Five Considerations to persuade all to STAND 2/3

4. Consideration.There is poor comfort in suffering for doing that which was not the work of our place and calling.  Before we launch out into any undertaking, it behoves us to ask ourselves, and that seriously, what our tackling is, if a storm should overtake us in our voyage.  It is folly to engage in that enterprise which will not bear us out, and pay the charge of all the loss and trouble it can put us to.  Now no comfort or countenance from God can be expected from any suffering, except we can entitle him to the business we suffer for.  ‘For thy sake are we killed all the day long,’ Ps. 44:22, saith the church. But if suffering finds us out of our calling and place, we cannot say, ‘for thy sake’ we are thus and thus afflicted, but ‘for our own sakes;’ and you know the proverb, ‘self-do, self-have.’  The apostle makes a vast difference between suffering ‘as a busy-body,’ and suffering ‘as a Christian,’ I Peter 4:15,16.  It is to the latter he saith, ‘Let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf.’  As for the busy-body, he mates him with thieves and murderers, and those, I trow, have reason both to be ashamed and afraid.  The carpenter that gets a cut or wound on his leg from his axe, as he is at work in his calling, may bear it more patiently and comfortably, than one that is wantonly meddling with his tools, and hath nothing to do with such work.  When affliction or persecution overtakes the Christian travelling in the way God hath set him in, he may show the Bible, as that holy man suffering for Christ, did, and say, ‘This hath made me poor, this hath brought me to prison,’ that is, his faith on the truths and obedience to the com­mands in it; and therefore may confidently expect to suffer at God’s cost, as the soldier [expects] to be kept and maintained by the prince in whose service he hath lost his limbs.  But the other that runs out of his place and so meets with sufferings, he hath this to embitter them, that he can look for nothing from God but to be soundly chidden for his pains—as the child is served that gets some hurt while he is gadding abroad, and when he comes home at night with his battered face, meets with a whipping from his father in the bargain for being from home.  This lay heavy on the spirit of that learned German Johannis Funccius, who of a minister of the gospel in his prince’s court, turned minister of state to his prince, and was at last for some evil counsel at least so judged, condemned to die.  Before he suffered he much lamented the leaving of his calling, and to warn others left this distich—

Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi, Et fuge ceu pestem πoλυπραγμoσυvηv.

To keep thy place and calling learn of me; Flee as the plague a meddler for to be.

5. Consideration.It is an erratic spirit that usually carries men out of their place and calling.  I confess there is an heroicus impetus, an impulse which some of the servants of God have had from heaven, to do things extraordinary, as we read in Scripture of Moses, Gideon, Phinehas, and others.  But it is dangerous to pretend to the like, and unlawful to expect such immediate com­missions from heaven now, when he issueth them out in a more ordinary way, and gives rules for the same in his word.  We may as well expect to be taught extra­ordinarily, without using the ordinary means, as to be called so.  When I see any miraculously gifted, as the prophets and apostles, then I shall think the immediate calling they pretend to is authentic.  To be sure we find in the word that extraordinary calling and extraordinary teaching go together.  Well, let us see what that erratic spirit is which carries many out of their place and calling. It is not always the same.

(1.) Sometimes it is idleness.  Men neglect what they should do, and then are easily persuaded to meddle with what they have nothing to do.  The apostle intimates this plainly, ‘They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy-bodies, I Tim. 5:13.  An idle person is a gadder. He hath his foot on the threshold—easily drawn from his own place—and as soon into another’s diocese.  He is at leisure for to hear the devil's chat.  He that will not serve God in his own place, the devil, rather than he shall stand out, will send him off his errand, and get him to put his sickle into another's corn.

Five Considerations to persuade all to STAND 1/3

1. Consideration.Consider what thou doest out of thy place is not acceptable to God, because thou canst not do it in ‘faith,’ without which ‘it is impossible to please God;’ and it cannot be in faith, because thou hast no call.  God will not thank thee for doing that which he did not set thee about.  Possibly thou hast good intentions.  So had Uzzah in staying the ark, yet how well God liked his zeal, see II Sam. 6:7.  Saul himself could make a fair story of his sacrificing, but that served not his turn.  It concerns us not only to ask ourselves what the thing is we do, but also who requireth this at our hands?  To be sure, God will at last put us upon that question, and it will go ill with us if we cannot show our commission.  So long must we needs neglect what is our duty, as we are busy about that which is not.  The spouse confesseth this, ‘They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept,’ Song. 1:6.  She could not mind their [vineyards] and her own too—our own iron will cool while we are beating another’s.  And this must needs be displeasing to God—to leave the work God sets us about, to do to do what he never commanded.  When a master calls a truantly scholar to account, that hath been missing some days from school, would this be a good plea for him to tell his master, that he was all the while in such a man’s shop at work with his tools?  No, sure his business lay at school, not in that shop.

2. Consideration.By going out of our proper place and calling, we put ourselves from under God’s protection.  The promise is, he will ‘keep us in all our ways,’ Ps. 91:11.  When we go out of our way, we go from under his wing. We have an excellent place for this, ‘Let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God,’ I Cor. 7:24. Mark that phrase, abide with God.  As we love to walk in God's company, we must abide in our place and calling.  Every step from that is a departure from God; and better to stay at home, in a mean place and low calling, wherein we may enjoy God’s sweet presence, than go to court and there live without him.  It is likely you have heard of that holy bishop, that in a journey fell into an inn, and by some discourse with the host, finding him to be an atheist, or very atheistical, presently calls for his servant to bring him his horse, saying he would not lodge there, for God was not in that place.  Truly when thou art in any place, or about any work to which thou art not called, we may safely say, ‘God is not in that place or enterprise.’  And what a bold adventure it is to stay there where you cannot expect his presence to assist or protect!  ‘As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place,’ Prov. 27:8. God took special care that the bird sitting over her eggs in her nest should not be hurt; Deut. 22:6, but we find nothing to secure her if found abroad.  In doing the duty of our place, we have heaven’s word for our security; but upon our own peril be it if we wander.  Then we are like Shimei out of his precincts, and lay ourselves open to some judgment or other.  It is alike dangerous to do what we are not called to, and to neglect or leave undone the duty of our place.  As the earth could not bear the usurpation by Korah and his company of what belonged not to them, but swallowed them up, so the sea could not but bear witness against Jonah the runaway prophet, disdaining to waft him that fled from the place and work that God called him to.  Nay, heaven itself would not harbour the angels, when once they left their own place and office that their Maker had appointed; so these words ‘left their own habitation,’ Jude 6, I find most probably interpreted.  The ruin of many souls breaks in upon them at this door.  First they break their ranks, and then they are led farther into temptation.  Absalom first looks over the hedge in his ambitious thoughts. A king he would be, and this wandering desire beyond his place, lets in those bloody sins, rebellion, incest, and murder, and these ripened him for, and at last delivered him up into, the hands of divine vengeance. The apostle joins order and steadfastness together,’I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith,’ Col. 2:5.  If an army stands in close order, every one in his place attend­ing his duty, content with his work, it is impregnable in a manner.  How came many in our days to fall from their steadfastness, but by breaking their order?
3. Consideration.We shall never be charged for not doing another’s work.  ‘Give an account of thy stew­ardship,’ Luke 16:2, that is, what by thy place thou wert intrusted with.  We may indeed be accessory to another’s sin and miscarriage in his place.  ‘Be not partakers with them,’ saith the apostle, Eph. 5:7.  There is a partnership, if not very watchful, that we have with other’s sins, and therefore we may all say ‘Amen’ to that holy man’s prayer, ‘Lord, forgive me my other sins.’  Merchants can trade in bottoms that are not their own, and we may sin with other man’s hands many ways; and one especially is, when we do not lend our brother that assistance in his work and duty, which our place and relation obligeth to.  But it is not our sin that we do not supply another’s negligence, by doing that which belongs not to our place. We are to pray for magistrates that they may rule in the fear of God, but if they do not, we may not step upon the bench and do his work for him.  God requires no more than faithfulness in our place.  We do not find fault with an apple-tree if it be laden with apples—which is the fruit of its own kind—though we can find no figs or grapes growing on it.  We expect these only from their proper root and stock.  He is a fruitful tree in God’s orchard that ‘bringeth forth his fruit in his season,’ Ps. 1:3.

