Some would fain persuade us that it is impossible for us to receive
knowledge of salvation by the remission of sin. Such a denial is very
opposite to the usual tenor of God’s proceeding with His people in all
ages. The best believers, and the strongest, may indeed have their occasional
fainting fits of doubt and diffidence, as to their own particular interest in
Christ; nor should I have any great opinion of that man’s faith who was to tell
me that he never had any doubts at all. But still there are golden seasons
when the soul is on the mount of communion with God; when the Spirit of
His Son shines into our hearts, giving us boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. More over, person who is at all conversant with the spiritual
life, knows as certainly whether he indeed enjoys the light of God’s
countenance, or whether he walks in darkness, as a traveler knows whether
he travels in sunshine or in rain. And as a good man observes, “It is no presumption
to read what was God’s gracious purpose toward us of old, when He,
as it were, prints His secret thoughts, and makes them legible in our eff e c t u a l
calling. In this case we do not go up to heaven, and pry into God’s secrets, but
heaven comes down to us and reveals them.”
It may indeed be objected that the Scripture doctrine of assurance when
realized into an actual possession of the privilege, “may tend to foster pride,
and promote carelessness.” It cannot lead to pride; for all who have tasted
that the Lord is gracious know by indubitable experience (and one fact speaks
louder than a hundred speculations), that believers are then lowest, at God’s
footstool, when they are highest on the mount of assurance. Much indulgence
from earthly parents may indeed be productive of real injury to their
children; but not so are the smiles of God, for the sense of His favor sanctifies while it comforts.—Nor can the knowledge of interest in His love tend to
make us heedless how we behave ourselves in His sight. During those exalted
moments, when grace is in lively exercise, when the disciple of Christ experiences
“The soul’s calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy,”—corrupt nature,
(that man of sin within), and every vile affection, are stricken as it were with a temporary apoplexy; and the believer can no more, for the time being, commit
willful sin than an angel of light would dip his wings in mud. No, it is
when we come down from the mount, and mix again with the world, that we
are in danger of breaking the law.
“But is it not enthusiasm to talk of holding intercourse with God, and of
knowing ourselves to be objects of His special love?” No more enthusiastical
(so we keep within Scripture-bounds) than it is for a favorite child to converse
with his parents, and to know that they have a particular affection for him.
Neither, in the strictest reason and nature of things, is it at all absurd to
believe and expect that God can and does and will communicate His favor to
His people, and manifest Himself to them as He does not to the world at larg e
(John 14:21).
Yet, though God is thus graciously indulgent to many of His people (I
believe to all of them at some time or other between their conversion and
death); still, if they trespass against Him, He will not let their offences pass
unnoticed nor uncorrected. Though grace itself is not liable to be lost, the
comfort of it may be sinned away. Salvation is sure to all the redeemed; but
the joy of it may be lost (Psa 51:12). Great peace have they that love Thy law;
and they only. Holiness and consolation are wisely and intimately connected. In proportion as we are enabled to live near to God, to walk humbly
and closely with Him, and to keep our moral garments clean, we may hope
for freedom of intercourse with Him, and to assure our hearts before him
(1 John 3:19); like the happy believers of old, concerning whom it is said
that they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost (Acts 9:31).
Let not, however, what has been observed concerning the blessing of
assurance, stumble or discourage the feeble of God’s flock, on whom, for re asons
wise and good, it may not hitherto have been His pleasure to bestow this
unspeakable gift. The Scripture plainly and repeatedly distinguishes
between faith, the assurance of faith, and the full assurance of faith; and
the first may exist where the other two are not. I know some who have, for
years together, been distressed with doubts and fears, without a single ray of
spiritual comfort all the while. And yet I can no more doubt of their being
t rue believers than I can question my own existence as a man. I am sure they
are possessed not only of faith in its lowest degree, but of that which Christ
Himself calls great faith (Matt 8:10); for they can at least say, Lord, I am not
worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof; but speak the word only,
and Thy servant shall be healed. Faith is the eye of the soul, and the eye is said
to see almost every object but itself; so that you may have real faith without
being able to discern it. Nor will God despise the day of small things.—Little
faith goes to heaven no less than great faith, though not so comfortably, yet altogether as sure l y. If you come merely as a sinner to Jesus, and throw yourself,
at all events, for salvation on His blood and righteousness alone, and the
grace and promise of God in Him, you are as truly a believer as the most triumphant
saint that ever lived. And amidst all your weakness, distresses and
temptations, remember that God will not cast out nor cast off the meanest
and unworthiest soul that seeks salvation only in the name of Jesus Christ the
righteous. When you cannot follow the rock, the rock shall follow you; nor
ever leave you for so much as a single moment, on this side the heavenly
Canaan. And if you feel your absolute want of Christ, you may, on all occasions,
and in every exigence, betake yourself to the covenant love and faithfulness
of God, for pardon, sanctification and safety, with the same fullness of
right and title as a traveler leans upon his own staff, or as a weary laborer
throws himself on his own bed, or as an opulent nobleman draws upon his
own banker for whatever sum he needs.
