And shall we be self-confident, after such instances of human frailty ! Alas, Christian ! What match art thou for principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness ! " Be not high-minded, but u fear." When you have considered well the example of * Noah, Lot, David, and He/ekiah, men famous and renowned in their generations, who all fell by temptations; yea, and that when one would think they had never been better provided to cope with them. Lot fell after, yea, presently after the Lord had thrust him out of Sodom, and his eyes had seen the direful punishment of sin. Hell, as it were, rained upon them out of heaven. Noah, in like manner, immediately after God's wonderful, and astonish- ing preservation of him in the ark ; when he saw a world of men and women, perishing in the floods for their sins. David, after the Lord had settled the kingdom on him, which for sin he rent from Saul, and given him rest in his house. Hezekiah was but just up from a great sickness, wherein the Lord wrought a wonderful salvation for him. Did such men, and at such times, when one would think no temptations should have prevailed, fall ; and that so foully ? Then " let him that thinks he standeth, take heed lest " he fall." O be not high-minded, but fear.
Inf. 2. Did Christ stand his ground, and go through with his suffering- work, when all that had followed him, forsook him? Then a resolved adherence to God, and duty, though left alone, without company or encouragement, is Christ-like, and truly ex- cellent. You shall not want better company, than that which hath forsaken you in the way of God. Elijah complains, 1 Kings xix. 10. " They have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and " slain thy prophets with the sword ; and I, even I only, am left, " and they seek my life, to take it away." And yet all this did not damp or discourage him in following the Lord ; for still he was very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts.
Paul complains, 2 Tim. iv. 16. " At my first answer no man " stood by me, all men forsook me : nevertheless the Lord stood " with me." And as the Lord stood by him, so he stood by his God alone, without any aids or support from men. How great an argument of integrity is this ! He that professes Christ for com- pany, will also leave him for company. But to be faithful to God, when forsaken of men ; to be a Lot, in Sodom ; a Noah, in a corrupted generation ; oh, how excellent is it ! It is sweet to travel over this earth to heaven, in the company of the saints, that arc bound thither with us, if we can ; but if we can meet no
* Gen. ix. 21, 22. and xix, ?G. 2 Sam. xi,2. 2 Kings xx. 12.
352 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 3ERM. XXVIII,
company, we must not be discouraged to go on. It is not unlike, but before you have gone many steps farther, you may have cause to sav, as one did once, Never less alone, than when alone.
Inference 3. Did the disciples thus forsake Christ, and yet were all recovered at last ? Then, though believers are not privileged from backs-tidings, yet they are secured from final apostasy and ruin. The new creature may be sick, it cannot die. Saints may fall, but they shall rise again, Micah vii. 8. The highest flood, of natural zeal and resolution, may ebb, and be wholly dried up; but saving grace is " a well of water, still springing up into everlasting life," John iv. 14. God's unchangeable election, the frame and con- stitution of the New Covenant, the meritorious and prevalent in- tercession of Jesus Christ, do give the believer abundant security against the danger of a total and final apostasy. " My Father, " which gave them me, saith Christ, is greater than all : and none " is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand,'1 John x. 29-
And again, " The foundation of God standeth sure, having " this seal ; the Lord knoweth who are his," 2 Tim. ii. 19. Every person committed to Christ by the Father, shall be brought by him to the Father, and not one wanting.
God hath also so framed and ordered the new covenant, that none of those souls, who are within the blessed clasp and bond of it can possibly be lost. It is settled upon immutable things : and we know all things are as their foundations be, Heb. vi. 18, 19. Among the many glorious promises contained in the bundle of promises, this is one, " I will not turn away from them, to do them " good ; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not " depart from me.""
And as the fear of God in our hearts, pleads in us against sin, so our potent intercessor in the heavens pleads for us with the Fa- ther ; and by reason thereof, we cannot finally miscarry, Rom. viii. 34, 35. Upon these grounds, we may (as the apostle in the place last cited doth) triumph in that full security which God hath given us ; and say, What " shall separate us from the love of God ?" Understand it either of God's to us, as Calvin, Beza, and Martyr do ; or of our love to God, as Ambrose and Augustine do : it is true in both senses, and a most comfortable truth.
Inference 4. Did the sheep fly, when the shepherd was smitten ; such men, and so many forsake Christ in the trial ? Then learn how sad a tldng it is for the best of men to be left to their own carnal fears in a day of temptation : This was it that made those good men shrink away so shamefully from Christ in that trial : " The fear of man brings a snare," Prov. xxix. 25. In that snare these good souls were taken, and for a time held fast.
Oh what work will this unruly passion make, if the fear of God
SERM. XXVIII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 353
do not over-rule it ! Is it not a shame to a Christian, a man of faith to see himself out-done by an Heathen ? Shall natural conscience and courage make them stand and keep their places in times of danger ; when we shamefully turn our backs upon duty, because we see duty and danger together ?