The First Example of Eminent Piety

The thought is not always present to our minds, to what extent and by what a variety of means, the God of heaven is consulting the interests of moral rectitude in this fallen world. Next to his own glory, and as the great means of promoting the highest manifestations of his own glorious nature, is the personal holiness of those who are interested in the blessings of his grace. The special design of the method of redemption, is to secure the interests of holiness: “God hath, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit;” whom “he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” The influences of his Spirit are promised and imparted for this end. Create within me “a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me;” — “I will give them an heart to know me;” — then will “I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean, and from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.” All the truths of the gospel are “according to godliness,” and are revealed that they may become principles of holiness. They are all of the holiest tendency, and teach men that “denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, they live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present evil world.” This was the great object of the Saviour’s incarnation and sacrifice. “He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works.” The promises which in his word are revealed that “we might be partakers of the divine nature;” the hopes which he imparts are holy hopes and hopes of holiness; while the heaven to which the eye of faith is directed is a holy world, where “there shall enter nothing that defileth;” which “without holiness no man shall see;” into which God “shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations;” and the perfection of whose blessedness shall be, that its inhabitants shall “be like him, for they shall see him as he is.”

It would be a delightful fact, if, in the early history of the world, some vivid exemplification of the power of divine grace could be discovered so clearly as to influence all succeeding generations, and encourage them to aim at high attainments in the divine life. There is one such record. There were good men before; but there is no example of eminent piety, until we come to Enoch, in the line of Seth. He was the son of Jared and the father of Methusaleh, the most aged of all the ancient patriarchs, and the oldest man on the records of history. Enoch himself lived three hundred and sixty-five years. He was sixty-five years of age at the birth of his first child; and from the sacred record, we may infer he became a pious man, not far from the time when he first felt the obligations of the parental relation. That record informs us that “Enoch walked with God after he begat Methusaleh, three hundred years.” His name implies that he was the instructed and dedicated one; instructed in the knowledge of God, and dedicated to his service. There is no description of piety more beautiful or more emphatic, than is contained in these few words, “he walked with God.” The age in which he lived was a corrupt and corrupting age; but he had no sympathy with its spirit, its maxims, its habits, or its character. The men of the world were not his chosen companions; he did not walk with them; he came out from the world and “walked with God.” He did not walk contrary to him, but with him. The native enmity of his carnal mind was slain; God was his portion, and refuge, and joy. There was peace between him and his Maker; he was reconciled to all that God is, and all that he does; they could walk together, because they were agreed. He was the friend of God, and treated God as his friend. He was dutiful in his spirit, and in his life obedient. His fellowship was the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Sweet was this intercourse, sweet his confidence, and very many and precious were the tokens he enjoyed of the divine favor. The Apostle, in the eleventh chapter to the Hebrews, affirms that “he had this testimony that he pleased God.”

If we may rely on the testimony of pagan and Christian authors, his memory was long revered, not only in the church of God, but in the pagan world. In that early age, this one man was raised up to exemplify the power of vital godliness, and bear significant testimony to the efficacy of the promised redemption. Such was the maturity of his religion, and so distinguished was he for his unearthly spirit, that he was translated to the heavenly world without tasting of death. When we now point men to a bright immortality, we must tell them that it lies through the grave. His high privilege was to escape the struggle, to be turned aside from the dark valley, to travel above it, and to find his mortal swallowed up in his immortality, without this conflict with the dread destroyer. u Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” He was favored above Aaron, who went up the mount to die; and above Moses, who, instead of descending into the vale, died amid the mountain glories of Pisgah. He walked with. God, and was no longer found in the abodes of men. He was not among the living, nor was he numbered with the dead; God took him. His sojourn on the earth was comparatively short; nor was the ordinary promise of long life to the virtuous and holy, verified in his history. This privilege was unpromised, and altogether above and beyond the region of the promises. It was the reward of piety, well nigh as signal as his translation. God took him from the sins and sorrows of earth, from its scoffing and hateful associates, from the gloom and fears of death, and the loathsome corruption of the grave, to his own heaven of light and love, to the society of his fathers, to his own presence and joy, and to the beatific vision of a progressively unfolding eternity.

