too good to go to hell, and yet they are not good enough to go to heaven ; and many there be who are worse than others, and yet by comparing themselves with those they suppose very bad, they conclude themselves to be very good. Such a one was that proud Pharisee in Luke xviii., who thought himself a far better man than the poor publican, and yet he was not half so honest, nor half so just, nor haK so righteous, nor half so good as he was. The poor publican was ashamed of himself ; he loathed himself, he abased himself, he judged himself, and he condemned himself. The poor publican acknowledged God, he adored God, he dreaded God, he admired God, and he justified God ; in all which he exceeded the proud Pharisee ; and yet, oh how scornfully does this proud Pharisee look upon him ! and how disdain- fully and disgracefully does he speak of him ! And this was the general frame and temper of the Scribes and Pharisees, who thought no man's penny so good silver as their own, who thought themselves better than the best, when they were the very worst of the worst ; for publicans and harlots believed and repented, and entered into the kingdom of God before them. Mat. xxi. 31, 32. And so they in that of Isa. Ixv. were naught, very naught, yea, stark naught ; they were the basest among the base, they were the vilest among the vile, they were the most rebellious among the rebeUious, and the most supersti- tious among the superstitious : witness ver. 2-4. And yet, oh how do they stroke themselves, and bless themselves, and commend them- selves, and cry up themselves, and exalt themselves as the only holy ones, ver. 5 ; they could deify themselves, and yet damn and devilify others, though they were such monsters as God abhorred, ver. 6. Ah ! how many be there who, by comparing themselves with those that are worse than themselves, do judge themselves to be good enough, and holy enough ! They are good negative Christians, and they think that is enough to bring them to heaven ; they bless themselves that they are no Nabals for drunkenness, nor no Sodomites for filthiness, nor no Hamans for haughtiness, nor no Amnons for lustfulness, nor none of the old world for idleness, nor no Zaccheuses for covetousness, nor no Laodiceans for lukewarmness, &c. They bless themselves that they are no Gehazis for lying, nor no Shimeis for cursing, nor no Joabs for swearing, nor no Rabshakehs for railing, nor no Doegs for cruelty, nor no Judases for treachery, nor no Demases for apostasy, &c. And thus they cheat themselves, and find out fine ways to delude and damn their own souls ; they think it grace enough, and holiness enough, that they have attained to this — viz., not to be so bad as the worst, though they fall infinitely short of coming near unto the best. Well, sirs, remember this, if you are not so great sinners as others, your horrors, your terrors, your torments, your hell shall not be so great, nor so hot as others', but without holiness you shall be as certainly damned as others ; and what a cold comfort is this, to have a cooler and a lighter hell than others ; and yet this is all the comfort that can be handed to unholy hearts. But,
4. Fourthly, Take heed of flatterers. Ah ! how good might many men have been, who are yet exceeding bad, had they not sold their ears to flatterers. Flatterers are soul-murderers, they are soul-undoers,
Heb. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 203
they are like vain chirurgeons, that skin over the wound, but kill the patient. Flattery is the very mother of folly, and the very nursery of all impiety. Flatterers will cry up those for religious who are only superstitious, and those for wise men who are foolish, and those for knowing men, who are ignorant, and those for virtuous men who are vicious, and those for holy men who at best are but civil, and those for happy men who are certainly miserable. Flatterers dare call the proud happy, and bless them whom God has cursed ; they dare call evil good, and good evil ; they dare call darkness light, and light darkness ; they dare say that that man has grace that has none ; yea, they dare swear that such and such shall be saved, though for the present they live as if they were resolved to be damned ; they dare take upon them to tell you that such and such men's names are written in heaven, and that such and such belong to the election of grace, though their lives speak them out to be void of all grace. Ah ! how many a man has been kept off from the thoughts of holiness, and from the ways of holi- ness, and from the love and liking of holiness, by flatterers who have flattered them, that doubtless they are in the favour of God, and that certainly God did not make men to damn them, and that without all peradventure they have an interest in Christ, and that there is no question but that their hearts are as good as the best, and that their conditions are good, and their souls happy ; yea, they are so confident of their happiness, that they dare venture a-going to hell, if ever such should go to hell whom they fondly flatter ; they dare pawn their souls and their salvation on it, that such shall never miscarry ; and by these flatteries they harden men in sin, and arm them against holiness. Flattery is that sweet poison that has destroyed many a soul. Witness Eehoboam, Ahab, Herod, Nero, Alexander, &c. So true is that of the wise man : Prov. xxvi. 28, ' A lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin.'i A flattering mouth ruins name, fame, estate, life, body and soul ; it ruins a man both temporally and eternally; it often undoes a man in both worlds ; it makes a man miserable both here and hereafter. Flatterers are devouring caterpillars : flatterers' tongues do more mischief than per- secutors' swords, for their swords can but destroy the bodies of men, but flatterers' tongues destroy the souls of men. Flatterers are the greatest soul-cheaters and soul-undoers in the world. Flatterers dare call vice virtue, they dare call pride neatness, covetousness good hus- bandry, drunkenness good-fellowship, prodigality liberality, wantonness a trick of youth, passion zeal, revenge courage, &c. They dare call enormities infirmities, and wickednesses weaknesses ; they dare call great sins little sins, little sins no sins ; they gild over all their poison- ous pills with gold, they draw the fairest glove upon the foulest hand, they lay their neatest colours upon the filthiest sores, they put their best paint upon the worst faces, and the richest robes upon the most diseased bodies; and by these devices they entangle many to their utter ruin: Prov. xxix. 5,. *A man that flattereth his neighbour
1 The Hebrew word Dachah signifies to throw down, to drive on forwards till a man falls into destruction ; none drive so furiously to the ruin and destruction of souls as flatterers do.
204 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.