of the consistency of Effectuall Grace and Gospell Exhortations A Third Argument is proposed Sect. 18. Cap. 13. in these words §. 1. That Doctrine which representeth God as weake Incongruous and In coherent with himselfe in his applications unto men is not from God and consequently that which contradicteth it must needs be the truth but the Doctrine of Perseverance opposed by us putteth this great dishonour upon God representeth him weake Incongruous c. Ergo. For the proofe of the Minor Proposition to make good the charge in it exhibited against the Doctrine of Perseverance there is a Drammaticall scheme induced to whose framing and Application M. Goodwin contributed no more but the paines of a Translator taking it from the Anti-Synod p. 276. 277. in these words You that truly Believe in my Sonne and have beene once made partakers of my Holy Spirit and therefore are fully perswaded assured from my will and command given unto you in that behalfe yea according to the infallible word of Truth which you have from me that you cannot possibly no not by all the most horrid sinns and abominable practices that you shall or can commit fall away either totally or finally from your Faith for in the midst of your foulest actions courses there remaines a seed in you which is sufficient to make you true Believers to preserve you from falling away finally that it is impossible you should dye in your sinnes you that know are assured that I will by an irresistible hand worke Perseverance in you consequently that you are out of all danger of condemnation and that Heaven and Salvation belong unto you and are as good as yours already so that nothing but giving of thankes appertaines to you which also you know that I will do what you will in the meane time necessitate you unto you I say that are fully and throughly perswaded and possessed with the truth of all these things I earnestly charge admonish exhort and beseech that yee take heed to your selves that yee countinue in the Faith that there be not at any time an evill heart of unbeliefe in any to depart from the Living God that you fall not from your owne stedfastnesse yea I declare and professe unto you that if you shall draw back my soule shall have no pleasure in you that if you shall deny me I will deny you that if you be againe overcome of the lusts of the world and be intangled here with that your latter end shall be worse than your beginning that if you shall turne away all your former Righteousnes shall not be remembred but you shall dye in your sinnes and suffer the veugeance of Eternall fire On the other hand if you shall continue to the end my Promise is that you shall be Saved therefore strive to enter in at the straite gate quit your selves like men labour for the meat that indureth unto Everlasting Life and be not sloathfull but followers of them who through Faith and Patience inherit the Promises He that shall duly weigh and consider what a sencelesse and indeed ridiculous incongruity there is between these Exhortations Adjurations Threatnings and latter Promises and those Declarations Applications and former Promises doubtlesse will confesse that either the one or the other of them are not from God or according to the mind of God Ans. §. 2. The incongruity of this fiction with the Doctrine it is framed against is so easily manifested that it will not much concerne us to consider the incongruity that the severall parts of it have one with an other For First the whole Foundation of this fanatick Fabrick is ridiculous in it selfe and ridiculously imposed on the Doctrine of Perseverance For whereas it sayes not that all Saints have any comfortable Assurance of their Perseverance and so may by all Gospell wayes whatever by Promises and Threatnings be stirred up to the use of those meanes whereby Perseverance is wrought and Assurance obtain'd so it saies that no one Saint in the world ever had can have or was taught to expect his Perseverance or the least sence or Assurance of it under such an uncouth supposition as falling into continuing in sins Abominations the Promises they have to assure thē of their inseparable abode with God to the end are that he will write his Law in their hearts put his Feare in their inward parts that they shall never depart from him and they shall be kept up thereto by the use of meanes suitable as appointed of God for the attaining of the end proposed being kept by the power of God but throngh Faith unto Salvation God doth not call nor doth the Doct of Perseverance of the Saints or of the stability and Unchangeablenesse of his Promises in Christ to Believers assert it any to Believe that they shall never fall away from him what sinnes and Rebellions so ever they fall into neither hath he promised any such things unto thē but only that he will through his Grace preserve them in the use of meanes from such Rebellions as are inconsistent with his Love and free acceptation through Christ according to the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace so that instead of the first part of this fiction whose inconsistency with the latter is after Argued let this acording to the Analogy of our Doctrine be instituted You that truly Believe in my Sonne Jesus Christ § 3. and are made partakers of my Holy Spirit who being heirs of the Promises and so have a Right to that abundant Consolation that Joy in believing which I am willing all of you should receive I know your Feares doubts perplexityes and Temptations your failings sinnes and back-slidings and what sad thoughts on the account of the evill of your owne hearts and wayes you are exposed to as that you shall never abide nor be able to continue with me and in my Love to the end let the feeble knees be strengthned and the hands that hang downe be lifted up behold I have ordained goodworkes for you to walke in as the way wherein you are to walke for the attainement of the end of your Faith the Salvation of your soules And to quicken you and stirre you up hereunto I have provided and established Effectuall Ordinances revealed in the Word of my Grace whereunto you are to attend and in the use of them according to my mind to grow up into Holinesse in all manner of holy conversation Watching Fighting Resisting Contending with and against all the Spirituall Enemy's of your soules And as for me this is my Covenant with you that my Spirit which gives Efficacy to all the meanes Ordinances and Advantages of Gospell Obedience which I have afforded unto you by whom I will fulfill in you all the good-pleasure of my Goodnesse and the worke of Faith with Power so making you meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and Preserving you to my Heavenly Kingdome shall never depart
I know not Must that little evidence which they have of their acceptance with God be therefore necessarily built upon such bottomes or rather topps as are visible to them in hypocrites so that upon their Apostasie they must needs not only trye and examine themselves but conclude to their disadvantage and disconsolation that they have no true faith Credat Apella Secondly §. 9. the comfortablenesse he tells us of the testimony of a mans conscience concerning his uprightnesse with God depends mainly and principally upon his uniforme and regular walking with God now this being by the neglects of the Saints often interupted with many staines of unworthinesse the testimony it selfe must needs be often suspended now true believers finding themselves outgon in wayes of obedience by them that impenitently Apostatize if from hence they must conclude them Hypocrites they have no evidence left for the soundnesse of their owne Faith which their consciences beare Testimony unto upon the fruitfullnesse of it which is inferiour by many degrees to that of them who yet finally fall away This is the substance of one long Section pag. 109 110. But First here is the same supposall included as formerly that the only Evidence of a true Faith and acceptance with God is the testimony of a mans conscience concerning his regular upright walking with God For an obstruction in this being supposed his comfort and consolation is thought to vanish but that the Scripture builds up our assurance on other foundations is evident and the Saints acknowledge it as hath been before delivered Nor Secondly doth the Testimony of a mans owne conscience as it hath an influence into his consolation depend solely nor doth Mr Goodwin affirme it so to doe on the constant regularity of his walking with God Job 35. 10. It will also witnesse what former experience it hath had of God Psal. 77. 5 6. 7. calling to mind its song in the night all the tokens and pledges of its fathers love all the gracious visits of the holy and blessed Spirit of grace Isa. 40. 28 29 30. all the imbracements of Christ all that intimacy and communion it hath formerly been admitted unto Canti 3. 1 2. 5. 4 5. the healing and recovery it hath had of wounds Psal 42. 6 7 8 9 10 11. and from back-slidings with all the spirituall intercourse it ever had with God Hos. 2. 7. 14. 2. 8. to confirme and strengthen it selfe in the beginning of its confidence to the end And Thirdly in the testimony that it doth give from its walking with God and the fruits of Righteousnesse it is very farre and remote from giving it only or chiefly Heb. 3. 14. or indeed at all from those waies workes and fruits which are exposed to the eyes of men Isa. 38. 3. and which in others they who have that Testimony may behold Psal. 139. 23 24. It resolves it selfe herein in the frame principles and life of the hidden man of the heart Revel 3. 1. which lies open and naked to the eyes of God 1 Pet. 3. 4. but is lodged in depths not to be fathom'd by any of the Sons of Men 2 Cor. 2. 12. There is no comparison to be instituted between the obedience and fruites of Righteousnes in others whereby a believer makes a judgement of them and that in himselfe from whence the testimony mentioned doth flow that of other men being their visibly practicall conversation his being the hidden habituall frame of his heart and spirit in his waies and actings so that though through the fallings of them he should be occasioned to question his own faith as to triall and examination yet nothing can thence arise sufficient to inforce him to let goe even that part of his comfort which flowes from the weakest witnesse and one of the lowest voyces of all his store Hee eyes others without doores but himself within Fourthly §. 10. whereas 1 Iohn 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he thâ—t doth righteousnesse is righteous is produced and two things argued from thence First that the caveat be not deceived plainly intimates that true believers may very possibly be deceived in the estimate of a righteous man and secondly that this is spoken of a man judging himselfe and that emphatically and exclusively he and he only is to be judged a righteous man I say 1. That though I grant the first Ans. that we may very easily be and often are deceived in our estimate of righteous persons yet I doe not conceive the inference to be inforced from that expression let no man deceive you the Holy Ghost using it frequently or what is equivalent thereunto not so much to caution men in a dubious thing wherein possibly they may be mistaken as in a way of detestation scorne and rejection of what is opposite to that which he is urging upon his Saints which he presseth as a thing of the greatest evidence and cleernesse as 1 Cor 6. 9. chap 15. 32. Gal 6. 7. neither is any thing more intended in this expression of the Apostle then in that of 1 Cor 6. 9. be not deceived no unrighteous person shall inherit the Kingdome of heaven so here no person not giving himselfe up to the pursuit of righteousnesse in the Generall drift and scope of his life cases extraordinary and particular acts being alway in such rules excepted is or is to be accounted a righteous man Secondly also it may be granted though the intendment of the place leads us another way that this is so farre a Rule of selfe judging that he whose frame and disposition suits it not or is opposite unto it cannot keep up the power or vigor of any other comfortable evidence of his state and condition But that it should be so farre extended as to make the only solid and pregnant foundation that any man hath of assurance and consolation to arise and flow from the Testimony of his own conscience concerning his own regular walking in waies of Righteousness seeing persons that walk in darkness and have no light are called to stay themselves on God Isai 50. 10. and when both heart flesh faileth yet God is the strength of the heart Psal 73. 6. is no way cleare in it selfe and is not by M. Goodwin afforded the least contribution of assistance for its confirmation To returne then from this digression a Temptation we acknowledge and an offence to be given to the Saints by the Apostasie of Professors yet not such but as the Lord hath in Scripture made gracious provision against their suffering by it or under it so it leaves them not without sufficient testimony of their own acceptance with God and sincerity in walking with him This then was the state of old thus it is in the daies wherein we live As the practice and waies of some §. 11. so the principles and teachings of others have an eminent tendance unto
the Perseverance of the Saints from the impossibility of finding a subject to be affected with the notion of Apostasie if true Believers be exempted frō it for Hypocrites saith he cannot fall away nor can Believers saith Mr Goodwin but they are Apostates when they fall away that is it is a dead man that dyes or after he is dead he dyes after he is an Apostate he falls away Perhaps it would be worth our serious inquiry to consider how Believers can indeed possibly come to loose the Spirit of Grace which dwells in them with their habit of Faith and Holinesse For our parts we contend that they have an infussed Habit of Grace and that wrought with a mighty Impression upon their Minds and Hearts Faith being of the opperation of God wrought by the exceding greatnesse of his Power as he wrought in Christ when he Raised him from the dead Whether such an Habit can be removed but by that hand that bestowed it and whether it may be made appeare that God will on any occasion so take it away or hath expressed himselfe that he will so deale with any of his Children is I say worthy our inquiry But 2. Secondly he denies the Major Proposition and saith that those who are kept and preserved by Christ may possibly miscarry Boldly ventured what Want is there then or defect in the keeper of Israel that his flock should so miscarry under his hand Is it of Faithfulnesse The Scripture tells us he is a faithfull High-Priest in things pertaining to God Heb. 2. 17. Faithfull to him that appointed him Heb. 3. 2. And that he did the whole will of God Is it of Tendernesse to take care of his poore wandering ones He is otherwise represented unto us Heb. 2. 18. For in that he himselfe hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted and ch 4. 15 16. We have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all poynts tempted like unto us yet without sinne Isa. 40. 11 12. It is said of him he shall feed his flock like a sheapheard he gathers the Lambs with his Armes and carries them in his bosome and shall gently lead them that are with young And he quarrells with those sheapheards who manifest not a care and tendernesse like his towards his flock Ezec 34. 4 The diseased have ye not strengthned neither have yee healed that which was sicke neither have yee bound up that which was broken neither have yee brought againe that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost all which he takes upon himselfe to performe v. 15 16. Or is it want of Power All Power is given to him in Heaven and Earth Mat. 28. 