this may be fufficiently confuted from his own words, that (k) the defect which is called fin, if it seized on a man against his will, rectè injusta pœna videretur quæ peccantem confequitur, et quæ damnatio nuncupatur; the punishment which follows the Finner, and is fyled damnation, might rightly be efteemed unjust ; feeing therefore original fin is a disease necessary, and more inevitable than a fever, and comes upon us before we can will any thing; the punishment and damnation inflicted for it cannot, according to this principle, be juft. Lafly. Whereas, he fays it is natural and well appointed, ut malum meritum prioris natura fequentis fit, (1) that the ill defert of a former fin fhould be the nature of the following; this is very abfurd from his own principles. For if, as he says, no man is wife. valiant, or temperate with the wildom, valor or temperance, of another, aut juftus juftitiâ alterius quifquam efficitur or righteous with the righteousness of another; how comes he to be made willing, with the will of another, or finful with the fin of another? Efpecially when he not only adds, that (m) no nature can be corrupted by the vice of another, nullo adjuncto vitio fuo, without an addition of a fin of its own; and if it could be fo, injuftè vituperaretur, it would unjustly be blamed on that account. But proveth this; (ft.) Because, (n) nemo debet quod non accepit, ex eo igitur quod non accepit nemo reus eft, no man owes what he hath not received, and so no person can be guilty for the want of that original righteoulne's he never did or could receive. 2dly. Becaufe, fi homo ita factus eft, ut neceffariò peccet, hoc debet ut peccet, if man be fo made that he neceffarily fins, he owes fin as a debt to na、 ture; and then when he fins, quod debet facit, he does only what he ought to do, which yet it is wickedness to fay. In a word he faith, fince no man is compelled to fin by bis own nature, or by the nature of another, reftat ut propriâ voluntate peccetur, it remains that every one fins by his own proper will, ὅπερ ἔδει δείξαι. 2.2.1.

(k) De vera Rel. c. 14- (1) De Lib. Arb, k. 2. c. 19.—(m) Le 3× C. $3, 14. —(8) Ibid. c. 16.

F

CHAPTER I.

OR the better ftating of this question, it will be useful to premife that which is granted on both fides; for by that it will be eafy to difcern,

ft. That many of thofe fcriptures, which are produced to prove the doctrine of the faints perfeverance, do not reach the point; they proving only that they who do thus perfevere are preferv ed by divine affiftance, and not that God hath abfolutely engaged to afford them that affiftance which will unfruftrably preferve them.

2dly. That many of the arguments produced to confirm this doctrine, are inconfiftent with the foundations on which alone they ground that doctrine.

SECTION 1.-1. Then we own that they who are preserved to falvation, are fo preferved (a) by the power of God through faith and that they who are thus kept are (b) kept by Chrift, he alone being able (c) to keep them unblameable; but then we deny that God hath abfolutely promifed to keep them by his power from making fhipwreck of this faith; or that (d) the juft man who lives by faith, shall never draw back to per

dition.

2dly. We own that God hath engaged his faithfulness, that all who do not wickedly depart from him, fhall never be forced from him by the power of any adverfaries; for (e) none fhall ever be able to pluck them out of his hands, not death itfelf; for (f) the gates of Hades fhall not prevail against them; not perfecutions, or the most fiery trials. He who requires us to be faithful to the death, being obliged in equity and honor to enable us with chriftian patience to bear them; for (g) he is fo faithful that he will not fuffer us to be tempted above what we (in this fallen ftate) are able, but will with the temptation (fo far) make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it; fo that we may triumphantly cry out, (h) who shall feparate us from the love of God which is (fhewed to us) in, i. e. through Chrift Jefus? Shall tribulation, or diftrefs, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or fword? nay in all these things we (who continue in his love) are more than conquerors, through (the affiftance vouchfafed by) him that loved us. And after fuch happy experience of the divine affiftance, I am perfuaded, faith the Apostle, that neither (fear of) death, nor (hope of) life, nor (evil) angels, nor principalities, nor powers (perfecuting us for Chrift's fake) nor (the) things (we endure at) prefent, nor (the) things (we may fuffer for the time) to come, nor height (of honor) nor depth (of ignominy) nor any other creature (or thing) fhall be able to feparate us from the love of God which is (vouchfafed to us) in (and through) Chrift Jefus our Lord; but then the fame God requiring them who were come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerufalem, and to the general affembly, and church of the first born who are written in heaven to look diligently, un ris, left any of them fall from the grace of God, and to hold fast that grace by which alone they can ferve God acceptably, because our God is (to them who do fall from it) a confuming fire, Heb. xii. 15, 29. and to take heed left there fhould be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and that for this reason that

(a) 1 Pet. i. 5.- (b) Tud. i. 24.--(c) 1 Tim. i. 19. 38, 39. (e) John x. 28, 29.(f) Matth. xvi. 18.13.—(b) Rom. viii. 35, 39.

