XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 441
or exhorted uiito by God or no. 2. If the will of a saint be imme- diately so affected by God that it stands inclined and bent to do the things which are proper to cause him to persevere, then is this bent and inclination wrought in the will of such a person after his being a saint, and consequently is not essential to him as a saint, but merely accidental and adventitious; and if so, then is there no inclination or bent in the will of a saint as such, or from his first being a saint, to persevere, or to do the things which accompany perseverance, but they come to be wrought in him afterward: which how consistent it is with the principles either of reason or religion, or their own, I am content that my adversaries themselves should judge. 8. If God doth immediately and irresistibly incline or move the wills of the saints to do the things which accompany perseverance, the said ex- hortations can be no means of effecting this perseverance ; for the will, being physically and irresistibly acted and drawn by God to do such and such things, needeth no addition of moral means, such as exhortations are (if they be any), in order hereunto. What a man is necessitated to, he needeth no farther help or means to do it. 4. The things which accompany perseverance import a continuance in faith and love to the end. If, then, the wills of the saints be immediately and irresistibly moved by God thus to continue, — I mean in faith and love to the end, — what place is there for exhortations to come in with their efficiency towards that perseverance? Need they be exhorted to continue in faith and love, or to persevere after the end ? Thus, then, we clearly see that the former of the two consequents mentioned cannot stand. God doth not by his Spirit irresistibly draw or move the wills of the saints to do the things which are necessary for the procuring their perseverance immediately, or without the instru- mental interposure of the said exhortations."
Ans. First, the intendment of this, as also of some following sec- tions, is to prove and manifest that the use of exhortations cannot consist with the efficacy of internal grace, and the work of the Spirit in producing and effecting those graces in us which in those exhor- tations we are provoked and stirred up unto; — a very sad undertak- ing truly, to my apprehension, and for which the church of God will scarce ever return thanks to them that shall engage in it! He was of another mind who cried, " Da, Domine, quod jubes, et jube quod vis." Yea, and the Holy Ghost hath, in innumerable places of Scrip- ture, expressed himself of another mind, promising to work effectu- ally in us what he requires earnestly of us ; by the one manifesting the efficacy of his grace, by the other the exigency of the duty which is incumbent upon us. Nay, never any saint of God once prayed in his life, seeking any thing at the hand of God, but was of another mind, if he understood his own supplications. To what is here urged against this catholic faith of believers, I say, —
442 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.
That exhortations are the means of perseverance, inasmuch as by them, in their place and kind, and with them, the Spirit of God eflec- tually works this perseverance, or the matter of it, in the saints. Those cloudy expressions of " Irresistibly and unfrustrably" we own no farther than as they denote the certainty of the event, and not the manner of the Spirit's operation; which also they do very un- handsomely. We leave out, then, in the proposal of our judgment about the use of exhortations, which Mr Goodwin opposeth, those terms, and add in their room, " By and with those exhortations," which he omits.
He saith, then, " This cannot be proved, because the saints live and die oftentimes in opposition and disobedience unto these exhor- tations."
But obedience is twofold : First, As to the general frame of the heart, — obedience in the habit; and so it is false that the saints live at any time in an ordinary course, much less die in opposition to those exhortatioDS. The law of God being written in their hearts, and they delighting in it in their inward man, they abide therein, the fruit of obedience for the most part being brought forth by them : and this sufficeth as to their perseverance. Secondly, It regardeth particular acts of obedience ; and in respect of them we all say that yet they all sin (" Optimus ille est, qui minimis urgetur"): but this prejudiceth not their perseverance, nor the general end of the ex- hortations afforded them for that purpose.
But he adds, secondly, " If God by his Spirit irresistibly draws his saints to persevere," ut sujjra.
But this is sorry sophistry, "which may be felt," as they say, " tiirough a pair of mittens;" for, —
1. Who says that God works hy force immediately upon the wills of men? Or who makes force and poiuer to be terms equivalent? or says that God cannot put forth the " exceeding greatness of his power in them that believe," but he must force or compel their wills? or, that he cannot " work in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure," immediately working in and with our wills, but he must so force them?