7. Seventhly, Keal holiness naturalises holy duties to the soul; it makes religious services to be easy and pleasant to the soul. Hence prayer is called the prayer of faith, because holy faith naturaliseth a man's heart to prayer, 1 Pet i. 2, and James v. 15. It is as natural for a holy man to pray, as it is for him to breathe, or as it is for a bird to fly, or fire to ascend, or a stone to descend : and hence it is that obedience is called the oliedience of faith, because holy faith naturalises a man's heart to obedience, Kom. xvi. 26, and Ps, cxix. 166. As soon as ever this plant of renown was set in the heart of Paul, he cries out, ' Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?' Acts ix. 6. And hence it is that hearing is called ' the hearing of faith,' because this holy principle naturalises a man's heart to hearing. Ps. cxxii. 1, ' I was glad when they said unto me. Let us go into the house of the Lord.' And so in Isa. ii. 3, ' And many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountam of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he wUl teach us of his ways, and we wiU walk in his paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' And hence patience is called ' patience of hope,' because this holy principle of hope naturalises a man's heart to a patient wait- ing upon God, 1 Thes. i. 3. Kom. viii. 25, * But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.' So holy love natu- ralises the soul to holy service ; in 1 Thes. i. 3, you read of ' the labour of love.' Holy love is very laborious. Nothing makes a Christian more
Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 121
industrious, painful,! and diligent in the service and ways of God, than holy love. Holy love will make us to pray and to praise, it will make us wait and work, it will provoke souls to study Christ, to admire Christ, to live to Christ, to lift up Christ, to spend and be spent for Christ, and to break through all difficulties that it may come nearer to Christ, and cleave closer to Christ, Kom xiv. 7, 8, and 2 Cor. xii. 14-16. As Jerome once bravely said, ' If my father,' said he, ' should stand before me, my mother should hang upon me, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my mother, tread under feet my father, that I might the faster cleave unto Christ my Saviour.' Oh the laboriousness of holy love ! So far as a Christian is holy, so far holy services will be delightful and easy to him : Eom. vii. 22, ' I delight in the law of God after the inward man ;' ver. 25,
* So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God ;' Ps. cxix. 16,
* I wiU delight myself in thy statutes : I will not forget thy word ; * ver. 35, * Make me to go in the path of thy commandments ; for therein do I delight ; ver. 47, ' And I will delight myself in thy com- mandments which I have loved ;' ver. 92, ' Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affl.iction ; ' ver. 143, ' Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me : yet thy command- ments are my delights.' Sirs, honour is not more suitable, delightful, and pleasing to an ambitious man, nor pleasure to a voluptuous man, nor flattery to a proud man, nor gold to a covetous man, nor excess to an intemperate man, nor revenge to an envious man, nor pardon to a condemned man, than religious duties and services are suitable, pleasing, and delightful to a holy man, Ps. xxvii. 8, and Ixxxi. 8-16. But now unholy hearts are very averse to holy duties and services : they are averse to hearing, averse to praying, averse to reading, averse to meditating, averse to self-judging, averse to self-examining, averse to holy worship, averse to holy Sabbaths : Amos viii. 5, ' When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn ? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?' Isa. xxvi. 10, 11, and Jer. v. 1, 6. You may sooner draw a coward to fight, or a malefactor to the bar, or a bear to the stake, than you shall draw unholy hearts to holy services.^ But if at any time, by the strong motions of the Spirit, the close debates of conscience, the powerful persuasions of the word, the education of godly parents, the pious example of bosom friends, the rich treasures in precious promises, the dreadful evils in terrible threatenings, or if at any time by the displeasure of God, the smarting rod, the bowels of mercy, the wooings of love, or if at any time by some flashes of hell, or glimpses of heaven, or by the heavy sighs, the deep groans, and the bleeding wounds of a dying Saviour, their hearts are wrought over to religious services — Isa. Iviii. 1-5 — ah, how soon are they weary of them ! What little delight or pleasure do they take in them I Isa. xliii. 22, ' But thou hast not called upon me, 0 Jacob' — ^that is, thou hast not worshipped nor served me sincerely, faithfully, feelingly, heartily, affectionately, humbly, holily, as thou shouldest and as thou oughtest — ' but thou hast been weary of me, 0 Israel ;' that is, thou hast been weary of my worship and service, and thou hast counted
^ 'Painstaking.' — Q.
• Wicked hearts are habitually averse to all that is good, &c.
122 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
it rather a burden than a benefit, a damage than an advantage, a reproach than an honour, a disgrace than a favour, a vexation than a blessing ; and for all thy formal courtings and complimentings of me, thou hast been secretly weary of me. So in Mai. i. 12, 13, ' Ye say. The table of the Lord is polluted ; and the fruit thereof, even his meat, is contemptible. Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it ! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the Lord of hosts/ &c. They did God but little service, and that they did was after the worst manner too, and yet they snuff, and puff, and blow, and sweat, and swell, and fall into a fustian fume, as if they had been over-tired and wearied with the burden and weight of those sacrifices which they offered up to the great God. A holy heart thinks all too little that he doth for God ; but an unholy heart thinks every little too much that he doth for God. A holy heart, like the holy angels, loves to do much and make no noise ; but an unholy heart makes most noise when he doth least service ; an unsanctified soul hath a trumpet in his right hand, when he hath but a penny to give in his left hand, as here. But,