that he "defined that which was only sin, and not that which is also, pæna peccati, 'the punishment of sin';" he speaks a contradiction to himself, and to the plainest reason, it being evident that what is properly sin, can never be the punishment of sin; "for all punishment," saith he, "being from God, must be just, et bonum est omne quod est justum, peccatum ergo quod est pæna peccati erit peccatum et bonum et justum, and whatsoever is just is good; that sin therefore which is the punishment of sin, must be a good and a just sin'." Moreover, all punishment inflicted by God, is the action of a Just Judge, proceeding from his holy will; whereas sin can never be the action of God, or issue from his holy will. By sin all men are worthy of punishment; but no man can deserve punishment for being punished. By punishment some satisfaction is made for si; but no man can make satisfaction for a past sin by another sin.-(2.) Whereas he adds, that "this penal necessity of sinning consists well with the nature of Original Sin;” this may be sufficiently confuted from his own words, that "the defect which is called sin, if it seized on a man against his will, recte injusta pana videretur quæ peccantem consequitur, et quæ damnatio nuncupatur, 'the punishment which follows the sinner, and is styled DAMNATION, might rightly be esteemed unjust';' seeing therefore Original Sin 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 just. (Lastly.) Whereas, he says, "it is natural and well appointed, ut malum meritum prioris natura sequentis sit,' that the ill desert of a former sin, should be the nature of the following';" this is very absurd from his own principles. "For if," as he says, "no man is wise, valiant, or temperate with the wisdom, valour, or temperance of another, aut justus justitiâ alterius quisquam efficitur, or righteous with the righteousness of another';" how comes he to be made willing with the will of another, or sinful with the sin of another? Especially when he not only adds, that "no nature can be corrupted by the vice of another, nullo adjuncto vitio suo, without an addition of a sin of its own;' and if it could be so, injuste vituperaretur, 'it would unjustly be blamed on that account'." But proveth this; (i.)

m

1 De Lih. Arb. L. 2, c. 19.

Because nemo debet quod non accepit, ex eo igitur quod non accepit nemo reus est, 'no man owes what he hath not received, and so no person can be guilty for the want of that original righteousness he never did or could receive'." (ii.) Because, si homo ita factus est, ut necessario peccet, hoc debet ut peccet, if man be so made that he necessarily sins, he owes sin as a debt to nature;' and then when he sins, quod debet facit, he does only what he ought to do,' which yet it is wickedness to say." In a word he saith, "since no man is compelled to sin by his own nature, or by the nature of another, restat ut propriâ voluntate peccetur, 'it remains that every one sins by his own proper will'," özeg édei deïžai.*

Discourse V.

CONCERNING THE PERSEVERANCE OF SAINTS.

The State of the Question.

CHAP. I.

FOR the better stating of this question, it will be useful to premise that which is granted on both sides; for by that it will be easy to discern,

1. That many of those scriptures, which are produced to prove the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, do not reach the point; they proving only that they who do thus persevere are preserved by divine assistance, and not that God hath absolutely engaged to afford them that assistance which will unfrustrably preserve them.

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

I. First. Then we own that they who are preserved to salvation, are so preserved by the power of God through faith;" and

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n Ibid. d. 16.

*Which it was necessary to demonstrate.' ED.

a 1 Peter i, 5.

that they who are thus kept are kept by Christ,' he alone being able to keep them unblameable;" but then we deny that God hath absolutely promised to keep them by his power from making shipwreck of this faith; or that the just man who lives by faith, shall never draw back to perdition.”

