The Way of Holiness, a sermon by Jonathan
Edwards, Isaiah chapter 35, verse 8.
And an highway shall be there, and a
way, and it shall be called the way
of holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it.
This book of Isaiah speaks so much of
Christ, gives such a particular account of the
birth, life, miracles, and passion, and of the
gospel state, that it has been called a
fifth gospel.
In this chapter is contained a glorious prophecy
of the evangelical state.
One, we have a description of the flourishing
state of Christ's kingdom in the first two
verses, in the conversion and enlightening of the
heathen, here compared to a wilderness and a
desert solitary place.
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be
glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice
and blossom as the rose.
It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with
joy and singing.
The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto
it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.
They shall see the glory of the Lord,
and the excellency of our God.
Two, the great privileges and precious advantages of
the gospel, in the five following verses wherein
the strength, the courage, the reward, the salvation,
the light and understanding, comforts and joys that
are conferred thereby, are very aptly described and
set forth.
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the
feeble knees.
Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, Be strong, fear not, behold, your God
will come with vengeance, even God with a
recompense.
He will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf shall
be unstopped.
Then shall the lame man leap as an
heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing,
for in the wilderness shall waters break out,
and streams in the desert.
And the parched ground shall become a pool,
and the thirsty land springs of water, in
the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall
be grass with reeds and rushes.
Three, the nature of the gospel, and way
of salvation therein, brought to light.
First, the holy nature of it, in the
eighth and ninth verses, and an highway shall
be there, and it shall be called the
way of holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it, but
it shall be for those, the wayfaring men,
though fools, shall not err therein.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous
beast shall go up thereon.
It shall not be found there, but the
redeemed shall walk there.
Second, the joyful nature of it, and the
ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come
to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon
their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow
and sighing shuffly away.
Verse 10.
The first observation is to observe in our
text the subject spoken, that is, the way
to salvation, and highway shall be there, and
a way.
This highway is the common and only way
to heaven, for the way to heaven is
but one.
There is none ever to get to heaven,
except they walk in this way.
Some men don't get to heaven one way,
and others another, but it is one highway
that is always traveled by those that obtain
heaven.
It is the same narrow way that Christ
tells us of.
Some don't go to heaven in a broad
way, and others in a narrow, some in
an easy, and others in a difficult way,
some in a way of self-denial and
mortification, and others in a way of enjoyment
of their lusts and sinful pleasures, some uphill
and others down, but the way to heaven
is the same, and it is the highway
here spoken of.
There is only one highway, or common road,
and no by-paths that some few go
to heaven in, as exceptions from the rest.
If we seek never so diligently, we shall
never find out an easier way to heaven
than that which Christ has revealed to us.
We cannot find a broader way, but if
we go to heaven, the way is so
narrow that we must rub hard to get
along and press forward.
The kingdom of heaven must suffer violence, it
must be taken by force, or else it
never will be taken at all.
If we don't go by the footsteps of
the flock, we shall never find the place
where Christ feeds and where he makes his
flock to rest at noon.
It appears that the way here spoken of
is the way of salvation, by the last
verse of the chapter.
When speaking of this way, it is said,
the ransomed of the Lord shall return and
come to Zion, etc.
Zion is the common appellation by which, in
the Old Testament, the church both militant and
triumphant is signified.
2.
In the words, observe the holy nature of
this way described, first, by the name by
which it is called, the way of holiness,
and it shall be called the way of
holiness, secondly, the holiness of those that travel
in it, and its purity from those that
are unclean or unholy.
The unclean shall not pass over it.
No wicked person shall ever travel in this
way of holiness.
To the same purpose is the next verse.
No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous
beast shall go up thereon.
It shall not be found there.
That is, none of the wicked men of
this world, which are like lions or ravenous
beasts, more than like men, in their eager
raging and lustful appetites and evil afflictions, or
by their insatiable covetousness, are like hungry wolves,
are violently set upon the world, and will
have it, whether by right or by wrong,
or make themselves like ravenous beasts by their
proud, invidious, malicious dispositions, which is directly contrary
to a Christian spirit and temper.
They are more like wild beasts than Christians,
that are wrongful and injurious, are all for
themselves and the satisfying of their own appetites,
and care nothing for the welfare of others.
Their fellow men that are of the same
blood make a god of their bellies, and
therein resemble tigers and wolves.
Now says the prophet, none such shall go
upon this highway to Zion.