8. All things are delivered to him of his Father Mat. 11. 27. He is able to save to the utmost them that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. If he wants neither Care nor Tendernesse Wisdome nor Watchfullnesse Love nor Ability Will nor Faithfullnesse how comes it to passe that they miscarry and fall away into ruine whom he hath undertaken to keepe David durst fight with a Lyon and a Beare in the defence of his Lambs and Jacob indured Heat and Cold upon the account of Faithfullnesse And shall we think that the Shepheard of Israel from whose being so the Psalmist concludes he shall want nothing Psa 23. 1. who did not only fight for his Flock but layed downe his Life for them will be lesse carefull of his Fathers Sheepe his owne Sheepe which are required also at his hand for his Father knowes them and calles them all by name Yea but saies Mr Goodwin it may be thus §. 46. in case themselves shall not comport with Christ in his Act of Preserving them with their care and diligence in preserving themselves that is Christ will surely keepe them in case they keepe themselves Alas poore Sheepe of God! If this were the case of the Flocks of the Sonnes of men how quickly would they be utterly destroyed Doth the veriest Hierling in the World deale thus with his Sheepe keepe them in case they keepe them selves Nay to what end is his keeping if they keepe themselves◠Christ compares himselfe to the Good Shepheard which seeketh out and fetcheth a wandring Sheepe from the Wildernesse laying him on his shoulders and bringing it home to his Fold How did that poore Sheepe keep it selfe when it ranne among the Ravenous Wolves in the Wildernesse Yet by the Good Shepheard it was preserved This is the Spirit and comforting Genius of this Doctrine Christ keeps us provided we keepe our selves We hoped it had been he who Saved Israel that he gave us his holy Spirit to abide with ns for ever to Seale us up to the day of Redemption that knowing himselfe and telling us that without him we can doe nothing he would not suspend his doing upon our doing so great a thing as preserving our selves For let us see now what it is that is required in us if we shall be preserved by Christ it is to comport with him in his Act of Persevering us and to be diligent to keepe our selves What is this comporting with him in his Act of preserving us Our comporting with Christ in any thing is by our Believing in him and on him that 's our radicall Comportment whence all other closings of Heart in obedience doe flow so then Christ will preserve us in Believing provided we continue to Believe But what need of his help to doe so if antecedently thereunto so we doe Is not this not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only Unscripturall but also Unreasonable yea absurd and Ludicrous This is the flinty Fountain of all that Abundance of Consolation which Mr Goodwins doctrine doth afford Doubtlesse they must be Wise and Learned men like himselfe who can extract any such thing therefrom Let him goe with it to a poore weake tempted fainting Believer and try what a Comforter he will be thought a Physitian of what value he will be esteemed Let him tell him thou art indeed weake in Faith ready to decay and perish which thou maist doe every day there being neither Purpose nor Promise of God to the contrary great Oppositions and great Temptations hast thou to wrestle withall but yet Christ is loving tender faithfull and in case thou continuest Believing he will take care thou shalt believe That Christ will increase thy Faith and keep it alive by continuall influences as from a Head into its Members preserving thee not only against outward Enimies but the treacheries and deceits and unbeliefe of thine own heart of any such thing I can give thee no account Such Consolation a poore man may have at home at any time Further §. 47. what is that Act of Christ in Preserving them that is to be comported withall Ioh. 1. 16. Wherein doth it consist 1 Cor. 12. 13. Is
which in and by themselves to a believing soule they cast upon it Now least any should think that there is the least tendency in such Promises as these as held out to Believers to turne them aside from close walking with God before I enter upon the consideration of any other this seeming of all others most exposed to Exceptions of that nature I shall give some few Observations that may a little direct Believers to whom I write and for whose sake this taske is undertaken into the right improvement of them The genuine influence which this §. 20. and the like Promises have upon the soules of the Saints is mightily to stirre them up unto and to assist them in answering what lieth in them that inexpressible Love and Kindnesse which their God and Father in Jesus Christ holdeth out unto their hearts in them This the Apostle inferreth from them 2 Cor 7. 1. Having these Promises that is those especially mentioned in the words preceding the conclusion and the inference the Apostle here maketh Ch. 6. v. 16 18. I will dwell in them and will be a Father unto them and they shall be my children therefore saith he let us cleanse our selves from all pollution of slesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the feare of the Lord. Universall purity holinesse and close walking with God is that which these Promises doe presse unto and naturally promote in the hearts of Believers and in 2 Pet. 4. 5 6. that Apostle pursueth the same at large God hath called us to Glory and Vertue hath given us exceeding great and pretious Promises that by these you might be partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust Besides this giving all diligence c The exceeding great and pretious Promises which are given unto us in our calling are bestowed for this end that by them we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature they have no tendency to communicate to us the Nature of the Divell and to stirre us up to Rebellion Vncleannesse and hatred of the God of all that Love that is in them But lye indeed at the bottome the Root and foundation of the practice and exercise of all those Graces which he enumerates and from the receiving of those Promises exhorts us to in the following verse Some 〈◊〉 â—â—â—fesse doe or may turne the Grace of God into lasciviousnesse that is 〈◊〉 â—â—trine of grace and of pardon of sinne in the bloud of Jesus Christ and so the mercy mentioned in such Promises as these meerely as in them it is mentioned Grace and Mercy communicated cannot be turned into Wantonnesse but what are they that doe so Vngodly men men of old ordained to condemnation Jude 4. Paul rejecteth any such thoughts from the hearts of Believers Rom. 6. 1. Shall we continue in sin that Grace may abound God forbid Nay suppose that that naturall corruption that flesh and bloud that is in Believers be apt to make such a conclusion as this Because God will certainly abide with us for ever therefore let us walke carelesly and doe him all the despight we can these Promises being not made for the use and exalting of the flesh but being given to be mixed with Faith which is carefully to watch against all abusing or corrupting of that Love and Mercy which is held out unto it flesh and bloud can have no advantage given unto it thereby as shall afterward be more fully and clearly demonstrated The Question is then what conclusion Faith doth will and ought to make of these Promises of God and not what abuse the flesh will make of them Let then the meanest and weakest Faith in all the World that is true and saving speake for it selfe whether there be any thing in the nature of it that is apt to make such conclusions as these My God and Father in Jesus Christ hath graciously promised in his infinite Love and Goodnesse to mee through him in whom he is well pleased that he will be my God and guide for ever that he will never forsake mee nor take his Kindnesse from mee to eternity And he hath done this although that he saw and knew that I would deale foolishly and treacherously that I would stand in need of all his Goodnesse Patience and Mercy to spare mee and heale mee promising also to keep me from such a wicked departure from him as should for ever alienate my soule from him therefore come on let mee continue in sinne let me doc him all the dishonour and despight that I can this is all the sence that I have of his infinite Love this is all the impression that it leaveth upon mee that I need not love him againe but study to be as vile and as abominable in his sight as can possibly be imagined certainly there is not any smoaking flax or any oruised reed there is not a soule in the World whom God in Christ hath once shined upon or dropped the least dramme of Grace into his heart but will look on such a conclusion as this as a blast of the bottomlesse pit a detestable dart of Satan which it is as proper for Faith to quench as any other Abomination whatever Let then Faith in reference unto these Promises have its perfect worke not abiding in a naked contemplation of them but mixing them with its selfe and there will be undoubtedly found the improvement before mentioned for the carrying on of Godlinesse and Gospell obedience in the hearts of Believers But this I shall have occasion to speake to more afterward Hosea 2. 19 20. §. 20. is pertinent also to the same purpose I will betroth thee unto mee for ever I will betroth thee unto mee in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will even betroth thee unto mee in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. The words themselves as they lye in the Text doe directly confirme our Assertion The Relation whereunto God here expresseth that he will and doth take his People is one of the most neer and eminent which he affordeth to them a conjugall Relation he is and will be their Husband which is as high an expression of the Covenant betwixt God and his Saints as any is or can be used Of all Covenants that are between sundry persons that which is between Man and Wife is the strongest and most inviolable So is this Covenant expressed Isai 54. 5. Thy maker is thine Husband the Lord of Hosts is his Name and this Relation he affirmeth shall continue for ever upon the Account of those Properties of his which are engaged in this his Gracious undertaking to take them to himselfe therein He doth it in Righteousnesse and in Judgement in Loving-kindnesse and in Mercies and in Faithfulnesse so that if there be not something in the Context or words adjoyning that shall with an high hand turne us aside from the first immediate open and full sence of these
one altogether lovely As exceeding desireable in the work of his Oblation lovely and amiable in the work of his Intercession as hath been manifested 1. It imports him as one who in his death hath made an end of the Controversy between God and our soules Dan. 9. 39. Becoming our peace Eph. 2. 14. having obtained for us Eternall Redemption That he hath not suffered all that sorrow anguish paine torment dereliction whereunto for our sakes he was given up and willingly exposed himselfe for an uncertaine end not fighting in his death as one beating the ayre nor leaving his worke in the dust to be trampled on or taken up as it seemes good to us in our polluted darke dead estate of nature But hath filled it with such immortall seed that of it selfe by it selfe and its own unconquerable Efficacy it hath sprung up to the bringing forth of that whole fruit intended in it and the accomplishment of all the ends aimed at by it That is that it shall certainely and infallibly bring all those to God for whom he offered by Sanctifying Justifying and preserving them through the Communication of his owne Spirit and Grace to them for that end and purpose All his Promises being yea and Amen in him confirmed by his death 2 Cor. 1. 20. Heb. 10. 12 13 14 15 16. Some of those who indeed abuse the Truth we have insisted on pretend to grant That by his death he made satisfaction for sinne but only on condition that men believe on him and continue so doing That they shall so believe and so continue though he is said to be the Captaine of our Salvation and the Author and finisher of our Faith though it be given unto us for his sake to believe on him and we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in him that he takes no care about beyond the generall administration of outward meanes He neither procured any such thing by his Oblation nor doth intercede for it these things are left unto men to be educed drawne forth and exercised by virtue of sundry considerations that they may take upon themselves Never doubtlesse did men take more paines to staine the beauty and comelinesse of our dying Saviour 2. For his Intercession the Doctrine hitherto insisted on renders him therein exceeding lovely and desireable It tells you that he doth pray the Father and thereupon sends us the Comforter the Holy Spirit for all the gratious acts and works ends and purposes before mentioned with innumerable other priviledges that the Saints by him are made partakers of and that to abide with us for ever never to leave us nor forsake us That he continually appears in the presence of God for us interceding that our Faith may not faile pleading for us in and under all our decayes making out to us sutable supplies in all our Distresses Temptations Tryalls Troubles taking care that no Temptation befall us but that a way also of escape be given to us together with it It tells us his Eye even now he is in glory is still upon us seeing our wants taking notice of our weaknesse and providing for us as his only concernment in the World that we be not lost That he hath not left one jot of that kindnesse which he bare to his flock his Lambs his little ones But pursues with all his strength and all the interest he hath in Heaven the worke of their Salvation which he came from his Fathers bosome to enter on and returned to him againe to carry it on unto perfection That as the High Priest of old he beares our names in his breast and on his shoulders continually before his Father So that in all our falls and failings when wee are in our selves helpelesse and hopelesse when there is nothing in us nor about us that can doe us any good or yeeld us any help or Consolation yet on this account we may say the Lord is our Shepheard we shall lack nothing He hath undertaken for us and will beare us in his Armes untill he bring us to the bosome of his Father Now whether such cosiderations as these of the Oblation and Intercession of Christ doe not fill his Love in them with a more constraining efficacy and more draw out the hearts of the Saints unto Faith and Love then any instruction can doe informing men of the uselesnesse of the one or other of these eminent Acts of his Mediation for any of the ends and Purposes mentioned let Believers judge That which men repose upon in their greatest necessities and for the things of the greatest concernement thereof they have the greatest valuation and the thoughts of it are most fixed in their minds What is there of so great concernement in this World unto the Saints as their abiding with God unto the end How many how great urging pressing are the difficulties dangers troubles they meet withall in their so doing What then they have most frequent recourse unto and what they rest most upon under their pressures in the things of that concernement before mentioned that will deserve the name of their Treasure where their hearts will and ought to be Now if this setting aside as things of no Consideration in such a case the Purposes Covenant and Promises of God the Oblation and Intercession of the Lord Christ be mens own rationall Abilities to consider what is for their good and what will be hurtfull and destructive to them what can hinder but that men will yea and that they often should spend the flower and best of their Affections upon and about themselves and their own Wisdome in and for their preservation That doubtlesse will take up their hearts and thoughts so that there will be very little roome left for the entertainement of the Lord Jesus Christ with any regard or respect on this account If that then may passe which was formerly laid downe namely that the Doctrines and things which are Apt and suted to the ingenerating quickning increasing and building up of Faith and Love towards God and our Lord Jesus Christ are the most eminent Gospell motives to spirituall acceptable Obedience as it is an unquestionable Truth and certainty doubtlesse that Doctrine which represents the Father Sonne so rich in mercy so loving lovely to the soule as that doth which we insist upon must needs have a most effectuall influence into that Obedience 4. The Doctrine insisted on §. 18. hath an effectuall influence into the Obedience of the Saints upon the account of giving it its proper place and setting it aright upon its basis carrying it on in due order It neither puts upon it the fetters of the Law nor turnes it loose from the Holy and righteous Rule of it Let men be as industrious as can be imagined in the performance of all commanded duties yet if they doe it on legall motives and for legall ends all their performances are vitiated and all their duties rejected This the Apostle
