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, 0 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.