A DISCOURSE OF The True Nature OF THE GOSPEL DEMONSTRATING That it is no NEW LAW but a pure DOCTRINE of GRACE In Answer to the Reverend Mr. Lorimer's Apology Levique certamine docet vanam esse sine viribus Iram Liv. Hist Lib. 1. By THO. GOODWIN Pastor of a Church of Christ at Pinnor in Middlesex Phil. 2. 3. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of Mind let each esteem other better than themselves London Printed by J. Darby 1695. To the READER I Had so honest a Design in writing the following Discourse which I have endeavoured to compose in cool and calm Thoughts undisturb'd with Heat or Passion as I am arm'd against their Censures who will perhaps resent it very ill to see their Darling Notions expos'd My poor Labours are recommended by the alone consideration of the Truths in whose Defence they are employ'd and this is abundantly sufficient and therefore I need only to desire thee to consider the Arguments with an impartial Mind If thou lovest the Gospel do not suffer thy Thoughts looking on it to be distorted by Prejudice or Passion As the Truths here asserted are of great moment so they deserve thy most serious Attention If they were only subtle Niceties for a trial of Wit or to make an Experiment who could make Words to dance most nimbly I would never have misimploy'd my self in writing this Discourse nor caused thee to mispend so much time in reading it But since I can assure thee that I have asserted nothing but what I not only really believe to be true but to be of high Importance to the Salvation of my own Soul which is very clear Evidence that a Man is in good Earnest I hope thou wilt consider whether it may not concern thine too There are two great Rocks which threaten the hazard of a Shipwrack Popery and Arminianism and for my own part I am terribly afraid of coming in any nearness to the danger Popery hath been so uncas'd of its Disguise that it appears in its natural figure and those who know any thing of the Gospel startle at the first Entrance of its affrighting Shape But Arminianism surprizes the Vncautious appearing with a fairer Face and more specious Colour and yet really if the Holy Ghost speaks truly to us in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul as I am sure he doth this almost generally belov'd Doctrine is as contrary to the Gospel as Popery it self and if God speaks true it is undoubted that what the Arminians tell us is false God tells us that in him we live and move and have our being The Arminians would dispute us out of this great Privilege and endeavour to perswade us that when God hath once form'd us and thrown us out of his Hands we may move alone without him God teacheth us that he effectually accomplisheth the Counsels of his Will and that nothing can obstruct or frustrate the success The Arminians tell us that God is heartily desirous of the Salvation of all Men but cannot save the greatest part of them because they are unwilling God plainly tells us his own Mind that none are saved but whom he hath eternally ordain'd to that happy State But the Arminians insinuate that those may be sav'd whom God never thought of for such a Design and that he will be surpriz'd at the arrival of new Colonies in Heaven which he never appointed to come thither God who justifies the Vngodly expresly declares that we must be justified freely of his Grace not by our own but Christ's Righteousness The Arminians bring us to a new Court of Judicature where God sits not nor hath any thing to do for there our Faith in obedience to the Gospel is pleaded instead of perfect Obedience owing to the Law and the Plea is admitted for as that Prodigy of Learning Grotius speaks as a Work grateful to God it meets with acceptance In a Word their Opinions tear the Volume of God's Word to pieces and un-God God himself They pull him out of his Throne and strike the Scepter out of his Hands and snatch the Crown from his Head Their Opinions take aim to destroy the very Being of the Divinity for take away his Perfections and Attributes of absolute Power and Wisdom and God is an imaginary Nothing Who can conceive of him but as an independent Soveraign and yet their Doctrine allows less Power to him in the disposal of his Creatures than a petty Negro Prince hath over his Subjects within the Compass of his narrow Dominions Who can think of God but as All-knowing and having at one view a certain Prospect of all Persons and Things past present and to come and yet their Doctrine makes him to guess at the Future as an Astrologer by the Stars Ay but it will be said What is all this to the Purpose of the present Controversy wherein we have not to do with Arminians 'T is true we have not but it concerns every Minister of the Gospel to put a stop to any Opinion which hath the least tendency to Arminianism We are not as idle Spectators to stand by with patience to see the Truths of the Gospel either openly invaded or secretly supplanted but as long as we are able to frame a Thought or hold a Pen it is our Duty to make a vigorous Opposition We have the Example of those worthy Divines in France the old Du Moulin and others to animate and encourage us When Testard and Amyrault advanc'd some new Opinions to meet Arminianism in the middle Course which were soon by an unhappy Wind wafted over into England these