Against this plain expression of the apostle, that " the gifts and calling of God are without repentance," Mr Goodwin puts in sundry exceptions, to weaken the testimony it bears in this case, chap. viii.
II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 123
sect, 57; which because they have been already sufficiently evinced of weakness, falsehood, and impertinency, by his learned antagonist,^ 1 shall only take up that which he mainly insists upon, and farther manifest its utter uselessness for the end for which it is produced. Thus, then, he pleads: " The 'gifts and calling of God' may be said to be ' without repentance,' because, let men continue the same per- sons which they were when the donation or collation of any gift was first made by God unto them, he never changes or altereth his dis- pensations towards them, unless it be for the better, or in order to their farther good ; in which case he cannot be said to repent of what he had given. But in case men shall change and alter from what they were when God first dealt graciously with them, especially if they shall notoriously degenerate or cast away the principles, or divest themselves of that very qualification on which, as it were, God grafted his benefit or gift; in this case, though he recall his gift, he cannot be said to repent of his giving it, because the terms on which he gave it please him still, only the persons to whom he gave it, and who pleased him when he gave it them, have now ren- dered themselves unpleasing to him."
Two things are here asserted : — 1. That if men continue the same, or in the same state and condition wherein they were when God bestowed his gifts and graces upon them, then God never changeth nor altereth, — his dispensations towards them abide the same. 2. That there are certain qualifications in men upon which God grafts his grace; which whilst they abide, his gifts and graces abide upon them also, and therefore are said to be 'without repentance;' but if they are lost, God recalls his gifts, and that without any change. Let us a little consider both these assertions.
And, first. It being evident that it is spiritual gi'ace and mercy of which the apostle speaks, as was manifested, for they are such as flow from the covenant of the Redeemer, Rom. xi. 26, 27, sanctifica- tion and justification being particularly mentioned, let us consider what is the condition of men when God invests them with these mer- cies, that we may be able to instruct them how to abide in that condi- tion, and so make good the possession of the grace and mercy bestowed on them. And, to keep close to the text, let our instance be in the three eminent mercies of the gospel intimated in that place: 1. Voca- tion; 2. Sanctification ; 8. Justification.
The gift and grace of vocation is confessedly here intended, being expressly mentioned in the words, i] xXnatg rov GsoD, that "calling" which is an effect of the covenant of grace, verse 29. Consider we, then, what is the state of men when God first calls them and gives them this gift and favour, that, if it seem so good, we may exhort them to a continuance therein.
• Dr George Kendall. See prefatory note. — Ed.
124 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
Now, this state, with the qualifications of it, ia a state, — 1. Of death: John v. 25, "The dead hear the voice of the Son of God/' Christ speaks to them who are dead, and so they live.^ 2. Of dark- ness, Acts xxvi. 18;" God calleth them out of darkness into his mar- vellous light," 1 Pet. ii. 9, — a state of ignorance and alienation from God, Eph. iv. 18. The grace of vocation, or effectual calling, finding men in a state of enmity to God and alienation from him, if they may be prevailed withal to continue in such still, this gift shall never be recalled nor repented of !
But perhaps the gift and grace of sanctification finds men in a better condition, in a state wherein if they abide then that also shall abide with them for ever. The Scripture so abounds in the description of this state that we shall not need to hesitate about it: Eph. ii. 1, 2, "You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Quickening and renewing grace is given to persons dead in sins, and is so far from depending as to its unchangeableness upon their con- tinuance in the state wherein it finds them, that it consists in a real change and translation of them from that state or condition. The apostle sets out this at large, Tit. iii. 8-5, "We ourselves were some- times foolish," etc. The state of men when God bestows these gifts upon them is positively expressed in sundry particulars, verse 3 ; the qualifications on which this gift or grace is grafted (of which Mr Goodwin speaks afterward), negatively, verse 5. It is not on any work that we have done; which is unquestionably exclusive of all those stocks of qualifications which are intimated, whereon the gifts and graces of God should be grafted. The gift itself here bestowed is the " washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," saving us through "mercy" from the state and condition before described. In brief, that the condition wherein this grace of God finds the sons of men is a state of death,^ blood,' darkness, blindness,* enmity, curse, and wrath, disobedience, rebellion, impotency, and universal aliena- tion from God,' is beyond all contradiction (by testimonies plenti- fully given out, here a little and there a little, line upon line) mani- fest in the Scripture. Shall we now say that this grace of God is bestowed on men upon the account of these qualifications, and con- tinued without revocation on condition that they abide in the same state, with the same qualifications? Let, then, men continue in sin, that grace may abound !