Secondly, Let us consider how a believer is preserved. Unsound professors are turned by scandal from the ways of godliness, which they seemed to walk in ; but for the sincere believer, there may be many stumbling-blocks laid in his way, but he falleth not at them, escapeth those heinous sins into which others fall, through his love to God's commandments. Observe here three things : —
1. It is not light, but love that keepeth them from stumbling. The light of saving knowledge is a great matter, for it showeth us a sure rule to walk by, and sure promises to build upon ; but love must join with it, to assist us, that we may escape those snares, for many fail because they receive not the truth in the love of it, 2 Thes. ii. 10. Till iight be turned into love, it hath not such a powerful influence upon us. Certainly a man is better held by the heart than by the head : Born. viii. 39, ' Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord/ The love of God is not prin- cipally taken there in a passive sense, for the love wherewith we are beloved of God ; but in an active sense, for the love wherewith we love God. For affliction and persecution do expugn or assault God's love to us, but not our love to God ; for this rnaketh us cleave to him, whatever temptations we have to the contrary. Do but consider what you are to love.
[1.] We are to love God ; there it beginneth. Love God once, and then you will take nothing ill at his hands ; how smart soever his chastenings be, they come from a God that loveth you, and whom your souls love: Eev. iii. 19, 'As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.' Now they will not stumble at God's dispensations, be they never so cross to their expectations and desires. But then —
[2.] We must love the law of God, be satisfied with our duty what- ever cometh of it. Next to a sincere love to God, there must be a sincere love to his holy law, as the right way to eternal blessedness, and then temptations will have but little force upon us, for they do not love their duty for foreign reasons, but for its own sake ; so that whe- ther it be befriended and countenanced in the world, or hated and despised, it is all one ; they love the law upon its own evidence, as it is recommended by God, and is a sure direction to true happiness : Job xvii. 9, ' The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.' He meaneth notwithstanding all the troubles and assaults which he endureth ; they are not scandal- ised at God's dealings, or permitting them to be thus dealt with, but
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do persevere in a course of godliness ; this is the way wherein he delighteth.
[3.] He loves the brethren : 1 John ii. 10, ' He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.' They, together with us, uphold Christ's interest in the world. The coals, by lying together, inkindle one another, and so are the better kept from having their zeal quenched, or being ensnared by the manifold temptations in the world.
[4.] By this love the love of the world and its prosperity is much abated : 1 John ii. 15, ' Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world ; for if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.' This man cannot part with all when his duty calleth for it. Till we despise worldly things we are still liable to take offence. All our disquiet cometh from too great love of the world, and too little love of the word of God. All this is spoken to show you that it is want of love wherefore men are so easily taken off ; and this love beginneth with the love of God, then goeth on to his word, and the obedience it calleth for, and is strengthened by our love to the saints, and is a higher love than that it can be controlled by the love of the world.
2. This blessed peace hath an influence upon it upon a twofold account : —
[1.] This is an experience of the good of that way which the world speaketh evil of. You cannot persuade a man against his experience, that honey is bitter, when he has tasted the sweetness of it, 1 Peter ii. 3. They know the grace of God in truth, they have found much com- fort and peace in these ways. Most men know religion and godliness but by hearsay or looking on ; the testimony of Christ was never con- firmed in them. But these have tried it, and know the good of reli- gion by experience, therefore they cannot be so easily offended as others are, who have only licked the glass, but never tasted the honey. The pleasure they find in the duties and exercises of godliness will with them infinitely outweigh all the transient delights and advantages that are propounded, or offer themselves as the bait to any unlawful practice.