But Mr Goodwin proceeds farther in the vindication of this argu- ment, sect. 38: —
" And whereas," saith he, " they still plead, or pretend rather, that such admonitions as those lately specified may well stand with an unconditional promise of perseverance, we have formerly showed that they are not able to make good this plea, nor to give any reasonable account of it. Whereas they add, that their sense and opinion is not that it is a thing absolutely or every way impossible for true believers to fall away totally or finally from their faith, but that they willingly grant that true believers, what through their own weakness, and what through the subtle baits and temptations of Satan, may so fall away ; I answer. But this is but a fig-leaf sought out to cover the naked- ness of their opinion, which hath no strength at all nor weight in it; for what though it were in a thousand other respects never so possible for true believers to perish, yet if it be altogether impossible in such a respect which overrules all those others, and which will, and of necessity must, hinder the coming of it to pass, all those others notwithstanding, it is to be judged simply and absolutely impossible, and all those respects whereby it is pretended possible are not to be brought into account in such a case."
Ans. 1. Whether we are able to make good our plea concerning the consistency of admonitions with the promises of perseverance, Mr Goodwin is not the sole judge, neither do either we or our plea stand or fall at his arbitrament. What hath been lately spoken for the re- en for cement of that plea against his exceptions, he may, if he please, take time to consider.
2. For what is now added in this place as a part of that plea of ours, as it is here proposed, we own not. We do not grant that true believers may fall away, on any account whatever, totally and finally, if the expression, " May fall away," relate to the issue and event. We say, indeed, that by the temptations of Satan believers may be pre- vailed against to the committing of many sins, the root whereof is in themselves, whilst the lust remains in them which tempteth and
590 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCK [CHAP,
ensnaretli them, whereby God may be dishonoured and their own consciences wounded, — which is a sufficient ground and bottom for all the admonitions that are given them, to beware of his deceits, to strengthen themselves against his assaults, to be built upon, — though, through the grace and faithfulness of God and his good-will, mani- fested and secured unto them in his covenant and promises, he can never totally prevail against them.
We say, moreover, that it is not from believers themselves, nor any thing in them, nor from any faith that they have received, that they cannot so fall finally away, there being in them a proneness to sin, and the seed of all sin still remaining, yea, a root of bitterness ready to spring up and trouble them ; but from those outward principles of the will, purposes, covenant, and promises of God, which we have formerly insisted on: farther, that there is no need of granting any such possibility, taking that terra as relating to the issue and event^ and not the internal principle of operation in men, to manifest the harmony that is between the admonitions under consideration and the promises we have insisted on, it being sufficiently evinced on other considerations: so that Mr Goodwin's ensuing discourse con- cerning "absolute impossibility" is not at all related to any thing that we have asserted.
3. Neither yet doth the reason by Mr Goodwin produced in any measure evince what he intends, though we be not concerned therein. He will not easily persuade us that that which is possible in any respect, nmch less in many, and impossible only in one, is always to be judged " simply and absolutely impossible." Much less are we concerned in it, who say that simply and absolutely the fall- ing away of believers is possible, namely, as the term " possible " re- lates to the principle of operation in them ; but in some respect only it is impossible, that is, not of itself, but in respect of the external prohibiting cause. It was simply and absolutely possible that the bones of our Saviour should have been broken, in the nature of the thing itself; impossible, in respect of the decree of God. So are a thousand things absolutely possible in their own nature, as to the power of the causes whereby they might be produced, but impossible in respect of some external prohibiting cause ; — absolutely possible in respect of their proper cause and principle ; impossible in respect of the event, upon the account of some external prohibiting cause, as was showed. So it is in the business in hand. We assert not any possibility in respect of the event, as though in the issue it might so come to pass that believers should fall totally and finally from God, which is the thing we oppose; but grant it in resi^ect of the causes of such apostasy, with reference to the nature of the thing itself, though how the possibility might be reduced into act Mr Goodwin cannot declare. As for the close of this section, concerning the also-