The Lightless Star, Chapter 13
CHAP. XIII.
Goodwin.
SEcondly, Whereas it was objected, that men in their naturall estates, are by the Scriptures termed darknesse, and in this respect presented as unable to comprehend the light of the Gospell: I answer, there is in the controversies about the extent and efficacy of the grace of God vouchsafed unto men, as great abuse of the word Naturall (and so of the word Supernaturall, a terme not found in the Scriptures, either formally or vertually) as there is of the word Orthodox, in this and many others. The Scripture knoweth not the word Naturall, in any such sense or signification, where in it should expresse or distinguish the unregenerate estate of a man, from the regenerate: Our Translators indeed render foreign foreign (in the Scripture adjoyning, of which a … presently) the naturall man, but quo jure nondum liquet. And however the whole carriage of the context round about, maketh it as clear as the light (as I have elsewhere argued and proved at large) that it is not the unregenerate man, but the weake Christian, that is there spoken of, and termed foreign, as a little after (in the same contexture of discourse) he is termed foreign, carnall, and foreign, a babe or youngling in Christ. If therefore, by the naturall estate of men, the objection meaneth the unregenerate state of men, according to the whole compasse and extent of it, and under all the differences which it admitteth, I absolutely deny that the Scripture any where termeth naturall men, darknesse.
Resbury.
1 The word Naturall (and so Supernaturall) is as much abused, as the word Orthodox, that is, they are both rightly used in the sense which he opposeth.
2 How vainly he quarrells at the translation of the word foreign, Naturall, and falsely interprets it of the weak… Christian, we shall see in its proper place:
3 Whereas he denyes the word naturall to be found in Scripture in any such sense as should distinguish the unregenerate state of man from the regenerate, and the word supernaturall in the argument of the efficacy of grace to be found either formally or vertually: I must charge this bold assertion of his, 1. With selfe-contradiction. 2. With notorious falsehood. 3. With ranke Pelagianisme.
First, With selfe-contradiction: pag. 9. of his Preface hee chargeth them with great errors, who will have reason laid aside in enquiries after matters of a spirituall and supernaturall concernment, which he there makes the same with matters of Religion; what is then spirituall, and what is of religious nature, by your own confession there, is supernaturall. But all Christian graces (Faith, Hope, Love, &c.) are spirituall and of religious nature; therefore, grace and the efficacy of it, are supernatural. Vertually then at the least, this word supernatural is found in Scripture, in this argument of the efficacy of grace, for those graces are by the efficacy of a gracious influx, and in them is there an efficacious vertue of spiritual nature, otherwise, how are they spirituall?
2 With notorious falsehood, so obvious, that was not the sword upon his right eye utterly darkening it, I cannot imagine how such a doctrine should have escaped his pen. Let us bring it to the touch-stone of the Scriptures, singling out of many texts a few, Iohn 3. 5, 6, 7, 8 Is not there a first, and second birth; the first natural, the second supernatural? and is not this the effect of grace? is it not by divine impression upon the soule by the spirit of God, that any one is borne of the spirit? Iohn 5. 25. The hour is coming, and now is, that the dead shall hear the voyce of the Sonne of God, and they that …èare shall live. Is not the conversion of a sinner here set forth to be a spiritual resurrection? and is not a spiritual resurrection both as spirituall (by your owne grant) and as a resurrection supernatural? Eph. 2. 5, 6. Is it not a supernatural work, To quicken such as were dead in trespasses and sinnes, to raise them up together with Christ, and make them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Iesus? This union with Christ, and these spirituall advancements of the soule in Christ, are they not supernatural, and by the efficacy of grace? Ephes. 4. 22, 23, 24. Is not that change, In putting off the old man, in being renewed, and putting on the new man, which is created, &c. by the operation, and efficacy of Grace, and is it not supernaturall? 1 Cor. 2. 9. to the 15.
Is not that revelation of the spirit discovering what eye hath not seen, &c. Searching the deepe things of God, things as farre above the spirit of the naturall man, as the things of man, are above the spirit of a beast? Things which the spirit of the World, that is, that spirit which is common to men, cannot discover, things, that can no otherwise be discovered but by Spirituall light, things, which the Naturall man therefore cannot receive, because they are Spiritually discerned; Is not the revelation of these things supernaturall? A revelation which flesh and bloud makes not, Titus 3. 5. The washing of Regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Doth it report nothing supernaturall to your eare? We might adde, 2 Cor. 5. 17. that new Creation there; and Iam. 1. 18. that new generation there; and Iob. 6. 44, 45. that drawing, and teaching of the Father, with many others of like kinde; are all these naturall, nothing in these above the power and operation of Nature, and that in this corrupt state? By this time I hope it appeares, that the word Naturall belongs to the unregenerate, and that Regeneration is by supernaturall operation, and that the unregenerate, or Naturall man, as such, is in Scripture Language darknesse.
