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a thing as can be imagined: fo that if we have any fparks of ambition in us, we cannot but afpire after holinefs, which is fo great an excellency and perfection of God himself. There is a vulgar preju dice against holiness, as if it were a poor, mean thing, and below a great and generous fpirit; whereas holiness is the only true greatnefs of mind, the moft genuine nobility, and the higheft gallantry of fpirit; and however it be defpifed by men, it is of a heavenly extraction, and divine original. Holiness is the first part of the character of the wisdom that is from above, Jam. iii. 17. The wisdom that is from above, is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrify.

2. Holiness is an effential and principal ingredient of happiness. Holiness is a ftate of peace and tranquillity, and the very frame and temper of happiness; and without it, the divine nature, as it would be im perfect, fo it would be miferable. If the divine nature were capable of envy, or malice, or hatred, or revenge, or impatience, or cruelty, or injuftice, or unfaithfulness, it would be liable to vexation and difcontent, than which nothing can be a greater dif turbance of happiness: fo that holinefs is neceffary to our felicity and contentment; not only to the happiness of the next life, but to our prefent peace and contentment. If reasonable creatures could be happy, as brute beafts are in their degree, by enjoying their depraved appetites, and following the ditates of fenfe and fancy, God would not have bound us up to a law and rule, but had left us, as he hath done unreasonable creatures, to fatisfy our lufts and appetites, without check and controul: but angels and men, which are reafonable creatures, have the notions of good and evil, of right and wrong, of comeliness and filthinefs, fo woven and twisted into their very natures, that they can never be wholly defaced, without the ruin of their beings; and therefore it is impoffible that fuch creatures fhould be happy otherwife, than by complying with thefe notions, and obeying the natural dictates and fugge

ftions of their minds; which if they neglect, and go againft, they will naturally feel remorfe and torment in their own fpirits; their minds will be uneafy and unquiet, and they will be inwardly grieved and difpleafed with themfelves for what they have done, So the Apoftle tells us, Rom. i. that even the most degenerate Heathen had confciences, which did accufe or excufe them, according as they obeyed, or did contrary to the dictates of natural light. God therefore, who knows our frame, hath fo adapted his law to us, which is the rule of holiness, that if we live up to it, we fhall avoid the unspeakable torment of a guilty confcience; whereas, if we do contrary to it, we fhall always be at difcord with ourfelves, and in a perpetual difquiet of mind: for nothing can do contrary to the law of its being, that is, to its own nature, without difpleafure and reluAtancy; the confequence of which, in moral actions, is guilt; which is nothing elfe but the trouble and difquiet which arifeth in one's mind, from a confcioufnefs of having done fomething that contradicts the perfective principle of his being, that is, fomething which did not become him, and which, being what he is, that is, a reasonable creature, he ought not to do.

So that in all reasonable creatures there is a certain kind of temper and difpofition that is neceffary and effential to happiness, and that is holinefs; which, as it it is the perfection, fo it is the great felicity of the divine nature: And, on the contrary, this is one chief part of the mifery of those wicked, and accurfed fpirits the devils, and of unholy men, that they are of a temper contrary to God, they are envious and malicious, and wicked; that is, of fuch a temper as is naturally a torment and difquiet to itfelf: And here the foundation of hell is laid in the evil difpofitions of our fpirits; and till that be cured, which can only be done by holiness, it is as impoffible for a wicked man to be happy and contented in himfelf, as it is for a fick man to be at eafe; and the external prefence of God, and a local heaven, would fignify no more to make a wicked man happy and

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contented, than heaps of gold, and concerts of mufick, and a well fpread table, and a rich bed, would contribute to a man's ease in the paroxyfms of a fever, or in a violent fit of the ftone. If a fenfual, or covetous, or ambitious man were in heaven, he would be like the rich man in hell, he would be tormented with a continual thirst, and burnt up in the flames of his own ardent defires, and would not meet with the leaft drop of fuitable pleasure and delight to quench and allay the heat the reafon is, becaufe fuch a man hath that within him which tor ments him, and he cannot be at ease till that be removed. Sin is the violent, and unnatural, and uneafy ftate of our foul; every wicked man's fpirit is out of order, and till the man be put into a right frame by holiness, he will be perpetually difquieted, and can have no reft within himself. The Prophet fitly defcribes the condition of fuch a perfon, Ifa. Ivii. 20, 21. But the wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot rest, whose waters caft forth mire and dirt: there is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked. So long as a man is unholy, fo long as filthinefs and corruption abound in his heart, they will be reftlessly working, like wine which is in a perpetual motion and agitation, till it have purged itfelt of its dregs and foulnefs. Nothing is more turbulent and unquiet than the fpirit of a wicked man; it is like the fea, when it roars and rages through the ftrength of contrary winds; it is the fcene of furious lufts and wild paffions, which as they are contrary to holiness, fo they maintain perpetual contests and feuds among themselves.

All fin feparates us from God, who is the foundation of our happiness. Our limited nature, and the narrowness of our beings, will not permit us to be happy in ourselves. It is peculiar to God to be his own happiness: but man, because he is finite, and therefore cannot be felf-fufficient, is carried forth by an innate defire of happiness, to feek his felicity in God. So that there is in the nature of man a spring of reftlefs motion, which, with great impatience, forceth him out of himself, and tofles him to and

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fro, till he comes to reft in fomething that is felffufficient. Our fouls, when they are feparated from God, like the unclean fpirit in the gofpel, when it was caft out, wander up and down in dry and defart places, feeking reft but finding none. Were the whole world calm about a man, and did not make the leaft attempt upon him; were he free from the fears of divine vengeance, yet he could not be fatiffied with himself; there is fomething within him that would not let him be at reft, but would tear him from his own foundation and confiftency; fo that when we are once broken off from God, the fenfe of inward, want doth ftimulare and force us to feek our contentment elsewhere. So that nothing but holinefs, which reunites us to God, and reftores our fouls to their original and primitive state, can make us happy, and give peace and reft to our fouls: And this is the conftant voice and language of fcripture, and the tenor of the Bible; Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace, Job xxii. 21. Light is fown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart, Pfal. xcvii. 11. The work of righteousness fhall be peace; and the effects of righteousnefs, quietness and affurance for ever, Ifa. xxxii. 17.

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Seeing then holiness is fo high a perfection, and fo great a happinefs, let thefe arguments prevail with us to afpire after this temper, that as he who hath called us, is holy, fo we may be holy in all manner of converfation because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy.

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