17.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 223
it was eminently fulfilled, in our acceptation of it, unto all to whom it was made. But he adds, —
2. " That if it be not so to be understood, and so said to be ful- filled as above, it is impossible for any one to assign how and when this promise was fulfilled; for, — First, It was made to the whole people, and the fulfilling of it to a few will not confirm the truth of it. Secondly, The elect had no need of it, knowing themselves to be so, and that they should never fall away ; so that this is but to make void the glorious promise of God. And, thirdly. To ^ay that it was made to the elect is but to beg the thing in question."
Ans. 1. As far as the body of the people was concerned in it, it was, and shall be in the latter days, absolutely accomplished towards them. It was, it is, and shall be, fulfilled to all to whom it was made, if so be that God be faithful and cannot deny himself 2. It was, it is, and shall be, accomplished properly and directly to all the elect of that nation, to whom it was so made, as it hath been cleared already from Kom. ix.-xi., where the apostle, expressly and data opera, answers the very objection that Mr Goodwin makes about the accomplishing of these promises, concerning the hardening and re- jection of the greatest part of that people, affirming it to consist in this, that the " election obtained when the rest were hardened;" Avherein he did not beg the question, though he digged not for it, but answered by clear distinctions, as you may see, Rom. ix. 6, xi. 1, 2, 7. 8. Neither do all the elect after their calling know them- selves to be so, nor have they any other way to become acquainted with their election but by their faith in the promises : nor is it spoken like one acquainted with the course and frame of God's dealing with his saints, or with their spirits in walking with God, who supposeth the solemn and clear renovation of promises concern- ing the same things, with explanations and enlargements of the grace of them, to confirm and establish the communion between the one and the other, to be needless. And who make the promises of God void and of no effect? — we who profess the Lord to be faithful in every one of them, and that no one tittle of them shall fall to the ground or come short of accomplishment; or Mr Goodwin, who re- ports the grace mentioned in them, for the most part, to come short of producing the effect for which it is bestowed, and the engagements of God in them to depend so upon the lubricity of the wills of men, that mostly they are not made good in the end aimed at? The Lord will judge. But it is farther argued, —
8. " That the Scripture many times asserts the futurity or coming to pass of things not yet in being, not only when the coming of them to pass is certainly known, but when it is probable, upon the account of the means used for the bringing them to pass; for God saith in the parable, ' They will reverence my Son,' Mark xii. 6, and yet the
224 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
event was contrary. So upon tlie executing an offender, lie saith, ' The people sliall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously;^ ■which yet might not have its effect on all. So God saith, ' I will give them one heart;' not out of any certainty of knowledge or de- termination in himself that any such heart or way should actually be given them, which would infallibly produce the effect mentioned, but that he would grant such means as were proper to create such a heart in them."
A71S. 1. The nearer the bottom the more sour the lees. First, Doth God foretell the coming to pass of things future upon a probable conjecture, which is here assigned to him? Is that the intendment of the expression in the parable, " They will reverence my Son." Or was he mistaken in the event, the thing falling out contrary to his expectation? Or is there any thing in this, or the place mentioned, Deut. xvii. 12, 18, but only an expression of the duty of men upon the account of the means offered ? Is there any the least intima- tion of any intetit and purpose of God as to the events insisted on ? any promise of his effectual working for the accomplishing of them? any prediction upon the account of his purpose and. design, which are the foundation of all his predictions? Or is there any the least correspondency in name or thing between the places now instanced in and called in for relief with that under consideration ? This, then, is the sinew of Mr Goodwin's arguing in this place : " Sometimes when there are means offered men for the performance of a duty, the accomplishment of it is spoken of as of what ought to have suc- ceeded; and it is the fault of men to whom that duty is prescribed and these means indulged if it come not to pass; therefore, when God purposeth and promiseth to work and bring about such and such a thing, and engageth himself to a real efficiency in it, yet it may come to pass or it may not, — it may be accomplished, or God may fail in his intendment." 2. The sense here given to the pro- mise of God, " I will give them one heart," etc., hath been formerly taken into consideration, and it hath been made to appear that, notwithstanding all the glorious expressions of God's administration of means to work men into the frame intimated, yet, upon the matter, the intendment of the exposition given amounts to this: " Though God saith he will give us a new heart, yet indeed he doth not so give it to any one in the world, nor ever intended to do so; but this new heart men must create, make, and work out themselves, upon the means afforded them, which, being very emi- nent, are said to create such hearts in them, though they do it not, but only persuade men thereunto." A comment this is not much unlike the first that ever was made upon the words of God, Gen. iii. 5 ! Whether God or man create the new heart is the matter here in question.