certainly preserve it and maintain it, — Christ cannot neglect himself, he cannot be wanting to himself. Now holiness is himself' ; and there- fore if there be but a spark of holiness in a dunghill of corruption, Christ will certainly own it, cherish it, and preserve it. He that is once really holy shall be for ever holy. Let the world, the flesh, and the devil, do what they can, the holy seed shall still remain in all God's sanctified ones.^ Though a holy man may fall strangely, sadly, frequently, foully, yet he shall never fall totally, he shall never fall finally, because that that holiness that is in him is a lasting, yea, an everlasting and abiding principle, that can never be destroyed or extirpated. A wicked person may be turned into a holy man, but a holy man can never be turned into a profane person again. A holy change is an unchangeable change ; the state of holiness is an unchange- able state. It is true the fallen angels quickly lost that stock of holi- ness that God had put into their hands ; and Adam lost all his holiness upon the turn of a hand. He broke and proved a banki-upt almost as soon as God had set him up in paradise ; but the state and condition of all the saints is a better and a safer state and condition than either the angels' or than Adam's was ; and that partly because their state was mutable though perfect, but the state of the saints is an unchange- able state, though it be for the present an imperfect state ; and partly because God put that stock of holiness that they had into their own hands, but now the saints' holiness is not a stock in their own hands but in Christ's hands ; for not only their persons but their holiness is ' kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,' 1 Pet. i. 5. As Christ is to manage our salvation for us, so he is to manage our grace and holiness for us ; and therefore, as he will most certainly make sure the one, so he will as certainly preserve the other. Once a son, and for ever a son. Though the servant may be turned out of doors, yet the son abides in the house for ever, as Christ speaks, John viii. 35. He that is once sanctified shall be for ever blessed.
Holiness is an abiding seed, an immortal seed. It is a royal gift, which being once given, shall never be taken away from him that hath it. I readily grant that the strength of holiness, and the lustre and shine of holiness, and the sense and feeling of holiness, and the comfort and sweet of holiness, and the lively stirrings and operations of hohness, may be somewhat abated and lessened in the soul ; but the seed of holiness, the substance of holiness, always remains in a changed soul, Rom. xi. 29. There is always a divine fire, though sometimes it may be raked up under the ashes ; there is always life and sap in the root, though there be neither leaves nor blossoms on the tree. It is true, the best of saints may have their spiritual autumn ; and it is as true, that after their autumn there will certainly follow a spring of holiness. It is most certain that the truth and state of holiness remains under all a Christian's infirmities, darknesses, weaknesses, eclipses, clouds, failings, waverings, and wanderings ; and the reasons are clear, because that great and glorious principle of holiness flows from God's unchangeable love, and is a fruit of the everlasting covenant, and the price of Christ's blood, and depends and hangs upon a perpetual union and communion with Christ, and is a sure pledge
^ Phil. i. 6 ; Heb. xii. 2; 1 Thes. v. 23, and iii. 12, 13 ; Eph. t. 25-27 ; 1 John iii. 9.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 427
and earnest of a man's eternal enjoyment of Christ, and is always maintained and upheld by the everlasting arms of Christ, Deut. xxxiii. 26, 27 ; Gen. xlix. 22-24. To say that the saints may fall totally and finally from all that grace and holiness they have, is to say, (1.) That the surety of the new covenant is grown very poor and weak, which is very little less than blasphemy, and quite contrary to that Heb. vii. 21, 22, (2.) It is to say that the promises are yea and nay, quite con- trary to what the apostle affirms in that 2 Cor. i. 20. (3.) It is to say that the power of God is grown exceeding weak and contemptible, yea, it is to make sin and Satan stronger than God, which is quite contrary to the current of Scripture, 1 Pet. i. 5 ; John x. 27-31. (4.) It is to say that the decree of God is mutable, which is cross and contrary to the apostle in that 2 Tim. ii. 19. (5.) It is to say that God's free, eternal, and everlasting love is become changeable and unconstant, which is expressly cross to that Jer. xxxi. 3 ; Mai. iii. 6 ; John xiii. 1 , with many other scriptures ; and therefore that Arminian principle is to be for ever detested and abhorred. But,