The Christian’s duty to stand in his own place and the danger of straggling

Second. To stand, amounts to as much as, to stand every one in his rank and proper station, and here is opposed to all disorder, or straggling from our place. When a captain sees his soldiers march, or fight our of their rank and order, then he bids stand.  Military discipline is so strict in this case, that it allows none to stir from their place without special warrant.  It hath cost some their lives for fighting out of their place, though with great success.  Manlius killed his own son, for no other fault.  From hence the note is—

Doctrine. That it should be the care of every Christian, to stand orderly in the particular place wherein God hath set him.  The devil’s method is first to rout, and then to ruin.  Order supposeth company, one that walks alone cannot go out of his rank.  This place therefore and rank wherein the Christian is to stand, relates to some society or company in which he walks.  The Christian may be considered as related to a threefold society —church, commonwealth, and family.  In all there are several ranks and places.  In the church, officers and private members; in the commonwealth, magistrates and people; in the family, masters and servants, parents and children, husband and wife.  The welfare of these societies consisteth in the order that is kept—when every wheel moves in its place without clashing, when every one contributes by performing the duty of his place to the benefit of the whole society.  But more distinctly, a person then stands orderly in his place when he doth these three things—

First. When he understands the peculiar duty of his place and relation; ‘The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way,’ Prov. 14:8—his way, that is, the way in which he on particular is to walk.  It will not profit a man to know the way to York, if going to London; yet how prone are we to study another’s way and work [rather] than our own—the servant more what his master’s duty is, not what his is to his master—the people what the minister in his place should do, rather than what is incumbent on themselves to such as are over them in the Lord.  It is not knowing another’s duty, no nor censuring the negligence of another, but doing our own [duty, that] will bring us safely and comfortably to our journey’s end.  And how can we do it except we know it?  Solomon in no one thing gave a greater proof of his wisdom than in asking of God wisdom, to enable him for the duty of his place.

Second. When knowing the duty of our place, we conscientiously attend to it and lay out ourselves for God therein.  When Paul charged Timothy in his place, that every Christian must do in his.  He must ‘meditate upon these things,’ and ‘give himself wholly’ to the discharge of his duty, as a Christian, in such a place and calling—_v τoύτoις _σθι, be in them, let thy heart be on thy work, and thou wholly be taken up about it, I Tim 4:15.  The very power of godliness lies in this.  Religion, if not made practicable in our several places and callings, becomes ridiculous and vanisheth into an empty notion that is next to nothing.  Yet many there are that have nothing to prove themselves Christians, but a naked profession, of whom we may say as they do of the cinnamon tree, that the bark is worth more than all they have besides.  Such the apostle speaks of, ‘They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate,’ Titus 1:16.  What good works the apostle means, will appear in the next words, Titus. 2, where, in opposition to these, he presseth those duties which Christians in their particular places and relations, as becometh holiness, ought to perform.  

A good Christian and a disobedient wife, a godly man and an unfaithful servant, or undutiful child is a contradiction that can never be reconciled.  He that walks not uprightly in his house, is but a hypocrite at church.  He that is not a Christian in his shop, is not in his closet a Christian, though upon his knees in prayer.  Wound religion in one part, and it is felt in every part.  If it declines one way, it cannot thrive in any other.  All that miscarry in religion do not the same way miscarry.  As it is in the regard of our natural life; some, it is observed, die upwards, some downwards.  In one, the extreme parts, his feet, are first dead, and so [the malady] creeps up to the legs, and at last takes hold on the vitals; in another his superior parts are first invaded.  Thus in profession.  [With] some, their declining appears first in a negligence of duties about their peculiar callings, and the duties they owe, by their place and relation, to man, though all this while they may seem very forward and zealous in the duties of worship to God, much in hearing, praying, and such like; while others falter first in these, and at the same time seem very strict in the other.  Both are alike destructive to the soul; they both meet in the ruin of the power of godliness.  He stands orderly that makes conscience of the whole duty that lies on him in his place to God or man.

Third. to stand orderly, it is requisite that we keep the bounds of our place and calling.  The Israelites were commanded every man ‘to pitch by his own standard,’ Num. 2:2.  The Septuagint translates it κατα τάγμα—according to order.  God allows no stragglers from their station in his army of saints.  ‘As the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk,’ I Cor. 7:17.  Our walk must be in that path which our call beats out.  We are therefore commanded every one to ‘do his own business,’ I Thes. 4:11.  That which is the commander’s business in the army, is not the private soldier's; the magistrate’s [business] not the subjects’s; the minister’s is not the people’s.  That which is justice in the ruler, is murder in another.  They are _δια, our own things—[things] that come within the compass of our general or particular calling.  Out of these, we are out of our diocese.  O what a quiet world should we have, if every thing and person knew his own place!  If the sea kept its own place, we should have no inundations; if men had theirs, we should neither have seen such floods of sin, nor miseries, as this unhappy age has been almost drowned with.  But it must be a strong bank indeed, that can contain our fluid spirits within our own terms.  Peter himself was sharply chidden for prying, out of curiosity, into that which concerned him not—‘What is that to thee?’ John 21:22.  As if Christ had said, ‘Peter, meddle with thy own matters, this concerns not thee;’ which sharp rebuke, saith one, might possibly make Peter afterwards give so strict a charge against, and set so black a brand upon, this very sin, as you may find, I Peter 4:15, where he ranks the ‘busybody’ among murderers and thieves.  Now to fix every one in his place, and persuade all to stand orderly there without breaking their rank, these five considerations, methinks, may carry some weight—among those especially with whom the word of God in the Scripture yet keeps its authority to conclude and determine their thoughts.

The Position to be maintained in the Fight - ‘Stand therefore’ (Eph. 6:14) 2/2

Reason Third. The Christian's safety lies in resisting. All the armour here provided is to defend the Christian fighting, none to secure him flying.  Stand, and the day is ours.  Fly, or yield, and all is lost.  Great captains, to make their soldiers more resolute, do sometimes cut off all hope of a safe retreat to them that run away.  Thus the Norman conqueror, as soon as his men were set on English shore, sent away his ships in their sight, that they might resolve to fight or die.  God takes away all thought of safety to the coward; not a piece to be found for the back in all God's armoury.  Stand, and the bullets light all on your armour; flee, and they enter into your hearts.  It is a terrible place, Heb. 10:38, ‘The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.’  He that stands to it believingly comes off with his life; but he that recoils, and runs from his colours, as the Greek word imports, God will have no pleasure in him, except it be in the just execution of his wrath on him.  And doth he not make a sad change, that from fighting against Satan, engageth God as an enemy against him?  There is comfort in striving against sin and Satan, though to blood, but none to lie sweating under the fiery indignation of a revenging God.  What Satan lays on, God can take off; but who can ease, if God lays on?  What man would not rather die in the field fighting for his prince, than on a scaffold by the axe, for cowardice or treachery?

Reason Fourth. The enemy we have to do withal, is such as is only to be dealt with by resisting.  God is an enemy that is overcome by yielding; the devil only by force of arms.

