4. I wonder what chimerical church he hath found out, to which promises are made and privileges granted otherwise than upon the account of the persons whereof it is constituted. Suppose, I pray, that promises of the residence of the Spirit for ever with it be made to the church, which is made up of so many members, and that all these members, every one, should lose their interest in it, what sub- ject of that promise would remain? What universal is this, that hath a real existence of itself and by itself, in abstraction from its particulars, in which alone it hath its being? or what whole is that
318 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
which is preserved in the destruction and dissolution of all its essen- tially constituent parts? The promises, then, that are made to the church are of two sorts: — (1.) Of such grace and mercies as, whether inker PMt or relative, have their residence in and respect unto par- ticular persons as such. Of this sort are all the promises of grace, of sanctification, as also of justification, etc. ; which are all things of men's personal spiritual interest. The promises made to the church of this nature are made unto it merely as consisting of so many, and those elected, redeemed persons, whose right and interest as those individual persons they are. (2.) Of all such good things as are the exurgency of the collected state of the saints, in reference to their spiritual, invisible communion, or visible gathering into a church constituted according to the mind of Christ and his appointment in the gospel. And these also are all of them founded on the former, and depend wholly upon them, and are resolved into them. All promises whatever, then, made to the church, the body of Christ, do not respect it primarily as a corporation, which is the second no- tion of it, but as consisting of those particular believers; much less as a chimerical universal, having a subsistence in and by itself, abstracted from its particulars. This evasion, then, notwithstand- ing, this promise of our Saviour doth still continue to press its testi- mony concerning the perjietual residence of the Holy Spirit with believers.
The scope of the place enforces that acceptation of these words which we insist upon. Our blessed Saviour, observing the trouble and disconsolation of his followers upon the apprehension of his de- parture from them, stirs them up to a better hope and confidence by many gracious promises and engagements of what would and should be the issue of his being taken away, John xiv. 1. He bids them free their hearts from trouble, and in the next words tells them that the way whereby it was to be done was by acting faith on the promises of his Father, and on those which in his Father's name he had made and was to make unto them. Of tliese he mentions many in the following verses, whereof the fountain head and spring is that of giving them the Comforter, not to abide with them for a season, as he had done with his bodily presence, but to continue with them as a comforter (and consequently to the discharging of his whole dispensation towards believers) for ever. He speaks to them as believers, as disconsolate, dejected believers, quickening their faith by exhortations ; and gives them this promise as a solid founda- tion of peace and composedness of spirit, which he exhorted them unto. And if our Saviour intendeth any thing but what the words import, — namely, that he will give his Holy Spirit as a comforter, to abide with them for ever, — the promise hath not the least suitable- ness to relieve them in their distress, nor to accomplish the end for
VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 819
which it was given them. But against this it is excepted, chap. xi. sect. 13, p. 233:—
1. " Evident it is that ov;r Saviour doth not in this place oppose the abiding or remaining of the Holy Ghost to his own departure from the hearts or souls of men into which he is framed or come, but to his departure out of the world by death, which was now at hand."
Ans. This is a weighty observation ! yet withal it is evident that he opposeth the abiding of the Spirit with them as a comforter to his own bodily presence with them for that end. His was for a sea- son, the other to endure for ever. And I desire to know how our Saviour Christ comes or enters into the souls or hearts of men but by his Spirit, and how these things come here to be distinguished. But,—
2. He says, " By the abiding of the Comforter with them for ever, he doth not mean his perpetual abode in their hearts, or the heart of any particular man, but his constant abiding in the world, in and with the gospel and the children thereof: in respect of which he saith of himself elsewhere, ' I am with you always, even to the end of the world;' as if he should have said, 'This the purpose of my Father in sending me into the world requires that I should make no long stay in it. I am now upon my return. But when I come to my Father, I will intercede for you, and he will send you another Comforter, upon better terms for staying and continuing with you than those on which I came; for he shall be sent, not to be taken out of the world by death, but to make his residence with and among you, my friends and faithful ones, for ever.' Now, fi'om such an abiding of the Holy Ghost with them as this cannot be inferred his pei'petual abiding with any one personal believer determinately, much less with every one."