The Beauty of Holiness, Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
THe second use is for Instruction, Sanctitati d…betur reverentia. Les. I…e foreign ab foreign, colo, …en ror; q. d. …b puritatem cole… dus & …nera …us. A Lap.and that ten waies.
1. We learn to adore and admire the transcendent purity of God, which appeares in all his Attributes. Excellency cals for reverence and admiration; we admire great Princes and Potentates when we see them in their glorious Robes, stately Palaces, and honourable attendance; and shall we not admire the glory of the King of Kings, before whom the Angels stand with reverence and fear? It is meer Atheism to forget the Lord daies without number, & to have him seldom in our thoughts; when we can passe over his glorious works of mercy, power, providence, and justice, without due observation. 'Twill be our wisdom to eye and observe When there be divisions, ruines, plunde…ings …n a Kingdom, the…e i… a wheel in those wheels, a providence that acts & orders them. Green….his holinesse and wisdom in all those crosse workings of providence, both towards our selves and the Nations: He hath a wheel in the wheels, Ezek. 1. 16. When we think the wheels go backward, he can make them go forward; and those waies which we think will ruine the Nations, he can make them a means to raise them; this is the way to true wisdom, and to understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord, Psal. 107. 43. This is the principall end why God created man (viz.) that he might acknowledge & set forth his praise in the world, and declare his glorious holinesse and excellency. This is the work of the Angels in heaven, Isa. 6. 3. they cry, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; and this is the work of all Gods people thorow the world, Rev. 4. 8. The summe of all that which the Catholick Church dispersed over all the world doth, is to sing and agnize the sanctity and holinesse of the great God; it is their constant imployment; they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, which is, and is to come. Then we are said to sanctifie him, not by adding any holinesse to him, but declaratively, when we proclaim his holinesse, and acknowledge it both in our hearts and lives, this he accounts as a sanctifying o… his great▪ Name. We should therefore set apart sōe time to meditate on Gods absolute perfection and excellency, we should admire him & commend him to our selves, till we can expe…ntally say with David. Ps. 86. 8. Among the Gods there is none like thee O Lord! We should glory in him; & whē the world boasts of their houses, lands, riches, friends, &c. do thou make thy boast of the Lord, and challenge them all to shew such a Lord and Master of such transcendent purity and perfection as thy God is of.
2. If the Lord be thus glorious in holinesse, then we should set our affections on him; love him, fear him, desire him and trust in him. We must love him with all our heart, with the highest inten…ion of affection, prizing his favour Intensive & appretiative, Affectu & Effectu, super, omnia desiderabilia desideremus eum. Les.above ten thousand worlds. We may and must love holy men, and the better any man is the more we must love him; but there is none holy as the Lord, therefore we must love none equally with him: We may love the drop, and love the sea; but our love to the drop must not be equal with our love to the sea. We must love God simply for himself, and other things in relation to him. The more excellent any thing is, the greater object it is of our desire: now Gods excellency is infinite, & therefore he is an object worthy of our choicest See more Burrou…s Gratious spi. p. 285, 286, &c.love and veneration.
3. Dost want purity? thou seest whither thou must go for it; even to God who is the fountain of holinesse. Whither should we go for water but to the sea? or for light, but to the sun? All purity is in God, and none to be had out of him: So that what James (1. 5.) saith of wisdom, is true of sanctification, If any man lack it, let him ask it of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbra deth none, either for present defects, or former failings. Go not to men, go not to creatures, who are cisterns, broken …cisterns; but go to God, who is a fountain, a living fountain, having all excellencies in himself, originally and abundantly. The diseased woman spent all she had upon Physitians, yet remained uncured till she came to Christ, Mark. 5. 25, 26. Hence the Lord to encourage us to the work hath promised, Ezek. 36. 25, &c. that from all our Idols, and from all our filthinesse he will cleanse us: But we must not then sit still, and think to have such a jewell without some pains; we must beg it, and beg it earnestly at Gods hand, who hath said he will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them, v. 37. Spare to speak and you shall never speed; You must ask for holinesse before ever you can have it: if asking will not do, you must seek more earnestly; if seeking will not do, Matth. 7. 7.you must knock with violence till God hear you; it is a gradation and implies fervour of spirit; it is not a simple repetition Hac vis grata D…o est. Tertul.; God loves to see his people impor…unate for spiritual blessings.
