582 DOCTIUNE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
them all their days, nor ouce urging them to do their duty but with holding a rod, yea scorpions, over their heads, and casting the eternal flames of hell into their faces. This is that sanguine, indeed truly spiritually bloody, complexion of this new nurse, which is offered to be received in the room of that sad, melancholy piece, the perseverance of the saints. Thus, then, he proceeds : —
" The consolation of true believers depends upon their obedience; their obedience is furthered by this doctrine : and therefore their con- solation also."
Ans. What are the springs of true, spiritual, heavenly consolation, the consolation which God is willing believers should receive, whence it flows, the means of its continuance and increase, how remote it is from a sole dependency on our own obedience, hath been in part before declared. But yet if the next assertion can be made good, namely, " That the doctrine of the saints' apostasy hath a tendency, instituted of God, to the promotion of their obedience and holiness," I shall not contend about the other, concerning the issuing of their consolation from thence. All that really is offered in the behalf of apostasy, as to its serviceableness in this kind, is, that it is suited to ingenerate in believers a fear of hell, which will put them upon all ways of mortifying the flesh and the fruits of it, which otherwise would bring them thereinto. And is this indeed the great mystery of the gospel? Is this Christ's way of dealing with his saints? or is it not a falling from grace, to return again unto the law? Those of whom alone we speak, who are concerned in this business, are all of them taken into the glorious liberty of the sons of God; are every one of them partakers of that Spirit with whom is liberty ; are all endued with a living principle of grace, faith, and love, and are con- strained by the love of Christ to live to him; are all under grace, and not under the law ; all have their sins in some measure begun to be mortified, and the flesh with the lusts thereof, the old man, with all his ways and wills, crucified, by the death and cross of Christ, brought with their power and efficacy by the Spirit into their hearts; are all delivered from that bondage wherein they were, for fear of death and hell, all their days, by having Christ made redemption unto them. I say, that these persons should be most effectually stirred up to obedience by the dread and terror of the iron rod of vengeance and hell, and that they should be so by God's appointment, is such a new, such another gospel, as, though preached by an angel from heaven, we should not receive. That indeed no motive can be taken from hence, or from any thing in the doctrine by Mr Goodwin contended for, suited to the principle of gospel obedience in the saints; that no sin or lust whatsoever was ever mortified by it; that it is a clog, hin- derance, and burden to all saints, as far as they have to do with it, in the ways of God, — hath been before demonstrated: and therefore.
XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 583
leaving it, with all the consolation that it affords, unto those who of God are given up there^into, we proceed to the consideration of another argument, his eighth in this case, which is thus proposed, sect. 37:—
" That doctrine which evacuates and turns into weakness and folly all the gracious counsels of the Holy Ghost, which consist partly in the diligent information which he gives unto the saints, from place to place, concerning the hostile, cruel, and bloody mind and intention of Satan against them ; partly in detecting and making known all his subtle stratagems, his plots, methods, and dangerous machina- tions against them ; partly, also, in furnishing them with special wea- pons of all sorts, whereby they may be able to grapple with him and to triumph over him ; partly, again, in those frequent admonitions and exhortations to quit themselves like men in resisting him, which are found in the Scripture ; and, lastly, in professing his fear lest Satan should circumvent and deceive them; — that doctrine, I say, which reflects disparagement and vanity upon all these most serious and gracious applications of the Holy Ghost must needs be a doctrine of vanity and error, and consequently that which opposeth it, by a like necessity, a truth; but such is the common doctrine of absolute and infallible perseverance: ergo."
Ans. Not to engage into any needless contest about ways of argu- ing when the design and strength of the argument are evident, I shall only remark two things upon this: —
First, The Holy Ghost professing his fear lest Satan should be- guile believers is a mistake. It was Paul that was so afraid, not the Holy Ghost, though he wrote that fear by the appointment and in- spiration of the Holy Ghost. The apostle was jealous lest the saints should, by the craft of Satan, be seduced into errors and miscarriages ; which yet argues not their final defection. This, indeed, he records of himself; but of the fear of the Holy Ghost, arising from his un- certainty of those issues of the things, and want of power to prevent the coming on of the things feared, I suppose there is no mention. And, —