1. He is a cowardly enemy.Though he sets a bold face on it by tempting, he carries a fearful heart in his breast.  The work is naught he goes about; and, as a thief is afraid of every light he sees, or noise he hears, in the house he would rob; so Satan is discouraged where he finds the soul waking, and in any posture to oppose him.  He fears thee, Christian, more than thou needest him; ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know,’ Acts 19:15; that is, I know them to my shame, they have both put me to flight, and if ye were such as they, I should fear you also.  Believe it, soul, he trembles at thy faith.  Put it forth in prayer to call for help to heaven against him, and exert it vigorously by rejecting the motions he makes, and thou shalt see him run.  Did soldiers in a castle know that their enemies besieging them were in a distracted condition, and would certainly upon their sallying out, break up, and flee away, what metal and courage would this fill them withal?  The Spirit of God—who knows well enough how squares go in the devil's camp—sends this intelligence unto every soul that is beleaguered by temptations, ‘Resist the devil, and he will flee from you,’ James 4:7.  He cannot hurt us without our leave.  The devil is not so good a drawer; but, when he finds it comes not—the soul yields not—his heart then fails him, at least for the present, as in Christ’s combat, it is said he ‘departed from him for a season.’  When the devil continues long the same suit, it is to be feared [that] that person, though he hath not fully promised him, yet hath not given him a peremptory denial.  He is a suitor, that listens for something to drop from the creature that may encourage him to prosecute his motion.  No way to be rid of him but to shut the door upon him, and deny all discourse with him; which prompts to the second character.
2. He is an encroaching enemy, and therefore to be resisted.‘Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,’ saith the apostle, ‘neither give place to the devil,’ Eph. 4:26,27.  As soldiers, by cowardly leaving some outwork they are set to defend, give place to their enemy, who enters the same, and from thence doth more easily shoot into the city than he could before.  Thus [by] yielding in one temptation we let the devil into our trench, and give him a fair advantage to do us the more mischief. The angry man while he is raging and raving, thinks, may be, no more, but to ease his passion by disgorging it in some bitter keen words, but alas while his fury and wrath is sallying out at the portal of his lips, the devil finding the door open, enters and hurries him farther than he dreamt of.  We have not to do with a Hannibal —who, though a great swordsman, yet wanted the art of following and improving the advantages his victories gave him—but with a cunning devil that will easily lose no ground he gets.  Our best way, therefore, is to give him no hand-hold, not so much as to come near the door where sin dwells, lest we be hooked in.  If we mean not to be burned, let us not walk upon the coals of temp­tation;—if not to be tanned, let us not stand where the sun lies.  They surely forget what an insinuating wriggling nature this serpent hath, that dare yield to him in some­thing, and make us believe they will not in another—who will sit in the company of drunkards, frequent the places where the sin is committed, and yet pretend they mean not to be such?—that will prostitute their eyes to unchaste objects, and yet be chaste?—that will lend their ears to any corrupt doctrine of the times, and yet be sound in the faith?  This is a strong delusion that such are under. If a man hath not power enough to resist Satan in the less, what reason hath he to think he shall in the greater. Thou hast not grace, it seems, to keep thee from throwing thyself into the whirl of temptation, and dost thou think that, when in it, thou shalt bear up against the stream of it?  One would think it is easier when in the ship, to keep from falling overboard, than when in the sea, to get safely into the ship again.
3. He is an accusing enemy.And truly folly is in that man’s name, who knows what a tell-tale the devil is, and yet will, by yielding to his temptation, put an errand into his mouth, with which he may accuse him to God.  Some foolishly report that witches cannot hurt till they receive an alms.  But I am sure, so long as thou showest no kindness to the devil, he cannot hurt thee, because he cannot accuse thee.  Take up therefore holy Job’s resolution, ‘My righteousness I hold fast,...my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live,’ Job 27:6.  It is never sad indeed with the soul till the barking is within doors.  Conscience, not the devil, is the bloodhound that pulls down the creature.  O let not that reproach thee, and thou art well enough.

The Position to be maintained in the Fight - ‘Stand therefore’ (Eph. 6:14) 1/2

The apostle had laid down in general, ver. 13, what armour the Christian soldier must use—armour of God.  Now, lest any should stamp divinity upon what is human, and make bold to set God’s name on their counterfeit ware, calling that armour of God which comes out of their private forge, as Papists, and many carnal Protestants also, do, who invent weapons to fight the devil with that never came into God's heart to appoint; he therefore comes more particularly to show what this whole armour of God is, describing it piece by piece, which together make up the complete suit, and every way furnish the Christian to take the field against this his enemy.  We shall handle them in that order we find them here laid by the apostle.  Only something would briefly be first said to the posture given us in charge, as that which we are to observe in the use of every piece, and [which is] therefore prefixed to all.  The posture lies in these words—‘stand therefore;’ στ_τε, stand.  This word is the same with the last in the precedent verse; but [is] neither in the same mood nor tense.  There [it is] put for victory and triumph when the war is done; here for the Christian’s posture in the fight, and in order to it.  It is a military expression, a word of command that captains use upon different occasions to their soldiers, and so imports several duties that are required at the Christian’s hands.

          [The necessity of resisting Satan’s temptations, with the danger of yielding to them.]

First. To stand, is opposed to a cowardly flight from, or treacherous yielding to, the enemy.  When a captain sees his men beginning to shrink, and perceives some disposition in them to flee or yield, then he bids stand; that is, stand manfully to it, and make good your ground against the enemy, by a valiant receiving his charge, and repelling his force. 

The word taken thus, points at a suitable duty incumbent on the Christian, which take in this note—

Doctrine. Satan in his temptations is stoutly to be resisted, not in anywise to be yielded unto.

Reason First. The command is express for it: ‘Whom resist steadfast in the faith,’ I Peter 5:9.  Set yourselves in battle against him, as the word imports, fight him whenever he comes.  Soldiers must keep close to their commission, whatever comes on it.  When Joab sent Uriah to stand in the forefront of the battle, in the face of death itself, he could not but see his danger, yet he disputes not the matter with his general; obey he must, though he loses his life upon the place.  Cowardice and disobedience to the leader’s command are counted among the Turks the most damning sins; and shall they be thought peccadillos, little ones, by us that have Christ for our Captain to serve, and sin and the devil for enemies to fight?  To resist some temptations may cost us dear: ‘Ye have not yet resisted unto blood,’ saith the apostle, ‘striving against sin,’ Heb. 12:4, implying that it may come to that, and if it should, [that] it alters not the case, nor gives a dispensation to shift for ourselves by choosing to sin rather than to suffer.  The Roman captain said it was necessary to sail, not to live; and shall a Christian be afraid of his duty, when it is attended with outward hazard?  The soldier carries his prince's honour into the field with him, and so doth the Christian his God’s, whenever he is called to contest with any temptation. Now it will be seen at what rate he values his honour. David's subjects valued him worth ten thousand of their lives, and therefore would die every man of them, rather than hazard him.  O, how unworthy is it then, to expose the name of God to reproach, rather than ourselves to a little scorn, temporal loss, or trouble!  It was Pompey’s boast, that at a word or nod of his, he could make his soldiers creep up the steepest rock on their hands and knees, though they were knocked down as fast as they went up.  Truly, God is not prodigal of the blood of his servants, yet sometimes he tries their loyalty in hard services, and sharp temptations, that he may from their faithfulness to him, and holy stoutness in their sufferings for him, triumph over Satan, who was so impudent as to tell God, that one of his choicest servants did but serve himself in serving him, ‘Doth Job fear God for nought?’—as if, when any sharp encounter came, he would turn head, and rather curse God than submit to him.  And therefore, we find the Lord glorying over Satan, ‘Still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him,’ Job 2:3—as if the Lord had said, ‘What dost thou think now, Satan? hath not Job proved thee a loud liar?  I have some servants, thou seest, that will serve me without a bribe, that will hold fast their integrity, when they can hold fast nothing else. Thou hast got away his estate, servants, and children, and yet he stands his ground, and thou hast not got thy will of him, nor his integrity from him.’

Reason Second. God furnisheth us with armour for this end, that we should stand it out valiantly, and not yield to Satan tempting.  To deliver up a castle into an enemy's hand, when it is well provided with ammunition to defend it, is shameful and unworthy of such a trust. This makes the Christian’s sin more dishonourable than another's, because he is better appointed to make resis­tance.  Take a graceless soul, when solicited, suppose, to a sin that promiseth carnal pleasure, or profit, it is no great wonder that he yields at first summons, and delivers himself up prisoner to Satan.  The poor wretch, alas, hath no armour on to repel the motion.  He tastes no sweetness in Christ.  What marvel is it, if his hungry soul, for want of better food, falls on board upon the devil's cheer?—that he, who hath no hope for another world, be made to shark and prole to get some of this?  The goat, we say, must browse where she is tied, and the sinner feed on earth and earthly things, to which he is staked down by his carnal heart; but the Christian hath a hope in his bosom of another guess-glory, than this peddling world can pretend to, yea, a faith that is able to entertain him at present with some of heaven’s joys—it being the nature of that grace to give existence to the good things of the promise.  This helmet on and shield lift up, would keep off a whole shower of such arrows from hurting the Christian.  God hath reason to take it the worse at his hands to yield, that might have stood, would he but have made use of those graces which God hath given him for his defence, or called in help from heaven to his succour.  ‘Hast thou eaten,’ saith God to Adam, ‘of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, that thou shouldest not eat?’ Gen. 3:11.  The accent lies on thou.  It was not sure for hunger, thou hadst a whole paradise before thee; hast thou eaten that wert provided so well to have withstood him?  Hast thou, may God say to the Christian, eaten of the devil’s dainties, who hast a key to go to my cupboard? does thy heavenly Father keep so starved a house, that the devil’s scraps will go down with thee?

