IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 377
servation in that condition, namely, that God would give them such means as they may use or not use at their liberty, which may be effectual or not effectual, as their own wills shall choose to make use of them; which he also takes for granted to be common to all the Avorld, and not to be peculiar unto believers.
But it is farther argiied, " If Christ should simply and absolutely intercede that no sin or wickedness whatsoever may destroy the faith of any true believer, and consequently deprive him of salvation, should he not hereby become that which the apostle rejects with indignation as altogether unworthy of him, I mean, a minister of sin? 'Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid." Or v/hereby, or wherein, can it lightly be imagined that Christ should become a minister of sin, rather than by interceding with his Father that such and such men, how vile and abominable soever they shall become, may yet be precious in his sight, and receive a crown of righteousness from his hand? Or doth not such an intercession as some men put upon him, as they who make him to intercede simply and absolutely for the perseverance of believers in their faith, amount to an intercession of every whit as vile and unworthy import as this?"
Ans. 1. That this is the tenor of Christ's intercession with his Father for men, " let them become as vile as they will, how vile and abo- minable soever, yet that they may be still precious in his sight, and that he would give them a crown of righteousness," Mr Goodwin knoweth full well not to be the doctrine of them he opposeth. If he shall otherwise affirm, it will be incumbent on him to produce some one author that hath wrote about this doctrine, in what language soever, and so stated it. If he be ignorant that this is not their doctrine, he ought not to have engaged into an opposition thereof If he argue that it is otherwise, this procedure is unworthy of him. That Christ intercedes for his saints that they may be kept from all such sins as would separate them from the love and favour of his Father, for which there is no remedy provided in the covenant of grace, and that their faith may not fail or perish under such sins as they may through temptation fall into, is the doctrine which he op- poseth, or at least ought to oppose, to make good his undertaking. '' Now, if this be so, then," saith he, " is Christ the minister of sin." Why so? He sees and foretells that Peter should deny him thrice, yet he prays that Peter's faith may not fail under that sin and wicked- ness. Is he therefore a minister of sin? Because he intercedes that his saints may not be given up to the power of sin, nor every time they are assaulted lie conquered by sin, is he therefore a minister of sin? or rather a deliverer from sin? That very thing which Mr Goodwin affirms would make him a minister of sin, he affirms himself to do in the case of Peter. How he will free himself from this charge and imi:>utation, ijjse viderit.
378 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.
2. What it is to intercede simjyli/ sucid absolutely for believers, that they may continue believing, we are not so clear in. Christ inter- cedes that they may be preserved by tlie power of his Father, in and through the use of those means which he graciously affords them, and the powerful presence of the Spirit of God with them therein ; and that not on any such absurd and foolish conditions as that they may be so preserved by his Father provided they preserve themselves, and continue believers on condition they continue to believe. And if this be of a " vile and unworthy import," the gospel is so too, and one of the most eminent graces that are inwrapped in the new covenant is so too.
What there is farther in Mr Goodwin, sect. 34, pp. 249, 250, unto this argument, is either a mere repetition of what was spoken before, or a pressing of consequences upon such supposals as he is pleased to make concerning the doctrine that he doth oppose. As we cannot hinder any man from making what supposals they please, and suiting inferences to them, manifesting their skill in casting down what themselves set up, so we are not in the least concerned in such theatrical contests.
What it is that we teach of the intercession of Christ for believers hath been sufficiently explained : the end and aim of it is, that they may be kept, that they may not be lost, that the evil one may not touch them, that they may be saved to the uttermost, and kept by the power of God unto salvation; all that the Lord Jesus hath for his church, either by his oblation or his intercession, procured, or doth procure, being made out unto them by the holy and blessed Spirit, which he sent them from his Father as the first-fruits of his under- taking for them, by and in the use of such means and ways as he hath appointed for them to Avalk in in reference to the end pro- posed. He intercedes that, through supplies of that Spirit, their faith fail not, that no temptation prevail against them, that they may have suitable helps in time of need, and so be preserved, according to the tenor of that sanctification which he is pleased to give them in this life, Avhich is imperfect, not from all sins, for it is the will of God to keep them and walk with them in a covenant of pardoning mercy ; not absolutely from this or that great sin, as is evident in the case of David and Peter, whereof, under such sins, the one lost not the Spirit nor the other his faith ; but from such sins, or such a course or way in and under sin, as would disappoint him, and make his desires frustrate as to the end first proposed, of bringing them to glory. So that, as the intendment of his oblation is meritoriously, and by way of procurement, to take away all our sins whatsoever, and yet in the application of it unto us, as to the taking of them away, by purifying us to be a holy people unto himself, it is not perfected and completed at once, nor the work thereof consummated