congratulante Ecclesiâ totâ and addes satis pro imperio nihil hìc de acceptatione totius Ecclesiae sine quà Episcopos Diaconos ab Apostolis Apostolicis viris constitutos non esse ex hoc loco concludit Blondellus quasi qui ex Dei jussu Approbatione constituebantur populi etiam acceptatione indigere putandiessent Dissert 4. Cap. 7. 8. 10. And who dares take that confidence upon him as to affirme any more what so great a Doctor hath denyed Though the scope of the place the nature of the thing and first most common sence of the word here used being willingly to Consent as it is also used in the Scripture for the most part Act 8. 1. 1 Cor 7. 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 Doctour pleases because he will have it so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 our Doctours purpose to have the words so rendred Ex jussu Dei Approbatione as though any particular command or opprobation of God were intimated for the constitution of the Bishops and Deacons mentioned beyond the institution of the Lord Jesus Christ that Elders should be ordained in every Church because this would seeme 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 recoutneth the way and meanes 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 weake and Unconcluding God appointed designed Saul to be King approving of his so being and yet he would have the people come together to chuse him So also was it in the case of David Though the Apostles in the name the authority of God appointed the Deacons of the Church at Hierusalem 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 peoples Election Act. 14. 23. It will ere long be manifested that neither our Doctour nor any of his Associates have as yet disproved This poore thing the people being the peculiar people of Christ the heritage of God and Holy Temple unto him c. Will one day be found to be an other manner of thing then many of our great Doctours have snpposed But he informes us Cap. 4. Sect 3. From that Testimony which we cited before that the Apostles in the Appointment of Bishops and Deacons for so the words expresly are are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i e Saith he Revelationibus edoctos esse quibus demum haec dignitas communicanda esset that is that they appointed those whom God revealed to them in extraordinary manner to be so ordained and this is the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and why so The holy Ghost orders concerning the appointment of Deacons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim 3. 10. That those who are to be taken into office and power in the Church had need first to be tryed and approved is granted And this worke the Apostles give to the multitude of the Church Act 6. Where yet after the peoples Election and the Apostles Approbation and the trial of 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But how shall it be made to appeare that Spiritum probantes trying or proving by the Spirit or spiritually 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 signifie they were taught whom they should appoint by immediate Revelation 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 6. 10. And Paul purposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act 19. 21. And we are said to serve God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 5.5 and to make supplication 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 6. 18. With many more expressions of the like nature Does all this relate to immediate Revelation and are all things done therby which we are said to doe in the Spirit Before we were instructed in this mystery and were informed that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did signify to be taught by revelation We had thought that the expression of doing any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had manifested the Assistance guidance and direction which for the doing of it we receive by the holy and bâ—essed spirit of God promised unto us and bestowed on in through the Lord Jesus Christ. Yea but he addes that it is also spoken of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praecognitionem i e Revelationem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they appointed them Bishops and Deacons by the helpes and presence of the spirit with them the Apostles examined tryed those who were to be appointed Bishops so obtaining and recieving a perfect foreknowledge or knowledge of them before their Admission into office This also expresses Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon tryal it was revealed unto them and so must any thing else be allowed to be that our Doctour will have to be so now he is asserting to that purpose But had the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who appointing Bishops and Deacens after the Apostles time had they also this special Revelation Or may they not be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If not how will you look upon them under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 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 afterwards took up in the Roome thereof and who they were that first proceeded on another account and on what Authority they did it There are a generation of men in the world will thank the Doctour for this insinuation and will tye knots upon it that will trouble him to loose Before we returne let us look but a little further and we shall have a little more light given us into what was the conditon and power of the people in the Church in the daies of Clemens speaking of them who occasioned the division and schisme in the Church of Corinth or them about whose exaltation into office or dejection from it that sad difference fell out he gives them this advice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It seemes the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
would be impossible they should once imagine that of it selfe it is apt to draw the Spirits of men into a neglect and contempt of God 2. As the end of God intended in giving that assurance to the effecting whereof it is exceedingly operative and effectuall so you have it Luke 1. 74 75. This is the intendment of God in confirming his Oath and Promise unto us that he may grant unto us that wee being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without feare in righteousnesse and holinesse all the daies of our lives Now though these forementioned with many other Texts of Scripture are plaine evident and full to the businesse we have in hand yet the Adversaries of this truth having theirhands 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 soules of them who doe consider them The whole 125. Ps. might in the next place be brought in §. 11. to give Testimony to the truth in hand I shall only take a Proofe from the first verses of it They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot be removed as the mountaines round about Jerusalem so is the Lord round about his people from henceforth even for ever whereunto answereth that of Ps 37. 28. The Lord loveth judgment and forsaketh not his Saints they are preserved for ever as also Deut. 33. 3. Yea he loveth his people all his Saints are in thy hand In the verses named I shall a little fixe upon two things conducing to our purpose which are evidently contained in them 1. A Promise of Gods everlasting presence with his Saints Believers them that trust in him and their stedfastnesse thereupon they shall be as mount Sion that can never 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 Gods presence with them given for the encouragement of weake Believers with speciall regard to the dayes 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 Sion 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 mountaines 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 Sion by the rootes or to overturne the foundations of the Mountaines that stand round about Jerusalem It is true the Holy Ghost hath speciall regard to the oppositions and Temptations that they were to undergoe from men but bears also an equall regard to all other meanes of separating them from their God It would be a matter of small consolation unto them that men should not prevaile over them for ever if in the meane time there be other more close and powerfull Adversaries who may cast them downe with a perpetuall destruction Some few considerations of the intendment of the place will serve for the inforcing of our Argument from this portion of Scripture 1. That which is here promised the Saints §. 