Part III

PART III.

EESOLVING SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT GEOWTH IN MORTIFICATION

AND VIVIFICATION.

CHAPTER I. About growth in mortification ; two questions

Quest. 1. Whether every new degree of mortification be always universal, extending itself to every sin ? . . 502 Answer affirmative, and that for three reasons, . . 502 An objection answered, .... 503

Quest. 2. Whether in the endeavours of a believer to mortify some one particular lust, that lust becomes not more mortified than others?...... 503 Answered, . . . . . 503

CHAPTER IL About growth in vivification ; three questions Quest. 1. Whether every new degree of grace runs through all the faculties? ...... 505 Answered affirmatively,..... 505

Quest. 2.- Whether one grace may not grow more than another ? 505 Answered by three propositions, . . . 505

Quest. 3. Concerning the manner of this growth, whether it be a deeper radicating the same grace in the heart, or by a new addition?....... 506 Answered, - .... 506

THE YANITY OF THOUGHTS,

The heart compared to a house of common resort, . . 509 The heart must be washed, not swept only, . . . 509 We must not lie down with unclean thoughts, . . .509 The vanity of your thoughts, . . . . .510

THE VANITY OF THOUGHTS. xxv

PAGE

1. What is meant by thoughts

(1.) All the internal acts of the mind of man, . . 510

(2.) Their frame, or how conceived, . . 51 1 When ours, and not the devil s, . . . 5] i How evil thoughts oft-times are punishments of the ne

glect of our thoughts, . . . .511 2. Vanity what, and how diversely taken

(1.) For unprofitableness, . . . .512

(2.) For lightness, . . . . 512

(3.) For folly, 512

. . . .512

For inconstancy and frailty,

5.) For wickedness and sinfulness, . . . 512 3. Thoughts are sins ; seven reasons for it

S4.)

(1.) The law judgeth them so, . . . .512

(2.) They are capable of pardon, . . . 512

(3.) They are to be repented of, . . . . 513

(4.) They defile the man, . . . .513

(5.) They are abominable to the Lord, . . . 513

(6.) They hinder all good, . . .513

(7.) They are the first motioners of all evil, . . 513

4. Particulars wherein this vanity of the thinking power consists

First, In regard of thinking what is good

(1.) In a want of ability to raise holy considerations, 513

In a loathness to entertain holy thoughts, . 514,

3.) The mind will not be long intent on them, . 515

!2.)

(4.) In thinking of them unseasonably,

. . 516 The difference of Christ s, and Adam s, and our thoughts, 516

Secondly, Of the positive vanity of our thoughts, and whereby

it discovereth itself ; and this is seen in five things

(1.) In its foolishness, . . . .516

. . . ,517

(2.) In its independency,

(3.) In its curiosity, . . . .518

(4.) In its taking thought to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, 510

(5.) In its representing and acting over sins in our thoughts, 520 This representation of our sins to our thoughts doth three

things

First, It makes the heart of man vain and empty, 520

Secondly, It maketh our desires impatient,

. 520

Thirdly, It makes them sinful and corrupt,

. 520 The seeming comforts which men have in speculative enjoying of pleasure appear in four things

First, In things present, . . . 520

Secondly, In things future, . . .521

. . .522

Thirdly, In things past,

Fourthly, In acting sins on imaginary suppositions, 523 A sure way whereby to know our natural inclinations, 524

USE I. To be humbled for them, .... 524 The reasons why we should be humbled for them, . . 524 USE II. To make conscience of them, . . . 525 The reasons why, . . . . .525

The uses of the discovery of the vanity of our thoughts

CONTENTS.

Kemedies against vain thoughts

First, Get the heart furnished with a stock of sanctified knowledge

. . . . .526

in spiritual truths,

. 526

Secondly, Endeavour to keep up holy affections in the heart,

Thirdly, Get thy heart possessed with deep apprehensions of God s

holiness, . . . . . .527

Fifthly, Observe thy heart all day, ... 527

Fourthly, Especially do this when thou awakest, . . 527

Eighthly, Commit thy ways to God,.... 528

Sixthly, Please not thy fancy too much with vanities, 528

. . . 528

Seventhly, Be diligent in thy calling,

A PEEFACE TO THE EEADEE;

How unfit I am to perform even this common and usual office of introducing thee to the entertainment which the following discourses will afford, the

knowledge which I ought to have of myself is sufficient to convince me ; for it cannot be expected that I should give a due character of the author, which hath been already drawn by a more excellent hand,t and which for me to attempt, as it would not be comely, so it is above my undertaking. It would as ill suit with my disability, who am inconsiderable and so little

known, to offer my mean judgment needlessly to recommend any of his

writings to the world. All that is proper and agreeable for me to do is to

assure thee that these which I have had the care of publishing are the genu ine issue of his thoughts, most of them the mature fruits of the later years of his life, and to give some short account of their order and general design. I have here offered to public view, in a second volume of his works, several discourses upon great and important truths ; that what were his own

retired and profitable meditations may, by the divine blessing, become a common benefit.

