Part 80 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 81 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[5.] Fifthly, You have but a little holiness; witness the strange behavior and carriage of your souls, when the Lord smites you in some near and dear enjoyment. If the Lord does but frown upon your Joseph, or touches your Isaac, or calls for your Benjamin, or withers your gourd—oh, now with Rachel you will not be comforted, or with Jacob you will go mourning into the grave, or with David you will cry out, "O Absalom, my son, my son! would God I had died for you!" or with Jonah you will tell God to his face that you do well to be angry. [Jer. 31:15; Gen. 37:35; 2 Sam. 18:33; Jonah 4:9.] Oh, now you can't look up and trust in God, you can't look up and delight in God, you can't look up and hope in God, you can't look up and solace yourselves in God, you can't look up and lie down in the good pleasure of God, you can't look up and justify God, you can't look up and say God is your God, etc.
Oh, now that God has touched you in your first-born, you can neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep. Now you can taste no sweet, nor take any comfort, nor find any contentment in any of all your enjoyments. Now that God has touched the apple of your eye, you can neither think well of God, nor speak well of God, nor behave well towards God. Oh, now nobody can please you, nor can anything satisfy you. Now you think that there is no sorrow compared to your sorrow; no cross compared to your cross; nor any loss compared to your loss, etc. Now every sweet is bitter, and every comfort is a cross; and accordingly you behave both towards God and towards man, Lam. 1:12, 18; all which speaks out holiness to be at a very low ebb in your souls.
O sirs, were holiness but risen to some considerable height in your souls, you would with Job, who was eminent in holiness, bless a taking God, as well as a giving God, Job 1:21; and you behave sweetly and sincerely towards God, as well when he writes bitter things against you as when he is a-multiplying of favors and kindnesses upon you. But if when the rod smarts—you kick, and fling, and fret, and fume, and vex, and tear your comforts in pieces, and your souls in pieces, and your God in pieces, as much as in you lies, certainly the streams of holiness run low in your souls. But,
[6.] Sixthly, You have but little holiness; witness the ebbings and the flowings of your spirits according to the working of secondary causes. As secondary causes work—so you are up and down, high and low. Now you are full of hopes—and at another time you are full of fears. Now you believe—and later on despair. Now you are steadfast—and afterwards you are wavering. Now you say, "surely God will once more own us,"—and momentary you say, "truly God has forsaken us." Now you say you see the clouds begin to scatter—and later on you say you see the clouds grow darker and thicker. Now you say the winter is past, and the singing of birds has come—and afterwards you say your winter is likely to be longer than ever. [Cant. 2:11-12; Jer. 8:22, 46:11, and 2:8.] Now you say there is balm in Gilead—and at another time you say your wound is incurable. Now you say all is well—and shortly you are ready to give up all as lost, etc. And thus your hearts rise and fall according to the working of second causes.
When you have full purses, and powerful armies, and wise counselors, and great allies—then you are ready to say, "Surely our mountain is strong, and we shall never be moved!" Psalm 30:6-8. But when your bags are empty, and your forces broken, and your counsels dissipated, and your allies fallen off—then you are ready to cry out, "Oh, now there is no hope, there is no help! "
Oh—but were you eminent in holiness, then, under the saddest and crossest workings of second causes, you would say with Asa, "O Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you," 2 Chron. 14:11; and with Elisha, "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them," 2 Kings 6:16-17; and with Moses, "Stand still and see the salvation of God," Exod. 14:13; and with David, "The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me," Psalm 118:6. Holiness in any considerable height, will set the power of God in opposition to all the power of the world, and then divinely triumph over them, Psalm 65:6-11.
Pompey once gloried in this—that with one stamp of his foot he could raise all Italy up in arms; but the great God with one stamp of his foot, or with one word of his mouth, can raise not only Italy—but also all the angels in heaven, and all the men on earth, in arms at his pleasure. And in the power of this God, eminent holiness will enable a man to glory all the day long. Where holiness is weak, there men stand and fall as second causes work—but where holiness is eminent, there men will live upon the first cause; and, however second causes may wheel about—yet such a man will live upon him, and look up to him who has a wheel within every wheel, Ezek. 1:15-22. But,
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