:

(say our adversaries), therefore, they shall be seduced.' Neither doth that which Mr. Goodwin urgeth, sect. 12. out of the Synodalia before mentioned, pp. 314, 315. at all prove, that the words denote only a difficulty of the thing aimed at, with relation to the earnest endeavours of seducers: pòç Tò doth indeed intimate their endeavours, but withal their fruitlessness, as to the event. Ei duvaròv is not referred (as in the example of Paul) to the thoughts of their minds, but to the success foretold by Christ. That emphatical and diacritical expression in the description of them, against whom their attempts are (even the very elect'), argues their exemption. And if by 'elect' are meant simply and only, believers: as such, how comes this emphatical expression and description of them to be used, when they alone, and no other, can be seduced; for those who seem to believe only, cannot be said to fall from the faith, say our adversaries. It is true, the professors of Christianity adhered of old, under many trials (for the greater part) with eminent constancy, to their profession yet is not any thing eminently herein held out in that saying, which Mr. Goodwin calls proverbial in Galen: he speaking of the followers of Moses the same as of the followers of Christ. What else follows in Mr. Goodwin from the same authors, is nothing but the pressing of (I think) one of the most absurd arguments, that ever learned men made use of, in any controversy; and yet such as it is, we shall meet with it, over and over (as we have done often already), before we arrive at the end of this discourse; and, therefore, to avoid tediousness, I shall not here insist upon it. With its mention it shall be passed by. It is concerning the uselessness of means, and exhortations unto the use of them, if the end to be attained by them be irrevocably determined, although those exhortations are part of the means appointed for the accomplishment of the end so designed. I shall not, as I said, in this place insist upon it: one thing only shall I observe in sect. 17. he grants, that God is able to determine the wills of the elect to the use of means, proper and sufficient to prevent their being deceived;' by this, 'determining the wills of the elect to the use of proper means,' the efficacy of grace in and with believers, to a certain preservation of them to the end, is intended. It is the thing he opposeth, as we are informed in the next words

(he hath no where declared himself willing or resolved to do it'). That by this one assertion Mr. Goodwin hath absolved our doctrine from all the absurd consequences and guilt of I know not what abominations, which in various criminations he hath charged upon it, is evident upon the first view and consideration. All that we affirm God to do, Mr. Goodwin grants that he can do. Now if God should do all he is able, there would be no absurdity or evil, that is truly so, follow. What he can do, that he can decree to do: and this is the sum of our doctrine, which he hath chosen to oppose. God (we say) hath everlastingly purposed to give, and doth actually give, his Holy Spirit to believers, to put forth such an exceeding greatness of power, as whereby in the use of means, they shall certainly be preserved to salvation; this God can do, says our author. This concession being made by the remonstrants in their Synodalia, Mr. Goodwin, I presume, thought it but duty to be as free as his predecessors, and therefore, consented unto it also, although it be an axe laid at the root of almost all the arguments he sets up against the truth, as shall hereafter be farther manifested.

I draw now to a close of those places, which (among many other omitted) tender themselves unto the proof of the stable, unchangeable purpose of God, concerning the safeguarding and preservation of believers in his love, and unto salvation. I shall mention one or two more, and close this second scriptural demonstration of the truth in hand. The irst is that eminent place of Eph. i. 3—5. 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; ning as he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation evorid, that we should be holy, and without blame belove; having predestinated us unto the adoption ..... Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good is will. Ver. 3. the apostle summarily blesseth spiritual mercies, which in Jesus Christ he withal; of all which, ver. 4. he discovereth ing, which is his free choosing of them o of the world; that an eternal act of ey designed, is beyond dispute: and d, on which the whole of the build

ing mentioned and portrayed in the following verse is laid. All the grace and favour of God towards his saints, in their justification, adoption, and glory, all the fruits of the Spirit, which they enjoy in faith and sanctification, flow from this one fountain: and these the apostle describes at large in the verses following. The aim of God in this eternal and unchangeable act of his will, he tells us, is, that we should be unblamable before him in love. Certainly cursed apostates, backsliders in heart, in whom his soul takes no pleasure, are very far from being unblamable before God in love. Those that are within the compass of this purpose of God, must be preserved unto that state and condition, which God aims to bring them unto, by all the fruits and issues of that purpose of his, which was pointed at before. A Scripture of the like importance unto that before named, is 2 Thess. ii.13, 14. God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, whereunto he calls you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus;' the same fountain of all spiritual and eternal mercy, with that mentioned in the other place, is here also expressed, and that is God's choosing of us by an everlasting act, or designing us to the end intended, by a free, eternal, unchangeable purpose of his will,

