I conceive to be the true way of reconciling those systems, which are supposed to be so opposite, and which have produced so much contention in the Church of God. I repeat it ; In its commencement, every blessing is the fruit of free and sovereign grace; but in its termination, it is administered to us, not in a way of merit indeed, but on principles of perfect equity, according to our respective characters and attainments. And the subject before us will now furnish us with a fit occasion for maintaining the latter position, as we have already asserted and maintained the former.
God will ultimately deal with us, us Gentiles, according as we improve, or abuse, the privileges vouchsafed unto us. His goodness will operate to our ultimate advantage, only on the supposition that " we continue in his goodness ; for otherwise, we also, like the Jews themselves, shall be cut off."
To enter into the full meaning of these words, let us consider what we ourselves should expect of a scion which we had engrafted on a fertile stock. We should expect it to produce fruit answerable to the advantage conferred upon it. In husbandry, indeed, we engraft a good scion on an inferior tree ; whereas God engrafts a worthless scion on a good tree. But the ultimate effect is to be the same : we expect it to bring forth good fruit. Now what are the fruits which God's people of old produced ? They may be comprehended in these three — repentance, faith, and obedience : and these may therefore most justly be expected of us. It may well be expected that we humble ourselves before God for all our former un- fruitfulness, and mourn over all the corruptions of our nature, and all the evils of our lives. This we should do like the Prodigal : " Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son." Even if we had been as holy as Job himself, we must, like him, " abhor ourselves in dust and ashes." Under a sense of our guilt and desert of condemnation, we must cry to God for mercy, and " flee for refuge to the hope that
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is set before us," even to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of fallen man. We must renounce utterly every other hope ; and desire, like St. Paul, " to be found in Christ, not having our own right- eousness, but the righteousness which is of God by faith in him." We must also surrender up ourselves to God, " living not to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again." As the scion ceases to be connected with the stock from which it has been taken, and lives wholly by that into which it is en- grafted, and for the use of him who has separated it for himself, so must the true Christian be, in spirit, dead to the world ; and must live for that Saviour, to whose grace and favour he owes every blessing he enjoys.
But this is only a part of what is comprehended in the words of our text. By " continuing in his good- ness," there is intimated a danger of apostasy, to which we are continually exposed. A scion, however favourable its situation may be, is exposed to storms and tempests, which may break it off; or to unfa- vourable seasons, which may prevent the ripening of its fruit. But the person that is engrafted into the good olive must suffer nothing to prevail against him, nor any thing to destroy his fruits. On the contrary, every thing that has a tendency to endanger his steadfastness, or impair his fertility, must cause him to cleave the more steadfastly to Christ, and to re- ceive the more abundantly, out of his fulness, the grace which he stands in need of. In this way he must " endure even to the end, if ever he would be saved :" for it is only " by a patient continuance in well doing, that he can ever attain eternal life." This is fully declared in the passage before us : Yes, the Apostle Paul, who is so often and so justly referred to as maintaining the doctrines of grace, is certainly not a whit less strenuous in asserting our liability to fall and perish, if we be not constantly watching against temptation, and crying daily to our God to hold us up. " Be not high-minded" says he, " but fear: for if God spared not the natural branches,