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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
The works of John Owen

THE

WORKS

JOHN tWEN, D.D.

EDITED

BY THE REV. WILLIAM H. GOOLD,

EDINBURGH.

VOL. XL

NEW YOEK:

ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS,
285 BROADWAY.

ILDCCCLIII.

CONTENTS OF YOLUME XL

THE DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE
EXPLAINED AND CONTIRMED.

Prefatory Note by the Editor, ...... Page 2

The Dedication, .......... 5

The Epistle Dedicatory, .......... 7

A Preface to the Reader, . . . . . . . .19

CHAPTER I.

the state of the controversy.

The various thoughts of men concerning the doctrine proposed to consideration— The
great concernment of it, however stated, on all hands confessed — Some special causes
pressing to the present handling of it — The fearful backsliding of many in these days
— The great oifence given and taken thereby, with the provision made for its removal
— The nature of that oifence and temptation thence arising considered— Answer to
some arguings of Mr G., chap, ix., from thence against the truth proposed — The use
of trials and shakings — Grounds of believers' assurance that they are so— The same
farther argued and debated — Of the testimony of a man's own conscience concerning
his uprightness, and what is required tliereunto— 1 John iii. 7 considered — Of the
rule of self-judging, with principles of settlement for true believers, notwithstand-
ing the apo.stasies of eminent professors — Corrupt teachings rendering the handling
of this doctrine necessary— Its enemies of old and of late — The particular undertak-
ing of Mr G. proposed to consideration — An entrance into the stating of the question
— The terms of the question explained— Of holiness in its several acceptations —
Created holiness, original or adventitious, complete or inchoate — Typical bj' dedica-
tion, real by purification — Holiness evangelical, either so indeed or by estimation —
Real holiness partial or universal — The partakers of the first, or temporary believers,
not true believers, maintained against Mr G. — Ground of judging professors to be
true believers— Matt. vii. 20 considered — What is the rule of judging men therein
given — What knowledge of the faith of others is to be obtained — What is meant by
pei'severance : how in (Scripture it is expressed — The grounds of it pointed at — Wliat
is intended by falling away — Whether it be possible the Spii-it of grace may be lost,
or the habit of it, and how — Tlie state of the controversy as laid down by Mr G. —
The vanity thereof discovered — His judgment about believers' falling away examined
— What principles and means of pierseverance he grants to them — The enemies of
our perseverance — Indwelling sin in particular considered — No possibility of pre-
servation upon Mr G.'s groimds demonstrated — The means and ways of the saints'
preservation in faith, as asserted by Mr G., at large examined, weighed, and found
light— The doctrine of the saints' perseverance, and way of teaching it, cleared from
Isa. iv. — That chapter opened— The 5th verse particularly insisted on and discussed
— The whole state and method of the controversy thence educed, , . 77

CHAPTER II.

THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS ARGDED FROM THE IMMCTAriLITY OF
TUB DIVINE NATURE.

The thesis proposed for confii-mation — The fivefold foundation of the truth thereof— Of
the unchangeableness of the nature of God, and the influence thereof into the con-
firmation of the truth in hand— Mai. iii. 6 considered and explained— James i. lt)-18
opened — Rom. xi. 29 explained and vindicated — The conditions on which grace is
asserted to be bestowed and continued, discussed — The vanity of them evinced in
sundry instances— Of vocation, justification, and sanctification— Isa xl. 27-31 opened
and improved to the end aimed at; also Isa. xliv. 1-8— The sum of the first argu-

/

IV CONTENTS.

mcnt— Mai iii. 6. with the whole argument from the immutability of God at large
Tindicatfd — Falsely proposed by Mr G. ; set ripht and re-enforccd — Exceptions re-
moved—Sopliistical comparisons exploded — Distinct dispensations, accordini? to dis-
tinction of a people— Alteration and change propei-ly and directly assifrneil to God
by Mr G. — 'J'he tiieme in question bessed by liiiii — LckuI approbation of duties and
Conditional acceptation of persons confounded; as also (iod's command and purpose
— Tlie unchangcableness of God's decrees (granted to be intended in Mai. iii. C— The
decree directly in that place intended — The decree of sending Christ not immutable,
upon Mr G.'s principles — The close of the vindication of this first argument, 120

CHAPTER III.

TUB IMMUTABILITY OF THE PURPOSES OF GOD.

The immutability of the pui-poses of God proposed for a second demonstration of the
truth in Land — Somewhat of the nature and properties of the purposes of God: the
object of them— Purposes, how acts of God's understanding aud will— The only
foundation of the futurition of all things— The purposes of God absolute— Conti-
nuance of divine love towards believei's purposed— Purposes of God fai-ther con-
sidered and their nature explained— Their independence and absoluteness evinced
— Proved from Isa. xlvi. 9-11; Ps. xxxiii. 9-11; Heb. vi. 17, 18, etc. — These places
explained- The same truth by sundry reasons and arguments farther contirmed —
Purpose in (iod of the continuance of his love and fiivour to believers manifested by
an induction of instances out of .Scripture; the first from Rom. viii. 28 pi-oposed,
and farther cleared and improved— Mr G.'s dealing with our argument from hence
and our exposition of this place considered — His exposition of that place proposed
and discussed— The de.'^ign of the apostle commented on — The fovmtain of the .ac-
complishment of the good things mentioned omitted by Mr (i. — In what sense God
intends to make all things work together for good to tlieni that love him— Of (»od's
Ibreknowledge— Of the sense and use of the word ^poyivua-xu, also of scisco, and
yiviiirxai in classical authors— n^oyva/irif in Scripture everywhere taken for foreknow-
ledge (ir predetermination, nowliere for pre-approbation — Of pre-approving or pre-
approbation here insisted on by Mr G. — Its inconsistency with the sense of the
apostle's discourse manifested — The progress of Mr G.'s exposition of this place con-
sidei-ed-^Whether men love God antecedently to his predestination and their effec-
tual calling — To pre-ordain and preordin.ate different— No assurance granted of the
consolation professed to be intended — The great uncertainty of the dependence of
the acts of God's grace mentioned on one another— The efficacy of every one of them
resolved finally into the wills of men— Whether calling according to God's purpose
supposeth a saving answer given to that call— The affirmative proved, and excep-
tions given thereto removed — What obstructions persons called may lay in their
own way to justification — The iniquity of imposing conditions and supposals on the
purposes of God not in the least intimated by himsell — The whole acknowledged
design of the npostle everted by the interposition of cases and conditions by Mr G.
—Mr G.'s first attempt to pi-ove the decrees of God to be conditional considered —
1 Sam. ii. 30 to that end produced — 1 Sam. ii. 30 farther considered, and its unsuit-
ableness to illustrate Rom. viii. 28-31 proved— Interpretation of Scripture by com-
paring of places agreeing neither in design, word, nor matter, rejected— The places
insisted on proved not to be parallel by sundry particular instances— Some observa-
tions from the words rejected— What act of God intended in these words to Eli, " I
said indeed"— No purpo.se or decree of (iod in them declared— Any such purpose
as to the House of Eli by sundry arguments disproved— No purpose of (Jod in the
words insisted on farther manifested— 'J'hey are expressive of the promise or law
concerning the priesthood. Num. xxv. 11-13, more especially relating luito Exod.
xxviii. 43, xxix. 9— The import of that promi.se, law, or statute, cleared— The example
of Jonah's i)reaching, and God's conuuands to Abiaham and Pharaoh— 'J'iic universal
disproportion between the texts eijnipared by Mr G., both as to matter and expres-
sion, farther nianifesfed— Inst.iMces (ir cases of Saul and Paul to prove conditional
purposes in (Jod (•(Hisidered— ('(inditional purposes argued from conditional threat-
eniiigs—'l'he weakness of that argument— I he nature of divine threatenings — What
will of (iod, or what of the will of God, is declared by them— No proportion between
eternal jjiirpo.ves and temporal threatenings— The issue of the vindication of our ar-
gumerd from the foregoing exceptions— Mr (i.'s endeavour to maintain his exiKisition
of the place under consideration— The text perverted— Several evasions of Air G.
from the force of this argument considered— llis arguments to prove no certain or
infallible connection between calling, ju.stification, and glorification, weighed and
juiswered— Ills tust. from the .scope of the chapter and the use of exhortations— The
question begged— His second, from examples of persons called and not iustitied—
Ihe question argued begged— No i)roof insistctl on but the interposition of his own
liypotiiesis-How we are called irresistibly, and in what .>iense— Whether bars of
wickedness and unl)elief may be laid in the way of (iod's effectual call-Mr G 's
demur to another consideration of the text removed— The argument in hand freed

from other- objections and concluded — ,1
confirmation of the truth under ilemonstr

er. xxxi. 3 explainetl and improved, for the
itration— 2 Tim. ii. 19 opened, and the truth

CONTENTS. V

from thence confirmed — The foregoing exposition and argument vindicated and con-
lirmed— The same matter at large pursued — John vi 37-40 explained, and the argu-
ment in hand from thence confirmed — Mr (i.'s exceptions to our arguing from this
place removed — The same matter farther pursued — The exposition and argument
insisted on fully vindicated and established — Matt xxiv. 24 opened and improved —
The sevcrals of that test more particularly handled — Farther observations, for the
clearing the mind of the Holy Ghost in this place— The same farther insisted on and
vindicated— Mr (i.'s exceptions at large discussed and removed — Eph. i. 3-5, 2 Thess.
ii. 13, 14, opened — The close of the second argument, from the immutability of the
purposes of God, ......... 140

CHAPTER IV.

ARGUMENT 1 KOM THK COVENANT OF GRACE.

An entrance into the consideiation of the covenant of grace, and oiir argument from
thence for the unchangeableness of the love of God unto believers — The intendment
of the ensuing discourse— Gen. xvii. 7 opened and explained, with the confirmation
of the argument in hand from thence — That argument vindicated and cleared of
objections— Confirmed by some observations — Jer. xxxii 38-40 compared with chap.
xxxi. 31-34 — The truth under consideration from thence clearly confirmed- The
certainty, immutability, and infallible accomplishment, of all the promises of the
new covenant demonstrated : 1 From the removal of all causes of alteration; 2. From
the Mediator and his undertaking therein; 3 From the faithfulness of God— One
instance fi'om the former considerations— The endeavour of Mr G to answer our
argument from this place — His observation on and from the text considered — 1. 1'his
promise not made to the .Tews only, 2. Nor to all the nation of the Jews, proved
from Rom. xi. 7 ; not intending principally their deliverance from Babylon — His in-
ferences from his former observations weighed — 1. The promise made to the body of
the people of the Jews typical only; 2. An exposition borrowed of Socinus rejected;
3. The promise not appropriated to the time of the captivity, and the disadvantage
ensuing to Mr G.'s cau.se upon such an exposition — The place insisted on compared
with Ezek xi. 17-20— That place cleared— A fourth objection answered — This pro-
mise always fulfilled — The spiritual part of it accomplished during the captivity —
God's intention not frustrated- How far the civil prosperity of the Jews was con-
cerned in this promise — Promises of spiritual and temporal things compared — The
covenant of grace how far conditional — Mr G.'s sense of this place expressed — Bor-
rowed from Faustus Socinus— The inconsistency of it with the mind of the Holy
Ghost demonstrated, also with what himself hath elsewhere delivered — No waj' suited
to be the answer of our argimient from the place — The same interpretation farther
disproved— An immediate divine efficacy held out in the words— Conversion and
pardon of sins promised — Difierenced fiom the grace and promises of the old cove-
nant— Contribution of means put by Mr G. in the place of effectual operation of the
thing itself, farther disproved — How, when, and to whom this promise was fulfilled,
farther declared — An objection arising upon that consideration answered — Conjec-
tures ascribed to God by Mr G. — The real foundation of all divine predictions — The
promise utterly enervated, and rendered of none effect by Mr G."s exposition — Its
consistency with the prophecies of the rejection of the Jews — The close of the argu-
ment from the covenant of grace, ...... 204

CHAPTER V.

ARGDMEiNT I ROM THE PROMISES OF GOD.

Enti-ance into the argument from the promises of God, with their stability and his faith-
fulness in them — The usual exceptions to this argument— A general description of
gospel promises— Why and on what account called gospel promises— The description
given general, not suited to any single promise — They are free, and that they are so
proved; all flowing from the first great promise of giving a Redeemer — How they are
discoveries of God's good-will; how made to sinners — Consequential promises made
also to believers— Given in and through Christ in a covenant of grace— Their cer-
tainty upon the account of the engagement of the truth and faithfxilness of God in
them — Of the main matter of these promises, Christ and the Spirit — Of pai-ticular
promises, all flowing from the same love and gi-ace- Observations on the promises of
God, subservient to the end intended — 1. They are all true and faithful; the ground
of the assertion — 2. Their accomplishment always certain, not always evident— 3. All
conditional promises made good, and how — 4. The promises of perseverance of two
sorts — 5 All promises of our abiding with God in faith and obedience absolute— The
vanity of imposing conditions on them discovered— 6. Promises of God's abiding with
us not to be separated from promises of our abiding with him — 7. That they do not
properly depend on any condition in believers demonstrated — Instances of this as-
sertion given — 8. Making them conditional renders them void as to the ends for which
they are given— Given to persons, not to qualifications— The argument from the pro-
mises of God stated — Mr G.'s exceptions against the first proposition cleared, and his

VI CONTENTS.

olijoctions answered— The promises of God alwaj's fulfilled — Of the promise made to
Paul, Acts xxvii. 24, etc. — Good men make good tlieii- promises to the utmost of their
abilities— The promise made to Paul absolute and of infallible accomplisliment— Of
the promise of our Saviour to his disciples. Matt. xix. 28 — Who intended in that
promise; not Judas— The accomplishment of the promise — The testunonj* of Peter
Slartyr considered— The conclusion of the foreinentioned objection — The engage-
ment of the faithfulness of God for the accomplishment of his promise, 1 Cor. i. S^;
1 Thess. V. 23, 24; 2 Thcss. iii. 3- The nature of the faithfulness of God, expressed
in the foregoing places, inquired into— Perverted by Mr G. — His notion of the faith-
fulness of (>od weighed and rejected— What intended in the Scripture by the faith-
fulness of God -The close of the confirmation of the proposition or the argument
proposed from the pi'omiscs of God— The assumption thereof vindicated— The sense
put upon it by Mr G. — The question begged, ..... 225

CHAPTER VI.

PAUTICULAK PROMISES ILLUSTRATED.

The former argument confirmed by an induction of pirticular instances— Jo.shua i. 5
opened— The concernment of all believers in that promise proved by tjie apostle,
licb xili. 5— The general interest of all believers in all the promises of God cleared
— Objections answered— How Old Testament promises may be improved— The pro-
mise insisted on relates principally to spirituals— The strength of it to the end in-
tended— 1 Sam. xii. 22, to whom the promise there is given — The twofold use of this
promise— Threats to wicked men of use to the saints; promises to the saints of use
to wicked men— Isa. iv 2-4, Ps. Ixxxix. 30-37 opened — A condition of backsliding
supposed in believers, yet they not rejected — (iod's abiding with his sain*.s upon
the account of his, I. Faithfulness; 2. Ijoving-kindness; 3. Covenant; 4. Promise;
5. Oaili— The intendment of the words insisted on from 1 Sam. xii 22— Isa. xxvii.
2, 3, Zeph. iii. 17, illu.>^trated— The intendment of these words, "I will not forsake
thee" — 'J'he reason of the promi,«e, and means promised therein— No cause in tlicm
to whom the promise is made— Ezek. xxxvi. 32, Isa. xliii. 22-25, opened; also IsJi.
Ivii. 17— The cause in God himself only— The "name" of God, what it im]X)rts; his
all-sutficiency eiignged therein, and his goodness— The rise and tbuntaiu of all God's
goodness to his people in his own good pleasure— The sum of our argument from this
place of Scripture— Ps. xxiii. 4, 6, opened; the psalmist s use of assurance of perse-
verance—Inferences from the last use— 2 Tim. iv. 18 opened — All believers in the
same condition as to perseverance with David and Paul— The second inference from
the place insisted on— Assurance a motive to obedience, and is the end tiiat God in-
tends to promote tliereby— Ps. cxxv. 1, 2, explained; Ps. xxxvii. 28; Deut. xxxiii. 3
— Inferences i'rom that phice of the p.salinist — Perpetual preservation in the condi-
tion of saints promised to believers— Mr (t.'s objections and exceptions to our expo-
sition and argument from this place removed — Promises made originally to persons,
not qualifications— Not the same reason of promises to the church and of threaten-
ings to sinners— Other ol)jections removed— Isii. liv. 7-10, the mind of the Lord in
the promise mentioned in that place opened — The expusition .i;ivcn on that place
and arguments from thence vindicated— Direction I'or tlir riirht inipruvcnicnt of i)ro-
mises— Ho.'i. ii. 19, 20, opeuod— Of tiie general design of that chapter— The lir.st part,
of the total rejection of the church and political state of the Jews — The second, of
promises to the remnant according to the election of grace — Of this four particulars:
1. Of conversion, vei^os 14, 15; 2. Of obedience and forsaking all fal.se worship,
verses Ifi, 17; 3. Of peace and quietness, verse IS; 4. Discovering the fountain of aU
the mercies, verses 19, 20 — Some objections removed — To whom this promise is made
— 'i'he jiromi.sc farther opened; the persons to whom it is made — X'erse 14 of that
chapter opened— The wilderness condition whereunto men are allured by the gospel,
what it imports: 1. Separation; 2. Entanglement — (lod's dealing with a soul in its
wilderness condition — Promises given to persons in that condition — The sum of the
foregoing promises— The jwrsons to whom they are made farther described — The
nature of the main promise itself considered— Of the main Odvenant between God
and his saints— 'i'he i)ropcrties of (iod engaged for the acconiplislmient of this pro-
mise—Mr (i 's exposition of this place considered and coiUuted — John x. 27-29
opened, vindicated, ........ 243

CHAPTER VII.

THE MEDIATION OF CUR18T.

The consideration of the oath of God deferred— The method first proposed somewhat
waived^'l'he intliience of the mediation of Clirist into (ii)d"s free and uncluuiL'eable
acceptance of believers proposed— Ileasoi is of that proposal— Of the oblation of Christ
— Its inlluence into tiie ^aints' perseverance— All cau.ses of separation between (iod
and believers taken away thereby— Moral and efficient causes thereby removed—
The guilt of .sin, how taken away by the death of Christ— Of the nature of redemp-
tion—Conscience of sin, how abolished by the sacrifice of Christ— Ileb. x. 3,4, 14;

CONTENTS. VII

Dan, ix. 24 opened — Rom. viii. 34, deliverance from all sin, how by the death of
Christ— The law innovated in respect of the elect — The vindictive justice of God
satisfied by the deatli of Christ — How that is done — Wherein satisfaction doth
consist ; absolute, not conditional — The law, how fulfilled in the death of Christ — ■
The truth of God thereby accomplished; his distributive justice ensiaged— Observa-
tions for the clearing of the former assertions— Whether any one for whom Christ
died may die in sin- The r.ecessity of faith and obedience — The reasons thereof —
The end of faith aud holiness — Tiie first argument for the proof of the former asser-
tions concerning the fruit and efficacy of tlie death uf Christ, Heb. ix. 14 — The second
— The third — The compact between the Father and Son about the worli of media-
tion— The fourth — Good things bestowed on tliem for whom Christ died antecedently
to any thing spiritually good in them — The Spirit so bestowed, and faith itself— The
close of those arguments— Inferences fiom the foregoing discourse— The efficacy of
the death of Chiist, and the necessity of faith and obedience, reconciled — Sundry
considerations unto that end proposed; 1. All spiritual mercies fruits of the death
of Christ; 2. All the fruits of Christ's death laid up in the hand of God's righteous-
ness; 3. The state of them for whom Christ died not actually changed by his death;
4. On what account believing is necessai'y — Christ secures the stability of the saints'
abiding with God — What is contrary thereunto; how by him removed — The world
overcome by Christ, as managed by Satan in an enmity to the saints— The complete
victory of Christ over the devil— The ways whereby lie completes his conquest — The
rule of Satan in respect of sinners twofold: 1. Over them; 2. In them— The title of
Satan to a rule over men judged and destroyed by Christ — The exercise of all power
taken from him — The works of Satan destroyed by Chi'ist in and for liis elect — The
Holy Spiiit procured by the death of Christ— The giving of the Spii-it the great pi'O-
mise of the new covenant — I'his farther proved and confirmed — The perpetual resi-
dence of the Holy Spiiit with believers proved by the threefold testimony of Father,
Son, and Spirit— Isa. lix. 21, the testimony of the Father proposed and vindicated —
Our argument from hence farther cleared — This pi'omise absolute, not conditional —
No condition rationally to be affixed to it — The import of these words. " As for me"
— To whom this promise is made — That farther cleared — Not to all Israel according
to the flesh — Mr G.'s objections answered — The testimonj' of the Son given to the
perpetual abiding of the Spirit with believers — John xiv. Ki opened— The promise
in those Avords equally Ijelonging to all believers — Mr G.'s objections answered — No
promise of the Spirit abiding with believers on his principle allowed— The promise
given to the apostles personallj-, yet given also to the whole church — Promises made
to the church made to the individuals whereof it is constituted — The giving of this
promise to all believers farther argued from the scope of the place, and vindicated
from Mr G.'s exceptions — The third testimony, of the Holy Spirit himself, proposed
to consideration — His testimony in sealing particularly considei'ed, 2 Cor. i. 22;
Eph. i. 13, iv. 30— Of the nature and use of sealing amongst men — The end, aim, and
use, of the sealing of the Holy Ghost — Mr G.'s objections and exceptions to our argu-
ment from that sealing of the Spirit considered and removed — The same farther
carried on, etc., ......... 288

CHAPTER VIII.

THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT.

Entrance into the digression concerning the indwelling of the Spirit — The manner of the
abode of the Spirit with them on whom he is bestowed — Grounds of the demonstra-
tions of the truth — The indwelling of the Sjiirit proved from the promises of it —
Express aijirmations of the same truth — Ps. li. 11, Rom. viii. 9, opened— Verses 11,
15; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal. iv. G, opened — 2 Tim. i. 14 — The Spirit in his indwelling, dis-
tinguished from all his graces — Evasions removed — Rom. v. 5 explained — The Holy
Ghost himself, not the grace of the Holy Ghost, there intended— Rom. viii. 11 opened
— Gal V. 22 — A personality ascribed to the Spirit in his indwelling: 1 In personal
appellations, 1 John iv. 4; John xiv. 16, 17 — 2. Personal operations— Rom. viii. 11,
16, explained — 3. Personal circumstances— The Spirit dwells in the saints as in a
temple, 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19 — The indwelling of the Spirit farther demonstrated from
the signal ettects ascribed in the Scripture to his so doing; as. 1. Union with Christ
— Union with Christ, wherein it consistetli— Union with Christ by the indwelling
of the same Spirit in him and us — This proved from, (1.) Scriptural declarations of
it— 2 Pet. i. 4, how we are made partakers of the divine nature — Union expressed
by eating the flesh and drinking the bloodof Christ— John vi. 56 opened — The prayer
of our Saviour for the union of his disciples, John xvii. 21 — The union of the persons
in the Trinity with themselves— (2.) Scriptural illustrations for the manifestation
of union — The union of head and members, what it is, and wherein it doth consist
— Of the union between husband and wife, and our union with Christ represented
thereby — Of a tree and its branches— Life and quickening given by the indwelling
Spirit, in quickening, life, and suitable operations — 2. Direction and guidance given
by the indwelling Spirit— Guidance or direction twofold — 'L'he several ways wliereby
the Spirit gives guidance and direction unto them in whom he dwells — The first way,
by giving a new understanding, or a new spiritual light upon the rmderstanding —

VIII CONTENTS.

Wliat light men may attain without the iiarticnlar j,aiidance of the Spirit— Saving
embracements of particular truths from tlie Spirit, 1 John ii. 20, 27— The way
■whereby the Spirit leads believ(;rs into ti-utli — Coiiscrpicnces of the want of this
guiiluiice of tlio Spirit— 3. 'J'lie third thing received from the indwelling Spirit, sup-
piirtnu'Kt— The way whereby the Spirit gives supportment: (I.) By bringing to
jniiiil tlie things spoken by Christ for their consolation, John xiv. 10, 17, 20- (2.) By
renewing his graces in them as to strength — The benefits issuing and flowing from
thence— Jvcstraint given by the indwelling Spirit, and how— 'J'he continuance of the
Spirit with believers for the i-enewal of grace proved— John iv. H, that promise of
our Saviour at large opened — The water there promised is the Spirit — The state of
them on whom he is bestowed — Spiritual thirst twofold— Isa. Ixv. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 2—
The reasons why men cannot thirst again who have once dmnk of the Spirit ex-
plained— Mr (J. 's exceptions considered and removed — The same work farther car-
ried on; as also the indwelling of the Spirit iu believers farther demonstrated by
the inferences made from thence — 'f he first : Our persons temples of the Holy Ghost,
to be disposeil of in all ways of holiness — The second: Wisdom to try spirits — 'J'he
ways, means, and helps, whereby the saints discern between the voice of Christ and
tlie voice of Satan, ......... 329

CHAPTER IX.

TUK INTKllCESSION OF CUBIST.

The nature of it — Its aim, not only that believers continuing so may be saved, but that
they may be preserved in believing —This farther proved from the typical interces-
sion of the Judaical high priest — The tenor of Christ's intercession, as manifested
John xvii. 11, opened, and verses 12-15— The result of the argument from thence —
The saints' perseverance fully confirmed — Rom viii. 33, 34, at lai'ge explained — Mr
Gr.'s interpretation of the place in all the parts of it confuted — Vain supposals ground-
les.sly interserted into the apostle's discourse— What Christ intercedes for for believers
farther manifested — The sum of what is assigned to the intercession of Christ by
Mr <jr. — How far it is all from yielding the least consolation to the saints manifested
— The reasons of the foregoing interpretation proposed and answered — The end as-
signed of the interci'ssion <]!' (Christ answered— God works perseverance actuallj' — A
supply of means that may not be efi'ectual not to be ascribed thereunto— Farther
objections answered : Christ not the minister of sin by this doctrine— Supptsals and
instances upon the former interpretation disproved and rejected— A brief account
of our doctrine concerning the intercession of Christ for believers, and of the true
end of the act of his mediation — The close of the argument, and of the first part of
this ti'eatise, ......... 305

CHAPTER X.

THE IMPUOVEMKNT OF THE DOCTRINE.

The improvement of the doctrine of perseverance in reference to the obedience and con-
solation uf the saints — Why its tcndencj- to the promoting of their obedience is first
bandied, belbre their consolation — Five previous observations concerning gospel
truths in general— 1. That all are to be received with equal reverence— 2. That the
end of them all is to Avork the soul into a conformity to tJod ; proved by several
scrinturcs, 2 Tim. iii. Iti, 17; Tit. i. 1, etc. — 3 Some truths have a more immediate
tendency hereunto than others have, 2 (Jor v. 11 — l. Most weight is to be laid by
believers upon sucii— 5. Men are not themselves to determine what truths liavc most
in them of this tendency, etc.— (iospel obedience, what it is. and why so called— Us
nature— I. In the niatter of it, which is all and only the will of (iiod-^2. In the form
of it, which is considered— (1.) In the princii)le setting it on work, faith— (2.) In the
manner of doing it, eyeing both precei)ts and promises— (3.) The end aimed at in it,
the glory of tiod as a rewarder, Heb xi. (I; Rom. iv 4— The princijile in us whence
it pioceeds, wliich is the new man, the Sjiirit, proved, Eph iii. Ki-iy, etc — What
kind of motives conduce most to the cariying on of this obedience, namely, such as
most ciierish tliis new man, which they do most that discover nuist of the love of (lod
and his good-will in Christ— Such as the-e are alone useful to mortification and the
subduing of the contrary princiiile of flesh, whicii hinders our obedience, proved,
1'it ii. 11, 12; Rom. vi. — \y hat ]iersons the improvement of this doctrine concerns;
only ti-ue believers, who will not abuse it— How this doctrine of por.-;everance con-
duces so eminently to the carrying on of gospel obedience in the hearts of these true
believers— 1. By removing discouragements— (1) Peri)lexing fears, which impair

I their faith; (2.) Hard thoughts of (u)d, which weaken their love: Avithout which
two. faith and love, no gospel obedience performed— 2. Unspeakable obligations to
live to (Jod iience |)ut upon the souls of the saints — Objections concerning the abuse
of this truth to ])iesumption and carelessness discus.sed, examined at large, and
remove l—'i'he mortification of the fles!i, wherein it consists, how it is performed —
1'he influence of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance thereinto — Dread and terror
of hell not the means of mortification, at large proved by showing quite another means

CONTENTS, TX

of mortifj'iBg the flesh, namely, the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 13 ; applying the cross
and death of Christ, chap. vi. 5, 6—3. This doctrine is useful to promote gospel obe-
dience, in that it tends dii-ectly to increase and strengthen faith and love both to-
wards God and towards our Loi'd Jesus Christ—How it strengthens their love to
God, namely, by discovering his love to them in three eminent properties of it,
freedom, constancy, fruitfulness— How it strengthens their love to Jesus Christ,
nanielj', by discovering his love to them in two eminent acts of it, his oblation and
his intercession — 4. This doctrine conduces, etc., by giving gospel obedience its proper
place and due order — 5. By closing in with the ends of gospel ordinances, particu-
larly the ministry, one eminent end whereof is to perfect the saints, Eph. iv. 12, 13,
which is done by discovering to them the whole will of God, both pi'ecepts on the
one hand, and promises, exliortations, thrcatenings, on the other— That of the pro-
mises more particularly and more largely insisted on, . . . . 379

CHAPTER Xr.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED.

The entrance into an answer to Mr (x.'s arguments against the doctrine of the saints'
perseverance — His sixth argument, about the usefulness of the doctrine under consi-
deration to the work of the ministry, proposed — His proof of the minor proposition
considered and answered —Many pretenders to promote godliness by false doctrines
— Mr G.'s common interest in this argument— His proofs of the usefulness of his
doctrine unto tlie promotion of godliness considered and answered — The consequence
of his arguing discovered — The doctrine by him opposed mistaken, ignorantly or
wilfully — Ubjections proposed by Mr G. to himself to be answered — The objection
as proposed disowned — Certainty of the love of God, in what sense a motive to obe-
dience— The doctrine of apostasy denies the unchangeableness of God's love to
believers; placeth qualifications in the room of persons— How the doctrine of per-
severance promiseth the continuance of tlie love of (jod to believers— Certainty of
reward encouraging to regular action— Promises made to persons quali&ed, not sus-
pended upon those qualitications— Means appointed of God for the accomplishment
of a determined end certain — Means not always conditions— Mr G.'s strange infer-
ence concerning the Sci'ipture considered — The word of God by him undervalued
and subjected to the judgment of vain men as to its truth and authority — The pre-
tended reason of the former proceeding discussed — The Scripture the sole judge of
what is to be ascribed to God, and believed concerning him— The doctrine of the
saints' perseverance falsely imposed on, and vindicated — Mr G.'s next objection
made to himself against his doctrine — Its unseasonableness as to the argument in
hand demonstrated — No assurance of the love of God, nor peace left the saints, by
the doctrine of apostasy — The ground of peace and assurance by it taken away —
Ground of Paul's consolation, 1 Cor. ix. 27— The meaning of the word a-Uxiuos—An-
otlier plea against the doctrine attempted to be proved by Mr G. — That attempt
considei-ed — Not the weakness of the flesh naturally, but the strength of lust spirit-
ually pretended — The cause of sin in the saints farther discussed — The power ascribed
by Mr G. to men for the stx'cngthening and making willing the Spirit in them con-
sidered— The aptness of the saints to pei'form, what and whence — 'fhe opposition
they have in them thereunto— Gospel obedience, how easy — The conclusion— Answer
to chap. xiii. of his book proposed, ...... 406

CHAPTER XII.

OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE KEFCTED.

Mr G.'s entrance and preface to his arguments from the apostasy of the saints considered
— The weakness of his first argument— Tlie import of it— Answer to that first argu-
ment—Doctrine may pretend to give God the glory of being no accepter of persons,
and yet be false— .lustification by works of that rank and order —Acceptation of
persons, what, and wherein it consisteth— No place for it with God— Contrary to
distributive justice— The doctrine of the saints' perseverance charged with render-
ing God an accepter of persons unjustly — What it says looking this way — The sum
of the charge against it considered and removed— Mr G.'s second argument, and the
weight by him hung thereon — The original of this argument— By whom somewhat
insisted on — The argument itself in Ids words proposed— Of the use and end of the
ministry— Whether weakened by tlie doctrine of perseverance— Entrance into an
answer to that argument— The foundation laid of it false, and why — It falsely im-
poseth on the doctrine of perseverance sundry things by it disclaimed — The first
considered— The iniquity of tho.se impositions farther discovered — The true state of
the diflcrencc as to tliis argument declared — The argument rectified — The re-enforce-
ment of the minor attempted and considered— The manner of God's operations with
and in natuial and voluntary agents compared— Eiticacy of grace and liberty in man
consistent— An objection to himself framed by Mr G. — That objection rectified^
Perseverance, how "ab.solutely and simply necessary;" how not — 1'he removal of
the pretended objection farther insisted on by Mr G.— That discourse discussed,

XII CONTENTS.

of that proposition consiJerccl— Every one tliat is born of Goi], vrliat is affiraied of
tlicni — What meant by "coinniittiii!? of sin" — Mr (x 's opposition to tlic sense of tliat
expression ffivcii — Roasnns for the continuation of it — Mr (j.'s reasons against it pro-
posed and considered — How lie tliat is bom of <iod cannot sin — Several kinds of im-
possibility— Mr G.'s attempt to answer the arfcument from this place particularly
examined— The reasons of the pi-oposition in the text considered— Of the seed of
God abiding — The nature of that seed, what it is. wherein it consists — Of the latter
part of the apostle s reason, "he is born of God" — Our argument from the words— Mr
G.'s endeavour to evade that argument— His exposition of the words removed— Far-
ther of the meaning of the word "abidetli" — The close, . . . 608

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BEAUI^■G OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS" APOSTASY ON THEIR CONSOLATION.

Mr G.'s seventh argument, about the tendency of the doctrine of the saints' aposfasy
as to their consolation, considered— What that doctrine olfereth for the consolation
of the saints stated— The impossibility of its affording the least true cons"latioii
ni.anifested — The influence of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance into their con-
solation— The medium wliereby Mr G. confirms his argument examined^What kind
of nurse for the peace and consolation of the saints the doctrine of apostasy is —
Whether their obedience be furthered by it — What are the causes and springs of
true consolation — Mr G.'s eighth argument proposed to cc)nsideration — Answer there-
unto— 1'he minor proposition considered— The Holy Ghost not afraid of the saints'
miscarriages— The coniii-mation of his minor proposition proposed and coiisiilered —
The discourse assigneil to the Holy Ghost by Mr (J , according to our i:)rinciples,
considered— Kxceptions against it — 'J'hc foundation of Mr G.'s pageant everted — The
procedure of the Holy Ghost in exhortations, according to our principles— Sophisms
in the former discoiu'se farther discovereil — His farther plea in this case proposed,
considered — The instance of Christ and his obedience considered and vindicated, as
to the application of it to the business in hand— Mr G.'s last argument examined —
1 John ii. 19 explained — Argument from thence for the perseverance of the saints
— Mr G.'s exceptions thereunto considered and removed — The same words farther
pursued — Mr (i.'s consent with the Remonstrants ni.anifested by his transcriptions
from their Synodalia— Our argument from 1 John ii. 19 fully cleared— The conclu-
sion of the examination of Mr G.'s arguments for the apostasy of the saints, 678

CHAPTER XVII.

A REVIEW OF PASSAGES I.N' SORIPTORE ADDUCED TO PROVE THE APOSTASY OF SAIXTS.

The cause of proceeding in this chapter — Mr G.'s attempt, chap. xii. of his book — Of
the preface to Mr G.'s discourse — Whether doctrine renders men proud and pre-
sumptuous— Mr (t.'s rule of judging of doctrines called to the rule— Doctrine pre-
tending to promote godliness, how far an argument of the truth — Mr G.'s pretended
advantages in judging of truths examined — 'J'hc first, of his knowledge of the general
course of the Scriptures — Of the experience of his own heart — And his observations
of the ways of others — Of his rational abilities— Ezek. xviii. 24, 25, projiosed to con-
sideration— Mr G.'s sense of this place — The woids opened — An entrance into the
answer to the argiunent from hence — 'i'he words hypothetical, not alisolnte — Mr G.'s
answer proposed and considered— Whether the words are iiypotheticnl— The severals
of the text considered — The " righteous man "spoken of, whom— Mr G.'s proof of his
interpretation of a "righteous man" considered— Dr Prideaux's sense of the right-
eous person hei-c intended considered — Of the commination in the words "Shall
die " — ^J'he sense of the words— What death intended— Close of the consideration
of the text insisted on— Matt xviii. 32 -.35, taken into a review — Whether the love
of (iod lie mutable — What the love of (iod is— 1 C()r. ix. 27; in what sen.'ie it was
possible for PmuI to become a reprobate — The propei- sense of the place insisted on
manifested— Of the meaning of the word aiixi/j.o( —The scope of the place farther
cleared— Ileb. vi. 4-8, x. 2!i-29, proposed to consideration— Whether the words be
conditional - The genuine and true meaning of the place opened in six observations

— Mr (i.'s cxcejitions removed— 'J'hc persons intended not true believers— 'J'hc parti-
culars of the text vindicated- Of the illumination mentioned in the text, etc. — Of the
progi-ess made by men not really i-egenerate in the things of (Jod— The close of our
consiilei-ations on thes(> texts— Ueb. x. .'iS, :i9— Mr (i.'s arguing from thence answered

— Of the right translation of the words -Beza vindicated, as also our English trans-
lators—'JMie words of the text etl'ectual to prove the saints' iierscvcrance — Of tho
parable of the stony ground. Matt xiii. 20, :^l-Mr (i.'s arguing from the place con-
sidered— An argument from the text to prove the persons described not to be true
believers— :j Pet. ii. 18-22— Mr (i.'s arguings from tiiis place considered, etc, liOG

THE
DOCTRINE OF THE

SAINTS PERSEVERANCE

Explained and Conjirmed,

OK,

f 1. Acceptation with GOD,
The certain Permanency of their < &

( 2. Sanctification from GOD.

MANIFESTED ^ PROVED

f 1. ETERNALL PRINCIPLES i
The-] 2. EFFKCTUALL CAUSES [-Thereof.
(3. EXTERNALL MEANES )
IN, (I. Nature

2. Decrees

1. THE IMMUTABILITY of the-< 3. Covenant >-0f GOD.

and

4. Promises
( OBLATION )

2. The ] and [ Of JESUS CHRIST.

( INTERCESSION )
( 1. Promises )

3. The \ 2. Exhortations [ Of the GOSPELL.

( 3. Threats )

Improved in its Genuine Tendency to Obedience
and Consolation.

AND VINDICATED

In a Full Answer to the Discourse of M'' JOHN GOODWIN
against it, in his Book Entituled Redtwjption Redeemed.

With some DIGRESSIONS Concerning

I. The Immediate effects of the Death of Christ. 2. Personal! Indwelling of the
Spirit. 3. Union with Christ. 4. Nature of Gospell promises, &c.

ALSO A PREFACE

Manifesting the Judgement of the Antients concerning the Truth con-
tended for: with a Discourse touching the Epistles of IGNATIUS;
The EPISCOPACY in them Asserted; and some Ani-
madversions on Dr H: H: his Dissertations
on that Subject.

By JOHN OWEN Servant of Jesus Christ
in the Worke of the Gospell.

OXFORD,

Printed by LEON. LICHFIELD Printer to the University, for Tho. Robinson.
Anno Dom : 1 054'

PREFATORY NOTE.

John Goodwin, in reply to whom the following large treatise on the Doctrine of the
Perseverance of the Saints was written, has been aptly described by Calamy as " a man
by himself." An Arminian in creed, an Independent in churcli-goverument, and a Re-
publican in politics, " he was against every man, and had almost every man against
him." Estranged, by a singular idiosyncrasy of opinions, from all the leading parties of
his time, dying in such obscuiity that no record of the circumstances in which he left
the world has been transmitted, stigmatized with unmerited reproach by the chief his-
torian of his age, and long reputed the very type of extravagance and eccentricity
in religion and politics, he has been more recently claimed as the precursor of a most
influential religious body, and all honour rendered to him as the WycliflPe of Method-
ism,— anticipating the theological views of its founder, Wesley, and redeeming them
fi'oni the charge of novelty. Stronger expressions of respect and praise Goodwin never
received from his contemporaries than are to be found in the pages of his antagonist,
Owen, Avho, eulogizing his "worth," his "diligence," and his "great abilities," affirms
that " nothing not great, not considerable, not in some way eminent, is by any spoken
of him, cither consenting with him or dissenting from him."

He was born in Norfolk in 1593, was made a Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge,
in 1617, and in 1G33, as the choice of the pai-ishioners, Avas presented to the vicarage
of St Stephen's, Coleman Street, London. He escaped the vengeance of Laud, for some
"breach of the canons," by the promise of amendment and submission for the future.
He published in lG4li a treatise on justification, entitled " Imputatio Fidei ;" in wiiich
he maintains that faith, not the righteousness of Christ, " is that which God imputes
to a believer for righteousness." Having rendered himself obnoxious to the Presby-
terians during their brief supremacy, partly by his doctrinal sentiments, and partly
by his litei'ary efforts against them, he lost his vicarage by a decision of the Com-
mittee for Plundered Ministers, in 1645; but he appears to have been reinstated in
it during the ascendency of Cromwell, whom he had clicctually served by some pamph-
lets justifying the proceedings of the army against the Parliament in 16-18: and more
especially by a tract entitled "The Obsti'uctors of Justice," in which he defended
the High ('ourt of Justice in passing sentence of death against Charles I. On the
Eestoration, liy an order of the House of Connnons, proceedings were instituted con-
jointly against John Milton and' John Goodwin, for the same crime of publishing in
vindication of the king's death. After a debate of several hours, it was agreed in
Parliament that the lil'e of Goodwin should be spared ; but as he was declared in-
capable of holding any office, ecclesiastical, civil, or military, he was again dcpi-ived
of his vicarage. His death took place in 1665. His private character seems to have
been beyond i-eproach. The odium resting on his memory must be ascribed chiefly
to his defence of the execution of Charles I., and to the statements of Bishop Burnet
respecting his connection witli the Fifth-monarchy Men. On the former point many
good men privately held the same opinion as Goodwin; and some, such as Canne and
Milton, putilislied in defence of it. Wlien Burnet accuses him of being "thorough-paced
in temporal matters" for Cromwell, there might be a colour of truth in the charge:
but when he speaks of Goodwin as "heading" the Fifth-monarchy Men, filling all men
with the expectation of a millennium, " that it looked like a madness possessing them,"
and representing kingship as " the great antichri.st that hindered Christ being set on his
throne ;" and when 'I'oiilady, improving upon the story, insinuates that Venner, the leader
of these fixnatics in their insurrection. j)reached and held his meetings in Goodwin's place
of worship, for no reason that we can discover but that (u)O(hvin and Veinier seem to have
held their meetings in tlie same street, we are constrained to question both the accu-

PREFATORY NOTE. 3

racy of the statement as well as the spirit from which it emanated. His enemies,. such
as Prynne and Edwards, never in all they wrote against him urged such an accusation.
In his own writings he affirms tlie lawfulness of civil magistracy, and of monarchy
in particular ; and in some of his tracts condemns the excesses of tlie Fifth-monarcliy
Men. The specific statements of Burnet, however, cannot well be met by a general charge
against him as an inaccurate historian. Mr Macaulay has thrown over the bishop the
shield of his high authority, denouncing such a charge as " altogether unjust." Good-
win may have held some milleuarian views akin to the notion of a fifth monarchy,
while he blames in severe terms the attempt to forestall and introduce it by violence
and bloodshed. In one of the passages from his writings, quoted by Professor Jackson,
in his able but somewhat impassioned biography of Goodwin, in order to disprove his
connection with the Fifth-monarchy Men, there is a sentence which, discriminating
the dogma itself from the excesses of its abettors, sustains our conjecture, and we
have seen nothing in tlio other passages inconsistent with it: — " Amongst the persons
known by the name of the Fifth-monarchy Men {^not so much from their opinion touching
the said laonarchy, as by that fierce and restless spirit which worketh in them to bring
it into the world by unhallowed methods), you will learn to speak evil of those that are
in dignity," etc. On this supposition, while committed to some premillennial notions,
on which the representations of the bishop were founded, Goodwin might be altogether
undeserving of the odious imputation which they affix upon his memory.

It was no weak fanatic, therefore, against whom Owen in this instance entered the
lists. His worlc, "Redemption Redeemed," is a monument of literary diligence and
ability ; and Owen seems almost to envy the copious and powerful diction which enlivens
its controversial details. It was his intention to discuss all the points embraced in the
Quinquarticular Controversy ; but he overtook only two of them in the work now men-
tioned,— universal redemption, and the perseverance of the saints. The latter topic,
occupying about a tiiird part of his work, natui-ally arose out of the former, when he
sought to prove that Christ died for those who ultimately perish, even though for a
season they may have been in a state of grace. Owen, in his reply, confines himself
to the subject of the perseverance of the saints; first proving the doctrine by general
arguments, and theii considering its practical effects in the obedience and consolation
of the saints, a minute refutation of Goodwin's views being interwoven with both parts
of his work. On the subject of universal redemption our author had already given
his views to the world in his treatise, " The Death of Death," etc. Long as the follow-
ing treatise is, however, he intimates his desire to enter still farther on some points in
which he was at issue with Goodwin. Though the present work was written while he
was burdened with heavy duties as Vice-Chancellor at Oxford, the former part of it is
prepared with sufficient care, and relieved with some sprightliness in the composition.
The leading fallacy of his opponent, in supposing that the perseverance of the saints
implied the continuance of men in gracious privilege though they should become wicked
to a degree incompatible witli genuine faith, and evincing that they never possessed it,
— a fallacy which begs the whole question in dispute, — he compares to "a sturdy beg-
gar," which hath been "often corrected, and sent away grumbling and hungry, and,
were it not for pure necessity, would never once be owned any more by its master."
The latter part of the work, though able and dexterous in tracking all the sinuosities of
the opposing arguments, betrays haste in composition, occasioning unusual difiiculty in
eliciting, by amended pimctuation, the real meaning of many paragraphs and sentences ;
and the termination is singularly abrupt. He had reserved one of his principal argu-
ments, founded on the oath of (iod, for the close, as entitled to the "honour of being
the last word in the contest;" but concludes without giving it anyplace in the discus-
sion at all. Perhaps this haste and abruptness are to be exjilained by the fact that
before he had finished this work, the commands of the Council of State were laid upon
him to undertake a reply to the Socinian productions of Biddle; — a task which be
executed at gi-eat length in his " Vindicite Evangelicte." On the whole, however, in
regard to the jiresent woi'k, there is no treatise in the language so conclusive and so
complete in vindication of the doctrine which it is designed to illustrate and defend.

In the preface a historical account is given of the doctrine from the earliest ages of
the churcli. The confusion alleged to exist in it is not very perplexing, if attention
1)0 paid to the "catena patrum," — the succession of authors to whom he appeals in
proof of wliat the view of the church has been in past ages on the subject of the doc-
trine under considei'ation. It is embai-rassed, however, by a discussion of the authen-
ticity of the Ignatian Epistles; on which, at the close of the preface, we have appended
a note, indicating the present state of the controversy respecting them. The leading

4 PREFATORY NOTE.

head-lines we liavc given to each cliapter will enable the reader, it is hoped, to follow
with greater case the course of discussion. An exact copy of the original title-page
has been prefixed , — the only one in our author's Avorks worth preserving, as curious
in itself, and containing his own analysis of tlie work to which it belongs.

Besides this work of Owen, in I'eply to Goodwin the following authors appeared: —
Dr George. Kendall, rector of Blisland, near Piodinin in Cornwall, in two folio volumes,
*' Theocratia, or a Vindication of tlie Doctrine commonly received," etc., 1653, and
" Sancti Saiiciti," etc.; Thomas Lamb, a Baptist minister, in his " Absolute Freedom
from Sin by ("In-ist's Death," etc., IGoD; Robert Baillie, Principal of Glasgow Uni-
versity, in his "Scotch Antidote against the English Infection of Arminianism," etc.,
1G56; Richard Resbury, vicar of Oundle, in his " Some Stop to the Gangrene of Armi-
nianism," etc., 1G51, whom Goodwin answei-ed in his "Confidence Dismounted," and
who again published in reply, " The Lightless Star;" Henry Jeanes, rector of Chedsey,
who published "A Vindication of Dr Twisso from the Exceptions of Mr John Good-
win;" and Mr John Pawsou, in a sermon under the title of "A Vindication of Free
Grace."

In 1058 Goodwin replied to most of these publications in a quarto of five hundred
pages, entitled " Triumviri," etc. In regard to the following treatise, " he returns,"
says Owen, in an epistle dedicatory to his work on the Divine Original of the Scrip-
tures, " a scoffing reply to so much of it as was written in a quarter of an hour."

ANALYSIS.

After a careful definition of the terms employed in the controversy, the statement
by Mr Goodwin of the question at issue is objected to, and another proposed as more
correct, founded upon a passage in Scripture, Isa. iv. 5. Chap. i.

Five leading arguments are adduced in proof of the perseverance of the saints : —
It is argued, 1. From the divine riature as immutable; under which head the fol-
lowing passages are considered, Mai. iii. G ; James i. lG-18; Rom. xi. 29 ; Isa. xl. 27-31,
xliv. 1-8. 2. From the rftY'zne jowrjooses as immutable ; and here Scripture is first cited
to prove the general immutability of the divine pui-poses, Isa. xlvi. 9-11 ; Ps. xxxiii.
9-1 1, etc. ; — and then the special purpose of God to continue his grace to true believers
is proved by such passages as Rom. viii. 28 ; Jer. xxxi. 3 ; John vi. 37-40 ; Matt.
xxiv. 24; Eph. i. 3-5; 2Thess. ii. 13, 14. 3. From the covenant of grace, the enduring
character and the infallible accomplishment of which are pi-ovcd by the removal of all
causes of change by it, the stipulations of Christ as mediator in it, and the faitlifulness
of God. 4. From the promises of God, which are generally described, and, as intimating
the pei'severancc of the saint.s, proved to be unconditional, the following promises to this
effect receiving full elucidation: Josh. i. 5; Heb. xiii. 5; 1 Sam. xii. 22; Ps. Ixxxix.
30-37; Hos. ii. 19, 20; John x. 27-29. At this point the consideration of the oath
of God is deferred, under promise of entering upon it at the close of the discussion; — a
promise which the author omits to fulfil. Tvro interesting digressions follow, affording
separate arguments in support of the doctrine; — on the mediation of Christ, as com-
prehending his oblation and intercession, and on tlie indwelling of the Spirit. And
licre the first part of the work concludes. Chap, ii.-ix.

The second ))art consists in the improvement of the doctrine, by showing how it con-
duces to the obedience and consolation of the saints, chap, x., and in a refutation of
the following arguments of Mr Goodwin in support of the opposite doctrine, — namely,
1. Tliat it is more effectual in promoting godliness; 2. That it does not make God an
acccjiter of persons; 3, That it has been the doctrine of the most pious men in all ages;
4. That it imparts greater power to the exhortations of the gospel ; 5. That upon such
a principle ahme eternal life can be legitimately promised as the reward of persever-
ance; (5. That it is proved by tlie sins into which believers undoubtedly fall ; 7. That
it tends to the CDnsolation of the saints; and, lastly. That it is athrmed in eight pas-
sages of Scripture, Ezek. xviii. 24, 25; Matt, xviii. 32-35; 1 Cor. ix. 2 7; Hcb. vi. 4-8,
X. 2G-29, 38, 39 ; Matt. xiii. 20, 21 ; 2 Pet. ii. 18-22, Chap, xi.-xvii.— Ed.

(

TO

HIS HIGHNESS OLIVEK,

LORD-rnOTECTOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, AND IRELAND,
WITH THE DOMINIONS THEREOF.

Sir,
The wise man tells us that " no man knoweth love or hatred by all that is before
him." The great variety wherein God dispenseth outward things in the world,
with the many changes and alterations which, according to the counsel of his
will, he continually works in the dispensations of them, Avill not allow them nakedly
in themselves to be evidences of the Fountain from whence they flow. Seeing,
also, that the luant or abundance of them may equally, by the goodness and wis-
dom of God, be ordered and cast into a useful subserviency to a good infinitely
transcending what is or may be contained in them, there is no necessity that in
the distribution of them God should walk according to any constant uniform law
of procedure, all the various alterations about them answering one eternal purpose
for a determinate end. Of spiritual good things there is another reason and con-
dition ; for as they are in themselves fruits, evidences, and pledges, of an eternal,
unchangeable love, so the want of them in their whole kind being not capable of
a tendency lo a greater good than they are, the dispensation of them doth so far
answer the eternal Spring and Fountain from whence it floweth as, in respect of
its substance and being, not to be obnoxious to any alteration. This is that which
in the ensuing treatise is contended for. In the midst of all the changes and
mutations which the infinitely wise providence of God doth daily effect in the
greater and lesser things of this world, as to the communication of his love in
Jesus Christ, and the merciful, gracious distributions of the unsearchable riches
of grace, and the hid treasures thereof purchased by his blood, he knows no re-
pentance. Of both these you have had full experience; and though your concern-
ment in the former hath been as eminent as that of any person whatever in these
later ages of the world, yet your interest in and acquaintance with the latter is,
as of incomparable more importance in itself, so answerably of more value and
esteem unto you. A sense of the excellency and sweetness of unchangeable love,
emptying itself in the golden oil of distinguishing spiritual mercies, is one letter
of that new name whicli none can read but he that hath it. The series and chain
of eminent providences whereby you have been carried on and protected in all the
hazardous work of your generation, which your God hath called you unto, is evi-
dent to all. Of your preservation by the power of God, through faith, in a course
of gospel obedience, upon the account of the immutability of the love and infalli-
bility of the promises of God, which are yea and amen in Jesus Christ, your own
soul only is possessed with the experience. Therein is that abiding joy, that secret
refreshment, which the world cannot give. That you and all the saints of God
may yet enjoy that peace and consolation which is in believing that the eternal
love of God is immutable, that he is faithful in his promises, that his covenant,

6 THE DEDICATION.

ratified in the deatli of his Son, is unchangeable, that the fruits of the pm-chase of
Christ shall be certainly bestowed on all tlieni for whom he died, and that every
one who is really interested in these things shall be kept unto salvation, is the aim
of my present plea and contest. That I have taken upon me to present my weak
endeavours in this cause of God to your Highness is so far forth from my persua-
sion of your interest in the truth contended for (and than which you have none
more excellent or worthy), that without it no other considerations whatever, either
of that dignity and power whereunto of God you are called, or of your peculiar
regard to that society of men whereof I am an unworthy member, or any other
personal respects whatever, could have prevailed with or emboldened me there-
unto. " Sancta Sanctis." The things I treat of are such as sometimes " none of
the princes of this world knew," and as yet few of them are acquainted with.
Blessed are they who have their portion in them ! When the urgency of your high
and important affairs, ^\herein so many nations are concerned, will lend you so
much leisure as to take a view of what is here tendered, the knowledge which you
have of me will deliver you from a temptation of charging any weakness you may
meet withal upon the doctrine which I assert and maintain; and so that may "run
and be glorified," whatever become of the nothing that I have done in the defence
thereof, I shall be abundantly satisfied. That is the shield, which being safe, I
can with contentment see these papers die. Unto your Highness 1 have not any
thing more to add, nor for you greater thing to pray, than that you may l)e estab-
lished in the assurance and sense of that unchangeable love and free acceptance in
Christ which 1 contend for, and that therein you may be preserved, to the glory
of God, the advancement of the gospel, and the real advantage of these nations.

Your Highness's most humble and most faithful servant,

John Owen.

TO THE raCHT ■ffORSIIIPFUL, HIS REVEREND, LEARNED, AND WORTHY
FRIENDS AND BRETHREN,

THE HEADS km GOVERNORS OF THE COLLEGES km HALLS
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD.

Sirs,
The dedication of books to the names of men ■worthy and of esteem in their gene-
ration takes sanctuary in so catholic and ancient prescription, that to use any
defensative about my Avalking in the same path cannot but forfeit the loss of
somewhat more than the pains that would be spent therein. Now, although, in
addresses of this kind, men usually avail themselves of the occasion to deliver their
thoughts as to particulars in great variety, according as their concernments may
be, yet the reasons which are generally pleaded as directions for the choice of
them to whom, with their labours and writings, they so address themselves, are
for the most part uniform, and in their various course transgress not the rules
of certain heads from whence they flow. To express a gi-atitude for respects and
favours received, by returning things in their kind eternal for those which are
but temporal; to obtain countenance and approbation unto their endeavours, in
their breaking forth into the world, from names of more esteem, or at least more
known than their own; to advance in repute by a correspondency in judgment
with men of such esteem, intimated thereby, — are the more ingenuous aims of men
in the dedications of their writings. Though these, and sundry other pretences
of the same kind, might justly be drawn into my plea for this address unto you,
yet your peculiar designation and appointment, through the good hand of the
providence of God, to the defence of the gospel, and your eminent furnishment
with abilities from the same hand for the performance of that glorious duty, is
that alone upon the account whereof I have satisfied myself, and hope that I may
not dissatisfy others, as to this present application. What there is of my own
peculiar concernment, wherein I am like to obtain a more favourable condescen-
sion in judgment, as to my present undertaking, from you than from other men,
will in the close of my address crave leave to have mention made thereof. Breth-
ren ! the outward obligations that are upon you from the God of truth, with the
advantages which he hath intrusted you withal for the defence of his truth, above
the most of men in the world, are evident even to them that walk by the way,
and turn httle aside to the consideration of things of this nature, importance, and
condition; and it is to me an evidence of no small encouragement that God
will yet graciously employ you in the work and labour of his gospel, by his con-
stant giving a miscarrying womb to all them who have attempted to defraud the
nation and the churches of God therein of those helps and furtherances of piety
and literature with whose management for their service you are at present in-
trusted. Of the jewels of silver and gold whereof, by the Lord's appointment,
the children of Israel, coming out from amongst them, spoiled the Egyptians, did
they dedicate to the tabernacle in the wilderness, when the Lord "planted the

8 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth, and said unto Zion, Thou art my
people." Though some outward provisions and furnitures of literature, — now>
through the good hand of God, made serviceable to _\ou in your attendance upon
the great work and employment committed to you, — were fir.-t deposited when
thick darkness was over the land, yet that they may be made eminently subsei--
vient to the will of God in raising up again the tabernacle of David, that was
fallen down, the experience of a few years, I no way doubt, will abundantly re-
veal and manifest. That in the vicissitude of all things, given thfm by the mys-
terious and di'eadful wheels of providence, your good things also (as every thing
else that is pleasant and desirable, or given of God imto the sons of men, hath
done) have fallen into the possession and disposal of men, some enemies, others
utterly useless and unfruitful to the Lord in their generations, cannot he denied ;
but what is there, in his ways or worship, in his works or word, that God hath
not, at some season or other, delivered into the power of the men of the world;
though they have abused and perverted them to their own destruction? Nether
is there any other use of this consideration, but only to inform them of the obli-
gation they lie under to a due and zealous improvement of them to whose trust
and care the Lord commits any of his mercies, when he rescues them from the
captivity under which they have been detained by ungodly men. This is now
your lot and condition in reference to many who, for sundry generations, pos-
sessed those places and advantages of eminent service for the house of our God
which you now enjoy. What may justly be the expectation of God from you,
under this signal dispensation of his goodness ; what is the hope, prayer, and ex-
pectation of very many that fear him, concerning you in this nation; what are
the designs, desires, aims, and endeavours, of all sorts of them who bear ill-will at
whatsoever is comely or praiseworthy amongst us, — you are not ignorant. What-
ever consideration, at any time or season, may seem to have had an efficacy upon
the minds and wills of men under the like sacrament and designment to the ser-
vice of truth with yourselves, to incite and provoke them to a singularly indus-
trious and faithful discharge of their duty, is eminently pressing upon you also;
and you are made a spectacle to men and angels as to the acquitment of your-
selves. The whole of your employment, I confess, — both in the general intendment
of it, for the promoting and diftusing of light, knowledge, and truth, in every
kind whatever, and in the more special design thereof, for the defence, further-
ance, and propagation of the ancient, inviolable, unchangeable truth of the gospel
of God, — is, in the days wherein we live, exposed to a contention wiih as much
opposition, contempt, scorn, hati-ed, and reproach, as ever any such undertaking
was, in any place in the world M'herein men pretended to love light more than
darkness.

It is a hellish darkness which the light of the sun cannot expel. There is no
ignorance so full of pride, folly, and stubbornness, as that which maintains itself
in the midst of plentiful means of light and knowledge. He that is in the dark
when the light of the sun is as seven days, hath darkness in his eye; and how
great is that darkness! Such is the ignorance you have to contend withal; stub-
born, affected, prejudic.atc, beyond ex[)ression; maintaining its darkness at noon-
day; expressly refusing to attend to the reason of things, as being that alone,
in the thoughts of those men (if they may be so called who are possessed with
it), wherewith the world is disturbed. From those who, being under the power
of this inthralment, do seem to repine at God that they are not beasts, and cla-
morously traduce the more noble f)art of that kind and oHspring whereof them-
selves are, — which attempts do hi'ighten and improve the difference between crea-
tures of an intellectual race and them, to whom their perishing cf.mposition gives
the utmost advancement, — whose eternal seeds and j^rinciplcs arc laid by the hand
of God in their respective beings, you will not, I am sure, think it much if you

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY, 9

meet with oppositions. Those who are in any measure acquainted with the secret
triumphing exaltations of wisdom and knowledge against folly and ignorance,
with the principles and conditions wherewith they advance themselves in tlieir
gloryings, even then when the precedency of (that which is bestial in this world)
force and violence outwardly bears them down with insultation and contempt,
w ill rather envy than pity you in any contest that on this foot of account you can
be engaged in. You are not the first that have fought w'ith men after the man-
ner of beasts, nor will be the last who shall need to pray to be delivered from ab-
surd and unreasonable men, seeing " all men have not faith."

Men of profane and atheistical spirits, who are ready to say, " Who is the Lord?
What is the Almighty that we should fear him? or his truth that we should re-
gard it?" whose generation is of late multiplied on the face of the earth, crying " A
confederacy" with them who, professing better things, are yet filled with grievous
indignation at the sacrifice that hath been made of their abominations before
their eyes, by that reformation of this place wherein you have been instrumental,
are a continual goad on the other side, and would quickly be a sword in your very
bowels, were not "He that is higher than the highest" your dwelling-place and
refuge in your generation. These are they upon whom God having poured con-
tempt and stained their glory, they, instead of accepting of his dispensations, are
filled with wrath, and labour to make others drink of the cup which hath been
oftered to themselves. With their reproaches, slightings, undervaluations, slanders,
do your worth, diligence, integrity, labours, contend from one end of this earth to
the other. He that "hath delivered doth deliver; and in him we trust that he will
yet dehver."

What other oppositions you do meet, or in your progress may meet withal, I
shall not mention; but wait with patience on Him who gives men repentance and
change of heart to the acknowledgment of the things that are of Him. This iu
the midst of all hath hitherto been a cause of great rejoicing, that God hath gra-
ciously kept off ravenous wolves from entering into your flocks, where are so many
tender lambs, and hath not suffered " men to arise from amongst yourselves speak-
ing perverse things, and drawing away disciples after them ;" but as he hath given
you to " obey from the heart that form of doctrine which hath been delivered unto
you," so he hath preserved that " faith " amongst you " which was once delivered
unto the saints."

Your peculiar designation to the service of the gospel and defence of the truth
thereof, your abdities for that work, your abiding in it notwithstanding the oppo-
sition you meet withal, " in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation," are, as
I said before, my encouragements in this address unto you, wherein I shall crave
leave a little farther to communicate my thoughts unto you as to the matter in
hand. Next to the Son of his love, who is the Truth, the greatest and most emi-
nent gift that God hath bestowed on the sons of men, and communicated to them,
is his truth revealed in his word, — the knowledge of him, his mind and will, ac-
cording to the discovery which he hath made of himself from his own bosom,
having magnified his word above all his name. The importance hereof as to the
eternal concernments of the sons of men, either in ignorance refusing and resist-
ing, or accepting and embracing of it, is that which is owned, and lies at the
bottom and foundation of all that we any way engage ourselves into in this world,
wherein we difi'er from them whose hope peiisheth with them. Unto an inquiry
after and entertainment of this divine and sacred depositum hath God designed
the fruit and labour of that wherein we retain the resemblance of him; which,
whilst we have our being, nothing can abohsh. The mind of man and divine
truth are the two most eminent excellencies wherewith the Lord hath adorned
this lower part of his creation; which, when they correspond and are brought into
conformity with each other, the mind being changed into the image of truth,

10 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

there is glor}' ailJed to glory, and the whole rendered exceeding glorious. By
what suitableness and firoportion in the things themselves (that is, between truth
and the mind of man), as we are men, — by what almighty, secret, and irresistible
power, as we are corrupted men, our minds being full of darkness and folly, — this
is wrought, is not my business now to discuss. This is on all hands confessed,
that, setting asida the consideration of the eternal issues of things, every mistake
of divine truth, every opposition to it or rejection of it, or any part of it, is so far
a chaining up of the mind under the power of darkness from a progress towards
that perfection which it is capable of. It is truth alone that capacitates any soul
to give glory to God, or to be truly useful to them who are partakers of flesh and
blood with him ; without being some way serviceable to which end, there is nothing
short of the fulness of Avrath that can be judged so miserable as the life of a man.
Easily so much might be delivered on this account as to evince the dread of that
judgment whereto some men, in the infallibly wise counsel of God, are doomed,
even to the laying out of the labour and travail of their minds, to spend their days
and strength in sore labour, in making opposition to this truth of God. Espe-
cially is the sadness of this consideration increased in reference to them who, upon
any account whatever, do bear forth themselves, and are looked upon by others, as
"guides of the blind," as " lights to them which are in darkness," as the "instruc-
tors of the foolish," and " teachers of babes." For a man to set himself, or to be
set by others, in a way wherein are many turnings and cross paths, some of them
leading and tending to places of innumerable troubles, and perhaps death and
slaughter, undertaking to be a guide to direct them that travel towards the place
of their intendments, where they would be, and where they shall meet with rest;
for such an one, I say, to take hold of every one that passeth by, pretending
himself to be exceeding skilful in all the windings and turnings of those ways and
paths, and to stand there on purpose to give direction, if he shall, with all his
skill and rhetoric, divert them out of the path wherein they have perhaps safely
set out, and so guide them into those by-ways which will certainly lead them into
snares and troubles, if not to death itself, — can he spend his time, labour, and
strength, in an employment more to be abhorred ? or can he design any thing more
desperately mischievous to them whose good and welfare he is bound and pro-
miseth to seek and promote ? Is any man's condition under heaven more to be
lamented, or is any man's employment more perilous, than such an one's, who, being
not only endowed with a mind and understanding capable of the truth and re-
ceiving impressions of the will of God, but also with distinguishing abilities and
enlargements for the receiving of greater measures of truth than others, and for
the more effectual improvement of what he doth so receive, shall labour night and
day, dispending the richest treasure and furnishment of his soul for the rooting
out, defacing, and destruction of the ti-uth, for the turning men out of the way
and paths that lead to rest and peace? I never think of the uncomfortable
drudgery which men give up themselves unto, in laying the hay and stubble of
their vain and false conceptions upon the foundation, and heaping up the fruit of
their souls, to make the fire that consumes them the more fierce and severe, but it
forces compassionate thoughts of that sad condition whereto mankind hath cast
itself by its apostasy from God. And yet there is not any thing in the world that
men more willingly, with more delight and greediness, consecrate the flower of
their strength and abilities unto, than this of promoting the delusions of their
own minds, in opposition to the truth and ways of God. It is a thing of obvious
observation and daily experience, that if, by any means whatever, any one closeth
with some new and by-opinion, oflT from the faith delivered to and received by
the generality of the saints, be it a thing of never so small concernment in our
walking with God in gospel obedience, and in love without dissimulation one to-
wards another, yet instantly more weight is laid upon it, more jiains laid out about

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 11

it, and zeal dispended for its suppoi'tment and propagation, than about all olhei*
most necessary points of Christian religion. Have we not a deplorable cloud of
examples of men contending about some circumstance or other in the adminis-
ti'ation of an ordinance, biting and devouring all that stand in their way, roving
up and down to gain proselytes unto their persuasion, and in the meantime utterly
ignorant or negligent of the great doctrines and commands of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, which are, as in him, the head and life of souls ? How many a man seems
to have no manner of religion at all, but some one error ! That is his God, his
Christ, his worship; that he preaches, that he discourseth of, that he labours
to propagate, until, by the righteous judgment of God, it comes to pass that such
men in all other things wither and die away, all the sap and vigour of their spirits
feeding that one monstrous excrescency, which they grow up daily Into. Desire
of emerging and being notable in the world, esteem and respect in the hearts
and mouths of them whom peculiarly they draw after them, with the like un-
worthy aims of self-advancement, may, without evil surmising (when such at-
tempts are, as in too many, accompanied with irregularity in conversation), be
supposed to be advantages given into the hands of the envious man, to make use
of them for the sowing of his tares in the field of the poor seduced world.

That this procedui'e is also furthered by the burdensomeness of sound doctrine
unto the generality of men, who, having " itching ears," as far as they care for
these things, do spend their time in religion in nothing else but either to tell or to
hear some new thing, cannot be denied. Besides, to defend, improve, give and add
new light unto, old truths (a work which hath so abundantly and excellently been
laboured in by so many worthies of Christ, especially since the Reformation), in
any eminent manner, so as to bring praise and repute unto the undertakers
(which, whether men will confess or no, it is evident that too many are enslaved
unto), is no easy task. And for the most part of what is done that way, you may
say, " Quis leget hajc ? " The world, says every one, is burdened with discourses
of this nature. How many have we in our days who might have gone to the
grave in silence among the residue of their brethren, and their names ha,ve re-
mained for a season in the voisinage, where they might have done God the ser-
vice required of them in their generation, would they have kept themselves in the
form of wholesome words and sound doctrine, that have now delivered their
names into the mouths of all men, by engaging into some singular opinions,
though perhaps raked out of the ashes of Popery, Socinianism, or some such
fruitful heap of error and false notions of the things of God !

I desire not to judge before the time ; the day will manifest all things, and the
hidden secrets of the hearts of men shall by it be laid open, when all the ways,
causes, and occasions, of their deceiving and being deceived shall be bi-ought to
light, and every man according to his work shall have praise of God: — only, I
say, as to the present state of things, this is evident (not to speak of those locusts
from the bottomless pit that professedly oppose their strength to all that is of
God, his name, word, worship, truth, will, and commands, razing the founda-
tion of all hopes for eternity; nor of him and his associates who " exalteth him-
self above all that is called God," being " full of names of blasphemy," sealed up to
destruction), very many amongst ourselves, of whom we hoped better things, do,
some in greater, some in lesser matters, give up themselves to that unhappy laljour
we before mentioned, of opposing the truth of God, and exalting their own dark-
ness in the room of his glorious light.

" €t jugulent homines, surgunt de nocte latroacs:
Ut teipsum serves, non expei'gisceres ?" '

Reverend brethren, if other men can rise early, go to bed late, and eat the
bread of carefulness, spend their lives and strength to do their own A\'ork, and

1 Hor. Ep., lib. i. 2,

12 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

propagate their own conceptions, under a pretence of doing the work of God ; if
the envious man watcheth all night and waits all advantages to sow his tares, —
how will you be able to lift up your heads with joy, and behold your Master's face
with boldness at his coming, if, having received such eminent abilities, endow-
ments, and furnishments from him for his service, and the service of his sheep
and lambs, as you have done, you gird not up the loins of your minds, and lay
not out your strength to the uttermost for the weeding out of the field and vine-
yard of the Lord " every plant which our heavenly Father hath not planted," and
for feeding the flock of Christ with sincere milk and strong meat, according as
they are able to bear ? What you have received more than others is of free grace;
which is God's way of dealing with them on whom he lays the most unconquer-
able and indispensable obligations unto service. Flesh and blood hath not re-
vealed unto you the truth of God which you do profess, but our Father which
is in heaven. You do not upon any endeavour of your own differ from them who
are given up to the sore judgment and ever-to-be-bewailed condition before men-
tioned. It hath not been from your own endeavours or watchfulness that you
have been hitherto preserved under the hour of temptation, which is come to try
the men that live upon the face of the earth. It is not of yourselves that you are
not industriously disturbing your own souls and others with this or that in-
trenchment upon the doctrine of the gospel, and the free grace of God in Jesus
Christ; which not a few pride themselves in, with the contempt of all otherwise
minded. And doth not the present state of things require the full disbursing of
all that you have freely received for the glory of Him from whom you have re-
ceived it ? You are not only persons who, as doctors and teachers in a university,
have a large, distinct disciplinary knowledge of divinity, but also such as to whom
*' the Son of God is come, and hath given an understanding to know him that is
true;" "into whose hearts God hath shined,to give the light of the knowledge of
his glory in the face of Jesus Christ ;" and therefore may say, " ' What shall we
render to the Lord?' how shall we serve him in any way answerable to the grace
we have received? " I speak not this, the Lord knows it, before whom I stand,
with reflection on any, as though I judged them neglecters of the duty incumbent
on them. " Every one of us must give account of himself to God." The
daily pains, labour, and travail, of many of you in the work of the gospel, the dili-
gence and endeavours of others in promoting other useful literature, are known
unto all. Only the consideration of my own present undertaking, joined with
a sense of mine own insufficiency for this, or any other labour of this kind, and
of your larger furnishment with abilities of all sorts, press me to this stirring up
of your remembrance to contend for the faith, so much opposed and perverted.
Not that I would press for the needless multiplying of books (whose plenty is the
general customary complaint of all men versed in them), unless necessity call
thereto. " Scribimus indocti, doctique." But that serious thoughts may be con-
tinually dwelling in vou to lay out yourselves to obviate the spreading of any
error whatever, or for the destruction of any already propagated, by such ways and
means as the providence of God and the circumstances of the matter itself shall
call you out unto, is in the desire of my soul.

Something you will find in this kind attempted by the weakest of your number,
in this ensuing treatise. The matter of it I know will have your approbation,
and that because it hath His whom you serve. For the manner of handling it, it is
humbly given up to his grace and mercy, and freely left to your Christian judg-
ment. The general concernments of this business are so known to all that I
shall by no means burden you with a repetition of them. The attempt made by
Mr Goodwin against the truth here asserted was by all men judy-ed so consider-
able (especially the truth opposed having a more practical influence into the
walking of the saints with God than any other by him assaulted, and the defend-

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 13

ing of it giving more advantage unto an inquiry after the mind of God, as de-
livered in innumerable places of Scripture, than any of the rest opposed) as that
a removal of his exceptions to oiu' arguments, and an answer to his objections,
were judged necessary by all. Other reasons manifesting this endeavour to be in
order and in season, I have farther communicated in the entrance of the treatise
itself. In my addresses to the work, I could by no means content myself with a
mere discussing of what was produced by my adversary ; for he having kept him-
self, for the most part, within the compass of the synodal writings of the Remon-
strants, which are already most clearly and solidly answered (by one especially,
I'enowned Amesius), to have tied myself unto a contest with him had been merely
actum agere, without promoting the cause I had undertaken in the least. As I
account it by no means an ingenuous proceeding for men to bear up their own
names by standing upon the shoulders of others, to deport themselves authors
when indeed they are but collectors and translators; so I am very remote from
being so far in love with this way of handling controversies in divinity, as to think
it necessary to multiply books of the same matter, without some considerable
aJdition of light and strength to the cause whose protection and promotion are
imdertaken. On this consideration, besides incident discourses, which I hope,
through the grace of Him that supplied seed to the sower, may be of use and have
an increase amongst the saints of God, I have made it my aim (and what therein
I have attained is, Avith all submission of mind and judgment, cast before the
thoughts of men whose senses are exercised to discern good and evil) to place
each argument insisted on upon its own proper basis and foundation; to resolve
every reason and medium whereby I have proceeded into its own principles, dis-
covering the fountain and well-head of all the streams that run in the field of
this contest; as also to give some clearings and evidences to our conclusions from
the several texts of Scripture discussed, by discovering the reason of them and
intent of God in them. Some arguments there are, and sundry texts of Scrip-
ture, that are usually produced and urged in the defence of the cause under con-
sideration that I have not insisted on, nor vindicated from the exceptions of the
adversaries. Not that I judge them indefensible against their most cunning or
most furious assaults, and so slighted what I could not hold, — for, indeed, I know
not any one text of Scripture commonly used for this end, nor any argument by
any sober man framed to the same purpose, that is not capable of an easy and
fair vindication, — but merely because they fell not in regularly in the method I
had proposed to myself, nor would so do, unless I had gone forth to the issue of
my first intendment, and had handled the abode of believers with God at large
from its principles and causes, as I had done that part of our doctrine which
concerns the continuance of the love of God with and unto them ; which the
growth of the ti'eatise under my hand would not give me leave to do. What
hath been, or may yet farther be, done by others who have made or shall make it
their business to draw the saw of this controversy to and fro with Mr Goodwin,
I hope will give satisfaction, as in other things, so in the particulars by me omitted.
As to what I have to speak, or at least think it convenient to speak, concerning
him with whom in this discourse 1 have much to do, and the manner of my dealing
with him, being a thing of personal concernment, not having any influencing aspect
on the merits of the cause, I shall in not many words absolve you of your trouble
in the consideration thereof. My adversai-y is a person whom his worth, pains,
diligence, and opinions, and the contests wherein on their account he hath pub-
licly engaged, have delivered from being the object of any ordinary thoughts or
expressions. Nothing not great, not considerable, not some way eminent, is by
any spoken of him, either consenting with him or dissenting from him. To inter-
pose my judgment in the crowd, on the one side or the other, I know neither
warrant nor sufftcient cause; we all stand or fivU to our own masters, and the fire

14 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY,

will try all our works. This only I shall crave liberty to say, that whether from his
own genius and acrimony of spirit, or from the provocations of others with whom
he hath had to do, many of his polemical treatises have been sprinkled with satirical
sarcn..snis, and contemptuous rebukes of the persons with whom he hath had to do ;
so that wt-rc I not relieved in my thoughts by the consideration of those exacer-
bations and exasperations of spirit which, upon other accounts besides bare differ-
ence of opinion in religious things, have fallen out in the day? and seasons which
have passed over us, all of them labouring to exert something of themselves on
every undertaking of the persons brought under their power, I should have been
utterly discouraged from any contest of this nature. Much, indeed, of his irre-
gularity in this kind I cannot but ascribe to that prompt facility he hath in put-
ting abroad every passion of his mind and all his conceptions, not only decently
clothed, with language of a full and choice significancy, but also trimmed and
adorned with all manner of signal improvements that may render it keen or
pleasant, according to his intendment or desii'e. What the Latin lyric said of
the Grecian poets may be applied to him: —

"Monte (lecurrens velut amnis, imbres
Quern super notas aluere iip;is,
I'crvet, immensusque luit jirofundo

Pindarus ore."'

And he is hereby plainly possessed of not a few advantages. It is true that
when the proof of his opinion by argument, and the orderly pursuit of it, is incum-
bent on him (a course of all others wherein he soonest ftvileth), the medium he ussth
and insisteth on receiveth not the least contribution of real strength from any
dress of words and expressions wherewith it is adorned and accompanied; yet it
cannot be denied but that his allegorical amplifications, illustrations, and exag-
gerations of the things he would insinuate, take great impressions upon the minds
of them who are in any measure entangled with the seeming probabilities which
are painted over his arguments, by their sophistry and pi-etence of truth. The
apostle, giving that caution to the Colossians, that they should take heed //.vi n; avTov;
•ra/ixXoyi^tiTui Iv vi^avoXoyta, manifesteth the prevalency of false reasonings when in
conjunction with rhetorical persuasion, Col. ii. 4. The great store also of words
and expressions, which for all occasions he hath lying by him, are of no little use to
him, when, being pressed with any arguments or testimonies of Scripture, and
being not able to evade, he is forced to raise a cloud of them, wherewith after he
hath a while darkened the wisdom and counsel of that wherewith he hath to do,
he insensibly slips out of the cord wherewith he appeared to have been detained,
and triumphs as in a perfect conquest, when only an unarticulate sound hath been
given by his trumpet, but the charge of his adversaries not once received or re-
pelled. But not anywhere doth he more industriously hoist up and spread the
sails of his luxuriant eloquence than when he aims to render the opinion of his
adversaries to be "monstrum horrendum, informe ingens, cui lumen ademptum,"
— a dark, dismal, uncomfortable, fruitless, death-procuring doctrine, such as it is
marvellous that ever any poor soul should embrace or choose for a companion or
guide in its pilgrimage towards heaven. Rolling through this field, his expres-
sions swell over all bounds and limits; metaphors, similitudes, parables, all help
on the current, though the streams of it being shallow and wide, a little opposi-
tion easily turns it for the most part aside; a noise it makes, indeed, with a goodly
show and appearance.

" Apylleu3

ITerculctt non mole minor,

Peil non illc rifjnr, palriumnue in corporc robiir.

Luxniiant nrtu«, cffiisaque sanguine laxo

Membra nalant." [.Stat. 'Iheb., vi. 837-S12, slightly altcrcil.]

' Ilor. O.I., lil.. iv. 2.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 15

This, as I said, prompts, I fear, the learned person of whom we speak to deal so
harshW with some of them with whom he hath to do. And it is still feared that

" I'arata tollit cornua;
Qualis LycambK spretus infido gener,
Aut acer hoslis Bupalo." i

Ft might, indeed, be the more excusable if evident provocation were always ready
at hand to be charged with the blame of this procedure, if he said only,

"An, si quis atro dente me petiverit,
Inultus ut flubo puer."3

But for a man to warm himself by casting about his own pen until it be so
filled with indignation and scorn as to blur every page and almost every line, is a
course that will never promote the praise nor adorn the truth of God. For what
remains concerning him, "Do illi ingenium, do eloquentiam et industriam; fidem
et veritatem utinam coluisset."

The course and condition of my procedure with him, whether it be such as
becometh Christian modesty and sobriety, with an allowance of those ingredients
of zeal in contending for the truth which in such cases the Holy Ghost gives a
command for, is referred to the judgment of all who are concerned, and account
themselves so, in the things of God. As to any bitterness of expression, personal
reflections, by application of satirical invectives, I know nothing by myself; and
yet I dai'e not account that I am hereby justified. The calm and indifferent
reader, not sensible of those commotions which the discovery of sophistical eva-
sions, pressing of inconsequent consequences, bold assertions, etc., will sometimes
raise in the most candid and ingenuous mind, may (and especially if he be an
observer of failings in that kind) espy once and again some signs and appearances
of such exasperations as ought to have been allayed with a spirit of meekness be-
fore the thoughts that stirred them up had been tuined out of doors in the ex-
pressions observed. Although I am not conscious of the delivery of myself in any
terms intimating a captivity under the power of such a snare for a moment, yet
what shall to the Christian reader occur of such a seeming tendency I humbly
refer it to his judgment, being content to suffer loss in any hay or stubble what-
ever that I may have laid upon the foundation of truth, which 1 am sure is firmly
fixed by God himself in the business in hand.

For «'hat farther concerns my manner of dealing in this argument, I have only
a few things to mention, i-everend brethren, and you will be discharged of the
trouble of this prefatory address unto you. The matter in hand, I hope, you will
find attended and pursued without either jocular or historical diversions, which
are judged meet by some to retain the spirits and entice the minds of the readers,
which are apt to faint and grow weary if always bent to the consideration of
things weighty and serious. With you, who are continually exercised with severer
thoughts and stud-ies than the most of men can immix themselves withal, such a
condescension to the vanity of men's minds and lightness of their spirits I am
sure can find no approbation. And as for them Avho make it their business to
run through books of a polemical nature, in what subject soever, in pursuit of
what is peisonal, ridiculous, invective, beating every chapter and section to find
only what ought not to be there, and recoiling in their spirits upon the appearance
of that which is serious and pressing to the cause in hand, I suppose you judge
them not worthy to be attended to with such an imposition upon the time and
diligence of those who sincerely seek the truth in love as the satisfying of their
vain humour would require. It is, indeed, of sad consideration to see how some
learned men (forgetting the loss of precious hours wherewith they punish their

Jllor. Od., lil>. V. 6. 2 Ibid.

1 G THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY,

readers thereby), in discourses of this nature, do ofFend against their professed
intendments, hy perpetual diversions, in long personal harangues, delighting some
for a moment, instructing none in the matter inquired into. Some parts of this
treatise you may perhaps judge not so closely and scholastically argumentative as
the regular laws of an accurate disputation would require. In the same judgment
with you is the author, when yet he supposes himself not without just apology,
and that such as renders his way of procedure not blameworthy; whereas, other-
wise, he should not think any excuse sufficient to expiate such an error. He is
worthily blamed who had not rather choose to want a fault than an excuse. The
truth is, neither would the matter treated of, nor the persons for whose sakes
chiefly this labour was undertaken, admit of an accurate scholastical procedure in
all parts of the treatise. The doctrine asserted and the error opposed are the
concernment of the common people of Christianity. Arminianism is crept into
the bodies of sundry congregations, and the weaker men are who entertain it, the
more gross and carnal are their notions and conceptions in and about it. Pela-
gius himself was never so injurious to the grace of God as some amongst us.
Now, the souls of [the] men whose good is sought in this work are no less precious
in the sight of God, though they arc unacquainted with philosophical terms and
ways of arguing, than the souls of the most learned. Besides, that which we
account our wisdom and learning may, if too rigorously attended, be our folly.
When Ave think to sharpen the reason of the Scripture, we may sti-aiten the effi-
cacy of the spirit of it. It is oftentimes more effectual in its own liberty than
when restrained to our methods of arguing, and the weapons of it keener in their
own soft breathiags than when sharpened in the forge of Aristotle. There is a
way of persuasion and conviction in the Scriptures that is more divine and sub-
lime than to be reduced to any rules of art that men can reach unto. God in his
word instructs men, to make them " wise unto salvation." Syllogisms are not,
doubtless, the only way of making men wise with human wisdom, much less
divine. Some testimonies, on this account, are left at their own liberty, impi'oved
only by explanation, that they might lose nothing of their own strength, seeing no
other can be added to them. Where the corrupt philosophy, or sophistical argu-
ings, or, indeed, regular syllogistical proceedings, of the adversaries, have rendered
a more close, logical way of proceeding necessary, I hope your favourable judg-
ments will not find cause to complain of the want thereof. Whatever is amiss,
whatever is defective, whatever upon any accovint cometh short of desire or ex-
pectation, as I know none in the world more able to discern and find out than
yourselves, so there are none from whom I can expect, and justly promise myself,
a more easy and candid censure, a more free and general pardon, a more favour-
able acceptation of this endeavour for the service of the truth, than from you.
Besides that personal amity and respect which God by his providence hath given
me (one altogether unworthy of such an alloy of common perplexities in his pil-
grimage) with you and amongst you, besides that readiness and ingenuous
promptness of mind unto condescension and candid reception of labours m this
kind which your own great worth and abilities furnisli you withal, exempting
you and lifting you above that pedantic severity and humour of censure which
possesseth sciolists and men corrupted with a desire of emerging in the repute of
other.s, you know full well in what straits, under what diversions, employments,
I)usiness of sundry natures, incumbent on me from the relations wherein I stand
in tlie univer»ity, and on sundry other accounts, this work hath been carried on.
The truth is, no small portion of it owes its rise to journeys, and such like avoca-
tions from my ordinary course of studies and employments, with some spare hours,
for the most part in time of absence from all books and assistances of tiiat nature
whatever. Not lortger to be burdensome unto you with things of no greater con-
cernment than what may have respect to one every way so unworthy as myself.

THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 17

what is of the seed which God graciously supplied, I am sure will find acceptance
with you; and what is of its worthless author, or that I have added, I am fully
content may be consumed by the fire that tries our works of what sort they are.

My daily prayer, honoured brethren, shall be on your behalf, that in the days
wherein we see so many fall from the truth and oppose it on the one hand, a
great indifference as to the things of God leading captive so many on the other,
so few remaining made useful to God in their generations by a conjunction of
zeal for the truth and ability unto its defence, and those for the most part so
closely engaged in, and their hands so filled with, the work of public beseeching
men to be reconciled to God in Christ, and building up of them who are called in
their most holy faith, you may receive help from above, and encouragement to
engage you by all means possible to spread abroad a savour of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, and to labour continually that the truths of God (for whose defence you
are particularly appointed) may not be cast down, nor trampled on under the feet
of men of corrupt minds, lying in wait to deceive, alluring and beguihng unstable
souls with enticing words of human wisdom, or any glorious show and pretence
whatever, turning them from the simplicity of the gospel and the truth as it is in
Jesus ; that you may not faint nor Avax weary, notwithstanding all the opposi-
tion, contempt, scorn, you do or may meet withal, nor even be turned aside to
corrupt dalliances with error and falsehood, as is the manner of some, who yet
would be accounted sound in the faith; but keeping close to the form of whole-
some words, and answering the moidd of gospel doctrine, whereinto you have
been cast, may shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
knowing that it is but yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and
will not tarry. Yea, come. Lord Jesus, come. So prays your unworthy fellow-
labourer and brother in our dear Lord Jesus,

John Owen.

VOL. XI.

A PREFACE TO THE EEADER.

Header,
If thy inquiry be only after the substance of the truth in the ensuino-
treatise contended for, I desire thee not to stay at all upon this prelimi-
nary discourse, but to proceed thither where it is expressly handled from
the Scriptures, without the intermixture of any human testimonies or
other less necessary circumstances, wherein perhaps many of them may
not be concerned whose interest yet lies in the truth itself, and it is pre-
cious to their souls. That which now I intend and aim at is, to give an
account to the learned reader of some things nearly relating to the doctrine
whose protection, in the strength of Him who gives to his [servants] suitable
helps for the works and employments he calls them to, I have undertaken,
and what entertainment it hath formerly found and received in the church,
and among the saints of God. For the accomplishment of this intendment
a brief mention of the doctrine itself will make way. Whom in this contro-
versy we intend by the names of " saints" and " believers," the treatise fol-
lowing will abundantly manifest. The word perseverantia is of most known
use in ecclesiastical writers : Austin hath a book with the inscription of it
on its forehead. The word in the New Testament signifying the same
thing is sTif^or/j. Of them that followed Paul, it is said that he " persuaded
them svi/jyiviiv rp y^d^iri tov ^iov," Acts xiii. 43; that is, "to persevere."
'Tvofiovr) is of the same import: 'O 6h V'ZOfLslvag slg rsXog ouTog gojOrjffBrai,
Matt. X. 22, — " He that persevereth to the end." The Vulgar Latin renders
that word almost constantly by persevero. Ka^Ts^ia is a word also of the
same signification, and which the Scripture useth to express the same
thing. K^drog is sometimes by a metathesis expressed xa^rog* thence is
xdpra, valde; and xa^rs^so), spoken of him who is of a valiant, resolved
mind. " By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king,
Tov ya^ dogarov ug o^Sjv szaorsgr}Ci£," ^eh, xi. 27; — "As eyeing the Invisible,
he endured (his trial) with a constant, valiant mind." H^oaTia^n^m from
thence is most frequently to persevere, Acts i. 14; and '^Heav hi v^offxa^-
Ts^ouvng rp dida^ff roov d'zaGrlikoiv, Acts ii. 42, — " They persevered in the
doctrine of the apostles." Tl^cffxagrs^risig, once used in the New Testament,
is rendered by our translators, " perseverance," Eph. vi. 18. In what
variety of expression the thing is revealed in the Scripture is in the trea-
tise itself abundantly declared. The Latin woi'd is classical : persevero is
constanter sum severus. In that sense, as Seneca says, "Kes severa est verum
gaudium." Its extreme in excess is pertinacy, if these are not rather dis-
tinguished from their objects than in themselves. Varro, lib. iv. De Ling.
Lat., tells us that pertinacia is a continuance or going on in that wherein
one ought not to continue or proceed ; perseverantia is that whereby any
one continues in that wherein he ought so to do. Hence is that definition
of it commonly given by the schoolmen from Austin, lib. Ixxxiii. qu. 31,

20 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

who took it from Cicero (one tliey little acquainted themselves "withal),
lib. ii. De Invent, cap. liv. It is, say they, " In ratione bene considerata.
stabilis et perpotua permansio."

And this at present may pass for a js^eneral description of it that is used
in an ethical and evangelical sense. Perseverance was accounted a com-
mendable tiling among philosophers. Morally, perseverance is that part
of foititude whereby the mind is established in the performance of any
good and necessary work, notwithstanding the assaults and opposition it
meets withal, with that tediousness and wearisomeness which the protrac-
tion of time in the pursuit of any afiairs is attended withal. Aristotle
infoi'ms us that it is exercised about things troublesome, lib. vii. cap. vi.,
Eth. Nicom., giving a diflierence between continence with its opposite vice,
and forbearance or perseverance: ToOtojv d' 6 /aev teo/ 55601/a;, axearryc, 6
0' iy/.^a.Tr,g. 'O bi ts^I Xv'Ttag /i-aXajcoc, 6 hs xa^n^iKog. He that abides
in his undertaken work, so it be good and honest, notwithstanding that
trouble and perplexity he may meet withal, is xaorso/xog. Hence he
tells us that xa§rs^r/.Sjg ^fjv, as well as ffojipgovug, is not pleasant to many, lib.
X. cap. ix. ; and that because so to live implies difficulty and opposition.
And he also, as Varro in the place above mentioned, distinguishes it from
pertinacy. And of men infected with that depraved habit of mind he says
there are three sorts, Idioyvuiij^ovsg, a/xadug, and ay^oixot. All these are, in
his judgment, iff^v^oyvu/Movsg, Nicom., lib. vii. cap. ix. ; which perverse dis-
position of spirit he there clearly manifests to be sufficiently differenced
from a stable, resolved frame of mind, whatever it may resemble it in.
Now, though there is no question but that of two persons continuing in
the same work or opinion, one may do it out of pertinacy, the other out of
perseverance, yet amongst men, who judge of the minds of others by their
fruits, and of the acts of their minds by their objects, these two disposi-
tions or habits are universally distinguished, as before by Varro. Hence
the terms of "pertinacy" and "obstinacy" being thrust into the definition of
heresy by them who renounce any infallible living judge and determiner
in matters of faith, to make way for the inflicting of punishment on the
entertainers and maintainers thereof. They take no thought of proving it
such, but only because it is found in jiersons embracing such errors. The
same affection of mind, with the same fruits and demonstrations of it, in
persons embracing the truth, would by the same men be termed persever-
ance. But this is not that Avhereof I treat.

Evanr/elical perseverance is from the Scripture at large explained in the
book itself. As it relates to our acceptation with God, and the innnuta-
bility of justification (which is the chief and most eminent part of the
doctrine contended for), as it hath no conformity in any thing with the
moral perseverance before described, so indeed it is not comprehended in
that strict notion and signification of the word itself which denotes the
continuation of some act or acts in us, and not the uninterruptibleness of
any act of God. This, then, is the cause of perseverance, rather than per-
severance itself, yet such a cause as being established, the efiect will cer-
tainly and uncontrollably ensue. They a> ho go about to assert a perse-
verance of saints cut oft' from the absolute unehangeableness of the decree,
l^urpose, and love of God, attended with a possibility of a contrary event,
and tiiat not only in respect of the free manner of its carrying on, whereby
he that wills to i)ersevere may not will so to do, but also in respect of the
issue and end itself, will, I doubt not, if they are serious in what they
pretend, find themselves entangled in their undertaking. As perseverance
is a gi-ace in the subjects on whom it is bestowed, so it relates either to the

A PEEFACE TO THE READER. 21

spiritual habit of faith or the principle of new life they have received from
God, or to the actual performance of those duties wherein they ought to
abide. In the first sense it consists in the point of being or not being.
Whilst the habit of faith remains, there is in respect thereof an uninter-
ruj^ted perseverance in him in whom it is ; and this we contend for. As
it respects actions flowing from that habit and principle, it expatiates
itself in a large field ; for as it imports not at all a perpetual performance
of such acts without intermission (which were naturally as well as spiri-
tually impossible, whilst we carry about us a " body of deatli"), so neither
doth it necessarily imply a constant tenor of proceeding in the performance
of them, but is consistent with a change in degrees of performance, and in
other respects also not now to be insisted on. Perseverance in this sense
being the uninterrupted continuance of habitual grace in the hearts of
believers, without intercision, with such a walking in obedience as God,
according to the tenor of the new covenant, will accept, upon the whole of
the matter it is in its own nature (as every thing else is that hath not its
being from itself) liable and obnoxious to alteration; and therefore must
be built and reposed on that which is in itself immutable, that it may be
rendered, on that supposition, immutable also. Therefore is perseverance
in this sense resolved into that cause of it before mentioned; which to do
is the chief endeavour of the following treatise. Of the groundlessness of
their opinion who, granting final perseverance, do yet plead for the possi-
bility of a final apostasy and an intercision of faith, no more need be
spoken but what, upon the account last mentioned, hath been argued al-
ready. Some discourses have passed both of old and of late concerning
the nature of this perseverance, and wherein it doth properly consist.
Many aflSrm it not really to differ from the habit of faith and love itself;
for which Bradwardin earnestly contends, lib. ii. De Cau. Dei. cap. vii.,
concluding his disputation, that " Perseverantia habitualis est justitia
habitualiter preservata ; perseverantia actualis est justitite perseverantia
actualis, ipsum vero perseverare, est justitiam pra^servare ; " whereupon
("suo more") he infers this corollary: "Quod nomen perseveranti£e nullam
rem absolutam essentialiter significat, sed accidentaliter, et relative, chari-
tatem videlicet, sive justitiam, cum respectu futurse permansionis continue
usque in finem ; et quod non improbabiliter posset dici perseverantiam esse
ipsam relationem hujus." And therefore in the next chapter, to that objec-
tion, " If perseverance be no more but charity or righteousness, then every
one that hath once obtained these, or true grace, must also persevere," he
returns no answer at all, plainly insinuating his judgment to be so; of which
afterward. And therefore he spends his 13th chapter of the same book
to prove that the Holy Spirit is that " auxilium," as he called it, whereby
any persevere. And, chap, i., he resolves all preservation from being over-
come by temptation, or not being temjited to a prevalency (the same for
substance with perseverance), into the will and purpose of God. " Quicun-
que," saith he, " non tentatur, hoc necessario est a deo, quod non tentatur.
Sicut 11" pars 13' primi probat; et per 22""" primi, Deus necessario habet
aliquem actum voluntatis circa talem non tentationem, et non nolitionem,
quia tunc per decimum primi non tentaretur, ergo volitionem, qute per
idem decimum ipsum tentari non sinit," etc. Others render it as a gift
superadded to faith and love; of which judgment Austin seems to have
been, Avho is followed by sundry of the schoolmen, with many of the
divines of the reformed churches. Hence is that conclusion of Alvarez,
De Auxil., lib. x. disp. 103, " Secundum fidem catholicam asserendum est,
prseter gratiam habitualem et virtutes infusas esse necessarium ad perse-

22 A PREFACE TO THE IIE.VDKR.

verandum in bono usque in finem auxiliuni speciale, supernaturale scilicet
donuni pcrseverantije." And of this ])ropoHition he says, " In hac omnes
catholici eonveniunt." Of the same judgment was his master, Thomas,
lib. iii. Con. Gen. cap, civ. ; where, also, he gives this reason of his opi-
nion: " Illud quod natura sua est variabile, ad hoc quod figatur in uno,
indiget auxilio aliciijus moventis immobilis; sed liberum arbitrium, etiam
existens in gratia habituali, ad hue manet variabile, et flexibile a bono in
malum: ergo ad hoc quod figatur in bono, et perseveret in illo usque ad
finem, indiget speciali Dei auxilio:" — the same argument having been
used before him by Bradwardin, though to another ])urpose, namely, not
to ])rove persevei'ance to be a superadded gift to saving grace, which, as
before was observed, he denied, but to manifest that it was immediately
and wholly from God. His words are, lib. ii. cap. viii., Corel., " Sicut se-
cundum primi docet, omne quod est naturale, et non est per se tale, sed
est mutabile in non tale, si manere debeat immutatum, oportet quod inni-
tatur continue alicui per se fixo; quare et continue quilibit Justus Deo."
The same schoolmen also (a generation of men exceeding ready to speak
of any thing, though they know not what they speak nor whereof they
affirm) go yet farther, some of them, and will distinguish between the gift
of perseverance and the gift \of~\ confirmation in grace ! He before ment ioned,
after a long dispute (namely, 104), concludes: "Ex his sequitur difFeren-
tiam inter donum perseverantite et confirmationis in gratia" (he means that
Avhich is granted in via) " in hoc consistere, quod donum perseverantia^
nuUam perfectionem intrinsecam constituit in ipsa gratia habituali, quod
tamen perfectionem intrinsecam illi tribuit confirmatio in gi-atia." What
this intrinsical perfection of habitual grace, given it by confirmation, is, he
cannot tell; for in those who are so confirmed in grace he asserts only an
impeccability upon supposition, and that not alone from their intrinsical
principle, as it is witn the blessed in heaven, but from help and assistance
also daily communicated from without. Durandus, in 3 d. 3 q. 4, assigns
the deliverance from sin, which those who are confirmed in grace do obtain,
unto the Holy Ghost. So far well ; but he kicks down his milk by his addi-
tion, that he doth it only by the removal of all occasion of sin. But of these
persons, and their judgment on the point under debate, more afterward.

For the thing itself last proposed, on what foot of account it is placed,
and on what foundation asserted, the treatise itself will discover. That
the thing aimed at is not to be straitened or restrained to any one peculiar
act of grace will easily appear. The main foundation of that which we
plead for is the eternal purpose of God, which his own nature rcquireth to
be absolutely immutable and irreversible. The eternal act of the will of
God designing some to salvation by Christ, infallibly to be obtained, for
" the praise of the glory of his grace," is the bottom of the whole, even
that foundation which standeth for ever, having this seal, " The Lord know-
eth them that are his." For the accomjilishment of this eternal purpose,
and for the procurement of all the good things that lie within the compass
of its intendment, are the oblation and intercession, the whole mediatory
undertaking of Christ, taking away sin, bringing in life and immortality,
interposed, giving farther causal influence into the truth contended for.
In him and for his sake, as God graciously, powerfully, and freely gives
liis Holy Spirit, faith, and all the things that accompany salvation, unto
all them whom he accepts and pardons, by his being made " sin for them"
and " righteousness unto them;' so he takes thom thei'cby into an ever-
lasting covenant that shall not be broken, and hath therein given them
innumerable promises that he will continue to be their God for ever, and

A PREFACE TO THE READER. _ 23

]M-eserve them to be, and in l^eina:, his people. To this end, because the
principle of grace and living to him, as in them inherent, is a thing in its
own nature changeable and liable to failing, he doth, according to his pro-
mise, and for the accomplishment of his purpose, daily make out to them,
by his Holy Spirit, from the great treasury and storehouse thereof, the
Lord Jesus Christ, helps and supplies, increasing of faith, love, and holi-
ness, recovering them from falls, healing their backslidings, strengthening
them with all might, according to his glorious power, inito all patience
and long-suffering with joyfulness; so preserving them by his power
through faith unto salvation. And in this way of delivering the doctrine
contended about, it is clearly made out that the disputes mentioned are
as needless as groundless ; so that we shall not need to take them into the
state of the controversy in hand, though I shall have occasion once more
to reflect upon them when I come to the consideration of the doctrine of
the schoolmen in reference to the opinion proposed to debate. The main
of our inquiry is after the purpose, covenant, and promises of God, the
undertaking of Christ, the supplies of grace promised and bestowed in
him ; on which accounts we do assert and maintain that all true believers, —
Avho are, in being so, interested in all those causes of preservation, — shall
infallibly be preserved unto the end in the favour of God, and in such a
course of gospel obedience as he will accept in Jesus Christ.

That, as was formerly said, which at present I aim at in reference to
this truth is, to declare its rise and progress, its course and opposition,
which it hath found in several ages of the church, with its state and con-
dition at this day, in respect of acceptance with the people of God.

Its rise, with all other divine truths, it owes only to revelation from
God, manifested in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. Some
of the most eminent places wherein it is delivered in the Old Testament
are. Gen. iii. 15, xvii. 1; Deut. xxxili. 3; Josh. i. 5 ; 1 Sam. xii. 22; Ps.
i. 3, xxiii. 4, 6, xxxvii. 39, 40, Iii. 8, 9, Ixxxix. 31-36, xxxiii. 9-11, xcii.

12, etc. ; Isa. xxvii. 3, xlvi. 4, lix. 21, liv. 9, 10, iv. 5, 6, xl. 27-31,
xliii. 1-7 ; Jer. iii. 23, xxxi. 31-34. xxxii. 38-40; Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27; Hos.
ii. 19, 20; Zech. x. 12; Mai. iii. 6, wdth innumerable other places. In
the New Testament God hath not left this truth and Avork of his grace
without witness ; as in sundry other places, so it is testified unto Matt.
vi. 13, vii. 24, 25, xii. 20, xvi. 18, xxiv. 24; Luke i. 70-75, viii. 8, xxii.
32; John iii. 36, iv. 13, 14, v. 24, vi. 35-57, vii. 38, 39, viii. 35, 36, x.
27-30, xiii. 1, xiv. 15-17, xvi. 27, xvii. throughout; Acts. ii. 47, xiii. 48 ;
Rom. vi. 14, viii. 1, 16, 17, 28-34, etc.; 1 Cor. i. 8, 9, x. 13, 14, xv. 49,
58 ; 2 Cor. i. 21, 22 ; Eph. i. 13, 14, iii. 17, iv. 30, v. 25-27 ; Gal. ii. 20 ;
Phil. i. 6, ii. 13 ; 1 Thess. v. 24 ; 2 Tim. iv. 17, 18 ; Tit. i. 1 ; Heb. vi. 19,
X. 38, 39, xii. 9, 10, xiii. 5 ; 1 Pet. i. 2-5 ; 1 John ii. 19, 27, iii. 9, 19, v.

13, 18 ; Jude 1 ; Rev. xx. 6. So plentifully hath the Lord secured this
sacred truth, wherein he hath inwrapped so much (if not, as in the means
of conveyance, the whole) of that peace, consolation, and joy, which he is
willing the heirs of promise should receive. Whether the faith liereof,
thus plentifully delivered to the saints, found acce])tance with the primitive
Christians, to the most of whom it was " given not only to believe but
also to suffer for Christ," to me is unquestionable. And 1 know no better
proof of what those first churches did believe than by showing what they
ought to believe; which I shall unquestionably be persuaded they did be-
lieve, unless most pregnant testimony be given of their apostasy. That
Paul believed it for himself and concerning others is evident. Rom. viii.
38,39; 1 Cor. i. 8, 9; Phil. i. 6; Heb. vi. 9, 10, are sufficient proof of his

24 A PllEFACE TO THE READER.

faith herein. That ho built up others in the same persuasion, to the
enjoyment of the same peace and assurance with himself, is undeniable.
And if there be any demonstration to be made of the belief of the first
Christians, if any evidence comparable unto this, I shall not deny but
that it ought to bo attended unto. But that we may not seem willing to
decline the consideration of what those who went betbre us in the several
ages and generations past apprehended, and have by any means commu-
nicated unto us of their thoughts, about tlio business of our contest (having
no reason so to bo), I shall, after a little preparation made to that work, pre-
sent the reader with something of my observations to that end and purpose.
Of the authority of the ancients in matters of religion and the worship of
God, of the right use and improvement of their writings, of the several con-
siderations that are to be had and exercised by them who Avould read them
with profit and advantage, after many disputes and contests between the
Papists and divines of the reformed churches, the whole concernment of
that controversy is so clearly stated, managed, and resolved by Monsieiir
Daille, in his book of the " Right Use of the Fathers," that I suppose all
farther labour in that kind may be well spared. Those who intend to
weigh their testimony to any head of Christian doctrine do commonly
distinguish them into three great periods of time. The first of these is
com])rehensive of them who lived and Avrote before the doctrine conceiving
icMch they are called out to give in their thoughts and verdict had received
any signal opposition, and eminent discussion in the church on that account.
Such are the writers of the first three hundred years, before the Nicene
council, in reference to the doctrine of the Trinity ; and so the succeeding
writers, before the stating of the Macedonian, Eutychian, and Nestoriau
heresies. In the next are they ranked loho hare the burden and heat of the
opposition made to any truth, and on that occasion wrote expressly and at
large on the controverted doctrines ; which is the condition of Athanasius,
Basil, Gregory, and some others, in that Arian controversy. And in the
last place succeed those loho lived after such concussions, which are of less
or more esteem, according as the doctrines inquired after were less or
more corrupted in the general apostasy of the latter days. According to
this order, our first peiuod of time will end Avitli the rise of the Pelagian
heresy, winch gave occasion to the thorough, full, and clear discussion of
the whole doctrine concerning the grace of God, whereof that in whose
defence we are engaged is no small portion; the next, of those whom God
raised up to make head against that subtle opposer of his grace, with his
followers, during the space of a hundred years and somewhat onwards
ensuing the promulgation of that heresy. What have been the thoughts
of men in the latter ages until tlie Eeformation, and of the Romanists
since to this day, manifested in a few pregnant instances, will take up the
third part of this design. Of the judgment of the Reformed Churches, as
they are commonly called, I shall speak particularly in the close of this
discourse. For the first of these: Not to insist on the paucity of writers
in the first three hundred years, sundry single persons in the following
ages have severally written three times as much as we have left and re-
maining of all tlie others (the names of many who are said to ha\o written
being preserved by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist., and Hiorom, Lib. de Script.,
their writings being perisheil in their days), nor in general of that corrup-
tion whereunto they liave almost every one of them been unquestionably
exposed, 1 must be forced to preface the nomination of them with some
considerations : —

1. The first [consideration will be found] in that luiown passage of Hege-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 25

sippus, in Euseb. Hist. Eccles., lib. iii. cap. xxxii. : 'ilg a^a i-Lsy^^i rojv rin y^6-
vcf}v, Toc^Ohog xaSa^a ■a.cx.i adidpCo^og s/ubiivsv ri IxxX'/jc/a' — eig d' 6 hfog rojv d'roff-
roXcov yooog did(pnoov s7Xrj(pii rov (3iov riXog, -Tra^iXriXvdn rh yj ymsd s-Kshrj ruv
avru/'g UKOOcTg rr/g svdsov eoipiag h~a7(.ousai zarrii^iciJ/JjSvuv, rY}'Ji7(,avTa rrjg dd'scu
^Xas/'/jj rriv doyr^v s}.dn,Zaviv t] Cosraeig, bid rr^g tSjv sri^odidaSxdXc/i'j d--zrdTr,c,
01 xai, mVj jLTihivog in rm d'7ro<ir(t'KMv Xhto/^'svou, yv/u^vri Xoi'Tov '/jO'/j rr xnpaX'/j
rip Trig dXy}dsiag ■/.rjovy/j.ari rriv -^s-j8dj\/v/JjOV yvuiffiv dvrixrio-omiv s-TTsyshouv. So
far he, setting out the corruption of the church, even as to doctrine, im-
mediately after the apostles fell asleep ; whereof whosoever will imparti-
ally, and with disengaged judgment, search into the writings of those days
that do remain, will perhaps find more cause than is commonly imagined
with him to complain.

2. The main work of the writers of the first ages being to contend with
heathenish idolaters, to convince them of their madness and folly; to write
apologies for the worship of God in Christ in general, so to dissuade their
rulers from persecution; or in contesting with heretics, for the most part
apjjearing to be men either corrupt in their lives, or mad and brain-sick,
as we say, as to their imaginations, or denying the truth of the person
of Christ, — what can we expect from them as delivered directly and on set
purpose to the matter of our present contest ? Some principles may in
them possibly be discovered from whence, by a regular deduction, some
light may be obtained into their thoughts concerning the points in difter-
ence. Tlius Junius thinks, and not without cause, that the whole busi-
ness of predestination may be stated upon this one princijile, " That faith
is the free gift of God, flowing from his predestination and mercy ; " and
concerning this he saith, " Hoc autem omnes patres uno consensu ex
Christo et Paulo agnoverunt ; ipse Justinus Martyr in Apolog. ii., et gra-
vissime vero Clemens Alexandrinus, in hac alioquin palaestra non ita exer-
citatus ut sequentia secula," Horn., lib. ii. " Basilii et Valentin! dogma
esse dicit, quod fides a natura sit," Consid. Senten. Pet. Baroni. With-
out this what advantage can be taken, or what use can be made, for the
discovery of the mind of any of the ancients, by cropping oft" some occa-
sional expressions from their occasions and aims, I know not. Especially
would I more peremptorily affirm this could I imagine any of them wrote as
Jerome affirms of himself that he sometimes did, Epist. ad August., which
is among his epistles, Ixxxix. T. 2. " Itaqile," saith he, " ut simpliciter
fateor, legi ha^c omnia, et in mente mea plurima coacervans, accito notario
vel mea, vel aliena dictavi, nee ordinis, nee verborum interdum nee sen-
suum memor." Should any one say so of himself in these days, he would
be accounted little better than a madman. Much, then, on this account (or
at least not much to the purpose) is not to be expected from the fathers
of the first ages.

3. Another observation to our purpose lies well expressed in the be-
ginning of the 14th chapter of Bellarmine's second book de Grat. et Lib.
Arbit. " Prajter Scripturas adferunt alia testimonia patrum," saith he,
speaking of those who opposed God's free predestination; to which he
subjoins, " Neque est hoc novum argumentum, sed antiquissimum. Scribit
enim S. Prosper in Epistola ad S. Augustinum, Gallos qui sententiam ejus-
dem Augustini de predestinatione calumniabantur, illud potissimum obji-
cere solitos quod ea sententia doctriniB veterum videbatur esse coutraria.
Sed respondet idem Augustinus in Lib. de Bono Perseverantite, veteres
patres, qui ante Pelagium floruerunt, quajstionem istam nunquam accurate
tractasse sed incidenter solum, et quasi per transitum illam attigisse. Addit
vero, in fundamento hujus sententise (quod est gratiam Dei non prseveniri

^0 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

ab ullo opere nostro sed contra, ah ilia omnia opera nostra prseveniri, ita
ut nihil oninino boni, quod attinet ad salutem sit in nobis, quod non est
nobis ex Deo), convenire Catholicos omnes; et ibidem citat Cyprinnum,
Ambrosium, et Nazianzenum, quibus addere po5sumu.s Basilium et Chrysos-
tomum." To the same jnirpose, with application to a particular person, doth
that great and holy doctor discourse, De Doctrin. Christiana, lib. iii. cap.
xxxiii, Saith he, "Non erat expertus banc lu-cresin Tychonius, qua; nostro
tempore exorta, multum nos, ut gratiam Dei, quto per Dominum nostrum
Jesum Christum est, adversus eam defendererausexercuit, et secundum id
quod ait apostolus, " oportet hfcroses esse, ut probati manifesti fiunt in
nobis," multo vigilantiorcs, diligontioresque reddidit, ut adverteremus in
Scripturis Sanctis, quod istum Tychonium minus attentum minusquc, sine
hoste solieitum fugit." That also of Jerome in his second Apology against
Eufinus, in reference to a most weighty article of Christian religion, is
known to all. " Fieri potest," saith he, " ut vel simpliciter erraverint, vel
alio sensu scripserint, vel a librariis imperitis eorum paulatim scripta cor-
ruptasint; vel certe antequam in Alexandria, quasi dfemonium meridianum,
Arius nasceretur, innocenter qua^dam, et minus cauto locuti sunt, et quce
non possunt pervcrsorum hominum calumniam deelinare." And what he
spake of the writers before Arius in reference to the person of Christ, we
may of them before Pelagius in reference to his grace. Hence Pererius,
in Piom. cap. viii., disput. 22, tells us (how truly i])se viderit, I am not alto-
gether of his mind) tliat [as] for those authors that lived before Austin's
time, all the Gi'cek fathers, and a considerable part of the Latin, were of
opinion that the cause of predestination was the foresight which God had
either of men's good works or of their faith; either of which opinions,
he assures us, is manifestly contrary to the autliority of the Scriptures,
and particularly to the doctrine of St Paul, I am not, as I said, wholly
of his mind, partly upon the account of the observations made by his
fellow-Josuit out of Austin, before mentioned, partly upon other accounts
also. Upon these and the like considerations, much, I jiresume, to the
business in hand Avill not be produced on either side fi'om the fathers that
wrote before the rise of the Pelagian heresy. And if any one of the par-
ties at this day litigant about tlie doctrine of the grace of God should
give that advice that Sisinius and Agelius the Novatians sometimes gave,
as Sozomen reports of them (Hist. Eccles., lib. vii. cap. xii.), to Nec-
tarius, by him communicated to the emperor Tlieodosius, to have the
quarrel decided by those that wrote before the rise of the controversy, as
it would be unreasonable in itself, so I persuade myself neither party
■would accept of the condition, neither had the Catholics of those days
got any tiling if they had attended to the advice of these Novatians. But,
these few observations premised, something as to particular testimonies
may be attended unto.

That we may proceed in some order, not leaving those we have nothing
to say to, nor are willing to examine, whilst they are but tliin and come
not in troops, unsahited, the first writings that are imposed on us after the
canonical Scriptures are the eight books of Clemens, commonly called the
Apostles' Constitutions, being pretended to be written by him at their
appointment, with the Canons ascribed to the same persons. These we
sliall but sakite: for besides that they are faintly defended by any of the
Papists, disavowed and disclaimed as apocryphal by tlie most learned of
tliem, as Bellnrmine, De Script. Eccles. in Clem., who approves only of fifty
canons out of (nghty-five; liaronius. An. Dom. 102, 14, who adds thirty
more; and Binius, with a little enlargement of canons, in Tit. Can. T. 1,

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 27

Con. p. 17; and have been thoroughly disproved and decried by all ]irotes-
tant writers that have had any occasion to deal witli them ; their folly and
falsity, their impostures and triflings, have of late been so fully manifested
by Dallfeus, De Pseudepigraphis Apostol., that nothing need be added
thereunto. Of him may Doctor H. H.^ learn the truth of that insinuation
of his, Dissert, de Episcop. ii. cap. vi. sect, 3, " Canonc apostolico secundo
semper inter genuinos habito;" but of the confidence of this author in his
assertions afterward. This, indeed (insisted on by Dalla^us, and the learned
Usher in his notes upon Ignatius), is childishly ridiculous in them, that
whereas it is pretended that these Constitutions were made at a convention,
of the a])ostles, as lib. vi. cap. xiv., they are brought in discoursing rjiJ^ng oZv
i'lr) TO avTO yivo/Mivoi, U'sr^og xai ' Avd^iag, 'idy.CfiQog %ai 'lojdvvrig v'loi ZsSs-
haiov, etc. They are made to inform us, lib. ii. cap. Ivii., that the Acts
written by Luke and read in the churches are theirs, and the four books
of the Gospel ; whereas the story of the death of James (here said to be
together with the apostles) is related Acts xii., and John, by the consent
of all, wrote not his Gospel until after the dissolution of his associates.
Also, they make Stephen and Paul to be together at the making of those
Constitutions, lib. viii. cap. iv, (whereas the martyrdom of Stephen was
before the conversion of Paul), and yet also mention the stoning of Ste-
phen, lib. viii. cap. xlvi. Tiiey tell us whom they appointed bishops of Je-
rusalem after the death of James, and yet James is one of them who is met
together with them, lib. vii. cap. xlviii. Nay, mention is made of Cerinthus,
and that Mark the heretic, Menander, Basilides, and Saturninus, were
known and taken notice of by the apostles, who all lived in the second
century, about tlie reign of Hadrian, as Eusebius manifesteth, and Clem.
Alex., Strom., lib. vii.

But, to leave such husks as these unto them who loathe manna, and will
not feed on the bread that our heavenly Father hath so plentifully pro-
vided for all that live in his family or any way belong to his house, let us
look onward to them that follow, of whose truth and honesty we have more
assurance.

The first genuine piece that presents itself unto us on the roll of anti-
quity is that epistle of Clemens which, in the name of the church of
Rome, he wrote to the divided church of Corinth ; which being abundantly
testified to of old, to the great contentment of the Christian world, was
published here at Oxford some few years since, — a writing full of ancient
simplicity, humility, and zeal. As to our present business, much, I confess,
cannot be pleaded from hence, beyond a negati\e impeachment of that
great and false clamour which our adversaries have raised, of the consent
of the primitive Christians with them in their by-paths and ways of error.
It is true, treating of a subject diverse from any of those heads of religion
about which our contests are, it is not to be expected that he should any-
where plainly, directly, and evidently, deliver his judgment unto them.
This, therefore, I shall only say, that in that whole epistle there is not
one word, iota, or syllable, that gives countenance to the tenet of our
adversaries in the matter of the saints' perseverance; but that, on the
contrary, there are sundry expressions asserting such a foundation of the
doctrine we maintain as will with good strength infer the truth of it.
Page 4, setting forth the virtues of the Corinthians before they fell into
the schism that occasioned his epistle, he minds them that dydiv rtv h[MTv ri/j^i-
pag Ti zai vvzrhg uTsg 'Trdffrjc ryjg d.diX(p6Tr}Tog, ug to 6uiZ,s(S&ai {JjIt sXsovg za,l

' The initials of Henry Hammond. An account of Owen's controversy witli him will
be found in a note at the end of the preface.— Ed.

28 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

ffvvtihriSiui rh aoidfiov ruv ixXixruv aOroD. That God hath a certain num-
ber of elect to he saved, and for whose salvation, bv his nierey, the church
is to contend with him, is a principle wholly inconsistent with those on
which the doctrine of the saints' apostasy is bottomed. Corresponding
hereunto is that passasje of his concerning the will of God, p. 12: Hdvrag
ouv ro-jc aya-r,T(,\ji a'jrou ^ovKo/juvoc /jjsravoiac /JUTaey^iTv, $a-r;^i:^iv r-SJ tolv-
roxooLToeixip ^o\jXr,!Ji.ari auroiJ. A mere consideration of this passage caus-
eth me to recall what but now was spoken, as though the testimony given
to the truth in this epistle were not so clear as might be desired. The
words now repeated contain the very thesis coiitended for. It is the be-
loved of God (or his chosen) whom he will have made partakers of saving
repentance; and hereunto "he establisheth them" (for with that word is
the defect in the sentence to bo supplied) " by,"' or with, " the almighty
will." Because he will have his beloved partakers of saving repentance and
the benetits thereof, he confirms and establishes them in it with his omni-
potent or sovereign will. The inconsistency and irreconcilablericss of this
assertion with the doctrine of these saints' apostasy, the learned reader
needs not any assistance to manifest to him. Answerably heremito he
saith of God, 'ExXo^^c ,u.f5o; (^,aac) i--oir,6iv ia-jruj, p. 38 and p. 66:
mentioning the blessedness of the forgiveness of sins, out of Ps. xxxii.,
he adds, O5ro? 6 fj,axacieij,og iy'iMro i-Ti rovg sxXiXiy,u,hovi i-~b rcxj 0£oi3
dia. 'Ir,so^ Xe/ffroD roD K-jelou r,,iLujv. The elect of whom he speaks are
those on whom, through and for Christ, God bestows the blessetiness
of justification; elect they are of God antecedently to the obtaining of
that blessedness, and through that they do obtain it : so that in that short
sentence of this author, the great pillar of the saints' perseverance, Avhich
is their free election, the root of all the blessedness which afterward
they enjoy, is established. Other passages like to these there are in that
epistle; which plainly deliver the primitive Christians of the church of
Rome from any conununion in the doctrine of the saints' apostasy, and
manifest their perseverance in the doctrine of the saints' perseverance,
wherein they had been so plentifully instructed, not long before, by the
epistle of Paul unto them.

He who upon the roll of antiquity presents himself in the next place to
our consideration is the renowned Ignatius, concerning whom I desire to
beg so much favour of the learned reader as to allow me a diversion unto
some thoughts and observations that belong to another subject than that
which I have now peculiarly in hand, before I come to give him a taste of
his judgment on the doctrine under debate.

As tliis Ignatius, bishop oi the church at Antioeh, was in himself a man
of an excellent spirit, eminent in holiness, and to whom, on the behalf of
Christ, it w.as given not only to believe on him. but also sutler for him,
and on that account of very great and high esteem among the Christians
of that .age wherein he lived, and sundry others following, so no great
question can be made but that he wrote, towards the end of his pilgrimage,
when he was on his way to be otlered uji, through the Holy Spirit, by the
mouths of wild beasts, to Jesus Christ, s\nuiry ejMstles to sinidry churches
that were of chiefest note and name in the countries about. The con-
current testimony of the ancients in this matter of fact will give as good
assurance as in this kind we are capable of; Eusebius reckons them up in
order, so doth Jerome.

After them frequent mention is made of them by others, and special
sayings in them are transcribed ; and whereas it is urged by some that
there is no mention of those epistles before the Nicene council, — before

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 29

wliich time it is as evident as if it were written with the beams of the sun,
that many false and supposititious writings had been imposed on and were
received by many in the churcli (as the story of Paul and Thecla is men-
tioned and rejected by Tertull. de Baptis., Hernia) Pastor, by others), — it is
answered, that they were mentioned by IrenaMis some good wiiile before.
Lib. V. cap. xxviii., saith he, "Quemadmodum quidam de nostris dixit, prop-
ter martyrium in JJcum adjudicatus ad l»ostias ; quoniam frumentum sum
Christi et per dentcs bestiarum molor ut mundus panis Dei inveniar."
Wiiioh words, to the substance of them, are found in these epistles, though
some say nothing is hero intimated of any epistles or writings, but of a
speech that might pass among the Christians by tradition, such as they had
many among themselves, even of our Saviour's, some whereof are mentioned
by Grotius on these words of Paul, " Remember the Avords of the Lord Jesus,
how he said. It is more blessed to give tlian to receive." What probabi-
lity or ground for conviction there is in these or the like observations and
answers is left to tiie judgment of all. This is certain, that the first men-
tioning of them in aiiti((uities is to be clearly received (and that perhaps
with more than the bare word of him tliat recites and approves of the
Epistle of Jesus Christ to Abgarus the king of tlie Edessenes, or of him that
reckons Seneca among the ecclesiastical writers upon the account of his
epistles to Paul), or tlie following testimonies, which are heaped up in abund-
ance by some who think (but falsely) that they have a peculiar interest
inwrapped in the epistles now extant, will be of very small weight or
value.

For my part, I am persuaded, with that kind of persuasion wherein in
things of no greater moment I am content to acquiesce, that he did write
seven epistles, and that much of what he so wrote is preserved in those
tliat are now extant; concerning which the contests of learned men have
drawn deep and run high in these latter days, though little to the advan-
tage of the most tliat have laboured in that cause, as shall be manifested
in the process of our discourse.

A late learned doctor,^ in his dissertations about episcopacy, or dispute
for it against Salmasius and Blondellus, tells us (that we may take a taste of
his confidence in asserting). Dissert, ii. cap. xxiii. sect. 1, that Salmasius and
Blondelhis "mortalium omnium priini" thought these epistles to be feigned
or counterfeit. And with more words, cap. xxiv. sect. 1, he would make us
believe that these epistles of Ignatius were always of the same esteem with
that of Clemens from Home to the Corinthians, of which he treats at large
in his fourth dissertation, or tliat of Polyearpus to the Philippians, which we
have in Eusebius; and then ho adds, that in the judgment of Salmasius and
Elondellus, " Solus Ignatius o7;/£Ta/ cujus tamen epistola) pari semper cum
illis per universam ab omni a)vo patrum nostrorum memoriam reverentia
excipiebantur; nee prius a mortalium quovis in judicium vocabantur (multo
minus ut in re certa et extra dubium posita inter plane a6ox///,a et x/£6/;>.a
rejiciebantur), quam presbyteri Anglieani patribus suis contumeliam facere
cocpissent iisque aut suppetias ferre, aut rem gratam facere (quibus illece-
bris adducti nescio), hi duo non ignobiles Presbyteranre causae hyperaspistte
in seipsos recepissent," Of his two learned antagonists, one is dead, and
tlie other almost blind, or probably they would have dealt not much more
gently with the doctor for his parenthesis (" quibus illecebris adducti
nescio"), than one of them formerly did (Salmas. De Subscribendis et Sig-
nandis Testamentis seu Specimen Consula. Animad. Heraldi., cap. i. p. 19,

' " Unicum D. BlondcUum aut alterum fortasse inter omnes mortales Walonem Mes-
salinum, cap. xxv. sect. 3."

30 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

" Nuper quidom etiam nebulo in Anglia, Capellanus ut audio rej^is, Ham-
mondus nomine, libro qucm edidit de potestate clavium Salmasio iratus
quod aliam quam ipse sententiam ]>robet ac defendat, baud potuit majus
convicium, quod ei dieerit, invenire, quam si grammaticum appellaret")
for his terming him a grammarian ; yet., indeed, of him (such was the hard
entei'tainment he found on all hands), it is by many supposed that he was
" illecebrls adduetus" (and they stick not to name the bait he was caught
Avithal), wrought over in a manner to destroy the faith of that which he
had before set up and established.

For the thing itself affirmed by the doctor. I cannot enough admire
with what oscitancy or contempt he considers his readers (of which manner
of proceeding this is very far from being the only instance), that he should
confidently impose such things upon them. He that hath written so much
about Ignatius, and doth so triumph in his authority, ought doubtless to
have considered those concernments of his author which are obvious to
every ordinary inquirer, Vedelius' edition of Ignatius, at Geneva, came
forth with his notes in the year 1G23, long before either Salraasius or
Blondellus had written any thing about the supposititiousness of these
epistles ; in the apology for Ignatius, thereto prefixed, he is forced to
labour and sweat in the answer of one, whom he deservedly styles Virum
doctissimum, arguing (not contemptibly) that Ignatius never wrote any
such epistles, and that all those Avhich were carried about in his name were
false and counterfeit.

But perhaps the doctor had taken caution of one of the fathers of his
church, that " a Genevensibus istis typographis prater fraudes, et fucos,
etpra?stigias non est quodquicquam expectemus" (Montacu. Appar. 1, lib.
V. sect. 47, p. ID), and so thought not fit to look into any thing that comes
from them.

Especially may this be supposed to have had some influence upon him,
considering the gentle censure added in the next words by that reverend
father of his church concerning the endeavour of Vedelius in his notes on
that edition : — " Neque audax illc et importunus Ignatii censor, quicquam
attulit ad paginas suas implendas prajter inscitiam, et incuriam, et impu-
dentiam singularem (nee sa)vi magne sacerdos) dum ad suum Genevatismura
antiquitatem detorquet invitissimam, non autem quod oportuit, Calvinis-
mum amussitat ad antiquitatem." And what, I pray, is the reason of his
episcopal censure? — that he should deal with poor Vedelius in that lan-
guage wherewith men of his order and authority were wont to deal with
preaching ministers at their visitations? Why, this poor man, in that
passage which you have in the Epistle to the Magnesians (in that eilition,
p. 56), when treating of the ancient fathers' expectations of the coming
of' Christ, retains the common reading of sig zsvorr^ra sX-~idog -^XOov, re-
ferring the word to their expectation of seeing him come in the flesh,
(whicli, iqwn the testimony of our Saviour himself, they desired to see, and
saw it not,) not correcting it by a change of xivorrjTa into xo/voVjjra iX-ri8oc,
so referring it to their faith in Christ and salvation by him, as, in his judg-
ment, he ought to have done, — 'ibov dXi'yov tj^, r,X'ixriV 'JXrji/ avd'z'Tii. A
little thing would provoke the indignation of a prelate against any thing
that came from Geneva.

I say, I would sujipose that this might divert our doctor from casting
his eye upon Vedelius, whose defensative would have informed him that
these epistles hail been opposed as false and counterfeit before ever Sal-
niasius or Blondellus had taken them into consideration, but that I find
him sometimes insisting on that Geneva edition.

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 31

For whereas (Dissert, ii. cap. ii. sect. 11) he tells you that he intends to
abide only upon the edition of Isaac Yossius, in Greek, published from
the archives of the library of Lorenzo de Medici, and the Latin edition
published by bishop Usher, out of our library here at Oxford; yet, cap.
viii., being pressed with the testimony of the writer of the Epistle to the
Magnesians, in that edition, calling episcopacy viun^izriv rd^iv, plainly in-
timating a comparative novelty in that order to others in the churches,
and fearing (as well he might) that his translation of vsuTsgiKri rd^ig into
" the ordination of a young man," would scarce be received by the men of
his own prejudice (for surely he never supposed that he should impose on
*ny other by such gross figments), he prefers the Vedelian edition, where
these words are not so used, before it, and informs us that " sic legendum"
(as it is in the Geneva edition) " suadet tota epistola) series." Now, this
truly is marvellous to me (if the doctor consulteth authors any farther
than merely to serve his present turn), how he could ever advise with that
edition of Vedelius, and yet so confidently affirm that Salmasius and Blon-
dellus were the first that rejected these epistles as feigned and counter-
feited.

But yet a little farther : The first edition of these epistles in Latin was
Augustfe Yindelicorum, anno 1529; in Greek, at Basil, 1566: before
which time, I suppose, the doctor expects not that any opposition should
be made to them, considering the heaps of filth and dung that, until about
that time, were owned for the oflspring of the ancient fathers.

Upon their first appearing in the world, what is the entertainment they
receive? One who was dead before either the doctor or either of his
antagonists was born, and whose renown among the people of God will
live when they are all dead, gives them this welcome into the world:
" Ignatium quod obtendunt, si velint quicquam habere momenti; probent
apostolos legem tulisse de quadragesima, et similibus corruptelis. Nihil
nseniis istis quse sub Ignatii nomine editse sunt putidius. Quo minus tole-
rabilis est eorum impudentia qui talibus larvis ad fallendum se instruunt,"
Calv. Inst., lib. i. cap. xiii. sect. 2d.

Whatever be the judgment of our doctor concerning this man (as some
there are of whom a leai-ned bishop in this nation long ago complained,
that they are still opening their mouths against Calvin, who helped them
to mouths to speak with. Abbot, ad Thom.), he will in the judgment of
some be so far accounted somebody as to take off" from the confident asser-
tion that Salmasius and Blondellus were " mortalium primi" that rejected
these epistles.

The Centuriators of Magdeburg were esteemed to be somebodies in their
days, and yet they make bold to call these epistles into question, and to
tender sundry arguments to the impairing of their credit and authority.
This then they, Cent. ii. cap. x., De Episcop. Antioch. ac primum de
Ignatio : —

" Lectori pio et attento considerandum relinquimus quantum sit illis
epistolis tribuendum. Non enim dubitamus quin in lectione earum cuilibet
ista in mentem veniant ; primum quod fere in omnibus epistolis, licet satis
copiosis, oceasio scribendi prajtermittitur, nee vel divinare licet, quare
potissimum ad banc vel illam ecclesiam literas voluerit mittere. Deinde
ipsius peregrinationis ratio non parvum injicit scrupulum considerantibus,
quod multo rectiore et breviori itinere, Romam potuerit navigare, ut tes-
tatur vel ipsius Pauli exemplum. Expende quam longum sit iter, Antiochia
ad littus ^gjei pelagi se recipere, ibique recta sursum versus Septentrionem
ascendere, et prsecipuas civitates in littore sitas usque ad Troadem perlus-

32 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

trare, cum tamen Romanum iter sit dcstinatum versus occasum, Tertio
res ejusmodi in istas literas inspersa; sunt ut ad eas propemodum obstu-
pescat lector, etc. Hajc cum alias non somnolento lectori incidant, non
existimavevimus," etc.

Thus they, at the world's first awaking as to the consideration of
things of this kind.

To them add the learned Whitaker, Cont. prima, De Perfect. .Script.
quajst. sext. c. 12, where, after lie hath disputed against the credit of lliese
epistles, jointly and severally, with sundry arguments, at length he con-
cludes, " Sed de his epistolis satis multa, et de hoc Ignatio quid judican-
dum sit, satis ex iis constare potest qure diximus. Ista Papista; non audent
tueri," etc. To whom sundry others might be added, convincing Sal-
inasius and Blondellus not to have been " mortalium primi" that called
them into question.

I have not insisted on what hath been spoken as though I were wholly
of the mind of them who utterly condemn these epistles as false and coun-
terfeit; though I know no possibility of standing before the arguments
levied against them, notwithstanding the forementioned doctor's attempt
to that purpose, without acknowledging so much corru])tion in them, addi-
tions and detractions from what they were when first written, as will ren-
der them not so clearly serviceable to any end or purpose whereunto their
testimony may be required, as other unquestionable writings of their an-
tiquity are justly esteemed to be. That these epistles have fallen into the
hands of such unworthy impostors as have filled the latter ages with labour
and travail to discover their deceits, the doctor himself granteth. Dissert,
ii. cap. ii. sect. G. " Nulla," saith he, " quidem nobis incumbit necessitas,
ut in tanta exemplarium et editionum varietate et inconstantia, nihil uspiam
Ignatio interpolatura aut adsutum aflirmemus."

And, indeed, the foisted passages in many places are so evident, yea
shameful, that no man who is not resolved to say any thing, without care
of proof or truth, can once appear in any defensative about them. Of this
sort are the shreds and pieces out of that branded counterfeit piece of
Clemens, or the Apostles' Constitutions, which are almost in every epistle
packed in in a bungling manner, oftentimes disturbing the sense and co-
herence of the place ; yea, sometimes such things are thence transcribed
as in them are considerable arguments of their corruption and falsehood :
so is that period in the Epistle to the Magnesians, taken from Clemens.
Constitut., lib. vi. cap. ii., ' AZiddadav ojffavTug rng x£paX^$ a^pai^iTrai di'
6/Moiav aiTiav. This Abeddadan being mentioned next after Absalom's
dying by the loss of his head is therefore sup2)osed to be Sheba, the son
of Bichri; but whence that counterfeit Clemens had that name is not
known. That the counterfeit Clemens by Abeddadan intended Sheba
is evident from the words he assigns unto him in the place mentioned.
Abeddadan said, Oux sStj aoi /x'soog h AaQid, ov8s zXri^ovofiia sv v'luj 'Isaaai.
And he joins him witli Absalom in his rebellion. Such passages as these
they are suj»posed to have received from that vain and foolish impostor;
but if it be true, which some have observed, that there is not the least
mention made of any of tliese fictitious Constitutions in the first three ages
after Christ, and that the hihay^ri aToffroXwi/ mentioned by Eusebius and
Athanasius, as also that 6/ara^/$ in Epiphanius, are quite other things
than those eight books of Constitutions we now have, it may rather be
supposed that tliat sottish deceiver raked up some of his filth from the
corruption of tlicse epistles tlian that any thing out of him is crept into
them. Other instances might be given of stuffing these epistles with the

A PREFACE TO THE EEADER. S3

very garbage of that beast. Into what hands also these epistles have fallen
by the way, in their journeying down towards these ends of the world, is
evident from those citations made out of them by them of old, which now
appear not in them. Theodoret, Dial. 3, adv. Hsere., gives us this sen-
tence from Ignatius : Eup^a^/ or/as xal Tr^osfooag oux uTocii^ovTai dia to /xtj
ofjLoXoyiTv rriv sv^aoigriav edoxa, sivai rov (Scarri^og riiMMv 'iJicroD Xf/CroD rriV
iiTi^ Tuv a/jba^Tiuv riij^uv 'TraSovGav ijv ^origrorriTi 6 UaTrj^ riyn^iv which words
you will scarcely find in that Epistle to the Church of Smyrna, from whence
they were taken. Jerome also. Dial. 3, con, Pelag., hath this passage of
him and from him : " Ignatius vir apostolicus et martyr scribit audacter,
elegit Dominus apostolos qui super omnes homines peccatores erant;"
which words, as they are not now in these epistles, so, as one observes, if
ever he wrote them, as is pretended, he did it audacter indeed. But of
these things our doctor takes no notice.

The style of these epistles doth not a little weaken the credit of them,
being turgent, swelling with uncouth words and phrases, affected manner
and ways of expression, new compositions of words, multiplying titles of
honour to men, — exceedingly remote and distant from the plainness and
simplicity of the first writers among the Christians, as is evident by compar-
ing tliese with the epistle of Clemens before mentioned, that of Polycarpus
in Eusebius, [and of] the churches of Yienne and Lyons in that same author,
and others. Instances for the confirmation of this observation are multi-
plied by Blondellus ; my designed work will not allow me to insist on
particulars. In many good words this charge is waived, by affirming that
the author of these epistles was an Assyrian, and near to martyrdom, and
that in the Scriptures there are sundry words of as hard a composition as
those used by him. Ham. Dissert, ii. cap. iii.; and, as he says, from this kind
of writing an argument of sufficient validity may be drawn to evince him
to be tlie author of these epistles. Jerome was of another mind. Speak-
ing of Didymus, " Imperitus," saith he, " sermone est, et non scientia,
apostolicum virum ex ipso sermone exprimens, tam sensuum nomine quam
simplicitate verborum." But seeing Ignatius was a Syrian, and near to
martyrdom (though he writes his epistles from Troas and Smyrna, which,
without doubt, were not in his way to Rome from Antioch, and yet every-
where he saith he is going to Rome: Ad Eph., Ta 6s(r/xa a--o lufiag [J'iy^o}
''PoJ/xrig Ts^ifsgoy which in the close he affirms he wrote from Smyrna,
whither he was had to his martyrdom), what is it to any man wliat style
he used in his writings, what swelling titles he gave to any, or words he
made use of! Who shall call those writings (especially Ignatius being a
Syrian) into question!

But perhaps some farther question may here arise (and which hath by
sundry been already started) about the use of divers Latin words in these
epistles, which, doubtless, cannot be handsomely laid on the same account,
of their author being a Syrian, and nigh to martyrdom. ' AptyJrrra, fisToV/ra,
oias^rc/}^, it,ifJ''rrXdsiov, are usually instanced in, words to whose use no Roman
customs, observations, orders, nor rules of government, do administer the
least occasion. Of these the doctor tells you he wonders only that in so
many epistles there are no more of this kind. And why so? The epistles
are not so large a volume, a very few hours will serve to read them over;
and yet I am persuaded, that in all that compass of reading in the Greek
fathers which our doctor owns, he cannot give so many instances of words
barbarous to their language, no way occasioned by the means before men-
tioned, as have been given in these epistles. But he wonders there are
no more, and some wonder that all are not of his mind ! But he farther

VOL. XT. o

84 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

informs us that a diligent reader of the Scripture may observe many more
Latin words in the New Testament than are used in these epistles; and,
for a proof of his diligence and observation, reckons up out of the end of
Pasor's Lexicon sundry words of that kind made use of by the sacred
writers. I fear, unto some men, this will scarce be an apology prevalent
to the dismission of these epistles from under the censure of being at
least foully corrupted. Of the whole collection of words of that sort made
by Pasor, among which arc those especially culled out by our doctor to
confirm his observations^ there is scarce one but either it is expressive of
some Poman office, custom, money, order, or the like; words of which na-
ture pass as proper names (as one of those mentioned by the doctor is,
and no otherwise used in the New Testament) from one country and lan-
guage to another, or are indeed of a pure Greek original, or at least were
in common use in that age; neither of which can be spoken of the words
above mentioned, used in the epistles, which were never used by any be-
fore or after them, nor is there any occasion imaginable why they should.
" Parvas habent spes epistola\ si tales habent." I would, indeed, gladly
see a fair, candid, and ingenuous defensative of the style and manner of
writing used in these epistles, departing so eminently from any thing that
was customary in the writings of the men of those days, or is regular for
men of any generation, in repetitions, aftected compositions, barbarisms,
rhyming expressions, and the like; for truly, notwithstanding any thing
that hitherto I have been able to obtain for help in this kind, I am en-
forced to incline to Vedelius' answers to all the particular instances given
of this nature, " This and that place are corrupted, — this is from Clemens*
Constitutions, this from this or that tradition;" which, also, would much
better free these epistles from the word eiyrig, used in the sense where-
unto it was applied by the Valentinians long after the death of Igna-
tius, than any other apology I have as yet seen for the securing of its
abode in them.

It is not a little burdensome to the thoughts of sober and learned men
to consider how frequently, causelessly, absurdly, in the midst of dis-
courses quite of another nature and tendency, the author of these epistles,
or somebody for him, breaks in upon the commendation of church officers,
bishops and presbyters, exalting them with titles of honour to the greatest
potentates on earth, and comparing them to God the Father and Son;
whereas none of the sacred writers that went before him, nor any of those
good and holy meii who, as is supposed, followed after him, do hold the
least communion or society with him. ' Avayy-aTov ovv eg-iv, offamo rToiiTri,
civiv rov smffKo'Tov /zyibsvTrgdrrsiv b/Mac, Epist. ad Tral. [cap. ii.], whoreunto is
immediately subjoined that doctrine concerning deacons which will scarcely
be thought to be exegotical of Acts vi. 1-C, As7 dh xai roug d/axovov: ovrag
[jj\}6Tri»io)v X^iarou 'irjSoiJ xara rrdvra tpotov d^sgy.siv ov ydo ^^urSov xa! crciSi'
tlffi htdxoMoi, dXXd, etc. And T/ ydo scriv iTiffxo'xoc; aXX' rj rrder^c, diyj^g
xai st,ovffiag smxuva rrdvroyj x^aruv, [cap. vii.J What the writer of this
passage intended to make of a bishop well I know not ; but thus he speaks
of him, Epist. ad Magnes. [cap. iii.] : Tl^s-yov ouv sen xai i/jbag brraxoxjuv
T(f! ET/ffxo'Xai hfjiiUJv' xai xai-a /j,ri()iv avrtp dvTiXsyiiv. (PoZs^hv ydo sen (.as
the apostle speaks concerning God, Heb. x. 1?7) rw roiobruj dvnX'sysiv.
Thus, indeed, some wouUl have it, who, to help the matter, have farther
framed such an episcopacy as was never thought on by any in the days
of Ignatius, as shall afterward be made evident. And in the same epistle
tliis is somewhat uncouth and strange, [cap. vi. vii.] : 'E]iu)i)rirB rw iT/ffxocra;,
v'TOTueeo/xsvoi T(jj Qiuj 5/' aiiTOv sv XoieToj. "fie'Te^ ovvo Kv^iog aviv rov Ua-

A PKEFACE TO THE READER. 35

r^og olBiV voiiT, ou Suvafjjai yoc^, <P^<^h '^oiiTv kt' sfj^avrov ovdh' outu xai
hfj^ilg aviv rou i'ffisx.o'xov /j^rids 'rroiGZ-bn^og, /zrjBs didzovog, /ijjSs Xa/xo's* //,?j5s
Ti <paivss6(i) IjJjTv s-oXoyov 'Kaoa, rriv sxiivov yvu/ji^j^v. Whether the Lord Christ
hath bound any such burden upon the shoulders of the saints I much
question. Nor can I tell what to make of the comparison between God
the Father and the bishop, Christ and the rest of the church, the whole
sentence, in word and manner, being most remote from the least countenance
from the sacred writings. Epist. ad Philadel. [cap. v.] : O) -Tr^isZhrs^oi xal
01 didzovot xa/ 6 Xoi'Tog xXri^og, d/Jba Tavri rw Xaw xai roTg ffr^ar/wra/c,
Tiai 7-0/5 a.^')(ji\><si nai rui Kaiffap (well aimed, however), rw ivicc/.rj'Truj niOa^-
•yilroidav. The Epistle to the Chui'ch of Smyrna is full of such stuff, in-
serted without any occasion, order, coherence, or any colour to induce
us to believe that it is part of the epistle as first written. One passage I
may not omit [cap. ix.J: T//Aa, ^jjc/v, u/'s rhv ©sif, xai jSaffiXsw sydj ds <pri/jbi
(in the language of our Saviour repudiating the Pharisees' corrupted glosses
on the law), ri/^a, /j,sv rbv &iov ug a'lriov ruv oXuv xcci Kvoiov, sTtSTiO'^'ov ds ug
a^y^is^sa, 0£oD iixova (po^ovvra, xard /msv to d^^siv, Qsou. xard ds ro hoa-
rsvitv, X^/croE/* xa/ [x,ird rovrov rifLUv ^e/j %a) paffiX'sa. So Peter's mistake
is corrected. His reasons follow: Ovn ydg OsoD rig x^sirruv, ri '^ra^a'zXrjffiog
h irdst roi'g ovffiv oun ds h sxxXrisia sff/CxoVoy ti iisYCov /s^u/jl'svov ©sw
vTs^ Trig Tou xogimoxj •xavrhg eurri^iag (as was Jesus Christ). And it is added:
E/ yd^ 6 ^asiXiudiv sirsysi^ofisvog, xoXdsiMg d^iog dixaiUig ytr/jffSTai, ug ys Tc/oa-
Xuuv TTiv XDiiifiv luvci/jjiav, 'TTosui Boxsrrs yfioowg d^iojdrjSsrai Tijxoj^iag 6 dvsu I'rrisxo-
'TTOV TI ToisTv 'TT^oai^obtjjSvog; etc., '/s^uauvyj yd^ sen ro '!rdvruv dyadcriv Iv didpu)~oig
dvaQsCrixog. How well this suits the doctrine of Peter and Paul the
reader will easily discern. Csesar or the king is, upon all accounts, thrust
behind the bishop, who is said to be consecrated to God for the salva-
tion of the world ; him he is exhorted to obey ; — and in express oppo-
sition to the Holy Ghost, the bishop's name is thrust in between God
and the king, as in a way of pre-eminence above the latter; and to do
any thing without the bishop is made a far greater crime than to rise up
against the king. As this seems scarce to be the language of one going
upon an accusation to appear before the emperor, so I am certain it is most
remote from the likeness of any thing that in this aftair we are instructed
in from the Scripture. Plainly this language is the same witli that of
the false impostor, Pseudo-Clemens, in his pretended Apostolical Consti-
tutions. At this rate, or somewhat beyond it, have you him ranting :
Lib. ii. cap. ii., 'E'Ziaxo'Trov 0sov tu'kov 'iyitv sv dvd^dj-oig, ruv 'rrdnruv doyjiv
avSpuTTUv, hosMV, ^affiXsoov, d^y^ivruv, 'Tra-rs^uv, viojn, didaSKdXuv xai ':rdvrc>jv
o/Ao-j ruv b'Ttr^xour — " All popes, all sorts of persons whatever, priests,
kings, and princes, fathers and children, all under the feet of this ex-
emplar of God and ruler of men !" a passage which, doubtless, eminently
interprets and illustrates that place of Peter, 1 Epist. v. 1-3, " The
elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a
witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed ; feed the flock of God which is among you, taking
the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being ensamples to the flock." But yet, as if the man were stark mad
with worldly pride and pomp, he afterward, in the name of the holy
apostles of Jesus Christ, commands all the laity (forsooth) to honour, love,
and fear the bishop w; xvnov, w; dsszorriv, ug diyjsosa. ©=oD, lib. ii. cap.
XX. And that you may see whither the man drives, and what he aims ai,
after he hath set out his bishop like an emperor or an eastern king, in

S6 A PKEFACE TO THE READER.

all pomp and glory, ho adds, Tcvs ivKSyJvovg aoyjjVTac, v[jlujv -/.al [SagiXeas
riyuG&ai voi^iZirs, -/.a) duff/j^oi/i w; (SaeiXiZsi 'rr^os^phcTs. The paying of tri-
bute to them as kings is the issue of these descriptions, that tliey may
have •wherewithal to maintain their pomp and greatness, according to
the institution of our Lord Jesus Christ and his blessed apostles ! But
I shall not rake farther into this dunghill, nor shall I add any more in-
stances of this kind out of Ignatius, but close in one insisted on by our
doctor for the proof of his episcopacy. Dissert, ii. cap. xxv, 7, saith he,
Quarto, Tui e-iax.o'Tru) Trooe'syjn, 'ha xal 6 Qiog v.aTv. ' Avri-^-jyov lyu ruv
I'TtoraaGoijAiUv rw iiriaxSTtw, rr^iaCuri^oii xai diuxovoig, " Episcopo attendite,
ut et vobis Deus attendat. Ego animam meam libenter corum loco sub-
stitui cuperem quod Anglice optime dicimus " (my soul for theirs), " qui
episcopo, presbyteris, et diaconis obsequuntur." I hope I may -without
great difficulty obtain the doctor's pardon, that I dare not be so bold
with my soul as to jeopard it in that manner, especially being not mine
own to dispose of.

Upon these and many more the like accounts do the epistles seem to
me to be like the children that the Jews had by their strange wives, Neh.
xiii. 23, 24, who spake part the language of Ashdod, and part the language
of the Jews. As there are in them many footsteps of a gracious spirit,
every way worthy of and becoming the great and holy personage whose
they are esteemed, so there is evidently a mixture of the working of that
■worldly and carnal spirit which in his days was not so let loose as in after
times. Eor wliat is there in the Scripture, what is in the genuine epistle
of Clemens, that gives countenance to those descriptions of episcopacy,
bishops, and the subjection to them, that are in these epistles (as now we
have them) so insisted on? what titles are given to bishops? what sove-
reignty, power, rule, dominion, is ascribed to them ? Is there any thing
of the like nature in the writings of the apostles? in Clemens? the epistle
of Polycarp, etc., or in any unquestionable legitimate oftspring of any of
the first worthies of Christianity? Whence have they their three orders
of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, upon the distinct observation of which
so much weight is laid ? Is there any one word, iota, tittle, or syllable, in
the whole book of God, giving countenance to any such distinctions ? Eph.
iv. 11, we have " pastors and teachers." Rom. xii. 7, 8, " Him that teacheth,
him that exhorteth, him that ruleth, and him that showeth mercy."
Phil. i. 1, we have "bishops and deacons;" and their institution, with the
order of it, Ave have at large expressed, 1 Tim. iii. 1-13, — "Bishops and
deacons," without the interposition of any other order whatever. Deacons
we have appointed, Acts vi. 1-G; and elders. Acts. xiv. 23. Those who are
bishops we find called presbyters, Tit. i. 5, 7; and those wlio are presby-
ters we find termed bishops, Acts xx. 28 : so that deacons we know, and
bishops who are ju-esbyters, or presbyters wlio are bishops, we know ; but
bishops, presbyters, and deacons, as three distinct orders in the church,
from the Scripture we know not. Neither did Clemens, in his Epistle to
the Corinthians, know of any more than we do, which a few instances will
manifest. Saith lie, sjieaking of the apostles, Kara y^ojoag olv -/.al ridXiig
xrisuasoiTcC^ xadlara'jo\i rug aTa^^aj ai/ruv, doxi/x,daa\>rig tw Ilcj^aar/, iig s~ia-
XOTTOU? xa/ diaxoMOvg ruv fMSAXovruv ':risr(V£n' xai roZro oh y.anu;, sx, yao hi] rro'K-
"km -/ol,\uv lysypurrro m^i s'Ziex.o-uv xai diax6iu\i, etc. Bishops and deacons
(as in the church at Philippi) this man knows, but the tliird order he is
utterly unacquainted withal. And tliat the diflerence of tliis man's ex-
pressions concerning church rulers from those in the epistle under con-
sideration may the better appear, and that his asserting of bishops and

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 37

presbyters to be one and the same may the more clearly be evidenced I
shall transcribe one other passage from him, whose length I hope will be
excused from the usefulness of it to the purpose in hand : Pages 57, 58
Kal 61 d'rroaro'koi rjfj.MV syvuffav dia. rov Kv^iov ri[MMV 'IrjCov XpiffTOu, or; hig idrai
i-TTi rov ovo/vcaroj rjjg J'T/ffxocr^S" bia ravTrjv ouv rriv airlav, vpoyvusiv siXri^ong
TiXsiav, xaTSSTriaav rovg <7r^oiiin,asvovg, zai fMira^v s'ttivo/jltiv hhdjyiaaiv, oTrug
idv xoi/JiTiOojaiv, diad':t,c>JVTai 'in^oi Bi8oKifMa(r,aivoi avdpsg, rriv Xiirovpylav avruiv.
Toi); cx)v KaTasraShrag U'Tt' sxihuv^ ri fisra^ii hp Ir'soMv sKKoyi^ioyj tcvhs^v, duviv-
honyisderig rrii sx-/.Xr,s!ac irdci^g, (for so, it seems, was the manner of the church
in his days, that their officers were appointed by the consent of the whole
church,) xai Xnrou^yriaavrag d,7J/ATrws rw 'zoitj^vlio rov Xotsrou furd ra'TTiit/o-
(p^nGuMYig, TiSv^C/jg K,ai dZccvauaojg, /xifxa^ru^rj/jiyhcvg rs "TroXXcTg •yomoig V'Tto itdt-
ruv, TOVTOvg oh dizaiug vo/xiZ,o,(J.iv d'rroQaXisdai Tr,g Xiirousyiac' d,aa^T/a ydp oh
fii'iiod r\iuv sarai, lav roiig d-wipbir-ciig zai oa'iug a^oGivsy-KOMrag rd buoa rrig
Iff/ff/COT^g aTo£aAW,ctsv. Maxd^ioi oi i-^ooboi'Tro^riffavrig 'rroioQxjnPoi (or the bishops
of whom he was speaking), ohmg 'iyxao'irov xal nXi/av 'isyov rriv dvdXue/v,
etc. And sundry other discoveries are there in that epistle of the like na-
ture. It is not my design or purpose to insist upon the parity of bishops
and presbyters, or rather the identity of office, denoted by sundry appel-
lations, from these and the like places ; tliis work is done to the full
by Blondellus, so that our labour in this kind, were that tlie purpose in
hand, is prevented. He that thinks the arguments of that learned man
to this purpose are indeed answered thoroughly and removed by Dr
H[ammond], in his fourtli dissertation, where he proposes them to consi-
deration, may one day think it needful to be able to distinguish between
words and things. That Clemens owns in a church but two sorts of of-
ficers, the first whereof he calls sometimes bishops, sometimes presbyters,
the other deacons, the doctor himself doth not deny.

That in the judgment of Clemens no more were instituted in the church
is no less evident. And this carries the conviction of its truth so clearly
with it that Lombard himself confesseth, " Hos solos ministrorum duos
ordines ecclesiam prim.itivam habuisse, et de his solis prseceptum apostoli
nos habere," lib. iv. Sen. D. 24. It seems, moreover, that those bishops
and deacons in those days, as was observed, were appointed to the office
by and with the consent of the people, or whole body of the church ; no
less do these words import, 'S,v\/ivdo-/.rjSd(ryig tt^c Iz/cAjjcr/as craffTjc. Our doctor,
indeed, renders these words, " Applaudente aut congratulante ecclesia
tota ; " and adds (satis pro imperio) " nihil hie de acceptatione totius eccle-
sire, sine qua episcopos et diaconos ab apostolis et apostolicis viris consti-
tutes non esse, ex hoc loco concludit Blondellus, quasi, qui ex Dei jussu et
approbatione constituebantur, populi etiam acceptatione indigere putandi
esscnt," Dissert, iv. cap. vii. 8, 10. And who dares take that confidence
upon him as to affirm any more what so great a doctor hath denied !
Though the scope of the place, the nature of the thing, and first most
common sense of the word here used, be willingly to consent (as it is
also used in the Scripture, for the most part, Acts viii. 1, 1 Cor. vii. 12) to
a thing to be done, or to the doing of it, yet here it must be taken to
applaud or congratulate, or what else our doctor pleases, because he will
have it so. 'EkXoyi/xoi dvd^ig, also, must be " viri apostolici," men with
apostolical or extraordinary power, when they are only the choice men of
the church where such a constitution of officers is had that are intended,
because it is to our doctor's purpose to have the words so rendered. " Ex
jussu Dei et approbatione" is added, as though any particular command
or approbation of God were intimated for the constitution of the bishops

S8 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

and deacons mentioned, beyond the institution of the Lord Jesus Christ
that oklers should be ordained in every church; because this is, it seems,
to be exclusive wholly of the consent of the people, as any way needful or
required to their constitution ; which yet, as it is practically false, no such
thing being mentioned by Clemens, who recounteth the ways and means
whereby officers were continued in the church even after the decease of
the apostles and those first ordained by them to that holy employment, so
also is it argumentatively weak and unconcluding. God a])pointed, de-
signed Saul to be king, approving of his so being, and yet he would have
the people come together to choose him : so also was it in the case of
David. Though the apostles, in the name and by the authority of God,
appointed the deacons of the church at Jerusalem, yet they would have
the whole church look out among themselves the men to be appointed.
And that the ordaining of the elders was with the people's election, Acts
xiv. 23, it will ere long be manifested that neither our doctor nor any of
his associates have as yet disproved. This poor thing " the people," bemg
the peculiar people of Christ, the heritage of God, and holy temple unto
him, etc., will one day be found to be another manner of thing than many
of our great doctors have supposed. But he informs us, cap. iv. sect. 3,
from that testimony which we cited before, that the apostles in the ap-
pointment of bishops and deacons (for so the words expressly are) are said
rw UniiixaTi hoKifideat, — that is, saith he, " Revelationibus edoctos esse,
quibus demum ha;c dignitas eommunicanda esset;" that is, that they ap-
pointed those whom God revealed to them in an extraordinary manner to
be so ordained, and this is the meaning of rCi UnufLuri ^oy.i,adaavr;c. And
why so ? The Holy Ghost orders concerning the appointment of deacons
do-KifJba.^saSuaav 'TTPvrov, 1 Tim. iii. 10. That those who are to be taken
into office and power in the church had need first to be tried and approved
is granted, and this work the apostles give to the multitude of the church,
Acts vi. 3; — where yet, after the people's election, and the apostles' appro-
bation, and the trial by both, one that was chosen is supposed to have proved
none of the best ; and yet of him and them are the apostles said by
Clemens that they did rw nvivf/^au do-Ki/Musai. But how shall it be made
to appear that " Spiritu probantes," trying or proving by the Spirit, or spi-
ritually proving them, to try whether they were able ministers of the new
testament, not of the letter but of the Spirit, proving them by that Spirit
which was promised unto them " to lead them into all truth," must needs
signify they were taught whom they should appoint by immediate revela-
tion? To prove by the Spirit, or spiritually, the persons that are to be
made ministers or bishops, is to have their names revealed to us ! Stephen
is said to speak h rw nviv/juun, Acts vi. 10 ; and Paul purposed h r<Z
UvivfMari, Acts xix. 21 ; and we are said to serve God sv rw Uviufjbctri, Gal.
V. 5; and to make supplication Iv rip Uvsv/xaTi, Eph. vi. 18; with many
more expressions of the like nature. Does all this relate to immediate
revelation, and are all things done thereby which we are said to do in the
Spirit ? Before we were instructed in this mystery, and were informed
that doxi/jbdaavng rtZ ITfe^aar/ did signify to be " taught by revelation,"
■we had thought that the expression of doing any thing r^ nnj,aari had
manifested the assistance, guidance, and direction, which for the doing of
it we receive by the holy and blessed Spirit of God, promised unto us,
and bestowed on, in, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea, but he adds
that it is also si)oken of the apostles, rr^oyvcAjsiv pwcognitiotiem, that is, reve-
lationem BiKrjipoTig TiXilav, they ai)pointod them bishops and deacons ; by
the help and presence of the Spirit with them the apostles examined and

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 39

tried those who were to be appointed bishops, so obtaining and receiving
a perfect foreknowledge, or knowledge of them before their admission into
office. This also expresses revelation ('^^oyvc^joiv uKripoTig), upon trial it Avas
revealed unto them ! and so must any thing else be allowed to be that our
doctor will have to be so, now he is asserting to that purpose. But had the
iXXoyi'Moi avo^sg who appointed bishops and deacons after the apostles*
time, had they also this special revelation ? or may they not be said
doxi,'j,daai ru Uviv/xari ; If not, how will you look upon them under the
notion of iXXoyiixuv avbooyj who neglected so great a duty ? If they did,
let us know when this way of constituting church officers by immediate
revelation ceased, and what was afterward taken up in the room thereof,
and who they were that first proceeded on another account, and on what
authority they did so. There is a generation of men in the world which
will thank the doctor for this insinuation, and will tie knots upon it that
will trouble him to loose.

Before we return, let us look but a little farther, and we shall have a
little more light given us into what was the condition and power of the
people in the church in the days- of Clemens. Speaking of them who
occasioned the division and schism in the church of Corinth, or them
about whose exaltation into office, or dejection from it, that sad differ-
ence fell out, he gives them this advice : T/'s oZv iv hi^ii yiwah; ; r/; i'j-
CTv'i.u.yyjioc ; Ttg 'TriTrXr/ouiMsvog dyd'rrrji ; si'rrdrw E/' hi ifil ffTddic, xa/ i^is, y.cc!
GyieiJja-a, ixynpui, U7rii,u.i oZ lav ^ovXrjffdi, xui •^roiu to. 'noosra.deofiiva i-h rov
'TTA-'/jdovg' (Loyav to <7roi/u!>viov roZ Xpistou ii^rjVivsru, fjbird rm xaQz6-aiJjh(/iv T^iaC-j-
Tsswv. It seems the crX^^oc, the multitude, or tlie people, were not such
poor, inconsiderable things as they are reported to be, when he advises
them to stop and stay the sedition, by yielding obedience to the things
by them appointed and commanded. If it w'ere in itself evil, disorderly,
and not according to the mind of Christ, that the people should order
and appoint things in the church, it had been simply evil for Clemeus
to have advised any to yield obedience unto things by them so a^jpolnted.
Where is now Ignatius' v-Trordaffiad- tuj s-Triazo'Trw and %<ww's l-TtteytoTroZ, etc.?
Even those who are contending about rule and government in the church
are advised to stand to the determination of the peoj^le, and to cry,
Ta •xaoG-aGGoiiiva i/-o rou "XAridovg <7:otovfj,ev. This is also insisted on by
Blondellus, who thence argues " potestatem plebis circa sacra." Dissert, v.
cap. vlii. sect. 4, " Ad verba Iikc," salth our doctor, " prodigll instar est
quod notandum duxit Dav. Blondellus potestatem plebis circa sacra (de
qua tandem integram dissertationem elucubravit) artificlis quibuscunque
asserturus. HIc (Inqult) nos monet Clemens fideles etiam de episcopatu
aut presbyterio contendentes, non ab episcopi singulari xa/ v-ioi^ovTog
nutu, sed a multltudinis prseceptis pependisse." But let not our doctor
be angry, nor cry out so fast of prodigies ; a little time will manifest that
many things may not be prodigious, which yet are contrary to sundry of
his conceptions and apprehensions. I cannot but acknowledge him to be
provoked ; but withal must say, that I have found very commonly that
reasons ushered in by such loud clamours have, on examination, proved to
Lave stood In need of some such noises as might fright men from the con-
sideration of them. What is in the next sections set up to shield the chil-
dren of episcopacy from being affrighted with this prodigy may perhaps
be of more efficacy thereunto than the exclamations before mentioned ;
he therefore proceeds, sect. 5. " Certe," saith he, " si serlo rem ageret
Dav. Blondellus de presbyteris suis (non de episcopis nostris) actum plane
et triumphatum erit, nee enim ab universo aliquo presbyterorum collegio,

40 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

quod ille tarn aflfllctim ardet, sed a mult'itudinis solius arbitrio, tuin con-
tenclentes de cpiscopo, turn fideles omnes Corinthios pepenJisse a^quc con-
cludendum erit." If any man in tlie world hath manifested more des-
perate aflection towards presbytery than this doctor hath done towards
e]iiscopacy, for my part solus habeto. But thougli neither Clemens nor
Blondellus sjieaks any one word about the ordering of things " multitu-
dinis solius arbitrio," yet hero is that said by them both Avhich is sufficiently
destructive, not only to the episcopacy the doctor contends for, as a thing
wholly inconsistent with the power and liberty here granted the people,
but of any such presbytery also as shall undertake the ordering and dis-
posing of things in the church of God without the consent and concurrent
suffrage of the people. Such a presbytery, it seems, Blondellus does not
defend. But yet neither the doctor's outcry as at a prodigy, nor this retor-
tion upon presbytery is any answer to the testimony of Clemens, nor,
indeed, is there the least possible reflection upon an orderly gospel presby-
tery in any church and over it by what Clemens here professeth to be the
power of the people; all the appearance of any such thing is from the term
" solius," foisted into the discourse of Blondellus by the doctor, in his tak-
ing of it up to retort at. Clemens in the very next words secures us from
any thought that all things depended " a multitudinis solius arbitrio."
His very next words are, Movov to 'jroifLviov rov Xs/gtol/ E/^^jveusrw, /xsra ruiv
xa&zsrafiivoiv 'rrosaZuriouv. Our doctors and masters (having stuffed their
imaginations with the shape and lineament of that hierarchical fabric
which the craft, policy, subtlety, avarice, pride, and ambition, of many
ages successively had formed and framed according to the pattern they
saw in the mount of the world and the governments therein), upon the
first heaving of a church, a flock of Christ, walking in orderly subjec-
tion to their own elders, concurring with them and consenting to them in
their rule and government, instantly, as men amazed, cry out, " A prodigy ! "
It is not imaginable into what ridiculous, contemptible miscarriages, pride,
prejudice, and self- fulness, do oftentimes betray men, otherwise of good abi-
lities in their ways and very commendable industry.

But, sect. 6, the doctor comes closer, and gives his reason why this tes-
timony of Clemens is not of any efficacy to the purpose in hand. Saith
he, " At quis (sodes) a fidelibus de episeopatu (ut vis) contra ipsos ab
apostolis constitutes episcopos contendentibus ; quis a poi>ulo contra prin-
cipem suum tumultus cicnte ; quis verbis ad retundendum seditionem ad
plebem factis, argumenta ad authoritatem populo adjudicandum, principi
derogandum duci posse existimavit ? " Though many words follow in the
next section, yet this is all of answer that is given to this signal testimony
of Clemens. I know the doctor, for the most part, meets not only with
favourable readers, but also partial admirers, or else, certainly, his excla-
mation would scarce pass for an invincible argument, nor such rhetorical
diversions as this be esteemed solid answers. There is not by Blondellus
any argument taken from the faithful's tunndtuating against the bishops
(that " If ajjpointed by the apostles," which is thrust in, taken for the per-
sons of those bishops, is against the express testimony of Clemens in this
epistle), nor from the ]ieople's seditiously rebelling against their prince,
nor from any word spoken to the people to repress their sedition ; neither
was any thing of this nature urged in the least by Blondellus ; nor is there
any colour given to such a collection from any thing in the words cited
from the epistle or the context of them. It is the advice of the church of
Borne to the persons (whether already in office or aspiring thereunto)
about whom the contention and division was in the church of Corinth that

A PREFACE TO THE EEADER. 41

is Insisted on. It is not the words or plea of them who were in disorder.
There is not any reprehension given to the body of the church, the mul-
titude, or people, who are supposed to tumultuate, to quiet them, but a
direction given, as was said, by the church of Rome to the persons that
occasioned the difference, how to behave themselves, so that a timelv issue
might be put to the division of the church. To this end are they advised
to observe the -Trooardyixara, the orders, precepts, decrees, or appointments,
of " the multitude," as, from Acts xv. 12, the body of the church is called.
It is not that they should yield to their tumultuating, but yield obe-
dience to their orderly precepts. Ta rr^oaraaadiMiva b-zh toZ TrXr^doug are
by him approved ; and had it not been lawful for them with the presby-
ters fT^oaraTTsiv in the affairs of the church, Clemens, writing this epistle to
the whole church, could not possibly have led them into a greater snare.

It is a sad thing to consider the pitiful entanglements and snares that
some men run into, who will undertake to make good what they have once
engaged for, let what will come against them.

To return, then : it is evident that in the time of Clemens there were
but two sorts of officers in the church, bishops and deacons ; whereas the
e])istles of Ignatius do precisely, in every place where any mention is made
of them (as there is upon occasions and upon none at all), insist on three
orders, distinct in name and things. With Clemens it is not so. Those
whom he calls bishops in one place, the very same persons he immediately
calls presbyters, after the example of Paul, Acts xx. 28, Tit. i. 5, 7, and
plainly asserts episcopacy to be the office of presbyters. ' hfiaor'.a, saith
he, ou (if/.oa, rj/^Tv 'israi sdv rovg afMifiirTug -/.ai da/'ug TPOgivi'y/.oi/Tag ra duisa
Trig s~iax.o-~r,g avro£aAW,aei'. Mazag;o/ o/ 'Tr^oodoi'iro^rjaavrsg 'jroiaZunooi, — namely,
because they were in no danger to be cast from their episcopacy. And
whereas the fault which he reproves in the church of Corinth is their
division, and want of due subjection to their spiritual governors, according
to the order which Christ hath appointed in all the churches of the saints,
he affirms plainly that those governors were the presbyters of the church :
Alct-^pu, saith he, '/.a.} X'lav alaypu, xa/ dva^/a rijg s-j X^/ffrw ayuy^g a'/.ojsrat,
T7i\i (SiQaiorccT'/i'j, /.ai aoyaiav KopivOimv sx.7iXrjSia\i, di' 'iv ?] hvo 'rr^uCdi'TTa, erasiaZitv
'TTohg rovg TroiaZ-oTiiovg. And in all places throughout the whole epistle, writ-
ing sy.j'.Xrjsia rov Qsov TaPor/.c-jOT^ Kopn6oii, to that particular church of Co-
rinth, the saints dwelling there, walking in the order and fellowship of the
gospel, where he treats of those things, he still intimates a plurality of pres-
byters in the church (as there may, nay, there ought to be, in every single
congregation, Acts xx. 28), without the least intimation of any singular
person promoted, upon any account whatever, above his fellows. So in the
advice given to the persons who occasioned the division before mentioned,
'M6\iov 70 ffoifxviov Tou XPiffTCiv iiprjvsv'sroj, /j^sra ruv ■/.aOiaraf/.inciJV ':T^iaZvThooy.
Had there been a singular bishop at Corinth, much more a metropolitan,
such as our doctor speaks him to have been, it had been impossible that
he should be thus passed by in silence.

But the doctor gives you a double answer to this observation, with the
several parts whereof I doubt not but that he makes himself merry, if he
can suppose that any men are so wedded to his dictates as to give them
entertainment; for indeed they are plainly jocular. But learned men
must have leave sometimes to exercise their fancies, and to sport them-
selves with their own imaginations.

First, then, for the mention that is made of many presbyters in the church
of Corinth, to whom Clemens, in the name of the church of Rome, exhorts
to give all due respect, honour, obedience : He tells you that by " The

42 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

cliurch of Corinth," all the churches of Achaia are meant and intended.
The epistle is directed only Tfj i/i-/.}.rjaia rou 0£&D '^aPoiM-oar, KoonQov^ without
the least intimation of any other church or churches. The difi'erence it is
■written about was occasioned by one or two persons in that church only ; it
is that church alone that is exhorted to order and due subjection to their
elders. From the beginning to the end of the epistle, there is not one word,
apex, or tittle, to intimate the designation of it to any church or churches
beyond the single church of Corinth, or that they had any concernment in
the difference spoken to. The fabric of after ages lies so close to the doc-
tor's imagination that there is no entrance for the true frame of the primi-
tive church of Christ; and therefore every thing must be wrested and appor-
tioned to the conceit of such an episcopacy as he hath entertained. Whereas
he ought to crop off both head and heels of his own imagination, and the
episcopacy of the latter days, which he too dearly affects, he chooseth
rather to stretch and torture the ancient government of the church, that
it may seem to answer the frame presently contended for. But let us a
little attend to the doctor's learned arguments, whereby he endeavours to
make good his assertion : —

1. He tells you that Corinth was the chief city of Achaia, the metro-
polis (in a political sense and acceptation of the word) of Greece, where the
proconsul had his residence. Dissert, v. cap. ii. sect. 3. Let us grant this
to our learned doctor, lest we should find nothing to gratify him withal ;
what then will follow ? Hence, saith he, it will follow, sect. 4, that this
epistle which was sent, " Ecclesiae rra^or/iolari Kosiv&ov, non ad unius civitatis
ecclesiam, sed ad omnes totius Achaifc Christianos, per singulas civitates
et regiones, sub episcopis aut praefectis suis ubique coUocatas missa exis-
timetur." But pray, doctor, w'hy so ? We poor creatures, who are not so
sharp-sighted as to discern a metropolitan archbishop at Corinth, on whom
all the bishops in Greece were dependent, nor can find any instituted
church in the Scripture or in Clemens of one denomination beyond a
single congregation, cannot but think that all the strength of this con-
sectary, from the insinuation of such a state of things in the church of
God, is nothing but a pure begging of the thing in question, which will
never be granted upon such terms.

Yea, but he adds, sect. 5, that " Paul wrote his epistle not only to the
church of Corinth, but also to all the churches of Achaia; therefore Clemens
did so also." At first view this argument seems not very conclusive, yea,
appears, indeed, very ridiculous. The enforcement of it which ensues
may perhaps give new life and vigour to it. How, then, is it proved that
Paul wrote not only to the church of Corinth, but to all thorn in Achaia
also? Why, saith he, in the second e]iistle, chap. i. verse i, it is so ex-
pressed. He writes, Tfi sxxXrjffia rou Qiov rfi o'jffr] iv Kosli/dw, ai/v rnTg ayioii
waai ToTi aZffiv Iv oX») rfi kyajia. Very good. It is indisputably evident that
Paul wrote his second epistle to the church at Corinth and all the rest of
Achaia, for he expressly affirms himself so to do; and for the first epistle,
it is directed not only to the church of Corinth, chap, i., verse 2, but also
•Kadi roTg £T/r.a>.oi;,asi'o/c rh ovo/xa, rou Kuw'ou ri/xuv 'ijjffoD XwffroD sv catr/' rCrrw,
— that is, saith our doctor, in the whole region of Achaia! So, indeed, says
the doctor's great friend, Grotius, to whom he is beholden for more than
one rare notion. I say it not in any way of any reproach to the doctor,
only I cannot but think his careful warding of himself against the thoughts
of men that he should be beholden to Grotius doth exceedingly unbecome
the doctor's gravity and self-denial. This is complained of by some who
have tried it in reference to his late comment on the Bevelation. And

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 43

in this Dissertation he is put by his own thoughts (I will not say guilty)
to an apology, cap. i. sect. 24 : " Qua in re suffragium suum tulisse Hugo-
nem Grotium rbv cravu ex annotationibus postliumis, nuper editis, et post-
quam hjec omnia typographo transcripta essent, cursim perlectis edoc-
tum gratulor." Let not the reader think that Dr Hammond had trans-
mitted his papers full of rare conjectures to the printer before Grotius*
Annotations upon the Kevelation were published, but only before he had
read them. The doctor little thinks what a fly this is in his pot of oint-
ment, nor how indecent with all impartial men such apologies, subservient
to a frame of spirit in bondage to a man's own esteem and reputation, ap-
pear to be. But let this pass, and let the saints that call upon the name of
Jesus Christ in every place be the saints in every part of Achaia, — though
the epistle itself (written, indeed, upon occasion taken from the church of
Corinth, yet) was given by inspii-ation from God for the use not only of
all the saints in the whole Avorld at that time wherein it was written, but
of all those who were to believe in any part or place of the world to the
end thereof, — although the assertion of it be not built on any tolerable
conjecture, but may be rejected with the same facility wherewith it is
tendered, what now" will hence ensue? Why, hence it follows that Clemens
also wrote his epistle to all the churches in Achaia. Very good ! Paul
writing an epistle entitled chiefly to the Corinthians, expressly and gjjrws
directs it to the saints or churches of Achaia, yea, to all that call upon the
name of God in every place, so that his epistle, being of catholic concern-
ment, is not to be confined to the church of Corinth only, although most
of the particular things mentioned in that epistle related only to that par-
ticular church; therefore, Clemens directing his epistle to the church of
Corinth only, not once mentioning nor insinuating an intention of extend-
ing it to any other, handling in it only the peculiar concernment of that
church, and a difference about one or two persons therein, must be sup-
posed to have written to all the churches of Achaia ! And if such argu-
ments as these will not prove episcopacy to be of apostolical constitution,
what will prevail with men so to esteem it!

" Si Pergama dextra

Defend! possent, etiam hac defensa fuissent.'"— ^En. ii. 291, 292.

And this is the cause of naming many elders or presbyters in one church!
For my part, I suppose the doctor might more probably have adhered to a
former conjecture of his. Dissert, iv. cap. x. sect. 9. Concerning two sundry
different churches, where were distinct officers, in the same city, " Prlmo,"
saith he, "respoudeo non usque quaque verum est, quod pro concesso sumi-
tur, quamvis enim in una ecclesia aut cajtu plures simul episcopi nunquam
fuerint" (pray except them mentioned Acts xx. 28, and those Acts xiv. 23),
" nihil tamen obstare quin in eadem civitate duo aliquando ca3tus dister-
minati fuerint." He might, I say, with more show of probability have
abode by this observation than to have rambled over all Greece to relieve
himself against his adversaries. But yet neither would this suffice. What
use may or will be made of this concession shall elsewhere be manifested.
But the doctor hath yet another answer to this multiplication of elders,
and the mention of them with deacons, with the evident identity that is
between them and bishops through the whole epistle, the same persons
being unquestionably intended, in respect of the same office, by both
these appellations. Now, this second answer is founded upon the suppo-
sition of the former (a goodly foundation !) — namely, that the epistle under
consideration was written and sent not to the church of Corinth only, but
to all the churches of Achaia, of which Corinth was the metropolitan.

44 A niEFACE TO THE READER.

2. Now, this second answer is, that the elders or presbyters here men-
tioned tcere properly those whom he calls bishops, diocesans, — men of a third
rank and order, above deacons and presbyters in the church administra-
tions and government; and for those wlio are properly called presbyters,
there were then none in the church. To give colour to this miserable eva-
sion, Dissert, iv. cap. x. sect. 11, he discourseth about the government and
ordering of church affairs by bishops and deacons in some churches that
were small, not yet formed or completed, nor come to perfection at the
first planting of them. How well this is accommodated to the church of
Corinth, which Clemens calls (3iQaiordT7iv y.ai u.^yjy.'ia.v , and which himself
would have to be a metropolitical church, being confessedly great, numerous,
furnished with great and large gifts and abilities, may be seen with half an
eye. How ill, also, this shift is accommodated to help in the case for whose
service it was first invented, is no less evident. It was to save the sword
of Phil. i. 1 from the throat of the episcopacy he contendeth for. That
epistle is directed to the saints or church at Philippi, Avith the bishops
and deacons. Two things do here trouble our doctor: — (1.) The mention
of more bishops than one at Philippi ; (2.) The knitting together of bishops
and deacons, as the only two orders in the church, bringing down episco-
pacy one degree at least from that height whereto he would exalt it. For
the first of these, he tells you that Philippi was the metropolitan church
of the province of Macedonia ; that the rest of the churches, wh.ich had
every one their several bishops (diocesan we must suppose), were all com-
])rised in the mentioning of Philippi: so that though the epistle be pre-
cisely directed rcuc uyioii to?'; oZeiv ii/ <&/X/'-c7o/j, yet the bishops that were with
them must be supposed to be bishops of the whole province of Macedonia,
because the church of Philippi was the metropolitan. The whole country
must have been supposed to be converted, (and who that knows any thing
of antiquity will dispute that!) and so divided with diocesans, as England
of late was, the archbishop's see being at Philippi. But how came it then
to pass that there is mention made of bishops and deacons only, without
any one word of a third order, or rank of men distinct from them, called
presbyters or elders? To this he answers, secondly, that when the church
was first planted, before any great number Avas converted, or any fit to be
made presbyters, there were only those two orders instituted, bishops and
deacons: so that this church at Philippi seems to have been a metropoli-
tical infiint! The truth is, if ever the doctor be put upon reconciling the
contradictions of his answers one to another, not only in this, but almost
in every particular he deals withal (an entanglement which he is thrown
into by his bold and groundless conjectures), he will find it to be as end-
less as fruitless; but it is not my present business to interpose in his quar-
rels, either with himself or presbytery. As to the matter under consi-
deration, I desire only to bo resolved in these few queries: —

1 . If there were in the times of Clemens no presbyters in the churches,
not [even] in so great and flourishing a church as that of Corinth, and if all
the places in the Scripture where there is mention of elders do precisely
intend bishops, in a distinction from them who are only deacons and not
bishojjs also, as he asserts, when, by whom, and by what authority, were
elders who are only so, inferior to bishops peculiarly so termed, instituted
and appointed in the churches? And how comes it to pass that there is
such express mention made of the office of deacons, and the continuance of
it, — none at all of ehlei-s, wlio are acknowledged to be superior to them,
and on whose shoulders in all their own churches lies the great weight
and burden of all ecclesiastical administrations? As we say of their bishops,

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 45

SO shall we of any presbyters not instituted and appointed by the authority
of Jesus Christ in the church, " Let them go to the place from whence
they came."

2. I desire the doctor to inform me in what sense he would have me to
understand him, Dissert, ii. cap. xxix. sect. 21, 22, where he disputes that
these words of Jerome, " Antequam studia in religionc fierent, et dicere-
tur in populis, ego sum Pauli, ego Cephse, communi presbyterorum con-
sensu ecclesise gubernabantur," are to be understood of the times of the
apostles, when the first schism was in the church of Corintli, when it
seems that neither then nor a good while after was there any such tiling
as presbyters in the church of Corinth, nor in any other church as we can
hear of; as also, to tell us whether all those presbyters were bishops
properly so called, distinct from elders who are only so, out of whom one
man is chosen to be a bishop properly so called. To these inquiries I
shall only add, —

3. That whereas in the Scripture we find clearly but two sorts of church-
officers mentioned, as also in this epistle of Clemens, the third, that was
afterward introduced, be it what it will, or fall on whom it will, that we
oppose. This, saitli the doctor, is that of presbytery. Give us churches
instituted according to the word of Christ ; give us in every church
bishops and deacons (rather than we will quarrel, give us a bishop and
deacons) ; let those bishops attend the particular flock over which they are
appointed, preaching the word and administering the holy ordinances of
the gospel in and to their own flock, — and I dare undertake for all the
contenders for presbytery in this nation, and much more for the Indepen-
dents, that there shall be an end of this quarrel ; that they will not strive
with the doctor, nor any living, for the introduction of any third sort of
persons (though they should be called presbyters) into church office and
government. Only this I must add, that the Scripture more frequently
terms this second sort of men elders and presbyters than it doth bishops ;
and that word having been appropriated to a third sort peculiarly, we de-
sire leave of the doctor and his associates if we also most frequently call
them so, no ways declining the other appellation of bishops, so that it may
be applied to signify the second, and not a third, rank of men. But of this
whole business, with the nature, constitution, and frame, of the first
churches, and the sad mistakes that men have, by their own prejudices,
been engaged into in their delineation of them, a fuller opportunity, if
God will, may ere long be afforded.

To return, then, to our Ignatius : Even upon this consideration of the
difference that is between the epistles ascribed to him and the writings of
(me of the same time loith him, or not long before him, as to their language
and expression about church order and officers, it is evident that there
hath been ill-favoured tampering with them, by them who thought to avail
themselves of his authority for the asserting of that which never came into
his mind.

As I intimated before, I have not insisted on any of those things, nor
do on them altogether, with the like that may be added, as a sufficient
foundation for the total rejection of those ei^istles which go under the
name of Ignatius. There is in some of them a sweet and gracious spirit
of faith, love, holiness, zeal for God, becoming so excellent and holy a
witness of Christ as he was, evidently breathing and working. Neither is
there any need at all that, for the defence of our hypothesis concerning the
non-institution of any church-officer whatever relating to more churches
in his office, or any other church, than a single particular congregation,

46 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

we should so reject them ; for although many passages usually insisted on,
and carefully collected by Dr Hammond for the proof of such an epis-
copacy to have been received by them of old as is now contended for, are
exceedingly remote from the way and manner of the expression of those
things used by the divine writers, with them also that followed after, both
before, as hath been manifested, and some wliile after the days of Ignatius,
as might be farther clearly evinced, and are thrust into the series of the
discourse with such an incoherent impertinency as proclaims an interpola-
tion, being some of them also very ridiculous, and so foolishly hyperbolical
that they fall very little short of blasphemies, yet there are expressions in
all or most of them that will abundantly manifest that he who was tlieir
author (whoever he was) never dreamt of any such fabric of church-order
as in after ages was insensibly reared. Men who are full of their own
apprehensions, begotten in theni by such representations of things as either
their desired presence hath exhibited to their mind or any after-prejudi-
cate presumption hath possessed them with, are apt, upon the least appear-
ance of any likeness unto that church they fancy, to imagine that they see
the face and all the lineaments thereof, when, upon due examination, it will
be easily discovered that there is not indeed the least resemblance between
■what they find in, and what they bring to, the authors in and of whom
they make their inquiry. The Papists, having hatched and owned by
several degrees that monstrous figment of transubstantiation (to instance
among many in that abomination), — a folly destructive to whatever is in us
as being living creatures, men, or Christians, or wliatever by sense, reason,
or religion, wc are furnished withal, ofix^ring violence to us in what we
hear, in what wo see witli our eyes and look upon, in what our hands do
handle, and our palates taste, breaking in upon our understandings with
vagrant, flying forms, self-subsisting accidents, with as many express con-
tradictions en sundry accounts as the nature of things is capable of rela-
tion unto, attended with more gross idolatry than that of the poor naked
Indians who fall down and worship a piece of red cloth, or of tliose who
first adore their gods and then correct them, — do yet upon the discovery
of any expressions among the ancients which they now make use of quite
to another end and purpose than they did who first ventured upon them,
having minds filled Avith their own abominations, presently cry out and
triumph, as if they had found the whole fardel of the mass in its per-
fect dress, and their hreaden god in the midst of it. It is no otherwise in
the case of episcopacy. Men of these latter generations, from what they
saw in present being, and that usefulness of it to all their desires and in-
terests, having entertained thoughts of love to it and delight in it, search-
ing antiquity, not to instruct them in tlie truth, but to establish their pre-
judicate opinion received by tradition from their fathers, and to consult
them with whom they have to do, whatever expressions they find or can
hear of that fall in, as to the sound of words, with what is now insisted
upon, instantly they cry out, " Vicimus lo Pa;an !" What a simple genera-
tion of Presbyters and Independents have we, that are ignorant of all anti-
quity, or do not understand what they read and look upon! Hence, if we
will not believe that in Ignatius' days there were many parish churches,
with their single jiriests, in subordination to a diocesan bishop, either im-
mediately or by the interposed power of a chore-cyiscopus, and the like;
and those diocesans, again, in the precincts of provinces, laid in a due sub-
jection to their metropolitans, who took care of them as they of their
parish priests; every individual church having no oificer but a presbyter;
every diocesan church having no presbyter, but a bishop; and every metro-

A PEEFACE TO THE READER. 47

politan church having neither presbyter nor bishop properly related unto
it as such, but an archbishop, — we are worse than infidels ! Truly I cannot
but wonder whether it doth not sometimes enter into these men's thoughts
to apprehend how contemptible they are in their proofs for the fathering
of such an ecclesiastical distribution of governors and government, as un-
deniably lackeyed after the civil divisions and constitutions of the times
and places wherein it was introduced, upon those holy persons, whose souls
never once entered into the secrets thereof.

Thus fares it with our doctor and his Ignatius : Om 7div, dXX' sdojirjCiv
/dih dia \i\)XTa giXyjvTiv. I shall only crave leave to say to him as Au-
gustus of Quintilius Varus, upon the loss of his legions in Germany under
his command, " Quintili Vare, redde legiones. Domine doctor, redde ec-
clesias." Give us the churches of Christ, such as they were in the days
of the apostles, and down to Ignatius, though before that time (if Hege-
sippus may be believed) somewliat defloured, and our contest about
church officers and government will be nearer at an end than perhaps you
will readily imagine. Give us a church all whose members are holy, called,
sanctified, justified, living stones, temples for the Holy Ghost, saints, be-
lievers, united to Christ the head by the Spirit that is given to them and
dwelleth in them ; a church whose 'zXrjdoi; is otto-j av (pavrj 6 I'rie-A.o'rrog^
that doth nothing by its members apart, that appertains to church-order,
but when it is gathered l-iri rh avro' a church that being so gathered to-
gether in one place, ff'TouddZ^n 'xdvra. rrsdffgiiv sv ofj^ovoice, ©sou, 'z^oxaOyi-
/xivov rou ivis-A.i'TTou, acting in church things, in its whole body, under the
rule and presidence of its officers ; a church walking in order, and not as
some, who siriaxo'TTOv ix\v xaXovifiv, %oij/S 8s avrou 'xdvra 'TT^daffovffiv (of whom,
saith Ignatius, oi Toiovroi oiix. i\jsvvuhr\Toi (isv ihai (palvovrai, did luv rh (lii
^sQaiujg -/.ut' IvroXriv cuvadpoil^saSai, such as calling the bishop to the assem-
blies, yet do all things without him, — the manner of some in our days, — he
supposeth not to keep the assemblies according to the command of Clu-ist) ;
— give us, I say, such a church, and let us come to them when they are
rravTsg sttI rh avro, h rfi ir^oeivyj] a/za 6\)va-)(Shrii, such as the churches in
the days of Ignatius appear to have been, and are so rendered in the quo-
tations taken from his epistles by the learned doctor for the confirmation
of episcopacy, and, as I-«aid before, the contest of this present digression
will quickly draw to an issue. Being luiwilling to go too far out of my •
way, I shall not, —

1. Consider the severals instanced in for the proof of episcopacy by the
doctor. Seeing undeniably the interpretation must follow and be pro-
portioned by the general issue of that state of the church in the days
wherein those epistles were writ, or are pretended so to be, if that appear
to be such as I have mentioned, I presume the doctor himself will confess
that his witnesses speak not one word to his business, for whose confirma-
tion he doth produce them. Nor, —

2. Shall I insist upon the degeneration of the institutions and appoint-
ments of Jesus Christ concerning church administrations, in the manage-
ment of the succeeding churches, as principled and spirited by the opera-
tive and efficacious mystery of iniquity, occasioned and advantaged by the
accommodation of ecclesiastical affiiirs to the civil distributions and allot-
ments of the political state of things in those days. Nor, —

3. Insist much farther on the exceeding dissimilitude and unconformity
that is between the expressions concerning church officers and affairs in
these epistles (whencesoever they come), and those in the writings of un-
questionable credit immediately before and after them, as also the utter

48 ^ A PREFACE TO THE READER.

silence of the Scripture in those things wherewith they so abound. The
Epistle of Clemens, of which mention was made before, was written for the
composing and quieting of a division and distemper that was fallen out
in the church of Corinth. Of the cause of that dissension that then
miserably rent that congregation, he informs us in that complaint that
some ou dixaliAjg u'TroCacX'sffdai rris "ksirov^y/ug, were wrongfully cast from the
ministry by the multitude : and he tells you that these were good, honest
men, and faithful in the discharge of their duty; for saith he, ' O^Z/msv
on sv'icug v,asT; ^irr^yaLjin^ xahZig 'TroXinvofJi^svovg, ix. rr^g ccfxs/M'jrTCog avroTg titi-
,ajj,«.fvjjc y.iiTovoyiag, though they were unblamable both in their conversa-
tion and ministry, yet they removed them from their office. To reprove
this evil, to convince them of the sinfulness of it, to reduce them to a right
understanding of their duty and order, walking in the fellowship of the
gospel, what course doth he proceed in ? what arguments doth lie use ?
He minds them of one Grod, one Christ, one body, one faith ; tells them that
wicked men alone use such ways and practices; bids them read the epistle
of Paul, formerly written to them upon occasion of another division, and
to be subject to their own elders, and all of them to leave off contending,
quietly doing the things which the people, or the body of the church, de-
livered and commanded. Now, had this person, writing on this occasion,
using all sorts of arguments, artificial or inartificial, for his purpose, been
baptized into the opinion and esteem of a single e^jiscopal superintendent,
— whose exaltation seems to be the design of much which is said in the
epistles of Ignatius, in the sense wherein his words are usually taken, —
and yet never once so much as bid them be subject to the bishop, that " re-
semblance of God the Father, supplying of the place of Christ," nor told
them how terrible a thing it was to disobey him, nor pawned his soul for
tlieirs that should submit to him, that all that obeyed him were safe, all
that disobeyed him were rebellious, cursed, and separated from Grod;
what apology can be made for the weakness and ignorance of that holy
martyr, if we sliall suppose him to have had apprehensions like those in
these epistles of that sacred order, for omitting those all-conquering rea-
sons which they would have supplied him withal to his purpose in hand,
and pitching on arguments every way less cogent and useful? But I say
I shall not insist on any such things as these, but only, —

4. I say that there is not in any of the doctor's excerpta from these
epistles, nor in any passage in them, any mention or the least intimation
of any church whereunto any bishop was related, but such an one as whose
members met all together in one place, and with their bishop disposed
and ordered the affairs of the church. Such was that whereunto the holy
martyr was related; such were those neighbouring cliurches that sent
bishops or elders to that church ; and when the doctor proves the con-
trary, " erit mihi magnus Apollo." From the churches, and their state and
constitution, is the state and condition of their officers, and their relation
to them, to be taken. Let that be manifested to be such, from the appoint-
ment of Jesus Christ by his apostles, or de facto in the days of Ignatius,
or before the contempcration of ecclesiastical aftairs, occasionally or by
choice, to the civil constitution of cities and provinces in those days, as
would, or possibly could, boar a rural, diocesan, mctropolitical hierarcliy,
and this controversy will bo at an end. When this is by any attempted to
be demonstrated, I desire it may not bo with such sentences as that urged
by our doctor from Epist. ad Eph., ^lr\so\Jg XBiarog ro\J 'rarohg ri yvu),a7],
uig -/cal 01 sTiffKOTOi o'l xara rcc rrhara o^iadsiTig 'iTjffoD Xe/CrnD ytwajj iislv
the expression in it concerning Christ being unsound, unscriptural ; con-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 49

cerning bishops, unintelligible or ridiculous. But it may be said, " What
need we any more writing, what need we any truer proof or testimony ?
the learned doctor, in his Dissertations, Dissert, iv. cap. v. hath abundantl}^
discharged this work, and proved the seven bishops of the seven churches
mentioned Rev. ii., iii., to have been metropolitans or archbishops, so that
no just cause remains why we should farther contend."

Let, then, the reader pardon this my utmost excursion in this digres-
sion, to whose compass I had not the least thought of going forth at the
entrance thereof, and I shall return thither whence I have turned aside.

Dissert, iv. cap. v., the doctor tells us that " Septem ecclesiarum angeli,
non tantum episcopi sed et metropolitre, i. e., archiepiscopi statuendi sunt,
i. e., principalium urbium '^^ot,^y^oi ad quos provincite integral et in iis mul-
tarum inferiorum urbium ecclesia?, earumque episcopi tanquam ad archi-
episcopum aut metropolitanum pertinebant."

The doctor in this chapter commences per saltitm, and taking it for
granted that he hath jiroved diocesan bishops sufficiently before, though he
hath scarce spoken any one word to that purpose in his whole book (for
to prove one superintending in a church by the name of bishop, others
acting in some kind of subordination to him by the name of ciders and
presbyters, will, upon the account of what hath been oftered concerning the
state of the churches in those days, no way reach to the maintenance of
this presumption), he sacrifices his pains to the metropolitical archiepis-
eopal dignity, which, as we must suppose, is so clearly founded in Scrip-
ture and antiquity that they are as blind as bats and moles who cannot see
the ground and foundation of it.

But, first, be it taken for granted that the angels of the seven churches
are to be taken for the governors of those churches, then that each angel be
an individual bishop of the church to which he did belong; secondly, be it
also granted that they were bishops of the most eminent church or churches
in that province, or Roman political distribution of those countries in the
management of the government of them, I say bishops of such churches,
not " urbium £§« J%0'," as the doctor terms them ; — what advance is made by
all this to the assertion of a metropolitical archiepiscopacy I cannot as yet
discover. That they were ordinary officers of Christ's institution, relating
in tlieir office and ordinary discharge of it not only to the particular
churches wherein they were placed, but to many churches also, no less
committed to their charge than those wherein they did reside, the officers,
rulers, governors of which churches depended on them, not only as to
their advice and counsel, but as to their power and jurisdiction, holding
their place and em):)loyment from them, is some part of that whicli, in this
undertaking, is incumbent on our doctor to make good, if he will not be
supposed to prevaricate in the cause in hand. To this end he informs us,
sect, secunda, that in the New Testament there is in sundry places mention
made of "churches" in the plural number, as Gal. i. 2, 22; 1 Thess. ii. 14:;
Acts ix. 31, XV. 41 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; Rev. i. 11 ; — sometimes of "church" only
in the singular number, as Acts viii. 1, xi. 26; xv. 3, 4, 22, Rom. xvi. 1;
1 Cor. i. 2; 2 Cor. i. 1; 1 Thess. i. 1; Rev. ii. 1, 8, 12, 18, iii. 1, 7, 14.
Now, this is an observation, which as we are not at all beholden to the
doctor for it, no more, I suppose, will there be found to be to it when the
reason of it shall be a little weighed and considered. The sum is, that the
name " church" in the singular number is never used but when it relates
to the single congregation in, or of, one city or town; that of " churches"
respecting the several churches or congregations that were gathered in
any country or "j^rovince. Manifest, then, is it from hence that there is in

VOL. XL 4

50 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

the New Testament no " church" of one denomination beyond a single con-
gregation ; and where tliere are more, they are always called " churches."
How evidently this is destructive to any diocesan or metropolitieal officer,
who hath no churcli left liim thereby of Christ's institution to be related
to, another opportunity will manifest. For the present, let us see what
use our doctor makes of this observation.

Sect. 3, says he, " Judea, and the rest of the places where churches
are mentioned, are the names of provLuees s^raiyjuv, quatenus ese rrupoi-
xiocis et bior/.r,(Siai, contradistinguntur." If the doctor takes these words in
an ecclesiastical sense, he begs that which will, upon such unworthy terms,
never be granted him ; but if no more be intended but that Judea, Ga-
latia, and the like names of countries, were provinces wherein were many
churches, Smyrna, Ephesus, of towns and cities wherein there was but one,
we grant it with him.

And how much that concession of ours is to his advantage hath been
intimated. And this seems to be his intendment by his following words:
" Provinciarum inquam in quibus plurimaj civitates, singula) singularum
ecclesiarum sedes, comprehendebantur, ideoque ecclesipe in pliu"ali istius
sive istius pi-ovincia; dicenda;." Well, what then? "Cum tamen unaqua?-
que civitas, cum territorio sibi adjuncto (Xi5go;!) ab episcopo suo adminis-
trata, singularis ecelesia dicenda sit; ideoque quod -/mt ixxKrioiav, factum
dicitur, Acts xiv. 23; naTo. croX/v, fieri jubetur, Tit. i. 5." That in every
city there was a singular church in those provinces (I speak of those where
any number were converted to the faith) I grant ; for the annexed terri-
tories let the doctor take care, there being one church at Corinth and
another at Cenchrea : so that every single city had its own single church,
Avith its bishops in it, as at Philippi. The passage mentioned by the doc-
tor concerning the Epistle of Dionysius to the Church at Gortyna in Ci'cte
is very little to his purpose ; neither doth he call Philip, the bishop of that
church, the bishop of all the other churches in Crete, as the doctor inti-
mates, but the bishop of them to whom especially and eminently he wrote.

Sect 4, application is made of the fore-mentioned observation, sect. 2,
and the intei'pretation given of it, sect. 3, in these words : " His sic posi-
tis, illud statim sequitur ut (in imperii cognitione) in provincia qualibet,
cum plures urbes sint, una tamen primaria, et principalis censenda erat,
^jjT-^oVo?./; ideo dicta, cui itidem inferiores reliqua} civitates subjicicbantur,
ut civitatibus regionos, sic et inter ecclesias et cathedras episcopalcs unam
semper primariam et metropoliticam fuisse."

In this section the doctor hath most ingenuously and truly given us
the rise and occasion of his diocesan and metropolitieal prelates. From
the aims of men to accommodate ecclesiastical or church affairs to the state
and condition of the civil government, and distributions of provinces, metro-
politan cities, and cliief towns, within the several dependencies (the neigh-
bouring villages being cast in as things of no great esteem to the lot of the
next considerable town and seat of judicature), did the hierarchy which ho
so sedulously contendeth for arise. What advantages were atforded to
tlie work by the paucity of believers in the villages and less towns (from
v.-hicli at length the whole body of heathenish idolaters were denominated
Pagans); the first ])lanting of churches in tlie greater cities; the eminence
of the officers of the first churches in those cities; the weakness of many
rural bisliops; tlie multiplying and groA^'ing (in numbers, and persons of
gifts, abilities, and consideraljle fortunes and employments in this world,)
in the metropolitan cities, witli their fame thereby ; the tradition of the
abode of some one or other of the aj>ostle3 in such citieif and churches;

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 51

the eminent accommodation for the administration of civil jurisdiction
and other affairs, wliich appeared in that subordination and dependency
whereinto tlie provinces, chief cities, and territories in the Roman empire
were cast; with what opportunities Satan got by these means to introduce
the ways, state, pomp, words, phrases, terms of honour of the workl into
the churches, insensibly getting ground upon them, and prevailing to their
declension from the naked simplicity and purity wherein they were first
planted, — some other occasion may give advantage for us to manifest. For
the present it may suffice that it is granted that the magnific hierarchy of
the church arose from the accommodation of its state and condition [to that]
of the Eoman empire and provinces ; and this, in the instances of after-ages
that might be produced, will easily be made yet farther evident in those
shameful, or, indeed, rather shameless, contests which fell out among the
bishops of the third century and downward about precedency, titles of
honour, extent of jurisdiction, ecclesiastical subjection to or exemption
from one another. The considerableness of their cities, in the civil state
of the Roman empire, where they did reside was still the most prevalent
and cogent argument in their brawls. The most notable brush that in all
antiquity we find given to the great leviathan of Rome, who sported him-
self in those " gatherings together of the waters of people, and multitudes,
and nations, and tongues," or the " general councils," as they are called,
was from an argument taken from the seat of the empire being fixed at
Constantinople, making it become new Rome, so that the bishop of the
church there was to enjoy equal privileges with him whoso lot was fallen
in the old imperial city. But our doctor adds, —

Sect. 5, " Illud ex Judccorum exemplari transeripsisse apostoli viden-
tur; cum Mosaica id lege cautum esset, ut judices et ministri in qualibet
civitate ordinarentur, Deut. xvi. 18. Illi vero in rebus dubiis ad judicem
(Mosis successorem) synedrio Hierosolymitano cinctum recurrere teneren-
tur," cap. svii. 9. And in sect. 6, he proves Jerusalem to have been the
metropolis of that whole nation. Egregiam vero laudem ! But, —

1. The doctor, I presume, knows before this that those with whom he
hath to do will never give him the thing in question upon his begging or
request. That which alone ftills in under our consideration and inquiry
is, whether the apostles instituted any such model of church order and
government as is by the doctor contended for; to this he tells you that
the apostles seem to have done it from the pattern of Mosaical institutions
in the church of the Jews. But, doctor, the question is not with what re-
spect they did it, but whether they did it at all or no. This the doctor
thought good to let alone until another time, if we would not grant him
upon his petition that so they did.

2. This, then, is the doctor's second argument for his diocesan and me-
tropolitan prelates; his first was from the example of the heathens in their
civil administration and rule, this second from the example of the Jews.
Not to divert into the handling of the church and political state of the Jews
as appointed of God, nor into that dissonancy that is between the insti-
tution of civil magistrates and evangelical administrations, this is the sum
of the doctor's reasoning in his 5th, Gth, 7th, and 8th sections: — " God, in
the church and among the people of the Jews, chose out one city to place
his name there, making it the place where all the types and ceremonies
which he had appointed for the discovery and shadowing forth of the
Lord Jesus Christ were visibly and gloriously to be managed, acted, and
held forth (sundry of them being such as whose typicalness would have
been destroyed by their multiplication), and principally on this account

52 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

making that place or city (which was first Shiloh) the seat of tlie kin":-
doni, or habitation of the chief ruler for the administration of justice, who
appointed judges in all the land, for the good and peace of the people;
therefore, the churches of Jesus Christ, dispersed over the face of the
whole world, freed from obligations to cities or mountains, walking before
God in and with a pure and spiritual worship, having no one reason of
that former institution in common with the church of the Jews, must be
cast into the same mould and figure." I hope without ofi'ence I may take
leave to deny the consequence, and w-hat more I have to say to this argu-
ment I shall yet defer.

But the doctor proceeds to prove that indeed the apostles did dispose
of the churches in this frame and order, according to the pattern of the
civil government of the Roman empire and that instituted of God among
the Jews. The 9th section, wherein he attempts the proof of this asser-
tion, is as followeth : —

"Ad banc imaginem, apostolos ecclesias ubique disponendas curasse, et
in omnibus plantationibus suis, minorum ab eminentioribus civitatibus de-
pendentiam, et subordinationera constituisse exemplis quidem plurimis
monstvari possit, illud in Syria et Cilicia patet. Act. xvi. 4 ; cum enim
t,ri7riij.a illud, cap. xv. 2, Hierosolymas referretur ab ecclesia ihluii Antio-
chife, cap. xiv. 26, xv. 3; et decretum ab apostolis denuo ad eos mittere-
tur, ver. 22; in epistola, qua decretum illud continebatur simul cum Antio-
chensibus Toiig -/.aTo. l-oola^ xai KiXr/Jav ahi\<pouc, comprehensos videmus,
ver. 23. Dein epistola ista Antiochense ecclesia? reddita, ver. 30. Paulus
tandem et Silas Syriam et Ciliciam peragrantes, ver. 41, cap. xvi. 4, hoyiMara
xsK^i/j,iva V'Trh tuv anioGrokm, singulis civitatibus observanda tradiderunt, ut
qute ad banc Antiochia? metropolin, ut totidem subordinates ecclesise perti-
nerent; ut et ipsa Antiochia ad Hierosolymas, primariam tarn latce (ut
ex Philone prrediximus) provincial metropolin pertinebat, et ad earn ad
dirimendam litem istam se conferebat."

This being all that the doctor hath to produce from the Scripture to his
purpose in hand, I have transcribed it at large ; for this being removed,
all that follows will fall of its own accord : —

First, then, the dependence on and subordination of lesser cities to the
greater is asserted as an apostolical institution. Noav, because I supjiose
the doctor will not assert, nor doth intend, a civil dependence and subor-
dination of cities as such among themselves; nor will a dependence as to
counsel, advice, assistance, and the like suj^plies, which in their mutual
communion the lesser churches might receive from the greater and more
eminent, serve his turn ; but an ecclesiastical dependence and subordina-
tion, such as wliercby many particular churches, with inferior officers re-
siding in tlieni and with them, depended on and were hi subjection unto
some one person of a sujwrior order, commonly residing in some eminent
city, and many of these governois of a superior order in the greater cities
were in sucli subordination unto some one of high degree, termed a metro-
politan, and all this by apostolical institution, is that wliich he aimeth at:
which being a most gallant adventure in a waking generation, we shall
doubtless find him quitting himself like a man in his undertaking.

Secondly, then, he tells you that tlic question about Mosaical rites and neces-
sity of their ohsci'vation icas referred to Jerusalem hi/ the sinrjJe church of Ati-
tioch. But how does the doctor make good this first stop'/ which yet if he
could, would do him no good at all. It is true that Paul was now come to
Antioch, chap. xiv. 20; also, that he was brought on his way by the church,
chap. XV. 3 ; but yet that the bretln-en who were taught the doctrine con-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 53

tested about, verses 1, 2, were only of the church of Antioch (when it is most
certain, from the epistles of Paul to the Galatians, Colosslans, Romans, and
others, that great disturbance was raised far and wide, in all the churches
of the Gentiles, about this controversy), nothing is offered. It seems, in-
deed, that their disputes grew to the great-est height at Antioch, whither
brethren from other parts and churches did also come whilst Barnabas and
Paul abode there ; but that that single church referred the determining of
that controversy to them at Jerusalem, exclusively to others, the doctor
proves not. And it is most evident, from the return of the answer sent
by the apostles from Jerusalem, verse 23, that the reference was from all
the churches of the Gentiles, yea, and all the scattered brethren, perhaps
as yet not brought into church order, not only at Antioch, but also through-
out Syria and Cilicia. It is then granted, what he next observes, namely,
that in the answer returned from Jerusalem, with them at Antioch those
in Syria and Cilicia are joined; the reason of it being manifest, namely,
their trouble about the same controversy being no less than theirs at
Antioch. It is also granted, that, as Paul passed through the cities, he
delivered them the decrees to keep that were ordained bj'^ the apostles and
elders, chap. xvi. 4; and that not only to the churches of Syria and Cilicia,
which he left, chap. xv. 41, but also to those throughout Phrygia and the
region of Galatia, chap. xvi. 6. What now follows out of all this ? What but
that Antioch, by apostolical institution, was the metropolitan see of all the
churches of Syria and Cilicia! Good doctor, do not be angry, but tell us
how this may be proved. Why, doubtless it was so, as Antioch belonged
to the metropolitan church at Jerusalem, as he told us out of Philo ! (who
was excellently acquainted with apostolical institutions.) What Jerusalem
was to the whole church and nation of the Jews, whilst the name of God was
fixed there, we know ; but what was the primitive estate of the churches of
Jesus Christ, made up of Jews and Gentiles, tied neither to city nor moun-
tain, I must be pardoned if I cannot find the doctor making any tender of
manifesting or declaring. The reason of referring this controversy unto
a determination at Jerusalem the Holy Ghost acquaints us with, chap.
XV. 2; so that we have no need of this metropolitical figment to inform us
in it. And now if we will not only not submit to diocesan bishops, but also
not reverence the grave metropolitans, standing upon such clear apostolical
institution, it is fit that all the world should count us the arrantest schis-
matics that ever lived since Pope Boniface's time. The sum, then, of this
doughty argument for the apostolical institution of metropolitans (that
none might ever more dare to call diocesans into question hereafter) is this:
Paul, who was converted about the third or fourth year of Caligula, five
or six years after the ascension of Christ, having with great success for
three years preached the gospel, went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, upon
the persecution raised against him at Damascus, chap. ix. 22-27; whence,
returning to his work, he went first to Tarsus, verse 30 ; thence to Antioch,
where he abode one whole year, chap. xi. 25, 26 ; and was then sent to Jeru-
salem with the collection for the saints, about the fourth year of Claudius,
verses 29, 30 ; thence returning again to Antioch, he was sent out by the com-
mand of the Holy Ghost, more eminently and peculiarly than formerly, for
the conversion of the Gentiles, chap. xiii. 1-3. In this undertaking, in
the space of a year or two, he preached and gathered churches (whereof
express mention is made) at Salamis, chap. xiii. 5; at Paphos, verse 6; at
Perga in Pamphylia, verse 13; at Antioch in Pisidia, verse 14; at Iconium,
chap. xiv. 1 ; at Lystra aiid Derbe, verse 6 ; and at Perga, verse 25 : in all
these places gathering some believers to Christ ; whom, before they returned

64 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

to Antioch, he visited all over the second time, and settled elders in the
several congregations, chap. xiv. 21-23. In this journey and travel for
the propagation of the gospel, he seems in all places to have been followed,
almost at the heels, by the professing Pharisees, who imposed the necessity
of the observation of the Mosaical ceremonies upon his new converts; for
instantly upon his return to Antioch, where, during his absence, probably
they had much prevailed, he falls into dispute with them, chap. xv. 1, 2; —
and that he was not concerned in this controversy only upon the account of
the church of Antioch, himself informs us. Gal. ii. 4, affirming that the
false brethren which caused those disputes and dissensions crept in to
spy out his liberty in his preaching the gospel among the Gentiles, verse 2,
— that is, in the places before mentioned, throughout a great part of Asia.
For the appeasing of this difference, and the establishing of the souls of
the disciples, which were grievously perplexed with the imposition of the
Mosaical yoke, it is determined that the case should be resolved by the
apostles. Acts xv. 2; partly because of their authority in all the churches,
wherein those who contended with Paul would be compelled to acquiesce,
and partly because those Judaizing teachers pretended the commission of
the apostles for the doctrine they preached, as is evident from the dis-
claimure made by them of any such commission or command, verse 24.
Upon Paul's return from the assembly at Jerusalem, wherein the great
controversy about Jewish ceremonies was stated and determined, after he
had in the first place delivered the decrees and apostolical salutation by
epistle to the church at Antioch, he goes with them also to the churches
in Syria and Cilicia, expressed in the letter by name, as also to those in
Pamphylia, Pisidia, Dcrbe, Lystra, Iconium, etc., chap. xvi. 1-4, and all
the churches which he had gathered and planted in his travels through
Asia, whereunto he was commanded by the Holy Ghost, chap. xiii. 1, 2.
Things being thus stated, it necessarily follows that the apostles had in-
stituted diocesan and metropolitan bishops; for though the churches were
so small, and thin, and few in number, that, seven years after this, may we
believe our doctor, the apostles had not instituted or appointed any elders
or presbyters in them, — namely, when Paul wrote his epistle to the Phi-
lippians, which was when he was prisoner in Rome, as appears, chap. i. 7,
13, 14, iv. 22, about the third year of Nero, — yet that he had fully built
and settled the hierarchical fabric contended for, who once dares question !

