A71S. 1. The first reason intimated is, " That they are said to be '^poffxaipoi," a term given them, plainly, to distinguish them from true believers, — men that make a profession for a season, expressly opposed to them who receive the word " in honest and good hearts." If the word had denoted any excellency, any thing that was good in them, then there had been some pretence to have insisted on it to prove them true believers; but to demonstrate the truth of their faith from their hypocrisy, and their excellencies from that which expressly denotes their unworthiness, is a strange way of arguing. " They are persons," saith our Saviour, " that make profession for a little while, and then decay ; not like them who receive the word in honest and good hearts:" "Therefore," saith Mr Goodwin, " they are true believ- ers." But, —
2, "In Luke they are said to ' believe for a season.'" Mr Goodwin is not now to learn how often in the Scripture they are said to be- lieve who only profef;s the faith of the gospel, though the root of the matter be not in them. That of John ii. 23-25 may sufi&ce for un- deniable instance, or John vi. 66 may farther expound it. Their believing for a season is but the lifeless, worthless, fruitless profession for a season, as their distinction from the good ground doth mani- fest. But, —
8. " They are said to ' receive the word with joy,' which argues ingenuity and teachableness of spirit in them." No more than in Herod, who "heard the word gladly ;" or in the Jews, when the preach- ing of Ezekiel was " pleasant" or desirable to them; or in those de-
GGO DOCTRINE OF THE SAIXTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
scribed Isa. Iviii. 2, who " sought God daily, and delighted to know his ways," in the midst of their abominable practices.
From the similitude itself he yet farther attempts this uncouth assertion : —
" But as the blade which springs from one and the same kind of seed, as suppose from wheat or any other grain, though sown in dif- ferent, yea, or contrary soils, is yet of the same species or kind, the nature of the soil not changing the specifical nature of the seed that is sown in it, and God giving to every seed its own body, of what temper soever the ground is, where it is sown; in like manner, that faith which springs from the same seed of the gospel must needs be of one and the same nature and kind, though this seed be sown in the hearts of never so differing a constitution and frame, the temper of the heart, be it what it will be, not being able specifically to alter either the gospel or the natural fruit issuing from it. And as a blade or ear of wheat, though it be blasted before the harvest, is not hereby proved not to have been a true blade or ear of wheat before it was blasted; in like manner, the withering or decay of any man's faith, by what means or occasion soever, before his death, doth not prove it to have been a false, counterfeit, or hypocritical faith, or a faith of any other kind than that which is true, real, and permanent unto the end."
Ans. It hath been formerly observed, that similitudes aje not argumentative beyond the extent of that particular wherein their nature as such doth consist. The intendment of Christ, in this parable, is to manifest that many hear the word in vain, and bri.ng forth no fruit of it at all. Of these, one sort is compared to stony ground, that brings forth a blade, but no fruit. No fruit is no fruit, though there be a blade or no blade. The difference between the one's receiving of seed and the other's, manifested by our Saviour in this parable, is in this, that one bring-s forth fruit, and the other doth not. Farther ; the seed of wheat, or the like, brings forth its fruit in a natural way, and therefore Avhatever it brings forth follows in some measure the nature of the seed; but the seed of the gospel brings forth its fruit in a moral way, and therefore may have effects of sundry natures. That which the seed of wheat brings forth is wheat ; but that which the gospel brings forth is not gospel, but faith. Besides; what the wheat brings forth, if it come not, nor ever will, to be wheat in the ear, is but grass, and not of the same nature and kind with that which is wheat actually; though virtually and originally there be the nature of wheat in the root, yet actually wheat is not in the blade, that hath not, nor ever will have, ear. If the seed of wheat be so corrupted in the soil where it is sown that it cannot bring forth fruit, that which it doth bring forth, whatever it be, is of a different nature from that which is brought forth to perfection by the seed of wheat in good ground. Again;
XVII.] CERTAIN PASSAGES IN SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. G61
faith is brought forth by the seed of the gospel, when the promises and exhortations of the gospel, being preached unto men, do prevail on them to give assent unto the truth of it. That every such effect wrought is true, justifying faith, giving union with Jesus Christ, Mr Goodwin cannot prove. That effects specifically different may be brought forth by the same seed of the gospel, seeing "to some it is a savour of life unto life, and to some a savour of death unto death," needs not much proving. Some receive the word, and turn it into wantonness; some are cast into the mould of it, and are translated into the same image, — if "the temper of the heart," as is said, is " not able specifically to alter the gospel." But that there may not fruit of various kinds be borne in the heart that assents to it, that receives it in the upper crust and skin of it, is the question. Neither is it a blade occasionally, withering before the harvest, but a slight receiving of the seed, so as that it can never bring forth fruit, that is intimated. In sum, this whole discourse is a great piece of sophistry, in com- paring natural and rtioral causes in the producing of their effects; a thing not intended in the parable, and whereabout he that will busy himself "jungat vulpes et mulgeat hircos." This is that which our Saviour teacheth us in the similitude of seed sown in the stony ground- The word is preached unto some men, who are affected with it for a season, assent unto it, but not coming up to a cordial close with it, after a while wither away. And such as these, we say, w/re never true believers. A small matter will serve to make a man a; true believer, if these are such. What tendency this doctrine may 'have to lull men asleep in security, when Christ is not in them of a truth, may easily appear and be judged. If men who are distin- guished from other believers by such signal differences as these here are, may yet pass for true believers, justified, sanctified, adopted ones, " solvi[te] mortales curas," — the way to heaven is laid open to thousands, who, I fear, will never come to the end of the journey.