away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved." II. This perseverance of the saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father; upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ; the abiding of the and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. of the everlasting covenant, Ver. 21. Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Heb. Ix. 12. Neither by the blood of goats I. a Phil. i. 6. Being confident of this and calves, but by his own blood, he very thing, that he which hath begun entered in once into the holy place, a good work in you, will perform it having obtained eternal redemption until the day of Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. for us. Ver. 13. For if the blood of i. 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an give diligence to make your calling heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctiand election sure: for if ye do these fieth to the purifying of the flesh; Ver. things, ye shall never fall. John x. 28. 14. How much more shall the blood of And I give unto them eternal life; Christ, who through the eternal Spirit and they shall never perish, neither offered himself without spot to God, shall any pluck them out of my hand. purge your conscience from dead Ver. 29. My Father, which gave them works, to serve the living God? Ver. me, is greater than all; and none is 15. And for this cause he is the meable to pluck them out of my Father's diator of the new testament, that by hand. Johniii. 9. Whosoever is born means of death, for the redemption of of God doth not commit sin; for his the transgressions that were under seed remaineth in him: and he cannot the first testament, they which are sin, because he is born of God. 1 Pet. called might receive the promise of i. 5. Who are kept by the power of eternal inheritance. Rom. viii. 33. God through faith unto salvation, Who shall lay any thing to the charge ready to be revealed in the last time. of God's elect? It is God that justiVer. 9. Receiving the end of your fieth; Ver. 34. Who is he that confaith, even the salvation of your souls. demneth? It is Christ that died, yea II. b 2 Tim. ii. 18. Who concerning rather, that is risen again, who is even the truth have erred, saying that the at the right hand of God, who also resurrection is past already; and over- maketh intercession for us. Ver. 35. throw the faith of some. Ver. 19. Who shall separate us from the love of Nevertheless the foundation of God Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or standeth sure, having this seal, The persecution, or famine, or nakedness, Lord knoweth them that are his. And, or peril, or sword? Ver. 36. (As it is Let every one that nameth the name written, For thy sake we are killed all of Christ depart from iniquity. Jer. the day long; we are accounted as xxxi. 3. The Lord hath appeared of old sheep for the slaughter.) Ver. 37. Nay, unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved in all these things we are more than thee with an everlasting love; there- conquerors, through him that loved fore with loving-kindness have I drawn us. Ver. 38. For I am persuaded, that thee. neither death, nor life, nor angels, Heb. x. 10. By the which will we nor principalities, nor powers, nor are sanctified, through the offering of things present, nor things to come, the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Ver. 39. Nor height, nor depth, nor Ver. 14. For by one offering he hath any other creature, shall be able to perfected for ever them that are sanc- separate us from the love of God, tified. Heb. xiii. 20. Now the God of which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. peace, that brought again from the John xvii. 11. And now I am no more dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shep- in the world, but these are in the herd of the sheep, through the blood world, and I come to thee. Holy C Spirit, and of the seed of God within them; and the nature of the covenant of grace: from all which ariseth also the certainty and infallibility thereof. III. Nevertheless they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and for a time continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit; come to be deprived of some ineasure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts harden Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. Ver. 24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. Luke xxii. 32. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. Heb. vii. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. d John xiv. 16. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Ver. 17. Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 1 John ii. 27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you; and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 1 John iii. 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. e Jer. xxxii. 40. And 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. John x. 28. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. 2 Thess. iii. But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil. 1 John ii. 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. III. & Matt. xxvi. 70. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. Ver. 72. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. Ver. 74. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. Ps. li. [the title.] To the chief musician, A psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bath-sheba. Ver. 14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Isa. lxiv. 5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness; those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. Ver. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. Ver. 9. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. 2 Sam. xi. 27. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Eph. iv. 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Ps. li. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Ver. 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Ver. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free Spirit. Rev. ii. 4. Neverthe ed, and their consciences wounded;" hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves.P CHAP. XVIII.-Of Assurance of Grace and Salvation. I. and other deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favour of God and estate of salvation; which hope of theirs shall perish; yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavouring to walk in all good conscience before him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, less I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Cant. v. 2. I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night. Ver. 3. I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? Ver. 4. My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Ver. 6. I opened to my beloved; but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone: my soul failed when he spake: I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no an swer. m Isa. lxiii. 