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/ 656 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' rERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
here at no Letter rate of wisdom or understanding than this: ' The just shall live by his faith ; but if he shall do that which is simply and utterly impossible for him to do, my soul shall have no pleasure in him/ What savour of wisdom, yea, or of common sense, is there in admonishing or cautioning men against such evils which there is no possibility for them to fall into, yea, and this known unto themselves? Therefore this testimony, for confirmation of the doctrine we maintain, is like a king upon his throne, against whom there is no rising up."
Ans. What small cause Mr Goodwin hath to quarrel with Beza or other translators, and with how little advantage to his cause this text is produced, shall out of hand be made appear: —
1. The words as they cry are, 'o ds hhaiog Ix Trlarfug ^yiffsrar %ai I6t,v I'^offrsiXriTai, ou;f svbox.iT ri -^vyj} [j^ou h avrui' 7j,'Ji,sTg dh ova sff/j,h vto- CToXl^g iig a'7ru)}.siav, dXXa •r/o'rswj sig Tsp/To/jjff/i' -^uyrrig. In the fore- going part of the chapter, the apostle had treated of two sorts of persons: — (1.) Such as, to forsake the assemblies of the saints, with- drew from the church and ordinances of Christ, and so by degrees fell off with a total and everlasting backsliding. Of these the apostle speaks, describing their ways and end, from verse 25 unto verse 31. Thence forward (2.) he speaks to them and of them who abode, in their persecutions and under all their afflictions, to hold fast their confidence ; which he also farther exhorts them to, that, by patient abiding in well-doing, they might receive the reward. Concerning both these, having told them of the unshaken kingdom of Christ that should be brought in, notwithstanding the apostasy of many, on whose iniquity God would take vengeance, he lays down that emi- nent promise of the gospel, "The just by faith shall live;" words often used to express the state and condition of believers, — of those who are truly and unfeignedly so. The Lord being faithful in his promise, " the justified person shall live," or obtain life everlasting. It is the promise of eternal life that is here given them, as that which they had not as yet received, but in patience they were to wait to receive, after they had done the whole will of God. That any of these should so "draw back" as that the Lord's "soul should have no pleasure in them," is directly contrary to the promise here made of their living. The particle xal in the next words is plainly adversative and ex- ceptive, as it is very many times in the New Testament, and that as to the persons of whom he is speaking. At ^rjffsrai the period is full, the description of the state of the just by faith is completed ; and in the next words the state of backsliders is entered upon, xai lav v'TTosn/Xyirai referring to them, whom by their apostasy and subduc- tion of themselves from Christian assemblies he had before described. There is an ellipsis in the words, to be supplied by some indefinite term, to give them the sense intended. This Beza and our translators liave done by that excepted against, causelessly, by Mr Goodwin ; for
XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED, 657
if a translator may make the text speak significantly in the language whereinto he translates it, the introduction of such supplements is allowed him.
2. The following expression puts it out of all question that this was the intendment of the apostle ; for he expressly makes mention, and that in reference to what was spoken before, of two sorts of people, to whom his former expressions are respectively to be accommodated. The words are, n/MiTg hi olx, x. r. X., as above. Mr Goodwin, to make us believe that he took notice of these words, hath this passage of them, "As it is also expounded in the words immediately following, 'But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but,' etc." But what, I pray, is expounded in these words, " that drawers back shall be destroyed"? This is all he takes notice of in them. Evidently the words are an application of the former assertions unto several persons. There are, says he, some who are r^s v'xosTo'kTi;, and some that are rrjg irioTiug. Those, saith he, who are r^j lirosroXng, they shall be destroyed; those who are rJjg cr/VrEws, they shall live ; — evi- dently and beyond all contradiction assigning his former assertions of " The just shall live by faith," and " If any man draw back," to several persons, by a distribution of their lot and portions to them. In verse 88 he lays down in thesis the state and condition of be- lievers and backsliders. In verse 89 he makes application of the position he laid down to himself and them: (1.) Negatively, that they were not of the former sort, " of them that draw back," etc. ; (2.) Posi- tively, that they were of the rest, of "them that believe." And those expressions, verse 89, Oux Jtf^ab 'vaoaruKTig aXKa <!ri6rsug, do undeniably affirm two sorts of persons in both places to be spoken of, and that iocv u'zogrsiXnrai can by no means be referred to our o'r/.aiog, Avhich would intermix them whom the apostle, as to their present state and future condition, held out in a contradistinction one to the otlier unto the end. All that ensues in Mr Goodwin's discourse being built upon this sandy foundation, that it is the believer, of whom God affirms that he " shall live by faith," who is supposed to be r^g i/TooToX'^5, contrary to the express assertion of the apostle, it needs no farther consideration, although he is not able to manifest any strength in conclusion drawn from suppositions of events which may be possible in one sense and in another impossible.