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This text, for the scope and aim of it, is most excellent, because the scope and aim of it is holiness. For the order thereof, it is by way of inference: “Having therefore these promises.” Ye heard he called these people “dearly beloved,” albeit he was far absent from them, and albeit it was not so much of comfort he was speaking to them, as it was of exhortation,—that they would bring out fruits, as became them. Ye heard also that the ground of the exhortation is, “Having therefore these promises;” which promises are laid down in the former chapter. That they should have the Lord to be their God, and they should be his people: that we should be a temple to the Lord, and he should dwell in us, to rule there: the Lord to be our father, and we to be sons and daughters to him. “Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves,” etc.
I was telling you also that besides these civil promises that one of us makes to another, and besides the religious promises that we make to God, there are also divine promises that God makes unto us out of his Word; and of these promises it is that he means. And we should think upon these promises, because they dispose us to keep these promises that we make to God and to man. And I told you also that ye should not only take heed to the commandments and threatenings in the Word, but ye should also take heed to the promises thereof. And I told you that beside the promises of the law, there are also evangelical promises: and I was showing you that we must have these promises of the gospel in our understanding and heart; we must have them in our affections, to believe them; we must have them in our memories, that so at fitting occasions we may remember them; and we must also have them in our mouths, that so we may speak of them unto others. I was showing you also how excellent these promises are: they give riches and delights, and full contentment to our souls. And these promises that God makes unto us, they are the grounds of holiness and of obedience to the commandment of God, and not as the world makes them, grounds of disobedience and unholiness; but to the child of God they are grounds of obedience and holiness. And he gives promises unto us for that end, that we may honour God, and thereby save our own souls. And then I closed with this point, that beside watching over our own ways, that so we may walk circumspectly and exactly in them, and beside trying of our ways also, (for when we have done our best in watching, we cannot walk as we ought to do, but still we fail in many things,) we must also try. And when we have tried, we may not rest there, but we must also purge and cleanse ourselves; for he who walks most exactly will see many pollutions in his ways, and so he will see a necessity of purging, that so he may live with a good and a quiet conscience.
Now, for the particular branches of the exhortation, they are two. 1. In respect of sin: We should purge out sin altogether;—“purge ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit.” 2. The second branch is in respect of holiness. As we should purge out sin altogether, so we should “perfite holiness.” 3. And, lastly, follows the necessary grace that we must take along with us in all this course, both in purgation from sin, and perfecting of holiness; which is “The fear of God.”
Now only one word in the general, before I enter upon the particular parts of purgation, and this is it. This is a duty that is required of every Christian, that he cleanse himself: this is an exercise that is daily incumbent to every Christian, while he lives here clothed with the filthy rags of sin and of uncleanness. And therefore we are bidden purge out the old leaven of wickedness, of envy, malice, etc.: and all these exhortations that the apostle has in his epistles, whereupon he insists so much, of laying aside the old man with his works, of casting off the works of darkness, crucifying the flesh with the lusts thereof, etc., all of them tends to this same end, to purge ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit. So that I need not to press that duty upon you, because it is so necessary a duty.
