2. He doth very faintly, when he hath made the farthest step in confident asserting that he dares venture upon (it may be, and it is most likely), suj^pose that the faithfulness of God in these places under consideration may be taken in such a sense as that before described. But, —
(1.) This is no sense at all of the faithfulness of God, neither is the word ever used in Scripture to signify any such thing in God or man, nor can it with any tolerable sense be applied to any such thing; neither would there be any analogy between that which in God we call faithfulness and that virtue in man which is so termed. Nor is the faithfulness of God here mentioned upon any such account as will endure this description, being insisted on only to assure the saints of the steadfastness and unalterableness of God in the perform- ance of his promises made to them; neither is the obligation of God to continue his love and favour, with grace and means of it, to believers, founded upon such a disposition as is imagined, but in the free purpose of his will, which he purposed in Jesus Christ before the world was. So that there is not the least appearance of truth or soundness of reasoning, or any thing that is desirable, in this attempt to corrupt the word of God.
(2.) Then the faithfulness of God in the scriptures in hand be- speaks his truth and stability in the performance of his promises made of establishing believers to the end, keeping them from evil, not suffering any temptation to befall them, but making withal a way to escape. In all which God assures them he will prevent all such carelessness and nesflisfence in them as is inconsistent with their establishment; which he will certainly accomplish.
And this is our major proposition, with its supplies of light and strength, freed from such exceptions as Mr G. supposes it liable unto.
For the assumption, I shall not much trouble myself with that ridi- culous sense (called " a sober and orthodox explication") which Mr Goodwin is pleased to put upon it to allow it to pass current. "In this
248 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
seuse," saitli he, " it is most true that God hath promised that all be- lievers shall persevere; that is, that all true believers formally con- sidered, that is, as such and abiding such, shall persevere, namely, in his grace and favour:" but this he presumes is not our sense, chap, xi, sect. 2, p. 22G. And well he may presume it; for, whatever his greatest skill may enable him unto, we can make no sense of it but this, " God hath promised believers shall persevere in case they per- severe;'"' Avhich is to us upon the matter no sense at all. To persevere in God's grace and favour is to continue in faith and obedience; which if men do, God hath solemnly premiised and sworn that they shall so do ! Certainly there is an orthodox sense in God's promises that is not nonsense. Be it granted, then, that this is not our sense, not so much because not ours as because not sense, what is our mean- ing in this proposition? " It is," saith Mr Goodwin, " that God will so preserve believers that none of them shall make shipwreck of their faith, upon what quicksands of lust and sensuality soever they shall strike, against what rock of obduration aud impenitency soever they dash." But I beseech you, who told you that this was our sense of this proposition? being, indeed, no more sense than that which you give in for your own. By " striking on the quicksands of lust, and dashing upon rocks of sensuality, impenitency, and obduration," you have in other places sufficiently explained yourself to intend their falling under the power of sin. And is this asserted by us to be the tenor of God's promises to believers, or is it not? or do you not know that it is not so? Did ever any say that God preserveth men in be- lieving under obduration and impenitency? — that is, under unbelief; for no men can be obdurately impenitent but unbelievers. Do not you know that we maintain that the grace faithfully engaged to be bestowed on them is given them to this end, to preserve them from the power of sin, from obduration and impenitency, and shall cer- tainly be effectual for that purpose?
" Prima est hrec ultio, quoil so
Judice, nemo noccus absolvitur."
CHAPTER VI.
PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED.
The furmcr argument confirmed by an induction of particuliir instances— Jo>hiia i. 5 opened — Tlio concernment of all believers in that promise proved by the apostle, Ileb. xiii. 5. — The general interest of all believers in all the pro- mises of God eleareil — Objections answered — How Old Testament promises may be improved — The jiromise insisted on relates principally to s])iritiials — The strength of it to the end intended— 1 Sam. xii. 22, to whom the promise there is given — The twofold use of this promise: threats to wicked men of use to the saints; promises to the saints of use to wicked men — Isa. iv. 2-4,
VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 249
Ps. Ixxxix. 30-37, opened — A condition of backsliding supposed in believers, yet they not rejected — God's abiding with his saints upon the account of his,