worthy Persons who were as firmly resolv'd that the old Gospel should not be alter'd as we English are zealous that our old Fundamental Laws be not chang'd presently took the Alarm and resisted the Invasion Complaints were made in their Synod against Testard and Amyrault as Corrupters of the Protestant Doctrine and they were openly censur'd The Pastors and Professors of the Church of Geneva the Professors of Divinity in the Vniversities of Leyden and Groningen sent their Letters protesting against these Innovations in the old Protestant Doctrine And the Famous Du Moulin who with so much Wit and Learning wrote against Popery and Arminianism sends a Letter particularly to the same Synod and with an Apostolical Zeal and Plainness complains that these Innovators corrupted the Antient Faith and chang'd the very Nature of God of the Law and of the Gospel These Examples should teach us to be earnest for the same Truths which they maintain'd so vigorous and I have endeavour'd to be zealous for them without being angry A DISCOURSE OF THE GOSPEL CHAP. I. The general Design of this Discourse is not to promote Controversies or to propagate Quarrels but to maintain the Truths of the Gospel in their first native Purity The State of the Question concerning the Gospel's being a Law I Am so far from inventing or defending any
new dividing Opinions to trouble the Peace of the Churches that I heartily lament the fatal Disturbances which are produced by them and instead of fomenting the prevailing Heat of our Contentions or blowing a Fire which is but too great I would willingly contribute all my poor Endeavours to quench the Flames It is not therefore out of an humour of Disputing that I engage in this Debate nor to promote the Interest of a Party I know no Interest and by the Grace of God will never espouse any but that of Christ and his Gospel It is an apprehension of the Injury offered to this which is the Motive of my undertaking its Defence It is the Interest of wronged Truth that I assert which all who love have indispensable Obligations to vindicate It is the pure Gospel by so many various Attaques assaulted that I stand to guard and which being Eternal tho it may be invaded yet can never be oppress'd nor sink for want of Support tho my Strength prove unequal to so great a Performance It is that Gospel which was taught by our Lord Christ and his Apostles which was own'd in the first and best Ages of the Primitive Church and is now professed in all the Confessions of Faith of the Reformed which not all the Arts and Power neither of Rome Heathen nor which is worse Antichristian were able to extirpate which not two Ages ago was recovered out of the Darkness of Antichrist by the first Reformers and vigorously asserted by them against all the Subtleties and cunning Evasions both of Papists and others to shift off the Force of Truth and is from those our worthy Ancestors of the Protestant Religion deliver'd down to us which was seal'd by the Blood of Martyrs which was maintained against all the Powers of the Earth arm'd for its Ruin and is and will be I doubt not by a greater Power preserved to survive the Ashes of the World though it is in more danger of being betray'd by its pretended Friends than ever it was of being conquered by an open War of its declared Enemies And indeed the Antichristian Party gain a greater Advantage by Protestants starting such new Opinions which seem to favour their Errors than ever they could by their open and undisguised opposition to the Truth For not to debate whether the Jesuits have not a great Hand in promoting these Controversies who can easily turn themselves into all Shapes to gain their Ends yet 't is certain they rejoice and triumph in our Dissentions where whatever the Success be they are sure of an Advantage For if these Erroneous Doctrines of Justification prevail among the People they are brought so much the nearer to Popery or if Truth prove victorious as I do not at all doubt it will in the End yet by the first starting these disputable Opinions a hopeful Union among Protestants is broken and those troublers of Israel have shattered us to pieces and may bring us within a Point of our Ruin and so what they unsuccessfully attempted by Power and Persecution they will effect if God doth not avert by our own sad Divisions It is this oppos'd Gospel which I love and value above all things and by the help of my Lord Jesus Christ I will defend its pure Truths entire and unmangled And as it is this Gospel which teaches me not to treat any of its Ministers with insolent Contempt however I may differ from him in my Sentiments so I will endeavour to observe its Dictates in avoiding all base and scurrilous Reflections being but the Follies of an impotent Passion when I write for those Truths which are calm peaceful and gentle Jam. 3. 