462 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,
kind be sucli a thing which they may possibly omit, evident it is that there is a possibility of their non-persevering."
A71S. This last division of the 10th section labours to evince that in the first of the places above mentioned, namely, 1 Cor. x. 12, 13, there is not a promise of perseverance in conjunction with exhorta- tions unto the use of means unto that end. The words are, " Where- fore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man : but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." But, —
1. It is not in the least measure necessary, nor can be upon any account whatever required of us, that we should produce texts of Scripture in an immediate dependence and coherence in the same place, containing both the promises and exhortations mentioned, they being, for the most part, proposed upon most different accounts, and for immediately different ends and purposes; — the one (namely), as in the revelation of them, respecting our consolation, the other our obedience. Nor can they ever the more be denied to be in a conjunction and consistency, though they are not to be found but in different places of Scripture (which that they are, especially as to that case which is questioned, hath been abundantly declared), than if they were still combined in the same coherence and connection of words. But yet, —
2. I say there is, in the place forenamed, a most pathetical ex- li07'tation to the use of the means whereby we may persevere, and a most infallible promise that we shall so persevere, and not by any temptation whatever be utterly cast down or separated from God in Christ: the first in verse 12, "Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall," and verse 14, " Where- fore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry;" the latter in verse 13, " There hath no temptation taken you," etc. First, That there is an exhortation to the use of means for perseverance is not denied by our author, but granted, with an attempt to improve it for the fur- therance of his own design. That there is a promise also of perse- verance is no less evident. The diversion and turning away of any believer from God must be by temptation. Temptations are of various sorts, both in respect of their immediate rise, nature, and efficiency. Whatever (whence ever it proceed) turns from God, more or less, in part or in whole, as is imagined, is temptation. Now, the apostle here engageth the faithfulness of God in the pre- servation of believers from the power of temptation, so as it shall not prevail against them to the end before specified. " God," saith he, "is faithful;" and there is no need of his mentioning that property of God, which is his immutable constancy in the performance of his pro-
XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE REFUTED, 463
mises, but only to assure believers that he will preserve them as he hath spoken. The thing promised by the apostle in the name of God is (not only that the saints may be able to bear temptations that shall befall them, v'ttsp o duvach, and rod duvac^ai u,cLag hviviyxitv, having quite another importance than what is here intimated in the expres- sion " May be able/' in capital letters), that he will not suffer any temptation to come upon them that shall be above that strength, and prevalent against it, which he will communicate to them ; and for those which do befall them, he will make way for their escaping, that with and by the strength received they may bear them. So that not only sufficiency of means to persevere, but perseverance itself by those means, and God's ordering all things so in his faithfulness that no assault shall befall them above the power of the strength given them to bear, is here asserted. Now, the promise here given is either absolute or conditional. If absolute, — that is, so far as that it shall infallibly be accomplished, not so depending on any thing that, in respect of the event, may or may not be as to be left at an uncertainty for its fulfilling, — it is all that is of us desired. If it shall be said that it is conditional, I desire that the condition from whence it is said so to be may be assigned. If it shall be said (as it is) that it is " in case they willingly suffer not themselves to be overcome of temptations," I ask whether the strength and ability that God affords to his saints to resist temptations be not in the strengthening and confirming of their wills against them? and if so, whether this promise so interpreted doth not resolve itself into this proposition, " I will not suffer my saints to be overborne by temptations above the strength I will give them to bear, provided they be not pressed with temptations above the strength I give unto them." The pro- mise, then, is absolute, either that no temptations shall befall be- lievers above that they have received, or, that strength not to be overcome shall be afresh communicated to them upon the assaults of any new temptations.