I.

All the promises of God in him [Christ] are Yea, and in him Amen, 2 Cor. i, 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, Heb. vi, 17, 18.

And thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins, Matt. i, 21

I will take you to me for a people, and be to you a God, Exod. vi, 7.

↑ II.

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,] Rev. ii, 5, 15, 16, 23; iii, 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 xiv, 28-34.

My mother and my brethren [that is, my people] are these, who hear the word of God, and keep it, Matt. xii, 50. I will destroy [my backsliding] people, since they return not, Jer. xv, 7.

But if thine heart turn away, sơ that thou wilt not hear, &c, I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, Deut. xxx, 17, 18. Indeed, the hand of the Lord was against them [when they disobeyed] to destroy them, &c, until they were consumed, Deut. ii, 15. Now all these things, &c, are written for our admonition, 1 Cor. x, 11.

I.

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, Deut. xiv, 2; Psa. cv, 43. My [faithful] people shall never be ashamed, Joel ii, 27.

The work of righteousness shall be peace, quietness, and assurance for ever; and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in

II.

And the Lord spake to Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation [this special, chosen people] that I may consume them in a moment, Num. xvi, 45.

Thou [my unfaithful people] hadst a whore's forehead: thou refusedst to be ashamed, Jer. iii, 3.

Every one of the house of Is. rael, that separateth himself from me, saith the Lord, I will cut him off from the midst of my people,

sure dwellings, and in quiet resting Ezek. xiv, 7. There is no peace places, Isa. xxxii, 17, 18, to the wicked, Isa. lvii, 21.

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 like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help? Deut. xxxiii,

27,

&c.

The Lord will pity his people, Joel ii, 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,] Rom. xi, 1, 2.

That the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, &c, but that they may be my people, Ezek. xiv, 11. Obey my voice, and ye shall be my people, Jer. vii, 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, Hos. vii, 13, 16.

The Lord shall judge his people, Heb. x, 30. Judgment must begin at the house of God, 1 Pet. iv, 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 Pet. ii, 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, Josh. vii, 12.

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, Isa. xlix, 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 xvii, 12;] John xiii, 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, Jer. xxxi, 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," Hos. xi, 1.]

I.

Truly God is good to Israel, Psa. lxxiii, 1. This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death, Psa. xlviii, 24.

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, Rom. ix, 24; Mark x, 21; Hos. ix, 15.

II.

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 neck, &c, so shalt thou find favour, &c, in the sight of God and man, Psa. xxxviii, 27; Prov. iii, 3, 4.

I.

love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, Rom. viii, 38.

I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day, 2 Tim. i, 12.

II.

the air: but I keep my body under, &c, lest that by any means I myself should be a castaway, or a reprobate, 1 Cor. ix, 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 thyself against them,

&c. By unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith, &c, fear, &c, lest he also spare not thee, Rom. ii, 11; xi, 17, &c. Give all diligence to add to your faith virtue, &c, for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall, 2 Pet. i, 5, 10.

L.

In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us, Rom. viii, 37.

II.

I have kept the faith ;-for I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God, 2 Tim. iv, 7; Psa. xviii, 21.

Many are called [to believe] but few are chosen [to the rewards of faith,] Matt. xxii, 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, Matt. xviii, 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! Heb. x, 29. Ye [believers] shall be hated of all men, &c, but he [of you] that endureth to the end, shall be [eternally] saved, Matt. x, 22. (For God) will render eternal life to them, who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, Rom. ii, 7.

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, Rom. viii, 30. By one offering he hath perfected for ever [in atoning merits] them that are sanctified, Heb. x, 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.]

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.

SECTION II.

The important doctrine of perseverance is farther weighed in the Scripture Scales.

THE Scriptures produced in the preceding section might convince an impartial reader that Zelotes and Honestus are both in the wrong with respect to the doctrine of perseverance, and that a Bible Christian holds together the doctrines which they keep asunder. But considering that prejudice is not easily convinced; and fearing lest Zelotes and Honestus should both think they have won the day, the one against free will, and the other against free grace, merely because they can quote, behind each other's back, some passages which I have not yet balanced, and which each will think matchless; I shall give them leave to fight it out before Candidus, reminding him that Zelotes produces No. I. against free will; that Honestus produces No. II. against free grace; and that I produce both numbers to show that our free will must concur with God's free grace, in order to our persevering in the faith and in the obedience of faith.

I.

A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it: I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day, Isa. xxvii, 2, 3.

II.

I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? &c. Thou saidst, &c, I have loved strangers, and after them I will go, Jer. ii, 21, 25. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard, &c; I will lay it waste, &c, and command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, Isa. v, 4, 5, 6.

I.

The Lord God of Israel saith, that he hateth putting away, Mal. ii, 16. (And yet he allows it for the cause of fornication, Matt. v, 32.)

H.

Backsliding Israel, &c, hath played the harlot. And I said, &c, Turn thou unto me: but she returned not; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when, for-adultery, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorcement; yet her treacherous sister Judahı feared not, Jer. iii, 6, 7, 8.