Ans. 1. For the sense of that place of the apostle, 1 Cor. vi. ] 5, as far as it relates to the merit of the cause in hand, I shall have occa- sion to speak unto it at large hereafter, and so shall not anticipate myself or the reader. For the present, I deny that there is the least mention made of any interchange of members between Christ and the devil, much less of any such thing as "frequent and ordinary." It is true, the apostle says that he that is "joined to an harlot" makes his members the " members of an harlot," and on that consideration and conclusion, with part of the dignity of believers, whose persons are all the members of Christ, persuades them from the sin of forni- cation ; that they may so much as fall into that sin he doth not here intimate. That men, not only in respect of themselves, and their principles of sin, and proneness unto it within, with the prevalency of temptations, but also eventually, notwithstanding any regard or respect to other external prohibiting causes, may fall into all the sins from which they are dehorted, Mr Goodwin hath not proved as yet, nor shall I live to see him do it.
2. For a man to make himself the " member of an harlot" is no
548 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [cnAP.
more but to commit fornication; which whetlier it be Mr Good- win's judgment or no, that none can fall into or be surprised with but he is ipso facto cut off from the body of Christ thereby, I know not. Taking in the consideration of Avhat was spoken before con- cerning the manner of regenerate persons' sinning, with what shall be farther argued, I must profess I dare not say so. In the mean- time, it is punctually denied that believers can fall into or live in a course of whoredom and adultery; and without such a course they cease not, according to Mr Goodwin's sense of these words, to be members of Christ, nor do they otherwise become members of the devil. There is nothing here, then, that intimates such an inter- change in the least.
3. For Mr Goodwin's criticism upon the word apag, it is hardly worth taking notice of; for, —
(1.) If by "taking" there be meant "taking away," the sense must be, that they are first taken away from being "members of Christ" (the word expressing a time past in that tendency), and then made "members of an harlot;" — which,first, is not suited to the mind of Mr Goodwin, who endeavours to prove their ceasing to be members of Christ by becoming members of an harlot, the efficient cause of their ceasing to be joined to Christ consisting in their being joined with an harlot; and, secondly, destroys the whole of the apostle's rea- soning in the place, from the great unworthiness of such a way or practice as making the members of Christ to be the members of an harlot, because none should so be made but those who had first ceased to be members of Christ. And so his assertion, instead of an effectual persuasive, should upon the matter be entangled in a con- tradiction to itself And, —
(2.) As there is nothing in the place to enforce that sense upon the word, so there is nothing in the word to impose that sense upon the place. When our Saviour speaks to his disciples, Luke ix. 3, M?i6b a'lpiTi iig zr.v 666v, he doth not bid them take nothing away for tlieir journey, but "take nothing with them;" and so Mark vi. 8, where his command is that /xridh u'/puciv elg odcv. And in that of Matt. iv. 6, when the devil urged to our Saviour, Jt/ p/E/pwv afousi as, he did not intimate that the angels should take him away in their hands, but support him from hurt. When Jesus fipi roiis 6f)()aX/Moug avo), he did not take away his eyes out of his head and cast them tipward, John xi. 41 ; no more than the angel did his hand when f,ps rriv •/I'lpa iig rhv olpavov, Rev. x. 5; or the apostles their voice when f^pa.v <puvr,v 'jzphs rhv ©ecv, Acts iv. 24. Nor doth Christ command us to take away his yoke in that heavenly word of his, " Apan rhv Xj^yLv fiaxt if' \J[xag, Matt. xi. 29, So that there is little help left to this sense imposed on the place under con- sideration from the importance of the word ; and so, consequently, not
XV.] THE SINS OF BELIEVERS CONSIDEKED. 549
the least countenance given to that hoiTible interchange of members between Christ and the devil, which is asserted as a usual and fre- quent thing.
What he addeth in the close of the section is no less considerable than the beginning of it; for saith he, "If it be no dishonour to Christ to take in such as have been members of the devil, why should it be any disparagement to him to reject such who, by their wicked and abominable ways, render themselves unworthy of such a relation?"
Ans. Believers hold not their relation to Christ upon any worthi- ness that is in themselves for it, but upon the account merely of grace, according to the tenor of the covenant of mercy. That they may fall into such wicked and abominable ways as shall render them altogether unmeet for that relation, according to the law of it, is that great argument, called petitio principii, which Mr Goodwin hath used in this case a hundred times. But the comparison instituted in the first words is admirable. Confessed it is that it is no dis- honour to Jesus Christ, yea, that it is his great honour, seeing " he came to destroy the works of the devil, to bind the strong man, to spoil his goods, to destroy him that had the power of death, to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bon- dage, to deliver his people from their sins, washing them in his blood, and to make them a peculiar people unto himself, zealous of good works ;" — that it is no dishonour, I say, for him to translate them from the power of Satan into his own kingdom, " making them meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, by redeeming them from their vain conversation," to do according as he intended, and to take his own, given him of his Father, out of the hands of the tyrant which held them under bondage. " Therefore, having undertaken to keep them and preserve them, having so overcome Satan in them, for them, by them, broken the head of the serpent, it is no dishonour for him to lose ground given for his inheritance, with his subjects, members, brethren, children, bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, into the hand of the devil again." What fort is so strong as to hold out against such a battery: If it be no honour for Christ to bind Satan and to spoil his goods, then it is no dishonour for him to be bound by Satan and to have his goods spoiled !