Persevere in Holiness, Jonathan Edwards

Many, when they think they are converted, seem to imagine that their work is done, and that there is nothing else needful in order to their going to heaven. Indeed perseverance in holiness of life is not necessary to salvation in the same way as the righteousness by which a right to salvation is obtained. Nor is actual perseverance necessary in order to our becoming interested in that righteousness by which we are justified. For as soon as ever a soul hath believed in Christ, or hath put forth one act of faith in him, it becomes interested in his righteousness, and in all the promises purchased by it. But persevering in the way of duty is necessary to salvation, as a concomitant and evidence of a title to salvation. There is never a title to salvation without it, though it be not the righteousness by which a title to salvation is obtained . It is necessary to salvation, as it is the necessary consequence of true faith. It is an evidence which universally attends uprightness, and the defect of it is an infallible evidence of the want of uprightness. There such as are good and upright in heart, are distinguished from such as fall away or turn aside: "Do good, O Lord, to those that be good, and to them that are upright in their heats. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel" (Psalm 125:4-5). It is mentioned as an evidence that the hearts of the children of Israel were not right with God, that they did not persevere in the ways of holiness; "A generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God" (Psalm 78:8) -Jonathan Edwards

I benefited from this, and hope you do.

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I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else. -churchill