Religion & morality > Human nature in its four-fold state ... in several practical discourses

Head II. The fpccialCare, fkc. 557
But tho’ the Child of God may fall, and that fo
low as the IVatersgo over bis Head: Yet there’s
ftill a Bond of Union betwixt Chrift and him, the
Chain is not broken; he will not go to the Ground;
he'll be drawn up again, Luke xxii. 31, 32. And the
Lord faid, Simon, Simon, Satan hath dejired to have
you, that be may Jift you as Wheat: But I have
payed for thee, that thy Faith fail not. (2.) The
Falls of the Saints flow from their not improving
their Union with Chrift, their not making Ufe of
him by Faith, for flaying or bearing them up, Pfal.
xxvii. 13. / had fainted, unlefs 1 bad believed.
While the Nurfe holds the Child in her Arms, it
cannot fall to the Ground: Yet if the unwary
Child hold not by her ; it may fall backwards in
her Arms, to its great Hurt. Thus, David’s Fall
broke his Bones, Pfal. li. 8. but it did not break
the Bond of Union, betwixt Chrift and him : The
Holy Spirit, the Bond of that Union, was not taken
from him, Ver. 11.
The lafi Benefit I fhall name, is, ‘the fpecial Care
of the Husbandman, John xv. 1, 2. lam the true
Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman.—Every
Branch that bearetb Fruit, he purgeth it, that it
may bring forth more Fruit. Believers, by Virtue
of their Union with Chrift, are the Objefts of
God’s fpecial Care and Providence. Myftical Chrift
is God’s Vine, other Societies in the World are but
wild Olive- ‘Frees. The Men of the World are but
God’s Out-Field; the Saints are his Vineyard,
which he has a fpecial Propriety in, and a /peciai
Concern for,. Cant. viii. 12. My Vineyard, which
is mine, is before me. He that flumbers not, nor
fleeps, is the Keeper of it, he does keep it; left any
hurt it, he will keep it Night and Day: He in
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