Now for the means that should be used for this purgation, ye will find them to be set down in scripture. This work, it is ascribed to divers instruments. 1. It is ascribed to the word, and to the sacraments. 2. It is ascribed to afflictions; they are said to purge us. 3. It is ascribed to the blood of Jesus Christ; and his blood is as the laver of purgaticn, whereby we are washen and cleansed from all our filthiness. Sometimes it is ascribed to God, working by his Spirit: and sometimes this work is also ascribed to ourselves. We are bidden “purge ourselves.” And this work, it is truly, properly, and deservedly ascribed to all these; and therefore all of them are required for our purgation, but in a diverse sense. The word, and the sacraments, and afflictions, these are worklumes (tools) only, whereby the master of work, he works the work. Then the blood of Jesus Christ is the meritorious and deserving cause, whereby we are purged from our guiltiness and sinfulness, for it is the blood of Jesus Christ that merits that God should work by the word, and sacraments, and afflictions, to cleanse us. And then our purgation, it is also ascribed to God by his Spirit efficiently, for it is the Spirit of God that is the efficient cause of our purgation. And then we ourselves, we must purge ourselves also as fellow-workers with the Spirit, and by giving our consent to the work, and craving that the work may be done. God commands every Christian to watch over themselves daily, and to try themselves; and when they have watched all the best, there is a necessity of purging: and we cannot purge ourselves, but it is the Spirit of God that must do it, and yet we are commanded to do it. And we are also said to purge ourselves in these respects. 1. In respect of our admittance of the working of the Spirit of God. The Lord lets us see by his Spirit that there is such a filthiness of sin in us, and that makes us desirous to be purged of it: and being desirous of it, then we admit the working of the Spirit of God for that effect. Now this is not that in any ways we do this from ourselves, but only by that wakening that we get from the Spirit of God, letting us see our uncleanness; which makes us also to know the excellency of that work of purgation: and so when the Spirit of God begins to work, we do ddmit the work. 2. We are also made to work with the Spirit, and so to be fellow-workers with him in the same work. 3. The Spirit also gives us such strength, that when we begin to find the work to grow cold, then we excite and stir up the work of God in ourselves. All these things, and these different parts, they are sensible to every christian soul who has known what the work of purgation means—an admittance of the working of the Spirit, a fellow-working with the Spirit in that same work, and an exciting and stirring up to the work, when it begins to grow slacker than it has formerly been; all these being wrought also by the Spirit of God.
And then, for the means whereby this work of purging of ourselves is done, ye know how things uses to be purged. The first thing that a man does who would have his body purged, he presents his petition to a physician who has skill. He finds that there are great distempers in his body, which threatens the wrack and ruin thereof, and he tells the physician of these humours, and receiveth a purgation from him, it may be at the mouth, that worketh through the whole parts of his body. And so as it is, John 15:2, “Every branch that bringeth forth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” Thus the axe of the word is taken, and by it all superfluous branches are cut off, that so the good branches may so much the better bring out fruit. Then the body is purged by sweating. Surely, beloved, if we would be purged from our sins, we must run to the physician of our souls, and say as the leper said, under the law, “I am unclean, unclean,” and beseech the Lord that he would cleanse us from our filthiness and uncleanness. And then, when he takes the work in his hand, he puts in faith into the heart as physick, and it purifies the heart and all other parts from superfluous humours; and it goes through the whole entrails, as it were, of the spirit and of the mind. And then the word, again, it is as the axe to cut off all unprofitable branches, that so the branches that are profitable may thrive so much the better. And repentance, it is the opening of the pores by sweating; and the groans and tears that comes from a sorrowful heart for sin, they are like the humours that comes from these pores.
All of us should study to know these, for the knowledge of them, it is profitable for us, and it is also most necessary. For, by this purgation from our sins, we get a testimony of our election. If we be not purged from our sins, we cannot say that we are chosen of God; (we may well presume of it;) and we are bidden give all diligence to make our calling and election sure. And, moreover, the Spirit of God says, No unclean thing shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, and all of us are unclean by nature; and that is sure, if we be not purged while we are here from our sins, we shall never come within heaven’s gates. And so we must be made meet for heaven before we come there, and it is only God who makes us meet for heaven; but he makes us also careful to see ourselves meet for it. And it is a pitiful thing that we shall be desirous to have all things neat and cleanly, and yet that we shall not have a desire that we ourselves may be neat. And, indeed, this should move us to be about this work, and to beg earnestly to have it done, for God can look upon no unclean thing. How shall God, who is so holy a Lord, look upon us who are so unclean, when we ourselves cannot abide to look upon a thing that is unclean, but when we see it, we will skunner (feel disgust) at it, and turn our backs upon it? Even like that man Esau, he was a foul, beastly, profane creature. The word that is used to express him by the apostle is very emphatick and significant;1 it is taken from the threshold of a door, which uses to be the foulest part in all the house: if there be any filth upon our shoes, we will wipe it off them there, that so we defile not the rest of the house with it. So that man Esau, he never suffered a tentation to go by him, neither to ungodliness, or uncleanness, or unrighteousness, or cruelty etc.: whatever tentation offered itself to him, he followed it. Such persons as these, they can have no certainty that they are chosen of God, or that they shall ever come to the heavenly and spiritual Jerusalem; yea, they are unworthy to live upon the face of the earth, and to breathe in this air: but the children of God, they will still be labouring to purge themselves, knowing that they have much filthiness. But these who purges all other things, and does not labour to purge themselves, it is like unto a house that is fair and weil-faur’d without, and all things within it are well dressed also; but when ye come to the master of the house, he is all foul and evil favoured. Even so are these who labours not to purge themselves, and yet there is nothing in all the house so foul as we are.