The blessed result of the saints perseverance 3/3

Third. To stand, doth here also—as the compliment of their reward—denote the saints’ standing in heaven’s glory.  Princes, when they would reward any of their subjects that in their wars have done eminent service to the crown, as the utmost they can do for them, they prefer them to court, there to enjoy their princely favour, and [to] stand in some place of honourable service before them continually.  Solomon sets it out as the greatest reward of faithful subjects, to ‘stand before kings.’  Heaven is the royal city where the great God keeps his court.  The happiness of glorious angels is to stand there before God—‘I an Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,’ Luke 1:19; that is, I am one of those heavenly spirits who wait on the great God, and stand before his face, as courtiers do about their prince.  Now such honour shall every faithful soul have.  ‘Thus saith the Lord of hosts; If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge....I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by,’ Zech. 3:7.  He alludes to the temple, which had rooms joining to it for the priests that waited on the Lord in his holy service there; or to courtiers, that have stately galleries and lodgings becoming their place at court allowed them in the king’s palace they wait upon. Thus all the saints—whose representative Joshua was —shall, after they have kept the Lord's charge in a short life's-service on earth, be called up to stand before God in heaven, where with angels they shall have their galleries and mansions of glory also.  

O happy they who shall stand before the Lord in glory!  The greatest peers of a realm—such as earls, marquises, and dukes are—count it greater honour to stand before their king, though bare­headed and oft upon the knee, than to live in the country, where all bow and stand bare to them; yea, let but their prince forbid them coming to court, and it is not their great estates, or respect they have where they live, will content them.  It is better to wait in heaven than to reign on earth.  It is sweet standing before the Lord here in an ordinance.  One day in the worship of God is better than many elsewhere.  O, what then is it to stand before God in glory!  If the saints' spikenard sendeth forth so sweet a smell, while the king sits at his table here in a sermon or sacrament; O then what joy must needs flow from their near attendance on him, as he sits at his table in heaven, which when God first made, it was intended by him to be that chamber of presence in which he would present himself to be seen of, and enjoyed by, his saints in all his glory.  I know nothing would have a more powerful, yea, universal operation, upon a saint’s spirit, than the frequent and spiritual consideration of that blissful state in heaven, which shall at last crown all their sad conflicts here on earth. 

None like this sword, to cut the very sinews of temptation, and behead those lusts which defy and out-brave whole troops of other arguments.  It is almost impossible to sin with lively thoughts and hopes of that glory.  It is when the thoughts of heaven are long out of the Christian's sight, and he knows not what has become of his hopes to that glorious place, that he begins to set up some idol—as Israel the calf in the absence of Moses—which he may dance before. But heaven come in sight, and the Christian’s heart will be well warmed with the thoughts of it, and you may as soon persuade a king to throw his royal diadem into a sink, and wallow with his robes in a kennel, as a saint to sin with the expectation of heaven’s glory.  Sin is a devil’s work, not a saint’s, who is a peer of heaven, and waits every hour for the writ that shall call him to stand with angels and glorified saints before the throne of God.  This would cheer the Christian’s heart, and confirm him when the fight is hottest, and the bullets fly thickest from men and devils, to think, it is heaven all this is for, where it is worth having a place, though we go through fire and water to it.  ‘It is before the Lord,’ said David to scoffing Michal, ‘which chose me before thy father, and all his house;.... therefore will I play before the Lord, and I will yet be more vile than thus,’ II Sam. 6:21,22.

Thus, Christian, wouldst thou throw off the vipers of reproaches, which from the fire of the wicked's malice fly upon thee.  It is for God that I pray, hear, mortify my lust, deny myself of my carnal sports, profits, and pleasures, that God who hath passed by kings and princes to chose me a poor wretch to stand before him in glory; therefore I will be yet more vile than thus.  O sirs, were there not another world to enjoy God in, yet should we not, while we have our being, serve our Maker?  The heavens and the earth obey his law, that are capable of no reward for doing his will.  ‘Quench hell, burn heaven,’ said a holy man, ‘yet I will love and fear my God.’  How much more when everlasting arms of mercy stand ready stretched to carry you as soon as the fight is over into the blissful presence of God?  You have servants of your own so ingenuous and observant, that can follow you work hard abroad in all weathers; and may they but, when they come home weary and hungry at night, obtain a kind look from you, and some tender care over them, they are very thankful. 

 ‘Yea,’ saith  one, to shame the sluggish Christian, ‘how many hundred miles will the poor spaniel run after his master in a journey, who gets nothing but a few crumbs, or a bone from his master’s trencher?’  In a word, which is more the devil’s slaves; what will they not do and venture at his command, who hath not so much to give them as you to your dog, not a crust, not a drop of water to cool their tongue? and shall not the joy of heaven which is set before the Christian, into which he shall assuredly enter, make him run his race, endure a short scuffle of temptation and affliction? yea sure, and make him reckon also that these ‘are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in him.’

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Second. To stand, is here to stand justified and acquitted at the great day of judgement.  The phrase id frequent in Scripture, which sets out the solemn discharge they shall have then by standing in judgment. ‘The ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,’ Ps. 1:5, that is, they shall not be justified.  ‘If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?’ Ps. 130:3; that is, who shall be discharged?  The great God, upon whose errand we come into the world, hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by Jesus Christ.  A solemn day it will be, when all that ever lived on earth, high and low, good and bad, shall meet in one assembly to make their personal appearance before Christ, and from his mouth to receive their eternal doom, who shall in his majestic robes of glory ascend the awful seat of judi­cature, attended with his illustrious train and guard of angels about him, as so many officers ready to execute and perform his pleasure according to the definitive sentence that he shall pronounce—either to conduct those blessed ones whom he shall justify into his glorious kingdom, or [to] bind them hand and foot to be cast into hell's unquenchable flames, whom he shall condemn. I do not wonder that Paul's sermon on this subject did not make an earthquake in Felix's conscience; but rather that any should be so far gone in a lethargy and dedolent numbness of conscience, as the thought of this day cannot recover them to their sense and feeling. 

O sirs, do not you vote them happy men and women that can speed well on this day? are not your thoughts inquiring who those blessed souls are which shall be acquitted by the lively voice of Christ the judge?  You need not ascend to search the rolls of election in heaven.  Here you may know they are such as fight the Lord's battles on earth against Satan, in the Lord’s armour, and that to the end of their lives.  These having done all, shall stand in judgement.  And were it but at a man's bar—some court-martial where a soldier stood upon trial for his life, either to be condemned as a traitor to his prince, or cleared as faithful in his trust—O how such a one would listen to hear how it would go with him, and be overjoyed when the judge pronounces him innocent! Well may such be bid to fall down on their knees, thank God and the judge that have saved their lives. 

How much more ravishing will the sweet voice of Christ be in the saints’ ears, when he shall in the face of men and angels make public declaration of their righteousness? O how confounded will Satan then be, who was their accuser to God and their own consciences also, ever threatening them with the terror of that day!  How blank will the wicked world be, to see the dirt that they had thrown by their calumnies and lying reports on the saints’ faces, wiped off with Christ's own hand, and those justified from Christ’s mouth as sincere, whom they had called hypocrites!  Will not this, O ye saints, be enough for all the scorn ye were laden with from the world, and conflict you endured with the prince of the world!  But this is not all.  Therefore,

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In the words we have also the blessed result of the saints’ perseverance propounded, as that which will abundantly recompense all their pain and patience in the war.  Having done all, to stand.

Doctrine. To stand at the end of this war will abundantly recompense all our hazard and hardship endured in the war against sin and Satan.  In man’s wars all do not get by them that fight in them.  The gains of these are commonly put into a few pockets.  The common soldiers endure most of the hardship, but go away with little of the profit.  They fight to make a few that are great yet greater, and are many times themselves turned off at last, with what will hardly pay for the cure of their wounds, or keep them from starving in a poor hospital.  But in this war there is none loseth, but he that runs away.  A glorious reward there is for every faithful soldier in Christ’s camp, and that is wrapt up in this phrase, ‘having done all, to stand.’  Now in this place, to stand imports three things, which laid together will clear the point.