"Audacia —
Crcditur a multis fiducia." — [Juven., xiii. 109, 110.]

But if this will not do, yet Ignatius hits the nail on the head, and is
ready at hand to make good whatsoever the doctor will have him say, and
his testimony takes up the sense of the two next following sections, whereof
the first is as follows: —

"Hinc dicti Ignatiani ratio constat in epistola ad Eomanos, ubi ille
Antiochifo episcopus se r^g Iv "S-xjoiu. sxxXrjaiag 'Troi'x'sva, pastorem ecclesia;
qua) est in Syria appellet, cum ad Antiochiam, scil. ut ad metropolin suam
tota Syria pertincrct. Sic et author epistola; ad Antiochenos, exKXrjsicc
Qibu na^ot/iousr] h ivola rp iv ' Avrio^n'cf, earn iuscribens totam, Syriam ejus
TTUPor/iiav esse concludit." •

IJut yet I fear the doctor will find he hath need of other weapons and
other manner of assistance to make good the cause he hath undertaken. Tlie
words of Ignatius in that epistle to the Romans are, [cap. ix.] IMiTi.a&veusrg
h Tr\ i^yjl ijfJ'Uv r^g Iv Sus/a ixy.Ariai'ug rjrig dvr i/MOU TOitLhi y^^rjrai rui Kuoiw.
Because he recommends to them that particular chiu'ch in Syria, which,

A PKEFACE TO THE READER. 55

by his imprisonment, was deprived of its pastor, therefore, without doubt,
he -was a metropolitieal archbishop: " Titj^re, tu patulse," etc. But the
doctor is resolved to carry his cause ; and therefore, being forsaken of
all fair and honest means from whence he might hope for assistance or
success, he tries (as vSaul the witch of Endor) the counterfeit, spurious
title of a counterfeit epistle to the Antiochians, to see if that will speak
any comfortable words for his relief or no. And to make sure Avork, he
causes this gentleman so to speak as if he intended to make us believe that
Syria was in Antioch, not Antioch in Syria; as in some remote parts of
the world, they say, they inquire whether London be in England or Eng-
land in London. What other sense can be made of the words as by the
doctor transcribed ? 'EzxXriaia ©sou 'za^or/.oixsri Iv 2uff/'a rrj hj ^ Kvrtoy^iia'
— " To the church of God dwelling in Syria, which is in Antioch." Now
if this be so, I shall confess it is possible we may be in more errors
than one, and that we much want the learned doctor's assistance for our
information. The words themselves, as they are used by the worshipful
writer of that epistle, will scarce furnish us with this learned and rare
notion : they are at length, lyvanoi 6 zai QsopCpog (for so he first opens his
mouth with a lie), Jx^X'/icr/'a ^Xsyi,(MSV/i VTro Qsov, sKXsXsy/Msv/i iro Xpiotou
rra^oiTioxiari iv luuia, -/.al 5-jwr?j 'S.oiaro^j STtuwijJav XrxZaxxsri rij ev Airio^Bicc.
What is here more expressed than that the latter passage, " In Antioch,"
is restrictive of what went and before was spoken of its residence in Syria,
with reference to the name of Christians, first given to the disciples in
that place, 1 know not ; and therefore it is most certain that the apostles
instituted metropolitan archbishops ots^ Usi diT^ai !

But to make all sure, the learned doctor will not so give over ; but, sect.
11, he adds that the epigraph of the epistle to the Komans grants him
the whole case; that is, 'E/txX9jcr/a ^ng rrooxdQrirat h tottw ^ws/ou 'Pw,aa/wv
" Ex qua," saith he, " ecclesia) Eomana?, ejusque episcopo super ecclesiis
omnibus in urbicaria regione, aut provincia Eomana contentis, prtefectu-
ram competiise videraus."

Although I have spent some time in the consideration of men's conjec-
tures of those suburbicarian churches, that, as is protended, are here
pointed to, and the rise of the bishop of Kome's jurisdiction over those
churches, in a correspondency to the civil government of the prefect
of the city, yet so great a critic in the Greek tongue as Casaubon,
Exer. xvi. ad An. 150, having professed that expression, 'Et toVw yjjmm
'Foj/j.aioov, to be " barbarous" and "unintelligible," I shall not contend about
it. For the presidency mentioned of the church in or at Rome, that it
was a presidency of jurisdiction, and not only an eminency of faith and
holiness, that is intended, the doctor thinks it not incumbent on him to
prove, — those with whom he hath to do are of another mind, — although by
this time some alteration might be attempted, yea there was, as elsewhere
shall be showed. And so much for Ignatius' archiepiscopacy.

The example of Alexandria is urged in the next place, in these words :
"Idem de Alexandria, de qua Eusebius, Marcum, 'ExxX^jtr/'ag 'rrpurov W aurrig
A}.i^avdpiiag euaryjsaedai, Ecclesias (in plurali) primum in Alexandria in-
stituisse. Has omnes ab eo sub nomine rrjg =v' AXi^avd^iicc '^raoor/Jag, admini-
strandas suscepisse Anniauum, Neronis anno octavo idem Eusebius aftirmat;
quibus patet primariam Alexandria et patriarch alem cathedram fixam esse,
ad quam reliquae provincial illius ecclesite a Marco plantata), ut ad metro-
politicam suarn pertinebant." Doubtless; for, — 1. There is not any pas-
sage in any ancient author more clearly discovering the uncertainty of
many things in antiquity than this pointed to by the doctor in Eusebius ;

66 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

for, first, the sending of Mark the evangelist into Egypt, and his preach-
ing there at Alexandria what he had written in the Grospel, is but a report.
Men said so, but what ground they had for their saying so he relates not.
And yet we know what a foundation of many assertions by following
writers this rumour or report is made to be. 2. In the very next words
the author affirms, and insists long ujwn it in the next chapter, that Philo'a
book 'riPi rcy (3lou ruv ' AcfUTiruiv^ was written concerning the Christians con-
verted by Mark's preaching at Alexandria, when it is notoriously known
that it treateth of the Essenes, a sect among the Jews, amongst whose
observances many things were vain, superstitious, and foolish, unworthy
to be once applauded as the practice of any Cliristian in those days ; that
same Philo, as far as can be gathered, living and dying in the Jewish re-
ligion, having been employed by them with an apology to Rome in the
days of Caligula. But, 3. Suppose that Mark were at Alexandria, and
preached the gospel there (which is not improbable), and planted sundry
churches in that great and populous city of Jews and Gentiles ; and that,
as an evangelist, the care of those churches was upon him in a peculiar
manner ; nay, and add farther, that after his death, as Jerome assures us,
the elders and presbyters of those churches chose out one among them-
selves to preside in their convocations and meetings; — if, I say, all this be
supposed, what will ensue? Why, then, it is manifest that there was
fixed at Alexandria a patriarchal chair and a metropolitical church, ac-
cording to the appointment of Jesus Christ by his apostles ! " Si hoc non
sit probationum satis, nescio quid sit satis." If some few congregations
live together in love, and communion, and the fellowship of the gospel in
a city, he is stark blind that sees not that to be an archbishop's see. The
reason is as clear as his in the Comedian for the freedom of his wife : —
"Sy. Utinam Phr3'giam uxorem meam una mecum videam liberam. Dem.
Optimam mulierem quidem. St/. Et quidem nepoti tuo, hujus filio, hodie
primam mammam dedit htee. JDem. Herclo, vero, serio, siquidem primam
dedit baud dubium quin emitti fequom siet. il/ic. Ob eam rem? Dem.
Ob eam." And there is an end of the contest. The doctor, indeed, hath
sundry other sections added to those foregoing ; which as they concern
times more remote from those who first received the apostolical institu-
tions, so I must ingenuously profess that I cannot see any thing whereon
to fasten a suspicion of a proof, so far as to call it into examination, and
therefore I shall absolve the reader from the penalty of this digression.

The truth is, when I first named Ignatius for a witness in tlie cause I
am pleading for, I little thought of tliat excursion which I have occasion-
ally been drawn out unto. When first I cast an eye, some few months
since, upon the dissertations of the learned doctor in defence of episcopacy,
and saw it so chequered with Greek and Latin, so full of quotations divine
and human, I began to think tliat he dealt with his adversaries "hastisque,
clypeisque, et saxis grandibus," that there would be no standing before his
shower of arguments. But after a little serious perusal, I must take leave
to say that I was quickly of another mind ; with the reason of wliich change
of thoughts, could I once obtain the leisure of a few days or hours, 1 should
quickly, God willing, acquaint them who are concerned in aftairs of this
nature. In the meantime, if the reader will pardon me tliis digression,
having gi\ en him an account of my thoughts concerning the epistles of
Ignatius, I sliall, in a procedure upon my first intention, bring forth some
testimonies from him, " et valeant quantum valero possunt."

He seems, in the first place, to speak sufiicicntly clearly to the death of
» Ter. Add. v. 9, 15, etc.

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 57

Christ for his church, for believers, in a peculiar manner ; which is one con-
siderable bottom and foundation of the truth we plead for : Epist, ad Trail,
[cap. viii.], Thiah /JbifirjTa! 'xa.^riiLaTMv (^XoiS-ov'), xai dyd'rrrjg uurnv ijv riydrrrjaiv
rt/j-ac, dov: kaurov 'Zi^l 7j,'j,uv Xutpov, ha tw aifJ^aTi aurov xadu^/gr) y},'Jba,; rrakaiag
dvaasZilac, xa! ^oijii/ rj/Ji^Tv 'japda^yirai, ixiXXovrag, oaov oOSf-w, drroXXuadai v-li
r^g sv r,[j,7v xa.xla,c.

And again, Epist. ad. Philad. [cap. ix.] : By Christ, saith he, eJayiXOov
' A^pad/j,, '/.ai 'isadx, xai 'laxdii, Mwcr^j, xui 6 sufM'Trac rZv <7rPO(prjTCov YCgoj, xa! ot
GrvXoi Tov x6a/xou oi d'TtosroXoi , xai fj \iu/j,pi^ rou XoiaTou v-ttid rig (^(piavrig Xoyui) ^^'syis
TO oixiTov a\ij.a, ha avrriv i^ayoedgrj- with many the like expressions. His con-
fidence also of the saints' perseverance, for whom Christ tlius died, he doth
often profess. Speaking of the faith of the gospel, he adds : Taura 6 yvoitg
sv 'xX?iPo(po^la xai TncTihaag /xazapiog, MO'n-so ovv xai bfLug (piXodsoi xai (piXoysiaToi
idTS, h '7tXrjPo(pooia rr^g sXTribog u/jluv, rig sxToa'rrivai /ubr}8svl bjUbuv yivr\rai.

And again more clearly and fully to the same purpose, Epist. ad Smyrn.
[cap. i.J: 'Ei'djjo'a ydo u,'xac xarnprie,a'sticug sv dxivr}ru) tigth, uavso xadriXoi/j^i-
vovg sv Tui arau^uj rov Ku^ioii rj/jjcov 'Irjsou Xaicrou, aasxi n xa/ -Trvsv/^ari xai rjdparr-
(x'svovg sv dyd'Trrj sv t(Z aiiLari roD Xpia-ou, <7rs'TTXrjPQpOPr,[J,'svoug w; dXriOH:^ etc.
And this confirmation and establishment in believing he ascribes not to
their manly considerations, but to the grace of Ciirist, exclusively to any
of their own strength, Epist. ad Smyrn. [cap. iv.] : Hdvra, saith he of him-
self, v-TTO/Msvaj did X^isrhv, sig to c!u/J>'jahh aiiTw, ah-oh //.£ svduva/xouvTog, ou ydp
fiot TosouTOv cds\iog.

To the same purpose, and with the same confident persuasion, he speaks,
Epist. ad Ephes., [cap. ix.] ; —

'P-jGiTai xjiMocg 'Iriaovg Xoiotoc, 6 ^e/xsXidoffag ui^dg stI Triv irsrsav, ug Xldovg sxXsx-
Tovg suap,UyoXoyov/MSvoug sig oixoboixriv ^siav nanog, dva(pSiJOfMsvcug sig rd u-^rj did
XpKSToii, TOV iiTso rifjjoijv STUVPOJ^svTog, c^ohuj ypu/j^svovg rip ' Ayioj ^^^L/,«.aT/, etc.

And again in the same epistle [cap. xiv.] : ' A^y^'^ 'Q^^^i '!riffrig, TsXog 8s
dyd'zri' Ta 6s duo sv 'svorrjri ysvofisva Qsou civdowzov d-rroTsXiT' Td ds ciXXa irdvra
sig xaXoxccya^iav dxoXovdd sen.

And in his last epistle [ad Rom. cap. vii.], he gives us that noble expres-
sion of his OAvn assurance: 'O sfiog s^uig sgTavPurai, xai ohx sstiv sv s,u,oi tu^
(piXouv Ti' vdojp ds ^Siv dXXc/j^svov sv s/j,ol, sffcuSsv /xot X'sysi, Asiioo tjoj tov Uar'soa'
where we leave the holy soul until the same God gather us to him and the
rest of the spirits of just men made perfect.

And this was the language, these were the expressions, of this holy man;
which what they discover of his judgment on the case under considera-
tion is left to the learned reader to consider. This I am certain, our ad-
versaries have very little cause to boast of the consent of the primitive
Christians with them in the doctrine of apostas}', there being in these most
ancient Avriters after the apostles, about the things of our religion, not the
least shadow cast upon it for its refreshment.

Add, in the next place, the most ancient of the Latins, Tertullian,
that great storehouse of all manner of learning and knowledge. Saith he,
" Quemadmodum nobis arrhabonera spiritus reliquit, ita et a nobis arrha-
bonem carnis accepit, et vexit in coelum, pignus totius summfe illuc redi-
gendje," TertulL, De Resur. The certain salvation of the whole mystical
body of Christ, with whom he hath that communion as to give them his
Spirit, as he took their flesh (for he took upon him flesh and blood, because
the children were partakers of the same), is evidently asserted ; which he
could not do who thought that any of those on whom he bestowed his
Spirit might perish everlastingly.

And again, De Prsescripti. advers. Ha^ret. : "In pugna pugilum et gla-

58 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

(liatorum, plerunique non quia fortis est, vincit quis, aut quia non potest
vinci ; sccl quoniam illo qui vietus est, nullis virilnis fuit : adeo idem ille
victor bene vulenti postea comparatus, etiain supcratusroct'dit. Non aliter
hcerescs de quorundam iiifirniitatibus haboiit quod valent, nihil valentes si
in bene valcnteni fidoni incurrant. Solent quidem isti intirniinos ctiam de
quibusdam personis ab lireresi captis a-dificari in ruinani ; quare ille vel ilia,
fidelissimi, prudentissirai, et usitatissimi in ecclesia, in illam jjartem transi-
erunt ? Quis hoc dicens non ipse sibi respondet, neque prudentes, nequo
fideles, nequo usitatos a)stimandos quos ha>resis potuit demutare?" He
plainly denies them to have been believers (that is, truly, thorouo;hly, pro-
perly so) who fall into pernicious heresies to their destruction.

Cypuian is express to our purpose. Saith he, "Nemo existimet bones de
ecclesia posse discedere. Triticum non rapit ventus, nee arborem solida
radicefundatam procella subvertit; Inanes paleai tempestate jactantur, in-
validfe arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur. llos execratur et percutit
Johannes apostolus, dicens, ' Ex nobis exierunt, sed non fuerunt ex nobis, si
enim fuissent ex nobis, mansissent utique nobiscum,'" Cypr. De Unit. Eccles.
[cap. ii.] The whole doctrine we contend for is plainly and clearly as-
serted, and bottomed on a text of Scripture; which in a special manner (as
wo have cause) we do insist upon. All that is lost by temptations in the
church was but chaflf"; the wheat abides, and the rooted tree is not cast down.
Those fall away who indeed were never true believers in heart and by
union, whatever their profession was. And yet we arc within the compass
of that span of time which our adversaries, without proof, without shame,
claim to be theirs. One princijial foundation of our doctrine is the be-
stowing of the Holy Ghost upon believers, by Jesus Christ. Where he is
so bestowed, there, say we, he abides; for he is given them for that end,
— namely, to " abide with them for ever." Now, concerning him Basil
tells us, that " though, in a sort, he may be said to be present with all
that are baptized, yet he is never mixed witli any that are not worthy ;
that is, he dwells not with any that obtain not salvation," IJasil, Lib, de
Spir. Sane. cap. xvi. ; — NDi/ i^h ycco si -/.al /iri u\iax'sKsarai roTg dva^loig' d/.Xa
ovv 'zu^iTiiui ooxiT rruig roTg ccrra^ ssfi^ay/Sfjisi'oig. By that seeming presence of
the Holy Ghost with hypocrites that are baptized professors, he evidently
intends the common gifts and graces that he bestows upon them ; and
this is all he grants to them who are not at last (for such he discourses
of) found worthy.

Macarius iEgyptius, Homil. v., about the same time with the other, or
somewhat before, is of the same mind. He tells us that those who are
Christians iv aXriOila xa! 6vvdfji,si, ds(pa.XiT; ilaiv I'-h rou agpaCivoc, ou ids^avro
vZv, ug r,bri iS7i(pavu/M'ivoi xai ^usiXivovTig. And how men can be assured of
heaven whilst they live here, by the earnest of it which they have re-
ceived, as well as if they were crowned and reigning in heaven, if those
who have received that earnest may lose it again, I know not.

The words of Amukose to this same purpose, lib. i. cap. vi. De Jacob,
ct Vita Beat, are many ; but because they do not only fully assert the
truth we contend for, but also insist brielly on most of the arguments
with which in this case we plead, 1 shall transcribe them at large, and
they are as follow: —

"Non gloriabor quia Justus sum, sed gloriabor quia redemptus sum;
gloriabor non (juia vacuus ])eccatis sum, sed quia mihi remissa sunt peccata;
non gloriabor (piia profui, nee quia profuit iiiihi (juisquam, sed quia pro me
advocatus apud Patreni Ciu'istus est, sed quia pro me Christi sanguis etl'usus
est Ha;redeui to fecit, cohairedem Christi; Spiritum tibi adoptionis

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 59

infudit Sed vereris dubios vitte anfractus et adversarii insidias, cum ha-
beas auxilium Dei, habeas tantam ejus dignationem, utfilio proprio pro te non
pej^ereerit? — Nihil enim excepit, qui omnium concessit authorera. Niliil est
igitur quod negari posse nobis vereamur; nihil est in quo do munifieentite
divinse diffidere perse verantia debeamus, cuj us fuit tarn diuturna et jugis
ubertas, ut primo prfedestinaret, deinde vocaret, et quos voeavit hos et
justificaret, et quos justificaret hos et glorificaret. Poterit deserere quos
tantis beneficiis usque ad pra?mia prosecutus est? Inter tot beneficia Dei,
num metuendre sunt aliqua; aecusatoris insidias? sed quis audeat accusare
quos electos divino cernit judicio ? num Deus Pater ipse qui contulit, potest
dona sua rescindere, et quos adoptione suscepit, eos a paterni aftectus gra-
tia relegare? Sed metus est ne judex severior fiat. Considera quem judicem
habeas; nempe Christo dedit Pater omne judicium; poterit te ergo ille
damnare, quem redemit a morte, pro quo so obtulit, cujus vitam suaj mortis
mercedem esse cognoscit? nonne dicet, qua) utilitas in sanguine meo, si
damno quem ipse salvavi? Denique consideras judicem, non consideras
advocatum ? "

The foundation of all our glorying in the love of Grod and assurance of
salvation he lays in the free grace of God, in redemption and justification ;
for the certainty of our continuance in that estate, he urges the decree of
God's predestination, the unchangeableness of his love, the complete re-
demption made by Christ, Avith his eftoctual intercession : all which are at
large insisted upon in the ensuing treatise.

Add to him his contemporary, Ciirysostom. Ser. 3, in 2 Cor. i. 21,
22: 'O ^£ /SsCa/iSv Tifj^ai guv v//.Tv u; XoiStov, -/.a.) XS''°^' hlJo^i Qioc,' x.ai ff^oa-
'yiadfMvog ri/xag -/.a} doui rov d^ouQcuna rov Uvsufji^a-og sv raTi Kapdiaig jj^awD.
Of these words of the apostle he gives the ensuing exposition: UdXiv d'nh
TUiv va^iK66vTc»v tu /Jj'iKXovra (SeQaioZrar ii ydo avTo; Iotiv 6 (Bs^uimv »),«.as elg
'Koiffrbv (tovtsstiv 6 (j^ri sSiv ri'Mag laoasaJ.iiiiSOoi.i sk rr^g T/ffrew; rr^g iig rov
lipiSTovJ xai avTog 6 p/wVag rifja,:, -/.a,! boxig to Tvsu^aa, sv raTg xasdi'aig ri/JiCov, ffwr
TO, fjAKKovra ov dusn; ii yu^ rdg d^pydg %a.\ rdg v'roSseug 'ihoy/.s, '/.ai rriv hiZ,a.v
xai TTjv irrjyriv (o/oi/ riv dXr,drj 'Ttioi abrou yvuatv, tyiV tou Tvsi/xaT'oc /xEraX»j-4'/t)
crws rd iz toutoov oh do'jsn; ii ydo Ixs/ia bid raZra b!do\fT(/.i, cro/.Xoi; ,aa/.Aov 6
rauTO, boug x.ai l/tiTva. iraci^n- xai ii ravra i'/&^oTg ovaiv ibuKi, coXXw /^aX?.oi'
sftuva (ply.oig yi\ioiMi\ioig y^aonrrai' bid rovro ovbe TLvsv/j.a ii-mv aTrXw;, aX?^ ^^t'^-
Qojtia, dii/o/MaJsv, ha d-~o rovrcv, xai Tsoi rov 'zavrog ^aihrig' ou ydp il fMri i/jbiXXi
TO Tav b/boi/ai, i'lKiro dv rov dohaZttjva -—aDaSyiT)! xai dcroXsffa/ s/'/cJj xai /xdrri'j.

The design and aim of our establishment by the Spirit is, he tells us, that
we be not shaken or moved from the faith of Christ ; [he] so establisheth
us that he sufters us not to depart and fall away from the faith. And
that the argument which he insists on, — from what we have presently
received to an assurance of abode in our condition, to the enjoyment of
the full inheritance, — is not contemptible in the cause in hand, is farther
manifested in the treatise itself.

And these instances may suffice for the first period of time mentioned,
before the i-ising of the Pelagian heresy; of which, and those others of the
same kind that might be produced, though they may not seem so full and
expressive to the point under consideration as those which follow after,
yet concerning those authors and their testimonies these two things may
be asserted: —

] . That thuugh some expressions may be gathered, from some of the
writers within the space of time mentioned, that seem to allow a possibility
of defection and apostasy in believers, — occasioned, all of them, by the gene-
ral use of that word, and the taking in the several accounts whereon men,

00 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

both in the gospel and in common use, are so called, — yet there is no one
of them that ever ascribed tlie perseverance of them who actually and
eventually persevere to such grounds and priiici])les as j\Ir Goodwin doth,
and which the reader shall find at large by hira insisted on in the ensuing
treatise. The truth is, liis maintaining of the saints' perseverance is as
bad, if not worse, than his maintaining their apostasy.

2. That I scarce know any head in religion concerning which the mind
of the ancients, who wrote before it received any opposition, may be made
out more clearly than we have done in this, by the instances produced and
insisted on.

The Pelagian heresy began about the year 417. The first opposers
thereof are reckoned up by Prosper, cap. ii. De Ingrat. The bishop of
Eome, the Palestine synod in the case of Pelagius, Jerome, Atticus, bishop
of Constantinople, the synod of Ephesus, [of] Sicily, and two in Afric, he
mentions in order, concluding them with the second African, gathered to
that end and purpose: —

" Anne alium in finem posset procedere sanctum
Concilium, cui dux Aurelius ingeniumque
Augustinus erat ? quern Chrit^ti gratia cornu
Uberiore rigans, nostro lumen dedit £evo,
Accensum vero de lumine, nam cibus illi
Et vita et requies Deus est; omiiisque voluptas
Unus amor Cliristi est; unus Christi est lionor illi:
Et dum nulla sibi quserit bona, fit Deus illi
Omnia, et in sancto regnat sapientia templo."

And because I shall not burden the reader, being now entered upon the
place and time wherein very many witnesses call aloud to be heard about
the difference in hand, of the first opposers of the Pelagian heresy, I shall
insist only on him who is indeed " instar omnium," and hath ever been
so accounted in the controversies about the grace of God: and I shall the
rather lay this weight on him, because it is evident that he spake the sense
of the wliole church in those days wherein he lived. This is AusTi.v, of
whom saith the same Prosper: " Noverint illi non solum Romanam eccle-
siam Africanamque, sed per omnes mundi partes universes promissionis
filios, cum doctrina hujus viri, sicut in tota fide, ita in gratioe confessione
congruere," Epist. ad Ilusti.

And when his writings began to be carped at by the semi-Pelagians of
Prance, Ca;lestine, bishop of Rome, in his Epist. ad Gallos, gives him this
testimony : " Augustinum, sancta; recordationis virum pio vita sua et
nioribus, in nostra communione semper habuinuis, noc uriquam hunc sinis-
traj suspicionis rumor saltem aspersit, quem tanta3 sciential olim fuisse me-
minimus, ut inter magistros optimos etiam a meis prreJecossoribus habere-
tur." His writings also were made use of not only by Prosper, Hilary,
and Fulgcntius, but generally by all that engaged against the Pelagians.
"Zosimus," saith Prosper, ad Collat. cap. xli., "cum esset doctissimus, ad-
versus libros tamen Pelagianorum beati Augustini responsa poscebat." And
Leo, Epist. ad Concil. Ai-ausic, transcribes out of liim verbatim the things
that he would have confirmed and established. And in his own days, not-
withstanding the dilleronces between them, the aged and learned Jerome
tells him, Epist. xciv., " JVIihi decretum est te amare, te suspiccre, colere,
mirari, tuaque dicta, quasi mea, defendere." Hence was that outcry in
the Palestine synod ui)on the slighting of his authority by Pelagius:
"Dixit Pelagius, Qiiis est mihi Augustinus? Acclamabant onnies blasphe-
mantem in episcopum, ex cnjus ore Dominus universa; Africie unitatis in-
diilserit sanitatem, non solum a conventu illo, sed ab omni ecclesia pellen-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 61

dum," Oros. Apologet. pp. G21, 622. So also Gelas. Biblioth. Pat. Tom, 4,
Colum. 553, p. 589.

Fulgentius also, with them assembled with him at Byzacene, when they
were banished Afi ic by Thrasimundus, in that synodical epistle, gives them
this counsel : " Pra3 omnibus studium gerite libros S. Augustini quos ad
Prosperum et Hilarium scripsit, memoratis fratribus legendos ingerere,"
Epist. Synod. Byzac. Much more might be added to manifest the judg-
ment of Austin to have been the catholic judgment of the church in those
days ; so that in his single testimony as groat a number are included as
in the testimony of any one man in the world whatever.

Now, the controversy that was between Austin and the Pelagians and
semi- Pelagians about perseverance, Hilary thus expresseth in his e])istle
to him : " Deinde moleste ferunt," speaking of the semi-Pelagians, " ita
dividi gratiam, qufe vel tunc primo homini data est, vel nunc omnibus
datui-, ut ille acceperit perseverantiam, non qua fieret ut perseveraret, sed
sine qua per liberum arbitrium perseverare non posset ; nunc vero Sanctis
in regnum per gratiam prsedestinatis, non tale adjutorium perseverantise
detur, sed tale, ut eis perseverantia ipsa donetur, non solum ut sine illo
dono perseverantes esse non possint, verum etiam ut per hoc donum non
nisi perseverantes sint. Cjeterum quicquid libet donatum sit predestinatis,
id posse et amittere et retinere propria voluntate contendunt." The very
state of the controversy as now under contest is most clearly expressed in
this report of the difierenee between the semi-Pelagians and the church
of God in those days. And because the whole sum of Mr Goodwin's book
is briefly comprised in the 9th and 10th chapters of Prosper, De Ingrat.,
I shall transcribe the 10th chapter, to present to the reader the substance
and pith of that treatise, as also the state of the controversy in those
days: —

" Quam Sana fides sit vestra patescat,

Gratia qua Christi populus sumus, hoc cohibetur

Limite vobiscum, et formam hauc adscribitis illi :

Ut cunctos vocet ilia quidem, invitetque ; nee uUum

Praeteriens, studeat communem afferre salutem

Omnibus, et totum peccato absolvere mundum ;

Sed proprio quenique arbitrio parere vocantl,

Judicioque suo ; mota se extendere meute

Ad lucem oblatam, qua} se non subtraliat ulli,

Sed cupidos recti juvet, illustretque yolentes.

Hinc adj uteris Domini bonitate magistra

Crescere virtutum studia, ut quod quisque petendum

Mandatis didicit, jugi sectetur amore.

Esse autem edoctis istam coinmuniter asquam

Libertatem animis, ut cuvsuni explore beatum

Persistendo queant, finem effectumque petitum

Dante Deo, ingeniis qui nunquam desit iionestis.

Sed quia non idem est cunctis vigor, et variarum

Illecebris rerum trahitur dispersa voluntas,

Sponte aliquos vitiis succumbere, qui potuissent

A lapsu revocare pedem, stabilesque mauei-e."

As I said, we have the sum of Mr Goodwin's book in this declaration of
the judgment of the semi-Pelagians, so also, in particular, the state of the
controversy about the perseverance of the saints, as then it was debated ;
and I doubt not but the learned reader will easily perceive it to be no
other than that which is now agitated between me and Mr Goodwin. The
controversy, indeed, in the matter between Austin and the Pelagians was
reduced to three heads : — As to the foundation of it, which Austin con-
cluded to be the decree of predestination: which thoy denied. The impul-
sive cause of it he proved to be the free grace of God; and tlie measure or
quality of that grace to be such as that whoever received it did persevci-e,

62 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

it being perseverance which was given : both which they denied. About tlie
kind of faith which temporary professors might have, and fall from it, which
were never elected, there was between them no contest at all. Of his
judgment, then, there were these two main heads, which he laboured to
confirm : —

1. That perseverance is a gift of God, and that no man either did or could
persevere in faith and obedience upon the strength of any grace received (much
less of his own ability, stirred up and promoted by such considerations as
Mr Goodwin makes the ground and bottom of the perseverance of all that
so do), hut that the whole icas from his grace. Subservient to this, he main-
tained that no one temptation whatsoever could be overcome but by some
act of grace ; and that therefore perseverance must needs bo a work there-
of, it being an abiding in foith and obedience notwithstanding and against
temptation. To this is that of his on John, Homil. 53 : " Quosdam nimia
voluntatis sure fiducia extulit in superbiam, ot quosdam nimia voluntatis
sua) diffidcntia dejecit in negligentiam : illi dicunt quid rogamus Deum ne
vincamur tentatione quod in nostra est potestate ? Isti dicunt, at quid
conamur bene vivere, quod in Dei est potestate ? O Domine, O Pater, qui
cs in coelis, ne nos inferas in quamlibet istarum tentationum, sed libera
nos a malo. Audiamus Dominum dicentem, ' Rogavi pro te, Petre, ne fides
deficiat tua:' ne sic existimemus fidem nostram esse in libero arbitrio ut
divino non egeat adjutorio," etc. That, with both of these sorts of men,
the way and work of the grace of God is at this day perverted and ob-
scured, is so known to all that it needs no exemplification : some requiring
no more to the conquest of temptations but men's own rational considera-
tion of their eternal state and condition, with the tendency of that whereto
they are tempted ; others turning the grace of God into wantonness, and
supinely casting away all heedful regard of walking with God, being en-
slaved to their lusts and corruptions, under a pretence of God's working
all in all ; — the latter denying themselves to be men, the former to be men
corrupted. And in ]tlain terms the Milevitan council tells us: " Si quis finx-
erit ideo gratiam esse necessariam ad vitanda peccata, quia facit hominem
cognoscere peccata, ct discernere inter peccata et non peccata, qua discre-
tione per gratiam habita, per liberum arbitrium potest vitare ; is procul,"
etc. The light of grace to discern the state of things, the nature of sin,
and to consider these aright, the Pelagians allowed, — which is all the bot-
tom of that perseverance of saints which we have ofiered by Mr Goodwin;
but upon that supply of these means, to abide and persevere in faith, to flee
and avoid sin, is a thing of our own performance.

This the doctors of that council, anno 420, condemned as a Pelagian
fiction, as Pros])er also presents it at large, cap. xxv. against Cassiaruis the
semi-Pelagian, and farther clears and confirms it. So Austin again, De
Bono Persov., cap. ii., "Cur perseverantia ista petitur a Deo, si non datur a
Deo? an ct ista irrisoria petitio est, cum illud ab eo petitur, quod scitur
non ipsum dare, sed ipso non dante, esse in hominis potestate? sicut irri-
soria est eti;im ilia gratiarum actio, si ex hoc gratia) aguntur Doo quod
non donavit ipse nee fecit." And the same argument he useth again, c.i]).
vi. 9, much resting on Cyprian's interpretation of the Lord's Prayer; and
cap. xxvi., he farther prcsseth it, as to the root and foundation of this gift
of God: "Si ad liberum arbitrium hominis, quod non secundum gratiam,
sed contra earn defendis, pertinero dicis, ut perseveret in bono quisquis,
vel non perseveret, non Deo dante sic perseverat, sed humana voluntate
faciente." One or two instances more in this kind, amongst hundreds that
offer themselves, may sufiice.

A PEEFACE TO THE READER. 63

De Correptione et Gratia, cap. xiv., " Apostolus Judas, cum dieit, 'Ei
autem qui potens est,' etc., nonne apertissime ostendit donum Dei esse
perseverare in bono usque ad finem ? quid enim aliud sonat ' Qui potest
eonservare nos sine oftensione, et constiiuere ante conspcctum glorise sujb,
immaculatos in leetitia,' nisi perseverantiam bonam ? quis tam insulse desi-
piat, ut neget perseverantiam esse donum Dei, cum dicit sanctissimus
Jeremias, ' Timorem meum dabo in corde eorum ut non recedant a me,'" etc.
I shall add only that one place more out of the same book (cap. xii.), where
both the matter and manner of the thing in hand are fully delivered : " In
hoc loco miseriarum, ubi tentatio est vita hominum super terram, virtus in
infirmitate perficitur ; quai virtus, nisi ' Qui gloriatur, ut in Domino glorie-
tur?' Ac per hoc de ipsa perseverautia boni noluit Deus sanctos suos in viri-
bus suis, sed in ipso gloriari, qui eis non solum dat adjutorium quod prime
homini dedit, sine quo non possit perseverare si velint, sed in iis etiam ope-
ratur et velle ; et quoniam non persevei'abunt nisi et possint, et velint,
perseverandi eis et possibilitas et voluntas, diviufe gratia? largitate, donatur ;
tantum quippe Spiritu Saneto aceenditur voluntas eorum, ut ideo possint
quia sic volunt, ideo sic velint, quia Deus operatur ut velint. Nam si tanta
infirmitate hujus vitro ipsis relinquitur voluntas sua, ut in adjutorio Dei,
sine quo perseverare non possent, manerent si vellent, ni Deus in eis ope-
raretur ut velint, inter tot, et tantas tentationes, infirmitate sua succum-
beret voluntas, et ideo perseverare non possent, quia deficientes infirmi-
tate voluntatis non vellent, aut non ita vellent, ut possent. Subventum
est igitur infirmitati voluntatis humanre, ut divina gratia indeclinabiliter,
et insuperabiliter ageretur, et ideo quamvis infirma non tamen deficeret."
It is not possible that any one should deliver his sense more clearly to the
whole of our present contest than this holy and learned man hath done
in the words now repeated from him. A gift of God he asserts it to be
(and not an act or course of our own, whereto we are prompted by cer-
tain considerations, and assisted with such outward means as are also
added to us), to the real production of that effect by the efficiency of the
grace of God. And for the manner of this work, it is, saith he, by the
effectual working the actual Avill of perseverance in the continuance of our
obedience, in a dispensation of grace, difterent from and beyond wliat
was given to him who had a power of persevering if he would, but re-
ceived not the will thereof. Now, to Adam's perseverance there was
nothing wanting but his will's confirmation in obedience, and his actual
doing so. Power he had within and means without, abundantly suffi-
cient for that end in their kind. This, then, he asserts to be given to the
saints, and to be the work of God in them, even their actual ])ersever-
ance. Without this he also manifesteth, that, such is the infirmity of
our wills, and such the power of our temptations, that what means so-
ever may be supplied and left to their power, or what manlike, rational
considerations soever man may engage his thoughts into, it is impossible
any should persevere to the end: which Bradwardin more confirms, De
Cans. Dei, lib. ii. cap. viii. Coroll., " Omne quod est naturale, et non est
per se tale, si manere debeat immutatum, oportet quod innitatur continue
alicui fixo per se : quare quilibet Justus Deo."

And the holy man (Austin, I mean) concludes, that this work of God
being wrought in a man, his will is indeclinably and inseparably fixed
so to obedience as not to fall ofl' from God. This is the foundation that
he lays of the doctrine of the perseverance of saints, that it is a gift of
God, and that such a gift as he effectually and actually works in him on
whom he doth bestow it ; — a foundation that will by no means regularly

G4 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

boar the liay and stubble whereuith men tliink to build up a doctrine
of perscveranco, making it a fruit that may or may not be brought forth,
from our own use of the means allowed for that end and puri)Ose. And,
indeed, the asserting of the perseverance of the saints in that way is as
bad (if not a worse and more fearful) opposition to, and slighting of, the
grace of God, as the denial of it in the way they oppose. By the latter
they o]>pose the grace of God, by the former set up tlie power and strength
of their own will. Thus far Austin is clearly engaged with us, that per-
severance is a gift of God, that it is given by him to every one that doth
persevere, and that every one to w'hom it is given is inseparably confirmed
in grace, and shall infallibly persevere to the end.

In that earnest and long contest which that learned doctor insists upon,
to pro\e perseverance to be the gift of God (for which he hath sufficient
ground from that of the apostle, 1 Cor. i. 7, 8, " That ye come behind in no
gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc.), two things he
especially aimed at : — First, An opposing of such a perseverance as should
not be the fruit and work of the grace of God in us, but the work and
effect of our own endeavours, upon a supply of such means, motives,
persuasions, and considerations, as we are or may be furnished withal.
Secondly, That it is so given and bestowed, as that on whomsoever it is
bestowed, he certainly lialh it; that is, he doth certainly persevere. As
it was heresy to that holy man to deny perseverance to be the gift of God,
so it was ridiculous to hiin to say that that gift was given to any, and yet
that they I'cceived it not ; that is, that they might not persevere. "Nobis,"
saith he, De Corrcp. et Grat., cap. xi., "qui Christo insiti sumus, talis data
est gratia, ut non solum possimus si velimus, sed etiam nt velimus in
Christo persevcrare." And cap. xii., "Non solum ut sine illo dono perse-
verantes esse non possint, verum etiam ut per hoc donum non nisi perse-
verantes sint."

And that which he adds afterward is most considerable, concluding from
that of our Saviour, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,
and ordained you, tliat ye should go and bring forth fruit." " Eis," saith
he, "non solum justitiam, verum etiam in ilia perseverantiam dedisse mon-
stravit. Cluisto enim sic eos poncnte ut cant et fructum afterant, et
fructus corum maneat, quis audeat dicere 'Forsitan non manebunt?'"
Though they dare say so who also dare to ])retend his authority for what
they say ! — how falsely, how unjustly, is evident to all serious observers of
his mind and spirit in and about the things of the grace of God.

2. As he mentioned perseverance to be such a gift of God as indeclin-
ably wrought in them on whom it was bestowed a will to persevere, and
on that account perseverance itself (an assertion as obnoxious to the ca-
lumny and clamour of the adversaries of the doctrine under consideration
as any we teach or atiirm concerning it), so he farther constantly taught
this (jift and grace to he a fruit of j^rcih'stination or ejection, and to be be-
stotced on all and onJi/ elected believers. So De Predestinatione Sane,
cap. xvii., "Ila'C dona l)ei dantur eleetis, secundum Dei jiropositum vocatis,
in quibus est et incipcrc et credere, et in fide ad hujus vita; exitum persevc-
rare." And al'tcrward, cap. ix. De Bono Pcrsev. " Ex duobus piis" (of his
meaning in that word afterward), "cur huic donetur perseverantia, usque in
finem, illi non donetur, inscrutabilia sunt judicia Dei: illud tamen fidelibus
debet esse certissimum, hunc esse ex pr.'cdestinatis, ilium non esse: ' Nam si
fuissent ex nobis' (ait unus pncdestinatorum qui e pcctore Domini biberat

hoc secretum) 'mansissent utiquo nobiscum.' Qua; est ista discrctio?

Patent libri Dei, non avcrtamus aspectum, clamat Seriptura Divina, adiiibe-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 65

amus auditum, non erant ex eis, quia non erant secundum propositum
vocati : non erant in Christo electi ante mundi eonstitutionem, non erant
in eo sortem consecuti, non erant prfedestinati secundum propositum ejus
qui omnia operatur." And unto these elect, predestinate believers, he
concluded still that perseverance was so given in and for Christ, so pro-
ceeding from the immutable will of God, wrought by such an efficacy of
grace, that it was impossible that they should not persevere. He compares
it farther with the grace that Adam received : Lib. de Correp. et Gri'at.,
cap. xii., "Primo itaque homini, qui in eo bono quo factus fuerat rectus, ac-
eeperat posse non peccare, posse non mori, posse ipsum bonura non deserere,
datum est adjutorium perseverantise, non quo fieret ut perseveraret, sed sine
quo per liberum arbitrium perseverare non posset. Nunc vero Sanctis in
regnum Dei per gratiam Dei pra?destinatis, non tantum tale adjutorium
perseverantite datur ; sed tale, ut iis perseverantia ipsa donotur, non solum
ut sine isto dono perseverantes esse non possint, verum etiam ut per hoc
donum non nisi perseverantes sint." And a little after : " Ipse itaque dat
perseverantiam, qui stabilire potens est eos qui stant, ut perseverantissime
stent." And in the 8th chapter of the same book, expounding that of our
Saviour, Luke xxii. 32, " I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,"
he manifesteth how, upon that account, it was impossible that the will of
Peter should not actually be established to the end in believing. His words
are, " An audebis dicere, etiam rogante Christo ne deficeret fides Petri,
defecturam fuisse, si Peti'us eam deficere voluisset, idque si earn usque in
finem perseverare noluisset? Quasi aliud Petrus uUo modo vellet, quam
pro illo Christus rogasset ut vellet : nam quis ignorat tunc fuisse poritu-
ram fidem Petri, si ea quce fidelis erat voluntas ipsa deficeret; et perman-
suram, si voluntas eadem permaneret? Quando ergo oravit ne fides ejus
deficeret, quid aliud rogavit, nisi ut haberet in fide liberrimam, fortissimam,
invictissimam, perseverantissimam voluntatem?" And in this persuasion
he had not only the consent of all the sound and orthodox doctors in his
time, as was before manifested, but he is followed also by the schoolmen
of all ages, and not forsaken by some of the Jesuits themselves, as we
shall afterward see, when we have added that consideration of the doctrine
of this learned man which hath given occasion to some to pretend his
consent in opposition to that which most evidently he not only delivered
but confirmed. There are in Austin, and those that either joined Avith
him or followed immediately after him (notwithstanding the doctrine for-
merly insisted on, that actual perseverance is a gift of God, and that it
flows from predestination, as an effect thereof, and is bestowed on all elect
believers, infallibly preserving them unto the end, — wherein they assert
and strongly prove the whole of what we maintain), sundry expressions,
commonly urged by the adversaries of the truth in hand, granting many
who were saints, believing and regenerate, to fall away and perish for
ever. I need not instance in any of their sayings to this purpose; the
reader knows where to find them gathered to his hand, in Vossius, Gro-
tius, and Mr Goodwin, from them. The seeming contradiction that is
amongst themselves in the delivery of this doctrine will easily admit of a
reconciliation, may they be allowed the common courtesy of being inter-
preters of their own meaning. What weight in those days was laid upon
the participation of the sacramental figures of grace, and what expressions
are commonly used concerning them who had obtained that privilege, ai*e
known to all. Hence all baptized persons, continuing in the profession of
the faith and communion of the church, they called, counted, esteemed
truly regenerate and justified, and spake so of them. Such as these they
VOL. XI. 5

66 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

constantly affirmed might fall away into everlasting destruction; but yet
what tlicir judgment was concerning their present state indeed, even then
when they so termed them regenerate and believers, in respect to the
sacraments of those graces, Austin in sundry places clearly delivers his
thoughts, to the undeceiving of all that are willing to be free. This he
especially handles in his book De Correp. et Grat., cap. ix. " Non erant,"
saith he, "filii, etiam quando erant in professione et nomine filiorum; non
quia justitiam simulaverunt, sed quia in ea non permanserunt." This
righteousness he esteemed not to be merely feigned and hypocritical, but
rather such as might truly entitle them to the state and condition of the
children of God, in the sense before expressed.

And again, " Isti cum pie vivunt dicuntur filii Dei, sed quoniam victuri
sunt impie, et in eadcm impietate morituri, non eos dicit filios Dei praj-
scientia Dei." And farther in the same chapter, " Sunt rursus quidam qui
filii Dei propter susceptam temporalem gratiam dicuntur a nobis, nee sunt
tamen Deo." And again, " Non erant in numero filiorum, etiam quando
erant in fide filiorum." And, " Sicut non vere discipuli Christi, ita nee
vere filii Dei fuerunt, etiam quando esse videbantur, et ita vocabantur."
He concludes, " Appellamus ergo nos et electos Christi discipulos, et Dei
filios, quos regenerates" (that is, as to the sacramental sign of that grace),
" pie vivere cernimus ; sed tunc vere sunt quod appellantur, si manserint
in eo propter quod sic appellantur. Si autem perseverantiam non habent,
id est, in eo quod cceperunt esse non manent, non vere appellantur quod
appellantur, et non sunt." As also, De Doct. Christiana, lib. iii. cap. xxxii.,
" Non est revera corpus Christi quod non erit cum illo in reternum."

And these are the persons which Austin and those of the same judg-
ment with him do grant that they may fall away, such as, upon the account
of their baptismal entrance into the church, their pious, devout lives, their
profession of the faith of the gospel, they called and accounted regenerate
believers; of whom yet they tell you, upon a thorough search into the nature
and causes of holiness, grace, and walking with God, that they would be
found not to be truly and really in that state and condition that they were
esteemed to be in; of which they thought this a sufficient demonstration,
even because they did not persevere: which luideniably, on the other hand
(with the testimonies foregoing, and the like innumerable that might be
produced), evinces that their constant judgment was, that all who are truly,
really, and in the sight of God, believers, ingrafted into Christ, and adopted
into his family, should certainly persevere; and that all the passages usually
cited out of this holy and learned man, to persuade us that he ever cast an
eye towards the doctrine of the apostasy of the saints, may particularly be
referred to this head, and manifested that they do not at all concern those
whom he esteemed saints indeed, which is clear from the consideration of
what hath been insisted on. Thus far he, of whom what were tlie thoughts
of the church of God in the days wherein he lived liath been declared;
he who hath been esteemed, amongst the ecclesiastical writers of old, to
have laboured more, and to more purpose, in the doctrine of the grace of
God, than all tliat went before him, or any that have followed after him;
whose renown in the church hath been chielly upheld and maintained upon
tlie account of the blessed pains and labours, wherein the presence of God
made him to excel, for the depressing the pride of all flesh, and the exal-
tation of the riches of God's love, and efficacy of his grace in Jesus Christ,
wlierevvith the whole church in succeeding ages hath been advantaged
beyond what is easy to be expressed.

Tliat PuosPER, HiLAUV, FuLGENTius, and the n)en of renown in the con-

A PEEFACE TO THE EEADER. 67

gregation of God at the end of that age, did fall in with their judgments
to that which Austin had delivered, I suppose will be easily confessed.
Prosper, ad cap. vii. Gal. : " Quomodo eos habeat pra^ordinata in Christo
electio? cum dubium non sit donum Dei esse perseverantiam in bono us-
que ad finem; quod istos, ex eo ipso quod non perseveraruut, non habuisse
nianifestum est." Also, the breaking of the power and frustrating of the
attempt of Pelagius by sundry doctors of the church, and synods to that
end assembled (whereof Prosper gives us an account, reckoning them up
in their order, and Austin before him, Epist. xlii. and xlvii., with special
relation to what was done in Afric, and in the beginning of his verses,
De Ingratis), with what troubles were raised and created anew to the
champions of the grace of God.by the writings of Cassianus, Faustus, Yin-
centius, the Massilienses, with some others in France, and the whole rabble
of semi-Pelagians, with the fiction of Sigibert about a predestinarian
heresy (whereof there was never any thing in being, no not among the
Adrumentine monks, where Vossius hoped to have placed it), the council
of Aries, the corruptions and falsifications of Faustus in the business of
Lucidus, the im];)Ositions on Gotteschalcus, with the light given to that
business from the Epistle of Florus, — have exercised the commendable en-
deavours of so many already that there is not the least need farther to
insist upon them. What entertainment that peculiar doctrine, which I am
in the consideration of, found in the following ages is that which I shall
farther demonstrate.

After these was Gregory I., who, lib, i. Epist. xcix., speaks to the same
purpose with them in these words: " Redemptor noster, Dei hominumque
mediator, conditionis humante non immemor, sic imis summa conjungit, ut
ipse in unitate permanens ita temporalia, occulto instinctu, pia consulens
moderatione disponat, quatenus de ejus manu antiquus hostis nuUatenus
rapiat, quos ante secula iiitra sinum matris ecclesise adunandos esse prse-
scivit; nam et si quisquam eorum inter quos degit, statibus motus ad tem-
pus ut ])almes titubet, radix tamen rectse fidei, quiB ex occulto prodit,
divino judicio virens manet, quie accepto tempore fructum de se ostentare
valeat, qui latebat." This is the sum of what we contend for, — namely,
that all those whom God hath predestinated to be added to the church,
receiving a saving faith, though they may be shaken, yet on that account
the root abides firm, their faith never utterly perisheth, but in due time
brings fortli accepted fruits again.

And most expressive to our purpose is that discourse of his which you
have, lib. xxxiv. Moral, cap. viii. Saith he, " Aurum, quod pravis diaboli
persuasionibus quasi lutum sterni potuerit, aurum ante Dei oculos nunquam
fuit, qui enim seduci quandoque non reversuri possunt, quasi habitam
sanetitatem ante oculos hominum videntur amittere, sed earn ante oculos
Dei nunquam habuerunt."

The exclusion of those from being true believers who may be seduced
and fall away doth most eminently infer the perseverance of all them
who are so.

Add unto these CEcumenius (though he be one of a later date), and these
shall suffice for the period of time relating to the Pelagian controversy.
Saith he, in Epist. ad Eph. cap. i. 14, 'O «g3a£wv 'Trigrovrai to o\or Tivd rohvv
v'/o8i(Jiav xai rcl fxupia uyada, 'inarov/j.s'jog 6 ©soc b'ibunsv doia^ojva rr/g s-ov^avlou
x\7ioov('!jjiag to " Ayiov Ilvi\j,au. All is confirmed and ratified by the earnest of
the Spirit, that is given to them that believe.

Of those that lived after the days of the forementioned (I mean all of
them but the last), that I may not cloy the reader, I shall not mention

68 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

any, until the business of divinity and the profession of it -was taken up
by the schoolmen and canonists; who, from a mixture of divine and human
principles, framed the whole body of it anew, and gave it over into the
possession of the present Romish church, moulded for the most part to
the worldly, carnal interests of them on whom they had their dependency
in their several generations.

But yet as there was none of those but, one way or other, was eminently
conducing to the carrying on of the mystery of iniquity, by depraving,
perverting, and corrupting, one truth or other of the gospel, so all of them
did not in all things equally corrupt their ways, but gave some testimony
more or less to some truths, as they received them from those that went
before them. So fell it out in the matter of the grace of God and the cor-
ruption of the nature of man. Though some of them laboured to corrode
and corrupt the ancient received doctrine thereof, so some, again, con-
tended with all their might, in their way and by their arguments, to de-
fend it ; as is evident in the instance of Bradwardin crying out to God
and man to help in the cause of God against the Pelagians in his days,
in particular complaining of the great master of their divinity. So that
notwithstanding all their corruptions, these ensuing principles passed cur-
rently amongst the most eminent of them as to the doctrine under con-
sideration, which continue in credit with many of their sophistical succes-
sors to this day: —

1. That perseverance is a grace of God, bestowed according to predes-
tination, or election, on men; that is, that God gives it to believers that
are predestinated and elected.

2. That on whomsoever the grace of perseverance is bestowed, they do
persevere to the end ; and it is impossible in some sense that they should
otherwise do.

3. That none who are not predestinate, what grace soever they may be
made partakers of in this world, shall constantly continue to the end.

4. That no believer can by his own strength or power (incited or stirred
up by what manlike or rational considerations soever) persevere in the
faith, the grace of perseverance being a gift of God.

It is true, that, their judgments being perverted by sundry other cor-
ruj)t ])rinciples, about the nature and efficacy of sacraments, with their
conveyance of grace " ex opere operate," and out of ignorance of the
righteousness of God and the real work of regeneration, they generally
maintain (though Bradwardin punctually expressed himself to be of another
mind) that many persons not predestinate may come to believe, yet fall
away and perish.

JSow, the truth is, it is properly no part of the controversy under con-
sideration, whether, or how far, and in what sense, men, by reason of the
profession and participation of ordinances, with the work and eflect of
common grace upon them, may be said to be true believers ; but the whole,
upon the matter of what we plead for, is comprised in the assertions now
ascribed to them: which that it is done upon sutlicient grounds will be
manifest by calling in some few of the most eminent of them, to speak in
their own woi'ds what their thoughts were in this matter.

To bring them in, I desire that one who (though none of them) was
eminent in his undertakings for a mixture of divinity and law, in those
days wherein they had their eminent rise and original, may 1)0 heard ;
and that is Ghatian, who after his manner hath collected many thirigs to
the purpose in hand. P. 2, c. 33, q. 3, De Pocnit. Dist., can. 2, " Charitas,"
saith he, " est juncta Deo inseparabiliter, ct uuita, et in omnibus semper

A PEEFACE TO THE EEADER. 69

invieta." And, '* Electi quippe sic ad boniim tendunt, ut ad mala perpe-
tranda non redeant ; et, potest discursus, et mobilitas spiritus sic intelligi.
In sanctorum quippe cordibus juxta quasdam virtutes semper permanet ;
juxta quasdam vero recessurus venit, venturus recedit : in fide etenim, et
spe, et charitate, et bonis aliis, sine quibus ad coelestem patriam non potest
veniri (sicut est humilitas, castitas, justitia, atque misericordia) perfectorum
corda non deserit : in prophetijB vero virtute, doctrinfc facundia, miracu-
lorum exhibitione, suis aliquando adest, aliquando se subtrahit." Answer-
ing the objection of the Spirit's departure from them on whom he is be-
stowed, he distinguisheth of the respects upon tlie account whereof he
may be said so to do. " In respect of some common gifts," saith he, " he
may withdraw himself from them on whom he is bestowed; but not in re-
spect of habitual sanctifying grace."

Among the schoolmen, there is none of greater name and eminency, for
learning, devotion, and subtilty, than our Bkadwardin, who was proctor of
this university in the year 1325, and obtained by general consent the title
of Doctor Profundus. Lib. ii., De Causa Dei, cap. viii., this profoundly
learned doctor proposes this thesis, to be confirmed in the following chap-
ter : " Quod nullus viator, quantacunque gratia creata subnixus, solius
liberi arbitrii viribus, vel etiam cum adjutorio gratiie, possit perseverare
finaliter, sine alio Dei auxilio speciali." In the long disputation following,
he disputes out of the Scriptures and ancient writers, abundantly cited to
his purpose, that there is no possibility of the perseverance of any believer
in the faith to the end upon such helps, considerations, and advantages, as
Mr Goodwin proposeth as the only means thereof; that perseverance
itself is a gift of God, without which gift and grace none can persevere.
And the specialty of that grace he expresseth in the corollary wherewith
he closeth the chapter, Avhich is, " Quod nullus viator, solius liberi arbitrii,
vel gratife viribus, aut amborum conjunctim, sine alio Dei auxilio speciali,
potest perseverare per aliquod tempus omnino;" farther asserting the
eflicacy of special grace in and for every good work Avhatever. His argu-
ments and testimonies I shall not need to recite; they are at hand to those
who desire to consult them.

After the vindication of the former thesis, cap. ix., x., xi., he proposeth
farther this proposition, to a right understanding of the doctrine of perse-
verance : " Quod perseverantia non est aliquod donum Dei creatum, a
charitate, et gratia realiter difFerens." And the corollary wherewith he
shuts up that disputation is : " Quod nomen perseverantia; nullam rem ab-
solutam essentialiter significat, sed accidentaliter et relative ; charitatem
videlicet, sive justitiam cum respectu futurse permansionis usque in finem,
et quod non improbabiliter posset dici perseverantiam esse ipsam relatio-
nem hujus."

After this, knowing well what conclusion would easily be inferred from
these principles, — namely. That perseverance is not really distinct from
faith and love, that it is such a grace and gift of God that whosoever it is
bestowed upon shall certainly persevere, namely, that every one who hath
received true grace, faith and love, shall certainly persevere, — he objects
that to himself, and plainly grants it to be so indeed, cap. xii. And to
make the matter more clear, cap. xiii., he disputes, that " Auxilium sine
quo nullus perseverat, et per quod quilibet perseverat, est Spiritus Sanctus,
divina bonitas et voluntas." Every cause of bringing sinful man to God
is called by them " auxilium." In these three, " Spiritus Sanctus, divina
bonitas, et voluntas," he compriseth the chief causes of perseverance, as I
have also done in the ensuing treatise. By " divina voluntas" he intends

70 A PREFACE TO THE READER

God's eternal ami immutable decree, as he manifests, cap. viii., ix., wliither
he sends his reader; liis " divina bonitas" is that free grace whereby
God accepts and justifies us as his; " Spiritus Sanctus" is sanctification:
so that he affirms tlie perseverance of the saints to consist in the stability
of their acceptation with God, and continuance of their sanctification from
him, upon the account of liis unchangeable purposes and decrees; which is
the sum of what we contend for.

And tliis is part of the doctrine concerning the grace of God, and his
sovereignty over the wills of men, which Bradwardin in his days cried
out so earnestly for the defence of to God and man against the Pelagian
encroachment, which was made upon it in those days. Thus he turns
himself, in the conclusion of his book, to the pope and church of Rome,
with zealous earnestness, for their interposition to the determination of
these controversies. " Ut os inique loquentium," saith he, " obstruatur,
flexis genibus cordis mei imploro ecclesiam, prajcipue Eomanam, qua? summa
authoritate vigere dignoscitur, quatenus ipsa determinare dignetur, quid
circa ])r8emissas catholice sit tenendum. Non enim sine periculo in talibus
erratur. Simon, dermis ? exurge," speaking to the pope, " exinie gladiura,
amputa quajque sinistra hajreticse pravitatis, defende et protege catholicam
veritatem. Porro etsi Dominus ipse in Petri navicula dormiat, nimietate
tempestatis compulsus, ipsvma quoque fiducial iter excitabo, quatenus Spiri-
tus oris sui tempestate sedata tranquilkim faciat et serenum. Absit autem,
ut qui in prora hujus navicular pervi<;il laborabat, jam in puppi super cer-
vicalia dormiat, vel dormitet," lib. iii. cap. liii.

With this earnestness, above three hundred years ago, did this profoundly
learned man press the popes to a determination of these controversies
against the Pelagians and their successors in his schools. The same suit
hath ever since been continued by very many learned men (in ever\'^ age)
of the communion of the church of Rome, crying out for the papal defini-
tive sentence against the Pelagian errors crept into their church ; especially
hath this outcry with supplication been renewed by the Dominican friars,
ever since the Jesuits have so cunningly gilded over that Pelagian poison,
and set it out as the best and most wholesome food for " holy mother "
and her children. Yea, with such earnestness hath this been in the last
age pursued by agents in the court of Rome, that (a congregation de
auxiliis being purposely appointed) it was generally supposed one while
that they would have prevailed in their suit, and have obtained a definitive
sentence on their side against their adversaries. But through the just
vengeance of God upon a pack of bloody, persecuting idolaters, giving tliem
up more and more to the belief of lies, contrary almost to the expectation
of all men, this very year, 1G53, Pope Innocent X., who now wears the
tri])le crown, conjured by the subtlety and dreadful interest of the Jesuits
in all nations that as yet wonder after him, by a solemn bull, or papal
consistorian determination, in the case of Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, hath
turned the scales upon his first supj>liants, and cast the cause on the
Pelagian side. But of that whole business elsewhere.

I shall not perplex the reader with the horrid names of Trombet, Hilcot,
Bricot, Sychet, Tartaret, Brulifer, nor with their more horrid terms and
expressions. Let the one Angelical Doctor [i.e., Aquinas] answer for the
rest of his companions.

That this man, then (one of the great masters of the crew), abode by
the ])rinciples of him before insisted on, may quickly be made evident by
some few instances clearing his judgment herein.

This, in the first place, he everywhere insists on, that no habitual grace

A PREFACE TO THE READER. '71

received, no improvement that can be made of it, by the utmost ability,
diligence, and the most raised considerations of the best of men, will cause
any one certainly to persevere, without the peculiar preservation of God.
Of this he gives his reason, lib. iii. Contra Gent. Ca. 155, " Illud quod
natura sua est variabile, ad hoc, quod figatur in uno, indiget auxilio ali-
cujus moventis immobilis ; sed liberum arbitrium etiam existentis in gratia
habituali adhuc manet variabile, et flexibile a bono in malum; ergo ad hoc,
quod figatur in bono et perseveret in illo, usque ad finem, indiget speciali
Dei auxilio." An argument this of the same importance with that mentioned
out of Bradwardin; which, howsoever at first appearance it may seem to
lie at the outskirts of the controversy in hand, yet indeed is such as, being
granted, hath an influence into the whole, as hath been manifested.

And this the same author farther confirms. Saith he, pp. q. 109, a. 9,
" Cum nullum agens secundum agat nisi in virtute primi, sitque caro spi-
ritui perpetuo rebellis ; non potest homo licet jam gratiam consecutus, per
seipsum operari bonum, et vitare peccatum, absque novo auxilio Dei, ipsum
moventis, dii-igentis, et protegentis ; quamvis alia habitualis gratia ad hoc
ei necessaria non sit." And the reasons he gives of this conclusion in the
body of the article are considerable. This, saith he, must be so, " Primo
quidem, ratione generali propter hoc, quod nulla res creata potest in quem-
cunque actum prodire, nisi virtute motionis divinte." The Pelagian self-
sufficiency and exemption from dependence " in solidum" upon God, both
providentially and physically as to operation, was not so freely received in
the schools as afterward. " Secundo," saith he, "ratione speciali, propter
conditionem status humanje naturse, qute quidem licet per gratiam sanetur,
quantum ad mentem, remanet tamen in eo corruptio, et infectio quantum
ad carnem, per quam servit legi peecati, ut dicitur. Pom. vii. Remanet
etiam qusedam ignorantite obscuritas in intellectu, secundum quam (ut etiam
dicitur, Rom. viii.) 'quid oremus sicut oportet nescimus:' ideo necesse est
nobis, ut a Deo dirigamur et protegamur, qui omnia novit, et omnia potest."
And will not this man, think you, in his gropings after light, when dark-
ness covered the face of the earth, and thick darkness was upon the in-
habitants thereof, with this his discovery, — of the impotency of the best
of the saints for perseverance upon the account of any grace received,
because of the perpetual powerful rebellion of indwelling lust and corrup-
tion, and that all that do persevere are preserved by the power of God
unto salvation, — rise in judgment against those who in our days, wherein
the Sun of Righteousness is risen with healing under his wings, do ascribe
a sufiiiciency unto men in themselves, upon the bottom of their rational
considerations, to abide with God, or persevere to the end?

And this assertion of the Angelical Doctor is notably confirmed by Di-
dacus Alvarez in his vindication of it from the exception of Medina, that
we make use of habits when we will, and if men will make use of their
habitual grace, they may persevere without relation to any after grace of
God. Saith he, " Respondetur, habitibus quidem nos uti cum volumus, sed
ut velimus illis uti, prairequiritur motio Dei efiBcax, prfemovens liberum
arbitrium, ut utatur habitu ad operandum, et operetur bonum, prsesertim
quando habitus sunt supernaturales ; quia cum pertineant ad superiorem
ordinem, habent specialem rationem, propter quam potentia mere natura-
lis non utitur eisdem habitibus, nisi speciali Dei auxilio moveatur," Alvar.
De Aux. lib. x. disput. 100. Though received graces are reckoned by him
as supernatural habits, yet such as we act not by, nor with, but from new
supplies from God.

Having laid down this principle, Thomas proceeds to manifest that

72 A PREFACE TO THE READER.

there is a special grace of perseverance bestowed by God on some, and
that on Avhomsoever it is bestowed, they certainly and infallibly perse-
vere to the end, pp. quest. 109, a. 10, c. ; and Contra Gent. lib. iii., he
proves this assertion from p. 6, 1 Pet. v. 10; Ps. xvi.

But, to spare the reader, I sliall give you this man's judgment, together
■with one of his followers, who hath had the happiness to clear his master's
mind above any that liave undertaken the maintenance of his doctrine in
that part now controverted in the church of Rome; and therein I shall
manifest (what I formerly proposed) what beamings and irradiations of
this truth do yet glide through that gross darkness which is spread upon
the face of the Romish synagogue ; — referring what I have farther to add
on this head to the account wliich, God assisting, I shall ere long give of
the present Jansenian controversies, in my considerations on Mr Riddle's
catechisms, a task by authority lately imposed on me. Tliis is Didacus
Alvarez, whose 10th book De Auxiliis treats peculiarly of this subject of
perseverance. In the entrance of his disputation, he lays down the same
principles with the former concerning the necessity of the peculiar grace
of perseverance, to the end that any one may persevere, disp. 103.

Then, disp. 108, he ftu-ther manifests that this gift or grace of persever-
ance does not depend on any conditions in us, or any co-operation of our
wills. His position he lays down in these words: " Donum perseveran-
tia3, in ratione doni perseverantise, et efficacia illius, nullo mode dependet
effective ex libera co-operatione nostri arbitrii, sed a solo Deo, atque ab effi-
cacia, et absoluto decreto voluntatis ejus, qui pro sua misericordia tribuit
illud donum cui vult." In tlie farther proof of this proposition, he mani-
fests by clear testimonies that the contrary doctrine hereunto was that of the
Pelagians and semi-Pelagians, which Austin opposed in sundry treatises.
And in all the arguments whereby he farther confirms it, he still presses the
absurdity of making the promise of God concerning perse^■erance con-
ditional, and so suspending it on any thing in and by us to be performed.
And, indeed, all the acts whereby we persevere flowing, according to him,
from the grace of perseverance, it cannot but be absurd to make the effi-
cient cause in its efficiency and operation to depend upon its own effect.
This also is with him ridiculous, that the grace of perseverance should be
given to any and lie not persevere, or be promised and yet not given;
yet witbal he grants, in his following conclusions, tliat our wills, secondarily
and in dependency, do co-operate in our perseverance.

The second principle this learned schoolman insists on is, that this gift
of perseverance is peculiar to the elect, or predestinate: Disput. 10-i, 1,
Con. "Donum perseverantia? est proprium ]iraxlestinatorum, ut nulli alter!
conveniat." And what he intends by " jira^destinati," he informs you ac-
cording to the judgment of Austin and Thomas: "Nomine pra>destina-
tionis ad gloriam, solum cam pra^destinationem intelligunt (Augustinus et
Thomas) qua elccti ordinantur efficaciter, et transmittuntur ad vitam a'ter-
nam; cujus eft'ectus sunt vocatio, justificatio, et ]ierseverantia in gratia
usque ad finem," Not that (or such a) conditional predestination as is
pendent in the air, and expectant of men's good final deportment; but that
which is the eternal, free fountain of all that grace whereof in time by
Jesus Christ we are made partakers.

And in the pursuit of this jiroposition, he farther proves at large that
the perseverance given to the saints in Christ is not a supjilemcnt of helps
and advantages, whereby they may preserve it if thoy will, but such as
causes them on whom it is bestowed certainly and actually so to do; and
that, in its efficacy and operation, it cannot depend on any free co-opera-

A PREFACE TO THE READER. 73

tion of our wills, all the good acts tending to our perseverance being fruits
of that grace which is bestowed on us, according to the absolute unchange-
able decree of the will of God.

This, indeed, is common with this author and the rest of his associates
(the Dominicans and present Jansenians) in these controversies, together
with the residue of the Romanists, that having their judgments wrested
by the abominable figments of implicit faith, and the efficacy of the sacra-
ments of the new testament, conveying, and really exhibiting, the grace
signified or sealed by them, they are enforced to grant that many may
be, and are, regenerated and made true believers wlio are not predes-
tinated, and that these cannot persevere, nor shall eventually be leaved.
Certain it is, that there is not any truth which that generation of men do
receive and admit, but more or less it suffers in their hands, from that
gross ignorance of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, the power whereof
they are practically under. What the poor vassals and slaves will do
upon the late bull of their holy father, casting them in sundry main con-
cernments of their quarrel with their adversaries, is uncertain. Otherwise,
setting aside some such deviations as the above mentioned, whereunto
they are enforced by their ignorance of the grace and justification which
is in Jesus Christ, there is so much of ancient candid truth, in opposition
to the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians, preserved and asserted in the
writings of the Dominican friars, as will rise up, as I said before, in
judgment against those of our days who, enjoying greater light and ad-
vantages, do yet close in with those, and are long since cursed enemies of
the grace of God.

To this Dominican I shall only add the testimony of two famous Jesuits,
upon whose understandings the light of this glorious truth prevailed, for
an acknowledgment of it. The first of these is Bellarmine, whose disputes
to this purpose being full and large, and the author in all men's hands, I
shall not transcribe his assertions and arguments; but only refer the
reader to his lib.ii., De Grat. et Lib. Arbit. cap. xii., " Denique ut multa alia
testimonia," etc. The other is Suarez, who delivers his thoughts suc-
cinctly upon the whole of this matter. Lib. xi. De Perpetuitat. vel Amis.
Grat. cap. ii., sect. 6, saith he, " De pra3destinatis verum est infallibiliter,
quod gratiam finaliter seu in perpetuum non amittunt; unde postquam
semel gratiam habuerant, ita reguntur et proteguntur a Deo, ut vel non
cadant, vel si ceciderint resurgant; et licet ssepius cadant et resurgant,
tandem aliquando ita resurgunt ut amplius non cadant." In which few words
he hath briefly comprised the sum of tliat which is by us contended for.

It was in my thoughts in the last place to have added the concurrent
witness of all the reformed churches, with that of the mo?t eminent divines,
which have written in the defence of their concessions, but this trouble,
upon second consideration, I shall spare the reader and myself; for as many
other reasons lie against the prosecuting of this design, so especially the
uselessness of spending time and pains for the demonstration of a thing of
so evident a truth prevails with me to desist. Notwithstanding the en-
deavours of Mr Goodwin to wrest the words of some of the most ancient
writers who laboured in the first reformation of the churches, I presume
no unprejudiced person in the least measure acquainted with the system
of that doctrine which, with so much pains, diligence, piety, and learning,
they promoted in the world, with the clearness of their judgments in going
forth to the utmost compass of their principles which they received, and
their constancy to themselves in asserting of the truths they embraced, — •
owned by their friends and adversaries until such time as Mr Goodwin

74 A PREFACE TO THE HEADER.

discovered their self-contradictions, — will scarce be moved once to question
their judgments by the excerpta of ]\lr Goodwin, chap. xv. of his treatise;
so that of this discourse this is the issue.

There remains only that I give a brief account of some concernments
of the ensuing treatise, and dismiss the reader from any farther attendance
in the porch or entrance thereof.

The title of the book speaks of the aim and method of it. The confu-
tation of Mr Goodwin was but secondarily in my eye ; and the best way
for that I judged to consist in a full scriptural confirmation of the truth
he opposed. That I ciiiefly intended; and therein I hope the pious reader
may, through the grace of God, meet with satisfaction. In my undertak-
ing to affirm the truth of what I assert, the thing itself first, and then the
manifestation of it, were in my consideration. For the thing itself, my ar-
guing hath been to discover the nature of it, its principles and causes, its
relation to the good-will of the Father, the mediation of the Son, and dis-
pensation of the Holy Ghost to the saints thereupon; and its use and ten-
dency in and unto that fellowship with the Father and the Son whereunto
■we are called and admitted.

As to the manner of its revelation, the proper seats of it in the book of
God, the occasion of the delivery thereof in several seasons, the significant
expressions wherein it is set forth, and the receiving of it by them to whom
it was revealed, have been diligently remarked.

In those parts of the discourse which tend to the vindication of the
arguments from Scripture whereby the truth pleaded for is confirmed, of
the usefulness of the thing itself contended about, etc., I have been, I
hope, careful to keep my discourse from degenerating into jangling and
strife of words (the usual issue of polemical Avritings), being not altogether
ignorant of the devices of Satan, and the usual carnal attendancies of such
proceedings. The weight of the truth in hand, the common interest of
all the saints in their walking with God therein, sense of my own duty,
and the near approach of the account which I must make of the minis-
tration to me committed, have given bounds and limits to my whole dis-
course, as to the manner of handling the truth therein asserted. Writing
in the common language of the nation about the common possession of the
saints, the meanest and weakest as well as the wisest and the most learn-
ed, labouring in the work of Christ and his gospel, I durst not hide the
understanding of what I aimed at by mingling the plain doctrine of the
Scripture with meta})hysical notions, expressions of art, or any pretended
ornaments of wit or fancy; because I fear God. For the more sublime
consideration of things, and such a way of their delivery as, depending
upon the acknowTedged reception of sundry arts and sciences, which the
generality of Christians neither are nor need to be acquainted withal,
scholars may communicate their thoughts and apprehensions unto and
among themselves, and that upon the stage of the world, in that language
whereunto they have consented for and to that end and purpose. That
I have carefully abstained from personal reflections, scofis, undervaluations,
applications of stories and old sayings, to the provocation of the spirit of
them with whom I have to do, I think not at all praiseworthy, because,
upon a review of some passages in the treatise (now irrecoverable), I fear
I have scarce been so careful as I am sure it was my duty to have been.

NOTE BY THE EDITOR.

See page 27.

To remove from the preceding preface the appearance of confusion which it presents,
it is enough to remark, that in the course of citing testimonies in proof that his views
on the subject of the perseverance of the saints had the sanction of antiquitj', Owen,
after a passing blow at the Clementine Constitutions, proceeds not only to impugn the
integrity of the Ignatian Epistles, but to assail the reasonings of Dr Hammond in sup-
port of Episcopacy. On the former point, admitting generally that the documents
known by the name of the Epistles of Ignatius might contain much that was the pro-
duction of tliat early martyr, Owen represents them as so adulterated that no valid in-
fei'ence can be drawn from their contents. His reasons are, that high authorities^uch
as Vedelius, who brought out the Genevan edition of them, Calvin, De Saumaise, Blon-
del, the Magdeburg Centuriators, and Whitaker, had pronounced much of them to be
spurious ; that they contained passages from the Clementine Constitutions, a forgery,
and of a date subsequent to the age of Ignatius ; that the passages quoted from them
by Theodoret and Jerome do not accord with, or rather do not exist in, the version of
them extant; that the style of them is replete with turgid expressions, inconsistent
with the simplicitj' of the early Christian writers ; that Latin words occur in them, not
likely to be employed by a Syrian like Ignatius ; and that they contain expressions of
overweening deference to the hierarchy, a species of government not in existence in the
time of Ignatius. On such grounds, our author holds that these epistles resemble those
children of the Jews by their strange wives, who " spake part the language of Ashdod,
and part the language of the Jews."

No doubt exists that Ignatius was the author of some epistles warning the church of
his day against heretical opinions, which had begun to disturb its unity and peace ; and
eai'ly fathers of the church, Polycarp, Irenseus, Theophilus of Antioch, Origeu, and
Eusebius, make specific allusion to these epistles. The question is, What epistles are to
be regarded as the genuine writings of Ignatius among three different collections pur-
porting to be such ; first, twelve epistles in Greek and Latin, with a Imig and expanded text;
secondly, eleven epistles in Greek and Latin, of which seven are in a shorter text ; and lastly,
the three epistles in Syriac published by Mr Cureton, of which the text is shorter even
than that of the last-mentioned collection?

From thestiong support which many expressions in the first and second of these recen-
sions lend to the hierarchical element in church-government, these documents were of im-
portance in the controversy between Presbyterians and Episcopalians. While the text
was yet unsettled, and difl'erent editions were issuing from the press, — one by Vedelius
in 1623, giving seven Greek epistles, coiTesponding in name to those mentioned by Euse-
bius; another by Usher in 1644; another by Vossius in 1646, giving eight epistles, with
part of a nintli, founded on a manuscript discovered at Floience, and hence desig-
nated the Medicean Greek text, — certain writers, such as Claude de Saumaise (1641 ) and
Blondel (1646), laljoured to prove that these epistles bore traces of an age posterior to
Ignatius. Dr Hammond (1651), in four dissertations, replied to them, defending the
genuineness of the epistles, and episcopal government. It is in answer to this last work
that Owen wrote the animadversions which form the digression in his preface to his
work on the Perseverance of the Saints. Hammond published a rejoinder, in his " Answer
to Animadversions on the Dissertations touching Ignatius' Epistles," etc.

The most important contributions to this controversy followed, and with them for a
time it ceased. Daille, in 1666, published a learned work, designed, according to the
title-page, to prove three things,— that the epistles were spurious, that they were
written after the tiuie of Ignatius, and that they were of no higher authority than
"'J'he Cardinal Works of Christ," a production commonly inserted among the remains
of Cyprian. In 1672, Pearson, afterwards bishop of Chester, published his '• Vindicise
Epistolarum S. Ignatii," — long deemed conclusive by those who were in favour of the
genuineness of the epistles, in spite of an able anonjTuous reply by Larroque in 1674,
and the doubts that continued to be felt by many scholars who had made the epistles
the subject of keen and critical investigation.

From this point no advance was made in the discussion, some authors contending for
the long recension and some for the shoiler, till the conjecture of Usher respecting the

76 NOTE BY THE EDITOK.

probability of a Syriac manuscript was verified, by tlie discovery of a Syriac version of
the Epistle to Polycarp among some ancient manuscripts, procured by Archdeacon Tat-
tam, in 1838 or 1839, fi-om a monastery in the Desert of JVitria. Mr Curcton, -who dis-
covered the epistle among these manuscripts, set on foot a new search lor other manu-
scripts. The result was, that the ai-chdeacon, by a second expedition to Egj-pt, brought
home in 1843 three entire epistles in Syriac, to Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to the
Romans. M. Pacho secured piis.seHsion of another copy in 1847, which afterwards came
under the examination of Mr Curcton.

It is the (.pinion of Mr Curcton and Chevalier Bunsen that these three Syriac epistles
are the only genuine writings of Ignatius ; — because the Syriac manuscript, transcribed
most probably before a d. 560, is of greater antiquity than any existing Jji-eek manu-
scripts;—the epistles in Syriac are shorter than the same epistles as published by Usher
in the Mediccan text, while the sense comes out more clearly, from the omission of the

Earts found only in the Greek manuscripts ; — jiassages in the latter, to which objections
ave been urged, as containing allusions to heresies (Valentinianism, for example) sub-
sequent to the time of Ignatius, and sentences insisting on a superstitious deference to
the hierarchy, do not appear in the Syriac; from Avhich it would follow, either that these
passages are spurious, and inserted since the time of the Syriac tran.slator, or that he
anticipated the objections of modern critici-sm, and confirmed them as just by deleting
these passages; — there is perfect uniformity in the style of so much of these epistles
in Greek as corresponds with the three Syriac epistles, while the discrep mcy of style
existing in the Greek recensions between the Epistle to Polycarp and the rest, the dif-
ference of matter in the Epistle to the Romans (in the Greek six times longer than in
the Syriac), and the peculiar complexion of two chapters in the Epistle to the Trallians,
transferred, as it now appears, from the Epistle to the Romans, had all been noticed
previous to the discovery of the Syriac manuscripts, and had thrown an air of suspicion
over all the epistles ; — and the three epistles in the Syriac collection are the only epistles
for which the evidence of antiquity, in the shape of testimonies and allusions in the
writings of the early fathers, can be cited for upwards of two centuries after the death
of Ignatius.

On the other hand, it has been argued that the Syriac version is probably an epitome
of the Greek epistles; that such abridgments were common in ancient times; that the
scope and sense is more clear in the Greek than in the Syriac ; that a manuscript printed
by Mr Cureton is a Syriac abridgUiCnt of these epistles, differing from that of the three
considered by him to be genuine ; that the events and opinions which seem to indicate a
later age than that of the martyr may be explained by reference to his age ; that in the
third century quotations are found from all the epistles ; and that Eusebius expressly
names and describes seven epistles, a testimony repeated by Jerome.

At present the amount of evidence seems in favour of the three Syriac epistles, as all
the genuine remains of Ignatius we possess. It is possible that Syriac manuscripts of
the other epistles may be discovered, although the claim of the foimer to be not only
paramount but exclusive has been argued with great force, on the ground that had the
fatter existed, they would certainly have been the subject of appeal in many controver-
sies by many fathers who utterly ignore them, as well as from the closing words of the
recently discovered manuscripts, " Here end the three epistles of Ignatius, bishop and
martyr." Meanwhile it is satisfactory to know that the Syriac version leaves the argu-
ment for the authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures very nearly where it .-^tood.
It contains references to two of the Gospels, to the Acts of the Apostles, and to five of
Paul's Epistles. Both the Epistles of Ignatius to the Ephesians and to the Romans, in
the Syriac version, assert distinctly the Godhead of Christ.

But how fares the question of ecclesiastical polity, — the point which brought these
epistles into dispute between Owen and llnmiuoiul,— liy tlie discovery of the Syriac
manuscrij)t? All the passages in favour of the hierarchy disappear in it, except the
following from the Epistle to Polycarp, "Look to the bishop, that God also may look upon
you. I will be instead of the souls of those who are subject to the bishop, and the
presbyters, and the deacons." Are we to say here, like Neander in reference to all the
Greek epistles, with tlie exception of the one to the Romans, which he admitted to pos-
sess ereater marks of originality than the others, " a hierarchical purpose is not to be
mistaken," to pronounce it an interpolation, or challenge the authenticity of the Syriac
document ? or are we to admit its genuineness, and acce]it it as evidence that Episco-
pacy dates so early as the time of Ignatius? or are we to question the import of the
term " bishop," so as to make it quadrate with Congregational or Presbyterian views ?
But these questions, while they illustrate the present state of the controversy, are be-
yond our province.— Ed.

THE DOCTRINE OE THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE
EXPLAINED AND CONFIRMED.

CHAPTER I.

THE STATE OF THE CONTEOVERSY.

The various thoughts of men concerning the doctrine proposed to consideration —
The great concernment of it, however stated, on all hands confessed — Some
special causes pressing to the present handling of it — The fearful backsliding
of many in these days — The great offence given and taken thereby, vidth the
provision made for its removal — The nature of that offence and temptation
thence arising considered — Answer to some arguings of Mr G., chap, ix., from
thence against the truth proposed — The use of trials and shakings—Grounds
of believers' assurance that they are so — The same farther argued and debated
— Of the testimony of a man's own conscience concerning his uprightness,
and what is required thereunto — 1 John iii. 7 considered — Of the rule of
self-judging, with principles of settlement for true believers, notwithstanding
the apostasies of eminent professors — Corrupt teachings rendering the hand-
ling of this doctrine necessary — Its enemies of old and of late — The particular
undertaking of Mr G. proposed to consideration — An entrance into the stat-
ing of the question — The terms of the question explained — Of holiness in its
several acceptations — Created holiness, original or adventitious, complete or
inchoate — Typical by dedication, real by purification — Holiness evangelical,
either so indeed or by estimation — Real holiness partial or universal — The
partakers of the first, or temporary believers, not true believers, maintained
against Mr G. — Ground of judging professors to be true believers — Matt,
vii. 20 considei-ed — What is the rule of judging men therein given — What
knowledge of the faith of others is to be obtained — What is meant by perse-
verance : how in Scripture it is expressed — The grounds of it pointed at —
What is intended by falling away — Whether it be possible the Spirit of grace
may be lost, or the habit of it, and how — The state of the controversy as laid
down by Mr G. — The vanity thereof discovered — His judgment about be-
lievers' falling away examined — What principles and means of perseverance he
grants to them — The enemies of our perseverance — Indwelling sin in parti-
cular considered — No possibility of preservation upon Mr G.'s grounds demon-
strated— The means and ways of the saints' preservation in faith, as asserted
by Mr G., at large examined, weighed, and found light — The doctrine of the
saints' perseverance, and way of teaching it, cleared from Isa. iv. — That chap-
ter opened — The 5th verse particularly insisted on and discussed — The whole
state and method of the controversy thence educed.

The truth which I have proposed to handle, and whose defence I
have undertaken in the ensuing discourse, is commonly called THE

78 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

PERSEVERANCE OF SAINTS; a doctrine whereof nothing ordinary, low,
or common, is spoken by any that have engaged into the considera-
tion of it. To some it is the very salt of the covenant of grace, the
most distinguishing mercy communicated in the blood of Christ, so
interwoven into, and lying at the bottom of, all that consolation which
" God is abundantly willing that all the heirs of the promise should
receive," that it is utterly impossible it should be safe-guarded one
moment without a persuasion of this truth, which seals up all the
mercy and grace of the new covenant with the unchangeableness and
faithfulness of God/ To others it is no grace of God, no part of the
purchase of Christ, no doctrine of the gospel, no foundation of conso-
lation ; but an invention of men, a delusion of Satan, an occasion of
dishonour to God, disconsolation and perplexity to believers, a power-
ful temptation unto sin and wickedness in all that do receive it.^

A doctrine it is, also, whose right apprehension is on all hands con-
fessed to be of great importance, upon the account of that effectual
influence which it hath, and will have, into our walking with God; —
which, say some, is to love humility, thankfulness, fear, fruitfulness;^
to folly, stubbornness, rebellion, dissoluteness, negligence, say others.
The great confidence expressed by men concerning the evidence and
certainty of their several persuasions, whether defending or opposing
the doctrine under consideration, — the one part professing the truth
thereof to be of equal stability with the promises of God, and most
plentifully delivered in the Scripture ; others (at least one, who is
thought to be pars magna of his companions), that if it be asserted
in any place of the Scripture, it were enough to make wise and im-
partial men to call the authority thereof into question, — must needs
invite men to turn aside to see about what this earnest contest is.
And quis is est tarn potens, who dares thus undertake to remove not
only ancient landmarks and boundaries of doctrines among the saints,
but " mountains of brass" and the " hills about Jerusalem," which
we hoped would stand fast for ever? The concernment, then, of the
glory of God, and the honour of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the
interest of the souls of the saints, being so wrapped up, and that
confessedly on all hands, in the doctrine ])roposed, I am not out of
hope that the plain discoursing of it from the word of truth may be
as " a word in season," like " apples of gold in pictures of silver."

Moreover, besides the general importance of that doctrine in all
times and seasons, the wretched practices of many in the days wherein
we live, and the industrious attempts of others in their teachings, for

' Jude 1 ; 2 Cor. xiii. 8; Isa. iv. 5, 6; Jer. xxxi. 31-34, xxxii. 89, 40; Isa. lix. 21 ;
Ileb. viii. 10-12; 1 Cor. i. 9; I'liil. i. 6; Rom. viii. 32-85.

2 Telag. Aruiin. Socin. Papist. Thomsou de lutcrcis. Justif. Diatrib. Bcrtius Apost.
Sanct. licinonst. ColL Hag. Scripta Synod.

3 Gen. xvii. 1; I's. xxiii. G; Phil. ii. 12, 13; Hcb. x. 19-22; 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; 2 Pet. i.
3-7, etc.

I.] APOSTASY A TEMPTATION TO BELIEVERS. 79

the subverting and easting it down from its excellency and that place
which it hath long held in the churches of Christ and hearts of all
the saints of God, have rendered the consideration of it at this time
necessary.

For the first, these are days wherein we have as sad and tremen-
dous examples of apostasy, backsliding, and falling from high and
glorious pitches in profession, as any age can parallel ; — as many stars
cast from heaven, as many trees plucked up by the roots, as many
stately buildings, by wind, rain, and storm, cast to the ground, as
many sons of perdition discovered, as many washed swine returning
to their mire, as many Demases going after the present evil world,
and men going out from the church which were never truly and
properly of it, as many sons of the morning and children of high il-
lumination and gifts setting in darkness, and that of all sorts, as ever
in so short a space of time since the name of Christ was known upon
the earth.^ What through the deviating of some to the ways of the
world and the lusts of the flesh, what of others to spiritual wicked-
nesses and abominations, it is seldom that we see a professor to hold
out in the glory of his profession to the end. I shall not now dis-
course of the particular causes hereof, with the temptations and ad-
vantages of Satan that seem to be peculiar to this season ; but only
thus take notice of the thing itself, as that which presseth for and
rendereth the consideration of the doctrine proposed not only season-
able but necessary.

That this is a stumbling-block in the way of them that seek to
walk with God, I suppose none of them will deny. It was so of old,
and it will so continue until the end. And therefore our Saviour,
predicting and discoursing of the like season, Matt, xxiv., foretelUng
that "many should be deceived," verse 11, that "iniquity should
abound," and "the love of many wax cold," verse 12, — that is, visi-
bly and scandalously, to the contempt and seeming disadvantage of
the gospel, — adds, as a preservative consolation to his own chosen,
select ones, who might be shaken in their comfort and confidence
to see so many that walked to the house of God and took sweet
counsel together with them, to fall headlong to destruction, that the
elect shall not be seduced. Let the attempts of seducers be what they
will, and their advantages never so many, or their successes never so
great, they shall be preserved ; the house upon the rock shall not be
cast down ; against the church built on Christ the gates of hell shall
not prevail. And Paul mentioning the apostasy of Hymeneus and
Philetus, who seem to have been teachers of some eminency, and
stars of some considerable magnitude in the firmament of the church,
with the eversion of the faith of some who attended unto their abo-

' Rev. xii. 4; Jude 12; Matt. vii. 26, 27; 2 Thess. ii. 3; 2 Pet. ii. 20-22; 2 Tim.
iv. 10; 1 John ii. 19; Heb. vi. 4-6.

80 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

minations, 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18, lest any disconsolation should surprise
believers in reference to their own condition, as though that should
be lubricous, uncertain, and such as might end in destruction and
their faith in an overthrow, he immediately adds that effectual cor-
dial for the reviving and supportment of their confidence and com-
fort, verse 19, "Nevertheless'' (notwithstanding all this apostasy of
eminent professors, yet) "the foundation of God standeth sure. The
Lord knoweth them that are his;" — "Those who are built upon the
foundation of his unchangeable purpose and love shall not be pre-
vailed against." John likewise doth the same ; for having told his
little children that there were many antichrists abroad in the world,
and they for the most part apostates, he adds in his First Epistle,
ii. 19, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us:
but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were
not all of us." He lets them know that by their being apostates, they
had proved themselves to have been but hypocrites; and therefore
believers' dwelling in safety was no way prejudiced by their back-
sliding. The like occasion now calls for the like application, and
the same disease for the same prevention or remedy. That no sound
joersons may be shaken, because unhealthy ones are shattered, — that
those may not tremble who are built on the rock, because those are
cast down who are built on the sand, — is one part of my aim and in-
tendment in handling this doctrine; and therefore I shall as little
dabble in the waters of strife, or insist upon it in way of controversy,
as the importunity of the adversary and that truth which we are
obliged to contend for will permit. One Scripture, in its own plain-
ness and simplicity, will be of more use for the end I aim at than
twenty scholastical arguments, pressed with never so much accurate-
ness and subtilty.

A temptation, then, this is, and hath been of old, to the saints, dis-
posed of by the manifold wisdom of God to stir them up to "take heed
lest they fall;" to put them upon trying and examining "whether
Christ be in them or no;" and also to make out to those fountains of
establishment, in his eternal purpose and gracious promises, wherein
their refreshments and reserves under such temptations do lie.^ And
though our doctrine enforces us to conclude all such never to be
sound believers, in that peculiar notion and sense of that expression
which shall instantly be declared, who totally and finally apostatize
and fall oft' from the ways of God, yet is it exceedingly remote from
being any true ground of shaking the faith of those who truly be-
lieve, any farther than shaking is useful for the right and thorough
perfonnance of that great gospel duty of trial and self-examination.

' Rom. xi. 20; 1 Cor. x. 12, xi. 28; 2 Cor. xiii. 5; Rev. ii. 24, 2G; Isa. xlv. 22;
Mai. iii. 6; 2 Pet. iii. 17; Hcb. iii. 12; Ilab. iii. 17, 18.

I.] APOSTASY A TEMPTATION TO BELIEVERS, 81

Mr Goodwin indeed contends, chap. ix. sect 8-11, pp. 108-110,
"That if we judge all such as fall away to perdition never to have
been true believers" (that is, with such a faith as bespeaks them to
enjoy union with Christ and acceptance with God), "it will adminis-
ter a thousand fears and jealousies concerning the soundness of a
man's own faith, whether that be sound or no ; and so it will be in-
different as to consolation whether true believers may fall away or
no, seeing it is altogether uncertain whether a man hath any of that
true faith which cannot perish."

Ans. But, first, God, who hath promised to make "all things
work together for good to them that love him," in his infinite love
and wisdom is pleased to exercise them with great variety, both
within and without, in reference to themselves and others, for the
accomplishing towards them all the good pleasure of his goodness,
and carrying them on in that holy, humble, depending frame, which
is needful for the receiving from him those gracious supplies with-
out which it is impossible they should be preserved. To this end
are they often exposed to winnowings of fierce winds, and shakings
by more dreadful blasts than any breaths in this consideration of
the apostatizing of professors, though of eminency. Not that God
is delighted with their fears and jealousies, which yet he knows
under such dispensations they must conflict withal, but with the
trial and exercise of their graces whereunto he calls them ; that is,
his glory, wherein his soul is delighted. It is no singular thing for
the saints of God to be exercised with a thousand fears and jea-
lousies, and through them to grow to great establishment. If, indeed,
they were such as were unconquerable, such as did not work to-
gether for their good, such as must needs be endless, all means of
satisfaction and establishment being rescinded by the causes of them,
then were there weight in this exception; but neither the Scriptures
nor the experience of the saints of God do give the least hint to such
an assertion.^

Secondly, It is denied that the fall of the most glorious hypocrites
is indeed an efiicacious engine in the hands of the adversary to in-
generate any other fears and jealousies, or to expose them to any
other shakings, than what are common to them in other temptations
of daily incursion, from which God doth constantly make a way for
them to escape, 1 Cor. x. 13. It is true, indeed, that if true believers
had no other foundation of their persuasion that they are so but
what occurs visibly to the observation of men in the outward con-
versation of them that yet afterward fall totally away, the apostasy

' Kom. viii. 28 ; Ps. xxx. 6, 7 ; Isa. viii. 17, liv. 7-10 ; 1 Pet. i. 7; 1 Cor. iii. 13;
1 Pet. iv. 12; 2 Cor. vii. 5; 2 Thess. i. 11; Heb. xii. 25, 28, 29; Isa. Ivii. 15, Ixvi. 2;
James iv. 6; 1 Pet. v. 5; Matt. vii. 24, 25 ; AmosLx. 9; Luke xxii. 31 ; Epb. vi. 10-18,
iv. 14 ; Isa. xlix. 14-lG, kill. 9 ; Acts ix. 5; Ps. ciii. 13 ; 1 Pet. i. 7 ; Pom. viii. 38, 39.

VOL. XI. 6

82 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of such (notwithstanding the general assurance they have that those
who are Lorn of God cannot, shall not sin unto death, 1 John
ill. 9, seeing their own interest in that estate and condition may be
clouded, at least for a season, and their consolation thereupon de-
pending intermpted) might occasion thoughts in them of very sad
consideration ; but whilst, besides all the beams and rays that ever
issued from a falling star, all the leaves and blossoms with abortive
fruit that ever grew on an unrooted tree, all the goodly tun-ets and
ornaments of the fairest house that ever was built on the sand, there
are moreover " three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost, and three that bear witness in earth, the
spirit, and the water, and the blood," — whilst there is a teaching,
anointing, and assuring earnest, a firm sealing to the day of redemp-
tion, a knowledge that we are passed from death to life,^ — the temp-
tation arising from the apostasy of hypocrites is neither so potent nor
unconquerable but that, by the grace of Him through whom we can do
all things, it may be very well dealt withal. This I say, supposing the
ordinary presence and operation of the Spirit of grace in the hearts of
believers, with such shines of God's countenance upon them as they
usually enjoy. Let these be interrupted or turned aside, and there is
not the least blast or breath that proceeds from the mouth of the
weakest enemy they have to deal withal but is sufficient to cast them
down from the excellency of their joy and consolation, Ps. xxx. 6, 7.

The evidence of this truth is such that Mr Goodwin is forced to
say, "Far be it from me to deny but that a man may very possibly at-
tain unto a very strong and potent assurance, and that upon grounds
every way sufficiently warrantable and good, that his faith is sound
and saving,"^ cap. ix. sect. 9. But unto this concession he puts in a
double exception: —

First, " That there is not one true believer of a hundred, yea, of
many thousands, who hath any such assurance of his faith as is built
upon solid and pregnant foundations."

I must, by his leave, enter my dissent hereunto ; and as we have
the liberty of our respective apprehensions, so neither the one nor
the other proves any thing in the cause. Setting aside cases of de-
sertion, great temptations, and trials, I hope, through the riches of
the grace and tenderness of the love of the Father, the condition is
otherwise than is apprehended by Mr Goodwin with the generality
of the family of God. The reasons given by him of his thoughts to
the contrary do not sway me from my hopes, or bias my former ap-
prehensions in the least. His reasons are, —

' 1 John V. 7, 8, ii. 20, 27 ; 2 Cor. i. 21, 22, v. 5; Eph. i. 13, 14, iv. 30; Rom. viu. IG;
1 John iii. 14.

2 " Vere fidclis uti pro tempore pnBsenti de fidei et conscientise sure integritate cer-
tus esse potest, ita ct dc salute sua et de salutifcra Dei erga ipsum bcnevoleutia pro
illo tempore ccrtus esse potest et debet." — Act. Synod, p. 182, Dec. Sent. thcs. vii.

I.] APOSTASY A TEMPTATION TO BELIEVERS. 83

First, " Because though the testimony of a man's heart and con-
science touching his uprightness towards God, or the soundness of
any thing that is saving in him, be comfortable and cheering, yet
seldom are these properties built upon such foundations which are
sufficient to warrant them, at least upon such whose sufficiency in
that kind is duly apprehended : for the testimony of the conscience
of a man touching any thing which is spiritually and excellently
good is of no such value, unless it be first excellently enlightened
with the knowledge, nature, properties, and condition, of that of
which it testifieth; and, secondly, be in the actual contemplation,
consideration, or remembrance, of what it knoweth in this kind.
Now, very few believers in the world come up to this height and
degree."

Ans. First, There is in this reason couched a supposition Avhich,
if true, would be far more effectual to shake the confidence and re-
solution of believers than the most serious consideration of the
apostasies of all professors that ever fell from the glory of their pro-
fession from the beginning of the world ; and that is, that there is
no other pregnant foundation of assurance but the testimony of a
man's own heart and conscience touching his uprightness towards
God, and therefore, before any can attain that assurance upon abid-
ing foundations, they must be excellently enlightened in the nature,
properties, and condition, of that which their consciences testify unto
as true faith and uprightness of heart, and be clear in the disputes
and questions about them, being in the actual contemplation of
them when they give their testimony. I no way doubt but many
thousands of believers, whose apprehensions of the nature, properties,
and conditions of things, as they are in themselves, are low, weak, and
confused,^ yet, having received the Spirit of adoption, bearing witness
with their spirits that they are the children of God, and having the
testimony in themselves,'' have been taken up into as high a degree of
comforting and cheering assurance, and that upon the most infallible
foundation imaginable (for " the Spirit beareth witness, because the
Spirit is truth," 1 John v. 6), as ever the most seraphically illumi-
nated person in the world attained unto. Yea, in the very graces
themselves of faith and uprightness of heart, there is such a seal
and stamp, impressing the image of God upon the soul, as, without
any reflex- act or actual contemplation of those graces themselves,
have an influence into the establishment of the souls of men in
whom they are unto a quiet, comfortable, assured repose of them-
selves upon the love and faithfulness of God. Neither is the spiri-
tual confidence of the saints shaken, much less cast to the ground,
by their conflicting with fears, scruples, and doubtful apprehensions,
seeing in all these conflicts they have the pledge of the faithfulness
' 1 Cor. i. 26 ; James ii. 5. ^ Eom. Tiii. 16 ; 1 John v. 10.

81< DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE, [CHAP.

of God that they shall be more than conquerors.^ Though they are
exercised by them, they are not dejected with them, nor deprived of
that comforting assurance and joy which they have in believing.
But yet suppose that this be the condition practically of many saints
of God, and that they never attain to the state of the primitive
Christians, to whose joy and consolation in believing the Holy Ghost
so plentifully witnesseth, 1 Pet. i. 8, nor do live up to that full rate
of plenty which their Father hath provided for them in his family,
and sworn that he is abundantly willing they should enjoy and make
use of, Heb. vi. 17, 18, what will hence follow, as to the business in
hand, I profess I know not. Must that little evidence which they
have of their acceptance with God be therefore necessarily built
upon such bottoms, or rather tops, as are visible to them in hypo-
crites, so that upon their apostasy they must needs not only try and
examine themselves, but conclude, to their disadvantage and discon-
solation, that they have no true faith? " Credat Apella."

Secondly, The comfortableness, he tells us, of the testimony of a
man's conscience concerning his uprightness with God " depends
mainly and principally upon his uniform and regular walking with
God. Now this being, by the neglects of the saints, often interrupted
with many stains of unworthiness, the testimony itself must needs
be often suspended. Now, true believers finding themselves out-
gone in ways of obedience by them that impenitently apostatize, if
from hence they must conclude them hypocrites, they have no evi-
dence left for the soundness of their own faith, Avhich their con-
sciences bear testimony unto, upon the fruitfulness of it, which is
infeiior by many degrees to that of them who yet finally fall away."
This is the substance of one long section, pp. 109, 110. But, —

First, Here is the same supposal included as formerly, that the
only evidence of a true faith and acceptance with God is the testi-
mony of a man's conscience concerning his regular and upright walk-
ing with God ; for an obstruction in this being supposed, his comfort
and consolation is thought to vanish. But that the Scripture builds
up our assurance on other foundations is evident, and the saints
acknowledge it, as hath been before delivered. Nor, —

Secondly, Doth the testimony of a man's own conscience, as it
hath an influence into his consolation, depend solely (nor doth Mr
Goodwin affirm it so to do) on the constant regularitxj of his walk-
ing with God. It will also witness what former experience it hath
had of God, calling to mind its " songs in the night," all the tokens
and pledges of its Father's love, all the gracious visits of the holy
and blessed Spirit of grace, all the embracements of Christ, all that
intimacy and communion it hath formerly been admitted unto, the

' Matt. Yii. 25, xvi. 18; Ps. Ixxvii. 10; 1 Cor. i. 9; 1 Thess. v. 23, 24; 1 Cor.
X. 13; Rom. 'viii. 37.

I.] TESTIMONY OF CONSCIENCE. 85

healing and recovery it hath had of wounds and from backslidings,
with all the spiritual intercourse it ever had with God, to confirm and
strengthen itself in the beginning of its confidence to the end.^ And, —

Thirdly, In the testimony that it doth give, from its walking with
God, and the fruits of righteousness, it is very far and remote from
giving it only, or chiefly, or indeed at all, from those ways, works,
and fruits, which are exposed to the eyes of men, and which in
others they who have that testimony may behold. It resolves itself
herein into the frame, principles, and life of the hidden man of the
heart, which lies open and naked to the eyes of God, but is lodged
in depths not to be fathomed by any of the sons of men.^ There is
no comparison to be instituted between the obedience and fruits of
righteousness in others, whereby a believer makes a judgment of
them, and that in himself from whence the testimony mentioned
doth flow ; that of other men being their visibly practical conversa-
tion, his being the hidden, habitual frame of his heart and spirit in
his ways and actings: so that though, through the falling of them, he
should be occasioned to question his own faith as to trial and exami-
nation, yet nothing can thence arise sufiicient to enforce him to let
go even that part of his comfort which flows from the weakest wit-
ness and one of the lowest voices of all his store. He eyes others
without doors, but himself within.

Fourthly, Whereas 1 John iii. 7, " Little children, let no man de-
ceive you, he that doeth righteousness is righteous," is produced, and
two things argued from thence, — first, that the caveat, " Be not de-
ceived," plainly intimates that true believers may very possibly be
deceived in the estimate of a righteous man; and, secondly, that
this is spoken of a man judging himself; and that, emphatically and
exclusively, he and he only, is to be judged a righteous man.

Ans. First, I say, that though I grant the first, that we may very
easily be, and often are, deceived in our estimate of righteous persons,
yet I do not conceive the inference to be enforced from that expres-
sion, " Let no man deceive you," the Holy Ghost using it frequently,
or what is equivalent thereunto, not so much to caution men in a du-
bious thing, wherein possibly they may be mistaken, as in a way of
detestation, scorn, and rejection of what is opposite to that which he
is urging upon his saints, which he presseth as a thing of the greatest
evidence and clearness; as 1 Cor. vi. 9, xv. 33; Gal. vi. 7. Neither is
any thing more intended in this expression of the apostle than in that
of 1 Cor. vi. 9, " Be not deceived : the unrighteous shall not inherit
the kingdom of God." So here, no person not giving himself up to
the pursuit of righteousness in the general drift and scope of his life

1 Job XXXV. 10; Ps. Ixxvii. 5-9; Isa. xl. 28-31; Cant. iii. 1, 2, v. 4, 5; Ps. xlii.
6-11; Hos. ii. 7, xiv. 2, 8 ; Heb. iii. 14.

2 Isa. xxxviii. 3; Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24; Rev. iii. 1; 1 Pet. iii. 4; 2 Cor. i. 12.

86 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

(cases extraordinary and particular acts being always in such rules
excepted) is, or is to be, accounted a righteous man.

Secondly, Also it may be granted (though the intendment of the
place leads us another way) that this is so far a rule of self-judging,
that he whose frame and disposition suits it not, or is opposite unto
it, cannot keep up the power or vigour of any other comfortable evi-
dence of his state and condition ; but that it should be so far extended
as to make the only solid and pregnant foundation that any man
hath of assurance and consolation to rise and flow from the testi-
mony of his own conscience concerning his own regular walking in
ways of righteousness (seeing persons that " walk in darkness and
have no light" are called to " stay themselves on God,"' Isa. 1. 10, and
when both " heart and flesh faileth," yet " God is the strength of the
heart," Ps. Ixxiii. 26), is no way clear in itself, and is not by Mr Good-
win afforded the least contribution of assistance for its confirmation.

To return, then, from this digression : A temptation and an of-
fence we acknowledge to be given to the saints by the apostasy of
professors; yet not such but [that] as the Lord hath in Scripture
made gracious provision against their suffering by it or under it, so
it leaves them not without sufficient testimony of their own accept-
ance with God, and sincerity in walking with him. This, then, was
the state of old ; thus it is in the days wherein we live.

As the practice and ways of some, so the 'principles and teachings
of others, have an eminent tendency unto offence and scandal. In-
deed, ever since the Reformation, there have been some endeavours
against this truth to corrode it and corrupt it. The first serious
attempt for the total intercision of the faith of tnie believers, though
not a final excision of the faith of elect believers, was made by one
in the other university, who, being a man of a debauched and vicious
conversation (no small part of the growing evils of the days wherein
he lived), did yet cry out against the doctrines of others as tending
to looseness and profaneness, upon whose breasts and teachings was
written " Holiness to the Lord" all their days.^ Afterward, Arminius
and his Quinquarticulan followers^ taking up the matter, though
they laboured with all their might to answer sundry of the argu-
ments whereby the tnith of this doctrine is demonstrated, yet for a
season were very faint and dubious in their own assertions, not
daring to break in at once upon so great a treasure of the church of
God;^ and therefore in their Synodalia they are forced to apologize

' Owen seems to allude to the case of William Barrett, fellow of Gonville and Caius
College, Cambridge. He denied the perseverance of the saints, and assailed Calvin,
Bcza, and otlicr reformers, with bitter invectives. He was expelled from the univer-
sity in 15'J5.— Ed. a Arniin. Antiperk. Rem. Coll. Hag. art. 5.

* " Nos cum mentem nostram super hoc argumcnto categoric^ ct dogmatice in alte-
ram partem dcfinivimus, uullo jure levitatis iusiraulari posse, proptcrea quod novem
ab hiuc annis, cam non ita discrto ct rotundo enunciavcriuuis, scd solummodo disqui-
rcutium adhuc in morcm professi simus." — Dec. Sent. Rem. circa 5 art.

I.] BY WHOM THE APOSTASY OF THE SAINTS IS MAINTAINED. 87

for their hesitation nine years before, in their conference at the Hague.
But now of late, since the glorious light of Socinianism hath broken
forth from the pit, men by their new succours are grown bold to
defy this great truth of the gospel and grace of the covenant, as an
abomination for ever to be abhorred.^

" Audax omnia perpeti
Gens humana, ruit per vetitum nefas."

Hor., Od. i. 3, 25.

In particular, the late studious endeavours of a learned man, in
his treatise entitled " Redemption Redeemed," for to despoil the
spouse of Christ of this most glorious pearl, wherewith her beloved
hath adorned her, calls for a particular consideration: and this (dis-
charging a regard unto any other motives) upon chiefly this ac-
count, that he hath with great pains and travail gathered together
whatever hath been formerly given out and dispersed by the most
considerable adversaries of this truth (especially not omitting any
thing of moment in the synod ical defence of the fifth article, with
an exact translation of the dramatical prosopopoeias, with whatsoever
looks towards his design in hand from their fourth attempt about
the manner of conversion), giving it anew not only an elegant dress
and varnish of rhetorical expressions, but moreover re-enforcing the
declining cause of his Pelagian friends with not-to-be-despised sup-
plies of appearing reasons and hidden sophistry. Col. ii. 4. So that
though I shall handle this doctrine in my own method (with the
reason whereof I shall instantly acquaint the reader), and not fol-
low that author xara vohag, yet handling not only the main of the
doctrine itself, but all the concernments and consequences of it in
the several branches of the method intended, I hope not to leave
any thing considerable in that whole treatise, as to the truth in
hand, undiscussed, no argument unvindicated, no objection unan-
swered, no consequence unweighed, with a special eye to the com-
parison instituted between the doctrines in contest, as to their direct
and causal influence into the obedience and consolation of the saints.

That we may know, then, what we speak and whereof we do aflirm,
I shall briefly state the doctrine under consideration, that the differ-
ence about it may appear. Indeed, it seems strange to me, among
other things, that he of whom mention was lastly made, who hath
liberally dispended so great a treasure of pains, reading, and eloquence,
for the subverting of the truth whose explanation and defence we
have undertaken, did not yet once attempt fairly to fix the state of
the difference about it, but, in a very tumultuary manner,^ fell in
with prejudices, swelling over all bounds and limits of ordinary
reasoning, rhetorical amplifications, upon a doctrine not attempted
to be brought forth and explained, that it might be weighed in the
' Socin. Prtelect. Theol. cap. vi. art. 7, etc. ^ Chap, ix.

88 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERiVNCE. [ClIAP.

balance, as in itself it is. Whereas there may be many reasons of
such a proceeding, it may well be questioned whether any of them
be candid and commendable. Certainly the advantages thence taken
for the improving of many sophistical reasons and pretended argu-
ments are obvious to every one that shall but peruse his ensuing
discourse.

Although the substance of this doctrine hath been by sundry de-
livered, yet, lest the terms wherein it is usually done may seem to
be somewhat too general, and some advantages of the truth, which
in itself it hath, to have been omitted, I shall briefly state the whole
matter under those terms wherein it is usually received.

The title of it is, " The Perseverance of Saints." A short discovery
of whom we mean by "saints," the subject whereof we speak, and Avhat
by "perseverance," which is affirmed of them, will state the whole for
the judgment of the reader. God only is essentially holy, and on
that account the only Holy One. In his holiness, as in his being and
all his glorious attributes, there is an actual permanency or same-
ness, Heb. i. 10-12. Nothing in him is subject to the least shadow
of change, — not his truth, not his faithfulness, not his holiness. All
principles, causes, and reasons of alteration stand at no less infinite
distance from him than not-being. His properties are the same with
himself, and are spoken of one another, as well as of his nature. His
eternal power is mentioned by the apostle, Rom. i. 20. So is his holi-
ness eternal, immutable. Of this we may have use afterward; for
the present I treat not of it. The holiness of all creatures is acci-
dental and created. To some it is innate or original ; as to the angels,
the first man, our Saviour Christ as to his human nature, of whom
we treat not. Adam had original holiness, and lost it; so had many
angels, who kept not their first habitation. It is hence argued by
Mr Goodwin, that spiritual gifts of God being bestowed may be taken
away, notwithstanding the seeming contrary engagement of Rom.
xi. 29. From what proportion or analogy this argument doth flow is
not intimated. The grace Adam was endowed with was intrusted with
himself and in his own keeping, in a covenant of works; that of the
saints since the fall is purchased for them, laid up in their Head, and
dispensed in a covenant of grace, whose eminent distinction from the
former consists in the permanency and abidingness of the fruits of it.
But of this afterward. To others it is adventitious and added, as to all
that have contracted any qualities contrary to that original holiness
wherewith at first they were endued; as have done all the sons of
men, " who have sinned and come short of the glory of God."^ Now,

' Isa. vi. 3 ; Josh. xxiv. 19 ; Rev. xv. 4 ; Exod. iii. 14 ; Deut. xxxii. 4 ; Isa. xl. 28,
xli. 4, xliii. 10, xliv. 6, xlviii. 12 ; Rev. i. 4, 17; Mai. iii. 6 ; James i. 17 ; 1 Sam. xv.
29; Gen. i. 26; Matt. xix. 17; Eccles. \ii. 29; Ileb. vii. 25; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27;
Isa. iv. 3, 4 ; Rom. vi. 4-6 ; Eph. iv. 22-24.

I.] HOLINESS IN ITS SEVERAL ACCEPTATIONS. 89

the holiness of these is either complete, as it is with the spirits of just
men made perfect ; or inchoate and begun only, as with the residue
of sanctified ones in this life. The certain perseverance of the for-
mer in their present condition being not directly opposed by any,
though the foundation of it be attempted by some, we have no need
as yet to engage in the defence of it. These latter are said to be
sanctified or holy two ways, upon the twofold account of the use of
the word in the Scripture; for, —

First, some persons, as well as things, are said to be holy, especi-
ally in the Old Testament and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, almost
constantly using the terms of sanctifying and sanctified in a legal or
temple signification, in reference unto their being separated from
the residue of men with relation to God and his worship, or being
consecrated and dedicated peculiarly to the performance of any part
of his will, or distinct enjoyment of any portion of his mercy.^ Thus
the ark was said to be holy, and the altar holy ; the temple was holy,
and all the utensils of it, with the vestments of its officers. So the
whole people of the Jews were said to be holy. The particular re-
spects of covenant, worship, separation, law, mercy, and the like,
upon which this denomination of holiness and saintship was given
unto them and did depend, are known to all. Yea, persons inhe-
rently unclean, and personally notoriously wicked, in respect of their
designment to some outward work, which by them God will bring
about, are said to be sanctified. Distinguishing gifts, with designation
to some distinct employment, are a bottom for this appellation,
though their gifts may be recalled, and the employment taken from
them, Isa. xiii. 3. We confess perseverance not to be a proper and
inseparable adjunct of this subject, nor to belong unto such persons,
as such; though they may have a right to it, it is upon another ac-
count. Yet, in the pursuit of this business, it will appear that many
of our adversaries' arguments smite these men only, and prove that
such as they may be totally rejected of God; which none ever
denied.

Again ; the word is used in an evangelical sense, for inward purity
and real holiness: whence some are said to be holy, and that also
two ways; for either they are so really and in the truth of the thing
itself, or in estimation only, and that either of themselves or others.
That many have accounted themselves to be holy, and been pure in
their own eyes, who yet were never washed from their iniquity, and
have thereupon cried peace to themselves, I suppose needs no prov-
ing. It is the case of thousands in the world at this day. They
think themselves holy, they profess themselves holy; and our adver-
saries prove (none gainsaying) that such as these may backslide from
what they have and what they seem to have, and so perish under

1 Exod. xxviii. 36, 38 ; Lev. v. 15; Ezek. xxii. 8 ; Heb. ii. 11, x. 10 ; Jolin xvii. 19.

90 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the sin of apostasy.^ Again, some are said to be holy upon the score
of their being so in the esteem of others ; which was and is the con-
dition of many false hypocrites in the churches of Christ, both primi-
tive and modern ; — like them who are said to " believe in Christ,"
upon the account of the profession they made so to do, yet he would
not " trust himself with them, because he knew what was in them."
Such were Judas, Simon Magus, and simdry others, of whom these
things are spoken, which they professed of themselves, and were
bound to answer, and which others esteemed to be in them. These
some labour with all their strength to make true believers, that so
they may cast the stumbling-block of their apostasy in the way of
the saints of God closing with the truth we have in hand.^ But for
such as these we are no advocates; let them go to their " own place,"
according to the tenor of the arguments levied against them from
Heb. vL 4-6, 2 Pet. ii. 1, etc., and other places.

Moreover, of those who are said to believe, and to be holy really
and in the truth of the thing itself, there are two sorts : First, such
as, having received sundry common gifts and graces of the Spirit, —
as illumination of the mind, change of affections, and thence amend-
ment of life, with sorrow of the world, legal repentance, temporary
faith, and the like, which are all true and real in their kind, — do
thereby become vessels in the great house of God, being changed as
to their use, though not in their nature, continuing stone and wood
still, though hewed and turned to the serviceableness of vessels ; and
on that account they are frequently termed saints and beHevers. On
such as these there is a lower (and in some a subordinate) work of the
Spirit, effectually producing in and on all the faculties of their souls
somewhat that is true, good, and usefid in itself, answering in some
likeness and suitableness of operation unto the great work of regene-
ration, which faileth not. There is in them light, love, joy, faith, zeal,
obedience, etc., all true in their kinds; which make many of them in
whom they are do worthily in their generation : howbeit they attain
not to the faith of God's elect, neither doth Christ live in them, nor
is the life which they lead by the faith of the Son of God, as shall
hereafter be fully declared.^ If ye now cashier these from the roll of
those saints and believers about whom we contend, seeing tliat tliey
are nowhere said to be united to Christ, quickened and justified,
partakers of the first resurrection, accepted of God, etc., ye do al-
most put an issue to the whole controversy, and at once overturn

1 Luke i. 15 ; Rom. vi. 19, 22 ; 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; Eph. i. 4, iv. 24 ; 1 Thess. iii. 13, iv. 7;
Heb. xii. 14, xar' a\n6uay, Kara, lo^cev; Prov. XXX. 12; Isa. Ixv. 5; John vii. 48, 49,
ix. 40, 41 ; 1 Thess. v. 3 ; Matt. xxv. 29 ; 2 Pot. ii. 20, 21 ; John vi. GG.

2 2 Pet. ii. 1 ; Act. Synod. Dec. Sent., art. 6, pp. 2G6, 2G7, etc.

3 lleb. vi. 4; 1 Sam. x. 10; 2 Pet. ii. 20; 1 Kings xxi. 27; 2 Cor. vii. 10; Matt,
xxvii. 3, 4, xiii. 20, 21 ; Mark vi. 20; 2 Kings x. 16; Hosea vi. 4 ; 2 Tim. ii. 20;
John vi. 34 ; Acts xxvi. 28 ; Matt. vii. 26, 27 ; Rev. iii. 1 ; Mark iv. 16, 17.

I.] GROUNDS OF JUDGING OF MEN's SPIRITUAL CONDITION. 91

the strongest forts of the opposers of this truth. Some men are truly
ready to think that they never had experience of the nature of true
faith or hohness, who can suppose it to consist in such hke common
gifts and graces as are ascribed to this sort of men. Yet, as was said
before, if these may not pass for saints, if our adversaries cannot
prove these to be true behevers, in the strictest notion and sense of
that term or expression, acturti est, — the very subject about which
they contend is taken away; such as these alone are concerned in
the arguments from Heb. vi. 4-6; 2 Pet. ii. 1, etc. Yea, all the testi-
monies which they produce for the supportment of their cause from
antiquity flow from hence, that their witnesses thought good to allow
persons baptized and professing the gospel the name of believers,
and of being regenerate (that is, as to the participation of the outward
symbol thereof); whom yet they expressly distinguish from them
whose faith was the fruit of their eternal election, which they con-
stantly maintained should never fail.

Of such as these Mr Goodwin tells us, cap. ix. sect. 7, pp. 107, 108,
" That if there be any persons under heaven who may, upon suffi-
cient grounds, and justifiable by the word of God, be judged true
believers, many of the apostates we speak of were to be judged such.
All the visible lineaments of a true faith were in their faces, as far as
the eye of man is able to pierce; they lived godly, righteously, and
soberly in this present world. Doth any true believer act zealously
for his God ? — so did they. Is any true believer fruitful in good works ?
— they were such. Yea, there is found in those we now speak of, not
only such things as upon the sight and knowledge whereof in men we
ought to judge them true believers,^ but even such things, farther,
which we ought to reverence and honour, as lovely and majestic
characters of God and holiness. Therefore, it is but too importune a
pretence in men to deny them to have been true believers."

If the proof of the first confident assertion, concerning the grounds
of judging such as afterward have apostatized to be true behevers,
were called into question, I suppose it would prove one instance
how much easier it is confidently to affirm any thing than soundly
to confirm it. And perhaps it will be found to appear, that in the
most, if not all, of those glorious apostates of whom he speaks, if
they were thoroughly traced and strictly eyed, even in those things
which are exposed to the view of men, for any season or continuance,
such warpings and flaws might be discovered, in positives or negatives,
as are incompatible with truth or grace.^ But if this be granted, that
they have " all the visible lineaments of a true faith in their faces,
as far as the eye of man is able to judge, and therefore men were

1 " Adde hos de quibus hie agimus, non vulgares et plebeios, sed autesignanos et
eximios ac eminentes fuisse." — Rem. Act. Synod., jk 267.

2 Ps. Ixxviii. 34-36 ; Job xxvii. 9, 10 ; 2 Kings x. 29 ; Ezek. xxxiii. 31 ; Tit. i. 16,

92 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

bound to esteem them for true believers," doth it therefore follow
that they were such indeed? This at once instates all secret hypo-
crites in the ancient and present churches of Christ into a condition
of sanctification and justification; which the Lord knows they were
and are remote from. Shall the esteem of men translate them from
death to life, and really alter the state wherein they are? Whatever
honour, then, and esteem we may give to the characters of holiness
and faith enstamped, or rather painted on them, — as it is meet for us
to judge well of all who, professing the Lord Christ, walk in our view
in any measure suitable to that profession, and with Jonadab to
honour Jehu in his fits and hasty passions of zeal, — yet this, alas ! is
no evidence unto them, nor discovery of the thing itself, that they
are in a state of faith and holiness. To say that we may not be
bound to judge any to be believers and godly, unless they are so
indeed and in the thing itself, is either to exalt poor worms into the
throne of God, and to make them " searchers of the hearts and triers
of the reins" of others, who are so often in the dark as to themselves,
and never in this life sufficiently acquainted with their own inward
chambers; or else at once to cut off and destroy all communion of
saints, by rendering it impossible for us to attain satisfaction who are
so indeed, so far as to walk with them upon that account in " love
without dissimulation," Rom. xii. 9. Doubtless the disciples of Christ
were bound to receive them for believers of whom it is said that
they did believe, because of their profession so to do, and that with
some hazard and danger, though He who " knew what was in man"
would not trust himself with them, because the root of the matter
was not in them, John ii. 23, 24.

I suppose I shall not need to put myself to the labour to prove
or evince the ground of our charitable procedure, in our thoughts of
men professing the ways of God, though their hearts are not upright
with him. But says Mr Goodwin, " To say that whilst they stood
men were indeed bound to judge them believers, but by their declin-
ing they discover themselves not to have been the men, is but to
beg the question, and that upon very ill terms to obtain it."

Ans. For my part, I find not in this answer to that objection
(" But they had the lineaments of true believers, and therefore we
were bound to judge them so"), that this did not at all prove them to
be so, any begging of the question, but rather a fair answer given to
their importune request, that the " appearance of the face, as far as
the eyes of men can pierce," 1 Sam. xvi. 7, must needs conclude
them in the eyes of God to answer that appearance in the inward
and hidden man of the heart.

But Mr Goodwin farther pursues his design in hand from the
words of our Saviour, Matt. vii. 20, " By their fruits ye shall know
them." " Ifj" saith he, " this rule be authentical, we do not only

I.] THE JUDGMENT OF CHARITY AND ITS RULE. " 93

stand bound by the law of charity, but by the law of righteous
or strict judgment itself, to judge the persons we speak of true be-
lievers, whilst they adorn the gospel with such fruits of righteousness
as were mentioned ; for our Saviour doth not say, ' By their fruits ye
shall have grounds to conceive or conjecture them such or such, or
to judge them in charity such or such,' but, 'Ye shall know them/
Now, what a man knows he is not bound to conjecture, or to judge
in a way of charity to be that which he knoweth it to be, but posi-
tively to judge and conclude of it accordingly. If, then, it be pos-
sible for men, by any such fruits, works, or expressions, to know true
believers, the persons we speak of may be known to have been
such."

Ans. Though the words of our Saviour principally lie on the other
side of the way, giving a rule for a condemnatory judgment of men
whose evil fruits declare the root to be no better, — wherein we can-
not well be deceived, " the works of the flesh being manifest," Gal.
V. 19, and he that worketh wickedness ojienly, and brings forth the
effects of sin visibly in a course, as a tree doth its fruit, Rom.
vi. 16, may safely be concluded, whatsoever pretence in words he
makes, to be a false, corrupt hypocrite, — yet, by the way of analogy
and proportion, it is a rule also whereby our Saviour will have us
make a judgment of those professors and teachers with whom we
have to do, as to our reception and approbation of them. He bids
his disciples taste and try the fruit that such persons bear, and ac-
cording to that (not any specious pretences they make, or innocent
appearances which for a season they show themselves in) let their
estimation of them be. Yea, but says Mr Goodwin, " We do not only
stand bound by the law of charity, but by the law of a righteous and
strict judgment itself, to judge such persons believers." This dis-
tinction between the law of charity and the law of a righteous judg-
ment I understand not. Though charity be the principle exerted
eminently in such dijudications of men, yet doubtless it proceeds by
the rules of righteous judgment. When we speak of the judgment
of charity, we intend not a loose conjecture, much less a judgment
contradistinct from that which is righteous, but a righteous and
strict judgment, according to the exactest rules whatsoever that we
have to judge by, free from evil surmises, and such like vices of the
mind as are opposed to the grace of love. By saying it is of charity,
we are not absolved from the most exact procedure, according to the
rules of judging given unto us, but only bound up from indulging
to any envy, malice, or such like works of the flesh, which are opiDO-
site to charity in the subject wherein it is. Charity in this assertion
denotes only a gracious qualification in the subject, and not any con-
descension from the rule; and therefore I something wonder that
Mr Goodwin should make a judgment of charity (as afterward) a

94 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

mere conjecture, and allow beyond it a righteous and strict judg-
ment, which amounts to knowledge.

It is true, our Saviour tells us that " by their fruits we shall know
them ;" but what knowledge is it that he intendeth? Is it a certain
knowledge by demonstration of it? or an infallible assui'ance by re-
velation? I am confident Mr Goodwin will not say it is either of
these, but only such a persuasion as is the result of our thoughts
concerning them, upon the profession they make and the works they
do; upon which we may (according to the mind of Christ, who
bare with them whom he knew to be no believers, having taken
on them the profession of the faith) know how to demean our-
selves towards them. So far we may know them by their fruits and
judge of them; other knowledge our Saviour intendeth not, nor
I believe does Mr Goodwin pretend unto. Now, notwithstanding
all this, even on this account and by this rule, it is very possible,
yea very easy, and practically proved true in all places and at all
times, that we may judge, yea, so far know men to be or not to be
seducers by their fruits, as to be able to order aright our demeanour
towards them, according to the will of Christ, and yet be mistaken
(though not in the performance of our duty in walking regularly ac-
cording to the lines drawn out for our paths) in the persons concern-
ing whom our judgment is; the knowledge of them being neither by
demonstration nor from revelation, such as " cui non potest subesse
falsum," we may be deceived.

The saints, then, or believers (of whom alone our discourse is), may
be briefly delineated by these few considerable concernments of their
saintship : —

1. That whereas "by nature they are children of wrath as well as
others," and " dead in trespasses and sins," that faith and holiness
which they are in due time invested withal, whereby they are made
believers and saints, and distinguished from all others whatever, is
an effect and fruit of, and flows from, God's eternal purpose concern-
ing their salvation or election ; their faith being, as to the manner
of its bestowing, peculiarly of the operation of God, and as to its
distinction from every other gift that upon any account whatever is
so called, in respect of its fountain, termed " The faith of God's
elect."^

2. For the manner of their obtaining of this precious faith, it is
by God's giving to them that Holy Spirit of his whereby he raised
Jesus from the dead, to raise them from their death in sin, to quicken
them unto newness of life, enduing them with a new life, with a
spiritual, gracious, supernatural habit, spreading itself upon their
whole souls, making them new creatures throughout (in respect of
parts), investing them with an abiding principle, being a natural,

' Rom. viii. 28, 29; Acts xiii. 48; Eph. i. 4; 1 Pet. i. 2-5; Tit. i. 1.

I.] OF SAINTS AND PEKSEVERANCE. 95

genuine fountain of all those spiritual acts, works, and duties, which
he is pleased to work in them and by them of his own good pleasure.^

3. That the holy and blessed Spirit, which effectually and power-
fully works this change in them, is bestowed upon them as a fruit of
the purchase and intercession of Jesus Christ, to dwell in them and
abide with them for ever : upon the account of which inhabitation of
the Spirit of Christ in them they have union with him ; that is, one
and the same Spirit dwelling in him the head and them the members.^

4. By all which, as to their actual state and condition, they are
really changed from death to life,^ from darkness to light,^ from uni-
versal, habitual uncleanness to holiness,® from a state of enmity, stub-
bornness, rebellion, etc., into a state of love, obedience, delight, etc. ;®
and as to their relative condition, whereas they were children of wrath,
under the curse and condemning power of the law, they are, upon
the score of Him who was made a curse for them, and is made right-
eousness to them, accepted, justified, adopted, and admitted into that
family of heaven and earth which is called after the name of God.^

These alone are they of whom we treat, of whose state and condi-
tion perseverance is an inseparable adjunct. Wherein and in what
particulars they are differenced from and advanced above the most
glorious professors whatever, who are liable and obnoxious to an
utter and everlasting separation from God, shall be afterward at large
insisted upon ; and though Mr Goodwin hath thought good to affirm
that that description which we have, Heb. vi. 4-6, of such as ([it] is
supposed) may be apostates, is one of the highest and most eminent
that is made of believers in the whole Scripture, I shall not doubt
but to make it evident that the excellency of all the expressions
there used, being extracted and laid together, doth yet come short
of the meanest and lowest thing that is spoken of those concerning
whom we treat ; as shall be manifest when, through God's assistance,
we arrive unto that part of this contest.

That the other term, to wit, " perseverance,'' may be more briefly
explicated, I shall take the shortest path. For perseverance in gene-
ral, he came near the nature of it who said it was " In ratione bene
considerata stabilis ac perpetua permansio."® The words and terms
whereby it is expressed in Scripture will afterwards fall in to be

' 2 Pet. i. 1 ; Eom. viii. 11 ; Eph. i. 19, 20, ii. 1, 5, 6, 8, 10; Matt. vii. 17, xii. 33;
Gal. ii. 20; 1 John v. 12; 2 Cor. v. 17; 1 Thess. v. 23; Gal. v. 22, 28; 1 John iii. 9;
Eph. ii. 10; 1 Pet. i. 22, 23; Phil. ii. 13.

2 John xiv. 16, 26, xv. 26,xvi. 7-11; Eom. viii. 10, 11; 1 Cor. vi. 19; Eom. v. 5;
1 John iv. 4, 13; 2 Tim. i. 14; 1 Cor. vi. 17, xii. 12, 13; Eph. iv. 4.

3 1 John iii. 14; Eph. ii. 1 ; Col. ii. 13; Rom. vi. 11, 13, viii. 2, 10.
* Acts xxvi. 18; Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 4; Col. i. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 9.

5 Ezek. xxxvi. 25; Zech. xiii. 1; Isa. iv. 3, 4; Eph. v.. 25-27; 1 Cor. vi. 11; Tit.
iii. 5; Heb. x. 22.

« Rom. vi. 11; Eph. ii. 12-16; Col. i. 21; Heb. xii. 22-24.

^ Eph. ii. 3; Gal. iii. 13, iv. 4-7; Eom. viii. 1; 2 Cor. v. 21; Col. ii. 10; Rom.
V. 1, viii. 32, 33; 1 John iii. 1, 2; Eph. iii. 15. s cic. Inv., Ub. ii. 54.

96 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

considered. The Holy Ghost restrains not himself to any one ex-
pression in spiritual things of so great importance, but using that
variety which may be suited to the instruction, supportment, and
consolation of believers,^ this grace (as is that of faith itself in an
eminent manner) is by him variously expressed. To walk in the
name of the Lord for ever ; to walk with Christ as we have received
him ; to be confirmed or strengthened in the faith as we have been
taught; to keep the ways of God's commandments to the end; to run
steadfastly the race set before us; to rule with God; to be faithful
with the saints ; to be faithful to the death ; to be sound and stead-
fast in the precepts of God ; to abide or continue firm with Christ,
in Christ, in the Lord, in the word of Christ, in the doctrine of
Christ, in the faith, in the love and favour of God, in what we have
learned and received from the beginning; to endure; to persist in
the truth ; to be rooted in Christ ; to retain or keep faith and a good
conscience ; to hold fast our confidence and faith to the end ; to follow
God fully; to keep the word of Christ's patience; to be built upon
and in Christ; to keep ourselves that the wicked one touch us not;
not to commit sin ; to be kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation; to stand fast as mount Zion, that can never be re-
moved ; to stand by faith ; to stand fast in the faith ; to stand fast in
the Lord; to have the good work begun, perfected; to hold our pro-
fession that none take our crown ;^ — these, I say, and the like, are
some of those expressions whereby the Holy Ghost holds forth that
doctrine which we have in hand, which is usually called " The perse-
verance of saints," regarding principally their abiding with God,
through Christ, in faith and obedience ; which yet is but one part of
this truth.

The reasons and causes investing this proposition, that saints, such
as we have described, shall so persevere, with a necessity of conse-
quence, and on which the truth of it doth depend, both negatively
considered and positively ; with the limitation of perseverance, what
it directly asserts, what not; with what failing, backsliding, and de-
clensions, on the one hand and other, it is consistent, and what is
destructive of the nature and being of it; the difference of it, as to
being and ajiprehension, in respect to the subject in whom it is; with
the way and manner whereby the causes of this perseverance liave
their operation on and effect in them that persevere, not in the least
prejudicing their liberty, but establishing them in their voluntary

' Rom. XV. 4.

« 2 Sam. vii. 14, 15; Ps. i. 3, xxiii. G, xxxvii. 24. Iv. 22, Ixxxix. 31-33, cxxv. 1-3,
cxxviii. 5; Isa. xlvi. 4, liv. 10; Jer. xxxi. 3, xxxii. 39, 40; Zech. x. 12; Jfatt. vii.
24, 25, xii. 20, xvi. 18, xxiv. 24; Luke viii. 8, xxii. 32; John vi. 35, 39, 56, 57,
viii. 12, X. 27-29, xiv. 10, 17, xvii. 20-22; Rom. viii. 1, 16, 17, 28-37; 1 Cor.
i. 8, 9, X. 13, XV. 58; 1 John v. 18, iii. 9; 1 Pet. i. 5; Rom. xi. 20; 1 Cor. xvi. 13;
Phil. iv. 1, i. G; Eph. i. 13, 14, iv. 30; Gal. ii. 20; Phil. i. 6; 1 Thess. v. 24; 2 Tim.
u. 12; 1 Pet. i. 2-5 ; 1 John ii. 19, 27, etc.

I.] APOSTASY OF TRUE BELIEVERS IMPOSSIBLE. 97

obedience, — will afterward be fully cleared. And hereon depends
much of the life and vigour of the doctrine we have in hand, it being
oftener in the Scripture held forth in its fountains, and springs, and
causes, than in the thing itself, as will upon examination appear.

As to what is on the other side affirmed, that believers VLiQ.y fall
totally and finally away, something may be added to clear up what
is intended thereby, and to inquire how it may come to pass. We
do suppose (which the Scripture abundantly testifieth) that such be-
lievers have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them;^ and, by his implant-
ing, a new holy habit of grace.^ The inquiry then is, how believers
may come utterly to lose this Holy Spirit, and to be made naked of
the habit of grace or new nature bestowed on them. That, and that
only, whereunto this effect is ascribed is sin. Now, there are two
ways whereby sin may be supposed to produce such effects in re-
ference to the souls of believers: — 1. Evidently, by a reaction in
the same subject, as frequent acts of vice will debilitate and over-
throw an acquired habit whereunto it is opposite. 2. Meritoriously^
by provoking the Lord to take them away in a way of punishment;
for of all punishment sin is the morally procuring cause. Let us a
little consider which of these ways it may probably be supposed that
sin expels the Spirit and habit of grace from the souls of believers.

First, [As] for the Spirit of grace which dwells in them, it cannot
Avith the least colour of reason be supposed that sin should have a
natural efficient reaction against the Spirit, which is a voluntary
indvveller in the hearts of his: he is indeed grieved and provoked by
it,^ but that is in a moral way, in respect of its demerit ; but that it
should have a natural efficiency by the way of opposition against it,
as intemperance against the mediocrity which it opposeth, is a mad-
ness to imagine.

The habit of grace wherewith such believers are endued is infused,
not acquired by a frequency of acts in themselves. The root is made
good, and then the fruit, and the work of God. It is " a new crea-
tion,'' planted in them by " the exceeding greatness of his power," as
"he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead ;" which he
also " strengthens with all might"'* and all power to the end. Is it
now supposed, or can it rationally be so, that vicious acts, acts of
sin, should have in the soul a natural efliciency for the expelling of
an infused habit, and that implanted upon the soul by the exceeding
greatness of the power of God? That it should be done by any one
or two acts is impossible. To suppose a man, in whom there is a

> Ezek. xxxvi. 27; Isa. lix. 21; Luke xi. 13; Ps. li. 11; Rom. viii. 9, 11, 15;
1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal. iv. 6; 2 Tim. i. 14; Rom. v. 5; Gal. v. 22; John xiv. 16, 17,
svi. 13; 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19.

2 Matt. xii. 33; 2 Cor. t. 17; 2 Pet. i. 4; Gal. v. 22, 23; Eph. iv. 23, 24.

» Eph. iv. 30; Heb. iii. 10, 11 ; Isa. Ixiii. 10

* Col.ii. 12; 2 Cor. v. 17; Eph. i. 19, 20; Col. i. II.
VOL XL 7

98 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

habit set on by so mighty an impression as the Scripture mentions,
to act constantly contrary thereunto, is to think what we will, with-
out troubling ourselves to consider how it may be brought about.
Farther; whilst tliis principle, life, and habit of grace is thus con-
suming, doth their God and Father look on and suffer it to decay,
and their spiritual man to pine away day by day, giving them no new
supplies, nor increasing them with the increase of God?^ Hath he
no pity towards a dying child? or can he not help him? Doth he,
of whom it is said that he is " faithful," and that he " will not suf-
fer us to be tempted above what we are able, but will with the
temptation make a way to escape," let loose such flood-gates of
temptations upon them as he knows his grace will not be able to
stand before, but will be consumed and expelled by it? What, also,
shall we suppose are the thoughts of Jesus Christ towards a wither-
ing member, a dying l^rother, a perishing child, a wandering sheep?'*
Where are his zeal, and his tender mercies, and the sounding of his
bowels? Are they restrained? Will he not lay hold of his strength,
and stir up his righteousness, to save a poor sinking creature? Also,
" He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world;" and will
he suffer himself to be wrought out of his habitation, and not stir
up his strength to keep possession of the dwelling-place which he
had chosen? So that neither in the nature of the thing itself, nor
in respect of him with whom we have to do, doth this seem possible.
But,—

Secondly, Sin procureth, by the way of merit, the taking away of
the Spirit and removal of the habit graciously bestowed. Believers
deserve by sin that God should take his Spirit from them, and
the grace that he hath bestowed on them: they do so indeed; it
cannot be denied. But will the Lord deal so with them? Will he
judge his house with such fire and vengeance?^ Is that the way of
a father with his children? Until he hath taken away his Spirit
and grace, although they are rebellious children, yet they are his
children still. And is this the way of a tender father, to cut the
throats of his children when it is in his power to mend them? The
casting of a wicked man into hell is not a punishment to be com-
pared to this; the loss of God's presence is the worst of hell. How
infinitely must they needs be more sensible of it who have once
enjoyed it than those who were strangers to it from the womb!
Certainly the Lord bears another testimony concerning his kindness
to his sons and daughters than that we should entertain such dis-
mal thoughts of him.* He chastises his children, indeed, but he doth
not kill them; he corrects them with rods, but his kindness he takes

' Eph. i. 23; Col. ii. 19; Eph. iv. IG; 1 Thcss. iii. 12; Phil. i. G; 1 Cor. x. 13.

2 llcb. ii. 17, 18, iv. 16, vii. 25; Isa. xl. 11, Ixiii. 9; Ezck. xxxiv. 4, 12.

* Isa. xlvlii. 9. * Isa. xlix. 15, IG, Ixvi. 13; Jer. ii. 1-3; IIos. ii. 11. etc.

I.] THE CONTROVERSY AS STATED BY MR GOODWIN. 99

not from them. Notwithstanding of the attempt made by the Ee-
monstrants, in their Synodalia, I may say that I have not as yet met
with any tolerable extrication of these difficulties. More to this
purpose will afterward be insisted on.

That which we intend when we mention " the perseverance of
saints," is their continuance to the end in the condition of saint-
ship whereunto they are called. Now, in the state of saintship, there
are two things concurring: — 1. That holiness which they receive
from God; and, 2. That favour which they have with God, being
justified freely by his grace, through the blood of Christ. And their
continuance in this condition to the end of their lives, both as to
their real holiness and gracious acceptance, is the perseverance
whereof we must treat, — the one respecting their real estate, the
other their relative ; of which more particularly afterward.

And this is a brief delineation of the doctrine which, the Lord
assisting, shall be explained, confirmed, and vindicated, in the ensu-
ing discourse; which being first set forth as a mere skeleton, its sym-
metry and complexion, its beauty and comeliness, its strength and
vigour, its excellency and usefulness, will, in the description of the se-
veral parts and branches of it, be more fully manifested.

Now, because Mr Goodwin, though he was not pleased to fix any
orderly state of the question under debate, — a course he hath also
thought good to take in handling those other heads of the doctrine
of the gospel wherein he hath chosen to walk (for the main with the
Arminians) in paths of difference from the reformed churches, — yet
having scattered up and down his treatise what his conceptions are of
the doctrine he doth oppose, as also what he asserts in the place and
room thereof, and upon what principles, I shall briefly call what he
hath so delivered, both on the one hand and on the other, to an
account, to make the clearer way for the proof of the truth which
indeed we own, and for the discovery of that which is brought forth
to contest for acceptance with it upon the score of truth and use-
fulness.

First, then, for the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, how it
stands stated in Mr Goodwin's thoughts, and what he would have
other men apprehend thereof, may from sundry places in his book,
especially chap, ix., be collected, and thus summarily presented.
" It is," saith he, sect. 3, " a promising unto men, and that with
height of assurance, under what looseness or vile practices soever,
exemption and freedom from punishment." So sect. 4, " It is in vain
to persuade or press men unto the use of such means in any kind
which are in themselves displeasing to them, seeing they are ascer-
tained and secured beforehand that they shall not fail of the end
however, whether they use such means or no ; — a luscious and ful-
some conceit (sect. 5), intoxicating the flesh with a persuasion that

100 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

it hath goods laid up for the days of eternity; a notion comfortable,
and betiding peace to the flesh (sect. 15), in administering unto it
certain hope that it shall, however, escape the wrath and vengeance
which is to come, yea, though it disporteth itself in all manner of
looseness and licentiousness in the meantime. A presumption it is
that men (sect. 18) may or shall enjoy the love of God, and salvation
itself, under practice of all manner of sin and wickedness; represent-
ing God (sect. 20) as a God in whose sight he is good that doth evil ;
promising his love, favour, and acceptance, as well unto dogs return-
ing to their vomit, or to swine wallowing in the mire after their wash-
ing" (that is, to apostates, which that believers shall not be is indeed
the doctrine he opposeth), " as unto lambs and sheep. A doctrine
this whereby it is possible for me certainly to know, that how loosely,
how profanely, how debauchedly soever, I should behave myself, yet
God will love me, as he doth the holiest and most righteous man
under heaven."'

With these and the like expressions doth Mr Goodwin adorn and
gild over that doctrine which he hath chosen to oppose; Avith these
garlands and flowers doth he surround the head of the sacrifice which
he intends instantly to slay, that so it may fall an undeplored victim,
if not seasonably rescued from the hands of this sacred officer. Neither
through his whole treatise do I find it delivered in any other sense,
or held out under any other notion to his reader. The course here
he hath taken in this case, and the paths he walks in towards his
adversaries, seems to be no other than that which was traced out by
the bishops at Constance, when they caused devils to be painted upon
the cap they put on the head of Huss before they cast him into the
fire. I do something doubt (though I am not altogether ignorant
how abominably the tenets and opinions of those who first opposed
the Papacy are represented and given over to posterity, by them
whose interest it was to have them thought such as they gave them
out to be) whether ever any man that undertook to publish his con-
ceptions to the world about any opinion or parcel of truth debated
amongst professors of the gospel of Christ, did ever so dismember,
disfigure, defile, wrest, and pervert, that which he opposed, as Mr
Goodwin hath done the doctrine of perseverance, which he hath un-
dertaken to destroy. Methinks a man should not be much delighted
in casting filth and dung upon his adversary before he begin to
grapple with him. In one word, this being the account he gives us
of it, if he be able to name one author, ancient or modern, any one
sober person of old or of late, that ever spent a penful of ink, or
once opened his mouth in the defence of that perseverance of saints,
or rather profane walking of dogs and swine, which he hath stated,
not in the words and terms, but so much as to the matter or purpose
here intimated by him, it shall be accepted as a just defensative

L] the doctrine of perseverance as proposed by MR g. 101

against the crime which we are enforced to charge in this particular,
and which otherwise will not easily be warded. If this be the doc-
trine which, with so great an endeavour, and a contribution of so
much pains and rhetoric, he seeks to oppose, I know not any that
will think it worth while to interpose in this fierce contest between
him and his man of straw. Neither can it with the least colour of
truth be pretended that these are consequences which he urgeth the
doctrine he opposeth withal, and not his apprehensions of the doc-
trine itself: for neither doth he in any place in his whole treatise
hold it out in any other shape, but is uniform and constant to him-
self in expressing his notion of it; nor doth he, indeed, almost use any
argument against it but those that suppose this to be the true state
of the controversy which he hath proposed. But whether this in-
deed be the doctrine of the perseverance of saints which Mr Good-
win so importunately cries out against, upon a brief consideration of
some of the particulars mentioned, will quickly appear.

First, then, doth this doctrine " promise, with height of assurance,
that under what looseness or vile practices soever men do live, they
shall have exemption from punishment?" Wherein, I pray? — in that
it promiseth the saints of God, that through his grace they shall be
preserved from such looseness and evil practices as would expose
them to eternal punishment?^ Doth it teach men that it is vain to
use the means of mortification, because they shall certainly attain
the end whether they use the means or no? Or may you not as
well say that the doctrine you oppose is, that all men shall be saved
whether they believe or no, with those other comfortable and cheer-
ing associate doctrines you mention? Or is this a regular emergency
of that doctrine which teaches that there is no attaining the end but
by the means, between which there is such a concatenation by divine
appointment that they shall not be separated? Doth it "speak
peace to the flesh, in assurance of a blessed immortality, though it
disport itself in all folly in the meantime?" Do the teachers of
it express any such thing? doth any such abomination issue from
their arguings in the defence thereof? Or doth the doctrine which
teaches believers (saints, who have tasted of the love and pardoning
mercy of God, and are taught to value it infinitely above all the
world) that such is the love and good-will of God towards them, in
the covenant of mercy in the blood of Christ, that having appointed
good works for them to walk in, for which of themselves they are
insufficient, he will graciously continue to them such supplies of his
Spirit and grace as that they shall never depart from following after
him in ways of gospel obedience,^ — doth this, I say, encourage any
of them to continue in sin that this grace may abound? Or are any
doctrines of the gospel to be measured by the rules and lines of the

' Ps. xxiii. 6 ; Jer. xxxi. 33 ; 1 Cor. x. 13, 1 Pet. i. 5. « Eph. ii. 10; 2 Cor. iii. 5.

102 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

use or abuse that the flesh is apt to make of them? or rather by
their suitableness to the divine nature, whereof the saints are made
partakers, and serviceableness to their carrying on to loerfection in
that attainment? Or is this an argument of validity against an evan-
gelical tiTith, that the carnal, unbelieving heart is apt to turn it into
wantonness? And whether believers walking after the Spirit,^ — in
which frame the truths of God in the gospel are savour}' and sweet to
them, — do experience such atteudancies of the doctrine under con-
sideration as are here intimated, I am persuaded Mr Goodwin will
one day find that he hath not a little grieved the Holy Spirit of
God by these reproaches cast upon the work of his grace.

Farther; doth this persuasion assure men that " they shall enjoy
the love and favour of God under the practices of all manner of sin?'"'
or can this be wrested by any racks or wheels from this assertion,
that none indeed enjoy the love and favour of God but only they
towards whom it is efifectual to turn them from the practices of all
manner of sin and wickedness, to translate them from darkness into
marvellous light, and from the power of Satan into the kingdom of
Jesus Christ; whom the grace that appears unto them teacheth to
deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously,
and godly, in this present world ; whom that love constrains not to
live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them? Doth it
" promise the love and favour of God to dogs returning to their vomit,
and swine wallowing in the mire," when the very discriminating
difference of it from that doctrine which advauceth itself into com-
petition Avith it is, that such returning dogs and wallowing swine did
indeed, in their best estate and condition, never truly and properly
partake of the love and favour of God, but notwithstanding their
disgorging and washing of themselves, they were dogs and swine
still? But to what end should I longer insist on these things? I
am fully i^ersuaded Mr Goodwin himself cannot make room in his
understanding to apprehend that this is indeed the true notion of
the doctrine which he doth oppose. Something hath been spoken
of it already, and more, the Lord assisting, will be discu.ssed in the
progress of our discourse, abundantly sufficient to manifest to the
consciences of men not possessed with prejudice against the truth
that it is (|uite of another nature and consistency, of another com-
plexion and usefulness, than what is here represented. I cannot but
add, that this way of handling conti'oversies in religion, — namely, in
proposing consequences and inferences of our own framing (wire-
drawn with violence and subtilty from principles far distant from
them, disowned, disavowed, and disclaimed by them on whom they
are imposed) as the judgment of our adversaries, and loading them with
all manner of reproaches, — is such as (being of all men in the world

' Rom. viii. 1,1}.

I.] MR Goodwin's ground of perseverance examined, 103

most walked in by the Arminians) I desire not to be competitor with
any in, "' Hand defensoribus istis/' etc.

Let us now a little, in the next place, consider what Mr Goodwin
gives in for that persuasion which, in opposition to the other, before
by him displayed, he contendeth with all his strength to advance. I
do not doubt but all that are acquainted with his way of expression
(" elato cothurno ") will, as they may reasonably, expect to have it
brought forth (j^ira itoXkrig (pav-adiag, adorned with all the gallantry
and ornaments that words can contribute thereunto; for of them
there is with him store to be used on all occasions. YloXitg vofxlg hSa
xai h&a.

The sum of the doctrine he is so enamoured of he gives us, chap. ix.
sect. 21, p. 115. "Longa est fabula, longse ambages;" this is " Caput
rei." " It is not any danger of falling away in them that are saints
and believers, or probability of it, that he maintains, but only possi-
bility of it; such as there is that sober and careful men may volun-
tarily throw themselves down from the tops of houses or steeples
(though, perhaps, they never come there), or run into the fire or
water, and be burned or drowned, having the use of their reason and
understanding to preserve them from such unusual and dismal acci-
dents:"^ which seems to be an instance of as remote and infirm a
possibility as can likely be imagined. Yea, he tells you farther,
sect. 22, " That the saints have as good security of their persever-
ance as he could have of his life to whom God should grant a lease
of it for so long, upon condition that he did not thrust a sword
through his bowels, or cast himself headlong down from a tower; so
that his doctrine indulgeth to the saints as much assurance as that of
perseverance, but only it grants them not a liberty of sinning : " which^
I presume, his own conscience told him that neither the other doth.

But is this indeed Mr Goodwin's doctrine? is this all that he
intends his arguments and proofs shall amount unto? "Ad popu-
lum phaleras." Strange, that when there is not so much as a proba-
bility or danger of falling away, yet so many and so eminent saints
should so fall ! How seldom is it that we hear of wise and sober
men running into the fire, throwing themselves headlong from
towers, thrusting swords through their own bowels! and nothing
more frequent than the apostasy of saints, if these things stood upon
equal terms of unlikelihood and improbability ! The stony field in the
parable seems to be every whit as large as the good ground, whose fruit
abideth. Matt. xiii. 20, 21, 23. That ground, in Mr Goodwin's sense, is

* " Quidam sixnt, qui jam aliqiiamdiu hice veritatis collustrati fuerunt, et in ejus
cognitione pietatisque studio tantum profecerunt, ut habitum tandem credendi sanc-
teque yivendi comparaverint : hos non tantum ad finem usque vitas persevcrare posse,
scd facile posse, ac libenter et cum voluptate pei-severare velle credimus, adeo ut non
nisi cum lucta et molestia ac difficultate deficerepossint."' — Act. Synod. Dec. Sent. A. 5,
pp. 189, 190.

10 4> DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

true believers, so that a moiety at least must be granted to fall away,
and never come to perfection. Doubtless this is not easy to be received,
that one half of a company of men in succession should constantly,
from one generation to another, fall into ruin in such a way as
wherein there is no danger of it, or probability that it should so
come to pass, Methinks, we should scarce dare to walk the streets,
lest at every step we be struck down by sober men voluntarily tum-
bling themselves from the tops of houses, and hardly keep ourselves
from being wounded with the swords wherewith they run themselves
through. Was this indeed the case with David, Solomon, Peter,
and others, who totally apostatized from the faith ? But if it be so,
if they are thus secure, whence is it that it doth arise? what are the
fountains, springs, and causes of this general security? Is it from
the weakness of the opj^osition, and slightuess of all means of diver-
sion from walking with God to the end, that they meet withal? or
is it from the nature of that faith which they have, and grace where-
with they are endued? or is it that God hath graciously under-
taken to safeguard them, and to preserve them in their abiding with
him, that they shall not fall away ? or is it that Christ intercedeth
for them that their faith fail not, but be preserved, and their souls
with it, by the power of God, unto the end? or from what other
principle doth this security of theirs arise? from what fountain do
the streams of their consolation flow? where lie the heads of this
Nilus?

That it is upon the fi7^st account, I suppose cannot enter into
the imagination of any person who ever had the least experience of
walking with God, or doth so much as assent to the letter of the
Scripture. How are our enemies there described, as to their num-
ber, nature, power, policy, subtlety, malice, restlessness, and advan-
tages! with what unimaginable and inexpressible variety of means,
temptations, baits, allurements, enticements, terrors, threats, do they
fight against us! Such and so many are the enemies that oppose
the saints of God in their abiding with him, so great and effectual
the means and weapons wherewith they fight against them, so un-
wearied and watchful are they for the improvement of all advan-
tages and opportunities for their ruin, that upon the supposal of the
rejection of those principles and those means of their preservation
which we shall find Mr Goodwin to attempt, they will be found to
be so far from a state of no danger and little probability of falling,
or only under a remote possibility of so doing, that it will appear
utterly impossible for them to hold out and abide unto the end.
Had the choicest saint of God, with all the grace that he hath re-
ceived, but one of the many enemies, and that the weakest of all
them which oppose every saint of God, even the feeblest, to deal
withal, separated from the strength of those principles and support-

I.] THE ENEMIES OF THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 105

ments which Mr Goodwin seeketh to cast down, let him lie under
continual exhortations to watchfulness and close walking with God,
he may as easily move mountains with his finger or climb to heaven
by a ladder as stand before the strength of that one enemy. Adam
in paradise had no lust within to entice him, no world under the
curse to seduce him, yet at the first assault of Satan, who then had no
part in him, he fell quite out of covenant with God, Ps. xxx. 6, 7.

I shall give one instance, in one of the many enemies that fight
against the welfare of our souls; and "ex hoc uno" we may guess at
the residue of its companions. This is indwelling sin, whose power
and policy, strength and prevalency, nearness and treachery, the
Scripture exceedingly sets out, and the saints daily feel. I shall
only point at some particulars: —

First, Concerning its nearness to us, it is indeed in us; and that
not as a thing different from us, but it cleaveth to all the faculties
of our souls. It is an enemy born with us,^ bred up with us, carried
about in our bosoms, by nature our familiar friend, our guide and
counsellor, dear to us as our right eye, useful as our right hand, our
wisdom, strength, etc. The apostle, Rom. vii. 17, 20, calleth it the
"sin that dwelleth in us." It hath in us, in the faculties of our souls,
its abode and station. It doth not pass by and away, but there it
dwells, so as that it never goes from home, is never out of the way
when we have any thing to do ; whence, verse 21, he calls it the "evil
that is present with him." When we go about any thing that is
good, or have opportunity for or temptation unto any thing that is
evil, it is never absent, but is ready to pluck us back or to put us on,
according as it serves its ends. It is such an inmate that we can
never be quit of its company; and so intimate unto us that it puts
forth itself in every acting of the mind, will, or any other faculty of
the soul. Though men would fain shake it off, yet when they would
do good, this evil will be present with them. Then, —

Secondly, Its universality and compass. It is not straitened in
a corner of the soul; it is spread over the whole, all the faculties, af-
fections, and passions of it. That which is born of the flesh is flesh ;
it is all flesh, and nothing but flesh. It is darkness in the under-
standing, keeping us, at best, that we know but in part, and are still
dull and slow of heart to believe. Naturally we are all darkness,
nothing but darkness; and though the Lord shine into our mind, to
give us in some measure the knowledge of his glory in the face of
Jesus Christ, yet we are still very dark, and it is a hard work to
bring in a little light upon the soul. Especially this is seen in parti-
cular practical things; though in general we have very clear light
and eviction, yet when we come to particular acts of obedience, how
often doth our light grow dim and fail us, causing us to judge amiss
' Ps. li. 5; Matt. v. 29, 30; James iii. 5, 6.

106 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAT.

of that whicli is before us, by the rising of that natural darkness
which is in us! It is perverseness, stubbornness, obstinacy in the
will, that carries it with violence to disobedience and sin ; it is sen-
suality upon the affections, bending them to the things of the world,
alienating them from God; it is slipperiness in the memory, making
us like leaking vessels, so that the things that we hear of the gosjjel
do suddenly slip out, whenas other things abide finn in the cells and
chambers thereof; it is senselessness and error in the conscience,
staving it off from the performance of that duty which, in the name
and authority of God, it is to accomplish : and in all these is daily
enticing and seducing the heart to folly, conceiving and bringing
forth sin.^

Thirdly, Its 2^ower. The apostle calls it " a law, a law in his
members, a laAV of sin," Rom. vii. 21, 23 ; such a law as fights,
makes war, and leads captive, selling us under sin, not suffering us to
do the good we would, forcing us to do the evil we would not, drawing
us off from that we delight in, bringing us under bondage to that
which we abhor. A powerful, unmerciful, cruel tyrant it is. O
wretched men that we are! verse 24. There is no saint of God but
in the inward man doth hate sin, every sin, more than hell itself,
knowing the world of evils that attend the least sin ; yet is there not
one of them but this powerful tyrant hath compelled and forced to
so many as have made them a burden to their own souls.

Fourthly, Its cunning, craft, and j)olicy. It is called in Scrip-
ture " the old man ;" not from the weakness of its strength, but from
the strength of its craft. " Take heed," saith the apostle, " lest any
of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin," Heb. iii. IS. There
is abundance of deceitfulness in it, being ready, fit, and prompt to
beguile; lying in wait for advantages, furnished for all opportunities,
and ready to close with every temptation : yea, the ways of it are so
large and various, its wiles and methods for deceiving so innumer-
able, its fruitfuhiess in conceiving and bringing forth of sin so abun-
dant, its advantages and opportunities so many, that it is like "the way
of a serpent upon a rock," — there is no tracing or finding of it out.

A serious consideration of the opposition made luito our persever-
ance by this one enemy, which hath so much ability, and is so rest-
less in its warfare, never quiet, conquering nor conquered, which can
be kept out of none of our counsels, excluded from none of our act-
ings, is abundantly sufficient to evince that it is not want or weak-
ness of enemies which putteth believers out of danger of falling awa3^

But all this perhaps will be granted. Enemies they have enough,

' John iii. G; Matt. vi. 23, xi. 27; Luke xi. 34-36; Acts xxvi. 18; 2 Cor. vi. 14;
Eph. V. 8; Isft. xxix. 18, xx.w. 5, xlii. 7; Koni. ii. 19; Col. i. 13; 1 Pot. ii. 9; Lukq
iv. 18; Eph. iv. 18; Rev. iii. 17; Matt, xxiii. 16, iv. 16; John i. 5; 2 Cor. iv. 6;
Luke xiv. 18 ; John viii. 34 ; Rom. vi. Id, vii. 18, viii. 7, 8 ; Jcr. vi. 13 ; Gen. vi. 5 ;
Jcr. xiii. 23 ; Heb. ii. 1 ; James i. 14, 16.

l] TliE ENEMIES OF THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 107

and those much more diligent and powerful every one of them than
all we have spoken of that now described amounteth unto; but the
means of preservation which God afibrds the saints is that which
puts them almost out of gun-shot, and gives them that golden secu-
rity mentioned, which cometh not, in administering consolation, one
step behind that which ariseth from the doctrine of absolute perse-
verance. Let, then, this be a little considered, and perhaps it will
allay this whole contest. Is it, then, that such is the grace that is
bestowed upon them, in respect of the principle whence it is be-
stowed (the eternal love of God), and the way whereby it is for them
procured (the blood-shedding and intercession of Christ), with the
nature of it (being the seed of God, which abideth and withereth
not), and that such seems to be the nature of infused habits, that
they are not removed but by the poAver and immediate hand of him
by whom they are bestowed? Is it from hence that their assurance
and security doth arise ? " Alas ! all this is but a fiction. There is no
faith that is the fruit of election; Christ purchased it not for any by
his death; infused habits are not; the grace that perisheth and that
that abideth are the same. These things are but pretences.'' Is
it, then, that God hath purposed from eternity to continue constant
in his love towards them, never to leave them nor forsake them?
" Na.j, but of all things imaginable this is the greatest abomination,
which if the Scriptures did anywhere affirm, it were sufficient to
make a rational, considering man to question their authority." What
then? Hath the Lord promised to give them such continued sup-
plies of his Spirit and grace in Jesus Christ as that they shall be
supported against all opposition, and preserved from all or any such
sins as will certainly make a separation between God and their souls?
*' Nay, there is not one such promise in all the book of God ; they are
conditional, for the enjoyment o^ aiE gocd things whereof believers
stand all their days ujDon theirout /i behaviour." Is it, then, that
the Lord Jesus, '^ 8 '3 alway-vithjard of his Father, intercedes for
them that their fai. '^ "1 no>y and that they may be preserved hy
the power of God unto ba:ivation, and that not only upon condition
of their believing,- but chiefly that they may be kept and preserved
in believing? Or is it that their enemies are so conquered for them
and on their behalf,, in the death and resurrection of Christ, that they
shall never have dominion over them, that tlieir security doth arise?
Neither the one nor the other, nor any nor all of these, are the
grounds and foundations of their establishment, but they are wholly
given up to the powerful hand of some considerations, which Mr
Goodwin expresseth and setteth out to the life, chap. ix. sect. 32-34,
pp. 174, 175.

Now, because the Remonstrants^ have always told us that God
1 Coll. Hag. A. 5, Act. Synod. Dec. Setit. A. 5, thes. ii.

108 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

hath provided sufficiently for the perseverance of the saints, if they
be not supinely wanting to themselves in the use of them, but have
not hitherto, either jointly or severally, that I know of, taken the
pains to discover in particular wherein that sufficiency of provision
for their safety doth consist, or what the means are that God affords
them to this end and purpose, Mr Goodwin, who is a learned mas-
ter of all their counsels, having exactly and fully laid them forth as
a solid foundation of his assertion concerning only a remote possi-
bility of the saints' total defection, let it not seem tedious or imper-
tinent if I transcribe, for the clearer debate of it before the reader,
that whole discourse of his, and consider it in order as it lies.

" If," saith he, " it be demanded what are the means which God
hath given so abundantly to the saints, to make themselves so free, so
strong in inclinations to avoid things so apparently destructive to the
spiritual peace and salvation of their souls, as naturally men are to
forbear all such occasions which are apparently destructive to their na-
tural lives, so that they need not to be any whit more afraid of losing
their souls through their own actings than men are, or need to be,
of destroying their natural lives upon the same terms? I answer, —

" First, He hath given them eyes wherewith, and light whereby,
clearly and evidently to see and know that it is not more rational or
man-like for men to refrain all such acts which they know they can-
not perform but to the present and unavoidable destruction of their
natural lives, than it is to forbear all sinful acts whatsoever, and espe-
cially such which are apparently destructive to their souls.

" Secondly, God hath not only given them the eyes and the light
we speak of, wherewith and whereby clearly to see and understand
the things manifested, but hath farther endued them with a faculty
of consideration, wherewith to reflect upon, and review, and ponder,
so oft as they please, what theyemp, understand, and know in this
kind. Now, whatsoever a man V^neoable, first, of seeing and know-
ing, secondly, of pondering and cSi^nddering, he is capable of rais-
ing or working an inclination in himself towards it, answerable in
strength, vigour, and power, to any degree of goodness or desirable-
ness which he is able to apprehend therein; for what is an inclina-
tion towards any thint:- but a propension and laying out of the heart
and soul towards it? So that if there be worth and goodness suffi-
cient in any object wliatsoever to bear it; and, secondly, if a man be
in a capacity of discovering and apprehending this good cleai-ly ; and,
tliirdly, be in a like capacity of considering this vision, — certainly he
is in a capacity and at liberty to work himself to what strength or
degree of desire and inclination towards it he pleaseth. Now, it is
certain to every man tbat there is more good in abstaining from
things either eminently dangerous or apparently destructive to his
soul, than in forbearing tilings apparently destructive to his natural

I.] MR G.'S GROUNDS OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. 1 09

being. Secondly, As evident it is that every man is more capable of
attaining or coming to the certain knowledge and clear apprehending
of this excess of good to him in the former good than in the latter.
Thirdly, Neither is it a thing less evident than either of the former,
that every man is as capable of ruminating or re-apprehending the
said excess of good as much and as oft as he pleaseth, as he is simply
of apprehending it at all. Which supposed as undeniably true, it
follows with a high hand, and above all contradiction, that the saints
may (and have means and opportunities fair and full for that pur-
pose) plant inclinations or dispositions in themselves to refrain all
manner of sins apparently dangerous and destructive to the safety
of their souls, fuller of energy, vigour, life, strength, power, than the
natural inclination in them which teach eth them to refrain all occa-
sions which they know must needs be accompanied with the destruc-
tion of their natural beings. Therefore, if they be niore, or so much,
afraid of destroying their lives voluntarily and knowingly (as by
casting themselves into the fire or the water, or the like) than they
are of falling away through sin, the fault or reason thereof is not at
all in the doctrine, which affirms or informs them that there is a
possibility that they fall away, but in themselves and their own
voluntary negligence. They have means a"nd opportunities (as we
have proved) in abundance to render themselves every whit as secure,
yea, and more secure, touching the latter, as they are or reasonably
can be concerning the former."

Ans. When I first cast an eye on this discourse of Mr Goodwin,
I confess I was surprised to as high a degree of admiration, and
some other affections also, as by any thing I had observed in his
Avhole book; as having not met (if without offence I may be allowed
to speak my apprehensions) with any discourse whatsoever of so
transcendent a derogation from, and direct tendency to the over-
throw of, the grace of Christ, but only in what is remembered, by
Austin, Hilary, Fulgentius, with some others, of the disputes of
Pelagius, Coelestius, Julianus, with their followers, and the Socinians
of late, with whom Mr Goodwin would not be thought to have joined
in their opposition to the merit and grace of Christ. As I said, then,
before, if this should prove in the issue to be the sum of the means
afforded to preserve the saints from apostasy and falling away into
ruin, I shall be so far from opposing a possibility of their defection
that I shall certainly conclude their perseverance to be impossible,
being fully persuaded that, with all the contribution of strength
which the considerations mentioned are able of themselves to afford
unto them, they are no more able to meet their adversaries, who
come against them with twenty thousand subtleties and temptations,
than a man with a straw and a feather is to combat with and over-
come a royal army. The Scripture tells us, and we thought it had

110 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

been so, that we "^are kept by the power of God unto salvation;" and
that to this end he puts forth " the exceeding greatness of his power
in them that believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
which he wrouglit in Christ when he raised him from the dead;"
whereby he "strengthens them with all might, according to his glori-
ous power," " making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light." ^ It seems, though there be a glorious sound of
words in these and innumerable the like expressions of the engage-
ment of the power and faithfulness of God for the safeguarding of his
saints, yet all this is but an empty noise and beating of the air; that
which is indeed material to this purpose consisting in "certain conside-
rations which rational men may have concerning their present state
and future condition." But let us a little consider the discourse itself.

First, It is all along magnificently supposed that there is the same
power and abiUty in a rational, enlightened man to deliberate and
conclude of things in reference unto the j^ractical condition of his
spiritual estate as there is of his natural, and that this ability is con-
stantly resident with him, to make use of upon all occasions, what-
ever our Saviour say to the contrary, — namely, that " without him
we can do nothing," John xv. 5.

Secondly (to make way for that). That such an one is able to know
and to desire the things of his peace in a spiritual and useful manner,
notwithstanding the vanity of those many seemingly fervent prayers
of the saints in the Scripture, that God would give them understand-
ing in these things, and his manifold promises of that grace.^

Thirdly, That upon such deliberation, men are put into a capa-
city and liberty, or are enabled, to work themselves to what strength
or (]egree of desire and inclination towards that good considered
they please; and according as the good is that men apprehend (as
abiding with God is the greatest good), such will be the strength
and the vigour and power of their inclination thereto. That they
have a law in their members rebelling against the law of their
minds, and leading them captive under the law of sin, needs not to
be taken notice of. This sufficiency, it seems, is of themselves. He
was a weak, rmskilful man who supposed that of ourselves we could
not think a good thought, seeing we are such perfect lords and
masters of all good thoughts and actings whatsoever.^

Fourthly, The whole sum of this discourse of the means aftbrded
believers to enable them to persevere amounts to this, that being
rational men, they may, first, consider that some kinds of sins will
destroy them and separate them from God, and that by obedience
they shall come to the greatest good imaginable ; whereupon it is in
their power so strongly to incline their hearts unto obedience that

» 1 Pet. i. 5; Eph. i. 17-20; Col. i. 11, 12. » Ps. cxix. 144 ; 1 Cor. ii. 14.

» Horn. vii. 8-24 ; 2 Cor. iii. 5.

I.] MR G/S GROUNDS OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE, 111

they shall be in no more clanger of departing from God than a wise
and rational man is of killing or wilfully destroyiog himself: the
first paii; whereof may be performed by them who are no saints, the
latter not by any saint whatsoever.

And is not this noble provision for the security and assurance
of the saints enough to make them cast away with speed all their
interest in the unchangeable purposes and giacious and faithful
promises of God, intercession of Christ, sealing of the Spirit, and
all those sandy and trivial supports of their faith which hitherto
they have rejoiced in? And whatever experience they have, or
testimony from the word they do receive, of the darkness and weak-
ness of their minds, the stubbornness of their wills, with the strong
inclinations that are in them to sin and falling away, — whatever
be the oppositions from above them, about them, within them, on
the right hand and on the left, that they have to wrestle withal,^ —
let them give up themselves to the hand of their own manlike con-
siderations and weighing of things, which will secure them against
all danger or probability of falling away; for if they be but capable,
first, of seeing and knowing, secondly, of ponderiug and considering,
and that rationally (it matters not whether these things are fruits of
the Spirit of grace or no, nay, it is clear they must not be so), that
such and such evil is to be avoided, and that there is so and so great
a good to be obtained by continuing in obedience, they may raise
and work inclinations in themselves, answerable, in strength, vigour,
and power, to any degree of goodness which they apprehend in what
they see and ponder.

The whole of the "ample sufficient means" afforded by God to
the saints to enable them to persevere branching itself into these
two heads, — first. The rational considering what they have to do ;
secondly, Their vigorous inclination of their hearts to act suitably
and answerably to their considerations, — I shall, in a word, consider
them apart.

First, The considerations mentioned, of evil to be avoided and
good to be attained (I mean that which may put men upon creating
those strong inclinations: for such considerations may be without
any such consequence, as in her that cried, " Video meliora proboque,
deteriora sequor"), are either issues and products of men's own na-
tural faculties, and deduced out of the power of them, so that as
men they may put themselves upon them at any time; or they are
fruits of the Spirit of his grace, who "worketh in us both to will and
to do of his good pleasure."^ If they be the latter, I ask, seeing
all grace is of promise, whether hath God promised to give and con-
tinue this grace of self-consideration unto believers or no? If he
hath, whether absolutely or conditionally? If absolutely, then he

• Eph. vi. 12; Heb. xii. 1 ; Eom. vii. 17. ' Phil. ii. 13.

112 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

hath promised absolutely to continue some grace in them ; which is
all we desire. If conditionally, then would I know what that con-
dition is on which God hath promised that believers shall so con-
sider the things mentioned. And of the condition which shall be ex-
pressed, it may farther be inquired whether it be any grace of God,
or only a mere act of the rational creature as such, without any im-
mediate in- working of the will and deed by God? AVhatsoever is
answered, the question Avill not go to rest until it be granted that
either it is a grace absolutely promised of God, which is all we desire,
or a pure act of the creature contradistinct thereunto, which answers
the first inquiry. Let it, then, be granted that the considerations in-
timated are no other but such as a rational man who is enlio-htened
to an assent to the truth of God may so exert and exercise as he
pleaseth ; then is there a foundation laid of all the ground of perse-
verance that is allowed the saints in their own endeavours, as men
without the assistance of any gi'ace of God. Now, these considera-
tions, be they what they will, must needs be beneath one single good
thought, for as for that we have no sufficiency of ourselves; yea,
vanity and nothing, for without Christ we can do nothing ; yea,
evil and displeasing to God, as are all the thoughts and imaginations
of our hearts that are only such.^ I had supposed that no man in
the least acquainted with what it is to serve God under temptations,
and what the work of saving souls is, but had been sufiiciently con-
vinced of the utter insufficiency of such rational considerations, flow-
ing only from conviction, to be a solid foundation of abiding with
God unto the end. If men's houses of profession are built on such
sands as these, we need not wonder to see them so frequently falling
to the ground.

Secondly, Suppose these considerations to act their part uj)on the
stage raised for them, to the greatest applause that can be expected
or desired, yet that which comes next upon the theatre will, I fear,
foully miscarry, and spoil the whole plot of the play, — that is, "men's
vigorous inclination of their hearts to the good things pondered on
to what height they plt^ase ; " for besides that, —

First, It is liable to the same examination that passed upon its
associates before, or an inquiry from whence he comes, whether
from heaven or men ; upon which I doubt not but he may easily be
discovered to be " a vagabond upon the earth," to have no pass from
heaven, and so be rendered liable to the law of God.

Secondly, It would be inquired whether it hath a consistency with
the whole design of the apostle, Rom. vii. And therefore, —

Thirdly, It is utterly denied that men, the best of men, liave in
themselves and of themselves, arising upon the account of any con-
siderations whatsoever, a power, ability, or strength, vigorously or at
* 2 Cor. iii. 6; John xv. 5; Gen. viii, 21.

I.] ISAIAH IV. OPENED AND EXPLAINED. 113

all acceptably to God, to incline their hearts to the performance of
any thing that is spiritually good, or in a gospel tendency to walking
with God. All the promises of God, all the prayers of the saints,
all their experience, the whole design of God in laying up all our
stores of strength and grace in Christ, jointly cry out against it for
a counterfeit pretence. In a word, that men are able to plant in
themselves inclinations and dispositions to refrain all manner of sin
destructive to the safety of their souls, fuller of energy, vigour, life,
strength, power, than those that are in them to avoid things ap-
parently tending to the destruction of their natural lives, is an asser-
tion as full of energy, strength, and vigour, life, and poison, for the
destruction and eversion of the grace of God in Christ, as any which
can be invented.

To shut up this discourse and to proceed: If these are the solid
foundations of peace and consolation which the saints have concern-
ing their perseverance; if these be the means "sufficient," "abun-
dantly sufficient," affi^rded them for their preservation, that are laid
in the balance, as to the giving of an evangelical, geniune assurance,
with the decrees and purposes, the covenant, promises, and oath
of God, the blood and intercession of Christ, the anointing and
sealing of the Spirit of grace, — I suppose we need not care how soon
we enter the lists with any as to the comparing of the doctrines
under contest, in reference to their influence into the obedience and
consolation of the saints ; which with its issue, in the close of this
discourse, shall, God willing, be put to the trial.

Now, that I may lay a more clear foundation for what doth ensue,
I shall briefly deduce not only the doctrine itself, but also the method
wherein I shall handle it, from a portion of Scripture, in which
the whole is summarily comprised, and branched forth into suitable
heads, for the confirmation and vindication thereof. And this also is
required to the main of my design, it being not so directly to convince
stout gainsayers, in vanquishing their objections, as to strengthen
weak believers, in helping them against temptations; and therefore I
shall at the entrance hold out that whereinto their faith must be
ultimately resolved, — the authority of God in his word being that
ark alone whereon it can rest the sole of its foot. Now, this is the
fourth chapter of Isaiah, of which take this short account : It is a
chapter made up of gracious promises, given to the church in a
calamitous season; the season itself is described, verses 25 and 26 of
the third chapter, and the first of this, — all holding out a distressed
estate, a low condition. It is, indeed, God's method, to make out
gracious promises to his people when their condition seems most
deplorable, — to sweeten their souls with a sense of his Jove in the
multitude of the perplexing thoughts which in distracted times are
ready to tumultuate in them.

VOL. XL ^ 8

114 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

The foundation of all the following promises lies in the second
verse, even the giving out of the "Branch of the Lord" and the "Fruit
of the earth" for beauty and glory to the remnant of Israel. Who
it is who is the "Branch of the Lord" the Scripture tells us in sundry
places, Isa. xi. 1; Jer. xxiil 5, xxxiii. 15; Zech. iii. 8. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the promise of whom is the church's only supportment
in every trial or distress it hath to undergo, he is this branch and
fruit; and he is placed in the head here as the gi'eat fountain -mercy,
from whence all others do flow. In those that follow, the persons
to whom those promises are made, and the matter or substance of
them, are observable. The persons have various appellations and
descriptions in this chapter. They are called (first) "The escaping of
Israel," verse 2 ; " They that are left in Zion," verse 3 ; "Jerusalem" it-
self, verse 4; "The dwelling-places and assemblies of mount Zion,"
verse 5. That the same individual persons are intended in all these
several appellations is not questionable. It is but in reference to the
several acts of God's dwelling with them, and outgoings of his love and
good-will, both eternal and temporal, towards them, that they come
under this variety of names and descriptions. First, In respect of
his eternal designation of them to life and salvation, they are said
to be "Written among the living," or unto life " in Jerusalem ;" their
names are in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the
•world,^ and they are recorded in the jourpose of God from all eter-
nity. Secondly, In respect of ^their deliverance and actual redemp-
tion from the bondage of death and Satan, which for ever prevail
upon the greatest number of the sons of men, shadowed out by their
deliverance from the Babylonish captivity (pointed at in this place),
they are said to be " A remnant, an escaping, such as are left and
remain in Jemsalem.'" From the perishing lump of mankind God
doth by Christ snatch a remnant (whom he will preserve), like a
brand out of the fire. Thirdly, In respect of their enjoyment of
God's ordinances and word, and his presence Avith them therein,
they are called "The daughter of Zion," and "The dwelling-places
thereof"' There did God make know^n his mind and will, and
walked with his people in the beauties of holiness: these are they
to w'hom these promises are made, the elect, redeemed, and called
of God ; or thoj;e who, being elected and redeemed, shall in their
sevcial generations be called, according to his purpose who w^orketh
all things according to the counsel of his own will.

For the matter of these promises, they may be reduced to these
three heads: — first, Oi justification, verse 2; secondly, 0( sancti-

' Rev. iii. 12, xiii. 8; Luke x. 20.

a Rev. V. 0; E\)h. v. 25-27; Zech. iii. 2; John xvii. 9; Rom. viii. ^3,
' Ps. xlviii. 11-14, xvi. 1-3, etc.; Jer, 1. 5; Zcih. viii. 2; John xii. 15; Ps. ex. 3;
Isa. xlix. 14.

I.] ISAIAH IV. OPENED AND EXPLAINED. 115

fication, verses 3, 4 ; thirdly, Of pei^severance, verses 5, 6. First,
Of justification, Christ is made to them, or given unto them, for
beauty and glory; which how it is done the Holy Ghost tells us:
Isa. Ixi. 10, "I will greatly rejoice in the LoED, my soul shall be
joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with the garments of sal-
vation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness," saith
the church. He puts upon poor deformed creatures the glorious
robe of his own righteousness, to make us comely in his presence
and the presence of his Father, Zech. iii. 8, 4. Through him, his
being given unto us, " made unto us of God righteousness,'" becom-
ing " the Lord our righteousness,"^ do we find free acceptation, as
beautiful and glorious, in the eyes of God. But this is not all. He
doth not only adorn us without, but also wash us within. The apostle
acquaints us that that was his design, Eph. v. 25-27; and therefore
you have, secondly, the promise of sanctification added, verses 8, 4.
Verse 3, you have the thing itself: they " shall be called holy," made
so, — called so by him who "calleth things that are not as though they
were," and l)y that call gives them to be that which he calls them.
He said, " Let there be light ; and there was light," Gen. i. 3. And
then the manner how it becomes to be so, verse 4; first, setting out
the efficient cause, " the Spirit of judgment, and the Spirit of burn-
ing,"— that is, of holiness and light; and, secondly, the way of his
producing this great effect, " washing away filth and purging away
blood." Spiritual filth and blood is the defilement of sin ; the Scrip-
ture, to set out its abomination, comparing it to the things of the
greatest abhorrency to our nature, even as that is to the nature of
God.^ And this is the second promise that in and by the " Branch of
the Lokd" is here made to them "who are written unto life in Jeru-
salem." But now, lest any should suppose that both these are for a
season only, that they are dying privileges, perishing mercies, jewels
that may be lost, so that thougli the persons to whom these promises
are made are once made glorious and comely, being in Christ freely
accepted, yet they may again become odious in the sight of God and
be utterly rejected, — that being once washed, purged, cleansed, they
should yet return to wallow in the mire, and so become wholly
defiled and abominable, — in the third place he gives a promise of
jjerseverance, in the last two verses, and that expressed with allusion
to the protection afforded unto the people of the Jews in the wilder-
ness by a cloud and pillar of fire ; which as they were created and
instituted signs of the presence of God, so they gave assured protec-
tion, preservation, and direction, to the people in all their ways. The

' 1 Cor. i. 80; Isa. liv. 17, xlv. 24, 25; Jer. xxiii. 6; Eom. v. 1, viii. 1; Col.
ii. 10.

2 Ezek. xi. 1 9 ; John iii. 5 ; Rom. viii. 1 ; John xvi. 8-1 1 ; Ps. xxxviii. 5, 7 ; Prov.
xiii. 5, G ; Isa. i. 5, 6, Ixiv. 6 ; Ezek. xvi. 4, 5, xxiv. G ; Hos. viii. 8 ; Zech. xiii. 1 ;
Rom. iii. 1 3 ; 2 Pet. ii. 22.

116 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

sum of the whole intendment of the Holy Ghost in these two verses
seeming to be comprised in the last words of the fifth, and they being
a suitable bottom unto the ensuing discourse, comprising, as they
stand in relation to the verses foregoing, the whole of my aim, with
the way or method wherein it may conveniently be delivered, I shall
a little insist upon them : " Upon all the glory shall be a defence."

The words are a gospel promise expressed in law terms, or a new
testament mercy in old testament clothes: the subject of it is "All
the glory;"' and the thing promised is "A defence over it," or upon it.
By " The glory," some take the people themselves to be intended,
who are the glory of God, Isa. xlvi. 13, in whom he will be glorified,
and who are said to be made glorious, chap. iv. 2. But the pillar
of fire and the cloud lead us another way. As the protection here
promised must answer the protection given by them of old, so the
glory here mentioned must answer that which was the glory of that
people, when they had their preservation and direction from these
signs of the presence of God in the midst of them. It is very true, the
sign of God's presence among them itself, and the protection received
thereby, is sometimes called his "glory," Ezek. x. 4, 18; but here it is
plainly differenced from it, that being afterward called a " defence."
That which most frequently was called the "glory" in the ancient dis-
pensation of God to his people was the ark. When this was taken
by the Philistines, the wife of Phinehas calls her son I-chabod, and
says, "The glory is departed from Israel," 1 Sam. iv. 21, 22; which
the Holy Ghost mentions again, Ps. Ixxviii. 61, " And delivered his
strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand." The
tabernacle, or the tent wherein it was placed, is mentioned, verse 60,
"He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed
among them;" and the people to whom it was given, verse 62,
" He gave his people over also unto the sword ;" — that ark being the
glory and strength which went into captivity when he forsook the
tabernacle, and gave his people to the sword. That this ark, the
" glory" of old, was a type of Jesus Christ (besides the end and aim of
its institution, with its use and place of its abode), appears from the
mercy-seat or plate of gold that was laid upon it; which Jesus Christ
is expressly said to be, Rom. iii. 25, 26, compared with Heb. ix. 5.
It is he who is the "glory" here mentioned, not considered absolutely
and in his own person, but as he is made "beauty and glory" unto his
people, as he is made unto them righteousness and holiness, accord-
ing to the tenor of the promises insisted on before. And this is in-
deed all the glory of the elect of God,^ even the presence of Christ
with them, as their justification and sanctification, theii* righteousness
and holiness.

The matter of the promise made in reference to this "glory" and

' It.a. xlv. 25.

l] observations on the controversy. 1 ] 7

them upon whom it doth abide is, that there "shall be a defence upon
it." The word translated here "A defence" comes from a root that is
but once read in Scripture, Deut. xxxiii. 12, where it is rendered to
cover : " The Lord shall cover him all the day long/' So it properly
signifies. From a covering to a protection or a defence is an easy
metaphor, a covering being given for that end and purpose. And
this is the native signification of the word " protego," " to defend by
covering;" as Abimelech called Abraham "the covering of Sarah's
eyes," or a protection to her, Gen. xx. 16. The allusion also of a
shade, which in Scripture is so often taken for a defence,^ ariseth
from hence. This word itself is used twice more, and in both places
signifies a bride-chamber, Ps. xix. 5, Joel ii. 16, from the peace,
covert, and protection of such a place. The name of the mercy-seat
is also of the same root with this. In this place it is, by common
consent, rendered " A defence" or })rotection, being so used either by
allusion to that refreshment that the Lord Christ, the great bride-
groom, gives to his bride in his banqueting-house,^ or rather in pur-
suit of the former similitude of the cloud that was over the taber-
nacle and the ark, which represented the glory of that people. Thus,
this "defence" or covering is said to be "upon" or above the "glory," as
the cloud was over the tabernacle, and as the mercy-seat lay upon the
ark. Add only this much to what hath been spoken (which is also
affirmed in the beginning of the verse), namely, that this defence is
"created," or is an immediate product of the mighty power of God, not
requiring unto it the least concurrence of creature power, and the
whole will manifest the intendment of the Lord everlastingly to safe-
guard the spiritual glories of his saints in Christ.

As was before shown, there are two parts of our spiritual glory,
the one purely extrinsical, to wit, the love and favour of God unto
us, his free and gracious acceptation of us in Christ. On this part
of our glory there is this defence created, that it shall abide for ever,
it shall never be removed. His own glory and excellencies are engaged
for the preservation of this excellency and glory of his people. This
sun, though it may be for a while eclipsed, yet shall never set, nor
give place to an evening that shall make long the shade thereof;
whom God once freely accepts in Christ, he will never turn away his
love from them, nor cast them utterly out of his favour. The other
is within us, and that is our sanctification, our portion from God by
the Spirit of holiness, and the fruits thereof, in our faith, love, and
obedience unto him. And on this part of our glory there is this de-
fence, that this Spirit shall never utterly be dislodged from that soul
wherein he makes his residence, nor resign his habitation to the spirit
of the world, — that his fruit shall never so decay as that the fruits of

1 Ps. xvii. 8, xxxvi. 7, Ivii. 1, Mii. 7, cxxi. 5; Isa. xxx. 2, slix. 2; Ezek. xxxi. 6, etc.
» Cant. ii. 4.

118 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Sodom and the grapes of Gomorrah should grow in their room, nor
they wherein they are everlastingly, utterly, and wickedly, grow
Ijarren in departing from the living God. These two make up their
perseverance whereof we speak. Whom God accepts in Christ, he
will continue to do so for ever; whom he quickens to walk with him,
they shall do it to the end. And these three things, acceptance with
God, holiness from God, and a defence upon them both unto the
end, all free and in Christ, are that threefold cord of the covenant of
grace Avhich cannot be broken.

In the handling, then, of the doctrine proposed unto consideia-
tion, I shall, the Lord assisting, show, —

First, That the love and favour of God, as to the free acceptation
of believers with him in Christ, is constant, abiding, and shall never
be turned away ; handling at large the principles both of its being
and manifestation.

Secondly, That the Spirit and grace of sanctification, which they
freely receive from him, shall never utterly be extinguished in them,
but so remain as that they shall abide with him for ever; the sophis-
tical separation of which two parts of our doctrine is the greatest
advantage our adversaries have against the whole. And [I shall]
demonstrate, — •

Thirdly, The real and causal influences which this truth hath
into the obedience and consolation of the saints, considered both
absolutely, and compared with the doctrine which is set up in com-
petition with it.

In the pursuit of which particulars I shall endeavour to enforce and
press those places of Scripture wherein they are abundantly delivered,
and vindicate them from all the exceptions put in to our inferences
from them by Mr Goodwin in his " Redemption Redeemed;" as also
answer all the arguments which he hath, with much labour and indus-
try, collected and improved in opposition to the truth in hand. Take,-
then, only these few previous observations, and I shall insist fully
upon the proof and demonstration of the first position, concerning the
unchangeableness of the love of God towards his, to whom he gives
Jesus Christ for beauty and glory, and freely accepts them in him : —

First, As to their inherent holiness, the question is not concerning
acts, either as to their vigour, which may be abated, or as to their
frequency, which may be interrupted ; but only as to the spirit and
habit of it, which shall never depart. We do not say they cannot
sin, fall into many sins, great sins, which the Scripture plainly affirms
of all the saints that went before, (and who of them living doth not
this day labour under the truth of it?) but through the presence of
God with them, upon such grounds and principles as shall afterward
be insisted on, they cannot, shall not, sin away the Spirit and habit
of grace (which without a miracle cannot be done away by any one

I.] OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONTROVERSY. 119

act, and God will not work miracles for the destruction of his chil-
dren), so as to fall into that state wherein they were before they were
regenerated, and of the children of God become children of the
devil, tasting of the second death after they have been made par-
takers of the first resurrection. Rev xx. 6.^

Secondly, The question is not about the decay of any grace, hut
the loss of all, not about sickness and weakness, but about death
itself; which alone we say they shall be preserved from. Neither do
we say that believers are endowed with any such rich and plentiful
stock of grace as that they may spend upon it without new supplies
all their days ; but grant that they stand in continual need of the
renewed communication of that grace which hath its abode and re-
sidence in their souls, and of that actual assistance whereby any
thing that is truly and spiritually good is wrought in them.^

Thirdly, Whereas there is a twofold impossibility, — first, that
which is absolutely and simply so in its own nature, and, secondly,
that which is so only upon some supposition, — we say the total falling
away of the saints is impossible only in this latter sense, the unchange-
able decree and purpose of God, his faithful promises and oath, the
mediation of the Lord Jesus, being in the assertion supposed. And, —

Fourthly, whereas we affirm they shall assuredly continue unto the
end, the certainty and assurance intimated is not mentis but entis,
not subjective but objective, not always in the person persevering,
but always relating to the thing itself^

Fifthly, That the three things formerly mentioned, acceptance with
God, holiness from God, and the defence upon them both unto the
end, are that threefold cord of the covenant which cannot be broken.
This will appear by comparing these two eminent places together,
which afterward must more fully be insisted on, Jer. xxxi. ^3, 34,
xxxii. 88-40. In general, God undertakes to be "their God," and that
they shall be "his people," chap. xxxi. 83, xxxii. 88. And this he mani-
fests in three things: — Fii'st, That he will accept them freely, give
them to find great favour before him, in the forgiveness of their sins;
for which alone he hath any quarrel with them : "I will," saith he, "for-
give their iniquity, and remember their sin no more," Jer. xxxi. 34; as
it is again repeated Heb. viii. 12. Secondly, That they shall have
sanctification and holiness from him : " I will put my law in their
inward parts, and write it in their hearts," Jer. xxxi. 33; "I will put
my fear in their hearts," chap, xxxii. 40 ; which Ezekiel, chap, xxxvi. 27,
calls the " putting his Spirit in them," who is the author of that grace
and holiness which he doth bestow. Thirdly, That in both these there

' Rev. ii. 5, iii. 2 ; Isa. Ivii. 17, 18 ; Hos. xiv. 4 ; Isa. lix. 21 ; Jolin xiv. 16 ; 1 John
iii. 9, i. 8 ; James iii. 2 ; 1 Kings viii. 38 ; Isa. Ixiv. 5, G.

* Ps. xxiii. 6 ; Isa. xxxv. 1, 2, etc.; John xv. 3-7; Rom. xi. 18 ; John i. 16 ; Col.
ii. 19; Lnkexvii. 5; I'liil. ii. 13.

» Isa. xlix. 14-16, Ixv. 17 ; Cant. v. 2, 6 ; Ps. Ixxiii. 26.

120 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

shall be a continuance for ever' : Jer. xxxii. 40, " I will not turn
away from them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me;" or, as verse 39, ''They
shall fear me for ever;" which distinguisheth this covenant from the
former made with their fathers, in that that was broken, which this
shall never be, chap. xxxi. 32. This is the crowning mercy, that ren-
ders both the others glorious: — as to acceptation, he will not depart
from us; as to sanctification, we shall not depart from him.

CHAPTER 11.

THE PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS ARGUED FROM THE IMMUTABILITY
OF THE DIVINE NATURE.

The thesis proposed for confirmation — The fivefold foundation of the truth thereof
— Of the unchangeableness of the nature of God, and the influence thereof
into the confirmation of the truth in hand — Mai. iii. 6, considered and ex-
plained— James i. 16-18 opened — Rom. xi. 29 explained and vindicated —
The conditions on which grace is asserted to be bestowed and continued, dis-
cussed— The vanity of them evinced in sundry instances — Of vocation, justi-
fication, and sanctification — Isa. xl. 27-31 opened and improved to the end
aimed at; also Isa. xliv. 1-8 — The sum of the first argument — Mai. iii. 6,
with the whole argument from the immutability of God at large vindicated
— Falsely proposed by Mr G. ; set right and re-enforced — Exceptions removed
— Sophistical comparisons exploded — Distinct dispensations, according to dis-
tinction of a people — Alteration and change properly and directly assigned to
God by Mr G. — The theme in question begged by him — Legal approbation
of duties and conditional acceptation of pei'sons confounded ; as also God's
command and purpose — The unchangeableness of God's decrees granted to
be intended in Mai. iii. 6 — The decree directly in that place intended — The
decree of sending Christ not immutable, upon Mr G.'s principles — The close
of the vindication of this first argument.

The certain, infallible continuance of the love and favour of God
unto the end towards his, those whom he hath once freely accepted
in Jesus Christ, notwithstanding the interposition of any such sup-
posals as may truly be made, having foundation in the things them-
selves, being the first thing proposed, comes now to be demonstrated.

Now, the foundation of this the Scripture lays upon five unchange-
able things, which eminently have an influence into the truth thereof:
first, Of the Nature; secondly. The Purposes; thirdly, The Cove-
nant; fourthly, The Promises; fifthly. The Oath of God ; — every one
whereof being engaged herein, the Lord makes use of to manifest
the unchangeableness of his love towards those whom he hath once
graciously accepted in Christ.

First, he hath laid the shoulders of the unchangeableness of his
own nature to this work : Mai. iii. 6, " I am the Lord, I change
not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed." These "sons of

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NA.TURE. 121

Jacob" are the sons of the faith of Jacob, the Israel of God, not all
the seed of Jacob according to the flesh/ The Holy Ghost in this pro-
phecy makes an eminent distinction between these two, chap. iii. 16",
17, iv. 1, 2. The beginning of this chapter contains a most evident
and clear prediction and prophecy of the bringing in of the kingdom
of Christ in the gospel, wherein he was to purge his floor, and throw
out the chaff to be burned, Matt. iii. 1 2. This his appearance makes
great work in the visible church of the Jews, Very many of those
who looked and waited for that coming of his are cut off and cast
out, as persons that have neither lot nor portion in the mercy where-
with it is attended.^ Though they said within themselves that they
had Abraham to their father, and were the children and posterity of
Jacob, yet, Mai. iii. 5, to them who are only the carnal seed, and do
also walk in the ways of the flesh, he threatens a sore revenge and
swift destruction, when others shall be invested with all the eminent
mercies which the Lord Christ brings along with him. Lest the true
sons of Jacob should be terrified with the dread of the approaching
day, and say, as David ^ did when the Lord made a breach upon
Uzzah, " Who can stand before so holy a God ? shall not lue also
in the issue be consumed?" he discovereth to them the foundation of
their preservation to the end, even the unchangeableness of his own
nature and being, whereunto his love to them is conformed; plainly
intimating that unless himself and his everlasting deity be subject
and liable to alteration and change (which once to imagine were,
what lieth in us, to cast him down from his excellency), it could not
be that they should be cast off for ever and consumed. These are
the tribes of Jacob and the preserved of Israel, which Jesus Christ
was sent to raise up, Isa. xlix. 6 ; the house of Jacob, which he takes
from the womb, and carries unto old age, unto hoary hairs, and for-
saketh not, chap. xlvi. 3, 4.

This is confirmed, James i. 16-lS, " Do not err, my beloved breth-
ren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither
shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth."
He begets us of his own will by the word of truth ; for whatsoever
men do pretend, we are born again, " not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," John i. 13. " Now
herein," saith the apostle, " we do receive from him good and perfect
gifts, — gifts distinguished from the common endowments of others."
Yea, but they are failing ones perhaps, such as may flourish for a
season, and be but children of a night, like Jonah's gourd. Though
God hath begotten us of his own will, and bestowed good and per-

• Rom. ix. 6, xi. 4-6. 2 Isa. xlix. 3-6 ; Luke ii. 34 ; Eom. ix. 30, 31.

3 The expression was used not by David in reference to Uzzah, but by the men of
Beth-shemesh. See 1 Sam. vi. 20. — Ed.

122 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCR [CHAP.

feet gifts upon us, yet he may cast us off for ever. " Do not err, my
beloved brethren," saith the apostle ; " these things come from the
' Father of lights/ God himself is tlie fountain of all liii^hts of grace
which we have received ; and with him ' there is no variableness, nei-
ther shadow of turning,' — not the least appearance of any change or
alteration." And if the apostle did not in this place argue from the
immutability of the divine nature to the unchangeableness of his love
towards those whom he hath begotten and bestowed such light and
grace upon, there were no just reason of mentioning that attribute
and property there.

Hence, Rom. xi. 29, the " gifts and calling of God" are said to
be " without repentance." The gifts of his effectual calling {h Bia
BvoTv) shall never be repented of They are from Him Avith whom
there is no change.

The words are added by the apostle to give assurance of the cer-
tain accomplishment of the purpose of God towards the remnant of
the Jews according to the election of grace. What the principal
mercies were that were in God's intendment to them, and whereof
by their effectual calling they shall be made partakers, he tells us,
verses 26, 27 : the Deliverer or Redeemer, which comes out of Sion,
shall, according to the covenant of grace, turn them from ungodli-
ness, the Lord taking away their sins. Sanctification and jxistification
by Christ, the two main branches of the new covenant (Jer. xxxi.
31-34, xxxii. 38-40 ; Ezek. xxxvL 25-28 ; Heb. viii. 8-12, x. 16, 17),
do make up the mercy purposed for them. The certainty of the
collation of this mercy upon them, notwithstanding the interposition
of any present obstruction (amongst which then' enmity to the gospel
was most eminent, and lay ready to be objected), the apostle argueth
from the unchangeableness of the love of election, wherewith the
Lord embraced them from eternity : " As touching the election, they
are beloved." And farther to manifest on that account the fulfilling
of what he is in the proof and demonstration of, — namely, that
though the major part of "Israel according to the flesh" were rejected,
yet that the " election should obtain, and all Israel be saved," — he
tells them that that calling of God, whereby he will make out to
them those eternally-designed mercies, shall not be repented of;
eminently in that assertion distinguishing the grace whereof he speaks
from all such common gifts and such outward dispensations as might
be subject to a removal from them on whom they are bestowed.
And if, upon any supposition or consideration imaginable, the mercies
mentioned may be taken away, the assertion comes very short of
the proof of that for which it is produced.

Against this plain expression of the apostle, that " the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance," Mr Goodwin puts in sundry
exceptions, to weaken the testimony it bears in this case, chap. viii.

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 123

sect, 57; which because they have been already sufficiently evinced
of weakness, falsehood, and impertinency, by his learned antagonist,^
1 shall only take up that which he mainly insists upon, and farther
manifest its utter uselessness for the end for which it is produced.
Thus, then, he pleads: " The 'gifts and calling of God' may be said
to be ' without repentance,' because, let men continue the same per-
sons which they were when the donation or collation of any gift was
first made by God unto them, he never changes or altereth his dis-
pensations towards them, unless it be for the better, or in order to
their farther good ; in which case he cannot be said to repent of what
he had given. But in case men shall change and alter from what
they were when God first dealt graciously with them, especially if
they shall notoriously degenerate or cast away the principles, or
divest themselves of that very qualification on which, as it were,
God grafted his benefit or gift; in this case, though he recall his
gift, he cannot be said to repent of his giving it, because the terms
on which he gave it please him still, only the persons to whom he
gave it, and who pleased him when he gave it them, have now ren-
dered themselves unpleasing to him."

Two things are here asserted : — 1. That if men continue the same,
or in the same state and condition wherein they were when God
bestowed his gifts and graces upon them, then God never changeth
nor altereth, — his dispensations towards them abide the same. 2. That
there are certain qualifications in men upon which God grafts his
grace; which whilst they abide, his gifts and graces abide upon them
also, and therefore are said to be 'without repentance;' but if they
are lost, God recalls his gifts, and that without any change. Let us
a little consider both these assertions.

And, first. It being evident that it is spiritual gi'ace and mercy
of which the apostle speaks, as was manifested, for they are such as
flow from the covenant of the Redeemer, Rom. xi. 26, 27, sanctifica-
tion and justification being particularly mentioned, let us consider
what is the condition of men when God invests them with these mer-
cies, that we may be able to instruct them how to abide in that condi-
tion, and so make good the possession of the grace and mercy bestowed
on them. And, to keep close to the text, let our instance be in the
three eminent mercies of the gospel intimated in that place: 1. Voca-
tion; 2. Sanctification ; 8. Justification.

The gift and grace of vocation is confessedly here intended, being
expressly mentioned in the words, i] xXnatg rov GsoD, that "calling"
which is an effect of the covenant of grace, verse 29. Consider we,
then, what is the state of men when God first calls them and gives
them this gift and favour, that, if it seem so good, we may exhort
them to a continuance therein.

• Dr George Kendall. See prefatory note. — Ed.

124 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Now, this state, with the qualifications of it, ia a state, — 1. Of
death: John v. 25, "The dead hear the voice of the Son of God/'
Christ speaks to them who are dead, and so they live.^ 2. Of dark-
ness, Acts xxvi. 18;" God calleth them out of darkness into his mar-
vellous light," 1 Pet. ii. 9, — a state of ignorance and alienation from
God, Eph. iv. 18. The grace of vocation, or effectual calling, finding
men in a state of enmity to God and alienation from him, if they
may be prevailed withal to continue in such still, this gift shall never
be recalled nor repented of !

But perhaps the gift and grace of sanctification finds men in a
better condition, in a state wherein if they abide then that also shall
abide with them for ever. The Scripture so abounds in the description
of this state that we shall not need to hesitate about it: Eph. ii. 1, 2,
"You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."
Quickening and renewing grace is given to persons dead in sins, and
is so far from depending as to its unchangeableness upon their con-
tinuance in the state wherein it finds them, that it consists in a real
change and translation of them from that state or condition. The
apostle sets out this at large, Tit. iii. 8-5, "We ourselves were some-
times foolish," etc. The state of men when God bestows these gifts
upon them is positively expressed in sundry particulars, verse 3 ;
the qualifications on which this gift or grace is grafted (of which Mr
Goodwin speaks afterward), negatively, verse 5. It is not on any work
that we have done; which is unquestionably exclusive of all those
stocks of qualifications which are intimated, whereon the gifts and
graces of God should be grafted. The gift itself here bestowed is the
" washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost," saving
us through "mercy" from the state and condition before described.
In brief, that the condition wherein this grace of God finds the sons of
men is a state of death,^ blood,' darkness, blindness,* enmity, curse,
and wrath, disobedience, rebellion, impotency, and universal aliena-
tion from God,' is beyond all contradiction (by testimonies plenti-
fully given out, here a little and there a little, line upon line) mani-
fest in the Scripture. Shall we now say that this grace of God is
bestowed on men upon the account of these qualifications, and con-
tinued without revocation on condition that they abide in the same
state, with the same qualifications? Let, then, men continue in sin,
that grace may abound !

Is the case any other as to justification? Doth not God justify the
ungodly? Rom. iv. 5. Are we not in filthy robes when he comes to
clothe us with robes of righteousness? Zech. iii. 3. Are we not re-
conciled to God when aheuated by wicked works? Col. i. 21.

' Isa Ixv. 1; Rom. ix. 25; llos. ii. 23; 1 Pet. ii. 10; Eph. ii. 12. » Matt,

viii. 22 ; Rom. vi. 13 ; Col. ii. 13. 3 Ezck. xyi. 6 ; Isa. iv. 4 ; Job xiv. 4 ; John iii. 6.

* John i. 5; Eph. v. 8; Col. i. 13; Luke iv. 18. » Rom. viii. G-8, v. 10; Col. i. 21 ;
Gal. iii. 13 ; John iii. 35.

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE, 125

These are the qualifications on which, it seems, God grafts his
gifts and graces, and whose abode in the persons in whom they are
is the condition whereon the irrevocableness of those gifts and graces
does depend. Who would have thought they had been of such reck-
oning and esteem with the Lord! And this, considering what is
learnedly discoursed elsewhere, may suffice.

As to the other assertion, that God gives his gifts and graces to
qualifications, not to persons: Those qualifications are either gifts
of God or not. If not, who made those men in whom they are differ
from others? 1 Cor. iv. 7. If they are, on what qualifications were those
qualifications bestowed ? That God freely bestows on persons, of his
own good pleasure, not grafting on qualifications, his gifts and graces,
we have testimonies abundantly sufficient to outbalance Mr Good-
win's assertion : Rom. ix. ] 8, " He hath mercy on whom he will
have mercy." He bestows his mercy and the fruits of it, not on this
or that qualification, but on whom or what persons he will; and "to
them it is given,'' saith our Saviour, "to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of God, but to others it is not given." I see no stock that
his gift is grafted on but only the persons of God's good-will, whom
he graciously designs to a participation of it.

Truth is, I know not any thing more directly contradictory to the
whole discovery of the work of God's grace in the gospel than that
which is couched in these assertions of Mr Goodwin ; neither is it
any thing less or more than that which of old was phrased, "The giv- ■
ing of grace according to merit," ascribing the primitive discrimi-
nating of persons as to spiritual grace unto self-endeavours, casting
to the ground the free, distinguishing good pleasure of God, and that
graciousness of every gift of his (I speak as to the first issue of his
love, in quickening, renewing, pardoning grace) which eminently con-
sists in this, that he is found of them that seek him not, and hath
mercy on whom he will, because so it seemeth good to him.

Not to digress farther, in the discovery of the unsatisfactoriness of
this pretence, from the pursuit of the argument in hand : Because God's
gifts are not repented of, therefore do men continue, not in the condition
wherein they find them, but wherein they place them ; and all qualifi-
cations in men whatever that are in the least acceptable to God are so
far from being stocks whereon God grafts his gifts and graces, that they
are plants themselves which he plants in whomsoever he pleaseth.
Yea, the tree is made good before it bear any good fruit, and the
branch is implanted into the true olive before it receive the sap or
juice of any one good qualification. The sum of Mr Goodwin's
answer amounts to this: Let men be steadfast in a good condition,
and God's gifts shall steadfastly abide with them ; if they change,
they also shall be revoked; — which is directly opposite to the plain
intendment of the place, namely, that the steadfastness of men

!2G DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PEUSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

depends upon the irrevocableness of God's grace, and not e contra.
There is not, in his sense, the least intimation in these words of the
permanency of any gift or grace of God with any one on Avhom it is
bestowed, for a day, an hour, or a moment ; but, notwithstanding
this testimony of the Holy Ghost, they may be given one hour, and
taken away the next, — they may flourish in a man in the morning, and
in the evening be cut down, dried up, and withered. This is not to
answer the arguings of men, but positively to deny what God affirms.
To conclude: God gives not his gifts to men (I mean those men-
tioned) because they please him, but because it pleaseth him so to
do, Jer. xxxi. 31, 82; he does not take them away because they dis-
please him, but gives them so to abide with them that they shall
never displease him to the height of such a provocation; neither
are the gifts of God otherwise to be repented of than by taking them
from the persons on whom they are bestowed. But this heap being
removed, we may proceed.

Furthermore, then, in sundry places doth the Lord propose this
for the consolation of his, and to assure them that there shall never
be an everlasting separation between him and them ; w^hich shall be
farther cleared by particular instances. Things or truths proposed for
consolation are, of all others, most clearly exalted above exception;
without which they were no way suitable (considering the prompt-
ness of our unbelieving hearts to rise up against the work of God's
grace and mercy) to compass the end for which they are proposed.