12. is a perpetuall preservation of them in that condition wherein they are both on the part of God he is round about them even henceforth for ever and on their parts they shall not be removed that is from the state and conditon of acceptation with him wherein they are supposed to be but abide for ever and continue therein immoveable unto the end It is I say a plain Promise of their cōtinuance 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 Mountaines and their Stability which consists in their being and Continuing so will admit no other sence As Mount Sion abides in its condition so shall they aud as the Mountaines about Jerusalem continue so doth the Lord his presence unto them 2. That expression which is used v. 2. is weighty and full to this purpose The Lord is round about his People henceforth and 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 evills but from every one whereby they are or may be assaulted He is with them and round about them on every side that no evill shall come nigh them It is a most full expression of universall preservation or of Gods keeping his Saints in his Love and Favour upon all accounts whatsoever And that not only for a season 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 §. 13. with a great surplusage of words and phrases to make them seeme some other things then what have been formerly insisted on againe and againe are advanced by Mr Goodwin to overturne this Sion and to cast downe the mountaines that are about Jerusalem Ch. 11. Sect. 9. pag 230 231 232. The summe of our Argument from hence as of the intendment of this place is this Those whom the Lord will certainly preserve for ever in the state and conditon 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 contend for the whole of that whose proofe is incumbent on us of this the former part is a sufficient basis and foundation being comprehensive of all that is or can be required to the unquestionable establishment thereof from the Letter of 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 downe from that state and conditon 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 termes of a direct and proper significancy and the Text and the Assumption of our Argument will appeare to be the same whence the conclusion intended will undeniably follow unto this cleare deduction of the Truth contended for from this place of Scripture the Discourse ensuing in the place mentioned is opposed
improvement of their writings of the several Considerations that are to be had and exercised by them who would read them with profit and Advantage after many disputes and contesâ—s between the Papists and Divines of the Reformed Churches the whole concernment of that Controversy is so clearely stated Mannaged and resolved by Mounseiur Dalie 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 doe commonly distinguish them into three greater periods of time The first of these is comprehensive of them who lived and wrote before the Doctrine concerning which they are called out to give in their thoughts and verdict had received any signal opposition and eminent discussion in the Church on that acccount Such are the Writers of the first 300 years before the Nicene Counsel in reference to the Doctrine of the Trinity and so the succeeding writers before The stating of the Macâ—donian Eutichian and Nestorian Heresies In the next are they ranked who bare the burthen and heat of the Opposition made to any Truth and on that Occasion wrote expresly 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 who lived after such concussions which are of less or more esteem according as the Doctrines enquired after were less or more corrupted in the general Apostacy of the latter dayes According to this order Our first period of time will be with the Rise of the Pelagian Heresy which gave Occasion to the through full and Cleare discussion of the whole doctrine concerning the grace of God whereof that in whose defence we are engag'd is no small portion The next of those whom God raised up to make head against that Subtil opposer of his Grace with his followers during the space of an 100 yeares and somewhat onwards ensuing the promulgation of that heresy What have been the thoughts of men in the latter Ages until The Reformation and of the Romanists since to this day manifested in a few pregnant instances will take up the third part of this designe 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 300 yeares sundry single persons in the following Ages haveing severally written three times as much as we have left and remaining of all the others the names of many who are said to have written being preserv'd by Eusebius Eccles Hist and Hierome lib de script their writings being perished in their dayes nor in general of that corruption whereunto They have almost every one of them been unquestionably expos'd I must be forced to preface the nomination of them with some Considerations The first in that known passage of Hegesipus in Euseb Hist Eccles lib 3. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So far Hel setting out the corruption of the Church even as to doctrine immediatly after the Apostles fell asleep whereof whosoever will impartially and with disingaged Judgments serach into the writings that of those days do remaine will perhaps find more Cause than is commonly imagined with him to Complaine 2 The maine 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 disswade their Rulers from persecution or in contesting with Heriticks for the most part appearing to be men either corrupt in their lives or mad and brainsick 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 difference Thus Junius thinks and not without cause that the whole business of Predestination may be stated upon this one principle that faith is the free Gift of God flowing from his Predestination and Mercy and concerning this saith he Hoc autem omnes patres uno consensu ex Christo Paulo agnoverunt Ipse Justinus Martyr in Apolog 2 Gravissime verâ— Clemens Alexandrinus in hâc alioquin palestrâ non itaexercitatus ut sequentia secula Hom lib 2. Basilâ—i Valentini dogma esse dicit quòd fides a naturâ sit Consid. Senten Pet. Baroni without this what Advantage can be taken or what use can be made for the discovery of the mind of any of the Antients by cropping of some occasional expressions from their occasions and aimes I know not Especially would I more peremptorily affirme this could I imagine any of them wrote as Hierome affirmes of himselfe that he sometimes did Epist. ad August which is among his 892. Itaque saith he ut simpliciter fateor legi haec omnia in mente meâ plurima coacervans accito notario vel mea vel aliena dictavi nec ordinis nec verborum interdum nec sensuum memor should any one say so of himselfe in these days he would be accounted little better then a mad man much then on this Account or at least not much to the purpose is not to be expected from the fathrers of the first Ages 3. Another observation to our purpose lyes well expressed in the beginning of the fourteenth chapter of Bellarmin's second Book de Grat lib Arb. Praeter Scriptur as adferunt alia Testimonia patrum saith he speaking of those who opposed God's free Predestination to which he subjoynes Neque est hoc novum Argumentum sed antiquissimum Scribit enim S. Prosper in Epistola ad S. Augustinum Gallos qui sententiam ejâ—sdem Augustixi de Prede stinatione calumniabantur illud potissimum objicere solitos quòdea sententia doctrine veterum videbatur esse contraria Sed respondet idem Augustinus inl ibâ— de bono perseverantiae veteres patres qui ante pelagium floâ—uerunt quaestionem istam nunquam accurate tractasse sed incidenter solum quasi per transitum illam attigisse Addit vero in fundamento hujus sententiae quod est gratiam dei non praevenire ab ullo opere nostro sed contra ab illâ omnia opera nostera praveniri it a ut nihil omnino boni quod attinct ad salutem sit in nobis quod non est nobis ex des convenire Catholicos omnes ibidem citat Cyprianum Ambrosium Nazianzenum quibus addere possumus Basilium Crysostomum To the same purpose with Application to a particular person doth that great and holy doctor discourse de doctrin Christianâ lib 3 cap 33 saith he non erat expertus
offence and scandall Indeed ever since the Reformation there have been some indeavours against this truth to corrode it and corrupt it The first serious attempt for the totall intercision of the faith of true believers though not a final excision of the faith of elect belieâ—ers was made by one in the other University who being a man of a debauched vicious conversation no small part of the growing evils of the daies wherein he lived did yet cry out against the doctrines of others as tending to loosnesse and profanenesse upon whose breasts teachings was written Holinesse to the Lord all their daies ' Afterwards Armin. Antiperk Arminius with his Quinquarticulan Followers Rem Coll. takeing up the matter though they laboured with all their might to answer sundry of the Arguments whereby the truth of this doctrine is demonstrated Hag. Artic. 