1. Now, for the first branch of the exhortation, to wit the purgation, the apostle leads us to the consideration of these parts in it. 1. Who they are who should cleanse themselves. 2. From what it is they should cleanse themselves. 3. How far they should labour to this cleansing of themselves, and how far the extent of it should reach. 4. About what it is, or the object whereupon they should take the pains thus to cleanse it: “the flesh and spirit.”
1. Who they are who should cleanse and purge themselves? A. The apostle, he not only speaks to the Corinthians, to whom he was writing the epistle, but he takes in himself, “Let us cleanse, etc.” Then the apostle, he acknowledges that he had need to be cleansed; and therefore the best who lives, unless they will affirm they are more holy than the apostles (which is a thing that none can say), must acknowledge that he has need to be further cleansed than he is. And therefore, as I told you before, it is said, John 15, “Every branch that bringeth forth fruit, my Father will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The best only brings out fruit, and so had need to be purged, that they may bring out more fruit. And the apostle Paul, writing to the Philippians, confesses that he had not attained to perfection, but he was labouring to it so fast as he might. He sets the high prize of the calling of God, and the crown, before his eye, and labours by all means to see if he can attain unto it, and to the resurrection of the dead, that is, the happiness that is given to the children of God. 1 John 1:8, “If any man say that he has not sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” And it were to be wished that this sort of justification were not so frequent as it is. We use to justify ourselves, in saying that we have not sinned at all, and so seeks not justification by Christ. But the best of the children of God, they have sin in them, and there is good reason why it chould be so. First, that God alone may have the honour of man’s salvation. If the best of the children of men could walk but one day, and had not their corruptions setting upon them, they would grow proud, and would think that in part they merited their own salvation. And therefore every day God will have the best of his children to acknowledge that they are beholden to him for their salvation, by letting them see their own corruptions. For, indeed, he watches not well over his own ways who sees not every day that he has need of the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse him from the guiltiness of sin. Secondly, this is done also to the end that we may walk humbly with God. This was a thing that these who had only the light of nature were altogether ignorant of; even all the natural philosophers, albeit they attained to the understanding of many points, yet not to this. And he who is head of these philosophers, in all his Ethicks he speaks not a word of humility. But the Spirit of God teaches this point; and the child of God sees it to be most necessary for him to walk so before God. This is evermore the safest course for the child of God—to give the glory of all goodness to God, and to ascribe the cause of all our filthiness and wickedness to be from ourselves. And this is also a rule whereby to try religion. That is evermore the safest and surest religion which gives most glory to God and ascribes least glory to man; and that is the worst and most unsure religion which impairs anything from the glory of God and attributes it to man. And such was that religion that was coming in among us; but, blessed be God, he has put a bar upon the door before it, so that it cannot get entry. Now the consideration of this, it is a encouragement for all the true children of God; but it is a sore matter that there be but few who has use for this doctrine, and for that reason I will not stay upon it.
