[2.] It is not the condition of the life natural, which is subject to dissolution and not capable of perfection, that is the reason why they thirst again and again that have Avater natural for the refresh- ment thereof ; but it is the nature of the means itself which is sup- plied, that is not fitted or suited to permanency and abiding use- fulness (as the water which Christ promises is), that he insists on. There is not any thing [which] leads us to suppose that it is the im- 'perfection of life, and not the condition of the means of natural life, that is primarily intended in the instituted comparison, though the frailty and nothingness of that life also be afterward intimated in the substitution of eternal life unto the thoughts of the poor woman in the room thereof.
[8.] I say that it is not the doctrine of Christ, but his Spirit prin- cipally, that he is here said to give as water; and that this is not promised to make men partakers of eternal life if in the interim they be careful to preserve it, but to preserve them to it, and to give them that care which as a grace is needful thereunto. The plain intendment of the promise is, that by the water they drink they shall be kept and preserved in the life whereof they are made par- takers, unto the fuhiess and perfection of it ; which preservation, by the parenthesis, " If any be careful in the interim to preserve it," is directly taken away from the Spirit that Christ promiseth, and
VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIKIT, 357
assigned to men's own care, even in contradistinction to all the bene- fits which they receive by him being so bestowed on them. The difference, then, here between Jesus Christ and Mr Goodwin is this : — Christ saith, " The water that he shall give will be a well spring- ing up to everlasting life ;" Mr Goodwin, " That it is the care of men to preserve themselves that produces that effect.''
[4.] The present exemption which we have by the water of Christ's giving is not from sorrow and trouble, but from thirst; that is, from what is opposed unto and is destructive of that life which he also gives, as natural thirst is unto natural life. But of this thirst and our exemption from it I have spoken before. It is not, then, the nature and condition of the life promised that he points unto, no farther than as it is coincident with the means of it here spoken of. Indeed, this means of life is our life, as to the inchoation of it here below, and its daily growing up unto perfection. But he adds, sect. 11, —
" That he doth not oppose that life, which accrues unto men by drinking that water which he gives them, unto the natural life, which they live by other means in respect of the present condition or constitution of it, or as it is enjoyed by men in this present world, is evident from hence, because he asserts it free from thirst (' Shall never thirst'). Now, we know that the saints themselves, notwith- standing that life of grace which is in them, by drinking that water that Christ hath given them, are yet subject to both kinds of thirst, as well that which is corporeal or natural as that which is spiritual; yea, the spiritual thirst unto which they are now subject, though it argues a deficiency of what they would farther have or desire to be, and in that respect is troublesome, yet is it argumentative of the goodness of their condition. Matt. v. 6."
Ans. [1.] The sum of this answer is, That the life here spoken of and promised is not that spiritual life whereof we are here made partakers, but eternal life, which is for to come, which, when any attain, they shall never fail in or fall from; but whether they may or shall attain it or no, here is nothing spoken. But here is no notice taken of the main opposition insisted on by our Saviour, be- tween the supplies of the Spirit for life eternal, which fail not, nor suffer them to thirst to whom they are given, and the supplies of natural life by elementary water, notwithstanding which they who are made partakers thereof do in a short season come to a total want of it again. Instead of answers to our argument from this place, we meet with nothing but perpetual diversions from the whole scope and intendment of it, and at last are told that the promise signifies only that men should not want grace when they come to heaven !
[2.] To prove that there is no promise of any abiding spiritual life here, these words, "They shall never thirst," are produced. That we
o58 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
shall Lave our life continued to the full enjoyment of it unto eter- nity, because such are the supplies of the Spirit bestowed on us that we shall never thirst, is the argument of our Saviour, That there is no such life promised or here to be attained, because in it we shall not thirst, is Mr Goodwin's.
[3.] It is not the intendment of our Saviour to pi'ove that we shall not thirst because we shall have such a life, but the quite contrary, that we shall have such a life, and shall assuredly be preserved, be- cause the supplies of the Spirit which he gives, will certainly take away the thirst, which is so opposite to it as to be destructive of it.