None of us may hope for such a dismission from the scenes of earth as his; yet ought we to hope, and pray, and strive for such a piety. We should not be Christians, if we did not desire to be like Enoch; nor should we have the fitting evidence of piety, if we aim not at piety that is eminent. Ask a truly Christian man in what he takes the greatest delight; and he will answer, the service of God. Ask him what he most desires; and he will answer, more and greater conformity to God. Ask him what he most prays for; and he will tell you, it is that I may be delivered from sin and made holy. Ask him what the ardent wishes of his heart are in behalf of the church of God on the earth; and he will reply, it is that they may indeed be a peculiar people, purified from sin, and so live that they shall more honor Him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light. The first great object of the gospel is to bring men to the saving knowledge of Christ, and then make them bright, shining, and useful Christians. Piety is not the growth of a moment. It begins in the soul when it is born of God. Not until the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost, is any one of our fallen race otherwise than “dead in trespasses and sins.” The holiness subsequently produced is as really the work of God, and differs not either in its cause or nature, from the holiness first imparted. Wherever there is pre-eminent piety, it is “the work of God’s Spirit, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and live unto righteousness.” Sound theology and Christian experience show, that spiritual life is, in this respect, analogous to the life that is natural; it has its infancy, its youth, and its full-grown manhood. Just as in the vegetable creation, there is the implantation of the seed, or the insertion of the scion, and then the progressive enlargement and growth of the branch, the bough, the tree, till it bears fruit, “some twenty, some sixty, some an hundred fold;” so is it in the kingdom of God.

When we advert to the character of good men, as delineated in the Scriptures, we see that their piety, though not uniformly, was really progressive. No man doubts that Abraham had attained to higher degrees of holiness, when he ascended Mount Moriah to offer up his son, than when God first called him from Ur of the Chaldees; — or that Moses had attained to higher degrees of holiness, when from the summit of Pisgah he surveyed the promised land, than when God at first appeared to him in the burning bush at Horeb; — or that the great Apostle had made higher attainments in holiness, when just on the eve of martyrdom he exclaimed, “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand,” than when he first fell at Jesus’ feet on his way to Damascus. Who can doubt that the piety of Payson, while a student at Harvard, or an instructor of the academy at Portland, bore no comparison with that enviable state of mind, which he enjoyed for several weeks before his death, and of which he says, “The celestial city is full in my view. Its glories beam upon me; its breezes fan me; its odors are wafted to me; its sounds strike upon my ears; its spirit is breathed into my heart.”

There is a constancy of holy affection in advanced piety, which is not discoverable in piety of a feebler growth. The main difference between one good man and another is, that one exercises gracious affections more constantly than another. If the gracious exercises of the renewed nature were not so frequently suspended, its sanctification would be most discernible and rapid. Just in proportion to the constancy of grace, is the progress of grace. In the same measure also in which the power of true religion becomes constant, it becomes more complete; in the progress of piety in the soul, a Christian man is more uniformly Christian, and manifests more and more all the graces of the Spirit. There is discoverable in advanced piety a sensible increase of love to God and love to man; a more scrupulous attention to moral duties, as well as religious observances; a growing watchfulness and caution in matters of great and less importance ; — all combined and blended in the exhibition of a character more and more like that of Jesus Christ. There may be less that is novel in mature holiness, but there is less that is transient; there may be less that is fervid, but there is less that is fluctuating; there may be less excitability, but there is more permanency; there may be less that is rapturous, but there is more that is consistent and productive, — more of the habit and principle of piety, and more that is unwearied in holy purposes and benevolent achievement. Piety also, as it increases in constancy and completeness, increases in strength. The reason why it does not always appear to increase in strength is, that there are seasons when it is less associated with mere animal excitement. Subtract the animal excitement from those vivid expressions of holiness which are so common in the career of the youthful Christian, and then compare them with the gracious affections of his maturer years; and the latter will be found the most vigorous. Supreme love to God in a mind long habituated to the exercises of piety, is a stronger and more. holy affection than it is in the same mind before it is thus disciplined. Different degrees of constitutional ardor and sensibility distinguish different men; but, other things being equal, piety is most vigorous and energetic, where it is most constant and mature. It is nourished and invigorated by its own fixed and steady purposes; draws toward itself, and concentrates all the scattered affections; and thus acquires an augmented vigor and ardency.