On the other part again, when we see such uncleanness both in ourselves and others, we should labour to purge ourselves. And think not that this exhortation belongs only to these who are called Puritans, who will be precise, and would be religious beyond their neighbours; but it belongs to all sorts of persons, whatsoever they be. If so be that thou be altogether [unholy], then I am sure thou has need to cleanse thyself. If so be that thou has any measure of holiness, then thou has need to cleanse thyself more, that thou may have a further measure of holiness; and then, when thou has gotten more holiness than that which is required, and thou has need of, cast all that by thee to these who are Puritans. But we should still go fordward and labour to increase in the course of holiness, let them call us what they will; for these are not Puritans and Precisians who are still labouring to be more and more holy, but I will tell you what a Puritan or Precisian is. They who strains at a gnat, and yet in the meantime will swallow a camel. But he who strives to cleanse himself from all sort of sin, if there be any sainct upon earth, that is the man; for he strives to sanctity and holiness here, and his end shall be to holiness and happiness eternally in the world to come. The Lord suffers the best of his children to fall in many infirmities, which are not only sensible to themselves, but ofttimes they are evident to others; but not for this end, that they may be cried out against by the wicked in the world. But the Lord suffers them to be so for thatend: First, he does it in respect of good men, that they may not be altogether dismayed and discouraged when they fall in sin, but they may have hope to get mercy and pardon, seeing others of the children of God has fallen in the like infirmities. Secondly, in respect of themselves, that they may learn to walk more humbly with God. Thirdly, he suffers it to be so in respect of 1ill men even, to that end that the infirmities of the godly, when they see them, may be stumbling-blocks to them, whereupon to break their necks. They will say, How can yon man be anyways meet or profitable to instruct me, seeing that he himself errs, and falls in sin? Indeed he might say so, if so be that he saw him walking constantly in a course of smmng, and not labouring to come out of it; but when any sin tyrannises over him, and he falls in it agalnst his purpose, and labours to rise again as soon as he can by repentance and fleeing in to Christ, and flees the occasions of it for afterwards, then he ought to judge more charitably of him. And, indeed, we should not despise any help that we may get in grace, no, not of the weakest.
2. What is it from which we should labour to purge ourselves? From all uncleanness. First, ye may see here, if ye will mark the branches of the text, it is opposite to holiness; for we must purge ourselves from all uncleanness of the flesh and of the spirit, “perfecting holiness.” Then ye may see that these two, the one of them are set against the other, to wit, filthiness or uncleanness and holiness. And from this ye may see, that whatsoever is opposite to filthiness is holiness, and whatsoever is opposite to holiness is filthiness. The lesson that we have to learn of this is, that every sin, of whatever sort or degree it be, because it is opposite to holiness, therefore it is filthiness. I wish that all of you could think of this aright. Pride yourselves in sin as ye will, as some men indeed does, I wat (wot) well there is filthiness there, and these who prides themselves in sin they pride themselves in filthiness: and that is a very stinking pride, and it is the worst sort of pride that can be, for a man to pride himself in his own filthiness, how filthy he can be. It is not for a man to pride himself and to glory in his weakness, as the apostle did, (but in a better sense), but even to pride themselves in their filthiness. If we could get sin displayed and laid open to you, ye would think it to be the most vile thing that can be. When men begins to describe God, they take them to via eminentiae, as they call it, and indeed it is the meetest way how to win (attain) to any description of him. They take a view of the creatures, and puts all the flowers and chief ornaments of them all upon God, taking away their infirmities: and so by putting the perfection of the whole creatures upon God, they describe him thus to be God. Again, when we would describe what sin is, we would scrape all the filthiness that ever we heard tell of together, and make that to be sin; for it is the foulest, dirtiest, most ill-savoured midden (dunghill) that ever was heard tell of. Men were wont to say that some things could not be known for their formosity; as the sun, it cannot be discovered well by us what the beauty of it is, it is so beautiful, and the cleanness of it so far above our sight that we cannot behold it. There be some other things again that cannot be known well because of their informosity, they being without form; as that chaos which was before the creation, if there was such a thing. And there be some things again that cannot be well known because of their deformity; and that is sin. Scrape all the filthiness in the world together, it is not so filthy as sin: it is a foul, dirty, ill-savoured thing. And, indeed, it is the worst favoured thing that ever either man or angel saw or looked upon. Ye know, if ye will consider of it in respect of God, it is as far opposite to him as the greatest deformity that ever was heard tell of to the greatest beauty that can be, as that which is most contrair to it. For holiness, it is the praise of God, but holiness is the dispraise of sin; so that, in respect of God, it is a filthy and most abominable thing, as far opposite to him as anything can be. Then in respect of the law of God, it is a very ill-faur’d thing; for the law of God, it forbids the least sin in thought, word, or deed. Indeed, if it were according to man’s will, and there