To return to Mr Goodwin's close of this 13th chapter, and "nine arguments," as he calls them, from which he labours to evince the apostasy of believers, he shuts up the whole with a declamation against and reviling of the doctrine he opposeth, with many oppro- brious and reproachful expressions, calling it " an impostor, and an appearance of Satan in the likeness of an angel of light," with such like terms of reproach as his rhetoric at every turn is ready to fur- nish him withal, threatening it farther with calling it in question before I know not how many learned men of all sorts, and to dis- prove it by their testimony concerning it; and so all that is required for its destruction is, or shall be, speedily despatched! God knows how to defend his truth; and as he hath done this in particular against as fierce assaults as any Mr Goodwin hath made or is like to make against it, so I no way doubt he will continue to do. It is not the first time that it hath been conformable to its Author, in under- going the contradij^tion of men, and being laden with reproaches, and crucified among the thievish principles of error and profaneness. Hitherto it hath not wanted, in due time, its resurrection, and that continually with a new glory and an added estimation to what be-
600 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTs' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAR
fore it obtained among the saints of God ; aind I no way doubt but that it will grow more and more until the perfect day, when those opinions and inventions of men, derogatory to the grace and covenant of God, his truth, unchangeableness, and faithfulness, which now make long their shades to eclipse the beauty and lustre of it, shall consume and vanish away before its brightness; — in which persua- sion I doubt not but the reader will be confirmed with me, upon the farther consideration of what Mr Goodwin's endeavours are in opposi- tion hereto, wherewith now, by the grace of God, contrary to my first intendment, I shall proceed.
CHAPTER XVII.
A EEVIEW OF PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE ADDUCED TO PROVE THE APOSTASY OF SAINTS.
The cause of proceeding in this chapter — Mr G.'s attempt, chap. xii. of his boolc — Of the preface to Mr G.'s discourse — Whether doctrine renders men proud and presumptuous — Mr G.'s rule of judging of doctrines called to the rule — Doctrine pretending to promote godliness, how far an argument of the truth — Mr G.'s pretended advantages in judging of truths examined — The first, of his knowledge of the general course of the Scriptures — Of the experience of his own heart — And his observations of the ways of others — Of his rational abilities — Ezek. xviii. 24, 25, proposed to consideration — Mr G.'s sense of this place — The words opened — Observations for the opening of the text — The words farther weighed — An entrance into the answer to the argument from hence — The words hypothetical, not absolute — Mr G.'s answer proposed and considered — Whether the words are hypothetical — The severals of the text con- sidered— The '•' righteous man" spoken of, whom — Mr G.'s proof of his inter- pretation of a " righteous man" considered — Dr Prideaux's sense of the righte- ous person here intended considered — Of the commination in the words," Shall die" — The sense of the words — What death intended — Close of the considera- tion of the text insisted on — Matt, xviii. 32-35, taken into a review — Whether the love of God be mutable — What the love of God is — 1 Cor. ix. 27 ; in what sense it was po.ss!ble for Paul to become a reprobate — The proper sense of the place insisted on manifested — Of the meaning of the word aVoxifn); — The scope of the place farther cleared — Heb. vi. 4-8, x. 26-29, proposed to con- sideration— Whether the words be conditional — The genuine and true mean- ing of the place opened in six observations — Mr G.'s exceptions to the expo- sition of the words insisted on removed — The persons intended not true be- lievers— This evinced in sundry considerations — The particulars of the text vindicated — Of the illumination mentioned in the text — Of the acknowledg- ment of the trutli ascribed to the persons mentioned — Of the sanctification mentioned in the text — Of tasting the lieavenly gift — To be made partakers of the Holy Ghost, what — Of tasting the good Avorcf of God and powers of the world to come — Of the progress made by men not really rcgenei*ate in the things of God — The close of our considerations on these texts — Ileb. x. 38, 39 — Mr G.'s arguing from thence considered and answered — Of the
XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCKIPTURE CONSIDERED. G07
right translation of the words — Beza vindicated, as also our English transla- tors— The words of the text effectual to prove the saints' perseverance — Of the pai'able of the stony ground, Matt. xiii. 20, 21 — Mr G.'s arguing from the place proposed and considered — The similitude in the parable farther con- sidered— An argument from the text to prove the persons described not to be true believers — 2 Pet. ii. 18-22 — Mr G.'s arguings from this place con- sidered, etc.