Wesley Corpus

xviii. 24.) That this is to be understood of eternal death appears from the twenty-sixth verse: “When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them;” (here is temporal death;) “for his iniquity that he hath done he shall die.” (Here is death eternal.) It appears farther from the whole scope of the chapter, which is to prove, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Verse 4.) If you say, “The soul here means the body,” I answer, That will die whether you sin or no. 6. Again, thus saith the Lord: “When I shall say to the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his own righteousness,” (yea, or to that promise as absolute and unconditional,) “and commit iniquity, all his righteousness shall not be remembered; but for the iniquity that he hath committed shall he die.” (xxxiii. 13.) Again: “When the righteous turneth from his righteous ness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.” (Verse 18.) Therefore, one who is holy and righteous in the judgment of God himself may yet so fall as to perish everlastingly. 7. “But how is this consistent with what God declared elsewhere: ‘If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments,--I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges. Nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my truth to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. I have sworn once by my holiness, that I will not fail David.’” (Psalm lxxxix. 30-35.) I answer, There is no manner of inconsistency between one declaration and the other. The Prophet declares the just judgment of God against every righteous man who falls from his righteousness. The Psalmist declares the old loving kindnesses which God sware unto David in his truth. “I have found,” saith he, “David, my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him. My hand shall hold him fast, and my arm shall strengthen him. His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.” (Verses 20, 21, 29.) It follows: “But if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;--nevertheless, my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my truth to fail.