5. The whole purport and intendment of the scripture under con- sideration is only to manifest the tenor of God's righteous proceed- ing with the people of Israel, in respect of his dispensation towards them in reference to the land of Canaan. Convincing them of their own abominations, confuting the profane proverb invented and reared up in the reproach of his righteousness, beating them from the vain pretence of being punished for their fathers' sins, and from the conceit of their own righteousness, which that people was perpetually puffed up withal, he lets them know that his dealing with them and his ways towards them were equal and righteous, in that there was none of them but was punished for his own sin ; and though some of them might have made some profession and done some good, yet upon the whole matter, first or last, they had all declined, and therefore ought to own the punishment of their sins, God dealing severely, and unto death and destruction, with none but those who either wholly or upon the sum of the matter turned away from his judg- ments and statutes. So that, —
6. This being the tenor and importance of the words insisted on, this their tendency, aim, and accommodation to the objection levied against the righteousness of God in dealing with that people, this their rise and end, their spring and fall, it is evident beyond all contradiction, from any thing but prejudice itself, that all the inquiries and disputes about them, — as, whether the declaration of the mind of God in them be hypothetical or absolute, what is meant by the righteous person, what by his turning away, and what by the death threatened (all which expressions of the text are in themselves am- biguous, and must be limited from the circumstances of the place), — are altogether useless and needless, the words utterly refusing any accommodation to the business of our present debate. So that, —
XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 617
7. This dependence of the words, scope of the context, design of the place, and intendment of God in it, [and] the accommodation of the whole discourse to the removal of the objection and disproving of the proverbial self-justification of a sinful people, — the only direc- tories in the investigation of the true, proper, native, genuine sense and meaning of them, — [having been neither] eyed, weighed, nor considered by Mr Goodwin, who knew how much it was to his ad- vantage to rend away these two verses from the body of the pro- phet's discourse, I might well supersede any farther proceedings in the examination of what he has prepared for a reply to the answers commonly given to the argument taken from this place; yet, that all security imaginable may be given to the reader of the inoffen- siveness of this place as to the truth we maintain, I shall briefly manifest that Mr Goodwin hath not indeed effectually taken up and off any one answer, or any one parcel of any such, that hath usually been given by our divines unto the objection against the doctrine of perseverance hence levied.
That which naturally first offers itself to our consideration is, the form and tenor of the expressions here used, which is not of an abso- lute nature, but hypothetical. The import of the words is, " If a righteous man turn from his righteousness, and continue [not] therein, he shall die." " True," say they who make use of this consideration, " God here proposes the desert of sin, and the connectimi that is, by his appointment, between apostasy and the punishment thereunto allotted ; but this not at all infers that any one who is truly righteous shall or may everlastingly so apostatize. Such comminations as these God maketh use of to caution believers of the evil of apostasy, and thereby to preserve them from it; as their tendency to that end, by the appointment of God, and their efficacy thereunto, hath been declared. So that, because God says, ' If a righteous man turn from his righteousness, he shall die,' the whole emphasis lying in the connection that is between such turning away and dying, to con- clude (considering what is the proper use and intendment of such threatenings) that a man truly righteous may so fall away, is to build up that which the text contributes not any thing to in the least."
Against this plea Mr Goodwin riseth up with much contempt and indignation, chap. xii. sect. 9. in these words: — •
" But this sanctuary hath also been profaned by some of the chief guardians themselves of that cause for the protection and safety whereof it was built. There needs no more be done (though much more might be done, yea, and hath been done by others) than that learned doctor so lately named hath done himself for the demo- lishing of it. Having propounded the argument from the place in Ezekiel according to the import of the interpretation asserted by us,
618 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
' Some/ saitli he, ' answer, that a condition proves nothing in being; which how true soever it may be in respect of such hypotheticals which are made use of only for the amphfication of matters, and serve for the aggravating either of the difficulty or indignity of a thing (as, ' If I should climb up into heaven, thou art there,' Ps. cxxxix., it were ridiculous to infer, therefore a man may chmb up into heaven), yet such conditional sayings upon which admonitions, promises, or threatenings are built, do at least suppose something in possibility, however, by virtue of their tenor and form, they sup- pose nothing in being: for no man seriously intending to encourage a student in his way would speak thus to him, ' If thou -wilt get all the books in the university library by heart, thou shalt be doctor this commencement/ Besides, in the case in hand, he that had a mind to deride the prophet might readily come ujDon him thus: * But a righteous man, according to the judgment of those that are orthodox, cannot turn away from his righteousness; therefore your threatening is in vain.' Thus we see to how little purpose it is to seek for starting poles in such logic quirks as these.' Thus far the great assertor of the synod of Dort and the cause which they main- tained, to show the vanity of such a sense or construction put upon the words now in debate which shall render them merely condi- tional, and will not allow them to import so much as a possibility of any thing^contained or expressed in them."