in our duty; and so this doctrine, say they, destroys all diligence and industry, and renders the sinner's endeavours, how sincere and serious soever, foolish, and unnecessary. To this we answer; That the Great God may certainly fix upon what order he pleases, in his conferring of favours, and bestowing undeserved blessings. Now, the order he has settled is this; that though he gives all freely, and not for our sakes, yet he will be sought to, and inquired of, by us, for those spiritual mercies, which we want at his hand. The direction is, Ask, seek, and knock: the encouragement lies in the promise, Ye shall receive, ye shall find, and it shall be opened unto you.-They who seek me early, says God, shall find me; and such as wait on him, shall renew their strength; so that it is in a way of duty that we are to expect his presence. God is not, indeed, tied up to means, he may be found of them who seek him not; but he has obliged us to a constant and dili. gent attendance upon them. And I would ask, Is not his promise of meeting and blessing us, of his being in the midst of us, to assist and comfort us, a more rational and powerful motive to a close adherence to our duty, than a false imagination of a power, which we are not really possessed of, and so must necessarily disappoint us in all our ungrounded expectations from it?

Thus we have gone through the principal objections advanced against the doctrine of efficacious grace, and conclude, upon the whole, that we have Scripture and experience on our side, whilst we assert, that regeneration is not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.-What remains, but a serious inquiry, whether we have tasted that the Lord is gracious? how far we have been quickened by the mighty power of God, who were dead in trespasses and sins? Without the new birth there is no entering into heaven, our Lord has expressly assured us. What can we then say of God's gracious dealings with us? has he put his Spirit within us, writ his law in our hearts, taken the stone out of our hearts, and given us hearts of flesh?

Have we been made to loathe and abhor ourselves; to prize, above every thing, the person, righteousness, and fulness of Christ? Have we fled for refuge to him, as ready to perish; and do we find a Spirit of grace and supplication poured out upon us? Do we thirst after communion with, and aim at a resemblance of Jesus? Is this, or such like, the genuine experience of our souls? then let us call upon them, and all that is within us, to bless his name, whose workmanship we are. Let him have all the glory; and let it be our great concern, as well as prayer, to God continually, that we may, in all things, walk worthy of his holy vocation, adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour, till we get safe to that world, where Father, Son, and Spirit, will be all in all, as the everlasting source of pure and perfect happiness: and where, as the Great Jehovah, One God over all, they will, to endless ages, inhabit the praises of those who shall stand before the throne, perfectly cleansed from all filthiness, both of flesh and spirit, and whose robes shall be washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.

THE

DOCTRINE OF PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE,

STATED AND DEFENDED.

TWO

SERMONS,

BY MR. THOMAS HALL, Minister of the Gospel.

SERMON I

PHIL. i. 6.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

WHATEVER be the immunities and privileges a people at present enjoy, it is a vast addition to have a good security for the lasting possession of them. Glorious things, indeed, are spoken of Zion, the city of God: the inhabitants thereof are, of all the people upon earth, the most happy; their peculiar privileges are all spiritual, and, on that account, transcendantly great and excellent. As they are elected of God, they are the objects of his distinguishing and everlasting love; being redeemed and clothed with the righteousness of Christ, they are blessed with the forgiveness of their sins; being called effectually by the Spirit of God, they are made partakers of a Divine nature, and deliv ered from the bond of iniquity; by being adopted and renewed, they become the children of God, are fitted for communion with their heavenly Father, admitted into his gracious presence, and actually constituted the heirs of glory. But that, which adds to all, is an as

surance, that they who have once had an access into this grace, shall perpetually stand therein.

་

Without an assurance of this, the holy pleasure excited in the mind by the glorious truths of the Gospel, insisted upon in the preceding sermons, would soon languish and die. It would certainly damp the joys of a believer, who knows the treachery of his own heart, and is convinced of the power and craft of his hellish foes, if, after all he hears of these invaluable grants, he must be told they may every one be revoked, and, through a possibility of falling from grace, the persons, who have been so highly favoured, may fall into dis grace, be abandoned, and suffered to perish at last.

That all fears of this kind may be prevented, he, who cannot lie, has declared, in his word, that "The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, who are sought out, shall be a city not forsaken," Isa. lxii. 12, that "the place of their defence shall be the munition of rocks; their bread shall be given them, and their waters shall be sure," chap. xxxiii. 16. That " God will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence," chap. iv. 5. From these, and many other declarations of Heaven, the Apostle might well be confident that he, who had begun a good work in the Philippians, would perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

The important article of the saints' establishment and perseverance in grace, being allotted to my considera. tion in this Lecture, I have turned you to this verse; because it will soon appear, from a just explication of the words, that this doctrine is really founded upon Divine authority.

To guide us into the meaning of the text, and to direct us in its application, it will be proper to take notice of these four things. 1. The work itself which is here spoken of. 2. The perfection that was to crown it. 3. The Apostle's confidence with respect

to that perfection. 4. The common concern and interest of the saints in the whole matter.

(1.) I shall consider the work itself, which was begun in the Philippians.

This is termed a good work, by which we are to understand the work of grace, or the internal, supernatural, and effectual work of the Spirit of God upon their souls, whereby they were made partakers of his heavenly grace; in consequence whereof, they were renewed, sanctified, or made holy, and thus became new creatures.

That this work was begun in them, may easily be collected from several passages in this epistle; particularly from the seventh verse of this chapter, where the Apostle says, They were partakers of his grace; i. e. of the like grace with himself: and this is agreeable to his declaration in the twenty-ninth verse, that unto them it was given, as well as to him, "both to believe on Christ, and to suffer for his sake." Farther, when he prays, in the ninth verse, that "their love might abound yet more and more in knowledge, and in all judgment," it is supposed that they were already favoured with some knowledge and some judgment in spiritual things; and that their knowledge did not rest in mere speculation, but it warmed the heart, and kindled an holy flame within: yea, that as their knowledge was not a dead notion, so neither was their love a blind affection; but its motions and actings were under the guidance of an enlightened mind: and, upon the whole of what the Apostle had observed, while among them, and heard of them when absent, he concluded that they were the seals of his apostleship and ministry; and, as such, he calls them "His joy and crown," chap. iv. 1. Hence it appears that the good work of grace was begun in them.

And since no other work whatever, in which they were especially concerned, either had, or was intended to have, the like abiding duration with the work of grace; and since nothing short of this could have given the like superlative occasion for that abundant thankfulness and joy, which, in the preceding verse, he de