Section 1.

SECTION 1.

Containing the Scripture doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

I PROMISED the reader that Zelotes and Honestus should soon meet again, to fight their last battle; and, that I may be as good as my word, I bring them a second time upon the stage of controversy. I have no pleasure in seeing them contend with each other; but I hope that when they shall have shot all their arrows, and spent all their strength, they will quietly sit down and listen to terms of reconciliation. They have had already many engagements; but they seem determined that this shall be the sharpest. Their challenge is about the doctrine of perseverance. Zelotes asserts that the perseverance of believers depends entirely upon God’s almighty grace, which nothing can frustrate; and that, of consequence, no believer can finally fall. Honestus, on the other hand, maintains that continuing in the faith depends chiefly, if not entirely upon the believer’s free will; and that of consequence final perseverance is partly, if not altogether as uncertain as the fluctuations of the human heart. The reconciling truth lies between those two extremes, as appears from the following propositions, in which I sum up the Scripture doctrine of perseverance: — I.

God makes us glorious promises to encourage us to persevere.

God on his part gives us his gracious help.

Free grace always does its part.

Final perseverance depends, first, on the final, gracious concurrence of free grace with free will.

As free grace has in all things the pre-eminence over free will, we must lay much more stress upon God’s faithfulness than upon our own. The spouse comes out of the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved, and not upon herself.

The believer stands upon two legs, (if I II.

Those promises are neither compulsory nor absolute.

We must on our part faithfully use the help of God.

Free will does not always do its part. Final perseverance depends, secondly, on the final, faithful concurrence of free will with free grace.

But to infer from thence that the spouse is to be carried by her Beloved every step of the way, is unscriptural. He gently draws her, and she runs. He gives her his arm, and she leans. But far from dragging her by main force, he bids her remember Lot’s wife.

The believer’s left leg, (I mean his own may so speak,) God’s faithfulness and his own. The one is always sound, nor can he rest too much upon it, if he does but walk straight, as a wise Christian; and does not foolishly hop as an Antinomian, who goes only upon his right leg; or as a Pharisee, who moves entirely upon the left.

When Gospel ministers speak of our faithfulness, they chiefly mean, (1.) Our faithfulness in repenting, that is, in renouncing our sins and Pharisaic righteousness; and in improving the talent of light, which shows us our natural depravity, daily imperfections, total helplessness, and constant need of an humble recourse to, and dependence on Divine grace. And, (2.) Our faithfulness in believing (even in hope against hope) God’s redeeming love to sinners in Christ; in humbly apprehending, as returning prodigals, the gratuitous forgiveness of sins through the blood of the Lamb; in cheerfully claiming, as impotent creatures, the help that is laid on the Saviour for us; and in constantly coming at his word, to “take of the water of life freely.” And so far as Zelotes recommends this evangelical disposition of mind, without opening a back door to Antinomianism, by covertly pleading for sin, and dealing about his imaginary decrees of forcible grace and sovereign wrath, he cannot be too highly commended.

If Zelotes will do justice to the doctrine of perseverance, he must speak of the obedience of faith, that is, of genuine, sincere obedience, as the oracles of God do. He must not blush to display the glorious rewards with which God hath promised to crown it. He must boldly declare, that for want of it “the wrath of faithfulness,) is subject to many humours, sores, and bad accidents; especially when he does not use it at all, or when he lays too much stress upon it, to save his other leg. If it is broken, he is already fallen; and if he is out of hell, he must lean as much as he can upon his right leg, till the left begins to heal, and he can again run the way of God’s commandments.

To aim chiefly at being faithful in external works, means of grace, and forms of godliness, is the high road to Pharisaism, and insincere obedience. I grant that he who is humbly faithful in little things, is faithful also in much; and that he who slothfully neglects little helps, will soon fall into great sins: but the professors of Christianity cannot be too frequently told that if they are not first faithful in maintaining true poverty of spirit, deep self humiliation before God, and high thoughts of Christ’s blood and righteousness; they will soon slide into Laodicean Pharisaism; and, Jehu like, they will make more of their own partial, external, selfish faithfulness, than of Divine grace, and the Spirit’s power: — a most dangerous and common error this, into which the followers of Honestus are very prone to run, and so far as he leads them into it, or encourages them in it, he deserves to be highly blamed; and Zelotes, in this respect, hath undoubtedly the advantage over him.

Would Honestus kindly meet Zelotes half way, he must speak of free grace, and of Christ’s obedience unto death, as the Scriptures do. He must glory in displaying Divine faithfulness, and placing it in the most conspicuous and engaging light. He must not be ashamed to point out the great rewards of the faith which inherits promises, gives glory to God cometh upon the children of disobedience” — upon fallen believers, “who have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God,” Ephesians 5:5. In a word, instead of emasculating “Serjeant IF, who valiantly guards the doctrine of perseverance,” he should show him all the respect that Christ himself does in the Gospel.

