with all reverence, but slighted his son, whereupon the emperor was very much displeased, and demanding the reason why he so slighted his son ? the bishop answered, because he had slighted and neglected the eternal Son of God, he being at that time a professed Arian ; where- upon the emperor received the bishop again into favour, and banished all Arians out of his dominions. I have read of one Maris, a godly bishop of Chalcedon, who, being blind, and Julian, that apostate emperor, giving him some opprobrious words, calling him blind fool, because he had rebuked him for his apostasy, the good man answered thus, ' I bless God that I have not my sight, to see such an ungracious face as thine is/ Do your worst, do your worst, said Justin Martyr slightingly to his persecutors, but this I tell you, you may put all that you are like to gain by the bargain into your eye, and weep it out again. When a great lord of this land, who was as graceless as he was great, met Mr Fox in London streets, and asked him how he did, Mr Fox said little or nothing to him ; whereupon says this great lord. Sir, do you not know me ? No, not I, said Mr Fox ; says the lord, I am such a one ; Sir, said Mr Fox, I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Polycarpus meeting at a certain time with Marcion the heretic : says Marcion, Don't you know me ? Yea, said Polycarpus, I know thee to be primo-genitum diaholi, The first-begotten child of the devil, i And indeed, why should we prefer him before a piece of copper, that prefers a piece of gold before his God, yea, that prefers his lusts and every toy and trifle before Jesus Christ, his im- mortal soul, and the great concernments of another world? God commanded in the old law that whatsoever did go with its breasts upon the ground, should be an abomination to us. Oh, how much more should we abominate that man whose heart and soul is glued unto a piece of earth, or to this or that defiling and destroying lust : Prov. xxix. 27, ' An unjust man is an abomination to the just : and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked.' The quarrel between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is almost six thousand years old. Gen. iii. 15. Light and darkness, heaven and hell, are not more opposite and contrary one to another, than these are contrary one to another. That seed of enmity that was at first between them is now grown up on both sides to an abomina- tion, and an abhorring of each other. 2 The just man saith, What have I to do with thee, thou son of Belial ? and the unjust man saith. What have I to do with thee, thou son of David ? The original in the text last cited is observable, the just abhorreth, b^V ^^"i^, viriniquitatis, the man_ of iniquity, i.e., the man that is made up of iniquity, that is, nothing but iniquity. Now, this shews that it is iniquity in the man that makes the man to be an abomination to the just ; but now wicked men they abhor the upright for their very uprightness, they abhor him that is upright in the way, and could wish him quite out of the way, and will do what they can to make him away. The uprightness of the upright is such a terror to the wicked that they cannot but abominate and abhor the upright ; and therefore, no wonder if the
' The antipathies that are ia nature between the elephant and the boar, the lion and the cock, &c., is nothing to that which ia between the just and the unjust.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 323
upright abominate them ; and indeed, who can look upon wicked men, as enemies to God, as adversaries to Christ, as murderers of their own souls, as fighters against the church, as champions for Satan, and as pests and plague of a nation, and not abhor them, and not abomi- nate them ? 0 sirs, not to contemn the wicked is an argument that you yourselves are wicked ; and not to contemn the wicked is a means to make them more wicked ; not to contemn the wicked is to encourage and tempt the wicked to be sevenfold more wicked ; yea, not to contemn the wicked, who contemn God, Christ, heaven, and holiness, &c., is to contemn God himself. As for such that advance the wicked, that magnify the wicked, that flatter the wicked, that strengthen the hands of the wicked, that are most in with the wicked, that joy and glory in the prosperity of the wicked, and that sigh and mourn, that stamp and take on at the downfall of the wicked ; these are certainly wicked, yea, they are eminently wicked, and therefore the more to be slighted and scorned by men of integrity and sanctity. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, To neglect the pursuit of holiness upon the account of this objection, is to debase the great God, and to overvalue vain man, as if there were more power, ability, policy, and malice, dtc, in worthless man to hurt and harm thee, than there is power, all-suf- ficiency, wisdom, goodness, and graciousness in God to defend thee, and secure thee, and arm thee against all the reproaches and revilings of slandei\)u^ tongues. Now who art thou, and what art thou, 0 vain man ! that thou shouldst dare to lessen God and greaten man, to debase God and exalt man, yea, to set up man above God himself, and to ungod him as much as in thee lies ? And yet all this thou doest when thou turnest thy back upon holiness, because of the revilings and reproaches of wicked men.
But I shall say no more to this objection, because I have spoken very largely to this objection in my former books. If you desire further satisfaction to this objection, turn to that treatise called 'Apples of Gold,' &c., and from page 311 to page 327, you will find seven more distinct answers to it. And see also my ' Mute Christian under the Smarting Kod,' and from page 304 to page 326 you will find eight answers more to this objection, i I confess several other objections might be made against your pursuing after holiness, but because I have spoken to them at large in my former writings, therefore I shall not trouble you with them here ; and therefore let thus much suffice for answer to those objections that usually men make when they are pressed home to follow after holmess.
And so I shall come now to the second part of the exhortation, and that relates to God's holy ones, to his sanctified ones, to those that have obtained holiness, that have experienced the principles, the power, the life, and the sweetness of holiness. And here let me exhort such,
1. First, To express, declare, evidence, and hold forth both the reality and power of holiness ; and that,
[1.] ^'iv&t. By keeping yourselves free from gross enormities, from scandalous wickednesses, Rom. ii. 23-25. Oh, remember that one scandal- 1 Vol. i. pp. 264-269, and pp. 379-385.— G.
324 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [HeB. XII. 14