5. yet for a season were very faint and dubious in their own assertions not daring to breake in at once upon so great a Treasure of the Church of God * Nos cùm mentem nostram super hoc argumento categoricè dogmaticè in alteram parâ—em definivimus nullo jure levitatis insimulari posse propterea quod novem ab hinc annis eam non ita disertè rotundè enunciaverimus sed solummodo disquirentium adhuc in morem professi simus Declar. sent Rem circa 5. Artic. and therefore in their Synodalia are forced to Apologise for their Haesitation nine years before in their Conference at the Hague But now of late since the glorious light of Socinianisme hath broken forth from the pit men by their new succours are †Socin Praelect Theol. cap. 6. art 7. c. grown bold to defie this great truth of the Gospell and grace of the Covenant as an abomination for ever to be abhorred Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas In particular § 12. the late studious indeavours of a Learned man in his Treatise Intituled Redemption Redeemed for to dispoyle the spouse of Christ of this most Glorious pearl where with her beloved hath adorned her cals for a particular Consideration And this discharging a regard unto any other motives upon cheifly this accompt that he hath with great paines and travell gathered together what ever hath been formerly given out and dispersed by the most considerable Adversaries of this Truth especially not omitting any thing of moment in the Synodall defence of the fifth Article with an exact translation of the dramaticall Prosopopoeias with whatsoever looks towards his designe in hand from their fourth attempt about the manner of conversion giving it a new not only an elegant dresse and varnish of Rhetoricall expressions but moreover reinforcing the declining cause of his Pelagian Friends with not to be despised supplyes of appearing Reason Col. 2. 4. and hidden Sophistry So that though I shall handle this doctrine in my owne Method with the reason whereof I shall instantly acquaint the Reader not follow that Author 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet handling not only the main of the Doctrine it selfe but all the concernments and consequences of it in the severall 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 Unanswered no Consequence Unweighed with a speciall eye to the Comparison instituted betweene the Doctrines in contest as to their direct and causall influence into the obedience and Consolation of the Saints That we may know then what we speake and whereof we doe affirme § 13. I shall breifly State the Doctrine under consideration that the difference about it may appeare Indeed it seemes strange to me among other things that he of whom mention was lastly made who hath liberally dispended so great a Treasure of Paines Reading and Eloquence for the subverting of the Truth whose explanation and defence we have undertaken did not yet once attempt fairely to fixe 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 Chap. 9. Rhetoricall amplifications upon a doctrine not attempted to be brought forth and explayned that it might be weighed in the Ballance as in it selfe it is Whereas there may be many Reasons of such a proceeding it may well be questioned whether any of them be candid commendable Certainly the advantages thence taken for the improveing of many Sophisticall Reasons and pretended Arguments are obvious to every one that shall but peruse his ensuing discourse Although the Substance of this Doctrine hath been by sundry delivered § 14. yet least the termes wherein it is usually done may seeme to be somewhat too Generall and some advantages of the Truth which in it selfe it hath to have been omitted I shall breifely state the whole matter under those Termes wherein it is usually received The title of it is § 15. the PERSEVERANCE OF SAINTS A short discovery of whom we meane by Saints the Subject whereof we speake and what by Perseverance which is Affirmed of them will state the whole for the Judgement of the Reader God only is essentially holy and on that account Isa. 6. 3. losh 24. 19. the only holy One. In his Holynesse as in his Beeing and all his Glorious Attributes Revel 15. 4. there is an actuall permanency or samenesse Heb. 1. 10 11 12. Nothing in him is subject to the least shaddow of change Exod. 3. 14. not his Truth not his Faithfullnesse Deut. 32. 4. Isa. 40. 38. not his Holinesse all principles causes and reasons of alteration stand at no lesse infinite distance from him Ch. 41. 4. then not being Ch. 43. 10. His Properties are the same with himselfe and are spoken of one another Ch. 44. 6. Ch. 48. 12. as well as of his nature His Eternall Power is mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 1. Reve. 1. 4 17. So is his Holinesse Eternall Immutable Of this we may have use afterwards Mal. 3. 6. Iam. 1. 18. for the present I treat not of it The Holinesse of all Creatures is Accidentall and Created 1 Sam. 15. 29. to some it is innate or Originall as to the Angels the first man Gen. 1. 26. our Saviour Christ as to his humane nature of whom we treat not Math. 19. 17. Adam had originall holinesse and lost it so had many Angells who kept not their first habitation It is hence argued by Mr Goodwin Eccles. 7. 29. that Spirituall gifts of God being bestowed Heb. 7. 25. Ezek. 36. 26 27 28. may be taken away nowithstanding the seeming contrary engagement of Rom. 11. 29. From what proportion or Analogy this Argument doth flow Isa. 4. 3 4. Rom. 6. 4 5. 6 is not intimated The grace Adam was endowed with was intrusted with himselfe Ephes. 4. 22 23 24
suppose that he shall prevaile with the Saints of God to believe it will make for their Consolation to apprehend that there is no ingagement in his Covenant assuring them of the continuance of the Favour of God unto them to the End of their Pilgrimage hath no reason to doubt or question the Issue of any thing he shall undertake to perswade men unto Doubtlesse he will find it very difficult with them who in time of Spirituall Straights pressures have closed with this ingagement of God in the Covenant have had experience of its bearing them through all perplexityes and entanglements when the Waves of temptation were ready to goe over their Soules Certainely David was in another perswasion when upon a view of all the difficulties he had passed through and his house was to meet withall he concludes 2 Sam. 23. 5. This is all my desire and all my Salvation that God hath made with me an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things sure The Covenant from whence he had his sure Mercyes not Changeable not Alterable not liable to failings as the temporall Prosperity of his House was was that he rejoyced in I shall close this with two Observations First §. 5. it may doubtlesse and on serious Consideration will seeme strange to any one acquainted in the least measure with God and his Faithfullnesse that in a Covenant established in the Blood of Christ he should freely promise to his that he would be a God unto them that is that he would abide with them in the Power Goodnesse Righteousnesse and Faithfullnesse of a God that he would be an Allsufficient God to them for ever when he might with an Almighty facility prevent it and so answer and fullfill his Ingagement to to the utmost he should yet suffer them to become such Villains and Devills in Wickednesse that it should be utterly impossible for him in the Blood of his Sonne 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 Goodnesse Faithfullnesse and Righteousnesse of God Secondly if this Promise be not absolute Immutable Unchangeable Independent on any thing in us it is Impossible that any one should pleade it with the Lord but only upon the account of the sence that he hath of his own accomplishment of the Condition Psal. 73. 26. Isa. 8. 17. Isa. 50. 10. on which the Promise doth depend I can almost suppose that the whole Generation of Believers will rise up against this Assertion to remove it out of their way of walking with God This I know that most of them who any time have walked in darknesse and have had no Light will reprove it to the Faces of them that mainetaine it and professe that God hath witnessed the contrary truth to their hearts Are we in the Covenant of Grace left to our owne Hearts Wayes and Walkings Is it not differenced from that which is abolished Is it not the great distinguishing Character of it 2 Cor. 1. 20. that all the Promises of it are stable shall certainely be accomplished in Jesus Christ Heb. 7. 22. 8. 7 8 9. One place I shall adde more wherein our intendment is positively expressed § 6. 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 Jeremy 32. v. 38 39 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 feare me for ever for the good of them and their Children after them and I will make an everlasting Convenant with them that I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from me in conjunction with those words of the same importance Ch. 31. v 31 32 33. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers but this shall be my Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those daies saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my People and they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know mee from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sinnes no more 1. The Thesis under demonstration is directly and positively affirmed in most significant and emphaticall words by God himselfe seeing then the Testimony of his holy Prophets and Apostles concerning him are so excepted against and so lightly set by let us try if men will reverence himselfe and cease contending with him when he appeareth in judgement Saith he then to Believers those whom he taketh into covenant with him This is my Covenant with you in the performance whereof his Allsufficiency Truth and Faithfulnesse with all other his glorious Attributes are eminently engaged I will be your God what that expression intends is known and the Lord here explaines by instancing in some eminent Spirituall mercy thence flowing as Sanctification and Acceptance with him by the forgivenesse of sinnes and that for ever in an everlasting Covenant that He will not turne away from them to doe them good This plainely God saith of himselfe and this is all we say of him in the businesse and which having so good an Author we must say whether men will heare or whether they will forbeare Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto men more then unto God let all judge Truly they have a sad taske in my Apprehension who are forced to sweat and labour to alleviate and take off the Testimony of God 2. Secondly That the way the Lord proposeth to secure his Love to his is upon termes of Advantage of Glory and Honour to himselfe to take away all scruple which on that hand might arise is fully also expressed Sinne is the only differencing thing between God and man and hereunto it hath a double influence First Morall in its guilt deserving that God should cast off a sinner and prevailing with him upon the account of justice so to doe Secondly Efficient by causing men through its power and deceitfulnesse to depart from God Heb. 3 1 Prov. 1. 31. 14. 14. untill as back-sliders in heart they are filled with their owne waies 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
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 doe so still or that so they shall doe So Paul saith it was in my heart to live and dye with the Corinthians but doubtlesse with this proviso that they alwaies continued such as they then were or as he apprehended them to be when he so wrote to them Ans. I must be forced to smite this evasion once and againe before we arrive at the close of this contest it being so frequently made use of by our Adversary who without it knowes himselfe not able to stand against the evidence of any one Promise usually insisted on This is the substance of all that which with exceeding delightfull variety of expressions is an hundred times made use of The Promise is conditionall and made to those that trust in the Lord and is to be made good only upon the account of their continuing so to doe but that they shall so doe 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 sence meaning they are pressed a delivering them from the bearing the crosse of this warfare with such like Imperiall termes and expressions To speake in the singlenesse of our spirits we cannot see any one of the discharged Souldiers returning from the Campe wherein they have long served for the safety and consolation of them that doe believe Particularly this Scripture detests the glosse 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 Sion and the Favour of God unto them as immoveable mountaines he will for ever be with them and about them And that all this shall certainly come to passe Christ does not say that they shall be as established mountaines if they continue to trust in the Lord but they shall be so in their trusting abiding for ever therein through the safegarding presence of God For their being necessitated to continue trusting in the Lord there is not any thing in Text or in our Argument from thence or in the doctrine we maintaine that requires or will admit of any such proceeding of God as by that expression is properly signified Indeed there is a contradiction in termes if they are used to the same pupose 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 abridgement of their liberty yea that he doth so eminently by heightning and advancing their spirituall liberty shall be afterwards declared if by necessitated to continue trusting not the manner of Gods operation with and in them for the compassing of the end poposed and the efficacy of his Grace whereby he doth it commonly decryed under those termes be intended but only the certainty of the issue rejecting the impropriety of the expression the thing it selfe we affirme to be here promised of God But is urged 2. That this Promise is not made unto the Persons of any § 14. but meerely 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 threatnings are made to the evill Qualifications of men Ans. This it seemes then we are come unto and what farther progresse may be made the Lord knowes The Gratious Promises of God made to his Church his People in the bloud of Jesus on which they have rolled themselves with safety and security in their severall generations are nothing but bare declarations of the will of God what he allowes and what he rejects with the firme concatenation that is between Faith and salvation Obedience and reward And this it seemes is the only use of them which if it be so I dare boldly say that all the Saints of God from the foundations of the World have most horribly abused his Promises and forced them to other ends then ever God intended them for Doubtlesse all those blessed soules who are fallen a sleepe in the Faith of Jesus Christ having drawn refreshment from these breasts of Consolation could they be summoned to give in their experience of what they have found in this kind they would with one mouth professe that they found farre more in them then meere conditionall declarations of the will of God Yea that they received them in Faith as the engagement of his heart and good will towards them that he never failed in the accomplishment and performance of all the good mentioned in them neither will that emphaticall expression in the close of the second verse which being somewhat too rough for our Author to handle he left it quite out beare any such sence That the Promises of the Covenant are made originally to Persons and not to Qualifications hath been in part already proved and shall be farther evinced God assisting as occasion shall be offered in the ensuing discourse The Promises are to Abraham and his seede 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 c. hath not as yet been declared But it is farther argued 3. That this and the like Promises are to be interpreted according to the rule which God hath given for the interpretation and understanding of his threatnings unto Nations about temporall things and his Promises that are of the same import which we have Jer. 18. 7 8. Plainely 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 Heb. 7. 23. called better Promises then those of the old Covenant upon the account of their infallible accomplishment 2 Cor 1. 20. ratified in the blood of Christ made yea and amen in him the witnesse of the Faithfulnesse of God to his Church 2 Pet. 1. 3. and grand Supporter of our Faith exceeding great and pretious shall they be thought to be of no other sence and interpretation to make no other Revelation of the Father unto us but in that kind which is common to threatnings of Judgements expresly conditionall
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 here trust in him shall never be remooved What I pray is the Conditiō on which 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 minde of the Holy Ghost Notwithstanding all the Rhetoricke in the world this Promise will stand for the consolation of them that believe as the Mountaines about Jerusalem that shall never be removed In some it is said to be a Promise of abiding in Happinesse §. 15. not in Faith but it plainely appeares to be a Promise of abiding in trusting the Lord which comprehends both our Faith and Happinesse Ob. It is not promised that they who once trust in the Lord shall abide happy though they cease to trust in him Ans. It is a Promise that they shall not cease to trust in him Ob. It is not that they shall be necessitated to abide trusting in him Ans. No but it is that they shall be so far assisted and effectually wrought upon as certainely to do it Ob. It is no more then the Apostle sayes to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 2. 3. which frame towards them he would not continue should they be changed and turned into Idolaters and Blasphemers Ans. First 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 Ob. All the Promises are made to Qualifications not to Persons Ans. Prove that and 1. Take the case in hand and 2. Cast downe the Church to the ground it having no one Promise on that account made unto it as consisting of Abrahams Seed and so this witnesse also is freed from all exceptions put in against it and appeares with confidence to give in its Testimony to the Vnchangeablenesse of God unto Believers I shall in the next place adjoine another portion of Scripture of the same import with those foregoing §. 16. wherein the truth in hād is no lesse clearly somewhat more pathetically convincingly expressed thē in that last mentioned It is Isa. 54. 