» 2 Cor. ii. 17.
196 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
lose nothing," extends itself to the whole compass of our Savioui-'s duty in reference to his Father's will for the safeguarding of be- lievers. And is it only death, and the state of dissolution of body and soul, that it is the will of God that he should deliver them from, and the power of that, that it should not have dominion over them in the morning ? The apostle tells us that he came to do the will of God, whereby we are sanctified, Heb. x. 9, 10. It was the will of God that he should sanctify us; and he tells his Father that he had kept all his own in the world, John xvii. 12; which, doubtless, was not his raising them from the dead. If he be the Mediator of the covenant of grace, if the promises of God be yea and amen in him, if he be our Head, Husband, and elder Brother, our Advo- cate and Intercessor, our Shepherd and Saviour, his keeping us from being lost extends itself no less effectually to our preservation from utter ruin in this life than to our raising at the last day; yea, and that exceptive particle ccXkd includes this preservation, as well as leads us to the addition of the other favour and privilege of being raised to glory at the last day. In a word, this whole discourse is added to make good that gi'acious promise of our Saviour, John vi. 85, " He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst;" which how it can be done by a naked enfjac^ement for the resurrection of them that come to him and abide with him, if many do, and most of all them that come to him may, depart from him and fall into everlasting ruin, needs Mr Goodwin's farther labour and pains to unfold. What is lastly added concern- ing Christ's doing the utmost of his Father's pleasure for their cus- tody, but the fault is their own who fall away, is the same inconsis- tent, ridiculous assertion with that erewhile considered; with this ad- dition, that whereas it is his Father's pleasure that they be saved, Christ doth his pleasure to the utmost, and yet saved they are not. And so much (if not too much) for the vindication of this testimony "witnessing to the truth that we have in hand.
Matt. xxiv. 24 comes in the next place to be considered (an un- questionable evidence to the truth), and that voluntarily, of its own accord, speaking so plain to the matter in hand, that it were a sin against clear light to refuse to attend unto it; so far is it from being " compelled to bear the cross of this service," as Mr Goodwin phrases the matter, chap. x. sect 9, pp. 181-183. " ' They shall seduce, if it were possible, the very elect.' Hence," saith he, " it is inferred that the deceiving or seducing of them that believe is a thing impossible; which is the drawing of darkness out of light." Strange ! to me it seems so far from a forced inference, or a strained drawing of a con- clusion, that it is but the conversion of the terms of the same iden- tical supposition. He that says they shall deceive the very elect, if it were possible, so mighty shall be their prevalency in seducing,
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUEPOSES. 197
seems to me (and would, I doubt not, do so to others, did not their prejudices and engagements force them to stop their ears and shut their eyes) to say that it is impossible the elect should be seduced.
But let the place, as it deserves, be more distinctly considered; it is among them which I refer to the head of the purposes of God, and a purpose of God there is (though not expressed, yet) included in the words. The impossibility of the seduction of some persons from the faith is here asserted. Whence doth this impossibility arise? Not from any thing in themselves, — not from their own careful con- sideration of all the concernments of their condition ; the only pre- servative in such a season, if some, who pretend themselves skilful and experienced, yea almost the only physicians of souls, may be believed. They can never stand upon such sands against that oppo- sition they shall be sure to meet withal. Our Saviour therefore intimates whence the impossibility expressed doth flow, in a descrip- tion of the persons of whom it is affirmed, in reference to the purpose of God concerning them. They are the " elect," those whom God hath "chosen before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without blame before him in love," His "purpose according to election" must stand firm, and therefore " the election" itself shall obtain.-^ This, then, is that which is here affirmed : God having chosen some, or elected them to life, according to the " purpose which he purposed in himself," and faith being bestowed on them, they be- lieving on the account of their being " ordained to eternal life," it is impossible they should be seduced so as to be thrown down from that state and condition of acceptance with God (for the substance of it) wherein they stand.^