First. To stand, in this place, is to stand conquerors.  An army, when conquered, is said to fall before their enemy, and the conqueror to stand.  Every Christian shall at the end of the war stand a conqueror over his vanquished lusts, and Satan that headed them.  Many a sweet victory the Christian hath here over Satan.  But, alas! the joy of these conquests is again interrupted with fresh alarms from his rallied enemy.  One day he hath the better, and may be the next he is put to the hazard of another battle.  Much ado he hath to keep what he hath got, yea, his very victories are such as send him bleeding out of the field.  Though he repulses the temp­tation at last, yet the wounds his conscience gets in the fight do overcast the glory of the victory.  It is seldom the Christian comes off without some sad complaint of the treachery of his own heart, which had like to have lost the day, and betrayed him into his enemy's hand. But for thy eternal comfort, know, poor Christian, there is a blessed day coming, which shall make a full and final decision of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan. Thou shalt see this enemy's camp quite broken up—not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee.  Thou shalt tread upon his high places, from which he hath made so many shots at thee.  Thou shalt see them all dismantled and demolished, till there be not left standing any one corruption in thy bosom, for a devil to hide and harbour himself in.  Satan, at whose approach thou hast so trembled, shall then be subdued under thy feet. He that hath so oft bid thee bow down, that he might go over thy soul and trample upon all thy glory, shall now have his neck laid to be trodden on by thee.  Were there nothing else to be expected as the fruits of our watching and praying, weeping and mourning, severe duties of mortification and self-denial, with whatever else our Christian warfare puts us upon, but this, our labour sure would not be in vain in the Lord.  Yea, blessed watching and praying, happy tears and wounds we meet with in this war.  May they but at last end in a full and eternal victory over sin and Satan. 

Bondage is one of the worst of evils.  The baser the enemy is, the more abhorred by noble spirits.  Saul feared to fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Philistines and to be abused by their scorns and reproaches, more than a bloody death. Who baser than Satan?  What viler tyrant than sin? Glorious then will the day be, wherein we shall praise God for delivering us out of the hands of all our sins, and from the hand of Satan.  But [it will be] dismal to you, sinner, who, at the same wherein you shall see the saints stand with crowns of victory on their heads, must like fettered captives be dragged to hell’s dungeon, there to have your ear bored unto an eternal bondage under your lusts.  And what more miserable sentence can God himself pass upon you?  Here sin is pleasure, there it will be your torment.  Here [it is] a sweet bit that goes down glib, but there it will stick in your throats.  Here you have suitable provision to entertain your lusts withal—palaces for pride to dwell and strut herself in; delicious fare for your wanton palates; houses and lands, with coffers of silver and gold, for your covetous hearts, by their self-pleasing thoughts, to sit brooding upon—but you will find none of these there.  Hell is a barren place. Nothing grows in that land of darkness to solace and recreate the sinners’ minds.  

You shall have your lusts, but want the food they long for.  O what a torment that must needs be, to have a soul sharp set, even to a ravenous hunger after sin, but chained up where it can come at nothing it would have to satisfy its lust!  For a proud wretch, that would wish he might domineer over all the world, yea, over God himself if he would let him, to be kept down in such a dungeon as hell is, O how it will cut!  For the malicious sinner, whose heart swells with rancour against God and his saints, that he could pluck them out of God's bosom, yea, God, out of his throne if he had power, to find his hands so manacled, that he can do nothing against them he so hates, O how this will torment!  Speak, O you saints, whose partial victory over sin at present is so sweet to you, that you would choose a thousand deaths, sooner than return to your old bondage under your lusts!  How glorious then is that day in your eye, when this shall be completed in a full and eternal conquest, never to have anything to do more with sin or Satan!

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Use Third. This truth calls for a word or two of caution.  Though there is no fear of a saint’s falling from grace, yet there is great danger of others falling from the top of this comfortable doctrine into a careless security and presumptuous boldness; and therefore a battlement is very necessary, that from it we may, with safety to our souls, stand and view the pleasant prospect this truth presents to our eye.  That flower from which the bee sucks honey, the spider draws poison.  That which is a restorative to the saint’s grace, proves an incentive to the lust of a wicked man.  What Paul said of the law we may truly of the gospel.  Sin taking occasion from the grace of the gospel, and the sweet promises thereof, deceives the carnal heart, and works in him all manner of wickedness.  Indeed sin seldom grows so rank anywhere as in those who water its roots with the grace of the gospel. Two ways this doctrine may be abused.  1. It may be into a neglect of duty.  2. Into a liberty to sin.  Take heed of both.

1. Take heed of falling into a neglect of duty upon this score—if a Christian, thou canst not fall away from grace.  Take for an attitude against this, three particulars.

(1.) There are other arguments to invite, yea, that will constrain thee to a constant vigorous performing of duty, though the fear of falling away should not come in, or else thou art not a Christian.  What! nothing make the child diligent about his father's business but fear of being disinherited and turned out of doors!  There is sure some better motive to duty in a saint’s heart, or else religion is a melancholy work.  Speak for yourselves, O ye saints!  Is self-preservation all you pray for, and hear for?  Should a messenger come from heaven and tell you heaven were yours, would this make you give over your spiritual trade, and not care whether you had any more acquaintance with God till you came thither? O how harsh doth this sound in your ears!  There are such principles engraven in the Christian's bosom, that will not suffer a strangeness long to grow betwixt God and him.  He is under the law of a new life, which carries him [as] naturally to desire communion with God, as the child doth to see the face of his dear father; and every duty is a mount wherein God presents himself to be seen and enjoyed by the Christian.

(2.) To neglect duty upon such a persuasion, is contrary to Christ's practice and counsel.  (a) His practice.  Though Christ never doubted of his Father's love, nor questioned the happy issue of all his temptations, agonies, and sufferings, yet he prays, and prays again most earnestly, Luke 22:44.  (b) His counsel and command.  He told Peter, that Satan had begged leave to have them to sift them, but withal he comforts him—who was to be hardest put to it—with this, ‘But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.’  Sure our Saviour by this provision made for him and the rest, means to save them a labour that they need not watch or pray.  No such matter.  After this, as you may see, ver. 40, he calls them up to duty—‘pray that ye enter not into temptation.’  Christ’s praying for them was to strengthen their faith, when they should themselves pray for the same mercy; not to nourish their sloth that they needed not to pray, Christ's prayers in heaven for his saints are all heard already, but the return of them is reserved to be enclosed in the answer God sends to their own prayers.  The Christian cannot in faith expect to receive the mercies Christ prays for in heaven, so long as he lives in the neglect of his duty on earth.  They stand ready against he shall call for them by the prayer of faith, and if they be not worth sending this messenger to heaven, truly they are worth little.

(3.) Consider, that although the Christian may be secured from a total and final apostasy, yet he may fall sadly to the bruising of his conscience, [the] enfeebling [of] his grace, and the reproach of the gospel, which sure are enough to keep the Christian upon his watch, and the more, because, ordinarily, the saints’ backslidings begin in their duties.  As it is with tradesmen in the world —they first grow careless of their business, [are] often out of their shop, and then they go behind-hand in their estates—so here [Christians are] first remiss in a duty, and then fall into a decay of their graces and comforts, yea, sometimes into was that are scandalous.  A stuff loseth its gloss before it wears; the Christian, the lustre of his grace in the lively exercise of duty, and then the strength of it.

1. Take heed of abusing this doctrine into a liberty to sin.Shall we sin, because grace abounds?—grow loose, because we have God fast bound in his promise? —God forbid! none but a devil would teach us this logic. It was a great height of sin those wretched Jews came to, who would quaff and carouse it while death looked in upon them at the windows: ‘Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.’  They discovered their atheism therein.  But what a prodigious stature in sin must that man be grown to, that can sin under the protection of the promise, and draw his encouragement to sin from the everlasting love of God?  Let us eat and drink, for we are sure to live and be saved.  Grace cannot dwell in that heart, which draws such a cursed conclusion from the premises of God’s grace.  The saints have not so learned Christ.  The inference the apostle makes from the sweet privileges we enjoy in the covenant of grace, is not to wallow in sin, but having these promises, to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, II Cor. 7:1.  It is the nature of faith—the grace that trades with promises—to purify the heart.  Now the more certain report faith brings of God's love from the promise to the soul, the more it purifies the heart, because love by which faith works, is thereby more inflamed to God, and if once this affection takes fire, the room becomes too hot to stay there.

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Use First. Away then with that doctrine that saith, One may be a saint to-day and none to-morrow; now a Peter, anon a Judas.  O what unsav­oury stuff is this!  A principle it is that at once cros­seth the main design of God in the gospel-covenant, reflects sadly on the honour of Christ, and wounds the saint’s comfort to the heart.