Such unclean and ravenous beasts shall not be
found there, no, but the redeemed shall walk
there, and the ransomed of the Lord shall
return and come to Zion.
This way is a way of holiness, and
not to be defiled by wicked persons.
That in Revelation chapter 21, verse 27, will
serve well for an explication of these words.
And there shall in no wise enter into
it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
or maketh a lie, but they which are
written in the Lamb's book of life.
The doctrine is this.
Those only that are holy are in the
way to heaven.
Many are not sensible enough of the necessity
of holiness in order to salvation.
Everyone hopes for heaven, but if everyone that
hoped for heaven ever got there, heaven by
this time would have been full of murderers,
adulterers, common swearers, drunkards, thieves, robbers, and licentious
debaucherers.
It would have been full of all manner
of wickedness and wicked men, such as the
earth abounds with at this day.
There would have been those there that are
no better than wild beasts, howling wolves, and
poisonous serpents, yea, devils incarnate, as Judas was.
What a wretched place would the highest heavens
have been by this time, if it were
so!
That pure undefiled light and glorious place, the
heavenly temple, would be as the temple of
Jerusalem was in Christ's time, a den of
thieves, and the royal palace of the Most
High, the holy metropolis of the creation, would
be turned into a mere hell.
There would be no happiness there for those
that are holy.
What a horrible dreadful confusion there would be
if the glorious presence of God the Father,
the glorified Lamb of God and the heavenly
Dove, Spirit of all grace and original of
all holiness, the spotless, glorified saints, the holy
angels, and wicked men, beasts, and devils were
all mixed up together.
Therefore it behooves us all to be sensible
of the necessity of holiness in order to
salvation, of the necessity of real, hearty, and
sincere inward and spiritual holiness, such as will
stand by us forever, and will not leave
us at death, that sinners may not be
so foolish as to entertain hopes of heaven,
except they intend forthwith to set about repentance
and reformation of heart and life.
Wherefore this is what we are now upon,
to show the necessity of holiness, and this
we shall do in these three things.
1.
Show what holiness is.
2.
That those that have it not are not
in the way to heaven.
3.
The reasons why it must needs be so.
1.
What is holiness?
I shall answer to this question in three
things which fully comprehend the nature of holiness,
which are not in themselves distinct as so
many parts of holiness, but the same thing
in three different lights, to give us the
fuller understanding of it.
1.
Holiness is a conformity of the heart and
the life unto God.
Whatever outward appearance men may make by their
external actions, as if they were holy, yet
if it proceeds not from a most inward,
hearty, and sincere holiness within, it is nothing.
Amaziah did that which was right in the
sight of the Lord, but not with a
perfect heart.
2 Kings 14 1-20 All that he
did was not acceptable to God, who searcheth
the hearts, and trieth the reins of the
children of men, and must be worshipped in
spirit and in truth.
And whatever holiness they may pretend to have
in their hearts, whatever hypocritical pangs of affection
they may have had, it is all to
no purpose, except it manifest itself in the
holiness of their lives and conversations.
James 1.26-27 If any man among
you seem to be religious, and bridleth not
his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this
man's religion is vain, pure religion, and undefiled
before God and the Father is this, to
visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,
and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
And in the second chapter, eighteenth verse, Yea,
a man may say, Thou hast faith, and
I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and
I will show thee my faith by my
works.
And in the nineteenth and twentieth verses, Thou
believest that there is one God, thou doest
well, the devils also believe, and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that
faith without works is dead?
So that there must be a conformity of
both heart and life to God, in order
to true holiness.
Holiness is the image of God, His likeness,
in Him that is holy.
By being conformed unto God is not meant
a conformity to Him in His eternity, or
infinity, or infinite power.
These are God's inimitable and incommunicable attributes, but
a conformity to His will, whereby He wills
things that are just, right, and truly excellent
and lovely, whereby He wills real perfection and
goodness, and perfectly abhors everything that is really
evil, unjust, and unreasonable.
And it is not only a willing as
God wills, but also a doing as He
doeth, in acting holily and justly, and wisely
and mercifully, like Him.
It must become natural thus to be, and
thus to act.
It must be the constant inclination and new
nature of the soul, and then the man
is holy, and not before.
Second, it is a conformity to Jesus Christ.
Christ Jesus is perfectly conformed unto God, for
He is God.
He is His express image.
Now Christ is nearer to us in some
respects than God the Father, for He is
our Mediator, and is more immediately conversant with
us.
