XIII.] ASSERTORS AND ADVERSARIES COMPARED. 485
In the meantime, this seems strange, that God should magnify and make famous the ministry of so many throughout the world, and give in that visible blessing to their labours therein which hath filled this island with such an increase of children to Zion as that she hath not lengthened the cords of her tabernacle to such an extent and compass in any proportionable spot of earth under heaven, if any one eminent part of their doctrine, and that whereon they laid great weight in their ministry, which they pressed with as much fervency and contention of spirit as any head of the like importance, should indeed be so apparently destructive of holiness, and of such a direct and irresistible efficiency to render useless that great ordinance of the ministry committed to them, as this is clamoured to be. What will be the success of them in their ministry who shall undertake to deny and oppose it, T hope the people of God in this nation will not have many instances to judge by. The best conjecture we can for the present make of what will be hereafter must be taken from what hath already come to pass; and the best guess of what events will be is to be raised from the consideration of what hath been, from a like disposition of causes to an answerableness of events.
What Mr Goodwin hath to plead in this case, he insists on, chap. ix., sect. 24-27, pp. 167-172. The sum and aim of his discourse is, to apologize for his doctrine against sundry objections which, in the observation of men, it is liable and obnoxious unto. Now, these are such as, whatever the issue of their consideration prove, doubtless it can be of no advantage unto his cause that his doctrine is so readily exposed to them.
The first of these is, that the doctrine he opposeth, and in opposi- tion whereunto that is set up which he so industriously asserts, hath generally been received and embraced by men eminent in piety and godliness, famous on that account in their generations, with the gene- rality of the people of God with them. And this is attended with that which naturally ensues thereon, — namely, the scandalousness of the most of them (yea, of them all of this nation is it spoken) who have formerly asserted the doctrine which Mr Goodwin hath lately espoused. Whereunto, in the third place, an observation is subjoined of the " ordinary defection of men to loose and unsavoury practices, after they have once drunk in the principles of that opinion which he now so industriously mixeth and tempereth for them." It is usu- ally said, "There is no smoke but where there is some fire." It would be strange if such observations as these should be readily and gene- rally made by men concerning the doctrine under contest, unless there were some evident occasion administered by it thereunto; and I must needs say, that if they prove true, and hold under ex- amination, they will become as urging a prejudice as can lightly be laid against any cause in religion whatsoever. The gospel being a
486 DOCTRINE OF THE SAIJSTS' PERSEVERANCE, [CHAP.
" doctrine according to godliness," several persuasions pretending to be parts and portions thereof, if one shall be found to be the con- stant faith and profession of those who also have the life and power of godliness in them, the other to be maintained by " evil men and seducers," who upon their receiving it do also "wax worse and worse," it is no small advantage to the first, in its plea for admittance to the right and title of a truth of the gospel.
First, To evade this charge, Mr Goodwin premises this in gene- ral:—
" The experience asserted in the objection is not so unquestionable in point of truth but that, if the assertors were put home upon the proof, they would, I fear" (doubtless he rather hoj^es it), " account more in presumption than in reasonableness of argument; for if persons of the one judgment and of the other were duly compared together, I verily believe there would be found every whit as full a proportion of men truly conscientious and religious amongst those whose judgments stand, and have stood, for a possibility of falling away, as on the other side : but, through a foolish and unsavoury kind of partiality, we are apt, on all hands, according to the proverb, to * account our own geese for swans, and other men's swans geese.' Certain I am, that if the writings of men of the one judgment and of the other be compared together, and an estimate made from thence of the religion, worth, and holiness, of the authors respectively, those who oppose the common doctrine of perseverance do account it no robbery to make themselves every way equal in this honour with their opposers. The truth is (if it be lawful for me to utter what I really apprehend and judge in the case), I do not find that spirit of holiness to breathe, with that authority, heat, or excellency of power, in the writings of the latter, which I am very sensible of in the writings of the former. These call for righteousness, holiness, and all manner of Christian conversation, with every whit as high a hand as the other, and add nothing to check, obstruct, or enfeeble, the authority of their demands in this kind; whereas the other, though they be sore many times in their exhortations and conjure- ments unto holiness, yet other while render both these and tliem- selves in them contemptible, by avouching such principles which cut the very sinews and strength of such their exhortations, and fully balance all the weight of those motives by which they seek to bind them upon the consciences of men. And as for men truly holy and conscientious, doubtless the primitive Christians, for three hundred years together and upwards, next after the times of the apostles, will fully balance, with an abundant surplusage, both for numbers and truth of godliness, all those in the reformed churches who since Calvin's days have adhered to the common doctrine of perseverance. And that the churches of Christ very generally, during the said