case, wherein the love and goodness of God fail towards his elect. They are one and the same in God towards his people, even when they are under the greatest desertions, and have no sense at all of them: we must not say the sun is grown dark, as often as a dark cloud interposeth between it and our sight. Yea, however it be most certain that the pure and holy God hateth sin even in his elect, yet it is also certain that the good and gracious God loveth the persons of his saints, even at what time they sin: "For the love of God towards the regenerate (saith Davenant) is not bottomed upon their perfect purity and holiness, but upon Christ Jesus the Mediator, who hath transferred their sins upon himself, and so hath redeemed them from the wrath of God." The love and kindness of God towards his people are absolutely unchangeable and everlasting. But grace in the creature, itself being a creature, is not simply and absolutely unchangeable or unloseable: there is a possibility of losing inherent grace, if it be considered in itself; yea, and it would actually be lost and perish, but that God upholdeth his people with one hand, whilst he exerciseth them with the other. Though with all my might I desire to maintain the perseverance of the saints, yet I dare not, as the manner of some is, ground it upon the firmness and rootedness of faith in man, but upon the goodness and faithfulness of God, which are such towards his elect, that he will keep them by his

mighty power "through faith unto salvation," as the apostle expresseth it, 1 Pet. i. 5.

2. It doth not arise from the strength of man's free-will, as if he were of himself able to keep himself for ever in a state of grace, when God had once put him into it. The saints indeed shall for ever will their own perseverance, as we shall see anon; but it is God that worketh in them even this will, Phil. ii. 13. Man's own free-will, or self-sufficiency, is so far from being the ground of his perseverance in grace and holiness, that I do believe nothing in the world is more directly contrary to grace than habitual and predominant self-confidence; and, even in the saints themselves, there is nothing that doth strike a greater stroke towards their apostasy, than this self-conceit and confidence of their own strength, as something distinct from God, though the same be not habitual and predominant; for they themselves are many times sadly weakened and set back by that means, and suffer many lamentable spiritual decays. This seems to have sometimes been the case of Hezekiah and of David too, and had like to have been the case of Paul, when he had so much abounded in revelations, 2 Cor. xii. 7. Sure it is, that nothing doth more estrange the hearts of God's people from him, nor bind up the influences of divine grace and favour from them, than this security, confidence in the strength of their own will, and vain opinion of self-sufficiency,

which thing the sad experience of holy Christians doth attest: not only the apostles James and Peter, but indeed all the true disciples of Christ in the world, do agree to that proverb, God “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble." In a word, though "to do justly," and "to love mercy," have indeed much of religion in them, yet unto perseverance it is also required that a man deny himself and the sufficiency of his own free-will; and, in the prophet's expression, "walk humbly with his God." You know whose brag it was, "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended;" and again, "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee;" and what was the lamentable consequence of this self-confidence, you know likewise: wherefore "let him that standeth" by his own strength, "take heed lest he fall."

I proceed now to speak something affirmatively concerning the grounds of the saint's perseverance in a state of grace. I have already showed you that active grace is absolutely of an immutable nature: and although passive grace be not so, yet it shall not be lost totally and finally. For,

1. The grace of election cannot fail. When I think of that uncertain, conditional, mutable decree of saving men, which some ascribe to God, who is infinite and eternal wisdom and oneness, methinks I may, with great reason, apply the apostle's words spoken concerning himself, and say, When God is thus

graciously minded to elect his people to eternal life," doth he use lightness? or the things that he purposeth, doth he purpose according to the flesh," after the manner of men, who are unsteady and wavering in their determinations? Is there with him yea, yea, and nay, nay? What doth the apostle mean by those words, 2 Tim. ii. 19, "The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, 'The Lord knoweth who are his?'"'

The apostle, in the foregoing verse, having related the apostasy of Hymeneus and Philetus, and the overthrow of some men's faith by their means immediately subjoins this comfortable doctrine of the steadfastness and firmness of God's decree of election, to prevent the offence which the saints might take against the falls of others, and to relieve them against the fears that they might possibly conceive concerning their own perseverance; q. d. Let no one be offended, as if the salvation of the elect stood at uncer-. tainties; it appears that these men were none of God's elect, because they are seduced, and the faith that they had is overthrown; and as for your part who are elected, fear not lest ye also should apostatize, it is not possible to deceive the elect in the necessary and fundamental truths of the gospel, Matt. xxiv. 24; fear not lest ye also should be drawn away by the error of the wicked unto perdition, "for the foundation of God standeth sure," &c. In which sentence, says Dr. Arrowsmith, almost every word breathes firm

ness and performance: nothing is more firm in a building than the foundation; that you may not doubt of that, it is also called sure, or steady; this sure foundation is said to stand, that is, say the Dutch annotations, abideth steadfast and certain; for it is the foundation, not of man's laying but of God's with whom there is "no variableness, nor shadow of change;" yea further, this founddation is said to be sealed; now, what is accounted more firm and sure than those things which are sealed with a seal? especially with such a seal as this, "The Lord knoweth who are his;" though the wisest of men are often deceived in their opinions, yet the knowledge of God is infinitely infallible, according to that of Austin, "If any of the elect perish, God is deceived: but God is not deceived, therefore none of the elect can perish, for the Lord knoweth who are his." When Samuel indeed went to separate one of the sons of Jesse from the rest of his brethren, to be king over Israel, he first pitched upon Eliab, and afterwards rejected him, 1 Sam. xvi, but God is guilty of no such inconstancy in that eternal election which he makes of men to be kings and priests unto himself. Those several acts of divine grace mentioned, Rom. viii. 29, 30, though they be many links, yet run one into another, and all from first to last make up but one chain; concerning which divine and mysterious concatenation, one may boldly use that peremptory prohibition which