The last argument Avhich he proposeth, sect. 41, and ends his chapter withal, is faint, and, as the droppings after a shower, will easily be blown over. He thus proposeth it: —
" That doctrine which naturally and directly tendeth to beget and foment jealousies and evil surmises between brethren in Christ, or
XVI.] NO CONSOLATION IN THE OPPOSITE DOCTRINE. 593
such as ought cordially to love, reverence, and honour one another, is not confederate with the gospel, nor from God; and consequently that which contradicteth it must needs be a truth ; — the common doctrine of unquestionable and unconditional perseverance is a doc- trine of this tendency, apt to beget and foment jealousies, suspicions, and evil surmises between brethren, or such as ought to love and respect one the other, as brethren in Christ: ergo!'
Ans. Not to take notice of any thing by-the-by, which sundry expressions, and one inference at the least, in this argument do readily administer occasion unto, 1 await the proof of the minor, which in the following discourse amounts to this: " That judging all those who fall finally away not to have been true believers, we can- not but have evil surmises of all that stand that they are not true be- lievers, seeing as good as they have fallen away; hence jealousies of their hypocrisy will arise." And he tells us, for his part he knows no Christian in the world that he hath more reason to judge a true believer than he had to judge some who are turned wretched apos- tates. To which I say briefly, —
1 . I doubt not but Mr Goodwin knows full well that this is not a rule given us to make a judgment of believers by, with whom we walk, and towards whom it is required we bear " love without dissi- mulation," Rom. xii. 9, — toward such as " show us their faith by their works." Our rule of walking, from the principle of love and charity, is laid down in 1 Cor. xiii. And if all that any man knows at this day to be professors in this world should turn apostates, save only one, and he had reckoned that one and them that are apostatized, before their apostasy, of the same rank of believers, and had had no evil thoughts of that one above the rest, he was bound, without any evil surmises, " to believe all things, and to hope all things," and not to let go his sincere love towards that one, embracing of him, delighting in him, holding communion with him to his life's end, without suspicion of hypocrisy, or other hard thoughts of him, unless he also should dege- nerate. It is said, John ii. 23, that " many believed on Christ," be- cause of the profession of faith that they made; and, chap. vi. 34<, they pray earnestly to be fed with the bread of life, so that they were accounted among his disciples, verse 60, and yet upon a tempta- tion they left our Saviour, and " walked no more with him," verse ^Q. Now, notwithstanding the profession of these men, our Saviour plainly says that they " believed not," verse 64. They falling thus away who had professed to believe, and were accounted as believers, so called and named among the disciples of Christ, and Christ declaring, on the account of their apostasy, that indeed they did never believe, how was it that the remaining twelve had not hard thoughts and jealousies one of another (especially considering that there was one hypocrite still left among them) whether they had true faith or no,
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594 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
seeing our Saviour had declared that those who so fell off, as those before mentioned, had none? Doubtless they were insti-ucted to walk by a better and a straiter rule than that Mr Goodwin here assigns to believers. Let who will or can fall away, whilst we are taught of God to love one another, and are acted by the principle of love, which " thinketh no evil," and do contend against evil surmises as the works of the flesh, there is not any thing in the least attend- ing the discovery of one man's hypocrisy, to work us to a persuasion that another (not in any thing discovered) is so also. That because we see some goodly house fall under storms and temptations to the ground, and so manifest itself to have been built on the sand, there- fore we must conclude that those which stand are not built upon the rock, is not suited to any principle or rule that our Master hath given us to walk by, in order to the exercise of that love which he calleth for in us towards one another.
2. I say this way of proceeding in our thoughts and judgments doth the Holy Ghost lead us to, 1 John ii. 19. The apostle giving an ac- count of some who had formerly walked with him in the profession of the faith, and of the fellowship which they had with the Father and the Son, and fell away from Christ into an opposition against him, so far as to deserve the title of Antichrists, having not only forsaken the gospel, but making it also their business to oppose it, and to seduce otheTs from the simplicity of the same; — these, he informs the scattered believers of the Jews, Vv'ere apostates, having formerl}' walked with them, but [who had] deserted their fellowship, and there- by manifested themselves never to have been true believers, nor ever, indeed, to have had fellowship with the Father and the Son, no more than they of whom our Saviour spake in the j^lace before mentioned; and yet, doubtless, the apostle may not be supposed to lay a foundation for jealousies, evil suspicions, and surmises among believers, though he plainly and evidently affirms that those who fall away were never true believers, and that if they had been so, they Avould have continued in their faith and fellowship with the people of God. " They went out from us," saith he, " but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have con- tinued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." A passage, by the way, clearly con- firming the main of the doctrine we have hitlierto insisted on ; and therefore I shall turn aside, before I come to the close of this chapter, having this occasion administered, to vindicate it from the exceptions Mr Goodwin gives in against the testimony it bears in this case.