In the happier instances of pre-eminent piety, you shall see a man affectionate and humble in his disposition and deportment — discreet in his conduct, and prudent in his opinions — less and less inordinate in his animal emotions — more cautious in his intercourse with men — less rash, and more forbearing — more afraid of sinning, and more watchful against the encroachments of temptation — more submissive, and more thankful — more self-denying, and yet more cheerful and happy — more patient, kind, and forgiving — less contentious, and more peaceful — more distrustful of himself, and more full of confidence in God. He adds to his faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; “and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.” These beautiful characteristics are all so blended and linked together, that they act upon one another in harmonious union, and form one heart and soul. And with these, you shall discover more enlarged views of God and spiritual objects — sweeter and more satisfying views of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ — a deeper and sweeter fellowship with things unseen — a more thorough detachment from the world, and a more absolute renunciation of sublunary confidences and created good — together with more earnest and intense desires after holiness, and a more uneclipsed and transforming vision of the divine glory.

There is also in such a mind a sensible increase of spiritual enjoyment. In the world such a man may have tribulation; yet is he a most happy man. He drinks at never-failing fountains of joy, and goes not to earthly cisterns to draw. He has resources out of and above the world. There is no satiety and disgust in his enjoyments, and no disappointment. His cup is not dashed with the bitterness of regret, nor mingled with the terrors of apprehension. His prospects may not be cloudless, but they are light and gladsome; they may not be always brilliant, but they are calm and peaceful. Precious are his foretastes of the rest that remaineth for the people of God; and precious are his views of the glory to be hereafter revealed. “Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is changed unto the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

In regard to the means by which pre-eminent piety is produced, several things deserve consideration.

It is a principle of the gospel never to be lost sight of, that gracious affections, both in their commencement and progress, are all exercised in view of truth. “Sanctify them through thy truth /” One of the more obvious ways in which truth is presented to the mind, is the direct contemplation of it, by the increase of divine hwwledge. The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Colossians, says, “We do not cease to pray for you and to desire that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; so that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work.” The Apostle Peter expresses the same sentiment when he says, “Grow in grace, and in the foiowV edge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;■’ and also when he enjoins, “As new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” The knowledge of divine truth is, to the renewed mind, what food is to the body; it is the native and proper aliment of every gracious affection. There is high and holy joy in a clear perception of the nature, connections, consequences, and glory of the truth of God. The sensations of a devout mind in the contemplation of divine truth are like those of a hungry man when he sits down to a feast; he is fed,’ his hungering and thirsting after righteousness are gratified. Let him possess enlarged views of God, and just conceptions of his excellence and loveliness; let his thoughts be turned toward the ineffable glory of the divine nature, as it is manifested in the works of creation, providence, and redemption; let him dwell on the glory of God as it shines in the face of Jesus Christ; let him become more and more acquainted with the harmony and beauty of the divine designs, and the great end which God has in view in all that he does; and his holy desires will be enkindled and flow out, his heart will become enlarged, his affections elevated, and his piety will become manly. One reason why Christians are not more holy, is that they do not read and converse, and think enough about the great truths of the Bible. There may be excitement and fervor without Christian knowledge; but there can be little growing piety. By confining the thoughts to a narrow circle of truths, the mind becomes impoverished, and its piety languid and declining; while if we would raise the tone of spirituality and devotedness, we must raise the standard of Christian knowledge, and become more deeply imbued with the precious truths of the gospel. It is thus that the soul, instead of starving and pining away, is nourished; it lives in holiness, and is comforted in hope, and advances toward the stature of the perfect man in Christ Jesus.

Allied to this direct and immediate contemplation of divine truth, and not less indispensable to pre-eminent piety, is a scrupulous and sacred regard to the divine word and ordinances. So important are these to progress in the divine life, that they are by common consent called the means of grace. They are the great means of instructing the understanding, rousing the conscience, and impressing the heart. One who regards them with indifference, and attends to them from habit or curiosity merely, is like the “barren heath which does not see when good cometh;” while he who attends upon them with interest, with an humble and docile spirit, and with desires that cannot be satisfied without some sensible advance in holiness, will “flourish like the palm-tree and grow like the cedar in Lebanon.” Under their combined and precious influence, the full blaze of gospel light breaks in upon the understanding; the moral sense is smitten with holy compunction; and the renewed nature becomes gradually filled with all the fulness of God. Just as the intimate intercourse and correspondence of earthly friends increases their attachment, so does this fellowship with God in his word and ordinances, increase the love of his people. We read not a little in the Scriptures of the enlargement and satisfaction which the people of God have ever found in his own gracious institutions; nor are our experience and observation slow in teaching us how often have they anticipated in them the enjoyments of a better world! “One thing have I desired of the Lord,” says David, “that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” Again he gave utterance to the thought, “How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” The public and private institutions of religion, the common and special ordinances of the gospel, were appointed for the purpose, not only of awakening the thoughtless, but edifying the body of Christ.

