5. The greatest inconsistency that can be imagined between ex- hortations and promises, as by us explained, is no more than this, that in one place God pi^omiseth that unto us as his grace, which in another he requires of us as our duty ; between which two who- ever feigns an opposition, he doth his endeavour to set the covenant of grace, as to us proposed and declared, at variance with itself.
The whole ensuing discourse, unto sect. 12, drawing deep upon another controversy, — namely, " the manner of the operation of grace," — and being for the most part borrowed from what is delivered on that head in the Arminian writings,^ might be passed over as not of any necessary consideration in this place. What we assign to the exhortations of the word, and their consistency with whatever else we teach of the saints' perseverance, being already heard, this argument is at its proper issue. But the task undertaken is not to be waived or avoided; I shall therefore proceed to the discussion of it. ThiTS, then, he goes on : —
" If," saith he, " such exhortations as we speak of be a means to effect the perseverance which our adversaries suppose to be promised in the saints, then must the act of perseverance in the saints neces- sarily depend upon them, so as that it cannot, nor will, be effected without them; that is, mthout the saints submitting themselves to them : but persevering upon these terms clearly supposeth a possi- bility of non-persevering; for whatsoever depend eth upon a mutable condition, and which possibly may not be performed, may be also possible never to come to pass."
Ans. 1. Exhortations are improperly said to be "a means to effect perseverance." We say only that they are means to stir up, quicken, and increase, those graces in the exercise whereof the saints, accord- ing to the purpose and pi'omise of God, do persevere.
2. The perseverance of the saints doth consist in the abiding and continuance of those graces in them which those exhortations do so stir up and further or increase ; and in that regard there is a connec- tion between the perseverance of the saints and the exhortations mentioned, yea, a dependence of the one on the other. But this
' Acta Sjncdal.
440 DOCTRINE OF THE SAtNTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.
dependence ariselh not from the nature of the things themselves, whence such a certainty as is asserted would not arise, but from the purpose and appointment of God that they should be effectual to that end. And therefore, —
3. A " perseverance on these terms supposeth a possibility of non- perseveriug," if you regard only the nature of the things themselves, and set aside all consideration of the purpose and promises of God concerning the end, which is to beg the thing in hand; yea, the promise of God extends itself to the certain accomplishment of the saints' submission to those exhortations. So that the end aimed at doth not depend on a "mutable condition" (if I understand any thiug of that expression, so unsuited to the business in hand), the perform- ance of the condition ("or the yielding of such obedience as is re- quired to the essence of the saints' perseverance) being certain also from the promises of God.
His 5th section is as followeth : " If it be said that the said ex- hortations are means of the saints' persevering in this respect, because God by his Spirit irresistibly and unfrustrably draws and persuades the saints to obey these exhortations as means of their persevering, I answer, It cannot be proved that God doth draw or persuade his saints upon any such terms to obey these exhortations, nay, frequent experience showeth, and our adversaries' doctrine, frequently men- tioned, expressly granteth, that the saints many times are so far from obeying these exhortations, that they walk for a long time in full opposition to them, as in security, looseness, vile practices. Nor have they yet proved, nor, I believe, ever will prove, but that they may walk, yea, and that many have thus walked, I mean in full opposi- tion to the said exhortations, to their dying day. Secondly, If God by his Spirit irresistibly draws his saints to obey the exhortations we speak of, he thus draweth them either by such a force or power im- mediately acted upon their wills, by which they are made willing to obey them, or else he maketh use of the said exhortations so to work or affect their wills that they become willing accordingly. If the former be asserted, then, 1. The said exhortations are no means whereby the perseverance of the saints is effected, but God irresist- ibly by his Si)irit: for if the will be thus immediately affected by God after such a manner, and wrought to such a bent and inclina- tion, as that it cannot but obey the said exhortations, or do the things which the said exhortations require, then would it have done the same thing whether there had been any such exhortations in being or no, and consequently these exhortations could have no manner of efficiency about their perseverance; for the will, according to the common saying, is of itself ' a blind faculty,' and follows its own pre- dominant bent and inclination, without taking knowledge whether the wavs and actions towards which it stands bent be commanded