The other instances, in the case of Saul and Paul, being more hetei-ogeneous to the business in hand than that of Eli, which went before, require not any particular help for the removal of them out of the way. Though they are dead as to the end for which they are produced, I presume no true Israelite in the pursuit of that Sheba in the church, the apostasy of saints, will be retarded in his way by their being cast before him. In brief, neither the connection of obedience and suitable rewards, as in the case of Saul, nor the neces- sity of means subservient to the accomplishment of purposes (them- selves also falling under that purpose of Him who intends the end and the fulfilling of it), as in the case of Paul, is of the least force to persuade us that the eternal, immanent acts of God's will, which he pursues by the effectual, irresistible acts of his grace, so as to com- pass the end wdiich he hath from everlasting determinately resolved
1G8 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.
to bring about, are suspended upon imaginary conditions, created in the brains of men, and, notwithstanding their evident inconsistency ■with the scope of the Scripture and design of God therein, intruded into such texts of Scripture as on all hands (which will be evident in the sequel of this discourse) are fortified against them.
Besides, in the case of Paul, though the infallibility of the predic- tion did not in the least prejudice the liberty of the agents who were to be employed for its accomplishment, but left room for the exhor- tation of Paul and the endeavours of the soldiers, yet it cuts off all possibility of a contrary event, and all supposal of a distinctive pur- pose in God, upon the account whereof he cannot predict the issue or event of any thing whatsoever. But of this more largely afterward.
But this is farther argued by Mr Goodwin, from the purposes of God in his threatenings, in these words : " Most frequently the pur- pose and decree of God concerning the punishment of wicked and ungodly men is expressed by the Holy Ghost absolutely and cer- tainly, without the least mention of any condition, or relaxation, or reversion; yet, from other passages of Scripture, it is fully evident that this decree of his is conditional in such a sense which imports a non-execution of the punishment therein declared upon the repent- ance of the persons against whom the decree is. In like manner, though the purpose and decree of God for the justification of those who are called (and so for the glorifying of those that shall be jus- tified) be, in the scripture in hand, delivered in an absolute and unconditional form of words, yet it is no way necessary to suppose (the most familiar, frequent, and accustomed expressions in Scripture in such cases, exempting us from any such necessity) that therefore these decrees must needs bring forth against all possible interveni- ences whatever: so that, for example, he that is called by the word and Spirit must needs be justified, whether he truly believe or no; and he that is justified must needs be glorified, whether he persevere or no."
Ans. First, That the threatenings of God are moral acts, not decla- rative, as to particular persons, of God's eternal purposes, but sub- servient to other ends, together with the law itself, whereof they are a portion (as the avoiding of that for which men are threatened), is known. They are appendices of the law, and in their relation there- unto declare the connection that is between sin and punishment, such sins and such punishments.
Secondly, That the eternal purposes of God concerning the works of his grace are to be measured by the rule and analogy of his temporal threatenings, is an assertion striking at the very root of the covenant of grace, and efiicacy of the mediation of the Lord Jesus, yea, at the very being of divine perfections of the nature of God himself. This there is, indeed, in all threatenings, declared of the absolute pur[)ose
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 169
and unchangeable decree of God, that all impenitent sinners shall be punished according to what in his wisdom and righteousness he hath apportioned out unto such deservings, and threateneth accordingly. In this regard there is no condition that doth or can, in the least, im- jDort a non-execution of the punishment decreed, neither do any of the texts cited in the margin of our author prove any such thing. They all, indeed, positively afSrm [that] faithless, impenitent unbelievers shall be destroyed ; which no supposal whatsoever that takes not away the subject of the question, and so alters the whole thing in debate, can in the least infringe. Such assertions, I say, are parts of the law of God revealing his will in general to punish impenitent un- believers; concerning which his purpose is absolute, unalterable, and steadfast.
The conclusion, then, which Mr Goodwin makes is apparently racked from the words by stretching them upon the unproportioued bed of other phrases and expressions, wholly heterogeneous to the design in this place intended. Added here are supposed conditions in general, not once explained, to keep them from being exposed to that shame that is due unto them when their intrusion, without all order or warrant from heaven, shall be manifested, only wrapped up in the clouds of possible interveniences ; when the acts of God's grace, whereby his purposes and decrees are accomplished, do consist in the effectual removal of the interveniences pretended, that so the end aimed at in the unchangeable counsel of God may, suitably to the determination of his sovereign, omnipotent, infinite, wise will, be accomplished. Neither doth it in the least appear that any such calling by the word and Spirit as may leave the persons so called in their unbelief, — they being so called in the pursuit of this purpose of God to give them faith and make them conformable to Christ, — may be allowed place or room in the haven of this text. The like may be said of justification wherein men do not persevere. Yea, these two supposals are not only an open begging of the thing in contest, but a flat defying of the apostle as to the validity of his demonstra- tion, that " all things work together," etc.