John Owen · 72 of 73

Chapter XVII. A review of passages in scripture adduced to prove the apostasy of saints. · Part 6

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, Ὁ δὲ δίκαιος ἐκ πίστεως ζήσεται· καὶ ἐὰν ὑποστείληται, οὐκ εὐδοκεῖ ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν αὐτῷ· ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ἐσμὲν ὑποστολῆς εἰς ἀπώλειαν, ἀλλὰ πίστεως εἰς περιποίησιν ψυχῆς. In the foregoing part of the chapter, the apostle had treated of two sorts of persons:— (1.) Such as, to forsake the assemblies of the , withdrew from the church and of Christ, and so by degrees fell off with a total and everlasting Of these the apostle speaks, describing their ways and end, from verse 25 unto verse 31. 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 father exhorts them to, that, by patient 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 God would take vengeance, he lays down that eminent 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 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 καί in the next words is plainly adversative and exceptive, as it is very many times in the New Testament, and that to the persons of whom he is speaking. At ζήσεται, 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, καὶ ἐὰν ὐποστείληται referring to them, whom by their apostasy and subduction of themselves from Christian assemblies he had before descried. 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 have done by that excepted against, causelessly, by Mr Goodwin; for 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, ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐκ, κ. τ. λ., 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 τῆς ὑποστολῆς, and some that are τῆς πίστεως. Those, saith he, who are τῆς ὑποστολῆς, they shall be destroyed; those who are τῆς πίστεως, they shall live; — evidently 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 38 he lays down in thesis the state and condition of believers and backsliders. In verse 39 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.) Positively, that they were of the rest, of “them that believe.” And these expressions, verse 39, Οὐκ ἐσμὲν ὑποστολῆς ἀλλὰ πίστεως, do undeniably affirm two sorts of persons in both places to be spoken of, and that ἐὰν ὑποστειληται can by no means be referred to our δίκαιος, which would intermix them whom the apostle, as to their present state and future condition, held out in a contradistinction one to the other 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 τῆς ὑποστολῆς, 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.

But before we pass farther, may not this witness, which Mr Goodwin hath attempted in vain to suborn to appear and speak in his cause, be demanded what he can speak, or what he knows of the truth of that which he is produced to oppose? This, then, it confesseth and denieth not, at first word, that of professors there are two sorts: some are ὑποστολῆς, of such as do or may “draw back unto perdition;” some πίστεως, which “believe to the saving of the soul,” and that in opposition to the others. Also, that those who withdraw are not πίστεως, not true believers, nor ever were, notwithstanding all their profession, and what [ever] their gifts and attainments in and under their profession. So that the testimony produced keepeth still its place, and is “as a king upon his throne, against whom there is no rising up,” but yet speaks quite contrary, clearly, evidently, distinctly, to what is pretended. Both on the one hand and the other is our thesis undeniably confirmed in this place of the apostle: If all those who fall away to perdition were never truly or really of the faith, then those who are of the faith cannot fall away; but they who fall away to perdition were never truly or really of the faith, or true believers: ergo. The reason of the consequent of the first proposition is evident; for their not being of the faith is plainly included as the reason of their apostasy, and their being of the faith intimated as that which would have preserved them from such defection. The minor is the apostle’s, ‘We are not ὑποστολῆς, of them that draw back, but of them that believe;’ which plainly distinguisheth them that draw back from believers. Again: if true believers shall live, and continue to the saving of their souls, in opposition to them that fall away to perdition, then they shall certainly in their faith, for these two are but one and the same; but that true believers shall live, and believe to the saving of their souls, in opposition to them that draw back, or subduct themselves, to perdition, is the assertion of the : ergo. I presume by this time Mr G. is plainly convinced that indeed he had as good (yea, and much better, for the advantage of his cause in hand) have let his witness have abode in quietness, and not entreated him so severely [as] to [make him] denounce judgment against that doctrine which he seeks by him to confirm.