Thirdly, with ranke Pelagianisme, I call it ranke, because thus farre it agrees with the first and second state formerly declared, as to admit no supernaturall operation upon the Soule, for conversion, or recovery from sinne, if this be not your meaning, I pray disclose your Riddle, for no man I thinke can judge otherwise by your words.
Goodwin.
Those Ephesians of whom the Apostle saith, They were sometime darknesse, had been not only, or simply unregenerate, but had walked in sins and trespasses, according to the course of this world, and after the Prince that ruleth in the Aire, that worketh effectually in the Children of disobedience, by whom their understanding had been darkned, and they possessed with many false, wicked, and blasphemous conceits concerning God, and the Gospel, &c. All which imply on unregenerate estate most dangerously encumbred, and from whence it argued the high and signall grace and favour of God, that even they should be delivered. The Jewes also, (Joh, 1. 5.) are termed darknesse upon a like account, viz. because they were strangely and desperately prejudiced, and pre-possessed with erroneous Notions, and conceits against Christ, and about the estate of their Messiah's first coming unto them, they expecting the forme of a great Monarch, rejected, and Crucified him in the forme of a Servant; it was this darknesse, which they had through an oscitant, loose, and sensuall converse with their owne Scriptures, voluntarily suffered to grew, and spread it selfe upon the face of their mindes and understandings, that was a snare upon them, and occasioned the sad event here mentioned, viz. That when the light shone upon them (i. e. when sufficient and pregnant meanes were vouchsafed unto them, to have brought them to the knowledgement of their Messiah) they comprehended it not, i. e. did not by the meanes of it come to see, and understand that, for the sight and knowledge whereof it was given them; for that (by the way) is to be observed, that the Evangelist doth not say, that the darknesse, in which the light shined, could not, or was not able to comprehend it, but only that it did not comprehend it.
Now it is a knowne Principle in reason, that a Negatione actus, ad negationem potentiae non …alet argumentum, there may be a defect in action, or performance, where there is no defect of power for action. And the very observation and report which the Evangelist makes of the Non-comprehension of the light by the darknesse, in which it shone, plainely enough imports, that the defectivenesse of this darknesse, in not comprehending the light, did not consist in, or proceed from any Naturall or invincible want of power to comprehend it, but from a blindnesse voluntarily contracted, and willingly, if not wilfully persisted in; for how can it be reasonably supposed, that this Evangelist, who flyeth an higher pitch then his Fellowes, in drawing up his Evangelicall Tidings for the use and benefit of the World, should in the very entrance of his Gospell, and whilst he was thundring out on high, (as one of the Fathers speakes) the Divinity of Christ, insert the relation of a thing that had nothing strange, nothing more then of ordinary and common observation in it? or is any thing more then ordinary, or what is most obvious, that men doe not fly in the Aire like Birds, or that Fishes doe not speake on the earth like men? Or is it a thing of any whit the more savoury consideration then these, that men voyd of all capacity, and destitute of all power to comprehend the light, should n…t comprehend it? but that there should be a Generation of men, whom it so infinitely concerned to comprehend the light, to acknowledge and owne their Messiah being now come unto them, and who withall had a rich sufficiency of meanes to have done the one, and the other, should notwithstanding be so stupid, and unlike men, as not to comprehend this light, nor to acknowledge or owne this their M…ssiah, is a matter of high admiration, and astonishment, and the mention of it very commodious, and proper for the subject of the discourse which the Holy G…st had now in hand (as might be shewed more at large) but I feare the Reader hath more then his burthen of an Epistle.
Resbury.
1 Here you answer certaine Objections against your new Doctrine, and in the first place (if I mistake not) you contradict your selfe, by the genius of your discourse, granting that in the Call of the Ephesians there was a supernaturall worke, for as much as you affirme that their state, which was of darknesse, was not such as naturall to fallen man, whom you will have, it seemes, meerly in his Naturall state, a Childe of Light rather then of Darknesse (as Prosper upbraides the Collator) so that howsoever nothing supernaturall be required, for bringing men to faith and repentance generally, yet here it must be admitted; if so, then is the word supernaturall vertually found in the Scriptures.
