311 / 504
DoEìaine
of
Apoliafy
difcouraging
as
to duty.
CAP. X[.§: 18.
receive,
and to
fill
their Souks,
and perplex
their
confciences,
with cares,
feares,and manifold
intanglements,
fuited
to
weaken
their Faith, and Love,
and
alienate their hearts from
thatdelight
in
God,
which they
are
called,and
otherwife would be carried forth unto.
They
being all
of
them,
in
Tome
meafure,
acquainted with the ftrength, fubtility
,
and power
of
indwelling
Sinne,
the advantages
of
Sathan
in his
manifold
Temptations, the eminent
fucceile,
which
they
fee
everyday
the
Principalities,
and
in
heavenly
places
which
they wreale withall,to have againft
them,
and being
herewithall
taught, that
there
is
neither
Purpofe,
nor
Promife
of
God for their Prefer-
vation
,
that
there
is
nothing to
that
purpofe
in
the
Covenant
of
Grace;
the
Confideration
oftheir
Condition
muff
of
necefty
fill
them
with
innume-
rable perplexities,andmake them their ówne tormentors
all their daies; thus
farre(I
fay) I
owne
the Obje
&ion;
That
it
is
not properly
courage,
or
confi-
dence,
but
Faith,
Love,
and Reverence,
that
are the Principles
of
our
Actions
in
walking with
God, bath
been declared.
But
what
faith Mr
Goodwin
to
the Obje
&ion,
as
by himfelfe laid
3.,
is,
downe?
Befide
what
he
relateth,of
his
conqueft
of
it
in
other
places, he
ad-
deth
That the Saints, notwithftanding the
poffibility
of
their
final/falling
away,
have,
or
may
have,
fuch,an
Affurance
of
the
'
perpetuity
of
theirftanding, in
the
Grace
and
Favour
of
God, as
may exclude
all
feare, at
lea
fl
that,
which
is
of
a
d
fcouraging
or enfeebling
nature;
The Apoftle,aa we
have formerly
fhewed,
lived
at
a
very excellent
rate
both
of
courage;
and
confidence;
notwithstanding
he
knew
that it
waspof
f
ble
for
him
to become a
Reprobate;
The affurance he
had,
that
up-
on a
diligent
ufe
of
thofe meaner,
which
he
knew affuredly
God would vouchfafe
unto him,
he
fhould prevent
his being a
Reprobate, was a Golden
foundation
unto
him,
of
that
confidence,
and
courage, wherein he
equalizedthe
Holy
Angels
them
-
felves.
Anf.
r. The
grounds afferted by Mr
Goodwin,
on which Believers
may
build
the
Affurance
pretended
of
the perpetuity
of
their
ftanding
in
the
Grace and Favour
of
God,
notwithstanding the
poffibility
of
their
defdtion,
(the
affertion
whereof
costs
no
leffe,
then the
denying
of
all,
or
any influence
front
the
Purpofe, Promifes, Covenant, or
Oath
of
God,
or
Mediation
of
Chrift, into their prefervation)
I
have
formerly
confidered:
and
manifefted
them
to
be
fo
exceeding
unable,to
beare any
fuch
building
of
Confidence
up-
on,
as
is
pretended, that
it
is
almost
a Miracle;
how any thoughts offuch
a
any
uickfands,
could ever finde place
in
the
minde
of
a
man,
thing
bsioufly
acquainted with
the
wayes
ofGod;
The
whole
of
the
Saints
prefervation
in
the
Love and Favour
of
God, (as
it
is
alto expreffed
in
this
seaion)
is
refolved into mens
felfe-
confiderations,
and
indeavours,
Being
weary it feemeth,
ofleaning
on the
Power
of
God,
to
be
kept thereby unto
eternall
Salvation, menbegin
to truft to
themfelves, and
theirowne
Abili-
ties,
to
be their owne keepers:
But
what
will they
doe
in
the
end
thereof?
The
fumme
of
what Mr
Goodwin
bath
formerly
faid
&
what
he
repeateth
a-
gaine
to
the end
of
this
Sellion, is, Men need
not feare
their
falling
away, though
it
is poffible,feeing they may
eafly prevent
it,
if
they
will; Esprefüons
fufficient
ly
contemptive
of
the
Grace
of
God
,
and
the
Salvation
that
God affureth
us thereby; an affertion, which
thofe Ancients,
which
Mr
Goodwin
laboureth
to
draw into communion
with him, would have rejected, and
caft
out
as
Hereticall.
Mans
ability thus
to
preferve himfelfe,
in
the
Grace and Favour.
of
God,
to
the end,
is
either
from himfelfe,or from
theGrace,ofGod
?
If
from
himfelfe? Let
us
know, what
that
Ability
is,
and wherein it
doth
confift,
and
how
he
comes by
it?
Chrift
telleth
us,
that
'without
him
we
can
do
nothing,
and
the
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