(3.) Neither is the sum of all this answer any other but this : " If we are willing, and will prevent all miscarriages from the weakness of the flesh, we may." But how we become willing so to do, and what assur- ance we have that we shall be so willing, seeing all in us by nature as to any spiritual duty is flesh, is not intimated in the least, John iii. 6. This is strenuously supposed all along, that to be willing imto spi- ritual good in a spiritual manner is wholly in our own power; and an easy thing it is, no doubt. The plea in hand is : Such is the strength of indwelling sin in the best of the saints, and so easily doth it beset them, that if they have not some promise of God to assure them that they shall have constant supply of grace from him, and by his power be preserved, it is impossible but that they must be filled with perplexing fears that they shall not hold out in giving him willing obedience to the end, their will being in an especial manner entangled with the power of sin. It is answered, " If men be but willing, etc., they need not fear this or any such issue;" that is, " If they do the thing which they fear, and have reasons invincible to fear, that they shall not, they need not fear but that they shall do it;" which is nothing but an absurd begging of the thing in ques- tion. jSTeithcr is there any thing in the Scripture that will give a pass to this beggar, or shelter him from due correction. The apostle, indeed, saith, that if we " Avalk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." And good reason there is for it; for, as he told us, these are contrary to one another, and opposite to one another, and bring forth such diverse and contrary fruits in them in whom they are, that if we walk in the one we shall not fulfil the lusts of the other. But what assurance have we that we shall " walk in the Spirit," if it be not hence, that God hath promised that " his Spirit shall never depart from us?" And he saith, " If we are led by the Spirit we are not under the law ; " which, by the way, letteth us see that the
XI.] ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE DOCTRINE CONSIDERED. 423
Spirit leadeth us, — that is, maketh us willing, and strengtheneth us, not we him. But on what account shall or dare any man promise to himself that the Spirit will continue so to do, if God hath not promised that he shall so do? or, if his leading of us be only on condition that we be willing to be led, how shall we be in the least ascertained (sup- posing us in any measure acquainted with the power of indwelling sin) that we shall be always so willing? Let, then, this pass with what was said befoi^e, as nothing to the thing in hand.
S. " It is answered, then (thirdly and lastly), there is no such apt- ness or proneness unto sin, — sins, I mean, of a disinheriting import, — in saints or true believers, as is pretended ; but, on the contrary, a strong propension or inclination unto righteousness reigneth in them. We heard formerly from the apostle, 1 John iii. 9, that ' he that is born of God cannot sin;' and also from 1 John v. 18. From these suppositions, with many other of like import, it is evident that there is a pregnant, strong, overpowering propension in all true believers to walk holily and to live righteously: so that to refrain sinning in the kind intended is no such great mastery, no such matter of diffi- culty, unto such men ; and that when they are overcome and fall into sin, it is through a mere voluntary neglect. And thus we see, all things impartially weighed and debated to and fro, that the 'doctrine which supposeth a possibility of the saints' declining is the doctrine which is according to godliness,' and the corrival of it an enemy thereto."
Ans. We have here an assertion, an inference, and a conclusion. The assertion is, that " there is no such aptness and proneness to sin in believers as is intimated," and that " because there is such a strong propensity in them to righteousness," which that they have is proved from sundry places of Scripture. That is, because the Spirit is in believers, the flesh is not in them ; because they have a new man in them, they have not an old; because they have a principle of life, they have not a body of death. That is, where the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, the flesh lusteth not against the Spirit. We thought the doctrine of Paul, Rom. vii.. Gal. v. 17, and in innumerable other places, with the experience of all the saints in the world, had lain against this piece of sophistry. It is true, their propension unto I'ighteousness reigneth in them, but it is as true their propension unto sin rebelleth in them. Though the land be conquered for Christ, yet the Canaanites will dwell in it; and if the saints leave off but one day the work of killing, crucifying, and mortifying, they will quickly find an actual rebellion in them not easy to be sup- pressed. They have, indeed, a propension to holiness ruling in them, but also a propension unto sin dwelling in them ; so that " when they would do good, evil is present with them, and the good they would do they cannot." But when Mr Goodwin can prove this conse-