from a conceited god to be the most loathsome of men, a living carrion arrested by the \'ilest of creatures, upon the suit of his affronted Creator, Acts xii. 23. And great Haman feasted with the king one day, and made a feast for crows the next, Esth. vii. 10. But that honour that waits on holiness is honour that will abide with a man, that will to the grave with a man, yea, that will to heaven with a man. Some heathens have been weary of their honours — Maximus, &c., but the honour that attends holiness is no burden to a Christian ; and others have rejected honours when they have been offered them, because of the cumber and danger that attends them. High seats are never but uneasy, and crowns are usually stuffed with thorns. But the honour that attends holiness is a rose without prickles, it is a crown without thorns. That honour that springs from a root of holi- ness shall be both sanctified and sweetened by God, so as that it shall not hurt nor harm a gracious soul. Ah, sinners ! sinners ! if you will be ambitious, be ambitious of that honour that comes in upon the foot of holiness, for there is no honour to that honour. The Eomans were insatiable in their desires after worldly honour, which is but as a blast, a shadow, a dream. Oh, how much more insatiable should you be in your desires and endeavours after that honour that is linked to holiness, and that is substantial and lasting !
To stir you up to look after real holiness, consider, 4. Fourthly, That holiness is very attractive, drawing, and loinning. It draws love, it draws desire, it draws delight. Holiness is like a precious perfume, whose savour spreads itself, and is pleasing and delightful to all that come near it : 2 Kings iv. 9, 10, ' And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall ; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick ; and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.'^ The holiness of the pro- phet's spirit, the holiness of his principles, the holiness of his behaviour, and the holiness of his conversation, did so allure and win upon this great lady, that she becomes an importunate suitor to her husband that he might be lovingly, freely, courteously, and commodiously entertained and accommodated as often as he came that way. So Acts ii. 46, 47, ' And they continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart ; praising God, and having favour with all the people.' That which did grace and ingratiate these holy converts into the favour of the people, was the exercise of their grace and holiness. It was their sweet unity, their noble charity, their holy familiarity, their blessed harmony, their singular sincerity, and their Christian constancy, that brought them into favour with all the people. Visible holiness is a loadstone that will draw eyes and hearts after it: 1 Pet. iii. 1, 'Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wife.' A holy conversation is a winning conversation, Phil. ii. 15, and 1 Cor. vii. 16.
1 History tells us of many infidels that have been won to the Christian faith by the holy lives of the saints, &c
162 • THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.
The holy conversation of the wife may be the conversion of the hus- band ; the holy, the wise, the watchful, the circumspect conversation of the wife may issue in the salvation of the husband. Many a husband hath been won to Christ by the holy conversation of the wife ; and many a wife hath been won by the holy conversation of the husband. Many a servant hath been won by the holy conversation of the master ; and many a master hath been won by the holy conversa- tion of the servant. Sozomen reports, that the holy life of a poor captive Christian maid, made a king and all his family to embrace the Christian faith. I have read of Cecilia, a poor virgin, who, by her holy and gracious behaviour in her martyrdom, was the means of con- verting four hundred to Christ. i Many a soul hath been won by the dumb oratory of a holy life.^ Justin Martyr confesseth that the con- stancy of Christians in their piety and sufferings was the chiefest motive that converted him to Christianity. ' For I myself,' saith he, ' was once a Platonist, and did gladly hear the Christians reviled : but when I saw they feared not death, nor any of those miseries which did most frighten all other men, I began to consider with myself that it was impossible for such men to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of piety ; and that made me first think of turning Christian.' 3 There is nothing that hath that influence upon the judgments of men to persuade them, upon the consciences of men to awe them, upon the mouths of men to stop them, upon the hearts of men to convince them, and upon the lives of men to reform them, as holiness, 1 Pet. ii. 12. What Plato once said of his moral virtue — viz., that if it could be seen with bodily eyes it would be beloved of all, and draw all hearts to itself — that is most true of this theological grace, holiness. Holi- ness is so beautiful and so lovely a thing, that it renders men amiable and lovely in the very eyes of their enemies. Tilligny, for his rare virtues, was rescued from death by his greatest enemies at the massacre of Paris. 4 Holiness makes a man's face to shine, as it did Moses his, and Stephen's. Nothing pleases the eye nor wins the heart like holiness. What is gold to godliness, gifts to grace, parts to piety ? A spai'k, a ray, a beam of holiness, will certainly have an influence upon the spirits of men, either to restrain them or change them, or allay them or sweeten them, or win them, or one way or another to better them. Look, as the unholy lives and conversations of many professors do occasion some to blaspheme God, others to belie God, others to withstand God, and others to forsake God; look, as the looseness of many Christians doth work some to reproach Christ, others to deny Christ, others to refuse Christ, others to revile the good ways of Christ, and others to oppose and despise the faithful followers of Christ : as Lactantius reports, that the loose lives of many Christians was made by the heathens the reproach of Christ himself, Quomodo bonus magister, cujus tarn pravos viderrms discipulos f How can we think the master to be good, whose disciples we see to be so bad ?
^ Clarke, aa before. — G.
' Monica won her husband Patricia from being an impure Manichee, not by force of argument, but by purity and chastity of life, saith Augustine. ^ As before. — G. * Vide the French History in the life of Charles the Ninth. [As before.— G.]
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 1G3