Thirdly, All that is indeed argumentative in this discourse is built on this foundation, that a spiritual assurance of attaining the end by the use of means is discouraging and dissuasive to the use of those means; — a proposition so uncouth in itself, sa contradictory to the experience of all the saints of God, so derogatory to the glory and honour of Jesus Christ himself (who in all his obedience had, doubtless, an assurance of the end of it all), as any thing that can well fall into the imaginations of the hearts of men. IMight not the devil have thus replied unto our Saviour, when he tempted him to turn stones into bread, and to cast himself from a pinnacle of the temple, and received answer that " Man shall not live by bread
XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 503
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God : " " But, alas ! thou Jesus, the Son of the living God, that art per- suaded thou art so, and that God will preserve thee, whether tliou usest any means or no, that thou shalt never be starved for want of bread, nor hurt thyself by any fall, whatever thou dost, the angels having charge that no evil shall come nigh thee, nor thy foot be hurt against a stone, thou mayst now cast thyself headlong from the temple, to manifest thy assurance of the love and faithfulness of God in his promises to thee?" If our Saviour thought it sufficient to stop the mouth of the devil, to manifest from Scripture that notwithstanding the assurance from God that any one hath of the end, yet he is to use the means tending thereunto (a neglect where- of is a sinful tempting of God), Ave shall not need to go farther for an answer to the same kind of objection in the mouth of any ad- versary whatever.
His 19th section containeth his fourth argument, in these words: — -
" If there be no possibility of the saints falling away finally, then is their persevering incapable of reward from God ; but their final perseverance is not incapable of reward from God : ergo. The minor proposition, I presume, contains nothing but what is the sense of those who deny the conclusion; or, however, it contains nothing but what is the express sense of the Lord Christ, where he saith, that * He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.' Therefore I suppose we shall be excused from farther proof of this, without any prejudice to the cause in hand."
Ans. I grant eternal life may be called the reivard of persever- ance, in the sense that the Scripture useth that word, applied to the matter in hand. It is a reward neither procured by (properly and morally, as the deserving cause) nor proportioned unto the obe- dience of them by whom it is attained. A reward it is that withal is the free gift of God, and an inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ; a reward of bounty, and not oi justice, in respect of them upon whom it is bestowed, but only of faithfulness in reference to the promise of it; a reward, by being a gracious encouragement, — as the end of our obedience, not as the procurement or desert of it. So we gi'ant it a reward of peivseverance, though these words of our Saviour, " He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved," express a consequence of things only, and not a connection of causality of the one upon the other. Of tlie foundation of this discourse con- cerning a possibility of declining, immediate consideration shall be had. He proceeds, then : —
" The consequence of the major proposition stands firm upon this foundation: No act of the creature whereunto it is necessitated, or which it cannot possibly decline or but do, is, by any law of God or rule of jvistice, rewardable. Therefore, if the saints be necessitated
504 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
by God to persevere finally, so that he leaves unto them no possi- bility of declining finally, their final perseverance is not, according to any law of God or man, nor, indeed, to any principle of reason or equity, capable of reward, no whit more than actions merely na- tural are; nay, of the two, there seems to be more reason why acts merely natural (as, for example, eating, drinking, breathing, sleep- ing) should be rewarded, inasmuch as these flow in a way of neces- sity, yet from an inward principle and connatural to the agent, than such actions whereuuto the agent is constrained, necessitated, and determined, by a principle of power from without, and which is not intrinsical to it."
And this is the strength of the argument, which will quickly ap- pear to be very weakness ; for, —
First, The efficacy of these expressions, " Whereunto it is necessi- tated, and from it they cannot possibly decline," as to their influ- ence into this argument, ariseth clearly from their ambiguity. We deny any to be necessitated to persevere, or that our doctrine affirms any such thing ; taking that expression to hold out a power upon their wills, in their operations, inconsistent with the utmost liberty whereof in spiritual things (having received a spiritual principle) men are capable. They are not so necessitated to persevere as that all the acts of their obedience, whereby they do persevere, should not be free, but necessary. Indeed they are not at all, nor in any sense, necessitated to persevere. There is no necessity attends their perseverance but only in respect of the event, with reference to the unchangeable purpose and infallible promise of God. The like may be said of that other expression, " Possibility of declining." God leaves in them a possibility of declining as to their way and manner of walking with him, though he leaves not to them a possibility of declining or falling totally from him as to the issue and event of the whole matter ; which doth not in the least necessitate them to or in any of their operations.