The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

1. It strengthens their Faith in God, and in Jesus Christ, which is the bottom of all acceptable Obedience whatsoever; All that, which proceedeth from any other Root, being but a product of labouring in the fire, which in the end will consume both Root and Branch. That which prevails upon, and draws out the soul to Faith and believing, I mean, as it is peculiar to the Gospel, and Justifying, that is, as it is in God as a Father, and in the Lord Christ as a Mediator, is the discovery of the good will of God to the soul in Christ, and his design to advance his Glory thereby; I speak not of the formal cause of Faith in general, but the peculiar motive to Faith, and Believing in the sense before mentioned. So our Saviour giving the command in general to his Disciples Joh. 14 1. ye believe in God, believe also in me, in the whole ensuing Chapter, provokes them to it, with gracious discoveries of the good will of God; his Fathers, and his own good will towards them; And indeed, propose what other considerations ye will, provoke the soul by all the fear and dread of Hell, and the most dismal representation of the wrath to come, until it be convinced of this, it will never take one steppe towards God in Christ; Now our Adversaries themselves being Judges, the Doctrine we have had under consideration, abounds above all others with the discoveries of the good will and kindness of God to poor sinners; yea the great crime, that is laid to the charge of it, is, that it extends it too far; it doth not only assert, that God freely begins the good work in them, but that he will also powerfully perfect it to the day of Jesus Christ; It assures the souls of the poor Saints of God, that he, who looked upon them in their blood, and said unto them Live, when no eye pitied them; who quickened them, when they were dead in trespasses and in sins, begetting them of his own will, by the word of Truth, that they should be a kind of first fruits to himself, wasting them in the blood of his Son, and delivering them from the old Tyrant Satan, that he will not now leave them to themselves, and to the Counsel of their own hands, to stand or fall according as they shall of themselves, and by themselves, be able to withstand opposition and seduction: but that he will keep them in his own hand, giving them such constant supplies of his Grace and Spirit;

1. It strengthens their Faith in God, and in Jesus Christ, which is the bottome of all acceptable Obedience whatsoever; All that, which proceedeth from any other Roote, being but a product of labouring in the fire, which in the end will consume both Root and Branch. That which prevailes upon, and drawes out the soule to Faith and believing, I meane, as it is peculiar to the Gospell, and Justifying, that is, as it is in God as a Father, and in the Lord Christ as a Mediator, is the discovery of the good will of God to the soule in Christ, and his designe to advance his Glory thereby; I speake not of the formall cause of Faith in generall, but the peculiar motive to Faith, and Believing in the sence before mentioned. So our Saviour giving the command in generall to his Disciples