1. It is derogatory to God's design in the gospel-covenant, which we find plainly to be this, that his children might be put into a state sure and safe from miscarrying at last, which by the first covenant man was not.  See Rom. 4:16, ‘Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.’  God on purpose, because of the weakness of the first covenant, through the mutable nature of man, makes a new covenant of a far different constitution and frame, not of works, as that was but of faith; and why? the apostle tells us that it, ‘might be sure to all the seed,’ that not one soul, who by faith should be adopted into Abraham’s family, and so become a child of the promise, should fail of inheriting the blessing of the promise, which is eternal life; called so, Titus 1:2, and all this because the promise is founded upon grace, that is, God’s immutable good pleasure in Christ, and not upon the variable and inconsistent obedience of man, as the first covenant was.  But if a saint may finally fall, then is the promise no more sure in this covenant than it was in that, and so God should not have the end he propounds.
2. It reflects sadly on Christ’s honour, both as he is intrusted with the saints' salvation, and also as he is interested in it.  First. As he is intrusted with the saints’ salvation.  He tells us they are given him of his Father for this very end, that he should give them eternal life; yea, that power which he hath over all flesh, was given him to render him every way able to effect this one busi­ness, John 17:2.  He accepts the charge, owns them as his sheep, knows them every one, and promiseth he ‘will give them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand,’ John 10:27,28.  Now, how well do they consult with Christ's honour that say his sheep may die in a ditch of final apostasy notwith­standing all this?  Secondly. As he is interested in the salvation of every saint.  The life of his own glory is bound up in the eternal life of his saints.  It is true, when Adam fell God did save his stake, but how can Christ, who is so nearly united to every believing soul?  There was a league of friendship betwixt God and Adam; but no such union as here, where Christ and his saints make but one Christ, for which his church is called Christ. ‘As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ,’ I Cor. 12:12.  Christ and his members make one Christ.  Now is it possible that a piece of Christ can be found at last burning in hell? can Christ be a cripple Christ? can this member drop off and that? It is as possible that all as any should.  And how can Christ part with his mystical members and not with his glory? doth not every member add an ornament to the body, yea, an honour?  The church is called the ‘fulness of him,’ Eph. 1:23.  O how dishonourable is it to Christ, that we should think he shall want any of his fulness! and how can the man be full and complete that wants a member?
3. It wounds the saints’ comfort to the heart,and lays their joy a bleeding.  Paul saith he did not dash the generous wine of God’s word with the water of man’s conceits, II Cor. 2:17.  No, he gave them pure gospel. Truly, this principle of saints falling from grace gives a sad dash to the sweet wine of the promises.  The soul-reviving comfort that sparkles in them, ariseth from the sure conveyance with which they are in Christ made over to believers, to have and to hold for ever.  Hence [they are] called ‘the sure mercies of David,’ Acts 13:34—mercies that shall never fail.  This, this is indeed wine that makes glad the heart of a saint.  Though he may be whipped in the house when he sins, yet he shall not be turned out of doors; as God promised in the type to David’s seed. ‘Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail,’ Ps. 89:33; and ver. 36, ‘his seed shall endure for ever.’  Could anything separate the believer from the love of God in Christ, this would be as a hole at the bottom of his cup to leak out all his joy; he might then fear every temptation or affliction he meets would slay him, and so the wicked’s curse would be the saint’s portion.  His life would ever hang in doubt before him, and the fearful expectation of his final miscarriage, which he sees may befall him, would eat up the joy of his present hope.  Now, how contrary such a frame of heart is to the spirit of adoption, and [to the] full assurance of hope which the grace of the new covenant gives he that runs may read in the word.

Use Second. This truth prepares a sovereign cordial to restore the fainting spirits of weak believers, who are surprised with many fears concerning their persevering and holding out to the end of their warfare.  Be of good cheer, poor soul, God hath given Christ the life of every soul within the ark of his covenant.  Your eternal safety is provided for.  Whom he loves, he loves to the end, John 13:1.  Hath he made thee ‘willing in the day of his power’ to march under his banner, and espouse his quarrel against sin and hell?  The same power that overcame thy rebellious heart to himself, will overcome all thy enemies within and without for thee.  Say not thou art a bruised reed, [for] with this [power] he will break Satan’s head, and not cease till he hath brought forth judgment into complete victory in thy soul.  He that can make a few wounded men rise up and take a strong city, can make a wounded spirit triumph over sin and devils, Jer. 37:10.  The ark stood in the midst of Jordan, till the whole camp of Israel was safely got over into Canaan, Joshua 3:17, and so doth the covenant, which the ark did but typify.  Yea, Christ, covenant and all, stand to secure the saints a safe passage to heaven.  If but one believer drowns, the covenant must drown with him; Christ and the saint are put together as co-heirs of the same inheritance.  ‘If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ,’ Rom. 8:17.  We cannot dispute against one, but we question the firmness of the other’s title.  When you hear [that] Christ is turned out of heaven, or that he is willing to sell his inheritance there; then, poor Christian, fear thy coming thither, and not till then. Co-heirs cannot sell the inheritance except both give up their right, which Christ will never do nor suffer thee.

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Second. Because the believer can never forsake God on account of the provision made in the coven­ant.  An occasion of fear to the believer that he shall not persevere, may be taken from himself.  He has many sad fears and tremblings of heart, that he shall at last forsake God.  The journey is long to heaven, and his grace is weak.  ‘O,’ saith he, ‘is it not possible that this little grace should fail, and I fall short at last of glory?’  Now here there is such provision made in the covenant, as scatters this cloud also.

1. The Spirit of Godis given on purpose to pre­vent this.  Christ left his mother with John, but his saints with his Spirit, to tutor and keep them, that they should not lose themselves in their journey to heaven.  O how sweet is that place—‘I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my stat­utes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them,’ Eze. 36:27.  He doth not say they shall have his Spirit if they will walk in his statutes; no, his Spirit shall cause them to do it.  But may be thou art afraid thou mayest grieve him, and so he in anger leave thee, and thou perish for want of his help and counsel.  Ans. The Spirit of God is indeed sensible of unkindness, and upon a saint’s sin may withdraw in regard of present assistance, but never in regard of his care; as a mother may let her froward child go alone till it get a knock, that may make it cry to be taken up again into her arms, but still her eye is on it that it shall not fall into mischief.  The Spirit withdrew from Samson and he fell into the Philistines’ hands, and this makes him cry to God, and the Spirit puts forth his strength in him again.  Thus here, indeed, the office of the Spirit is to abide for ever with the saints.  ‘He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever,’ John 14:16.
2. It is one main business of Christ’s inter­cessionto obtain of God perseverance for our weak graces.  ‘I have prayed,’ saith Christ to Peter, ‘that thy faith fail not.’  But was not that a particular privilege granted to him, which may be denied to another?  Such fears and jealousies foolish children are ready to take up, and therefore Christ prevents them, by bid­ding Peter, in the very next words, ‘When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,’ Luke 22:32, that is, when thou feelest the efficacy and force of my prayer for thy faith, carry this good news to them, that their hearts may be strengthened also.  And what strength­ening had it been to them, if Christ prayed not for them as well as Peter?  Does Christ pray for us? yea, doth he not live to pray for us?  O how can children of so many prayers, of such prayers, perish?  The saints’ prayers have a mighty power.  Jacob wrestled and had power with God.  This was his sword and bow—to allude to what he said of the parcel of ground he took from the Amorite—by which he got the victory and had power with God.  This was the key with which Elijah opened and shut heaven.  And if the weak prayers of saints, coming in his name, have such credit in heaven, that with them they can go in God's treasure, and carry away as much as their arms of faith can hold; O then, what prevalency has Christ's intercession, who is a Son, an obedient Son, that is come from finishing his great work on earth, and now prays his Father for nothing but what he hath bid him ask; yea, for nothing but what he is beforehand with him for, and all this to a Father that loves those he prays for as well as himself?  Bid Satan avaunt!  Say not thy weak faith shall perish, till thou hearest that Christ hath left praying, or meetest with a repulse.

