An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

§. 16. Yet a person that is holy may deserve Damnation, by deserving to be denied that help of the Holy Spirit by which his Holiness must be continued: And as to be saved is to be perfectly sanctified, so to deserve Hell, is to deserve to be forsaken, to the •o•al loss of Holiness. And so though it be hard for us to know whether Adam's first loss of Innocency was a total loss of Holiness, yet if it were not, it was a forfeiture of divine help, and so a mediate loss of it. And so a man that loveth God sincerely, may by great Sin deserve to be deprived of the Spirit, and therefore we must pray for the pardon of such desert for the sake of Christ, though we cannot be damned or miserable while holy.

§. 17. Obj. But how doth God love a holy Soul if he forsake him, and with-hold his Spirit? And if he be not loved of God, he is miserable? If he be loved, he will not be forsaken.

Ans. Answer this your self as to the Case of the Angels and Adam. God loved them, and yet not so as to secure them from the loss of Grace: But he so far loved them efficiently, as to give them that grace by which they could persevere; but not that by which they necessarily should persevere; and he loved them complacentially, according to the goodness which was in them, and yet they lost it.