were a law to come out of his heart, it would be contrair to this law,—it would be a law of louseness and liberty; but God’s law is contrair to all sin. Thirdly, in respect of the sinner himself, it is a very unclean and unholy thing; for it makes him meet to be a faggot2 for hell’s fire, and makes him altogether unmeet to inherit the kingdom of glory. And then, for the comparisons that are used in scripture to express the vileness of sin, they are many, and very filthy. There is nothing that we abhor more than we do leprosy, and yet the comparison of leprosy is used to express the filthiness of sin. Ye know, leprosy is odious in these two respects. First, in respect of the contagious nature thereof. Not only are they foul who has it, but it infects and spreads to others. Secondly, in respect also of the filthiness of the persons themselves who are leprous. And in both these respects sin is a most filthy thing; for it runs from one to another, and infects them all about (in turn): and then in respect of the sinner himself, he is compared to a dog, and not to a dog at any time, but to him in the most filthy thing he does, when he is licking up his own vomit that before he has casten. And he is compared to a sow, and not to a clean washen sow, but to a sow returning to wallow herself in the mire, and so to make herself all foul. And so sinners, they are compared with beasts when they be about their foulest actions; and the sinner, he is only compared with these because of sin, for if he had not sin and an inclination to it, he would not be so. And if the sinner be so filthy, then [sin] itself, which makes him filthy, must be much more filthy. Happy were we, if we could come but this (thus) far on, that at the hearing of corruptions and expressing of them in our ears, our stomachs, they could rise against it in a hatred of it, and so to cast it out, never to return to it again! O but it were a sweet and a most comfortable thing for us, if, for all this, we could have a perfect hatred of sin!
3. The third point is, How far should we labour to this purgation of ourselves? “From all uncleanness.” And, indeed, if we be of the children of God, and thinks to be ranked in that class amongst them, we should labour to purge ourselves from all uncleanness; and so there must be a universality this way.
The Apostle Paul, when he is writing to Titus,3 he says, “The grace of God has appeared to all men:” and in the epistle to the Colossians, when he is speaking of faith, he speaks of a universality of all men. This universality is oft used in Scripture, and it is very comfortable: and these who are presumptuous, they are ready to apprehend much comfort to themselves upon this universality. Christ says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest unto your souls.” This invitation is to these who labour sore under the heavy burden of sin, and are burdened with it, even as an ox that has a yoke lying upon his neck, that is heavy and sore, and has a heavy burden in a cart harling (dragging) after him, that is both heavy and sore; and the comparison, I think, be taken from this same. There is a second universality spoken of in the word. And that is, whatever sin we be subject unto, though never so many or never so great, yet they may be pardoned, and can be pardoned unto us. If our sins were as the scarlet, or as the crimson, double-dyed, there is a possibility of the forgiveness of them wupon repentance. “At what time soever a sinner repents him of his sins, I will do away his iniquities.” All of us are ready to apprehend these, and to apply them to ourselves for our comfort; howbeit, indeed, I confess, when a sinner is in the way of repentance, and is humbled under the mighty hand of God because of sin, he has need of all these encouragements to hold him up. But for the presumptuous sinner again, he has need to think upon this universality, that he ought to purge himself from all uncleanness and filthiness: and it is expedient and necessary that it should be so, for the law of God says that this ought to be done. The Apostle James in his epistle says, “He that obeyeth not in one commandment, he is guilty of all.” Not that in breaking ene commandment, he is directly a breaker of them all; but he is guilty, as if he had broken them all. For there is but one lawgiver for all the commandments; and so he who despises one commandment, he despises the lawgiver, and so the whole law. And this universality of purging of ourselves from all sin is also necessary in respect of the curse due to the breakers of the law. “Cursed is every one that abideth not in everything that is written in the Law, to do them.” So we see, when we look either to the commandments of the law, or to the curse that is denounced upon the breakers thereof, we ought to give perfect obedience to it. And the Apostle James says, “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue,” that is, albeit he keep all the rest of the commandments, yet if he keep not this one, “then all his religion is but in vain.” And so he says that all the rest of his religion is but in vain, if he bridle not his tongue. I suppone that a man should keep his heart right, and all his outward actions; yet if he rule not his tongue, but his words be wrong, then all the rest are wrong also. And that is sure, when the heart of the child of God is once thoroughly renewed, then he has a respect to all God’s commandments, and he find this to be a most necessary duty. But there be some who labours to cleanse themselves from no sin at all, but goes on in a broad way all their time, and so fall headlong in the pit in the end. Others, again, are like Herod, who, because of John Baptist, did many things that he would not have done otherwise, and left many things undone because of him, that otherwise he would have done; but for that which was his right eye, and his right hand, he could by no means shed (part) with that: he kept that fast, and therefore all that he did served for no good.
