The sovereign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain itThe soveraign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain it

5. Saving Perseverance excludes not all Sins, but total Apostasy, and final impenitency, which are fatal and deadly under the New Covenant. If the Righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth Iniquity, ¹and doth according to all the Abominations that the wicked Man doth, shall he live? all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned, in his Trespass that he has trespassed, and in his Sin that he hath sinned he shall die. If any Man draw back, ²my Soul shall have no pleasure in him, saith the Lord. These Threatenings imply, there is a possibility of the Saints falling away considered in themselves, but not that they are ever totally deserted by the Holy Spirit, and left under the reigning Power of Sin. The Threatenings are intended to awaken their Care, and are Preservatives of them from Ruin, and have a singular Influence on their Perseverance. A vigilant and cautious Fear establishes the certainty of their Hope. Indeed from the Relics of weakness and corruption ⟨p. 150⟩in the Saints, they sometimes actually fall into presumptuous Sins, and by rebellious relapses wound Conscience, and let out much of the vital Spirits, their Graces and Comforts. But though the divine Nature in them is miserably wasted by such Sins, yet 'tis not abolished. As after the Creation of Light, there was never pure and total Darkness in the World. Grace does not consist in a Point, but is capable of Degrees. The new Creature may decline in Beauty and Strength, yet Life remain. Between a lively and a dead Faith there may be a fainting Faith; as in St. Peter, for certainly our Saviour was heard in his Prayer for him, that his Faith should not fail in his dreadful Temptation. The Saints do not by a particular fall extinguish the first living Principles of Obedience, Faith and Love; nor change their last end by an entire turning from God to the World. In short, a single act of Wickedness does not reduce them into a state of Unregeneracy: for 'tis not the matter of the Sin singly considered, but the disposition of the Sinner that denominates him. If Grace in the Saints should utterly perish, as some boldly assert, their recovery would be ⟨p. 151⟩impossible.