27 ; Rev, xiv. i, 5 ; Prov.
ii 21, and xi. 5 ; 2 Tim. iii, 16, 17.

344 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Christians — viz., babes, children, young men, and old men."'- Noah
was not a babe, nor a child, nor a young man, but an old man in grace
and holiness ; and therefore he is said to be perfect. There are several
forms in Christ's school, some higher, some lower. Now he that is in
the highest form may be said to be perfect, in regard of those that are
in a lower or in the lowest form. Now Noah was in the highest form
of grace and godliness, therefore he is said to be perfect ; and in this
sense, I suppose. Job is said to be a perfect man : Job i. 1, 8, ' There
was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job ; and that man
was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job,
that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and upright man,
one that feareth God, and escheweth evil ? ' Job was a very consider-
able person ; he was a man of a choice spirit, he was taller in good-
ness, and higher by the head and shoulders in grace and godliness,
than any of the saints in that age and corner of the world where he
lived. Job was a man of the greatest weight and worth for holiness
that was in all the world. Job was a nonsuch ; no Christians could
come near him ; as he was the greatest, so he was the best of the best
of all the saints that were in the East for heights of grace and holi-
ness ; he was a giant, and all the Christians round about him were
but as so many dwarfs ; he was the paragon of his time ; for piety and
sanctity none could parallel him, none could match him ; and in this
sense we are to understand the apostle, both in that 1 Cor. ii. 6, ' We
speak wisdom among them that are perfect,' and in that Phil, iii, 15,
' Let as many as be perfect be thus minded.' He speaks here not of
an absolute perfection, for such a perfection himself disclaimeth in
ver. 12, ' Not as though I had already attained, either were already
perfect ; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.' By the force of the original
word, that is here rendered follow,^ the apostle declares that he had
perfection in chase, as it were, and that his spirit was with much heat
and eagerness carried out in pursuing after it, and resolved not to rest
till he had attained to it. An absolute perfection is very desirable on
earth, but shall never be obtained till we come to heaven. Absolute
perfection is not the privilege of saints militant, but of saints triumph-
ant ; and therefore the perfection that the believing Corinthians and
holy Philippians had attained to, was not an absolute but a compara-
tive perfection ; they were perfect in comparison of those that were
but babes and shrubs and dwarfs in Christ. And it is a very high
and honourable report that the apostle gives of the Corinthians in
that 2 Cor. viii. 7, ' Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith,
in utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to
us ; see that ye abound in this grace also/ And it is a very large
testimony that the same apostle gives of the Romans in that Rom. xv.
14, ' And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are
also full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish
one another.' Now the fulness the apostle speaks of is not a ful-

1 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; 1 John ii. 12-14 ; Heb. v. 12-14.

' biwKos, I persecute, I follow with as hot and as eager a spirit after perfection as per-
Bccutors do follow after those they persecute.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 345

ness of parts, for the weakest believer as well as the strongest is at first
conversion renewed and sanctified in every part, though it be but in
part and imperfect ; and this is a fulness of parts. But of this fulness
the apostle does not speak. But then there is a fulness of degrees.
Now this fulness is either an absolute fulness, or a comparative fulness.
The apostle is to be understood of a comparative fulness. The Romans
were full of all goodness and knowledge, in comparison of those in
whom Christ was but newly formed, and in whom the work of grace
was but newly erected ; and they were full of all goodness and know-
ledge now, in comparison of what they were at their first acquaintance
with Christ, and first acceptance of Christ, and first resignation of
themselves to Christ, and at their first marriage union and communion
with Christ. And thus you see, by the experiences of other saints,
that it is possible for you to attain to higher degrees of grace and
holiness than any those are that yet you have attained to. But,

[4.] Fourthly, It is possible for you to attain to higher degrees and
pitches in holiness than any yet you have reached unto ; witness the
praises and thanksgivings that has been offered up to God upon their
oxicounts tvho have attained to a very great heigld of holiness. Take
a few Scripture instances for the clearing up of this particular : as that
in 1 Cor. i. 4, 5, 7, ' I thank my God always on your behalf, for the
grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ ; that in everything
ye are enriched by him, in all utterance and in all knowledge ; so that
ye come behind in no good gift ; ' and that in Eph. i. 3, 7, 8, ' Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ; who ac-
cording to the riches of his grace, hath abounded towards us in all
wisdom and prudence.' i Here the apostle trumpets out the high
praises of God, for that he had blessed them and enriched them,
though not with corn, or oil, or wine, or with gold or silver, which is
but red and white clay, that yet he had blessed them with all spiritual
blessings, which are the choicest, the chief est, and the sweetest of
blessings ; for spiritual blessings are right-handed blessings, they are
peculiar Ijlessings, they are blessings-sweetening blessings, for they
sweeten all the blessings man enjoys ; and they are blessings-begetting
blessings, for they beget and bring forth many other blessings, to the
enriching and adorning of a Christian's soul ; and they are blessings-
sanctifying blessings, they are blessings that sanctify all other blessings ;
and they are blessings-preserving blessings, they are blessings that will
preserve all our other blessings. Spiritual blessings are peculiar bless-
ings, they are costly blessings, they are blessings that reach to the
very spirit and soul of a Christian, they are blessings that raises the
spirit of a Christian, and that ennobles the spirit of a Christian, and
that cheers up the spirit of a Christian, and that a thousand ways
betters the spirit of a Christian ; and therefore it is no wonder that
the apostle's heart was so afiected with spiritual blessings, and that his
mouth was so filled with spiritual praises, as indeed it was. And so
in that 1 Tim. i. 12, 14, ' And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, because
the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, with faith and love

^ Though injuries should be writ in the dust, yet spiritual mercies should be writ
on marble, that oui' hearts may be the better provoked to thankfulness for them.

346 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

which is in Christ Jesus/ ^ And thus you see by others' thanksgiv-
ings, that it is possible for you to attain to far higher degrees of holi-
ness than what for the present you are raised to. The stork is said to
leave one of her young ones where she hatcheth them ; and the ele-
phant to turn up the first sprig towards heaven when he comes to
feed, and both out of some instinct of gratitude ; and shall not a
divine instinct enable Christians to do much more in a way of grati-
tude, both upon the account of their own graces, and upon the account
of those eminent measures of grace that other saints are blessed and
crowned withal ? Though Seiarus^ did dare to sacrifice to himself,
yet a Christian must not dare to sacrifice to himself, nor to his duties,
nor to his graces, &c. ; the sacrifice of praise in regard of grace re-
ceived, is a crown of glory that is due to none but the God of grace.
All the rivers return to the sea from whence they had their beginning.
God will give you his covenant, and he will give you his ordinances,
and he will give his heaven, and he will give you his Son, yea, he
will give you himself ; but his glory, his glory he will not give unto
another, Isa. xlii. 8. Whatever he parts with, he is resolved that
neither angels nor men shall share with him in the glory of his grace.
I have read of a stork that cast a pearl into the bosom of a maid which
had healed her of a wound. sirs ! when God comes to heal you of
your spiritual wounds and diseases, and not only so, but shall also
richly bespangle and adorn your souls and others' with his precious
graces, what can you do less than cast that pearl of praise into the
bosom of God ? as David did in that Ps. ciii. 1-fi. The best means
to get more grace, is to be thankful for that grace you have, for God
loves to sow much where he reaps much. If your returns are answer-
able to your receipts, you will still be on the receiving hand. Thank-
fulness is God's impost for all his blessings, and they that truly and
duly pays this impost, shall be sure to abound in the best of blessings.
Thankfulness for one blessing always draws on another blessing, as
saints by experience daily find. And thus you see, by these argu-
ments, that it is possible for you to attain higher degrees of holiness
than any yet you have reached unto. But,

[5.] Fifthly and lastly, It is possible for you to attain to higher
degrees of holiness, &c. ; witness those choice, those rare and singular
gifts that Christ has bestowed upon many of his servants for this very
purpose — viz., that they may help on a growth and an increase of holi-
ness in your hearts: Eph. iv. 8, 11-13, ' Wherefore he saith. When
he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto
men. And he gave some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some,
evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of
Christ : till we all come into the unity of the faith, and of the know-
ledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ.' One main end of Christ's giving
such eminent gifts to his church officers is, that his people may be
made eminent in holiness. It is not only to bring them in, but also

^ vwepeir\e6vaffe, was over-full, redundant, or hath abounded to flowing over, as the sea
doth overflow the banks many times, and drown the lower grounds that are nearest to it.
» Qu. Sejanus ?— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 347

to build them up ; it is not only to convert them, but also to edify
them ; it is not only to begin a work of holiness, but also to perfect
and carry on a work of holiness ; and therefore the word is not only
compared to seed, that begets holiness in men's hearts, but also to
wine and milk and strong meat, that helps forward the growth and
increase of holiness in men's hearts.^ And so the great end of the
Lord's supper is not to work spiritual life where it is not, but to in-
crease it where it is ; it is not to change the heart, but more and
more to sanctify the heart ; it is not to work holiness, but to perfect
holiness in the fear of the Lord ; it is not to sow the seed of grace in
the soul, but it is to cause that seed to grow and flourish in the soul.
The martyrs in the primitive church, when they were to appear before
the cruel tyrants, they were wont, as Cyprian shews, to receive the
Lord's supper, and thereby they were fired with zeal and fervour, and
filled with faith and fortitude, &c. Chrysostom saith, that by the
sacrament of the Lord's supper we are so armed against Satan's
temptations that he fleeth from us, as if we were so many lions that
spit fire. The Lord's supper is a cabinet of spiritual jewels ; and oh,
then, how unmanly and unseemly a thing it is to hang this cabinet of
jewels, which is more worth than the gold of Ophir, in a swine's snout !
And how that mother can be guiltless of the death of her child, that
giveth him poison in a golden cup, with this caution, that she tells
him it is poison, I know not ; no more do I know how that minister
can be guiltless of the body and blood of our Lord, who dispenses the
bread of life to those who are known to be without spiritual life — yea,
that are known to be dead in sins and trespasses. And thus you see,
by these five arguments, that it is possible for you to attain to greater
measures of holiness than any yet you have reached unto ; and so
much for the second motive. 2

(3.) Thirdly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider ilmt the more holy you are, the more you ivill be the
delight of God, and the more dear you will he to God, and the more
beloved you ivill be of God, Ps. xvi. 3, 4. For the right understanding
of this argument you must carefully distinguish between Grod's love of
goodwill, and his love of complacency. Now God's love of goodwill
is equal to all his saints, whether they are rich or poor, high or low,
bond or free, or whether they have a sea of grace or but a drop of
grace. God's love of goodwill runs as much out to the weakest Chris-
tian as it does to the strongest, to a babe in grace as to a giant in
grace. All saints are equally elected. God never chose one man a
vessel of glory more than another; the weakest saint is as much
elected as the strongest, Rom. xi. 17. And as all saints are equally
elected, so all saints are equally redeemed by Jesus Christ. Christ
bled as much for one saint as another, and he sweat as much for one
saint as another, and he sighed and groaned as much for one saint as
another, and he trode the wine-press of his Father's wrath as much for
one saint as another, Isa. liii. 3-12. Christ paid as great a price for
his lambs as for his sheep, 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, for Lazarus in his rags
as for David in his royal robes. And as all saints are equally re-

^ It is only the holy soul that can truly say Credo vitain ceternam, et edo vitam (eternnm.
— Cyprian, lib. iv. ep. 6. ' In the margin here, ' The end of the 43d Sermon.'— G.

348 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

deemed, so all saints are equally called ; one saint is as much called
out of the kingdom of darkness as another, and one saint is as much
called to Jesus Christ as another, 1 Pet. ii. 9 ; in vocation God looks
with as favourable an eye upon one as he does upon another. And
as all saints are equally called, so all saints are equally justified, 2 Cor,
V. 19, 20 ; though one saint may be more sanctified than another, yet
no saint is more justified than another; the weakest believer is as
much justified and pardoned before the throne of God as the strongest
is ; that pure, perfect, matchless, and spotless righteousness of Christ
is as much imputed to one saint as it is to another, 1 Cor. i. 30. And
as all saints are equally justified, so all saints are equally adopted. Gal.
iv. 4-6 ; the weakest l)eliever is as much an adopted son as the
strongest believer in the world is. God is no more a father to one
than he is to another ; the babe in the arms is as much a son as he
that is of riper years. Thus you see that God's love of goodwill is
equal in all his saints, and therefore you are to understand this argu-
ment of God's love of complacency. Now this love runs out more to
some saints than it does to others ; for they that have much holiness
are much beloved, but they that have most holiness are most beloved,
John xiv. 21-23. The greater thou art in holiness, the greater wilt
thou be beloved of God, ' Daniel, thou art greatly beloved,' Dan. ix.
23. And why does God love more and delight more in Christ, than
he does in all the angels and saints in heaven, and in all the upright
ones that are on earth ? but because Christ is more eminent and
glorious in holiness than all created beings are ; he is more the express
image of his Father's person, and the brightness of his Father's glory
than others, and therefore he is more beloved than others. It was an
excellent observation of one of the fathers, viz., that God loved the
humanity of Christ more than any man, because he was fuller of grace
and truth than any man.i Now for the further clearing up of this
great argument, — Consider, first, that the more holy any person is,
the more excellent that person is. All corruptions are diminutions of
excellency. The more mixed anything is, the more abased it is. The
more you mix your wine with water, the more you abase your wine,
and the more you mix your tin with gold,^ the more you abase your
gold ; but the purer your wine is, the richer and the better your wine
is, and the purer your gold is, the more glorious and excellent it is,
so the purer and holier any person is, the more excellent and glorious
that person is. Now the more divinely excellent and glorious any
person is, the more he is beloved of God, and the more he is the delight
of God. But, secondly, the more holy any person is, the more that
person pleases the Lord, Heb. xi. 5. Fruitfulness in holiness fills
heaven with joy. The husbandman is not so much pleased with the
fruitfulness of his fields, nor the wife with the fruitfulness of her
womb, nor the father with the thriving of his child, as God is pleased
with the fruitfulness and thriving of his children in grace and holiness.
Now certainly the more God is pleased with any person, the more he
loves that person, and the more pleasure and delight he takes in such
a person. If God be most pleased with holiness, he cannot but be
most delighted in those that are most holy. But, thirdly, the more
holy any person is, the more like to God he is, and the more like to
* August. Tract, in John. i. 14. ^ Qu. ' Your gold with tin' ? — Ed.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 349

God he is, doubtless, the more he is beloved of God. It is like-
ness both in nature and grace that always draws the strongest
love. Though every child is the father multiplied, the father of a
second edition, yet the father loves him best, and delights in him
most, who is most like him, and who in feature, spirit, and action,
does most resemble him to the life ; and so does the Father of spirits
also, he always loves them best who in holiness resemble him most.
There are four remarkable things in the beloved disciple above all
the rest:i 1. That he lay nearest to Christ's bosom at the table;
2. That he followed Christ closest to the high priest's palace ; 3. That
he stood close to Christ when he was on the cross, though others had
basely deserted him, and turned their backs upon him; 4. That
Christ commended the care of his virgin mother to him. Now why
did Christ's desire, love, and delight, run out with a stronger and a
fuller tide towards John than to the rest of the disciples ? Doubtless
it was because John did more resemble Christ than the rest, it was
because John was a more exact picture and lively representation of
Christ than the others were. But fourthly, the more holy any man
is, the more communion and familiarity that man shall have with
God ; as you may see in Moses. Moses was a nonsuch for meekness
and holiness : Num. xii. 3, ' Now the man Moses was very meek, above
all the men which were upon the face of the earth.' There was no
man so slighted, wronged, provoked, teased, perplexed, and troubled
by that wicked, unthankful, unbelieving, and murmuring generation,
as Moses was, and yet he did neither rail at them nor revile them ;
he did neither storm nor rage, he did neither fret nor fling ; and though
he had a sword of justice in his hand, and might easily have avenged
himself on them, yet he would not, but exercised all patience, tender-
ness, goodness, and sweetness towards them. Oh the lowliness, the
meekness, the holiness of this man Moses ! And oh the freeness, the
friendliness, the openness, and the familiarness of God with Moses !
Deut. xxxiv. 10, ' And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like
unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.' To give you a little light
into these words : some of the Kabbis observe that Moses surpassed all
the other prophets, not only in sublimity of prophecies, but also in
excellency and number of miracles ; for Moses within one age wrought
seventy-six miracles, when all the rest of the prophets from the begin-
ning of the world quite down to the ruin of the first temple, wrought
only seventy-four : and as for those words, ' whom the Lord knew face
to face,' you are not to understand them thus, that God hath a face
as man hath, nor that Moses had a view of the essence of God, which
is invisible ; for in this sense no man hath seen God at any time,
John i. 18 ; and indeed the least beam of God's essential glory and
majesty would have swallowed up Moses alive, 1 Tim. vi. 16. But
these words, ' whom the Lord knew face to face,' are to be understood
of God's speaking to Moses in a free, friendly, familiar, and plain
manner. God did speak to Moses by a clear articulate voice, even as
one man speaks to another when they speak face to face. And so
when Aaron and Miriam were swelled with pride and envy, and began
to bespatter Moses, and to pick a hole in his coat, and to cloud,
eclipse, and diminish his glory, see at what a high and noble rate

^ John xiii, 23, xviii. 16, and xix. 26, 27.

350 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.

God speaks of Moses ; see how God magnifies and exalts and lifts up
Moses in that Num. xii. 6-8, ' And he said, Hear now my words :
If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known
unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant
Moses is not so, who is faithful in all my house ; with him will I
speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches ;
and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold : wherefore then were
ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses ? ' Now here you see
how God owns Moses, and stands up for Moses, and pleads for Moses,
and tells Aaron and Miriam to their faces that Moses was the greatest
favourite, and that he had far greater respects for Moses than he had
for them, and that there was not a man in all the world that was so
inward with him as Moses, and that had so much of his ear and heart
as Moses had, God did appear to other prophets in dreams and
visions, which were transient, but with Moses God will speak mouth to
mouth, God will speak to him without an interpreter, he will speak to
Moses more famiharly and frequently than he did to others by visions,
and more clearly, plainly, and assuredly than he did to others by
dreams. God here engages himself to hold a more close, familiar,
friendly, and constant conference and correspondence with Moses, than
with any others in the world. Moses was blessed with as clear, and
with as full, and with as apparent sight of God, and communion with
God, as he was able to bear and comprehend. Some of the learned
are of opinion, that Christ did converse with Moses in a human
shape, as he had done with Abraham before ; they conjecture that
the Lord Jesus did very friendly and familiarly shew himself to
Moses with that very same face and form of human nature, which
he afterwards assumed,! i3ut this I dare not press upon you as an
article of your faith. And whether Moses had one hundred and
seventy-three familiar conferences with God, which none of the
prophets had, lies upon those Kabbis to prove that do assert it ; but
this is granted on all hands, that he was a special favourite, and a
man in high communion with God, and one that had very clear and
eminent discoveries and manifestations of God, And so Abraham
was a man of great holiness, and a man eminent in his communion
with God, God owned him as a friend, as an honourable friend, as
an eminent friend, as a bosom friend, as a peculiar friend, and as a
faithful friend, Isa, xli, 8 ; and therefore he made him one of his privy
council, and opened his heart and his secrets to him : ' And the Lord
said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?' Gen, xviii.
17. Abraham is styled the friend of God by a specialty. Though
God had many friends, yet it was Abraham that was his singular friend,
his darling friend, his rare friend, &c., and accordingly God was most
free, and full, and rich in the communications of his favours and
secrets to Abraham. It was not enough for Abraham to be of God's
court, but he must be also of his cabinet council. It was always a
principle in morality, that sweet and intimate friendship cannot be
extended to many. Friends usually go by pairs. And thus you see
that the more holy any man is, the more communion that man shall
have with God, and the more communion any man has with God, the

^ Gen. xviii. and xxxii. 30, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 351

more beloved shall that man be of God. The highest communion is
always attended with the highest love. But, fiftlily and lastly, the
more holy any man is, the more actually ripe and fit for heaven that
man is. A Christian at first conversion is but rough cast, but as holi-
ness is increased, so he comes more and more every day to be prepared,
polished, squared, and fitted for a full and glorious fruition of God in
heaven. Job v. 26. Though the least degree of grace and holiness puts
a man into a habitual preparedness and fittedness for heaven, yet it is
only an eminency in grace and holiness that puts a man into an
actual preparedness and fittedness for heaven. The richer in grace
the riper for glory, the higher you are in holiness the fitter you
are to enter into the joy of your Lord. Though the least drop or
drachm of holiness is enough to keep a man from dropping into hell,
yet it is only grown holiness that actually prepares and fits a man
to go to heaven. Mat. xxv. 19-24. Now, doubtless, the more actually
ripe and ready any man is for heaven, the more pleasure and delight
God takes in him. The more the vessels of grace are fitted for glory,
the more complacency God takes in them. When God set himself
upon the creation of the world, in the close of every day's work, except
the second, for which the opinions of the learned are various, God set
to his seal, ' that it was good;' but w^hen he had perfected and com-
pleted the whole creation, and cast an eye upon all together, then he
concludes, ' that it was very good;' 'and God saw all that he had made,
and behold it was very good,' or ' extreme good,' so some, or ' very
pleasant and delightful,' so others. Gen. i. The work of creation was
KO curiously and gloriously framed, and so full of admirable rarities
and varieties, that it raised delight and complacency in God himself :
whereupon Augustine observes that even to every grace, yea, of the
least degree of grace, he saith 'it is good;' but when he beholds the
graces of his saints fresh and flourishing, your faith acted and strength-
ened, your repentance daily renewed, your humility increased, &c.,
then he concludes that ' all is very good.' i sirs, if the Lord Jesus
Christ be so ravished with one of his spouse's eyes, and with one chain
of her neck. Cant. iv. 9 : with the least drops or sips of grace, or with
the least grains and drachms of grace and holiness, oh, how much more
will great measures of grace and holiness take him and ravish him !
Well ! for a close of this argument, remember this, that as the sun
shines hotter on some climates than it doth upon others, and as the dew
falls more upon one place than another, and as the water overflows
some pastures more than others, so God's love of complacency and de-
light shines hotter and brighter upon some Christians than it does upon
others ; and these I have shewed you to be such who are most eminent and
excellent in grace and holiness. And thus much for this third motive.
(4.) Fourthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more your holiness is increased, the more the
great God ivill he honoured and glorified, Mat. v. 16. Fruitfulness
in holiness sets the weightiest crown of glory upon the head of God :
John XV. 8, ' Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit.'
The more eminent any person is in holiness, the more clearly and con-
vincingly he proclaims God before all the world to be a rich God, a

* Aug. in Gen. i. 31.

352 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

full God, a bountiful God, an overflowing good.i There is nothing
that works men to admire God so much, and to exalt God so high, as
a Christian's fruitfulness in holiness. Oh, how good must that God
be, whose servants are so good, said the heathen ! Oh, how glorious
in holiness must that God be, whose people are so holy! Look, as the
thriving child is a credit to the nurse, and the rich servant an honour
to his master, and a plentiful crop the praise of the husbandman, so
that Christian that thrives in grace, that grows rich in holiness, is the
greatest credit, and the highest honour, and the sweetest praise to God
in the world. The tree in Alcinous's garden had always blossoms,
buds, and ripe fruits, one under another. sirs, those trees of
righteousness that have not only the blossoms and buds of holiness
upon them, but also the ripe fruits of holiness one under another, they
are the greatest honour and glory to God in the world, Isa. Ixi. 3.
What will men say when they shall behold your eminency in sanctity ?
will they not say, certainly God is no hard master ; he never looks to
reap where he does not sow, nor to gather where he does not straw,
Mat. XXV. 24. Certainly he keeps a noble house ; his tables are richly
spread, his cups overflow, he feeds, yea, he feasts his servants with the
choicest rarities and varieties that heaven affords : witness their thriv-
ing and flourishing estate in grace and holiness. And thus you see
that the more your holiness is increased, the more highly the God of
heaven will be exalted and magnified. But,

(5.) Fifthly, To provoke you to endeavour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holiness thou hast, the more he ivill
give thee. At first God gives holiness where there is none, and where
this holiness is improved, there God will be still augmenting and in-
creasing of it. Do thou but make it thy business to ' perfect holiness
in the fear of the Lord,' Heb. vi. 7, and the Lord will not fail to make
new and fresh additions of more grace and holiness to that thou hast :
Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, ' The Lord will give grace and glory, and no good
thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.' Mark those
words, viz., that ' the Lord will give grace and glory,' that is, grace
imto glory, he will still be adding more grace to that thou hast, till the
bud of grace be turned into the flower of glory, till thy grace on earth
commenceth glory in heaven; the more holiness any man has, the
more still God will give him : Mat. xiii. 12, ' For whosoever hath, to
him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance.' He that hath
principles of grace and holiness laid into his soul, he shall find a plen-
tiful increase of those sanctifying and saving principles ; he shall have
more abundance ; his spark of holiness shall grow into a flame, his
drops of holiness shall be turned into a sea, and his mite of holiness shall
be multiplied into millions. The greater harvest of holiness a Christian
brings forth, the greater increase of holiness shall he experience; every
exercise of grace and holiness is always attended with new increase of
grace and holiness. Mat. xxv. 29. Look, as that arm is greatest and
strongest that is most used and exercised, so that particular grace that
is most exercised and used is most strengthened and greatened. Look,
as earthly parents, when they see their children to husband and im-
prove a little stock to great advantage, then they add to their stock,
they increase their stock, they double their stock ; so, when the Father

^ Qu. 'God'?— Ed.

HeB. XII. 14,] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 353

of spirits sees his children to husband and improve a little stock of
grace and holiness to the great advantage of their souls, then he will
increase their spiritual stock, he will be still a-adding to their stock, yea,
he will double their stock : John xv. 2, ' Every branch that beareth
fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.' Such as are
fruitful shall be made more fruitful. Christ will take most pains to
make them better who are already very good. Of all Christians in the
world, there are none that have so much grace as humble Christians
have, and yet God delights to pour in grace into their souls, as men
pour liquor into empty vessels, James iv. 6. Humility is both a grace,
and a vessel to receive more grace. And thus much for this fifth argu-
ment. But,

(6.) Sixthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holi-
ness, consider that the more holiness you attain to, the greater loill be
your heaven of joy and comfort in this world. Though the least spark
of true holiness will bring a man to heaven certainly, yet it is only an
eminency in holiness that will make a man walk to heaven comfortably.
The more holiness any man has, the more he shall enjoy him, in whose
presence is fulness of joy, Ps. xvi. 11 ; and the more any man enjoys the
presence of God with his spirit, the greater will be his heaven of joy in
this world. Look, as a little star yields but a little light, so a little
holiness yields but a little comfort ; and look, as the greatest stars
yields the greatest light, so the greatest measures of holiness always
yields the greatest comforts. Divine joy ebbs and flows as holiness
ebbs and flows. Soul comforts rises and falls as holiness rises and falls.
Great measures of holiness carries with them the greatest evidence of
the reality of holiness. Now the more clearly and evidently the reality
and sincerity of a man's holiness appears, the higher will the springs
of joy and comfort arise in his soul. Great measures of holiness carry
with them the greatest evidence of a man's union and communion with
God ; and the more evident a man's union and communion is with
God, the more will that man's soul be flUed with that joy that is un-
speakable and full of glory, 1 Pet, i, 8. In great measures of holiness
a man may see and read most of the love of God, the face of God, the
favour of God, and the heart of God, Acts ix. 31 ; and the more a man
is blessed with such a sight as this is, the more will that babe of grace,
divine joy, spring in his soul. The greater measures of holiness and
sanctification any man attains to, the clearer and brighter will the evi-
dences of his justification be. Now the clearer evidences any man has
of his justification, the stronger wiU be his consolation, Eom. v. 1-3,
and viii. 30, 33-35 ; and indeed the strongest waters of consolation do
always flow from a clear sight and a true sense of a man's justification.
No man lives so comfortably, no man bears the cross so sweetly,
no man resists the devil and the world so stoutly, nor no man will
die so cheerfully, as he that lives and dies in a clear sight of his
justification. The more holiness any man attains to, the more his fears
will be scattered, his doubts resolved, and all those impediments re-
moved that commonly bar out joy and comfort : and what will be the
happy issue of these things, but the bringing in of a sea of joy and
comifort into the soul ! It is not riches, nor honours, nor applause, nor
learning, nor friends, nor a great name in the world, but an eminency

VOL. IV. z

354 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII, 14.

in holiness, that can highly raise the springs of divine joy in a Chris-
tian's soul. Though the windows of the temple were broad without
hut narrow within, yet the joy and comfort of a Christian that is emi-
nent in holiness is broad and full within, though it be narrow and con-
tracted without. sirs, as ever you would have your joy full, labour
for a heart filled with holiness. Your comforts will be always few and
low, if your holiness be low. Why have the angels always harps in
their hands, and hallelujahs in their mouths, but because they have
attained to a fulness of holiness ? But,

(7.) Seventhly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holy any person is, the more the Lord
will reveal and manifest himself, and his mind and will, unto him,
John xiv. 21, 23; Hosea vi. 3. Ezekiel was a man of eminent holi-
ness, and a man that had glorious visions, and deep mysteries, and rare
discoveries of God, and of the great things that should be brought about
in the latter days, discovered to him. And Daniel was a man of very
great holiness : and oh, what secrets and mysteries did God reveal to
him ! 1 Many of those gi-eat and glorious things which concerns the
destruction of the four last monarchies, and the growth, increase, exal-
tation, flourishing, durable, invincible, and unconquerable estate of his
own kingdom, was discovered to him. Among all the apostles, Paul
was a man of the greatest holiness, and of all the apostles Paul had
the most glorious revelations and discoveries of God manifested to him,
2 Cor. xii. 2, 4. Witness those glorious revelations that he had when
he was caught up into the third heaven, into paradise, and heard un-
speakable words, or wordless words — prjfxara apprjra — such as words
were too weak to utter, such as was not possible for man to utter, and
that, either because they transcended man's capacity in this life, or else
because the apostle was forbidden to utter them ; they being revealed
to him, not for the public use of the church, but only for his particu-
lar encouragement, that so he might be the better able to encounter
■with all the hardships, difficulties, dangers, and deaths that should at-
tend him in the conscientious discharge of his ministerial work. Some
of the ancients are of opinion that he saw God's essence ; for, say they,
other things in heaven might have been uttered, but the essence of
God is so great and so glorious a thing, that no man or angel can utter
it or declare it. _ But here I must crave leave to enter my dissent,
for the Scripture is express in this, that no man hath thus ever seen
the Lord at any time, John i. 18 ; 1 Tim. vi. 16 ; 1 John iv, 12 ;
and that no man can thus see the Lord and live. And as great a
favourite of heaven as Moses was, yet he could only see the back parts
of God, he could only behold some lower representations of God.
Others say, that he heard the heavenly singing of angels and blessed
spirits, which was so sweet, so excellent and glorious, that no mortal
man was able to utter it, and this of the two is most probable ; but no
man is bound to make this opinion an article of his faith. This, I
think, we may safely conclude, that in this rapture, besides the con-
templation of celestial mysteries, he felt such unspeakable delight and
pleasure, that was either like to that, or exceeding that, which Adam
took in the terrestrial paradise. Doubtless, the apostle did see and hear
* See ii., It., vii., viii,, ix, x., xi., xii. chapterg of Daniel.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 355

such excellent and glorious things, as was impossible for the tongue
of any mortal man to express or utter. And so John was a man of
most rare holiness, and Christ reveals to him the general estate of his
church, and all that should befall his people, and that from John's
time unto his second coming. Christ gives John a true representa-
tion of aR the troubles, trials, changes, mercies, and glories that in
all times, and in all ages and places, should attend his church, until
he come in all his glory. About sixty years after Christ's ascension,!
Christ comes to John and opens his heart, and unbosoms his soul,
and makes known to him all that care, that love, that tenderness,
that kindness, and that sweetness that he would exercise towards his
church, from that very time to the end of the world. Christ tells
John, that though he had been absent and seemingly silent for about
threescore years, that yet he was not so taken up with the delights,
contents, and glory of heaven, as that he did not care what became of
his church on earth. Oh, no ! And therefore he opens his choicest
secrets, and makes known the most hidden and glorious mysteries to
John, that ever was made known to any man. As there was none
that had so much of the heart of Christ as John, so there was none
that had so much of the ear of Christ as John. Christ singles out his
servant John from all the men in the world, and makes known to
him all the happy providences, and all the sad occurrences that were
to come upon the followers of the Lamb, that so they might know
what to pray for, and what to sit for, and what to wait for ; also he
declares to John all that wrath and vengeance, all that desolation and
destruction that should come upon the false prophet, and the beast,
and upon all that wondered after them, and that were worshippers of
them, and that had received their marks, either in their foreheads or
in their hands. We read of holy Polycarpus, that as he lay in his bed
he saw in a vision the bed set on fire under his head ; and thus God
did forewarn him, and manifest to him, what manner of death he
should die, and accordingly it fell out, for he was burnt for the cause
of Christ, and rejoicingly sealed to the truth with his blood. Mr
John Huss was a man eminent in holiness, — he was born in Prague,
in Bohemia, and was pastor of the church of Bethlehem — his name,
Huss, in the Bohemian language, signifies a goose ; at his martyrdom,
he told them, that if they roasted him in the fire, out of the ashes of
the goose, a hundred years after, God would raise up a swan in
Germany that should carry the cause on for which he suffered, and
whose singings would affright all those vultures, which was exactly
fulfilled in Luther — whose name in the Bohemian language signifies
a swan — for God raised him up as a famous instrument in his hand,
who carried on that glorious cause with mighty success ; and upon
his death the Bohemians under Ziska rose in arms, and had most
admirable success against the emperor and the Papists. Luther was
a man of great holiness, and being one time more than ordinarily
earnest with God in prayer, he came down to his friends, and told
them with a very great confidence, that it should go well with

^ It is the general opinion of the learned, that this book of the Kevelation was penned
about the latter end of the reign of Domitian the emperor, which was about sixty years
after Christ's ascension.