The various dispensations of divine providence also are made to exert a powerful effect on the spiritual character of Christians. All that God does for them, and against them, he designs shall work together for their good; and by these dispensations, he promotes their piety. Even their prosperity may do this. There are seasons when everything around them is radiant and cheerful. The heavens and the earth smile upon them with unmingled mercy. Disease, death, suffering, disappointment, mortification, want and woe, in commingled and furious elements, desolate the hearts and obscure the prospects of those around them; while no tempest beats upon their head, and no cloud lingers in their sky. Even when their horizon is for a short period overcast, the light of heaven’s tender mercy soon returns to shine upon their path, and everything is peaceful and joyous. Health, friends, influence and reputation — temporal comforts and religious privileges are enjoyed in an abundance, as profuse and unexpected as undeserved. It is true, that unchequered prosperity is a snare to the soul, and often proves the hottest furnace to which the Christian graces can be subjected. But is it not also true, that “the goodness of God leadeth to repentance?” Not unfrequently the deepest self-abasement, the most unremitted diligence, and the most rapid attainments in spirituality of mind result from the wonderful exhibitions of the divine goodness. The flinty and rugged heart is softened, and melts under a view of God’s loving kindness; the soul is overwhelmed at these expressions of undeserved mercy; is “drawn by cords of love,” and delightfully constrained to walk with God. It is not always, it is not usually so. “He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul,” is too often the melancholy history of the child of God. Hence it is that the dispensations of divine providence toward pious men are often fraught with severe and protracted judgments. Instead of smiling, God frowns upon them; he takes away what he had given, and leads them into darkness. He visits them with sickness, poverty, or dishonor; he raises up enemies, or friends who prove faithless. By one visitation after another, he breaks their hopes and rends their hearts. By these painful dispensations, he rouses them from their stupidity, “makes them know their transgressions and their sin,” gives them abiding impressions of their dependence, detaches them from the world, and makes them feel that they have no resting-place beneath the sun — no continuing city — till they become possessors of that which no vicissitudes of time can assail, and whose builder and maker is God. This is what they need; and such is the discipline by which God trains up his children for the heavenly world. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Afflictions, though sent for rebuke and chastisement, are tokens of God’s love to his people, and tests of their love to him. “The more self-denying graces nourish only in adversity. Submission, patience, fortitude, perseverance, and detach- ‘ment from the world, are not flowers of the sun; they are planted on the beetling cliffs; they are watered by the spray of the ocean, and flourish amid storms and hurricanes.” We “glory in tribulation,” saith the Apostle, “knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience, hope.” “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.”

A very important means of progressive piety will also be found in doing good. The great law of the human mind, that both the intellectual faculties and moral dispositions are strengthened by exercise, is applicable to every man’s religious history. As a stream preserves its purity and clearness by continually running, so does the soul preserve its purity by the flowing out of its pious affections. It is in self-denying and benevolent, efforts that the sum and substance of religion are acted out. And who does not see, that by the natural expressions of their expansive and self-denying benevolence, good men become more holy; that “he that soweth bountifully, shall reap also bountifully;” that every new accession of grace becomes the means of greater accessions?” Grace

for grace” is the measure of the divine bounty. The promise of reward to benevolent effort would often remain unfulfilled in the present life, if a measure of that reward did not consist in the increase of spiritual graces and comforts. Who has not felt this delightful reaction upon his own heart? The man who has never found his account in doing good in the increase of gracious affection, has yet to discover one of the grand secrets of progressive sanctification.

It may seem, perhaps, the merest truism to add to these remarks, that no person can make advances in the divine life, without cautiously avoiding sin. Every one who has been in the habit of watching his own heart, has seen that all sin, whether open or secret, pollutes the soul, and separates it from God. Painful experience has taught every good man, that he cannot indulge himself in sinful habits, and in wrong affections of heart, without sensible decline in piety. There is one thought which we may here be allowed to present distinctly, if not with some urgeney; I allude to the danger of indulging in little sins. All such indulgence diminishes and tends to destroy all due regard for God and his law. The man who allows himself to disregard the divine authority in matters of apparently minor consequence, will soon find himself adopting a system of morality that is far removed from the standard of the Bible.