7 8 9 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 moment but with everlasting kindnesse 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 sworne that the Waters of Noah shall no more cover the Earth so have I sworne that I will not be wrath with thee nor rebuke thee for the Mountaines shall depart and the hils be removed but my Loving-kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the Covenant of my Peace be removed saith the Lord that hath Mercy on thee The place I have mentioned before but only as to one speciall inference from one passage in the words I shall now use the whole for the confirmation of the generall Truth we plead for the words are full plaine suited to the businesse in hand No expressions of our finding out can so fully reach the Truth we assert much lesse so pathetically worke upon the Affections of Believers or so effectually prevaile on their understandings to receive the Truth contained in them as these words of God himselfe given us for those ends are suited to doe Goe to men whose minds in any measure are free from prejudice not forestalled with a contrary perswasion and furnished with evasions for the defence of their opinions and aske whether God doth not in these words directly and positively promise to those to whom he speaketh that he will alwaies continue his kindnesse to them to the end and that for the daies 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 deale as with our own unbelieving hearts so with men who 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 V. 5. mention is made of the desertion of the Church § 17. by the eclipsing of the beames of Gods countenance and the inflicting of some great affliction for a season in opposition unto which momentary desertions in that and in the beginning of the 8. v. he giveth in Consolation from the Assurance of the great Mercies and Everlasting Kindnesse wherein he abideth to doe them good with everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee I will pardon pitty and heale thee with that mercy which floweth from Love which never had beginning that never shall have ending that cannot be cut off Everlasting Kindnesse Beare with patience your present desertion your present trialls whatever they are that befall you they are but for a season but for a moment and these also consistent with that Mercy Kindnesse which is everlasting and turneth not away If this Mercy and Kindnesse dependeth on any thing in us and is resolved lastly thereunto which may alter and change every moment as our walking with God in its selfe considered not relating to the Unchangeablenesse of his Purpose the efficacy of his promised Grace is apt to doe what opposition can there be betwixt that desertion wherewith they are exercised and the kindnesse 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 foundation of that consolation wherewith God here refresheth the soules of his people consisting in the continuance of his kindnesse in an Antithesis to the moment arinesse of their desertion Least that any should call this into Question §. 18. as our unbelieving hearts are very apt and skilfull in putting in pleas against the truth of the Promises of God and their accomplishment towards us v. 9. the Lord farther confirmeth the Assurance formerly given and removeth those objections to which through the Sophistry of Satan and the Sottishnesse of our own hearts it may seem to be lyable This is saith he as the waters of Noah Gods dealing with thē in that mercy which floweth from his everlasting kindnesse is like his dealing with the World in the matter of the waters of Noah or the floud wherewith it was drowned and destroyed when he with his were saved in the Arke He calleth upon his Children to consider his dealings with the World in respect
them to dwell in them personally for the Accomplishment of all the ends and purposes of his Oeconomie towards them to make them meet for and to bring them unto the inheritance of the Saints in Light Personally I say in our Persons not by Assumption of our Natures giving us mysticall union with Christ not Personall Union with himselfe that is not one Personality with him which is impious and blasphemous to imagine by a Gracious inhabitation distinct from his Essentiall filling all things and his energeticall 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 meerely Scriptuall and such as will instantly appeare we have provided in great plenty In the carrying on then of this undertaking I shall do these two things 1. Produce some of those many Texts of Scripture which are pregnant of this Truth 2. Shew what great things do issue from thence and are affirmed in reference thereunto being inferences of a supposall thereof all conducing to the preservation of Believers in the Love and Favour of God unto the end For the first I shall referre them to 4. 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 Guifts 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 1. The indwelling of the Spirit is the great and solemne Promise of the Covenant of Grace The manner of it we shall afterwards evince Ezek. 36. 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walke in my wayes In the verse foregoing he tels them He will give them a new heart and a new Spirit which because it may be interpreted of a renewed frame of Spirit though it rather seemes to be the renewing Spirit that is intended as also Cap. 11. 19. he expressly points out and differences the Spirit he will give them from all workes of Grace whatsoever in that Appellation of him my Spirit my Holy Spirit Him will I put with in you I will give him or place him in interiori vestro in your inmost part in your heart or in visceribus vestris in your bowels as the Soule is frequently signifyed by expressions of sensuall things within you In his giving us a new heart new Spirit by putting in us his Spirit certainly more is intended then a meere working of Gracious qualities in our Hearts by his Spirit which he may do yet be no more in us then in the greatest Blasphemers in the world And this in the carrying of it on to its accōplishment God calls his Covenant Isa. 59. 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 dwels in thee as was promised And this Promise is evidently renewed by the Lord Christ to his Disciples clearely also interpreting what that Spirit is which is mentioned in the Promise of the Covenant Luk. 11. 13. Your Heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that aske him of him that is that pray to him for the Holy Spirit Our Saviour instructs his Disciples to aske the Holy Spirit of God upon the account of his being so promised as Acts 2. 23. All our supplications are to be regulated by the Promise And surely he who as shall afterwards appeare did so plentifully Rom. 8. 27. and richly Promise the bestowing of this Spirit on all those that believe on him did not instruct them to aske for any inferion Mèrcy and Grace under that name That Spirit which the Lord Christ instructs us to aske 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 aske for and which himselfe promiseth to send unto us is the Holy Ghost himselfe the Holy Spirit of Promise by whom wee are Sealed to the day of Redemption I suppose will require no labour to prove what is needfull to this end shall be afterward insisted on 2. Positive affirmations that he doth so dwell in § 2. and remaine with the Saints are the second ground of the Truth we assert I shall name one or two Testimonies of that kind Psal. 51. 11. saith David take not thy Holy Spirit from me It is the Spirit and his presence as unto Sanctification not in respect of Prophesy 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 of him sometimes yet when the Saints begge 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 cleare 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 informes us Rom 8. 9. yee are in the spirit that is spirituall men opposed to being in the flesh that is carnall unregenerate unreconciled and enemies to God if so be the spirit of Christ dwell in you and if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Not only the thing it selfe 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 spirituall and belong to Christ otherwise not wee are none of his This the Apostle farther confirmes v. 11. if the spirit of him that raised up Jesus dwell in you I know not how the Person of the Holy Ghost can be more clearely decyphered then here he is The spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead Why that is mentioned shall afterwards be considered And this Spirit as he bears Testimony of himselfe dwells in Believers which is all we say and without farther curious enquiry desire to rest therein Doubtlesse it were better for men to captivate their understandings to the obedience of Faith then to invent Distinctions and Evasions to escape the power of so many plaine Texts of Scripture and those litterally and properly not Figuratively and Metaphorically expressing the Truth contained in then which though it may be done sometimes yet is not in a constant uniforme tenure of expression any where the manner of the Holy Ghost The Apostle also affirmes farther v. 15.
