MAKES US LOOK WITH SUSPICION ON OUR BRETHREN. 347

fear, unlike the true promise, which suspends the reward upon our own diligence in the use of the means, and which permits their free exercise. For what we are not sure of we can hope for, and fear to lose; but that which we are sure of we can no longer hope for, nor fear not to attain unto. Upon this scheme of doctrine Lot's wife might have remained at the gate of Sodom, concluding that because the angels had taken her by the hand she was already in Zoar or some other place of safety. It is against such a delusion as this that the words of our Lord are addressed, Remember Lot's wife."

The doctrine of final perseverance is also objectionable, as tending to make us look with suspicion on our brethren; for we can never know but what they are hypocrites, and mere formal professors. It may be said with truth, neither can we know this if we hold not this doctrine; but it is the natural tendency of the doctrine to engender suspicion in the mind. For the holders of the doctrine are forced to hold that if a man is once in grace he is always so; and we cannot discern those we know now of our brethren to be better than some we have known in time past, who by reason of their having fallen away since we are required by the doctrine to regard as mere hypocrites or false professors. If then, by reason of the apostacy of some of those whom we had every reason to believe were spiritually minded, and were in grace, and walked in the commandments of the Law blameless, we are forced to consider that they could not have done so, but were mere hypocrites, it is impossible but to regard with an eye of suspicion those who seem now to us to be most sincere and faultless in their walk and conversation. The strong minded may think nothing of this tendency, and say, perhaps justly, it should not exist. But we are referring here not to things as they should be so much as as they are, and, apologising to the strong minded, let us pass on.

The doctrine of indefectibility in the saints is not only directly contrary, as we have seen, to the letter of Scripture and to the position in which revelation shows we are now placed, but it renders meaningless all the gracious counsel and warning of the Holy Ghost respecting the hostility and the evil intentions of Satan against them. We have to believe that none of those for whom Christ died can be "cast out"-that no virgin's lamp "can go out"-no seed of the word be "choked with thorns"-no name be "blotted out of God's book"-no "salt" lose its savour-nobody "receive the grace of God in vain," "bury his talent," "neglect such great salvation," "grieve the Spirit," and much more, directly contrary to the letter of Scripture. This doctrine also renders less valuable, if not entirely valueless, the operation of the Holy Spirit in making known to the saints the designs of the Evil One, and His guidance and assistance in contending with him.

Examine the following passages: Matt. xii. 43, 44, &c.; 1 Cor. vii. 5; 2 Cor. xi. 3, 14; ii. 11; Eph. vi. 11, 12; 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; 1 Pet. v. 8, 9; James iv. 7, and point out the value of the assistance of the Holy Ghost if there be no possibility of the saints being finally overcome by Satan, and of their falling from grace once received.

No man of any judgment would think of admonishing another in the most serious and solemn terms of a danger threatening him, giving him directions and counsel how to escape this danger when both know very well that it were an absolute impossibility that the danger so solemnly and seriously warned against could occur. And yet this is what the supporters of the indefectibility of the saints have to attribute to the Holy Ghost.

The doctrine makes the preaching of the Gospel one of the most wicked things in the world. What can be more wicked than to distress elect sinners by bidding them "fly from the wrath to come," if there is absolutely no wrath to fly from-if as some Calvinists say their sins, "be they more or less, be they small or great, they are for ever and for ever cancelled." And as to the reprobate, how wicked to bid them fly, when eternal decrees of God bind them down perpetually and by no effort whatever can they escape from future wrath. Another serious objection to the doctrine is that it is utterly inconsistent with that of the final judgment of all men according to the deeds done in the body.1 For how can we ascribe to the Almighty the farce of passing a most solemn doom on each man according to his works, when there was no decision, no judging, no weighing of the works of the man, when his doom had been decided without regard to his character or his works, from all eternity, by an absolute and sovereign decree.

It

No, indeed, if one thing is clearer than another from Holy Scripture it is this:-That at no period of the pilgrim's walk through life is he safe from falling through obstinacy or sin. is a wise provision of the Almighty. He knows the effects of hopes and fears, trials, sorrows, and tribulations. He has ordained that true piety and virtue should be strengthened by exercise and by trial, that motives to sin by the constant exercise of His gifts in opposition should gradually lose their charm and force, that the longer we persevere in "keeping the body under, and bringing it into subjection" the easier becomes the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, and that the more often we conquer in the fight the more established becomes our strength.

