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 seemes to be altogether needlesse How farre men may proceed in the wayes of God §. 36. what progresse they may make in amendment of life what gifts and common graces they may receive what light and knowledge they may be indued withall what kind of Faith Joy Repentance Sorrow Delight Love they may have in and about spirituall things what desire of mercy and heaven what usefull gifts for the Churches edification they may receive how farre they may perswade their own soules and upon what grounds that their condition Godward 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 the sand c. is the daily taske of the Preachers of the Gospell to manisest in their pressing that exhortation of the Apostle unto their hearers to examine and try themselves in the middest of their profession whether Christ be in them of a truth or no. I shall not now enter upon that labour the Reader knowes 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 speakes and yet come short of the state of true Believers M.G. indeed tells us Sect. 27. The Premises relating to the two passages yet under debate considered §. 37. I am so farre from questioning whether the Apostle speakes of true and sound Believers in them that I verily judge that he purposely sought out severall of the most emphaticall and signall characters 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 and such who though sound yet were weake in the Faith might fall away and perish but that even such also who were lifted up nearer unto Heaven than their fellowes might through carelesnesse and carnallsecurity dash themselves in pieces against the same stone make shipwracke of their soules as well as they Ans. The House built on the sand may oftentimes be built higher have more faire perapets and battlements windowes and ornaments than that which is built upon the Rock yet all guifts and priviledges equall not one Grace in respect of light knowledge guifts and many manifestations of the Spirit such who never come up to that Faith which gives reall union and communion with Jesus Christ may farre outgoe those that do 2. That there is any thing mentioned or any characters given of Believers much lesse such as are singular and not common to all M. G 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 heir of the Promises brother of the LordChrist hath union with him hath his living in him is Quickned Justifyed Sanctifyed hath Christ made to him Wisedome c. hath his Righteousnesse in God and his Life hid in him in Christ is passed from death to Life brings forth fruit and is deare 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 characters we have given of the persons whom we have considered doe excell or equall or denote any thing in the same kind with these and the like excellencyes of the meanest Believers will never be proved if we may judge of future successes from the issue of all former attempts for that end and purpose And this is the issue of Mr Goodwin's third Testimony produced to confirme the Doctrine of the Saints Apostacy but hypothetically and under such a forme of expression as may not be argued from nor of Saints and true Believers at all His 4. followeth His fourth Testimony he produceth §. 38. and indeavours to mannage for the Advantage of his cause Sect. 31. in these words The next Scripture Testimony we shall produce briefely urge in the cause now under maintainance is in the same Epistle with the former and speaketh these words Now the Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw back my soule shall have no pleasure in him Our English translators out of good will doubtlesse 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 Originall readeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. if or but if he i.e. the just man who should live by his Faith viz. if he continues in it shall draw back Beza himselfe likewise before thē had stayned the honour of his faithfulnesse with the same blot in his Translation But the mind of the Holy Ghost in the words is plaine and without Parable viz. that if the just man who lives i. e. who at present enjoyes the favour of God and thereby is supported in all his tryalls and should live allwayes by his Faith if he continues in it as Pareus well glosseth shall draw back or shall be withdrawn viz. through feare or sloth as the word properly signifyeth See Acts 20. 27. from his believing my soule shall have no pleasure in him i.e. according to the import of the Hebraisme my soule shall hate or abhorre him to death as it is also expounded in the words immediately following But we are not of those who draw back to perdition but c. 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 Believer may draw back or be withdrawne to the contracting of the hatred of God and to destruction in the end The forlornehope of evading because the sentence is Hypotheticall or conditionall not positive 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 under a Promise of living by his Faith were in no danger or possibility of drawing backe and that to the losse of the favour of God and ruine of his soule God must be conceived to speake here at no better rate of wisdome or understanding than thus The Just shall live by his Faith but if he shall do that which is simply and utterly impossible for him to do my soule shall have no pleasure in him What savour of wisdome yea or of commonsence is there in admonishing or cautioning men against such evills which there
