340 NECESSITY OF H pray is a good duty; but unto them that are not washed and made clean, andput not away the evil of their do- ings from before his eyes, saith God, when ye spread forthyour hands, Iwill hide mineeyesfrom you, andwhen ye make manyprayers, I will not hear, Isa. i. 15, 16. And the like may be said of all other duties whatever. Sect. l2. It is certain, therefore, that whereas God is holy, ifwe are not io, all the duties which we design . or intend to perform towards him, are everlastingly lost, as unto their proper ends: for there is no inter- course nor communion between light and darkness; " God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.; and ifawe say, we have fellowship with him, and walk in "darkness," as all unholy persons do, " we lie, and do " not the truth; but, if we walk in the light, as he is " in the light, we have fellowship onewith another: and 'i truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Christ Jesus, I John i. 3, 6, 7. Now, what man that shall consider this, unless he be infatuated, would for the love of any one sin, or out of conformity to the world, or any other thing, whereby the essence and truth of holiness is impeached, utterly lose and for- feit all the benefit and fruit of all those duties wherein, perhaps, he bath laboured, and which he bath, it may be, been at no small charge withal. But yet this is the condition of all men, who come short in any thing that is . essentially necessary unto universal holiness. All they do, all they suffer, all the pains they take in and about religious duties, all their compliance with convic- tions, and what they do therein, within doors, and without, is all lost, as unto the great ends of the glory of God, and their own eternal blessedness, as sure as God is holy. Sect. 13.(3.) It ariseth from a respect unto our fu- true everlasting enjoyment of him. This is our utmost end, which, if we come short of; (life itself is the great- est -loss) better ten thousand times we had never been: for, without it, a continuauee in everlasting miseries is inseparable from our state and condition. Now, this is never attainable by any unholy person. Follow holi- ness, saith our apostle, without which no man shall see Gods for it is the pure in heart only that shall see God, Matth. v. o. It is hereby that we are made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, Col. i. 12. Nei- ther can we attain it before we are thus made meet for it. No unclean thing, nothing that defileth, or is de- OLINESS FRONT THE .._ filed, shall ever be brought intd the glorious presence of this holy God. There is no imagination wherewith mankind is besotted, more foolish, none so pernicious as this, that persons not purified, not sanctified, not made holy in this life, should afterwards be taken into that state of blessedness, which consists in the enjoy- ment of God. There can beno thought more reproach- ful to his glory, nor more inconsistent with the nature ofthe things themselves. For neither can such persona enjoy him, nor would God himself be a reward unto them. They can have nothing whereby they should adhere unto him as their chiefest good, nor can see any thing in him that should give them rest or satis- faction: nor can there be any medium whereby God should communicate himself unto them, supposing them to continue thus unholy, as all most do, who depart out of this life in that condition. Holiness, indeed, is perfected in heaven, but the beginning of it is inviola- bly and unalterably confined to this world; and where - this fails, no hand shall be put unto that work unto eter- nity. All unholy persons, therefore, who feed and re- fresh themselves with hopes of heaven and eternity, do, it merely on false notions of God and blessedness, where- by they deceive themselves. Heaven is a place where as well they would not be, .as they cannot be: in itself it is neither desired by them, nor fit for them. He that bath this hope indeed, that- he shall see God, puri fietlz himselfeven as he ispure, l John iii. 2, 3. There- is therefore amanifold necessity of holiness impressed on us, from the considerationof the nature of that God- whom we serve and hope to enjoy, which is holy. Sect. Ih. I cannot pass over thisconsideration, with- out making some especial improvement of it. Wehave seen how all our concernment and interest in God both here and hereafter, do depend on our being holy. They invented a very effectual means for the prejudicing; yea, indeed, a fatal engine for the ruin of true holiness in the world, who built it no other bottom, nor press- ed it on any other motive, but that the acts and fruits of it were meritorious in the sight of God. For whether this be believed and complied withal or not, true holi- ness is ruined, if no other more effectual reason be sub- stituted in its room. Reject this motive, and there is noneed of it; which I am persuaded hath wally taken place in many, who being taught that good deeds are not meritorious, have concluded them useless. Corn-
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