Use 1. It serveth for conviction. If God's people are a sanctified people, then here is but sad news for two sorts of persons. (1.) The pro- fane, that care not for holiness ; God hath no birthright for such Esaus ; the portion of the Lord are a holy portion, but these have ' a spot that is not as the spot of his children,' Deut. xxxii. 5. See what John speaketh of such persons as wallow in their filthiness : 1 John iii. 8, ' He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning,' o iroiMv a/jiapTiav, he that tradeth in sin, and maketh it his work and business. You may presume that you belong to God, but you are of the devil ; you have not, indeed, the least pretence of a claim, and do not go so far as hypocrites, being so little careful to be holy, that you are not moral. Are you called ? from what ? where is the least evidence of it ? Ay ! but our hearts are better than we show for.^ This is to appeal to a witness that cannot be found ; it is all one as if a man should claim to another's land, and pretend that he hath lost the evidences. Your guilt is written in legible characters, that he that runneth may read it. ('2.) It convinceth persons that scoff at holi- ness. Scofiing is the overflow of gall and malice, and a black mark, let it be found where it will. In the general it argueth a bad spirit, but especially when religion is made a byword and a reproach. When you deride men for their holiness, you deride them for that which is the express image of the glorious God, and so deride God himself. Holy brethren, as the saints are styled, Heb. iii. 1, should no more be a disgrace than holi/ Father, as God himself is styled, John xvii. 11.
^ Caspar Stres. in Miscellaneis ; ' Multi gloriantur cor suum bonum esse, etiamsi extus vita non respondeat; deciiDiuntur isti homines, nam si candelaintus accensa est, lucerna extus necessario lucet et splendet ; posito quod cor tuum bonum est, tamen damna- beris, quia Cliristus non judicat secundum cor sed secundum opera.' If the Israelites had slain and eaten the Passover, yet if the door-posts were not sprinkled with blood, the angel would not spare them.
YeR. 1.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 35'
You hate God more than yon do the saints, if you hate them for their holiness, which shineth in them with a faint histre, but is infinitely and originally in God. Take heed of ' the chair of scorners.' Those are dogs that are without, Rev. xxii. 15, that hark at the splendour of God's image, that make saints a word of disgrace. ScofHng Ishmaels that will be mocking are sure to be cast out, Gen. xxi. 9 ; they do not belong to God. The apostle interprets that mocking to be persecu- tion. Gal. iv. 27; so it is in God's account ; and yet it is always found in those that are ' born after the flesh.' Profane spirits think religion a matter of nothing ; and men are wont to mock at those which make a great matter of what they account nothing. Oh ! remember, holi- ness is the badge of those which are the Lord's called people, and it should be a matter of reverence, not reproach.
Use 2. Again, it serveth for caution, to prevent mistakes. Chris- tians, look to your sanctification : Ps. iv. 3, ' Know that God hath set apart him that is godly for himself.' The beast's worshippers have the beast's mark, Rev. xiii. 16. So also God's children are stamped with his seal and impress : 2 Tim. ii. 19, ' The foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal,' &c., they are sealed with a mark of preservation, ' The Lord knows those that are his ;' and they are sealed with a mark of distinction, ' Let every one that nameth the name of God depart from iniquity.' As Cain is stamped on both sides, so hath God's seal a double motto — one that noteth his owning the saints, the other that noteth their temper and disposition ; they depart from iniquity. Take heed, then, have you this seal and impress ? There are many things that look like sanctification, but are not. 1 shall touch upon four — civility .formality , restraining grace and temporary grace.
1. Civility, which is nothing else but a fair demeanour in the world, or, in the apostle's expression, ' a fair show in the flesh,' a darker re- ])resentation of holiness, rather heathenish strictness than Christian. You may descry it by these notes : — (1.) It is usually accompanied with ignorance, and little knowledge of God's institutions. Men live well, are no drunkards, no swearers, but know little of God, have no insight in matters of religion ; like Nicodemus, a strict Pharisee, but grossly ignorant, John iii. 10. Spiritual life beginneth with know- ledge, and endeth in a rational strictness, and what they do, they do upon principles. Conscience is swayed by the acknowledgment of God's will. Others live plausibly, but know not the ground and reason of their actions, and therefore are soon satisfied ; never troubled about imperfections, because where there is no light there is not that tender- ness which is found in real Christians, who look into the purity of the law, and are troubled because they know so much of the will of God, and do so far come short of it, as in a clear glass the least mote is soon espied. (2.) There is little of Christ in such souls ; for a man that is satisfied with his own righteousness doth not prize Christ. Paul, a Pharisee, counted his works ' gain,' which afterward he found to be ' loss,' Phil. iii. 7. By gain he meaneth an advantage to procure the favour of God. Self is wont to take up all their thoughts, and there- fore moral strains suit more with them than gospel comforts, and doc- trines that breed faith. The law is more natural to men than the gospel, and therefore with those that are of a moral disposition, and no