the Divine Benevolence?

Again, if we were to look at the 39th verse of this same chapter, and
read the words, "This is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of
all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day," should we not say that the natural meaning
of the passage is that there is a Doctrine of Final Perseverance,
linked on to that of the Election of Grace, and a necessary corollary
to it?

But when we turn to the Greek, we notice that in the first of the
verses quoted the word _all_ is in the neuter gender, and so does not
necessarily apply to persons at all, and we are more likely to catch
the true meaning of the words by reading it as follows: "Everything
that the Father hath given Me shall come to Me"; and in the other
passage a similar correction must be made, as is otherwise evident from
the last part of the passage, "I will raise _it_ up at the last day";
"Of everything which the Father hath given Me I should lose nothing."

Viewed in this light, the words that were supposed to imply election
teach consecration, and instead of final perseverance we read full
possession. And this we do not say with any idea of refuting
Calvinistic doctrine, having no "isms" of our own and little time to
spend in attacking those of other people. Likely enough, our rendering
of the words may be incorrect, and in any case we ought carefully to
compare similar passages in the Gospel; but be that as it may, the
truth is not affected that the Sovereignty of God and the Love of God
demand the full subjection and surrender of our being; and we are
assured that where these conditions are fulfilled, the Divine
Possession and Protection become an intense and abiding reality.

Now, in confirmation of our rendering, we will examine the manner in
which the passage is quoted by John Bunyan; and certainly we may say
that if there was a Calvinistic meaning to be got out of a passage,
John Bunyan was not the man to miss it; and moreover, since he was
totally ignorant of Greek (and I suppose of Latin, too, there being
only, as far as I know, the solitary expression in the _Pilgrim's
Progress_ "de carne et sanguine Christi," accompanied by the marginal
modesty, "the Latin I borrow"), he is not likely to fall into the
mistake to which we may be liable, of evading the plain meaning of
words by reference to the original tongue. Turning, then, to the _Holy
War_, we shall find the following,