ESSAY IV. ON PERSEVERANCE AND ASSURANCE. § 1. THERE are many passages in the Apostle Paul's writings in which he expresses his assured expectation of the final success of his converts in attaining the gospel-promises: for instance, Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;" i. e. that at his last coming to judge the world, they will be numbered among the inheritors of immortal happiness with Him. It is in a similar tone that he addresses the Corinthians in the beginning of his first Epistle to them: "Waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Indeed there is hardly any one of his Epistles in which he does not express the same exulting anticipation of eternal life awaiting his beloved on earth: the gratitude and joy which he consequently feels on their behalf, are scarcely ever left unmentioned. Passages of this description are appealed to as establishing the doctrine of " final Perseverance" and "Assurance;" that is, of the impossibility of ultimate failure, to those who are once truly elected of God; and the complete conviction which such persons may (or must) attain on earth of their own safety. The dangerous consequences again, apprehended by many, from these as well as other doctrines maintained on this Apostle's authority, have accordingly but too often led them to depreciate his writings, or to regard them with suspicion and dread, and to keep them in a great degree out of sight. That such opinions as those alluded to (as far, that is, as they are erroneous and mischievous) have been grounded on a misunderstanding of these writings, and may be the most effectually refuted by a fair and correct exposition of the Author's meaning, I have endeavoured to show in the preceding Essay, as far as relates to the doctrine of Christian Election. Closely connected with this, and next in natural order to it, are the other doctrines just mentioned; on which, accordingly, I now propose to offer some remarks. But it will be the less necessary to dwell on them, on account of that closeness of connexion; the one question being a kind of offshoot from the other. Absolute predestination to eternal life evidently implies the physical impossibility of ultimate failure,-in short, the infallible perseverance of the Elect; and if any one have arrived at the knowledge that he is one of the Elect, he cannot but have the most complete Assurance of his own safety. And these notions are, not without some probable grounds at least, regarded by many as pernicious in the extreme;-as naturally leading to careless and arrogant confidence, spiritual pride,-relaxation of virtuous efforts,-and indulgence of vicious propensities. They have accordingly laboured to repel this danger by dwelling much and sedulously on the uncertainty, even to the last, of the state of even the best Christian; and of the possibility of his falling even from the most confirmed state of grace and holiness. § 2. It should be remembered, however, that we may, in our extreme caution against one danger, fall into the opposite. Presumptuous confidence, and careless security, are indeed evils to be carefully guarded against; but they are not the only evils to be apprehended: despondency, and, what is more likely to occur, a deadness of the affections in all that relates to religion, and a total aversion of the mind towards it, may be generated, in some persons at least, by dwelling too much and too earnestly on the chances of ultimate failure. It should be remembered, too, that the doctrines of Perseverance in godliness, and of Assurance of salvation, in some sense or other, have received the full sanction of the Apostle Paul; nor would he so often and so strongly have expressed his grateful exultation in the spiritual state of his converts, and his full confidence that the good work begun in them would ultimately be completed, had he not considered the exhibition of these cheering and encouraging prospects, as highly edifying, and conducive to their Christian progress. And I cannot but think that his example in this point has been too little attended to by some writers; who overlook the dangers on one side, while they overrate those on the other; which at the same time they do not take the most effectual way to obviate. It is not enough that they express the fullest confidence in God's fulfilment of his promises, to all who are not wanting on their part. To one whose mind is disposed to serious thoughtfulness, all doubts respecting his final salvation (however well convinced he may be that if he fail of it, the fault will be his own)-doubts which must imply the apprehension of the unspeakably horrible alternative, cannot but suggest (in proportion as they prevail) the wish that Christianity were untrue that this life were the whole of his existence, rather than that the remotest risk of such an alternative should be incurred. And a A man a It is to be observed, that when I speak of the horror of being in any doubt, or of apprehending any risk-contemplating any chance, of this or that evil, &c., I mean, absolute, not hypothetical or conditional risk,-possibility-probability, &c., for this latter does not occasion any uneasiness. is shocked, for instance, at the idea of the remotest risk of being overwhelmed in the sea, or of perishing with hunger; but he knows that when walking on the sea-shore, he would be probably overwhelmed, if he should stay there till the tide |