Part 146 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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Part 147 HOLINESS, the Only Way to Happiness
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[11.] Eleventhly, If you are a holy person, if you are one who has that genuine holiness, without which there is no happiness, then know for your comfort—that Jesus Christ will certainly preserve your holiness. Next to Christ, holiness is a Christian's choicest jewel, and this holiness, Christ will be sure to preserve. Self-preservation is natural to all creatures. Holiness is Christ's creature, Christ's image; and therefore he will certainly preserve it and maintain it. Christ cannot neglect himself, he cannot be lacking to himself. Now holiness is himself; and therefore if there is but a spark of holiness in a dunghill of corruption, Christ will certainly own it, nourish it, and preserve it. He who is once really holy shall be forever 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. [Phil. 1:6; Heb. 12:2; 1 Thes. 5:23, and 3:12-13; Eph. 5:25-27; 1 John 3:9.]
Though a holy man may fall sadly, lamentably, frequently, foully—yet he shall never fall totally, he shall never fall finally, because that holiness which is in him, is a lasting, yes, an everlasting and abiding principle, which 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 change into holiness, is an unchangeable change; the state of holiness is an unchangeable state.
It is true, the fallen angels quickly lost that stock of holiness that God had put into their hands; and Adam lost all his holiness upon the turn of a hand. He broke and proved a bankrupt 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 unchangeable state, though it be for the present an imperfect state. And partly because God put that stock of holiness which the angels and Adam had into their own hands—but now the saints' holiness is not a stock put 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. 1:5. As Christ is to manage our salvation for us—just so, he is to manage our grace and holiness for us; and therefore, as he will most certainly make sure the one—just so, he will as certainly preserve the other. Once a son of God--forever a son of God! Though the servant may be turned out of doors—yet the son abides in the house forever, as Christ speaks, John 8:35. He who is once sanctified shall be forever 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 who has it. I readily grant that the strength of holiness, and the luster and shine of holiness, and the sense and feeling of holiness, and the comfort and sweetness of holiness, and the lively stirrings and operations of holiness, may be somewhat abated and lessened in the soul; but the seed of holiness, the substance of holiness, always remains in a converted soul, Romans 11:29, "God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable." There is always a divine fire—though sometimes it may lie under the ashes; there is always life and sap in the root—though there may be neither leaves nor blossoms on the tree. It is true, the best of saints may have their spiritual winters. And it is as true, that after their winter, there will certainly follow a spring of holiness.
It is most certain, that the truth and principle 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 of a man's eternal enjoyment of Christ, and is always maintained and upheld by the everlasting arms of Christ, Deut. 33:26-27; Gen. 49:22-24.
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. 7:21-22.
(2.) It is to say that the promises are yes and nay, quite contrary to what the apostle affirms in that 2 Cor. 1:20.
(3.) It is to say that the power of God is grown exceeding weak and contemptible, yes, it is to make sin and Satan stronger than God, which is quite contrary to the current of Scripture, 1 Pet. 1:5; John 10:27-31.
(4.) It is to say that the decree of God is mutable, which is cross and contrary to the apostle in that 2 Tim. 2:19.
(5.) It is to say that God's free, eternal, and everlasting love has become changeable and inconstant, which is expressly cross to that Jer. 31:3; Mal. 3:6; John 13:1, with many other scriptures. Therefore that Arminian principle, which states that the saints may fall totally and finally from grace and holiness—is to be forever detested and abhorred. But,
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