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First, That the love and favour of God, as to the free acceptation of believers with him in Christ, is constant, abiding, and shall never be turned away; handling at large the principles, both of its being and manifestation.

Secondly, That the Spirit and grace of sanctification, which they freely receive from him, shall never utterly be extinguished in them, but so remain, as that they shall abide with him for ever; the sophistical separation of which two parts of our doctrine, is the greatest advantage our adversaries have against the whole. And demonstrate, thirdly, the real and causal influences, which this truth hath, into the obedience and consolation of the saints, considered both absolutely, and compared with the doctrine, which is set up in competition with it; in the pursuit of which particulars, I shall endeavour to enforce and press those places of Scripture, wherein they are abundantly delivered, and vindicate them from all the exceptions put into our inferences from them, by Mr. Goodwin in his Redemption Redeemed; as also answer all the arguments, which he hath with much labour and industry, collected and improved, in opposition to the truth in hand. Take then only these few previous observations, and I shall insist fully upon the proof and demonstration of the first position, concerning the unchangeableness of the love of God towards his, to whom he gives Jesus Christ for beauty and glory, and freely accepts them in him.

First, As to their inherent holiness, the question is not concerning acts, either as to their vigour, which may be abated, or as to their frequency, which may be interrupted; but only as to the Spirit and habit of it, which shall never depart; we do not say they cannot sin, fall into many sins, great sins, which the Scripture plainly affirms of all the saints, that went before: and who of them living doth not this day labour under the truth of it? But through the presence of God with them, upon such grounds and principles, as shall afterward be insisted on, they cannot, shall not, sin away the Spirit and habit of grace (which without a miracle cannot be done away by any one act, and God will not work miracles for the destruction of his children), so as to fall into that state, wherein they were before they were

k Rev. ii. 5. iii. 2. Isa. Ivii. 17. Ios. xiv. 4. Isa. lix. 21. John xiv. 16. 1 John ii. 9. i. 8. James iii. 2. 1 Kings viii. 38. Isa. lxiv. 5, 6.

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regenerate; and of the children of God, become children of the devil, tasting of the second death, after they have been made partakers of the first resurrection.

Secondly, The question is not about the decay of any grace, but the loss of all; not about sickness and weaknesses, but about death itself, which alone we say, they shall be preserved from. Neither do we say," that believers are endowed with any such rich and plentiful stock of grace, as that they may spend upon it without new supplies all their days, but grant that they stand in continual need of the renewed communication of that grace, which hath its abode and residence in their souls, and of that actual assistance, whereby any thing that is truly and spiritually good, is wrought in them. Thirdly, Whereas there is a twofold impossibility. (First), That which is absolutely and simply so in its own nature: and (secondly), That which is so only upon some supposition, we say the total falling away of the saints is impossible only in this latter sense. The unchangeable decree and purpose of God, his faithful promises and oaths, the mediation of the Lord Jesus, being in the assertion supposed: and, fourthly, whereas we affirm, they shall assuredly continue unto the end, the certainty and assurance intimated, is not mentis but entis, not subjective but objective, not always in the" person persevering, but always relating to the thing itself. Fifthly, That the three things, formerly mentioned, acceptance with God, holiness from God, and the defence upon them both unto the end, are that threefold cord of the covenant, which cannot be broken. This will appear, by comparing those two eminent places together, which afterward must more fully be insisted on; Jer. xxxi. 34, 35. xxxii. 38-40. In general, God undertakes to be their God, and that they shall be his people;' chap. xxxi. 31. xxxii. 38. And this he manifests in three things: First, That he will accept them freely, give them to find great favour before him, in the forgiveness of their sins, for which alone he hath any quarrel with them. I will,' saith he, forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more;' chap. xxxi. 34. As it is again repeated, Heb. viii. 12. Secondly, That they shall

1 Rev. xx. 6.

m Psal xxiii. 6. Isa. xxxv. 1, 2. &c. John xv. 3-7. Rom. xi. 18. John i. 16. Col. ii. 19. Luke xvii. 5. Phil. ii. 13.

Isa. xlix. 14-16. v. 17. Cant. v. 2. 6. Psal. lxxiii. 26.

have sanctification and holiness from him; 'I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts;' chap. xxxi. 33. I will put my fear in their hearts;' ver. 40. with Ezek. Ixvi. 67. calls 'the putting his Spirit in them,' who is the author of that grace and holiness which he doth bestow: Thirdly, That in both these, there shall be a continuance for ever; chap. xxxii. 40. I will not turn away from them to do them good, and I will put my fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from me;' or, as ver. 39. 'They shall fear me for ever;' which distinguisheth this covenant from the former, made with their fathers, in that that was broken, which this shall never be; chap. xxi. 32. This is the crowning mercy, that renders both the other glorious as to acceptation he will not depart from us; as to sanctification we shall not depart from him.