No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son who is in the
bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
Jesus Christ, He has been with us in
the flesh, and as one of us, He
appeared in the form of a servant, and
we have seen His holiness brightly shining forth
in all His actions.
We have seen His holy life.
We have a copy drawn, and an example
set for us.
Now holiness is a conformity unto this copy.
He that copies after Jesus Christ, after that
copy which He has set us, and which
is delivered to us by the evangelists, is
holy.
He that diligently observes the life of Christ
in the New Testament need not be at
a loss to know what holiness is.
Christ commands us to follow His example.
Matthew 11.29 Take my yoke upon you,
and learn of me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart, and ye shall find
rest unto your souls.
Have you ever read the four Gospels, and
did you not observe in the life of
Christ wonderful instances of humility, love to God,
love to religion, wonderful instances of zeal for
God's glory, steadfastness in resisting temptations, entire trust
and reliance on God, strict adherence to all
His commands, astonishing instances of condescension, humility, meekness,
lowliness, love to men, love to His enemies,
charity and patience?
Why, this is holiness.
When we imitate Christ in these things, then
we are holy, and not till then.
Third, holiness is a conformity to God's laws
and commands.
When all God's laws, without exception, are written
in our hearts, then we are holy.
If you can go along with David in
Psalm 119, where he speaks of his love
and delight in God's law, in your own
experience, when a man feels in some good
measure what David declares concerning himself towards the
law of God, then may God's law be
said to be written in his heart.
By God's law I mean all His precepts
and commands, especially as they are delivered to
us in the Gospel, which is the fulfillment
of the law of God.
If you feel Christ's sermon upon the mount
engraven on the fleshly tables of your hearts,
you are truly sanctified.
The new covenant is written in the hearts
of those that are sanctified, of which the
prophet Jeremiah speaks, chapter 31, verses 31 and
33.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that
I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of
Judah.
This shall be my covenant, that I will
make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my
law in their inward parts and write it
in their hearts, and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people.
The commands and precepts which God has given
us are all pure, perfect, and holy.
They are the holiness of God in writing,
and when the soul is conformed to them,
they have holiness of God upon their hearts,
2 Corinthians 3, verse 3.
For as much as ye are manifestly declared
to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by
us, written not with ink, but with the
Spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in the fleshly tables of
the heart.
When the soul is molded and fashioned according
to the image of God, the example of
Christ, and the rules of the gospel, then
it is holy and not else.
2.
Those that have not this holiness are not
in the way to heaven.
Those that are not thus conformed to God,
to Christ, and God's commands, are not in
the way to heaven and happiness, and are
not traveling that road.
The road they are in will never bring
them there.
Whatever hopes and expectations they may have, they
will never reach heaven to eternity, except they
alter their course, turn about, and steer towards
another point.
For the way is a way of holiness,
and the unclean shall not pass over it.
Christ said that it was easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a
needle than for a rich man to enter
into heaven, but yet He left it absolutely
possible with God that it might be.
But He said positively and without exception that
except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God.
None but those that are holy are in
the way to heaven, whatever profession they may
make, whatever church they may be in.
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
Whatever external acts of religion they may perform,
however they may be, constant attendance on the
public or family worship, and live outwardly moral
lives.
Yea, what is more, if they speak with
the tongues of men and angels, though they
could prophesy and understand all mysteries and all
knowledge, and though they have faith that they
can remove mountains, though they bestow all their
goods to feed the poor, and though they
give their very bodies to be burnt, yet
if they have not charity or holiness, which
is the same thing, for charity is intended
love to God as well as man, though
they have and do all these things, yet
they are nothing and are as a sounding
brass or a tinkling cymbal.
See 1 Corinthians 13.
It is good that we should be thoroughly
convinced of the most absolutely and indispensable necessity
of a real spiritual, active, and vital, yea,
immortal holiness.
3.
We shall now, in the third place, give
the reasons why none that are not holy
can be in the way to heaven, and
why those who never are so can never
obtain the happiness thereof.
First, tis contrary to God's justice to make
a wicked man eternally happy.
God is a God of infinite justice, and
His justice, to speak after the manner of
men, obliges Him to punish sin eternally.
Sin must be punished.
The sins of all men must be punished.
If the sinner retains his sin, and it
is not washed off by the blood of
Christ, and he purified and sanctified and made
holy, it must be punished upon him.
