424 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
quence, that saints have strong inclinations to righteousness, there- fore they have not so to sin, for my part I will forbear for ever dis- puting with him. If he can beat us, not only from Scripture, but from all our spiritual sense and experience, doubtless it is to no purpose to contend any longer with him. Hence, then, —
He inferreth that " to abstain from sinning," — that is, sinning customarily and against conscience, so as to endanger the loss of the favour of God, — "is no such great mastery, no such matter of difficulty, to such men." This abstaining from such sins on the one hand is the whole course of our gospel obedience ; which, it seemeth, however it be compared to " running in a race," " striving for masteries," and be called " resisting unto blood," " wrestling with principalities and powers," and requiring for its carrying on "the exceeding greatness of the power of God," with suitable " help in time of need" from Jesus Christ, who is sensible of the weight of it, as no small matter, know- ing what it is to " serve God in temptations," yet is it indeed but a trifling thing, a matter of no great difficulty or mastery. Do men watch, pray, contend, fight, wrestle with God and Satan? Doth the Lord put forth his power, and the Lord Jesus Christ continually in- tercede, for the preservation of the saints? "Ad quid perditio haac?" To what end is all this toil and labour about a thing of little or no weight? '" Egregiam vero laudem!" We know, indeed, the "yoke of Christ is easy, and his commandments not grievous; that we can do all things through him that enableth us:" but to make gospel obedience so slight a thing that it is no great mastery, or matter of no great commendation to hold out in it to the end, this we were to learn till now, and are as yet slow of heart to receive it.
The conclusion is, " lo, Pa3an, vicimus." " All things impartially weighed, the case is ours, and godliness exceedingly promoted by the doctrine of the possibility of the saints' defection ('Orsp sdu diT^ai), and the corrival of it an enemy to it;" — to prove which not one word in the argument hath been spoken, nor to free the other from a charge of a direct contrary importance, one word to the purpose. And of Mr Goodwin's sixth argument for his doctrine of the apostasy of saints, this is the end.
But this is not all he hath to say in this case in hand. Indeed the main design of his whole 13th chapter, consisting of forty-one sections, and about so many pages in his book, and containing all which, in an argumentative way, he insisteth on in the case in hand, looketh this way; and therefore, having already plucked away one of the main props of that discourse, I shall apply myself to take away those which do remain, that the whole may justly fall to the ground, and therefore shall, as briefly as I can, consider the whole of that discourse, containing nine arguments against the perseverance of saints, for the possibility of their total and final defection.
XII.] OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED. 425
CHAPTEE XII.
OBJECTIONS TO THE DOCTRINE REFUTED.
Mr G.'s entrance and preface to his arguments from the apostasy of the saints considered — The weakness of his first argument — The import of it — Answer to that first argument — Doctrine may pretend to give God the glory of being- no accepter of pei-sons, and yet be false — Justification by works of that rank and order — Acceptation of persons, what, and wherein it consisteth — No place for it with God — Contrary to distributive justice — The doctrine of the saints' perseverance charged with rendei'ing God an accepter of persons unjustly — What it says looking this way — The sum of the charge against it considered and removed — Mr G.'s second argument, and the weight by him hung thereon — The original of this argument — By whom somewhat insisted on — The argument itself in his words proposed — Of the use and end of the ministry — Whether weakened by the doctrine of perseverance — Entrance into an answer to that argument— The foundation laid of it false, and why — It falsely im- poseth on the doctrine of perseverance sundry things by it disclaimed — The first considered — The iniquity of those impositions farther discovered — The true state of the dift^erence as to this argument declared — The argument rectified — The re-enforcement of the minor attempted and considered — The manner of God's operations with and in natural and vohmtary agents com- pared— Efficacy of grace and liberty in man consistent — An objection to him- self framed by Mr G. — That objection rectified — Perseverance, how " a!)soIutely and simply necessary," how not — The removal of the pretended objection farther insisted on by Mr G. — That discourse discussed, and manifested to be weak and sophistical — The consistency of exhortations and promises farther cleared — The manner of the operation of grace in and upon the wills of men considered — The inconsistency of exhortations with the efficacy of grace dis- puted by Mr G. — That discourse removed, and the use of exhortations ftirther cleared — Obedience to them twofold, habitual, actual — Of the physical opera- tion of grace and means of the word — Their compliance and use — How the one and the other affect the will — Inclination to persevere when wrought in believers — Of the manner of God's operation on the wills of men — Mr G.'s discourse and judgment considered — Effects follow, as to their kind, their next causes — The same act of the will physical and moral upon several ac- counts— Those accounts considered — God, by the real efficacy of the Spirit, produceth in us acts of the will morally good — That confirmed from Scriptui-e — Conclusion from thence — Of the terms " physical," " moral," and " neces- sary," and their use in things of the nature under consideration — Moral causes of physical effects — The concurrence of physical and moral causes for produc- ing the same effect — The efficacy of grace and exhortations — " Physical" and " necessary," how distinguished — " Moral " and " not necessary " confounded by Mr G. — Mr G.'s farther progress considered — What operation of God on the will of man he allows — All physical operation by him excluded — Mr G.'s sense of the difference between the working of God and a minister on the will, that it is but gradual ; considered and removed — All working of God on the will by him confined to persuasion — Persuasion gives no strength or ability to the per- son persuaded — All immediate actings of God to good in men by Mr G. utterly excluded — Wherein God's persuading men doth consist, according to Mr G. — 1 Cor. iii. 9 considered — Of the concurrence of divers agents to the pro- duction of the same effect — The sum of the seventh section of chap. xiii. — The will, how necessitated, how free — In what sense Mr G. allows God's per-