Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

EQUAL CHECK,

PART THIRD.

BEING THE SECOND PART OF

THE SCRIPTURE SCALES.

SECTION I.

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,

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,

I.

The believer stands upon two legs, (if I 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

II.

The believer's left leg, (I mean his own 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 ad. vantage 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

[blocks in formation]

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, Deut. xxviii, 9.

Know therefore the Lord thy God; he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant, Deut. vii, 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 Sam. xxiii, 5.

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, Hos. vi, 7; Heb. viii, 9.

They have broken the everlasting covenant: therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, Isa. xxiv, 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, Psa. lxxviii, 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 i, 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, Mal. iii, 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 right eous and the punisher of the wicked, he must show himself pleased or displeased, a rewarder or a pun. isher, 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.]

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, Isa. lxiii, 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 Sam. ii, 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 might. ily 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 iii, 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 grace and trial lasts, are conditional: and that, even when they wear the most absolute aspect, the condition is generally implied.]

I.

The gifts and calling of God are without repentance, Rom, xi, 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 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

II.

I gave her time to repent and she repented not, Rev. ii, 21. Because I have called and ye refused, &c, I also will mock-when your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, Prov. i, 24, &c. The Lord [to speak figuratively and after the manner of men] repented that he had made Saul king over Israel, 1 Sam. xv, 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.]

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.

I.

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, Heb. x, 39. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, Acts xv, 11.

II.

If that, which ye have heard from the beginning, shall remain in you, 1 John ii, 24. If ye continue in the faith, Col. i, 23. If ye continue in his goodness, Rom. xi, 22. If ye do these things, 2 Peter i, 19. If we hold fast the confidence firm unto the end, Heb. iii, 6. For he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, Matt. xxiv, 13. [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.]

I.

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,] Psa. lxxxix, 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, Isa. xliii, 1, 2.

II.

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 be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Take heed now, &c, 1 Chron. xxviii, 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 seck him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you, 2 Chron. xv, 1, 2.

* When Isaiah saith, "I was found of them that sought me not," &c, Rom, x, 23, he does not contradict his own exhortation, to "seck the Lord while he may be found." That noble testimony to the doctrine of grace does not militate against the doctrine of liberty: but it proves, (1.) That free grace is always beforehand with free will: and (2.) That as God freely called the Jews to the Mosaic covenant of peculiarity; so he gratuitously calls the Gentiles to the Christian covenant of peculiarity; neither Jews nor Gentiles having previously sought that inestimable favour. But when God has so far revealed himself either to Jew or Gentile, as to say, "Seek ye my face," wo to him who does not answer in truth and in time, "Thy face, Lord, will I seck."

« AnteriorContinuar »