Secondly, The end aimed at by the Lord in that purpose, is here more clearly set down, in a twofold expression: 1. Of salvation; ver. 13. 'He hath chosen us to salvation :' that is the thing which he aimed to accomplish for them, and the end he intended to bring them to, in his choosing of them; and, 2. Ver. 14. The glory of the Lord Jesus' or the obtaining a portion in that glory, which Christ purchased and procured for them, with their being with him, to behold his glory. And, thirdly, You have the means, whereby God will certainly bring about and accomplish this his design and purpose, whereof there are three most eminent acts expressed: 1. Vocation, or their calling by the gospel; ver. 14. 2. Sanctification, ver. 13. (through the sanctification of the Spirit'). And, 3. Justification, which they receive by belief of the truth. This much then is wrapped up in this text; God having in his unchangeable purpose foreappointed his to salvation and glory, certainly to be obtained through the effectual working of the Spirit, and free justification in the blood

of Christ, it cannot be, but that they shall be preserved unto the enjoyment of what they are so designed unto.

To sum up what hath been spoken from these purposes of God, to the establishment of the truth we have in hand. Those, whom God hath purposed by effectual means to preserve to the enjoyment of eternal life and glory in his favour and acceptation, can never so fall from his love, or be so cast out of his grace, as to come short of the end designed, or ever be totally rejected of God. The truth of this proposition depends upon what hath been said, and may farther be insisted on, concerning the unchangeableness and absoluteness of the eternal purposes of God, the glory whereof meu shail never be able sacrilegiously to rob him of. Thence the assumption is, concerning all true believers, and truly sauccided persons, these are purposes of God, that they shall be so preserved to such ends, &c. as hath been abundantly proved by an induction of particular instances; and, therefore, it is impossible they should ever be so cast out of the favour of God, as not to be infallibly preserved to the end. Which is our second demonstration of the truth in hand.

CHAP. IV.

our argu

An entrance into the consideration of the covenant of grace, and ment from thence, for the unchangeableness of the love of God unto believers. The intendment of the ensuing discourse. Gen. xvii. 3. opened and explained, with the confirmation of the argument in hand from thence. That argument vindicated and cleared of objections. Confirmed by some observations. Jer. xxxii. 38-40. compared with chap. xxxi. 32, 33. The truth under consideration from thence clearly confirmed. The certainty, immutability, and infallible accomplishment of all the promises of the new covenant, demonstrated. 1. From the removal of all causes of alteration. 2. From the mediator, and his undertaking therein. 3. From the faithfulness of God. One instance from the former considerations. The endeavour of Mr. G. to answer our argument from this place. His observation on and from the text, considered: 1. This promise not made to the Jews only: 2. Nor to all the nation of the Jews, proved from Rom. xi. 3. not intending principally their deliverance from Babylon. His inferences from his former observations weighed: 1. The promise made to the body of the people of the Jews typically only: 2. An exposition borrowed of Socinus rejected: 3. The promise not appropriated to the time of the captivity: and the disadvantage ensuing to Mr. G.'s cause upon such an exposition. The place insisted on compared with Ezek. xi. 17-20. That place cleared: a fourth objection answered: this promise always fulfilled: the spiritual part of it accomplished during the captivity: God's intention not frustrated. How far the civil prosperity of the Jews was concerned in this promise. Promises of spiritual and temporal things compared. The covenant of grace how far conditional. Mr. G.'s sense

of this place expressed: borrowed from Faustus Socinus: the inconsistency of it with the mind of the Holy Ghost, demonstrated: also with what himself hath elsewhere delivered, no way suited to the answer of our argument from the place. The same interpretation farther disproved: an immediate divine efficacy held out in the words: conversion and pardon of sins promised: differenced from the grace and promises of the old covenant. Contribution of means put by Mr. G. in the place of effectual operation of the thing itself, farther disproved. How, when, and to whom this promise was fulfilled, farther declared: an objection arising upon that consideration answered. Conjectures ascribed to God by Mr. G. The foundation real of all divine prediction: the promise utterly enervated, and rendered of none effect by Mr. G.'s exposition. Its consistency with the prophecies of the rejection of the Jews. The close of the argument from the covenant of God.

HAVING shewn the unchangeable stability of the love and favour of God towards his saints, from the immutability of his own nature and purposes, manifested by an induction of