The faith of the child of God is exercised in a path of trial and temptation, and at every step he has to feel the need of his Father's loving hand to sustain him in his warfare with the pomps and vanities of this world-the temptations within and

1 Rom. ii. 5-11; Rev. xx. 12-13.

without whereby he is assailed. The further we are led on, the greater the grace we receive from above, the severer the trials and temptations which will assail us. For as the apostle says, we war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. The evil one knows how we are progressing, and as we do so his attacks become the sharper. Let us not then fall into the folly of supposing that we cannot totally and finally fall away. To the last moment of our lives we are exposed to this danger-to the last moment of our mortal career must we be dependent on the grace of the Holy Spirit of God to assist us onward in the path of righteousness and true holiness, and we shall only co-operate with this grace aright by bearing the truth in our heart and working out our own salvation- not with any reliance on an unconditional and irreversible decree necessarily productive of indefectible grace, but "with fear and trembling."

(b) Testimony of the Old Testament.

In the following passages we shall see that though the whole house of Israel were chosen and elect, yet they were capable of falling from grace, and many in fact did so fall. It is true that as an elect nation, the chosen people will not be cast off--there will always be a remnant who will inherit the promises made to the fathers and which stand fast for ever. We must not lose sight of this truth while considering the many passages in the Old Testament showing that the elect persons as individuals may not be faithful to their call and may fail to obtain the inheritance. For truly the election of God among the Jews-that is the "called and chosen and faithful"-shall yet enjoy all that the Lord in His goodness has promised. His word on this point is distinct and clear. "Thus saith the Lord: If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord." And again, "Considerest thou not what this people have spoken saying, The two families which the Lord hath chosen, He hath even cast them off? thus they have despised my people, that they should be no more a nation before them. Thus saith the Lord, If my covenant be not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth, then will I cast away the seed of Jacob, and David my servant, so that I will not take any of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, for I will cause their captivity to return, and have mercy on them." "

1 Phil. ii. 12.

Jer. xxxi. 37.

3 Jer. xxxiii. 24-26.

Exod. xxxii. 33.

Whosoever hath sinned against Me (said the Lord,) him will I blot out of my book.

2 Kings xxiii. 27.

And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city (Jerusalem) which I have chosen (even Jerusalem) and the house of which I said, my name shall be there.

1 Chron. xxviii. 9.

If thou seek Him He will be found of thee, but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.

Psl. xliv. 23.

Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise cast us not off for

ever.

Psl. lxix. 28.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living (or of life) and not be written with the righteous.

Psl. lxxiv. 1.

O God, why hast Thou cast us off for ever? why doth Thine anger smoke against the sheep of Thy pasture?

Psl. cxxv. 4, 5.

Do good, O Lord, unto those that be good and to them that are upright in their hearts. (But) As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity.

Isai. i. 28-31.

The destruction of the transgressors and (of) the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. See also Isai. v. 1-7; Isai. xliii. 24-25; Jer. vii. 12-16; xii. 7; Lam. ii. 5—9, iv. 11—13; Ezek. v. 11–15.

Ezek. xviii. 26.

When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them (or therein), for his iniquity that he hath done (or in his iniquity that he hath done) shall he die.

What declaration could be clearer than this? What could show more distinctly than these words the possibility of a righteous man declining from his righteousness and that unto death? "When a righteous man turneth away, &c., and dieth in them (i.e., repents not of his wickedness before his death), "for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die" (that is the second death, death everlasting). For that this death is meant is obvious from the context.

Were this not the case the prophet would be supposed thus to speak: "When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them (that is, departs this natural life without repentance), for the iniquity that he hath done shall he depart this natural life." In other words, when a man dies under the guilt of sin he shall die for his sin, or because of the guilt of his sin, the same death which he dies in his sin. This is palpably absurd.

The death which God threatens is opposed to that life which is promised to repentance and perseverance in well-doing. This life is admitted to be eternal life, and not simply natural life, and the death opposed to it is clearly eternal, or the "second death." When the Apostle says, "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Christ Jesus our Lord," it is evident from the antithesis between the death and life mentioned that by death which is the wages of sin the Apostle means eternal death.

The Prophet Ezekiel was asserting another aspect of the truth enunciated by the Apostle Paul," Know ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, &c., shall inherit the kingdom of God." And again, "For this ye know that no whoremonger, or unclean person, or covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience." s

The contention that the righteous man mentioned by the Prophet Ezekiel is not a person truly righteous, but a kind of formal hypocrite or professor of righteousness, will not bear investigation; for the whole context, from verse 20 to the end of the chapter, shows that the righteous man was one truly righteous, and one who, had he persevered in the ways of righteousness, would have received the reward of the righteous man. So the wicked man who is opposed in the passage to him is evidently not a man seemingly wicked, but actually so; and the antithesis between the two which runs through the whole discourse would be destroyed if by the righteous man we were to assume that a man seemingly righteous only were intended, yet by the wicked man we were to assume that a man actually wicked (which is acknowledged to be the proper meaning on all hands) were

intended.

(e) Testimony of the New Testament.

The ensuing passages may be referred to as showing that Eternal life is not the immediate object of election, and that some may fall away from grace and fail to attain the promised reward.

1 Rom. vi. 23.

21 Cor. ix. 10.

3 Eph. v. 5, 6.