Dodde Preston Boulton Sibbs Rogers Collverwell Cotton c. whose fame upon this very account of the eminent and effectuall breathing of a Spirit of Holynesse in their writings is gone out into all the Nations about us and their Remembrance is blessed at home and abroade are some of the men who have as hath been shewed laboured in watering the Vineyard of the Lord with the dew and raine 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 joyned with him in a search after and Judgement 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 our selves of cheifest name who have appeared in the Cause that Mr Goodwin hath now undertaken are Tompson Mountagu c. with an obscure Rabble of that Generation I shall easily allow Mr Goodwin to be a man more sharpe sighted than the most of those with whom he hath to do in this present contest as also to have his sences more exercised in the Writings of those eminent Persons last named But yet that he is sensible of such a Spirit of Holines breathing in their writings which for the most part are stuffed with cruell scoffings at the Professours of it and horrible contempt of all close walking with God I cannot easily readily believe should he adde to them Arminius with all that followed him in the Low Countryes their most Learned Corvinus Drunke and Sober As also such among the Papists and Lutherans as are his Companions in this worke and swell thē all with the Rethorick of his commendations untill they breake I dare say he will never be able before indifferent Judges to make out his Assertion of the excellency of their writings for the futherance of Holinesse compared with the Labours of those great and holy Soules who have both among our selves and abroad Laboured in the worke I am at present ingaged in The World of men professing the Reformed Religion have long since in their Judgments determined this difference nor doth it deserve any farther debate Secondly That those who maintaine the Perseverance of the Saints are sore indeed in their Exhortations to Holinesse § 8. but contemptible in their Principles upon which they should build those Exhortations Is an insinuation that Mr Goodwin sometimes makes use of handsomely to beg the thing in Question when he despaires to carry it by any convincing Argument in a faire dispute That the Principles of this Doctrine are eminently serviceable to the furtherance and promotion of Holinesse hath been formerly evinced beyond all possibility of Contradiction from them who in any measure understand what true Godlinesse is and wherein it doth consist Neither ought Mr Goodwin if he would be esteemed as a man disputing for his perswasion so often to begge the thing in Question knowing fullwell that he hath not so deserved of them with whom he hath to do as to obtaine any thing of this nature on those tearmes at their hands Thirdly §. 9. what was the judgement 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 Testimony whereto so many Thousands of them loved not their lives unto death Of those that committed over to posterity any thing of their thoughts in that space of time limited by M. Goodwin viz. three hundred years he names but two of whom I shall not 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 evident in the least that they were consenting in judgement with M. Goodwin wherewith from us he differs is absolutely denied This elsewhere is already farther considered It is a common observation 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 opposition hath been framed and stated thereunto hath given advantage to those following of them when death hath prevented all possibility for them to explaine themselves and their own thoughts to draw them into a participation with them in that which their Soules abhorred The plea of Arius and his Associats concerning the judgement of the Doctors of the Church in the daies before him about the great Article of our Faith The Diety of Christ is known That there are in many of the Ancients sundry expressions seemingly varying from that Doctrine we Assert upon the account of their different apprehensions of the tearmes of Faith being Regenerated Holinesse and the like which are all of them still with us as in the Scripture of various significations and not clearely expressive of any one sence intended by them untill distinguished is not denyed 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 meane time the most eminent of them constantly affirmed that there is a sort of Believers who upon the matter with them were the only true and Reall Believers 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 Doctrine labours under from the opposition made to it and against it in the defenee of that which it riseth up to overthrow by that Generation of the Saints of God lyes upon the shoulders thereof as a burthen to heavy for it to beare Secondly §. 10. Mr Goodwin farther proceeds Sect. 27 to informe 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 returning with speed and violence to Rome He tells us they were very farre from having their Judgments settled as to the Doctrine under contest so as resolvedly to have imbraced the one and rejected the other I should willingly walke in the heigh way for the manifestation and cleare eviction of the untruth of this suggestion viz. by producing their Testimonyes in abundant plentifull manner to confirme their clearenesse and Resolution in the Truth we professe with their Zealous indeavours for the establishment confirmation and propagation of it but that some few Considerations delivered me from ingaging in so facile a taske For First I am not able to perswade my selfe that any man who ever read the writings of the first
