in Christ did diffuse and spread itself over all Christ ; so that his person was holy, his natures were holy, his heart was holy, his language was holy, and his life was holy ; so real holiness spreads itself over head, hand, heart, lip, and life, 1 Pet. i. 15. The fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, Eph. v. 9 ; he that is truly good, is all over good ; he hath goodness engraven upon his understanding, and goodness engraven upon his judgment, and goodness engraven upon his will, and goodness engraven upon his affections, and goodness engraven upon his inclina- tion, and goodness engraven upon his disposition, and goodness engraven upon his conversation. He that is not all over good is not really good. There are those that have new heads but old hearts, new words but old wills, new expressions but old affections, new memories but old minds, new notions but old conversations ; and these are as far off from true holiness, as the Pope, the Turk, and the devil are from real happiness. In every holy person there are many divine miracles : there is a dead man restored to life, a dumb man restored to speech, a blind man restored to sight, a deaf man restored to hearing, a lame man restored to walking, a man possessed with devils possessed with grace, a heart of stone turned into a heart of flesh, and a life of wicked- ness turned into a life of holiness. If it be thus with thee, I dare write thee, and caU thee both holy and happy. But,
3. Thirdly, Persons of real hoHness do set the highest price and the greatest value and esteem upon those that are holy; they do not, as the blind world do, value persons by their great places, names, profes- sions, arts, parts, gifts, gay clothes, gold chains, honours, and riches, but by their holiness.^ As a holy God, so holy souls look not how rational men are, but how religious ; not how notional, but how experimental ; not how great, but how gracious ; not how high, but how holy ; and, acccordingly they value them : Ps. xvi. 3, ' But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my dehght.' Prov. xii, 26, ' The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour.' It is holiness that differences one man from another, and that exalts one man above another. A holy man is a better man than his neighbour, in the eye, account, and esteem of God, angels, and saints. There is no man to the holy man. The sun doth not more excel and outshine the stars, than a righteous man doth excel and outshine his unrighteous neighbour : Prov. xxviii. 6, ' Better is the poor that walketh in his uprightness, than he that is perverse in his ways, though he be rich.' A man of holiness prefers a holy Job, though upon the dunghill, before a wicked Ahab upon the throne ; he sets a higher price upon a holy Lazarus, though clothed with rags, and full of sores, than upon a rich and wretched Dives, who is clothed gloriously, and fares sumptuously every day ; as King Ingo valued poor, ragged Christians above his pagan nobles, saying, that when his pagan nobles, in all their pomp and glory, should be cast down to hell, those poor Christians should be his consorts and fellow-princes in heaven. This blind, mad world rates and values men according to their worldly interest, greatness, glory, and grandeur ; but men of holiness rate and value men by their holiness, by their inward excellencies, and by what they are worth for another
^ Chrysostom called some holy men in his time iy^tKoi, earthy angels; and so Dr Taylor looked upon holy Bradford aa an angel.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 107
world. The world judgeth him the best man in the parish that is most rich ; but a holy man judgeth him the best man in the parish that is most righteous. The world counts him the best man in the town that is clothed most gorgeously ; but a holy man counts him the best man in the town whose inside and outside, whose heart and life, whose body and soul is clothed with sanctity and purity. The world reckons him the best man in the city whose bags are fullest, and whose estate is largest ; but a holy man reckons him the best man in the city whose heart is fullest of holiness, and who hath most to shew for a fair estate in the other world. Certainly, to a holy man, there is no wife to a holy wife, no child to a holy child, no friend to a holy friend, no magistrate to a holy magistrate, no mim'ster to a holy minister, nor no servant to a holy servant. Internal excellencies carries it with a holy man, before all external glories. The Jews say that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy nations in the world. Doubtless seventy holy persons, in the esteem and judgment of those that are holy, are more worth than a whole world, yea, than seventy worlds, of un- righteous souls. ^ A soul, truly holy, sets the highest price upon those that are holy. Holy Paul prized holy Onesimus as his son, Philem. 10, as himself, ver. 17, yea, as his own bowels, ver. 12; 2 Sam. xxii. 27, 'With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure,' or (as the Hebrew will bear it) ' with the choice thou wilt shew thyself choice.' Pure souls are the choicest souls in all the world : they are choice in every eye but their own. All worldly excellencies, in the judgment of a holy man, are but as copper, brass, tin, and lead ; but holiness is the tried silver, the gold of Ophir, the pearl of price, in his eye that hath purity in his heart. They only rate and value men aright, who rate and value them according to their holiness ; and if men were thus rated and valued, most men in the world would be found not worth the money that Judas sold his Master for. If thou prizest others for their holiness, thou art a holy person. No man can truly prize and highly value holiness in another, but he that hath holiness in his own heart. Some prize Christians for their wit, others prize them for their wealth ; some prize them for their birth and breeding, others prize them for their beauty and worldly glory ; some prize them for the great things that have been done by them, others prize them for the good things that they have received from them ; some prize them for their eagles' eyes, others prize them for their silver tongues ; but he that is truly holy prizes them for their holiness, he values them for their purity and sanctity. But,
4. Fourthly, He that is truly holy will be still a-reaching and stretching himself out after higher degrees of holiness; yea, a man that is truly holy can never be holy enough ; he sets no bounds nor limits to his holiness ; the perfection of holiness is the mark that he hath in his eye ; he hears, and prays, and mourns, and studies, and strives that he may come up to the highest pitch of holiness.2 Phil. iii. 12-14, * Not as though I had already attained, or were abeady per-
1 Plato could say, that no gold or precious stones doth glister bo gloriously as the prudent spirit of a good man.