I come now to lay down some means and helps to holiness. Sup- posing that the language of some of your souls may be this : Oh, what shall we do to be holy ! Oh, what course, what way, what means must we use that we may obtain this holiness, without which we now clearly see that we shall never come to a fruition of happiness! Methinks I hear some of you crying out, Oh, none but holiness, none
» Gen. iii. and iv. 13; Lev. xiv. ; 2 Sam. xiv. 13, 14; Jonah ii.; Rev. i. 9. * More accurately Demaratus : Plutarch, Alexander IX. — G.
192 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB, XII. 14.
but holiness ! as that martyi* once cried out, ' Oh, none but Christ, none but Christ ! ' Methinks I hear you crying out, Oh, give me holi- ness, or I die : as Samson once cried out, ' Give me water, or I die \ or as Kachel once cried out, ' Give me children, or I die/ So you cry out. Oh, give us holiness, or we die ; give us holiness, or we eternally die. Oh, what shall we do to be holy ! we see we are undone without holiness, we shall be damned without holiness. Oh that we were but made holy, that hereafter we may be assuredly happy !
Well, then, if you are in good earnest resolved to be holy, I would thus advise and counsel you: First, take heed of some things: Secondly, Labour to put in practice other things. The things that you are to avoid and shun, even as you would shun poison in your meat, or a serpent in your way, yea, as you would shun the devil himself, or hell itself, are these —
I. 1. First, Take heed of mistaking some particular scriptures, as that of Ezek. xiv. 6 ; xviii, 30-32, and xxxiii, 11, 14, 16, 19. From these and such like scriptures, many unholy hearts are apt to conclude that they can repent when they please, and that though they do defer their repentance, yet it is no such difficult thing to confess their sins at last cast, and to be sorry for their sins at last cast, and to forsake their sins at last cast, and to beg the pardon of their sins at last cast ; and that if they do so, God hath given his word for it, he hath given it under his own hand, that he will pardon their sins, and save their souls. Now to prevent these soul-undoing mistakes, thou must know, 0 sinner,
[1.] First, That thou canst as well wash a blackamoor white at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well raise the dead at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well make a world at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well stop the course of the sun at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure ; thou canst as well put the sea in a cockle-shell at pleasure, and measure the earth with a span at pleasure, as thou canst repent at pleasure : witness the proofs in the margin.! \ confess that if to repent were to hang down the head like a bulrush for a day, or to whine with Saul for an hour, or to put on sackcloth and walk, softly with Ahab for a short space, or to confess with Judas, ' I have sinned,' or to say with Simon Magus, ' Pray to the Lord for me,' or to tremble with Felix for a moment — I say, if this were to repent, doubtless you might repent at pleasure ; but alas ! friends, to repent is another thing, to repent is the hardest and difficultest work in the world ; and that will appear in the next particular. And therefore,
[2.] Secondly, To repent is to turn a flint into fl^sh, it is to turn darkness into light, hell into heaven ; and is this easy ? To repent is to make all clean : inside clean, and outside clean ; it is to make a clean head and a clean heart ; a clean lip and a clean life : and is this easy? 2 True repentance includes a true sense of sin, a deep sorrow for sin, a hearty loathing of sin, and a holy shame and blushing for sin ; and is this easy ? To repent is for a man to loathe himself as well as his sin ; and is this easy for man, that is so great a self-lover, and so
1 Jer. xiii. 23, and xxxi. 18; Lam. v. 21 ; Acts v. 31 ; Eph. i. 17-19 ; 2 Tim. ii. 25 ; Acts xi. 18.
a Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26; Actfl xxvi. 18; Ezek. xvi. ^1-63, and xxix. 43; 2 Cor. vii. 10, 11.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 193
great a self-exalter, and so great a self-admirer, to become a self- loather .? To repent is to cross sinful self, it is to walk contrary tor sinful self, yea, it is to revenge a man's self upon himself ; and is this easy ? To repent is to pluck out right eyes, and to cut off right hands, and offer up only Isaacs; and is this easy ? True repentance is a daily turning of the soul further and further from sin, and a daily turning of the soul nearer and nearer to God. It is a repentance not to be repented of ; it is a repentance from sin, as well as a repentance for sin. Sin hath cast the soul at such a distance from God, that though the soul be every day a-turning nearer and nearer to God, yet it can never, in this life, get so near him as once it was, and as in heaven it shall be. And now tell me, 0 soul, is this such an easy thing, to be every day a-turning thy back upon sin, and a-turning thy face nearer and nearer to God ? Surely no. True repentance lies in a daily dying to sin, and in a daily living to him who lives for ever. The very life of repentance is f he repentance of the life : and is this easy ? But,