Part 87 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 88 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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First, that the more holy any person is—the more excellent that person is. All impurities are diminutions of excellency. The more mixed anything is—the more abased it is. The more you mix your wine with water—the more you abase your wine; and the more you mix your gold with tin—the more you abase your gold. But the purer your wine is—the richer and the better your wine is; and the purer your gold is, the more glorious and excellent it is. Just so, the purer and holier any person is, the more excellent and glorious that person is. Now the more divinely excellent and glorious any person is, the more he is beloved of God, and the more he is the delight of God. But,
Secondly, the more holy any person is—the more that person pleases the Lord. Heb. 11:5. Fruitfulness in holiness fills God with joy. The farmer is not so much pleased with the fruitfulness of his fields, nor the wife with the fruitfulness of her womb, nor the father with the thriving of his child—as God is pleased with the fruitfulness and thriving of his children in grace and holiness! Now certainly the more God is pleased with any person, the more he loves that person, and the more pleasure and delight he takes in such a person. If God is most pleased with holiness—he cannot but be most delighted in those who are most holy. But,
Thirdly, the more holy any person is—the more like God he is, and the more like to God he is, doubtless, the more he is beloved of God. It is likeness both in nature and grace that always draws the strongest love. Though every child in the family is the father multiplied, a second edition of the father—yet the father loves him best, and delights in him most—who is most like him, and who in feature, spirit, and action, does most resemble him to the life. And so does the Father of spirits also, he always loves those best, who in holiness resemble him most.
There are four remarkable things in the beloved disciple John, above all the rest of the disciples: [John 13:23, 18:16, and 19:26-27.]
1. That he lay nearest to Christ's bosom at the table.
2. That he followed Christ closest to the high priest's palace.
3. That he stood close to Christ when he was on the cross, though others had basely deserted him, and turned their backs upon him.
4. That Christ commended the care of his virgin mother to him.
Now why did Christ's desire, love, and delight—run out with a stronger and a fuller tide towards John, than to the rest of the disciples? Doubtless it was because John did more resemble Christ than the rest; it was because John was a more exact picture and lively representation of Christ, than the others were. But,
Fourthly, the more holy any man is, the more communion and familiarity that man shall have with God; as you may see in Moses. Moses was a paragon for meekness and holiness: Num. 12:3, "Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth." There was no man so slighted, wronged, provoked, teased, perplexed, and troubled by that wicked, unthankful, unbelieving, and murmuring generation—as Moses was! And yet he did neither rail at them nor revile them; he did neither storm nor rage, he did neither fret nor fling! And though he had a sword of justice in his hand, and might easily have avenged himself on them—yet he would not—but exercised all patience, tenderness, goodness, and sweetness towards them. Oh the lowliness, the meekness, the holiness of this man Moses! And oh the freeness, the friendliness, the openness, and the familiarity of God with Moses!
Deut. 34:10, "There has never been another prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face." To give you a little light into these words: some of the Rabbis observe that Moses surpassed all the other prophets, not only in sublimity of prophecies—but also in excellency and number of miracles; for Moses within one age wrought seventy-six miracles, when all the rest of the prophets from the beginning of the world quite down to the ruin of the first temple, wrought only seventy-four. As for those words, "whom the Lord knew face to face," you are not to understand them thus, that God has a face as man has, nor that Moses had a view of the essence of God, which is invisible; for in this sense no man has seen God at any time, John 1:18; and indeed the least beam of God's essential glory and majesty would have swallowed up Moses alive, 1 Tim. 6:16. But these words, "whom the Lord knew face to face," are to be understood of God's speaking to Moses in a free, friendly, familiar, and plain manner. God did speak to Moses by a clear articulate voice, even as one man speaks to another when they speak face to face.
And so when Aaron and Miriam were swelled with pride and envy, and began to bespatter Moses, and to pick a hole in his coat; and attempt to cloud, eclipse, and diminish his glory, see at what a high and noble rate God speaks of Moses; see how God magnifies and exalts and lifts up Moses! "At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, 'Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.' So the three of them came out. Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward, he said, 'Listen to my words—When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?' The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them." Numbers 12:4-9.
Now here you see how God owns Moses, and stands up for Moses, and pleads for Moses, and tells Aaron and Miriam to their faces that Moses was his greatest favorite, and that he had far greater respect for Moses than he had for them, and that there was not a man in all the world whom was so intimate with him as Moses, and who had so much of his ear and heart as Moses had. God did appear to other prophets in dreams and visions, which were transient—but with Moses God will speak mouth to mouth, God will speak to him without an interpreter, he will speak to Moses more familiarly and frequently than he did to others by visions, and more clearly, plainly, and assuredly than he did to others by dreams. God here engages himself to hold a more close, familiar, friendly, and constant fellowship and correspondence with Moses, than with any others in the world. Moses was blessed with as clear, and with as full, and with as apparent sight of God, and communion with God—as he was able to bear and comprehend.
Some of the learned are of opinion, that Christ conversed with Moses in a human shape, as he had done with Abraham before; they conjecture that the Lord Jesus did very friendly and familiarly show himself to Moses with that very same face and form of human nature, which he afterwards assumed, [Gen. 18 and Gen 32:30, etc.] but this I dare not press upon you as an article of your faith. And whether Moses had one hundred and seventy-three familiar conferences with God, which none of the prophets had, lies upon those Rabbis who assert it, to prove; but this is granted on all hands, that Moses was a special favorite, and a man in high communion with God, and one who had very clear and eminent discoveries and manifestations of God.
And so Abraham was a man of great holiness, and a man eminent in his communion with God. God owned him as a friend, as an honorable friend, as an eminent friend, as a bosom friend, as a peculiar friend, and as a faithful friend, Isaiah 41:8; and therefore he made him one of his privy council, and opened his heart and his secrets to him: "And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I do?" Gen. 18:17. Abraham is styled the friend of God in a special way. Though God had many friends—yet it was Abraham, who was hissingular friend, his darling friend, his rare friend, etc., and accordingly God was most free, and full, and rich in the communications of his favors and secrets to Abraham. It was not enough for Abraham to be of God's court—but he must be also of his cabinet council.
It was always a social principle—that sweet and intimate friendship cannot be extended to many. Friends usually go by pairs. And thus you see that the more holy any man is—the more communion that man shall have with God—and the more communion any man has with God—the more beloved of God shall that man be. The highest communion is always attended with the highest love. But,
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Part 88 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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