needs no labour to demonstrate The Spirit himselfe so interprets it John 7. 38 39. He who believeth on me saith our Saviour as the Scripture saith rivers of living Water shall flow out of his belly But this he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believe on him that which in one place he calleth a Well of Water springing up to Life in us is in the other in equivalent termes called Rivers of living Water flowing out of our bellies And the Holy Ghost tells us that he himselfe 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 arising up increasing and flowing out abundantly upon its owne account but the Spirit only It is only the Spirit that is a fountaine 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 Fountaine continually supplies us with refreshing streames of Grace and fills us a new therewith when the Channells thereof in our soules are ready to become dry And Secondly 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 exprest by two Negatives and an Exegeticall additionall terme for weight and certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall never thirst to eternity or as it is exprssed John 6. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he shall never thirst at any time There is a two fold thirst 1. There is a thirst totalis indigentiae of a whole and intire want of that men thirst after and this is the thirst that returnes upon men in their naturall lives After they have allayed it once with naturall water they thirst againe and their want of water returnes as intire and full as if they had never dranke in their lives Such a spirituall Thirst doth God ascribe to wicked men Isa. 65. 13. My servants shall eat but you shall be hungry my servants shall drinke but ye shall be Thirsty Their hunger and thirst is the totall want of Grace not that they do desire it but that they have it not And this thirst of totall 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 againe into the Condition wherein they were before they dranke of that Spirit 2. There is also a Thirst of desire and complacency of the good Things thirsted after In this sence they are pronounced Blessed who hunger and Thirst after Righteousnesse Math. 5. And Peter instructs us to grow in this Thirst more and more the 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new borne babes desire the sincere milke 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 meanes are we preserved from that totall want indigency which shall never againe befall us Thirdly §. 31. our Saviour gives the reason why and whence it is that they who drinke of this Water are made partakers of his Spirit shall thirst no more or never be brought to the Condition of totall 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 shewed shall be a well of Water a fountaine of Grace springing up in them to everlasting 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 confirme 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 supplyes of Grace that this Spirit affords them in whom he is He is Water alwaies springing up so that to say he will refresh Saints and Believâ—ers with his Grace provided that they turne 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 worke in us is that whereunto this profligate wickednesse is opposed and whilst that is this cannot be There is an everlasting inconsistency beâ—ween profligate wickednesse and a never failing spring of Grace 3. His Permanency in this worke and efficacy by it this living Water springs up to everlasting Life He ceases not untill our Spirituall Life be consummated in Eternity This then is the summe of this Promise of our Saviour He gives his holy Spirit to his who lives in them and gives them such continuall supplies of Grace that they shall never come to a totall want of it as they doe of Elementary Water who have once dranke thereof And from this spring doth this Argument flow They on whom the Spirit is bestowed to abide with them for ever and to whom he constantly yeildes such supplyes of Grace as that they shall never be reduced to a totall want for ever they shall certainely and infallibly persevere but that this is the Condition of all that come to Christ by Believing or that Christ hath promised that so it shall be with them is cleare from his owne Testimony now insisted on Ergo. Unto their Argument from the Promise of our Saviour §. 32. Mr Goodwin endeavours an Answer Ch. 11. Sect 10. 11. 12. pag. 232. 233. and in the Preface of it tells us that this Scripture doth but face if so much the businesse in hand To face it I suppose is to appeare 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 ensuing evasions But we are yet farther confident that upon the more diligent and strict examination it will be found to speake to the very heart and soule of the businesse in hand and the Considerations of his Reasons to the contrary doth seeme only to give us farther light herein and assurance hereof He saies then Here is no Promise made that they who once believe how unworthily soever they shall behave themselves shall still be preserved by the Spirit of God or the Spirit of God in Believing or that they shall be necessitated alwaies to Believe Ans. This is the old play still It is not at all our intendment to produce any Promise of safe-guarding men in the Love of God how vile soever they may prove but
them that are concerned therein And this I shall do in the Order that I have named giving the Preeminence unto their Obedience which more immediately respecting the Glory of God the honour of the Gospell is to be preferred before their Consolation yea though God should never afford his Saints any drop of that Consolation which we affirme to streame from the Truth discussed yet it is Honour unspeakable for them that he is pleased to admit them and inable 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 cleare to the demonstration of that influence which the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints hath into their Obedâ—ence and close-walking with God and so to manifest what weight is to be lay'd upon it on that Consideration I shall give some previous Observations which may direct and give us light in our passage both concerning Gospell Truths Gospell Obedience and Gospell Motives thereunto I hope it will not be thought amisse if I looke a little backwards to fortify and cleare this part of our progresse there being no concernement of our Doctrine that is more clamoured by the Adversaries of it nor can any respect of it or any Truth of God more causelessly meet with such entertainement as I hope will abundantly in the progresse of our businesse be evinced to the consciences of all who know indeed what it is to walke before God in a course of Gospell Obedience and who have their communion with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ. For the first 1. Every Truth revealed from God is to be received not only with Faith and Love but with equall Reverence to any that is revealed though we are not able to discerne such an immediate tendency unto usefullnesse in our Communion with him as in some others we may The formall Reason whereunto our Faith Love and Reverence 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 portion a like And though perhaps we may want some part of it at a lesse fatall price then some other yet to reject any one title or jot of it as that which is revealed of God is a sufficient demonstration that no one jot or title of it is received as it ought upon whatever this Title Inscription is Verbum Jehovae there must we stoope and bow downe our soules before it and captivate our Understandings to the obedience of Faith Whatsoever then may hereafter be spoken concerning the usefulnesse of the Truth under Consideration and that 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 it selfe in respect of 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 worke them to whom the Revelation is made into a conformity to himselfe and to mould them into his owne Image All Scripture the Apostle tells us 2 Tim 3.16 is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnesse that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all Good workes Hereunto all Scripture tends and is usefull profitable for this end And the Gospell is called the Truth that is according to Godlinesse Titus 1. 1. As the end of the Law is Charity out of a pure heart and a Faith unfained 1 Tim. 1. 5. That which in respect of the prime Author of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of God 1 Thess. 2 13. and in respect of the principall matter of it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of the Crosse 1 Cor. 1.18 in respect of its end and tendency towards us is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word or Truth that is according to Godlinesse The Word is that revealed Will of God which is our Sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3. and the Instrument whereby he workes our Holinesse according to that prayer of our Saviour Sanctifie them by thy Word thy Word is Truth John 17. 19. And that which when we are cast into the mould of our Obedience is in some measure wrought Rom. 6. 17 the substance also or matter being written in our hearts is the Grace and Holinesse promised unto us in the Covenant Jere. 31.33 And that this is the Improvement which ought to be made by Believers of every Gospell Truth or rather that it hath an Efficacy to this purpose the Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in a glasse the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord By apprehensions of the glorious Truths discovered in the glasse or mirror of the Gospell we are changed and moulded into the frame and Image therein discovered by the power of the Spirit effectually accompanying the Word in the dispensation thereof And unlesse this be done whatsoever we may pretend we have not received any Truth of the Gospell as it is in Jesus in the power of it Eph. 4. 