356 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14,

Germany all his days ; he knew what was done in heaven by that
which God had done in his own heart, and accordingly it fell out.
The martyr that was burnt last in Smithfield, told the people that
they should be of good comfort, for he was fully persuaded that he
was the last that should suffer under Queen Mary, and so he was.
Thus you see that men of greatest holiness have had the clearest and
choicest manifestations and discoveries of God, and of his mind, made
known to them. Suitable to that choice promise that you have in
that Jer. xxxiii. 3, ' Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew
thee great and mighty' — or hidden — ' things,^ which thou knowest
not.' God will make known to his holy ones the most hidden and
abstruse things; and the more holy they are, the more they shall
know of the most secret and mysterious things of God : John vii. 17,
* If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it
be of God, or whether I speak of myself.' Christ will be most open
to them that are most obedient to him ; they shall know most of the
doctrine of Christ who are most complying with the will of Christ.
David was a man of great holiness, as is evident by that glorious
testimony that God has given of him in that Acts xiii. 22, ' And
when he had removed him,' that is, Saul, ver. 21, 'he raised up unto
them David to be their king ; to whom also he gave testimony, and
said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own
heart, which shall fulfil all my will ' — OeXrjfiara — * all my wills ; '
to note the eminency, transcendency, universality, and sincerity of his
obedience. Now if you will but look into that 2 Sam. vii. 27, there
you shall see how the Lord declares and makes known himself and his
intentions towards him ; ' For thou, Lord of hosts, God of Israel,
hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house.'
But the Hebrew is more full and excellent ; in the original 2 it runs
thus, ' Lord, thou hast revealed this to the ear of thy servant." Now
the emphasis lies in those words, ' to the ear of thy servant.' When
God makes known himself and his intentions to such as are eminent
in holiness, he does it in their ear. God tells David in his ear, that
' he will build him an house,' that is, that he would continue his
kingdom to him, and to his posterity after him. This was blessed
news, and this God tells in his ear. Such as are special friends and
favourites, we often whisper them in the ear. When we would
acquaint them with our most secret and weighty purposes, intentions,
and resolutions, we give them a whisper in the ear. Such persons
that are eminent in holiness, are the great favourites of heaven, and
God tells them in the ear of many a rare secret, which all others are
kept ignorant of. Well, sirs, for a close, remember this, that there
are no persons on earth that are so prepared and fitted for the clearest,
fuUest, and highest manifestations of God, as those that are eminent
in holiness ; nor none that set so high a price upon the discoveries of
God, as men that are eminent in holiness; nor none that are so
able to bear the revelations of his will, as men that are eminent in
holiness ; nor none that will make such a humble, faithful, constant,
and through improvement of all that God shall make known to them,
* JmiS^V Hidden, as bunches of grapes are hidden under the leaves of the vines.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 357

as men that are famous for holiness; and therefore, as ever you
would have God in an eminent way to manifest and discover him-
self and his mind unto you, oh, labour after a greater measure of
holiness 1 But,

(8.) Eighthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holy a man is, the more singular de-
light and pleasure God will take in all his religious duties and ser-
vices.^ Holiness puts a divine savour upon all a man's services.
There are no duties so sweet as those that have most holiness in them :
Mai. iii. 3,4,' And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver ; and
he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then
shall the ofiering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as
in the days of old, and as in former years.' After the Lord Jesus Christ
hath been to his people as a refiner's fire, and as fuller's soap, that is,
after he hath refined, scoured, and purged his people from their drossi-
ness, filthine^s, earthliness, selfishness, and sensualness, &c., then ' their
offerings shall be pleasant to the Lord.' Look, as light makes all
things pleasant and delightful to man, so holiness makes all a man's
duties and services pleasant and delightful to the Lord : Zech. xiii. 9,
* And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine
them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried : they
shall call on my name, and I will hear them : I will say. It is my
people ; and they shall say. The Lord is my God.' When God has
refined his people as silver is refined, then he will bow his ear, and open
his hand, and grant them the desires of their hearts. Oh the plea-
sure and delight that God takes in the prayers, tears, hearings, read-
ings, meltings, mournings, and repentings of such who are eminently
purged and sanctified ! The more holiness any man has, the less of
the flesh, pollution, and corruption there is in all his duties and ser-
vices ; and the less there is of the old man in all our holy ofierings,
the more they are the delight of God. The more holiness any man
has, the less there will be of man, and the more there will be of Christ
and the Spirit in all his duties and services ; and doubtless, the less
there is of man, and the more there is of Christ in duties, the more
pleasant and delightful they will be unto the Lord. The more holy
any man is, the more there will be of his heart in his duties, and the
more a man's heart is in his duties, the more pleasant and delightful
they will be to God. God is a Spirit, John iv. 23, 24, and he is only
taken with those duties wherein the spirit of a man is. The heart is
camera omnipotentis Regis, the presence-chamber of the King of
heaven, it is his bed of spices, it is his royal throne, on which he de-
lights to sit and rule. A sanctified heart in duties shall carry it with
God for crowns, when a silver tongue shall not carry it with God for
crumbs. The more holy any man is, the more delight and pleasure he
will take in religious duties and services. The more a man's natural
strength is, the more easily he walks, and the more delightfully he
works. The fuller the wings are of feathers, with the more ease and
pleasure the bird flies ; so the fuller the soul is of holiness, the more

* Generally it was the custom of the Eastern countries to wash before worship. The
very heathen gods would be served in white, the verj- emblem of purity.

358 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, KARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

easily, the more pleasantly, and the more delightfully will it walk,
yea, run, yea, fly in all the ways of God's commands. Every yoke of
Christ is easy, and every command of Christ is joyous to a man that
is eminent in holiness.^ Now the more any man delights and takes
pleasure in religious duties and services, the more God delights
and takes pleasure in his rehgious duties and services. The more a
Christian's heart is affected and taken with the duties of religion, the
more the heart of God will be affected and taken with those duties.
Look, as there is no duty that affects the heart of God, that does not
first affect our own, or that takes the heart of God, that does not first
take our own ; so all those duties and services that are divinely pleas-
ing and delightful to our noble part, they are also pleasing and de-
lightful to God himself. The very heathen, as several authors report,
had their store-pots of water set at the doors of their temples, where
they used to wash before they went to sacrifice, having this notion and
opinion amongst them, that their gods did best accept and most de-
light in those sacrifices that were offered by those who had washed
themselves pure and clean. Sure I am that the great God, who is
the God of gods, is most pleased and delighted with those sacrifices of
prayers and praises that are offered up with the purest hands, and
with the cleanest heart ; and therefore, as ever you would have God
to take singular pleasure and delight in all your duties and services,
labour after an eminency in holiness. But,

(9.) Ninthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holi-
ness, consider that many who have been won over to Christ later than
you, do yet in holiness much excel you. Are there not many chil-
dren who have been in Christ but yesterday, as it were, and yet how
do they outstrip their parents, not only in parts, but in piety, who
have been in Christ many years before them ? And are there not
many servants to be found who have not been in Christ seven years,
who yet are more holy, more humble, more heavenly, more spiritual,
more serious, and every way more gracious than their masters, who
have been in Christ long before them ? And are there not many
poor, mean, neglected, despised, and scorned Christians, who have
been converted and sanctified but a few years, who yet are more fear-
ful of sinning against God, and more careful of pleasing God, and
more studious of glorifying of God, and more wise, and watchful, and
circumspect in their walking with God, and more laborious and dili-
gent in the use of all holy means whereby God may be exalted and
lifted up in the world, than many great and rich Christians in the
world, who yet have been in Christ very many years before them ?
Paul had some kinsmen that were in Christ before him, as you may
see in that Kom. xvi. 5, 7, ' Likewise greet the church that is in their
house; salute my well-beloved Ep^netus, who is the firstfruits of
Achaia unto Christ ; salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and
my fellow-prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were
m Christ before me,' and yet in grace and holiness he excelled them
all.2 You know many men in riding a journey do often set out after
their neighbours, and yet they do not only overtake them, but also get

^ Ps. xl. 8, and cxix. 32; Mat. xi. 29; 1 John v. 3
* 2 Cor. L 12, and xi. 22-30 ; 1 Thes. ii 2-13.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 359

into their inns many hours before them ; and among seamen, is there
anything more common than for those who set sail some days after others,
yet to get into their ports before them ? so there are many Christians
who have set out heavenwards and liolinesswards after others, and yet
they have not only overtaken them, but also in grace and holiness
gone far before them. As Christ, in his nonage, put all the doctors
in the temple down, Luke ii. 4b'-48, so many Christians, even in their
nonage, as I may say, do put down other Christians, who, in respect
of their years and opportunities, might have been doctors in Chris-
tianity.! In this great city you have very many who have set up
many years after others, and yet they are grown far greater and
richer than those of their callings who have set up many years before
them ; and doubtless there are very many in this city who have set
upon the trade of Christianity, the trade of godliness, long after others,
who yet are grown greater and richer in grace and hohness than those
who have for very many years driven that trade. And oh, how should
this alarm all such to double their diligence, and to strive and labour
as for life to be eminent in holiness, yea, to perfect holiness in the fear
of the Lord I But,

(10.) Tenthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that there are no persons under heaven that are so
strongly obliged and engaged to 'perfect holiness in the fear of the
Lord as you are, for you are the only persons on earth that are made
partakers of the divine nature, and that have a more excellent spirit in
you than the men of this world have, and that have more excellent
principles in you, as knowledge, wisdom, faith, love, self-denial, humility,
&c., to help on the advance and increase of holiness, than others have,
whose souls are strangers, yea, enemies, to those noble and divine prin-
ciples. 2 And you are the only persons on earth upon whom all
exhortations and commands to grow in holiness, to increase in holiness,
and to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, does most immediately;
most directly, most eminently, most roundly, and most fully fall,
as you may easily see by comparing the scriptures in the margin
together. 3 sirs, how gloriously should that house be adorned with
holiness that is of God's own building ! and how fruitful should those
vineyards and gardens be that are of God's own planting ! and
how full should those wells be that are of God's own digging 1
and how sweet should those flowers be that are of God's own setting !
and how ripe should those fruits be that are of God's own grafting 1
sirs, shall the eagle fly higher and higher ; shall the sun shine brighter
and brighter ; and shall the giant refreshed with wine run swifter and
swifter ; and shall the woman that is with child grow fuller and fuller,
and greater and greater ; and shall not you who are the people of
God's holiness fly higher and higher in holiness, and shine brighter
and brighter in holiness, and run swifter and swifter in the ways of
holiness, and grow fuller and fuller, and greater and greater in the
births of holiness ? * sirs, holiness in a Christian is not like a star

^ Jerome writes of Paulinus, that in the first part of hia life he excelled others, and
in his latter part he excelled himself.

" 2 Pet. i. 4 ; Dan. vi. 3 ; 1 Cor. ii. 12.

' 2 Pet. iii. 18 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1, and xiii. 11 ; Col. ii. 7; Heb. vi. 1; 1 Cor. xv. 6ff;
Judo 10. * Charles the Fifth had this for his motto, Ulterius, Go on further.

360 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

in the sky, nor a stone in the centre, nor a bullet in a gun, which
is always equal ; but holiness is like to the seed, which, being sown in
the furrows of the earth, first springs up into a blade, and then into an
ear, and then into ripe corn, Mat. xiii. 23 ; Mark iv. 28. Holiness is
like to the waters in Ezekiel's sanctuary, that rise by degrees, Ezek.
xlvii. 3 4. First, it rose to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the
loins, and then to a mighty river that could not be passed over. Holiness
is like to the house of David, that grew stronger and stronger, 2 Sam.
iii. 1 ; and Uke to the cedars of Lebanon, that grew greater and greater,
Hosea xiv. 6, 7. Christians, there are none that are so strongly
obliged to go on from faith to faith, and from strength to strength, and
from holiness to holiness, as you are, Rom. i. 17. Oh ! you must
labour to be filled up to the brim with holiness. Col. i. 13, and ii. 7.
Oh ! you must strive to equalise the first three of David's worthies,
1 Chron. xi. 21. Oh ! you must endeavour to be like the brethren of
Gideon, every one resembling the children of a king, Judges viii. 18.
Oh that you could all say as Elihu once did, ' I am full of matter, my
belly is as wine which hath no vent ; it is ready to burst like new
bottles,' Job xxxii. 18, 19. my brethren, to be as full of holiness
as new bottles are full of wine, or as the moon is full of light, or as the
black clouds are full of rain, or as nurses' breasts are full of milk, is
the greatest happiness in this world. sirs ! there are no persons
on earth that are engaged to love the Lord with such a vehement love
as you, nor to trust in the Lord with such an inflamed faith as you,
nor to hope in the Lord with such a raised hope as you, nor to delight
in the Lord with such ravishing delights as you, nor to long after the
Lord with such earnest longings as you, nor to fear before the Lord
with so great a trembling as you, nor to be so zealous for God with
such a burning zeal as you, nor to mourn before the Lord with so great a
mourning as you, nor to hate all things that are contrary to the nature
of God, the being of God, the command of God, and the glory of God,
with such a deadly hatred as you. Well, remember this, viz., it is
no little sin for any Christian to sit down satisfied under a little
measure of holiness, considering the many and the great obligations
that lies upon him to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord. But,

(11.) Eleventhly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holiness any man attains to, the more
hold, courageous, resolute, masculine, and heroic that man will he for
God and godlin£ss, 2 Cor. i. 8-12. Holiness ennobles the heart, it
raises the heart ; and the higher the springs of holiness riseth in the
heart, the higher it raiseth the heart, and the more it steels the heart
for God and godliness. The more holiness any man has, the more
resolutely he will set himself against sin, and the more divinely he will
scorn the world, and the more courageously he will trample upon
temptations, and the more heroic he will be under all his aflaiictions.
Men of greatest holiness have been men of greatest boldness ; witness
Nehemiah. the three children, Daniel, and all the holy prophets and
apostles : Prov. xxviii. 1, ' The wicked flee when no man pursueth, but
the righteous are as bold as a lion,' yea, as a young lion, as the Hebrew
has it, "1^323, that is in his hot blood and fears no colours, and that is

Heb. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 361

more bold than any other's holiness — made Daniel not only as bold as
a lion, but also to daunt the lions with his boldness. Luther was
a man of great holiness, and a man of great boldness : witness his
standing out against all the world ; and when the emperor sent for
him to Worms, and his friends dissuaded him from going, as some-
times Paul's did him, ' Go,' said he, ' I will surely go, since I am sent
for, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; yea, though I knew that
there were as many devils in Worms to resist me, as there be tiles to
cover the houses, yet I would go.'i And when the same author and
his associates were threatened with many dangers from opposers on all
hands, he lets fall this heroic and magnanimous speech, ' Come let us
sing the 46th Psalm, and then let them do their worst.' Latimer 2
was a man of much holiness, counting the darkness and profaneness of
those times wherein he lived, and a man of much courage and bold-
ness ; witness his presenting to King Henry the Eighth, for a New
Year's gift, a New Testament wrapt up in a napkin, with this posie or
motto about it, ' Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.' Dr
Taylor, the martyr, was a very holy man, and being persuaded by some
of his friends not to appear before Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Win-
chester, but to fly ; * Fly you,' said he, ' and do according to your con-
sciences, but as for myself I am fully determined, by God's grace, to go
to the bishop, and to tell him to his beard that he doth naught' 3
Colonus, the Dutch martyr, called to the judge that had sentenced him
to death, and desired him to lay his hand upon his heart, and
then asked him whose heart did most beat, his or the judge's ; here
was a man of a heroic spirit indeed. Basil was a man of great holi-
ness, and a man of a most masculine arid courageous spirit. When
the emperor sent to him to subscribe to the Arian heresy, and to
engage him, promised him great preferment, to which he replied,
' Alas, these speeches are fit to catch little children withal, that look
after such things, but we that are nourished and taught by the holy
Scriptures are readier to suffer a thousand deaths than to suffer one syl-
lable or tittle of the Scripture to be altered : ' and when the emperor
threatened him with imprisonment, banishment, death, he answered,
* Let him threaten boys with such fray-bugs, as for my part I am
resolved that neither menaces nor flatteries shall silence me, or draw
me to betray a good cause, or a good conscience.'^ Charles the Ninth,
king of France, who had a deep hand in that barbarous and bloody
massacre of many thousands of the saints in France ; soon after that
horrid tragical and perfidious slaughter was over he called the Prince
of Conde, and proposed to him these three things, ' Either to go to
mass, or to die presently, or to suffer perpetual imprisonment ;' to
which he returned this noble, bold, and heroic answer, viz., ' That by
God's help he would never choose the first, and for either of the other
two he left to the king's pleasure and God's providence.' ^ John, Duke
of Saxony, was eminent in Christianity, and he did heroically assert
and maintain the cause of God against all opposition in three imperial
assemblies ; and when it was told him that he should lose the favour

1 [Foxe] Acts and Mon. 776. = Ihid., 1594. =• Ibid., 1380.

* Hist. Tripart., lib. vii. cap. 36. " The history of France in the year 1572.

362 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

of the Pope, and the emperor, and all the world besides, if he stuck so
fast to the Lutheran cause, to which he gave this noble answer, 'Here
are two ways,' said he, ' I must serve God or the world, and which of
these do you think is the better ? ' and so put them off with this plea-
sant indignation ; and when the States of the empire forbid all Lutheran
sermons, he presently prepared to be gone, and professed boldly, ' that
he would not stay there where he might not have liberty to serve Grod.*
And thus you see by all these famous instances that the more eminent
any persons are in holiness, the more bold, resolute, courageous, and
heroical they will be for God, and for the things of God ; and therefore,
as ever you would be men of high courage and resolution for God,
labour to be high in holiness. Such men who in all ages have been
eminent in holiness have been like Shammah, one of David's worthies,
who stood and defended the field when all the rest fled. But,

(12.) Twelfthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holiness any man attains to, the more
serviceable and useful lie will he in his generation. David was a man
eminent in holiness, and as eminently serviceable in his generation :
Acts xiii. 36, ' For David after he had served his own generation by
the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw
corruption.' Men that have but a little stock of holiness, will be but
a little serviceable in their generation, but men that have a great stock
of holiness, will be greatly serviceable in their generation. Men that
have but little farms, and little stocks, are but a little serviceable to
their country, but men that have great farms, and large stocks, and
rich revenues, are greatly serviceable to their country. What a world
of good sometimes does one rich man do in a town, a city, a country !
So one saint that is rich in grace and holiness, oh, what a world of
good does he do to all that are round about him ! Merchants that
have great stocks, trade to the East and West Indies, and so enrich
their country, whenas those that have but weak estates can only barter
with their neighbours at home, and so are instruments but of little
public good. A candle enlightens the room, but the sun enlightens
the whole world. The more holiness any man has, the more meet
for public use that man will be, 2 Tim. ii. 21. As there was none so
holy as Christ, so there was none of so public a spirit as Christ ; he
went up and down doing good. Acts x. 38 ; he laid out himself, and
he laid down himself for public good ; he healed others, but was hurt
himself; he filled others, but was hungry himself A man that is
eminent in holiness, will be of his mind, who was rather willing to
beautify Italy than his own house. Moses was a man of great holi-
ness, and of famous use in his generation. Num. xiv. 11-14, 19, 20.
Ah, how often did he turn away the fierce anger and indignation of
God from sinful Israel ! Deut. ix. 14 ; and oh the famous deliverances
and glorious salvations that God brought about by his hand! Ps. cvi. 23.
Nehemiah was a very holy man, and he laid out himself and his great
estate for public service, Neh. v. 14, seq. Mordecai was a very pious
man, and a man famously serviceable in his generation, Esth. iv.
Esth. X. 3, ' For Mordecai the Jew was next unto king Ahasuerus,
and great among the Jews, and accepted of the multitude of his brethren,
eeeking the wealth of his people, and speaking peace to all his seed.'

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 363

King Jehoshaphat and Joshua, were men of eminent holiness, and of
singular use and service in their generation. Men that have no holiness,
and others that have but a little holiness, will be still a-carrying on a
private interest of honour, or profit, or friends, or relations, and this
we have seen evident amongst us in these latter days ; and therefore,
as ever you would be eminently serviceable in your generation, labour
after an eminency in holiness. But,

(13.) Thirteenthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees
of holiness, consider that the greatest degrees of holiness are usually
attended with the highest degrees of honour. Grace is called glory,
and the greatest measures of grace are commonly crowned with the
greatest degrees of glory, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Abraham was a man eminent
in grace and holiness, and he was highly in honour among the people :
Gen. xxiii. 6, ' Hear us, my lord : thou art a mighty prince amongst
us;' or as the Hebrew has it, thou art a prince of God amongst us, that
is, thou art a notable prince, thou art an excellent prince, for so the
Hebrews speak of all things that are notable and excellent, Eph. v. 27.
Job was a man that had attained to a very high degree of holiness,
Job i. 1, 2; and he was highly honoured among the people: Job
xxix. 25, ' I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king
in the army.' In all weighty matters Job was the only man, he was
chosen by all, and advanced by all above all, in all assemblies and
places of judicature, &c. Whoever was of the committee, yet Job was
still chairman ; whoever was of the council, yet Job was still president ;
and whoever was of the court, yet Job was still king, yea, he dwelt as
a king in the army. Job was guarded as a king in the army, and
honoured as a king in the army, and beloved and admired as a king
in the army, and obeyed and served as a king in the army, and feared
and reverenced as a king in the army. I might give you further
instances of this in Joseph, Moses, Nehemiah, Mordecai, the three
children, and Daniel, but I shall forbear. Faith is but a piece, a part,
a branch of holiness ; and yet, oh, what an honourable mention doth
Paul make of the Komans' faith, in that Kom. i. 8, ' First, I thank my
God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of
throughout the world.' i The Romans had attained to an eminency
in faith, and the report thereof sounded throughout the Roman empire,
yea, throughout the world, for there being a great resort to Rome from
all parts of the world, and by every one's discoursing and admiring of
the Romans' faith, their faith came to be spread abroad among all the
churches all the world over. Look, as Christ's fulness of grace was
his highest glory in this world ; so a Christian's fulness of holiness is
his highest honour in this world, Ps. xlv. 1, 2. sirs, there is no
such way to be high in honour and renown, both in the consciences of
sinners and saints, as to be high in holiness. Jewel was a man eminent
in holiness, and his holiness set him high in the very judgments and
consciences of the Papists. The dean of the college, though a Papist,
yet speaks thus of him : In thy faith I hold thee a heretic, but surely
in thy life thou art an angel ; thou art very good and honest, but a
Lutheran. Among the very heathens, those were most highly honoured
that were most excellent and eminent in moral virtues. Aristides was

^ This is a figurative eipreesion, according to the style and manner of speaking then.

364 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XIL 14.

SO famous among the Athenians for his justice, that he was called
Aristides the Just, &c., [Plutarch.] Christians, it is your highest
honour and glory in this world, to be so eminent and famous for holi-
ness, that men may point at you, and say, there goes such a one the
wise, and there goes such a one the humble, and there goes such a one
the heavenly, and there goes such a one the meek, and there goes such
a one the patient, and there goes such a one the contented, and there
goes such a one the just, and there goes such a one the merciful, and
there goes such a one the zealous, and there goes such a one the coura-
geous, and there goes such a one the sincere, and there goes such a one
the faithful, &c. Well, for a close, remember this, that though great
places, great offices, great revenues, and great honours, &c., may
exalt you and set you high in the uppermost seats and rooms among
men, yet it is only an eminency in holiness that will exalt you and set
you high in the consciences of sinners and saints. But,

(14.) Fourteenthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees
of holiness, consider that the times wherein you live calls for this at your
hands, Jer. li. 5. Ah, how is this land filled with sin, yea, with the
worst of sins, against the Holy One of Israel ! Hell seems to be broken
loose, and men strive to exceed and excel one another in all kinds of
wickedness. Oh the scarlet sins that are now to be found under many
scarlet robes ! Oh the black transgressions that are now to be found
under many black cassocks ! Oh the new-found oaths, the hellish
blasphemies, the horrid filthiness, and the abominable debaucheries
that are committed daily in the face of the sun 1 Ah how shameless,
how senseless are sinners grown in these days ! Jer. iii. 3. Sin every-
where now appears with a whore's forehead. Ah what open opposition
does Christ meet with in his gospel offices, members, ways, worship,
and works ! Mat. xxiv. 12 ; ah how does all iniquity abound, and how
bold and resolute are multitudes now in dishonouring of Grod, in pro-
faning his Sabbaths, in polluting his ordinances, in destroying their
own souls, and in treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath !
&c., Rom. ii. 5. Now the worser the times are, the better every Chris-
tian must labour to be ; the more profane the age is wherein we live,
the more holy we must endeavour to be. sirs, how else will you
recompense the great God, if I may so speak, for all the dishonours
that are cast upon him by the matchless looseness and wickedness of
the present times ? how else will you shine as lights in the midst of a
crooked and perverse nation ? Phil. ii. 15 ; how else will you convince
the consciences, and stop or button up the mouths of wicked and un-
reasonable men? 1 Pet. ii. 15; how else will you be the Lord's witnesses
against this sinful and adulterous generation? Isa. xliii. 10, 12,and xliv.
8 ; how else will you manifest your great love to Christ, and your exceed-
ing tenderness of the honour and glory of Christ ? how else will you give
an undeniable testunony of the glorious operations of the Spirit in
you ? Ps. xviii. 20-25 ; how else will you satisfy your own consciences
that your hearts are upright with God ? and how else will you with
Noah condemn a wicked world ? Heb. xi. 7. Well, Christians, remember
this, it is more than time for you to perfect holiness in the fear of the
Lord, when so many thousands labour day and night to perfect wicked-
ness in despite of the Lord ; it is time for you to be angels in holiness,

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 365

when multitudes strive to exceed the very devil in wickedness. Since
Christ was on earth, there has been no times that have called louder
for the perfecting of holiness than the present times wherein we live.
But,

(15.) Fifteenthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider how the men of the toorld do study and strive to
abound and increase in worldly blessings. Oh, what ado is there
among worldlings to lay house to house, and field to field, to make a
hundred a thousand, and a thousand ten, &c., Isa. v. 8. Many men
rise early and go to bed late, yea, they cross their light, and wound
their consciences, and decline their principles, and endanger their im-
mortal souls, and all to add to their worldly stores, Ps. cxxvii. 1, 2.
This age is full of such Ahabs, that are even sick for their neighbours'
vineyards, yea, that rather than they will go without them, will wade
through Naboth's blood to them, 1 Kings xxi. And how many rich
fools be there amongst us, who instead of minding their souls, and
providing for eternity, mind nothing, nor talk of nothing, but pulling
down their barns, and building of greater ! Luke xii. 16-21. What
struggling is there for places of honour ; what desperate ventures for
rich commodities ; and what high attempts there are for large posses-
sions ! Oh the time, the strength, the spirits, that many spend in an
eager pursuit after earthly things ! Ps. iv. 6. Oh, how sad it is to
consider that Satan shall have more service of a worldling for an ounce
of gold, than God shall have for the kingdom of heaven ! though the
world in all its bravery is no better than the cities which Solomon
gave to Hiram, which he called Cabul, that is, displeasing or dirty, 1
Kings ix. 13 ; yet, oh, how mad are men upon it ! Though all the great,
the gay, and the glorious things of the world may fitly be resembled
to the fruit that undid us all, which was fair to the sight, smooth in
handling, sweet in taste, but deadly in operation ; yet, oh, how fond are
men of these things ! and how do most long to be touching and tasting
of them, though a touch, a taste, may exclude them out of paradise
for ever ! i sirs, what fools in folio are they who dare hazard the
loss of a paradise for a wilderness, of a crown for a crumb, of a king-
dom for a cottage, and of pearls for trifles ! and yet such fools are all
those who spend themselves in multiplying and increasing of their
earthly enjoyments. In that Gren. xiii. 2 it is said, that ' Abraham
was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold;' but according to the
Hebrew it runs thus, ' Abraham was very heavy, 12D, in cattle, in
silver, and in gold,' to shew that riches, that gold and silver, which is
the great god of the world, are but heavy burdens, and rather a hin-
drance than a help to heaven and happiness. Gold and silver, which
are but the white and yellow guts and garbage of the earth, is fitly
called by the prophet, ' thick clay,' Hab. ii. 6, which will sooner break
a man's back than satisfy his heart ; and oh, what folly and madness is
it for a man to be still a-loading of himself with the clay of this world !
Though the sumpter-horse be loaden with rich treasure all the day
long, yet when night comes he is turned into the dark stinking stable,
with an empty belly, and with his back full of galls, sores, and
bruises ; so though vain men may be loaded with the treasures of this

(^ Multi amando res noxias sunt miseri, babendo miaerioreB.— Augustine in Ps. xtL

366 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

world during the day of their life, yet when the night of death comes,
then they shall be turned into a dark stinking hell, with consciences
full of guilt and galls, and with souls full of sores and bruises ; and
then what good will all their treasures do them ? Though the rich
man in the Gospel lived like a gentleman, a gallant, yet when he died
he went to hell, Luke xvi. Though mammon, as Aretius and many
others observe, is a Syriac word, and signifies wealth, riches; yet
Ireneeus derives mximmon of mum, that signifies a spot, and hon, that
signifies riches, to shew that riches have their spots ; and yet, oh, how
unwearied are men in their adding of spots to spots ! Men, in their
pursuit after things of this world, seem to act by an untired power,
they are never weary of heaping up bags upon bags, nor of enlarging
their tents, nor of increasing their revenues, &c. Now, oh, how should
this provoke every gracious soul to be adding of grace to grace, and
holiness to holiness ! Oh, let not the men of the world outdo you, let
them not out-act you ! Oh, let not nature excel grace 1 Oh, let the
muckworms of this world know that divine principles are too high
and noble to be matched, or to be out-acted by anything that they
can do I sirs, shall children grow in your families, and oxen grow
in your stalls, and fish grow in your ponds, and grass grow in your
fields, and flowers grow in your gardens, &c., and shall not holiness
grow in your hearts ? Well, friends, remember this, it is infinitely
better to be poor men and rich Christians, than to be rich men and
poor Christians. But,

(16.) Sixteenthly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of
holiness, consider that the more holiness you attain to in this world,
the more weighty and heavy, the more bright and glorious ivill be your
faithful ministers' crovm. sirs, as you rise higher and higher in
holiness, so the springs of joy rises higher and higher in your minis-
ters' souls, 2 John 4. Christians, it is neither your seraphical
notions, nor your pompous profession, it is neither your good words,
nor your sweet looks, it is neither your civilities, nor your courtesies,
that raises joy in your ministers' hearts, or that wiU add to your minis-
ters' crown, iDut an increase of holiness will do both, Kom. xv. 14.
The Thessalonians were rare Christians, they were very eminent and
high in holiness, as you may see in that 1 Thes. i. 5-8, and they were
the apostle's ' joy and crown of rejoicing,' as you may see in chap. ii. 19,
20, ' For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even
ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are
our glory and joy.' The apostle tells these raised, these renowned
Thessalonians, that as they were now his hope, his glory, and joy, so
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ they should be his joy, and
crown of rejoicing. Look, as Christ has his thousand shekels of silver,
BO his faithful laborious ministers have their two hundred shekels of
silver, and that indeed is a great reward : Cant. viii. 12, ' My vineyard,
which is mine, is before me: thou, Solomon, must have a thousand,
and those that keep the fruit thereof, two hundred.' i Oh, what an hon-
our is it for faithful ministers to have a fifth part of that reward that
Christ has himself 1 In this 12th ver. Christ opposeth his vineyard,

' Shekels of silver were their common money, and a name both for weight and coin,
being in value answerable to our English half-crowns.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 367

his church, to that of Solomon's, which is mentioned in ver. 11, and
though doubtless Solomon's vineyard was one of the rarest, choicest,
and fruitfullest vineyards in all Judaea, yet it was wonderful inferior
to Christ's vineyard ; and that partly because Christ's vineyard cost
liim a dearer and a greater price, even the price of his blood, 1 Pet.
i. 18, 19, than ever Solomon's cost him, and partly because his vineyard
serves to more spiritual, high, honourable, and noble ends, than ever
Solomon's did, 1 Tim. iii. 15, viz., the glory and exaltation of God,
the propagating of truth, the bringing forth of the fruits of the Spirit,
viz., love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meek-
ness, temperance, the bringing in of sinners, and the building up of
saints. Gal. v. 22, 23 ; and partly because his eye is still upon it, and
his protection is still over it, and his presence is still with it, Ps. cxxi.
3-8. Isa. xxvii. 2, 3, ' In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red
wine. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment ; lest any
hurt it, I will keep it night and day.' But Solomon's eye was not
always upon his vineyard, neither was his hand of protection always
over it, neither was his kingly presence always with it ; and partly be-
cause all his treasure is laid up in his vineyard, his church. His
treasures of grace, his treasures of mercy, his treasures of comfort, his
treasures of goodness, &c., Eph. iii. 10, 17-20, is all laid up in his
church ; but Solomon, as rich and as glorious a king as he was, yet he
had no such treasures laid up in his vineyard. Solomon never made
his vineyard his treasury ; and partly because His vineyard was given
to him for ever, as an everlasting inheritance ; but Solomon's was but
temporary and mutable, Ps. ii. 7; John vi. 39, and xvii. 6, 8, 12.
Now all those that are painful l and faithful labourers in Christ's vine-
yard, shall receive a noble, a liberal compensation and recompense for
their labours. No man shall shut a door nor open a door in Christ's
vineyard for nought ; no man shall labour an hour there without a re-
ward. All faithful ministers are fellow-labourers with Christ in the
spiritual husbandry ; they dig with Christ, and they plant with Christ,
and they prune with Christ, and they water with Christ, and they
watch with Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 8, 9 ; and therefore Christ will allow
them a fifth part of the glory and reward with himself As he has
his thousand pieces of sUver, so he will look to it that they shall have
their two hundred pieces of silver. A thousand is the number of per-
fection, and here it may note that fulness of glory that Christ should
have, and the two hundred may note that very great proportion of
heavenly glory that all the faithful labourers in Christ's vineyard shall
have, who have helped forward the flourishing estate of that vineyard.
Mat. xix. 27-29. Look, as the thriving of the child adds to the com-
fort and the credit of the nurse, and the fruitfulness of the field adds
to the pleasure and delight of the husbandman, and the health and
increase of the flock adds to the joy and reward of the shepherd ;
so the increase of holiness, the thriving, the fruitfulness of souls
in holiness, adds to the credit and comfort, to the pleasure and delight,
to the joy and reward of faithful painful ministers, who are nurses,
husbandmen, and shepherds, in the language of the Holy Scriptures.
Though it be true that faithful ministers are a sweet savour to God,
* ' Painstaking/ ' pcrsevering.'—G.

368 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

both in them that are saved, and in them that perish, 2 Cor. ii. 15,
though their labour, whether it hit or miss, is accepted, and shall be
rewarded of the Lord, as the physician has his fee, though the patient
dies, and the nurse has her wages, though the child don't thrive, and
the vine-dresser has his hire, though the vines don't bear fruit, yet
the more they win men to heaven, and the more by their means the
work of holiness is carried on in the hearts and lives of men, the
weightier will be their crown of glory, and the greater will be their
joy and rejoicing in the great day of our Lord, Isa. xlix. 15. sirs,
did you but see your faithful ministers' tears, did you but hear their
heavy sighs and groans, were you but acquainted with their fervent
and frequent prayers on your behalfs, did you but believe how they
beat their brains, and how willing they are not only to spend them-
selves, but even to spit out their very lungs in the service of your
souls, how would you call upon your own souls to add holiness to holi-
ness — yea, charge your own souls to perfect holiness in the fear of the
Lord ! Well, friends, as ever you would add to your faithful ministers'
comfort here, and to then' joy and crown at the coming of our Lord,
labour after higher degrees of holiness. But,

(17.) Lastly, To provoke you to labour after higher degrees of holi-
ness, consider that the more holiness you have here, the more happiness
you shall have hereafter. The more grace you have on earth, the
more glory you shall have in heaven. Now before I come to make
good this argument — viz., that some saints shall partake of more
glory in heaven than others shall — ^give me leave to premise these few
things to prevent mistakes.

First, That the object of their happiness, which is God blessed for
ever, will be one and the same to all saints. All glorified saints shall
have but one God among them all. God shall be no more one saint's
God than he shall be every saint's God in heaven, &c.

Secondly, That the beatifical vision shall be seen by all the saints,
and communicated to all the saints ; they shall all have a happy and
blessed fruition and possession of God. All the vessels of glory shall
be filled to the brim with a clear sight of God, and with a full enjoy-
ment of God ; and yet doubtless, for all this, some saints shall appre-
hend more of God than others, and comprehend more of God than
others, and enjoy more of God than others. Though all shall be filled
with those everlasting springs of pleasure and delight that be at God's
right hand, Ps. xvi. 11, yet some shall be able to take in more of
those pleasures of paradise than others shall. Though all the widow's
vessels were filled to the brim with oil, yet, doubtless, some being
greater and larger than others, they accordingly contained more oil
than others, 2 Kings iv. 3-8 ; and so it will be with the saints when
they come to heaven. There shall be no lack of glory to any of the
saints in glory. All the saints shall be filled with glory according to
their capacity. If you bring a thousand vessels of different sizes to
the sea, the sea fills them all. Though their sizes differ, and some
are bigger, and others lesser, yet all are filled, every little vessel hath
its fill as well as the greater ; so every saint shall have his fill of glory
when he comes to glory ; the felicity of every saint shall be perfect
God will be all in all to all saints, Ps. xvii. 15.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 369

Thirdly, All saints shall be freed from all evils alike ; they shall
all be freed from the aching head, and from the unbelieving heart ;
they shall all alike be free from the evil of sin, and from the evil of
sufferings ; there shall not be a saint in glory that shall ever feel a
pricking brier or a grieving thorn, Ezek. xxviii. 24 ; there all sorrow-
shall be removed from all their hearts, and all tears shall be wiped
from all their eyes. Rev. vii. 17.

