(2.) If you mean to be so, you must get a holy obstinacy ; that is to say, an invincible resolution to adhere to God. (1.) A holy obstinacy of faith : Job xiii. 15, ' Though he kill me, I will trust in him.' Satan's great design in all temptations is to crush our confidence. Now, to cast away our confidence is to do ourselves as ill a turn as Satan can wish for : nay, however God deal with you, resolve to cleave to him ; let my trouble be what it will, yet I will depend upon God. (2.) A holy obstinacy of love ; as he told his master that he should not have a club big enough to drive him from him : Isa. xxvi. 8, ' Yea, in the way of thy judgments, 0 Lord, have we waited for thee : the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.' They are resolved to desire and seek after and delight in God. (3.) A holy obstinacy of oljedience : Job xvii. 9, ' Tlie righteous shall iiold on his •way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger.' When opposed, vexed by the hypocrite, by disadvantages and pressures, he gathereth strength. (4.) An obstinacy of patience: Luke xxi. 16-18, 'And ye shall be betrayed, both by parents, and bretliren, and kinsfolks, and friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put to death : and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake ; but there shall not an iiair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls.' Whatever befall you, either by persecution or death itself, it shall not turn to the least disadvantage to you, but greatest gain ; for those that suffered death were eternally crowned, and others are under the protection of God ; therefore endure with constancy. Lastly, an
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obstinacy of zeal : Dan. iii. 17, 18, ' Our God is able to deliver its ; but if not, we will not serve thy gods, nor worship thy golden image which thou hast set up.' Godly resolution is ever requisite in point of religion, and it should not be weakened in us by the greatest sufferings.
Dod. 3. That it is the love of Christ which secureth believers in their conflicts, and maketh them triumph over temptations. All their victory is, ?>ta rod ayainjaavTo^.
1. Let me give the emphasis of the expression.
2. Give you the proof of the point.
[1.] It is not power that is here spoken of, but love ; it is not ' through him that strengthened us,' but through him that ' loved us ; ' elsewhere it is cia rov ivBvvafiowTov, Phil. iv. 13, 'I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.' The effect indeed cometh from the influence of his power, but it is his love which sets his power a-work. The ground and bottom of all his mediatorial dispensations is love, which is more comfortable to us than bare power ; for we do not know whether he will exercise that or no.
[2.] It is not our love to Christ, but his love to us which is spoken of ; no question but the great manifestations of his love in reconciling God to us by redemption, and us to God by conversion, do leave upon a gracious heart a forcible impression and inclination to love him again, who hath loved us at so dear a rate, and in so tender a manner ; and this love is not unserviceable in our preservation. Men are not so easily drawn from him whom they dearly love, and love upon such good and ' powerful reasons. But the strength of a believer lieth not here, in his love to Christ, but rather in Christ's love to us, which both began, and still continueth our salvation. It began it : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he sent his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life.' And continueth it : 2 Thes. ii. 16, 17, 'Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and given us everlasting consola- tion, and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.' Christ's love continueth to his people till they enjoy the full effects of it : and therefore carrieth them through all temptations till they come to their eternal rest. There lieth our stability, in the unchangeableness of his love.
[3.] It is not barely, Who loveth us now, but Who hath loved us. He speaketh of the past time ; it is true, he retaineth still his loving and kind affections to us, but the foundation was long since laid in our redemption and conversion to God. In our redemption — ' He hath loved us, and washed us in his blood,' Rev. i. 5 ; in our conversion : Eph. ii. 4, 5, ' But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love where- with he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.' In these two acts the foundation was laid of our victory and triumph. By his redemption he purchased all that grace which is necessary for us till we are fully brought home to God ; by conversion we are actually instated in it. By the one, J2is ad rem, our right to this grace was acquired ; by the other we have jus in re, we are actually possessed of it. By the one he doth pacify the wrath of God, by the other he doth take us into a near relation to himself, that we may become his own, and so actually under his care and pro-