Selected quad for the lemma: friend_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
friend_n	bosom_n	lie_v	unholy_a	36	3	16.0763	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29687	The crovvn & glory of Christianity, or, Holiness, the only way to happiness discovered in LVIII sermons from Heb. 12. 14, where you have the necessity, excellency, rarity, beauty and glory of holiness set forth, with the resolution of many weighty questions and cases, also motives and means to perfect holiness : with many other things of very high and great importance to all the sons and daughters of men, that had rather be blessed then cursed, saved then damned / by Thomas Brooks ...	Brooks, Thomas, 1608-1680.	1662 (1662)	Wing B4939; ESTC R36378	584,294	672

us and will ●od admit such to cohabit with him that never had any acquaintance or familiarity with him Surely no. In history we read of such Towns and Cities as would not admit strangers to inhabit among them and such a City is that above Exod. 33.12 17. It hath been long since concluded that In coelo nullus erit alienus in heaven there shall be no strangers none shall be admitted into that state but such as God knows by name Charon in Lucian requesting Mercurius to shew him Jupiters Palace above how sayes Mercurius that such a caitiff as thou whose conversation hath been altogether with black shades and impure ghosts shouldst set thy foot in that pure place of light what a dishonour and derogation were that to the place The Application is easie Unholy persons have fellowship and familiarity with Satan and therefore doubtless God will have no familiarity nor fellowship with them 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. As righteousness can have no fellowship with unrighteousness nor light with darkness nor Christ with Belial nor heaven with hell no more can a holy God have any communion or fellowship with unholy souls for they are Satans house Luke 11.21 he keeps possession of them as a man doth of his house Rev. 18.2 and hath familiarity with them as a man hath with those of his house he is their Father and they are his children John 8.44 and look what familiarity a Father hath with his children that hath an unholy devil with unholy souls A workman cannot be more familiar with his tools then Satan is with unholy souls and therefore he is said to work in the children of disobedience as a Smith worketh in his forge or as an Artificer worketh in his shop Ehpes 2.2 Unholy persons have bosome fellowship with Satan 1 John 5.19 And we know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness or in that wicked one the Devil as the Greek will bear they lie as it were in the bosom of Satan as the child lies in the bosom of the Mother or as the Wife lyes in the bosom of the Husband or as a friend lyes in the bosom of his friend Unholy persons partake with him at his Table they eat with him and drink with him and converse with him 1 Cor. 10.21 Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils If Judas was at the Sacrament the greater was his wo. Ambrose brings in the Devil boasting against Christ and challenging Judas as his own thus He is not thine Lord Jesus he is mine his thoughts beat for me He eats with thee but is fed by me he takes bread from thee but money from me he drinks with thee and sells thy blood to me By all which you may see what fellowship and familiarity there is between Satan and a sinner Now what is this less then blasphemy to assert that a holy God will have fellowship with them that have fellowship with the Devil God hath not cast Satan out of heaven that he may make room for his familiars in heaven if heaven was too holy to hold unholy devils it will be found at last to be too holy to hold unholy souls certainly they shall not lie in the bosome of God who have the Devil for their bed-fellow Fourthly Unholy persons are full of contrariety to God their natures principles practises aims minds wills affections judgements intentions and resolutions Lev. 26.21 22 23 24 27 28 40 41. Isa 58.4 5 6. Jerem. 44.16 17 18. Ch. 2.25 Ch 18.11 12 are contrary to God his name nature being truth and glory you may as soon bring East and West North and South light and darkness heaven and hell together as you shall bring a holy God and unholy souls together Antipathies will never incorporate as soon may midnight be married to the noon-day as a holy God embrace an unholy sinner That unholy persons are made up of contrarieties to God is most evident as you may see in Isa 22.12 13. And in that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnest and to girding with sack-cloth And behold joy and gladness slaying oxen and killing sheep eating flesh and drinking wine let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die These sad souls practise quite contrary to what the Lord calls for at their hands Rom 8.7 Iames 4 4. Pope Julius the third would have his Pork though it was forbidden him by h●s Physitians in despite of God himse●f he calls them to weeping and mourning and behold joy and gladness he calls them to fasting and behold here is nothing but feasting carousing and making merry and jovial and that in contempt of God and his dreadfull judgements Unholy persons are like the Rainbow now the Rainbow is never on that side of the world that the Sun is on but whensoever it appears it is still in opposition against the Sun if the Sun be in the East the Rainbow is in the