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, O 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 present 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 no 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. 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 holiness of Christ as Mediator did consist both in the habitual holiness of his person, in the absence of all sin, and in the rich and plentiful presence of all holy and supernatural qualities, as also in the actual holiness of his life and death. By his active obedience, by his subjecting of his heart and life to divine precepts, he perfectly fulfilled the commands of the law; and by his passive obedience, his voluntary sufferings, 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 redemption.' This mediatory holiness of Christ, reckoned unto a believing 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. xiv. 4, 5.1 And certainly, without this mediatory holiness 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, internal qualitative holiness. Now this inherent holiness lies 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 righteousness 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 vision 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 way of holy walking.5 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 1 Nemo bonus, qui non ex malo bonus.-Augustinè. 2 Guliel. Abbas in vita Bern. lib. i. cap. 12. 4 Holiness is not any single grace alone, but graces together. 3 As before.-G.! conjunction, a constellation of all Acts x. 35; 1 John i. 3, 7; Titus ii. 12; Luke i. 73; 2 Pet. i. 8; 1 Pet. i 15, 16; Isa. xxxv. 8. suitable to inward habits. It is with spiritual habits as it is with natural habits; the more they are acted and 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 particulars, 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 inheritance, 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 of 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, murders, 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.3 The trifles of this world God be the flowers of holiness. Where there are the seeds of holiness, there will * Suetonius, Octavius, c. 75.—G. often gives to the worst and basest of men; but the kingdom of heaven he only gives to his bosom-friends, Rev. 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: of 'Verily, verily:' the Greek is 'amen, amen.' 1 The word amen is Hebrew, and in the Old Testament is most commonly used by way 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 wordamen' 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 confirmation of what Christ speaks. [4.] Fourthly, This gemination calls aloud for the greatest observation 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, circumcised 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 1 àμǹv, àμǹv, Truth, truth, or truly, truly. 22 Pet. i. 4; 1 Cor. vii. 19; Gal. v. 6; Luke xvii. 21; Rom. xiv. 17. 6 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 avalev.1 Generation in some sense is from below, but regeneration is only from above, and without this there is no fruition of God above. 'He cannot see the kingdom of God.' The Scripture speaks of several cannots. [1] First, 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 with 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 improved to the utmost, and it cannot enable a man to do a supernatural action; nature cannot act ultra sphæram, 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, contracted upon their poor souls such deafness, wretchedness, unteachableness, 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 looseness 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 1 On John iii. 3.-G. Moxalis 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 |