Third. Because Satan cannot pluck the believer out of the hands of God.  Let us see whether Satan be able to pluck the Christian away, and step betwixt him and home.  I have had occasion to speak of this subject in another place; so the less here shall serve.  Abundant provision is made against his assaults.  The saint is wrapped up in the everlasting arms of al­mighty power, and what can a cursed devil do against God, who laid those chains on him which he cannot shake off.  When is he able to pluck that dart of divine fury out of his own conscience which God hath fastened there, then let him think of such an enter­prise as this.  How can he overcome thee, that cannot tempt thee but in God's appointed time?  And if God set Satan his time to assault the Christian whom he loves so dearly, surely it will be when he shall be repulsed with the greatest shame,

The Certainty of Persevering if Clad With this Armour 1/2

We have here the certainty of persevering and overcoming at last, if clad with this armour.  Having done all, to stand, else it were small encouragement to bid them take that armour which would not surely defend them.

Doctrine. There can be no perseverance with­out true grace in the heart.  Every soul clad with this armour of God shall stand and persevere; or thus, true grace can never be vanquished.  The Christian is a born conqueror, the gates of hell shall not prevail against him.  He that is ‘born of God, overcometh the world,’ I John 5:4.  Mark from whence the victory is dated, even from his birth.  There is victory sown in his new nature; even that seed of God, which will keep him from being swallowed up by sin or Satan.  As Christ rose never to die more, so doth he raise souls from the grave of sin, never to come under the power of spiritual death more.  These holy ones of God cannot ‘see corruption.’  Hence he that believes is said in the present tense to have eternal life.  As ‘the law that came four hundred years after,’ could not make void the promise made to Abraham, so nothing that intervenes can hinder the accomplishing of that promise of eternal life, which was given and passed to Christ in their behalf before the foundation of the world.  If a saint could in any way miscarry, and fall short of this eternal life, it must be from one of these three causes: Because God may forsake the Christian, and withdraw his grace and help from him; or because the believer may forsake God; or lastly, because Satan may pluck him out of the hands of God.  Another cause I know not.  Now none of these can be,

First. Because God can never forsake the Chris­tian.  Some unadvised speeches have dropped from tempted souls discovering some fears of God’s casting them off, but they have been confuted, and have eaten their words with shame, as we see in Job and David.  O what admirable security hath the great God given his children in this particular!

1. In promiseshe hath said, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,’Heb. 13:5.  [There are] five negatives in that promise, as so many seals to ratify it to our faith.  He assures us there never did or can so much as arise a repenting thought in his heart con­cerning the purposes of his love and special grace towards his children—‘The gifts and calling of God are without repentance,’ Rom. 11:29.  Even the believers’ sins against him—their froward carriage —stirs not up thoughts of casting them off, but of reducing them—‘For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.  I have seen his ways, and will heal them,’ Isa. 57:17,18. The water of the saints’ failings cast on the fire of God’s love cannot quench it.  Whom he loves, he loves to the end.
2. God, to give further weight and credit to our unbelieving and misgiving hearts, seals his promise with an oath.See Isa. 54:8-10, ‘With everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.  For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee.’  Yea, he goes on and tells them, ‘The mountains shall depart’—meaning at the end of the world, when the whole frame of the heavens and earth shall be dissolved—‘but his kind­ness shall not depart, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed.’  Now, lest any should think this was some charter belonging to the Jews alone, we find it, settled on every servant of God as his portion.  ‘This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord,’ Isa. 54:17. And surely God that is so careful to make his chil­dren’s inheritance sure to them, will con them little thanks, who busy their wits to invalid and weaken his conveyances, yea, disprove his will.  If they had taken a bribe, they could not plead Satan’s cause better.
3. In the actual fulfilling of these promises —which he hath made to believers—to Christ their attorney.  As God, before the world began, gave a promise of eternal life to Christ for them, so now hath he given actual possession of that glorious place to Christ, as their advocate and attorney, where that eternal life shall be enjoyed by them.  For as he came upon our errand from heaven, so thither he returned again, to take and hold possession of that inheritance which God had of old promised, and he in one sum at his death had paid for.  And now, what ground of fear can there be in the believer's heart, concerning God's love standing firm to him, when he sees the whole covenant performed already to Christ for him, whom God hath not only called to, sanctified for, and upheld in the great work he has to finish for us; but also justified in his resurrection and jail-delivery, and received him into heaven, there to sit on the right hand of the majesty on high, by which he hath not only possession for us, but full power to give it unto all believers?

The Necessity of Divine Armour That We May Persevere

Here is the necessity of divine armour to perse­vere till we have done all.  

Wherefore else bids he them to take this armour for this end, if they could do it without?

Doctrine. There can be no perseverance without true grace in the heart.  A soul void of divine armour cannot persevere.  What this divine armour is, I have shown, and the apostle here doth, in the several pieces of it.  The sanctifying graces of God’s Spirit are this armour.  One that hath not these wrought in him, will never hold out to pass all the stages of this Christian race, to fight all the battles that are to be fought before victory is to be had. Common gifts of the Spirit, such as illumination, conviction, sudden pangs, and flushing heats of affection, may carry out the creature for a while with a goodly appearance of zeal for God and forwardness in profession, but the strength these afford is soon spent.  John's hearers, mentioned in John 5:35, got some light and heat by sitting under his burning ministry, but how long did it last?  ‘Ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.’  They were very beau­tiful colours that were drawn on them, but [they were] not laid in oil, and therefore [were] soon washed off again.  The foolish virgins made as great a blaze with their lamps, and did expect as good a day when Christ should come, as the wise virgins; but, alas, their lamps are out before he appeared, and as good never a whit, as never the better.  The stony ground [was] more forward than the best soil.  The seed comes up immediately, as if a crop should soon have been reaped, but a few nipping frosts turn its hue, and the day of harvest proves a day of desperate sorrow.  All these instances, and many more in Scripture, do evince, that nothing short of solid grace, and a prin­ciple of divine life in the soul, will persevere.  How forward soever formalists and flighty professors are to promise themselves hopes of reaching heaven, they will find it too long a step for their short-breathed souls to attain.  

The reasons are the following:

Reason First. Such want a principle of divine life to draw strength from Christ to persevere them in their course.  That by which the gracious soul itself perseveres, is the continual supply it receives from Christ, as the arm and foot is kept alive in the body by those vital spirits which they receive from the heart.  ‘I live,’ saith Paul, ‘yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,’ that is, I live but at Christ’s cost.  He holds, as my soul, so [also] my grace in life.  Now the carnal person wanting this union, must needs waste and consume in time.  He hath no root to stand on.  A carcass, when once it begins to rot, never recovers; but every day grows worse, till it runs all into putre­faction.  No salve or plaster will do it good.  But where there is a principle of life, there when a member is wounded, nature sends supplies of spirits, and helps to work with the salve for a cure.  There is the same difference between a gracious person and an ungracious.  See them opposed in this respect: the righteous man ‘falleth seven times’ a day, and ‘riseth,’ but the wicked ‘falleth into mischief,’ Prov. 24:16; that is, in falling, he falls farther, and hath no power to re­cover himself.  When Cain sinned, see how he falls farther and farther like a stone down a hill, and never stays till he comes to the bottom of despair;—from envying his brother, to malice, from malice to mur­der, from murder to impudent lying and brazen-faced boldness to God himself, and from that to despair; so true is that, ‘Evil men shall wax worse and worse,’ II Tim. 3:13.  But now when a saint falls, he riseth, because when he falls he hath a principle of life to cry out to Christ, and such an interest in Christ as stirs him up to help.  ‘Lord, save me,’ said Peter, when he began to sink, and presently Christ’s hand is put forth; he chides him for his unbelief, but he helps him.

Reason Second. An unregenerate soul hath no assurance for the continuance of those common gifts of the Spirit he hath at present; they come on the same terms that temporal enjoyments do to such a one.  A carnal person, when he hath his table most sumptuously spread, cannot show any word of prom­ise under God’s hand that he shall be provided for the next meal.  God gives these things to the wicked, as we a crust or a night’s lodging to a beggar in our barn.  It is our bounty, such a one could not sue us for denying the same.  So in the common gifts of the Spirit, God was not bound to give them, nor is he to continue them.  Thou hast some knowledge of the things of God; thou mayest for all this die without knowledge at last.  Thou art a sinner in chains—re­straining grace keeps thee in, [but] this may be taken off, and thou let loose to thy lusts as freely as ever. And how can he persevere that in one day may from praying fall to cursing, from [having] a whining com­plaining conscience, come to have a seared conscience?

