1st. What success this design prosecuted hath had in others. How quickly did it degenerate into wretched superstition, and was thereon blasted and rej ected of God !
Idly. God can suffer temptation to pursue us into a wilderness, that shall more obstruct us in the progress of holiness than all the difficulties we meet Avithal in this world. It is not of what kind our temptations are, but what assistance we are to expect under them, that we are to look after.
3dly. Not our communion [our intercourse with men], but God's work, is to be considered. God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off his authority. Universal holiness is required of us, that we may do the will of God in our generation, Gen. vi. 9. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do ; and not to help him, is to oppose him.
[3.] Take heed of laying a design for holiness in a subserviency unto any carnal interest, — of crying, with Jehu, " Come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts," — thereby to do our own work and compass our own ends. The great scandal that hath befallen the days wherein we live, and which hath hardened the spirits of many against all the ways of God, is, that religion, godliness, zeal, holiness, have been made a cloak for carnal and secular ends. What of this hath been really given, and what hath been taken on false imaginations, the last day will discover. In the meantime this is certain, that there is a corruption in the heart of man, rising up to such a visible prostitu-
172 PROVIDENTIAL CHANGES,
tion of the whole pi'ofession of religion, — Avhich of all things must be carefully avoided.
And this is the grand exhortation that I shall insist on : Let it be o.ur design to promote generation -holiness in ourselves and others, with the cautions insisted on.
(2.) That which in the next place is considerable, is the proposing of the ingredients that lie in the motive to holiness, here expressed by the apostle, " Seeing that these things shall be dissolved." As, —
[1.] It will be a furtherance of holiness, to take off our hearts from an esteem and valuation of all things that are so obnoxious to disso- lution. An estimation or valuation of earthly things is on all accounts the greatest hinderance to the promotion of holiness. Earthly- mindedness, pride of spirit, elation above our brethren, self- estima- tion, carnal confidence, contempt of the wisdom and grace of others, aptness to wrath and anger, — some or all of these always accompany such a frame.
The apostle also makes this an effectual means of the improvement of holiness, — that the mind be taken off from the delightful contem- plation of visible things, 2 Cor. iv. 18. Things will work towards " a weight of glory," (in which words the apostle alludes to the Hebrew word Tl^?, " glory," which comes from a root signifying to " weigh," or " to be heavy;" that being the only weighty thing, and all others light and of no moment ;) — this way, I say, things will work, whilst our minds are taken off from things that are seen. The mind's valua- tion of them is as great an obstruction to the growth of holiness as any thing whatever that can beset us in our pilgrimage. Now, what can give a greater allay to the warmth of our thoughts and minds, than their continual obnoxiousness to dissolution and change ? This the apostle makes his argument everywhere. " They are temporal things," saith he, " things that abide not, things obnoxious to change and ruin. The world passeth away, and the figure of it. Wilt thou set thine heart upon that which is not?" And there lies the force of the inference under consideration: "Seeing that these things shall be dissolved," — and it may be in a way of judgment, in a dreadful, fearful manner, — how is it incumbent on us to fix our hearts on more durable things, to choose the better part, the better portion! What advantage can it be to enlarge our hearts to the love of the things that are upon the wing? — to cleave to parting things with our affections? — to grow in our desires after that which withdraws itself from us continually? Let us, then, consider how many duties have been omitted, — how many temptations have been offered and objected to us, — how many spiritual frames of heart prevented or expelled, — how much looseness and vanity of mind introduced, — how much self- confidence promoted, — by an over-valuation of these things ; and we
AN ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSAL HOLINESS. 173
shall then see what influence a watching against it may have to the furtherance of a design of holiness.
[2.] It will be so, to take off our care about them. This also is a worm that lies at the root of obedience, and is of itself able to wither it, if not removed. Our Lord Jesus Christ, giving us instruction how we should be prepared for the coming of such a day as that whereof we are speaking, charges us, among other things, to take heed that we " be not overcharged with the cares of this life," Luke xxi. 34. Indeed, there is nothing so opposite to that peculiar holiness and godliness that is required of us, in and under great providential dis- solutions, as this of care about perishing things. The special holiness that we press after is a due mixture of faith, love, self-denial, fruit- fulness, — all working in a peculiar and eminent manner. Now, to every one of these is this care a canker and a gangrene, fitted to eat out and devour the life and spirit of them. The very nature of faith consists in a universal casting of our care on God, 1 Pet. v. 7, " Cast all your care on him." All our care about temporal, spiritual, eternal things, let us cast all this on God, — our whole burden. This is believ- ing, this is faith: and what is more opposite unto it than this care and solicitousness of the soul about the obtaining or retaining of these things ? Resignation, acquiescency, rest, — all which are acts or effects of faith, — are devoured by it. Trust in God, affiance, delight in his will, — [it] ruins them all. How can a soul glorify God in believing in a difficult season, that is overlaid with this distemper. Nothing is more diametrically opposite thereunto.