20 21 22 23 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 of as concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts And be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in Righteousnesse and true Holinesse Whatsoever men may professe if we have learned the Truth as it is in Jesus it will have these Effects in us even universall relinquishment as to sinceritie of all ungodlinesse and a through change both as to principles and practices unto Holinesse and to Righteousnesse which the Gospell teaches us which if we have not learned we have not yet learn't it as it is in Jesus Tit. 2. 11 12. The Grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and worldly lusts we should live Soberly Righteously and Godlily in this present evill world 3. Some Truths have a more immediate direct and effectuall tendency to the promotion of Godlinesse and Gospell Obedience then others This the Apostle emphatically ascribes as a priviledge to that Doctrine that reveales the Love of Christ unto us 2 Cor. 5. 14. the Love of Christ constraines us other things effectually perswade but the Love of Christ constraines 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
guidance of their judgement in the receiving or rejecting of them On the account of its destructivenesse to Godlinesse and obedience do the Socinians reject the Satisfaction and merit of Christ and on the account of conducingnesse thereunto do the Papists assert and build up the Doctrines of their owne merits Penance Satisfaction and the like On that principle did they seeme to be acted who pressed Legall Judaicall suppositions with a shew of wisdome or will worship and humility and neglecting the body Col. 2. 23. Neither did they faile of their plea concerning promotion of Godlinesse in the Worship of God who reviled rejected and persecuted the Ordinances of Christ in this Generation to set up their own Abominations in the Roome 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 Godlinesse to be serviceable for the promotion of their opinions than their opinions any way really usefull to the promotiō of godlines Neither need we go far to enquire after the Reasons of mens miscarriages pretending to judge of Truth according to this Rule seeing they ly at hand 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 treacherously with their own soules the truth the pretence of furthering Holinesse being one of the cunning sleights wherewith they ly 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 Gospell conversation as the case hath been with not a few of the most eminent assertors of Arminianisme How few are there in the world who have indeed a true notion and Apprehension of the nature of Holinesse in its whole compasse and extent as in the Fountaine Causes Rise and Use and end thereof And if men know not indeed what holinesse 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 perswaded that he hath power in himselfe being by the discovery of a Rule directed thereinto to yeild that obedience to God which he doth require who supposeth that threats of hell destructiō are the greatest most powerfull effectuall motive unto that obedience that the Spirit Grace of God to worke create a new heart in him as a suitable principle of all holly actings are not purchased nor procured for him by the Bloud of Christ nor is there any holinesse wrought in him by the Almighty efficacy of that Spirit and Grace he having a sufficiency in himselfe for those things that there is not a reall Physicall concurrence of the Grace of God for the production of every good act whatever and that he is Justifyed upon the account of any act or part of his Obedience or the whole and I shall not be much moved or shaken with the Judgement of that man concerning the serviceablenesse suitablenesse of any Doctrine or Doctrines to the furtherance of Godlinesse and Holinesse There are also many different opinions about the nature of Godlinesse what it is and wherein it doth consist I desire to be informed how a man may be directed in his Examination of those opinions supposing him in a streight and exigency of thoughts between them in considering which of them is best suited to the promotion of Godlinesse I do not intend in the least to derogate from the certaine and undoubted truth of what was premised at the beginning of this Discourse viz. That every Gospell Rule whatever is certainly conducing to the furtherance of Gospell Obedience in them that receive it in the Love and power thereof Every errour being in its utmost Activity especially in corrupting the principles of it obstructive thereunto much les do we in any measure decline the tryall of the Doctrine which I assert in opposition to the Apostacy of the Saints by this touch-stone of its usefulnesse to Holinesse having formerly manifested its eminent Activity and efficacy in that service and the utter aversenesse of its corrivall to lend any assistance thereunto But yet I say in an inquiry after and dijudication of truth whatever I have been or may be streightned between different perswasions I have and shall rather close in the practice of Holinesse in prayer Faith and waiting upon God to search the Scripture to attend wholly to that Rule having plentifull promises for guidance and direction than to weigh in any Rationall consideration of my owue what is conducing to Holinesse what not especially in many truths which have their usefullnesse in this service as is the case of most Gospell Ordinances and institutions of Worship not from the connexion of things but the meere will of the appointer Of those Doctrines I confesse which following on to know the Lord we know from his Word to be from him and in which 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 appeare to be peculiarly and eminently serviceable to the promotion and furthering our Obedience as also that all opinions what ever that are in the least seducers from the power truth and Spirituality of obedience are not of God 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 false-hood if my thoughts are not shut up and determined by the power of the Word The next proposall made by M. Goodwin §. 7. is of the advantages he hath to judge of Truths which he hath done unto plenary satisfaction according to the Rule now considered The first thing he offereth to induce us to close with him in his judgement of Opinions is the knowledge he hath of the generall course of the Scripture what is intended by the generall course of the Scripture well I know not so am not able to judg of M. Goodwins knowledge thereof by any thing exposed to publique view If by the generall 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 Prophesy but what ever M. Goodwins knowledge may be of this I am not perfectly satisfied that he hath kept close unto it in many Doctrines of his Book entituled Redemption Redeemed and so the weight of his skill in judging of truths on this foundation will not ballance what I have to lay against it for the inducement of other thoughts than those of closeing with him The course of the Scripture cannot import the manner of the expressions therein used in that there
characters or markes upon them of true Believers then what are here mentioned must necessarily be so accounted or will of God be so accepted Many a Believer may desire the guifts of those Hypocrites who have not one dramme of the Grace wherewith he is quickned So that this first reason as pregnant as it seemes of proofe is only indeed swelled puffed up with wind vanity He adds 2. True Believers are in 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 neere Hell already as lightly they can be till they be actually fallen into it From whence then are they capable of fallings men of estates may faile and breake but beggers 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 Begger cannot be said to breake but only when he gets an estate When he doth this the begger is broke Ans. All that here is added arises meerely from the ambiguity of the word Hypocrites the persons that fall are on all hands supposed to have and enjoy all that is made mention of in the Texts insisted on so that they have so much to fall from as that thereupon Mr Goodwin thinkes them true Believers They have all the heighths to tumble from which we before mentioned and very many others that it is no easie taske to declare They fall from the excellencies they have and not the Hypocrisy with which they are vitiated From the profession of the Faith with honesty of conversation c. not from the want of Roote or being built on the Rocke so that this pretended pregnant reason is as barren as the former to the production of the assertion layd down to be proved by it He adds 3. It is no punishment at all to Hypocrites to be under no possibility of being renewed againe 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 againe For if this were their case it would be impossible for them to be ever Hypocrites again and doubtlesse it is no great judgment upon any man to be uncapable of such a preferment Ans. 1. Whether it be no punishment for them who have been in so good a way a way of such tendency unto Salvation and such usefullnesse to the Gospell as these persons are supposed to be in not to be renewed againe to that state and condition but to be shut up unrecoverably under the power of darkenesse and uubeliefe unto eternall wrath when before they were in a faire way for life and Salvation others will judge beside Mr Goodwin Neither is there an affirmation of their falling away from their Hypocrisy and being renewed againe thereunto in any thing we assert in the exposition of this place but their falling away from guifts and common Graces with the impossibility of what kind soever it be of being renewed to an enjoyment of them any more His fourth and last attempt follows 4. And lastly it stands off forty foot at least from all probability that the Apostle writing only unto those whom he judged true and sound Believers as appears from severall places in the Epistle as cap. 3. 