West c. So unholy souls in all t●eir actings and walkings will still be opposite to God they will still be cross and contrary to him John 8.38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father and ye do that which ye have seen with your Father Unholy hearts are full of the highest strains of contrariety and opposition against the Lord. I have read of a King that Reigned in no very remote part of the world who having received a blow from the hand of God took a solemn Oath to be revenged on him and ordained that for ten years space no man should pray to him speak of him nor so long as he was in Authority to believe in him O the vanity the contrariety and blasphemy of this Prince Now we will not admit such to be about us who are made up of contrarieties to us and will God will God heaven and earth fire and water the Woolf and the Lamb the Winds and the Sea will sooner accord then a holy God and an unholy heart There can be no amity where there is a spiritual Antipathy 5. Fifthly Without holiness no man can have any spiritual communion with God in this world he may hear but he can have no communion with God in hearing without holiness he may pray but he can have no communion with God in prayer without holiness he may come to the Sacrament but he can have no communion with God in the Sacrament without holiness he may come into the communion of Saints but he can have no communion with God in the communion of Saints without holiness he may read and meditate but he can have no communion with God in reading and meditation without holiness Deut. 23.14 For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp to deliver thee and to give up thine enemies before thee therefore shall thy Camp be

3.17 Because thou saiest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked They had a great opinion of their own goodness worth and excellent state having need of nothing when they they had nothing of a Christian in them Thou sayest thou art rich I but thou dost but say so thou boastest and braggest of thy riches as many proud Beggars do of that wealth they have not for all thou deemest thy self rich thou art but poor and beggarly It is mans sin and judgement that ever since he ceased to be what he should be he striveth to seem to be what he is not Thou sayest thou art increased with goods and needest nothing I but thou dost but say so thou dost but dream it is so for thou art ignorant of thine own wretched and lamentable estate Thou sayest thou art rich but I know thou art poor and beggarly if a dram of grace would save thy life thy soul thy family nay the whole world thou hast it not Thou sayest thou seest but thou art blind thou art destitute of spiritual eye-sight thou seest not thine own wants nor Christs worth thine own emptiness nor Christs fulness thine own sinfulness nor Christs holiness thine own poverty nor Christs riches and plenty thine own misery nor Christs mercy thine own insufficiency nor Christs alsufficiency thine own vanity nor Christs glory c. Multi multa sciunt se autem nemo Many know much but few know themselves or their own danger infelicity or misery and indeed no misery to this The Chineses use to say of themselves that all other Nations of the world did see but with one eye they only with two and of this spirit and temper were those blind Laodiceans they thought they knew all things when they knew nothing that they should nor as they should By all which you may see that there is an imaginary holiness a conceited holiness where there is no real holiness but an imaginary holiness will bring a man but to an imaginary blessedness a conceited holiness will bring a man but to a conceited happiness he that doth but dream that he is holy he doth but dream that he shall be happy Bastards of old were not to inherit Gen. 21.10 but to be thrust out from among the true heirs Judges 11.1 2. Now Jepthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour and he was the son of a harlot and Gilead begat Jephthah And Gileads wife bare him sons and his wives sons grew up and they thrust out Jephthah and said unto him Thou shalt not inherit in our Fathers house for thou art the son of a strange woman Ah Sirs you that are but bastard Christians bastard Professors bastard Believers bastard Saints you shall never inherit among the heirs of glory 2 Thes 1.8 9. Matth. 8.12 Ch. 22.13 but shall be thrust out for ever from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power and thrust into utter darkness because you have pleased your selves and satisfied your spirits and blest your souls in a bastard holiness in a conceited holiness Deut. 23.2 A bastard shall not inherit in the Congregation of the Lord he shall have no fellowship nor communion with the people of God the door of Admission shall be shut upon him Mat. 25.10 11 12. Ch. 7.21 22 23. The foolish Virgins had but a Bastard holiness a conceited holiness an outward dress of holiness and therefore the door of life the door of hope the door of help the door of grace the door of mercy the door of glory was shut upon them William the Conquerour was much slighted and scorned because he was a Bastard God and his people will slight such and scorn such and turn their backs at last upon such that have no more then a bastardly holiness and therefore this cannot be the holiness here meant But Thirdly There is an outward external visible holiness which includes mens freedom from scandalous