Isa. xl. 27-31, "Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O
Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed
over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that
the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his under-
standing. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no
might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be
weary, and the young men shall utterly fall : but they that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with
wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; the}^ shall Avalk,
and not faint." Verse 27, Jacob and Israel make a double com-
plaint, both parts of it manifesting some fear or dread of separation
from God; for though in general it could not be so, yet in parti-
cular believers under temptation may question their own condition,
with their right unto and interest in all the things whereby their
state and glory is safeguarded. " My way," say they, " is hid from
the Lord;" — " The Lord takes no more notice, sets his heart no more
upon my way, my walking, but lets me go and pass on as a stranger
to him." And farther, " My judgment is passed over from my
God ;" — " Mine enemies prevail, lusts and corruptions are strong,
and God doth not ajipcar in my behalf ; judgment is not executed on

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 127

them, and what will be the issue of this my sad estate?" What the
Lord proposeth and holdeth out unto them, for their establishment
in this condition, and to assure them that what they feared should
not come upon them, he ushers in by an effectual expostulation :
Verse 28, "Hast thou not known?" — "Hast thou not found it true by
experience ? " " Hast thou not heard ? " — " Hast not thou been taught
it by the saints that went before thee?" What it is he would have
them take notice of, and which he so pathetically insinuates into
their understandings and affections, for their establishment, is an
exurgency of that description of himself which he gives, verse 28:
from his eternity, — He is " the everlasting God;" from his j^ower,
— He is " the Creator of the ends of the earth ;" from his uncliange-
ahleness, — " He fainteth not," he waxeth not weary, and therefore
there is no reason he should relinquish or give over any design that
he hath undertaken, especially considering that he lays all his pur-
poses in that whereby he describes himself in the last place, even his
vjisdom, — " There is no end of his understanding." He establisheth,
I say, their faith upon this fourfold description of himself, or revela-
tion of these four attributes of his nature, as engaged for the effect-
ing of that which he encourageth them to expect. - " Who is it, O
Jacob, with whom thou hast to do, that thou shouldst fear or com-
plain that thou art rejected? He is eternal, almighty, unchange-
able, infinitely wise; and if he be engaged in any way of doing thee
good, who can turn him aside, that he should not accomplish all his
pleasure towards thee? He will work; who shall let him?" It must
be either want of wisdom and foresight to lay a design, or want of
power to execute it, that exposeth any one to variableness in any un-
dertaking. Therefore, that they may see how unlikely, how impossible
a thing it is that " their way should be hid from the LoitD," and
" their judgment passed over from their God," he acquaints them who
and what he is who hath undertaken to the contrary. But, alas ! they
are poor, faint creatures : they have no might, no strength to walk
with God ; unstable as water, they cannot excel ; it is impossible they
should hold out in the way wherein they are engaged unto the end.
To obviate or remove such fears and misgiving thoughts, he lets
them know, verse 29, that though they have, or may have, many
decays (for they often faint, they often fail, whereof we have ex-
amples and complaints in the Scripture, made lively by our own
experience), yet from him they shall have supplies to preserve them
from that which they fear. He is eternal, almighty, unchangeable,
and infinitely wise ; he will give out power and increase strength
when they faint and in tliemselves have no might at all. The
Lord doth not propose himself under all these considerations to let
them know what he is in himself only, but also that he will exert
(and act suitably to) these properties in dealmg with them, and

128 DOCTRINE OF THR SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

making out supplies unto them, notwithstanding all their misgiving
thoughts, which arise from the consideration of their own faintings
and total want of might. Though in themselves they are weak and
faint, yet their springs are in him, and their supplies from him, who
is such as he hath here described himself to be. Hereupon, also, he
anticipates an objection, by way of concession : Verse 30, " Even the
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall." Men that seem to have a great stock of strength and ability
may yet fail and perish utterly; — an objection which, as I formerly
observed, these days have given great force unto. We see many who
seem to have the vigour of youth and the strength of young men in
the ways of God, that have fainted in their course and utterly failed;
they began to run well, but lay down almost at the entrance. " And
be it so," saith the Lord; " it shall so come to pass indeed. Many
that go out in their own strength shall so fall and come to nothing:
but what is that to thee, O Jacob, my chosen, thou that waitest upon
the Lord? The unchangeable God will so make out strength to
thee, that thou shalt never utterly faint, nor give over, but abide
flying, running, walking, with speed, strength, and steadfastness, unto
the end," verse 31. That expression, "They that wait upon the
Lord," is a description of the persons to whom the promise is made,
and not a condition of the promise itself It is not, " If they wait
upon the Lord," but " They that wait upon the Lord." If it were a
condition of this promise, there were nothing promised; it is only
said, " If they wait on the Lord, they shall wait on the Lord." But
of the vanity of such conditionals I shall speak afterward.

A scripture of the like importance you have, Isa. xliv. 1-8, " Yet
now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and
thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon
him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground : I will pour my
Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: and
they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-
courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's; and another shall call him-
self by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand
unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus
saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of
hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no
God," etc. I shall not need to insist long on the opening of these
words: the general design of them is to give consolation and assur-
ance unto Israel, from the eternity, unchangeableness, and absolute-
ness of God, with some peculiar references to the second person, the
Redeemer, who is described. Rev. i. 8, with the titles, for the sub-
stance of them, whereby the Lord here holds out his own excellency.

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 129

I sliall only observe some few things from the words, for the illustra-
tion of the truth we have in hand, contained in them.

The state and condition wherein Jacob, Israel, Jesurun (several
titles upon several accounts given to believers), are described to be, is
twofold : — First, Of fear and disconsolation, as is intimated in the
redoubled prohibition of that frame in them: Verse 2, " Fear not;"
and verse 8, " Fear ye not, neither be afraid." Some temptation to
farther distance or separation from God (the only thing to be feared)
was fallen upon them. This they are frequently exercised withal ; it
is the greatest and most pressing temptation whereunto they are
liable and exposed. To conclude because some believers in hypo-
thesi may, under temptation, fear their own separation from God,
therefore believers in thesi may be forsaken, yea, that unless this be
true the other could not befall them, may pass for the arguing of
men who are unacquainted with that variety of temptations, spiritual
motions and commotions, which believers are exercised withal. This,
I say, is the first part of that state wherein they are supposed to be;
a condition of the greatest difficulty in the world for the receiving of
satisfaction. Secondly, Of barrenness, unprofitableness, and wither-
ing; which seems, and that justly, to be the cause of their fear: Verse
S, they are as the "thirsty," and as the "dry ground," parched in itself,
fruitless to its owners, withering in their own souls, and bringing forth
no fruit to God. A sad condition on both hands. Within they find
decays, they find no active principles of bringing forth fruit unto God;
and without desertion, fears at least that they are forsaken. Upon
this ye have the foundation that the Lord lays for the refreshment
of their spirits in this condition, and reducing of them into an estab-
lished assurance of the continuance of his love ; and that is his free,
gracious election and choosing of them : " Thou art Jacob whom I
have chosen, Jesurun whom I have chosen," verses 1, 2, even from
eternity; when he "appointed the ancient people, and the things that
are coming and shall come," verse 7; when he purposed mercy for
the fathers of old, whom long since he had brought upon that account
unto himself

This is the " foundation" of doing them good, which " standeth
sure;" as the apostle makes use of it to the same purpose, 2 Tim. ii.
19. This foundation being laid, Isa. xliv. 3, he gives them a twofold
promise, suited to the double state wherein they were: — First, For
the removal of their drought and barrenness, he will give them " wa-
ters" and "floods" for the taking of it away; which in the following
words he interpreteth of the " Spirit," as likewise doth the apostle
John, chap. vii. 38, 39. He is the great soul-refresher; in him are all
our springs. Saith the Lord, then, " Fear not, ye poor thirsty souls;
ye shall have him as a flood, in great abundance, until all his fruits
be brought forth in you." Secondly, For the removal of the other

VOL. XL 9

130 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

evilj or fears of desertion and casting off, he minds them of his cove-
nant, or the blessing of their offspring, of them and their seed, ac-
cording to his promise when he undertook to be tlieir God, Gen.
xvii. 7. And then, Thirdly, There is a twofold issue of God's thus
dealing with them: — First, Of real fruitfulness : Isa. xliv. 4, " They
shall be as grass" under perpetual showers, which cannot possibly
wither and decay, or drj' away, " and as trees planted by the rivers
of water, that bring forth their fruit in their season, whose leaf doth
not wither," Ps. i. 3. Secondly, Of zealous profession and owning
of God, with the engagement of their hearts and hands unto him,
which you have in Isa. xliv. 5. Every one for himself shall give up
himself to the Lord, in the most solemn engagement and professed
subjection that is possible. They shall " say," and " subscribe," and
'' surname" themselves, by names and terms of faith and obedience,
to follow the Lord in the faith of Jacob or Israel, in the inheritance
of the promises which were made to him.

But now what assurance is there that this happy beginning shall
be carried on to perfection, that this kindness of God to them shall
abide to the end, and that there shall not be a separation between
him and his chosen Israel? In the faith hereof the Lord confirms
them by that revelation which he makes of himself and his proper-
ties, verses 6-8. First, in his sovereignty/, he is the " King." What
shall obstruct him? hath not he power to dispose of all things? He
is the " Lord and King ; " he will work, and who shall let him ? But
hath he kindness and tenderness to carry him out hereunto? There-
fore, secondly, he is their "Redeemer ;" and do but consider what he
doth for the glory of that title, and Avhat the work of redemption stood
him in, and ye will not fear as to this nor be afraid. And all this he,
thirdly, closeth with his eternity and unchangeahleness. He is "the
first, and he is the last, and beside him there is no God," — the first,
that chose them from eternity; and the last, that will preserve them to
the end ; and still the same, — he altereth not. I shall not add more
instances in this kind. That the Lord often establisheth his saints
in the assurance of the unchaugeableness of his love towards them
from the immutability of his own nature is very evident. Thence
comparing himself and his love with a tender mother and her love,
he affirms tliat hers may be altered, but his shall admit of " no vari-
ableness, neither shadow of turning," Isa. xlix. l-i-lG

To wind up this discourse, the sum of this first part of our first
scriptural demonstration of the truth under debate amounts to this
argument: That which God aftirms shall be certainly and infallibly
fulfilled upon the account of the immutabiUty of his own nature, and
encourageth men to expect it as certainly to be fulfilled as he is
unchangeable ; that shall infallibly, notwithstanding all oppositions
and difficulties, be wrought and perfected. Now, that such, and so

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVIKE NATUEE. 131

surely bottomed is the continuance of the love of God unto his saints,
and so would he have them to expect, etc., hath been proved by an
induction of many particular instances, wherein those engagements
from the immutability of God are fully expressed.

One of these testimonies, even that mentioned in the first place,
Mai. iii. 6, from whence this argument doth arise, is proposed to be
considered and answered by Mr Goodwin, chap. x. sect. 40, 41, pp.
205-207. A brief removal of his exceptions to our inference from
hence will leave the whole to its native vigour, and the truth therein
contained to its own steadfastness in the hand and power of that
demonstration. Thus, then, he proposeth that place of the prophet
and our argmnent from thence, whereunto he shapes his answer:
" For the words of Malachi, ' I am the Lord, I change not,' from
which it is wont to be argued that when God once loves a person,
he never ceaseth to love him, because this must needs argue a change-
ableness in him in respect of his affection, and consequently the
saints cannot fall away finally from his grace," etc. So he.

Ans. It is an easy thing so to frame the argument of an adver-
sary as to contribute more to the weakening of it in its proposing
than in the answer afterward given thereunto; and that it is no
strange thing with Mr Goodwin to make use of this advantage in
his disputations in this book is discerned and complained of by all
not engaged in the same contest with himself That he hath dealt
no otherwise with us in the place under consideration, the ensuing
observations will clearly manifest: —

First, all the strength that Mr Goodwin will allow to this argu-
ment ariseth from a naked consideration of the immutability of God
as it is an essential property of his nature, when our arguing is from
his engagement to us by and on the account of that property. That
God will do such and such a thing because he is omnipotent, though
he shall not at all manifest any purpose of his will to lay forth his
omnipotency for the accomplishment of it, is an inference all whose
strength is vain presumption ; but when God hath engaged himself
for the performance of any thing, thence to conclude to the certain
accomplishment of it, from his power whereby he is able to do it, is
a deduction that faith will readily close withal. So the apostle as-
sures us of the re-implanting of the Jews upon this account. " God/'
saith he, " is able to plant them in again," having promised so to
do, Rom. xi. 23. There are two considerations upon which the un-
changeableness of God hath a more effectual influence into the con-
tinuance of his love to his saints than the mere objected thought of
it will lead us to an acquaintance withal : —

First, God proposeth his immutahility to the faith of the saints
for their establishment and consolation, in this very case of the sta-
bility of his love unto them. We dare not draw conclusions in re-

132 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

ference to ourselves from any property of God, but only upon the
account of the revelation which he hath made thereof unto us for
that end and purpose; but this being done, we have a sure anchor,
firm and steadfast, to fix us against all blasts of temptation or oppo-
sition whatsoever. When God proposes his immutability or un-
changeableness to assure us of the continuance of his love unto us,
if we might truly apprehend, yea, and ought so to do, that his un-
changeableness may be preserved, and himself vindicated from the
least shadow of turning, though he should change his mind, thoughts,
love, purposes, concerning us every day, what conclusion for consola-
tion could possibly arise from such proposal of God's immutability
unto us? yea, would it not rather appear to be a way suited to the
delusion of poor souls, that when they shall think they have a solid
pillar, no less than an essential property of the nature of God, to rest
upon, they shall find themselves leaning on a cloud, or shadow, or
on a broken reed that will run into their hands, instead of yielding
them the least supportment? God deals not thus with his saints.
His discoveries of himself in Christ for the establishment of the
hearts of his are not such flints as from whence the most skilful
and exercised faith cannot expect one drop of consolation. What-
soever of his name he holds out to the sons of men, it will be a
strong tower and place of refuge and safety to them that fly unto it.
Secondly, The consideration of that love in its continuance, wherein
the Lord settles and puts out of doubt the souls of his, by the en-
gagement of his unchangeableness, or the calling of them to the con-
sideration of that property in him from whom that love doth flow,
adds strength also to the way of arguing we insist upon. Were the
love of God to his nothing but the declaration of his approbation of
such and such things, annexed to the law and rule of obedience (it
might stand firm like a pillar in a river, though the water be not
thereby caused to stand still one moment, but only touch it, and so
pass on), there were some colour of exception to be laid against it.
And this is, indeed, the -xpco-ov -^ivboQ of Mr Goodwin in this whole
controvers}'^, that he acknowledgeth no other love of God to believers
but what lies in the outward approbation of what is good, and men's
doing it; upon which account there is no more love in God to one
than another, to the choicest saint than to the most profligate villain
in the world. Nay, it is not any love at all, propcrl}'- so called, being
no internal, vital act of God's will, the seat of his love, but an exter-
nal declaration of the issue of our obedience. The declaration of
God's will, that he approves faith and obedience, is no more love to
Peter than it is to Judas. But let now the love of God to believers
be considered as it is in itself, as a vital act of his will, willing, if I
may so speak, good things to them, as the immanent purpose of his
will, and also joined with an acceptation of therfi in the eii'ects of his

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 133

grace, favour, and love in Jesus Christ, and it will be quickly evidenced
how an alteration therein will intrench upon the immutability of
God, both as to his essence, and attributes, and decrees.

Having thus re- enforced our argument from this place of Scrip-
ture, by restoring unto it those considerations which (being its main
strength) it was maimed and deprived of by Mr Goodwin in his pro-
posal thereof, I shall briefly consider the answers that by him are
suggested thereunto.

Thus, then, he proceedeth : " By the tenor of this arguing, it will
as well follow, that in case God should at any time withdraw his
love and his favour from a nation or body of a people which he
sometimes favoured or loved, he should be changed. But that no
such change of dispensation as this towards one or the same people
or nation argueth any change at all in God, at least any such change
which he disclaimeth as incompetent to him, is evident from those
instances without number recorded in Scripture of such different
dispensations of his towards sundry nations, and more especially to-
wards the Jews, to whom sometimes he gives peace, sometimes con-
sumes them with wars, sometimes he makes them the head, and
sometimes again the tail of the nations round about them."

Aois. The love and favour of God to a nation or people, here
brought into the lists of comparison with the peculiar love of God to
his saints, which he secures them of upon the accoimt of his immuta-
bility, is either the outward dispensation of good things to them^
called his love because it expresseth and holds out a fountain of good-
ness from whence it flows, or it is an eternal act of God's will towards
them, of the same nature with the love to his own formerly described.
If it be taken in the first sense, as apparently it is intended, and so
made out from the instance of God's dealing with the Jews in out-
ward blessings and punishments, Mr Goodwin doth plainly furaZaivuv
s/g ciXXo ysvog, — fall into a thing quite of another nature, instead of that
which was first proposed. " Amphora cum coepit institui cur urceus
exit?" There is a wide difference between outward providential dis-
pensations and eternal purposes and acts of grace and good-will, to
deal in the instance insisted on by Mr Goodwin. There being fre-
quent mention in the Scripture, as afterward shall be fully declared,
of a difference and distinction in and of that people (for " they are
not all Israel that are of Israel," Rom. ix. 4-8), the whole lump and
body of them being the people of God in respect of separation from
the rest of the world and dedication to his worship and external pro-
fession, yet a remnant only, a hidden remnant, being his people upon
the account of eternal designation and actual acceptation into love
and favour in Jesus Christ, there must needs be also a twofold dis-
pensation of God and his will in reference to that people, — the first
common and general, towards the whole body of them, in outward

134 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERA^'CE. [CHAP.

ordinances and providential exercises of goodness or justice. In tliis
there was great variety as to the latter part, comprehending only ex-
ternal effects or products of the power of God ; in which regard he
can pull down what he hath set up, and set up what he hath pulled
down, without the least shadow of turning, these various dispen-
sations working uniforndy towards the accomplishment of his un-
changeable purposes. And this is all that Mr Goodwin's exceptions
reach to, even a change in the outward dispensation of providence;
which none ever denied, being that which may be, nay is done, for
the bringing about and accomplishment, in a way suitable to the ad-
vancement of his glory, of his unchangeable purposes. What propor-
tion there is to be argued from between the general effects of various
dispensations and that peculiar love and grace of the covenant
thereof, wherein God assures his saints of their stability upon the
account of his own unchangeableness, I know not. Because he may
remove his candlestick from a fruitless, faithless people, and give them
up to desolation, may he therefore take his Holy Spirit from them
that believe? For whilst that continues, the root of the matter is in
them. So that, secondly, there is a peculiar dispensation of grace
exerted towards those peculiar ones whom he owneth and receiveth,
as above mentioned, wherein there are such engagements of the pur-
poses, deci'ees, and will of God, as that the stream of them cannot be
forced back without as great an alteration and change in God as the
thoughts of the heart of the meanest worm in the world are liable
unto; and on this the Lord asserts the steadfastness of his love to
them in the midst of the changes of outward dispensations towards
the body of that people, wherein also their external concernments
were wrapped up, 1 Sam. xii. 22. But this will afterward be more
full}'- cleared. The substance of this exception amounts only to thus
much: There are changes wrought in the works which outwardly are
of God, as to general and common administrations; therefore, also,
are his eternal purposes of spiritual grace liable to the like altera-
tions. Whereas Mr Goodwin says that this will not import any alter-
ation in God, at least any such alteration as is incompetent to him,
I know not of any shadow of alteration that may be ascribed to him
without the greatest and most substantial derogation from his glory
that you can engage into.

And this farther clears what is farther excejDted to the end of
sect. 40, in these words: "Therefore, neither the unchangeableness
nor changcabloness of God is to be estimated or measured, either
by any variety or uniformity of dispensation towards one and the
same object; and, consequently, for him to express himself, as this
day, towards a person, man or woman, as if he intended to save them,
or that he really intended to save them, and should on the morrow,
as the alteration in the interim may be, or however may be supposed,

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 135

in these persons, express himself to the contrary, as that he verily
intends to destroy them, would not argue or imply the least altera-
tion in him."

Ans. It is true, such dispensations of God as are morally declara-
tive of what God approves, or what he rejects,^ — not engagements of
any particular intendment, design, or purpose of his will, — or such as
are merely outward acts of his power, may in great variety be sub-
servient to the accomplishment of his purposes, and may undergo (the
first in respect of the objects, the latter of the works themselves)^ many
alterations, without prejudice to the immutability of God. Tlie first
in themselves are everlastingly unchangeable. God ahvays approves
the obedience of his creatures, according to that light and knowledge
which he is pleased to communicate unto them, and always condemns
and disallows their rebellions ; yet the same persons may do some-
times what he approves and sometimes Avhat he condemns, without
the least shadow of change in God. Whilst they thus change, his pur-
poses concerning them, and what he will do to them and for them,
are unchangeable as is his law concerning good and evil. For the
latter, take an instance in the case of Pharaoh. God purposeth the
destruction of Pharaoh, and suits his dispensations in great variety
and with many changes for the bringing about and accomplishing
of that his unchangeable purpose ; he plagues him and frees him,
he frees him and plagues him again. All these things do not in the
least prove any alteration in God, being all various effects of his
power, suited to the accomplishment of an unchangeable purpose.
So in respect of persons whom he intends to bring, through Christ,
infallibly to himself, how various are his dispensations, l)oth tem-
poral and spiritual! He afflicts them and relieves them, sends them
light and darkness, strength and weakness, forsakes and appears to
them again, without the least alteration in his thoughts and pur-
poses towards them; all these things, by his infinite wisdom, workino-
together for their good. But now, if by " dispensation" you under-
stand and comprehend also the thoughts and purposes of God towards
any for the bringing of them to such and such an end, if these be
altered, and the Lord doth change them continually, I know no rea-
son why a poor worm of the earth may not lay an equal claim (absit
hlasphemia) to immutability and unchangeableness with him who
asserts it as his essential property and prerogative, whereby he dis-
tinguish eth himself from all creatures whatsoever.

There is also an ambiguity in that expression, "That God expresseth
himself this day towards a man or woman that he really intends to
save them, and on the morrow expresseth himself to the contrary."
If our author intend only God's moral approbation of duties and
performances, as was said before, with the conditional approbation
of persons with respect to them, there being therein no declaration

136 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of any intention or purpose of God properly so called, the instance
is not in the least looking towards the business we have in hand.
But if withal he intend the purposes and intentions of the will of
God, as these terms, " really intend" and " verily intend," do import,
I know not what to call or account alteration and change if this be
not. Surel}' if a man like ourselves do really intend one thing one
day, and verily intend the clean contrary the next day, we may make
bold to think and say he is changeable; and what apology will be
found, on such a supposal, for the immutability of God doth not fall
within the compass of my narrow apprehension. Neither is that par-
enthetical expression, of a change imagined in the persons concern-
ing whom God's intentions are, any plea for his chaDgeableness upon
this supposal; for he either foresaw that change in them or he did
not. If he did not, where is his prescience? yea, where is his deity?
If he did, to what end did he really and verily intend and purpose
to do so and so for a man, when at the same instant he knew the
man would so behave himself as he should never accomplish any
such intention towards him? We should be wary how we ascribe
such lubricous thoughts to worms of the earth like ourselves; "but
if a man sin against the Lord, who shall enti'eat for him?" If one
should really and verily intend or purpose to give a man bread to
eat to-morrow, who he knows infallibly will be put to death to-night,
such an one will not, perhaps, be counted changeable, but he will scarce
escape being esteemed a changeling. Yet it seems it must be granted
that God verily and really intends to do so and so for men, if they
be in such and such a condition, which he verily and really knows
they will not be in ! But suppose all this might be granted, what is
it at all to the argument in hand concerning the Lord's eno-aoino; his
immutability to his saints, to secure them from perishing upon the
account thereof? Either prove that God doth change, which he saith
he doth not, or that the saints may perish though he change not, which
he affirms they cannot, or you speak not to the business in hand.

The 41st section contains a discourse too long to be transcrib-
ed, unless it were more to the purpose in hand than it is. I shall,
therefore, briefly give the reader a taste of some paralogisms that
run from one end of it to the other, and then, in particular, roll
away every stone that seems to be of any weight for the detaining
captive the truth in whose vindication we are engaged : —

First, From the beginning to the ending of the whole discourse the
thing in question is immodestly begged, and many inferences made
upon a supposal tliat believers may become impenitent apostates;
which,being the sole thing under debate, ought not in itself to be taken
as granted, and so made a proof of itself It is by us asserted tliat
those who are once freely accepted of God in Christ shall not be so for-
saken as to become impenitent apostates, and that upon the account

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 137

of the immutability of God, which he hath engaged to give assurance
thereof. To evince the falsity of this, it is nmeli pressed that if
they become impenitent apostates, God, without the least shadow of
mutability, may cast them off and condemn them ; which is a kind
of reasoning that will scarce conclude to the understanding of an
intelligent reader. And yet this sandy foundation is thought suffi-
cient to bear up many rhetorical expressions concerning the change-
ableness of God, in respect of sundry of his attributes, if he should
not destroy such impenitent apostates as it is splendidly supposed
believers may be. " O fama ingens, ingentior armis vir Trojane."
This way of disputing will scarce succeed you in this great under-
taking.

The second scene of this discourse is a gross confounding of God's
legal or moral approbation of duties, and conditional [approbation] of
persons in reference to them (which is not love properly so called, but
a mere declaration of God's approving the thing which he commands
and requii'es), with the will of God's purpose and intention, and actual
acceptation of the persons of believers in Jesus Christ, suited there-
imto. Hence are all the comparisons used between God and a judge
in his love, and the exjoress denial that God's love is fixed on any
materially, — that is, on the persons of any, for that is the intend-
ment of it, — but orAy formally, in reference to their qualifications.
Hence, also, is that instance again and again insisted on, in this and
the former section, of the love of God to the fallen angels whilst they
stood in their obedience. Their obedience, no doubt (if any they
actually yielded), fell under the approbation of God; but that it was
the purpose and intention of God to continue and preserve them in
that obedience cannot be asserted without ascribing to him more
palpable mutability than can fall upon a wise and knowing man.

Thirdly, The discourse of this section hath a contribution of
strength, such as it is, from a squaring of the love of God unto the
sweet nature and loving disposition of men ; which is perhaps no less
gross anthropomorphitism than they were guilty of who assigned him
a body and countenance like to ours.

And upon these three stilts, wdiereof the first is called " Petitio
Principii," the second " Ignoratio Elenchi," and the third " Fallacia
non causae pro causa," is this discourse advanced.

I shall not need to transcribe and follow the progress of this argu-
mentation ; the observation of the fallacies before mentioned will
help the meanest capacity to unravel the sophistry of the whole.
The close only of it may seem to deserve more particular considera-
tion. So, then, it proceedeth : " The unchangeableness assumed by
God himself unto himself in the work in hand, ' I am the Lord, I
change not,' is, I conceive, that which is found in him in resf)ect of
his decrees; the reason is, because it is assigned by him as the rea-

138 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCK [CIIAP.

son why they were not utterly destroyed : ' I am the Lord, I change
not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed/ In the begin-
ning of the chapter he did declare unto them his purpose and decree of
sending his only-begotten Son, whom he there calls 'The messenger of
the covenant/ unto them. He predicteth, verses 3, 4, the happy fruit
or consequence of that his sending, in reference to their nation and
posterity. To the unchangeableness of this his decree he assigns the
patience which he had for a long time exercised towards them under
their great and continued provocations ; whereby he implies, that if
he could have been turned out of the way of his decree concerning the
sending of his Son unto them in their posterity, they would have
done it by the greatness of their sins. But insomuch as this his de-
cree, or himself in this his decree, was unchangeable, and it must have
been changed in case they had been all destroyed, for the decree
was for the sending to their nation and posterity, 'hence,' saith he,
' it comes to pass, that though your sins otherwise abundantly have
deserved it, yet I have spared you from a total ruin.' Therefore, in
these two last Scripture arguments, there is every wdiit as much, or
rather more, against than for the common doctrine of perseverance."
Ans. That the unchangeableness of God, which is mentioned in
this text, hath relation to the decrees of God is granted ; whatever,
then, God purposeth or decreeth is put upon a certainty of accom-
plishment upon the account of his unchangeableness. There may
be some use hereafter made of this concession, when, I suppose, the
evasions that will be used about the objects of those decrees and
their conditionality will scarce waive the force of our arguing from
it. For the present, though I willingly embrace the assertion, yet
I cannot assent to the analysis of that place of Scripture which is
introduced as the reason of it. The design of the Lord in that place
hath been before considered. That the consolation here intended is
only this, that whereas God purposed to send the Lord Christ to
the nation of the Jews, which he would certainly fulfil and accom-
plish, and therefore did not, nor could, utterly destroy them, will
scarcely be evinced to the judgment of any one who shall consider
the business in hand with so much liberty of spirit as to east an eye
upon the Scripture itself That after the rehearsal of the great pro-
mise of sending his Son in the flesh to that people, he distinguisheth
them into his chosen ones and those rejected, his remnant and the
refuse of the nation, being the main body thereof, threatening de-
struction to the latter, but engaging himself into a way of mercy and
love towards the former, hath been declared. To assure the last of
his continuance in these thoughts and purposes of his good-will to-
wards them, he minds them of his unchangeableness in all such pur-
poses, and particularly encourages tliem to rest upon it in respect of
his love towards themselves. That God intended to administer con-

II.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE NATURE. 189

solation to his saints in the expression insisted on is not, cannot be,
denied. Now, what consolation could redound to them in particu-
lar from hence, that the whole nation should not utterly be rooted
out, because God purposed to send his Son to their posterity? Not-
withstanding this, any individual person that shall flee to the horns
of this altar for refuge, that shall lay hold on this promise for suc-
cour, may perish everlastingly. There is scarce any place of Scrip-
ture where there is a more evident distinction asserted between the
Jews who were so outwardly only and in the flesh, and those who
were so inwardly also and in the circumcision of the heart, than in
this and the following chapter. Their several portions are also clearly
proportioned out to them in sundry particulars. Even this promise
of sending the Messiah respected not the whole nation, and doubt-
less was only subservient to the consolation of them whose blessed-
ness consisted in being distinguished from others. But let the con-
text be viewed, and the determination left to the Spirit of truth in
the heart of him that reads.

Neither doth it appear to me how the decree of God concerning
the sending of his Son into the world can be asserted as absolutely
immutable upon that principle formerly laid down and insisted on by
our author. He sends him into the world to die, neither is any
concernment of his mediation so often affirmed to fall under the will
and purpose of God as his death. But concerning this Mr Goodwin
disputes, out of Socinus,^ for a possibility of a contrary event, and
that the whole counsel of God might have been fulfilled by the good-
will and intention of Christ, though actually he had not died. If,
then, the purpose of God concerning Christ, as to that great and
eminent part of his intendment therein, might have been frustrated
and was liable to alteration, what reason can be rendered wherefore
that might not upon some considerations (which Mr Goodwin is able,
if need were, to invent) have been the issue of the whole decree?
And what, then, becomes of the collateral consolation, which from the
immutability of that decree is here asserted? Now, this being the
only witness and testimony, in the first part of our scriptural de-
monstration of the truth in hand, whereunto any exception is put in,
and the exceptions against it being in such a frame and composure
as manifest the whole to be a combination of beggars and jugglers,
whose pleas are inconsistent with themselves, as it doth now appear,
upon the examination of them apart, it is evident that as Mr Good-
win hath little ground or encouragement for that conclusion he
makes of this section, so the light breaking forth from a constel-
lation of this and other texts mentioned is sufficient to lead us into
an acknowledgment and embracement of the truth contended for.
' Socin. Pitel. Tlicol. cap. s. ccct. 8.

140 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEEANCE. [CIIAP.

CHAPTER III.

THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE PURPOSES OF GOD.

The immutability of the purposes of God proposed for a second demonstration of
the ti'uth in hand — Somewhat of the nature and properties of the purposes
of God: the object of them— Purposes, how acts of God's understand-
ing and will — The only foundation of the futurition of all things — The
purposes of God absolute — Continuance of divine love towards believers
purposed — Purposes of God farther considered and their nature explained —
Their independence and absoluteness evinced — Proved from Isa. xlvi. 9-11;

Ps. xxxiii. 9-11; Heb. vi. 17, 18, etc These places explained — The

same truth by sundry reasons and arguments farther confirmed — Pur-
pose in God of the continuance of his love and favour to believers mani-
fested by an induction of instances out of Scripture; the first from Rom.
viii. 28 proposed, and farther cleared and improved — Mr G.'s dealing with
our argument from hence and our exposition of this place considered — His
exposition of that place proposed and discussed — The design of the apostle
commented on — The fountain of the accomplishment of the good things
mentioned omitted by Mr G. — In what sense God intends to make all things
work together for good to them that love him — Of God's foreknowledge
— Of the sense and use of the word -TrooyivuirKu, also of scisco, and -ynuffxej
in classical authors — Upiyvcjo-is in Scripture everywhere taken for foreknow-
ledge or predetermination, nowhere for pre-approbation — Of pre-approving or
pre-approbation here insisted on by Mr G. — Its inconsistency with the sense of
the apostle's discourse manifested — The progress of Mr G.'s exposition of this
place considered — Whether men love God antecedently to his predestination
and their effectual calling — To pre-ordain and pre-ordinate different — No as-
surance granted of the consolation professed to be intended — The great uncer-
tainty of the dependence of the acts of God's grace mentioned on one another
— The efficacy of every one of them resolved finally into the wills of men —
Whether calling according to God's purpose supposeth a saving answer given
to that call — The affirmative proved, and exceptions given thereto removed —
What obstructions persons called may lay in their own way to justification —
The iniquity of imposing conditions and supposals on the purposes of God not
in the least intimated by himself— The whole acknowledged design of the
apostle everted by the interposition of cases and conditions by Mr G. — Mr
G.'s first attempt to prove the decrees of God to be conditional considered —
1 Sam. ii. 30 to that end produced — 1 Sam. ii. 30 farther considered, and its
unsuitableness to illustrate Rom. viii. 28-31 proved — Interpretation of Scrip-
ture by comparing of places agreeing neither in design, word, nor matter,
rejected — The places insisted on proved not to be parallel by sundry particu-
lar instances — Some observations from the Avords rejected — What act of God
intended in these words to Eli, " I said indeed" — No purpose or decree of
God in them declared — Any such purpose as to the house of Eli by sundry
arguments disproved — No purpose of God in the words insisted on farther
manifested — They are expressive of the promise or law concerning the priest-
hood, Num. XXV. 11-13, more especially relating unto Exod. xxviii. 43,
xxix. 9 — The import of that promise, law, or statute, cleared — The example
of Jonah'.s preaching, and God's commands to Abraham and Pharaoh — The
universal disproportion between the texts compared by I\Ir G., both as to
matter and expression, farther manifested — Instances or case? of Saul and
Paul to prove conditional purposes in God considered — Conditional purpose.s

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUEPOSES. 141

argued from conditional threatenings — The weakness of that argument — The
nature of divine threatenings — What will of God, or what of the will of God,
is declared by them — No proportion between eternal purposes and temporal
threatenings — The issue of the vindication of our argument from the fore-
going exceptions — Mr G. 's endeavour to maintain his exposition of the place
under considei-ation — The text perverted — Several evasions of Mr G. from
the force of this argument considered — His arguments to prove no certain or
infallible connection between calling, justification, and glorification, weighed
and answered — His first, from the scope of the chapter and the use of exhor-
tations— The question begged — His second, from examples of persons called
and not justified — The question argued begged — No proof insisted on but
the interposition of his own hypothesis — How we are called irresistibly, and
in what sense — Whether bars of wickedness and unbelief may be laid in the
way of God's effectual call — Mr G.'s demur to another consideration of the
text removed — The argument in hand freed from other objections and con-
cluded— Jer. xxxi. 3 explained and improved, for the confirmation of the
truth under demonstration — 2 Tim. ii. 19 opened, and the truth from thence
confirmed — The foregoing exposition and argument vindicated and confirmed
— The same matter at large pursued — John vi. 37-40 explained, and the
argument in hand from thence confirmed — Mr G.'s exceptions to our argu-
ing from this place removed — The same matter farther pursued — The expo-
sition and argument insisted on fully vindicated and established — Matt,
xxiv. 24 opened and improved — The sevei'als of that text more particularly
handled — Farther observations, for the clearing the mind of the Holy Ghost
in this place — The same farther insisted on and vindicated — Mr G.'s excep-
tions at large discussed and removed — Eph. i. 3-5, 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14, opened
— The close of the second argument, from the immutabiUty of the purposes
of God.

Having cleared the trutli in hand, from the immutability of the
nature of God, which himself holds out as engaged for us to rest
upon, as to the unchangeable continuance of his love unto us, proceed
we now to consider the steadfastness and immutability of his pur-
2}0ses, which he frequently asserts as another ground of assurance to
the saints of his safeguarding their glory of free acceptation to the
end.

I shall not enter upon the consideration of the nature and abso-
luteness of the purposes of God as to an express handling of them,
but only a little unfold that property and concernment of them
whereon the strength of the inference we aim at doth in the same
measure depend. Many needless and curious questions have been,
by the serpentine wits of men, moved and agitated concerning them ;
wherein, perhaps, our author hath not been outgone by many; as will
be judged by those who have weighed his discourses concerning
them, with his distinctions of " desires, intentions, purposes, and de-
crees," in God. But this is not the business we have in hand; for what
concerneth that, that which ensueth may suffice. God himself being
an infinite pure act, those acts of his will and wisdom which are
eternal and immanent are not distinguished from his nature and
being but only in respect of the reference and habitude which they

142 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Lear unto some things to be produced outwardly from him. The
oljjects of them all are such things as might not be. God's purposes
are not concerning any thing that is in itself absolutely necessary.
He doth not purpose that he will be wise, holy, infinitely good, just:
all these things, that are of absolute necessity, come not within the
compass of his purposes. Of things that might not be are his de-
crees and intentions; they are of all the products of his power, — all
that outwardly he hath done, doth, or will do, to eternity. All these
things, to the falling of a hair or the withering of a [blade of] grass,
hath he determined from of old. Now, this divine fore-appointment
of all things the Scripture assigns sometimes to the knowledge and
imderstanding, sometimes to the will of God: " Known unto him are
all his works from the beginning of the world," Acts xv. 18. It is
that knowledge which hath an influence into that most infinitely
wise disposal of them which is there intimated. And the determi-
nation of things to be done is referred to the " counsel" of God
Acts iv. 28; which denotes an act of his wisdom and understanding,
and yet withal it is the " counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11.^

I know that all things originally owe their futurition to a free act
of the will of God; he doth whatever he will and pleaseth. Their
relation thereunto translates them out of that state of possibility,
and [from] being objects of God's absolute omnipotency and infinite
simple intelligence or understanding, whereby he intuitively behold-
eth all things that might be produced by the exerting of his infinite
almighty power, into a state of futurition, making them objects of
God's foreknowledge, or science of vision, as it is called.^ But yet the
Scripture expresseth (as before) that act of God whereby he determines
the beings, issues, and orders of things, [so as] to manifest the con-
currence of his infinite wisdom and understanding in all his purposes.
Farther; as to the way of expressing these things to our manner of
apprehension, there are held out intentions and piuposes of God dis-
tinctly suited to all beings, operations, and events; yet in God him-
self they are not multiplied. As all things are present to him in
one most simple and single act of his understanding, so with one in-
dividual act of his will he determines concerning all. But yet, in
reference to the things that are disposed of, we may call them the
pui^poscs of God. And these are the eternal springs of God's actual
providence; which being (" ratio ordinis ad finem") the disposing of
all things to their ends in an appointed manner and order, in exact
coiTespondcnce unto them, these purposes themselves must be the
infinitely wise, eternal, immanent acts of his will, appointing and de-
termining all things, beings, and operations, kinds of beings, manners

• Matt. vi. 28-30 ; Luko xii. 6, 7 ; Jolm iv. 4-8.

' Isa. xiv. 24, xix. 12, xxiii. 9; Jcr. li. 29; Rom. viii. 28, ix. 11, 10; Vs. cxxxix.
11, 12; Isa. xl. 28; llcb. iv. 13.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 1 43

of operation, free, necessary, contingent, as to their existence and
event, into an immediate tendency unto tlie exaltation of his glory ;
or, as the apostle calls them, the " counsel of his own will," according
whereunto he effectually worketh all things, Eph. i. 11.

Our consideration of these purposes of God being only in reference
to the business which we have in hand, I shall do these two things:
— First, Manifest that they are all of them absolute and immutable ;
wherein I shall be brief, not going out to the compass of the contro-
versy thereabout, as I intimated before; my intendment lies another
way. Secondly, Show that God hath purposed the continuance of
his love to his saints, to bring them infallibly to himself, and that
this purpose of God, in particular, is unchangeable ; which is the second
part of the foundation of our abiding with God in the grace of ac-
ceptation.

I. By the purposes of God I mean, as I said before, the eternal
acts of his will concerning all things that outwardly are of him ; which
are the rules, if I may so speak, of all his following operations, — all
external, temporary products of his power univei'sally answering those
internal acts of his will. The judgment of those who make these
decrees or purposes of God (for I shall constantly use these words
promiscuously, as being purely of the same import, as relating unto
God) to be in themselves essential to him and his very nature, or
understanding and will, may be safely closed withal. They are in
God, as was said, but one ; there is not a real multiplication of any
thing but subsistence in the Deity. To us these lie under a double
consideration : — First, Simply as they are in God ; and so it is im-
possible they should be differenced from his infinite wisdom and
will, whereby he determineth of any thing. Secondly, In respect of
the habitude and relation which they bear to the things determined,
which the wisdom and will of God might not have had. In the first
sense, as was said, they can be nothing but the very nature of God,
the TO velle of God, his internal willing of any thing that is either
created or uncreated ; for these terms distribute the whole nature of
beings. Created they are not, for they are eternal (that no new im-
manent act can possibly be ascribed to God hath full well of late
been demonstrated). Farther ; if they are created, then God willed
that they should be created, for he created only what he willed. If
so, was he willing they should be created, or no? If he were, then a
progress will be given infinitely, for the question will arise up to
eternity. If uncreated, then doubtless they are God himself, for he
only is so; it is impossible that a creature should be uncreated.
Again ; God's very willing of things is the cause of all things, and
therefore must needs be omnipotent and God himself That " vo-
luntas Dei" is " causa rerum" is taken for granted, and may be
proved from Ps. cxv. 3, which the apostle ascribes omnipotency unto,

1-14 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

Rom. ix. 19, "Who hath resisted his will?" Doubtless it is the pro-
perty of God alone to be the cause of all thiugs, and to be almighty
in his so being. But hereof at present no more. On this supposal,
the immutability of the decrees of God would plainly be coincident
with the immutability of his nature, before handled.

It is, then, of the decrees and purposes of God, with respect to the
matters about which tliey are, whereof I speak: in which regard, also,
they are absolute and immutable ; — not that they work any essential
change in the things themselves concerning which they are, making
that to be immutable from thence which in its own nature is mutable;
but only that themselves, as acts of the infinite wisdom and will of
God, are not liable to nor suspended on any condition whatever
foreign to themselves, nor subject to change or alteration (whence
floweth an infallible certainty of actual accomplishment in reference
to the things decreed or purposed, be their own nature what it will,
or their next causes in themselves never so undetermined to their
production), whereof I treat. That the determining purposes or de-
crees of God's will concerning any thing or things by him to be
done or effected do not depend, as to their accomplishment, on any
conditions that may be supposed in or about the things themselves
whereof they are, and therefore are unchangeable, and shall certainly
be brought forth unto the aj^pointed issue, is that which we are to
prove. Knowing for whose sakes^ and for what end this labour
was undertaken, I shall choose to lay the whole proof of this asser-
tion upon plain texts of Scripture, rather than mix my discourse
with any such philosophical reasonings as are of little use to the
most of them whose benefit is hereby intended.

Isa. xlvi. 9-11, The Holy Ghost speaks expressly to our purpose:
" Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is
none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end
from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not
yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my plea-
sure : calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth
ray counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also
bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it." Verse 9,
the Lord asserts his own deity and eternal being, in opposition to all
false gods and idols, whom he threatens to destroy, verse 1. Of this
he gives them a threefold demonstration : —

First, From his prescience or foreknoicledge : " There is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done;" — " In tins am I infinitely discrimi-
nated from all the pretended deities of the nations. All things from
the beginning to the end are naked before me, and I have declared
them by my prophets, even things that are future and contingent in
■ Matt. xi. 26 ; 1 Cor. i. 2G-28 ; James ii. 5 : 2 Tira. ii. 10.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 145

themselves. So are the things that I now speak of. The destruction
of Babylon by the Medes and Persians is a thing to be carried on
through innumerable contingencies ; and yet as I have seen it so have
I told it, and my counsel concerning it shall certainly be executed."

Secondly, By his power, in using what instruments he pleaseth for
the executing of his purposes and bringing about his own designs:
" Calling a ravenous bird from the east ;" — one that at first, when he
went against Babylon, thought of nothing less than executing the
counsel of God, but was wholly bent upon satisfying his own rapine
and ambition, not knowing then in the least by whom he was
anointed and sanctified for the accomplishment of his will. All the
thoughts of his heart, all his consultations and actions, all his pro-
gresses and diversions, his success in his great and dreadful under-
taking, to break in pieces that " hammer of the whole earth," with
all the free deliberations and contingencies wherewith his long war
was attended, which were as many, strong, and various, as the nature
of things is capable to receive, were not only in every individual act,
with its minutest circumstances, by him foreseen, and much also fore-
told, but also managed in the hand of his power in a regular subser-
vience to that call which he so gave that "ravenous bird" for the ac-
complishment of his purpose and pleasure.^

Thirdly, By the immutability of his purposes, which can never
be frustrated nor altered: " My counsel shall stand, and I will do all
my pleasure; — I have purposed it, and I will also do it." The stand-
ing, or fixedness and unchangeableness, of his counsel, he manifests
by the accomphshment of the things which therein he had deter-
mined ; neither is there any salve for his immutability in his counsel,
should it otherwise fall out. And if we may take his own testimon}'
of himself, what he purposeth, that he doth ; and in the actual ful-
filling and the bringing about of things themselves purposed, and as
purposed, without any possibility of diversion from the real end in-
tended, is their stability and unchangeableness in them manifested.
An imaginary immutability in God's purposes, which may consist
and be preserved under their utter frustration as to the fulfilling of
the things themselves under which they are, the Scripture knows
not, neither can reason conceive. Now, this unchangeableness of his
purposes the Lord brings as one demonstration of his deity; and
those who make them liable to alteration, upon any account or sup-
position whatsoever, do depress him, what in them lies, into the
number of such dung-hill gods as he threatens to famish and destroy.

Ps. xxxiii. 9-11, " He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and

it stood fast. The Loed bringeth the counsel of the heathen to

nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The

counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all

' Jer. 1. li. ; Isa. xliv. 25-28.

VOL. XL 10

14G DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCK [CIIAP.

generations/' The production and establishment of all things in that
order wherein they are, are by the psalmist ascribed to the will and
power of God. By his word and command they not only are, but
stand fast; being fixed in that order by him appointed. Both the
making, fixing, and sustaining of all things, is by " the word of his
power." As tlie first relates to their being, which they have from
creation, so the other to the order in subsistence and operation, which
relates to his actual providence. Herein they stand fast. Them-
selves, with their several and respective relations, dependencies, in-
fluences, Circumstances, suited to that nature and being which was
bestowed on them by his word in their creation, are settled in an
exact correspondency to his purposes (of which afterward), not to be
shaken or removed.^ Men have their devices and counsels also, they
are free agents, and work by counsel and advice; and therefore God
hath not set all things so fast as to overturn and overbear them in
their imaginations and undertakings. Saith the psalmist, " They
imagine and devise indeed, but their counsel is of nought, and their
devices are of none effect; but the counsel of the Lord/' etc. The
counsel and purposes of the Lord are set in opposition to the counsel
and purposes of men, as to alteration, change, and frustration, in
respect of the actual accomplishment of the things about which they
are. "Their counsels are so and so ; but the counsel of the Lord shall
stand." He that shall cast verse 11 into verse 10, and say, " The
counsel of the Lord, that comes to nought, and the thoughts of his
heart are of none effect," let him make what pretences he will or
flourishes that he can, or display what supposals and conditions he
pleaseth, he will scarcely be able to keep the field against him who
will contend with him about His prerogative and glory. And this
antithesis between the counsels of men and the purposes of God
upon the account of unchangeableness is again confirmed, Prov.
xix. 21, "There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the
counsel of the Lord, that shall stand." Herein is the difference be-
tween the devices of men and the counsel of God : Men have many
devices to try what they can do. If one way take not, they will
attempt another (" hac non successit, alia aggrediemur via"), and are
always disappointed, but only in that wherein they fall in with the
will of God. The shallowness of their understanding, the shortness
of their foresight, the weakness of their power, the changeableness
of their minds, the uncertainty of all the means they use, puts them
upon many devices, and often to no purpose.^ But for Him who is
infinite in wisdom and power, to whom all things are present, and to
whom nothing can fall out unexpected, yea, what he hath not l)im-
self determined, unto whom all emergencies are but the issue of his

' neb. i. 3; Rev. iv. 11 ; Acts xvii. 28, ii. 23, iv. 28; Gen. 1. 20; Ecclcs. iii. 11.
» Isa. viii. 9, 10; Job viii. 9, xi. 12; Eccles. viii. 7, ix 12.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 147

own good pleasure, who proportions out what efficacy he pleaseth
unto the means he useth, — his counsels, his purposes, his decrees
shall stand, being, as JoV tells us, " as mountains of brass." By this
he difFerenceth himself from all others, idols and men; as also by
his certain foreknowledge of what shall come to pass and be accom-
plished upon those purposes of his.^ Hence the apostle, Heb. vl
17, 18, acquaints us that his promise and his oath, those "two im-
mutable things," do but declare aij,iTdkTO'j rric jSovX^s, "the unchange-
ableness of his counsel ;" which God is abundantly willing to manifest,
though men are abundantly unwilling to receive it. Job determines
this business in chap, xxiii. IS, 14, " He is of one mind, and who can
turn him? what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. For he per-
formeth the thing that is appointed for me." Desires are the least
and faintest kind of purposes, in Mr Goodwin's distinctions; yet the
certain accomplishment of them, as they are ascribed unto God, is
here asserted by the Holy Ghost.

Were the confirmation of the matter of our present discourse my
only design in hand, I could farther confirm it by enlarging these
ensuing reasons: —

First, From the immutability of God, the least questioning whereof
falls foul on all the. perfections of the divine nature, which require
a correspondent affection of all the internal and eternal acts of his
mind and will.

Secondly, From his sovereignty, in making and executing all his
purposes, which will not admit of any such mixture of consults or
co-operations of others as should render his thoughts liable to altera-
tion, Rom. xi. 33-36. The Lord in his purposes is considered as
the great former of all things, who, having his clay in the hand of
his almighty power, ordains every parcel to what kind of vessel and
to what use he pleaseth. Hence the apostle concludes the considera-
tion of them, and the distinguishing grace flowing from them, with
that admiration, ''a jBd^ogl — "0 the depth!" etc.

Thirdly, Fi-om their eternity, which exempts them from all sha-
dow of change, and lifts them up above all those spheres that either
from within and in their own nature, or from without by the impres-
sion of others, are exposed to turning. That which is eternal is also
immutable, Acts xv. 18; 1 Cor. ii. 7-11.

Fourthly, From the absoluteness and independency of his will,
whereof they are the acts and emanations, Rom. ix. 1 5-21. Whatever
hath any influence upon that, so as to move it, cause it, change it, must
be before it, above it, better than it, as every cause is than its effect
as such. This will of his, as was said, is the fountain of all being ;
to which free and independent act all creatures owe their being and
subsistence, their operations and manner thereof, their whole differ-
1 Zechariah ? Zech. vi. 1. — Ed. « Isa. xliy. 7, xlvi. 10.

148 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ence from those worlds of beings which his power can produce, but
which yet shall lie bound up to eternity in their nothingness and
possibility, upon the account of his good pleasure. Into this doth
our Saviour resolve the disposal of himself. Matt. xxvi. 42, and of all
others, chap. xi. 25, 26. Certainly men in their wrangling disputes
and contests about it have scarce seriously considered with whom
they have to do. " Shall the thing formed say to him that formed
it, Why hast thou made me thus? '

Fifthly, From the engagement of his omnipotency for the accom-
plishment of all his purposes and designs, as is emphatically ex-
pressed, Isa. xiv. 24-27, " The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying,
Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass ; and as I have pur-
posed, so shall it stand : that I will break the Assyrian in my land.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth; and
this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the
Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his
hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" The Lord doth
not only assert the certain accomplishment of all his purposes, but
also, to prevent and obviate the unbelief of them who were concerned
in their fulfilling, he manifests upon what account it is that they
shall certainly be brought to pass; and that is, by the stretching out
of his hand, or exalting of his mighty power, for the doing of it; so
that if there be a failing therein, it must be through the shortness
of that hand of his so stretched out, in that it could not reach the
end aimed at. A worm will put forth its strength for the fulfilling
of that whereunto it is inclined ; and the sons of men will draw out
all their power for the compassing of their designs. If there be wis-
dom in the laying of them, and foresight of emergencies, they alter
not, nor turn aside to the right hand or to the left, in the pursuit of
them. And shall the infinitely wise, holy, and righteous thoughts and
designs of God not have his power engaged for their accomplishment ?
His infinite wisdom and understanding are at the foundation of
them; they are the counsels of his will: Rom. xi. 34, "Who hath
known his mind" in tliem? saith the apostle, "or who hath been his
counsellor?" Though no creature can see the paths wherein he walks,
nor apprehend the reason of the ways he is delighted in, yet this he lets
us know, for the satisfying of our hearts and teaching of our inquiries,
that his own infinite wisdom is in them all. I cannot but fear that
sometimes men have "darkened counsel by words without knowledge,"
in curious contests about the decrees and purposes of God, as though
they were to be measured by our rule and line, and as though " by
searching we could find out tiie Almighty unto perfection." But he
is wise in heart; he that contendeth with him, let him instruct him.
Add, that this wisdom in his counsel is attended with infallible pre-
science of all that will fall in by the way, or in the course of the ac-

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 149

complishment of his purposes, and you will quickly see that there
can be no possible intervenience, upon the account whereof the Lord
should not engage his almighty power for their accomplishment. "He
is of one mind, and who can turn him?" " He will work, and who
shall let it?"

Sixthly, By demonstrating the unreasonableness, folly, and im-
possibility, of suspending the acts and purposes of the will of God
upon any actings of the creatures soever ; seeing it cannot be done
without subjecting eternity to time, the Eirst Cause to the second,
the Creator to the creature, the Lord to the servant, disturbing the
whole order of beings and operations in the world.

Seventhly, By the removal of all possible or imaginary causes of
alteration and change, which will all be resolved into impotency in
one kind or other; every alteration being confessedly an imperfec-
tion, it cannot follow but from want and weakness. Upon the issue
of which discourse, if it might be pursued, these corollaries would
ensue : —

First, Conditional promises and threatenings are not declarative
of God's purposes concerning persons, but of his moral approbation
or rejection of things.

Secondly, There is a wide difference between the change of what is
conditionally pronounced as to the things themselves and the change
of what is determinately willed, the certainty of whose event is pro-
portioned to the immutable acts of the will of God itself

Thirdly, That no purpose of God is conditional, though the things
themselves, concerning which his purposes are, are oftentimes condi-
tionals one of another.

Fourthly, That conditional purposes concerning perseverance are
either impossible, implying contradictions, or ludicrous, even to an
unfitness for a stage. But of these and such like, as they occasion-
ally fall in, in the ensuing discourse.

II. This foundation being laid, I come to what was secondly pro-
posed,— namely, to manifest, by an induction of particular in-
stances, the engagement of these absolute and immutable purposes
of God as to the preservation of the saints in his favour to the end;
and whatsoever is by Mr Goodwin excepted as to the former doc-
trine of the decrees and purposes of God, in that part of his treatise
which falls under our consideration, shall, in the vindication of the
respective places of Scripture to be insisted on, be discussed.

The first particular instance that I shall propose is that eminent
place of the apostle, Rom. viii. 28, where you have the truth in hand
meted out \into us, full measure, shaken together, and running over.
It doth not hang by the side of his discourse, nor is left to be
gathered and concluded from other principles and assertions couched
therein, but is the main of the apostolical drift and design, it being

150 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [cnAP.

proposed by him to make good, upon unquestionable grounds, the
assurance he gives believers that " all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose ;" the reason whereof he farther adds in the following words :
"For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-
formed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born
among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them
he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and
whom he justified, them he also glorified." What the good aimed
at is, for which all things shall work together, and wherein it doth
consist;, he manifests in the conclusion of the argument produced to
prove his first assertion: Verses 35-39, "Who shall separate us from
the love of Chiist? shall tribulation," etc. The good of believers,
of them that love God, consists in the enjoyment of Christ and
his love. Saith, then, the apostle, " God will so certainly order all
things that they shall be preserved in that enjoyment of it where-
unto in this life they are already admitted, and borne out through
all oppositions to that perfect fruition thereof which they aim at;
and this is so unquestionable, that the very things which seem to lie
in the way of such an attainment and event shall work together,
through the wisdom and love of God, to that end." To make good
this consolation, the apostle lays down two grounds or principles
from whence the truth of it doth undeniably follow, the one taken
from the description of the persons concerning whom he makes it,
and the other from the acts of God's grace, and their respective
concatenation in reference to those persons.

The persons, he tells you, are those who are "called according to
God's purpose." That their calling here mentioned is the effectual
call of God, which is answered by faith and obedience, because it
consists in the bestowing of them on the persons so called, taking
away the heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh, is not only mani-
fest from that place which afterward [it] receives in the golden chain
of divine graces, between predestination and justification, whereby the
one hath infallible influences into the other, but also from that pre-
vious description which is given of the same persons, namely, that
they love God, which certainly is an issue and fruit of effectual call-
ing, as shall afterward be farther argued ; for to that issue are things
driven in this controversy, that proofs thereof are become needful.

The "purpose" according to which these persons are called is none
other than that which the apostle, chap. ix. 11, terms the "purpose
of God according to election;" the " election of grace," chap. xi. 5 ; as
also the knowledge and "foundation of God," 2 Tim. ii. 19; as will
in the progress of our discourse be made farther appear, although I
know not that this is as yet questioned. The immutability of this
purpose of God, chap. ix. 11, 12, the apostle demonatrates from its

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 151

independency on any thing in tliem or in respect of tliem concerning
whom it is, it being eternal, and expressly safeguarded against appre-
hensions that might arise of any causal or occasional influence from
any thing in them given therevmto, they lying under this condition
alone unto God, as persons that had done neither good nor evil. And
this, also, the apostle farther pursues from the sovereignty, absolute-
ness, and unchangeableness of the will of God But these things
are of another consideration.

Now, this unchangeable purpose and election being the fountain
from whence the effectual calling of believers doth flow, the preser-
vation of them to the end designed, the glory whereunto they are
chosen, by those acts of grace and love whereby they are prepared
thereunto, hath coincidence of infallibility as to the end aimed at
with the purpose itself, nor is it liable to the least exception but
what may be raised from the mutability and changeableness of God
in his purposes and decrees. Hence, in the following verse, upon the
account of the stability and immutability of this purpose of God, the
utmost and most remote end in reference to the good thereby de-
signed unto believers, though having its present subsistence only in
that purpose of God and infallible concatenation of means thereunto
conducing, is mentioned as a thing actually accomplished, Rom. viii. 30.

Herein, also, lies the apostle's second eviction of consolation for-
merly laid down, even in the indissoluble concatenation of those
acts of grace, love, and favour, whereby the persons of God's pur-
pose, or the " remnant according to the election of grace," shall be
infallibly carried on in their present enjoyment and unto the full
fruition of the love of Christ. If we may take him upon his word
(and he speaks in the name and authority of God), those whom he
doth foreknow, or fixes his thoughts peculiarly upon from eternity
(for the term these is evidently discriminated, and the act must
needs be eternal which in order of nature is previous unto predes-
tination, or the appointment to the end by means designed), those,
I say, he doth predestinate and appoint, in the immutable purpose
of his will, to be conformed unto the image of his Son, as in afflic-
tions, so in grace and glory.

To fancy a suspension of these acts of grace (some whereof are
eternal) upon conditionals, and they not intimated in the least in
the text, nor consistent with the nature of the things themselves or
the end intended, casting the accomplishment and bringing about
of the designs of God, proposed as his for our consolation, upon the
certain lubricity of the wills of men, and thereupon to propose an
intercision of them as to their concatenation and dependence, that
they should not have a certain influence on the one hand descend-
ing, nor an unchangeable dependence on the other ascending, may
easily be made to appear to be so plain an opposition to the aim and

152 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

design of the apostle as it is possibly capable of. But because these
things are really insisted on by Mr Goodwin, I shall choose rather
to remove them, — as with much rhetoric, and not without some so-
phistry, they are by him pressed, — than farther anticipate them, by
arguments from the text itself, of their invalidity and nullity.

The discussion of our argument from this place of Scripture he
enters upon, chap. x. sect. 42, p. 207, and pursues it, being much
entangled with what himself is pleased to draw forth as the strength
of it, unto sect. 52, p. 219.

Now, though Mr Goodwin hath not at all mentioned any analysis
of the place insisted on, for the making out of the truth we believe
to be intended in it, nor ever once showed his reader the face of our
argument from hence, but only drawn something of it forth in such
divided parcels as he apprehended himself able to blur and obscure,
yet to make it evident that he hath not prevailed to foil that part
of the strength of truth (his adversary) which he voluntarily chose to
grapple withal, I shall consider that whole discourse, and manifest
the nullity of his exceptions unto this testimony given in by the
apostle to the truth we have in hand.

To obtain his end, Mr Goodwin undertaketh these two things: —
first, To give in an exposition of the place of Scripture insisted on,
" whence no such conclusion as that which he opposeth," saith he,
"can be drawn ;" secondly. To give in exceptions to our interpretation
of it, and the inferences thereupon by us deduced. The first [is] in
these words: —

" For the scope of the apostle, in the sequel of this passage, is
clearly this, as the particle ' for' in the beginning of verse 29 plainly
showeth, to prove and make good that assertion of his, verse 28, that
* all things work together for good to those that love God." To prove
this he showeth by what method and degrees of dispensations God
will bring it to pass. ' Whom he foreknows,' saith he, that is, pre-
approves (the word 'knowledge' frequently in Scripture importing ap-
probation), as he must needs do those that love him, ' these he pre-
destinates to be conformed to the image of his Son;' and therefore
as all things, even his deepest suffermgs, wrought together for good
unto him, so must they needs do unto those who are predestinated
or pre-ordinated by God to a conformity with him. 'To give you yet,'
saith our apostle, * a farther and more particular account how God,
in the secret of his counsels, hath laid things in order to the bring:-
ing of them unto an actual conformity with the image of his Son,
to wit, in glory, whom he predestinated thereunto (who are such as
love him, and thereupon are approved by him), you are to under-
stand that whom he hath so predestinated he hath also called, — that
is, hath purposed or decreed to call to the knowledge of his Son or
of his gospel, — that is, to afford a more plain and eftectual discovery

Ill,] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 153

of him unto tliem than unto others whom he hath not so predesti-
nated.' By the way, this call doth not necessarily suppose a saving
answer given unto it by the called, no whit more than the calling
mentioned, Matt. xx. 16, xxii. 14. It only supposeth a real purpose
on God's part to make it very sufficient to procure such an answer
to it from those that are called. The apostle advanceth towards his
proposed end, and addeth, 'Those whom he called, them he also justi-
fied;' that is, according to our last exposition of the word ' called,'
he hath purposed or decreed to justify, — to wit, in case the called
obstruct him not in his way, or by their unbehef render not them-
selves incapable of justification. The clause following is likewise to
be understood with the like proviso as this: ' Whom he hath justi-
fied, them he also glorified;' that is, hath purposed or decreed to
save, in case they retain the grace of justification, confirmed upon
them to the end."

Ans. First, let it be granted that the design of the apostle is
to make good that assertion, " All things work together for good
to them that love God," and the consolation for believers which
thence he holds forth unto them ; yet he doth not only show by what
method, degrees, or steps, God will bring it to pass, but also, as the
fountain of all that ensues, lays down the unalterable purpose of God
concerning that end, which is intended in and accomplished by all
those steps or degrees of his effectual grace after mentioned. This
Mr Goodwin passeth over, as not to be wrested into any tolerable
conformity with that sense (if there be any sense in the whole of
what he insists upon for the sense of this place) which he intends to
rack and press the words unto. To save stumbling at the threshold
(which is malum omen), he leaps at once over the consideration of
this purpose and design of God, as aiming at a certain end, without
the least touch upon it. Farther, that God will bring it to pass that
all things shall work together for good to them that love him, is
not intended by Mr Goodwin as though it should infallibly be so
indeed, but only that God will so way-lay them with some advan-
tages that it may be so, as well as otherwise. What consolation be-
lievers may receive from this whole discourse of the apostle, intended
properly to administer it unto them, as it lies under the gloss ensu-
ing, shall be discovered in our following consideration of it. Thus,
then, he makes it out: —

"Whom he foreknows, that is, pre-approves (the word 'knowledge'
in Scripture frequently importing approbation), as he must needs do
those that love him, them he predestinates."

Ans. First, That to "know" is sometimes taken in Scripture for
to approve may be granted; but that the word here used must
therefore signify to pre-approve is an assertion which I dare not pre-
tend to so much foreknowledge as to think that any one besides

154! DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

himself will approve. Mr Goodwin, I doubt not, knows full well
that prepositions in Greek composition do often restrain simple
verbs, formerly at liberty for other uses, to one precise signification.
The word vpoyivuiSKM, in its constant sense in other authors, is "prse-
scio" or " proedecerno ; " yivuaxoj itself, "to determine or decree;"
so is "scisco" among the Latins, the ancient word " to know,'' So
he in Plautus : " Rogitationes plurimas propter vos populus scivit,
quas vos rogatas rumpitis."^ And nothing more frequent in Cicero,
" Qua3 scisceret plebs, aut quae populus juberet," etc. ; and again,
" Quod multa pemiciose, multa pestifere sciscuntur in populus;" and,
" Plancus primus legem scivit de publicanis."'" In like manner is
yivuaxM frequently used : "Eyvuffncv touto fM^ iroiuv' — " They determined
not to do that thing." ^ " A5/xa s'yvwxg inpi h[Mo\J c Zihg, says he in Lucian ;
— " He hath determined unrighteous things against rae."^ Hence
yvu)[ir^ is often taken for a decree, or an established purpose, as
Budseus manifesteth out of Plutarch. In Scripture the word is sun-
dry times used, and still in the sense before mentioned; sometimes
for a simple foreknowledge. So Paul uses it of the Jews who knew
him before his conversion: Acts xxvi. 5, Ufoyivojcr-ovTig in avudsv. It
relates not to what they foreknew, but what they knew before, or in
former days. And as the simple verb, as was showed, is often taken
for " decerno, statue," '' to decree, order, or determine," so with this
composition it seems most to be restrained to that sense, 1 Pet. i. 20,
it is said of Christ that he was vpoi'yvMtsiJ.svog Tpo ■A.araCoXijg x6(r/j,ov, —
he was "foreknown," or "fore-ordained, before the foundation of the
world;" which is opposed to that which follows, (pavspudsig dh lir id-xja.-
Tuv Tuv ^povuv di' iz/ifij, — "manifested in the last times for you," — a.nd
relates to the decree or fore-purpose of God concerning the giving of
his Son. Hence vpoyme/g is joined with upK^fisvp j3ovX}i, God's " de-
terminate counsel," as a word of the same importance : Acts ii. 23,
ToZtov ds upiaiMivri ^ovKfj xai irpoyvi^eu, etc, : if there be any difference,
the first designing the wisdom, the latter the will, of God in this
business. In Rom. xi. 2 it hath again the same signification : " God
hath not cast off rhv Xahv a\jTotj ov 'ffposyvu," or the remnant which
among the obstinate and unbelieving Jews were under his everlast-
ing purpose of grace; in which place, causelessly and without any
attempt of proof, the Remonstrants wrest the word to signify pre-ap-
probation, Dec. Sent, art. 1, the whole context and design of the
apostle, the terms " remnant" and " election," whereby the same
thing is afterward expressed, undeniably forcing the proper accepta-
tion of the word. Not only the original sense and composition of the
word, but also the constant use of it in the Scripture, leads us away
from the interpretation here pinned upon it,

' Plaut. iu Curcul. 2 cjc. pi-o Flacco. et 2 do Lcgib. pro Plaucio.

Plutarchus in Alcibiad, * Lucian. in Proinctli.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUKPOSES. 155

Farther; what is the meaning oi pre-approving ? God's approving
of any person as to their persons is his free and gracious acceptation
of them in Christ. His pre-approving of them in answer hereunto
must be his eternal gracious acceptation of them in Clirist. But is
this Mr Goodwin's intendment ? Doth God accept any in Christ an-
tecedently to their predestination, calling, and justification (for they
are all consequential to this act of pre-approbation) ? This, then, is
that which is affirmed : God approves and accepts of men in Christ;
thereupon he predestinates, calls, and justifies them. But what need
[for] all these if they be antecedently accepted ? I should have ex-
pected that this foreknowledge should have been resolved rather into
a middle or conditionate prescience than into this pre-approbation, but
that our great masters were pleased (in the place newly cited), though
without any attempt of proof, to carry it another way. That God
should approve of, love, accept persons, antecedently to their pre-
destination, vocation, and justification, is, doubtless, not suitable to
Mr Goodwin's principles; but that they should love God also before
they fall under these acts of his grace is not only openly contradic-
tious to the truth, but also to itself. The phrase here of " loving God '•"
is confessedly a description of believers; now, to suppose men be-
lievers, that is, to answer the call of God, antecedently to his call,
will scarce be salved from a flat contradiction with any reserved
considerations that may be invented.

This solid foundation being laid, he proceeds : " Those who thus
love him, and he approves of them, he predestinates to be conformed
to the image of his Son." It is true, the apostle speaks of them and
to them that " love God," but doth not, in the least, suppose them
as such to be the objects of the acts of his sovereign grace after men-
tioned. If God call none but those that love him antecedently to
his call, that grace of his must eternally rest in his own bosom, with-
out the least exercise of it towards any of the sons of men. It is
those persons, indeed, Avho, in the process of the work of God's grace
towards them, are brought to love him, that are thus predestinated
and called; but they are so dealt withal, not upon the account or
consideration of their love of God (which is not only in order conse-
quential to some of them, but the proper effect and product of them),
but upon the account of the unchangeable purpose of God apjDoint-
ing them to salvation ; — which I doubt not but Mr Goodwin studiously
and purposely omitted to insist upon, knowing its absolute incon-
sistency with the conclusion (and yet not able to waive it, had it been
once brought under consideration) which from the words he aimeth
to extract. As, then, to make men's loving of God to be antecedent
to the grace of vocation is an express contradiction in itself; so to
make it, or the consideration of it, to be previous unto predestina-
tion is an insinuation of a gross Pelagian figment, giving rise and

156 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

spring to God's eternal predestination, not in his own sovereign will,
but the self-differencing wills of men. " Latet anguis" also in the add-
ing "grass" of that exegetical term " pre-ordinated," — 'predestinated,
that is, pre-ordinated. Though the word, being considered in the lan-
guage whereof it is, seems not to give occasion to any suspicion, yet
the change of it from pre-ordained into pre-ordinated is not to be
supposed to be for nothing in him who is expert at these weapons.
To ordain is either " ordinare ut aliquid fiat," or " ordinem in factis
statu ere," or, according to some, " subjectum disponere ad finem."
To pre-ordain is of necessity precisely tied up to the first sense; — to
pre-ordinate, I fear, in Mr Goodwin's sense, is but to predispose men
by some good inclinations in themselves, and men pre-ordinated
are but men so predisposed ; which is the usual gloss that men of
this persuasion put upon Acts xiii. 48.

Thus far, then, we have carried on the sense affixed to these words,
if it may so be called, which is evidently contradictious in itself, and
in no one particular suited to the mind of the Holy Ghost.

He proceeds: " 'To give you yet,' saith our apostle, 'a farther and
more particular account how God, in the secret of his counsel, hath
belaid things in order,' " etc.

This expression, " God hath belaid things in order to the sal-
vation of them that love him," is the whole of the assurance here
given by the apostle to the assertion formerly laid down for the
consolation of believers; and this, according to the analogy and pro-
portion of our author's faith, amounts only thus far: " You that love
God, if you continue so to do, you will fall under his predestination ;
and if you abide under that, he will call you, so as that you may
farther obey him, or you may not. If you do obey him, and believe
upon his call (having loved him before), he will justify you; not
with that justification which is final, of which you may come short,
but with initial justification; which if you continue in and walk up
unto, solvite curas when you are dead in your gi-aves." This is
called God's belaying of things in his secret counsel ; whereby the total
accomplishment of the first engagement is cut off from the root of
God's purposes, and from the branches of his effectual grace in the pur-
suit thereof, and grafted upon the wild olive of the will of man, that
never did, nor ever will, bear any wholesome fruit of itself to eternity.
What is afterward added of the qualification of those whom God
predestinates, being an intrusion of another false hypothesis, for the
confirmation of an assertion of the same alloy, is not of my present
consideration. But he adds, " Ye are to understand that whom he
hath predestinated he hath also called, hath purposed or decreed
to call, to the knowledge of his Son, or his gospel," as before, etc.

Ans. How he hath predestinated them is not expressed, but being
so predestinated, God purposes to call them ; — that is, them and only

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 157

tlieni ; for it is a uniform pi-oceeding of God towards all whom he
attempts to bring to himself which is here described. That is, when
men love him and are approved of him, and are thereupon pre-
ordinated to conformity with Christ, then he decrees to call them,
or, as the calling here mentioned is described (that ye may not mis-
take, as though any internal effectual work of grace were hereby in-
tended, but only an outward moral persuasion, by a revelation of the
object they should embrace), "he gives a more plain and effectual
discovery of Christ to them than to any others." Doubtless it is
evident to every one that (besides the great confusion whereinto
the proceedings of God in bringing sinners to himself, or belaying
their coming with some kind entertainments, are cast) the whole
work of salvation is resolved into the wills of men ; and instead of
an effectual, operative, unchangeable purpose of God, nothing is left
on his part but a moral approbation of what is well done, and a pro-
posing of other desirable things unto men upon the account of for-
mer worthy carriage. And this is no small part of the intendment
of our author in this undertaking.

That God decrees to call them, and only them, who love him, and
upon that account are approved of him, when all faith and love are
the fruits of that calling of his, is such a figment as I shall not need
to cast away words in the confutation of it.^

Yet, lest any should have too high thoughts of this grace of voca-
tion, he tells them by the way "that it doth not necessarily suppose
a saving answer given to it by the called, no whit more than the
calling mentioned. Matt. xx. 16, xxii. 14."'

First, By Mr Goodwin's confession there is as yet no great advance
made towards the proof of the assertion laid down in the entrance,
and for the confirmation whereof this series and concatenation of
divine graces is insisted on. Though men love God, are predes-
tinated and accepted, yet when it comes to calling they may stop
there and perish everlastingly; for "many are called, but few chosen.''
They are indeed belaid by a calling, but they may miss the place of
its residence, or refuse to accept of its entertainment, and pass on to
ruin. But, —

Secondly, They are so called as upon the account thereof to be
justified; for " whom he calls, them he a\so justifies." "Yea, in case
they obey." But this is the interpretation of the new apostle, not
the old; neither hath the text any such supposition, nor will the
context bear it, nor can the design of the apostle consist with it, nor
any more consolation be squeezed from this place upon the account
of it than of milk from a flint in the rock of stone. Neithei', —

Thirdly, Doth the calling here mentioned hold any analogy with
that of the many that are called but not chosen, pointed at in the
• Deut. vii. 7; Ezek. xvi. 6; Matt. xi. 26; Eph. ii. 1_7.

1 .58 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

second place instanced in, being indeed the effectual calling of the
few who arc chosen: for as our Saviour, in those places of Matthew,
mentioned two sorts of persons, some that have a general call, but
are not chosen, and others that, being chosen, are therefore distin-
guished from the former as to their vocation; so Paul here tells you
that the calling he insists on is the peculiar call of God "according
to his purpose" (the same purpose intimated by our Saviour) ; which,
being suited of God to the caiTying on and accomplishing of that
purpose of his, must be effectual, unless he through mutability and
imjootency come short of accomplishing the design of his will and
wisdom.

Neither is this salved by what follows, "that it is the intention of
God to make this call sufficient for the end purposed ;" yea, this part
of the wallet is most filled with folly and falsehood: for as general
purposes of giving means for an end, with an intention to bring that
end about, that may or may not attain it, are most remote from
God, and, being supposed, are destructive to all his holy and blessed
attributes and perfections, as hath been shown ; so the thing itself,
of sufficient grace of vocation, which is not effectual, is a gross fig-
ment, not, whilst this world continues, by Mr Goodwin to be made
good, the most of his arguments being importunate suggestions of
his own hypothesis and conceptions. But he goes on, —

" The apostle advanceth towards his proposed end, and adds,
'Those whom he called, them he also justified,' or decreed to justify,
in case the called obstruct him not in his way, or by their unbelief
render not themselves incapable of justification."

Ans. That exception, " In case they obstruct him not," is a clue
to lead us into all the corners of this labyrinth, and a key to the
whole design in hand. Such a supposal it is as not only enervates
the whole discourse of the apostle and frustrates his design, but also
opens a door for the questioning of the accomplishment of any pur-
pose or promise of God whatever, and, in one word, rejects the whole
efficacy of the grace of the gospel, as a thing of naught. AVhat
strength is there in the discourse and arguing of the apostle, from
the purpose and ensuing series of God's grace, to prove that "all
things shall work together for good to them that love God," if the
whole issue and event of things mentioned to that end depend not
on the efficacy or effectual influences of those acts of God, one upon
another, and all upon the end, they being all and every one of
them, jointly and severally, suspended upon the wills of the persons
themselves concerning whom they are (which yet here is concealed,
and [not] intimated in the least)? How doth it prove at all that
they shall never be separated from the love of Christ, that they
shall be made conformable to him in glory, notwithstanding all op-
position, upon the account of the dispensation of God's eternal and

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 1 59

actual love towards them, "when the whole of their usefulness to the
end proposed is resolved ultimately into themselves and their endea-
vours, and not into any purpose or act of God? Such as is the foun-
dation, such is the strength of the whole building. Inferences can
have no more strength than the principle from whence tliey are de-
duced. If a man should tell another that if he will go a journey of
a hundred miles, at each twenty miles' end he shall meet with such
and such refreshments, all the consolation he can receive upon the
account of refreshments provided for him is proportioned only to
the thoughts he hath of his ovm strength for the performance of that
journey.

Farther ; if in such expressions of the purposed works of God, we
may put cases and trust in what supposals we think good, where
there is not the least jot, tittle, or syllable of them in the text, nor
any room for them, without destroying not only the design and
meaning of the place, but the very sense of it, why may not we do
so in other undertakings of God, the certainty of whose event de-
pends upon his purpose and promise only? For instance, the resur-
rection of the dead : may we not say, God will raise up the dead in
Christ, in case there he any necessity that their bodies should he glo-
rified? What is it, also, that remains of praise to the glorious grace
of God? This is all he effects by it: In case men obstruct him not in
his way, it doth good. God calls men to faith and obedience; in
case they obstruct not his way, it shall do them good. But how do
they obstruct his way? By unbelief and disobedience: take them
away, and God's calling shall be effectual to them. That is, in case
they believe and obey, God's calling shall be effectual to cause them
to believe and obey!

The cases then foisted into the apostle's discourse, in the close of
this interpretation of the place (if I may so call it), — namely, that
God will justify the called in case they obstruct not his way, and
will glorify them whom he hath justified in case they continue and
abide in the state of justification, — are, first, thrust in without ground,
warrant, or colour of advantage, or occasion given by any thing in
the text or context; — and, secondly, are destiTictive to the whole
design of the Holy Ghost in the place whereinto they are intruded;
injurious to the truth of the assertion intended to be made good,
that " all things shall work together for good," proposed upon the
account of the unchangeable purpose of God, and infallible con-
nection of the acts of his love and grace in the pursuit thereof; and
resolve the promised work and designed event wholly into the uncer-
tain, lubricous wills of men, making the assurance given not only to
be liable to just exceptions, but evidently to fail and be falsified in
respect of thousands; — and, thirdly, render the whole dispensation of
the grace of God to lackey after the wills of men, and wholly to

160 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANX'E. [CHAP.

depend upon them, giving in thereby, as was said, innumerable pre-
sumptions that the word, for whose confirmation all these acts of
God's grace are mentioned and insisted on, shall never be made good
or established.

Take, then, in a few words, the sense and scope of this place, as it
is held out in the exposition given of it by Mr Goodwin, and we will
then proceed to consider his confirmations of the said exposition:
" O ye that love God, many afflictions, temptations, and oppositions,
ye shall meet withal ; but be of good comfort, all shall work together
for your good, for God hath appointed you to be like his Son, and
ye may triumph in every condition on this account. For if ye, be-
fore any act of his special grace towards you, love him, he approves
you, and then he predestinates you" (what that is I know not).
" Then it is in your power to continue to love him, or to do other-
wise. If ye abide not, then ye perish : if ye abide, he will call you.
And when he doth so, either ye may obey him or ye may not. If
ye do not, all things shall work together for your hurt, and ye will
be like the devil; — if ye do, then he will justify you; and then, if
ye abide with him, as perhaps ye may, perhaps ye may not, he will
finally justify you, and then all shall be well." This being the sub-
stance of the interpretation of this place here given, let us now con-
sider how it is confirmed.

That which, in his own terms, he undei'taketh to " demonstrate,"
and to " vindicate from all objections," in his ensuing discourse, he
thus expresseth, page 209, sect. 43 : " These decrees, or purposed acts
of God, here specified, are to be understood in their successive de-
pendencies, with such a condition or proviso resiDcctively as those
mentioned, and not absolutely, peremptorily, or without condition."

Ans. The imposing of conditions and provisos upon the decrees
and purposes of God, of which himself gives not the least intimation,
and the suspending them, as to their execution, on those conditions
so invented and imposed, at the first view reflects so evidently on
the will, wisdom, power, prescience, and unchangeableness of God,
who hath said, " his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his
pleasure," especially when the interruption of them doth frustrate
the whole design and aim of God in the mentioning of those decrees
and purposes of his, that there will he need of demonstrations writ-
ten with the beams of the sun to enforce men tender and regardful
of the honour and glory of God to close with any in such an under-
taking. Let us, then, consider what is produced to this end, and try
if it will hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary. " This," saith
he, "appears, —

" First, By the like phrase or manner of expression, frequent in
the Scripture elsewhere. I mean, when such purposes or decrees of
God, the resi:»ective execution whereof is suspended upon such and

ni.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 161

such conditions, are, notwithstanding, simply and positively, without
any mention of condition, expressed and asserted: 'Wherefore the
Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the
house of thy father, shall walk before me' (meaning in the office and
dignity of the priesthood) ' for ever : but now saith the Lord, Be it
far from me/ ' I said indeed ;' that is, ' I verily purposed or decreed,'
or ' I promised :' it comes much to one. When God made the pro-
mise, and so declared his promise accordingly, that Eli and his father's
house should walk before him for ever, he expressed no condition as
required to the execution or performance of it, yet here it plainly
appears that there was a condition understood. In the same kind of
dialect Samuel speaks to Saul: ' Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast
not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God: for now the Lord
had established thy kingdom upon Israel for ever; but now thy
kingdom shall not continue.' 'The Lord had established;' that is,
he verily purposed or decreed to establish it for ever, — to wit, in case
his posterity had walked obediently with him."

Here we have the strength (as will be manifest in the progress of
our discourse) of what Mr Goodwin hath to make good his former
strange assertion. Whether it will amount to a necessary proof or no
may appear upon these ensuing considerations: —

First, The reason intimated being taken neither from the text
under debate, nor the context, nor any other place where any con-
cernment of the doctrine therein contained is touched or pointed at,
there being also no coincidence of phrase or expression in the one
place and the other here compared, I cannot but admire by what
rules of interpretation Mr Goodwin doth proceed to make one of
these places exegetical of the other. Though this way of arguing
hath been mainly and almost solely insisted on of late by the Soci-
nians, — namely, "Such a word is in another place used to another pur-
pose, or in another sense, therefore this cannot be the necessary sense
of it in this," — yet it is not only confuted over and over as irrational
and unconcluding, but generally exploded as an invention suited only
to shake all certainty whatever in matters of faith and revelation.
Mr Goodwin in his instance goes not so far (or rather he goes farther,
because his instance goes not so far), there being no likeness, much
less sameness of expression, in those texts which he produces to
weaken the obvious and literally-exposed sense of the other insisted
on therewith.

To waive the force of the inference from the words of the Holy
Ghost (seeing nothing in the least intimated in the place will give in
anj' assistance thereunto), first, this thesis is introduced : " The pur-
poses and decrees of God (confessedly engaged in the place in hand)
are, as to their respective executions, suspended on conditions in men ;"
— an assertion destructive to the power, goodness, grace, righteousness,

VOL. XL 11

162 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

faithfulness, wisdom, unchangeableness, providence, and sovereignty,
of God, as might be demonstrated did it now lie in our way. To
prove that this must needs be so, and that that rule must take place
in the mention that is made of the purposes and decrees of God, Rom.
viii. 28-30, ] Sam. ii. 80 is produced, being a denunciation of God's
judgments upon the house of Eli for their unworthy walking in the
honour of the priesthood, whereunto they were by him advanced
and called, and which they were intrusted withal, expressly upon
condition of their obedience.

Let us, then, a little consider the correspondency that is between
the places compared for their mutual illustration : —

First, In the one there is express mention of the purpose of God,
and that his eternal purpose; in the other, only a promise, expressly
conditional in the giving of it, amovmting to no more than a law,
without the least intimation of any purpose or decree.

Secondly, The one encompasseth the whole design of the grace of
the gospel ; the other mentions not any special grace at all.

TJm'dly, The one is wholly expressive of the acts of God, and his
design therein ; the other declarative of the duty of man, with the
issue thereupon depending.

This, then, is the strength of this argument: " God, approving
the obedience of a man, tells him that upon the continuance of
that obedience in him and his, he will continue them an office in
his service (a temporal mercy, which might be enjoyed without
the least saving grace) ; and which upon his disobedience he threat-
eneth to take from him (both promise and threatening being de-
clarative of his approbation of obedience, and his annexing the
priesthood thereunto in that family): therefore God, intending the
consolation of elect believers, affirms that all things shall work to-
gether for their good, upon this account, that he hath eternally pur-
posed to preserve them in his love, and to bring them to himself by
such effectual acts of his grace as whose immutable dependence one
upon the other, and all upon his own purpose, cannot be interrupted,
and therefore such as shall infallibly produce and work in them all
the obedience which for the end proposed he I'equircs; — his pur-
pose, I say, thus mentioned, must be of the same import with the
declaration of his will in the other place spoken of" If such a con-
founding of the decrees and denunciations, absolute pui-poses and
conditional promises, spiritual things with temporal, and the general
administration of the covenant of grace in Christ with special provi-
dential dispensations, may be allowed, there is no man needs to de-
spair of proving any thing he hath a mind to assert.

Secondly, There arc two things that Mr Goodwin insists upon, to
make good his arguing from this i)lace: — First, That these words,
" I said indeed," hold out the real jiurpose and decree of God,

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 163

Secondly, That in the promise mentioned there was no condition ex-
pressed or required to the execution or perforaiance of it.

By the first he intends that God did really purpose and decree from
eternity that Eli and his house should hold the priesthood for ever;
by the second, that no condition was expressed, either in terms, or
necessarily implied in the thing itself, which is of the same import.

If neither of these, now, should prove true, what little advance Mr
Goodwin hath made for the weakening of the plain intendment of the
words in the place under consideration, or for the confirmation of his
own gloss and interposed conditionals, either by this or the following
instances, that are of the same kind, will plainly appear. Now, that
these words, " I said indeed," are not declarative of an eternal decree
and purpose of God concerning the futurition and event of what is as-
serted to be the object of that decree, the continuance of the priest-
hood in the house of Eli, may be evidenced, as from the general nature
of the things themselves, so from the particular explanation of the act
of God whereunto this expression, " I said indeed," doth relate.

First, From the general nature of the thing itself this may be
manifested. To what hath been formerly spoken I shall add only
some few considerations, being not willing to insist long on that which
is but collateral to my present design.

First, then, When God decreed and purposed this (if so be he
purposed it, as it is said he did), he either foresaw what would be the
issue of it, or he did not. If he did not, where is his infinite luis-
dom and understanding? — if we may not be allowed to say his fore-
knowledge. How are " all his works known to him from the be-
ginning of the world ?"^ How doth he " declare the end from the
beginning, and the things that are yet to come?" distinguishing
himself from all false gods on this account. If he did foresee the
event, that it would not be so, why did he decree and purpose it
should be so? Doth this become the infinite wisdom of God, to pur-
pose and decree from all eternity that that shall come to pass wliich
he knows will never come to pass ? Can any such resolution fall
upon the sons of men, to whom God is pleased to continue the use
of that little spark of reason wherewith they are endued? If you
say, "God purposed it should continue in case their disobedience hin-
dered it not," I ask again, Did God foresee the disobedience that would
SO hinder it, or did he not? If he did not, the same difficulties will
arise which formerly I mentioned. If he did, then God decreed and
purposed that the priesthood should continue in the house of Eli, if
they kept themselves from that disobedience which he saw and knew
full well they would ran into ! Gui fini ?

Secondly, If God did thus purpose and decree, he was able to bring
it about, and accomplish his design by ways agreeable to his goodness,
1 Acts XV. 18; Isa. xlvi. 10.

164 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [ciIAP.

wisdom, and righteousness, or he was not. If he was not, where is
his omnipotence, who is not able to fulfil his righteous designs and
purposes in ways corresponding to that state of agents and things
which, he hath allotted them? How can it be said of him, "He will
work, and none shall let him?" That God engageth his power for
the accomplishment of his purposes was showed before. If he were
able to accomplish it, why did he not do it, but suffer himself to be
frustrated of his end ? Is it suitable to the sovereign will and wisdom
of God eternally to purpose and decree that which, by means agree-
able to his holiness and goodness, he is able to bring to pass, and yet
not to do it, but to fail and come short of his holy and gracious in-
tendment?

Thirdly, The obedience of the bouse of Eli, on which the accom-
plishment of the pretended decree is suspended, was such as either
they were able of themselves to perform, or they were not. To say
they were, is to exclude the necessary assistance of the grace of God,
which Mr Goodwin hath not in terms declared himself to do, nor are
we as yet arrived at that height, though a considerable progress hath
been made. If they were not able to do it without the assistance of
the Spirit and concun-ence of the grace of God, did the Lord pur-
pose to give them that assistance, working in them both to will and
to do of his own good pleasure, or did he not? If he did so purpose,
why did he not do it? If he did not purpose to do it, to what end
did he decree that that should come to pass which he knew could
not come to pass without his doing that which he was resolved never
to do? It is all one as if a man knew that another were shut up in
a prison, from whence it was impossible that any body but himself
should deliver him, and should resolve and purpose to give the poor
prisoner a hundred pounds, so that he would come out of prison to
him, and resolve withal never to bring him out,

Foiu'thl^, God from eternity foresaw that the priesthood should
not be continued to the house of Eli; therefore he did not from
eternity purpose and decree that it should. To know that a thing
shall not be, and to determine that it shall be, is a ffx^S'S rather
beseeming a half frantic creature than the infinitely wise Creator.
Again; upon what account did God foresee that it should not be so?
Can the futurition of contingent events be resolved in the issue into
any thing but God's sovereign determination? God, therefore, did
not determine and purpose that it should be so, because he deter-
mined and purposed that it should not be so. Whatsoever he doth
in time, that he purposed to do from eternity. Now, in time he re-
moved the priesthood from the house of Eli; therefore he etenially
purposed and determined so to do: which surely leaves no place for
a contrary j^urpose and decree (not so much as conditional) that it
should so continue for ever. The truth is, the mystery of this abomi-

III.J THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 1 65

nation lies in those things which lie not in my way now to handle.
A disjunctive decree, a middle science, creature-dependency, are
father, mother, and nurse, of the assertion we oppose, whose mon-
strous deformity and desperate rebellion against the properties of
God I may, the Lord assisting, hereafter more fully demonstrate.

But you will say, " Doth not the Lord plainly hold out a purpose
and decree in these words, ' I said indeed?' Did he say it? Will
you assign hypocrisy to him, and doubling with the sons of men?"

I say, then, secondly, that the expression here used holds out no
intention or purpose of God as to the futurition and event of the
thing itself, that the priesthood should continue in the house of Eli,
but only his purpose and intention that obedience and the priest-
hood should go together. There is a connection of things, not an
intendment or purpose of events, in the words intimated. The latter
cannot be ascribed to God without the charge of as formal muta-
bility as the poorest creature is liable to. Mr Goodwin, indeed, tells
you, sect. 43, p. 209, " That the purpose of God itself, considered as
an act or conception of the mind of God, dependeth not on any con-
dition whatever; and all God's purposes and decrees, without ex-
ception, are in such respect absolute and independent." How weak
and unable this is to free the Lord from a charge of changeableness
upon his supposal needs little pains to demonstrate. The concep-
tions of the minds of the sons of men, and their purposes as such, are
as absolutely free and unconditional as the nature of a creature will
admit ; only the execution of our purposes and resolves is suspended
upon the intervention of other things, which render them all condi-
tional. And this, it seems, is the state with God himself, although in
the Scripture he most frequently distinguisheth himself from the
sons of men on this account, that they purpose at the greatest rate
of uncertainty imaginable, as to the accomplishment of their thoughts,
and therefore are frequently disappointed, but his purposes and his
counsels stand for ever: so Ps. xxxiii. 10, 11. The expression then
here, " I said," relates plainly to the investiture of Aaron and his
seed in the priesthood. There was a twofold engagement made to
the house of Aaron about that office, — one in general to him and
his sons, the other in particular to Phinehas and his posterity. The
latter to Phinehas is far more expressive and significant than th»
other. You have it Num. xxv. 11-13, "Phinehas, the son of
Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away
from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among
them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.
Wherefore say. Behold, I give unto him my covenant of peace: and
he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an
everlasting priesthood ; because he was zealous for his God, and made
an atonement for the children of Israel." Here is a promise indeed,

166 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

and no condition in terms expressed; — but yet being made and
granted upon the condition of obedience, which is clearly expressed
once and again, that the continuance of it was also suspended on
that condition, as to the glory and beauty of that office, the thing
principally intended, cannot be doubted; yea, it is sufficiently ex-
pressed in the occasion of the promise and fountain thereof. But
this was not that promise wherein Eli's was particularly concerned.
Indeed, his posterity was rejected in order to the accomplishment of
this promise, the seed of Phinehas returning to their dignity, from
whence they fell by the interposition of the house of Ithamar.

That which this expression here peculiarly relates unto is the de-
claration of the mind of God concerning the priesthood of Aaron
and his posterity, which you have Exod. xxviii. 43, xxix. 9, where
the confirming them in their office is called " a perpetual statute,"
or " a law for ever." The signification of the term " for ever," in
the Hebrew especially, relating to legal institution, is known. Their
" eternity" is long since expired. That, then, which God here empha-
tically expresses as an act of grace and favour to the house of Aaron,
which Eli and his had an interest in, was that statute or law of the
priesthood, and his purpose and intention (not concerning the event
of things, not that it should continue in any one branch of that
family, but) of connecting it with their obedience and faithfulness
in that office. It is very frequent with God to express his appro-
bation of our duty under terms holding out the event that would
be the issue of the duty, though it never come to pass; and his dis-
approbation or rejection of the sons of men under terms that hold
out the end of their disobedience, though it be prevented or removed.
In this latter case he commands Jonah to cry, " Yet forty days, and
Nineveh shall be overthrown;" not that he purposed the destruction
of Nineveh at that time, but only effectually to hold out the end of
their sin, that it might be a means to turn them from it, and to pre-
vent that end, which it would otherwise procure. His purpose was
to prevent, at least prorogue, the ruin of Nineveh ; and therefore [he]
made use of threatening them with ruin, that they might not be
ruined. To say that God purposed not the execution of his purpose
but in such and such cases, is a plain contradiction: The purpose
#s of execution, and to say he purposed not the execution of his
purpose, is to say plainly he purposed and purposed not, or he
purposed not what he purposed. The examples of Pharaoh and
Abraham, in the precepts given to them, are proofs of the former.
But I must not insist upon particulars.

This, then, is all that here is intended : God making a law, a
statute, about the continuance of the priesthood in the fomily of
Aaron, affirms that then he said " his house should walk before him
for ever;" that is, with approbation and acceptation, for as to the

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 167

right of the priesthood, that still continued in the house of Aaron,
whilst it continued, notwithstanding the ejection of Eli and his.
Now, whether there were any conditions in the promise made, which
is Mr Goodwin's second improvement of this instance, may appear
from the consideration of what hath been spoken concerning it. It
is called " a law and statute," " the act." On that account, what-
ever it were that God here points imto is but a moral legislative act,
and not a physical determining act of the will of God, and, being a
law of privilege in its own nature, it involves a condition; which the
acts of God's will, vital and eternal, wherewith this law is compared,
do openly disavow.

Let us now see the parallel between the two places insisted on for
the explanation of the former of them ; which, as it will appear by the
sequel, is the only buckler wherewith Mr Goodwin defends his hypo-
thesis from the irresistible force of the argument wherewith he hath
to do : — First, The one speaks of things spiritual, the other of things
temporal; secondly. The one of what God will do, and the other of
what he approves to be done, being done; thirdly. The one holds out
God's decree and purpose concerning events, the other his law and
statute concerning duties; fourthly. The one not capable of inter-
posing conditionals without perverting the whole design of God re-
vealed in that place, the other directly including conditions; fifthly,
The one speaking of things themselves, the other only of the man-
ner of a thing; sixthly. In the one God holds out what he will do
for the good of his, upon the account of the efficacy of his grace ; in
the other, what men are to do if they will be approved of him. And
how one of these places can be imagined to be suited for the illus-
tration and interpretation of the other, which agree neither in name
nor thing, word nor deed, purpose nor design, must be left to the
judgment of those who desire to ponder these things, and to weigh
them in the balance of the sanctuary.

The other instances, in the case of Saul and Paul, being more
hetei-ogeneous to the business in hand than that of Eli, which went
before, require not any particular help for the removal of them out
of the way. Though they are dead as to the end for which they are
produced, I presume no true Israelite in the pursuit of that Sheba
in the church, the apostasy of saints, will be retarded in his way by
their being cast before him. In brief, neither the connection of
obedience and suitable rewards, as in the case of Saul, nor the neces-
sity of means subservient to the accomplishment of purposes (them-
selves also falling under that purpose of Him who intends the end
and the fulfilling of it), as in the case of Paul, is of the least force
to persuade us that the eternal, immanent acts of God's will, which
he pursues by the effectual, irresistible acts of his grace, so as to com-
pass the end wdiich he hath from everlasting determinately resolved

1G8 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

to bring about, are suspended upon imaginary conditions, created in
the brains of men, and, notwithstanding their evident inconsistency
■with the scope of the Scripture and design of God therein, intruded
into such texts of Scripture as on all hands (which will be evident
in the sequel of this discourse) are fortified against them.

Besides, in the case of Paul, though the infallibility of the predic-
tion did not in the least prejudice the liberty of the agents who were
to be employed for its accomplishment, but left room for the exhor-
tation of Paul and the endeavours of the soldiers, yet it cuts off all
possibility of a contrary event, and all supposal of a distinctive pur-
pose in God, upon the account whereof he cannot predict the issue or
event of any thing whatsoever. But of this more largely afterward.

But this is farther argued by Mr Goodwin, from the purposes of
God in his threatenings, in these words : " Most frequently the pur-
pose and decree of God concerning the punishment of wicked and
ungodly men is expressed by the Holy Ghost absolutely and cer-
tainly, without the least mention of any condition, or relaxation, or
reversion; yet, from other passages of Scripture, it is fully evident
that this decree of his is conditional in such a sense which imports a
non-execution of the punishment therein declared upon the repent-
ance of the persons against whom the decree is. In like manner,
though the purpose and decree of God for the justification of those
who are called (and so for the glorifying of those that shall be jus-
tified) be, in the scripture in hand, delivered in an absolute and
unconditional form of words, yet it is no way necessary to suppose
(the most familiar, frequent, and accustomed expressions in Scripture
in such cases, exempting us from any such necessity) that therefore
these decrees must needs bring forth against all possible interveni-
ences whatever: so that, for example, he that is called by the word
and Spirit must needs be justified, whether he truly believe or no;
and he that is justified must needs be glorified, whether he persevere
or no."

Ans. First, That the threatenings of God are moral acts, not decla-
rative, as to particular persons, of God's eternal purposes, but sub-
servient to other ends, together with the law itself, whereof they are
a portion (as the avoiding of that for which men are threatened), is
known. They are appendices of the law, and in their relation there-
unto declare the connection that is between sin and punishment,
such sins and such punishments.

Secondly, That the eternal purposes of God concerning the works of
his grace are to be measured by the rule and analogy of his temporal
threatenings, is an assertion striking at the very root of the covenant
of grace, and efiicacy of the mediation of the Lord Jesus, yea, at the
very being of divine perfections of the nature of God himself. This
there is, indeed, in all threatenings, declared of the absolute pur[)ose

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 169

and unchangeable decree of God, that all impenitent sinners shall be
punished according to what in his wisdom and righteousness he hath
apportioned out unto such deservings, and threateneth accordingly.
In this regard there is no condition that doth or can, in the least, im-
jDort a non-execution of the punishment decreed, neither do any of the
texts cited in the margin of our author prove any such thing. They
all, indeed, positively afSrm [that] faithless, impenitent unbelievers
shall be destroyed ; which no supposal whatsoever that takes not away
the subject of the question, and so alters the whole thing in debate,
can in the least infringe. Such assertions, I say, are parts of the
law of God revealing his will in general to punish impenitent un-
believers; concerning which his purpose is absolute, unalterable, and
steadfast.

The conclusion, then, which Mr Goodwin makes is apparently
racked from the words by stretching them upon the unproportioued
bed of other phrases and expressions, wholly heterogeneous to the
design in this place intended. Added here are supposed conditions
in general, not once explained, to keep them from being exposed to
that shame that is due unto them when their intrusion, without all
order or warrant from heaven, shall be manifested, only wrapped
up in the clouds of possible interveniences ; when the acts of God's
grace, whereby his purposes and decrees are accomplished, do consist
in the effectual removal of the interveniences pretended, that so the
end aimed at in the unchangeable counsel of God may, suitably to
the determination of his sovereign, omnipotent, infinite, wise will,
be accomplished. Neither doth it in the least appear that any such
calling by the word and Spirit as may leave the persons so called in
their unbelief, — they being so called in the pursuit of this purpose of
God to give them faith and make them conformable to Christ, — may
be allowed place or room in the haven of this text. The like may
be said of justification wherein men do not persevere. Yea, these
two supposals are not only an open begging of the thing in contest,
but a flat defying of the apostle as to the validity of his demonstra-
tion, that " all things work together," etc.

Notwithstanding, then, any thing that hath l)een objected to the
contrary, the foundation of God mentioned in this place of Scripture
stands firm, and his eternal purpose of safeguarding the saints in the
love of Christ, until he bring them to the enjoyment of himself in
glory, stands clear from the least shadow of change or suspension
upon any certain conditionals, which are confidently, but not so
much as speciously, obtruded upon it.

The next thing undertaken by Mr Goodwin is, to vindicate the
forementioned glosses from such oppositions as arise against them
from the context and words themselves, with the design of the Holy
Ghost therein. These things doth he find his exposition obnoxious

170 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

unto, — the exposition which he pretends to give no strength unto
but what is foreign, on all considerations whatsoever of words and
things, to the place itself. This, it seems, is to " prophesy according
to the analogy of faith," Rom. xii. 6.

First, then, sect. 44, to the objection, that those who are called are
also justified, and shall be glorified, according to the tenor of the
series of the acts of the grace of God here laid down, he ansAvereth,
" That where either the one or the other of these assertions be so or
no, it must be judged of by other scriptures. Certain it is, by what
hath been argued concerning the frequent usage of the Scripture in
point of expression, that it cannot be concluded or determined by
the scripture in hand." The sum of this answer amounts to thus
much: "Although the sense opposed be clear in the letter and expres-
sion of this place of Scripture, in the grammatical sense and use of
the words; though it flows from the whole context, and answers
alone the design and scope of the place, which gives not the least
countenance to the interposing of any such conditionals as are framed
to force it to speak contrary to what, yuiMvf, rfi xs(paXfi, it holds forth;
— yet the mind of God in the words is not from these things to be
concluded on; but other significations and senses, not of any word
here used, not from the laying down of the same doctrine in other
places, with the analogy of the faith thereof, not from the proposing
of any design suitable to this here expressed, but places of Scripture
agreeing with this neither in name nor thing, expression nor design,
word nor matter, must be found out in the sense and meaning of
this place, and from them concluded, and our interpretation of
this place accordingly regulated." "Nobis non licet," etc. Neither
hath Mr Goodwin produced any place of Scripture, nor can he,
parallel to this, so much as in expression, though treating of any
other subject or matter, that will endure to have any such sense tied
to it as that which he violently imposeth on this place of the apostle.
And if the sense and mind of God in this place may not safely be
received and closed withal from the proper and ordinary signification
of the words (which is always attended unto without the least dispute,
unless the subject-matter of any place, with the context, enforces to
the sense less usual and natural), with the clear design and scope of
the context in all the parts of it, universally correspondent unto
itself, I know not how, or when, or by what rules, we may have the
least certainty that we have attained the knowledge of the mind of
God in any one place of Scripture whatever.

What he next objects to himself, namely, " That though there be
no condition expressed in the instances by him produced, yet there
are in parallel places, by which they are to be expounded" (but such
conditions as these are not expressed in any place that answers to
that which we have in hand), it being by himself, as I conceive, in-

III.J THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUEPOSES. 1 71

vented to turn us aside from the consideration of the irresistible effi-
cacy of the argument from this place (which use he makes of it in
his first answer given to it), I own not; and that because I am fully
assured, that in any promise whatsoever that is indeed conditional,
there is no need to inquire out other scriptures of the like import
to evince it so to be, — all and every one of them that are such,
either in express terms, or in the matter whereof they are, or in the
legal manner wherein they are given and enacted, do plainly and
undeniably hold out the conditions inquired after. His threefold
answer to this objection needs not to detain us. Passing on, I hope,
to what is more material and weighty, he tells us, first, sect. 44, that
if this be so, " then it must be tried out by other scriptures, and not
by this;" which evasion I can allow our author to insist on, as tend-
ing to shift his hands of this place, which, I am persuaded, in the
consideration of it grew heavy on them. But I cannot allow it to
be a plea in this contest, as not owning the objection which it pre-
tends to answer. The two following answers being not an actual
doing of any thing, but only fair and large promises of what Mr
Goodwin will do about answering other scriptures, and evincing the
conditionals intimated from such others as he shall produce (some,
doubtless, will think these promises no payment, especially such as
having weighed money formerly tendered for real payment have
found it too light), I shall let them lie in expectation of their accom-
plishment. " Rusticus expectat, dum defluat amnis," etc.

In the meantime, till answers come to hand, Mr Goodwin proffers
to prove by two arguments (one clear answer had been more fair),
that these acts of God, calling, justification, and so the rest, have no
such connection between them, but that the one of them may be
taken and be put in execution, and yet not the other, in respect of
the same persons.

His first reason is this : " If the apostle should frame this series or
chain of divine acts with an intent to show or teach the uninterrup-
tibleness of it, in what case or cases soever, he should fight against
his general and main scope or design in that part of the chapter
which lieth from verse 1 7, which clearly is this, to encourage them
to constancy and perseverance in suffering afflictions: for to sug-
gest any such thing as that, being called and justified, nothing could
hinder them from being glorified, were to furnish them with a ground
on which to neglect his exhortation; for who will be persuaded to
suffer tribulation for the obtaining of that which they have sufficient
assurance given that they shall obtain whether they suffer such
thmgs or no? Therefore, certainly, the apostle did not intend here
to teach the certainty of perseverance in those that are justified."

Ans. That this argument is of such a composition as not to operate
much in the case in hand will easily appear; for,^ —

172 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' TERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

First, These expressions, " In what case or cases soever," are
foisted into the sense and sentence of them whom he opposes, who
affirm the acts of God's grace here mentioned to be effectually and
virtually preventive of those cases, and of [that] which might possibly
give ajiy interruption to the series of them.

Secondly, Whatsoever is here pretended of the main scope of the
chapter, the scope of the place we have under consideration was
granted before to be the making good of that assertion, premised in
the head thereof, that all things should work together for good to
believers, and that so to make it good, that upon the demonstration
of it they might triumph with joy and exultation; which it cannot
be denied but that this uninterruptible series of divine acts, not
framed by the apostle, but revealed by the Holy Ghost, is fitted
and suited to do.

Thirdly, Suppose that be the scope of the foregoing verses, what
is there in the thesis insisted on and the sense embraced by us op-
posite thereunto? "Why, to suggest any such thing to them as that,
being called and justified, nothing could possibly interpose to hinder
them from being glorified, — that is, that God by his grace will preserve
them from departing wilfully from him, and will in Jesus Christ
establish his love to them for ever, — was to furnish them with a motive
to neglect his exhortations." Yea, but this kind of arguing we call here
petitio principii, and it is accounted with us nothing valid ; the thing
in question is produced as the medium to argue by. We affirm there
is no stronger motive possible to encourage them to perseverance than
this proposed. " It is otherwise," saith Mr Goodwin ; and its being
otherwise in his opinion is the medium whereby he disproves not
only that, but another truth, which he also opposeth ! But he adds
this reason, " For who Avould be persuaded to suffer," etc. ; that is, it
is impossible for any one industriously and carefully to use the means
for the attainment of any end, if he hath assurance of the end by
these means to be obtained. What need Hezekiah make use of
food, or other means of sustaining his life, when he was assured that
he should live fifteen years? The perseverance of the saints is not
in the Scripture, nor by any of those wliom Mr Goodwin hath chosen
to oppose, held out on any such ridiculous terms as whether they
use means or use them not, carry themselves well or wickedly mis-
carry themselves, but is asserted upon the account of God's effectual
grace preserving them in the use of the means, and from all such
miscarriages as should make a total separation between God and
their souls. So that this first reason is but a plain begging of those
things which, to use his own language, he would not dig for.

But perhaps, although this first argument of Mr Goodwin be
nothing but an importune suggestion of some hypotheses of his own,
with an arguing from inferences not only questionable but unques-

111.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 1 73

tionably false, yet if his second demonstration will evince the matter
under debate, he may be content to suffer loss in the hay and stubble
of the first, so that the gold of the following argument do abide.
Now, thus he proceedeth in these words: " And, lastly, this demon-
strates the same thing yet farther. If God should justify all without
exception whom he calleth, and that against all bars of wickedness
and unbelief possible to be laid in their way by those who are called,
then might ungodly and unbelieving persons inherit the kingdom of
God. The reason of the connection is evident, it being a knoAvn
truth that the persons justified are in a condition or present capacity
of inheriting the kingdom of God."

Ans. But "carbones pro thesauro." If it be possible, this, being of
the same nature with that which went before, is more weak and in-
firm, as illogical and sophistical as it. The whole strength of it lies
in a supposal that those who are so called as here is intimated in
the text, — called according to the purpose of God, called to answer
the design of God to make them like to Jesus Christ, so called as to
be hereupon justified, — may yet lay such bars of wickedness and un-
belief in their own way, when they are so called, as not to be justi-
fied, when that calling of theirs consists in the effectual removal of all
those bars of wickedness and unbelief y^hich might hinder their free
and gracious acceptation with God; that is, that they may be called
effectually and not effectually. A supposal hereof is the strength
of that consideration which yielded Mr Goodwin this demonstration.
His eminent way of arguing herein will also be farther manifest, if
you shall consider that the very thing which he pretends to prove is
that which he here useth for the medium to prove it, not varied in
the least! "Si Pergama dextra,"etc. But Mr Goodwin foresav/ (as
it was easy for him to do) what would be excepted to this last argu-
ment,— to wit, that the calling here mentioned effectually removes
those bars of wickedness and unbelief, a supposal whereof is all the
strength and vigour it hath; and in that supposal there is a plain
assuming of the thing in question, and a bare contradiction to that
which from the place we prove and confirm. Wherefore, he answer-
eth sundry things: —

First, That " Judas, Demas, Simon Magus, were all called, and
yet laid bars of wickedness and unbelief, whereby their justification
was obstructed." And to the repty, that they were not so called as
those mentioned in the text, not called according to God's purpose,
with that calling which flows from their predestination to be con-
formed unto Christ, with that calling which is held out as an effect-
ual mean to accomplish the end of God in causing all things to work
together for their good, and therefore that the strength of this answer
lies in the interposition of his own hypothesis once more, and his re-
newed request for a grant of the thing in question, — he proceeds to

174 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEllSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

take away this exception by sundry cross assertions and interroga-
tions. Sect. 45, "It hath not been proved," saith he, "by any man,
nor I believe ever will be" (sir, we live not by your faith), " that the
calling here spoken of imports any such act or work of God whereby
the called are irresistibly necessitated savingly to believe. If it import
no such thing as this, what hinders but that the persons mentioned
might have been called by that very kind of calling here spoken of?"

Ans. It is known what Mr Goodwin aims at in that expression,
" Irresistibly necessitated savingly to believe;" we will not contend
about words. Neither of the two first terms mentioned is either
willingly used of us or can be properly used by any, in reference to
the work of conversion or calling. What we own in them relates, as to
the first term, " irresistibly," to the grace of God calling or convert-
ing; and in the latter, " necessitated," to the event of the call itself
If by "irresistibly" you intend the maimer of operation of that effect-
ual grace of God (not which conquers in a reaction, Avhich properly
may be termed so, but) which really, and therefore certainly (for
"unumquodque, quod est, dum est, necessario est"), produces its effect,
not by forcing the will, but, being as intimate to it as itself, making
it willing, etc., we own it. And if by "necessitated" you understand
only the event of things, — that is, it is of necessity as to the event
that they shall savingly believe who are effectually called, without
the least straitening or necessitating their wills in their conversion,
which are still acted suitably to their native liberty, — we close with
that term also, and affirm that the calling here mentioned imports
such an act of God's gi'ace as whereby they who are called are effect-
ually and infallibly brought savingly to believe, and so, consequen-
tially, that the persons whose wickedness and unbelief abide upon
them were never called with this calling here contended about.
They who are not predestinated a parte ante, nor glorified a parte
post, are not partakers of this calling. I must add, that as yet I
have not met with any proof of Mr Goodwin's interpretation, nor
any exception against ours, that is not resolvable into the same prin-
ciple of craving the thing in question, producing the thing to be
proved as its own demonstration, and asserting the things proved
against him not to be so because they are not so. From the design
and scope of the place, the intendment of the Holy Ghost in it, the
meaning of the words, the relation and respect wherein the acts of
God mentioned stand one to another, the disappointment of God's
purpose and decree in case of any interruption of them or non-pro-
ducing of the effects, which lead the subjects of whom they are
spoken from one to another, we prove the infallible efficacy of every
act of God's grace here mentioned as to their tendency unto the end
aimed at; and this he that is called to believe may infallibly do.

" But," says Mr Goodwin, "this is otherwise." Well, let that pass.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 1 75

He adds, secondly, "Suppose it be granted that tlie calling here spoken
of is that kind of calling which is always accompanied with a saving
answer of faith, yet neither doth this prove but that even such called
ones may obstruct and prevent, by wickedness and unbelief, their
final justification, and consequently their glorification. If so, then
that chain of divine acts or decrees here framed by the apostle is not
indissolvable in any such sense which imports an infallibility, and
universal exertion or execution of the latter whensoever the former
hath taken place." In this answer Mr Goodwin denies our conclu-
sion, to wit, that the chain of divine acts of grace in this place is in-
dissolvable (which that it is we make out and prove from the words
of the text, the context, and scope of the place), and adds his reason,
" Because they who are justified may lay bars in their way from
being finally so, or being glorified;'' — that is, it is not so, because it
is not so; for the efficacy of the grace asserted is for the removal of
the bars intimated, or wherein may its efficacy be supposed to con-
sist, especially in its relation to the end designed ? And so this place
is answered. Saith the Holy Ghost, " Those whom God justifieth
he glorifies." " Perhaps not," saith Mr Goodwin ; " some things may
fall in or fall out to hinder this." Eligite cui credatis.

Were I not resolved to abstain from the consideration of the judg-
ments of men when they are authoritatively interposed in the things
of God, I could easily manifest the fruitlessness of the following en-
deavour to prove the effectual calling of Judas by the testimony of
Chrysostom and Peter Martyr ; for neither hath the first, in the place
alleged, any such thing (least of all is it included in Mr Goodwin's
marginal annotation, excluding compulsion, necessity, and violence,
from vocation) ; and the latter, in the section pointed to and that fol-
lowing, lays down principles sufficiently destructive to the whole design
whose management Mr Goodwin hath undertaken. Neither shall I
contest about the imposing on us in this dispute the notion of final
justification distinct from glorification, both name and thing being
foreign to the Scripture, and secretly including (yea, delivering to
the advantage of its author) the whole doctrine under consideration
stated to his hand. If there be a gospel justification in sinners or
believers in the blood of Christ not final or that may be cut off, he
hath prevailed.

But Mr Goodwin proceeds to object against himself, sect. 46, "But
some, it may be, will farther object against the interpretation given,
and plead, — 1. That the contexture between these two links of this
chain, predestination to a conformity with Christ and calling, is sim-
ply and absolutely indissolvable, so that whoever is so predestinated
never fails of being called ; 2. That it is altogether unlikely that, in
one and the same series of divine actions, there should not be the
same fixedness or certainty of coherence between all the parts"

176 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

The first of these being the bare thesis which he opposed, I know
not how it came to be made an objection. I shall only add to the
latter objection, which includes something of argument, that the effi-
cacy of any one act of God's grace here mentioned, as to the end
proposed, depending wholly on the uninterruptible concatenation of
them all, and the effectual prevalency and certainty (as to their
respective operations) of every one of them being equal to the ac-
complishment of the purpose of God in and by them all, I will-
ingly own it, especially finding how little is said, and yet how much
labour taken, to dress up a pretended answer unto it. Of this there
are two parts, whereof the first is this: " I answer," saith he, —

" First, by a demur upon the former of these pleas;" which was,
that the connection between the predestination of God mentioned
and his calling is uninterruptible. " Somewhat doubtful to me it is
whether a person who, by means of the love of God which is in him
at present, falls under his decree of predestination, may not possil)ly,
before the time appointed by God for his calling, be changed in
that his affection, and consequently pass from under that decree of
predestination, and fall under another decree of God opposite there-
unto, and so never come to be called."

Avs. I confess this demur outruns my understanding, equis albis,^
neither can I by any means overtake it, to pin any tolerable sense
upon it, though I would allow it to be suited only to Mr Good-
win's principles, and calculated for the meridian of Arminianism.
For who, I pray, are they in any sense (in Mr Goodwin's) that do so
love God as to fall under, as he speaks, that pendulous decree of
predestination, and to whom this promise here is made? Are they
not believers? Are any others predestinated, in our author's judg-
ment, but those who are actually so? Is not the decree of predes-
tination God's decree or purpose of saving believers by Jesus Ciu'ist?
or can any love God to acceptation without believing? If, then,
they are believers, can they alter that condition before they are
called? We supposed that "faith had been by hearing, and hear-
ing by the word of God," Rom. x. 17, and that it is of necessity, in
order of nature, that calling should precede believing. What are
men called to? Is it not to believe? Here, then, is a new sort of men
discovered, that believe and fall from faith, love God and forsake
him, all antecedently to their vocation or calling. I am confident
that Mr Goodwin may be persuaded to withdraw this demurrer, or if
not, that he will be overruled in it before the judgment-seat of all
unprejudiced men. It will scarcely as yet pass currently that men
are bom believers, and after such and such a time of their continu-
ance in that estate of belief, and being predestinated thereupon, God
then calls them. Neither do I understand the meaning of that
1 See llor. Sat,, j. 7, 8.— Ed.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. J 77

phrase, " Never come to be called," used by him who maintains all
to be called ; but this is but a demurrer. The answer follows.

For the great regard I bear unto the author's abilities, I shall nob
say that his ensuing discourse doth not deserve to be transcribed
and punctually insisted on; but this I may say, I hope, without
offence, that it is so long and tedious, so remote from what it pre-
tends unto, to wit, an answer to the foremen tioned argument, that
I dare not venture upon the patience of any reader so far as to enter
into a particular consideration of it

The sum of it is, "That there is no unlikelihood in this, that though
one part of the chain of divine graces before mentioned cannot be
dissolved or broken, yet another may (notwithstanding that a dis-
solution of any one of them renders the design of God in them all
wholly frusti'ate and fruitless)." This he proves by proposing a new
series of divine acts in actual dependence one upon another, some
whereof may be uninterruptible, but the others not so. He that shall
but slightly view the concatenation of divine acts here proposed by
Mr Goodwin for the illustration of that dependence of them and
their efficacy which we insist upon, will quickly find it liable to
some such small exceptions as render it altogether useless as to the
end proposed; as, —

First, That the case here proposed, and pretended to be parallel
to that under our consideration, is a fictitious thing, a feigned con-
catenation of feigned decrees of God, being neither in any one place
delivered in the Scripture, nor to be collected from any or all the
texts in the Bible; which course of proceeding, if it may be argu-
mentative in sacred truth, it will be an easy and facile task to over-
throw the most eminent and clearly- delivered heads of doctrine in
the whole book of God.

Secondly, That it is a case surmised by him, suitable to his own
hypotheses, neither true in itself nor any way analogous to that
wherewith it is yoked, being indeed a new way and tone of begging
the thing in question. For instance, it supposeth, without the least
attempt of proof, 1. Conditional decrees, or a disjunctive intend-
ment of events in God, — it shaU. come to pass, or otherwise; 2. A
rtiiddle science conditional, as the foundation of those disjunctive de-
crees; with, 3. Afuturition of things, antecedent to any determining
act of the will of God ; and, 4. A possibility of frustrating, as to
event, the designs and purposes of God; and, 5. That all mediums
of the accomplishment of any thing are conditions of God's inten-
tions as to the end he aims at; and, 6. That God appoints a series
of mediums for the compassing of an end, and designs them there-
unto, without any determinate resolution to bring about that end;
and, 7. That the acts of God's grace in their concatenation, mentioned
in this place of Rom. viii., are severally conditional, because he hath

VOL. XL 12

178 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

invented or feigned some decrees of God wlucli he says are so ; — all
which, with the inferences from them, Mr Goodwin knows will not
advance his reasonings at all as to our understanding, we being fully
persuaded that they are all abominations, of no less base alloy than
the error itself in whose defence and patronage they are produced.

To our argument, then, before mentioned, proving an equal indis-
solvableness in all the links of the chain of divine graces, drawn forth
and insisted on from the equal dependence of the design and pur-
pose of God on the mutual dependence of each of them on the other,
for the fulfilling of that purpose of his, and obtaining the end which
he professes himself to intend, this is the sum of Mr Goodwin's
answer: " If I can invent a series of decrees and a concatenation of
divine acts, though indeed there be no such thing, neither can I give
any colour to it without laying down and taking for granted many
false and absurd supposals ; and though it be not of the same nature
with that here proposed by the apostle, nor anywhere held out in
the Scripture for any such end and purpose as this is; neither can I
assign any absolute determinate end in this series of mine, whose
accomplishment God engages himself to bring about (as the case
stands in the place of Scripture under consideration), — then it is meet
and equitable that, laying aside all enforcements from the text, con-
text, nature of God, the thing treated on, all compelling us to close
with another sense and interpretation, Ave regulate the mind of
the Holy Ghost herein to tlie rule, proportion, and analogy, of the
case as formerly proposed." This being the sum of that which Mr
Goodwin calls his answer, made naked, I presume, to its shame,
" valeat quantum valere potest."

I shall only add that, — 1. When Mr Goodwin shall make good that
order and series of decrees here by him mentioned from the Sci'ip-
ture, or with solid reason from the nature of the things themselves,
suitably to the properties of Him whose they are ; — and, 2. Prove
that any eternal decree of God, either as to its 2)7'imitive enacting
or temporal execution, is suspended on any thing not only really
contingent in itself and its own nature, in respect of the immediate
fountain from whence it flows and nature of its immediate cause, but
also as to its event, in respect of any act of the will of God, that it
may otherwise be, and so the accomplishment of that decree left
thereupon uncertain, and God himself dubiously conjecturing at the
event (for instance, whether Christ should die or no, or any one be
saved by him) ; — and, 3. Clearly evince this notion of the decrees
and purposes of God, that he intends to create man, and then to give
him such advantages, which if he will it shall be so with him, if
otherwise it shall be so; to send Christ if men do so, or not to
send him if they do otherwise; and so of the residue of the decrees
mentioned by him ; — and, 4. That all events of things wiiatsoever,

Ill] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 179

spiritual and temporal, have a conditional futurition^ antecedent to
any act of the will of God : when, I say, he shall have proved these,
and some things like to these, we shall farther consider what is offered
by him, yea, we will confess that " hostis habet muros," etc.

Of the many other testimonies to the purpose in hand, bearing
witness to the same truth, some few may yet be singled out, and, in
the next place, that of Jer. xxxi. 3 presents itself unto trial and ex-
amination : " Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love : there-
fore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." It is the whole elect
church of the seed of Jacob of whom he speaks, the foundation of
whose blessedness is laid in the eternal love of God. Who the persons
are thus beloved, and of whom we are to interpret these expressions
of God's good- will, the apostle manifests, Rom. xi. 7, as shall afterward
be more fully discoursed and cleared. He tells you it is the "election"
whom God intends; of whom he says that they obtained the right-
eousness that is by faith, according to the purport of God's good-will
towards them, though the rest were hardened, God (who adds daily to
his church such as shall be saved. Acts ii. 47) drawing them thereunto
upon the account of their being so elected. He calls them also the
" remnant according to the election of grace," and the " people which
God foreknew," verses 1, 2, i5, or from eternity designed to the par-
ticipation of the grace there spoken of, as the use of the word hath
been evinced to be. These are the "thee" here designed, the portion
of Israel after the flesh which the Lord, in his free grace, hath eter-
nally appointed to be his peculiar inheritance ; which in their several
generations he draws to himself with loving-kindness. And this ever-
lasting love is not only the fountain whence actual loving-kindness, in
di'awing to God, or bestowing faith, doth flow (as they believe who
are ordained to eternal life, Acts xiii. 48), but also the sole cause and
reason upon the account whereof, in contradistinction to the consi-
deration of any thing in themselves, God will exercise loving-kind-
ness towards them for ever. That which is everlasting or eternal is
also unchangeable ; God's everlasting love is no more liable to muta-
bility than himself, and it is an always equal ground and motive
for kindness. On what account should God alter in his actual kind-
ness or favour towards any, if that on the account whereof he exer-
cises it will not admit of the least alteration? He that shall give a
condition on which this everlasting love of God should be suspended,
and according to the influence whereof upon it it should go forth in
kindness or be interrupted, may be allowed to boast of his discovery.

That of the apostle, 2 Tim. ii. 19, is important to the business in
hand, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this
seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." Some persons of emi-
nency and note in the church, yea, stars, it seems, of a considerable
magnitude in the visible firmament thereof, having fallen away from

ISO DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' TERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

the truth and faith of the gospel, and drawn many after them into
ways of destruction, a great offence and scandal among believers
thereon (as in such cases it will fall out) ensued ; and withal a temp-
tation of a not-to-be-despised prevalency and sad consequence
(which we formerly granted to attend such eminent apostasy) seems
to have laid hold on many weak saints. They feared lest they also
might be overthrown, and, after all their labouring and suffering in
the work of faith and patience of the saints, come short of "the
mark of the high calling" set before them. Considering their own
weakness and instability, with that powerful opposition whereunto,
in those days especially, they were exposed, upon the contempla-
tion of such apostasies or defections, they were opportune and ob-
noxious sufficiently to this temptation. Yea, their thoughts ujDon
the case under consideration misjht lead them to fear a more gene-
ral defection ; for seeing it is thus with some, why may not this be
the condition of all believers? and so the whole church may cease
and come to nothing, notwithstanding all the promises of building
it on a rock, and of the presence of Christ with it to the end of the
world; nay, may not his whole kingdom on earth on this account
possibly fall to utter ruin, and himself be left a head without mem-
bers, a king without subjects? This, by Mr Goodwin's own confes-
sion, is the objection which the apostle answereth, and removes in
and by the words under consideration: Chap. xiv. pp. 859, 360, "See-
ing these fall away, are not we likewise in danger of falling away,
and so of losing all that we have done and suffered in our Christian
profession? To this objection or scruple the apostle answereth in the
words in hand." So he. Thus far, then, are we agreed. About the
sense of the words themselves, and their accommodation to the re-
moval of the objection or scruple mentioned, is our difference. I
know not how Mr Goodwin comes to call it " an objection or scruple"
(which is the expression of thoughts or words arising against that
which is, in the truth of it), seeing it is their very state and condition
indeed, and that which they fear is that which they are really ex-
posed unto, and which they ought to believe that they are exposed to.
In his apprehension, they who make the objection, or whose scruple
it was, Avere in his judgment as liable unto, and in the same danger
of falling away, or greater (their temptation being increased and
heightened by the apostasy of others) than they that fell the day
and hour before; neither could that falling away of any be said to
raise a scruple in them that they might do so too, if this were one
part of their creed, that all and every man in the world might so do.
The answer given by the apostle is no doubt suited to the objec-
tion, and fitted to the removal of the scruple mentioned ; which was
alone to be accomplished by an effectual removing away the solicit-
ous fears and cares about the preservation of them in whose behalf

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUEPOSES. 181

this is produced. This, therefore, the apostle doth by an excep-
tion to the inference which they made, or through temptation might
make, upon the former considerations. Mh roi are exceptive par-
ticles, and an induction into the exemption of some from the con-
dition of being in danger of falling, wherein they were concluded
in the objection proposed. The intendment, I say, of the apostle,
in that exceptive plea he puts in, " Nevertheless," is evidently to
exempt some from the state of falling away, which might be
argued against them from the defection of others. Neither doth
he speak to the thing in hand, nor are the particulars mentioned
exceptive to the former intimation, if his speech look any other
way. Moreover, he gives yet farther the account of this excep-
tion he makes, including a radical discrimination of professors, or
men esteemed to be believers, expressing also the princij)le and
ground of that difference. The differing principle he mentioneth is,
the foundation of God that stands sm^e, or the firm foundation of
God that is established or stands firm; this is not worth contending
about; — an expression parallel to that of the same apostle, Rom. ix.
1 1, " That the purpose of God according to election might stand."
Both this and that hold out some eternal act of God, differencing be-
tween persons as to their everlasting condition. As if the apostle
had said, " Ye see, indeed, that Hymeneus and Philetus are fallen
away, and that others with whom you sometimes walked in the
communion and outward fellowship of the gospel, and took sweet
counsel together in the house of God with them, are gone after
them ; yet be you, true believers, of good comfort : God hath laid a
foundation " (which must be some eternal act of his concerning them
of whom he is about to speak, or [else] the solemn assertion of the
apostle, than which you shall not easily meet with one more weighty,
is neither to the case nor matter in hand) " which is firm and abiding,
being the good pleasure of his will, accompanied with an act of his
wisdom and understanding, appointing some (as is the case of all
true believers) to be his, who shall be exempted on that account
from the apostasy and desertion that you fear. This," saith the
apostle, " is the fountain and spring of the difference which is among
them that profess the gospel. Concerning some of them is the pur-
pose of God for their preservation : ' they are ordained to eternal
life.'" And herein, as was said, lies the concernment of all that are
true believers, who are all his, chosen of him, given to his Son, and
called according to his purpose. With others it is not so; they are
not built on that bottom, they have no such foundation of their pro-
fession, and it is not therefore marvellous if they fall.

The words, then, contain an exception of true believers from the
danger of total apostasy, upon the account of the stable, fixed, eternal
purpose of God concerning their salvation, answerable to that of

182 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' TERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Rom. viii. 28-80, the place last considered. The " foundation" here
mentioned is the good pleasure of the will of God, which he had
purposed in himself, or determined to exert towards them, for the
praise of the glory of his grace, Eph. i. 9; according to which pur-
pose we are predestinated, verse 11. And he calls this purpose the
"foundation of God," as being a ground-work and bottom of the thing
whereof the apostle is treating, — namely, the preservation and per-
severance of true believers, those who are indeed planted into Christ,
notwithstanding the apostasy of the most glorious professors, who,
being not within the compass of that purpose, nor built on that
foundation, never attain that peculiar grace which by Jesus Christ
is to them administered who have that privilege. And this farther
appears by the confirmation of the certainty of this foundation of
God which he hath laid, manifested in the next words, " It hath this
seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." Whether ye will take
this either for a demonstration of the former assertion, a 'posteriori,
from the peculiar love, favour, tenderness, and care, which the Lord
bears to them which are his, who are built on the foundation men-
tioned, whereby, in the pursuit of his eternal purpose, he will cer-
tainly preserve them from perishing, knowing, owning, and taking care
of them in every condition ; or for the prescience of God, accomplish-
ing his eternal purpose, designing them of whom he speaks as his
(for his they were, and be gave them unto Christ), — is to me indiffer-
ent. Evident it is that this confirmation of the purpose mentioned
is added to assure us of the stability and accomplishment of it, in
that none who are built thereon or concerned therein shall fall
away. And herein doth the apostle fully answer and remove the fore-
mentioned objection. " Let men," saith he, " appear never so emi-
nent in profession, if once they prove apostates, they manifest them-
selves to have been but hypocrites ; that is, such as never had any
of the faith of God's elect, which is their peculiar who are ordained
to eternal life."

This, then, beyond all colourable exception, is the intendment of
the apostle in the words under consideration: "Though many profes-
sors fall away, yet you that are tnie believers be not sliaken in your
confidence ; for God hath laid the foundation of your preservation in
his eternal purpose, whereby you are designed to life and salvation,
and by the fruits whereof you are discriminated from the best of
them that fall away. Only continue in the use of means; let every
one of you depart from iniquity, and keep up to that universal holi-
ness whereunto also ye are appointed and chosen." And this is the
■whole of what we desire demonstration of. neither will less in any
measure answer the objection or remove the scruple at first proposed.

But, it seems, we are all this while beside the intendment of the
apostle, whose resolution of the objection mentioned is quite of an-

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 183

other nature than what Ave have hitherto insisted on, which Mr Good-
win thus represents, page 359, chap. xiv. sect. 14: —

" To tliis objection or scruple the apostle, in the words now in
hand, answereth to this effect, that notwithstanding the falling away
of men, whoever or how many soever they be, yet the glorious gos-
pel and truth of God therein stands, and always hath stood, firm
and steadfast : which gospel hath the matter and substance of this
saying in it, as a seal for the establishment of those who are upright
in the sight of God, namely, 'The Lord knoweth/ that is, takes
special notice of, approveth, and delighteth in, ' those that are his/
— that is, who truly believe in him, love and serve him ; yea, and
farther hath this item, tending to the same end, ' Let every one that
calleth upon the name of Christ,' that is, makes profession of his
name, ' depart from iniquity.' So that in this answer to the scruple
mentioned the apostle intimateth, by way of satisfaction, that the
reason why men fall away from the faith is partly because they do
not consider what worthy respects God beareth to those who cleave
to him in faith and love, partly also because they degenerate into
loose and sinful courses, contrary to the law imposed by the gospel;
and consequently, that there is no such danger of their falling away
who shall duly consider the one and observe the other. In asserting
the stability of the truth of God in the gospel, by the way of antidote
against the fears of those that might possibly suspect it, because of
the defections of others from it, he doth but tread in his own foot-
steps elsewhere in this very chapter, 'If we believe not, yet he abideth
faithful, and cannot deny himself.'"

Ans. If that necessity were not voluntarily chosen which en-
forceth men to wrest and pervert the word of God, not only to mis-
taken, but strange, uncouth, and inconsistent senses, their so doing
might perhaps seem not to be altogether without colour and pretext;
but when they willingly embrace those paths which will undoubtedly
lead them into the briers, and, contrary to abundance of light and
eviden(je of truth, embrace those persuasions which necessitate them
to such courses, I know not what cloak they have left for their de-
viations. An example of this we have before us in the words recited.
A sense is violently pinned upon the apostle's words, not only alien,
foreign, to the scope of the place and genuine signification of the
words themselves, but wholly unsuited for any serviceableness to the
end for which the author of this gloss himself confesseth these ex-
pressions of the apostle to be produced and used.

The sum of Mr Goodwin's exposition of this place is this: The
" foundation of God" is the gospel or the doctrine of it; its " stand-
ing," or " standing sure," the certain truth of the gospel ; the " seal"
mentioned is the substance or matter of that saying, " God knows
who are his," contained in the gospel; and the answer to the objec-

ISi DOCTIUNE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CUAP.

tion or scruple lies in this, that the reason why men fall from the
gospel (which neither is nor was the scruple, nor was it so proposed
by Mr Goodwin) is because they consider not the love that God bears
to believers, — that is, that he approves them whilst they are such,
which is indeed one main part of the gospel ; so that men fall from
the gospel because they fall from the gospel, and this must satisfy
the scruple proposed. It is an easy thing for men of ability and
eloqueuce to gild over the most absurd and inconsistent interpreta-
tion of Scripture with some appearance of significancy; though I
must needs say I know not rightly when nor by whom, pretending
to any sobriety, it hath been more unhappily or unsuccessfully at-
tempted than by Mr Goodwin in this place, as upon due considera-
tion will be made farther appear. For, —

1. To grant that "the foundation of God" may be said so far to
be the gospel, because his eternal purpose, so expressed, is therein
revealed, which is the interpretation Mr Goodwin proposeth, I ask, —
Whether the apostle applies himself to remove the scruple ingene-
rated in the minds of believers about their own falling away, upon
consideration of the apostasy of otliers, and to answer the objection
arising thereupon? This Mr Goodwin grants in the head, though in
the branches of his discourse he casts in inquiries quite of another
nature, — as, that a reason is inquired after why men fall from the
gospel, and a suspicion is supposed to arise of the truth of the gospel
because some fell from it; things that have not the least intimation
in the words or context of the place, nor are of any such evidence for
their interest in the business in hand that Mr Goodwin durst take
them for ingredients in the case under consideration when he him-
self proposed it; so that he was enforced to foist in this counterfeit
case to give some colour to the interpretation of the words intro-
duced. But yet this must not be openly owned, but intermixed
with other discourses, to lead aside the understanding of the reader
from bearing in mind the true state of the case by the apostle jjro-
posed and by himself acknowledged. So that this discourse "desinit
in piscem," etc.

2. The case being su}>posed as above, I ask whether the apostle
intended a removal of the scruple and answer to the objection, as far,
at least, as the one was capable of being removed and the other of
being answered? This, I suppose, will not be scrupled or objected
against, being indeed fully granted in stating the occasion of the
words ; for wo must at least allow the Holy Ghost to speak perti-
nently to what he doth propose. Then, —

3. I farther inquire, whether any thing whatever be in the least
suited to the removal of the scruple and objection proposed, but
only the giving of tlie scruplers and objectors the best assurance that
u])on solid grounds and foundations could be given, or they were in

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUKPOSES. 185

truth capable of, that what they feared should not come upon them,
and that, notwithstanding the deviation of others, themselves should
be preserved? And then, —

4. Seeing that the sum of the sense of the words given by Mr
Goodwin amounts to these two assertions, — 1. "That the doctrine of
the gospel is true and permanent ;" 2. " That God approves for the
present all who for the present believe ;" supposing that there is no-
thing in the gospel teaching tlie perseverance of the saints, I ask
yet whether there be any thing in this answer of the apostle, so in-
terpreted, able to give the least satisfaction imaginable to the con-
sciences and hearts of men making the objection mentioned? for
is it not evident, notwithstanding any thing here expressed, that
they and every believer in the world may apostatize and fall away
into hell? Say the poor believers, " Such and such fell away from the
faith; their eminent usefulness in their profession, beyond perhaps
what we are able to demonstrate of ourselves, makes us fear that this
abominable defection may go on and swallow us up, and grow upon
the church to a farther desolation." The answer is: "However, the
gospel is true, and God bears gracious respects to them that cleave
to him in love, whilst they do so." "Quasstio est de alliis, responsio de
cepis." Methinks the apostle might have put them upon those con-
siderations which Mr Goodwin proposes, as of excellent use and pre-
valency against falling away, that they put men out of danger of it
(chap, ix.), rather than have given them an answer not in the least
tending to their satisfaction, nor any way suited to their fears or in-
quiries, no, not [even] as backed with that explanation, that " they
fall away because they degenerate into loose and sinful courses;" that
is, because they fall away. A degeneracy into loose and sinful courses
amounts surely to no less.

5. Again, I would know whether this "foundation of God" be an
act of his will commanding or purposing, — declarative of our duty or
his intention? If the first, then [I would know] what occasion is ad-
ministered to make mention of it in this place? — whether it were
called in question or no? and whether the assertion of it conduces to
the solution of the objection proposed ? Or is it in any parallel tenns
expressed in any other place? Besides, seeing this "foundation of
God" is in nature antecedent to the "sealing" mentioned, or God's
"knowing them that are his," and the object of the act of God's will,
be it what it will, being the persons concerning whom that sealing is,
[I would know] whether it can be any thing but some distinguishing
purpose of God concerning those persons in reference to the things
spoken of? Evident, then, it is, from the words themselves, the oc-
casion of them, the design and scope of the apostle in the place,
that the " foundation of God" here mentioned is his discriminating
purpose concerning some men's certain preservation unto salvation;

186 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

which is manifestly confirmed by that seal of his, that he "knoweth
them'' in a peculiar, distinguishing manner; — a manner of speech and
expression suited directly to what the same apostle useth in the same
case everywhere, as Rom. viii. 28-30, ix., xL 1, 2; Eph. i. 4-6.

"But," saith Mr Goodwin, " this is no more than what the apostle
elsewhere speaks: Rom. iii. 3, 'What if some did not believe? shall
their unbelief make the faith of God of none effect?' — that is, 'Shall
the unbelief of men be interpreted as any tolerable argument or
ground to prove that God is unfaithful, or that he hath no other
faith in him than that which sometimes miscarrieth, and produceth
not that for which it stands engaged?' implying that such an inter-
pretation as this is unreasonable in the highest."

But truly, by the way, if it be so, I know not who in the lowest
can quit Mr Goodwin from unreasonableness in the highest; for doth
he not contend in this whole discourse, that the faith of God in his
promises, for the producing of that for which it stands engaged (as
when he saith to believers he will " never leave them nor forsake
them"), doth so depend on the faith of men as to the event intended,
that it is very frequently by their unbelief rendered of none effect?
Is not this the spirit that animates the whole religion of the apostasy
of saints? Is not the great contest between us, whether any unbe-
lief of men may interpose to render the faith of God of none effect
as to the producing of the thing he promiseth? " Tibi, quia intristi,
exedendum est."

But, 2. Let it be granted that these two places of the apostle are of
a parallel signification, what will it advantage the interpretation im-
posed on us? What is the " faith of God" here intended ? and what the
" unbelief" mentioned? and whereunto tends the apostle's vehement
interrogation? The great contest in this epistle concerning the Jews
(of whom he peculiarly speaks, verses 1, 2) was about the promise of
God made to them, and his faithfulness therein. Evident it was
that many of them did not believe the gospel; as evident that the
promise of God was made peculiarly to them, to Abraham and his
seed. Hence no small perplexity arose about the reconciliation of
these things, many perplexed thoughts ensuing on this seeming con-
tradiction. If the gospel be indeed the way of God, what is become
of his faithfulness in his promises to Abi'aham and his seed, they re-
jecting it? If the promises be true and stable, what shall we say
to the doctrine of the gospel, which they generally disbelieve and
reject? In this place the apostle only rejects the inference that the
faithfulness of God must fiiU and be of none effect because the Jews
believed not; whereof he gives a ftdl account afterward, when he
expressly takes up the objection and handles it at large, chap, ix.-xi.
The sum of the answer he there gives as a defensative of the faith-
fulness of God, with a non obstante to the infidelity of some of the

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 187

Jews, amounts to no more or less than what is here argued and by
us asserted, namely, that notwithstanding this (their incredulity and
rejection of the gospel), " the foundation of God standeth sure, The
Lord knoweth them that are his;" — that the promise, his faithfulness
wherein came under debate, was not made to all the Jews, but to
them that were chosen according to his purpose, as he expressly dis-
putes it at large beyond all possibility of contradiction, chap, xi., as
shall afterward be farther argued, and hath in part been already
discovered. I verily believe never did any man produce a testimony
more to the disadvantage of his own cause, both in general and in
particular, than this is to the cause Mr Goodwin hath in hand.

Neither doth he advance one step farther in the confirmation of
the sense imposed on the apostle's words, by comparing them with
the words of the same apostle, verse 13 of the same chapter, " If
we believe not, yet he abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself;"
wherein again, contrary to the whole drift of Mr Goodwin's discourse,
the faithfulness of God in the accomplishment of his promises is
asserted to be wholly independent upon any qualification whatevei-
in them to whom those promises are made: "Though we are under
sufierings, temptations, and trials, very apt to be cast down from our
hope of the great things that God hath pixpared for us and pro-
mised to us, yet his purpose shall stand however, and our unbelief
shall not in the least cause him to withdraw, or not to go through
with his engagement to the utmost. The faithfulness of his own na-
ture requireth it at his hand ; ' he cannot deny himself "

What remains, sect. 14, wherein he labours farther ix> give strength
unto, or rather more largely to explicate, what he formerly asserted,
is built upon a critical consideration of the word '^siJ,sXiog, which,
without any one example produced from any approved author,
we must believe to signify a " bond," or " instrument of security
given between men by the w^ay of contract." And what, then, sup-
pose it do? " Why, then, contrary to the whole scope of the place,
and constant signification of the word in the Scripture, it must be
interpreted according to the analogy of that sense." Why so? doth
it remove any difficulty on the other hand? doth it more suit the
objection for its removal, whereunto it is given, that we should warp
from the first, genuine, native, usual signification of the word, to that
which is exotic and metaphorical? "Yea, but we are enforced to
embrace this sense, because that * here is a seal set to this founda-
tion, and men use not to set seals to the foundation of a house.' "
And is it required that allusions should hold in all particulars and cir-
cumstances, even in such as wherein their teaching property doth not
consist? The terms of "foundation" and "sealing" are both figurative ;
neither will either of them absolutely be squared to those things in
nature wherein they have their foundation. The purpose of God

188 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

is here called his " foundation," because of its stability, abidingness,
strength, and use in hearing up the whole fabric of the salvation of
believers, not in respect of its lying in or under the ground, or being
made of wood or stone. And in this sense, why may it not be said
to be sealed? S])iritual sealing holds out two things, — confirmation,
and conforming by impression; and in them consists the chief politi-
cal use of the word and thing, not in being a label annexed to a
writing. And why may not a purpose be confirmed, or be manifested
to be firm, as well as a contract or instrument in law, having also
its conforming virtue and efficacy (which is the natural effect of seal-
ing, to implant the image in the seal on the things impressed with
it), in rendering them, concerning whom the purpose of God is, an-
swerable to the image of his Son, in whom the purpose is made,
and that pattern which he hath chosen them to and appointed them
for? What followeth to the end of this section is but a new expres-
sion of what Mr Goodwin pretends to be the sense of this place. The
" foundation of God" is the gospel, or the promise of God to save be-
lievers; the " seal" is his taking notice of them to save them, and to
condemn them that believe not ; and therefore, questionless, believers
need not fear that they shall fall away, though there be not the least
intimation made of any thing that should give them the least com-
fortable or cheering security of preservation in believing. Only it is
said, " He that believeth shall be saved" (which yet is not an abso-
lute promise of salvation to believers), " and he that believeth not
shall be damned;" which one disjunctive proposition, declarative of
the connection that is between the means and the end, Mr Goodwin
labours to make comprehensive of all the purposes of God concerning
believers, it being such as wherein no one person in the world is more
concerned than another. If the " foundation" here mentioned be only
God's purpose, or rather declaration of his will, for the saving of be-
lievers and the damning of unbelievers, what consolation could be
from hence administered in particular unto persons labouring under
the scruple mentioned formerly hath not as yet been declared. Let
us, then, proceed to farther proof of the truth in hand, and the vin-
dication of some other places of Scripture whereby it is confirmed.

That which I shall next fix upon is that eminent place of John,
chap. vi. 37-40 : "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and
him that cometh to me 1 will in no wise cast out. For I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me,
that every one which sceth the Son, and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life : and I will raise him up at the last day." Our Sa-
viour acquaints us with the design wherewith he came from heaven :

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSFS. 189

it was "not to do his own will," — that is, to accomplish or bring about
any private purposes of his own, distinct or different from them of
his Father, as he was blasphemously charged by the Jews to do, —
but he came to do the will of God, " the will of him that sent him."
The " will of God" which Christ came to fulfil is sometimes taken for
the " commandment which he received from the Father" for the ac-
complishment of his will. So Heb. x. 9, " I come to do thy will, O
God," — that is, to fulfil thy command ; as it is expressed, Ps. xl. 8,
" Thy law is within my heart." " Thy law, all that thou requirest
at my hand as mediator, I am ready to peiform." On this account
is Christ said to " take on him the form of a servant," Phil. ii. 7, —
that is, to become so indeed, in the assumption of human nature,
that he might do the will of him that sent him. For which reason,
also, his Father expressly calls him his servant: Isa. xlii. 1, " Behold
my servant, whom I uphold ; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth ;
I have put my Spirit upon him : he shall bring forth judgment to the
Gentiles." He is the servant of the Father in the accomplishment
of that work for which the Spirit was put upon him. And verse 19,
" Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as ray messenger that I
sent? who is blind as he that is jDerfect, and blind as the Lord's ser-
vant." God gives him in command to fulfil his will, which accord-
ingly he performs to the utmost. Again; the " will of God" is taken
for his purpose, his design, decree, and good pleasure, for the fulfill-
ing and accomplishment whereof the Lord Christ came into the
world. And this appears to be the sense and importance of the words
in this place, from the distinction which is put between the will of the
Father and any such private will of Christ as the Jews thought he
went about to establish, [namely, that] it was some design of his own.
In opposition whereunto he tells them that he came to do the will,
— that is, to fulfil the counsel, purpose, and design, — of the Father.
However, should it principally be taken for the command of God,
yet there is, and must needs be, a universal coincidence and oneness
in the object of God's purposing and commanding will in all com-
mands given unto Christ; because all of them shall certainly and in-
fallibly by him be fulfilled, and so the thing certainly accomplished
which is commanded. What now is the will, purpose, aim, design,
and command, of the Father, whose execution and accomplishment
is committed to the Lord Christ, and which he faithfully undertakes
to perform, as he was faithful in all things to Him that appointed him ?
For the clearing of this, let these two things be observed: — 1. Who
the persons are concerning whom this will of God is. And those he de-
scribes by a double character: — (1.) From their election, the Father's
giving them to him : " All which he hath given me," John vi. 39 ;
that is, all his elect, as our Saviour expounds this very expression,
chap. xvii. 6, "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me;" — "Thine

190 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

tliey were in eternal designation, thou having 'chosen them before the
foundation of the world/ and thou gavest them to me for actual re-
demption, to deliver them from every thing that keeps them at a
distance from thee." (2.) From their faith or Lelieving, which he calls
" seeing the Son, and believing on him," chap. vi. 40. The persons,
then, here designed are elect believers, persons chosen and called
of God. 2. What next, then, is the will of God concerning them?
This also is set out both in general and in some particulars: — (1.) In
general, That none of them be lost; that by no means whatsoever,
by no temptations of Satan, deceits of sin, fury of oppressors, weak-
ness or decay of faith, they perish and fall away from him, verse 39.
This is the will, the design and purpose of God ; this he gives to Jesus
Christ in command for to accomplish. (2.) In particular. That they
might have everlasting life, verse 40; that they be preserved to the
enjoyment of that glory whereunto they are designed ; that they may
be 7'aised up at the last day, and so never be lost, neither as to
their being nor well-being. Of these two, verse 40, everlasting life
is placed before the resurrection or raising of believers at the last
day ; plainly intimating that the spiritual life, whereof in this world
we are partakers, is also, as to its certain, uninterruptible continuance,
an everlasting life, that shall never be intercepted or cut off. That,
then, which from this portion of Scripture I argue is this : God hav-
ing purposed to give eternal life to his elect believers, and that none
of them should ever be lost, and having committed the accomplish-
ing and performance of this his good-will and pleasure unto the Lord
Jesus, who was faithful unto him in all things, and endued with
power (all power from above) for that end, they shall certainly be
preserved to the end designed. The favour and love of God in
Christ shall never be turned away from them ; for his " counsel shall
stand, and he will do all his pleasure."

Something is by Mr Goodwin offered to take off the strength of
this testimony, but yet so little, that had I not resolved to hear him
out to the utmost of what he can say in and unto the case in hand, it
would scarce be thought needful to divert to the consideration of it.
This place of Scripture he binds up in one bundle with Jiine or ten
others, to the composure of one argument, which (almost lino halitii)
he blows away, chap. xi. sect. 36, 37, etc., pp. 251, 252, etc. To
the consideration of the argument itself there by him proposed I
am not yet arrived. The influence of this text into it is from what is
said of Christ's preserving believers ; my present consideration is
chiefly of the will and intention of the Father's giving them to him
to be preserved ; so that I shall observe only one or two things to his
general answer, and then proceed to the vindication of this particular
place we have in hand: —

First, He tells you, " That the conclusion of the former argument,

Iir.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 191

that true believers shall never miscarry or fall away, opposeth not
his sense in this controversy." Whether it oppose his sense or no
must be judged. This I know, that he hath to his utmost opposed it
all this while, showing himself therein very uncourteous and unkind.
But why so? on what account is it that this conclusion, which he hath
so much opposed, is now conceited not to oppose him? " Those who
thus fall away," saith he, " are no true believers, but wicked apostates,
at the time of their falling away." That the conclusion mentioned
opposeth his sense to me is evident ; but that it is sense wherewith in
this place he opposeth the conclusion is not so clear. The question
is. Who fall away? "Not believers, but apostates," saith Mr Goodwin.
We say so too. In the natural first sense of these words, [they] who
eventualiter are apostates were never antecedenter to their apostasy
true believers. But this is not your sense, doulitless. That those who
fall away, in their falling away (which is the sense of that clause, " At
the time of falling away"), were apostates, — that is, were fallen away
before they fell away, — is neither our sense nor yours, for it is none
at all. Bertius hath an argument against the perseverance of the
saints, from the impossibility of finding a subject to be affected witli
the notion of apostasy if true believers be exempted from it; "for
hypocrites," saith he, " cannot fall away." " Nor can believers," saith
Mr Goodwin, " but they are apostates when they fall away!" — that
is, it is a dead man that dies, or after he is dead he dies; after he
is an apostate, he falls away. Perhaps it would be worth our serious
inquiry to consider how believers can indeed possibly come to lose
the Spirit of grace which dwells in them, with their habit of faith
and holiness. For our part, we contend that they have an infused
habit of grace, and that wrought with a mighty impression upon
their minds and hearts ; faith being of the operation of God, wrought
by the exceeding greatness of his power, as he wrought in Christ
when he raised him from the dead. Whether such a habit can be
removed but by that hand that bestowed it, and whether it may be
made appear that God will on any occasion so take it away, or hath
expressed himself that he will so deal with any of his children, is, I
say, worthy our inquiry. But, —

Secondly, He denies the major proposition, and saith, " That those
who are kept and preserved by Christ may possibly miscarry."
Boldly ventured ! What want is there, then, or defect in the Keeper
of Israel, that his flock should so miscarry under his hand? Is it of
faithfulness? The Scripture tells us he is " a faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God," Heb. ii. 17; "faithful to him that ap-
pointed him," chap. iii. 2; and that he did the whole will of God.
Is it of tenderness, to take care of his poor wandering ones? He is
otherwise represented unto us : Heb. ii. 1 8, " For in that he himself
hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are

192 DOCTIUNE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

tempted ;" and chap. iv. 15, "We have not an high priest which cannot
be touched with the feehng of our infirmities ; but was in all points
tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Isa. xl. 11, it is said of
him, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the
lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently
lead those that are with young." And he quarrels with those shep-
herds who manifest not a care and tenderness like his towards his
flock: Ezek. xxxiv. 4, "The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound
up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which
was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost;" all
which he takes upon himself to perform, verses 15, 16. Or is it want
of power? " All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth,"
Matt, xxviii. 18. "All things are delivered unto him of his Father,"
Matt. xi. 27. " He is able to save them to the uttermost that come
unto God by him," Heb. vii. 25. If he want neither care nor tender-
ness, wisdom nor watchfulness, love nor ability, will nor faithfulness,
how comes it to pass that they miscarry and fall away into ruin
whom he hath undertaken to keep ? David durst fight with a lion
and a bear in the defence of his lambs, and Jacob endured heat and
cold upon the account of faithfulness; and shall we think that the
Shepherd of Israel, from whose being so the psalmist concludes he
shall want nothing, Ps. xxiii. 1, who did not only fight for his flock,
but laid down his life for them, will be less careful of his Father's
sheep, his own sheep, which are required also at his hand, for his
Father knows them and calls them all by name?

" Yea, but," says Mr Goodwin, " it may be thus, in case them-
selves shall not comport with Christ in his act of preserving them,
with their care and diligence in preserving themselves;" that is,
Christ will surely keep them in case they keep themselves. Alas!
poor sheep of God ! If this were the case of the flocks of the sons of
men, how quickly would they be utterly destroyed ! Doth the veriest
hireling in the world deal thus with his sheep, — keep them in case
they keep themselves? Nay, to what end is his keeping if they keei^
themselves? Christ compares himself to be the good shepherd which
seeketh out and fetcheth a wandering sheep from the wilderness, lay-
ing it on his shoulders, and bringing it home to his fold. How did
that poor sheep keep itself, when it ran among the ravenous wolves in
the wilderness? Yet by the good shepherd it was preserved. This
is the spirit and comforting genius of this doctrine: "Christ keeps
us provided we keep ourselves!" "We trusted that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel ;" that ho gave us his Hoi} Spirit to
abide with us for ever, to seal us to the day of redemption ; that kno\v-
ing himself, and telling us, that without him we can do nothing, ho
would not suspend his doing upon our doing so great a thing as pre-

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. '19S

serving ourselves. For let us see now what it is that is required in
us if we shall be preserved by Christ: it is to comport luith him in
his act of p7^eserving us, and to be diligent to keep ourselves!

What is this " comporting with him in his act of preserving us?"
Our comporting with Christ in any thing is by our believing in him
and on him ; that is our radical comportment, whence all other clos-
ings of heart in obedience do flow. So, then, Christ will preserve us
in believing, provided we continue to believe. But what need of his
help to do so, if antecedently thereunto so we do? Is not this not
only aypatpov, but also aXoyov, not only unscriptural, but also unrea-
sonable, yea, absurd and ludicrous? This is the flinty fountain of all
that abundance of consolation which Mr Goodwin's doctrine doth
afford. Doubtless, they must be wise and learned men (like himself)
who can extract any such thing therefrom. Let him go with it to a
poor, weak, tempted, fainting believer, and try what a comforter he
will be thought, a physician of what value he will be esteemed. Let
him tell him, " Thou art indeed weak in faith, ready to decay and
perish, which thou mayst do every day, there being neither purpose
nor promise of God to the contrary; great oppositions and great
temptations hast thou to wrestle withal. But yet Christ is loving,
tender, faithful, and in case thou continuest believing, he will take
care thou shalt believe. That Christ will increase thy faith, and
keep it alive by continual influences, as from a head into its mem-
bers, preserving thee not only against outward enemies, but the
treacheries, and deceits, and unbelief of thine own heart, of any such
thing I can give thee no account." Such consolation a poor man may
have at home at any time.

Fai'ther; what is that act of Christ in preserving them that is to
be comported withal ? wherein doth it consist ? Is it not in his
daily, continual communication to them of new supplies of that spi-
ritual life whose springs are in him ; the making out from his own
fulness unto them ; his performing the office of a head to its mem-
bers, and filling those other relations wherein he stands, working in
them both to will and to do of his own good pleasure?^ What is it,
then, to comiDort with this act or these acts of Christ? Can any
thing reasonable be invented wherein such comportment may be
tliought to consist, but either it will be found coincident with that
whereof it is a condition, or appear to be such as will crush the
whole undertaking of Christ for the preservation of believers into
vanity and nothing? Again; hath Christ undertaken to jireserve us
against all our enemies, or some only?^ If some only, give us an
account both of them that he doth imdertake against, that we may
know for what to go to him and whereof to complain, and of them

' John i. 16 ; 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; Eph. i. 23, ii. 20-22, iv. 15, 16 ; Gal. ii. 20 ; Col.
i. 17-19, ii. 19. 2 Heb. Tii. 25.

VOL. XI. 13

194 DOCTIilNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

that he doth not so undertake to safeguard us against, that we may
know wherein to trust to ourselves;^ and let us see the places of
Scripture wherein any enemies are excepted out of this undertaking
of Christ for the safety of his. Paul goes far in an enumeration of
particulars, Rom. viii. 35-39. If he hath undertaken against them
all, then let us know whether it be an enemy that keeps us from this
comportment with Christ, or a friend. If it be an enemy (as surely
every thing in us that moves us to depart from the living God is),
hath Christ undertaken against it, or no ? If not, how hath he
undertaken against them all? If he hath, how is it that it prevails?
"Yea, but he undertakes tliis in case we comport with him;" that is,
he undertakes to overcome such an enemy in case there be no such
enemy. In case we be not turned aside from comporting with him,
he will destroy that enemy that turns us aside from comporting with
liim. " Egregiam vero laudem et spolia ampla!" Or, on the other
side, if our enemies prevail not against us, he hath faithfully under-
taken that they shall not prevail against ua

" Yea, but," saith Mr Goodwin, " no Scripture proves that those
whom Christ preserves must, by any compulsory, necessitating power,
use their diligence in preserving themselves." And who, I pray, ever
said they did ? Compulsory actings of grace are your own figment; so
are all such necessitating acts which proceed any farther than only
as to the infallibility of the event aimed at. God doth not compel
the wills of men when he works in them to will.* Christ doth not
compel men to care and diligence when he works in them holy cai'e
and diligence. When the disciples said unto the Lord, "Increase
our faith," they did not pray that they might be compelled to believe.
God's working in them that believe according to the exceeding great-
ness of his power, " strengthening them with all might, according
to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy-
fulness,"^ is very far from any compulsion or necessitation inconsis-
tent with the most absolute freedom that a creature is capable of.
He that works faith in believers can continue it and increase it in
them without compulsion.* And this is the sum of Mr Goodwin's
answer to an argument that, notwithstanding all which he hath
spoken, hath yet strength enough left to cast his whole building
down to the ground. What he farther speaks to the particular place
which gave occasion to this discourse may briefly be considered: —

He speaks something to John vi. 37, which I insisted not on. As
to the purpose in hand, he tells you that " Christ will in no wise cast
out rh epyJ[ji.svo\), ' him that is coming ;' but yet he that is coming,
in his way may turn back and never come fully up to him."

Ans. But if this be not huckstering of the word of God, I know

* John XV. 5 ; Isa. xxx. 1. » John viii. 32 ; Rom. vi. 18 ; Luke xvii, 5.

3 Col. i. 11, 12. ♦Epb. ii, 8.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 195

not Avliat is.^ Tlie Avords before in the same verse are, " All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me." Saith Mr Goodwin, " They may
come but half way, and so turn back again, not coming fully home
to him." Saith Christ, " They shall come to me." Saith Mr Goodwin,
" They may perhaps come but half way." " Nunc satis est dixisse,
ego mira poemata pango." But why so? Why, Ipy^oixivov is "com-
ing,"— a coming, it seems, in fieri, but not in facto esse; that is, it
denotes a tract of time whilst the man is travelling his journey, as
though believing were a successive motion as to the act of laying
hold on Christ. But is he that is on his way, that Christ receiveth,
a believer or not? hath he faith or not? If he hath no faith, the
faith whereof we speak, how can he be said to be " coming," seeing
the " wrath of God abideth on him?" John iii. 36. If he hath faith,
how is it that he is not come to Christ? Hath any one true faith at
a distance from him? God gives another testimony, John i. 11, 12.
But saith he, " There is nothing in the words that they are under no
possibility of falling away who come to Christ." But, — 1. There is
in those that follow, that, as to the event, they are under an impossi-
bility of so doing, in respect of the will and purpose of God (which
suffice th me), as shall be made to appear. 2. That emphatical
expression, Ou (ir\ sxQdXu s^u, " I will in no wise cast them out," ex-
presses so much care and tenderness in Christ towards them, that we
are very apt to hope and believe that he will not lose them any
more, but that he will not only not cast them out, but also, accord-
ing to his Father's appointment, that he will keep them, and preserve
them in safety, until he bring them to glory ; as is fully asserted,
John vi. 89, 40, as hath been declared.

Again, Mr Goodwin tells you, "It is not spoken of losing be-
lievers by defection of faith, but by death ; and to assure believers of
this, Christ tells them it is his Father's will that he should, raise them
up at the last day. Besides, if any be lost by defection from faith,
this cannot be imputed to Christ, who did his Father's pleasure to
the utmost for their preservation, but to themselves."

Ans. For the perverting of verse 37, the beginning of it was left
out ; and for the accomplishing of the like design upon verse 39 (which
farther clears the mind and intendment of Christ in the words),
verse 40 is omitted. He tells you that it is the will of the Father
that every one that comes to him, that is, that believes on him, have
everlasting life. What is everlasting life in the gospel is well known
from John xvii. 3. And unto this bestowing on them everlasting life,
his raising of them at the last day, as was mentioned, is a necessary
consequent, — namely, that they may be brought to the full and com-
plete fruition of that life which here in some measure they are made
partakers of. Even in the words of verse 39, that passage, " I should

» 2 Cor. ii. 17.

196 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

lose nothing," extends itself to the whole compass of our Savioui-'s
duty in reference to his Father's will for the safeguarding of be-
lievers. And is it only death, and the state of dissolution of body and
soul, that it is the will of God that he should deliver them from,
and the power of that, that it should not have dominion over them
in the morning ? The apostle tells us that he came to do the will
of God, whereby we are sanctified, Heb. x. 9, 10. It was the will
of God that he should sanctify us; and he tells his Father that he
had kept all his own in the world, John xvii. 12; which, doubtless,
was not his raising them from the dead. If he be the Mediator
of the covenant of grace, if the promises of God be yea and amen
in him, if he be our Head, Husband, and elder Brother, our Advo-
cate and Intercessor, our Shepherd and Saviour, his keeping us from
being lost extends itself no less effectually to our preservation from
utter ruin in this life than to our raising at the last day; yea, and
that exceptive particle ccXkd includes this preservation, as well as
leads us to the addition of the other favour and privilege of being
raised to glory at the last day. In a word, this whole discourse is
added to make good that gi'acious promise of our Saviour, John vi. 85,
" He that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst;" which how it can be done by a naked
enfjac^ement for the resurrection of them that come to him and abide
with him, if many do, and most of all them that come to him may,
depart from him and fall into everlasting ruin, needs Mr Goodwin's
farther labour and pains to unfold. What is lastly added concern-
ing Christ's doing the utmost of his Father's pleasure for their cus-
tody, but the fault is their own who fall away, is the same inconsis-
tent, ridiculous assertion with that erewhile considered; with this ad-
dition, that whereas it is his Father's pleasure that they be saved,
Christ doth his pleasure to the utmost, and yet saved they are not.
And so much (if not too much) for the vindication of this testimony
"witnessing to the truth that we have in hand.

Matt. xxiv. 24 comes in the next place to be considered (an un-
questionable evidence to the truth), and that voluntarily, of its own
accord, speaking so plain to the matter in hand, that it were a sin
against clear light to refuse to attend unto it; so far is it from being
" compelled to bear the cross of this service," as Mr Goodwin phrases
the matter, chap. x. sect 9, pp. 181-183. " ' They shall seduce, if it
were possible, the very elect.' Hence," saith he, " it is inferred that
the deceiving or seducing of them that believe is a thing impossible;
which is the drawing of darkness out of light." Strange ! to me it
seems so far from a forced inference, or a strained drawing of a con-
clusion, that it is but the conversion of the terms of the same iden-
tical supposition. He that says they shall deceive the very elect,
if it were possible, so mighty shall be their prevalency in seducing,

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PUEPOSES. 197

seems to me (and would, I doubt not, do so to others, did not their
prejudices and engagements force them to stop their ears and shut
their eyes) to say that it is impossible the elect should be seduced.

But let the place, as it deserves, be more distinctly considered;
it is among them which I refer to the head of the purposes of God,
and a purpose of God there is (though not expressed, yet) included
in the words. The impossibility of the seduction of some persons from
the faith is here asserted. Whence doth this impossibility arise?
Not from any thing in themselves, — not from their own careful con-
sideration of all the concernments of their condition ; the only pre-
servative in such a season, if some, who pretend themselves skilful
and experienced, yea almost the only physicians of souls, may be
believed. They can never stand upon such sands against that oppo-
sition they shall be sure to meet withal. Our Saviour therefore
intimates whence the impossibility expressed doth flow, in a descrip-
tion of the persons of whom it is affirmed, in reference to the purpose
of God concerning them. They are the " elect," those whom God
hath "chosen before the foundation of the world, that they should be
holy and without blame before him in love," His "purpose according
to election" must stand firm, and therefore " the election" itself shall
obtain.-^ This, then, is that which is here affirmed : God having chosen
some, or elected them to life, according to the " purpose which he
purposed in himself," and faith being bestowed on them, they be-
lieving on the account of their being " ordained to eternal life," it is
impossible they should be seduced so as to be thrown down from that
state and condition of acceptance with God (for the substance of it)
wherein they stand.^

Some few observations will farther clear the mind of the Holy
Ghost, and obviate the exceptions that are put in against our re-
ceiving the words in their plain, proper, obvious signification. Ob-
serve, then, —

1. Upon the intimation of the great power and prevalency of
seducers, our Saviour adds this, as a matter of great consolation
to true and sound believers, that notwithstanding all this, all their
attempts, however advantaged by force or subtlety, yet they shall be
preserved. This the whole context enforceth us to receive, and our
adversaries to confess that at least a great difficulty of their seduction
is intimated. And it arises with no less evidence that this difficulty
is distinguishing in respect of the persons exposed to seduction; —
that some are elect, who should be seduced if it were possible; others
not, that may and shall be prevailed against.

2. The bottom of the consolation, in the freedom of the persons
here spoken of from falling under the prevailing power of seducers,
consists in this, that they are the elect of God, such as on a personal

' Eph. i. 4 ; Rom. ix. 11, 12, xi. 7. * Eph. i. 9 ; Phil. i. 29 ; Acts xiii. 48.

198 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

consideration are chosen of God from all eternity, to he kept and
preserved by liis power to salvation, notwithstanding any interve-
niencies or oppositions which he will suffer to lie in their way. " But,"
saith Mr Goodwin, " these men, at least before their calling, are as
liable to be deceived or seduced as other men. This is their own con-
fession; and Paul says that they were sometimes deceived, Tit. iii. 8."
Ans. An exception, doubtless, unworthy him that makes it; who,
had he not resolved to say all that ever had been said by any to the
business in hand, would scarcely, I presume, have made use thereof.
The seduction of persons is not opposed to their election, but to their
believing. Mention is made of their election, to distinguish them
from those other professors which should be seduced, and to discover
the foundation of their stability under their trials; but it is of them
as believers (in which consideration the attempts of seducers are
advanced against them) that he speaks. It is not the seducing of
the elect as elect, but of believers who are elect, and because they
are elected, that is denied.

3. That it is a seduction unto a total and final departure from Christ
and faith in him whose impossibility in respect of the election is
here asserted. " But," saith Mr Goodwin, chap. x. sect. 10, p. ]81,
"this is to presume, not to argue or believe; for there is not the least
ground in the word whereon to build such an interpretation." But
the truth is, without any presumption or much labour for proof, the
falsity of this exception will quickly appear to any one that shall
but view the context. It is evidently such a seduction as they are
exposed unto and fall under who endure not unto the end, that they
may be saved, Matt. xxiv. 13; and they who are excepted upon the ac-
count mentioned are opposed to them who, being seduced, and their
love being made cold, and their iniquities abounding, perish ever-
lastingly, verses 1], 12.

4. It is, then, a denial of their being cast out by the power of se-
ducers from their state and condition of believing and acceptation
with God wherein they stand, that our Saviour here asserts, and
gives out to their consolation, — they shall not be seduced, that is,
drawn off from that state wherein they are to a state of unregene-
racy, infidelity, and enmity to God : so that, as Mr Goodwin observes
in the next place, we deny them, from hence, not only to be subject
to Q, final but also to a total seduction.

5. We grant that notwithstanding the security given, which re-
spects the state and condition of the persons spoken of, yet they
may be, and often are, seduced and drawn aside into ways that are
not right, into errors and false doctrines, through the "cunning
sleight of men who lie in wait to deceive," but never into such (as
to any abode in them) which are inconsistent with the union with
then- Head and his life in them.

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 199

The errors and ways wliereinto tliey are, or may be, seduced are
eitlier such as, though dangerous, yea, in then- consequences perni-
cious, yet have not such an aspect upon the faith of hehevers as to
deny a possibihty of union and holding the Head upon other ac-
counts. I doubt not but that men for a season may not know, may
disbelieve and deny, some fundamental articles of Christian religion,
and yet not be absolutely concluded not to hold the Head by any
sinew or ligament, to have no influence of life by any other means.
Was it not so with the apostles when they questioned the resurrec-
tion of Christ, and with the Corinthians who denied the resurrection
of the saints? — an abode, I confess, in either of which errors would,
when the consequences of them are manifested, prove pernicious to
the souls of men ; but that they have in themselves such an abso-
lute repugnancy unto and inconsistency with the life of Christ, how-
ever considered, as that their entertainment for a season should be
immediately exclusive thereof, I suppose Mr Goodwin himself will
not say. In this sense, then, we grant that true, saving, justifying
faith may consist with the denial of some fundamental articles of
Christian religion for a season; but that any true believer can persist
in such a heresy we deny, he having the promise of the Spirit to
lead him into all necessary truth.

There are such ways and things as in their own nature have
an inconsistency with the life of Christ, as the abnegation of Christ
himself. But this also we affirm to be twofold, or to receive a two-
fold consideration:' — 1. It may be resolved, upon consideration, with
the deliberate consent of the whole soul; which we utterly deny
that believers can or shall be left unto for a moment, or that ever
any true believer was so. 2. Such as may be squeezed out of the
mouths of men by the surprisal of some great, dreadful, and horrible
temptation, without any habitual or cordial assent to any such abo-
mination, or disaffection to Christ, or resolute rebellion against him.
Thus Peter fell into the abnegation of Christ, whose faith yet under
it did not perish, if our Saviour was heard in his prayer for him,
having an eye to that very temptation of his wherein he was to be
tried, and his fall under it. In the first sense are those words of our
Saviour, Matt. x. 33, to be understood, and not in the latter. Christ
was so far from denying Peter before his Father under his abnega-
tion of him, that he never manifested more care and tenderness to-
wards any believer than towards him in that condition. And this
wholly removes Mr Goodwin's 1 0th section out of our way, without
troubling of ourselves to hold up that distinction of a final denial of
Christ, and that not final, seeing in all probability he set it up him-
self that he might have the honour to cast it down.

What follows in Mr Goodwin from the beginning of sect. 11, chap.
X., to the end of sect. 1 7, is little more than a translation of the

200 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Kemonstrants' sophistry in vexing this text in their Synodaha;
which he knows full well where to find discussed and removed. For
the sake of our English readers, I shall not avoid the consideration
of it I aflSrm, then, that the phrase s! dvmrov here denotes the
impossibility of the event denied, the manner of speech, circum-
stances of the place, with the aim of our Saviour in speaking, exact-
ing this sense of the words. The words are, "ncre TAai/^ca;, sJ duvarhv,
xai To'js sTcXsxTovg. It is the constant import of the word cuV« to de-
sign the event of the thing which, by what attends it, is asserted or
denied (so Gal. iL 13; Matt. viiL 28, xv. 31; 1 Thess. i. 8), neither
is it ever used for ha. In the place by some instanced for it, Rom.
vii. 6, it points clearly at the event. "Ivo6 is sometimes put for it, but
not on the contrary. And the words el duvarov, though not so used
always (although sometimes they are, as Gal. iv. 15), do signify at
least a moral impossibility, when they refer to the endeavours of men ;
but relating to the prediction of an event by God himself, they are
equivalent to an absolute negation of it. That of Acts xx. 16 is
urged to the contrary. Paul hoped si duvuTov, to be at Jerusalem at
Pentecost. " 'If it be possible' here cannot imply an impossibility
as to the event," says Mr Goodwin. But are these places parallel?
Are all places where the same phrase is used always to be expounded
in the same sense? The terms here, " If it be possible," respect not
the futurition of the thing, but the uncertainty to Paul of its pos-
sibility or impossibility; the uncertainty, I say, of Paul in his con-
jecture whether he should get to Jerusalem by such a time or no,
of which he was ignorant. Did our Saviour here conjecture about
a thing whereof he was ignorant whether it would come to pass or
no? We say not, then, that in this place, where it hwardv is expressive
of the uncertainty of him that attempts any thing of its event, that
it affirms an impossibility of it, and so to insinuate that Paul made
all haste to do that which he knew was impossible for him to do;
but that the words are used in these two places in distinct senses,
according to the enclosure that is made of them by others. " But,"
saith Mr Goodwin, " to say that Paul might be ignorant whether
his being at Jerusalem by Pentecost might be possible or no, and
that he only resolved to make trial of the truth herein to the utmost,
is to asperse this great apostle with a ridiculous imputation of igno-
rance." And why so, I pray you? It is true he Avas a great apostle
indeed; but it was no part of his apostolical fumishment to know
in what space of time he might make a sea-voyage. Had Mr Good-
win ever been at sea, he Avould not have thought it ridiculous igno-
rance for a man to be uncertain in what space of time he might sail
from Miletus to Ptolemais. Paul had a short time to finish this
voyage in. He was at Philippi at the days of unleavened bread,
and afterward, verse 6; thence he was five days sailing to Troas,

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 201

verse 6 ; and there he abode seven days more. It may well be sup-
posed that it cost him not less than seven days more to come to
Miletus, verses 13-15. How long he tarried there is uncertain. Evi-
dent, however, it is, that there w^as a very small space of time left to
get to Jerusalem by Pentecost. Paul was one that had met not
only with calms and contrary winds, but shipwreck also, 2 Cor.
xi. 25 ; so that he might well doubt whether it were possible for him
to make his voyage in that space of time he had designed to do it
in, and this surely without the least disparagement to his apostolical
knowledge and wisdom. In brief, when this phrase relgj:es to the
cares and desires of men, and unto any thing of their ignorance of
the issue, it may design the uncertainty of the event, as in this place
and that of Rom. xii. 18; but when it points at the event itself, it
peremptorily designs its accomplishment or not, according to the
tendency of the expression, which affirms or denies. Notwithstand-
ing, then, all evasions, the simple, direct, and proper sense of our
Saviour's words, — who is setting forth and aggravating the pre valency
of seducers in evil times, by him then foretold, — is, that it shall be
such and so great as that, if it were not impossible upon the account
of their election, they should prevail against the very elect them-
selves. But, —

6. Suppose it be granted that the words refer to the endeavours
of the seducers in this place, yet they must needs deny their preva-
lency as to the end aimed at. It is asserted either to be possible
that the elect should be so seduced, or not. If not, we have what we
aim at. If it be possible, and so here asserted, the total of this ex-
pression of our Saviour will be resolved into a conclusion certainly
most remote from his intendment: "If it be possible that the elect
may be seduced, then shall they be seduced ; but it is possible (say
our adversaries), therefore they shall be seduced.'' Neither doth
that which Mr Goodwin urgeth, sect. 12, out of the Synodalia be-
fore mentioned, pp. 31 4, 315, at all prove that the words denote
only a difficulty of the thing aimed at, with relation to the earnest
endeavours of seducers. Uphg t6 doth indeed intimate their endea-
vours, but withal their fruitlessness as to the event. E/ dvmrov is
not referred (as in the example of Paul,) to the thoughts of their
minds, but to the success foretold by Christ. That emphatical and
diacritical expression in the description of them against whom their
attempts are, " Even the very elect," argues their exemption. "And
if by ' elect' are meant simply and only believers as such, how comes
this emphatical expression and description of them to be used, when
they alone and no others can be seduced? for those who seem to be-
lieve, only cannot be said to fall from the faith," say our adver-
saries. It is true, the professors of Christianity adhered of old under
many trials, for the greater part, with eminent constancy to their

202 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

profession ; yet is not any thing eminently herein held out in that
saying which Mr Goodwin calls proverbial in Galen, he speaking
of the followers of Moses the same as of the followers of Christ.
What else follows in Mr Goodwin from the same author is nothing
but the pressing of, I think, one of the most absurd arguments that
ever learned men made use of in any controversy ; and yet, such as it
is, we shall meet with it over and over (as we have done often
already), before we arrive at the end of this discourse; and, there-
fore, to avoid tediousness, I shall not here insist upon it. With its
mention it shall be passed by. It is concerning the uselessness of
means, and exhortations unto the use of them, if the end to be at-
tained by them be irrevocably determined, although those exhorta-
tions are part of the means appointed for the accomplishment of the
end so designed. I shall not, as I said, in this place insist upon it;
one thing only shall I observe. In sect. 1 7, he grants, " That God is
able to deteraiine the wills of the elect to the use of means proper
and sufficient to prevent their being deceived." By this " determining
the wills of the elect to the use of proper means," the efficacy of grace
in and with believers, to a certain preservation of them to the end,
is intended. It is the thing he opposeth, as we are infomied in the
next words: " He hath nowhere declared himself willing or resolved
to do it." That by this one assertion Mr Goodwin hath absolved
our doctrine from all the absurd consequences and guilt of I know
not what abominations, which in various criminations he hath charged
upon it, is evident upon the first view and consideration. All that we
affirm God to do, Mr Goodwin grants that he can do. Now, if God
should do all he is able, there would no absurdity or evil that is
truly so follow. What he can do, that he can decree to do; and this
is the sum of our doctrine, which he hath chosen to oppose. God, we
say, hath everlastingly purposed to give, and doth actually give, his
Holy Spirit to believers, to put forth such an exceeding greatness of
power as whereby, in the use of means, they shall certainly be pre-
served to salvation. "This God can do," says our author. This conces-
sion being made by the Remonstrants in their Synodalia, Mr Goodwin,
I presume, thought it but duty to be as free tis his predecessors, and
therefore consented unto it also, although it be an axe laid at the
root of almost all the arguments he sets up against the truth, as shall
hereafter be farther manifested.

I draw now to a close of those places which, among many others
omitted, tender themselves unto the proof of the stable, unchange-
able purjiose of God, concerning the safeguarding and preservation
of believers in his love and unto salvation. I shall mention one or
two more, and close this second scriptural demonstration of the truth
in hand. The first is that eminent place of Eph. i. 3-5, "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed

III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 203

US with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; hav-
ing predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ
to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." Verse 8, the
apostle summarily blesseth God for all the spiritual mercies which in
Jesus Christ he blesseth his saints withal; of all which, verse 4, he
discovereth the fountain and spring, which is his free choosing of
them before the foundation of the world. That an eternal act of the
will of God is hereby designed is beyond dispute; and it is that "foun-
dation of God" on which the whole of the building mentioned and
portrayed in the following verse is laid. All the grace and favour
of God towards his saints, in their justification, adoption, and glory,
all the fruits of the Spirit, which they enjoy in faith and sanctification,
flow from this one fountain ; and tliese the apostle describes at large
in the verses following. The aim of God in this eternal and unchange-
able act of his will, he tells us, is, that we should be " without blame
before him in love." Certainly cursed apostates, backsliders in heart,
in whom his soul takes no pleasure, are very far from being without
blame before God in love. Those that are within the compass of this
purpose of God must be preserved unto that state and condition
which God aims to bring them unto, by all the fruits and issues of
that purpose of his, which was pointed at before.

A scripture of the like importance unto that before named is 2Thess.
ii. 13, 14, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth : where -
unto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ." First, The same fountain of all spiritual
and eternal mercy with that mentioned in the other place is here
also expressed ; and that is, God's choosing of us by an everlasting
act, or designing us to the end intended by a free, eternal, unchange-
able purpose of his will. Secondly, The end aimed at by the Lord
in that purpose is here more clearly set down in a twofold expres-
sion:— 1. Salvation: Verse 18, " God hath chosen you to salva-
tion," That is the thing which he aimed to accomplish for them,
and the end he intended to bring them to in his choosing of
them. And, 2. Verse 14, " The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,"
or the obtaining a portion in that glory which Christ purchased
and procured for them, with their being with him to behold his
glory. And, thirdly. You have the means whereby God will certainly
bring about and accomplish this his design and purpose, whereof
there are three most eminent acts expressed: — 1, Vocation, or their
calling by the gospel, verse 14; 2. Sanctification, "Through sanctifi-
cation of the Spirit;" and, 3. Justification, which they receive by
"belief of the truth," verse 13. This much, then, is wrapped up in

204 DOCrEIXE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

this text : God having, in his unchangeable purpose, fore-appointed
his to salvation and glon', certainly to be obtained, through the effect-
ual working of the Spirit and free justification in the blood of Christ,
it cannot be but that they shall be preserved unto the enjoyment of
what they are so designed unto.

To sura up what hath been spoken from these purposes of God
to the establishment of the truth we have in hand : Those whom
God hath purposed by effectual means to preserve to the enjoyment
of eternal life and glory in his favour and acceptation, can never so
fall from his love, or be so cast out of his grace, as to come short of
the end designed, or ever be totally rejected of God. The truth of
this proposition depends upon what hath been said, and may farther
be insisted on, concerning the nnchangeableness and absoluteness of
the eternal purposes of God, the glory whereof men shall never be
able sacrilegiously to rob him of Thence the assumption is, con-
cerning all true believers and truly sanctified persons, there are pur-
poses of God that they shall be so preserved to such ends, etc., as
hath been abundantly proved by an induction of particular in-
stances ; and therefore it is impossible they should ever be so cast
out of the favour of God as not to be infallibly preserved to the end.
Which is our second demonstration of the truth in hand.

CHAPTER IV.

THE AEGOIENT FEOM THE COVENANT OF GRACR

An entrance into the consideration of the covenant of grace, and our argnment
from thence for the nnchangeableness of the love of God UDto believers —
The intendment of the ensuing discourse — Gen. xrii. 7 opened and explained,
with the confirmation of the argument in hand from thence — That argument
Tindicated and cleared of objections — Confirmed bv some obser\ations — Jer.
xxxii. 38-40 compared with chap. xxxi. 31-34 — The truth under considera-
tion from thence clearly confirmed — The certainty, immutability, and infal-
lible accomplishment, of all the promises of the new covenant demonstrated :
1. From the removal of all c-auses of alteration; 2. From the Mediator and
his undertaking therein ; 3. From the faithfulness of God — One instance
from the former considerations — The endeavour of Mr G. to answer our ar-
gument from this place — His obsenation on and from the text considered —
I . This promise not made to the Jews only, 2. Nor to all the nation of the
Jews, proved from Rom. xL 7; not intending principally their deliverance
from Babylon — His inferences from his former obserA-ations weighed — 1. The
promise made to the body of the people of the Jews typically only; 2. An
exposition borrowed of Socinus rejected ; 3. The promise not appropriated to
the time of the captivity, and the disadvantage ensuing to Mr G.'s cause upon
such an exposition — The place insisted on compared with Ezek. xi. 17-20 —
That place cleared — A fourth objection answered — This promise always ful-
filled— The spiritual part of it accomplJshe«l during the captivity — God's in-
tention not ftustrattd — How far the civil prosperity of the Jews was con-

TV.] THE COYEXANT OF GRACE. 205

cemed in this promise — Promises of spiritual and temporal things compared
— The covenant of grace how far conditional — ilr G.'s =ense of this place
expressed — Borrowed irom Faustus Socinus — The inconsistencv of it with the
mind of the Holy Ghost demonstrated, also with what himself hath elsewhere
delirered — Xo way suited to be the answer of our argument fi^m the place
— The same interpretation farther disproved — An immediate divine efocaer
held out in the words — Conversion and pardon of sins promised — DifSereneed
from the grace and promises of the old c-ovenant — Contribution of means pat
by ^Ir G. in the place of effectual operation of the thing itself, farther dis-
proved— How. when, and to whom this promise was fulfilled, farther de-
clared— An objection arising upon that consideration answered — Conjectures
ascribed to God by ilr G. — The real foundation of aU divine predictions —
The promise unerly enervate'l, and rendered of none effect by 2tlr G.'s expo-
sition— Its consistency with the prophecies of the rejection of the Jews — The
close of the argument from the covenant of grace.

Ha\ing shown the tmchangeable stability of the love and faTour
of God towards his saints from the immntabLlity of his own nature
and purposes, manifested by an induction of simdry particular in-
stances from eminent places of Scripture, wherein both the one and
the other are held out as the foundation of what we affirm, I pro-
ceed to farther clear and demonstrate the same important truth from
the first way of declaration whereby God hath assured them that it
shall be to them according to the tenor of the proposition insisted
on; and that is his covenaiit of grace. The principimn essendi of
this truth, if I may so say, is in the decrees and purpDses of God ;
the principhim cognoscendi, in his covenant, promise, and oath,
which also add much to the real stability of it, the truth and feith-
fulness of God in them being thereby pectdiarly engaged therein.

It is not in my purpose to handle the nature of the Ojvenant of
grace, but only briefly to look into it, so far as it hath influence into
the truth in hand The covenant of grace, then, as it inwraps the
unchangeable love and favour of God towards those who are taken
into the bond thereof, is that which heth under our present cona-
deration. The other great branch of it (upon the account of the
same faithfulness of God\ communicating permanency or persever-
ance in itself unto the saints, securing their continuance with God,
shall, the Lord assisting, more peculiarly be exp-lained when we ar-
rive to the head of our discourse, rmless enough to that purpose maj
fall in occasionally in the progress of this business.

For our present purpose, the prcKiucing and vindicating of one or
two texts of Scripture, being unavoidably expresive towards the end
aimed at. shall suffice.

The lirst of these is Gen. xvii. 7, " T will establish my covenant
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their crenerations
for an everlasring covenant, to be a God imto thee, and to thy seed
after thee,"' This is that which God engageth himseh" unto in this
covenant of grace, that he will for everiasting be a God to him and

206 . DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

liis faithful seed. Though the external administration of the cove-
nant was given to Abraham and his carnal seed, yet the effectual
dispensation of the grace of the covenant is peculiar to them only
who are the children of the promise, the remnant of Abraham ac-
cording to election, with all that in all nations were to be blessed in
him and in his seed, Christ Jesus. Ishmael, though circumcised,
was to be put out, and not to be heir with Isaac, nor to abide in the
house for ever, as the son of the promise was, Gal. iv. 22, 23, 30.
Now, the apostle tells you, look what blessings faithful Abraham re-
ceived by virtue of this promise, the same do all believers receive:
Chap. iii. 9, " They which be of faith are blessed with faithful
Abraham;" which he proves (in the words foregoing) from Gen.
xii. 3, because all nations were to be blessed in him. What blessing,
then, was it that was here made over to Abraham? All the blessings
that from God are conveyed in and by his seed, Jesus Christ (in
whom both he and we are blessed), are inwrapped therein. What
they are the apostle tells you, Eph. i. 3 ; they are " all spiritual bless-
ings." If perseverance, if the continuance of the love and favour
of God towards us, be a spiritual blessing, both Abraham and all his
seed, all faithful ones throughout the world, are blessed with it in
Jesus Christ ; and if God's continuing to be a God to them for ever
will enforce this blessing (being but the same thing in another ex-
pression), it is here likewise asserted.

It is importunately excepted, " That though God undertake to be
our God in an everlasting covenant, and upon that account to bless us
with the whole blessing that is conveyed by the promised seed, yet
if we abide not with him, if we forsake him, he will also cease to be
our God, and cease to bless us with the blessing which on others in
Jesus Christ he will bestow."

Ans. If there be a necessity to smite this evasion so often as we
shall meet with it, it must be cut into a hundred pieces. For the
present, I shall only observe two evils it is attended withal: — First,
It takes no notice that God, who hath undertaken to be a God unto
us, hath, witli the like truth, power, and faithfulness, undertaken that
we shall abide to be his people. So is his love in his covenant
expressed by its efficacy to this end and purpose, Deut xxx. 6,
" The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of
thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all
thy soul, that thou mayest live." Secondly, It denies the continu-
ance of the love of God to us to the end to be any part of the bless-
ings wherewith we are blessed in Jesus Christ; for if it be, it could
no more be suspended on any condition in us than the glorification
of believers that abide so to the end.

This, then, is inwrapped in this promise of the covenant unto the
elect, with whom it is established : God will be a God to them for

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 207

ever, and that to bless them with all the blessings which he commu-
nicates in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised seed. The
continuance of his favour to the end is to us unquestionably a spiri-
tual blessing (if any one be otherwise minded, I shall not press to
share with him in his apprehension); and if so, it is in Christ, and
shall certainly be enjoyed by them to whom God is a God in cove-
nant. He that can suppose that he shall prevail with the saints of
God to believe it will make for their consolation to apprehend that
there is no engagement in his covenant, assuring them of the continu-
ance of the favour of God unto them to the end of then- pilgrimage,
hath no reason to doubt or question the issue of any thing he shall
undertake to persuade men unto. Doubtless he will find it very dif-
ficult with them who, in times of spiritual straits and pressures, have
closed with this engagement of God in the covenant, and have had
experience of its bearing them through all perplexities and entangle-
ments, when the waves of temptation were ready to go over their
souls. Certainly David was in another persuasion when, upon a
view of all the difficulties he had passed through, and his house was
to meet withal, he concludes, 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, "God hath made with
me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure : this is
all my salvation, and all my desire." The covenant from whence
he had his sure mercies, not changeable, not alterable, not liable to
failings, as the temporal prosperity of his house was, was that he
rejoiced in.

I shall close this with two observations: —

First, It may, doubtless, and on serious consideration will, seem
strange to any one acquainted in the least measure with God and
his faithfulness, that, in a covenant established in the blood of Christ,
he should freely promise to his that he would be a God tinto them,
— that is, that he would abide with them in the power, goodness,
righteousness, and faithfulness, of a God, that he would be an all-suf-
ficient God to them for ever, — yet, when he might with an almighty
facility prevent it, and so answer and fulfil his engagement to the
utmost, he should suffer them to become such villains and devils
in wickedness that it should be utterly impossible for him, in the
blood of his Son and the riches of his grace, to continue a God unto
them; this, I say, seemeth strange to me, and not to be received
without casting the greatest reproach imaginable on the goodness,
faithfulness, and righteousness, of God.

Secondly, If this promise be not absolute, immutable, unchange-
able, independent on any thing in us, it is impossible that any one
should plead it with the Lord, but only upon the account of the
sense that he hath of his own accomplishment of the condition on
which the promise doth depend. I can almost suppose that the
whole generation of believers will rise up against this assertion to

208 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

remove it out of their way of walking with God. This I know, that
most of them who at any time have walked in darkness and have
had no light will reprove it to the faces of them that maintain it,
and profess that God hath witnessed the contrary truth to their
hearts.^ Are Ave, in the covenant of grace, left to our own hearts,
ways, and Avalkings? Is it not differenced from that which is abo-
lished? Is it not the great distinguishing character of it that all
the promises of it are stable, and shall certainly be accomplished in
Jesus Christ?^

One place I shall add more, wherein our intendment is positively
expressed, beyond all possibility of any colourable evasion, especially
considering the explication, enlargement, and application, which in
other places it hath received. The place intended is Jer. xxxii.
38-40, "They shall be my people, and I will be their God: and
I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me
for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them : and
I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn
away from them, to do them good ; but I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they shall not depart from me;" — in conjunction with
these words, of the same importance, chap. xxxi. 31-34, "Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: not accord-
ing to the covenant that I made with their fathers: but this shall
be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel ; After
those days, saith the LoRD, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and they shall
be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neigh-
bour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,
saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember
their sin no more."

First, The thesis under demonstration is directly and positively
affirmed, in most significant and emphatical words, by God himself.
Seeing, then, the testimony of his holy prophets and apostles concern-
ing him are so excepted against and so lightly set by, let us try if
men will reverence himself, and cease contending with him when he
appeareth in judgment. Saith he, then, to believers, those whom he
taketh into covenant with him: "This is my covenant with you" (in
the performance whereof his all-sufficiency, truth, and faithfulness,
with all other his glorious attributes, are eminently engaged), " I will
l^e your God" (what that expression intends is known, and the Lord
here exj^lains, by instancing in some eminent spiritual mercies thence
flowing, as sanctification, and acceptance with him by the forgiveness
of sins), " and that for ever, in an everh\sting covenant, and I will

1 Ps. Ixxiii. 26 ; Isa. viii. 17,1.10. » 2 Cor. i. 20 ; Ileb. vii. 22, viii. 7-9,

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 209

not turn away from you to do you good/' This plainly God saith
of himself, and this is all we say of him in the business, and which
(having so good an author) we must say, whether men Avill hear or
whether they will forbear. Whether it be right in the sight of God
to hearken unto men more than unto God, let all judge. Truly
they have a sad task, in my apprehension, who are forced to sweat
and labour to alleviate and take off the testimony of God.

Secondly, That the way the Lord proposeth to secure his love to
his is upon terms of advantage, of glory and honour to himself, to
take away all scmple which on that hand might arise, is fully also
expressed. Sin is the only differencing thing between God and man ;
and hereinto it hath a double influence : — First, Moral, in its guilt,
deserving that God should cast off a sinner, and prevailing with him,
upon the account of justice, so to do. Secondly, Efficient, by causing
men, through its power and deceitfulness, to depart from God, until,
as backsliders in heart, they are filled with their own ways.^ Take
away these two, provide for security on this hand, and there is no
possible case imaginable of separation between God and man once
brought together in peace and unity. For both these doth God here
undertake. For the first, saith he, " I will forgive their iniquity, and
I will remember their sin no more," chap, xxxi. 84. The guilt of sin
shall be done away in Christ, and that on terms of the greatest honour
and glory to the justice of God that can be apprehended : " God hath
set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,"
Rom. iii. 25. And for the latter, that that may be thoroughly pre-
vented, saith God, " The care shall lie on me ; ' I will put my law in
their inward parts, and write it in their hearts,'" chap. xxxi. 83; "I
will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from
me," chap, xxxii. 40. So that the continuance of his love is secured
against all possible interveniences whatever, by an assured prevention
of all such as have an inconsistency therewithal.

The apostle Paul, setting out the covenant which God ratified in
the blood of Christ, which shall never be broken, takes the descrip-
tion of it from this place of the prophet, Heb. viii. 9-12 ; and therein
fixeth particularly on the unchangeableness of it, in opposition to the
covenant which went before, which was liable to mutation, when if
these differed only in the approbation of several qualifications, they
come to the same end; for if this covenant depend on conditions by
ourselves and in our own strength, with the advantage of its proposal
to us, attended with exhortations, and therefore by us to be fulfilled,
how was it distinguished from that made with the people when they
came out of Egypt? But in this very thing the difference of it lieth,
as the apostle asserts, verses 6-8. The immutability of this covenant,

1 Heb. iii. 13; Prov. i. 31, xiv. 14.
VOL. XI. 14

210 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

and the certain product of all the mercy promised in it might, were
that our present task, be easily demonstrated ; as, —

First, From the removal of all causes of alteration. When two
enter into covenant and agreement, no one can undertake that that
covenant shall be firm and stable if it equally depend upon both ; yea
both, it may be, are changeable, and so actually changed before the
accomplishing of the thing engaged about therein: however, though
the one should be faithful, yet the other may fail, and so the cove-
nant be broken. Thus it was with God and Adam. It could not be
undertaken that that covenant should be kept inviolable, because
though God continues faithful, yet Adam might prove (as indeed he
did) faithless; and so the covenant was disannulled, as to any power
of knitting together God and man. [Thus it is with] the covenant
between husband and wife; the one party cannot undertake that
the whole covenant shall be observed, because the other may prove
treacherous. In this covenant the case is otherwise. God himself
liath undertaken the whole, both for his continuing with us and our
continuing with him. Now, he is one, God is one, and there is not
another, that they should fail and disannul this agreement. Though
there be sundry persons in covenant, yet there is but one undertaker
on all hands, and that is God himself It doth not depend upon the
will of another, but of him only who is faithful, who cannot lie, who
cannot deceive, who will make all his engagements good to the ut-
most. He is an all-sufficient one ; " he will work, and who shall let
him?" " The Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul
it?" Yea, he is an unchangeable one; what he undertakes shall come
to pass. Blessed be his name that he hath not laid the foundation
of a covenant in the blood of his dear Son, laid out the riches of his
wisdom, grace, and power about it, and then left it to us and our
frail will to carry it on, that it should be in our power to make void
the great work of his mercy ! Whence, then, I say, should any change
be, the whole depending on one, and him immutable?

Secondly, Seemg that God and man, having been at so great a
distance as they were by sin, must needs meet in some mediator,
some middle person, in whom and by whose blood (as covenants
usually were confirmed by blood) this covenant must be ratified,
consider who this is, and what he hath done for the establishing of
it: " There is one God, and one mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. ii. 5. He is the " surety of this tes-
tament," Heb. vii. 22 ; the " mediator of this better covenant,
established upon better promises," chap. viii. 6. Neither is this
surety or mediator subject to change; he is "the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever," chap. xiii. 8. But though he be so in himself,
yet is the work so that is committed to him? Saith the apostle, " All
the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 211

of God by us," 2 Cor. i. 20. God hath in him and by him ascer-
tained all the promises of the covenant, that not one of them should
be broken, disannulled, frustrated, or come short of an accomplish-
ment. God hath so confirmed them in him, that he hath at his death
made a legacy of them, and bequeathed them in a testamentary dis-
pensation to the covenanters, Heb. ix. 15-17. And what he hath
farther done for the assurance of his saints' abiding with God shall
afterward be declared.

Thirdly, The faithfulness of God is oftentimes peculiarly mentioned
in reference to this very thing: "The God which keepeth covenant"
is his name. That which he hath to keep is all that in covenant he
undertaketh. Now, in this covenant he undertaketh, — first. That he
will never forsake us; secondly. That we shall never forsake him.
His faithfulness is engaged to both these ; and if either part should
fail, what would the Lord do to his gTeat name, " The God which
keepeth covenant?"

Notwithstanding the undertaking of God on hoth sides in this
covenant; notwithstanding his faithfulness in the performance of
what he undertaketh ; notwithstanding the ratification of it in the
blood of Jesus, and all that he hath done for the confirmation of it ;
notwithstanding its differing from the covenant that was disannulled
on this account, that that was broken, which this shall never be (that
being broken not as to the truth of the proposition wherein it is con-
tained, " Do this and live," but as to the success of it in bringing any
to God) ; notwithstanding the seal of the oath that God set unto it, —
they, I say, who, notwithstanding all these things, will hang the un-
changeableness of this covenant of God upon the slipperiness, and
uncertainty, and lubricity of the will of man, " let them walk in the
light of the sparks which themselves have kindled;" we will walk in
the light of the Lord our God.

When first I perused Mr Goodwin's exceptions to this testimony,
chap. X. sect. 52-56, pp. 219-224, finding them opposed not so
much nor so directly to our inference from this place as to the design,
intendment, and arguing of the apostle, Rom, ix.-xi., and to the re-
enforcing of the objections by him answered, casting again the "rock
of offence" in the way by him removed, I thought to have passed it
without any reply, being not convinced that it was possible for the
author himself to be satisfied either with his own exposition of this
place or his exceptions unto ours ; but arriving at length to the close
of his discourse, I found him " quasi re preclar^ gesta," to triumph
in his victory, expressing much confidence that the world of saints,
who have hitherto bottomed much of their faith and consolation on
the covenant of God in these words expressed, will vail their faith
and understanding to his uncontrollable dictates, and not once make
mention of the name of God in this place any more. Truly, for my

212 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

part, I must take the boldness to say that, before the coming forth of
his learned treatise, I had read, and, according to my weak ability,
weighed and considered, whatever either Arminians or Socinians
(from the founder of which sect their and his interpretation of this
place is borrowed) had entered against the interpretation insisted on,
that I could by any means attain the sight of, and was not in the
least shaken by any of their reasonings from rejoicing in the grace
of God, as to the unchangeableness of his love to believers, and the
certainty of their perseverance with him to the end, therein expressed ;
and I must add, that I am not one jot enamoured of their objections
and reasonings, for all the new dress which, with some cost, our
author hath been pleased to furnish them with, fashionably to set
out themselves withal. Were it not for the confidence you express,
in the close of your discourse, of your noble exploits and achieve-
ments in the consideration of this text (which magnificent thoughts
of your undertaking and success I could not imagine from the read-
ing of your arguments or exceptions, though on other accounts I
might), I should not have thought it worth while to examine it par-
ticularly; which now, to safeguard the consolation of the weakest
believers, and to encourage them to hold fast their confidence, so
well established, against the assaults of all adversaries, Satan or
Arminians, I shall briefly do : —

1. Then, saith Mr Goodwin, " Evident it is, from the whole tenor
of the chapter, that the words contain especial promises, made pai'-
ticularly to the Jews."

Ans. If by particularly you mean exclusively, to them and not
to others, this is evidently false ; for the apostle tells you, Heb.
viii. 6, to the end of the chapter, that the covenant here mentioned
is that whereof Christ is mediator, and the promise of it those better
:jpromises which they are made partakers of who have an interest in
^ mediation.

He saith, " As evident it is, upon the same account, that the

\ ,. ''^^ here mentioned was not made only to the saints or sound

uelieverK

, , A amongst the Jews, who were but few, but to the whole

/ ^,Nnerality of them."

. ,, ' "e, it is as evident as what before you affirmed, and that

•, ^f • r 'ind, — that is, it is evidently false, or else the promise

" 1 ' ,^^was never fulfilled towards them all. But I refer

"^ , , 1 , . ' fithor, who hath lone: since assoiled this difficulty,
and taujjlit us to di. . . , , , ° _ , , t

° ^ p T "tmcfuisli between a Jew iv rw ipanpui and a Jew
iv rf) xfUTT-^, of Israe^ » . a ,i n \ '» i r 4.

^^ , "HI I ^ccordmg to " the flesh and according to

,t . r T 1 » -d' ' also taufjht us that "they are not all Israel

that are of Israel, Kom. ... ^o o^ • /- h, * j xi i.

.^ . ^, , ,, , r- ,1 • ^ 28, 29, IX. 6, 7. And upon that account

it IS that the word of this prt .' ' . \ . ^^ j.x \ nu rr i«
, f • tl f- > f -^^ise doth not fad, though all "of Israel

^ "^ ' — not that it is conditional, but that

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 213

it was not at all made unto them, as to the spiritual part of it, to
whom it was not wholly fulfilled. And chap. xi. 7, he tells you
that it was " the election" to whom these promises were made, and
they obtained the fruit of them ; neither doth that appendix of pro-
mises pointed to look any other way. When you have made good
your observation by a reply to that learned author, we shall think of
a rejoinder. It is therefore added, —

3. " It is yet, upon the same account, as evident as either of the
former that this promise was made unto this nation of the Jews
when and whilst they were (or at least considered as now being) in
the iron furnace of the Babylonian captivity, verse 23."

Ans. That this solemn renovation of this promise of the covenant
was not made to them when in Babylon, but given out to them
beforehand, to sustain their hearts and spirits withal, in their bond-
age and thraldom, is granted. And what then, I pray? Is it any
new thing to have spiritual promises solemnly given out and renewed
upon the occasion of temporal distresses? A promise of Christ is
given out to the house of David when in fear of being destroyed,
Isa. vii. 13, 14; so it was given to Adam, Gen. iii. 15; so to Abraham,
Gen. xvii. ; so to the church, Isa. iv. 2-6. But farther it is said, —

4. " From the words immediately preceding the passages offered
to debate, it clearly appears that the promise in these passages relates
unto and concerns their reduction and return from and out of that
captivity into their own land."

Ans. Will Mr Goodwin say that it doth only concern that? Dareth
any man so boldly contradict the apostle, setting out from this very
place the tenor of the covenant of grace, ratified in the blood of
Christ ? Heb. viii. 7-12. Nay, will any say that so much of the promise
here as God calleth his covenant, chap. xxxi. 33, 34, xxxii. 38-40,
doth at all concern their reduction into their own land any farther
than it was a type or resemblance of our deliverance by Christ?
These evident assertions are as express and flat contradictions to the
evident intendment of the Holy Ghost as any man is able to invent.
But,—

Mr Goodwin hath many deductions out of the former " sure and
evident" premises, to prove that this is not a promise of absolute and
final perseverance (it is a strange perseverance that is not final !) in
grace to the end of their lives; for, saith he, —

1. "The ijromise is made to the body of the people, and not to
the saints and believers among them, and respects as well the un-
faithful as the believers in that nation."

Ans. It was made to "the body of the people" only typically con-
sidered, and so it was accomplished to the body of the people ; Sjn-
ritually and properly to the elect among the people, who, as the
apostle 'tells us, obtained accordingly, there being also in the pro-

214 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

mise Wrapped up the grace of effectual conversion. It may in some
sense be said to be made to the "unfaithful," — that is, to such as were
so antecedently to the grace thereof, — but not to any that abide so;
for the promise is, not that they shall not, but that they shall believe,
and continue in so doing to the end. But, saith he, —

2. " This promise was appropriated and fitted to the state of the
Jews in a sad captivity ; but the promise of perseverance was, if our
adversaries might be believed, a standing promise amoDg them, not
appropriated to their condition."

A71S. 1. " Non venit ex pharetris ista sagitta tuis." It is Socinus',
in reference to Ezek. xxxvi., in Prosl. Theol. cap. xii. sect. 6; and
so is the whole interpretation of the place afterward insisted on de-
rived to Mr Goodwin through the hands of the Remonstrants at tlie
Hague conference. 2. If this exception against the testimony given
in these words for the confirmation of the thesis in hand may be
allowed, what will become of Mr Goodwin's argument from Ezek. xviii.
for the apostasy of the saints? It is most certain the words from
thence by him and others insisted on, with the whole discourse of
whose contexture they are a part, are appropriated to a peculiar state
of the. Jews, and are brought forth as a meet vindication of the right-
eousness of God in his dealing with them in that condition. This,
then, may be laid up in store to refresh Mr Goodwin with something
of his own providing, when we are gone so far onward in our journey.
But, 3. It is most evident to all the world that Mr Goodwin is not
such a stranger in the Scriptures as not to have observed long since
that spiritual promises are frequently given to the peoj)le of God
to support their souls under temporal distresses; and that not always
new promises for the matter of them (for indeed the substance of
all promises is comprised in the first promise of Christ), but either
such as enlarge and clear up grace formerly given or promised, or
such as have need of a solemn renewal for the establishing of the
faith of the saints, assaulted in some particular manner in reference
to them, which was the state of the saints among the Jews at this
time. How often was the same promise renewed to Abraham ! and
upon what several occasions! and yet that promise, for the matter
of it, was the same that had been given from the beginning of the
world. That God's solemn renewal of the covenant at any time is
called his making of or entering into covenant needs no labour to
prove. But, saith he, —

3. " This promise is the same with that of Ezek. xi. 17-20; which
promise notwithstanding, it is said, verse 21, ' But as for them whose
heart walketh after the lieart of their detestable things, and their
abominations, I will recompense their way upon their heads:' so that
notwithstanding this seeming promise, as is pretended, of perse-
verance in grace, they may walk after their abominable things; for

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 215

this threatening intends the same persons or nation (as Calvin him-
self confesseth), the Israelites."

Ans. 1. Grant that this is the same protnise with the other, how-
will it appear that this is not a promise of such an interposure of
the Spirit and grace of God as shall infallibly produce the effect
of perseverance? " Why, because some are threatened for follow-
ing the heart of their abominable things." Yea, but how shall it
appear that they are the same persons with them to whom the pro-
mise is made ? The context is plainly against it. Saith He, " I will
give them a heart to walk in my statutes and ordinances, to do them ;
but for them that walk after their own hearts, them I will destroy,"
in as clear a distinction of the object of the promise and threatening
as is possible. Saith Mr Goodwin, " This threatening concerns the
same persons or nation." The same nation, but not the same persons
in that nation. " But Calvin saith that concerning the Israelites." But
Paul hath told us that " they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
not all children of the promise who are children of the flesh." And, —

2. If it do any way concern the persons to whom that promise is
given, it is an expression suited to the dispensation of God whereby
he carrieth believers on in the enjoyment of the good things he gives
them in and by his promises, without the least prediction of any
event, being only declarative of what the Lord abhorreth, and of the
connection that is between the antecedent and the consequent of the
axiom wherein it is contained, and is far from the nature of those
promises which hold out the purpose or intention of God, with the
engaging of a real efficacy for their accomplishment. He adds, —

4. " If this be a promise of absolute perseverance, no time nor
season can be imagined wherein it was fulfilled."

Ans. At all times and seasons to them to whom it was made, ac-
cording to their concernment in it. But saith he, —

(1.) "It hath been proved that it was made to the community of
the Jewish nation, towards whom it was not fulfilled."

Ans. (1.) It hath been said, indeed, again and again, but scarce
once attempted to he proved, nor the reasoning of the apostle against
some pretended proofs and answers to them at all removed. (2.) It
was fulfilled to the body of that nation, as far as it concerned the
body of that nation, in their typical return from their captivity. But
then, —

(2.) "If this be the sense, it was fulfilled in the captivity as well as
afterward, for you say the saints always persevere."

Ans. (1.) The typical part of it was not then accomplished.
(2.) It is granted that as to the spiritual part of the covenant of
grace, it was at all times fulfilled to them, which is now evidently
promised to establish them in the assurance thereof. Wherefore
it is, —

216 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

5, Argued, sect. 53, (1.) " That these Avords, ' I will give them one
heart, that they shall not depart from me,' may be as well rendered,
* That they may not depart from me;' and so it is said in the verse
foregoing, ' That they may fear me for ever.'"

Ans. Suppose the words may be thus rendered, what inconveni-
ence will ensue? Either way they evidently and beyond exception
design out the end aimed at by God; and when God intends an end
or event, so as to exert a real efficacy for the compassing of it, to say
that it shall not be infallibly brought about is an assertion that
many have not as yet had the boldness to venture on. But saitli he, —

(2.) "The words so read do not necessarily import the actual event
or taking place of the effect intended of God in the promise, and his
performance thereof, but only his intention itself in both these, and
the sufficiency of the means allowed for producing such an effect:
but it is of the same nature with that that our Saviour saith, John
V. 84, 'These things I say unto you, that ye might be saved;' and
that of God to Adam, Gen. iii. 10, 11." All which things were in
like manner insisted on by the Remonstrants at the Hague colloquy.

