Chap. 10. they are but defectible creatures, and might totally fail; their being is not from themselves, no more is their duration; in their dependance they cannot poffibly fail, because they are fupported by fomewhat greater than themselves. Remarkable is the dif ference between the cafe of Adam and that of believers; in Adam, one act of fin expelled perfect holinefs; fo that upon the fall, there was not left in him fo much as the leaft relick of fanctity, or fpark of piritual life: he, and after him, all his pofterity became fpiritually dead in fin, not in part only; for then the new-creature fhould be new but in part; but totally, every thing in fallen man wants quickening. But in believers, not one, not many fins are able to drive out the principles of Grace, though those principles are imperfect in themselves, and dwell together with much inherent corruption, yet are they not driven out: and the reafon of this difference is, Adam had the stock of holiness in his own hands; but the graces of the believers depend upon somewhat greater than themselves. Now touching this Dependence, I fhall lay down three or four things:

1. The Graces of Saints depend upon Election; though Election be in it self from all eternity, yet it buds and bloffoms in time. He hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Chrift: According as he hath chofen us in him, Eph. 1. 3,4 Divine Graces, which are choice fpiritual bleffings, iffue not out of common providence; but, as St. Bernard fpeaks, ex abyffo æternitatis, out of the great fountain of Election: The eternal Love, which

lay

lay in Gods bofom, comes forth in the production Chap. 10. of thofe Graces: Nay, and in the duration of them, God fulfills all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of Faith with power, 2 Thef. 1. 11. Whom he did predeftinate, them be alfo called; whom be called, them he alfo juftified; whom he justified, them he alfo glorified, Rom. 8. 30. We fee clearly, Predestination carries them through the other links unto glory. It is obfervable, that when God expreffes his fresh mercies to his people, he doth it thus, I will yet chufe Ifrael, Ifa. 14. 1. God gives fuch fupplies of Grace to his Saints, to make them perfevere, That it is, as if he chofe them again; When the Saints are drooping and dying, as it were, away, electing love gives them another vifit, and makes them live; when their love cools and flacks, his love is ever the fame, and inflames theirs afresh; And how should their Graces fail? The purpose of God according to election doth ftand, Rom. 9. 11. The foundation of God ftandeth fure, 2 Tim. 2. 19. And how should the rivulets or fuperftructures of Grace fail? They can no more do it than the great defign of a Church can; their lamp never goes out, their feed never dies, the falfe Chrifts and falfe Prophets cannot seduce them, Mark 13. 22. The Canker of Hymeneus and Philetus, cannot eat into them, 2 Tim. 2. 19. Election, which is the fontal love, ftill gives a fresh fupply of Grace.

2. Their Graces depend upon Christs merit and interceffion. Chrift prays for Peter, that his Faith may not fail, Luk. 22. 32; neither doth it concern Peter only. In his folemn praier on earth, which was

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Chap. 10. the Canon and pattern of his interceffion in Heaven, he prays to his Father for all believers thus, keep them from evil, Job. 17. 15. If they are kept from evil, they do not fall-away, which is the greatest of evils; if they are not kept from evil, Chrifts interceffion ceafes, or becomes powerlefs, neither of which can be; cease it cannot, becaufè he ever lives to make interceffion; become powerless it cannot, because he is a Priest after the power of an endless life: what he intercedes for must be done. And this is the yet stronger, if we confider for whom he thus intercedes, It is for believers, parts and pieces of his Myftical body, fuch as he cannot tell how to part from. Notable is that of the Apostle, The God of peace, who brought again from the dead the Lord Jefus, make· That God who would' you perfect, Heb. 13. 20, 21. lofe nothing of Chrifts human nature, no, not in the Grave, will perfect believers as mystical parts of him, not fuffering their Graces to fee corruption in an ut ter decay; nor leaving their fouls in the hell of Apoftacy: This is another foundation of perfeverance. De juft. hab. Hence Bishop Davenant faith, Amor Dei in renatos non fundatur in illorum perfectione aut omnimodâ puritate, fed in Chrifto Mediatore: The love of God towards the regenerate, is not founded in their perfection or abfolute purity, but in Chrift the Mediator: As long as he intercedes, their Graces fail not.

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3. Their Graces depend upon the holy Spirit, and that upon a double account: the one is this, The Spirit dwells in believers, it is an abiding Unction, fuch as abides with them for ever, Joh. 14. 16. It is as a Well of water fpringing up to everlasting life,

Job.

Job. 4. 14. Continual irrigations of Grace iffue from Chap. 10. it to cherish the heavenly nature in them: The Holy Spirit will enliven them, as being parts of Chrift. Hence our Saviour faith, Because I live, j'c Shall live alfo, Joh. 14. 19. As long as the Spirit of life is upon the head, the head, it will flow down will flow down upon the members; and whilft it is there, there can be no fuch thing as Apoftacy, but on the contrary a fweet liberty to all the holy ways of God. The other is this, The Spirit witneffes to believers, at leaft to fome of them, That they are the Children of God, and by confequence heirs of him, Rom. 8. 16, 17. And how high an evidence is this? May fuch a Teftimony fail or be reverfed? Or may believers ceafe to be children, and fall short of the inheritance? Far be it from that holy Spirit. The Apostle calls the Spirit, the earnest of our inheritance, not for a time, but till the redemption of the Church be compleated, Eph. 1. 14. till the whole fum be paid in glory: the earnest goes along with the believer to Heaven, his Graces therefore cannot fail by the way: This is another ground of perfeverance.

4. Their Graces depend upon the promises: In the Covenant of works there was no promife of perfeverance; but in the Covenant of Grace there are many fuch: God fhall confirm you unto the end, I Cor. 1. 8. He will put his fear in your hearts, that ye fhall not depart from him, Jer. 32.40. He which did begin the good work in them, will perform it till the day of Chrift, Phil. 1. 6. He will put his spirit into them, and cause them to walk in his ftatutes, Ezek. 36. 27. In fuch promises as thefe, the believers state of Grace

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Chap. 1o. is fecured: Shall we now fay, that all these promises are conditional, If we will perfevere, or, which is all one, do our duty? Is not this to turn the Covenant of Grace into that of Works? Is it not to evacuate all these promises touching perfeverance, as if God spoke in fuch contradictory terms as these, If you perfevere, I will make you perfevere; as if perfeverance could be the condition of it felf? After thefe promises, the believers are but where they were before. Without these promises it would have been true, That if they perfevere, they do fo; and with them fo interpreted, what have they more? What do they contribute to believers, when the main ftrefs of perfeverance is laid on mans will, and not on Gods grace. These promises were penned to be great comforts to believers, that God would establish them by his grace: but what comfort can they take in them, if the matter be left to their own lubricous will? It is in effect as if God fhould fay, 1 will preferve you from all evils and dangers, only for that greatest evil of all which is in your own hearts and wills, I will not undertake. What is this but to take away the fpirit and life of the promises, to leave the Saints in a dead and comfortless condition? Our Saviour tells us to our comfort, That his sheep shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand, Joh. 10. Pral Theol. 28: not unless they themselves will, faith Socinus : but what is this but to nullifie the promife? They cannot poffibly be plucked out of Chrifts hand without their own voluntary confent. So the promile runs thus: They fhall not be plucked out of his hand but only in fuch a way as the fame is poffible to be

cap. 12.

done.