17. And indeed ever since the Light of common Reason began to dawn upon my Mind as well as since God gave me a greater I always abhorr'd that Method of managing Controversies in Religion wherein Arguments are mingled with Invectives and the Deficiences of Reason made up with Calumnies and Reproaches Tho the double injury done both to Truth and my Friend the one of which is equally insulted with an haughty fierceness as the other is openly affronted might tempt a Man of the greatest Moderation to some passionate Resentments yet nothing shall move me from my fixed Resolution of not being angry I write not from an Humour of Strife nor for Pride and vain Glory but for Truth and therefore shall concern my self no further than I find that to be interested which if I thought to be on my Learned Brother's Side I should be so far from contesting it with him that I would join in the Defence This Truth lies between us and should not be lost in a crowd of angry Words tho this is the Fault of most Disputes in Religion and is a Reproach to what we all profess that when Philosophers and Heathens discours'd their different Opinions with a Calmness of Mind we Christians for whom our Great Lord died that God might be reconciled to us and we to one another are inflamed with all Passions because we do not think and speak the same Things We every one of us dispute because we think we are in the right when we so order the loud Disputation that Truth which speaks softly cannot be heard its still Voice being drowned in the Clamour of our Contentions Now then that nothing may disturb a Serenity of Mind which ought to be in a Person who argues not for Interest but purely for the Truth I shall only consider in my Reverend Brother's Discourse what carries the Face and Appearance of Reason without suffering my Thoughts to be diverted or rufled by his Invectives In a Word I will not change a Defensive War for the common Interests of our Christian Religion into a private Quarrel since it is not any Man's Person but the Truth which I have undertaken to vindicate And indeed the Reputation for Piety and Learning of those whom he insults is so glorious that any Attempt to defend them is altogether needless As for Bradwardine and Dr. Owen on whom he is pleas'd to bestow some disadvantageous Remarks they are so great Names and have deservedly obtain'd such an high Esteem among Men that they are equally above his little Reflections as beyond any Endeavours I can imploy for their Vindication They are both known Champions against two the most malignant Heresies which ever infected the Church Pelagianism to which that of the Arminians is very nearly related and Socinianism And as for Mr. Marshal that very Book which our Author so much vilifies discovers a pious Heart joined with a closeness and consistency of Thought And all who know that other worthy Person against whom his Passion is more furiously fired must give his Character very different from that by which with an unsuccessful attempt of Wit he endeavours to represent him But as in Debates of Religion all little Efforts of Wit if I had any would be very unsutable and impertinent I shall only seriously argue the Cause in
Instruction given us not only by the Precepts but the Promises of God The Root from which it is deriv'd proves this to be its genuine meaning for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jarah signifies to cast or throw Darts or any other thing and metaphorically in the Conjugation Hiphil the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah signifies to cast the Meaning of one's Mind or a Doctrine and Instruction into the Thoughts of the Hearers as Mercer a Critic beyond exception in this Language very well observes And what is God's teaching us effectually but the throwing the quick and powerful Darts of his Truths into our Souls and his fastning them in our Hearts not to give us any mortal Wound but only a vital piercing Sense to rouze us out of our Lethargy in pernicious Errors and Sin Whereas it is the fiery Darts of the Devil of which the Apostle speaks Eph. 6. 6. corrupt Doctrines which he is so diligent to throw into our Souls which give us our Death's Wounds This is enough to show how natural the Metaphor is that from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jarah he casts Darts in Hiphil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah should signify he teacheth or scattereth any Doctrine And thus it is us'd in 2 King 12. 2. and in Ps 119. 102. And from hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moreh a Doctor or Teacher Job 36. 22. And from hence too is the Name of a Place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Moriah Gen. 22. 2. Which as Mercer notes signifies the Doctrine of the Lord God which from that Hill it being situated at one side of Mount Sion where the Temple was built was to spread through the World And indeed it was at Mount Zion nay in the Temple it self that our Lord Jesus taught his Glorious Doctrine of the Gospel and there also it was preached by the Apostles before they had a particular Commission to go to the Gentiles And sutable to this is that place in Isa 2. 3. And many People shall go and say Come ye and let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord to the House of the God of Jacob and he will teach us of his Ways and we will walk in his Paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem that is a Doctrine shewing to Sinners the Way of Justification Thus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Horah he teacheth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torah used in the Old Testament for Law proceeds by a free and unforc'd derivation which is enough to evince that in its original and native Meaning it signifies no more than a Doctrine which is taught us and to confirm it I shall produce several places of Scripture where it is us'd in this Sense By this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torah sometimes is expressed any Doctrine or Instruction which Parents give to their Children or a Man to his Friend Thus in Prov. 3. 