will obtain everlasting life.

"For they, through

grace, obey the calling: they be justified freely: they be made sons of God by adoption: they be made like the image of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good works, and at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity." (Article xvii.)

II. The second observation from the text is, that religion is an internal principle.

notions

The apostle speaks of the good work being begun in the Philippians. This description of religion distinguishes it from mere profession. The essential power of godliness in the soul consists in something more than outward form. You may have the form of godliness, and yet be destitute of its life and power. True religion is "the life of God in the soul of man." It is much deeper than any or speculations. A man may have his understanding and judgment informed, and be competent to talk on the doctrines and duties of Christianity with precision and clearness, while, at the same time, his soul may remain estranged from God and godliness. A speculative knowledge of religion, however important, is not of itself sufficient to secure salvation. Knowledge swimming in the head, without descending into the heart and influencing the conduct and practice, will never save the soul. To be sanctified, and connected with salvation, it must be united with an internal principle, producing the love of God and man, and governing and directing the life, temper, and habits, of its possessor. Religion is likewise

cleanse

sense, it is peculiar to the Jews, is no less appropriate to all the elect Israel of God. "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I A new heart also will I give you, and you. a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."

I shall now proceed to offer a few remarks as the improvement of the subject.

1. It may be proper to admit that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is liable to some objections.

A few of the most plausible of these shall be stated, with an attempt at their refutation.

It has been asserted, by those who oppose this doctrine, that there are various threatenings in the scripture against those who apostatize and turn back from the ways of God and the profession of religion. This is readily granted. But many of the texts do not suppose the falling away of the truly pious; others only shew the consequences of apostacy, if it should take place. But it may be remarked, in reference to these alarming threatenings, that they are addressed to the mixed visible church, in which the wheat and the tares are growing together. As far as they are applicable to true believers, they are

THE PROMISE

calculated to preserve them humble, dependent, and prayerful; and, consequently, they are some of the means which the God of all grace has seen fit, in his infinite wisdom, to establish for the purpose of keeping his people "by his power through faith unto salvation.'

Again, it has been asserted, that it is foretold in the scripture, that some Christians shall fall away. But here it is replied, that this refers to such as are Christians only by external profession. Time will not admit of my refuting the comments that have been made on such texts by Arminians. Let it be only remarked, that in respect to the apostasy of any of the professors of the Christian religion, the passage recorded by the apostle John is a sufficient answer on the subject. "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.

It has been farther urged, that some have actually fallen away, as David, Solomon, and others, noticed in the New Testament by St. Paul, in his epistles to Timothy. But here it may be replied, that David was recovered, and Solomon too, in all probability; though the scripture, for wise, holy, and cautious reasons, is silent on the subject. With reference to the persons mentioned in the New Testament, if any of them were not recovered, their apostasy illustrates our blessed Lord's doctrines in his parable of the Sower. They had no root in themselves, and there

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fore, when tribulation or persecution arose, they were offended and fell away.

But without farther enlargement on these or other objections, let one general remark be made. All the texts of scripture that apparently stand in opposition to the doctrine in question, may be reconciled without any violence to its truth, by viewing them either as conditional, or as the means of preservation, or as in some other ways possessing their use in the scheme of redemption and salvation. But, on the other hand, the positive declarations and promises of the scripture, together with the convincing arguments that establish the doctrine, can never be superseded by any logical deductions or apparently opposite assertions. "Thus saith the Lord," is suffi

cient to silence all objections.

2. Again, it may be remarked that the doctrine of perseverance in godliness is a subject liable to

abuse.

it not

But what doctrine of the Bible is there which does not lie open to a similar objection? And, may be asked, what doctrine is there that has not been vilified and abused by wicked and unprincipled men? It is admitted that there may be pious men who may feel strong objections against the reception of this doctrine. But it is presumed those will not be disposed to reject it merely on the account of a liability to which it is exposed in common with many other scripture truths. How many are there who abuse or deny that important doctrine which has been characterized as "the article of a standing or

blessing and promises, it must be maintained as ati uncontrovertible scripture doctrine, that all true religion in the soul of man receives its commencement from the agency of the Holy Spirit: "you being dead in your sins, and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him." If you take a view of man in his natural, unrenewed state, you will discover the truth of what is asserted concerning him in the ninth article of the church, that "he is very far (quam longissimè), as far gone as possible from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil." You will find that all the faculties of his soul are in such a state as to indicate his total corruption, and to manifest his death in sin. And will not this representation of his state convince you of the truth of the scriptural doctrine, that nothing but divine agency can begin the good work of grace in the depraved heart of man? Look at the description of man in his natural state, as you will find it delineated in the book of God. His understanding, in respect to spiritual things, is all darkness. His mind is "enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." His will is uniformly perverse and rebellious. His whole heart, with every passion originating in it, "is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." His affections are carnal and disorderly; "earthly, sensual, and devilish." But when a work of grace is begun and carried on in the soul, the understanding, that was once darkness, now becomes light in the Lord. The mind, once