Sect. 32. The parable of the stony ground, Matt. xiii. 20, 21, comes next for consideration. The words chosen to be insisted on are in the verses mentioned, “But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and with joy receiveth it: yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while,” etc. That by the stony ground is meant true believers is that which Mr Goodwin undertakes to prove; but how, in his whole discourse, I profess I perceive not. I must take leave to profess that I cannot find any thing looking like a proof or argument to evince it, from the beginning to the end of this discourse, though something be offered to take off the arguments that are used to prove it to be otherwise. Doth Mr Goodwin think that men will easily believe that faith which hath neither root, fruit, nor continuance, to be true and saving faith? Doubtless, they must have very low apprehensions of saving faith, union with Christ, justification, , , etc., wherewith it is attended, who can once entertain any such imagination. That which is tendered to induce us to such a persuasion may briefly be considered.

Saith he, sect 32, “Now, those signified by the stony ground he expressly calleth προσκαίρους, that is, persons who continue for a time or a season, — that is (as Luke explaineth), οἵ πρὸς καιρὸν πιστεύουσι, who “believe for a season:” so that those who only for a time believe, and afterward make defection from Christ and from the gospel, are nevertheless numbered and ranked by him amongst believers. The words in Luke are very particular: ‘They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away;’ — from it appears that the bearers here described are not compared to the rock or stony ground for the hardness of their hearts, forasmuch as they are said to “receive the word with joy,” which argues an ingenuity and teachableness of spirit in them, and is elsewhere (namely, Acts ii. 41) taken knowledge of by the Holy Ghost as an index or sign of a true believer; but for such a property, disposition, or temper as this, namely, not to give or afford the word so received a radication in their hearts and souls, so intimous, serious, and solid, which should be sufficient to maintain their belief of it, and good affections to it, against all such occurrences in the world which may oppose or attempt either the one or the other.”

Ans. 1. The first reason intimated is, “That they are said to be πρόσκαιροι,” 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 believers.” 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 believe who only profess the faith of the gospel, though the root of the matter be not in them. That of John ii. 23–25 may suffice for undeniable 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 manifest, But, —

3. “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 preaching of Ezekiel was “pleasant” or desirable to them; or in those described Isa. lviii. 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 different, 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 are 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 bring 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 brings 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 whatever 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; 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 comparing natural and moral 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, were 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 distinguished 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.

What remains of Mr Goodwin’s discourse on this text is spent in answering some objections which are made against his interpretation of the place. It grows now late, and this task grows so heavy on my hand that I cannot satisfy myself in the repetition of any thing spoken before or delivered, which would necessarily enforce a particular consideration of what Mr Goodwin here insists on. Let him at his leisure answer this one argument, and I shall trouble him no farther in this matter:—

That faith which hath neither root nor fruit, neither sound heart nor good life, that by-and-by readily and easily yields, upon temptation, to a total defection, is not true, saving, justifying faith. The root of faith, taken spiritually, is the habit of it in the heart, — a spiritual, living habit; which if it reside not in the heart, all assent whatever wants the nature of faith, true and saving. The fruits of faith are, good works and new obedience. That faith which hath not works, James tells you, is dead. Dead and living faith, doubtless, differ specifically. Again, faith purifieth the heart; and when a heart is wholly polluted, corrupted, naught, and false, there dwells no faith in that heart; it is impossible it should be in a heart, and not at least radically and fundamentally purify it. Farther, Mr Goodwin hath told us that true believers are so fortified against apostasy, that they are in only a possibility, in no probability or great danger, of total apostasy; and therefore they who presently and readily fall away cannot be of those who are scarce in any danger of so doing, upon any account whatever; — but that the faith here mentioned hath neither root nor fruit, good heart to dwell in nor good life attending it, but instantly, upon trial and temptation, vanisheth to nothing, we are taught in the text itself: therefore the faith here mentioned is not true or saving faith. That it hath “no root” is expressly affirmed, verse 21. And all the rest of the qualities mentioned are evidenced from the opposition wherein they who are these believers are set unto true believers. They receive the word in “honest and good hearts,” they “bring forth fruit with patience,” they “endure in time of trial,” like the house built on the rock, when the house built on the sand falls to the ground.

