4 GO DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVEllANCE. [CHAP.
Paul and his company should be cast on an island for their preser- vation, provided the wind served for that end or purpose ! But who, I pray, commands the winds and seas? Doth the wind so " blow where it listeth" as not to be at the command of its Maker? Is it not enough that we cast off his yoke and sovereignty from man, but must the residue of the creation be forced so to pay their homage to our free wills as to be exempted thereby from God's disposal? If this part of the promise were infallible and absolute as to the cer- tainty of its accomplishment, why not the other part of it also?
S. Paul makes confession of his faith to the company concern- ing the accomplishment of this promise. "I believe God," saith he, 071 o'jrojg iSrai xa^' ov rpwov XfXdXrjrai /loi, — " it shall SO come to pass in the same manner as it was told me;" clearly engaging the truth and faithfulness of that God which he worshipped (for his testi- mony to whose truth he was then in bonds) for the accomplishment of what he had spoken to them, — namely, that not one of them should be lost. Now, supposing that any one person had, by any accident, fallen out of the ship, Mr Goodwin tells you there had been no opportunity or possibility left unto God to have fulfilled his pro- mise. True, for it had been wholly frustrated, he having undertaken for the lives of every one of them. But supposing that engagement of his, he that says any one might have so perished is more careful, doubtless, to defend his own hypothesis than the honour of the truth and faithfulness of God.
Evident then it is, notwithstanding the tortures, racks, and wheels, applied by Mr Goodwin to this text, with the confession pretended (and but pretended) to be extorted from it (which but that it hath gotten sanctuary under his name and wing would be counted ridicu- lous), that here is a promise of God making an event infallible and necessary in respect of its relation thereto, by a clear consistency with exhortations to the use of free and suitable means for the accom- plishment of the thing so promised.
Sect. 10. He objects farther to himself, "That in sundry places of Scripture, as 1 Cor, x. 12, 13, Phil. ii. 12, 13, Heb. vi. 4-6, 9, there are promises of perseverance and exhortations unto it joined together; and therefore men who deny a regular and due consistency between them do impute folly and weakness to the Holy Ghost." Whereunto he answers sundry things, to the end of the 11th section; as, —
First, " They are many degrees nearer to the guilt of the crime specified who affirm the conjunction mentioned to be found in the said scriptures, than they who deny the legitimacy of such a con- junction. The Incongruity of the conjunction hath been sufficiently evinced, but that any such conjunction is to be found either in the scriptures quoted, or in any others, is no man's vi.^ion but his who hath darkness for vision."
XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 461
Ans. If our adversary's ipse dixit may pass current, we shall quickly have small hopes left of carrying on the cause under consi- deration. All our testimonies must be looked upon as cashiered long since from attending any longer on the trial in hand, and all our arguments as blown away like flies in the summer. The very things here in question, — namely, that there is an inconsistency be- tween promises of perseverance and exhortations to the use of the means whereby it may be effected, that God hath made no such promises, or appointed no such exhortations, and that those who ap- prehend any such things have darkness for vision, — are all confirmed by the renewed stamp of teste meipso; to which proof I shall only say, " Yaleat quantum valere potest."
But he adds, " That in none of the places cited is there any pro- mise of perseverance is evident to him that shall duly consider the tenor and import of them.
" For, first, it is one thing to say and teach that God will so limit as well the force as the continuance of temptations, that the saints may be able to bear, another to make a promise of absolute perse- verance ; yea, these very words, ' That ye may be able to bear it,' clearly import that all that is here promised unto the believing Corinthians is an exhibiting of means to perseverance, if they will improve them accordingly, not an infallible certainty of their perse- verance. And that caveat, ' Let him that thinketh he stands take heed lest he fall,' plainly supposeth a possibility of his falling who thinketh, upon the best grounds, that he standeth sure. For that this caveat was not given to hypocrites or unsound believers, or to such who please themselves with a loose and groundless conceit of the goodness of their condition God-ward, is evident, because itwere better that such men should fall from their present standing of a groundless conceit than continue their standing, nor would the apostle have ever cautioned such to take heed of falling away whose condition was more like to be made better than worse by their falling. And, besides, to understand the said caveat of loose believers overthrows the pertinency of it to their cause who insist upon it to prove a due consistency between exhortations to perseverance and promises to perseverance, as is evident. If, then, it be directed to true and sound believers, it clearly supposeth a possibility, at least, of their falling in case they shall not take heed, or else their taking heed would be no means, at least no necessary means, of their standing; and farther, it supposeth also a possibility, at least, of their non- taking heed, or that they might possibly not take heed hereof, other- wise the caveat or admonition had been in vain. Men have no need of being admonished to do that which they are under no possibility to omit. If, then, the standing or persevering of the saints depends upon their taking heed lest they fall, and their taking heed in this