them did them no good at all And the reason of this sad successe in the Preaching of the Gospell and Declaration of the Promises he gives you in the same words It is that the word was not mixed with Faith in them that heard it It is the mixing of the Promises with Faith that renders them usefull and profitable Now to what ever Faith is required the more firme strong and stable it is the more effectuall and usefull it is That then which is apt to establish Faith to support and strengthen it to preserve it from staggering Rom. 4. 20. that renders the Promise most usefull and effectuall for the Accomplishment of any worke whereunto it is designed Now Faith in the Promises respects the Accomplishment of the things promised as the Apostle tells us in that commended and never enough imitated Example of the Faith of Abraham Rom 4. 19 20 21. Being not weake in Faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe he staggered not at the Promise of God through unbeliefe but was strong in Faith giving glory to God being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to performe Laying aside all considerations that might tend to the impairing of his confidence he firmely believed that it should be to him as God had promised That the Doctrine we insisted on is clearly conducing to the establishing of Faith in the Promises cannot tolerably be called into Question Whatsoever is in those Promises whatsoever Considerations or concernements of him whose they are as his Faithfulnesse Unchangeablenesse Omnipotency that are apt to strengthen Faith in them it preserves entire and exalteth It is a wild Assertion which men scarce search their own hearts if indeed men know what belongs to believing in sincerity when they make that the efficacy of the Promises unto our Obedience should arise from hence that the things promised may not be fulfilled and that the weaknesse of Faith as every such supposall doth at least weaken it yea and tends to its subversion should render the Promise usefull which hath no use at all but as it is mixed with Faith For instance those Promises that God will be an All-sufficient God unto us that he will circumcise our Hearts and write his Law in them that we shall feare him is as was manifested before an usefull Meditation for the ingenerating and quickning of Obedience and Holinesse in us That it may be such a meanes it is required that it be mixt with Faith in them that heare it as was declared According as Faith is strong or weake so will its usefulnesse be I aske then whether this be a way proper to set this Promise on worke for the end proposed namely to perswade them that should believe it that all this may be otherwise God may cease to be their God their hearts may not be circumcised nor the Law mentioned written in them Is this the way to strengthen their Faith and to keepe them from staggering Or rather to subvert and cast downe all their confidence to the ground The Doctrine we have under consideration continually sounds in the eares of Believers 1 Cor. 1. 9. that God is faithfull in all his Promises that he can that he will make them good that his own Excellencies his own Perfections require no lesse at his hands And this it doth not on any Grounds that carry any thing with them that may seeme to incline to the least neglect of God or contempt of any Property Excellency or word of his and so be apt to breed presumption and not Faith But on such only as give him the Glory of all that he hath revealed of himselfe unto us and therefore its genuine tendency must be to beget and increase precious saving Faith in the hearts of men which we conceive to lye in a more direct way of efficacy towards Holinesse and Obedience then the ingenerating of servile feares gendering unto bondage can do This then we have obtained first that the Promises peculiarly insisted on are motives to furtherances of Obedience secondly that the way whereby they become so is by being mixed with Faith and the stronger Faith is the more effectuall will the working of those Promises unto Holinesse be thirdly that the Doctrine of the Perserverance of the Saints and stability of God's Love to them giving him the Glory of all his Excellencies which in his Promises are to be considered is suited to the carrying on of Faith in its growth and increase Indeed that which makes our beliefe of the Promises of Faith divine is the rise it hath and the bottome whereinto it is resolved viz. The Excellencies of him who makes the Promises As that he is True Faithfull Alsufficient the Glory of all which is given him in Believing as the Apostle informes us Rom. 4. 20 21. Yea and all this He must be received to be in reference to the accomplishment of his Promises or we Believe them not with divine supernaturall if that terme may be allowed and saving Faith Surely they must needs think us very easie of beliefe and wholly unexperienced of any Communion with God who shall suppose that we will be perswaded that the Doctrine which eminently asserts and ascribes unto God the Glory of all his Attributes which he would have us to eye in his Promises strengthning Faith on that account doth annihilate the Promises in the Word of the Ministry as to their usefulnesse unto our Obedience Let us deale by instance God hath promised to begin and perfect a good worke in us according as this Promise is mixt with Faith so it will be usefull and profitable to us If there be no Faith it will be of no use if little of little if more of more Let a man now be supposed to be wavering about his mixing this Promise with Faith whereupon the issue of its Efficacy and Fruitfulnesse as was said doth depend And let the Doctrine we teach be called in to speake in this Case and let us trye whether what it saies be prejudiciall to establishment of Faith or whether it be not all that lookes towards its Confirmation It saies then unto the soule of a Believer why art thou so cast downe thou poore soule And why are thy thoughts perplexed within thee It is true thou art weake unstable ready to fall away and to perish thy temptations are many great and prevalent and thou hast no strength to stand against the power and multitude of them But looke a little upon him who hath promised that thou shalt never depart from him who hath promised to finish the good worke begun he is Unchangeable in his Purposes Faithfull in his Promises and will put forth the exceeding greatnesse of his power for the Accomplishment of them so that though thou failest he will cause thee to renue thy strength though thou fallest thou shalt not be cast
assurance they have that those who are borne of God cannot shall not sinne unto deaths 1 Joh. 3. 9. seeing their own interest in that estate and condition may be clouded at least for a season and their consolation thereupon depending interrupted might occasion thoughts in them of very sad consideration but whilest besides all the beams raies that ever issued from a falling starre all the leaves and blossomes with abortive fruit that ever grew on an unrooted tree all the goodly turrets and ornaments of the fairest house that ever was built on the sand 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. there are moreover three that beare witness in Heaven the Father Sonne and Spirit and three that beare witness on Earth the Water Bloud and Spirit 1 Joh. 2. 20 21 whilst there is a teaching anoynting and assuring earnest a firme sealing to the day of redemption a knowledge that we are passed from death to life 2 Cor. 1. 21 22. the temptation arising from the Apostasie of Hypocrites is neither so potent nor unconquerable 2 Cor. 5. 5. but that by the grace of him through whom we can doe all things Ephes. 1. 14. it may be very well dealt withall Ephes. 4. 30. This I say Rom. 8. 16. supposing the ordinary presence and operation of the spirit of grace in the hearts of believers with such shines of Gods countenance upon them as they usually enjoy Let these be interrupted or turned aside and there is not the least blast or breath that proceeds from the mouth of the weakest enemy Psal 30. 6 7. they have to deale withall but is sufficient to cast them downe from the excellency of their joy and consolation The evidence of this truth is such § 8. that M. Goodwin is forced to say * Verè fidelit uti pro tempore praesenti de fidei conscientiae suae integritate certus esse potest ita de salute sui de salutiferâ Dei erga ipsum benevolentiâ pro illo tempore certus esse potest debet Farre be it from me to deny but that a man may very possibly attaine unto a very strong and potent assurance and that upon grounds every way sufficiently warrantable and good that his faith is sound and saving Cap 9. Sect 9. but unto this concession he puts in a double exception First That there is not one true believer of an hundred yea of many thousands who hath any such assurance of his Faith as is built upon solid and pregnant foundations I must by his leave enter my dissent hereunto and as we have the liberty of our respectiue apprehensions so neither the one nor the other prove any thing in the cause Setting aside causes of desertion great temptations and tryalls I hope through the riches of the grace and tenderness of the love of their father Act. Synod p. 182. decl sent Thes. 7. the condition is otherwise then is apprehended by M. Goodwin with the generality of the Family of God The reasons given by him of his thoughts to the contrary doe not sway me from my hopes or byas my former apprehensions in the least His reasons are First Because though the testimony of a mans heart and conscience touching his uprightness towards God or the soundness of any thing that is saving in him be comfortable and chearing yet seldome are these properties built upon such foundations which are sufficient to warrant them at least upon such whose sufficiency in that kind is duely apprehended For the testimony of the conscience of a man touching any thing which is spiritually and excellently good is of no such value unlesse it be first excellently inlightned with the knowledge nature proprieties and condition of that on which it testifieth and Secondly be in the actuall contemplation consideration or remembrance of what he knoweth in this kind Now very few believers in the World come up to this height and degree First Ans. 1. There is in this reason couched a supposition which if true would be farre more effectuall to shake the confidence and Resolution of beleevers then the most serious consideration of the Apostasies of all professors that ever fell from the glory of their profession from the beginning of the World and that is that there is no other pregnant foundation of Assurance but the testimony of a mans own heart and conscience touching his uprightness towards God and therefore before any can attaine that assurance upon abiding foundations they must be excellently inlightened in the nature properties and condition of that which their consciences testifie unto as true faith and uprightnesse of heart and be cleare in the disputes and Questions about them being in the actuall contemplation of them when they give their Testimony I no way doubt but many thousands of believers 1 Cor. 1. 26. whose apprehensions of the nature properties and conditions of things Jam. 2. 5. as they are in themselves are low weake and confused yet hauing received the Spirit of Adoption bearing witness with their spirits Rom. 8. 16. that they are the Children of God 1 Joh. 5. 10. and having the Testimony in themselves have been taken up into as high a degree of comforting and cheering assurance and that upon the most infallible foundation Imaginable 1 Joh. 5. 6. for the spirit witnesseth because the spirit is truth as ever the most seraphically illuminated person in the World attained unto Yea in the very graces themselves of Faith and uprightnesse of heart there is such a seale and stamp impressing the image of God upon the soule as without any reflex act or actuall contemplation of those graces themselves have an influence into the establishment of the soules of men in whom they are unto a quiet comfortable assured repose of themselves upon the love and faithfulnesse of God neither is the spirituall confidence of the Saints shaken Math. 7. 25. much lesse cast to the ground by their conflicting with feares Math. 16. 18. scruples and doubtfull apprehensions seeing in all these conflicts they have the pledge of the faithfulness of God Psal. 77. 10. that they shall be more then conquerours 1 Cor. 1. 9. Though they are exercised by them 1 Thes. 5. 23 24. they are not dejected with them 1 Cor. 10. 13. nor deprived of that comforting assurance and joy which they have in believing Rom. 8. 37. But yet suppose that this be the condition practically of many Saints of God that they never attaine to the state of the primitive Christians 1 Pet. 1. 8. to whose joy and consolation in believing the Holy Ghost so plentifully witnesseth nor doe live up to that full rate of plenty which their Father hath provided for them in his Family and sworne that he is abundantly willing they should enjoy and make use of Heb. 6. 17 18. what will hence follow as to the businesse in hand I professe