When once he ventures to make light of the decisions of unerring wisdom in some particulars of his conduct, he will, as a matter of course, weaken that high sense of respect for the divine authority which ought to be found in the bosom of every Christian man. He will form a code of morals for himself, as pliable as his own pliable conscience; and by so doing, will insensibly narrow the sphere of great sins, and extend the circle of those that are small. He prostrates the only barrier which can ever arrest men in the paths of wickedness. The strongest considerations which are addressed to him in order to deter him from evil, become gradually effaced from his mind; while his little sins, by a slow and gradual, though a very perceptible process, undermine those great religious principles which are the safeguard of the soul. In defiance of all his religious hopes, the necessary effect of them will be the diminished force of Christian principle in his own mind. If the fear of God and the love of his Son do not govern him, nothing will do it. No other considerations will keep him from profitable sins, nor from reputable sins, nor from secret sins. Men who indulge in little sins, overlook the strong bias of the human heart to eviL “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing!” Be not over confident; you know not the abyss of wickedness that is in the heart of man. There must be no ceasing from this conflict, else is the Christian undone. Little do those men know themselves who think there is any such thing as standing still in wickedness. “He that trusteth to his own heart is a, fool.” When the Saviour taught us to pray daily, “Lead us not into temptation,” it was because he knew what is in the heart of man. Let the Christian be familiar with thoughts of sin; let him indulge himself in the imaginations of sin; let him throw himself in the way of temptation for nothing more than to indulge his curiosity; and he may be abundantly thankful if he is kept from falling. There is no safety for him but in avoiding little sins. Without caution and watchfulness in this particular, there is most certainly no progress in the divine life. Sensual indulgences of every kind debase the mind and sink it below its exalted destiny. Luxury, extravagance, the intemperate enjoyment of any earthly good, obscure the moral vision, blunt the finest sensibilities of the soul, cool the ardor, and shake the steadfastness of its devotional feeling, and grieve the pure Spirit of God. Anger, wrath, malice, and other malignant passions agitate the bosom and expel the dove-like virtues. A corroding solicitude about the world — a covetous spirit keeps the mind in such a state of febrile perturbation, that it cannot grow in grace. Vanity too, and the love of praise, pride, and desire for pre-eminence, are inveterate foes of godliness.

Envy and contention, suspicion and jealousy, will always be found, to stupefy the conscience, and destroy spirituality. Every species and form of sin is like the deadly fang of the serpent. It is only when good men abstain from all appearance of evil, and as much as possible from all temptation to it, that they will be found perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. It is only when they keep their hearts with all diligence, and endeavor to suppress the incipient risings of iniquity, that they make any sensible advance toward that state of consummated purity, where they shall be like unto the angels, and holy as God is holy.

But there are thoughts on this general topic of a different kind. In speaking of the subject of personal religion, we may not overlook the agencies by which it is produced, and sustained. There is no principle more clearly revealed in the Bible, than that men are, at the same time, active and passive in all spiritual progress. “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of his good pleasure.” “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am the Lord who sanctify you.” These are remarkable declarations, and suggest two important thoughts.

Eminent piety is never produced in the soul but by the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit. In the order of time, God moves first. He begins the work of grace in the heart, and he carries it on. To begin it is the work of his new-creating power; he then produces the first active principles of piety in the soul; while in all its subsequent progress, he continues and sustains these principles. Paul says to the believers at Philippi, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” He represents God as “dwelling in the saints;” and by this he means that he continues to operate on their hearts by the influences of his Holy Spirit. The same great Giver is also represented as “establishing” his people — as “anointing” them — as “sealing them” — and giving them the “earnest of the Holy Spirit.” Of the influence by which the saints are fitted for heaven, it is written, “Now he that hath wrought us for this self-same thing is God, who hath also given to us the earnest of the Spirit.”

No degree of divine knowledge, no motives, or means of grace, no manifestation of God in his works, his providence, or his word, no human suasion, or divine, have any sanctifying influence upon the soul, without a divine energy producing this effect in view of the motives before the mind. Though God makes use of motives to accomplish his purposes, he always puts forth his own divine agency to produce this important effect, and by his own Spirit, causes his people to press forward from one degree of holiness to another. When they are favored with impressive and affecting views of invisible and divine objects, it is because God “lifts the light of his countenance upon them,” and “manifests himself to them as he does not to the world.” When their affections are taken off from this world and fixed on the world to come; it is not owing to their own independent reasonings and reflections upon the vanity and unsatisfactory nature of earthly enjoyments, but to the influence of the Holy Spirit producing higher and nobler desires. When they enjoy unusual delight and satisfaction in the word and ordinances, and anticipate in them the sweet employments of a nobler world; or when they pant after the heavenly glory; their satisfaction and their anticipations, their every devotional feeling, and their every season of sacred refreshment and vigor, recognize God as their Author.