Ans. It is not amiss that our contests about the sense of this place
of Scri2:)ture are at length come to the state and issue here expressed.
It is granted the thing promised, and that according to the intend-
ment of God, is perseverance; but that there is any necessity that
this promise of God should be fulfilled or his intention accomplished,
that is denied. Were it not that I should prevent myself in what
will be more seasonable to be handled when we come to the con-
sideration of the promises of God, I should very willingly engage
here into the proof of this assertion. When God purposeth or in-
tendeth an event, and promiseth to do it, to that end putting forth
and exercising an efficient real power, it shall certainly be accom-
plished and brought to pass ; neither can this be denied without cast-
ing the greatest reproach of mutability, impotency, and breach of
word, upon the Most Holy, that is possible for any man to do.
Neither do the Remonstrants nor Mr Goodwin acquit themselves
from a participation in so high a crime by their instance of Gen. iii.
10, 11, where a command of God is only related to express his duty
to whom it was given, not in the least asserting any intention of God
about the event, or promise as to the means of its accomplishment.
Nor doth that of John viii. 28 give them any more assistance in
their sad undertaking to alleviate the truth of God. A means of
salvation in its own nature and kind sufficient is exhibited, which
asserts not an infallible necessity of event, as that doth which in this
place is ascribed to God. But it is added, —

6. Sect. 54, " The continuance of external and civil prosperity
to the Jewish nation may much more colourably be argued from
hence than the certainty of their perseverance in grace; for these

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 217

things are most expressly promised, verses 39, 40, and yet we find
that, upon their non-performance of the condition, they are become
the most contemptible and miserable nation under heaven. Certainly,
then, the spiritual promises here must also depend on conditions,
which if not fulfilled, they also may come short of performance."

Ans. 1. Rom. xi. 25-27. 2. These temporal promises were ful-
filled unto them so far as they were made to them, — that is, as
they were typical, — and what is behind of them shall be made good
in due time. 8. All these promises are, and were, in their chiefest
and most eminent concernments (even the spiritual things set forth
by allusions to the good land wherein they lived), completely and
absolutely fulfilled to them, all and every one, to whom they were
properly and directly made, as the apostle abundantly proveth, Rom.
ix.-xi. 4. Whereas there are two special spiritual promises here
expressed, one of conversion, the other of jper severance, I desire to
know on what condition their accomplishment is suspended? On
what condition will God write his law in their hearts? " On condition
they hear him and obey him, suffer his mercies and kindnesses to
work kindly on them." That is, on condition his law be in their
hearts, he will write it there! Thanks yet for that! On what con-
dition doth God promise that they shall abide with him for ever?
" Why, on the condition they depart not from him." Very good ! To
what end doth God promise that which he will not effect, but only on
condition that there is no need for him so to do ! But, saitli he, —

7. " If the spiritual promises be absolute, so must the temporal be
also ; for their accomplishing depends solely on the things mentioned
and promised in the spiritual."

Ans. 1. Temporal things in the promises are often expressed only
to be a resemblance, and to set off some eminent spiritual grace
intended, as shall afterward appear. In that sense the promises men-
tioning such things are actually and fully accomplished in the colla-
tion of the spiritual things by them typed and resembled. 2. Tem-
poral promises, as such, belong not primarily to the covenant of grace,
as they are of temporal things for the substance of them, but to the
covenant with that whole nation about their inheritance in the land
of Canaan, which was expressly conditional, and which held out no
more of God's intendment to that nation but only that there should
be an inviolable connection between their obedience and prosperity.
8. The things in this promise are expressly differenced from the
things of that covenant on this account, that that covenant being
broken on the part of the nation, they enjoyed not that which was
laid out as a fruit of their obedience ; but this shall never be violated
or broken, God undertaking for the accomplishing of it with another
manner of engaging and suitable power exerted than in that of old,
Heb. viii. 7-12, x. 16, 17. But, saith he,—

218 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

8. " The expression of a ' covenant' plainly shows it to be condi-
tional; for a covenant is not but upon the mutual stipulation of
parties ; when one fails, then is the other true/'

Ans. 1. The word "berith" is sometimes used for a single promise
without a condition, Gen. vi. 18, ix. 9; whence the apostle, hand-
lino- this very promise, changeth the terms and calleth it a "testa-
ment." In a testamentary dispensation there is not in the nature of
it any mutual stipulation required, but only a mere single favour and
grant or concession. 2. It may be granted that here is a stipulation
of duty from us, God promising to work that in us which he requires
of us; and hereby is this covenant distinguished from that which was
disannulled. In the good things, indeed, of this covenant, one may
be the condition of another, but both are freely bestowed of God.

And these are Mr Goodwin's exceptions against this testimony,
which Cometh in in the cause of God and his saints, that we have
in hand. His next attempt is to give you the sense of the words
on this consideration, to manifest from thence that this promise of
God may come short of accomplishment.

This, then, at length, is the account that is given in of the sense
of the promise in hand, and all others of the like nature: —

" 'I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me
for ever, and will put my fear into their hearts, that they shall not,' or
may not, 'depart from me;' that is, ' I will deal so above measure
graciously and bountifully with them, as well in matters relating to
their spiritual condition as in things concerning their outward con-
dition, that if they be not prodigiously refractory, stubborn, and un-
thankful, I will overcome their evils with my goodness, and Avill
cause them to own me for their God, and will reduce them as one
man to a loving and loyal frame and temper of heart, that they
shall willingly, with a free and full purpose of heart, fear and serve
me for ever,' " sect. 55.

Ans. The first author of this gloss upon a parallel text was Soci-
nus, Prsel. Theol. cap. vi., whose words are: "This place of Ezekiel
is well explained by Erasmus in his Diatribe, saying, ' That there is
a usual figure of speaking contained in it, whereby a care in any of
working something by another is signified, his endeavour being not
excluded: as if a master should say to his scholar, speaking im-
properly, I Avill take away that barbarous tongue from thee, and
give thee the Roman.' These are almost the words of Erasmus.
To which add, that it appeareth from the place itself that God
would not signify any necessity or any intenial efficacy Avhen he
declareth that he will effect what he promiseth no other way than
by the multitude of his benefits, Avherewith he would affect the
people and mollify their hearts and minds, and thereby, as it were,
beget and create in them a willingness and alacrity in obeying of

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GEACE. 219

him."^ The Eemonstrants received this sense in the conference at
the Hague, managing it in these words : " It is manifest that these
words do signify some great efficacy and motion, which should come
to pass by the many and excellent benefits of God, for whose sake they
ought to convert themselves," etc. : which worthy interpretation being
at length fallen upon Mr Goodwin's hand, is trimmed forth as you
have heard. Secondly, Not to insist on those assumptions which are
supposed in this interpretation, — as, that this promise was made pecu-
liarly to the Jews, and to the whole nation of them properly and
directly, etc., — the gloss itself Avill be found by no means to have
the least consistency with either the words or intendment of the
Holy Ghost in the place, nor to be suited to answer our argument
from thence, nor yet to hold any good intelligence or correspon-
dency with what hath already been delivered concerning it: for, —

1. To begin with the latter, he affirms this cannot be a promise
of absolute perseverance, " because if it be so, the Jews enjoyed it
in that captivity as well as afterward, when that is here promised
which they were not to receive until in and upon their return from
Babylon," sect. 52, pp. 220, 221, But if that which is here men-
tioned be all that is promised to them, — namely, dealing so graciously
and bountifully with them in his dispensations, according as was in-
timated,— there is not any thing in the least held out to them in this
place but what God had already (himself being judge) in as eminent
and hiwh a manner wrouoht in reference to them and for them as
could be conceived ; and indeed it was such as he never after this
arose to that height of outward mercy and bounty in things spiritual
and temporal so as before, Isa. v. 1, 2, 4. Neither after the captivity
unto this day did they see again the triumphant glory of David, the
magnificent peace of Solomon, the beauty of the temple, the perfec-
tion of ordinances, etc., as before.

2. Whereas he affirmed formerly that "this promise is conditional,
and that the things therein promised do depend on conditions by
them to be fulfilled to whom the promise is made," sect. 54, p. 221,
in the gloss here given us of the words there is no intimation of any
such conditions as whereupon the promised actings of God should be
suspended, but only an uncertainty of event in reference to these
actings asserted. That (according to this interpretation) which alone
God promiseth to do is, that "he woidd deal above measure graciously

' " Hunc Ezechielis locum satis commode explicat Erasmus in sua Diatribe, dicens,
In eo continei'i usitatam figuram loquendi, qua cura in altero aliquid efficiendi signifi-
catur, illius opera rainime exclusa : ac si quis (inquit) pi-fficeptor discipulo soloecizanti
diceret, Exeram tibi linguam istam barbaricam, et insei'am Komanam. HiBC sunt fere
ipsius Erasmi verba. Quibus adde ex loco ipso satis apparere nullam necessitatem
Deum signiiicare voluisse, sed ncque ullam vim interiorem, cum non alia ratione ea,
qnoe ihi pollicetur se cflfccturum, ostendat Deus, quam beneficiorum multitudine, quibus
afifectm-us erat populum, ejusquecor et animum emolliturus," etc. — Soc. Pral. cap. xii.
s. 6, p. 45.

220 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

and bountifully with them, as well in matters relating to their spiri-
tual condition as in things concerninjc their outward condition." This
is all he promiseth; and this he Avill absolutely do, be the event what
it will. It is not said (nor can it, with any pretence of reason) that
this also is conditional ; nay, whatever the event and issue be, that
God will thus deal with them is the sense of the words in hand,
according to the estimate here taken of them. It is true, it is in the
exposition under consideration left doubtful and ambiguous whether
such or such an event shall follow the promised actings of God or
not; but what God promiseth concerning his dealing with them, that,
without supposal of any condition whatever, shall be accomplished.
According as a sense serves the turn, so it is to be embraced, when
men are once engaged against the truth.

S. Neither doth this interpretation so much as take notice of,
much less doth it with any strength or evidence waive, our argument
for the saints' perseverance from this place. We affirm, — (1.) That the
promise God made unto, or the covenant he makes here with, his
people, is distinguished from or opposed unto the covenant that was
broken, upon this account, that that was broken by the default of
them with whom it was made, but God would take care and provide
that this should not fail, but be everlasting, Jer. xxxi. 32, xxxii. 40 ;
Heb. viii. 8, 9. (2.) That the intendment of God in this promise, and
the administration of this covenant, with means and power mentioned
therein, is the abiding of his saints with him, or rather, primarily
and principally, his abiding with them, notwithstanding all such in-
terveniences as he will not powerfully prevent from ever interposing
to the disturbance of that communion he taketh them into. "I will,"
saith he, " make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not
turn away from them, to do them good." Now, these things, and
such like, are not once taken notice of in the exposition boasted to
be full and clear.

4. Neither, indeed, hath it any affinity unto or acquaintance in
name or thing with the words or intendment of God, Avith the grace
of the promise, or the promise itself ; for, —

(1.) God says he will "give them one heart and one way," or he
will " put his law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;"
which is plainly the work of his grace in them, and not the effect
and fruit of his dealing with them. In the gloss in hand, the work of
God is limited to such dealings with them as may " overcome them"
to such a frame. The having of a new heart is either the immediate
work of God, or it is their yielding unto their duty to him, upon his
"dealing bountifully and graciously with them." If the first, it is what
the Scripture affirms, and all that we desire ; if the latter, how comes
it to be expressed in terms holding out an immediate divine effi,-
ciencrj? That the taking away of a heart of stone, the giving of a new

IV.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 221

heart and spirit, the writing of the law in their hearts, and (which is
all one) the quickening of the dead, the opening of blind eyes, the
begetting of us anew, as they relate unto God, do signify no more
but his administration of means, whereby men may be wrought upon
and persuaded to bring their hearts and spirits into such a condition
as is described in those expressions, to quicken themselves, to open
their blind eyes, etc., Mr Goodwin shall scarce be able to evince.

(2.) Conversion and jyardon of sin being both in this promise of the
covenant (I take in also that place of the same importance, chap. xxxi.
33, 34), and relating alike to the grace of God, if conversion, or the
giving of a new heart, be done only by administering outward means
and persuasions unto men to make them new hearts, the forgiveness
of sins must also be supposed to be tendered unto them upon the
condition that their sins be forgiven, as conversion is on condition
they be converted, or do convert themselves.

(3.) This promise being by the prophet and apostle insisted on as
containing the grace whereby, eminently and peculiarly, the new
covenant is distinguished from that which was abolished, if the
grace mentioned therein be only the laying a powerful and strong
obligation on men to duty and obedience, upon the account of the
gracious and bountiful dealing of God with them, both as to their
temporal and spiritual condition, I desire to know wherein the differ-
ence of it from the old covenant, as to the collation of grace, doth
consist, and Avhether ever God made a covenant with man wherein
he did not put sufficient obligations of this kind upon him unto obe-
dience; and if so, what are the "better promises" of the new cove-
nant, and what eminent and singular things as to the bestowing
of grace are in it; which things here are emj)hatically expressed to
the uttermost.

(4.) The scope of this exposition (which looks but to one part of
the promise about bestowing of grace, overlooking the main end and
intendment of it, as hath been showed) being to darken the words
of the Holy Ghost, so far as to make them represent a contributio7i
of means instead of an effectual working the end and the event, on
wliich the means supplied have an influence of persuasion to prevail
with men to do the things they are afforded them for, I desire to
know. First, What new thing is here promised to them which exceeded
that mentioned chap. xxv. 4, 5, wherein the Lord testifies that he
had granted them formerly a large supply of outward means (and
especially of the word) for the end here spoken of Secondly, To
what end and on what account is this administration of means for a
work expressed by terms of a real efficiency in reference to the work
itself; which, proceeding from the intendment of God for the event
aimed at, must needs produce it. And, thirdly, Why these words
should not be of the same importance with the associate expression,

222 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' TERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Avliicli of necessity must he interpreted of an actual and absolute effi-
ciency, Jer, xxxii. 41, 42. And fourthly. Whether the administration
of outward sufficient means for the producing of an event can be a
ground of an infallible prediction of that event? as God here abso-
lutely saith, " They shall all know me, from the least of them unto
the greatest of them," chap. xxxi. 84 ; — which how it is brought about,
the Holy Ghost acquaints us, Isa. liv. 18, "All thy children shall
be taught of the LoRD ;" and John vi. 45, " It is written in the pro-
]ihets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore
that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."
But Mr Goodwin hath sundry reasons to confirm his gloss, which
must also be considered ; and he saith, —

1. " That it is the familiar dialect of Scripture to ascribe the doing
of things or effects themselves to him that ministers occasions or
proper and likely means for the doing of them. So God is said to
give them one heart and one way, to put his fear into their hearts,
when he administers motives, means, occasions, and opportunities to
them, which are proper to work them to such a frame and disposi-
tion of heart, out of which men are wont to love and obey him,
whether they be ever actually brought thereunto or no ; and this
promise was fidfilled to the people after their return out of captivity,
in the mercies they enjoyed and the preaching of the prophets."

Ans. We are not now to be informed that this is Mr Goodwin's
doctrine concerning conversion, — 1. That God doth only administer
means, motives, and opportunities for it, but that man thereupon
converts himself; and, 2. That when God hath done all he will
or can, that the event may not follow, nor the work be wrought :
but that this sense, by any means or opportunities, can be fastened
on the promise under consideration, we are not as yet so well in-
structed. When God once intendetb an end, and expresseth himself
so to do, promising to work really and efficiently for the accom-
plishing of it, yea, that he will actually do it, by that efficiency
preventing all interpositions whatever that may tend to frustrate his
design, that that end of his shall not be accomplished, or that that
working of his is only an administration of means, whereby men may
do the things intended if they will, or may do otherwise (he affirm-
ing that he will do them himself), is a doctrine beyond my reach
and capacity. His saying that " in this sense the promise was
fulfilled to the people after the captivity," is a saying against his
own light. He hath told us not long since that it could not be a
promise of those things which were enjoyed before it was ever given,
as in our sense they did the gi-ace of perseverance, etc. Surely the
means he mentioneth (until at least the coming of Christ in the
flesh) were advanced to a far higher pitch and eminency on all
hands before the captivity than after; and at the coming of Christ

17.] THE COVENANT OF GRACE. 223

it was eminently fulfilled, in our acceptation of it, unto all to whom
it was made. But he adds, —

2. " That if it be not so to be understood, and so said to be ful-
filled as above, it is impossible for any one to assign how and when
this promise was fulfilled; for, — First, It was made to the whole
people, and the fulfilling of it to a few will not confirm the truth of
it. Secondly, The elect had no need of it, knowing themselves to be
so, and that they should never fall away ; so that this is but to make
void the glorious promise of God. And, thirdly. To ^ay that it was
made to the elect is but to beg the thing in question."

Ans. 1. As far as the body of the people was concerned in it, it
was, and shall be in the latter days, absolutely accomplished towards
them. It was, it is, and shall be, fulfilled to all to whom it was made,
if so be that God be faithful and cannot deny himself 2. It was,
it is, and shall be, accomplished properly and directly to all the elect
of that nation, to whom it was so made, as it hath been cleared
already from Kom. ix.-xi., where the apostle, expressly and data
opera, answers the very objection that Mr Goodwin makes about the
accomplishing of these promises, concerning the hardening and re-
jection of the greatest part of that people, affirming it to consist
in this, that the " election obtained when the rest were hardened;"
Avherein he did not beg the question, though he digged not for it,
but answered by clear distinctions, as you may see, Rom. ix. 6,
xi. 1, 2, 7. 8. Neither do all the elect after their calling know them-
selves to be so, nor have they any other way to become acquainted
with their election but by their faith in the promises : nor is it
spoken like one acquainted with the course and frame of God's
dealing with his saints, or with their spirits in walking with God,
who supposeth the solemn and clear renovation of promises concern-
ing the same things, with explanations and enlargements of the
grace of them, to confirm and establish the communion between the
one and the other, to be needless. And who make the promises of
God void and of no effect? — we who profess the Lord to be faithful
in every one of them, and that no one tittle of them shall fall to the
ground or come short of accomplishment; or Mr Goodwin, who re-
ports the grace mentioned in them, for the most part, to come short
of producing the effect for which it is bestowed, and the engagements
of God in them to depend so upon the lubricity of the wills of men,
that mostly they are not made good in the end aimed at? The Lord
will judge. But it is farther argued, —

8. " That the Scripture many times asserts the futurity or coming
to pass of things not yet in being, not only when the coming of them
to pass is certainly known, but when it is probable, upon the account
of the means used for the bringing them to pass; for God saith in
the parable, ' They will reverence my Son,' Mark xii. 6, and yet the

224 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

event was contrary. So upon tlie executing an offender, lie saith,
' The people sliall hear and fear, and do no more presumptuously;^
■which yet might not have its effect on all. So God saith, ' I will
give them one heart;' not out of any certainty of knowledge or de-
termination in himself that any such heart or way should actually be
given them, which would infallibly produce the effect mentioned,
but that he would grant such means as were proper to create such
a heart in them."

A71S. 1. The nearer the bottom the more sour the lees. First,
Doth God foretell the coming to pass of things future upon a probable
conjecture, which is here assigned to him? Is that the intendment
of the expression in the parable, " They will reverence my Son." Or
was he mistaken in the event, the thing falling out contrary to his
expectation? Or is there any thing in this, or the place mentioned,
Deut. xvii. 12, 18, but only an expression of the duty of men upon
the account of the means offered ? Is there any the least intima-
tion of any intetit and purpose of God as to the events insisted on ?
any promise of his effectual working for the accomplishing of them?
any prediction upon the account of his purpose and. design, which
are the foundation of all his predictions? Or is there any the least
correspondency in name or thing between the places now instanced
in and called in for relief with that under consideration ? This,
then, is the sinew of Mr Goodwin's arguing in this place : " Sometimes
when there are means offered men for the performance of a duty, the
accomplishment of it is spoken of as of what ought to have suc-
ceeded; and it is the fault of men to whom that duty is prescribed
and these means indulged if it come not to pass; therefore, when
God purposeth and promiseth to work and bring about such and
such a thing, and engageth himself to a real efficiency in it, yet it
may come to pass or it may not, — it may be accomplished, or God
may fail in his intendment." 2. The sense here given to the pro-
mise of God, " I will give them one heart," etc., hath been formerly
taken into consideration, and it hath been made to appear that,
notwithstanding all the glorious expressions of God's administration
of means to work men into the frame intimated, yet, upon the
matter, the intendment of the exposition given amounts to this:
" Though God saith he will give us a new heart, yet indeed he
doth not so give it to any one in the world, nor ever intended to
do so; but this new heart men must create, make, and work out
themselves, upon the means afforded them, which, being very emi-
nent, are said to create such hearts in them, though they do it not,
but only persuade men thereunto." A comment this is not much
unlike the first that ever was made upon the words of God, Gen.
iii. 5 ! Whether God or man create the new heart is the matter
here in question.

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 225

For what tie lastly affirms, " That if this be a promise of absolute
perseverance, it is inconsistent with all the prophecies of the rejec-
tion of the Jews, which are accordingly fulfilled," I must refer him
to St Paul, who hath long ago undertaken to answer this objection ;
from whom if he receive not satisfaction, what am I that I should
hope to afford the least unto him?

And these are the reasonings upon the account whereof Mr Good-
win dischargeth this text of Scripture, by virtue of his autocratorical
power in deciding controversies of this nature, from bearing testi-
mony in this cause any more. Whether he will be attended unto
herein time will show. Many attempts to the same purpose have
formerly been made, and yet it endureth the trial.

I have thus turned aside to the consideration of the exceptions
given in to the ordinary interpretation of this place, lest any should
think that they were waived upon the account of their strength and
efficacy to overthrow it. The argument I intended from the words,
for the stability of God's love and favour to believers upon the ac-
count of his covenant engagement, is not once touched in any of
them. These words, then, yield a third demonstration of the stead-
fastness and unchangeableness of acceptation of believers in Christ,
upon the account of the absolute stability of that covenant of grace
whereof God's engagement to be their God and never to forsake them
is an eminent portion.

CHAPTER y.

ARGUMENT FROM THE PROMISES OF GOD.

Entrance into the argument from the promises of God, with their stability and his
faitlifulness in them — -The usual exceptions to this argument — A general de-
scription of gospel promises — Why and on what account called gospel pro-
mises— The description given general, not suited to any single promise —
They are free, and that they are so proved, all flowing from the first great
promise of giving a Redeemer — How they are discoveries of God's good-will:
how made to sinners — Consequential promises made also to believers — Given in
and through Christ in a covenant of grace — Their certainty upon the account
of the engagement of the truth and faithfulness of God in them — Of the
main matter of these promises, Christ and the Spirit — Of particular promises,
all flowing from the same love and grace — Observations on the promises of
God, subservient to the end intended — 1. They are all true and faithful; the
ground of the assertion — 2. Their accomplishment always certain, not always
evident — 3. All conditional promises made good, and how — 4. The promises
of perseverance of two sorts — 5. All promises of our abiding with God in
faith and obedience absolute — The vanity of imposing conditions on them
discovered — 6. Promises of God's abiding with us not to be separated from
promises of our abiding with him — 7. That they do not properly depend on
any condition in believers demonstrated— Instances of this assertion given —
8. Making them conditional renders them void as to the ends for which they
are givtn — Given to persons, not to qualifications — The argument from the
VOL. XL 15

>

226 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

promises of God stated — Mr G.'s exceptions against the first proposition
cleared, and his objections answered — The promises of God always fulfilled —
Of the promise made to Paul, Acts xxvii. 21, etc. — Good men make good
their promises to the utmost of their abilities — The promise made to Paul
absolute and of infallible accomplishment — Of the promise of our Saviour to
his disciples, Matt. xix. 28 — AVho intended in that promise; not Judas — The
accomplishment of the promise — The testimony of Peter Martyr considered

The conclusion of the forementioned objection — The engagement of the

faithfulness of God for the accomplishment of his promise, 1 Cor. i. 9;
1 Thess. V. 23, 24; 2 Thess. iii. 3— The nature of the faithfulness of God,
expressed in the foregoing places, inquired into — Perverted by Mr G. — His
notion of the faithfulness of God weighed and rejected — What intended in
the Scripture by the fVuthfulness of God — The close of the confirmation of the
proposition or the argument proposed from the promises of God — The as-
sumption thereof vindicated — The sense put upon it by Mr G. — The question
beffged.

'^Bo^

The consideration of the promises of God, which are all branches
of the forementioned root, all streaming from the fountain of the
covenant of grace, is, according to the method proposed, in the next
place incumbent on us. The argument for the truth under contest
which from hence is afforded and used is by Mr Goodwin termed
'' The first-born of our strength," chap. xi. sect. 1, p. 225 ; and indeed
we are content that it may be so accounted, desiring nothing more
ancient, nothing more strong, effectual, and powerful, to stay our
souls upon, than the promises of that God who cannot lie.^ I shall,
for the present, insist only on those which peculiarly assert, and in
the name and authority of God confirm, that part of the truth we are
peculiarly in demonstration of, — namely, the imchangeable stability
of the love and favour of God to believers, in regard whereof he
turneth not from them nor forsaketh them upon the account of any
such interveniences whatever as he will suffer to be interposed in
their communion with him ; leaving those wherein he gives assurance
upon assurance that he will give out unto them such continual sup-
plies of his Spirit and grace that they shall never depart from him
to their due and proper place.

I am not unacquainted with the usual exception that lieth against
the demonstration of the truth in hand from the promises of God,
to wit, that they are conditional, depending on some things in the
persons themselves to whom they are made, upon whose change or
alteration they also may be frustrated, and not receive their accom-
plishment. Whether this plea may be admitted against the particu-
lar promi.ses that we shall insist upon will be put upon the trial,
when we come to the particular handling of them. For the present,
being resolved, by God's assistance, to pursue the demonstration
proposed from them, it may not be amiss, yea, rather it may be very
useful, to insist a little upon the promises themselves, their nature
' llcb. vi. 18; Tit. i. 2.

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 227

and excellency, that we may be the more stirred up to inquire after
every truth and sweetness of the love, grace, and kindness (they being
the peculiar way chosen of God for the manifestation of his good-will
to sinners) that is in them ; and I shall do it briefly, that I may pro-
ceed with the business of my present intendment.
^ Gospel promises, then, are,— 1. The free and gracious dispensa-
tions, and, 2. discoveries of God's good-will and love, to, 3. sin-
ners, 4. through Christ, 5. in a covenant of grace ; 6. wherein, upon
his truth and faithfulness, he engageth himself to be their God, to
give his Son unto them and for them, and his Holy Spirit to abide
with them, with all things that are either required in them or are
necessary for them to make them accepted before him, and to bring
them t-o an enjoyment of him.

I call them gospel promises, not as though they were only con-
tained in the books of the New Testament, or given only by Christ
after his coming in the flesh,— for they were given from the begin-
ning of the world, or first entrance of sin,^ and the Lord made plen-
tiful provision of them and by them for his people under the old
testament, — but only to distinguish them from the promises of the
law, which hold out a word of truth and faithfulness, engaged for a
reward of life to them that yield obedience thereunto (there being
an indissolvable connection "between entering into life and keeping
the commandments), and so to manifest that they all belong to the
gospel properly so called, or the tidings of that peace for sinners
which was wrought out and manifested by Jesus Christ.^

Farther; I do not give this for the description of any one single
individual promise as it lieth in any place of Scripture, as though it
expressly contained all the things mentioned herein (though virtu-
ally it doth so), but rather to show what is the design, aim, and good-
will of God in them all; which he discovers and manifests in them
by several parcels, according as they may be suited to the advance-
ment of his glory, in reference to the persons to whom they are made.
Upon the matter, all the promises of the gospel are but one, and
every one of them comprehends and tenders the same love, the same
Christ, the same Spirit, which are in them all. None can have an
interest in any one but he hath an interest in the good of them all,
that being only represented variously for the advantage of them that
believe. My design is to describe the general intention of God in
all gospel promises, whereby they, being equally spirited, become as
one.^ And concerning these, I say, —

1. That they are free and gracious as to the rise and fountain of
them. They are given unto us merely through the good-will and

» Gen. iii. 14, 15; Gal. iii. 17; Tit. i. 2.

5 Gal. iii. 12; Luke ii. 10; Eph. ii. 15; Isa. Iii. 7.

» Gal. iii. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 12; Heb. vi. 17, 18.

228 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

pleasure of God.^ That which is of promise is everywhere opposed
to that which is of doubt, or that which is any way deserved or pro-
cured by us: Gal. iii. 18, " If the inheritance be of the law" (which
includes all that in us is desirable, acceptable, and deserving), " it is
no more of promise," — that is, free, and of mere grace. He that can
find out any reason or cause without God himself why he should
promise any good thing whatever to sinners (as all are, and are
sb-ut up under sin, till the promise come, Gal. iii. 22), may be al-
lowed to glory in the invention which he hath found out, Matt. xx. 15.
A well-conditioned nature, necessitating him to a velleity of doing
good, and yielding relief to them that are in misery (though justly
receiving the due reward of their deeds, which even among the sons
of men is a virtue dwelling upon the confines of vice), for their re-
covery, is by some imposed on him. But that this is not the foun-
tain and rise of his promises needs no other evidence but the light
of this consideration : That which is natural is necessary and uni-
versal; promises are distinguishing as to them in misery, at least
they are given to men, and not to fallen angels. But may not God
do what he will with his own?

Farther ',iuTesus Christ is himself in the promise. He is the gi'eat
original, maenu-, and subject of the promises, and the giving of him
was doubtlehiLQf free grace and mercy: so John iii. 16, "God so
loved the wo-an tlhat he gave his only-begotten Son;" and Rom.
v. 8, "God com insist \h his love toward us, in that, whilst we were
yej, sinners, Chrithority for us;" and in 1 John iv. 10, "Herein is
lovo, not that we 'jn^tratKod, but that he loved us, and sent his Son
to be the propitiativour otur sins." All is laid upon the account of
love and free grace, <?m nc xi. 26. I confess there are following pro-
mises given out for the orderly carrying on of the persons to whom
the main, original, fundamental promises are made, unto the end de-
signed for them, that seem to have qualifications and conditions in
them ; but yet even those are all to be resolved into the primitive
grant of mercy. That which promiseth life upon believing, — being of
use to stir men up unto and carry them on in faith and obedience, —
nuist yet, as to the pure nature of the promise, be resolved into that
which freely is promised, namely, Christ himself, and with him both
faith and life, believing and salvation. As in your automata there
is one original spring or wheel that giveth motion to sundry lesser
and subordinate movers, that are carried on with great variety, some-
times with a seeming contrarit^ty one to anothei', but all regularly
answering and being subservient to the impression of the first mover ;
[so] the first great promise of Christ, and all good things in him, is
that which spirits and principles all other promises whatsoever;^ and

' Tit. i. 2; 2 Pet. i. 3, 4.

a Gen. iii. 15, xli.x. 10; Isa. ix. 0; 2 Cor. i. 20.

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 229

howsoever they may seem to move upon conditional terms, yet they
are all to be resolved into that absolute and free original spring.
Hence that gi-eat grant of gospel mercy is called ^' The gift by him,"
Rom. V. 1 5-1 8 ; yea, all the promises of the law, as to their origi-
nal emanation from God, and the constitution of the reward in them,
engaged to be bestowed for the services required, are free and gra-
cious; there is not any natural, indispensable connection between
obedience and reward, as there is between sin and punishment, as I
have elsewhere at large disputed and proved/

2. I call them discoveries and manifestations of God's good-ivill
and love, which is the prime and sole cause of all the good things
which are wrapped up and contained in them. Of this good-will of
God, the promises which he hath given are the sole discoveries. We
do not in this discourse take " promises" merely for what God hath
said he will do in terms expressly, but for every assertion of his good-
will and kindness to us in Christ ; all which was first held out under
a word of promise, Gen. iii. 15. And this the apostle infers in Tit.
i. 2, 3, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, pro-
mised before the world began, but hath in due times manifested his
word through preaching," or discovered or made known that good-
will of his by tlie promises in preaching of the gospel. And to this
extent of significancy is that " promise" in the Scripture, both name
and thing, in very many places stretched out. Every thing whatever
that is manifestative of grace and good-will to sinners is of the pro-
mise, though it be not cast into a promissory foi'm of expression.
Yea, whereas, strictly, a promise respecteth that which is either only
future, and not of present existence, or the continuance of that which
is, yet even expressions of things formerly done and of a present
performance (some individuals to the end of the world being to be
made anew partakers of the grace, good-will, and mercy in them)
do belong to the promise also, in that acceptation of it which the
Holy Ghost in many places leads unto,^ and which we now insist
upon.

8. I say they are made unto sinners, and that as sinners, under
no other qualification whatever, it being by the mercy of the pro-
mise alone that any men are relieved out of that condition of being
sinners, and morally nothing else. Were not the promises origi-
nally made to sinners, there would never any one be found in any
other state or condition.^ I know there are promises made to be-
lievers, even such as are unchangeable, and shall bear them into the
bosom of God ; but 1 say these are all consequential, and upon sup-
position of the first and great promise, whereby Christ himself, and
faith for his sake, are bestowed on them. This runs through them all,

* Diatr. de Just. Div. « Micah vii. 17-20.

» Eph. ii. 12: Eom. iii. 19; Gal. iii. 22.

230 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEllSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

as the very tenor of tliem aud method of God in them do manifest/
as we shall see afterward. So the apostle, Gal. iiL 22, "The Scrip-
ture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe." All are shut up under
sin until the promise of salvation by Jesus Christ and faith in him
Cometh in for their deliverance. The promise is given to them as
shut up under sin, which they receive by mixing it with faith. And
Kom. iii. 23, 24, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of
God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus." Their condition is a condition of sin and falling
short of the glory of God, when the promise for justification is given
unto them and finds them. Thence the Lord tells us, Isa. liv, 8, 9,
that this promise of mercy is like that which he made about the
waters of Noah, where is mentioned no condition at all of it, but
■only the sins of men.^ And in that state unquestionably was Adam
when the first promise was given unto him. To say, then, that gos-
pel promises are made to men in such conditions, and are to be
made good only upon the account of men's abiding in the condition
wherein they are when the promise is made to them, is to say, that
for men to leave the state of sin is the w^ay to frustrate all the pro-
mises of God. All deliverance from a state of sin is by grace ;^ all
grace is of promise. Under that condition, then, of sin doth the pro-
mise find men, and from thence relieve them.

4. I say, these discoveries of God's good-will are made through
Christ, as the only medium of their accomplishment, and only pro-
curing cause of the good things that, flowing from the good-will of
God, are inwrapped and tendered in them, 2 Cor. i. 20. And they
are said to be in Christ, as, — (1.) The great messenger of the covenant,
as in him who comes from the Father, because God hath confirmed
and ratified them all in him ; not in themselves, but unto us. He
hath in him and by him given faith and assurance of them all unto
us, declaring and confirming his good-will and love to us by him.
He reveals the Father (as a father) from his own bosom, John i. 18,
declaring his name or grace unto his, chap. xvii. 3. " All the pro-
mises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God
by us," 2 Cor. i. 20. In him, and by his mediation, they have all
their confirmation, establishment, and unchangeableness unto us.
(2.) Because he hath undertaken to be surety of that covenant
whereof they are the promises: Heb. vii. 22, he is "the surety" of the
covenant ; that is, one who hath undertaken, both on the part of God
and on ours, whatever is needful for confirmation thereof And, (3.)
Because that himself is iha great subject of all these promises, and in
hira (it being of his own purchase and procuring, he "having obtained

' John iii. 16; Rom. viii. 32; ] Cor. i. 30; Phil. i. 29; Eph. i. 3.
2 Gen. viii. 21, 22. s Eph. ii. 4, 5, 8.

V.J THE PKOMISES OF GOD. 231

eternal redemption for us," Heb. ix. 1 2) there is treasured up all the
fulness of those mei'cies which in them God hath graciously engaged
himself to bestow, they being all annexed to him, as the portion he
brings with him to the soul/ Then, I say, —

5. That they are discoveries of God's good-iuill in a covenant of
grace. They are, indeed, the branches, streams, and manifesting con-
veyances, of the gTace of that covenant, and of the good-will of
God putting itself forth therein. Hence the apostle mentions the
" covenants of promise," Eph. ii. 12, either for the promises of the
covenant or its manifestation, as I said before. Indeed, as to the
subject-matter and eminently, the promise is but one, as the covenant
is no more ; but both come under a plural expression, because they
have been variously delivered and renewed upon several occasions.
So the covenant of grace is said to be established upon these pro-
mises, Heb. viii. 6; that is, the grace and mercy of the covenant,
and the usefulness of it to the ends of a covenant, to keep God and
man together in peace and agreement, are laid upon these promises,
to be by them confirmed and established unto us, God having by
them revealed his good-will unto us, with an attendancy of stipula-
tion of duty. Their use, for the begetting and continuing commu-
nion between God and us, with the concomitancy of precepts, places
them in the capacity of a covenant. And then, —

6. I mentioned the foundation of the certainty and uncliange-
ahleness of these promises, with our assurance of their accomplish-
ment. The engagements and undertakings of God, upon his truth
and faithfulness, are the stock and unmovable foundation of this
respect of them. Therefore, speaking of them, the Holy Ghost often
backs them with that property of God, "He cannot lie:" so Heb.
vi. 17, 18, "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the^eirs of
promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath;
that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God
to lie," etc.; so Tit. i. 2, "God, which cannot lie, hath promised us
eternal life." There is no one makes a solemn promise, but as it
ought to proceed from him in sincerity and truth, so he engageth
his truth and faithfulness, in all the credit of them, for the accom-
plishment thereof what lieth in him; and on this account doth
David so often appeal unto and call upon the righteousness of God
as to the fulfilling of his promises and the word which he caused
him to put his trust in.^ It is because of his engagement of his
truth and faithfulness, whence it becometh a righteous thing with
him to perform what he hath spoken. How far this respect of the
promises extends, and wherein it is capable of a dispensation, is the
sum of our present controversy. But of this afterward. Then, —

1 John i. 16 ; Col. i. 18, 19, ii. 19, etc. ; Rom. Tiii. 32.
3 Ps. xxxi. 1, 5, 14 ; Isa. xlv. 19 ; 2 Pet. i. 1.

2;?2 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

7. A Lrief description of the matter of these promises, and what
God freely engageth himself unto in them, was insisted on. Of
this, of the promises in this regard, there is one main fountain or
spring, whereof there are two everlasting streams, whence thousands
of refreshing rivulets do flow. The original fountain and spring of
all good unto us, both in respect of its being and manifestation, is
that he will be our God: Gen. xvii. 1, 2, " I am the Almighty God ;
walk before me and be thou perfect : and I will make my covenant,"
etc. So everywhere, as the bottom of his dealing with us in covenant:
Jer. xxxi. S3, " I will be their God, and they shall be my people;"
Isa. liv. 5 ; Hos. ii. 23 ; and in very many other places. Now, that
he may thus be our God, two things are required :—

(1.) That all breaches and differences between him and us be re-
moved, perfect peace and agreement made, and we rendered accept-
able and well-pleasing in his sight. These are the terms whereon
they stand to whom he is a God in covenant. For the accomplish-
ment of this is the first main stream that floweth from the former
fountain, — namely, the great promise of giving Christ to us and for us,
" who is our peace," Eph. ii. 14; and " who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctificatiou, and redemption," 1 Cor.
i. 30; " wlio loves us, and washeth us in his own blood, and makes
us kings and jjriests to God and his Father," Rev. i. 5, 6 ; " giving
himself for his church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it, Avith the
washing of water by the word, tliat he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but
that it should be holy and without blemish," Eph. v. 25-27;^ doing
and accomplishing all things that are required for the forementioned
ends. And this is the first main stream that flows from that fountain.
Christ as a redeemer, a saviour, a mighty one, a priest, a sacrifice,
an oblation, our peace, righteousness, and the author of our salvation,
is the subject-matter thereof.

(2.) That we may be kept and preserved meet for communion with
him as our God, and for the enjoyment of him as our reward. For
this end flows forth the other great str-^am from the former fountain,
■ — namely, the promise of the Holy Spirit; which he gives us to
"make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in light," '^ to put
forth and exercise towards us all the acts of his love which are need-
ful for us, and to work in us the obedience which he requires and
accepts of us in Jesus Christ, so preserving us for himself This
promise of the Spirit in the covenant, with his work and peculiar
dispensations, is plentifully witnessed in very many places of the Old
Testament and New,* some whereof must afterward be insisted on.

' Tit. ii. M; Gen. iii. 15; Job xix. 25; Eph. ii. 13; Hcb. ii. 17 ; Eph. v. Ii ;
1 Tim. ii. G. ' Col. i. VI.

» Isa. lix. 21 ; Kzok. xi. 19, xxxvi. 2G, 27 ; John xiv. 16, 17, etc.

V.j THE PROMISES OF GOD. 233

Hence he is sometimes called the promise of the covenant : Acts
ii. 89, "The promise is to you; " which promise is that which Christ
receiveth from his Father, verse 33, even " the promise of the Holy
Ghost." I shall only add, that though this be a great stream flow-
ing from the first fountain, yet it comes not immediately thence, but
issues out from the stream before mentioned, the promise of the
Lord Jesus Christ; for he is given by him unto us, as procured for
us, and given only unto his, John xiv. 16, 17, 26; Gal. iv. 6.

Now, from these two gi-and streams do a thousand rivulets flow
forth for our refreshment. All the mercy that Christ hath purchased,
all the graces that the Spirit doth bring forth (which in the former
description I call all things that are either required in them or need-
ful to them to make them accepted before God, and to bring them
to an enjoyment of him), all promises of mercy and forgiveness, all
promises of faith and holiness, of obedience and perseverance, of joy
and consolation, of correction, affliction, and deliverance, — they all
flow from these ; that is, from the matter of those promises doth the
matter of these arise. And hence are the ensuing corollaries : —

1. Whoever hath an interest in any one promise hath an interest
in them all, and in the fountain-love from whence they flow. He
to whom any drop of their sweetness floweth may follow it up unto
the spring. Were we wise, each taste of mercy would lead us to the
ocean of love. Have we any hold on a promise ? — we may get upon
it, and it will bring us to the main, Christ himself and the Spirit,
and so into the bosom of the Father. It is our folly to abide upon
a little, which is given us merely to make us press for more.

2. That the most conditional promises are to be resolved into ab-
solute and unconditional love. God, who hath promised life upon
believing, hath promised believing on no condition (on our parts) at
all, because to sinners.

This in general being given in concerning the nature of the pro-
mises, I shall proceed to some such considerations as are of particular
usefulness unto that improvement which, the Lord assisting, I in-
tend to make of them, for the confirmation of the truth under debate.
And they are these: —

] . All the promises of God are true and faithful, and shall most
certainly all of them be accomplished. His nature, his veracity, his
unchangeableness, his omniscience and omnipotency, do all contri-
bute strength to this assertion. Neither can these properties pos-
sibly continue 'entire, and the honour of them be preserved unto the
Lord, if the least failing in the accomplishment of his promises be
ascribed unto him. Every such failing must of necessity relate to
some such principle as stands in direct opposition to one or more
of the perfections before mentioned. It must be a failing in the
truth, unchangeableness, prescience, or power, that must frustrate

234 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the promise of any one. We, indeed, often alter our resolutions,
and the promise that is gone out of our mouths, and that perhaps
righteously, upon some such change of things as we could not fore-
see, nor ought to have supposed, when we entered into our engage-
ments. No such thing can be ascribed unto Him who knows all
things, with their circumstances, that can possibly come to pass, and
hath determined what shall so do, and therefore will not engage in
any promise that he knows something which he foresaw would
follow after would cause him to alter. It were a ludicrous thing in
any son of man to make a solemn promise of any thing to another, if
he particularly knew that in an hour some such thing would happen
as should enforce him to change and alter that promise which he
had so solemnly entered into. And shall we ascribe such an action
to Him before whom all things are open and naked? Shall he be
thought solemnly to engage himself to do or accomplish any thing
which yet not only he will not do, but also at that instant hath those
things in his eye and under his consideration for which he will not
so do as he promiseth, and determined before that he would not so
do ? If this be not unworthy the infinite goodness, wisdom, and
faithfulness of God, I know not what can or may be ascribed unto
him that is. Yea, the truth and veracity of God in his promises
cannot be denied him without denying him his deity, or asserted
without the certain accomplishment of what he hath promised.

2. There are sundry things relating to the accomplishment of jiro-
mises, as to times, seasons, persons, ways, etc., wherein we have
been in the dark, and yet the promises concerning them be fully
accomplished. The rejection of the Jews supplies us with an in-
stance pregnant with this objection. The apostle tells us that witli
many this objection did arise on that account: "If the Jews be re-
jected, then the promises of God to them do fail," Rom. iii. 3. He
lays down and answers this objection, discovering that fallacy therein
by a distinction. " They are not," saith he, " all Israel which are of
Israel," cha]). ix. 6 ; as if he had said, " There is a twofold Israel, an
Israel after the flesh only, and an Israel after the flesh and Spirit
also." Unto these latter were the promises made ; and therefore
they who look on the former only think it faileth, whereas indeed it
holdeth to its full accomplishment. So he disputes again, chap. xi. 7.
I say, then, we may be in the dark as to many circumstances of the
fulfilling of promises, when yet they have received a most exact ac-
complishment.

3. All the conditional promises of God are exactly true, and shall
be most faithfully made good by accomplishment as to that wherein
their being as promises doth consist, as far as they are declarative of
God's purpose and intendment. This is that which, as I said before,
some object, " Many of the promises of God are conditional, and

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 235

their truth must needs depend upon the accomplishment of the con-
dition mentioned in them; if that be not fulfilled, then they also
must fail, and be of none effect." I say, then, that even the condi-
tional promises of God are absolutely made good. The truth of any
promise consists in this, that that whereof it speaks answers the affir-
mation itself For instance, " He that believeth shall be saved."
This promise doth not primarily affirm that any one shall be saved,
and notwithstanding it no one might so be; but only this it affirms,
that there is an infallible connection between faith and salvation,
and therein is the promise most true, whether any one believe or no.
Briefly, conditional promises are either simply declarative of the will
of God in fixing an exact correspondency between a condition men-
tioned and required in them and the thing promised by them, in
which case they have an unchangeable and infallible verity in them-
selves, as there is in all the promises of the moral law to this day,
for he that keeps the commandments shall live; or they are also the
discoveries of the good-iuill of God, his intendments and purposes,
that whereof they make mention being not the condition whereon
his purposes are suspended, but the way and means whereby the
thing promised is to be accomplished ; and in the latter acceptation
alone are they, in the business in hand, our concernment.

4. That the promises concerning perseverance (as hath been often
intimated) are of two sorts; — the first, of the continuance of the
favour of God to us, which respects our justification ; the other, of
the continuance of our obedience unto God, which respects our
sanctification. Let us consider both of them, and begin with the
latter: —

(1.) Of them I say, then, they are all absolute, not one of them
conditional (so as to be suspended as to their accomplishment on
any conditions), nor can be. The truth of God in them hath not its
efficiency and accomplishment by establishing the relation that is
between one thing and another, or the connection that is between
duty and reward, as it is in conditional promises that are purely and
merely so; but enforceth the exact fulfilling of the thing promised,
and that with respect unto, and for the preservation of, the glory of
that excellency of God, " He cannot lie." Let it be considered what
that condition or those conditions be, or may be, on which promises
of this nature should be suspended, and the truth of the former as-
sertion will evidently appear. That God hath promised unto be-
lievers that they shall for ever abide with him in the obedience of
the covenant unto the end shall afterward be proved by a cloud of
witnesses. What, now, is the condition whereon this promise doth
depend? " It is," says Mr Goodwin, " that they perform their duty,
that they suffer not themselves to be seduced, nor willingly cast off
the yoke of Christ." But what doth this amount unto? Is it not thus

236 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

much : If they abide with God (for if they perform their duty, and
do not suffer themselves to be seduced, nor wilUngly depart from God,
they abide with him), God hath promised that they shall abide with
him, — upon condition they abide with him, he hath promised they
shall? " Egregiam vero laudem !" Can any thing more ridiculous be
invented ? If men abide with God, what need they any promise that
they shall so do? The whole virtue of the promise depends on that
condition, and that condition containeth all that is promised. Nei-
ther is it possible that any thing can be invented to be supplied as
the condition or conditions of these promises, but it will quickly ap-
pear, upon consideration, that however it may be differently phrased,
yet indeed it is coincident with the matter of the promise itself.
That condition or those conditions must consist in some act, acts,
way, or course of acceptable obedience in them to whom the pro-
mises are made. This the nature of the thing itself requireth. Now,
every such act, way, or course, is the matter of the promise, even uni-
versal obedience. Now, if one man should promise another that he
should, at such a time and place, be supplied with a hundred pounds
to pay his debts, on condition that he came and brought the money
himself, ought he to be esteemed to have a mind to relieve the poor
man, or to mock him? To affirm that when God promiseth to write
his law in our hearts, to put his fear in our inward parts, to create
in us a new heart, to circumcise our hearts that we may fear him
always, to give us his Spirit to abide with us for ever, to preserve us
by his power, so that we shall never leave him nor forsake him, shall
live to him, and sin shall not have dominion over us, etc., he doth
it upon condition that we write his law in our hearts, circumcise
them, continue to fear him, abide with him, not forsake him, etc., is
to make him to mock and deride at their misery whose relief he so
seriously pretendeth. Whatever promises, then, of this kind (pro-
mises of working obedience in us, for our abiding with him) shall be
produced, they will be found to be absolute and independent on any
condition whatever, and their truth no ways to be maintained but in
and by their accomplishment.

(2.) For those of the first sort, which I shall now handle, farther
to clear the foundation of their ensuing application, I shall propose
only some few things unto consideration ; as, —

[1.] That they are not to be taken or looked upon, as to their use
for argument in the present controversy, scpai'ated and divided from
those other promises formerly insisted on, wliich as.sure believers that
they shall always abide with God as to their obedience. All hope
that any have to prevail against them is by dividing of them. It is
a very vain supposal and foundation of sand which our adversaries
build their inferences upon, which they make against the doctrine
of the saints' perseverance, — namely, the impossibility that God

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 237

should continue his love and favour to tliem whilst they wallow in
all manner of abominations and desperate rebellions against him ; a
hypothesis crudely imposed on our doctrine, and repeated over and
over as a matter of the greatest detestation and abomination that
can fall within the thoughts of men. And such supposals and con-
clusions are made thereupon as border, at least, upon the cursed coast
of blasphemy. But cui fini, I pray, to what end, is all this noise?
as though any had ever asserted that God promised to continue his
love and gracious acceptation always to his saints, ahd yet took no
care nor had promised that they should be continued saints, but
w^ould suffer them to turn very devils. It is as easy for men to con-
fute hypotheses created in their own imaginations as to cast down
men of straw of their own framing and setting up. We say, indeed,
that God hath faithfull}^ promised that he will never leave nor for-
sake believers; but withal that he hath no less faithfully engaged
himself that they shall never wickedly depart from him, but that
they shall continue saints and believers. Yea (if I may so say), pro-
mising always to accept them freely, it is incumbent on his holy
Majesty, upon the account of his truth, faithfulness, and righteous-
ness, to preserve them such as, without the least dishonour to his
grace and holiness, yea, to the greatest advantage of his glory, he
may always accept them, delight in them, and rejoice over them;
and so he tells us he doth, Jer. xxxi. 3, " Yea, I have loved thee
with an everlasting love ; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn
thee." He draws us with kindness to follow him, obey him, live
unto him, abide with him, because he loves us with an everlasting
love.

[2.] That these promises of God do not properly, and as to their
original rise, depend on any conditions in believers, or by them to
be fulfilled, but are the fountains and springs of all conditions what-
ever that are required to be in them or expected from them, though
the srace and obedience of believers are often mentioned in them
as the means whereby they are carried on, according to the appoint-
ment of God, unto the enjoyment of what is promised or continued
in it. This one consideration, that there is in very many of these
promises an express non obstante, or a notwithstanding the want of
any such condition as might seem to be at the bottom and to be the
occasion of any such promise or engagement of the grace of God, is
sufficient to give light and evidence to this assertion. If the Lord
saith expressly that he will do so with men, though it be not so with
them, his doing of that thing cannot depend on any such thing in
them, as he saith notwithstanding the want of it he will do it.
Take one instance: Isa. hv. 8-10, " In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the LoiiD thy Redeemer. For this is as the

238 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

■waters of Noah unto mc : for as I have sworn that the Avaters of Noah
should no more go over the earth ; so have I sworn that I would not
be wroth Avith thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall de-
part, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from
thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the
Lord that hath mercy on thee." He will have mercy on them with
everlasting kindness, verse 8. " Yea, but how if they walk not worthy
of it?" Why, yet this kindness shall not fail, saith the Lord; for
it is " as the waters of Noah." God sweareth that " the waters of
Noah shall no more cover the earth," and you see the stability of
what he hath spoken ; the world is now " reserved for fire," but
drowned it shall be no more. " My kindness to thee," says God,
" is such, it shall no more depart from thee than those waters shall
return again upon the earth." Neither is this all wherein he com-
pareth his kindness to the waters of Noah, but in this also, in that
in the promise of drowning the world no more there was an express
non obstante for the sins of men: Gen. viii. 21, " The Lord said in
his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;
for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." "Though
men grow ftdl of wickedness and violence, as before the flood they
were, yet," saith the Lord, " the world shall be drowned no more."
And in this doth the promise of kindness hold proportion with that
of the waters of Noah. There is an express relief in it against the
sins and failings of them to whom it is made, — namely, such as he
will permit them to fall into, whilst he certainly preserves them from
all such as are inconsistent with his love and favour, according to the
tenor of the covenant of grace ; and therefore it depends not on any
thing in them, being made with a proviso for any such defect as in
them may be imagined.

[3.] To affirm that these promises of God's abiding with us to the
end do depend on any condition that may be uncertain in its event,
by us to be fulfilled, as to their accomplishment, doth wholly ener-
vate and make them void in respect to the main end for which they
were given us of God. That one chief end of them is to give the
saints consolation in every condition, in all the straits, trials, and
temptations, which they are to undergo or may be called to, is evident.
When Joshua was entering upon the great work of subduing the
Canaanites, and setting the tabernacle and people of God in their
appointed inheritance, wherein he was to pass through innumerable
difficulties, trials, and pressures, God gives him that word of promise,
" I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee," Josh. i. 5. So are many
of them made to the saints in their weakness, darkness, and deser-
tions, as will appear by the consideration of the particular instances
following, Isa, iv. 3, 4. Now, what one drop of consolation can a
jioor, drooping, tempted soul, s(|ueeze out of such promises as de-

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 239

pend wholly and solely upon any tiling within themselves: " He
will be with me and be my God, it is true ; but always provided that
I continue to be his. That also is a sweet and gracious promise;
but that I shall do so he hath not promised. It seems I have a
cursed liberty left me of departing wickedly from him; so that, upon
the matter, notwithstanding these promises of his, I am left to my-
self If I will abide with him, well and good, he will abide with me
and so it will be well with me ; — that he should so abide with me as
to cause me to abide with him, it seems there is no such thing.
Soul, look to thyself; all thy hopes and help are in thyself But, alas !
for the present I have no sense of this love of God, and I know not
that I have any true, real, unfeigned obedience to him. Conuption
is strong, temptations are many; what shall I say? Shall I exercise
faith on those promises of God wherein he hath said and given
assurance that 'he will be a God to me for ever?' According as
my thoughts are of my own abiding with him, so may I think of
them, and no otherwise; so that I am again rolled upon mine own
hands, and left to mine own endeavours to extricate myself from
these sad entanglements." What now becomes of the consolation
which in these promises is intended? Are they not, on this account,
rather flints and pieces of vcon than breasts of comfort and joy?

Lastly, If it be so as is supposed, it is evident that God makes no
promises unto persons, but only unto conditions and qualifications;
— that is, his promises are not engagements of his love and good-
will to believers, but discoveries of his approbation of believing.
Suppose any promise of God to be our God, our all-sufficient God
for ever, not eminently to include an engagement for the effectual
exertion of the all-sufficiency to preserve and continue us in such a
state and spiritual condition as wherein he may with the glory and
honour of his grace, and will not fail to, abide and continue our God,
and you cut all the nerves and sinews of it, as to the administration
of any consolation unto them to whom it is given. The promises
must be made good, that is certain; and if they are accomplished or
not accomplished unto men merely upon the account of such and
such qualifications in them, — which if they are found, then they shall
be fulfilled, if not, then they are suspended, — they are made to the
conditions, and not at all to the persons. And though some, per-
haps, will easily grant this, yet upon this account it cannot be said
that God ever made any one promise unto his church as consisting
of such persons, namely, Abraham and his seed; which is directly
contrary to that of the apostle, Rom. ix. 8, where he calleth the
elect " The children of the promise," or those to whom the promises
were made. It appears, then, that neither are these promises of
God conditional. As they proceed from free grace, so there is no
other account on which they are given out, continued, and accom-

240 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

plished, towards the cliildrcn of God. Though the things of the
promise are often placed in dependence one on another, as means
and ends, yet the promises themselves are absolute.

These few things being premised, I shall now name and insist
upon some j^u'^'ticulai- promises, wherein the Lord hath graciously
eno-affed himself that he will abide to be a God in covenant unto
his people and their guide unto death ; from which I sliall labour
to make good this argument for the perseverance of the saints: —

"That which that God, 'who cannot lie' nor ' deceive,' 'with whom
there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,'^ who is 'faith-
ful ' in all his j^romises, and all whose words are ' faithfulness and
truth,' hath solemnly promised and engaged himself unto, to this end,
that they unto whom he so promiseth and engageth himself may
from those promises receive ' strong consolation,'- — that he will cer-
tainly perform and accomplish. That he will be a God and a guide
unto death unto his saints, that he will never leave them nor for-
sake them, that he Avill never cast them off nor leave them out
of his favour, but will preserve them such as is meet for his holy
majesty to embrace, love, and delight in, and that with an express
notwithstanding for every such thing as might seem to provoke him
to forsake them, he hath promised, and for the end mentioned ; there-
fore, [the promise] that he will so abide with them, that his love shall
be continued to them to the end, that he will preserve them unto
himself, etc., according to his truth and faithfulness, shall be accom-
plished and fulfilled." The inference hath its strength from the
nature, truth, and faithfulness of God; and whilst they abide in any
credit with the sons of men, it may seem strange that it should be de-
nied or questioned. The major proposition of the forementioned argu-
ment is examined by Mr Goodwin, chap. xi. sect 1, p. 225. Saith he, —

1. " What God hath promised in his word is certain in such a
sense and upon such terms as God would be understood in his pro-
nnses; but what he promised in one sense is not certain of perform-
ance in the other."

Ans. Doubtless, God's meaning and intention in his promises
is the rule of their accomplishment. This sometimes we may not
be able to fathom, and thereupon be exposed to temptations not a
few concerning their fulfilling; so was it with them with whom Paul
had to do in reference to the promises made to the seed of Abraham.
The question, then, is not whether that which is promised in one
sense shall be performed in another; but whether God's promises
have, and shall certainly have, all of them, according to his intend-
ment, any performance at all. And the»aim of Mr Goodwin, in the
example that he afterward produceth, is not to manifest that that
which God promiseth shall certainly be performed only in that sense
' Titus i. 2; lleb. vi. 18 ; .lames i. 17 ; 1 Cor. i. t).

v.] ' THE PROMISES OF GOD. 241

wherein he made his promise, but that they may be performed, or
not performed at all. It is not in whose sense they shall have their
performance, but whether they shall have any performance or no.
If the thing promised be not accomplished, the promise is not at all
in any sense performed, unless Mr Goodwin will distinguish, and
say there are two ways of any thing's performance, one whereby it
is performed, another whereby it is not. But he proceeds to mani-
fest this assertion by an induction of instances.

2. " God," saith he, " promised to Paul the lives of them that were
in the ship. His intent and meaning was, not that they should all be
preserved against whatever they in the ship might do to hinder that
promise, but with this proviso or condition, that they in the ship
should hearken unto him and follow his advice; which is evident
from these words of Paul, ' Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot
be saved : ' and had they gone away, God had not made any breach
of promise though they had been all drowned, Acts xxvii."'

Ans. First, when men seriously promise any thing, which is wholly
and absolutely in their power to accomplish and bring about, causing
thereby good men to rest upon their word, and to declare unto others
their repose upon their honesty and worth, if they do not make good
what they have spoken, we account them unworthy promise-breakers,
and they do it at the peril of all the repute of honesty, honour, and
faith, they have in the world. With God it seems it is otherwise. He
makes a solemn, gracious promise to Paul that the lives of all them
in the ship with him should be saved. Paul, on whom it was as
much incumbent as on any man in the world not to engage the
name of God (that God whom he worshipped and preached) in any
thing whose truth might in the least be liable to exception, being in
the way of declaring a new doctrine to the world, which would have
been everlastingly prejudiced by any misprision of the faithfulness of
that God in whose name and authority he preached it; the sum of
that doctrine, also, being the exaltation of that God, in ojjposition to
all the pretended deities of the world ;^ — he, I say, boasts himself
upon the promise that he had received that there should be " no
loss of any man's life among them," verses 22, 25. He gives the
reason of his confident assertion when all hope was taken away:
Verse 25, " I believe God," saith he, " that it shall be even as it was
told me." His faith in God was in reference to the event, that it
should come to pass as it was told him. Faith in God, divine faith,
can have nothing for its object that may fail it. He doth not say
that he believes that God will be faithful to his promise in general,
but also tells them wherein his faithfulness doth consist, even in the
performance and accomplishment of that which he had promised.
This he informs the centurion and the rest in the ship with him ; and
' Acts xiv. 15, xvii. 24; 1 Tim. iv. 10.

VOL. XI. 16

242 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

if ill the issue it had otherwise fallen out, there had not been any
colour of justifying the faith of that God he served, or his own truth
in bearing witness to him. Had any perished, those that remained
would have argued him of lying. " Yea, but saith he not himself,
* Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.'" He did so
indeed, and thereby declared the necessity of using suitable means,
when Providence affords them to us, for the accomplishment of ap-
pointed, determined ends. God, who promiseth any thing, and afford-
eth means for the attaining of it, will direct them to whom those
promises are made to the use of those means; as he doth the cen-
turion by Paul. It being incumbent in this case on his holy Majesty,
upon the account of his engaged faithfulness, to save them, he will
yet have them subservient to his promise in their endeavours for their
own safety. Means may be assigned for an end as to their ordinary
subserviency thereunto, without any suspending of the event on them,
as a condition of an uncertain issue and accomplishment. And there-
fore that this solemn promise made unto Paul, whose event and ac-
complishment, upon the account of his behoving God, he absolutely
believed, and whose performance he foretold, without the least inti-
mation of any condition whatever (only he bids them not throw away
the means of their preservation), should depend as to its fulfilling on
such a condition as, in respect of the event, might not have been (God
Avho made the promise not making any infallible provision for the
condition), and so have been actually frustrate, is an assertion not
only not grounded on these words of Paul, setting out the suitable
means of the providence of God for the accomplishment of an ap-
pointed end, but also derogatory in the highest to the glory of the
truth and faithfulness of God himself. But, —

S. " That promise," saith he, " of our Saviour to his disciples. Matt.
xix. 28, that they who followed him in the regeneration should sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, Judas being
yet one of them, was not fulfilled ; and in case the rest had declined,
they also with him might have come short of the promise made unto
them."

Ans. Christ " knew what was in man," and had no need of any
to tell him ; he knew from the beginning who it was that should be-
tray him, and plainly pronounced him to be a devil. He knew he
was so, that he believed not; that he would continue so; that he
would betray him; that his end would be desperate; he pronounced a
curse upon him, as being cursed by David, Ps. cix., so many genera-
tions before his coming into the world :^ and is it probable now that
he promised this man a throne for his following him in the regenera-
tion, which [it] is most certain (take it in what sense you will) he did
never follow him in, but only as he gave him his bodily attendance
' JoLu vi. G4, 70, 71.

V.J THE PROMISES OF GOD. 243

in his going up and down ? He was never admitted to be witness of
his resurrection. Tlie time being not yet come wherein a discovery
was to be made of the hypocrisy of Judas, that he might have space
to carry on the work which he had to do, and the number of those
who in a peculiar manner were to bear witness to the completing of
the whole work of regeneration in the resurrection of Christ being:
twelve, he who was afterward admitted into that number being one
that now followed him, Acts i. 21,22, our blessed Saviour telleth them
indefinitely, to their consolation, what will be the glorious issue of
their following him, and bearing witness to him in this work. That
which is promissory in the words is made to them who forsook all
and followed him in the work mentioned: which, assuredly, he who
was always a thief, a devil, a covetous person, that followed not in
the main of the work itself, was none of; that promise being after-
ward fulfilled to another then present with Christ. It is granted, if
the rest of the twelve had fallen away, you may suppose of them
what you please. That they might fall away is to beg that which
you cannot prove, nor will ever be granted you, though you should
resolve to starve yourself if you get it not. But this is, —

4. " Confirmed out of Peter Martyr, whose doctrine it is that the
i:)romises of God are wont to be made with a respect unto the present
estate and condition of things with men; — that is, they shall be per-
formed unto men abiding under the qualifications unto which they
are made; as, for example, what promises soever God maketh to
believers with respect had to their faith, or as they are believers, are
not to be looked on as performable, or obliging the maker of them
unto them, in case they shall relapse into their former unbelief"

Ans. It is too well known how and to what end our author cites
Peter Martyr and men of the same judgment with him in this con-
troversy, and to how little advantage to his cause with discerning
men he hath done it. In the same place from whence these words
are taken, the author distinguisheth of the promises of God, and
telleth you that some of them are conditional, which are, saith he,
of a legal nature, which only show the connection between the con-
dition or qualification they require and the thing they promise
thereunto; and such are those whereof he speaks: but others, he
tells you, are absolute and evangelical, not depending on any condi-
tion in us at all. And so he tells us, out of Chrysostom, that this of
our Saviour, Matt. xix. 28, is of the former sort ; and the accomplish-
ment of such like promises as these he informs us to consist not in
the actual fulfilling of what is conditionally affirmed, but in the cer-
tain truth of the axiom, wherein the condition and the event as such
are knit together.

To the example urged, I shall only ask what Mr Goodwin's judg-
ment is of the promises that God hath made to believers that they

24-i DOcxraNE of the saints' perseveea>;ce. [chap.

shall never relapse into their former state of unbelief, and on what
condition they are made? Whether his promise of his love unto
and acceptance of believers, wherein he will abide for ever, do not
infer their preservation in the condition wherein they are (that is, as
believers), will in the next place fall under our consideration. Your
conclusion is, in the sense explained you admit the proposition,
" Whatsoever God promiseth is certain," — that is, it shall certainly
be fulfilled, or it shall not !

There is, moreover, no small contribution of strength, as to our
establishment in the faith of it, given to our proposition by the
signal engagement of the faithfulness of God for the accomplishment
of the promises which he makes unto us, as it is manifested in these
Vv'ords of the apostle, 1 Cor. i. 9, " God is faithful, by whom ye were
called unto the fellowship of his Son." In the foregoing verse, he
telleth them that God will confirm them to the end, that they may
be blameless in the day of the Lord Christ ; of which confident as-
sertion he gives them this account, " God is faithful," to make good his
promises made unto them; he changeth not. When a promise is
once passed, that which first presents itself to the consideration of
them to whom it is made, and whose concernment it is that it be
fulfilled, is the faithfulness of him that hath made the promise. This
])ropcrty of God's nature doth the apostle therefore mind the saints
of, to lead them to a full assvu-ance of their preservation. His pro-
mise being passed, fear not his faithfulness for its accomplishment.
Might there in this case a supposal be allowed of any such interveni-
encies as might intercept them in the way of enjoying what God
truly promised, and cause them to come short thereof, what assur-
ance could arise to them from the consideration of the faithfulness
of God, who made those promises unto them? The faithfulness of
God, then, is engaged for the accomplishment of the thing promised,
which also shall be done in case that fail not. So also 1 Thess.
V. 23, 24, " The very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray
God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that
calleth you, who also will do it." He assures them of their preserva-
tion in and unto the enjoyment of the things which he prayed for,
and that upon the account of his faithfulness who had promised
them. And saith he, " He will do it," — namely, because he is
faithful. Let the oppositions to it be never so many, the difficulties
never so great, the interveniencies what they will, " he is faithful,
and he will do it," as it is affirmed, 2 Thess. iii. 3, " But the Lord
is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep .you from evil;" as also
in 1 Cor. x. 13, "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also
make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." The same

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 245

faithfulness of God is held out as that upon the account whereof no
temptation shall befall believers, so as to separate them from him.
The promise here peculiarly confirmed by it and established on it
is such as no condition can tolerably be fixed unto. " I will not suffer
believers to be overcome with temptations, in case they be not over-
come with temptations," is a promise not to be ascribed to the infi-
nite wisdom of God, with which we have to do ; and yet no other can
with the least colour be proposed. All sin, all falling from God, is
upon temptation. Though Satan and the world should have no
hand in drawing men aside from God, yet what they do from their
own lusts, they do from temptation, James i. 14, 15. If God in
his faithfulness will not suffer any temptation to prevail against be-
lievers, unless they neglect their duty and fall from him, — and they
can no otherwise neglect their duty nor depart from him but upon the
prevalency of temptation,— their abiding with him, their final uncon-
querableness, hath a certainty answerable to the faithfulness of God.

This part of our strength Mr Goodwin attempts to deprive us of,
chap. xi. sect. 18, p. 236, in these words: " Whereas the apostle men-
tioneth the 'faithfulness of God' as that divine principle in him, or
attribute, out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers
unto the end, and so keep them from evil, by ' faithfulness' he doth
not necessarily mean that property or attribute of his that renders
him true and just, or constant in the performance of his promises; as
if the apostle in these or any like places supposed such a promise, one
or more, made by him, by which he stands obliged to establish and
confirm his saints unto the end by a strong and irresistible hand."

A71S. 1. The sum of this answer is, that the apostle, by saying
" God is faithful," doth not understand God's faithfulness. What
other virtue is intended in God by his faithfulness but that whereby
his truth and his constancy in words and promises is signified, I know
not. Let the places from the beginning of the Scriptures to the end
wherein there is mention made of the faith or faithfulness of God, of
his l3eing faithful, with the application thereof, the scope and intend-
ment of the place, be perused, and see if they will give the least
allowance to turn aside from eyeing the property and perfection of
God before mentioned, as that which they peculiarly intend. Deut,
vii. 9; Ps. xxxvi. 5, Ixxxix. ], 2, 5, cxliii. 1; Isa. xlix. 7; Hos. ii. 20;
Rom. iii. 8; 2 Tim. ii. 13; Heb. x. 23; 1 John i. 9, are some of
them. Why we should wring out another sense of the expression
in this place, I know not.

2. The faithfulness of God is not mentioned as that " divine prin-
ciple out of which he is moved to establish and confirm believers to
the end," but only to confirm them in the faith of his unchangeable-
ness and constancy in accomplishing the work of his free grace,
which he had begun in them and promised to confirm to the end

246 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

The work flows from the prmciple of his free grace in Jesus Christ,
whence alone he gives them great, free, and precious promises. His
stability and constancy in those promises, as to their performance, is
intended by his faithfulness and truth in them. What are the pro-
mises of God improperly so called, and not exJdbited in words,
which you intimate, I know not.

S. The apostle doth not only " suppose," but in the name and autho-
rity of God actually gives, in the places under consideration, promises
of the certain and infallible preservation of believers to the end,
asserting the immutability of God's engagement in them from his
faithfulness. In brief, not to darken counsel and understanding with
a multitude of words, by the promises of God we intend in a peculiar
manner those expressed in the texts under consideration, — namely,
that God will establish believers to the end, keep them from evil
and all temptations that would overthrow them; and by i\i& faithful-
ness of God, from whence believers have their assurance of the ac-
complishment of these promises, [we intend] that which the Scrip-
ture holds out, and all the world of believers have hitherto taken, to
be the faithfulness of God, as was before described. But it seems the
word is here used otherwise ; for, saith he, —

" It is such a kind of faithfulness or disposition in him as that
meant by Peter when he styleth him a ' faithful Creator.' Now, God
is, and may properly be termed, a faithful Creator, because he con-
stantly performs unto his creature whatsoever the relation of a Crea-
tor promiseth in an equitable and rational way unto it ; which is, a
great care and tenderness for the preservation and well-being of it.
In like manner, he may, yea it is most likely that he is, called ' faith-
fur in his calling of men, as he is a spiritual Father or Creator, a
giver of a new being unto men, because he never faileth to perform
unto those new creatures of his whatsoever such a being as this, reffu-
larly interpreted, promiseth unto him who receiveth it from him who
is the donor of it; that is, convenient and sufficient means for the
presa^'vatiou and well-being of it. So that the ' faithfulness of God '
in the scripture in iiand supposes no such promise made by God as
our opposei's imagine, — namely, Avhereby he should in terms or words
stand engaged to establish, confirm, or keep believers from evil, his
new creatures, his regenerated ones, after any such a manner but
that they, if they be careless or negligent for themselves, may be
shaken and decline, and commit evil notwithstanding."

Ans. 1. That ny God's faithfulness, mentioned in that place of
Peter, such a disposi'tion as you afterward describe is intended, you had
better say than undertake to prove. It is evident the scope of the
apostle is, to exhort the"' saints of God in all their trials and afliictions
to commit themselves fvnd their ways with patience and quietness
unto God, upon the accoumt of liis power to preserve them as he is

v.] THE PROMISES OF GOD. 247

the Creator of all, and Lis constancy in receiving of them, being
present with them, abiding with them, as he is faithful in his word
and promises. Yea, and the interpretation our author would have
fixed on the expression here used is not only remote from the in-
tendment of the place, turning that into a general good disposition
towards all his creatures which is intimated for the peculiar support
of believers, and that in their distress, but also is in itself a false, fond,
and loose assertion. There is no law nor relation of creation that
lays hold on God so far as to oblige him to the communication of
one drop of his goodness to any of the creatures beyond what is
given them by their creation, or to continue that unto them for one
moment, all the dispensation of himself unto his creatures flowing
from his sovereign good pleasure, doing what he will with his own.

2. He doth very faintly, when he hath made the farthest step in
confident asserting that he dares venture upon (it may be, and it is
most likely), suj^pose that the faithfulness of God in these places
under consideration may be taken in such a sense as that before
described. But, —

(1.) This is no sense at all of the faithfulness of God, neither is the
word ever used in Scripture to signify any such thing in God or man,
nor can it with any tolerable sense be applied to any such thing;
neither would there be any analogy between that which in God we
call faithfulness and that virtue in man which is so termed. Nor is
the faithfulness of God here mentioned upon any such account as
will endure this description, being insisted on only to assure the
saints of the steadfastness and unalterableness of God in the perform-
ance of his promises made to them; neither is the obligation of
God to continue his love and favour, with grace and means of it, to
believers, founded upon such a disposition as is imagined, but in the
free purpose of his will, which he purposed in Jesus Christ before
the world was. So that there is not the least appearance of truth or
soundness of reasoning, or any thing that is desirable, in this attempt
to corrupt the word of God.

(2.) Then the faithfulness of God in the scriptures in hand be-
speaks his truth and stability in the performance of his promises
made of establishing believers to the end, keeping them from evil,
not suffering any temptation to befall them, but making withal a
way to escape. In all which God assures them he will prevent all
such carelessness and nesflisfence in them as is inconsistent with their
establishment; which he will certainly accomplish.

And this is our major proposition, with its supplies of light and
strength, freed from such exceptions as Mr G. supposes it liable unto.

For the assumption, I shall not much trouble myself with that ridi-
culous sense (called " a sober and orthodox explication") which Mr
Goodwin is pleased to put upon it to allow it to pass current. "In this

248 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

seuse," saitli he, " it is most true that God hath promised that all be-
lievers shall persevere; that is, that all true believers formally con-
sidered, that is, as such and abiding such, shall persevere, namely, in
his grace and favour:" but this he presumes is not our sense, chap,
xi, sect. 2, p. 22G. And well he may presume it; for, whatever his
greatest skill may enable him unto, we can make no sense of it but
this, " God hath promised believers shall persevere in case they per-
severe;'"' Avhich is to us upon the matter no sense at all. To persevere
in God's grace and favour is to continue in faith and obedience;
which if men do, God hath solemnly premiised and sworn that they
shall so do ! Certainly there is an orthodox sense in God's promises
that is not nonsense. Be it granted, then, that this is not our sense,
not so much because not ours as because not sense, what is our mean-
ing in this proposition? " It is," saith Mr Goodwin, " that God will
so preserve believers that none of them shall make shipwreck of their
faith, upon what quicksands of lust and sensuality soever they shall
strike, against what rock of obduration aud impenitency soever they
dash." But I beseech you, who told you that this was our sense of
this proposition? being, indeed, no more sense than that which you
give in for your own. By " striking on the quicksands of lust, and
dashing upon rocks of sensuality, impenitency, and obduration," you
have in other places sufficiently explained yourself to intend their
falling under the power of sin. And is this asserted by us to be the
tenor of God's promises to believers, or is it not? or do you not know
that it is not so? Did ever any say that God preserveth men in be-
lieving under obduration and impenitency? — that is, under unbelief;
for no men can be obdurately impenitent but unbelievers. Do not
you know that we maintain that the grace faithfully engaged to be
bestowed on them is given them to this end, to preserve them from
the power of sin, from obduration and impenitency, and shall cer-
tainly be effectual for that purpose?

" Prima est hrec ultio, quoil so

Judice, nemo noccus absolvitur."

CHAPTER VI.

PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED.

The furmcr argument confirmed by an induction of particuliir instances— Jo>hiia
i. 5 opened — Tlio concernment of all believers in that promise proved by the
apostle, Ileb. xiii. 5. — The general interest of all believers in all the pro-
mises of God eleareil — Objections answered — How Old Testament promises
may be improved — The jiromise insisted on relates principally to s])iritiials —
The strength of it to the end intended— 1 Sam. xii. 22, to whom the promise
there is given — The twofold use of this promise: threats to wicked men of
use to the saints; promises to the saints of use to wicked men — Isa. iv. 2-4,

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 249

Ps. Ixxxix. 30-37, opened — A condition of backsliding supposed in believers,
yet they not rejected — God's abiding with his saints upon the account of his,

1. Faithfulness; 2. Loving-kindness; 3. Covenant; 4. Promise; 5. Oath —
The intendment of the words insisted on from 1 Sam. xii. 22 — Isa. xxvii.

2, 3, Zeph. iii. 17, illustrated — The intendment of these words, " I will not
forsake thee" — The reason of the promise, and means promised therein — No
cause in them to whom the promise is made — Ezek. xxxvi. 32, Isa. xliii.
22-2o, opened; also Isa. Ivii. 17 — The cause in God himself only — The "name"
of God, what it imports; his all-sufficiency engaged therein, and his goodness
— The rise and fountain of all God's goodness to his people in his own good
pleasure — The sum of our argument from this place of Scripture — Ps. xxiii.
4, 6, opened; the psalmist's use of assurance of perseverance — Inferences from
the last use — 2 Tim. iv. 18 opened — All believers in the same condition as to
perseverance with David and Paul — The second inference from the place in-
sisted on — Assurance a motive to obedience, and is the end that God intends
to promote thereby — Ps. cxxv. 1, 2 explained; Ps. xxxvii. 28; Deut. xxxiii. 3
— Inferences from that place of the psalmist — Perpetual preservation in the
condition of saints promised to believers — Mr G.'s objections and exceptions
to our exposition and argument from this place removed — Promises made
originally to persons, not qualifications — Not the same reason of promises to
the church and of threatenings to sinners — Other objections removed — Isa.
liv. 7-10, the mind of the Lord in the promise mentioned in that place
opened — The exposition given on that place and arguments from thence vin-
dicated— Direction for the right improvement of promises — Hos. ii. 19, 20,
opened — Of the general design of that chapter — The first part, of the total re-
jection of the church and political state of the Jews — The second, of promises
to the remnant according to the election of grace — Of this four pai-ticulars:
1. Of conversion, verses 14, 15; 2. Of obedience and forsaking all false wor-
ship, verses 16, 17; 3. Of peace and quietness, verse 18; 4. Discovering the
fountain of all the mercies, verses 19, 20 — Some objections removed — To whom
this promise is made — The promise farther opened ; the persons to whom it is
made — Verse 14 of that chapter opened — The wilderness condition whereunto
men are allured by the gospel, what it imports: 1. Separation; 2. Entangle-
ment— God's dealing with a soul in its wilderness condition — Promises given
to persons in that condition — The sum of the foregoing promises — The persons
to whom they are made farther described — The nature of the main promise
itself considered — Of the main covenant between God and his saints — The pro-
perties of God engaged for the accomplishment of this promise — Mr G.'s exposi-
tion of this place considered and confuted — John x. 27-29 opened, vindicated.

Having cleared the truth of the one and meaning of the other
proposition mentioned in the argument last proposed. I proceed to
confirm the latter by an induction of particular promises. The first
that I shall fix upon is that of Joshua i. 5, " I will be with thee : I
will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." This promise, it is true, in
this original copy of it, is a grant to one single person entering upon
a peculiar employment ; but the Holy Ghost hath eminently taught
the saints of God to plead and improve it in all generations for their
own advantage, and that not only upon the account of the general
rule of the establishment of all promises in Jesus Christ to the glory
of God by us/ but also by the application which himself makes of

I 2 Cor. i. 20.

250 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEESEVEBANCK [CHAP.

it unto them, and all their occasions wherein they stand in need of
the faithfulness of God therein : Heb. xiii. 5, " Let j'our conversation
be without covetousness ; and be content with such things as ye
have : for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."
The apostle layeth down an exhortation in the beginning of the
verse against the inordinate desire of the things of the world, that
are laboured after upon the account of this present life. To give power
and efficacy to his exhortation, he manifesteth all such desires to be
altogether needless, upon consideration of His all-sufficiency who
hath promised never to forsake them ; which he manifests by an in-
stance in this promise given to Joshua, giving us withal a rule for
the application of all the promises of the Old Testament which were
made to the church and people of God. Some labour much to rob
believers of the consolation intended for them in the evangelical pro-
mises of the Old Testament, though made in general to the church,
upon this account, that they were made to the Jews, and being to
them peculiar, their concernment now lieth not in them. If this
plea might be admitted, I know not any one promise that would
more evidently fall under the power of it than this we have noAv in
consideration. It was made to a peculiar person, and that upon a
peculiar occasion, — made to a general or captain of armies, with re-
spect to the great wars he had to undertake upon the special com-
mand of God. May not a poor, hungry believer say, " What is this
to me? I am not a general of an army, have no wars to make upon
God's command. The virtue, doubtless, of this promise expired with
the conquest of Canaan, and died with him to whom it was made."
To manifest the sameness of love that is in all the promises, with
their establishment in one Mediator, and the general concernment of
believers in every one of them, however and on what occasion soever
given to any, this promise to Joshua is here applied to the condition
of the weakest, meanest, and poorest of the saints of God, to all and
every one of them, be their state and condition what it will. And,
doubtless, believers are not a little wanting to themselves and their
own consolation that they do not more particularly close with those
words of truth, grace, and faithfulness, which, upon sundry occasions
and at divers times, have been given out unto the saints of old, even
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and the residue of them who walked
with God in their generations. These things in an especial man-
ner are recorded for our consolation, " that we through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures might have hope," Rom. xv. 4. Now, the
Holy Ghost, knowing the weakness of oiu- faith, and how apt we are
to be beaten from closing with the promises, and from mixing them
with faith, upon the least discouragement that may arise (as, indeed,
this is none of the least, " That the promise is not made to us, it was
made to others, and they may reap the sweetness of it ; God may be

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 251

faithful in it though we never enjoy the mercy intended by it ;" I say),
in the next words he leads believers by the hand to make the same
conclusion with boldness and confidence, from this and the like pro-
mises, as David did of old, upon the many gracious assurances that he
had received of the presence of God with him : Heb.xiii. 6, " So that,"
saith he (upon the account of that promise), " we may say boldly"
(without staggering at it by unbelief), "The Lord is my helper." This
is a conclusion of faith : " Because God said to Joshua, a believer,
' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee' (though upon a particular
occasion, and in reference to a particular employment), every be-
liever may say with boldness, ' He is my helper.'"

It is true, the a2:)plication of the promises here looks immediately
unto temporals, but yet, being drawn out from the testimony of the
continuance of the presence of God with his saints, doth much more
powerfully conclude to spirituals; yea, the promise itself is oi spiri-
tual favour, and what concerns temporals is only from thence ex-
tracted. Let us, then, weigh a little the importance of this promise,
which the apostle hath rescued from suffering under any private in-
terpretation, and set at liberty to the use of all believers. To every
one of them, then, God saith, directly and plainly, that he will
"never leave them nor forsake them." If there should any ques-
tion arise whether he should be taken at his word or no, it must be
the devil that must be entertained as an advocate against him.^
Unbelief, indeed, hath many pleas, and will have, in the breasts of
saints, against closing with the faithfulness of God in this promise,
and the issue of confidence in him which from a due closing with
it would certainly flow. But shall our unbelief make the truth of
God of none effect? He hath told us that " he will never leave us,
nor forsake us." The old serpent, and some arguing from him herein,
are ready to say, "Yea, 'hath God indeed said so?' The truth of it
shall not indeed be surely so. It may be otherwise ; for God doth
know that many cases may fall out, that you may be utterly rejected
by him, and cast out of his presence. You may have such opposi-
tions rise against you in your walking with him as shall certainly
overcome you and set you at enmity with him, or you may fully de-
part from him." And many such like pleadings will Satan furnish
the unbelief of believers withal. If they are not sufficiently taught
by experience what it is to give credit to Satan endeavouring to im-
pair and call in question, upon any pretence whatever, the faithful-
ness of God and his truth, when will they learn it? Surely they
have little need to join with their adversaries for the weakenino- of
their supportments or the impairing of their consolations. Whereas
there is an endeavour to make men believe that the denying any
absolutely unchangeable promise of God unto believers makes much

' Gen. iii. 1.

252 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

for their comfort and refreshment, it shall afterward be considered
in common, in reference also to those other demonstrations of the
saints' perseverance that shall, God willing, be produced.

It will be excepted, that " God will not forsake them Avhilst they
are believers; but if tliey forsake him and fall from him, he is at
liberty to renounce them also." But that God's not-forsaking of any
is no more but a mere non-rejection of them shall afterward be dis-
proved. Whom he doth not forsake as a God in covenant, to tlicm
doth he continue his presence, and towards them he exerciseth his
power and all-sufhciency for their good. And if he can [not] by his
Spirit and the power of his grace keep them whom he doth not for-
sake in a state and condition of not-forsakhig him, he doth forsake
them before they forsake him, yea, before he is said to forsake them.
God's not-forsaking believers is effectually preventive of that state
and condition in them on the account whereof it is asserted that he
may forsake them.

1 Sam. xii. 22, the truth we have under consideration is con-
firmed by the prophet in the name and authority of God himself;
and the words wherein it is done have the force of a promise, being
declarative of the good-will of God unto his people in Christ: "For
the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake; be-
cause it hath i^leased the Lord to make you his people."

The expression is the same with that which the Lord gives his
people of his good-will in the covenant of grace ; of which I have
spoken before.^ Many may be their calamities and afflictions, many
their trials and temptations, many their desertions and darknesses,
but God will not forsake them ; he will not utterly cast them off for
ever. That his people are his people in covenant, his secret ones,
his spiritual church, the " remnant according to the election of grace,"
hath been before declared, in the handling of like places of Scrip-
ture. It is to vindicate this and the like promises from all surmises
of failing and coming short of accomplishment that the apostle saith,
"God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew," Rom.
xi. 2 ; that is, he hath made good his promise to them, even to them
among the Jews whom hedid soforeknow as also to "predestinate them
to be conformed to the imago of his Son," chap. viii. 29: so out of all
Israel saving " all Israel," even the whole Israel of God. That a dis-
criminating purpose of God is intended in that expression hath been
already declared, and shall, the Lord assisting, be farther manifested.

The promise as here mentioned hath a double use: —

1. It is held out as an inducement to obedience to that whole

people; in reference whereunto he telleth them that "if they did

wickedly, they should be destroyed, both they and their king," 1 Sam,

xii. 25. In the dreadful threatenings that God dcnounccth against

' Gen. xvii. 1 ; Jcr. xxxii. 38, 39.

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 253

wicked and impenitent ones, lie hath an end to accomphsh in refer-
ence to his saints, unto his own, even to make them know his terror,
and to be acquainted with the abomination of sin. And in his
promises, intended directly to them, he hath designs to accomplish
upon the most wicked and ungodly, even to discover his approba-
tion of that which is good, that they may be left inexcusable.

2. It was a testimony of his good-will unto his secret ones, his
remnant, his residue, his brand out of the fire, unto his people called
according to his eternal purpose, in the midst of his people by exter-
nal profession, and of his presence with them, under the accomplish-
ment of the threatening mentioned upon the generality of that
nation. He did not forsake them when the people in general and
their king were destroyed. Whatever outward dispensation he
bringeth upon the whole, the love and grace of the promise shall
certainly be reserved for them ; as, Isa. iv. 2-4, the " remnant," the
" escaping of Israel," those that were " written unto life," shall obtain,
when the rest are destroyed or hardened.

So Ps. Ixxxix. 30-37, "If his children forsake my law, and walk not
in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my com-
mandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and
their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving-kindne.ss will I
not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My
covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my
lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto
David. His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun
before me. It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a
faithful witness in heaven. Selah."

A sujDposal is made of such ways and walkings in the spiritual
seed and offspring of the Lord Christ (which in the psalm is typed
out by David), that the Lord will be as it were compelled to deal
sharply with them for their iniquities and transgressions: yet his
" loving-kindness," that shall abide with Christ in reference to the
preservation of his seed ; his " faithfulness," that shall not fail ; his
covenant and his oath shall be made good to the uttermost.

It is supposed (which is the wor.st that can be supposed) that in
some degree, at least for some season, they may forsake the law, not
keep the commandments, and profane the statutes of God (which
continues the burden of poor believers to this day); yet the worst
that the Lord threatens them with on this account, when they might
have expected that he Avould have utterly cast off such unthankful,
unfruitful backsliders, poor creatures, is but this, " I will visit them
with a rod, and with stripes." They shall have whatever comes within
the compass of correction or affliction; rod and stripes sliall be on
them, and that whether outward correction or inward desertion. But
will the Lord proceed no farther? will he not for ever cast them

254 DOCTRINE OF TUE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

off, and ease himself of such a provoking generation? " No/' saith the
Lord; " there he five things in the way, upon whose account I cannot
so deal with them/' All regard the same persons, as is evident from
the antithesis that is in the discourse.

1. There is my loving-kindness, saith God, which is eternal and
unchangeable; for " I love them with an everlasting love," Jer.
xxxi. 3. This I cannot utterly take away. Though it may be hid and
eclipsed as to the appearance and influences of it, yet utterly it shall
not be taken away as to the reality of it. Though I chasten and
correct them, yet my loving-kindness shall be continued to them.
And then, saith he, —

2. There is my faithfulness, which I have engaged to them ; which,
whatever they do (that is, that I will suffer them to do, or that they
may do upon supposition of the grace of the covenant,^ wherewith
they are supplied), though they behave themselves very foolishly and
frowardly, yet that I must take care of, — that must not fail. 2 Tim.
ii. 13, "He abideth faithful; he cannot deny himself." And this faith-
fulness, saith God, I have engaged in three things: —

(1.) In my covenant that I have made with them to be their God,
and wherein I have promised that they shall be my people ; wherein
also I have made plentiful provision of mercy and grace for all their
failings. And this must not be broken; my faithfulness is in it, and
it must abide. My covenant of peace that I make with them is an
everlasting covenant ; it is " an everlasting covenant, ordered in all
things and sure," 2 Sam. xxiii. 5 ; Ezek. xxxvii. 26 ; it is a covenant
of peace, an everlasting covenant.

(2.) " In the thing that is gone out of my lips," or the gi\ace and
love I have spoken of in the promise. Herein also will I be faithful,
and that shall not be altered. All my promises are yea and anieu
in Christ Jesus, 2 Cor. i. 20. And, —

(3.) Lastly, All this I have confirmed by an oath, " I have sworn
by my holiness," and " I will not lie."

So that in all these immutable things, wherein it is " impossible
for God to lie," he hath treasured up strong consolation for them
that do believe.^ Though, then, the seed of Christ, which he is to
see upon the account of his suffering for them (Isa, liii. 10), do sin
and transgress, yet God hath put all these gracious obligations upon
himself to reduce them by correction and affliction, but never to pro-
ceed to final sentence of utter rejection.

To this purpose, I say, are the words in the place of Samuel now
mentioned : —

1. The matter of the promise, or what he promiseth the people,
is, " he will not torsake them." God's not-forsaking them is not a
bare not casting them off, but an active continuance with them in
J Isa. xliii. 22_2G. » Ilcb. vi. 18.

VI.] PARTICULAR PROJIISES ILLUSTRATED. 255

love and mercy. He exercises not a pure negative act of Lis will
towards any thing or person. Whom he hates not, he loves. So Heb.
xiii. 5, these words, " I will not forsake thee," hold out a continual
supply of all those wants whereunto in ourselves we are exposed,
and what from his presence we do receive. "I will not forsake them"
is, "I will continue my presence with them, a God in covenant." So
he expresseth his presence with them, Isa. xxvii. 3, " I the Lord do
keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it
night and day." He abideth with his vineyard, so as to keep it and
to preserve it from being destroyed. But may it not at one time or
other be surprised into desolation? No; saith he, "I will keep it
night and day." But what if this vineyard prove barren? what will
he then do? Nay, but he will so deal with it that it shall never be
so barren as to cause him to cast it up. He is not with it for nought;
his presence is attended with grace and kindness. " I will water it,"
saith he; and that not now and then, but "every moment." He
pours out fresh supplies of his Spirit upon it to make it fruitful.
Thence it becomes " a vineyard of red wine," verse 2 ; the best wine,
the most delicious, the most precious, to cheer the heart of God him-
self, as Zeph. iii. 17, " The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is
mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest
in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." He causes them
thereby that come out of Jacob to take root ; he makes Israel blossom
and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. This is that which
inlod promiseth his people : He will not forsake them, he will always
give them his presence, in the kindness and supplies of a God in
covenant, to protect them from others, to make them fruitful to him-
self. This is his not-forsaking them. He will preserve them from
others; who shall take them out of his hand? He will make them
fruitful to himself; " he will work, and who shall let him?"

2. The reason why the Lord will not forsake his people, why he
will continue doing them good, is expressed in these words, "For his
great name's sake." And in this assertion two things are consider-
able : —

(1.) A tacit exclusion of any thing in themselves for which, or upon
consideration whereof, God will constantly abide with them. It is
not for their sakes, for any thing in them, or for what they have done,
may, or can do, — it is not upon the account of any condition or quali-
fication whatever that may or may not be found in them, — but merely
for his name's sake ; which in the like case he expresseth fully, Ezek.
xxxvi. 32, " Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord GoD, be it
known unto you: be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O
house of Israel." The truth is, they may prove such as, on all ac-
counts whatever, shall deserve to be rejected, — that nothing in appear-
ance, or in their own sense, as well as others', though the root of the

256 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

matter be in them, may be found upon them, — when God takes de-
light in them; like those you have described at large, Isa. xliii.
22-25, " But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob ; but thou hast
been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small
cattle of thy burnt- offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with
thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor
wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with
money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but
thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast weaned me with
thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgres-
sions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Weary
of God they are, neglecting his worship, making his patience and for-
bearance to serve with their iniquities. It seems to be impossible
almost for any creature to apprehend that God will not give them up
to everlasting confusion. Yea, perhaps they may be froward in their
follies, and contend with God when he goes to heal them: Isa.
Ivii. 17, "For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote
him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way
of his heart." Iniquity is upon them, a vile iniquity, "the iniquity of
covetousness." God is wroth with them, and smites, and hides him,
and they go on frowardly. And yet for all this he " forsaketh not
for ever," he abides to be their God ; and that because his so doing is
not bottomed on any consideration of what they are, have been, or
will be, but he doth it for his name's sake, and with regard unto that
which thereupon he will do for them. And upon this account th;
promise of God's abiding and continuing with his, let grace be never
so weak, corru]:)tion never so strong, temptations never so violent, may
be pleaded; and the Lord rejoices to be put in remembrance of it by
the weakest, frailest, sinfulest saint or believer in the world.

(2.) The cause or reason is positively expressed why God will not
forsake them: it is " for his great name's sake." His great name is
all that ho consults withal about his continuance with his people.
Tliis he calls himself, Isa. xliii. 25, " I am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions for mine own sake ;" that is, " For no other cause in the
world that may be found in thee or upon thee." The "name "of God is
all that wlicreby to us he is known ; all his attributes, his whole will, —
all his glory. When God is said to do any thing for his name, it is
either the cause and end of what he doth, or the principle from whence
with the motive wherefore he doth it, that is by him intended. In the
first sense, to do a thing for his name's sake is to do it for the manifes-
tation of 1 lis glory, that he may be known to be God in the excellency
of those perfections whereby he reveals himself to his, with most fre-
quently a special regard to his faithfulness and grace. It is in these
properties to make himself known, and to be exalted in the hearts of
bis. So all his dispensations in Jesus Christ are for " the praise of the

VI.] PARTICULAK PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 257

glory of his grace," Eph. i. 6, — that he may be exalted, lifted up, made
known, believed, and received as a God pardoning iniquity in the
Son of his love. And in this sense may the Lord be said to abide
with his people " for his name's sake," for the exalting of his glory,
that he may be known to be a God faithful in covenant and un-
changeable in his love, who will not " cast off for ever" those whom
he hath once received into favour. It will not enter into the hearts
of believers sometimes why the Lord should so deal with them as
he doth, and not cast them off. Their souls may go to rest as to this
thing. He himself is glorious herein; he is exalted, and doth it
on that account. If by his " name " you understand the principle
from whence he worketh, and his motive thereunto, as it compre-
hends the whole long-suffering, gracious, tender, unchangeable nature
of God, according as he hath revealed himself in Jesus Christ, in
whom his name is, Exod. xxiii. 21, and which he hath committed to
him to be manifested, John xvii. 6; so evidently two things in God
are engaged, when he promisetli to work for his name's sake, or ac-
conling to his great name : —

[1.] Hispower or suficiency. Upon the engagement of the name
of God on his people's behalf, Moses carefully pleads this latter or
part thereof. Num. xiv. 17-19. God hath given his name unto his
people; and this is wrapped up in that mercy, that he will lay out his
power to pardon, heal, and do them good, in his preserving of them
and abiding with them: " Let the power of my Lord be great, accord-
ing as thou hast spoken, saying. The Lord is long-suffering," etc.
And as, when he works for his name, the way whereby he will do it
is according to the greatness of his power, so the fountain and rise
from whence he will do it is, —

[2.] His goodness, kindness, love, patience, mercy, grace, faitli-
fidness, in Jesus Christ. And thus, under the title of his "name,"
doth he call poor, afflicted, dark, hopeless, helpless creatures (upon
any other account in the world), persons ready to be swallowed up
in disconsolation and sorrow, to rest upon him: Isa. 1. 10, "Who is
among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his ser-
vant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in
the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."^ When all other
holds are gone, when flesh fails and heart fails, then doth God call
poor souls to rest upon this name of his. So the psalmist, Ps.
Ixxiii. 26, " My flesh and my heart faileth," all strength, natural and
spiritual, faileth and is gone: " but God is the strength of my heart,"
saith he, " and my portion for ever." Now, this is the sole motive
also of God's continuance with his: he will do it because he himself is
good, gracious, merciful, loving, tender; and he will lay out these
properties to the utmost in their behalf, that it may be well with
' John xvii. 6, 26 ; Ps. xxii. 22, Ixiii. 4, Ixix. 30.

VOL. XL 17

258 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

them, lifting up, exalting, and making himself gracious in so doing.
This the Lord emphatically expresseth five times in one verse: Isa.
xlvi. 4, "Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs
will I carry you : I have made, and I will bear ; even I will carry,
and will deliver you."

This, then, I say, is the reason and only ground, this the principal
aim and end, upon the account whereof the Lord will " not forsake
his people."

S. The rise of all this goodness, kindness, faithfulness of God to
his people, as to the exercise of it, is also expressed, and that is his
own good pleasure: " Because it hath pleased the Lord to make you
his people." This is the spring and fountain of all the goodness
mentioned. God is essentially in himself of a good, gracious, and
loving nature; but he acts all these properties, as to the works
that outwardly are of him, "after the counsel of his own will,"
Eph. i. 11, according to the purpose which he purposeth in himself,
and his purposes, all of them, have no other rise or cause but his
own good pleasure. Why did the Lord make us his people, towards
whom he might act according to the gracious properties of his nature,
yea, and lay them forth and exercise them to the utmost on our
behalf? Was it because we were better than others? did his will?
walked with him? Did he declare Ave should be his people upon
condition we did so and so? Not on any of these or the like grounds
of proceeding doth he do this, but merely because " it pleaseth him
to make us his people;" Matt. xi. 26. And shall we think that he
who took us to be his people notwithstanding our universal aliena-
tion from him, on the account of his own good pleasure, Avhich
caused him to make us his people (that is, obedient, believing,
separated from the world), will upon any account, being himself
unchangeable, not preserve us in, but reject us from, that condition?

Thus is God's mercy in not forsaking his people resolved into its
original principle, — namely, his own good pleasure in choosing of
them, carried on by the goodness and unchangeableness of his own
nature to the appointed issue.

This, then, is the sum of this argument: What work or design the
Lord entereth upon merely from his own good pleasure, or solely in
answer to the purpose which he purposeth in himself and engageth
to continue in mercy for his name's sake, thereby taking upon him
to remove or prevent whatever might hinder the accomplishment of
that purpose, work, or design of his, that he will abide in unchange-
able to the end ; but this is the state of the Lord's undertaking, to
abide with his people, as hath been manifested at large.

Let us add in the next place that of the psalmist: Ps. xxiii. 4, 6,
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod and th}^ staff they comfort

I

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 259

me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life: and I Avill dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." The
psalmist expresseth an exceeding confidence in the midst of most
inexpressible troubles and pressures. He supposes himself " walking
through the valley of the shadow of death." As " death " is the worst
of evils, and comprehensive of them all,so the "shadow" of death is the
most dismal and dark representation of those evils to the soul, and
the " valley " of that shadow the most dreadful bottom and depth of
that representation. This, then, the prophet supposed that he may
be brought into. A condition wherein he may be overwhelmed with
sad apprehensions of the coming of a confluence of all manner of
evils upon him, — and that not for a short season, but he may be ne-
cessitated to walk in them, which denotes a state of some continu-
ance, a conflicting with most dismal evils, and in their own nature
tending to death, — is in the supposal. What, then, would he do if he
should be brought into this estate ? Saith he, " Even in that con-
dition, in such distress, wherein I am, to my own and the eyes of
others, hopeless, helpless, gone, and lost, ' I will fear no evil." " A
noble resolution, if there be a sufficient bottom and foundation for
it, that it may not be accounted rashness and groundless confidence,
but true spiritual courage and holy resolution. Saith he, " It is be-
cause the Lord is with me." But, alas ! what if the Lord should now
forsake thee in this condition, and give thee up to the power of
thine enemies, and suffer thee, by the strength of thy temptations,
wherewith thou art beset, to fall utterly from him? Surely then
thou wouldst be swallowed up for ever; the waters would go over
thy soul, and thou must for ever lie down in the shades of death.
" Yea," saith he, " but I have an assurance of the contrary ; ' goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.' "

" But this," say some, " is a very desperate persuasion. If thou art
sure that goodness and mercy shall follow thee all the days of thy
life, then live as thou pleasest, as loosely as flesh can desire, as wick-
edly as Satan can prompt thee to. Certainly this persuasion is fit
only to ingenerate in thee a high contempt of humble and close
walking with God. What other conclusion canst thou possibly
make of that presumption but only this, ' I may, then, do what I
please, what I will; let the flesh take its swing in all abominations,
it matters not, goodness and mercy shall follow me.'" "Alas!" saith
the psalmist, " these thoughts never come into my heart. I find this
pei'suasion, through the grace of Him in whom it is effectual, to in-
generate contrary resolutions. This is that which I am, upon the
account hereof, determined on, ' I will dwell in the house of the Lord
for ever.' Seeing ' goodness and mercy shall follow me,' I will dwell
in his house ; and seeing they shall follow me ' all the days of my
life,' I will dwell in his house for ever."

260 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP

There are, then, these two things in this last verse pregnant to
the purpose in hand : —

1. The psalmist's assurance of the presence of God with him " for
ever," and that in kindness and pardoning mercy, upon the account
of his promise unto him. " Goodness or benignity," saith he, " shall
follow me into every condition, to assist me and extricate my soul,
even out of the valley of the shadow of death." A conclusion like
that of Paul, 2 Tim. iv. 18, "The Lord shall deliver me from every
evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom." Having,
verse 17, given testimony of the presence of God with him in his
gi'eat trial, when he was brought before that devouring monster
Nero, giving him deliverance, he manifesteth in verse 18 that the
presence of God with him was not only effectual for one or another
deliverance, but that it will keep him " from every evil work," not
only from the rashness, cruelty, and oppression of others, but also
from any such way or work of his own which should lay a bar
against his enjoyment of and complete preservation unto that hea-
venly kingdom whereunto he was appointed.

What reason, now, can be imagined why other saints of God, who
have the same promises with David and Paul, established unto them
in the hand of the same Mediator, being equally taken into the
saine covenant of mercy and peace with them, may not make the
same conclusion of mercy with them, — namely, " That the mercy
and goodness of God will follow them all the days of their lives ;
that they shall be delivered from every evil work, and preserved to
God's heavenly kingdom?" 2 Cor. i. 20. To fly here to immediate
revelation, as though God had particularly and immediately assured
some persons of their perseverance, which begat in them a confidence
wherein others may not share with them, besides that it is destructive
of all the vigour and strength of sundr}'-, if not all the arguments
produced against the saints' perseverance, it is not in this place of
any weight, or at all relative to the business in hand ; for evident it
is that one of them, even David, is thus confident upon the common
account of God's relation unto all his saints, as he is their shepherd,
one that takes care of them, and will see, not only whilst they abide
with him, that they shall have pasture and refreshment, but also
will find them out in their wanderings, and will not suffer any of
them to be utterly lost. And he is a shepherd equally in care and
love to every one of his saints as he was to David. He gives them
all " the sure mercies of David," even the mercy contained and
wrapped up in the promise that was given to them, and what by
virtue thereof he did enjoy, with what he received from God in that
covenant relation wherein he stood, Isa. Iv. 3. And for Paul, it is
most evident that he grounded his confidence and con.solation merely
upon the general promise of the presence of God with his, that

VI.] PARTICULA.R PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 261

he will " never leave them nor forsake them/' but be their God and
"guide even unto death;" neither is there the least intimation of
any other bottom of his consolation herein. Now, these being thmgs
wherein every believer, even the weakest in the world, hath an equal
share and interest with Paul, David, or any of the saints in their
generations, what should lie in their way but that they also may
grow up to this assurance, being called thereunto? I say, they may
groio up unto it. 1 do not say that every believer can with equal
assurance of mind thus make his boast in the Lord and in the con-
tinuance of his kindness to him, — the Lord knows we are often-
times weak and dark, and at no small loss even as to the main of
our interest in the promises of God ; — but there being an equal cer-
tainty in the things themselves of which we speak, it being as cer-
tain that the goodness and mercy of God shall follow them all their
days as it did David, and as certain that God will deliver them from
every evil work and preserve them to his heavenly kingdom as he
did Paul, they also may grow up unto, and ought to press after, the
like assurance and consolation with them. Whom goodness and
mercy shall follow all their days, and who shall be of God preserved
from every evil work, they can never fall totally and finally out of
the favour of God. That this is the state and condition of believers
is manifested from the instances given of David and Paul, testifying
their full persuasion and assurance concerning that condition on '
grounds common to them with all believers.

2. The conclusion and inference that the psalmist makes, from the
assurance which he had of the continuance of the goodness and kind-
ness of God unto him, followeth in the words insisted on: " All the
days of his life he would dwell in the Lord's house." He would
for ever give up himself unto his worship and service. " Seeing this
is the case of my soul, that God will never forsake me, let me answer
this love of God in my constant obedience." Now, this conclusion
follows from the former principle upon a twofold account : —

(L) As it is a motive unto it. The continuance of the goodness
and kindness of God unto a soul is a constraining motive unto that
soul to continue with him in love, service, and obedience ; it works
powerfully upon a heart any way ennobled with the ingenuity of
grace to make a suitable return, as far as possibly it can, to such
eminent mercy and goodness. I profess I know not what those men
think the saints of God to be, who suppose them apt to make con-
clusions of wantonness and rebellion upon the account of the stead-
fastness of the love and kindness of God to them. I shall not judge
any as to their state and condition ; yet I cannot but think that
such men's prejudices and fulness of their own persuasions do ex-
ceedingly interpose in their spirits from receiving that impression
of this grace of God which in its own nature it is apt to give, or

262 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

it would be impossible they should once imagine that of itself it is
apt to draw the spirits of men into a neglect and contempt of God.

(2.) As the e7id of God, intended in giving that assurance, to the
effecting whereof it is exceedingly operative and effectual. So you
have it, Luke i. 74, 75. This is the intendment of God in confirm-
ing his oath and promise unto us, "That he may grant unto us, that
we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him
without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our lives."

Now, though these forementioned, with many other texts of Scrip-
ture, are plain, evident, and full to the business we have in hand,
yet the adversaries of this tnith having their hands so full with them
that are commonly urged that they cannot attend unto them, I shall
not need to spend time in their vindication from exceptions which
none that I know have as yet brought in against them (though, upon
their principles, they might possibly be invented), but shall leave
them to be mixed with faith, according as God by his Spirit shall
set them home upon the souls of them who do consider them.

The whole of Ps. cxxv. might, in the next place, be brought in to
give testimony to the truth in hand. I shall only take a proof from
the first two verses of it : " They that trust in the Lord shall be as
mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever. As the
mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about
his people from henceforth even for ever." Whereunto answereth
that of Ps. xxxvii. 28, " The Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh
not his saints; they are preserved for ever;" as also Deut. xxxiii. 3,
" Yea, he loveth his people; all his saints are in thy hand." In the
verses named, I shall a little fix upon two things conducing to our
purpose, which are evidently contained in them: —

1. A promise of God's everlasting presence with his saints, be-
lievers, them that trust in him, and their steadfastness thereupon :
" They shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed ; " and that
because " the Lord is round about them," and that '•' for ever."

2. An allusive comparison of both these, both their stability and
God's presence with them, given for the encouragement of weak be-
lievers, with special regard to the days wherein the promise was first
made, which actually also belongs to them on whom the ends of the
world are fallen. The psalmist bids them, as it were, lift up their
eyes, and look upon mount Zion and the hills that were round about
Jerusalem, and tells them that God will as certainly and assuredly
continue with them and give them establishment as those hills and
mountains which they beheld round about abide in their places; so
that it shall be as impossible for all the powers of hell to remove
them out of the favour of God as for a man to pluck up mount Zion
by the roots, or to overturn the foundations of the mountains that
stand round about Jerusalem. It is true, the Holy Ghost hath special

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED 263

regard to the oppositions and temptations that they were to undergo
from men, but bears also an equal regard to all other means of se^oa-
rating them from their God. It would be a matter of small consola-
tion unto them that men should not prevail over them for ever, if in
the meantime there be other more close and powerful adversaries,
who may cast them down with a perpetual destruction. Some few
considerations of the intendment of the place will serve for the en-
forcing of our argiiment from this portion of Scripture : —

1. That which is here promised the saints is a perpetual preserva-
tion of them in that condition wherein they are ; both on the part
of God, "he is round about them from henceforth even for ever;"
and on their parts, " they shall not be removed," — that is, from the
state and condition of acceptation with him wherein they are sup-
posed to be, — but abide for ever, and continue therein immovable
unto the end. It is, I say, a plain promise of their continuance in
that condition wherein they are, with their safety from thence, and
not a promise of some other good thing provided that they continue
in that condition. Their being compared to mountains and their
stability, which consists in their being and continuing so, will admit
no other sense. As mount Zion abides in its condition, so shall
they; and as the mountains about Jerusalem continue, so doth the
Lord his presence unto them.

2. That expression which is used, verse 2, is weighty and full to this
purpose, " The Lord is round about his people from henceforth even
for ever." What can be spoken more fully, more pathetically? Can
any expression of men so set forth the truth which we have in hand?
The Lord is round about them, not to save them from this or that
incursion, but from all; not from one or two evils, but from every
one whereby they are or may be assaulted. He is with them, and
round about them on every side, that no evil shall come nigh them.
It is a most full expression of universal preservation, or of God s
keeping his saints in his love and favour, upon all accounts whatso-
ever; and that not for a season only, but it is "henceforth," from his
giving this promise unto their souls in particular, and their receiving
of it in all generations, according to their appointed times, " even for
ever."

Some few exceptions, with a great surplusage of words and phrases,
to make them seem other things than what have been formerly in-
sisted on again and again, are advanced by Mr Goodwin, to overturn
this Zion and to cast down the mountains that are about Jerusalem,
chap. xi. sect. 9, pp. 230-232. The sum of our argument from
hence, as of the intendment of this place, is this : Those whom the
Lord Avill certainly preserve for ever in the state and condition of
trusting in him, they shall never be forsaken of him nor separated
from him. The latter clause of this proposition is that which we

2G4) DOCTHINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

contend for, the whole of that whose proof is incumbent on us. Of
this the former part is a sufficient basis and foundation, being com-
prehensive of all that is or can be required to the unquestionable es-
tablishment thereof, [which] fromtheletterof the text we assume. But
God will certainly preserve for ever all his saints that put their trust
in him, in their so doing, that they shall not be altered or cast down
from that state and condition. Change but the figurative expressions
in the text, and the allusions used for the accommodation of their
faith in particular to whom this promise was first given, into other
terms of a direct and proper significancy, and the text and the as-
sumption of our argument will appear to be the same ; whence the
conclusion intended will undeniably follow. Unto this clear deduc-
tion of the truth contended for from this place of Scripture, the dis-
course ensuing, in the place mentioned, is opposed: —

1. " The promise only assures them that trust in the Lord that
they shall be preserved, but not at all that they that trust in him
shall be necessitated to do so still, or that so they shall do. So Paul
saith, ' It was in my heart to live and die with the Corinthians;' but
doubtless with this proviso, that they always continued such as they
then were, or as he apj)rehended them to be, when he so wrote to
them."

Ans. I must be forced to smite this evasion once and again before
we arrive at the close of this contest, it being so frequently made use
of by our adversary, who without it knows himself not able to stand
against the evidence of any one promise usually insisted on. This
is the substance of all that which, with exceeding delightful variety
of expressions, is a hundred times made use of: " The promise is
conditional, and made to those that trust in the Lord, and is to be
made good only upon the account of their continuing so to do; but
that they shall so do, that they shall continue to trust in the Lord,
that is wholly left to themselves, and not in the least undertaken in
the promise." And this is called a " discharging or dismissing of
places of Scripture from the service whereunto, contrary to their
proper sense and meaning, they are pressed," a "delivering them from
the bearing the cross of this warfare," with such like imperial terms
and expressions. To speak in the singleness of our spirit, we cannot
see any one of the discharged soldiers returning from the camp,
wherein they have long served for the safety and consolation of them
that do believe. Particularly, this Scripture detests the gloss with
violence imposed on it, and tells you that the end for which the God
of truth sent it into this service, wherein it abides, is to assure them
that trust in the Lord that they shall be preserved in that condition
to the end; that in the condition of trusting and depending on God,
they shall be as Zion, and the favour of God unto them as the immov-
able mountains, — he will for ever be with them and about them; and

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 2G5

tbat all this shall certainly come to pass. Christ [David ?] does not
say that they shall be as established mountains if they continue to
trust in the Lord, but they shall be so in their trusting, abiding for
ever therein, through the safeguarding presence of God. For their
being necessitated to continue trusting in the Lord, there is not any
thing in [the] text, or in our argument from thence, or in the doc-
trine we maintain, that requires or will admit of any such proceeding
of God as by that expression is properly signified. Indeed, there is
a contradiction in terms, if they are used to the same purpose. To
trust in the Lord is the voluntary, free act of the creature. To be
necessitated unto this act and in the performance of it, so that it
should be done necessarily as to the manner of its doing, is wholly
destructive to the nature and being of it. That God can effectually
and infallibly as to the event cause his saints to continue trusting in
him without the least abridgment of their liberty, yea, that he doth
so eminently by heightening and advancing their spiritual liberty,
shall be afterward declared. If by "Necessitated to continue trust-
ing," not the manner of God's operation with and in them for the com-
passing of the end proposed, and the efficacy of his grace, whereby
he doth it (commonly decried under these terms), be intended, but
only the certainty of the issue, rejecting the impropriety of the ex-
pression, the thing itself we affirm to be here promised of God. But
it is urged, —

2. " That this promise is not made unto the persons of any, but
merely unto their qualifications; like that, 'He that believeth shall
be saved ;' it is made to the grace of trusting, obedience, and walking
with God: for threatenings are made to the evil qualifications of
men."

Ans. This it seems, then, we are come unto (and what farther pro-
gress may be made the Lord knows) : The gracious promises of God,
made to his church, his people, in the blood of Jesus, on which they
have rolled themselves with safety and security in their several gene-
rations, are nothing but bare declarations of the will of God, what
he allows and what he rejects, with the firm concatenation that is
between faith and salvation, obedience and reward. And this, it
seems, is the only use of them : which if it be so, I dare boldly say
that all the saints of God from the foundation of the world have
most horribly abused his promises, and forced them to other ends
than ever God intended them for. Doubtless all those blessed souls
who are fallen asleep in the faith of Jesus Christ, having drawn re-
freshment from these breasts of consolation, could they be summoned
to give in their experience of what they have found in this kind,
would with one mouth profess that they found far more in them
than mere conditional declarations of the will of God; yea, that
they received them in faith as the engagement of his heart and

266 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERA^X'E. [CHAP.

good-will towards them, and that he never failed in the accomplish-
ment and performance of all the good mentioned in them. Neither
will that emphatical expression in the close of the second verse
(which being somewhat too rough for our author to handle, he left
it quite out) bear any such sense. That the promises of the cove-
nant are made originally to persons, and not to qualifications, hath
been in part already proved, and shall be farther evinced, God as-
sisting, as occasion shall be offered, in the ensuing discourse. The
promises are to Abraham and his seed; and some of them, as hath
been declared, are the springs of all qualifications whatever that
are acceptable unto God, What be the qualifications of promises of
opening blind eyes, taking away stony hearts, etc., hath not as yet
been declared. But it is farther argued, —

3. " That this and the like promises are to be intei-preted accord-
ing to the rule which God hath given for the interpretation and un-
derstanding of his threatenings unto nations about temporal things,
and his promises that are of the same import, which we have, Jer.
xviii. 7, 8, plainly affirming that all their accomplishment dependeth
on some conditions in the persons or nations against whom they
are denounced."

Ans. God forbid ! Shall those promises which are branches of
the everlasting covenant of grace, called "better promises" than those
of the old covenant, upon the account of their infallible accomplish-
ment, ratified in the blood of Christ, made "yea and amen"^ in him,
the witness of the faithfulness of God to his church and grand sup-
porter of our faith, " exceeding great and pi-ecious,"^ — shall they be
thought to be of no other sense and int^erpretation, to make no
other revelation of the Father unto us, but in that kind which is
common to threatenings of judgments (expressly conditional) for the
deterring men from their impious and destructive courses? I say,
God forbid ! To put it, then, to an issue : God here promiseth that
they who have trust in him shall never be removed. What, I pray, is
the condition on Avhich this promise doth depend ? " It is," say they
who oppose us in this, " if they continue trusting in him." That is, if
they be not removed ; for to trust in him is not to be removed : if,
then, they be not removed, they shall not be removed ! And is this
the mind of the Holy Ghost? Notwithstanding all the rhetoric in the
world, this promise will stand, for the consolation of them that believe,
as the mountains about Jerusalem, that shall never be removed.

In some it is said to be " a promise of abiding in happiness, not
in faith." But it plainly appears to be a promise of abiding in
trusting the Lord, which comprehends both our faith and happiness.

ObJ. " It is not promised that they who once trust in the Lord
shall abide happy thoiigh they cease to trust in him."

• Hcb. viii. 6 ; 2 Cor. i. 20. » 2 Pet. i. 4.

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 267

Ans. It is a promise that they shall not cease to trust in him.

Obj. " It is not said that they shall be necessitated to abide trust-
ing in him."

Ans. No; but it is that they shall be so far assisted and effectually
wrought upon as certainly to do it.

Obj. "It is no more than the apostle says to the Corinthians,
2 Cor. ii. 3 ; which frame towards them he would not continue should
they be changed and turned into idolaters and blasphemers."

A71S. 1. The promises of God and the affections of men are but
ill compared. 2. Paul loved the Corinthians whilst they were such
as he mentioned. God promiseth his grace to believers, that they
may continue such as he loves.

Obj. " All the promises are made to qualifications, not to persons."

Ans. Prove that, and, 1. Take the case in hand ; and, 2. Cast
down the church to the ground, it having no one promise, on that
account, made unto it, as consisting of Abraham's seed.

And so this witness also is freed from all exceptions put in against
it, and appears with confidence to give in its testimony to the un-
changeableness of God unto believers.

I shall, in the next place, adjoin another portion of Scripture, of
the same import with those foregoing, wherein the truth in hand is
no less clearly, and somewhat more pathetically and convincingly^
expressed than in that last mentioned. It is Isa. liv. 7-10, "For
a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will
I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a mo-
ment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith
the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as the waters of Noah unto
me : for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go
over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with
thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the
hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee,
neither shall the covenant of ray peace be removed, saith the Lord
that hath mercy on thee." This place I have mentioned before, but
only as to one special inference from one passage in the words ; I
shall now use the whole for the confirmation of the general truth
we plead for. The words are full, plain, suited to the business in
hand. No expressions of our finding out can so fully reach the
truth we assert, much less so pathetically work upon the affections
of believers, or so effectually prevail on their understandings to re-
ceive the truth contained in them, as these words of God himself,
given us for these ends, are suited to do. Go to men whose minds
are in any measure free from prejudice, not forestalled with a con-
trary persuasion or furnished with evasions for the defence of their
opinions, and ask whether God doth not in these words directly and
positively promise to those to whom he speaketh, that lie will always

268 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

continue his kindness to them to the end, and that for the days of
eternity his love shall be fixed on them; and I no way doubt but
they will readily answer, "It is so indeed; it cannot be denied/' But
seeing we have to deal, as with our own unbelieving heai'ts, so with
men Avho have turned every stone to prejudge this testimony of God,
the words must a little more narrowly be considered, and the mind
of the Holy Ghost inquired into.

Verse 7, mention is made of the desertion of the church by the
eclipsing of the beams of God's countenance, and the inflicting of
some great affliction for a season ; in opposition unto which momen-
tary desertion, in that and in the beginning of the 8th verse, he
giveth in consolation from the assurance of the great mercies and ever-
lasting kindness wherein he abideth to do them good: "With ever-
lasting kindness will I have mercy on thee;" — "I will pardon, pity,
and heal thee with that mercy which floweth from love, which never
had beginning, that never shall have ending, that cannot be cut off,
'everlasting kindness.' Bear with patience your present desertion,
your present trials, whatever they are that befall you ; they are but for
a season, but 'for a moment,' and these also are consistent with that
mercy and kindness which is everlasting and turneth not away." If
this mercy and kindness dependeth on any thing in us, and is re-
solved lastly thereinto, which may alter and change every moment,
— as our walking with God in itself considered, not relating to the un-
changeable n ess of his purpose and the efficacy of his promised grace,
is apt to do, — what opposition can there be betwixt that desertion
wherewith they are exercised and the kindness wherewith they are
embraced, as to their continuance? As that is said to be for a little
while, for "a moment," so this also may be of no longer abode. It
may possibly be as Jonah's gourd, that grew up in the morning, and
before night was withered. What, then, shall become of the founda-
tion of that consolation wherewith God here refresheth the souls of
his people, consisting in the continuance of his kindness in an anti-
thesis to the momentariness of their desertion?

Lest that any should call this into question (as our unbelieving
hearts are very apt and skilful in putting in pleas against the truth
of the promises of God and their accomplishment towards us), verse
9, the Lord farther confirmeth the assurance formerly given, and re-
moveth those objections to which, through the sophistry of Satan
and the sottishness of our own hearts, it may seem to be liable.
" This is," saith he, " as the waters of Noah." God's dealing with
them in that mercy which floweth from his everlasting kindness is
like his dealing with the world in the matter of the waters of Noah,
or the flood wherewith it was drowned and destroyed, when he, with
his, were saved in the ark. He calleth upon his children to consider
his dealings with the world in respect of the flood : " I have sworn,"

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 269

saith he (that is, " I have entered into a covenant to that end/' which
was wont to be confirmed with an oath, and God being absolutely
faithful in his covenant is said to swear thereunto, though there be
no express mention of any such oath), "that the world should no more
be so drowned as then it was. Now," saith God, "see my fiaithfulness
herein; it hath never been drowned since, nor ever shall be. With
equal faithfulness have I engaged, even in covenant, that that kind-
ness which I mentioned to thee shall always be continued, ' so that
I will not be wroth to rebuke thee;' that is, so as utterly to cast
thee off, as the world was when it was drowned." But some may say,
"Before the flood the earth was filled with violence and sin ; and should
it be so again, would it not bring another flood upon it? Hath he said
he will not drown it, notwithstanding any interposal of sin, wicked-
ness, or rebellion whatsoever?" "Yea," saith he, "such is my cove-
nant. I took notice in my first engagement therein, that the ' ima-
gination of man's heart would be evil from his youth,' Gen. viii. 21,
and yet I entered into that solemn covenant. So that this exemption
of the world from a universal deluge is not an appendix to the obe-
dience of the world, which hath been, upon some accounts, more
wicked since than before (as in the crucifying of Christ, the Lord of
glory, and in rejecting of him being preached unto them), but it
solely leaneth upon my faithfulness in keeping covenant, and my
truth in the accomplishment of the oath that I have solemnly entered
into. So is my kindness to you. I have made express provision for
your sins and failings therein ; such I will preserve you from as are
inconsistent with my kindness to you, and such will I pardon as you
are overtaken withal." When you see a universal deluge covering
the face of the earth (that is, God unfaithful to his oath and cove-
nant), then, and not till then, suppose that his kindness can be turned
from believers.

Something is excepted against this testimony, chap. xi. sect. 4,
p. 227, but of so little importance that it is scarce worth while to
turn aside to the consideration of it. The sum is, " That this place
speaketh only of God's faithfulness in his covenant; but that this
should be the tenor of the covenant, that they who once truly be-
lieve should by God infallibly, and by a strong hand, against all
interposals of sin, wickedness, or rebellion, be preserved in such a
faith, is not, by any word, syllable, or iota, intimated."

Ans. This is that which is repeated " usque ad nauseam;" and
were it not for variety of expressions, wherewith some men do abound,
to adorn it, it would appear extremely beggarly and overworn. But a
sorry shift (as they say) is better than none, or doubtless in this place
it had not been made use of; for, —

1. This testimony is not called forth to speak immediately to the
continuance of believers in their faith, but to the continuance and

270 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

unchangeableness of the love of God to them, and consequently only
to their preservation in faith upon that account.

2. It is not only assumed at a cheap and very low rate or price, but
clearly gratis supposed, that believers may make such " interposals
of sin, wickedness, and rebellion," in their walking with God, as should
be inconsistent with the continuance of his favour and kindness to
them, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace. His kindness
and favour being to us extrinsical, our sins are not oj^posed unto
them really and directly, as though they might effectually infringe
an act of the will of God, but only meritoriously. Now, when God
saith that he will continue his kindness to us for ever notwithstand-
ing the demerit of sin, as is plainly intimated in that allusion to the
waters of Noah, for any one to say that they may fall into such sins
and rebellions as that he cannot but turn his kindness from them,
is a bold attempt for the violation of his goodness and faithfulness,
and a plain begging of the thing in question. Certainly it is not a
pious labour, to thrust with violence such supposals into the promises
of God as will stop those breasts from giving out any consolation,
when no place or room for them doth at all appear, there being not
one word, syllable, iota, or tittle, of any such supposals in them.

8. The exposition and gloss that is given of these words, — namely,
" That upon condition of their faithfulness and obedience, which,
notwithstanding any thing in this or any other promise, they may
turn away from, he will engage himself to be a God to tlieni,"
— is such as no saint of God, without the help of Satan and his own
unbelief, could affix to the place.

4. Neither will that at all assist which is affirmed, namel}^, " That
in all covenants, — and his promise holdeth out a covenant, — there
must be a condition on both sides:" for, we willingly gi'ant that
in his covenant of grace God doth promise something to us, and
requireth something of us, and that these two have mutual de-
pendence one upon another ; but we also affirm that in the very
covenant itself God hath graciously promised to Avork effectually
in us those things which he requireth of us, and that herein it
mainly diffcreth from the covenant of works, which he hath abo-
lished. But such a covenant as wherein God should promise to
be a God unto us upon a condition by us and in our own strength
to be fulfilled, and on the same account continued in unto the end,
we acknowledge not, nor can, whilst our hearts have any sense
of the love of the Father, the blood of the Son, or the grace of
the Holy Spirit, the fountains thereof Notwithstanding, then, any
thing that hath been drawn forth in opposition to it, faith may
triumph, from the love of God in Christ, held out in this promise, in
the full assurance of an everlasting acceptance with him ; for God,
also, willing yet more abimdantly to give in consolation in this place

vl] particular promises illustrated. 271

to the heirs of promise, assureth the stability of his love and kind-
ness to them by another allusion: Verse 10, "The mountains," saith
he, " shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall
not depart f*om thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be
removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." He biddeth
them consider the mountains and hills, and suppose that they may
be removed and depart. "Suppose that the most unlikely things in
the world shall come to pass, whose accomplishment none can judge
possible while the world endureth, yet my kindness to thee is such
as shall not fall within those supposals which concern things of such
an impossibility." I am exceeding conscious that all paraphrasing or
exposition of the words that may be used, for their accommodation
to the truth we plead foi', doth but darken and eclipse the light and
glory which in and by themselves, to a believing soul, they cast
upon it. Now, lest any should think that there is the least tendency
in such promises as these, as held out to believers, to turn them
aside from close walking with God, before I enter upon the consi-
deration of any other (this seeming of all others most exposed to ex-
ceptions of that nature), I shall give some few observations that may
a little direct believers, to whom I write, and for whose sake this
task is undertaken, unto the right improvement of them.

The genuine influence which this and the like promises have upon
the souls of the saints, is mightily to stir them up unto, and to assist
them in answering, what lietli in them, that inexpressible love and
kindness which their God and Father in Jesus Christ holdeth out
unto their hearts in them. This the apostle inferreth from them,
2 Cor. vii. 1, " Having these promises" (that is, those especially men-
tioned in the words preceding the conclusion and the inference the
apostle here maketh, chap. vi. 16, 18, "I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and will be a Father unto them, and they shall be my sons
and daughters"), therefore, saith he, "let us cleanse ourselves from
all pollution of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of
God." Universal purity, holiness, and close walking with God, are that
which these promises do press unto and naturally promote in the hearts
of believers. And in 2 Peter i. 3-6, that apostle pursueth the same
at large, " God hath called us to glory and virtue; hath given us ex-
ceeding great and precious promises; that by these ye might be
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. Besides this, giving all diligence," etc,
" The exceeding great and precious promises" which are given unto
us in our calling are bestowed for this end, that " by them we may
be made partakers of the divine nature." They have no tendency to
communicate to us the nature of the devil, and to stir us up to re-
bellion, uncleanness, and hatred of the God of all that love that is
in them ; but lie, indeed, at the bottom, the root, and foundation of

272 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CUAP.

tlie practice and exercise of all those graces which he enumerates,
and, from the receiving of those promises, exhorts us to in the follow-
ing verses. Some, I confess, do or ma}^ " turn the grace of God into
lasciviousness," — that is, the doctrine of grace and ofi^^ardon of sin
in the blood of Jesus Christ, — and so the mercy mentioned in such
promises as these, merely as in them it is mentioned; grace and
mercy communicated cannot be turned into wantonness. But what
are they that do so? " Ungodly men, men of old ordained to con-
demnation," Jude 4. Paul rejecteth any such thought from the
hearts of believers: Rom. vi. 1, 2, " Shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound ? God forbid ! " Nay, suppose that that natural cor-
ruption, that flesh and blood, that is in believers, be apt to make
such a conclusion as this, " Because God will certainly abide with
us for ever, therefore let us walk carelessly, and do him all the
despite we can," these promises being not made for the use and
exalting of the flesh, but being given to be mixed with faith, which
is carefully to watch against all abusing or corrupting of that love
and mercy which is held out unto it, flesh and blood can have no
advantage given unto it thereby; as shall afterward be more fully
and clearly demonstrated. The question is, then, what conclusion
faith doth, will, and ought to make of these promises of God, and
not what abuse the flesh will make of them. Let, then, the meanest
and weakest faith in all the world that is true and saving speak for
itself, whether there be any thing in the nature of it that is apt to
make such conclusions as these : " My God and Father in Jesus
Christ hath graciously promised, in his infinite love and goodness to
me, through him in whom he is well pleased, that he will be my
God and guide for ever, that he will never forsake me, nor take his
kindness from me to eternity. And he hath done this although that
he saw and knew that I would deal foolishly and treacherously, that
I would stand in need of all his goodness, patience, and mercy, to
spare me and heal me, promising also to keep me from such a wicked
departure from him as should for ever alienate my soul from him:
therefore come on, let me continue in sin; let me do him all the dis-
honour and despite that I can. This is all the sense that I have of
his infinite love, this is all the impression that it leaveth upon me,
that I need not love him again, but study to be as vile and as abo-
minable in his sight as can possibly be imagined." Certainly there
is not any " smoking flax," or any " bruised reed," there is not a
soul in the world whom God in Christ hath once shined upon, or
dropped the least dram of grace into his heart, but will look on such
a conclusion as this as a blast of the bottomless pit, a detestable dart
of Satan, which it is as proper for faith to quench as any other abo-
mination whatever. Let, then, faith in reference unto these pro-
mises have its perfect work, not abiding in a naked contemplation of

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 273

tliem, but mixing them with itself, and there will be undoubtedly
found the improvement before mentioned for the carrying on of god-
liness and gospel obedience in the hearts of believers. But this I
shall have occasion to speak to more afterward.

Hos. ii. 19, 20, is pertinent also to the same purpose: "I will be-
troth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in
righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in
mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness : and thou
shalt know the Lord." The words themselves as they lie in the
text do directly confirm our assertion. The relation whereinto
God here expresseth that he will and doth take his people is one of
the most near and eminent which he affordeth to them, a conjugal
relation, — he is and will be their husband ; which is as high an ex-
pression of the covenant betwixt God and his saints as any that is or
can be used. Of all covenants that are between sundry persons, that
which is between man and wife is the strongest and most inviolable.
So is this covenant expressed Isa. liv. 5, "Thy Maker is thine hus-
band ; the Lord of hosts is his name." And this relation he afifirmeth
shall continue for ever, upon the account of those properties of his
which are ene^ao-ed in this his gracious undertakinof to take them to
himself therein. He doth it "in righteousness, and in judgment, and
in loving-kindness, and in mercies, and in faithfulness." So that if
there be not something in the context or words adjoining that shall
with a high hand turn us aside from the first, immediate, open, and
full sense of these words, the case is undoubtedly concluded in them.
This, then, we shall consider, and therefore must look a little back
into the general design of the whole chapter, for the evasion of
" qualifications " will not here serve ; God betrothed persons, not qua-
lifications.

There are two parts of the chapter: — L That from the beginning
to verse 14 containeth a most fearful and dreadful commination and
threatening of the judgments of the Lord against the whole church
and commonwealth of the Jews, for their apostasy, idolatry, and re-
bellion against him. It is not an affiiction or a trial, or some lesser
desolation, that God here threateneth them withal, but utter de-
struction and rejection as to all church and political state. He will
leave them neither substance nor ornament, state nor worship, de-
scribing the condition which came upon them at their rejection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Left they must be as in the day that God
first looked on them, — poor, naked, in their blood, unpitied, formed
neither into church-state nor commonwealth. "So will I make
them," saith the Lord. And this dispensation of God the prophet
expresseth with great dread and terror to the end of verse 13.

2, The second part of the chapter is taken up and spent, from
verse 14 to the end, in heavenly and gracious promises of the con-

YOL. XL 18

274 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

version of the true Israelites, the seed according to the promise of
God, of the renovation of the covenant with them, and blessing them
■with all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ unto the end. And
hereof there are these four parts: —

(1.) A heavenly promise of their conversion by the gospel; which
he demonstratetli and setteth out by comparing the spiritual deliv-
erance therein to the deliverance which they had by a high hand
from Egypt, verses 14, 15.

(2.) The delivery of them so converted from idolatry, false worship,
and all those ways whereby God was provoked to cast off their fore-
fathers, attended by their obedience in close walking with God for ever,
verses 16, 17.

(3.) The quietness and ijeace which they shall enjoy, being called
and purged from their sins before mentioned ; which the Lord ex-
pressetli by his making a covenant with the whole creation in their
behalf, verse IS,

(4.) A discovery of the fountain of the mercies before mentioned,
with those also which afterward are insisted on, to wit, the everlast-
ing covenant of grace, through which God will with all faithfulness
and mercy take them to himself, verses 19, 20, to the end.

Before we farther open these particulars, some objections must be
removed that are laid to pi event the inference intended from these
words, ghap. xi. sect. 8, p. 229. It is objected, —

1. "The promise of the betrothing here specified is made unto
the entire body and nation of the Jews, as well unbelievers as be-
lievers, as appeareth by the carriage of the chapter throughout."

Ans. The " carriage of the chapter throughout" is a weak proof
of this assertion, and no doubt fixed on for want of particular in-
stances to give any light unto it. Neither doth the " carriage of
the chapter throughout" intimate any such thing in the least, but
expressly manifesteth the contrary. It is universal desolation and
utter rejection that is assigned as the portion of unbelievers as such
all along this chapter. This promise is made to them whom " God
allureth into the wilderness, and there speaketh comfortably to
them;" which, what it doth import, shall be afterward considered.
Yea, and which is more, the words of verse 23, which run on in the
same tenor with the promises particularly insisted on, and beyond
all exception are spoken to and of the same persons, are applied by
the apostle Paul, not to the whole nation of the Jews, idolaters and
unbelievers, but to them that were brought in unto the Lord Christ,
and obtained the righteousness of faith, Avhen the rest were hardened,
Rom. ix. 26. From verse 24 to verse 2.9, the apostle, by sundry in-
stances from the scriptures of the Old Testament, manifesteth that it
was a remnant of Israel " according to the election of grace" to whom
the promise was made: "To us, whom God hath called, not to the

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 275

Jews onl}'-, but also to tlie Gentiles; for so," saith he, " it is in Osee"
(instancing in the passage we insist on), " I will call them my people
which were not my people ; and her beloved which was not beloved.
And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto
them, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the chil-
dren of the living God ; " — which he farther confirmeth by a testi-
mony out of Isa. X. 22, 23, manifesting that it is but "a remnant"
that is intended. Wherefore it is objected, —

2. " That the promise is conditional, and the performance of it
and of the mercies mentioned in it suspended upon the repentance
of that people, especially of their idolatry, to the true and pure
worship of God, as appeareth, verses 14, 16, 17; which plainly
showeth that it was made as well, nay, rather to those that were
wicked and idolatrous amongst this people than unto others, as being
held forth unto them chiefly for this end, to woo them away from
their idols unto God."

Ans. I hope the people of God will more steadfastly abide by
their interest in the sweetness, usefulness, and consolation of this
promise, than to throw it away upon such slight and atheological
flourishes; for, —

1. Is there any tittle, iota, or word, in the whole text, to intimate
that this promise is conditional, and dependeth on the people's for-
saking their idolatry? The 14th, 16th, and 17th verses are urged for
proof thereof God, indeed, in these verses doth graciously promise
that, from the riches of the same grace whence he freely saith that
"he will betroth them to himself," he will convert them, and turn
them away from their idolatry and all their sins; but that that
should be required of them as a condition whereon God will enter
into covenant with them, there is nothing in the whole context, from
verse 14 and downwards, that intimateth it in the least or will en-
dure to be wrested to any such sense, it holding out several distinct
acts of the same free grace of his unto his people.

2. That this is a promise of entering into covenant with them
cannot be denied. Now, that God should require their repentance
as an antecedaneous, previous qualification to his receiving them
into covenant, and yet in the covenant undertake to give them that
repentance, as he doth in promising them to take away their hearts
of stone and give them new hearts of flesh, is a direct contradiction,
fit only for a part of that divinity which is in the whole an express
contradiction to the word and mind of God.

3. Neither can it be supposed as a conditional promise, held out
to them as a motive to work them from their idolatry, when, ante-
cedently thereunto, God hath expressly promised to do that for
them (verses 16, 17) with as high a hand and eflicacy of grace as
can be well expressed.

276 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

Wherefore, these being exceptions expressly against the scope of
the whole, it is objected, —

3. " That it cannot be proved that this promise properly or directly
intendeth the collation of spiritual or heavenly good things unto
them, so as of temporal; yea, the situation of it betwixt tem2:)oral
promises immediately both behind and before it persuadeth the
contrary. Read the context from verse 8 to the end of the chapter."

A71S. The other forts being demolished, this last is very faintly de-
fended,— " It cannot be proved that it doth so properly or directly."
But if it doth intend spirituals properly and directly, though not
so properly or directly, the case is clear. And that it doth properly
intend spirituals, and but secondarily and indirectly temporals, as to
sundry limitations, is most evident; for, —

1. The very conjugal expression of the love of God here used
manifesteth it beyond all contradiction to be a promise of the cove-
nant: " I will betroth thee unto me;" — " I will take thee unto me
in wedlock covenant." What! in temporal mercies? is that the
tenor of the covenant of God ? God forbid !

2. The foundations of these mercies, and the principles from whence
they flow, are "loving-kindness," and "mercies," and "faithfulness" in
God, which are fixed upon them and engaged unto them whom he thus
taketh into covenant; and surely they are spiritual mercies.

S. The mercies mentioned are such as never had a literal accom-
plishment to the Jews in temporals, nor can have ; and when things
promised exceed all accomplishment as to the outward and temporal
jiart, it is the spiritual that is principally and mainly intended. And
such are these, verse 18, "I will break the bow, and the sword, and
the battle out of the earth, and make them to lie down safely."
How, I pray, was this fulfilled towards them, whilst they lived under
the power of the Persian, Grecian, and Roman empires, to their
utter desolation? And verse 23, he telleth them that he will "sow
them unto himself in the earth, and have mercy upon them;" which,
as I said before, Paul himself interpreteth and applieth to the spe-
cial mercies of faith and justification in the blood of Christ. So that
both the verses going before and those that follow after, to the con-
sideration whereof we are sent, contain directly and properly spi-
ritual mercies, though expressed in words and terms of things of a
temporal importance.

Tims, notwithstanding any exception to the contrary, the context
is clear, as it was at first proposed. Let us, then, in the next place,
consider the intendment ot God in this promise, with that influence
of demonstration which it hath upon the truth we are in the con-
sideration of, and then free the words from that corrupting gloss
which is endeavoured to be put upon them.

In the first [place] I shall consider, — 1. The persons to ivhom this

VI. J PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 277

promise is made; 2. The nature of the promise itself; 3. The great
undertaking and engagement of the properties q/ God for the ac-
complishment of his promise.

]. Thejoe7*50W6' here intimated are such as are under the power and
enjoyment of the grace and kindness mentioned in verses 14-18.
Now, because a right understanding of the grace of those promises
addeth much to the apprehension of the kindness of these particulars
insisted on, the opening of those words may be thought necessary.

Verse 14, they are those whom God " allureth into the wil-
derness," and "speaketh comfortably unto them;" he allureth and
persuadeth them. There is an allusion in the words to the great
original promise of the conversion of the Gentiles, and the way
whereby it shall be done. Gen. ix. 27, God persuades Japheth to
dwell in the tents of Shem. Their alluring is by the powerful and
sweet persuasion of the gospel; which here is so termed to begin
the allegory of betrothing and marriage, which is afterward pursued.
It is God's beginning to woo the soul by his ambassadors. God per-
suadeth them into the wilderness, — persuadeth them, but yet with
mighty power, as he carried them of old out of Egypt ; for thereunto
he evidently alludeth, as in the next verse is more fully expressed.
Now, the wilderness condition whereinto they are allured or per-
suaded by the gospel compriseth two things: — (1.) Separation ; (2.)
Entanglement.

(1.) Separation. As the Israelites in the wilderness were separated
from the residue of the world and the pleasures thereof, " the people
dwelling alone, being not reckoned among thenations," having nothing
to do with them, so God separateth them to the love of the gospel
from their carnal contentments, and all the satisfactions which be-
fore they received in their lusts, until they say to them, " Get you
hence; what have we to do with you any more?" They are sej)a-
rated from the practice of them, and made willing to bid them ever-
lastingly farewell. They see their Egyptian lusts lie slain or dead, or
at least dying, by the cross of Christ, and desire to see them no more.

(2.) Entanglement, as the Israelites were in the wilderness. They
knew not what to do, nor which way to take one step, but only as
God went before them, as he took them by the hand, and taught
them to go. God bringeth them into a lost condition ; they know
not what to do, nor wldch way to take, nor what course to pitch
upon. And yet in this wilderness state, God doth commonly stir up
such gracious dispositions of soul in them as himself is exceedingly
delighted withal : hence he doth peculiarly call this time " a time of
love," which he remembereth with much delight. All the time of
the saint's walking with him, he taketh not greater delight in a soul,
when it cometh to its highest peace and fullest assurance, than when
it is seeking after him in its wilderness entanglement. So he ex-

278 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

prcsseth it, Jcr. ii. 2, " Thus saith the Lord ; I remember thee, the
kindness of thy j'outh, the love of thine espousals, when thou went-
est after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." And
what he here affirmeth holds proportion therewithal. The time of their
being in the wilderness was the time of their espousals, and so it is
here the time of the Lord's betrothing the soul to himself, the wooing
words whereby he doth it being intimated in the next verse; for, —

[1.] He " speaketh comfortably to them," speaketh to their hearts
good words, that may satisfy their spirits and give them rest and
deliverance out of that condition. What it is that God speaketh,
when he speaketh comfortably to the very hearts of poor souls, he
telleth you, Isa. xl. 1, 2, "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned." It is the
pardon of iniquity that inwrappeth all the consolation that a poor
wilderness soul, separated and entangled, is capable of or doth de-
sire. And this is the first description of the persons to whom this
promise is given : They are such as God hath humbled and pardoned,
such as he hath converted and justified, whom he hath allured into
the wilderness, and there spoken comfortably to them.

[2.] Verse 15, the Lord promiseth to this called and justified
people plenty of spiritual, gosjoel mercies, which he shadoweth out
with typical expressions of temporal enjoyments, and that with allu-
sion to their deliverance of old from Egypt, in three particulars: —

1st In general, he will give them " vineyards from thence" (that
is, from the wilderness), as he did to them in Canaan, when he
brought them out of the wilderness. This God often mindeth them
of, that he gave them " vineyards which they planted not,"" Deut.
vi. 11 ; and he here setteth out the plenty of gospel grace, which they
never laboured for, which he had provided for them, under that
notion. He giveth them of the wine of the gospel, his Holy Spirit.

2dlt/. In particular, he compares his dealings with them to his
dealings in the valley of Achor, a most pleasant and fruitful valley
that was near Jericho, being the first the IsraeHtes entered into
when they came out of the wilderness, which is mentioned as a
fruitful place, Isa. Ixv. 10. And therefore this is said to be to them
'' a door of hope," or an entrance into that which they hoped for, it
being the first fat, fruitful, and fertile place that the Israelites came
into in the land of Canaan, and so an entrance into the good land
which they hoped for, answering their expectation to the uttermost.
In the promise of the abundance of spiritual mercies and grace which
God hath prepared for his, he rccalleth into their minds the consider-
ation of the refreshment which the Israelites, after so long an abode
in the " waste and howling wilderness," had and took in the fruitful,
plenteous " valley of Achor." Such is the spiritual provision that

VI.] PARTICUIAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 279

God hath made for the entertainment of poor souls whom he hath
aUured into the wilderness, and there spoken comfortably to them.
Being called and pardoned, he leadeth them to sweet and pleasant
pastures, treasures of grace and mercy, which he hath laid up for
them in Jesus Christ. He giveth them of the first-fruits of heaven,
which is a door of hope unto the full possession, Eom. viii. 23.

2dly. [He alludes] to the songs and rejoicings which the church
had when they sung one to another upon the destruction of the
Egyptians, at their delivery out of the bondage of Egypt, As then
they sung for joy, Exod. xv. 1-21, upon the sense of that great and
wonderful deliverance which God had wrought for them, so shall their
hearts be affected with gospel mercies, pardoning, healing, purging,
and comforting grace, which in Jesus Christ he will give in unto them.

These, then, are the three things which are promised to them
that come out of the Avildemess: — (1.) Gospel refreshment, in pouring
out of the Spirit upon them ; (2.) The first-fruits of heaven, a door of
hope; (3.) Spiritual joy, in the destruction and conquest of sin.

This, then, is the sum of this second part of that description which
we have of those persons to whom the promise under consideration
is given : They are such as, being called and pardoned, are admitted
to that portion in the wonderful marvellous provision of gospel mer-
cies and grace which in Jesus Christ he hath provided for them, with
that joy and consolation which thereon doth ensue.

In the following verses you have a fuller description of these per-
sons, upon a twofold account: — First, By their dehvery from idolatry
and false worship, verses 16, 17, which is particularly and peculiarly
insisted on, because that eminently was the sin for which those men-
tioned in the beginning of the chapter were utterly rejected. God
will preserve these, as from the sin of idolatry, so from any other that
should procure their utter rejection and desolation, as that of idolatiy
had formerly done in respect of the only carnal Jews. Secondly, By
their protection against their enemies, verse 18. And these are the
persons to whom this promise is made, — converted, justified, sancti-
fied, and purified persons.

2. We may take a little view of the nature of the promise itself:
" I will," saith the Lord, " betroth thee unto me for ever." There
is in this promise a twofold opposition to that rejection that God had
before denounced unto the carnal and rebellious Jews : —

(1.) In the nature of the thing itself, unto the divorce that God
gave them : Verse 2, "She is not my wife ; neither am I her husband."
But to these saith God, *' I will betroth them unto myself;" — " They
shall become a wife to me, and I will be a husband unto them." And
this also manifesteth that they are not the same persons to whom
that threatening was given that are principally intended in this pro-
mise; for if God did only take them again whom he had once put

280 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCE. [cHAP.

avvaj, there would have been no need of any betrothing of them
anew. New " sponsalia'' are not required for such an action.

(2.) In the coniimiance of the rejection of the first, and the estab-
lishment of the recejition of the latter, at least in respect of his abid-
ing with these and those; Avith those for a season, but unto these
he saith^ " I will betroth them unto me FOR EVER." God's betroth-
ing of believers is his actual taking them into a marriage covenant
with himself, to deal with them in the tenderness, faithfulness, and
protection ot a husband. So is he often pleased to call himself in
reference to his church. I shall not go forth to the consideration of
this relation that God is pleased to take the souls of saints into with
himself. The eminent and precious usefulness and consolation that
floweth from it is ready to draw me out thereunto, but I must attend
to that which I principally aim at, — namely, to evince that God hath
undertaken that he and believers will and shall abide in this relation
to the end, that he will for ever be a husband to them, and that in
opposition to his dealing with'the carnal church of the Jews, to whom
he was betrothed as to ordinances, but rejected them, and said he was
not their husband as to peculiar grace. To whom God continueth to
be a husband, to them he continueth the loving-kindness, good-will,
and protectionof a husband, — the most intense, useful, fruitful, that can
be imagined. This, then, will he do to believers, and that for ever.

o. Now, because sundry objections may be levied against the ac-
complishment of this engagement of God, upon the account of our
instability and backsliding, the Lord addeth the manner of his en-
tering into this engagement with us, obviating and preventing, or
removing, all such objections whatever; which is the third thing
proposed to consideration, — namely, the engagement of the proper-
ties of God for the accomplishment of this promise.

Five properties doth the Lord here mention, to assure us of his
constancy in this undertaking of his gi'ace, and of the steadfastness
of the covenant he hath taken his people into; and they are, "right-
eousness, judgment, loving-kindness, mercies," and "faithfulness;"
whose efficacy, also, in reference unto their abiding with him
whom he doth betroth to himself, he mentioneth in the close of
verse 20, " Tliou," saith he, " shalt know the Lord." I shall not in-
sist on the particular importance of the several expressions whereby
the Lord hath set forth himself and his goodness here unto us. It is
plain that they are all mentioned to the same end and purpose, —
namely, to give assurance unto us of the unchangeableness of this
work of his grace, and to prevent the objections which the fears of
our unbelieving hearts, from the consideration of our weaknesses,
ways, and walkings, temptations, trials, and troubles, would raise upon
it. The Lord, when he betroths us to himself, sees and knows what
we are, what we will be, and how we will provoke the eyes of bis

VI.] PAETICULAE PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 281

glory. He sees that if we should be left unto ourselves, we would
utterly cast off all knowledge of him and obedience unto him.
" Wherefore," saith he, " ' I will betroth thee unto me in righteous-
ness and in judgment;' allowing full measure for all thy weaknesses,
that they shall not dissolve that union I intend." As if a prince
should go to take to him in marriage a poor deformed beggar, who
being amazed with his kindness, and fearing much lest he should be
mistaken, and account her otherwise than indeed she is, which when
it is discovered will be her ruin, she plainly telleth him she is poor,
deformed, and hath nothing in the world that may answer his expec-
tation, and therefore she cannot but fear that when he knoweth her
thoroughly indeed, he will utterly cast her off: but he thereupon re-
plieth, " Fear no such thing; what I do, I do in righteousness and
judgment, knowingly of thee and thy condition, and so as that I will
abide by it." Perhaps, as some think, by this " betrothing us in
righteousness," the Lord may intimate his bestowing upon us right-
eousness, yea, his becoming in Jesus Christ our righteousness, to
supply that utter want which is in us of that which is acceptable
unto him, Isa. xlv. 24. Now, because we are not only unmeet to be
at first accepted into any such terms of alliance with the Lord, but
also shall certainly in the carrying of it on behave ourselves foolishly
and frowardly, unanswerable to his loving-kindness, so that he may
justly cast us off for ever, he telleth us farther that he betroths us to
himself " in loving-kindness and in mercies," knowing that in entering
into this alliance with us he maketh work for his tenderest bowels
of compassion, his pity and pardoning mercy. In his continuance
in this relation, whatever his kindness, patience, and pardoning mercy
can be extended unto, that he will accomplish and bring about. But
will not the Lord, when he pardons once and again, at length be
wearied by our innumerable provocations, so as to cast us off for
ever? "No," saith he; " this will I do in faithfulness." He doubleth
the expression of his grace, and addeth a property of his nature that
will carry him out to abide by his first love to the utmost: " I will,"
saith he, " even betroth thee unto myself in faithfulness." His firm-
ness, constancy, and truth, in all his ways and promises, will he use
in this work of his grace, Deut. xxxii. 4. But perhaps, notwithstand-
ing all this, the heart is not yet quiet, but it feareth itself and its
own treachery, lest it should utterly fall off from this gracious hus-
band; wherefore, in the close of all, God undertaketh for them also
that no scruple may remain why our souls should not be satisfied
with the sincere milk that floweth from this breast of consolation.
"Thou shalt," saith he, "know the Lord." This, indeed, is required,
that under the accomplishment of this gracious promise you know
the Lord, — that is, believe and trust, and obey the Lord; and saith
he, "Thou shalt do it. I will by my grace keep alive in thy heart

282 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAr.

(as a fruit of that love wherewith I have betrothed thee to myself)
that knowledge, faith, and obedience, which I require of thee."

This, then, is some part of that whicl) in this promise the Lord
holdeth out unto us and assureth us of. Notwithstanding liis re-
jection of the carnal Jews, yet for his elect, both the Jews and Gen-
tiles, he will so take them into a marriage covenant with himself
that he will continue for ever a husband unto them, undertaking
also that they shall continue in faith and obedience, knowing hira
all their days. And of all this he effectually assureth them upon
the account of his righteousness, judgment, loving-kindness, mercy,
and faithfulness.

I cannot but add, that if there were no other place of Scripture in
the whole book of God to confirm the truth we have in hand but
only this, I should not doubt (the Lord assisting) to close with it
upon the signal testimony given unto it thereby, notwithstanding
all the specious oppositions that are made thereunto.

For the close, I shall a little consider that lean and hungry exposi-
tion of these words which is given in the place before mentioned,
chap. xi. sect. 8, p. 229, " I will betroth them unto me in righteous-
ness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and mercy." So the
words are expressed, in a different character, as the very words of
the promise in the text: — "Thee," that is, the church, is changed
into " Them," — that is, the Jews and their children or carnal seed,
as a little before was expressed; and then that emphatical expression,
"for ever," is quite thrust out of the text, as a stubborn word, not
to be dealt withal upon any fair terms. Let us see, then, how that
w'hich remaineth is treated and turned off " ' I will betroth thee;'
tliat is, ' I will engage and attempt to insure both them and their
affections to me, by all variety of ways and means that are proper
and likely to bring such a thing to pass.' " But who knoweth not
that this is w^ooing, and not betrothing? We need not go far to find
out men learned in the law to inform us that to try and attempt
to get and assure the affections of any one is not a betrotliment.
This, then, is the first part of this exposition: "'I will betroth;'
that is, 'I will woo and essay, attempt and endeavour, to get tlieir
affections;'" which, besides the forementioned absurdity, is attended
with another sore oversight, to wit, that God promiseth to do this
very thing in the last words of verse 20, which is afliirmed tliat he
doth but attempt to do.

To proceed: He saith, "I will do this, by showing myself just
and righteous unto them, in keeping my promise concerning their
deliverance out of captivity at the end of seventy years." So, then,
in this new para{)hrase, " I will betroth thee" (that is, the election of
Jews and Gentiles) " to myself for ever in righteousness," is, " I will
essay to get tlieir affections by showing my.self righteous in the promise

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED, 283

of bringing tlie Jews out of captivity." That this promise is not
made to the body of the Jews returning out of captivity was before
demonstrated. The righteousness here mentioned is that which God
will and doth exercise in this very act of betrothing, and not any
other act of it, which he will make use of to that purpose. God
engageth to betroth them to himself in righteousness, using and ex-
ercising his righteousness in that very act of his love and grace to
them ; and this is now given in an alluring them to love him by
appearing righteous in bringing them out of captivity !

The like interpretation is given of the other expressions follow-
ing: " ' Judgment,' — it is," salth he, " by punishing and judging their
enemies, and destroying them that led them into captivity, and held
them in bondage and subjection; and 'loving-kindness' is his giving
them corn, wine, oil, peace, and plenty; and 'mercy,' in pardoning
of daily sins and infirmities ; and ' faithfulness' is " he knoweth not
what. This is made the sum of all: " God, by doing them good with
outward mercies, and pardoning some sins and infirmities, will
morally try to get their affections to himself" " Virgula Pictoris!"
1. It is not an expression of God's attempting to get their love, but
of the establishing and confirming of his own. 2. That God should
morally try and essay to do and effect or bring about any thing,
which yet he doth not, will not, or cannot, compass and effect, is not
to be ascribed to him without casting the greatest reproach of im-
potency, ignorance, changeableness, upon him iraaglnable. 3. God
promising to betroth us to himself, fixing his love on us that we
shall know him, so fixing our hearts on him; to say that this holdeth
out only the use of some outward means unto us, enervateth the
whole covenant of his grace wrapped up in these expressions. So
that, all things considered, it is not a little strange to me that any
sober, learned man should ever be tempted so to wrest and corrupt,
by wrested and forced glosses, the plain words of Scripture, wherein,
whatever is pretended, he cannot have the least countenance of
any expositor of note that went before him. Although we are not
to be pressed with the name of Tarnovius, a Lutheran, a professed
adversary in this cause, yet let his exposition of that place under
consideration be consulted with, and it will plainly appear that it
abideth not in any compliance with that which is here by our author
imposed on us.

The promises we have under consideration looking immediately
and directly only to one part of that doctrine whose defence we
have undertaken, — to Vvit, the constancy and unchangeableness of
the grace of justification, or God's abiding with his saints, as to his
free acceptance of them and love unto them, unto the end, — I shall
not insist on many more particulars.

John X. 27-29 closeth this discourse: "My sheep hear my voice,

284 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CJIAP.

and I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto them eter-
nal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater
than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's
hand/'

In the verse foregoing, our Saviour renders a reason why the Pha-
risees, notwithstanding all his preaching to them and the miracles
he wrought among them, yet believed not, when sundry others, to
whom the same dispensation of outward means was afforded, did
hear his voice and did yield obedience thereunto; and this he telleth
us was because they were not of his sheep, such as were given him
of his Father, and for whom, as the good Shepherd, he laid down
his life, verses 14, 15. Upon the close of this discourse, he describeth
the present condition of his sheep, and their preservation in that
condition, from the power of himself and his Father engaged there-
unto. He layeth their abiding with him as his sheep upon the
omnipotence of God ; which, upon account of the constancy of his love
towards them, he will exercise and exert as need shall be in their
behalf There are many emphatical expressions both of their con-
tinuance in the obedience of faith, and of his undertaking for their
preservation therein. The latter I at present only intend. Saith he,
1. "I know them;" 2. "I give them eternal life;" 3. "They shall
never perish;" 4. "No man shall pluck them out of my hand;"
5. "My Father is omnipotent, and hath a sovereignty over all, and
he taketh care of them, and none shall take them out of his hand."
It is not easy to cast these words into any other form of arguing
than that wherein they lie, Avithout losing much of that convincing
evidence that is in them. This you may take for the sum of their
influence into the truth in hand: Those whom Christ so owneth as
to take upon him to give them eternal life, and by his power and the
power of his Father to preserve them thereunto, — which power sliall
not, nor possibly can be, prevailed against, so that the end aimed at
to be accomjilished therein should not be brought about, — those shall
certainly be kept for ever in the favour and love of God, they shall
never be turned from him. Such is the case of all believers; for
they are all the sheep of Christ, they all hear his voice and follow
hiuL

Some few things, to wrest this gracious assurance given believers
of the everlasting good-will of God and Clirist imto them, are at-
tempted by Mr Goodwin, chap. x. sect. 37, p. 203.

1. He granteth that there is an engagement of the "mighty
power of God for the safeguarding of the saints, as such or remain-
ing such, against all adverse powers whatever, but nowhere for the
compelling or necessitating of them to persevere and continue such
is there any thing in the Scripture."

VI.] PARTICULAR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 285

Ans. The sum is, "If they will continue saints, God will take care
that, notwithstanding all opposition, they shall be saints still.'' Very
well, if they will be so, they shall be so; but "that they shall continue
to be so, that is not promised." The terms of " compelling or neces-
sitating" are cast in merely to throw dirt upon the truth, lest, the
beauty shining forth too brightly, there might have been danger
that the very exceptor himself could not have borne it We say not
that God by his power compelleth men to persevere ; that is, maketh
them do it whether they will or no. Perseverance being an habi-
tual grace in their wills, it is a gross contradiction once to imagine
that men should be compelled thereunto. But this we say, that, by
the almighty poAver of his Spirit and grace, he confirmeth his saints
in a voluntary abiding with him all their days. Having made them
a willing people in the day of the power of Christ towards them, he
preserveth them unto the end. Neither are they wrapped up by the
power of God into such a necessity of perseverance as should ob-
struct the liberty of their obedience, the necessity that regardeth
them in that condition respecting only the issue and end of things,
and not their manner of support in their abiding with God. And it
is not easy to conjecture why our author should so studiously avoid
the grant of a promise of final perseverance in these words, who, in
his next observation upon them, affirmeth that "they respect the
state of the saints in heaven, and not at all those that are on earth ; "
I mean, that part of those words which expresseth their preserva-
tion and safeguarding by the power of God. So that this is fancied,
perhaps, even to be the condition of the saints in heaven, that God
will there preserve them whilst they continue saints, but that they
shall so do there is not any assurance given or to be had. It is
marvellous, if this be so, that in so large and vast a space of time
we yet never heard of any of those holy ones that were cast out of
his inheritance, or that forfeited his enjoyment. But let us hear
what is farther asserted. He addeth, by way of answer, —

2. " The security for which our Saviour engageth the greatness of
his Father's power unto his sheep is promised unto them, not in
order to the effecting or procuring their final perseverance, but rather
by way of reward to it."

Ans. But what tittle is there, I pray you, in the whole context to
intimate any such thing? what insinuation of any such condition?
" They hear my voice, and they follow me;" that is, " They believe
in me, and bring forth the fruits of their believing in suitable obe-
dience," as these words of "hearing" and "following" do imply. Saith
our Saviour, " These shall not perish, the power of my Father shall
preserve them." " That is," saith our author, " in case they persevere
to the end, then God will jjreserve them." Clearly our Saviour under-
taketh that believers shall not perish, and that his power and his

286 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERA^'CE. [CHAP.

Father's are engaged for that end; which is all we assert or have
need to do.

2. " That this promise of safety made to his sheep by Christ doth
not relate to their state or condition in this present world, but to that
of the world to come. ' My sheep hear my voice, and follow me;'
in which Avords of ' hearing ' and 'following' him he intimateth or in-
cludeth their perseverance, as appeareth by the words immediately
following, ' And I give them eternal life.'"

Ans. This, I confess, is to the purpose, if it be true; but being so
contrary to what hath been (I had almost said universally) received
concerning the mind of Christ in this place, we had need of evident
concluding reasons to enforce the truth of this gloss or interpreta-
tion. For the present, I shall give you some few inducements or
persuasions why it seemeth altogether unsuitable to the mind of our
blessed Saviour, that this engagement of his Father's power and his
own should be shut out from taking any place in the kingdom of
grace: —

1. Observe that there is a great opposition to be made against
the saints in that condition wherein they are promised to be pre-
served. This is supposed in the words themselves: " None shall pluck
them out of my hand. My Father is greater than all ; and no man is
able to pluck them out of my Father's hand;" — as if he should have
said, " It is true, many enemies they have, great opposition will there
be and aiise against them on all hands, but preserved they shall be
in the midst of them all." But now, what enemies, what opposition,
will there be and arise against the saints in heaven? The Holy
Ghost telleth us, " The last enemy is death," and that at the resur-
rection that shall be " utterly swallowed up in victory," that it shall
never lift up the head; there they rest from their labours who die
in the Lord. Yea, it is exceeding ridiculous to suppose that the saints
need assurance of the engagement of the omnipotency of God for
their safeguarding in heaven against all oj^position, when they are
assured of nothing more than that there they shall not be hable to
the least opposition or obstruction in their enjoyment of God unto
all eternity.

2. Our Saviour here describeth the present condition of his sheep
in a way of opposition to them that are not his sheep : his hear his
voice, the others do not; and his shall be preserved when the others
perish. The Pharisees believed not, and, as he told them, " they
died in their sins;" his sheep heard him, and were preserved in their
obedience. It is, then, evidently the deportment of Christ towards,
and his care of, his sheep in this world, in a contradistinction to them
who are not his sheep, among whom they live, that is here set forth.

3. The very context of the words enforceth this sense : " They follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life;" — " I do it; that is the work I

VI.j PARTICULxiR PROMISES ILLUSTRATED. 287

have in band." Take "eternal life" in the most comprehensive sense,
for that which is to be enjoyed in heaven (though, doubtless, it com-
priseth also the life of grace which here we enjoy, John xvii. 3),
what is that which our Saviour undertaketh to give believers, and
that they may be sure that they shall be preserved to the eujoyment
of? When he telleth them they shall not perish, is that not joerish-
ing not to be cast out of heaven when they come thither, — not to be
deprived of eternal life after they have entered into the fulness of
it? or rather, that they shall not fail or come short of it, and so
perish? And this is that which the power of Father and Son is
engaged to accomplish, — namely, that believers perish not by coming
short of that eternal life which is the business of Christ to give unto
them. If any one reason of weight or importance that hath the
least pregnancy with truth be offered to the contrary^ we shall re-
nounce and shake off the power of the former reasons which we have
insisted on ; though without offering the greatest violence imaginable
to truth itself it cannot be done. It is said that " by these words,
' They hear my voice, and follow me,' Christ doth intimate or in-
clude their perseverance." To say a thing is "intimated or included"
is of small power against so many express reasons as we have in-
duced to the contrary. But will this be granted, that wherever the
saints are said to hear the voice of Christ, perseverance is included? —
we shall quickly have a fresh supply of Scripture proofs for the de-
monstration of the truth in hand. But what attempt is made for the
proof hereof? " It is so because the words imm.ediately following
are, ' I give unto them eternal life,' Avhich presuppose their final per-
severance;" and this must be so, because it is so said. " I give unto
them eternal life," is either an intimation of what he doth for the
present, by giving them a sj^iritual life in himself, or a promise he
will do so with respect to eternal life consummated in heaven, which
promise is everywhere made upon believing; and it is a promise of
•perseverance, not given wpon perseverance. Neither is there any
thing added in the words following to confirm this uncouth wresting
of the mind of our Saviour, but only the assertion is repeated, " that
God will defend them in heaven against all opposition." Here,
where their opjDositions are innumerable, they may shift for them-
selves; but when they come to heaven, where they shall be sure to
meet with no opposition at all, there the Lord hath engaged his
almighty power for their safety against all that shall rise up against
them. And this is, as is said, the " natural and clear disposition of the
context in this place;" but "Nobis non licet," etc.

There are sundry other texts of Scripture which most clearly and
evidently confirm the truth we have in hand, which are all well
worth our consideration for our consolation and establishment, as
also something of our labour and diligence, to quit them from those

288 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

glosses and interpretations (wliich turn tliem aside from their proper
intendment) that are by some put upon them ; amongst which,
1 Cor. i. 8, 9; Phil. i. 6; 1 Thess. v. 24; John v. 24, ought to have
place. But because I will not insist long on any particulars of our
argument from the promises of God, here shall be an end.

CHAPTER YII

THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST.

The consideration of tTie oath of God deferred — The method first proposed some-
what waived — The influence of the mediation of Christ into God's free and
unchangeable acceptance of believers proposed — Reasons of that proposal —
Of the oblation of Christ — Its influence into the saints' perseverance — All
causes of separation between God and believers taken away thereby — Moral
and efficient causes thereby removed — The guilt of sin, how taken away by
the death of Christ — Of the nature of redemption — Conscience of sin, how
abolished by the sacrifice of Christ — Heb. x. 3, 4, 14; Dan. jx. 24 opened —
Rom. viii. 34, deliverance from all sin, how by the death of Christ — The law
innovated in respect of the elect — The vindictive iustice of God satisfied by
the death of Christ — How that is done — Wherein satisfaction doth consist ;
absolute, not conditional — Tha law, how fulfilled in the death of Christ-4—
The truth of God thereby accomplished ; his distributive justice engaged-+-
Observations for the clearing of the former assertions — Whether any one for
whom Christ died may die in sin — The necessity of faith and obedience-^
The reasons thereof — The end of faith and holiness —The first argument for
the proof of the former assertions concerning the fruit and efficacy of the
death of Christ, Heb. ix. 14 — The second — The third — The compact between
the Father and Son about the work of mediation — The fourth — Good things
bestowed on them for whom Christ died antecedently to any thing spiritually
good in them — The Spirit so bestowed, and faith itself — The close of those
arguments — Inferences from the foregoing discourse — The efficacy of the
death of Christ, and the necessity of faith and obedience, reconciled — Sundry
considerations unto that end proposed: 1. All spiritual mercies fruits of the
death of Christ; 2. All the fruits of Christ's death laid up in the hand of
God's righteousness ; 3. The state of them for whom Christ died not actually
changed by his death ; 4. On what account believing is necessary — Christ
secures the stability of the saints' abiding with God — Wliat is contrary there-
unto; how by him removed — The world overcome by Christ, as managed by
Satan in an enmity to the saints — The complete victory of Christ over the
devil — The ways whereby he completes his conquest — The rule of Satan in
respect of sinners twofold : 1. Over them ; 2. In thim — The title of Satan to
a rule over men judged and destroyed by Christ — 'i'he exercise of all power
taken from him — The works of Satan destroyed by Christ in and for his elect
— ^The Holy Si)irit procured by the death of Christ — The giving of the Spirit
the great promise of the new covenant — This farther proved and confirmed —
The perpetual residence of the Holy Spirit with believers proved by the three-
fold testimony of Fatlier, Son, and Spirit — Isa. lix. 21, the testimony of the
Father proposed and vindicated — Our argument from hence farther cleared
— This promise absolute, not conditional — No condition rationally to be affixed

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 289

to it — The import of those words, '"As for me" — To whom this promise is
made — That farther cleared — Not to all Israel according to the flesh — Mr
G.'s objections answered — The testimony of the Son given to the perpetual
abiding of the Spirit with believei's — John xiv. 16 opened — The promise in
those words equally belonging to all believers — Mr G.'s objections answered —
No promise of the Spirit abiding with believers on his principle allowed — The
promise given to the apostles personally, yet given also to the whole church —
Promises made to the church made to the individuals whereof it is constituted
— The giving of this promise to all believers farther argued from the scope
of the place, and vindicated from Mr G.'s exceptions — The third testimony,
of the Holy Spirit himself, proposed to consideration — His testimony in sealing
particularly considered, 2 Cor. i. 22; Eph. i. 13, iv. 30 — Of the nature and
use of sealing amongst men — The end, aim, and use, of the sealing of the
Holy Ghost — Mr G.'s objections and exceptions to our argument from that
seaUng of the Spirit considered and removed — The same farther carried
on, etc.

There remains nothing for the confirmation of the first branch
or part of the truth proposed, but only the consideration of the oath
of God; which, because it ought certainly to be "an end of all strife,"
I shall reserve the handling of it to the close of the whole, if God
be pleased to carry us out thereunto, that we may give the oath of
God its due honour, of being the last word in this contest.

The order of our method first proposed would here call me to
handle our steadfastness with God, and the glory created upon our
grace of sanctification ; but because some men may admire, and ask
whence it is that the Lord will abide so steadfast in his love towards
believers as hath been manifested upon several accounts that he
will, besides what hath been said before of his own goodness and un-
changeableness, etc., I shall now add that outward consideration
which lies in the mediation of Christ, upon the account whereof he
acts his own goodness and kindness to us with the greatest advan-
tage of glory and honour to himself that can be thought upon. Only
I shall desire the reader to observe, that the Lord Jesus is an under-
taker in this business of perfecting our salvation and safeguarding
our spiritual glory not in one regard and respect only. There is
one part of his engagement therein which, under the oath of God, is
the close of the whole, and that is his becoming a surety to us of
his Father's faithfulness towards us, and a surety for us of our faith-
fulness to him : so that, upon the whole matter, the business on each
side as to security will be found knit up in him, and there we shall
do well to leave it, though the handling of that suretiship of his be
not of our present consideration. Men will scarce dispute him out
of his faithfulness. " Henceforth he dieth no more ; death hath no
dominion over him ; he sits at the right hand of God, expecting to
have his enemies made his footstool." This, then, I will do, if God
permit. And [as] for the steadfastness of his saints in their abiding
with God, I shall, I fear, no otherwise insist peculiarly upon it but

VOL. XI. 19

290 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

as occasion shall be ministered by dealing with our adversary as we
pass on.

That Avhich I shall now do is, to consider the influence of the
priesthood of Christ in those two grand acts thereof, his oblation and
intercession, into the perseverance of saints, according to that of the
apostle: Heb. vii. 25, " Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them." And I will do it the more carefully,
because though it be one of the greatest strengths of our cause, yet
I shall walk in a path wherein none shall meet me, for the most
part of the way, to make any opposition.

My entrance into the consideration of the procurement of our
glory by Christ shall be with that whereby he came into his own,
namely, his oblation, which hath a twofold influence into the perse-
verance of the saints, or into the safeguarding of their salvation to
the utmost: —

I. By removing and taking out of the way all causes of separation
between God and those that come unto God by him ;^ that is, all be-
lievers. Now, these are of two sorts: 1. TJmt which is moral, and
procuring such separation or distance, which is the guilt of sin;
2. That which is efficient and working, as tlie power of Satan and
of sin; — the first of these being that alone for which it may be
supposed that God will turn from believers, and the latter that
alone whereby they may possibly be turned from him. Now, that
both these are so taken out of the way by the oblation of Christ
that they shall never actually and eventually work or cause any
total or final separation between God and believers, shall be demon-
strated : —

1. He hath so taken away the guilt of sin from belie vei*s, from
them that come to God by him, that it shall not prevail with the
Lord to turn from them.* He hath " obtained eternal redemption
for us," Heb. ix. 12, eternal and complete; not so far and so far,
but " eternal redemption" hath he obtained, — redemption that shall
be completed, notwithstanding any interveniencies imaginable what-
ever. This redemption, which he hath obtained for us, and which by
him we obtain, the apostle tells us what it is, and wherein it doth
consist: Eph. i. 7, "In whom we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins." He hath obtained for us everlast-
ing forgiveness of sins. As to the complete efficiency of the procur-
ing cause thereof, absolutely perfect and complete in its own kind,
not depending on any condition in any other whatsoever for the
producing the utmost effect intended in it, there shall be no after-
reckoning or account for sin between God and them for whom he

■ Isa. lix. 2.

» Eph. i. 10, ii. 13-10; CoL i. 20-22; 2 Cor. v. 10, 20; 1 John L 7.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 291

SO obtains redemption. And the apostle, in the 10th chapter of
the Epistle to the Hebrews, disputes at large this difference be-
tween the typical sacrifices and the sacrifice of the blood of Christ.
He tells you those were " offered year by year," and could "never make
the comers to God by them perfect," or acquit them from sin, for then
they " should have had no more conscience of sin," being once purged ;
but now, saith he, " there was a remembrance made again of sins
every year," verses 1-4 If sin had been taken away, there would
have been no more conscience of it ; that is, no such conscience as
upon the account whereof they came for help unto or healing by
those sacrifices, — ^no more conscience condemning for sin. Conscience
judges according to the obligation unto punishment which it appre-
hends upon it. Conscience of sin, — that is, a tender7iess to sin, and
a condemnation of sin, — still continues after the taking of the guilt of
it away; but conscience disquieting, judging, condemning the person
for sin, that vanisheth together with the guilt of it : ^ and this is done
when the sacrifice for sin is perfect and complete, and really attains
the end for which it was instituted. And if any sacrifice for sin
whatever do not completely take away that sin for which the obla-
tion is made, and the atonement thereby, so that no after-charge
might come upon the sinner, it is of necessity that that sacrifice be
renewed again and again. The reason the apostle gives of the repe-
tition of the legal sacrifices is, that they made not the comers to
them perfect ; that is, as to the taking away of their sins, and giving
them entire and complete peace thereupon. All this, the apostle in-
forms us, was done in the sacrifice of Christ: Verse 14, "By one
offering he hath for ever perfected" (or made perfect that work for
them as to this business of conscience for sin) "them that are sanc-
tified." His one offering perfectly put an end to this business, even
the difference between God and us upon the account of sin; which
if he had not done, it would have been necessary that he should
have been often offered, his sacrifice having not obtained the complete
end thereof That the efficacy of this sacrifice of his cannot depend
on anything foreign unto it shall be declared afterward; also, that
the necessity of our faith and obedience, in their proper place, is not
in the least hereby impaired, shall be manifested. That they may
have a proper place, efficacy, and usefulness, and not be conditions
whereon the effects of the death of Christ are suspended, as to their
communication unto us, is by some denied ; how weakly, how falsely,
will then also appear. Now, this Christ doth for all that are sancti-
fied, or dedicated, or consecrated unto God (which is almost the
perpetual sense of that word in this epistle), in and by that offering
of his. And this the apostle farther confirms from the consideration
of the new covenant with us, ratified in, and whose effects were pro-

' Rom. V. 1.

292 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAI P.

cured by, the blood-shedding and offering of Christ : Verse 1 7, " Thei ve
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Saith God
" Upon the account of the offering of Christ, there is an end of tlij* '-he
business and that controversy which I have had with those sanctifie' id
ones; and therefore let them, as to this, as to the making satisfac- he
tion for sin, trouble themselves no more, to think of thousands othe
rams, or the like, for there is no more offering for sin required," Mil to
vi. 6, 7. And on this foundation I may say there doth not remaijUy,
any such guilt to be reckoned unto believers as that with rega;. yet
thereunto God should forsake them utterly, and give them ovt^ost
unto everlasting ruin. And this is the sum of the apostle's discourse
in that chapter, as it looks upon the matter under present consider- 'Jr
ation : That sacrifice which so taketh away the sins of them for »,
whom it is offered as that thereupon they should be perfect, or per-
fectly acquitted of them, and have no more conscience (which is a
judgment of a man's self answering to the judgment of God con-
cerning him) of sin, so to judge him and condemn him for it as not
to have remedy of that judgment or condemnation provided in that
sacrifice, — that, I say, doth so take away the guilt of sin as that it
shall never separate between God and them for whom and whose
sin it was offered ; but such was the sacrifice of Christ : ergo, etc. 1
The reason of the consequence is clear from the very form of the I
proposition, and nothing is assumed but what is the express testi- \
mony of the apostle in that and other places.

So Dan. ix. 24. The design in the death of Christ is " to finish '
the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconcili-
ation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness." Christ
makes an end of sin : not that there should be no more sin in the
world, for there is yet sinning to the purpose, in some respect much
more than before his death,^ and there will be so to eternity, if those j
under the ultimate sentence may be thought to sin; but he makes '
an end of it as to the controversy and difference about it between
God and them for whom he died, and that by making reconcilia-
tion on the part of God, atoning him towards us^ (which atonement
we are persuaded to accept), and by bringing in for us a righteous-
ness which is everlasting and will abide the trial, which God will
certainly accept.' Now, when God is satisfied for sin, and we are
furnished with a righteousness exactly complete and answering to
the utmost of his demand, whence can any more contest arise about
the guilt of sin, or the obligation of the sinner unto punishment that
from the justice and law of God doth attend it? This also the apostle
urgeth, Rom. viii. 34, " Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ
that died." He argueth from the death of Christ to the ablation or y
removal of condemnation for sin, because by his death he hath " made /
» Ilcb. vi. 4-6, X. 26-31. » Rom. v. 10. » Isa. xsvii. 3-5, xlv. 24, 25.

^yil.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 293

pan end of sin/' as was showed, "and brought in everlasting righte-
^ousness;" Heb. x. 14-18. To suspend the issue of all these trans-
factions between God and the Mediator upon conditions by us to
jbe accomplished, not bestowed on us, not purchased for us, and as
fto their event uncertain, is disadvantageously to beg the thing in
question.

Now, because it appears that, notwithstanding the death of Christ,
many for whom he died are kept a long season under the guilt of
sin,^ and are all of them born in a condition of wrath, Eph. ii. 3, I
shall crave leave a little to insist on this instance, and to show that
notwithstanding the truth thereof, yet the guilt of sin is so taken
away from all those for whom Christ died, by his death, that it shall
never be a cause of everlasting separation between God and them.
In the obedience and death of Christ, whereby, as a completely suffi-
cient and efficacious means, he made way for the accomplishment of
his eternal purposes, in such paths of infinite wisdom as brought in all
the good he aimed at by it, in that order which the very frame and
nature of things by him appointed required for the exaltation of his
glory, God is satisfied, well pleased, and resolved that he will not
take his course at law against those in the behalf of whom he died,
2 Cor. V. 18-20. Though an arrest was gone forth against all man-
kind, yet the Lord suspended by his sovereignty the utmost execu-
tion of it, that room and space might be given, according to the
eternal thoughts of his heart, for the deliverance of some. A reprieve
is granted mankind, out of reasons and for purposes of his own. After
the sentence of death was denounced against them, God being pleased
to magnify his grace, according to his eternal counsel and purpose
in Jesus Christ, innovates the law, as to the obligation of it unto
punishment, on the behalf of some, by the interposition of the Son of
his love in such a way as to undergo what was due unto those on
whose behalf the interposition was made.^ And by this undertaking
of Christ, in the very first notion of it, as it was satisfactory, thus
much is done and accomplished : —

(1.) The vindictive justice of God is satisfied. That is, whereas
such is the natural right, sovereignty, and dominion of God over
his creatures, and such his essential perfections of holiness, purity,
and righteousness, that if his creatures cast off his yoke and their
dependence on him (which they do by every sin, what in them lieth),
it is then of indispensable necessity that he render unto that sin or
sinner guilty thereof a meet recompense of reward;^ Jesus Christ
hath so answered his righteousness,* that without the impairing of
his right or sovereignty, without the least derogation from his per-

' 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; Eph. ii. 11, 12. « Eph. i. 5, 6, 11 ; 2 Tim. i. 9 ; Heb. vii. 22,
X. 9, 10; 2 Cor. v. 21. s Gen. xviii. 25; Josh. xxiv. 19; Ps. v. 4-6; Hab. i. 13;
Eom. i. 18. 32; 2 Thess. 1. 6. * Vide Diat. de Just. Div.

294 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

fections, he may receive liis sinning creatures again to favour. It
being '■ the judgment of God that they which commit sin are worthy
of death/' Rom. i. 32, and " a righteous thing with him to render
tribulation to sinners," 1 Thess. i. 6, for "shall not the Judge of
all the earth do right?" Gen. xviii. 25; he hath set forth his Son to
" declare his righteousness for the remission of sins," Rom. iii. 24, 25.
Now, for whom Christ died, he died for all their sins: 1 John i. 7,
" The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin," the application
of it being commensurate to his intendment in his oblation, not ex-
tending itself to the actual effecting of any thing whatever which
was not meritoriously procured thereby. " He loved the church, and
gave himself for it ; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the
washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a
glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but
that it should be holy and without blemish," Eph. v. 25-27. He makes
complete atonement to the justice of God on their behalf, so that the
very vindictive justice of God hath nothing to lay to their charge.
That which in God maintains the quarrel against sinners is atoned,
and is no more their enemy than mercy itself; and this not upon
condition of believing, to be antecedently accomplished before this
be done. The satisfaction of justice vindictive depends not at all on
any thing in us; it requires only that there be vindicta iioxce, and a
vindication of the sovereignty of God over the sinning creature, by
the infliction of that punishment which, in his infinite wisdom and
I'ighteousness, he hath proportioned unto sin. On a supposition of sin,
in such creatures as being made meet and fit to yield voluntary
obedience unto God, and so standing in a moral subjection to him,
being their cutting off, what lies in them, their dependence on God
(which that it should be continued is as necessary as that God
be God, or the Lord of all), those creatures are, upon the account of
the sovereignty and righteousness of God, whereof we speak, indis-
pensably obnoxious unto punishment, which is of necessity required
unto God's retaining his dominion over them. By the death of
Christ, this condition is so far repaired that the dependence and sub-
jection unto God of those for whom he died is made up so far as
to a deliverance of them from a necessity of being obnoxious unto
punishment, and that completely, without any abeyance upon con-
ditions in themselves, which can have no influence thereinto. So
that, though the process of the law sent forth be not instantly re-
called, but man is suffered to lie under that arrest for a season, yet
God lets fall his suit on this account, and will never pass his first
sentence, from which we are reprieved, unto full and final execution,
pronouncing himself well pleased with his Son,^ resting satisfied with
his mediatory performances, and seeking no farther.

• Juliu iii. uu; V.\>h. ii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 18; Ts. xxi. 3, 4; Matt. xvii. 6.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 295

(2.) The law of God is fulfilled. Unless this be answered in all
the concernments of it, the Lord would he thought to change his
will, to reverse his word, and to blur the copy of his own holiness.
There is in the whole law and every parcel of it an eternal, indis-
pensable righteousness and truth, arising either from the nature of the
things themselves concerning which it is, or the relation of one thing
unto another. That to fear God, to love him, to obey him, to do no
wrong, are everlastingly, indispensably good and necessary, is from
the nature of the things themselves, only with this supposition, that
God would make creatures capable of yielding him such obedience.
That that which is good shall be so rewarded, that which is evil so
punished, is also an everlasting truth, upon supposition of such actual
performances. Whereas, then, of this law there are two parts, the
one absolute or preceptive in the rule and commands thereof, the
other conditional, and rewarding in its promise or condemning in
its curse, Christ by his death put himself, in their behalf for whom
he died (to speak to that particular), under the curse of it: " He re-
deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,^'
Gal. iii. 13.^ Neither is this at all suspended on our believing. The
law doth not threaten a curse only if we do not believe, but if we
do not all things written therein, Deut. xxvii. 26. Whether we be-
lieve or not, the law takes no notice; as to the curse that it de-
nounceth, if there hath been any sin, that must be executed. And
the law is for the curse, as Isaac for the great spiritual blessing. Gen.
xxvii. 27-29. He had but one; it hath but one gi'eat curse, and that
being undergone by Christ, it hath not another for them in whose
stead Christ underwent it. God having " made him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, we become the righteousness of God in him,"
2 Cor. V. 21. All separation from God is by the curse of the law;
all that is required in it, by it, is, that it be undergone. This is done
by Christ for all believers; that thereby is taken away which alone
can separate them from God or put any distance between them.
But of this, and their subjection to the curse before their believing,
more afterward.

(3.) The truth or veracity of God was particularly engaged to
see sin punished, upon the account of the promulgation of the first
express sanction of the law: " In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die," Gen. ii. 1 7. For the satisfying the engagement
of God's truth, there seemed to be a tender made in the sacrifices
instituted of old ; but it was rejected as insufficient to make good that
word of God so eminently given out. There was neither any such
relation, union, or conjunction, between the sinner and the innocent
creature sacrificed, nor any such real worth in the sacrifice itself, as
that the death of the substituted beast might by any means be so in-
' Rom. viii. 3, x. 3, 4; Gal. iv. 4, 5; Phil. iii. 9.

296 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CUAP.

terpreted as to amount to tlie accomplishment of the truth of God,
death beuig once denounced as the reward of sin : Heb. x. 5, 6, "Sacri-
fice and offering thou wouldest not: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for
sin thou hadst no pleasure;" but saith our Saviour, "Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God," verse 7. Will that do it? Yea, it will assuredly,
for in the volume of his book it is written that he should so do. All
that God willed to be done for the accomplishment of his truth was
fulfilled by Christ when he came to give up himself, a sweet-smelling
sacrifice, Eph. v. 2. God, then, may be true, his truth being salved
to the utmost, though never any one of them for whom Christ died do
die. But this, to the salvation of believers, is only as removens pro-
hihens.

(4.) The distributive justice of God is upon this oblation of Christ
engaged, upon the covenant and compact made with Christ as medi-
ator to that purpose, to bestow on them for whom he offered and
died all the good things which he promised him for them, in and
upon the account of his undertaking in their behalf.^ The dis-
tributive justice of God is that perfection of his nature whereby he
rendereth to every one according to Avhat either his vindictive jus-
tice on the one side, or his uprightness and faithfulness on the other,
do require." In rewarding, it respects his own faithfulness in all his
engagements immediately; in punishing, the demerit of the creature;
— there being no such natural connection and necessary coherence,
from the nature of the things themselves, between obedience and re-
ward as there is between sin and punishment.

Now, the Lord having given many eminent and glorious promises
to his Son Jesus Christ (some whereof we shall mention afterward)
concerning his seed and offspring, or those that he committed to his
charge to be redeemed from their sins,^ it is incumbent on him, in
regard of his righteousness, to make out all those things in due time
unto them ; and therefore, that he might magnify that righteous-
ness and truth of his, he hath cast the whole procedure of his grace
into such a way, and all the acts of it into such a dependence upon
one another, as that the one of them should have infallible infiuence
into the other, and the effects of every one of them be rendered in-
dubitably certain.

Thus upon the account of the death of Christ, antecedently to all
considerations of faith or belief in them for whom he died, thus much
is done for the extijnguishing the quarrel about sin: The vindictive
justice, law, and tririh of God, are disengaged from pursuing the sen-
tence of death and Everlasting separation from God against them as

" Isa. liii. 10, 11.

» Gen. xviii. 25; Ps. v. )l-6, xxxi. 1, xxxv. 24, Ixv. 5, Ixxi. 2, xcvi. 13, xcviii. 2,
ciii. 17, cxliii. 1, 11.

» Ps. ii. 7, 8, ex. 3, 7, ^v. 13, 14; Isa. xlix. 5, 6, 8, 9, lii. 13-16, liii. 11, lix. 20;
John xii. 31, 32.

VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 297

sinners, neither have they at all any thing to lay to their charge
for which they should be cast out of the presence of God; yea, the
Lord is moreover, in his own faithfulness and righteousness, with
respect to the covenant of the Mediator, engaged to do that which
is needful to the bringing of them to himself.^ After some previous
observations, I shall confirm what hath been spoken by sundry argu-
ments. I say, then, —

(1.) That it is a most iVain supposat which some make: "What
if any one of them for whom Christ died should die in an unrege-
nerate condition? would not the justice and condemning power of
the law of God, notwithstanding the death of Christ, lay hold upon
them?" It is, I say, a supposal of that which i7i sensu coviposito is
impossible, and so in that sense (however upon other respects it may)
not to be argued from. Christ died that those for whom he died
might live, that they might be quickened and born again ;^ and so
they shall, in their due season, every one undoubtedly be, and not
any of them die in their sins.

(2.) That our affirmation is not in the least liable to that excep-
tion which usually men insist upon in opposition unto it, — namely,
" That if Christ hath so satisfied justice, and fulfilled the law in
reference to all them for whom he died, that the sentence of con-
demnation should not be issued out against them, but they must
infallibly be saved, then there is no necessity either that they do
at all believe, or, if they do, that they live in holiness and the avoid-
ance of sin, all that being accomplished which by these mediums is
sought for." I say, our position in itself is no way liable to this ex-
ception; for, —

[1.] Though the justice, law, and truth of God be satisfied and
fulfilled as to their sins, so that he hath not on that account any
thing to lay to their charge, yet this hinders not at all but that God
may assign and ascribe such a way for their coming to him as may
be suited to the exalting of his glory, the honour of Jesus Christ,
who hath brought all this about, and the preparing of the soul of
the sinner for the full enjoyment of himself: and this he hath done
by the law of faith ; which gives him the glory of his grace and all
his other attributes; exalts Jesus Christ, whom it is his will we
should honour as we honour himself;' and empties the poor sinful
creature of itself, that it may be made meet for the inheritance of
the saints in light.'*

[2.] This consideration of the death of Christ, of his freeing us
from condemnation for any or all of our sins, is not to be taken

' Isa. liii. 6; Gal. iv. 4, 5; Heb. x. 5-9; Horn. viii. 33, 34; Isa. liii. 11, 12; Rom.
iv. 25; Phil. i. 29; Eph. i. 3-6. » John iii. 16, 17, vii. 38; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.
» Isa. liii. 5, 6, 11, 12; Dan. ix. 24; Rom. viii. 32, 33; Gal. iii. 13; Heb. ii. 14, 15;
Rom. i. 16, 17, iii. 23-25, iv. 16, ix. 31, 32; John v. 23. « Rom. iii. 27 ; Eph. i. 6 ;
Phil. iii. 8-11; Col i. 12.

298 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

apart or separated from the other, of his procuring the Holy Spirit
and grace for us, that we should not commit sin, being born of God,
with all the dispensations of precepts and promises, exhortations
and threatenings, whereby he morally carries on the work of his
grace in the hearts of his saints. Setting us free from the guilt of
sin, he so far also sets us free from the power of sin that we should
be dead to it, live no longer in it, that it should not reign in us,
nor prevail to turn us utterly from God.^

[3.] They seem not much to be acquainted with the nature of
faith, holiness, and communion with God, who suppose the end of
them is only for the escaping of the wrath that is to come. They
are the things whereby we are daily renewed and changed into the
image of the glory of God,^ and so not only made useful and ser-
viceable to him here, but also prepared for the fulness of his like-
ness, wherewith we shall be satisfied, hereafter. Wherefore, ob-
serve,—

[4.] That though this complete atonement be made in the death
of Christ, yet it remains free in the bosom of God when he mil
begin our actual deliverjcC^ce from under that arrest of death that
was gone out~ against us,^ and how far in this life he will carry it
towards perfection.^ It is, I say, in his bosom when he will bestow
his Spirit on us for regeneration and faith, when he will actually
absolve us from under the arrest of the law, by the application of
his mercies in Christ unto us by the promise of the gospel, and bow
far he will carry on the work of our deliverance from sin in this life.
Only that is done upon the account whereof it is impossible that
the quarrel against sin should be carried on to the utmost execution
^f tae'seiitSIlce denounced towards those sinners for whom Christ
' died;" which I prove l)y these foHowiug arguments : —

\st. It is plainly affirmed that Christ, by his death, obtained " ever-
lasting redemption," Heb. ix. 12. He obtained everlasting redemp-
tion before his ascending into the most holy place, called elsewhere the
"purging of our sins," Heb. i. 3. Now this redemption, as was said,
the apostle informs us consists in "the forgiveness of sins :" Eph. i. 7,
"In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive-
ness of sins," or the intercision of that obligation unto punishment
which attends sin in reference to the sinner, and his subjection to
the law of God and the righteousness thereof. As the oblation of
Christ rcspecteth God and his justice, to whom it is given as a price
and ransom, and whereof it is an atonement, it is, and is called (or
we are said to receive thereby), "redemption ; " as it respects them who
receive the benefit of that redemption, it is " the forgiveness of sins."

> Eph V 25-27; Tit. ii. 14; Gal. iv. 4-6; John xvii. 17; Matt, xxviii. 18-20;
Eph IV 11-14; Rom. vi. 2-G, etc. » Eph. iv. 22; 2 Cor. v. 15; Rom. xii. 1, 2;
2 Cor iii. 18. » Matt. xx. 6, 6. ♦ 2 Thess. i. 11; John iii. 8. » 2 Pet. i. 1.

VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 299

Forgiveness of sins, as it is completed and terminated in the con-
sciences of believers, requireth the interposition of faith,^ for the receiv-
ing of Christ in the promise, " who of God is made unto us righteous-
ness," 1 Cor, i. 80 ; but in respect of the procurement of it, and the
removing all causes upon the account whereof sin should be imputed
unto us, that is perfected in the oblation of Christ^ Hence he is
said to "bear our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. ii. 24.
And being once on him, either he w^as discharged of them, or he
must for ever lie under the burden of them. They were on him on
the tree; what, then, is become of them? If he were freed of them,
and justified from them (as he was, Isa. 1. 8, 9), how should they
ever be laid to our charge? And yet this freedom from condemna-
tion for sin for all the elect, which God himself so clearly asserts,
Rom. viii. 32, 83, etc., doth not in the least set them free from the
necessity of obedience, nor acquit them from contracting the guilt
of sin upon the least irregularity or disobedience.

2dly. We are said to do together with Christ those things which
he doth for us in his own person, and that upon the account of that
benefit which hy those his personal performances doth redound
unto us, and which being done, the quarrel about sin, as to make an
utter separation between God and our souls, is certainly removed.
Thus we are said to die with him, to be raised again with him, and
with him we enter into the holy place, this whole business about
sin being passed through, for he that is dead is justified from sin.'
Now, all this being done by us and for us, in and by our Head, can
we henceforth die any more? shall death any more have dominion
over us? This the apostle argues, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15: "We judge,"
saith he, " that if one died for all, then were all" (that is, all those
for whom he died) " dead," or died likewise ; they were dead in and
with him, their sponsor, as to the curse due for sin, that henceforth
they might " live to him which died for them."

2dly. The compact or agreement that was between the Father
and the Son as mediator, about the business of our redemption in
his blood, manifests this truth. The Father required at his hands
that he should do his will, fulfil his pleasure and counsel, make his
soul an offering for sin, and do that which the sacrifices of bulla
and goats shadowed out, but could never effect; upon the perform-
ance whereof he was to " see his seed," and to " bring many sons to
glory."* A covenanting and agreement into an uncertain issue and
event (as that must be of God and the Mediator, if the salvation of
the persons concerning which and whom it was be not infallibly
certain) ought not, at any cheap rate or pretence, to be assigned to
infinite wisdom. In the accomplishment of this undertaking, where-

> Rom. i. 5. 2 Rom. iv. 4. s Rom. vi. 5, 8 ; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15 ; Col. iii. 1;
Rom. vi. 7. < Ps. xl. 8; Isa. liii. 10, 11 ; Ilcb. x. 1, 4, 7, u. 10.

300 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

unto Christ was designed, the Father dealt with him in strict and
rigid justice;^ there was neither composition about the debt, nor
commutation about the punishment that he had taken upon him-
self. Now, doth not exact justice require that the ransom being
given in, the prisoners be d^^livered? that the debt being paid, the
bond be cancelled as to any power of imprisoning the original debtor?
that punishment being undergone and the law fulfilled, the offender
go free? Especially, all this being covenanted for in the first under-
taking, doubtless wrath shall not arise a second time. The right
knowledge, use, and improvement, of this grace being given, bounded,
and directed, by the gospel, it is safeguarded from abuse by that which
God calls his own wisdom.

4;thly. It appears from what God bestows upon his elect, upon the
account of the undertaking of Christ for them, in the pursuit of the
eternal purpose of his will, antecedently to any thing whatsoever in
them that should engage him to do them the least good. When
God comes as a friend, to hold out unto and bestow good things
upon men, — I mean, good in that kind of mercy which is peculiarly
suited to the bringing of them to the enjoyment of himself, — it is
evident that he hath put an end to all enmity and quarrel between
him and them. Now, antecedently unto any thing in men, God, for
Christ's sake, bestows, with the greatest act of friendship imaginable,
no less than the Holy Spirit on them. By him they are quickened ;
and their faith is but a fruit of that Spirit bestowed on them. If
they have not any sufficiency in themselves, as much as to think a
good thought, nor can do any thing that is acceptable to God, being
by nature dead in trespasses and sins, which at present (the Scrip-
ture affirming it) I take for granted, then assuredly God doth give
his Holy Spirit to the saints,^ whereby he " works in them both to
will and to do of his good pleasure,"^ antecedently to any good
thing in them that is well-pleasing unto him. Every thing that men
do must either be brought forth by the strength and ability of their
own natural faculties, assisted and provoked by motives and persua-
sions from without, or it must be the operation of the Spirit of God.
There is not another principle to be fixed on. The first (at pre-
sent I take it for granted) is not the fountain of any spiritual acting
whatsoever, neither can any gracious act be educed radically from
the corrupt natural faculty, however assisted or advantaged.* It
must be the Spirit, then, that is the sole principal cause and author
of all the movings of our souls towards God that are acceptable to
him in Christ. Now, the cause is certainly before the effect; and
the Spirit, in order of nature, is bestowed upon us antecedently to

' Rom. viii. 32; 1 Pet. ii. 24; 2 Cor. v. 21 ; Gal. iii. 13; Heb. ii. 9. « Tsa. lix. 21 ;
Rom. viii. 11; Gal. v. 22; 1 Cor. xii. 4; 2 Cor. iii. 5; John xv. 4, 5; Eph. ii. 1-3.
» Phil. ii. 13. « Gen. viii. 21 ; Job xiv. 4; Matt xii. 33.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 301

all the grace which he worketh in us. Whether the Spirit be be-
stowed on men on the account of Christ's undertaking for them
none can question but they must withal deny him to be the media-
tor of the new covenant. The Spirit of grace is the principal pro-
mise thereof, Isa. lix. 20, 21. "We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Christ," Eph. i. 8. Surely the Holy Spirit himself, so
often promised to us of God, is a spiritual blessing. God's bestowing
faith on us is antecedent to our believing, and this also is given
upon the account of Christ: Phil. i. 29, "Unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ to believe on him." If, then, God, for Christ's sake,
antecedently to any thing that is good, that is not enmity to him,
that is not iniquity in men, do bestow on them all that ever is good
in them, as to the root and principle of it, surely his quarrel against
their sins is put to an issue. Hence Christ being said to "make
reconciliation for the sins of the people," Heb. ii. 17, God, as one
pacified and atoned thereujoon, is said to be "in him reconciling the
world unto himself," 2 Cor. v. 19; and in the dispensation of the
gospel he is still set forth as one carrying on that peace whose
foundation is laid in the blood of his Son,^ by the atonement of his
justice; and we are said to accept or "receive the atonement," Rom.
V. 11. We receive it by faith, it being accepted by him. Thus this
death and oblation is said to be a "sacrifice of a sweet-smelling sa-
vour," Eph. V. 2, — that wherein God is abundantly delighted, and
wherewith his soul is fully satisfied ; so that as when he smelled a
sweet savour from the sacrifice of Noah, he sware he would curse the
earth no more,^ smelling this sweet savour of the oblation of Christ
on the account of them for whom it was offered, he will not exe-
cute the curse on them whereof they were guilty. I might also
insist on those testimonies, for the farther proof of the former asser-
tion, where an immediate efficacy for the taking away of sin is as- -
cribed to the death of Christ;^ but what hath been spoken may at
present suffice.

The premises considered, some light may be brought forth to dis-
cover the various mistakes of men about the effects of the death of
Christ as to the taking away of sin, if that were now the matter
before us.'* Some having truly fixed their thoughts on the efficacy
of the death of Christ for abolition of sin, do give their lusts and
darkness leave to make wretched inferences thereupon ; as that,
"Because we are so completely justified and accepted before and with-
out our believing, or the consideration of any thing whatever in us,
therefore sin is nothing, nor at all to be accounted of." And though
they say we must not sin that grace may abound, yet too many, by

' Eph. ii. 18-17. « Gen. viii. 21. 3 John xvii. 19; Rom. v. 19, vl. 6; 2 Cor.
V. 21; Eph. V. 25, 26; Tit. ii. 14. Hleb. ix. 14, x. 14; 1 Pet. ii. 24; 1 John

i. 7 ; Rev. i. 5, 6.

so 2 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEKANCK [CHAP.

woful experience, have discovered what such corrupt conclusions have
tended unto. Others, again, fixing themselves on the necessity of
obedience, and the concurrence of actual faith to the completing of
justification in the soul of the sinner, with a no less dangerous reflec-
tion upon the truth, do suspend the efficacy of the death of Christ
upon our believing, " which gives life, and vigour, and virtue unto it,"
as they say, " and is the sole originally discriminating cause of all the
benefits we receive thereby. Without the antecedent accomplishment
of that condition in us, or our actual believing, it is not," say they,
"nor will be, useful." Yea, that "the intention of God is to bestowupon
us the fruits and effects of the death of Christ, upon condition we do
believe; which that we shall is no part of his purchase, and which
we can of ourselves perform," say some of them, others not. Doubt-
less, these things are not, being rightly stated, in the least inconsis-
tent. Christ may have his due, and we [may be] bound to the per-
formance of our duty; which might be cleared by an enlargement of
the ensuing considerations: —

(1.) That all good things whatsoever that are spiritual, tliat are
v/rought either for men or in them, are fruits of the death of Christ.
They have nothing of themselves but nakedness, blood, and sin,
guilt and impenitency ; so that it is of indispensable necessity that
God should show them favour antecedently to any act of their be-
lieving on him. Faith is given for Christ's sake, as was observed.

(2.) That all the effects and fruits of the death of Christ, ante-
cedent to our believing, are deposited in the hand of the righte-
ousness and faithfulness of God, to whom as a ransom it was paid,
as an atonement it was offered, before whom as a price and pur-
chase it was laid down.^ ( It is all left in the hands of God's faith-
fulness, righteousness, mercy, and grace, to be made out effectually
to them for whom he died, in the appointed time or season. So
that,— ^

(3.) The state or condition of those for whom Christ died is not
actually and really changed by his death in itself, but they lie under
the curse whilst they are in the state of nature, unregenerate, and all
effects of sin whatever.^ That which is procured for them is left in
the hand of the Father; they are not in the least intrusted with it
until the appointed time do come.

(4.) That faith and belief are necessary, not to add any thing to
com])lete the procurement of forgiveness of sins, any or all, but only
to the actual receiving of it, when, upon the account of the death of
Christ, it pleaseth God, in the promise of the gospel, to hold it out and
impart it unto the soul, thereby completing covenant-justification.

And thus the whole business of salvation may be resolved into

> 1 Tim. ii. 5, G; Ileb. ii. 17; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.
» Eph. ii. 1-5; Jolin iii. 3G.

VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 303

the mediation of Christ, and yet men carried on under an orderly
dispensation of law and gospel into the enjoyment of it. Of the
whole, these degrees are considerable: —

(1.) God's eternal purpose of saving some in and by the media-
tion of Christ, that mediation of Christ being interposed between
the purpose of God and the accomplishment of the thing purposed, as
the fruit and effect of the one, the meritorious procuring cause of the
other. This act of the will of God the Scripture knows by no other
name than that of "election," or "predestination," or "the purpose of
God according to election," or "the purpose of his will in Jesus Christ;"
which though it comprise his will of not punishing them in their own
persons that are within the verge of this his purpose, yet it is not pro-
perly an act of forgiveness of sin, nor are they pardoned by it, nor is
the law actually innovated or its obligation on them unto punish-
ment dissolved, nor themselves justified in any sense thereby.^

(2.) That interposition of the Lord Christ whereof we have been
treating being a medium indispensably necessary as to satisfaction,
and freely designed by the will and wisdom of God for such a pro-
curement of the good things designed in his eternal counsel as might
advance the glory of his grace and make known his righteousness
also ; and this being fixed on by God as the only thing by him re-
quired that all the mercies, all the grace of his eternal purpose,
might be dispensed in the order by him designed unto them ; upon
the performance of it God resteth as well pleased, and they for whom
he hath mediated by his blood, or for whom he is considered so to
have done, are reconciled unto God, as to that part of reconciliation
which respects the love of God, as to the dispensing the fruits of it
unto them even whilst they are enemies, upon the accounts before
mentioned.''

(8.) Things being thus stated between God and them for whom
Christ died, on the account of his death God actually absolves them
from under that sentence and curse of the law, by sending the Spirit
of his Son into their hearts, to quicken them and to implant faith in
them.^ And in what act of God to place his actual absolution of
sinners, ungodly persons, whom Christ died for, but in this actual
collation of the Spirit and habit of grace on them, I am not as yet
satisfied. Neither doth this in any measure confound our justification
and sanctification ; for nothing hinders but that the same act, as it is
of free grace in opposition to works or any thing in us, may justify
us, or exert the fruit of his love, which was before purchased by
Christ, in our gracious acceptation, notwithstanding all that was

1 Acts xiii. 38, 39; Rom. v. 10; John iii. 16; Eom. v. 7-9; 1 John iv. 10; Heb.
ii. 17, ix. 14; Eph. i. 4-9, etc. ; Rom. ix. 11 ; John iii. 36; Eph. ii. 3; Rom. v. 6, 8;
Gal. iii. 23; 2 Cor. v. 21; Rom. iii. 23-25; 1 Cor. i. 30. 3 Matt. xvii. 5; Eom.
V. 9, 10; 2 Cor. v. 18, 19, 21 ; 1 Pet. u. 24. » Gal. iv. 6 ; Rom. viii. 11.

804 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

against us, and also, by principling us with grace for obedience, sanc-
tify us throughout.

(4.) This being done, they with Avhom God thus graciously deals
"receive the atonement," and, " being justified by faith, have peace
Avith God." But this is not the matter or subject of our present
contest.

This, then, is the first influence which the blood-shedding in the
death and oblation of Christ hath into the saints' continuance of the
love and favour of God : It taketh away the guilt of sin, that it shall
not be such a provocation to the eyes of his glory (liis law being ful-
filled and justice satisfied) as to cause him utterly to turn away his love
from them; and they becoming "the righteousness of God in him,"^
to all intents and purposes, what should separate them from the love
of God? He hath made peace in the blood of the cross of his Son,
and will not engage in enmity against his elect any more to eternity;
but, in his own way and own time (as he hath the sovereignty of all
in his hands), he will bring them infallibly to the enjoyment of him-
self,* And thus much, by this discourse about the effects of the death
of Christ, have we clearly obtained: What Christ aims to accomplish
by his death, and what was the design and intention of the Father
that he should accomplish, that cannot fail of its issue and appointed
event by any interposure whatever. That the effectual removal of
every thing that might intercept, hinder, or turn aside, the love and
favour of God from them for whom he died, is the designed effect
of the death of Christ, hath been demonstrated. This, then, in the
order wherein it hath seemed good to the infinite wisdom of God to
proceed in dispensing his grace unto sinners, shall certainly be ful-
filled, and all believers saved to the utmost.

2. I come, in the second place, to demonstrate that our Saviour
secures the stability of the love of the saints to God and their abid-
ing with him, by taking away and removing whatever might hinder
them herein, or prevail upon them utterly and wickedly to depart
from him. That which meritoriously miglit cause God to turn from
us he utterly destroys and abolishes; and that which efiiciently
might cause us to turn from God, that also he destroys and removes.
Now, all that is of this kind, that works effectually and powerfully
for the alienating of the hearts of believers from God, or keeping
men in a state of alienation from him, may be referred unto two
principles: (1.) Satan himself;' (2.) His works. The world, as under
the curse, is an instrument in his hand, who is called the god thereof,
to allure, vex, and mischief us withal; neither hath it the least
power or efficacy in itself, but only as it is managed in the hand of
Satan to turn men from God.'' And yet the Lord Christ hath not

• 2 Cor. V. 21. 3 Eph. ii. 13-17 ; Rom. viii. 32, 33. » Gen. iii. 14. * 2 Cor.
iv. 4 ; Matt. iv. 9.

VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 805

let that go free neither without its death's wound, but bids his fol-
lowers " be of good cheer, for he had overcome the world," — that
is, for them, and in their stead, — so that it should never be used nor
heightened in its enmity to a conquest over them;^ I mean a total
and final conquest, such as might frustrate any intention of God in
his undertaking for them. It is not our loss of a little blood, but
our loss of life, that makes the enemy a conqueror. But now for
Satan : —

(] .) He overcomes, destroys, and breaks Mm in pieces, with his
power: Heb. ii. 14, " Through death he destroyed him that had the
power of death, that is, the devil." The first thing that was promised
of him was, that he should "break the head of the serpent," Gen. iii. 1 5,
He doth it also in and for "the seed of the woman," — all the elect of
God, opposed to the seed of the serpent or generation of vipers. In
pursuit hereof he " spoils principalities and powers, and makes a
show of them openly, triumphing over them in his cross," Col. ii. ] 5.
In the blood of his cross he conquered, and brake the power of the
devil, "binding that strong man armed, and spoiHug his goods,"
making a show of him and them, as great conquerors were wont to
do with their captives and their spoils.