Reason Third. Every unregenerate man, when most busy with profession, hath those engagements lying upon him, that will necessarily, when put to it, take him off one time or other.  One is engaged to the world, and when he can come to a good market for that, then he goes away.  He cannot have both, and now he will make it appear which he loved best. Demas hath forsaken us, and embraced this present world.  Another is a slave to his lust, and when this calls him he must go, in spite of profession, con­science, God and all.  Herod feared John, and did many things; but love is stronger than fear, his love to Herodias overcomes his fear of John, and makes him cut off at once the head of John, and the hopeful buddings which appeared in the tenderness of his conscience, and begun reformation.  One root of bit­terness or other will spring up in such a one.  If the complexion of the soul be profane, it will at last come to it, however for a while there may some religious colour appear in the man's face, from some other external cause.

This shows us what is the root of all final apos­tasy, and that is a want of a thorough change of the heart.  The apostate doth not lose the grace he had, but discovers he never had any; and it is no wonder to hear that he proves bankrupt, that was worse than nought when he first set up.  Many take up their saintship upon trust, and trade in the duties of religion with the credit they have gained from others’ opinion of them.  They believe themselves to be Christians, because others hope them to be such, and so their great business is by a zeal in those exercises of religion that lie outmost, to keep up the credit which they have abroad, but do not look to get a stock of solid grace within, which should maintain them in their profession; and this proves their undoing at last. Let it therefore make us in the fear of God, to con­sider upon what score we take up our profession.  Is there that within which bears proportion to our outward zeal?  Have we laid a good bottom?  Is not the superstructure top-heavy, jetting too far beyond the weak foundation?  They say, trees shoot as much in the root underground as in the branches above, and so doth true grace.

O remember what was the perishing of the seed in the stony ground.  It lacked root; and why so but because it was stony?  Be willing the plough should go deep enough to humble thee for sin, and rend thy heart from sin.  The soul effectually brought out of the love of sin as sin, will never be thorough friends with it again.  In a word, be serious to find out the great spring that sets all thy wheels on motion in thy religious trade.  Do as men that would know how much they are worth, who set what they owe on one side, and what stock they have on the other, and then when they have laid out enough to discharge all debts and engagements, what remains to themselves they may call their own.  Thus do they consider what thou standest engaged to, thy worldly credit, profit, slavish fear of God, and selfish desire of happiness, and when thou hast allowed for all these, see then what remains of thy fear of God, love to God, &c.  If nothing, thou art nought; if any, the less there be the weaker Christian thou art; and when thou comest to be tried in God’s fire, thou wilt suffer loss of all other, which, as ‘hay’ and ‘stubble’ will be burned up.

Use or Application: of our Need for Perseverance

                           

Here we may take up a sad lamentation, in respect of the many apostate professors of our days. Never was this spiritual falling sickness more rife.  O how many are sick of it at present, and not a few fallen asleep by it?  These times of war and confusion have not made so many broken merchants as broken professors.  Where is the congregation that cannot show some who have out-lived their profession? [They are] not unlike the silk-worm, which, they say, after all her spinning, works herself out of her bottom, and becomes at last a common fly.  Are there not many, whose forwardness in religion we have stood gazing on with admiration, as the disciples on the temple, ready to say one to another, as they to Christ, See what manner of stones these are! what polished gifts and shining graces are here! and now not one stone left upon another.  O did you ever think, that they who went in so goodly array towards heaven in communion with you, would after that, face about, and running over to the devil’s side, turn blasphemers, worldlings, and atheists, as some have done? 

O what a sad change is here!  ‘It had been better for them not to have known the way of righ­teousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them, II Peter 2:21.  Better never to have walked a step towards heaven, than to put such a scorn and reproach upon the ways of God.  Such a one who hath known both what a service Satan’s is, and what God's is, then to revolt from God to the devil, seems to have compared one with the other, and as a result of his mature thoughts, to pronounce the devil's which he chooseth, better than God’s which he leaveth.  And how is it possible that any can sin upon a higher guilt, and go to hell under a greater load of wrath?  These are they which God loathes.  He that hates putting away, disdains much more to be himself thus put away.  ‘If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him,’ Heb. 10:38.  The apostate is said to tread upon ‘the Son of God,’ Heb. 10.29, as if he were no better than the dirt under his feet.  Well, he shall have treading for treading, God himself will set his foot upon him, ‘Thou hast trodden down all them that err from thy statutes,’ Ps. 119:118; and who, think you, will be weary soonest?  He that is under foot bears the weight of the whole man upon him.  To be under the foot of God, is to lie under the whole weight of God’s wrath.  O pity and pray for such forlorn souls.  They are objects of the one, and subjects of the other; though they are fallen low, yet [they are] not into hell.  Now and then we see a Eutychus raised, that hath fallen from such a height; and you that stand, take heed lest you fall.

The Necessity of Perseverance

In the words we have necessity of perseverance —having done all.  Doctrine. He that will Christ’s soldier, must persevere to the end of his life in this war against Satan.  This, having done all, comes in after our conflict with death.  That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day; then follows, having done all.  We have not done all till that pitched battle be fought.  ‘The last enemy is death.’  The word imports as much as to finish a business, and bring a matter to a full issue, so Php. 2:12, where we translate it well, ‘work out your salvation,’ that is, perfect it.  Be not Christians by halves, but go through with it; the thorough Christian is the true Christian.  Not he that takes the field, but he that keeps the field; not he that sets out, but he that holds out in this holy war, de­serves the name of a saint.  There is not such a thing in this sense belonging to Christianity as an honour­able retreat; not such a word of command in all Christ’s military discipline, as fall back and lay down your arms; no, you must fall on, and stand to your arms till called off by death

First. The necessity of perseverance, because we are all under a covenant and oath to do this. Formerly soldiers used to take an oath not to flinch from their colours, but faithful to cleave up to their leaders; this they called sacramentum militare—a military oath. Such an oath lies upon every Christian.  It is so es­sential to the being of a saint, that they are described by this: ‘Gather my saints together,  those that have made a covenant with me,’ Ps. 50:5.  We are not Chris­tians till we have subscribed this covenant, and that without any reservation.  When we take upon us the profession of Christ’s name, we list ourselves in his muster-roll, and by it do promise that we will live and die with him in opposition to all his enemies.  ‘Every nation will walk in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of our God;’ and what is it to walk in the name of our God, but to fight under the banner of his gospel, wherein his name is displayed, by giving an eternal defiance to sin and Satan?  If a captain had not such a tie on his shoulders, he might have them to seek when the day of battle comes.  There­fore Christ tells us upon what terms he will enrol us among his disciples.  ‘If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and fol­low me.’  He will not entertain us, till we resign up ourselves freely to his disposal, that there may be no disputing with his commands afterwards, but as one under his authority, go and come at his word.

Second. Perseverance is necessary, because our enemy perseveres to oppose us.  There is no truce in the devil's heart, no cessation of arms in our enemy’s camp.  If an enemy continue to assault a city, and they within cease to resist, it is easy to tell what will follow.  The prophet that was sent to Bethel did his errand well, withstood Jeroboam's temptation, but in his way home was drawn aside by the old prophet, and at last slain by a lion.  Thus many fly from one temptation, but not persevering, are vanquished by another; those that at one time escape his sword, at another time are slain by it.  Joash was hopeful, when young, but it lasted not long.  Yea, many precious servants of God, not making such vigorous resistance in their last days as in their first, have fallen foully, as we see in Solomon, Asa, and others.  Indeed, it is hard when a line is drawn to a great length, to keep it so straight that it slacken not, and to hold a thing long in our hand, and not to have a numbness grow in our fingers so as to remit of our strength; therefore we are bid so often to hold fast the profession of our faith.  But when we see an enemy gaping to catch us when we fall, methinks this should quicken us the more to it.

Third. Perseverance is necessary, because the promise of life and glory is settled upon the perse­vering soul.  The crown stands at the goal, he hath it that comes to the end of the race.  ‘To him that over­cometh will I give,’ not in prœlio, but in bello—not in a particular skirmish, but in the whole war.  ‘Ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise,’ Heb. 10:36.  There is a remarkable accent on that henceforth, which Paul mentions, II Tim. 4:7, 8 ‘I have fought a good fight, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.’  Why, was it not laid up before? yes, but having persevered and come near the goal, being within sight of home, ready to die, he takes now surer hold of the promise.  Indeed, in this sense it is, that a gracious soul is nearer its salvation after every victory than it was before, because he approacheth nearer to the end of his race, which is the time promised for the receiving of the promised salvation, Rom. 13:11.  Then and not till then the garland drops upon his head.