Nor is there any sentiment to which good men more cheerfully subscribe than this. Listen to it in their prayers: “Draw us; we will run after thee.” “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me!” Listen to it in their grateful acknowledgments and praises. “By the grace of God I am what I am!” “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.” And is there not everything in the experience of the saints to impress, and deepen, and endear this conviction? Are they not conscious they once possessed the same natural aversion to holiness with other men? Have they not painfully felt, and frequently complained of their insufficiency of themselves to make any advances in holiness? And when they have been sanctified, have they not possessed as strong testimony as their own experience could furnish, that when grace is triumphant and sin is subdued, it is attributable to this transforming influence? There is in the best of men a guilty impotence to spiritual good, better expressed by tears than words. Even the renewed heart yields no fruit without the continued influences of the Sun of Righteousness. No matter how frequent, and powerful, and precious the means of instruction; no matter how affecting the appeals of divine providence; of little avail are they all, until the Spirit of God breathes into the soul.

Nor is it less true, on the other hand, that all this spiritual advancement is the advancement of pious men themselves, and their own act. They are active in every stage of it: it is throughout the act of the creature becoming more conformed to God, and making an unforced and spontaneous progress in the spiritual life. When God requires his people to “grow in grace1’ — to “abound in every good word and work” — to “endure to the end” — to be “faithful unto death” — he requires them to perform a voluntary service, and to be active in performing it. And when they become more holy, the act is their own; it begins, is continued and completed in their own minds, just like any other series of mental acts. It is not God who makes them holy, in spite of themselves; but they themselves who become more holy under his gracious influence. When they exercise more constant, more uniform, or stronger affections of love, repentance, and self-denial; or perform deeds of mercy and devotion; the act is their own. They themselves watch and pray, and follow on, and mount upward, till they become perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect.

These two thoughts should never be separated, when we speak of the cause of pre-eminent piety. It is the voluntary progress of good men for which they are dependent on God; and on the strength of their dependence, pursue their upward course. It is God dwelling in them, and they in him. They themselves become holy, under the influence of a divine energy upon their minds. And there is a delightful consistency in these truths. It would be illogical to argue against their consistency, because they are made up of plain facts — facts the inconsistency of which no man has ever discovered, either by his own experience, his own reason, or the word of God.

What then are some of the motives to this high spiritual attainment? We aim at low attainments in piety, because we feel as though it would be presumptuous for us to aim at higher; and because we have been in the habit of believing that high attainments are impracticable. But by the help of God, there is no impossibility in commencing a spiritual life and in advancing in this heavenward career. The same rational and moral faculties, which render us capable of one holy affection, render us capable of another, and of more constant, uniform, and vigorous effort, and of continued progress.

Nor is there anything in the experience or history of good men, that discountenances the spirit of this remark. When we advert to the names of David and Paul, of Owen and Howe, of Baxter and Martyn, whose light will shine through a long line of succeeding generations, we may no longer feel that the children of Adam may not become splendid examples of moral excellence. It is a withering, an annihilating thought, that it is impossible to imitate, and almost sinful to think of emulating such examples as these. What forbids our saying, that it is with spiritual attainment as it is in every department of human excellence; and that the more men set their hearts upon it, the more they are unwearied in the pursuit, the more humble and prayerful their exertions, the greater will be their success? I say, what forbids it? Is it our dependence for holiness? So are we dependent for all things. And what is there in our dependence that forbids hope? What evidence does it furnish of confidence in God, where a sense of dependence discourages and unnerves exertion? It is a serious error when good men make this unhallowed use of their dependence. Wicked men are wont to employ this truth thus, and to their own destruction; while it is the privilege of good men to employ it for their encouragement in “forgetting the things that are behind.” There is no humility in being afraid to resolve, that by the grace of God, we will be eminently holy, unless there be humility in resolving that we will remain great transgressors. It seems to savor of presumption, that such frail and polluted creatures as we are, should venture to emulate the example of the best of men; but does it not really savor of presumption, that we should determine to continue in our present imperfection?

