Council of Trent, Sess. VI., canon 23. " If any one main- tain that a man once justified can not lose grace, and, therefore, that he who falls and sins never was truly justified, let him be accursed."
4. What is the Arminian doctrine on this point ?
It is an inseparable part of the Arminian system, flowing necessarily from their views of election, of the design and effect of Christ's death, and of sufficient grace and free will, that those who were once justified and regenerated may, by neglecting grace and grieving the Holy Spirit, fall into such sins as are incon- sistent with true justifying faith, and continuing and dying in the same, may consequently finally fall into perdition. — " Confession of the Kemonstrants," xi., 7.
5. What objection is urged against the orthodox doctrine on the ground of the free agency of man ?
Those who deny the certainty of the final perseverance of the saints hold the false theory that liberty of the will consists in in- difference, or the power of contrary choice, and consequently that certainty is inconsistent with liberty. This fallacy is disproved above, Chapter XVIII, see especially question 9.
That God does govern the free acts of his creatures, as a mat- ter of fact, is clear from history and prophecy, from universal Christian consciousness and experience, and from Scripture, Acts ii., 23 ; Eph. i., 11 ; Phil, ii., 13 ; Prov. xxi., 1.
That he does secure the final perseverance of his people in a
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manner perfectly consistent with their free agency is also clear. He changes their affections and thus determines the will by its own free spontaniety. He brings them into the position of children by adoption, surrounding them with all of the sources and instru- ments of sanctifying influence, and when they sin he carefully chastises and restores them. Hence the doctrine of Scripture is not that a man who has once truly believed is secure of ultimate salvation, subsequently feel and act as he may ; but, on the contrary, that God secures the ultimate salvation of every one who is once truly united to his Son by faith, by securing, through the power of the Holy Ghost, his most free perseverance in Christian feeling and obedience to the end.
6. What objection is urged against the orthodox doctrine upon the ground of its supposed unfavorable influence upon morality ?
The objection charged is, that this doctrine, " once in grace always in grace," must naturally lead to carelessness, through a false sense of security in our present position, and of confidence that God will secure our final salvation independently of our own agency.
Although it is certain, on the part of God, that if we are elected and called, we shall be saved ; yet it requires constant watchfulness, and diligence, and prayer to make that calling and election sure to us, 2 Pet. i., 10. That God powerfully works with us, and therefore secures for us success in our contest with sin, is in Scripture urged as a powerful reason not for sloth, but for diligence, Phil, ii., 13. The orthodox doctrine does not affirm certainty of salvation because we have once believed, but cer- tainty of perseverance in holiness if we have truly believed, which perseverance in holiness, therefore, in opposition to all weaknesses and temptations, is the only sure evidence of the genuineness of past experience, or of the validity of confidence respecting future salvation, and surely such an assurance of certainty can not en- courage either carelessness or immorality.
7. What objection to this doctrine is founded on the exhorta- tions to diligence ; and on the warnings of danger in case of carelessness addressed to believers in the Scriptures f
428 PERSEVERANCE.
The objection alleged is, that these exhortations and warn- ings necessarily imply the contingency of the believer's salvation, as conditioned upon the believer's continued faithfulness, and consequently involving liability to apostasy.
We answer —
1st. The outward word necessarily comes to all men alike, addressing them in the classes in which they regard themselves as standing ; and as professors, or "those who think they stand," are many of them self-deceived, this outward word truly implies the uncertainty of their position, (as far as man's knowledge goes,) and their liability to fall.
2d. That Grod secures the perseverance in holiness of all his true people by the use of means adapted to their nature as rational moral and free agents. Viewed in themselves they are always, as God warns them, unstable, and therefore, as he exhorts them, they must diligently cleave to his grace. It is always true, also, that if they apostatize they shall be lost ; but by means of these very threatenings his Spirit graciously secures them from apostasy.
8. What special texts are relied upon to rebut the arguments of the orthodox upon this subject ?
Ezek. xviii., 24 ; Matt, xiii., 20, 21 ; 2 Pet. ii., 20, 21, and especially Heb. vi., 4^6 ; x., 26.