By holiness, in the blessed God, we mean, that essential rectitude of his nature, whereby he takes infinite delight and pleasure in that which is pure and holy, and hates, with a perfect hatred, every thing which is morally evil. We consider holiness as essential, or absolutely necessary, to the very being and existence of God. We can have no right conception of a God without holiness. A God without holiness would be like a God without power, or a God without wisdom-it would be a monster, not a God. Many of the idols or pretended gods of the heathens, were indeed unholy; they were abominably impure; the patterns and the patrons of detestable vices; and therefore it is said in the song of Moses-"Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?-who is like unto thee-glorious in holiness ?" The holiness of God is the glory of God; it is the glory of all his other perfections, of his power; hence we read of "his holy arm," of his truth; hence we read of "his holy promise," of his justice; for he is righteous in all "his ways, and holy in all his works." We say therefore that God is essentially holy; and it would be less absurd to say, There is no God, than to say, God is not holy. Holiness is originally in God. If angels are holy, God made them so. If believers are holy, God made them so. But the holiness of God is not derived; it was eternally, originally, and unchangeably in him. Some of the holy angels sinned, and are become devils. Man, who was made holy at first, is now become an impure sinner; and the holiest creatures in the world, if left to themselves, might become unholy but God is eternally holy; there is "no variableness with him, neither shadow of turning." : Let us now produce some evidence of this truthsome satisfactory proof that God is holy. And we may easily obtain this from the uniform testimony of the sacred Scriptures-from the original condition of all rational creatures-from the holy law which God has given to men-from the anger he has manifested against unholy sinners-from the atonement made for sin by the death of Christ-and from the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of believers. 1. The holiness of God appears from the positive, uniform, repeated testimony of the sacred writers, in the Scriptures of truth. The great God himself, in whose light alone we see light, asserts his own character, and proclaims his own name. "I, the Lord your God, am holy." "I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour." This is ever the sanction of his holy commandments,-" Be ye holy, for I am holy." We need not multiply texts; the holy writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit himself, concur with the Seraphim in the text,-" One of whom cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory;" and observe, so awfully, so loudly was this proclamation made, that "the posts of the door," or the massy pillars of the temple, " moved at the voice of him that cried;" while the holy prophet himself trembled, and said, "Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts;"-that is, the holy WORD," who was afterwards "made flesh, and dwelt among us.' "" Such will ever be the humbling effect of right views of the holiness of God! 2. We refer to the original state of all rational and immortal beings. When formed by him they were holy; for nothing morally evil could proceed from the pure hands of a holy God. The innumerable hosts of angels were created pure. Those who still retain their first estate are called "the holy angels ;" and those who fell were originally such. As to man, before his creation, "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," and accordingly-"God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him." Gen. i. 26, 27. It is no impeachment of the holiness of God, that he permitted his creatures to fall. All creatures are in their very nature changeable. God only is incapable of change. But though" God made man upright," yet he was capable of "seeking out many inventions." He was able to stand, yet capable of falling. He was created with a will perfectly free; he was capable of loving God and keeping his commandments; there was a light in his understanding, rectitude in his heart, a rule to act by,-a promise to encourage him to obedience, and a threatening to deter him from sin. More was not necessary; his defection must be charged on himself: God is holy. 3. Consider the nature of the law, originally given to man in Paradise, and, long after, renewed at Sinai. The substance of the eternal, unchangeable law of God is "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself." Less than this, a holy God cannot demand; less than this a holy creature cannot desire. The holiness of God was strongly expressed in the method which he took to secure the holiness of Adam, and in him, the holiness of all his posterity. What could have been a stronger inducement to obedience, than the hope of everlasting happiness for himself and all mankind? What a more powerful guard against sin, than the certain and eternal ruin of himself and all his race? "The law," renewed, and awfully published at Sinai, "is holy, and just, and good." It is the rule of holiness. By this we learn what is holy or unholy, especially when we learn that it " is spiritual," that it reaches to the secret thoughts of the heart, and condemns even an evil desire. Thus, St. Paul assures us that he was convinced of sin, "because the law hath said, Thou shalt not covet." This obliged him to cry, "The law is spiritual, but I am carnal." "The law entered that the offence might abound"— that men might be convinced how dreadfully their sins have abounded;" and thus," saith he, "sin slew me," and "I died:"-" it was made death unto me, and sin, by the commandment, became exceeding sinful." See Romans vii. 9-14. Surely, this holy law-which is called perfect-pureclean, and "righteous," and armed with a dreadful curse against every transgressor, is an awful proof that God is holy. So, however, Moses, the man of God, thought, when witnessing the fire, and tempest, and terrible voice which attended the giving of the law at Sinai he said, "I exceedingly fear and quake; and thus every man will think who is acquainted with the extent of its demands, and sensible of his own innumerable transgressions. 4. Let us take a view of the holiness of God, as awfully displayed in his anger against sin and sinners. The first display of this was, in the expulsion of rebel angels from their thrones of glory. "God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment"-they "kept not their first estate," and were therefore expelled from "their own habitation." What a dreadful proof do those once illustrious, and now degraded spirits, exhibit to the whole spiritual world, of God's unconquerable and everlasting aversion to sin! And see, with horror and surprise, man seduced by the devil, involved in the same condemnation. Well might Adam tremble at the sound of the once delightful voice of his Maker, when he approached, and cried, "Adam, where art thou?" "What is this that thou hast done?" and still more, when dragged from his vain refuge, and in spite of his vain excuses, he hears the holy offended God say "Cursed is the serpent"—"cursed is the ground;" yet, not altogether cursed is poor apostate man: he is doomed indeed, to severe labour and toils; and the penurious earth refuses to afford him bread, but at the expense of the sweat of his brow; the deluded woman also, first in the transgression, is doomed to be the subject of multiplied sorrows, pains, and infirmities. When men were greatly increased, and sin became universal and triumphant, we see the holy God so provoked, that "it repented him he had made man, and it grieved him at the heart;"" he looked on the earth, and behold it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way;"" then were the windows of heaven opened, and the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the waters prevailed exceedingly, and every living substance was destroyed in which was the breath of life. Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.' What a dreadful proof was this that the holy God was angry with the wicked! Remember the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. "Their sin was very grievous,-their cry was great;" and their crimes so general, that not ten righteous men could be found. "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of Heaven; and he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the cities; and the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Gen. xix. 24. But he delivered righteous Lot. When the Canaanites had filled up the measure of their iniquities, he punished them with the sword of Joshua, and expelled them from their fruitful land, which flowed with milk and honey. And when the children of Israel, though God's peculiar people, forgot their duty to him, indulged in vice, or forsook his worship, he delivered them into the hands of the Philistines or of the Assyrians; and at one time consigned them to captivity for seventy years in Babylon; and at length, when they crucified the Lord of glory, rejected his gospel, and forbad it to be preached to the Gentiles, he brought upon them the fury of the Romans, burnt their temple, destroyed their city, and dispersed them, the most miserable of mankind, among all the nations of the earth. Every Jew you see may remind you that God is holy. Mark also, how this holy Lord God has chastised |
