Perseverance of the saints.

"It will not do to tell us that this doctrine of perseverance, is merely a piece of Calvinism. Nothing is easier than to get up a prejudice against a truth, by giving it a bad name. Men deal with doctrines they do not like, much as Nero did when he persecuted the early Christians. They dress them up in a hideous garment and then hold them up to scorn and run them down. The perseverance of the saints is often treated in this manner. People stave it off by some sneering remark about Calvinism, or by some apocryphal old wives' fable about Oliver Cromwell's deathbed, and think they have settled the question. Surely it would be more becoming to enquire whether perseverance was not taught in the Bible 1400 years before Calvin was born. The question to be decided is not whether the doctrine is Calvinistic, but whether it is Scriptural. The words of Bishop Horsley deserve to be widely known."

"Take especial care," he says, "before you aim your shafts at Calvinism, that you know what is Calvinism and what is not;- that in the mass of doctrine which it is of late become the fashion to abuse under the name Calvinism, you can distinguish with certainty, between that part of it which is nothing better than Calvinism, and that which belongs to our common Christianity and the general faith of the reformed Churches;- lest, when you mean only to fall foul of Calvinism you should unwarily attack something more sacred and of a higher origin."

Pages 10-11 "Never Perish" by Bishop J.C. Ryle (1816-1900)