CHAP. II.

The theses proposed for confirmation. The fivefold foundation of the truth thereof. Of the unchangeableness of the nature of God, and the influence thereof into the confirmation of the truth in hand. Mal. iii. 3. 6. considered, explained. James i. 16-18. opened. Rom. xi. 29, explained and vindicated. The conditions on which grace is asserted to be bestowed and continued, discussed. The vanity of them evinced in sundry instances. Of vocation, justification, and sanctification. Isa. xl. 27–31. opened and improved to the end aimed at. Also Isa. xliv. 1-8. The sum of the first argument. Mal. iii. 6. with the whole argument from the immutability of God at large, vindicated. Falsely proposed by Mr. G. set right and reinforced. Exceptions removed. Sophistical comparisons exploded. Distinct dispensations, according to distinction of a people. Alteration and change properly and directly assigned to God, by Mr. G. The theme in question begged by him. Legal approbation of duties, and conditional acceptation of persons confounded. As also God's command and purpose. The unchangeableness of God's decrees granted to be intended in Mal. iii. 6. The decree directly in that place intended. The decree of sending Christ not immutable upon Mr. G.'s principles. The close of the vindication of this first argument.

THE certain infallible continuance of the love and favour of God unto the end, towards his, those whom he hath once freely accepted in Jesus Christ, notwithstanding the interposition of any such supposals, as may truly be made, having foundation in the things themselves, being the first thing proposed, comes now to be demonstrated.

Now the foundation of this the Scripture lays upon five unchangeable things, which eminently have an influence into the truth thereof. First, Of the nature: Secondly, Purposes: Thirdly, The Covenant: Fourthly, The Promises: Fifthly, The oath of God. Every one whereof being engaged herein, the Lord makes use of to manifest the unchangeableness of his love towards those, whom he hath once graciously accepted in Christ.

First, He hath laid the shoulders of the unchangeableness of his own nature to this work; Mal. iii. 6. I am the Lord, and I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob, are not consumed.' These sons of Jacob are the sons of the faith of Jacob, the Israel of God, not all the seed of Jacob according

*Rom. ix. 6. xi. 4--6.

to the flesh; the Holy Ghost in this prophecy makes an eminent distinction between these two; chap. iii. 16. iv. 1, 2. The beginning of this chapter contains a most evident and clear prediction and prophecy of the bringing in of the kingdom of Christ, in the gospel, wherein he was to purge his floor, and throw out the chaff to be burnt. This his appearance makes great work in the visible church of the Jews, very many of those who looked and waited for that coming of his, are cut off, and cast out, as persons that have neither lot nor portion in the mercy wherewith it is attended. Though they said within themselves, that they had Abraham to their father, and were the children and posterity of Jacob; yea, ver. 5. to them who are only the carnal seed, and do also walk in the ways of the flesh, he threatens a sore revenge and swift destruction, when others shall be invested with all the eminent mercies, which the Lord Christ brings along with him, lest the true sons of Jacob should be terrified with the dread of the approaching day, and say, as David did, when the Lord made a breach upon Uzzah,d Who can stand before so holy a God? Shall not we also in the issue be consumed! He discovereth to them the foundation of their preservation to the end, even the unchangeableness of his own nature and being, whereunto his love to them is conformed; plainly intimating, that unless himself and his everlasting Deity be subject and liable to alteration and change (which once to imagine, were, what lieth in us, to cast him down from his excellency), it could not be, that they should be cast off for ever, and consumed. These are the tribes of Jacob and the preserved of Israel, which Jesus Christ was sent to raise up; Isa. 1. 6. The house of Jacob, which he takes from the womb, and carries unto old age, unto hoary hairs, and forsaketh not; Isa. xlvi. 3, 4.

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This is confirmed, James i. 16-18. 'Do not err my beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights; with whom is no variableness, nor shadow of turning of his own will begat he us with the word of truth.' He begets us of his own will by the word of truth. For, whatsoever men do pretend, 'we are born again, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but the will of God;' John i. 13. Now, b Mat. iii. 12. c Isa. xlix. 3—6. Luke ii. 34. Rom. ix. 30, 31. d Isa. liv-6.

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