292 SERMONS uroN JOHN xviT. [Ser. XVI.
approbation, the effect of his operation ; he Avorketh holiness, and ho delightcth in it. ' Holy Father,' that art holy in thy essence, holy in thy influences, holy in thy dispensations, ' sanctify them by the truth ;' thou that abhorrest all that is evil, workcst all that is good, 'keeptliem from tlie evil,' God hateth sin as much as we do, and infinitely more ; and therefore it is some hope that he will help us against it.
Doct. When we deal with God in prayer, especially for grace and sanctification, we must look upon him as a holy Father.
1. I will open the holiness of God. Holiness implieth a freedom from sin and defilement ; a7io?, from the privative particle a and 7?}, terra in whom there is no earth, no pollution, but all heavenly purity. When God speaketh to us he crieth out, Jer. xxii.29, ' 0 earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.' We are earth in our understand- ings, in our affections, in our practices. But when the seraphims speak to God, they cry, 'Holy, holy, holy;' as if it were said, 'Without earth, without earth, without earth.' Briefly, God's holiness is an attribute by which we understand his essence to be most perfectly just and pure ; at the utmost distance from sin and weakness ; loving and liking himself above all, and the creatures, as they do more or less par- take of his glory. Now God is called, ' The holy one ;' not an holy one, but the holy one : 1 Sam. ii. 2, ' There is none holy as the Lord.' He doth not say, There is none holy but the Lord, but there is none holy as the Lord. Therefore let us see the difference between the holi- ness of God and the holiness of the creatures. This is an argument fit for a seraphim ; it becometh an angel's mouth rather than man's ; the angels, that come nearer to God in essence, can best proclaim his holiness. But our ear hath received a little thereof. ' None is holy as the Lord ;' because God is essentially holy, infinitely hoi}'', and originally holy.
[1.] He is essentially holy. God is not only holy, but holiness itself, goodness itself ; it is his very essence. The creatures, when they are holy, they are holy according to the law ; the holiness of angels or men is a conformity to the law of their creation ; as we say he is holy whose heart and life doth exactly agree with God's law. But God's will is his rule, his essence is his law, and therefore all his actions are neces- sarily holy. The divine esse and being, as it is the beginning of all beings, so it is the rule of all moral perfections. All created holiness is but a resemblance of God's, either a conformity to God's nature, or a conformity to God's will. Habitual holiness is a conformity to God's nature, actual holiness is a conformity to God's will ; his will is the rule, his nature is the pattern. But now God is a rule to himself; there are no eternal reasons of good and evil beyond God. Things are not first holy, and then God doeth them ; but God doetli them, and therefore they are holy ; he himself is his own rule. Any one may err that hath not the rule of righteousness in himself; God's act is his rule, therefore he cannot sin. The hand of the artificer failetli often in cutting, because his hand is not the rule by which he worketli ; there is a rule or line without him ; sometimes he striketh right, some- times wrong. If the hand of a man were the rule, it were impossible he should work amiss. There is a rule prescribed to angels and men ; their will is one thing, their rule another, for no creature is holy by its
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 293
own essence. This notion is of practical use ; there is holiness in all that Cometh from God ; when he aftlicteth us, and our friends, or suf- fereth us to be unjustly afflicted hymen ; when he spareth our enemies, multiplieth oiu' sorrows, his act is his rule ; God's will is the supreme reason of all things. Again, holiness in us is an accessary quality, a superadded gift ; our essence may remain when holiness is gone. Now holiness in God is not a quality, but his essence. The angelical essence continueth when holiness is lost, as in the devils. So the man remaineth when the saint is fled ; but in God, his essence and his holiness are the same. This is of practical use to humble the creature. Sin is con- trary to the very nature of God ; it is not only contrary to our interests, but to God's nature. A man hatetli that exceedingly which is con- trary to his nature. Now in our corrupt natures there is a direct contrariety to the nature of God. Actual sins are but a blow and away. Original sin is a standing contrariety ; there is a settled enmity between God and us. Similitude is the ground of likeness ; ^ the aversation of a man from a trade, and other antipathies are bat a faint resemblance of this.