vices and their ordinary performance of religious duties Luke 1.5 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were both saith the Vulgar Sine querela without complaint their conversation was such as none could justly complain of it It was irreprehensible it could not be reprehended Now in this sense Zacharias and Elizabeth were both holy persons for they walked in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless And so the Apostles 1 Thess 2.10 For ye are witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe Answerable to this is that of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity Not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world and more abundantly to you-wards These precious souls behaved themselves holily towards God justly towards the world and unblameably towards believers they were holy in Religious work they were just in their Civil affairs and Commerce and unblameable in their private carriage and behaviour amongst their familiar and most bosome friends And this is that the Apostle presses upon Christians in Phil. 2.15 That ye may be blameless and harmeless the sons of God without rebuke or unblemished in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation among whom ye shine or shine ye as lights in the world Christians must be the spotless sons of God Deut. 32.5 they must have no spots upon them that are inconsistent with Sonship or Saintship Now it is certain without this outward visible holiness there is no happiness there is no fruition of God in everlasting blessedness They that pretend their hearts are as good as the best when their lives are as bad as the worst shall experience this truth at last to their shame and cost that without visible holiness here there can be no fruition of God hereafter Yet this must be granted 2 Tim. 3.5 They say of Halifax Nuts that they are all shells no kirnels There are many that make a glorious shew before men that are abominable in the sight of God Luke 16.15 that are Aurum hominibus lutum Deo Gold in mans eyes dirt in Gods sight Gregor Mor. c. 34. l. 13. that a man may be visibly holy that is not inwardly holy A man may be outwardly holy that is not throughout holy a man may have an outward dress of holiness upon him that hath not the spirit and vitals of holiness in him As Judas had and Simon Magus had and Demas had and the Scribes and Pharisees had Matth. 23.25 27 28. We unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for ye are like unto whited Sepulchres which indeed appear beautifull outward but are within

given unto me by the vertue of which gift I do rightly lay claim unto it and am not confounded Though we cannot lay claim to heaven nor to a blessed fruition of God by any inherent holiness in us it being weak and imperfect yet we may lay claim to both by the mediatory holiness of Christ imputed to us As Christs Essential holiness gives him an hereditary right to everlasting happiness So his Mediatory holiness gives us a right to everlasting blessedness The costly cloak of Alcisthenes which Dionysius sold to the Carthaginians for an hundred Talents was but a mean and beggarly ragg to that embroidered royal Robe of Christs mediatory holiness that is imputed or reckoned to us And therefore as ever you would come to a vision of God in happiness you must labour to be interested by faith in Christs mediatory holiness But Sixthly and Lastly there is an inherent internal qualitative holiness Holiness is not any single grace alone but a conjunction a constellation of all graces together Now this inherent holiness lies in two things First in the infusing of holy principles divine qualities or supernatural graces into the soul such as the Apostle mentions in Gal. 5.22 23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no Law These habits of grace which are severally distinguished by the names of faith love hope meekness c. are nothing else but the new nature or new-man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 These seeds of holiness these habits of grace are those sweet ointments with which all must be annointed 1 John 3.9 2 Cor. 1.21 1 John 2.27 that shall ever come to a blessed sight or vision of God You may know much of God you may hear much of God you may talk much of God and you may boast much of your hopes and interest in God and yet without these habits of holiness you shall never come to a blessed fruition of God in happiness without these feeds of holiness you shall never reap a crop of blessedness But Secondly This inherent this qualitative holiness lies in an holy use and exercise of those supernatural graces in a way of holy walking Acts 10.35 1 John 1.3.7 Tit. 2.12 Luke 1.73 2 Pet. 1.8 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Isa 35.8 all holy habits must be brought forth into holy acts gracious habits must be attended with gratious motions gratious operations and a gracious conversation outward works must be suitable to inward habits it is with spiritual habits as it is with natural habits the more they are acted and exercised the more they are increased and strengthened holy habits are golden Talents that must be imployed and improved Gracious habits are the candles of the Lord set up in us and God hath set up those candles of heaven not to idle by not to sleep by but to work by and to walk by Where there is holiness of disposition there must be nay there will be holiness of conversation a holy