1. Prov. 4. 2. Prov. 7. 3. Prov. 13. 14. In other places it is imploy'd to signify the whole Doctrine of Truth contained in God's Word both of the Old and New Testament Thus in Psal 1. 2. But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate Day and Night The Design of the Psalmist being to give the entire Character of a Person truly blessed the Description must be so comprehensive as to take in not only his delighting in the Precepts of the Moral Law which a Turk or Heathen may do and the old Philosophers really did but an inward feeling of a ravishing Pleasure in the Knowledg of the Gospel and in meditating on the admirable free Grace of God display'd in the Salvation of a Sinner And it is this pleasing Sense resulting from the Apprehension of the Doctrine of Grace which is the distinguishing Mark of that blessed Believer whom the Psalmist with such wonderful Eloquence describes So then the Law in which the Believer delights is not the old Law of Works nor a new one of a resembling Nature but it is the Doctrine of the Gospel as opening the hidden and unsearchable Riches of God's Grace and Love in Christ Jesus And thus the most Learn'd Commentators both Papists as well as those of the Reformed Religion explain the word Law in this extensive Meaning as not meerly signifying Precepts and Commands but that delightful Instruction which the Knowledg of Evangelical Truths affords the happy Believer More expresly the Doctrine of Grace in the Gospel is called a Law Psal 19. 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple That it is not a Law of Works but the Word of Grace is evident from Scripture which is the best interpreter of it self For the Apostle Paul who best knew the Psalmist's meaning applies the 4th Verse of this Psalm 19. to illustrate the swift spreading of the Doctrine of the Gospel and the Teaching and Instruction of it coming to all Nations Rom. 10. 17 18. So then Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God But I say Have they not heard Yes verily their Sound went into all the Earth and their Words unto the Ends of the World That as the Sun and Moon and Stars in a Day and Night's Journey look round all the Earth and tell to all the Nations the Power and Wisdom of the Creator tho they say not a Word of his Mercy and Grace So the Preaching of the Gospel shall give a Sound through the whole World not meerly to proclaim the Great Majesty and Goodness of God who made it but his Infinite Grace undiscernable by Reason and the Love of our Saviour which is above all our Thoughts Now then as the plain Intention of the Psalmist is by a Comparison to shew that as the Heavens manifest God's Adorable Perfections so his Law vers 7. hath a more excellent Sound and Instruction in the Discoveries which it makes of his Grace the Apostle's taking one part of this Comparison and applying it to the Word or Doctrine of the Gospel necessarily infers that he understood the Psalmist to intend by his Law no other than this Doctrine of Grace which as the Sun and all the other Lights of Heaven spreads so swiftly and universally If we consider too the Psalmist's Sense as expressed by himself we shall find that the Effects which he ascribes to his Law cannot be produced but by a pure Doctrine of Grace From these Effects of converting the Soul and making wise the Simple it is evident that it cannot be understood a Law of Works in any Sense for that instead of converting the Sinner would but frighten him from God and so far is it from driving the guilty Criminal to Christ that without the Gospel proclaim'd the natural Tendency of it is to hurry him into Despair It could not let into the Soul the least Glimmerings of Hope for such a Law proposeth Salvation
Learned Brother did not appeal to other Authorities than that of the Holy Scriptures which is the greatest But since he leads me into the numerous Volumes of the Fathers I will follow him too there And if I shew that those Antient Writers of the Church who wrote in the Greek Language as for the Latin Fathers I shall afterward consider them us'd the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomos Law to signify a Doctrine by it then the uncertainty of Citations from those Authors for his Purpose will be abundantly demonstrated Clemens Alexandrinus calls the Law the Light of our Way and the Gospel as a pure Doctrine of Grace is such beyond all dispute He also defines a Law to be a true and good Opinion of a Thing whereby any Doctrine of Truth and Goodness may be signified Eusebius who lived above an hundred Years after him having occasion to mention those Texts of the Old Testament which speak of Christ as the Great Author of the Gospel and particularly explaining that Text in Isa 2. 