4. They make a man wise to deceive, and wise to delude both him- self and others. Kare accomplishments are many times turned into beautiful ornaments to adorn the devil and error withal, 5. The gifted man cares not who is most holy, so he may be most honoured ; who is highest in favour with God, so he may be highest in favour with men ; who is most serviceable, so he may be most acceptable ; who gets most of another world, so he may have most of this world : and what should such a one do in heaven ? Gifts differ as much from real holiness, as an angel in heaven differs from a devil in hell. 6. Gifts makes a man work for life, but holiness makes a man work from life, Zech, vii. 5, 6. 7. Gifts work a man to set up for himself, and to deal and trade for himself, but holiness works a man to deal for God, and to trade for God and his glory, Kom. xiv. 6-8. 8. Gifts takes up in ingenuous civilities and outward formalities, but holiness takes up only in that Holy One, Hab. i. 12. 9. Gifts only restrains the soul, but grace renews and changes the soul. 10. Gifts puffs the soul, but holiness humbles the soul. 11. Gifts makes a man beautiful, like Kachel, but holiness makes a man fruitful, like Leah. 12. Gifts makes a man most studious and laborious about mending and reforming other men's hearts and lives, but holiness makes a man most studious and industrious in mending and reforming his own heart and life. ] 3. Gifts makes all glorious without, but holiness makes all glorious within. 14. Gifts makes a good head, but holiness makes a good heart. 15. Gifts envies, lessens, darkens, obscures, and disparages with ' buts,' and ' ifs,' and ' ands,' the excellencies of others ; but holiness makes a man rejoice in every sun that outshines its own, John iv. 14. 16. Gifts are fading and withering, but holiness is an everlasting spring that can never be drawn dry, 1 John iii. 9. 17. Gifts draws from God, but holiness draws to God, 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 6. Though men of gifts may bid fair for heaven, yea, come so near as to hear the music of heaven, yet without holiness they shall never enter into heaven. When night comes, the father will only take in his own chUd into his house, and though another child which may be much like his own should attempt to come in, yet the father will keep him out, and wish him to repair to his own home ; so when the night of death comes, the Father of spirits will only take into the family of heaven his own child, viz., the chUd of holiness ; but now if the child of gifts, which is so like the child of holiness, should press hard upon God to come in, as that child of gifts, Baalam, did, ' Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my
1 =' Wise,' and yet wicked. — Q.
94 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
last end be like his,' Num. xxiii. 10, God wiU answer him, No I He will say to him, as he did to that child of gifts, Judas, Go to your own place, Acts i, 25 ; Mat. viii. 12. In the night of death and judg- ment, the children of the kingdom shall be cast out — the children of the kingdom, that is, of the church. Now the children of the king- dom are children of gifts, and yet there will come a day when these children shall be cast out. As Abraham put off the sons of the con- cubines with gifts, but entailed the inheritance upon Isaac, Gen. XXV. 6, &c. ; so God puts off many men now with gifts, but he entails the heavenly inheritance upon hohness : Ps. xxiv. 3, 4, ' Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord ? and who shall stand in his holy place ? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart ; who hath not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.' Heaven is for that man, and that man is for heaven, who hath clean hands and a pure heart, whose holy conversation is attended with heart purification. A pure heart is better than a golden head ; a heart full of holy affections is infinitely beyond a head full of curious notions. There is no jewel, there is no anointing to that of holiness. He that hath that hath an, and he that wants that hath nothing at all. But,
8. Eighthly and lastly, If real holiness be the only way to happiness ; if men must be holy on earth, or they shall never come to a blessed fruition of God in heaven ; then, by way of conviction, let me say that this truth looks very sourly and angrily upon those who are so far from heing holy themselves, that they cannot endure holiness in those that are about them, or any ways related to them. Ah, how many un- holy people be there that cannot endure holiness in their ministers ! and how many imholy husbands are there that cannot endure holiness in their yokefellows ! and how many unholy parents are there that cannot endure holiness in their children ! and how many unholy mas- ters are there that cannot endure holiness in their servants ! The panther, say some, when she cannot come at the man, she rendeth and teareth his picture in pieces ; so many unholy husbands, unholy fathers, and unholy masters, when they cannot rend and tear the per- sons of their relations in pieces, ah, how do they do their best to rend and tear the image of God upon them, viz., holiness, in pieces ! These forlorn souls will not be holy themselves, nor suffer others to be holy neither ; they wiU neither go to heaven themselves, nor suffer others to go thither who are strongly biassed that way. Mat. xxiii. 14, 15 ; 2 Sam. vi. 16, 20. Some despise their gracious relations, even eo nomine, for that very reason, because they are holy. Sometimes you shall hear them speak at such a rate as this : Well, our relations are wise and witty, but so holy ; they are very knowing and thriving, but so precise ; they have good parts and sweet natures, but they are so strict ; they are so round ^ that they will not endure an oath, a lie, &c., and therefore I cannot abide them, I cannot endure them. These are like he in Seneca, which was so fearfully idle that his sides would ache to see another work. So these are so fearfully wicked, that it makes their sides, their heads, their very hearts ache, to see others holy. How far these are in their actings below heathens, you may see in Kom. xvi. 10, 11. Aristobulus and Narcissus, that are spoken of in ^ = 'Complete/ 'perfect'— G.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 95