God, and out of weakness makes us strong to take up our cross, and to run the race of obedience. In a word, he must teach his willing hearers to depend every day more and more upon Christ; and to lay as much stress upon his promises, as they ever did upon his threatenings To sum all up in two propositions: — I.

The infallible perseverance of obedient believers is a most sweet and evangelical doctrine, which cannot be pressed with too much earnestness and constancy upon sincere Christians, for their comfort, encouragement, and establishment.

II.

The infallible perseverance of disobedient believers is a most dangerous and unscriptural doctrine; and this cannot be pressed with too much assiduity and tenderness upon Antinomian professors, for their reawakening and sanctification.

To see the truth of these propositions, we need only throw with candour, into the Scripture Scales, the weights which Zelotes and Honestus unmercifully throw at each other; taking particular care not to break, as they do, the golden beam of evangelical harmony, by means of which the opposite scales and weights exactly balance each other.

I.

The weights of free grace thrown by Zelotes.

The Lord shall establish thee a holy people to himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, Deuteronomy 28:9.

Know therefore the Lord thy II.

The weights of free will thrown by Honestus. If thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. (Ibid.) But they, &c, have transgressed the covenant. They continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, Hosea 6:7; Hebrews 8:9.

God; he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant, Deuteronomy 7:9.

He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: for this is all my salvation and all my desire, 2 Samuel 23:5.

They have broken the everlasting covenant: therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, Isaiah 24:5. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law, &c, so a fire was kindled in Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation, &c. The wrath of God came upon them, &c, and smote down the chosen of Israel, Psalm 78:10, 21, 22, 31.

Hence it appears, that part of the “everlasting covenant ordered in all things and SURE,” is that those who break it presumptuously, and do not repent (as David did) before it be too late, shall SURELY be smitten down and destroyed.

I.

With him [the Father of lights] is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, James 1:17. I am the Lord, I change not: [I still bear with sinners during the day of their visitation;] therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed, Malachi 3:6. [Observe here, that although God’s essence, and the principles of his conduct toward man never change; yet, as “he loves righteousness and hates iniquity,” and as he is the rewarder of the righteous and the punisher of the wicked, he must show himself pleased or displeased, a rewarder or a punisher, as moral agents turn from sin to righteousness, or from righteousness to sin. Without this kind of change, ad extra, he could not be holy and just; — he could not be the Judge of all the earth; — he could not be God.]

The gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Rom, 11:29.

[The apostle evidently speaks these words of God’s gifts to, and calling of the Jewish nation. The Lord is so far from repenting (properly II.

The angel of his presence saved them: in his love and pity he remembered them. But they rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit; therefore he was turned to be their enemy, Isaiah 63:9, 10. The Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me for ever; but now be it far from me; for, &c, they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed, 1 Samuel 2:30. And the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, Preach unto Nineveh the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonah cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God, &c. For the king sat in ashes, and caused it to be proclaimed, &c. Cry mightily to God, yea, let every one turn from his evil way, &c. Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, that we perish not. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil which he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not, Jonah 3:1, &c. [From the preceding remarkable passages it is evident that, except in a few cases, the promises and the threatenings of God, so long as the day of speaking) of his having once called the Jews to the Mosaic covenant of peculiarity, that he is ready nationally to re-admit them to his peculiar favour, when they shall nationally repent, embrace the Gospel of Christ, and so make their sincere calling to the Christian covenant sure by believing. But does this prove that God forces repentance upon every Jew, and that when the Jews will nationally repent, God will absolutely and irresistibly work out their salvation for them? If Zelotes thinks so, I desire him to look into the scale of Honestus.

We (who hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering) are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul, Hebrews 10:39. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, Acts 15:11.

If his [David’s] children forsake my law, &c, then will I visit their transgression with the rod, &c; nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, [David, by utterly casting off his posterity] nor suffer my truth to fail, [as it would do if I appointed that the Messiah should come of another family,] Psalm 89:30, &c. Thus saith the Lord, &c, O Israel, fear not; for I have redeemed thee: I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, &c, Isaiah 43:1, 2. All the promises of God in him grace and trial lasts, are conditional: and that, even when they wear the most absolute aspect, the condition is generally implied.]

I gave her time to repent and she repented not, Revelation 2:21. Because I have called and ye refused, &c, I also will mock — when your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, Proverbs 1:24, &c. The Lord [to speak figuratively and after the manner of men] repented that he had made Saul king over Israel, 1 Samuel 15:35, [that is, when Saul proved unfaithful, the Lord rejected him in as positive a manner as a king would reject a minister, or break a general, when he repents of his having raised them to offices, of which they now show themselves absolutely unworthy.]