condition They are no lesse obnoxious to that death from whence our Regeneration is a delivery by the bestowing of a new Spirituall life than a sinner of an hundred yeares old A returning to this condition it seemes is Regeneration Quantum est in rebus inane Thirdly The qualifications of Infants not Regenerated are meerely negative and that in respect of the acts of sinne not the habituall 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 Antecedent to any Regeneration all which are resolved into a Naturall impotency of perpetrating sinne they are accepted in Grace and favour with God had been another new notion had not Pelagius and Socinus before you fallen upon it without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. And his wrath abides on them that Believe not Iohn 3. 36. 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. 3. 5. And all Faith to be the Fruit of that Spirit Gal 5. 26 27. Farther for the qualifications of Infants by Nature how are they brought cleane from that which is uncleane Are they not conceived in sinne and brought forth in iniquity Or was that Davids hard case alone If they are borne of the flesh and are flesh if they are uncleane how come they to be in that estate upon the account of their Qualifications accepted in the Love and favour of him who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity If this be the Doctrine of Regeneration that M. G. preaches I desire the Lord to blesse them that belong unto 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 not washed in his Bloud not sanctifyed by his Spirit which to be is to be Regenerate is another new notion of the new Gospell The Countenance which Mr Goodwin would begge to his Doctrine from that of our Saviour to his Disciples Except ye be turned and become as little Children ye cannot enter into the Kingdome of God reproving their ambition and worldly thoughts from which they were to be weaned that they might befit for that Gospell state imployment whereunto he called them wherein they were to serve him does no more advantage him nor the cause he hath undertaken than that other caution of our Saviour to the same persons to be wise asserpents innocent 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 M. G. by this 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 in them 3. That Regeneration is a mans returing to the state wherein he is borne And having taken out this Lesson which we shall never learne by heart whilst we live we may now proceed I shall only adde to the maine of the businesse in hand §. 49. 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 mans sonne who was his sonne Those things that stand in Relation upon any thing that is past and therefore irrevocable cannot have their beings continued and their Relation dissolved it is impossible but that cause and effect must be related one to another such is the relation between Father and Sonne The foundation of it is an act past and irrevocable and therefore the Relation it selfe 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 foundation of this discourse §. 50. The generall way of Lusts dealing with the soule the bringing forth of sinne whereof there are two acts expressed v. 14. the one of drawing away the other inticing is to be insisted on Upon the first the person tempted is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drawn off or drawne away and upon the second he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inticed or intangled The First stirring of sinne is to draw away the soule from what it ought to be fixed upon by its rising up irregularly to some delightfull object For a man to be drawne away by his lust is to have his Lust drawne out to some object suited to it wherein it delighteth Now this drawing away denoteth two things 1. The turning of the soule from the actuall rectitude of its frame towards God Though the soule cannot alwayes be in actuall Exercise of Grace towards God yet it ought alwayes to be in an immediate readinesse to any Spirituall duty upon the account whereof when occasion is administred it doth as naturally goe forth to God as a vessell full of water floweth forth when vent is given unto it Hence we are commanded to pray alwayes Our Saviour giveth a Parable to instruct his Disciples that they ought to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 18. 1. And we are commanded to pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without ceasing or intermission 1 â—hess 5. 17. Which the same Apostle in an other place calleth praying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every place namely as occasion is administred It is not the perpetuall exercise of this duty as the Iewes some of them have ridiculously interpreted the first Psalme of reading the Law day and night which would shut out and cut off all other dutyes not only of mens Callings and Employments as to this Life but all other dutyes of the wayes worship of God whatever But it is only the readinesse and promptitude of the heart in its constant frame to that necessary duty that is required Now he who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by lust is drawne off from this frame that is he is interrupted in it by his lust diverting unto some sinfull object 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 1. The maine of a true Believers watching in his whole life § 51. and in the course of his walking with God is directed against this off-drawing from that habituall frame of his heart by lust and sinne His great businesse is as the Apostle telleth us to take the whole armour of God to him that sinne if it be possible may make no approach to his soule Eph. 6. 13. It is to keepe up their spirits to a hate of