Part 43 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 44 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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6. Sixthly, I answer, That all the joys, delights, and pleasures that holiness debars men of—are sinful joys, delights, and pleasures. [Romans 1:32; 2 Thes. 2:12; Amos 6:13; Zeph. 3:11; 2 Pet. 2:13.] Unsanctified souls take pleasure in unrighteousness; they rejoice to do evil; they make a sport of sin; they delight to dishonor their God, and damn their own immortal souls. Proverbs 2:14, "They delight in doing wrong and rejoice in the perverseness of evil." And this is brought in as an aggravation of Jerusalem's sin: Jer. 11:15, "When you do evil, then you rejoice." Ah, how madly-merry are those who can take delight in that which is their shame and misery! Ah, how has man fallen from his primitive glory—that he can now rejoice in that which is—a dishonor to God, a reproach to Christ, a grief to the Spirit, a provocation to divine wrath, a blot upon his name, a curse upon his estate, a wound upon his conscience, and a plague upon his soul! Now what a mercy must it be to be taken off from that carnal mirth which ends in mourning, and from those vain delights which end in unspeakable torments, and from that foolish jollity which leads to everlasting misery! Rev. 18:17.
I have read of king Lysimachus, that when he and his army were besieged in one of his cities, and in great danger of perishing by thirst, for a cup of cold water he delivered up the keys of the city to his enemy, which cold comfort he had no sooner tasted, but his tongue bewrayed the grief of his heart, saying, "Oh, that for so momentary a pleasure, I should be brought down from a sovereign a servant, from a king a captive!" Ah, what folly and madness is it for men to run the hazard of losing the kingdom of heaven, and the pleasures which are at God's right hand, Psalm 16:11, for those short-lived pleasures which are but like a blaze, or like the lightning, or like a morning cloud, or the early dew which soon passes away! Ah, who would endure an ocean of torture for a drop of sensual pleasure, or for a few bitter-sweets? And therefore doubtless, God can't do the soul a greater pleasure than to take it off from such vanishing pleasures. All sensual pleasures defile the soul, they debase the soul, yes, they debauch the soul; they take off the heart from God, and they deaden the heart towards God. The widow while she lived in pleasure is reckoned dead, 1 Tim. 5:6. That is, she is dead God-wards, and dead Christ-wards, and dead duty-wards, and dead heaven-wards, and dead holiness-wards, etc.
Aristotle writes of a parcel of ground in Sicily that sends forth such a strong, such a sweet smell of fragrant flowers, that no hounds can hunt there. Just so, the carnal pleasures of this world do send forth so strong a scent, that unsanctified people cannot hunt after God, nor Christ, nor holiness, nor the great concernments of the eternal world; and therefore it is rather man's felicity than his misery—to be taken off from such vain pleasures. Sensual pleasures and delights cannot satisfy the soul of man; they are but frothy and flashy, they only wet the mouth, they never warm the heart. A man may sooner break his neck than satisfy his heart with sensual pleasures. They seem substantial in the pursuit—but are clouds in theenjoyment.
Xerxes being weary of his sensual pleasures, promised great rewards to those who would invent new pleasures; and when they had invented new pleasures and delights—yet then he could not be satisfied nor contented; he would gladly have had one pleasure to have taken off the weariness of another—but it could not be. There is nothing in carnal delights, butimagination and expectation; for they can neither fill the heart nor satisfy the heart.
O sirs, there is no real pleasure in sin. All the pleasures of sin are counterfeit pleasures; they are but the shapes and shadows of pleasure. They are the seeds of future grief; they are but a pledge laid down for sorrow or ruin. It is observed by the mythologists that 'pleasure' went on occasion to bathe herself, and having stripped off her clothes by the water-side, 'sorrow' having hid herself close at hand, steals the clothes away, puts them on, and so departs. Just so, carnal pleasures are nothing but sorrow in pleasure's clothes. Certainly if there were the least real delight in sin—hell could never be hell. Yes, then it would follow that hell would be the greatest place of pleasure—for doubtless hell is the greatest place of sin.
Oh, don't deceive your own souls! there can be no real joy in sensual pleasures. What real delight or pleasure can there be in fooling and staggering in an ale-house or tavern; in swaggering and swearing; in dicing and carding; in dancing, partying, and whoring; in slighting of Sabbaths, in scoffing at saints, in despising of ordinances, and in pursuing after lying vanities? Surely none! And as for those seeming pleasures which attend the ways of sin, ah, how soon do they vanish and leave a sting behind them!
Now all the pleasures that holiness deprives you of, are only such that you may better ten thousand times lack, than enjoy. Look! as all the pleasures which manhood takes a person off from, are babyish and toyish pleasures; such as from delighting in a rattle, a toy, a feather, a hobby-horse, a wooden sword, etc. Just so, all the pleasures and delights which holiness takes a man off from—they are babyish and foolish; yes, they are base, dangerous, and devilish! Therefore it must needs be rather a high felicity than a misery—for God to take you off from such sinful pleasures and delights, by laying principles of holiness into your heart.
Oh! remember that holiness will be no loss unto you; it will be only an exchange of sinful delights—for those which are holy; and of carnal delights—for those which are spiritual; and of earthly delights—for those which are heavenly. Isaac was not to be sacrificed—but the ram. All the delights that holiness will put you upon to sacrifice, are but the rammish and foul delights of sin and the world, which may better be sacrificed than spared. Holiness will secure your Isaac—that is, your spiritual laughter, your spiritual joy, and your heavenly delights and pleasure. Well, for a close, remember this—that sensual pleasures are below a man. Witness Tully, who says that "he is not worthy of the name of a man—who would entirely spend one whole day in pleasures." And witness Julian the apostate, who professed that "the pleasures of the body were far below a great spirit." He who delights in sensual pleasures shall find at last—that his greatest pleasures will become his bitterest pains. All that holiness will do is but to ease you of your pains, and therefore you have more cause to pursue after it than to turn your back upon it. But,
7. Seventhly, I answer, It may be, that their present case and condition, bespeaks rather the exercise and evidence of sorrow and of grief, than of gladness, joy, and triumph.
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