Blood c Joh. 1. ◠Ephes. 5. 8. Col. 1. 13. Luk. 4. 18. Darknesse d Rom. 8. l 6 7 8. Rom. 5. 10. Col. 1. 21. Gal. 3. 13. Joh. 3. 35. Bindnesse Enmity curse and Wrath Disobedience Rebellion Impotency and Vniversall Alienation from God is beyond all contradiction by Testimonies plentifully given out here a little and there a little line upon line manifest in the Scripture Shall we now say that this Grace of God is bestowed on men upon the account of these Qualifications and continued without revocation on condition that they abide in the same State with the same Qualifications Let then men continue in sinne that grace may abound Is the case any other as to Iustification doth not God justify the ungodly Ro. 4. 5. are we not in filthy Robes when he comes to cloath us with Robes of Righteousnesse Zech 3. 3. are we not reconciled to God when alienated by wicked workes Col 1. 13. these are the Qualifications on which it seemes God grafts his Gifts and Graces and whose abode in the Persons in whom they are is the condition whereon the irrevocablenesse of those Gifts and Graces does depend Who would have thought they had been of such reckoning and esteeme with the Lord And this considering what is learnedly discoursed elsewhere may suffice as to the other Assertion 1 Cor. 4. 7. that God gives his Gifts and Graces to Qualifications not to Persons Those Qualifications are either Gifts of God or not if not who made those men in whom they are differ from others if they are on what Qualifications were those Qualifications bestowed That God freely bestows on Persons of his own good pleasure not Grafting on Qualifications his Gifts and Graces we have Testimonies abundantly sufficient to out-ballance M. Goodwins Assertions Rom 9. 18. He hath Mercy on whom he will have Mercy he bestowes his Mercy and the fruits of it not on this or that Qualification but on whom or what Person he will and to them it is given saith our Saviour to know the Mysteries of the Kingdome of God but to others it is not given I see no stock that his gift is grafted on but only the Persons of Gods good will whom he graciously designes to a Participation of it Truth is §. 9. I know not any thing more directly contradictory to the whole Discovery of the worke of Gods Grace in the Gospell then that which is couched in these Assertions of M. Goodwin neither is it any thing lesse or more then that which of old was phrased The Giving of Grace according to merit ascribing the primitive discriminating of persons as to Spirituall Grace unto selfe indeavours casting to the ground the free distinguishing good pleasure of God and that Graciousnesse of every Gift of his I speake as to the first issue of his love in quickning renewing pardoning Grace which eminently consists in this that he is found of them that seeke him not and hath Mercy on whom he will because so it seemed good to him Not to digresse farther in the discovery of the unsatisfactorinesse of this pretence from the pursuit of the Argument in hand Because Gods gifts are not repented of therefore doe men continue not in the condition wherein they find them but wherein they place them And all Qualifications in men whatever that are in the least acceptable to God are so farre from being stocks whereon God grafts his Gifts and Graces that they are Plants themselves which he plants in whomsoever he pleaseth Yea the Tree is made good before it beare any good fruit and the Branch implanted into the True Olive before it receive the sap or juyce of any one good Qualification The summe of Mr Goodwins Answer amounts to this let men be stedfast in a good condition and Gods Gifts shall stedfastly abide with them if they change they also shal be revoked which is directly opposite to the plain intendment of the place viz. That the stedfastnesse of men depends upon the irrevocablenesse of Gods Grace and not è contra there is not in his sense the least intimation in these words of the permanency of any Gift or Grace of God with any one on whom it is bestowed for a Day an Houre or a Moment but notwithstanding this Testimony of the Holy Ghost they may be given one houre and taken away the next they may flourish in a man in the morning and in the evening be cut downe dried up and withered this is not to Answer the Arguings of men but positively to deny what God affirms To conclude God gives not his gifts to men I mean those mentioned because they please him Jerem. 31. 32. but because it pleaseth him so to doe he does not take them away because they displease him but gives them so to abide with them that they shall never displease him to the height of such a provocation Neither are the Gifts of God otherwise to be repented of then by taking them from the Persons on whom they are bestowed But this heape being removed we may proceede Farthermore then §. 10. in sundry places doth the Lord propose this for the Consolation of his and to assure them that there shall never be an everlasting separation between him and them which shall be further cleared by particular instances Things or Truthes proposed for Consolation are of all others most clearely exalted above exception without which they were no way sutable considering the promptnesse of our unbelieving hearts to rise up against the worke of Gods Grace and Mercy to compasse the end for which they are proposed Isaiah §. 11. 40. 27 28 29 30 31. Why sayest thou O Jacob and speakest O Israell my way is hid from the Lord and my Judgment is passed over from my God hast thou not knowen hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the earth fainteth not neither is weary there is no searching of his Vnderstanding He giveth power to the faint to them that have no might he increaseth strength Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly faile but they that wait upon the Lord shall renue their strength they shall mount up with wings as as Eagles they shall runne and not be weary they shall walke and not faint v. 27. Jacob and Israel make a double complaint both parts of it manifesting some feare or dread of Separation from God for though in Generall it could not be so yet in particular Believers under Temptation may question their owne condition with their right unto and interest in all the things whereby their state and Glory is safegarded My way say they is hid from the Lord The Lord takes no more notice sets his heart no more upon my way my walking but lets me goe and passe on as a stranger to him And farther My judgement is passed over from my God Mine enemies prevaile perhaps Lusts and
be carried on through innumerable contingencies and yet as I have seen it so have I told it and my counsell concerning it shall certainely be executed Secondly by his Power in using what Instruments he pleaseth for the executing of his Purposes and bringing about his own designes calling a ravenous Bird from the East One that at first when he went against Babylon thought of of nothing lesse then Executing the Counsell of God but was wholly bent upon satisfying his owne Rapine and Ambition not knowing then in the least by whom he was Anoynted Sanctifyed for the Accomplishment of his Will All the thoughts of this heart all his Consultations Actions all his Progresses Diversions his Successe in his great and dreadfull undertaking to breake in pieces that Hammer of the whole Earth with all the free deliberations and contingencies wherwith his long Warre was attended which were as many strong Ierem. 50. 51. and various as the nature of things is capable to receive were not only in every individuall Act Isa. 44. 25 26 27 28. with its minutest circumstances by him foreseene and much also fore told but also managed in the hand of his Power in a regular subservience to that call Phil. 45. 1 2 3 4. which he so gave that Raveinous Bird for the Accomplishment of his Purpose and Pleasure Thirdly by the Immutability of his Purposes which can never be frustrated nor altered My Counsell shall stand and I will doe all my Pleasure I have Purposed it and I will also doe it The Standing or Fixednesse and Unchangeablenesse of his Counsell he manifests by the accomplishment of the things which therein he had determined Neither is there any Salve for his Immutability in his Counsell should it otherwise fall out And if we may take his owne Testimony of himselfe what he Purposeth that he doth And in the Actuall fulfilling and the bringing about of things themselves Purposed and as Purposed without any possibility of diversion from the reall and intended is their Stability and Unchangeablenesse in them manifested An Imaginary Immutability in God's Purposes which may consist and be preserved under their utter Frustration as to the fulfilling of the things themselves under which they are the Scripture knowes not neither can Reason conceive Now this Vnchangeablenesse of his Purposes the Lord brings as one Demonstration of his Deity and those who make them lyable to Alteration upon any Account or supposition whatsoever doe depresse him what in them lyes into the number of such Dungehill Gods as he threatens to famish and destroy Psa. 33. 9 10 11. He spake and it was done §. 8. he commanded and it stood fast The Lord bringeth the Counsell of the Heathen to nought he maketh the devices of the People of none effect The Councell of the Lord stands for ever the thoughts of his Heart to all Generations The Production and Establishment of all things in that order wherein they are are by the Psalmist ascribed to the Will and power of God By his Word and Command they not only are but Stand fast Heb. 1. 3. being fixt in that Order by him appointed both the Making Fixing and Sustaining of all things Revel 4. 11. is by the VVord of his Power As the first relates to their Being Act. 17. 28. which they have from Creation so the other to the order in subsistence and Operation Act. 2. 23. 4. 28. which relates to his Actuall Providence Herein they Stand fast Gen. 50. 20. Themselves with their severall and respective relations dependencies Eccles. 3. 11. influences circumstances suited to that Nature and Being which was bestowed on them by his Word in their Creation are setled in an exact correspondency to his Purposes of which afterwards not to be shaken or removed Men have their Devices and Counsells also they are free Agents and worke by Counsell and Advice and therfore God hath not set all things so fast as to overturne and overbeare them in their Imaginations and undertakings Saith the Psalmist they Imagine and Devise indeed but their Counsell is of nought and their Devices are of none effect but the Counsell of the Lord c. The Counsell Purposes of the Lord are set in opposition to the Counsell and Purposes of men as to Alteration Change and Frustration in respect of the Actuall Accomplishment of the things about which they are Their Counsells are so and so But the Counsell of the Lord shall stand he that shall cast v. 11. into the 10. and say The Counsell of the Lord that comes to nought and the thoughts of his heart are of none effect let him make what pretences he will or flowrishes that he can or display what supposalls and conditions he pleaseth he will scarcely be able to keepe the field against him who will contend with him about his Prerogative and Glory And this Antithesis between the Counsells of men and the Purposes of God upon the Account of Vnchangeablenesse is againe confirmed Prov. 19. 21. There are many devices in a mans heart neverthelesse the Counsell of the Lord that shall stand Isa. 8. 9 10. Herein is the difference betweene the Devices of men and the Councell of God men have many Devices to try what they can doe If one way take not Iob. 8. 9. they will attempt an other hâc non successit aliâ aggrediemur viâ and are alwayes disappointed Iob. 11. 12. but only in that wherein they fall in with the Will of God Eccles. 8. 7. 9. 12. The Shallownesse of their Vnderstanding the Shortnesse of their Foresight the Weakenesse of their Power the Changeablenesse of their Minds the Vncertainty of all the meanes they use puts them upon many Devices and often to no purpose But for him who is Infinite in Wisdome and Power to whom all things are present and to whom nothing can fall out Vnexpected yea what he hath not himselfe Determined unto whom all Emergencyes are but the Issue of his owne good Pleasure who proportions out what efficacy he pleaseth unto the meanes he useth his Counsells his Purposes his Decrees shall stand being as Job telles us as Montaines of Brasse By this he differenceth himselfe from all others Isa. 44. 7. 25. 26. Idols and men as also by his certaine foreknowledge of what shall come to passe and be accomplished upon those Purposes of his Hence the Apostle Heb. 6. 17 18. acquaints us that his Promise and his Oath those two Immutable things doe but declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Vnchangeablenesse of his Counsell which God is abundantly willing to manifest though men are abundantly unwilling to receive it Job determines this businesse in the 23. Ch. v. 13 14. He is of one minde and who can turne him What his soule desireth even that he doth for he performeth the thing that is appointed for me Desires are the least and faintest kind of Purposes in Mr Goodwin's
Distinctions Yet the certaine accomplishment of them as they are ascribed unto God is here asserted by the Holy Ghost Were the confirmation of the matter of our present Discourse §. 9. my designe in hand I could farther confirme it by inlarging these ensuing Reasons 1. First from the Immutability of God the least questioning whereof falls foule on all the Perfections of the Divine Nature which requireth a correspondent affection of all the Internall and Eternall Acts of his Mind and Will 2. Secondly from his Soveraignty in making and executing all his Purposes which will not admit of any such mixture of Consults or Cooperations of others as should render his thoughts lyable to Alteration Rom. 11. 34 35 36. The Lord in his Purposes is considered as the great Former of all things who having his clay in the hand of his Almighty power ordaines every parcell to what kind of vessell and to what use he pleaseth hence the Apostle concludes the consideration of them and the distinguishing Grace flowing from them with that admiration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh the depth c. 3. Thirdly from their Eternity which exempts them from all shadow of change and lifts them up above all those sphears that either from within and their owne nature or from without by the impression of others are exposed to turning that which is Eternall is also Immutable Acts 15. 18. 1 Cor. 2. 11. 4. Fourthly from the Absolutenesse and Independency of his Will whereof they are the Acts and Emanations Rom. 9. 15 16 17 18 19 20. whatever hath any influence upon that as to Move it Cause it Change it must be Before it Above it Better then it as every cause is then its effect as such This Will of his as was said is the fountain of all beings to which free and independent Act all Creatures owe their being and subsistence their operations and manner thereof their whole difference from those Worlds of beings which his Power can produce but yet shall lye bound up to Eternity in their nothingnesse and possibility upon the account of his good Pleasure Into this doth our Saviour resolve the disposall of himselfe Math. 26. 42. and of all others Math 11. 25 26 27. certainly men in their wrangling Disputes and Contests about it have scarce seriously considered with whom they have to doe shall the thing formed say to him that formed it why hast thou made nice thus 5. Fiftly §. 10. from the Ingagement of his Omnipotency for the accomplishment of all his Purposes and Designes as is emphatically expressed Isa 14. 24 25 26 27. Surely the Lord of Hosts hath Sworne saying surely as I have thought so shall it come to passe and as I have purposed it shall stand that I will breake the Assyrian in my land This is the purpose of God that is purposed upon the whole Earth and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the Nations for the Lord of Hosts hath purposed and who shall disanull it And his hand is stretched out and who shall turne it back The Lord doth not only Assert the certain Accomplishment of all his Purposes but also to prevent and obviate the Vnbeliefe of them who were concerned in their fulfilling he manifests upon what account it is that they shall certainly be brought to passe and that is by the stretching out of his hand or exalting of his mighty Power for the doeing of it so that if there be a fayling therein it must be through the shortnesse of that Hand of his so stretched out in that it could not reach the end aymed at A Worme will put forth its Strength for the fullfilling of that whereunto is is inclined and the Sonnes of men will draw out all their Power for the compassing of their designes if there be Wisdome in the laying of them and foresight of Emergencyes they alter not nor turne aside to the right hand or to the left in the pursuit of them And shall the Infinitely Wise Holy and Righteous thoughts and Designes of God not have his Power engaged for their accomplishment His Infinite Wisdome and Understanding are at the foundation of them they are the Counsells of his Will Ephes. 