Now, there are two ways whereby the blood of Christ thus brake
the power of Satan, that he shall not lead those always captive at
his pleasure, nor rule in them, as children of disobedience, in the
behalf of whom his power was so broken : —

[1.] He subdues him by taking away all that right and title
which he had by sin to rule over them : I speak of the elect of God.
By the entrance of sin, the devil entered upon a twofold rule in re-
ference to sinners: — 'ist. A rule over them with the terror and dread
of death and hell. They are in bondage by reason of death all their
days, Heb. ii. 14, 15 ; and the devil hath the power of that death upon
the world whereunto they are in bondage. The death that is in the
curse is put into his hand to manage it, to the dread and terror of
sinners; and by it he hath always kept many, and to this day doth
keep innumerable souls in unexpressible bondage, putting them
upon barbarous inhumanities to make atonement for their sins, and
forcing some to inflict revenge and destruction upon themselves,
thinking to prevent, but really hastening, that which they fear. As
of old this power of his lay at the bottom of all the abominations
Avherewith men provoked God when they thought to atone him,^ as
by burning their children in the fire, and the like, Mic. vi. 6, 7,^
so at present is it the principle of all that superstitious will-worship
and religious drudgery which is spread over the antichristian world.

» John xvi. 33; Gal. i. 4; 1 John v. 4, 5. 2 Diat. de Just. Divin. » Lev.
xviii. 21; Deut. xviii. 10; 2 Kings xxi. 6, xxiii. 10; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6; Jcr.
xxxii. 35.

VOL XL 20

306 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Yea, the inventions of men ignorant of the righteousness of God,
and convinced of their own insufficiency to perform, work out, and
estabhsh, a righteousness of their own, that shall perfectly answer
the exact, holy demands of the law, as far as to them is discovered,
to deliver themselves from under this dread of death, wherewith he
that hath the power of it terrifies them all their days, are indeed
the foundation and spring, the sum and substance, of all religions
in the world, and the darling of all religious persons, in and with
whom Christ is not all and in all. And herein have the Papists
gone one notable step beyond all their predecessors in superstition and
devotion ; for whereas they universally contented themselves with sac-
rifices, purifications, purgations, lustrations, satisfactions, recompenses,
to be in this life performed, these latter, — more refined, sublimated,
mercurial wits, — observing that nothing they could here invent
would settle and chaim the spirits of men haunted with the dread
of death we speak of, but that instantly they came again, with the
same disquietness as formerly, and renewed mention of sin, upon
the insufficiency of the atonement fixed on for its expiation, they
found out that noble expedient of the future purgatory, which might
maintain the souls of men in some hopes in this life, and secure
themselves from the cries and complaints of men against tlie in-
sufficiency of their remedy which they do prescribe. 2dly. As he
rules over men by death, and hell that follows after, so also he
ndes in men by sin: he " ruleth in the children of disobedience,"
Eph. ii. 2. And to this end, to secure men to himself, — he being
that strong man armed who hath the first possession, and labours
to keep what he hath got in peace,^ — he sets up strongholds, ima-
ginations, and high things, against God, 2 Cor. iv. 4. Now, this
twofold power of Satan, over men and in men, doth both arise from
sin, whereby men are first cast out of God's love and care, becoming
obnoxious to death, and, secondly, are alienated from God in will-
ing subjection to his enemy. And both these parts and branches of
his dominion are, in reference unto the elect, cast down and destroyed,
and taken away; for, first, Christ by his death cashiers the title
and claim that Satan laid to tlie exercise of any such power, in refer-
ence unto the elect. When men cast down any from rule, they may
interrupt and put by their exercise of any power, but they cannot
take away their title unless it be of their own giving. Christ by his
death takes away the very bottom, foundation, and occasion, of the
whole power of Satan. All the power of Satan in the first sense
consists in death, and those things that either conduce to it or do
attend it. Now, death entered by sin, and therewithal the power of
Satan." The Lord Jesus taking away sin and putting an end there-

• Matt. xii. 29 ; Mark iii. 27; Luke xi. 21.
» Gen. iii. 8; Dcut. xxvii. 2G; Rom. v. 12.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CUEIST. 807

unto, as was manifested, the whole title of Satan falls and comes to
nothing, Heb. ii. 9-15. And this was really done in the cross, its
manifestation by the gospel ensuing thereupon, according to the ap-
pointment of God, Col, ii. 15; Tit. i. 3.

[2.] He takes away the exercise of his poiuer, and that to the
utmost: for he binds him with bonds, — he binds the strong man
armed, Matt. xii. 29 ; and he breaks his head. Gen. iii. 15 ; then leads
him captive, Ps. Ixviii. 18; triumphs over him. Col. ii. 15 ; treads him
down under the feet of his, Rom. xvi. 20, as the kings of Canaan were
tiod down under the feet of the children of Israel; then destroys him,
Heb. ii. 1 4. What exercise of power is left to a conquered, bound,
wounded, captived, triumphed-over, trodden-down, destroyed caitiff?
Think ye this wretch shall ever wholly prevail against any one of
them for whose sake all this was done to him? Neither can this
with any colour of reason be said to be done for them, or with re-
spect unto them, towards whom the power of Satan remains entire
all their days, whom he leads captive and rules over at his pleasure,
until death takes full dominion over them.

(2.) As he destroys Satan, so he doth his works: "For this cause was
he manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John
iii. 8. He doth not only bind the strong man armed, but also he spoils
his goods. Matt. xii. 29. Whatsoever is in men that follows from that
corrupted principle of nature is reckoned to the work of Satan, being
the issue of his seduction. Whatsoever his temptations draw men out
unto, the Lord Christ came to destroy it all, to make an end of it; and
he will not fail of his end, but certainly carry on his undertaking, until
he hath utterly destroyed all those works of Satan in the hearts of all
that are his. He " redeems us from our vain conversation," 2 Pet. i.
18, 19, — from the power of our lusts and corruptions, leading us out
to a vain conversation. The apostle tells'^Li, l^oL.^vi. 6, that by his
death the " old man is crucified," and the " body of sin destroyed."
The craft of sin, the old man, and the strength of sin, the body of it, —
or the ruling of original sin, the old man, and the full fruit of actual sin
in the body of it,- — are by the death of Christ crucified and destroyed.
And in that whole chapter, from our participation in the death of
Christ, he argues to such an abolition of the law and rule of sin, to
such a breaking of the power and strength of it, that it is impossible
that it should any more rule in us or have dominion over us. Of
the way whereby virtue flows out from the death of Christ for the
killing of sin I am not now to speak.

And this is the first way whereby the death of Christ hath an in-
fluence into the safeguarding of believers in their continuance in the
love and favour of God : He so takes away the guilt of sin that it
shall never be able utterly to turn the love of God from them ; and
so takes away the rule of Satan and power of sin, destroying the one

308 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCR [CHAP.

and killing the other, that they shall never be able to turn them
wholly from God.

II. Farther to secure their continuance with God, he procureth
the Holy Spirit for them, as was showed before. But because much
weight lies upon this part of our foundation, I shall a little farther
clear it up. That the Spirit of grace and adoption, with all those
spiritual mercies and operations wherewith he is attended and accom-
panied, is a promise of the new covenant, doubtless is by its own
evidence put out of question. There is scarce any promise thereof
wherein he is not either clearly expressed or evidently included;
yea, and oftentimes the whole covenant is stated in that one promise
of the Spirit, the actual collation and bestowing of all the mercy
thereof being his proper work and peculiar dispensation for the
carrying on the great design of the salvation of sinners. So Isa.
lix. 21, "As for me,'' saith God, "this is my covenant with them;
My Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy
mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth," etc. ; — " This is my cove-
nant," saith God, "or what in my covenant I do faithfully engage to
bestow upon you." But of this text and its vindication more after-
ward. Many other places, not only pregnant of proof to the same
purpose, but expressly in terms affirming it, might be insisted on.

Now, that this Spirit, promised in the covenant of grace, as to
the bestowing of him on the elect of God, or those for whom Christ
died, is of his purchasing and procurement in his death, is ap-
2:)arent: —

1. Because he is the mediator of the covenant, by whose hands
and for whose sake all the mercies of it are made out to them who
are admitted into the bond thereof Though men are not comyAetely
stated in the coyenant before their own believing, which brings in
what on thfi\Ti patj is stipu.ated, yei tlie covenant and grace of it lays
hold of tJiem before, even to bestow faith on them, or they would
never believe; for faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.^ God
certainly bestows no such gifts but from a covenant. Spiritual graces
are not administered solely in a providential dispensation. Faith for
the receiving the pardon of sin is no gift nor product of the covenant
of works. Now, as in general the mercies of the covenant are pro-
cured by the mediator of it, so this whereof we speak in an especial
manner: Heb. ix. 15, " For this cause he is the mediator of the new
testament, that by means of death, they which are called might re-
ceive the promise of eternal inheritance." By his death, they for
whom he died, and who thereupon are called, being delivered from
tlieir sins, which were against the co\ enant of works,'* receive the pro-
mise or pledge of an eternal inheritance. What this great promise

' Gen. xvH. 7; Jor. xxxi. 31-34, xxxii. 38-40; Ezck. xi. 10, 20, xxxvi. 25, 26; Hob.
vlii. 8-12; Kiih. ii. 8. « Deut. xxvii. 2G; Gal. iii. 10; Koin. iii. 20.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. g09

here intended is, and wherein it doth consist, the Holy Ghost de-
clares, Acts ii. 33. The promise which Jesus Christ received of the
Father, upon his exaltation, was that of the Holy Ghost, having pur-
chased and procured the bestowing of him by his death. Upon his
exaltation, the dispensation thereof is committed to him, as being
part of the compact and covenant which was between his Father and
himself, the grand bottom of his satisfaction and merit. This is the
great, original, radical promise of that eternal inheritance. By the
promised Spirit are we begotten anew unto a hope thereof, made meet
for it, and sealed up unto it:' yea, do but look upon the Spirit as pro-
mised, and ye may conclude him purchased; " for all the promises of
God are yea and amen in Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. i. 20. They all have
their confirmation, estabhshment, and accomplishment in, by, and
for Jesus Christ. And if it be granted that any designed, appointed
mercy whatever, that, in Christ, the Lord blesseth us withal, be ])ro-
cured for us by him in the way of merit (being given freely to us
through him, but reckoned to him of debt), it will easily be mani-
fested that the same is the condition of every mercy whatever pro-
mised unto us, and given us upon his mediatory interposition.

2. It appears from that peculiar promise that Christ makes of
sending his Holy Spirit unto his own. He tells them, indeed, once
and again, that the Father will send him, as he comes from that ori-
ginal and fountain love from which also himself was sent;" but withal
he assures us that he himself will send him : John xv. 26, '' When
the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth." It is true that he is promised here only
as a comforter, for the performance of that part of his office; but
look, upon what account he is sent for any one act or work of grace,
on that he is sent for all. John xvi. 7, " I will send him then,"''saith
Christ; and that as a fruit of his death, as the procurement of his
mediation, for that alone he promiseth to bestow [Him] on his. And,
in particular, he tells us that he receives the Spirit from the Father
for us, upon his intercession ; wherein, as hath been elsewhere demon-
strated,' he asks no more nor less than what by his death is obtained •
John xiv. 16, 17, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you
another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the
Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive." He tells us,
verse 13, that whatsoever we ask he will do it; but withal in these
verses how he will do it, even by interceding with the Father for
It as a fruit of his blood-shedding, and the promise made to him upon
his undertaking to glorify his Father's name in the great work of
redemption, John xvii. 4-6. And therefore he informs us, that when
the Comforter, whom he procureth for us, shall come, "he shall glorify

' Rom. Tiii. 11 ; Col i. 12; Eph. iv. 30. 2 John xiv. 16, 26. 3 Salus Elec

torum, banguis Jesu, vol. x.

SIO DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERAXCK [CUAP.

him/' and " shall receive of his, and show it unto us," John xvi. 14, —
farther manifest his glory, in his bringing nothing with him but what
is his, or of his procurement : so also instructing us clearly and plen-
tifully to ask in his name, that is, for his sake, — which to do plainly
and openly is the great privilege of the new testament; — for so he
tells his disciples, chap. xvi. 24, " Hitherto have ye asked nothing
in my name," who yet were believers, and had made many addresses
unto God in and through him, but darkly, as they did under the old
testament, when they begged mercy " for his sake," Dan. ix. 1 7;
but to plead with the Father clearly upon the account of the media-
tion and purchase of Christ, that, I say, is the privilege of the new
testament. Now, in this way he would have us ask the Holy Spirit
at the hand of God, Luke xi. 9-13. Ask him ; that is, as to a clearer,
fuller administration of him unto us, for he is antecedently bestowed,
as to the working of faith and regeneration, even unto this applica-
tion : for without him we cannot once ask in the name of Christ, for
none can call Jesus Lord, or do any thing in his name, but by the
Spirit of God. This I say, then : He in whom we are " blessed with
all spiritual blessings" hath procured the Holy Spirit for us, and
through his intercession he is bestowed on us, Eph. i. 3. Now, "where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" from sin, peace and accept-
ance with God, 2 Cor. iii. 17. But it may be objected, "Although this
Spirit be thus bestowed on believers, yet may they not cast him off,
so that his abode with them may be but for a season, and their glory
not be safeguarded in the issue, but their condemnation increased by
their receiving of him, Rom. viii. 14, 15?" This being the only thing
wherein this proof of believers' abiding with God seems liable to ex-
ception, I shall give a triple testimony of the certainty of the con-
tinuance of the Holy Spirit with them on whom he is bestowed, that
in the mouth of two or three witnesses this truth may be established;
and they are no mean ones neither, but the three that bear witness
in heaven, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The FIRST you have Isa. lix. 21, "As for me, this is my cove-
nant with them, saith the LoRD; My Spirit which is upon thee,
and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of
the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and
for ever." That which the Lord declares here to the church he
calls " his covenant." Now, whereas in a covenant there are two
things, — 1. What is stipulated on the part of him that makes the
covenant; 2. What of them is required with whom it is made (which
in themselves are distinct, though in the covenant of grace God
hath promised that he will work in us what he requires of us), —
that here mentioned is clearly an evidence of somewhat of the first
kind, — of that goodness that God in the covenant doth promise to

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 311

bestow. Though perhaps words of the future tense may sometimes
have an imperative construction, where the import of the residue of
the words enforces such a sense, yet because it may be so in some
place therefore it is so in this place, and that therefore these words
are not a promise that the Spirit shall not depart, but an injunction
to take care that it do not depart, as Mr Goodwin will have it, is a
weak inference ; and the close of the words will by no means be
wrested to speak significantly to any such purpose, " Saith the
Lord, from henceforth and for ever," which plainly make the words
promissory, and an engagement of God himself to them to whom
they are spoken. So that the interpretation of these words, " This is
my covenant with them," by Mr Goodwin, chap. xi. sect. 4, p. 227,
— " That covenant of perpetual grace and mercy which I made with
them requireth this of them, in order to the performance of it on
my part, that they quench not my Spirit which I have put into
them," — doth plainly invert the intendment of God in them, and
substitute what is tacitly required as our duty into the room of what
is expressly promised as his grace. Observe then, —

2. That as no promise of God given to believers is either apt
of itself to ingenerate, or by them to be received under, such an ab-
surd notion of being made good whatsoever their deportment be,
it being the nature of all the promises of God to frame and mould
them to whom they are given into all holiness and purity, 2 Cor.
vii. 1, — and this in especial is a promise of the principal author and
cause of all holiness, to be continued to them, and is impossible to
be apprehended under any such foolish supposal, — so also that this
promise is absolute, and not conditional, can neither be colourably
gainsaid nor the contrary probably affirmed. So that the strength of
Mr Goodwin's two next exceptions, — 1. " That this cannot be a pro-
mise of perseverance unto true believers, whatsoever their deportment
shall be;" and, 2. " That it must be conditional, which cannot," as
he saith, " be reasonably gainsaid," — the first of them not looking
towards our persuasion in this thing, and the latter being not in the
least put upon the proof, is but very weakness; for what condition
of this promise, I pray, can be imagined? God promises his Spirit
of holiness, that sanctifieth us and worketh all holiness in us; and
therewith the holy word of the gospel, which is also sanctifying,
John xvii. 1 7; and that they shall abide with us for ever. It is the con-
tinuance of the presence of God with us for our holiness that is here
promised. On what condition shall this be supposed to depend?
Is it in case we continue holy? Who seeth not the vanity of inter-
serting any condition? " I will be with you by my Spirit and word
for ever, to keep you holy, provided you continue holy ! "

3. It is a hard task, to seek to squeeze a condition out of those
gracious words in the beginning of the verse, " As for me,'' which

SI 2 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

Junius renders de me autem, — words wherein God graciously re-
veals himself as the sole author of this great blessing promised, it
being a work of his own, which he accomplisheth upon the account
of his free grace ; and therefore God signally placed that expres-
sion in the entrance of the promise, that we may know whom to look
unto for the fulfilling thereof And it is yet a farther corruption to
say, " That 'As for me,' is as much as, 'For my part, I will deal boun-
tifully with them, provided they do so and so, what I require from
them,""' which is Mr Goodwin's interpretation of the words; for of
this supposition there is not one word in the text as incumbent on
them to whom this promise is made in contradistinction to what
God here promiseth; yea, he promiseth them, at least in the root and
principle, whatsoever is required of them. Let it be that " As for
me/' is, "As for my part, I will do what here is promised," and there
is an end of this debate.

4. The persons to whom this promise is made are called " thee"
and " thy seed," — that is, all those and only those with whom God
is a God in covenant. God here minds them of the first makiugf
of this covenant with Abraham and his seed, Gen. xvii. 7. Now,
who are this seed of Abraham ? Not all his carnal posterity, not the
whole nation of the Jews; which is the last subterfuge invented by
our author to evade the force of our argument from this place. Our
Saviour not only denies, but also proves by many arguments, that the
Pharisees and their followers, who doubtless were of the nation of
the Jews and tJie carnal seed of Ahrahavi, were not the children
of Abraham in this sense, nor his seed, but rather the devil's, John
viii. 39-44. And the apostle disputes and argues the same case,
Rom. iv. 9-12, and proves undeniably that it is believers onh',
whether circumcised or uncircumcised, whether Jews or Gentiles,
that are this seed of Abraham and heirs of the promise. So, plainly,
Gal. iii. 7, "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same
are the children of Abraham ;" and then he concludes again, as the
issue of his debate, verse 9, " So then they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham." And this is the sum of what Mr
Goodwin objects unto this testimony, in our case, to the perpetual
abiding of the Spirit ^vith the saints.

The force, then, of this promise, and the influence it hath into
the establishment of the truth we have in hand, will not be evaded
and turned aside by aflrrming " that it is made to the whole people
of Israel:" for besides that the Spirit of the Lord could not be said
to be in the ungodly, rejected part of them, nor his word in their
mouth, there is not the l^^ast, in text or context, to intimate such an
extent of this promise as* to the object of it: and it is very weakly
attempted to be proveil fiiom Paul's accommodation and interpreta-
tion of the verse foregoing,\ " And the Redeemer shall come to Zion,"

VII.j THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 313

etc., in Rom. xi. 20; for it is most evident and indisputable, to
any one who shall but once cast an eye upon that place, that the
apostle accommodates and applies these words to none but only those
who shall be saved, being turned away from ungodliness to Christ;
which are only the seed before described. And those he calls " All
Israel," either in the spiritual sense of the word, as taken for the
chosen Israel of God, or else indefinitely for that nation, upon the
account of those plentiful fruits which the gospel shall find amongst
them, when they shall " fear the LoRD and his goodness in the latter
days," Hos. iii. 5.

5. This, then, is a promise equally made unto all believers: it
is to all that are in covenant; neither is there any thing that is of
peculiar importance to any sort of believers, of any time, or age, or
dispensation, therein comprised. It equally respecteth all to whom
the Lord extends his covenant of grace. Certainly the giving of the
Spirit of grace is not in wrapped in any promise that may be " of pri-
vate interpretation," the concernment of all the saints of God lying
therein. It cannot but be judged a needless labour to give parti-
cular instances in a thing so generally known in the word. Though
the expressions differ, the matter of this promise is the same with that
given to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 7, the Holy Spirit being the great
blessing of the covenant, and bestowed on all and every one, and
only on them, whom God hath graciously taken into covenant from
the foundation of the world.

Mr Goodwin then labours in the fire in what he farther objects,
sect. 6, " That this promise exhibiteth and holds forth some new
grace or favour, which God hath not vouchsafed formerly either unto
the persons to whom the said promise is now made, or to any others ;
but for the grace or favour of final perseverance, it is nothing (at
least in the opinion of our adversaries) but what is common to all
true believers, and what God hath conferred upon one and other of
this generation from the beginning of the world."

Ans. The emphasis here put upon it doth not denote it to be a
new promise, but a great one ; not that it was never given before, but
that it is now solemnly renewed, for the consolation and establish-
ment of the church. If wherever we find a solemn promise made,
and confirmed, and ratified, to the church, we must thence conclude
that no saints were before made partakers of the mercy of that pro-
mise, we must also, in particular, cbnclude that no one ever had his
sins pardoned before the giving of that solemn promise, Jer. xxxi. 34.

6. We say that the grace of perseverance is such as believers
may expect, not upon the account of any thing in themselves, nor of
the dignity of the state whereunto by grace they are exalted, but
merely on this bottom and foundation, that it is freely promised of
God, who hath also discovered that rise and fountain of his gracious

314 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' rEKSEVEKANCE. [CHAP.

promise to lie in his eternal love towards them ; so that they can lay
no more claim unto it than to any other grace whatsoever. When
we have the assurance given by any promise of God, to say that what
is promised of him may be expected of course, is an expression that
fell from Mr Goodwin when, in the heat of disputation, his thoughts
were turned aside from the consideration of what it is to mix the
promises of God with faith.

7. Whereas this is given in for the sense of the words, " That
God will advance the dispensation of his grace and goodness to-
wards or among his people to such an excellency and height that,
if they prove not extremely unworthy, they shall have of the Spirit
and word of God abundantly amongst them, and consequently abun-
dance of peace and happiness for ever," it is most apparent that not
any thing of the mind of God in the words is reached in this gloss;
for, —

(1.) That condition, " If they prove not extremely unworthy," is
extremely unworthily inserted, the promise being an engagement of
God to keep and preserve them to whom it is made, by his Spirit,
from being so. The Spirit is given and continued to them for that
very purpose.

(2.) It is supposed to be given to all the nation of the Jews, when
it is expressly made to the church and seed in covenant.

(3.) It carries the mercy promised no higher than outward dispensa-
tions, when the words expressly mention the Spirit already received.

Evident it is that the whole grace, love, kindness, and mercy,
of this eminent promise, and consequently the whole covenant of
grace, is enervated by this corrupting gloss. Do men think, indeed,
that all the mercy of the covenant of grace consists in such tenders
and offers as here are intimated? that it all lies in outward endear-
ments, and such dealings with men as may seem to be suited to win
upon them? and that, as to the real exhibition of it, it is wholly sus-
pended upon the unstable, uncertain, frail wills of men? The Scrip-
ture seems to hold out something farther of more efficacy.^ The
design of these exceptions is indeed to exclude all the effectual grace
of God, promised in Jesus Christ, upon the account that the things
which he promiseth to work in us thereby are the duties which he
requireth of us.

In sum, these are the exceptions which are given in to this testf-
mony of God concerning the abiding of the Spirit with them on
whom he is bestowed and for whom he is procured, to whom he is
sent by Jesus Christ. And this is the interpretation of the words,
" 'As for me,' for my part, or as much as in me lieth, 'this is my cove-
nant,' I will deal bountifully and graciously ' with them,' the whole
nation of the Jews. ' My Spirit that is in thee,' that they ought to take
> Jcr. xxii. 31-34, xxxii. 38-40; Ezek. xi. 19, 20.

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 315

care that they entertain and retain, and not walk so extremely un-
worthily that he should depart from them/' The residue of the words,
wherein the main emphasis of them doth lie, is left untouched.

The import, then, of this promise is the same with that of the
promises insisted on before, with especial reference to the Holy
Spirit, procured for us and given unto us by Christ. The stability
and establishing grace of the covenant is here called the " cove-
nant,'' as sundry other particular mercies of it are also. Of the co-
venant of grace in Christ, the blessed Spirit to dwell in us and rest
upon us is the main and principal promise. This, for our conso-
lation, is renewed again and again in the Old and New Testament,
As a Spirit of sanctification, he is given to men to make them be-
lieve ; and as a Sjm'it of adoption, upon their believing. In either
sense, God, even the Father, who takes us into covenant in Jesus
Christ, affirms here that he shall never depart from us ; which is our
first testimony in the case in hand. With whom the Spirit abides,
and whilst he abides with them, they cannot utterly forsake God nor
be forsaken of him; for they who have the Spirit of God are the
children of God, sons and heirs : but God hath promised that his
Spirit shall abide with believers for ever, as hath been clearly evinced
from the text under consideration, with a removal of all exceptions
put in thereto.

The SECOND witness we have of the constant abode and resi-
dence of this Spirit, bestowed on them which believe, is that of
the Son, who assures his disciples of it: John xiv. 16, " I will," saith
he, " pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that
he may abide with you for ever," As our Saviour gives a rule of
interpretation expressly of his prayers for believers, that he did in
them intend not only the men of that present generation, but all that
should believe to the end of the world, (John xvii. 20, "Neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word"): so is it a rule equally infallible for the interpretation
of the gracious promises which he made to his disciples, that are not
peculiarly appropriated to their season and work (in which yet, as to
the general love, faithfulness, and kindness, manifested and revealed
in them, the concernments of the saints in all succeeding ages do lie) ;
they are proper to all believers as such. For whom he did equally
intercede, to them he makes promises alike. They belong no less to
us, on whom, in an especial manner, the ends of the world are fallen,
than to those who first followed him in the regeneration. Let us,
then, attend to the testimony in this place (and as he shall be pleased
to increase our faith, mix it therewithal), that the Spirit he procureth
for us and sends to us shall abide with us for ever; and whilst the
Spirit of the Lord is with us we are his. Doubtless, it is no easy
task to raise up any pretended plea against the evidence given in by

316 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

this witness, the Amen, the great and faithful Witness in heaven.
He tells us that he will send the Spirit, to abide with us for ever;
and therein speaks to the whole of the case in hand and question
under debate. All we say is, that the Spirit of God shall abide with
believers for ever. Christ says so too; and in the issue, whatever
becomes of us, he will appear to be one against whom there is no
rising up.

Against this testimony it is objected by Mr Goodwin, chap. xi.
sect. 14, p. 234: "This promise," saith he, " concerning the abiding
of this other Comforter for ever must be conceived to be made either
to the apostles personally considered, or else to the whole body of
the church, of which they were principal members. If the first of
these be admitted, then it will not follow that because the apostles
had the perpetual residence of the Spirit with them and in them,
therefore every particular believer hath the like; no more than it
will follow that because the apostles were infallible in their judg-
ments, through the teachings of the Spirit in them, therefore every
believer is infallible upon the same account also. If the latter be
admitted, neither will it follow that every believer, or every member
of the church, must needs have the residence of the Spirit with them
for ever. There are principal privileges appropriated to corporations,
which every particular member of them cannot claim. The church
may have the residence of the Spirit of God with her for ever, and
yet every present member thereof lose his interest and part in him;
yea, the abiding of the Spirit in the apostles themselves was not ab-
solutely promised, John xv. 10."

A7)s. 1. The design of this discourse is to prove that this promise
is not made to believers in general, or those who through the word
are brought to believe in Christ in all generations to the end of the
world, and consequently that they have no promise of the Spirit's
abiding with them ; for that is the thing opposed. And this is part of
the doctrine that tends to their consolation and improvement in holi-
ness ! What thanks they will give to the authors of such an eminent
discovery, when it shall be determined that they have deserved well
of them and the truth of God, I know not; especially when it shall
be considered that not only this, but all other promises uttered by
Christ to his apostles, — as we had thought, not for their own behoof
alone, but also for the use of the church in all ages, — are tied up in
their tendency and use to the men of that generation, and to the
employment to which they to whom he spoke were designed. But
let us see whether these things are so or no. I say, —

2. There is not any necessary cause of that disjunctive proposi-
tion,— The promise of the perpetual residence of the Spirit is made
" either to the apostles personally, or to the whole body of the
church." By the rule formerly given for the interpretation of these

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 317

promises of Christ, it appears that what in this kind was made to the
one was also given to the other; and how Mr Goodwin will enforce
any necessary conclusion from this distinction, framed by himself for
his own purpose, I know not. The promise was made both to these
and those, the apostles and all other believers, because to the apostles
as believers.

3. The making of the promise to the apostles 'personally doth not
argue that it was made to them as apostles, but only that it was
made to their persons or to them, though under another qualifica-
tion, namely, of believing. It is given to them personally as be-
lievers, and so to all believers whatever. This also sets at liberty
and plainly cashiers the comparison instituted between the apostles'
infallibility as apostles and their sanctifying grace as believers, by the
Spirit of grace given for that end. The apostles' infallibility, we con-
fess, was from the Spirit ; for they, as other holy men of old, wrote
as they were moved by the Spirit of God, 2 Pet. i. 21 : but that this
was a distinct gift bestowed on them as apostles, and not the teach-
ing of the Spirit of grace, which is given to all believers, 1 John ii. 27,
we need not contend to prove.

Besides, to what end doth he contend that it was made to the
apostles in the sense urged and by us insisted on, seeing he denies
it in the close of this section, and chooseth rather to venture upon
an opposition unto that commonly received persuasion that the apos-
tles of Christ (the son of perdition only excepted) had an absolute
promise of perseverance, than to acknowledge that which would
prove so prejudicial and ruinous to his cause, as he knows the con-
fession of such a promise made to them would inevitably be? He
contends not, I say, about the sense of the promise, but would fain
divert it from other believers (at the entrance of the section) by
limiting it to the apostles; but considering afterward better of the
matter, and remembering that the concession of an absolute promise
of perseverance to any one saint whatever would evidently root up
and cast to the ground the goodliest engine that he hath set up
against the truth he opposeth, he suits it (in the close of the section)
to an evasion holding better correspondency with its associates in
this undertaking.

4. I wonder what chimerical church he hath found out, to which
promises are made and privileges granted otherwise than upon the
account of the persons whereof it is constituted. Suppose, I pray,
that promises of the residence of the Spirit for ever with it be made
to the church, which is made up of so many members, and that all
these members, every one, should lose their interest in it, what sub-
ject of that promise would remain? What universal is this, that
hath a real existence of itself and by itself, in abstraction from its
particulars, in which alone it hath its being? or what whole is that

318 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

which is preserved in the destruction and dissolution of all its essen-
tially constituent parts? The promises, then, that are made to the
church are of two sorts: — (1.) Of such grace and mercies as, whether
inker PMt or relative, have their residence in and respect unto par-
ticular persons as such. Of this sort are all the promises of grace, of
sanctification, as also of justification, etc. ; which are all things of
men's personal spiritual interest. The promises made to the church
of this nature are made unto it merely as consisting of so many,
and those elected, redeemed persons, whose right and interest as
those individual persons they are. (2.) Of all such good things as
are the exurgency of the collected state of the saints, in reference to
their spiritual, invisible communion, or visible gathering into a church
constituted according to the mind of Christ and his appointment in
the gospel. And these also are all of them founded on the former,
and depend wholly upon them, and are resolved into them. All
promises whatever, then, made to the church, the body of Christ, do
not respect it primarily as a corporation, which is the second no-
tion of it, but as consisting of those particular believers; much less
as a chimerical universal, having a subsistence in and by itself,
abstracted from its particulars. This evasion, then, notwithstand-
ing, this promise of our Saviour doth still continue to press its testi-
mony concerning the perjietual residence of the Holy Spirit with
believers.

The scope of the place enforces that acceptation of these words
which we insist upon. Our blessed Saviour, observing the trouble
and disconsolation of his followers upon the apprehension of his de-
parture from them, stirs them up to a better hope and confidence
by many gracious promises and engagements of what would and
should be the issue of his being taken away, John xiv. 1. He bids
them free their hearts from trouble, and in the next words tells
them that the way whereby it was to be done was by acting faith on
the promises of his Father, and on those which in his Father's name
he had made and was to make unto them. Of tliese he mentions
many in the following verses, whereof the fountain head and spring
is that of giving them the Comforter, not to abide with them for a
season, as he had done with his bodily presence, but to continue
with them as a comforter (and consequently to the discharging of
his whole dispensation towards believers) for ever. He speaks to
them as believers, as disconsolate, dejected believers, quickening their
faith by exhortations ; and gives them this promise as a solid founda-
tion of peace and composedness of spirit, which he exhorted them
unto. And if our Saviour intendeth any thing but what the words
import, — namely, that he will give his Holy Spirit as a comforter,
to abide with them for ever, — the promise hath not the least suitable-
ness to relieve them in their distress, nor to accomplish the end for

VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 819

which it was given them. But against this it is excepted, chap. xi.
sect. 13, p. 233:—

1. " Evident it is that ov;r Saviour doth not in this place oppose
the abiding or remaining of the Holy Ghost to his own departure
from the hearts or souls of men into which he is framed or come,
but to his departure out of the world by death, which was now at
hand."

Ans. This is a weighty observation ! yet withal it is evident that
he opposeth the abiding of the Spirit with them as a comforter to
his own bodily presence with them for that end. His was for a sea-
son, the other to endure for ever. And I desire to know how our
Saviour Christ comes or enters into the souls or hearts of men but
by his Spirit, and how these things come here to be distinguished.
But,—

2. He says, " By the abiding of the Comforter with them for ever,
he doth not mean his perpetual abode in their hearts, or the heart
of any particular man, but his constant abiding in the world, in and
with the gospel and the children thereof: in respect of which he
saith of himself elsewhere, ' I am with you always, even to the end
of the world;' as if he should have said, 'This the purpose of my
Father in sending me into the world requires that I should make
no long stay in it. I am now upon my return. But when I come to
my Father, I will intercede for you, and he will send you another
Comforter, upon better terms for staying and continuing with you
than those on which I came; for he shall be sent, not to be taken
out of the world by death, but to make his residence with and among
you, my friends and faithful ones, for ever.' Now, fi'om such an
abiding of the Holy Ghost with them as this cannot be inferred his
pei'petual abiding with any one personal believer determinately,
much less with every one."

Ans. 1. It was evident before that this promise was made to the
disciples of Christ as believers, to quicken and strengthen their
failing, drooj^ing faith, in and under that great trial of losing the
presence of their Master which they were to undergo; and being
made unto them as believers, though upon a particular occasion,
is made to all believers for " a quatenus ad omne valet argumen-
tum."

2. It is no less evident that, according to the interpretation here,
without the least attempt of proof, importunately suggested, the pro-
mise is no way suited to give the least encouragement or consolation
unto the disciples, in reference to the condition upon the account
whereof it is now so solemnly given them. It is all one as if our
Saviour should have said, " You are sadly troubled indeed, yea, your
hearts are filled with trouble and fear, because I have told you that
I must leave you. Be not so dejected. I have kept you whilst I have

S20 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

been with you in the world, and now I go away, and will send the
Holy Spirit into the world ; and, whatsoever becomes of you, or any
of you, whether ye have any consolation or no, he shall abide in the
world, perhaps, with some or other (that is, if any do believe, which
it may be some will, it may be not) until the end and consummation
of it."

S. Is this promise of sending the Holy Spirit given to the apos-
tles, or is it not? If you say not, assign whom it is given or made
unto. Christ spake it to them, and doubtless they thought he in-
tended them, and it was wholly suited to their condition. If it were
made unto them, is it not in the letter of the promise affirmed that
the Spirit shall abide with them for ever to whom it was given? If
there be any subject of this promise in receiving the Spirit, he must
of necessity keep his residence and abode with it for ever. The
whole design of this section is to put the persons to whom this pro-
mise is made into the dark, that we may not see them ; yea, to deny
that it is made to any persons at all, as the recipient subject of the
grace thereof. He tells you that " he abides in the world." How, I
pray? Doubtless not as the unclean spirit, that goes up and down
in dry places, seeking rest and finding none. Christ promiseth his
Spirit to his church, not to the world, — to dwell in the hearts of his,
not to wander up and down. Nay, he abides with the apostles and
their spiritual posterity ; that is, believers, in our Saviour's interpre-
tation, John xvii. 20, Are they, then, and their posterity, (that is,
believers), the persons to whom this promise is made, and who are
concerned in it, with whom, as he is promised, he is to abide? This
you can scarcely find out an answer to in the whole discourse. He
tells you, indeed, the Holy Ghost was not to die, with such other
rare notions; but for any persons particularly intended in this pro-
mise, we are still in the dark.

3. He tells us, " That from such an abiding of the Holy Ghost
with them as this, cannot be enforced his perpetual abiding with
any one person dcterminately." But what kind of abiding it is that
he intends is not easily apprehended. If on the account of this
promise he is given to any person, on the same account he is to
abide with the same person for ever. That which he seems to intend
is the presence of the Spirit in the administration of the word, to
make it effectual unto them to whom it is delivered, when the pro-
mise is to give him as a comforter to them on whom he is bestowed.
But he adds, sect. 14, —

4. "And lastly, The particle iVa doth not always import the cer-
tainty of the thing spoken of, by way of event (no, not when the
speech is of God himself), but ofttimes the intention only of the
agent: so that the words, 'That he may abide with you for ever' do
not imply an absolute necessity of his abiding with them for ever,

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 321

but only this, that it should be the intent of him that should send
him, and that he would send him in such a way, that, if they were
true to their own interest, they might retain him and have his abode
with them for ever. Turn the words any way, with any tolerable
congruity, either to the scope of the place, manner of Scripture ex-
pression, principles of reason, and the doctrine of perseverance will
be found to have nothing in them."

Ans. 1. This is the -Trdvcofov ipap/xaxov, that, when all medicines will
not heal, must serve to skin the wound given our adversaries' cause
by the sword of the word: " The promise is made unto believers, in-
deed ; but on such and such conditions as on the account whereof it
may never be accomplished towards them." 2. This no way suits
Mr Goodwin's interpretation of the place formerly mentioned and
insisted on. If it be, as was said, only a promise of sending his
Spirit into the world for the end by him insinuated, doubtless the
word iva must denote the event of the thing, and not an intention
only that might fail of accomplishment; for let all or any indivi-
duals behave themselves how they will, it is certain, as to the ac-
complishment and event, that the Spirit of God shall be continued
in the world, in the sense pleaded for. But it is not what is con-
gruous to his own thoughts, but what may oppose ours (that is, the
plain and obvious sense of the words), that he is concerned to make
use of. It being not the sense of the place, but an escaping our
argument from it, that lies in his design, he cares not how many
contrary and inconsistent interpretations he gives of it. "Usee non
successit, alia aggrediemur via." The word 'iva denotes, as is con-
fessed, the intention of Christ in sending the Spirit; that is, that he
intends to send him to believers, so as that he should abide with
them for ever. Now, besides the impossibility in general that the
intention of God, or of the Lord Christ, as God and man, should be
frustrate, whence in particular should it come to pass he should fail
in this his intention? "I will send you the Holy Spirit, to abide with
you for ever;" that is, "I intend to send you the Holy Spirit, that
he may abide with you for ever." What, now, should hinder this?
"Why, it is given them upon condition that they be 'true to their
own interest, and take care to retain him.'" What is that, I pray?
" Why, that they continue in faith, obedience, repentance, and close
walking with God." But to what end is it that he is promised unto
them? is it not to teach them, to work in them faith, obedience, re-
pentance, and close walking with God, to sanctify them throughout,
and preserve them blameless to the end, making them "meet for
the inheritance of the saints in light?" " In case they obey, be-
lieve, etc., the Holy Ghost is promised unto them, to abide with
them, to cause them to obey, believe, repent, etc." 8. The intention
of Christ for the sending of the Spirit, and his abiding for ever with

VOL. XT. 21

322 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

them to whom he is sent, is but one and the same ; and if any frus-
tration of his intention do fall out, it may most probably interpose
as to his sending of the Spirit, not as to the Spirit's continuance
with them to whom he is sent, which is asserted absolutely upon the
account of his sending him. He sends him iim /j,ivrj. His abode is
the end of his sending; which, if he be sent, shall be obtained.

Upon the whole, doubtless, it will be found that the doctrine of
perseverance finds so much for its establishment in this place of
Scripture and promise of our Saviour, that by no art or cunning
it will be prevailed withal to let go its interest therein. And though
many attempts be made to turn and wrest this testimony of our
Saviour several ways, and those contrary to and inconsistent with
one another, yet it abides to look straight forward to the proof
and confirmation of the truth, that lies not only in the womb and
sense of it, but in the very mouth and literal expression of it also,
I suppose it is evident to all that Mr Goodwin knows not what to
say to it, nor what sense to fix upon. At first it is made to the
apostles, not to all believers; then, when this will not serve the turn,
there being a concession in that interpretation destructive to his
whole cause, it is made as a privilege to the church, not to any in-
dividual persons; but yet, for fear that this privilege must be vested
in some individuals, it is denied that it is made to any, but only is
a promise of the Spirit's abode in the world with the word ; but,
perhaps some thoughts coming upon him that this will no way suit
the .scope of the place, nor be suited to the intendment of Christ, it
is lastly added, that let it be made to whom it will, it is conditional,
though there be not the least intimation of any condition in the text
or context, and that [condition] by him assigned be coincident with
the thing itself promised! But hereof so far; and so our second
testimony. The testimony of the Son abides still by the truth for
the confirmation whereof it is produced; and in the mouth of these
two witnesses, the abiding of the Spirit with believers to the end is
established.

Add hereunto, THIRDLY, The testimony of the third that bears wit-
ness in heaven, and who also comes near and bears witness to this
tiTith in the hearts of believers, even of the Spirit itself; and so I
shall leave it sealed under the testimony of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost. As the other two gave in tlieir testimony in a word of
promise, so the Spirit doth in a real work of performance; wherein,
as he bears a distinct testimony of his own, the saints having a pecu-
liar communion and fellowship with him therein, so he is, as the
common seal of Father and Son, set unto that truth which by their
testimony they have confirmed. There are, indeed, sundry things
whereby he confirms and cstablisheth the saints in the assurance of
his abode with them for ever. I shall at present mention that one

VII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 323

eminent work of his, whicli, being given unto them, he doth accom-
pHsh to this very end and purpose, and that is his sealing of tliera
to the day of redemption; — a work it is, often in the ScrijDture men-
tioned, and still upon the account of assuring the salvation of be-
lievers : 2 Cor. i. 22, " Who hath also sealed us." Having men-
tioned the certainty, unchangeableness, and efficacy, of all the promises
of God in Christ, and the end to be accomplished and brought about
by them, — namely, the "glory of God in believers" (verse 20, "All the
promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, unto the glory of
God by us"), — the apostle acquaints the saints with one foundation of
the security of their interest in those promises, whereby the end men-
tioned, " the glory of God by them," should be accomplished. This
he ascribes to the efficacy of the Spirit, bestowed on them in sundry
works of his grace, which he reckoneth, verses 21, 22. Among them
this is one, that he seals them. As to the nature of this sealing, and
what that act of the Spirit of grace is that is so called, I shall not
now insist upon it. The end and use of sealing is more aimed at in
this expression than the nature of it, — what it imports than wherein
it consists. Being a term forensical, and translated from the use
and practice of men in their civil transactions, the use and end of it
may easily, from the original rise thereof, be demonstrated. Sealing
amongst men hath a twofold use: — First, To give secrecy and secu-
rity (in things that are under present consideration) to the things
sealed. And this is the first use of sealing, by a seal set upon the
things sealed. Of this kind of sealing chiefly have we that long
discourse of Salmasius, in the vindication of his Jus Atticum against
the animadversions of Heraldus. And, secondly. To give an as-
surance or faith for what is, by them that seal, to be done. In the
first sense are things sealed up in bags and in treasuries, that they
may be kept safe, none daring to break open their seals. In the
latter are all promissory engagements confirmed, established, and
made unalterable, wherein men, either in conditional compacts or
testamentary dispositions, do oblige themselves. These are the 8i-
gilla appensa that are yet in use in all deeds, enfeoffments, and the
like instruments in law. And with men, if this be done, their en-
gagements are accounted inviolable. And because all men have not
that truth, faithfulness, and honesty, as to make good even their
sealed engagements, the whole race of mankind hath consented unto
the establishment of laws and governors, amongst others to this end,
that all men may be compelled to stand to their sealed promises.
Hence, whatsoever the nature of it be, and in what particular soever
it doth consist, the end and use of this work, in this special accepta-
tion, is taken evidently in the latter sense from its use amongst men.
Expressed it is upon the mention of the promises, 2 Cor. i. 20. To
secure believers of their certain and infallible accomplishment unto

324 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

tliem, tlie apostle tells them of this sealing of the Spirit, whereby
the promises are irrevocably confirmed unto them to whom they are
made, as is the case among the sons of men. Suitably, Eph. i. 13,
he saith they are "sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise;'' that is,
who is promised unto us, and who confirms to us all the promises of
God, Heb. ix. 14. That the other end of sealing also, safety and
preservation, is designed therein, secondarily, appears from the ap-
pointed season whereunto this sealing shall be effectual. It is " to
the day of redemption," Eph. iv. 30; until the saints are brought to
the enjoyment of the full, whole, and complete purchase made for
them by Chi'ist when he " obtained for them eternal redemption."
And this is a real testimony which the Holy Spirit gives to his own
abiding with the saints for ever. The work he accomplisheth in
them and upon them is on set purpose designed to assure them
hereof, and to confirm them in the faith of it.

Unto an argument from this sealing of the Spirit, thus proposed,
"Those who are sealed shall certainly be saved," Mr Goodwin ex-
cepts sundry things, chap. xi. sect. 42, p. 255-257; which, because
they are applied to blur that interpretation of tht^words of the Holy
Ghost which I have insisted on, I shall briefly remove out of the way,
that they may be no farther offensive to the meanest sealed one.

He answers, then, first, by distinguishing the major proposition
thus: "They who are sealed shall certainly be saved with such a
sealing which is unchangeable by any intervenience whatsoever, as
of sin and apostasy, so that they cannot lose their faith ; but if the
sealing be only such the continuance whereof depends on the faith
of the sealed, and consequently may be reversed or withdrawn, it no
way proves that all they who are partakers of it must of necessity
retain their faith. Therefore," saith he, secondly, "we answer farther,
that the sealing with the Spirit spoken of is the latter kind of seal-
ing, not the former, — that is, which depends upon the faith of those
that are sealed, — as in the beginning or first impression of it, so in the
duration or continuance of it; and consequently there is none other
certainty of its continuance but only the continuance of the said
faith, which being uncertain, the sealing depending on it must needs
be uncertain also. That the sealing mentioned depends upon the faith
of tlie sealed is evident, because it is said, ' In whom also, after ye
believed, ye were sealed with the Spirit of promise.'"

Alls. I dare say there is no honest man that would take it well
at the hand of Mr Goodwin, or any else, that should attempt, by
distinctions, or any other way, to alleviate or take off the credit of
his truth and honesty in the performance of all those things where-
unto, and for the confirmation whereof, he hath set his seal. What
acceptation a like attempt in reference to the Spirit of God is like
to find with him, lie may do well to consider. In the meantime, he

YII.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 325

prevails not with us to discredit this work of his grace in the
least; for, —

1. This supposal of such interveniencies of sin and wickedness in
the saints as are inconsistent with the life of faith and the favour
of God, as also of apostasy, are but a poor, mean insinuation for
the begging of the thing in question, which will never be granted on
any such terms. An interveniency of apostasy, — that is, defection
from the faith, — is not handsomely supposed whilst men continue in
the faith.

2. That which is given for the confirmation of their faith, and on
set purpose to add continuance to it, as this is, cannot depend on the
condition of the continuance of their faith. The Holy Ghost seals
them to the day of redemption, confirming and establishing thereby
an infallible continuance of their faith ; but, it seems, upon condition
of their continuance in the faith. Cui fini? Of what hitherto is
said, this is the sum : " If they who are sealed apostatize into sin and
wickedness, they shall not be saved, notwithstanding that they have
been sealed." And this must pass for an answer to our argument,
proving that they cannot so apostatize because they are sealed on
purpose to preserve and secure them from that condition. Men need
not go far to seek for answers to any argument, if such as these (pure
beggings of the thing in question and argued) will suffice.

3. Neither doth " the beginning or first impression of the sealing"
depend upon their faith any otherwise but as believers are the sub-
ject of it, which is not to have any kind of dependence upon it, either
as to its nature or use. Neither doth that place of the apostle, Eph.
i. 13, "After that ye believed ye were sealed," prove any such thing,
unless this general axiom be first established, tbat all things which in
order of nature are before and after have the connection of cause
and effect, or at least of condition and event, between them. It
proves, indeed, that their believing is in order of nature antecedent
to their sealing, respecting the use of it here mentioned ; but this
proves not at all that faith is the condition of sealing, the bestowing
of faith and the grant of this seal to establish it being both acts
depending merely, solely, and distinctly, on the free grace of God in
Christ. Though faith in order of nature go before hope, yet is no
hope bestowed on men on the condition of believing. The truth is,
both faith and sealing, and all other spiritual mercies, as to the good-
will of God bestowing them, are at once granted us in Jesus Christ;
but as to our reception of them, and the actual instating of our souls
in the enjoyment of them, or rather as to the exerting of themselves
in us, they have that order which either the nature of the things
themselves requires, or the sovereign will of God hath allotted to
them. Neither doth sealing bespeak any grace in us, but a peculiar
improvement of the grace bestowed on us. So that, —

326 DOCTHINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERA^'CE. [CIIAP.

4. We refuse the answer suggested by Mr Goodwin, " That sealing
depends" (that is, in his sense) " upon beheving, as to the first grant
of it, but not as to the continuance thereof," and reject his supposal
of "one that hath truly believed making shipwreck of his faith," as
too importune a cry, or begging of that which it is evident cannot
be proved. I shall add only, that Mr Goodwin granting here the
continuance of faith to be a thing " uncertain," which is a word to
express a very weak probability of a thing, is much fallen off from his
former confident expression of the "only remote possibility" of believ-
ers falling away. That their falling away should be scarcely possible,
and yet their continuance in the faith very uncertain, is somewhat
uncouth. But this is the foundation of that great consolation which
Mr Goodwin's doctrine is so pregnant and teeming withal, that it
even groans to be delivered. " Their continuance in believing is un-
certain ; therefore they must needs rejoice and be filled with consola-
tion." But he answers farther: —

" I answer farther, by way of exception, that the sealing we speak
of is neither granted by God unto believers themselves upon any
such terms as that upon no occasion or occasions whatsoever, as of
the greatest and most horrid sins committed and long continued in
by them, or the like, it should ever be interrupted or effaced ; for
this is contrary to many plain texts of Scripture, and particularly
unto all those where either apostates from God, or evil-doers and
workers of iniquity, are threatened with the loss of God's favour and
of the inheritance of life, such as Heb. x., etc."

Alls. 1. It is the intent and purpose of God that the sealing of
believers shall abide with them for ever; whence comes it to pass
that his purposes do not stand, and that he doth not fulfil his plea-
sure? " It is not that he changeth, but that men are changed; — that
is, the beginning of the change is not in him ; occasion of it is ad-
ministered unto him by men." When his sealing is removed from
believers, doth God still purpose that it shall continue with them, or
no? If he doth, then he purposeth that shall be which is not, which
it is his will shall not be ; and he continues in his vain purpose to
eternity. Or, if he ceases to purpose, how is it that he is not changed ?
Such things bespeak a change in the sons of men, which we thought
had been incompatible with the perfection of the divine natune,
even that he should will and purpose one thing at one time, and
another, yea the clean contrary, at another, "Yea, but the reason of
it is, because the men concerning whom his purposes are do change,"
This salves not the immutability of God. Though he doth not change
from any new consideration in himself and from himself, yet he doth
from obstructions in his way and to his thoughts in the creatures; —
yea, instead of salving his nnchangeableness, this is destructive to his
omnipotency.

Vn.] THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. 327

2. This whole answer is a supposal that God may alter his pur-
pose of confirming men in grace, if they be not confirmed in grace ;
or, that though God's purpose be to seal them to the day of redemp-
tion, yet they may not continue nor be preserved thereunto; and
then God's purpose of their continuance ceaseth also. This is, —

3. More evident in his second answer, by way of exception, which
is made up of these two parts: — first, A begging of the main, and,
upon the matter, only thing in question, by supposing that believers
may fall into the most horrible sins, and continue in them to the
end; so proving, with great evidence and perspicuity, that believers
may fall away, because they may fall away! and, second, A sug-
gestion of his own judgment to the contrary, and his supposal that
it is confirmed by some texts of Scripture; which, God assisting,
shall be delivered from this imputation hereafter. And these two
do make up so clear an answer to the argument in hand that a man
knows not well what to reply ! Let us take it for granted that be-
lievers may fall away, and how shall we prevent Mr Goodwin from
proving it ! But he adds farther: —

" Believers are said to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of God against,
or until, or for (s/'s) the day of redemption; because that holiness
which is wrought in them by the Spirit of God qualifies them, puts
them into a present and actual capacity of partaking in that joy and
glory which the great day of the full redemption of the saints (that
is, of those who lived and died, and shall be found such) shall bring
with it ; and it is called the earnest of their inheritance."

Ans. How g/g comes to be " against" or " for," or to denote the
matter spoken of, and what all this is to the purpose in hand, he
shows not. The aim of him the words are spoken of, and the unin-
terrupted continuance of the work mentioned to the end expressed,
seem rather to be intended in the whole coherence of the words.
Neither is the use of sealing to prepare any thing for such a time,
but to secure and preserve it thereunto. He that hath a conveyance
sealed unto him is not only capacitated for the present to receive
the estate conveyed, but is principally assured of a right and title
for a continued enjoyment of it, not to be reversed. It is not the
nature of this work of the Holy Ghost, wherein it is coincident with
other acts of his grace, but the particular use of it, as it is a sealing,
and God's intendment by it, to confirm us to the day of redemption,
that comes under our consideration. If it were a season to inquire
wherein it consists, I suppose we should scarce close with Mr Good-
win's description of it, namely, " that it is a qualifying of men, and
putting them in an actual capacity to partake of joy," etc. He is
the first I know of that gave this description of it, and probably the
last that will do so. Of the " earnest of the Spirit" in its proper place.

What he adds in the last place, namely, " If the apostle's intent

o28 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CIIAP.

had been to inform the Ephesians that the gift of the Holy Spirit,
•which they had received from God, was the earnest of their inheri-
tance, upon such terms that no unworthiness or wickedness whatso-
ever on their parts couhi ever hinder the actual collation of this in-
heritance upon them, he had plainly prevaricated with that most
serious admonition wherein he addresses himself to them afterward,
'For this ye know, that no whoremonger,' etc., * hath any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ/" This, I say, is of the same alloy with
what went before; for, —

1. Here is the same begging of the question as before, and that
upon a twofold account: — (1.) In supposing that believers may fall
into such sins and unworthiness as are inconsistent with the state of
acceptation with God; which is the very thing he hath to prove.
(2.) In supposing that if believers are sealed up infallibly to redemp-
tion, the exhortations to the avoidance of sins in themselves, and to
all that continue in them, destructive to salvation, are in vain ; which
is a figment in a case somewhat alike (as to the reason of it), re-
jected by men that knew nothing of the nature of God's promises
nor his commands, nor the accommodation of them both to the ful-
filling in believers " all the good pleasure of his goodness."

2. The assurance the apostle gives of freedom from the wrath of
God is inseparably associated with that assurance that he gives
that we, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace, shall not
be left in or given up to such w^ays as wherein that wrath is not to
be avoided.

From this latter testimony this argument also doth flow: Those
who are sealed of God to the day of redemption shall certainly be
preserved thereunto, their preservation being the end and aim of
God in his sealing of them. Mr Goodwin's answer to this propo-
sition is, " That they shall be so preserved in case they fall not into
abominable sins and practices, and so apostatize from the faith;"
that is, in case they be preserved, they shall be preserved. But
wherein their preservation should consist, if not in their effectual
deliverance from such ways and courses, is not declared. Tliat all
believers are so sealed, and to that end, as above, is the plain tes-
timony of the Scripture ; and therefore our conclusion is undeniably
evinced.

Thus have wo, through the Lord's assistance, freed the triple tes-
timony of Father, Son, and Spirit, given to the truth under con-
sideration, from all objections and exceptions put in thereunto; so
that we hope the mouth of iniquity may be stopped, and that the
cause of the truth in hand is secured for ever. It is a fearful thing
to contend with God. " Let God be true, but every man a liar."

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 329

CHAPTER VIII.

THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT.

Entrance into the digression concerning the indwelling of the Spirit — The man-
ner of the abode of the Spirit with them on whom he is bestowed — Grounds
of the demonstrations of the truth — The indwelling of the Spirit proved from
the promises of it — Express affirmations of the same truth — Ps. li. II ; Rom.
viii. 9, opened — Verses 11, 15; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal. iv. 6, opened — 2 Tim.
i. 14 — The Spirit in his indwelling, distinguished from all his graces — Eva-
sions removed — Rom. v. 5 explained — The Holy Ghost himself, not the
grace of the Holy Ghost, there intended — Rom. viii. 11 opened — Gal. v. 22
— A personality ascribed to the Spirit in his indwelling : 1. In personal ap-
pellations, 1 John iv. 4; John xiv. 16, 17 — 2. Personal operations — Rom.
viii. 11, 16, explained — 3. Personal circumstances — The Spirit dwells in the
saints as in a temple, 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19 — The indwelling of the Spirit
farther demonstrated from the signal effects ascribed in the Scripture to his
so doing ; as, 1. Union with Christ — Union with Christ, wherein it consisteth
— Union with Christ by the indwelling of the same Spirit in him and us —
This proved from, (1.) Scriptural declarations of it — 2 Pet. i. 4, how we are
made partakers of the divine nature — Union expressed by eating the flesh
and drinking the blood of Christ— John vi. 56 opened — The prayer of our
Saviour for the union of his disciples, John xvii. 21 — The union of the per-
sons in the Trinity with themselves — (2.) Scriptural illustrations for the mani-
festation of union — The union of head and members, what it is, and wherein
it doth consist — Of the union between husband and wife, and our union with
Christ represented thereby — Of a tree and its branches — Life and quicken-
ing given by the indwelling Spirit, in quickening, life, and suitable operations
— 2. Direction and guidance given by the indwelling Spirit — Guidance or
direction twofold — The several ways whereby the Spirit gives guidance and
direction unto them in whom he dwells — The first way, by giving a new un-
derstanding, or a new spiritual light upon the understanding — What light
men may attain without the particular guidance of the Spirit — Saving em-
braccments of particular truths from the Spirit, 1 John ii. 20, 27 — The
way whereby the Spirit leads believers into truth — Consequences of the want
of this guidance of the Spirit — 3. The third thing received from the indwell-
ing Spirit, supportment — The way whereby the Spirit gives supportment :
(1.) By bringing to mind the things spoken by Christ for their consolation,
John xiv. 16, 17, 26 — (2.) By renewing his graces in them as to strength —
The benefits issuing and flowing from thence — Restraint given by the in-
dwelling Spirit, and how— The continuance of the Spirit with believers for
the renewal of grace proved — John iv. 14, that promise of our Saviour at
large opened — The water there promised is the Spirit — The state of them
on whom he is bestowed — Spiritual thirst twofold — Isa. Ixv. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 2
— The reasons why men cannot thirst again who have once drunk of the
Spirit explained — Mr G.'s exceptions considered and removed — The same
work farther carried on ; as also the indwelling of th? Spirit in believers
farther demonstrated by the inferences made from thence — The first: Our
persons temples of the Holy Ghost, to be disposed of in all ways of holiness
— The second : Wisdom to try spirits— The ways, means, and helps, whereby
the saints discern between the voice of Christ and the voice of Satan.

Having showed that the Holy Spirit is purchased for us by tlie
oblation of Christ, and bestowed on us through his intercession, to

330 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEKANCE. [CHAP.

abide with lis for ever, — a truth confirmed by the unquestionable tes-
timonies of the Father, Son, and Spirit, — T shall, in the next place
(I hope to the advantage and satisfaction of the Christian reader), a
little turn aside to consider Jiow and in what manner he abideth with
them on whom he is bestowed, together with some eminent acts and
effects of his grace, which he putteth forth and exei'teth in them
with whom he abideth, all tending to their preservation in the love
and favour of God. A doctrine it is of no small use and importance
in our walking with God, as we shall find in our pursuit of it. And
therefore, though not appearing so directly argumentative and im-
mediately subservient to the promotion of the dispute in hand, yet as
tending to the establishment, guidance, and consolation, of them who
do receive it, and to the cherishing, increasing, and strengthening of
the faith thereof, I cannot but conceive it much conducing to the
carrying on of the main intendment of this whole undertaking. I
say, then, upon the purchase made of all good things for the elect by
Christ, the holy and blessed Spirit of God is given to them, to dwell
in them personally, for the accomplishment of all the ends and pur-
poses of his economy towards them, — to make them meet for, and to
bring them unto, the inheritance of the saints in light : personally,
I say, in our jDcrsons (not by assumption of our nature, but giving us
mystical union with Christ, not personal union with himself; that
is, not one personality with him, which is impious and blasphemous
to imagine), by a gracious inhabitation, distinct from his essential
filling all things, and his energetical operation of all things as he
will, as shall afterwards be declared. Now, this being a doctrine of
pure revelation, our demonstrations of it must be merely scriptural ;
and such (as will instantly appear) we have provided in great plenty.
In the carrying on, then, of this undertaking, I shall do these two
things: — I. Produce some of those many texts of Scripture which
are pregnant of this truth. II. Show what great things do issue
from thence and are affirmed in reference thereunto, being inferences
of a supposal thereof, all conducing to the preservation of believers
in the love and favour of God unto the end.

For the first, I shall refer them to four heads: unto, — 1. Promises
that he should so dwell in us; 2. Positive affirmations that he doth
so; 3. Those texts that hold out his being distinguished from all his
graces and gifts in his so doing; 4. Those that ascribe a personality
to him in his indwelling in us. Of each sort one or two places may
suffice.

I. 1. The indwelling of the Spirit is the great and solemn promise
of the covenant of gi'ace; the manner of it we shall afterward evince:
Ezek. xxxvi. 27, "I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to
walk in my statutes." In the verse foregoing he tells them, " He will
give them a new heart, and a new spirit;" which, because it may be

viil] the indwelling of the spirit. o31

interpreted of a renewed frame of spirit (though it rather seems to
be the renewing Spirit that is intended, as also chap. xi. 19), he ex-
pressly points out and differences the spirit he will give them from
all works of grace whatsoever, in that appellation of him, "'My Spirit,'
my Holy Spirit ; him will I put within you : I will give him or place
him in interiori vestro, ' in your inmost part,' in your heart ; or in
viscerihus vestris, ' in your bowels' (as the soul is frequently signified
by expressions of sensual things), ' within you.' " In his giving us a
new heart and new spirit, by putting in us his Spirit, certainly more
is intended than a mere working of gracious qualities in our hearts
by his Spirit; which he may do, and yet be no more in us than in
the greatest blasphemer in the world. And this, in the carrying
of it on to its accomplishment, God calls his covenant: Isa. lix. 21,
" This is my covenant with them, saith the LoRD ; My Spirit that is
upon thee shall not depart from thee;" — " Upon thee, in thee, that
dwelleth in thee, as was promised." And this promise is evidently re-
newed by the Lord Christ to his disciples, clearly also interpreting
what that Spirit is which is mentioned in the promise of the cove-
nant : Luke xi. 1 3, " Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask him" of him; tha,t is, that pray to him for the
Holy Spirit, Our Saviour instructs his disciples to ask the Holy
Spirit of God upon the account of his being so promised; as Acts
ii. 33. All our supplications are to be regulated by the promise,
Rom. viii. 27. And surely he who (as shall afterward appear) did
so plentifully and richly promise the bestowing of this Spirit on all
those that believe on him, did not instruct them to ask for any in-
ferior mercy and grace under that name. That Spirit which the
Lord Christ instructs us to ask of the Father is the Spirit which he
hath promised to bestow so on us as that he shall dwell in us. That
the Spirit which Christ instructs us to ask for, and which himself
promises to send unto us, is the Holy Ghost himself, the Holy Spirit
of promise, by whom we are sealed to the day of redemption, I sup-
pose will require no labour to prove; what is needful to this end
shall be afterward insisted on.

2. Positive affirmations that he doth so dwell in and remain with
the saints are the second ground of the truth we assert. I shall
name one or two testimonies of that kind: Ps. li. 11, saith David,
" Take not thy Holy Spirit from me." It is the Spirit, and his pre-
sence as unto sanctification, not in respect of prophecy or any other
gift whatever, that he is treating of with God. All the graces of the
Spirit being almost dead and buried in him, he cries aloud that He
whose they are, and who alone is able to revive and quicken them,
may not be taken from him. With him, in him, he was, or he could
not be taken from him. And though the gifts or graces of the Spirit
only may be intended, where mention is made of giving or bestowing

332 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CUAP.

of liim sometimes, yet when the saints beg of God that he would
continue his Spirit with them, though they have grieved him and
provoked him, that no more is intended but some gift or grace, is
not so clear. I know men possessed with prejudice against this truth
will think easily to evade these testimonies by the distinction of the
person and graces of the Spirit. Wherefore, for the manner how he
is with them with whom he is, the apostle informs us, Rom. viil 9,
"Ye are in the Spirit" (that is, spiritual men, opposed to being "in the
flesh," — that is, carnal, unregenerate, unreconciled, and enemies to
God), " if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Not only the thing
itself is asserted, but the weight of our regeneration and acceptation
with God through Jesus Christ is laid upon it. If the Spirit dwell in us
we are sjnritiial, and belong to Christ; otherwise, if not, w^e are none
of his. This the apostle farther confirms, verse 11, " If the Spirit of
him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you." I know not
how the person of the Holy Ghost can be more clearly deciphered than
here he is, " The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead."
Why that is mentioned shall afterward be considered. And this is the
Spirit, as he bears testimony of himself, dwells in believers; which
is all we say, and, without farther curious inquiry, desire to rest
therein. Doubtless it were better for men to captivate their under-
standinjrs to the obedience of faith than to invent distinctions and
evasions to escape the power of so many plain texts of Scripture,
and those literally and properly, not figuratively and metaphoricalh'-,
expressing the truth contained in them ; which, though it may be done
sometimes, yet is not, in a constant uniform tenor of expression, any-
where the manner of the Holy Ghost. The apostle also afiirms farther,
verse 15, that believers " receive the Spirit of adoption, wdiereby. they
cry, Abba, Father;" which, being a work within them, cannot be
wrought and effected by adoption itself, which is an extrinsical rela-
tion. Neither can adoption and the Spirit of adoption be conceived
to be the same. He also farther affirms it, 1 Cor. ii. 12, " We have
received the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things
that are freely given to us of God;" — " We have so received him as
that he abides with us, to teach us, to acquaint our hearts with God's
dealing with us; bearing witness with our spirits to the condition
wherein we are in reference to our favour from God and accepta-
tion with him." And the same he most distinctly asserts. Gal. iv, 6,
" God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,
Abba, Father." The distinct economy of the Father, Son, and Spirit,
in the work of adoi)tion, is here clearly discovered. He is sent, "sent of
God," that is, the Father. That name is personally to be appropriated
when it is distinguished, as here, from Son and Spirit. That is the
Father's work, that work of his love ; he sends him. He hath sent

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 333

him as tlie " Spirit of his Son/' procured by him for us, promised by
him to us, proceeding from him as to his personal subsistence, and
sent by him as to his office of adoption and consolation. Then,
whither the Father hath sent the Spirit of his Son, where he is to
abide and make his residence, is expressed. It is into " our hearts,"
saith the apostle; there he dwells and abides. And, lastly, what
there he doth is also manifested. He sets them on work in whom
he is, gives them privilege for it, ability to it, encouragement in it,
causing them to cry, " Abba, Father," Once and again to Timothy
doth the same apostle assert the same truth: 2 Epist. i. 14, "That good
thing committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth
in us." The Lord knowing how much of our life and consolation
depends on this truth, redoubles his testimony of it, that we might
receive it, — even we, who are dull and slow of heart to believe the
things that are written.

3. Whereas some may say, "It cannot be denied but that the
Spirit dwells in believers, but yet this is not personally, but only
by his grace;" I might reply that this indeed, and upon the matter,
is not to distinguish but to deny what is positively affirmed. To
say the Spirit dwells in us, but not the person of the Spirit, is not
to distinguish de modo, but to deny the thing itself To say, " The
graces, indeed, of the Spirit are in us" (not " dwell in us," for an acci-
dent is not properly said to divell in its subject), " but the Spirit itself
doth not dwell in us," is expressly to cast down what the word sets
up. If such distinctions ought to be of force, to evade so many posi-
tive and plain texts of Scripture as have been produced, it may well
be questioned whether any truth be capable of proof from Scripture
or no. Yet I say farther, to obviate such objections, and to prevent
all quarrellings for the future, the Scripture itself, as to this business
of the Spirit's indwelling, plainly distinguisheth between the Spirit
itself and his graces. He is, I say, distinguished from them, and that
in respect to his indwelling: Rom. v. 5, "The love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." The
Holy Ghost is given to us to dwell in us, as hath been abundantly
declared, and shall yet farther be demonstrated. Here he is men-
tioned together with the love of God, and his shedding thereof abroad
in our hearts, — that is, with his graces; and is as clearly distinguished
and differenced from them as cause and effect. Take the love of
God in either sense that is controverted about this place, — for our
love to God or a sense of his love to us, — and it is an eminent grace
of the Holy Spirit. If, then, by " The Holy Ghost given unto us," ye
understand only the grace of the Holy Ghost, he being said to be
given because that is given, then this must be the sense of the place,
" The grace of the Holy Ghost is shed abroad in our hearts by the
grace of the Holy Ghost that is given to us." Farther; if by " The

334 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Holy Ghost" be meant only his grace, I inquire what grace it is [that
is] here, by the expression intended ? Is it the same with that ex-
pressed, "The love of God?" This were to confound the efficient cause
with its effect. Is it any other grace that doth produce the great work
mentioned? Let us know what that grace is that hath this power
and energy in its hand of shedding abroad the love of God in our
hearts. So Rom. viii. 11, "He shall quicken your mortal bodies by
his Spirit that dwelleth in you." This quickening of our mortal
bodies is generally confessed to be (and the scope of the place en-
forceth that sense) our spiritual quickening in our mortal bodies,
mention being made of our bodies in analogy to the body of Christ;
by his death we have life and quickening. Doubtless, then, it is a
grace of the Spirit that is intended ; yea, the habitual principle of
all graces. And this is wrought in us by the Spirit that dwelleth in
us. There is not any grace of the Spirit whereby he may dwell in
men antecedent to his quickening of them. Spiritual graces have
not their residence in dead souls. So that this must be the Spirit
himself dwelling in us that is here intended, and that personally; or
the sense of the words must be, " The grace of quickening our mortal
bodies is wrought in us by the grace of quickening our mortal
bodies that dwelleth in us;" which is plainly to confound the cause and
effect. Besides, it is the same Spirit that raised up Jesus fi'om the
dead that is intended; which, doubtless, was not any inherent grace,
but the Spirit of God himself, working by the exceeding greatness
of his power. Thus much is hence cleared : Antecedent in order of
nature to our quickening, there is a Spirit given to us to dwell in us.
Every efficient cause hath at least the precedency of its effect. No
graces of the Spirit are bestowed on us before our quickening; which
is the preparation and fitting of the subject for the receiving of them,
the planting of the root that contains them virtually, and biings
them forth actually in their order. Gal. v. 22, 23, all graces whatsoever
come under the name of the "fruit of the Spirit;" that is, which the
Spirit in us brings forth, as the root doth the fruit, which in its so
doing is distinct therefrom. Many other instances might be given;
bjit these may suffice.

4. There is a ijersonality ascribed to the Holy Ghost in his
dwelling in us, and that in such a way as cannot be ascribed to any
created grace, which is but a quality in a subject; and this the
Scripture doth three ways: — (1.) In personal appellations; (2.) In
jyersonal operations ; and (3.) In personal circumstances.

(1.) There are a-scribed to the indwelling Spirit, in his indwelling,
personal appellations, 1 John iv. 4, "He that is in you is greater than
he that is in the world," — /is/^cuv lariv 6 h u/.t,/v. "He that is in you" is a
personal denomination, which cannot be used of any grace or gi'acious
habit whatsoever. So John xiv. 16, 17, "He shall abide with you,

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 385

he dwelleth with yon, and shall be in you," — 'T/xsT'^ y/Kwffxsrs avrh (rh
Ilviv/xa rrjg aXrj6iiag) xai sv vfiTv 'icrai. John xvi. 13, "But when the
Sphit of truth is come," — "Orav ds sX6p exsTvog, rh HvixJiJ.a. His person
is here as signally designed and expressed as in any place of Scripture,
to what intent or purpose soever mentioned. Neither is it possible to
apprehend that the Scripture would so often, so expressly, affirm the
same thing in plain, proper words, if they were not to be taken in
the sense which they hold out. The main emphasis of the expres-
sion lies upon the terms that are of a personal designation, and to
evade the force of them by the forementioned distinction, which they
seem signally to obviate and prevent, is to say wdiat we please, so
we may oppose what pleases us not.

(2.) Personal operations, such acts and actings as are proper to a
person only, are ascribed to the Spirit in his indwelling. That place
mentioned before, Rom. viii. 11, is clear hereunto, "But if the Spirit
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his
Spirit that dwelleth in you," or " by his indwelling Spirit," bia roj
Ivoixovvrog avrou Ilvsvfx,a,rog iv b/xTv. "To quicken our mortal bodies" is a
personal acting, and such as cannot be wrought but by an almighty
agent; and this is ascribed to the Spirit as inhabiting, which is in order
of nature antecedent to his quickening of us, as was manifested. And
the same is asserted, verse 1 6, " The Spirit itself beareth witness with
our spirit, that we are the children of God." That Spirit that dw^ells in
us, Ijears witness in us, a distinct witness by himself, distinguished from
the testimony of our own spirits here mentioned, is either an act of
our natural spirits, or gracious fruit of the Spirit of God in our hearts.
If the first, what makes it in the things of God ? Is any testimony
of our natural spirits of any value to assure us that we are the chil-
dren of God? If the latter, then is there iiere an immediate opera-
tion of the Spirit dwelling in our hearts, in witness-bearing, distinct
from all the fruits of grace whatever. And on this account it is,
that whereas, 1 John v. 7, 8, the Father, Son, and Spirit are said to
bear witness in heaven, the Spirit is moreover peculiarly said to
bear witness in the earth, together with the blood and water.

(3.) There are such circutnstances ascribed to him in his indwell-
ing as are proper only to that which is a person. I will instance
only in one, — his dwelling in the saints as in a temple: 1 Cor. iii. 16,
"Ye are the temple of God, the Spirit of God dwelleth in you;" that
is, as in a temple. So plainly, chap. vi. 19, "Your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God : " giving us
both the distinction of the person of the Spirit from the other per-
sons, "he is given us of God;" and his residence with us, being so
given, "he is in us;" as also the manner of his in-being, "as in a
temple." Nothing can make a place a temple but the relation it hath

336 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

uuto a deity. Graces, that are but qualifications of and qualities in
a subject, cannot be said to dwell in a temple. This the Spirit doth,
and therefore as a voluntary agent in a habitation, not as a neces-
sary or natural principle in a subject. And though every act of his
be omnipotent intensively, being the act of an omnipotent agent,
yet he worketh not in the acts extensively to the utmost of his om-
nipotency. He exerteth and puts forth his power, and brings forth
his grace, in the hearts of them with whom he dwells, as he pleaseth.
To one he communicates more grace, to another less; yea, he gives
more strength to one and the same person at one time and in one con-
dition than at another, dividing to every one as he will, 1 Cor. xii. 11.
And if this peculiar manner of his personal presence with his saints,
distinct from his ubiquity or omnipresence, may not be believed,
because not well by reason conceived, we shall lay a foundation for
the questioning principles of faith which as yet we are not fallen
out withal.

And this is our first manifestation of the truth concerning the
indwelling of the Spirit in the saints, from the Scripture. The
second will be from the signal issues and benefits which are asserted
to arise from this indwelling of the Spuit in them ; of which I shall
give sundry instances.

II. 1. The first signal issue and effect which is ascribed to this in-
dwelling of the Spirit is union; not a personal union with himself,
which is impossible. He doth not assume our nature, and so pre-
vent our personality, which would make us one person with him,
but dwells in our persons, keeping his own and leavhig us our per-
sonality infinitely distinct. But it is a spiritual union, — the great
union mentioned so often in the gospel, that is the sole fountain of
our blessedness, — our union with the Lord Christ, wliich we have
thereby.

Many thoughts of heart there have been about this union, — what
it is, wherein it doth consist, the causes, manner, and effects of it.
The Scripture expresses it to be very eminent, near, durable, setting
it out, for the most part, by similitudes and metaphorical illustrations,
to lead poor weak creatures into some useful, needful acquaintance
with that mystery, whose depths in this life they shall never fathom.
That many m the days wherein we live have miscarried in their
conceptions of it is evident. Some, to make out their imaginary
union, have destroyed the person of Christ, and, fancying a way of
uniting man to God by him, have left him to be neither God nor
man. Others have destroyed the person of believers, affirming that
in their union witli Christ they lose their own personality, — that is,
cease to be men, or at least these or those individual men.

I intend not now to handle it at large, but only (and that, I hope,
without otfence) to give in my thoughts concerning it, as far as it

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 337

receiveth light from and relateth unto what hath been before de-
livered concerning the indwelling of the Spirit, and that without
the least contending about other ways of expression.

I say, then, this is that which gives us union with Christ, and that
wherein it consists, even that the one and self-same Spirit dwells in
him and us. The first saving illapse from God upon the hearts of the
elect is the Holy Spirit. Their quickening is everywhere ascribed
to the Spirit that is given unto them; there is not a quickening, a
life-giving power, in a quality, a created thing. In the state of
nature, besides gracious dispensations and habits in the soul inclin-
ing it to that which is good, and making it a suitable subject for
spiritual operations, we want also a vital principle, which should
actuate the disposed subject unto answerable operations.^ This a
quality cannot give. He that carries on the work of quickening
doth also begin it, Rom. viii. 11. All graces whatever, as was said,
are the " fruits of the Spirit," Gal. v. 22, 23 ; and therefore, in order of
nature, are wrought in men consequentially to his being bestowed
on them. Now, in the first bestowing of the Spirit we have union
with Christ; the carrying on whereof consists in the farther manifes-
tation and operations of the indwelling Spirit, which is called com-
munion. To make this evident, that our union with Christ consists
in this, the same Spirit dwelling in him and us, and that this is our
union, let us take a view of it, first, from Scriptural declarations of
it, and then, secondly, from Scripture illustrations of it, both briefly,
being not my direct business in hand; —

First, (1.) Peter tells us that it is a participation of the divine
nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. AVe are " by the promises made partakers of
the divine nature;" that is, it is promised to be given unto us, which
v/hen we receive, we are made partakers of by the promises. That
this participation of the divine nature (let it be interpreted how it
will) is the same upon the matter with our union with Christ, is
not questioned. That (pleig 'hila should be only a gracious habit,
quality, or disposition of soul in us, I cannot easily receive. That is
somewhere called xa/n^ xr/c/?, the "new creature,"^ but nowhere
^sia (pvfftg, the " divine nature." The pretended high and spiritual,
but indeed gross and carnal, conceits of some from hence, destructive
to the nature of God and man, I shall not turn aside to consider.
What that is of the divine nature, or wherein it doth consist, that we
are made partakers of by the promises, I showed before. That the
person of the holy and blessed Spirit is promised to us, — whence he
is called the "Holy Spirit of promise," Eph. i. 13, — hath been, I say,
by sundry evidences manifested. Upon the accomplishment of that
promise, he coming to dwell in us, we are said in him, by the jjro-
mises, to be made " partakers of the divine nature." We are ^iiag
' John V. 24; Eph. ii. 1, 2. » 2 Cor. v. 17.

VOL. XL 22

S38 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCR [CHAP.

xoivuvoi ?;{jffBug, we have our communion with it. Our participation,
then, of the divine nature being our union with Christ, consists in
the dwelling of [the] same Spirit in him and in us, we receiving
him by the promise for that end,

(2.) Christ tells us that this union arises from the eating of his
flesh, and drinking of his blood: John vi. 56, "He that eateth my
flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." The
mutual indwelling of Christ and his saints is their union. " This,"
saith Christ, "is from their 'eating my flesh, and drinking my blood/"
But how may this be done? Many were offended when this saying
was spoken. Near and close trials of sincerity drive hypocrites into
apostasy. From his, Christ takes away this scruple : Verse 63, " It
is," saith he, " the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."
It is by the indwelling of the quickening Spirit, whereby we have a
real participation of Christ, whereby he dwelleth in us and Ave in
him. So, — • •

(3.) He prays for his disciples, John xvii. 21, " that they all may be
one, as the Father is in him, and he in the Father, that they may be
one in the Father and Son;" and verse 22, "Let them be one, even
as we are one." And that 3'e may not think that it is only union
with and among themselves that he presses for (though, indeed, that
which gives them union with Christ gives them union one with an-
other also, and that which constitutes them of the body unites them
to the Head, and there is one body because there is one Spirit, Eph.
iv, 4; which even Lombard himself had some notion of, in his asser-
tion that charity, which is in us, is the person of the Holy Ghost,
from that place of the apostle, " God is love"), I say he farther mani-
fests tliat it is union with himself which he intends: John xvii. 23,
" I in them," saith he, " and thou in me." This union, then, with
him, our Saviour declares by, or at least illustrates by, resemblance
unto his union with the Father. Whether this be understood of the
union of the divine persons of Father and Son in the blessed Trinity
(the union, I mean, that they have with themselves in their distinct
personality, and not their unity of essence), or the union which was
between Father and Son as incarnate, it comes all to one as to the
declaration of that union we have with him. The Spirit is Vinculum
Trinitatis, " The bond of the Trinity," as is commonly, and not
inaptly spoken. Proceeding from both the other persons, being the
love and power of them both, he gives that union to the tiinity of
persons, whose substratum and ground is the inestimable unity of
essence wherein they are one. Or if you take it for the union of
the Father with the Son incarnate, it is evident and beyond inquiry
or dispute, that as the personal union of the Divine Woixl and the
human nature was by the assumption of that nature into one per-
sonal substance with itself; so the person of the Father hath no

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 839

other union with the human nature of Christ, immediately and not
by the union of his own nature thereunto in the person of his Son,
but what consists in that indwelHng of his Spirit in all fulness in
the man Christ Jesus. Now, saith our Saviour, "This union I desire
they may have with me, by the dwelling of the same Spirit in me
and them, whereby I am in them, and they in me, as I am one with
thee, 0 Father."

Secondly, The Scripture sets forth this union by many illustra-
tions, given unto it from the things of the nearest union that are
subject to our apprehension, giving the very terms of the things so
united unto Christ and his in their union. I shall name some few
of them: —

(1.) That of head and members making up one body is often
insisted on. Christ is the head of his saints, and they, being many,
are members of that one body, and of one another; as the apostle
at large, 1 Cor. xii. 1 2, " As the body is one, and hath many mem-
bers, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one
body, so also is Christ." The body is one, and the saints are one
body, yea, one Christ, — that is, mystical. They, then, are the body.
What part is Christ? He is the head : 1 Cor. xi. 3, " The head of
every man" (that is, every believer) " is Christ;" he is " the head of
the church, and the saviour of the body," Eph. v. 23 ; he is " the
head of the body, the church," Col. i. 18. This relation of head and
members, I say, between Christ and his, holds out the union that is
between them, which consists in their being so. As the head and
the members make one body, so Christ and his members make one
mystical Christ. Whence, then, is it that the head and members
have this their union, whereby they become one body? wherein
doth it consist? Is it that from the head the members do receive
their influences of life, sense, and guidance, as the saints do from
Christ? Eph. iv. 15, 16, they "grow up into him in all things,
which is the Head: from whom the whole body fitly joined together
and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the
effectual working in the measure of every part," groweth up to a holy
increase. So also Col. ii. 19, " Holding the Head, from which all
the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and
knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." But evidently
this is their communion, whereunto union is supposed. Our union
with Christ cannot consist in the communication of any thing to us
as members, from him the head; but it must be in that which consti-
tutes him and us in the relation of head and members. He is our
head antecedently in order of nature to any communication of grace
from him as a head, and yet not antecedently to our union with him.
Herein, then, consists the union of head and members, that though
they are many, and have many offices, places, and dependencies,

840 DOCTUINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [cflAP.

there is but one living, quickening soul in head and members. If a
man could be imagined so big and tall as that his feet should stand
upon the earth, and liis head reach the starry heavens, yet, having
but one soul, he is still but one man. As, then, one living soul
makes the natural head and members to be one, one body ; so one
quickening Spirit, dwelling in Christ and his members, gives them
their union, and makes them one Christ, one body. This is clear
from 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13. As "the first man Adam was made a living
soul," so " the last Adam is made a quickening spirit," chap. xv. 45.

(2.) Of husband and wife. The union that is between them sets
out the union betwixt Christ and his saints. There is not any one
more frequent illustration of it in the Scripture, the Holy Ghost
pursuing the allusion in all the most considerable concernments of
it, and holding it out as the most solemn representation of the union
that is between Christ and his church: Eph. v. 31, 32, "For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mys-
tery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church." The transi-
tion is eminent from the conjugal relation that is between man and
wife unto Christ and his church. What the apostle had spoken of
the one, he would have understood of the other. Wherein consists,
then, the union between man and wife, which is chosen by God
himself to represent the union between Christ and his church? The
Holy Ghost informs us. Gen. ii. 24, " They shall be no more twain,
but one flesh." This is their union, — they shall be no more twain,
but (in all mutual care, respect, tenderness, and love) one flesh. The
rise of this yoji have, verse 23, because of the bone and flesh of Adam
was Eve his helper made. Hence are they said to be " one flesh."
Wherein, then, in answer to this, is the union between Christ and
his church? The same apostle tells us, 1 Cor. vi. 16, 17, "He,''
saith he, " that is joined to an harlot is one body, but he that is
joined unto the Lord is one spirit." As they are one flesh, so these
are one spirit; and as they are one flesh, because the one was made
out of the other, so these are one spirit, because the Spirit which is
in Christ, by dwelling in them, makes them his members, which is
their union.

(3.) Of a tree, — an olive, a vine, and its boughs and branches. "I
am the vine," saith Christ, "ye are the branches," John xv. 5;
"abide in me, and I in you." As tree and branches, they have an
abiding union one with another. Wherein this consists the apostle
sets out under the example of an olive and his boughs, Rom. xi.
16, 17. It is in this, that tlie branches and boughs being ingrafted
into the tree, they partake of the very same juice and fatness with
the root and tree, being nourished thereby. There is the same fruc-
tifying, fattening virtue in the one as the other; only with this

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 341

difference, in the root and tree it is originally, in the boughs by
communication. And this also is chosen to set out the union of
Christ and his. Both he and they are partakers of the same fruit-
bearing Spirit ; he that dwells in them dwells in him also : only, it is
in him, as to them, originally ; in them by communication from him.
Take a scion, a graft, a plant, fix it to the tree with all the art yon
can, and bind it on as close as possible, yet it is not united to the
tree until the sap that is in the tree be communicated to it; which
communication states the union. Let a man be bound to Christ by
all the bonds of profession imaginable, yet unless the sap that is in
him, the holy and blessed Spirit, be also communicated to him,
there is no union between them. And this is the first thing that
doth issue and depend upon the indwelling of the Spirit in believers,
even union with Christ, which is a demonstration of it a posteriori.

2. The Spirit as indwelling gives us life and quickening. "God
quickens our mortal bodies (or us in them) by his Spirit that dwelleth
in us," Rom. viii. 1 ] , by which Spirit Christ also was raised from the
dead; and therefore, the apostle mentioning in another place the
beginning and carrying on of faith in us, he saith it is wroug|it "ac-
cording to the exceeding greatness of the power of God, which he
wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead," Eph. i. 19, 20.
Now, in this quickening there are two things: — (1.) The actus pri-
mus, or the life itself bestowed ; (2.) The operations of that life in
them on whom it is bestowed.

(1.) For the first, I shall not positively determine what it is, nor
wherein it doth consist. This is clear, that by nature "we are dead
in trespasses and sins;" that in our quickening we ha^e a new spi-
ritual life communicated to us, and that from Christ, in whom it
is treasured up for that purpose. But what this life is, it doth not
fully appear whilst we are here below. All actual graces confessedly
flow from it, and are distinct from it, as the operations of it. I say,
in this sense they flow from it confessedly, as suitable actings are
from habits, though to the actual exercise of any grace within, new
help and assistance is necessary, in that continual dependence are
we upon the fountain. Whether it consists in that which is called
" habitual grace," or the gracious suitableness and disposition of the
soul unto spiritual operations, may be doubted. The apostle tells us
Christ is our life: Col. iii. 4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear;" and Gal. il 20, "Christ liveth in me." Christ liveth in
believers by his Spirit, as hath been declared. "Christ dwelleth in
you," and, "His Spirit dwelleth in you," are expressions of the same
import and signification. But, —

(2.) God by his Spirit "worketh in us both to will and to do of
his own good pleasure." All vital actions are from him. It may be
said of graces and gracious operations as well as gifts, "All these

312 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

worketh in us that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every
one as he Avill." But this is not now to be insisted on.

S. The Spirit as indwelhng gives guidance and direction to them
in whom he is as to the way wlierein they ought to walk : Rom. viii.
14, " As many as are led by the Spirit of God." The Spirit leads
them in wliom it is. And verse 1, they are said to " walk after the
Spirit." Now, there is a twofold leading, guidance, or direction: —
(1.) Mo7^al and extj'insical, the leading of a rule; (2.) Internal and
ejicient, the leading of a principle.

Of these, the one lays forth the way, the other directs and carries
along in it. The first is the Word, giving us the direction of a way,
of a rule; the latter is the Spirit, effectually guiding and leading us
in all the paths thereof. Without this the other's direction will be
of no saving use ; it may be " line upon line, precept upon precept,"
yet men go backward and are ensnared. David, notwithstanding
the rule of the Word, yea the Spirit of prophecy, for the inditing of
more of the mind of God for the use of the church, when moved
thereunto, yet in one psalm cries out four times, " Oh ! give me un-
derstanding, that I may learn thy commandments," concluding that
hence would be his life, that therein it lay: "Oh! give me," saith he,
"understanding, and I shall live," Ps. cxix. 144. So Paul bidding
Timothy consider the word of the Scripture, that he might know
Avhence it is that this will be of use unto him, he adds, " The
Lord give thee understanding in all things," 2 Tim. ii. 7. How this
understanding is given the same apostle informs us, Eph. i. 17, 18,
" The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto
you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him :
the eyes of your understanding being" thereby " enlightened ;" 1 Cor.
ii. 1 ] , 12. It is the " Spirit of wisdom and revelation," the Holy Spirit
of God, from whom is all spiritual wisdom, and all revelation of the
will of God, who being given unto us by the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and our God in him, " enlightens our understanding, that we
may know," etc. And on this account is the Son of God said to
'' come and give us an understanding to know him that is true,"
that is, himself by his Spirit, 1 John v. 2).

Now, there be two ways whereby the Spirit gives us guidance to
walk according to the rule of the word: —

(1.) By giving us "the knowledge of the will of God, in all wis-
dom and spiritual understanding," Col. i. 9, carrying us on " unto all
riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment
of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ," chap. ii. 2.
This is that spiritual, habitual, saving illumination, which he gives to
the souls of them to whom he is given : "He who commanded light to
shine out of darkness, by him shineth into their hearts, to give them
the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus Christ,"

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIIIIT. 343

2 Cor. iv. 6. This is elsewhere termed "translating from darkness to
liglit, opening blind eyes, giving light to them that are in darkness,
freeincf us from the condition of natural men, who discern not the
things that are of God."^ This the apostle makes it his design to clear
up and manifest, 1 Cor. ii. He tells you the things of the gospel are
"the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory," verse 7; and then
proves that an acquaintance herewith is not to be attained by any
natural means or abilities whatsoever, verse 9, " Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him;" and thence, unto
the end of the chapter, variously manifests how this is given to be-
lievers and wrought in them by the Spirit alone, from whom it is that
they know the mind of Christ. "But," saith he, "God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, even
the deep things of God. For who knoweth the things of a man but
the spirit of a man ? and who knoweth the things of God but the
Spirit of God? And we have received the spirit, not of this world,
but the Spirit which is of God ; that we may know the things which
are freely given us of God."

The word is as the way whereby we go; yea, as an external light,
as " a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path," Ps. cxix. 105;
yea, as the sun in the firmament, sending forth its beams of light
abundantly. But what will this profit if a man have no eyes in his
head ? There must not only be light in the object and in the me-
dium, but in the subject, in our hearts and minds ; and this is of the
operation of the Spirit of light and truth given to us, as the apostle
tells us, 2 Cor. iii. 18, "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass
the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."

This is the first way whereby the Holy Spirit dwelling in us gives
guidance and direction. Fundamentally, habitually, he enlightens our
minds, give us eyes, understandings, shines into us, translates us from
darkness into marvellous light, whereby alone we are able to see our
way, to know our paths, and to discern the things of God: without
this men are " blind, and cannot see afar off," 2 Pet. i. 9.

There are three things which men either have or may be made
partakers of without this, — this communication of light by the in-
dwelling Spirit: — •

[L] They have the subject of knowledge, a natural faculty of un-
derstanding. Their minds remain; though depraved, destroyed, per-
verted, yea, so far that " their eye and the light that is in them is
darkness," yet the faculty remains still. Matt. vi. 23.

[2.] They may have the object, or truth revealed in the word. This

' Col. i. 13; 1 Pet. ii. 9; Eph. v. 8; Luke iv. 18; 1 Cor. ii. 14.

344 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

is common to all that are made partakers of the good word of God ;
that is, to whom it is preached and delivered, as it is to many wliom
" it doth not profit, not being mixed with faith," Heb. iv. 2.

[3.] Tlie ways and means of communicating the truth so revealed
to their minds or imderstandings, which is the literal, grammatical,
logical delivery of the things contained in the Scriptures, as held
out to their minds and apprehensions in their meditation on them.
And this means of conveyance of the sense of the Scripture is plain,
obvious, and clear, in all necessary truths.

A concurrence of these three will afford and yield them that have
it, upon their diligence and inquiry, a disciplinary knowledge of the
literal sense of Scripture, as they have of other tilings. By this
means the light shines <pa'mi, sends out some beams of light into
their dark minds; " but the darkness comprehends it not," receives
not the light in a spiritual manner, John i. 5, There is, notwith-
standing all this, still wanting the work of the Spirit, before men-
tioned, creating and implanting in and upon their understandings
and minds that light and power of discerning spiritual things which
before we insisted on. This the Scripture sometimes calls the "open-
ing of the understanding," Luke xxiv. 45 ; sometimes the " giving an
understanding" itself, 2 Tim. ii. 7, 1 John v. 20; sometimes "light
in the Lord," Eph. v. 8. Notwithstanding all the advantages for-
merly spoken of, without this men are still " natural men and dark-
ness, not comprehending, not receiving the things of God," — that i.s,
not spiritually; for so the apostle adds, " Because they are spiritually
discerned," 1 Cor. ii. 14. Receiving spiritual things by mere natural
mediums, they become "foolishness" unto them. This is the first thing
that the Spirit dwelling in us doth towards guidance and direction :
he gives a new light and understanding, whereby, in general, we are
enabled to " discern, comprehend, and receive sj^iritual things."

(2.) In particular, he guides and leads men to the embracing par-
ticular truths, and to the walking in and up unto them. Christ
promised to give him to us for this end, — namely, to lead us into
all truth: John xvi. 13, " He will guide you into all truth." Tliereis
more required to the receiving, entertaining, embracing, a particular
trutli, and rejecting of what is contrary unto it, than a habitual
illumination. This also is the work of the Spirit that dwells in us;
he works this also in our minds and hearts. Therefore the apostle
secures his " little children" that they shall be led into truth and pre-
served from seduction on this account: 1 John ii. 20, " Ye have an
imction from the Holy One" (or, ye have received the Spirit from
the Lord Jesus), "and ye shall know all things." Wiiy so? Be-
cause it is his work to guide and lead you into all the things whereof
I am speaking. And more fully, verse 27, " The anointing which
ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. o45

man teach you : but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things,
and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall
abide in him/' It is received as promised ; it doth abide, as the Spirit
is said to do ; and it teacheth, which is the proper work of the Spirit
in an eminent manner.

Now, this guidance of believers by the Spirit, as to the particular
truths and actings, consists in his putting forth of a twofold act of
light and power : —

[1.] Of light; and that also is twofold: —

^st Of beauty, as to the things to be received or done. He repre-
sents them to the soul as excellent, comely, desirable, and glorious,
leading us on in the receiving of truth " from glory to glory," 2 Cor.
iii. 18. He puts upon every truth a new gloiy, making and render-
ing it desirable to the soul ; without which it cannot be closed withal,
as not discoveriug either suitableness or proportion unto the minds
and hearts of men. And, —

^dly. By some actual elevation of the mind and understanding to
go forth unto and receive into itself the truth as represented to it:
by both of them sending forth light and truth, Ps. xliii. 8; blowing
off the clouds, and raising up the day-star that rises in our hearts,
2 Pet. ii. 19.

[2.] Of power : Isa. xxxv. 5, 6, the breaking forth of streams makes
not only the blind to see but the lame to leap. Strength comes as
well as light, by the pouring out of the Spirit on us; strength for
the receiving and practice of all his gracious discoveries to us.

He leads us, not only in general, implanting a saving light in
the mind, whereby it is disposed and enabled to discern spiritual
things in a spiritual manner, but also as to particular truths, render-
ing them glorious and desirable. Opening the mind and understand-
ing by new beams of light, he leads the soul in'esistibly unto the
receiving of the truths revealed ; which is the second thing we have
by him.

I shall only observe, for a close of this, one or two consequences of
the weight of this twofold operation of the indwelling of Christ: —

[1.] From the want of the first, or his creating a new light in the
minds of men, it is that so many labour in the fire for an acquaint-
ance with the things of God ; it is, I say, a consequence of it, as dark-
ness is of absence of the sun. Many we see, after sundry years spent
in considerable labours and diligence, reading of many books, with a
contribution of assistance from other useful arts and sciences, in the
issue of all their endeavours do wax " vain in their imaginations,
having their foolish hearts darkened; professing themselves wise, they
become fools;" being so far from any sap and savour that they have
not the leaves of ability in things divine, Rom. i. 21, 22. Others, in-
deed, make some progress in a disciplinary knowledge of the doctrines

346 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of the Scriptures, and can accurately reason and distinguish about
them, according to the forms wherein they have been exercised, and
that to a great height of conviction in their own spirits, and perma-
nency in the profession they have taken up. But yet all this while
they abide witliout any effectual power of the truth conforming and
framing their spirits unto the likeness and mould thereof, Rom. vi.
17. Tliey do but " see men walking like trees." Some shines of the
light break in upon them, which rather amaze than guide them ; they
"comprehend it not." They see spiritual things in a natural Hght, and
presently forget what manner of things they were, and in the species
wherein they are retained they are "foolishness," 1 Cor. ii. 12-14,

[2.] From the want of the latter it is that we ourselves are so
slow in receiving some parts of truth, and do find it so difficult to
convince others of some other parts of it, which to us are written with
the beams of the sun. Unless the truth itself be rendered a glory
to the understanding, and the mind be actually enlightened as to the
truth represented, it is not to be received in a spiritual manner.
Those who know at all what the truth is, " as the truth is in Jesus,"
will not take it up upon any other more common accoimt. Some-
times in dealing with godly persons to convince them of a truth, we
are ready to admire at their stupidity or perverseness, that they will
not receive that which shines in Avith so broad a light upon our spirits.
The truth is, until the Holy Spirit sends forth the light and power
mentioned^ it is impossible that their minds and hearts should rest
and acquiesce in any truth whatever. But, —

4. From this indwelling of the Spirit we have supi^ortment. Our
hearts are very ready to sink and fail under our trials; indeed, a little
thing will cause us so to do: flesh, and heart, and all that is within
us, are soon ready to fail, Ps. Ixxiii. 26. Whence is it that we do
not sink into the deeps? that we have so many and so sweet and
gracious recoveries, when we are ready to be swallowed up? The
Spirit that dwells in us gives us supportment. Thus it was with
David, Ps. li. 12. He was ready to be overwhelmed under a sense
of the guilt of that great sin which God then sorely charged upon his
conscience, and cries out like a man ready to sink under water, " O
uphold me with thy free Spirit;" — "If that do not support me, I shall
perish." So Rom. viii. 26, the Spirit helpeth, bears up that in-
firmity which is ready to make us go double. How often should we
be overborne with our burdens, did not the Spirit put under his
power to bear them and to support us! Thus Paul assures himself
that he shall be carried through all his trials by the help supplied
to him by the Spirit, Phil. i. 19.

There are two special ways whereby the Spirit communicates sup-
portment unto the saints when they are ready to sink, and that upon
two accounts, first, of consolation, and then of strength: —

Vin.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 34/

(1.) The first he doth by bringing to mind the things that Jesus
Christ hath left in store for their supportment. Our Saviour Christ
informing his disciples how they should be upheld in their tribula-
tions, tells them that the Comforter, which should dwell with them
and be in them, John xiv. 16, 17, should bring to remembrance what
he had told them, verse 26. Christ had said many things, things
gracious and heavenly, to his disciples ; he had given them many rich
and precious promises to uphold their hearts in their greatest per-
plexities;— but knowing full well how ready they were to forget and
to let slip the things that were spoken,^ and how coldly his promises
would come in to their assistance, when retained only in their natural
faculties, and made use of by their own strength, to obviate these evils,
he tells them that this work he committeth to the charge of another,
who will do it to the purpose. " When ye are ready to drive away,
the Comforter," saith he, " who is in you, he shall bring to remem-
brance and apply to your souls the things that I have spoken, the
promises that I have made ; which will then be unto you as life from
the dead.'' And this he doth every day. How often, when the
spirits of the saints are ready to faint within them, when straits and
perplexities are round about them, that they know not what to do,
nor whither to apply themselves for help or supportment, doth the
Spirit that dwelleth in them bring to mind some seasonable, suitable
promise of Christ, that bears them up quite above their difficulties
and distractions, opening such a new spring of life and consolation
to their souls as that they who but now stooped, yea were almost
bowed to the ground, do stand upright, and feel no weight or burden
at all ! Oftentimes they go for water to the well, and are not able
to draw; or, if it be poured out upon them, it comes like rain on a
stick that is fully dry. They seek to promises for refreshment, and
find no more savour in them than in the white of an egg; but when
the same promises are brought to remembrance by the Spirit the
Comforter, who is with them and in them, how full of life and power
are they !

(2.) As this he doth to support believers in respect of consolation,
so as to the communication of real strength, he stirs up those graces
in them that are strengthening and supporting. The graces of the
Spirit are indeed, all of them, supporting and upholding. If the
saints fall and sink at any time, in any duty, under any trial, it is
because their graces are decayed, and do draw back as to the exer-
cise of them. "If thou faint in the day of adversity," it is not be-
cause thy adversaries are great or strpng, but because "thy strength
is small," Prov. xxiv. 1 0. All our fainting is from the weakness of our
strength; faith, waiting, patience, are small. When David's faith and
patience began to sink and draw back, he cried, "'All men are liars;'

' Heb. ii. 1.

348 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANX'E. [CJIAP

I shall perish one clay by the hand of mine enemies/' Ps. cxvi. 11,
1 Sam. xxvii. 1. When faith is but little, and grace but weak, we shall
be forced, if the wind do but begin to blow, to cry out, "Save, Lord, or
we sink and perish/' Let a temptation, a lust, a corruption, lay any
grace asleep, and the strongest saint will quickly become like Samson
with his hair cut and the Philistines about him : he may think to do
great matters, but at the first trial he is made a scorn to his ene-
mies. Peter thought it was the greatness of the wind and waves
that terrified him ; but our Saviour tells him it was the weakness of
his faith that betrayed him. Matt. xiv. 30, .31. For relief in this
condition, the Spirit that dwells in the saints stirs up, enlivens, and
actuates, all his graces in them, that may support and strengthen
them in their duties and under their tribulations. Rom. v., Paul
runs up the influence of grace into the saints' supportment unto this
fountain : Verse 3, " We glory in tribulations." This is as high a pitch
as can be attained. To be patient under tribulation is no small vic-
tory; to glory in it a most eminent triumph, a conformity to Christ,
who in his cross triumphed over all his opposers. " We are not only
patient under tribulations, and have strength to bear them, but,"
saith the apostle, " we glory and rejoice in them, as things very
welcome to us." How comes this about? Saith he, "Tribulation
worketh patience" (that is, it sets it at work, for tribulation in itself
will never work or beget patience in us); "and patience, experience;
and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed." It is from
hence that these graces, patience, experience, hope, being set on
work, do bear up and support our souls, and raise them to such a
height under their pressures that we have great cause of rejoicing
in them all. Yea, but whence is this? do these graces readily come
forth and exert themselves with an efficacy suitable to this triumph-
ing frame? The ground and spring of all is discovered, verse 5; it
is, " Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us." From this fountain do all these fresh
streams flow. The Spirit that is given us, that "sheds abroad the
love of God in our hearts," and thereby sets all our graces on work,
he oils the wheels of the soul's obedience, when we neither know
what to do nor liow to perform what we know.

5. This indwelling Spirit gives restraint. Restraining grace doth
mainly consist in moral persuasion, from the causes, circumstances,
and ends of things. When a man is dissuaded from sin, upon con-
siderations taken from any such head or place as is apt to prevail
with him, that persuasion, so applied and intended of God for that
end, is unto him restraining grace. By this means doth the Lord
keep within bounds the most of the sons of men, notwithstanding all
iheir violent and imj)etuous lusts. Hell, shame, bitterness, disap-
pointment, on the one hand, credit, repute, quietness of conscience,

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 349

and the like, on the other, bind them to theh' good behaviour. God
through these things drops an awe upon their spirits, binding them
up from running out unto that compass of excess and riot in sinning
which otherwise their lusts would carry them unto. This is not hi's
way of dealing with the saints; he "puts his law in their inward
parts, and writes it in their hearts," Jer. xxxi. S3, that they may not
depart from him, making them a willing people through his own
power, Ps. ex. 3. By his effectually restraining grace he carries them
out kindly, cheerfully, willingly, to do his whole will, " working in
them both to will and to do of his good pleasure." Yet, notwith-
standing all this, oftentimes, through the strength of temptation, the
subtlety of Satan, and his readiness to improve all advantages to the
utmost, and the treachery and deceitfulness of indwelling sin and cor-
ruption, they are carried beyond the bounds and lines of that principle
or law of life and love whereby they are led. What now doth the
Lord do? They are ready to run quite out of the pasture of Christ
doth he then let them go, and give them up to themselves ? Nay
but he sets a hedge about them, that they shall not find their way,
he leads them as the " wild ass in her month," that they may be
found; he puts a restraint upon their spirits, by setting home some
sad considerations of the evil of their hearts and ways, whither they
are going, what they are doing, and what shall be the issue of their
walking so loosely, even in this life,— what shame, what scandal,
what dishonour to themselves, their profession, the gospel, their
brethren, it would prove; and so hampers them, quiets their spirits,
and gently brings them again under obedience unto that principle
of love that is in them, and to the Spirit of grace (whose yoke they
were casting off) whereby they are led. Many times, then, even
the saints of God are kept from sins, especially outward, actual sins,
upon such outward motives, reasonings, and considerations as other
men are. Peter was broken loose, and running down hill apace,
denying and forswearing his Master; Christ puts a restraint upoii
his sjairit by a look towards him. This minds him of his folly, un-
kindness, his former rash confidence and engagement to die with
his Master, and sets him on such considerations as stirred up the
principle of grace in him to take its place and rule again; and, in
obedience thereunto, he not only desists from any farther denial,
but faith, repentance, love, all exerting themselves, he " went out'
and wept bitterly." It is so frequently with the saints of God^
though in lesser evils. By neglect and omission of duty, or inclina-
tion to evil, and closing with temptations, they break out of the
pure and perfect rule and guidance of the Spirit, whereby they
ought to be led. Instantly some considerations or other are pressed
in upon their spirits, taken, perhaps, from outward things, which
recover them to that obediential frame from whence throuo-h vio-

7 O

350 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

lence of corruption and temptation, they had broken; like [as] a
hawk sitting on a man's hand, eating her meat in quietness, is sud-
denly, by the original wildness of her nature, carried out to an
attempt of flying away with speed, but is checked by the string at
her heels, upon which she returns to her meat again. We have an
innate Avildness in us, provoking and stirring us up to run from God.
Were we not recovered by some clog fastened on us for our restraint,
we should often nm into the most desperate paths. And this re-
straint, I say, is from the indwelling Spirit. He stirs up one thing
or other to smite the heart and conscience, when it is under the
power of any temptation to sin and folly. So it Avas with David in
the attempt he made upon Saul, when he cut off the lap of his gar-
ment. Temptation and opportunity had almost turned him loose
from under the power of faith, waiting, and dependence on God,
wherein lay the general frame of his spirit; he is recovered to it by
a blow upon the heart, from some dismal consideration of the issue
and scandal of that which he was about.

6. We have hereby also the renewal, daily reneiual, of sanctifying
grace. Inherent grace is a thing in its own nature apt to decay and
die; it is compared to things ready to die: Rev. iii. 2, "Strengthen the
things that remain," saith Christ to the church of Sardis, " that are
ready to die." It is a thing that may wither and decline from its
vigour, and the soul may thereby be betrayed into manifold weak-
nesses and backslidings. It is not merely from the nature of the
trees in the garden of God that their fruit fails not nor their leaves
wither, but from their " planting by the rivers of water," Ps. i. 3.
Hence are the sicknesses, weaknesses, and decays of the spirit, men-
tioned in the Scripture. Should he who had the richest stock of
any living be left to spend of it without new supplies, he would
quickly be a bankrupt. This also is prevented by the indwelling
Spirit. He is the fatness of the olive, that is communicated to the
branches continually, to keep them fruitful and flourishing. He is
that golden oil which passes through the branches and empties itself
in the fruitfulness of the church. He continually fills our lamps
with new oil, and puts new vigour into our spirits: Ps. xcii. 10, "My
horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed
with fresh oil," or renewed supplies of the Spirit. And this, Ps.
ciii. 5, is called a renewing of youth like the eagle's, — a recovery of
former strength and vigour, new power and ability for new duties
and performances. And how comes that about? Saith the psalmist,
" It is by God's satisfying my mouth with good things." He satisfied
liis mouth with gootl things, or answered his prayers. What these
iciood things are which the saints pray for, and wherewith their
their ths are satisfied, our Saviour tells us: "Your Father," saith he,
poiutmeeth how to give good things to them that ask them of him;"

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. 851

which expressing in another place, he saith, " Your Father will give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask him of him." He is given us, and
he renews our strength as the eagle's, making our souls, which were
ready to languish, prompt, ready, cheerful, strong in the ways of
God. To this purpose is that prayer of the spouse. Cant. iv. 16,
"Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; and blow upon my
garden, that the savour of my spices may flow out. Let my Beloved
come into his garden, that he may eat of the fruit of his precious
things." She is sensible of the withering of her spices, the decays
of her graces, and her disability thereupon to give any suitable en-
tertainment unto Jesus Christ. Hence is her earnestness for new
breathings and operations of the Spirit of grace, to renew, and re-
vive, and set on work again, her graces in her, which without it
could not be done. All graces are the fruits of the Spirit: Gal.
v. 22, 23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." If the root do
not communicate fresh juice and sap continually, the fruit will
quickly wither. Were there not a continual communication of new
life and freshness unto our graces from the indwelling Spirit, we should
soon be poor withered branches. This our Saviour tells us, John
XV. 4, 5, " Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except
ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that
abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit:
for severed from me ye can do nothing." Our abiding in Christ and
his in us, is, as was declared, by the indwelling of the same Spirit
in him and us. Hence, saith Christ, have ye all your fruit-bearing
virtue. And unless that be continued to us, we shall wither and con-
sume to nothing. David, in his spiritually-declined condition, en-
tangled under the power and guilt of sin, cries out for the continu-
ance of the Spirit and the restoring him, as to those ends and
purposes in reference whereunto he was departed from him, Ps. Ji.
11, 12. This the apostle pra3's earnestly that the Ephesians may
receive : Chap. iii. 14, 16, 17, •' I bow my knees unto the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant you, according to
the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit
in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ;
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," etc. The inner man
is the same with the new creature, the new principle of grace in the
heart. This is apt to be sick, to faint, and decay. The apostle prays
that it might be strengthened. How is this to be done? how is it
to be reiiewed, increased, enlivened ? It is, saith he, by the mighty
power of the Spirit; and he then gives you particular instances in the
graces which flourish and spring up effectually upon that strengthen-
ing they receive by the might and power of the Spirit, as of faith.

35 2 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

love, knowledge, and assurance, tlie increasing and establishing of all
which are ascribed there unto him. He who bestows these graces
on us and works them in us doth also carry them on unto perfec-
tion. Were it not for our inflowings from that sj^ring, our cisterns
would quickly be dr}'. Therefore our Saviour tells us that he, the
Spirit, is unto believers as rivers of living water flowing out of their
bowels, John vii. 38, 39 ; as a never-failing fountain, that continu-
ally puts forth living waters of grace in us.

This may a little farther be considered and insisted on, being di-
rectly to our main purpose in hand. It is true, indeed, it doth more
properly belong unto that which I have assigned for the second part
of this treatise, concerning the ground or principle of the saints'
abiding with God for ever; but falling in conveniently in this order,
I shall farther press it from John iv, 14: " Whosoever," saith our
Saviour, " shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst : but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life."

The occasion of these words is known ; they are part of our Sa-
viour's colloquy with the poor Samaritan harlot. Having told her
that he could give her another manner of water, and infinitely better
than that which she drew out of Jacob's well, (for which the poor
creature did almost contemn him, and asked him whence he had
that water whereof he spake, how he came by it, or what he made
of himself, — did he think himself a better man than Jacob, who
drank of that well which she was drawing water out of?) to con-
vince her of the truth and reality of his promise, he compares the
water that he would and could give with that which she drew out
of the well, especially as to one eminent effect, wherein the water of
his promise did infinitely surmount that which she so magnified : for,
verse 13, he tells her, [as] for that water in the well, though it allayed
thirst for a season, yet within a little while she would thirst again,
and must come thither to draw; " But," saith he, " whosoever shall
drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst." And this
he proveth from the condition of tlie water he giveth: " It is a well of
water; not a draught, not a pitcherful, as that tliou carriest away, but
it is a fountain, a well." " Yea, perhaps in itself it is so, a fountain
or well, but he that drinks of it, he hath but one draught of that
water." " Nay," saith Christ, " it shall become a well in him ; not a
well whereunto he may go, but a well that he shall carry about in him.
He that hath a continual spring of living water in him shall doubtless
liave no occasion of fainting for thirst any more." This our Saviour
amplifies and clears up unto her, from the nature and eneigy of this
well of water, "It springeth up into everlasting life;" in these last
words instructing the poor sinful creature in the use of the parable
that he had used with her. Having taken an occasion to speak to

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIEIT. S53

her of heavenly things from tlie nature of the employment that she
was engaged in at present, two or three things may be observed
from the words, to give hght into their tendency to the confirmation
of the truth we have under consideration : —

(1.) Tlie water here promised by our Saviour is the holy and
blessed Spirit; this needs no labour to demonstrate. The Spirit
himself so interprets it, John vii. 38, 39, " He that believeth on me,"
saith our Saviour, " as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which
they that believe on him should receive." That which in one place
he calleth " a well of water springing up into everlasting life in us,"
is in the other, in equivalent terms, called " rivers of living water
flowing out of our bellies;" and the Holy Ghost tells us that he him-
self, the blessed Spirit, is signified by that expression. Neither is
there any thing bestowed on us that can be compared to a spring of
water rising up, increasing, and flowing out abundantly, upon its
own account, but the Spirit only. It is only the Spirit that is a
fountain of refreshment, from whence all grace doth abundantly
flow. It is, I say, the Spirit whereof we have been speaking, who is
procured for us and bestowed upon us by Jesus Christ, which, as an
everlasting fountain, continually supplies us with refreshing streams
of grace, and fills us anew therewith, when the channels thereof in
our souls are ready to become dry. And, —

(2.) The state and condition of them on whom this living water is
bestowed, in reference thereunto, is described. Saith our Saviour,
" He that hath this Spirit of grace, this well of living water, shall
never thirst." It is most emphatically expressed by two negatives,
and an exegetical additional term for weight and certainty : Oj [Jjyi
di-^rjffp, "He shall never thirst to eternity;" or, as it is expressed,
John vi. 35, " He shall never thirst at any time." There is a two-
fold thirst: —

[1.] There is a thirst totalis indigentice, of a whole and entire want
of that men thirst after; and this is the thirst that returns upon men
in their natural lives. After they have allayed it once with natural
water, they thirst again ; and their want of water returns as entire
and full as if they had never drank in their lives. Such a spiritual
thirst doth God ascribe to wicked men, Isa. Ixv. 13, " My servants
shall eat, but ye shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but ye
shall be thirsty." Their hunger and thirst is the total want of grace;
not that they do desire it, but that they have it not. And this thirst
of total want of grace is that that never shall nor can befall them
who have received the Spirit of grace as a well of water in them.
They can never so thirst as to be returned again into the condition
wherein they were before they drank of that Spirit.

[2.] There is also a thirst of desire and complacency of the good

VOL. XL 23

851 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

things tliirsted after. In this sense they are pronounced blessed wlio
" hunger and thirst after righteousness/' Matt. v. 6. And Peter in-
stx'ucts us to grow in this thirst more and more : 1 Pet. ii. 2, " As
new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may
grow thereby." The enjoyment of the Spirit doth not take away
this thirst, but begin it and increase it; and by this thirst, as one
means, are we preserved from that total want and indigene}^, which
shall never again befall us.

(3.) Our Saviour gives the reason why and whence it is that
they who drink of this water, are made partakers of his Spirit, shall
thirst no more, or never be brought to the condition of total want of
grace, which they were in before they received him: " Because the
water which I shall give them," saith he, " the Spirit which I shall
bestow upon them, dwelleth in them," as we have showed, " shall be
a well of water," a fountain of grace, " springing up in them to ever-
lasting life," continuing and perpetuating the grace communicated,
unto the full fruition of God in glory. There are, among others, three
eminent things in this reason to confirm us in the faith of the former
assertion: —

[1.] The condition or nature of the Spirit in believers. He is a
"well, a fountain, a spring," that never can nor will be dry to eternity.

[2.] The constant supplies of groxe that this Spirit affords them
in whom he is; he is water always " springing up." So that to say
ho will refx'esh saints and believers with his grace, provided that they
turn not profligately wicked, is openly to contradict our Saviour
Christ, with as direct opposition to the design in the words, as can
be imagined. This springing up of grace, which from him is had
and received, which is his work in us, is that whereunto this profli-
gate wickedness is opposed ; and whilst that is, this cannot be. There
is an everlasting inconsistency between profligate wickedness and a
never-failing spring of grace.

[3.] His permanency in this work, and efficacy by it. This living
water springs up to "everlasting life." He ceases not until our spiri-
tual life be consummated in eternity.

This, then, is the sum of this promise of our Saviour; He gives his
Holy Spirit to his; who lives in them, and gives them such continual
supplies of grace, that they shall never come to a total want of it, as
they do of elementary water who have once drunk thereof. And
from this spring doth this argument flow : They on whom the Sj)irit
is bestowed to abide with them for ever, and to whom he constantly
yields such sui)plies of grace as that they shall never be reduced to
a total want for ever, they shall certainly and infallibly ])ersevere;
but that this is the condition of all that come to Christ by believ-
ing, or that Christ hath promised that so it shall be with them, is
clear from his own testimony now insisted on : ergo-

viil] the indwelling of the spirit. 355

Unto this argument from the promise of our Saviour, Mr Good-
win endeavours an answer, chap. xi. sect. 10-12, pp. 232, 233, and
in the preface of it tells us, " That this scripture doth but face (if so
much) the business in hand." To " face" it, I suppose, is to appear at
first view in its defence ; and this, indeed, cannot well or colourably
be denied, the words of it punctually expressing the very truth we
intend to prove thereby; and this, notwithstanding the allaying
qualification, " If so much," must needs somewhat prejudice the en-
suing evasions. But we are yet farther confident that upon the more
diligent and strict examination, it will be found to sj)eak to the very
heart and soul of the business in hand. And ttie consideration of
his reasons to the contrary doth seem only to give us farther light
herein and assurance hereof. He says, then, —

" Here is no promise made that they who once believe, how un-
worthily soever they shall behave themselves, shall still be preserved
by God, or the Spirit of God, in believing, or that they shall be ne-
cessitated always to believe."

Ans. This is the old play still. It is not at all our intendment to
produce any promise of safeguarding men in the love of God, how
vile soever they may prove, but of preserving them from all such un-
worthiness as should render them utterly incapable thereof. And
this is plainly here asserted, in the assurance given of the perpetual
residence of the Spirit in them, with such continual supplies of grace
from him as shall certainly preserve them from any such state or
condition as is imagined. Of being necessitated to believe, I have
spoken formerly. The expression is neither used by us, nor proper
to the thing itself about which it is used, nor known in the Scripture
as to this purpose ; and therefore we justly reject it as to its signifying
any thing of the way and manner whereby we are preserved by the
power of God through faith unto salvation. If it denotes only the
certainty and infallibility of the event, as the phrase or locution is
improper, so to deny that there is a promise of our being preserved
by the Spirit of God in believing is not to answer our argument, but
to beg the thing in question, yea, to deny the positive assertion of
the Lord Christ. But if there be not such a promise in the words,
what then is in them? vv^hat do they contain? Saith he, —

" They are only a declaration and assertion made by Christ of
the excellency and desirableness of that life which he comes to give
unto the world, above the life of nature, which is common unto all.
This, by comparing the words with those in the former verse, is evi-
dent. ' Whosoever drinketh of this Avater shall thirst again ; but who-
soever drink etli of the water that I shall give him,' etc. That is, ' The
best means that can be had and enjoyed to render this present life
free from inconveniencies will not effect it; but whosoever shall
drink, eujoy, receive, and believe, the doctrine which I shall ad-

356 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

minister inito him, shall hereby be made partaker of such a life,
which shall within a short time, if men be careful in the interim to
preserve it, by reason of the nature, and perfect condition, and con-
stitution of it, be exempt from all sorrow, trouble, and inconvenience
whatsoevei', as being eternal/"

Ans. [1.] That these words are only an assertion of the excellency
and desirableness of that eternal life which Christ would give above
the natural, that the woman sued to sustain, and that this appears
from the context, is said, indeed, but no more. It is true, our Saviour
doth divert the thoughts of the woman from the natural life, and
care for provision about it, with an insinuation of a better life to be
attained. But is this all he doth? or is this the intendment of the
words under consideration? Doth not the main of the opposition
or difference which at present he speaks unto lie in the supplies that
are given for the two kinds of life whereof he speaks? The water,
he tells her, which she drew from that well by which he sat, for the
supply of her natural life, was such that, after her drinking of it, she
should quickly return to the same condition of thirst as formerly be-
fore she drank of it; but that which he gave was such as that who-
ever drank of it should thirst no more, but be certainly preserved
in and unto the full fruition of that life whereof it is the means and
supply. The opposition is not between the lives continued, but the
mean of consolation and its efficacy.

[2.] It is not the condition of the life natural, which is subject to
dissolution and not capable of perfection, that is the reason why
they thirst again and again that have Avater natural for the refresh-
ment thereof ; but it is the nature of the means itself which is sup-
plied, that is not fitted or suited to permanency and abiding use-
fulness (as the water which Christ promises is), that he insists on.
There is not any thing [which] leads us to suppose that it is the im-
'perfection of life, and not the condition of the means of natural life,
that is primarily intended in the instituted comparison, though the
frailty and nothingness of that life also be afterward intimated in
the substitution of eternal life unto the thoughts of the poor woman
in the room thereof.

[8.] I say that it is not the doctrine of Christ, but his Spirit prin-
cipally, that he is here said to give as water; and that this is not
promised to make men partakers of eternal life if in the interim
they be careful to preserve it, but to preserve them to it, and to give
them that care which as a grace is needful thereunto. The plain
intendment of the promise is, that by the water they drink they
shall be kept and preserved in the life whereof they are made par-
takers, unto the fuhiess and perfection of it ; which preservation, by
the parenthesis, " If any be careful in the interim to preserve it,"
is directly taken away from the Spirit that Christ promiseth, and

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIKIT, 357

assigned to men's own care, even in contradistinction to all the bene-
fits which they receive by him being so bestowed on them. The
difference, then, here between Jesus Christ and Mr Goodwin is this :
— Christ saith, " The water that he shall give will be a well spring-
ing up to everlasting life ;" Mr Goodwin, " That it is the care of men
to preserve themselves that produces that effect.''

[4.] The present exemption which we have by the water of Christ's
giving is not from sorrow and trouble, but from thirst; that is,
from what is opposed unto and is destructive of that life which he
also gives, as natural thirst is unto natural life. But of this thirst
and our exemption from it I have spoken before. It is not, then,
the nature and condition of the life promised that he points unto,
no farther than as it is coincident with the means of it here spoken
of. Indeed, this means of life is our life, as to the inchoation of it
here below, and its daily growing up unto perfection. But he adds,
sect. 11, —

" That he doth not oppose that life, which accrues unto men by
drinking that water which he gives them, unto the natural life,
which they live by other means in respect of the present condition
or constitution of it, or as it is enjoyed by men in this present world,
is evident from hence, because he asserts it free from thirst (' Shall
never thirst'). Now, we know that the saints themselves, notwith-
standing that life of grace which is in them, by drinking that water
that Christ hath given them, are yet subject to both kinds of thirst,
as well that which is corporeal or natural as that which is spiritual;
yea, the spiritual thirst unto which they are now subject, though it
argues a deficiency of what they would farther have or desire to be,
and in that respect is troublesome, yet is it argumentative of the
goodness of their condition. Matt. v. 6."

Ans. [1.] The sum of this answer is, That the life here spoken of
and promised is not that spiritual life whereof we are here made
partakers, but eternal life, which is for to come, which, when any
attain, they shall never fail in or fall from; but whether they may
or shall attain it or no, here is nothing spoken. But here is no
notice taken of the main opposition insisted on by our Saviour, be-
tween the supplies of the Spirit for life eternal, which fail not, nor
suffer them to thirst to whom they are given, and the supplies of
natural life by elementary water, notwithstanding which they who
are made partakers thereof do in a short season come to a total want
of it again. Instead of answers to our argument from this place, we
meet with nothing but perpetual diversions from the whole scope
and intendment of it, and at last are told that the promise signifies
only that men should not want grace when they come to heaven !

[2.] To prove that there is no promise of any abiding spiritual life
here, these words, "They shall never thirst," are produced. That we

o58 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

shall Lave our life continued to the full enjoyment of it unto eter-
nity, because such are the supplies of the Spirit bestowed on us that
we shall never thirst, is the argument of our Saviour, That there is
no such life promised or here to be attained, because in it we shall
not thirst, is Mr Goodwin's.

[3.] It is not the intendment of our Saviour to pi'ove that we shall
not thirst because we shall have such a life, but the quite contrary,
that we shall have such a life, and shall assuredly be preserved, be-
cause the supplies of the Spirit which he gives, will certainly take
away the thirst, which is so opposite to it as to be destructive of it.

[4.] It is true, the saints, notwithstanding this promise, are still
liable to thirst, that thirst intimated Matt. v. 6, "after righteousness;"
but not at all to that thirst which they have a promise here to be
freed from, a thirst of a universal want of that water wherewith they
are refreshed. And that their freedom from this thirst is their por-
tion in this life, we have the testimony of Christ himself: "He that
believe th on me shall never thirst," John vi. 35. And the reason of
their not thirsting is the receiving and drinking in that water which
Christ gives them ; which, as himself says, is his Spirit, which they
receive who believe on him, John vii. 38, 39. Neither is that thirst
of theirs which doth remain troublesome, as is insinuated, it being
a grace of the Spirit, and so quieting and composing; though they
are troubled for the want of that in its fulness which they thirst
after, yet their thirst is no way troublesome. That, then, which is
farther added by Mr Goodwin is exceeding sophistical.

Saith he, "By the way, this spiritual thirst, which is incident unto
the life which is derived from Christ, and the waters given by him
unto men, as it is enjoyed and possessed by them in this present
world, is (according to the purport of our Saviour's own arguing) an
argument that for the present, and whilst it is obnoxious to such a
thirst, it is dissolvable and may fail; for in the latter part of the said
passage, he jDlainly implies that the eternalness of that life which
springs from the drinking of this water is the reason or cause why it
is exempt from thirst. Let the whole passage be read and minded,
and this will clearly appear. If, then, the eternality of a life be the
cause or reason why it is free from the inconveniency of thirst, evi-
dent it is that such a life which is not free from thirst is not, during
this weakness or imperfection of it, eternal, or privileged agamst dis-
solution."

Ans. " That we cannot thirst under the enjoyment of the life pro-
mised proves this life not here to be enjoyed, is proved, because the
eternalness of this life is the cause of its exemption from thirst;"
but that the plain contrary is the intendment of the Holy Ghost, I
presume is evident to all men. The reason of our preservation to
eternal life, and being carried on thereunto, is apparently assigned to

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT. S59

those supplies of the Spirit whereby our thirst is taken away. The
taking away of our thirst is the certain means of our eternal life, not
a consequent of the eternity of it. All the proof of Avhat is here
asserted is, "Let the whole passage be read and minded;" in which
appeal I dare acquiesce before the judgment-seat of any believer in
the Avorld, whose concernment this is. It is here, tben, supposed that
the eternity of the life promised is the cause of their not thirsting
in whom it is, which is beside the text; and that they may thirst
again (in the sense spoken of) who drink of that water of the Spirit
which Christ gives, which is contrary unto it. And of these two
supposals is this part of this discourse composed.

The ensuing discourse, rendering a reason upon the account
whereof life may be called eternal, though it be interrupted and cut
off, we shall have farther time, God assisting, to consider, and to de-
clare its utter inconsistency with the intendment of the Holy Ghost
in the expressions now before us.

He adds then, in the last place, sect. 12, "That the intendment
of Christ is not that the water he gives shall always end in the issue
of eternal life, but that it lies in a tendency thereunto."

Ans. Which, upon the matter, is all one as if he had said, "Christ
saith, indeed, that the water which he gives shall spring up into
everlasting life, and wholly remove that thirst which is comprehensive
of all inten^eniencies that might hinder it" (as God said to Adam,
"In the day that thou eatest of that fruit, thou shalt surely die"),
"but he knew full well that it might otherwise come to pass;" —
which, whether it doth not amount to a calling of his truth and
credit in his words and promises into question, deserves, as I sup-
pose, Mr Goodwin's serious consideration. To conclude, then, our
Saviour hath assured us that the living water which he gives us
shall take away such thirst, all such total want of grace and Spirit
(be it to be brought about, not by this or that means, but by what
means soever), as should cause us to come short of eternal life with
himself; which we shall look upon as a promise of the saints' perse-
verance in faith, notwithstanding all the exceptions which as yet to
the contrary have been produced.

Having thus long insisted on this influence of the mediation of
Christ into the continuance of the love and favour of God unto be-
lievers, by procuring the Spirit for them, sending him to them, to
"dwell in them and abide with them for ever" (the most effectual
principle of their continuance with God), give me leave farther to
confirm the truth of what hath been spoken by remarking some in-
ferences which the Scripture holds out unto us, upon a supposition
of those assertions which we have laid down concerning the indwelling
of the Spirit, and the assistance which we receive from him on that
account, all tending to the end and purpose we have in hand ; as, —

360 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

First, Because "the Si^irit dwelleth in us," we are therefore to con-
sider and dispose of our persons as " temples of the Holy Ghost," —
that is, of this indwelling Spirit; the Scripture manifesting herehy
that the doctrine of the indwelling of the Spirit is not only a truth,
but a very useful truth, being made the fountain of and the enforce-
ment unto so great a duty. He dwells in us, and we are to look
Avell to his habitation. Our Saviour tells us, that when the evil spirit
finds his dwelling "swept and garnished," Matt, xii, 44, he instantly
takes possession, and brings company with him. He will not be
absent from it when it is fitted for his turn. In reference to the
saints and their holy Indweller, this the apostle urgeth, 1 Cor.
vi. 19, 20, "Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which
is in you:" whence he concludes, " Ye are not your own," and there-
fore ought to " glorify- God in your body," From hence is the
strength of his argument for the avoiding of all uncleanness: Verses
16-19, "Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one
body? He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee forni-
cation. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy
Ghost?" On this account, also, doth he press to universal holiness:
1 Cor, iii. 16, 1 7, " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and
that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the tem-
ple of God, him sliall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are." In verses 12-15, the apostle discovers the
fruitlessness of building "hay and stubble," light and unsound doc-
trines or practices, upon the foundation of faith in Jesus Christ once
laid, and tells us that all such things shall burn and suffer loss, and
put the contrivers and workers of them to no small difficulty in
escaping, like men when the garments they are clothed withal are
on fire about them. On the account of this sad event of foolish and
careless walking, he presses, verse 1 6, as was said, earnestly to uni-
versal holiness, laying down as the great motive thereunto that which
we have insisted on, namely, the indwelling of the Holy Sphit in
us: " Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" — " The temple
wherein God of old did dwell was built with hewn stone and cedar-
wood, and overlaid with pure gold; and will ye now, who are the
spiritual temple of God, build up your souls with hay and stubble?"
which he furthers by that dreadful commination taken from the zeal
of God for the purity of his temple. So that on each hand he doth
press to the universal close keeping of our hearts in all holiness and
purity, because of the indwelhng of the Holy Spirit. And, indeed,
wherever we are said to be temples of God, or a habitation for him,
as it still relates to this cause of the expression which we now insist
upon, so there is ever some intimation of holiness to be pursued
on that account: Eph. ii. 21, 22, "In whom all the building fitly
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in

VIII.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIKIT. 361

whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit." Being made " an habitation of God" by the Spirit's
indwelling in us, we grow up, or thrive in grace, into a holy temple
to the Lord, to be a more complete and well-furnished habitation
for him.

This, then, is that which I say: The truth of what hath formerly
been spoken concerning the manner of the Spirit's abode with us,
being procured for us by Jesus Christ, is farther cleared by this in-
ference that the Scripture makes thereof. The saints are exhorted
Avith all diligence to keep themselves a fit habitation for him, that
they may not be unclean and defiled lodgings for the Spirit of purity
and holiness. This is, and this is to be, their daily labour and en-
deavour, that vain thoughts, unruly passions, corrupt lusts, may not
take up any room in their bosom ; that they put not such unwelcome
and unsavoury inmates upon the Spirit of grace; that sin may not
dwell where God dwells. On this ground they may plead with their
own souls, and say, " Hath the Lord chosen my poor heart for his
habitation ? Hath he said, ' I delight in it, and there will I dwell for
ever?' Hath he forsaken that goodly and stately material temple
whereunto he gave his especial presence of old, to take up his abode in
a far more eminent way in a poor sinful soul? Doth that Holy Spirit
which dwells in Jesus Christ, who was ' holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners,' who 'did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth,' dwell also in me, that am in and of myself wholly corrupted
and defiled ? And shall I be so foolish, so unthankful, as willingly
to defile the habitation which he hath chosen? Shall I suffer vain
thoughts, foolish lusts, distempered affections, worldly aims, to put
in themselves upon him there? He is a Spirit oi gj-ace; can he bear
a graceless corruption to be cherished in his dwelling? He is a Spirit
of holiness ; and shall I harbour in his lodging a frame of worldli-
ness? He is a Spirit of joy and consolation; and shall I fill my bosom
with foolish /ears and devouring cares? Would not this be a grief
unto him? would it not provoke the eyes of his glory? Can he bear
it, that when he is with me, before his face, in his presence, I should
spend my time in giving entertainment to his enemies? He is the
High and the Holy One who dwells in eternity, and he hath chosen
to inhabit with me also; surely I should be more brutish than any
man should I be careless of his habitation. And should not this fill
my soul with a holy scorn and indignation against sin? Shall I de-
base my soul unto any vile lust, which hath this exceeding honour,
to be a habitation for the Spirit of God?" Hence, upon a view of
any defilement of lust or passion, nothing troubles i\\e saints more,
nor fills them with more self-abhorrence and confusion of face, than
this, that they have rendered their hearts an unsuitable habitation
for the Spirit of God. This makes David, upon his sin, cry so ear-

362 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

nestly that the Spirit might not depart from him, being conscious to
himself that he had exceedingly defiled his dwelling-place, Ps. li, 11.
And were this consideration always fresli upon the spirits of the
saints, were it more constant in their thoughts, it would keep them
more upon their guard that nothing might break in to disquiet their
gracious Indweller.

Secondly, Because by the Spirit we have guidance and direction,
there is vnsdom given unto us, and we are called to a holy discerning
between the directions of the Spirit of grace and the delusions of
the spirit of the world and the seduction of our own hearts. Christ
gives this character of his sheep, that they " hear him, know his
voice, and follow him," but " a stranger they will not follow," John
X, 3-5. Christ speaks by his Spirit ; in his guidance and direction is
the voice of the Lord Jesus: " He that hath an ear to hear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches," Rev. ii. 29. What Christ
saith as to the fountain of revelation, he being the great prophet of
the church, that the Spirit saith as to the efficacy of the revelation
unto the hearts of the saints; and as "the unction teacheth them,"
so do they " abide in Christ," 1 John ii. 27. The seducements of
the spirit of the world, either immediately by himself or mediately by
others, are the voice of strangers. Between these and the voice of
the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them, tlie saints have a spirit of
discerning. This the apostle affirms, 1 Cor. ii. 15, " He that is spi-
ritual judgeth all things." He discerneth between things, and judg-
eth aright of them. He "judgeth all things;" that is, all things
of that nature whereof he speaks ; that is, " the things which are
freely given to us of God," verse 12, for the discerning and knowledge
whereof the Spirit is given them: for "the things of God knoweth
no man, but the Spirit of God," verse 11. They know also the sug-
gestions of the spirit of the world, and judge them: 2 Cor. ii. 11,
"We are not ignorant of his devices." There is a twofold knowledge
of the depths and devices of Satan: — one with approbation, to the
embracing and practice of them; the other with condemnation, to
their hatred and rejection. The first ye have mentioned Eev. ii. 24,
"As many as have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak," —
their "doctrinal depths," so they call them ; of them our Saviour there
speaks. New doctrines were broached by Satan, — unintelligible no-
tions. Some pretended to attain an acquaintance with them ; and
boasted, it seems, in them as very gi'eat and high attainments. They
called them "depths," such as poor ordinary believers, that contented
themselves with their low forms, could not reach unto. Saith Christ,
"They are depths, as they speak;" — indeed, in themselves nothing
at all, things of no solidity, weight, nor wisdom ; but, as managed by-
Satan, they are depths indeed, such as whereby he destroys their
souls. And as some approve his doctrinal depths, so some close with

VIIT.] THE INDWELLING OF THE SPIRIT, 363

his practical depths and embrace them, men that study his ways
and paths, becoming desperately wicked, maliciously scoffing at re-
ligion, and despising the profession of it. But there is a knowledge
also of the depths and devices of Satan leading to judging, condemn-
ing, rejecting, and watching against them. The suggestions of Satan,
in their infinite variety, their rise, progress, efficacy, and advantages,
their various aims and tendencies unto sin against grace, I do not
now consider. But this I say, those who are " led by the Spirit of
God," who have directions and guidance from him, they discern be-
tween the voice of the Spirit which dwells in them and the voice of
the spirit which dwells in the world.

Now, because this is not always to be done from the manner of
their speaking, the serpent counterfeiting the voice of the dove, and
coming on, not only with earnestness and continuance of impulse,
but with many fair and specious pretences, making good his impres-
sions, labouring to win the understanding over to that wherewith he
enticeth the affections and passions of men, they use the help of such
considerations as these ensuing, to give them direction in attending
to the voice of that Guide which leads them into the paths of truth,
and to stop their ears to the songs of Satan, which would transform
them into monsters of disobedience. Thus they know, —

1. That all the motions of the Holy Spirit, whereby they are and
ought to be led, are regular; that he moves them to nothing but
what is according to the mind of Christ, delivered in the word which
he hath appointed for their rule to walk by, to no duty but what is
acceptable to him, and what he hath revealed so to be. So that as
believers are to try the spirits of others by that standard, whether
they are of God or no, because of the subtlety of Satan, transform-
ing himself into an angel of hght, yea, into a spirit of duty, what-
ever immediate motions and impressions fall upon their spirits, they
try them by the rule, 1 John iv. 1. It is no dishonour to the Holy
Spirit, yea, it is a great honour, to have his motions within us tried
by the word that he hath given for a rule without us; yea, when any
preached by immediate inspiration, he commends those who ex-
amined what they delivered by that which he had given out before,
Acts xvii. 11. He doth not now move in us to give a new ride, but
2i new light and power, as was said before. The motions of the
spirit of the world are for the most part unto things wherein, though
the persons with whom he deals may be in the dark, or blind, and
darkened by him, yet themselves are against the rule, or beside it,
in the whole or in part, in respect of some such circumstances as
vitiate the whole performance.

2. They know that the commands and motions of the Spirit which
dwells in them are not grievous, 1 John v. 3. The commands of
Christ, for the matter of them, are not grievous; " his yoke is easy, his

S(J4 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

burden is light," Matt. xi. 80. And the manner whereby we are car-
ried out to the performance of them is not grievous: "Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is Hberty," 2 Cor. iii. 17. It carries out the
soul to duty in a free, sweet, calm, ingenuous manner. The motions
of the spirit of the world, even unto good things and duties (for so,
for farther ends of his, it often falls out that they are), are trouble-
some, vexatious, perplexing, grievous, and tumultuating. Satan falls
like lightning upon the soul, and comes upon the powers of it as a
tempest. Hence acting in any thing upon his closing with and pro-
voking our convictions, is called a being under the " spirit of bond-
age," Rom. viii. 15 ; which is opposed to the "Spirit of God, the Spirit
of adoption, of liberty, boldness, power, and a sound mind."

8. They know that all motions of the Spirit whereby they are led
are orderly. As is God's covenant with us, "ordered in all things," so
the Spirit of God carries us out unto every duty in its own order and
season; whereas we see some poor souls to be in such bondage as to
be hurried up and down, in the matter of duties, at the pleasure of
Satan. They must run from one to another, and commonly neglect
that which they should do. When they are at prayer, then they
should be at the work of their calling; and when they are at their
calling, they are tempted for not laying all aside and running to
prayer. Believers know that this is not from the Spirit of God,
which makes " every thing beautiful in its season,"

4. They know that all the workings of the Spirit of God, as they
are good, so also they tend unto a good end. Doth that stir them
up to close walking with God ? — it is that God may be glorified,
his graces exercised in them, their souls strengthened in obedience,
and their progress in sanctification furthered. Doth it assure them
of the love of God ? — it is that they may be more humble, thankful,
and watchful. Whereas all the compliances and combinations of
Satan, and men's corrupt hearts, even when they comj)el to good
duties, are for false, evil, and corrupt ends. Duty is pressed to pacify
conscience, peace is given to make men secure, gifts are stirred up
to tempt to pride; and, indeed, it may easily be observed that the
devil never doth any work but he will quickly come for his wages.

By the help, I say, of these and such like considerations, the saints
of God, in whom this Spirit doth dwell, are enabled to discern and
know the voice of their leader and guide from the nearest resem-
blance of it that the spirit which is in the Avorld doth or at any time
can make show of And this indwelling of the Spirit yields a con-
siderable contribution of strength towards the confirmation of the
main theses undertaken to be proved. Our adversaries dispute about
the removal of acquired habits; but how infused habits may be cast
out or expelled they have not [in] any tolerable measure been able
to declare. If, moreover, it shall be evinced, as it hath been by

IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. S65

plentiful testimonies of Scripture, that the Holy Ghost himself dwells
in believers, what way can be fixed on for his expulsion? That he
cannot be removed but by his own will, the ivill of him that sends
him, I suppose will easily be granted. Whilst he abides with them,
they are accepted with God, and in covenant with him. That God,
whilst his children are in such a state and condition, doth take away
his Spirit from them, and give them up to the power of the devil,
is incumbent on our adversaries to prove.

But to return at length from this digression. Thus far have we
proceeded in manifesting, upholding, and vindicating, that influence
which the oblation of Christ hath into the preservation of the saints
in the love and favour of God unto the end. His intercession, being
eminently effectual also to the same end and purpose, comes in the
next place to be considered.

CHAPTER IX.

THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.

The nature of it — Its aim, not only that believers continuing so may be saved, but
that they may be preserved in believing — This farther proved from the typical
intercession of the Judaical high priest — The tenor of Christ's intercession, as
manifested John xvii. 11, opened, and verses 12-15 — The result of the argu-
ment from thence — The saints' perseverance fully confirmed — Rom. viii. 33, 34
at large explained — Mr G.'s interpretation of the place in all the parts of it
confuted — Vain supposals groundlessly interserted into the apostle's discourse
— What Christ intercedes for for believers farther manifested — The sum of
what is assigned to the intercession of Christ by Mr G. — How far it is all
from yielding the least consolation to the saints manifested — The reasons of
the foregoing interpretation proposed and answered — The end assigned of

the intercession of Christ answered — God works perseverance actually A

supply of means that may not be effectual not to be ascribed thereunto

Farther objections answered : Christ not the minister of sin by this doctrine
— Supposals and instances upon the former interpretation disproved and re-
jected—A brief account of our doctrine concerning the intercession of Christ
for believers, and of the true end of the act of his mediation — The close of
the argument, and of the first part of tliis treatise.

Of the intercession of Christ, both as to the nature of its typical
representation by the high priest's entering into the holy of hohes
every year with blood, Heb. ix. 7, and its effectual influence into
the perfect, complete salvation of believers, so much hath been spoken
by others, and the whole of the doctrine delivered with so much
clearness, spiritualness, and strength, that I shall not need to add
any thing thereunto. That Christ intercedes for the preservation of
believers in the love and favour of his Father to the end is that
which I intend to manifest, and which may, as I suppose, be very

SGG DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

easily imdeniaLly evinced. Some few considerations will make way
for the demonstration of the truth which is under consideration, or
confirmation of the perseverance of saints from the intercession of
Christ:—

1. The intercession of Christ being his appearance for us in the
presence of God (Heb. ix. 24, he is gone into heaven i[x(pavia&nvai r^
rrpoffu'jruj rou Qiov, to make a legal appearance for our defence before
the judgment-seat of God, and by being there is our advocate,
1 John ii. 1 ; he is said to " be able to save us to the uttermost," Heb.
vii. 25), there is certainly something or other that he puts in for in
the behalf of them in whose cause he appears and sues, that so he
may save them to the utmost. Now, this must be either that, being
and continuing believers, they may be saved, or that they may be-
lieve and continue believers unto salvation. That the first is not
the sole import and aim of the intercession of Christ may be mani-
fested from this double consideration: —

(1.) From the nature of the thing itself There is nothing but the
establishment of the very law of the gospel (" He that believeth
shall be saved,") wrapped up in this interpretation of the interces-
sion of Christ. But this neither hath Christ any need to intercede
for, it being ratified, confirmed, and declared from the beginning;
neither is there, nor can there be, any opjoosition made against it, to
shake, weaken, or disturb it in the least, it depending solely on the
truth and unchangeableness of God, not being vested, ])y any condi-
tion whatsoever, in any other subject. (2.) Nor would this be availing
to his militant church, whose preservation he aims at and intends in
his intercession; for the whole of his desires may be granted him to
the uttermost, and yet his whole church at any time militant perish
for ever. Though not one soul should continue believing to the end,
though the gates of hell should prevail against every one that names
the name of Christ in the world, yet that truth, " He that believeth
shall be saved," taken in the sense of our adversaries, for a promise to
perseverance in believing, and not a promise to actual true believers,
might stand firm for ever. To say, then, that this is the whole in-
tercession of Christ for his church, is to say that in his whole inter-
cession he interceded not at all for his church. He is heard in his
intercession, and he may be heard to the uttermost in this, and yet
his whole church be so far from being saved to the utmost as utterly
to be destroyed and consumed, John xi. 42.

2. Doubtless the intercession of Christ must answer the repre-
sentation of it which the apostle so much insists on, Heb. vii.-ix.
Of the oblation of Christ there were many types in the Aaronical
priesthood of the law; of his intercession but one principally, —
namel}', that solemn entrance of the high priest with blood and in-
cense into the holiest of holies, in the great anniversary sacrifice on

IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. S67

the tenth day of the seventh month : on the which day, also, the great
jubilee or joyful time of deliverance, typifying our deliverance by
Christ, began. Hereunto is added the priesthood of Melchizedek,
whereof there is mention neither of its beginning nor ending, to
secure us of the continuance of our Mediator in tlie act of his priest-
hood for ever. Now, the end of the high priest's so entering into
this holy place, was to carry on the work of expiation and atonement
to perfection, and complete peace with God in the behalf of them for
whom he offered without ; and therefore the Holy Ghost saith that
his entrance with blood was to " offer for himself, and for the errors
of the people," Heb. ix. 7, it being but a continuation of his oblation
begun without unto a complete atonement. And therefore there is
no real difference between the efficacy of the death of Christ, and
that of his intercession upon the actual accomplishment of it. It
being, then, the complete taking away of the sins and errors of the
people, as to the guilt of them, and the continuance of their peace
with God, which was intended by the high priest's entrance with
blood into the holiest of holies, that which answers thereunto, or the
deliverance of believers from the whole guilt of sin, and their pre-
servation in the love and favour of God, is the intendment of Christ in
his intercession. Let the effects and fruits of the oblation of Christ
be bounded and limited to the procuring of a new way of salvation,
without purchasing for any one person whatever power and grace to
walk in that way, and then exclude his intercession from any influ-
ence into the preservation of them who do enter that way therein,
and perhaps indifferent men will scarce think the glory and honour
of the Lord Jesus to be of any great regard with us.

8. That this is the import of Christ's intercession for believers is
evident by that preface which we have thereof, John xvii., being a
manifest declaration on earth of that which Christ lives in heaven to
do. This was the incense wherewith he entered into the holy place,
which he now prepared, and which was afterward beaten small in
his agony, that it might be ready to make a sweet perfume at his
entrance into heaven, as he was sprinkled with his own blood.
That Christ intercedeth, and for his elect, for whom he died, that
they may believe, our adversaries deny; but that he intercedes for
actual believers hath not hitherto been questioned. What it is
which he requests on their behalf, the tenor of that prayer of his,
John xvii., will manifest. Yerse 11, saith he, "Holy Father, keep
through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one, as we are;" — " Keep them from sin and ruin, from every
thing that will hinder them from union with me." What is it that
our Saviour here prays for, and for whom is he so engaged? That it
is for believers, as such, for whom he puts up these supplications, our
adversaries in the cause in hand do contend. That these mav be

3CS DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

kept through the power of God unto unity among themselves, which
they have by their union with him, is his dying request for them.
He prays not for such oneness as is consistent with their separation
from his and his Father's love. Where now shall we fix the sup-
posed failure of those who efifectually and eventually are kept up to
spiritual union, who cannot fall out of nor fall off from (totally nor
finally) the love of God ? Either Christ is not heard in his request,
or the Father cannot keep them by his power, if these thus interceded
for are not preserved. Many temptations, many oppositions, great
tribulations without, strong corruptions within, they must needs meet
withal: these they have no power in themselves to overcome nor to
resist. Should they be left to themselves, they would never be able
to hold out to the end. Saith Christ, " I shall lose these poor sheep
for whom I have ' laid down my life' to bring them unto thee. Holy
Father, do thou therefore keep and preserve them from all these
evils, that they may not prevail over them. And ' keep them
through thy name,' thy power" (for we are '' kept through the power
of God unto salvation ") ; " let thy power be exerted for their preserva-
tion. And what is too strong for thy power? Who can take them
out of thy hand? Lay that upon them for their defence, show it
out in their behalf, that all their enemies may feel the weight and
strength thereof. ' Keep them through thy name,' thy grace ; let
that be sufficient for them. Let them have such supplies of gospel
grace and pardoning mercy (concerning which I manifested thy
name unto them, verse 6, and so revealed thee [as] a Father), that
they may be encouraged to trust in that name of thine, and to stay
themselves upon thee." Where the failure is, doubtless is not easy
to manifest. In the verses following our Saviour adds many motives
to make his intercession prevalent in their behalf : —

First, Verse 12, he saith that, according to that commission that he
had received, he had faithfully preserved them whilst that he was
in the world ; and now being ready to leave them, as to his bodily
presence, he urges the special preservation of his Father as needful,
that after all the care and cost which he had laid out about them,
they might not utterly perish. And then, —

Secondly, Verse 18, he urges the necessity that they should have
some assurance of it in the midst of all their troubles and trials, that
they may have consolation upon their confidence in the words which
Christ had spoken to them, that they should be preserved through
all difficulties unto the end. And he farther urges, —

Thirdly, Verse 14, from the certain opposition that they should
meet withal, " *Tiie world hateth them,' and will, without doubt, use
all ways and means possible for their ruin and destruction;" giving
also tlie reason why the world hateth them, and will oppose them,
whicli is such an one as must needs engage the heart and good-will of

IX,] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 3ft9

God for their preservation, to wit, because they received tlie word of
his dear Son, and upon that account left the world, separated from
it, and became its enemies. And shall they now be left to tlie rag-e
and fury of the world in this condition? "That be far from thee;
' holy Father, keep them.'" Hereupon, —

Fourthly, Verse 15, he reneweth his prayer in their behalf, with a
farther opening of his mind as to what he had last spoken of " The
world," the world being vile, wretched, deceitful, and set upon oppo-
sition against them, a man would have thought that the Lord Jesus
should have desired that his saints might be taken out from the
midst of this world, and set in a quiet place by themselves, where
they might no more be troubled with the baits and oppositions of it.
But this is not that which he requests. H.e hath another work for
them to do in the world. They are to bear witness to him and his
truth by their faith and obedience, to convince the wicked, unbelieving
world; they are to glorify his name by doing and suffering for him : so
that this is no part of his request. " I pray not," saith he, " that
thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that they may not be
prevailed on nor conquered by the evil that is in the world ; that
they may be kept and preserved from the power of evil, which would
separate them from me and my love." This he presseth for, and this
he is heard in; and that not only for his apostles and present fol-
lowers, but as he tells you, verse 20, for all that should believe on
him to the end of the world.

The things prayed for, the reason of his intercession, the opposi-
tion against the accomplishment of the things interceded for, the
distinction put between them for whom he intercedes and the perish-
ing world, — all delivered in plain and expressive terms, — evidently
evince the intendment of Christ in his intercession to regard the safe-
guarding of believers in the love and favour of God, by their continu-
ance in believing, and preservation from the power of temj^tations
and oppositions arising against their perseverance in communion
with God,

The result of what hath been spoken, as to its influence into the
confirmation of the truth vmder demonstration, amounts unto thus
much : That which the Lord Jesus, as mediator, requesteth and
prayeth for continually of the Father, according to his mind, in order
to the accomplishment of the promises made to him and covenant
with him (all his desires being bottomed upon his exact, perfect per-
formance of the ivhole will of God, both in doing and suffering), that
shall certainly be accomplished and brought to pass; but thus, in
this manner, upon these accounts, doth the Lord Jesus intercede for
the perseverance of believers, and their preservation in tlie love of
the Father imto the end: therefore, they shall undoubtedly be so
preserved. It is confessed that the persons interceded for are bo-

VOL. XI. 24

370 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

lievers, all believers that then were, or should be to the end of the
world (the efificacy of this intercession having commenced from the
foundation thereof) ; the thing prayed for is their preservation in the
state of union with Christ and one another; the motives used fur the
obtaining this request in their behalf are taken from the work they
have to do, and the opposition they were to meet withal. And all
the saints being thus put into the hand of God, who shall take them
from thence? On what account is it that they shall not be preserved ?
To say they shall be thus preserved in case themselves depart not
wilfully from God, is to say they shall be preserved in case they
preserve themselves, as will afterward be farther manifested.

This argument is proposed by the apostle in the most triumphant
assurance of the tiTith and certainty of the inference contained in it
that he anywhere useth, in any case whatsoever: Rom, viii. 33, 34,
" Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died,
yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us." He lays the immunity of the
elect and justified persons from just crimination or condemnation on
the foundation of the oblation and intercession of Christ. The first
part of this argument from the oblation of Christ (" Who shall con-
demn? It is Christ that died"), assorting the immunity of believers
from condemnation, upon the account of the punishing of all their
sins in Christ, and the perfect satisfaction made by his death for them,
whence the justice of God in the issue will not have any thing to lay
to their charge, we have formerly insisted on ; the other, which the
apostle induces emphatically and comparatively, though not in re-
spect of procurement and purchase made, yet of assurance to be given,
with iJ,a}.Xbv bs, in respect of his oblation, is that now before us. To
make the assurance of believers plentiful, that they may know both
the truth of his first general assertion, that all things shg,ll work to-
gether for good to them, and this particular conclusion, now laid
down by way of interrogation, rejecting all evil opposed to their
former enjoyments, " Who shall lay any thing to tlieir charge? who
shall condemn?" he gives them a threefold consideration of the
state and actings of the Lord Christ, after the expiation of their sins
by his blood, in reference to them: — 1. " He is risen;" 2. " He is
at the right hand of God;" 3. " Maketh intercession for them:" —
the first denoting his acquitment, and theirs in him (for he died in
their stead), from all the sins that were charged on him ; for he was
declared to be the Son of God, accepted with him, and justified from
all that debt which he undertook, in his resurrection. And if he be
risen, who shall lay any thing to the charge of them whom he died
for, and for all whose sins, in their stead, he was acquitted? The
seound is his exaltation and power; for " having purged our sins, he

IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 371

sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high," Heb. i. 3, re-
ceiving thereby a most plenary demonstration of his Father's good-
will to him and his, in respect of the work that he had undertaken
and gone through for them : for if he had not " made an end of sin,"
when he was " obedient unto death, the death of the cross," he could
not expect that God should give him "a name above every name," with
fulness of power to give eternal life to all that the Father gave him.
This to assure us that he will do, having power in his own hand, the
apostle adds, " Who also intercedes for us;" hereby, thirdly, testify-
ing abundantly his good-will and care for our salvation. Upon these
considerations, the apostle leads the faith of the saints of God to
make a conclusion, which is to be believed as a divine truth, that
tenders to us the doctrine we have under demonstration triumphant
against all objections and oppositions that can be made against it.
And hence we thus argue: Those against whom no charge can be
laid, who cannot by any means be separated from the love of God in
Christ, cannot totally and finally fall away from faith, and fall out
of God's favour. But that this is the condition of all true believers
is evident from the context. It is of all that are called according to
the purpose of God, justified, and sanctified, — the proper description
of all and only believers, — that the apostle affirms these things, and
to whom he ascribes the condition mentioned. Now, that this is the
state and condition of those persons, the apostle manifesteth from the
causes of it, — namely, the oblation and intercession of Christ in their
behalf; for those for whom he died and doth intercede are on that
account exempted from any such charge as might be of prevalency
to separate them from God.

Mr Goodwin attempts, indeed, once more to re-enforce the triumph-
ed-over enemies of the saints, and to call them once more to make
head against the intercession of Christ; but with what ill success, the
consideration of what arguments he useth with them and for them
will demonstrate. Thus, then, he addresseth himself to his task,
chap. xi. sect. 33, p. 248, " I answer. It is nowhere affirmed that
Christ intercedes for the perseverance of the saints in their faith, or
they who once believed should never cease believing, how sinful and
wicked soever they should prove afterward ; but Christ intercedes for
his saints as such, and so continuing such, that no accusation from
any hand whatsoever may be heard against them, that no afflic-
tions or sufferings which they meet with in the world may cause any
alienation or abatement in the love of God towards them, but that
God will protect and preserve them under them, and consequently
that they may be maintained at an excellent rate of consolation in
every state and condition, and against all interposures of any crea-
ture to the contrary."

This answer hath long since ceased to be new to us; it is that, in-

372 DOCTPvlNE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [oHAP.

deed, which is the shield behind which Mr Goodwin lies, to avoid
the force of all manner of arguments pointed against himself, though
it be the most weak and frivolous that ever, I suppose, was used in
so weighty a matter. It is here cast (as he hath many moulds and
shapes to cast it in) into a denial of the assumption of our syllogism,
and a reason of that denial. First, he denies that Christ intercedes
for believers that they may persevere in their faith ; he prays not for
their perseverance.

His reason of this is twofold: — 1. A supposal that "they may
prove so wicked as not to continue believing." 2. A description of
what Christ intercedes for in the behalf of believers, namely, " that
they may continue in God's love if they do continue to believe, not-
withstanding all their afflictions." " Homo homini quid interest?"
Whether men will or no, these must pass for oracular dictates.

1, For the first, let what hath been spoken already be weighed,
and see if there be not yet hope left for poor souls that Christ prays
for them that their faith fail not. And, by the way, who w^ill not em-
brace this comfortable doctrine, that will assure him, in his agonies,
temptations, and failings, that all help and supplies are made out to
him from and by the Lord Jesus, in whom is all his hope, and that
he receives of his Father, upon his intercession, all the fruits of his
death and blood-shedding in his behalf ; but that he should believe,
or, being tempted, should be preserved in believing, of that Christ
takes no thought, nor did ever intercede wdth his Father for any such
an end or purpose! Such consolation might befit Job's friends:
" Miserable comforters, physicians of no value." But of this before.

2. For that supposal of his, of their proving wicked afterward to
an inconsistency with believing, it hath often been corrected for a
sturdy beggar, and sent away grumbling and hungry, and, were it
not for pure necessity, would never once be owned any more by its
master. Christ intercedes not for believers that they may persevere
in the faith upon such foolish supposals, whose opposite is continu-
ance in the faith, and so is coincident with the thing itself interceded
for. To intei'cede that they may continue believing, is to intercede
that they may never be so wicked as Mr Goodwin supposeth they
may be. The end asserted of Christ's intercession for the saints is,
that they may never wickedly depart from God. Doth Mr Goodwin
indeed take this to be the tenor of the doctrine he opposeth, and of
the argument which he undertakes to ansAver, — namely, that the
faith of believers, and the continuance of that, is interceded for w'ith-
out any reference to the work of faith in gospel obedience and com-

^_^^Mmion with God in Christ? or if he tliinks not so, why doth he so
risen,-, insist on this calumnious evasion?

for, and loJ,-,nr the aim of Christ in his intercession for believers, we
second IS his e»- cogent argument against our position, " Christ inter-

IX. J THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 373

cedes for the things here by me mentioned; therefore he doth not in-
tercede for the perseverance of the saints.'' But why so ? Is there any
inconsistency in these things, any repugnancy in terms, or contrariety
of the things themselves? Christ intercedes that believers may enjoy
the love of God ; therefore he doth not intercede that they may be
established in believing!

The sum of all that is here ascribed to the intercession of Christ
at the best is. That God will confirm and ratify that everlasting law,
that believers continuing so to the end shall be saved ; which whether
it be the sum of Christ's intercession for his church or no, that church
will judge. If there be any thing farther, or of more importance to
them, in what is assigned to it by Mr Goodwin, it is wrapped up in
the knot of " etc.," which I am not able to untie.

Tliese words of the apostle, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge
of God's elect?" do not denote that this is the intercession of Christ
for them, that no accusation be admitted against them whilst they
believe, which is no more but the confirmation of that general pro-
position of the gospel before mentioned; but it is the conclusion
which they make upon the account of the intercession of Christ, in
the application of the promise of the gospel to their own souls.
Neither is there any more weight in that which follows, " That there
be no abatement or alienation of the love of God from them upon
the account of their sufferings and afflictions;" which for the most
part are for his sake. Wliat saints of God were almost so much as
once tempted with a conceit that God's love should be abated or
alienated from them because they suffered for him?

And this is the foundation of that " excellent rate of consolation
at which the saints, upon the account of the intercession of Christ,
may be maintained :" " Into afflictions, temptations, trials, they may
fall; but if they continue in faith and love they shall not be rejected.
No creature shall be heard against them ; that Christ takes care for :
but for the worst enemies they have, their own lusts, corruptions, and
unbelief, the fiery darts of Satan fighting against their souls, with
their continuance in believing, — the falling from whence is indeed all
the danger they are exposed to, for whilst they continue so doing,
all other things are lighter than vanity, — these Christ takes no care
about" (though he prays that God would sanctify them and keep
them), " but they must shift for themselves as well as they can ; he
will not, doth ]iot intercede for them that from these they may be
preserved." Doubtless, he that shall think to be maintained long at
any high rate of consolation, and lays in no other nor no better pro-
vision to live on than this mentioned, will quickly be reduced to a
dry morsel.

But yet some reasons of the foregoing interpretation of this place
of the apostle, Kom. viii., are offered unto us: —

374 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

[First], "This to be the tenor and effect of Christ's intercession
for his saints/' saith he, " is evident from the first of the three pas-
sages cited; and for that demand, 'Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ?' it is not meant from the love wherewith we love
Christ, but from the love wherewith Christ loveth us as ^Ye are
saints, and abide in his love, and keep his commands. Neither is it
so to be conceived as if sin, wickedness, looseness, profaneness, could
not unsaint men, and thereby separate them from that love where-
with Christ some time loved them (for that iniquity will separate
between men and their God is evident from Isa. lix. 2) ; but the
clear meaning is, that nothing, no creature whatsoever, person or
thing, can make Christ an enemy to those who shall in faith and
love cleave fast unto him."

Ans. All this respecteth only one expression in this one place
of Scripture, and ariseth not with the least power against our argu-
ment, taken from many places in conjunction, explicatory one of an-
other. It runs also upon the same mistake with the former, taking
the exultation of believers upon the intercession of Christ in their
behalf, which holds out the issue of it, to be expressive of the mat-
ter of his intercession, being only a demonstration of the event of
it. But grant this to be the tenor and effect of Christ's interces-
sion, that believers may not be separated from his love, is he heard
herein, or is he not? Whatsoever be the issue of the question, our
procedure will be facile. But it is said that it is not "the love
wherewith we love Christ, but that wherewith he loveth us, that we
shall not be separated from." Take this also for granted, that it is
that, and that only, will this advantage your cause? If we be never
separated from that love that Christ bears us, is it possible w^e should
wholly be separated from that love that we bear him? Wherein
consists our separation from that love that Christ bears us? How is
it caused, or may it be procured? Is it not by the loss of our faith
and love to him? or, at least, is it not an inseparable consequence
thereof? or can it possibly come to pass any otherwise than on
that account? If, then, he intercedes that Ave may not be separated
from that love he bears us, and that love infers the continuance of
ours, doth he not withal intercede that we may never lose that love
wherewith we love him, by which we continue in his love? If the
old shift be not at hand for a relief, this young part of the answer
will instantly suffer loss. It is added therefore, "He loveth us as
we are saints and abide in his love," — that is (for so we must under-
stand it), whilst we are so; for that he bears any effectual love to us
to keep us up to saintship, that is denied. It is true, Christ loveth
us as saints, and as abiding in his commandments; but it is also his
love to keep us, and he intercedeth that we may abide, in that con-
dition wherein alone it is possible for us so to do. Neither is the

IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 375

question whether sin, looseness, profaneness, do not separate between
God and men, more or less; but whether believers shall not be pre-
served from such looseness and profaneness as would make a total
separation between God and them? And if God [Christ?] inter-
cedes, as is added in the close, that nothing may make him an-
enemy to us, certainly he must intercede that no sin may do it, —
for indeed sin is something in this business, — and this must be as to
the keeping us from it. I suppose no man thinks any thing in all
this discourse of Mr Goodwin's to look like the least attempt of
proof that Christ doth not intercede for the perseverance of saints;
neither hath he confidence enough positively to deny it, and there-
fore spends his whole discourse hereabout in evasions and diversions-
Let it be directly denied that Christ doth not intend that the faith
of believers may not fail, that his saints may be preserved and saved,
and we know what we have to apply ourselves unto; and if the
contrary cannot be proved, the saints know what they have to trust
unto, that they may no longer lean on that which will yield them
no supportment. If this will not be, let it on the other hand be
granted that he doth so intercede; for "de unoquoque affirmare, aut
negare, verum est." As to this, then, he proceeds: —

Secondly, " Were it granted that part of Christ's intercession for
his saints is, that their faith may never fail, yet the intent thereof
would not necessarily, nor indeed with any competent probability,
be this, that no sin nor wickedness whatsoever that shall or can be
perpetrated by them might cause them to make shipwreck of their
faith, but rather that God would gi'aciously vouchsafe such means
and such a presence of his Spirit unto them as whereby they may be
richly enabled to keep themselves in faith and good conscience to the
end."

Ans. Whether prejudiced men will grant it or no, it is clearly
proved, if the words of Christ themselves may be taken for proof,
that he intercedes for his saints that their faith may not fail, and that
notwithstanding the interposition of any such sins as they can or
may (" suppositis supponendis," amongst which is his intercession)
fall into. So he tells Peter, upon the prediction of his dreadful fall,
that nevertheless he had prayed for him that his faith should not
fail. That they may fall into such sins, and continue in such, as are
inconsistent with their acceptation with God, according to the terms
and tenor of the new covenant, is that which we have been disprov-
ing all this while, and which our author ought not, as he doth in all
his reasonings, to suppose. In the not failing or dying of their faith,
in their preservation therein, is included their deliverance from the
perpetration of the sins intimated, or at least from such a manner of
committing any sin as should utterly separate them from God. It
is the continuance of a living faith that Christ prays for; and where

S7G DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEEANCE. [ciIAP.

that is, there will be works of new obedience, and there will be the
work of that faith in purifying the heart and mortifying of the sins
supposed. Farther; the way here prescribed and limited to the Lord
Jesus how he shall intercede for his, and for Avhat, — namely, not for
-actual perseverance and continuance in the faith to be wrought in
them by the exceeding greatness of the power of God, but for means
to enable them to preserve themselves, — we are persuaded he walks
not in ; and that much upon this account, that the way whereby God
begins and carries on believers in the way of faith and obedience is
not by such a supply of means as leaves them to themselves to work
and effect the things for which they are so supplied, but he himself
" works in them to will and to do of his own good pleasure, fulfilling
in them all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith
with power," giving them all their sufficiency, and preserving them
by his power " through faith unto salvation/' To make feith, and per-
severance therein, to follow such a supply of means as leaves the
production of them to the power of the wills of men, so that after
God hath done all that on his part is to be done or performed, —
that is, quickened them being dead, giving them new hearts and
spirits, shone into their minds, to give them the knowledge of his
glory m the face of his Son, etc.,— it is yet uncertain whether ever
faith shall be wrought in their souls or no, or rather whether men
so supplied with means will believe and persevere or no, is an asser-
tion that will never be proved to eternity, nor, wliilst truth is truth,
is it capable of proof. " The granting of such means and such a pre-
sence of liis Spirit, that men may be enabled to work for themselve.s,"
is an expression exceedingly uusuited to all the promises of the new
covenant. Whatever either of the Spirit of grace or the means of
it is given out to believers, Christ intercedes that his Father would
keep them, not that they should keep themselves. He was too well
acquainted with our frame and our temptations to desire we might
be our own keepers. God forbid we should be left to our own pre-
sei-vation, to the hand of our own counsel and power, though com-
passed with all the supposed sufficient means, that may be not even-
tually effectual! God creates a defence uj)on our glory, and doth
not leave it to our own safeguarding. Our salvation is not in our
own custody. That the Father doth not keep us or preserve us^
that the Son doth not intercede that we may be so preserved, that
the S[)irit doth not make us meet for and keep us unto the inherit-
ance of the saints in light, but that in the use of means we are, as
Adam was, our own keepers, are some of the principles of that new
way of administering consolation to believers which Mr Goodwin hath
found out. This, then, is the utmost which Mr Goodwin will allow
to be (for disputation's sake, not that he really believes it) granted,
that Christ intercedes for his saints as to their continuance and pre-

IX.] THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST. 377

servation in that condition, namely, that God would give them such
means as they may use or not use at their liberty, which may be
effectual or not effectual, as their own wills shall choose to make use
of them; which he also takes for granted to be common to all the
Avorld, and not to be peculiar unto believers.

But it is farther argiied, " If Christ should simply and absolutely
intercede that no sin or wickedness whatsoever may destroy the faith
of any true believer, and consequently deprive him of salvation,
should he not hereby become that which the apostle rejects with
indignation as altogether unworthy of him, I mean, a minister of
sin? 'Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid." Or
v/hereby, or wherein, can it lightly be imagined that Christ should
become a minister of sin, rather than by interceding with his Father
that such and such men, how vile and abominable soever they shall
become, may yet be precious in his sight, and receive a crown of
righteousness from his hand? Or doth not such an intercession as
some men put upon him, as they who make him to intercede simply
and absolutely for the perseverance of believers in their faith, amount
to an intercession of every whit as vile and unworthy import as this?"

Ans. 1. That this is the tenor of Christ's intercession with his Father
for men, " let them become as vile as they will, how vile and abo-
minable soever, yet that they may be still precious in his sight, and
that he would give them a crown of righteousness," Mr Goodwin
knoweth full well not to be the doctrine of them he opposeth. If he
shall otherwise affirm, it will be incumbent on him to produce some
one author that hath wrote about this doctrine, in what language
soever, and so stated it. If he be ignorant that this is not their
doctrine, he ought not to have engaged into an opposition thereof
If he argue that it is otherwise, this procedure is unworthy of him.
That Christ intercedes for his saints that they may be kept from all
such sins as would separate them from the love and favour of his
Father, for which there is no remedy provided in the covenant of
grace, and that their faith may not fail or perish under such sins as
they may through temptation fall into, is the doctrine which he op-
poseth, or at least ought to oppose, to make good his undertaking.
'' Now, if this be so, then," saith he, " is Christ the minister of sin."
Why so? He sees and foretells that Peter should deny him thrice,
yet he prays that Peter's faith may not fail under that sin and wicked-
ness. Is he therefore a minister of sin? Because he intercedes
that his saints may not be given up to the power of sin, nor every
time they are assaulted lie conquered by sin, is he therefore a
minister of sin? or rather a deliverer from sin? That very thing
which Mr Goodwin affirms would make him a minister of sin, he
affirms himself to do in the case of Peter. How he will free himself
from this charge and imi:>utation, ijjse viderit.

378 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

2. What it is to intercede simjyli/ sucid absolutely for believers, that
they may continue believing, we are not so clear in. Christ inter-
cedes that they may be preserved by tlie power of his Father, in
and through the use of those means which he graciously affords
them, and the powerful presence of the Spirit of God with them
therein ; and that not on any such absurd and foolish conditions as
that they may be so preserved by his Father provided they preserve
themselves, and continue believers on condition they continue to
believe. And if this be of a " vile and unworthy import," the gospel
is so too, and one of the most eminent graces that are inwrapped in
the new covenant is so too.

What there is farther in Mr Goodwin, sect. 34, pp. 249, 250,
unto this argument, is either a mere repetition of what was spoken
before, or a pressing of consequences upon such supposals as he is
pleased to make concerning the doctrine that he doth oppose. As
we cannot hinder any man from making what supposals they please,
and suiting inferences to them, manifesting their skill in casting
down what themselves set up, so we are not in the least concerned
in such theatrical contests.

What it is that we teach of the intercession of Christ for believers
hath been sufficiently explained : the end and aim of it is, that they
may be kept, that they may not be lost, that the evil one may not
touch them, that they may be saved to the uttermost, and kept by
the power of God unto salvation; all that the Lord Jesus hath for his
church, either by his oblation or his intercession, procured, or doth
procure, being made out unto them by the holy and blessed Spirit,
which he sent them from his Father as the first-fruits of his under-
taking for them, by and in the use of such means and ways as he
hath appointed for them to Avalk in in reference to the end pro-
posed. He intercedes that, through supplies of that Spirit, their faith
fail not, that no temptation prevail against them, that they may
have suitable helps in time of need, and so be preserved, according
to the tenor of that sanctification which he is pleased to give them
in this life, Avhich is imperfect, not from all sins, for it is the will of
God to keep them and walk with them in a covenant of pardoning
mercy ; not absolutely from this or that great sin, as is evident in
the case of David and Peter, whereof, under such sins, the one lost
not the Spirit nor the other his faith ; but from such sins, or such a
course or way in and under sin, as would disappoint him, and make
his desires frustrate as to the end first proposed, of bringing them to
glory. So that, as the intendment of his oblation is meritoriously,
and by way of procurement, to take away all our sins whatsoever,
and yet in the application of it unto us, as to the taking of them
away, by purifying us to be a holy people unto himself, it is not
perfected and completed at once, nor the work thereof consummated

X. ] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 379

but by degrees; so in his intercession, which respecteth the Scame
persons and things with his oblation, he puts in for our dehverance
from all sins and the power of them, but so and in such a manner
as the nature of our present condition, whilst we are in via, and
the condition of the covenant whereinto God hath gi'aciously taken
us, do require.

Through the goodness of God, we have now brought this first part
to an end. They who are in any measure acquainted in what straits,
under what pressing employments and urgent avocations, and in what
space of time, this offering was provided for the sanctuary of God,
will accept it in Him, whose it is, and from whom it was received.

CHAPTER X.

THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE.

The improvement of the doctrine of perseverance in reference to the obedience and
consolation of the saints — Why its tendency to the promoting of their obe-
dience is first handled, before their consolation— Five previous observations
concerning gospel truths in general— 1. That all are to be received with
equal reverence— 2. That the end of them all is to work the soul into a con-
formity to God — Proved by several scriptures, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17; Tit. i. 1,
etc. — 3. Some truths have a more immediate tendency hereunto than others
have, 2 Cor. v. 14 — 4. Most weight is to be laid by believers upon such —
5. Men are not themselves to determine what truths have most in them of
this tendency, etc. — Gospel obedience, what it is, and why so called — Its na-
ture— 1. In the matter of it, which is all and only the will of God — 2. In the
form of it, which is considered— (1 .) In the principle setting it on work, faith —
(2.) In the manner of doing it, eyeing both precepts and promises — (3.) The end
aimed at in it, the glory of God as a rewarder, Ileb. xi 6 ; Rom. iv. 4 — The
principle in us whence it proceeds, which is the new man, the Spirit, proved,
Eph. iii. 16-19, etc. — "What kind of motives conduce most to the carrying
en of this obedience, namely, such as most cherish this new man, which they
do most that discover most of the love of God and his good-will in Christ —
Such as these are alone useful to mortification and the subduing of the con-
trary principle of flesh, which hinders our obedience, proved. Tit. ii. 11, 12 ;
Rom. vi. — What persons the improvement of this doctrine concerns ; only
true believers, who will not abuse it— How this doctrine of perseverance con-
duces so eminently to the carrying on of gospel obedience in the hearts of
these true behevers — 1. By removing discouragements — (1.) Perplexing
fears, which impair their faith; (2.) Hard thoughts of God, which weaken
their love : without which two, faith and love, no gospel obedience performed
— 2. Unspeakable obligations to live to God hence put upon the souls of the
saints — Objections concerning the abuse of this truth to presumption and
carelessness discussed, examined at large, and removed — The mortification of
the flesh, wherein it consists, how it is performed — The influence of the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance thereinto — Dread and terror of hell not the
means of mortification, at large proved by showing quite another means of mor-
tifying the flesh, namely, the Spirit of Christ, Rom. viii. 13; applying the cross
and death of Christ, chap. vi. 5, 6— 3. This doctrine is useful to promote gospel

3S0 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [cHAP.

obedience, in that it tends directly to increase and strengthen faith and love
both towards God and towards our Lord Jesus Christ — How it strengthens
their love to God, namely, by discovering his love to them in three eminent
properties of it, freedom, constancy, fruitfulness — How it strengthens their
love to Jesus Christ, namely, by discovering his love to them in two emi-
nent acts of it, his oblation and his intercession — 4. This doctrine conduces,
etc., by giving gospel obedience its proper place and due order — 5. By clos-
ing in with the ends of gospel ordinances, particularly the ministry, one emi-
nent end whei-eof is to perfect the saints, Eph. iv. 12, 13, which is done by
discovering to them the whole will of God, both precepts on the one hand,
and promises, exhortations, threatenings, on the other — That of the promises
more particularly and more largely insisted on.

That which remains to complete our intendment, as to that part
of the work which now draws towards a close, is the importment of
that doctrine so long insisted on (having in some measure vindicated
and cleared up the truth of it) as to the effectual influence it hath into
the obedience and consolation of them that are concerned therein;
and this I shall do in the order that I have named, giving the pre-
eminence unto their obedience, which, more immediately respecting
the glory of God and the honour of the gospel, is to be preferred
before their consolation. Yea, though God should never afford his
saints any drop of that consolation which we affirm to stream from
the truth discussed, yet it is honour unspeakable for them that he
is pleased to admit them and enable them to do him service in this
life, and it will be their infinite consolation that they have done so,
to eternity.

For the making our way clear to the demonstration of that influ-
ence which the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints hath into
their obedience and close walking with God, and so to manifest what
weight is to be laid upon it on that consideration, I shall give some pre-
vious observations, which may direct and give us light in our passage,
both concerning gospel truths, gospel obedience, and gospel motives
thereunto. I hope it will not be thought amiss if I look a little
backward, to fortify and clear this part of our progress, there being no
concernment of our doctrine that is more clamoured [against] by the
adversaries of it ; nor can any respect of it or any truth of God more
causelessly meet with such entertainment, as I hope will abundantly,
in the progress of our business, be evinced to the consciences of all
who know indeed what it is to walk before God in a course of gos-
pel obedience, and who have their communion with the Father and
liis Son Jesus Christ. For the first: —

1. Every truth revealed from God is to be received not only with
faith and love, but with equal reverence to any that is revealed,
though we are not able to discern such an immediate tendency
unto usefulness in our commimion with him as in some others we
may. The formal reason whereinto our Aiith, love, and reverence

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 881

unto the word of God is resolved is that it is His. Now, this is
common to the whole, for he is the author of every part and por-
tion alike; and though perhaps we may want some part of it at a
less fatal price than some other, yet to reject any one tittle or jot of
it, as that which is revealed of God, is a sufficient demonstration
that no one jot or tittle of it is received as it ought. Upon what-
ever this title and inscription is, Vei^bum Jehovos, there must we
stoop and bow down our souls before it, and captivate our under-
standings to the obedience of faith. Whatsoever, then, may hereafter
be spoken concerning the usefulness of the truth under considera-
tion, and the comparative regard which, in respect of others, ought
on that account to be had thereunto, doth not in the least exalt it,
as it is in itself, in respect of the faith and reverence due thereunto,
above any other truth whatsoever that is in Scripture revealed.

2. That next to the revelation of God, his will and his grace, the
grand immediate tendency of the whole Scripture is to work them
to whom the revelation is made into a conformity to himself, and to
mould them into his own image. "All Scripture," the apostle tells
us, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profit-
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right-
eousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished
luito all good works." Hereunto all Scripture tends, and is useful
and profitable for this end. And the gospel is called "the truth
that is according to godliness," Tit. i. 1 ; as "the end of the law
is charity out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith un-
feigned," 1 Tim. i. 5. That which in respect of the prime Author of it
is Xoyoc, Qiov, " the word of God," 1 Thess. ii. 13; and in respect of the
principal matter of it is 6 Xoyog 6 rou araupov, " the word of the cross,"
1 Cor. i. IS; in respect of its end and tendency towards us is Xoyoc,
ivffsCiiac, " the word," or truth, " that is according to godliness." The
word is that revealed Avill of God, which is our sanctification, 1 Thess.
iv. 3, and the instrument whereby he works our holiness, according to
that prayer of our Saviour, " Sanctify them by thy truth: thy word is
truth," John xvii. 17. And that which, when we are cast into the
mould of our obedience, is in some measure wrought, Rom. vi. 1 7, the
substance also or matter being written in our hearts, is the grace and
holiness promised unto us in the covenant, Jer. xxxi. 33. And that
this is the improvement which ought to be made by believers of
every gospel truth, or rather, that it hath an efficacy to this purpose,
the apostle tells us, 2 Cor. iii. 18, "We all, with open face beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." By appre-
hensions of the glorious truths discovered in the glass or mirror of
the gospel, we are changed and moulded into the frame and image
therein discovered by the power of the Spirit, effectually accom-

8S2 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

panying the word in the dispensation thereof. And unless this he
done, whatsoever we may pretend, we have not received any truth
of the gospel as it is in Jesus, in the power of it: Eph. iv. 20-24,
"Ye have not," saith the apostle, "so learned Christ; if so be that
ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in
Jesus : that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old
mau, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Whatsoever
men may profess, if we have learned the truth as it is in Jesus, it
will have these effects in us, even universal relinquishment (as to
sincerity) of all ungodliness, and a thorough change, both as to prin-
ciples and practices, unto holiness and to righteousness, which the
gospel teaches us; which if we have not learned, we have not yet
learned it "as it is in Jesus." Tit. ii. 11, 12, "The grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that,
denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, right-
eously, and godly, in this present world."

8. Some truths have a more immediate, direct, and effectual ten-
dency to the promotion of godliness and gospel obedience than others.
This the apostle emphatically ascribes as a privilege to that doctrine
that reveals the love of Christ unto us: 2 Cor. v. 14, "The love of
Christ constraineth us." Other things effectually persuade, but the
love of Christ constrains us to live to him. It hath an importunity
with it not to be denied, an efficacy not to be put off or avoided.
And what is in the things themselves, as in the love of Christ, that
is in its manner, in "the word of truth," whereby it is revealed.

4. That there is, by all that walk with God, great weight to be
laid on those doctrines of truth which directly and effectually tend
to the promotion oi faith, love, fear, reverence of God, luith uni-
versal holiness in their hearts and ways; this being that whereunto
they are called, and whereby God is glorified, Jesus Christ and the
gospel exalted, wherein his kingdom in them consists, on which
their own peace in their own bosoms, their usefulness unto others in
this world, their being made meet for the inheritance of the saints
in light, do much depend. If these things be of weight or moment
unto them (as surely they are all that is so to believers), then, doubt-
less, great valuation and dear esteem will be entertained of those
helps and assistances which they have, leading and carrying them
on thereunto.

5. That a judgment of what truths and doctrines are peculiarly
conducing unto the promotion of piety and godliness is not to be
made upon the apprehensions and reasonings of men, wrested with
a thousand corruptions and prejudices, full of darkness and vanity,
but according to what the Scripture itself holds forth, and the nature

X.] THE IMPROVEMEiNT OF THE DOCTRIKE. S83

of the things themselves (that is, the evidence and consequence that
is between the truth revealed and obedience) doth require. If the
testimonies of the sons of men must be admitted in this case, to
determine what doctrine is according to godliness, the cry and noise
of them will be found so various, discrepant, confused, and directly
contradictory to itself, that none will ever thereby be led to estab-
lishment. Then Papists will cry out for their merits, penance,
vows, purgatory; the Socinians, familists, formalists, all contend,
upon the foundation of their own persuasions, as to the tendency
to godliness of their abominations. That doctrine which hath no
other proof of its truth and worth but that men, some men, pro-
fess it tends to godliness and holiness of conversation, I dare say is
a lie and vanit}', and did never promote any thing but vain, legal,
superstitious, counterfeit holiness. Indeed, upon a supposition of its
truth, it is of concernment, for the advancement of any doctrine in
the esteem and opinion of the saints, to manifest that it leads to
godliness ; but to prove it to be true because men who perhaps never
knew any thing beyond formal, legal, pharisaical holiness all their
days, say it tends to the promotion of holiness, is but to obtrude our
conceptions upon others that are no way moulded into the frame of
them. " That the embracement of such a truth will further us in our
obedience and walking with God, therefore value and prize it," is good
arguing ; but, " That such a doctrine will further us in a way of god-
liness, therefore it is a truth," when we may be mistaken both in
ofodliness itself and in the motives to it and furtherances of it, is but
a presumption. To commend, then, the truth which we have at
large otherwise confirmed to the hearts and consciences of the saints
of God, and to lay a foundation for the full removal of those vain
and weak exceptions which, on this account, are laid against it, I
shall manifest what influences it hath into their obedience, and with
what eminent efficacy it prevails upon their souls to " perfect holiness
in the fear of God." For the more clear declaration whereof I shall
give the reader the sum of it, under the ensuing considerations con-
cerning gospel obedience, and the motives that are proper thereunto.
That which I call gospel obedience, wherein the saints of God are
furthered by the belief of the truth we have in hand, is variously
expressed in the Scripture. It may in general be described to be a
voluntary orderly subjection to the whole will of God. I call it
obedience in reference unto the will of God, which is the rule and pat-
tern of it, and whereunto it is in a regular subjection. The psalmist
expresses it to the full, both as to the root and fruit : Ps. xl. 8, " I
delight to do thy will, O my God : yea, thy law is within my heart."
The law in the heart gives us to do, and to delight in doing, the will
of God, Peter calls it being " holy in all manner of conversation,"
1 Pet. i. 14, 15; Paul, a " cleansing of ourselves from all filthiness

384 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of tlie flesh and spirit in the fear of God," 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; or, as it is more
eminently described, Rom. xii. 1, 2, in that pathetical exhortation
of the apostle thereunto, " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, accept-
able unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not con-
formed unto this world : but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable,
and perfect, will of God," as he had formerly at large described it
in the sixth chapter of that epistle throughout. And I call it gospel
obedience, not that it differs in substance, as to the matter of it, from
that required by the law, which enjoins us to " love the Lord our
God with all our heart," but that it moves upon principles and is
carried on unto ends revealed only in the gospel.

In reference to our design, there are these four things consider-
able in it: — First, The nature of it; Secondly, The j^'^'inciple in us
from whence it proceeds; Thirdly, The motives that are proper to
the carrying it on, the cherishing and increasing of it in them in
whom it is; Fourthly, The iJersons who are to be moved and pro-
voked to a progress therein.

By a brief consideration of these things, we shall make way for
what we have undertaken, — namely, to manifest the efficacy of the
doctrine we have insisted on for the promotion of this gospel obedi-
ence, it being accused and charged with the clean contrary tendency ;
wdiereof, God assisting, we shall free and discharge it in the progress
of this discourse.

First, In the nature of it, I shall consider only these two things: —
1. The matter or substance of it ; what it is as it were composed of,
and wherein it doth consist. 2. The form or manner of its perform-
ance, whence it receives its distinct being as such.

1. The matter or substance of it contains those things or duties to
God wherein it doth consist. Now, it consisting, as I said before,
in conformity and submission to the will, that is, the commanding
revealed will, of God, the matter of it must lie in the performance
of all those things, and only those things, which God requireth of
believers in walking before him; I say, all those things that God
comraandeth, with an equal respect to all his precepts. The autho-
rity of God, the commander and lawgiver, is the same in every com-
mand ; and therefore was the curse denounced upon " every one that
continued not in all things written in the law to do them;" and the
apostle tells us that in the transgression of any one precept there
is included the transgression of the whole law, because the authority
of the lawgiver, both m the one and the other, is despised: James ii.
10, 11, " Wliosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one
point, he is guilty of all. For he that said. Do not commit adul-
tery, said also. Do not kill." And I say, it is onli/ to the command.

X.] THE IMPEOVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 385

for " in vain do men worship liim, teaching for doctrines the com-
mandments of men." The most stupendous endeavours of men, the
most laborious drudgery of their souls, in duties not commanded,
are so far from obedience that they are as high rebellions against
God as they can possibly engage themselves into.

I might rather distinguish the matter or substance of this obe-
dience into the internal elicit act of our souls, in faith, love, and the
like acts of moral and everlasting obedience, — which are naturally,
necessarily, and indispensably, required in us upon the account of
the first commandment, and the natural subjection wherein we stand
unto God as his creatures, improved and enlarged by the new obli-
gation put upon us in being his redeemed ones (wherein, indeed, the
main of our obedience doth consist), — and the outward instituted
duties of religion, which God hath appointed for those former acts
of obedience to be exercised in and exerted by; but the former de-
scription of it, with the intimation of its universality, may suffice.

2, The formality, if I may so speak, of this obedience, or that
which makes the performance of duties commanded to be obedience,
consists in these three things: —

(1.) The pr'inciple that beguis it and sets it on work immediately
in us, and that is faith : " Without faith it is impossible to please
God," Heb. xi. 6. Could a man do all that is commanded, yet if
he did it not in faith, it would be of no value. Hence it is called
" The obedience of faith," Rom. i. 5 ; not " For obedience to the
faith," but^ " The obedience of faith," which faith bringeth forth.
Therefore are believers called "obedient children," 1 Pet. i. 14, and
we are said to " purify our souls in obeying the truth," verse 22.
" Christ dwells in our hearts by faith," and "without him we can do
nothing," John xv. 5. All that we do is no better, seeing we can no
way " draw near unto God with a true heart" but " in full assurance
of faith," Heb. x. 22.

(2.) The manner of doing it, which consists in a due spiritual
regard to the will of God in those ways whereby he calls men out
to this obedience, — namely, in his precepts and promises. There is
no obedience unto God but that which moves according to his direc-
tion; it must in every motion eye his command on the one hand,
and his promise, whether of assistance for it or acceptance in it, on
the other. Saith David, "I have respect unto all thy command-
ments," Ps. cxix. 6; and saith the apostle, "Having these promises,
let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God," 2 Cor. vii. 1 .

(3.) The principal end of it, which is the glory of God as a re-
warder; for "he that cometh unto God must believe that he is, and
that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him," Heb. xL 6.
^ Owen refers to the expression in the original, Els uraxniiv •t/Vtsw,-. — Ed.

VOL, XI. 25

886 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

The end of legal obedience was the gloiy of God as a rewarder accord-
ing to merit in strict justice. The end of gospel obedience is the
glory of God as a rewarder according to bounty, free grace, and
mercy; under which consideration, neither needs the obedience
rewardable to be commensurate to the reward, nor is the reward
procured by that obedience. If it were, then it were of works, and
not of grace, as tlie apostle tells us, Rom. iv. 4. So that the end of
our obedience is to exalt God as a rewarder; yet that being as a
rewarder of grace and bounty, the use. of our obedience is not to
procure that reward (for that were to work, and to have a reward
reckoned to us of debt, and not of grace), but only to make the Lord
gracious, and to exalt him in our present subjection and in his future
gift of grace, in nature of a free, bounteous reward. This, I say, is
that gospel obedience which, by the doctrine insisted on, is promoted
in the souls of believers.

Secondly, This being so, as was said, the gospel obedience whereof
we speak, it is evident what principle it proceedeth from. Whereas
there are two contrary principles in every regenerate man, as shall
more fully afterward be declared, called in the Scripture " flesh and
Spirit, the old and new man, indwelling sin and grace," which have
both of them their seats and places in all and the same faculties of
the soul, it is most evident that this obedience flows solely and
merely from the latter principle, the Spirit, the new or inner man, the
new creature which is wrought in believers. The strengthening and
heightening of this principle the Holy Ghost lays at the bottom of
the renewal and increase of gospel obedience. Eph. iii. 16-19, "I
pray," saith the apostle, "that God would grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in
the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ; that
ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and
height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Their
"strengthening with might by the Spirit in the inner man" is the
foundation of their acting of and increasing in faith, love, knowledge,
and assurance unto all the fulness of God. It is the "'new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness," that
carries men out unto all acceptable obedience, as chap. iv. 24, of the
same epistle. Look, whatsoever influences the other principle of the
flesh hath into our obedience, so far it is defiled; for "that which is
born of the flesh is flesh," John iii. 6, and all the fruits of it are abo-
minable; hence are all the pollutions that cleave to our holy things.
Yea, if at any time poor and mere selfish considerations do put men
upon duties of obedience and abstaining from sin, as fear of ven-
geance and destruction, and the like (which is made almost the only

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINK 387

motive to obedience by the doctrine of the saints' apostasy), their
obedience in doing or abstaining is but as their fear of the Lord who
were taught it by lions, and abominable unto him, 2 Kings xvii. 25,
32-34. This, then, being the nature of gospel obedience, and this
the principle from whence it flows, it is evident, —

Thirdly, What are those motives which are suited to the promo-
tion and carrying of it on in the hearts of believers; and what doc-
trines have an eminent and singular tendency thereunto is also to be
considered. Now, these must all of them be such as are suited to
the cherishing of that principle of the new or inner man in the heart,
to the nourishing and strengthening of the new creature ; such as
are apt to ingenerate faith and love in the heart unto God ; such as
reveal and discover those things in his nature, mind, and wall, Avhich
are apt to endear and draw out the heart to him in communion.
Discouraging, perplexing doctrines do but ill manure the soil from
whence the fruits of obedience are to spring and grow. Look, then,
I say, whatsoever gospel truth is of eminent usefulness to warm,
foment, stir up, and quicken, the principle of grace in the heart, to
draw out, increase, and cherish faith and love, that doctrine lies in a
direct, immediate tendency to the promotion of holiness, godliness,
and gospel obedience. Yea, and whereas to the carrying on of that
course of obedience, it is necessary that the contrary principle unto
it, which we mentioned before, be daily subdued, brought under,
crucified, and mortified; there are no doctrines whatsoever that are
of such and so direct and eminent a serviceableness to that end and
purpose as those which inwrap such discoveries of God and his good-
will in Christ as are fitted for the improvement also of the prin-
ciple of grace in us. Hence the work of mortification in the Scrip-
ture is everywhere assigned peculiarly to the ci'oss and death of
Christ, — his love manifested therein, and his Spirit flowing therefrom.
The doctrine of the law, indeed, humbles the soul /or Christ; but it
is the doctrine of the gospel that humbles the soul in Christ.^ It is
" the grace of God that hath appeared, that teacheth us effectually to
deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righte-
ously, and godly in this present world," Tit. ii. 11, 12. He that will
but with a little heed read chap. vi. to the Romans will know from
whence mortification flows: which truly, by the w^ay, makes me ad-
mire at the extreme darkness and blindness of some poor men wdio
have of late undertaken to give directions for devotion and Avalking
with God ; who, indeed, suitably to the most of the rest of their dis-
courses,— all manifesting an " ignorance of the righteousness of God,"
Rom. X. 4, and a zealous endeavour to establish their own, — coming
to propose ways and means for the mortifying of any sin or lust, tell
you stories of biting the tongue, thrusting needles under the nails,
■' Rom. vi. 2_G, viii. 13, 2 Cor. v. 15; Rom. vii. 7; Gal. iii. 23.

S88 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

with such like trash as might have befitted popish devotions five
hundred years ago. Were not men utterly ignorant what it is to
" know the Lord Jesus Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and
the fellowship of his sufferings, and to he made conformable to his
deatli," they could never feed on such husks themselves, nor make
provision of them for those whose good they pretend to seek, Phil,
iii. 10; Gal. vi. 14. Unto what hath been spoken add, —

Fourthly, Who are the persons that are to be provoked to holiness
and godliness by the doctrine insisted on. Now, they are such as do
believe it, and are concerned in it. We say, the truth under con-
sideration is of an excellent usefulness to further gospel obedience in
the hearts of believers and saints of God, who are taught of God not
to turn the doctrine of grace into wantonness. What use, or abuse
rather, men of corrupt minds and carnal principles, who stumble at
Jesus Christ, and abuse the whole doctrine of the gosi^el by their
prejudices and presumptions, will make of it, we know not, nor are
solicitous. " If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost/'
2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. It is sufficient that the food be good and wholesome
for them for whom it is provided. If some will come and steal it that
have no right to it, and it prove, through their own distempers, gravel
in their mouths or poison in their bowels, the}'' must blame themselves
and their own wormwood lusts, and not the doctrine which they do re-
ceive, 2 Cor. iL 1 6. It is provided for them that fear God, and love
the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, not for dogs, swine, — unbelievers.
We shall not marvel if they trample on this pearl, and rend them that
bring it. To such as these, then, I say, the doctrine of the perseve-
rance of the saints, or the stability or unchaugeableness of the love
of God unto believers, and of their continuation in faith and obe-
dience, is full of exceeding effectual motives and provocations unto
holiness, in all manner of gospel obedience and holy conversation,
exceedingly advantaging the souls of men in a course thereof. Now,
the influence it hath into the obedience of the saints floweth from it
upon a twofold account: — By removing all discouragements what-
soever that are apt either to turn them aside from their obedience,
or to render their obedience servile, slavish, or unacceptable to God;
it sets them, through Christ, at perfect liberty thereunto. [And] by
putting unconquerable and indissoluble obligations upon them to
live unto God and to the praise of his glorious grace ; and evidently
draws them forth unto the obedience required.

1. It renioveth and taketh out of the way all discouragements
whatsoever, all things which are apt to interpose to the weakening
of their faith in God or their love to God ; which, as hath been said,
are at the bottom of all obedience and holiness that is acceptable to
God in Christ. Now, these may all be referred unto two heads: —
(1.) Of perplexing, anxious/ea7-5, which are apt to impair and weaken

X.] THE IMPEOyEME^^T OF THE DOCTEINE. S89

the faith of the saints, (2.) Of hard thoughts of God, whicli assault
and shake their love.

(1.) That slavish, perplexing, trouLlesome fears are contrary to
the free and ingenuous state of children, whereunto the saints are ad-
mitted, and (however sometimes, yea, oftentimes, they are at the
bottom, and are the occasion of burdensome, servile, and superstitious
obedience) impairers of their faith, I suppose I need not labour to
prove. That kind of fear whereof we speak (of which more after-
Avard) is the greatest traitor that lurks in the soul. To " fear the
Lord and his goodness" is the soul's keeper, Hos. iii. 5; but this
servile, perplexing fear is the betrayer of it in all its ways, and that
which sours all its duties, — a thing which the Lord sets himself
against, in rebukes, reproofs, dehortations, as much as any failing and
miscarriage in his saints whatever. It is the opposite of faith ; hence
the "fearful and unbelieving" are put together in their exclusion
from the New Jerusalem, Rev. xx. 8. It is that which is direct con-
trary to that which the apostle adviseth the saints unto, Heb. x.
19-22. It is that which mixeth faith witli staggering, Rom. iv. 20,
prayer with wavering, making it ineffectual, James i. 6, 7.

Let us now suppose a man to have attained some assurance of
the love of God, and, "justified by faith," to have "'peace with him"^
(which, as to his present condition, the adversaries of the doctrine of
perseverance acknowledge that he may attain, though how, upon
their principles, I understand not) ; consider a little how he can safe-
guard his peace for a moment, and deliver himself from perplexing
thoughts and fears, renouncing any interest in the engagement of
the love and faithfulness of God for his preservation. He may say
within himself, " I am for the present in some good state and condi-
tion ; but were not the angels so that are now devils in hell ? were
not they in a far better and more excellent state than I am? and
yet they are now shut up under chains of everlasting darkness to
the judgment of the great day. Adam in paradise had no lust
within him to tempt and seduce him, no world under the curse to
entangle and provoke him, and yet, ' being in that honour, he had
no understanding, he abode not,' but ' became like the beasts that
perish.' Was it not in their power to persevere in that condition
if they would ? Did they want any means that were useful there-
unto? And what hope is there left to me, in whom there 'dwelleth
no good thing, who am sold under' the power of ' sin,'^ and en-
compassed with a world of temptations, that I shall endure unto the
end? I see thousands before mine eyes, partakers of the same hea-
venly calling with myself, of the same grace in Jesus Christ, every
day falling into iiTevocable perdition. There is not any promise of
God that I should be preserved, no promise that I shall never depart
' Rom. V. 1. 2 Eom. vii. 14, 18.

S90 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

from him, no prayer of Christ that my faith may not fail, but I am
rolled upon mine own hands ; and what will be the end of this whole
undertaking of mine in the ways of God I know not." Let, I say,
a man be exercised with such thoughts as these, and then try if any
thing under heaven can bring his soul to any possible composure,
until it be " cast into the mould of that doctrine which hath been
delivered." But of this more directly afterward, when we come to
treat of the consolation which from the breasts of it doth flow.

(2.) It is exceedingly suited to the deliverance of the souls of the
saints from all such hard thoughts of God as are apt to impair and
weaken their love towards him and delight in him ; so setting the
two principles of all their obedience, faith and love, at liberty, and
free from their entanglements, to act in the duties they are called
unto. He that had hard thoughts of his absent lord as an austere
man, though he was not excused in his disobedience by it, yet was
evidently discouraged as to his obedience. When men shall be
taught that God takes no more care of his children in his family,
but that the devil may enter in among them and take them away,
making them children of hell, when he might with the greatest ad-
vantage of glory and honour to himself imaginable prevent it; that
the Lord Jesus Christ, " the great shepherd of the sheep," takes no
more care of his flock and fold, but that the lion, bears, and wolves,
may enter in, and make havoc, and spoil at their pleasure; — may
they not think that God is little concerned in the salvation of his,
and that all that which is so gloriously expressed of his peculiar and
special love carries nothing but an empty noise, the burden of their
preservation being thrown solely upon their own shoulders? And
are not such thoughts fit only to cast water upon their flames of love
to God, and insensibly to weaken that delight which they ought
always to take in the riches of his grace and love? Is there any
thing possible more endearing to the heart of a creature than to hear
such a testimony as that, Zeph. iii. 17, concerning the stability of
the love of God, and its excellency, "The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he
will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing?" God's resting
in his love towards his saints fixes their souls in their love to him.

2. It puts high and unspeakable obligations on the saints to live
to God, and to " perfect holiness in the fear of God." Saints we
suppose to have their birth from above, to be begotten of the Avill
of God, through the immortal seed of the word, and to be quickened
with a noble, child-like ingenuity, befitting the family of God; neither
is there any thing more injurious to the work of God's grace than
to suppose that those whom God calls " children, friends, heirs of
heaven and glory, his crown, his diadem, brethren of his only Son,"
are to be dealt witlial, or that God deals with them, as if they were

X.] THE IMPllOVEMENT OF THE DOCTiilNE. 391

wholly acted by a servile, slavish principle, and were wholly under
the power of such an unworthy disposition.

There are two things usually spoken to the prejudice and disad-
vantage of the truth we have under consideration, much insisted on
by Mr Goodwin, chap. ix. ; as, —

(1.) " That a persuasion of the certain continuance of the love of
God to any one is a ready way to make them careless, negligent,
and to give up themselves to all manner of abominations."

But what vipers, snakes, and adders, do such men suppose the saints
of God to be, that their new nature, their heavenly principles (for
what the flesh in them is prone unto we now consider not), .should
conclude that it is good to sin "that grace may abound ;" that because
God " loves them with an everlasting love," therefore they will hate
him with a perpetual hatred ; that because he will assuredly give
them " grace to serve him with reverence and godly fear," therefore
they will despise him and trample on all his goodness ; that because
he will "never forsake them," they will no more abide with him?
What is in the inner man, what is in the new creature, what is in
the nature of any grace wherewith they are endowed, that is apt or
inclinable to make such hellish conclusions? If we hear of any such
thing among the sons of men, — if we see a child or a servant resolving
to be profligate, wicked, stubborn, prodigal, because his father or
master is kind, loving, and will not disinherit him or put him away,
— we look upon him as a monster in nature, and think that it would
be good service to the interest of mankind to take him off from the
face of earth; and yet such monsters are all the saints of God sup-
posed to be, who, if their Father once give them the least assurance
of the continuance of his love, they presently resolve to do him all
the dishonour, despite, and mischief they can 1 I appeal to all the
experience of all the saints in the world whether, if any such thought
at any time arise in them, that they may " continue in sin because
grace hath abounded," that they may live in all filth and folly be-
cause God hath promised never to forsake them nor turn away his
love from them, they do not look upon it as a hellish abuse of the
love of God, which they labour to crucify no less than any other
work of the flesh whatsoever. Presuppose, indeed, the saints of God
to be dogs and swine, wholly sensual and unregenerate, that is, no
saints, and our doctrine to be such, that God will love them and
save them continuing in that state wherein they are, and you make
a bed for iniquity to stretch itself upon ; but suppose that we teach
that the "wrath of God" will certainly come upon the "children of
disobedience," that "he that believeth not shall be damned," and
that God will keep his own "by his power through faith unto salva-
tion," and that, in and by the use of means, they shall certainly be
preserved to the end, and the mouth of iniquity will be stopped.

392 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

(2.) They say, " It takes away that strong curb aud bridle which
ought to be kept in the mouth of the flesh, to keep it from running
headlong into sin and folly, — namely, the fear of hell and punish-
ment, which alone hath an influence upon it to bring it to subjec-
tion and under obedience."

But now, if there be nothing in the world that is of use for the
mortification and crucifying of the flesh and the lusts thereof but it
receives improvement by this doctrine, this crimination must of ne-
cessity vanish into nothing.

(1.) Then, it tells us that the flesh and all the deeds thereof are to
be crucified and slain, God having ordained good works for us to
walk in; that for the works of the flesh, the wrath of God cometh
upon the children of disobedience; and if any say, "Let us con-
tinue in sin, because we are not under the law, or the condemning
power of it for sin, but under grace," it cries out, "God forbid!"
Rom. vi. li, 15, and saith, this is argument enough and proof suf-
ficient that sin shall not have dominion over us, " because we are
not under the law, but under grace." It tells you, also, that there is
a twofold fear of hell and punishment of sin ; — first. Of anxiety and
doubtfulness in respect of the end; secondly, Of care and diligence
that respecteth the means.

And for the first, it saith that this is the portion of very many of
the saints of God, of some all their days. Though they are so, yet
they know not tliat they ax'e so; and therefore are under anxious and
doubtful fears of hell and punishment, notwithstanding that they are
in the arms of their Father, from. Avhence, indeed, they shall not be cast
down ; — as a man bound with chains on the top of a tower cannot
but fear, and yet he cannot fall. He cannot fall, because he is fast
bound with strong chains; he cannot but fear, because he cannot ac-
tually and clearly consider oftentimes the means of his preservation.

And for the latter, a fear of the ways and means leading to punish-
ment, as such, that continues upon all the saints of God in this life;
neither is there any thing in this doctrine that is suited to a removal
thereof. And this, it says, is more, much more of use for the morti-
fication of the flesh than the former.

(2.) It says that the great and principal means of mortification
of the flesh is not fear of hell and punishment, but the Spirit of
Christ, as the apostle tells us, Rom. viii. 1 3, " If ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." It is the Spirit of
Christ alone that is able to do this great Avork. We know what bond-
age and religious drudgery some have put themselves unto upon this
account, and yet could never in their lives attain to the mortification
of any one sin. It is the Spirit of Christ alone that hath sovereign
power in our souls of killing and making alive. As no man quick-
eneth his own soul, so no man upon any consideration whatsoever, or

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINK 393

by the power of any threatenings of the law, can kill his own sin.
There was never any one sin truly mortified by the law or the
threatening of it. All that the law can do of itself is but to en-
tangle sin, and thereby to irritate and provoke it, like a bull in a net,
or a beast led to the slaughter. It is the Spirit of Christ in the
gospel that cuts its throat and destroys it. Now, this doctrine was
never in the least charged with denying the Spirit of God to be-
lievers; which whilst it doth grant and maintain in a way of opposi-
tion to that late opinion which advanceth itself against it, it main-
tains the mortification of the flesh and the lusts thereof upon the
only true and unshaken foundation.

(3.) It tells you that the great means whereby the Spirit of
Christ worketh the m^ortification of the flesh and the lusts thereof
is the application of the cross of Christ, and his death and love
therein, unto the soul, and says that those vain endeavours which
some promote and encourage for the mortification of sin, consisting,
for the most part, in slavish, bodily exercises, are to be bewailed
with tears of blood as abominations that seduce poor souls from the
cross of Christ ; for it says this work is only truly and in an accept-
able manner performed when we are " planted into the likeness of
the death of Christ, having our old man crucified with him, and the
body of sin destroyed," Rom. vi. 5, 6, and thereupon by faith "reckon-
ing ourselves dead unto sin, but alive unto God," verse 11. It is
done only by " knowing the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ,
and being made conformable to his death," Phil. iii. ] 0. " By the
cross of Christ is the world crucified unto us, and we unto the world,"
Gal. vi. 1 4 The Spirit brings home the power of the cross of Christ to
the soul for the accomplishing of this work, and without it it will not
be done. Moreover, it says that, by the way of motive to this duty,
there is nothing comes with that efficacy upon the soul as the love of
Christ in his death; as the apostle assures us, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15, " For
the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
died for all, then were all dead: and that he died for all, that they
which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him
which died for them, and rose again." Now, it was never laid to
the charge of this doctrine that it took off from the virtue of the
death and cross of Christ, but rather, on the contrary, though falsely,
that it ascribed too much thereunto; so that, these importune ex-
ceptions notwithstanding, the doctrine in hand doth not only main-
tain its own inuocency as to any tendency unto looseness, but also
manifestly declareth its own usefulness to all ends and purposes of
gospel obedience whatsoever: for, —

(4.) It stirs up, provokes, and draws out into action, every thing that
is free, noble, ingenuous, filial, and of a heavenly descent, in the
saints of God. Thus, —

394 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' TERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

[1.] It strengtliens their faith in God and in Jesus Christ; which
is tlie 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 de-
sign to advance his glory thereby. I speak not of the formal cause
of faith in general, but of the peculiar motive to faith and believing
in the sense before mentioned. So our Saviour ffivinjj the command
in general to his disciples, John xiv. 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 Father's and his
own good-will towards them. And, indeed, propose what other con-
siderations 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 step towards God in
Christ. Now, "our adversaries themselves being judges," the doc-
trine 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 "be-
gins the good work in them," but that he will also powerfully "per-
fect 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, washing 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 them-
selves 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 as that, in the Tise of means, they shall wait
upon him to the end ; and that howsoever or whensoever, by the
power of temptation and surprisals of corruptions, they are carried
aside from him, he will " heal their backslidings, and love them
freely," and though they change every day, yet "he changeth not,
and therefore they are not consumed." And hereby, I say, it con-
firms and strengthens their faith in God as a Father in Jesus Christ,
taking everlasting care of them.

[2.] Of their love there is the same reason. God's love to us is of
his free grace; he loves us because so it seems good to him. Our

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTMNIC 395

love to liim is purely ingenerated by his love to us, and carried on
and increased by farther revelations of his desirableness and excel-
lency to our souls: "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us" first. There is no creature in the least guilty of sin
that can put forth any acceptable act of love towards God, but what
is purely drawn out upon the apprehension of his love and loveli-
ness in his grace and mercy. A man, I confess, may love God
when he hath no sense of his love to him in particular; but it must
all be built upon an apprehension of his love to sinners, though he
may come short in the application. It is the "terror of the Lord "
that causes us to "persuade" others, but it is the "love of Christ that
constraineth us" to live to him. She loved much to whom much
was forgiven. Look, then, the more abundant discoveries are made of
the loveliness and desirableness [of God] in the riches of his grace,
the more effectual is the sole and only motive we have to love him
with that filial, chaste, holy love, that he requires.

