tions which they have from the devil, that worketh so mightily in them; he tells us he that will live godly shall be persecuted; downright godliness is the butt they level their arrows at. Again, observe the kind of godliness at which their blood rises, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus. There are more sorts of holiness and godliness in the world than one; but all may have fair quarter at the devil's hands, except this godliness in Christ Jesus. The devil hath an implacable malice against Christ; he hates, as I may so say, every letter of his name; that godliness which is learnt of him, and derived from him, he opposeth to death. Christian blood is sweet to his tooth, but the blood of the Christian's godliness is far sweeter. He had rather, if he could, kill that than them, rather draw the Christian from his godliness, than butcher him for it; yet that he may not stand out, he will play at small game, and express his cruelty upon their bodies, but it is when he cannot come at their souls: "they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain." Heb. xi. 37. That which these bloody men principally desired was to draw them into sin, and make apostates of them; and therefore they tempted them before they slew them. The devil accounts that the complete victory when he can despoil them of their armour, and bribe them from their steadfastness in their holy profession. "Let her be defiled, and let her eye look up to Zion." Micah. iv. 7. he had rather see saints defiled with unrighteousness and sin, than defiled with their blood and gore. Persecution, he hath learned, doth but mow the church, which afterward comes up the thicker for it; it is unholiness that ruins it. Persecutors do but plough God's field for him, while he is sowing it with the blood that they let out; but profaneness, that roots it up, and lays all waste, consciences and churches also.

CHAP. V.

THE THIRD REASON, TAKEN FROM THE EXCELLENCY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS.

THIRDLY, In regard of holiness itself; the incomparable excellency whereof commands us to pursue it, and endeavour after it with our utmost care and strength.

First, It is an excellency peculiar to the rational creature. Inferior creatures have a goodness proper to them, but intellectual beings are only capable of an inward holiness. God saw every creature he made to be good, only angels and man to be holy; and if we part with holiness that is our crown, we become worse than the beasts themselves; yea it is holiness and righteousness that makes one man differ from another in God's account. We go by a false rate, when we value men by their external advantages. All stand on a level as to God, till holiness be superadded. Princes, in whom is seated the sovereign power, claim as their prerogative to set the just value on all coin, what every piece shall go for, this a penny, and that a pound; much more surely doth it belong to God to rate his creatures; and he tells us, "the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour." Prov. xii. "The tongue of the just is as choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is little worth." Prov. x. 20. The Spirit of God compares the righteous to silver and gold, the most precious of metals, which above all other metals are of such account that only money made of silver and gold is current in all countries: holiness will go in both words; but external excellencies, such as worldly riches, honours, &c. like leather and brass money, are of no esteem but in this beggarly lower world.

Secondly, It is holiness that is, though not our plea, yet our evidence for Heaven: "without holiness none shall see God." Heaven is a city where righteousness dwells; though God suffers the earth to bear for a while unholy men (which it doth not without sweating under their weight, and groaning to be rid of this load), yet sure he will never pester Heaven with such a crew. Before

Enoch was translated to Heaven he walked holily with God on earth, which made God desire his company so soon. O friends! do we like an empty profession, such a religion as will leave us short of Heaven? or can we reasonably expect a dispensation above others, that we should commence glorified creatures in Heaven, without keeping our acts, and performing the exercises of godliness, which God hath laid upon those that will stand candidates for that place? Certainly what God had writ in his Word as to this shall stand. He will not make a blot in his decrees for any; which he would did he alter the method of salvation in the least. Either we must therefore renounce our hopes of coming thither, or resolve to walk in the path of holiness that will lead us thither. That is vain breath which sets not the sails of our affections going, and our feet travelling thither, where we would be at last.