The first which presents itself is An Exposition on the Revelation ; a por tion of Scripture so abstruse, that though it has exercised the thoughts and

i a sealed

studies of many worthy divines, may yet, in some respects, be called

book; which will be more perfectly explained when he who alone is found

worthy to open it, the holy Lamb of God, shall come to unfold all its diffi

cult passages in their glorious accomplishment. As the author lived and

rejoiced in this hope, he has here in this his comment pointed to the founda

tion upon which he grounded it, even a sure word of prophecy. But as he was fully ascertained that God would in his own time make good his

word, he was not over-curious in dating the day of his performance. You

will find him modest in this point ; he himself determines nothing, but ex-

* This preface, by Goodwin s son, prefixed to the second volume of the folio works,

is inserted here, although but a small part of it refers to the treatises contained in this

volume. ED. t Mr Thankful Owen, in his Preface to the Exposition, upon the Epistle to the Ephe-

sians. [Given in this Edition, vol. i., p. xxxix. ED.]

XXV111 A PEEFACE TO THE READER.

presses the opinions of others rather than his own, though he indeed illus

trates them with reasons which might make them look probable j and though

they have proved to be mistaken in their calculations, yet many things occur

in drawing them up which are not altogether unworthy of being remarked.

Their account indeed is now superannuated, yet it was proper enough for the

author to mention it at the time of his writing this discourse, which was in

the year 1639. It seems to be the divine prerogative to know the times and

the seasons ; and as he always chooseth the fittest, he reserves to himself

the exact knowledge of his own appointed day.

That which comes next in order of these treatises is, A Discourse of the

Knowledge of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ; which I have

placed the first of these theological tracts, (and of others that are to follow,

if Providence permits me an opportunity of publishing them, which insist

upon other the chiefest heads of divine knowledge,) because it is the design

of the first rudiments of religion to instruct us what due apprehensions we

ought to have of the Deity. As our Saviour tells us, that this is life eter

nal, to know God the Father, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, so it is

the firm foundation whereon the beautiful and uniform structure of all other

truths is built ; and sad experience in all ages hath made us understand into

what wild imaginations, as to the other parts of our Christian religion, those

unhappy men have wandered, (as the Arians in the primitive times, and the

Socinians in our own,) who have stumbled, and so made a false step in their

entrance at this first and principal truth. The author, who considered the

irremediable mischiefs of the least error in these first articles of faith, and

saw the proneness in men to mistake, has made it his chief design, in all the

parts of this discourse, to direct our thoughts to due conceptions of the

divine nature, of the Trinity, and the person of Christ. And as his asser

tions herein are no other than according to those measures the word of God

has prescribed, he has fetched his proofs from the same magazine ; and the

evidence of his arguments is the more convincing, since it proceeds from that

light which he beats out by comparing places of Scripture together. If

any should judge some of his notions to be too fine, and condemn his

thoughts for taking too high a flight, and leaping over the common bounds

of knowledge ; this may be pleaded in defence, that he has at least asserted

nothing that contradicts a received truth, or which by any consequence may weaken the foundations of religion. Nay, he asserts nothing but what

divine authority in Scripture does countenance ; he proves all by plain texts, and by an easy, unforced explication, without racking or torturing them to make them speak his own mind. He is the vender of no new opinions, since what he delivers he clearly evinces to be the sense of the eternal oracles

of truth. Nor is he too boldly curious, since he is not wise beyond what is

written ; and the inquisitiveness of his mind should not be prejudged, when

his inquiries have proceeded according to the conduct of an infallible guide. And if they have gone further than others, it is only because, having seen

the glimpse of a truth, he could not leave it till he had pursued it down

through the most intimate recesses of Scripture. It is certainly allowable to

A PREFACE TO THE READER.

dig deeper in those mines which are inexhaustible, and where those who come after the diligence of others may still find new and far richer treasures. Our spiritual knowledge surely is capable of increase, and further degrees may be yet added to it ; for even after those glorious times wherein God has promised to bless his people with larger effusions of his Spirit, who shall lead them into all truth, they yet will then know but in part : and indeed all the successive ages of the world put together afford too short a time for us

perfectly to search into the deep things of God, since eternity itself will give us but space enough to know and admire them.

