166 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
and no condition in terms expressed; — but yet being made and granted upon the condition of obedience, which is clearly expressed once and again, that the continuance of it was also suspended on that condition, as to the glory and beauty of that office, the thing principally intended, cannot be doubted; yea, it is sufficiently ex- pressed in the occasion of the promise and fountain thereof. But this was not that promise wherein Eli's was particularly concerned. Indeed, his posterity was rejected in order to the accomplishment of this promise, the seed of Phinehas returning to their dignity, from whence they fell by the interposition of the house of Ithamar.
That which this expression here peculiarly relates unto is the de- claration of the mind of God concerning the priesthood of Aaron and his posterity, which you have Exod. xxviii. 43, xxix. 9, where the confirming them in their office is called " a perpetual statute," or " a law for ever." The signification of the term " for ever," in the Hebrew especially, relating to legal institution, is known. Their " eternity" is long since expired. That, then, which God here empha- tically expresses as an act of grace and favour to the house of Aaron, which Eli and his had an interest in, was that statute or law of the priesthood, and his purpose and intention (not concerning the event of things, not that it should continue in any one branch of that family, but) of connecting it with their obedience and faithfulness in that office. It is very frequent with God to express his appro- bation of our duty under terms holding out the event that would be the issue of the duty, though it never come to pass; and his dis- approbation or rejection of the sons of men under terms that hold out the end of their disobedience, though it be prevented or removed. In this latter case he commands Jonah to cry, " Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown;" not that he purposed the destruction of Nineveh at that time, but only effectually to hold out the end of their sin, that it might be a means to turn them from it, and to pre- vent that end, which it would otherwise procure. His purpose was to prevent, at least prorogue, the ruin of Nineveh ; and therefore [he] made use of threatening them with ruin, that they might not be ruined. To say that God purposed not the execution of his purpose but in such and such cases, is a plain contradiction: The purpose #s of execution, and to say he purposed not the execution of his purpose, is to say plainly he purposed and purposed not, or he purposed not what he purposed. The examples of Pharaoh and Abraham, in the precepts given to them, are proofs of the former. But I must not insist upon particulars.
This, then, is all that here is intended : God making a law, a statute, about the continuance of the priesthood in the fomily of Aaron, affirms that then he said " his house should walk before him for ever;" that is, with approbation and acceptation, for as to the
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 167
right of the priesthood, that still continued in the house of Aaron, whilst it continued, notwithstanding the ejection of Eli and his. Now, whether there were any conditions in the promise made, which is Mr Goodwin's second improvement of this instance, may appear from the consideration of what hath been spoken concerning it. It is called " a law and statute," " the act." On that account, what- ever it were that God here points imto is but a moral legislative act, and not a physical determining act of the will of God, and, being a law of privilege in its own nature, it involves a condition; which the acts of God's will, vital and eternal, wherewith this law is compared, do openly disavow.
Let us now see the parallel between the two places insisted on for the explanation of the former of them ; which, as it will appear by the sequel, is the only buckler wherewith Mr Goodwin defends his hypo- thesis from the irresistible force of the argument wherewith he hath to do : — First, The one speaks of things spiritual, the other of things temporal; secondly. The one of what God will do, and the other of what he approves to be done, being done; thirdly. The one holds out God's decree and purpose concerning events, the other his law and statute concerning duties; fourthly. The one not capable of inter- posing conditionals without perverting the whole design of God re- vealed in that place, the other directly including conditions; fifthly, The one speaking of things themselves, the other only of the man- ner of a thing; sixthly. In the one God holds out what he will do for the good of his, upon the account of the efficacy of his grace ; in the other, what men are to do if they will be approved of him. And how one of these places can be imagined to be suited for the illus- tration and interpretation of the other, which agree neither in name nor thing, word nor deed, purpose nor design, must be left to the judgment of those who desire to ponder these things, and to weigh them in the balance of the sanctuary.