7. 11. who hath known his minde in them saith the Apostle and who hath been his Counsellour though no creature can see the paths wherein he walks nor apprehend the reason of the waies he is delighted in yet this he lets us know for the satisfying of our hearts and teaching of our inquiries that his owne Infinite Wisdome is in them all I cannot but feare sometimes that men have darkned counsell without knowledge in curious contests about the Decrees Purposes of God as though they were to be measured by our rule line and as though by searching we could find out the Almighty to Perfection But he is Wise in heart he that contendeth with him let him Instruct him Adde that this Wisdome in his Counsell is attended with infallible Prescience of all that will fall in by the way or in the course of the accomplishment of his Purposes and you will quickly see that there can be no possible intervenience upon the account whereof the Lord should not ingage his Almighty Power for their accomplishment He is of one minde and who can turne him he will worke and who shall let him 6. Sixtly by demonstrating the Vnreasonablnesse Folly and Impossibility of suspending the Acts and Purposes of the Will of God upon any actings of the Creatures whatsoever seeing it cannot be done without subjecting Eternity to time the first Cause to the second the Creator to the Creature the Lord to the Servant disturbing the whole order of Beings and Operations in the world 7. Seventhly by the removeall of all Possible or Imaginary Causes of Alteration and change which will all be resolved into impotency in one kind or other Every Alteration being confessedly an imperfection it cannot follow but from want and weaknesse Upon the Issue of which Discourse if it might be perused these Corollaries would insue 1. First Conditionall Promises and Threatnings are not declarative of Gods Purposes concerning Persons but of his Morall Approbation or Rejection of Things 2. Secondly There is a wide difference betweene the Change of what is Conditionally pronounced as to the things themselves and the change of what is Determinately willed the certainty of whose event is proportioned to the Immutable Acts of the Will of God it selfe 3. Thirdly That no Purpose of God is Conditionall though the things themselves concerning which his Purposes are are often times conditionalls one of another 4. Fourthly That conditionall Purposes concerning Perseverance are either Impossible implying contradictions or Ludicrous even to an unfitnes for a Stage But of these and such like as they occasionally fall in in the insuing Discourse This foundation being laid §. 11. I come to what was Secondly proposed namely to manifest by an Induction of particular Instances the ingagement
or Context of the place nor of any such evidence for their interest in the businesse in hand that Mr Goodwin durst take them for ingredients in the case under consideration when he himselfe proposed it so that he was inforced to foyst in this counterfeit Case to give some colour to the Interpretation of the words introduced But yet this must not be openly owned but intermixed with other Discourses to lead aside the Understanding of the Reader from bearing in minde the true State of the Case by the Apostle proposed and by himselfe ackowledged So that this Discourse desinit in piscem c. 2. The Case being supposed as above §. 41. I aske whither the Apostle intended a Removeall of the Scruple and Answer to the Objection as far at least as the one was capable of being removed and the other of being answered This I suppose will not be Scrupled or Objected against being indeed fully granted in Stating the Occasion of the words For wee must at least allow the Holy Ghost to speake pertinently to what he doth propose then 3. I further inquire whither any thing what ever be in the least suited to the Removeall of the Scruple and Objection proposed but only the giving of the Scruplers and Objectors the best Assurance that upon solid Grounds and Foundations could be given or they were in truth capeable of that what they feared should not come upon them and that notwithstanding the deviation of others themselves should be preserved and then 4. Seeing that the summe of the sence of the words given by Mr Goodwin amounts to these two Assertions 1. That the Doctrine of the Gospell is True and Permanent 2. That God approoves for the present all who for the present believe supposing that there is nothing in the Gospell teaching the Perseverance of the Saints I aske yet whither there be any thing in this Answer of the Apostle so interpreted able to give the least satisfaction imaginable to the Consciences and Hearts of men making the Objection mentioned For is it not evident notwithstanding any thing here expressed that they and every Believer in the world may Apostatise and fall away into Hell Say the poore Believers Such and such fall away from the Faith Their eminent usefulnesse in their Profession beyond perhaps what we are able to demonstrate of our selves makes us feare that this abominable defection may goe on swallow us up grow upon the Church to a further desolation The answer is however the Gospel is true God bears gracious respects to thē that cleave to him in love whilst they doe so Quaestio est de alliis responsio de cepis Methinks the Apostle might have put them upon these Considerations which Mr Goodwin proposes as of excellent use prevalency against falling away that they put men out of danger of it Cap. 9. rather then have given them an answer not in the least tending to their satisfaction nor any way suited to their fears or inquiries no not as backed with that explanation that they fall away because they degenerate into loose and sinfull courses that is because they fall away A degeneracy into loose and sinfull courses amounts surely to no lesse 5. Againe I would know whether this Foundation of God be an Act of his Will commanding or purposing declarative of our duty or his intention If the first then what Occasion is administred to make mention of it in this place Whether it were called in Question or no and whether the Assertion of it conduces to the solution of the Objection proposed Or is it in any parallell termes expressed in any other place Besides seeing this Foundation of God is in nature antecedent to the Sealing mentioned of Gods knowing them that are his and the Object of the Act of Gods Will be it what it will being the Persons concerning whom that Sealing is whether it can be any thing but some distinguishing Purpose of God concerning those persons in reference to the things spoken of Evident then it is from the words themselves the Occasion of them the designe and scope of the Apostle in the place that the Foundation of God here mentioned is his discriminating Purpose concerning some mens certain preservation unto Salvation which is manifestly confirmed by that Seale of his that he knowes them in a peculiar distinguishing manner A manner of speech and Expression suited directly to what the same Apostle useth in the same case every where as Rom. 8. 28 29 30. Cap. 9. and 11. 11. Eph. 1. 4 5 6. But saith Mr Goodwin this is no more then what the Apostle elsewhere speakes Rom 3. 3. What if some did not believe shall their unbeliefe make the Faith of God of none effect that is shall the Vnbeliefe of men be interpreted as any tolerable Argument or ground to prove that God is unfaithfull or that he hath no other Faith in him then that which sometimes miscarrieth and produceth not that for which it stands ingaged Implying that such an interpretation as this is unreasonable in the highest But truly by the way if it be so I know not who in the lowest can quit Mr Goodwin from unreasonablenesse in the highest for doth he not contend in this whole Discourse that the Faith of God in his Promises for the producing of that for which it stands ingaged as when he saith to Believers he will never leave them nor for sake them doth so depend on the Faith of men as to the Event intended that it is very frequently by their unbeliefe rendred of none Effect Is not this the spirit that animates the whole Religion of the Apostacy of Saints Is it not the great Contest between us whether any unbeliefe of men may interpose to render the Faith of God of none effect as to the producing of the thing he promiseth Tibi quia intristi exedondum est But 2. Let it be granted that these two places of the Apostle are of a parallell signification what will it advantage the Interpretation imposed on us What is the Faith of God here intended And what the unbeliefe mentioned And whereunto tends the Apostles vehement interrogation The great contest in this Epistle concerning the Jewes of whom he peculiarly speaks v. 1 2. was about the Promise of God made to them and his Faithfulnesse therein Evident it was that many of them did not Believe the Gospell as evident that the Promise of God was made peculiarly to them to Abraham and his Seed hence no small peplexity arose about the Reconciliation of these things many perplexed thoughts ensuing on this seeming Contradiction If the Gospell be indeed the way of God what is become of his faithfulnesse in his promises to Abraham and his Seed they rejecting it If the Promises be true and stable what shall we say to the Doctrine of the Gospell which they generally disbelieve and reject In this place the Apostle only rejects the inference that the faithfulnesse of God
Judgement Loving-kindnesse and Mercies and Faithfulnesse whose efficacy also in reference unto their abiding with him whom he doth betroth to himselfe he mentioneth in the close of v 20. thou saith he shalt know the Lord. I shall not insist on the particular importance of the severall Expressions whereby the Lord hath set forth himselfe and his goodnesse here unto us It is plaine that they are all mentioned to the same end and purpose namely to give Assurance unto us of the Unchangeablenesse of this worke of his Grace and to prevent the objections which the fears of our unbelieving hearts from the consideration of our weaknesse wayes and walkings temptations trialls and troubles would raise upon it The Lord when he betroths us to himselfe sees and knows what we are what we will be and how we will provoke the eyes of his Glory He sees that if we should be left unto our selves we would utterly cast off all knowledge of him and obedience unto him Wherefore saith he I will betroth thee unto me in Righteousnesse and Judgment allowing full measure for all thy weaknesses that they shall not dissolve that union I intend As if a Prince should goe to take to him in Marriage a poore deformed Beggar who being amazed with his kindnesse and fearing much least he should be mistaken and account her otherwise then indeed shee is which when it is discovered will be her ruine she plainly telleth him she is poore deformed and hath nothing in the World that may answer his expectation and therefore she cannot but feare that when he knoweth her throughly indeed he will utterly cast her off But he thereupon replieth Feare no such thing what I doe I doe in Righteousnesse and Judgement knowingly of thee and thy Condition and so as that I will abide by it Perhaps as some think by this betrothing us in Righteousnesse the Lord may intimate his bestowing upon us Righteousnesse yea his becoming in Jesus Christ our Righteousnesse to supply that utter want Isa. 45. 24. which is in us of that which is acceptable unto him Now because we are not only unmeet to be at first accepted into any such termes of alliance with the Lord but also shall certainly in the carrying of it on behave our selves foolishly and frowardly unanswerable to his loving-kindnesse so that he may justly cast us off for ever he telleth us farther that he betroths us to himselfe in Loving-kindnesse and Mercies knowing that in entring into this alliance with us he maketh worke for his tenderest bowels of Compassion his pitty and pardoning mercy In his continuance in this Relation whatever his Kindnesse Patience and Pardoning mercy can be extended unto that he will accomplish and bring about But will not the Lord when he pardons once and againe at length be waried by our innumerable provocations so as to cast us off for ever No saith he this will I doe in Faithfulnesse He doubleth the expression of his Grace and addeth a Property of his nature that will carry him out to abide by his first Love to the utmost I will saith he even betroth thee unto my selfe in Faithfulnesse His firmenesse constancie and truth in all his waies and promises will he use in this work of his Grace Deut 32. 4. But perhaps notwithstanding all this the heart is not yet quiet yet it feareth it selfe and its own treachery least it should utterly fall off from this gracious Husband wherefore in the close of all God undertaketh for them also that no scruple may remaine why our soules should not be satisfied with the sincere milke that floweth from this breast of Consolation Thou shalt saith he know the Lord This indeed is required that under the Accomplishment of this gracious Promise you know the Lord that is believe and trust and obey the Lord and saith he thou shalt doe it I will by my Grace keep alive in thy heart as a fruit of that Love wherewith I have betrothed thee to my selfe that Knowledge Faith and Obedience which I require of thee This then is some part of that which in this Promise the Lord holdeth out unto us and assureth us of notwithstanding his Rejection of the carnall Jewes yet for his elect both the Jewes and Gentiles he will so take them into a Marriage Covenant with himselfe that he will continue for ever a Husband unto them undertaking also that they shall continue in Faith and Obedience knowing him all their dayes and of all this he effectually assureth them upon the account of his Righteousnesse Judgement Loving-kindnesse Mercy and Faithfulnesse I cannot but adde that if there were no other place of Scripture in the whole Book of God to confirme the Truth we have in hand but only this I should not doubt the Lord assisting to close with it upon the signall Testimony given unto it thereby notwithstanding all the specious Oppositions that are made thereunto For the Close §. 32. I shall a little consider that leane and hungry Exposition of these words which is given in the place before metioned Ch. 11. Sect 8. pag. 229. I will betroth them unto me in Righteousnesse and in Judgement and in Loving-kindnesse and Mercy so the words are expressed in a different Character as the very words of the Promise in the Text. 1. Thee that is the Church is changed into Them that is the Jewes and their Children or carnall seed as a little before was expressed and then that emphaticall expression for ever is quite thrust out of the Text as a stubborne word not to be dealt withall upon any faire termes Let us see then how that which remaineth is treated and turned off I will betroth thee that is I will engage and attempt to insure both them and their affections to mee by all variety of waies and meanes that are proper and likely to bring such a thing to passe But who knoweth not that this is wooing and not betrothing we need not goe farre to find out men learned in the Law to informe us that to try and attempt to get and assure the affections of any one is not a Betrothment This then is the first part of this Exposition I will betroth that is I will wooe and essay attempt and endeavour to get their affections which besides the forementioned absurdity is attended with another sore oversight to wit that God promiseth to doe this very thing in the last words of v. 20. which is affirmed that he doth but attempt to doe To proceed he saith I will doe this 1. By shewing my selfe Just and Righteous unto them in keeping my Promise concerning their deliverance out of captivity at the end of 70 years So then in this new Paraphrase I will Betroth thee that is the Election of Jewes and Gentiles to my selfe for ever in Righteousnesse is I will essay to get their affections by shewing my selfe Righteous in the Promise of bringing the Jewes out of captivity That this Promise is not made