14. 6. 9. c. should in the most serious emphaticall and weighty passages hereof admonish them of such evills 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 threatnings in the world would not according to their principles with whom we have now to do have relieved or delivered thē To say that such admonitions are a meanes to preserve those from Apostacy who are by other meanes as suppose the absolute decree of God or the interposall of his irresistible power for their Perseverance or the like in no possibility of Apostatizing as to say that washing is a meanes to make snow white or the rearing up of a pillar in the aire a meanes 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 probability which he hath accurately performed if we may take his word yet upon due consideration it evidently appeares 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 promiscuosly to all that professe the name of Christ his Gospell of whom he tells you Cap. 3. 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 to the end For the rest notwithstanding all their glorious profession guifts attainments yet they are not truly made partakers of Christ whereby he cuts the throat of Mr Goodwins whole cause and cap. 6. 9. that there were amongst them 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 ever◠day fell away so that though he judged no particulars before their Apostacy yet he partly intimates that all Professors were not true Believers and therefore does teach them all to make sure worke in closing with Christ least they turne Apostates and perish in so doing 2. That conditionall comminations and threatnings discovering the connexion 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 threatned and the cause deserving it upon the accounts Reasons and Causes that have been plentifully insisted on hath more than once been declared and the objections to the contrary the same with those here insisted on answered and removed This being all that Mr Goodwin hath to offer by the way of reason to exclude the persons formerly described to be the only concernement of the place of Scripture insisted on there remaines nothing but only the consideration of the severalls of the passages debated wherein by the light that hath already broken forth from the Circumstances aymes ends and connexion of the places we may so far receive direction as not to be at all stumbled in our progresse With the consideration of the severall expressions in the passages under debate §. 30. Mr Goodwin proceedeth Sect. 19 and first infisteth on that of Cap. 6. where it is said that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 once enlightned whence he thus argues Believers are said to be enlightned and to be children of light in the Lord 2 Cor. 4. 6. Heb. 10. 32. Luke 16. 8. Eph. 5. 8. therefore they who here are said
is no possibility for them to fall into yea and this known unto themselves Therefore this testimony for confirmation of the Doctrine we maintaine is like a King upon his Throne against whom there is no rising up Ans. What small cause Mr Goodwin hath to quarrell with Beza §. 39. or other Translatours and with how little advantage to his cause this Text is produced shall out of hand be made appeare 1. The words as they cry are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the foregoing part of the chapter the Apostle had treated of two sorts of persons 1. Such as so forsake the Assemblies of the Saints withdrew from the Church and Ordinances of Christ and so by degrees fell off with a totall and everlasting backsliding of these the Apostle speakes describing their wayes and end from v. 25. unto v. 32. 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 these both having told them of the unshaken Kingdome of Christ that should be brought in notwithstanding the Apostasy of many of whose iniquity God would take vengeance on he laies downe that eminent promise of the Gospell the just by Faith shall live wordes often used to expresse the state condition of Believers of those who are truly and unfainedly so the Lord being faithfull in his promise the justified person shall live or obtaine life everlasting It is the promise of eternall life that is here given them as that which they had not as yet received but in patience they were to waite to receive after they had done the whole will of God that any of these should so draw back as that the Lords soule should have no pleasure in them is directly contrary to the promise here made of their living The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next words is plainly adversative and exceptive as it is very many times in the New Testament and that as to the Persons of whom he is speaking at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the period is full the description of the state of the just by Faith is compleated and in the next words the state of backsliders is entred upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 referring to them whom by their Apostasy and subduction of themselves from Christian assemblies he had before described there is an elleipsis in the words to be supplied but some indefinite terme to give them the sence intended this Beza and our translators have done by that excepted against causelessely by M.G. for if a Translator may make the Text speake â—ignificantly in the language whereunto 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 expressely 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 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as above M. 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 to perdition but c. 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 severall persons there are saies he some who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those saith he who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be destroyed those who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall live Evidently and beyond all contradiction assigning his former assertions of the just shall live by Faith and if any man shall draw back to severall persons by a distribution of their lot and portions to them in v. 28. he layes downe in These the state and condition of believers and backsliders in v 29. he makes application of the position he laid downe to himselfe and them 1. negatively that they were not of the former sort of them that draw back c. 2. Positively that they were of the rest of them that believed and those expressions v. 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe undeniably affirme two sorts of persons in both places to be spoken of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can by no meanes be referred to our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which would entermixe them whom the Apostle as to their present state and future condition held out in a contradistinction one to the other unto the end All that ensues in M. Goodwins discourse being built upon this sandy foundation that it is the Believer of whom God affirmes that he shall live by Faith who is supposed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary to the expresse 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 sence and in another impossible But before we passe further §. 40. may not this witnesse which Mr Goodwin hath attempted in vaine to suborne to appeare and speake in his cause be demanded what he can speake or what he knowes of the truth of that which he is produced to oppose This then it confesseth and denyeth not at first word that of professours there are two sorts some are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such as doe or may draw back unto perdition some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which believe to the saving of the soule and that in opposition to the others Also that those who withdraw are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not true Believers nor ever were notwithstanding all their profession and what their guifts 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 distinctly to what is pretended both on the one hand the other is our thesis undeniably confirmed in this place of the Apostle If all those who fall away to perdition were never truly nor really of the Faith then those who are of the Faith caÌ„not fall away but they who fall away to perdition were never truly nor 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 included as the Reason of their Apostacy their being of the Faith intimated as that which would have preserved them from such defection the Minor is the Apostles we are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of them that draw back but of them that believe which plainely distinguisheth them that draw back from