This, then, beyond all colourable exception, is the intendment of the apostle in the words under consideration: "Though many profes- sors fall away, yet you that are tnie believers be not sliaken in your confidence ; for God hath laid the foundation of your preservation in his eternal purpose, whereby you are designed to life and salvation, and by the fruits whereof you are discriminated from the best of them that fall away. Only continue in the use of means; let every one of you depart from iniquity, and keep up to that universal holi- ness whereunto also ye are appointed and chosen." And this is the ■whole of what we desire demonstration of. neither will less in any measure answer the objection or remove the scruple at first proposed.
But, it seems, we are all this while beside the intendment of the apostle, whose resolution of the objection mentioned is quite of an-
III.] THE IMMUTABILITY OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. 183
other nature than what Ave have hitherto insisted on, which Mr Good- win thus represents, page 359, chap. xiv. sect. 14: —
" To tliis objection or scruple the apostle, in the words now in hand, answereth to this effect, that notwithstanding the falling away of men, whoever or how many soever they be, yet the glorious gos- pel and truth of God therein stands, and always hath stood, firm and steadfast : which gospel hath the matter and substance of this saying in it, as a seal for the establishment of those who are upright in the sight of God, namely, 'The Lord knoweth/ that is, takes special notice of, approveth, and delighteth in, ' those that are his/ — that is, who truly believe in him, love and serve him ; yea, and farther hath this item, tending to the same end, ' Let every one that calleth upon the name of Christ,' that is, makes profession of his name, ' depart from iniquity.' So that in this answer to the scruple mentioned the apostle intimateth, by way of satisfaction, that the reason why men fall away from the faith is partly because they do not consider what worthy respects God beareth to those who cleave to him in faith and love, partly also because they degenerate into loose and sinful courses, contrary to the law imposed by the gospel; and consequently, that there is no such danger of their falling away who shall duly consider the one and observe the other. In asserting the stability of the truth of God in the gospel, by the way of antidote against the fears of those that might possibly suspect it, because of the defections of others from it, he doth but tread in his own foot- steps elsewhere in this very chapter, 'If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, and cannot deny himself.'"
Ans. If that necessity were not voluntarily chosen which en- forceth men to wrest and pervert the word of God, not only to mis- taken, but strange, uncouth, and inconsistent senses, their so doing might perhaps seem not to be altogether without colour and pretext; but when they willingly embrace those paths which will undoubtedly lead them into the briers, and, contrary to abundance of light and eviden(je of truth, embrace those persuasions which necessitate them to such courses, I know not what cloak they have left for their de- viations. An example of this we have before us in the words recited. A sense is violently pinned upon the apostle's words, not only alien, foreign, to the scope of the place and genuine signification of the words themselves, but wholly unsuited for any serviceableness to the end for which the author of this gloss himself confesseth these ex- pressions of the apostle to be produced and used.
The sum of Mr Goodwin's exposition of this place is this: The " foundation of God" is the gospel or the doctrine of it; its " stand- ing," or " standing sure," the certain truth of the gospel ; the " seal" mentioned is the substance or matter of that saying, " God knows who are his," contained in the gospel; and the answer to the objec-
ISi DOCTIUNE OF THE saints' PERSEVERANCE. [CUAP.
tion or scruple lies in this, that the reason why men fall from the gospel (which neither is nor was the scruple, nor was it so proposed by Mr Goodwin) is because they consider not the love that God bears to believers, — that is, that he approves them whilst they are such, which is indeed one main part of the gospel ; so that men fall from the gospel because they fall from the gospel, and this must satisfy the scruple proposed. It is an easy thing for men of ability and eloqueuce to gild over the most absurd and inconsistent interpreta- tion of Scripture with some appearance of significancy; though I must needs say I know not rightly when nor by whom, pretending to any sobriety, it hath been more unhappily or unsuccessfully at- tempted than by Mr Goodwin in this place, as upon due considera- tion will be made farther appear. For, —
1. To grant that "the foundation of God" may be said so far to be the gospel, because his eternal purpose, so expressed, is therein revealed, which is the interpretation Mr Goodwin proposeth, I ask, — Whether the apostle applies himself to remove the scruple ingene- rated in the minds of believers about their own falling away, upon consideration of the apostasy of otliers, and to answer the objection arising thereupon? This Mr Goodwin grants in the head, though in the branches of his discourse he casts in inquiries quite of another nature, — as, that a reason is inquired after why men fall from the gospel, and a suspicion is supposed to arise of the truth of the gospel because some fell from it; things that have not the least intimation in the words or context of the place, nor are of any such evidence for their interest in the business in hand that Mr Goodwin durst take them for ingredients in the case under consideration when he him- self proposed it; so that he was enforced to foist in this counterfeit case to give some colour to the interpretation of the words intro- duced. But yet this must not be openly owned, but intermixed with other discourses, to lead aside the understanding of the reader from bearing in mind the true state of the case by the apostle jjro- posed and by himself acknowledged. So that this discourse "desinit in piscem," etc.