but the Lord has promised to guard them, If. xxvii. 3. I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment'; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. They may fall into fin, and provoke the Lord to anger against them; but he has promised, that though he lay his hand on them, he will not lift his love off them, Pfal. Ixxxix. 31.-34. Though they may be forsaken, yet it shall neither be total nor final, If. liv. 7.-10. 2. From the faints confidence of perfeverance and eternal life. How confident was Afaph, Pfal. lxxiii. 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory? If the faints could fall away from grace, how could they rejoice in hope of the glory of God? Rom. v. 2. How could Paul triumph over death, life, angels, principalities, powers; things prefent and to come, height, depth, &c.? Rom. viii. 38. 39. Confidence in their own management, is not the way of the godly, Prov. xxviii. 26. He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. 3. Lastly, According to the scripture, perfeverance is a difcriminating mark betwixt the elect and nonelected, Matth. xxiv. 24.; as also betwixt real faints and hypocrites, Luke viii. 13. 14. 15. 1 John ii. 19. From whence we may gather, that the utter apostasy of the elect faints is impossible in respect of the decree of God; that those who get true grace, keep it to the end, while others lose theirs, and that they who utterly apostatize, never were true faints. FOURTHLY, I shall shew what are those things which make hypocrites fall away, but over the belly of which faints perfevere. In the general there are three things. 1. Satan's temptations, 1 Pet. v. 8. He is a fubtle, powerful, and malicious enemy, a liar and murderer from the beginning. Whatever hopeful signs are found about any, he fets himself to rob them of them, for their ruin. He feeks to fet the hypocrite and the fincere through the wind, and prevails to blow away the one, but not the other. By a miracle of i grace the faints are preserved amidst his fiery darts, Luke xxii. 32. 2. The world's snares. While profeffors are in the world, there are snares to catch them, and carry then off the way. (1.) The world's profperity is a great snare, and makes many apoftates, Prov, i. 32. & xxx. 9. But true grace will hold out against it, Cant. viii. 7. (2.) Its adversity. Tribulation and perfecution offends the temporary believer, and makes a scattering among Christ's fummer-friends, Matth. xiii. 20. 21. But the true Christian will weather out the storm; Job xvii. 9. The righteous alfa shall hold on his way, and be that hath clean bands shall wax stronger and stronger. Poverty strips many of their religion, but not a true faint, Rev. xiv. 4. (3.) The example of the world; the torrent of an ungodly generation strips many of their form of godliness, Matth. xxiv. 12. Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But the faints thall not be carried away with the stream, Pfal. xii. 7. Thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for ever, 3. Lastly, The corruptions and lufts of the heart. These betray the hypocrite into apoftafy, Jer. iv. 3: Compare Luke viii. 14. Luits hulled asleep for a while, but not mortified, rife up and make shipwreck of many fouls. But true grace is never quite expelled by the flesh's lustings against it; but by the power of God is preferved, like a spark of fire in the midst of an ocean, FIFTHLY, I proceed to shew the grounds of the perseverance of the faints, 1. The unchangeable decree of God's election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of the Father to them, Electing love is free love, and alfo unchangeable, Jer. xxxi. 3. I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee. And God's purpose of grace and falva. tion cannot be disappointed, 2 Tim, ii. 19. The purpose of God standeth fure, having this feal, The Lord knows eth them that are his. 2. The merit and intercession of Chrift the Son. He redeemed them by paying a full price, which must be loft if they be loft, I Pet. i. 18. 19. And he ever liveth to make interceffion for them, Heb. vii. 25. 3. The perpetual abiding of the Spirit in and with them, John xiv. 16. which secures their union with Christ, and the preservation of the feed of grace, 1 John iii. 9. 4. Lastly, The nature of the covenant of grace, which is furnished with fuch pillars as the first covenant had not, namely, the promises of perpetual confervation in the state of grace, Jer. xxxii. 40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that 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. SIXTHLY, I shall shew the means of perseverance. Let none think that they may live carelessly, having once got grace, because it cannot be loft: for befides that one's giving himself quite up to fuch an opinion and course is inconfiftent with faving grace, God has joined together the end and means, and none shall separate them, Acts xxvii. 22. And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. Compare ver. 31. Paul Said to the centurion and to the foldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Now, in the ge neral, these are, 1. God's ordinances and providences, He makes ufe of both to keep the feet of his faints, John xv. 2. 2. The duties of religion, and exercise of the graces, faith, fear, watchfulness, &c. 1 Cor. x. 12. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed left he fall. I shall conclude with a few inferences. Inf. 1. Would ye have a treasure which ye cannot lofe? then get grace. Ye may lose your worldly trea fures, comforts, and enjoyments; the world's good things may go. But grace is durable. 2. Take heed to yourselves, and beware of apoftafy; for it is not the beginning well, but holding on to the end, that will fecure your falvation, Matth. x. 22. He that endureth to the end, shall be saved. Beware left Satan, the world, and your lufts give you up your foot, and ye lose all ye have wrought, 2 John 8. 3. As ever ye would perfevere, look well to the foundation of your religion; for sincerity will last, but hypocrify is a disease in the vitals that will end in death. The builders endeavour to lay the foundation fast and fecurely, and then they are sure that the fuperstructure they raise upon it shall stand firm. Therefore lay the foundation well, and ye may be assured that the building shall weather all storms. 4. Lastly, Let those whose care it is to be found in Christ, and to live to him in all the duties of piety and righteousness, be comforted amidst all their temptations, snares, and corruptions, in that God who has begun the good work, will perfect it, Phil. i. 6. Of the Benefits which Believers receive at Death. A PHILIPPIANS i. 21. LL must die; but as mens lives are very different, so their account in death is also. To an ungodly man death is a lofs, the greatest loss: but to a believer it is gain, the greatest gain, Paul was now a prifoner in Rome, and his case in itself was doubtful whether it would terminate in life or death, (though he was assured it would not be death at that time, ver. 25.) But having taken a view of both, he does, in the text, in his own person, give us, (1.) The sum of a believer's life, that is, Christ, As all the lines drawn from the circumference meet in the centre, so the whole of a believer's life in Christ, his honour being the scope of all. (2.) His estimate of a believer's death; he will not be a loser, but a gainer by it: it brings him in many benefits, and fo is a gainful exchange. The doctrine of the text is, DocT. Death is gain to a believer. In discoursing this doctrine, I shall shew, I. I am to shew in what respects death is gain to believers. It is so in respect of their fouls and of their bodies. FIRST, In respect of their fouls. It separates their fouls from their bodies, but not to their loss, but to their gain. It is with the fouls of believers at death, as with Paul and his company in their voyage, Acts xxvii, The ship broke in many pieces, but the pafsengers came all fafe to land, So when the eye-strings break, the speech is laid, the last pulse beats, the last breath is drawn, the foul escapes, and gets safe away out of the troublesome sea of this world, into Immanuel's land. Now there is a twofold gain or benefit which the fouls of believers receive at death, namely, perfection in holiness, and immediate entering into glory. First, Perfection in holiness, Heb. xii. 23 Spirits of just men made perfect. In regeneration the elect get a new nature, which is a holy nature, a Pet. i. 4. but much of the old nature still remains. Then grace is planted in them by the Spirit. It grows up in the gradual advances of fanétification; but at death it is perfected, they are made perfectly holy. This perfection confifts in two things. The 1. A perfect freedom from fin, Eph. v. 27. The spiritual enemies they see to day, they shall never fee more, when once death has closed their eyes. Many a groan and ftruggle there is now to be free of fin, |