Fourthly and lastly. The degrees of glory that saints shall have in
heaven shall not be given out to them upon the account of their
merits, or the dignity of their persons, or the worthiness of their
works, but upon the account of Grod's mere mercy and grace, who in
the day of retribution will delight to crown his own gifts, not our
merits ; and where he shall find the greatest measures of grace and
holiness, there he will, of his own free mercy, bestow the greatest
measure of glory. l Well, friends, remember this, you must always
carefully distinguish between the essence and substance of glory, and
between degrees and measures of glory. Now the essence and sub-
stance of glory, which consists in the saints' full communion with
God, and in their perfect conformity to God, and in their universal
subjection to God, and in their everlasting fruition of God, be common
to all the saints, so that no one saint shall have more of the essence
and substance of glory than another has, yet the degrees and measures
of glory shall be distributed to some more, to some less. Now that
there shall be different degrees of glory in heaven, answerable to the
different degrees of grace and holiness that the saints reach to here
on earth, and that God will at last proportion his rewards according
to the different degrees of labour, service, and sufferings of his people
in this world, may be made evident, 1. By clear scriptures ; 2. By
arguments. ISTow there are several scriptures that speaks out this
truth. Take these for a taste :

[1.] First, that 1 Cor. iii. 8, * Now he that planteth and he that
watereth are one : and every man shall receive his own reward accord-
ing to his own labour/ The apostle having compared his own and
Apollos' work together, adds, ' That both should receive their reward
according to their work ' — that is, as their work differed, so should
their reward differ. Though they both preached one and the same
doctrine, and had both one and the same design and purpose, viz., to
bring in souls to Christ, and to build up souls to Christ, yet according
to their different degrees of labour, so should be their different degrees
of reward. Though no man should work in God's vineyard for nought,
yet he that was most faithful, diligent, and laborious in planting or in
watering God's husbandry, should have the greatest reward. Paul and
Apollos shall at last receive their different reward according to their dif-
ferent labom-; or nearer the original, they shall each of them receive, top
iScov fiiadov \i]\(r€Tat Kara rov lSlov kottov, their proper reward accord-
ing to their proper work.

[2.] A second scripture is that 1 Cor. xv. 41, 42, 'There is one
glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of
the stars ; for one star differeth from another in glory ; so also is the

* Deus nihil coronal nisi dona tua, When God crowneth U3, he doth but crown his
own gifts in us, &c, — Augustine.

VOL. IV. 2 A

370 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, BARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

resurrection of the dead.' Mark here is the full stop, and these words
are not to be referred to those following words, viz., ' That the body is
sown in corruption, and riseth again in incorruption.' For the apostle
speaks not here of the difference between glorious and inglorious, cor-
ruptible and incorruptible things ; but he speaks here of the difference
that is between heavenly and glorious things ; ' for,' saith he, * one star
differs from another in glory.' It is very observable that the compari-
son runs between the glorified condition of some saints that shall rise,
and other some that shall rise in the great day. So that look, as
one star differs from another star in glory, so one saint shall differ from
another saint in glory at the resurrection of the dead. Though every
star is bright, shining, and glorious, yet some stars are more bright,
shining, and glorious than others are ; so, though every saint will
shine gloriously in heaven, yet some saints shall have a greater lustre,
glory and shine upon them than others shall. Look, as some heavenly
bodies are more glorious than others, so in the morning of the resur-
rection some saints shall be more glorious than others, &c.

[3.] A third scripture is that 2 Cor. ix. 6, ' But this I say. He which
soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly ; and he which soweth bounti-
fully shall reap bountifully.' A sparing liberality shall be attended
with a sparing reward, and a bounteous liberality shall be attended
with a bounteous reward. Look, as the harvest answers the measure
of seed that is sown, so that he that sows but little reaps but little, and
he that sows much reaps much, so saints' reaping at last will be answer-
able to their sowing here. All men's charities shall at last be rewarded
proportionable to the several degrees of it. He that gives a pound
shall have a gi*eater reward than he that gives a penny. He that sows
thousands shall reap more than he that sows hundreds. He shall
have the most plentiful crop in heaven, who has sowed most seed
here on earth, &c. They shall have interest upon interest in heaven,
who sow much on this side heaven.

[4.] A fourth scripture is that Luke xix. 12-20. Now in this
parable you have a great lord going into a far country ; but before he
goes he gives ten pounds ^ to ten of his servants to trade with till his
return. Now upon his return, he that had increased his pound to ten
pounds was made ruler over ten cities, ver. 17 ; and he that made five
of one was made ruler over five cities, ver. 19. Here he that- gained
most received the greatest reward. The nobleman in this parable
is our Lord Jesus Christ, who is truly and highly noble, he being co-
eternal and co-equal with his Father, in respect of his deity ; he was
born a king, and is now King of kings, and Lord of lords, and Prince
of the kings of the earth. The far country that he is gone to is heaven,
for thither he went at his ascension. Now when he shall return from
heaven to judge the quick and the dead, he will then bring men to an
account, to a reckoning about their improvement of all the gifts and
graces that he has intrusted them with, and, according to the different
improvement that men shall make of their talents, so shall be their re-
ward. He that makes the greatest improvement of his pound, he shall

^ Mina, here translated a pound, is twelve ounces and a half, which pound, according
to five shillings an ounce, is three pound two shillings and sixpence sterling money.
Mat. ii. 2 ; Kev. xvii. 14, and i. 5.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 371

have the greatest reward, he shall be ruler over ten cities, that is, he shall
be very highly honoured and exalted ; and he that makes a lesser im-
provement, he shall have a lesser reward, he shall be ruler over five
cities. He that makes a great improvement of a little, he shall, if I
may so speak, sit at Christ's right hand ; but he that makes a lesser
improvement, he must be contented to sit at Christ's left hand. God
will proportion out men's reward at last answerable to their improve-
ment of that treasure that he has put into their hands ; and yet this
doth not infer merit of works, but a gracious disposition in God to en-
courage his servants in a way of well-doing, &c.

[5.] A fifth scripture is that Dan. xii. 3, ' And they that be wise
shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn
many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.' l The glory of
heaven is here laid out in shining terms, for look how gloriously the
shining of stars doth excel the shining of the firmament ; so some
saints shall as far outshine others in glory, as the stars do now out-
shine the firmament. Look, as the stars are a more beautiful and
glorious part of the orb than the firmament is, so some saints shall
have a great deal more beauty and glory upon them than others shall.
And look, as there are different degrees of glory between the glory of
the firmament and the glory of the stars now, so there shall be dif-
ferent degrees of glory between one glorious saint and another at last.
All the saints shall at last shine as the firmament, but those that by
their doctrine, instruction, and conversation, turn many to righteous-
ness, these shall shine as the stars, for ever and ever. Some of the
highest seats in glory shall be for such ' who turn sinners from dark-
ness to light, and from the power of Satan to Jesus Christ,' Acts xxvi.
18. It is very observable, that as the apostles were very eminent in this
work, so Christ has given it under his own hand, that they shall sit
upon twelve thrones, as so many kings, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel, Mat. xix. 28 ; Luke xxii. 28, 29. They had done and suffered
more for Christ than others, and therefore Christ will put a greater
glory upon them than upon others. Though many learned men differ
about the interpretation of those words, ' ye also shall sit upon twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel' — and therefore I dare
not peremptorily conclude this or that to be the sense of them — yet this
is most plain and evident in the text, that the apostles are under a
promise of some peculiar and more eminent degree of honour, glory,
and dignity, than others are under. Look, as their service to Christ
was a peculiar and eminent service, so Christ promises them a peculiar
and eminent reward. Every man of them shall have his particular
throne, and every one of them shall have the honour and dignity of judg-
ing — that is, of governing and ruling the twelve tribes of Israel. Look,
as ambassadors and chief councillors and presidents have the highest
and chiefest seats in the kingly assembly, so the apostles shall have the
highest and the chiefest seats in the general assembly and church of
the first-born in heaven, Heb. xii. 22, 23 ; they shall sit, as it were,
on the throne, or on the bench, with Christ, so highly and greatly shall
they be exalted. If we cannot hit upon the meanings of the reward

^ From this very text, your 'English annotators' conclude that there are degrees of
glory in heaven, &c. [As before. — G.]

372 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

here promised, yet we may safely and easily gather from the descrip-
tion of it that there shall be different degrees of glory in Christ's king-
dom of glory. The apostles followed Christ through great tribula-
tions and afflictions, and they continued with him in all his temp-
tations ; they forsook all to wait on him ; and after they had
faithfully, laboriously, successfully, and very eminently served him,
they made themselves an offering for him, as I have formerly shewed
you, and therefore Christ will at last in a more eminent way exalt
them, and glorify them, than he will others that have never seen that
of Christ, nor received that from Christ, nor done that for Christ, nor
suffered that for Christ, as they have done. Degrees of glory shall at
last be proportioned out answerable to those degrees of service which
in this life men have been drawn out to. Such a thing as this the
apostle Paul does more than hint, if I mistake not, in that 1 Thes.
ii. 19, 20, ' For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are
not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ?
For ye are our glory and joy.' The crown that Paul speaks of here
is not that common crown of righteousness, nor that common crown
of life and immortality, nor that common crown of glory that all the
saints shall be crowned with at last ; ^ but he speaks here of an apos-
tolical crown, of a special, peculiar crown, that should accrue to him
upon the account of his serviceableness to their souls ; and of this
crown he speaks again in that Phil. iv. 1, ' Therefore, my brethren,
my dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in
the Lord, my dearly beloved.' He calls the Philippians his crown, and
that partly because their spiritual growth, constancy, and persever-
ance was now his glory among other churches, but mainly because
they should be his particular crown of rejoicing in the great day of
our Lord Jesus. He knew that the Philippians' profit would be his
crown and his advantage another day. The apostle alludes here to
the custom of the Komans, who, as they had their common crowns of
bays, ivy, and laurel, &c. — and these were such that their horses which
won the race were often crowned with, which occasioned Theocritus
to say. See what poor things the world glories in ; for, as their con-
querors are crowned, so are their horses — so they had their peculiai-,
their special crowns, that were the rewards of their conquerors that
had done special service for their country: so there are common
crowns that belong to all the saints, as saints, as the crown of righteous-
ness, the crown of life, and the crown of glory ; and as there are these
common crowns, so there are special and peculiar crowns, that they
shall be crowned with that are exercised in more high and excellent
services than others have been employed in ; and this is the crown
that here the apostle speaks of. He knew very well that his reward
should be answerable to his work, for though God never did,
nor never will, reward men for their works, as if they were the
meritorious cause of the reward, yet he will for degrees reward them
according to their works. There are peculiar crowns, special crowns,
for those that have done peculiar and special services for Christ on
earth.

[6.] A sixth scripture is that Mat. v. 11, 12, * Blessed are ye, when

^ 2 Tim. iv. 8 ; James i. 12 j Rev. ii. 10; 1 Pet. v. 4.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS, 373

men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of
evil against you falsely for my sake : rejoice, and be exceeding glad ;
for great is your reward in heaven.' Suffering saints, persecuted saints,
shall be sure of great rewards. Grod will reward upon his people, not
only their innocence, integrity, patience, and courage under their suf-
ferings, but the more their sufferings, revilings, and persecutions are
multiplied in this world, the more shall their recompense and reward
be multiplied in another world. It is true, Christ hath many lovers of
his crown, but few bearers of his cross. All would rejoice with him,
but few care to suffer for him ; but yet it is as true on the one hand —
viz., that they who bear most of his cross shall be greatest sharers in
his crown ; they that suffer most for him on earth shall be most blessed
and rewarded by him when they come to heaven. Look, as the con-
solation of the saints rises higher and higher in this world, even as
their sufferings rise higher and higher, 2 Cor. i. 4, 5 ; so the glory of
the saints shall rise higher and higher in the other world, as their
sufferings rise higher and higher in this world. The persecuted
Christians in TertuUian cries out, Crudelitas vestra gloria nostra, Your
cruelty is our glory, and the harder we are put to it, the greater shall
be our reward in heaven. One speaking of the martyrs said, look how
many sufferings they have, so many crowns they shall have ; for every
suffering God shall set a crown on their heads. By how much men's
sufferings have been greater, saith Chrysostom, by so much the more
their crown shall be bright and splendent. The greater conflicts and
buffetings any saint hath endured, the greater shall be his reward, and
the more ample shall be his glory, saith Austin. As Christ hath many
crowns upon his head, suitable to the multitude of his sufferings and
victories, so Christians at last shall have crowns suitable to the multi-
tude of their sufferings, and suitable to those famous victories they have
gained over a tempting devil and a persecuting world, Kev. xix, 7.
Certainly it will be but justice, that they should receive the weightiest
crown who have bore the heaviest cross, 1 John v. 4, and ii. 13, 14.

[7.] The seventh and last scripture that I shall produce is that
Mat. X. 41, ' He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet,
shall receive a prophet's reward ;' that is, say some, they shall be par-
takers of the same reward that is laid up for the prophets. Without
all dispute these two things lies fair in the text :

First, That there is some special and eminent degrees of reward ^ue
unto a prophet above other men. And,

SecondlT/, That he that shall entertain a prophet, and perform any
offices of love and favour to him under that name and notion, he shall
be partaker of that reward. He that receives a prophet, as he is
God's messenger, and employed in his service, and sent about his
errand, and not upon any carnal or worldly respects, he shall receive
a prophet's reward, that is, he shall receive either such a reward as the
prophet himself shall receive at last, or he shall receive such a large,
ample, and noble recompense as is meet for one to receive that received
a prophet as coming from the Lord, and as acted by the Lord.
Look, as such who give an honourable reception to the ambassadors of
kings or princes, do highly raise themselves in the favour and esteem
of those kings or princes that had sent them ; so those that receive the

374 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

faithful prophets of the Lord, as the ambassadors of God, they shall be
highly interested in the favour of God, and as nobly be rewarded by
God. I might produce several other scriptures that sound to the same
purpose as these seven do, but enough is as good as a feast ; as that Mark
vi. 20 ; John xiv. 2 ; Mat. xx. 20-24.

I shall, therefore, in the second place come to the reasons that may
further evidence and confirm this great truth — viz., that there shall
be different degrees of glory in heaven. Among many other reasons
that might be given, I shall only give you these five.

[1.] First, There are diversities of degrees of angels in heaven. There
are cherubims and seraphims, and there are angels and archangels.
Now the cherubims and seraphims are a lower rank and order of angels,
and the archangels are a higher rank and order of angels. And the
apostle speaks clearly of several ranks and orders of invisible creatures
in that Col. i. 16. Here you have an enumeration of thrones, domin-
ions, principalities, and powers ; and so in that Eph. i. 21, 'Far above
all principalities, and powers, and might, and dominion.' These prin-
cipalities and powers are the blessed angels that minister before the
Lord, and that are subordinate unto one another ; and here they are
reckoned up by ascending, power is above principality, and might
above power, and dominion above might. To define those orders and
degrees of angels with which God is environed, is a work too high and
hard for me, and though the Papists and several schoolmen are so bold
as to define their particular offices and orders, yet I dare not be wise
above what is written. Where the Scripture is silent, I love to be
silent, and where the Scripture hath no tongue, there I desire to have
no ears.^ There is an order in hell, an order among the devils, and
therefore you read in three scriptures of the prince of devils,^ and so
much also that expression imports that you have in that Mat. xxv. 41,
' The devil and his angels,' which intimates a prince among those un-
clean and damned spirits. Now shall there be order in hell and con-
fusion in heaven ? Shall there be order among the evil angels, and
shall there not much more be order among the good angels ? Cer-
tainly that God that is the God of order, and that hath made all things
in order, and that to this day keeps all things in order here below, will
never suffer the least disorder and confusion to be among those princes
of glory that stand continually before him. He that denies order in
heaven, denies heaven to be heaven, and he that grants order in heaven,
grants degrees of glory in heaven. Though there is no difference be-
tween the angels in natura angelica, the angelical nature being alike
in all, yet in officio, in office, there is a great deal of difference in the
glory of the angels, for God employs some of the heavenly host in more
high, noble, and excellent services than others, and answerable there-
unto shall their reward be. Though all angels shall share alike in the
essential and substantial glory of heaven, yet there is an additional
glory, an accidentals glory, an overplus of glory, that shall be con-
ferred upon the angels, answerable to the several and various services

^ Dionysius Areopagita, Thomas Aquinas, Anselm, &c.

* Mat. ix. 34, and xii. 34 ; Mark iii. 22. The very supposition of order Bupposeth
inequality and disproportion.
" ' In its accidents,' = accompaniments. — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 375

tbat they have managed and engaged in. Now the Scripture tells us
plainly that ' in heaven we shall be like to the angels/ Mat. xxii. 30 ;
and therefore if there be degrees of angels, and if the angels in heaven
shall have a different glory and reward, according to the work in which
they have been employed, then the glory of the saints in respect of de-
grees shall be different also. But,

[2.] Secondly, There are degrees of torments in hell, and therefore,
hy the rule of contraries, there shall he degrees of glory in heaven.
Now that there are degrees of torments in hell is most evident from
several plain scriptures, as from that Mat. x. 14, 15, ' And who-
soever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart
out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet. Verily
I say unto you. It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that city.' Sodom and
Gomorrah shall have an easier and cooler hell than such cities shall
have that have contemned the tenders of grace, and the offers of
mercy. 1 It is very observable, that the punishments that God in
tliis life hath inflicted upon the Jews for their contempt of Christ,
and his everlasting gospel, have been more terrible than his raining
hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah: for on a sudden,
and in a moment, God consumed them, and burnt them up ; but God
hath for above this sixteen hundred years been a-raining hell out of
heaven upon the Jews ; he hath for a long time vexed them with all
manner of adversity, and to this very day he hath made them, all the
world over, a spectacle of his dreadful severity ; but all those plagues
and punishments that the Jews have been and still are under, are but
flea-bitings and scratches on the hand, to those dreadful and amazing
judgments that God, in the great day of account, wUl inflict upon all
Christ's refusers and gospel-despisers. And so chap, xi, 20-23, ' Then
began he to ujjbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were
done, because they repented not : woe unto thee, Chorazin ! woe unto
thee, Bethsaida ! for if the mighty works which were done in you,
had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago
in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you. It shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. And thou,
Capernaum, which art exalted up to heaven, shalt be brought down to
hell ; for if the mighty works which have been done in thee had been
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.' The more
mercy hath been upon the bare knee entreating sinners to repent, the
more earnest the Lord Jesus hath been in wooing sinners to believe on
him, and to resign up themselves wholly and only to him, the more
clearly and sweetly the everlasting gospel hath soimded in sinners'
ears, and the more near, and the more often heaven hath been brought
to sinners' doors, and yet they have bid defiance to all, and hardened
themselves in their sins, with the greater violence and with the more
dreadful vengeance shall such be plunged into the lowest hell. And
so in that Mat. xxiii. 14, ' Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, and
hypocrites, for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long
prayers ; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.' Hypocrites
shall be double damned ; the hottest and the darkest place in hell is

1 Contempt of Christ and his gospel is worse than sodomy.

376 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

reserved for them. ' Give him his portion with hypocrites ; ' for number
and weight there are no torments in hell to the torments of hypocrites.
Counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity, and therefore it is but justice
that the hj^ocrite should have double torment. And so in that Luke
xii. 47, 48, ' That servant that knows his Master's will, and doth it
not, shall be beaten with many stripes. And he that knew it not, and
did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.*
Sins against light and knowledge are sins against the noblest remedy.
They waste and wound the conscience most, they most open sinners'
mouths to blaspheme against God, and they most harden sinners'
hearts in sinning against God ; and every way they dare God most,
and provoke God most to strike with an iron rod, and to whip the
knowing transgressor, not with rods but with scorpions. It is very
observable, that the more light and knowledge men sin against in
this world, the greater judgments God gives them up to, even in this
life, Eom. i. 21-23. Take a remarkable instance in the most refined
and civil heathens, who are presumed to have most light and know-
ledge, who were given up to the most beastly errors about the nature
of God, as the Romans and Grecians, who worshipped fevers and
human passions, yea, every paltry thing, &c. ; whereas the Scythians
and more barbarous nations worshipped the sun, and the thunder, &c.,
things terrible in themselves. Oh, how much more, then, will God in
the great day give them up to the greatest judgments, who have given
themselves up to the greatest sins ! Certainly the professors of this
age, yea, of this city, whether they go to heaven or hell, will be the
greatest debtors that shall be in either place — the one to the free grace of
God, and the other to his justice. That they that have most of hell in
their mouths, and most of hell in their hearts, and most of hell in
their lives, should have most of hell in their souls at last, is but
justice. I shall conclude this second argument with a saying of one
of the ancients [Augustine] ; Look, saith he, as in heaven one is more
glorious than another, so in hell one shall be more miserable than
another. Now if there be degrees of torments in hell, which I suppose
the scriptures but now cited doth undeniably prove, then, doubtless,
there will be degrees of glory in heaven.

[3.] Thirdly, God in this life dispenses the gifts and graces of his
Spirit unequally among his saints ; to some he gives two talents,
to others five, and to others ten. Hence it is you read both of a
weak faith, and of a strong faith. ' Why are ye afraid, ye of Uttle
faith ?' and, ' woman, great is thy faith ;' and, ' Verily, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel' i And hence it is that you
read both of weak Christians, and of strong Christians. * He that is
weak in the faith receive ;' ' another who is weak eateth herbs ;' ' and
to the weak, I became as weak, that I might win the weak ;' ' we then
that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not
to please ourselves;' 'when I am weak, then am I strong.' 2 And
hence it is that you read of babes, and of children, and of young men,
and of old men, in the Scripture. Saints are of difierent growths.
Some are but babes in gifts and grace, others are children, others

^ Mat. XXV., viii. 10, 23, and xv. 28.

• Eom. liv. 1, 2 ; 1 Cor. ix 22 ; 2 Cor. xii. 10 ; Heb. v. 13, 14; 1 Pet. ii. 2, and v. 1.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OP HOLINESS. 377

young men, and others old men. That God that distributes the good
things of this world unequally among the sons of men, as to some
more, to others less ; to some great things, to others little things ; to
some high things, to others low things ; that God unequally distributes
spiritual blessings among his dearest children ; to some he gives more
light, to others less ; to some a greater measure of love, to others
a less ; to some a greater degree of joy, to others a less, &c. Some
saints shine in grace and holiness as the firmament, and others shine
in grace and holiness as the stars ; some shine in grace and holiness as
the moon, and others shine in grace and holiness as the sun ; and
all this springs from those different measures of grace and holiness that
God bestows upon his people. Now doubtless men may as well plead
for equal degrees of grace, as they may for equal degrees of glory ;
they may as well plead for an equal share in the good things of this
world, as they may plead for an equal share in the happiness and
blessedness of that other world. Doubtless as God dispenses his gifts
and graces unequally in this life, so he will dispense his rewards
unequally in the other life. As men's gifts and graces are different
here on earth, so their glory shall be different when they come to
heaven. Without all peradventure they shall have the whitest and
the largest robes of honour, and the heaviest and the brightest crowns
of glory, whose souls are most richly adorned with grace, and whose
lives are most eminently bespangled with holiness. The more grace
and holiness any saint hath here, the more he is prepared and fitted
for glory ; and the more any saint is fitted for glory, the more that
saint shall at last be filled with glory. The greatest measures of grace
and holiness do most enlarge the soul, and widen the soul, and
capacitate the soul, to take in the greatest measures of glory ; and
therefore the more grace, the more glory, the more holiness, the more
happiness, a saint shall have at last. Certainly God will crown his
own gracious works in his children proportionable to what they are,
but they are difierent and unequally in all his children in respect of
measures and degrees ; and therefore God will set different crowns of
glory upon the heads of his children at last. But,

[4.] Fourthly, They that have more grace and holiness than others,
they are more like to God than others. They bear his glorious image
in a greater print, they have a brighter character of God upon them,
and they are the most lively picture of God in all the world.

Now we know, though parents love their children well, and wish all
their children well, and do for all their children well, yet commonly
they love them most, and provide for them best, that resemble them
most. Parents cannot but love those children most, and lay up
for them most, who have most of themselves in them ; and I cannot
see how God can do otherwise than love them most, and provide for
ihem best, who most resemble him to the life. The nature of God is a
holy nature, and so there lies a holy necessity on his nature to love
them most who have most grace and holiness in them, Ps. xlv. 7.
Look, as it is natural to God to hate wickedness, so it is natural to
God to love holiness ; and as the higher men rise in wickedness, the
more a holy God hates them ; so the higher men rise in holiness, the
more a holy God loves them. Now the more any are like to God^ and

378 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

the more they are beloved of God, the higher doubtless in glory shall
they be advanced by God. The best and the largest portion is laid up
for that child that is most like his father. The more any man in holi-
ness resembles God on earth, the greater and the larger portion of
glory that man shall have when he comes to heaven. But,

[5,] Fifthly and lastly, To deny degrees of glory in heaven, and to
say that God will not suit mens wages to their ivorks, nor their rewards
to their services, nor crown the highest improvements of graxie with
the highest degrees of glory, is to render useless mxiny glorious ex-
hortations tlmt are scattered up and doiun in the Scripture ; as that
in the 1 Cor. xv. 58, ' Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as
you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.' If this were
not a truth that I have been all this while asserting, why then, when
men meet with this exhortation, they may say. Why, it is no great
matter whether we are ' steadfast, unmoveable, and always abounding
in the work of the Lord ' or no ; for if we are, we shall never advance
our reward in heaven, we shall never add pearls to our glorious
crown, we shall never add one mite to our happiness and blessedness ;
and if we are not, we shall be as high in heaven, and our reward as
great, and our crown as weighty, as theirs shall be who are ' steadfast,
unmoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.' i And
so the denial of degrees of glory in heaven will take off also the edge
of all those other exhortations of perfecting holiness, of sowing
liberally, of growing in grace, of bringing forth much fruit, and of
adding virtue to virtue, &c. ; yea, this will cut the throat of all divine
endeavours ; for who will labour to be rich in grace, and to be much
in service, and to abound in all the fruits of righteousness and holiness,
when none of all this will turn to a man's advantage in another
world ? If he that sows little shall have as great a harvest as he that
sows much ; if he that is dull and negligent in the work of the Lord
shall have as great a reward as he that is active and abundant in the
work of the Lord ; if those trees of righteousness which bring forth
much fruit shall have no greater a recompense than those trees of
righteousness which bring forth many leaves of profession but little
fruit, &c., who would sow much, and who would be active and
abundant in the work of the Lord, and who would bring forth much
fruit? verily but few, if any. But now the opinion, or rather the
truth, that I have been labouring to make good, viz., that there shall
be different degrees of glory in heaven, and that God will proportion
men's reward to their work, and that he will measure out happiness
and blessedness to them at last according to the different measures of
grace bestowed upon his people, and according to the work, service,
and faithfulness of his people in this world ; — this truth, I say, held
forth in its lustre and glory, is a marvellous encouragement, and a
mighty provocation to all sincere Christians, to labour after the
highest pitches in Christianity, and to be very eminent in grace and
holiness ; for what man is there that will not reason thus, the more
grace the more glory, the more holiness the more happiness, the more
work the more wages, and the greater my service shall be here, the

^ 2 Cor. vii. 1, and ix. 6; 2 Pet. iii. 18; John xv. 8 ; 2 Pet. i. 5-7.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. ,379

greater shall be my reward hereafter ; and therefore, my soul !
grow in grace, perfect holiness, and abound in the work and service of
the Lord, knowing that ' thy labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.'
And thus I have given you the reasons that prove that there shall be
degrees of glory in heaven.

Now I have nothing further to do upon this point, but to give a
few brief answers to such objections as are commonly raised against
this truth, that I have asserted and proved.

Object 1. First, Some object and say. That one Christ bought ibsall,
and that all our portions are bought by the precious blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and that therefore all believers shall share alike in
the inheritance of the saints in light. Now to this objection I shall
answer,

[1.] First, Tlmt all saints shall be equal sharers in the substantial
and essential glory of heaven, &c. But of this I have spoken before ;
and, therefore,

[2.] Secondly, Though a father buys a rich inheritance far all his
children, yet this lays no necessity nor obligation at all upon him to
allot to every one of his children an equal portion ; so though our
Lord Jesus Christ hath by his blood purchased a rich inheritance for
his children, yet this lays no necessity nor obligation at all upon Jesus
Christ to divide this rich inheritance by equal portions among his
children. It is true that Christ hath purchased all with his blood,
and it is as true that he may divide his purchase among his people
as he pleases. If every man may do with his own as he pleaseth,
why may not Christ? Must he needs be bound when others are
free ?

[3.] Thirdly and lastly, I answer. That as it is true that the merits
and satisfaction of Christ is the ground and foundation of our reward,
and that alone ivhich makes our works capable of a reward, so it is as
true that our ivorks are the subject of reward, and this is most agree-
able to the compact that ivas made between Christ and his Father —
that everlasting happiness and blessedness, that eternal glory and
felicity, should be measured out to the saints according to their differ-
ent measures of grace, and different degrees of service that they have
been engaged in in this world, and all this upon the credit of Christ's
blood. Certainly there is nothing under heaven, below the blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that can make differing works capable of a
different reward. The Papists are most sadly out, for they are so
blind and bold as to aflfirm that the more grace any man hath, the
more glory he merits by his grace. These men make degrees of grace,
and not the blood of Jesus Christ, to be the meritorious cause of de-
grees of glory ; and therefore of all men I think they are furthest from
glory. Certainly this is the believer's glory, and his crown of rejoic-
ing, that all recompenses and rewards shall flow in upon him, not
upon the account of his merits, but upon the account of Christ's
blood ; and thus much shall suffice to have spoken by way of answer
to this objection.

Object. 2. But now, in the second place, I shall come to answer their
grand and main objection ; and that is taken from that parable in the
20th of Matthew, where the kingdom of heaven is compared to a vine-

3S0 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

yard. Now in this parable there is mention made of a husbandman
that called several labourers into his vineyard, at several hours in the
day ; some he called at the first hour, and some he called at the third,
and some at the ninth, and some at the eleventh. Now when they
came all to receive their wages, the story tells us that he gave every
man a penny, he gave every man an equal reward. They that
laboured from the first hour, and they that laboured from the third
hour, and they that laboured from the sixth hour of the day, had no
greater a recompense than he that came in at the eleventh hour, and
so had laboured but one hour in the vineyard, and bore but little if
any of the heat of the day. From whence the objectors conclude that
there are no degrees of glory in heaven, but that all shall have glory
alike, happiness and blessedness alike; every man shall have his
penny, every man shall have an equal reward, and no man's penny in
heaven shall be brighter or bigger than another's.

Now, by way of answer to this objection, give me leave to premise
these three things :

First, That this parable of the householder, in giving to every man
a penny, hath no reference at all to heaven, nor to the reward, nor to
the glory that shall be conferred upon the elect, and this I shall clearly
and fully prove by these four following arguments :

[1.] First, This illative particle, ' for,' in ver. 1, sheweth that this
parable is inserted to expound the former conclusion, viz., ' that the
first shall be last, and the last shall be first,' and therefore the end of the
parable is concluded with the repetition of the same sentence, ver. 16,
* the last shall be first, and the first shall be last.' Christ by this parable
would teach his hearers, that there is no reason under heaven why
they which are first called in respect of time should boast or triumph
over others, because he can easily call the uncalled at pleasure, and
either make them equal with them, or else prefer them before them
which are first. The scope of Christ in this parable is not to set forth
the equality of celestial glory, it is not to prove that the happiness and
blessedness of the saints shall be equal in heaven, but the very drift of
the parable is to show, that they which are first called and converted
have no cause at all to despise the uncalled and unconverted, or to
trample upon them with the foot of pride, considering that they who
are yet in their sins, and in their blood, and in an unconverted and un-
sanctified estate, may yet be called, and either made equal to them,
or preferred before them. But,

[2.] Secondly, Interpreters do generally agree in this, that by the
husbandman we are to understand God himseK, and by the labourers
men upon earth, and by the vineyard the church of God ; and several
of them say, that by the five hours in the parable we are to understand
the five ages of man.i

First, By those who were called in the morning and sent into the
vineyard, we are to understand those who in their childhood are called
and converted ; they are such who begin to seek the Lord, and to serve
the Lord, even as soon as they are capable of the use of reason ; as
Samuel did, and as Josiah did, and as Timothy did.

Secondly, By those who are called at the third hour, we are to
Chrysostom, Origen, Jerome, Gregory, Austin. See my 'Apples of Gold,' [Vol. I.— G.]

HkB. XII. 14] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 381

understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in~their
youth, in the prime, the spring and morning of their days.

Thirdly, By those who were called at the sixth hour, we are to
understand those who are turned to the Lord in their strength, and in
their full and perfect age.

Fourthly, By those who were called at the ninth hour, we are to
understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in their
declining age.

And Ji/thlT/, By those who were called at the eleventh hour, we are
to understand those who are converted and turned to the Lord in their
decrepit old age, when they have one foot in the grave, and there is
but a short step between them and eternity, when, with the thief upon
the cross, they are even ready to be turned off of the ladder of life.
Now the vineyard being the church, all that this parable proveth is
no more but this, that whether men are called into the vineyard of the
church either sooner or later — either at the first hour, or at the ninth,
or eleventh hour: yet this shall neither greaten nor lessen their
reward ; for if they are called at the first hour, their recompense shall
be never the greater upon that account, or if they are called at the
eleventh hour, their reward shall be never the lesser upon that account ;
the reward shall not be different according to the different times of
men's being called and converted, and that this parable proves ; but
the reward shall be different according to the diversity of our works,
and that my former arguments prove.

[3,] Thirdly, If the penny that every one had in the parable be
meant of glory, then it will roundly follow, that murmurers shall be
saved and glorified as well as others, for the murmurers had their
penny as well as the rest : ver. 10-12, ' But when the first came, they
supposed that they should have received more, and they likewise
received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they
murmured against the good man of the house, saying, These last have
wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which
have borne the burden and heat of the day.'i The Greek word, €767-
71*^01/, that is here rendered murmured, signifies to grunt as swine grunt.
They grumbled and grunted, and they grunted and grumbled ; and
pray tell me what should such swine as murmurers are do grunting and
grumbling in heaven ? doubtless the crown of glory is too bright, too
noble, too glorious, and too weighty a crown to be set upon murmurers'
heads. Heaven would be no heaven if there were but one gruntler
or murmurer there. In heaven all the vessels of glory shall be full,
and there shall not be the least shadow of envy or repining there.
In the streets of that new Jerusalem above, none shall ever complain
that others have too much, or that themselves have too little. Every
glorified saint shall sit down fully satisfied and contented with his
portion there. Now should we by the penny understand a glorified
estate and condition, then this would unavoidably follow, that many
shall be brought to a state of glory which are not elected, nor sanctified,
nor prepared for glory; but this can never, nor must never be granted;
and therefore without all peradventure this parable doth no way hold

^ The Roman penny is the eighth part of an ounce, which after five shillings the ounce,
is seven pence halfpenny.