And therefore, as ye would give obedience to the royal law, as ye would eschew the curse of the whole law, and as ye would not have your religion to be in vain, ye must labour to forsake all uncleanness, and to purge yourselves from all filthiness.
Where is this uncleanness placed? “In the flesh and in the spirit.” It were but only a wasting of time, needlessly and idly to speak unto you severally of all the divers ways how these words are taken in Scripture. Ye know that sometimes the spirit is taken for that part in any which is the work of regeneration, and that which yet rests of the corruption of the old Adam is taken for the flesh: and so the flesh is said to lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. But here the meaning of this is, the spirit is taken for the soul, and the flesh is taken for the body. Where ye may perceive that people are given to two sorts of sins. 1. They are given to sins of the body, as drunkenness, fornication, adultery, and all these sorts of sins; to speak ill and sinful words with their tongues; and so they make the members of their bodies to be weapons of unrighteousness, to fight against their own souls. 2. But besides these sins of the body, there are some sins that has their properseat in the soul, as ignorance—this is the uncleanness of the understanding; for an ignorant understanding, it is foul also with errours, unbelief, secret blasphemous thoughts against God, murmurings against God’s secret providence. Schoolmen, they divide these sins in carnalia et spiritualia, and they may be so called indeed. The one may be called sins of the body, the other may be called sins of the spirit or soul; and both these sort of sins we ought to strive against. And ye know there be two sorts of creatures beside man. First, there are brutish creatures, as beasts, fowls, etc.; secondly, there are angels, which are creatures also, for they were not from eternity, albeit they remain to eternity (I mean now of the ill angels, the devils in hell, and infernal spirits). So there are two sorts of sins which men are given unto. 1. There are sins of the flesh; and these make us like unto beasts, because they make us beastly. And, indeed, it is much better to be a beast than to be created a reasonable creature, and yet to be inclined as a beast; indeed it had been better for us to have been created stocks and stones than to be brutish as the beasts are. 2. The other sort of sins that we are given unto, they are inward sins of the spirit; and these makes us like unto devils, for they are called evil spirits.
And therefore, if so be that we would not be like unto devils, or like unto beasts, we should keep ourselves from all uncleanness of the flesh and of the spirit. And therefore do not flatter yourselves, albeit ye think ye be free of gross outward sins before the world, and so be not beasts. That, indeed, shows that God has reformed thee from these, but if so be that thy soul be covered over with mistaking of the ways of God, and thou be given over to blindness of mind and unbelief, and thou have murmurings against God’s providence, then if so be that thou calls a devil worse nor a beast, then thou art worse nor he who is polluted with these outward sins and yet is not subject to these inward and more spiritual sins.4 And therefore, deceive not your own souls, to flatter yourselves because ye are free of gross outward faults, if sobe that ye have infidelity, etc. Yea, the children of God finds these inward sins to be matters of greater humiliation than the outward are, for the Lord so keeps and hems them in that they are not scandalous to others, but he gives them daily and continual matter of humiliation within themselves.