Truth it selfe be rendred a Glory to the understanding and the mind be actually inlightned as to the Truth represented it is not to be received in a spirituall manner Those who know at all what the Truth is as the Truth is in Jesus will not take it up upon any other more common account Somtimes in dealing with Godly Persons to convince them of a Truth we are ready to admire their Stupidity or perversenesse that they will not receive that which shines in with so broad a Light upon our spirits The truth is untill the Holy Spirit sends forth the Light and Power mentioned it is impossible that their minds and hearts should rest and acquiesce in any Truth whatever But 4. From this Indwelling of the Spirit §. 23. we have supportment our Hearts are very ready to sinke and faile under our tryalls indeed a little thing will cause us so to do flesh Psal. 73. 26. and heart and all that is within us are soone ready to faile Whence is it that we do not sinke into the deeps that we have so many and so sweet and gracious Recoveries when we are ready to be swallowed up The Spirit that dwells in us gives us supportment Thus it was with David Psal. 51. 22. He was ready to be overwhelmed under a sence of the Guilt of that great sinne which God then sorely charged upon his Conscience and cryes out like a man ready to sinke under water Oh uphold me with thy free Spirit if that do not support me I shall perish So Rom. 8. 26. The Spirit helpeth beares up that Infirmity which is ready to make us go double How often should we be overborne with our burthens did not the Spirit put under his Power to beare them and to support us Thus Paul assures himselfe that he shall be carried through all his tryalls by the helpe supplyed to him by the Spirit Phil. 1. 19. There are two speciall waies §. 25. whereby the Spirit communicates supportment unto the Saints when they are ready to sinke and that upon two accounts First of Consolation and then of Strength 1. The first he doth by bringing to mind the things that Jesus Christ hath left in store for their supportment Our Saviour Christ informing his Disciples how they should be upheld in their tribulations tells them that the Comforter which should dwell with them and was in them Ioh 14. 16 17. should bring to remembrance what he had told them v. 26. Christ had said many things things gracious and heavenly to his Disciples He had given them many rich and pretious Promises to uphold their hearts in their greatest perplexities But knowing full well how ready they were to forget and to let slip the things that were spoken Heb. 2. 1. and how coldly his Promises would come in to their assistance when retained only in their naturall faculties and made use of by their owne strength to obviate these evills tells them that this work he committeth to the charge of another who will doe it to the purpose When ye are ready to drive away the Comforter saith he who is in you he shall bring to Remembrance apply to your soules the things that I have spoken the Promises that I have made which will then be unto you as Life from the dead And this he doth every day How often when the Spirits of the Saints are ready to faint within them when straites and perplexities are round about them that they know not what to doe nor whether to apply themselves for helpe or supportment doth the Spirit that dwelleth in them bring to mind some seasonable suitable Promise of Christ that bears them up quite above their difficulties and distractions opening such a new spring of Life and Consolation to their soules as that they who but now stooped yea were almost bowed to the ground doe stand upright and feele no weight or burthen at all Often times they goe for Water to the well and are not able to draw or if it be powred out upon them it comes like raine on a stick that is fully dry They seeke to Promises for refreshment and find no more savour in them then in the white of an Egge but when the same Promises are brought to remembrance by the Spirit the Comforter who is with them and in them how full of Life and Power are they 2. As this he doth to support Believers §. 26. in respect of Consolation so as to the Communion of reall strength he stirres up those Graces in them that are strengthning and supporting The Graces of the Spirit are indeed all of them supporting and upholding If the Saints fall and sinke at any time in any duty under any tryall it is because their Graces are decayed and do draw back as to the exercise of them If thou faint in the day of Adversity it is not because thy Adversaries are great or strong but because thy strength is small Prov 24. 10. All our Fainting is from the weaknesse of our strength Faith Waiting Patience are small when Davids Faith and Patience began to sinke and draw back Psal. 116. 11. he cries All men are lyars I shall one day perish by the hand of mine Enemies When Faith is but little and Grace but weake we shall be forced if the Wind do but begin to blow to cry out save Lord or we sinke and perish let a Temptation a Lust a Corruption lay any Grace a sâ—eepe and the strongest Saint will quickly become like Sampson with his haire cut and the Philistims about him he may think to doe great matters but at the first tryall he is made a scorne to his enemies Peter thought it was the greatnesse of the Winds and waves that terrified him but our Saviour tells him it was the weaknesse of his Faith that betrayed him Mat. 14. 31. 32. For reliefe in this condition the Spirit that dwells in the Saints stirres up enlivens and actuates all his Graces in them that may support and strengthen them in their duties and under their Tribulations Rom 5. Paul runs up the influence of Grace into the Saints supportment unto this Fountain v. 3. We glory in Tribulation this is as high a pitch as can be attained to be patient under Tribulation is no small victory to Glory in it a most eminent Triumph a conformity to Christ who in his Crosse triumphed over all his opposers we are not only patient under tribulations and have strength to beare them but saith the Apostle we glory and rejoyce in them as things very welcome to us How comes this about Saith he Tribulation worketh patience that is it sets it a worke for Tribulation in it selfe will never worke or beget patience in us and Patience Experience and Experience Hope and Hope maketh not ashamed It is from hence that these Graces Patience Hope Experience being set on worke doe beare up and support our soules and raise them to such an
are suited to the cherishing of that Principle of the new or inner man in the heart to the nourishing and strengthning of the new creature such as are apt to ingenerate Faith and Love in the heart unto God such as reveale and discover those things in his nature mind and will as are apt to endeare and draw out the heart to him in Communion discouraging perplexing Doctrines doe but ill manure the soyle from whence the fruits of Obedience are to spring and grow Look then I say whatsoever Gospell Truth is of eminent usefulnesse to warme foment stirre up and quicken the Principle of Grace in the heart to draw out increase and cherish Faith and Love that Doctrine lies in a direct immediate tendency to the promotion of Holinesse Godlinesse and Gospell Obedience Yea and whereas to the carrying on of that course of Obedience it is necessary that the contrary Principle unto it which we mentioned before be daily subdued brought under crucified and mortified there are no Doctrines whatsoever that are of such and so direct and eminent a serviceablenesse to that end and purpose as those which inwrappe such discoveries of God and his good will in Christ as are fitted for the improvement also of the principle of Grace in us Hence the worke of Mortification in the Scripture Rom. 6. 2 3 4 5 6. is every where assigned peculiarly to the Crosse and death of Christ Rom. 8. 13. his Love manifested therein and his Spirit flowing therefrom Rom. 7. 7. The Doctrine of the Law indeed humbles the soule for Christ Gal. 3. 23. but it is the Doctrine of the Gospell that humbles the soule in Christ It is the Grace of God that hath appeared 2 Cor. 5. 15. that teaches us effectually to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts to live soberly and righteously and Godly in this present world Tit. 2. 12. He that will but with a little heed read Cap. 6. to the Romans will know from whence Mortification flowes which truly by the way makes me admire at the extreame darknesse and blindnesse of some poore men who have of late undertaken to give directions for Devotion and walking with God who indeed sutably to the most of the rest of their discourses all manifesting an Ignorance of the Righteousnesse of God Rom. 10. 4. and a zealous endeavour to establish their owne coming to propose waies and meanes for the mortifying of any sinne or Lust tell you stories of biting the tongue thrusting needles under the nailes with such like Trash as might have befited Popish devotions five hundred years agoe Were not men utterly ignorant what it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 10. and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings Gal. 6. 14. and being made conformable to his death they could never feed on such huskes themselves nor make provision of them for those whose good they pretend to seeke Unto what hath been spoken adde 4. Fourthly §. 8. who are the Persons that are to be provoked to Holinesse and Godlinesse by the Doctrine insisted on Now they are such as doe believe it and are concerned in it We say the Truth under consideration is of an excellent usefulnesse to farther Gospell Obedience in the hearts of Believers and Saints of God who are taught of God not to turne the Doctrine of Grace into wantonnesse What use or abuse rather men of corrupt mindes and carnall principles who stumble at Jesus Christ and abuse the whole Doctrine of the Gospell by their prejudices and presumptions will make of it we know not nor are sollicitous 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If the Gospell be hid it is hid to them that perish it is sufficient that the food be good and wholsome for them for whom it is provided If some will come and steale it 2 Cor. 2. 16 27. that have no right to it and it prove through their own distempers gravell in their mouthes or poyson in their bowells they must blame themselves and their own wormewood Lusts and not the Doctrine which they doe receive It is provided for them that feare God and love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity not for doggs swine unbelievers we shall not marvaile if they trample on this pearle and rend them that bring it To such as these then I say the Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints or the stability or unchangeablenesse of the Love of God unto Believers and of their continuation in Faith and Obedience is full of exceeding effectuall motives and provocations unto Holinesse in all manner of Gospell Obedience and holy conversation exceedingly advantaging the soules of men in a course thereof Now the influence it hath into the Obedience of the Saints floweth from it upon a twofold account 1. By removing all discouragements whatsoever §. 9. that are apt either to turne them aside from their Obedience or to render their Obedience servile slavish or unacceptable to God it setts them through Christ at perfect liberty thereunto 2. By putting unconquerable and indissoluble Obligations upon them to live unto God and the praise of his glorious Grace and evidently drawes them forth unto the Obedience required 1. It removeth and taketh out of the way all discouragements whatsoever all things which are apt to enterpose to the weakning of their Faith in God or their Love to God which as hath been said are at the bottome of all Obedience and Holinesse that is acceptable to God in Christ Now these may all be referred unto two heads 1. Of perplexing anxious fears §. 10. which are apt to impaire and weaken the Faith of the Saints 2. Of hard thoughts of God which assault and shake their Love That slavish perplexing troublesome feares are contrary to the free and ingenuous state of Children whereunto the Saints are admitted and however sometimes yea oftentimes they are at the bottome and the occasion of burthen some servile and superstitious Obedience Impairers of their Faith I suppose I need not labour to prove That kind of Feare whereof we speake of which more afterwards is the greatest Traytor that lurkes in the soule To feare the Lord and his Goodnesse Hos. 3. 5. is the soules Keeper but this servile perplexing feare is the Betrayer of it in all its waies and that which sowres all its duties A thing which the Lord sets himselfe against in rebukes reproofes dehortations as much as any failing and miscarriage in his Saints whatever It is the opposite of Faith hence the fearefull and unbelieving are put together in their exclusion from the new Jerusalem Rev 20. 8. it is that which is direct contrary to that which the Apostle adviseth the Saints unto Heb 10. 19 20 21 22. it is that which mixeth Faith with staggering Rom 4. 20. Prayer with wavering making it ineffectuall Iames 1. 6. 7. Let us now suppose a man to have attained some assurance of the Love of God