If he is sanctified, his sin has been
already punished in the passion of Christ, but
if not, it still remains to be punished
in his eternal ruin and misery, for God
has said that He is a holy and
jealous God, and will by no means clear
the guilty.
It is reckoned amongst the rest of God's
attributes which He proclaims in Exodus 34.7
and Numbers 14.18. 2.
Tis contrary to God's justice to punish sin
eternally.
It is impossible, by reason of God's holiness,
that anything should be united to God and
brought to the enjoyment of Him which is
not holy.
Now is it possible that a God of
infinite holiness, that is perfect and hates sin
with a perfect hatred, that is infinitely lovely
and excellent, should embrace in His arms a
filthy, abominable creature, a hideous, detestable monster, more
hateful than a toad and more poisonous than
a viper, but so hateful, base and abominable
is every unsanctified man, even the best hypocrite
and most painted sepulchers of them all?
How impossible it is that this should be,
that such loathsome beings, the picture of the
devil, should be united to God, should be
a member of Christ, a child of God,
be made happy in the enjoyment of His
love and the smiles of His countenance, should
be in God and God in them?
It is therefore as impossible for an unholy
thing to be admitted unto the happiness of
heaven as it is for God not to
be or to be turned to nothing.
For it is as impossible that God should
love sin as it is for Him to
cease to be, and it is as impossible
for Him to love a wicked man that
has not had his sin purified, and it
is as impossible for Him to enjoy the
happiness of heaven except God love him.
For the happiness of heaven consists in the
enjoyment of God's love.
Third, it would defile heaven and interrupt the
happiness of the saints and angels.
It would defile that holy place, the Holy
of Holies, and would fright and terrify the
sanctified spirits and obstruct them in their delightful
ecstasies of devotion, and His praise would quite
confound the heavenly society.
How would one unsanctified person interrupt their happiness
and fill those regions all over with the
loathsome stench of his sin and filthiness?
Fourth, the nature of sin necessarily implies misery.
That soul that remains sinful must of a
necessity of nature remain miserable, for it is
impossible there should be any happiness where such
a hateful thing as sin reigns and bears
rule.
Sin is the most cruel tyrant that ever
ruled, seeks nothing but the misery of his
subjects.
As in the very keeping of God's commands
there is great reward, so in the very
breaking of them there is great punishment.
Sin is a woeful confusion and dreadful disorder
in the soul, whereby everything is put out
of place, reason trampled underfoot, and passion advanced
in the room of it, conscience dethroned and
abominable lusts reigning.
As long as it is so, there will
unavoidably be a dreadful confusion and perturbation in
the mind, the soul will be full of
worry, perplexities, uneasiness, storms and frights, and thus
it must necessarily be to all eternity, except
the Spirit of God puts all to rights.
So that if it were possible that God
should desire to make a wicked man happy
while he is wicked, the nature of the
thing would not allow of it, but it
would be simply and absolutely impossible.
Thus I have given some reasons of the
doctrine why it must needs be that those
that are not holy cannot be in the
way to heaven.
Many more reasons might be offered, which the
time will not allow to take notice of
at this time, but these alone would have
been enough to certify us that none but
those who are holy ever attain to a
crown of glory if God had not expressly
said that without holiness no man should see
the Lord.
Wherefore, the application.
We shall apply this doctrine in three uses,
first, of inference, second, of trial, or self
-examination, and third, of exhortation.
One, the use of inference.
If it be so that none but those
that are holy are in the way to
heaven, how many poor creatures are there that
think they are in the way to heaven
who are not?
There are many that think they are undoubtedly
in the way to heaven, and without question
shall enter there at last, that have not
the least grain of true holiness, that manifest
none in their lives and conversations, of whom
we may be certain that either they have
no holiness at all, or that which they
have is a dormant, inactive sort, which is
in effect to be certain that there is
none.
There are a great many others that are
not so distinctly and plainly perceived, that have
nothing but what is external, the shell without
the kernel.
Vast multitude are of these two kinds.
What a pitiable, miserable condition are they in,
to step out of this world into an
uncertain eternity, with an expectation of finding themselves
exceedingly happy and blessed in the highest heaven,
and all at once find themselves deceived, and
are undeceived finding themselves sinking in the bottomless
pit.
Two, the use of trial.
If none are in the way to heaven
but those that are holy, let us try
and examine ourselves by this doctrine, to see
whereabouts we are, and see whether or no
we are in the way to heaven.
To know which way we are going, whether
towards Canaan or Egypt, whether towards heaven or
hell.