h

Secondly. We own that God hath engaged his faithfulness, that all who do not wickedly depart from him, shall never be forced from him by the power of any adversaries; for none shall ever be able to pluck them out of his hands," not death itself; for the gates of Hades shall not prevail against them;'f not persecutions, or the most fiery trials. He who requires us to be faithful to the death, being obliged in equity and honour to enable us with christian patience to bear them; for he is so faithful that he will not suffer us to be tempted above that we (in this fallen state) are able, but will with the temptation (so far) make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it: So that we may triumphantly cry out, Who shall separate us from the love of God which is (shewed to us) in, that is, through Christ Jesus? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay in all these things we (who continue in his love) are more than conquerors, through (the assistance vouchsafed by) him that loved us? And after such happy experience of the divine assistance, 'I am persuaded, saith the apostle, that neither (fear of) death, nor (hope of) life, nor (evil) angels, nor principalities, nor powers (persecuting us for Christ's sake,) nor the things (we endure at) present, nor (the) things (we may suffer for the time) to comę, nor height (of honour,) nor depth (of ignominy,) nor any other creature (or thing) shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is (vouchsafed to us) in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. But then the same God requiring them who were come to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the general assembly, and church of the first-born who are written in heaven, to look diligently, un Tis, LEST ANY of them fall from the grace of God, and to hold fast that grace by which alone they can serve God acceptably, because our God is (to them who do fall from it) a consuming fire, (Heb. xii. 15, 29.) and to take heed lest there should

be in any of them an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; and that for this reason-that they could be made partakers of the blessings of Christ only on this condition, that they held fast the beginning of their conpdence (or expectation) stedfast 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 and had "received like precious faith with them, to beware lest being led away by the error of the from their own stedfastness 2 Pet. m. 17 we have just reason to deny that God hath from eternity decreed, or absolutely promised to preserve them from falling into those sins which he thus cautions them to avoid, or to perform himself what he requires, as their duty.

grace,

wicked, they fall Hence we conceive

Thirdly. We grant that God hath promised perseverance in the ways of righteousness to the end, to those who constantly and conscientiously use the means by him prescribed for that end; he will" present us holy and unbiameable, and unreprovable in his sight, if we continue in the faith rooted and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Coloss. i. 22, 23. He hath assured us, that "if we cast not away our confidence, but patiently continue to do the will of God, we shall inherit the promises; (Heb. x. 35, 36.) That if we give all diligence to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, godliness, patience, temperance, brotherly kindness and charity, we shall 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 shall keep ourselves in the love of God; (Jude 20. 21.) That if we hold fast till he come, and keep his works to the end, we shall reign with Christ." Rev. ii. 25 26, 27. But then we deny that God hath absolutely promised to interpose his power infrustrably to engage all true believers to use these means, and judge these very texts to be so many evidences to the contrary. The assertors of this doctrine hold,

II. First. That the foundation of this perseverance is the absolute election of those that persevere unto salvation, and consequently to the means which shall unfrustrably conclude in their salvation. And this shews the inconsistency of two of their argu

i 2 Pet. i. 1.

ments for perseverance, taken from the prayers of the saints that they may persevere, and from the supposed intercession of Christ to the same effect. For, as it cannot be proved, that either Christ intercedes or the saints pray more for perseverance to the end, than for their preservation from those sins to which experience and scripture shews they are obnoxious; so is it as absurd to pray or intercede for that which God hath absolutely decreed from all eternity shall come to pass, as to pray and intercede that the world may not be drowned again; or that Christ may come to judgment, or be the Judge of the quick and dead; or that the bodies of the saints may arise; or for any other thing which shall infallibly come to pass by virtue of God's absolute decree from all eternity it being, upon this supposition, as certain that this absolute decree concerning their perseverance shall come to pass, though Christ did never intercede, or the saints pray it might do so; as that the other decrees now mentioned shall certainly have their effect, with his or our intercession that it may be so.

:

Secondly. They also grant that it is not from the strength of the new nature in them, from the steadiness 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 discern that all the arguments produced in this cause from the nature of true faith, conversion, or the new birth, are insufficient to prove this doctrine: because it is granted that it is not from the nature of this faith, the strength of this conversion, or the immutability of this new birth that they thus persevere; but from the power of God, by virtue of his promise, preserving them from that fall to which they in themselves are still obnoxious.

When therefore they argue for the perseverance of the saints to the end, from the words of the Psalmist, 'he whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night,—his leaf shall not wither." That he who hears Christ's sayings and doth them, shall be like to a wise man who built his house upon a rock; and so, when the wind and the floods came, it fell not. From the good.