If that, which ye have heard from the beginning, shall remain in you, 1 John 2:24. If ye continue in the faith, Colossians 1:23. If ye continue in his goodness, Romans 11:22. If ye do these things, 2 Peter 1:10. If we hold fast the confidence firm unto the end, Hebrews 3:6. For he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, Matthew 24:18. [Should Zelotes endeavour to set aside these, and the like scriptures, by saying that each contains a Christian IF and not a Jewish IF, that is, a description, and not a condition; I refer him to the Equal Check, part i, vol. i, p. 496, where that trifling objection is answered.]

And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will f30 be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Take heed now, [Christ] are Yea, and in him Amen, 2 Corinthians 1:20. [And so are all the menaces, for he is “the faithful Witness,” and “the Mediator of the new covenant,” which has its threatenings, as well as its promises; as appears from the opposite words spoken by Christ himself.]

God willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise [i.e. to obedient believers] the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things [the word and oath of the Lord] in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, Hebrews 6:17, 18.

And thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins, Matthew 1:21. I will take you to me for a people, and be to you a God, Exodus 6:7. The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself. He brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness, Deuteronomy 14:2; Psalm 105:43.

My [faithful] people shall never be ashamed, Joel 2:27.

The work of righteousness shall be peace, quietness, and assurance for ever; and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, Isaiah 32:17, 18. The eternal God is thy refuge; and underneath are the everlasting arms, &c. Israel shall dwell in safety alone, &c. Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is &c, 1 Chronicles 28:9.

And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah, and he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah; the Lord is with you while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you, 2 Chronicles 15:1, 2.

Remember whence thou art fallen, repent, and do thy first works, or else I will remove thy candlestick. I will fight with the sword of my mouth against them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. I will kill her children with death. I will spue thee out of my mouth. [Awful threatenings these, which had their public and national, as well as private and personal accomplishment,] Revelation 2:5, 15, 16, 23; 3:16.

As truly as I live, saith the Lord, &c, your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness; and all that, &c, have murmured against me, doubtless ye shall not come into the land, concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb and Joshua, &c. Ye shall bear your iniquities, &c, and ye shall know my breach of promise, Numbers 14:28-34.

My mother and my brethren [that is, my people] are these, who hear the word of God, and keep it, Matthew 12:50. I will destroy [my backsliding] people, since they return not, Jeremiah 15:7. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, &c, I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, Deuteronomy 30:17, 18. Indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them [when they disobeyed] to destroy them, &c, until they were consumed, Deuteronomy 2:15. Now all these things, &c, are written for our admonition, 1 Corinthians 10:11.

And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Get like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help?

Deuteronomy 33:27, &c. The Lord will pity his people, Joel 2:18.

Hath God [absolutely] cast away his people [the Jews?] God forbid! God has not cast away his people, whom he foreknew [as believing. The Jews being as welcome to believe in Christ as the Gentiles,] Romans 11:1, 2. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee, Isaiah 49:14, 15. Jesus having loved his own [disciples] he loved them unto the end [of his stay in this world, except him that was once “his own familiar friend, in whom he trusted,” Judas, whom our Lord himself excepts, John 17:12;] John 13:1. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, [or with the love with which I loved thee of old, when I brought thee out of Egypt,] therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee, Jeremiah 31:3. [Compare the word everlasting in the original, with these words, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt,” Hosea 11:1.]

Truly God is good to Israel, Psalm 73:1. This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death, Psalm 48:24.

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? [them that “are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh, you up from among this congregation [this special, chosen people] that I may consume them in a moment, Num. 16:45. Thou [my unfaithful people] hadst a whore’s forehead: thou refusedst to be ashamed, Jeremiah 3:3.

Every one of the house of Israel, that separateth himself from me, saith the Lord, I will cut him off from the midst of my people, Ezekiel 14:7. There is no peace to the wicked, Isaiah 57:21. That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, &c, but that they may be my people, Ezekiel 14:11. Obey my voice, and ye shall be my people, Jeremiah 7:23. Wo unto them [Israel and Ephraim] for they have fled from me; destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me. They return not to the Most High, Hosea 7:13, 16. The Lord shall judge his people, Hebrews 10:30. Judgment must begin at the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17. Ye are a chosen [choice] generation, &c, which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy [by believing,] 1 Peter 2:9, 10. Therefore, the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, &c, because they were accursed; neither will I be with you any more [said the Lord] except ye destroy the accursed thing from among you, Joshua 7:12.

I will call her beloved, who was not beloved. Jesus loved him, [the young ruler, who went away sorrowing.] I will love them no more, Romans 9:24; Mark 10:21; Hosea 9:15. Even to such as are of a clean heart. (Ibid.) Depart from evil, do good, and dwell for evermore. Bind mercy and truth about thy but after the Spirit.”] It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth them? Romans 8:1, 33, 34. All things are yours [ye Corinthians] and ye are Christ’s and Christ is God’s. Of him are ye in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 3:21; 1:30. To them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called [to enjoy the blessings of his Gospel,] Jude 1:1.

