II. We shall now consider, that the best believers would certainly fall from grace, were they left to themselves: so that their perseverance therein is principally to be ascribed to the power of God, that keeps them through faith unto salvation. This is particularly observed in this answer, in which several arguments are laid down to prove the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance in grace, and it is supposed to be founded on his power, and will, to maintain it. God is styled _the preserver of men_, Job vii. 20. inasmuch as he upholds all things by the word of his power, so that independency on him is inconsistent with the idea of our being creatures; and we have no less ground to conclude, that his power maintains the new creature, or that grace, which took its first rise from him. Should he fail or forsake us, we could not put forth the least act of grace, much less persevere therein. When man at first came out of the hands of God, he was endowed with a greater ability to stand than any one, excepting our Saviour, has been favoured with, since sin entered into the world; yet he apostatized, not from any necessity of nature, but by adhering to that temptation which he might have withstood. Then how unable is he to stand in his present state, who is become weak, and, though brought into a state of grace, renewed and sanctified but in part; having still the remainders of corruption, which maintain a constant opposition to the principle of grace? Our perseverance in grace cannot therefore be owing to ourselves; accordingly the apostle ascribes this to a divine hand, when he says, that _we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation_, 1 Pet. i. 5. A late celebrated writer, on the other side of the question,[81] attempts to evade the force of this argument to prove the doctrine of perseverance, though I think, without much strength of reasoning, when he says; that all who are preserved to salvation, are kept by the power of God, but not that all believers are so kept.