Part 123 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 124 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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And so I come to the next thing proposed, and that was—to lay down twelve SIGNS or EVIDENCES whereby people may know whether they have attained to any high pitch or eminent degrees of holiness or not. Now, sirs, if you desire in good earnest to know whether you have attained to any high degree of holiness or not, then seriously weigh these following particulars, and test yourselves by them.
[1.] First, The more a man can warm his heart at the PROMISES, and cleave to the promises, and rest upon the promises, and suck marrow and fatness and sweetness out of the breasts of the promises—when divine providences seem to run cross to divine promises—the greater measure of holiness that man has attained to. Where there are but little measures of holiness—there every seeming contrariety to the promise troubles a man, and every little cloud that hangs over the promise will mightily perplex a man, etc. But where holiness is raised to any considerable height, there that man will suck honey out of the flint, he will suck sweetness out of the promise—even then when providence looks sourly upon the promise; yes, when providence seems to bid defiance to the promise.
Witness Jacob, in Gen. 32:6-8, compared with verse 9,11,12, "And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying—We came to your brother Esau, and also he comes to meet you, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. And Jacob said—O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me—Return unto your country, and to your kindred, and I will deal well with you. Deliver me, I pray you, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me. And you said—I will surely do you good, and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." Now here you see holy Jacob, in the midst of all his fears and frights, in the midst of all his perils and dangers, in the midst of all his damps and dreads, and in the midst of all cross, astonishing providences, he turns himself to the breasts of the promise, and sucks marrow and sweetness out of those breasts. Jacob puts the promise into suit, he pleads with God upon his own promises, and so bears up sweetly under dark and dismal providences.
And so did Moses in Num. 10:29, "And Moses said unto his father-in-law, We are journeying unto the place of which the Lord said, I will give it to you. Come with us, and we will do you good: for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel." Moses had been almost now forty years in the wilderness, and many thousands were fallen on his right hand, and on his left; yet says he to his father-in-law, in the face of all those dismal providences, "come along with us," and be as eyes unto us, and we will certainly do you good, verse 31. But his father-in-law might have objected, "Alas! what good can I expect in a wilderness condition, where so many are weak, and so many are sick, and so many thousands are fallen asleep; and where all the people are every day surrounded with a thousand dangers, difficulties, and deaths?" "Well," says Moses, "though all this is true—yet go along with us, and be serviceable and useful to us, and we will do you good; for the Lord has spoken good concerning Israel." Here this holy man Moses turns himself to the promise, and in the face of all sad providences, he draws comfort and encouragement from the promise.
And so did Jehoshaphat, in 2 Chron. 20. When the children of Ammon, and Moab, and mount Seir came against him to battle, he turns himself to the promise, verse 7-9, and gathers life and spirit from thence.
And so did David, in Psalm 60. In the 1st, 2d, and 3d verses, you have a narrative of many cross and dreadful providences—and yet in the face of them all, holy David sucks strong consolation out of the breasts of the promise, verse 6, "God has spoken in his holiness, I will rejoice: I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth." God has promised in his holiness, that David would be king over all Israel, and therefore, notwithstanding all strange providences, David triumphs in the promise, and looks upon himself as master of all those strongholds which are mentioned in verse 7-9.
And so Abraham, he wanted a son, and God promised him an Isaac. Now in the face of all his own deadness, and natural inabilities as to generation, and Sarah's deadness and barrenness, Romans 4:17-21, he turns about to the promise; and his faith and holiness being high, he draws sweetness and satisfaction from thence. Notwithstanding present providences, the naked promise was a well of life and salvation to him.
O sirs! it is an argument of a very great measure of holiness, when troubles and difficulties vanish upon the sight of a promise; when all things work quite cross and contrary to sense and feeling. Now for a man to embrace a promise, to hug a promise, to kiss a promise, and to draw contentment and satisfaction from a promise—argues a great degree of holiness. It is a very hard and difficult thing for a man exactly to take the picture of divine providence at any time; for many are the voices and the faces of providence, and there are as great deeps in providences, as there are in prophecies. And many texts of providence are as hard, as dark, and as difficult to be understood, as many texts of Scripture are. It is as hard to reconcile the works of God, as it is to reconcile the word of God, Psalm 36:6; Romans 11:33; for as in the word of God there are many seeming contradictions. Just so, in the works of God there are many seeming contradictions; for here one providence smiles, and there another frowns; here providence lifts up, and there providence casts down; here providence strokes, and there providence strikes; here providence leads towards Canaan, there providence leads towards a wilderness; here providence leads towards Zion, and there providence leads towards Babylon; here providence looks very fair, and there providence severely threatens; here providence is bright and lovely, and there providence is dark and dreadful.
Now under all such providences, for a man to run to a promise, and to draw out life, and strength, and sweetness from a promise—is a clear evidence of a very high pitch of holiness that such a person has attained to. I have read of an emperor that put on a new suit every day. O, sirs! when the great God shall every day apparel himself in strange changeable providences, now for a man to hang upon the breasts of a promise, and to suck milk out of a promise, argues a very great increase of holiness. But,
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