382 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

out that state of glory and felicity which all the called and chosen of
God shall have at Christ's coming to judge the quick and the dead.
But,

[4.] Fourthly, The penny that is here mentioned in this parable
cannot, nor may not, be interpreted so as to signify an equality of
glory, or an equality of happiness and blessedness, that the saints shall
have in heaven, because such an interpretation, such an exposition, is
cross and contrary to the common and received rules of interpreting
and expounding of Scripture. Now, among other rules that are to be
observed in the interpreting and expounding of Scripture, there are
these two :

First, You must so interpret and expound one text of Scripture,
that you do not set it at strfie and variance with another text of Scrip-
ture ; for though there is a seeming contradiction between scripture
and scripture, yet there is a blessed harmony and a glorious corre-
spondency between all the parts of Scripture. It is a very dangerous
thing so to interpret Scripture as to raise contests and opposition
between scriptures and scriptures ; it is an evil thing to raise up scrip-
ture against scripture, and so to interpret one as to make it affront
another. Woe to him that by his interpretations of Scripture pro-
claims the scriptures to be at open war amongst themselves. Now
to interpret the penny in the parable so as to make it signify an
equaUty of glory and happiness among the saints in heaven, is to set
this scripture at variance and strife with all those scriptures that I
have produced to prove an inequality in the glory and happiness of
the saints in heaven, and therefore such an interpretation is rather to
be abhorred than to be received. But,

Secondly, Another rule that is to be observed in the interpreting
of Scripture is this, we must always interpret those scriptures that are
more dark and mysterious by those scriptures that are more plain and
cleai', and not interpret those scriptures that are plain and clear by
those that are dark and mysterious, for this were to darken counsel
by words without knowledge, Job xxxviii. 2. Now they that in-
terpret the penny in the parable to signify an equality of glory among
the saints in heaven, they transgress this second rule ; for they must
then interpret all those clear and plain scriptures that I have brought
to prove degrees of glory in heaven by this dark and mysterious
parable, whereas they should interpret this dark and mysterious
parable, if I may so say, by those plain and clear scriptures that I
have already cited ; and therefore their interpretation must be rejected.
It is true, of some parables we may say as Gregory doth, viz., that
they rather require a practiser than an interpreter, Ps, xlix. 4, and
xcvii. 2 ; John xvi. 29. And it is as true that other parables are so
dark, obscure, and mysterious, that we shall never understand them
without the sweat of our brows and the beating of our brains, and
such a parable this seems to be, and therefore we must interpret the
parts of it rather by other clear scriptures, than to make clear and
plain scriptures bow to this that seems to have a veil upon it. And
thus you see by these arguments that the penny in the parable hath
no reference at all to heaven, nor to any equality of glory that shall
be among the saints there.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 883

Secondly, Chrysostom's counsel on the text should be eyed and
followed. Saith he, ' We should not strain every particular of a
parable, but only consider the scope of Christ in the propounding of
it, and accordingly apply it.' We look not on every particular colour
in a well-drawn picture, but on the whole piece ; so when we come to
view a parable, it is enough that we cast our eye principally upon the
general intention and scope of it. He that is very exact and curious
to view and observe every particular circumstance about parables,
may easily draw blood instead of milk out of the breasts of parables.
Parables are like to the roll which Ezekiel saw in a vision spread
before him, which was written within and without ; without the his-
tory was written, and within the mystery was written, Ezek. ii. 10.1
Now though the outside, the history, of a parable be like the golden
pot, yet the inside, the mystery, of a parable is like the manna that
was hid therein, and it is the manna, the manna, that we must seek
after. Look, as it is their wisdom who deal in curious rich stuffs that
are wrought on both sides to cast a special eye upon the flowers that
are on the inside of those stuffs, so it is our wisdom to cast a special
eye upon the inside of parables, upon the mystical reference that par-
ables have, than to lie poring upon the outside of parables. Now the
scope of this parable is not to prove that there is an equality of glory
in heaven, but to reprove the Jews, who, being called into the Lord's
vineyard betimes in the morning, repined and murmured that the
Gentiles, who were called in at the latter end of the day, who were called
in some thousand years after them, that they should through the riches
of grace have an equal share with them in the reward, and stand upon
as good and as noble terms with God as themselves, who had so long
bore the heat of the day. God, to shew that his gifts, his grace, and
his rewards are free, will give his pennies as well to those who have
laboured but a little as to those who have laboured much ; and this is
no prejudice at all to his truth and justice, that his grace is free.
But,

Thirdly and lastly, That by the penny we cannot, nor we may not,
understand everlasting happiness and blessedness, but some other re-
ward that hypocrites may attain to as weU as sincere-hearted Chris-
tians ; and the reason is obvious : for he that was sent away for his
envious grumbling and grunting, was sent away also with his penny,
'take thy penny and be packing.' 2 By the penny some pious inter-
preters do understand some competent gift or other, whatever it were,
which might be well managed and improved to advantage. The vine-
yard is the church, and every one that is called to labour in the vine-
yard is called to labour in the use and improvement of ordinances.
Now every one that is laborious in the use of ordinances shall be sure
to get something ; no man shall kindle a fire on God's altar for nought.
And yet it many times comes to pass that those who have been called
and converted long before others, do yet make no greater, nor no bet-
ter earnings 3 on it than those do that have been called and converted
long after them. He that is called at the first hour sometimes gets

* Jerome in cap. ii. Ezek.

' Some by the penny do understand worldly honour, and the estimation and approba-
tion of men. ^ Spelled here and a little onward ' yearnings.'— G.

384 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

no more than he that is called at the eleventh hour. It is in the trade
of Christianity as it is in other trades. Now )'ou know that many
men who have been set up in this or that trade ten, nay twenty, years
before others, yet they many times make no more earnings, no more
advantage of their trade, than they that have set up but the other day,
as we say. Why so many that have been called long to the trade of
Christianity before others, yet they make no more earnings, no more
advantage of that trade, than those that have been called to it but yes-
terday, as I may speak. His gifts, his gain, his earnings that is called
in at the eleventh hour of the day, is many times equal to his that was
called in at the first hour of the day. Yea, I have formerly proved that
sometimes many that are called later than others, do yet in gifts and
grace excel those that were called long before them. Now these ob-
jections being answered, that truth stands firm, like mount Zion, viz.,
that the more holiness you have here, the more happiness you shall
have hereafter ; the more grace you have here on earth, the more glory
you shall have when you come to heaven.

And so I come to the second thing proposed, namely, to acquaint
you with some means, helps, and directions that may enable you to
make a progress in holiness, and to perfect holiness in the fear of the
Lord. And,

[1.] First, If ever you would perfect holiness, if ever you would
attain to higher degrees of holiness than any yet you have attained to,
then labour to he more and more sensible of your spiritual wants and
deficiencies of grace and holiness. Ah Christians ! you must be often
in casting up your accounts, and in looking over the defects of your
holiness. He that hath most holiness, yet wants much more than
what he hath attained to. Witness the prevalency of his corruptions,
witness his easy falling before temptation, witness his aptness to faint
in the day of affliction, witness his staggering in the day of opposition,
witness his shifts in the day of persecution, and witness his actual un-
preparedness and unfitness for the day of his dissolution. The more
any Christian sees himself defective in holiness, the more he will labour
after holiness: Ps. cxix. 59, 60, ' I thought on my ways, and turned
my feet unto thy testimonies : I made haste, and delayed not to keep
thy commandments.' The Hebrew word, ZVn, that is here used for
thinking, signifies to think on a man's ways accurately, advisedly, seri-
ously, studiously, curiously. This holy man of God thought exactly
and curiously on all his purposes and practices, on all his doings and
sayings, on all his words and works, and finding too many of them to
be short of the rule, yea, to be against the rule, he turns his feet to
God's testimonies ; .having found out his errors, upon a diligent search,
a strict scrutiny, he turns over a new leaf, and frames his course more
exactly by rule. Christians ! you must look as well to your spirit-
ual wants as to your spiritual enjoyments ; you must look as well to
your layings out as to your layings up ; you must look as well forward
to what you should be as backward to what you are. Certainly that
Christian will never be eminent in holiness that hath many eyes to be-
hold a little holiness, and never an eye to see his further want of holi-
ness. He that is more affected with that holiness he hath than he is
afflicted about those great measures of holiness that he needs, will

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 385

never be but a puny, a dwarf in holiness. The more sensible we are
of our own weakness and emptiness, the more pleasure God will take
to fill us with his own fulness, and to perfect in us the work of holi-
ness. But,

[2.] Secondly, If ever you would perfect holiness, if ever you
would attain to higher degrees of holiness, then set the Lord always
he/ore your eyes, set yourselves always as in Ms presence, Ps. xli. 12 ;
1 Sam. ii. 1, 3. David was a man that was very high and eminent in
holiness ; but how came he to so great a height ? why he tells you how,
in that Ps. xvi. 8, ' I have set the Lord always before me : because he
is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.' i David did not by fits
and starts set the Lord before him ; ' but he always set the Lord before
him in his course ; ' he had his eye upon the Lord, and so much the
Hebrew word imports : I have equally set the Lord before me, that is
the force of the original word, that is, I have set the Lord before me,
at one time as well as another, without any irregular afiections or
passions, &c. In every place, in every condition, in every company, in
every employment, and in every enjoyment, I have set the Lord equally
before me ; and this raised him, and this will raise any Christian, by
degrees, to a very great height of holiness : Ps. cxix. 168, ' I have
kept thy precepts, and thy testimonies : for all my ways are before
thee.' The Hebrew word 'lIDIi', shamar, that is here rendered Jcept,
signifies to keep carefully, diligently, studiously, exactly. It signifies
to keep as men keep prisoners, and to keep as a watchman keeps the
city or the garrison, yea, to keep as a man would keep his very life.
But now mark what was the reason that David kept the precepts and
the testimonies of the Lord so carefully, so sincerely, so diligently,
so studiously, and so exactly, Why, the reason you hare in the latter
part of the verse, ' for all my ways are before thee.' sirs ! it is as
necessary for him that would be eminent in holiness, to set the Lord
always before him, as it is necessary for him to breathe. In that 31st
of Job you have a very large narrative of that height and perfection of
holiness that Job had attained to, and the great reason that he gives
you for this is in the 4th verse, ' doth not he see my ways and count all
my steps ? ' The eye of God had so strong an influence upon his heart
and life, that it wrought him up to a very high pitch of holiness. The
scholar writes most exactly whilst his master's eye is upon him, and
the child walks most exactly whilst his father's eye is upon him, and
the servant works most exactly whilst his master's eye is upon him ;
and so certainly all the sons and servants of the most high God do
hear most exactly, and pray most exactly, and walk most exactly, when
they set themselves most as in the presence of the great God, who is
all sight, who is totus oculus, all eye. Ah friends ! as ever you would
be high in holiness, possess your hearts with a serious apprehension of
God's presence, set yourselves daily as in his sight, as under his eye ;
and remember, though a man may easily bafiie his conscience, and put
out his light, and deceive the world, like that counterfeit Alexander
in Josephus his story, yet he shall never be able to baffle or deceive the

* Athenodorus, a heathen, could say that all men ought to be careful in the actions
of their lives, because God was everywhere, and beheld all that was done. 1 Kings xx.
39 ; Ps. xxxix. 1 ; Jer. xx. 10 ; Job x. 12.

VOL. IV. 2 B

386 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

eye of God's omnisciency. You shall as soon get out of the reach of
his hand, as you shall get from under the view of his eye. God hath his
windows in all our breasts, and curiously and narrowly observes all that
is done within us, and all that is done by us ; and if the serious con-
sideration of his all-seeing eye will not influence us to labour after the
highest degrees of holiness, I know not what will. It was Seneca's
advice to his friend Jucilius i that whatsoever he was doing he should
imagine that Cato did behold him ; and Plutarch advised his friends
to demean themselves so circumspectly, as if their enemies did always
behold them. But my advice to you shall be this, upon every occasion,
in every condition, and in every action, * set the Lord always before
you.' If the sharp and severe eye of a holy man, or of a holy friend,
or of a holy relation will so overawe you, and so exceedingly influence
you to the best of actions ; then certainly the sharp, piercing, and all-
seeing eye of God will do much more ; and therefore let the Lord be
always in your sight. But,

[3.] Thirdly, If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness,
then^ic and settle yourselves under a holy ministry, resign and give
up yourselves to his ministry who makes it his great business and work
to preach holiiiess, to promote holiness, to countenance holiness, to
encourage holiness, to exalt holiness, and to remove all obstructions
that may any ivays hinder the -progress of holiness. Some there be
that spend their time rather to please than to profit, and to tickle
their hearers' ears than to touch their hearts, Isa. xxx. 11: from these
turn aside; and some there be who make it their work rather to
destroy churches than to build them up in faith and holiness, and
from these turn aside. Gal. i. 23 ; some there are who make it their
business to delude and deceive the simple, by venting and setting to
sale the devices of their own heads, and the deceits and visions of
their own hearts, Phil. iv. 14; Jer. xiv. 14. How many are there in
these days whose glorious visions are but golden delusions, and whose
seraphical phrases are but brain-sick phantasies, and whose new no-
tions are but new nothings ; from these turn aside.

And others there be that build the things that they have destroyed,
and are returned, after they had been seemingly washed, with the dog
to his vomit, and with the sow to her wallowing in the mire, Gal.
ii. 18 ; 2 Pet. ii. 20-22. They say that if tame foxes break loose
and turn wild, they do more mischief than any. Julian was once a
professor, but turning back to heathenism, he drew more from the
faith by his fraud than his predecessors did by force ; therefore from
these turn aside.

Some there be that cry up the commandments of men above the
commandments of God, and that set up the ordinances of men above
the_ ordinances of God, and that prefer human institutions before
divine institutions ; from these turn aside. Mat. xv. 1-7 ; Mark vii.
1-14.

And others there be that have a vein of scorning and reproaching,
of -disdaining and triumphing over the persons, names, and credits of
those faithful ministers of Christ who upon all accounts excel them,
and whom upon a dying bed, and before a judgment-seat, they will wish

' Suilius ? Tacitus, Ann., xiil 43.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 387

that they had imitated and not envied, 2 Cor. x. 10. These labour to
darken and obscure others, that their own sun may shine the brighter.
These labour to lessen others' reputation, hoping thereby to greaten
their own ; these admire themselves and contemn others ; these look
upon themselves as the greatest doctors, and upon all others as the
worst of dunces ; from these turn aside.

Some there be that spend their time and their strength in studying
and preaching of dry and sapless controversies, which are so far from
bettering of men's hearts, and from reforming of men's lives, that they
leave men as much, and many times more, under the power of sin and
dominion of Satan than they were before ; from these turn aside.

And others there be that stand most upon easy things, and little
things, upon things of least worth and weight, and in these they will
be very nice and curious, and yet readily pass over the great and the
weighty things both of the law and of the gospel, 1 Tim. i. 5-7 ; Mat.
xxiii. 23, and vi. 3-5. They stand more upon circumstantials than
upon substantial, upon a saint's day than upon a Sabbath-day, upon
an Easter offering than upon offering up of themselves to the Lord,
upon a pipe, a vesture, a gesture, than upon saving of immortal souls ;
from these turn aside.

Some there be that speak two words for Christ and ten for them-
selves, that are very zealous to fleece their flocks, but are neither
headed nor hearted to feed their flocks, 2 Pet. ii. 1-4 ; Rev. xviii. 11-13 ;
that mind men's goods more than their good, and the serving of them-
selves than the saving of souls. So they may be clad sprucely, and fare
deliciously, and live lazily, they care not though millions of souls go
to hell yearly ; to pick your purses they will indulge your consciences ;
and so it may go well with them in this world, they care not what be-
comes of you in the other world ; from these turn aside, Ezek. xxxiv.

And others there be that take more pains to make proselytes than to
make men holy, Mat. xxiii. 15 ; they make it their great business to
win over men to their opinions, when they should be a-winning of men
over to Jesus Christ ; they make it more their work to convert men to
their way, than they make it their work to better men's hearts, or
mend their lives, or save their souls. They will compass sea and land
to make men one with themselves, and yet think all that time and
pains lost that is spent in endeavouring to make men one with Christ.
These are factors for hell, and resemble the prince of darkness to the
life, for as he, so they, will spare no pains to gain proselytes ; from these
turn aside, and give up yourselves to their labours who make it the
top of their glory to preach holiness, to advance holiness, to magnify
holiness, and to practise holiness ; and this will be an excellent means
to raise you up to higher degrees of holiness. But,

[4.] Fourthly, Be most in with them that are most eminent and ex-
cellent in holiness. Let the delight and joy of your hearts run most
out to them who are still adding to their stock of holiness. Thus it
was with that princely prophet, in that Ps. xvi. 2, 3, * My goodness
extendeth not to thee, but to the saints that are in the earth, and to
the excellent, in whom is all my delight.' The disciples, by discoursing
with Christ, had a holy flame raised up in them: Luke xxiv. 32, ' And
they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us while he

388 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XIL 14.

talked with us by the way, and opened to us the Scriptures ? ' And
when Paul met Silas and Timotheus, he burned in spirit, Acts xviii.
5. These two men were eminent in holiness, and by their company
and communion, the zeal and courage of the apostle Paul was very
much heated and raised. Look, as one flaming bavin i may kindle a
thousand, so one precious saint, in whom grace is strong, and holiness
is high, may, by a divine and secret operation, convey heat and life,
power and vigour, into all that touch him, or come near unto him ; even
as the loadstone by a secret operation conveyeth power and vigour into
iron. The prayers, the conferences, the counsels, and all the carriages
of a man eminent in holiness, will mightily help on the work of holi-
ness in their hearts, where the streams of holiness runs but low. Look,
as rich and costly banquets do refresh, and raise, and strengthen their
spirits that are weak and faint, so men that are rich in grace and
holiness will raise and strengthen their spirits who are weak in grace,
and who, for want of greater measures of holiness, are apt to faint.
Look, as young plants will not thrive under dropping trees, so such
as are weak in holiness will never thrive so long as they only associate
themselves with those that are weak. Look, as many times one rich
man makes many poor men rich, so many times one man rich in
holiness makes many rich in holiness ; and therefore, as ever you
would abound in holiness, look not so much at gifts as at grace ; look
not so much at saints' outsides as at their insides ; look not so much
at their external garb as at their internal worth ; and always make
them your choicest and your chiefest companions, who do most excel
in grace and holiness. Their tongues, their lips, their lives, will
still be a-dropping divine marrow and fatness, and therefore be sure
to keep most in with them. But,

[.5.] Fiftlily, If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness,
then be much in the exercise and actings of that holiness you have.
All the honour and glory that God hath from us in this world is
from the exercise of holiness. Look, as the frequent actings of sin
is the strengthening of sin, so the frequent actings of holiness is
the strengthening of holiness. Look, as the non-exercise of holiness
brings upon the soul a decay of holiness, so the exercise of holiness
breeds in the soul an increase of holiness. Holiness is always made
more and more perfect by acting. Look, as wells are the sweeter for
drawing, and fountains the better for overflowing, so holiness is sweetest
and best when it is drawn into action. Look, as the running water is
the best and sweetest water, so the active Christian is the best and
sweetest Christian. That musical instrument always makes the
sweetest melody that is most frequently used, and so doth that Christian
that is most frequent in the exercise of grace and holiness. We get
nothing by dead and useless habits ; talents hid in a napkin gather
rust, and the noblest faculties are imbased when not improved in
exercise ; and therefore the apostle exhorts Timothy to stir up the
gift of God that was in him, in that 2 Tim. i. 6. The words are an
allusion to the fire in the temple, which was always to be kept burn-
ing. Paul would have Timothy to be always a-blowing his spark into

1 ' Faggot,' a Shakespearean word, ' rash bavin wits, soon kindled and soon burned,' 1
Henry IV., iii. 2.— G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 389

a flame. 1 Look, as fire is preserved and maintained by blowing and
stirring of it up, so holiness is preserved and maintained in the soul
by being stirred and blown up in the soul. The habits of grace and
holiness are like dull coal-fires, which, if they are not now and then
blown and stirred up, will certainly die and go out.

Sirs ! it is not the having but the husbanding of holiness that
brings glory to God ; for a man to have the habit of holiness, and not
to put it in practice, is all one as for a man to have a talent, and to
wrap it up in a napkin. It was a notable observation of Pliny upon
Phidias the famous painter, that had the habit of that art above all of
his time ; saith he, ' That great art and skill that Phidias had, had
been to no purpose, had he not exercised and practised it upon some
table : ' so it is with the habits of grace and holiness in the saints ; if
they are not brought forth into exercise, into action, it is all one as if
they had no such habits at all. Holiness out of action is like a candle
under a bushel, that yields no comfort to a man's self, nor no light to
others. Though gold be gold in the mine, and though it be the most
precious and desirable metal in the world, yet so long as it is only in
the mine what profit or advantage have we by it? but now, when it is
digged out of the mine, and becomes a treasure in men s hands, and is
fitted for use and service, then it brings profit and advantage to men,
and then the lustre and glory of it appears : so though grace and
holiness in the habit, in the mine, be grace and holiness, yet what profit
or advantage is there in those habits, till they are brought forth into
action, into exercise ? and till then all the lustre and glory of grace
and holiness lies hid and obscure. The more the habits of holiness
are brought into action, the more holiness will be augmented and in-
creased ; and therefore, above all, look to the frequent exercises and
actings of that holiness you have ; and this will be a ready way to
turn your drop of holiness into a sea, and your spark of holiness into a
flame, and your two mites of holiness into a vast treasure. But,

[6.] Sixthly, If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holiness ;
if ever you would perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, then he
much in secret prayer, he much in closet duties, Mat. vi. 5, 9. Christ
takes a great deal of pleasure to hear and to see his people pour out
their souls before him in a corner : Cant. ii. 14, '0 my dove 1 that art in
the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy
countenance, let me hear thy voice ; for sweet is thy voice, and thy
countenance is comely.' Look, as secret meals are very fattening, so
secret duties are very soul-enriching. Secret prayers are the pillars of
smoke, whereby the soul ascends to God out of the wilderness of this
world ; secret prayers are the wings of the soul whereby it flies to God
in a more still and silent way for the increase and augmentation of
holiness. The tender dew that falls in the silent night, will abun-
dantly more cause sweet herbs to flourish and grow than great showers
of rain that falls in the stirring day ; so secret prayer will abundantly
more cause the sweet herbs of grace and holiness to grow and flourish,
than all those more open and visible duties of religion, which too too often

^ ' kva^uirvpeiv, it signifies to rekindle, or revive. When the world, the flesh, and the
devil go about to put out that divine fire that should be always flaming in our hearts,
we must do all we can to foster it and keep it burning.

390 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

axe mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy.
O sirs 1 secret prayer is Jacob's ladder, where you have God in his
fulness and holiness descending down into the soul, and it is
that ladder whereby the soul ascends to the highest pitch of com-
munion with God. Witness Ambrose, who was wont to say, I
am never less alone than when I am all alone, for then I can
enjoy the presence of my God most freely, fully, and sweetly,
without interruption. And witness that heaven-born lady who
spent most of her time in secret duties, in closet communion with
God ; and when persons of great quality came to visit her, she
would so entertain them as she would be sure not to omit her
set times for secret prayer. She would rather rudely take her
leave of them, as some called it, than omit her closet communion with
God. She had found such rare advantages by closet duties, that she
would not upon any terms neglect them, or in the least turn her back
upon them.i And it was a most sweet and divine saying of Bernard ;
' saint ! knowest thou not,' saith he, ' that thy husband, Christ, is
bashful, and will not be familiar in company ; retire thyself, therefore,
by meditation into thy closet, or the fields, and there thou shalt have
Christ's embraces.' 2 sirs 1 it is an experienced truth, that there
is no such way under heaven to be rich in grace, and to be high in
holiness, as by driving and maintaining a secret trade with God,
Cant. i. 11, 12. When had Peter that glorious vision and manifesta-
tion of grace, but when he was alone, and on the housetop a-praying ?
Acts X. 11, 12. And when was that soul-ravishing, that soul-cheering,
and that soul-strengthening message despatched by the angel to
Daniel, viz., that he was greatly beloved of God, but when he was
alone a-praying ? Dan. ix. 20-23 ; and doubtless many thousand
saints have had their hearts melted, their corruptions weakened, their
fears scattered, their doubts resolved, their holiness raised, and their
assurance sealed, whilst they have been in closet duties. Look, as
men many times gives their best, their choicest, and their richest gifts
in secret, so doth God many times give the choicest discoveries of his
love, and the sweetest dainties and delicacies of glory, and the richest
measm-es of grace and holiness to his people in secret.^ Look, as there
was none so holy as Christ, so there was none so much in secret
prayer as Christ. Look, as many men in this famous city, by driving
a secret trade, a private trade, gain very great estates, beyond what
many do who drive more pubUc trades ; so many Christians that drive
a secret trade, a private trade with God in their closets, they grow
abundantly more rich in grace, in holiness, in communion with God,
and in all gracious experiences, than many other Christians who make
a great deal of bustle in the world, and who are much in the public
trade of Christianity, viz., hearing the word, conferences, family duties,
&c., but very rarely shall you find them in their closets. As ever you
would be eminent and excellent in holiness, keep up your private

' Lady Brooke, the great friend of Sibbes, and of the Puritans generally.— G.

' And Constantine, that great emperor, made it his constant practice, aa Eusebiua
reports, to shut up himself daily in a secret place in his palace, where he went to
private prayer.

2 Compare these scriptures together, Mat. xiv. 23 ; Mark vi. 46 ; Luke v. 16, and
vi. 12; Mat. xxvi. 26, 36, 39, 42, 44; Luke xxii. 32, 44, 45; John xvii. 17.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 391

trade with God, maintain your closet communion with the Holy One of
Israel. But,

[7.] Seventhly, If ever you would attain to higher degrees of holi-
ness, then fall with all your might upon subduing and crucifying your
most raging corruptions, a7id your most daring lusts. Oh do not
defer 1 Oh do not delay the work of spiritual mortification 1 Oh do
not think that you can both fight and overcome, fight and triumph
in one day ! Oh do not think that your golden and your silver idols
will lay down their arms, and yield the field, and lie at your feet, and
let you trample them to death without striking a blow ! Isa. ii. 20. Oh
remember that bosom-sins will do all they can to keep their ground,
and therefore you must arise with all your strength against them, and
bray them in a mortar, and stamp them to powder, and burn them to
ashes 1 Oh deal with them as they dealt with the Levite's concubine,
force them to death, and cut them to pieces ! Judges xix. Oh leave
not the palm, the skull of this cursed Jezebel undevoured, undestroyed !
2 Kings ix. Oh deal by your most enraged lusts as the Philistines
did deal by Samson, pluck out their eyes, and make them to grind in
the mill of mortification, till their strength be utterly consumed and
wasted. Whilst Saul lived and kept the throne, and was in his strength,
little David was kept exceeding weak and low ; but when Saul was
dethroned and slain, little David quickly grew stronger and stronger,
2 Sam. iii. 1 : so all the while a darling sin lives and keeps the throne
in the heart, grace and holiness will be kept exceeding weak and low ;
but when your darling sin is dethroned and slain by the power and the
sword of the Spirit, grace and holiness will quickly grow stronger and
stronger, and rise higher and higher, Kom. viii. 10, 13. When men
would have a rough field fitted for the plough, and fitted to bring forth
fruit, will they not first fall with all their strength, and with all their
might, upon grubbing up by the roots the strongest trees, and the
sturdiest oaks, knowing that when these are grubbed up, weaker trees
will easily fall ? So, as ever you would have your hearts and lives full
of the fruits of righteousness and holiness, fall with all your strength,
and with all your might, upon grubbing up by the very roots your be-
loved sins, your strongest lusts, and then the rest of your corruptions
will easily fall. When Goliath was slain, the Philistines fled, and were
easily brought under. When a general in an army is cut off, the
common soldiers are quickly routed. Down but with yom* darling sins,
and then the conquest of other sins will be easy.

When a man hath eat poison, nothing will make him thrive, till he
hath vomited up the poison that he hath eaten. It is not the most
wholesome food, the choicest dainties, nor the richest cordials under
heaven that will increase blood, and spirits, and strength, in such a
person ; he will throw up all, and nothing will stay with him to do him
good, till his poison be cast up and cast out. Beloved sins, they are the
poison of the soul, and till these are vomited up, and cast out by sound
repentance, and the exercise of faith in the blood of Christ, the soul will
never thrive in grace and holiness ; all the wholesome food of the gospel,
and all the dainties and cordials of heaven, will never beget good blood,
nor noble spirits, nor divine strength in their souls, that upon no terms
will part with their darling sins ; and therefore, as ever you would be

392 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Btrong in the grace of the Lord, draw up all the strength that ever you
are able to make, and fall on with the greatest courage upon your
bosoms-sins, and never cease till in the strength of Christ you have got
a complete victory and conquest over them. In the law it was the blood
of the sacrifice, and the oil, that cleansed the leper, and that by them
was meant the blood of Christ and the Spirit of grace is agreed by all.
Ah friends ! as ever you would be cleansed from your darling sins,
which do so exceedingly hinder the increase of holiness, be often in
looking upon a crucified Christ, and in the application of his blood to
your own souls.

I have read of five men, that being asked what was the best means
to mortify sin, gave these answers. Saith the first. The best means to
mortify sin is to meditate of death. Saith the second. The best means
is to meditate of the judgment -day. Saith the third, The best
means is to meditate on the joys of heaven. Saith the fourth. The
best means is to meditate on the torments of hell. But saith the fifth,
The best means is to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Christ ; and
doubtless the last hit it to a hair. If anything under heaven wUl sub-
due and bring under darling sins, it will be the daily sight of a bleed-
ing, groaning, dying Saviour. Philosophy, saith Lactantius, may cover
vices, but it never cuts off vices ; it may hide a lust, but it can never
' quench a lust, as black patches, instead of plasters, may cover some
deformities in nature, but they can never cure them. Ah sirs ! if you
\ do not kiU your darling sins, they will kill your precious souls. When
Sennacherib's army was destroyed by an angel, Isa. xxxvii., and he
j returned home with a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips, he in-
1 quired of one about him, what he thought the reason might he why
God so favoured the Jews ; to which he replied. That there was one
Abraham their father, that was willing to sacrifice his beloved son to
j death at the command of God, and that ever since that time God
! favoured that people. WeU, said Sennacherib, if that be it, I have two
' beloved sons, and I will sacrifice them both to death, if that will pro-
cure their God to favour me ; which when his two sons heard, they, as
the story goes, slew their father, being more willing to kill than be
killed, Isa. xxxvii. 38. friends! you must kill or be killed; if
■you are not the death of your beloved sins, your beloved sins will prove
the death and ruin of your immortal souls ; and therefore never leave
looking up to a crucified Christ, till virtue flow from him to the cruci-
fying of those special sins that do most obstruct and hinder the growth
and increase of holiness. But,

[8.] Eighthly and lastly. If ever you would attain to higher degrees
of holiness, then dwell much upon the holiness of God. Oh, be still
a-musing, be still a-pondering upon the holiness of God. Certainly,
if there be any means under heaven to raise you up to higher degrees
of holiness, it is this ; and therefore keep always a fixed eye upon the
infinite and most glorious holiness of God. Now that this direction
may the better work, premise with me these eight things concerning
the holiness of God :

First, Premise this with me, that God is essentially holy, and in
this sense, none is holy but himself, i Now essential holiness is all

^ Mat. xix. 17, There is none good but God, that is, there is none essentially good but
God, &c.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 393

one with God himself. God's essential holiness is God's conformity
to himself. Holiness in God is not a quality, but his essence. Quicquid
est in Deo, est ipse Deus, Whatsoever is in God, is God. Holiness in
angels and saints is but a quality, but in God it is his essence. The
fallen angels keep their natures, though they have lost their holi-
ness ; for that holiness in them was a quality, and not their essence.
Look, as created holiness is the conformity of the reasonable creature
to the rule, so the uncreated holiness of God is God's conformity unto
himself. God's holiness and his nature are not two things, they are
but one. God's holiness is his nature, and God's nature is his holi-
ness. Gt)d is a pure act, and therefore, whatsoever is in God is God.
It is God's prerogative royal to be essentially holy. The most glorious
creatures in heaven, and the choicest souls on earth, are only holy by
participation : 1 Sam. ii. 2, ' There is none holy as the Lord.' God's
holiness is so essential and co-natural to him, that he can as soon
cease to be, as cease to be holy. Holiness in God is a substance, but
in angels and men it is only an accident, or a quality. The essence of
the creature may remain when the holiness of the creature is lost, as
you may see in Adam, and the fallen angels ; but God's essence and
his holiness are always the same. His very nature is holy, and therefore
it is that he is called ' Jehovah,' and ' I am,' because what he is really,
that he is essentially, Exod. iii. 14. Though men, for our informa-
tion, do distinguish between the attributes of God and the nature of
God, yet in him they are the same. Look, as the wisdom of God is
the wise God, and the truth of God the true God, and the power of
God the powerful God, and the justice of God the just God, and the
mercy of God the merciful God, and the mightiness of God the mighty
God, and the righteousness of God the righteous God, and the
graciousness of God the gracious God, so the holiness of God is the
holy God. God's nature and his name are one and the same. God
is essentially holy, and that is the top of all his glory. But,

Secondly, As God is essentially holy, so God is unmixedly holy.
The holiness of God is a pure holiness, it is an unmixed holiness : 1
John i. 5, ' God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.' There are
no mixtures in God. God is a most clear, bright-shining light, yea, he
is all light, and in him is no darkness at all. The moon, indeed, when
it shines brightest, hath her dark spots and specks, but God is a light
that shines gloriously without the least spot or speck. ^ Now, look, as
that darkness which hath not the least light attending it is the grossest,
the thickest Egyptian darkness that can be, so that light that hath not
the least cloud of darkness attending it must be the most clear,
splendid light that possible can be ; and such a light is the Holy One
of Israel It is very observable, the apostle, to illustrate the perfect
purity and sanctity of God, adds a negative to his affirmative, ' In
him is no darkness at all,' that is, God is so pure, that not the least
spot, the smallest speck, can cleave to him ; he is so holy, that no
iniquity can be found in him ; there is no defect nor default in the
nature of God. He is a God of truth, and without iniquity ; just and
right is he. As Moses spake in that Deut. xxxii. 4, God is a pure, a
most pure act, without the least potentiality, defectability, or muta-

' Plato calls God the horn of plenty, and the ocean of beauty, without the least spot
of injustice, &c.

394 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

bility, and therefore in the highest sense he is light, and in him is no
darkness at all. Surely there is no unrighteousness in God ; no evil
can dwell with him, or come near unto him. God stands at such a dis-
tance from iniquity, yea, he so abhors it, that he never did, nor never
will, bestow a good look upon it : Hab. i. 13, ' Thou art of purer eyes
than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.' There are four
things that God cannot do : 1. He cannot he ; 2. He cannot die ; 3.
He cannot deny himself ; nor, 4. He cannot look with a favourable eye
upon iniquity. God doth indeed look upon iniquity with a hateful
eye, with an angry eye, with a revengeful eye, and with a vindictive
eye, but he never did nor will look upon iniquity with an eye of de-
lectation, or with an eye of approbation. Witness his hurling the
fallen angels out of heaven, and his banishing of sinning Adam out
of paradise. By all this you see that the holiness of God is a pure
holiness, it is a holiness without mixture. But now all the holiness
that is in the best and choicest saints in the world is but a dreggy
holiness, a mixed holiness, a weak and imperfect holiness ; their un-
holiness is always more than their holiness. Ah, what a deal of pride
is mixed with a little humihty, and what a deal of unbelief is mixed
with a little faith, and what a deal of passion is mixed with a
little meekness, and what a deal of earthliness is mixed with a little
heavenliness, and what a deal of carnalness is mixed with a little
spiritualness, and what a deal of hardness is mixed with a little tender-
ness ! Oh, but now the hoUness of God is a pure holiness, it is a holi-
ness without mixture, there is not the least drop nor the least dreg of
unholiness in God. It is true the gods of the heathen were such as
had been impure, beastly, filthy men, and therefore several writers
have taken a great deal of pains to convince heathens of their impiety
and folly in worshipping such for gods, upon whom they fastened many
horrid, ridiculous, lascivious, and impious actions,^ and therefore they
conclude against them, that they are no gods. It is most certain that
the true God, that he that is the High and the Holy One, cannot be
charged with any iniquity, no, nor with the least show or shadow of
vanity.

