xxii. 30, ' He shall deliver the island of the innocent : and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands : ' or, as some read the words, ' the innocent shall deliver the island ;' that is, the inhabitants of the island.^ The innocent shall deliver those that are not innocent ; had there been but ten innocent, but ten righteous persons in Sodom, Sodom might have been a glorious city to this day ; had there been but ten righteous souls among them, God would never have rained hell out of heaven upon them ; Gen. xviii. 32 to the end. The guilt- less shall deliver the guilty in an island ; the guiltless, by Kfting up pure hands to God in prayer, shall stay the hand of God, that it destroys not the guilty. It is the holy seed that upholdeth the civil state : Isa. vi. 13, ' But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten : as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves : so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.' ^ The holy seed were the stay and prop of their land, and this the Lord evidences by a very familiar instance or simili- tude. It is as if he should say. You see the way or causey, leading from the king's house to the temple — spoken of in 1 Kings x. 5 ; 2 Kings xii. 21 ; 1 Chron. xxvi. 16, 17, and 2 Chron. ix. 11 — how by reason of the oaks and trees on either side thereof the earth between is stayed and held up firm, which otherwise would fall to decay and moulder away : so saith God, it is the holy seed that bears up the whole state, and were it not for them, desolation and destruction would come in as a flood upon you : Prov. x. 25, ' The righteous is an everlasting foundation.' The Hebrew doctors sense it thus, The righteous are the foundation of the world, which would soon shatter and fall to ruin but for their sakes. The whole world fares the better every day for the righteous' sake. If it were not for this holy seed, the chaff of this world would soon be set on fire. If the number of the holy seed were but called and converted, God would quickly turn the whole world into flames and ashes. It is they that bear up the pillars of the earth : Ps. Ixxv. 3, ' I bear up the pillars of the earth.' Holy persons are the true Atlases both of church and state ; they are the pillars on whom all do rest, the props on whom all do lean ; do but overturn these pillars, and all will fall about your ears, as the house did about the Philistines when Samson shook it. Let but kingdoms and commonwealths wreck these, and they shall quickly be shipwrecked themselves. There is not a sinner in the world but fenjoys his estate, his relations, his outward accommodations, yea, his very life, upon the account of the saints; and therefore they must needs be bewitched, or fools, or madmen, that are still a-lifting and a-thrusting at these very pillars that bear them up. Look, as Samson's strength did lie in his locks, so the strength and safety of the nation lies in the holy seed: they are the bulwarks and ammunition of the nation ; the safety and felicity of the whole is bound up in them. It is not armies, nor navies, nor walled cities, nor fortified castles, nor golden mines, nor grave counsels that will secure a nation, if once the people of God's holiness be cast by as broken pitchers. It is their
^ God will Bometimes deliver a whole country for the sake of the innocent, &c. ^ I will seek thy good, was holy David's royal and religious resolution, Ps. cxxii. 9. Kings are for kingdoms, not kingdoms for kings.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 1G9
piety and prayers that keeps off sweeping judgments from a nation, and that brings down variety of mercies upon a nation. ^ Holy persons are the clouds that water the earth as a common blessing ; and they are the rising sun that scatters all clouds and darkness. A holy man is Kolvov arfadov, a public diffusive blessing in the place where he lives. Look, as one sinner destroys much good, Eccles. ix. 18, so one saint may save a land, a country : Jer. v. 1, ' Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.' Though Jerusalem was far larger and more populous, I say not only than Sodom, but than all the other cities that sinned and perished with it, yet God makes so large and noble an offer, that if there could be found in it but one man divinely qualified, but a man of justice, a man of faithfulness, a man of uprightness, a man of holiness, the Lord would pardon it ; that is, he would spare it, he would not destroy it, nor ruin it. God once made an offer to Abraham, that if there were but ten righteous souls in Sodom, he would save it ; but here he falls so low as to make an offer, that if there could be but one righteous soul found in Jerusalem, he would not destroy it.2 One saint may save a city, yea, a world of sinners, from confusion and destruction. Luther, whilst he lived, by faith and prayer, kept off troubles from Germany, but soon after he was gone to his grave in peace, oh, the wars, the miseries and mischiefs, the distractions and confusions that came in like a flood upon them ! Possidonius, in the life of Augustine, tells us that the famous city of Hippo could never be spoiled whilst Augustine lived. The flood could not drown the old world till holy Methuselah was laid up in peace. 0 sirs ! as ever you would be a public blessing, labour to be holy. But,
9. Ninthly, Consider the antiquity of holiness. Holiness is of the greatest, highest, and ancientest antiquity. The first suit that ever was put upon the back of man's nature was holiness. Sin is of a later edition than holiness ; holiness was when sin was not, Deut. xxxii. 7, &c. ' Let us make man,' saith God, ' in our own image.' Sin is against nature, it is a defect in nature, it came in by a lie, and, by-the-bye, through the subtlety of the father of lies. Gen. i. 26. God stamped his image of holiness upon man before ever Satan assayed to tempt him. HoKness is of the ancientest house, of the greatest anti- quity, John viii. 44. Sin is but an upstart, holiness is the firstborn ; the way of holiness is the oldest way : Jer. vi. 16, ' Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.' The way of holiness was that old way in which Adam at first, and in which all the holy patriarchs and prophets walked. 3 In this sense it is most certain that the oldest way is the best way ; the way of sanctity is of greatest
1 Lam. iv. 1, 2, and Esther iv., and chap, the last, compared.