heart is alwayes attended with a holy life Where there are the seeds of holiness there will be the flowers of holiness you may separate a man from his friend but you can never separate though you may distinguish acts of holiness from the habits of holiness now it is certain without this holiness you shall never come to a sight or fruition of God in happiness And thus I have shewed you what that holiness is without which there is no hope no possibility of ever seeing the Lord. I come now to the second thing and that is to prove the truth of the Proposition viz. That without men are holy they can never be happy without holiness on earth none of the sons of men shall ever come to a blessed vision and fruition of God in heaven Now this great and weighty truth I shall make good by an induction of particulars thus First God hath by very plain and clear Scriptures bolted and barred the door of heaven and happiness against all unholy ones See also Mat. 7.21 22 23. Ch. 25.10 11 12. Witness 1 Cor. 6.9 10. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor Idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God Heaven is an undefiled inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 and none that are defiled can enter into the possession of it When the Angels fell from their righteousness heaven rejected them it would no longer hold them and will it now accept of the unrighteous will it now entertain and welcome them surely no. Such sinners make the very earth to mourn and groan now and shall they make heaven to mourn and groan hereafter Surely no. What though the Serpent did wind himself into an earthy Paradise yet none of the seed of the Serpent so remaining shall ever be able to wind themselves into a heavenly Paradise witness Gal. 19.20 21. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness Idolatry witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envying murders drunkenness revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I also have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Before they go to hell he tells them again and again that they shall not inherit the kingdom of God By the Kingdom of God we are to to understand the kingdom of Heaven the kingdom of glory now the kingdom of heaven of glory is called the kingdom of God 1. Because he hath prepared it 2. Mat. 20.23 Luke 12 32. Because it is a royal gift that he confers and bestows upon his little little flock Augustus in his Solemn Feasts gave trifles to some and Gold to others Rev. 4.10 11. Chap. 20.6 Dan. 4.16 17. The trifles of this world God often gives to the worst and basest of men but the kingdom of heaven he only gives to his bosome friends 3. Because that of and under him the Saints hold it and possess it 4. Because with him they shall for ever reign in the fruition of it And so that in John 3.3 Jesus answered and said unto him Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born again be cannot see the kingdom of God To give a little light into the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truth truth or truly truly Verily verily the Greek is Amen amen The word Amen is Hebrew and in the Old Testament is most commonly used by way of wishing or imprecation but here and in other places of the New Testament the sense of it is altered from precatory to assertory or from the way of wishing to the way of affirming This phrase Amen amen or Verily verily imports First The

the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his wayes and we will walk in his pathes for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem 1 Thes 1.3 And hence patience is called patience of hope because this holy principle of hope naturalizes a mans heart to a patient waiting upon God Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not Heb. 6.10 then do we with patience wait for it So holy love naturalizes the soul to holy service in 1 Thes 1.3 you read of the labour of love holy love is very laborious nothing makes a Christian more industrious painful and diligent in the service and waies of God then holy love holy love will make us to pray and to praise Rom. 14.7 8. 2 Corin. 12.14 15 16. it will make us wait and work it will provoke souls to study Christ to admire Christ to live to Christ to lift up Christ to spend and be spent for Christ and to break through all difficulties that it may come nearer to Christ and cleave closer to Christ As Jerom once bravely said If my father said he should stand before me my mother should hang upon me and my brethren should press about me I would break through my brethren throw down my mother tread under-feet my father that I might the faster cleave unto Christ my Saviour O the laboriousness of holy love So far as a Christian is holy so far holy services will be delightful and easie to him Rom. 7.22 I delight in the Law of God after the inward man ver 25. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God Psalm 119.16 I will delight my self in thy Statutes I will not forget thy Word Ver. 35. Make me to go in the path of thy Commandments for therein do I delight Ver. 47. And I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved Ver. 92. Vnless thy Law had been my delights I should then have perished in mine affliction Ver. 143. Trouble and anguish have taken hold on me yet thy Commandments are my delights Sirs Honour is not more suteable delightful and pleasing to an ambitious man nor pleasure to a voluptuous man nor flatterie to a proud man nor gold to a covetous man nor excess to an intemperate man nor revenge to an envious man Psalm 27.8 Psal 81.8 ult nor pardon to a condemned man then Religious duties and services are suteable pleasing and delightful to a holy man but now unholy hearts are very averse to holy duties and services they are averse to hearing averse to praying averse to reading averse to meditating averse to self-judging averse to self-examining averse to holy worship averse to holy Sabbaths Amos 8.5 When will the new moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth Wheat Isa 26.10 11. Jer. 5.1 6. You may sooner draw a Coward to fight or a Malefactor to the Barr or a Bear to the stake Wicked hearts are habitually averse to all that is good c. then you shall draw unholy hearts to holy services But if at any time by the strong motions of the Spirit the close debates of conscience the powerful perswasions of the Word the education of godly parents the pious example of bosom friends the rich treasures in precious promises the dreadful evils in terrible threatnings or if at any time by the displeasure of God the smarting rod the bowels of mercy the woings of love or if at any time by some flashes of hell or glimpses of heaven or by the heavy sighs the deep groans and the bleeding wounds of a dying Saviour their hearts are wrote over to Religious services Ah how soon are they weary of them What little delight or pleasure do they take in them Isa 43.22 Isa 58.1 2 3 4 5. But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob that is thou hast not worshipped nor served me sincerely faithfully feelingly heartily affectionately humbly holily as thou shouldest and as thou oughtest but thou hast been weary of me O Israel that is thou hast been weary of my worship and service and thou hast counted it rather a burden then a benefit a dammage then an advantage a reproach then an honour a disgrace then a favour a vexation then a blessing and for all thy formal courtings and complementings of me thou hast been secretly weary of me So in Mal. 1.12 13. Ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible Ye said also Behold what a weariness is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts c. They did God but little service and that they did was after the worst manner too and yet they snuff and puff and blow and sweat and swell and fall into a fustian fume as if they had been over-tyred and wearied with the burden and weight of those sacrifices which they offered up to the great God A holy heart thinks all too little that he doth for God but an unholy heart thinks every little too much that he doth for God An holy heart like the holy Angels loves to do much and make no noise but an unholy heart makes most noise when he doth least service an unsanctified soul hath a Trumpet in his right hand when he hath but a penny to give in his left hand as here But Eighthly Where there is real holiness there will be the exercise of righteousness towards men from righteous principles and upon religious accounts viz. the honour of God the command of God the will of God the credit of the Gospel c. Real holiness towards God is alwayes attended with righteousness towards men Eph. 4.24 And that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness or holiness of truth Titus 2.11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world These words contain the summ of a Christians duty to live soberly towards our selves righteously towards our neighbours and godlily towards God The common shekel is about 20. pence so then 400. shekels amount to 33. pound six shillings and eight pence after five shillings sterling the ounce And in this purchase is prophetically shewed that Abrahams posterity should have the inheritance of that land As Jeremiahs buying of his Uncles field was a sign of the Jews return and of their pollicie there again to buy and sell is true godliness indeed and the whole duty of man So holy Abraham in Gen. 23.16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth four hundred shekels of silver currant money with the Merchant It is recorded to holy Abrahams everlasting honour and fame that he paid for

under every turn no turns shall turn him out of a way of holinesse Job 17.9 The righteous shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands Finis coronat opus shall be stronger and stronger A man that is really holy will be holy among the holy and he will be holy among the unholy If you look upon him among unholy friends unholy children and unholy servants you shall find him holy If you look upon him among unholy neighbours you shall find him holy and if you look upon him among unholy buyers and sellers you shall find him holy If you take him at his Table you shall find him holy if you take him in his shop in his commerce you shall find him holy if you take him in his family you shall find him holy if you take him in his Closet you shall find him holy if you take him in his journeyings you shall find him holy or if you take him in his recreations you shall find him holy True holinesse is like that famous Queen Elizabeth Semper eadem alwayes the same The Philosophers good man is Tetra-gonos four square cast him where you will like a Dye he falls alwayes sure and square So cast a holy man where you will and into what company you will yet still he falls sure and square for holinesse True holinesse is