In God there is wisdom without folly, truth without falsehood, light
without darkness, and holiness without sinfulness. But,

Thirdly, As God is unmixedly holy, so God is universally holy.
He is holy in all his ways, and holy in all his works ; his precepts are
holy precepts, and his promises are holy promises, and his threatenings
are holy threatenings, his love is a holy love, and his anger is a holy
anger, and his hatred is a holy hatred, &c. His nature is holy, his
attributes are holy, and all his actions are holy ; he is holy in punish-
ing, and holy in sparing, he is holy in justifying of some, and he is holy
in condemning of others, he is holy in bringing some to heaven, and holy
in throwing others to hell ; God is holy in all his sayings, and God is
holy in all his doings, God is holy in whatever he puts his hand to,
and he is holy in whatever he sets his heart to ; his frowns are holy,
and his smiles are holy, his liftings up are holy, and his castings down
are holy ; when he gives, his givings are holy givings, and when he
takes away, his takings are holy takings, &c. But,
^ Araobius, Augustine, Tertullian, &c.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 395

Fourthly, As God is universally holy, so God is eminenthj holy. He
is transcendently holy, he is superlatively holy, and therefore he is said
to be glorious in holiness, Exod. xv. 11. There is no fathoming, there
is no measuring, there is no comprehending, there is no searching, of
that infinite sea of holiness that is in God. As neither men nor
angels can set banks or bounds to God's holiness, so neither men nor
angels can sound to the bottom of God's holiness. All that holiness
that is in angels and men is but a spark to God's flame ; it is but a
drop to his sea ; it is but a beam to his sun ; it is but a mite to his
millions, &c. sirs ! you shall as soon stop the sun in his course,
and change the day into night, and raise the dead, and make a world,
and tell the stars of heaven, and empty the sea with a cockle-shell, as
you shall be able either to conceive or express that transcendent holi-
ness that is in God. This glorious name or title, the ' Holy One of
Israel,' is ascribed to God about thirty times in the Old Testament,
and all to shew that he is most excellent and transcendent in hoHness ;
and the seraphims which stood before the throne cried out three times
a-row, * Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts,' Isa. vi. 3, to shew that
God is most eminently and superlatively holy ; for so thrice holy in
some languages is most holy. For holiness God is a nonesuch ; there
are none to be compared with him, neither are there any among angels
or among men, yea, or among the gods, that are like unto him. * Who
is like to thee among the gods, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises,
doing wonders.' God's holiness is infinite, it is so super-eminent and
so super-excellent that it can neither be limited, nor lessened, nor aug-
mented. If men should blaspheme or reproach the Lord, he would
be never the worse, he would be never the less holier than he is ; and
if men should bless him and worship him, he would be never the bet-
ter, never the holier. Unto perfection there can be no addition. A
drop taken out of the sea can no ways add unto the sea, Neh. ix. 5.
He is exalted above all blessing and praise ! All the angels in heaven
and all the men on earth cannot add one ray, one beam of glory to the
essence of God, to the holiness of God. As God is goodness in the
very abstract, and justice in the very abstract, and mercy in the very
abstract, and righteousness in the very abstract, and loving-kindness
in the very abstract, so he is holiness in the very abstract, so that no
man can flatter him or add unto him ; and hence it is that God glories
in the attribute of his holiness more than in any other attribute, ' For
thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name
is Holy,' Isa. Ivii. 15. When God would lift up himself in all his
glory, he doth it by declaring that his name is holy ; and so when God
would swear by himself, he swears by his holiness : Ps. Ixxxix. 35,
' Once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David : '
and so in that Amos iv. 2, * The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness,
that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you with
hooks, and your posterity with fish-hooks.' Look, as the great men of
the world are wont to swear upon their honour when they would give
us the greatest assurance of what they will do, because such oaths are
looked upon as most sacred and inviolable, so the great God swears by
his holiness, because his hoHness is his greatest honour, and because he
hath no greater, nor no better, nor no choicer, nor no sweeter, nor no

396 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

preciouser things to swear by. Let me, saith God, be never owned as
a God, nor honoured as a God, nor trusted as a God, nor feared as a
God, nor valued as a God, if I do not inviolably keep my promises, and
make good my threatenings, having sworn thereunto by my holiness.
Now you know the scripture saith, ' When God could swear by no
greater, he sware by himself,' Heb. vi. 13 ; so I may say, when God
could swear by no greater attribute, by no greater excellency, he swears
by bis holiness, that being the top and the glory of all. Look, as all
the wisdom of the creatures, compared with the wisdom of God, is but
folly ; and as all the goodness of the creatures, compared with the
goodness of God, is but naughtiness ; and as all the fulness of the crea-
ture, compared with the fulness of God, is but emptiness ; and as all
the power of the creature, compared with the power of God, is but weak-
ness ; and as all the righteousness of the creature, compared with the
righteousness of God, is but unrighteousness ; so all the holiness of the
creature, compared with the holiness of God, is but unholiness, Man's
highest purity is but impurity, when it is compared to the purity
of God, yea, the very holiness of angels, compared with the holiness of
God, is chargeable with folly. Job iv. 18. That fulness of holiness
that is in angels or saints is only the fulness of the vessel, but that ful-
ness of holiness that is in God is the fulness of the fountain ; that ful-
ness of holiness that is in angels or saints is but the fulness of the
branches, but that fulness of holiness that is in God is the fulness of
the root ; that fulness of holiness that is in angels or saints is but the
fulness of sufficiency, but that fulness of holiness that is in God is the
fulness of redundancy. But,

Fifthly, As God is infinitely holy, transcendently holy, superlatively
holy, so God is originally, radically, and fundamentally holy. The
divine nature is the root, original, and spring of all holiness and purity.
All that hoUness that is in angels and men flows from God, as the
streams from the fountain, as the beams from the sun, as the branches
from the root, and as the effect from the cause. There is no holiness
to be had but from the Holy One, he is the author and original of all
the holiness that ever was, or that is this day in the world. All the
seeds of holiness, and all the roots of holiness that are to be found in
angels or men, are of the Lord's sowing and planting, Phil. i. 11. All
that holiness that the angels had in heaven, and all that holiness
that Adam had in paradise, and all that holiness that Christ had in his
human nature, and all that holiness that ever any saints have had, was
from God, and all that holiness that any saints now have is from God.
The divine nature is the first root and original fountain of all sanctity
and purity, James i. 17. Ministers may pray that their people may
be holy, and parents may pray that their children may be holy, and
masters may pray that their servants may be holy, and husbands
may pray that their wives may be holy, and wives may pray that their
husbands may be holy ; but none of these can give holiness, none of
these can communicate holiness to their nearest and dearest relations.
It is only God that is the giver and the author of all holiness. If holy
persons could convey holiness into others' souls, they would never
suffer them to go to hell for want of holiness. To hand out holiness
to others is a work too high for angels, and too hard for all mortals ;

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 397

it is only the Holy One that can cause holiness to flow into sinners'
hearts ; it is only he that can form, and frame, and infuse holiness
into the souls of men.

A man shall sooner make a man, yea, make a world, and unmake
himself, than he shall make another holy. It is only a holy God that
can enlighten the mind, and bow the will, and melt the heart, and
raise the affections, and purge the conscience, and reform the life, and
put the whole man into a holy gracious frame and temper. But,

Sixthly, As God is originally, radically, and fundamentally holy,
so God is independently holy, Isa. xliv. 24 ; Kev. i. 18. The holiness
of God depends upon nothing below God. God is the Alpha, the
fountain from whence all holiness springs, and he is the Omega, the
sea to which all glory runs. As all our holiness is from God, so all
our holiness must terminate in the honour and glory of God. It is
God alone that is independently holy. All that holiness that is in
angels and men is a dependent holiness ; it depends upon the holiness
of God, as the streams depend upon the fountain, the beams upon the
sun, the branches upon the root, and the members upon the head.
God is unum pr-iticipiurn ex quo cuncia dependent, One beginning,
upon whom all things depend. God hath his being only of himself,
and it is he alone that gives being unto all other things. God is the
first cause, and without all causes himself. The very beings that
angels and men have they have by participation from God. And it
is the first cause that giveth unto all causes their proper operations :
Isa. xliv. 6, ' I am the first, and I am the last ; and besides me there
is no God.' God never had a cause of his being, as all other creatures
have. He is a glorious being, a holy being, without all causes, either
efficient, or formal, or material, or final ; and therefore he must needs
be independently holy. Look, as the power of God is an independent
power, and the wisdom of God an independent wisdom, and the good-
ness of God an independent goodness, and the righteousness of God
an independent righteousness ; so the holiness of God is an independent
holiness. And as it is the glory of his power that his power is an
independent power, and the glory of his goodness that his goodness is
an independent goodness ; so it is the glory of his holiness that his
holiness is an independent holiness. And look, as all that power that
angels and men have depends upon the power of God, and as all that
wisdom that angels and men have depends upon the wisdom of God,
and as all that goodness that angels and men have depends upon
the goodness of God ; so all that holiness that angels and men have
depends upon the holiness of God, &c. Philo could say that God is
such a fountain that he breaks forth with the streams of his goodness
upon all things, but receives nothing back again from any to better
himself therewith. There are none in heaven, nor none on earth, that
are absolutely independent, but God alone.

Seventhly, As God is independently holy, so God is constantly holy,
he is unchangeably holy. He was holy yesterday, and he is holy to-
day, and he will be holy for ever. What is natural is constant and
lasting. Now God's holiness is natural to him ; it is as natural for
God to be holy, as it is for us to breathe, yea, as it is for us to be
unholy. God can as well and as soon cease to be, as he can cease to

398 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

be holy. Holiness is his nature as well as his name ; and therefore
his holiness cannot decay, though ours may. Whatever we may lose
of our holiness, yet it is certain that God can never lose one grain of
that holiness that is in him. Here our holiness ebbs and flows, but
the holiness of God never ebbs, but is always a-flowing and overflow-
ing, there is still a full tide of holiness in God. Though the saints
cannot fall from that seed of holiness that is sown in their hearts,
1 John iii. 9, yet they may fall from some degrees of holiness that they
have formerly attained to. They that have been old men in holiness
may fall from being old men to be but young men in holiness, and
they that have been young men in holiness may fall from being young
men to be but children in holiness, and they that have been children
in holiness may fall from being children to be but babes in holiness,
1 John ii. 12-14 ; 2 Pet. ii. 1-3 ; but now that hoKness that is in God
is never subject to any decayings, abatings, or languishing. That
spring, that sea of holiness that is in God, is noways capable of dimi-
nution nor of augmentation.

Plato could say that God is one and the same, and always like him-
self. And it was a custom among the Turks to cry out every morn-
ing from a high tower, God always was, and always will be ; and so
salute their Mahomet, i sirs, God hath been always holy, and God
will be always holy. Whatever men may lose, yet God is resolved
that he will never lose his honour nor his holiness. But,

Eighthly and lastly, As God is continually holy, so God is exemp-
larily holy? He is the rule, pattern, and example of holiness : 1 Pet.
i. 15, ' Be ye holy, as I am holy.' God's holiness is the great example
and pattern of all that holiness which is in the creatures. God's holi-
ness is the copy that we must always have in our eye, and endeavour
most exactly to write after. Carnal friends, and this blind world,
and Antichrist, and such as love to lord it over the conscience, will be
still a-presenting to you other examples and patterns, but it is your
wisdom and your work to cast them all behind your backs, and to
trample them under your feet, and to follow that form and pattern
that the Lord hath set before you ; and that is, to be holy as he is
holy. All our holiness is to be brought to the holiness of God, as the
standard and measure of it ; and therefore, oh what cause have we to
be still a-perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord ! And thus I
have done with the second thing, viz., means to increase holiness, and
to raise you up to the highest pitches and degrees of holiness.

And so I come to the third thing proposed, and that was, to lay
down some signs or evidences whereby persons may know whether they
have attained to any high pitch or eminent degrees of holiness or no.
Now, sirs, if you desire in good earnest to know whether you have
attained to any perfection of holiness or no, then seriously weigh these
following particulars, and try yourselves by them.

[1.] First, The more a man can warm his heart at the promises,
and cleave to the promises, and rest upon the promises, and suck mar-
row and fatness and sweetness out of the breasts of the promises, when

' Pierius.

' Lev. XX. 26. Remember this, you and I must answer for examples as well as pre-
cepts.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 399

divine providences seem to run cross to divine promises, the greater
measure of holiness that man hath attained to. Where there are but
little measures of holiness, there every seeming contrariety to the pro-
mise troubles a man, and every little cloud that hangs over the pro-
mise will mightily perplex a man, &c. But where holiness is raised
to any considerable height, there that man will suck honey out of the
flint, he will suck sweetness out of the promise, even then when pro-
vidence looks sourly upon the promise ; yea, when providence seems to
bid defiance to the promise. Witness Jacob, in that Gen. xxxii. 6-8,
compared with ver. 9, 11, 12, ' And the messengers returned to Jacob,
saying. We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet
thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid
and distressed : and he divided the people that were with him, and the
flocks, and herds, and the camels, into two bands; and said. If Esau come
to the one company and smite it, then the other company which is left
shall escape. And Jacob said, God of my father Abraham, and
God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me. Return unto
thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee : deliver
me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau :
for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with
the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make
thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multi-
tude.' Now here you see holy Jacob, in the midst of all his fears and
frights, in the midst of all his perils and dangers, in the midst of all
his damps and dreads, and in the midst of all cross, amazing and
amusingi providences, be turns himself to the breasts of the promise,
and sucks marrow and sweetness out of those breasts. Jacob puts the
promise into suit, he sues God upon his own bond, and so bears up
sweetly under dark and dismal providences. And so did Moses in
that Num. x. 29, * And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel
the Midianite, Moses' father in-law, We are journeying unto the place
of which the Lord said, I will give it you: come thou with us,
and we will do thee good : for the Lord hath spoken good concerning
Israel.' Moses had been almost now forty years in the wilderness, and
many thousands were fallen on his right hand, and on his left ; yet
saith he to Hobab, in the face of all those dismal providences, come go
along with us, and be as eyes unto us, and we will certainly do thee
good, ver. 31. But Hobab might have objected, Alas ! what good can
I expect in a wilderness condition, where so many are weak, and so
many are sick, and so many thousands are fallen asleep ; and where all
the people are every day surrounded with a thousand dangers, difficul-
ties, and deaths. Well, saith he, though all this be true, yet go along
with us, and be serviceable and useful to us, and we will do thee good ;
* for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel.' Here this holy
man Moses turns himself to the promise, and in the face of all sad
providences, he draws comfort and encouragement from the promise.
And so did Jehoshaphat, in that 2 Chron. xx. When the children of
Ammon, and Moab, and mount Seir came against him to battle, vers.
1, 10, he turns himself to the promise, ver. 7-9, and gathers life and
spirit from thence. And so did David, in that Psalm Ix. In the
1 = Leading to ' musing' or meditation. — G.

400 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XTI. 14.

Ist, 2d, and 3d verses, you have a narrative of many cross and dreadful
providences, and yet in the face of them all holy David sucks strong
consolation out of the breasts of the promise, ver. 6, ' God hath
spoken in his holiness, I will rejoice : I will divide Shechem, and mete
out the valley of Succoth.' God hath promised in his holiness, that
David should be king over all Israel, and therefore, notwithstanding
all strange providences, David triumphs in the promise, and looks up-
on himself as master of all those strongholds that are mentioned in
ver. 7-9. And so Abraham, he wanted a son, and God promised him
an Isaac. Now in the face of all his own deadness, and natural in-
abilities as to generation, and Sarah's deadness and barrenness, Rom.
iv. 17-21, he turns about to the promise; and his faith and holi-
ness being high, he draws sweetness and satisfaction from thence.
Notwithstanding present providences, the naked promise was a well of
life and salvation to him.

sirs ! it is an argument of a very great measure of holiness,
when troubles and difficulties vanish upon the sight of a promise, when
all things work quite cross and contrary to sense and feeling. Now for
a man to embrace a promise, to hug a promise, to kiss a promise, and
to draw content and satisfaction from a promise, argues a great degree
of holiness. It is a very hard and difficult thing for a man exactly to
take the picture of divine providence at any time ; for many are the
voices and the faces of providence, and there are as great deeps in pro-
vidences as there are in prophecies; and many texts of providence are
as hard, as dark, and as difficult to be understood, as many texts of
Scripture are. It is as hard to reconcile the works of God, as it is to
reconcile the word of God, Ps. xxxvi. 6 ; Rom. xi. 33 ; for as in the
word of God there are many seeming contradictions, so in the works
of God there are many seeming contradictions ; for here one providence
smiles, and there another frowns ; here providence lifts up, and there
providence casts down ; here providence strokes, and there providence
strikes ; here providence leads towards Canaan, there providence leads
towards a wilderness ; here providence leads towards Zion, and there
providence leads towards Babylon; here providence speaks us very
fair, and there providence doth severely threaten ; here providence is
bright and lovely, and there providence is dark and dreadful. i Now
under all such providences, for a man to run to a promise, and to
draw out life, and strength, and sweetness from a promise, is a clear
evidence of a very high pitch of holiness that such a person hath at-
tained to. I have read of an emperor that put on a new suit every
day. 0, sirs ! when the great God shall every day apparel himself in
strange changeable providences, now for a man to hang upon the breasts
of a promise, and to suck milk out of a promise, argues a very great
increase of holiness. But,

[2.] Secondly, The more a man can overcome evil with good upon
holy and gracious accounts, as upon the account of God's command,
God's honour, the credit of the gospel, and the conviction, conversion,
and salvation of souls, the greater measure of holiness such a person
hath attained to. To return reproach for reproach, reviling for revil-

* I have read that Marica, a Roman princess, being great with child, had the babe in
hep killed with lightning, when she herself escaped.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 401

ing, and cursing for cursing, and scorning for scorning, and defaming
for defaming, is exceeding natural to us ; but to love them that hate
us, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that abhor us, and to
pray for them that persecute us, and that despitefully use us, according
to Christ's express command in that Mat. v. 44, are things exceeding
contrary to nature, and exceedingly above nature.! The power of
grace and holiness appears in nothing more than in bringing the heart
to a sweet and ready subjection to such commands as are most cross, and
contrary to flesh and blood. As those are in that Kom. xii. 17, 19,20, 21,
' Recompense no man evil for evil. Dearly beloved, avenge not your-
selves, but rather give place unto wrath : for it is written, Vengeance
is mine, and I will repay it, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy
hunger, feed him : if he thirst, give him drink : be not overcome of
evil, but overcome evil with good.' And so that in 1 Thes. v. 15,
' See that none render evil for evil unto any man ; but ever follow that
which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men.' To return
good for evil, and kindnesses for injuries, to behave ourselves courteously,
humbly, meekly, tenderly, and sweetly towards those who behave
themselves discourteously, proudly, passionately, harshly, and sourly
towards us, argues a very great degree of holiness. David was a man
eminent in holiness, and he was good at this good work, as you may
see in that 2 Sam. i. 24, ' Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who
clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of
gold upon your apparel.' He doth not envy against Saul, nor insult
or rejoice over Saul, as many carnal and unsanctified hearts would
have done, nor he doth not provoke or stir up the daughters of
Israel to rejoice in the death and destruction of such a tyrant,
that had hunted him up and down as a partridge, and that had often
designed his ruin, and that had always returned him evil for good, and
that had bathed his sword in the blood of Abimelech the high-priest,
and in the blood of fourscore more of the priests of the Lord, and that
had forsaken the Lord, and gone to a witch, yea, to the devil, for help
in his need. Oh no ! he conceals what was bad, and remembers what
was good ; he passes over those things that were condemnable, and he
instances only in those things that might make his memory most ac-
ceptable, commendable, and delightful among the weaker sex, viz., his
making of bravery and gallantry fashionable amongst them. And so
Joseph was a man eminent in holiness, and he was good at this hard
work ; as you may see in that Gen. 1. 16-23. And Moses was a man
of great holiness, and he was good at this difficult work ; as you may
see in that Ps. cvi. 16, 23, 33, compared together. And Stephen was
a man full of the Holy Ghost, and he was good at praying for them
that made a prey of him, Acts vii. 60. And Paul was a man of the same
mind and mettle, as you may see by comparing the 2 Cor. xi. 24,
with the Rom. ix. 1-3. And Eusebius affirms that when Paul was
beheaded, under Diocletian the emperor, he prayed both for Jews and
Gentiles, for the multitude assembled, and also for the judge and exe-
cutioner , that his death might not one day be laid unlo their charge. Cal-
vin was a man of great holiness, and therefore though Luther (who was

^ Austin saith that Christ made a pulpit of the cross, and the great lesson he taught
Christians was to love their enemies.

VOL .IV. 2 C

402 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

a man of a most violent, bitter, passionate spirit) had woefully wronged
him, and reviled him, yet, saith he, let Luther hate me, and in his wrath
call me a thousand times devil, yet I will love him, and honour him,
and acknowledge him a choice and precious servant of God. Mr Foxe,
that writ the ' Book of Martyrs,' was so famous in the practice of this
hard piece of Christianity, that it became a proverb : If any man
would have Mr Foxe do him a good turn, let him do him an injury,
and he will be sure to do him a good turn for it. Send me to my
toads again, in the dungeon, where I may pray for your lordship's
conversion, said Mr Sanders the martyr, to the bishop of Winchester.
Thus you see that the more eminent any persons are in holiness, the
more they overcome evil with good, the more good they will do them
that do evil to them ; and thus to do, is but to conform to Christ your
head, for he shed tears for them that were to shed his blood, and he
gave them his blood to drink, who gave him gall to drink and vinegar
to drink. That man is almost got up to the very top of holiness,
whose soul is habituated to overcome evil with good, upon holy and
precious accounts. Julius Csesar, and Augustus Ceesar, in whose
time Christ was born, and Titus Vespasian, Camillus, Darius, Lycurgus,
Plato, Pericles, and Herod that is mentioned in Acts xii. 23, with
many other heathens, have done something this way, but what they
did, they did by fits and starts, and from poor, low principles, and to
vainglorious ends ; and therefore all that they did this way is not
worth a reciting. Well, Christians, the more you can overcome evil
with good, the more certainly your hearts are filled with good. That
man's heart is full of the fruits of righteousness and holiness, that,
upon divine considerations is accustomed, not to be overcome of evil,
but to overcome evil with good. But,

[3.] Thirdly, When men in the mam — I say, in the main — are as holy
out of religious duties, as they are in religious duties; when in the
main of their lives they are as spiritual, as heavenly, as humble, as
gracious, as serious, as watchful, as circumspect, &c., as they are in
their most religious performances and duties; this argues not only the
truth of holiness, hut a very high degree of holiness. Moses's face did
shine as gloriously when he came off from the mount, as ever it did
shine when he was upon the mount, Exod. xxxiv. 29, 30, 33, 35.
sirs I if when you come off from the mount of duties, there remains
some rays and shinings of God upon you, it is an argument that the
waters of sanctity are risen to a considerable height in your souls,
Ezek. xlvii, 2-6. Ah, how lively, how warm, how enlarged, how
holy, how humble, how heavenly, how spiritual, how serious, how
zealous, how religious, how gracious are many in duties, in ordin-
ances ; but ah ! how dead, how cold, how straitened, how unholy, how
proud, how worldly, how carnal, how shght, and how irreligious are
they out of duties, out of ordinances. Now, oertainly, these have
either no holiness at all, or else they have attained to but a very little
measure of holiness. But now, when a man in the main, when a man
in his course is the same out of duties, out of ordinances, that he is
in duties, in ordinances, it is a very great and glorious argument that
such a person hath in a very great measure perfected holiness in the
fear of the Lord. But.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 403

[4.] Fourthly, The more a man can divinely joy and rejoice under
tribulations and ajfflictions, the greater measure of holiness he hath
attained to. It is a mercy not to grumble, not to mutter, not
to murmur, not to fret, not to faint, not to despond, nor not to
despair. It is much to be silent under afflictions, and to be quiet
and patient under tribulations ; oh, but divinely to joy and rejoice
under afflictions, under tribulations, argues a very great height of
holiness, Rom. v. 3, 4, * And not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience expe-
rience, and experience hope.' That glorying and rejoicing are both
one in the New Testament, is sufficiently known ; they differ only in
degrees, glorying being a step above rejoicing. It is much to rejoice
in tribulations, but it is more to glory in tribulations ; yea, to glory in
them as an old soldier glories in all those marks and scars of honour
that he hath met with in the service of his king and country ; and yet
to this height the believing Romans were raised,' which argues a very
great measure of holiness in them. And so in that 2 Cor. vii. 4, ' Great
is my boldness of speech towards you, great is my glorying of you : I'
am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation,'
or as the Greek runs, I do over-abound exceedingly with joy, I have
a superabundance of joy in all our tribulation, vTrepTrepiaaevofiat ; and
so in chap xii. 9, 10, 'Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest upon me : therefore
I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecu-
tions, in distresses for Christ's sake : for when I am weak, then am I
strong.' Paul rejoices and glories more in his heavy afflictions, and
in his various tribulations, than he did in his glorious and mysterious
revelations. The more he was afflicted and distressed, the more he had
of the visible presence of Christ, and the more he had of the glorious
assistance of Christ, and the more he had of sweet communion and
fellowship with Christ, and the more he had of the choice supports
and singular comforts of Christ, and therefore he takes pleasure in all
the pressures that were upon him ; and so in that James i. 2, ' My
brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations,' that
is, into divers afflictions. sirs ! to be divinely merry in misery,
to rejoice in the cross as men rejoice in a crown, to rejoice in adversity
as others rejoice in prosperity, to rejoice in a stinking prison as others
rejoice in their stately palaces, to rejoice in restraint as others rejoice
in liberty, to rejoice in wants as others rejoice in abundance, to rejoice
in reproaches as others rejoice in their honours, &c., is very much ; but
to be joyful in such cases, not with a little joy, but with exceeding
great joy, is more. 'AH joy' is a Hebraism, and it signifies gi'eat joy,
full joy, exceeding joy, perfect joy. Oh ! thus to rejoice, and that not
only when you fall into some afflictions, but when you fall into divers
afflictions, argues a very great measure'of holiness ; but ah ! how rare
is it to find such souls in these days, that can not only bear the cross,
but also rejoice in the cross, that can not only bear reproaches, but
also wear reproaches as their crown and glory. But,

[5.] Fifthly, The more extensive a man's obedience is to divine
commands, the greater measure of holiness that man hath attained to.
Caleb had a very great measure of the spirit of holiness upon him ;

404 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and he is said to have followed the Lord fully, or as the Hebrew hath
it, he fulfilled after me, that is, his obedience was full, universal, reso-
lute, and constant to the end.i The contrary is affirmed of Solomon
in that 1 Kings xi. 6, ' And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father,' or as the
Hebrew hath it, he fulfilled not after the Lord, that is, his obedience
was not so full, so universal, so sincere, so resolute, and so constant as
David his father's was. Zacharias and Elizabeth were persons of great
holiness, and their obedience was very extensive ; for they walked not
only in some, but in all the commandments, and not only in all the
commandments, but also in all the ordinances of the Lord blame-
less, Luke i. 5, 6. Their obedience was of such a universal extent
and latitude, that it comprehended and took in all the duties both of
their general and particular callings ; they had an eye to the duties of
the second table, as well as they had an eye to the duties of the first ;
and they subjected themselves to the duties of their particular calling,
as well as to the duties of their general calling. As they had an eye to
mint, anise, and cumin, Mat. xxiii. 23, that is, to the lesser and lower
duties of religion, so they had an eye to the greater and weightier
duties of religion, viz., judgment, mercy, and faith, &c. But now
Christians at their first conversion, and whilst they remain weak in
grace and holiness, their obedience is more strait and narrow ; for
commonly they spend much, if not most, of their time in praying,
fasting, hearing, reading. Christian conference, &c., and neglect a
hundred other duties that are incumbent upon them ; they are very
forward and warm in the duties of their general calling, but very cold
and remiss in the duties of their particular calling ; they are very
frequent and fervent in some duties, and very rare in other duties ;
but now the more they grow in grace and holiness, the more exten-
sive will their obedience be, and the more their hearts will be dilated
and extended to all the duties both of the first and second table.
But,

[6.] Sixthly, The more a man conflicts loith heart sins, with spiritual
sins, ivith invisible sins, ivith sins that lie most hid and obscure from
the eyes of the world, and the more spiritual victories and conquests a
man obtains over them, the greater measure of holiness that person
hath certainly attained to. When the heart rises with all its strength
and might against secret pride, secret self-love, secret bubblings of lusts,
secret carnal confidence, secret murmuring, secret hypocrisy, secret
envy, secret self-applause, secret malice, secret hatred, secret snares,
secret temptations, &c., it is an argument that holiness is grown up
to some considerable height there. 2 A little grace, a little holiness,
will work a man to conflict with gross sins, with outward sins, with
bodily sins, with such sins that every one may set their eyes on, and
lay their hands on ; yea, where there is no grace, no holiness at all,
the light of nature, the common convictions of the Spirit, the laws of
m'en, the eyes of men, the threats of men, the examples of men, a

^ Num. xiv. 24; K^Q"*!, vajemalle, the Hebrew word, is a metaphor taken from a
ship under sail, which is strongly carried with the wind, as if it feared neither rocks nor
sanda.

» 2 Chron. ixxii. 26; Ps. ciix. 80 ; 2 Cor. xii. 7-9 ; Ps. xxx. 6, 7; Eom. vii. 23, 24;
2 Cor. vii. 1.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 405

smarting rod, and good education, may work men to conflict with
such sins. Oh, but when all the strength and might of the soul is
engaged against those very sins that lie not within the sight or reach
of the most sharp and piercing men in the world, but in the heart,
and about the heart, and are only obvious to an omniscient eye, this
argues a great degree of holiness. And therefore Augustine hit the
mark when he said that it is a harder thing for a man to fight with
his lusts — understand it especially of heart lusts, of spiritual wicked-
ness — than it is to fight with the cross. And Austin hath long since
complained that we do not tame the beasts in our own bosoms. i Oh,
it is an easier thing to tame all the beasts in the world than it is to
tame one beast in the bosom. All the beasts in the world may be
tamed and brought under by a human power, James iii. 7, but no
power below that power that raised Christ from the grave can tame
the beasts that be in our bosoms. ^ Now look, as conflicts with heart
sins, with spiritual sins, &c., argues some eminency in holiness, so
victory over heart sins, over spiritual sins, over those sins that lie most
remote from the eyes of others, argues a very great degree of holiness.
When a Christian doth not only resist heart sins, but vanquishes
heart sins ; when he doth not only combat with heart sins, but conquers
heart sins ; when he doth not only fight with heart sins, but also
overcomes heart sins ; when he doth not only wrestle with heart sins,
but also overthrows heart sins, this speaks out holiness in its growth.
It was a good saying of Cyprian : There is no such pleasure, saith he,
as to have overcome an offered pleasure, neither is there any greater
conquest than that that is gotten over a man's corruptions. And it
was an excellent saying of Eusebius Emesenus : ^ ' Our fathers over-
came the torments of the flames, let us overcome the fiery darts of
vices.' And indeed it is an easier thing to overcome the flames, than
it is to overcome those flaming lusts and corruptions that be in our own
hearts. Philosophy may teach us to endure hardships, as it did Calanus
in Curtius, who willingly offered his body to the fire, to the flames ;
but it is only grace, it is only holiness, that can enable us to overcome
our lusts, our heart lusts. We read of many that, out of greatness of
spirit, could offer violence to nature, but were at a loss when they
came to deal with their corruptions.

I remember a notable sajdng of Ambrose, speaking of Samson, Vin-
cula solvit Jiostium, &c.* Saith he, he brake the bonds of his enemies,
but he could not break the bonds of his own lusts ; he choked the
lion, but he could not choke his own wanton love ; he set on fire the
harvest of strangers, and himself being set on fire with the spark
of one strange woman, lost the harvest of his virtue. And this saying
of Ambrose puts me in mind of a great Roman captain, who, as he
was riding in his triumphant chariot through Rome, had his eyes never
off a courtezan that walked along the street, which made one say,
Behold how this goodly captain, that conquered such potent armies, is
himself conquered by one silly woman. Oh, it is not pliilosophy, nor

^ Aug. Serm. iv., de verbis Domini.

* Heraclius's motto was, A Deo victoria — It is God that giveth victory.
' Eusebius of Emisa, to distinguish him from E. of Csesareia. — G.

* Ambrose Apol : David. Post., c. 3.

406 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

morality, nor civility, &c., but holiness, but sanctity, that will make
the soul victorious over iniquity ; and the more victories and conquests
a man makes upon heart sins, upon spiritual sins, upon secret sins,
the greater measures of holiness that person hath certainly attained to.

But,

[7.] Seventhly, The more a man is exercised and busied in the most
internal and spiritual duties of religion, the greater measures of holi-
ness tlmt man hath attained to. You know there are external duties
of religion, and there are internal duties of religion. There are ex-
ternal duties of religion, as public preaching, hearing the word, reading
the word, fasting, singing of psalms. Christian conference, communion
of saints, and receiving the Lord's supper. Mat. vi. and xxiii. Now
such Christians as have but small measures of grace and holiness, and
hypocrites and formalists that have not the least measure of true
grace and holiness, these are most commonly exercised and busied
about the external duties and services of religion ; but very seldom,
very rare, shall you find them in the more inward and spiritual duties
of religion, Isa. i. 11-19, and Iviii. 1-5 ; Zech. vii. 4-7. But then, as
there are external duties, so there are internal and spiritual duties, as
self-examination, self-resignation to Grod, self-loathing, self-judging,
divine meditation, praying in the Spirit, watchfulness over the heart,
and making application of the blood of Christ, the death of Christ,
the grace of Christ, the love of Christ, and the word of Christ to a
man s own soul. Now the more any Christian is exercised and em-
ployed in these internal, spiritual, and evangelical duties and services,
the greater heights and degrees of holiness that Christian is grown to :
Phil. iii. 3, ' For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the
spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.'
These Philippians were eminent in grace and holiness, as you may see
in chap. i. And they place no confidence in circumcision, nor in any
such outward performances or services, but they were much in the
exercise of grace, and in worshipping of God in the spirit, and in
rejoicing in the person of Christ, the natures of Christ, the offices of
Christ, the discoveries of Christ, the communications of Christ, the
glorious operations of Christ, the precious promises of Christ, and in
the heart-warming and heart-cheering blood of Christ.

Now to be much exercised in the most internal, spiritual, and
evangelical duties of religion, argues a very great height of holiness.
But,

[8.] Eighthly, The more spiritual,internal,and intrinsecal principles,
wjotives, and considerations, carries a person on in religious duties and
services, the more holy that person is. When a man is carried on in
the duties of religion, from a sense of divine love, or from a sense of
the special presence of Christ with his Spirit, or from a sense of the
excellency and sweetness of coromunion and fellowship with God, or
from a sense of the graciousness and goodness of God towards him, or
from a sense of singular influences and incomes from God, or from a
sense of the choice and precious discoveries of God, or from a sense of
the beauty and glory of God, &c., this argues a very great measure of
holiness, that such a person hath attained to.i The more the sweet
^ Ps. cxix. 1-3; 1 John i. 1-4 ; Isa. xxxviii. 16, 17, 19, 20; Pa. Ixiii. 1-3.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 407

looks of Christ, the secret visits of Christ, the private whispers of
Christ, the divine joggings of Christ, the blessed love-tokens of Christ,
and the holy kisses and glorious embraces of Christ doth incite and
provoke a person to religious duties, the greater degrees of holiness
that person hath reached to; but now it is an argument that the
streams of holiness runs but low, when external motives and considera-
tions have the greatest hand in carrying a person on in religious duties.
The more bare custom, the eye of the creature, the favour of the
creature, the example of the creature, the applause of the creature,
the rewards of the creature, or the keeping up of a man's parts, or
the keeping up of a man's name, esteem, and repute in the world doth
influence a Christian's heart to religious duties, the less holiness that
Christian hath. Yea, it is considerable, that outward motives and
natural principles have carried many heathens to do many great and
glorious things in the world. Did not Sisera do as great things as
Gideon ? the difference did only lie here, that the great things that
Gideon did, he did from more spiritual principles and raised considera-
tions than any Sisera was acted by. And did not Diogenes trample
under his feet the great and glorious things of this world as well as
Moses ? the difference did only lie in this, that Moses trampled under
his feet the gay and gallant things of this world from inward, holy
principles, and from high and glorious considerations and motives,
whereas Diogenes did only trample upon them from poor, low prin-
ciples, and from carnal and external considerations.

