The cause of proceeding in this chapter — Mr G.’s attempt, chap. xii. of his book — Of the preface to Mr G.’s discourse — Whether doctrine renders men proud and presumptuous — Mr G.’s rule of judging of doctrines called to the rule — Doctrine pretending to promote godliness, how far an argument of the truth — Mr G.’s pretended advantages in judging of truths examined — The first, of his knowledge of the general course of the Scriptures — Of the experience of his own heart — And his observations of the ways of others — Of his rational abilities — Ezek. xviii. 24, 25, proposed to consideration — Mr G.’s sense of this place — The words opened — Observations for the opening of the text — The words farther weighed — An entrance into the answer to the argument from hence — The words hypothetical, not absolute — Mr G.’s answer proposed and considered — Whether the words are hypothetical — The severals of the text considered — The “righteous man” spoken of, whom — Mr G.’s proof of his interpretation of a “righteous man” considered — Dr Prideaux’s sense of the righteous person here intended considered — Of the commination in the words,” Shall die” — The sense of the words — What death intended — Close of the consideration of the text insisted on — Matt. xviii. 32–35, taken into a review — Whether the love of God be mutable — What the love of God is — 1 Cor. ix. 27; in what sense it was possible for Paul to become a reprobate — The proper sense of the place insisted on manifested — Of the meaning of the word ἀδόκιμος — The scope of the place farther cleared — Heb. vi. 4–8, x. 26–29, proposed to consideration — Whether the words be conditional — The genuine and true meaning of the place opened in six observations — Mr G.’s exceptions to the exposition of the words insisted on removed — The persons intended not true believers — This evinced in sundry considerations — The particulars of the text vindicated — Of the illumination mentioned in the text — Of the acknowledgment of the truth ascribed to the persons mentioned — Of the sanctification mentioned in the text — Of tasting the heavenly gift — To be made partakers of the Holy Ghost, what — Of tasting the good word of God and powers of the world to come — Of the progress made by men not really regenerate in the things of God — The close of our considerations on these texts — Heb. x. 38, 39 — Mr G.’s arguing from thence considered and answered — Of the right translation of the words — Beza vindicated, as also our English translators — The words of the text effectual to prove the saints’ perseverance — Of the parable of the stony ground, Matt. xiii. 20, 21 — Mr G.’s arguing from the place proposed and considered — The similitude in the parable farther considered — An argument from the text to prove the persons described not to be true believers — 2 Pet. ii. 18–22 — Mr G.’s arguings from this place considered, etc.
Though I could willingly be spared the labour of all that must ensue to the end of this treatise, yet, it being made necessary by the endeavours of men not delighting in the truth which hitherto we have asserted for the opposition thereof, and lying, I hope, under the power and efficacy of that heavenly exhortation of “contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,” I shall with all cheerfulness address myself thereunto; yea, the service and homage I owe to the truth itself, causing this engagement for its rescue from under the captivity wherein by the chains of Mr Goodwin’s rhetoric it hath been some time detained, being increased and doubled by the pressing and violent wresting of sundry texts of Scripture to serve in the same design of bondaging the truth with him, is a farther incitation to add my weak endeavours to break open those doors and bars which he hath shut and fastened upon them both, for their joint deliverance.
In Mr Goodwin’s 12th chapter, he takes into participation with him, as is pretended, eight places of Scripture, endeavouring by all means possible to compel them to speak comfortable words for the relief of his fainting and dying cause. Whether he hath prevailed with them to the least compliance, or whether he will not be found to proclaim in their name what they never once acknowledged unto him, will be tried out in the process of our consideration of them.
In the first and second sections he fronts the discourse intended with an eloquent oration, partly concerning the tendency of the doctrine of the saints’ perseverance, which he girds himself now more closely to contend withal, partly concerning himself, his own ability, industry, skill, diligence, and observation of doctrines and persons, with his rules in judging of the one and the other.
For the first, he informs us that his judgment is, “That many who might have attained a ‘crown of glory,’ by a presumptuous conceit of the impossibility of their miscarrying, are now like to ‘suffer the vengeance of eternal fire;’ men thereby gratifying the flesh with wresting the Scriptures to the encouragement thereof.”