CHAPTER XIII.

CHRISTIAN HOLINESS.

1. The true measure of holiness.-2. The nature of holiness.-3. Holy affections to God.-4. Holy affections to man.-5. Personal holiness.-6. The defects of our holiness.-7. The means by which holiness is attained.

1. THE TRUE MEASURE OF HOLINESS.

ALL scripture teaches, and all experience proves, that man is in a sinful and evil state; full of unholy feelings and desires; afar off from God, and delighting in vain things that cannot profit. How is this sinful and evil creature to be recovered from his polluted state, and brought into a holy and happy condition? How is he to be made meet to dwell with God, and to be a companion of and equal with angels, and among the spirits of just men made perfect?

The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is the provision of God's mercy, wisdom, and loving kindness for this great change. Its object is to raise men from their present ruined state as sinners, to the exalted

character of saints, that they may be really blessed through eternity. All the doctrines, promises, threatenings, warnings, and precepts of the gospel have this end in view.

But let us rather direct our attention to the view given us in the scriptures of the divine excellence and glory, as the motive and measure for our holiness. I am the Lord your God, ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy, for I am holy Lev. xi. 44. This is often repeated. Lev. xix. 2; xx. 7, 26. And it is pressed upon us in the New Testament. As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. 1 Peter i. 15, 16.

"The holiness of God," observes Mr. Wisheart, "is that wherein the divine excellence does chiefly consist. Therefore it is the most frequent epithet given to his name in scripture. We never read mighty name or wise name, but frequently holy name. This is his great title of honour, that wherein the divine majesty is most illustrious. The holiness of God is his glory and beauty. Therefore he is said to be glorious in holiness. He is mighty in power and rich in grace, but glorious in holiness. It renders him glorious to himself, and glorious to all that understand what holiness is. The seraphims and the four living creatures praise his holiness, saying, holy, holy, holy. We do not find any other attribute thus thrice repeated; it is never said wise, wise, wise; or merciful, merciful, merciful. Hence it is also that God singles out this attribute to swear by, as eminently marking its peculiar excellency. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David."

Holiness being the glory of God is also the excel

lence and happiness of which he would have us to be full partakers and sharers. He is that overflowing fountain of goodness and blessedness, which never ceases to bless others and with a fuller design of making them a blessing.

What, then, is the divine holiness: the holiness of God? Indeed we cannot fathom its full glory, as all that concerns God is infinitely beyond our highest thoughts. It may be viewed, in regard to outward things, as altogether without defect, perfectly pure and free from all evil. Thus he is said to be a God of truth and without iniquity. Deut. xxxii. 4. Nothing is farther from God than that he should do wickedness, and from the Almighty than that he should do iniquity. Job xxxiv. 10. There is no unrighteousness in him. Psalm xcii. 15. He utterly abhors all wickedness. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. Hab. i. 13. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 1 John i. 5. He says to Israel, speaking of their wickedness, O do not this abominable thing that I hate. Jer. xliv. 4. Even his own creatures, when yielding to sin, incur his hatred, Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Psalm v. 5. Nor does he, though he permits it and overrules it, will and absolutely ordain it: but the very reverse. bids it most earnestly; he tempts no man to it. James i. 13, 14. Nor is any man obliged to it but by his own corrupt will. If Esau sins it is by his own choice. If Pharaoh is hardened, he first hardens himself by his own wilful rebellion against God's repeated commands. Speaking of these things the Apostle asks, Is there unrighteousness with God? and he repels it with abhorrence-God forbid. Romans

ix. 14.

He for

But it is not merely an outward holiness in separation from sin; God has internal and essential holiness; holiness in his own nature and being; self-existent, and the very character of his glory. So that his name is altogether, holy, just, and good; his will is altogether holy. Hooker beautifully observes, Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High, whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of his name, yet our soundest knowledge is, to know that we know him not as indeed he is, neither can know him, and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence, when we confess without confession, that his glory is inexplicable, his greatness above our capacity and reach. The work and operations of God have him both for their worker and for the law whereby they are wrought. The being of God is a kind of law to his workings; for that perfection which God is, gives perfection to that which he does. All those things which are done by God have some end for which they are done. The general end of God's external working is the exercise of his most glorious and abundant virtue. The Lord hath made

all things for his own sake; not that any thing is made to be beneficial unto him, but all things for him to shew beneficence and grace in them.

things, not only according to his own

He works all

will, but the

counsel of his own will. Eph. i. 11. They err, therefore, who think that of the will of God to do, this or that, there is no reason besides his will."

This holiness of God is in fact his conformity to his own essential goodness. It is the union of light and love in the one Jehovah; but his revealed will is the discovery to us of that essential goodness. His

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holiness lies not in imitating the holiness of others, but the holiness of all others consists in their resemblance to perfection of goodness and beauty.

Holiness and blessedness are inseparably one. God is called the blessed God (1 Tim. i. 11), as the perfectly happy one. His happiness is in his perfect purity and holiness. When God says to us, Be ye holy, as I am holy, he says, Come and share my happiness; be heirs of God; have me for your portion and inheritance.

To know the excellence of the divine nature, and to rejoice in it, is the very spring of holiness. It is the one thing which the cherubim and seraphim, the angels, and glorified hosts are unceasingly contemplating, admiring, and praising, (Isaiah vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8.) Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Holiness is therefore the crown and perfection of the divine attributes. It is, in truth, our security against the misery which sin occasions; it is our assurance that we shall in due time be free from all sin; it is that which will ultimately unite all the redeemed creatures of God in perfect harmony with each other, and with the divine will, and therefore in perfect happiness.

The holiness of God, then, is our great model and pattern. And that we might have a clear, sensible, perfect, and living manifestation of this, the only begotten of the Father, the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, became man, both to atone for our guilt, and by the precious promises of his free salvation to raise us from our sinful state, and also by his own holy life, to be a perfect pattern and a sure guide for our conduct, that we might become partakers of the divine nature.