I have read of one Cosmus Medici, a rich citizen of Florence, that
he confessed to a near friend of his that he built so many magnificent
structures, and spent so much on scholars and libraries, not for any
love to learning, but to raise up to himself the trophies of fame and
renown. And many of the Romans have done very great and glori-
ous things for their country, but all from natural principles, and from
carnal and external motives and considerations, as for a great name, a
puff of honour, a little applause, &c., and therefore their most glorious
actions have been but shining sins, Jer. xxxii. 23. God always writes
a nothing upon all those services wherein men's principles and their
ends are naught and low. It was a notable saying of Luther, ' One
work of a Christian,' saith he, * is more precious than heaven and
earth, and if I might have my desire, I would rather choose the
meanest work of a country Christian, or poor maid, than all the vic-
tories and triumphs of Alexander the Great and of Julius Ceesar, be-
cause whatsoever a saint doth, though it be never so small and mean,
yet it is great and glorious, because he doth all in faith and by the
word.' And saith the same author further, ' Let our works be never
so small, servile, womanish, yet let but this title be added, the word
of the Lord, and then they will be all glorious, yea, such as shall
remain to all eternity.' sirs, all our works and services must be
wrought from God, for God, in God, and according to God, or else
they will be but splendida peccata, glistering sins. Well, the more
spiritual and internal the principles, motives, and considerations are
that carries a Christian on in religious duties, the greater measure of
holiness hath that Christian arrived to. But,

[9.] Ninthly, The more solid, precise, exact, and accurate a Chris-

408 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14,

tian is in religious duties and services, the greater measure of holiness
that Christian hath attained to ; and the more any Christian groios in
holiness, the more spiritual, the more savoury, the more exact and
accurate he ivill groio in all his religious services and performances.
The more a Christian's heart is endeared to religious duties, and the
more his heart is affected with the heavenly nature of religious duties,
and the more easily, the more holily, the more freely, and the more spi-
ritually he performs religious duties, the more he is thriven and grown
in holiness. A young carpenter gives more blows, and makes more
noise and chips than an old experienced workman doth, but the old
experienced workman doth his work more solidly, more exactly, and
more accurately than the young carpenter doth; so many young
Christians, that are but newly entered into the trade of Christianity,
and that are raised up but to a very small degree of sanctity, these
may multiply duties upon duties, these may abound in religious per-
formances, these may be much in adding of service to service ; but
yet the aged and experienced Christian in grace and holiness doth
duties more solidly, more spiritually, more exactly, and more accu-
rately than the young Christian doth. We must never judge of an
eminency in holiness by the number or multitude of our duties, but
by the seriousness, the graciousness, the solidness, the spiritualness,
the holiness, the heavenliness, and the accurateness of our hearts in
duties. A young musician may play longer and more quick and
nimble upon an instrument than an old musician can, but yet the old
musician plays with more art, accurateness, skill, judgment, and
understanding than a young musician doth. So young Christians in
grace and holiness may hold out longer, and be quicker and nimbler
in religious duties, than others that are more aged in grace and holi-
ness ; but yet they that are aged in grace and holiness do perform
religious duties with more spiritual art and accurateness, and with
more divine skill, judgment, and understanding than they do in whom
the spring of holiness runs low, A young scholar may run over more
paper, and write more paper, and make more letters than his master
doth, but yet his master writes more understandingly, exactly, and accu-
rately than he doth. So many young converts may run over more
duties than others, and yet others may perform duties more under-
standingly, and more exactly, and more accurately than they do. Let
the duty be never so short, yet if there be much spiritualness, hoh-
ness, brokenness, seriousness, and accurateness in it, it will carry all
before it, it will win the blessing and obtain the crown, when the
longest duties, wherein there is no such frame nor temper of spirit,
shall not prevail with God at all, Zech. vii. 4-6 ; Isa, Iviii. 1-6. It
argues a very great measure of holiness when the soul is habitually
carried on in religious duties with much solidness, seriousness, spirit-
ualness, exactness, and accurateness. But,

[10.] Tenthly, The mo7-e any man makes it his great business and
tuork, in all his duties, ways, and loalkings, to approve himself to God,
and to he accepted of God, the greater height of holiness that man hath
attained to, Jer. xii. 3 ; Ps. xvii. 2. David was a man of great holiness ;
and how studious and industrious he was to approve his heart to the Lord
you may see in that Ps. cxxxix, 23, 24, ' Search me, God, and know my

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 409

heart : try me and know my thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked
way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' '^ The psalmist knew
that God had an eye upon him, both at home and abroad, both at bed
and at board, both in public and in private, both in his family and in
his closet ; he knew that God had an eye in every corner of his house,
and in every corner of his heart, and therefore he appeals to God, and
he approves his heart to God, and nobly ventures upon the trial of
God, ' Search me, God, and know my heart,' &c. This frequent
repetition and doubling of words, ' Search me, God, and know my
heart, try me and know my thoughts,' &c., doth not only note the
earnestness and seriousness of David's spirit in prayer, but also the
soundness, the uprightness, the plainness, and the unfeignedness of
David's heart, in that he was very willing and ready to submit him-
self to the search, trial, examination, and approbation of God. And
so Peter, that great apostle of the Gentiles,^ makes it his great
business to approve himself to Christ thrice together, ' Lord, thou
knowest that I love thee. Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. Lord,
thou that knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee,' John xxi.
15-17. Christ best knew the reality and sincerity of Peter s love, and
therefore Peter appeals to him, as to a judge that would be sure to
judge righteous judgment, ' Thou knowest that I love thee.' And so
the apostle Paul, speaking in the name of his fellow-apostles, saith,
' Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be
accepted of him,' 2 Cor. v. 9. The Greek word that is here rendered
labour, is a very emphatical word, [(f)cXoTtfji>ov/jLe6a.'\ It signifies to
labour and endeavour with all earnestness and might, to endeavour
with a high and holy ambition, to be approved of by God, and to be
accepted of God, judging it to be the greatest honour and the most
desirable happiness in all the world to be graciously owned, approved,
and accepted of the Lord. As ambitious, industrious, and laborious
as Haman was to be highly accepted with king Ahasuerus, yet he was
not more ambitious to be accepted with the king, than the apostles
were ambitious to be accepted of the King of kings. sirs, when in
every sermon you hear, and in every prayer you make, and in every
fast you keep, and in every action you do, and in every way that you
walk, and in every mercy that you enjoy, and in every cross that you
bear, &c., you make it your great business and work to approve your-
selves to the Lord, and that though the world should discountenance
you, and friends hate you, and near and dear relations reject you, that
yet you may find blessed acceptance with God, this argues holiness to
be upon the throne. When in all your dealings and tradings with
God you make it your heaven to approve yourselves to God, and when
in all your transactions with men you make it your happiness to ap-
prove yourselves to God, it is an argument that the springs of holi-
ness are risen high in your souls. But,

[11.] Eleventhly, TAe more a man lives by the rule of expediency,
as ivell as by the rule of laiofulness, the greater measure of holiness
that person hath attained to, John xvi. 7 ; 2 Cor. viii. 10. Weak
holiness hath only an eye upon the rule of lawfulness, but raised

^ The Hebrew word, ''^"IprT, chakreni, signifies a very strict, careful, diligent search
and inquisition, &c. * Qu. ' Of the Jews' ? — G.

410 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

holiness hatli one eye upon the rule of lawfulness, and the other upon
the rule of expediency. Weak holiness saith, Oh, this is lawful, and
that is lawful ! Oh, but faith-raised holiness, is it expedient ? is it
expedient as well as lawful ? That angelical apostle, Paul, had still
his eye upon the law of expediency : 1 Cor. vi. 12, ' All things are law-
ful unto me, but all things are not expedient ; all things are lawful for
me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.' And so chap.
X, 23, ' All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient ;
all things are lawful for me, but aU things edify not.' And so in that
2 Cor. xii. 1, ' It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory.' Many
things may be lawful, that yet may be very inexpedient for our place,
state, calling, and condition in the world. It was lawful for the
apostle to eat meat, but it was not expedient for him to eat meat ;
when his eating of meat would make his weak brother to offend, or
grieve, or stumble, or fall, Rom. xiv. 21. And therefore he resolves
that, rather than he will eat meat to offend, he will never eat meat
whilst the world stands, 1 Cor. viii. 13, The more unchangeably
resolved any person is to eye the rule of expediency, and to live by the
rule of expediency, the greater measure of holiness that person hath
certainly attained to. The streams of holiness runs low in that
Christian's heart, that hath two eyes to behold the rule of lawfulness,
but never an eye to see the rule of expediency. It argues a very
great height of holiness for a man to make as much conscience of living
by the rule of expediency, as he doth of living by the rule of lawful-
ness. For a man to be often a-looking over his natural actions, his
moral actions, and his religious actions, and to be still a-putting this
question to himself, my soul ! dost thou eye what is expedient ?
dost thou eye as well what is expedient as what is lawful ? such a
frame and temper of spirit speaks out much of Christ and holiness
within. Oh the sins ! oh the sorrows ! oh the shame ! oh the
reproach ! oh the troubles ! oh the travails ! oh the trials, &c. ,
that might have been prevented, had the law, had the rule of expedi-
ency been more minded and followed by Christians in these days, &c.
But,

[12.] Twelfthly and lastly. The more a man can deny himself,
when he hath an opportunity, 'power, and authority to raise himself,
to greaten himself to seek himself, and to lift up himself, the greater
measure of holiness that man hath attained to. Providence often puts
many a rare and fair opportunity into Moses his hand, whereby he might
have raised himself, and have greatened himself in the world, and
yet then, even then, he denies himself ; and Nehemiah was a man
of the same mind and mettle. He stood upon the advantage ground,
to have greatened himself, and to have lifted up himself as others had
done before him ; but instead of this he lessens himself, he denies
himself, he degrades himself, and being of a very noble, generous,
public spirit, he turns his back upon his own worldly interest, and
keeps a very free and bountiful table, upon the account of his own
particular revenue, and not upon the account of a public purse, l
And so Daniel was one in spirit with the former: Dan. i. 8-11,
' When God had brought him into high favour with the prince of
' Exod. sxxii. 9-15 ; Deut. ix. 13, 14, 18-20 ; Heb. xii. 24, 25; Neh. v. 14, ««g'.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 411

the eunuchs, and given him a great deal of heart-room there, yet
upon no terms would he defile himself with the king's meat, or comply
with the requests of the prince of the eunuchs. It argues a great
deal of holiness for a man to deny his temporal self, to dethrone his
temporal self, when he stands upon the advantage ground to ad-
vance his temporal self, and to throne his temporal self in the world,
Eev. iv. 10, 11.

I have read of Trajan the emperor, how he sent Eustochius, one of
his chiefest captains, against the barbarians, who having vanquished
them, returned home. The emperor being very joyful at this good
news goes to meet him, and brings him gloriously into the city. Now
Eustochius being high in the emperor's favour, it was but ask and
have, speak and speed ; but on this very day of pomp, triumph, and
glory, he chose rather to suffer the martyrdom of himself, his wife, and
children, than with the emperor to offer sacrifice to Apollo ; and so
denies himself, and all his present pomp and glory, when he might
greatly have enriched himself and advanced himself, i Nothing
speaks out greater measures of holiness, than for a man to deny him-
self when he may seek himself, and exalt himself if he pleases.

I have read of a godly man, who being sorely tempted by Satan, was
much in duty; to whom Satan said. Why takest thou this pains ? thou
dost watch, and fast, and pray, and abstainest from the sins of the
times. But, man ! what dost thou more than I do ? art thou no
drunkard ? no more am I ; art thou no adulterer ? no more am I ;
dost thou watch ? why, let me tell thee, I never slept ; dost thou fast ?
why, I never ate nor drank ; what dost thou more than I do ? Why,
I will tell thee, Satan, said the holy man, I pray, I serve the Lord, nay,
more than all this, I deny myself: Nay, then, saith Satan, thou goest
beyond me, for I am proud, and I exalt myself, and so vanished. Oh the
excellency of self-denial ! and oh the holiness and the happiness of that
man that can deny himself, that can debase himself, that can even trample
upon himself, when he hath power and authority in his own hand to
greaten himself and to exalt himself ! Power and authority will try what
mettle men are made of. All, how many have there been among us of
late years, who, when they have had no power nor authority in their
hands to help themselves, have seemed to be great deniers of them-
selves ; but no sooner had they power and authority in their hands,
but ah, what self-love, what self-interest, what self-seeking, and what
self-exalting was to be found amongst them ! Oh, how have many
among them, instead of loving God to the contempt of themselves,
loved themselves to the contempt of God ! and who, instead of debas-
ing themselves that they might exalt God, have debased God that
they might exalt themselves, and who, instead of losing themselves
that they might find God, have lost God that they might find them-
selves.

These put me in mind of the abbot in Melanchthon, who lived
strictly, and looked demurely, and walked humbly, so long as he was
but a monk, but when, by his seeming sanctity and humility, he had
got to be abbot, he grew most intolerable proud and insolent, &c., and
being asked the reason of it, he confessed that his former lowly looks was
^ Rather Eustachius : Clarke, as before, p. 27. — G.

412 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

but to see if he could find the keys of the abbey. How many such
abbots we have had amongst us, you all know. Ah, how rare is it to
find a man to deny himself, when he is advantaged to seek himself.
Such a man is worth gold, but this iron age affords few such golden
men. Where this frame of spirit is, there the streams of holiness runs
deep. And thus nmch for this use of trial and examination.

And so I come now to the last use of this doctrine, and that is for
comfort and consolation to all those that have this real holiness, loith-
out lohich there is no happiness. sirs ! open wide the everlasting
doors of your souls, that not a river, but a sea of joy and comfort may
flow in upon you. For,

[1.] First, Know for your comfort, that real holiness is the seal of
your eternal election. Some are elected to glorious offices in this
world, others are elected to eternal glory in the other world. Judas
was chosen to be an apostle on earth, but not to be a saint in heaven,
John vi. 70 ; but the Thessalonians were elected to eternal glory in
heaven, though they were not chosen to any glorious offices here on
earth, 1 Thes. i. 4. It may be thou art a poor creature, that never
wast, nor never art like to be, elected to any noble or honourable em-
ployments, either in church or state. Oh, but if thou art a holy per-
son, then know for thy everlasting comfort, that thy real holiness is a
real seal of thine eternal election. It is the counterpane,^ as it were,
of all that gracious love, good-will, and eternal favour that God bears
unto thee : Eph. i. 4, ' He hath chosen us in him before the founda-
tion of the world, that we should be holy.' God did not choose us
either because we were holy, or because he did foresee that in time we
would be holy, but he chose us to that very end that we should be
holy. Look, as Esther was first chosen out among the virgins, Esth.
i., and then purified and decked with rich and royal ornaments and
garments, before she was brought into the presence of the king : so God
first chooses poor sinners, and then he purifies them, and adorns them
with the rich and glorious garments of grace and holiness, Ps. xlv. 13,
that so they may be meet and fit to enter into his royal presence : 1
Thes. i. 4, ' Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.' Ver.
5, ' For our gospel came not unto you in word only ; but also in power,
and in the Holy Ghost' Ver. 9, 'And how ye turned to God from
idols to serve the living and true God.' When the gospel comes in
power and in the Holy Ghost, and turns persons from idols to serve
the living God, it is a clear and evident sign of their election. Keal
sanctification is a sure evidence, a fair copy of a man's election. Look,
as the pattern is known by the picture, and the cause by the effect ; so
election is known by real sanctification.

A Christian need never put himself to the charge of making a ladder
to climb up to heaven, to search the records of glory, to see whether
his name is written in the book of life, in the book of election or no,
but rather make a strict and diligent inquiry whether he be really and
thoroughly sanctified or no ; for where there is real sanctification, there
the glorious image of God's election is in the golden characters stamped
upon the soul. A man may have his name set down in the chronicles,
yet lost ; wrought in durable marble, yet perish ; set upon a monu-

^ ' Counterpart' — G.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 413

ment equal to a Colossus, yet be ignominious ; inscribed on tlie hospital
gates, yet go to hell ; written in the front of his own house, yet another
come to possess it. All these are but writings in the dust, or upon the
waters, where the characters perish so soon as they are made ; they no
more prove a man happy than the fool could prove Pontius Pilate
happy because his name was written in the creed ; but in real sancti-
fication a man may see his name so written in the book of God's elec-
tion, as that it shall remain legible to all eternity. ^ But,

[2.] Secondly, If thou art a holy person, if thou hast that real holi-
ness, without which there is no happiness, then know for thy comfort,
that the Lord takes singular plea^sure, delight^ and complacency, both
in thy holiness and in thy person : Ps. cxlix. 4, 5, ' For the Lord taketh
pleasure in his people ; he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let
the saints be joyful in glory ; let them sing aloud upon their beds.'
The Hebrew word rotseh, that is here rendered pleasure, is from
ratsah, that signifies pleasure, delight, complacency, content, &c. Oh !
God takes singular pleasure, singular delight, singular complacency,
and singular content in all his saints, in all his sanctified ones. Holi-
ness is the express image of God, and therefore he cannot but take
pleasure in it, and in all those that bear it: Zeph. iii. 13, ' The rem-
nant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies ; neither shall a
deceitful tongue be found in their mouth.' Well ! here are glorious
characters of their holiness; but what pleasure, what delight, &c., doth
God take in these holy ones ? Why, certainly very much, as you may
see in ver. 17, ' The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty : he
will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy ; he will rest in his love,
he will joy over thee with singing.' Look, as a bridegroom rejoices
over his bride, Isa. Ixii. 4, 5, so will the Lord rejoice over his holy
ones ; and look, what delight, complacency, and content the bridegroom
takes in his bride, the same, yea, greater, God takes in all his sanctified
ones. Yea, look, as a fond father joys over his dear child that he
carries in his arms, or dandles upon his knee with singing : so God
will joy over all his holy ones, which are his fondlings, with singing ;
such is the singular delight, satisfaction, and content that he takes in
them. Look, as the husbandman delights much in that ground that
was once barren, but is now fruitful ; and as the captain takes a great
deal of pleasure in that soldier that once run from his colours, but is
now returned, and fights valiantly and resolutely against all opposers
and adversaries ; and as the father takes a great deal of joy, content,
and satisfaction in the return, reformation, and amendment of his
prodigal son, Luke xv., even so a holy God is wonderfully delighted,
pleased, enamoured, and even overjoyed, when such as brought forth
nothing but the thorns and briers of wickedness, Heb. vi, 7, 8, do now
bring forth the pleasant fruits of righteousness and holiness, Heb. ii.
10 ; and when such as have run from Christ the captain of their salva-
tion, and run from their profession, and run from their principles, and
run almost from everything that is good, shall now return to the cap-
tain of their salvation, and fight it out most valiantly and resolutely

^ The preceding paragraph is inadvertently unaccredited by Brooks to Thomas Adams ;
from his ' Happiness of the Church' it is almost verbally taken. Works, vol. ii. 493,
teq. — G.

414 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

against the world, the flesh, and the devil ; and when such as have
proved prodigals, and spent all that portion, all that stock, and all that
treasure that they have been intrusted with, shall now break off their
sins, and humble themselves, and reform their lives, and mend their
ways; God is so infinitely pleased and delighted in these, that he
records their names in heaven : Luke x. 20, ' Bejoice not in this, that
the spirits are subjects unto you ; but rather rejoice because your names
are written in heaven.' It is matter of the greatest joy in the world,
for a man to have his name enrolled in heaven. Look, as it is the
sinner's hell that his name is engrossed in the book of perdition, so
it is the believer's heaven that his name is engrossed in the book of
election.

I have read of a senator i who, relating to his son the great honours
that were assigned to some soldiers whose names were written in a
certain book, whereupon the son was very importunate to see that
book. His father shews him the outside, and it seemed so glorious
that he earnestly desired him to open it. No, saith the father, by no
means, for it is sealed by the council. Then saith the son, pray tell
me if my name be written there : his father replies no ; because all
the names of those soldiers were kept secret in the breasts of the sena-
tors. The son, studying how he might get some satisfaction, desired
his father to acquaint him with the merits of those soldiers whose
names were written in that book. The father relates to him their
noble achievements, and worthy acts of valour, wherewith they had
eternized their names. Such are written, said he, and none but such
must be written in this book. Whereupon the son, consulting with
his own heart that he had no such trophies to shew, but had spent his
time in courting of ladies, rather than in encountering of knights, and
that he was better for a dance than for a march, and that he knew no
drum but the tabret, nor no courage but to be drunk and rant ; here-
upon he presently retired himself, repented, entered into a combat with
his own lusts and affections, and subdued them, and became temper-
ate, continent, valiant, and virtuous. Now, when the soldiers came to
receive their wreaths, their crowns, their honours, &c., he steps in and
challenges a wreath, a crown for himself. But being asked upon what
title his challenge was grounded, he answered, If honours be given to
conquerors, then they must be given to me too, for I have gotten the
noblest conquest of all. And it being demanded wherein, he answered,
These have subdued strange foes, and conquered their outward
enemies, but I have subdued myself, I have conquered the enemies
that were in my own bosom. sirs, there are no men's names written
in the book of life but theirs who by grace and holiness have subdued
and brought under their sinful selves, and who have conquered the cor-
ruptions that be in their own bosoms, that is, in respect of love and
dominion. Many there be who are exceeding inquisitive to know
whether their names are written in heaven or no. I would say to such,
there is no such way to know this as by your holiness. Hast thou
broke off thy sins by sound repentance ? Hath the gospel changed
thy inside and thy outside ? Hath it made thee a new creature, and
turned thee from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to

^ Tacitus.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 415

Jesus Christ? &c. Then, without all peradventure, thy name is
written in heaven, and thou art the person that hast the greatest cause
in the world to joy and rejoice. ^

Again, the holy Christian is the best Christian in the world, nay,
he is such a one ' of whom this world is not worthy,' and therefore
God cannot but take singular pleasure and delight in him. Many
there are which are accounted deep scholars, great linguists, profound
philosophers, good grammarians, excellent mathematicians, sharp
logicians, cunning politicians, fine rhetoricians, sweet musicians, &c.,
but the truth is, he is the best grammarian that hath learned to speak
the truth from his heart, and he is the best astronomer that hath
his conversation in heaven, and he is the best musician that hath
learnt practically to sing out the praises of God, and he is the best
arithmetician that knows how to number his days, and he is the best
read in ethics that every day grows holier and holier, and he is the
best skilled in economics that trains up his family in the fear of the
Lord, and he is the best politician that is as good at taking good
counsel as he is at giving good counsel, and he is the best linguist that
speaks the language of Canaan ; and therefore God cannot but take
the greatest content and satisfaction in such.

Again, the holy Christian is the only man for whom God hath
wrought the greatest miracles. He can tell you that he was blind,
but now God hath given him eyes to see sin to be the greatest evil,
and Christ to be the choicest good. He can tell you that once he was
60 deaf, that though God called very often and very loud upon him,
by his word and by his works, by his rods at home and by his judg-
ments abroad, and by his Spirit and conscience that were still a-preaching
in his bosom, sometimes life, sometimes death, sometimes heaven, and
sometimes hell, yet he could not hear ; but now God hath given him
a hearing ear, so that now he can with delight hear the sweet music
of the promises on the one hand ; and with a holy trembling listen to
the voice of divine threatenings on the other hand. He can tell you
that once he was so dumb, that if he might have had the whole world
he could not have spoke a good word for God, nor for his ways, nor
for his people, nor for his ordinances, nor for any of his concernments
in the world. 2 Oh ! but now his tongue is as the pen of a ready
writer, Ps. xlv. 1, and he is never better than when he is a-speaking
either of God, or for God and his concernments. Now he can contend
for the faith, and speak for saints, and plead for ordinances, and
though in some cases he may want power to act for God, yet he never
wants a tongue to speak for God. The spouse's lips drop honeycombs,
in that Cant. iv. 11; 'And the tongue of the just is as choice silver,'
in that Prov. x. 20 ; yea, his tongue is a tree of life, whose leaves are
medicinable, in that Prov. xii. 18. He can tell you that once he was
so lame, that he was not able to move one foot heavenwards or Christ-
wards, or holiness- wards, &c. ; but now his feet delights, not only to
go, but to run in all the ways of God's commands, Ps. cxix. 32. Yea,

^ Phil. iv. 3 ; Heb. xi. 38. Seneca, though a heathen, saw bo much excellency that
morality put upon a man, that he cries out. Ipse aspectus boni viri delectat, The very
looks of a good man delights one. Sapiens Dei comes est, saith Philo.

* The very heathen could say, Qtiando sapiens loquitur, aulea animi aperit, When a
vise man speaketh, he openeth the rich treasure and wardrobe of his mind.

416 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XIT. 14.

he can tell you that once he was dead, as to all his Boul-concernments,
but now he is alive, and the life that he leads in the flesh is by the
faith of the Son of God, that hath loved him and given himself for
him, Gal. ii. 20. It was by a miracle that the river Jordan was driven
back, and it is no less a miracle to see a sinner that was accustomed
to do evil, habituated now to do good. That the tide of sin, which
before did run so strong, should be so easily turned, that the sinner
which a little before was sailing hellward, and wanted neither wind
nor tide to carry him thither, should now on a sudden alter his course,
and tack about for heaven — what a miracle is this ! To see the
earthly man become heavenly, a carnal man become spiritual, a loose
man become precise, a proud man become humble, a covetous man
become liberal, and a fro ward man become meek, &c., is to behold no
less than miracles. To see a sinner move cross and contrary to him-
self in the ways of Christ and holiness, should be as wonderful in our
eyes, as to see the sun go backward, or the earth to fly upward, or the
dead to raise themselves, or the bowl to run contrary to its own bias.
Now how can God but take infinite delight and pleasure in his holy
ones, considering the many miracles that he hath wrought both in
them and for them ?

Again, there are no persons under heaven that take any real plea-
sure, delight, content, and satisfaction in God, but those that are holy,
Ps. iv, 6, 7. The worldling takes pleasure and delight in his bags,
and the ambitious man in his honours, and the voluptuous man in his
pleasures, and the malicious man in his revenge, and the envious man
in the harms that befalls others, and the drunkard in his cups, and
the adulterer in his harlots, and the gamester in his shifts and tricks,
and the player in his fopperies, fooleries, and mockeries. It is only
the holy man that takes pleasure and delight in God, as you may see
by comparing the scriptures in the margin together.! To delight and
take pleasure in God, is a work too high, too hard, too spiritual, and
too noble for any but holy persons. There are none headed, nor
hearted, nor spirited, nor anointed, nor principled, for taking pleasure
in God, but holy ones. Abraham did not take more pleasure in his
Isaac, nor Jacob did not take more delight in his Joseph, nor David
did not take more satisfaction in his Absalom, nor Jonah did not take
more content in his gourd, than a holy man, when he is himself, tiikes
pleasure, delight, satisfaction, and content in God ; and therefore how
can God but take pleasure and delight in him? Shall the child take
delight in the father, and shall not the father delight again in the
child ? and shall the wife take pleasure and satisfaction in the husband,
and shall not the husband take pleasure and satisfaction again in her?
Look, as God hates them that hate him, so he takes pleasure in them
that take pleasure in him. Now what a singular cordial and comfort
is this to all God's holy ones, that God takes singular pleasure, delight,
satisfaction, and content in them. What though the world hate you,
and scorn you, and despise you, and prefer every Barabbas and Judas
before you, yet cheer up your spirits with this cordial, and warm your
hearts at this fire, that God takes singular pleasure and delight in you.

^ Job xxii 25, 26 ; Cant. ii. 3, and vii. 6; Ps. xxiiii. 2, and xlviii. 11; Isa. xli. 16 ;
Joel ii. 23 ; Hab. iii. 18; Zech. x. 7.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 417

What cares the child though others slight him, so long as his father
at home delights in him; and what cares the wife though others
despise her, as long as her husband at home honours her, and takes
pleasure in her ; and what cares the innocent person though the male-
factor at the bar rails upon him, as long as the judge upon the bench
acquits him ; and what should a Christian care though all the world
should abhor him, as long as the Lord takes singular pleasure and
delight in him ? But,

[3.] Tliirdly, if thou art a holy person, if thou hast that real holi-
ness, without which there is no happiness, then know for thy comfort,
tlmt thy 7'eal holiness is a substantial evidence of thy real union tvith
Christ. All true holiness is the immediate fruit of our real union
with Christ. 1 Upon our union with Christ, Christ is made not only
wisdom, righteousness, and redemption, but he is also made sanctifica-
tion to us, 1 Cor. i. 30. Christ and a holy person are one, as father
and son are one, and they are one, as the vine and the branches are
one, and they are one, as head and members are one ; and they are
one, as the foundation and the building are one ; and they are one as
husband and wife are one, and that which speaks out their oneness,
their union, is their holiness. He that is in Christ is a new creature,
2 Cor. V. 17. He that is ingrafted into Christ, he that is initiated
into Christ, he that is united unto Christ, he is a new creature ; he
hath a new head, a new heart, a new lip, a new life, a new spirit, new
principles, and new ends ; he can truly say with that convert. Ego non
sum ego : I am not the man that I was ; of a lion, holiness hath made
me a lamb ; of a wolf, holiness hath made me a sheep ; of a raven,
holiness hath made me a dove, &c. And what doth all this speak out
but a man's being in Christ, but a man s union with Christ ? Renova-
tion speaks out union, and union speaks out renovation. Eenewing
by Christ speaks out the soul's in-being in Christ, and the soul's in-
being in Christ speaks out the soul's renewing by Christ. Look, as
there could be no depravation but from our union with the first Adam,
so there can be no renovation but through our union with the second
Adam, Col. iii. 10. But,

[4.] Fourthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou hast that real holi-
ness, without which there is no happiness, then know for thy comfort,
that God ivill certainly bless all thy blessings to thee, and he will bless
every estate and condition to thee, Ps. xxxiv. 12-14. Most men have
many blessings, but it is only the holy man that hath his blessings blest
unto him : Gen. xxii. 17, ' In blessing I will bless thee,' saith God to
holy Abraham, i.e., I will bless thy blessings to- thee. The holy person
is in covenant with a holy God, and therefore all the blessings of the
covenant are his. All they that partake of the holiness of the cove-
nant, they shall certainly partake of the blessings of the covenant.'^
Now this is one of the blessings of the covenant, that all our blessings
shall be blessed unto us. Christian ! all thy right hand blessings
shall be blessed unto thee, and all thy left hand blessings shall be blessed
unto thee ; all the blessings of the upper springs shall be blessed unto

^ John xvii. 20, 21, and xv. 5; Eph. iv. "16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 4-6 ; Epb. v. 25, to the end.

* Ps. 1. 5, and cv. 42; Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26; Zcch. iii. 3, 4 ; Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; Prov. lii.
21, &c.

VOL. IV. 2 D

418 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

tliee, and all the blessings of the lower springs shall be blessed unto
thee ; and all the blessings of the throne shall be blessed unto thee,
and all the blessings of the footstool shall be blessed unto thee.i And
as all thy blessings shall be blessed unto thee, so every estate and every
condition shall be blessed unto thee ; thou shalt be blessed in health, and
blessed in sickness; blessed in strength, and blessed in weakness; blessed
in wealth, and blessed in want ; blessed in honour, and blessed in dis-
honour ; blessed in life, and blessed in death ; thou shalt be blessed at
home, and blessed abroad ; blessed at board, and blessed at bed ; blessed
lying down, and blessed rising up; blessed in liberty, and blessed in
bonds. Look, as all the blessings of a wicked man are cursed unto him ;
and as all the relations of a wicked man are cursed unto him, and as
all estates and conditions that are incident to a wicked man are cursed
unto him; so all the blessings of a holy man are blessed unto him, and
all the relations of a holy man are blessed unto him, and all estates and
conditions that are incident to a holy man are blessed unto him.2
Isaac tills the ground, and sows his seed, and God blesses him with a
hundredfold. Gen, xxvi. 12 ; and Cain tills the ground, and sows his
seed, but the earth is cursed to him, and commanded not to yield to
him her strength. Gen. iv. 12. But,

[5.] Fifthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art one that hast
that real holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for
thy comfort, that thy holiness is a glorious witness and evidence of
thy effectual vocation: 1 Pet. i. 15, 'As he who hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation.' Many are exter-
nally called that are not internally called, and many are ineffectually
called that are not effectually called, 1 Pet. ii. 9. But now, real holi-
ness, that speaks out an internal call, an effectual call, a call out of
darkness into marvellous light, it speaks out such a call as makes
sinners saints, slaves sons, enemies friends, and strangers favourites.
As Joseph, a stranger, was called out of a prison, a dungeon, and made
a very great favourite in Pharaoh's court, Gen. xli. ; so real holiness
is a glorious witness and evidence that you are effectually called out
of the prison of sin, and the dungeon of wrath, and made a favourite
to the King of glory, 2 Tim. i. 9 ; 1 Pet. v. 10 ; Gal. iv. 6. The author
of this call is a holy God. Our holy calling depends upon the pur-
pose of God, the power of God, and the grace and good pleasure of
God. The means of our holy calling are the Spirit of God and the
word of God ; and the ends of our calling are holiness and the glory
of God. sirs, you are not called upon the account of your parents'
faith or nobility, nor upon the account of any intrinsecal virtues in
you, nor upon the account of any extrinsecal services done by you, but
upon the account of God's peculiar election and particular vocation ;
and therefore by holiness make good the honour of your high calling.
And if any should object against you the meanness of your birth and
outward calling, put them in mind of your high and holy calling, and
ask them what they think of Lazarus, that is now asleep in Abraham's

* A little blest is better than a world enjoyed. If thou art a holy man, the God of
all mercies, and all the mercies of God, the God of all comforts, and all the comforts of
God, are thine, and what wouldst thou have more ?

* Prov. iii. 33 ; Mai. ii. 1-3 j Lev. xxvi.; Deut. xxviii.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. - 419

bosom. And if others should object against you your former wicked-
ness, and cast your sins as dirt. and dung in your faces, let them know-
that St Paul can tell them from heaven, that though once he was a
wretched blasphemer, and a bloody persecutor, that yet now he is a
glorious saint in heaven. But,

[6.] Sixthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art one that hast
this real holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for
thy comfort, that thy holiness is a blessed evidence of thy adoption and
sonship, John i. 12 ; Kom. viii. 17. If thou art a holy person, then of
a child of wrath thou art become a child of God, a child of love ; and
of an heir of hell thou art become an heir of heaven ; and of a slave
thou art become a son: Gal. iv. 4, 5, 7, ' But when the fulness of
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons, wherefore thou art no more a servant,
but a son : ' Kom. viii. 14, ' For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God are the sons of God.' The leadings of the Spirit are all holy
leadings, and there are none that are the sons of God but such as are
under the holy leadings of the Spirit of God : Phil. ii. 15, ' That ye
may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in
the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as
lights in the world.' There are none worthy of this title of honour —
viz., the sons of God— but such who in the main of their lives and
conversations are blameless and harmless, without rebuke, and that
are as shining lights in the world.

There are two ways whereby we may know fire to be real fire, and
that differences real fire from painted fire, or from imaginary fire ; the
first is by the heat of it, and the other is by the flame of it. Now,
though sometimes it so falls out that the fire do not flame, yet at that
very time you may know it to be real fire by the heat it gives. So
there are two ways of knowing our adoption ; the first is by the spirit
of adoption, crying 'Abba! Father! in our hearts,' Gal. iv. 6 ; and the
other is by our sanctification and holiness, Kom. viii. 16. Now, though
sometimes it may so fall out that the flame, the witness of the spirit
of adoption, may be wanting, yet the heat of sanctification and holiness
remains, and we may have recourse to this fire, and warm our hearts
at it, and sit down satisfied and assured of our adoption ; for as fire
may be known to be fire by its heat, though it want a flame ; so though
the spirit of adoption do not witness our adoption to us, yet we may
know our adoption by our real sanctification and holiness. Every holy
person is a high-born person, for as his divine birth, so his divine adop-
tion is high, very high, exceeding high, yea even as high as heaven
itself, John iii. 5, 8, and i. 12, 13. It is a very high honour to be the son
of a king, yea to be the son-in-law of a king, for so David reckoned it :
1 Sam. xviii. 23, 24, ' Seemeth it' (saithheto Saul's servant) 'alight
thing to you to be a king's son-in-law, seeing that I am vile and lightly
esteemed ?' Oh then what an honour it is to be the son of God, to be
the son of the King of kings, and Lord of lords ! Kev. i, 6. It is a
very high honour to be God's servant, and so David accounted it, as
you may see in that 2 Sam. vii. 5, 8. And so did Theodosius the
emperor, and Constantino the Great, and many others account it. Oh

420 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

then what an honour must it be to be God's son ! The blessed apostle
cannot speak of this hio^h privilege but with great admiration ; as you
may see in that 1 John iii. 1, ' Behold what manner of loA^e the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God/ It
is an infinite condescension in God, to honour us with the title of sons,
and therefore we should never think of it, nor never speak of it, but
with much admiration. sirs ! what matter of admiration is this,
that the great and glorious God, who hath many millions of glorious
angels waiting on him, that he should look upon all holy persons as
his sons, and that he should love them as sons, and delight in them as
sons, and clothe them as sons, and feed them as sons, and protect them
as sons, and stand by them as sons, and lay up for them as sons, and
lay out himself for them as sons, that they that have not deserved a
smile from God, a good word from God, a bit of bread from God, or a
good look from God, should be made the sons of God ? What manner
of love is this, that they that have so highly provoked God, that they
that have walked so cross and contrary to God, that they that were so
exceeding unlike to God, that they that have preferred every lust, and
every toy and vanity before God, that they that have fought many
years under Satan's banner against God, that they that have refused all
the offers of mercy that hath been made by God, that they that have
deserved to be reprobated by God, to be damned by God, and to be
thrown to hell by God, that these should be made the sons of God ?
Oh stand and wonder ! oh stand and admire at the freeness of grace,
and at the riches of grace ! But,

[7.] Seventhly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art one that hast
that real holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for
thy comfort, tliat thou art an undoubted lieir of everlasting glory : i
Kom. viii. 29, 30, * For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his Son' (that is, in holiness,) ' that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he
did predestinate, them he also called : and whom he called, them he
also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' Holiness
is a most sure earnest and pawn of glory: 2 Thes. ii. 13, ' God hath
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit ;' Mat. v. 8,
* Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God ; ' 1 John iii.
2, 3, ' When he shall appear, we shall be like him ' (that is, in glory)
' for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in
him, purifieth himself, even as he is pure.' He that hath a real hope,
a lively hope, of being like to Christ in glory, and of reigning with
Clirist in heaven, will set roundly upon the work of self-purifying.
There is no hope to that hope that runs out into holiness, and that
leads the soul on to the highest degrees of purification, and that enables
a man to set up Christ's purity as the most perfect pattern and exact
copy for his imitation : Titus iii. 4-7, ' But after that the kindness and
lOve of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of right-
eousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,
by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour ; that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to
^ Horn. viii. 16-18 ; James ii. 5 ; 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 421

the hope of eternal life.' Holiness is an infallible forerunner of
glory ; it is the firstfruits of that eternal happiness and blessedness
that God hath laid up for his children in the highest heavens. And
oh, what cause of joy and gladness should this be to every holy heart 1
What though thou shouldst never have a good day more on earth ;
what though all the springs of comfort should be dried up on thy right
hand and on thy left hand ; what though God should never smile on
thee more in this world ; what though the remaining part of thy life
should be filled up with crosses, losses, troubles, and trials ; what
though God should let Satan loose to tempt thee, and wicked men grow
strong to oppress thee, and friends turn enemies to grieve thee ; yea,
what if thou shouldst go to thy grave with tears in thy eyes, and with
sorrow in thy heart ; yet as long as thou art sure that thou art an heir
of glory, and that all the happiness of heaven is thine, and that thy
crown is safe, and that thou shalt be for ever filled and satisfied with
those everlasting pleasures and delights that be at God's right hand,
Ps. xvi. 11 ; thou hast cause to joy and rejoice in the midst of all thy
sorrows and sufferings, yea, to glory and triumph in the hopes and
expectations of a kingdom that shakes not, of a crown that withers
not, of riches that corrupt not, and of an inheritance that fadeth not
away.i sirs ! it is not all the silks of Persia, nor all the spices of
Egypt, nor all the gold of Ophir, nor all the treasures of both Indies,
nor all the crowns and sceptres in the world, no, nor yet the worth of
ten thousand worlds, that are to be compared with that glory that is
treasured up for all God's holy ones. They have an inheritance
reserved in heaven for them that cannot be moth-eaten, nor spoiled by
hostile invasion, nor wrung from them by power, nor won from them
by law, nor mortgaged for debt, nor impaired by public calamity, nor
plundered by thieves and robbers, nor changed by kings or parlia-
ments, no, nor violated by death itself ; and therefore, what infinite
cause of joy and rejoicing have all such that are interested in such an
inheritance, and in such a perfect happiness and complete blessedness
that is reserved in heaven for all God's holy ones ? Oh, what a singu-
lar comfort must this be to a Christian, in the midst of all his miseries
and distresses, when he is able to look upon God, and say. This ' God
is my God for ever and ever, and he shall be my guide to glory,' Ps.
Ixxiii. 24 ; and when he is able to look up to heaven and say. This is
my inheritance ; yea, when he is able to look upon all the glory and
happiness of another world, and to say. All this glory and happiness is
mine, for I have that holiness that is the earnest of it, the pawn of it,
and the firstfruits of it in my own soul. It was an observable say-
ing of Macarius ; ' They that are anointed with the spiritual oil of
gladness,' 2 saith he, ' have received a sign of that incorruptible king-
dom, to wit, God's Spirit, for an earnest, they are the secretaries of the
heavenly king, and relying confidently upon the Almighty, they enter
into his palace, where the angels and the spirits of holy men are, although
they be yet in this world ; for although they be not yet come to the
entire inheritance, which is prepared for them in that world, yet they

1 Heb. xii. 28 ; 1 Pet. i, 3, 4. See my * String of Pearls ' on that very text [Vol. i.
pp. 399, seq.—G.]

* Qui spirituali exultationis oleo uncti sunt, &c. — Macarius, hom. lyii.