For the love of God to his saints, our doctrine of their perseve-
rance sets it forth with the greatest advantage for the endearment
of their souls, to draw out their streams of love to God; especially
doth it give it its glory in three things: —

1st. In its f7'eedom. It sets forth the love of God to his saints
as that which they have no way in the least deserved, as hath been
manifested from Isa. xlviii. 8, 9, 11, liv. 9, 10. As he "first loved
them, not because they were better than others, being by nature
children of wrath, and lying in their blood, when he said to them
Live, quickening them when they were dead in trespasses and sins;"
so he doth not continue his love to them, nor purpose so to do,
because he foresees that they will so and so walk with him in holi-
ness and uprightness (for he foresees no such thing in them, but
what he himself purposeth effectually to work upon the account of
his loving them), but he resolves to do it merely upon the account
of his own grace. He neither resolves to continue his love to them
on condition that they be so and so holy, at random, and with \m-
certainty of the event, but freely, that they may and shall be so.
And this is the glory of love, the most orient pearl in the crown of
it, Eph. i. 4. It is not mercenary, nor self- ended, nor deserved ; but,
as a spring and fountain, freely vents and pours out itself upon its
own account. And what ingenuous, truly noble, heavenly-descended
heart can hold out against the power of this love? It is effectually
consti'aining to all manner of suitable returns. Let the soul but put
itself into the actual contemplation of the love of God, as it lies re-
presented in this property of it, every way free, undeserved, the
great love of God to a poor worm, a sinner, a nothing, and it
cannot but be wrought to a serious admiration of it, and delight in it,
and be pained and straitened, until it make some suitable returns

396 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIKTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

of love and obedience unto God ; if not, it may well doubt it never
tasted of that love or enjoyed any fruits of it.

Idly. It gives the love of God the glory of its constancy and un-
cluingeahleness. This is another star of an eminent magnitude in
the heaven of love. It is not a fading, a wavering, an altering thing,
but abides for ever ; God " rests in his love," Zeph. iii. 1 7. It is a
great thing, indeed, to apprehend that the great God should fix his
love upon a poor creature, but add hereunto that he rnay love
them one day and hate them the next, embrace them one hour and
the next cast them into hell, one day rejoicing over them with joy,
another rejoicing to destroy them; as it is dishonourable to God,
and derogatory to all his divine excellencies and perfections, so, in
particular, it clotheth his love with the most uncomely and undesir-
able garment that ever was put upon the affections of the meanest
worm of the earth. What can ye say more contemptible of a man,
more to his dishonour among all wise and knowing men, or that
shall render his respects and affections more undesirable, than to say,
"He is free of his love, indeed, but he abides not in it. What a world
of examples have we of those who have been in his bosom and have
again been cast out ! " Though among men something may be pre-
tended in excuse of this, with respect \vaio their ignorance, the
shortness of their foresight, disability to discern between things and
appearances, yet in respect of God, "before whom all things are
open and naked," in whose eye all incidences and events lie as
clearly stated as things that are already past and gone, what can
be said of such a vain supposal for the vindication of his glory? It
is said that " men change from Avhat they were Avhen God loved
them, and therefore his love changeth also." But who first made
them fit to be beloved? did not the Lord? Do they make them-
selves differ from others? On what account did he do it? was it
not merely on the account of his own grace? Can he not as well
preserve them in a state of being beloved as put them into it? And
if he determined that he would not preserve them in that condition,
why did he set his love upon them when himself "knew that he
would not continue it to them? Was it only to give his love the
dishonour of a change? I say, then, the doctrine contended for
gives the love of God the glory of its immutability, asserts it to be
like himself, unchangeable, — that there is not, indeed, in itself the
"least shadow of turning." It may be eclipseil and obscured, as to
its beams and influences, for a season ; but changed, turned away, it
cannot be. And this consideration of it renders it to the souls of
the saints inestimably precious. The very thought of it, considering
that nothing else couUl possibly save or preserve them, is marrow to
their bones and health to their souls, and makes them cry out to
all that is within them to love the Lord and to live unto him.

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 397

Zdly. It gives it the glory of its fruitfulness. A barren love is
upon the matter no love. Love that hath no breasts, no bowels,
that pities not, that assists not, deserves not that heavenly name.
Will ye say she is a tender, loving, mother who can look on a lan-
guishing, perishing child, yea, see a ravenous beast, whom yet she
could easily drive away, take it out of her arms and devour it be-
fore her face, and not put forth her strength for its assistance or
deliverance? or will ye say she is a tiger, and a monster in nature?
And shall we feign such a love in God towards his children (which
is such that all the bowels of a tender parent to an only child are but
as a drop to the ocean in comparison of it) as that he looks on whilst
they languish and perish, fall, sink, and die away into everlasting
calamity? yea, that notwithstanding it he will suffer the roaring lion
to come and snatch them away out of his arms, and devour them be-
fore his face ; that he will look upon them sinking into eternal separa-
tion from him, and such destruction as that it had been infinitely better
for them never to have been born, without putting forth his power and
the efficacy of his grace for their preservation? " O foolish people
and unwise! shall we thus requite the Lord" as to render him so hard
a Master, so cruel a Father to his tender ones, the lambs of his Son,
washed in his blood, quickened by his Spirit, owned by him, smiled
on, embraced ten thousand times, as to suffer them so to be taken
out of his hands? Is there nothing in his love to cause his "bowels
to move and his repentings to be kindled together" towards a poor
dying child, that surely departeth not without some sad looks to-
wards his Father? "Nemorepente fit turpissimus." Is this the
kindness which he exalteth above the love of a woman to her suck-
ing child, of a mother to the fruit of her womb? Oh that men
should dare thus foolishly to charge the Almighty, to ascribe such a
barren, fruitless love to him who is love, towards his children, who
are as the apple of his eye, his dear and tender ones, as would be a
perpetual blot and stain to any earthly parent to have righteously
ascribed to him! I say, then, our doctrine gives the love of God the
glory of its fruitfulness. It asserts it to be such a fountain-love as
from whence continually streams of grace, kindness, mercy, and re-
freshment do flow : "Because he loveth us with everlasting love, there-
fore with loving-kindness he draweth us," Jer. xxxi. 3. From that
love proceed continual supplies of the Spirit and grace by whicli
those of whom it is said they " abide" are preserved lovely and fit by
him to be beloved. It tells us that because God " loveth his people,"
therefore are they " in his hand," Deut. xxxiii. 3. It declares it to
be such a love as is the womb of all mercy, whence pardon, healing,
recovery from wounds, sicknesses, and dying pangs, do continually
flow; a love upon the account whereof the persons loved may make
conclusion that they shall lack nothing, Ps. xxiii. 1 ; a love whose

o98 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE [CHAP.

fruitfulness is subservient to its own constancy, preserving the saints
such as he may rest in it unchangeably, Rom. viii. 29, SO; a love
Avhei'eby God " sings to his vineyard, watches over it, and waters it
every moment," Isa. xxvii. 2, 3. And now, what flint almost in the
rock of stone would not be softened and dissolved by this love? When
we shall think that it is from the love of God that our wasted por-
tion hath been so often renewed, that our dying graces have been
so often quickened, our dreadful backslidings so often healed, our
breaches and decays so often repaired, and the pardon of our in-
numerable transgressions so often sealed, unless we suck the breasts
of tigers, and have nothing in us but the nature of wolves and un-
clean beasts, can we hold out against the sweet, gracious, powerful,
effectual influence that it will have upon our souls? Thus, I say,
doth the doctrine which we have in hand set out the love of God
unto us in its eminent endearing properties, wherein, he being em-
braced through Christ, a foundation is laid, and eminent promotion
given unto the holiness and obedience which he requireth of us.

This doctrine renders Jesus Christ lovely to our souls, to the
souls of believers. It represents him to them as the "standard-bearer^
to ten thousand," as one " altogether lovely," as exceeding desirable
in the work of his oblation, and lovely and amiable in the work of
his intercession, as hath been manifested.

1st. [As for his oblation], it imports him as one who, in his death,
hath made an end of the controversy between God and our souls, Dan,
ix. 24, becoming " our peace," Eph. ii. 1 4, " having obtained for us
eternal redemption," Heb. ix. 12; that he hath not suffered all that
sorrow, anguish, pain, torment, dereliction, whereunto for our sakes he
was given up, and willingly exposed himself, for an uncertain end, not
fighting in his death as one beating the air, nor leaving his work in the
dust, to be trampled on or taken up as it seems good to us, in our pol-
luted, daik, dead estate of nature ; but hath filled it with such immor-
tal seed, that of itself, by itself, and its own unconquerable efficacy, it
hath sprung up to the bringing forth of the whole fruit intended in
it, and the accomplishment of all the ends aimed at by it; — that is,
that it shall certainly and infallibly bring all those to God for whom he
offered himself, byjustifying, sanctifying, and preserving tliem, through
the communication of his own Spirit and grace to them for that end
and purpose, " all his promises being yea and amen in him," con-
firmed by his death, 2 Cor. i. 20; Heb. x. 12-17. Some of those
who abuse the truth we have insisted on indeed pretend to grant
" That by his death he made satisfaction for sin, but only on condi-
tion that men believe on him, and continue so doing; that they shall
so believe, and so continue" (though he is said to be the " captain of
our salvation," and the " author and finisher of our faith," though it
' So some render Wi, Cant. v. 10. — Ed.

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 899

be "given unto us for his sake to believe on him/' and we are "blessed
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him"), that he takes
no care about beyond the general administration of outward means.
He neither procured any such thing by his oblation, nor doth inter-
cede for it. These things are left unto men, to be educed, drawn forth,
and exercised, by virtue of sundry considerations that they may take
upon themselves." Never, doubtless, did men take more pains to
stain the beauty and comeliness of our dying Saviour.

^.dly. [As] for his intercession, the doctrine hitherto insisted on ren-
ders him therein exceeding lovely and desirable. It tells you that he
doth " pray the Father," who thereupon " sendeth us the Comforter,"
the Holy Spirit, for all the gracious acts and works, ends and pur-
poses, before mentioned, with innumerable other privileges that the
saints by him are made partakers of, and that to " abide with us for
ever," never to leave us nor forsake us ; that he continually " appears
in the presence of God for us," interceding that our faith may not
fail, pleading for us in and under all our decays, making out to us
suitable supplies in all our distresses, temptations, trials, troubles,
taking care that " no temptation befall us," but that " a way also of
escape be given to us together with it;" — it tells us his eye, even
now he is in glory, is still upon us, seeing our wants, taking notice
of our weakness, and providing for us, as his only concernment in the
world, that we be not lost; that he hath not left one jot of that kind-
ness which he bare to his flock, his lambs, his little ones, but pursues
with all his strength, and all the interest he hath in heaven, the work
of their salvation, which he came from his Father's bosom to enter
on, and returned to him again to carry on unto perfection; that, as
the high priest of old, he bears our names on his breast and on his
shoulders continually before his Father: so that in all our falls and
fiiilings, when we are in ourselves helpless and hopeless, when there
is nothing in us nor about us that can do us any good, or yield us any
help or consolation, yet on this account we may say, " 'The Lord is our
shepherd, we shall not want:' he hath undertaken for us, and will
bear us in his arms, until he bring us to the bosom of his Father."

Now, whether such considerations as these, of the oblation and
intercession of Christ, do not fill his love in them with a more
constraining efficacy, and more draw out the hearts of the saints
unto faith and love, than any instruction can do informing men
of the uselessness of the one or other of these eminent acts of his
mediation for any of the ends and purposes mentioned, let be-
lievers judge. That which men repose upon in their greatest neces-
sities, and for the things of the greatest concernment, thereof they
have the greatest valuation, and the thoughts of it are most fixed in
their minds. What is there of so great concernment in this world
unto the saints as their abiding with God unto the end? How many,

400 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

how great, urging, pressing, are the difficulties, dangers, trouhles, they
meet witlial in their so doing! What, then, they have most frequent
recourse unto, and what they rest most upon under their pressures,
in the things of that concernment hefore mentioned, that will deserve
the name of their treasure, where their hearts will and ought to be.
Now, if this (setting aside, as things of no consideration in such a case,
the purposes, covenant, and promises of God, the oblation and inter-
cession of the Lord Christ) be men's own rational abilities to con-
sider what is for their good, and what will be hurtful and destructive
to them, what can hinder but that men will, yea, and that they often
should, spend the flower and best of their affections upon and about
themselves and their own wisdom in and for their preservation ? — that
doubtless will take up their hearts and thoughts, so that there will
be very little room left for the entertainment of the Lord Jesus
Christ with any regard or respect on this account. If that, then, may
pass which was formerly laid down, — namely, that the doctrines and
things which are apt and suited to the ingenerating, quickening, in-
creasing, and building up, of faith and love towards God and our
Lord Jesus Christ, are the most eminent gospel motives to spiritual,
acceptable obedience (as it is an unquestionable truth and certainty),
— doubtless that doctrine which represents the Father and Son so rich
in mercy, so loving and lovely to the soul, as that doth which we insist
upon, must needs have a most effectual influence into that obedience.

(5.) The doctrine insisted on hath an effectual influence into the
obedience of the saints, upon the account of giving it its proper place,
and setting it aright upon its basis, carrying it on in due order. It
neither puts upon it the fetters of the law, nor turns it loose from
the holy and righteous rule of it. Let men be as industrious as can
be imagined in the performance of all commanded duties, yet if they
do it on legal motives and for legal ends, all their performances are
vitiated, and all their duties rejected. This the apostle asserts against
the Jews, Eom. ix. 31, 82, " They sought for righteousness, but as it
were by the works of the law;" and therefore he tells them, chap.
X. 3, that " being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to
establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the right-
eousness of God." And the Papists will one day find a fire proceed-
ing out of their doctrine of merits, consuming all their good works
as " hay and stubble.'' There are also many other ways and prin-
ciples whereby obedience is vitiated, and rendered an abomination
instead of sacrifice, wherein our doctrine is no sharer; but this I raiist
not enter into, because it would lead me into other controversies,
which witli this I shall not intermix,

(6.) It naturally and sweetly mixeth with all the ordinances of
Christ instituted for the end under consideration; in particular,
with that great ordinance, the ministry of the gospel, in reference to

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE. 401

the great fruit and effect of it mentioned Eph. iv. 12, 13, "The
perfecting of the saints, the edifying of the body of Christ : till we all
come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful-
ness of Christ/' That which the Lord Jesus aimed at and intended
principally in giving pastors and teachei's to his church was, that they
might carry on the work of the ministry for the perfecting of the
saints, and their filling up the measure allotted unto them ; and this
they do by revealing the whole counsel of God unto them, keeping
back nothing that is profitable for them ; as was the practice of Paul,
Acts XX. 20, 27. Of this counsel or will of God, as by them man-
aged, there are two parts: —

[1.] The discovery of God and his will to them, as to the state
and condition whereunto he calls them, and which he requires them
to come up unto; and this consists in doctrines revealing God and his
will, which contain rules and precepts for men to walk by and yield
obedience unto.

[2.] That which is suited to the carrying on of men in the state and
condition whereunto they are called, according to the mind of God,
as also to prevail with them to whom the word doth come to enter
into the state of obedience and walking with God ; and this is usually
branched into three general heads, of promises, exhortations, and
threatenings. The management of these aright with power and
efficacy, with evidence and demonstration of the Spirit, is no small
part, yea, it is the greatest part, of the work of the ministry, the
greatest portion of what is doctrinal in the word or book of God re-
lating to these heads. And of this part of that ordinance of Christ,
the " ministry of the word," the pressing of men into a state of obe-
dience and to a progress in that estate, by promises, exhortations,
and threatenings, I shall briefly speak, either by way of demonstra-
tion and proof of what lieth before me, or in vindication of what is
affirmed in the same kind from the objections and exceptions of him
in particular with whom I have to do; aiming still at my former
assertion, that the doctrine I have insisted on naturally and clearly
closeth with those promises and exhortations, to help on their efficacy
and energy for the accomplishment of the work intended.

1st. For the first, let us take a taste oi the pj^omises, which are, as it
were, the very life and beauty of the covenant of grace, and the glory
of the ministry committed unto men ; and they are of two sorts, both
of which have their effectual influence into the obedience of saints: —

(1st.) There are promises which express only the work of God's
grace, and what he will freely do in and upon the hearts of his
thereby, as to the working holiness and obedience in them, as also
of liis pardoning mercy in his free acceptance of them in Jesus
Christ; and these are in a peculiar manner those "better promises"

VOL. XI. 26

402 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of tlic covenant of grace, upon the account whereof it is so exceed-
ingly exalted above that of works, which by sin w£is broken and dis-
annulled, Heb. viii. 6-12.

{2dly.) There are promises of what good and great things God will
farther do unto and for them who obey him ; as, that he will keep
them and preserve them that they shall not be lost, that their labour
and obedience shall end in the enjoyment of God himself, with an
immortal crown of glory which shall never fade away, Heb. xi. 9, 10.

Now, the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, and the stability of
the love of God unto them, closeth with the promises of both these
sorts, as to the end of carrying on and increasing obedience and holi-
ness in them. Take an instance in the first. The promises of the
work of God's grace in us and towards us are effectual as appointed
to this end: so in that great word, Gen. xvii. 1, (which the apostle
calls "The promise," Gal. iii. 17,) "I am the Almighty God;"—" I
am so, and will be so to thee, and that for and to all ends and pur-
poses of the covenant whatsoever." The inference is, " Walk before
me, and be thou perfect." Walking with God in uprightness and
sincerity is the projDcr fruit in us of his promise to be oirr all-sufficient
God in covenant; as, Jer. xxxi. 33, our becoming the "people of God"
in walking with him in all ways of obedience is the effect of his pro-
mise " to be our God, and to write his law in our hearts," not only
because by the grace of the promise we are brought into a state of
acceptance, and made the people of God, but also upon the account
of the engagement that is put upon us by that gracious promise to live
unto him ; whence in the close it is affirmed " v/e shall be his people."
Tlie word of the gospel, or the word of faith, doth mainly consist in
this; and what the aim of that is the apostle declares. Tit. ii. 11, 12,
" The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should
live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." Wiiich
general purport of the promises in this way is farther a-sserted, 2 Cor.
vii. 1, " Having," saith he, " these promises, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God." And most eminently is this assigned to the promises of that
sort which we now peculiarly insist upon, 2 Pet. i. 3, 4. To know
the way wlicrel)y these or any other promises are effectual to the end
and purpose intimated, two things are considerable: — First, What is
required to make them so effectual; Secondly, Wherein and how
they do exert that efficacy that is in them. For the first, the apostle
acquaints us on what account alone it is that they come to be useful
in this or any other kind : Heb. iv. 2, " The word of the gospel,"
tlic promise preached to them of old, " did not profit them," did
them no good at all. And the reason of this sad success in the
|)reaching of the gospel and declaration of the promises he gives

X.J . THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE, 4U3

you in the same verse ; it is that the word was " not mixed with
faith in them that heard it." It is the mixiug of the promises with
faith that renders them useful and profitable. Now, to whatever
faith is required, the more firm, strong, and stable it is, the more
effectual and useful it is. That, then, which is apt to establish faith,
to support and strengthen it, to preserve it from staggering, that
renders the promise most useful and effectual for the accomplish-
ment of any work whereunto it is designed, E.om. iv. 20. Now,
faith in the promises respects the accomplishment of the things
promised, as the apostle tells us in that commended and never-
enough-imitated example of the faith of Abraham: Rom. iv. 19-21,
" Being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead,
when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb : he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God ; and being
fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to
perform." Laying aside all considerations that might tend to the
impairing of his confidence, he firmly believed that it should be
to him as God had pi'omised. That the doctrine we insist on is
clearly conducing to the establishing of faith in the promises cannot
tolerably be called into question. Whatsoever is in those promises,
whatsoever considerations or concernments of Him Avhose they are,
as his faithfulness, unchangeableness, and omnipotency, that are
apt to strengthen faith in them, it preserves entire and exalteth. It
is a wild assertion, which men scarce sea,rch their own hearts (if, in-
deed, men know what belongs to believing in sincerity) when they
make, that the efficacy of the promises unto our obedience should
arise from hence, that the things promised may not be fulfilled, and
that the weakness of faith (and every such supposal doth at least
weaken it, yea, and tends to its subversion) should render the pro-
mise useful, which hath no use at all but as it is "mixed with faith."
For instance, the promise that God will be an all-sufficient God
unto us, that he will " circumcise our hearts and write his law in
them, that we shall fear him," is, as was manifested before, a useful
meditation for the ingenerating and quickening of obedience and
holiness in us. That it may be such a means, it is required that it
be " mixed with faith in them that hear it," as was declared. Ac-
cording as faith is strong or weak, so will its usefulness be. I ask,
then, whether this be a proper way to set this promise on work for
the end proposed, namely, to persuade them that should believe it
that all this may be otherwise, — God may cease to be their God,
their hearts may not be circumcised, nor the law mentioned written
in them? Is this the way to strengthen their faith and to keep
them from staggering? or rather, to subvert and cast down all their
confidence to the ofround? The doctrine v/e have under considera-

404 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

tiou continually sounds in the ears of believers that "God is faithful"
in all his promises, 1 Cor. i. 9 ; that he can, that he will, make them
good; that his own excellencies^ his own perfections, require no less
at his hands. And this it doth, not on any grounds that carry any
thing with them that may seem to incline to the least neglect of God,
or contempt of any property, excellency, or word of his, and so be apt
to breed presumption, and not faith, but on such only as give him
the glory of all that he hath revealed of himself unto us. And
therefore its genuine tendency must be to beget and increase pre-
cious and saving faith in the hearts of men; which we conceive to
lie in a more direct way of efficacy towards holiness and obedience
than the ingenerating of servile fears gendering unto bondage can do.
This, then, we have obtained: — first, That the promises peculiarly
insisted on are motives to and furtherances of obedience; secondly,
That the way whereby they become so is by being mixed with faith,
and the stronger faith is, the more effectual will the working of those
promises unto holiness be ; thirdly. That the doctrine of the perse-
verance of the saints, and stability of God's love to them, giving him
the glory of all his excellencies, which in his jDromises are to be con-
sidered, is suited to the carrying on of faith in its growth and in-
crease. Indeed, that which makes our belief of the promises of
faith divine is the rise it hath and the bottom whereiuto it is re-
solved,— namely, the excellencies of Him who makes the promises,
as that he is true, faithful, all-sufficient; the glory of all which is
given him in believing, as the apostle informs us, Rom. iv. 20, 21.
Yea, and all this he must be believed to be in reference to the ac-
complishment of his promises, or we believe them not with divine,
supernatural (if that term may be allowed), and saving faith. Surely
they must needs think us very easy of belief, and wholly unexperi-
enced in any communion with God, who shall suppose that we will
be persuaded that the doctrine which eminently asserts and ascribes
unto God the glory of all his attributes, which he would have us to
eye in his promises, strengthening faith on that account, doth anni-
hilate the promises in the word of the ministry, as to their usefulness
unto our obedience. Let us deal by instance : God hath promised to
"begin and perfect a good work in us." According as the promise is
"mixed with faith," so it will be useful and profitable to us. If there
be no faith, it will be of no use; if little, of little; if more, of more.
Let a man now be supposed to be wavering about his mixing this
promise with faith, whereupon the issue of its efficacy and fruitfulness,
as was said, doth depend, and let the doctrine we teach be called
in to speak in this case, and let us try whether what it says be pre-
judicial to establishment of faith, or whether it be not all that looks
towards its confirmation. It says, then, unto the soul of a believer,
" Why art thou so cast down, thou poor soul? and why are thy

X.] THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE, 405

thoughts perplexed within thee? It is true, thou art weak, unstable,
ready to fall away, and to perish. Thy temptations are many, great,
and prevalent, and thou hast no strength to stand against the power
and multitude of them. But look a little upon Him who hath pro-
mised that thou shalt never depart from Him, who hath promised to
finish the good work begun. He is unchangeable in his purposes,
faithful in his promises, and will put forth the ' exceeding greatness
of his power' for the accomplishment of them; so that though thou
failest, he will cause thee to renew thy strength, though thou fallest,
thou shalt not be cast down. He hath undertaken to work, and who
shall let him? The counsel of his heart, as to the fulfilling of it,
doth not depend on any thing in us. What sins thou art overtaken
Avithal he will pardon, and will effectually supply thee with his
Spirit, that thou shalt not fall into or continue in such sins as would
cut off thy communion with him." And doth not this mix the fore-
mentioned promises with faith, and so render it effectual to the
carrying on of the work of love and obedience, as was mentioned?
And as this doctrine is suited to the establishment of the soul in be-
lieving, and to the stirring of men up to mix the promises with faith,
so there is not any thing that is or can be thought more effectual to
the weakening, impairing, and shattering, of the faith of the saints
than that which is contrary thereunto, as shall afterward be more
fully manifested. Tell a soul that God will write his law in him,
and put his fear in his inward parts, that he shall never depart from
him; what can ye possibly pitch upon to unsettle him as to a per-
suasion of the accomplishment of this promise, and that it shall be
so indeed as God hath spoken, but only this: "According as thou
behavest thyself (which is left unto thee), so shall this be made good
or come short of accomplishment: if thou continue to walk with God
(which that thou shalt do he doth not promise, but upon condition
thou walk with him), it shall be well ; and if thou turn aside, which
thou mayst do, notwithstanding any thing here spoken or intimated,
then the word spoken shall be of none effect, the promise shall not
be fulfilled towards thee?" I know not what the most malicious devil
in hell (if they have degrees of malice) can invent more suited to
weaken the faith of men, as to the accomplishment of God's promise,
than by affirming that it doth not depend upon his truth and ftiithful-
ness, but solely on their good behaviour, which he doth not effectually
provide that it shall be such as is required thereunto. God himself hath
long since determined this difference, might he be attended unto.

What hath been spoken of the promises of the first sort might also
be manifested concerning those of the second; and the Hke might
also be cleared up in reference to those other weapons of ministers'
warfare, in casting down the strongholds of sin in the hearts of men,
to wit, exhortations and threatenings. But because Mr Goodwin

406 DOCTRIJ^E OF THE SAINT.s' I'EllSEVKllAiS'CE. [CHAP.

hath taken great pains, both in the general, to prove the unsuitable-
ness of our doctrine to the promotion of obedience and a holy con-
versation, and in particular its inconsistency with the exhortations
and threateuings of the word, managed by the ordinances of the
ministry, what is needful i'arther to be added to the purpose in hand
will fall in with our vindication and rescuing of the truth from the
false criminations wherewith it is assaulted and reproached as to this
particular; and therefore I shall immediately address myself to the
consideration of his loug indictment and charge against the doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints as to this very thing.

CHAPTER XI.

ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED.

The entrance into an answer to Mr G.'s arguments against the doctrine of the
saints' perseverance — His sixth argument about the usefulness of tlie doctrine
under consideration to the work of the ministry proposed — His procjf of the
minor proposition considered and answered — Many pretenders to promote
godliness by false doctrines — Mr G.'s common interest in this argument — His
proofs of the usefulness of his doctrine unto the promotion of godliness con-
sidered and answered — The consequence of his arguing discovered — The doc-
trine by him opposed mistaken, ignorantly or wilfully — Objections proposed
by Mr G. to himself to be answered — The objection as proposed disowned —
Certainty of the love of God, in what sense a motive to obedience — The doc-
trine of apostasy denies the unchangeableness of God's love to believers ;
placeth qualifications in the room of persons — How the doctrine of persever-
ance promiseth the continuance of the love of God to believers — Certainty of
reward encouraging to regular action — Promises made to persons qualified,
not suspended upon those qualifications — Means appointed of God for the
accomplishment of a determined end certain— Means not always conditions
— Mr G.'s strange inference concerning the Scripture considered — The word
of God by him undervalued and subjected to the judgment of vain men as to
its truth and authority — The pretended reason of the former proceeding dis-
cussed— The Scripture the sole judge of what is to be ascribed to God, and
believed concerning him — The doctrine of the saints' perseverance falsely im-
posed on, and vindicated — Mr G.'s next objection made to himself against his
doctrine — Its unscasonableness as to the argument in hand demonstrated —
No assurance of the love of God, nor peace left the saints, by the doctrine of
apostasy — The ground of peace and assurance by it taken away — Ground of
Paul's consolation, 1 Cor. ix. 27 — The meaning of the word aioKif^a; — Another
plea against the doctrine attempted to be proved by Mr G. — That attempt
considered — Not the weakness of the flesh naturally, but the strength of lust
spiritually pretended — The cause of sin in the saints farther discussed — 'J'he
power ascribed by Mr G. to men for the strengthening and making willing
the Spirit in them considered — The aptness of the saints to perform, what
and whence — The opposition they have in them thereunto — Gospel obedience,
how easy — The conclusion — Answer to chap. xiii. of his book proposed.

The argument wherein Mr Goodwin exposeth the doctrine under
contest to the trial concerning its usefulness as to the promotion of

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 407

godliness in the hearts and ways of them by whom it is received, he
thus proposeth, chap. xiii. sect. 82, p. 333, " That doctrine which is
according to godliness, and whose natural and proper tendency is to
promote godliness in the hearts and lives of men, is evangelical, and
of unquestionable comportance with the truth ; such is the doctrine
which teacheth the possibility of the saints' declining, both totally
and finally : ergo."

Of this argument he goeth about to establish the respective pro-
positions, so as to make them serviceable to the enforcement of the
conclusion he aimeth at, for the exaltation of the Helena whereof he
is enamoured; and as for the major proposition (about which, rightly
understood, we are remote from contesting with him or any else, and
will willingly and cheerfully at any time drive the cause in differ-
ence to issue upon the singular testimony of the truth wrapped up
in it), he thus confirmeth it : —

" The reason of the major proposition, though the truth of it
needed no light but its own to be seen by, is, because the gospel it-
self is a doctrine which is according unto godliness, a mystery of
godliness, — is a doctrine, truth, and mystery, calculated, contrived,
and framed by God with a singular aptness and choiceness of ingre-
dients for the advancement of godliness in the world. Therefore,
what particular doctrine is of tlie .same spirit, tendency, and import,
must needs be a natural branch thereof, and hath perfect accord with
it. This proposition, then, is unquestionable."

Ans. According to the principles formerly laid down, I have some-
thing to say, though not to the proposition itself, as in the terms it
lieth, but only as to the fixedness and staidness of it, that it may
not be a nose of wax, to be turned to and fro at every one's pleasure,
to serve their turns ; for what sort of men is there in the world, pro-
fessing the name of Christ, that do not lay claim to an interest in
this proposition for the confirmation of their opinions? It is but as a
common exordium in rhetoric, a useless flourish : "The doctrine which
is according to godliness," — that is, which the Scripture teacheth to
be true, and to serve for the promotion of godliness (not what doctrine
soever any dark, brain-sick creature doth apprehend so to do), in the
state and condition wherein the saints of God walk with him, — " is
a branch of the gospel." I add, " In the state and condition wherein
lue walk with God ;" for in the state of innocency, the doctrine of the
law, as a covenant of life, was of singular aptness and usefulness to
promote obedience, which yet is not therefore any branch or part of
the gospel, but opposite to it and destructive of it. All the advan-
tage, then, Mr Goodwin can expect from this argument to his cause
dependeth upon the proof of the minor proposition, which also must
be effected in answerable proportion to the restrictions and qualifica-
tions given to the major, or the whole will be void and of none effect;

408 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

that is, lie must prove it by the testimony of God to be "according
to godUness," and not give us in (by a pure begging of the thing in
question) that it is so in his apprehension, and according to the prin-
ciples whereon he doth proceed in the teaching and asserting of god-
liness. Mr Goodwin knows that there is no less difference between
him and us about the nature and causes of godliness than there is
about the perseverance of the saints; and therefore his asserting any
doctrine to be suited to the promotion of godliness, that assertion
being proportioned to his other hypothesis of his own, wherein we
accord not with him, and in particular to his notions of the causes
and nature of godliness, with which conceptions of his we have no
communion, it cannot be of any weight with us unless he prove his
affirmation according to the limitations before expressed. Now, this
he attempteth in the words following: —

" What doctrine," saith he, " can there be more proper and power-
ful to promote godliness in the hearts and lives of men, than that
which on the one hand promiseth a crown of blessedness and eternal
glory to those that live godlily without declining, and on the other
hand threateneth the vengeance of hell- fire eternally against those
that shall turn aside into profaneness, and not return by repentance?
whereas the doctrine which promiseth, and that with all possible
certainty and assurance, all fulness of blessedness and glory to those
that shall at any time be godly, though they shall the very next day
or hour degenerate, and turn loose and profane, and continue never
so long in such a course, is most manifestly destructive to godliness,
and encouraging above measure unto profaneness."

Ans. There are two parts of this discourse, the one zaTocffxevaffrixri,
or confirmatory of his own thesis; the other dmsKsvaoTijir;, or de-
structive of that which he opposeth. For the first, it is upon the
matter all that he produceth for the confirmation of bis minor propo-
sition, wherein any singular concernment of his opinion doth lie.
Now, that being, in a sound sense, the common inheritance of all
that profess the truth, under what deceits or mistakes soever, the
sum of what is here insisted on is, that the doctrine he maintaineth,
concerning " the possibility of the saints' defection, promiseth a crown
to them that continue in obedience, and threateneth vengeance of
fire to them that turn to profaneness;" which, taken as a proof of his
former assertion, is liable to some small exceptions: as, —

1. That this doth not at all prove the doctrine to be a branch or
parcel of the gospel, it being, as it standeth severally by itself, the
pure tenor of the covenant of works; which we confess to have been
of singular importance for the propagation of godliness and holiness
in them to whom it was given or with whom it was made, being
given and made for that very end and purpose. But that this alone
by itself is a peculiar branch or parcel of the gospel, or tiiat it is of

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 409

such singular importance for the carrying on of gospel obedience, as
so by itself proposed, that should here have been proved.

2, As it is also a part of the gospel, declaring the faithfulness of
God, and the end and issue of the proposal of the gospel unto men,
and of their receiving or refusing of it, so it is altogether foreign to
the doctrine of Mr Goodwin under contest. And he might as well
have said that the doctrine of apostasy is of singular import for the
promotion of holiness, because the doctrine of justification by faith
is so; for what force of consequence is betwixt these two: " That God
is a re warder of them that obey him, and a punisher of them that
rebel against him, is an incentive to obedience; therefore the doctrine
that true believers united to Jesus Christ may utterly fall out of the
favour of God, and turn from their obedience, and be damned for
ever, there being no promise of God for their preservation, is also an
incentive to holiness?"

8. What virtue soever there may be in this truth for the furtherance
and promotion of holiness in the world, our doctrine layeth as clear
claim to it as yours ; that is, there is not any thing in the least in
it inconsistent therewithal. We grant God threateneth the ven-
geance of hell-fire unto those that turn aside from their profession of
holiness into profaneness, the gospel itself becoming thereby unto
them " a savour of death unto death," the Lord thereby proclaiming
to all the world that "the wages of sin" and infidelity "is death," and
that "he that believeth not shall be damned;" but that any thing
can hence be inferred for the apostasy of true believers, or how this
assertion cometh to be appropriated to that doctrine, we see not.

The latter part of this discourse, whereby its author aimeth to ex-
clude the doctrine hitherto asserted by us from any claim laid to
usefulness for the promotion of godliness, is either a mistake of it,
through ignorance of the opinion he hath undertaken to oppose, or
a wailful perverting of it, contrary to his own science and conscience.
Is that the doctrine you oppose? Is it so proposed by those who,
through grace, have laboured to explain and vindicate it? Doth not
the main weight of the doctrine turn on this hinge, that God hath
promised to his saints, true believers, such supplies of the Spirit and
grace as that they shall never degenerate into such loose and pro-
fane courses as are destructive to godliness? Doubtless that doc-
trine is of a most spotless, untainted innocency, which its adversaries
dare not venture to strangle before they have violently and treacher-
ously defloured it.

And thus Mr Goodwin leaveth his arguments in the dust, like
the ostrich's eggs, under the feet of men, to be trampled on with
ease.

The residue of this discourse, onwards to the next argument, being
spent in the answering of pretended objections, put in against him-

410 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' rKRSEVERANCE. [ciIAP.

self in tlie behalf of tho doctrine of perseverance, not at all called
out by the import of his present arguments and discourses, I might
pass them over; but inasmuch as that which is spoken thereunto
tendeth to the farther clearing of what formerly hath been evidenced
concerning the suitableness of the doctrine contended for unto the
promotion of holiness, I shall farther consider what he draweth forth
on this occasion. Sect. 83, he giveth us an objection, and a four-
fold answer thereunto, pp. 833-335. That which he calleth an ob-
jection he layeth down in these words: —

"If it be objected and said, 'Yea, but assurance of the unchange-
ableness of God's love towards him that is godly is both a more
effectual and persuading motive unto godliness, and more encourag-
ing to a persevering in godliness, than a doubtfulness or uncer-
tainty whether God will be constant in his affection to such a man
or no; certainty of reward is more encouraging unto action than
uncertainty.^"

Ans. If any one hath been so weak as to make use of this plea
in behalf of that doctrine it seemeth to defend (which I scarcely be-
lieve), it will, I doubt not, be an easy task to undertake that he
shall be no more admitted or entertained as an advocate in this
cause. The assurance of the unchangeableness of God's love to
them that are godly is but one part of the doctrine in hand, and
that such as may perhaps be common to it with that which is brought
into competition with it. It is the assurance of the luichangeable-
ness of God's love to a man, to keep him up to godliness, to pre-
serve him in that state and condition of holiness to the end, and of
the certainty of the continuance of the love of God unto him on
that account and in that Avay, that is that great gospel motive to
obedience wherein, as its peculiar, our doctrine glorieth, as hath
formerly been manifested. Perhaps Mr Goodwin doth not think
that any man is bound to lay more blocks in his own way than he
judgeth himself well able to remove; and therefore he framed that
objection, so that he might be sure to return at least a specious an-
swer thereunto, and this he attempteth accordingly, and telleth us
in his first paragraph tlu-ee things : — •

1. " That the doctrine teaching the saints' defection doth also
maintain the unchangeableness of the love of God to them that are
godly."

Ans. But what love, I pray you, is that which, Avhen it might
prevent it, will yet suffer those godly ones to become such ungodly
villains and wretclies as that it shall be utterly impossible for the Lord
to continue his love to them ? Is the love you mention indeed a
love to their persons, or only an approbation of their duties and
qualifications? If the first, wlience is it that God ceaseth at p-c
time to love them ? Doth he chansre and alter his love like the *? of

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 411

of men? "Why, they change, therefore he changeth also." That God
changeth not, and therefore we, who are subject to change, are yet
preserved from bemg consumed, we have heard; but that, upon the
change that is in men, God also should change, we are yet to be in-
structed ; and the immutability of God hath taken greater hold upon
our understandings and in our hearts than that we should easily
receive any thing so diametrically opposite thereunto. If the love
mentioned be only an approbation of the qualifications that are in
them, and of the duties that they do perform, then is it no more a
love to them or to their persons than it is to the persons of the
most profligate wretches that live. The object is duty solely, where-
ever it may be found, and not any person at all ; for it is an act of
God's approving, not purjyosing or determining, will. This is not
our sense of the continuance of the love of God to them that are
godly. So that there is no comparison betwixt the doctrines under
contest, as to the asserting of the love of God to believers, or to
them that are godly. Wherefore he saith, —

2. " That the doctrine he opposeth promiseth God's love and the
unchangeable continuance of it unto men, though they change to
profaneness." Though this is said over and over a hundred times,
yet I cannot believe it, because the doctrine openly affirmeth the
continuance of the love of God to them that are godly to be effectu-
ally and eventually preventive of any such profaneness as is incon-
sistent therewithal. And therefore much more vain is that which he
affirmeth in the third place, namely, —

8. " That the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints doth not
so much absolutely promise the love of God to them that are godly
as it promiseth it conditionally to them that are profane, in case
they have been godly ; that is, it teacheth that God promiseth the
certain continuance of his love to him that is godly, on condition he
cease to be so and turn profane."

" Claudite jam rivos, pueri." We have enough of this already.

He addeth yet, " Neither is certainty of reward in every sense or
kind more encouraging unto action than uncertainty in some kind.
To promise with all possible assurance the same reward or prize to
him that shall not run in the race which is promised to him that
shall run, is not more encouraging unto men thus to run than to
promise it conditionally upon their running; which is a promising of
it with uncertainty in this respect, because it is uncertain whether
men will run in the said race or no, and consequently whether they
shall receive the said prize or no, upon such a promise. Uncertainty
of reward is, then, and in such cases, more encouraging unto action
than certainty, when the certainty of obtaining or receiving it is
ispended upon the act, not when it is assured unto men whether
Siey act or no."

412 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCK [cHAP.

A US. (1.) Persuade your servants, your labourers, if you can, of
that great encouragement that lies in the uncertainty of a reward
above that which may be had from an assurance thereof. We are
not as yet of that mind. And yet, —

(2.) We do not lay the motive unto obedience tendered by the
doctrine we contest for only on the certainty of reward which it
asserteth, — which yet is such that without it all others must needs bo
of little purpose, — but it hath also other advantageous influences into
the promotion of holiness, which in part have been insisted on.

(3.) It seemeth we say that " God promiseth a reward to them
that shall not run a race," because we maintain that he promiseth
it to none but those who do run in a race, promising withal to give
them strength, power, and will, that they may do so to the end.

(4.) For the close, which amounteth to this, that the certainty of
reward when it is uncertain (for so it is made to be when it is sus-
pended on actions that are uncertain) is more encouraging to action
than certainty of reward not so suspended, I shall add only (because
I know not indeed how this discourse hangeth on the business under
consideration), that we neither suspend the certainty of reward upon
our actions in the sense intimated, neither do we say that it is assured
to men whether they act or no; but we say that the reward, which is
of grace, through the unchangeable love of God, shall be given to
them that act in holiness; and through the same love shall all be-
lievers be kept to such an acting of holiness as God thinketh good
to carry them out unto, for the " fulfilling of all the good pleasure of
his goodness in them, and for making them meet for the inheritance
of the saints in liqht." We do not think mediums designed of God
for the accomplishment of any end are such conditions of the end
that it is suspended on them in uncertainty in respect of the issue
before its accomplishment; neither do we grant, nor can it be
proved, that God assigneth any medium for the accomplishment of
a determinate end (such as we have proved the salvation of all be-
lievers to be), and leaves it in such a condition as that not only it
shall be effected and produced suitably to the nature of the imme-
diate cause of which it is, whether free, necessary, or contingent, but
also shall be so far uncertain as that it may or may not be wrought
and accomplished.

The former part of this third paragraph is but a repetition of an
assertion which, upon the credit of his own single testimony, we have
had often tendered, namely, " That an assurance given lum that is
godly of the love of God not depending on any thing in him, which
it is uncertain whether he will perform or no, is no motive to men
to continue in the ways of holiness." This, as I said before, I cannot
close withal. That that which is a motive to faith and love, and
eminently suited to the stirring of them up, and setting them on

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 413

work, is also a motive to the obedience which is called " work of
faith and labour of love/' hath been declared. If there be any thing
of the new and heavenly nature in the soul, any quality or disposition
of a child therein, what can be more effectual to promote or advance
the fear, honour, and reverence of God in it, than an assurance of
his Spirit to continue and preserve it in those ways which are well
pleasing unto him? It is confessed that, in many promises of accep-
tation here and reward hereafter, the things and duties that are the
means and ways of enjoying the one and attaining the other are
mentioned, not as conditions of the grace and love of God to them
to whom the promises are made, as though they should depend on
any thing of their uncertain accomplishment, as hath been declared,
but only as the means and ways which God hath appointed for men
to use and walk in unto those ends, and which he hath absolutely
promised to work in them and to continue to them.

4. The close of this paragraph, in the fourth place, deserveth a
little more clear consideration, it containing an assertion which some
would not believe when it was told them, and which hath stumbled
not a few at the repetition of it. Thus, then, he proceedeth : —

" Besides, whether any such assurance of the unchangeableness of
the love of God towards him that is godly, as the objection speaketh
of, can be effectually and upon sufficient grounds cleared and proved,
is very questionable, yea, I conceive there is more reason to judge
otherwise than so. Yea, that which is more, I verily believe that in
case any such assurance of the unchangeableness of God's love were
to be found in, or could regularly be deduced from, the Scriptures, it
were a just ground to any intelligent and considering man to ques-
tion their authority, and whether they were from God or no; for
that a God infinitely righteous and holy should irreversibly assure
the immortal and undefiled inheritance of his grace and favour unto
any creature whatsoever, so that though this creature should prove
never so abominable in his sight, never so outrageously and despe-
rately wicked and profane, he should not be at liberty to withhold
this inheritance from him, is a saying doubtless too hard for any man
who rightly understandeth and considereth the nature of God to
bear."

Ans. The love mentioned in the foregoing objection is that which
God beareth to them that are godly in Jesus Christ, exerting itself
partly in his gracious acceptation of their persons in the Son of his
love, partly in giving to them of his Holy Spirit and grace, so that
they shall never depart utterly and wickedly from him, and forsake
him, or reject him from being their God, Whether an assurance of
this love may on good grounds be given to believers hath been al-
ready considered, and the affirmative, I hope, in some good measure
confirmed; the farther demonstration of it awaiting its proper sea-

414 DOCTRINE OF TUE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

son, which the will of God shall give unto it. This Mr Goodwin
saith to him is "questionable;" yea, I suppose it is with him out of
question, that it cannot he, else surely he would not have taken so
much pains in labouring to disprove it. And that this is his resolved
judgment he manifesteth in the next words, " I verily believe that
in case any such assurance were to be found," etc.; that is, "Si
Deus homini non placuerit, Deus non erit." What more contempt-
ible could the Pagans of old have spoken of their dunghill deities,
with their amphibolous [i.e., ambiguous] oracles? Were it not fitter
language for the Indian conjurers, who beat and afflict their hellish
gods if they answer not according to their desires? The whole au-
thority of God, and of his word in the Scriptures, is here cast down
before the consideration of an "intelligent man" (forsooth), or " a vain
man that would be wise, but is like the wild ass's colt." And this "in-
telligent man," it seems, may contend to reject the word of God, and
yet be accounted most wise! Of old, the prophet thought not so. To
what end is any farther dispute? If the Scripture speaketh not to
Mr Goodwin's mind (for doubtless he is "an intelligent and consider-
ing man"), he seeth sufficient ground to question its authority. By
what way possible any man can more advance himself into the throne
of God than by entertaining such thoughts and conceptions as these,
I know not. An "intelligent man" is supposed to have from himself,
and his own wisdom and intelligence, considerations of God's nature
and perfections by which he is to regulate and measure all things
that are affirmed of God or his will in the Scripture. If what is so
delivered suit these conceptions of his, that Scripture wherein it is
delivered may pass for canonical and authentic; if otherwise, "eadem
facilitate rejicitur qua asseritur," which was sometimes spoken of
traditionals, but, it seems, may now be extended to the written word.
The Scripture is supposed to hold out things contrary to what this
"intelligent man" hath conceived and considered, and this is asserted
as a just ground to question its authority; and if this be not a pro-
gress in the contempt of the word of God to whatever yet Papists,
Socinians, or enthusiasts, have attempted, I am deceived. " To the
law and to the testimony" with all the conceptions and notions of
the most intelligent men : if they answer not to this rule, " it is be-
cause there is no light in them."

But he addeth the reason of this bold assertion ; for saith he,
" That a God infinitely righteous and holy should irreversibly," etc.

Ans. Neither yet doth this at all mend the matter. Neither doth
the particidar instance given alter at all, but confirm the first general
assertion, — namely, " That if there be any thing in the Scriptures
contrary to those thoughts of God which an intelligent man (without
the Scripture) doth conceive of him, he hath just gi'ounds to question
their authority;" which wholly casts down the word of God from its

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 415

excellency, and setteth a poor, dark, blind creature, under the notion
of an "intelligent man," at liberty from his subjection thereunto, mak-
ing him his own rule and guide as to his apprehensions of God and
his will. And is it possible that such a thought should enter into
the heart of a man fearing God and reverencing his word, which
God hath magnified above all his name? There is scarce any one
truth in the whole book of God, but some men, passing in the world
for " intelligent and considering men," do look upon it and profess it
to be unworthy of an infinitely righteous and holy God. So do the
Socinians think of the doctrine of the satisfaction of Christ, the great
treasure of the church. At the rate that men pass at in this world,
it will be difficult to exclude many of them from the number of "in-
telligent and considering men ; " and are they not all absolved here by
Mr Goodwin, on this principle, from bowing to the authority of God in
the Scriptures, having "just ground to question whether they are from
God or no ?" The case is the same with the Papists and others, in
sundry particulars. Frame the supposition how you will, in things
never so uncouth and strange, yet if this be the position, that in
things which appear so to men, upon their consideration, if any thing
in the Scripture be held out or may be deduced from this to the
contrary, they are at liberty from submitting their understandings to
them, and may arraign them as false and supposititious, their whole
divine authority is unquestionably cast down to the ground, and
trampled on by the feet of men. Kai Tuura fisv nrpog 7-aDra. God
will take care for the vindication of the honour of his word.

The supposition here made l)y Mr Goodwin, and imposed on his
adversaries, is, as hath been showed, wretchedly false, not once spoken
or owned by them with whom he hath to do, not having the least
colour given unto it by the doctrine they maintain ; yea, it is diametri-
cally opposite thereunto. The main of what they teach, and which
Mr Goodwin hath opposed in this treatise, endeavouring to answer
that eminent place of 1 John iii. .0, with many others produced and
argued to that purpose, is, that God will, according to the tenor of
the covenant of grace, so write his law in the hearts of his, and put
his fear in their inward parts, that they shall never depart from him,
so as to become "desperately and outrageously profane," but be pre-
served such to the end as that the Lord, with the greatest advan-
tage of glory to his infinite wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, may
" irreversibly assure the immortal inheritance of his love and favour
unto them." So that Mr Goodwin's discourse to the end of this sec-
tion, concerning the continuance of the love of God to them that are
wicked, with an equal measure of favour to them that are godly,
according to this doctrine, is vain and grossly sophistical, and such
as he himself knoweth to be so. To say " every one that doth evil is
good in the sight of the Lord, and that he delighteth in him," — that

416 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

is, he approveth wicked and ungodly men, — we know is sufficiently
dishonourable to him; but yet to say that he delighteth in his church
and people, washed and made holy in the blood of Christ, notwith-
standing their failings, or their being sometimes overtaken with great
sins, when he pleaseth, in an extraordinary way, for ends best known
to himself, to permit them to fall into them (which yet he doth sel-
dom and rarely), is that which himself affirmeth and ascribeth to
himself in innumerable places of Scripture (if their authority may
pass unquestioned), to the praise of the glory of his grace. But it
seemeth, if we take any care that Mr Goodwin may not call the
authority of the Scriptures into question (he being fully resolved that
the doctrine of the saints' perseverance is unworthy of a holy and
righteous God), we must give over all attempts of farther deducing
it from them; but yet, for the present, Ave shall consider what he hath
farther to object against it.

Sect. 34<, he farther objecteth against himself and his doctrine, in
the behalf of that which he doth oppose, in these words : —

" It is possible that yet some will farther object against the argu-
ment in hand: 'Unless the saints be assured of the perpetuity of
their standing in the grace and favour of God, they must needs be
under fears of falling away, and so of perishing; and fear, we know,
is of a discouraging and enfeebling nature, an enemy unto such ac-
tions which men of confidence and courage are apt to undertake.'"

Ans. What this objection maketh in this place I know not. It
neither asserteth any eminency in the doctrine by Mr Goodwin
opposed, as to the promotion of godliness, nor immediately chal-
lengeth that which he doth maintain of a contrary tendency, but
only iutimateth that the saints' consolation and peace is weakened
by unnecessary fears, — such as his opinion is apt to ingenerate in
them. But, however, thus far I own it, as to the main of the observa-
tion in hand, that the doctrine of the apostasy of believers is apt and
suited to cut the saints of God and heirs of the promise short of that
strong consolation which he is so abundantly wilHng that they should
receive, and to fill their souls and perplex their consciences with cares,
fears, and manifold entanglements, suited to weaken their faith and
love, and alienate their hearts from that delight in God to which they
are called, and otherwise would be carried forth unto. They being
all of them, in some measure, acquainted with the strength, subtlety,
and power, of indwelling sin; the advantages of Satan in his mani-
fold temptations; the eminent success which they see every day the
" principalities and powers in heavenly places," which they wrestle
withal, to have against them; and being hcrewithal taught that there
is neither purpose nor promise of God for their preservation, that
there isnotliing to that purpose in the covenant of grace; — the con-
sideration of their condition must of necessity fill them with innu-

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 41 7

merable perplexities, and make them their own tormentors all their
days. Thus far, I say, I own the objection. That it is not properly
courage or confidence, but faith, love, and reverence, that are the
principles of our actions in walking with God, hath been declared.

But what saith Mr Goodwin to the objection as by himself laid
down? Besides what he relateth of his conquest of it in other j^laces,
he addeth, —

That " the saints, notwithstanding the possi])ility of their final fall-
ing away, have, or may have, such an assurance of the perpetuity of
their standing in the grace and favour of God as may exclude all
fear, at least that which is of a discouraging or enfeebling nature.
The apostle, as we have formerly showed, lived at a very excellent
rate both of courage and confidence, notwithstanding he knew that
it was possible for him to become a reprobate. The assurance he had,
that, upon a diligent use of those means which he knew assuredly
God would vouchsafe unto him, he should prevent his being a re-
prolmte, was a golden foundation unto him of that confidence and
courage wherein he equalized the holy angels themselves."

Ans. 1. The grounds asserted by Mr Goodwin on which believers
may build the assurance pretended, of the perpetuity of their stand-
ing in the grace and favour of God, notwithstanding the possibility
of their defection (the assertion whereof costs no less than the deny-
ing of all or any influence from the purpose, promises, covenant,
or oath of God, or mediation of Christ, into their preservation), I
have formerly considered, and manifested them to be so exceeding
unable to bear any such building of confidence upon as is pretended,
that it is almost a miracle how any thoughts of such a structure on
such quicksands could ever find place in the mind of a man any
thing seriously acquainted with the ways of God. The whole of the
saints' preservation in the love and favour of God (as it is also ex-
pressed in this section) is resolved into men's self- considerations and
endeavours. Being weary, it seemeth, of leaning on the power of
God, to be kept thereby unto eternal salvation, men begin to trust
to themselves and their own abilities to be their own keepers ; but
what will they do in the end thereof? The sum of what Mr Good-
win hath formerly said, and what he repeateth again to the end of
this section, is, " Men need not fear their falling away, though it is
possible, seeing they may easily prevent it if they will;" — expressions
sufficiently contemptive of the grace of God, and the salvation that
God assureth us thereby; an assertion which those ancients which
Mr Goodwin laboureth to draw into communion with him would
have rejected and cast out as heretical. Man's ability thus to preserve
himself in the grace and favour of God to the end is either from
himself or from the grace of God? If from himself, let us know
what that ability is, and wherein it doth consist, and how he comes

VOL. XI. 27

418 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

by it. Christ telleth us that " without him we can do nothing;" and
the apostle, that " we are not suflficient of ourselves to think a good
thought, but that all our sufficiency is of God:" so that this self-
ability for preservation extendeth not to the thinking a good thought,
— indeed is nothing. Is it from the grace of God? Then the as-
surance of it must be either because God promised absolutely so to
" work in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure" as that
he should certainly be preserved ; which you will not say, as I sup-
pose: or because he will so afford him his gi'ace as that he may
make use of it to the end proposed if he please. But now what as-
surance hath he that he shall so make use of his gi'ace as to make it
effectual for the end designed? And is this good use of grace of
himself, or of grace also? If of himself, it is " nothing," as was showed
from that of our Saviour, John xv. 5, neither can a man promise
himself much assistance from the ability of doing nothing at all. If
you shall say it is of grace, the same question ariseth as formerly,
manifesting that there is not the least assurance imaginable of our
continuance in the grace and favour of God, but what ariseth from
his faithful promises (efficaciously overcoming all interveniencies) that
we shall so do.

2. He telleth us that " Paul lived at an excellent rate of assurance,
and yet knew that it was possible for him to be a reprobate." I con-
fess, indeed, he lived at an excellent rate of assurance, which he mani-
festeth himself to have received upon such principles and founda-
tions as were common to him with all true believers, Rom. viii. 32-35.
That it was possible in respect of the event that he might have been
a reprobate who was chosen from eternity is not proved. He saitli,
indeed, 1 Cor. ix. 27, "I keep under my body, and bring it into sub-
jection, lest by any means I should be found ddom/Mog." That by udoxi-
/xog, there, any more is intended than " not approved or accepted " in
that service he had in hand, Mr Goodwin laboureth not to evince; and
if that be the sense of the words (as the scope of the Avhole manifest-
eth it to be), then all that Paul there expresseth is, that he endea-
voured always to approve himself, and by all means, an acceptable
workman, not to be rejected or disallowed in the labour of preaching
the gospel which he had undertaken. And we acknowledge that this
thought and contrivance may w^ell become him wdio liveth at the
greatest rate of assurance that God affordeth to any here below ; yea,
that such thoughts and endeavours do naturally and genuinely flow
from the assurance of the love of God we also grant. But yet, sup-
posing that being a rej^robate, by a metonymy of the effect, may hei'e
signify to be damned, how doth this prove that it was possible in
respect of the event that he should be damned ? *' Why, because he
laboured that he might not be so." That is, no man can use the
means of avoiding any thing, but he must be uncertain whether in

XI.] AEGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 419

the use of those means it may be avoided or no ! This looketh like
begging the thing in question. Paul, labouring and endeavouring in
the ways expressed, evidently manifesteth such a labour and endea-
vour, in such a way, to be the appointed means of avoiding the con-
dition of being adoxifiog. That there is an infallible connection
betwixt the use of such means and the deliverance from that state
is proved. But that Paul had not assurance of the sufficiency of the
grace of God with him for his certain use of those means, and certain,
infaUible deliverance from that end, nothing in the least is intimated
in the text, or brought in from any place else by Mr Goodwin, to give
colour thereunto. But of this scripture at large afterward.

Supposing himself to have fairly quit himself of the former plea
in the behalf of our doctrine, as by himself proposed, he addeth an-
other pretension in the behalf of the same plea foraierly produced,
which he attempteth also to take out of the way, having in some
measure prepared it in his proposal of it for an easy removal. Thus,
then, he proceedeth, "To pretend that, the weakness of the flesh in
the best of saints considered, and their aptness to go astray, they
must needs lie under many troublesome and tormenting fears of
perishing, unless they have some promise or assurance from God to
support them, that notwithstanding any declinings or goings astray
incident unto them yet they shall not lose his favour or perish, is to
pretend nothing but what hath been thoroughly answered already,
especially in chap, ix."

Ans. Before I can admit this plea to be put in in our behalf, I
shall crave leave a little to rectify and point it more sharply against
the doctrine it aimeth to oppose. I say, then, —

1. It is not the "weakness of the flesh," or the feebleness and dis-
ability of our natural man to act in, or go through with, great duties
and trials, but the strength and wilfulness of the flesh, that is, of the
corrupted man, even in the best of saints, continually provoking and
seducing them, with sometimes an insuperable efficacy leading them
captive, and working in them continually with a thousand baits and
wiles (as hath been in part discovered), labouring to turn them aside
from God, that fills the saints of God with tormenting, perplexing
fears of perishing; and must needs do so if they have no promise of
God for their preservation. Besides all this strength and wilfulness
of the flesh, they are exposed to the assaults of other most dreadful
adversaries, " wrestling with principalities and powers in heavenly
places," and contending with the world as it lieth under the curse, all
their days. To refer all the oppositions that believers meet withal
in the course of their obedience, and which may fill them with
fears that they shall one day perish, if not supported by an almighty
hand, and " kept by the power of God through faith unto salva-
tion," unto the " weakness of the flesh," — which, in the place where

420 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the expression is used, plainly pointeth at the disability of the natu-
ral man to abide in and go through with great duties and trials, — is
a most vain and empty contemplation. Those who have to do with
God in the matter of gospel obedience, and know what it is indeed
to "serve him under temptations," can tell you another manner of
story; and among them Mr Goodwin could do so to the purpose,
if his thoughts were not prejudiced by any biassing opinions that
must be leaned unto.

2. We do not say that the saints of God, in the condition men-
tioned, stand in need of any promise of God, that notwithstanding
any declinings or goings astray incident unto them, they shall not
lose his favour or perish ; but, that they shall have such a presence of
his Spirit and sufficiency of his grace with them all their days, that
they shall never, notwithstanding all the oppositions and difficulties
they meet withal, utterly fail in their faith, nor be prevailed against
to depart wickedly and utterly from God. And now I see not but
that, supposing that it is necessary that the saints be delivered from
troublesome, perplexing fears of perishing, and that God hath made
provision for that end and purpose (which that he hath seems to be
granted by our author), — I say, I cannot see but that this plea striketh
at the very heart of the apostasy of saints, though not very fitly
brought in in this place, in reference to the argument that occasioned
it. But our author, knowing his faculty to lie more in evading what
is objected against him than in urging arguments for his own opi-
nion, doth everywhere, upon the first proposal of any argument, divert
to other considerations and to the answering of objections, though,
perhaps, not at all to the plea in hand, nor any way occasioned by
it. But what saith he, now, in defence of his dearly beloved, thus
attempted, to vindicate it from this sore imputation of robbing and
despoiling the saints of God of their peace and assurance, purchased
for them at no less rate than the blood of the Lord Jesus? He
telleth you, then, three things: —

1. " That the weakness of the flesh, or aptness of miscarrying
through this, is no reasonable ground of fear to any true believer of
his perishing, considering that no man loseth or forfeiteth the grace
and favour of God through sins of weakness or infirmity. It is only
the strength of sin and corruption in men that exposeth to the
danger of losing the love of God."

Atis. The latter part of these words plainly discovers the vanity
of the former, as produced for any such end and purpose as that in
hand : for though I willingly grant that that which is termed " The
weakness of the flesh" is enough to make any man whatever fear that
he shall not hold out in the course of his obedience to the end, if he
liave no promise of supportment and preservation by an almighty
power (notwithstanding it is affirmed that it draweth men only to

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTEINE CONSIDERED. 42 J

" sins of weakness or infiraiity," which I thought had not been called
so from weakness of the flesh, but of grace in believers), yet it is the
strength, the power, the law, the subtlety of the flesh, or indwelling-
sin, that is the matter of our plea in this case; not that which Paul
"gloried in," even his " infirmity," but that which made him cry out,
*' O wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body
of this death?" and from the distress by reason whereof he found no
deliverance, but only in the assured love of God in Jesus Christ,
Rom. vii., viii. 1. So that notwithstanding this reply, shaped to
fortify the minds of men against their failings upon the account of
the weakness of grace, rather than of the flesh (which yet it is not
able to do, for if there be no promise to the contrary, why may not
the principle which carrieth men forth to lesser carry them also forth
to greater and more provoking sins? what boundaries will you pre-
scribe unto these sins of infirmity?), the pretension from the strength
of the flesh (yea, from the weakness of it) holdeth good against the
saints' establishment in peace and assurance, upon the account of
their being destitute of any promise of preservation by God.

2. " If the saints be willing," saith he, " to strengthen the Spirit
in them, and make him willing proportion ably to the means pre-
scribed and vouchsafed unto them by God for such a purpose, this
will fully balance the weakness of the flesh, and prevent the mis-
carriages and breaking out hereof. ' This, I say, then,' saith the
apostle, ' walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the
flesh.' And again, * If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under
the law,' and consequently are in no danger of losing the favour of
God, or of perishing for such sins which, under the conduct of the
Spirit, ye are subject unto."

Ans. But that all now must be taken in good part, and nothing
called strange or uncouth, since we have passed the pikes in the last
section, I should somewhat admire at the doctrine of this paragraph ;
for, —

(1.) Here is a willing, in reference to a great spiritual duty, supposed
in men antecedent to any assistance of Him who " worketh both to
will and to do of his good pleasure." What he worketh, he worketh
by the Spirit; but this is a willing in us distinct from and ante-
cedent to the appearing of the Spirit, for the strengthening thereof.

(2.) That whereas we have hitherto imagined that the Spirit
strengtheneth the saints, and that their supportment had been from
him, as we partly also before declared (at least we did our mind to
be so persuaded), it seemeth they " strengthen the Spirit in them,"
and not he them ! How, or by what means, or by what principles in
them, it is that so they do is not declared. Besides, what is here in-
tended by "the Spirit" is not manifested. If it be the holy and blessed
Spirit of God, he hath no need of our strengthening; he is able of

422 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

himself to " make us meet for the inheritance of the saints in hght."
If it be the gracious princijjles that are bestowed upon the saints
that are intended, the "new creature/' tlie "inward man," called "the
Spirit" in the Scripture, in opposition to " the flesh ;" if our strength-
ening this Spirit be any thing but the acting of the graces intended
thereby in us, I know not what you mean. Especially, in what is
or consists their acting to make "the Spirit willing proportionably
to the means we do receive," am I to seek. To say that we receive
outward means of God (for so they must be, being distinguished
from the Spirit), and thereupon of ourselves do make the Spirit
willing, and strengthen him to the performance of God, surely holds
out a very sufficient power in spiritual things inbred in us and abid-
ing with us, whereof there is not the least line or appearance in the
whole book of God, nor in any author urged by Mr Goodwin to give
countenance to his persuasion.

(3.) Neither is the sum of all this answer any other but this : " If we
are willing, and will prevent all miscarriages from the weakness of the
flesh, we may." But how we become willing so to do, and what assur-
ance we have that we shall be so willing, seeing all in us by nature as
to any spiritual duty is flesh, is not intimated in the least, John iii. 6.
This is strenuously supposed all along, that to be willing imto spi-
ritual good in a spiritual manner is wholly in our own power; and
an easy thing it is, no doubt. The plea in hand is : Such is the
strength of indwelling sin in the best of the saints, and so easily
doth it beset them, that if they have not some promise of God to
assure them that they shall have constant supply of grace from him,
and by his power be preserved, it is impossible but that they must
be filled with perplexing fears that they shall not hold out in giving
him willing obedience to the end, their will being in an especial
manner entangled with the power of sin. It is answered, " If men
be but willing, etc., they need not fear this or any such issue;" that
is, " If they do the thing which they fear, and have reasons invincible
to fear, that they shall not, they need not fear but that they shall
do it;" which is nothing but an absurd begging of the thing in ques-
tion. jSTeithcr is there any thing in the Scripture that will give a
pass to this beggar, or shelter him from due correction. The apostle,
indeed, saith, that if we " Avalk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the
lust of the flesh." And good reason there is for it; for, as he told
us, these are contrary to one another, and opposite to one another,
and bring forth such diverse and contrary fruits in them in whom
they are, that if we walk in the one we shall not fulfil the lusts of
the other. But what assurance have we that we shall " walk in the
Spirit," if it be not hence, that God hath promised that " his Spirit
shall never depart from us?" And he saith, " If we are led by the Spirit
we are not under the law ; " which, by the way, letteth us see that the

XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 423

Spirit leadeth us, — that is, maketh us willing, and strengtheneth us,
not we him. But on what account shall or dare any man promise to
himself that the Spirit will continue so to do, if God hath not promised
that he shall so do? or, if his leading of us be only on condition that
we be willing to be led, how shall we be in the least ascertained (sup-
posing us in any measure acquainted with the power of indwelling
sin) that we shall be always so willing? Let, then, this pass with
what was said befoi^e, as nothing to the thing in hand.

S. " It is answered, then (thirdly and lastly), there is no such apt-
ness or proneness unto sin, — sins, I mean, of a disinheriting import,
— in saints or true believers, as is pretended ; but, on the contrary, a
strong propension or inclination unto righteousness reigneth in them.
We heard formerly from the apostle, 1 John iii. 9, that ' he that is
born of God cannot sin;' and also from 1 John v. 18. From these
suppositions, with many other of like import, it is evident that there
is a pregnant, strong, overpowering propension in all true believers
to walk holily and to live righteously: so that to refrain sinning in
the kind intended is no such great mastery, no such matter of diffi-
culty, unto such men ; and that when they are overcome and fall into
sin, it is through a mere voluntary neglect. And thus we see, all
things impartially weighed and debated to and fro, that the 'doctrine
which supposeth a possibility of the saints' declining is the doctrine
which is according to godliness,' and the corrival of it an enemy
thereto."

Ans. We have here an assertion, an inference, and a conclusion.
The assertion is, that " there is no such aptness and proneness to sin
in believers as is intimated," and that " because there is such a strong
propensity in them to righteousness," which that they have is proved
from sundry places of Scripture. That is, because the Spirit is in
believers, the flesh is not in them ; because they have a new man in
them, they have not an old; because they have a principle of life,
they have not a body of death. That is, where the Spirit lusteth
against the flesh, the flesh lusteth not against the Spirit. We thought
the doctrine of Paul, Rom. vii.. Gal. v. 17, and in innumerable other
places, with the experience of all the saints in the world, had lain
against this piece of sophistry. It is true, their propension unto
I'ighteousness reigneth in them, but it is as true their propension
unto sin rebelleth in them. Though the land be conquered for
Christ, yet the Canaanites will dwell in it; and if the saints leave
off but one day the work of killing, crucifying, and mortifying, they
will quickly find an actual rebellion in them not easy to be sup-
pressed. They have, indeed, a propension to holiness ruling in them,
but also a propension unto sin dwelling in them ; so that " when they
would do good, evil is present with them, and the good they would
do they cannot." But when Mr Goodwin can prove this conse-

424 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

quence, that saints have strong inclinations to righteousness, there-
fore they have not so to sin, for my part I will forbear for ever dis-
puting with him. If he can beat us, not only from Scripture, but from
all our spiritual sense and experience, doubtless it is to no purpose
to contend any longer with him. Hence, then, —

He inferreth that " to abstain from sinning," — that is, sinning
customarily and against conscience, so as to endanger the loss of the
favour of God, — "is no such great mastery, no such matter of difficulty,
to such men." This abstaining from such sins on the one hand is
the whole course of our gospel obedience ; which, it seemeth, however
it be compared to " running in a race," " striving for masteries," and
be called " resisting unto blood," " wrestling with principalities and
powers," and requiring for its carrying on "the exceeding greatness of
the power of God," with suitable " help in time of need" from Jesus
Christ, who is sensible of the weight of it, as no small matter, know-
ing what it is to " serve God in temptations," yet is it indeed but a
trifling thing, a matter of no great difficulty or mastery. Do men
watch, pray, contend, fight, wrestle with God and Satan? Doth the
Lord put forth his power, and the Lord Jesus Christ continually in-
tercede, for the preservation of the saints? "Ad quid perditio haac?"
To what end is all this toil and labour about a thing of little or no
weight? '" Egregiam vero laudem!" We know, indeed, the "yoke
of Christ is easy, and his commandments not grievous; that we can
do all things through him that enableth us:" but to make gospel
obedience so slight a thing that it is no great mastery, or matter of
no great commendation to hold out in it to the end, this we were to
learn till now, and are as yet slow of heart to receive it.

The conclusion is, " lo, Pa3an, vicimus." " All things impartially
weighed, the case is ours, and godliness exceedingly promoted by the
doctrine of the possibility of the saints' defection ('Orsp sdu diT^ai),
and the corrival of it an enemy to it;" — to prove which not one word
in the argument hath been spoken, nor to free the other from a
charge of a direct contrary importance, one word to the purpose. And
of Mr Goodwin's sixth argument for his doctrine of the apostasy of
saints, this is the end.

But this is not all he hath to say in this case in hand. Indeed
the main design of his whole 13th chapter, consisting of forty-one
sections, and about so many pages in his book, and containing all
which, in an argumentative way, he insisteth on in the case in hand,
looketh this way; and therefore, having already plucked away one
of the main props of that discourse, I shall apply myself to take
away those which do remain, that the whole may justly fall to the
ground, and therefore shall, as briefly as I can, consider the whole of
that discourse, containing nine arguments against the perseverance
of saints, for the possibility of their total and final defection.

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 425

CHAPTEE XII.

OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED.

Mr G.'s entrance and preface to his arguments from the apostasy of the saints
considered — The weakness of his first argument — The import of it — Answer
to that first argument — Doctrine may pretend to give God the glory of being-
no accepter of pei-sons, and yet be false — Justification by works of that rank
and order — Acceptation of persons, what, and wherein it consisteth — No place
for it with God — Contrary to distributive justice — The doctrine of the saints'
perseverance charged with rendei'ing God an accepter of persons unjustly —
What it says looking this way — The sum of the charge against it considered
and removed — Mr G.'s second argument, and the weight by him hung thereon
— The original of this argument — By whom somewhat insisted on — The
argument itself in his words proposed — Of the use and end of the ministry —
Whether weakened by the doctrine of perseverance — Entrance into an answer
to that argument— The foundation laid of it false, and why — It falsely im-
poseth on the doctrine of perseverance sundry things by it disclaimed — The
first considered — The iniquity of those impositions farther discovered — The
true state of the dift^erence as to this argument declared — The argument
rectified — The re-enforcement of the minor attempted and considered — The
manner of God's operations with and in natural and vohmtary agents com-
pared— Efficacy of grace and liberty in man consistent — An objection to him-
self framed by Mr G. — That objection rectified — Perseverance, how " a!)soIutely
and simply necessary," how not — The removal of the pretended objection
farther insisted on by Mr G. — That discourse discussed, and manifested to be
weak and sophistical — The consistency of exhortations and promises farther
cleared — The manner of the operation of grace in and upon the wills of men
considered — The inconsistency of exhortations with the efficacy of grace dis-
puted by Mr G. — That discourse removed, and the use of exhortations ftirther
cleared — Obedience to them twofold, habitual, actual — Of the physical opera-
tion of grace and means of the word — Their compliance and use — How the
one and the other affect the will — Inclination to persevere when wrought in
believers — Of the manner of God's operation on the wills of men — Mr G.'s
discourse and judgment considered — Effects follow, as to their kind, their
next causes — The same act of the will physical and moral upon several ac-
counts— Those accounts considered — God, by the real efficacy of the Spirit,
produceth in us acts of the will morally good — That confirmed from Scriptui-e
— Conclusion from thence — Of the terms " physical," " moral," and " neces-
sary," and their use in things of the nature under consideration — Moral causes
of physical effects — The concurrence of physical and moral causes for produc-
ing the same effect — The efficacy of grace and exhortations — " Physical" and
" necessary," how distinguished — " Moral " and " not necessary " confounded by
Mr G. — Mr G.'s farther progress considered — What operation of God on the
will of man he allows — All physical operation by him excluded — Mr G.'s sense
of the difference between the working of God and a minister on the will, that it
is but gradual ; considered and removed — All working of God on the will by
him confined to persuasion — Persuasion gives no strength or ability to the per-
son persuaded — All immediate actings of God to good in men by Mr G. utterly
excluded — Wherein God's persuading men doth consist, according to Mr G.
— 1 Cor. iii. 9 considered — Of the concurrence of divers agents to the pro-
duction of the same effect — The sum of the seventh section of chap. xiii. —
The will, how necessitated, how free — In what sense Mr G. allows God's per-

426 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CUAP.

suasions to be irresistible — The dealings of God and men ill compared — Paul's
exhortation to the use of means, when the end was certain, Acts xxvii. 21-36,
considered — God deals with men as men, exhorting them ; and as corrupted men,
assisting them — Of promises of temporal things, whether all conditional —
What condition in the promise made to Paul, Acts xxvii. 24 — Farther of that
promise ; its infallibility and means of accomplishment — The same considera-
tions farther prosecuted — Of promises of perseverance and exhortations to
perform in conjunction — ]\Ir G.'s opposition hereunto — Promises and ex-
hortations in conjunction — 1 Cor. x. 12, 13 discussed — An absolute promise
of perseverance therein evinced — Phil. ii. 12, 13, to the same purpose, con-
sidered— Mr G.'s interpretation of that place proposed, removed — Heb. vi.
4-6, 9, to the same purpose insisted on — Of the consistency of threatenings
with the promises of perseverance — Mr G.'s opposition hereunto considered
and removed — What promises of perseverance are asserted; how absolute and
infrustrable — Fear of hell and punishment twofold — The fear intended to
be ingenerated by threatenings not inconsistent with the assurance given by
promises — Five considerations about the use of threatenings — The first, etc.
— Hypocrites, how threatened for apostasy — Of the end and aim of God in
threatenings — Of the proper end and efficacy of threatenings with reference
unto true believers — Fear of hell and punishment, how for a principle of obe-
dience in the saints — Of Noah's fear, Heb. xi. 7 — Mr G.'s farther arguings
for the efficacy of the fear of hell unto obedience in the saints proposed, con-
sidered, removed — 1 John iv. 1 8 considered — Of the obedience of saints to
their heavenly Father, compared to the obedience of children to their natural
parents — Mr G.'s monstrous conception about this thing — How fear and
love are principles of obedience, and in what sense — That which is done from
fear not done willingly nor cheerfully — How fear, and what fear, hath tor-
ment— Of the nature and use of promises — Close of the answer to this argu-
ment.

It will be needless to use many words unto the discourse of the
first section, seeing it will not in the least prejudice our cause in
hand to leave Mr Goodwin in full possession of all the glory of the
rhetoric thereof; for although I cannot close with him in the expo-
sition given of that expression, 1 Tim. vi. 16, "God inhabiteth light
inaccessible," something, in my weak apprehension, much more glo-
rious and divine being comprised therein than what it is here turned
aside unto (neither am I in the least convinced, of the truth rt^g
a-TodCsic^g of the former discourse, in the close of the whole, asserting
a deliverance to be obtained from our thoughts of the doctrine of
the defection of the saints, which he intimateth to be [evangelical],
that it is anti-evangelical, tormenting, and bringing souls under
bondage, by a narrow and unprejudicate search into it, finding my-
self every day more and more confirmed in thoughts of that kind
concerning it by my engagement into such an inquiry, which hath
been observed in this present discourse as far as my weakness Avill
permit), yet it being not in the least argumentative, but, for the
whole frame and intendment of it, commune exordium, and that
which any man of any opinion in the world might make use of, I shall
not insist upon it

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 427

His second section containeth his first argument, drawn forth in
the defence of his doctrine of the " possibility" (as he calleth it, but
indeed what it is we have heard) " of the defection of behevers." Of
this I presume he intended no more use but (as a forlorn) to begin
a light skirmish with his adversaries, ordering it to retreat to his
main body advancing after, or desperately casting it away, to abate
the edge of his combatants' weapons, it is so weak and feeble; and
therefore I shall be very brief in the consideration of it. Thus, then,
he proposeth it: —

" That doctrine which rendereth God free from the unrighteous-
ness which the Scripture calleth the respecting of persons of men, is
a doctrine of perfect consistence with the Scripture and the truth ;
the doctrine which teacheth the possibility of the saints' declining,
and this unto death, is a doctrine of this import : ergo."

Ans. The first proposition must be supposed universal, or else
the whole will quickly be manifested to be unconclusive. If it be
only indefinite, and so equivalent, as it lieth, to a particular, the con-
clusion is from all particulars, and of no force, as Mr Goodwin well
knoweth. Take it universally, and I say it is evidently false, and
might easily be disproved by innumerable instances. Not that any
error or falsehood can indeed give God the glory of any one of his
attributes, but that they may be fitted and suited for such a service,
were not their throats cut and their mouths stopped by the lies that
are in them; which Mr Goodwin's doctrine is no less liable to than
any other, and not at all exempted from that condition by its seeming
subserviency unto God's aprosopolepsia. Doth not the doctrine of
justification by works, even in the most rigid sense of it, according
to the tenor of the old covenant, absolutely render God free from the
unrighteousness of accepting of persons? and yet, for all that, it hath
not one jot the more of truth in it, nor is it the less anti-evangelical.
This foundation, then, being removed, whatever is built upon it mole
ruit sua. Neither is it in any measure restored or laid anew by
the reason of it given by Mr Goodwin, namely, " That the Scripture
affirmeth in sundry places that God is no accepter of persons;" for he
that shall hence conclude that whatever doctrine affirmeth, directly
or by consequence, that God is no accepter of persons, whatever
other abomination it is evidently teeming withal, is yet ti-ue and
according to the mind of God, shall have leave, notwithstanding the
antiquated statute of our university against it, to go and read logic
at Stamford. On this account do but prove that a doctrine be
not guilty of any one crime, and you may conclude that it is guilty
of none. For instance, that doctrine which impeacheth not the om-
nipresence of the Deity is true and according to the Scripture, for
the Scripture aboundeth with clear testimonies of the presence of
God in all places ; now the doctrine of the ubiquity of the human

42S DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

nature of Christ doth no way impeach the omnipresence of the
Deity: therefore it is true and according to Scripture!

I might supersede all farther considerations of this argument,
having rendered it altogether useless and unserviceable in this war-
fare by breaking its right leg, or rather crutch, wliereon it leaned.
But something also may be added to the minor, because of its re-
flection in the close of its proof upon the doctrine we maintain, in-
timating an inconsistency of it with that excellency of God spoken
of, namely, that he is no accepter of persons.

Pi'osopolepsia, or accepting of i:)ersons, is an evil in judgment^
when he who is to determine in causes of righteousness hath respect
to 2)ersonal things, that concern not the meint of the cause in hand,
and judgeth accordingly. This properly can have no place in God
as to any bestowing of free grace, mercy, or pardon. There is room
made for it only when the things that are bestowed or wrought
by it are such as in justice are due; it being an iniquity solely and
directly opposed to distributive justice, that rendereth to every one
according to what is righteous and due.^ That with God there
be no accepting of persons there is no more required but this, that
he appoint and determine equal punishments to equal faults, and
give equal rewards to equal deservings. If he will dispose of his
pardoning mercy and free grace to some in Christ, not to others,
who shall say unto him, "What doest thou?" May he not do what
he will with his own? So he giveth a penny to him that laboureth
all day, he may give a penny also to him that worketh but one
hour. Now, suppose that Mr Goodwin's doctrine render God free
from this (or rather chargeth him not with it), yet if withal it calleth
his truth, righteousness, faithfulness, oath, and immutability into
question, shall it pass for a truth, or be embraced ever the sooner?

But the sting of this argument lieth in the tail or close of it, in
the reflection insisted on upon the common doctrine of perseverance,
as it is called, namely, that it teacheth God to be an accepter of
persons. This is Mr Goodwin's way of arguing all along: When at
any time he hath proposed a proof of the doctrine he goeth about
to establish, finding that as something heavy work to lie upon his
hand, and not much to be said in the case, he instantly turneth
about and falleth upon his adversaries, in declaiming against whom
he hath a rich and overflowing vein. There is scarce any one of his
arguments in the pursuit and improvement whereof one fourth part
of it is spoken to that head wherein he is engaged.

But wherein is the "common doctrine of perseverance" guilty of this

great crime? It teacheth that "he that believeth shall be saved, and

he that believeth not shall be damned." It teacheth that God hath

allotted equal punishments to equal transgressions, and appointed

• Exod xxiii. 2, 3, 6-9; Job xxxi. 34.

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE REFUTED, 429

equal rewards to equal ways of obedience; that the wages of every
sin is death, and that every sinner must die, unless it be those con-
cerning whom God himself saith, " Deliver them, I have found a
ransom," Job xxxiii. 24; that he is alike displeased with sin in
whomsoever it is, and that in a peculiar and eminent manner when
it is found in his own. Indeed, if this be to impute acceptation of
persons to God, to say " that he hath mercy on whom he will have
mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth," — that is, is tender to his
own, as a father to his only child that serveth him, and will recover
them (being faithful in his promises) from their sins, and heal their
backslidings, though he suffer others to lie wallowing in their re-
bellions and pollutions all their days; — that he will not give joardon
to any sinner but upon faith and repentance, but will give faith and
repentance to those whom he hath chosen, and given unto Jesus
Christ to be saved : if this, I say, be acceptance of persons, our doc-
trine owneth the imputation of ascribing it to God, and giorieth in it,
we being ascertained that God taketh all this to himself clearly and
plentifully in the word of truth.

The sum of what our author gives in to make good his charge upon
the " common doctrine of perseverance" is, that it afBrmeth "That
though saints and believers fall into the same sins of adultery, and
idolatry, and the like, with other men, yet they are not dealt withal
as other men, but continued in the love and favour of God." To waive
the consideration of the false impositions, by the way, on the doc-
trine opposed (as that is, that it teacheth the saints to fall into and
to continue in them, to the significancy of that expression " Never so
long," under abominations), and to join issue upon the whole of the
matter, I say, —

1. That in and with this doctrine, and in perfect harmony and
consistency therewith, we maintain that the judgment of God is the
same in respect of every sin, in whomsoever it is, that he that doth
it on that account is " worthy of death," Kom. i. 82. And, — •

2. That the sentence of the law is the same towards all, curs-
ing every one that continueth not in all things written in the book
thereof to do them, Deut. xxvii. 26.

8. 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 punish-
ment 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

430 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

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 afterward fully manifested ; for,
First, they do not find them in the 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.
Secondly, 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, of disapprobation of the fact and of the person.
As to the particular disapprobation of God in respect of any sinful
act, it is the same in reference unto all persons, believers and unbe-
lievers. As to their persons, there are in the gospel other ingredients
to the judgment of them beside particular facts or acts, in answer
to the law or the rule of righteousness, — namely, faith and repent-
ance,— which alter the case of the person, even before the judgment-
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 Mr Goodwin himself will grant it no accept-
ance of persons to deal otherwise with them than 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 afterward 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 nor rioht unto.

Mr Goodwin's second argument is that which, of all others in this
case, he seemeth to lay most weight upon, and winch he i:)ursueth
at large in seventeen pages and as many sections, treating in it con-
cerning the ministry of the gospel, and the usefulness of the exhor-
tations, threatenings, and promises thereof. For an entrance into
the consideration of it, I must needs say, " Non venit ex pharetris
ista sagitta tuis." For besides that Mr Goodwin hath taken very
little pains in the improvement of it (considering how it was pro-
vided to his hand by the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dort, and
that Avhich he hath done farther consisting in a mere useless and
needless stuffing of it with sundry notions taken out of their first
argument and fifth, " De modo conversionis," of the manner of the
Spirit's operation in and upon the soul in its first conversion to God),
it was the old song of the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians in their deal-

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 431

ing with Austin, Fulgentius, Hilarius, Prosper, and by tliem at large
confuted ; renewed by Castalio and Erasmus against Luther, after it
had been sifted and rejected by the more learned schoolmen in former
ages. Whatever it be, and however it is now come to hand, being
taught to speak our language, and that in the best fashion, the con-
sideration of it must not be declined. And thus it is proposed : —

" If the common doctrine of perseverance rendereth the ministry
of the gospel, so far as it concerneth the perseverance of the saints,
vain, impertinent, and void, then is it not a doctrine of God, but of
men, and consequently that which opposeth it is truth ; but certain
it is that the said doctrine is of this unchristian tendency and import:
ergo." The first part of the consequent of the major is granted.
The work of the ministry being for the " perfecting of the saints, and
the edification of the body of Christ," Eph. iv. ]2, 13, that which
frustrateth the end where unto of Christ himself it is designed can
be no truth of his. Of the farther inference, that the doctrine which
opposeth it, or is set up in opposition to it, is the truth, more will
be spoken afterward. For the present, I cannot but insist upon the
former observation, that, notwithstanding Mr Goodwin's pretence of
proving and arguing for the doctrine he maintains, yet upon the
matter he hath not any thing to say in the carrying on of that de-
sign, but instantly falls to his old work of raising objections, — in their
very setting up prepared to be cast down, for the most part, — which
with all his might he labours to remove.

The stress of the whole, as far as we are concerned in it, lieth on
the minor, which is thus farther attempted to be made good. The
minor proposition is demonstrated thus : " The doctrine which ren-
dereth the labour and faithfulness of a minister, in pressing such ex-
hortations, threatenings, and promises, which tend to the preservation
of the saints in faith and holiness to the end, useless, rendereth the
ministry of the gospel, as far as it concerneth the encouragement or
enabling of the saints to persevere, needless and vain; but guilty
of such a tendency as this is the commonly received doctrine of per-
severance: ergo."

Ans. This labour might have been saved, and both these syllo-
gisms very easily reduced to one; but then another seeming argu-
ment, afterward, as we shall find, insisted on, would have been pre-
vented. Our trade in such cases as this is by weight, and not by
number. The minor, then, is still to be confirmed, which he laboureth
thus to do : —

" The common doctrine of perseverance requireth and commandeth
all saints or believers to be fully persuaded, and this with the greatest
and most indubitable certainty of faith, that there is an absolute and
utter impossibility either of a total or a final defection of their faith, —
that though they should fall into ten thousand enormous and most

432 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

abominable sins, aad lie wallowing in them, like swine in the mire,
yet they should remain all the while in an estate of grace, and that
God will, by a strong hand of irresistible grace, break them off from
their sins by repentance before they die ; but the doctrine which
requireth and commandeth all this, and much more of like import,
to be confidently believed by true believers, rendereth the pressing
of all exhortations, threateuings, promises upon them, in order to
prevail with them, or to make them carefully to persevere, bootless
and unnecessary: ergo."

Ans. What weight Mr Goodwin, with all those with whom, as
to his undertaking under consideration, he is in fellowship, doth lay
upon this argument is known to all. The whole foundation of what
is afterward at large insisted on, for the establishment of it, bemg
laid upon the proof of the minor proposition fonnerly denied, here
laid down, it will easily be granted that it was incumbent on him
to make sure work here, and not to leave any thing liable to any just
exception. An error or a mistake in the foundation is not easily
recoverable. All that is afterward heaped up beareth itself on a
supposition of the truth of what is here delivered. If this fail in the
least, we may spare our labour as to any farther consideration of what
followeth. Now, the main of the proof here insisted on lieth in the
declaration of that which he calleth the " common doctrine of perse-
verance;" and concerning this he informeth his reader, —

" That it commandeth all saints to be fully persuaded, and that
with the greatest and most indubitable certainty of faith, that there
is an absolute and utter impossibility either of a total or final defec-
tion of their faith."

Ans. What is the intendment of these aggravating expressions
of "■ Fully persuaded," " Greatest and most indubitable certainty of
faith," I know not. Will it please you if it should require them to be
persuaded, but not fully persuaded; to believe it, but with little and
dubitable certainty of faith, or uncertainty rather? Full persuasion,
greatest certainty, without doubting or staggering, are all of them
perfections of faith and of the saints in believing; which without
doubt they are, in all that they are to believe, to press after. So that
all this is no more but that this doctrine requireth men to believe
what it affirmeth God to have promised. It requireth men to mix
the promi.ses of God with faith, crimen inauditum. " But though
the manner of believing which it requireth be not blaniable, yet the
thing which it proposeth to be believed is false." What is that?
"That there is an absolute or idler imjiossihility either of a total or
final defection of the faith of true believers." Its re(]uiring this to
be believed is the bottom and also corner-stone of Mr Goodwin's
ensuing argument. If it doth not do this, he hath nothing in this
place to say to it. Let him, then, produce any one that hath ever

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 433

wrote in the defence of it, that hath in terms, or by just consequence,
delivered any such thing, and, en herham! there shall be an end of
this dispute. I presunae Mr Goodwin knoweth what is meant by
"an absolute and utter impossibility." An absolute repugnancy unto
being, in the nature of the things themselves concerning which any
affirmation is, and not any external or foreign consideration, doth en-
title any thing to [be called] an absolute and Titter impossibility. Did
ever any one affirm that, in the nature of the thing itself, the defection
of the saints is absolutely impossible ? Is it not by them that believe
the perseverance of the saints constantly affirmed that in themselves
they are apt, yea, prone to fall away, and their faith to decay and
die? which in itself possibly may be done, though Mr Goodwin can-
not tolerably show how. The whole certainty of their continuance
in, and of the preservation of, their faith, depends merely on supposi-
tion of something that is extrinsical in respect of them and of their
state, which, as to their condition, might or might not be. Farther, the
perseverance of the saints is by the same persons constantly affirmed
to be carried on and to be perfected in and by the use of means. It
is their " keeping by the power of God through faith unto salvation."
And can, then, an absolute impossibility of their defection be asserted,
or only that which is so upon supposition, — namely, of the purpose
of God, etc. ? There vras no absolute impossibility that the bones of
Christ should be broken, they being in themselves as liable to be
broken as his flesh to be pierced ; yet in respect of the event it was
impossible they should be so. I cannot well imagine that Mr Good-
win is not fully persuaded, with the greatest and most indubitable
certainty that a persuasion in things of this kind will admit, that
the "common doctrine of perseverance" doth not require saints to be-
lieve that there is " an absolute impossibility of their defection," but
only that God hath promised to preserve them from that which in
themselves and in respect of any thing in them they are obnoxious
unto, in and by the use of the means suited and appointed by him
to the carrying on of that work and compassing of the end proposed.
But yet it pleaseth him here to make show of a contrary apprehen-
sion ; and to show his confidence therein he aggravates it with this
annexed supposition and case: " It doth so," saith he, " though they
should fall into ten thousand enormous and most abominable sins,
and lie wallowing in them like swine in the mire, yet that they shall
remain all the while in an estate of grace."

Ans. Truly this is such an enormous and an abominable calumny
that I cannot but admire how any sober and rational man durst
venture upon the owning of it. The question now is, what faith the
doctrine insisted on ingenerates in particular persons, that should
enervate and make void the exhortations, etc., of the ministry? Now,
though the doctrine should teach this indefinitely, that though men

VOL. XI, 28

434 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEEANCK [CHAP.

did sin so and so, as is here expressed, yet they sliould be kei:)t in a
state of grace, as is mentioned (which yet is loudly and palpably false,
as hath been declared), yet that it doth require particular men to
believe for themselves, and in reference to the guidance of their own
ways, that they may " lie and wallow in their sin, like swine in the
mire, and yet continue in a state of grace and acceptation with God,"
is so notoriously contrary to the whole tenor of the doctrine, the
genius and nature of it, with all the arguments whereby it is asserted
and maintained, that if conscience had but in the least been advised
withal in this contest, this charge had been without doubt omitted.
All that is produced for the confirmation of this strange imposition
on the persuasion under consideration is his own testimony that
makes the charge, " that it is the known voice of the common doc-
trine of perseverance;" and that being said is laid as a foundation of
all that follows, the whole discourse still relating to a supposition
that this is the doctrine which it opposeth, from the very next words
to the end ! Nor is there the least farther attempt for the confirma-
tion of this grand assertion. But is this " the known voice" of our doc-
trine of perseverance? Who ever heard it but Mr Goodwin, and men
of the like prejudicate spirit against the truth? The worst that can
be charged with looking this way is its asserting the promised effi-
cacy of the grace of God for the preserving of believers, by the use
of means, from such wallowing in abominable sins as is supposed
that it affirms they may be exposed unto. In brief, it says not, —
first, That all believers are certain of their perseverance; nor, se-
condly. That any one can be certain of it upon such supposals as are
here mentioned, — such a persuasion would not be from Him that
calls them; nor, thirdly. That the end can be obtained without the
use of means, though by them it shall certainly be so; but, fourthly,
That all the hope of their perseverance is built on the promises of
God to preserve them by and in the use of means. So that, in truth,
there is no need of any farther process for the removing of the argu-
ment insisted on but only a disclaimer of the doctrine by it opposed,
if it be that which is here expressed.

That, indeed, which Mr Goodwin hath to dispute against, if he will
deal fairly and candidly in the carrying on of his design, is this: —
"That the certainty of an end, to be obtained by means suited there-
unto, doth not enervate nor render vain the use of those means ap-
pointed for the accomplishment of that end." The perseverance of
the saints is the thing here proposed to be accomplished. That this
shall be certainly effected and brought about, according to the pro-
mises of God for the effecting of it, God hath appointed the means
under debate, to be managed by the ministry of the gospel. That
the promise of God concerning the saints' persevei'ance, to be wrought
and effected, as by others, so by these means in then- kind^ doth not

J

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE REFUTED. 435

invalidate or render useless and vain the use of those means, but in-
deed establishes them, and ascribes to them their proper efficacy, is
that which in this doctrine is asserted, and which Mr Goodwin ought
to have disproved if he would have acquitted himself as a fair anta-
gonist in this cause. The promise, we say, that Hezekiah had of the
continuance of his life, did not make useless, but called for, the
" plaster of figs" that was appointed for the healing of his sore, Isa.
xxxviii. 5, 21.

I might then, as I said, save myself the labour of farther engag-
ing for the casting down of this fabric, built on the sandy founda-
tions of falsehood and mistake ; but because something may fall in of
that which followeth, — more indeed to the purpose than an orderly
pursuit of those assertions laid down in the entrance would require,
— that may more directly rise up against the cause in whose defence
I am engaged, I shall consider the whole ensuing discourse ; which,
without doubt, will administer farther occasion for the illustration or
confirmation of the truth in hand. He proceeds, then : —

" The reason of the minor is, because a certain knowledge and
persuasion that God will, by an irresistible hand of power, preserve
a man in the state of grace, how desperately careless, negligent, or
wicked soever he shall be, clearly dissolves the usefulness and neces-
sity of all other means whatsoever in reference to this end. If I
know certainly that the corn which I have sown in my field will,
whether I wake or sleep, grow and prosper, would it not be a very
impertinent address for any man to come to me, and admonish me
in a serious and grave manner to take heed I sleep not, but keep
myself waking, lest my corn should not grow and prosper, or that it
may grow and prosper? If my corn grows, thrives, and prospers, by
the irresistible hand of God, by the course of a natural and standing-
providence, my watchfulness in order to a. procurement of these
things is absolutely vain," etc.

Ans. That this is not the doctrine which Mr Goodwin hath un-
dertaken to oppose hath been more than once already declared. That
he is not able with any colour of reason to oppose it, unless he first
impose his own false and vain inferences upon it, and them upon his
reader, for the doctrine itself, from his constant course of proceeding
against it, is also evident. What advantage this is like in the close
to prove to his cause, in the judgment of considerate men, the event
will discover. The assertion of the stability of the promises of God
in Jesus Christ given to believers, concerning his effectual preserving
them to the end from such sins as are absolutely inconsistent with
his grace and favour according to the tenor of the new covenant, or
such continuance in any sin as is of the same importance, by his
Sphit and grace, in the use of means, doth no way tend to the be-
getting in any a certain knowledge, assurance, and persuasion, that

436 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIN1"S' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

God will continue tliem in a state of grace, " how desperately care-
less or wicked soever they shall be."

What is intended by the frequent repetition of this gross sophistry,
or what success with the intelligent Christian ponderers of things he
can hope for tliereby, I am not able to guess; neither is any im-
provement in the least given to what the intendment of this argu-
ment is, so far as the "common doctrine of perseverance" is concerned
therein, from the comparison ensuing instituted between the growth
of corn and the walking of believers in obedience before God : for
notwithstanding the identity in respect of the comparison of that
expression " irresistible," which indeed is proper to neither, there is
a "wide difference between the growing of corn in a mere natural
way, and the moral actings of an intelligent, rational creature.
Whatever operations of God are about and in the one or the other,
yet they are suited to the subjects about which they are. God
carries on the growth of corn by a way of natural and necessary
causes ; but his acting of rational agents is by such ways and means
as may entirely preserve their liberty, — that is, preserving them in
their being, and leaving them to be such agents. As, then, God
causeth the corn to grow by the shining of his sun and the falling
of his rain, so he causeth believers to persevere in obedience by ex-
hortations, promises, and threatenings, and such ways and means as
are suited to such agents as they are. The fallacy of this discourse
lies in an insinuation that God, by his effectual (or, as they are called,
"irresistible") operations for the preservation of believers in gospel
obedience (a thing he hath undertaken over and over to perform)
doth change their nature, and render them, not free and intelligent
agents, fit to be wrought upon by the proposal of suitable and desir-
able objects to their understandings, but mere brute and natural
principles of all operations flowing from them ; a conceit as gross
and ridiculous as certainly destructive to all the efficacy of the grace
of God. All the rest of this section, as far as it concerns us, is only
an affirming, this way and that, that an assurance of the end to be
obtained by the use of means renders those means altogether useless;
which when he proves, the controversy may be nearer to an issue
than otherwise he hath any reason to hope that it is, or will be to
his advantage.

Sect. 4. Leaving the farther confirmation of his argument, he
enters upon the removal of a plea insisted on to the justification of
the doctrine opposed, and vindication of it from the crime wherewith
here by him it is charged. This he tells you is, "Tliat the exhortations,
comminations, and promises spoken of, are means appointed of God
for tlic accomplishing and etTecting of the perseverance of the saints,
which he hath made simply and absolutely necessary by his decree."
*' This," he saith, " hath neither any logical nor theological virtue in

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 437

it for the purpose for which it is produced, but is a notion irrelative
to the business, the accommodation whereof it pretends."

Ans. It may be so. Suffer you to frame the objection, and who will
doubt of your ability of giving an answer? But who, I pray, says
that " God, by his decree, hath made the perseverance of the saints
simply and absolutely necessary?" That it is certain in respect of the
event, from the decree of God, we grant; but do we thereby over-
throw the means whereby it is to be accomplished ? yea, we establish
them. We are of the mind that God hath purposed, and thereupon
promised, the accomplishment of many things (as the selling of Joseph
into Egypt, the bringing of the children of Israel from thence, and
the like), which yet were to be carried on to their accomplishment
and brought about through innumerable contingencies, by the free,
rational, deliberative actings of men. If by " Simply and absolutely
necessary" you intend that the thing decreed is to be wrought of
men simply and absolutely necessarily by their operations, as to the
manner of them, we simply and absolutely deny any such decree.
If by those expressions you improperly intend only the certainty of
the event, or accomplishment of the thing decreed, with respect to
the means appointed and fitted thereunto, we say this establish eth
those means; neither have they the nature of means to an end from
any reason whatever, but as so appointed of God thereunto. But he
proceeds in the proof of his former assertion, and says, —

" First, That the exhortations whereby the saints are exhorted to
perseverance are no means by which the promises of perseverance
made, as our adversaries suppose, to them are accomplished or
effected, is thus clearly evinced : Whatsoever is a means for the bring-
ing of any thing to pass ought not to contain any thing in it repug-
nant or contrary unto that which is intended to be brought to pass
by it, for means ought to be subordinate to their ends, not repugnant;
but the Scripture exhortations unto perseverance contain that which
is repugnant to the promises of perseverance, if supposed such as our
adversaries suppose them to be: therefore they can by no means
effect those promises. The minor is evident by the light of this con-
sideration. Such exhortations as these to the saints, ' Take heed
lest at any time there be an evil heart of unbelief in you, lest you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, lest you fall from grace,
lest you receive the grace of God in vain, lest you fall from your
own steadfastness,' in their native and proper tendency import a
danger, and serve to raise a fear in men lest the danger imported
should come upon them ; whereas such promises as these, made unto
the same persons, and that not conditionally, as is supposed, that
there shall never be a heart of unbelief in them, that they shall never
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, that they shall never
fall away from the grace of God, exclude all danger or possibility of

438 DOCTRINE OF THE SAlNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

falling away, and tend directly to prevent or extinguish all fear in
men of any such danger: therefore, such exhortations are in their
nature and genuine import contrary to such promises in theirs, and
consequently can be no means of bringing them to pass/'

Ans. 1. Exhortations are not so properly the means whereby the
promises are accomplished as the means whereby the things men-
tioned in the promises are wrought, God by and through them
stm'ing up those graces which he promises to work, continue, and to
increase in his saints.

2. ''Exhortations divine" must be so apprehended as to be sub-
servient to an end, in respect of God foreknown and determined. It
is true, we exhort men (or may) to those things of whose event we
are wholly uncertain ; but to God this cannot be ascribed. He doth
foreknow and hath fore-determined the end and issue that every one
of his exhortations shall have ; and therefore such a nature, and no
other, is to be ascribed to them as is consistent with and subservient
to a determined end.

3. To the confirmation of his minor proposition the answer is easy,
from the consideration, first, of the end of the exhortations insisted
on unto perseverance, and then of the promises of perseverance them-
selves, which are no way inconsistent therewith. For the first, I say,
those exhortations, " Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil
heart of unbelief," and the like, are not given to ingenerate a fear of
falling away (which is a thing in itself evil and opposite unto that stead-
fastness of faith and full assurance which we should press unto, so far
is it from any act of faithful obedience that God should aim to work
in the hearts of his, and apply means thereunto), but only to beget a
holy care and diligence in them to whom they are made or given for
the using of the means appointed of God for the avoiding of the evil
threatened to follow upon a neglect of them ; which directly fjxlls in
and sweetly conspires with the end and use of the promises of per-
severance by us urged and insisted upon. Nothing is imported b}''
them but only the connection that is between the things mentioned
in them, as unbelief and rejection from God. This God aims at in
those exhortations, in their particular respect unto believers, that by
them they may be stirred up to the use of those means which he hath
appointed for them, id be by them preserved in the grace and mercy
which he hath infallibly promised to continue to them. And, —

4. The end of the promises of perseverance on which we have
insisted being their " mixing with faith," to establish the souls of
the saints in believing the kindness and faithfulness of God in his
covenant in Jesus Christ, they do not take away nor prevent all
fear of perishing, and so, consequently, not that fear in any mca.sure
which stirs them up so to the use of means that they may not perish,
but only are effectual for their deliverance out of those dangers

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE REFUTED. 439

whicli are apt and able of themselves to destroy them; as our Sa-
viour himself prays for them, John xvii. 15, "I pray not that thou
should est take them out of the world" (where, whilst they are, they
will be sure to meet with dangers and perplexities enough), " but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil,'' wherewith they must
reckon to be exercised. There is not, then, the least contrariety or
diverse aspect between the assurance of faith about the end which
the promises tend unto, and the care and godly fear about the means
instituted and appointed with respect to the end which exhortations
do beget, and will, notwithstanding those promises.

5. The greatest inconsistency that can be imagined between ex-
hortations and promises, as by us explained, is no more than this,
that in one place God pi^omiseth that unto us as his grace, which
in another he requires of us as our duty ; between which two who-
ever feigns an opposition, he doth his endeavour to set the covenant
of grace, as to us proposed and declared, at variance with itself.

The whole ensuing discourse, unto sect. 12, drawing deep upon
another controversy, — namely, " the manner of the operation of
grace," — and being for the most part borrowed from what is delivered
on that head in the Arminian writings,^ might be passed over as
not of any necessary consideration in this place. What we assign
to the exhortations of the word, and their consistency with whatever
else we teach of the saints' perseverance, being already heard, this
argument is at its proper issue. But the task undertaken is not to
be waived or avoided; I shall therefore proceed to the discussion of
it. ThiTS, then, he goes on : —

" If," saith he, " such exhortations as we speak of be a means to
effect the perseverance which our adversaries suppose to be promised
in the saints, then must the act of perseverance in the saints neces-
sarily depend upon them, so as that it cannot, nor will, be effected
without them; that is, mthout the saints submitting themselves to
them : but persevering upon these terms clearly supposeth a possi-
bility of non-persevering; for whatsoever depend eth upon a mutable
condition, and which possibly may not be performed, may be also
possible never to come to pass."

Ans. 1. Exhortations are improperly said to be "a means to effect
perseverance." We say only that they are means to stir up, quicken,
and increase, those graces in the exercise whereof the saints, accord-
ing to the purpose and pi'omise of God, do persevere.

2. The perseverance of the saints doth consist in the abiding and
continuance of those graces in them which those exhortations do so
stir up and further or increase ; and in that regard there is a connec-
tion between the perseverance of the saints and the exhortations
mentioned, yea, a dependence of the one on the other. But this

' Acta Sjncdal.

440 DOCTRINE OF THE SAtNTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

dependence ariselh not from the nature of the things themselves,
whence such a certainty as is asserted would not arise, but from the
purpose and appointment of God that they should be effectual to
that end. And therefore, —

3. A " perseverance on these terms supposeth a possibility of non-
perseveriug," if you regard only the nature of the things themselves,
and set aside all consideration of the purpose and promises of God
concerning the end, which is to beg the thing in hand; yea, the
promise of God extends itself to the certain accomplishment of the
saints' submission to those exhortations. So that the end aimed at
doth not depend on a "mutable condition" (if I understand any thiug
of that expression, so unsuited to the business in hand), the perform-
ance of the condition ("or the yielding of such obedience as is re-
quired to the essence of the saints' perseverance) being certain also
from the promises of God.

His 5th section is as followeth : " If it be said that the said ex-
hortations are means of the saints' persevering in this respect, because
God by his Spirit irresistibly and unfrustrably draws and persuades
the saints to obey these exhortations as means of their persevering,
I answer, It cannot be proved that God doth draw or persuade his
saints upon any such terms to obey these exhortations, nay, frequent
experience showeth, and our adversaries' doctrine, frequently men-
tioned, expressly granteth, that the saints many times are so far from
obeying these exhortations, that they walk for a long time in full
opposition to them, as in security, looseness, vile practices. Nor have
they yet proved, nor, I believe, ever will prove, but that they may
walk, yea, and that many have thus walked, I mean in full opposi-
tion to the said exhortations, to their dying day. Secondly, If God
by his Spirit irresistibly draws his saints to obey the exhortations we
speak of, he thus draweth them either by such a force or power im-
mediately acted upon their wills, by which they are made willing to
obey them, or else he maketh use of the said exhortations so to work
or affect their wills that they become willing accordingly. If the
former be asserted, then, 1. The said exhortations are no means
whereby the perseverance of the saints is effected, but God irresist-
ibly by his Si)irit: for if the will be thus immediately affected by
God after such a manner, and wrought to such a bent and inclina-
tion, as that it cannot but obey the said exhortations, or do the things
which the said exhortations require, then would it have done the
same thing whether there had been any such exhortations in being
or no, and consequently these exhortations could have no manner of
efficiency about their perseverance; for the will, according to the
common saying, is of itself ' a blind faculty,' and follows its own pre-
dominant bent and inclination, without taking knowledge whether
the wavs and actions towards which it stands bent be commanded

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 441

or exhorted uiito by God or no. 2. If the will of a saint be imme-
diately so affected by God that it stands inclined and bent to do the
things which are proper to cause him to persevere, then is this bent
and inclination wrought in the will of such a person after his being
a saint, and consequently is not essential to him as a saint, but merely
accidental and adventitious; and if so, then is there no inclination
or bent in the will of a saint as such, or from his first being a saint,
to persevere, or to do the things which accompany perseverance, but
they come to be wrought in him afterward: which how consistent it
is with the principles either of reason or religion, or their own, I am
content that my adversaries themselves should judge. 8. If God
doth immediately and irresistibly incline or move the wills of the
saints to do the things which accompany perseverance, the said ex-
hortations can be no means of effecting this perseverance ; for the
will, being physically and irresistibly acted and drawn by God to do
such and such things, needeth no addition of moral means, such as
exhortations are (if they be any), in order hereunto. What a man is
necessitated to, he needeth no farther help or means to do it. 4. The
things which accompany perseverance import a continuance in faith
and love to the end. If, then, the wills of the saints be immediately
and irresistibly moved by God thus to continue, — I mean in faith and
love to the end, — what place is there for exhortations to come in with
their efficiency towards that perseverance? Need they be exhorted
to continue in faith and love, or to persevere after the end ? Thus,
then, we clearly see that the former of the two consequents mentioned
cannot stand. God doth not by his Spirit irresistibly draw or move
the wills of the saints to do the things which are necessary for the
procuring their perseverance immediately, or without the instru-
mental interposure of the said exhortations."

Ans. First, the intendment of this, as also of some following sec-
tions, is to prove and manifest that the use of exhortations cannot
consist with the efficacy of internal grace, and the work of the Spirit
in producing and effecting those graces in us which in those exhor-
tations we are provoked and stirred up unto; — a very sad undertak-
ing truly, to my apprehension, and for which the church of God will
scarce ever return thanks to them that shall engage in it! He was
of another mind who cried, " Da, Domine, quod jubes, et jube quod
vis." Yea, and the Holy Ghost hath, in innumerable places of Scrip-
ture, expressed himself of another mind, promising to work effectu-
ally in us what he requires earnestly of us ; by the one manifesting
the efficacy of his grace, by the other the exigency of the duty which
is incumbent upon us. Nay, never any saint of God once prayed in
his life, seeking any thing at the hand of God, but was of another
mind, if he understood his own supplications. To what is here urged
against this catholic faith of believers, I say, —

442 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

That exhortations are the means of perseverance, inasmuch as by
them, in their place and kind, and with them, the Spirit of God eflec-
tually works this perseverance, or the matter of it, in the saints.
Those cloudy expressions of " Irresistibly and unfrustrably" we own
no farther than as they denote the certainty of the event, and not
the manner of the Spirit's operation; which also they do very un-
handsomely. We leave out, then, in the proposal of our judgment
about the use of exhortations, which Mr Goodwin opposeth, those
terms, and add in their room, " By and with those exhortations,"
which he omits.

He saith, then, " This cannot be proved, because the saints live
and die oftentimes in opposition and disobedience unto these exhor-
tations."

But obedience is twofold : First, As to the general frame of the
heart, — obedience in the habit; and so it is false that the saints live
at any time in an ordinary course, much less die in opposition to
those exhortatioDS. The law of God being written in their hearts,
and they delighting in it in their inward man, they abide therein,
the fruit of obedience for the most part being brought forth by them :
and this sufficeth as to their perseverance. Secondly, It regardeth
particular acts of obedience ; and in respect of them we all say that
yet they all sin (" Optimus ille est, qui minimis urgetur"): but this
prejudiceth not their perseverance, nor the general end of the ex-
hortations afforded them for that purpose.

But he adds, secondly, " If God by his Spirit irresistibly draws his
saints to persevere," ut sujjra.

But this is sorry sophistry, "which may be felt," as they say,
" tiirough a pair of mittens;" for, —

1. Who says that God works hy force immediately upon the wills
of men? Or who makes force and poiuer to be terms equivalent?
or says that God cannot put forth the " exceeding greatness of
his power in them that believe," but he must force or compel their
wills? or, that he cannot " work in us both to will and to do of his
good pleasure," immediately working in and with our wills, but he
must so force them?

2. Whence ariseth the disjunctive force of this argument, " Either
by immediate actings upon their wills, or he maketh use of those
exhortations?" as though the one way were exclusive of the other,
and that the Scripture did not abundantly and plentifully ascribe
both these unto God ; both that he exhorts us to know him, love
him, believe in him, and gives us an understanding and a heart
so to do, working faith and love in us by the exceeding efficacy of
his power and Spirit. I say, then, that God works immediately by
his Spirit in and on the wills of his saints; that is, he puts forth
a real physical power that is not contained in those exhortations,

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE EEFUTED. 443

though he doth it by, and in, and with them. The impotency that
is in us to do good is not amiss termed ethico-physica, both natural
and moral; and the applications of God to the soul in their doing
good are both really and physically efficient and moral also, the one
consisting in the efficacy of his Spirit, the other lying in the exhor-
tations of the word, yet so as that the efficacy of the Spirit is exerted
by and with the moral efficacy of the word, his work being but
grace or the law in the heart, the word being the law written. So
that all the ensuing reasonings are bottomed upon things male di-
visa, that stand in a sweet harmony and compliance with each other.

But Mr Goodwin tells you, " That if God work by his S23irit and
his gi'ace immediately on the wills of men, to cause them to perse-
vere, then are exhortations no means of their perseverance."

Why so, I pray? It seems we must have no internal effectual
grace from God, or no outward exhortations of the word ; but he tells
you it must be so, " Because if the will be ph5^sically and irresistibly
acted and drawn by God to do such and such things, it needeth no
addition of moral means; such are exhortations thereunto." That is,
if the will be effectually inclined to the ways of God by his grace,
there is then no need of the exhortations of the word. But yet, —

1. The Spirit of God, though he has an immediate efficacy of
his own by and with those exhortations, yet by those exhortations
he also inclines the will; and as he works on the will as corrupt and
impotent by his grace, so he works on the will (as the will, or as
such a faculty, is apt to be wrought upon by a mediation of the un-
derstanding) by exhortations.

2. To say, " Obedience would have been produced and wrought
had there been no exhortations," is not required of us, what efficacy
soever we ascribe to grace, unless we also deny exhortations to be
appointed of God and to be used by the Spirit of God for the pro-
ducing of that obedience. Neither, —

3. Doth God work upon the will as a distinct faculty alone of it-
self, without suiting his operations to the other faculties of the soul ;
nor is grace to be wrought or carried on in us merely as we have
wills, but as we have understandings also, whereby the exhortations
he is pleased to use may be conveyed to the will and affect it in
their kind. In a word, this is but repeating what was said before,
" If there be any effectual grace, there is no use of exhortations ; or
if exhortations be the means of continuing or increasinsf grace, what
need the efficacy of grace or immediate actings of the Spirit, ' working
in us to will and to do of God's good pleasure?'" What validity
there is in these inferences will be easily discerned. God worketh
grace in men as men, and as men impotent and corrupt by sin. As
men he works upon them by means suited to their rational being, —
by precepts and exhortations; but as men impotent and corrupt by

444 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEESEVERANCE. [CHAP.

sin, they stand in need of his effectual power to work that in them
which he requireth of them. Of the terms wherewith his arguing
in this case is clouded and darkened, enough hath been remarked
already.

His second argument to this purpose, namely, " That the inclina-
tion of the will to good and to persevere in a saint must be after
his being inade a saint," is as weak and no less sophistical than the
former. That inclination is radically wrought in every believer at
his conversion, the Spirit being bestowed on him, which shall abide
with him for ever, and the seed of God laid in his heart, that shall
remain and never utterly fail, with an habitual inclination to the
exercise of all those graces wherein their persevering doth consist.
Actually this is wrought in them according to the particular duties
and actings of grace that are required of them ; which they are carried
forth unto by the daily influence of life, power, and grace, which
they receive from Christ their head, without whom they can do
nothing.

Neither is the third exception of any more validity, being only a
repetition of what was spoken before, rendered something more impe-
dite, dark, and intricate, by the terms of " physically," " irresistibly,"
and " necessitated;" which how far and wherein we do allow hath
been frequently declared. The sum of what is spoken amounts to
this, " God's real work in and upon the soul by his Spirit and grace is
inconsistent with exhortations to obedience;" which we have before
disproved, and do reject it as an assertion destructive to all the efficacy
of the grace of God and the whole work of it upon the souls of men.

What his fourth argument also is but a repetition of the same
things before crudely asserted in other terms, let them apprehend
that can: " If God work faith and love in the hearts of his saints,
and support them in them to the end, what place is left for exhorta-
tions?" I say. Their own proper place, the place of means, of means
appointed by God to stir up his to perseverance, and which himself
makes, by his Spirit and the immediate efficacy thereof, effectual to
that end and purpose. And I know no use of that query, " Are ex-
hortations effectual to persuade men to persevere after the end?"
it being built only on his false hypothesis and begging of the thing
in question, namely, " That if God work faith and love, and continu-
ance of them, in our hearts effectually by his grace, there is no need,
no use of exhortations," though God so work them by and with those
exhortations.

And this is his first attempt upon the first member of the division
made by himself, wherein what success he hath obtained is left to
the judgment of the reader; and but that I shall not, — having now
the part of one that answers incumbent on me, — turn aside unto the
proof of things denied, I should easily confirm what hath been given

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE KEFUTED. 445

in for the removal of his objections from the testimony of God, by
innumerable places of Scripture.

He proceeds, then, sect. 6, and says, " Secondly, Neither can the
latter of the said consequences stand. God doth not make use of the
said exhortations to influence or affect the wills of the saints upon
any such terms as thereby to make them infallibly, unfrustrably, ne-
cessitatingly, willing to persevere, or to do the things upon which
perseverance depend etli.

" For, first, If so, then one and the same act of the will should be
both physical and moral, and so be specifically distinguished in and
from itself For so far as it is produced by the irresistible force or
power of the Spirit of God, it must needs be physical, the said irre-
sistible working of the Spirit being a physical action, and so not
proper to produce a moral effect. Again, as far as the said exhorta-
tions are means to produce or raise this act of the will, or contribute
any thing towards it, it must needs be moral, because exhortations
are moral causes, and so not capable of producing physical, natural,
or necessary effects. Now, then, if it be impossible that one and the
same act of the will should be both physical and moral, — that is,
necessary and not necessary, — impossible also it is that it should be
produced by the irresistible working of God and by exhortations of
this joint efficiency.

" It may be objected, ' They who hold or grant such an influence or
operation of the Spirit of God upon the will which is frustrable or
resistible, do and must suppose it to be a physical action as well as
that which is irresistible. If so, then the act of the will, so far as it
is raised by the means of this action or operation of God, must, ac-
cording to the tenor of the former argument, be physical also, and
so the pretended impossibility is no more avoided by this opinion
than by the other."

" I answer, Though such an operation of God upon the will as is
here mentioned be, in respect of God and of the manner of its pro-
ceeding from him, physical, yet, in respect of the nature and substance
of it, it is properly moral ; because it impresseth and affecteth the will
upon which it is acted after the manner of moral causes, properly so
called, — that is,persuadingly,not ravishingly or necessitatingly. When
a minister of the gospel in his preaching presseth or persuadeth men
to such and such duties or actions, this act, as it proceedeth from
him, — I mean, as it is raised by his natural abilities of understanding
and speaking, — is physical or natural, but in respect of the substance
or native tendency of it it is clearly moral, namely, because it tend-
eth to incline or move the wills of men to such or such elections
without necessitating them thereunto; and so comports with those
arguments or exhortations, in their manner of efficiency, by which he
presseth or moveth them to such things. By the way, to prevent

446 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

stumbling aud quarrelliug, it no way follows from the premises that
a minister in his preaching or persuading unto duties should do as
much as God himself doth in or towards the persuading of men here-
unto. It only follows that the minister doth co-operate with God
(which the apostle himself aflfirms) in order to one and the same effect;
— that is, that he operateth in one and the same kind of efficiency
with God, morally or persuadingly, not necessitating; for where one
necessitates and another only persuades, they cannot be said to co-
operate or work the one with the other, no more than two, when the
one runs and the other walks a soft pace, can be said to go or walk
together. But when two persuade in one and the same action, one
may persuade more effectually by many degrees than the other, may
have a peculiar tact or method of persuading above the other."

That which is now undertaken to be proved is, that God doth not
make use of exhortations as means for the establishing of the saints
in believing and for confirming their perseverance. This is that which
by us is assigned unto them, and this is all that the nature of them
doth require that they should be used unto, the certainty of the
event whereunto they are applied depending not on their nature, as
such means, but on the purpose of God to use them for that end
which he hath designed and promised to bring about and accomplish.

Before he ventures on any opposition to the intendment of this
assertion, he phraseth it so as either to render it unintelligible to
himself and others, or (if any thing be signified by the expressions
he useth) to divert it wholly from the mind of them and their sense
Avith whom he hath to do. Who ever said that " God by exhortations
doth influence the wills of men upon such terms as to make them
uufrustrably and necessitatingly willing to persevere?" Or, can he
tell us what is the meaning of these terms, " Uufrustrably, necessita-
tingly willing to persevere?" Though it is easy to g-uess at wdiat he
here intends, yet it is far above my shallow capacity to reach the sense
of these expressions. How any of these terms, relating to the event
and issue of things, [are used,] and in what sense they may be used, I
have often showed. As relating either to the manner of God's opera-
tion in and upon the -will, or the will's elicitation of its own act (any
farther than by relation to that axiom, " Unumquodque quod est,
dum est, necesse est"), they express neither our sense nor any body's
else that I know. That which I shall make bold to take up for Mr
Goodwin's intendment is, that God doth not by exhortations effectu-
ally cause the saints to persevere. To be willing to persevere is to
persevere; to be " necessitatingly willing" is I know not what. Now,
if such an efficacy be ascribed to exhortations as teaches the certainty
of the effect, so that the certainty of the effect as to the event should
be asserted to depend on them as such means, this is nothing to us.
We ascribe an efficacy to them in proprio genere, but the certainty

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 447

of that event to whose production they concur, we affirm, as hatli
been abundantly declared, to depend on other causes.

But the proof of what is here asserted outruns for uncouth strange-
ness the assertion itself, equis alhis, as they say ; for, saith he, " If
this be so" (that is, "as you have heard above" — how, neither he nor
we know), " then the same act of the will should be both physical
and moral." And, —

1. Why so? " Because physical and moral means are used for the
producing of it!" — as though sundry causes of several kinds might
not concur to produce one uniform effect, far enough from a neces-
sity of receiving so much as a denomination from each of them. In
the concurrence of several causes, whereof some may be free and con-
tingent, others natural and necessary, the effect absolutely follows its
next and immediate cause alone. God causes the sun to shine freely,
yet is the shining of the sun a necessary effect of the sun, and not
any way free or contingent. God determined the piercing of Christ's
side, and so as to the event made it necessary, but yet was the doing
of it in them that did it free as to the manner of its doing, and no
way necessary. But, —

2. Suppose the same act of the will should be said to be both
physical and moral upon several accounts? And what if every act of
the will in and about things good or bad be so, and it be utterly
impossible it should be otherwise? "Yea, but then the same act
should be specifically distinguished in and from itself."

Yea, but who told you so? The terms of "physical and moral," as
related to the acts of the will, are very far from constituting different
kinds or species of acts, being only several denominations of the same
individual acts upon several regards and accounts. The acts of the
will as they flow from that natural faculty, or are elicited thereby,
are all 'physical, but as they relate to a law whence they are good
or evil, they are moral; the one term expresseth their being, the other
their regulai'ity and conformity to some rule whereunto their agents
are obliged. " Quid dignum tanto?" If by " physical and moral " Mr
Goodwin intends " necessary and free," (being the first that ever
abused these words, and in that abuse of them not consistent with
himself, affirming afterward the act of a minister's preaching, as pro-
ceeding from his abilities of understanding and speaking, to be phy-
sical or natural, which yet he will not aver to be necessary, but free),
he should have told us so ; and then, though we would not grant that
the same act may not in several respects be both necessary and free,
the latter in respect of the manner of its performance and nature of
its immediate cause, the former in respect of the event and the de-
termination of its first cause, yet its consequent is so palpably false,
as to the advancing of his former assertion, that it would have been
directly denied, without any farther trouble.

418 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

But he adds, " It must needs be physical, because it is produced
by the physical working of the Spirit of God, which, being a physical
action, cannot produce a moral effect."

Ans. By physical operation of God on and with the will, we un-
derstand only that which is really and effectually so, as different
from that which is only moral and by way of motive and persuasion.
Now, this we say is twofold ; the first consisting in the concourse of
God, as the first cause and author of all beings, to the producing of
every entity, such as the acts of the wills of men are, and this in
such a way as is not only consistent with the liberty of the Avill in
all its acts and actings whatever, but also as is the foundation of
all the liberty that the will hath in its actings. And in respect of
this influence of God, the effect produced is only physical or natural,
having such a being as is proper to it; as also it is in respect of the
will itself, and its concurrence in operation. The other is that which
Mr Goodwin here calls " The irresistible force or power of the Spirit,"
distinguishing the efficacy of the Spirit and grace of God in their
working in us to will and to do, producing those effects as they are
good and gracious, in reference to their rise, end, and rule, where-
unto they are related. This, then, is that which by Mr Goodwin is
here asserted, " That if there be such an effectual real working of
the Spirit and grace of God in us to the producing of any acts of the
wills of men, they cannot be moral;" that is, they cannot have any
goodness in them beyond that which is entitative. And so far are
we now arrived : All efficacious working of the Spirit of God on us
must be excluded, or all we do is good for nothing. Away with all
promises, all prayers, yea, the whole covenant of grace; they serve
for no other end but to keep us from doing good. Let us hear the
Scripture speak a little in this cause : Deut. xxx. 6, " The LORD thy
God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the
Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou
mayest live." Jer. xxxi, 33, " This shall be the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel ; After those days, saith the Lord, I
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;
and will be their God, and they shall be my people." Chap,
xxxii. 39, " I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may
fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after
them." Ezck. xxxvi. 26, 27, "A new heart also will I give you, and
a new spirit will I put within you : and I will take away the stony
heart out of your fiesli, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I
will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,
and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them." Acts xvi. 14, " The
Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended unto the things
which were spoken of Paul." Phil. i. 29, "Unto you it is given in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 449

sake;" and chap. ii. 13, " It is God which worketh in you both to
will and to do of his good pleasure." As also Eph. i. 18-20, " That
ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-
ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead."
And, 2 Thess. i. 11, " We pray always for you, that our God would
fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with
power." So also in 2 Cor. v. 1 7, " If any man be in Christ, he is a
new creature;" for, Eph. ii. 4, 5, "God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins,
hath quickened us together with Christ," causing us, chap. iv. 24, to
" put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness;" with the like assertions, John iii. 3; James
i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 23; John v. 21; 2 Cor. iii. 5, etc.

What may be thought of these and the like expressions? Do they
hold out any real, effectual, internal work of the Spirit and grace of
God distinct from moral persuasion, or do they not? If they do, how
comes any thing so wrought in us and by us to be mortally good?
If they do not, we may bid farewell unto all renewing, regenerating,
assisting, effectual grace of God. That God, then, by his Spirit and
grace, cannot enable us to act morally and according to a rule, is not
yet proved. What follows? '

Saith he, "So far as exhortations are means to produce these acts,
they must be moral; for moral causes are not capable of producing
natural or physical effects."

But if Mr Goodwin think that, in this controversy, ''physical" and
"necessary," as applied to effects, are laohvmiiovvra, he is heavenly wide.
" Physical" denotes only their being " necessary," a manner of being
as to some of them which have physically a being. The term " na-
tural" is ambiguous, and sometimes used in the one sense, sometimes
in the other; sometimes it denotes that which is only, sometimes that
which is in such a kind. By a physical effect, we understand an effect
with respect to its real existency ; as by a moral effect, an effect in
respect of its regularity. And now, why may not a moral cause have
an influence, in its own kind, to the production of a physical effect;
I mean, an influence suited to its own nature and manner of opera-
tion, by the way of motive and persuasion? What would you think of
him that should persuade you to lift your hand above your head to try
how high you could reach, or whether your arm were not out of joint?

Secondly, It hath been sufficiently showed before, that with these
exhortations, which work as appointed means, moralhj God exerteth
an effectual power for the real production of that whereunto the ex-
hortation tends; dealing thus with our whole souls suitably to the
nature of all their faculties, as every one of them is fitted and suited
to be wrought upon for the accomplishment of the end he aims nc,

VOL. XI. 29

450 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVEKANCE. [CHAP.

and in the manner that he intends. Briefly, to every act of the will
as an act, in genere entis, there is required a really operative and
physical concurrence of the providential power of God, in its own
order as the first cause ; to every act as good or gracious, the ope-
rative concurrence and influence of the Spirit of grace; — which yet
hinders not but that by exhortations men may be provoked and
stirred uj) to the performance of acts as such, and to the performance
of them as good and gracious.

This being not the direct controversy in hand, I do but touch upon
it. Concerning that which follows, I should perhaps say we have
found anguem in herha; but being so toothless and stingless as it is
to any that in the least attend to it, it may be only termed the pad
in the straw.^ " Physical and moral" are taken to be terms, it seems,
equipollent to " necessary and not necessary;" which is such a "wrest-
ing of the terms themselves and their known use as men shall not
likely meet withal. Hence is it that acts physical and necessaiy are
the same. Every act of the most free agent under heaven, yea, in hea-
ven or earth, is in its own nature and being physical. Acts also are
moral, that is, good or evil, consequently in order of nature to their
existence (of which "necessary" or "not necessary" are the adjunct
manner), in reference to the rule or law whereunto their conformity is
required. How " moral" and "not necessary" come to be terms of
the same import Mr Goodwin will declare perhaps hereafter, when he
shall have leisure to teach as much new philosophy as he hath al-
ready done divinity. In the meantime, we deny that any influence
from God on the wills of men doth make any act of them necessary
as to the manner of its production. And so this first argument for the
inconsistency of the use of exhortations, with the real efficiency of
the grace and Spirit of God is concluded.

That which follows in this section to the end is a pretended
answer to an objection of our author's own framing, being only intro-
duced to give farther advantage to express himself against any real
efficiency of the Spirit or grace of God in the hearts or on the wills
of men. Not to insist upon his darkening the discourse in hand,
from his miserable confounding of those terms "physical" and "mo-
ral," formerly discovered, I shall, as near as I can, close with his aim
in it, for the more clear consideration thereof: —

First, he ttlls us, " That the operation of God on the will of man
is, in respect of its proceeding from him, physical ; but in respect of
its nature and substance, it is properly moral."

1. But first, If a man should ask Mr Goodwin what he intends by
this " operation of God on the will of man," to the end intended, I fear
he would be very hard put to it to instance in any particular. It is

' A plivase explained by Ilalliwell to mean "something wi-ong, a screw loose;" but
he gives no account of its origin. — Ed.

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 451

sufficiently evident he acknowledgeth none in this kind but what
consists in the exhortations of the word.

2. Having told us before that "phj^sical" is as much as "neces-
sary," and " moral" as "not necessary," how comes it about that the
same operation of God, the same act of his power, is become in seve-
ral regards physical and moral, — that is, necessary and not neces-
sary ? Is Mr Goodwin reconciled to the assertion that the same thing
may be said to be necessary and not necessary in sundry respects?

3. How comes the same act or operation in respect of its man-
ner of proceeding from its agent to be physical, and in respect of
its substance to be moral? or, is any act moral in respect of its sub-
stance, or is its morality an adjunct of it, in respect of the regard
it hath to some rule and farther end ? It is an easy thing for any
to heap up such crude assertions, and in the meantime not to know
what they say nor whereof they do affirm. But the reason why the
acts of God intimated are moral is, " because they persuade the will
only, or work persuadingly, not ravishingly or necessitatingly." That
is, in plain terms, there is no operation of the grace or Sisirit of God
in the w'orking of any good in the hearts or wills of men, but only
what consisteth in persuasion of them thereunto. For any real effi-
ciency as to the communication of strength in " working in us to will
and to do," it is wholly excluded. God only persuades, men have
the power in themselves, and of themselves they do it, let the Scrip-
ture say what it will to the contrary. For those terms of " ravishingly
or necessitatingly," which are opposed to this moral persuasion, where-
unto the operations of God for the production of any good in us are
tied up and confined, we have been now so inured to them that they
do not at all startle us. When Mr Goodwin shall manifest that God
cannot, by the greatness of his power, work in us to will without
ravishing our wills, if we guess aright at the intendment of that ex-
pression, he will advance to a considerable success in this contest, not
only against us, but God himself.

But an objection presents itself to our author, which he sees a
necessity to attempt the removal of, lest an apprehension of its truth
should prove prejudicial to the receiving of his dictates; and this
is, " That if it be so, that God worketh on the will of man by the
way of persuasion only, he doth no more than the ministers of the
gospel do, who persuade men by the word to that which is good."
To this he tells you, " That it indeed follows that God and ministers
work on the will of man in the same way, with the same kind of
efficiency; but yet in respect of degrees, God may persuade more
effectually than a minister."

1. That all really efficient, internal, working grace of God was
denied by Mr Goodwin, was before discovered; here only it is more
plainly asserted: "All the workings of God on the wills of men unto

452 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

good are merely by persuasion." Persuasion, we know, gives no
strength, adds no power, to him that is persuaded to any thing. It
only provokes him and irritates him to put forth, exert, and exercise,
the power which is in himself unto the things whereunto he is per-
suaded, upon the motives and grounds of persuasion proposed to him ;
and the whole effect produced, on that account, is in solidum to be
ascribed to the really efficient cause of it, howsoever incited or stirred
up. Whereas, then, men by nature are dead, blind, unbelieving,
enemies to God, he only persuades them to exert the power that is
in them, and thereby to live, see, believe, and be reconciled to him.
And this is to exalt the free grace of God by Jesus Christ ! We know
full well who have gone before you in these paths, but shall heartily
pray that none of the saints of God may follow after you into this
contempt of the work of his grace. But, —

2. If nothing but persuasion be allowed to God in the work of
men's conversion, and in the carrying on of their obedience to the
end, wherein doth the persuasion of God consist, in distinction from
the persuasion used in and from the word by ministers, which it is
pretended that it may excel (though it is not affirmed that it dotli)
by many degrees? Let it be considered, I say, in what acts of the will,
or power of God, his persuasion, so distinct as above mentioned, doth
consist; let us know what arguments he useth, by what means he
applies them, how he conveys them to the wills of men, that are not
coincident with those of the ministry. I suppose at last it will be
found that there is no other operation of God in persuading men, as
to the ends under consideration, but only what lies or consists in the
persuading of the word by the ministers thereof, God looking on
without the exerting of any efficacy whatever; which is indeed that
which is aimed at, and is really exclusive of the grace of God from
any hand in the conversion of sinners or preservation of believers.

3. He doth not, indeed, assert any such persuading of God, bub
only tells you that from what he hath spoken " it doth not follow
that God doth no more than ministers in persuading men, and that
when two persuade to one and the same action, one may be more
effectual in his persuading than another;" but that God is so, or
how he is so, or wherein his peculiar persuasions do consist, there ia
not in his discourse the least intimation.

4. There is in men a different power as to persuasion, some hav-
ing a faculty that way far more eminent and effectual than others,
according to their skill and proficiency in oratory and persuasive
axts. This only is ascribed to God, that he so excels us as one
man excels another; but how that excellency of his is exerted,
that is not to be understood. But there is proof tendered you of all
this from 1 Cor. iii. 9, where ministers are said to " co-operate
with God, which they cannot do unless it be with the same kind of

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 453

efficiency," (well said !) " and that wlien one works necessitatlngly and
another by persuasion, they cannot be said to co-operate, no more
than one that runs and another that walks can be said to walk to-
gether." Certainly our author never dreamed that any man what-
ever would put himself to the trouble of examining these dictates, or
he would have been more wary of his asserting them, and we had
not had so much, not only new and strange divinity, but new and
uncouth philosophy, heaped up without any considerable endeavour
of proof or confirmation.

(1.) That two agents cannot concur or co-operate to the produc-
ing of the same effect but with the same kind of efficiency is a rare
notion indeed. Was he never persuaded to do any thing in his life?
What thinks he of David and the Ammonites' killing of Uriah?
of a judge and an executioner slaying a malefactor? of God and
Satan moving David to number the people? of God and Joseph's
brethren sending him to Egypt? But what need I mention in-
stances? W^ho knows not that this so confounds all causes efficient,
and that principal and instrumental, material, final, formal, which
in their production of effects have all their distinct efficiency, and
yet their co-operation ?

(2.) The proof from the Scripture mentioned extends only to the
interesting of ministers in the great honour of co-operating with God
in the work of begetting and increasing faith in their own sphere,
according to the work to them committed ; but that God and they
do work with the same kind of efficiency, it is the main intend-
ment of the apostle in the place cited (1 Cor. iii.) to disprove. He
tells you, indeed, there is a work of planting and watering committed
to the ministers of the gospel ; but the giving of increase (a peculiar
working with a distinct kind of efficiency), that is alone to be ascribed
to God. It is, I say, his design (who everywhere abundantly in-
forms us that " faith is the gift of God, wrought in us by the exceed-
ing greatness of his power") to prove in this place that though the dis-
pensation of the word of the gospel be committed unto men, yet their
whole ministry will be vain and of none effect, unless, by an imme-
diate efficacy or working of his Spirit, giving and bestowing faith on
his elect, God do give an increase.

(3.) For the term of " necessitating," put upon the real effectual
work of God's grace on the wills of men, giving them power and
assistance, and working in them to will and to do, as different from
that which is purely moral or persuasive only, which communicates
no strength or power, I shall need no more but to reject it with the
same facility wherewith it is imposed on us. The similitude of one
walking and another running, wherewith [he sets forth] the inconsis-
tency of a real efficient work of grace with persuasion, so far as that
they should be said to co-operate to the producing of the same effect,

454 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEESEVERANCE. [CHAP.

doth not in the least iHustrate what it is intended to set off; for though
one run and another go softly (as suppose one carrying a little loaf,
another a great burden of meat, for a supper), and both going to the
same place, why may not they be said to co-operate to the providing
of the same supper ? Must all agents that co-operate to the produc-
ing of the same effect be together in one place? You may as soon
bring heaven and hell together as prove it. And why must real
efficiency be compared to " running," and persuasion to " soft walk-
ing V as though one were supposed to carry on the work faster than
the other, when we only say, that in the one there is a distinct power
exerted from what is in the other; which that it may be done might
be proved by a thousand instances, and illustrated by as many simi-
litudes, if any pleasure were taken to abound in causa facilL God
and man then co-operate in respect of the tendency of their working
unto the event, not in respect of the kinds of their efficiency.

Of the 7th section (whereon we shall not need long to insist),
which in the entrance frames an objection and pretends an answer to
it, there are three parts. In the first he says that we affirm " That
though the will be necessitated by God, yet it is free in its election ;
which, how it may be, he understands not." But if this were all
the inconvenience, that Mr Goodwin could not understand how to
salve the operation of God in man with the libert}'' of his will, seeing
as wise men as himself have herein been content to captivate their
understandings to the obedience of faitli, it were not much to be
stumbled at; but the truth is, the chimera whose nature he pro-
fesseth himself unacquainted withal is created in his own imagina-
tion, where it is easy for every man to frame such notions as neither
himself nor any else can bring to a consistency with reason or truth.
Of necessitating the will to election we have had occasion more than
once already to treat, and shall not burden the reader with needless
repetitions.

In the second division of the section, he gives you his judgment of
the manner of the work of God upon the soul unto the doing of that
which is good, and the effect produced thereby: whereof the one, as
was said before, consists in persuasions, which he sa3'S " are thus far
irresistible, that they who are to be persuaded cannot hinder but
that God may persuade them or exhort them, though he prevail not
with them;" — wliich, doubtless, is a notable exaltation of his grace.
Thus Mr Goodwin works irresistibly with one or other, perhaps,
every day. And " the effect of this persuasion is" (that is, when it
is effectual) " that impression which it leaves upon the soul to the
things whereunto it is persuaded;" as the case is in the dealing of
men one with another. For ray part, I see no reason why our author
should so often so hecdfully deliver his judgment concerning this
thing, especially without the least attempt of any scriptural proof or

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 455

endeavour to answer those innumerable clear and express places of
Scripture which he knows are everywhere and on all occasions pro-
duced and insisted on to prove a real efficient acting of God in and
with the wills of men, for the producing, working, and accomplishing,
that which is good, in a way distinct from that of persuasion, which
contributes no real strength to the person persuaded, concurring only
metaphorically in the producing of the effect. Let this at last, then,
suffice. We are abundantly convinced of his denial of the work of
God's grace in the salvation of souls.

In the third place we have a rhetorical flourish over that which he
hath been laying out his strength against all this while, being a mere
repetition of what hath been already tendered and given in to con-
sideration over and over. " If God cause the saints effectually to per-
severe" (liis terms of " irresistibly" and " necessitating" have been
long since discharged from any farther attendance or service in this
warfare) " by exhortations, then are all his promises of perseverance
in vain.'" But why so? May not God enjoin the use of means, and
promise by them the attainment of the end? May he not promise
that to us which he will work himself effectually in us? If God
effectually work in us to give us, by what means soever, a new heart,
may he not promise to give us a new heart? "Yea, but amongst
men this would be incongruous, yea, ridiculous, that a father should
promise his son an inheritance, and then persuade him to take heed
that he may obtain it."

But, first. If this be " incongruous, yea, ridiculous," amongst men,
in their dealings with one another, doth it therefore follow that it
must be so as to God's dealings with men? "Are his thoughts as
our thoughts, and his ways as our ways?" Is not the wisdom of
God foolishness with men, and theirs much more so with him? Are
men bound in their dealings with others to consider them not only
in their natural and civil relations, but as impotent and corrupted
men, as God in his dealings with them doth?

Secondly, Neither is this course so ridiculous amongst men as Mr
Goodwin imagineth. That a father, having promised his son an in-
heritance, and instated it on him, or assured it to him, should ex-
hort and persuade him to behave himself worthy of his kindness,
and to take heed that he come to the enjoyment of the inheritance
which he hath provided for him by the means that he hath appointed
(for the prescription of means for the enjoyment of the inheritance
must be supposed to go along with the promise and assurance), is
far from being a course so ridiculous as is pretended.

Neither, thirdly, is this similitude analogous with that which it is
produced to illustrate ; for, — 1. A man may know how, and when, and
on what account, an inheritance is settled on him by his father; but
of what God promiseth we have faith only, not knowledge, properly

456 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

SO called; nor always the assurance of faith as to the enjoyment of
the thing promised, hut the adherence of faith, as to the truth and
faithfulness of the promiser. Nor, — 2. Can a father work in his son
that obedience which he requireth of him, as He can do who creates
a ne>v heart in us, and writes his law and fear therein. 3. This ab-
solute engagement to bestow an inheritance, whether the means of
obtaining it be used and insisted on or no, is a thing most remote
from what we ascribe to the Lord in his promises of perseverance,
which are only that believers shall persevere by the use of means ;
which means he exhorts them to use, and yet, dealing with them in
a covenant of grace and mercy, entered into upon account of their
utter insufficiency in themselves to do the things that are well pleas-
ing to him, whereunto they are so exhorted, he himself effectually
and graciously, according to the tenor of that covenant, works in
them what he requires of them, bearing them forth in the power of
his grace to the use of the means appointed.

His sections 8 and 9 contain an endeavour for the taking off
an instance usually given of pressing to the use of means, when the
end is infallibly promised to be accomplished and brought about in
and by the use of those means; and this is in the passage of Paul,
Acts xxvii. 21-86, whereof something formerly hath been spoken.
Paul receives a promise from God, that none of the lives of the
persons with him in the ship should perish. This he declares to his
company; and how deeply he was concerned in the accomplishment
of the promise, and his prediction thereupon, upon the account of
the undertaking wherein, against almost all the world, he was then
engaged, and the cause for which he was committed to their com-
pany and custody, was formerly declared. Notwithstanding this, he
afterward exhorts them, and directs to the use of all means ima-
ginable that were suitable for the fulfilling of the promise he had,
and the prediction he had made. Evident it is, then, that there is
no inconsistency, nor any thing unbecoming any perfection in God,
in that compliance of promises and exhortations which we insist
upon, he having directed Paul to walk in that very way and path.
God, we say, in the covenant of grace hath promised that his saints
shall never leave him nor forsake him, and that he will abide in un-
changeable constancy to be their God, — that he will preserve them
and keep them in his hand unto the kingdom of his Son in glory,
saving his redeemed ones with an everlasting salvation, to the accom-
plishment of the end promised ; which he will, upon the account of
his truth and faithfulness, bring about by means suitable unto and
instituted by him for that end. In the compassing and effecting of
this great work, God dealeth with men under a twofold considera-
tion:—

1 As rational creatures. So he discovers to them the end pro-

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 457

niised, with its excellency, loveliness, and satisfaction, thereby stirring
up in them desires after it, as that eminent and proportioned good
Avhich they, in the utmost issue of their thoughts and desires, aim at.
Farther; on the forementioned account, that they are rational crea-
tures, endued with a rational appetite or will for the choosing of that
which is good, and with an understanding to judge of it, and of the
means for the attainment of the end, God reveals to them the means
conducing to the end, proposing them to them, to be chosen, and em-
braced, and closed withal, for the compassing of the end proposed.
And that yet they may be dealt withal agreeably to their nature and
those principles in them which they are created withal, and that God
might have glory by their acting suitably to such a nature and such
principles, he exhorts and provokes them to choose those ways and
means which he hath so allotted (as before mentioned) for the end
aimed at; and that they should be thus dealt withal, their very na-
tural condition, of being free, intellectual agents, doth require.

2. As sinners, or agents disenabled in themselves for the work
prescribed to them and required of them for the attaining of the
end they aim at, — namely, in spiritual things; and on that account
he puts forth towards them and in them the efficacy of his power
for the immediate and special working of those things in them and
by them which, as rational creatures bound unto an orderly obedi-
ence, they are pressed and exhorted unto.

To manifest the inconsistency of such a procedure, and the unan-
swerableness of it to the infinite wisdom of God (though the Scrip-
tures expressly deliver it in innumerable places, as hath been shown),
is that which by Mr Goodwin is in this discourse attempted. His
particular endeavour in the place under consideration is, to manifest
that when God promiseth to bring about and effect any thing in-
fallibly, by the use of means, it is in vain altogether that any ex-
hortation should be urged on them who are to use the means so
appointed for the accomplishment of it. And to the instance above
mentioned concerning Paul he replies, chap. xiii. sect. 8 : —

" First, it is the generally received opinion of divines, that pro-
mises of temporal good things are still conditional, and not absolute;
which opinion they maintain upon grounds not easily shaken. Now^
evident it is that the promise under question was a promise of this
nature and kind, relating only to the preservation of the temporal
lives of men."

Ans. That all promises of temporal things, without exception, are
conditional, — that is, so as to be suspended on any conditions not
promised to be wrought with equal assurance to that which depends
on them, — is not the judgment of any divine I know, unless it be of
Mr Goodwin, and those of the same persuasion with him in the
matter of our present controversy. Who ever but they will say (if

458 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEllSEVERANCE. [CUAP.

they ynW) that the promise of bringing the children of Israel out of
Egypt was conditional? Let them that do say so assign the condi-
tion on which the accomplishment of that promise was suspended.
The promise made to the parents of Samson of his birth and mighty
actions, what condition was it suspended on? and yet was it a pro-
raise of a temporal thing. Though this may be accounted a general
rule, because for the most part it is so, yet may not God make a
particular exception thereunto ? Did he not so in the case of Hezekiah,
as to his living fifteen years, as also in those cases before mentioned?
It is true, all such promises have appointed means for their accom-
plishment, but not as conditions whereon their fulfilling is absolutely
suspended.

But he adds, " Those words of Paul to the centurion and soldiers
lately mentioned (' Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be safe')
undeniably prove the said promise to have been not absolute, but
conditional ; for in case God should have promised absolutely and
without all exception that they should have been safe, Paul had
plainly contradicted the truth of it by affirming, not that they should
not, but that they could not be safe, otherwise than upon the condi-
tion of the mariners abiding in the ship."

Ans. This is boldly ventured. God promiseth that the end shall
be accomplished ; Paul exhorteth to the use of the means for the
attainment of that end, and in that contradicts the truth of God's
promise, if it be not conditional. And why so? Who ever said that
God promised that they should be safe and preserved in the neglect
of means? They were men, and not stones, that God promised so to
safeguard ; and it was by his blessing upon means that he intended
to preserve them: tlierefore he that stirred them up to the use of
means contradicted the promise, unless it were conditional ! Paul
says, indeed, they could not be safe unless the mariners abode in the
ship ; not suspending the certainty of God's promise upon their con-
tinuance in the ship, but manifesting the means whereby God would
bring about their safety.

That which ensues in the two following exceptions (as Paul's per-
suading them to take meat, which conduced to their safety, and
their casting the wheat into the sea for the same end) amounts no
higher than the affirmations already considered, asserting that an in-
fallible promise of an end to be attained by means, and an exhorta-
tion to the use of means, with the actual use of them on the account
of their necessity as means, are inconsistent ; which is plainly, with-
out the least show of proof or truth, to beg the thing in question.

Neither is his case in hand at all promoted by comparing this par-
ticular promise, given at such a time and season, with those general
promises of earthly blessings made to the obedience of the Jews in
the land of Canaan, mentioned Deut. xxviii, 1-1 4,

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 459

As for that wliich, sixthly, follows in the 9th section, being a mar-
vellous pretty discourse about the promise here made, as though it
should be only this, that though the sliip were lost and miscarried,
yet none of them in it should perish thereb}^, — merely upon the ac-
count of the ship's miscarrying, though on some other account they
might be drowned at the same time, — which, upon narrow scanning,
he hath at last found out to be the sense of the place, [it] may well
deserve the consideration of them who have nothing else to do; for
my part, I have other employment.

That which we affirm concerning the words of God by his angel
to Paul is, that they were such a promise as could not but infallibly
be accomplished, according to the tenor of what is in those words
expressed ; nor, in respect of the faithfulness of God, could it other-
wise be but that it must so fall out and come to pass as was ap-
pointed, although the accomplishment of it was to be brought about
by the eminent blessing of God upon the means that were to be
used by them to whom and concerning whom it was given.

1. For first, the promise was not only concerning the mariners and
the rest in the ship, for the preservation of whom the means formerly
mentioned were used, but of Paul's appearance before Caesar, — a great
and eminent work whereunto he was designed, Acts ix. 15 : "Fear not,
Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar," chap, xxvii. 24. Look,
then, what infallibility in respect of the event there was as to Paul's
appearance before Cassar, the same there was in the preservation of the
lives of the rest with him. Now, although the staying of the mariners
from going out of the ship was a means that Paul was kept alive to
be brought before Caesar, yet can any one be so forsaken of common
sense as to say that it was the condition of the purpose of God con-
cerning the fulfilling of that testimony which, according to his ap-
pointment, Paul was to make at Rome with all the mighty and
successful travail for the propagation of the gospel which he after
this was engaged in? was it all now cast upon the fall of an uncer-
tain condition, not at all determined of God as to its accomplish-
ment? Doth the infinitely wise God delight to put the purposes of
his heart, and those of so great concernment to the kingdom of his
Son and his own glory, in the everlasting welfare of innumerable
souls, to such uncertain hazards, which, by various ways obvious and
naked before his eyes, he could have prevented?

2. It is part of the prediction of Paul, from the promise he had
received (and therewith a revelation thereof), that they shoidd be
" cast upon a certain island," God having some work for him there
to do. Now, was this part of the promise conditional, or no ? If it
be said that it was, let the condition on which it depended be as-
signed. Nothing can be imagined, unless it be that the wind sat in
such or such a quarter. It is, then, supposed that God promised

4 GO DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVEllANCE. [CHAP.

Paul and his company should be cast on an island for their preser-
vation, provided the wind served for that end or purpose ! But who,
I pray, commands the winds and seas? Doth the wind so " blow
where it listeth" as not to be at the command of its Maker? Is it
not enough that we cast off his yoke and sovereignty from man, but
must the residue of the creation be forced so to pay their homage to
our free wills as to be exempted thereby from God's disposal? If
this part of the promise were infallible and absolute as to the cer-
tainty of its accomplishment, why not the other part of it also?

S. Paul makes confession of his faith to the company concern-
ing the accomplishment of this promise. "I believe God," saith
he, 071 o'jrojg iSrai xa^' ov rpwov XfXdXrjrai /loi, — " it shall SO come to
pass in the same manner as it was told me;" clearly engaging the
truth and faithfulness of that God which he worshipped (for his testi-
mony to whose truth he was then in bonds) for the accomplishment
of what he had spoken to them, — namely, that not one of them
should be lost. Now, supposing that any one person had, by any
accident, fallen out of the ship, Mr Goodwin tells you there had been
no opportunity or possibility left unto God to have fulfilled his pro-
mise. True, for it had been wholly frustrated, he having undertaken
for the lives of every one of them. But supposing that engagement
of his, he that says any one might have so perished is more careful,
doubtless, to defend his own hypothesis than the honour of the truth
and faithfulness of God.

Evident then it is, notwithstanding the tortures, racks, and wheels,
applied by Mr Goodwin to this text, with the confession pretended
(and but pretended) to be extorted from it (which but that it hath
gotten sanctuary under his name and wing would be counted ridicu-
lous), that here is a promise of God making an event infallible and
necessary in respect of its relation thereto, by a clear consistency
with exhortations to the use of free and suitable means for the accom-
plishment of the thing so promised.

Sect. 10. He objects farther to himself, "That in sundry places of
Scripture, as 1 Cor, x. 12, 13, Phil. ii. 12, 13, Heb. vi. 4-6, 9, there are
promises of perseverance and exhortations unto it joined together;
and therefore men who deny a regular and due consistency between
them do impute folly and weakness to the Holy Ghost." Whereunto
he answers sundry things, to the end of the 11th section; as, —

First, " They are many degrees nearer to the guilt of the crime
specified who affirm the conjunction mentioned to be found in the
said scriptures, than they who deny the legitimacy of such a con-
junction. The Incongruity of the conjunction hath been sufficiently
evinced, but that any such conjunction is to be found either in the
scriptures quoted, or in any others, is no man's vi.^ion but his who
hath darkness for vision."

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 461

Ans. If our adversary's ipse dixit may pass current, we shall
quickly have small hopes left of carrying on the cause under consi-
deration. All our testimonies must be looked upon as cashiered
long since from attending any longer on the trial in hand, and all
our arguments as blown away like flies in the summer. The very
things here in question, — namely, that there is an inconsistency be-
tween promises of perseverance and exhortations to the use of the
means whereby it may be effected, that God hath made no such
promises, or appointed no such exhortations, and that those who ap-
prehend any such things have darkness for vision, — are all confirmed
by the renewed stamp of teste meipso; to which proof I shall only
say, " Yaleat quantum valere potest."

But he adds, " That in none of the places cited is there any pro-
mise of perseverance is evident to him that shall duly consider the
tenor and import of them.

" For, first, it is one thing to say and teach that God will so limit
as well the force as the continuance of temptations, that the saints
may be able to bear, another to make a promise of absolute perse-
verance ; yea, these very words, ' That ye may be able to bear it,'
clearly import that all that is here promised unto the believing
Corinthians is an exhibiting of means to perseverance, if they will
improve them accordingly, not an infallible certainty of their perse-
verance. And that caveat, ' Let him that thinketh he stands take
heed lest he fall,' plainly supposeth a possibility of his falling who
thinketh, upon the best grounds, that he standeth sure. For that this
caveat was not given to hypocrites or unsound believers, or to such
who please themselves with a loose and groundless conceit of the
goodness of their condition God-ward, is evident, because itwere better
that such men should fall from their present standing of a groundless
conceit than continue their standing, nor would the apostle have
ever cautioned such to take heed of falling away whose condition
was more like to be made better than worse by their falling. And,
besides, to understand the said caveat of loose believers overthrows
the pertinency of it to their cause who insist upon it to prove a due
consistency between exhortations to perseverance and promises to
perseverance, as is evident. If, then, it be directed to true and
sound believers, it clearly supposeth a possibility, at least, of their
falling in case they shall not take heed, or else their taking heed
would be no means, at least no necessary means, of their standing;
and farther, it supposeth also a possibility, at least, of their non-
taking heed, or that they might possibly not take heed hereof, other-
wise the caveat or admonition had been in vain. Men have no need
of being admonished to do that which they are under no possibility
to omit. If, then, the standing or persevering of the saints depends
upon their taking heed lest they fall, and their taking heed in this

462 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

kind be sucli a thing which they may possibly omit, evident it is
that there is a possibility of their non-persevering."

A71S. This last division of the 10th section labours to evince that
in the first of the places above mentioned, namely, 1 Cor. x. 12, 13,
there is not a promise of perseverance in conjunction with exhorta-
tions unto the use of means unto that end. The words are, " Where-
fore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man : but
God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what
ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape,
that ye may be able to bear it." But, —

1. It is not in the least measure necessary, nor can be upon any
account whatever required of us, that we should produce texts of
Scripture in an immediate dependence and coherence in the same
place, containing both the promises and exhortations mentioned,
they being, for the most part, proposed upon most different accounts,
and for immediately different ends and purposes; — the one (namely),
as in the revelation of them, respecting our consolation, the other
our obedience. Nor can they ever the more be denied to be in a
conjunction and consistency, though they are not to be found but
in different places of Scripture (which that they are, especially as to
that case which is questioned, hath been abundantly declared), than
if they were still combined in the same coherence and connection of
words. But yet, —

2. I say there is, in the place forenamed, a most pathetical ex-
li07'tation to the use of the means whereby we may persevere, and
a most infallible promise that we shall so persevere, and not by
any temptation whatever be utterly cast down or separated from
God in Christ: the first in verse 12, "Wherefore, let him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall," and verse 14, " Where-
fore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry;" the latter in verse 13,
" There hath no temptation taken you," etc. First, That there is
an exhortation to the use of means for perseverance is not denied by
our author, but granted, with an attempt to improve it for the fur-
therance of his own design. That there is a promise also of perse-
verance is no less evident. The diversion and turning away of any
believer from God must be by temptation. Temptations are of
various sorts, both in respect of their immediate rise, nature, and
efficiency. Whatever (whence ever it proceed) turns from God,
more or less, in part or in whole, as is imagined, is temptation.
Now, the apostle here engageth the faithfulness of God in the pre-
servation of believers from the power of temptation, so as it shall not
prevail against them to the end before specified. " God," saith he,
"is faithful;" and there is no need of his mentioning that property of
God, which is his immutable constancy in the performance of his pro-

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTEINE REFUTED, 463

mises, but only to assure believers that he will preserve them as he
hath spoken. The thing promised by the apostle in the name of God
is (not only that the saints may be able to bear temptations that
shall befall them, v'ttsp o duvach, and rod duvac^ai u,cLag hviviyxitv, having
quite another importance than what is here intimated in the expres-
sion " May be able/' in capital letters), that he will not suffer any
temptation to come upon them that shall be above that strength,
and prevalent against it, which he will communicate to them ; and
for those which do befall them, he will make way for their escaping,
that with and by the strength received they may bear them. So
that not only sufficiency of means to persevere, but perseverance itself
by those means, and God's ordering all things so in his faithfulness
that no assault shall befall them above the power of the strength
given them to bear, is here asserted. Now, the promise here given
is either absolute or conditional. If absolute, — that is, so far as that
it shall infallibly be accomplished, not so depending on any thing
that, in respect of the event, may or may not be as to be left at an
uncertainty for its fulfilling, — it is all that is of us desired. If it shall
be said that it is conditional, I desire that the condition from whence
it is said so to be may be assigned. If it shall be said (as it is) that
it is " in case they willingly suffer not themselves to be overcome of
temptations," I ask whether the strength and ability that God
affords to his saints to resist temptations be not in the strengthening
and confirming of their wills against them? and if so, whether this
promise so interpreted doth not resolve itself into this proposition,
" I will not suffer my saints to be overborne by temptations above
the strength I will give them to bear, provided they be not pressed
with temptations above the strength I give unto them." The pro-
mise, then, is absolute, either that no temptations shall befall be-
lievers above that they have received, or, that strength not to be
overcome shall be afresh communicated to them upon the assaults of
any new temptations.

8. This being established, that here is a firm promise of perseverance,
against which Mr Goodwin opposeth scarce any thing at all, and no-
thing at all to the purpose, his whole ensuing discourse falls of itself:
for from the caveat used at the entrance of this promise and the ex-
hortation at the close, both tending to stir up the saints, to whom the
promise is made (many of whom have no distinct assurance of their
interest in this or any other promise), to be heedfully careful in using
the means of perseverance and avoiding the sins that in their own
nature tend to the interruption of it, no other possibility of falling
away can be concluded but such as may have a consistency with the
faithfulness of God in the promise he hath given ; — that is, a possi-
bility^ as they say, " in sensu diviso," without respect had to the in-
fallibly preventing causes of it, not " in sensu composite," not a possi-

4G4; DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

billty in reference to the nature of the things themselves; which is a
sufficient bottom for caveats to be given and exhortations to be
made to them concerned in them, none at all in respect of the pur-
poses and promises of God, infalHbly preventing the reducing into act
of that possibiHty. These exceptions then notwithstanding, it appears
that in 1 Cor. x. 12, 13, there is a conjunction of a gracious pro-
mise of perseverance with effectual exhortations to the use of means
whereby we may persevere; and, consequently, they who "deny a
due consistency between them do impute folly or weakness to the
Holy Ghost." "O-ttsp 'idu diT^ai.

He proceeds to the next place pointed to by himself to prove a
consistency between promises and exhortations, under consideration,
to wit, Phil. ii. 12, 13, " Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always
obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my ab-
sence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling : for it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good plea-
sure." Evident it is that you have here conjoined by the Holy Ghost
as weighty and pathetical an exhortation as he almost anywhere
useth in the Scripture, with an assertion of grace as eminently ope-
rative and effectual as by any means can be expressed.

" But," saith he, " it is one thing to affirm that ' God worketh in
men as to will, so to do,' — that is, to enable men to do or put in exe-
cution what they first will, or to assist in the doing or executing it-
self,— another to promise to work infallibly, and without all possibility
of frustration, in men perseverance. There is little or no affinity be-
tween these. But how and in what sense God is said to be svspyuiv,
working in men both to will and to do of his good pleasure, we shall
have occasion to open more at large in the latter part of this work."

Ans. I dare say an indifferent reader will conclude that Mr Good-
win was very hard put to it for an answer, finding him contenting
himself with such sorry shifts and evident pervertings of the words
of the text as those here mentioned. For, first. How come the
words to be changed into a working, " as to will, so to do?" that is,
perhaps, neither the one nor the other; — who taught him to render
xa} TO SeXs/v, xa/ rh ivspyiTv, " as to will, SO to do?" But, secondly,
The chit'f of the sport made with the words consists in the exposition
given of them as they lie in this new translation : " To work in them
as to will, so to do, — that is, to do what they first will ; not that he
works in them to will, but that he assists them in doing what they
first will." But what is now become of the tcim quam above men-
tioned ? how doth he work in them as to will, so to do, if he only as-
sists them in doing what of themselves, without his assistance, they
first will? Rather than it shall be granted that God by his grace
works effectually on the wills of men, to the producing of their elicit
acts of believing and obedience, any course may be warranted for the

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 465

perverting of the expressions where such an operation seems to be
held out. Perhaps this persuasion also, of the efficacy of the grace
of God on the wills of men, is such that if it be found in any place
of Scripture to be declared or asserted, it is enough to make wise
and considering, prudent men to question their authority. But,
thirdly, saith he, " This is not infallibly to work perseverance." I
say, Show what else is required to perseverance but to " will and to
do" according to the mind of God, which of his own good pleasure he
promiseth effectually to work in believers, and you say something
that may render your reasonings considerable. But it seems we must
be kept in abeyance for an answer to this, until his criticism be ready
to manifest how God is said to be ivspyuv, " working in men," per-
haps what is never wrought without any such effect as is imagined.
What may by him be brought forth to this purpose time will show.
But if he be able to make 'O Qiog hanv 6 ii^jfywi/ h vfji,Tv, "God is
working in you to will and to do," forsooth, from the participial ex-
pression of the verb, he will manifest more skill in Greek than he
hath hitherto in divinity in all his learned treatises. So tliat here
is a second instance of a conjunction of promises of perseverance with
exhortations to use the means suited thereunto; which whoso denies
to have a just and sweet consistency, doth charge the Holy Ghost
with folly or w^eakness. "Otsp sdsi diT^ai.

Thirdly, The verses pointed to out of Heb. vi. 4-6, 9, do not so
directly express the conjunction insisted on as those places already
considered do ; only, the discourse there used by the apostle is per-
emptory, that men may, without any disparagement to their wisdom
or reason, earnestly deal with others and exhort them to avoid fall-
ing away from God, though they are fully persuaded that those whom
they so exhort, by the help of those exhortations, and upon other
considerations, shall abide with God to the end, or be attended with
things accompanying salvation. But had Mr Goodwin been pleased
to look to the following verses, wherein the apostle gives an account
of the ground of this persuasion of his, he might have found some-
thing to exercise the best of his skill upon. The words are, " Beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labour of love, which ye have showed toward
his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to
the full assurance of hope unto the end." He tells them, verse 10,
it is upon the account of the righteousness of God in carrying on the
work of their labour of love, which was begun in them, and which
they had shown or manifested, that he had this persuasion concerning
them; which, in the ensuing verses, he farther pursues, dealing up
the engagement of the righteousness of God in his oath : of which

VOL. XI. 30

466 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

elsewhere. So that, notwithstanding any thing attempted to the
contrary, evident it is that, in carrying on the work of our salvation,
the Holy Ghost doth make use of promises of effectual grace for per-
severance and eminent exhortations to abide with God, in such a
harmony and consistency as is well suited to the tilings themselves,
and in a course which takes sanctuary under the shade of his wisdom
from all the charges of folly and weakness which poor, weak, and
foolish men may, under their temptations and in their darkness, rise
up against it withal. Whether there are express promises of perse-
verance in the Scripture, some advantage I hope will be given to the
pious reader to judge from what hath been spoken, and what, by the
Lord's assistance, may yet be insisted on to that purpose.

Unto this debate about the exhortations of the word we find a
discourse of the same nature and importance subjoined about the
threatenings that are therein ; which, as it is asserted, are rendered
useless and ineffectual for the end whereunto they are of God ap-
pointed by that doctrine of perseverance which is opposed. We
freely acknowledge that if any doctrine whatever do enervate and
render vain any ordinance or institution of God, as to the ends and
purposes whereunto it is of him appointed, that that doctrine is not
of God, whose paths are all plain and equal, and whose commands
do not interfere one with another. Now, that the principles of the
doctrine of perseverance do destroy the efficiency of threatenings is
attempted to be proved by an induction of observations, which, being
the sum of all that is spoken to this head, must be transcribed at
large, and is as followeth : —

Sect. 12, " If the principles of the doctrine we speak of dissolve
the efficiency of the said threatenings towards the end for the ac-
complishment whereof they are given, then they render them un-
savoury, useless, and vain; but the principles of this doctrine are
guilty of this offence: ergo. The terms of the major proposition
are sufficient witness of the truth thereof. In order to the proof of
the minor, we suppose, 1. That the end intended by God in such
threatenings, which threaten those that shall apostatize Avith eternal
death, is to prevent apostasy in the saints, and to work or cause them
to persevere. 2. That this is one of the principles of the common
doctrine of perseverance, ' God liath absolutely promised final perse-
verance unto the saints;' and this another, 'God will certainly, unfrust-
rably, and infalUbly work this perseverance in the saints.' These two
things only supposed, the light of the truth of the said minor propo-
sition breaks forth from between them with much evidence and
power. For, first, If the said threatenings be intended by God for
the prevention of the apostasy of the saints, and consequently to
effect their perseverance, the way and manner wherein this end in-
tended by God is to be effected by them must needs be by their

1

xil] objections to the doctrine refuted. 467

ingenerating or raising a fear or apprehension in the saints of eternal
death, it being the native property of fear, mixed with hope, to
awaken and provoke men to the use of such means which are proper
to prevent the danger or evil feared. There is no other way imagin-
able how or whereby the threatenings we speak of should operate
towards the perseverance of the saints, for the preventing of their
apostas}'', but that mentioned, — namely, by working in them a fear
or dread of the evil threatened. Therefore, secondly. Evident it is
that such promises made, and made known unto the saints, by which
they are made incapable of any such fear, are absolutely destructive
of the efficiency which is proper to the said threatenings to exhibit,
towards the prevention of apostasy in the saints, or for the causing
of them to persevere. And, lastly, It is every whit as evident that
such promises whereby God should assure the saints that they shall
not apostatize, but persevere, are apt and proper to render them in-
capable of all fear of eternal death ; and, consequently, are apparently
obstructive of, and destructive unto, the native tendency of the said
threatenings towards and about the perseverance of the saints. These
threatenings can do nothing, contribute nothing, towards the perse-
verance of the saints, but by the mediation of the fear of evil in them
upon their non -persevering ; therefore, whatsoever hardens them
against this fear, or renders them incapable of it, supersedes all the
virtue and vigour which are to be found in these threatenings for or
towards the effecting of their perseverance."

Ans. 1. Be it granted that one end of God in his threatenings
is to prevent apostasy in the saints, by stirring them up to take care-
ful heed to the ways and means whereby they may persevere, and
that they no otherwise work, or cause perseverance, but as they so
stir up and provoke men to the things wherein they are to abide;
but this is not their only end. They are also discoveries to all the
world of the severity of God against sin, and that it is his judgment
that they who commit it are worthy of death.

2. If by " Absolute promises of final perseverance" you intend
such promises of perseverance, in and by the use of means insti-
tuted and appointed by God himself for the accomplishment of the
end promised, which are not made or given upon the consideration
of any worth in them to whom they are made, nor do depend, as
to their accomplishment, on any such condition in them as in the
event and issue may not be fulfilled, this observation also is granted.
You may add, also, that God will certainly, effectually, and infallibly
work in them an abiding with him to the end, or put his law in their
hearts, that they shallneverdepartfrom him. If by "unfrustrably,"also,
you intend only that he will so work it as that his counsel and purpose
shall not in the end be frustrated or disappointed, we grant that also, for
he hath said " his counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure."

468 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

These things being thus supposed, let us try the inferences from
them that must make good the former assertion concerning the
frustration of the use of comminations by them; for they are singled
out to bear the weight of this charge.

To the first assumption, then, and inference, I say, there is a two-
fold fear of eternal death and destruction : — 1. An anxious, perjjlex-
ing fear, in respect of the end itself; 2. A watchful, careful fear, in
respect of the means leading thereunto. In respect of the first, it is
utterly denied that the use and end of the threatenings of God, in
respect of his saints, are to ingenerate any such fear in them, it be-
ing directly opposed to that faith, assurance, peace, boldness, conso-
lation, and joy, that God is pleased to afford to them, and abundantly
exhorts them to live up unto : yea, an anxious, abiding fear of hell is
fully contrary to that very conditional assurance of salvation which Mr
Goodwin himself, in respect of their present condition, allows to them ;
nor hath the Lord instituted his ordinances at such a difference and
opposition one to another as that, at the same time, towards the
same persons, they should be effectual to beget opposite and con-
trary frames and principles. For the other, or a watchful, heedful
fear, for the avoiding of the way and means that ivoiild lead them,
and do lead others, to destruction, that is not in the least inconsistent
with any assurance that God is pleased by his promises to give to
his saints of their perseverance. God will have them expect their
perseverance in the way wherein he hath promised it, — that is, by
the use of such and:such means, helps, and advantages, as he hath
appointed for the -effectual accomplishment thereof; and therefore
nothing is in vain or uselessly applied to them which, according to
his appointment, is suited to the stirring of them up to the use of
the means ordained for that end, as before mentioned. Therefore,
to Mr Goodwin's second assertion, which he calls " evident," I say, —

First, That it is not the making, or the bare making known to
the saints, of the promises of God, that will work the end for which
they are given to them, or enable them to mix them with faith ; and
according to the strength of that, and not according to the truth that
is in the promises themselves, is their assurance of the things pro-
mised. And therefore, notwithstanding all the clear promises of per-
severance which are made, and made known to them, we see very
many of them not to come up to any such assurance thereof as to be
freed from the first sort of fear mentioned, which yet is the proper
issue of unbelief, to the begetting whereof in them God hath not in-
stituted any ordinance. Secondly, That none of the saints of God
are, by the promises of grace which we assert, freed from that fear
which is the proper product and effect of God's comminations in re-
spect of them ; and therefore by them there is no obstruction laid
in the way of the proper efficiency of those threatenings. What is

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 469

added, in the third and last place, is only a repetition of what was
before spoken, without any attempt of proof, unless he would have
it looked upon as a conclusion from the premises, whose weakness
being discovered as to the intent and purpose in hand, we need not
farther trouble ourselves with it. Instead of Mr Goodwin's, now
considered, take these few observations, which will give so much
light into the whole matter under debate as may supersede his whole
ensuing discourse: —

First, then. It may be observed (as it was, by the way, in the
foregoing discourse), that notwithstanding the promises of persever-
ance which are given to the saints, yet many there are who are not
enabled all their days to mix them with faith, although their interest
and portion lie in them no less than theirs who through grace attain
the greatest assurance ; and on that account they do never all their
days get free from some bondage, by reason of the fear of death and
destruction. And in respect of such as these, the comminations and
threatenings insisted on may have much of that end accomplished
which by Mr Goodwin is assigned to them; not that such a frame
is directly aimed at in them, Christ dying to deliver them who by
reason of death were in bondage all their days, from that bondage
which the fear of death for sin doth keep the souls of men in and
under, but that it follows, and will follow, upon their darkness and
weakness of faith.

Secondly, That the promises of perseverance being of the effecting
and accomplishment of it by and in the use of means, do not, nor
will, give deliverance to them to whom they are made from fear of
death and hell, but only whilst they conscientiously use the means
appointed for them to walk in; so that upon their deflection from
the rule which is attended with mercy and peace, the threatenings
of God to sin and sinners, to apostasy and apostates, do lay hold on
them in their full force and efficacy, especially to the ingenerating
in them "a terror of the Lord," as the apostle speaks, and an abhor-
rency of their ways, a loathing of them as not good, that would cause
them to "fall into the hands of the living God." So that all Mr Good-
win's arguings, not being levied against the certainty of per sever ancey
but men's certainty that they shall persevere (which some never
attain unto, some lose either in whole or in part oftentimes), are not
to the business in hand.

Thirdly, That eternal death and destruction is not the only sub-
ject of God's threatenings, nor all the evil that they may have a fear
of whom he deals withal by them. Desertion, rejection, rebukes, sharp
and keen arrows, blows of God's hand, temporal death itself, with
the like, are also threatened; yea, and so often, in an eminent and
dreadful manner, have been inflicted, that though they might be sup-
posed to have always some comfortable assurance of deliverance from

470 DOCTRINE OF TUE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

the wrath that is to come, yet the threatenings of God may be suited
to beget in them this fear of evil to such a height as may make their
" bowels to flow like water, rottenness to enter into their bones, and
all their joints to tremble."

Fourthly, That the end of the threatenings of God being to dis-
cover to men the connection that is, by his appointment, between
the sins exagitated and the punishment threatened, whence the fear
mentioned doth consequently ensue, they may obtain their full and
primary effect though that fear be not ingenerated, if they be pre-
vailed on by any other considerations, so that the sin be avoided.

Fifthly, That when the saints do walk orderly, regularly, and
closely with God, in the use of means by him appointed, and so
doing, from the promises of perseverance, do receive a comfortable
assurance that they shall be " kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation," the begetting in them of fears of death and hell is
neither useful in itself nor are they intended of God to be their por-
tion. But if at any time they "turn aside from the holy command-
ment," and thereby fail of the persuasion of their perseverance (as
their faith will be by such means impaired), though the certainty of
the thing itself be no less infallible than formerly, yet by the threat-
enings of God to them it may be needful to rouse them (by "the
terror of the Lord " in them) from the condition whereinto they have
cast themselves.

I doubt not but that from the light of these and the like consider-
ations, which might farther be insisted on, it will appear that there
may be, and is, an harmonious consistency between the promises and
threatenings of the Scripture, notwithstanding the mist that is raised
in a long and tedious discourse to interrupt the evidence thereof.

In the 13th section, under pretence of answering an objection, a
long discourse is drawn forth farther to varnish over what was before
spoken. Nothing of importance, to my best observation, being added,
it may be reduced to these four heads: —

First, An assertion, "That the threats against apostasy do not
belong to hypocrites, — that is, to them that are not really regene-
rate, let their profession be what it will ; for hypocrites ought not to
persevere in the way wherein they are to the end, and therefore
there is no danger of their falling away from it;" — which is a ridi-
culous piece of sophistry ; for though they may not be exhorted to
continue in their hypocrisy, Avhich corrupts and vitiates their pro-
fession, yet they may in their j^^'ofession, which in itself is good.
And though there is no danger of leaving their hypocrisy, yet there
is of their waxing worse and worse, by falling from the beginnings
of grace whicli they have received, the profession which they have
made, and the regular conversation which they have entered upon.
So that, notwithstanding any thing said to the contrary, the com-

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 47l

minations under consideration may principally belong to some kind
of professors, who, notwithstanding all the gifts and common graces
which they have received, yet in a large sense may be termed hypo-
crites, as they are opposed to them who have received the Spirit
with true and savins o-race.

Secondly, He says, " It is evident that they belong unto true be-
lievers from Heb. vi. 4-6, 9, x. 26, 27, 29;" but if there were no
better evidence of the concernment of true believers in the threaten-
ings made to apostasy than what can be drawn from the places
mentioned, I dare undertake that Mr Goodwin shall never prove
any such concernment of theirs therein whilst his eyes are open.
But about this I shall not at present contend.

Thirdly, He tells us " That the end and aim of God in these
threatenings is the good of believers : " of which, as far as they are
concerned in them, I much less doubt than I do of the clearness of
the proof of this assertion from Ps. Ixxxv. 8, " I will hear what God
the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to
his saints: but let them not turn 'again to folly;" — a place that I
presume was hooked in here violently for want of a fitter opportunity
to wrest it with a by-interpretation, because it looks so hardly on
the doctrine which our author hath undertaken to defend. But let
this pass also.

His fourth assertion, which he pursues at large, or rather with
many words, is, " That these threatenings have no tendency to the
good of believers, but only by begetting in them a fear of hell and
destruction; which that they ought to do is strongly proved from
Luke xii. 4, 5, where we are bid to fear Him who can cast both body
and soul into hell-fire." Now, though the logic of this argument
doth scarce appear to me, nor the strength of the inference from the
text, — there being a gi'eat difference between fearing Him who can
cast both body and soul into hell-fire and fearing of hell-fire, be-
tween fearing God for his severity and power, in opposition to the
weakness and limitedness of persecutors (even whilst we " fear not
their fear, but sanctify the Lord of hosts himself in our hearts, making
him our fear and our dread"), and such a fear of punishment as is
inconsistent with the promises of God that we shall be preserved in
obedience, and so be free from it, — yet I shall consider the follow-
ing discourse that is built thereon. Supposing all that Mr Goodwin
observes from this text, and that the reason of the fear here enjoined
is taken from the power of God to cast into hell, yet the whole of
the argument thence amounts but thus far: " Because such who are
threatened to be persecuted by men, who can only kill their bodies,
ought rather to fear God, who can extend his power of punishing to
the destruction of body and soul of those that offend him; there-
fore there is such a fear ingenerated in the saints by the threaten-

472 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ings of the word as is inconsistent with the truth of God's steadfast-
ness in his covenant with them to keep them up to obedience unto
the end.

Sect, the 14th, he farther pleads from Heb. xi. 7, 2 Kings xxii.
19, 20, " That the eminentest, holiest men that live may do many
things from a principle of fear, or of being afraid of the judgments
of God, that they should come upon them ; and upon that account
have been put upon ways that were acceptable to God."

Ans. We know that the "fear of the Lord is the beginninfj of wis-
dom," and the "fear of the Lord and his goodness" is a great mercy
of the covenant of grace. This is not the thing here pleaded for. It
is a thing quite of another nature, even that ascribed to the strange
nations that were transplanted into Samaria by the king of Assyria,
upon the captivity and removal of the ten tribes, and frightened by
lions, that destroyed some of them, who did yet continue to worship
their own idols, under the dread of God which was upon them,
•which is called " The fear of the Lord." To complete this fear, it is
required that a man have such an apprehension of the coming of
hell and wrath upon him as that he be not relieved against it by
any interposal of promise, or aught else, from God, that he should
be preserved in the way and path whereby he shall assuredly find
deliverance from that which he fears. How far this kind of fear, the
fear of hell, — not as declarative of the terror of the Lord, but as pro-
bable to betide and befall the person so fearing it, and that solely
considered as an evil to himself, — may be a principle of any act of
acceptable gospel obedience, is not cleared by Mr Goodwin, nor
easily will be so; for, —

1. That it is not the intendment of any divine threatenings to be-
get such a fear, in reference to them that believe, hath been declared.

2. It is no fruit or product of the Spirit of life and love; which,
as hath been shown, is the principle of all our obedience and walk-
ing with God.

8. It holds out a frame of spirit directly contrary to what we are
called and admitted unto under the gospel ; for " God hath not
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound
mind," 2 Tim. i. 7: and Rom. viii. 15, "Ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye hive received the Spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." The spirit of this fear and
dread, and the bondage that attends it, is at open variance with the
S})irit of liberty, boldness, power, adoption, and a sound mind, where-
with believers are endued. And, —

4. It is that which the Lord Christ intended to remove and take
away from his by his death: Heb. ii. 15, He died that he might "de
liver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage."

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE EEFUTED. 473

This fear, then, I say, which is neither promise of the covenant,
nor fruit of the Spirit, nor product of saving faith, will scarce, upon
strict inquiry, be found to be any great furtherer of the saints' obe-
dience. What use the Lord is pleased to make of this dread and
terror in the hearts of any c^ his, for the hedging up their ways
from folly, and staving them off from any actual evil, when, through
the strength of temptation, they do begin to cast off the law of life
and love whereby they are governed, is not in the least prejudiced
by any thing asserted in the doctrine of the saints' perseverance.
Towards some, who, though they are persuaded of the perseverance
of the saints indefinitely, yet have no persuasion, or at least no pre-
vailing cheering assurance, that themselves are saints (which Mr
Goodwin thinks to be the condition of far the greatest part of be-
lievers), it hath its full power and extent, its whole efficacy depend-
ing on the apprehensions of the mind wherein it is. Towards the
residue, who upon abiding grounds and sure foundations have ob-
tained a comfortable spiritual persuasion of their own interest in the
promises of God, that the consideration of hell and judgment, as the
due debt of sin and necessary vindication of the glory of God, hath
also its effect and influence, as far as God is pleased to exercise
them therewith, acquainting them continually with his terror, and
filling them with an abhorrency of those ways which in and of them-
selves tend to so dismal an end and issue, hath been declared.

The places of Scripture mentioned by Mr Goodwin doubtless
will not reach his intendment. Of Noah it is said that he was
iii'h.aZnkii after he was ■/j>-fiiJ.ariGQiig. Being warned of God of that
flood that was for to come upon the world of ungodly men, and the
salvation of himself and his family by the ark, being filled with
the reverence of God, and assured of his own preservation, he indus-
triously sets himself about the use of the means whereby it was to
be accomplished. That because a man assured of an end from God
himself, in and by the use of means, did, with reverential fear of
God, not of any evil threatened, which he was to be preserved
from, set himself to a conscientious use of means whereby the pro-
mised end of God's own institution is to be brought about, therefore
the fear of hell (such a fear as hath been described) is one principle
of the obedience of the saints in their walking with God, and such
as they ought to cherish, as being a means appointed of God for that
end and purpose, is an argument of no great value here with us.
Neither, surely, will the conclusion intended be more evidently educed
from the tenderness of the heart of Josiah under the preaching of
the law, mentioned in the second place; and therefore I shall not
need to call it into examination.

But it is added farther, sect. 14, p. 314, "The present state and
frame of the hearts and souls of the saints, duly considered, which

■i7^ DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERAXCE. [CflAP.

are made up as well of flesh and corruption as of Spirit and grace,
the former having need of bridles for restraint, as well as the latter
of spurs for quickening, evident it is that arguments or motives drawn
from fear of punishment are as necessary and proper for them in
respect of the one as incitements from love in respect of the other.
* A whip for the horse,' says Solomon, ' a bridle for the ass, and a
rod for the fool's back.' The flesh, even in the wisest of men, is a
fool, and would be unruly without a rod ever and anon shaken over
it; nor should God have made such gracious, bountiful, and effec-
tual 2:)rovision for the perseverance of the saints as now he hath done,
had he not engaged as well the passion of fear within them as of
love "to be their guardian keeper. It is true, 'perfect love casteth
out fear,' but who amongst the saints themselves can say either that
his heart is clean or his love perfect? Perfect love casteth out flesh
as well as fear; yea, true love, until flesh be cast out, preserveth fear
for its assistant and fellow-helper. The flesh would soon make love
a wanton, and entice her unto folly, did not fear dissolve the en-
chantment and protect her chastity."

Of this last division of the 14th section there are two parts; —
the first confirmative of what was spoken before concerning the use-
fulness of the fear of hell and punishment for the furthering of the
saints' obedience; the other responsatory to what is urged to the
contrary from 1 John iv. 18, "Perfect love casteth out fear." For
the first, it is granted that there are those two contrary principles of
flesh and spirit, corruption and grace, in the hearts of all, even the
best and most eminent saints, whilst they continue here below. But
that these two should be principles acting themselves in their obe-
dience, the one moved, incited, and stirred up by love, the other
from the fear whereof we are speaking, is a fleshly, dark, anti-evan-
gelical conceit. That the principle in believers which the Scripture
calls "flesh" and "corruption" needs incitement to obedience, or is to
be incited thereunto, as is affirmed, is no less corrupt than what was
before mentioned. Look, whatsoever influence flesh or corruption
hath into any of our obedience, so far that obedience is vitiated,
corrupted, rendered unclean, and unacceptable before God. The
flesh is to be crucified, slain, destroyed, not stirred up and provoked
to obedience, being indeed disobedience in the abstract, — enmity to
God. You may as well persuade darkness to shine as the flesh
to obey. It is not "a fool" (as that allusion bespeaks it from Prov.
xxvi. 3), "that would be imnily were not a rod ever and anon shaken
over him," but it is folly itself, that is not to be cured, but killed, —
not stirred up, but mortified. How that is to be done hath been for-
merly at large declared. It is by the Spirit's bringing the cross and
power of the death of Christ into the heart of the sinner, and not by
any consideration of hell and punishment that we can take upon our-

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 475

vselves, — who never did, nor ever will, mortify any sin to the end of
the world, — that this work is to be wrought.

Secondly, That which is added of " God's bountiful provision for
the perseverance of the saints, by engaging the passion of /ear as well
as love," is of no better a frame or constitution than that which went
before. That our gracious Father hath made fuller, larger, and more
certain, provision for our perseverance than any that can be afforded
by the engaging of our passions by consideration of punishment or
reward, I hope hath been sufficiently demonstrated. And if Mr Good-
win intend no more by his love and fear of God than the engaging
of those natural passions in us by the considerations intimated, I
shall not be rival with him in his persuasion. The love we intend is
a fruit of the Spirit of God in us, and the fear contended about is of
the spirit ofhondage; which, though it be not pressed on us as our
dut}'-, yet we hope that [such] bountiful provision is made for our
perseverance as shall effectually support and preserve us to the end.
Blessed be his name, his saints have many better guardians and
keepers than a bondage frame of spirit upon the account of the
wrath to com.e, from whence they are delivered by Christ ! They are
in his own hand, and in the hand of his Son, and are kept through
faith by his power to salvation. If this be the end of Mr Good-
win's preaching the threatenings of God at any time, namely, that,
the natural passion of fear being stirred up with the apprehensions
of hell, the flesh that is in man may be incited to obedience, I hope
he hath not many consenting with him in the same intendment.

Thirdly, To an objection framed from 1 John iv. 18, that "per-
fect love casteth out fear," he tells us, first, " That it may be so, but
whose love is perfect?" secondly, "That love cherisheth fear, until
the flesh be quite cast out;" thirdly, "That the flesh would make
love wanton and entice it to folly, did not fear dissolve the enchant-
ment." But, —

1. Though love be not perfect to all degrees of perfection here,
yet it may have, yea it hath, in the saints, the perfection of upright-
ness and sincerity ; which is all that is here intended, and all that is
required to it for the casting out of that tormenting fear of which
the apostle speaks. "Fear," saith he, "hath torment;" and if our
love cannot amount to such perfection as to cast it out, it being only
to be cast out thereby, it is impossible we should ever be freed from
torment all our days, or be filled with joy and consolation in believing;
which would frustrate the glorious design of God, which he hath sworn
himself willing to pursue, Heb. vi. 17, 18, and the great end of the
death of Christ, which he hath perfectly accomplished, chap. ii. 14, 15.

2. It is true, there is a fear that love cherisheth, — the fear that
God hath promised in the covenant of grace to preserve in our
hearts all our days ; but to say it cherisheth the fear we speak of, and

476 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

■which the Holy Ghost in this place intendeth, is expressly to make
the Holy Ghost a liar, and to contradict hira to his face.

3. What love in us is that that the flesh can or may "entice to
folly?" Are the fruits of the Spirit of God, the graces of his own work-
ing and creating in us, of such a temper and constitution as that they
may be enticed to uncleanness and folly? And is it possible that
such a thought should enter into the heart of a man professing the
doctrine of the gospel? that ink should stain paper with such filth cast
upon the Spirit and grace of God? The fear of hell erewhile was
suited to the use of the flesh, but now, it seems, it serves to keep
the love of God itself in order, that otherwise would wax wanton,
fleshly, and foolish ! Foolish love, that will attempt to cast out this
tormenting fear, not being able to preserve itself from folly without
its assistance !

Sect. 15 is spent in an answer endeavoured to an objection placed
in the beginning of it, in these words: —

" If it be farther demanded, 'But doth it not argue servility in men
to be drawn by the iron cord of the fear of hell to do what is their
duty to do? or doth any other service or obedience become sons and
children but only that which is free and proceedeth from love?'"

Hereunto you have a threefold answer returned : —

First, " That God requires that it should be so;" which is a down-
right begging of the question.

Secondly, He puts a difference between the obedience of children
to their parents and of the saints unto God, the discourse whereof
discovering some mysteries of the new doctrine of grace, much pressed
and insisted on, take as follows : — " There is a very different consider-
ation of the obedience of children to their natural parents, and of
the obedience of the children of God unto their heavenly Father. The
obedience of the former is but by the inspiration of nature, and is
an act not so much raised by deliberation or flowing from the will,
by an interposure of judgment and conscience to produce the elec-
tion, as arising from an innate propension in men, accompanying the
very constituting principles of their nature and being; whereas the
latter, the obedience of the children of God, is taught by precepts,
and the principle of it, I mean that rational frame of heart out of
which they subject themselves to God, is planted in the souls of men
by the engagement of reason, judgment, and conscience, to consider
those grounds, arguments, and motives, by which their heavenly
Father judgeth it meet to work and fashion them unto such a frame.
So that though the obedience of natural children to their natural
parents be the more genuine and commendable when it flows freely
from the pure instinct of nature, and is not drawn from them by fear
of punishment, yet the obedience of the children of God is then most
genuine and commendable, and like unto itself, when it is produced

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 477

and raised in the soul by a joint influence and contribution, not of
one, or of some, but of all those arguments, reasons, motives, induce-
ments whatever, and how many soever they be, by which their hea-
venly Father useth to plant and work it in them; for in this case,
and in this only, it hath most of God, of the Spirit of God, of the
wisdom of God, of the goodness of God. In and upon this account
it is likeliest to be most free, uniform, and permanent."

The sum of this answer amounts to these three things: — First,
That there is an instinct or inspiration of nature in children to yield
obedience to their parents. Secondly, That there is no such spiritual
instinct or inclination in the saints to yield obedience to God. Thirdly,
That the obedience of the saints ariseth merely and solely from such
considerations of the reason of that obedience as they apprehend, in
contradiction to any such genuine principles as might incline their
hearts thereunto.

1. For the first, that the obedience of children to their parents,
though it be a prime dictate of the law of nature wherewith they are
endued, proceedeth from a pure instinct, any otherwise than as a
principle suiting and inclining them to the acts of that obedience, so
as to exclude the promoting and carrying of it on upon the moral
consideration of duty, piety, etc., it is in vain for Mr Goodwin to
go about to persuade us, unless he could not only corrode the word
of God, where it presseth that obedience as a duty, but also charm
us into beasts of the field, which are acted by such a brute instinct,
not to be improved, stirred up, or drawn forth into exercise by de-
liberation or consideration. There is, it is true, in children an im-
press of the power of the law of nature, suiting them to obedience
(which yet in many hath been quite cast out and obliterated, being
none of the constituting principles of their nature, which, whilst they
have their being as such, cannot be thrown out of them), and carry-
ing them out unto it with delight, ease, and complacency, as habits
do to suitable actings; but withal that this principle is not regulated
and directed, as our obedience to God, by a rule, and stirred up to
exert itself, and [that] they in whom it is [are not] provoked by
rational and conscientious considerations to the performance of their
duty in that obedience, is so contrary to the experience, I suppose, of
all sharers with us in our mortality, that it will hardly be admitted
into debate. But, —

2. The worst part of this story lies in the middle of it, in the
exclusion of any such spiritual principle in believers as should carry
them out unto obedience, at least to any such as is not begotten in
their minds by " rational considerations.'' Whatever may be granted
of acquired habits of grace (which that the first should be, that a
spiritual habit should be acquired by natural actings, is a most ridi-
culous fiction), all infused habits of grace that should imprint upon

478 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the soul a new natiiral inclination to obedience, that should fashion
and frame the hearts of men into a state and condition suited for,
and carry them out unto, spiritual obedience, are here decried. All,
it seems, that the Scripture hath told us of our utter insufficiency,
deadness, disability, indisposedness to any thing that is good, without
a new life and principle; all that we have apprehended and believed
concerning the new heart and Spirit given us, the new nature, new
creature, divine nature, inner man, grace in the heart, making the
root good that the fruit may be so; all that the saints have ex-
pressed concerning their delight in God, love to God upon the account
of his writing his laws in their hearts and spirits, — is a mere delusion.
There is no principle of any heavenly, spiritual life, no new nature,
with its bent and instinct lying towards God and obedience to him,
wrought in the saints, or bestowed on them, by the Holy Spirit of
grace. If this be so, we may even fairly shut our Bibles, and go
learn this new gospel of such as are able to instruct us therein.
Wherefore, I say, —

3. That as in children there is an instinct, an inclination of nature,
to induce them and carry them out to obedience to their natural
parents, which yet is directed, regulated, provoked, and stirred up,
and they thereby, to that obedience, by motives and considerations
suited to work upon their minds and consciences, to prevail with
them thereunto: so also in believers, the children of God, who are
" begotten of the will of God," by the " word of truth," and " born
again, not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God/' there
is a new spiritual principle, a constituting principle of their spiri-
tual lives, wrought and implanted in them by the Spirit of God, — a
principle of faith and love, enabling them for, suiting them unto, and
inciting them to, that obedience which is acceptable and well-pleas-
ing to their Father which is in heaven; in which obedience, as they
are regulated by the word, so they are stirred up unto it by all those
motives which the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath fitted to prevail
on persons endued with such a principle from himself as they are.
It is not incumbent on me to enter upon the proof and demonstra-
tion of a title to a truth which the saints of God have held so long
in unquestionable possession, nothing at all being brought to invali-
date it but only a bare insinuation that it is not so. Tlien, —

4. I deny not but that the saints of God are stirred up to obe-
dience by all the considerations and inducements which God lays
before them and proposeth to them for that end and purpose; and
as he hath spread a principle of obedience over their whole souls,
all their faculties and affections, so he hath provided in his word
motives and inducements to the obedience he requires, which are
suited unto and fit to work upon all that is within them (as the
psalmist speaks) to live to him. Their love, fear, hope, desires, are

XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE EEFUTED. 479

all managed within and provoked without to that end and purpose.
But how it will thence follow that it is the intendment of God by
his threatenings to ingenerate such a fear of hell in them as is
inconsistent with an assurance of his faithfulness in his promises
not to leave them, but to preserve them to his heavenly kingdom, I
profess I know not. The obedience of the saints we look upon to
proceed from a principle wrought in them with a higher energy and
efficacy than mere desires of God to implant it by arguments and
motives ; that is, by persuading them to it, without the least real
contribution of strength or power, or the ingrafting the word in
them, in, with, and by, a new principle of life. And if this be the
Phyllis of our author's doctrine, solus haheto. Such a working of
obedience we cannot think to have any thing " of God, of the Spirit
of God, of the wisdom of God, or the goodness of God," in it; being
exceedingly remote from the way and manner of God's working in
the saints as held out in the word of truth, and ineffectual to the
end proposed in that condition wherein they are. The true use of
the threatenings of wrath, in reference to them who by Christ are
delivered from it, hath been before manifested and insisted on.

Thirdly, In the last division of this section, he labours to prove
that what is done from a principle of fear may be done willingly
and cheerfully, as well as that which is done from a principle of
love. To which briefly I say, —

1. Neither fear nor love, as they are mere natural affections, is
any principle of spiritual obedience as such.

2. That we are so far from denying the usefulness of the fear of
the Lord to the obedience of the saints, that the continuance thereof
in them to the end is the great promise, for the certain accom-
plishment whereof we do contend.

S. That fear of hell in believers, as a part of the wrath of God
from which they are delivered by Christ, being opposed to all their
graces of faith, love, hope, etc., is no principle of obedience in them,
whatever influence it may have on them as to restraint when man-
aged by the hand of God's grace.

4. That yet believers can never be delivered from it but by faith
in the blood of Christ, attended with sincere and upright walking
with God; which when they fail of, though that fear, supposed to
be predominant in the soul, be inconsistent with any comfortable,
cheering assurance of the favour of God, yet it is not with the certain
continuance to them of the thing itself, upon the account of the pro-
mises of God.

Sect. 16. contains a large discourse, in answer to the apostle
affirming that "fear hath torment;" which is denied by our author,
upon sundry considerations. The fear he intends is a fear of hell
and " wrath to come." This he supposeth to be of such predomi-

480 DOCTRINE OF THE SATNTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

nancy in the soul as to be a principle of obedience unto God. That
this can be without torment, disquiet, bondage, and vexation, he
will not easily evince to the consciences of them who have at any
time been exercised under such a frame. What fear is consistent
with hope; what incursions upon the souls of the saints are made by
dread and bondage; the fears of hell, and the use of such fears; how
some are, though true believers, scarcely delivered from such fears
all their days, — I have formerly declared. And that may suffice as
to all our concernment in this discourse.

In the 1 7th section somewhat is attempted as to promises, answer-
able to what hath been done concerning exhortations and threaten-
ings. The words used to this end are many; the sum is, "That
the use of promises in stirring men up to obedience is solely in the
proposal of a good thing or good things to them to whom the pro-
mises are made, which they may attain or come short of Now, if
men are assured, as this doctrine supposeth they may be, that they
shall attain the end whether they use the means or no, how can
they possibly be incited by the promises to the use of the means pro-
posed for the enjoyment of the end promised ?" That this is the sub-
stance of his discourse I presume himself will confess; and it being
the winding up of a tedious argument, I shall briefly manifest its
uselessness and lay it aside. I say, then, —

1. What is the true use of the promises of God, and what in-
fluence they have into the obedience and holiness of the saints, hath
been formerly declared; neither is any thing there asserted of their
genuine and natural tendency to the ends expressed enervated in
the least by anything here insisted on or intimated by Mr Goodwin:
so that without more trouble I might refer the reader thither to
evince the falseness of Mr Goodwin's assertions concerning the use-
lessness of the promises unto perseverance, upon a supposition that
there are promises of perseverance.

2. Though we affirm that all true saints shall persevere, yet we
do not say that all that are so do know themselves to be so, and to-
wards them, at least, the promises may have their efficacy in that way
which Mr Goodwin hath by his authority confined them to work in,

3. We say that our Saviour was fully persuaded that in the issue
of his undertakings and sufferings he should be " glorified with his
Father," according to his promise; and yet, upon the account of
that glory, which he was so assured of, being set before him, he ad-
dressed himself to the sharpest and most difficult passage to it that ever
any one entered on. He " endured the cross, desjiising the shame,"
for the glory's sake whereof he had assurance, Heb. xii. 2. And why
may not this be the state of them to whom, in his so doing, he was a
captain of salvation? Why may not the glory and reward set be-
fore them, though enjoyed in a full assurance of faith, in the excel-

XIII.] ASSERTOES AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 481

lency of it, when possessed, as promised, stir them up to the means
leading thereunto ?

4. The truth is, the more we are assured with the assurance of
faith (not of presumption) that we shall certainly obtain and enjoy the
end whereunto the means we use do lead (as is the assurance that
ariseth from the promises of God), the more eminently are we pressed
in a gospel way, if we walk in the spirit of the gospel, to give up our-
selves to obedience to that God and Father who hath appointed so
precious and lovely means as are the paths of grace for the obtaining
of so glorious an end as that whereunto we are appointed.

And thus I doubt not but that it is manifest, by these considera-
tions of Mr Goodwin's objections to the contrary, that the doctrine
of the perseverance of the saints, as by us taught and delivered, doth
not only fall in a sweet compliance with all the means of grace,
especially those appointed by God to establish the saints in faith and
obedience, — that is, to work perseverance in them, — but also to be
eminently useful to give life, vigour, power, and efficacy, in a peculiar
gospel manner, to all exhortations, threatenings, and promises, ap-
pointed and applied by God to that end and purpose.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES OF THE DOCTRINE COMPARED.

The maintainers and propagators of the several doctrines under contest taken
into consideration — The necessity of so doing from Mr G. undertaking to
make the comparison — This inquiry confined to those of our own nation —
The chief assertors of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance in this nation
since it received any opposition; what was their ministry, and what their
lives — Mr G.'s plea in this case — The first objection against his doctrine by
him proposed, second and third — His answers to these objections considered,
removed — His own word and testimony offered against the experience of
thousands — The persons pointed to by him and commended, considered —
The principles of those persons he opposeth vindicated — Of the doctrine of
the primitive Christians as to this head of religion — Grounds of mistake in
reference to their judgment — The first reformers constant to themselves in
their doctrine of the saints' perseverance — Of the influence of Mr Perkins'
judgment on the propagation of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance — •
Who the persons were on whom his judgment is supposed to have had such an
influence — The consent of foreign churches making void this surmise — What
influence the doctrine of the saints' perseverance has into the holiness of its
professors — Of the unworthiness of the persons who in this nation have as-
serted the doctrine of apostasy — The suitableness of this doctrine to their
practices — Mr G.'s attempt to take oft' this charge — How far men's doctrines
may be judged by their hves — Mr G.'s reasons why Episcopalists arminian-
ized the first, considered and disproved — His discord, etc. — General apostasy
of men entertaining the Arminian tenets — The close.

As to the matter in hand, about the usefulness of the doctrine of
VOL XI. . 31

482 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

the perseverance of the saints in and unto the ministry of the gospel,
and the obstruction pretended to be laid unto it thereby, it may be
somewhat conducing and of concernment to consider who the per-
sons are and were, and what hath been and is the presence of God
with them, in their ministry, who have been assertors and zealous
maintaiuers of this doctrine ; and withal who they were, and tohat
they have been in their ministry, and in the dispensation of the word
committed unto them, who have risen up in opposition thereunto.
How, also, these different parties have approved their profession to
the world, and acquitted themselves in their generation in their
walking with God, may be worth our consideration. Doubtless, if
the doctrine whose declaration and defence we have thus far engaged
in be of such a pernicious tendency as is pretended, so destructive
to gospel obedience, and so evidently rendering that gTeat ordinance
of the ministry useless, it may be traced to its product of these effects,
in some measure, in the lives, conversations, and ministry, of those
who have most zealously espoused it, most earnestly contended for
it, and been most given up to the form and mould thereof. It were
a thing every way miraculous, if any root should for the most part
bring forth fruit disagreeing to the nature of it.

A task this is, I confess, which, were we not necessitated unto, I
could easily dispense with myself from engaging in ; but Mr Good-
Avin having voluntarily entered the list as to this particular, and
instituted a comparison between the abettors of the several doctrines
under contest, chap. ix. of his book (a matter we should not have
expected from any other man), it could not but be thought a gross
neglect of duty, and high ingratitude towards those great and blessed
souls who in former and latter days, with indefatigable pains and
eminent success, watered the vineyard of the Lord Avith the dew
of this doctrine, to decline the consideration of the comparison made
and dressed up to our hand. Now, because it is a peculiar task
allotted to us, to manifest the embracement of this truth by those
who in the primitive church Avere of greatest note and eminency,
for piety, judgment, and skill in dividing the word aright; with the
professed opposition made unto it by such as those with whom they
lived, and succeeding ages, have branded for men unsound in the
faith, and leaving the good old paths wherein the saints of old found
peace to their souls; as also to manifest the receiving and propaga-
tion of it by all (not any one of name excepted) those great and
famous persons whom the Lord was pleased to employ in the refor-
mation of his church, walking in this, as in sundry other particulars,
closer up to the truth of the gospel than some of their brethren, that
at the same time fell off from that church which was long before
fallen off from the truth ; — I shall, in my present inquiry, confine
myself to those of our own nation who have been of renown in their

XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 483

generation for their labour in the Lord, and of name among the
saints for their work in the service of the gospel.

For the one half of that small space of time which is passed since
the breaking forth of the light of the gospel in this nation, we are
disenabled from pursuing the comparison instituted, the one part
being not to be considered, or at least not being considerable. The
time when first head was made against the truth we profess, and
criminations like those managed by Mr Goodwin hatched and con-
trived to assault it withal, was when it had been eminently delivered
to the saints of this nation, and to all the churches of Christ, by Rey-
nolds, Whitaker, Greenham, and others like to them, their fellow-
labourers in the Lord's vineyard. The poor weak worms of this
present generation who embrace the same doctrine with these men
of name, are thought to be free (some of them, at least) from being
destroyed by the poisonous and pernicious embracing of it, by their
own weakness and disability to discern the natural, genuine conse-
quences and tendency in the progress of that which in the root and
foundation they embrace. Their ignorance of their own doctrine in
its compass and extent is the mother of that devotion which in
them is nourished thereby. So our great masters tell us, against
whose kingly authority in these things there is no rising up. For
the persons formerly named the like relief cannot be supposed. He
that shall provide an apology for them, affirming that they under-
stood not the state, nature, consequences, and tendencies, of the doc-
trine they received, defended, preached, contended for, will scarce
be able, by any following defensative, to vindicate his own credit
for so doing. In the lives, then, and the ministry of those men, and
such as those, if anywhere, are the fruits of this doctrine to be seen.
If it corrupted not their lives, nor weakened their ministry; if it
turned not them aside from the paths of gospel obedience, nor weak-
ened their hands in the dispensation of the word, in the promises,
threatenings, and exhortations thereof, to the conversion of souls
and building up of those who by their ministry were called, in their
most holy faith, — it cannot but be a strong presumption that there
is no such venomous, infectious quality in this doctrine as of late
some chemical divines pretend themselves to be able to extract out
of it. Now, what, I pray, were these men? — what were their lives?
what was their ministry? All those who now oppose Mr Good-
win's doctrine do it either out of ignorance, or to comply with great-
ness and men in authority; thereby to make up themselves in their
ambitious and worldly aims, and to prevail themselves upon the
opinion of men ; — for what cause else in the world can be imagined
why they should so engage? What though they really believe the
whole fabric of his doctrine, — wherein he hath departed from the
faith he once, as they say, professed, — to be a lie j a lie of dangerous

484 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

and pernicious consequence to the souls of men ; a lie derogatory to
the glory of God, the efficacy of grace, the merit of the death of Christ,
and the honour of the gospel, and full of disconsolation to poor
souls, being in and under temptation? what though they suppose it
secretly to undermine the main fundamentals of the covenant of
grace, and covertly to substitute another covenant in the room
thereof? what though they have observed that the doctrine they
have received was embraced, preached, prized, by all those great
and blessed souls which, in the last generation, God magnified with
the conversion of so many thousands in this nation, given unto their
ministry, whilst they spent their days under continual afflictions and
persecutions? what though they have the general, known consent
of all the reformed churches beyond the seas with them in their zeal
for the doctrine under consideration? what though, under these and
the like apprehensions, they profess in the presence of God, his holy
angels, and men, that the eternal interest of the precious souls of men
is more valuable to them ten thousand times than their own lives, and
that that is the sole reason of their opposition to Mr Goodwin in his
attempts against the doctrine they have so received and embraced?
• — yet it is meet for us to judge, and for all by whom evil surmises
are not esteemed to be among the works of the flesh, that all their
opposition is nothing but a compliance with, and pursuit of, those
worldly, low, and wretched aims, that they are filled withal! But
as to those persons before mentioned, what shall we say ? Their
piety, literature, zeal, diligence, industry, labour, with success in
the work of the ministry (and that under manifold discourage-
ments), are so renowned in the world, that how or wherewith they
shall be shifted off from being considerable in their testimony, I
cannot imagine. If ever persons in these latter ages had written
upon their breasts, " Holiness to the Lord," — if ever any bare about
a conformity to the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ,
— they may put in for an eminent esteem and name among them,
and will doubtless be found at last to be of the " thirty," if they
attain not to the first rank of the worthies of Christ in these ends of
the world. How is it that they were not retarded in the course of
their gospel obedience by their entertainment of this wretched doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance? But what though they kept them-
selves personally from the pollution of it, yet possibly their ministry
was defiled and rendered useless by it! And who, I pray, is it that
in this generation can so support himself with success in the ministry
as to rise up with this accusation against them? Many thousands
who were their crown, their glory, and rejoicing in Christ, are fallen
asleep; and some continue to this day. Of the reasons given by Mr
Goodwin why all the zealous, fruitful preachers of former days em-
braced this doctrine, we shall instantly undertake the consideration.

XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 485

In the meantime, this seems strange, that God should magnify and
make famous the ministry of so many throughout the world, and give
in that visible blessing to their labours therein which hath filled this
island with such an increase of children to Zion as that she hath
not lengthened the cords of her tabernacle to such an extent and
compass in any proportionable spot of earth under heaven, if any
one eminent part of their doctrine, and that whereon they laid great
weight in their ministry, which they pressed with as much fervency
and contention of spirit as any head of the like importance, should
indeed be so apparently destructive of holiness, and of such a direct
and irresistible efficiency to render useless that great ordinance of
the ministry committed to them, as this is clamoured to be. What
will be the success of them in their ministry who shall undertake to
deny and oppose it, T hope the people of God in this nation will not
have many instances to judge by. The best conjecture we can for
the present make of what will be hereafter must be taken from what
hath already come to pass; and the best guess of what events will
be is to be raised from the consideration of what hath been, from a
like disposition of causes to an answerableness of events.

What Mr Goodwin hath to plead in this case, he insists on, chap.
ix., sect. 24-27, pp. 167-172. The sum and aim of his discourse is,
to apologize for his doctrine against sundry objections which, in the
observation of men, it is liable and obnoxious unto. Now, these are
such as, whatever the issue of their consideration prove, doubtless it
can be of no advantage unto his cause that his doctrine is so readily
exposed to them.

The first of these is, that the doctrine he opposeth, and in opposi-
tion whereunto that is set up which he so industriously asserts, hath
generally been received and embraced by men eminent in piety and
godliness, famous on that account in their generations, with the gene-
rality of the people of God with them. And this is attended with
that which naturally ensues thereon, — namely, the scandalousness of
the most of them (yea, of them all of this nation is it spoken) who
have formerly asserted the doctrine which Mr Goodwin hath lately
espoused. Whereunto, in the third place, an observation is subjoined
of the " ordinary defection of men to loose and unsavoury practices,
after they have once drunk in the principles of that opinion which
he now so industriously mixeth and tempereth for them." It is usu-
ally said, "There is no smoke but where there is some fire." It would
be strange if such observations as these should be readily and gene-
rally made by men concerning the doctrine under contest, unless
there were some evident occasion administered by it thereunto;
and I must needs say, that if they prove true, and hold under ex-
amination, they will become as urging a prejudice as can lightly be
laid against any cause in religion whatsoever. The gospel being a

486 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIJSTS' PERSEVERANCE, [CHAP.

" doctrine according to godliness," several persuasions pretending to
be parts and portions thereof, if one shall be found to be the con-
stant faith and profession of those who also have the life and power
of godliness in them, the other to be maintained by " evil men and
seducers," who upon their receiving it do also "wax worse and worse,"
it is no small advantage to the first, in its plea for admittance to the
right and title of a truth of the gospel.