3. speaks in these words What Law is that going out of Zion and differing from that coming from the Desart promulgated by Moses in Mount Sinai but the Evangelical Word going forth out of Zion by the Ministry of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Apostles and passing through all Nations For it is manifest that from Jerusalem and Mount Sion adjacent to that City where our Lord and Saviour delivered most of his Discourses and Doctrines the Law of the new Covenant beginning its Progress and going from thence to all Men shin'd with the greatest brightness Which very well agrees to the Doctrine of the Gospel that so swiftly spread and with such diffusive Beams that in a few Years after Christ's Death it illuminated the whole Earth Chrysostom also who calls the Gospel a Law very often and particularly in his Sermon on Gal. 2. 19. which I have before cited if we may think as we ought to do of the greatest Preacher in the Primitive Church that he speaks consistently with himself means no more by this Phrase than a Doctrine of Grace For when in his Sermon on Psal 49. he draws the dividing Lines between the Law of Works and the Gospel he in these Words gives his Judgment That the Law of Works was the Rudiments of Children and an Introduction and also the Ministry of Condemnation and Death But this says he speaking of the Gospel is Grace and Peace There is nothing can be more plain than his meaning that the Law requiring Works denounc'd nothing but Death to a Sinner unable to perform them but the Gospel as a Doctrine of Grace reliev'd him by proclaiming Peace To evince that among the Fathers the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nomos Law did not always signify a System of Precepts and Commands I may also introduce Origen who as a competent Judg in the Case declares that he very well knew the Psalms to be called a Law as also the Prophecy of Esa And to prove it he brings in those Texts of Scripture John 15. 25. Psal 35. 19. 1 Cor. 14. 21. And his Authority is to be the more regarded as to the Decision of the Question in present Debate because as he complains in the beginning of this his 9th Chapter cited by me of the Confusion which the ambiguousness of the Word Law did breed in Mens Minds which is the Case now too so he employs this whole Chapter to clear its various Significations But I need give no other Instances than from what Theodoret writes in his short Exposition on Isa 2. It is says he therefore very well manifest that he intends the New Testament from thence that is Sion of which the Prophet speaks delivered by the first Apostles and by the same afterward exhibited to all Nations He doth not therefore only prophesy that the Law but that the Word should go out from thence giving this Name to the preaching of the Gospel For this also blessed Luke teacheth us Luke 1. 2. Even as they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word By the Word then in that place he doth not name God the Word but the Doctrine of God's Word For God the Word did not go out of Sion but he taught the Truth in Zion Photius who lived in the 9th Century was not more famous for his Learning than for that firm Resistance he made against the Usurpations of Antichrist who design'd and strongly endeavour'd to have spread his Wings as far over the Eastern as he had over the Western World By what this Patriarch of Constantinople writes it appears that however in the Course of so many Ages very great Corruptions had wrought for themselves an entrance into the Grecian Churches yet the Doctrine of Grace not as establishing a Law of Works but displacing it was preserv'd among them Or at least we may know what his own Belief was from his own Words which are these He first tells Sergius in an Epistle wrote to him that the Law was not contrary to Grace as he surmis'd it was and then shews its use in subserviency to Grace That it was a Preparation and made way for the discovery of Grace and leads us to it But when Grace comes the Law says he departs as the Stars when the Sun appears or as the Night the Day shining And having illustrated it with many other Similitudes Thus says he Grace having an Existence the Law is vacated tho not perfectly dissolv'd It ceaseth but is not disannulled Christ fulfilled it not violating the least Tittle of it and performing it entirely remov'd it It is against my Inclination that I thus summon Men tho of deserved Repute to bear Witness for the Truth of the Gospel The Testimony of the Holy Ghost in his own Word is infinitely greater than ten thousand such Evidences It was therefore to him that I first appeal'd but since my Reverend Brother brings the Cause into a lower Court I am very willing that it should there also be tried The Proofs which I gave out of God's Word have as I think sufficiently demonstrated that this new Law of Works is not the Everlasting Gospel and these Testimonies from Humane Writings may evince that it is not only far distant from Eternity but neither so venerable for Age as he fancies it for it was a Doctrine unknown in the first Years of Christ's Church and had its Original only with the Birth of Antichrist and I am very well assur'd will end with the Period of that Man of Sin CHAP. V. How uncertain an Argument is fram'd from the sound of the word Law to prove the Gospel to be such evinc'd from the various significations of that Word as us'd by Roman Authors That the Latin Fathers nam'd the Gospel a Law as it is the Doctrine of Christ I Now should heartily rejoice to be excus'd from searching any other Records but