a part of the divine nature it is of such a heavenly complexion that it will never alter If the times should be so sad and bad that holy persons should not be able to hold fast their estates their liberties their trades their lives their religion 2 Cor. 18.13 yet they will still hold fast their holinesse A holy Christian is like gold Now cast gold into the fire or into the water cast it upon the dunghill or into the pleasant garden cast it among the poor or among the rich among the religious or among the licentious yet still it is gold still it retains its purity and excellency so cast a holy Christian a golden Christian into what condition you will and into what company you will Gen. 39. yet still he will retain his purity his sanctity yea the worser the times are the more a holy man studies holinesse and prefers holinesse and prizes holinesse and practises holinesse that he may keep up the credit of holinesse and the credit of a holy God and the credit of his holy profession in the world But now such as have only a shew of holinesse an appearance of holinesse these will be religious among the religious and vitious among the vitious They will be righteous among the righteous and licentious among the licentious they will be as the company is amongst which they are cast with the good they will be good and with the bad they will be bad with the zealous they will be zealous and with the superstitious they will be superstitious and with the lukewarm they will be lukewarm c. they are for all times and tides they are for any turn that will serve their turn Isa 9.17 for any mode that will bring pleasure or profit to them they are like Alcibiades of whom it was said that he was omnium horarum homo a man for all times for he could swagger it at Athens and take any pains at Thebes he could live most sparingly at Lacidaemon and bib among the Thracians and hunt among the Persians So these men can accommodate themselves to the times and comply with them what ever they be with Proteu●s they will transform themselves into ●ll shapes as the times change so will they what the times favour that they will favour what the times commend that they will commend what the times cry up and admire that they will cry up and admire and what the times frown upon and condemn that they will frown upon and condemn Look as curious and well drawn pictures seem to turn their eyes every way and to smile upon every one that looks upon them so these can turn with the times they can look as the times look and smile as the times smile they can say with the times and sail with the times Sometimes they can act one part and sometimes another part as the times require if the times require a large profession they can make it if the times require a rigid Spirit against such as cannot comply with the times they can act it If the times bespeak them to leave their religion at the Church door they can leave it c. If the times call upon them to worship God according to the prescriptions of men they can do it Oh but give me a man that is really holy and he will be holy though the times should be never so unholy yea the more licentious the times are the more gracious he will labour to be In the fifteenth place He that is really holy propounds ordinarily to himself holy aims and ends in his actings and undertakings The glory of God is the mark Iohn 7.18 Gen. 41.16 Dan. 2.23 Titus 2.10 1 Cor. 10. ult Rev. 12.11 the white that holy men have in their eyes Rom. 14.7 8. They live not to themselves but they live to him who lives for ever they live not to their own wills lusts greatnesse and glory in this world but they live to his glory whose glory is dearer to them then their very lives They make divine glory their ultimate end 2 Cor. 4.5 Quod non actibus sed sinibus pensantur officia That duties are esteemed not by their acts but by their ends is most certain We preach not our selves but Christ Jesus the Lord that is in our preaching we woo not for our selves but for Christ We are no kin to those who speak two words for themselves and hardly one for Christ In all our preaching we eye the glory of Christ we design the honour and exaltation of Christ Real holinesse is commonly attended with a single eye as counterfeit holinesse is commonly attended with a squint eye squint eyd aims and squint eyd ends do usually wait upon double hearts Take a holy man in the exercise of his gifts and graces for the good of mens souls or take him in the exercise of charity for the good of mens bodies and in both you shall find his eye fixt upon the glory of God Suitable to that 1 Pet. 4.11 If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen Look as bright shining golden vessels do not retain the beams of the Sun which they receive but reflect them back again upon the Sun So those that are really holy they do return and reflect back again upon the Sun of righteousnesse the praise and glory of all the gifts graces and vertues that they have received from

