Part 90 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 91 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Soul comfort rises and falls—as holiness rises and falls. Great measures of holiness carries with them, the greatest evidence of the reality of holiness. The more clearly and evidently the reality and sincerity of a man's holiness rise—the higher will the springs of joy and comfort arise in his soul. Great measures of holiness carry with them the greatest evidence of a man's union and communion with God; and the more evident a man's union and communion is with God, the more will that man's soul be filled with that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, 1 Pet. 1:8.
In great measures of holiness, a man may see and read most of the love of God, the face of God, the favor of God, and the heart of God, Acts 9:31; and the more a man is blessed with such a sight as this is, the more will that babe of grace, divine joy, spring in his soul. The greater measures of holiness and sanctification any man attains to—the clearer and brighter will the evidences of his justification be. Now the clearer evidences any man has of his justification, the stronger will be his consolation, Romans 5:1-3, and 8:30, 33-35; and indeed the strongest waters of consolation do always flow from a clear sight and a true sense of a man's justification. No man lives so comfortably, no man bears the cross so sweetly, no man resists the devil and the world so stoutly, nor no man will die so cheerfully, as he who lives and dies in a clear sight of his justification.
The more holiness any man attains to, the more his fears will be scattered, his doubts resolved, and all those impediments removed that commonly bar out joy and comfort; and what will be the happy issue of these things—but the bringing in of a sea of joy and comfort into the soul! It is not riches, nor honors, nor applause, nor learning, nor friends, nor a great name in the world—but an eminency in holiness, that can highly raise the springs of divine joy in a Christian's soul. Though the windows of the temple were broad without but narrow within—yet the joy and comfort of a Christian that is eminent in holiness is broad and full within, though it be narrow and contracted without. O sirs, as ever you would have your joy full—labor for a heart filled with holiness. Your comforts will be always few and low—if your holiness be low. Why have the angels always harps in their hands, and hallelujahs in their mouths—but because they have attained to a fullness of holiness? But,
(7.) Seventhly, To provoke you to labor after higher degrees of holiness, consider that the more holy any person is—the more the Lord will reveal and manifest himself, and his mind and will, unto him. John 14:21-23; Hosea 6:3. Ezekiel was a man of eminent holiness, and a man who had glorious visions, and deep mysteries, and rare discoveries of God, and of the great things that should be brought about in the latter days, reavealed to him. And Daniel was a man of very great holiness: and oh, what secrets and mysteries did God reveal to him! [See 2, 4, 6, 8-12 chapters of Daniel.] Many of those great and glorious things which concern the destruction of the four last monarchies, and the growth, increase, exaltation, flourishing, durable, invincible, and unconquerable estate of his own kingdom, was revealed to him.
Among all the apostles, Paul was a man of the greatest holiness, and of all the apostles Paul had the most glorious revelations and discoveries of God manifested to him, 2 Cor. 12:2, 4. Witness those glorious revelations that he had when he was caught up into the third heaven, into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, or wordless words—such as words were too weak to utter, such as was not possible for man to utter, and that, either because they transcended man's capacity in this life, or else because the apostle was forbidden to utter them; they being revealed to him, not for the public use of the church—but only for his particular encouragement, so that he might be the better able to encounter all the hardships, difficulties, dangers, and deaths that would attend him in the conscientious discharge of his ministerial work.
Some of the ancients are of opinion that he saw God's essence; for, say they, other things in heaven might have been uttered—but the essence of God is so great and so glorious a thing, that no man or angel can utter it or declare it. But here I must crave permission to enter my dissent against them, for the Scripture is express in this, that no man has thus ever seen the Lord at any time, John 1:18; 1 Tim. 6:16; 1 John 4:12; and that no man can thus see the Lord and live. And as great a favorite of heaven as Moses was—yet he could only see theback parts of God, he could only behold some lower representations of God.
Others say, that he heard the heavenly singing of angels and blessed spirits, which was so sweet, so excellent and glorious, that no mortal man was able to utter it, and this of the two is most probable; but no man is bound to make this opinion an article of his faith.
This, I think, we may safely conclude—that in this rapture, besides the contemplation of celestial mysteries, he felt such unspeakable delight and pleasure, that was either like that, or exceeding that, which Adam had in the terrestrial paradise. Doubtless, the apostle did see and hear such excellent and glorious things, as was impossible for the tongue of any mortal man to express or utter.
And so John was a man of most rare holiness, and Christ reveals to him the general state of his church, and all that should befall his people—from John's time unto his second coming. Christ gives John a true representation of all the troubles, trials, changes, mercies, and glories that in all times, and in all ages and places, should attend his church—until he comes in all his glory. About sixty years after Christ's ascension, Christ comes to John and opens his heart, and unbosoms his soul, and makes known to him all that care, that love, that tenderness, that kindness, and that sweetness, which he would exercise towards his church, from that very time to the end of the world. Christ tells John, that though he had been absent and seemingly silent for about threescore years, that yet he was not so taken up with the delights, pleasures, and glory of heaven, as that he did not care what became of his church on earth. Oh, no! And therefore he opens his choicest secrets, and makes known the most hidden and glorious mysteries to John, which ever were made known to any man. As there was none who had so much of the heart of Christ as John—just so, there was none who had so much of the ear of Christ as John. Christ singles out his servant John from all the men in the world, and makes known to him all the happy providences, and all the sad occurrences that were to come upon the followers of the Lamb, so that they might know what to pray for, and what to expect, and what to wait for. He also declares to John all that wrath and vengeance, all that desolation and destruction, which should come upon the false prophet, and the beast, and upon all that followed after them, and who were worshipers of them, and who had received their marks, either in their foreheads or in their hands.
We read of holy Polycarp, that as he lay in his bed he saw in a vision the bed set on fire under his head; and thus God did forewarn him, and manifest to him, what manner of death he would die, and accordingly it happened, for he was burnt for the cause of Christ, and rejoicingly sealed the truth with his blood.
John Huss was a man eminent in holiness—he was born in Prague, and was pastor of the church of Bethlehem. His name, Huss, in the Bohemian language, signifies a goose; at his martyrdom, he told them, that if they roasted him in the fire, out of the ashes of the goose, a hundred years after, God would raise up a swan in Germany, who would carry the cause on for which he suffered, and whose singings would affright all those vultures—which was exactly fulfilled in Luther—whose name in the Bohemian language signifies a swan—for God raised him up as a famous instrument in his hand, who carried on that glorious cause with mighty success.
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Part 91 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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