^ Tophet is the name of a place in the valley lying on the south side of Jerusalem, Joshua xviii. 16. Now in this vale stood Tophet, wherein the idolatrous Jews used to burn their children in sacrifice to the idol Moloch, and it had that name from the drums or tabrets that their idolatrous priests used to beat upon at the time of their detestable services, to drown the hideous shrieks and lamentable cries of the poor sacri- ficed children.
* Mat. X. 15, and xi. 22; Luke xii. 47, 48.
316 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14.
therefore their condemnation will be the greater, they shall have a hotter and a darker hell than others, except they labour after this holiness, which will be their only fence against hell, and their sure path to heaven. But, sixthly and lastly, of all men on earth the rich, the great, and the honourable will be found most inexcusable. The poor and the mean ones of the earth will plead their want of time, and want of means, and want of opportunities ; they will be ready to say. Lord, we have risen early, and gone to bed late, Ps. cxxvii. 1, 2, we have laboured, and sweat, and droyled,^ and all little enough to get bread to eat, and clothes to wear, and to keep the sergeant from the door, and to pay every man his own. Had we had but the time, the means, the advantages that such and such gentlemen have had, and that such and such nobles have had, and that such and such princes have had, &c.,2 oh, how we would have minded holiness, and studied holiness, and pressed after holiness ! But seeing it has been other- wise with us, we hope, Lord, we may be excused. But what excuse will you be able to make, 0 ye great ones of the earth, who have had time, and opportunities, and all advantages imaginable, to make your- selves holy and happy for ever, and yet you have trifled away your golden seasons, and forgotten the one thing necessary, and given your- selves up to the lusts and vanities of this world, as if you were resolved to be damned ? Let me a little allude to that John xv. 22 : ' If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin : but now they have no cloak or excuse for their sin.' So will God one day say to the great ones of the world : Had I not given you riches, and greatness, and honour, &c., to have encouraged you to look after holiness, and that you might have time, and leisure, and opportunity to seek holiness and pursue it, you might have had some cloak, some excuse for your neglect- ing so great, so glorious, so noble, and so necessary a work. Oh ! but now you have no cloak, no excuse at all for your sin. Now you can shew no reason under heaven why an eternal doom should not be passed upon you ; and ah how silent, how mute, how speechless, and how self-condemned, will all the great ones of the world be, when God shall thus expostulate with them ! ^ Oh that such would seriously lay to heart that Mat. xxii. 11, 12: 'And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding gar- ment : and he saith unto him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither, not • having a wedding garment ? And he was speechless.' By the wedding garment the learned understand holiness of heart and life. Now when the king questions him about the want of this wedding garment, he is speechless, or as the Greek word i^tfidoOr) imports, ' he was muzzled or haltered up,' that is, he held his peace, as though he had a bridle or a halter in his mouth ; he was not able to speak a word for himself, his own conscience had passed a secret sentence of condemnation upon him, and he sat silent under that sentence, as having nothing under heaven to say why he should not be cast into utter darkness. And
' As the poor people on the northern borders, when, to suppress their thieveries, some pressed upon them the eighth commandment, they, to excuse themselves, replied that that commandment was none of God's making, but thrust into the Decalogue by King Henry the Eighth.
^ Titus iii. 11. Ai/roKartiKpiTOi, self-condemned, or self-damned.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 317
this will be the very case of all the rich, the gi'eat, and the mighty ones of the world, who shall be found without the garment of holiness, when the Lord shall enter into judgment with them. And thus you see by these six arguments, that there are no persons under heaven that are so eminently engaged to look after holiness, as the rich, the great, and the mighty ones of the earth. But,
Object. 7. Seventhly and lastly. Others may object and say, Should we pursue after holiness, we shall he sure to he reviled, slandered, and reproached on all hands; every one loill hoot and hiss at us, we shall hecome a scorn and a hyword to all that live in the family luith us, and to all our neighbours round about us, every one will scorn us, and hate us, and ive shall he their tahle-talk, and their song, and the butt at lohich they will shoot in all their meetings and discourses, &c.
Now that you may be sufficiently armed against this objection, I desire you seriously to consider of these five following answers :