To the example urged, I shall only ask what Mr Goodwin's judg- ment is of the promises that God hath made to believers that they
24-i DOcxraNE of the saints' perseveea>;ce. [chap.
shall never relapse into their former state of unbelief, and on what condition they are made? Whether his promise of his love unto and acceptance of believers, wherein he will abide for ever, do not infer their preservation in the condition wherein they are (that is, as believers), will in the next place fall under our consideration. Your conclusion is, in the sense explained you admit the proposition, " Whatsoever God promiseth is certain," — that is, it shall certainly be fulfilled, or it shall not !
There is, moreover, no small contribution of strength, as to our establishment in the faith of it, given to our proposition by the signal engagement of the faithfulness of God for the accomplishment of the promises which he makes unto us, as it is manifested in these Vv'ords of the apostle, 1 Cor. i. 9, " God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son." In the foregoing verse, he telleth them that God will confirm them to the end, that they may be blameless in the day of the Lord Christ ; of which confident as- sertion he gives them this account, " God is faithful," to make good his promises made unto them; he changeth not. When a promise is once passed, that which first presents itself to the consideration of them to whom it is made, and whose concernment it is that it be fulfilled, is the faithfulness of him that hath made the promise. This ])ropcrty of God's nature doth the apostle therefore mind the saints of, to lead them to a full assvu-ance of their preservation. His pro- mise being passed, fear not his faithfulness for its accomplishment. Might there in this case a supposal be allowed of any such interveni- encies as might intercept them in the way of enjoying what God truly promised, and cause them to come short thereof, what assur- ance could arise to them from the consideration of the faithfulness of God, who made those promises unto them? The faithfulness of God, then, is engaged for the accomplishment of the thing promised, which also shall be done in case that fail not. So also 1 Thess. V. 23, 24, " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it." He assures them of their preserva- tion in and unto the enjoyment of the things which he prayed for, and that upon the account of his faithfulness who had promised them. And saith he, " He will do it," — namely, because he is faithful. Let the oppositions to it be never so many, the difficulties never so great, the interveniencies what they will, " he is faithful, and he will do it," as it is affirmed, 2 Thess. iii. 3, " But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep .you from evil;" as also in 1 Cor. x. 13, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." The same
v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 245
faithfulness of God is held out as that upon the account whereof no temptation shall befall believers, so as to separate them from him. The promise here peculiarly confirmed by it and established on it is such as no condition can tolerably be fixed unto. " I will not suffer believers to be overcome with temptations, in case they be not over- come with temptations," is a promise not to be ascribed to the infi- nite wisdom of God, with which we have to do ; and yet no other can with the least colour be proposed. All sin, all falling from God, is upon temptation. Though Satan and the world should have no hand in drawing men aside from God, yet what they do from their own lusts, they do from temptation, James i. 14, 15. If God in his faithfulness will not suffer any temptation to prevail against be- lievers, unless they neglect their duty and fall from him, — and they can no otherwise neglect their duty nor depart from him but upon the prevalency of temptation,— their abiding with him, their final uncon- querableness, hath a certainty answerable to the faithfulness of God.
This part of our strength Mr Goodwin attempts to deprive us of, chap. xi. sect. 18, p. 236, in these words: " Whereas the apostle men- tioneth the 'faithfulness of God' as that divine principle in him, or attribute, out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers unto the end, and so keep them from evil, by ' faithfulness' he doth not necessarily mean that property or attribute of his that renders him true and just, or constant in the performance of his promises; as if the apostle in these or any like places supposed such a promise, one or more, made by him, by which he stands obliged to establish and confirm his saints unto the end by a strong and irresistible hand."