CHAP, I.] CONSIDERATION OF THE NATURE OF GOD. 675
tliey see any thing in him that should give them rest or satisfaction ; nor can there be any medium whereby God should communicate him- self unto them, supposing them to continue thus unholy, as all must do who depart out of this life in that condition. Holiness, indeed, is perfected in heaven, but the beginning of it is invariably and un- alterably confined to this world ; and where this fails, no hand shall be put unto that work unto eternity. All unholy persons, therefore, who feed and refresh themselves with hopes of heaven and eternity do it merely on false notions of God and blessedness, whereby they deceive themselves. Heaven is a place where as well they would not be as they cannot be ; in itself it is neither desired by them nor fit for them. " He that hath this hope" indeed, that he shall see God, " purifieth himself, even as he is pure," 1 John iii. 2, S. There is, therefore, a manifold necessity of holiness imjaressed on us from the consideration of the nature of that God whom we serve and hope to enjoy, which is holy.
I cannot pass over this consideration without making some espe- cial improvement of it. We have seen how all our concernment and interest in God, both here and hereafter, do depend on our being holy. They invented a very effectual means for the prejudicing, yea, in- deed, a fatal engine for the ruin, of true holiness in the world, who built it on no other bottom, nor pressed it on any other motive, but that the acts and fruits of it were meritorious in the sight of God ; for whether this be believed and complied withal or not, true holi- ness is ruined if no other more effectual reason be substituted in its room. Reject this motive, and there is no need of it; which I am persuaded hath really taken place in many, who, being taught that good deeds are not meritorious, have concluded them useless. Com- ply with it, and you destroy the nature of true holiness, and turn all the pretended duties of it into fruits and effects of spiritual pride and blind superstition. But we see the necessity of it with respect unto God hath other foundations, suited unto and consistent with the grace, and love, and mercy of the gospel. And we shall fully show in our progress, that there is not one motive unto it, that is of any real force or efficacy, but perfectly complies with the whole doc- trine of the free, undeserved grace of God towards us by Jesus Christ; nor is there any of them which gives the least countenance unto any thing of worth in ourselves, as from ourselves, or that should take us off from an absolute and universal dependence on Christ for life and salvation. But yet such they are as render it as necessary unto us to be holy, — that is, to be sanctified, — as to be justified. He that thinks to please God and to come to the enjoyment of him without holi- ness makes him an unholy God, putting the highest indignity and dishonour imaginable upon him. God deliver poor sinners from this
576 NECESSITY OF HOLINESS FROM THE [BOOK V.
deceit! There is no remedy; you must leave your sins or your God. You may as easily reconcile heaven and hell, the one remaining heaven and the other hell, as easily take away all difference between light and darkness, good and evil, as procure acceptance for unholy persons with our God. Some live without God in the world ; whether they have any notion of his being or no is not material. They live without any regard unto him, either as unto his present rule over them or his future disposal of them. It is no wonder if holiness, both name and thing, be universally despised by these persons, their design beins: to serve their lusts to the utmost, and immerse them- selves in the jDleasures of the world, without once taking God into their thoughts; they can do no otherwise. But for men who live under some . constant sense of God and an eternal accountableness unto him, and thereon do many things he requires, and abstain fi'om many sins that their inclinations and opportunities would suggest and prompt them unto, not to endeavour after that universal holiness which alone will be accepted with him, is a deplorable folly. Such men seem to worship an idol all their days; for he that doth not en- deavour to be like unto God doth contrarily wickedly think that God is like unto himself It is true, our interest in God is not built upon our holiness; but it is as true that we have none without it. Were this jsrincijile once well fixed in the minds of men, that with- out holiness no man shall see God, and that enforced from the con- sideration of the nature of God himself, it could not but influence them unto a greater diligence about it than the most seem to be engaged in.
There is, indeed, amongst us a great plea for 'morality, or for moral virtue; — I wish it be more out of love to virtue itself and a conviction of its usefulness than out of a design to cast contempt on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel, as it is declared by the faithful dispensers of it. However, we are bound to believe the best of all men. "Where we see those who so ^Dlead for moral virtue to be in their own persons, and in their lives, modest, sober, humble, patient, self-denying, charitable, useful towards all, we are obliged to believe that their pleas for moral virtue proceed from a love and liking of it; but where men are proud, furious, worldly, revengeful, profane, intemperate, covetous, ambitious, I cannot so well understand their declamations about virtue. Onl}^, I would for the present inquire what it is that they intend by their morality. Is it the renovation of the image of God in us by grace? is it our conformity from thence unto him in his holiness? is it our being holy in all manner of holiness, because God is holy? is it the acting of our souls in all duties of obedience, from a principle of faith and love, according to the will of God, whereby we have communion