422 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EAKITY, [HeB. XII. 14

are most sure of it by that pledge which they have newly received, as
sure as if they were already crowned, and had the key of the kingdom
in their own possession.

It was a very sweet and comfortable speech which the emperor used
to Galba in his childhood and minority, when he took him by the chin
and said, Tu Galba, &c.. Thou Galba shalt one day sit upon a throne ;
so it is very sweet and comfortable for the saints to consider, that how
mean and contemptible soever they may be in the eyes of the world,
that yet there is a day a-coming when they shall sit upon a throne,
and be crowned with glory, and reign with Christ to all eternity.
But,

[8.] Eighthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou hast that real holi-
ness, without which there is no happiness, then know for thy comfort,
that all things shall be sanctified unto thee : Tit. i. 15, ' Unto the pure
all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving
is nothing pure ; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.' When
a man's heart is once sanctified, then all things are sanctified to him ;
when a man's spirit and way is clean and pure, then all things are
clean and pure to him. sirs ! this is so great and so glorious a
privilege, to have all things sanctified to us, that it is more worth than
a world, yea, than many worlds. Next to a man's interest in Christ,
he cannot beg a greater mercy than this, that all things may be sancti-
fied to him — that is, that all things may so work as to make him more
and more holy, that every cross may make him more holy, and that
every comfort may make him more holy ; that every mercy may make
him more holy, and that every misery may make him more holy ; that
every ordinance may make him more holy, and that every providence
may make him more holy ; that every affliction at home may make
him more holy, and that every judgment abroad may make him more
holy. Every condition is sweet when it is sanctified to us ; sickness is
as sweet as health when it is sanctified to us, and weakness is as sweet
as strength when it is sanctified to us, and poverty is as sweet as riches
when it is sanctified to us, and disgrace is as sweet as honour when it
is sanctified to us, and bonds are as sweet as liberty when they are
sanctified to us, and death is as sweet as life when it is sanctified to
us. Look, as no condition can be a happy condition that is not a
sanctified condition, so no condition can be a miserable condition that
is a sanctified condition. Now this is only the holy man s privilege,
the holy man's mercy, to have every estate and every condition sancti-
fied unto him ; and this indeed is the cream and crown of all our
mercies to have them sanctified unto us, ay, and every bitter will be
sweet, yea very sweet, when it is sanctified unto us. What though thy
mercies, Christian, are fewer than others', and lesser than others',
and leaner than others', and shorter than others', yet thou hast no rea-
son to complain, as long as thy mercies are sanctified mercies ; and
what though thy trials are greater than others', and thy burden is
heavier than others', and thy sorrows are deeper than others', and thy
crosses comes thicker than others', yet thou hast no cause to complain,
as long as they are sanctified. Art thou a holy person ? Oh then re-
member for thy comfort that every bit of bread thou eatest is sancti-
fied, and every draught of beer thou drinkest is sanctified, and every

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 423

suit of clothes thou wearest is sanctified ; the beds thou liest on are
sanctified, and the stools thou sittest on are sanctified ; the very air
thou breathest in is sanctified, and the very ground thou treadest on is
sanctified ; every penny in thy purse is sanctified, and every pound in
thy shop is sanctified ; whatsoever thou hast at home is sanctified, and
whatever thou hast abroad is sanctified. And oh ! how should the
sense of these things sweeten all thy bitters, and turn thy hell into
heaven, and wipe all tears from thy eyes, and turn thy sighing into
singing, and thy mourning into rejoicing, &c. But,

[9.] Ninthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou hast that real holi-
ness, without which there is no happiness, then know for thy comfort,
that thou art a person very high in favour with God, thou art one of
his peculiar ones : Deut. xiv. 1 , ' Ye are the children of the Lord
your God, ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between
your eyes for the dead,' (as those heathens that have no hope, 1 Thes.
iv, 13.) ' For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the
Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people to himself, above all the
nations that are upon the earth.' All God's holy ones are his peculiar
ones, God hath a peculiar respect for their persons : Dan. ix. 23, ' O
Daniel ! thou art greatly beloved,' or as the Hebrew word, chamudoth,
signifies, thou art a man of desires. Now Daniel is called a man of
desires, because the desires of God run out strongly after him, as one
that was singularly beloved of him, and as one that was highly in
favour with him. And as God hath a peculiar respect for their per-
sons, so he hath a peculiar respect for their duties and services:
Prov. XV. 8, ' The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the
Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight,' God takes more
delight to hear the prayers of the upright, and to grant the prayers of
the upright, than the upright takes delight to pray. How burden-
some and troublesome soever their prayers may be to others, yet they
are still delightful to God ; but more of this in the next particular.
And as God hath a peculiar respect for their services, so he hath a
peculiar respect for their tears, for he puts them into his bottle,
Ps. Ivi. 8 ; and as he hath a peculiar respect for their tears, so he hath
a peculiar respect for their names, for he writes them in his book,
Luke x. 20 ; and as he hath a peculiar respect for their names, so he
hath a peculiar respect for their blood, Ps. cxvi. 15 ; and this Cain
found by woeful experience, from the cry of his brother's blood.
sirs ! God by making of you holy, hath made you like himself, like
his Son, like his Spirit, and like his most glorious angels, which excel
in strength ; and what doth this speak out but God's peculiar favour ?
God makes many rich, and many great, and many honourable, and
many mighty, and many wise, and many noble, and many beautiful,
and many successful, whom he will never make holy ; in making of
you holy, God hath made you spiritually great, rich, honourable, wise,
and beautiful, &c.,Eph. i. 3, and this speaks you out to be highly in
the favour of God. Holiness is a singular fruit of God's special favour
and love. God hath a common favour and love for aU men, yea, for the
worst of men ; witness that common preservation, and common protec-
tion, and common provision, that he vouchsafeth to them ; and God
hath a special love and favour, and this runs out only to his holy ones,

424 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

Eph. ii, 4-5. Holiness is a divine beam, a heavenly drop, a choice
pledge of God's special favour and love. sirs ! though the world
may slight you, and enemies revile you, and friends disfavour you,
yet let this support you, let this rejoice you, that you are high in the
favour of God. But,

[10.] Tenthly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art one that hast
that real holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for
thy comfort, that all thy duties and services are very pleasing, delight-
ful, and acceptable to the Lord, Acts x. 4 ; Mai. iii. 3 ; 2 Tim. ii. 21 ;
and this roundly follows upon the former, for whenever a man's per-
son comes to be accepted of God, and to be in favour with God,
then all his services and sacrifices comes to be acceptable to God ;
Gen. iv. .5, ' And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock,
and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his
offering.' God had first a respect to his person in Christ, and then to
his offering ; and so his sacrifice was accepted for the man, and not
the man for the sacrifice : Heb. xi. 4, ' By faith Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained wit-
ness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts ; and by it, he
being dead, yet speaketh.' God will always welcome the holy man
into his presence, and he shall always have his ear at command,
Isa. xlv. 11 ; God will still be a-warming his heart, and a-cheering up
his spirit, and a-satisfying of his soul, in meeting of him in all holy
means, and in giving gracious answers to all his requests : Isa. Ixvi. .5,
' Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness ; those
that remember thee in thy ways:' Prov. xxi. 8, ' The way of man,' that
is, of unholy man, ' is fro ward and strange ; but as for the pure, his
work is right. ' When God hath cleansed a man's heart, and sanctified
his nature, then his work, his religious work, is right ; it is then right in
the eye of God, and in the account of God, and in estimation of God ; and
therefore his petitions are as soon granted as they are offered, Isa. Ixv. 24,
and his requests performed as soon as they are mentioned : Ps. xxxii.
5, ' I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin, Selah.' i Holy David had an inward
purpose and resolution to confess his sin, but before he could do it
God throws him his pardon ; ' thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.'
God loves to be beforehand with his people in acts of grace and favour.
God's eye and his oar was in David's heart, before David's confession
could be in his tongue. Oh the delight of God ! Oh the pleasedness
of God, with the duties and services of his holy ones ! Ps. iv. 3, ' But
know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself : the
Lord will hear, when I call upon him,' that is, the Lord will approve
of my prayer, he will accept of my prayer, he will delight in my
prayer, and he will answer my prayer when I call unto him ; and
what can the godly man desire more? Ps. Ixi. 1, ' Hear my cry,
God, attend unto my prayer.' Aquinas saith that some read the words
thus, Intende ad cantica mea, Attend unto my songs — and so the words
may be safely read, from the Hebrew word HJ"), ranali, which signifies

^ Selah here is a special note of observation, to work us to a serious marking of the
things that are mentioned, as things that are of special weight, and of highest concern-
ment to us.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 425

to shout or shrill out for joy — to note that the prayers of the saints are
like pleasant songs and delightful ditties in the ears of God. No
mirth, no music can be so pleasing to us as the prayers of the saints
are pleasing to God, Cant. ii. 14 : Ps. cxli. 2, ' Let my prayer come
before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening
sacrifice.' What is more sweet, what is more pleasing, and what is
more perfuming than incense ? why, the prayers of the saints, as they
are in the hands of a mediator, are as sweet and pleasing to God, as
incense that is made up of the choicest and sweetest spices are sweet
and pleasing unto us, Rev. v. 8, and viii. 3, 4 : 1 Pet. iii. 12, ' For the
eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto
their prayers;' or rather, as the Greek hath it, his ears are — eh
Ber,aiv avTOiv — to their prayers, that is, when their prayers are so
faint and weak that they cannot reach to God, that they cannot travel
as far as heaven, then God will come down to them, and lay his ears,
as it were, unto their prayers ! Oh, what mattei: of joy and comfort
is this to all the holy seed, that God will graciously bow his ears to
their prayers, when he turns his back with the greatest disdain and
indignation upon the most costly sacrifices of the wicked. you
precious sons of Zion ! that are daily lamenting and mourning over
the weaknesses that cleaves to your best services, know for your com-
fort and joy, that though with Moses you can but stammer out a
prayer, or with Hannah weep out a prayer, or with Hezekiah chatter
out a prayer, or with Paul sigh and groan out a prayer, yet the Lord
will own your prayers, and accept your prayers, and delight in your
prayers. 1 Oh, what a rare comfort is this for a Christian, to consider,
that when he is under outward wants and inward distresses, that when
he hath sickness upon his body, and reproach upon his name, and
death knocking at his door, that in all these cases, and in all other
cases, he may run to God as to a father, and tell God how it is with
liim, and when he hath done that, he may sit down satisfied and as-
sured of audience and acceptance in heaven ! sirs ! this is a privi-
lege more worth than a thousand worlds, and had unsanctified per-
sons as many kingdoms to give as they have hairs on their heads, they
would give them all for an interest in this privilege, when guilt and
wrath is upon their consciences, and when the arrows of the Almighty
stick fast in them, and when the terrors of death are round about them,
and when the dreadful day of their account is every moment remem-
bered by them. Oh ! if it be so great a favour to have the ears of an
earthly king at pleasure, what a transcendent favour must it be to
have his ear at pleasure who is King of kings and Lord of lords ! and
yet this favour hath all his saints. But,

[11.] Eleventhly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art one that hast'
that real holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for
thy comfort that Jesus Christ will certainly preserve thy holiness.
Next to Christ, holiness is a Christian's choicest jewel, and this Christ
will be sure to preserve. Self-preservation is natural to all creatures.
Holiness is Christ's creature, Christ's image ; and therefore he will

^ God once accepted of a handful of meal for a sacrifice, and of a gripe of goat's hair
for an oblation. Artaxerxes, the Persian monarch, accepted with a cheerful countenance
a little water, as a present from tiie hand of a poor labourer, &c.

426 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

certainly preserve it and maintain it, — Christ cannot neglect himself,
he cannot be wanting to himself. Now holiness is himself' ; and there-
fore if there be but a spark of holiness in a dunghill of corruption,
Christ will certainly own it, cherish it, and preserve it. He that is
once really holy shall be for ever holy. Let the world, the flesh, and
the devil, do what they can, the holy seed shall still remain in all God's
sanctified ones.^ Though a holy man may fall strangely, sadly,
frequently, foully, yet he shall never fall totally, he shall never fall
finally, because that that holiness that is in him is a lasting, yea,
an everlasting and abiding principle, that can never be destroyed or
extirpated. A wicked person may be turned into a holy man, but a
holy man can never be turned into a profane person again. A holy
change is an unchangeable change ; the state of holiness is an unchange-
able state. It is true the fallen angels quickly lost that stock of holi-
ness that God had put into their hands ; and Adam lost all his holiness
upon the turn of a hand. He broke and proved a banki-upt almost as
soon as God had set him up in paradise ; but the state and condition
of all the saints is a better and a safer state and condition than either
the angels' or than Adam's was ; and that partly because their state
was mutable though perfect, but the state of the saints is an unchange-
able state, though it be for the present an imperfect state ; and partly
because God put that stock of holiness that they had into their own
hands, but now the saints' holiness is not a stock in their own hands
but in Christ's hands ; for not only their persons but their holiness is
' kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,' 1 Pet. i. 5. As
Christ is to manage our salvation for us, so he is to manage our grace
and holiness for us ; and therefore, as he will most certainly make sure
the one, so he will as certainly preserve the other. Once a son, and for
ever a son. Though the servant may be turned out of doors, yet the
son abides in the house for ever, as Christ speaks, John viii. 35. He
that is once sanctified shall be for ever blessed.

Holiness is an abiding seed, an immortal seed. It is a royal gift,
which being once given, shall never be taken away from him that hath
it. I readily grant that the strength of holiness, and the lustre
and shine of holiness, and the sense and feeling of holiness, and the
comfort and sweet of holiness, and the lively stirrings and operations
of hohness, may be somewhat abated and lessened in the soul ; but the
seed of holiness, the substance of holiness, always remains in a changed
soul, Rom. xi. 29. There is always a divine fire, though sometimes it
may be raked up under the ashes ; there is always life and sap in the
root, though there be neither leaves nor blossoms on the tree. It
is true, the best of saints may have their spiritual autumn ; and it is
as true, that after their autumn there will certainly follow a spring of
holiness. It is most certain that the truth and state of holiness
remains under all a Christian's infirmities, darknesses, weaknesses,
eclipses, clouds, failings, waverings, and wanderings ; and the reasons
are clear, because that great and glorious principle of holiness flows
from God's unchangeable love, and is a fruit of the everlasting
covenant, and the price of Christ's blood, and depends and hangs upon
a perpetual union and communion with Christ, and is a sure pledge

^ Phil. i. 6 ; Heb. xii. 2; 1 Thes. v. 23, and iii. 12, 13 ; Eph. t. 25-27 ; 1 John iii. 9.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 427

and earnest of a man's eternal enjoyment of Christ, and is always
maintained and upheld by the everlasting arms of Christ, Deut. xxxiii.
26, 27 ; Gen. xlix. 22-24. To say that the saints may fall totally and
finally from all that grace and holiness they have, is to say, (1.) That
the surety of the new covenant is grown very poor and weak, which is
very little less than blasphemy, and quite contrary to that Heb. vii.
21, 22, (2.) It is to say that the promises are yea and nay, quite con-
trary to what the apostle affirms in that 2 Cor. i. 20. (3.) It is to say
that the power of God is grown exceeding weak and contemptible, yea,
it is to make sin and Satan stronger than God, which is quite contrary
to the current of Scripture, 1 Pet. i. 5 ; John x. 27-31. (4.) It is to
say that the decree of God is mutable, which is cross and contrary to
the apostle in that 2 Tim. ii. 19. (5.) It is to say that God's free,
eternal, and everlasting love is become changeable and unconstant,
which is expressly cross to that Jer. xxxi. 3 ; Mai. iii. 6 ; John xiii. 1 ,
with many other scriptures ; and therefore that Arminian principle is
to be for ever detested and abhorred. But,

[12.] Twelfthly and lastly, If thou art a holy person, if thou art
one that hast that real holiness without which there is no happiness,
then know for thy comfort that all things shall ivork together for thy
good: Rom. viii. 28, ' And we know that all things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his
purpose.' All the afHictions, and all the temptations, and all the
desertions, and all the oppressions, and all the oppositions, and all the
persecutions that befalls a godly man shall work for his good. Rev.
ii. 10. Every cross, every loss, and every disease that befalls the holy
man shall work for his good ; every device, every snare, every method,
every depth, every stratagem, and every enterprise of Satan against
the holy man shall work for his good ; they shall all help to make
him more humble, more holy, more heavenly, more spiritual, more
faithful, more fruitful, and more watchful, 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10 ; every
day of prosperity, and every night of adversity shall work for the holy
man's good; every storm and every calm, every bitter and every
sweet, every cross and every comfort, shall work for his good that is
holy, Hosea ii. 5-7. When God gives a mercy, that shall work for
his good ; and when God takes away a mercy, that shall w^ork for his
good ; when God gives him large commons, that shall work for his
good ; and when God cuts his commons short, that shall work for
his good ; yea, and all the falls and all the sins of the saints shall
work for their good. As I get hurt by my graces, so I get good by
my sins, said famous Mr Foxe. Oh the care, the fear, the watch-
fulness, the tenderness, the zeal, the revenge, that God raises in the
souls of his saints by their very falls ! 2 Cor. vii. 8-13. Oh the hatred,
the indignation, and the detestation that God raises in the hearts of
his children against sin, by their very falling into sin ! Oh what love
to Christ, what thankfulness for Christ, what admiration of Christ, what
cleaving to Christ, what exalting of Christ, and what drawing from
Christ, are saints led to by their very falls ! Oh what exercise of grace,
what increase of grace, what magnifying of grace, what liftings up of
divine power, and what a high price are holy men led to set upon the
precious blood of Christ, and all by their falls ! It is the glory of God's

428 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

holiness that he can turn spiritual diseases into holy remedies, and
soul poisons into heavenly cordials ; that he can prevent sin by sin,
and cure falling by falling. One calls that 8th of the Romans and
the 28th verse the blind man's promise ; and I may call it the lame
man's promise that is holy, and the deaf man's promise that is holy,
and the dumb man's promise that is holy, and the needy man's
promise that is holy, and the sick man's promise that is holy, and
the languishing man's promise that is holy, and the dying man's
promise that is holy. Oh the comfort, oh the sweet, oh the content,
oh the satisfaction that this promise hath afforded to many a precious
saint, when other promises have not been at hand ! Christian,
what though friends and relations frown upon thee, what though
enemies are plotting and conspiring against thee, what though wants,
like an armed man, are ready to break in upon thee, what though
men rage and devils roar, what though sickness be in thy family, and
death stands every day at thy elbow, yet there is no reason for thee
to fear or faint, because all these things shall work for thy good.
Yea, there is wonderful cause of joy and rejoicing in all the afflictions
and tribulations that comes upon thee, considering that they shall all
work for thy good. Christians ! I am afraid, I am afraid, that you
do not run so often as you should to the breasts of this promise, nor
draw that sweetness and comfort from it that it would yield, and that
your several cases may require. And thus I have done with this use
of comfort and consolation to all God's holy ones. You see what com-
fort, what consolation, yea, what strong consolation, waits upon all
God's sanctified ones. I have been the longer upon this use, because
the times require it, and the condition of God's people calls for the
strongest cordials, and the choicest and the sweetest comforts.

And now I have nothing to do but to lay doion some positions con-
cerning holiness, which may be of singular use for the preventing of some
objections and mistakes, and for the giving of satisfaction, especially
to such in whom the streams of holiness runs low, and who are still
a-lamenting and mourning under the imperfections of their holiness, &c.

1. And the first position is tliis. Wherever real holiness is, it luill
appear, it will discover itself, it luill shew itself, Eph. iv. 15, 16. It
is the very nature of grace and holiness to manifest itself, and there-
fore it is set forth in Scripture by the names of light, which shines
abroad, Mat. v. 16, and of ointment and perfume, which cannot be hid,
Prov. xxvii. 9 ; Cant. iii. 6 ; of leaven and salt, which deriveth its
own nature and relish upon a whole lump. And it is very observable,
that when the Holy Ghost was given, he was given in tongues, fiery
tongues, and with a rushing of a mighty wind, all of which have a
quality of self-manifestation, and notifying of themselves to others,
Acts ii. 1-5.

Take a river that is dammed and stopped up, yet if the course of it
be natural, and if it commonly runs downward, it will at length bear
down all, and ride and run triumphantly over all that is in its way.
So, though real holiness in a day of temptation, desertion, and afflic-
tion, &c., may seem to be dammed and stopped up, yet at length it
will make its way through all, and over all, and shew itself in its
native colours. Though fire for a time may lie hid under the ashes,

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 429

yet at last it will flame forth, and shew itself to be fire. Holiness is a
divine fire, and though in some cases it may for a time seem to be
hid, it will at length break forth, and shew itself to be holiness. I
have not faith enough to believe that that man was ever really holy,
whose holiness is still under a bushel, or in a dark lantern. Look,
as natural life cannot be so hid but that it will discover itself a
hundred hundred ways, so hoHness, which is a Christian's spiritual life,
cannot be so hid but it will discover it a hundred hundred ways.

2. The second position is this. That holiness rises by degrees; it rises
gradually in the sotds of the saints. Though the first Adam was made
a man, a holy man, yea, a man perfectly holy, and all at once, yet the holi-
ness of all that is interested in the second Adam rises by degrees, i It is
true, in the creation of the world all the creatures were made in their
full and perfect growth and strength at once ; but in the new creation,
holiness, which is God's own creature, is carried on by degrees, Luke ii.
52. Look, as Christ increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour
with God and man by degrees, so that babe of grace, holiness, increases
in the soul by degi'ees. Look, as the seed which is sown in the fur-
rows of the earth first springs into a blade, and then into an ear,
and then into ripe corn. Mat. xiii, 23 ; Mark iv. 28 ; so that immortal
seed, holiness, which is sown in the furrows of a Christians soul,
springs and grows by degrees. Look, as the waters in the sanctuary
rise first to the ankles, then to the knees, then to the loins, then
to the chin, and then to a river that was not passable, Ezek. xlvii. 3-5 ;
so holiness rises higher and higher in the soul by degrees. Look, as
the morning light shines more and more unto the perfect day, Prov.
iv. 18 ; so the light of holiness sliines more and more clear, and more
and more bright, until all darkness and imperfection be swallowed up
in perfection. Look, as the body of a man grows and increases by
degrees in stature and strength, till it comes to its full growth and
perfection, Eph. iv. 16 ; so grace and holiness will grow and increase
by degrees, till grace be turned into glory, till holiness be turned into
happiness. Though the ocean be full, yet the bottle cannot be filled
but by degrees. We are poor narrow-mouthed bottles, and therefore
what we take in of holiness must be by degrees. Our incapacity is so
great, that at present we are noways able to take in a fulness of holi-
ness ; and therefore God drops in now a drop and then a drop, now a
little and then a little, as we are able to take it in. And, indeed, to
dilBference the state of grace from the state of glory, the state of holi-
ness from the state of happiness, it is necessary that holiness should
be communicated to us by degrees. An absolute fulness of holiness
will make an absolute fulness of happiness. When our holiness is
perfect, our happiness shall be perfect ; and if this were attainable on
earth, there would be but little reason for men to long to be in heaven.

3. The third position is this, That there is a great deal of precious-
ness in the least degree of holiness. For,

[1.] It is the special work of the Holy Spirit; and this I have
shewed you already at large ; and therefore it must needs be precious.

[2.] It is a part of the divine nature ; it is a beam of God, a spark
of glory, and therefore it must needs be precious.

^ Job xvii. 9 ; Ps. xcii. 12 ; Mai. iv. 2 ; Hosea xiv. 5-7.

430 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

[3.] There are many choice and special promises that are made
over to the least degrees of holiness, as you may see by comparing the
scriptures in the margin together ; i and therefore the least degree of
holiness is very precious.

[4.] It gives a man a right to precious privileges, and to all the
precious ordinances of Christ's house. Ergo, &c.

[5.] It is a fruit of the special love and favour of God. A man may
read more of the heart of God, and of the special love of God towards
him in the least spark of holiness, than he can in his highest worldly
enjoyments. A man may read that special grace in the least degree
of holiness, which he can never read in the honours, profits, pleasures,
delights, and contents of this world. Ergo, &c.

[6.] The least degrees of holiness gives a man as great a right, and
as good a title to everlasting happiness and blessedness, as the greatest
degrees of holiness doth ; 2 and the reason is clear, because the promise
of happiness and blessedness is not made over to degrees of holiness,
but to the truth of holiness ; and therefore he that hath but the least
spark of true holiness may plead the promise, and apply the promise,
and suck marrow and sweetness out of the promise, as well as he that
hath the greatest measures of holiness in the world. The promises of
salvation are not made over to the strength of faith, but to the truth
of faith, John vi. 35. It is nowhere said that only he that believes
with the faith of an Abraham shall be saved, but it is often said, * He
that believes shall be saved ;' that is, he that believes truly, though he
doth not believe strongly, shall be saved. Ergo, &c.

[7.] When unholy persons are under terrors of conscience, and upon
their dying beds, and when they shall stand before a judgment-seat,
had they as many worlds to give as there be stars in heaven, and as
there are men on earth, they would give them all for the least spark
of true holiness ; 3 and therefore, without all perad venture, the least
degree of holiness must be very precious, considering what a price the
worst of men would give for it, were it in their power to purchase.

[8.] The least degree of holiness shall at last be blessed with a
happy triumph over the strongest corruptions. The least degree of
holiness will lead the soul to Christ ; it will bring the soul into
communion with Christ ; it will work the soul to lean upon Christ,
and by degrees to draw that life, that virtue, and that vigour from
Christ, that will enable a Christian not only to combat but to con-
quer even Goliath himself ; and therefore the least degree of holiness
is doubtless very precious.

[9.] The least degree of holiness will render a Christian in some
measure serviceable and useful to the turnings away of the wrath and
judgments of God from a people or nation, and for the bringing
down of favours and blessing upon a land,^ when all the power,
authority, greatness, grandeur, and glory that wicked men have in

1 2 Pet. i. 4 ; Mat. xii. 20 ; Isa. xl. 10, 11, and Ix. 22 ; Isa. xxxv. 3, 4; Joel iii. 10 ;
Mat. V. 3-6 ; Rom. xiv. 1, and xv. 7.

* The little hand of a child may hold a pearl, as well as the hand of the greatest giant
in the world.

* A little holiness is like a diamond, very little in bulk, but of a very high price and
value, &c.

* Gen. xviii. The least finger is of use to the whole body.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 431

their hands, can do just nothing either to the diverting of wrath, or
the obtaining of mercy ; and therefore the least degree of holiness
is precious. But,

[10.] Tenthly and lastly. The least degree of holiness is a sure
pledge and pawn of greater degrees of holiness that in time thou
shalt attain to. The tallest oak was once an acorn ; the deepest doctor
was once in his horn-book ; and the greatest giant was once a child.
Thy spark in time shall be blowed up into a flame ; thy drop in time
shall be turned into a sea ; and thy penny in time shall be multiplied
into pounds, and thy pounds into hundreds, and thy hundreds into
thousands, and thy thousands into millions. And now tell me. Chris-
tians, whether these ten things do not sufficiently prove that there is
a great deal of preciousness in the least degrees of holiness ; and oh
that you that have but a little holiness would be often a-warming
of your hearts at this heavenly fire ! and oh that you that have a
great deal of holiness would not despise those that have but a little
holiness ! Oh that you that bring forth a hundredfold would not
despise those that bring forth but thirtyfold ! and oh that you that
have ten talents would not despise those that have but two talents,
considering that there is a great deal of preciousness in the least
degree of holiness.

4. The fourth position is this. All saints are not alike holy. Some are
more holy, and others are less holy ; in some saints the springs of holi-
ness runs low, in others the springs of holiness rise very high. Holiness
thrives not alike in all saints. In the parable some brought forth
thirty, some sixty, and others a hundredfold, and yet all was good
ground too, Mat. xiii. 8, 23 : and in that other parable, every one had
not ten talents — some had but five, others two, others but one, Mat.
XXV. 14, 15 ; Luke xix. 12-21. God never doth distribute holiness
alike to all. To some he gives more, to others less, according to the
good pleasure of his grace. God never intended that all should thrive
alike in holiness. Though there were divers that feared God in Nehe-
miah's time, yet he tells you that his brother Hanani feared God above
many, Neh. vii. 2. And though Job's three friends that came to visit
him in the days of his sorrows, viz., Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad, were
doubtless all holy men, Job i. 8, yet they fell very much short of Job
in grace and holiness, as is evident not only by that high testimony
that God himself gives concerning Job, ' That there was none like
him upon the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that feared God,
and eschewed evil ;' but also throughout that whole book of Job. It is
true, all saints are equally justified, and equally pardoned, and equally
reconciled, and equally accepted, but all saints are not equally sancti-
fied. All saints are not of equal standing in the house of God. All
saints have not been partakers of equal means, all saints have not had
equal gales of the Spirit, all saints have not alike acted that holiness
they have ; and, therefore, no wonder if all saints are not alike holy.
David's worthies were not all of equal strength, nor all the stones in
the building are not of equal proportion, nor all the members in the
natural body are not of equal magnitude; and so it is also in the
mystical body of Christ. In God's house there are vessels of gold, and
vessels of silver, 1 Cor. xii. ; 2 Tim. ii. 20, that is, there are some

432 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

that are more eminently sanctified and purified than others are. You
read in Scripture of babes, as well as of strong men ; of lambs, as well
as of sheep ; of plants, as well as of trees. Besides, you read of a
little faith, and of smoking flax, and of a bruised reed, and of a grain
of mustard-seed, and what doth all this evidence, but that God gives
different measures and degrees of grace and holiness to his people ?
Christ hath not work alike for all saints to do, nor burdens alike for all
saints to bear, nor mercies alike for all saints to improve, nor tempta-
tions alike for all saints to resist, nor difficulties alike for all saints to
grapple withal, nor dangers alike for all saints to encounter withal,
&c., and therefore he gives not a like measure of holiness to all, but to
some more, to others less, according as their condition requires ; some
saints stand in need of a great deal more grace and holiness than others
do. Their place, calling, condition, and employments in the world,
calls for a greater stock than others need. One man may better keep
house with a hundred a year, than another who hath a great family
and great resort to his house, can do with a thousand a year ; and so it
is here. A little may serve a little farm, but it must be a great stock
that must serve a great farm. A little stock of holiness will serve
some Christians, but it must be a great stock of holiness that must
serve to supply the necessities and the wants of other Christians ; and
therefore God gives different measures and degrees of holiness among
his people as their needs require. Look, as one sinner excels another
in wickedness, so one saint excels another in holiness ; and therefore
let not those that have much holiness despise those that have but little ;
nor let not those that have but a little holiness censure or judge those
that have more holiness than themselves. All that holiness that any
man hath, whether it be little, or whether it be much, is all of grace,
it is all of free-grace ; and therefore let every man improve it, be
thankful for it, and walk humbly under it.i

5. The fifth position is this, A Christian may be more eminently holy at
one time than at another ; he may thrive and increase more in holiness
at one season than at another. Two men do not more differ one from
another, than the self-same Christian at several times differs from him-
self. Now the spring-tide of holiness is risen high, very high, at an-
other time the streams of holiness runs exceeding low ; now he is full
fraughted^ with high thoughts of God, with honourable thoughts of
Christ, with precious thoughts of the saints, with pious thoughts of
the Scripture, with delightful thoughts of ordinances, with serious
thoughts of providences, and with ravishing thoughts of eternity ; and
at another time you shall have him filled with such hard thoughts of
God, with such dishonourable thoughts of Christ, with such low
thoughts of the saints, with such slight thoughts of the Scripture,
with such undelightful thoughts of ordinances, and with such confused
thoughts of providences, and with such muddy, dark, and unpleasing
thoughts of eternity, as if he were really another man.3 Now he is
very lively and quick, very cheerful and thankful, very fruitful and

' Read the 77th and the 88th Psalms. And indeed most of the psalms of David are
a full proof of this posit:on, as all may see that will but read them with a spiritual eye,
and with an understanding heart. * ' Freighted.' — G.