II. Now the second branch of the exhortation is, “To perfect holiness.” Ye may see here, by the order of the words, that first he would have us to purge ourselves from all uncleanness, and then to strive to perfect holiness. For, wherefore serves that, for any to strive to seem to be holy, and yet in the meantime to keep still their filthiness? This were nothing else but like a man that had a garden all overgrown with filthy weeds, and in the meantime he would go and sow it full of some precious seeds amongst the mids of these weeds. I confess there is no order of time between these two works of purgation and holiness, for according to the order of time both of them must go together; but in respect of the order of nature, the work of purgation goes before the perfecting holiness. There is much preaching and praying into the land, and yet there is but little holiness for all that; and what is the cause thereof? Because it is all sown among the humlocks (hemlocks) and weeds of sin and iniquity. But once labour to purge out the old leaven of sin and iniquity, and once having gotten that purged out, then labour to be holy, and ye will see the work of holiness to thrive with you. And if so be that ye will but begin to the work of purgation, and be going fordward into it, before that work be done, ye will perceive the work of holiness to be beginning in you.
“To perfect holiness.” So as we must set ourselves against all sins, so we must also set ourselves to the performing of all duties; we must still be aiming at perfection in everything we set ourselves unto. This is the way of God’s children—they all aim at perfection; this is to be a Christian indeed. Not as many who thinks themselves to be good Christians, and gives themselves out for Christians, and others think so of them also; but they content themselves with what they have attained to already; and if they aim at any more knowledge than they have, it is only to serve them in discourse, and not that they may attain to any further measure of holiness thereby. But the child of God, he always forgets that which is behind, he counts nothing of all that he has done, but bends forward toward the high prize of his calling in Christ, and acknowledges that when he is fardest on into the work—when he is even at the very last point of it—if God should leave him to himself, then he would not miss to fail. And therefore we must endeavour to perfect holiness, and as we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,” that is, we would be at that, to obey thy will as cheerfully and willingly as the angels in heaven does, so we should be still endeavouring to perfect holiness till we be as holy as the angels and saincts who are in heaven, who are perfectly holy.
III. Now for the mean that he subjoins, to stir us up to both these duties, it is the “Fear of God.” We must still take the fear of God along with us in every point of this whole work; for when we find occasions to sin, and finds also tentations environing us round about to tempt us to sin, and when we find our corruptions strong and would lead us into it, what is the only way to avoid these occasions, to overcome these tentations, and subdue our corruptions? Even to have the fear of God always before our eyes. For if so be that we be always strucken with the fear of God, it will make us to say with Joshua,5 Shall I, who am such a man, commit such a trespass? I will not do it. The fear of God is as the watch of the soul; it watches us always that we get not leave to commit sin: we dare not do it, considering that God is looking upon us. And we should give heed to this, because it is the Lord’s commandment that we should fear him. Deuteronomy 10:12 when the Lord is promising to that people such a fat and plentiful land, what is it that he craves of them? Even that they fear him. For he knew that if they feared him, then they would labour to cleanse themselves, and to perfect holiness.
And then if we have the fear of God, it is also possible so to do. Not that I ascribe the work to man, when all is done—that it is possible to him; but it is possible in respect of the grace of God. For the Lord, he has promised to plant his fear in the hearts of his own, and it is not possible for any othir (either) to abstain from sin, or to set themselves to the doing of any good duty, but through this fear of God. They may well do it for fear of men, while men may see them; but in secret they will make no conscience of it, unless they have the fear of God; for they know that man sees not in secret, but God sees. 'Then the Lord conditions and promises to us, that if we have his fear, then we need not to fear any other thing: albeit all about you, as ye think, were turning upside down, then ye need not to fear, if so be that ye have the fear of God. This fear of God is like the needle, which brings the thread after it; so it frees us from all other fears. This fear of God that is here spoken of, it is not only in men and in the children of God while they are here, but it is even in the saincts and angels who are glorified in the heavens. It is not metus culpae, nor timor poenae, but it is metus reverentiae. Even the angels and saincts, albeit they be glorified in the heavens, yet in consideration of the difference that is between God and them, therefore continually they fear him. And therefore, in the fear and reverence of his great name, we rander to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all praise, glory, and honour, for ever. Amen.