Secondly, The proposition must be cast into another mould before it will be of any determinate signification in opposition to the doc- trine it opposeth, and tuned to another mood before it will give a certain sound to any battle against it ; and this is, That no act of the creature, that is wrought in order to the obtaining of any end pro- mised to be certainly attained thereby, is rewardable of God (though for perseverance, it is not any act of the creature, but only a modus of its obedience). And thus it looks towards the concernment of this doctrine. Yet before this proposition pass, to omit sundry other tilings that would gladly rise to the destruction of it, I desire one query may be assailed, concerning the obedience of Jesus Christ, whether it were not necessary that the end of his obedience should follow? and whether it were not impossible he should decline from
XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 505
his obedience ? and if it were, whether it were impossible that God should give a reward thereunto? But, —
Thirdly, The intendment of this proposition, as far as it concerns us (and that, indeed, is with a respect to our doctrine of the effi- cacy of grace, and not to this of perseverance), is this, " That which is wrought in us by the effectual grace of God is not capable of re- ward from God ;" — a proposition which, though capable of some plea and colour, taking " reward" in a purely legal sense, supposing the persons seeking after it to do it by a service and duties proportioned unto it, yet is so openly and directly contradictory to the tenor and design of God in the covenant of grace by Jesus Christ, with the whole dispensation of the Spirit given to abide with believers, for all the ends and purposes as to their obedience, as that I shall con- tent myself to deny it, expecting Mr Goodwin's proofs of it, — when " rivers run backward, heavy things ascend," etc.
Fourthly, For the flourish added to these assertions, by comparing the acts of the saints' obedience, upon a supposition of the grace of God " working them in them," with their natural actions of " eating, drinking, sleepmg," as to their tendency to exalt the glory of God in rewarding, it proceeds either from gross ignorance of the doctrine opposed, or wilful prevaricating from that light of it which he hath. Who ever taught that God's operations in and towards believers, as to their perseverance in faith and obedience, did consist in an out- ward constraint of an unwilling principle? God gives a principle of obedience to them, — he writes and implants his law in their hearts^ and moves them effectually to act suitably to that inward principle they have so received; which, though spiritual and supernatural in respect of its rise and manner of bestowing, yet is connatural to them in respect of its being a principle of operation. We are not, then, in the least beholding to our author for his following conces- sion, " That as a prince may give great things to them that eat, and drink, and breathe, but not as rewards ; so God may give eternal life to them that are so necessitated by him to persevere, though not as a reward :" for although we will not contend with God about eternal life, that he [may] give it us under the notion of a reward, and desire to be much affected with the consideration of it as a free gift of grace, an eminent purchase of the blood of God, and look upon it merely as a reward of bounty, so called as being the end whereunto our obedience is suited, and the rest of our labours; yet we say, in an evangelical sense and acceptation it is properly so proposed to that obedience and perseverance therein which is wrought in us by the efficacy of the grace of God, as it lies in a tendency unto that end, which to be attained by those means he hath infallibly determined.
He proceeds, therefore, to enforce his argument with a new con- sideration : —
506 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCK [CHAP.
" If we speak of rewards promised in order to the moving or in- clining of the wills of men towards such or such actions and ways, — of which kind also the rewards mentioned in the Scriptures as yet remaining to be conferred by God upon men are, — the case is yet more clear, namely, that they are appropriate unto such actions and ways unto the election and choice whereof men are not necessitated in one kind or other, especially not by any physical or foreign power; for to what purpose should a reward be promised unto me, to persuade or make me willing to engage in such or such a course, or to perform such and such a service, in case I be necessitated to the same engagement or performance otherwise ? Or what place is there left for a moral inducement where a physical necessity hath done the execution? Or, if the moral inducement hath done the execution, and sufficiently raised and engaged the will to the action, with what congruity of reason, yea, or common sense, can a physi- cal necessity be superinduced?"