thing that is free noble ingenuous filiall and of an heavenly descent in the Saints of God thus 1. It strengthens their Faith in God and in Jesus Christ which is the bottome of all acceptable Obedience whatsoever All that which proceedeth from any other Roote being but a product of labouring in the fire which in the end will consume both Root and Branch That which prevailes upon and drawes out the soule to Faith and believing I meane as it is peculiar to the Gospell and Justifying that is as it is in God as a Father and in the Lord Christ as a Mediator is the discovery of the good will of God to the soule in Christ and his designe to advance his Glory thereby I speake not of the formall cause of Faith in generall but the peculiar motive to Faith and Believing in the sence before mentioned So our Saviour giving the command in generall to his Disciples Ioh. 14 1. ye believe in God believe also in mee in the whole ensuing Chapter provokes them to it with gratious discoveries of the good will of God his Fathers and his own good will towards them And indeed propose what other considerations ye will provoke the soule by all the feare and dread of Hell and the most dismall representation of the wrath to come untill it be convinced of this it will never take one steppe towards God in Christ Now our Adversaries themselves being Judges the Doctrine we have had under consideration abounds above all others with the discoveries of the good will and kindnesse of God to poore sinners yea the great crime that is laid to the charge of it is that it extends it too farre it doth not only assert that God freely beginnes the good worke in them but that he will also powerfully perfect it to the day of Jesus Christ It assures the soules of the poore Saints of God that he who lookt upon them in their bloud and said unto them Live when no eye pittied them who quickned them when they were dead in trespasses and in sinnes begetting them of his own will by the word of Truth that they should be a kind of first fruits to himselfe wasting them in the bloud of his Sonne and delivering them from the old Tyrant Satan that he will not now leave them to themselves and to the Counsell of their own hands to stand or fall according as they shall of themselves and by themselves be able to withstand opposition and seduction but that he will keep them in his own hand giving them such constant supplies of his Grace and Spirit as that in the use of meanes they shall waite upon him to the end And that howsoever or whensoever by the power of Temptation and surprisalls of corruptions they are carried aside from him he will heale their back-slidings and receive them freely and though they change every day yet he changeth not and therefore they are not consumed And hereby I say it confirmes and strengthens their Faith in God as a Father in Jesus Christ taking everlasting care of them 2. Of their Love there is the same reason Gods love to us is of his free Grace he loves us because so it seemes good to him Our Love to him is purely ingenerated by his Love to us and carried on and increased by farther Revelations of his desireablenesse and excellency to our soules Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us first There is no Creature in the least guilty of sinne that can put forth any acceptable Act of Love towards God but what is purely drawn out upon the Apprehension of his Love and lovelinesse in his Grace and mercy A man I confesse may love God when he hath no sence of his Love to him in particular but it must all be built upon an apprehension of his Love to sinners though he may come short in the Application it is the terrour of the Lord that causes us to perswade others but it is the Love of Christ that constraineth us to live to him Shee loved much to whom much was forgiven Looke then the more abundant discoveries are made of the lovelinesse and desirablenesse in the riches of his Grace the more effectuall is the sole and only motive we have to love him with that fiâ—iall chast Holy Love that he requires For the Love of God to his Saints our Doctrine of their Perseverance sets it forth with the greatest Advantage for the indearement of their soules to draw out their streames of Love to God especially doth it give it its Glory in three things 1. In its freedome It setts forth the Love of God to his Saints as that which they have no way in the least deserved as hath been manifested from Isa. 48. 8 9 11. chap. 54. 9 10. As he first loved them not because they were better then others being by nature Children of wrath and lying in their Blood when he said to them Live quickning them when they were dead in trespasses and sinnes So he doth not continue his love to them nor purpose so to do because he fore sees that they will so so walke with him in Holinesse uprightnesse for he â—oresees no such thing in them but what he himselfe purposeth effectually to worke upon the account of his loving them but he resolves to do it meerely upon the account of his owne Grace He neither resolves to continue his Love to them on Condition that they be so and so holy at randome and with uncertainty of the Event but freely that they may and shall be so Eph. 1. 4. And this is the Glory of Love the most Orient pearl in the Crowne of it 'T is not mercenary nor selfe-ended nor deserved but as a Spring and fountaine freely vents and powers out it selfe upon its owne account And what ingenuous truly noble Heavenly descended heart can hold out against the power of this Love It is effectually constraining to all manner of sutable returnes let the soule but put it selfe in to the actuall Contemplation of the Love of God as it lyes represented in this property of it every way free undeserved the great Love of God to a poore worme a sinner a nothing and it cannot but be wrought to a serious Admiration of it delight in it and be pained and straitned untill it make some suitable Returnes of Love and Obedience unto God If not it may well doubt it never tasted of that Love or enjoyed any fruits of it 2. It gives the Love of God the Glory of its Constancy and Unchangeablenesse This is another Starre of an eminent Magnitude in the Heaven of Love It is not a fading a wavering an altering thing but abides for ever God rests in his Love Zeph. 3. 17. It is a great thing indeed to apprehend that the great God should fixe his Love upon a poore Creature But adde hereunto that he may love them one day and hate them the next embrace them
Thus then we clearely see that the former of the two Consequents mentioned cannot stand God doth not by his Spirit irresistibly draw or move the wills of the S t s to do things which are necessary for the procuring their Perseverance immediately or withont the instrumentall interposure of the said Exhortations Ans. First §. 21. the intendment of this as also of some following Sections is to prove and manifest that the use of Exhortations cannot consist with the efficacy of Internall Grace and the worke of the Spirit in producing and effecting those Graces in us which in those Exhortations we are provoked and stirred up unto A very sad undertaking truely to my apprehension for w eh the Church of God will scarce ever returne thankes to them that shall ingage in it He was of an other minde who cryed Da Domine qvod jubes jube quod vis yea the Holy Ghost hath in innumerable places of Scripture exprest himselfe of another mind promising to worke effectually in us what he requires earnestly of us by the one manifesting the efficacy of his Grace by the other the exigeney of the Duty which is incumbent upon us Nay never any Saint of God once pray'd in his life seeking any thing at the hand of God but was of another mind if he understood his owne supplications To what is here urged against this Catholicke Faith of Believers I say That Exhortations are the meanes of Perseverance in as much as by them in their place and kinde and with them the Spirit of God effectually workes this Peseverance or the matter of it in the Saints Those cloudy expressions of irresistibly and unfrustrably we owne no farther then as they denote the certainty of the event and not the manner of the Spirits operation which also they do very unhandsomely We leave out then in the proposall of our Judgement about the use of Exhortations which Mr Goodwin opposeth those tearmes and adde in their Roome by and by with those Exhortations which he omitts He saith then This cannot be proved because the Saints live and dye often times in opposition and disobedience unto these Exhortations But Obedience is twofold First as to the generall frame of the heart Obedience in the habit and so 't is false that the Saints live at any time in an ordinary course much lesse dye in opposition to those Exhortations the Law of God being written in their hearts and they delighting in it in their inward man they abide therein the fruit of Obedience for the most part being brought forth by them And this sufficeth as to their Perseverance Secondly It regardeth particular acts of Obedience and in respect of them we all say that yet they all sinne Optimus ille est qui minimis urgetur but this prejndiceth not their Perseverance nor the generall end of the Exhortations afforded them for that purpose But he adds Secondly If God by his Spirit irresistibly drawes his Saints to persevere ut supra But this is sorry Sophistry which may be felt as they say through a paire of mittins For First who saies that God workes by force immediately upon the wills of men Or who makes force and power to be tearmes equivalent Or that God cannot put forth the exceeding greatnesse of his power in them that believe but he must force or compell their wills or that he can not work in us to will and to do of his owne goodpleasure immediately working in and with our wills but he must so force them Secondly whence ariseth the disjunctive force of this Argument Either by immedate actings upon their wills or he makes use of those Exhortations As though the one way were exclusive of the other and that the Scripture did not abundantly and plentifully ascribe both these unto God both that he exhorts us to know him love him believe in him and gives us an understanding and an heart so to do working Faith and Love in us by the exceeding efficacy of his power and Spirit I say then that God workes immediately by his Spirit in and on the wills of his Saints that is he puts forth a reall Physicall power that is not contained in those exhortations though he doth it by and in and with them The impotency that is in us to do good is not amisse termed Ethico-physica both Naturall and Morall and the Applications of God to the soule in their doing good are both Really and Physically efficient and Morall also the one consisting in the efficacy of his Spirit the other lying in the exhortations of the Word yet so as that the efficacy of the Spirit is exerted by and with the Morall efficacy of the Word his workes being but Grace or the Law in the heart the Word being the Law written so that all the ensuing Reasonings are bottomed upon things Male divisa that stand in a sweet harmony and compliance with each other But Mr Goodwin tells you That if God worke by his Spirit his Grace immediately on the wills of men to cause them to persevere then are Exhortations no meanes of their Perseverance Why so I pray It seemes we must have no internall effectuall Grace from God or no outward Exhortations of the Word But he tells you it must be so because If the will be Physically and Irresistibly acted and drawne by God to do such and such things it needeth no adition of Morall meanes such are Exhortations thereunto That is if the will be effectually inclined to the wayes of God by his Grace there is then no need of the Exhortations of the Word But yet First the Spirit of God though he have an immediate efficacy of his owne by with those Exhortations yet by those Exhortations he also inclines the will as he workes on the will as Corrupt impotent by his Grace so he workes on the will as the will or as such a faculty is apt to be wrought upon by a mediation of the understanding by Exhortations Secondly to say Obedience would have been produced and wrought had there been no Exhortations is not required of us what efficacy soever we ascribe to Grace unlesse we also deny Exhortations to be appointed of God and to be used by the Spirit of God for the producing of that Obedience Neither Thirdly doth God worke upon the will as a distinct faculty alone of it selfe without suiting his operations to the other faculties of the soule Nor is Grace to be wrought or carryed on in us meerely as we have Wills but as we have Understandings also whereby the Exhortations he is pleased to use may be conveyed to the will and affect it in their kind in a word this is but repeating what was said before If there be any effectuall Grace there is no use of Exhortations If exhortations be the meanes of continuing or increaseing Grace what need the efficacy of Grace or immediate actings of the Spirit working in us to will and to do of Gods
expresse himselfe against any reall efficiency of the Spirit or Grace of God in the hearts or on the wills of men Not to insist upon his darkening the Discourse in hand from his miserable confounding of those tearmes Physicall and Morall formerly discovered I shall as neare as I can close with his aime in it for the more cleare consideration thereof First he tells us That the operation of God on the will of man is in respect of its proceeding from him Physicall but in respest of its nature and substance t is properly Morall But First § 33. if a man should aske Mr Goodwin what he intends by this Operation of God on the will of man to the end intended I feare he would be very hard put to it to instance in any particular It is sufficiently evident he acknowledgeth none in this kind but what consists in the Exhortations of the VVord Secondly having told us before that Physicall is as much as Necessary and Morall as Not-necessary How comes it about that the same operation of God the same Act of his Power is become in severall regards Physicall and Morall That is Necessary and Not-necessary is Mr Goodwin reconciled to the Assertion That the same thing may be said to be Necessary and Not-necessary in sundry respects Thirdly how comes the same Act or Operation in respect of its manner of proceeding from its Agent to be Physicall and in respect of its Substance to be Morall Or is any act Morall in respect of its substance or is its Morality an Adjunct of it in respect of the regard it hath to some Rule farther End It is an easy thing for any to heape up such crude Assertions in the meane time not to know what they say nor whereof they do affirme But the reason why the Acts of God intimated are Morall is because they perswade the Will only or work perswadingly not ravishingly or necessitatingly that is in plain termes There is no operation of the Grace or Spirit of God in the working of any good in the Heart or Wills of men but only what consisteth in perswasion of them thereunto For any reall efficiency as to the communication of strength inworking in us to will and to do t is wholly excluded God only perswades men have the power in themselves and of themselves they do it let the Scripture say what it will to the contrary For those termes of Ravishingly or Necessitatingly which are opposed to this Morall perswasion whereunto the operations of God for the production of any good in us are tied up and confined wee have been now so inured to them that they do not at all startle us When M. Goodwin shall manifest That God cannot by the greatnesse of his power work in us to Will without ravishing our wills if we guesse aright at the intendment of that expression he will advance to a considerable successe in this contest not only against us but God himselfe But an objection presents its selfe to our Author §. 34. which he sees a Necessity to attempt the removall of least an Apprehension of its truth should prove prejudiciall to the receiving of his dictates And this it is That if it be so that God worketh on the will of man by the way of perswasion only he doth no more then the Ministers of the Gospell do who perswade men by the Word to that which is good To this he tells you That it indeed followes that God Ministers work on the Will of man in the same way with the same kind of efficiency but yet in respect of degrees God may perswade more effectually than a Minister That all really efficient §. 35. internall working grace of God was denied by M. Goodwin was before discovered there only t is more plainely asserted All the workings of God on the Wills of men unto good are meerely by perswasion Perswasion we know gives no strength addes no power to him that is perswaded to any thing it only provokes him and irritates him to put forth exert and exercise the power which is in himselfe unto the things whereunto he is perswaded upon the motives grounds of perswasion proposed to him and the whole effect produced on that account is in Solidum to be ascribed to the really efficient cause of it howsoever incited or stirred up whereas then men by Nature are dead blind unbelieving enemies to God he perswades them only to exert the power that is in them thereby to live see believe and be reconciled to him And this is to exalt the free grace of God by Jesus Christ We know full well who have gone before you in these paths but shall heartily pray that none of the Saints of God may follow after you into this contempt of the work of his Grace But Secondly If nothing but Perswasion be allowed to God in the work of mens Conversion § 36. in the carrying on of their obedience to the end Wherein doth the Perswasion of God consist in distinction from the Perswasion used in from the Word by Ministers which it is pretended that it may excell though t is not affirmed that it doth many degrees Let it be considered I say in what Acts of the will or power of God his perswasion so distinct as above mentioned doth consist Let us know what Arguments he useth by what Meanes he applies them how he conveyes them to the Wills of men that are not coincident with those of the Ministry I suppose at last 't will be found that there is no other operation of God in Perswading men as to the ends under consideration but only what lies or consists in the perswading of the Word by the Ministers thereof God looking on without the exerting of any efficacy whatever which is indeed that which is aimed at is really exclusive of the Grace of God from any hand in the Conversion of sinners or Preservation of Believers 3. He doth not indeed assert any such Perswading of God § 37. but only tels you that from what he hath spoken it doth not follow that God doth no more then Ministers in Perswading men And that when two perswade to one and the same Action one may be more effectuall in his perswading than another but that God is so or how he is so or wherein his peculiar perswasions do consist there is not in his discourse the least intimation Fourthly There is in men a different power as to Perswasion some having a faculty that way farre more eminent and effectuall than others according to their skill and proficiency in Oratory and Perswasive Arts this only is ascribed to God that he so excells us as one man excells another But how that Excellency of his is exerted that 's not to be understood But there is proofe tendered you of all this from 1 Cor 3. 9. Where Ministers are said to cooperate with God which they cannot do unlesse it be with the same
