CONSIDERATION OP THE NATURE OF GOD. 337 o God, ye shall thereforesanctify yourselves, and ye a shall be holy, for 1 am holy." So also, chap. xix. 2. chap. xx. 7. And, to shew the everlasting equity and force of this reason, it is transferred over to the gospel, I Peter i. 15, 16. f1 As he which hath called e, you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of converse- " tfoö°, because it is written, Beye holy, for I am holy." God lets them know, that his nature is such, as that un- less they are sanctified and holy, there can beno such intercourse between him 'and them, as ought to be be- tween a God and his people. 'So be declares the sense of this enforcement of that precept to be, Lev. xi. ea. as I brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your °God, ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." Without this, the relation designed cannot be main- tained, that I should be your God, and you should be any people. To this purpose belongs that description given us of his nature, Psal. v. 4, .5, 6. ., For thouart w not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither as shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand w in thy sight; thou hatest all workers of iniquity. a Thou shalt destroy them that speak lying, the Lord a will abhor the bloody and deceitful man." Answera- ble unto that of the prophet: " Thou art of purer eyes " than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity," Hab. i. 13. He is such a God, that is, such is his na- ture, so pure, so holy, that previous to the considera- tion of anyfree acts of his will, it is evident, that he can take no pleasure in fools, liars, or workers of ini- quity. -Therefore Joshua tells the people, that if they continued in their sins, they could not serve the Lord, forhe is an holy God, chap. xxiv. 19. All the service of unholy persons towards this God, is' utterly lost and cast away, because it is inconsistent with his own holi- ness to accept of it. And our apostleargues in the same manner, Heb.xii. 28, 29. " Let us have grace where- " by we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and e, godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire," He lays Ibis argument for the necessity of grace and holi- ness in the worship of God, from the consideration of the holiness of his nature, which, as a consuming fire, will devour that which is unsuited unto it, inconsistent with it. -There would be no end of pursuing this rea- son of the necessity of holiness, in all places where it is proposed expressly in the scripture. I shall only; add in general, that God of old strictly required that no unholy, no unclean, no defiling thing should be in the camp of his people, because of his presence among them, who is himselÇholy; and, without an exact obser- vance hereof, he declares, that he will depart and leave them. Sect. 4. If we had no other argument to prove the necessity of holiness, and that it is indispensibly requir- ed of us, but only this, that the God whomwe serve and worship is absolutely holy; that his being and nature is such, as that he can have no delightful intercourse with, any that are unholy, it were abundantly sufficient unto our purpose. He who resolveth not to be holy, had best seek another God to worship and serve, with our God he will never find acceptance. And therefore the heathen, who gave up themselves unto all filthiness with delight nod greediness, to stifle the notions of a divine being, that they might not 'control them in their sins and pleasures, fancied such gods to themselves as were wicked and unclean, that they might' freely conform unto them, and serve them with satisfaction. And God himself lets us know, that men of wicked and flagitious lives, have some secret thoughts that he is not holy, but like themselves, Psal. I. 21. For, if they had not, they could not avoid it, but they must either think of leaving him, or their sins. Sect. 5. But wemust yet furtherobserve some things to evidence the farce of this argument: As, (First,) That unto us, in our present state and condition, the holiness of God, as absolutely considered, merely as an infinite eternal property of the divine nature, is not the immediate ground of, and motive unto holiness, but it is the holiness of God as manifested and revealed unto us in Christ Jesus. Under the first consideration, we, who are sinners, can make no conclusion from it, but that ofJoshua. He is an holy. God, ajealous God; be euill notforgive their iniquities, nor spare. This wemay learn indeed from thence, that nothingwhich is unholy can possibly subsist before him, or find acceptance with him. But a motive and encouragement to any holiness that is not absolutely perfect, no creature can take from the consideration thereof. And we do not, we ought not to urge any such argument for the necessityof holi- ness, as cannot be answered and complied with by the grace of God as to the substance, though we come short in the degrees of it. My meaning is, that no argument can be rationally and usefully pleaded for the necessity
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