their own sincerity, or prove the truth of their faith, by better works than they themselves confess a hyprocrite may do? Now it is at least as uncomfortable to be in doubt of my sincerity, as of my continuance in the way of righteousness, though I am sincere at present.

2. Let men hold what doctrines they please; yet as it is with them who question providence and a future judgment, their impious persuasions cannot remove their fears arising from the dictates of a natural conscience; so neither can men's theological persuasions remove the fears and doubtings which do as naturally arise from the dictates of a conscience enlightened by the word of God. When therefore that condemns, and doth pronounce us guilty of any wilful sin, we can have no peace from any thing but our assurance that our sincere repentance hath removed the guilt; but shall be either doubtful of our sincerity, or our continuance in it. Whilst we can say with David, 'I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God: I was also upright before him, and kept myself from mine iniquity: Whilst conscience doth not condemn us of wilful violations of our covenant, there is as much confidence in God from our opinion, as from the other. We can assure all men that, whilst they love God, they shall be beloved by him; and that his countenance will favourably behold the upright. And the other doctrine can afford true comfort to none whose conscience doth condemn them of wilful violations of God's law; that is, of breaking the conditions of the new covenant, or of not keeping his commandments, which is so often made the test of a sincere affection to our God and Saviour. Either then we would have peace and comfort, though our hearts depart from God, and deal unfaithfully in our covenant, or only while our hearts do cleave unto him, and we be not unfaithful to it: if we desire comfort in the last case only, our doctrine doth as fully yield it as the other. If in the case of the departure of the heart from God, and breach of covenant, (i.) We desire that comfort which God's word plainly and frequently denies us, as is apparent from the very condition of the covenant of grace, sincere obedience, and from the threats it hath denounced against apostatizers. (i.) We would have

d Psalm xviii, 21, 23.

comfort when our own heart cannot afford it, because it cannot at the same time thus condemn, and yet speak comfort to us. (iii.) We would have that comfort which even the doctine of perseverance cannot yield, seeing the patrons of it do confess that when men fall into wilful sins, though they lose not the title to the divine favour, they lose the comfort of it till they have repented; that this at present cuts off their assurance of being God's children, and consequently of their perseverance to the end.

So that the difference in this case seems only to be this, that when men's hearts do thus condemn them, if they believe our doctrine, they have reason to suspect their fall from grace, by violating the conditions of the covenant of grace; if they be of the other persuasion, they have cause to suspect their sincerity, and fear that they were never upright chistians. And the advantage on our side is this,-that our opinion naturally tends to render men more careful to avoid all wilful violations of the laws of God, and more speedy in their repentance, and their return unto their duties, than the other doth, this being a most certain rule that that motive is more forcible to engage us to an action, which renders the action to which I am engaged of absolute necessity for the obtaining of the most important end, of which I am assured by performance of it, than that which either renders this end attainable without the performance of that action, or declares that another stands absolutely engaged to cause me to perform it.

II. Let us now take a view of the contrary doctrine; and seeing it asserts that they who have once attained to the favour of God can never fall from it, and also grants that Lot, David, Solomon, and Peter were such persons; they must own that drunkenness and incest, murder and adultery, do not put men out of God's favour; that men's hearts may be turned from the Lord to the most gross idolatry, even that of Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and of Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites;" that after the most solemn engagements to the contrary they may deny Christ before men, and that with oaths and execrations, and still continue high in favour with God: which as it seems the plainest contradiction to those numerous places of scripture, which declare these are such sins which they who do have no inheri

e 1 Kings xi, 5, 9.

tance in the kingdom of God or of Christ, and that they are sins to which the law of Moses threatened death without admission of any atonement by sacrifice, and the severest of God's judgments, even 'the casting of them off for ever;' so doth it give a great encouragement, to those who have once gotten an opinion that they are the children of God, to indulge themselves in the like iniquities, as being never able to separate them from the love of God: This doctrine tending evidently to abate the force of all the prohibitions of sin, of all the exhortations to avoid it, of all the cautions to resist and flee from all temptations to commit it, and of all the dreadful judgments denounced without exception against all who do commit it; for when once persons begin to think that they are out of the reach of the severest of these judgments, and that they cannot possibly belong to them, they cannot rationally be moved by the fear of them to depart from that iniquity to which they are denounced.

