The blessed result of the saints perseverance 1/3

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!

Use or Application of: The Certainty of Persevering if Clad With this Armour 2/2

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.

Use or Application of: The Certainty of Persevering if Clad With this Armour 1/2

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.

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

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.