263 / 504
Mr
Gs
Exceptions confidered
& removed.
CAP. VIII.
4:
32,
things
in this
Reafon,
to
confirme
us
in
the
faith
of
the former Aflerti-
on.
I
The
condition or
nature
ofthe
Spirit
in Believers.
He
is
a
Well,
a
Fountain,
a
spring,
that
never
can,nor
will
be dry
to
Eternity.
2.
The
confiant
f
seplyes
of
Grace
that
this Spirit affords
them,
in
whom he
is:
He is
Water alwaies
f
pringing
up:
fo
that to
fay
he will
refresh Saints
and
Be-
hey ers
with
his
Grace, provided that
they
turne
not
profligately
wicked,
is
o-
penly
to contradiêl
our saviour Chrifi,with
as
dire&oppofition
to
the
defign
in
the words,
as
can
be
imagined.
This
(pringing up
of
Grace,
which from
him
is
had and
received,, which
is
his
worke
in us,
is
that,whereunto
this
pro-
fligate
wickedneffe
is
oppofedp
and whilft
that
is,
this
cannot
be.
'There
is
an
everlafiing incontinency beiween'profligate
wickedneffe, and
a
never failing
fpring
ofGràce.
3.
His Permanency in
this
worke and
efficacy
by
it
this living
Water
fprings
up
to
everlafling
Life: He
ceafes
not,
untill our
Spirituali Life
be
con -
fummated
in
Eternity.This then
is
the
fumme
of
this
Promife
of
our
Saviour;
He gives his holy
Spirit
to
his,
who
lives in
them,
and
gives
them
fuch
conti-
nuall
fupplies
of
Grace,
that
they
shall
never come
to
a
totali
want
of it;
as
they doe
of
Elementary
Water,
who have once
dranke
thereof. And from this
fpring
Both this
Argument
flow.
They
on whom
the
Spirit
is
bellowed
to a-
bide with them for
ever,'
and
to
whom he confiantly yeildes
fuch fupplyes
of
Grace,as
that
they
shall
never be reduced
to
a
totall want
for ever, they
{hall
certainely and infallibly perfevere
:
but
that
this
is
the Condition
of
all
that
come
to
Chrift by
Believing,
or that Chrifi hath
promifed,
that
fo
it
(hall be with
them,
is
cleare
from
his
owne Testimony now
infified
on:
Ergo
.
.
Unto their
Argument
from the Promife
of
our
Saviour
,
Mr
Goodwin
en-
deavours an
Anfwer,
Ch,
I
I.
Se&:
I
o. I
L
12.
pag.
23
2.2
3
3.
and
in
the Preface
of
it tells
us,
that
tbk
Scripture doth but
face
(if
fo
much) the
bufmneffé
in
hands
To
face it
I
fuppofe,
is
to
appeare at
firfi
viewin
its defence; and this
indeed
cannot
well
or
colourably be denied,
the
words
ofit
pun&uallyexprefüng
the
very Truth
we
intend
to
prove thereby: And this notwithfianding the allay-
ing
qualification
(if
fo
much)
muff
needs fomewhat prejudice
the
enfuing
evafions; But we
are yet farther
confident,
that
upon
the more diligent and
firi&
examination,
it will
be found,
to
fpeake
to the
very
heart and
foule
of
the
bufineffe in
hand: and the
Confiderations
of
his
Reafons
to the contrary,
Both
feeme
only
to
give-us
farther light herein,and
affierance
hereof. He
faies
then,
Here
k
no,
Promife
made,that
they who once
believe,
how
unworthily
(never
they
fhallbehávethemfelves,(hall
frill
bepreferved
by
the
Spirit
of
God,'or the
Spirit
of
God
in
Believing, or
that
they
fballbe
neceffztated
alwaies
to Believe.
Aar.
This
is
the
old'
play frill:
It
is
not at
all
our intendment
,
to produce
any
Promife
of
Gtfe-
guarding men
in
the
Love
of
God, how
vilefoever
they
may prove,
but of
preferving them from
,all
Inch
unworthineffe,
as
fhould ren-
der
them
utterly
uncapable thereof:
And
this
is
plainly here afferted, in
the
Affurance given
ofthe
perpetuallrefidence
of
the
Spirit in
them,with
fuch con-
tinuall/upplies
of
Grace from
him',
as
shall
certainly preferve
them
from any
fuch
ftate
or
condition
as
is
imagined
:Of
being
neceffitated
to Believe,
I
have
fpoken formerly.
The
expreffion
is
neither
ufed
by us, nor
proper
to
the thing
it
felfe,about which
it
is
ufed, nor known in
the
Scripture
as
to
this
purpofe,
and
therefore we juftly
reje&
it,
as
to
its
fignifying
any
thing
of
the
may
and
manner,whereby
we
are preferved by
the
power
of
God, through
faith
unto
Salvation.
If
it
denotes
only
the
certainty ,
and
inf.'illibility
of
the
event,as
the
phrafe
207
4.32,