The discourse which follows is, Of the Creatures, and the Condition of their State by Creation; which I have placed before that of Election, because

though indeed the electing decree externally preceded the framing of this

world, yet God made his choice out of the creatures which he determined to

make, and considered them in the state wherein they were placed by crea

tion. And the author, when he evinces the necessity of an election-grace to save certainly and infallibly any of either angels or men, draws his most

cogent proof from the mutability of the creature, which absolutely required a supernatural grace to secure its establishment. And he therein refers the

reader to this discourse, wherein he proves that the creature, as such, was

changeable and uncertain in the best circumstances of its condition, and had

a very unfixed station when it stood, and flourished in all the glory of its in

nocence. It is therefore requisite for the intelligent reader, if he would un

derstand the force of the argument, to peruse what is discoursed in this

treatise concerning the weak and unstable condition of the creatures, which

renders the grace of election indispensably necessary unto their salvation. And as the author had it in his eye and heart, not only to prove the absolute

need we have of this grace, but also to celebrate unto the height its glory and

praise, in prosecution of this design he compares all the advantages which

Adam, as an innocent creature, by nature possessed, with all those signal mercies which belong to that condition whereunto grace advances the elect

since the fall, and endeavours to convince us how vastly those blessings we

receive from Christ, the second Adam, excel all the benefits which the Crea

tor s bounty bestowed upon the first j how grace instates us in a higher

happiness than we should have enjoyed, though we had lived with our first

father in innocence ; how grace makes us gainers by the loss of all paradise s

pleasures, though we are apt to envy and regret that we have lost them ; and how the state of the meanest soul that belongs to Christ, who is blessed

with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in him, is infinitely preferable to Adam s primitive condition, with all its enjoyments. Thus in this dis

course he prepares the mind of the reader to admire and adore the riches of

that grace, which further to evince and illustrate is the whole design of that

which follows in the last place of this volume.

The last discourse, then, is Of Election, which to so many is a hard saying, a stumblingblock, and a stone of offence. He discourses this high truth

with such a wary exactness, that its greatest opposers will not find anything in what he asserts whereon to fasten those invidious reflections, those harsh

XXX A PREFACE TO THE EEADEE.

and horrid consequences with, which they use to deform this doctrine, to make it look affrighting. He is very tender in the point of reprobation, and

expresses himself no otherwise concerning it than the Scriptures themselves

do : viz., that there are some of mankind whom God has left out of the com

pass of his gracious decrees, as indeed he was not obliged to share equal

favour to all ; that these are the rest, or remainder, Rom. xi. 7, when G-od

has chosen out the others ; that these he resigns to the conduct of their

free-will, and leaves them to go on in their own ways, Acts xiv. 1 6, and to

reap at last the bitter fruits of their evil actions. After he has proved the

necessity of such a grace as is derived from the decree of election to assure

the salvation of both angels and men, and that all whom God hath rescued

from the misery and ruin of the fall were really saved by this grace, he

proceeds to illustrate the infinite greatness of it by many considerations : as,

that it appoints, and certainly brings us to a higher glory and blessedness

than was the de sign of creation to confer on the creature, though they had

continued in innocence ; and that it commends itself by a discriminating

love, which makes a difference between the elect and the other of mankind. He then discourses how infallibly God s decrees of election obtained their

designed issue, and proves largely how an effectual invincible grace does cer

tainly accomplish what the decree and counsel of God s will had determined.

These were the truths which exercised the thoughts and heart of the author,

the element in which he lived, the air in which his soul breathed, and by which a spiritual life was constantly maintained in it. And as he experi enced that they afforded him comfort and support against all his temptations and trials, he committed them to writing, that others might receive from

them the same solace and refreshing help as he did.

It renders his loss the more supportable, that he has left behind him, now

that he is retired out of sight, what may perpetuate a grateful remembrance

of him among men ; that though God hath withdrawn him to heaven, he

may yet be useful to His church here on earth; that his service is not ended

with his life, nor buried with him in the dust and though he rests frdm

all his labours, yet the fruits of them may follow him, even after he is gone hence to receive their reward. He lives again in this offspring of his better

part, his mind ; and being dead, he yet speaks in them the same truths, which when living were the most delightful entertainment of his thoughts.

But I forget that I assume too much to myself, in delivering my own

thus freely, in things which are indeed so much above me ; and I know not how a zealous affection for the memory of a father s name, whom I cannot

but love and honour in the grave, hath carried me beyond the bounds

of that reservedness and modesty which would perhaps have far better

become

THO. GOODWIN.