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.