a man professing the Doctrine of the Gospell that inke should staine paper with such filth cast upon the Spirit and Grace of God The Feare of Hell ere-while was suited to the use of the Flesh but now it seems it serves to keep the Love of God it selfe in order that otherwise would wax wanton fleshly and foolish Foolish Love that will attempt to cast out this tormenting Feare not being able to preserve it selfe from folly without its assistance Sect 15. is spent in an Answer endeavoured to an Objection placed in the beginning of it in these words If it be farther demanded But doth it not argue servility in men to be drawn by the Iron cord of the Feare of Hell to doe what is their duty to doe Or doth any other Service or Obedience become Sonnes and Children but only that which is free and proceedeth from Love Hereunto you have a threefold Answer returned First That God requires that it should be so which is a downeright begging of the Question Secondly He puts a difference between the Obedience of Children to their Parents and of the Saints unto God The discourse whereof discovering some mysteries of the new Doctrine of Grace much pressed and insisted on take as followes There is a very different consideration of the Obedience of Children to their Naturall Parents of the obedience of the Children of God unto their Heavenly Father The Obedience of the former is but by the Inspiration of Nature and is an act not so much raised by Deliberation or flowing from the will by an interposure of judgment and conscience to produce the Election as arising from an innate propension in men accompanying the very constituting principles of their Nature and being Whereas the latter the Obedience of the Children of God is taught by Precepts and the Principle of it I mean that Rationall frame of Heart out of which they subject themselves to God is planted in the soules of men by the ingagement of Reason Judgement and Conscience to consider those grounds arguments and motives by which their Heavenly Father judgeth it meet to work and fashion them unto such a frame So that though the obedience of Naturall Children to their Naturall Parents be the more genuine and commendable when it flowes freely from the pure instinct of Nature and is not drawn from them by feare of punishment yet the Obedience of the Children of God is then most genuine and commendable and like unto it selfe when it is produced and raised in the soule by a joynt influence and contribution not of one or of some but of all those Arguments Reasons Motives Inducements whatsoever and how many soever they be by which their Heavenly Father useth to plant and work it in them for in this case and in this only it hath most of God of the Spirit of God of the Wisdome of God of the Goodnesse of God in and upon this account it is likeliest to be most free uniforme and permanent The summe of this Answer amounts to these three things First that there is an Instinct or inspiration of Nature in Children to yeild Obediedce to their Parents Secondly that there is no such Spirituall Instinct or inclination in the Saints to yeild Obedience to God Thirdly that the Obedience of the Saints ariseth meerely and solley from such Considerations of the Reason of that Obedience which they apprehend in contradiction to any such genuine principles as might incline their hearts thereunto For the first That the obedience of Children to their Parents though it be a prime dictate of the Law of Nature wherewith they are indued proceedeth from a pure Instinct any otherwise than as a principle suiting inclining them to the Acts of that Obedience so as to exclude the promoting and carrying of it on upon the Morall condsideration of Duty Piety c. it is in vaine for Mr Goodwin to goabout to perswade us unlesse he could not only corrode the Word of God where it presseth that Obedience as a Duty but also charme us into beasts of the feild which are acted by such a bruit instinct not to be improved stirred up or drawne forth into exercise by Deliberation or Consideration There is it is true in Children an impresse of the power of the Law of nature suiting them to Obedience which yet in many hath been quite cast out and obliterated being not of the constituting principles of their Nature which whilst they haue their being as such cannot be throwne out of them and carrying them out unto it with Delight Ease and Complacency as habits do to suitable actings but withall that this principle is not regulated and directed as our Obedience to God by a Rule and stirred up to exert it selfe and they in whom it is provoked by Rationall and Conscientious considerations to the performance of their duty in that Obedience is so contrary to the experience I suppose of all sharers with us in our Mortality that it will hardly be admitted into debate But Secondly the worst part of this Story lyes in the middle of it in the exclusion of any such Spirituall principle in Believers as should carry them out unto Obedience at least to any such as is not begotten in their minds by Rationall considerations What ever may be granted of acquired habites of Grace which that the first should be that a Spirituall habit should be acquired by naturall actings is a most ridiculous fiction all infused Habits of Grace that should imprint upon the soule a new naturall inclination to Obedience that should fashion and frame the hearts of men into a state and Condition suited for and carry them out unto Spirituall Obedience are here decryed All it seemes that the Scripture hath told us of our utter Insufficiency Deadnesse Disability indisposednesse to any thing that is good without a new Life and principle all that we have apprehended and Believed concerning the new Heart and Spirit given us the new Nature new Creature divine Nature inward man Grace in the Heart making the Roote good that the Fruit may be so All that the Saints have expressed concerning their Delight in God Love to God upon the account of his writing his Laws in their hearts and Spirits is a meere delusion There is no principle of any Heavenly Spirituall Life no new Nature with its bent and instinct lying towards God and Obedience to him wrought in the Saints or bestowed on them by the Holy Spirit of Grace If this be so we may even fairely shut our Bibles and go learne this new Gospell of such as are able to instruct us therein Wherefore I say Thirdly that as in Children there is an instinct an inclination of nature to induce them and carry them out to Obedience to their naturall Parents which yet is directed regulated provoked and stirred up and they thereby to that Obedince by Motives and Considerations suited to worke upon their Minds and Consciences to prevailewith them thereunto so also
Believers Againe if true Believers shall live and continue to the saving of their soules in opposition to them that fall away to perdition then they shall certainly persevere in their Faith for these two are but one the same but that true Believers shall live believe to the saving of their soules in opposition to them that draw back or subduct themselves to perdition is the assertion of the Holy Ghost Ergo I presume by this time Mr Goodwin is plainly convinced that indeed he had as good yea and much better for the Advantage of his cause in hand have let his witnesse have abode in quietnesse and not entreated him so severely to denounce judgment against that Doctrine which he seekes by him to confirme Sect. 32. §. 41. the parable of the stony ground Mat. 13. 20 21. comes next to consideration the words chosen to be insisted on are in the verses mentioned but he that received the seed into stony places is he that heareth the Word anon with joy receiveth it yet hath be not root in himselfe but dureth for a while c. That by the stony ground is meant true Believers is that which Mr Goodwin undertakes to prove but how in his whole Discourse I professe I perceive not I must take leave to professe that I cannot finde any thing looking like a prâ—â—fe or Argument to evince it from the beginning to the end of this Discourse though something be offered to take off the arguments that are used to prove it to be otherwise doth Mr Goodwin think that men will easily Believe that Faith which hath neither root fruit nor continuance to be true and saving Faith doubtlesse they might have very low apprehensions of saving faith union with Christ justification sanctification adoption c. wherewith it is attended who can once entertaine any such imagination that which is tendered to induce us to such a perswasion may briefly be considered Saith he Sect. 32. §. 42. Now those signified by the stony ground he expressely calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Persons who continue for a time or a season i.e. as Luke explaineth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who believe for a season so that those who only for a time believe and afterward make defection from Christ and from the Gospell are neverthelesse numbred and ranked by him amongst Believers The words in Luke are very particular They on the Rock are they which when they heare receive the word with joy and those have no root which for a while Believe and in time of temptation fall away From whence it appeares that the hearers here described are not compared to the Rock or stony ground for the hardnesse of their hearts for as much as they are said to receive the word with joy which argues an ingenuity and teachablenesse of spirit in them and is elsewhere viz. Acts 2. 41. taken knowledge of by the Holy Ghost as an Index or signe of a true Believer but for such a Property Disposition or Temper as this viz. not to give or afford the word so received a radication in their hearts and soules so intimous serious and solid which should be sufficient to maintaine their beliefe of it and good affections to it against all such occurrences in the World which may oppose or attempt either the one or the other Ans. 1. The first Reason intimated is that they are said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a terme given them plainly to distinguish them from true Believers men that make a profession for a season expressly opposed to them who receive the word in good and honest hearts if the word had denoted any excellency any thing that was good in them then there had been some pretence to have insisted on it to prove them true Believers But to demonstrate the truth of their Faith from their Hypocrisy and their excellencies from that which expressely denotes their unworthinesse is a strange way of arguing They are persons saith our Saviour that make profession for a little while and then decay not like them who receive the Word in good and honest soules therefore saith M.G. they are true believers but 2. In Luke they are said to Believe for a season Mr Goodwin is not now to learne how often in the Scripture they are said to believe who only professe the Faith of the Gospell though the root of the matter be not in them that of John 2. 23 24 25. may suffice for undenyable instance or John 6. 64. may farther expound it their believing for a season is but the lifelesse worthlesse fruitlesse profession for a season as their destruction from the good ground doth manifest But 3. They are said to receive the word with joy which argues ingenuity and tractablenesse of spirit in them No more than in Herod who heard the Word gladly or in the Jewes when the preaching of Ezechiel was pleasant or desirable to them or those described Isai. 58. 2. % who sought God dayly and delighted to know his wayes in the middest of the abominable practices From the similitude it selfe He yet farther attempts this uncouth Assertion But as the blade which springs from one and the same kind of seed as suppose from Wheat or any other graine though sown in different yea or contrary soyles is yet of the same species or kind the nature of the soyle not changing the specified nature of the seed that is sowne in it and God giving to every seed it s owne body of what temper so ever the ground is where it is sown in like manner that Faith which springs from the same seed of the Gospell must needs be of one and the same nature and kind though this seed be sowne in the hearts of never so differing a constitution and frame the temper of the heart be it what it will be not being able specifically to alter either the Gospell or the naturall fruit issuing from it And as a blade or eare of Wheate though it be blasted before the Harvest is not hereby proved not to have been a true blade or eare of wheate before it was blasted in like manner the withering or decay of any mans faith by what meanes or occasion soever before his death doth not prove it to have been a false counterfeit or Hypocriticall Faith or a Faith of any other kind than that which is true reall and permanent unto the end Ans. 1. It hath been formerly observed that sâ—militudes are not argumentative beyond the extent of that particular wherein their nature as such doth consist The intendment of Christ in this Parable is to manifest that many heare the word in vaine and bring forth no fruit of it at all of these one sort is compared to stony ground that brings forth a blade but no fruit no fruit is no spirit though there be a blade or no blade the difference between the ones receiving of seed and the others manifested by our Saviour in this Parable is