Thirdly, It is holiness, and that maintained in its power, that capacitates us for communion with God in this life. Communion with God is so desirable, that many pretend to it that know not what it means; like some that brag of their acquaintance with such a great man, who may be never saw his face, or were admitted into his company; the Spirit of God gives the lie to that man who saith he hath any acquaintance with God, while he keeps his acquaintance with any unrighteousness: "If we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie.” 1 John i. 6. The Apostle is willing to pass for a loud liar himself, if he walks in darkness, and pretends to have fellowship with God. How can they walk together that are not agreed? communion is founded on union, and union upon likeness. And how like are God and the devil, holiness and unrighteousness, one to the other? There is a vast difference between conversing with ordi nances, and having communion with God. A man may have great acquaintance with ordinances, and be a great stranger to God at the same time: every one that goes to court, and hangs about the palace, doth not speak with the prince; and what sorry things are ordinances without this communion with God? Ordinances are as it were the Exchange, where holy souls trade with God by

his Spirit for heavenly treasures, from which they come filled and enriched with grace and comfort. Now what does the unholy wretch? truly like some idle persons that come and walk among merchants on the Exchange, but have no business there, or commerce whereby they get any advantage. An unholy heart hath no dealings with God; he takes no notice of God; may be, to be sure, God takes no such notice of him as to communicate himself graciously to him. Nay, suppose a person habitually holy, but under the power of some temptation for the present, whereby he defiles himself, he is in this case unfit to have any friendly communion with God. "A righteous man falling down before the wicked, is (saith Solomon) as a troubled fountain, and a corrupt spring," Prov. xxv. 26. much more is he so when he falls down before the wicked one, and yields to his temptation; now his spirit is foul and nuddied; and if we will not use the water of a spring, though in itself pure and wholesome, when it is troubled, or drink of that vessel that runs thick, but stay while it be settled and comes clear; can we wonder if God refuseth to taste of those duties which a godly person performs, before the stream be cleared, by the renewing of his repentance for his sin?

Fourthly, Holiness in the power of it is necessary to the true peace and repose of the soul. I do not say our peace is bottomed on the righteousness of our nature, or holiness of our lives, yet it is ever attended with these: "no peace to the wicked, saith my God." We may as soon make the sea always still, as an unholy heart truly quiet. From whence come the intestine wars in men's bosoms, that set them at variance with themselves, but from their own lusts? these break the peace, and keep the man in a continual tempest. As the spirit of holiness comes into the heart, and the sceptre of Christ, which is a sceptre of righteousness, bears sway in the life, so the storm abates more and more, till it be quite down, which will not be while we are short of Heaven; there only is perfect rest, because perfect holiness. Whence those frights and fears, which make them a Magor Missabib, terror round about, they wake and sleep with the scent of Hell-fire about them continually? O it is their

unholy course and unrighteous ways that walks in their thoughts, as John's ghost in Herod's. This makes men discontented in every condition; they neither can relish the sweetness of their enjoyments, nor bear the bitter taste of their afflictions. I know there are ways to stupify the conscience, and bind up for a time the senses of an unholy heart, that it shall not feel its own misery but the virtue of this opium is soon spent, and then the wretch is upon the rack again, and his horror returns upon him with a greater paroxysm; an example whereof I have heard. A notorious drunkard, who used, when told of his ungodly life, to shake off all the threatenings of the Word, that his friends would have fastened on his conscience, as easily as Paul did the viper from his hand, bearing himself upon a presumptuous hope of the mercy of God in Christ; it pleased God to lay him some while after on his back by sickness, which for a time scared his old companions, brethren with him in iniquity, from visiting him; but hearing he was cheerly and pleasant in his sickness, ventured to see him, whom they found very confident of the mercy of God, whereby their hands were much strengthened in their old ways; but, before he died, this tune was changed to purpose, his vain hopes vanished, his guilty conscience awakened, and the poor wretch, roasted in the scorching flames of his former ungodly practices, now ready to die, cries out despairingly, "O sirs, I had prepared a plaister, and thought all was well, but now it will stick no longer;" his guilty conscience rubbed it off as fast as he clapped it on. truly, friends, you will find the blood of Christ himself will not cleave to a soul that is in league with any way of sin and unrighteousness; God will pluck such from the horns of this altar that fly to it, but not from their unrighteousness, and slay them in sight of this sanctuary they boldly trust to. You know the message Solomon sent to Adonijah: "If thou shewest thyself a worthy man, not a hair of thy head shall fall; but if wickedness shall be found in thee, thou shalt surely die." In vain do men think to shroud themselves under Christ's wing from the hue and cry of their accusing conscience, while wickedness finds a sanctuary in them. Christ never was

And