240 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
plished, towards the cliildrcn of God. Though the things of the promise are often placed in dependence one on another, as means and ends, yet the promises themselves are absolute.
These few things being premised, I shall now name and insist upon some j^u'^'ticulai- promises, wherein the Lord hath graciously eno-affed himself that he will abide to be a God in covenant unto his people and their guide unto death ; from which I sliall labour to make good this argument for the perseverance of the saints: —
"That which that God, 'who cannot lie' nor ' deceive,' 'with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,'^ who is 'faith- ful ' in all his j^romises, and all whose words are ' faithfulness and truth,' hath solemnly promised and engaged himself unto, to this end, that they unto whom he so promiseth and engageth himself may from those promises receive ' strong consolation,'- — that he will cer- tainly perform and accomplish. That he will be a God and a guide unto death unto his saints, that he will never leave them nor for- sake them, that he Avill never cast them off nor leave them out of his favour, but will preserve them such as is meet for his holy majesty to embrace, love, and delight in, and that with an express notwithstanding for every such thing as might seem to provoke him to forsake them, he hath promised, and for the end mentioned ; there- fore, [the promise] that he will so abide with them, that his love shall be continued to them to the end, that he will preserve them unto himself, etc., according to his truth and faithfulness, shall be accom- plished and fulfilled." The inference hath its strength from the nature, truth, and faithfulness of God; and whilst they abide in any credit with the sons of men, it may seem strange that it should be de- nied or questioned. The major proposition of the forementioned argu- ment is examined by Mr Goodwin, chap. xi. sect 1, p. 225. Saith he, —
1. " What God hath promised in his word is certain in such a sense and upon such terms as God would be understood in his pro- nnses; but what he promised in one sense is not certain of perform- ance in the other."
Ans. Doubtless, God's meaning and intention in his promises is the rule of their accomplishment. This sometimes we may not be able to fathom, and thereupon be exposed to temptations not a few concerning their fulfilling; so was it with them with whom Paul had to do in reference to the promises made to the seed of Abraham. The question, then, is not whether that which is promised in one sense shall be performed in another; but whether God's promises have, and shall certainly have, all of them, according to his intend- ment, any performance at all. And the»aim of Mr Goodwin, in the example that he afterward produceth, is not to manifest that that which God promiseth shall certainly be performed only in that sense ' Titus i. 2; lleb. vi. 18 ; .lames i. 17 ; 1 Cor. i. t).
v.] ' THE PROMISES OF GOD. 241
wherein he made his promise, but that they may be performed, or not performed at all. It is not in whose sense they shall have their performance, but whether they shall have any performance or no. If the thing promised be not accomplished, the promise is not at all in any sense performed, unless Mr Goodwin will distinguish, and say there are two ways of any thing's performance, one whereby it is performed, another whereby it is not. But he proceeds to mani- fest this assertion by an induction of instances.
2. " God," saith he, " promised to Paul the lives of them that were in the ship. His intent and meaning was, not that they should all be preserved against whatever they in the ship might do to hinder that promise, but with this proviso or condition, that they in the ship should hearken unto him and follow his advice; which is evident from these words of Paul, ' Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved : ' and had they gone away, God had not made any breach of promise though they had been all drowned, Acts xxvii."'
Ans. First, when men seriously promise any thing, which is wholly and absolutely in their power to accomplish and bring about, causing thereby good men to rest upon their word, and to declare unto others their repose upon their honesty and worth, if they do not make good what they have spoken, we account them unworthy promise-breakers, and they do it at the peril of all the repute of honesty, honour, and faith, they have in the world. With God it seems it is otherwise. He makes a solemn, gracious promise to Paul that the lives of all them in the ship with him should be saved. Paul, on whom it was as much incumbent as on any man in the world not to engage the name of God (that God whom he worshipped and preached) in any thing whose truth might in the least be liable to exception, being in the way of declaring a new doctrine to the world, which would have been everlastingly prejudiced by any misprision of the faithfulness of that God in whose name and authority he preached it; the sum of that doctrine, also, being the exaltation of that God, in ojjposition to all the pretended deities of the world ;^ — he, I say, boasts himself upon the promise that he had received that there should be " no loss of any man's life among them," verses 22, 25. He gives the reason of his confident assertion when all hope was taken away: Verse 25, " I believe God," saith he, " that it shall be even as it was told me." His faith in God was in reference to the event, that it should come to pass as it was told him. Faith in God, divine faith, can have nothing for its object that may fail it. He doth not say that he believes that God will be faithful to his promise in general, but also tells them wherein his faithfulness doth consist, even in the performance and accomplishment of that which he had promised. This he informs the centurion and the rest in the ship with him ; and ' Acts xiv. 15, xvii. 24; 1 Tim. iv. 10.