No good man doubts, that to be pre-eminently devoted to God, is his solemn duty. God requires it: “Be ye holy, for I the Lord your God am holy — This is his will, even your sanctification.” Holiness consists in right dispositions and exercises of heart, and in right conduct. It consists in doing right from right motives; and if it is the duty of men to do this in one particular, it is their duty in every particular, and always. If it is their duty to love God, to hate sin, to pant after holiness, to exercise every gracious affection, and perform every gracious act at one time, then is it their duty at all times. There is no obligation in the word of God fortified by more powerful, or urged by more persuasive considerations, than the obligation to grow in grace; and I do not know that in the sight of God there is any deeper impiety than indifference to this reasonable and sacred obligation.

In all their desires and efforts for progressive piety, also, the people of God have the promise of divine assistance. The promised influence of the Holy Spirit does not, we are free to say, lay the foundation of their obligations to advance in holiness; and yet this gracious influence furnishes the most happy — nay, the only encouragement to every desire and effort. Does God say to his people, “Wash you; make you clean!” he also says, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; and from all your filthiness, and all your idols will I cleanse you.” “Blessed are they,” says our divine Lord, “who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled? At his triumphant ascension, this Prince and Saviour led captivity captive and gave gifts to men, that the Lord God might dwell among them.” Before his ascension, he told his disciples, that “he would ask his Father, and he would give them another comforter that should abide with them forever.” And now he gives his people the strongest encouragement to expect his divine influence. “Ask,” says he, “and ye shall receive; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.” To enable his people to fulfil their obligations, and to enable him to fulfil his purpose, he will communicate his Spirit in such measures as they truly desire, and in every time of need. We greatly wish that this truth should be appreciated. There is no other hope of spiritual advancement but this one hope. If it be not in God’s power to make it possible and certain with men to walk with him, this blessed privilege must be despaired of. No man ever made any advances, without being sensible of his dej)endence, and going forward in the strength of the Lord God. Good men trust not in themselves; his promised help is the foundation of their confidence and their prayers. If they cannot make advances of themselves, and if they cannot make them by his gracious influence, they cannot make them at all. They can make them, because they are “strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.” They can make them when they turn from self and creatures to that grace which is “sufficient for thein,” and to that “strength which is made perfect in their weakness.” They can make them, for they are “strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” They that “wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Whose heart shall not such truths animate! whose courage shall they not inspirit! Blessed, blessed, thrice blessed assurances! Well may the followers of Jesus dismiss their apathy, “give to the wind their fears,” and under the guardianship and patronage of such power and such promises, press onward till they lay hold on eternal life.

The ‘personal advantage of high attainments in piety is also a motive which no Christian mind will depreciate. Enoch was safe; he was happy, because he walked with God. Men of pre-eminent piety are comparatively secure from the snares of the world, the flesh, and the devil; and have the best reason to believe they shall be delivered from reproachful apostasies. “Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good.” The Lord is with them while they are with him. He never fails to spread the wing of his protection over them, and shield them from their foes.

In pre-eminent piety, there is also a perennial source of the purest joy. We have already remarked, that it implies a happy, just in the measure in which it implies a holy state of mind. If a little religion is the spring of consolations superior to all the pleasures of the world; large measures of it must be an overflowing fountain — an ocean of delight, The reason why Christians are so often sad and melancholy, and derive so little comfort from piety, is, that their piety is of so slow and stinted a growth, and their graces are so feeble and languishing. They may make religion the source of few consolations or many; they may make of it just as little and just as much as they choose. There is enough in it to make them supremely happy; and if they fail to draw from it all the comfort they need, or all that it can impart, the fault is their own. We know, alas! so little of elevated piety, th,t we have never proved its joys. True happiness is to be found only in living near to God. Here the most enlarged desires, be they ever so eager and grasping, and extend ever so far, may be gratified without extravagance, without harm, and without satiety. This is the good for which the soul was formed, and to which its exalted capacities are adapted. “Whom. have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon the earth that I desire beside thee!”

The more we are like God, the more we are loved of him, and the more significant are the expressions of his love. Darkness and doubt embarrass the minds of enfeebled Christians. “He that followeth after me,” saith our divine Lord,” shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life? That peace and comfort of which the heart is so often robbed by inconstant affections and besetting sins; that light of God’s countenance which is so often withdrawn, as a necessary discipline when we depart from him, would soon be restored if the soul were intent in the pursuit of holiness. And that depression which so often weighs down the spirit — those clouds which so often hang over the mind — those temptations which are the source of such bitter and pensive anxiety, would soon be removed if the heart were imbued with the spirit of Christ, and absorbed in God as its best and only portion. Nothing in this miserable world would come amiss if the people of God were more holy. They would rejoice both to do and suffer his will, and would be happy to live and ready to die.

