1. I shall show how I build the certainty of perseverance on this place.
2. I shall handle the doctrine, confirming it by other grounds. First, How this doctrine of the certainty of the saints' perseverance
is built on this place. Christ hath begged it, and he beggeth it for
VER. 11.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 301
all the saints, Christ hath begged it, and the prayers of Christ, who is God's beloved Son, cannot possibly return in vain, there being- such an absolute conformity and consent between the will of God the Father and the Son : John xi, 42, ' I know that thou hearest me always.' Christ cannot be denied audience and acceptance in the court of heaven, especially in a request upon which his heart is set. His people are so wonderfully dear to him, that he would not lose one of them ; and then Christ is so wonderfully dear to God, that he must needs speed in all his requests. Therefore if Christ hath mediated for the conservation of the saints, the Father will grant what he asketh. Yea, the Father himself loveth the saints ; the thing is pleasing to him. It is notable that when Christ had spoken of the perseverance of the saints, he adds, John x. 30, ' I and my Father are one ;' as noting not only the unity of essence, but the consent of will, that was between them in this work. Well, then, look, as Christ redeemeth us because the Father required it, the Father will love us and preserve us because the Son asketh it. If Christ bear any respect to the Father's command, or the Father to Christ's prayers, the elect are sure to be saved. Christ hath engaged God's name to keep us. What can be objected against this ? They say that Christ prayed conditionally, Keej) them if they will. But here is no condition expressed. Christ absolutely prayeth, Keep them ; and such a condition would make the gift of God to depend upon man's will ; and so to persevere would rather be man's act than God's gift, the determination being on man's part. Nay, the main thing which is to be kept is our will, and so the condition would destroy the very nature of the request. They say, Christ prayeth only for the apostles. I answer — It cannot be restrained to the apostles ; it is the common privilege of all the saints : ' Those which thou hast given me.' Christ explaineth himself, and extendeth it to believers of all ages : ver. 20, ' Neither pray I for these alone, but for those which shall believe in me through their word.' Christ's prayer is every way as good as a promise.
Secondly, Let me handle the doctrine itself. The doctrine of per- severance is much impugned, but the earth is never the more unsettled because to giddy brains it seemeth to run round. Let me state, and then confirm it. . ■
First, State it.
1. Seeming grace may be lost: Mat. xxv. 29, ' From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath;' compared with Luke xviii. 18, ' Whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he seemeth to have.'' Blazing comets and meteors are soon spent, and may fall from heaven like lightning, while stars keep their orb and station ; sandy building will totter. The hypocrites ' shall be discovered before the congreiration,' Prov. xxvi. 26.
2. Initial or preparative grace may fail : Heb. vi. 4, 5, ' They who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, may fall away ;' such as illumination, external reformation, temporary faith, some good begin- nings. Some die in the pangs of the new birth, and are still-born. Plenty of blossoms doth not always foretell store of fruit.
302 SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. [SeR. XVII.
3. True grace may suffer a shrewd decay, but not an utter loss. In temptations it may be sorely shaken ; the heel may be bruised as Christ's was, but ' his seed remaineth in him/ 1 John iii. 9 ; as Peter denied Christ, though he did not fall from grace : Luke xxii. 32, ' I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.' The leaves may fade when the root liveth. Chrysostom saith concerning Christ's prayer for Peter, ovic epei Iva /*?; apvyarj, aXKa ware /xt] e/cXet'Trety rijv ttlcttIv — He doth not say, that he might not deny him, but that his faith might not fail and altogether vanish.
4. Such grace as serves to our well-being in Christ may be taken away, joy, peace, cheerfulness. A man may be living though he be not lively ; a man may have a being when his well-being is lost ; he is a man, though a bankrupt. So a christian, the operations of grace may be obstructed for a great while ; a fit of swooning is not a state of death ; there may be no acts, and yet the seed may remain, this may last ; for a long time David did not recover himself, it was near a year after his sin : 1 Sam. xii. 14, ' The child that is born of thee shall surely die;' compared with Ps. li., title, 'A psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.'