Next I shall warn you against another limb of Arminianism totally contrary
to sound doctrine; I mean that tenet which asserts the possibility of
falling finally from a state of real grace. God does not give, and then take
a w a y. He does indeed frequently take away what He only lent; such as health,
riches, friends, and other temporal comforts: but what He gives, He gives forever.
In a way of grace, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance
(Rom 11:29). He will never repent of bestowing them, and every attribute He
has forbids Him to revoke them (Luke 10:42). In Hebrews 13:5, He says, “I
will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” And in John 10:27-28, “My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of My
hand.” ‘True,’ said an Arminian schismatic, ‘Christ’s sheep cannot be plucked
forcibly out of His hand by others; but they themselves may slip through His
hands, and so fall into hell and be eternally lost.’ They may slip, may they? As
if the Mediator in pre s e rving His people, held only a parcel of eels by the tail!
Is not this a shameless way of slipping through a plain text of Scripture? I
would fain ask the slippery sophister how we are to understand that part of
the passage that expressly declares concerning Christ’s people, that they shall
never perish, since perish they necessarily must and certainly would, if eventually
separated from Christ; whether they were to be plucked out of His
hands, or whether they were only to slip thru them. I conclude then that the
p romise made to the saints, that they shall never perish, secures them equally
against the possibility of being either wrested from Christ’s hand or of their
falling from it: since, could one or the other be the case, perish they must,
and Christ’s promise would fall to the ground.
In a word, if any of God’s people can be finally lost, it must be occasioned
either by their departing from God, or by God’s departure from them. But
they are certainly and effectually secured against these two and these only possible sources of apostacy. For thus runs the covenant of grace: “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” (Jer 32:40). Now if God will neither leave them, nor suffer them to
leave Him, their final perseverance in grace to glory must be certain and
infallible.
I must not however conclude without observing that irreversible justification on God’s part, and subjective assurance of perseverance on ours, do by
no means invest an offending Christian with immunity from sufferings and
chastisement. Thus Nathan said to David, “The Lord hath put away thy sin,
thou shalt not die”; yet he was severely chastised, though not disinherited for
his transgressions. The tenor of God’s immutable covenant with the Messiah,
and with His people in Him, is
“His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and His throne as the days of
heaven. If His children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments; if they
break My statutes, and keep not My commandments, then will I visit their
transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless My
lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer My faithfulness to
fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of My
lips.” I have sworn once for all, by My holiness, that I will not lie unto Jesus
the Anti-typical David, by suffering any of His redeemed people to perish.
Hence, as it is presently added, they shall be established for ever, as the moon;
and as a faithful witness in heaven; nay, they shall stand forth and shine when
the sun is turned into darkness, and the moon into blood; when the stars
shall drop from their orbits, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
As an excellent person somewhere observes, “Our own unbelief may
occasionally tear the copies of the covenant given us by Christ, but unbelief cannot come at the covenant itself, Christ keeps the original deed in
heaven with Himself, where it can never be lost.”
How blessed are the eyes that see, how happy are the hearts that feel, the
propriety and energy of these inestimable truths! How ought such to demonstrate
their gratitude by a practical glorification of God, in their bodies and in
their spirits, which are His!
Remember who it is that has made you to differ from others; and that a
man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven (John 3:27).
Not unto us, there f o re O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name alone be the
praise of every gift, and of every grace ascribed; for Thy loving mercy, and for
Thy truth’s sake.
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