One word more with this witness before we part. They who receive the word in honest and good hearts, keep it, do bring forth fruit with patience, and fall not away under temptation (so saith the testimony); but all true believers receive the word in honest and good hearts: ergo; — which is the voice of Mr Goodwin’s fourth witness in this cause.

Then 2 Pet. ii. 18–22 is forced to bring up the rear of the testimonies by Mr Goodwin produced to convince the world of the truth and of his doctrine of the saints’ apostasy, ending his whole discourse in the mire. Observations from the text or context, from the words themselves, or the coherence, to educe his conclusion from, he insists not on. Many excellent words, concerning the clearness and evidence of this testimony, and the impossibility of avoiding what hence he concludes, we want not; but we have been too often inured to such a way of proceeding to be now moved at it or troubled about it. Were the waters deep, they would not make such a noise. The state and condition of the men here described by the apostle is so justly delineated to the eye by the practice of men:in the world to whom the gospel is preached, that I do not a little wonder how any man exercised in the ministry should once surmise that they are true believers of whom he here treats. Taking the words in the sense wherein they are commonly received, and in their utmost extent, who sees them not daily exemplified in and upon them who are yet far enough from the “faith of God’s ”? By the dispensation of the word, especially when managed by a skilful “master of assemblies,” men are every day so brought under the power of their and of the light communicated to them, as to acknowledge the truth and power of the word, and, in obedience thereunto, to leave off, avoid, and abhor, the ways and courses wherein the men of the world, either not hearing the word at all, or not so wrought upon by it, do pollute themselves and wallow in all manner of sensuality; and yet are not changed in their nature, so as to become new creatures, but continue indeed and in the sight of God “dogs and swine,” oftentimes returning to their “vomit and mire,” though some of them hold out in their profession to the end. And these are they whom, commonly, our divines have deciphered under the name of” formalists,” having a “form of godliness, but denying the power of it,” who are here all at once by Mr Goodwin interested in Christ and the “inheritance of the saints in light.” To make good his enterprise, he argues from the Remonstrants, sect. 40, p. 297:—

“1. If the said expressions import nothing but what hypocrites, and that ‘in sensu composito,’ that is, whilst hypocrites, are capable of, then may those be hypocrites who are separated from men that live in error, and from the pollutions of the world, and that through the knowledge of Jesus Christ; and, on the other hand, those may be saints and sound believers who wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile themselves daily with the pollutions of the world. This consequence, according to the principles and known tenets of our adversaries, is legitimate and true, inasmuch as they hold ‘That true believers may fall so foul and so far that the church, according to Christ’s institution, may be constrained to testify that they cannot bear them in their outward communion, and that they shall have no part in the kingdom of Christ, except they ,’ etc. But whether this be wholesome and sound divinity or no, to teach that they who are separate from sinners, and live holily and blamelessly in this present world, and this by means of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, may be hypocrites and children of perdition, and they, on the other hand, who are companions of thieves, murderers, adulterers, etc., saints and sound believers, I leave to men whose judgments are not turned upside down with prejudice to determine.”

