1. Those whom God has accepted in his Beloved, has effectually called, and has sanctified by his Spirit can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; they will certainly persevere in that state of grace to the end and will be eternally saved.

2. This perseverance of the saints does not depend on their own free will, but on

• the immutability of the decree of God’s choice, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father,
• the effectiveness of the merit and the intercession of Jesus Christ,
• the abiding of the Spirit, and the seed of God abiding within them,
• and the nature of the covenant of grace. The certainty and unfailing nature of their perseverance arises from all of these.

3. Nevertheless, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalence of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, the saints may fall into grievous sins and continue in them for a time. By these sins

• they incur God’s displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit,
• they come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts,
• they have their hearts hardened,
• they have their consciences wounded,
• they hurt and scandalize others,
• and they bring temporal judgments upon themselves.