XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. 647
be offered, were it needful or much conducing to our business in hand. Nor, —
2. Shall I labour to manifest that persons may be enlightened, and yet never come to Christ savingly by faith, to attain union with him and justification by him ; — a thing Mr Goodwin will not deny himself; or if he should, it were a very facile thing to convince him of his mistake by a sole entreaty (if he would be pleased to give an account of his faith in this business at our entreaty) of him to de- clare what he intends by "illumination;" whence it would quickly appear how unsuitable it is to his own principles to deny that it may be in them who yet never come to be, or at least by virtue thereof may not be said to be, true believers. But this only I shall add, —
3. That Mr Goodwin, doubtless knowing that this argument (which, with all the texts of Scripture whereby he illustrates it, he borrows of the Remonstrants) hath been again and again excepted against as illogical and unconcluding, and inconsistent with the prin- ciples of them that use it, ought not crudely again to have imposed it upon his reader without some attempt at least to free it from the charge of impertinency, weakness, and folly, wherewith it is burdened. " Illumination is ascribed to believers ; illumination is ascribed to these men: therefore these persons are believers." A little consideration will recover to Mr Goodwin's mind the force of this argument, so far as that he will scarce use it any more.
Sect. 20, he takes up another expression, from chap. x. 26, that they are said to receive I'lriymciiv rng aXyidslag, — "the acknowledg- ment of the truth;" whence he argues in the same manner and form as he had newly done from the term of " illumination." 'EtA yvuffig akridiiag is ascribed to believers ; therefore they are all so to whom it is ascribed.
But he tells you, in particular, sect. 20, " That, in the latter of the said passages, the persons spoken of are said to have received sTiyvusiv Ty\c, dXndslag, — that is, 'the acknowledgment of the truth;' which expression doth not signify the bare notion of what the gos- pel teacheth, of which they are capable who are the most professed enemies thereof, but such a consenting and subjection thereunto which worketh effectually in men to a separating of themselves from sin and sinners. This is the constant import of the phrase in the Scriptures."
Ans. All this may be granted, yet nothing hence concluded to evince the persons to whom it is ascribed to be true believers. Men may be so wrought upon and convinced by the word and Spirit, sent forth to " convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment," as to acknowledge the truth of the gospel, to profess subjection to the gospel, and to yield to it so far as to separate themselves from
648 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PEKSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
sin and sinners, in such a manner and to such a degree (not dis- semhhng, but answering their convictions) as to bless themselves oftentimes in their own condition, and to obtain an esteem with the people of God to be such indeed as they profess themselves to be, and yet come short of that union and communion with the Lord Christ which all true believers are made partakers of. It is not of any use or importance to examine the particular places mentioned by Mr Goodwin, wherein, as he supposeth, the expression of the " know- ledge" or "acknowledgment of the truth" denotes that which is saving, and comprehendeth true faith, unless he had attempted to prove from them that the word could signify nothing else, or that a man might not be brought to an acknowledgment of the truth but that he must of necessity be a true believer; neither of which he doth, or if he did, could he possibly give any seeming probability to. There may be a knoiuing of the things of the gospel in men, and yet they may come short of the happiness of them that do them ; there is a knowledge of Christ that yet is barren as to the fruit of holiness.
In the next place, the persons queried about are said to be "sanc- tified by the blood of the covenant." Of this Mr Goodwin says, sect. 21, "That is, by their sprinkling herewith, to be separated from such who refuse this sprinkling, as likewise from the pollu- tions and defilements of the world. To be ' sanctified,' when applied unto persons, is not found in any other sense throughout the New Testament, unless it be where persons bear the consideration of things, 1 Cor. vii. 14. But of this signification of the word, which we claim in this place, instances are so frequent and obvious that we shall not need to mention any,"
Ans. 1. If no more be intended in this expression but what Mr Goodwin gives us in the exposition of it, — namely, that they are so sprinkled with it as to be " separated from them that refuse this sprinkling" (that is openly), " as likewise from the pollutions and de- filements of the world," — we shall not need to contend about it; for men may be so sprinkled, and have such an efiicacy of conviction come upon them by the preaching of the cross and blood-shedding of Christ, as to be separated from those who professedly despise it and the open publication of the word, and yet be f\ir from having " con- sciences purged from dead works to serve the living God." And, —