-(d) Heb. x. (g) 1 Cor. x.

they could be made partakers of the bleffings of Chrift only on this condition, that they held fast the beginning of their, confidence (or expectation) feadfaft to the end, Heb. iii. 12, 14. That they continue rooted and grounded in the faith, and be not removed away from the hope of the gospel, Col. i. 23. Seeing he bids them who were already in grace, and had received (i) like precious faith with them, to beware left being led away by the error of the wicked, they fall from their own fteadfastnefs, 2 Pet. iii. 17. Hence we conceive we have just reafon to deny that God hath from eternity decreed, or abfolutely promifed to preferve them from falling into thofe fins which he thus cautions them to avoid, or to perform himself what he requires, as their duty.

3dly. We grant that God hath promised perseverance in the ways of righteoufnefs to the end, to thofe who conftantly and confcientiously use the means by him prescribed for that end; he will prefent us holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his fight, if we continue in the faith rooted and Jettled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, Coloff. i. 22, 23. He hath affured us, that if we caft not away our confidence, but patiently continue to do the will of God, we shall inherit the promifes, Heb. x. 35, 36. That if we give all diligence to add to our faith, virtue, knowledge, godlinefs, patience, temperance, brotherly kindness and charity, we fhall never fall, 2 Pet. i. 5, 10. That if we build ourselves up in our holy faith, and pray fervently in the Holy Ghost, we fhall keep ourselves in the love of God, Jude xx. 21. That if we hold faft till he come, and keep his works to the end, we Shall reign with Chrift, Rev. ii. 25, 26, 27. But then we deny that God hath abfolutely promifed to interpofe his power unfruftrably to engage all true believers to ufe thefe means, and judge thefe very texts to be fo many evidences to the contrary. The affertors of this doctrine hold,

SECTION II-1. That the foundation of this perfeverance is the abfolute election of thofe that perfevere unto falvation, and confequently to the means which fhall unfruftrably conclude in their falvation. And this fhews the inconfiftency of two of their arguments for perfeverance, taken from the prayers of the faints that they may perfevere, and from the fuppofed interceffion of Chrift to the fame effect; for, as it cannot be proved, that either Chrift intercedes, or the faints pray more for perfeverance to the end, than for their prefervation from those fins to which experience and fcripture fhews they are obnoxious to; fo is it as abfurd to pray or intercede for that which God hath abfolutely decreed

(i) a Pet. i. 1.

from all eternity fhall come to pass, as to pray and intercede that the world may not be drowned again; or that Chrift may come to judgment; or be the judge of the quick and dead; or that the bodies of the faints may arife; or for any other thing which shall infallibly come to pafs by virtue of God's abfolute decree from all eternity; it being, upon this fuppofition, as certain that this abfolute decree concerning their perfeverance fhall come to pafs, though Chrift did never intercede, or the faints pray it might do fo; as that the other decrees now mentioned fhall certainly have their effect, with his or our interceffion that it may be fo.

2dly. They alfo grant that it is not from the ftrength of the new nature in them, from the fteadiness of the renewed mind, the immutability of the renewed will or affections, that true believers cannot fall away; but purely from the promise of God, that though they are obnoxious in themselves to fall away, he will keep them by his power from falling finally. And hence it is obvious to difcern that all the arguments produced in this caufe from the nature of true faith, converfion, or the new birth, are infufficient to prove this doctrine because it is granted that it is not from the nature of this faith, the frength of this converfion, or the immutability of this new birth that they thus perfevere; but from the pow er of God, by virtue of his promife, preferving them from that fall, to which they in themselves are ftill obnoxious.

When therefore they argue for the perfeverance of the faints to the end, from the words of the Pfalmift, (k) he whofe delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night, his leaf jhall not wither. (1) That he who hears Christ's fayings and doth them, fhall be like to a wife man who built his houfe upon a rock; and fo when the wind and the floods came it fell not. From the good ground which (m) brought forth fruit with patience. From St. Paul's queftion, (n) how fhall we that are dead to fin live any longer therein? And from the words of St. John, (o) this is the victory over the world, even our faith. As all thefe places are manifeftly impertinent, because they only fhew the effect of good difpofitions remaining with us, or how it will be with the man who always delights in the law of God, who ftill doth Chrift's commandments, hears the word and keepeth it, as the good ground did; is ftill dead to fin, and still lives by faith; but not that thefe good difpofitions must be always in us.

3dly. They grant that though true believers cannot fall totally and finally, yet may they fall into drunkenness and inceft, as Noah; fo into murther and adultery, as David; into (1) Matth. vii. 24, 25.- (m) Luke viii. 8, 15. (0)1 John v. 4.

(k) Pfal. i. 2, 3.
(a) Rom. vi. 2.