[2.] Secondly, When God sheivs singular mercy to his people, and when he doth great things for his people, then he expects and looks that his people should be a holy people, and then he calls loudest for holiness ; Exod. xix. 3-5, ' And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel, Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you upon eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people ; for all the earth is mine.' Here Moses makes use of a very elegant expression, to shew the singular love, care, kind- ness, and goodness of God towards his people, 'He bare you upon eagles' wings.' The eagle is a very princely, noble bird,^ she fears no birds from above to hurt her young ones, and because she fears the arrow from beneath, therefore she carries her young ones upon her wings ; so that there is no hurting, nor harming, nor no killing of them, but by shooting through the body of the old one. Other birds carry their young ones in their talons, and so expose them to danger, but the eagle carries hers upon her -wings, that they may be safe and secure. Moses, to shew how choice and chary God was of Israel, and how much he stood upon their safety and security, tells them that he carried them upon eagles' wings ; that so none of their enemies might ruin or destroy them, yea, that they might not so much as in the least hurt or harm them. He carried them out of Egypt, and he carried them through the Red Sea sweetly, swiftly, strongly, and tenderly, as the eagle carries her young ones when danger is at hand. Now God having expressed such love, such care, such bowels, such tenderness, such sweetness, and such kindness to his people, he looks and expects that they should be a holy people, and therefore he strongly urges them to obey God's voice indeed, and to keep his covenant. Now what is it for a man to obey God's voice indeed, and to keep his covenant, but to be really holy, yea, to be eminently holy? So in that ^ Vide Aristotle 1. ix. De Historia Animalium.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 437
loth of Deuteronomy, where Moses had made a large narrative of the singular favours and mercies of God to Israel in the eleven first verses of that chapter, he falls in the 12th and 13th verses upon pressing of them to be a holy people. ' And now Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul ? To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day.' The word in the 12th verse rendered require, is ^^'V, shoel, from shaal, which signifies to ask, to request, or petition a person. Now here Moses brings in God, asking, requesting, and petitioning of Israel that they would fear him and walk in his ways,&c., and what is that but that they would be a holy people to him, that had done such great and glorious things for them ? The word in the 13th verse rendered keep, is IQIi^, shamar, which signi- fies to keep carefully, diligently, faithfully to keep, Job xii. 12; 1 Kings XX. 39, as watchmen keep the city, or as soldiers keep their garrisons, or as jailers keep their prisoners. Now God would have his people thus to keep his commandments and his statutes, and this God would have them to do upon the account of those high acts of favour and grace that he had shewed unto them ; and thus to keep his commandments and, his statutes, what is it but to be a holy people, yea, to be a very holy people unto the Lord ? And so in that Ezra ix. 13, 14, ' Seeing that thou our God hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hast given us such deliverance as this, should we again break thy commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abomina- tions ? wouldst thou not be angry with us, till thou hast consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor escaping ? ' Free and rich mercy calls hardest and loudest for duty. The more merciful God hath been to his people, the more fearful they should be of offending of him, and the more careful they should be in pleasing of him. Divine blessings should be the greatest obligations in the world upon a Chris- tian to keep at a distance from sin, and to keep close to a holy God. The greater the mercy is, and the more miraculous the deliverance and the salvation is, that God crowns his people with, the greater are the engagements that God hath put iipon them to be a holy people to him. So in that 116th Psalm David gives in a bill of particulars in the eight first verses ; he gives you a choice narrative of the singu- lar favours and blessings of God, both in respect of his inward and his outward man. God had been good to his soul, and he had been kind to his body ; he tells you of God's sparing mercy, and of his prevent- ing mercy, and of his preserving mercy, and of his delivering mercy, and of his supporting mercy, and of his multiplying mercy, and of his pardoning mercy ; he tells you that God hath heard his prayers, and wiped off" his tears, and preserved his feet from falling, and his soul from death. And then in the following words he tells you what his resolution is upon the whole : ' I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living,' verse 9th, or rather, as the Hebrew hath it, Ethlial- lech Uphne Jehovah, I will walk before the face of the Lord. The Hebrew word that is here rendered walk, signifies a continued action, or the reiteration of an action, David resolves that he will not only take a turn or two with God, or walk a pretty way with God, as
438 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, RARITY, [Heb. XII. 14.