Secondly. It lessens the force of all the motives offered in the scripture to engage us to persevere in righteousness and goodness, and to have our fruit unto holiness, that the end may be eternal life. For an absolute promise both of the reward, and of all means conducing to it, cannot so powerfully engage us to the pursuit of the said means, as such a promise as suspendeth the reward upon our own diligence in the use of the means, and so gives place for hope and fear, the two great principles of action, both which must be excluded by an absolute promise, since as we cannot rationally fear what cannot possibly befal us, so what we are already sure of, we do no longer hope for, but with the greatest confidence expect.

Thirdly. It seems not well consistent with the truth, righteousness, and holiness of God to give an absolute assurance of his favour, and the fruition of himself for ever to any creature, though he fall into the sins forementioned. For though it may be said "he doth this only by assuring them that they shall repent of those sins, and return to their obedience," yet doth not this seem suitable to his threats of the severest of his judgments against all persons whatsoever who shall thus offend, since they were certainly designed to deter them from those sins by fear of falling under those most dreadful judgments, whereas these promises are plain assurances that though they do commit them, they shall not be

obnoxious to those judgments. They also seem contrary to the divine purity, on the same account, as tending to diminish in others the dread of those iniquities which they are thus assured cannot prove fatal to them. In a word, there is not even the shadow of a promise in the holy scripture, that though such or such persons fall into murder, adultery, heathenish Idolatry, He will not suffer. them to die in them, but will assuredly cause them to repent and turn to their obedience; but there is an express declaration, that "when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity, and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth, all the righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned; in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in the sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die." The promises of the Old Testament run in another strain; viz. "The Lord will be with you while ye be with him, but if ye forsake him he will forsake you;" yea" He will cast you off for ever;" but as for such as decline to their perverse ways, the Lord will lead you forth with the workers of iniquity;" and the promises of the New, that he will 'stablish them, and keep them from evil, and preserve them holy and unblameable. But I find not one promise in the Old or the New Testament, that when the righteous wickedly depart from God, and do after the abominations. of the wicked, they shall yet live, and not die in their iniquities.

III. It were easy to confirm this doctrine from the concurrent suffrage of the ancient fathers; but this seems to me unnecessary after the confession of the learned Vossius, communem hanc fuisse antiquitatis sententiam, that this was the common sentence of antiquity;' and that antiquitas tota indeficibilitati adversatur,' all antiquity was contrary to this doctrine of the indefectibility of the saints.' The words of the Greek and Latin Fathers, which he cites to prove this, may be seen in John Goodwin's fifteenth chapter on that subject, who also adds to them the consent of many Protestants.*

* Ezekiel xviii, 24. w I Chronicles xxviii, 9. 2 Chronicles xv, 2. * Psalm cxxv, 5. y Hist. Pelag. L. 6. Ch. 12. * Redemp. Redeemed, from § 5. to the 14th.

Discourse WL.

CONTAINING AN ANSWER TO THREE OBJECTIONS AGAINST THE DOCTRINES ASSERTED, AND THE ARGUMENTS BY WHICH THEY ARE CONFIRMED.

&

CHAP. I.

OBJECTION FIRST. THE FIRST grand OBJECTION against the force of many of the arguments used in these discourses is this, that "they seem as strongly to conclude against God's foreknowledge of future contingencies, as against his absolute decrees; for that comprehending the knowledge of what all men will do, it seems as unreasonable to command, exhort, or tender motives to men to perform what God beforehand sees they will not do, as in case of what he knows they cannot do; and as contradictory to his goodness to bring them into the world, whom he foreknows will certainly be miserable through their own fault, as those whom he reserveth to be miserable through the fault of Adam. It also seems as vain, superfluous, and delusory, to seem passionately concerned that they may be saved, or to use patience, long-suffering, or any other means to prevent their ruin, or to lead them to repentance whom he certainly foresaw would not be by these means induced to repent, that they might be saved, and who infallibly would perish; as to act thus towards them who lie under a decree of reprobation." Now,

I. ANSWER FIRST. It is observable, that though this argument be offered in favour of the decrees of absolute election, and that especial grace which is vouchsafed to the objects of it, which makes it necessary for them to be vessels of mercy,' and of that absolute reprobation, which makes it necessary for all the objects of it to be vessels of wrath,' and infallibly to fail of salvation, yet doth it plainly overthrow them, or render them superfluous. For,