4. Dost finde any purity wrought in thy soul? Know to whom thou must ascribe it, even to the God of holinesse. James 1. 17. Every good and perfect gift Naturae depravationem no: potest reparare, n…sae author naaturae. Fabritius …comes from above. Purity grows not in natures garden, we do not gather such grapes of thorns; and therefore if thou finde any measure of sanctification in truth begun in thy soul, praise the holy One of Israel for it, Psal. 71. 22. 99. 9. He hath given thee that which will stand thee in more stead, then if he had given thee all the Kingdoms of the world.
5. Dost see holinesse in others? Oh let not thine eye be evil because Gods is Omnes plurimi … e…s qui lu… cent luce ha… mundana; quanti igitur faciendi qui lucenl caelestiilla luce! Rol loc. in Ioh. 7. 36.good, but love it, prize it, honour it for the givers sake: we should be so farre from envying, that we should wish that all the Lords people were holy. Hast thou a son, a daughter, a servant, a neighbour, that begin to make conscience of their waies? do not censure them vex them, hinder and upbraid them, like the Pharisees, that would neither go to heaven themselves, nor suffer others: but pray for them, comfort, quicken and encourage them in the way and work of the Lord; it will not repent you when you come into your Kingdom. To rejoyce in the holinesse of others makes us like the Angels of heaven; when envying at the graces of others, makes us like the devils in hell.
6. This may humble us in all our approaches to this high and holy One; Dei cognitio gignit in nobis humilitatem; videt hic quantum distet a Deo, quam parum, imo quam nihil sit. A Lap.when we seriously consider his absolute purity and our impurity; his righteousnesse, and our unrighteousnesse; his Majesty, and our misery; this will make us little in our own eyes, and to come with fear and trembling before him: Many when they come to pray, hear, &c. they come as to a Fair or to a Market, to see and to be seen; they sleep when they should hear, they dresse and pray, wash and pray, work and pray; durst they do thus to a Prince? Did people but consider into what a presence they come, when they come to Gods Ordinances, they would quake and tremble when they come: And if so holy a man as Moses did exceedingly quake and tremble when he came near the Lord, Heb. 12. 21. And when the Seraphims proclaimed the thrice holy God, Isaiah cries presently, Wo is me, for I am undone; though he were an holy man, and free from the grosse sins of the time, yet the sense of his originall uncleannesse made him faint, when he had but a glimpse of this most holy God. Oh then, How dreadfull will the sight of this Holy, Holy, Holy One be to such as lie still in the dreggs of nature, meer lumps of sinne and masses of uncleanness!
7. Do not murmurre at his dispensations towards thy self, or the Church of God; for he is perfectly holy in all his waies, and righteous in all his works; he is holinesse it selfe, and can do no iniquity. Hence we are commanded to praise him for his holinesse, Psal. 99. 3. Let the people praise thy great & terrible Name; Why? for it is holy: q. d. Though the Lord be great in power, and terrible in his dispensations to us, yet they all call for praise, because in them all he doth manifest himself to be holy, just and righteous in all his waies and works towards us: Upon this account we ought to exalt him, Psal. 99. 4, 5, 9. Exalt the Lord. Why so? for he is holy in all his administrations to his people: and therfore when thou art brought low, do not murmur, but let thy soul keep silence to Jehovah, for he is the righteous Lord, and can do no iniquity. Carnall fathers may chastise according to their pleasure, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holinesse, Heb. 12. 10 Say then in the midst of all thy trials, with David, Psal. 119. 137. Righteous art thou Lord, and iust are thy iudgements: for though they may be secret, yet they are alwaies just: And this upheld David when he was in distresse, and cried night and day, but the Lord heard not, Psal. 22. 1, 2. yet v 3: But thou art holy; thou art righteous and just in thy dealings with me, therefore I submit to thy dispensations chearfully.
