Part 3 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 4 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
Back to HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
(1.) First, The heart of a holy man rises against SECRET sins, against such as lie furthest off from the eye of man: Psalm 119:113, "I hate vain thoughts—but your law do I love." What more secret than vain thoughts? and yet against these the heart of a holy man rises. When Joseph was tempted to be secretly wicked with his mistress, his heart rises against it: Gen. 39:9, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against the Lord?" Hezekiah humbled himself for "the pride of his heart," 2 Chron. 32:24-26. Heart-sins lie most hidden and secret; and yet for these, a holy man humbles himself. Job would not allow his heart, in an idolatrous way, secretly to kiss his hand, Job 31:26-27.
The heart of a holy man rises against wickedness in the dark, against folly in a corner, against sin in a closet. Just so, Paul was much affected and afflicted with the operations of sin within him, "with the law in his members rebelling against the law of his mind," Romans 7:23-24. Paul, after his conversion, never fell into any scandalous sin. Those sins that did most trouble him and distress him were of his own house—yes, were in his own heart.
A holy man knows that secret sins are sins, as well as those which are open, Psalm 19:12. He knows that secret sins must be repented of as well as others; he knows that God takes notice of secret sins as well as of open sins: 2 Sam. 12:12, "You did it secretly." He knows that secret sins do often interpose between God and his soul: "You have set our iniquities before you: our secret sins in the light of your countenance," Psalm 90:8. He knows that secret sins will quickly become public, except they are presently loathed and speedily mortified, Gen. 38:24-27. He knows that secret sins, like secret diseases and secret wounds, do oftentimes prove most dangerous and pernicious; he knows that secret sins are the price of blood, as well as open sinnings. He knows that secret sins are a grief to the Spirit, as well as those which are manifest. He knows that sometimes God punishes secret sins with manifest judgments, as you may see in that great instance of David, 2 Sam. 12:10, 18. Upon all which accounts, a holy heart rises in a detestation of secret sins. But,
(2.) Secondly, The heart of a holy man rises against the LEAST sins, as well as against secret sins, in a strict sense. I know there is no little sin, because there is no little hell, no little damnation, no little law, nor no little God to sin against; but yet some sins may comparatively be said to be little, if you compare them with those which are more great and gross, which are more heinous and odious, Mat. 23:24. Now the hatred of a holy man rises against the least: Psalm 119:163, "I hate and abhor lying: but your law do I love." I hate, I abhor with horror, I loathe, I detest, I abominate lying as I do hell itself—so much the original word imports. David's heart smote him for the cutting off the lap of Saul's garment; and his heart smote him again for numbering of the people; and yet neither of these sins were heinous or scandalous, 1 Sam. 24:5, and 2 Sam. 24:10.
Some write, that there is such a native dread and terror of the hawk implanted in the dove, that it detests and abhors the very sight of the least feather that has grown upon the hawk. Certainly, there is such a holy dread of sin implanted in the heart of a saint, that he cannot but detest and abhor the least sin—yes, the very appearance of sin: his soul rises against the least motions or inclinations to evil, though they are silvered over with the most sophisticated shows, and most glorious pretenses: for he knows that the least sins are contrary to a righteous law, a holy God, and to his blessed Savior, and the Spirit—his only Comforter. [1 Cor. 8:13; Gal. 2:3-4; Jude 23.]