If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself, 2 Timothy 2:13. [Therefore] Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain, Psalm 127:1.

He [the Lord] led him [Jacob] about, &c, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle fluttereth over her young, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, Deuteronomy 32:10-12. Holy Father, keep through thy own name those whom thou hast given me, [that I may impart unto them the peculiar blessings of my dispensation,] John 17:11. You who are kept by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time, 1 Peter 1:5.

I am persuaded that neither death nor life, &c, nor angels, &c, nor any other creature [Note: he does not say, Nor any iniquity] shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 8:38.

I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto neck, &c, so shalt thou find favour, &c, in the sight of God and man, Psalm 38:27; Proverbs 3:3, 4.

[No righteous judge will:] for to be spiritually minded is life and peace; but to be carnally minded is death, verse 6. Whosoever hath sinned against me, said the Lord, him will I blot out of my book, Exodus 32:33.

Examine yourselves [ye Corinthians] whether ye be in the faith, &c. Know ye not, &c, that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5. To them, who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, [God will render] eternal life, Romans 2:7.

If we deny him, he will also deny us: [for he abideth faithful to his threatenings, as well as to his promises,] ver. 12. I say unto all, Watch. Watch thou in all things. He that is begotten of God keepeth himself, Mark 13:37; 2 Timothy 4:5; 1 John 5:18.

There was no strange god with him [Jacob.] But, &c, they forsook God, &c, sacrificed to devils, &c, and when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them; [and said] I will spend mine arrows upon them, verses 12, 15, 17, 19, 23.

Keep yourselves in the love of God. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Fathers, &c, love not the world, &c. If any [of you] love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [He is fallen from God in spirit,] Jude 1:21; 1 John 5:21; 2:15.

Through faith [on your part.] (Ibid.) Holding faith, and a good conscience, which some having put away, concerning FAITH, have made shipwreck, 1 Timothy 1:19.

Your iniquities have separated between him against that day, 2 Timothy 1:12.

In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us, Romans 8:37.

Moreover, whom he did predestinate [that is, appoint to be conformed to the image of his Son, according to the Christian dispensation] them he also called [to believe in Christ;] and whom he thus called [to believe in Christ, when they made their calling sure by actually believing,] them he also justified; and whom he justified [as sinners by FAITH, and as believers by THE WORKS of faith] them he also glorified, Romans 8:30. By one offering he hath perfected for ever [in atoning merits] them that are sanctified, Hebrews 10:14. [Here we have a brief account of the method in which God brings obedient, persevering believers to glory. But what has this to do with Zelotes’ personal and unconditional predestination to eternal life, or to eternal death? To show therefore that the sense which he gives to these passages is erroneous, I need only prove that all those who are called are not justified; and that all those who are justified, and sanctified, are not glorified; but only those who make their calling, election, justification, sanctification, and glorification sure by the obedience of faith unto the end. And I prove it by the opposite scriptures.] you and your God, Isaiah 59:2. I so run (for an incorruptible crown) not as uncertainly: so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep my body under, &c, lest that by any means I myself should be a castaway, or a reprobate, 1 Corinthians 9:26, 27.

There is no respect of persons with God. Thou partakest of the root of the olive tree, &c, some of the branches are broken off, &c, Boast not of thyself against them, &c. By unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith, &c, fear, &c, lest he also spare not thee, Romans 2:11; 11:17, &c. Give all diligence to add to your faith virtue, &c, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall, 2 Peter 1:5, 10. I have kept the faith; — for I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God, 2 Timothy 4:7; Psalm 18:21.

Many are called [to believe] but few are chosen [to the rewards of faith,] Matthew 22:14. O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt [that is, I justified thee,] because thou desiredst me, &c, shouldst thou not also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, Matthew 18:32, &c. He that despised Moses’ law, died without mercy, &c, of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing! Hebrews 10:29. Ye [believers] shall be hated of all men, &c, but he [of you] that endureth to the end, shall be [eternally] saved, Matthew 10:22. (For God) will render eternal life to them, who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, Romans 2:7.

Can any unprejudiced person read the preceding passages without seeing, (1.) That, according to the Scriptures, and the Gospel axioms, our perseverance is suspended on two grand causes, the first of which is merciful free grace, and the second faithful free will.

(2.) That those two causes must finally act in conjunction. And (3.) That when free grace hath enabled free will to concur, and to work out its own salvation, if free will obstinately refuse to do it till the night comes when no man can work, free grace gives up free will to its own perverseness; and then perseverance fails, and final apostasy takes place.