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.
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