1. Neither fear nor love, as they are mere natural affections, is any principle of spiritual obedience as such.
2. That we are so far from denying the usefulness of the fear of the Lord to the obedience of the saints, that the continuance thereof in them to the end is the great promise, for the certain accom- plishment whereof we do contend.
S. That fear of hell in believers, as a part of the wrath of God from which they are delivered by Christ, being opposed to all their graces of faith, love, hope, etc., is no principle of obedience in them, whatever influence it may have on them as to restraint when man- aged by the hand of God's grace.
4. That yet believers can never be delivered from it but by faith in the blood of Christ, attended with sincere and upright walking with God; which when they fail of, though that fear, supposed to be predominant in the soul, be inconsistent with any comfortable, cheering assurance of the favour of God, yet it is not with the certain continuance to them of the thing itself, upon the account of the pro- mises of God.
Sect. 16. contains a large discourse, in answer to the apostle affirming that "fear hath torment;" which is denied by our author, upon sundry considerations. The fear he intends is a fear of hell and " wrath to come." This he supposeth to be of such predomi-
480 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.
nancy in the soul as to be a principle of obedience unto God. That this can be without torment, disquiet, bondage, and vexation, he will not easily evince to the consciences of them who have at any time been exercised under such a frame. What fear is consistent with hope; what incursions upon the souls of the saints are made by dread and bondage; the fears of hell, and the use of such fears; how some are, though true believers, scarcely delivered from such fears all their days, — I have formerly declared. And that may suffice as to all our concernment in this discourse.
In the 1 7th section somewhat is attempted as to promises, answer- able to what hath been done concerning exhortations and threaten- ings. The words used to this end are many; the sum is, "That the use of promises in stirring men up to obedience is solely in the proposal of a good thing or good things to them to whom the pro- mises are made, which they may attain or come short of Now, if men are assured, as this doctrine supposeth they may be, that they shall attain the end whether they use the means or no, how can they possibly be incited by the promises to the use of the means pro- posed for the enjoyment of the end promised ?" That this is the sub- stance of his discourse I presume himself will confess; and it being the winding up of a tedious argument, I shall briefly manifest its uselessness and lay it aside. I say, then, —
1. What is the true use of the promises of God, and what in- fluence they have into the obedience and holiness of the saints, hath been formerly declared; neither is any thing there asserted of their genuine and natural tendency to the ends expressed enervated in the least by anything here insisted on or intimated by Mr Goodwin: so that without more trouble I might refer the reader thither to evince the falseness of Mr Goodwin's assertions concerning the use- lessness of the promises unto perseverance, upon a supposition that there are promises of perseverance.
2. Though we affirm that all true saints shall persevere, yet we do not say that all that are so do know themselves to be so, and to- wards them, at least, the promises may have their efficacy in that way which Mr Goodwin hath by his authority confined them to work in,
3. We say that our Saviour was fully persuaded that in the issue of his undertakings and sufferings he should be " glorified with his Father," according to his promise; and yet, upon the account of that glory, which he was so assured of, being set before him, he ad- dressed himself to the sharpest and most difficult passage to it that ever any one entered on. He " endured the cross, desjiising the shame," for the glory's sake whereof he had assurance, Heb. xii. 2. And why may not this be the state of them to whom, in his so doing, he was a captain of salvation? Why may not the glory and reward set be- fore them, though enjoyed in a full assurance of faith, in the excel-
XIII.] ASSERTOES AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 481
lency of it, when possessed, as promised, stir them up to the means leading thereunto ?
4. The truth is, the more we are assured with the assurance of faith (not of presumption) that we shall certainly obtain and enjoy the end whereunto the means we use do lead (as is the assurance that ariseth from the promises of God), the more eminently are we pressed in a gospel way, if we walk in the spirit of the gospel, to give up our- selves to obedience to that God and Father who hath appointed so precious and lovely means as are the paths of grace for the obtaining of so glorious an end as that whereunto we are appointed.