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