XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 611
pel rule whatever is certainly conducing to the furtherance of gospel obedience in them that receive it in the love and power thereof," every error being in its utmost activity (especially in corrupting the principles of it) obstructive thereunto; much less do we in any measure decline the trial of the doctrine which I assert, in opposi- tion to [the doctrine of] the apostasy of the saints, by this touchstone of its usefulness to holiness, having formerly manifested its eminent activity and efficacy in that service, and the utter averseness of its corrival to lend any assistance thereimto. But yet I say, in an in- quiry after and dijudication of truth, whatever I have been or may be straitened between different persuasions, I have [chosen], and shall rather choose, in the practice of holiness, in prayer, faith, and wait- ing upon God, to search the Scripture, to attend wholly to that rule, having plentiful promises for guidance and direction, than to weigh iu any rational consideration of my own what is conducing to holi- ness, what not, especially in many truths which have their usefulness in this service (as is the case of most gospel ordinances and institu- tions of worship), not from the connection of things, but from the mere will of the Appointor. Of those doctrines, I confess, which, following on to know the Lord, we know from his word to be from him, and which in doing the will of Christ are revealed to us to be his will, a peculiar valuation is to be set on the head of them which ap- pear to be peculiarly and eminently serviceable to the promotion and furthering of our obedience ; as also, that ail opinions whatever that are in the least seducers from the power, truth, and spirituality of obe- dience, are not of God, and are eo nomine to be rejected: yet, having a more sure rule to attend unto, I dare not make my apprehensions concerning the tendency of doctrines any rule, if God hath not so spoken of them, for the judging of their truth or falsehood, if my thoughts are not shut up and determined by the power of the word. The next proposal made by Mr Goodwin is of the advantages he hath to judge of truths; which he hath done unto plenary satisfac- tion, according to the rule now considered. The first thing he offereth to induce us to close with him in his judgment of opinions is, " the knowledge he hath of the general course of the Scripture." What is intended by "the general course of the Scripture" well I know not; and so I am not able to judge of Mr Goodwin's knowledge thereof by any thing exposed to public view. If by " the general course of the Scriptures" the matter of them is intended, the importance of the expression seems to be coincident with the " analogy or proportion of faith," a safe rule of prophecy; — but whatever Mr Goodwin's know- ledge may be of this, I am not perfectly satisfied that he hath kept close unto it in many doctrines of his book entitled " Redemj)tion Redeemed ;" and so the weight of his skill in judging of truths on this foundation will not balance what I have to lay against it for the
612 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
inducement of other thoughts than those of closing with him. The " course of the Scripture" cannot import the manner of the expres- sions therein used, in that there is so great and so much variety therein that it can scarce be cast into one course and current; and if the general scoi^e, aim, and tendency of the Scripture may pass for the " course of it," there is not any one thing that lies so evident and clear therein as the decrying of all that ability, and strength, and power to do good in men, which Mr Goodwin so much pleads for and asserts to be in them, with an exaltation of that rich and free grace, in the efficacy and the power of it, which he so much opposeth.
The " experimental knowledge he hath of his own heart, the work- ings and reasonings thereof," a thing common to him with others, and what advantages he hath thereby, I shall not consider; only, this I shall dare to say, that I would not for all the world have no ex- perience in my heart of the truth of many things which Mr Goodwin in this treatise opposeth, or that my weak experience of the grace of God should not rise above that frame of heart and spirit which the teachings of it seem to discover. I doubt not, a person under the covenant of works, heightened with convictions, and a low or common work of the Spirit, induced thereby to some regular walking before God, may reach the utmost of what in this treatise is required to render a man a saint, truly gracious, regenerate, and a believer.
And in this also, I doubt not, lies the deceit of what is thirdly in- sisted on, namely, " his observation of the ways and sjDirits of men, their firstinc^s and lastincjs in religion." A sort of men there are in the world who escape the outward pollution of it, and are clean in their own eyes, though they are never washed from their iniquities; who having been under strong convictions by the power of the law, and broken [off] thereby from the course of their sin, attending to the Avord of the gospel with a temporary faith, do go forth unto a profes- sion of relifrion and walkinsj with God so far as to have " all the linea- ments of true believers," as Mr Goodwin somewhere speaks, "drawn in their faces," — hearing the word gladly, as did Herod; receiving it with joy, as did the stony ground ; attending to it with delight, as they did in Ezek. xxxiii. 31; repenting of former sins, as did Ahab and Judas ; until they are reckoned among true believers, as was Judas and those in John ii. 23, who yet were never united unto Jesus Christ; — of whose ways and walking Mr Goodwin seems to have made obser- vation, and found many of them to end in visible apostasy. But that this observation of them should cause him to judge them, when apos- tatized, to have been true believers, or that he is thereby advantaged to determine concerning the truth of several opinions pretending to his acceptance,' I cannot grant, nor doth he go about to prove.