Nor may it be forgotten, that pre-eminent piety is a necessary qualification for distinguished usefulness. The great end for which the people of God were created and redeemed, is attained in proportion to their personal piety. Some Christians accomplish very little for the honor of God in the world; they are little better than withered vines in a fruit-bearing and blushing vineyard. And but for here and there some solitary cluster of grapes when the vintage is over, they would be cumberers of the ground. “Herein is my Father glorified,” saith our blessed Master, “that ye bear much fruit.” Would you put honor on the name of the Great God your Saviour? would you redeem the pledge given to him in your self-consecration to his service? would you be more than cyphers in the world? then will you press toward the mark of the prize of your high calling. Many eyes are upon the saints of God; and as you are quickened in your course, or become languid and weary, so religion is honored or disgraced. You are a spectacle to God, angels and men; and your fidelity and diligence will be commended and approved, or your inertness and unconcern will be censured and accused. O then, with what unexhausted, exhaustless ardor ought you to run the heavenly race! With what moral heroism ought you to fight the good fight of faith! With what high and holy ambition ought your bosoms to be fired in aiming at the crown! There is no danger of excess in this enterprise. If pious men were as active in the pursuit of holiness as they once were in the pursuit of other things, how would they be hurried forward from one degree of grace to another — how would the glory of the Great Supreme become the end of all their conduct — how would the lustre of their piety shine on this ungodly world — how would the tribute of praise be brought to their redeeming God and King from afar — how would they make it manifest to the world, that they had not as yet gained their object, and that their sacred and loftiest desires were unsatisfied, till “Christ were magnified in them, whether it be by life or by death!”

Pre-eminent piety likewise ensures a large reward in the future world. If such is the economy of divine grace, that no holy act or affection will be hereafter unrewarded, ‘how immeasurably urgent the motive to aim at high spiritual attainments! The most holy man will have the largest capacity for joy; will be the best fitted for the presence and service of God — for the fellowship and society of holy beings — and for the employments and felicity of that spiritual and sinless state of existence. Enoch “was not, for God took him.” “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Every new attainment in holiness here is the commencement of a series of causes, every one of which, in eternal succession, is elevating in its influence on the mind, and rich in unfading joys. It is true, there will be no wandering star in the celestial firmament; all shall shine there in the “beauties of holiness;” yet “one star will differ from another star in glory,” and those who have shone the brightest here, will be most brilliant and move in the largest orbit there. There are methods within the resources of his own wisdom by which the moral Governor of the universe can express the delight he takes in holiness in direct proportion to the degree in which it exists in the soul. To some who were eminently holy and self-denying men, Jesus once said, “I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.” Some there will be who will “sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” As it is impossible for us to predict all the ruinous effects of sin, as they are indefinitely diffused and extended throughout eternity; so we know not all the happy effects of holiness, diffusing and extending themselves immeasurably and forever. As the most sinful man will be the most miserable, so the most holy man will be the most happy.

Who, then, will have respect to this ineffably high reward? Who will stretch forth his desires for this infinite recompense? Who will fix his eye on the brightest jewel in heaven’s diadem? Whose bosom will glow with irrepressible desire for the purest pearl in the crown of righteousness?

Christian! you were elected to be holy. You were redeemed to be holy. You were called to be holy. The choicest purposes of heaven’s love are realized in the pre-eminent piety of the church of God. Christ loved it, and gave himself for it, that “he might sanctify and cleanse it.” And when, by the various dispensations of his providence and grace, he shall have purged away its dross, it shall be presented before him glorious in holiness, “without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.”

“Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.” Excel in holiness. Live no longer at “this poor, dying rate.” If you fear God and love his Son; if you have an enlightened and tender conscience; if you know anything of the blessedness of being like your Divine Master, and of being constrained by his love; you will long, and pray, and pant after still greater similitude, and never be satisfied till you “awake in his likeness.”

And is all this nothing to those of my readers who live without God and without hope? Why is it that they live without hope, but that they live without God in the world? There it stands engraven on the foundations of the Heavenly City, “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.” All others are without the gates of the New Jerusalem. “The pure in heart shall see God.”