For if we think ourselves in the road
to heaven, and are going to the place
of torment all the while, and continue deceived,
without doubt fire and brimstone will undeceive us.
If we find ourselves in the broad way
to destruction, how dare we stir a step
further?
If we would know whether we are holy
or no, let us try ourselves by these
five following things.
First, meditate on the holiness of God, and
see if you cannot see a conformity, a
likeness in your mind.
There is no likeness or comparison in degree,
we speak not of that, but yet there
is a likeness in nature between God and
the soul of the believer.
The holy soul, when it thinks and meditates
upon God's nature, finds a pleasure and delight,
because there is an agreeableness in his new
nature to the divine perfections.
If those that think themselves in the way
to heaven, that are unholy in the meantime
in their hearts, would compare themselves and their
nature to the holy nature of God, such
a glorious light as the holiness of God
would quickly discover their rottenness and unsoundness.
Second, see if you can see any resemblance
in your life to the life of Christ.
It is not supposed that ever any copy
comes nearer to this original, nor ever will,
but yet they may perceive whether the same
spirit, the same temper and disposition, in a
lesser degree be in them, that was manifested
by the life and conversation of Jesus Christ.
Third, is there an agreeableness between your souls
and the word of God?
The Bible is the epistle of Christ that
He has written to us.
Now, if the same epistle is also written
in our hearts, that is written in the
scriptures, it may be found out by comparing.
Have you love to all God's commands and
a respect to them in your actions?
Is it your delight to obey and hearken
to the will of God?
Do you obey them of choice?
Is it what you would choose to do
if God had not threatened to punish the
breach of them?
Fourth, do you find by a comparison, a
likeness and agreeableness between your hearts and lives,
and the hearts and lives of those holy
men that we are assured were such by
the word of God?
Do you walk with God as Enoch did,
or distinguish yourselves by your piety in the
midst of wicked examples as Noah did?
And when you read the lives of Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Moses and the prophets, wherein holiness
is drawn to the life, you may, viewing
so exact a picture, discover whether you have
not the root of the matter in you,
though it be much obscurer in you than
in them.
When we read the Psalms of David, we
may clearly see what David's holiness was by
that spirit that is breathed there.
When we read the epistles of the apostles,
we may know what is a truly evangelical
spirit, and whether such a spirit reigns in
our souls.
Fifth, do you in a measure imitate the
saints and angels in heaven?
They spend their duration to the glory of
God.
They love Him above all things, are delighted
with the beauties of Jesus Christ, entirely love
one another, and hate sin.
All those that are holy on earth have
also a resemblance and imitation of them.
They are of a heavenly temper, of heavenly
lives and conversations.
Three, the use of exhortation.
Exhort all to holiness.
You have heard what holiness is and of
the necessity of it.
The absolute necessity in order to escape hell,
what we must have or die forever, must
be forever forsaken.
Now nothing is so necessary to us as
holiness.
Other things may be necessary to discover this
life, and things that are necessary men will
strive for with all their might, if there
is a probability of obtaining of them.
How much more is that to be sought
after, without which we shall fare infinitely worse
than die ten thousand deaths?
This is motive enough, without any other, for
what can be a greater motive than necessity?
But besides that, if it were not necessary,
the amiable and excellent nature of it is
enough to make it worthy the most earnest
seeking after.
Holiness is a most beautiful, lovely thing.
Men are apt to drink in strange notions
of holiness from their childhood, as if it
were a melancholy, morose, sour, and unpleasant thing.
But there is nothing in it but what
is sweet and ravishingly lovely.
Tis the highest beauty and amiableness, vastly above
all other beauties.
Tis a divine beauty, makes the soul heavenly
and far purer than anything here on earth.
This world is like mire and filth and
defilement, compared to that soul which is sanctified.
Tis of a sweet, lovely, delightful, serene, calm,
and still nature.
Tis almost too high a beauty for any
creature to be adorned with.
It makes the soul a little amiable and
delightful image of the blessed Jehovah.
How may angels stand with pleased, delighted, and
charmed eyes, and look and look with smiles
of pleasure upon that soul that is holy?
Christian holiness is above all the heathen virtue.
Of a more bright and pure nature, more
serene, calm, peaceful, and delightsome.
What a sweet calmness, what a calm ecstasy
doth it bring to the soul!
Of what a meek and humble nature is
true holiness, how peaceful and quiet!
How doth it change the soul and make
it more pure, more bright, and more excellent
than other beings!
Amen.