First, To evade this charge, Mr Goodwin premises this in gene-
ral:—

" The experience asserted in the objection is not so unquestionable
in point of truth but that, if the assertors were put home upon the
proof, they would, I fear" (doubtless he rather hoj^es it), " account
more in presumption than in reasonableness of argument; for if
persons of the one judgment and of the other were duly compared
together, I verily believe there would be found every whit as full a
proportion of men truly conscientious and religious amongst those
whose judgments stand, and have stood, for a possibility of falling
away, as on the other side : but, through a foolish and unsavoury kind
of partiality, we are apt, on all hands, according to the proverb, to
* account our own geese for swans, and other men's swans geese.'
Certain I am, that if the writings of men of the one judgment and of
the other be compared together, and an estimate made from thence
of the religion, worth, and holiness, of the authors respectively, those
who oppose the common doctrine of perseverance do account it no
robbery to make themselves every way equal in this honour with
their opposers. The truth is (if it be lawful for me to utter what I
really apprehend and judge in the case), I do not find that spirit
of holiness to breathe, with that authority, heat, or excellency of
power, in the writings of the latter, which I am very sensible of in
the writings of the former. These call for righteousness, holiness,
and all manner of Christian conversation, with every whit as high a
hand as the other, and add nothing to check, obstruct, or enfeeble,
the authority of their demands in this kind; whereas the other,
though they be sore many times in their exhortations and conjure-
ments unto holiness, yet other while render both these and tliem-
selves in them contemptible, by avouching such principles which cut
the very sinews and strength of such their exhortations, and fully
balance all the weight of those motives by which they seek to bind
them upon the consciences of men. And as for men truly holy and
conscientious, doubtless the primitive Christians, for three hundred
years together and upwards, next after the times of the apostles,
will fully balance, with an abundant surplusage, both for numbers
and truth of godliness, all those in the reformed churches who since
Calvin's days have adhered to the common doctrine of perseverance.
And that the churches of Christ very generally, during the said

XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 487

space of three hundred years and more, held a possibility of a total
and final defection, even in true and sound believers, is so clear from
the records yet extant of those times that it cannot be denied."

Ajis. To let pass Mr Goodwin's proverb with its application (it
being very facile to return it to its author, there being nothing in
the world by him proposed to induce us to such an estimation of his
associates in the work of teaching the doctrine of the saints' apos-
tasy and their labours therein, or any other undertaking of theirs, as
he labours to beget in gilding over their worth and writings, but only
his own judgment, and an overweening of their geese for swans), let
us see what is offered by him to evince the experience asserted not
to be so unquestionable as is pretended. He offers, 1. His own
affirmation, " That if an estimate may be made of men's worth and
holiness by their writings, those who oppose the doctrine of the
saints' perseverance will be found, in the promotion of holiness and
practice of it, to outgo their adversaries." " Their writings," he tells
us, " breathe forth a spirit of holiness such as he cannot find in the
writings of others." But, first, for this you have only Mr Goodwin's
naked, single testimony, and that opposed to the common experi-
ence of the people of God. What weight this is like to bear with
men the event will show. It is a hard thing for 07ie mail, upon his
bare word, to undertake to persuade a multitude that what their
eyes see and their ears hear is not so. Mr Goodwin had need have
Pythagorean disciples for the embracing of these dictates of his.
The experience of thousands is placed to confirm the observation in-
sisted on. Saith Mr Goodwin, "It is not so; they are, in my judg-
ment, all deceived." But, secondly, who are they in whose writings
Mr Goodwin hath found such a "spirit of holiness breathing, with au-
thority, as is not to be found out nor perceived in the writings of
them that assert the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints?" Cal-
vin, Zanchius, Beza, etc., and (to confine ourselves to home) Reynolds,
Whitaker, Perkins, Greenham, Dodd, Preston, Bolton, Sibbs, Rogers,
Culverwell, Cotton, etc., — whose fame upon this very account, of the
eminent and effectual breathing of a spirit of holiness in their writings,
is gone out into all the nations about us, and their remembrance is
blessed at home and abroad, — are some of the men who have, as hath
been showed, laboured in watering the vineyard of the Lord with
the dew and rain of this doctrine. Who or where are they who
have excelled them in this undertaking ? Let the men be named,
and the writings produced, that Mr Goodwin may have some joined
with him in a search after and judgment of that spirit that breathes
so excellently in them, that we be not forced to take his testimony
of we know not what nor whom. Those amongst ourselves of chiefest
name who have appeared in the cause that Mr Goodwin hath now
undertaken are, Tompson, Montague, etc., with an obscure rabble

4S8 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

of that generation. I shall easily allow Mr Goodwin to be a man
more sharp-siglited than the most of those with whom he hath to
do in this present contest, as also to have his senses more exercised
in the writings of those eminent persons last named ; but yet that
he is sensible of such a spirit of holiness breathing in their writings
(which, for the most part, are stuffed with cruel scoffings at the pro-
fessors of it, and horrible contempt of all close walking with God),
I cannot easily and readily believe. Should he add to them Armi-
nius, with all that followed him in the Low Countries; their most
learned Corvinus, drunk and sober; as also such among the Papists
and Lutherans as are his companions in this work ; and swell them
all with the rhetoric of his commendations until they break, — I dare
say he will never be able, before indifferent judges, to make out his
assertion of the excellency of their writings for the furtherance of
holiness, compared with the labours of those great and holy souls
who have, both among ourselves and abroad, laboured in the work
I am at present engaged in. The world of men professing the re-
formed religion have long since, in their judgments, determined this
difference, nor doth it deserve any farther debate.

2. " That those who maintain the perseverance of the saints are
sore, indeed, in their exhortations to holiness, but contemptible in
their principles, upon which they should build those exhortations,"
is an insinuation that Mr Goodwin sometimes makes use of, hand-
somely to beg the thing in question, when he despairs to carry
it by any convincing argument in a fair dispute. That the prin-
ciples of this doctrine are eminently serviceable to the furtherance
and promotion of holiness hath been formerly evinced beyond all
possibility of contradiction from them who in any measure under-
stand what true godliness is and wherein it doth consist. Neither
ought Mr Goodwin, if he would be esteemed as a man disputing for
his persuasion, so often to heg the thing in question, knowing full
well that he hath not so deserved of them with whom he hath to
do as to obtain any thing of this nature, on those terms, at their
hands.

S. What was the judgment of the primitive Christians, as in others,
so in and about this head of Christian religion, is best known from
that rule of doctrine which it is confessed they attended unto, being
delivered unto them, and in the defence whereof, and to give testi-
mony whereto, so many thousands of them " loved not their lives unto
the death." Of those that committed over to posterity any thing of
their thoughts in that space of time limited by Mr Goodwin (namely,
three hundred years), he names but two; of whom I shall only say,
that if they failed in their apprehensions of the truth in this matter,
it is not the only thing wherein they so failed. And yet that it can
be [made] evident in the least that they were consenting in judgment

XlIl.J ASSERTOES AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 489

with Mr Goodwin wherein from us he differs is absolutely denied.
This elsewhere is already farther considered. It is a common ob-
servation, and not destitute of a great evidence of truth, that the
liberty of expression which is used by men in the delivery of any
doctrine, especially if it be done obiter, by the way, before some op-
position hath been framed and stated thereunto, hath given advan-
tage to those following of them (when death hath prevented all
possi])ility for them to explain themselves and their own thoughts)
to draw them into a participation with them in that which their
souls abhorred. The plea of Arius and his associates concerning the
j udgment of the doctors of the church in the days before him about
the great article of our faith, the deity of Christ, is known. That
there are in many of the ancients sundry expressions seemingly vary-
ing from that doctrine we assert, upon the account of their different
apprehensions of the terms of " faith," being " regenerated," " holi-
ness," and the /like (which are all of them still with us, as in the
Scripture, of various significations, and not clearly expressive of any
one sense intended by them, until distinguished), is not denied.
Speaking of all those who had been baptized and made profession of
their faith as " believers," it is no wonder if they granted that some
believers might fall away; but yet, in the meantime, the most emi-
nent of them constantly affirmed that there is a sort of believers
who, upon the matter with them, were the only true and real be-
lievers (being such as we formerly described) that could not fall either
totally or finally. But as for this, I hope full satisfaction is tendered
the learned reader in the preface of this discourse. So that, these
exceptions notwithstanding, the prejudices that Mr Goodwin's doc-
trine labours under, from the opposition made to it and against it,
in the defence of that which it riseth up to overthrow, by that gene-
ration of the saints of God, lies upon the shoulders thereof as a
burden too heavy for it to bear.

Secondly, Mr Goodwin farther proceeds, sect. 25, to inform us
of some other mistakes in the instance given to make good the
former observation ; for as for Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bucer,
with the ministers of this nation who in the last generation so
zealously opposed the persecutions and innovations of some return-
ing with sj)eed and violence to Kome, he tells us " they were very
far from having their judgments settled as to the doctrine under
contest, so as resolvedly to have embraced the one and rejected the
other."

I should willingly walk in the high way for the manifestation and
clear eviction of the untruth of this suggestion, — namely, by pro-
ducing their testimonies in abundant, plentiful manner, to confirm
their clearness and resolution in the truth we profess, with their
zealous endeavours for the establishment, confirmation, and propa-

490 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [cHAP.

gatlon of it, — but that some few considerations delivered me from
engaging in so facile a task ; for, —

1. I am not able to persuade myself that any man who ever
read the writings of the first sort of men mentioned, and knows the
constant doctrine to this day of the churches which they planted
and watered, or ever did hear of the latter, will entertain this asser-
tion of Mr Goodwin's with any thing but admiration upon what
grounds he should make it. And, —

2. Himself discovering in part on what account he doth it, —
namely, because of their exhortations to watchfulness, carefulness,
and close walking with God, with their denunciations of threat-
enings to them that abide not in the faith, which he fancies to be
inconsistent with the doctrine of perseverance, as by him opposed
(which inconsistency we have long since fully manifested to be the
issue and offspring of his own imagination, begotten of it by the
cunning sophistrj'- of his Pelagian friends), — I know not why I should
farther insist upon the wiping away of this reproach cast upon those
blessed souls whom God so magnified in the work of the gospel of
his Son in their generation. I remember Navaret, a Dominican
friar, upon his observation of the subtilties of the Jesuits to wrest
many sayings of the ancients in favour of their opinions in those
doctrines wherein those two orders are at variance, affirms, " That he
was afraid that when he was dead, although he had written and
disputed so much against them, they would produce him for a tes-
timony and witness on their side." What he feared concerning him-
self, Mr Goodwin hath attempted concerning many more worthy
persons. Cutting off sentences from what goes before and follows
after, restraining general expressions, imposing his own hypothesis
on his reader in making application of what he quotes out of any
author, he hath spent one whole chapter to persuade the world that
men of as great abilities and judgments as any in the world since
the apostles fell asleep have usually expressed themselves in a direct
contradiction to what they are eminently and notoriously known, as
their professed, deliberate judgments, to have maintained!

Thirdly, He farther informs us how this doctrine of the perse-
verance of the saints came to be so generally entertained by the
godly, zealous, and able ministers of this nation, that when we see
how they fell into it, their testimony given thereto may be of less
validity with us.

" This," he telleth you, " was the permission of Mr Perkins' judg-
ment to be overruled by the texts of Scripture commonly insisted on
for the proof of this doctrine. The great worth of the person com-
mended, therefore, the worth of the opinion ; and he verily believeth,
as men were then induced to receive this opinion, so to a relinquish-
ment of it they want nothing but the countenance and authority of

XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 4)91

some person of popular acceptance to go before them. And the
reason he giveth of this his faith is the observation of the principles
they usually hold forth, especially in the applicatory part of their
sermona"

Ans. What and who they were who are thus represented by Mr
Goodwin, in their receiving and embracing of that doctrine which,
with the great travail of their souls, all their days they preached,
and pressed to and upon others, is known to all. The persons I
named before, one of them only excepted, with all those eminent
burning and shining lights which for so many years have laboured
with renown and success, to the astonishment of the world, in the
preaching of the gospel in this nation, are the men intended. Doubt-
less such thoughts have not in former days been entertained of them,
however the contemplation of any man's own ability may now raise
him to contempt of them. Mr Perkins received this doctrine, and
therefore all the godly ministers of this nation did so too ! If any one
of the like esteem with him did fall off from it (now whom they
should obtain to lead them, of equal reputation and acceptance with
him who hath in vain attempted it, I know not), they would quickly
follow, not like shepherds but sheep, into an opposition thereunto !
Those who have not very slight thoughts of them, — which doubtless
they that are fallen asleep did not deserve, — will scarcely suppose
that they entertained a truth of so great importance as this upon so
easy terms as these insinuated, or that they would have parted with
it at so cheap a rate.

Farther ; why the ministers of England should be thought to en-
tertain this doctrine merely upon the authority and countenance of
Mr Perkins given thereunto, when the universality of the teachers of
all other reformed churches, of the same confession in other things
with them, did also embrace the same doctrine, and do continue in
profession of it to this day, what reason can be assigned ? Had there
been a particular inducement to the ministers of England for the re-
ceiving of it, which was altogether foreign unto them who as to our
nation are foreigners, whence is it that there should be such a coin-
cidence of their judgments with them therein? or why may not ours
be thought to take it upon the same account with them, upon whose
judgments and understandings the authority of Mr Perkins cannot be
supposed to have had any influence? Is Mr Goodwin the only person
who in this nation hath impartially weighed all things of concernment
to the refusing or embracing any matters or doctrines in religion?
Have no others, in the sincerity of their hearts, searched the Scrip-
tures, and earnestly begged the guidance of the Spirit, according to
that encouraging promise left by their Master that they should re-
ceive him so doing? The good Lord take away from us all high
thoughts of ourselves, and all contempt of them that profess the fear

492 DOCTEINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of the Lord, with whom we have to do ! For the reason of Mr Good-
win's faith in this thing, concerning the readiness of the godly minis-
ters of this nation to apostatize from the doctrine of the saints' per-
severance,— namely, their manifesting themselves to be possessed of
many principles of a contrary tendency unto it in the applicatory
part of their sermons, — the vanity of it hath been long since dis-
covered, so that there is no farther need to lay open the unreason-
ableness thereof.

Mr Goodwin, mistrusting his abihty to persuade men that the
persons of whom he hath discoursed were not clear in their judg-
ments as to an opposition to that doctrine which he positively owneth
and zealously contendeth for, and knowing that it cannot be denied
but that they were men of eminency for godliness and close walking
in communion with God all their days, yet excepteth, as his last re-
fuge, " That it cannot be manifested that this opinion had the least
influence in their pious conversation, which is wholly to be ascribed
to other commendable principles that they embraced." This, in-
deed, may be said of any part of the doctrine whatsoever that they
received, and some of them suffered for. Atheists may say it of the
whole profession of Christianity, and ascribe the goodness of the
lives of the best of them that profess it to some other principles
common to them with the residue of mankind, and not at all to any
of those whereby they are distinguished as such. This they pro-
fessed to have a powerful efficacy to prevail with them for that exact-
ness in walking with God which, by his grace, they attained unto;
and why they should not be believed herein, as far as any men
whatever, bearing the like testimony to any doctrine whatever, I
know not. Besides, the intendment of this instance of the persons
and their piety who formerly believed and spake forth this doctrine
was, to manifest, by an eminent experiment, that there was not in
it, nor is, any tendency to a contrary frame unto piety and holiness,
which it is injuriously charged withal; and if by the consideration
thereof we do not obtain that it hath a jaroper and direct serviceable-
ness to the promotion of godliness, yet at least we have a convincing
demonstration that it is no way obstructive to it.

Nextly, sect. 26, Mr Goodwin entereth upon his defensative to the
charge against his doctrine whose foundation is laid in the unworthi-
ness of its authors in this nation, before it fell upon his hand. These
he confessoth to be the worst of our late bishops, with such as Roman-
ized and tyrannized among them, with their clergy creatures and
favourites, persons many of them of superstition, looseness, and much
profaneness. Of the apology shaped for the clearing of the doctrine
he maintaineth from a participation with them in their unworthi-
ness, there are three parts ; in the first whereof he denieth that
" this doctrine did any way induce them to the looseness that was

XIII.] ASSERTOES AND ADVEESAillES COMPARED. 493

found upon them," in the other two he giveth as many reasons of
their receiving of it and cleaving to it.

As for the first part, I shall willingly assent to him that the holi-
ness or unholiness of professors is not to be charged on the religion
they profess (I mean appearing holiness, in the profession of it),
unless there be an evidence of a connection betwixt their principles
and practices; which in this case, to us and our apprehension of
them who charge this doctrine with the miscarriages of those men,
there is; at least, we may insist on this, that there is a suitableness
in the whole system of the doctrine, whereof the apostasy of the
saints is an eminent parcel, to that frame of spirit which is in men
of loose and superstitious ways, enemies of the grace of God and
power of godliness. Neither can there any other reason be tolerably
assigned or alleged for the embracement of that doctrine by those
persons formerly mentioned, but only their ignorance of and enmity
to the great mysteries of the gospel, the covenant of grace, with
union, communion, and close walking with God. A design was
upon them, written with the beams of the sun, to cry up a barren,
outside, light, and loose profession, with a vain, superstitious, self-
invented worship of God, instead of the power of a gospel conversa-
tion and ordinances of Christ according to his appointment. Seek-
ing after a " righteousness, as it were, by the works of the law," and
being ignorant of the righteousness of Christ, they found the whole
doctrine whose defence Mr Goodwin hath lately undertaken suited
to their principles and aims; and therefore with greediness drank
it down like watei", until they were swelled with the dropsy of pride
and self-conceit beyond what they could bear. Whatever be now
pretended, it was little disputed then, and in those days which Mr
Goodwin pointeth unto, but that looseness of life, inclination to
Popery, and enmity to the power of godliness, were at the bottom
of the entertainment of the Arminian principles by that generation
of men.

But Mr Goodwin proceedeth to alleviate this charge, and informs
us thus: "That if the soundness and rottenness of opinions should
be esteemed by the goodness or badness of the lives of any parcel
or number of persons professing the same, as well the opinion of
atheism, which denieth the being of any god, as the opinion of
polytheism, which affirmeth the plurality of gods, must be esteemed
better and more sound than that which maintaineth the beinsf of
one God, and of one only; for certain it is that there have been
many heathens professors, some of the one and some of the other of
these opinions, who have quitted themselves upon fairer terms of
honour and approbation in their lives than many Christians profess-
ing the last opinion have done."

I am not willing to wring this nose too far, lest blood should

494 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CH.VP,

follow. The lives of many atheists and pagans are preferred before
the lives of many professing Christianity. By " professors of Chris-
tianity" Mr Goodwin intendeth those who are so indeed, and seasoned
■with the power of the principles of that religion, or such only as,
making an outward profession of it, are indeed acted with principles
quite of another nature, which, notwithstanding all their profession,
rendereth them, in the truth of the thing itself, " enemies of the
cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly,
and whose glory is in their shame," PhiL iii. 18, 19. If the former
be intended, as the assertion is most false, the gospel only effectually
" teaching men to deny all ungodliness, and to live soberly, righte-
ously, and godly in this present world," so it tendeth directly to the
highest derogation from the honour of our Lord Jesus Christ and of
his glorious gospel. He that would be thoroughly acquainted with
the notorious untruth of this insinuation, let him a little consult
Tertullian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Austin, and others, handling the
lives and conversations of the best of the polytheists and heathens
before and in their days; if he be not contented to take a shorter
course, and rest in the authority of the apostle, or rather of the
Holy Ghost, describing them and their conversation to the life, as
they lay under the just hardening judgments of God, Rom. i. 18, to
the end. If the latter sort of men, called Christians, be intended,
the comparison instituted between them and atheists is to no pur-
pose, they themselves being disclaimed and disowned by Christ and
his gospel, and reckoned among them with whom they are com-
pared : so that, upon the matter, this is but the comparing one sort
of atheists with another, and giving in a judgment, that of all, those
are worst whose practices are so, and who yet pacify their own con-
sciences and deceive the world with a pretence and flourish of a
glorious profession.

I shall not now enter upon any long inquiry what influence the
ungodly and profane lives of any ought to have upon the judgment
of men in discovering and discerning of the doctrines that they bring,
especially if such as consent in any doctrine do also concur in a dis-
soluteness of conversation. That it will be of no small consideration,
the experience of all ages hath evinced. The Athenians refused a
virtuous law, because the person was vicious who proposed it; and it
is generally esteemed that there is a correspondency betwixt the prin-
ciples and practices of those men who earnestly profess the promotion
of those principles, so that they are mutual producers and advantagei"s
one of another. This is all at present that was aimed at in the
charge upon Mr Goodwin's doctrine, which he undertakes to waive :
It was generally embraced, at its first broaching in our world, only by
men of a loose and scandalous conversation, superstitious in their
ways of worship, and enemies of the power of godliness; which being

XIII.] ASSEETORS AND ADVEESAEIES COMPARED. 495

confessed, for the argument from thence, " valeat quantum valere
potest."

But Mr Goodwin giveth us two reasons why this doctrine of his
was so gladly received and zealously asserted by that generation of
men. The first, which, he telleth you, is plain and easy to be given
in, is this : " Being professed enemies to the most religious and zeal-
ous preachers and ministers of the land, with their adherents, whom
they termed ' Puritans,' whom they both hated and feared, as a gene-
ration of men by whom, rather than any other, they apprehended
themselves in danger of being dethroned, ' Nee eos fefellit opinio.'
Upon this ground they judged it a very material point of their in-
terest to oppose and keep under this ' faction,' as they termed them.
In order thereunto, they studied and cast about how to weaken their
interest and repute with the generality of the people, or at least with
all those that were intelligent, and in that respect considerable ; to
this end wisely considering that nothing was like to prejudice them
more in their esteem with most men than to detect them of error
and unsoundness in their doctrine; and perceiving withal (as with
half an eye they might, being so fully disengaged as they were from
all high thoughts of those that held them) that they were not in any
doctrine besides, which they were generally known to hold and teach,
more obnoxious to such a detection than in those which they held
and taught in opposition to the Remonstrants, hereupon they
politically fell to profess and teach Remonstrantism, that so they
might have the more frequent occasion and opportunity to lay open
the puritan doctrine before the people, and to show the inconsistency
of it with the Scriptures, as also with many of the most manifest
principles as well of reason as religion besides."

Ans. That this is a most vain and groundless conjecture, I presume
any one that will but cast back his thoughts upon the posture of
affairs during the reign of that generation of men, and a little con-
sider the ways and means whereby they were, through the righteous
hand of God, reduced to that condition and state wherein they now
are, will quickly determine. The truth is, they were so far from ad-
vantaging themselves against their adversaries, and prevailing upon
them, in the esteem of the most rational and knowing men in the
nation, by their entertaining the Arminian doctrine, that utterly, on
the other side, they dishonoured their cause of ceremonies, discipline,
and conformity, which with success they had so long carried on with
the generality of the nation, and exposed themselves to the power of
the people of the land in parliament, from whence, as to all other
differences, they were sheltered by an appearance of legal constitu-
tions; so that, after some forward person of that faction (the most
contemptible, indeed, as to any real worth, one or two individuals only
excepted, of the whole tribe) had, upon the grounds forementioned,

496 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

taken up and made profession of the opinions and doctrine we are
speaking of, they fell daily before their adversaries as to the esteem
of all, or at least the greatest part, of those who cordially and tho-
roughly adhered to them as to the discipline and worship then estab-
lished. Certainly the prelatical party themselves will not say they
prevailed on that hand, as to any ends and purposes for the estab-
lishment of their interest, or making good their ground against their
opposers. Nay, the most sober and learned of that sort of men do
to this day ascribe, in no small measure, the downfall of the whole
fabric whereof they were parts and members to the precipitating
rashness and folly of some few in advancing and pressing the Armi-
nian errors that they themselves were given up unto. As for the
zealous and godly ministers of the nation, usually termed " Puritans"
(who are here acknowledged by Mr Goodwin to have all generally
opposed the doctrine he striveth to build up), though they had in
many parliaments, wherein the most intelligent and rational men of
the nation are usually convened, made by their friends sundry at-
tempts for their rehef against the persecutions of the others, — as is
evidenced by their petitions and addresses still on record, — yet they
were never able to obtain the least redress of their grievances, nor to
get one step of ground against their adversaries, until the advantage of
their Arminianism was administered unto them ; on which, by seve-
ral degi'ees, they prevailed themselves in the issue to the utter break-
ing of the yoke of their taskmasters. It is true. He who " taketh the
crafty in their own imaginations, and mixeth the counsel of the wise
with madness and folly, causing them to err in their ways as a
drunken man in his vomit," doth oftentimes turn the devices of men
upon their own heads, and make those things subservient to their
ruin which they fixed upon as the most expedient mediums for their
establishment and continuance, — such perhaps was the case with
them in their canonical oath, attempted to be imposed in one of their
last convocations, — but that the taking up and asserting of the
Arminian doctrine was a design of that party of men to get upon
the judgments and affections of the people, and to expose the puri-
tanical preachers to their contempt and reproach, is an imagination
that cannot lightly fall upon any one who had his eyes open in the
days wherein those things w^ere publicly acted on the stage of this
nation. For that insinuation in the close of Mr Goodwin's discourse,
concerning the advantages given that sort of men by the inconsist-
ency of the doctrine of the Puritans, which they opposed, with the
principles of religion and reason, I shall only say, that it being once
more, through the providence of God, called forth to a public debate,
it neither standeth nor falleth to the judgment of any single man,
much less of one who is professedly engaged in an opposition there-
unto.

XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 497

Another reason^ of the same evidence with the former, is tendered
in these words: "It is generally known that the cathedral genera-
tion of men throughout Christendom were generally great admirers
of the old learning (as some call it), I mean the writings and
tenets of the fathers, and of Austin more especially, and that they
frequently made shield and buckler of their authority to defend
themselves against the pens and opinions of later writers, whom
their manner was, according to the exigency of their interest (at
least as they conceived), to slight and vilify in comparison of the
others. Now, the judgment of the fathers more generally, and of
Austin more particularly, stood for the possibility of the saints' de-
fection, both total and final, wherein it seemeth the greater part of
our modern reformed divines have departed from them."

That this pretence is no whit better than that before will be evi-
denced by the light of this one consideration, namely, that those
among the bishops and their adherents who were indeed most zealous
of, and best versed in, the writings of the fathers, were generally of
the same judgment about the grace of Christ and the will of man,
etc., with the residue of the reformed churches and the puritan
preachers of our own nation. They were a company of sciolists in
comparison, and men of nothing, who arminianized ; men, as the
bishop of Lincoln once told them, whose " learning lay in a few un-
learned liturgies." It is true, they had gotten to such a head and
to such a height, not long before their fall, that they were ready
to accuse and charge their associates as to discipline, worship, and
ceremony of Puritanism ; who failed not to retort Arminianism and
Popery back again to them. We know who said of the others that
they were " tantum non in episcopatu Puritani;" and who returned
to him and his associates, " Tantum non uxoratu Pontificii." The
truth is, those among them, as there were many among them, both
bishops and men (as they speak and think) of inferior orders, wlio
were solidly learned, especially in the writings of the ancients (of
whom many are yet alive, but some are fallen asleep), were uni-
versally, almost to a man, of the same judgment with Calvin in the
heads of our religion under consideration. Jewell, Abbot, Morton,
Usher, Hall, Davenant, and Prideaux (great names among the
world of learned men), with a considerable retinue of men of repute
for literature and devotion (with whom on no account whatever the
arminianizing party of the prelates and their followers are to be
named the same day), have sufficiently testified their thoughts in
this matter to all the world. From what ambiguity of expression it
is that any sentence is stolen from Austin and others of the ancients,
seeming to countenance the doctrine of the saints' apostasy, hath
been elsewhere discovered, and may farther be manifested as occa-
sion shall be administered. And without pretence to any great skill

VOL. XI. 32

498 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

in the old learning, this I dare assert (whereof I have given some ac-
count in the preface to the reader), that not one of the ancients,
much less Austin, did ever maintain such an apostasy of saints and
such a perseverance as that which Mr Goodwin contendeth for.

This being that which Mr Goodwin hath to offer for the clearing
of the doctrine he maintaineth from the first two parts of the charge
exhibited against it, he applieth himself, in the last place, to contend
with a common observation made by Christians weighing and pon-
dering the principles and ways of men in the days wherein we live,
namely, " The degeneracy of the most of men who at any time
embrace it from their former profession, and their turning aside to
the paths of looseness and folly;" — an observation which, if time
(though Mr Goodwin is pleased to assert that any considering man,
like himself, will laugh it to scorn), will not easily be digested in the
tlioughts of them that are willing to weigh aright the usual presence
of God with his truths, especially at the first embracement and enter-
tainment of them. Neither will this observation be diverted from
pursuing the doctrine against which it is lifted up, by comjDaring it
with that of " the unhappiness of marriages made between cousins-
german," there Ijeing nothing in that relation that should be a dis-
posing cause to any such issue as is pretended; much less with that
farther observation, that some " apostatize from the protestant reli-
gion, yea, from Christianity itself;" there being not the least parity,
or indeed analogy, in the instances. If it might be affirmed of men,
that after their embracing of Christianity or the protestant reli-
gion, they generally decline and grow worse, as to their moral con-
versation, than they were before, I do not know at present what
apology could be readily fixed on that might free the one and the
other from grievous scandal. To fall from a profession of any reli-
gion, or any head or part of a religion, upon the account of the
corruption that is in them that so fall from it, is rather an honour
than a reproach to the religion so deserted. But, in and upon the
embracement of any religion or doctrine in religion, for men to de-
cline from that which is the proper end of all true religion (which is
the observation that riseth up against the doctrine Mr Goodwin
asserteth, in reference to very many that embrace it), doubtless is not
the crown and glory of that which they profess. Neither is this
observation built on so slight experience as to be muzzled with pro-
verbs of swallows and woodcocks, the streets of our cities and paths
of our villages being full of those fowls, or rather foul spirits, that
give strength imto it.

This is the whole of Avhat Mr Goodwin thought good to tender for
the protection of his doctrine from the charge laid down at the
entrance of this digression; on the consideration whereof, I doubt
not but it is evident how unable he is to shield it from the wound

^IV-] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 499

intended unto it thereby. And shall we now, can we, entertain any
other thoughts of it but that (having constantly hitherto been denied
and opposed by the most zealous, painful, godly, successful preachers
of the gospel that these latter ages have ))een, through the goodness
of God, blessed withal, entertained chiefly by men of loose, dissolute
prmciples and practices, enemies to the power of godliness and the
profession thereof, and strongly suspected to corrupt the minds and
conversations of men that do embrace it) it is the only serviceable
relief and assistance for the making of the ministry of the gospel use-
ful and fruitful, ingenerating holmess and obedience in the lives and
ways of men ?

CHAPTER XIV.

ARGUMENT AGAINST THE DOCTRINE FROM THE EXHORTATIONS
OF THE GOSPEL.

Mr G.'s third argument proposed and considered-The drama borrowed by Mr
G. to make good this argument-The frame of speech ascribed to God by
the Remonstrants, according to our doctrine, weighed and considered-The
dealing of God with man, and the importance of his exhortations, according
to the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, manifested_In what sense and to
wliat end exhortations and threatenings are made to believers— The fallacious
ground of this argument of Mr G.-Mr G.'s fourth argument proposed to
consideration, considered-Eternal life, how and in what sense a reward of
perseverance-The enforcement of the major proposition considered— The
proposition new moulded, to make it of concernment to our doctrine, and
denied, from the example of the obedience of Jesus Christ— Efficacy of grace
not inconsistent with reward-The argument enforced with a new consider.
°"~-^i^^ consideration examined and removed-Farther of the consist-
ency ol effectual grace and gospel exhortations.

^^ A THIRD argument is proposed, sect. 18, chap, xiii., in these words-
Ihat doctrine which representeth God as wc^k, incongiiious and
incoherent with himself, in his applications unto men, is not 'from
God, and consequently that which contradicteth it must needs be
the truth; but the doctrine of perseverance, opposed by us, putteth
this great dishonour upon God, representeth him weak, inconoruous
etc. : ergo." For the proof of the minor proposition, to make aood
the charge in it exhibited against the doctrine of perseverance there
is a dramatical scheme induced (to whose framing and application
Mr Goodwin contributed no more but the pains of a translator, takin-
It from the Anti-synod., pp. 276, 277), in these words: " ' You that
truly believe m my Son, and have been once made partakers of my
Holy Spirit, and therefore are fully persuaded and assured, from my
will and command given unto you in that behalf, yea, according to
the infallible word of truth which you have from me, that you can-
not possibly, no, not by all the most horrid sins and abominable prac-

500 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

tices tliat you shall or can commit, fall away either totally or finally
from your faith, — for in the midst of your foulest actions and courses
there remains a seed in you which is sufficient to make you true be-
lievers, and to preserve you from falling away finally, so that it is im-
possible you should die in your sins ; you that know and are assured
that I will, by an irresistible hand, work perseverance in you, and
consequently that you are out of all danger of condemnation, and
tliat heaven and salvation belong unto you, and are as good as yours
already, so that nothing but giving of thanks appertains to you,
which also you know that I will, do what you will in the meantime,
necessitate you unto; — you, I say, that are fully and thoroughly
persuaded and possessed with the truth of all these things, I ear-
nestly charge, admonish, exhort, and beseech, that you take heed to
yourselves that ye continue in the faith, that there be not at any
time an evil heart of unbelief in any to depart from the living God,
that you fall not from your own steadfastness. Yea, I declare and
profess unto you, that if you shall draw back, my soul shall have no
pleasure in you ; that if you shall deny me, I will deny you ; that if
you be again overcome of the lusts of the world, and be entangled
therewith, your latter end shall be worse than your beginning; that
if you shall turn away, all your former righteousness shall not be
remembered, but you shall die in your sins, and suffer the ven-
geance of eternal fire. On the other hand, if you shall continue to
the end, my promise is that you shall be saved. Therefore, strive to
enter in at the strait gate, quit yourselves like men, labour for the
meat that endureth unto everlasting life, and be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the pro-
mises.' He that shall duly weigh and consider what a senseless and
indeed ridiculous incongruity there is between these exhortations,
adjurations, threatenings, and latter promises, and those declarations,
applications, and former promises, doubtless will confess that either
the one or the other of them are not from God or according to the
mind of God."

Ans. The incongruity of this fiction with the doctrine it is framed
against is so easily manifested, that it will not much concern us to
consider the incongruity that the several parts of it have one with
another; for, —

First, The whole foundation of th\s fanatic fabric is ridiculous in
itself, and ridiculously imposed on the doctrine of perseverance: for
whereas it says not that all saints have any comfortable assurance
of their perseverance, and so may, by all gospel ways whatever, by
promises and threatenings, be stirred up to the use of those means
whereby perseverance is wrought and assurance obtained ; so it says
that no one saint in the world ever had, can have, or was taught to
expect his perseverance, or the least sense or assurance of it, under

XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 501

such an uncouth supposition as falling into and continuing in sins
and abominations. The promises they have to assure them of their
inseparable abode with God to the end are, " that he will write his
law in their hearts, and put his fear in their inward parts, that they
shall never depart from him ;" and that they shall be kept up thereto
by the use of means suitable, as appointed of God for the attaining of
the end proposed, being " kept by the power of God," but " through
faith, unto salvation." God doth not call (nor doth the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints, or of the stability and unchangeableness
of his promises in Christ to believers, assert it) any to believe that they
shall never fall away from him, what sins and rebellions soever they
fall into ; neither hath he promised any such thing unto them, but
only that he will, through his grace, preserve them in the use of
means from such rebellions as are inconsistent with his love and free
acceptation through Christ, according to the tenor of the covenajit of
grace. So that instead of the first part of this fiction, whose inconsist-
ency with the latter is after argued, let this, according to the analogy
of our doctrine, be substituted : —

" You that truly believe in my Son Jesus Christ, and are made
partakers of my Holy Spirit, who being heirs of the promises, and so
have a right to that abundant consolation, that joy in believing, v/hich
I am willing all of you should receive, I know your fears, doubts,
perplexities, and temptations, your failings, sins, and backslidings,
and what sad thoughts, on the account of the evil of your own hearts
and ways, you are exposed to, — as, that you shall never abide nor be
able to continue with me and in my love to the end. Let the feeble
knees be strengthened, and the hands that hang down be lifted up.
Behold, I have ordained good works for you to walk in, as the way
wherein you are to walk for the attainment of the end of your faith,
the salvation of your souls. And to quicken you and stir you up here-
unto, I have provided and established effectual ordinances, revealed
in the word of my grace ; whereunto you are to attend, and in the use
of them, according to my mind, to grow up into holiness, in all
manner of holy conversation, watching, fighting, resisting, contending
with and against all the spiritual enemies of your souls. And as for
me, this is my covenant with you, that my Spirit, which gives effi-
cacy to all the means, ordinances, and advantages of gospel obedi-
ence, which I have afforded unto you, by whom I will fulfil in you
all the good pleasure of my goodness, and the work of faith with
power, so making you meet for the inheritance of the saints in light,
and preserving you to my heavenly kingdom, shall never depart from
you; so that you, also, having my law written in your hearts, shall
never utterly and wickedly depart from me. And for such sins and
follies as you shall be overtaken withal, I will graciously heal your
backslidings, and receive you freely."

502 DOOTHINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

This is the language of the doctrine we maintain ; which is not, we
full well know, obnoxious to any exceptions or consequences what-
ever, but such as bold and prejudiced men, for the countenance of
their vain conceits and opinions, will venture at any time to impose
and fasten on the most precious truths of the gospel. That God
should say to believers, as is imposed on him, " fall into what sins
they will, or abominations they can, yet he will have them believe
that, by an irresistible hand, he will necessitate them to persevere,"
— that is, in and under their apostasy, which is evidently implied
in their falling into sins and abominations in the manner insisted
on, — is a ridiculous fiction, to the imagination whereof the least
colour is not supplied by the doctrine intended to be traduced
thereby.

Secondly, For the ensuing exhortations, promises, and threaten-
ings, as far as they are really evangelical, whose use and tendency is
argued to be inconsistent with the doctrine before proposed, I have
formerly manifested what is their proper use and efficacy in re-
spect of believers ; and their consistency with the truth we maintain,
apprehended as it is indeed, and not vizarded with ugly and dread-
ful appearances, will, I presume, scarcely be called in question by
any who, having " received a kingdom that cannot be moved," do
know Vvdmt it is to " serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly
fear." It is true, they are made unto, and have their use in refer-
ence unto, them that believe and shall persevere therein; but they
are not given unto them as men assured of their perseverance, but
as men called to the use of means for the establishing of their souls
in the ways of obedience. They are not, in the method of the gospel,
irrationally happed on such intimations of unchangeable love, or
proposed under such wild conditionals and suppositions as here by
our author ; but annexed to the appointment of those ways of grace
and peace which God calls his saints unto, being suited to work upon
the new nature wherewith they are endued, as spreading itself over
all the faculties of their rational souls, wherein are principles fit to
be excited to operation by exhortations and promises.

Thirdly, All that is indeed argumentative in this discourse is built
on this foundation, that a spiritual assurance of attaining the end
by the use of means is discouraging and dissuasive to the use of
those means; — a proposition so uncouth in itself, sa contradictory
to the experience of all the saints of God, so derogatory to the glory
and honour of Jesus Christ himself (who in all his obedience had,
doubtless, an assurance of the end of it all), as any thing that can
well fall into the imaginations of the hearts of men. IMight not the
devil have thus replied unto our Saviour, when he tempted him to
turn stones into bread, and to cast himself from a pinnacle of the
temple, and received answer that " Man shall not live by bread

XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 503

alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God : "
" But, alas ! thou Jesus, the Son of the living God, that art per-
suaded thou art so, and that God will preserve thee, whether tliou
usest any means or no, that thou shalt never be starved for want of
bread, nor hurt thyself by any fall, whatever thou dost, the angels
having charge that no evil shall come nigh thee, nor thy foot be
hurt against a stone, thou mayst now cast thyself headlong from
the temple, to manifest thy assurance of the love and faithfulness of
God in his promises to thee?" If our Saviour thought it sufficient
to stop the mouth of the devil, to manifest from Scripture that
notwithstanding the assurance from God that any one hath of the
end, yet he is to use the means tending thereunto (a neglect where-
of is a sinful tempting of God), Ave shall not need to go farther for
an answer to the same kind of objection in the mouth of any ad-
versary whatever.

His 19th section containeth his fourth argument, in these words: — -

" If there be no possibility of the saints falling away finally, then
is their persevering incapable of reward from God ; but their final
perseverance is not incapable of reward from God : ergo. The minor
proposition, I presume, contains nothing but what is the sense of
those who deny the conclusion; or, however, it contains nothing but
what is the express sense of the Lord Christ, where he saith, that
* He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved.' Therefore
I suppose we shall be excused from farther proof of this, without any
prejudice to the cause in hand."

Ans. I grant eternal life may be called the reivard of persever-
ance, in the sense that the Scripture useth that word, applied to
the matter in hand. It is a reward neither procured by (properly
and morally, as the deserving cause) nor proportioned unto the obe-
dience of them by whom it is attained. A reward it is that withal
is the free gift of God, and an inheritance purchased by Jesus Christ;
a reward of bounty, and not oi justice, in respect of them upon whom
it is bestowed, but only of faithfulness in reference to the promise
of it; a reward, by being a gracious encouragement, — as the end of
our obedience, not as the procurement or desert of it. So we gi'ant
it a reward of peivseverance, though these words of our Saviour,
" He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved," express
a consequence of things only, and not a connection of causality of
the one upon the other. Of tlie foundation of this discourse con-
cerning a possibility of declining, immediate consideration shall be
had. He proceeds, then : —

" The consequence of the major proposition stands firm upon this
foundation: No act of the creature whereunto it is necessitated, or
which it cannot possibly decline or but do, is, by any law of God or
rule of jvistice, rewardable. Therefore, if the saints be necessitated

504 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

by God to persevere finally, so that he leaves unto them no possi-
bility of declining finally, their final perseverance is not, according
to any law of God or man, nor, indeed, to any principle of reason
or equity, capable of reward, no whit more than actions merely na-
tural are; nay, of the two, there seems to be more reason why acts
merely natural (as, for example, eating, drinking, breathing, sleep-
ing) should be rewarded, inasmuch as these flow in a way of neces-
sity, yet from an inward principle and connatural to the agent, than
such actions whereuuto the agent is constrained, necessitated, and
determined, by a principle of power from without, and which is not
intrinsical to it."

And this is the strength of the argument, which will quickly ap-
pear to be very weakness ; for, —

First, The efficacy of these expressions, " Whereunto it is necessi-
tated, and from it they cannot possibly decline," as to their influ-
ence into this argument, ariseth clearly from their ambiguity. We
deny any to be necessitated to persevere, or that our doctrine affirms
any such thing ; taking that expression to hold out a power upon
their wills, in their operations, inconsistent with the utmost liberty
whereof in spiritual things (having received a spiritual principle)
men are capable. They are not so necessitated to persevere as that
all the acts of their obedience, whereby they do persevere, should
not be free, but necessary. Indeed they are not at all, nor in any
sense, necessitated to persevere. There is no necessity attends their
perseverance but only in respect of the event, with reference to the
unchangeable purpose and infallible promise of God. The like may
be said of that other expression, " Possibility of declining." God
leaves in them a possibility of declining as to their way and manner
of walking with him, though he leaves not to them a possibility of
declining or falling totally from him as to the issue and event of the
whole matter ; which doth not in the least necessitate them to or in
any of their operations.

Secondly, The proposition must be cast into another mould before
it will be of any determinate signification in opposition to the doc-
trine it opposeth, and tuned to another mood before it will give a
certain sound to any battle against it ; and this is, That no act of the
creature, that is wrought in order to the obtaining of any end pro-
mised to be certainly attained thereby, is rewardable of God (though
for perseverance, it is not any act of the creature, but only a modus
of its obedience). And thus it looks towards the concernment of this
doctrine. Yet before this proposition pass, to omit sundry other
tilings that would gladly rise to the destruction of it, I desire one
query may be assailed, concerning the obedience of Jesus Christ,
whether it were not necessary that the end of his obedience should
follow? and whether it were not impossible he should decline from

XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 505

his obedience ? and if it were, whether it were impossible that God
should give a reward thereunto? But, —

Thirdly, The intendment of this proposition, as far as it concerns
us (and that, indeed, is with a respect to our doctrine of the effi-
cacy of grace, and not to this of perseverance), is this, " That which
is wrought in us by the effectual grace of God is not capable of re-
ward from God ;" — a proposition which, though capable of some plea
and colour, taking " reward" in a purely legal sense, supposing the
persons seeking after it to do it by a service and duties proportioned
unto it, yet is so openly and directly contradictory to the tenor and
design of God in the covenant of grace by Jesus Christ, with the
whole dispensation of the Spirit given to abide with believers, for
all the ends and purposes as to their obedience, as that I shall con-
tent myself to deny it, expecting Mr Goodwin's proofs of it, — when
" rivers run backward, heavy things ascend," etc.

Fourthly, For the flourish added to these assertions, by comparing
the acts of the saints' obedience, upon a supposition of the grace of
God " working them in them," with their natural actions of " eating,
drinking, sleepmg," as to their tendency to exalt the glory of God
in rewarding, it proceeds either from gross ignorance of the doctrine
opposed, or wilful prevaricating from that light of it which he hath.
Who ever taught that God's operations in and towards believers, as
to their perseverance in faith and obedience, did consist in an out-
ward constraint of an unwilling principle? God gives a principle of
obedience to them, — he writes and implants his law in their hearts^
and moves them effectually to act suitably to that inward principle
they have so received; which, though spiritual and supernatural in
respect of its rise and manner of bestowing, yet is connatural to
them in respect of its being a principle of operation. We are not,
then, in the least beholding to our author for his following conces-
sion, " That as a prince may give great things to them that eat, and
drink, and breathe, but not as rewards ; so God may give eternal life
to them that are so necessitated by him to persevere, though not as
a reward :" for although we will not contend with God about eternal
life, that he [may] give it us under the notion of a reward, and desire
to be much affected with the consideration of it as a free gift of grace,
an eminent purchase of the blood of God, and look upon it merely
as a reward of bounty, so called as being the end whereunto our
obedience is suited, and the rest of our labours; yet we say, in an
evangelical sense and acceptation it is properly so proposed to that
obedience and perseverance therein which is wrought in us by the
efficacy of the grace of God, as it lies in a tendency unto that end,
which to be attained by those means he hath infallibly determined.

He proceeds, therefore, to enforce his argument with a new con-
sideration : —

506 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCK [CHAP.

" If we speak of rewards promised in order to the moving or in-
clining of the wills of men towards such or such actions and ways, —
of which kind also the rewards mentioned in the Scriptures as yet
remaining to be conferred by God upon men are, — the case is yet
more clear, namely, that they are appropriate unto such actions and
ways unto the election and choice whereof men are not necessitated
in one kind or other, especially not by any physical or foreign
power; for to what purpose should a reward be promised unto me,
to persuade or make me willing to engage in such or such a course,
or to perform such and such a service, in case I be necessitated to
the same engagement or performance otherwise ? Or what place is
there left for a moral inducement where a physical necessity hath
done the execution? Or, if the moral inducement hath done the
execution, and sufficiently raised and engaged the will to the action,
with what congruity of reason, yea, or common sense, can a physi-
cal necessity be superinduced?"

A71S. What there is more in this than what went before, unless
sophistry and falsity, I see not; for, — First, Though I conceive that
eternal life is proposed in the Scripture as our reward rather upon
the account of supporting and cheering our spirits in the deficiencies,
temptations, and entanglements attending our obedience, than directly
to engage unto obedience (though consequently it doth that also),
whereunto we have so many other unconquerable engagements and
inducements, yet the consideration thereof in that sense also, as it
moves the wills of men to actions suitable to the attainment of it, is
very well consistent with the doctrine in hand. That old calumny,
a hundred times repeated and insisted on in this contest, of our wills
being necessitated and deprived of their choice and election, unless
it could be tolerably made good, will be of no use to Mr Goodwin
as to his present purpose. The whole strength of this argumenta-
tion is built on this supposal, that the effectual grace of God in its
working the will and deed in believers, or the Spirit's doing of it by
grace, with God's fore-determination of events, doth take away the
liberty of the will, inducing into it a necessary manner of operation,
• — determining it to one antecedently in order of time to its own de-
tci-mination of itself; which is false, and no wise inferred from the
doctrine under consideration. Yea, as God's providential concur-
rence with men and determination of their wills to all their actions
as actions is the principle of all their natural liberty, so his gra-
cious concurrence with them, or operation in them, as unto spiritual
effects, working in them to will, is the principle of all their true
spiritual liberty. When " the Son makes us free, then are we free
indeed." Tlie reward, then, is joroposed to an understanding enlight-
ened, a will quickened and made free by grace, to stir them up to
actions suitable to them who are in expectation of so bountiful a

XIV.] THE EXHORTATIONS OF THE GOSPEL. 507

close of their obedience (which actions are yet wrought in them by
the Spirit of God, whose fruits they are) ; and this to very good pur-
pose, in the hearts of all that know what it is to walk with God,
and to serve him in the midst of temptations, unless they are under.
the power of some such particular error as turns away their eyes
from believing the truth.

Secondly, The opposition here pretended between a physical ne-
cessitating and a moral inducement for the producing of the same
effect, is, in plain terms, intended between the efficacy of God's in-
ternal grace and the use of external exhortations and motives. If
God give an internal principle, or spiritual habit, fitting for, in-
clining to, spiritual actions and duties; if he follow the work so
begun in us (who yet of ourselves can do nothing, nor are sufficient
to think a good thought) with continual supplies of his Spirit and
grace, working daily in us, according to the exceeding greatness of
his power, the things that are well pleasing in his sight; — then,
though he work upon us as creatures endued with reason, under-
standings, wills, and affections, receiving glory from us according to
the nature he hath endued us withal, all exhortations and encourage-
ments to obedience required at our hands are vain and foolish. Now,
because we think this to be the very wisdom of God, and the op-
position made unto it to be a mere invention of Satan to magnify
corrupted nature and decry all the efficacy of the grace of the new
covenant, we must have something besides and beyond the naked
assertion of our author to cause us once to believe it.

Thirdly, The great execution that is made by moral inducement
solely, without any internally efficacious grace, in the way of gospel
obedience, is often supposed, but not once attempted to be put upon
the proof or demonstration. It shall, then, suffice to deny that any
persuasions, outward motives, or inducements whatever, are able of
themselves to raise, engage, and carry out, the will unto action, so
that any good, spiritual action should be brought forth on that ac-
count, without the effectual influence and physical operation of in-
ternal grace ; and Mr Goodwin is left to prove it, together with such
other assertions derogatory to the free grace of God, dogmatically
imposed upon his reader in this chapter, whereof some have been
already remarked, and others may in due time. The residue of
this section (the 19th), spent to prove that eternal life is given as a
reward to perseverance, — having already manifested the full consis-
tency of the proposition, in a gospel acceptation of the word " re-
ward," with whatever we teach of the perseverance of the saints, —
I suppose myself unconcerned in ; and therefore, passing by the tri-
umphant conclusion of this argument, asserting an absolute power in
men to exhibit or decline from obedience, I shall go on to that
which, in my apprehension, is of more importance, and will give

508 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

occasion to a discourse, I hope, not unuseful or unprofitable to the
reader. I shall therefore assign it a peculiar place and chapter to
itsel£

CHAPTER XV.

ARGUMENT AGAINST THE DOCTRINE FROM THE SINS OF BELIEVERS.

Mr G.'s fifth argument for the apostasy of true behevers — The weight of this ar-
gument taken from the sins of believers — The difference between the sins of
behevers and unregenerate persons proposed to consideration, James i. 14, 15
— The rise and progress of lust and sin — The fountain of all sin in all persons
is lust, Rom. vii. 7 — Observati(ms clearing the difference between regenerate
and unregenerate persons in their sinning, as to the common fountain of all sin
— The first — The second, of the universality of lust in the soul by nature —
The third, in two inferences: the Jirst, unregenerate men sin with their whole
consent; the second inference, concerning the reign of sin and reigning sin —
The fourth, concerning the universal possession of the soul by renewing grace
— The fifth, that true grace bears rule wherever it be — Inferences from the
former considerations — The Jirst, that in every regenerate person there are
diverse principles of all moral operations — Rom. vii. 19-22, opened — The
second, that sin cannot reign in a regenerate person — The third, that regene-
rate persons sin not with their whole consent — Answer to the argument at the
entrance proposed — Believers never sin with their whole consent and wills —
Mr G.'s attempt to remove the answer — His exceptions considered and removed
• — Plurality of wills in the same person, in the Scripture sense — Of the op-
position between flesh and Spirit — That no regenerate person sins with his
full consent proved — Of the Spirit and his lustings in us — The actings of the
Spirit in us free, not suspended on any conditions in us — The same farther
manifested — Mr G.'s discourse of the first and second motions of the Spirit
considered — The same considerations farther carried on — Peter Martyr's
testimony considei'ed — Rom. vii. 19-22, considered — Difference between the
opposition made to sin in persons regenerate and that in persons unregene-
rate farther argued — Of the sense of Rom. vii., and in what sense believers
do the works of the flesh — The close of these considerations — The answer to
the argument at the entrance of the chapter opened — The argument new
formed — The major proposition limited and granted, and the minor denied —
Theproof of the major considered — Gal. v. 21; Eph. v. 5, 6; 1 Cor. vi. 9,10
— Believers how concerned in comminations — Threatenings proper to unbe-
lievers for their sins — Farther objections proposed and removed — Of the pro-
gress of lust in tempting to sin — The effect of lust in temptations — Difference
between regenerate and unregenerate persons as to the tempting of lust:
1. In respect of universality ; 2. Of power — Objections answered — Whether
believers sin only out of infirmity — Whether believers may sin out of malice
and with deliberation — Of the state of believers who upon their sin may be
excommunicated — Whether the body of Christ may be dismembered — What
body of Christ it is that is intended — Mr G.'s thoughts to this purpose ex-
amined— Mr G.'s discourse of the way whereby Christ keeps or may keep his
members examined — Members of Christ cannot become members of Satan —
1 Cor. vi. 15 considered — Of the sense and use of the word «;«; — Christ takes
his members out of the power of Satan, gives up none to him — Repetition of
regeneration asserted by the doctrine of apostasy — The repetition disproved —

XV.j THE SINS OF BELIEVEES CONSIDERED. 509

Mr G.'s notion of regeneration examined at large and rebuked — Relation be-
tween God and his children indissoluble — The farther progress of lust for the
production of sin; it draws off and entangles — Drawing away, what it is —
The difference between regenerate and unregenerate persons in their being
drawn away by lust — Farther description of him who is drawn away by lust,
and of the difference formerly mentioned — Of lust's enticing — How far this
may befall regenerate men — To do sin, Rom. vii., what it intendeth — Lust
conceiving, wherein it consists — Of the bringing forth of sin, and how far the
saints of God may proceed therein — 1 John iii. 9 opened — The scope of the
place discovered, vindicated — The words farther opened — The proposition in
the words universal — Inferences from thence — The subject of that proposition
considered — Every one that is born of God, what is affirmed of them — What
meant by " committing of sin" — Mr G. 's opposition to the sense of that expres-
sion given — Reasons for the confli'mation of it — Mr G.'s reasons against it
proposed and considered — The farther exposition of the word carried on —
How he that is born of God cannot sin — Several kinds of impossibility — Mr
G.'s attempt to answer the argument from this place particularly examined
— The reasons of the proposition in the text considered — Of the seed of God
abiding — The nature of that seed, what it is, wherein it consists — Of the
abiding of this seed — Of the latter part of the apostle's reason, " he is born of
God" — Our argument from the words — Mr G.'s endeavour to evade that ar-
gument— His exposition of the words removed — Farther of the meaning of
the word " abideth" — The close.

Mr Goodwin's fifth argument for the saints' apostasy is taken
from the consideration of the sins which they have fallen into, or
possibly may so do, and it is thus proposed : sect. 20, —

" They who are in a capacity or possibility of perpetrating the
works of the flesh are in a possibility of perishing, and consequently
in a possibility of falling away, and that finally, from the grace and
favour of God, in case they be in an estate of his grace and favour
at the present; but the saints, or true believers, are in a possibility
of perpetrating the works of the flesh : and therefore also they are
in a possibility of perishing, and so of falling away from the grace
and favour of God, wherein at present they stand. The major pro-
position of this argument, — to wit, They who are in a possibility of
perpetrating or customarily acting the works of the flesh, are in a
possibility of perishing, — is clearly proved from all such scriptures
which exclude all workers of iniquity and fulfiUers of the lusts of the
flesh from the kingdom of God, of which sort are many: 'Of the
which,' saith the apostle, speaking of the lusts of the flesh, adultery,
fornication, etc., ' I tell you^^^ as I have also told you in time past,
that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.'
So again, 'For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean per-
son, nor covetous man, w4io is an idolater, hath any inheritance in
the kingdom of Christ and of God.' ' Let no man deceive you with
vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God
upon the children of disobedience.' Yet again, ' Know ye not that
the unris^hteous shall not inherit the kinfrdora of God?' * Be not

510 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

deceived, neither fornicators nor idolaters shall inherit the kingdom
of God/ From such passages as these, which are very frequent in
the Scriptures, it is as clear as the light of the sun at noon-day, that
they who may possibly commit such sins as those specified, adultery,
fornication, idolatry, may as possibly perish and be for ever excluded
the kingdom of God."

Ans. Because, of all arguments whatever used against the truth
we assert, this seems to me to wear the best colours on its back, and
to have its face best painted, namely, with that plea of the " incon-
sistency of sin with the favour and acceptation of God," seeming to
have a tendency to caution believers in their ways and walkings to
be more careful in watching against temptations, I shall more largely
insist on what the Lord hath been pleased to reveal concerning the
sins and failings of such as he is yet pleased to accept in a covenant
of mercy; whom though he chastens and sorely rebukes, yet he gives
not their souls over unto death, nor takes his loving-kindness from
them for ever. Now, because the inside and strength of this objec-
tion consists in a comparison instituted between the sins of believers
and the sins of uuregenerate persons, which being laid in the balance
are found of equal burdensomeness unto God, and therefore are in
expectance of a like reward from him, I shall in the first place, before
I come in particular to answer the argument proposed, manifest the
difference that is between regenerate persons and unregenerate in
their sinning, and consequently also between their sins; wherein such
principles shall be laid down and proved as may with an easy appli-
cation remove all that is added in the farther carrying on and en-
deavoured vindication of the argument in hand.

A foundation of this discourse we have laid in James i. 14, 15,
" But every man is tempted," saith the Holy Ghost, " when he is
drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath con-
ceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death." The Holy Ghost discovers the fountain of all sin, and
pursues it in the streams of it into the dead sea, Avhereinto it falls.
All sin whatever is from temptation, and that which tempts to all sin
is the cause of all sin. This fountain of sin is here discovered, the
principal, proper, criminal cause of sin, in the beginning of verse 14.
The adversative "but" is exclusive of any other faulty cause of sin
that should principally fall under our consideration, especially of
(iod, of whom mention was made immediately before. Now, this is
affirmed to be every man's " lust." The general way and means that
this original of all sin useth for the production of it is also discovered,
and that is " temptation." Eveiy man's own lust tempts him. The
progress also it makes in carrying on of sin whereunto it tempts is
farther described in the several parts and degrees of it: — 1. It draws
aiuay and entices, and the persons towards whom it exerts this effi-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 511

cacy are "drawn away and enticed;'' 2. It conceives, "Lust conceives.'"
Tlie subject being prepared, answering its drawing away and enticing,
without more ado it conceives sin; and then it brings forth into
action, — that is, either into open perpetration or deliberate determina-
tion of its accomplishment ; and then it "fiuisheth sin," or comes up to
the whole Avork that sin tends to; whereunto is subjoined the dismal
end and issue of this progress of sin, which is " death." Eternal death
is in the womb of finished sin, and will be brought forth by it.

This being the progress of sin from the first rise, which is " lust," to
the last end, which is " death," the way and path that the best and
most refined unregenerate men in the world do never thoroughly
forsake, though they may sometimes step out of it or be stopped in
it, a way wherein whoever walks to the end may be sure to find the
end, I shall consider the several particulars laid down, and show in
them all, at least in the most material, the difference that is between
believers and unbelievers whilst they do walk, or may walk, in this
path, and then manifest where and when all saints break out of it for
ever, so that they come not to the close thereof; and therein I shall
give a full answer unto the whole strength and design of the argu-
ment in hand, which consisteth, as was said, in a comparison insti-
tuted between the sins and demerits of believers and unbelievers.

First, The fountain, principle, and cause, of all sin whatever, in all
persons whatever, is " lust." Every one's own lust is the cause of his
oiun sin. This is the mother, womb, and fomes of sin, which Paul
says he had not been acquainted withal but by the law : Rom. vii. 7,
" Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law : for I had not known
lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." That which in
the entrance he calls " sin" indefinitely, in the close he particularly
terms " lust," as being the hidden, secret cause of all sin, and which,
once discovered, swallows up the thoughts of all other sins, it being al-
together in vain to deal with them, or to set a man's self in opposition
to them, whilst this sinful womb of them is alive and prevalent. This
is that which we call original sin, as to that part of it which consists
in the universal alienation of our hearts from God, and unconquer-
able, habitual, natural inclination of them to every thing that is evil;
for this sin works in us " all manner of concupiscence," Rom. vii. 8.
This, I say, is the womb, cause, and principle of sin, both in believers
and unbelievers, the root on which the bitter fruit of it doth srow,
wherever it is. No man ever sins but it is from his own lust. And
in this there is an agreement between the sins of believers and others,
they are all from the same fountain ; yet not such an agreement but
that there is a difference herein also. For the clearing whereof ob-
serve,—

1. That by nature this lust, which is the principle of sin, is
seated in all the faculties of the soul, receiving divers appellations

512 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

according to the variety of the subjects wherein it is, and is some-
times expressed in terms of privation, want, and deficiency, some-
times by positive inclination to evil. In the understanding, it is
blindness, darkness, giddiness, folly, madness; in the will, obsti-
nacy and rebellion; in the heart and affections, pride, stubbornness,
hardness, sensuality; in all, negatively and privatively, death; posi-
tively, lust, corruption, fiesh, concupiscence, sin, the old man, and
the like. There is nothing in the soul of a man that hath the least
influence into any action as moral but is wholly possessed with this
depraved, vicious habit, and exerts itself always and only in a suit-
ableness thereunto.

2. That this lust hath so taken possession of men by nature,
that, in reference to any spiritual act or duty, they are nothing else
but lust and flesh; " That which is born of the flesh is flesh," John
iii. 6. It is all so, it is all spiritual flesh ; that is, it is wholly and
habitually corrupt, as to the doing any thing that is good. If any
thing in a man might seem to be exempted, it should be his mind, the
seat of all those things which are commonly called the " relics of the
image of God;" but that also is flesh, as the apostle at large asserts
it, Rom. viii., and " enmity against God." Neither is it of any weight
which is objected, " That there is in unregenerate men the know-
ledge of the truth, which they retain in unrighteousness, Rom. i. 1 8 ;
conscience accusing and excusing, chap. ii. 15; the knowledge of sin
which is by the law, with sundry other endowments; which," they say,
*' doubtless are not flesh." I answer. They are all flesh, in the sense that
the Scripture useth that word. The Holy Ghost speaks of nothing
in man, in reference unto any duty of obedience unto God, but it is
either flesh or Spirit. These two comprehend every man in the world :
Every man is either in the flesh or in the Spirit, Rom. viii. The
utmost improvement of all natural faculties whatever, the most com-
plete subjection whereunto they are brought by convictions, yet leaves
the same impotency in them to spiritual good as they were born
withal, the same habitual inclination to sin, however entangled and
hampered from going out to the actual perpetrating of it; neither
are they themselves any thing the better, nor hath God any thing
of that glory by them which ariseth from the willing obedience of
his creatures.

3. It being the state of every man's proper lust which is the
fountain of all sin, two things will follow: —

(1.) That in whomsoever it is, in its compass and power, as above
described, as it is in every unregenerate man, however convinced
of sin, he sins with his full and whole consent. All that is within
him consents to every sin he commits. Unregenerate men sin with
their whole hearts and souls. In every act their carnal minds are
not, will not be, subject to the law of God, Their wills and all

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 513

their affections delight in sin ; and this because there is no ])rinciple
in them that should make any opposition to sin, — I mean such a spi-
ritual opposition as would really take off from their full consent. It
is true, conscience repines, witnesses against sin, reproves, rebukes,
excuses or accuses: but conscience is no real principle of operation,
but either & judge of what is done or to be done, or a moral inducer to
doing or not doing; and whatever conscience doth, however it tumul-
tuate, rebuke, chide, persuade, trouble, cry, and the like, whatever con-
viction of the guilt of sin may show into the judgment, yet sin hath
the consent of the whole soul. Every thing that hath a real influence
into operation consents thereto, originally and radically, however any
principle may be dared by conscience. To take off any thing from
full consent, there must be something of a spiritual repugnancy in
the mind and will, which when lust is thus enthroned there is not.

(2.) That sin reigneth in such persons. Many have been the in-
quiries of learned men about the reigning of sin; as, what sins
may be said to reign, and what not? whether sins of ignorance may
reign as well as sins against knowledge? what little sins may be
said to reign as well as great? whether frequent relapses into any
sin prove that sin to be reigning? whether sin may reign in a re-
generate person? or whether a saint may fall into reigning sin?
whereabout divines of great note and name have differed, all upon a
false bottom and supposal. The Scripture gives no ground for any
such inquiries, or disputes, or cases of conscience, as some men have
raised hereupon ; and, indeed, I would this were the only instance of
men's creating cases of conscience and answering them, when indeed
and in truth there are no such things; so ensnaring the consciences
of men, and entangling more by their cases than they deliver by
their resolutions. The truth is, there is no mention of any reigning
sin, or the reigning of any sin, in the whole book of God, taking sin
for this or that particular sin ; but of the reign of this indwelling,
original lust, or fountain of all sin, there is frequent mention. Whilst
that holds its power and universality in the soul, and is not restrained
nor straitened by the indwelling Spirit of grace, with a new vital
principle of no less extent and of more power than it, be the actual
sins few or more, known or unknown, little or gxeat, all is one. Sin
reigns, and such a person is under the power and dominion of sin.
So that, in plain terms, to have sin reign is to be unconverted; and
to have sin not to reign is to be converted, to have received a new
principle of life from above. This is evident from the 5th and 6th
chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the seat of this doctrine of
reigning sin. The opposition insisted on by the apostle, is between the
reign of sin and grace ; and in pursuit thereof he manifests how true
believers are translated from the one to the other. To have sin
reign, is to be in a state of sin; to have grace I'eign, is to be in a state

VOL. XL 33

514) DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

of grace. So chap. v. 21, "As sin hath reigned unto death, so grace
reigneth through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our
Lord." The sin he speaks of is that wliereof he treats in all that
chapter, the sin of nature, the lust whereof we speak. This by nature
reigneth unto death ; but when grace comes by Jesus Christ, the soul
is delivered from the power thereof. So in the whole 6th chapter
it is our change of state and condition that the apostle insists on,
in our delivery from the reign of sin; and he tells us this is that
that destroys it, our being under grace: Verse 14, "Sin shall not
have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under
grace." Plainly, then, there are two lords and rulers ; and these are,
original or indwelling sin, and grace or the Spirit of it. The first
lord the apostle discovers, with his entrance upon his rule and domi-
nion, chap, v., and this all men by nature are under; the second
he describes, chap, vi., which sets out the rule and reign of grace in
believers by Jesus Christ. And then, thirdly, the place that both
these lords have, in this life, in a believer, chap. vii. This, then, is
the only reigning sin ; and in whomsoever it is in its power and com-
pass, as it is in all unregenerate men, in them, and in them only,
doth sin reign, and every sin they commit is with full consent (as
was manifested before), in exact willing obedience to the sovereign
lord that reigns in them.

4. Observe that the grace, neiu creature, principle, or spiritual
life, that is given to, bestowed on, and wrought in, all and only
believers, be it in the lowest and most remiss degree that can be
imagined, is yet no less universally spread over the whole soul than
the contrary habit and principle of lust and sin whereof we have
spoken. In the understanding it is light in the Lord ; in the will,
life; in the affections, love, delight, etc., those being reconciled who
were alienated by wicked works. Wherever there is any thing the
least of grace, there something of it is in every thing of the soul that
is a capable seat for good or evil habits or dispositions. He that is
"in Christ is a new creature," 2 Cor. v. 17; not renewed in one or
other particular, — " he is a new creature."

5. That wherever true grace is, in what degree soever, there it
bears rule, though sin be in the same subject with it. As sin reigns
before gi'ace comes, so grace reigns when it doth once come. And
the reason is, because sin having the first rule and dominion in the
heart, abiding there, there is neither room nor place for grace but
what is made by conquest; now, whoever enters into a possession
by right of conquest, what resistance soever be made, if he prevail
to a conquest, he reigns. In every regenerate man, though grace
be never so weak, and corruption never so strong, yet properly the
sovereignty belongs to grace. Having entered upon the soul and
all the powers of it by conquest, so long as it abides there it doth

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 515

reign. So that to say a regenerate man may fall into reigning sin, as
it is commonly expressed (though, as we have manifested, no sin
reigns but the sin of nature, as no good act reigneth but the Spirit
and habit of grace), and yet continue regenerate, is all one as to say
he may have and not have true grace at the same time.

Now, from these considerations some farther inferences may be
made: — (1.) That in every regenerate person there are, in a spi-
ritual sense, two principles of all his actings, — two wills. There is
the will of the flesh, and there is the will of the Spirit. A regene-
rate man is spiritually and in Scripture expression two men, — a "new
man" and an "old," an "inward man" and a "body of death," — and
hath two wills, having two natures, not as natural faculties, but as
moral principles of operation ; and this keeps all his actions, as moral,
from being perfect, absolute, or complete in any kind. He doth good
with his whole heart upon the account of sincerity, but he doth not
good with his whole heart upon the account of perfection ; and when
he doth evil, there is still a non-submitting, an unconsenting prin-
ciple. This the apostle complains of and declares, Rom. vii. 19-22,
" The good that I would I do not : but the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law
of God after the inward man." There is an "I" and an "I" at
opposition, a willing and not willing, a doing and not doing, a de-
lighting and not delighting, all in the same person. So that there is
this difference at the entrance between what sin soever of regenerate
persons and others: Though the principle of sinning be the same, for
the kind and nature of it, in them and others, — all sin, every man's
sins, be who he will, believer or unbeliever, being tempted by his own
lust, — yet that lust possesseth the whole soul, and takes in the virtual
consent of the whole man, notwithstanding the control and checks of
conscience and the light of the judgment, in him that is unregenerate ;
but in every regenerate person there is an unconsenting principle,
which is as truly the man himself, that doth not concur in sin, that
doth expressly dissent from it, as the other is from whence it flows.

(2.) That sin neither can, doth, nor ever shall, reign in regene-
rate persons. The reason of this I acquainted you with before ; and
the apostle thinks this a sufficient proof of this assertion, " Because
they are under grace," Rom. vi. 14. Whilst the principle of grace
abides in them, which reigns wherever it be, or the free acceptance
of God in the gospel is towards them, it is impossible, upon the ac-
count of any actual sin whatever whereinto they may fall, that sin
should reign in them. Nothing gives sin a reign and dominion but
a total defect of all true grace whatever, not only as to the exerting
itself, but as to any habitual relics of it. It may be overwhelmed

616 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

sometimes with temptations and corruptions, but it is grace still, as
the least spark of fire is fire, though it should be covered with never
so great a heap of ashes; and it reigns then.

(3.) That regenerate ^iersons sin not with their ivhole and full
consent. Consent may be taken two ways: — First, Morally, for the
approbation of the thing done. So the apostle says, tliat in the
inward man he did " consent to the law that it was good," Rom.
vii. 16; that is, he did approve it as such, like it, delight in it as
good : and thus a regenerate man never consents to sin, no, nor un-
regenerate persons neither, unless they are such as, " being past feel-
ing, are given up to work lasciviousness with greediness." A rege-
nerate person is so far from thus consenting to sin, that before it, in
it, after it, he utterly condemns, disallows, hates it, as in himself and
by himself committed. Secondly, Consent may be taken in a ]3hy-
sical sense, for the concurrence of the commanding and acting prin-
ciples of the soul unto its operations. And in this sense an unregene-
rate man sins with his full consent and his whole will. A regenerate
man doth not, cannot do so: for though there is not in that consent
to sin which his will, inclined by the remaining disposition of sin in
it, doth give, aD actual sensible reaction of the other principle, yet
there is an express 12 ft- consenting; and by the power that it hath
ill the soul (for habits havC power in and over the subjects wherein
the)' va:e), it preserves it from being wholly engaged into sin. And
this is the great intendment of the apostle, Hem. vii. 19-22.

From what hath been spoken will easily appear what answer may

be given tO th6 -former argument, to wit, that notwithstanding any

^ins that either the Scripture or the experience of men doth evince

iat the saints may fall into, yet that they never sin or perpetrate

sin with their full and whole consent, whereby they should be looked

upon in and under their sins in the same state and condition with

unreo-enerate persons, in whom sin reigneth, committing the same

sin ''And how insufficient any thing produced by Mr Goodwm m

defence of the argument laid down at the entrance of this chapter,

is to remove the answer given unto it from believers not smnmg

with their whole consent, may easily be demonstrated. This he thus

^''^f'some, 7o maintain this position, that all the sins of true be-
lievers are sins of infirmity, lay hold on this shield : 'Such men, they
say 'never sin with their whole wills, or with full consent ; therefore
they never sin but through infirmity.' That they never sin with full
consent they conceive they prove sufficiently from that of the ajiostle,
' For the good that I would I do not: but the evil that I wou d not,
that I do Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do
it but sin that dwelloth in me.' I answer, first. That the saints
cannot sin but with their whole wills or full consents is undeniably

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 5] 7

proved by this consideration, — namely, because otherwise there
should be not only a plurality or diversity, but also a contrariety of
wills in the same person at one and the same instant of time, namely,
when the supposed act of evil is produced. Now, it is an impossi-
bility of the first evidence that there should be a plurality of acts,
and these contrary one to the other, in the same subject or agent at
one or the same instant of time. It is true, between the first movings
of the flesh in a man towards the committing of the sin and the
completing of the sin by an actual and external patration of it, there
may be successively in him not only a plurality but even a contra-
riety of volitions or motions of the will, according to what the Scrip-
ture speaketh concerning the flesh lusting against the Spirit, and
the Spirit against the flesh ; but when the flesh, having prevailed in
the combat, bringeth forth her desire into act, the Spirit ceaseth
from his act of lusting: otherwise it would follow that the flesh is
greater and stronger in her lusting than the Spirit of God is in his,
and that when the flesh lusteth after the perpetration of such or
such a sin, the Spirit as to the hindering of it lusteth but in vain ;
which is contrary to that of the apostle, ' Greater is he that is in
you' (speaking, as it is clear, of the Spirit of God unto true believers)
' than he that is in the world,' meaning Satan and all his auxilia-
ries,— sin, flesh, corruption."

Ans. What we intend by the saints not sinning with their whole
wills hath been declared. That there is not a consistency in the
explanation we have given Mr Goodwin asserts, because it would
infer " a plurality, yea a contrariety of wills in the same person at
the same time." That there is a plurality, yea a contrariety of wills,
in the Scripture sense of the expression of the will of a man, Avas
before from the Scripture declared ; not a plurality of wills in a phy-
sical sense, as the will is a natural faculty of the soul, but in a moral
and analogical sense, as it is taken for a habit or principle of good or
evil. The will is a natural faculty. One nature hath one will. In
every regenerate man there are two natures, the new or divine, and
the old or corrupted. In the same sense, there are in him two wills,
as was declared. But saith he, " It is an impossibility of the first
evidence, that there should be a plurality of acts in the same subject
at the same time, and these contrary one to another." But, —

1. If you intend acts in a moral consideration, unless you add,
" About the same object," which you do not, this assertion is so far
from any evidence of truth, that it is ridiculously false. May not the
same person love God and hate the devil at the same time? But, —

2. How pass you so suddenly from a plurality of wills to a plu-
rality of acts? By the will we intend (in the sense wherein we speak
of it) a habit, not any act, — that is, the will as habitually invested
with a new principle, and not as actually willing from thence and

618 . DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

by virtue thereof. Arminius, from ^vhom our author boiTows this
discourse, fell not iuto this sophistry ; he tells you, " There cannot be
contrary wills or volitions about the same act." But is it with Mr
Goodwin or Arminius an impossibility that there should be a mixed
action, partly voluntary and partly involuntary? Actions whose prin-
ciples are from without, by persuasion, may be ; so a man's throwing
his goods into the sea to save his own life. Now, the principles whercr
of we speak, flesh and grace, are internal and contrary; and shall not
the actions that proceed from a faculty wherein such contrary prin-
ciples have their residence be partly voluntary, partly involuntary?
But he tells you, "That though there might be lusting of the Spirit
against the flesh before the act of sin, yet when it comes to the acting
of it then it ceaseth; and so the act is wrought with the whole will."

1. Though this were so, yet this doth not prove but that the
action is mixed, and not absolutely and wholly voluntary. Mixed
actions are so esteemed from the antecedent deliberation and dissent,
though the will be at length prevailed upon thereunto ; and I have
showed before that in the very action there is a virtual dissent, be-
cause of the opposite principle that is in the will. But, —

2. How doth it appear that the Spirit doth not " lust against
the flesh" (though not to a prevalency) even in the exertion of
the acts of sin? In every good act that a man doth, because evil
is present with him, though the prevalency be on the part of the
Spirit and the principle of grace, yet the flesh also with its hist-
iugs doth always in part corrupt it; thence are all the spots, stains,
and imperfections of the holy things and duties of the saints. And
if the flesh in its lusting will immix itself with our good actions to
their defilement and impairing, why may not the Spirit in the ill
[actions] not only immix itself and its lustings therewith, but bear
off from the full influence of the will into them which otherwise it
would have ?

But saith he, " If the Spirit doth not cease lusting before the
flesh bring forth the act of sin, then is the Spirit conquered by the
flesh, contrary to that of the apostle, 1 John iv. 4, ' Stronger is he
that is in you than he that is in the world.'" But, —

1. If from hence the flesh must be thought and conceived to be
stronger than the Spirit, because it prevails in any act unto sin,
notwithstanding the contending of the Spirit, how much more must
it be judged to prevail over it and to conquer it if it cause it utterly
to cease, and not to strive at all! He that restrains another that
he shall not oppose him at all hath a greater power than he who
conquers him in his resistance. But why doth Mr Goodwin fear
lest the flesh should be asserted to be stronger in us than the Spirit?
Is not his whole design to prove that it is, or may be, so much
stronger and more prevalent than it, that whereas it is confessed on

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVEES CONSIDERED. 519

all hands that the Spirit doth never wholly conquer the flesh, so that
it shall not remain in the saints in this life, yet that the flesh doth
wholly prevail over the Spirit and conquer it, to an utter expulsion
of it out of the hearts of them in whom it is ?

2. In the prevalency of the flesh, it is not the Spirit himself
that is conquered, but only some T/iotions and actings of him in
the heart. Now, though some particular actings and motions of his
may not come out eventually unto success, yet if he generally bear
rule in the heart, he is not to be said, even as in us and acting in
us, not to he stronger than the flesh. He is, as in us, on this ac-
count said to be " stronger than he that is in the world," because,
notwithstanding all the opposition that is against us, he preserveth
us in our state and condition of acceptation with God, and walking
with him with an upright heart, in good works and duties for the
most part, though sometimes the flesh prevails unto sin, from which
yet he recovers us by repentance.

3. To speak a little to Mr Goodwin's sense. By the Spirit's
insufficiency, it is manifest, from the text vu'ged, and from what
follows in the same place, that he intends not a spiritual vital prin-
ciple in the will, having its residence there, with its contrary prin-
ciple, the flesh (perhaps he will grant no such thing), but the Spirit
of God himself. How, now, doth this Spirit lust? Not formally,
doubtless, but by causing us so to do. And how doth it do that, in
Mr Goodwin's judgment? Merely by persuading of us so to do. So
that to have the flesh prevail against the Spirit is nothing, in his
sense, but to have sin prevail and the motives of the flesh above
the motives used by the Spirit; which may be done, and yet the
Spirit continue unquestionably stronger than the flesh.

4. The sum is. If the Spirit and the flesh, lust and grace, may
be looked on as habitual qualities and principles in the wills of the
same persons, so that though a man hath but one will, yet, by reason
of these contrary qualities, he is to be esteemed as having two diverse
principles of operation, it is evident that, having contrary inclina-
tions continually, the will hath in its actings a relation to both these
principles, so that no sin is committed by such an one with his whole
will and full consent. That contrary qualities in a remiss degree
may be in the same subject is known " lippis et tonsoribus."
These adverse principles, the flesh and Spirit, are as those contrary
qualities of the same subject; and the inclinations, yea, and the
elicit acts of the will, are of the same nature with them : so that in
the same act they may both be working, though not with equal
efficacy. Notwithstanding any thing, then, said to the contrary, it
appears that in the sins which the saints fall into, they do not sin
with their whole wills and fuU consent; which of itself is a suffi-
cient answer to the foregoing argument.

620 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

Sect. 25 contains a discourse too long to be imposed upon the
reader by a transcription. There are three parts of it: the first ren-
dering a reason whence it is, that, " if the Spirit be stronger than
the flesh, yet the flesh doth often prevail in its lustings." The se-
cond, " The way of the Spirit's return, to act in us after its motions
have been rejected." The third endeavours a proof of the proposi-
tion denied, " That the saints sin with their full and whole consent,"
by the example of David.

For the first, he tells you, " That the Spirit acts not to the just
efficacy of its vigour and strength, but only when his preventing
motions are entertained and seconded with a suitable concurrence
in the hearts and wills of men; through a deficiency and neglect
whereof he is said to be 'grieved' and ' quenched,'— that is, to cease
from other actings or movings in men. This truth is the ground of
such and such sayings in the epistles of Paul : ' For if ye live after
the flesh, ye shall die ; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the
deeds of the body, ye shall live.' 'For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God,' " etc.

Ans. The Spirit here intended by Mr Goodwin is the holy and
blessed Spirit of grace. What his actings to the just efficacy of his
vigour and strength are, Mr Goodwin doth not explain ; nor, indeed,
notwithstanding the seeming significancy of that expression, is he
able. It must be to. act either as much as he can or as much as he
will. That the Holy Spirit, in opposing sin, acts to the utmost ex-
tent of his omnipotency in any, I suppose will not be affirmed. If it
be as much as ,he will, then the sense is, he will not in such cases act
as much as he will. What that signifies we want some other expres-
sive phrase to declare. To let this pass, let us see, in the next place,
what his acting to this just efficacy are suspended upon ; it is, then,
in case "his first preventing motions be received and seconded."
But then, secondly, what are these "first preventing motions" of
the Spirit? and what is it to entertain them with a suitable con-
currence of the will? For the first, Mr Goodwin tells us in this
section they are "motions of a xjool and soft inspiration." Such
cloudy expressions, in a thing of this moment, are we forced to em-
brace ! " Preventing motions of the Spirit" are either internal
physical acts, in, with, and upon the wills of men, working in them
to will and to do (called " preventing" from the actings of the wills
themselves), or they are moral insinuations and persuasions to good,
according to the analogy of the doctrine Mr Goodwin hath espoused.
It is the latter only that are here intended. The "preventing mo-
tions of the Spirit" are his moral persuasions of the will to the good
proposed to its consideration.

See, then, in the next place, what it is to "second and entertain
these motious with a suitable concurrence in the heart and will."

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 521

Now, this must be either to yield obedience to these motions, and
do the good persuaded unto, or something else. If any thing else,
we desire to know of Mr Goodwin what it is, and wherein it consists.
If it be to do the good persuaded to, then what becomes, I pray you,
of those " subsequent helps" which are suspended upon this obedi-
ence, when the thing itself is already performed which their help
and assistance is required unto? They may well be called "subse-
quent motions" which are never used nor applied but when the
things whereunto they move and provoke are beforehand ac-
complished and performed; yea, they are suspended on that con-
dition.

Farther; wherein do these "subsequent helps," as it is expressed,
which move at a more high and glorious rate, consist? We have
had it sufficiently argued already, to a thorough conviction of what
is Mr Goodwin's judgment in this matter, namely, that he acknow-
ledgeth no operations in or upon the wiUs of men but what are moral,
by the way of persuasion, contending, to the utmost efficacy of his
vigour and strength in disputing, that there is an inconsistency be-
tween physical, internal operations in or upon the will of men, and
moral exhortations or persuasions, as to the production of the same
effect. This, then, is the frame of this fine discourse : " If, upon the
Spirit's first persuasion to good, men yield obedience and do it ac-
cordingly, the Spirit will then with more power and vigour move
them when they have done it, and persuade them to do it." That
this discourse of his doth readily administer occasion and advantage
to retort upon him his third argument, formerly considered, of im-
posing incoherent and inconsistent reasonings and actings upon God
in his dealings with men, the intelligent reader will quickly find
out; — and it were an easy thing to erect a theatre, and, upon Mr
Goodwin's principles, to personate the Almighty with an incongruous
and incoherent discourse; but we fear God.

Thirdly, That the Spirit is grieved with the sins of believers, and
their walking unworthily of, or not answerably to, the grace they have
received, is clear, Eph. iv. 30 : the apostle admonisheth believers to
abstain from the sins he there enumerates, and consequently [from]
others of the like import, [and] having put on and learned Christ unto
sanctification, that they do not grieve the Spirit, from whom they
have received that great mercy and privilege of being "sealed to the
day of redemption." But that therefore the subsequent and more
effectual motions of the Spirit are not free as the first, but sus-
pended on our performance of that which he first moves unto, and
so, consequently, that there is neither first nor second motion of the
Spirit but may be rendered useless and fruitless, or be for ever per-
verted, is an argument not unlike that of the Papists, " Peter, feed
my sheep ; therefore the pope is head of the church."

522 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [cHAP.

The ensuing discourse also is not to be passed without a Httle
animadversion. Thus, then, he proceeds: " Behevers," saith he, " do
then mortify the deeds of the body by the Spirit, when they join
their wills unto his in his preventing motions of grace, and so draw
and obtain farther strength and assistance from him in order to the
great and diiSScult work of mortification; in respect of which con-
currence also with the Spirit, in his first and more gentle applica-
tions of himself to them, they are said to be ' led by the Spirit,' as in
their comportment with him, in his higher and farther applications,
they become filled with the Spirit, according to the expression of the
apostle, 'Be ye filled with the Spirit;' that is, 'Follow the Spirit close
in his present motions and suggestions within you, and you shall be
filled with him;' that is, 'Ye shall find him moving and assisting
you upon all occasions at a higher and more glorious rate/ "

Ans. I. What this "joining of our wills to the will of the Spirit'*
is was in part manifested before. The " will of the Spirit" is that
we be mortified. His motions hereunto are his persuasions that we
be so. To join our wills to his, is in our will to answer the will of
the Spirit; that is, upon the Spirit's motions, we mortify ourselves.
By this also, he tells us, we draw or obtain farther strength or assist-
ance from the Spirit for that work which we have done already. But
how so? Why, he tells you afterward that this is the " law of the
Spirit." It seems, then, that by doing one thing, we obtain or procure
the assistance of the Spirit for another, and that by a law. I ask,
By what law? by the law of works? By that law the apostle tells you
that we do not at all receive the Spirit ; therefore, by a parity of rea-
son, we obtain not any farther supplies from him by that law. By
the law of faith or grace? That law knows nothing of such terms as
that we should by any acting of ours procure the Holy Spirit of God,
which he freely bestows according to the main tenor of that law.
Farther; how is this second grace obtained, and what is the law of
the Spirit therein? Is it obtained ex congruo or ex condigno? Pro-
duce the rule of God's proceeding with his saints, or any of the sons
of men, in the matter of any gracious behovement of his, and you
will outdo whatever your predecessors, whether Pelagians, Papists,
Arminians, or Socinians, could yet attain unto. Our Lord hath told
us that " without him we can do nothing; yea, that all our sufficiency
is of God, and without him we cannot think a good thought; that he
works in us to will and to do, — not only beginning, but perfecting
eveiy good work, fulfilling in us all the good pleasure of his good-
ness, and the work of faith with power ; " ascribing the whole of the
great work of salvation to himself and his Holy Spirit, working freely
and graciously as he wills and pleaseth. Of this order of his dealing
with men, that his first or preventing grace should be free, but his
subsequent grace procured by us and bestowed on us according to

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 523

our working and co-operation with his first grace, invented by Pe-
lagius, Julianus, and Celestinus, and here introduced anew by Mr
Goodwin, he informs us nothing at all. In brief, this whole discourse
is the mere Pelagian figment, wrapped up in general, cloudy expres-
sions, with allusions to some Scripture phrases (which profane as
well as erring spirits are prone to) concerning the bestowing of the
grace of God according to the differing deportments and deservings
of men, differencing themselves from others, and, in comparison of
them, holding out what they have not received. But, —

2. " To answer the first and gentle motions of the Spirit is to
be led by him, and then we shall be filled with the Spirit." But
how doth Mr Goodwin prove that to be " led by the Spirit" is to
" answer his first gentle motions," and thereby to obtain his farther
and more glorious actings and persuasions? Is it safe thus to make
bold with the word of God? or is not this to wrest it, as ignorant and
unstable men do, unto perdition? Saints being "led by the Spirit
of God," and " walking after the Spirit," are, in Rom. viii., expres-
sions of that effectual sanctification, exerting itself in their conversa-
tion and walking with God, which the Spirit of God worketh in
them, and which it is their duty to come up unto, in opposition to
" living or walking after the flesh." If this now be attained, and the
saints come up unto it, antecedently to the subsequent grace of the
Spirit, what is that subsequent grace which is so gloriously expressed,
and wherein doth it consist? Neither doth that expression of " Led
by the Spirit" hold out the concurrence or "comportment" of their
wills, as it is phrased, with the gentle motion of the Spirit, but the
powerful and effectual operation of the Spii'it, as to their holiness
and walking with God. Uvs{j/j,ari Qsov ayovrat is not, " They comport
or concur with the Spirit in his motions ; " but, " By the Spirit they are
acted and carried out to the things of God." Neither hath this any
relation to or coherence with that of the Ephesians, v. 18, " Be filled
with the Spirit." Neither is there any such intendment in the ex-
pression as is here intimated, of a promise of receiving more of the
Spirit, on condition of that compliance, concurrence, and comport-
ance with his motions, as is intimated. That the Spirit is sometimes
taken for his graces, sometimes for his gifts habitually, sometimes
for his actual operations, is known. The apostle in that place, dis-
suading the Ephesians from turning aside to such carnal, sinful re-
freshments as men of the world went out unto, bids them " not be
drunk with wine, wherein is excess," but to be "filled with the Spirit;"
to take their refreshment in the joys of the Spirit, " speaking to
themselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," verses 18, 19.
Could I once imagine that Mr Goodwin had the least thought that
indeed there was any thing in the Scripture looking towards his in-
tendment in the producing of it, I should farther manifest the mis-

524 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

take thereof. To play thus with the word of God is a liberty we
dare not make use of yet.

3. He concludes, " That the reason why believers are overcome
by the lustings of the flesh is, not because the Spirit is not stronger
than the flesh, but because men have more will to hearken to the
lusts of the flesh than to the Spirit."

" Fortunam Priami cantabo, et nobile bellum."

This is the issue of all the former swelling discourse: " Men's sins
are from their own wills, and not because the Spirit is not stronger
than the flesh." And who ever doubted it? The conclusion you were
to prove is, " That believers sin with their whole will and full con-
sent of their wills, and that the new principle that is in them doth
not cause their wills to decline from acting in sin to the just efficacy
of all their strength and vigour." But of this ovde ypv. For the in-
sinuation in that expression of the " will hearkening to the lusting of
the flesh, and not to the lusting of the Spirit," in a sovereign indif-
ferency to both, and a liberty for the performance of either, in a way
exclusive of good or vicious habitual principles of operation in the
will itself, I shall not now divert to the consideration of.

What else remains in this section either doth not concern the
business in hand, as the fine notion of the Spirit's return to move
believers, when his motions have been rejected, with the manner
thereof, according to his conception, must be afterward considered
apart, — as the fall of David into adultery and murder, if there be need
to go forth to the consideration of his examples and instances; and
therefore I shall not longer insist upon it. Only, the close of it,
consisting of an inference made from some words of Peter Martyr,
deserves consideration. " Upon David's sin," saith he, " Peter Mar-
tyr makes this observation. That the saints themselves, being once
fallen into sin, would always remain in the pollution of it, did not
God by his mighty word bring them out of it: which saying of Mar-
tyr clearly also implies that the saints many times sin with their
whole wills and full consents; because, were any part of their wills
bent against the committing of the sin at the time when it is com-
mitted, they would questionless return to themselves and repent im-
mediately after, the heat and violence of the lust being over, by rea-
son of the satisfaction that hath been given thereunto."

Ans. The close insinuation in Peter Martyr's words, of the saints
sinning with their whole wills, and the logic of Mr Goodwin's infer-
ence from them, I believe is very much hidden from the reader. To
the theology of it, I say that the saints, Tapd rh vXiTarov, do imme-
diately return to God by repentance, as Peter did, upon their sur-
prisals into sin ; nor have they any rest in a condition of the eclipse
of the countenance of God from them, as upon sin it is always, more

X7.] THE SINS OF BELIEVEES CONSIDERED. 525

or less. Of David's particular case mention may afterward be made.
But the proof, " that they sin with their whole wills and full consent
because they would continue in sin did not the Lord relieve and de-
liver them by his word and grace/' is admirable, I would adventure
to cast this argument into as many shapes as it is tolerably capable
of, had I the least hope to cause it to appear any way argumentative.
We deny, then, that believers have any such power habitually re-
siding in them as whereby, without any new supplies of the Spirit
or concurrence of actual grace, they can effectually and eventually
recover themselves from any sin whatever; which supplies of the
Spirit and grace we say, and have proved, are freely promised to
them in the covenant of grace. But what will hence follow to the
supportment of Mr Goodwin's hypothesis, "That therefore in all their
sins, or any of their sins, they sin with the full and whole consent
of their wills," I suppose he alone knows.

Sect. 26, he endeavours to take off that of the apostle, Rom. vii.
19-22, from appearing against him in this cause of the saints' sin-
ning with their whole wills and consents, not not-willing the things
they do. To this end he tells us, " That when the apostle saith,
' The evil which I would not, that I do,' his meaning is, not that he
did that which, at the same time that he did it, he was not willino-
either in whole or in part to do, but that he sometimes did that,
upon a surprisal by temptation or through incogitancy, which he was
not habitually willing or disposed in the inward man to do; but this
no ways implies but that, at the time when he did the evil he speaks
of, he did it with the full and entire consent of his will."

Ans. 1. It is probable the apostle knew his own meaning, and
also how to express it, having so good a Teacher to that end and pur-
pose as he had. Now he assures us, in the person of a regenerate
man, that as what he would he did not, so what he did he would
not, he hated it; and again, he did that which he would not, and
therein consented to the law, by his not-willing of that he did, that
it was good, verses 15, li]: which, whether it express not a reni-
tency of the will to that which was done in part, and so far as to
make the action itself remiss, and not to enwrap the whole consent
of the will, he farther declares, verse 17, telling us that there is a
perfect, unconsenting " I," or internal principle, in the very doing of
evil : " It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me."

2. The apostle doth not say what he was not habitually luilling
to, but what he was habitually uniuilling to, — that is, what the bent
of his will lay habitually against, having actual inclinations and elicit
acts always to the contrary, though sometimes overcome. Neither
in his discoursing of it doth he mention at all the surprisal into
sin upon incogitancy and inadvertency, but the constant frame and
temper of a regenerate man upon the powerful acting and striving

526

DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS ' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

of the principle of lust and sin dwelling in him and remaining
with him ; which, saith the apostle, doth often carry him out to do
those things which are contrary to the principle of the inward man,
which habitually condemns and actually not-wills, or rather nills, the
things that are so done, even in their doing. And this doth mani-
fest sufficiently, that when he did the evil he speaks of, he did it not
with the full and entire consent of his will, as men do in whom there
is no such principle opposite to sin and sinning as is in him that is
regenerate, there being very much taken off by the habitual prin-
ciple of grace that is in him, and its constant inclination to the
contrary.

But he farther argues, " If we shall affirm that the contrary bent
or motion of his will at other times is a sufficient proof that when
he did the evil we speak of, he did it not with his whole will or ful-
ness of consent, and so make this doing of evil or committing of sin
without fulness of consent, in such a sense, a distinguishing character
betwixt men regenerate and unregenerate, we shall bring Herod and
Pilate, and probably Judas himself, into the list of men regenerate,
with a thousand more whom the Scripture knows not under any
such name or relation, — namely, all those whose judgments and con-
sciences stand against the evil of the ways and practices wherein
they walk/'

And this he proves at large to the end of the section, in the in-
stance of Herod and Pilate proceeding, against their own judgments
and consciences, in the killing of John and of our Saviour.

Ans. L We do not only assert a contrary bent and inclination
in the wills of believers at other times, but also that, in and under
the prevalency of indwelling sin, there is in them an "I'' that doth it
not, and a not-willing it, from a principle, though, by reason of the
present prevalency of the other, its actings and stirrings are not so
sensibly perceived ; so that though they prevail not to the total pre-
vention of the will from exerting the act of sin, yet they prevail
to the impairing, weakening, and making remiss its consent there-
unto.

2. The residue of this paragraph is intolerably sophistical, con-
founding the renitency of the inward man, the principle of grace
that is in the wills of believers, with the convictions of the judg-
ments and consciences of unregenerate persons, and their striving
against sin on that account. The judgments and consciences of
wicked men tell them what they ought to do and what they ought
not to do, without respect to the principle in their wills that is pre-
dominant; but the apostle mentions the actings of the will itself
from his own regenerate principle. We wholly deny that any unre-
generate man hath any vital principle in his will not-consenting to
sin, whatever the dictates of his judgment and conscience may be,

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED, 527

or how effectual soever to prevail unto an abstinence from sin. To
discover the differences that are betAveen the contest that is between
the wills in unregenerate men, wholly set upon sin on the one hand,
and their judgments and consciences, enlightened to an apprehension
and approving of better things on the othex", and the contest that is
between the flesh and Spirit lusting to contrary things in the same
will, as it is in regenerate men, is a common-place that I shall not
go forth unto. We grant, then, that in unregenerate men there may
be, there is, and was in some degree perhaps in Herod and in Pilate,
a conviction of conscience and judgment that the things they do are
evil ; but we say withal, that all this being foreign to their wills, it hin-
ders not but that they sin with the full, uncontrolled consent of their
wills, which are at perfect liberty, or rather in perfect bondage, unto
sin. That the " Spirit should lust against the flesh, and the flesh
against the Spirit," both in the same will (as it appears they do. Gal.
V. 19-23, for the fruits that they both bring forth are acts of the will),
in any unregenerate man, we deny. And this is that, and not the
former, which abates and takes off from the will's consent to sin.

He concludes the whole: "And to the passage of the apostle,
mentioned Rom. vii., I answer farther, that when he saith, ' The
evil which I would not, that do I,' he doth not speak of what he
always and in all cases did, much less of wha.t was possible for him
to do, but of what he did ordinarily and frequently, or of what was
very incident unto him, through the infirmity of the flesh, namely,
through inconsiderateness and anticipation by temptations to do
such things which, when he was in a watchful and considerate pos-
ture and from under the malignant influence of a temptation, he
was altogether averse unto. Now, what a man doth ordinarily is
one thing, and Avhat he doth sometimes and in some particular cases,
especially what it is possible for him to do, is another. That true
believers, whilst such, ordinarily sin not upon worse terms than those
mentioned by the apostle concerning his sinning, I easily grant ;
but it no ways followeth from hence, that therefore they never sin
upon other terms, much less that it is impossible that they should
sin upon others. And thus we see, all things thoroughly and im-
partially argued, and debated to and fro, that even true believers
themselves, as well as others, may do those works of the flesh which
exclude from the kingdom of God, and that in respect thereof they
are subject to this exclusion as well as other men."

1. The sum of this part of the reply is. That what Paul speaks
is true of the ordinary course of believers, but not of extraordinary
surprisals. This seems, I say, to be the tendency of it, though the
direct sense of the whole is not so obvious to me. By that expres-
sion, " The evil that I would not, that I do," you intend either the
expression of " he would not," or " he did." If the latter, then you

528 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

say lie did not sin ordinarily and frequently, but only upon surprisals;
which is freely granted, but it is not at all to your purpose, but rather
much against it. If you intend that part of it which holds out his
renitency against the evil he did, in the expression of " I would not,"
then you say it was not ordinary with the apostle to nill the evil
that he did, but in case of surprisal to sin: which I believe is not in-
tended; for is it credible that any one should think that, in the ordi-
nary course of a man's walking, there should be no opposition made
to sin, [the] falling whereinto men are liable [unto], but upon "sur-
prisals and anticipations by temptation," as it is phrased there should?
Nor is it [credible], on the other side, that he intends the thing that
he did ordinarily, but [when he] was surprised by temptation then it
might be otherwise. But, first, is a saint to be supposed to sin ordi-
narily, to sin not prevailed on by temptation? Is not all sin from
temptation? Do they sin actually, but upon surprisal of temptation?
To impose this upon the apostle, that he should say, " Truly, for the
most part, or in my ordinary walking, I do not sin, but withal I will
it not; but when I am surprised with temptations then it is other-
wise with me, there is no renitency in my will to sin," is doubtless
to wrong him. He doth not limit his not-willing of the evil he did
to any consideration whatever, but speaks of it generally, as the con-
stant state and condition of things with him.

2. In the beginning of this section, the nilling of sin was antece-
dent to the sin; here it is something that may be allowed in ordi-
nary cases, but not at all in extraordinary. So that these two ex-
positions put together amount to thus much: "Ordinarily the apostle,
antecedent to any sinning, before the lusting of the Spirit ceased,
did not-will the thing that he did, which was evil ; but in case of
temptation it was not so;" — that is, antecedently to his acting of that
which was evil, he had no opposition in the inward man unto it,
nor lusting of the Spirit against it; which how it can be made good
against him whose heart is upright and who hates every evil way,
I know not.

3. It is confessed that " ordinarily believers sin at no worse a rate
than that expressed by the apostle." But what doth that contain?
If "would not" be referred to their doing of sins, then you grant
that which all this while you have endeavoured to oppose, and are
reconciled to your own " contradiction of the first evidence," — sin
cannot, ordinarily or extraordinarily, be committed but by an act
of the will, and yet ordinarily there is a dissent of the will also
thereunto. If you adhere to your other former interpretation, that
the willing against sin committed is antecedent to the commitment
of it, and laid asleep before the perpetration of any sin, then this
also is imposed on you, that there are sins whereunto they may be
surprised by temptations tliat, antecedently to the commitment of

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 529

them, tliey do not not-will, — that as to them " the Spirit histeth not
against the flesh ; " which is notoriously false, for the flesh lusteth
against the Spirit and all the ways of it and all the fruits thereof,
and th^ Spirit lusteth against the flesh with all its ways and fruits.

4. It appears, then, this being the description of a regenerate man
which the apostle gives, as to indwelling sin and all the fruits thereof,
that it is most ridiculous to exempt his frame, in respect of such sins
as he may fall into by surprisals of temptations, from this description
of him, and so to frame this distinction to the apostle's general rule,
that it holds in cases ordinary, but not in extraordinary, when no-
thing in the whole context gives the least allowance or countenance
to such a limitation.

It appears, then, notwithstanding any thing offered here to the
contrary, upon due consideration of it, that believers sin not with
their whole wills and full consents at any time, nor under the power
of what temptation soever they may fall for a season ; and that be-
cause of the residence of this principle of a contrary tendency unto
sin in their wills, which is always acting, either directly in inclining
unto good, or in taking off or making remiss the consent of the will
to sin, notwithstanding the prevalency of the principle opposite
thereunto by its committing of sin.

And hence have we sufficient light for the weakening of the ar-
gument proposed in the beginning of this chapter; for though it is
weak in its foundation (as shall be showed), concluding to what the
saints may do from what is forbidden them to do, that prohibition
being the ordinance of God certainly to preserve them from it, yet
taking it for granted that they may fall into the sin intimated, yet
seeing they do it not customarily, not maliciotisly, not with the full
and whole consent of their wills, that there is a principle in them
still opposing sin, though at any time weakened by sin, the conclu-
sion of that argument concerns them not. I say, then, first, to the
major proposition. They who are in a capacity and possibility (that is,
a universal possibility, not only in respect of an internal principle,
but of all outward prohibiting causes, as the purpose and promise of
God) of perpetrating the works of the flesh (not of bringing forth any
fruits of the lusting of the flesh, which are in the best) willingly and
ordinarily (with the full and whole consent of their wills (in which
sense alone such Avorks of the flesh are absolutely exclusive from
the kingdom of heaven), they may possibly fall out of the favour
of God and into destruction. This proposition being thus limited,
and the terms of it cleared, for to cause it to pass, I absolutely
deny the minor, That true believers do or can so sin (that is, so
bring forth the works of the flesh) as to leave no room for the con-
tinuance of mercy to them, according to the tenor of the covenant
of grace.

VOL. XL 34

530 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

But now frame the proposition so as the assumption may com-
prise beUevers, and we shall quickly know what to judge of it:
" Those who are in a capacity or possibility of falling into such sins
as deserve rejection from God, or of perpetrating works of the flesh,
though they do so overborne by the power of temptation, nilling
the things they do, not abiding in their sins, may fall totally and
finally from God; but believers may so do." As the matter is thus
stated, the assumption may be allowed to pass upon believers, but
we absolutely deny the major proposition in the sense wherein it is
urged. I shall only add, that when we deny that believers can pos-
sibly fall away, it is not an absolute impossibility we intend, nor
an impossibility with respect to any principle in them only that in
and from itself is not perishable, nor an impossibility in respect of
the manner of their acting, but such an one as, principally respecting
the outward removing cause of such an actual defection, will infal-
libly prevent the event of it. And thus is the cloud raised by this
fifth argument dispelled and scattered by the light of the very first
consideration of the difference in sinning, — that is, between rege-
nerate and unregenerate men ; so that it will be an easy thing to
remove and take away what afterward is insisted on for the re-en-
forcement and confirmation of the several propositions of it.

The major proposition he confirms from Gal. v. 21, Eph. v. 5, 6,
1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, all affirming that neither Avhoremongers, nor adul-
terers, nor idolaters, nor the like, have any inheritance in the king-
dom of God, or can be saved. That the intendment of the apostle
is concerning them who live in a course of such sins, who sin with
their whole wills and from an evil root, with whose sap they are
wholly leavened and tainted throughout, not them who, through
the strength of temptation and the surprisals of it, not without the
renitency in their wills unto all sin, any sin, the sin Avherewith they
are overtaken, may possibly fall into any such sin (as did David
and Peter), was before declared; and in that sense we grant the
proposition.

For the proof of the minor proposition, — which should be. That
believers may perpetrate the works of the flesh in the sense intended
in the places of Scripture before mentioned, — he insists on two
things: first, The direction of those scriptures unto believers; secondly,
The experience of the ways of such persons, — that is, of believers.
The apostle tells believers that they who commit such and such
things, with such and such circumstances in their commitment, can-
not be saved; therefore believers may commit those sins in the
manner intended ! What hath been said before of the use of threat-
enings and denunciations of judgments on impenitent sinners in
respect of believers, will give a sufficient account (if there be need
of any) for our denial of this consequence. And for the second, that

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 531

the experience of such men's ways and walking evinceth it, it is a
plain begging of the thing under debate, and an assuming of that
which was proposed to be proved, — a thing unjustly charged by him
on his adversaries, as though they should confess that believers might
sin to the extent of the lines drawn out in the places of Scripture
mentioned and yet not lose their faith, when, because they cannot
lose their faith, they deny that they can sin to that compass of ex-
cess and riot intimated.

I cannot see, then, to what end and purpose the whole ensuing
discourse, from the beginning of this argument to the end of the
21st section, is. It is acknowledged that all those places do concern
believers, the intendment of the Holy Ghost in them being to
discover to them the nature of the sins specified, and the end of the
committing of them in the way intended, and that God purposes to
proceed according to the importance of what is threatened to those
sins so committed with all that do them; that so they may walk
watchfully and carefully, avoiding not only those things themselves,
but all the ways and means leading to them (though if any one of
them sin any of those sins without the deadly attendants of them
mentioned in Scripture, they have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous). But that from thence it may be inferred
that believers may, and some do sin, and that God intends, as it is
expressed, to destroy them if they so do, when he hath promised
they shall never do so, is a very weak and ridiculous argumentation.
They are a medium of acquainting them with the desert of sin, the
terror of the law to them that are under it, and the riches of grace
in their deliverance.

It is true, " unbelievers are," as you say, " in our judgment" (and I
wonder Avhat yours is in the case), " in a state of exclusion from the
kingdom of God, whether they perpetrate the works of the flesh
mentioned or no." Unbelief is, in our judgment, sufiicient of itself
to exclude any one from the kingdom of God. But yet withal, in
our judgment (and we desire to know yours), it is impossible that
unbelievers (we mean those who are adults) should not perpetrate
the same evils mentioned, or others of the same import, " all the
thoughts and imaginations of their hearts being evil, and that con-
tinually," and thereupon be farther exposed to the wrath of God,
which is revealed against all that do evil. If, therefore, the dis-
covery of a man's desperate condition, that he may be stirred up to
labour and strive for a deliverance from it, doth concern him, then
these and the like passages do properly and primarily concern un-
believers, whose state, with the issue of it, is particularly described
therein. And to say, as our author doth, " that it is a vain thing
for the Spirit of God to threaten wrath to men upon the committing
of sin, if by unbelief they are exposed antecedently to that wrath,"

532 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

is to question the wisdom of Him with whom (whatever become of us
poor worms) we cannot contend. He hath told us that all men by
nature are children of wrath and unclean, so far as not to be able
to enter into the kingdom of heaven unless they be washed and
born again ; and yet (we hope without the least deficiency in wisdom),
hath farther revealed his wrath from heaven against the ensuing
ungodliness that is committed by these children of wrath, to be exe-
cuted in tribulation and anguish against every soul that so doth
evil. Not to detain the reader; what hath been said and shall far-
ther be argued concerning the difference that is between believers
and unbelievers in their sinning, with that also which hath been
spoken of the concernment of believers in these and the like pas-
sages of Scripture, sufficiently argues that no such inference as is
made for the confirmation of the assumption of the argument under
consideration, according to Mr Goodwin's thoughts and a2:)prehen-
sions of it, can possibly be drawn out from them.

Sect. 22 is a pretty pageant, and by the reader's favour I shall
show it him once more : " If it be objected, ' That true believers have
a promise from God that they shall never lose their faith,' I answer, —
First, That this hath oft been said, but never so much as once proved
Secondly, Upon examination of those scriptures wherein such pro-
mises of God are pretended to reside or to be found, we find no
such thing in them. We find, indeed, many promises of their perse-
verance, but all of them conditional, and such whose performance, in
respect of actual and complete perseverance, is suspended upon the
diligent and careful use of means by men to persevere. And, lastly,
to affirm that true believers can by no commission of sin or sina
whatsoever, how frequently soever reiterated, how long continued in
soever, ever make shipwreck of their faith, or fall away from the
grace and favour of God so as to perish, what is it but to provoke the
flesh to an outrageousness in sinning, and to encourage that which
remains of the old man in them to bestir itself in all waj^s of un-
righteousness? And, doubtless, the teaching of that doctrine hath
been the casting of a snare upon the world, and hath caused many
whose feet God had guided into ways of peace to adventui-e so far
into desperateness of sinning, that, through the just judgment of
God, their hearts never served them to return."

Ans. 1. The foundation of this whole discourse is a supposal of
promises of preserving believers in their faith, upon the ridiculous
supposition after mentioned, to be asserted by the doctrine of the
saints' perseverance and the defenders of it; which Mr Goodwin
knows full well to be far otherwise.

^ 2. It hath sufficiently been proved that believers have a promise,
respev.vjany promises, to be ke])t by the power of God from all and
of any) x^^Wi^ or any such circumstance of sin, or continuance in sin,

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 583

as is wholly inconsistent with beheving; and that therefore they shall
be preserved in believing.

3. Upon our calling the examination of the proofs of this assertion
to an account, we have found it to be made up of trivial exceptions
and sophistical suppositions, confident beggings and cravings of the
things under contest and debate (all the endeavours to prove the
promises of perseverance to be conditional haviug also involved in
them an absolute contradiction to the truth and to themselves), no
way sufficient to evince that the promises and work of God's grace
are suspended upon any conditions in men whatsoever. And, —

4. We say that the intrusion of this vain hypothesis, that believers
should continue so under the consideration here intimated by you of
sin, when the main of the doctrine contended for consists in a full
and plain denial that they can or shall fall under it (according to
the import of 1 John iii. 9, immediately to be insisted on), being
preserved by the Spirit and grace of him who so writes his law in
their hearts that they shall never depart from him, is the great
engine you have used in all your attempts against it, being indeed
a mere begging of the thing in question.

5. That there is nothing in this doctrine in the least suited to turn
aside the saints of God from the holy commandment, but that, on
the contrary, it is of an excellent usefulness and effectual influence
for the promotion of all manner of godliness in those that are truly
saints, howsoever any man may abuse it (as any other discovery of
the grace of God), turning it into lasciviousness, hath been declared.
What use hath been made of the contrary doctrine in the world we
have hitherto had experience only in the Pelagians, Papists, Soci-
nians, and Arminians; and with what fruits of it they have abounded
the church of God doth partly know. What it is like to bring forth,
being now translated into another soil, or rather having won over to
it men some time of another profession, is yet somewhat, though not
altogether, in abeyance.

Let us, then, with the apostle, having proceeded thus far with Mr
Goodwin, that a foundation may be the better laid for the removal
of what he farther adds, proceed to consider the 'progress of sin, and
to remark from thence the difference that is between regenerate and
unregenerate men in their sinning.

The SECOND thing proposed in the apostle's discourse of the rise
and progress of sin, is the general way that lust proceedeth in for the
bringing of it forth, and that is temptation : " Every man is tempted
of his own lust." This is the general way that lust proceeds in for the
production of actual sin ; it tempts, and he in whom it is is tempted.
There is a temptation unto sin only, and a temptation unto sin by
sin. The first is no sin in him that is so tempted. Our Saviour was so
tempted: "He was tempted of the devil," Matt. iv. 1 ; "He was in all

534 DOOTlilNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

points tempted like as we are, yet without sin," Heb. iv. 1 5. That
his temptations were unto sin is apparent from the story of them.
But " tlie prince of this world commg had nothing in him/' John
xiv. 80, — found nothing in him to answer and close with his tempta-
tions; and therefore, though he was tempted, yet was he without sin.
Now, though this sort of temptations from Satan is not originally our
sins but his, yet there being tinder in our souls that kindles more or
less in and upon every injection of his fiery darts, there being some-
thing in us to meet many, if not all, of his temptations, they prove,
in some measure, in the issue to be ours. Indeed, Satan sometimes
ventures upon us in things wherein he hath, doubtless, small hope of
any concurrence, and so seems rather to aim at our disquiet than our
sins; as in those whom he perplexes with hard and blasphemous
thoughts of God, — a thing so contradictory to the very princijales, not
of grace only, but of that whereby we are men, that it is utterly im-
possible there should be any assent of the soul thereunto. To think
of God as God is to think of him every thing that is good, pure,
great, excellent, incomprehensible, in all perfection. Now, at the
same time, to have any apprehensions of a direct contradictory im-
portance, the mind of man is not capable. Were it not for the un-
belief, causeless fears, and discontentments that in many do ensue
upon temptations of this nature, — which are consequents and not
effects of it, — Satan might keep this dart in his own forge for any mis-
chief he is like to do with it. The apostle speaks here of temptations
hy sin as well as unto sin; and these former are men's sins as well as
their temptations. They are temptations, as tending to farther evil ;
they are sins, as being irregular and devious from the rula Now,
this tempting of lust compriseth two things: —

1. The general active iticlination of the heart unto sin, though
not fixed as unto any particular act or way of sin, the " motus primo
primi." Of this you have that testimony of God concerning man in
the state of nature, Gen. vL 5, " Every figment of the thoughts of his
lieart is only evil every day." The figment or imagination of the
thoughts is the very root of them, the general moulding or active
preparing of the mind for the exerting of them. So 1 Chron. xxviii. 9,
" The Lord understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts;" —
the figments of them, the next disposition ol the soul unto them;
and chap. xxix. 18, " Keep this for ever in the imagination of the
thoughts of their hearts," or keep their hearts in a continual framing
posture and condition of such good thoughts. This, I say, is the first
way of lust's temptation; it makes a mint of the heart, to frame
readily all manner of evil desires and thoughts, that they may, as
our Saviour apealcs, " proceed out of the heart," Matt. xv. 19. Their
actual fixing on any object is their proceeding, antecedent whereunto
they are framed and formed in the heart. Lust actually disposeth,

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 535

inclines, bends the heart to things suitable to itself, or the corrupt,
habitual principle which hath its residence in us.

2. The actual tumultuating of lust, and working with all its power
and policy, in stirring up, provoking to, and drawing out, thoughts
and contrivances of sin, with delight and complacency, in inconceiv-
able variety ; the several degrees of its progress herein being afterward
described.

In the first of these there is no small difference between regene-
rate and unregenerate persons, and that in these two things: —

1. In its universalitij. In unregenerate men " every figment of
their heart is only evil, and that every day." There is a univer-
sality of actings expressed positively, and exclusively to any actings
of another kind, " Every figment of their heart is only evil;" and
of time, " Every day." Whatever good they seem to do, or do, what-
ever duties they perform, that in them all which is the proper fig-
ment of their heart is only evil. On this account, take any duty
they do, any work they perform, and weigh it in the balance, and it
will be found, in respect of principles, or circumstances, or aims, to
be wholly evil, — that indeed there is nothing in it that is acceptable
to God; and their hearts are casting, minting, and coining sin all
the day long. With believers it is not so; there is also a good trea-
sure in their hearts, from whence they bring out good things. There
is a good root in them, that bears good fruit. Though they are, or
may be, overtaken with many sins, yea with great sins, yet lust doth
not tempt them, as it doth unregenerate men, with a perpetual, con-
tinual, active inclination unto evil, even, some way or other, in all the
good they do. The Spirit is in them, and will and doth, in what
state soever they are, dispose their hearts to faith, love, meekness,
and actuates those graces, at least in the elicit acts of the will; for
" a good tree will bring forth good fruit." Never any believer is or
was so deserted of God, or did so forsake God, as that " every fig-
ment of his heart should be only evil, and that continually." That
no one act of sin can possibly expel his habit of grace hath been
formerly showed : neither is he ever cast into such a condition but,
from the good principle that is in him, there is a panting after God,
a longing for his salvation, with more or less efficacy; the spark is
warm and glowing, though under ashes.

2. In respect of power. Lust tempts in unregenerate men out of
an absolute, uncontrollable dominion, and that with a morally irre-
sistible efficacy. All its dominion, as hath been showed, and very
much of its strength, is lost in believers. This is the intendment of
the apostle's discourse, Rom. vi., concerning the crucifying of sin by
the death of Christ. The power, strength, vigour, and efficacy of it,
is so far abated, weakened, mortified, that it cannot so effectually
impel unto sin as it doth when it is in perfect life and strength.

536 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEllSEVE RANGE. [CHAP.

But you will say, then, " If lust be thus weakened in believers more
than in others, how comes it to pass that they do at any time fall into
such great and heinous sins as sometimes they do, and have done?
Will not this argue them to be even worse than unregenerate persons,
seeing they fall into sin upon easier terms, and with less violence of
impulse from indwelling sin, than they?"

Ans. 1. The examples of believers falling into great sins are rare,
and such as by no means are to be accommodated to their state in
their ordinary walking with God. It is true, there are examples of
such falls recorded in the Scripture, that they might lie as buoys
to all generations, to caution men of their danger when the waves
of temptation arise; to show what is in man, in the best of men;
to keep all the saints of God humble, self-empty, and in a continual
dependence on Him in whom are all their springs, from whom are
all their supplies: but as they are mostly all Old Testament examples,
before grace for grace was given out by Jesus Christ, so they are by
no means farther to be urged^ nor are, but only to show that it is
possible that God can keep alive the root when the tree is cut down
to the ground, and cause it to bud again by the scent of the water of
his Spirit flowing towards it.

2. That believers fall not into great sins at any time by the mej'e
strength of indwelling sin, unless it be in conjunction with some
violent outward temptation exceedingly surprising them; either by
weakening all ways and means whereby the principle of grace should
exert itself, as in the case of Peter; or by sudden heightening of their
corruption by some overpowering objects, attended with all circum-
stances of prevalency, not without God's withholding his special grace
in an eminent manner, for ends best known to himself, as in the case
of David. Hence it is that, even in such sins, we say they sin out
of infirmity; that is, not out of prepense deliberation as to sin, not
out of malice, not out of love to or delight in sin, but merely through
want of strength, when overborne by the power of temptation.

This Mr Goodwin frames as an objection to himself, in the pursuit
of the vindication of the argument under consideration, sect. 23 : —

" Others plead, ' That there is no reason to conceive that true be-
lievers, though they perpetrate the works of the flesh, should be
excluded from the kingdom of heaven upon this account; because
when they sin in this kind, they sin out of infirmity, and not out of
malice.' "

Ans. I was not to choose what objections Mr Goodwin should
answer, nor had the framing of them which he chose to deal withal,
and therefore must be contented with them as he is pleased to afford
them to us; only, if I may be allowed to speak in this case, — and I
know I have the consent of many concerned in it, — I should somewhat
otherwise frame this objection or answer, being partly persuaded that

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 537

Mr Good\vin did not fiud it, but framed it himself into the shape
wherein it here appeara I say, then, that the saints of God sin out
of infirmity onl}'', not maliciously, nor deditd opera, in cool blood,
nor with their whole hearts, but purely upon the account of the weak-
ness of their graces, being overpowered by the strength of temptation ;
and therefore cannot so perpetrate the works of the flesh and in such a
way as must, according to the tenor of the covenant wherein they walk
with God, not only deserve rejection and damnation, but also be abso-
lutely and indispensably exclusive of them from the kingdom of God.
What Mr Goodwin hath drawn forth to take off in any measure the
truth of this assertion shall be considered. He says, then, —

" To say that true believers, or any other men, do perpetrate the
works of the flesh out of infirmity involves a contradiction; for to
do the works of the flesh implies the dominion of the flesh in the
doers of them, which in sins of infirmity hath no place. The apostle
clearly intimates the nature of sins of infirmity in that to the Gala-
tians, 'Beloved, if any man be overtaken with a fault' ('ffpoX^^p^fi), —
' be prevented, or taken at unawares." When a man's foot is taken in
the snare of a temptation, only through a defect of that spiritual
watchfulness over himself and his ways which he ought to keep con-
stantly, and so sinneth, contrary to the habitual and standing frame
of his heart, this man sinneth out of infirmity; but he that thus
sinneth cannot, in Scripture phrase, be said either to walk or to live
according to the flesh, or to do the works of the flesh, or to do the
lusts or desires of the flesh, because none of these are anywhere
ascribed unto or charged upon true believers, but only upon such
persons who are enemies unto God and children of wrath."

A71S. This being the substance of all that is spoken to the business
in hand, I have transcribed it at large, that with its answer it may at
once lie under the reader's view. I say, then, —

1. We give this reason that " believers cannot perpetrate the works
of the flesh" in the sense contended about, because they sin out of
infirmity; and do not say that they so "perpetrate the works of the
flesh out of infirmity." But if by "perpetrating the works of the flesh"
you intend only the bringing forth at any time, or under any tempta-
tion whatsoever, any fruits of the flesh, such as every sin is, that this
may not be done out of infirmity, or that it involves a contradiction
to say so, is indeed not to know what you say, to contradict yourself,
and to deny that there be any sins of infirmity at all, which that
there are you granted in the words foregoing, and describe the nature
of it in the words following. They, doubtless, in whom the flesh al-
ways lusteth against the Spirit are sometimes led away and enticed
by their own lusts, so as to bring forth the fruits of it.

2. If " to do the works of the flesh" imports with you, as indeed
in itself it doth, the predominancy and dominion of the flesh iu

538 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIMTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

them tliat do the works thereof, we wholly deny that believers can
so do the works of the flesh ; as upon other reasons, so partly because
they sin out of infirmity, which sufficiently argues that the flesh hath
not the dominion in them, for then they should not through infir-
mity be captivated to it, but should willingly " yield up their mem-
bers as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin."

8. The description you give of a sin of infirmity, from Gal. vi. 1,
is that alone which we acknowledge may befall believers, though
it hath sometimes befallen them in greater sins. It is evident from
hence that a sin becometh a sin of infirmity, not from the nature of
it, but from the manner of men's falling into it. The gi'eatest
actual sin may be a sin of infirmity, and the least a sin of presump-
tion. It is possible a believer may be overtaken, or rather surprised,
with any sin, so he be overtaken or surprised. A surprisal into sin
through tlie power of temptation, subtlety of Satan, strength of in-
dwelling sin, contrary to the habitual, standing frame of the heart
(not always neither through a defect of watchfulness), is all that we
grant a believer may be liable to ; and so, upon Mr Goodwin's con-
fession, he sins only out of infirmity, such sins being not exclusive of
the love and favour of God. And, therefore, —

4. We say that true believers cannot be said to " walk according
to the flesh," to "do the works of the flesh," to "do the lusts and de-
sires of the flesh," which the Holy Ghost so cautions them against;
which, as Mr Goodwin observes, are " none of them charged upon
true believers, but only upon such persons as are enemies of God
and children of wrath." So that those expressions hold out to be-
lievers only what they ought to avoid, in the use of the means which
God graciously affords them, and do not discover any thing of the
will of God, that he will suffer them, contrary to his many faithful
promises, to fall into them. And so the close of this discoiu'se is
contrary to the beginning, Mr Goodwin granting that true believers
cannot fall into these sins, but only such as are enemies to God ;
and yet he hath no way to prove that true believers may cease to
be so but because they may fall into these sins, which that they
may do he here eminently denies. Wherefore he adds : —

"If by ' sinning out of malice' they mean sinning Avith deliberation,
with plotting and contriving the methods and means of their sin-
ning,— sinning against judgment, against the dictates of conscience
(and what they should mean by sinning out of malice but sinning
upon such terms as these I understand not), — certain it is that
true believers may so sin out of malice, or at least such as were
true believers before such sinning; and this our adversaries them-
selves confess."

Ans. All this falls heavy on the shoulders (as it is supposed) of
poor David, and yet we think it evident that God " took not his

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 539

Holy Spirit from him/' but that his covenant continued with him,
" ordered in all things and sure," and that " sin had not dominion
over him." The reasons of this persuasion of ours concerning him
shall farther be insisted on when we come to the consideration of
his case in particular. In the meantime, I confess the dreadful falls
of some of the saints of God are rather to be bewailed than a^gra-
vated, and the riches of God's grace in their recovery rather to be
admired than searched into. Yet we sa}^, —

1. That no one believer whatever in the world, upon any temp-
tation whatever, did fall into any sin of malice; that is, accom-
panied with any hatred of God, or despite of his grace, or whole
delight of his will in the sin whereunto he was by temptation for a
season captivated. And though they may fall into sin against their
judgments and dictates of their consciences, — as every sin whatever
that they have, or may have, knowledge of or acquaintance with in
tlieir own hearts and ways is, — yet this doth not make them to sin out
of malice ; for that would leave no distinction between sins of infirmity,
whereinto men are surprised by temptation, and of malice, even sins
of infirmity being in general and particular directly contrary to the
dictates of their enlightened, sanctified judgments and consciences.

2. For "sinning with deliberation, plotting and contriving the
methods and means of sinning" (the proof whereof, that so they may
do, will lie, as was before observed, on the instance of David), I
say, it being the will of God, for ends and purposes known only to his
infinite wisdom, to give us, as to his fall, his dark side and his sin to
the full, with the temptation wherewith he was at first surprised,
and afterward violently hurried into, upon carnal reasonings and
considerations of the state whereinto he had cast himself, having lost
his old Friend and Counsellor, as to any shines of his countenance
for a season, not acquainting us at all with the frame, and working,
and striving of his spirit in and under that fall, I shall not dare to
draw his case into a rule. That what he then did a believer now may
do, judging of his frame in doing of it only by what is expressed;
that believers may have morosam cogitationem, or deliberation
upon some sins whereunto they are tempted, upon the strength of
indwelling sin, which may possibly so overcome and prevail against
the workings of grace for a season as to set the flesh at liberty to
make contrivances to fulfil the lusts thereof, — I say, many have
granted, and I shall not (for the sake of poor returning souls, whose
backslidings God hath promised to heal) deny. But yet, I say, all
their actings in this kind are but like the desperate actings of a man
in a fever, who may have some kind of contrivance with himself to
do mischief (as I have known some myself), and aim at opportunities
for the accomplishment of it. All the faculties of their souls being
discomposed, and rendered unserviceable to them through their dis-

540 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

temper, through the violence of temptation and the tumultuating of
lusts, the whole new man may be for a season so shattered, and his
parts laid out of the way as to such a due answering one to another
that the whole may be serviceable to the work of faith (as a disordered
army, wherein is all its fundamental strength, as well as when it is
rallied in battalia, is altogether unserviceable until it be reduced to
order), that sin may take the opportunity to fill their corrupt heart (as
far as it is corrupt) with its pleasure and desirableness, and so to set
the thoughts of it on work to contrive means for its accomplish-
ment.^ Now as, through the goodness of their Father, and supplies
of grace, which, through the covenant thereof, they do receive, this
distemper seizeth believers but rarely and extraordinarily, so it doth
no way prove them to sin with malice, or without hatred of and
opposition (secret opposition, which may be as secret as some in-
clinations to sin are, — not known to ourselves) to the things they do
in and under that condition.

That which follows in this section being suited to the apprehension
of some particular men, though of great name and esteem, according
to their worth and desert in the church of God, as Ursin, Parseus,
and the rest, about reigning sin, wherein, as I have declared, my
thoughts fall not in with them, I shall not need to insist any longer
npon it. Paraeus, after all his aggravations of the sins of believers,
yet adds that they sin not (nor did David) ex contem'ptu Dei, but
through a. pre-occupation or surprisal of sin; which I believe to be the
persuasion of far the greatest number of saints in the world, what-
ever Mr Goodwin is pleased to think or say to the contrary. Nor is
their apprehension weakened by Nathan's charging upon David
his "despising of the commandment of the Lord" in doing evil,
which, as it is virtually done in every sin, and in great sins in an
eminent manner, so that it did amount indeed not only to a conse-
quential, but a formal voluntary contempt of God, Mr Goodwin shall
never prove. A father often and severely chargeth upon his son a de-
spising of his command, when he hath been carried out to transgress
it, when yet he knows his son honoureth and reverenceth him in his
heart, and is exceedingly remote from any resolved contempt of him.

The close of all is a concession of the contra-Remonstrants at the
Hague conference, " That believers might fall into such sins as that
the church, according to the commandment of Christ, must pro-
nounce that they shall no longer abide in her communion, and that
they shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ;" which being made
an argument for the apostasy of the saints, I shall consider how it is
here improved by Mr Goodwin.

> Altered from the original, which runs thiis, affording no sense, " Tliat sin taking

the opportunity to fill their corrupt part, to continue means for its accomplish-

meut." — Ed.

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 541

" Certainly," saith he, " their sense was, that true believers may
sin above the rate of those who sin out of infirmity, inasmuch as there
is no commandment of Christ that any church of his should eject
such persons out of their communion who sin out of infirmity only.
So that, by the confession of our adversaries themselves, even true
believers may perpetrate such sins which are of a deeper demerit
than to be numbered amongst sins of infirmity; yea, such sins for
which the church of Christ, according to the commandment of Christ,
stands bound to judge them for ever excluded from the kingdom of
God, without repentance. From whence it undeniably follows that
they may commit such sins whereby their faith in Christ will be
totally lost, because there is no condemnation unto those that are by
faith in Jesus Christ, whether they repent or not : and therefore they
that stand in need of repentance to give them a right and title to
the kingdom of God are no sons of God by faith ; for were they sons,
they would be heirs also, and consequently have right and title to
the inheritance. So that to pretend that howsoever the saints may
fall into great and grievous sins, yet they shall certainly be renewed
again by repentance before they die, though this be an assertion
without any bottom on reason or truth, yet doth it no ways oppose,
but suppose rather, a possibility of the total defection of faith in true
believers."

Ans. 1. That " true believers may sin above the rate of sins of in-
firmity," because they may so sin as that, according to the appoint-
ment of Jesus Christ, they may be cast out of a particular church,
is not attempted to be proved. Doth Mr Goodwin think none may
be excommunicated but such as have sinned themselves out of the
state of grace? That a man may, through infirmity, fall into some
such sin as for it to be amoved from a church society (that amotion
being an ordinance of Christ for his recovery from that sin), I know
not that it can be reasonably questioned. So that our confession,
that true believers may so sin as to be righteously cast out of the
external, visible society of a particular church, doth no way enforce
us to acknowledge that they may sin above the rate of them who are
overtaken with or surprised in sin upon the account of their weak-
ness or infirmity.

2. The church of Christ, in rejecting of one from its society, accord-
ing to the appointment of Jesus Christ, is so far from being obliged
to judge any one /or ever excluded from the kingdom of God, that
they do so reject a man that he may never be excluded from that
kingdom. It is true, he may be ecclesiastically and declaratively
excluded from the visible kingdom of God, and his right and title
to the outward administration of the good things thereof ; but that
such an one is, and must be thought to be, properly and really ex-
cluded from his interest in the love of God and grace of the cove-

5 12 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

nant (being still, by the appointment of God and command of Christ,
left under the power of an ordinance annexed by him to the admi-
nistration of that covenant), it doth not follow.

3. The non-restoration of pei'sons cast out of communion by the
church to their place in the kingdom of God, but upon repentance,
holds proportion with what was spoken before upon exclusion. The
repentance intended is such as is necessary for the satisfaction of the
church, as to its expressness and being known. Yet we grant withal
that all sins whatever without repentance, in that kind and degree
that is appointed and accepted of God, are exclusive of the king-
dom of God ; and we do much wonder that Mr Goodwin to the text,
Rom. viii. 1, should add, " Whether they repent or not," which is
not only beyond the sense of what went before, but directly contrary
to that which follows after, " Who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit." Not to repent of sin is doubtless to " walk after the
flesh." No one of them who are freed from condemnation in Christ
doth good, and sinneth not. The words, we confess, are not the con-
dition, in the intention of God, on which their non-condemnation is
suspended; but yet they are a description infallible of them who
through grace are made partakers of it. We say, then, that believers
may so fall as that being [they may be ?] on that account rejected
from the communion of the church, so as not to be restored but
upon the evidence of their repentance (and we say that repentance
is required for all sins, or men cannot be saved, wondering what
Mr Goodwin, according to his principles, intends by the addition to
the text of Rom. viii. 1, unless it be that no man stands in need of
repentance unless he have cast off all faith and interest in God, — ^a
most anti -evangelical assertion), and yet not commit such sins as
whereby their faith must needs be wholly lost.

4. There is a twofold right and title to the kingdom of God; a
right and title, by the 'profession of a true faith, to the external
kingdom of God, in regard of its outward administration; and a right
and title to the eternal kingdom of God, by the possession of a true
faith in Christ. The former, as it is taken for jus in re, believers
may lose for a season, though they may not in respect of a remote,
original, fuudainental root, which abides; the latter they never lose
nor forfeit. We say, also, that repentance for sin being a thing pro-
mised of God for those that come to him in Christ, upon the account
of the engagement of his grace for the perseverance of believers, all
such fallers into sin shall certainly return to the Lord by repentance,
who heals their backslidings; which Mr Goodwin hath not been able
to disprove, of wliose arguments, and his endeavours to vindicate
them from exceptions, this is the chief

But yet there being two or three things that Mr Goodwin is
pleased to add to what went before, as objections against his doc-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 543

trine in general, — though not of this last argument's concernment
any more than of any others he makes use of, — because there are
in them considerations of good advantage to the truth in hand, I
shall a little insist upon them before I proceed with my intended
discourse.

The first is, " That the doctrine of the saints' apostasy maimeth or
dismembereth the body of Christ, and brings in an uncouth and un-
seemly interchange of members between Christ and the devil;" which,
howsoever slighted by Mr Goodwin, is a plea not of the least import-
ance in the case in hand. The "body of Christ" intended is that which
is mystical and spiritual, not that which is political and visible; his
body in respect of the real union of every member of it unto him as
the head, described by the apostle in its relation unto him, Eph. iv.
15, 16, " It groweth up unto him in all things, which is the head, even
Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and com-
pacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in love." So also Col. ii. 19. The body we
intend is that whereof Christ is the head, not only in a political sense,
as the supreme governor of it, but in a spiritual, according to the an-
alogy of a head natural, from whence life and all influences of it unto
the members do flow. Of this body, some are, in their spirits, already
consummated and made perfect in heaven ; some are as yet pursuing
their warfare in all parts of the world, pressing forward to the mark
of the high calling set before them. Now, that any member of his
body, " bone of the bone, flesh of the flesh of Christ," given him to
make up his fulness and mystical perfection, jointed unto him, washed
in his blood, and loved by him according to the love and care of a
head to its members, should be plucked off to be cast into the fire,
and, after it hath so closely and vitally been admitted into the par-
ticipation of his fulness and increase, being united to him, become a
child of the devil, an enemy to him, and sometimes to his fellow-
members, so as to hate his head and to be hated of his head (when
yet " no man ever yet hated his own flesh"), — this we suppose no
way to answer that inexpressibly intense love which the Lord Jesus
bears towards his members, and to be exceedingly derogatory to his
honour and glory in reference to his dealing with Satan, the great
enemy of his kingdom. But to this Mr Goodwin answers: —

First, " For dismembering the body of Christ, is it not the law of
Christ himself, in every particular church or body of his, that as any
of their members putrefy and discover themselves to be rotten and
corrupt, they should be cut off by the spiritual sword of excommuni-
cation? and doth not such a dismembering as this rather tend to the
honouring and adorning the body of Christ than any ways to maim
or deform it? And for such a dismembering of the body of Christ

5 t-t DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

^vhicli the doctrine in band supposeth to be causable by the mem-
])ers themselves, by the voluntary disfaithing of themselves through
sin and wickedness, neither is the permission of this, upon such terms
as it is permitted, either unworthy Christ or inconvenient to the body
itself." Reply, —

1. That there is no argument will toleral)ly arise from what is
2')racticahle and comely in a visible ecclesiastical body of Christ to
the mystical spiritual body, — that is, from a particular visible to the
catholic church of Christ. As to the matter in hand, this is evident
by the light of this single consideration, that in such an ecclesiastical
body of Christ there are always, or may be, — and Christ himself, in
the rules and laws that he hath given for the government thereof,
did suppose that there always would be, — good and bad, true saints
and empty professors; whereas in the body whereof we treat there
is no soul actually instated but who is actually united to the Head
by the inhabitation of the same Spirit. There never was, nor shall
be to eternity, any dead member of that body. They are all " living
stones," built upon Him who is the " foundation." Now, surely this is
an inference attended with darkness to be felt: "Because it may be
comely, for those to whom the administration of ordinances in the
visible church of Christ is committed, to cut off a dead member from
the membership which he holds by his confession of the faith, when
he discovers himself not to answer the confession he hath made in
his walking and conversation ; therefore Christ himself doth cut off,
or one way or other lose, any living members of his body mystical,
and actually by faith instated in the unity of his body with him."
And if it shall be objected " That even living members, and such as
are truly so, may yet, for and at a season, be cut off from a visible
particular body of Christ," I answer, — (1.) It is true they may be so
in respect of their ordinary present right to the enjoyment of ordi-
nances, not in respect of their remote fundamental right; that still
abides. (2.) They are so, or may be so, for their amendment, not for
their destruction ; that separation for a season being an expression of
as much love and tenderness to them in Christ as his joining of them
to the body w^as from whence they are so separated. And, (3.) This
makes not at all to the impairing of the true completeness of the mys-
tical body of Christ and the perfection of its parts; for as in particular
visible bodies of Christ there may be, and are, dead members which
have no place in the body, but are as excrescences in the vine, and yet
the body is not rendered monstrous by them, so a true member may
be removed and the body not be maimed in the least; the member,
though perhaps [removed] from any such visible body for a season,
and yet [being of] the true spiritual [body, though] sick and pining,
continuing a member thereof still. Now, there is nothing of all this
that willin any measure agree to the plucking off a member from

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 545

the mystical hody of Christ, whereof alone we speak. If aiiy should
be so separated, it must not only be to [the loss of] his present actual
enjoyment of union, but to the loss of his Spirit also, and with him
of all right and title, plea or claim whatever, to any interest therein.
Neither is it possible that it should be a means for the correction and
amendment of such an one, it lying in a direct tendency to inevitable
destruction ; separation from all interest in Christ can look no other
way. So that still the uncoutlmess of such a procedure abideth.

2. The reason that is added, to put some colour and gloss upon this
assertion, namely, "That such persons as are affirmed to be so sepa-
rated from the body of Christ do voluntarily disfaith themselves,"
as it is called, is not to the purpose in hand ; for, —

(].) The question is about the thing itself, whereunto this answer
de modo is not satisfactory. It is urged by the argument that it
cannot be allowed any way; the answer is, "It is done this Avay!"

(2.) Were Mr Goodwin desired to explain unto us the manner how
believers voluntarily do or may disfaith themselves, I suppose he
Avould meet with no small difficulties in the undertaking. However,
this sounds handsomely.

(3.) That they should so disfaith themselves, through sin and wick-
edness, without being overcome by the temptations of Satan and the
power of the enemies with whom they have to do and wrestle, doubt-
less will not be affirmed, whilst they continue in their right wits;
and if they lose them, it will be difficult to manifest how they can
voluntarily disfaith themselves. The state wherein they are described
to be by Mr Goodwin, and the considerations which for their pre-
servation he allows them, should not, methinks, suffer him to sup-
]iose that of their own accord, without provocations or temptations,
they will wilfully ruin their own souls. Now, that believers should,
by the power of any temptation or opposition whatever, or what
affliction soever, arising against them, be prevailed upon to the loss
of their faith, and so to their dismembering from Christ, is that
which is objected as an unseemly, uncouth thing; which in this an-
swer Mr Goodwin earnestly begs may not be so esteemed, and more
he adds not, as yet.

The following discourse, wherein he pursues the business in hand,
is so pretty as that I cannot but once more present it to the reader.
Saith he : " As in a politic or civil corporation, it is better that the
governors should permit theraembers respectively to go or be at liberty,
that so they may follow their business and occupations in the world
upon the better terras, though by occasion of this liberty they may be-
have themselves in sundry kinds very unworthily, than it would be
to keep them close pi'isoners, though hereby the said inconveniences
might certainly be prevented. In like manner, it is much better for the
body of Christ, and for the respective members of it, that he should

VOL. XL 35

5 t6 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

leave them at liberty to obey and serve God, and follow the impor-
tant affairs of their souls freely and without any physical necessita-
tion, though some do turn this liberty into wantonness, and so into
destruction, than it would be to deprive them of this liberty, and to
cause and constrain them to any course whatsoever out of necessity,
though it is true the committing of much sin and iniquity would
be prevented hereby in many. The dismembering of the body of
Christ's apostles by the apostasy of Judas was no disparagement
either to Christ himself or it."

Ans. The sum of the whole discourse is, That the Lord Jesus
Christ hath no way to keep and secure his members to himself,
that none of them perish, but by taking away their liberty; which
rather than do, it is more to his honour to let them abuse it to
their everlasting destruction. And to this end sundry fine supposals
are scattered through the whole discourse; as, — 1. That the liberty
of believers is a liberty to sin, which they may abuse to their own
destruction. The apostle is of another mind, Rom. vi. 17-19, " God
be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed
from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Be-
ing then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteous-
ness," etc. 2. That there is no real efiicacy of grace, that will certainly
fulfil in believers the good pleasure of God's goodness, and bring
forth the fruits of an abiding holiness, but what must needs de-
prive them in whom it is of their liberty. And suitably hereunto,
3. That God having, through Christ, made his saints spiritually
free from sin unto righteousness, so that, with the utmost liberty
that they are capable of as creatures, they shall surely do good,
cannot by his Spirit continue them in that condition infallibly with-
out the destruction of their liberty. 4. That the spiritual operation
of God in and with the wills of men induceth a uecessitation as to
their manner of operation, so that they must act on that account
as necessary and not as free agents; with such other the like sup-
posals, which are so many gross figments, whereof Mr Goodwin shall
be able to jn'ove no one to eternity. For the removal, then, of all the
fine words here tendered out of our way, it may suffice to tell their
author that He who is made redemption to his saints, — that sets them
free from their bondage to sin by his Spirit, which is always accom-
panied with liberty; and makes them willing, ready, and ft-ee to
righteousness and holiness in the day of his power towards them ;
whose effectual grace enlargeth and improves all their faculties in
their operations, with the choicest attendancies as to the manner of
their working, — can and doth, by, in, and with the perfect exercise of
their liberty, keep them to himself in their union and communion
with him for ever; that this pretended liberty unto sin is a bondage
from which Christ frees his saints; neither is any thing that can be

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVEKS CONSIDERED. 547

imagined more derogatory to the glory of his grace than to affirm
that he cannot keep those committed to him infalhbly to the end,
without depriving them of thehberty which they have alone through
him. Of physical necessitation enough hath been spoken before.
Judas was never a member of the body of Christ, or of Christ, in
the acceptation whereof we speak. By the " body of the apostles" is
intended only their number, of which Judas (though he was never
of that body whereof they were members) was one.

Farther; the wickedness of this apprehension, that Christ should
lose any of those who are true and living members of his mystical
body, is aggravated upon the account of that state and condition
whereinto he parts with them, they being thereby made members
of Satan and his kingdom, God and the devil so interchanging chil-
dren, to the great dishonour and reproach of his name. To this Mr
Goodwin replies in the 28th section: —

" For the interchange of members between Christ and Satan, the
Scripture presenteth it as a thing possible, yea, as frequent and
ordinary. 'Know ye not,' saith the apostle, 'that your bodies are
the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ,
and make them the members of an harlot?' In the original it is,
"Apag ovv ra /zsA-jj tou Xpisrou ToirjffMj etc.; that is, 'Taking away the
members of Christ, shall I make them,' etc.; meaning that true be-
- lievers, who only are the members of Christ, disrelate themselves to
him, cease to be members of his body, whilst they live in a course of
whoredom and adultery, and make themselves members of another
far different relation, namely, of those harlots with whom they sin-
fully converse, and consequently, by such a mediation, of the devil."

Ans. 1. For the sense of that place of the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. ] 5, as
far as it relates to the merit of the cause in hand, I shall have occa-
sion to speak unto it at large hereafter, and so shall not anticipate
myself or the reader. For the present, I deny that there is the
least mention made of any interchange of members between Christ
and the devil, much less of any such thing as "frequent and ordinary."
It is true, the apostle says that he that is "joined to an harlot" makes
his members the " members of an harlot," and on that consideration
and conclusion, with part of the dignity of believers, whose persons
are all the members of Christ, persuades them from the sin of forni-
cation ; that they may so much as fall into that sin he doth not here
intimate. That men, not only in respect of themselves, and their
principles of sin, and proneness unto it within, with the prevalency
of temptations, but also eventually, notwithstanding any regard or
respect to other external prohibiting causes, may fall into all the
sins from which they are dehorted, Mr Goodwin hath not proved as
yet, nor shall I live to see him do it.

2. For a man to make himself the " member of an harlot" is no

548 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [cnAP.

more but to commit fornication; which whetlier it be Mr Good-
win's judgment or no, that none can fall into or be surprised with
but he is ipso facto cut off from the body of Christ thereby, I know
not. Taking in the consideration of Avhat was spoken before con-
cerning the manner of regenerate persons' sinning, with what shall
be farther argued, I must profess I dare not say so. In the mean-
time, it is punctually denied that believers can fall into or live in a
course of whoredom and adultery; and without such a course they
cease not, according to Mr Goodwin's sense of these words, to be
members of Christ, nor do they otherwise become members of the
devil. There is nothing here, then, that intimates such an inter-
change in the least.

3. For Mr Goodwin's criticism upon the word apag, it is hardly
worth taking notice of; for, —

(1.) If by "taking" there be meant "taking away," the sense must
be, that they are first taken away from being "members of Christ"
(the word expressing a time past in that tendency), and then made
"members of an harlot;" — which,first, is not suited to the mind of Mr
Goodwin, who endeavours to prove their ceasing to be members of
Christ by becoming members of an harlot, the efficient cause of their
ceasing to be joined to Christ consisting in their being joined with
an harlot; and, secondly, destroys the whole of the apostle's rea-
soning in the place, from the great unworthiness of such a way or
practice as making the members of Christ to be the members of
an harlot, because none should so be made but those who had first
ceased to be members of Christ. And so his assertion, instead of an
effectual persuasive, should upon the matter be entangled in a con-
tradiction to itself And, —

(2.) As there is nothing in the place to enforce that sense upon
the word, so there is nothing in the word to impose that sense
upon the place. When our Saviour speaks to his disciples, Luke
ix. 3, M?i6b a'lpiTi iig zr.v 666v, he doth not bid them take nothing
away for tlieir journey, but "take nothing with them;" and so
Mark vi. 8, where his command is that /xridh u'/puciv elg odcv. And
in that of Matt. iv. 6, when the devil urged to our Saviour, Jt/
p/E/pwv afousi as, he did not intimate that the angels should take
him away in their hands, but support him from hurt. When
Jesus fipi roiis 6f)()aX/Moug avo), he did not take away his eyes out
of his head and cast them tipward, John xi. 41 ; no more than the
angel did his hand when f,ps rriv •/I'lpa iig rhv olpavov, Rev. x. 5; or the
apostles their voice when f^pa.v <puvr,v 'jzphs rhv ©ecv, Acts iv. 24. Nor
doth Christ command us to take away his yoke in that heavenly
word of his, " Apan rhv Xj^yLv fiaxt if' \J[xag, Matt. xi. 29, So that
there is little help left to this sense imposed on the place under con-
sideration from the importance of the word ; and so, consequently, not

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDEKED. 549

the least countenance given to that hoiTible interchange of members
between Christ and the devil, which is asserted as a usual and fre-
quent thing.

What he addeth in the close of the section is no less considerable
than the beginning of it; for saith he, "If it be no dishonour to
Christ to take in such as have been members of the devil, why
should it be any disparagement to him to reject such who, by their
wicked and abominable ways, render themselves unworthy of such a
relation?"

Ans. Believers hold not their relation to Christ upon any worthi-
ness that is in themselves for it, but upon the account merely of
grace, according to the tenor of the covenant of mercy. That they
may fall into such wicked and abominable ways as shall render them
altogether unmeet for that relation, according to the law of it, is that
great argument, called petitio principii, which Mr Goodwin hath
used in this case a hundred times. But the comparison instituted
in the first words is admirable. Confessed it is that it is no dis-
honour to Jesus Christ, yea, that it is his great honour, seeing " he
came to destroy the works of the devil, to bind the strong man, to
spoil his goods, to destroy him that had the power of death, to deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bon-
dage, to deliver his people from their sins, washing them in his blood,
and to make them a peculiar people unto himself, zealous of good
works ;" — that it is no dishonour, I say, for him to translate them from
the power of Satan into his own kingdom, " making them meet for the
inheritance of the saints in light, by redeeming them from their
vain conversation," to do according as he intended, and to take his
own, given him of his Father, out of the hands of the tyrant which
held them under bondage. " Therefore, having undertaken to keep
them and preserve them, having so overcome Satan in them, for
them, by them, broken the head of the serpent, it is no dishonour
for him to lose ground given for his inheritance, with his subjects,
members, brethren, children, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh,
into the hand of the devil again." What fort is so strong as to hold
out against such a battery: If it be no honour for Christ to bind
Satan and to spoil his goods, then it is no dishonour for him to be
bound by Satan and to have his goods spoiled !

Another burden upon the shoulders of Mr Goodwin's doctrine,
whereof he labours to deliver it, is the great absurdity of the repeti-
tion of regeneration, whereof there is no mention at all in the Scrip-
ture, and which yet must be asserted by him, unless he will affirm
all that fall away at any time irrecoverably to perish; which howso-
ever he waives at present, were with much more probability, according
to his own principles, to be maintained than what he insisteth on.

" But this repetition of regeneration," saith he, " is not unworthy

550 DocTiiiNE or THE saints' pehseverance. [cuap.

God, and for men a blessed and happy accommodation." Whether
it be " unworthy God" or no, the Scripture and the nature of the
thing will declare. The " accommodation" that it seems to afford
unto men, being a plain encouragement to sin at the highest rate
imaginable, will perhaps not be found so happy and blessed unto
them. With great noise and clamour hath a charge been managed
against the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, upon the account of
its giving supportment to the thoughts of men in and under the
ways of sin. Whether truth and righteousness have been regarded
in that charge hath been considered. Doubtless it were a matter of
no difficulty clearly to evince that this doctrine of the "repetition of
regeneration" is of the very same tendency and import with that
which is falsely and injuriously charged upon that of the perseverance
of the saints. The worst that a man thinks he can do by any act of
sin is but to sin himself quite out of the favour of God, into a state of
death and desert of wrath. He can no farther injure his soul than to
cast it into the condition of men by nature. Tell this man, now,
whom you suppose to be under the temptation to sin, at least to have
in him that great fool the flesh, which longs for blessed accommoda-
tions to itself, whilst it makes provision to fulfil its lusts, that if he
should so do, this is an ordinary thing for men to do, and yet to be re-
newed again and to have a second regeneration, — doyounot encourage
him to venture boldly to satisfy his sinful desires, having such a re-
lief against the worst that his thoughts and fears can suggest to him?
But whatever it be, in respect of God or men, yet that so it may
be Mr Goodwin proves from Heb. vi. 6, where it is said, that " it is
impossible to renew" some "to repentance;" wherefore some maybe
renewed; — and in Jude 12 men are said to be " twice dead;" there-
fore they may live twice spiritually. The first proof seems somewhat
uncouth. The persons spoken of in that place are in Mr G.'s judg-
ment believers. There is no place of Scripture wherein he more
triumphs in his endeavoured confirmation of his thesis. The Holy
Ghost says expressly of them that it is " impossible to renew them;"
*' therefore," says Mr G., " it is possible." What is of emphasis in
the argument mentioned ariseth from two things: — 1. That they are
true believers; of which afterward. 2. That they fall totally away.
This, then, is the importance of Mr G.'s plea from this place, " If
true believers fall totally away, it is impossible they should be re-
newed to repentance ; therefore, if true believers fall totally away, it
is possible they should be renewed to and by repentance." That
there is a falling away and a renewing again by repentance of the
same persons, we grant. That falling away is partial only which is
incident unto true believers, who, when God heals their backslidings,
are renewed by repentance. To be renewed by repentance is also
taken either for the renovation of our natures and our change as

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED, 551

unto state and condition, and so it is the same with regeneration, and
not to be repeated; or for a recovery by repentance in respect of
personal faiHngs, so it is the daily work of our lives. Jude says, some
are " twice dead;" that is, utterly so, — an hyperbolical expression, to
aggravate their condition. Those to whom the gospel is a " savour
of death unto death" may well be said to be " twice dead." Unto
the death that they are involved in and are obnoxious to by nature
they add a second death, or rather, seal up their souls under the
power and misery of the other, by contempt of the means of life and
recovery. Therefore, regeneration may be reiterated, "Quod erat de-
monstrandum."

Much of the section that remains is taken up in declaring, in many
words, without the least attempt of proof, that it is agreeable to the
honour of God to renew men totally fallen away ; that is, when those
who have been quickened by him, washed in the blood of his Son,
made partakers of the divine nature, embraced in the arms of his
love, shall despise all this, " disfaith themselves," reject the Lord and
his love, trample on the blood of the covenant, kill their souls by
depriving them of spiritual life, proclaim to all the world their dislike
of him and his covenant of grace. Yet, though He hath not anywhere
revealed that he will permit any one so to do, or that he will accept
of them again upon their so doing, Mr Goodwin affirming that for
him so to do is agreeable to his holiness and righteousness, it is fit
that those who conceive themselves bound to believe whatever he
says should think so too. For my part, I am at liberty.

I should not farther pursue this discourse, nor insist on this di-
gression, but that Mr Goodwin hath taken advantage by the mention
of reofeneration to deliver some rare notions of the nature of it, which
deserve a little our farther taking notice of; for which end, doubtless,
he published them. To m'ake way, then, for his intendment, he in-
forms us, sect. 29, " That ' regeneration' itself, according to the gram-
matical and proper signification of the word, imports a reiteration or
repetition of some generation or other. It cannot import a repetition
of the natural generation of men (the sense of Nicodemus on this
point was orthodox, who judged such a thing impossible) ; therefore
it must import a repetition of a spiritual generation, unless we shall
say (which I think is the road opinion) that it signifies only the spi-
ritual generation, with a kind of reflection upon and unto the birth
natural."

Ans. That the grammatical sense of the word imports "a reitera-
tion of some generation or other," is only said. ' Avd hath other signi-
^cations in composition besides the intimating of a reiteration of the
same thing, either in species or individually the same again. YlaXiy-
yividia, would seem rather to enforce such an interpretation than dva.-
•ysvvrjffig, which yet it doth not. It is spoken of that which hath no

552 DOCTKTNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

biii.h properly at all, as Pliilo,DeMundo, Mrj fiSvov (pdopav rou xoe/xov xarri-
yopiTv aXKa xai itaXiyyivicioLV dvaipuv. 'Aca of itself is only "through:"
Xupov av vXrjevra, Horn. ' Od. |., — " Through a woody country." 'Avda-
raeig, "resurrection," doth not import "again," after another rising be-
fore, but a restoration from a lost state. So is -raXiyyivieSa used, Matt,
xix. 28. To be regenerate is to have a new and another generation,
not any one repeated. In the place of John mentioned by Mr Good-
win, there is mention neither of a repetition of a former generation nor
directly of a new one; though it be so, it is not there called so. Our
Saviour at first says, 'Edv [i^ri ng yswridfi ccvuSsv^ " Unless a man be bom
from above," as the word is elsewhere rendered, and properly signi-
fies, as John iii. 81, xix. 11 ; Mark xv. 88; James iii. 17; and some-
times "of old" or "former days," as Acts xxvi. 5. Once only it signi-
fies " again," Gal. iv. 9, but there it is joined with '^rdXiv, which restrains
it. And in the exposition afterward of what he intended by that ex-
pression, he calls it simply a being " born of water and the Spirit,"
verse 5, without the least intimation of the repetition of any birth,
but only the asserting of a new spiritual one ; called a birth, indeed,
with allusion to the birth natural, which is the " road opinion," well
beaten ever since Christ first trod that path. Besides, the very same
thing which is expressed under the name of " regeneration," being a
spiritual birth, which a man had not before, is also delivered unto us
in such words and terms as manifest no reiteration of any state, con-
dition, or thing to be included therein, as conversion to God, a quick-
ening from death, sanctification by the Spirit, etc. ; all which manifest
the induction of a new life and form, and not the repetition of an-
other. Hence the ancients called baptism " regeneration," being the
initial ordinance of Christianity, and expressive of the new life which
in and through Christ we receive; and that from Tit. iii. 5. "Rege-
neration," then, neither in the import of the word nor in the nature
of the thing, doth require a reiteration of any generation, but only
the addition of a new one to that which a man hath before, and
whereunto this doth allude. The receiving of a new spiritual birth
and life is our " regeneration, renovation, resurrection, quickening,
implanting into Christ," and the like; so that the foundation of all
the ensuing discourse is a mere quagmire, where no firm footing can
be obtained.

And of the same nature is that which ensues: "It is," saith
he, " the conunon sense of divines, that the two generations men-
tioned, the natural and spiritual, are membra dividentia, and con-
tradistinguished the one unto the other; and so the apostle Peter,
too, seems to state and represent them, as also our Saviour himself,
John iii. 6. Now, there can hardly any instance be given where
the introducing of one contrary form or quality into the subject is
termed a reiteration or repetition of the other. Calefactiou, for ex-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDEIIED. 553

ample, is never termed a repetition of frigefaction, nor calefaction
called a reiteration of frigefaction; nor when a regenerate or morti-
fied man dieth his natural death is he said to reiterate or repeat
his spiritual death."

A71S. That in the term "regeneration" two births are implied
may be granted; that the same is intimated to be repeated is de-
nied, and not proved at all; and therefore Mr Goodwin says well,
that the introducing of a contrary form is not called the reiteration
of another. No more is it here. Our new birth is called our " rege-
neration," or " new generation," in allusion to our natural birth, not as
a repetition of it. Neither is the allusion in respect of the contrary
qualities wherewith the one and the other are attended, but in
respect of the things themselves; in which regard, as they are not
the same, so they are not contrary, but diverse. They are both
births, — the one natural, the other spiritual. Natural and spiritual,
in that sense, are not contrary qualities, but diverse adjuncts. And
so are the two births compared, 1 Pet. i. 23, John i. 13; in which
last place our regeneration is expressed under the simple term of
being " born," with distinction to the natural birth, and not the least
intimation of the iteration of any birth or generation subjoined. So
also is it, James i. 18. So tliat hitherto little progress is made by
Mr Goodwin towards his intendment, whatever it be. Thus, then,
he expresseth it: —

" I rather," saith he, " conceive that ' regeneration,' which the
Scripture makes appropriable only unto persons living to years of
discretion, who generally in the days of their youth degenerate from
the innocency of their childhood and younger years, and corrupt
themselves with the principles and ways of the world, relates not to
the natural generation as such, I mean as natural, but unto the
spiritual estate and condition of men in respect of their natural
generation and birth; in and upon which they are, if not simply and
absolutely, yet comparatively, innocent, harmless, free from pride
and malice, and, in respect of these qualifications, in grace and fa-
vour with God, upon the account of the death and sufferings of
Christ for them, as we shall afterward prove."

Here you have the sum of the design and the doctrine of rege-
neration cleared from all those vain and erroneous opinions where-
with it hath so long been clouded ! It is the returning of men unto
the good state and condition wherein they were born, after they have
degenerated into ways of wickedness. We thought it had been the
" quickening of them who are by nature dead in trespasses and sins,
their being begotten again by the will of God, the bestowing of a
new principle of Spirit and life upon them, a translation from death
to life, the opening of blind eyes, making them who were darkness
to be light in the Lord." It seems we have all this while been in

554 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the dark, and that regeneration indeed is only a returning to that
condition from whence we thought it had been a deHvery. But let
us a little see the demonstration of this new notion of regeneration.

1. He saith, " The Scripture makes it appropriable only to them
who come to years of discretion." Sir, your proof; we cannot take
your bare word in a thing of this importance. In the place your-
self chose to mention as the foundation you laid of the inferences
you are now making, our Saviour says it is a being " born of the
Spirit;" doth the Scripture make this appropriable only unto men
of discretion? Men only of discretion, then, can enter into the king-
dom of God; for none not so born of the Spirit shall enter therein,
John iii. 5, If none but men of discretion can be born of the Spirit,
then infants have no other birth but only that of the flesh, and " that
which is born of the flesh is flesh," verse 6, not capable of entering
into the kingdom of heaven. Surely you better deserve the title of
" Durus pater infantum" than he to whom of old it was given. Per-
haps a grosser figment was never framed by a man of discretion.

2. It is true, infants are comparatively innocent in respect of
actual transgressions, but equally nocent and guilty with sinners
of discretion in respect of natural state and condition. They are
no less obnoxious to that death from whence our regeneration is a
delivery, by the bestowing of a new spiritual life, than a sinner of a
hundred years old. A return to this condition, it seems, is a regene-
ration. " Quantum est in rebus inane!"

3. The qualifications of infants not regenerated are merely nega-
tive, and that in respect of the acts of sin, not the habitual seed
and root of them, for in them dwells no good. That, in respect of
these qualifications of innocency that are in them by nature, ante-
cedent to any regeneration (all which are resolved into a natural im-
potency of perpetrating sin), they are accepted in grace and favour
with God, had been another new liotion, had not Pelagius and Soci-
nus before you fallen upon it. " Without faith it is impossible to
please God," Heb. xi. 6, and " his wrath abideth on them that believe
not," John iii. 3G. That infants have or may have faith, and not be
regenerated, will scarcely be granted by them who believe the Spirit
of Christ to cause regeneration where he is bestowed, Tit. iii. 5, and
all faith to be the fruit of that Spirit, Gal. v. 22, 23. Farther; for
the qualification of infants by nature, how are they brought clean
from that which is unclean? Are they not conceived in sin and
brotight forth in iniquity? or was that David's hard case alone? If
they are born of the flesh, and are flesh, if they are unclean, how
come they to be in that estate, upon the account of their qualifica-
tions, accepted in the love and favour of Him who is " of purer eyes
tlian to behold iniquity? " If this be the doctrine of regeneration that
Mr Goodwin preaches, I desire the Lord to bless them that belong

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 555

imto him in a deliverance from attending thereunto. Of the effects of
the death of Christ in respect of all children I shall not now treat.
That they should be saved by Christ, and yet not washed in his
blood, not sanctified by his Spirit (which to be is to be regenerate),
is another new notion of the new gospel.

The countenance which Mr Goodwin would beg to his doctrine
from that of our Saviour to his disciples, " Except ye be converted
and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven," reproving their ambition and worldly thoughts, from which
they were to be weaned, that they might be fit for that gospel state
and employment whereunto he called them, and wherein they were to
serve him, does no more advantage him nor the cause he hath under-
taken than that other caution of our Saviour to the same persons,
to be " wise as serpents and harmless as doves," would do him that
should undertake to prove that Christians ought to become pigeons
or snakes.

Thus much, then, we have learned of the mind of Mr Goodwin
by his digression: — 1. That no children are regenerate; 2. That they
are all accepted with God, through Christ, upon the account of the
good qualifications that are m them; 3. That regeneration is a man's
returning to the state wherein he was born. And having taken out
this lesson, which we shall never learn by heart whilst we live, we
may now proceed.

I shall only add to the main of the business in hand, that so long
as a man is a child of God, he cannot, he need not to repeat his
regeneration. But that one who hath been the child of God should
cease to be the child of God is somewhat strange. How can that be
done amongst men, that he should cease to be such a man's son who
was his son? Those things that stand in relation upon any thing
that is past, and therefore irrevocable, cannot have their beings con-
tinued and their relation dissolved. It is impossible but that cause
and effect must be related one to another. Such is the relation be-
tween father and son; the foundation of it is an act past and irre-
vocable, and therefore the relation itself is indissoluble. Is it not so
with God and his children? When they once stand in that relation,
it cannot be dissolved. But of these things hitherto.

To proceed with that place of Scripture which I laid as the foun-
dation of this discourse: The general way of lust's dealing with the
soul in the bringing forth of sin, whereof there are two acts, expressed
James i. 14, the one of drawing away, the other enticing, is to be
insisted on. Upon the first, the person tempted is e^eXKofisvog, " drawn
oft"," or " drawn away ;" and upon the second, he is 8iXeaZ,ofiivog, " en-
ticed," or " entangled."

The first stiiTing of sin is to draw aivay the soul from what it ought
to be fixed upon, by its rising up irregularly to some delightful object.

556 DOCiTJNE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVEEANCE. [CHAP.

For a man to be " drawn away" by his lust, is to have his lust drawn
out to some object suited to it, wherein it delighteth. Now, this
drawing away denoteth two things: —

1. The turning of the soul from the actual rectitude of its frame
towards God. Though the soul cannot always be in actual exercise
of grace towards God, yet it ought always to be in an immediate
readiness to any spiritual duty, upon the account whereof, when oc-
casion is administered, it doth as naturally go forth to God as a
vessel full of water floweth forth when vent is given unto it. Hence
we are commanded " always to pray." Our Saviour giveth a parable
to instruct his disciples that they ought to pray 'KatroTz, Luke
xviii. 1 ; and we are commanded to pray adiuXsi'TrTug, " without
ceasing" or " intermission," 1 Thess. v. 17; which the same apostle in
another place calleth praying sv -ttuvt} roVw, " in every place," namely,
as occasion is administered. It is not the perpetual exercise of this
duty (as the Jews, some of them, have ridiculously interpreted the
first psalm, of " reading the law day and night"), which would shut
out and cut off all other duties, not only of men's callings and em-
ployments as to this life, but all other duties of the ways and worship
of God whatever; but it is only the readiness and promptitude of the
heart in its constant frame to that necessary duty, that is required.
Now, he who is l^tXxofiivog by lust is drawn off from this frame; that
is, he is interrupted in it by his lust diverting unto some sinful ob-
ject. And as to this particular, there is a great difference betwixt
the sinning of believers, and those who arise not beyond that height
which the power of conviction beareth them oftentimes up unto;
for the mam of a true believer's watching, in his whole life, and in
the course of his walking with God, is directed against this off-draw-
ing from that habitual frame of his heart by lust and sin. His great
business is, as the apostle telleth us, to " take the whole armour of
God to him," that sm, if it be possible, may make no approach to his
soul, Eph, vi. 13, It is to keep up his spirits to a " hate of every
evil way, and to delight in God continually." And because they
cannot attain in this life unto perfection, they cry out of the power
of sin leading them captive to the law thereof. They would have
their wills dead to sin, wholly dead, and have trouble that they are
not so as to the general frame of their spirits, how oft soever they be
drawn off. For other persons, they have truly no such frame at all,
whatever they may be cut into the likeness of by the sharpness of
scriptural convictions that come upon them; and therefore they
watch not as to the keeping of it. The deeper you dive into them,
the more near you come to their hearts, the worse they are; their
very inward part is wickedness. I speak now of the ordinary frame
of the one and other.

This drawing off by sin in believers is by the power of sin, in op-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 557

position to their will. Their wills lie against it to the utmost; they
" would not/' as was showed, be so drawn off. But as for the others,
as hath been shown, however their minds may be enlightened, and
their consciences awakened, and their affections corrected and re-
strained, their wills are wholly dead in sin.

2. When a man is i^sXx6/j,svoc, or drawn away, there are stricken
out between the lust and the pleasing object some glances of the
heart, with thoughts of sin. When lust hath gone thus far, if a
violent temptation fall in, the person to whom it doth so befall may
be carried, or rather hurried out and surprised, into no small advance
towards the perpetration of sin, without the least delight in the sin
or consent of the will unto it, if he be a godly man. So was it in
the case of David, in the cutting off the lap of the garment of Saul.
Lust stirred in him, drew him off from his frame of dependence on
God, and by the advantage of Saul's presence stirred up thoughts of
self-security and advantage in him, which carried him almost to the
very act of sin before he recovered himself Then, I say, is a man
" drawn away," not only in respect to the term from whence, but also
of that whereunto, when the thoughts of the object presented as suit-
able to lust are cast in, though immediately rejected. This I intend
by this acting of lust; which although it be our sin, as having its rise
and spring in us, and is continually to be lamented, yet, when it is
not accompanied with any delight of the heart or consent of the will,
but the thought of it is like a piece of fiery iron cast into water,
which maketh a sudden commotion and noise, but yet is suddenly
quenched, it is that which regenerate men are and may be sub-
ject to, which also keepeth them humble all their days. There is
more in this drawing away than a single thought or apprehension of
evil amounts to (which may be without the least sin : " To know
evil is not evil"), but yet it is short of the soul's consent unto it.

The second way wherein lust proceedeth in tempting is by entic-
ing the soul ; and he who is so dealt withal by it is said to be ^gXsa-
t^o/xivoc, — "to be enticed." There is something more in this than in
being only drawn away. The word here used is twice mentioned in the
Second Epistle of Peter, chap. ii. Once it is rendered to " beguile,"
dsXsdtlovTsg -^vy^^ag aarrjplxTovg, verse 14; and in the other "alluring,"
verse 18. It cometh (as is commonly known) from dsXiap, a
"bait;" which is from BoXsap or doXog, "deceit," because the end of
a bait is to deceive, and to catch by deceiving. Thence ^sXsa^w is
to " entice, to allure, to entangle," as men do fishes and birds with
baits. That which by this expression the Holy Ghost intendeth is
the prevalency of lust in drawing the soul unto that which is by
the casuists termed delectatio morosa, " a secret delight" in the
evil, abiding some space upon it, so that it would do that which it
is tempted and enticed unto were it not forbidden j as the fish liketh

558 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

the bait well enough, but is afraid of the hook. The soul for a sea-
son is captived to like the sin, and so is under the power of it, but
is afraid of the guilt. It sticketh only at this, " How shall it do this
great thing, and sin against the Lord?" Now, though the mind
never frame any intention of fulfilling the evil wherewith the soul is
thus entangled, or of committing that sin whereunto it is allured and
enticed, yet the affections having been cast into the mould of sin for
a season, and conformed unto it by delight (which is the conformity
of the affections to the thing delighted in), this is a high degi'ee of
sin ; and that because it is directly contrary to that " death unto
sin," and the " crucifying of the flesh and the lusts thereof," which
we are continually called unto. It is, in a sense, a making " provi-
sion for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof" Provision is made,
though the flesh be not suffered to feed thereon, but only delight
itself with beholding: of it.

I shall not deny but this also may befall a true believer, it being
chiefly implied in Kom. vii., but yet with a wide difference from the
condition of other persons, in their being under the power of the
deceits and beguilements of sin; for, —

1. This neither doth nor can grow to be the habitual frame of
their hearts; because, as the apostle telleth us, "they are dead to
sin, and cannot live any longer therein," Rom. vi. 2, and " their old
man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be de-
stroyed," verse 6. Now, though a man should abstain from all
actual sins or open committing of sin all his days, yet if he have any
habitual delight in sin, and defileth his soul with delightful contem-
plations of sin, he liveth to sin and not to God ; which a believer
cannot do, for " he is not under the law, but under grace." To
abide in this state is to "wear the garment spotted with the flesh."
But now, take another person: however heightened and wrought up
by convictions, unless it be when conscience is stirred up, and some
affrightment is put upon him, he can, as his leisure affords, give his
heart the swing in inordinate affections, or Avhat else pleaseth and
suiteth his state, condition, temper, and the like.

2. A believer is exceedingly troubled upon the account of his
being at any time led captive to the power of sin in this kind; and
the review of the frame of his spirit, wherein his affections were by
delight conformed to any sin, is a matter of sore trouble and deep
humiliation to him. I am of Austin's mind, De Nup. et Concu-
pis., cap. viii., that it is this perpetrating of sin, and not the actual
committing of it, which the apostle complaineth of, Rom. vii. Two
things persuade me hereunto: — First, Tliat it is the ordinary course
and walking of a regenerate man that Paul describeth in that place,
and not his extraordinary falls and failings under great and extraor-
dinary temptations. This is evident from the whole manner of his

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 559

discourse, and scope of the place. Now, ordinarily, through the
grace of God, the saints do not do outwardly and practically the
things they would not, — that is, commit sin actually as to the out-
ward act; but they are ordinarily only swayed to this entangle-
ment by the baits of sin. Secondly, It is the sole work of indwell-
ing sin that the apostle there describeth, as it is in itself, and not as
it is advantaged by other temptations, in which it carrieth not be-
lievers out to actual sins, as to such accomplishment of them, which
is their state in respect of great temptations only. It is, then, I say,
the great burden of their souls that they have been in their affec-
tions at any time dealing with the baits of sin, which causeth them
to cry out for help, and filleth them with a perpetual self-abhorrency
and condemnation.

3. In such surprisals of sin, although the affections may be en-
snared, and the judgment and conscience by their tumultuating
dethroned for a season, yet the will still maketh head against sin in
believers, and crieth out that, whether it will or no, it is captived
and violently overborne, calling for relief like a man surprised by an
enemy. - There is an active renitency in the will against sin, whose
bait is exposed to the soul, and wherewith it is enticed, allured, or
entangled ; when of all the faculties of the soul, if any thing be done
in any act of sin in unregenerate men, the will is the ringleader.
Conscience may grumble, and judgment may plead, but the will
runneth headlong to it.

And thus far have I (by way of digression) proceeded in the dif-
ference there is betwixt regenerate and unregenerate men, as to
the root and foundation of sin, as also to their ordinary walking.
What is farther added by the apostle in the two following degrees,
in the place mentioned, because thence also may some light be ob-
tained to the business in hand, shall be briefly insisted on.

The next thing in the progress of sin is lust's conceiving. When
it hath turned off the heart from its communion with God or con-
sideration of its duty, and entangled or hampered the affections
in delight with the sinful object proposed, prevailing with the soul
to dwell Avith some complacency upon the thoughts of sin, it
then falleth to "conceiving;" that is, it warms, foments, cherisheth
thoughts and desires of the sin entertained, until it so far prevails
upon the will (in them in whose wills there is an opposition unto it),
that, being wearied out with the solicitations of the flesh, it giveth
over its power, as to its actual predominant exercise, and sensibly
dissenteth not from the sin whereunto it is tempted. That this may
sometimes befall a regenerate person I have granted before, and
what is the difference herein betwixt them and unregenerate persons
may be collected from what hath been already delivered.

Of the next step of sin, which is its bringing forth, or the actual

5 CO DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

accomplislinient of the sin so conceived, as above expressed, there is
the same reason. T/xrs/, " it bringeth out" of its womb the cliild of
sin -which it had conceived. It is the actual perpetration of sin for-
merly consented unto that is expressed under this metaphor. I have
little to add upon this head to what was formerly spoken; for, —

1. As they are not the sins of daily infirmity that are here in-
tended, in the place of the apostle under consideration, but such as
lie in an immediate tendency unto death, as to their eminent guilt;
as also being the fruit of the heart's conception of sin, by fomenting
and warming thoughts of sin with delight, until consent unto it be
prevalent in the soul : so falls of this nature in the saints are extra-
ordinary, and always attended with their loss of peace, the weaken-
ing of their faith, wounding of their souls, and obnoxiousness, with-
out repentance, unto death. God, indeed, hath provided better things
for them ; but for themselves, they have done their endeavour to de-
stroy their own souls.

2. That God never suffereth his saints to fall thus, but it is for the
accomplishment of some very glorious end of his, in their afflictions,
trials, patience, humiliation ; which he will bring about. These ends
of God are many and various. I shall not enter into a particular dis-
course concerning them.

3. That an impenitent continuance in and under the guilt of such
a sin is a sore sign of a heart that neither hath nor ever had any
true faith. In others, there is a truth in that of Austin, who af-
firmed that " he dared say that it might be good for some to have
fallen into some eminent particular sin, for their humiliation and
caution all their days."

4. That this frequent conception of sin and bringing of it forth,
in persons who have been heightened by conviction to a great regu-
larity of walking and conversation, is the means Avhereby they do go
forth unto that which is mentioned in the last place, Avhich is Jimsh-
ing of sin ; that is, so to be brought under the power of it as to com-
plete the whole work of sin. Now, men bring it forth by the temp-
tations and upon the surprisals forementioned ; but they that come
to finish it, or do the whole work of it, in them it will bring forth
death. This I take to be the intendment of that expression, ' Afinp-
r'la dvoreXsaOuea, '" Sin perfected." The word arroriXiTv is nowhere
used in the New Testament; nXiTv and ItitsXiTv are. There is rhv
vd[iov TikiTv, which is, not to do any one act which the law requireth,
but to walk studiously and constantly according to the rule thereof;
and so Imny-.m, as the apostle useth it, Phil. i. 6, where we translate
it, as here, avonXiTv. To " perfect the good work," is to walk in the
way of grace and the gospel unto the end: so to "perfect sin" is
to fulfil the work of sin and to A/alk in the way of sin, to be under
the dominion and reign of sin so far as to be carried out in a course

XV.] THE SINS OF EELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 561

of sinning. And this is that alone which we exempt believers
from; which that they are exempted from, unto all that hath for-
merly been spoken, I shall add the consideration of one place of
Scriptm-e, being turned aside from my thoughts of handling this
at large as the second part of the doctrine of the saints' perse-
verance, the former being grown under my hands beyond expec-
tation.

Now, this place is 1 John iii. 9, "Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him : and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God ; " — a place of Scripture that always
hath amazed the adversaries of the doctrine which hitherto, through
the grace of God, we have asserted, being in itself fully sufficient to
captivate every understanding unto the obedience of its truth that
is not resolved to cleave to a contrary conclusion, let what demon-
stration soever lie against it. In the defence of the doctrine under
consideration, should we use expressions of the same importance
with those here used by the apostle, as we should abundantly satisfy
ourselves that we had delivered our mind and sense to the under-
standing of any indifferent person with whom we might have to do,
so we should by no means avoid all those imputations of folly and
error that our doctrine suffereth under from the men that have
entertained an enmity against it, as it is held forth in equivalent
expressions l)y us. The authority of the Holy Ghost hath gained
thus much upon our adversaries, that when he asserteth in express
and exjDressive terms the very thing or things that in us are called
" folly,'' evasions should be studied, and pains taken to rack his
words to a sense which they will not bear, rather than plainly to
deny his authority. But let the words, with the scope and tendency,
be considered. The scope and intendment of the apostle in the
place is, to give a discriminating character of the children of God
and the children of the devil. Thus he fully expresseth himself
unto us, verse 10: " In this," saith he, "the children of God are
manifest, and the children of the devil : whosoever doth not righte-
ousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother;" and
withal, to press on an exhortation against sin, whereunto he useth
the argument that lieth in the following words, "If any one sin
that thinketh himself to be born of God, he deceiveth himself:"
verses 7, 8, " Little children, let no man deceive you : he that doeth
righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that com-
mitteth sin is of the devil." But how proveth he this? In these
words, " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, — doth not,
cannot sin." Such is the genius and nature of the children of God, of
them that are born of him, that they do not, they cannot sin. You are
persuaded that you are so born of God; therefore you must press
after such a frame, such an ingenie and disposition, such a principle,

VOL XL S6

662 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

as that thereby yoti cannot sin. It must manifest itself to be in you,
if you be the children of God.

Now, whereas it is offered by Mr Goodwin, chap. x. sect. 27, p. 194,
" That the context or scope of the whole place doth not invite such
an exposition as is usually insisted on, because" (saith he) " the intent
and drift of the apostle, from verse 3 even to the end of the chapter
(as he that doth but run the context over may read), is not to show
or argue whether the sons of God maj' possibly in time so degenerate
as to live sinfully and die impenitently ; but to evince this, that those
who claim the great honour and privilege of being the children of
God cannot justify or make good this claim, neither unto others nor
unto themselves, but by a holy and Christian life and conversation.
Now, it is one thing to argue and prove Avho are the sons of God at
present; another, whether they who are such at present must of
necessity always so continue. The former is the apostle's theme in
the context; the latter he is wholly silent of"

I say, It is evident that the scope of the place is to evince that in
the children of God, those that are bom of him, there is such a prin-
ciple, genius, new nature, as that upon the account thereof they
cannot sin ; and therefore, that those who have not such principles in
them, whatever their pretences be, are not indeed born of God ; — and
in this he manifesteth that those who are indeed born of God cannot
possibly so degenerate as to fall into total impenitency, so as to be-
come children of the devil, which he emphatically afiirmeth.

He doth, indeed, declare that none can make good their title to be
children of God, but those who can justify their claim by a holy and
Christian conversation ; but yet, moreover, he maketh good the as-
sertion by this farther discovery which he maketh of their new nature
to be such as that they cannot sin, or degenerate into a condition of
lying under the power of a vain conversation. So that though his
intent should not be primarily to manifest that those who are at
present the children of God cannot apostatize, but must so continue,
yet it is to confirm their nature and genius to be such, with the prin-
ciples which from God they have received, that so it shall be with
them, so they shall abide; and to this he is not silent, but eminently
expressive.

The context being thus clear, the words themselves are a proposi-
tion or thesis, and a reason for the confirmation of the truth of that
proposition. The proposition is ready at hand in the words, " He
that is born of God doth not, cannot commit sin," The reason of
the proposition confirming the truth thereof is twofold : — 1. Because
he is born of God; 2. Because His seed, whereof he is so born, re-
maineth.

The proposition is universal: nSg 6 yijiniijjkwi sx rov Qiou, "Every
one that is born of God;" whence these two things ensue: — 1. The

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVEES CONSIDERED. 563

truth of it hath a necessary cause or causes. Universal propositions
must have so, or they are not true. If that which is their ground
may be otherwise, it invahdates their certainty. Such, then, must be
the cause of this assertion of the apostle. 2. That it compriseth all
and every one that is interested in that which is the cause of the
certainty of this universal assertion or proposition ; " every one who
is born of God," that hath this seed, be he young or old, weak or
strong, wise or foolish, exercised in the ways of God or newly entered
into them, all is one. "Whosoever is thus interested in the founda-
tion is equally interested in the inference.

In the proposition itself may be considered the subject, and what
is affirmed of it. The subject is, " Every one that is born of God."
That which is affirmed of it is, " Sinneth not, cannot sin."

1. For the first, namely, the subject, they are those which are
" born of God ; " and who they are that are so born of God the Scrip-
ture is clear in, neither is there any difference of importance as to
the intendment of this expression. Those who suppose that believers
of some eminency onl}^ are denoted in it, do not consider that all
believers whatever are sharers in the grace intended therein. They
are all said to be born not of the will of the flesh, but of God,
John i. 13; for it is ascribed to all believers on the name of Christ,
verse 12. He begetteth them all of his own will, James i, 18; as
also, 1 Pet. i. 23. He is said to beget them, as to quicken them,
Eph. ii. 1 ; and they to be boi'n of him, as they are quickened or
raised from the dead. Two things are intimated in this exjaression :
— (1.) A new 'principle, habit, or spii'itual life, which such persons
have ; hence they are said to be " born." As they who are born in
the world are partakers of a vital principle, that is the foundation of
all their actions, so have they here a new life, a new vital principle.
By their being bom are they made partakers of it. (2.) The divine
original of that principle of life is from God. They have the
principle of life immediately from him; and therefore are said to
be " born of God." And both these considerations are here used
as descriptions of the subject; and in the close of the reason of the
proposition, they are insisted on as the cause of that effect of not
sinning: " He sinneth not, because he is born of God." Both the
nature of the principle itself, which in itself is abiding, and the
rise or original that it hath from God, have an influence into that
causality that is ascribed to it; but about this there can be no great
contest.

2. That which is affirmed of every such person is, that he " doth
not commit sin." That this expression is to be attended with its re-
strictions and limitations is evident from that contrariet}^ wherein, in
its whole latitude, it standeth to sundry other testimonies in the book
of God, yea, in this very epistle. " There is no man that doeth good.

564 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

and sinneth not/' saith Solomon, 1 Kings viii. 46; and, " In many
things we ofifend all," saith James, in chap. iii. 2. And this aj)ostle
putteth all out of question by convincing the best of saints that
have "communion with the Father and with his Son," that by saying
we have no sin, by a denial of it, we involve ourselves in the guilt
of it: '"If we,' we apostles, we who have fellowship with the Father
and the Son, 'say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,'" 1 John
i. 8. " Doth not commit sin," then, cannot be taken absolutely for
Doth not sin at all. There is a synecdoche in the words, and they
must be restrained to some kind of sin, or to some manner or degree
in or of sinning. Some say, '" He doth not, cannot sin,' is, They do
not commit sin with delight, not deliberately and with their full
and whole will, without reluctancy and opposition in their wills unto
sin" (which reluctancy is at a vast distance from the reluctancy that
is raised in wicked men from the convictions of their conscience and
judgment) ; which sense is canvassed by Mr Goodwin to no advan-
tage at all, sect. 25, for, in the way and manner formerly explained,
this may well take place. " Doth not commit sin," then, is. Doth not
so commit sin as that sin should reign in him spoken of, and prevail
with him to death. There is an emphasis and intension in the
words, " Doth not commit sin," — that is, Doth not so commit it as
to be given up to the power of it ; he doth not commit sin in such a
way as to be separated from communion with God thereby, which
is only done when sin taketh the rule or reign in any person.

"This exposition," Mr Goodwin saith, " if it can be made to stand
upright, will bear the weight of the whole cause depending alone;
but as it is, it argueth weakness to determine for our own sense in a
controversy or question, without giving a very substantial reason for
the exposition." I doubt if Mr Goodwin's discourses in this treatise
were to be tried by this rule, a man might, upon very substantial
grounds and reasons, call many of his assertions into controversy.
And because he addeth, that " stich is his hard hap, he can meet with
no reasons at all," I must needs question whether he made any dili-
gent search or no ; to this purpose I shall supply him with one or
two that lie hard at hand.

This, then, to be the intendment of the words is evident, —
1. From the scope of the place and aim of the apostle therein;
this is, to distinguish, as was said, betwixt the children of God and
of the devil. The children of the devil commit sin : Verse 8, " He
that committeth sin is of the devil," as he giveth an instance of one
that did so sin. Verse 12, "Cain," saith he, " was of the devil; he
was of that wicked one, and he committed sin." How did Cain
commit sin? Impenitently, to death; that is the committing of sin
which is ascribed to them that are of the devil, of the wicked one.
"Now," saith he, "whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin;"

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 565

that is, he doth not so commit sin as the children of the devil, that
wicked one, do; he sins not to death, with impenitency.

2. The same apostle doth most eminently clear his own intend-
ment in this expression, chap. v. 17, 18, of this epistle, "All imrighte-
ousness is sin : and there is a sin not unto death. We know that who-
soever is born of God sinneth not ; but he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not." That ex-
pression, verse 18, " Sinneth not," standeth in opposition to the sin
mentioned, verse 16, " Sin unto death." " ' There is a sin unto death ;'
but ' he that is born of God sinneth not' unto death." So that both
the context and the exposition of the words given in a parallel place
afford us the sense insisted on.

Three reasons are attempted by Mr Goodwin against this exposi-
tion ; "and many more," saith he, " are at hand," which it seems he is
willing to spare for another season. Of those that he is pleased to use,
I have already considered that which is of the chiefest importance,
being taken from the scope of the place. It hath been already de-
clared, not only that the sense by him urged is not suitable to the
intendment of the Holy Ghost, and that Mr Goodwin is not a little
mistaken in his analysis of the chapter, but that the exposition in-
sisted on by us is from thence enforced.

His other reasons are : — first, " That the grammar or letter of the
phrase breatheth not the least air of such a sense."

Ans. That the expression is synecdochical was before affirmed;
what it importeth under the power of that figure is the grammatical
sense of the words. To the grammatical regularity and signification
of them doth their figurativeness belong. Let the words be restrained,
as the figure requireth, and the sense is most proper, as was signified.

But secondly, saith he, "The phrase of 'committing sin' is nowhere
in the Scripture found in such a sense as to sin with final impeni-
tency, or to sin to death."

A71S. The contrary hath been demonstrated. The same phrase
necessarily importeth no less, verse 8 of this chapter; and an equiva-
lent expression, beyond all contradiction, intendeth the same, chap.
V. 17, 18, Besides, a phrase may be so circumstantiated as to be in
one only place restrained to a sense which it doth not elsewhere
necessarily import. So that, notwithstanding these exceptions, the
exposition of the words is clear as before given in. And yet this is
all Mr Goodwin produceth as his ground and foundation whereon to
stand in denying this proposition, " He that is born of God sinneth
not ;" — that is, falleth not under the power of reigning sin, sinneth
not to death, as the children of the wicked one do : which I shall leave
under that consideration wherewith it is educed from the scope of the
text, and the parallel place of chap. v. 17, 18. The truth is, there is
not much need to contend about this expression, Mr. Goodwin grant-

566 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ing that the intendment of it is, "That such as are born of God do not
walk ordinarily and customarily in any ways of known sin/' sect. 28 ;
" which," as he saith, " is the import of that phrase, -ttohTv a/iapr/a/'
(the contrary whereof might yet be easily evinced), — " he maketh no
trade or occupation of sinning; that is, he doth not sin in an inconsist-
ency of communion with God in the covenant of his grace." Now, in
this sense he granteth his proposition, "He that is born of God sinneth
not," — that is, ordinarily or customarily; that is, so as not to be ac-
cepted of God ; that is, no believer sinneth at such a rate as not to
be accepted with God. Add now hereunto the ground and reason
of this assertion, namely, his being born of God, and the abiding
of the seed in him, and we have obtained all that we desire to evince
from this place. Because such an one is born of God (which is a rea-
son which holdeth good to eternity, being an act irrevocably past),
and because the seed abideth in him, he cannot sin ordinarily or
customarily; which kind of sinning alone (as is supposed) can eject
the abiding seed ; — that is, he sinneth not beyond the rate of sins of
infirmity, nor in any such way as should render him incapable of
communion or acceptance with God.

The apostle nextly advanceth farther with his design, and saith,
"He that is born of God cannot sin;" that is, that sin which he sinneth
not he cannot sin; he cannot fall under the power of reigning sin unto
death. I confess the words "can" and "cannot" are variously used in
the Scriptures; some kind of impossibility, in one respect or other (for
things may be in some regard impossible that are not so absolutely),
it always denoteth. The whole of the variety in this kind may be
referred to two heads: —

1. That which is morally impossible. Of that it is said that it
cannot be done, 2 Cor. xiii. 8, saith Paul, " We can do nothing
against the truth;" and Acts iv. 20, say the apostles, " We cannot but
speak the things we have seen and heard." It was morally impossible
that ever any thing should have been done by Paul against the truth ;
or that the apostles, having received the Spirit, should not speak
what they had seen and heard of Christ. And of many things that
are thus morally impossible, there are most certain and determinate
causes as to make the things so impossible as, in respect of the event,
to be absolutely impossible. It is morally impossible that the devil
should do that which is spuitually good, and yet absolutely impos-
sible. There is more in many a thing that is morally impossible
than a mere ojaposition to justice; as we say, " Illud possumus quod
jure possumus." The causes of moral impossibility may be such as
to tie up the thing which it relateth unto in an everlasting nou-
futurition. There is also, —

2. An impossibility that is physical, from the nature of the things
themselves. So Jer. xiii 23, " Can the Ethiopian change his skin?"

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 567

— that Is, lie cannot. Matt. vii. 18, "A good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit ;"" — that is,
nothing can act contrary to its own natural principles. And, as we
shall see afterward, there is this impossibility in the " cannot" here
mentioned. They cannot do it, upon the account of the new spiri-
tual nature wherewith they are endued.

Now, there may be a third kind of impossibility in spiritual things
arising from both these, which one hath not ineptly called the ethico-
physical or morally-natural, partaking of the nature of both the
others. It is moral, because it relateth to duty, what is to be done
or not to be done ; and it is physical, because it relateth to a cause
or principle that can or cannot produce the effect. So our Saviour
telleth the Pharisees, "How can ye, being evil, speak good things?"
or, "ye cannot," Matt, xii. 34, "Ye. cannot hear my word," John
viii. 43. It was morally impossible they should either speak or hear,
— that is, either do or believe that which is spiritually good, — having
no principle that should enable them thereunto, having no root
that should bear up unto fruit, being evil trees in themselves, and
having a principle, a root, continually, universally, uninterruptedly,
inclining and disposing them another way, to acts of a quite contrary
nature. Of this kind is that impossibility here intimated. The
effect denied is morally impossible, upon the account of the internal
physical cause hindering of it.

However, then, the word in the Scripture may be variously taken,
yet here it is, from adjacent circumstances, evidently restrained to
such a signification as, in respect of the event, absolutely rejecteth the
thing denied. The gradation of the apostle also leadeth us to it.
" He sinneth not," nay, " he cannot sin." " He cannot sin" riseth
in the assertion of that before expressed, "He sinneth not;" which
absolutely rejecteth the gloss that some seek to put upon the words,
namely, " That ' cannot sin' is no more but ' cannot sin easily, and
cannot sin but as it were with difficulty, such is the antipathy and
habitual opposition which they have to sin,""" which Mr Goodwin ad-
hereth unto: for besides that this is in itself false, there beinsf no
such antipathy in any to sin but that they may easily fall into it,
yea, and with great difficulty and labour do restrain [themselves]
from it, as the apostle argueth at large, Rom. vii, ; so is it also flatly
contradictory to the words themselves. The apostle saith, " He that
is born of God sinneth not, cannot sin." " He can sin," saith this
gloss, " though difficultly." Now, he that can sin difficultly, can sin.
" Can sin" and " cannot sin " are flatly contradictory. He cannot,
then, sin at all the sin that is intended in the place of whom it is
said, " He cannot sin."

Thus we have cleared the first proposition in the words, both as
to the subject, " Every one that is born of God," and the predicate,

568 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

"Siunetli not, cannot sin;" which last expression, taken in its only
proper and most usual signification, denoteth an impossibility of the
event, and plainly confirmeth in direct terms the position we insist
on from the words.

Mr Goodwin knoweth not well (if I am able to gather any thing
of his thoughts from his expressions to the argument in hand) what
to say to this assertion of the apostle. The argument he intendeth
to deal withal from the place he casteth into this form : " He that sin-
neth not, neither can sin, cannot fall away; 'whosoever is born of
God sinneth not, neither can sin:' ergo."

Coming to the consideration of that expression, " Cannot sin," he
findeth out, as he supposeth, four several acceptations in the Scrip-
ture of the word " cannot," and giveth us an account of his thoughts
upon the consideration of them, — that in respect of these senses both
propositions are false. Now, one of the propositions being the express
language and literal expression of the Holy Ghost, not varied in the
least, there is no way to relieve himself from being thought and con-
ceived to give the lie to the blessed Spirit of God, by flatly denying
what he peremptorily affirmeth, but only by denying the word " can-
not" to be taken in this place in any of the senses before mentioned.
Doth he then fix on this course for his own extrication? doth he
give in another sense of the word, which he accepts, and grants that
in that sense the affirmation of the Holy Ghost may be true? Not
in the least ; yea, plainly, for one of the senses he supposeth himself
to have found out of the word " cannot," — namely, that it is said of
men they cannot do such or such a thing, because of their averseness
and indisposition to it, which he exemplifieth in that of Christ to the
Pharisees, John viii. 43, — he afterward more than insinuateth that
this is the sense wherein the words " Cannot sin" are in this place
to be taken, sect. 34 : so that he will not allow the Holy Ghost to
speak the truth, although he take his words in what sense lie pleasetb ;
yea, and adding a fifth sense, sect. 31 (which is all, it seemeth, he
could find out, for we have heard not of any more), he denieth that
to bo the meaning of the place: and so shutteth up the mind of the
Holy Ghost into some of those significations wherein if the words be
taken, he saith, they are false. The discourse of Mr Goodwin, sect.
28-30 (being taken up with the consideration of the various signifi-
cations of the word " cannot," and his inferences thereon, taking it in
this place, this way or that way, then it is so or so, showing himself
very skilful at fencing and warding off the force of our arguments, —
as perhaps his thoughts of himself were upon a review of what he had
done), we arc not concerned in. And though it were very easy to
manifest that, in the distribution of his instances for the exemplifica-
tion of the several significations which in part he feigneth and fast-
eneth upon the words, he hath been overtaken with many gross mis-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 569

takes, some of them occasioned by other corrupt principles than those
now under consideration, yet none of the senses insisted on by him
coming really up to the intendment of the Holy Ghost, without any
disadvantage to our cause in hand, being wholly unconcerned therein,
we may pass by that whole harangue.

That which looketh towards the argument under consideration
appeareth first in sect. 31, which he thus proposeth: "If the said
argument understandeth the phrase ' Cannot sin,' according to the
fifth and last import mentioned of the word ' cannot/ wherein it
soundeth an utter and absolute incapacity and impossibility, then in
this sense the major proposition is gTanted, namely, ' He that doth
not nor can sin cannot fall away from his faith.' Yet the minor is
tardy, which saith, ' Whosoever is born of God sinneth not, neither
can sin : ' for he that is born of God is in no such incapacity of sinning;
of sinning, I mean, in the sense formerly asserted to the scripture in
hand, which amounteth to an absolute impossibility for him so to sin."

Ans. Because this seemeth to be the sense intended in the argu-
ment, and the minor proposition in this sense to be built upon the
scripture in hand, let us consider whether the reason which is as-
signed for the said assertion doth necessarily enforce such a sense
thereon. What we understand by this phrase, both as to that sin
that is here intended, and that impossibility of committing it, or fall-
ing into it often, in that expression " cannot," hath been before dis-
covered. An impossibility it is of the event, from the causes above
mentioned, that the Holy Ghost intendeth. An utter and absolute
incapacity to sin on any account we assert not; an impossibility of
so sinning, in respect of the event, for the reasons and from the causes
above mentioned, the Holy Ghost averreth. In this sense the first
proposition is granted : " He that doth not commit sin, nor can sin,
cannot fall away from his faith, or can [not] utterly lose it." The minor,
which is the express language of the Holy Ghost, is questioned, and
found tardy; that is, as I suppose, false. And the reason is added,
namely, " That he that is born of God is in no such incapacity of
sinning;" that is, of sinning in that kind of sinning which is here
intended, which amounteth to an impossibility for him so to sin.
Not to play fast and loose, under these ambiguous expressions of " In-
capacity" and "Absolute impossibility," the event is positively denied
upon the account of the prohibiting causes of it ; and the incapacity
asserted relateth not to the internal frame and principle only, but
respecteth also other considerations. Whether these are such as to
bear the weight of this exposition, is that which cometh nextly to be
discussed; namely, the causes of this state and condition of those who
are thus born of God, and the reasons investing that universal pro-
position, " Every one that is born of God cannot sin," with a neces-
sary truth.

670 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERAA^CE. [CHAP.

In the reasons added of the former affirmation, there is an em-
phatical distribution of the two parts of the predicate of the former
proposition, by the way of ascending to a more vehement confirma-
tion of them: " He that is born of God sinneth not." But why so?
"His seed remaineth; neither can be sin." Why so? " Because he
is born of God." It is an expressive pursuit of the same thing, and
not a redoubling of the proposition ; and this contexture of the
words is so emphatically significant that it seemeth strange how
any head of opposition can be made against it. There is no reason,
then, to resolve the words into two propositions of distinct considera-
tion each from other, it being one and the same thing that the
apostle Intendeth to express, though proceeding to heighten the
certainty of the thing in the minds of them to whom he delivered
it by the contexture of the words which he maketli use of. What
is meant or intended by the "seed of God" we need not dispute.
The argument of the apostle lieth not in the words " seed of God,"
nor in the word " abideth," but in the whole, " The seed of God
abideth;" and therefore it were to no purpose at all to follow Mr
Goodwin in his consideration of the word " seed," and then of the
[words] " seed of God," and then of the word " abideth," divided one
from another. The sum of his long answer is, "The word 'seed' doth
not import any such thing as is aimed at from the text, nor the word
'abide;'" but to the whole proposition, "The seed of God abideth in
him," as produced to confirm the former assertion of the not sinning
of the persons spoken of, there is nothing spoken at all. I shall
therefore briefly confirm the argument in hand by the strength here
communicated unto it by the Holy Ghost, and then consider what
is answered to any part of it, or objected to the interpretation in-
sisted on. That " He that sinneth not, neither can sin," in the sense
explained, shall never fall away totally or finally from God, is granted.
That believers sin not, nor can sin so, or in the manner mentioned,
besides the testimony of the Holy Ghost, worthy of all acceptation,
in the clear assertion of it, we have the reasons thereof manifested in
the discovery of the causes of its truth. The first reason is, " Be-
cause the seed of God abideth in them." A tacit grant seemeth to
be made that fruit sometimes may not visibly appear upon them ;
as the case is with a tree in winter when it casts its leaves, but its
seed remaineth. Grace may abide in the habit in and under a
winter of temptation, though it doth not exert itself in bearing any
such actual fruit as may be ordinarily visible. The word of God is
sometimes called " incorruptible seed," — seed causatively, as being
an instrument in the hand of God whereby he planteth the seed
of life and holiness in the heart. That it is not the outward word,
but that which is produced and effected by it through the efficacy of
the Spirit of God, that is by "seed" intended, is evident from the

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 571

use and nature of it, and its abiding in the person in whom it is.
Whatever it is, it is called " seed," not in respect of that from whence
it Cometh, as is the cause and reason of that appellation of other
seed, but in respect of that which it produceth, which arise th and
ensueth upon it; and it is called the "seed of God," because God
useth it for the regeneration of his. Being from God, being the
principle of the regeneration of them in whom it is, abiding in them
even when it hath brought forth fruit, and continuing so to do, it
can be no other but the new creature, new nature, inward man, new
principle of life or habit of grace, that is bestowed upon all believers,
whence they are regenerated, quickened, or born again ; of which we
have spoken before.

This seed, saith the Holy Ghost, " abideth" or " remaineth in him."
Whatever falling or withering he may seem to have or hath, this
seed, the seed of God, remaineth in him, — the principle of his new
life abideth. Some exceptions are made, as we shall see afterward,
to the signification of the word ^Ive;, "remaineth," and instances
given where it signifieth "to be," and denoteth the essence of a
thing, not its duration. That to " abide," or " remain," is the proper
signification of the word, I suppose will not be questioned. That it
may in some place be used in another sense is not disputed. All
that lieth under consideration here is, whether the word in this place
be used properly, according to its genuine and first signification, or
no. It supposeth, indeed, "to be" also, but properly signifieth only
to "abide" or "remain." Now, if nothing can be advanced, from
the text or context, from the matter treated on or the parallel sig-
nificancy of some expression that is in conjunction with it, that should
enforce us to carry it from its proper use and signification, the in-
stancing of other places, if any such be, wherein it is restrained to
denote being, and not duration, is altogether impertinent to the
business in hand. When an argument is urged from any place of
Scripture, to pick out any word in the text, and to manifest that it
hath been used improperly in some other place, and therefore must
be so in that, is a procedure so far from an ingenuous answer, that it
will scarce pass for a tolerable shift or evasion. To " remain," then,
or to " abide," is the proper signification of this word, and nothing is
in the least offered to manifest that it must necessarily in this place
be diverted from its proper use.

According to the import of the word, the seed of God remaineth
in believers. Now, that remaining of the seed is the cause of their
not sinning that sin, or in that manner as the apostle here denieth
them to be liable to sin ; for that is the reason he giveth why they
cannot sin, even because the seed of God remaineth in them. Mr
Goodwin granteth that this seed remaineth in believers always, un-
less they sin by a total defection from God. Of not sinning the sin

572 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

of total defection from God, the remaining or abiding of this seed is
the cause. Whilst that abideth they cannot sin that sin; for it is an
unquestionable cause, and uncontrollable, of their not so doing. This
seed, therefore, must be utterly lost and taken away before any such
sin can be committed. Now, if the seed cannot be lost without the
commission of the sin, which cannot be committed till it be lost,
neither can the seed be lost nor the sin be committed. The same
thing cannot be before and after itself He that cannot go such a
journey unless he have such a hoi'se, and cannot have such a horse
unless he go such a journey, is like to stay at home. In Avhat sense
the words " Cannot sin" are to be taken was before declared. That
there are sins innumerable whereinto men may fall notwithstanding
this seed, is confessed. Under them all this seed abideth. So it would
not do under that which we cannot sin because it abideth; but be-
cause it abideth that sin cannot be committed.

The latter part of the reason of the apostle's assertion is, " For he
is born of God ;" which is, indeed, a driving on the former to its head
and fountain. What it is to be " born of God" we need not dispute ; it
was sufficiently discovered in the mention that was made before of
the " seed of God." God, by his Holy Spirit bestowing on us a new
spiritual life, which by nature we have not, and in respect of whose
want we are said to be dead, is frequently said to " beget" us, James
i. 18, and we are said to be " born of God." He is the sovereign dis-
poser, dispenser, and supreme fountain, of that life which is so be-
stowed on us, which we are begotten again unto, and are born with
and by. And Jesus Christ, the mediator, is also said to have this
" life in himself," John v. 26, because he hath received the Spirit of
the Father to give to his, for their quickening; who taketh of his,
and thereby begetteth them anew. And this life which believers thus
receive, and whereby, indeed, radically they become believers, is every-
where in Scripture noted as permanent and abiding. In respect of
the original of it, it is said to be " from above, from heaven, of the
will of God, of God;" as to its principle, to be "not of flesh, or
blood, or of the will of man," or of any thing done by us, but of the
" seed of God, incorruptible seed, seed that abideth;" in respect of its
duration, to be " eternal," and that it may so be, to be safe-guarded,
being " hid with Christ in God." In this place, receiving this life
from God is placed as the cause, and " Cannot sin" as the effect.
"He cannot sin, for" or because, " he is born of God." The connection
that is between this cause and effect, or wherein the causality of
being born of God to a not sinning doth consist, needs not be in-
quired into. That it hath such a causality the Holy Ghost hath
asserted, and our argument resteth thereon. If tliat be the nature
of regeneration or beiug born of God, that it doth exclude apostasy,
then he that is regenerate or born of God, as every believer is, can-

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 673

not SO sin as to apostatize or fall totally from God ; but that such is
the nature of regeneration, whereby any one is born of God, the Holy
Ghost here declareth, for he denieth apostasy upon the account of
regeneration, " He cannot sin, because he is born of God;" which is
that which we intended to demonstrate from this text of Scripture.

To evade the force of this argument, Mr Goodwin, as hath been
declared, undertaketh to give an exposition of this place of Scrip-
ture, turning every stone, and labouring to wrest every word in it.
The several significations of the words in other places are set out,
and suppositions made of taking them this way or that way ; but in
what sense the scope of the matter treated on, and the most usual,
known, common acceptations, call for their use in this place, nothing
is spoken, neither is any clear answer once attempted to be given to
the words of the text, speaking out and home to the conclusion we
intend, or to the argument thence deduced. What I can gather up
from sect. 81 and forwards, that may obstruct the thoughts of any in
closing with the interpretation given, I shall consider and remove out
of the way : — First, then, he giveth you this interpretation of these
words, " Sinneth not," or " Cannot sin :" " ' Every one that hath been
born of God sinneth not ; ' that is, whosoever hath, by the word and
Spirit of God, been made partaker of the divine nature, so as to re-
semble God in the frame and constitution of his heart and soul, doth
not, under such a frame or change of heart as this, make a trade or
practice of sinning, or of walking in any course of inordinateness in the
world. Yea, saith he, in the latter proposition, ' Every such person
doth not only or simply refrain sinning in such a sense, but he can-
not sin ; ' that is, he hath a strong and potent disposition in him
which carrieth him another way, for he hath a strong antipathy or
averseness of heart and soul against all sin, especially all such kind
of sinning."

Ans. 1. What is meant by being " born of God," the way whereby
any come so to be, the universality of the expression, requiring a
necessary cause of its verity, with the like attendancies of the pro-
position, have been before declared.

2. What Mr Goodwin intendeth by such a " frame and constitution
of heart and soul as may resemble God," with his denial of the be-
stowing on us from God of a vital principle of grace, wherein the re-
novation in us of his image should consist, hath in part also been
already discovered, and will yet farther be so, in our consideration
of his rare notion of regeneration, and its consisting in a man's re-
turn to the innocent and harmless estate wherein he was born.

3. That " Sinneth not" is " Sinneth not that sin," or " So sinneth
not as to break his relation to God as a child," hath been already also
manifested, and the reader is not to be burdened with repetitions.

4. In the interpretation given of the latter phrase, " He cannot

674 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

sin/' I cannot so sin against the light of the text as to join with Mr
Goodwin in it. It is not the " antipathy of his heart to sin," but the
course of his walking with God in respect of sin, that the apostle
treateth on. His internal principling against sin he hath from
being " bom of God " and the " abiding of his seed in him ;" of which
this, that " he cannot sin," is asserted as the effect. " He cannot sin,"
— that is, he cannot so sin upon the account of his being " born of
God" (thence, indeed, he hath not only " a potent disposition another
way and antipathy to evil," but a vital principle with an everlasting-
enmity and repugnancy to and inconsistency with any such sin or sin-
ning as is intimated) ; and that he cannot sin is the consequent and
effect thereof, and is so affirmed to be by the Holy Ghost.

Nextly, Mr Goodwin giveth you the reason of this assertion used
by the apostle, why such an one as of whom he speaketh sinneth
not, and cannot sin: " 'Now the reason,' saith the apostle, ' why such
a person committeth not sin in the sense explained is, because his
seed, the seed of God, by whom and of which he was born of him,
remaineth in him ; ' that is, is, or hath an actual and present being
or residence, in him. And that in this place it doth not signify any
perpetual abiding, or any abiding in relation to the future, is evident,
because the abiding of the seed here spoken of is given as the reason
why he that is bom of God doth not commit sin; that is, doth not
frequently walk in any course of known sin. Now, nothing in re-
spect of any future permanency or continuance of being can be looked
upon as the cause of an effect, but only in respect of the present
being or residence of it. The reason why the soul moveth to-day
is not because it will move or act the body to-morrow, or because it
is in the body to-day upon such terms that it will be in to-moiTow
also, much less because it is an immortal substance, but simply be-
cause it is now or this day in the body. So the reason why angels
at this day do the will of God is not because they have such a prin-
ciple of holiness or obedience in them which they cannot put off or
lose to eternity, but because of such a principle as we speak of residing
in them at present. Therefore, when John assigneth the remaining
of the seed of God in him that is born of him for the reason why he
doth not commit sin, certain it is that by this remaining of the seed
he meaneth nothing else but the present residence or abode thereof in
this person ; and if his intent had been either to assert or imply a per-
petual residence of this seed in him that is born of God, it had been
much more proper for him to have saved it for a reason of the latter
proposition, ' He that is born of God cannot sin,' than to have sub-
joined it as a reason of the former; for though the future continuance
of the thing in being can be no reason of the effect present, yet it will
be a ground or reason of the continuance of a present effect."

Ans. I have thus at large transcribed this discourse, because it is

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 575

the sum of what Mr Goodwin hath to offer for the weakening of our
argument from this place. Of what weight this is will quickly ap-
pear; for, —

1. This reason, " The seed abideth in him," though brought in illa-
tively, in respect of what was said before, " He doth not commit sin/'
yet hath its causal influence chiefly into that which followeth, " He
cannot sin." To make good what was first spoken of his not com-
mitting sin that is born of God, the apostle discovereth the cause of
it; which so far secureth the truth of that expression as that it
causeth it to ascend, and calls him up higher, to a certain impossi-
bility of doing of that which was only at first simply denied. Neither
is this assertion, " The seed of God abideth in him," any otherwise a
reason of the first assertion, " He committeth not sin," than as it is
the cause of the latter, " He cannot sin." Now, Mr Goodwin grant-
eth, in the close of his discourse, that " the future continuance of a
thing in being is, or may be, the cause of the continuance of an effect
which at present it produceth;" — and what[ever] Mr Goodwin may
more curiously discover of the intent of the apostle, his words plainly
assert the continuance and abode of the seed of God in them in
whom it is ; and using it as he doth, for a reason of the latter clause
of that proposition, " He cannot sin," he speak eth properly enough, so
great a master (of one language at least) as Mr Goodwin being judge.

