VOL. XI. 16
242 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
if ill the issue it had otherwise fallen out, there had not been any colour of justifying the faith of that God he served, or his own truth in bearing witness to him. Had any perished, those that remained would have argued him of lying. " Yea, but saith he not himself, * Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.'" He did so indeed, and thereby declared the necessity of using suitable means, when Providence affords them to us, for the accomplishment of ap- pointed, determined ends. God, who promiseth any thing, and afford- eth means for the attaining of it, will direct them to whom those promises are made to the use of those means; as he doth the cen- turion by Paul. It being incumbent in this case on his holy Majesty, upon the account of his engaged faithfulness, to save them, he will yet have them subservient to his promise in their endeavours for their own safety. Means may be assigned for an end as to their ordinary subserviency thereunto, without any suspending of the event on them, as a condition of an uncertain issue and accomplishment. And there- fore that this solemn promise made unto Paul, whose event and ac- complishment, upon the account of his behoving God, he absolutely believed, and whose performance he foretold, without the least inti- mation of any condition whatever (only he bids them not throw away the means of their preservation), should depend as to its fulfilling on such a condition as, in respect of the event, might not have been (God Avho made the promise not making any infallible provision for the condition), and so have been actually frustrate, is an assertion not only not grounded on these words of Paul, setting out the suitable means of the providence of God for the accomplishment of an ap- pointed end, but also derogatory in the highest to the glory of the truth and faithfulness of God himself. But, —
S. " That promise," saith he, " of our Saviour to his disciples. Matt. xix. 28, that they who followed him in the regeneration should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Judas being yet one of them, was not fulfilled ; and in case the rest had declined, they also with him might have come short of the promise made unto them."
Ans. Christ " knew what was in man," and had no need of any to tell him ; he knew from the beginning who it was that should be- tray him, and plainly pronounced him to be a devil. He knew he was so, that he believed not; that he would continue so; that he would betray him; that his end would be desperate; he pronounced a curse upon him, as being cursed by David, Ps. cix., so many genera- tions before his coming into the world :^ and is it probable now that he promised this man a throne for his following him in the regenera- tion, which [it] is most certain (take it in what sense you will) he did never follow him in, but only as he gave him his bodily attendance ' JoLu vi. G4, 70, 71.
V.J THE PROMISES OF GOD. 243
in his going up and down ? He was never admitted to be witness of his resurrection. Tlie time being not yet come wherein a discovery was to be made of the hypocrisy of Judas, that he might have space to carry on the work which he had to do, and the number of those who in a peculiar manner were to bear witness to the completing of the whole work of regeneration in the resurrection of Christ being: twelve, he who was afterward admitted into that number being one that now followed him, Acts i. 21,22, our blessed Saviour telleth them indefinitely, to their consolation, what will be the glorious issue of their following him, and bearing witness to him in this work. That which is promissory in the words is made to them who forsook all and followed him in the work mentioned: which, assuredly, he who was always a thief, a devil, a covetous person, that followed not in the main of the work itself, was none of; that promise being after- ward fulfilled to another then present with Christ. It is granted, if the rest of the twelve had fallen away, you may suppose of them what you please. That they might fall away is to beg that which you cannot prove, nor will ever be granted you, though you should resolve to starve yourself if you get it not. But this is, —
4. " Confirmed out of Peter Martyr, whose doctrine it is that the i:)romises of God are wont to be made with a respect unto the present estate and condition of things with men; — that is, they shall be per- formed unto men abiding under the qualifications unto which they are made; as, for example, what promises soever God maketh to believers with respect had to their faith, or as they are believers, are not to be looked on as performable, or obliging the maker of them unto them, in case they shall relapse into their former unbelief"
Ans. It is too well known how and to what end our author cites Peter Martyr and men of the same judgment with him in this con- troversy, and to how little advantage to his cause with discerning men he hath done it. In the same place from whence these words are taken, the author distinguisheth of the promises of God, and telleth you that some of them are conditional, which are, saith he, of a legal nature, which only show the connection between the con- dition or qualification they require and the thing they promise thereunto; and such are those whereof he speaks: but others, he tells you, are absolute and evangelical, not depending on any condi- tion in us at all. And so he tells us, out of Chrysostom, that this of our Saviour, Matt. xix. 28, is of the former sort ; and the accomplish- ment of such like promises as these he informs us to consist not in the actual fulfilling of what is conditionally affirmed, but in the cer- tain truth of the axiom, wherein the condition and the event as such are knit together.