384 NECESSITY OF HOLINESS FROM and order preserved by the power of holiness in a Banc- . tified mind and soul. Sect. 13.Secondly, But it will be further objected, that many professors, who pretend highly unto 'sancti- fication and holiness, and whom you judge to be partak- ers of them, are yet peevish, froward, morose, unquiet in their minds, among their relations, and in the world; yea, much outward vanity and disorder (which you make tokens ofthe internal confusion of the minds of men, and the power of sin) do either proceed from them, or are carried on by them. And where then is the advan- tage pretended, that should render holiness so indispen- sibly necessary unto us? Answ. If there are any such, the more shame for them, and they must bear their own judgment. These things arediametricallyopposite to the work of holiness, and the fruits of the Spirit, Gat. v. 22. And therefore, I say, (1.) That many (it may be) are esteemedholy and sanctified, who indeed are not so. Though I will judge no man in particular, yet I had rather pass this judg- ment on any man, that he hath no grace, than that on theother hand, grace doth not change our natures, and renew the image of God in us. (2.) Many who are real- ly holy, may have the double disadvantage; first to be under such circumstances as will frequently draw out their natural infirmities, and then to have them greaten- ed and heightened in the apprehension of them with whom they have to do, which was actually the case of David all his days, and of Hannah, I Sam. i. 6, 7. I would be far from giving countenance unto the sinful distempers of any; but yet I doubt not, but that the in- firmities of many are represented, by envy and hatred of profession unto an undeserved disadvantage. (3.) Wherever there is the seed of grace and holiness, there an entrance is made on the cure of all these sinful dis- tempers, yea, not only of the corrupt lusts of the flesh, that are absolutely evil and vicious in their whole na- ture; but even of those natural- infirmities and distem- pers of peevishness, moroseness, inclination to anger and passion, unsteadiness in resolution, which lust is apt to possess, and use unto evil and disorderly ends. And I am pressing the necessity of holiness, that is, of the increase and growth of it, that thiswork maybecarried on to perfection, and that so, through the power of the grace of the gospel, that great promise may be accom- plished, which is recorded, Isa, xi. 6, 7, 8, 9. And, as when a wandering juggling impostor, who pretended tojudge of menslives and manners by theirphysiognomy, beholding Socrates, pronounced him, from his counte- nance, a person of a flagitious sensual life, the people derided his folly, who knew his sober virtuous conver- sation; but Socrates excused him, affirming that such he had been, had he not bridled his nature by philoso- phy; how much more truly may it be said of multitudes, that they had been eminent in nothing but untoward distempers of mind, had not their souls been rectified and cured by the power of grace and holiness? Sect. 14. -1 find there is no end of arguments that offer their service to the purpose in hand; I shall there- fore wave many, and those of great importance, attend- ed with an unavoidable cogency, and shut up this dis- course with one which must not be omitted. Inour ho- liness consists theprincipal part of that revenue of glory and honour which the Lord Christ requireth and ex- pecteth from his disciples in this world. That he doth require this indispensibly of us, is, I suppose, out of question amongst us; although the most, who are call-. ed Christians, live as if they had no other design but to cast all obloquies, reproach, and shame, on him and his doctrine. But if we are indeed his disciples, he hath bought us with a price, and weare not our own, but his, and that to glorify him in soul and body, because they are his, 1 Coe. vi, 19, 20. 6, He died for us, that we " should not live unto ourselves, but unto him that se " died for us," and by virtue of whose death "we live," Rom. xiv. 7, 8, 9. " He gave himself for us, that he w might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto ,o himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works," Titus ii. 14. But we need not to insist hereon. To deny that we ought to glorify and honour Christ in the world, is to renounce him and the gospel. The sole inquiry is, Howwe may do so and whathe requirethof an to that purpose. Sect. 15. Now the sum of all that the Lord Christ expectsfrom us in this world, may be reduced unto these two heads: (1.) That we should live holily to him. (2.) That we should suffer patiently for him. And in these things alone is he glorified by us. The first he expecteth at all times, and in all things; the latter on particular occasions, as we are called by him thereunto. Where these things are, where this revenue of glory is paid in and returned unto trim, he repents not of h:s r
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