Secondly, The one encompasseth the whole design of the grace of the gospel ; the other mentions not any special grace at all.
TJm'dly, The one is wholly expressive of the acts of God, and his design therein ; the other declarative of the duty of man, with the issue thereupon depending.
This, then, is the strength of this argument: " God, approving the obedience of a man, tells him that upon the continuance of that obedience in him and his, he will continue them an office in his service (a temporal mercy, which might be enjoyed without the least saving grace) ; and which upon his disobedience he threat- eneth to take from him (both promise and threatening being de- clarative of his approbation of obedience, and his annexing the priesthood thereunto in that family): therefore God, intending the consolation of elect believers, affirms that all things shall work to- gether for their good, upon this account, that he hath eternally pur- posed to preserve them in his love, and to bring them to himself by such effectual acts of his grace as whose immutable dependence one upon the other, and all upon his own purpose, cannot be interrupted, and therefore such as shall infallibly produce and work in them all the obedience which for the end proposed he I'equircs; — his pur- pose, I say, thus mentioned, must be of the same import with the declaration of his will in the other place spoken of" If such a con- founding of the decrees and denunciations, absolute pui-poses and conditional promises, spiritual things with temporal, and the general administration of the covenant of grace in Christ with special provi- dential dispensations, may be allowed, there is no man needs to de- spair of proving any thing he hath a mind to assert.
Secondly, There arc two things that Mr Goodwin insists upon, to make good his arguing from this i)lace: — First, That these words, " I said indeed," hold out the real jiurpose and decree of God,
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 163
Secondly, That in the promise mentioned there was no condition ex- pressed or required to the execution or perforaiance of it.
By the first he intends that God did really purpose and decree from eternity that Eli and his house should hold the priesthood for ever; by the second, that no condition was expressed, either in terms, or necessarily implied in the thing itself, which is of the same import.
If neither of these, now, should prove true, what little advance Mr Goodwin hath made for the weakening of the plain intendment of the words in the place under consideration, or for the confirmation of his own gloss and interposed conditionals, either by this or the following instances, that are of the same kind, will plainly appear. Now, that these words, " I said indeed," are not declarative of an eternal decree and purpose of God concerning the futurition and event of what is as- serted to be the object of that decree, the continuance of the priest- hood in the house of Eli, may be evidenced, as from the general nature of the things themselves, so from the particular explanation of the act of God whereunto this expression, " I said indeed," doth relate.
First, From the general nature of the thing itself this may be manifested. To what hath been formerly spoken I shall add only some few considerations, being not willing to insist long on that which is but collateral to my present design.
First, then, When God decreed and purposed this (if so be he purposed it, as it is said he did), he either foresaw what would be the issue of it, or he did not. If he did not, where is his infinite luis- dom and understanding? — if we may not be allowed to say his fore- knowledge. How are " all his works known to him from the be- ginning of the world ?"^ How doth he " declare the end from the beginning, and the things that are yet to come?" distinguishing himself from all false gods on this account. If he did foresee the event, that it would not be so, why did he decree and purpose it should be so? Doth this become the infinite wisdom of God, to pur- pose and decree from all eternity that that shall come to pass wliich he knows will never come to pass ? Can any such resolution fall upon the sons of men, to whom God is pleased to continue the use of that little spark of reason wherewith they are endued? If you say, "God purposed it should continue in case their disobedience hin- dered it not," I ask again, Did God foresee the disobedience that would SO hinder it, or did he not? If he did not, the same difficulties will arise which formerly I mentioned. If he did, then God decreed and purposed that the priesthood should continue in the house of Eli, if they kept themselves from that disobedience which he saw and knew full well they would ran into ! Gui fini ?
Secondly, If God did thus purpose and decree, he was able to bring it about, and accomplish his design by ways agreeable to his goodness, 1 Acts XV. 18; Isa. xlvi. 10.
164 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [ciIAP.