8. Beware of offending so holy a God. It aggravates a mans sin to abuse some eminent holy man, that is just and upright in all his waies, ever doing us good, and tender over us: But for sinfull man to abuse and provoke the most high and holy God, who never wronged us, but renews his mercy every morning, &c. is a very sad aggravation of our sin; especially considering the basenesse of him that offends, and the excellenty of him that is offended. When David would shew the great indignity offered to him, he tels us that the base dru…kards made songs and ballads of him; And Job complains of the injuries that were done to him by base and worthlesse persons: There might be some comparison between David and Job, and those that abused them; but who art thou base sinful dust and ashes, that settest thy self against thy God, thy Maker, whom miriads of Angels reverence and adore? This is that which makes thy sins objectively infinite, because committed against a God of infinite Majesty and Holinesse; and therefore let none presume to sin against him, for he hates sin wherever he findes it; even where he loves the person, yet he'l punish their iniquity, as we see in Moses, Aaron, Eli, Hezekiah, David, Solomon, Sampson, Jonah, Zachary, &c. their sins are more displeasing: The indignities of a friend go nearer to us then the abuses of an enemy: It troubled David, Psal. 55. Lo thus was I wounded in the house of my friend. And the Lord complains, Isa. 1. that he had nourished and brought up children, and lo they had rebelled against him. As Caesar said to his son, when he came with the rest and wounded him, What? and thou my son Brutus, art thou one that woundest me too? Relations abused turn to the greatest fury: If Gods own will be so bold as to sin, God will be so bold as to let the world see that he will punish them for their sin. Weeds in the wilderness we can bear with, but not in our gardens. Dung is good in our fields, but not so in our Parlours. God calls his Church Jehovah Shammah, Ezek. 48. ult. The Lord is there. So long as his people walk answerable to their principles and priviledges, the Lord is there to assist, protect & comfort them, to plead their cause, and fight their battels for them, making their enemies to submit unto them, Psal. 81. 12, 13. But if his people rebell against him, he will be terrible in the assembly of his Saints: Judgement shall begin at his house, Ezek. 9. 6. and those whom he hath known above others, shall be pu…ished before others, Amos 3. 2.
9. Chuse him for your portion, get interest 'Tis said of T. Aquinas that as he was kneeling at prayer, he heard a voice, saying, Bene de me scr…psisti Thoma; quam ergo mercedem accipies? resp▪ Thomas, Nullam, Domine, n…si Teipsum.and propriety in him; have him and you have all. He that hath the Mine cannot want gold; and he that hath God for his God, cannot want goods, riches, grace, &c. because all these are in God eminently and transcendently; he is God All-sufficient, Gen. 17. 1. able to satisfie all the desires of our soules; finite things cannot satisfie our infinite desires; he hath made our hearts for himself, and none but he that made them can satisfie them: True happinesse and contentednesse is to be found in him alone. Chuse him for your Lord and Master, become servants Persectio creaturae est parere crea▪ tori.to him, prefer his service before all the Crowns and Kingdoms of the world. The greater the Prince, the more noble the service. It is more noble to be tenant to this thrice holy God, then to be King of all the world: as 'tis more noble to be the Princes favourite, then to be shepheard of a flock of sheep. This made that famous Bucholtzer to tell his friends who blamed him for stooping so low as to teach a School, that he preferred that service before a kingdom. Let us spend our selves and all we have for his honour, we cannot serve a better Master. As Christ was Totus in nostros suus expensus, wholly laid out for us, so it is but reason that we should wholly lay out our selves for him again.
10. Imitate God: Tis his will that we should resemble him in the beauties of holinesse. We are apt to imitate Regis ad exemplum, &c.great men, especially if they can advance us: Oh that we would imitate the great God, and learn to be holy because he is holy. Naturally man desireth to be like God, and therefore the serpent useth this argument to perswade our first Parents to eat of the Similitudo moris, ratio amor…s. Aquinas 1. 2. q. 99. art. 2.forbidden fruit, because they should be like unto God, and so in a better condition; for the more like unto God we are, the better, and the more he delights in us; I may truly say, Tast of this commanded fruit of holinesse, and ye shall be like unto God, and live with him for ever. Children are apt to imi…ate their fathers: God is our holy fa…her, Tantó quisq Deo sim lior, quanto ab immūditia mundior. August.John 17. 11. and if we will be his …ons and daughters, we must imitate …im in purity, and follow him as dear …hildren, Ephes. 51. 'Tis the excellency Quo quis est sanctior timem iorque Dei, …o etiam maiori Deum amore complectitur. Zanchy. Quo quid similius Deo, eo mel…us.…f the creature to resemble its Creator; …e more like to him, the better. Let us …rite after this Copy, make him our …ule, and we shall never go astray. If …en be to study an Art, they will chuse …e best and choicest Author for their …itation. Those that would be excel…t Orators do propound to them…ves a Cicero, or a Demosthenes for …eir pattern. None holy as the Lord, …d therefore none so fit a pattern for Deus vult nos imita…i non ejus omnipotentiam, omniscientiam, &c. sed bonitatem & sanctitatem. A Lap.to imitate as He. Gods other Artri…es of Omnipotency, Eternity, Sim…city, &c. call for Adoration, Reve…ce and Admiration, but his holi…sse cals for our imitation, Be ye holy, … I am holy.