we might be crowned with holiness, immortality, and glory. Christ was resolved that he would lose all that was near and dear unto him, but he would recover our lost holiness for us. Christ knew that heaven had been but a poor purchase, had he not purchased holiness for us. As heaven is but a low thing without God, so heaven is but a low thing without holiness. It is holiness that is the sparkling diamond in the ring of happiness ; a man were better be holy in hell than unholy in heaven ; and therefore Christ ventures his all for hohness. The great design of Christ in redeeming of souls with the choicest, the purest, the costliest, the noblest blood that ever run in veins, was that they should ' serve him in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives,' Luke i. 74, 75. In a word, Christ had never taken so great a journey from heaven to earth, but to make men holy ; he had never taken upon him the form of a servant, but to make us the servants of the most high God. He had never lain in a manger, he had never trod the wine-press of his Father's wrath, but to make you holy. He prayed, he sweat, he bled, and he hung on the cross, and all to make you holy. He was holy in his birth, and holy in his life, and holy in his death, and holy in all his sufferings; and all to make you holy. The great design of Christ in aU he did, and in all he suffered, was to make man holy. And thus you see by all these arguments that holiness is attainable.
3. Thirdly, Consider this, that real holiness is the honour and the glory of the creature; and therefore the apostle links hohness and honour together : 2 Cor. iii. 18, and Eph. v. 27 ; 1 Thess. iv. 3, 4, ' For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication ; that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.' The vessel is man's body — ^which is the great utensil or instrument of the soul, and con- tains it as in a vessel. Now the sanctity and chastity of this vessel is the honour of a Christian. Even bodily purity is a Christian's glory. He that keeps his vessel in holiness, keeps it in honour. Holiness is the greatest dignity that mortal man is capable of; it is man's highest promotion, it is his highest exaltation. Holiness is the true gentility and the true nobility of the soul : i Deut. xxvi. 19, ' And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour, and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God.' There is nothing that lifts a people so high, and that makes them so truly famous and glorious, as holiness doth. Holiness is the praise, the renown, the crown, and glory of a people. Holiness is the diadem, the beauty, and the excellency of a people. Holiness is the strength, the honour, and the riches of a people. Holiness is the image of God, the character of Christ. It is a beam of the divine nature, a spark of glory, it is the life of your lives, and the soul of your souls ; it is only holiness that makes men to excel in honour all other people in the world. Look, as God's holiness is his glory, and the angels' holiness is their glory, and the church's holiness is their glory, Exod. XV. 11 ; Isa. vi. 2, 3 ; Ps. xciii. 5 ; Eph. v. 27 ; so the hohness of any particular person is the glory of that person. Why was Jabez reputed
^ A heathen could say, Ndbilitas sola eat atque unica virtus: Virtue is the only true nobility.
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more honourable than his brethren, but because he was more holy than his brethren? 1 Chron. iv. 9, 10, ' And Jabez was more honour- able than his brethren ; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying. Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying. Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me ! And God granted him that which he requested.' Holiness is the truest and the greatest nobility and honour in the world. It is very observable that among • Turks, Jews, Indians, Persians, and Papists, the strictest and holiest among them are most highly esteemed and honoured, Komanus, the martyr, who was born of noble parentage, entreated his persecutors that they would not favour him for his nobility ; for it is not, said he, the blood of my ancestors, but my Christian faith that makes me noble. 1 David thought it not so happy nor so honourable a thing to be a king in his own house, as to be a door-keeper in God's house. Solomon did prefer the title of Ecclesmstes, that is, a soul reconciled to the church, before the title of the king of Jerusalem. Holy Theodosius, the emperor, preferred the title of memhrum ecclesice, a member of the church, before that of caput imperii, the head of the empire, professing that he had rather be a saint and no king, than a king and no saint. And holy Constantine rejoiced more in being the servant of Christ, than in being the emperor of the world. And Luther had rather be Christianus rusticus, than ethniciis Alexander ^ a Christian clown than a pagan emperor. These holy men well knew that holiness was the top of all their honour and glory. Well, sinners, remember this, that holiness is the high and ready way to the highest honour ; and therefore, as ever you would be traly honourable, labour to be truly holy. Great swelling titles are but as so many rattles, or as so many feathers in men's caps, without holiness. He that can be content to live without holiness, must be contented to see his honour entombed whilst he lives. Honour without holiness is but a wind that will blow a man the sooner to hell. Honour without holiness is but magnum nihil, a great nothing, a glorious fancy. 2 Many a man hath been the worse, but where lives that man that hath been ever the better, for his worldly honour? A man swelled with honour, without holiness, is like a man in a dropsy, whose bigness is his disease. Well, let ambitionists, and all others who hunt after the breath of popular applause, know that that honour which attends holinesfi is the truest honour, the highest honour, the greatest honour, the happiest honour, the surest honour, the purest honour, and the most lasting and abiding honour. Mollerus,3 upon Psakn Ixxiii. 20, concludes that wicked men's earthly honours and dignities are but as idle dreams, and their splendid braveries but lucid phantasies. Adonibezek, a mighty prince, is quickly made a fellow-commoner with the dogs. Judges i. 7. And Nebuchadnezzar, a mighty conqueror, turned a-grazing among the oxen, Dan. iv. 28. And Herod reduced
^ Clarke, as before. — G.
^ Acts XXV. 23. MerA ttoXX^j (pavrafflas, with great phantasy or vain show; all the honour, pomp, and state of this world is but a phantasy. ^ MDCLXi. folio. — G.
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