lays down the career of activity for a disciple, as a thing subsequent to all this, and emanating out of all this-" Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, perfecting our holiness in the fear of God." And it is of importance to advert here, to the place that the fear of God has in this process of your advancing sanctification ness. -as harmonising with the text, that, by becoming the servants of God ye have your fruit unto holiYou begin the new obedience of the gospel, more at first in the spirit and with the fearfulness of servants-more under the impulse of God's rightful authority over you-more perhaps at His bidding than at your inclination-more from a sense of duty to Him, than from the love you as yet bear to the work that He has given you to do. But no matter-be diligent with such principles as you have, with such performances as God hath prescribed to you; and your diligence in the service will at length work out a delight in the service. The labour you render to Him as your Master, will forward and mature your family likeness to Him as your Father. From servants you will become sons; and my object in urging this law and order of progression upon you, is, if possible, to set you aworking with such humble degrees of light and spirituality as you have-and this is the way of attaining to more light and to more spirituality. It is to cause you to break forth from the ground of inactive speculation; and to put into your hands the employment of an instant task, to which you may perhaps feel prompted at the outset by something even of a legal fear towards God. But no matter-should it be the task that goes to perfect your holiness, it will perfect also your love; and then will you be conclusively delivered from the spirit of all legalism or bondage or carnality, and have that affection in your bosom which casteth out fear. And I should like you to know the precise import of the term holiness. It has been defined to be all moral and spiritual excellence. But this does not just exhaust the meaning of the term. It is not just virtue, even in the most comprehensive sense of the word, as including in it all that one absolutely ought to be, both in reference to God and to all the creatures of God. To turn virtue into holiness, a reference must be had to the opposite of virtue-even sin; and then does virtue become holiness, when, in addition to its own positive qualities, we behold with what sudden and sensitive aversion it recoils from the contamination of its opposite. Thus it is, my brethren, that had there been no sin there would have been no sacredThere might have been love and rectitude and truth, exalted to all that infinity which they have in the Godhead; and filling too, according to the measure of his capacity, every one being that had sprung from the creative hand of the Divinity. But, in order that the Divinity or any subordinate creature shall make an exhibition of sacrednessit must be seen how it is that he stands affected by the contemplation of sin; or by the approach of sin to his presence. And then it is that we witness the characteristic display of God in the holi ness. ness, or of God in the sacredness that belongs to Him-when we read of the eyes which are so pure that they cannot look upon iniquity—when we read of a sanctuary so remote from all fellowship with evil, that it is there impossible for evil to dwell when we read of God in the awful jealousies, and of God in the unconquerable repugnance of His nature to sin; of the grief and the hostility and the indignation wherewith it is regarded by the Spirit of the Deity-So that should it offer to draw nigh, all Heaven would shrink at its coming; or fire would go forth from the place where His Honour dwelleth, to burn up and to destroy. Holiness is virtue, regarded in the one aspect of its separation from all that is opposite to virtue. It is thus that the attributes of clean and pure and untainted are given to it-free from all spot, because free from all mixture or vicinity with sinfulness. The vessels of the temple were holy, because, set apart from common use, they were consecrated, and that exclusively, to the solemn and separate services of a divine ritual. But the most striking of all the historical demonstrations that we have, of the deep and determined recoil that there is between a holy God and a sinful world, is, when He gave it in charge to set bounds about mount Sinai and to sanctify it-through which neither the priests nor the people were to pass, lest the Lord should break forth upon them. From this explanation, you will see how the fruit of holiness arises out of the cleansing of yourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. The deeds of impurity must be given up at God's bidding, even though the urgency of His command should carry you beyond what you would have been carried to, by your own detestation of impurity. You, at the outset of your new course, make a wider departure from iniquity than your own dislike to iniquity would prompt you to. But then, this reformation of the outer man will tell upon the inner man. As you keep your fearful distance from evil, your dread and your delicacy against it will augment upon you; and it is just by this reflex influence of the habit upon the heart that its holiness is perfected. And this view of holiness, as consisting of virtue or moral excellence in its quality of uncompromising and unappeasable enmity to sin, harmonises with the character that is held out of heaven-as being a place so inviolably sacred that nothing unclean or unrighteous can enter thereinto. O how it ought to chase away from our spirit all the delusions of antinomianism—when told, as. we are, what is the atmosphere of that place whither the disciples of Jesus are going; and how it is not possible for sin so much as to breathe in it! What a spur to diligence in the great work of purifying ourselves even as that upper paradise is pure, in which we hope to spend an eternity; and how busy might we be at all the branches of our spiritual education, when we think that we shall be found unmeet for admittance into the great spiritual family, unless we are found without spot and blameless in the day of Jesus Christ! It is thus that in our text, holiness here is the essential stepping-stone, or the indispensable path of conveyance to heaven hereafter. And as surely as the end of sin is death, so surely the end of holiness is life everlasting. We have already adverted to the spiritual character of hell; and have affirmed that the wretchedness thereof, was mainly composed of spiritual elements. And, in like manner may we advert to the spiritual character of heaven; and as surely affirm of it, that the happiness which is felt and circulated there, is mainly composed of spiritual elements. It lies in the play and exercise of pleasurable affections-in the possession of a heart now thoroughly emancipated from all its idolatries, and attuned to the love of that which is most worthy of love-in the well-poised and well-constituted mechanism of the soul, that now moves in duteous and delightful conformity to the will of that mighty Being on whom all is suspended-in the conscious enjoyment of His favour, sensibly expressed by such indications of benignity and regard, as will pour into the bosom unutterable extacy—in the raptured contemplation of all the glory and all the gracefulness, that are spread out before the mental eye on the character of the Divinity-in the willing accordancy of honour and blessing and praise, not merely to Him who sitteth supreme on a throne of majesty, but to Him who paved for sinners a way of access into heaven, and consecrated it by His blood. And songs of eternal gratitude and gladness will ever and anon be lifted there; and it will be the spiritual jubilee of beatified spirits that is held there; and the clear ethereal element of holiness will be all that is breathed there; and, altogether, it will not be a sensual, but a moral |