[3.] His permanency in this work, and efficacy by it. This living water springs up to "everlasting life." He ceases not until our spiri- tual life be consummated in eternity.
This, then, is the sum of this promise of our Saviour; He gives his Holy Spirit to his; who lives in them, and gives them such continual supplies of grace, that they shall never come to a total want of it, as they do of elementary water who have once drunk thereof. And from this spring doth this argument flow : They on whom the Sj)irit is bestowed to abide with them for ever, and to whom he constantly yields such sui)plies of grace as that they shall never be reduced to a total want for ever, they shall certainly and infallibly ])ersevere; but that this is the condition of all that come to Christ by believ- ing, or that Christ hath promised that so it shall be with them, is clear from his own testimony now insisted on : ergo-
viil] the indwelling of the spirit. 355
Unto this argument from the promise of our Saviour, Mr Good- win endeavours an answer, chap. xi. sect. 10-12, pp. 232, 233, and in the preface of it tells us, " That this scripture doth but face (if so much) the business in hand." To " face" it, I suppose, is to appear at first view in its defence ; and this, indeed, cannot well or colourably be denied, the words of it punctually expressing the very truth we intend to prove thereby; and this, notwithstanding the allaying qualification, " If so much," must needs somewhat prejudice the en- suing evasions. But we are yet farther confident that upon the more diligent and strict examination, it will be found to sj)eak to the very heart and soul of the business in hand. And ttie consideration of his reasons to the contrary doth seem only to give us farther light herein and assurance hereof. He says, then, —
" Here is no promise made that they who once believe, how un- worthily soever they shall behave themselves, shall still be preserved by God, or the Spirit of God, in believing, or that they shall be ne- cessitated always to believe."
Ans. This is the old play still. It is not at all our intendment to produce any promise of safeguarding men in the love of God, how vile soever they may prove, but of preserving them from all such un- worthiness as should render them utterly incapable thereof. And this is plainly here asserted, in the assurance given of the perpetual residence of the Spirit in them, with such continual supplies of grace from him as shall certainly preserve them from any such state or condition as is imagined. Of being necessitated to believe, I have spoken formerly. The expression is neither used by us, nor proper to the thing itself about which it is used, nor known in the Scripture as to this purpose ; and therefore we justly reject it as to its signifying any thing of the way and manner whereby we are preserved by the power of God through faith unto salvation. If it denotes only the certainty and infallibility of the event, as the phrase or locution is improper, so to deny that there is a promise of our being preserved by the Spirit of God in believing is not to answer our argument, but to beg the thing in question, yea, to deny the positive assertion of the Lord Christ. But if there be not such a promise in the words, what then is in them? vv^hat do they contain? Saith he, —
" They are only a declaration and assertion made by Christ of the excellency and desirableness of that life which he comes to give unto the world, above the life of nature, which is common unto all. This, by comparing the words with those in the former verse, is evi- dent. ' Whosoever drinketh of this Avater shall thirst again ; but who- soever drink etli of the water that I shall give him,' etc. That is, ' The best means that can be had and enjoyed to render this present life free from inconveniencies will not effect it; but whosoever shall drink, eujoy, receive, and believe, the doctrine which I shall ad-
356 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
minister inito him, shall hereby be made partaker of such a life, which shall within a short time, if men be careful in the interim to preserve it, by reason of the nature, and perfect condition, and con- stitution of it, be exempt from all sorrow, trouble, and inconvenience whatsoevei', as being eternal/"
Ans. [1.] That these words are only an assertion of the excellency and desirableness of that eternal life which Christ would give above the natural, that the woman sued to sustain, and that this appears from the context, is said, indeed, but no more. It is true, our Saviour doth divert the thoughts of the woman from the natural life, and care for provision about it, with an insinuation of a better life to be attained. But is this all he doth? or is this the intendment of the words under consideration? Doth not the main of the opposition or difference which at present he speaks unto lie in the supplies that are given for the two kinds of life whereof he speaks? The water, he tells her, which she drew from that well by which he sat, for the supply of her natural life, was such that, after her drinking of it, she should quickly return to the same condition of thirst as formerly be- fore she drank of it; but that which he gave was such as that who- ever drank of it should thirst no more, but be certainly preserved in and unto the full fruition of that life whereof it is the means and supply. The opposition is not between the lives continued, but the mean of consolation and its efficacy.