Use 2. If you fall, be not utterly discouraged. As the spinster leaveth a lock of wool to draw on the next thread, there is somewhat left when you are departed from God ; you have more holdfast in him than an unregenerate sinner. A child, though a prodigal, will go to him, and say, Father : Ps. cxix. 176, 'I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments.' Through natural weakness I have gone astray like a sheep, but I seek thy commandments ; there is some grace left yet : Isa, Ixiv. 8, ' But now, 0 Lord, thou art our Father ; we are the clay, and thou art the potter ; we are all the work of thine hand.' The church pleadeth thus : nay, God is angry when we do not plead so : Jer. iii, 4, * Wilt thou not from this time cry, My Father, thou art the guide of my youth?' You have an interest in God yet. Thus do, and your fall will be like them that go back to fetch their leap more commodiously.
Use 3. When you stand, let it incite you to love and thankfulness. Nothing maketh the saints more love God than his unchangeableness. His mercy made you come to him, and liis truth will not suffer you to depart from him. Mercy and truth are like Jachin and Boaz : Micali
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vii. 20, ' Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers, from the days of old/ The covenant was made with Abraham, and made good to Jacob. You may rejoice notwithstanding your weakness and Satan's daily assaults ; as Daniel in the lions' den, to see the lions ramping and roaring about him, yet their mouths muzzled : 2 Sam. ii. 9, ' By strength shall no man prevail;' that is, by his own. That any of us liave stood hitherto, let us ascribe it wholly to God : we might have been vile and scandalous, even as others. Many of better gifts may fall away, and thou keepest thy standing. What is the reason ? We have done enough a thousand times to cause God to depart from us : Deut. sxiii. 14, ' If he see any unclean thing among thee, he will turn, away from thee.' And is it not strange that the Spirit of grace should yet abide with us hitherto, when there is so much uncleanness in every one of us ? The great argument of the saints why they love and praise him is the constancy and unchangeableness of his love : Ps. cxxxvi., 'For his mercy endureth for ever;' and Ps. cvi. 1, 'Praise the Lord,
0 give thanks unto the Lord ; for he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever.' No form more frequent in the mouths of his saints.
Use 4, If any fall often, constantly, frequently, and easily, they have no interest in grace : 1 John iii. 9, ' Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ;' ov iroiel a/jLapriav, he maketh not a trade of sin, that is the force of that phrase. God's children slip often, but not with such a frequent constant readiness, into the same sin. Therefore he that liveth in a course of profaneness, worldliness, drunkenness, 'his spot is not the spot of God's children,' Deut. xxxii. 5. You are tried by your constant course : Eom. viii. 1, ' That walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.' What is your road and walk ? I except only those sins which are of usual incidence, and sudden surreption, as anger, vanity of thoughts ; and yet for them a man should be more humble. If it be not felt, nor striven against, nor mourned for, it is a bad sign. What is your course and walk ? There is a uniformity in a christian's course. It is nothing to have some fits and good moods and motions.
Use 5. It provoketh us to get an interest in such a sure condition. Be not contented with outward happiness ; things are worthy according to their duration. Nature hath such a sense of God's eternity that the more lasting things are, it accounteth them the better. The im- mortal soul must have an eternal good. Now all things in the world are frail and passing away, therefore they are called ' uncertain riches,'
1 Tim. vi. 17, compared with Prov. viii. 18, * Riches and honour are with me, yea, durable riches and righteousness.' The flower of these things perisheth, their grace passeth away ; in the midst of their pride and beauty, like Herod in his royalty, they vanish and are blasted. The better part is not taken away : Luke x. 42, ' Mary hath chosen the better part, which cannot be taken away from her.' A man may outlive his happiness, be stripped of the flower of all. Worldly glory is sure to end with life, that is transitory ; and still they are uncertain riches, uncertain whether we shall get them, uncertain whether we shall keep them. By a care of the better part, we may have these things with a blessing : Mat. vi. 33, ' Seek ye first the kingdom of