Sundry things might be observed from the text to render this discourse altogether useless as to the end for which it is produced: as, 1. That sundry copies, verse 18, instead of ὅλως read ὀλίγον, — who “almost,” or in a little way or measure, so escaped as is said. 2. That it is not said that those who are so escaped may apostatize. It is said, indeed, that the false prophets and teachers δελεάζουσιν, do lay baits for them, as the fisher doth for the fish that he would take, by proposing unto them a liberty as to all manner of impurity and uncleanness; but that in so doing they prevail over them is not affirmed. 3. The conditional expression, verse 20, may be used in reference to the false prophets, and not to them that are said to “escape the pollutions of the world;” and if to them, that nothing can be argued from thence hath plentifully, upon several occasions, been already demonstrated. But, to suffer Mr G. to leap over all these blots in his entrance, and to take the words in his own sense and connection, I say, —

1. In what large and improper sense such persons as we treat of are termed “hypocrites” hath been declared. Those who pretend to be God-ward, what they know themselves not to be, making a pretence of religion to colour and countenance themselves in vice and vicious practices or sensual courses, wherein they allow and bless themselves, we intend not; but such as in some sincerity, under the enjoyment and improvement of gifts and privileges, do or may walk conscientiously (as Paul before his ), and yet are not united to Christ.

2. Of these we say that they may so “escape,” etc. But that sound believers may “wallow in all manner of filthiness, and defile themselves with all manner of pollutions,” we say not; nor will any instance given amount to the height and intendment of these expressions, they being all alleviated by sundry considerations necessary to be taken in with that of their sinning.

3. If we may compare the worst of a saint with the best of a formal professor, and make an estimate of the states and conditions of them both, we may cast the balance on the wrong side.

4. We do say that Simon Peter was a believer when he denied Christ, and Simon Magus a hypocrite and in the “bond of iniquity” when it was said he “believed.” We do say that a man may be alive notwithstanding many wounds and much filth upon him, and a man may be dead without either the one or the other, in that eminently visible manner. He adds, —

“2. The persons here spoken of are said to have ὄντως truly and really, ‘escaped from them who live in error.’ Doubtless a hypocrite cannot be said truly or really, but in show or appearance at most, to have made such an escape (I mean from men who live in error), considering that, for matter of reality and truth, remaining in hypocrisy, he lives in one of the greatest and foulest errors that is.”

The whole force of this second exception lies upon the ambiguity of the term “hypocrite.” Though such as pretend religion and the worship of God, to be a colour and pretext for the free and uncontrolled practising of vile abominations, may not be said so to escape it, yet such as those we have before described, with their convictions, light, gifts, duties, good conscience, etc., may truly and really escape from them and their ways who pollute themselves with the errors of idolatry, false worship, superstition, and the pollutions of practices against the light of nature and their own convictions. It is added that, —

“3. A hypocrite, whose foot is already in the snare of death, cannot upon any tolerable account, either of reason or common sense, be said to be ‘allured’ (that is, by allurements to be deceived) or ‘overcome by the pollutions of the world,’ no more than a fish that is already in the net or fast upon the hook can be said to be allured or deceived by a bait held to her.”

Ans. But he that hath been so far prevailed upon by the preaching of the word as to relinquish and renounce the practices of uncleanness, wherein he some time wallowed and rolled himself, may be prevailed upon and overcome by temptations to backslide into the same abominable practices wherein he was formerly engaged, deserting that way and course of attending to the word and yielding obedience thereunto which he had entertained, that in its own nature tended to a better end. Says he, —

“4. Hypocrites are nowhere said, neither can they with any congruity to Scripture phrase be said, to have ‘escaped the pollutions of the world through the acknowledgment’ (for so the word ἐπίγνωσις should be translated) ‘of Jesus Christ;’ the acknowledgment of the truth, and so of Christ and of God, constantly in the Scriptures importing a sound and saving work of conversion, as we lately observed in this chapter, sect. 20.”

Ans. It sufficeth that the thing itself intimated is sufficiently revealed in the Scriptures, and confirmed by the examples of all those who have acknowledged the truth of the word to the putting on of a form of godliness, though they come not up to the power or saving practice of it. And truly I cannot admit that any one who hath had never so little experience in the work of the ministry, or made never so little observation of religion, should once suppose that all such persons must needs be accounted true believers, , etc.