Moses by a cleare articulate voice even as one man speaks to another when they speak face to face And so when Aaron and Miriam were swell'd with pride and envy and began to bespatter Moses and to pick a hole in his Coat and to cloud eclipse and diminish his glory see at what ahigh and noble rate God speaks of Moses see how God magnifies and exalts and lifts up Moses in that 12 Num. 6 7 8. And he said heare now my words if there be a Prophet among you I the Lord will make my self known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dreame My servant Moses is not so who is faithfull in all my house with him will I speak mouth to mouth even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold Wherefore then were ye not-afraid to speak against my servant Moses 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 the greatest favourite and that he had far greater respects for Moses then he had for them and that there was not a man in all the world that was so inward with him as Moses and that had so much of his eare and heart as Moses had God did appeare to o●her Prophets in Dreames 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 then he did to others by visions and more clearely plainly and assuredly then he did to others by dreames God here engages himselfe to hold a more close familiar friendly and constant conference and correspondence with Moses then with any others in the world Moses was blest with as cleare and with as full and with as apparent sight of God and communion with God as he was able to bare and comprehend Some of the learned are of opinion that Christ did converse with Moses in a humane shape as he had done with Abraham before Gen. 18. Ch. 32.30 c. they conjecture that the Lord Jesus did very friendly and familiarly shew himselfe to Moses with that very same face and forme of humane nature which he afterwards assumed 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 lyes upon those Rabbies to prove that doe assert it but this is granted on all hands that he was a speciall favourite and a man in high communion with God and one that had very cleare 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 own'd him as a friend Isa 41.8 as an honorable friend as an eminent friend as a bosome friend as a peculiar friend and as a faithful friend and therefore he made him one of his Privy Councell and open'd his heart and his secrets to him And the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham the thing which I doe Gen. 18.17 Abraham is stil'd the friend of God by a specialty though God had many friends yet 't was Abraham that was his singular friend his darling friend his rare friend c. and accordingly God was most free and full and rich in the communications of his favours and secrets to Abraham 't was not enough for Abraham to be of Gods Court but he must be also of his Cabinet Councell 'T was alwayes a principle in morality that sweet and intimate friendship cannot be extended to many Friends usually goe by paires 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 shall that man be of God the highest communion is alwayes attended with the highest love But Fifthly and lastly the more holy any man is the more actually ripe and fit for heaven that man is A Christian at first conversion is but ru●●e cast but as holiness is encreased Job 5.26 so he comes more and more every day to be prepared polished squared and fitted for a full and glorious fruition of God in heaven though the least degree of grace and holiness puts a man into an habitual preparedness and fittedness for heaven yet 't is only an eminency in grace and holiness that puts a man into an actuall preparedness and fittedness for heaven the richer in grace the riper for glory the higher you are in holiness the fitter you are to enter into the joy of your Lord Math. 25.19 to ver 24. though the least drop or dram of holiness is enough to keep a man from dropping into hell yet 't is only growne holiness that actually prepares and fits a man to goe to heaven Now doubtless the more actually ripe and ready any man is for heaven the more pleasure and delight God takes in him the more the vessels of grace are fitted for glory the more complacency God takes in them When God set himselfe upon the creation of the world in the close of every dayes work except the second for which the opinions of the learned are various God set to his Seale that it was good but when he had perfected and compleated the whole Creation and cast an eye upon all together then he concludes Gen. 1. ult that it was very good And God saw all that he had made and behold it was very good or extream good so some or very pleasant and delightfull so others The work of Creation was so curiously and gloriously fram'd and so full of admirable rarities and varieties that it raised delight and complacency in God himselfe Aug. in Gen. 1.31 Whereupon Augustine observes that even to every grace yea of the least degree of grace he saith it is good but when he beholds the graces of his Saints fresh and flourishing your faith acted and strengthened your repentance daily renewed your humility increased c. then he concludes that all is very good O Sirs if the Lord Jesus Christ be so ravished with one of his Spouses eyes Cant. 4.9 and with one chaine of her neck with the least drops or sips of grace or with the least grains and drams of grace and holiness O how much more will great measures of grace and holiness take him and ravish him Well for a close of this Argument remember this that as the Sun shines hotter on some Climates then it doth upon others and as the dew falls more upon one place then another and as the water over-flowes some pastures more then others so Gods love of complacency and delight shines hotter and brighter upon some Christians then it do's upon others and these I have shew'd you to be such who are most eminent and excellent in