•^ Besides the examples of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Job, and Peter, with the expe-
riences of all other saints in all ages, speaks out this truth.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 433

faithful. Now he is very fearful of offending God, and very careful of
pleasing God, and very circumspect and watchful in his walking with
God, as if he were a man fully resolved instantly to start from
holiness to happiness ; but now, if you please to look on this man
at another time, when he is either deserted of God, or tempted by
Satan, or worsted by the world, or enthralled by his lusts, and ah,
how unlike himself will you find him ! for now he is flat, and dull,
and dry, though not quite dead ; now he is much straitened and shut
up ; now he can neither joy in God, nor delight in Christ, nor find
sweetness in ordinances, nor any taste or relish in any of his mercies.
Now his apprehensions are dark, his thoughts are dismal, his medita-
tions are confused, his words are unadvised, and his ways are crooked.
Now he saith, ' The Lord is my portion,' and anon he saith, * Will
the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favourable no more ?' Now
he believes, anon he doubts ; this hour he hopes, the next he fears ;
to-day he is upon the mount, joying and triumphing, to-morrow you
shall have him in the valleys, mourning and sighing ; many clouds,
many eclipses, many varieties, and many changes, passes upon God's
holy ones in this life. A child, a tree, a plant, shoots up sometimes
more in a month than they do in many months ; and so doth many a
child of God: many a tree of righteousness, and many a plant of
renown, shoot up more in holiness in a month sometimes than they
do in many months at another time ; they thrive and flourish in holi-
ness more in a year sometimes than they ^do in many years at an-
other time. Look, as many a man gets more money in one year than
he doth afterwards get in seven ; so many a Christian gets more
grace and holiness sometimes in one year than he gets afterwards in
seven. No saints have at all times alike the same blessed gales of the
Spirit. It is just with a holy soul as it is with a ship ; sometimes the
ship hath a very fair and fresh gale of wind, and then she cuts her
way through the proud waves of the sea, and the passengers sail very
speedily and merrily towards their desired port ; but anon the wind is
slack, and veers about to another point of the compass, and then the
passengers are all amote,i and they sail but slowly and heavily towards
their desired harbour. And so it is with a holy heart : sometimes the
gales of the Spirit blow very fair and sweet, very strong and powerful,
upon a gracious soul, and then a Christian sails most sweetly, most
speedily, and most successfully on in a way of holiness, and towards
ms port of happiness ; but anon the Spirit is either resisted, or grieved,
or neglected, or quenched, or vexed, or disobeyed ; and then his gales,
his influences, his breathings, are slacked, and then a poor Christian
sails but very slow on in a way of holiness, then he doth but even
creep towards the harbour of everlasting blessedness.

Again, no saints have at all times alike the same external helps,
advantages, and opportunities of being holy, and of thriving in holi-
ness. It may be they have not the word so clearly, so powerfully,
so sweetly, so faithfully, nor so frequently preached to them as for-
merly they have had ; or it may be they have not other ordinances so
lively, so purely, so spiritually, so evangelically dispensed to them as
formerly they have had. It may be they have had stones instead of
^ Rather ' amort, ' = dejected, frightened to death. — G.

VDL- IV. 2 E

434 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

bread, and bones instead of flesh, and chaff instead of wheat, and
muddy water instead of choice wine, and then no wonder if they do
not thrive in holiness as they did when God rained manna every day
about their tents, and when they were fed with the best of the best
that their heavenly Father's table, wine-cellar, and house did afford.
When children have not as good food, and as good physic, and as
good lodging, and as good looking to as they have formerly had, no
wonder if they thrive not as at other times. And so it is here : look,
as no men have always the same helps, the same advantages, the same
opportunities to grow great, and rich, and high, and honourable in the
world, that sometimes they have had ; so no Christian hath always
the same helps, advantages, and opportunities to grow rich and high
in holiness, as sometimes he hath had. It may be he hath not
that communion and fellowship with the people of God that once he
had, or if he hath, yet it may be their communion is not so pure, so
holy, so lively, so heart-warming, so soul-enriching, as once it hath
been ; or it may be he hath not as good counsel as formerly, nor as
good examples as formerly, nor as good encouragement as he hath
formerly had to be holy ; or it may be their calling, employment, and
outward condition is so altered and changed from what once it was,
that they have not that time for closet duties, and to wait on pubhc
ordinances, that once they had ; or it may be bodily infirmities, weak-
nesses, diseases, aches, and ailments are so increased and multiplied
upon them, that they cannot make that improvement that once they
did of those very advantages and opportunities, that yet, by a hand of
grace, is continued among them. Now these cases being incident to
the people of God, there is no reason to wonder, if at some times saints
are more holy than they are at others ; and if at some seasons they
shoot up more in holiness than they do at others. The serious weigh-
ing of this position may serve to prevent many fears and scruples,
many debates and disputes, that often rise in the hearts of Christians
upon the often ebbings and flowings of holiness in their souls.

6. The sixth position is this, There will come a time wlien in this
world holiness shall he more general, and more eminent, than ever it
hath been since Adam fell in paradise. The Scripture speaks clearly,
roundly, and fully to this : Deut. xxx. 5, 6, 8, ' The Lord thy God
will bring thee into thine own land, and the Lord thy God will cir-
cumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and thou shalt return
and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments.' Tliis
gracious promise was made to the Jews above two thousand years
ago, and yet to this very day it hath not been fulfilled ; and therefore
there will certainly come a time wherein God will make it good :
Isa. xi. 6, ' The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, &c., and they shall
not hurt, &c., for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.' This glorious promise hath not been
made good to this day, but there is a time a-coming wherein it shall
be accomplished : Isa. xxxv. 8, ' There shall be a highway, and it
shall be called a way of holiness ; the unclean shall not pass over
IT.' Isa. lix. 21, ' This is my covenant, my word and my Spirit shall
never depart from thee for ever.' Isa. Ix, 21, ' Thy people shall be

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 435

ALL RIGHTEOUS.' Jei. xxxii. 40, 41, '1 will make an everlasting
covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them to do them
good ; but I will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not depart
from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and will
plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and whole
SOUL.' So Ezek. xxxvi. 23-30 ; Mai. iv. 1, 2; 2 Pet. iii. 13.

Now it is very observable that this great promise must be fulfilled
when the Jgws shall return and be settled in their own land. And
so the prophet Ezekiel, speaking of the glorious state of the church in
the last days, Ezek. xliv. 7, 9, adds, ' Thus saith the Lord, no stranger
uncircumcised in heart shall enter into my sanctuary.' Zeph. iii. 13,
' The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies ;
neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouths.' Now
the context clearly shews that these words relate to the glorious state
of the church on earth, and they have never yet received their accom-
plishment, but shall in the last days, for he is faithful that hath spoken
it : Zech. xiv. 20, 21, * Upon all shall be holiness to the Lord.' I
have opened this text pretty fully to you already in my former dis-
courses on holiness, and therefore shall pass it by now, Kev. xxi.^
verse the first and verse the last, ' And I saw a new heaven, and a
new earth, and I saw the holy city New Jerusalem coming down from
God out of HEAVEN. Bchold the tabernacle of God is with men, &c.,
and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, &c.,
but they that are wi-itten in the Lamb's book.' I have formerly proved
by several arguments, as divers of you knows, that this chapter cannot
be understood of heaven, but must necessarily, and beyond all dispute,
be understood of the glorious state of the saints on earth, which they
shall certainly enjoy in the last days. By all these scriptures it is most
evident that there will come a time when holiness shall be more gen-
eral, and at a fuller height than ever yet it hath been since man fell
from his original holiness ; and therefore pray and wait, and wait and
pray, look and long, and long and look, for the breaking forth of this
day of glory upon the world.

[7.] The seventh and last proposition is this. That though the
peoph of God ought to he holy at all times, yet there are some special
times and seasons wherein God calls aloud for holiness, more than he
doth at other times, and wherein he looks, and expects that his people
should he eminently holy, as well as really holy.

Quest. But what are those special times and seasons wherein God
calls loudest for holiness and most for holiness ?

I answer, they are these :

[1.] First, After great and sore falls. Oh, now God calls aloud for
holiness. David after his great falls greatly humbles himself before
the Lord, Ps. li. ; and Job after his bitter cursing and heavy com-
plaining abhors himself in dust and ashes. Job iii. and xlii. 4, 5 ; and
Hezekiah, after his great miscarriage, did chatter like a crane and
mourn as a dove, Isa. xxxviii. 14 ; and Peter after his hellish cursing,
his desperate swearing, and his hideous lying, goes forth and weeps
bitterly. Mat. xxvi. So Origen, after he had denied the truth, and
sacrificed to an idol, he came to Jerusalem, and being desired to preach,
^ See the 'Eoglish Anaotations' on these words. [As before. — G.]

436 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

and having opened his Bible, the first scripture that his eye was fixed
upon was that Ps. 1. 16. 17, ' What hast thou to do to take my word
into thy mouth, seeing thou hatest to be reformed?' whereupon he
shut his book, sat down, and fell into a passion of weeping, and so
came out of the pulpit, as not being able to speak to the people. After
great falls God expects and looks that his people should be more fear-
ful of sin than ever, and more careful of pleasing and honouring of
him than ever, and more resolute in resisting of temptations than ever,
and more constant and abundant in a way of duty than ever, and more
thankful and fruitful under mercies than ever, and more quiet and silent
under afflictions than ever, and more stout and courageous in the face
of all opposition than ever, and more wise and circumspect in their
walkings than ever, and more vigilant and diligent to prevent and
avoid future falls than ever. How else will the honour of God be re-
paired, and the glory of religion be vindicated, and the credit of the
gospel be raised, and the grieved saints be rejoiced, and young begin-
ners in religion be afresh encouraged, and secure sinners be awakened,
convinced, and converted ? But,

[2.] Secondly, When God sheivs singular mercy to his people, and
when he doth great things for his people, then he expects and looks
that his people should be a holy people, and then he calls loudest for
holiness ; Exod. xix. 3-5, ' And Moses went up unto God, and the
Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say
to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen
what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you upon eagles' wings,
and brought you unto myself. Now therefore if ye will obey my voice
indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure
unto me above all people ; for all the earth is mine.' Here Moses makes
use of a very elegant expression, to shew the singular love, care, kind-
ness, and goodness of God towards his people, 'He bare you upon
eagles' wings.' The eagle is a very princely, noble bird,^ she fears no
birds from above to hurt her young ones, and because she fears the
arrow from beneath, therefore she carries her young ones upon her
wings ; so that there is no hurting, nor harming, nor no killing of
them, but by shooting through the body of the old one. Other birds
carry their young ones in their talons, and so expose them to danger,
but the eagle carries hers upon her -wings, that they may be safe and
secure. Moses, to shew how choice and chary God was of Israel, and
how much he stood upon their safety and security, tells them that he
carried them upon eagles' wings ; that so none of their enemies might
ruin or destroy them, yea, that they might not so much as in the least
hurt or harm them. He carried them out of Egypt, and he carried
them through the Red Sea sweetly, swiftly, strongly, and tenderly, as
the eagle carries her young ones when danger is at hand. Now God
having expressed such love, such care, such bowels, such tenderness,
such sweetness, and such kindness to his people, he looks and expects
that they should be a holy people, and therefore he strongly urges
them to obey God's voice indeed, and to keep his covenant. Now
what is it for a man to obey God's voice indeed, and to keep his
covenant, but to be really holy, yea, to be eminently holy? So in that
^ Vide Aristotle 1. ix. De Historia Animalium.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 437

loth of Deuteronomy, where Moses had made a large narrative of the
singular favours and mercies of God to Israel in the eleven first verses
of that chapter, he falls in the 12th and 13th verses upon pressing of
them to be a holy people. ' And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy
God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways,
and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul ? To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his
statutes, which I command thee this day.' The word in the 12th
verse rendered require, is ^^'V, shoel, from shaal, which signifies to
ask, to request, or petition a person. Now here Moses brings in God,
asking, requesting, and petitioning of Israel that they would fear him
and walk in his ways,&c., and what is that but that they would be a holy
people to him, that had done such great and glorious things for them ?
The word in the 13th verse rendered keep, is IQIi^, shamar, which signi-
fies to keep carefully, diligently, faithfully to keep, Job xii. 12; 1 Kings
XX. 39, as watchmen keep the city, or as soldiers keep their garrisons, or
as jailers keep their prisoners. Now God would have his people thus to
keep his commandments and his statutes, and this God would have them
to do upon the account of those high acts of favour and grace that he
had shewed unto them ; and thus to keep his commandments and, his
statutes, what is it but to be a holy people, yea, to be a very holy
people unto the Lord ? And so in that Ezra ix. 13, 14, ' Seeing that
thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and
hast given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy
commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abomina-
tions ? wouldst thou not be angry with us, till thou hast consumed
us, so that there should be no remnant, nor escaping ? ' Free and rich
mercy calls hardest and loudest for duty. The more merciful God
hath been to his people, the more fearful they should be of offending of
him, and the more careful they should be in pleasing of him. Divine
blessings should be the greatest obligations in the world upon a Chris-
tian to keep at a distance from sin, and to keep close to a holy God.
The greater the mercy is, and the more miraculous the deliverance
and the salvation is, that God crowns his people with, the greater are
the engagements that God hath put iipon them to be a holy people to
him. So in that 116th Psalm David gives in a bill of particulars
in the eight first verses ; he gives you a choice narrative of the singu-
lar favours and blessings of God, both in respect of his inward and his
outward man. God had been good to his soul, and he had been kind
to his body ; he tells you of God's sparing mercy, and of his prevent-
ing mercy, and of his preserving mercy, and of his delivering mercy,
and of his supporting mercy, and of his multiplying mercy, and of his
pardoning mercy ; he tells you that God hath heard his prayers, and
wiped off" his tears, and preserved his feet from falling, and his soul
from death. And then in the following words he tells you what his
resolution is upon the whole : ' I will walk before the Lord in the
land of the living,' verse 9th, or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, Ethlial-
lech Uphne Jehovah, I will walk before the face of the Lord. The
Hebrew word that is here rendered walk, signifies a continued action,
or the reiteration of an action, David resolves that he will not only
take a turn or two with God, or walk a pretty way with God, as

438 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

Orpah did with Kuth, and then take his leave of God, as Orpah did
of her mother, Kuth i. 10-15 ; but he resolves, whatever comes on it,
that he will walk constantly, resolutely, and perpetually before God, or
before the face of the Lord. Now walking before the face of the Lord
doth imply a very exact, circumspect, accurate, and precise walking
before God ; and indeed no other walking is either suitable or pleasing
to the eye of God. But is this all that he will do upon the receipt of
such signal mercies ? oh no ! for he resolves to take the cup of
salvation, and to call upon the name of the Lord, and to offer the
sacrifice of thanksgiving, vers. 13, 17. But is this all that he will
do ? oh no ! for he resolves that he will presently pay his vows unto
the Lord in the presence of all his people, vers. 14, 18. But is this
all that he will do ? oh no ! for he resolves that he will love the Lord
better than ever and more than ever, vers. 1,2. He loved God before
with a real love, but having now received such rare mercies from God,
he is resolved to love God with a more raised love, and with a more
inflamed love, and with a more active and stirring love, and with a
more growing and increasing love than ever. And so the apostle in
that Kom, xii. 1, 2, ' I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed
to this world ; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfect will
of God.' When this great apostle would work up the Komans to
a full resignation of themselves to God and to his service, and would
fence and arm them against the sinful fashions, customs, examples,
dispositions, and practices of a corrupt and wicked world, he sets
the mercies of God before them. The apostle very well knew that
there was no such spur to holiness, nor no such preservative against
wickedness, as this was. The apostle could have set threatenings
before them, and the curse before them, and wrath before them, and
former and latter judgments before them, and hell before them; and
yet he passes over all these things, and presents the mercies of God
before them, as the most effectual means under heaven to engage them
to holiness, and to fortify them against all sinful conformity and
worldly vanity. sirs ! you are all under several signal mercies this
day. You are out of hell, and is not that a signal mercy ? you have
many mercies that others want, and is not that a signal mercy ? yea,
God rains manna every day about your tents when others wander
several miles, and are too often put off with stones instead of bread,
and is not that a signal mercy ? That wicked men's hearts should be
so full of wrath, rage, revenge, envy, and malice, and you cast at their
feet and yet not trod to death, is a signal mercy ; that you should stand
when others fall, that you should be faithful when others are false,
that you should persevere when others backslide, that you should be for
God when so many are for Baal, and that you should be followers of
the Lamb when so many thousands are dancing after Antichrist's pipes,
are all very rare and signal mercies ; and calls aloud upon you to be
holy, yea, to be eminently holy, &c. But,

[3 ] Thirdly, Times of personal afflictions are times wherein God
calls aloud for holiness. When the rod of God is upon our backs, it

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 439

highly concerns us to look that our words are full of grace, and that
all our ways and works are full of holiness, i Now God looks that his
people should be divinely fearful of offending him, and divinely careful
in pleasing of him, and divinely willing to resign up themselves to liim,
and divinely patient in waiting on him, and divinely humble in sub-
mitting to him, and divinely wise in justifying of him, and divinely
resolute in serving of him : Heb. xii. 10, ' But he afflicts us for our
profit, that we might be made partakers of his holiness.' Why, they were
before partakers of his holiness, that is true ; and these words declare
that the great reach and design of God, in all the afflictions that he
brings upon his people, is to make them more and more holy ;
and therefore for Christians to be proud under the rod, and
carnal under the rod, and worldly under the rod, and fro ward under
the rod, and stupid under the rod, and wanton under the rod,
and wicked under the rod, is to cross and frustrate the great design of
God in afflicting of them. In afflictions God looks that his people
should shine brighter and brighter, and grow better and better, and
holier and holier. Oh, there is nothing that pleases God more, that
delights God more, that affects God more, or that wins upon God more,
than to see his people a holy people in the days of their afflictions :
Jer. ii. 2, 3, ' Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying. Thus saith
the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine
espousals, when thou weutest after me in the wilderness, in a land that
was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits
of his increase : all that devour him shall offend ; evU shall come upon
them, saith the Lord.' God was wonderfully affected and taken with
the love of his people, and with the kindness of his people, and with
the holiness of his people, when they were in their wilderness condition.
Look, as stars shine brightest in the darkest nights, and as torches are
the better for beating, and spices the sweeter for pounding, and young
trees the f aster HFOOted for shaking, and vines the more fruitful for
bleeding, and gold the more glittering for scouring : so God looks that
his children's graces should shine brightest in the darkest nights of
afflictions, he looks that his children should be the better for his
fatherly beating, and the sweeter for being pounded in the mortar of
affliction, and the faster rooted in grace and holiness, by all divine
shakings," &c.

In times of affliction God looks that his children should be true
salamanders, that live best in the fire. Where afflictions hang
heaviest, he looks that there corruptions should hang loosest ; he looks
that that grace and holiness which lies hid in nature, as sweet water
doth in rose leaves, should then be most fragrant, when the fire of
affliction is put under to distil it out, &c. But,

[4.] Fourthly, When persons that are under a great profession, or
in church communion, shall fall presumpt^iously and scandalously,
lohen they shall not only do weakly, but loickedly, when not only in-
firmities, hut enormities may he justly and righteously charged upon
them ; when such persons walk so loosely, and vainly, as that they
occasion the name of God to he hlasphemed, religion to be scorned, the

^ See my ' Mute Christian under the Smarting Rod,' &c. [Vol. i., pp. 285, seq.—G.}
' Well-waters are hottest in the winter.

440 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.

gospel to he despised, profession to be abhorred, the saints to be re-
viled, and young comers-on to be discouraaed, and the ungodly in their
wickedness to be hardened and confirmed; oh, this is a time tvherein
God calls aloud upon his people to be holy I Oh, now God expects an ex-
traordinary measure of holiness in his people 1 Oh, now he looks that
his people should rather walk like angels, than live like saints, that
BO they may in some measure repair and make up the sad breaches
that have been made upon his honour, and the credit of religion, and
that they may live profession into honour and esteem ones more in the
world. Such blessed effects as these, the horrid sin of the incestuous
person did occasionally! work in the hearts and lives of the Cor-
inthians, as you may see by comparing the scriptures in the margin
together. ^ O sirs 1 in these days are there not many that have
made a very high profession, that have shined as the stars in the firma-
ment, who are now fallen from their profession, from their principles,
and from all things that are good! How many now do build the
things that they have destroyed ? What betraying of Christ, what
betraying of truth, and what betraying of saints is there this day among
many that have pretended very high to religion ! How many now
approve of those things that before they would never own, and that
justify those things now that they have formerly condemned, and that
comply with those things now that formerly they have abhorred, yea,
that contend for those things now for which they have formerly suf-
fered ; and, therefore, certainly these are the very times wherein God calls
aloud upon his people to be holy, yea, to be eminently holy, &c. But,
[5.] Fifthly, In all our approaches, addresses, and drawings near
to God, God calls aloud for holiness: Lev. x. 3, ' Then Moses said to
Aaron, This is it that the Lord spake, saying, I will be sanctified in them
that come nigh unto me, and before all the people I will be glorified ;
and Aaron held his peace.' There is nothing more evident than this
throughout the Old Testament, that the people of God were always to
sanctify themselves when they were to draw nigh to God, John iv.
23, 24. God is a holy God, and there is no drawing nigh to him
without holiness; the worship that God stands most upon, and
that is most pleasing and delightful to him, is spiritual worship,
and none can offer this but a holy people. Such as draw nigh to
God without holiness may, if they were not deaf, hear God saying to
them, ' What have you to do to take my name into your mouths,
seeing you hate to be reformed ? and who required these things at
your hands ? Ps. 1. 16, 17 ; Isa. i. 12. The Persians every morning
worship the rising sun, and the Turks their Mahomet, and the Papists
their images, and some of the Indians worship the first thing that
they meet with in the morning, and others of them worship a red rag,
and others of them worship the devil.3 The Romans used to worship
Jupiter, a hurtful god amongst them, not because they loved him,
but because they would not be hurt or harmed by him. And Praxi-
teles the painter made the. silly people worship the image of his
strumpet, under the title and pretence of Venus. And verily all the

1 = As an occasion. — G. ' 1 Cor. v. 1-3 ; 2 Cor. ii. 4-8, and vii. 11.

» The Renians [sic, but qu. Eomans.— G.J taught that a man might be saved in any
religion. Isa. xxix. 13^14; Mat. zv. 8, 9.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 441

worship that thou offerest to God is little better, if thou drawest nigh to
him with thy body, without holiness in thy soul. sirs, remember that
in all your public duties God calls aloud for holiness, and in all your
family duties God calls aloud for holiness, and in all your closet duties
God calls aloud for holiness. Times of drawing near to God should
be always times of much holiness. You may come to a duty, but
you will never come to God in a duty, without holiness. You may
come to an ordinance, but you will never come to God in an ordinance,
without holiness ; and therefore, in all your drawings nigh to God,
remember that God calls for holiness in a special manner then. But,
[6.] Sixthly, When God eminently appears in the execution of his
judgments upon ivicked and ungodly men, oh, that is a time that
God calls aloud for holiness. When he is a-raining hell out of heaven
upon unholy persons, God now looks that his people should be holy,
yea, eminently holy. So in that Exod. xix. 4, 5, 'Ye have seen
what I did unto the Egyptians,' you have been eyewitnesses of
my dealings with them in Egypt, you have seen how I have fol-
lowed them with plague upon plague, because they did so sorely
oppress you, and would not let you go to worship me and serve me
according to my own prescriptions, Exod. xxiv. And when they were
judgment-proof, you saw me drown them in the Red Sea before your
eyes ; and upon this very ground he urges them to obey his voice, and
to keep his covenant, ver. 5. And so in that Rev. xv. 1-4, ' And I
saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels
having the seven last plagues ; from them is filled up the wrath of
God. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with tire ; and
them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image,
and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the
sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of
Moses the servant of God and the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous
are thy works. Lord God Almighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou
King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, Lord, and glorify thy
name ? for thou only art holy ; for all nations shall come and worship
before thee ; for thy judgments are made manifest.' In this and the
following chapters the utter overthrow of Antichrist is described. In
this chapter you have a new vision of the gospel's restoring, and of
Antichrist's ruin. By the sea of glass mingled with fire, we are to
understand the fiery trials, and dreadful persecutions by fire and
faggot, that Antichrist will inflict upon sincere and faithful Christians.
The allusion is to the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's persecuting of Israel ;
but the addition of fire is plainly to distinguish the Pope's persecution
from Pharaoh's ; for though Pharaoh did sorely oppress the people of
God both in their liberties and consciences, and though he had plotted
and contrived a way to destroy their male children, yet he was never
60 cruel, he was never so bloody, as to burn the people of God with
fire and faggot, as Antichrist hath done in all ages. But now mark,
when the vials of the wrath of God comes to be poured out upon
Antichrist, yea, upon whatever smells of Antichrist, or looks Hke
Antichrist, why then the people of God will in a very eminent way
lift up God as the great object of their fear, and then the gene-
rality of the nations shall be so deeply afiected with the dreadful,

442 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

amazing, and astonishing judgments of God upon Antichrist, that
they shall repent, worship him, and give glory to him. _ sirs !
when God strikes slaves, sons should tremble. Great judgments
upon sinners speaks out a great deal of the justice and holiness of
God ; and the more the justice and holiness of God appears, the more
holy his people should grow. Ah, Christians ! had you grown more
holy by those severe judgments of God that hath been inflicted upon
others before your eyes, you had not been under those smart rebukes
of God that now you are under this day! But,

[7.] Seventhly, When men are called forth to war by God. Oh I
that is a special time and season wherein God calls aloud for holiness.
The man of war must have holiness written upon the bridles of the
horses, Zech. xiv. 20. When men carry their lives in their hands,
they had need of holiness in their hearts ; when in every encounter a
man must expect to enter upon a state of eternity, he had need be
very holy, that so if he should fall in the encounter, he may be sure
to be happy : i Deut. xxiii. 9, 14, ' When the host goeth forth against
thine enemies, then keep thee from every wicked thing. For the Lord
thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to
give up thine enemies before thee : therefore shall thy camp be holy,
that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.' When
the sword devoureth on both hands, when it eats the flesh of nobles,
and drinks the blood of nobles ; when it feeds upon the flesh of the
poor, and drinks the blood of the needy, then every soldier had need
be a saint. When an eternity of glory and misery is every moment
before every soldier, every soldier had need walk very accurately, he
had need live very holily. Mark, though the people of God were to
keep themselves from every wicked thing at all other times, yet when
they went out against their enemies, then in a special manner it highly
concerned them to keep themselves not from some, but from every
evil thing, or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, from every evil word, -]21
dabar. He that is in danger of death every step he takes, and that
carries his very soul in his hand, had need precisely to abstain not
only from every evil work, but also from every evil word, as here God
expressly charges Israel to do. When God finds holiness in Israel's
camp, then God will quickly give up Israel's enemies into Israel's
hands ; but when the camp becomes a den of iniquity, then God will
depart from the camp ; and when God, who is the bulwark of a camp,
is departed, all the world cannot preserve that camp from being de-
stroyed. The Lamb looks that all those brave hearts that engage
with him against Antichrist, should be called, and chosen, and faith-
ful, Kev. xvii. 14. There is no armour of proof to that of holiness.
Let a man be never so well mounted, clothed, armed, weaponed, yet
if he be unholy, he lies naked and open to all disasters, calamities, and
miseries. sirs ! it is one of the dreadfullest things in the world
to hear such a-cursing, swearing, lying, and damning of themselves,
and to see such a-giving up themselves to work all manner of wicked-
ness with greediness, who carry their lives in their hands every hour
in the day; yea, at whose elbows damnation stands every moment.

^ The Komans lived more orderly in time of war than in the times of their greatest
peace.

HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 443

sirs ! when God gives the sword a commission to eat flesh, and drink
blood, to slay both old and yonng, to spare none that come before it,
and to pity none that come nigh unto it, it highly concerns all men
to be holy. This is a special season wherein God calls aloud for
holiness.

I confess I am for peace and truth, for peace and righteousness, for
peace and holiness, against all war in the world ; but whenever the
Lord shall call forth his people to fight his battles against Antichrist,
and to smite Daniel's image in pieces, it stands them very much upon
to be a holy people, yea, to be eminently holy, as they would have the
presence of God with them, and the power of God engaged for them,
and the mercy, goodness, and blessing of God succeeding and prosper-
ing of them, 1 Sam. xxv. 28 ; Dan. ii. 31 , et seq. Though he that goes
to war had need carry his purse with him, yet he must be sure to
leave his sins behind him, or else his sins will do him more mischief
than all his enemies, for they will set God against him ; and how can
straw and stubble possibly stand before a consuming fire ?

I have read of Xerxes, that viewing almost an innumerable army
of men, he fell a-weeping, saying, Where will all these men be within
a hundred years ? He wept to think that all that mighty army would
be in their graves within a himdred years. Ah, what cause of weep-
ing is there when we behold most armies in the world, considering
that within a few years, yea, months, for anything we know, they may
be most in hell, except there be found repentance on their sides, and
pardoning mercy on God's, they are so abominable, debauched, and
wicked. But,

[8.] Eighthly, Wlien God hath separated and severed his people from
the corrupt and sinful customs and manners of the world, and brought
them into fellowship ivith himself and into gospel-communion with
one another, oh, then, in a special manner he calls aloud upon them
to be holy : Lev. xx. 23, 24, 26, ' And ye shall not walk in the
manners of the nation, which I cast out before you ; for they com-
mitted all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. But I have
said unto you, ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you
to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey : I am the Lord
your God, which have separated you from other people. And ye shall
be holy unto me ; for I the Lord am holy, and have severed you from
other people, that you should be mine.' Distinguisliing mercies should
breed and nourish distinguishing qualities, sirs, it is not for you
who are separated and severed from the world by God to be proud, and
carnal, and formal, and distrustful, and hypocritical, and earthly, and
fro ward, &c., as the world is ! it is not for you to deny your principles,
to debauch your consciences, to change your notes, to turn your coats,
to defile your souls, to blot your names, and to scandalise your pro-
fession ! sirs, if God hath separated you, and severed you from the
world by a call from heaven, it highly concerns you not to think as
the world thinks, nor to speak as the world speaks, nor to judge as the
world judges, nor to walk as the world walks, nor to worship as the
world worships, but so to think, speak, judge, walk, and worship as
may make most for the honour of God, the glory of the gospel,
and as best becomes those that have had the honour and the

444 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.

happiness of being separated and severed by God from the world.
But,

[9.] Ninthly, When the day of the Lm-d draws near, and when we
look for the accomplishment of great things, oh, then, God calls aloud
upon his people to be holy : 2 Pet. iii. 10-14, ' But the day of the Lord
will come as a thief in the night, in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat,
the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.
Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of
persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. Look-
ing for, and hasting unto, the coming of the day of God, wherein the
heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt
with fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look
for a new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent
that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.'
The nearer the day of Christ is to us, and the more great and glorious
things we expect from God, the more holy, the more spotless, and the
more blameless we must labour to be, Isa. Ixv. 17-20. I know there
are many that look for new heavens and a new earth, that is, for a
glorious church-state here on earth, wherein shall dwell righteousness.
It is certain that the highest heavens, where God keeps his royal
court, was never without righteousness. Kighteousness hath been
always the habitation of his throne ; righteousness hath always
dwelt in the highest heavens ; and, indeed, heaven would be no
heaven, yea, it would rather be a hell than a heaven if righteous-
ness did not always dwell there ; neither can the highest heaven
ever wax old, neither were they ever made of earth, or brittle
mouldering matter. The palace of the great King will be always
new, fresh, shining, and gloriousness ; but, indeed, the earth in
all ages, have^ been full of injustice, unrighteousness, wickedness,
tyranny, cruelty, and oppressions ; so that righteousness seems to have
been banished out of the world, ever since Adam fell from his primi-
tive righteousness and holiness. Oh, but there is a glorious day
a-coming, wherein the earth shall be full of righteousness and
holiness, as I have formerly proved at large from other Scriptures.
Now, Christians, the more great and glorious things you expect
from God, as the downfall of antichrist, the conversion of the Jews,
the conquest of the nations to Christ, the breaking off of all yokes,
the new Jerusalem's coming down from above, the extraordinary
pouring out of the Spirit, and a more general union among all saints,
the more holy, yea, the more eminently holy in all your ways and act-
ings it becomes you to be. Many there be that will talk high, and
speak big words, and tell you stories of great things that they expect
and look for in these days, which are the last of the last times ; and
yet if you look into their lives, you shall find them loose, and vain,
and what not ? Oh that these would for ever remember, that the
more great and glorious things we expect and look for from God, the
more holiness God expects and looks for from us ; and therefore as we

^ A construction found in Brooks in common with his contemporaries, by which the
last noun, being plural, mrkes the verb plural also. — G.

Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 445

would not have God fail our expectation, let us not frustrate his, and
the higher your expectation rises, the higher always let your holiness
rise, for there is nothing that will hasten that desirable day of glory
upon the world like this. But,

[10,] Tenthly and lastly, TVhen you draio near your end, ivJien
there are but a few steps hetioeen you and the grave, hetiueen you and
eternity ; when you have but a little time to live, lohen death stands at
your back, and treads on your heels, and knocks at your door ; when
the eyes begin to grow dark, when the grinders begin to cease, when
the keepers of the house — the hands and the arms— begin to tremble,
and when the strong men — the legs and thighs — begin to bow and
stagger, and totter, as being too weak to bear the body's burden,
Eccl. xii. 2, 3. Oh then ! what a holy people should you be ! This
very consideration had a very great influence upon that great apostle's
spirit in that 2 Pet. i. 12-15, ' Wherefore I will not be negligent to
put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them,
and be established in the present truth. Yea, I think it meet as long
as I am in this tabernacle,^ to stir you up, by putting you in remem-
brance ; knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even
as our Lord Jesus Christ shewed me. Moreover, I will endeavour
that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance.' The apostle having the sentence of death in himself,
oh, how doth he bestir himself, and how doth he stir up all that
grace and holiness that was in his heart, yea, in all his ministerial
and apostolical gifts, and all to better himself, and to make those that
were really holy, to be eminently holy ! Peter being very sensible of
the near approaches of death, did very earnestly desire, and greatly
endeavour so to act his part before he went off the stage of life, that
when his head was in the dust, and his soul in heaven, those saints
that should survive him might be very famous in grace and holiness.
That of Eleazer is very remarkable, who would not do anything which
might seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white head.
sirs 1 when once the gray hairs of holiness and righteousness are upon
you, it highly concerns you to shun the very shows and appearances of
evil, that so you may not spot nor stain the honour of your white head.
I have read of Joshua, that valiant soldier, that when he was a young
man, and in the prime and flower of his days, when his ' bones were
full of marrow, and his breasts full of milk,' as Job speaks, that then
he was least in vigour and valour for God, and how that sometimes in
cases of imminent danger he would conceal himself ; but when he grew
older, and found the strength of nature declining and decaying, then
he bestirred himself exceedingly for God. sirs ! when you have one
foot in the grave, God calls aloud upon you to bestir yourselves ex-
ceedingly for His honour and glory, and for your own internal and
eternal welfare. Solon was not ashamed to say that he learned much
in his old age. And Julianius, the lawyer,2 was wont to say that when
he had one foot in the grave, he would have the other in the school.

^ Auyeipeiv, 'to rouse you up.' The Greek word signifies, to awaken, rouse, and raise
Buch as are asleep. There is a sinful sluggishness and drowsiness that often hangs
upon the best of men, and therefore they stand in much need of being awakened and
roused up, to look after their spiritual and eternal concernments.

• The Greco-Roman Jurist. — G.

446 THE NECESSITY, ETC., OF HOLINESS. [HeB. XII. 14.

sirs ! shall nature do more than grace ? shall morality excel real
piety ? It was the glorious commendation of the church of Thyatira
that her last works were more than her first, Rev, ii. 19, ' I know thy
works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy
work, and the last to be more than the first.' Oh, the happiness of
that man that is best at last, that brings forth most of the fruits of
righteousness and hoHness in old age. Oh, the blessedness of that
man whose faith is more strong at last than at first, and whose love is
more inflamed at last than at first, and whose hopes are more raised
and elevated at last than at first, and whose knowledge is more clear at
last than at first, and whose zeal is warmer at last than at first, and
whose thoughts are more heavenly at last than at first, and whose
heart is more spiritual at last than at first, and whose communion with
God is more high at last than at first, and whose life is more holy at
last than at first !

If there be any man in the world that is ripe for heaven, and that
enjoys a heaven in his own soul on this side heaven, this is the man
whose graces, and whose gracious works, are more at last than at first.
Well, Christians, for ever remember this, the nearer death makes her
approaches to you, the louder God calls upon you to be holy.

And thus, by a hand of grace that hath been in me, upon me, and
with me, I have shewed you what those special times and seasons are
wherein God calls loudest for holiness, and so, according to my weak
measure, I have given out all that the Lord hath graciously given in
concerning that most necessary, that most noble, that most glorious,
and that most useful point of points, viz., holiness; and therefore I
have nothing more to do but earnestly to pray that what hath been
spoken and written niay be so blessed from on high, that it may work
mightily to the internal and eternal welfare both of writer, reader, and
hearer, that so, when their race is run, and their work done here on
earth, they may be everlastingly blessed with a happy sight of the
beatifical vision of God in heaven. Amen.

THE END,

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