" Yea, but," saith Mr Goodwin, " no Scripture proves that those whom Christ preserves must, by any compulsory, necessitating power, use their diligence in preserving themselves." And who, I pray, ever said they did ? Compulsory actings of grace are your own figment; so are all such necessitating acts which proceed any farther than only as to the infallibility of the event aimed at. God doth not compel the wills of men when he works in them to will.* Christ doth not compel men to care and diligence when he works in them holy cai'e and diligence. When the disciples said unto the Lord, "Increase our faith," they did not pray that they might be compelled to believe. God's working in them that believe according to the exceeding great- ness of his power, " strengthening them with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy- fulness,"^ is very far from any compulsion or necessitation inconsis- tent with the most absolute freedom that a creature is capable of. He that works faith in believers can continue it and increase it in them without compulsion.* And this is the sum of Mr Goodwin's answer to an argument that, notwithstanding all which he hath spoken, hath yet strength enough left to cast his whole building down to the ground. What he farther speaks to the particular place which gave occasion to this discourse may briefly be considered: —
He speaks something to John vi. 37, which I insisted not on. As to the purpose in hand, he tells you that " Christ will in no wise cast out rh epyJ[ji.svo\), ' him that is coming ;' but yet he that is coming, in his way may turn back and never come fully up to him."
Ans. But if this be not huckstering of the word of God, I know
* John XV. 5 ; Isa. xxx. 1. » John viii. 32 ; Rom. vi. 18 ; Luke xvii, 5.
3 Col. i. 11, 12. ♦Epb. ii, 8.
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 195
not Avliat is.^ Tlie Avords before in the same verse are, " All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." Saith Mr Goodwin, " They may come but half way, and so turn back again, not coming fully home to him." Saith Christ, " They shall come to me." Saith Mr Goodwin, " They may perhaps come but half way." " Nunc satis est dixisse, ego mira poemata pango." But why so? Why, Ipy^oixivov is "com- ing,"— a coming, it seems, in fieri, but not in facto esse; that is, it denotes a tract of time whilst the man is travelling his journey, as though believing were a successive motion as to the act of laying hold on Christ. But is he that is on his way, that Christ receiveth, a believer or not? hath he faith or not? If he hath no faith, the faith whereof we speak, how can he be said to be " coming," seeing the " wrath of God abideth on him?" John iii. 36. If he hath faith, how is it that he is not come to Christ? Hath any one true faith at a distance from him? God gives another testimony, John i. 11, 12. But saith he, " There is nothing in the words that they are under no possibility of falling away who come to Christ." But, — 1. There is in those that follow, that, as to the event, they are under an impossi- bility of so doing, in respect of the will and purpose of God (which suffice th me), as shall be made to appear. 2. That emphatical expression, Ou (ir\ sxQdXu s^u, " I will in no wise cast them out," ex- presses so much care and tenderness in Christ towards them, that we are very apt to hope and believe that he will not lose them any more, but that he will not only not cast them out, but also, accord- ing to his Father's appointment, that he will keep them, and preserve them in safety, until he bring them to glory ; as is fully asserted, John vi. 89, 40, as hath been declared.
Again, Mr Goodwin tells you, "It is not spoken of losing be- lievers by defection of faith, but by death ; and to assure believers of this, Christ tells them it is his Father's will that he should, raise them up at the last day. Besides, if any be lost by defection from faith, this cannot be imputed to Christ, who did his Father's pleasure to the utmost for their preservation, but to themselves."
Ans. For the perverting of verse 37, the beginning of it was left out ; and for the accomplishing of the like design upon verse 39 (which farther clears the mind and intendment of Christ in the words), verse 40 is omitted. He tells you that it is the will of the Father that every one that comes to him, that is, that believes on him, have everlasting life. What is everlasting life in the gospel is well known from John xvii. 3. And unto this bestowing on them everlasting life, his raising of them at the last day, as was mentioned, is a necessary consequent, — namely, that they may be brought to the full and com- plete fruition of that life which here in some measure they are made partakers of. Even in the words of verse 39, that passage, " I should