The Doctrine of the Saints' Perseverance

3. That in, and under the Gospel, wherein a remedy is provided in reference to the rigour and severity of both the former Apprehensions, yet the Judge of all, dealeth with all men equally, according to the tenor of it, He that Believeth, shall be Saved, and he that Believeth not, shall be damned; Men in the same condition, shall have the same recompense of reward: But you will say, Do not the same sins, put men into the same condition, and deserve the same punishment in one as in another?

3. That in, and under the Gospell, wherein a remedy is provided in reference to the rigour and severity of both the former Apprehensions, yet the Judge of all, dealeth with all men equally, according to the tenor of it, He that Believeth, shall be Saved, and he that Believeth not, shall be damned; Men in the same condition, shall have the same recompence of reward: But you will say, Doe not the same sinnes, put men into the same condition, and deserve the same punishment in one as in another?

Ans. 1. They do deserve the same punishment: God is equally provoked, and had not Christ answered for the sins of Believers, they could not, they should not have escaped the wrath due to them. 2. That the same sins do not argue men always under the Gospel, to be in the same Condition, as shall be afterwards fully manifested, for (1.) They do not find them in the ⟨p. 265⟩same state: some are in a state of Death and sin, others of Life and Grace, being translated from the one to the other, having a Title to the Promise of Mercy in Christ. (2.) And chiefly, as there is a twofold justification, of the Person, and of the Fact, and the one, may be without the other, so there is a twofold condemnation or dis-approbation, of the Fact, and of the Person▪ As to the particular dis-approbation of God, in respect of any sinful Act, it is the same in reference unto all Persons, Believers and Unbelievers: As to their Persons, there are in the Gospel, other ingredients to the judgement of them, beside particular Facts, or Acts, in answer to the Law, or the rule of Righteousness, viz. Faith and Repentance, which alter the case of the Person, even before the judgement seat of God: To suppose the Saints to fall into the same sins with other men, in the same manner, and to continue in them, without Faith and Repentance, is to beg the thing in Question. Suppose them to have (what we affirm God hath promised) those conditions of Evangelical mercy, and M. Goodwin himself, will grant it no acceptance of Persons, to deal otherwise with them, then with others, who have committed like sins with them, in whom those conditions are not wrought or found; that is, he that Believeth shall be Saved, he that Believeth not shall be Damned. This is all we say in this thing: but of the difference between Believers and unbelievers in their sinning, we shall speak afterwards at large, to the full removal of this and another Objection. For the present this shall suffice, though Believers fall, or may fall into the same sins with other men, yet they fall not into them, in the same manner with them, and they have a relief provided, to prevent the deadly malignity of sin, which those who believe not, have no interest in, no right unto.