Thirdly, Consider, that although the Christian be secured from a total and final apostasy, yet he may fall sadly, to the bruising of his conscience, enfeebling his grace, and reproach of the gospel ; which sure are enough to keep the Christian upon his watch, and the more, because ordinarily the saints' back- slidings begin in their duties. As it is with tradesmen in the world, they iirst grow careless of their business, often out of their shop, and then they go behind- hand in their estates : so here, first remiss in a duty, and then fall into a decay of their graces and comforts, yea, sometimes into those ways that are scan- dalous. 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.
Secondly, Take heed of abusing this doctrine unto 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 gi-eat height of sin those wretched Jews came to, who could quaff and carouse it while death looked in upon them at the windows : ' Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall 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 evei- lasting 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 promises 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, 2 Cor. vii. 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 of 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 for sin to stay there.
Section VI. — The fourth note and last is. That it will abundantly recompense all the hardship and trouble the Christian endures in this war against sin and Satan, that he shall be able, when the war is ended, to stand. 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 cin-e 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 wrapped 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. Lev. xxvi. ; Dan. xi. 25. 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 puts us to the hazard of another battle; much ado he hath to keep what he hath got; yea, his victoines 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 enemies' hand. But for thy eternal comfort, know, poor Christian, there is a blessed day coming, which shall make a full and final deci- sion of the quarrel betwixt thee and Satan ; thou shalt see this enemy's camp quite broke up ; not a weapon left in his hand to lift up against thee. Thou
AND HAVING DONE ALL, TO STAND. 193