17. O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. Mark vi. 52. For they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened. Mark xvi. 14. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. " Ps. xxxii. 3. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long: Ver. 4. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Ps. li. 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 2 Sam. xii. 14. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die. P Ps. lxxxix. 31. If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; Ver. 32. Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. 1 Cor. xi. 32. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world, I. Job viii. 13. So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Ver. 14. Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. Micah iii. 11. The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us. Deut. xxix. 19. And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst. John viii. 41. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. b Matt. vii. 22. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? Ver. 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 1 John ii. 3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 1 John iii. 14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren: he that loveth not his bro and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God; which hope shall never make them ashamed.a II. This certainty is not a bare conjectural and probable persuasion, grounded upon a fallible hope; but an infallible assurance of faith, founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation, the inward evidence of those graces unto which these promises are made, the testimony of the Spirit of adoption witnessing with our spirits that we are the children of God: which Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance, whereby we are sealed to the day of redemption.i III. This infallible assurance doth not so belong to the essence of ther abideth in death. Ver. 18. My world through lust. Ver. 5. And belittle children, let us not love in word, sides this, giving all diligence, add to neither in tongue; but in deed, and your faith, virtue; and to virtue, in truth. Ver. 19. And hereby we knowledge. Ver. 10. Wherefore the know that we are of the truth, and rather, brethren, give diligence to shall assure our hearts before him. make your calling and election sure: Ver. 21. Beloved, if our heart con- for if ye do these things, ye shall demn us not, then have we confidence never fall: Ver. 11. For so an entrance toward God. Ver. 24. And he that shall be ministered unto you abunkeepeth his commandments dwelleth dantly into the everlasting kingdom in him, and he in him: and hereby of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. we know that he abideth in us, by 1 John ii. 3. And hereby we do know the Spirit which he hath given us. 1 that we know him, if we keep his John v. 13. These things have I writ- commandments. 1 John iii. 14. We ten unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. d Rom. v. 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Ver. 5. And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. II. Heb. vi. 11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Ver. 19. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the vail. Heb. vi. 17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath; Ver. 18. That by two immutable things, 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. 82 Pet. i. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the bre thren: he that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 2 Cor. i. 12. For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to youward. h Rom. viii. 15. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Ver. 16. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. i Eph. i. 13. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, Ver. 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory. Eph. iv. 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 2 Cor. i. 21. Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Ver. 22. Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. faith, but that a true believer may wait long, and conflict with many difficulties, before he be partaker of it: yet, being enabled by the Spirit to know the things which are freely given him of God, he may, without extraordinary revelation, in the right use of ordinary means, attain thereunto.' And therefore it is the duty of every one to give all diligence to make his calling and election sure;m that thereby his heart may be enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duties of obedience," the proper fruits of this assurance: so far is it from inclining men to looseness." III. 1 John v. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Isa. 1. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God. Mark ix. 24. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. [See Ps. lxxxviii. throughout. Ps. lxxvii. to the 12th verse.] 11 Cor. ii. 12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 1 John iv. 13. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. Heb. vi. 11. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end: Ver. 12. That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Eph. iii. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, Ver. 18. May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; Ver. 19. And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. m2 Pet. i. 10. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. Rom. v. 1. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: Ver. 2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Ver. 5. And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Rom. xiv. 17. For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Rom. xv. 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Eph. i. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: Ver. 4. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ps. iv. 6. There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Ver. 7. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased. Ps. cxix. 32. I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart. 1 John ii. 1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: Ver. 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Rom. vi. 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Ver. 2. God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Tit. ii. 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Ver. 12. Teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, |