' All angels, in respect of their nature, are alike ; but what the particular differences are between angels, archangels, principalities, and powers, and what their distinct offices are, I confess, with Austin, I understand not, neither is it my duty to know, nor my danger to be ignorant of these things, &c.
190 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EAEITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
a hand to restrain the saints from evil, so they have an eye and an influence upon them for good: 1 Tim. v. 21, 'I charge you before God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels,' &c. The holy angels have their eyes and their influences upon us ; they are our observers and overseers ; they are called watchers in Dan. iv. 17, for they watch our words, and they watch our works, and they watch our ways ; they watch us before duties, and they watch us in duties, and they watch us after duties. They watch us before duties, to see how we prepare and fit ourselves to meet with God ; and they watch us in duties, to see how our graces are acted upon God, and how our hearts and afi'ections are running out after God ; and they watch us after duties, to see whether we walk worthy of God, and worthy of our duties, and worthy of our profession, and worthy of our high calling, i In times of health, strength, peace, prosperity, &c., they watch to see how wisely, holily, humbly, fruitfully, cheerfully, and thankfully we will walk with God ; and in times of adversity, they watch to see how believingly, how contentedly, how self-denyingly, and how patiently we wiU submit to God, &c. ; all which speaks out the holiness of the angels. 0 sirs, you cannot in this world be like to the angels in power, strength, might, nor in agility, activity, splendour, beauty, or glory ; but yet you may be like to them in purity and sanctity. Sirs, do not deceive yourselves. You shall never be like to the angels in glory, if you will not be like to them now in grace. If you will not with them now put on the robe of holiness, you shall not with them hereafter put on the crown of happiness. We are to foUow the examples of the best men not an inch further than they were followers of Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. Christians, saith father Latimer, are not bound to be the saints' apes, they are not to imitate them in everything. Where their examples were good, it is good to imitate them, and where they were bad, it is duty to decline them. The fairest copies that ever were written by saints have their blots, their blurs, and their erratas; and therefore it is best, it is safest, it is noblest, to set the most exact, the most perfect, and the most excellent copy of the angels before us, who, as they excel in strength, so they excel in holiness also : Ps. ciii. 20, ' Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his com- mandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.' The angels obey divine commands readily, cheerfully, faithfully, universally, reveren- tially, humbly, afi'ectionately, and unweariedly. 0 sirs, such obedi- ence, such holiness will be your honour here, and your happiness here- after. To gather up all, as ever you would be like to a holy God, a holy Christ, and the holy angels, labour to be holy. In hoHness you may be like them, in other things you cannot resemble them. But,
15. In the fifteenth and last place, To provoke you to labour after holiness, consider the stinging argument in the text, viz., that without it no man shall see the Lord. The expression is exclusive. Now to * see' is a Hebraism, and implies both vision and fruition. Now without holiness, no man, be he high or low, noble or ignoble, rich or poor, &c., shall ever come to a blessed acquaintance with God here, or to a glorious fruition of God hereafter. 0 friends, if it were so
^ 1 Cor. xi. 10 ; Heb. i. 14 ; Rev. xiii. 9. The angels watch you in all places, cases, and conditionB, &c.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 191
great a misery to Adam to be cast out of paradise, and so great a punishment to Cain to be cast out of his father's family — which was the only visible church of God on earth — and such a sore affliction for the lepers in the law to be shut out from all converse with men, and so great a trouble and torment to Absalom to be banished his father's court, and so great a hell to Jonah to be seemingly cast out of God's sight, and so great a tribulation to John to be confined to the isle of Patmos ;i oh, how great a misery, how great a punishment, how great an affliction, how great a trouble and torment, how great a tribulation, how great a hell, will it be for aU unholy persons for ever and ever to be banished the court of heaven, and to be shut out from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power ! 2 Thes. i. 7, 11. If it were such an unspeakable grief and misery to the primitive Christians, as indeed it was, to be debarred of one another's society and company, by being confined to isles, and mines, and strongholds; oh, then, what an unspeakable grief and misery will it be to all unholy persons to be for ever debarred of the blessed society of God, Christ, angels, and saints, and to be everlastingly confined to the strongholds of hell, and to the society and company of that damned crew who will be still a-cursing and a-blaspheming of God, and adding to one another's torments ! 0 sirs, it is the sight of God in heaven wherein man's happiness and blessedness doth consist ; it is the frui- tion of God in heaven that is the life, the honour, the crown, and glory of angels and saints. Heaven itself would be but a low thing, yea, it would be but magnum nihil, a great nothing, without the sight and fruition of God there. Now without holiness there is no seeing of God, there is no possessing or enjoying of God, there is no possibility of ever obtaining a part or portion in God. Ah, friends ! without holiness all is lost. Thy soul is lost, thy Christ is lost, thy God is lost, thy crown is lost, thy heaven is lost, thy glory is lost; and what are all other losses to these losses? Demorrathus of Corinth 2 saith, they lost the chiefest part of their lives' happiness that did not see Alex- ander sit on the throne of Darius ; but what was their loss to that unconceivable and unexpressible loss that all imholy persons must sustain, who shall never see the King of kings in his beauty, who shall never behold the Lord on the throne of his glory ? Well, sirs, if none of these arguments can prevail with you to labour after holiness, I must conclude that divine justice hath hardened you, and that Satan hath blinded you, and that your lusts have besotted you, and that this world hath bewitched you, and that it had been ten thousand thou- sand times better for you that you had never been born, than to live without holiness, and to die without holiness, and to be everlastingly damned for want of holiness. And thus much for the motives.