2. The reason insisted on by the apostle is neither from the word
*' seed," nor from the word " abideth," nor from the nature of the
seed simply considered, nor from its permanency and continuance,
"The seed abideth;" so that it is no exception to the intendment of
the apostle to assert the abiding of the seed not to be a sufficient cause
of the proposition, because its abiding or permanency is not a cause
of present not sinning, for it is not asserted that it is. His present
not sinning in whom it is, is from God, his being born of God by
the seed ; his continuance and estate of not sinning (both which are
intended) is from the abiding of the seed. The whole condition of
the person, that " He sinneth not, neither can sin" (which terms re-
gard his continued estate), is from the whole proposition, " The seed
of God abideth in him." Separate the permanency of the seed, which
is asserted, in the consideration of it, and it respects only and solely
the continuance of the effect which is produced by it as seed, or of
the estate wherein any one is placed by being born of God. All
that Mr Goodwin hath to offer in this case is, that the abidinof of
the seed is so asserted to be the reason of that part of the proposi-
tion, " He committeth not sin," as not to be the cause r^g axj^yismg,
"He cannot sin;" when the abiding of the seed, singly considered, is
not used as any reason at all of the first, nor in the proposition as it
lieth, " The seed abideth," any otherwise but as it is the cause of the
latter, " He cannot sin."

576 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

3. Even the expression, *' He committeth not sin," denoteth not
only the present actual frame and walking of him of whom it is
spoken, but his estate and condition. Being once born of God, he
committeth not sin. No one that is so born of God doth. IS! one
in the state and condition of a regenerate person doth so; that is,
in his course and walking to the end. And this is argued not so
much distinctly to the permanency of the seed, as from the seed
with such an adjunct.

4. Mr Goodwin's allusions to the soul and the obedience of angels
are of little use, or none at all, to the illustration of the business in
hand; for though the reason why the soul moveth the body to-day
is not because it will move it to-morrow, yet the reason why the
body moveth, and cannot but do so, is because it hath the soul abid-
ing in it, and he that shall say, " He that liveth moveth, for he hath
a soul abiding in him and cannot but move," shall speak properly
enough. And the reason why the angels do the will of God in hea-
ven,— that is, actually continue in so doing, — is, because they have
such a confirmed and uncontrollable principle of obedience. So that
all these exceptions amount not to the least weakening of the apostle's
arguments.

Sect. 32. Our author giveth two instances to prove that the word
//,£!/£/ in the Scripture signifieth sometimes only " to be," and not " to
abide," and they are, the one, John xiv. 17, and the other, 1 John
iii. 14; and one argument to manifest that in the place under consi-
deration it must needs signify a present abode and being, and not a
continuance, etc.

Ans. 1. If any such places be found, yet it is confessed that it is
an unusual sense of the word, and a thousand places of that kind
will not enforce it to be so taken in another place, unless the cir-
cumstances of it and matter whereabout it treateth enforce that
sense, and will not bear that which is pi-oper.

2. Mr Goodwin doth not make it good by the instances he pro-
duceth that the word is tied up in any place to denote precisely only
the being of a thing, without relation to its abiding and continuance.
Of the one, John xiv. 1 7, "But ye knoAv him, because he abideth with
you, and shall be in you," saith he, " The latter clause, ' Shall be in
you,' will be found a mere tautology if the other phrase, ' Abideth
with you,' importeth a perpetual residence or in-being." But that
this phrase, " Abideth with you," importeth the same with the phrase
in the foregoing verse, where it is clearly expounded by the addition
of the term " For ever" (" That he may abide with you for ever"), I
suppose cannot be questioned. Nor, —

5. Is there any the least appearance of a tautology in the words,
his remaining Avith believers being the thing promised, and his in-
being the manner of his abode with them. Also 1 John iii. 14,

XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDERED. 577

Mivti Iv rOj '^avdrtfi, doth not simply denote an estate or condition, but
an estate or condition in its nature, without the interposition of al-
mighty grace, abiding and permanent; so that neither have we yet
any instance of resti'aining the significancy of the word, as pretended,
produced ; nor, if any place could be so, would it in the least enforce
that acceptation of the word in this place contended about. Where-
fore Mr Goodwin, as I said, addeth an argument to evince that the
word must necessarily be taken in the sense by him insisted on in this
place ; which is indeed a course to the purpose, if his argument prove
so in any measure; it is this: "Because such a signification of it would
render the sense altogether inconsistent with the scope of the apostle,
wdiich is to exhort Christians unto righteousness and love of the
brethren. Now, it is contrary to common sense itself to signify unto
those whom we persuade to any duty any such thing as imports an
absolute certainty or necessity of their doing it, whether they take
care or use any means for the doing of it or no ; and a clear case it
is that the certainty of a perpetual remaining of the seed of God in
those that are born of him importeth a like certainty of their per-
petual performance of that duty whereunto they are exhorted."

Ans. If this be all, it might have been spared. The argument
consisteth of two parts: — 1. An aspersion of the infinite wisdom of
God with a procedure contrary to all reason and common sense.
2. A begging of the thing in question betwixt its author and its ad-
versaries. That there is any thing at all in the text, even according
to our interpretation of it, that importeth an absolute necessity of
men's doing any thing, whether they take care to use the means of
doing it or no, the reader must judge. The abiding of the seed is
that, we say, which shall effectually cause them in whom it is to
use the means of not sinning, that eventually they may not do so;
and that a certainty of the use of means is imported is no argument
to prove that their necessity of persevering is proved, whether they
use means or no. To take care to use means is amongst the means
appointed to be used; and this they shall do upon the account of
the abiding seed. That, indeed, which is opposed is, that God can-
not promise to work eftectually in us by the use of means, for the ac-
complishment of an appointed end, but that withal he rendereth use-
less and vain all his exhortations to us to use those means. This is
Mr Goodwin's argument from the place itself, to enforce that im-
proper acceptation of the words " Kemaineth in us."

What remaineth of Mr Goodwin's long discourse upon this text of
Scripture is but a fencing with himself, and raising of objections
and answering of them suitably to his own principles, wherein we
are not in the least concerned. There is not any thing from the be-
ginning to the end of it that tendeth to impeach our interpretation
of the place, or impede the progress of our argument, but only a

VOL. XL S7

578 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

flourish set up on Lis own exposition ; which if he were desired to give
in briefly, and in terms of a plain, downright significancy, I am verily
persuaded he would be hardly put to it to let us know what his
mind and conceptions of this place of Scripture are. But of this
subject, and in answer to his fifth argument, with the chapter, this is
the issue.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BEARING OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' APOSTASY ON
THEIR CONSOLATION.

Mr G.'s seventh argument, about the tendency of the doctrine of the saints'
apostasy as to their consolation, proposed, considered — What that doctrine
ofFereth for the consolation of the saints stated — The impossibility of its
affording the least true consolation manifested — The influence of the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance into their consolation — The medium whereby
Mr G. confirms his argument examined — What kind of nurse for the peace
and consolation of the saints the doctrine of apostasy is — Whether their
obedience be furthered by it — What are the causes and springs of true conso-
lation— Mr G.'s eighth argument proposed to consideration — Answer there-
unto— The minor proposition considered — The Holy Ghost not afraid of
the saints' miscarriages — The confirmation of his minor proposition proposed
and considered — The discourse assigned to the Holy Ghost by Mr G., accord-
ing to our principles, considered — Exceptions against it — The first — The
second— The third— The fourth— The fifth— The sixth— The seventh— The
foundation of Mr G.'s pageant everted — The procedure of the Holy Ghost
in exhortations, according to our principles — Sophisms in the former discourse
farther discovered — His farther plea in this case proposed, considered — The
instance of Christ and his obedience considered and vindicated, as to the ap-
plication of it to the business in hand — Mr G.'s last argument proposed,
examined — 1 John ii. 19 explained; vindicated — Argument from thence for
the perseverance of the saints — Mr G.'s exceptions thereunto considered and
removed — The same words farther pursued — Mr G.'s consent with the Re-
monstrants manifested by his transcriptions from their Synodaha — Our argu-
ment from I John ii. 19 fully cleared— The conclusion of the examination of
Mr G.'s arguments for the apostasy of the saints.

The seventh argument, which Mr Goodwin insisteth upon in the
36th section of his 13th chapter, contains one of the greatest rarities
he hath to show in the whole pack, concerning the influence of the
doctrine of the saints' apostasy into their consolation in their walking
with God ; an undertaking so uncapable of any logical confirmation,
as that though Mr Goodwin interweaves his discourse concerning it
with a syllogism, yet he quickly leaves that thorny path, and pursues
it only with a rhetorical flourish of words, found out and set in order
to deceive. At the head, then, of his discourse, he placeth this argu-
ment, as it is called: —

" That doctrine whose genuine and proper tendency is to advance

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 579

the peace and joy of the saints in believing is of a natural sympathy
with the gospel, and upon this account a truth; such is the doc-
trine which informeth the saints of a possibility of their total and
final falling away : ergo."

The proposition of this syllogism he supposes we will grant ; and
(not to trouble the reader with the qualifications and limitations for-
merly annexed to that which proposed the furtherance of the obe-
dience of the saints as a proof of the truth of any doctrine) for my
part I do. For the proof of the assumption, wherein alone Mr Good-
win's interest in this argument doth lie, he refers us to his 9th chapter,
where, as he tells us (if we may believe him), he hath " undeniably
demonstrated the truth of it ;" but we have considered whatever
looks that way in that chapter, and have found it all as chaff and
stubble before the breath of the Spirit of the Lord in the word. That
which lies upon his shoulders to support (a burden too heavy for
him to bear), and whose demonstration he hath undertaken, is, that
it tends to the peace, joy, and consolation, of the saints of God, in
their walking with him (which arises from, and solely depends upon,
that assurance they have of their eternal fruition of him through
Christ), to be instructed that indeed they are in themselves weak,
unable to do any thing as they ought; that they have no strength
to continue in the mercy of God, but carry about with them a body
of death ; and that they are continually exposed to a world of temp-
tations, whereby many strong men fall down, are thrust through,
and slain every day; that in this condition there is no considera-
tion of the immutability or unchangeableness of God that may se-
cure them of the continuance of his love to them, no eternal pur-
pose of his that he will preserve them and keep them through his
power, no promise of not leaving them, or of giving them such sup-
plies of his Spirit and grace that they shall never forsake or leave
him, nothing in the covenant, or oath of God whereby it is con-
firmed, to assure them of an abiding and not-to-be-destroyed com-
munion with him ; that Christ by his death and oblation hath not
so taken away the guilt of their sins, nor laid such a sure foundation
for the destruction of the power of them, as that they shall not arise
either way to their ruin; that he intercedes not for their preserva-
tion in faith and holiness; — upon the account of which state and con-
dition of things, many of the most eminent saints that ever served
God in this world have utterly fallen out of his love and favour, and
have been cast out of covenant, from whence, though perhaps some
few have been recovered, yet far the greatest part of them have
perished everlastingly (as is the state in reference unto many in
every generation): only, such may do well to consider what a fearful
and desperate issue their apostasy will have if they should so fall,
and what an eminent reward, with what glory, is proposed to them,

680 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

if they persevere. That, I say, the instruction of the saints in this
doctrine is a singular means of promoting their consolation and
establishing their peace is that which (doubtless with undervaluing
thoughts of all with whom he hath to do) he hath undertaken to
prove. I doubt not but that Mr Goodwin thought sometimes of the
good old rule : —

" Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam
Viribus; et versate diu, quid ferre recusent,
Quid valeant humeri." Hor. Ep. ad Pison., 38.

Self-confidence is hereby settled and fixed with considerations; and
though Mr Goodwin, in the close of this section, tells us "that sundry
godly and seriously religious persons, when they heard this doctrine
published which he now asserts, with their whole hearts blessed God
for it," yet truly I cannot but question whether, yea, I must posi-
tively deny that ever, any saint of God received consolation by the
doctrine of the saints' apostasy, — a lie exceedingly unsuited to the
l^roduction of any such effect, any farther than that all error what-
soever is apt to defile and cauterize the conscience, so deceiving it
with senselessness for peace. Perhaps some of Mr Goodwin's hearers,
(who either were so ignorant or so negligent as not to be acquainted
with this doctrine before, in the attempts made for the propa-
gation of it by the later brood of prelates and Arminians amongst
us,) upon his deliver}^ of it with enticing words of human wisdom,
helped on by the venerable esteem they have of his transcendent
parts and abilities, through the cunning of Satan, improving the itch-
ing after new doctrines which is fallen upon the minds and spirits
of many professors in this age, have rejoiced under the shadow of
tliis bramble, set up to rule in their congregation, and (according as
is the constant manner of all in our days that are ensnared with
any error, be it never so pernicious) have blessed God for it, profess-
ing they never found rest nor peace before : yet I no way question
but such as fear the Lord, and are yet bowed down under the weight
and carried away with the strength of Mr Goodwin's rhetoric for a
season, will quickly find a fire proceeding out of that newly-enthroned
doctrine, preying upon and consuming all their joy, peace, and con-
solation ; or (which I rather hope) a fire proceeding out of their faith
" the faith once delivered to the saints," to the utter confusion and
consum[)tion of this bramble, — [this] scratching error. In the mean-
time, if the eminent appearance of many thousands of the saints of
God in this nation (whereof many are fallen asleep, and many con-
tinue to this day), testifying and bearing witness to the joy and con-
solation they have found, and that upon spiritual, demonstrative
grounds, in being cast into the inould of the doctrine of the saints'
perseverance, for many days, be of no weight with Mr Goodwin, I
know not why his single testimony (which yet, as to the matter of

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 581

fact, I no way question) concerning some few persons, by himself
seduced into a persuasion of their apostasy, blessing God for the dis-
covery made to them (the constant practice of all persons in their
first entanglement in the foulest and grossest error whatever), shouhl
sway us much to any good liking of it.

The influence of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance into their
consolation hath been sufficiently already evinced, when we mani-
fested the support of their faith and love, the conquest of their fears
and troubles thereby, so that I shall not need farther to insist there-
on. It was in my thoughts, indeed, to have handled the nature
of gospel consolation, — that which God is so abundantly willing the
heirs of promise should receive, — at large, both as to the nature and
causes of it, the means of its preservation, and the oppositions that
lie against it; and by all the considerations of it to have manifested
that it is utterly impossible to keep it alive one moment in the
heart of a believer without the contribution of supportment it re-
ceives from the doctrine in hand, and that those who refuse to
receive it, as usually delivered, indeed have none, nor can have any
drop of it, but what is instilled into them from and by the power
and efficacy which secretly in and upon their hearts that truth hath
which in words they oppose, all their peace and comfort being in-
deed absolutely proportioned to that which the doctrine of the saints'
perseverance tends to confirm, and to nothing else: but this dis-
course growing under my hands beyond all thought or expectation,
I shall now only keep close to the removal of the exceptions made
against it, and hasten to a close.

I must not leave this argument without taking notice of the me-
dium whereby Mr Goodwin supposeth himself to have confirmed
the truth of the assumption laid down at the entrance, or to have
manifested " the good complexion,"' as he phrases it, " of that nurse
he hath provided" for the consolation of the saints. A nurse with
breasts of flint and a heart of iron hath this cruel man provided for
them; — a nurse whom God will never admit into his family, nor
ever expose his children's lives to any such wolf or tiger as will cer-
tainly starve them, if not devour them; — rather a curst, yea, an ac-
cursed stepdame than a nurse, who when the children ask for bread
gives them a stone, and when they beg for a fish gives them a scor-
pion;— a false and treacherous hireling, doing not the least service
for God, but labouring to stir up strife in his family, to set his poor
children and their heavenly Father at variance; filling them with
hard thoughts of him, as one that takes little or no care for them,
and discouraging them in that obedience which he requireth at their
hands; continually belying their Father to them, and that in refer-
ence to the most desirable excellencies of his faithfulness, truth,
mercy, and grace; never speaking one good or comfortable word to

582 DOCTIUNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

them all their days, nor ouce urging them to do their duty but
with holding a rod, yea scorpions, over their heads, and casting the
eternal flames of hell into their faces. This is that sanguine, indeed
truly spiritually bloody, complexion of this new nurse, which is
offered to be received in the room of that sad, melancholy piece, the
perseverance of the saints. Thus, then, he proceeds : —

" The consolation of true believers depends upon their obedience;
their obedience is furthered by this doctrine : and therefore their con-
solation also."

Ans. What are the springs of true, spiritual, heavenly consolation,
the consolation which God is willing believers should receive, whence
it flows, the means of its continuance and increase, how remote it is
from a sole dependency on our own obedience, hath been in part
before declared. But yet if the next assertion can be made good,
namely, " That the doctrine of the saints' apostasy hath a tendency,
instituted of God, to the promotion of their obedience and holiness,"
I shall not contend about the other, concerning the issuing of their
consolation from thence. All that really is offered in the behalf of
apostasy, as to its serviceableness in this kind, is, that it is suited to
ingenerate in believers a fear of hell, which will put them upon all
ways of mortifying the flesh and the fruits of it, which otherwise
would bring them thereinto. And is this indeed the great mystery
of the gospel? Is this Christ's way of dealing with his saints? or
is it not a falling from grace, to return again unto the law? Those
of whom alone we speak, who are concerned in this business, are all
of them taken into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; are every
one of them partakers of that Spirit with whom is liberty ; are all
endued with a living principle of grace, faith, and love, and are con-
strained by the love of Christ to live to him; are all under grace, and
not under the law ; all have their sins in some measure begun to be
mortified, and the flesh with the lusts thereof, the old man, with all
his ways and wills, crucified, by the death and cross of Christ, brought
with their power and efficacy by the Spirit into their hearts; are all
delivered from that bondage wherein they were, for fear of death and
hell, all their days, by having Christ made redemption unto them.
I say, that these persons should be most effectually stirred up to
obedience by the dread and terror of the iron rod of vengeance and
hell, and that they should be so by God's appointment, is such a new,
such another gospel, as, though preached by an angel from heaven,
we should not receive. That indeed no motive can be taken from
hence, or from any thing in the doctrine by Mr Goodwin contended
for, suited to the principle of gospel obedience in the saints; that no
sin or lust whatsoever was ever mortified by it; that it is a clog, hin-
derance, and burden to all saints, as far as they have to do with it,
in the ways of God, — hath been before demonstrated: and therefore.

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 583

leaving it, with all the consolation that it affords, unto those who of
God are given up there^into, we proceed to the consideration of
another argument, his eighth in this case, which is thus proposed,
sect. 37:—

" That doctrine which evacuates and turns into weakness and folly
all the gracious counsels of the Holy Ghost, which consist partly in
the diligent information which he gives unto the saints, from place to
place, concerning the hostile, cruel, and bloody mind and intention
of Satan against them ; partly in detecting and making known all
his subtle stratagems, his plots, methods, and dangerous machina-
tions against them ; partly, also, in furnishing them with special wea-
pons of all sorts, whereby they may be able to grapple with him and
to triumph over him ; partly, again, in those frequent admonitions and
exhortations to quit themselves like men in resisting him, which are
found in the Scripture ; and, lastly, in professing his fear lest Satan
should circumvent and deceive them; — that doctrine, I say, which
reflects disparagement and vanity upon all these most serious and
gracious applications of the Holy Ghost must needs be a doctrine of
vanity and error, and consequently that which opposeth it, by a like
necessity, a truth; but such is the common doctrine of absolute and
infallible perseverance: ergo."

Ans. Not to engage into any needless contest about ways of argu-
ing when the design and strength of the argument are evident, I shall
only remark two things upon this: —

First, The Holy Ghost professing his fear lest Satan should be-
guile believers is a mistake. It was Paul that was so afraid, not the
Holy Ghost, though he wrote that fear by the appointment and in-
spiration of the Holy Ghost. The apostle was jealous lest the saints
should, by the craft of Satan, be seduced into errors and miscarriages ;
which yet argues not their final defection. This, indeed, he records
of himself; but of the fear of the Holy Ghost, arising from his un-
certainty of those issues of the things, and want of power to prevent
the coming on of the things feared, I suppose there is no mention.
And, —

Secondly, That the consequent of the supposition in the inference
made upon it is not so clear to me as to Mr Goodwin, — namely,
" Suppose any doctrine to be false, whatsoever doctrine is set up in
opposition to it is true." I have known, and so hath Mr Goodwin
also, when the truth hath lain between opposite doctrines, assaulted
by both, entertained by neither. With these observations I pass the
major of this syllogism; the minor he thus confirms: —

" If the saints be in no possibility of being finally overcome by
Satan, or of miscarrying in the great and most important business
of their salvation, by his snares and subtleties, all that operoseness
and diligence of the Holy Ghost, in those late-mentioned address-

584 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ments of his rinto them, in order to their final conquest over Satan
will be found of very light consequence, ,of little concernment to
them; yea, if the said addressments of the Holy Ghost be com-
pared with the state and condition of the saints, as the said doc-
trine of perseverance representeth and affirmeth it to be, the utter
uselessness and impertinency of them will much more • evidently
appear/'

Ans. What possibility or not possibility the saints are in of final
apostasy from God ; what assurance themselves have, may have, or
have not, concerning their perseverance ; with what is the use of ad-
monitions and exhortations to them in that condition, — have been
already declared. For the present I shall only add, that let their final
apostasy in respect of the event be never so impossible, yet, in the
state and condition wherein they are, and from the things which
they are exercised about, with the principles on which they proceed,
and the ways whereby they are led on, considerations enough may
be raised to set forth those exhortations, admonitions, and encourage-
ments, appointed by the Holy Ghost to be used and insisted on in
the administration of the word, in the beauty and splendour of in-
finite wisdom, love, and kindness. The glory of God being so emi-
nently concerned as it is in the obedience and fruitfulness of the
saints; the honour of the Lord Jesus in this world, with the advance-
ment and propagation of the gospel, in like manner relating there-
unto; their own peace lying so much as it doth upon their close
walking with God; the Spirit being so grieved by their falling into
sin as he is; God so dishonoured, and themselves exposed to such
fearful desertions, darkness, trouble, sorrow, and disquietments as
they are, upon their being overcome by the temptations of Satan,
and prevailed upon to turn aside into ways and sins short of total
apostasy; and it being the purpose of the Lord to lead them on in
obedience, in ways suitable to that nature he created them withal,
and that new nature wherewith he hath endued them (both apt to
be wrought upon by motives, exhortations, and persuasions), without
any such supposal as that of final apostasy; — there is a sufficient
bottom and foundation of exalting the motives and admonitions in-
sisted on to the possession of that glory of wisdom and goodness
which is their due. But Mr Goodwin having borrowed another
pageant from the Remonstrants, had a great mind to show it to the
world in its English dress, and therefore introduces the Holy Ghost
thus speaking in the admonitions above pointed at : —

" Suppose we, then, the Holy Ghost should speak thus unto the
saints: 'O ye that truly believe, who, by virtue of the promises of
that God that cannot lie, are fully persuaded and possessed that ye
shall be kept by God, by his irresistible grace, in true faith until
death; so that though Satan should set all his wits on work, and

XYl.] KO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 585

by all his stratagems, snares, and cunning devices, seek to destroy
you; yea, though he should entice you away from God by the allure-
ments of the world, and entangle you with them again ; yea, and
should cause you to run and rush headlong, against the light of your
own consciences, into all manner of horrid sins; 3^et shall all his at-
tempts and assaults upon you in every kind be in vain, and you
shall be in never the more danger or possibility of perishing; — unto
you, I say, attend and consider how sore and dangerous a contest
you are like to be engaged in ; for you are to wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities and powers, the governors of this
world, and spiritual wickednesses, against that old serpent the devil,
the great red dragon, who was a murderer from the beginning, and
who still goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may de-
vour, who will set himself with all his might to thrust you headlong
into all manner of sins, and so to separate between you and your God
for ever. And truly I am afraid lest, as the serpent by his subtlety
deceived Eve, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity
which is in Jesus Christ, — lest the tempter should any way tempt you,
and my labour about you be in vain. Therefore watch, pray, resist
him steadfast in the faith. Take unto you the whole armour of God,
that you may be able to resist in an evil day, and having done all
things stand fast, — stand, having your loins girt with the girdle of
truth, and the breastplate of righteousness upon you.' Would such
an oration or speech as this be any way worthy the infinite was-
dom of the Holy Ghost? Or is it not the part of a very weak and
simple person to admonish a man, and that in a most serious and
solemn manner, of a danger threatening him or hanging over his
head, and withal to instruct him with great variety of direction and
caution how to escape this danger, when, as both himself knows and
the person admonished knows likewise, it is a thing altogether im-
possible that ever the danger should befall him, or the evil against
which he is so solemnly cautioned come upon him? Therefore, those
who make the Holy Ghost to have part and fellowship in such weak-
ness as this are most insufferably injurious unto him."

Ans. To support the stage for to act this part of the pageant in
hand upon, there are many supposals fixed by our author, that are to
bear up the weight of the whole ; which, upon trial, will appear to be
arrant false pretences, painted antics, that have not the least strength
or efficacy for the end and purpose whereunto they are applied.

1. It is supposed that the end of all these admonitions is merely
and solely to prevent the saints from final apostasy, and that they
are to beware of the wiles and assaults of Satan, only lest he prevail
over them to cause them to depart utterly from God. That this is
supposed in this discourse is evident, because upon the granting of a
promise that they shall not be so prevailed against, they are judged

586 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

all useless and ridiculous. Now, who knows not but that Satan may
winnow, and in some measure prevail against, the saints, to the dis-
honour of God, the reproach of the gospel, grieving of the Spirit, and
scandal of the church, although they fall not totally and finally from
God? And that many of those admonitions tend to the preservation
of believers from such falls and failings is more evident than to need
any demonstration by consideration of the particular instances.

2. It sui^poseth, as is expressed, that believers may fall into " all
manner of horrid sins and abominations ;" which is the thing in ques-
tion, and by us punctually denied. Whatever their surprisals may
be, yet there are sins which they cannot fall into; and the great
abomination of every sin that is committed with the whole heart
and with full consent they are not at all exposed or liable unto, as
hath been proved.

3. That there is an inconsistency between promises and precepts
in reference to the same object ; that God should promise to work
any thing effectually in us and yet require it of us, is thought ridi-
culous; and on this account the great folly here imputed to the dis-
course framed for the Holy Ghost is proposed to consist in this, that
God should exhort us to watch against the assaults of the devil, and
yet promise that by his grace he will effectually work in us and for
us the very same thing, — a supposal destructive to the whole nature
of the new covenant, easily disproved by innumerable instances.

4. That believers are to be wrought upon to obedience always,
whatever the frame of their spirits be, by the same ways and means.
Hence it is that promises, promises of highest and greatest assur-
ance, are in this discourse coupled Avith cautions of the deepest
charge, as though they must at the same time operate the same way
to believers, or else the Holy Ghost be liable to be traduced as in-
consistent with himself; Avhen the great variety that is in their spi-
ritual frame and temper, the manifold temptations wherewith they
are assaulted, the light and dark places they walk through, etc., give
occasion sufficient to the exercising towards them all the " piping"
and " mourning" that is provided for them.

5. That all believers are assured of their perseverance, and that to
such a degree as not to fear any apostasy or to care what becomes of
them (that is, assured to presumption, not believing), — and therefore
are those cautions and admonitions of the Holy Ghost on that ac-
count, tending to stir up in them any godly care or fear, rendered
frustrate, — when Mr Goodwin himself thinks that very few of them
do upon any good and abiding foundation know themselves to be
believers, and we never once supposed that all of them have as-
surance of their perseverance, nor any of them upon the terms here
propo.sed. All the strength of what is here insinuated lies in this,
that God gives assurance to men of the steadfastness and constancy

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 587

of his love under supposal of their falling into all manner of abo-
minable sins; which supposal alone renders an inconsistency between
the sense of the promises we embrace and that of the admonitions
that are given to the saints charging them to walk heedfully and to
watch diligently against the attempts and assaults of Satan. Now,
this supposal is in itself false and ridiculous; neither ever did the
Lord, nor do we say he ever did, tender men assurance of his love
on such terms, neither is it possible for any one ever to have a true
persuasion of his own perseverance under such notions.

6. That there is an inconsistency betwixt faithful promises of at-
taining an end by the use of means, and exhortations with admo-
nitions to make use of those means. So that if it be supposed that
God promiseth that Satan shall not in the issue prevail over us, pre-
scribing to us the means whereby we shall be preserved from his
prevalency, it is in vain to deal with us for the application of our-
selves unto the use of those means.

7. It is also supposed that an assurance of the love of God, and of
the continuance of it to the saints unto the end, so that they shall
never be utterly rejected by him, is an effectual way and means to
induce them to carnal and loose walking, and a negligence in those
things which are a provocation to the eyes of his gloiy; and there-
fore, if he promise faithfully never to leave us nor forsake us, it is
an inducement for us to conclude. Let the devil now take his swing,
and do with us what he pleaseth. To exhort us to take care for the
avoidance of his subtleties and opposition is a thing altogether ridi-
culous. The vanity of this supposal hath been sufficiently before
discovered and itself disproved.

Upon such hypotheses as these, I say, upon such painted posts,
is the whole pageant erected which we are here engaged withal;
and these being easily cast down, the whole rushes to the ground,
in the room whereof, according to our principles, this following dis-
course may be supplied : —

"Ye that are true believers, called, justified, sanctified, by the
Spirit and blood of Christ, adopted into my family, ingi-afted in and
united unto the Son of my love, I know your weakness, insuffi-
ciency, disability, darkness, how that without my Son and continual
supply of his Spirit ye can do nothing. The power of your indwell-
ing sin is not hid from me, how with violence it leads you captive to
the law thereof. And though ye do believe, yet I know ye have also
some unhealed unbelief, and on that account are often overwhelmed
with fears, sorrows, disconsolations, and troubles, and are ready often
to think that your way is passed over from me, and your judgment
hidden from your God. And in this condition I know the assaults,
temptations, and oppositions of Satan that you are exposed to, how he
goes up and down like a roaring lion, seeking to destroy you. His

588 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ways, methods, wiles, and baits, that he lays for you, and whereby
he seeks to destroy you, are many. He acts against you as a serpent,
subtilely and wisely; as a lion, dreadfully and fearfully; and [as a
fowler,] with snares not of you, by yourselves, to be resisted. You
have principalities and powers to wrestle withal, and the darts of the
wicked one to defend yourselves against. Wherefore beware of him,
be not ignorant of his devices, stand fast in the faith, take to you the
whole armour of God, resist him, overcome him, cast him out by
prayer and the blood of the Lamb; watch night and day that ye be
not surprised nor seduced (as Eve was) by him, that he turn you not
out of the way into paths leading to destruction, and thrust you head-
long into such sins as will be a dishonour to me, a grief to my Spirit,
a scandal to the church, and bitterness to your own souls. And as
for me, who know your disability of yourselves to do any of these
things, and so to hold out to the end, because it pleased me to love
you, and set my heart upon you, having chosen you before the foun-
dation of the world, that ye should be holy and unblamable before
me in love; and having given my only Son for you, who is your
peace, and through whom ye have received the atonement, with
whom I will not deny you or withhold from you any thing that may
safeguard your abiding with me unto salvation, — I will, through the
riches of my grace, work all your works for you, fulfilling in you all
the good pleasure of my goodness and the work of faith with power.
I will tread down Satan, this cruel, proud, malicious, bloody, enemy
of your souls, under your feet; and though at any time he foil you,
yet ye shall not be cast down, for I will take you up, and will cer-
tainly preserve you by my power to the end of your hope, the salva-
tion of your souls. Whatever betide you or befall you, I will never
leave you nor forsake you. The mountains may depart, and the
hills be removed, but my kindness shall never be removed from you.
Comfort ye, be of good courage, and run with patience the race that
is set before you." This, I say, is the language which, according to
the tenor of the doctrine whose maintenance we are engaged in,
God speaks to his saints and believers; and if there be folly and
inconsistency found therein, let the Scriptures vindicate and plead
for themselves.

For the close of this discourse of our author, charging this course
of procedure with folly, — namely, to give admonition to the use of
means, when the end is certainly determined to issue upon the use
of those means, — he must first evince it, as to the application of it to
the business in hand, before I can close with him in the managing
thereof For the present, I rather think the folly of this charge, as
far as it looks towards the doctrine under consideration, to arise from
other things: as, —

First, An impertinent comparison instituted between God and

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 589

man in tlieir admonitions and dealings with men, as though nothing
might beseem him, in spiritual things of eternal concernment, but
what is squared to the rules of our proceedings one towards another
in things natural or civil. And, —

Secondly, A. false swpi^osal that the end is promised and assured
to any without or beside the use of means, or walking according to
the rules, precepts, and instructions, given for that purpose, or for
attainment of the end so promised. Now, what folly there is to
charge men to use means for the attaining of an end, when they are,
although exhorted, also assured that in their so doing they shall
attain the end aimed at, is yet under contest, and may pass for the
present with those other "ridiculous supposals" formerly mentioned.

But Mr Goodwin proceeds farther in the vindication of this argu-
ment, sect. 38: —

" And whereas," saith he, " they still plead, or pretend rather, that
such admonitions as those lately specified may well stand with an
unconditional promise of perseverance, we have formerly showed that
they are not able to make good this plea, nor to give any reasonable
account of it. Whereas they add, that their sense and opinion is not
that it is a thing absolutely or every way impossible for true believers
to fall away totally or finally from their faith, but that they willingly
grant that true believers, what through their own weakness, and what
through the subtle baits and temptations of Satan, may so fall away ;
I answer. But this is but a fig-leaf sought out to cover the naked-
ness of their opinion, which hath no strength at all nor weight in it;
for what though it were in a thousand other respects never so
possible for true believers to perish, yet if it be altogether impossible
in such a respect which overrules all those others, and which will,
and of necessity must, hinder the coming of it to pass, all those others
notwithstanding, it is to be judged simply and absolutely impossible,
and all those respects whereby it is pretended possible are not to be
brought into account in such a case."

Ans. 1. Whether we are able to make good our plea concerning
the consistency of admonitions with the promises of perseverance,
Mr Goodwin is not the sole judge, neither do either we or our plea
stand or fall at his arbitrament. What hath been lately spoken for
the re- en for cement of that plea against his exceptions, he may, if he
please, take time to consider.

2. For what is now added in this place as a part of that plea of
ours, as it is here proposed, we own not. We do not grant that true
believers may fall away, on any account whatever, totally and finally,
if the expression, " May fall away," relate to the issue and event. We
say, indeed, that by the temptations of Satan believers may be pre-
vailed against to the committing of many sins, the root whereof is
in themselves, whilst the lust remains in them which tempteth and

590 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP,

ensnaretli them, whereby God may be dishonoured and their own
consciences wounded, — which is a sufficient ground and bottom for
all the admonitions that are given them, to beware of his deceits, to
strengthen themselves against his assaults, to be built upon, — though,
through the grace and faithfulness of God and his good-will, mani-
fested and secured unto them in his covenant and promises, he can
never totally prevail against them.

We say, moreover, that it is not from believers themselves, nor any
thing in them, nor from any faith that they have received, that they
cannot so fall finally away, there being in them a proneness to sin,
and the seed of all sin still remaining, yea, a root of bitterness ready
to spring up and trouble them ; but from those outward principles of
the will, purposes, covenant, and promises of God, which we have
formerly insisted on: farther, that there is no need of granting any
such possibility, taking that terra as relating to the issue and event^
and not the internal principle of operation in men, to manifest the
harmony that is between the admonitions under consideration and
the promises we have insisted on, it being sufficiently evinced on
other considerations: so that Mr Goodwin's ensuing discourse con-
cerning "absolute impossibility" is not at all related to any thing that
we have asserted.

3. Neither yet doth the reason by Mr Goodwin produced in any
measure evince what he intends, though we be not concerned therein.
He will not easily persuade us that that which is possible in any
respect, nmch less in many, and impossible only in one, is always
to be judged " simply and absolutely impossible." Much less are
we concerned in it, who say that simply and absolutely the fall-
ing away of believers is possible, namely, as the term " possible " re-
lates to the principle of operation in them ; but in some respect only
it is impossible, that is, not of itself, but in respect of the external
prohibiting cause. It was simply and absolutely possible that the
bones of our Saviour should have been broken, in the nature of the
thing itself; impossible, in respect of the decree of God. So are a
thousand things absolutely possible in their own nature, as to the
power of the causes whereby they might be produced, but impossible
in respect of some external prohibiting cause ; — absolutely possible in
respect of their proper cause and principle ; impossible in respect of
the event, upon the account of some external prohibiting cause, as
was showed. So it is in the business in hand. We assert not any
possibility in respect of the event, as though in the issue it might so
come to pass that believers should fall totally and finally from God,
which is the thing we oppose; but grant it in resi^ect of the causes
of such apostasy, with reference to the nature of the thing itself,
though how the possibility might be reduced into act Mr Goodwin
cannot declare. As for the close of this section, concerning the also-

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 691

lute, peremptory, irresistible decree of perseverance, wliich he ascribes
to us as our assertion, when he shall have convinced us of the condi-
tional, non-peremptory, reversible decree of God, which he endea-
vours to introduce in the place thereof, he may hear more of us; in
the meantime, nihoihiv cugTep saiMsv.

Sect. 39, 40, he seeks to alleviate the instance commonly given
of our Saviour Christ, who though assured of the end, and in respect
of whom it was utterly impossible that his glorious exaltation should
not follow in the issue, he being wholly out of all danger of being
detained under the power of death, yet he laboured, and prayed,
and fasted, and resisted Satan's temptations, and watched against
him, and dealt with him by weapons taken out of the word of God;
and in especial, when the devil urged him with the argument in
hand, *' that there is no need of means or the using of them, when
there is a certainty of the end, and an impossibility that it should
otherwise fall out, or the end not be brought about and accom-
plished," as he did when he tempted him to cast himself headlong
from a pinnacle of the temj)le, because the angels had charge over
him, that not so much as his foot should be hurt against a stone,
whatever he did, as Satan intimated, — which is the tenor of the
argument wherewith we have to do, — he returns to him the very
answer that we insist upon, namely, that though it be the good
pleasure of God to bring us to the end we aim at, yet are we not to
tempt him by a neglect of the means which he hath appointed. It
is true, there are arguments used to us that could have no place with
Christ, being taken from the estate and condition of infirmity and
weakness through sin wherein we are ; which is a ground only of an
inference, that if Christ, who was " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners," did yet watch, and pray, and contend against Satan,
much more should we do so. But this doth not at all take off from
the parity of reason that is in the case of diligent using of the means
for the compassing of the end, that in some respect is under an im-
possibility of not being accomplished. For the removal of this in-
stance, Mr Goodwin enters into a large discourse of the cause and
reason, vesting the Lord Christ with an immutability in good, and
how it is not competent to any creature ; which that it is, never en-
tered into the thoughts of any to assert that I ever heard of, nor
is it of the least importance to the removal of our instance, as to its
serviceableness unto the end for which it is produced. He tells us
also, " That in case men be caused necessitatingly and unavoidably
to act righteously, it will take away all rewardableness from their
actings; and the reason is, because such a necessitating of them
makes them merely passive, they having not any internal principle
of their own to contract such a necessity;" which discourse is pursued
with many other words to the same purpose. And a discourse it is, —

592 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

First, Exceeding irrelative to the business in hand. There is not
any thing now under consideration that should minister occasion at
all to consider the manner of our yielding obedience, and the way
of God's grace in the bringing forth the fruits thereof; but only of
the consistency that is between admonitions for the using of the
means, when it is supposed impossible that the end prevented by
them should ever come to pass, which may or may not be so, what-
ever be the manner and way of our yielding obedience, upon the
exertion of the efficacy of the grace of God. Diversion is one of Mr
Goodwin's ordinary ways of warding those blows winch he is not
able to bear.

Secondly, False, charging a crime on the doctrine which he doth
oppose whereof it is not guilty, neither it nor they that maintain it
affirming that there is a necessitation upon the wills of men by the
grace of God, such a necessitation as should in the least prejudice their
freedom, or cause them to elicit their acts as principles natural and
necessary. All the necessity ascribed by them to the efficacy of the
operation of the grace of God respects only the event. They say it
is necessary that the good be done which God works in us by his
grace, when he works it in us ; but for the manner of its doing, they
say it is wrought suitably to the state and condition of the internal
principle whence it is to proceed, and doth so, and of the agents where-
by it is wrought, which are free. Neither do the}^ say that good is
not wrought by any native and inward principle that is hi men, unless
they will allow no principle to be native but what is in them by na-
ture; and then, indeed, they say, that though naturally and physically
there is, yet morally and spiritually there is not in them any native
principle to that which is spiritually good, seeing in that sense " no
good thing dwells in men." But if it may suffice to evince that they
work from a native, inward principle, — that their wills, which are their
natural faculties, quickened, improved, and heightened, by inward,
indwelling habits of grace, properly theirs when bestowed on them,
are the principles of all their actings, — then they assert them to work
no less from a native, internal principle than Christ himself did. So
that notwithstanding this diversion, given in to supply the absence
of an answer, the instance, as to that wherein alone the parallel was
intended, stands unmoved, and Mr Goodwin's whole charge of folly
and inconsistency on the proceeding of the Holy Ghost falls to the
ground; which is the issue of his eighth argument in this case. His
last follows.

The last argument Avhich he proposeth, sect. 41, and ends his
chapter withal, is faint, and, as the droppings after a shower, will
easily be blown over. He thus proposeth it: —

" That doctrine which naturally and directly tendeth to beget and
foment jealousies and evil surmises between brethren in Christ, or

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 593

such as ought cordially to love, reverence, and honour one another,
is not confederate with the gospel, nor from God; and consequently
that which contradicteth it must needs be a truth ; — the common
doctrine of unquestionable and unconditional perseverance is a doc-
trine of this tendency, apt to beget and foment jealousies, suspicions,
and evil surmises between brethren, or such as ought to love and
respect one the other, as brethren in Christ: ergo!'

Ans. Not to take notice of any thing by-the-by, which sundry
expressions, and one inference at the least, in this argument do
readily administer occasion unto, 1 await the proof of the minor,
which in the following discourse amounts to this: " That judging all
those who fall finally away not to have been true believers, we can-
not but have evil surmises of all that stand that they are not true be-
lievers, seeing as good as they have fallen away; hence jealousies of
their hypocrisy will arise." And he tells us, for his part he knows
no Christian in the world that he hath more reason to judge a true
believer than he had to judge some who are turned wretched apos-
tates. To which I say briefly, —

1 . I doubt not but Mr Goodwin knows full well that this is not a
rule given us to make a judgment of believers by, with whom we
walk, and towards whom it is required we bear " love without dissi-
mulation," Rom. xii. 9, — toward such as " show us their faith by their
works." Our rule of walking, from the principle of love and charity,
is laid down in 1 Cor. xiii. And if all that any man knows at this day
to be professors in this world should turn apostates, save only one, and
he had reckoned that one and them that are apostatized, before their
apostasy, of the same rank of believers, and had had no evil thoughts
of that one above the rest, he was bound, without any evil surmises,
" to believe all things, and to hope all things," and not to let go his
sincere love towards that one, embracing of him, delighting in him,
holding communion with him to his life's end, without suspicion of
hypocrisy, or other hard thoughts of him, unless he also should dege-
nerate. It is said, John ii. 23, that " many believed on Christ," be-
cause of the profession of faith that they made; and, chap. vi. 34<,
they pray earnestly to be fed with the bread of life, so that they
were accounted among his disciples, verse 60, and yet upon a tempta-
tion they left our Saviour, and " walked no more with him," verse ^Q.
Now, notwithstanding the profession of these men, our Saviour plainly
says that they " believed not," verse 64. They falling thus away who
had professed to believe, and were accounted as believers, so called
and named among the disciples of Christ, and Christ declaring, on
the account of their apostasy, that indeed they did never believe,
how was it that the remaining twelve had not hard thoughts and
jealousies one of another (especially considering that there was one
hypocrite still left among them) whether they had true faith or no,

VOL. XL 38

594 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

seeing our Saviour had declared that those who so fell off, as those
before mentioned, had none? Doubtless they were insti-ucted to
walk by a better and a straiter rule than that Mr Goodwin here
assigns to believers. Let who will or can fall away, whilst we are
taught of God to love one another, and are acted by the principle of
love, which " thinketh no evil," and do contend against evil surmises
as the works of the flesh, there is not any thing in the least attend-
ing the discovery of one man's hypocrisy, to work us to a persuasion
that another (not in any thing discovered) is so also. That because
we see some goodly house fall under storms and temptations to the
ground, and so manifest itself to have been built on the sand, there-
fore we must conclude that those which stand are not built upon
the rock, is not suited to any principle or rule that our Master hath
given us to walk by, in order to the exercise of that love which he
calleth for in us towards one another.

2. I say this way of proceeding in our thoughts and judgments doth
the Holy Ghost lead us to, 1 John ii. 19. The apostle giving an ac-
count of some who had formerly walked with him in the profession
of the faith, and of the fellowship which they had with the Father and
the Son, and fell away from Christ into an opposition against him,
so far as to deserve the title of Antichrists, having not only forsaken
the gospel, but making it also their business to oppose it, and to
seduce otheTs from the simplicity of the same; — these, he informs
the scattered believers of the Jews, Vv'ere apostates, having formerl}'
walked with them, but [who had] deserted their fellowship, and there-
by manifested themselves never to have been true believers, nor
ever, indeed, to have had fellowship with the Father and the Son,
no more than they of whom our Saviour spake in the j^lace before
mentioned; and yet, doubtless, the apostle may not be supposed to
lay a foundation for jealousies, evil suspicions, and surmises among
believers, though he plainly and evidently affirms that those who fall
away were never true believers, and that if they had been so, they
Avould have continued in their faith and fellowship with the people
of God. " They went out from us," saith he, " but they were not
of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have con-
tinued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us." A passage, by the way, clearly con-
firming the main of the doctrine we have hitlierto insisted on ;
and therefore I shall turn aside, before I come to the close of this
chapter, having this occasion administered, to vindicate it from the
exceptions Mr Goodwin gives in against the testimony it bears in
this case.

The argument that it readily furnisheth us withal is of this im-
port: "If all they who fall away totally from the fellowship and
society of the church and saints of God, whatever their profession

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 595

were before that apostasy, were never true believers, and are thereby
manifested never to have been so, then those who are true believers
cannot fall away; but the first is true, therefore the latter." The
words are so disposed as to be cast iota an hypothetical proposition,
which virtually includes a double argument, as every discreet axiom
doth; — it is not thus, therefore thus. If true believers might so
depart and apostatize as those here mentioned, no imquestionable
proof could be drawn from such apostasy that men were never true
believers; which yet is plainly insisted on in the text.

Mr Goodwin, chap. x. sect. 21-24, pp. 189-192, gathers up sundry
exceptions from the Remonstrants, which (as they also did) he op-
poseth to this interpretation of the words, and the inferences from
them insisted on. I shall briefly consider and remove them in that
order as by him they are laid down. He saith, —

First, " This inference presumeth many things, for which neither
it nor any of the authors of it will ever be able to give any good se-
curity of proof; as, —

" First, That this phrase, ' They were not of us,' imports that they
were never true believers. This certainly can never be proved, be-
cause there is another sense, and this every whit as proper to the
words, and more commodious for the context and scope of the place,
which may be given of them, as we shall see anon."

Ans. That there is not any thing presumed for the eduction of
the inference proposed but what is either directly expressed or evi-
dently included in the words of the text, will appear in the farther
consideration of what Mr Goodwin hath to offer to the contrary.
That expression, " They were not of us," imports evidently that they
were not of them in the fellowship and communion which he was
now exhorting believers to continue and abide in. He tells them at
the head of this discourse, chap. i. S, that the end of his writing to
them was to draw them into, and keep them in, communion with
himself and the saints with him ; which communion or " fellowship,"
he tells them, " they had with the Father and with his Son : " but as
for the persons of whom in these words he is speaking to them, de-
scribing them by their former and present condition, with the causes
of it, he tells them that though they abode with them for a season,
yet they Avere never of them as to the communion and fellowship
they had with the Father and Son; and so were never true members
of the church. The only reason Mr Goodwin gives to invalidate this
sense of the words is, that he is able to give another meaning of
them, in his own judgment, " more proper to the words and more
commodious to the scope of the place;" which whether it have any
more efficacy to take off the force and evidence of the interpretation
given, lying plain and clear in the first view of the words and con-
text, than it hath to evade the eduction of any truth whatever from

596 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

any place of Scripture whatever, seeing some or other suppose them-
selves able to give another sense of the words, let the reader judge.
But he adds, —

" Secondly, That this expression, ' They were of ns,' signifies that
they were true believers, is presumed. Of the uncertainty of this
supposition we shall," saith he, " give the like account."

Ans. When we come to take Mr Goodwin's farther account, we
shall be able, I make no doubt, to reckon with him, and to discharge
his bill. In the meantime, we say, that supposition, " If they had
been of us" (whence our inference is made), evidently includes a
fellowship and communion with the apostle and true believers in
their fellowship with God; which is asserted as a certain foundation
of men's abiding in the communion of the saints. But, says he, —

" Thirdly, It is supposed that these words, ' They went out from
us,' signify their final defection, or abdication of the apostle's com-
munion, or their total and final renunciation of Christ, his church,
and gospel. This supposition hath no bottom at all or colour for it."

A 7is. Divide not the words from their coherence and the intend-
ment of the place, and the signification denied is too evident and
clear for any one, with the least colour of reason, to rise up against
it. " They went out," so out from the communion of the church, as
to become antichrists, opposers of Christ, and seducers from him;
and certainly in so doing did totally desert the communion of the
apostle, renounce the Lord Christ as by him preached, and forsake
utterly both church and gospel, as to any fellowship with the one or
the other. And we know full well what is the bottom of this and
the like assertions, " that such and such things have no bottom at
all," which never yet failed Mr Goodwin in his need.

"Fourthly," saith he, " It is supposed that this clause, 'They would
no doubt have continued with us,' signifies They would have continued
in the same faith wherein we persevere and continue. Nor is there,"
saith he, " any competent reason to enforce this sense of those words,
because neither doth the grammatical tenor of them require it, and
much less the scope of the passage."

-4ns. The fellowship John invited believers unto, and to con-
tinue in (as hath often been observed), with him and the saints,
was that which they held with the Father and the Son. To con-
tinue with them therein, in the literal, grammatical sense of the
words, is to continue in the faith, it being faith whereby they have
that fellowship or communion. This also is evident from the scope
of the whole passage, and is here only impotently denied. But,
saith he, —

" Fifthly, The said inference supposeth that John certainly knew,
that all those who for the present remained in his communion were
true believers; for if they were not true believers, they that were

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 597

gone out from them, in tbe sense contended for, might be said to be
' of them,' that is, persons of the same condition with them. But how
improbable this is, I mean that John should infallibly know that all
those who as yet continued with them Avere true believers, I refer
to consideration."

Ans. Had Mr Goodwin a little poised this passage before he took
it up, perhaps he would have cast it away as a useless trifle; but,
his masters having insisted on it, perhaps he thought it not meet to
question their judgments in the least, for fear of being at liberty to
deal so with them in matters of greater importance. I say, then,
that there is not the least colour for any such supposal from the in-
ference we make from the text, nor is there any thing of that nature
intimated or suggested in the words, or argument from them. The
body of them whom the apostates forsook were true believers, and
their abiding in the fellowship of the saints was a manifestation of
it, sufficient for them to be owned as such, which the others mani-
fested themselves never to have been, by their apostasy. But,
saith he, —

" Sixthly, The inference under contest yet farther supposeth that
John certainly knew that they who w^ere now gone out from them
neither were now, nor ever were before, true believers; yea, and that
he certainly knew this by their departure or going out from them."

Ans. This is the very thing that the apostle affirms, that he cer-
tainly knew those apostates never to have been true believers, and
that by their apostasy or falling totally from the gospel, becoming se-
ducers and opposers of Christ. Let him argue it out with the Holy
Ghost if he can, whose plain and clear expression this is, and that con-
firmed by the ensuing argument of the perseverance of them who were
true believers, and whose fellowship is with the saints, in their com-
munion with the Father and the Son. Wherefore, saith he, —

" Lastly, It presumeth yet farther, that all true believers do always
abide in the external communion of the church; and that when
men do not so abide, they plainly declare herein that they never
were true believers; which is not only a manifest untruth, but ex-
pressly contrary to the doctrine itself of those men who assert the
inference; for they teach (as we heard before) that a true believer
may fall so foully and so far, that the church, according to the com-
mand of Christ, may be constrained to testify that she cannot tolerate
them in her external communion, nor that ever they shall have any
part or portion in the kingdom of Christ, unless they repent. Doubt-
less, to be cast out of the church, according to the institution and
command of Christ (who commands no such thing but upon very
heinous and high unchristian misdemeanours), is of every whit as sad
importance as a voluntary desertion of the church's communion can
be for a season."

598 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

Ans. It supposeth that no true believers fall so off from the church
as to become antichrists, opposers of Christ and the church, so as to
deny that Christ is come in the flesh ; which was the great business
of the antichrists in those days. It is true, and granted by us, that
a true believer may forsake the outward communion of some par-
ticular church for a season ; yea, and that upon his irregular walking,
and not according to the rule of Christ, he may, by the authority of
such a church, be rejected from its communion, for his amendment
and recovery into the right way (of which before) : but that a true
believer can voluntarily desert the communion of the saints, and be-
come an antichrist, that this text denies, and we from it, and the
many other witnesses of the same truth that have been produced.

Notwithstanding, then, all Mr Goodwin's exceptions, there is no-
thing presumed in the inference we make from these words, but
what is either expressly contained or evidently included in them.

But Mr Goodwin will not thus give over. He prefers his excep-
tions to this testimony in another whole section; which, because the
demonstration of the truth in hand from this place, though here
handled by-the-by, is of great importance, and such as by its single
strength is sufficient utterly to cast to the ground the figment set up
in opposition to it, I shall present entirely to the reader, that our
author may be heard out, and nothing omitted that he pleads for the
waiving of the force of the argument in hand in that whole section.
Thus, then, he proceeds: —

" Suppose that these two suppositions be granted to the inference
makers, first, that this phrase, ' To go out from us,' signifies volun-
tarily to forsake the society and communion of Christians; and,
secondly, that this expression, ' To be of us,' signifies true and in-
ward communion with those from whom they went out ; yet will not
these contributions suffice for the firm building of the said inference.
The reason is, because the apostle expressly saith that ' They would
have continued with us;' not that they would have continued such
as they were, in respect of the truth or essence of their faith. And
if the apostle's scope in this place were to prove or affirm that they
who are once true Christians, or believers, always continue such,
then, when he saith ' They would have continued with us,' he must
of necessity mean either that * They would have continued faithful
as we continue faithful,' or else that ' They would have continued
always in our society, or in the profession of Christianity.' But that
neither of these senses is of any tolerable consistency is evident by
the light of this consideration, namely, that the apostle then must
have known that the persons he speaks of, and who went out from
them, neither were nor ever had been true Christian believers, when
they went thus from them. Now, if he had this knowledge of them,
it must be supposed either that he had it by extraordinary revela-

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 599

tion (but this is very improbable, and howsoever cannot be proved),
or else that he gained and obtained it by their departure or going
out from them: but that this could be no sufficient argument or
ground to beget any such knowledge in the apostle concerning them
is evident from hence, because it may very easily, and doth very fre-
quently, come to pass that they who are true Christians do not
always continue in the society to which they have joined themselves,
no, nor yet in the external profession of Christianity itself; yea, our
opposers themselves frequently, and without scruple, teach that even
true believers themselves may, through fear, or shame, or extremity
of sufferings, be brought to deny Christ, and, without any danger of
being shipwrecked of their faith, forbear making a profession of the
name of Christ afterward."

Ans. 1. What is meant and intended by these expressions, "Went
out from us," and " To be of us," hath been declared. We are
not to teach the Holy Ghost to speak. Whatever conceit we may
have of our own abilities, when we deal with Avorms of the ' earth
like ourselves, to his will, to his expressions, we must vail and
submit. He is pleased to phrase their continuance in the faith, their
"Continuance with us;" that is, with the saints in the fellowship
and communion of the gospel, which they had with God in Christ.
The expression is clear and evident to the purpose in hand, and
there is no contending against it.

2. We do not say that it is the direct scope and intent of the
apostle in this place to prove that those who are true believers can-
not fall away and depart from the faith, — which he afterward doth
to the purpose, chap. iii. 9 ; but his mind and intendment was, to
manifest that those who forsake the society of Christians, and become
antichrists and seducers, were indeed never true believers, using
the other hypothesis as a medium for the confirmation of this as-
sertion,

3. By that phrase, " They would have continued with us," the
apostle intends their continuance in the society and fellowship of
the faithful, by the profession of Jesus Christ, whom now they op-
posed, denying him to be come in the flesh ; that is. They would not
have so fallen off as they have done, upon the account of the estate
and condition of true believers and real saints, who are kept by the
power of God to salvation.

4. The apostle did know, and professed himself to know, that
they were not, nor ever had been, true believers, when they Avere
once so gone out from them as they went; as our Saviour Christ
professed them not to have been true believers who followed him for
a while, and were called and accounted his disciples, when they fell
in an hour of temptation. Neither have we the least reason to sup-
pose that the apostle had this knowledge by revelation, seeing the

600 DOCTKINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

tiling itself, in reference and proportion to the principles he lays
down of the continuance of believers, did openly proclaim it.

5. That true Christians, or believers, can so fall away from the
society of the saints as those here mentioned did, is denied, and a
grant of it ought not to be begged at our hands. It is true that (as
was before granted) a true believer may for a season desert the com-
munion or fellowship of a church wherein he hath walked, and that
causelessly; yea, he may be surprised through infirmity to den}^, under
mighty temptations, in words, for a moment, the Lord Christ, whom
yet his heart loves and honours, as in the case of Peter was too evi-
dent : but that such an one may forsake the external profession of
Christianity, or cease profession-making, and betake himself to a
contrary interest, opposing Christ and his ways, as those here insisted
on did, that is denied, and not the least attempt of proof made to
the contrary.

Whilst I was upon consideration of these exceptions of Mr Good-
win's to our testimony from this text of Scripture by us insisted on,
there came to my hands his exposition on the 9th chapter to the
Romans; in the epistle whereof to the reader he is pleased, sect. 6,
studiously to waive the imputation of having borrowed this exposi-
tion from Arminius and his followers, — an apology perhaps unworthy
his prudence and great abilities; which testimony yet, I fear, by
having cast an eye on the body of the discourse, will scarcely be re-
ceived by his reader without the help of that vulgar proverb, " Good
wits jump."' But yet on this occasion I cannot but say, however he
hath dealt in that treatise, this discourse I have under consideration
is purely translated from them, — the condition of very much of what
hath been already considered being the same; which I had then
thought to have manifested by placing their Latin against his Eng-
lish in the margin. But these things are personal, not belonging
to the cause in hand. Mr Goodwin is sufHciently known to have
abilities of his own, such as wherewith he hath done, in sundry par-
ticulars, considerable service to the truth, — as sometimes tliey have
been unhappily engaged in ways of a contrary nature and tendency.

It being evident, from these considerations, that our author is not
able in the least to take off this witness from speaking home to the
very heart of the cause in hand, that it may not seem to be weakened
and impaired by him in the least, I shall farther consider that diver-
sion which he Avould entice the words unto from their proper channel
and intendment, and so leave the apostasy of the saints dead at the
foot of it. He gives us, then, sect. 23, 24, an exposition of this place
of Scripture, upon the rack whereof it seems not to speak what for-
merly we received from its mouth. For the occasion of the words,
he says, —

" For the true meaning of this place, it is to be considered that

xvl] no consolation in the opposite doctrine. 601

the apostle's intent in the words was, to prevent or heal an offence
that weak Christians might take by the doctrine which was taught
and spread abroad by those antichrists or antichristian teachers
spoken of in the former verse (and they are said to have been many) ;
and that especially because they had sometimes lived and conversed
wdth the apostles themselves in Christian churches, and had pro-
fessed the same faith and doctrine with them. By reason hereof, some
Christians, not so considerate or judicious as others, might possibly
think or conceive that surely all things were not well with the
apostles and those Christian societies with which they consorted, —
that there was something not as it oiight to have been, either in doc-
trine or manners, or both, which ministered an occasion to these
men to break communion with them and to leave them."

Ans. 1. The intendment of the apostle in the context is evidently
to caution believers against seducers; acquainting them also with
the sweet and gracious provision that God had made for their pre-
servation, in the abiding, teaching, anointing, bestowed on them.
In the verse under present consideration he gives them a descrip-
tion of the persons that did seduce them, in respect of their present
state and condition. They were apostates, wlio, though they had
some time made profession of the faith, yet indeed were never true
believers, nor had had any fellowship with Jesus Christ, as he and
the saints had ; which also they had abundantly manifested by their
open apostasy, and ensuing opposition to the doctrine of the gospel
and the eternal life manifested therein.

2. That any Christians whatsoever, from the consideration of these
seducers falling away, did entertain any suspicion that all things
were not well in that society of which the apostle speaks (not with
the " apostles," which were all dead, himself only excepted, when
John wrote this epistle), either as to doctrine or manners, so sup-
posing them to take part with the apostates in their departure, is a
surmise whereunto there is not any thing in the least contributed in
the text or context, nor any thing like to it, being a mere invention
of our author, found out to serve his turn, and confidently, without
any induction looking that way or attempt of proof, imposed upon
his credulous reader. If men may assume to themselves a liberty
of creating occasions of words, discourses, or expressions in the Scrip-
ture, no manner of way insinuated nor suggested therein, they may
wrest it to what they please, and confirm whatever they have a mind
unto.

This false foundation being laid, he proceeds to build upon it; and,
suitably thereunto, feigns the apostle to speak what never entered
into his heart, and unto that whereof he had no occasion adminis-
tered : —

" To this,'' saith he, " the apostle answereth partly by concession,

602 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

partly by exception. First, by concession, in these words, ' They
went out from us;' which words do not so much import their utter
dechning or forsaking the apostles' communion, as the advantage or
opportunity whicli they had to gain credit and respect both to their
doctrine and persons among professors of Christianity in the world,
inasmuch as they came forth from the apostles themselves, as men
sent and commissioned by them to teach. The same phrase is used
in this sense, and with the same import, where the apostles write thus
to the brethren of the Gentiles : Acts xv. 24, ' Forasmuch as we
have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you
with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised,
and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment.' So
that in this clause, * They went out from us,' the apostle grants,
first, That those antichristian teachers had indeed for a time held
communion with them; and secondli/, That hereby they had the
greater opportunity of doing harm in the world by their false doc-
trines. But secondly, he answers farther by way of exception, ' But
they were not of us;' — 'Whilst yet they conversed with us, they were
not men of the same spirit and principles with us. We walked in
the pi'ofession of the gospel with single and upright hearts, not aim-
ing at any singular greatness or worldly accommodations in one kind
or other; these men loved this present world, and when they found
the simplicity of the gospel would not accommodate them to their
minds, they brake with us and with the truth of the gospel itself at
once.

Ans. 1. I suppose it is evident, at the first view, that this new
gloss on the apostle's words is inconsistent with that which was pro-
posed for the occasion of them in the words foregoing. There, an
aspersion is said to be cast upon the churches and societies whereof
the apostle speaks, from the departure of these seducers from them,
as though they were not sound in faith or manners; here, an insinua-
tion quite of another tendency is suggested, — as though these persons
found countenance in their teachings and seductions from the society
and communion which they had had with the apostles, — as though
they had pretended to come from them by commission, and so, in-
stead of casting reproach upon them by their departure, did assume
authority to themselves by their having been with them. But to the
thing itself I say, —

2. That the apostle is not answering any objection, but describing
the state and condition of the antichrists and seducers, concerning
whom and their seduction he cautioneth believers, hath been for-
merly, beyond contradiction, manifested and maintained. That ex-
pression, then, " They went out from us," is not an answer, " by
concession," to an objection, but a description of seducers by their
apostasy; which words, also, in their regard to the persons as before

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 603

by liim described, do manifest their utter declining and forsaking the
communion of the saints, they so going from them as also to go into
an opposition to the doctrine of the gospel.

3. That the apostle here insinuates an advantage these antichrists
had to seduce, from their former communion with him (a thing
not in the least suggested, as was observed, in the occasion of the
words as laid down by Mr Goodwin himself), is proved from the
use of the words, "They went out from us," Acts xv. 24; whence
this undeniable argument may be educed, "Some who went out from
the apostles had repute and authority in their preaching thereby ;
these antichrists went out from the apostle : therefoi'e they had re-
pute and authority thereby ! " Younger men than either Mr Goodwin
or myself know well enough what to make of this argument. Be-
sides, though there be an agreement in that one expression, all tlie
neighbouring parts of the description manifest that in the things
themselves there and here pointed at there is no affinity. Those
in the Acts pretended to abide still in the " communion and faith
of the apostles;" these here expressly departed both from the one
and the other, to an opposition of them both. The former seemed
to have pretended a commission from the apostles; these, according
to Mr Goodwin himself, did so far declare against them that it was
" a scandal to some, fearing that all had not been well among the
apostles."

4. That which is called "an answer by way of exception," as it
lies, the expression of it so used upon the matter is as much as we
urge from these words. The import of them is said to be, " ' They
were not of us.' Though they were with us, yet they were not such as
we are, did not walk in that uprightness of heart as we do ; they were
not men of the same principles and spirit with us;" — that is, they
were not true, thorough, sincere, and sound believers at all, no, not
while they conversed with the apostle. Now, evident it is that in
those words, — as is manifest by the resuming of them again for the
use of an inference ensuing, " For if they had been of us, they would
have continued with us," — the apostle yields a reason and account
how they came to apostatize and fall to the opposition of the gospel
from the profession wherein they walked; it was because they were
not men of thorough and sound principles, true believers: and con-
sequently he supposeth and implieth that if they had been so, they
would not, they could not, have so apostatized ; for if they might, there
had been no weight in the account given of the reason of their revolt.

In what follows, " That these words, ' But they were not of us,' do
not necessarily imply they were believers formerly, but perhaps they
had been so, and were before fallen away, being choked by the cares
of the world," an observation is insinuated directly opposite to the
apostle's design, and such as makes his whole discourse ridiculous.

604 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* rERSEVERANCE. [ciIAP.

An account he gives of men's falling away from the faith, and he tells
them it is because, though they had been professors, yet they Avere
never true believers. " Yea, but perhaps they were true believers and
then fell away, and after that fell away;" — that is, they fell from the
faith, and then fell from the faith ; for that is plainly intimated in
and is the sense of this doughty observation.

But to proceed with his exposition, he says, " It follows, ' For if
they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us/
In these words the apostle gives a reason of his exception, telling
them to whom he writes that this was a sign and argument that
those antichristian teachers were not of them in the sense declared,
namely, that they did not continue with them ; that is, they quitted
their former intimacy and converse with the apostles, refused to steer
the same course, to walk by the same principles, any longer with
them : ' which,' saith he, ' doubtless they would not have done had
they been as sincerely affected towards Jesus Christ and the gospel
as we.' By which assertion John plainly vindicated himself and the
Christian churches of his communion from giving any just occasion
of offence unto those men, whereby they should be any ways induced
to forsake them, and resolves their unworthy departure of this kind
into their own carnal and corrupt hearts, which lusted after some
fleshly accommodations and contentments that were not to be ob-
tained or enjoyed in a sincere profession of the gospel with the
apostles, and those who were perfect of heart with them."

A71S. First, that no aspersion was cast on John or the "churches
of his communion" by the apostasy of the antichrists of whom he
speaks, from which he should need to vindicate himself and them,
was before declared. There was not, indeed, nor possibly could be,
the least occasion for any surmise of evil concerning them from
whom men departed in turning ungodly opposers of Christ. For
any thing that is here offered, it is but an obscuring of the light
that breaks forth from the words for the discerning of the truth in
hand. It is gi'anted that the apostle manifests that " they were not
of tlicm," — that is, true, upright, sound believers, that walked with
a right foot in the doctrine of the gospel, — because they forsook the
communion of the saints to fall into the condition of antichristian-
ism, wherein they were now engaged. Now, if this be an argument
that a man was never a true believer, in the highest profession that
he makes, because he falls from it and forsakes it, certainly those
that are true believers cannot so fall from their steadfastness, or the
argument will be of no evidence or conviction at all; neither is
any thing here offered by Mr Goodwin but what, upon a thorough
consideration, doth confirm the inferences we insist upon, and make
to the work in hand. Trutli will, at one time or other, lead captive
those who are most skilful in their rebellion against it.

XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 605

What is added, sect. 24, concernhig the righteous judgment of
God, and the gracious tendency of his dispensations to his church's
use, in suffering these wretches so to discover themselves, and to
manifest what they were, I oppose not. The discovery that was
made was of what they had been before, — that is, not true behevers,
— and not what now they were ; yea, by what they now showed them-
selves to be was made manifest what before they were. Words of the
like import you have, 1 Cor. xi. 19, " For there must be also here-
sies among you, that they which are approved may be made mani-
fest among you." As here those who fall away are manifested to be
corrupt, so there those who abide are to be sincere.

From what hath been occasionally spoken of the intendment and
scope of this place, of the design which the apostle had in hand, of
the direct sense of the words themselves, — Mr Goodwin's exceptions
to our interpretation of the words and inferences from it being wholly
removed, and his exposition, which he advanceth in the room of that
insisted on, manifested to be, as to the occasion and scope of the
place assigned, utterly foreign unto it, and, as to explication of the
particulars of it, not of any strength or consistency for the obscuring
of the true sense and meaning of the place, in the eye of an intelli-
gent reader, — it is evidently concluded, beyond all colourable con-
tradiction, that those who are true believers indeed, having obtained
communion with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, cannot fall
into a total relinquishment of Christ or of the faith of the gospel,
so as to have no portion nor interest in the communion they formerly
enjoyed.

To return to Mr Goodwin's close of this 13th chapter, and "nine
arguments," as he calls them, from which he labours to evince the
apostasy of believers, he shuts up the whole with a declamation
against and reviling of the doctrine he opposeth, with many oppro-
brious and reproachful expressions, calling it " an impostor, and an
appearance of Satan in the likeness of an angel of light," with such
like terms of reproach as his rhetoric at every turn is ready to fur-
nish him withal, threatening it farther with calling it in question
before I know not how many learned men of all sorts, and to dis-
prove it by their testimony concerning it; and so all that is required
for its destruction is, or shall be, speedily despatched! God knows
how to defend his truth; and as he hath done this in particular
against as fierce assaults as any Mr Goodwin hath made or is like to
make against it, so I no way doubt he will continue to do. It is not
the first time that it hath been conformable to its Author, in under-
going the contradij^tion of men, and being laden with reproaches,
and crucified among the thievish principles of error and profaneness.
Hitherto it hath not wanted, in due time, its resurrection, and that
continually with a new glory and an added estimation to what be-

600 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAR

fore it obtained among the saints of God ; aind I no way doubt but
that it will grow more and more until the perfect day, when those
opinions and inventions of men, derogatory to the grace and covenant
of God, his truth, unchangeableness, and faithfulness, which now
make long their shades to eclipse the beauty and lustre of it, shall
consume and vanish away before its brightness; — in which persua-
sion I doubt not but the reader will be confirmed with me, upon the
farther consideration of what Mr Goodwin's endeavours are in opposi-
tion hereto, wherewith now, by the grace of God, contrary to my
first intendment, I shall proceed.

CHAPTER XVII.

A EEVIEW OF PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE ADDUCED TO PROVE THE
APOSTASY OF SAINTS.

The cause of proceeding in this chapter — Mr G.'s attempt, chap. xii. of his boolc
— Of the preface to Mr G.'s discourse — Whether doctrine renders men proud
and presumptuous — Mr G.'s rule of judging of doctrines called to the rule —
Doctrine pretending to promote godliness, how far an argument of the truth
— Mr G.'s pretended advantages in judging of truths examined — The first,
of his knowledge of the general course of the Scriptures — Of the experience
of his own heart — And his observations of the ways of others — Of his rational
abilities — Ezek. xviii. 24, 25, proposed to consideration — Mr G.'s sense of this
place — The words opened — Observations for the opening of the text — The
words farther weighed — An entrance into the answer to the argument from
hence — The words hypothetical, not absolute — Mr G.'s answer proposed and
considered — Whether the words are hypothetical — The severals of the text con-
sidered— The '•' righteous man" spoken of, whom — Mr G.'s proof of his inter-
pretation of a " righteous man" considered — Dr Prideaux's sense of the righte-
ous person here intended considered — Of the commination in the words," Shall
die" — The sense of the words — What death intended — Close of the considera-
tion of the text insisted on — Matt, xviii. 32-35, taken into a review — Whether
the love of God be mutable — What the love of God is — 1 Cor. ix. 27 ; in what
sense it was po.ss!ble for Paul to become a reprobate — The proper sense of
the place insisted on manifested — Of the meaning of the word aVoxifn); — The
scope of the place farther cleared — Heb. vi. 4-8, x. 26-29, proposed to con-
sideration— Whether the words be conditional — The genuine and true mean-
ing of the place opened in six observations — Mr G.'s exceptions to the expo-
sition of the words insisted on removed — The persons intended not true be-
lievers— This evinced in sundry considerations — The particulars of the text
vindicated — Of the illumination mentioned in the text — Of the acknowledg-
ment of the trutli ascribed to the persons mentioned — Of the sanctification
mentioned in the text — Of tasting the lieavenly gift — To be made partakers
of the Holy Ghost, what — Of tasting the good Avorcf of God and powers of
the world to come — Of the progress made by men not really rcgenei*ate in
the things of God — The close of our considerations on these texts — Ileb. x.
38, 39 — Mr G.'s arguing from thence considered and answered — Of the

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCKIPTURE CONSIDERED. G07

right translation of the words — Beza vindicated, as also our English transla-
tors— The words of the text effectual to prove the saints' perseverance — Of
the pai'able of the stony ground, Matt. xiii. 20, 21 — Mr G.'s arguing from
the place proposed and considered — The similitude in the parable farther con-
sidered— An argument from the text to prove the persons described not to
be true believers — 2 Pet. ii. 18-22 — Mr G.'s arguings from this place con-
sidered, etc.

Though I could willingly be spared the labour of all that must
ensue to the end of this treatise, yet, it being made necessary by the
endeavours of men not delighting in the truth which hitherto we
have asserted for the opposition thereof, and lying, I hope, under the
power and efficacy of that heavenly exhortation of " contending ear-
nestly for the faith once delivered to the saints," I shall with all
cheerfulness address myself thereunto ; yea, the service and homage
I owe to the truth itself, causing this engagement for its rescue from
under the captivity wherein by the chains of Mr Goodwin's rhetoric
it hath been some time detained, being increased and doubled by
the pressing and violent wresting of sundry texts of Scripture to
serve in the same design of bondaging the truth with him, is a far-
ther incitation to add my weak endeavours to break open those
doors and bars which he hath shut and fastened upon them both,
for their joint deliverance.

In Mr Goodwin's 12th chapter, he takes into participation with
him, as is pretended, eight places of Scripture, endeavouring by all
means possible to compel them to speak comfortable words for the
relief of his fainting and dying cause. Whether he hath prevailed
with them to the least compliance, or whether he will not be found
to proclaim in their name what they never once acknowledged unto
him, will be tried out in the process of our consideration of them.

In the first and second sections he fronts the discourse intended
with an eloquent oration, partly concerning the tendency of the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance, which he girds himself now more
closely to contend withal, partly concerning himself, his own ability,
industry, skill, diligence, and observation of doctrines and persons,
with his rules in judging of the one and the other.

For the first, he informs us that his judgment is, " That many who
might have attained a 'crown of glory,' by a presumptuous conceit of
the impossibility of their miscanying, are now like to 'suffer the ven-
geance of eternal fire;' men thereby gratifying the flesh with wrest-
ing the Scriptures to the encouragement thereof"

That the proud and presumptuous conceits of men are like to have
no other issue or effect than the betraying of their souls to all manner
of looseness and abominations, so exposing them to the "vengeance of
eternal fire," we are well assured; and therefore, " knowing the terror
of the Lord, Ave do persuade men," what we are able, to cast down
all high thoughts and imaginations concerning their own abilities to

608 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

do good, to believe, to obey the gospel, or to abide in the faith thereof,
and to roll themselves freely, fully, wholly, on the free grace and
faithfulness of God in the covenant of mercy, ratified in the blood of
his Son, wherein they shall be assured to find peace to their souls.
On this foundation do we build all our endeavours for the exalting
the sovereign, free, effectual grace of God, in opposition to the proud
and presumptuous conceits of men concerning their own inbred,
native power in spiritual things, — an apprehension whereof, we are
well assured, disposeth the heart into such a frame as God abhors,
and prepares the soul to a battle against him, in the highest and
most abominable rebellion imaginable. I no ways doubt that the
ways and means whereby innumerable poor creatures have been
hardened to their eternal ruin have had all their springs and foun-
tains lie in this one wretched reserve, of a power in themselves to
turn to God and to abide with him. That any one by mixing the
promises of God with faith, wherein the Lord hath graciously assured
him, that, seeing he hath no strength in himself to continue in his
mercy, he will preserve and keep him in and through the Son of his
love, hath ever been, or ever can be, turned wholly aside to any way
or path not acceptable to God, or not ending in everlasting peace,
will never be made good, whilst the gospel of Christ finds honour
and credit amongst any of the sons of men. There may be some,
indeed, who are strangers to the covenant of promise, whatever they
do pretend, who may turn this grace of God in the gospel, as also
that of the satisfaction of Christ, redemption by his blood, and jus-
tification by faith, the whole doctrine of the covenant of grace in
Christ, into lasciviousness. But shall their unbelief make the faith of
God of none effect? shall their wickedness and rebellion prejudice the
mercy, peace, and consolation of the saints? Because the gospel is to
them the " savour of death unto death," may it not be the " savour
of life unto life" unto them that do embrace it? Whatever, then,
be the disasters of men (of which themselves are the sole cause) with
their presumptuous conceits of the impossibility of miscarrying, —
seeing every presumptuous conceit, of what kind soever, is a desperate
miscarriage, — their ruin and destruction cannot in the least be asci'ibed
to that doctrine which calls for faith in the promises of God, a faith
working by love, and decrying all presumptuous conceits whatever;
a doctrine without which, and the necessary concomitant doctrines
thereof, the whole bottom of men's walking with God, and of their
obedience, is nothing but presumption and conceit, whereby, setting
aside the cold fits they are sometimes cast into by the checks of
their consciences, they spend their days in the distemper of a fever
of pride and folly.

In the ensuing discourse, Mr Goodwin informs us of these two
things: — First, What rule he proceeds by in judging of the truth of

xvil] certain passages in scripture considered. 609

contrary opinions, when, as lie phraseth it, " the tongue of the Scrip-
ture seems to be cloven about them." And, Secondly, Of his own
advantages and abilities to make a right judgment according to that
rule. The rule he attends unto, upon the information he hath given
us, is, " The consideration of which of the opinions that are at any
time rivals for his judgment and acceptation tends most unto god-
liness, the gospel being the truth which is according to godliness."
Of his own advantages and abilities to make a right judgment ac-
cording to this rule, there are several heads and springs ; as, " his
knowledge of the general course of the Scripture, the experience of
his own heart, his long observation of the spirits and ways of men,
but chiefly that light of reason and understanding which he hath."
And by this rule, with these abilities, proceeding in the examination
of the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, he condemns it, and casts
it out as an abominable thing, preferring that concerning their final
defection far above it. Some considerations I shall add to attend
npon his rule and principles: —

First, it is most certain that the gospel is a " doctrine according
unto godliness," whose immediate and direct tendency, as in the
whole frame and course of it, so in every particular branch and
stream, is to promote that obedience to God in Christ which we call
godliness. "This is the will of God," revealed therein, "even our sanc-
tification." And whatever doctrine it be that is suited to turn men off
from walking with God in that way of holiness, it carries its brand
on its face, whereby ever}^ one that finds it may know that it is of
the unclean spirit, the evil one. But yet that there may be fearful
and desperate deceits in the hearts of men judging of truths, pre-
tending their rise and original from the gospel by their suitableness
to the promotion of godliness and holiness, hath been before in part
declared, and the experience of all ages doth sufficiently manifest.
Among all those who profess the name of Christ more or less in the
world, though in and under the most antichristian opposition to him
who is there that doth not pretend that this tendency of opinions
unto godliness, or their disserviceableness thereunto, hath a great
influence into the guidance of their judgment in the receiving or
rejecting of them? On the account of its destructiveness to godli-
ness and obedience do the Socinians reject the satisfaction and merit
of Christ; and on the account of conducingness thereunto do the
Papists assert and build ujj the doctrines of their own merits, pen-
ance, satisfaction, and the like. On that principle did they seem to
be acted who pressed legal and judicial suppositions, with " a show of
wisdom in will-worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body,"
Col. ii. 23. Neither did they fail of their plea concerning promo-
tion of godliness in the worship of God, who reviled, rejected, and
persecuted the ordinances of Christ in this generation, to set up their

v^OL. XI. 89

610 DOCTRINE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

own abominations in their room. Yea, it is generally the first word
wherewith every abomination opens its mouth in the world, though
the men of those abominations do rather suppose this pretence of
godliness to be serviceable for the promotion of their opinions than
their opinions any way really useful to the promotion of godliness.

Neither need we go far to inquire after the reasons of men's mis-
carriages, pretending to judge of truth according to this rule, seeing
they lie at hand, and are exposed to the view of all; for besides that
very many of the pretenders to this plea may be justly suspected to
be men of corrupt minds, dealing falsely and treacherously with their
own souls and the truth, — the pretence of furthering holiness being
one of the cunning sleights wherewith they lie in wait to deceive,
which may justly be suspected of them who, together with this plea,
and whilst they make it, are apparently themselves loose and remote
from the power of a gospel conversation, as the case hath been with
not a few of the most eminent assertors of Arminianism, — how few
are there in the world who have indeed a true notion and apprehen-
sion of the nature of holiness in its whole compass and extent, as in
the fountain, causes, rise, use, and end thereof ! And if men know
not indeed what holiness is, how shall they judge what doctrine or
opinion is conducing to the furtherance thereof or is obstructive
to it?

Give me a man who is persuaded that he hath power in him-
self, being by the discovery of a rule directed thereunto, to yield
that obedience to God which he doth require; wdio supposeth that
threats of hell and destruction are the greatest and most powerful
and effectual motive unto that obedience; that the Spirit and grace
of God to work and create a new heart in him, as a suitable prin-
ciple of all holy actings, are not purchased nor procured for him by
the blood of Christ, nor is there any holiness wrought in him by the
almighty efficacy of that Spirit and grace, he having a sufficiency in
himself for these things; that there is not a real physical concur-
rence of the grace of God for the production of every good act what-
ever; and that he is justified upon the account of any act or part of
his obedience or of the whole, — and I shall not be much moved or
shaken with the judgment of that man concerning the serviceable-
ness and suitableness of any doctrine or doctrines to the furtherance
of godliness and holiness. There are also many different opinions
about the nature of godliness, what it is, and wherein it doth con-
sist. I desire to be informed how a man may be directed in his
examination of those opinions, supposing him in a strait and exigency
of thoughts between them, in considering which of them is best
suited to the promotion of godliness. I do not intend in the least
to derogate from the certain and undoubted truth of what was pre-
mised at the beginning of this discourse, namely, " That every gos-

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 611

pel rule whatever is certainly conducing to the furtherance of gospel
obedience in them that receive it in the love and power thereof,"
every error being in its utmost activity (especially in corrupting the
principles of it) obstructive thereunto; much less do we in any
measure decline the trial of the doctrine which I assert, in opposi-
tion to [the doctrine of] the apostasy of the saints, by this touchstone
of its usefulness to holiness, having formerly manifested its eminent
activity and efficacy in that service, and the utter averseness of its
corrival to lend any assistance thereimto. But yet I say, in an in-
quiry after and dijudication of truth, whatever I have been or may
be straitened between different persuasions, I have [chosen], and shall
rather choose, in the practice of holiness, in prayer, faith, and wait-
ing upon God, to search the Scripture, to attend wholly to that rule,
having plentiful promises for guidance and direction, than to weigh
iu any rational consideration of my own what is conducing to holi-
ness, what not, especially in many truths which have their usefulness
in this service (as is the case of most gospel ordinances and institu-
tions of worship), not from the connection of things, but from the
mere will of the Appointor. Of those doctrines, I confess, which,
following on to know the Lord, we know from his word to be from
him, and which in doing the will of Christ are revealed to us to be his
will, a peculiar valuation is to be set on the head of them which ap-
pear to be peculiarly and eminently serviceable to the promotion and
furthering of our obedience ; as also, that ail opinions whatever that
are in the least seducers from the power, truth, and spirituality of obe-
dience, are not of God, and are eo nomine to be rejected: yet, having
a more sure rule to attend unto, I dare not make my apprehensions
concerning the tendency of doctrines any rule, if God hath not so
spoken of them, for the judging of their truth or falsehood, if my
thoughts are not shut up and determined by the power of the word.
The next proposal made by Mr Goodwin is of the advantages he
hath to judge of truths; which he hath done unto plenary satisfac-
tion, according to the rule now considered. The first thing he offereth
to induce us to close with him in his judgment of opinions is, " the
knowledge he hath of the general course of the Scripture." What is
intended by "the general course of the Scripture" well I know not;
and so I am not able to judge of Mr Goodwin's knowledge thereof by
any thing exposed to public view. If by " the general course of the
Scriptures" the matter of them is intended, the importance of the
expression seems to be coincident with the " analogy or proportion of
faith," a safe rule of prophecy; — but whatever Mr Goodwin's know-
ledge may be of this, I am not perfectly satisfied that he hath kept
close unto it in many doctrines of his book entitled " Redemj)tion
Redeemed ;" and so the weight of his skill in judging of truths on
this foundation will not balance what I have to lay against it for the

612 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

inducement of other thoughts than those of closing with him. The
" course of the Scripture" cannot import the manner of the expres-
sions therein used, in that there is so great and so much variety
therein that it can scarce be cast into one course and current; and if
the general scoi^e, aim, and tendency of the Scripture may pass for
the " course of it," there is not any one thing that lies so evident and
clear therein as the decrying of all that ability, and strength, and
power to do good in men, which Mr Goodwin so much pleads for and
asserts to be in them, with an exaltation of that rich and free grace,
in the efficacy and the power of it, which he so much opposeth.

The " experimental knowledge he hath of his own heart, the work-
ings and reasonings thereof," a thing common to him with others,
and what advantages he hath thereby, I shall not consider; only,
this I shall dare to say, that I would not for all the world have no ex-
perience in my heart of the truth of many things which Mr Goodwin
in this treatise opposeth, or that my weak experience of the grace
of God should not rise above that frame of heart and spirit which
the teachings of it seem to discover. I doubt not, a person under
the covenant of works, heightened with convictions, and a low or
common work of the Spirit, induced thereby to some regular walking
before God, may reach the utmost of what in this treatise is required
to render a man a saint, truly gracious, regenerate, and a believer.

And in this also, I doubt not, lies the deceit of what is thirdly in-
sisted on, namely, " his observation of the ways and sjDirits of men,
their firstinc^s and lastincjs in religion." A sort of men there are in
the world who escape the outward pollution of it, and are clean in
their own eyes, though they are never washed from their iniquities;
who having been under strong convictions by the power of the law,
and broken [off] thereby from the course of their sin, attending to the
Avord of the gospel with a temporary faith, do go forth unto a profes-
sion of relifrion and walkinsj with God so far as to have " all the linea-
ments of true believers," as Mr Goodwin somewhere speaks, "drawn
in their faces," — hearing the word gladly, as did Herod; receiving
it with joy, as did the stony ground ; attending to it with delight, as
they did in Ezek. xxxiii. 31; repenting of former sins, as did Ahab and
Judas ; until they are reckoned among true believers, as was Judas
and those in John ii. 23, who yet were never united unto Jesus Christ;
— of whose ways and walking Mr Goodwin seems to have made obser-
vation, and found many of them to end in visible apostasy. But that
this observation of them should cause him to judge them, when apos-
tatized, to have been true believers, or that he is thereby advantaged
to determine concerning the truth of several opinions pretending to
his acceptance,' I cannot grant, nor doth he go about to prove.

For what he mentions in the last place, of the "light of reason and
understanding" which he hath, I do not only grant him to have it "in

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 613

common/' as he saith, "with other men/'' for the kind of it, but also, as
to the degrees of it, to be much advanced therein above the generality
of men; yet I must needs tell him, in the close, that all these helps
and advantages, seeming to be drawn forth and advanced in opposi-
tion to that one great assistance, which we enjoy by promise of Clirist,
of his Spirit leading us into all truth, and teaching us from God by
his own anointing, are to me "hay and stubble,'' yea, "loss and dung,'"
— of no value or esteem. Had we not other ways and means, helps and
advantages, to come to the knowledge of the truth, than these here
unfolded and spread forth by Mr Goodwin, actum esset, we should
never perceive the things that are of God. The fox was acquainted
with many wiles and devices; the cat knew unum magnum, wherein
she found safety. Attendance to the word, according to the direc-
tion of the usual known rules and helps agreed on for the interpre-
tation of it, with humble dependence on God; waiting for the guid-
ance of his Spirit, according to the promise of his dear Son ; asking
him of him continually, that he may dwell with us, anoint, and lead
us into all truth ; with an utter abrenunciation of all our skill, abili-
ties, wisdom, and any resting on them, knowing that it is God alone
that gives us understanding, — is the course that hitherto hath been
used in our inquiry after the mind of God in the doctrine under con-
sideration, and which, the Lord assisting, shall be heeded and kept
close unto in that discussion of the texts of Scripture wrested by Mr
Goodwin, as by others before him, to give countenance to his oppo-
sition to the truth hitherto uttered, confirmed, and vindicated from
his contradictions thereunto.

The place of Scripture first insisted on, and on the account whereof
he triumphs with the greatest confidence of success, is that of Ezek.
xviii. 24, 25; unto which words he subjoins a triumjDhant, exulting
exclamation : —

" What more," saith he, "can the understanding, judgment, soul,
and conscience of a man reasonably desire, for the establishment in
any truth whatsoever, than is delivered by God himself in this pas-
sage, to evince the possibility of a righteous man's declining from his
righteousness, and that unto death?''

The counsel given of old to the king may not be unseasonable to
Mr Goodwin, in that dominion which he exerciseth in his own
thoughts in this work of his, " Let not him that putteth on his ar-
mour boast like him that putteth it off" You have but newly
entered the lists, and that with all 'pressed soldiers, unwilling so
much as once to appear in that service they are forced to. If you
will but suspend your triumph until we have made a little trial of
your forceSj and your skill in managing of them to the battle, per-
haps you may be a little taken off from this confidence of success.
Notwithstanding the forcing of this scripture upon the truth, being

614 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

cut off and taken away from that coherence, and connection, and
station, wherein it is placed of God (which is not in the least inquired
into), it will be found in the issue to hear it no ill-will at all, as will
also be manifested by the light of the ensuing considerations : —

1. The matter under inquiry, and into a disquisition of whose state
we have hitherto been engaged, is the condition of the saints of God,
and his dealing with them in and under the covenant of grace in
general. For our guidance and direction herein, a text of Scripture,
evincing the righteousness of God's dealings with a number of persons,
in a peculiar case which was under debate, is produced ; and by the
tenor of this, and according to the tenor of the reasonings therein,
must all the promises of God in the covenant of grace, made and
ratified by the blood of Christ, be regulated and interpreted ! We
have been told, by as learned a man as Mr Goodwin, "That promises
made to the people of the Jews peculiarly, and suited to the peculiar
state and condition wherein they were, do not concern the people of
God in general;" and why may not the same be the condition of
threatenings given out upon a parallel account? " Compedes quas
fecit ipse ut ferat ajquum est.''

2. That it is the determination and stating of a particular contro-
versy between God and the people of the Jews, suited to a peculiar
dispensation of his providence towards them, which is here proposed,
is evident from the occasion of the words, laid down verses 2, 3,
" What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of
Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's
teeth are set on edge ? As I live, saith the Lord GoD," etc. It is the
use of a proverb concerning the land of Israel that God is decrying,
and disproving the truth of the proverb itself under consideration ;
and that this should be the standard and rule of God's proceeding
with his people in the covenant of mercy, no man that seems to have
either understanding, judgment, or conscience, can reasonably imagine.

3. That it is not the nature and tenor of the covenant of grace,
and God's dealing with his chosen secret ones, his saints, true be-
lievers, as to their eternal condition, which in these words is intended,
but the manifestation of the righteousness of God in dealing with
that people of the Jews, in a peculiar disiDensation of his providence
towards the l)ody of the people and the nation in general, appears
farther from the occasion of the words and the provocation given
the Lord to make use of those expressions unto them. The proverb
that God cuts out of their lips and mouths by the sword of his righte-
ousness in those words was "concerning the land of Israel;" used per-
haps mostly by them in captivity. But it was concerning the land
of Israel, not concerning the eternal state and condition of the saints
of God, but concerning the land of Israel, verse 2. God had of old
given that land to that people by promise, and continued them in it

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED, 615

for many generations, until at length, for their wickedness, idolatry,
abomination, and obstinacy in their evil ways, he caused them to be
carried captive unto Babylon. In that captivity the Lord revenged
upon them not only the sins of the present generation, but, as he
told them, also those of their forefathers; especially the abomination,
cruelty, idolatry, exercised in the days of Manasseh, taking this sea-
son for his work of vengeance on the generations following, who also
so far walked in the steps of their forefathers as to justify all God's
proceedings against them. Being wasted and removed from their
own land by the righteous judgment of God, they considered the
land of Israel, that was promised to them (though upon their good be-
haviour therein), and how, instead of a plentiful enjoyment of all
things in peace and quietness therein, there were now a small rem-
nant in captivity, the rest, the far greatest part, being destroyed by
the sword and famine in that land. In this state and condition,
being, as all others of their frame and principle, prone to justify them-
selves, they had hatched a proverb among themselves concerning the
land of Israel promised to them, exceedingly opprobrious and re-
proachful to the justice of God in his dealings with them. The sum
of the intendment of this saying that was grown rife amongst them
was, that for the sins of their forefathers, many, yea, the greatest part
of them, were slain in the land of Israel, and the rest carried from it
into bondage and captivity. To vindicate the righteousness and
equity of his ways, the impartiality of his judgments, the Lord re-
counts to them by his prophet many of their sins, whereof themselves
with their fathers were guilty, in the land of their nativity, and for
which he had brought all that calamity and desolation upon them
whereof they did complain ; affirming, under many supposals of rising
and falling, that principle of rising and falling, that principle he laid
down in the entrance of his dealings with them, — that every one of
them suffered for his own iniquity, whatever they suffered, whether
death or other punishment, and not for the sins of their forefathers,
whatever influence they might have upon the procuring of the gene-
ral vengeance that overtook the whole nation in the midst of their
iniquity. This being the aim, scope, and tendency of the place, the
import of the words and tenor of God's intendment in them, I can-
not but wonder how any man of understanding and conscience can
once imagine that God hath given any testimony to the possibility
of falling out of covenant with him of those whom he hath taken
nigh to himself through the blood of his Son in the everlasting
bond thereof; as though it were any thing of his dealing v/ith the
saints in reference to their spii'itual and eternal condition that the
Lord here reveals his will about, being only the tenor of his deal-
ings with the house of Israel in reference to the land of Canaan.
4. This is farther manifest in that principle and rule of God's pro-

616 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

ceedings in the matter, laid down verse 4; which is not only alien
from, but also directly opposite unto, that which is the principle in
the covenant of grace, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die," — that
soul and person, and not another, — when in that covenant of grace he
" setteth forth his Son to be a propitiation through faith in his blood,
giving him up to death for all, causing the just to die for the un-
just," the soul that never sinned for the souls that had sinned, that
they might go free. And I would fain know on what solid grounds
an answer may be given to the Socinians' triumphing in the 4th
verse against the satisfaction of Christ, no less than Mr Goodwin in
the 24th and 25th, against the perseverance of the saints, if you do
not manifest the whole tendency of this place to be accommodated to
God's providential dispensation of temporal judgments and mercies
in respect of that people and the covenant whereby they held the
land of Canaan, and not at all to respect the general dispensation
of his righteousness and grace in the blood of Christ. So that, —

5. The whole purport and intendment of the scripture under con-
sideration is only to manifest the tenor of God's righteous proceed-
ing with the people of Israel, in respect of his dispensation towards
them in reference to the land of Canaan. Convincing them of their
own abominations, confuting the profane proverb invented and reared
up in the reproach of his righteousness, beating them from the vain
pretence of being punished for their fathers' sins, and from the conceit
of their own righteousness, which that people was perpetually puffed
up withal, he lets them know that his dealing with them and his
ways towards them were equal and righteous, in that there was none
of them but was punished for his own sin ; and though some of them
might have made some profession and done some good, yet upon
the whole matter, first or last, they had all declined, and therefore
ought to own the punishment of their sins, God dealing severely,
and unto death and destruction, with none but those who either
wholly or upon the sum of the matter turned away from his judg-
ments and statutes. So that, —

6. This being the tenor and importance of the words insisted on,
this their tendency, aim, and accommodation to the objection levied
against the righteousness of God in dealing with that people, this
their rise and end, their spring and fall, it is evident beyond all
contradiction, from any thing but prejudice itself, that all the inquiries
and disputes about them, — as, whether the declaration of the mind of
God in them be hypothetical or absolute, what is meant by the
righteous person, what by his turning away, and what by the death
threatened (all which expressions of the text are in themselves am-
biguous, and must be limited from the circumstances of the place), —
are altogether useless and needless, the words utterly refusing any
accommodation to the business of our present debate. So that, —

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 617

7. This dependence of the words, scope of the context, design of
the place, and intendment of God in it, [and] the accommodation of
the whole discourse to the removal of the objection and disproving of
the proverbial self-justification of a sinful people, — the only direc-
tories in the investigation of the true, proper, native, genuine sense
and meaning of them, — [having been neither] eyed, weighed, nor
considered by Mr Goodwin, who knew how much it was to his ad-
vantage to rend away these two verses from the body of the pro-
phet's discourse, I might well supersede any farther proceedings in
the examination of what he has prepared for a reply to the answers
commonly given to the argument taken from this place; yet, that
all security imaginable may be given to the reader of the inoffen-
siveness of this place as to the truth we maintain, I shall briefly
manifest that Mr Goodwin hath not indeed effectually taken up and
off any one answer, or any one parcel of any such, that hath usually
been given by our divines unto the objection against the doctrine
of perseverance hence levied.

That which naturally first offers itself to our consideration is, the
form and tenor of the expressions here used, which is not of an abso-
lute nature, but hypothetical. The import of the words is, " If a
righteous man turn from his righteousness, and continue [not] therein,
he shall die." " True," say they who make use of this consideration,
" God here proposes the desert of sin, and the connectimi that is, by
his appointment, between apostasy and the punishment thereunto
allotted ; but this not at all infers that any one who is truly righteous
shall or may everlastingly so apostatize. Such comminations as these
God maketh use of to caution believers of the evil of apostasy, and
thereby to preserve them from it; as their tendency to that end,
by the appointment of God, and their efficacy thereunto, hath been
declared. So that, because God says, ' If a righteous man turn
from his righteousness, he shall die,' the whole emphasis lying in
the connection that is between such turning away and dying, to con-
clude (considering what is the proper use and intendment of such
threatenings) that a man truly righteous may so fall away, is to
build up that which the text contributes not any thing to in the
least."

Against this plea Mr Goodwin riseth up with much contempt and
indignation, chap. xii. sect. 9. in these words: — •

" But this sanctuary hath also been profaned by some of the chief
guardians themselves of that cause for the protection and safety
whereof it was built. There needs no more be done (though much
more might be done, yea, and hath been done by others) than that
learned doctor so lately named hath done himself for the demo-
lishing of it. Having propounded the argument from the place in
Ezekiel according to the import of the interpretation asserted by us,

618 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

' Some/ saitli he, ' answer, that a condition proves nothing in being;
which how true soever it may be in respect of such hypotheticals
which are made use of only for the amphfication of matters, and
serve for the aggravating either of the difficulty or indignity of a
thing (as, ' If I should climb up into heaven, thou art there,' Ps.
cxxxix., it were ridiculous to infer, therefore a man may chmb up
into heaven), yet such conditional sayings upon which admonitions,
promises, or threatenings are built, do at least suppose something
in possibility, however, by virtue of their tenor and form, they sup-
pose nothing in being: for no man seriously intending to encourage
a student in his way would speak thus to him, ' If thou -wilt get
all the books in the university library by heart, thou shalt be doctor
this commencement/ Besides, in the case in hand, he that had a
mind to deride the prophet might readily come ujDon him thus:
* But a righteous man, according to the judgment of those that are
orthodox, cannot turn away from his righteousness; therefore your
threatening is in vain.' Thus we see to how little purpose it is to
seek for starting poles in such logic quirks as these.' Thus far the
great assertor of the synod of Dort and the cause which they main-
tained, to show the vanity of such a sense or construction put upon
the words now in debate which shall render them merely condi-
tional, and will not allow them to import so much as a possibility
of any thing^contained or expressed in them."

Ans. 1. Doctor Prideaux's choosing not to lay the weight of this
answer to the argument of the Arminians from this place on the
hypothetical manner of the expression used therein, is called a " de-
filing the sanctuary by the guardians of the cause whose protection
it undertakes."

• " Crimina rasis
Librat in antithetis ; doctas posuisse figuras
Laudatur?" Pers., Sat. i. 85-87.

What are my thoughts of it I need not express, being unconcerned
in the business, as knowing it not at all needful to be insisted on for
the purpose for which it is produced, the text looking not at all to-
wards the doctrines imder consideration; yet I must needs say, I
am not satisfied with the doctor's attempt for the removal of it, nor
with what is farther added by the Remonstrants in the place which
we are sent unto by Mr Goodwin's marginal directions. Though it
should be granted that such conditional expressions do suppose, or
may (for that they always do is not affirmed, and in some cases it is
evident they do not), that there is something in posse, as the doctor
speaks, whereunto they do relate, yet they do not infer that the pos-
sibility may by no means be hindered from ever being reduced into
act. We grant a possibility of desertion in believers, in respect of
their own principles of operation, — which is ground sufficient for to

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 619

give occasion to such hypothetical expressions as contain eommina-
tions and threatenings in them, — but yet, notwithstanding that
possibihty on that account supposed, [on the point whether] the
bringing forth of that possibihty into an actual accomplishment may
not be effectually prevented by the Spirit and grace of God, the
doctor says nothing. This, I say, is ground sufficient for such
hypothetical comminations, that in respect of them to whom they
are made, it is possible to incur the thing threatened by the means
therein mentioned, which yet upon other accounts is not possible;
that God who says, " If the righteous man turn from his righteous-
ness, he shall die," and says so on purpose to preserve righteous men
from so doing, knowing full well that the thing, in respect of them-
selves of whom and to whom he speaks, is sufficiently possible to
give a clear foundation to that expression. So that if Mr Goodwin
hath not something of his own to add, he will find little relief from
the conceptions of that learned doctor; wherein yet I should not
have translated some phrases and expressions, as Mr Goodwin hath
made bold to do.

He adds, therefore, p. 276, "To say that God putteth a case in
such solemnity and emphaticalness of words and phrase as are re-
markable all along in the carriage of the place in hand, of which
there is no possibility that it should ever happen or be exemplified
in reality of event, and this in vindication of himself and the equity
of his dealings and proceedings Avith men, is to bring a scandal and
reproach of weakness upon that infinite wisdom of his which magni-
fies itself in all his works; which also is so much the more unworthy
and unpardonable when there is a sense commodious, every way
worthy as well the infinite wisdom as the goodness of God, perti-
nent and proper to the occasion he hath in hand, which otters itself
plainly and clearly." So far he.

And this is all, it seems, which Mr Goodwin hath to add. And,
indeed, this all is nothing at all, but only the repetition of what was
urged before by the doctor, in more swelling and less significant
terms. What possibility there is in the thing hath been before
manifested. That this possibility should necessarily be exemplified
in reality of event, to give significancy to this expression, I suppose
is not Mr Goodwin's own intendment. True believers, according to
the doctrine he asserts (as he pretends), are only in such a remote
possibility of apostasy as that it can scarce be called danger. Now,
doubtless, it is possible that such a remote possibility may never be
reduced into act. But now if Mr Goodwin will not be contented
with such a possibility as may, but also will have that [which]
must be exemplified in reality of event, he has advanced from a 'pos-
sibility in all to a necessity in some to apostatize.

2. Had Mr Goodwin a little more attended to what here drops

620 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

from him, — namely, " That the words are used for the vindication of
the justice of the proceedings of God," namely, in the particular case
formerly opened and cleared, — perhaps he would himself have judged
the edge of this weapon to be so far blunted as to render it wholly
useless to him in the combat wherein he is engaged. I hope, at
least, that by the light of this spark he may apprehend the emphati-
calness of all the expressions used in this place to be pointed towards
the particular case under consideration, and not in the least to be
expressive of the possibility he contends for. God knows what be-
seems his own infinite wisdom, and hath given us rules to judge
thereof, as far as we are called thereto, in. his word ; and from thence,
whether Mr Goodwin will pardon us -or no in our so doing, we doubt
not to evince that it exceedingly becomes the infinitely wise God em-
phatically to express that connection that is between one thing and
another (sin and punishment, believing and salvation), by his ap-
pointment, though some never believe unto salvation, nor som.e sin
to the actual inflicting of punishment on them. And as for Mr
Goodwin's "commodious sense" of this place, we see not any advan-
tage in it for any but those who are engaged into an opposition to
the covenant of the grace of God and his faithfulness therein. So
that once more, upon the whole matter, this text is discharged from
farther attendance in the trial of the truth in hand.

The severals of the text come nextly under consideration, and
amongst them, first, the subject spoken of (that we may take the
words in some order, Mr Goodwin having roved up and down, back-
wards and forwards, from one end of the text to the other, without
any at all), and this is, "A righteous man;" that is, such an one as is
described, verses 5-9, " But if a man," etc. ; that is, such an one as
walks up to the judgments, and statutes, and ordinances of God, so
far as they were of him required in the covenant of the land of
Canaan, and according to the tenor of it, whereby they held their pos-
session therein, and whereby heavenly things were also shadowed out.
That this is the person intended, this his righteousness, and this the
matter upon which he is here tried, is clear in the contexts beyond
all possible contradiction; so that all farther inquiries into what righte-
ousness is intended is altogether needless. What with any colour
of probability can be pretended from hence as to the matter in hand
arises from the analogy of God's dealings with men in the tenor of
the covenant of grace and the covenant of the land of Israel ; which
yet are eminently distinguished in the very foundation of them,
the one being built upon this bottom, " The soul that sinneth, it shall
die," the other upon a dispensation of another import, as has been
declared. We do, then, plainly supererogate as to the cause in hand,
by the confutation of the answers which Mr Goodwin farther attempts
to remove, and his endeavour therein ; which yet shall not be declined.

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 621

Sect. 8. One exposition, by some insisted on, of this term "A righte-
ous man," is thus proposed by Mr Goodwin: "Notwithstanding, some
formerly, it seems, in favour of the doctrine, attempted an escape
from that sword of Ezekiel lately drawn against it, by pretending
that by the ' righteous man' mentioned in the passage in hand is not
meant a person truly and really righteous, but a kind of formal hypo-
crite, or outside professor of righteousness."

Those who insist on this interpretation of the place tell you that
in the commands of God there is the mere end of them considerable,
and not the manner of their performance, which is as the life and
power of the obedience of them, which is acceptable to God ; farther,
that many persons, wrought upon by the power of conviction from
the law of God, and enabled in some measure with common gifts and
graces, do go forth in such a way to the performance of the com-
mands of God, as to the substance and matter of them (wherein also
they are not hypocritical, in the strict sense of the word, but sincere),
and so are called and counted righteous, comparatively so, in respect
of those who live in open rebellion against the Lord and his ways.
And such as these, they say, as they are oftentimes useful in their
generations, and bring glory to God by their j^rofession, so (especially
under the old legal dispensation of the covenant) they are rewarded
in a plentiful manner of God in this life, in the enjoyment of the
abundance of all things in peace and quietness. Of this sort of men,
— that is, men upright and righteous in their dealings with men and
in the world, conscientious in their trust, yielding professed subjec-
tion to the judgments and institutions of God, performing outwardly
all known duties of religious men, — they say, that after they have
made a profession of some good continuance, having never attained
union with God in Christ, nor being built on the rock, many do fall
into all manner of sjDiritual and sensual abominations, exposing them-
selves to all the judgments and vengeance of God in this life, which
also under the old testament generally overtook them, God being
(as here he pleads) righteous herein. In this description of the
righteous person here intended, there is no occasion in the least ad-
ministered to Mr Goodwin to relieve himself against it by that which,
in the close of tliis section, he borrows from Dr Prideaux, — namely,
" That if the righteous man should turn himself away from his
counterfeit and hypocritical righteousness, he should rather live than
die;" for they say not that this righteousness is hypocritical or coun-
terfeit, but true and sincere in its kind, only the person himself is
supposed not to be partaker of the righteousness of God in Christ
and of a principle of life from him, which should alter his obedience,
and render it spiritual and acceptable to God in the Son of his love.

What more says Mr Goodwin unto this exposition of the words?
With many scornful expressions cast both upon it (as by himself

622 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

stated and laid down) and tlie synod of Dort, he tells you it was re-
jected by the synod. That some in the synod, looking on it perhaps
under such a sense and apprehension as Mr Goodwin proposeth it in,
did not see cause to close with it, may be true; yet that it was
rejected by the synod Mr Goodwin can by no means prove, whatever
he is pleased to say, and to insult thereon upon the judgments of very
learned men, whom he hath no reason upon any account in the world
to despise, the labours of very many of them praising them in the
gates of Zion, exceedingly above the cry and clamour of all reproaches
whatever mustered to their dishonour. But to let pass those poor,
contemptible wretches, let us see how this master in our Israel in
his indignation deals with this silly shift, whereby poor men strive
to avoid his fury. Says he, then, —

" And indeed the whole series and carriage of the context, from
verse 20 to the end of the chapter, demonstratively evinceth that
by the ' righteous man' all along is meant such a man as was or is
truly righteous, and who, had he persevered in that way of righte-
ousness wherein he some time Avalked, should have worn the crown
of righteousness, and received the reward of a righteous man; as
by the 'wicked man,' all along opposed to him, is meant not a person
seemingly wicked, but truly and really so, as is acknowledged on all
hands. So that the antithesis or opposition between the righteous
and the wicked, running so visibly quite through the body of the
discourse, must needs be dissolved, if by the 'righteous man' should
be meant a person seemingly righteous only, he that is righteous in
this sense being truly and really wicked."

Ans. The main series and context of the chapter, without the least
endeavour to give any light or illustration thereunto by the scope,
occasion, or dependence of the parts of it one upon another, does
more than once stand Mr Goodwin in stead, when nothing else pre-
sents itself to his relief It is true, the whole context of the chapter
grants the person spoken of to be righteous in the performance of
the duties mentioned in the chapter, in opposition to the wicked
man and his intentions and ways described therein, in proportion to
the dispensation of the covenant, whose rule and principle is placed
in the head of verse 20, which Mr Goodwin directs us unto, namely,
" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." And as there is nothing in all
this contrary to any thing in this exposition by Mr Goodwin opposed,
so there is not any thing more proved, nor once attempted to be, here
by Mr Goodwin himself, than what is confessed therein.

It is acknowledged that the person spoken of is truly and really
righteous, with that kind of righteousness which is intended, and
wherein if he continued he was to receive the reward of righteous-
ness then under consideration ; and yet though such an one might
be truly and really united unto Christ, there is nothing in the text

XVII.] CEllTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 623

or context enforcing that such an one and none else is intended here.
And more in this case Mr Goodwin hath not to add; nor doth he
threaten us with any more than he hath delivered, as he did upon
the consideration of the tenor of the words, and our inquiry whether
they are of an hypothetical or absolute nature and importance.

It is true, he adds that " Calvin, in his exposition on the place,
notwithstanding liis wariness to manage it so as that the doctrine of
perseverance, which he maintained, might suffer no damage'' (which
perhaps Mr Goodwin was not so wary in expressing, contending so
much as he does to manifest that he had thoughts lying another
way), " and therefore asserting the person here spoken of to be a
person seemingly righteous only, yet lets fall such things as declare
nothing to be wanting in this righteous person but pei'severance."
But that Calvin grants, in any expression of his, this person, or
him concerned herein, to be in such an estate as to want nothing
but perseverance to render him everlastingly blessed, is notoriously
false; neither does any thing in the expressions cited by Mr Goodwin
come from the body of his discourse, [or] in the least look that way,
as might easily be manifested, did I judge it meet, in a contest of
this nature, to trade in the authorities of men : so that I cannot but
wonder with what confidence he is pleased to impose such a sense
upon his words. All this while, then, notwithstanding any thing
our author hath to say to the contrary, the righteous person here in-
tended may be only such an one as was described in the entrance of
this consideration of his; and that it is not requisite, from the text or
context, that he should be any other is more evident than that it is
to be contended against.

Sect. 7, he deals with another exposition of the words, which hath
no small countenance given unto it from the Scriptures; which, for
to prevail himself upon an expression or two by-the-by, he sets down
in the words of Dr Prideaux, Lect. vi. ; and they are these : " There
is," saith he, "'a double righteousness; — one inherent, or of works, by
which we are sanctified; another imputed, or of faith, whereby we
are justified. A righteous man may turn aside from his own righte-
ousness, namely, from his holiness, and fall into very heinous sins;
but it doth not follow from hence that therefore he hath wholly
shaken off from him (or out of him) the righteousness of Christ."
To this he advances a threefold reply : —

1. " The doctor here presents us with a piece of new divinity, in
making sanctification and justification no more intimate friends than
that one can live without the company and presence of the other.
Doubtless, if a man's justification may stay behind when his holiness
is departed, that assertion of the apostle will hardly stand, ' Without
holiness no man shall see the Lord,' Heb. xii. 14; and if 'They that
are Christ's' (that is, who believe in Christ, and thereby are justified)

624 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

' have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts' (another asser-
tion of the same apostle), how their relation unto Christ should
stand, and yet their holiness sink and fall, I understand not. But I
leave his friends to be his enemies in this."

Ans. How little advantage Mr Goodwin hath obtained by at-
tempting a diversion from the consideration of the matter insisted
on (which is all he doth in this paragraph) will quickly appear.
From the righteousness of sanctification there is, or may be supposed,
a twofold fall; — first, From the exercises of it, in all or any of the
fruits thereof, according to the will of God ; secondly, From the
habit and pri7iciple of it, in respect of its root and ground-work in
the soul. It is the former that the doctor asserts. " A man," saith
he, " may fall away from the zealous practice of the duties of holi-
ness, and, with or under violence of temptation, as to fruit-bearing,
decay in close walking, until the whole seem ready to die, so as,
through the righteous judgment of God, to be exposed to calamities,
corrections, and punishments in this life, yea, the great death itself,
as it fell out in the case of Josiah, who fell by the sword in under-
taking against the mind and will of God." But now for the work
and principles of holiness, none who have once received it can ever
cast it up and become wholly without it; and between this and the
righteousness of justification, there is that strict connection that the
one cannot, doth not, consist without the other. If now Mr Good-
win understands not how a justified, sanctified person, may decline
from the ways and practice of holiness for a season, so as to provoke
the Lord to deal sharply, yea, and sometimes terribly with him, to
take vengeance on his inventions, and yet that person not lose his
relation to Christ nor his interest in the love and favour of God, I
shall not presume to instruct him in the knowledge thereof, but refer
liim to them who are better able so to do; wherein, upon the account
of his aptness to hear as well as teach, I presume their undertaking
will not be diflicult. He adds, —

2. " He seems, by his word penitus, wholly, throughly, or alto-
gether, to be singular also in another strain of divinity, and to teach
magis and minus in justification: for in saying that from a man's
apostatizing from his own righteousness, ' it doth not follow that
therefore he hath wholly or altogether shaken off the imputed righte-
ousness of Cluist,' doth he not imply that a man may shake off some
part of the righteousness of Christ from him, and yet keep another
part of it upon him? or else, that by sinning he may come to wear
the entire garment or clothing of it so loosely that it will be ready
to drop or fall off from him every hour? and, consequently, that
the righteousness of Clirist sits faster and closer upon some than upon
others, yea, upon the same person at one time than another."

Ans. Tliat this is a second attempt for to lead the reader off from

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 625

the consideration of the business in hand, and to prepare him by a
diversion to an acceptation of what he afterward tenders in way of
reply, that he may not perceive how insufficient it is for the purpose
by an immediate comparing of it v/ith the answer itself, is evident.
Truly, when, in my younger days, I was wont to hear that doctor in
his lectures and other exercises, I did not think then I should have
afterward found him called in question for want of skill to express
himself and the sense of his mind in Latin, he having a readiness
and dexterity in that language equal to any that ever I knew;
neither yet am I convinced that his word penitus, upon which Mr
Goodwin criticiseth (being commonly, as might by innumerable in-
stances be made good, used to increase and make emphatical the
import of the word wherewith it is associated), will evince any such
meaning in his expression as is there intended by Mr Goodwin.
Justification is, and it was so taught by the doctor to be (Lect. de
Just.), in respect of all persons that are partakers of it, equal, and
equal to every person so partaking of it at all times, though in re-
gard of sense and perception, and the peace and comfort wherewith
(when perceived and felt) it is attended, it is no less subject to in-
creases and wanings than sanctification itself. So that this also
might be intended by the doctor, without the least " strain of new
divinity,'' that justified and sanctified persons, though they might so
decline fi;"om the course of close walking with God as for a season to
be like a tree in winter, whose substance is in his roots, his leaves
and fruit falling off, ceasing to bring forth the fruits of holiness in
such degrees as formerly, and so lose their sense of acceptation with
God through Christ, and the peace, with consolation and joy, where-
with it is attended, yet they could not, nor should, wholly be cast
out of the favour of God, the nature and essence of their justification
being abiding; and what singular strain of divinity there is in the
tendency of such a discourse I know not. Besides, that teaching of
tnagis and minus in justification should be any singular thing in Mr
Goodwin I do not well understand; for if the matter of our righte-
ousness, or that upon the imputation whereof unto us we are justified,
may have its degrees, and receive niagis and minus, as certainly our
faith may and doth, why our justification may not do so too I see
no reason. But he comes at length to the matter, and addeth, —

3. " Lastly ; were it granted unto the doctor that from a man's
turning aside from his own holiness, it doth not follow that therefore
he hath wholly divested himself of the righteousness of Christ im-
puted, yet from God's determination or pronouncing a man to be in
an estate of condemnation and of death it follows roundly, that there-
fore he is divested of the righteousness of Christ imputed (if ever he
were invested with it before) ; because no man with that righteousness
u]Don him can be in such an estate. Now we have, upon several

VOL. XI. 40

626 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

grounds, proved that the 'righteous man/ under that apostasy where-
in Ezekiel describes and presents him, is pronounced by God a child
not of a temporal but eternal death and condemnation. This, indeed,
the doctor denies, but gives no reason of his denial, for which I
blame him not; only, I must crave leave to say, that the chair^
Aveigheth not so much as one good argument with me, much less as
many. So that, all this while. He that spake and still speaks unto
the world by Ezekiel is no friend to that doctrine which denieth a
possibility of a righteous man's declining even unto death."

Ans. If this be all that Mr Goodwin hath to say for the removal
of this answer, that cuts the throat of his argument if it be not re-
moved, he hath little reason for the confidence wherewith he closeth
it, concerning God's speaking in this place of Ezekiel against that
doctrine which, in innumerable places of his word, he hath taught us
is a doctrine inwrapping no small portion of that grace which, in a
covenant of mercy, he dispenseth to his chosen, redeemed, justified,
sanctified ones; neither is there any need to add the weight of the
chair (wherein yet that person spoken of behaved himself worthily in
his generation, and was in his exercises therein by no means by Mr
Goodwin to be despised) [to] be laid upon the reasonings of the doc-
tor in this case, they proving singly of themselves too heavy for Mr
Goodwin to bear. In brief, that the substance of the reply in hand
is merely a begging of the thing in question, any one that hath but
half an eye in a business of this nature may easily discern. That
it is supposed that a man truly righteous and justified in the blood
of Christ may so fail away as to be pronounced of God to be in a
state of damnation, and so fallen really from his former condition
(Rom. viii. 1), is the thing that Mr Goodwin hath to prove. " Now,"
saith he, " this must needs be so, because God here, upon such a
supposal, pronounceth such a man to be in the estate of condemna-
tion." What this is with other men I know not, but to me it is no
proof at all, nor should I believe that to be the sense of the place,
though, in variety of expressions, he should significantly aflirm it a
thousand times. The reader also is misinformed that the doctor
attempts not any proof that by death, eternal death is not in this
place intended; he that shall consult the place will find himself
abused. But we must speak more of this anon.

And this is all our author offers as to the person spoken of in
the place of Scripture under consideration; wherein, though he hath
taken some pains, to little or no pui'pase, to take off the exposition
of the words and the description of the person given by others, yet he
hath not attempted to give so much as one argument to confirm the
sense he would impose on us concerning the condition of the person
spoken of; and I must crave leave to say, that naked assertions, be
' Dr Pridcaux was regius professor of divinity at Oxford in 1015. — Ed.

XVII.] CEETAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 627

they never so many, in the chair or out, weigh not so much with
me as one good argument, much less as many.

There is nothing remains for consideration but only the commina-
tory part of the words, or the expression of the punishment allotted
of God to such as walk in the ways of apostasy here expressed, " In
his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath
sinned, in them shall he die;'' that is, "He shall be dealt withal as
many of his nation were in the land of Israel. My judgments shall
overtake him. It shall not advantage him that either he had godly
parents that have walked with me, or that he himself had so be-
haved himself in a way of righteousness, as before described. If he
turn to the profaneness and abominations which are laid down as
the ways of wicked men, or into any paths like them, he shall even
die, or be punished for his sins;" according to the tenor of the truth
laid down in the entrance of the chapter, and repeated again verse 20,
" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." But now, whereas it might be
replied, " Such an one, notwithstanding his degeneracy, might yet
perhaps recover himself to his former way of walking, obedience, and
righteousness in conversation, and is there then no hope nor help
for him, but having once so apostatized he must suffer for it?" to pre-
vent any such misprision of the mind of God, there is added the term
of his duration in that state of apostasy; that is, even unto death:
" If he committeth iniquity, and dieth in it," that is, repents not
of it before his death, " the judgments of God shall find him out," as
was before expressed ; " If by his repentance he prevent not his cala-
mities, he shall end his sinning in destruction;" — in which expres-
sions of the person's continuance in his apostatized condition, and
of the judgments of God falling on him on that account, there is not
the least appearance of any tautology or incongruity in the sense.
The same word is used to express diverse concernments of it, which
is no tautology. Though the same word be used, yet the same thing
is not intended. Tautology reflects on things, not words; otherwise
there must be a tautology wherever there is an avravaxXacig, as
John i. 3. " To commit iniquity, and to die therein," is no more but
to continue in his iniquity impenitently until death. Now, to say
that [this], " A man was put to death for his fault, because he com-
mitted it, and continued impenitent in it, even unto the death which
he was adjudged to, and which was inflicted on him for his fault,"
is an incoherent expression, it seems will puzzle as great a master of
language as Mr Goodwin to make good.

Mr Goodwin endeavours to make the punishment threatened in
the words, "He shall die for his iniquity," precisely and exclusively to
signify eternal death (which the former interpretation doth not ex-
clude) ; which he is no way able to make good. What he ofifers, sect.
8, concerning the incongruity of the sense, and tautology of the ex-

628 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIIS'TS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

presslon of it, [if it] be not so understood, hath been already removed.
The comparison ensuing, instituted between these words and those
of 1 Cor. vi. 10, should have been enforced with some consideration
of the coincidence of the scope of either place, with the expressions
used in them. And though repentance (which is also added) will not
deliver them from temporal or natural death, yet it may and will, as
[it] did Ahab in part, from having that death inflicted in the way of
an extraordinary judgment.

Sect. 4, Mr Goodwin offers sundry things, all of the same import-
ance and tendency, all animated by the same fallacies or mistakes,
to make good the sense he insists on, exclusively to all others, of
these words, " He shall die;" and he tells you that " if the righte-
ousness such a man hath done shall come into no account, if it
shall not ])rofit him as to his temporal deliverance, then it is impos-
sible it should profit him as to his eternal salvation." But, first, ac-
cording to our interpretation of the words, there is no necessity
incumbent on us to affirm that the person mentioned shall obtain
salvation, though we say that eternal death is not precisely threatened
in the words. But yet, that a man may not by the just hand of God,
be punished with temporal death for his faults and iniquities (as
Josiah fell by the sword), and yet have his righteousness reckoned
to him as to his great recompense of reward, is a strain of doctrine
that Mr Goodwin will scarce abide by. 1 dare not say that all who
died in the wilderness of the children of Israel went to hell and
came short of eternal life, and yet they all fell there because of their
iniquities. But he adds, —

Sect. 4. " Again ; that which God here threateneth against that
double or twofold iniquity of backsliding is opposed to that life which
is promised to repentance and perseverance in well-doing; but this
life is confessed by all to be eternal life: therefore the death opposed
to it must needs be eternal, or the second death. When the apostle
saith, ' The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord," Rom. vi. 23, is it not evident from
the antithesis, or opposition in the sentence between the death and life
mentioned in it, that by that death which he affirms to be the wages
of sin is meant eternal death? how else will the opposition stand?"

Ans. It is true, the life and death here mentioned, the one pro-
mised, verse 9, the other threatened in those insisted on, are opposed,
and of what nature and kind the one is, of the same is the other to
be esteemed. It is also confessed that the life promised in the cove-
nant of mercy to repentance is eternal life, and the wages of sin
mentioned in the law is eternal death ; but that therefore that must
be the sense of the words when they are made use of in answer to
an objection expressed in a proverb concerning the land of Israel,
and when it was temporal death that was complained of before in

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 629

the proverb, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's
teeth are set on edge" (they did not complain that they were damned
for their fathers' sins), that Mr Goodwin doth not attempt to prove;
and I do not blame him for his silence therein. He says yet again, —

" When God in the Scriptures threatens impenitent persons with
death for their sins, doubtless he intends and means eternal death,
or that death which is the wages of sin; otherwise we have no suf-
ficient ground to believe or think that men dying in their sins with-
out repentance shall ' suffer the vengeance of eternal fire,' but only a
temporal or natural death, which those who are righteous and truly
eminent themselves suffer as well as they. Therefore, to say that
God threatens impenitent apostates (in the place in hand) with a
temporal death only, when, as elsewhere, he threatens impenitency
under the lightest guilt of all with eternal death, is in effect to re-
present him as vehement and sore in his dissuasives from ordinary
and lesser sins, and as indifferent and remiss in dissuading from sins
of the greatest provocation."

Ans. The sum of this reason is, "If the death there threatened to
those men of our present contest be not death eternal, we have no
sufficient ground to believe that God will inflict any death on im-
penitent apostates but only that which is temporal or natural, which
others die as well as they." And why so, I beseech you? Is there
no other place of Scripture whence it may be evinced that eternal
death is the wages of sin ? or is every place thereof where death is
threatened to sin so circumstantiated as this place is? is the threat-
ening everywhere given out upon the like occasion, and to be ac-
commodated to the like state of things? These discourses are ex-
ceedingly loose, sophistical, and inconclusive. Neither is a violent
death counted natural, though it be the dissolution of nature.

Neither is there any thing more added by Mr Goodwin, in all his
considerations of the words of this passage of the Scriptures, than
what we have insisted on. That [argument] he nextly mentioneth,
" That if God here threateneth impenitent sinners only with tempo-
ral death, then why should the most profligate sinners fear any other
punishment?" is of [no?] more energy for the confirmation and build-
ing up of the sense which he imposeth on the words than that which
went before. They with whom he hath to do will tell him that he
doth all along most vainly assume and beg the thing in question,
namely, that the persons intimated are absolutely impenitent sinners,
and not so under some considerations only, — that is, that do never
recover themselves from their degeneracy from close walking with
God, — nor do the words indeed necessarily import any thing else.
And for impenitent sinners in general (not those who are only so
termed), there are testimonies sufficient in the Scriptures concerning
God's righteous judgment in their eternal condemnation.

630 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

And this is the first testimony produced by Mr Goodwin for the
proof of the saints' apostasy, — a witness which of all others he doth
most rely upon, and which he bringeth in with the gi'eatest accla-
mation of success (before the trial) imaginable. But when he hath
brought him forth, he gives us no account in the least whence he
comes, what is his business, or what he aims to confirm, nor can
make good his speaking one word on his behalf! Indeed, as the
matter is handled, I something question whether lightly a weaker
argument hath been leaned on, in a case of so great importance,
than that which from these words is drawn for the apostasy of tlie
saints; for as we have not the least attempt made to give us an ac-
count of the context, scope, and intendment of the place (by which
yet the expressions in the verses insisted on must be regulated), so no
more can any one expression in it be made good to be of that sense
and signification which yet alone will or can yield the least advan-
tage to the cause for whose protection it is so earnestly called upon.
Now, the leaders and captains of the forces Mr Goodwin hath mus-
tered in this 12th chapter being thus discharged, the residue, or the
followers thereof, will easily be prevailed with to return every one
to his own place in peace.

The next place of Scripture produced to consideration, Mr Good-
win ushers in (sect. 11) with a description of the adversaries with
whom in this contest he hath to do; and sets them off to public
view with the desirable qualifications of " ignorance," " prejudice,"
and " partiality," having, it seems, neither ingenuity enough can-
didly and fairly themselves to search into and to weigh the scrip-
tures wherein the case in question is clearly determined, nor skill
enough to understand and receive them when so dexterously opened
to their hand by Mr Goodwin. What they are the Lord knoweth,
will judge, determine, and in the appointed time declare; and it
may be the day that shall manifest all things will vindicate them
from these reproaches. In the meantime, such expressions as these
lie in the middle between all parties at variance, exposed to the use
of any one that is pleased to take them up. The place insisted on
in the sequel of this preface is the parable of our Saviour, Matt,
xviii. o'2-So ; the whole extent of the parable is from verse 21 to the
end of the chapter. Hence Mr Goodwin thus inferreth, sect. 11: —

" Evident it is, from our Saviour's reddition or ajDplication of the
parable, ' So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you,
if,' etc., speaking unto his disciples, verse 1, and to Peter more par-
ticularly, verse 21, that persons truly regenerate and justified before
God (for such were they to whom in special manner he addressed
the parable and the application of it, and indeed the whole carriage
of the parable showeth that it was calculated and formed only for
such) may, through high misdemeanours in sinning (as, for example,

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 631

by un mercifulness, cruelty, oppression, etc.), turn themselves out of the
justifying grace and favour of God, quench the Spirit of regeneration,
and come to have their portion with hypocrites and unbelievers."

Ans. 1. This is not the only occasion whereupon we have to deal
with this parable. The Socinians wrest it also with violence to dis-
prove the satisfaction of Christ, from the mention that is made in it
of the free forgiveness of sins, and the Lord's enjoining others to do
what he did; — they, doubtless, being [ready] to forgive without satis-
faction given or made as to any crimes committed against them ! Mr
Goodwin, with much less probability of drawing nigh to the intend-
ment of our Saviour in this place, makes use of it, or rather abuses it,
to countenance his doctrine of the apostasy of the saints. To both
I say, parables have their bounds and limits, their lines and propor-
tions, scope and peculiar intendment, beyond which they prove no-
thing at all. To wring the nose of a parable or similitude, to force
it to an universal compliance, will bring forth blood. There is no-
thing so sottish, or foolish, or contradictious in and to itself, as may
not be countenanced from teaching parables to be instructive and
proving in every parcel or expression that attends them. The in-
tendment of the parable here used, that whereas, from the proportion
and answerableness of the comparates, it ai'gueth, is neither that God
forgives without satisfaction to his justice, being the judge of all the
world, nor that believers may fall away by sins of unmercifulness
and oppression, and so perish everlastingly ; but that men, upon the
account of mercy and forgiveness received from God in Christ, ought
to extend mercy and kindness to their brethren, God threatening
and revenging unmercifulness and oppression in and on whomsoever
it is found. Whether it be ignorance in us or what it be, the Lord
knows and will judge; but we are not able to stretch the lines of
this parable one step towards what Mr Goodwin would lengthen
them unto. That no persons Avhatever must or ought to expect the
grace and pardoning mercy of God to them, who have no bowels of
compassion towards their brethren, is clearly taught. In making the
rest of the circumstances of the parable argumentative, we cannot
join with our adversary, he himself in his so doing working merely
for his own ends.

2. Finding his exposition of this parable liable and obnoxious to
an exception, in that it renders God changeable in his dealings
vnih men, and a knot to be cast on his doctrine which he is not able
to untie, he ventures boldly to cut it in pieces, by affirming '•' that
indeed God loves no man at all with any love but the approbation
of the qualifications that are in him, and that he cannot be said to
change in reference to that which is not in him at all." This he
sets out and illustrates variously with the dealings of men, and the
laws that are made amongst them, rewarding what is good and

632 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

punishing what is evil, etc., — words fully fitted, in his apprehension,
to the clearing of God from any shadow of alteration in that course
of proceeding which to him he ascribes, — and tells you, " The root of
the mistake concerning the love of God" towards any man's person
lies in that " capital error of personal election," or a purpose of God
to give grace and glory to any one in Christ. KaxoC xopaxog -/.axlov uov.
That Mr Goodwin doth at all understand the love of God, if his ap-
prehension of it be uniform to what he expresseth here in disputa-
tion, I must question. An eternal, unchangeable love of God to
some in Christ is not now my task to demonstrate; it may, through
the patience and goodness of God, find a place in my weak endea-
vours for the Lord ere long, when it will be a matter of delight to
consider the scriptures and testimonies of antiquity that Mr Good-
win will produce for the eversion of such a personal election. For
the present, T shall only take notice of the force of his judgment in
the thing which, sect. 13, he here delivers: "All the love which
God bears to men, or to any person of man, is either in respect of
their nature and as they are men, in respect of which he bears a
general or common love to them ; or in respect of their qualifications
as they are good men in one degree or other, in respect whereof he
bears a more special love to them." What that " common love" is in
Mr Goodwin's doctrine which God bears to " all men, as men," we
know full well ; he also himself is not unacquainted how often it hath
been demonstrated to be a vain and foolish figment (in the sense by
him and his associates obtruded on us), derogatory to all the glorious
properties of the nature of God, and inconsistent with any thing that
of himself he hath revealed ; the demonstration and farther eviction
whereof waits its season, which I hope draweth on. The " special
love" which he bears persons " in respect of their qualifications" is
only his approbation of those qualifications, wherever they are, and
in whomsoever. That these qualifications are, faith, love, repent-
ance, gospel obedience, etc., is not called into question. I would fain
know of Mr Goodwin on what account and consideration some men,
and not all, are translated from the condition of being objects of
God's common love to become objects of his peculiar love, or from
whence spring those qualifications which are the procui'ement of it,
— whether they are from any love of God to them in whom they are.
If not, on what account do men come to have faith, love, obedience,
etc.? If they are from any love of God, whether it be from the com-
mon love of God to man, as men? and if so, why are not all men
endowed with these qualifications? If from his peculiar love, how
come they to be the effects and causes of the same thing? Or whe-
ther, indeed, this assertion be not destructive to the whole covenant
of grace, and the effectual dispensations of it in the blood of Christ?
And to his second testimony I shall add no more.

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 633

The third place insisted on is that of the apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 27.
Hence he thus argueth : —

" If Paul, after his conversion unto Christ, was in a possibility of
being or becoming a 'reprobate' or 'castaway,' then may true believers
fall away both totally and jSnally (for finally ever includes totally) ;
but the antecedent is true, — Paul after his conversion was in the
possibility mentioned: ergo. The major proposition, I presume, will
pass without control."

Ans. That Mr Goodwin is not able to make good either of the
propositions in this syllogism will evidently appear in the conclusion
of our examination of what he draws forth, new and old, to that pur-
pose. Of the major he gives you only this account, " It will pass, I
presume, without control." But by his favour, unless cleared from
ambiguity of expressions and fallacj^, it is not like to obtain so fair a
passage as is presumed and fancied.

Though the term of " possibility" in the supposition, and " may"
in the inference, seem to be equipollent, yet to render them of the
same significancy as to the argument in hand, they must both be
used in the same respect. But if a possibility of being a reprobate
(that is, one rejected of God, by a metonymy of the effect) be ascribed
to Paul in respect of himself and the infirmity of his own will as to
abiding with God (in which case alone there is any appearance of
truth in the assumption of this supposition), and the term of "may,"
in respect of believers falling totally and finally away, respects
the event and purpose, decrees or promise of God concerning it (in
which sense alone it is any step to the purpose in hand), I deny the
inference, and thereby at the very entrance give check and control
to Mr Goodwin's procedure. That which is possible to come to pass,
that term " possible " affecting the end or coming to pass, must be
every way and in all respects possible ; this is the intendment of the
inference. That which is possible in respect of some certain causes or
principles (the terms of "possibility" affecting the thing itself whereof
it is spoken in its next causes) may be impossible on another ac-
count; and in this sense only is there any colour of truth contained
in the supposition. So that the major proposition of this syllogism is
laid up and secured from doing any farther service in this case.

The minor is, " But Paul after his conversion was in a possibility
of becoming a reprobate or castaway."

Ans. He was not in respect of the event, upon the account of the
purpose and promises of God of him and to him, made in Christ,
though any such possibility may be affirmed of him in respect of
himself and his own will, not confirmed in grace unto an impossibility
of swerving. Now, this proposition he thus farther attempts syllo-
gistically to confirm: —

" That which Paul was very solicitous and industrious to prevent,

634 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP.

he was in a possibility of suffering or being made; but Paul was
very solicitous and industrious to jjievent his being made a castaway,
as the scripture in hand plainly avoucheth, — he kept under his body
and brought it into subjection, in order to prevent his becoming a
castaway : ergo, he was in danger or possibility of being made a cast-
away. The reason of the consequence in the major proposition is,
because no man of understanding will be solicitous to prevent or
hinder the coming to pass of such a thing, the coming to pass whereof
he knows to be impossible."

Ans. Once more the major is questioned. Paul might and ought
to labour, in the use of means, for the preventing of that which, in
respect of himself, he might possibly run into, God having appointed
those means to be used for the prevention of the end feared and
avoided, although in respect of some other preventing cause it was
impossible he should so do. He who complained that " in him, that
is, in his flesh, dwelt no good," that "he had a law in his members
leading him captive to the law of sin, and sin working in him all
manner of concupiscence," for whose prevention from running out
into a course of sinning God had appomted means to be used, might
use those means for that end, notwithstanding that God had im-
mutably purposed and faithfully promised that in the use of those
means he should attain the end aimed at. And the reason Mr Good-
win gives for the confirmation of the consequence is no other but that
which we have so often exploded, — namely, that a man need not,
ought not to use means for attaining of any end, though appointed
and instituted of God for that end and purpose, if so be the end for
which they are ordained shall certainly and infallibly be compassed
and accompljslied by them. Our Saviour Christ thought meet to use
the ordinary ways for the preservation of his life, notwithstanding the
promise of keeping him by the angels; and Hezekiah neglected not
the means of life, notwithstanding the infallible promise of living so
long which he had received. Paul was careful, in the use of means,
to prevent that which, in [respect of] himself, it was possible for him
to run into, though he had, or might have had, assurance that, through
the faithfulness and power of God, in the use of those means (as an
antecedent of the consequent, though not the conditions of the event),
he should be preserved certainly and infallibly from what he was in
himself so apt unto. So that, whatever be the peculiar intendment
of the apostle in this place, taking the term a5o'x/,aoj in the largest
sense possible, and in a significancy of the greatest compass, yet no-
thing will regularly be inferred thence to the least prejudice of the
doctrine 1 have undertaken to maintain.

And this may suffice as to the utmost of what Mr Goodwin's argi.i-
ment from this place doth reach unto. There is another, and that a
more proper sense of the place, and accommodated to the context

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. G36

and scope of the apostle, wherewith the doctrine endeavoured to be
confirmed from hence hath not the least pretence of communion ; and
this ariseth (as was before manifested) from the scope of the place,
with the proper, native signification of the word aUraiMz^ here trans-
lated " a castaway."

The business that the apostle hath in hand, from verse 15 of the
chapter, and which he presses to the end, is a relation of his own
principles, ways, and deportment, in tlie great work of the preaching
of the gospel to him committed. In the last words of the chapter
he acquaints us with one especial aim he had in the carrying on of
that work, through the whole course of his employment therein;
and it is, such care and endeavour after personal mortification, lioli-
ness, and self-denial, that he might no way be lifted up nor entangled
with the revelations made to him; therein providing, in the midst of
the great certainty and assurance which he had, verse 26, that he
might approve himself " a workman not needing to be ashamed," as
not only preaching to others for their good, but himself also accepted
of God in the discharge of that employment, as one that had dealt
uprightly and faithfully therein. Verse 27, he acquaints us with
what is the state and condition of them that preach the gospel : their
work may go on, and yet themselves not be approved in the work.
This he laboured to prevent, walking uprightly, faithfully, sincerely,
zealously, humbly, in the discharge of his duty: Mjj'^twj ciXXoig xrjpv^ag,
saith he, aurog ahoxiiiog yhu[j.ar — " Lest having preached to others, he
should not himself be approved and accepted in that work," and so
lose the reward mentioned, verse 1 7, peculiar to them who walk in
the discharge of their duty with a right foot, according to the mind
of God. The whole context, design, and scope of the a^z^ostle, with
the native signification of the word aboxifMog, leading us evidently and
directly to this interpretation, it is sufficiently clear that Mr Good-
win is like to find little shelter for his apostasy in this assertion of
the apostle: and besides, whatever be the importance of the word,
the apostle mentions not any thing but his conscientious, diligent use
of the means for the attaining of an end, which end yet may fully
be promised of God to be so brought about and accomplished.

Mr Goodwin tells us, indeed, " That the word aUy.iimg is in the
writings of the apostle constantly translated " reprobate," as Rom.
i. 28, 2 Cor. xiii. 5-7, 2 Tim. iii. 8, Tit. i. 1 6, or is expressed by a word
equivalent, as Heb. vi. 8." How rightly this is done, in his judg-
ment, he tells us not; that it is so done serves his turn, and he
hath no cause farther to trouble himself about it. The truth is, in
most of the places intimated, the word is so restrained, either from
the causes of the thing expressed, as Rom. i. 28, or the conditions of
the persons of whom it is affirmed, with some adjunct in the use of
it, as 2 Tim. iii. 8, Tit. i. 1 6, that it necessarily imports a disallow-

G36 DOCTillNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CIIAP.

ance or rejection of God as to the whole state and condition wherein
they are of whom it is asserted, joined with a profligate disposition to
farther abominations in themselves; but that in any place it imports
what Mr Goodwin would wrest it here unto, " a man finally rejected
of God," — whatever may be the thought of others, he will not assert.
And whatever the translation be, I would know of him whether, in
any place where the word is used, he doth indeed understand it in
any other sense than that which here he opposes : only with this dif-
ference, that in other places it regards the general condition and state
of them concerning whom it is affirmed ; here, only the condition of
a man, restrained to the particular case of labouring in the ministry,
which is under consideration. 2 Cor. xiii. 5-7, the word cannot be
extended any farther than to signify a condition of men when they
are not accepted nor approved ; Avhich is the sense of the word con-
tended for: nor yet Heb. vi. 8, though it be attended with those
several qualifications of " nigh unto cursing," etc. The apostle, as-
cending by degrees in the description of the state of the unfruitful,
barren land, says first it is adoxi/j^og, or disallowed by the husband-
man, as that which he hath spent his cost and labour about in vain;
so that not only the original, first signification of the word (as is
known) stands for the sense contended for, but it is also evidently
restrained to that sense by the context, design, and scope of the place,
with the intendment of the apostle therein, the word being the same
that [is used] in all other places of the writings of the same apostle,
unless where it is measured as to its extent and compass by some
adjoined expression, which is interpretive of it as to the particular
place, being still of the same signification.

Mr Goodwin's ensuing discourse is concerning the judgment of
expositors upon the place, particularly naming Chrysostom, Calvin,
Musculus, Diodati, the English annotators; of whom, notwithstand-
ing, not any one doth appear for him, so unhappy is he in his quo-
tations, though sundry of good note (and amongst them Piscator
himself) do interpret the word in the sense by him contended for,
knowing full well that it may be allowed in its utmost significancy
without the least prejudice to the doctrine of the saints' persever-
ance, as hath been manifested. Of those mentioned by Mr Goodwin,
there is not any one, from first to last, but restrained the word to
the reproachableness or irreproachableness of the apostle in the dis-
charge of the work of the ministry; the sense of it which we also
insist upon. To spend time and labour in searching the expressions
of particular men, weighing and considering the coherences, design,
and circumstances of their writings, is beside my intention. The
judgment of what hath been affirmed is left to the intelligent reader
who supposeth it of his concernment to inquire particularly into it.

What is added of the scope of the place, sect. 15, p. 280,

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 637

alone requires any farther consideration. Tliis, then, he thus pro-
poseth:^ —

" 5. The scope of the place, from verse 23, evinceth the legitimacy
of such a sense in both above all contradiction ; for the apostle, hav-
ing asserted this for the reason, motive, and end, why he had made
himself a servant to all men, in bearing with all men's humours and
weaknesses in the course of his ministry, namely, that he might
be partaker of the gospel (that is, of the saving benefit or blessing
of the gospel) with them, verse 23, and again, that what he did he
did to obtain an incorruptible crown, verse 25, plainly showeth that
that which he sought to prevent, by running and fighting at such a
high rate as he did, was not the blame and disparagement of some
such misbehaviour, under which, notwithstanding, he might retain
the saving love of God, but the loss of his part and portion in the
gospel, and of that incorruptible crown which he sought, by that
severe hand which he still held over himself, to obtain."

Ans. The scope of the place was ])efore manifested, in answer to
its dependence on the whole discourse foregoing, from verse 15,
where the apostle enters upon the relation of his deportment in the
work and service of the gospel, with a particular eye to his carriage
therein as to his use or forbearance of the allowance of temporal
things from them to whom he preached ; which was due to him by all
the right whereby any claim in any kind whatever may be pursued,
together with the express institution of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
him before laid down. In this course he behaved himself with wis-
dom, zeal, and diligence, having many glorious aims in his eye, as
also being full of a sense of the duty incumbent on him, verse 16; to
whose performance he was constrained by the law of Jesus Christ, as
he also here expresses. Among other things that provoked him to
and supported him in his hard labour and travail, was the love he
bare to the gospel, and that he might have fellowship with others in
the propagation and declaration of the glorious message thereof.
This is his intendment, verse 23, rouro di, etc. For the gospel's sake,
or the love he bare to it, he desired with others to be partaker of it;
— that is, of the excellent work of preaching of it; for of the benefit of
the gospel he might have been partaker with other believers, though
he had never been set apart to its promulgation. In his whole dis-
course he still speaks accommodately to his business in hand, for the
describing of his work of apostleship in preaching the glorious gos-
jDcl of Jesus Christ ; and as to the end of this work, he acquaints us
that there was proposed before him the incorruptible crown of his
Master's approbation (upon his lawful running and striving in the
way of the ministry whereto he was called), — the peculiar glory of
them whom he is pleased to employ in his service. And though the
cause of his fighting at that rate as he did was not wholly the fear of

638 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE, [CHAP.

non-approbation in that work, a necessity of duty being incumbent
on him which he was to discharge, yet he that knows how to value
the crown of ap])rubation from Christ, the holy angels, and the church,
of having faithfully discharged the office of a steward in dispensing
the things of God, will think it sufficiently effectual to stir up any
one to the utmost expense of love, pains, and diligence, that he may
not come short of it. And of Mr Goodwin's proof this is the issue.

His next is from Heb. vi. 4-8, with x. 26-29, which he brings in
attended with the ensuing discourse, sect. 18: —

" The next passage we shall insist upon to evince the possibility
of a final defection in the saints openeth itself in these words: ' For
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted
of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted of the good word of God, and tlie powers of the
world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in
the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for
them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God : but that
which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing;
whose end is to be burned." Answerable hereunto is another in the
same epistle : ' For if we sin wilfully after we have received the
knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation,
which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law
died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of
the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath
done despite unto the Spirit of grace?' Evident it is that in these
two passages the Holy Ghost, after a serious manner, and with a
very pathetic and moving strain of speech and discourse (scarce the
like to be found in all the Scriptures), admonisheth those who are
at present true believers to take heed of relapsing into the ways of
their former ignorance and impiety. This caveat or admonition he
presseth by an argument of this import, that in case they shall thus
relapse, there will be very little or no hope at all of their recovery,
or return to the estate of faith and grace Avherein now they stand.
Before the faces of such sayings and passages as these, rightly un-
derstood and duly considered, there is no standing for that doctrine
which denies a possibility either of a total or of a final defection of
the saints. But this light also is darkened in the heavens by the in-
terposition of the veils of these two exceptions: — 1. That the apostle
in the said passages affirms nothing positively concerning the falling
away of those he speaks of, but only conditionally and upon suppo-

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 639

sition. 2. That he doth not speak of true and sound believers, but
of hypocrites, and such who had faith only in show, not in substance.
The former of these exceptions hath been already non-suited, and
that by some of the ablest patrons themselves of the cause of perse-
verance; where we were taught from a pen of that learning, that
'such conditional sayings upon which admonitions, promises, or threat-
enings are built, do at least suppose something in possibility, how-
ever, by virtue of their tenor and form, they suppose nothing in
being.' But, —

" As to the places in hand, there is not any hypothetical sign or
conditional particle to be found in either of them as they come from
the Holy Ghost and are carried in the original. Those two 'ifs' ap-
pearing in the English translation, the one in the former place, the
other in the latter, show, it may be, the translators' inclination to
the cause, but not their faithfulness in their engagement, — an infir-
mity whereunto they were very subject, as we shall have occasion to
take notice of the second time ere long, in another instance of the
like partiality. But the tenor of both the passages in hand is so
ordered by the apostle, that he plainly declares how great and fear-
ful the danger is or will be when believers do or shall fall away, not
if or in case they shall fall away."

Ans. Of the two answers which, as himself signifieth, are usually
given to the objections from these places of Scripture, that Mr Good-
win doth not fairly acquit his hands of either will quickly appear: —

1. To the first, that the form of speech used by the apostle in both
places is conditional, whence there is no argument to the event
without begging the thing m question, or supposal that the condi-
tion in all respects may be fulfilled, where it requires only, to the
constitution of it as a condition in the place of arguing wherein it is
used, that it may be possible in some only, — he opposeth, " That some
of them who have wrote for the 'doctrine of the saints' perseverance'
have disclaimed the use of it, as to its application to the place in
Ezekiel formerly considered." But yet, leaving them to the liberty
of their judgment who are so minded, that the reason given by
them, and here again repeated by Mr Goodwin, doth not in the
least enforce any to let go this answer to the objection proposed
that shall be pleased to insist upon it, hath been manifested.

To this Mr Goodwin farther adds that weighty observation, that
the word "if" is not in the original; and thence takes occasion to
fall foul upon the translators as having corrupted the passages, out of
favour to the doctrine contended foT'. I wish they had never worse
mistaken, nor showed more partiality in any other place. For, first,
will Mr Goodwin say that a proposition cannot be hypothetical,
nor an expression conditional, unless the word "if" be expressed?
Were it worth the labour, instances might abundantly be given him

640 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

in that language whereof we speak to tlie contrary. He that shall
say to him as he is journeying, " Going the right hand way, you will
meet with thieves," may he doubtless said to speak conditionally, no
less than he that should expressly tell him, " If you go the way on
the right hand, you shall meet with thieves." Secondly, what clear
sense and significancy can be given the words without the supple-
ment of the conditional conjunction, or some other term equipollent
thereunto, Mr Goodwin hath not declared. " For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened," etc., " and they falling away," as
the words ("verbum de verbo") lie in the text, is scarce in English a
congruous or significant expression; yea, xa/ ^ra/saTsffJi/rag, in the
syntax and coherence wherein it lies, is most properly and directly
rendered, " If they fall away," as is also the force of the expression,
chap. x. 26. Yea, thirdly, the corruption of the translation men-
tioned by Mr Goodwin doth not in the least relieve him as to the
delivery of the words from a sense hypothetical, " When they fall
away" (though his " when" be no more in the text than the transla-
tors' "if"), doth either include a supposition that they shall and must
fall away certainly, and so requires the event of the thing whereof it
is spoken, or it is expressive only of the condition whereon the event
is suspended. If it be taken in the first sense, all believers must
fall away; if in the latter, none may, notwithstanding any thing in
this text (so learnedly restored to its true significancy), the words
only pointing at the coimection that is between apostasy and punish-
ment. Notwithstanding, then, any thing here offered to the contrary,
those who affirm that nothing can certainly be concluded from these
places for the apostasy of any, be they who they will that are in-
tended in them, because they are conditional assertions, manifesting
only the connection between the sin and punishment expressed,
need not be ashamed of nor recoil from their affirmation in the least.

For mine own part, I confess I do not in any measure think it
needful to insist upon the conditionals of these assertions of the
Holy Ghost, as to the removal of any or all the oppositions that from
them, of old or of late, have been raised and framed against the doc-
trine of the saints' perseverance, there being in neither of the texts
insisted on either name or thing inquired after, nor any one of
all the severals inquired into, and constantly in the Scriptures used,
in the description of the saints and believers of whom we speak.
This I shall biiefly in the first place demonstrate, and then proceed
with the consideration of what is offered by Mr Goodwin in opposi-
tion thereunto. Some few observations will lead us through the first
part of this work designed. I say then, —

]. There is an inferior, common work of the Holy Ghost, in the
dispensation of the word, upon many to whom it is preached, causing
in them a great alteration and change as to light, knotvledr/e, abili-

xvil] certain passages in scrtpture considered. 641

ties, gifts, affections, life, and conversation, when the persons so
wrought upon are not quickened, regenerate, nor made new crea-
tures, nor united to Jesus Christ. I suppose there will not be need
for me to insist on the proof of this j^roposition, the truth of it being
notoriously known and confessed, as I suppose, amongst all that
profess the name of Christ.

2. That in persons thus wrought upon, there is, or may be, such
an assent, upon light and conviction, to the ti'uths proposed and
preached to them as is to'ue in its kind, not counterfeit, giving and
affording them in whom it is wrought profession of the faith, and
that sometimes with constancy to the death, or the giving of their
bodies to be burned, with persuasions (whence they are called "be-
lievers") of a future enjoyment of a glorious and blessed condition,
and filling them with ravished affections and rejoicings in hope,
which they profess suitable to the expectation they have of such a
state and condition. This also might be easily evinced by innumer-
able instances and examples from the Scripture, if need required.

3. That the persons in and upon whom this work is wrought can-
not be said to be hyj^ocrifes in the most proper sense of that word,
— that is, such as counterfeit and pretend themselves to be that
which they know they are not, — nor to have faith only in show and
not in substance, as though they made a show and pretence only of
an assent to the things they professed; their high gifts, knowledge,
faith, change of affections and conversation, being in their own kind
true (as the faith of devils is) : and yet, notwithstanding all this, they
are in bondage, and at best seek for a righteousness as it were by
the works of the law, and in the issue Christ proves to them of none
effect.

4. That among these persons many are oftentimes endued with
excellent gifts, lovely parts, qualifications, and abilities, rendering
them exceedmgly useful, acceptable, and serviceable to the church
of God, becoming vessels in his house to hold and convey to others
the precious liquor of the gospel, though their nature in themselves
be not changed, they remaining wood and stone still.

5. That much of the work wrought in and upon this sort of per-
sons by the Spirit and word lies, in its own nature, in a direct ten-
dency to their relinquishment of their sins and self-righteousness, and
to a closing with God in Christ, having a mighty prevalency upon
them to cause them to amend their ways, and to labour after life
and salvation; from which to apostatize and fall off, upon the ac-
count of the tendency mentioned of these beginnings, is dangerous,
and for the most part 'pernicious.

6. That persons under convictions and works of the Spirit for-
merly mentioned, partakers of the gifts, light, and knowledge spoken
of, with those other endowments attending them, are capacitated for

VOL. XI. 4<1 .

642 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

the sin against the Holy Ghost, or the unpardonable apostasy from
God.

These things being commonly known, and, as far as I know, uni-
versally granted, T affirm that the persons mentioned and intended
in these places are such as have been now described, and not the
believers or saints, concerning whom alone our contest is.

Mr Goodwin replies, sect. 19, p. 283: —

" To the latter exception, which pretends to find only hypo-
crites, and not true believers, staged in both passages, we likewise
answer, that it glosseth no whit better than the former, if not much
worse, considering that the persons presented in the said passages
are described by such characters and signal excellencies which the
Scriptures are wont to appropriate unto saints and true believers,
and that when they intend to show them in the best and greatest of
their glory. What we say herein will, I suppose, be made above all
gainsaying by instancing particulars."

A71S. That this is most remote from truth, and that there is not
here any one discriminating character of true believers, so far are the
expressions from setting them out in any signal eminency, will ap-
pear from these ensuing considerations : —

1. There is no mention of faith or believing, either in express
terms or in terms of an equivalent significancy, in either of the
places mentioned; therefore true believers are not the persons in-
tended to be described in these places. Did the Holy Ghost intend
to describe believers, it is very strange that he should not call them
so, nor make mention of any one of those principles in them from
whence and whereby they are such. Wherefore, I say, —

2. There is not any thing ascribed here to the persons spoken of
which belongs peculiarly to true believers, as such, or that constitutes
them to be such, and which yet are things plainly and positively
asserted and described in innumerable other places of Scripture.
That the persons described are " called according to the purpose of
God, quickened, born again or regenerated, justified, united to Christ,
sanctified by the Spirit, adopted, made sons of God," and the like,
which are the usual expressions of believers, pointing out their dis-
criminating form as such, is not in the least intimated in the text,
context, or any concernment of it. That they are elected of God,
redeemed of Christ, sanctified by the Spirit, that they are made holy,
is not at all affirmed.

3. The persons intended are, chap, vi., verses 7, 8, compared to the
ground upon which the rain falls, and [which yet] beareth " thorns
and briers." True believers, whilst they are so, are not such as do
bring forth nothing but " thorns and briers," faith itself being an
*' herb meet for Him by whom they are dressed."

4. "Things that accompany salvation" are "better things" than

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 643

any [which] in the persons mentioned were to be found. This the
apostle asserts, verse 9, " We are persuaded better things of you, and
things that accompany salvation." Now, neither of these, neither
*' better things," nor " things that accompany salvation," were upon
them whose apostasy the apostle supposeth. The exceptive particle
at the entrance, with the apologetical design of the whole verse,
ascribes such things to the saints, to whom the apostle speaks, as
they were not partakers of concerning whom he had immediately
before discoursed. The " faith of God's elect," whereby we are jus-
tified, is doubtless of the " things that accompany salvation."

5. The persons intended by the apostle were such as " had need
to be taught again the first principles of the oracles of God," chap.
v. 12; that were " unskilful in the word of righteousness," verse 13;
that had not their " senses exercised to discern both good and evil,"
verse 14; and are plainly distinguished from them to whom the
promise made to Abraham doth properly belong, chap. vi. 9-14, etc.

6. True believers are opposed, in the discourse of the apostle,
chap, vi., unto these persons lying under a possibility of apostasy, so
far as they are cast under it, by the conditional discourse of it, upon
sundry accounts: as, of their "work and labour of love" showed to
the name of God, verse 1 0 ; of their preservation, from the righteous-
ness or faithfulness of God in his promises, verse 10; of the immu-
tability of the counsel of God, and his oath for the preservation of
them, verses 13, 17, 18; of their sure and steadfast anchor of hope,
verse 19, etc. Upon all which considerations, it is abundantly evi-
dent that they are not believers, the children of God, justified, sanc-
tified, adopted, saints, of whom the apostle treats in the passages in-
sisted on.

Sect. 28, Mr Goodwin urges sundry reasons to prove that " they
are not hypocrites or outside professors only, but true believers, that
are described." If by " hypocrites and outside professors" he intends
those who are grossly so, pretending to be what they are not, and what
they know themselves not to be, we contend not about it. If in these
expressions he compriseth also those whom we characterized in the
entrance of this discourse, who unto their profession of the faith have
also added those gifts and endowments, with the like, which we
mentioned, but who, notwithstanding all their advancement in light,
conviction, joy, usefulness, [and] conversation, do yet come short of
union with Christ, I shall join issue with him in the consideration
of his reasons offered to be " pregnant of proof" for the confirmation
of his assertion. He tells you, sect. 28, p. 288 : —

" First, There is no clause, phrase, or word, in either of the places,
any ways characteristical or descriptive of hypocrisy or hypocrites.
There are none of those colours to be seen which are wont to be used
in drawing or limning the portraitures or shapes of those beasts, as

G14 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS* PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

distinguished from creatures of a better kind. All the lineaments of
the persons presented in these tables, before the mention of their
falling away, become the best and fairest faces of the saints (as hath
been proved), and are not to be found in any other. Yea, the greatest
and most intelligent believer under heaven liath no reason but to
desire part and fellowship with the ' hypocrites' here described, in all
those characters and properties which are attributed unto them before
their falling away or sinning wilfully."

Ans. 1. The design of the apostle is not to discover or give any
characters of hypocrites, to manifest them to be such, but to declare
the excellencies that are or may be found in them, from the enjoy-
ment of all which they may decline, and sin against the mercy and
grace of them, to the aggravation of their condemnation; neither had
any lines used to particularize those "beasts" in their shape, wherein
they differ from believers, been at all useful to the apostle's purpose,
his aim being only to draw those wherein they are like them and
conformable to them. Neither,—

2. Is it questioned whether those things here mentioned may be
found in true believers, and become them very well, rendering their
faces beautiful ; but whether there be not something else than what
is here mentioned, that should give them being as such, and life,
without which these things are little better than painting. Nor, —

3. Is it at all to the purpose that believers may desire a partici-
pation in those characters with the persons described ; but whether
they who have no other characters or marks upon them of true
believers than what are here mentioned must necessarily be so ac-
counted, or will of God be so accepted. Many a believer may desire
the gifts of those hypocrites, who have not one dram of the grace
wherewith he is quickened. So that this first reason, as pregnant as
it seems of proof, is only indeed swelled and puffed up with wind
and vanity. He adds, —

"Secondly, True believers are in an estate of honour, and are lifted
up on high towards the heavens ; in which respect they have from
whence to fall: but hypocrites are as near hell already as lightly
they can be, till they be actually fallen into it; from whence, then,
are they capable of falling? Men of estates may fail and break, but
beggars are in no such danger. If hypocrites fall away, it must be
from their hypocrisy ; but this is rather a rising than a fall. A beggar
cannot be said to break, but only when he gets an estate. When he
doth this, the beggar is broke."

Ans. All that here is added arises merely from the ambiguity of
the word " hypocrites." The persons that fall are on all hands sup-
posed to have and enjoy all that is made mention of in the texts in-
sisted on; so that they have so much to fall from as that thereupon
Mr Goodwin thinks them true believers. They have all the heights

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCEIPTURE CONSIDERED. 645

to tumble from which we before mentioned, and very many others
that it is no easy task to declare. They fall from the excellencies
they have, and not from the hypocrisy with which they are vitiated,- — -
from the profession of the faith, with honesty of conversation, etc., not
from the want of root or being built on the rock. So that this pre-
tended "pregnant reason" is as barren as the former to the proving
of the assertion laid down to be proved by it. He adds, —

" Thirdly, It is no punishment at all to hypocrites to be under no
possibility of being ' renewed again by repentance :' nay, in case they
should ' fall away,' it would be a benefit and blessing unto them to be
under an impossibility of being ' renewed again;' for if this were their
case, it would be impossible for them to be ever hypocrites again,
and doubtless it is no great judgment upon any man to be incapable
of such a preferment."

Ans. AVhether it be no punishment for them who have been in
so good a way, a way of such tendency unto salvation and such use-
fulness to the gospel, as those persons are supposed to be in, not to
be renewed again to that state and condition, but to be shut up un-
recoverably under the power of darkness and unbelief unto eternal
wrath, when before they were in a fair way for life and salvation,
others will judge besides Mr Goodwin. Neither is there an affirma-
tion of their falling away from their hypocrisy, and being renewed
again thereunto, in any thing we assert in the exposition of this place,
but their falling away from gifts and common graces, with the im-
possibility, of what kind soever it be, of being renewed to an enjoy-
ment of them any more. His fourth and last attempt follows.

" Fourthly, and lastly, It stands off forty foot at least from all pro-
bability, that the apostle, writing only unto those whom he judged
true and sound believers (as appears from several places in the ejjistle,
as chap. iii. 14, vi. 9, etc.), should, in the most serious, emphatical, and
weighty passages hereof, admonish them of such evils or dangers
which only concerned other men, and whereunto themselves were
not at all obnoxious ; yea, and whereunto if they had been obnoxious,
all the cautions, admonitions, warnings, threatenings in the world,
would not (according to their principles with whom we have now to
do) have relieved or delivered them. To say that such admonitions
are a means to preserve those from apostasy who are by other means
(as suppose the absolute decree of God, or the interposal of his irre-
sistible power for their perseverance, or the like) in no possibility of
apostatizing, is to say that washing is a means to make snow white,
or the rearing up of a pillar in the air a means to keep the heavens
from falling. But more of this in the chapter following."

Ans. What exact measure soever Mr Goodwin seemeth to have
taken of the distance of our assertion from " all probabihty" (which he
hath accurately performed, if we may take his word), yet, upon due

646 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

consideration, it evidently appears that he is not able to disprove it
from coming close up to the absolute truth of the meaning and scope
of the Holy Ghost in the places under consideration : for, besides
what hath been already argued and proved, it is evident, —

1. That the apostle wrote promiscuously to all that profess the
name of Christ and his gospel ; of whom he tells you, chap. iii. 14
(one of the places we are directed to by Mr Goodwin), that those
only are made " partakers of Christ who hold the beginning of their
confidence steadfast unto the end ;" [as] for the rest, notwithstanding
all their glorious profession, gifts, and attainments, yet they are not
truly made partakers of Christ- (whereby he cuts the throat of Mr
Goodwin's whole cause) ; and chap. vi. 9, that there were amongst
them [those] who had attained "things accompanying salvation," and
"better things" than any of those had done, who, notwithstanding
their profession, yet held it not fast without wavering, but every day
fell away: so that though he judged no particulars before their apos-
tasy, yet he partly intimates that all professors were not true be-
lievers ; and therefore does teach them all to make sure work in
closing with Christ, lest they turn apostates, and perish in so doing.

2. That conditional comminations and threatenings, discovering
the connection that is between the antecedent and consequent that
is in the proposition of them, are and may be of use to the saints of
God, preserved from the end threatened and the cause deserving it,
upon the accounts, reasons, and causes, that have been plentifully in-
sisted on, hath more than once been declared, and the objections to
the contrary (the same with those here insisted on) answered and re-
moved. This being all that Mr Goodwin hath to offer by the way of
reason to exclude the persons formerly described to be the only con-
cernment of the places of Scripture insisted on, there remains nothing
but only the consideration of the severals of the passages debated ;
wherein, by the light that hath already broken forth from the cir-
cumstances, aims, ends, and connection of the places, we may so far
receive direction as not to be at all stumbled in our progress.

With the consideration of the several expressions in the passages
under debate Mr Goodwin proceedeth, sect. 19, and first insisteth on
that of chap. vi. 4, where it is said that they were aVag (puTiadevng,
"once enlightened;" whence he thus argues: —

" Behevers are said to be ' enlightened,' and to be ' children of
light,' and to be ' light in the Lord,' 2 Cor. iv. 6; Heb. x. 82; Luke
xvi. 8 ; Eph. v. 8 : therefore they who here are said to be ' enlightened'
were true believers."

Ans. 1. I shall not insist upon the various interpretations of this
place, and readings of the word (puTisdlvng, very many, and that not
improbably, affirming that their participation of the ordinance of
baptism is here only intended by it; for which exposition much might

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 647

be offered, were it needful or much conducing to our business in
hand. Nor, —

2. Shall I labour to manifest that persons may be enlightened,
and yet never come to Christ savingly by faith, to attain union with
him and justification by him ; — a thing Mr Goodwin will not deny
himself; or if he should, it were a very facile thing to convince him
of his mistake by a sole entreaty (if he would be pleased to give an
account of his faith in this business at our entreaty) of him to de-
clare what he intends by "illumination;" whence it would quickly
appear how unsuitable it is to his own principles to deny that it
may be in them who yet never come to be, or at least by virtue
thereof may not be said to be, true believers. But this only I shall
add, —

3. That Mr Goodwin, doubtless knowing that this argument
(which, with all the texts of Scripture whereby he illustrates it, he
borrows of the Remonstrants) hath been again and again excepted
against as illogical and unconcluding, and inconsistent with the prin-
ciples of them that use it, ought not crudely again to have imposed
it upon his reader without some attempt at least to free it from the
charge of impertinency, weakness, and folly, wherewith it is burdened.
" Illumination is ascribed to believers ; illumination is ascribed to these
men: therefore these persons are believers." A little consideration
will recover to Mr Goodwin's mind the force of this argument, so far
as that he will scarce use it any more.

Sect. 20, he takes up another expression, from chap. x. 26, that
they are said to receive I'lriymciiv rng aXyidslag, — "the acknowledg-
ment of the truth;" whence he argues in the same manner and
form as he had newly done from the term of " illumination." 'EtA
yvuffig akridiiag is ascribed to believers ; therefore they are all so to
whom it is ascribed.

But he tells you, in particular, sect. 20, " That, in the latter of
the said passages, the persons spoken of are said to have received
sTiyvusiv Ty\c, dXndslag, — that is, 'the acknowledgment of the truth;'
which expression doth not signify the bare notion of what the gos-
pel teacheth, of which they are capable who are the most professed
enemies thereof, but such a consenting and subjection thereunto
which worketh effectually in men to a separating of themselves from
sin and sinners. This is the constant import of the phrase in the
Scriptures."

Ans. All this may be granted, yet nothing hence concluded to
evince the persons to whom it is ascribed to be true believers. Men
may be so wrought upon and convinced by the word and Spirit, sent
forth to " convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment,"
as to acknowledge the truth of the gospel, to profess subjection to
the gospel, and to yield to it so far as to separate themselves from

648 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

sin and sinners, in such a manner and to such a degree (not dis-
semhhng, but answering their convictions) as to bless themselves
oftentimes in their own condition, and to obtain an esteem with the
people of God to be such indeed as they profess themselves to be, and
yet come short of that union and communion with the Lord Christ
which all true believers are made partakers of. It is not of any use
or importance to examine the particular places mentioned by Mr
Goodwin, wherein, as he supposeth, the expression of the " know-
ledge" or "acknowledgment of the truth" denotes that which is saving,
and comprehendeth true faith, unless he had attempted to prove from
them that the word could signify nothing else, or that a man might
not be brought to an acknowledgment of the truth but that he must
of necessity be a true believer; neither of which he doth, or if he did,
could he possibly give any seeming probability to. There may be a
knoiuing of the things of the gospel in men, and yet they may come
short of the happiness of them that do them ; there is a knowledge
of Christ that yet is barren as to the fruit of holiness.

In the next place, the persons queried about are said to be "sanc-
tified by the blood of the covenant." Of this Mr Goodwin says,
sect. 21, "That is, by their sprinkling herewith, to be separated
from such who refuse this sprinkling, as likewise from the pollu-
tions and defilements of the world. To be ' sanctified,' when applied
unto persons, is not found in any other sense throughout the New
Testament, unless it be where persons bear the consideration of
things, 1 Cor. vii. 14. But of this signification of the word, which
we claim in this place, instances are so frequent and obvious that we
shall not need to mention any,"

Ans. 1. If no more be intended in this expression but what Mr
Goodwin gives us in the exposition of it, — namely, that they are so
sprinkled with it as to be " separated from them that refuse this
sprinkling" (that is openly), " as likewise from the pollutions and de-
filements of the world," — we shall not need to contend about it; for
men may be so sprinkled, and have such an efiicacy of conviction
come upon them by the preaching of the cross and blood-shedding of
Christ, as to be separated from those who professedly despise it and
the open publication of the word, and yet be f\ir from having " con-
sciences purged from dead works to serve the living God." And, —

2. That the term of " sanctifying," when applied to persons, is not
used in any other sense than what is by Mr Goodwin here expressed,
is an assertion that will be rendered useless until Mr Goodwin be
pleased to give it an edge by explaining in what sense he here in-
tends to apply it. Of the term " sanctifying" there are, as hath been
declared, two more eminent and known significations: — First, To
separate from common use, state, or condition, to dedicate, consecrate,
and set apart to God, by profession of liis will, in a peculiar manner,

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTUIIE CONSIDERED. 649

is frequently so expressed. Secondly, Really to 'purify, cleanse
with spiritual purity, opposed to the defilement of sin, is denoted
thereby. In the exposition given of the place here used by Mr
Goodwin, he mentions both, — separation, and that chiefly, as the
nature of the sanctification whereof he speaks, as also some kind of
spiritual cleansing from sin; but in what sense he precisely would
have us to understand him he doth not tell us.

I somewhat question whether it be used in the Epistle to the He-
brews in any other sense than the former, which was the Temple sense
of the word, the apostle using many terms of the old worship in
their first signification ; — however, that it is used in that sense in the
New Testament, appropriated to persons, without any such respect
as that mentioned by Mr Goodwin, is sufficiently evinced by that of
our Saviour, John xvii. 19, hmp avruv lyih ayiaZoi iiJMXjrov, express-
ing his dedicating and separating himself to his office ; and more
instances may be had, if we stood in any need of them.

8. That many are said to be sanctified and holy in the latter sense,
as it signifieth spiritual purity, in respect of their profession of them-
selves so to be, and some men's esteem of them, who yet were never
wholly and truly purged from their sin, nor ever had received the
Holy Spirit of pi-omise, who alone is able to purge their hearts, doth
not now want its demonstration ; that work hath been some while
since performed. So that Mr Goodwin makes not any progress at
all in the proof of what he has undertaken, — namely, that they are
true believers, in the sense of that denomination which we assert,
who in these places are described. For a close, kv c5 riyidsdn is far
more properly referred to Christ than to the persons spoken of 3 and
that sense the Remonstrants themselves do not oppose.

That they are said, chap. vi. 4, to have " tasted of the heavenly gift"
is urged in the next place, sect. 22, to prove them true believers.
Both the object and the act are here in question, — what is meant by
the "heavenly gift," and what by "tasting" of it. I shall not look into
the text beyond the peculiar concernment of the cause in hand;
somewhat might be offered for the farther clearing of the one and
other. At present it sufficeth, that, be the " heavenly gift'' what it
will, the persons of our contest are said only to "taste" of it; which,
though absolutely and in itself it is not an extenuating expression,
but denotes a matter of high aggravation of the sin of apostasy, in
that they were admitted to some taste and relish of the excellency
and sweetness of the heavenly gift, yet comparatively to their feeding
on it, digesting it, growing thereby, it clearly denotes their coming
short of such a participation of it who do but taste of it. That to
taste doth not, in the first genuine signification, in things natural,
signify to eat and digest meat, so as to grow by it, I suppose needs
no proof; that in that sense it is used in the Scriptures, John ii. 9,

650 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

Matt, xxvii. 34, is by Mr Goodwin confessed. This lie tells you " is
only when the taste or relish of things is desired to be known;" but
that our Saviour tasted of the gall and vinegar out of a desire to
know the relish of it, he will hardly persuade those who are accus-
tomed to give never so easy a belief to his assertions. By the " hea-
venly gift" Mr Goodwin in the first place intends Jesus Christ. Now,
if by tasting, eating and drinking of Christ be intended, as is here
pleaded, Christ himself will determine this strife, telling us that who-
soever eateth his flesh shall be saved, John vi. 35, 49-51, 53-57.
So that either to taste is not to eat, or they that taste cannot perish.
Three things are urged by Mr Goodwin to give proof of his inter-
pretation of these words of the Holy Ghost. Saith he : —

1. " Whatsoever is meant by this 'heavenly gift,' certain is it that
by 'tasting' is not meant any light or superficial impression made
upon the hearts or souls of men, through the sense or apprehension of
it, but an emphatical, inward, and affectuous relish and sense of the
excellent and heavenly sweetness and pleasantness of it, opposed to a
bare speculation or naked apprehension thereof. The reason hereof
is clear, viz., because the tastmg of this heavenly gift here spoken of is
not mentioned by the apostle in a way of easing or extenuating the
sin of those that should fall away from Christ, but by way of aggra-
vation and exaggeration of the heinousufiss and unreasonableness
thereof, and withal more fully to declare and assert the equitableness
of that severity in God which is here denounced against those that
shall sin the great sin of apostasy here spoken of It must needs be
much more unworthy and provoking in the sight of God for a man
to turn his back upon and renounce those ways, that profession,
wherein God hath come home to him, and answered the joy of his
heart abundantly, than it would be in case he had only heard of
great matters, and had his head filled, but had really found and felt
nothing with his heart and soul truly excellent and glorious.

2. " And besides, the very word itself, to taste, ordinarily in
Scripture imports a real communion with, or participation and en-
joyment (if the thing be good) of, that which was said to be tasted.
' O taste and see,' saith David, ' that the Lord is good,' Ps. xxxiv.
8. His intent, doubtless, was, not to invite men to a slight or
superficial taste of the goodness of God, but to a real, cordial, and
thorough experiment and satisfactory enjoyment of it. So when he
that made the great invitation in the parable expressed himself thus
to his servants, ' For I say unto you. That none of those which were
bidden shall taste of my supper,' Luke xiv. 24, his meaning clearly
was, that they should not partake of the sweetness and benefit with
those who should accept of his invitation and come unto it. In like
manner, when Peter speaketh thus to his Christian Jews, ' If so be
ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious,' 1 Pet. ii. 3, his meaning

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 651

(questionless) is, not to press liis exhortation, directed unto them in
the former verse, upon a consideration of any hght or vanishing taste,
such as hypocrites and false-hearted Christians may have, of the
graciousness of the Lord, but of such a taste wherein they had had a
real, inward, and sensible experiment thereof.

3. " And besides, according to the sense of our adversaries in the
present debate, if the taste of the heavenly gift we speak of should
imply no more but only a faint or weak perception of the sweetness
and glorious excellency of it, yet even this may be sufficient to evince
truth of grace and faith in men : for their opinion is, that a man may
be a true believer with a grain of mustard-seed only, — that is, with
a very slender relish and taste of spiritual things; yea, their sense is,
that in some cases of desertion, and under the guilt of some enor-
mous courses, they may have little or no taste of them at all."

A71S. To the first discourse, considering what hath been already
delivered, I shall only add, that although it be no aggravation of
the sin of apostasy that they who fall into it have but " tasted of
the heavenly gift," yet it is that they have tasted of it. That taste
of its relish, preciousness, and sweetness, which they have obtained,
whereby they are distinguished from them whose blindness and hard-
ness keep them up to a total disrelish and contempt of it, is abun-
dantly enough to render their sin heinous and abominable. When
men, by the preaching of the word, shall be startled in their sins,
troubled in their consciences, forced to seek out for a remedy, and
shall come so far as to have some (though but a light) taste of the
excellency of the gospel and the remedy provided for sinners in
Jesus Christ; and then, through the strength of their lusts and cor-
ruptions, shall cast it off, reject it, and spit out of their mouth, as it
were, all that of it whereby they found the least savour in it,- — no crea-
ture under heaven can be guilty of more abominable undervaluing
of the Lord Christ and the love of God in him than such persons.
What degree of love, joy, repentance, peace, faith, persons many
times arrive unto, when, with Herod, they have "heard the word
gladly, and done many things willingly," etc., hath been by others
abundantly demonstrated. This sufficeth our present purpose, that
they do make such a progress in the ways of God, and find so much
excellency in the treasure of grace and mercy which he hath pro-
vided in Jesus Christ, and [which he] tenders in the gospel, that he
cannot but look upon their ajiostasy and renunciation of him (where-
by they proclaim to all the world, as much as in them lies, that there
is not that real goodness, worth, and excellency to be found in him
as some pretend) as the highest scorn and contempt of him and his
love in Christ; and [he] revenges it accordingly.

To the second, which consists of instances collected by the Ke-
monstrants to manifest the use of the word " tasting" to be other

652 DOCTllINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

than what we here confine it to, I say, first, that the word, as it is
appHed to spirituals, being borrowed and metaphorical, not in its
analogy to be extended beyond making trial for our coming to some
knowledge of a thing in its nature, the use of it in one place cannot
prescribe to the sense of it in another, no more than any other meta-
phorical expression whatever; but it must, in the several places of
its residence, be interpreted according to the most peculiar restriction
that the matter treated of doth require. If, then, Mr Goodwin can
prove that any thing in this place under consideration enforces such a
sense, all his other instances are needless; if he cannot, they are useless.

It might easily be manifested, and hath been done by others
already, that in all the places mentioned by Mr Goodwin, the word
is not expressly significant of any thorough, solid eating and partici-
pation of that which is said to be tasted, as is pretended. But to
manifest this is not our concernment, there being no reason in the
world to enforce any such sense as is contended for in the place under
present consideration.

To the third, wherein he argues, with his predecessors, from our
opinion concerning faith, a brief reply will suffice. That " a faint,
weak perception and relish of heavenly things," is suflicient to make
a man a believer, is so far from being our opinion that we utterly dis-
claim them from being believers to whom this is ascribed, if nothing
else be added in their description from whence they may be so
esteemed. It is true, faith is sometimes little and w^eak in the exer-
cise of it; yea, a man may be so overtaken with temptations, or so
clouded under desertions, as that it may not deport itself with any
such considerable vigour as to be consolatory to him in whom it is,
or demonstrative of him unto others to be what he is: but we say,
that the weakest, lowest, meanest measure and degree of this faith,
is yet grounded and fixed in the heart, where, though it be not
always alike lively and active, yet it is always alive and gives life.
How far believers may fall into the guilt of "enormous courses " has
been already manifested. The intendment of the expression is to
disadvantage the persuasion he oppose th. We do not grant that
believers may fall into any enormities, but only wdiat God himself
affirms they may, and yet not utterly be cast out of his love and
favour in Jesus Christ. Farther; the weakest faith of which we
affirm that it may be true and saving, though it may have no great
perception nor deep taste of heavenly things for the present, yet
hath always that of adherence to God in Christ; which is exceed-
ingly exalted above any such perception of heavenly things what-
ever that may be had or obtained without it. So that, from the
consideration of what hath been spoken, we may safely conclude that
Mr Goodwin hath not been able to advance one step in his intendment
to prove that the persons here described are true believers.

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 653

I know no sufficient ground or reason to induce me to any large
consideration of the other two or three expressions that remain, and
that are insisted on by Mr Goodwin, seeing it is evident from their
associates, which liave been akeady examined, that tliere is none of
them can speak one word to the business in hand. I shall there-
fore discharge them from any farther attendance in the service they
have been forced unto.

The next privilege insisted on which to these persons is ascribed
is, that they are ''made partakers of the Holy Ghost." In men's
participation of the Holy Ghost, either the gifts or graces of the
Holy Ghost are intended. The graces of the Holy Ghost are either
more common and inchoative, or special and completing of the work
of conversion. That it is the peculiar, regenerating grace of God that
is intended in this expression, of being " made partakers of the Holy
Ghost," and not the gifts of the Spirit, or those common graces of
illumination, unto which persons not truly converted, but only
wrought upon by an effectual conviction in the preaching of the
word, may attain, Mr Goodwin is no way able to prove. And there
is also this consideration rising up with strength and power against
that interjDretation, namely, that those that are so made joartakers
of the Spirit as to be regenerated, quickened, sealed, comforted
thereby, — which are some of the peculiar acts of his grace in and to-
wards the souls of those that believe,— can never lose him nor be de-
prived of him (as Avas manifested before at large), being sealed and
confirmed not only in the present enjoyment of the love and favour
of God, but also unto the full fruition of the glory which is provided
for them; and therefore [they] cannot fall away, as these are sup-
posed to do. What there is in Mr Goodwin's discourse on this
passage, sect. 23, 24, to weaken in the least what is usually answered,
or farther to enforce his exposition of the place, I am not able to
apprehend, and shall therefore proceed with what remaineth.

All that follows in the place of the apostle under contest is regu-
lated by the word "taste:" "They have tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to come." What the sense and
importance of that word is hath been already declared; neither can
it be proved that the persons here described do so "taste the good
word of God" as to mix the promises of it with faith, or of the "powers
of the world to come" as to receive them in power in their hearts by
believing : so that farther contest about these words seems to be alto-
gether needless.

How far men may proceed in the wa^'S of God ; what progress they
may make in amendment of life; what gifts and common graces they
may receive; what light and knowledge they may be endued withal;
what kind of faith, joy, repentance, sorrow, delight, love, they may
have in and about spiritual things; what desires of mercy and heaven ;

654 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

what useful gifts for the church's edification they may receive ; how-
far they may persuade their own souls, and upon what grounds, that
their condition God-ward is good and saving, and beget an opinion
in others that they are true believers, — and yet come short of union
with Christ, building their houses on tlie sand, etc., is the daily task
of the preachers of the gospel to manifest, in their pressing that ex-
hortation of the apostle unto their ]iearers, to "examine and try them-
selves," in the midst of their profession, "whether Christ be in them of
a truth" or no. I shall not now enter upon that labour. The reader
knows where to find enough, in the writings of holy and learned men
of this nation, to evince that men may arrive at the utmost height of
what is in this place of the apostle by the Holy Ghost ascribed to the
persons of whom he speaks, and yet come short of the state of true
iaelievers. Mr Goodwin, indeed, tells us, sect. 27, —

" The premises relating to the two passages yet under debate con-
sidered, I am so far from questioning whether the apostle speaks of
true and sound believers in them, that I verily judge that he pur-
posely sought out several of the most emphatical and signal charac-
ters of believers, yea, such which are hardly, or rather not at all, to
be found in the ordinary sort of true believers, but only in those that
are most eminent amongst them; — that so he might give them to
understand and consider that not true believers only, and such who
though sound yet were weak in the faith, might fall away and perish,
but that even such also who were lifted up nearer unto heaven than
their fellows might, through carelessness and carnal security, dasli
themselves in pieces against the same stone, and make shipwreck of
their souls as well as they."

Ans. 1. The house built on the sand may oftentimes be built
higher, have more fair parapets and battlements, windows, and orna-
ments, than that which is built upon the rock ; yet all gifts and privi-
leges equal not one grace. In respect of light, knowledge, gifts, and
many manifestations of the Spirit, such who never come up to that
faith which gives real union and communion with Jesus Christ may
far outgo those that do.

2. That there is any thing mentioned or any characters given of
behevers, much less such as are singular and not common to all, Mr
Goodwin hath not in any measure been able to evince. There is not
the meanest believer in the world but he is a child of God, and heir
of the promises, and brother of the Lord Christ; hath union with
him; hath his living in him; is quickened, justified, sanctified; hath
Christ made to him wisdom, etc. ; hath his righteousness in God, and
his life hid in him in Christ; is passed from death to life, brings
forth fruit ; and is dear to God as the apple of his eye, accepted with
him, approved of him as his temple, wherein he delighteth to dwell.
That any thing in this place mentioned and insisted on, any cha-

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 655

racters we have given of the persons whom we have considered, do
excel, or equal, or denote any thing in the same kind with these and
the like excellencies of the meanest believers, will never be proved
if we may judge of future successes from the issue of all former at-
tempts for that end and purpose.

And this is the issue of Mr Goodwin's third testimony produced
to confirm the doctrine of the saints' apostasy, but hypothetically, and
under such a form of expression as may not be argued from, nor of
saints and true believers at all. His fourth followeth.

His fourth testimony he produceth, and endeavours to manage for
the advantage of his cause, sect. 81, in these words: —

" The next Scripture testimony we shall produce and briefly urge
in the cause now under maintenance is in the same epistle with the
former, and speak eth these words : ' Now, the just shall live by faith ;
but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.'
Our English translators, out of good-will, doubtless, to a bad cause,
have almost defaced this testimony, by substituting 'any man ' for the
'just man:' for whereas they translate, 'But if any man draw back,' the
original readeth, Kai sav biroGruXriTaf that is, ' And if,' or ' But if he,'
that is, the just man, who should live by his faith, namely, if he con-
tinues in it, ' shall draw back.' Beza himself likewise, before them, had
stained the honour of his faithfulness with the same blot in his trans-
lation. But the mind of the Holy Ghost in the words is plain and
without parable, namely, that ' If the just man, who lives,' — that is,
who at present enjoys the favour of God, and thereby is supported in
all his trials, — and should live always, ' by his faith,' if he continues
in it, as Parseus well giosseth, ' shall draw back,' or shall be with-
drawn, namely, through fear or sloth (as the word properly signifieth,
see Acts xx. 27), from his believing, ' my soul shall have no pleasure
in him;' that is (according to the import of the Hebraism), 'my soul
shall hate or abhor him to death;' as it is also expounded in the
words immediately following, ' But we are not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but,' etc. From hence, then, evident it is that
such a man who is a just or righteous man, and under promise of
living for ever by his faith (and therefore also a true and sound be-
liever), may draw back, or be withdrawn, to the contracting of the
hatred of God, and to destruction in the end. The forlorn hope of
evading, because the sentence is hypothetical or conditional, not jDOsi-
tive, hath been routed over and over, yea, and is abandoned by some
of the great masters themselves of that cause unto the defence
whereof it pretendeth. And, however, in this place, it would be most
preposterous; for if it should be supposed that the just man, who
is in a way and under a promise of living by his faith, were in no
danger or possibility of drawing back, and that to the loss of the
favour of God and ruin of his soul, God must be conceived to speak

/

/ 656 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

here at no Letter rate of wisdom or understanding than this: ' The
just shall live by his faith ; but if he shall do that which is simply
and utterly impossible for him to do, my soul shall have no pleasure
in him/ What savour of wisdom, yea, or of common sense, is there in
admonishing or cautioning men against such evils which there is no
possibility for them to fall into, yea, and this known unto themselves?
Therefore this testimony, for confirmation of the doctrine we maintain,
is like a king upon his throne, against whom there is no rising up."

Ans. What small cause Mr Goodwin hath to quarrel with Beza
or other translators, and with how little advantage to his cause this
text is produced, shall out of hand be made appear: —

1. The words as they cry are, 'o ds hhaiog Ix Trlarfug ^yiffsrar %ai
I6t,v I'^offrsiXriTai, ou;f svbox.iT ri -^vyj} [j^ou h avrui' 7j,'Ji,sTg dh ova sff/j,h vto-
CToXl^g iig a'7ru)}.siav, dXXa •r/o'rswj sig Tsp/To/jjff/i' -^uyrrig. In the fore-
going part of the chapter, the apostle had treated of two sorts of
persons: — (1.) Such as, to forsake the assemblies of the saints, with-
drew from the church and ordinances of Christ, and so by degrees
fell off with a total and everlasting backsliding. Of these the apostle
speaks, describing their ways and end, from verse 25 unto verse 31.
Thence forward (2.) he speaks to them and of them who abode, in
their persecutions and under all their afflictions, to hold fast their
confidence ; which he also farther exhorts them to, that, by patient
abiding in well-doing, they might receive the reward. Concerning
both these, having told them of the unshaken kingdom of Christ
that should be brought in, notwithstanding the apostasy of many, on
whose iniquity God would take vengeance, he lays down that emi-
nent promise of the gospel, "The just by faith shall live;" words often
used to express the state and condition of believers, — of those who are
truly and unfeignedly so. The Lord being faithful in his promise,
" the justified person shall live," or obtain life everlasting. It is the
promise of eternal life that is here given them, as that which they
had not as yet received, but in patience they were to wait to receive,
after they had done the whole will of God. That any of these should
so "draw back" as that the Lord's "soul should have no pleasure in
them," is directly contrary to the promise here made of their living.
The particle xal in the next words is plainly adversative and ex-
ceptive, as it is very many times in the New Testament, and that as
to the persons of whom he is speaking. At ^rjffsrai the period is
full, the description of the state of the just by faith is completed ; and
in the next words the state of backsliders is entered upon, xai lav
v'TTosn/Xyirai referring to them, whom by their apostasy and subduc-
tion of themselves from Christian assemblies he had before described.
There is an ellipsis in the words, to be supplied by some indefinite
term, to give them the sense intended. This Beza and our translators
liave done by that excepted against, causelessly, by Mr Goodwin ; for

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED, 657

if a translator may make the text speak significantly in the language
whereinto he translates it, the introduction of such supplements is
allowed him.

2. The following expression puts it out of all question that this
was the intendment of the apostle ; for he expressly makes mention,
and that in reference to what was spoken before, of two sorts of people,
to whom his former expressions are respectively to be accommodated.
The words are, n/MiTg hi olx, x. r. X., as above. Mr Goodwin, to make
us believe that he took notice of these words, hath this passage of
them, "As it is also expounded in the words immediately following,
'But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but,' etc." But
what, I pray, is expounded in these words, " that drawers back shall
be destroyed"? This is all he takes notice of in them. Evidently
the words are an application of the former assertions unto several
persons. There are, says he, some who are r^s v'xosTo'kTi;, and some
that are rrjg irioTiug. Those, saith he, who are r^j lirosroXng, they
shall be destroyed; those who are rJjg cr/VrEws, they shall live ; — evi-
dently and beyond all contradiction assigning his former assertions
of " The just shall live by faith," and " If any man draw back," to
several persons, by a distribution of their lot and portions to them.
In verse 88 he lays down in thesis the state and condition of be-
lievers and backsliders. In verse 89 he makes application of the
position he laid down to himself and them: (1.) Negatively, that they
were not of the former sort, " of them that draw back," etc. ; (2.) Posi-
tively, that they were of the rest, of "them that believe." And those
expressions, verse 89, Oux Jtf^ab 'vaoaruKTig aXKa <!ri6rsug, do undeniably
affirm two sorts of persons in both places to be spoken of, and that
iocv u'zogrsiXnrai can by no means be referred to our o'r/.aiog, Avhich
would intermix them whom the apostle, as to their present state
and future condition, held out in a contradistinction one to the otlier
unto the end. All that ensues in Mr Goodwin's discourse being
built upon this sandy foundation, that it is the believer, of whom
God affirms that he " shall live by faith," who is supposed to be r^g
i/TooToX'^5, contrary to the express assertion of the apostle, it needs
no farther consideration, although he is not able to manifest any
strength in conclusion drawn from suppositions of events which may
be possible in one sense and in another impossible.

But before we pass farther, may not this witness, which Mr Good-
win hath attempted in vain to suborn to appear and speak in his
cause, be demanded what he can speak, or what he knows of the
truth of that which he is produced to oppose? This, then, it con-
fesseth and denieth not, at first word, that of professors there are
two sorts: some are i/tootoX^s, of such as do or may "draw back unto
perdition;" some cr/Vrsw;, which " believe to the saving of the soul,"
and that in opposition to the others. Also, that those who withdraw

VOL. XI. 42

658 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

are not Tignus, not true believers, nor ever were, notwithstanding all
their profession, and what[ever] their gifts and attainments in and
under their profession. So that the testimony produced keepeth still
its place, and is " as a king upon his throne, against whom there is
no rising up," but yet speaks quite contrary, clearly, evidently, dis-
tinctly, to what is pretended. Both on the one hand and the other
is our thesis undeniably confirmed in this place of the apostle : If
all those who fall away to perdition were never truly or really of the
faith, then those who are of the faith cannot fall away; but they
who fall away to perdition were never truly or really of the faith,
or true believers : ergo. The reason of the consequent of the first
proposition is evident; for their not being of the faith is plainly in-
cluded as the reason of their apostasy, and their being of the faith
intimated as that which would have preserved them from such defec-
tion. The minor is the apostle's, ' We are not i/tootoX^s, of them that
draw back, but of them that believe;' which plainly distinguisheth
them that draw back from believers. As^ain: if true believers shall
live, and continue to the saving of their souls, in opposition to them
that fall away to perdition, then they shall certainly persevere in their
faith, for these two are but one and the same; but that true believers
shall live, and believe to the saving of their souls, in opposition to them
that draw back, or subduct themselves, to perdition, is the assertion of
the Holy Ghost : ergo. I presume by this time Mr G. is plainly con-
vinced that indeed he had as good (yea, and much better, for the ad-
vantage of his cause in hand) have let his witness have abode in quiet-
ness, and not entreated him so severely [as] to [make him] denounce
judgment against that doctrine which he seeks by him to confirm.

Sect. 32. The parable of the stony ground. Matt. xiii. 20, 21,
comes next for consideration. The words chosen to be insisted on are
in the verses mentioned, " But he that received the seed into stony
places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy re-
ceiveth it: yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while,"
etc. That by the stony ground is meant true believers is that which
Mr Goodwin undertakes to prove; but how, in his whole discourse, I
profess I perceive not. I must take leave to profess that I cannot
find any thing looking like a proof or argument to evince it, from
the beginning to the end of this discourse, though something be
offered to take off the arguments that are used to prove it to be
otherwise. Doth Mr Goodwin think that men will easily believe
that faith which hath neither root, fruit, nor continuance, to be true
and saving faitli? Doubtless, they must have very low apprehen-
sions of saving faith, union with Christ, justification, sanctification,
adoption, etc., wherewith it is attended, who can once entertain any
such imagination. That which is tendered to induce us to such a
persuasion may briefly be considered.

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 659

Saith he, sect 82, " Now, those signified by the stony ground he
expressly calleth 'Trpogxa/povg, that is, persons who continue for a
time or a season, — that is (as Luke explaineth), o? 'Trpbg xaiphv -Triff-
Tsvovai, who "believe for a season:" so that those who only for a time
believe, and afterward make defection from Christ and from the
gospel, are nevertheless numbered and ranked by him amongst be-
lievers. The words in Luke are very particular : ' They on the rock
are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy ; and these
have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall
away;' — from whence it appears that the hearers here described are
not compared to the rock or stony ground for the hardness of their
hearts, forasmuch as they are said to " receive the word with joy,"
which argues an ingenuity and teachableness of spirit in them, and is
elsewhere (namely. Acts ii.41) taken knowledge of by the Holy Ghost
as an index or sign of a true believer; but for such a property, dis-
position, or temper as this, namely, not to give or afford the word so
received a radication in their hearts and souls, so intimous, serious,
and solid, which should be sufficient to maintain their belief of it,
and good affections to it, against all such occurrences in the world
which may oppose or attempt either the one or the other."

A71S. 1. The first reason intimated is, " That they are said to be
'^poffxaipoi," a term given them, plainly, to distinguish them from true
believers, — men that make a profession for a season, expressly opposed
to them who receive the word " in honest and good hearts." If the
word had denoted any excellency, any thing that was good in them,
then there had been some pretence to have insisted on it to prove
them true believers; but to demonstrate the truth of their faith from
their hypocrisy, and their excellencies from that which expressly
denotes their unworthiness, is a strange way of arguing. " They are
persons," saith our Saviour, " that make profession for a little while,
and then decay ; not like them who receive the word in honest and
good hearts:" "Therefore," saith Mr Goodwin, " they are true believ-
ers." But, —

2, "In Luke they are said to ' believe for a season.'" Mr Goodwin
is not now to learn how often in the Scripture they are said to be-
lieve who only profef;s the faith of the gospel, though the root of the
matter be not in them. That of John ii. 23-25 may sufi&ce for un-
deniable instance, or John vi. 66 may farther expound it. Their
believing for a season is but the lifeless, worthless, fruitless profession
for a season, as their distinction from the good ground doth mani-
fest. But, —

8. " They are said to ' receive the word with joy,' which argues
ingenuity and teachableness of spirit in them." No more than in
Herod, who "heard the word gladly ;" or in the Jews, when the preach-
ing of Ezekiel was " pleasant" or desirable to them; or in those de-

GGO DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

scribed Isa. Iviii. 2, who " sought God daily, and delighted to know
his ways," in the midst of their abominable practices.

From the similitude itself he yet farther attempts this uncouth
assertion : —

" But as the blade which springs from one and the same kind of
seed, as suppose from wheat or any other grain, though sown in dif-
ferent, yea, or contrary soils, is yet of the same species or kind, the
nature of the soil not changing the specifical nature of the seed that
is sown in it, and God giving to every seed its own body, of what
temper soever the ground is, where it is sown; in like manner, that
faith which springs from the same seed of the gospel must needs be of
one and the same nature and kind, though this seed be sown in the
hearts of never so differing a constitution and frame, the temper of the
heart, be it what it will be, not being able specifically to alter either
the gospel or the natural fruit issuing from it. And as a blade or ear
of wheat, though it be blasted before the harvest, is not hereby proved
not to have been a true blade or ear of wheat before it was blasted;
in like manner, the withering or decay of any man's faith, by what
means or occasion soever, before his death, doth not prove it to have
been a false, counterfeit, or hypocritical faith, or a faith of any other
kind than that which is true, real, and permanent unto the end."

Ans. It hath been formerly observed, that similitudes aje not
argumentative beyond the extent of that particular wherein their
nature as such doth consist. The intendment of Christ, in this
parable, is to manifest that many hear the word in vain, and bri.ng
forth no fruit of it at all. Of these, one sort is compared to stony
ground, that brings forth a blade, but no fruit. No fruit is no fruit,
though there be a blade or no blade. The difference between the
one's receiving of seed and the other's, manifested by our Saviour in
this parable, is in this, that one bring-s forth fruit, and the other doth
not. Farther ; the seed of wheat, or the like, brings forth its fruit in
a natural way, and therefore Avhatever it brings forth follows in
some measure the nature of the seed; but the seed of the gospel
brings forth its fruit in a moral way, and therefore may have effects
of sundry natures. That which the seed of wheat brings forth is
wheat ; but that which the gospel brings forth is not gospel, but
faith. Besides; what the wheat brings forth, if it come not, nor
ever will, to be wheat in the ear, is but grass, and not of the
same nature and kind with that which is wheat actually; though
virtually and originally there be the nature of wheat in the root, yet
actually wheat is not in the blade, that hath not, nor ever will have,
ear. If the seed of wheat be so corrupted in the soil where it is
sown that it cannot bring forth fruit, that which it doth bring forth,
whatever it be, is of a different nature from that which is brought
forth to perfection by the seed of wheat in good ground. Again;

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. G61

faith is brought forth by the seed of the gospel, when the promises
and exhortations of the gospel, being preached unto men, do prevail
on them to give assent unto the truth of it. That every such effect
wrought is true, justifying faith, giving union with Jesus Christ, Mr
Goodwin cannot prove. That effects specifically different may be
brought forth by the same seed of the gospel, seeing "to some it is a
savour of life unto life, and to some a savour of death unto death,"
needs not much proving. Some receive the word, and turn it into
wantonness; some are cast into the mould of it, and are translated
into the same image, — if "the temper of the heart," as is said, is " not
able specifically to alter the gospel." But that there may not fruit of
various kinds be borne in the heart that assents to it, that receives it
in the upper crust and skin of it, is the question. Neither is it a
blade occasionally, withering before the harvest, but a slight receiving
of the seed, so as that it can never bring forth fruit, that is intimated.
In sum, this whole discourse is a great piece of sophistry, in com-
paring natural and rtioral causes in the producing of their effects; a
thing not intended in the parable, and whereabout he that will busy
himself "jungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos." This is that which our
Saviour teacheth us in the similitude of seed sown in the stony
ground- The word is preached unto some men, who are affected
with it for a season, assent unto it, but not coming up to a cordial
close with it, after a while wither away. And such as these, we say,
w/re never true believers. A small matter will serve to make a man
a; true believer, if these are such. What tendency this doctrine may
'have to lull men asleep in security, when Christ is not in them of a
truth, may easily appear and be judged. If men who are distin-
guished from other believers by such signal differences as these here
are, may yet pass for true believers, justified, sanctified, adopted ones,
" solvi[te] mortales curas," — the way to heaven is laid open to
thousands, who, I fear, will never come to the end of the journey.

What remains of Mr Goodwin's discourse on this text is spent iu
answering some objections which are made against his interpretation
of the place. It grows now late, and this task grows so heavy on
my hand that I cannot satisfy myself in the repetition of any thing
spoken before or delivered, which would necessarily enforce a par-
ticular consideration, of what Mr Goodwin here insists on. Let him at
his leisure answer this one argument, and I shall trouble him no
farther in this matter: —

That faith which hath neither root nor fruit, neither sound heart
nor good life, that by-and-by readily and easily yields, upon tempta-
tion, to a total defection, is not true, saving, justifying faith. The
root of faith, taken spiritually, is the habit of it in the heart, — a
spiritual, living habit; which if it reside not in the heart, all assent
whatever wants the nature of faith, true and saving. The fruits of

662 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.

faith are, good works and new obedience. That faith which hath not
works, James tells you, is dead. Dead and living faith, doubtless,
differ specifically. Again, faith purifieth the heart ; and when a heart
is wholly polluted, corrupted, naught, and false, there dwells no faith
in that heart ; it is impossible it should be in a heart, and not at
least radically and fundamentally purify it. Farther, Mr Goodwia
hath told us that true believers are so fortified against apostasy, that
they are in only a possibility, in no probability or great danger, of
total apostasy; and therefore they who presently and readily fall
away cannot be of those who are scarce in any danger of so doing,
upon any account whatever; — but that the faith here mentioned
hath neither root nor fruit, good heart to dwell in nor good life at-
tending it, but instantly, upon trial and temptation, vanisheth to
nothing, we are taught in the text itself: therefore the faith here
mentioned is not true or saving faith. That it hath "no root" is ex-
pressly affirmed, verse 21. And all the rest of the qualities mentioned
are evidenced from the opposition wherein they who are these be-
lievers are set unto true believers. They receive the word in "honest
and good hearts," they " bring forth fruit with patience," they " en-
dui-e in time of trial," like the house built on the rock, when the
house built on the sand falls to the ground.

One word more with this witness before we part. They vfhp re-
ceive the word in honest and good hearts, keep it, do bring forth /ruit
with patience, and fall not away under temptation (so saith tiie
testimony) ; but all true believers receive the word in honest an^jl
good hearts: ergo; — which is the voice of Mr Goodwin's fourth wit-
ness in this cause.

Then 2 Pet. ii. 18-22 is forced to bring up the rear of the testi-
monies by Mr Goodwin produced to convince the world of the truth
and righteousness of his doctrine of the saints' apostasy, ending his
whole discourse in the mire. Observations from the text or con-
text, from the words themselves, or the coherence, to educe his con-
clusion from, he insists not on. Many excellent words, concerning
the clearness and evidence of this testimony, and the impossibility
of avoiding what hence he concludes, we want not; but we have
been too often inured to such a way of proceeding to be now moved
at it or troubled about it. Were the waters deep, they would not
make such a noise. The state and condition of the men here described
by the apostle is so justly delineated to the eye by the practice of
men in the world to whom the gospel is preached, that I do not a
little wonder how any man exercised in the ministry should once
surmise that they are true believers of whom he here treats. Taking
the words in the sense wherein they are commonly received, and in
their utmost extent, who sees them not daily exemplified in and upon
them who are yet far enough from the "faith of God's elect"? By the

XVII.] CEETAIN PASSAGES IN SCEIPTURE CONSIDERED. » 663

dispensation of the word, especially when managed by a skilful
" master of assemblies," men are every day so brought under the power
of their convictions and of the light communicated to them, as to ac-
knowledge the truth and power of the word, and, in obedience there-
unto, to leave off, avoid, and abhor, the ways and courses wherein the
men of the world, either not hearing the word at all, or not so,
wrought upon by it, do pollute themselves and wallow in all man-
ner of sensuality ; and yet are not changed in their nature, so as to
become new creatures, but continue indeed and in the sight of God
" dogs and swine," oftentimes returning to their " vomit and mire,"
though some of them hold out in their profession to the end. And
these are they whom, commonly, our divines have deciphered under
the name of " formahsts," having a "form of godliness, but denying the
power of it," who are here all at once by Mr Goodwin interested in
Christ and the " inheritance of the saints in light." To make good
his enterprise, he argues from the Remonstrants, sect. 40, p. 297 : —

"1. If the said expressions import nothing but what hypocrites,
and that ' in sensu composite,' that is, whilst hypocrites, are ca-
pable of, then may those be hypocrites who are separated from men
that live in error, and from the pollutions of the world, and that
through the knowledge of Jesus Christ ; and, on the other hand,
those may be saints and sound believers who wallow in all manner
of filthiness, and defile themselves daily with the pollutions of the
world. This consequence, according to the principles and known
tenets of our adversaries, is legitimate and true, inasmuch as they
hold ' That true believers may fall so foul and so far that the church,
according to Christ's institution, may be constrained to testify that
they cannot bear them in their outward communion, and that they
shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ, except they repent,' etc.
But whether this be wholesome and sound divinity or no, to teach
that they who are separate from sinners, and live holily and blame-
lessly in this present world, and this by means of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, may be hypocrites and cliildren of perdition, and they,
on the other hand, who are companions of thieves, murderers, adul-
terers, etc., saints and sound believers, I leave to men whose judg-
ments are not turned upside down with prejudice to determine."

Sundry things might be observed from the text to render this
discourse altogether useless as to the end for which it is produced :
as, 1. That sundry copies, verse 18, instead of SXug'^ read bXlyov, —

' "OXwi seems to be a misprint for ovtu;, which is the reading of the tcxtus reccptus.
This latter reading is now abandoned in tlie critical editions of the New Testament.
Estins seems to have adopted ox'iyov Bloomfield has no doubt that it should be hXiy/w
Tischendorf, on the authority of some of the most ancient manuscripts, several ancient
versions, and several of the Fathers, inserts oxiya; in the text as the proper reading. The
meaning in this case would be " almost." In the translation of De Wette, " beinabe,''
"almost," is the word employed. — Ed.

664 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP,

who " almost/' or in a little way or measure, so escaped as is said.
2. That it is not said that those who are so escaped may apostatize.
It is said, indeed, that the false prophets and teachers dsXsd'^ovatv, do
lay baits for them, as the fisher doth for the fish that he would take,
by proposing unto them a liberty as to all manner of impurity and
uncleanness; but that in so doing they prevail over them is not
affirmed. 3, The conditional expression, verse 20, may be used in
reference to the false prophets, and not to them that are said to
"escape the pollutions of the world;" and if to them, that nothing
can be argued from thence hath plentifully, upon several occasions,
been already demonstrated. But, to suffer Mr G. to leap over all
these blots in his entrance, and to take the words in his own sense
and connection, I say, —

1. In what large and improper sense such persons as we treat of
are termed "hypocrites" hath been declared. Those who pretend to
be God-ward, what they know themselves not to be, making a pre-
tence of religion to colour and countenance themselves in vice and
vicious practices or sensual courses, wherein they allow and bless
themselves, we intend not; but such as in some sincerity, under the
enjoyment and improvement of gifts and privileges, do or may walk
conscientiously (as Paul before his conversion), and yet are not united
to Christ.

2. Of these we say that they may so "escape," etc. But that sound
believers may " wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile them-
selves with all manner of pollutions," we say not; nor will any instance
given amount to the height and intendment of these expressions,
they being all alleviated by sundry considerations necessary to be
taken in with that of their sinning.

3. If we may compare the worst of a saint with the best of a
formal professor, and make an estimate of the states and conditions
of them both, we may cast the balance on the wrong side.

4. We do say that Simon Peter was a believer when he denied
Christ, and Simon Magus a hypocrite and in the "bond of iniquity"
when it was said he " believeJ." We do say that a man may be
alive notwithstanding many wounds and much filth upon him, and
a man may be dead without either the one or the other, in that
eminently visible manner. He adds, —

" 2. The persons here spoken of are said to have ovtm;, truly and
really, ' escajjed from them who live in error." Doubtless a hypocrite
cannot be said truly or really, but in show or appearance at most,
to have made such an escape (I mean from men who live in error),
considering that, for matter of reality and truth, remaining in hypo-
crisy, he lives in one of the greatest and foulest errors tliat is."

The whole force of this second exception lies upon the ambiguity
of the term " hypocrite." Though such as pretend religion and the

XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCEIPTUIIE CONSIDEilED. 665

worship of God, to be a colour and pretext for the free and uncon-
trolled practising of vile abominations, may not be said so to escape
it, yet such as those we have before described, with their convictions,
light, gifts, duties, good conscience, etc., may truly and really escape
from them and their ways who pollute themselves with the errors of
idolatry, false worship, superstition, and the pollutions of practices
against the light of nature and their own convictions. It is added
that, —

" 3. A hypocrite, whose foot is already in the snare of death, can-
not upon any tolerable account, either of reason or common sense, be
said to be ' allured ' (that is, by allurements to be deceived) or ' over-
come by the pollutions of the world,' no more than a fish that is
already in the net or fast upon the hook can be said to be allured
or deceived by a bait held to her."

Ans. But he that hath been so far prevailed upon by the preach-
ing of the word as to relinquish and renounce the practices of un-
cleanness, wherein he some time wallowed and rolled himself, may
be prevailed upon and overcome by temptations to backslide into
the same abominable practices wherein he was formerly engaged,
deserting that way and course of attending to the word and yielding
obedience thereimto which he liad entertained, that in its own nature
tended to a better end. Says he, —

" 4. Hypocrites are nowhere said, neither can they with any con-
gi'uity to Scripture phrase be said, to have ' escaped the pollutions
of the world through the acknowledgment' (for so the word e'rlyvudig
should be translated) ' of Jesus Christ;' the acknowledgment of the
truth, and so of Christ and of God, constantly in the Scriptures im-
porting a sound and saving work of conversion, as we lately observed
in this chapter, sect. 20."

Ans. It sufficeth that the thing itself intimated is sufficiently re-
vealed in the Scriptures, and confirmed by the examples of all those
who have acknowledged the truth of the word to the putting on of a
form of godliness, though they come not up to the power or saving
practice of it. And truly I cannot admit that any one who hath had
never so little experience in the work of the ministry, or made never
so little observation of religion, should once suppose that all such
persons must needs be accounted true believers, regenerate, etc.

Mr Goodwin shuts up this chapter with a declaration concerning
the uselessness of cautions and admonitions given to believers about
backsliding, upon a supposition of an infallible promise of God for
their perseverance. I presume the reader is weary as well as myself;
and having in the last chapter heard him out to the full [as to] what
he is able to say to this common-place of opposition to the doctrine
we have thus far asserted, and offered those considerations of the ways

G6G DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP. XVII.

of God's dealings with believers to preserve them in the course of
their obedience and walking with him which, I hope, through the
mercy and goodness of God, may be satisfactory to them that shall
weigh them, I shall not burden him with the repetition of any thing
already delivered, nor do judge it needful for to add any thing
more.

END OF VOL. XI.

i:i)Im;ui!c:h : rraNTKn u\ JoiiNdroNK .ii iiUNrnit.

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