2 Your supposall of their unregenerate state so dangerously encumbred above the unregenerate state of the generality of men, that thence this difference should arise, That though they were darknesse, yet these are not, is false and frivolous; for,
1 These very sins and trespasses, whence you argue the speciall aggravation of their condition, were the very same wherein the whole world walked—according to the course of the world, and in the same subjection to the Devill was the world—according to the Prince of the power of the Aire, the Spirit that wrought in the children of disobedience; Such were all unregenerate, needs must the course of the world be according to that Prince, who is the Prince of the world, the god of the world. Nay, the Apostles, and first converted Iewes, borne and bred in the visible Church, before conversion, had their conversation among them, and were children of wrath together with them; here was then nothing peculiar to them in their unregeneracy of force to quit the Naturall man of this charge of darknesse.
2 These sins and trespasses, wherein they walked were the fruits of Naturall corruption, whereby all men are dead in sinne, they here, though dead in actuall sins, yet dead by originall sinne; Thus the Apostle describes this sinfull conversation to be in the lusts of the flesh, and a fulfilling the wills of the flesh, and of the minde, all these sins of theirs were the workes of the flesh; and what is the flesh but corrupt Nature found in all men, to them derived from the first man? Ioh. 3. 6. That which is borne of the flesh, is flesh, diametrically opposed to the Spirit, which is the fountaine of Spirituall light and life; and that which is borne of the Spirit, is spirit; without which Spirituall birth, Nicodemus his grosse apprehensions there, shew the darknesse of the Naturall man; this flesh, or corruption of Nature, called likewise the Old man, made up of many deceitfull Lusts, the fountaine of this evill conversation, Ephes. 4. 22. called by the same Apostle, The Law of the Members, contrary to the Law of the minde, but of the minde renewed (for otherwise, walking in those abominable wayes whilst unregenerate, they fulfilled the desires or will… of the minde, in fulfilling the will of the flesh, called, The Body of death. Likewise, Rom. 7. through which the Naturall man is dead; nay, so much as remaines of it in the Spirituall man, so much death there is still, as the Apostles complaint testifies; this the fountaine of whatsoever sins the Apostle, now regenerate, was pester'd with; the fountaine then of all sins, and only of sinne in unregeneracy. The deadly strength of this corruption we see further by singular instance in David, a Person so holy, yet how upon advantage and surprisall did it prevaile against him, to put forth those deadly fruites of Adultery, and Murther, which sins he derives from Naturall corruption, that had seized him in the wombe, Psal. 51. Further, the Apostle charging corruption of Nature upon all Mankinde, Iewes and Gentiles, not one excepted, Rom. 3. he makes up his charge of most hideous sins—Their throat an open Sepulchre, the poyson of Aspes under their lips, their mouth full of cursing and bitternesse, their feet swift to shed bloud, &c. because of those strong inclinations which are in all men through Originall sinne, to these great transgressions; and where ever sins of this, or any other kind are actually committed, they are the fruits of this corruption; where they are not committed, it is from the restraining hand of God, at least, upon men. It was then by the corruption of Nature common to all, that these Ephesians were dead in trespasses and sinnes, covered over there-with, as with the deadly streames of that spring of death running over them; but the state of death is a state of darknesse to the utmost. Adde, that all unregenerate men, in the state of death and darknesse, through corruption, are likewise in the possession, and under the dominion of the Prince, and of the power of darknesse, by whom the remainders of Naturall light (which is farre from Spirituall, holy, saving light are more and more darkned, and the capacity of Historicall light more weakned; the Doctrine then of the Naturall mans darknesse, even in a state of death maintained, as we saw before by the Fathers, against the Pelagian…, stands firme upon Scripture-foundations, against which your attempts are as vaine, asimpious; so much for your first instance.
Now for the second Instance of the Iewes, you say, 1 Ioh. 5. it is manifest that darknesse is there charged upon all men made by him, ver. 3, 4, 5. and is not the like charge of darknesse upon all? otherwhere, 1 Cor. 2. 12. 14. and Iob 11. 12. vaine man would faine be wise, though he be borne (he is so by nature then) like a wilde Asses colt. The men of your Doctrine are deep in this condemnation of vaine men: to no purpose then is your Discourse, applying this darknesse to the Iewes only, telling us of these and these things more then ordinary in them, making for this darknesse in them; As for your observation, that the Evangelist doth not say, (the darknesse could not, but did not comprehend the light) you discover high Pelagianisme againe, for though you interpret this of the Iewes, whose unregenerate estate you will have by strong and desperate prejudices against Christ to be much more encumbred, then is the unregenerate state of men generally, yet you will not allow that these could not comprehend that light.
2 This observation of yours is very vaine▪ as appeares by your trifling argument, viz. That the consequence holds not from the denyall of the Act, to the denyall of the Power. For,
1. From the universal denyal of the act, without exception, the consequence holds strongly to the denyal of the power, because God gives no power in vaine, but here is an universall denial of the Act, as we have seen by the context; this non-comprehension being charged upon all men, and it is evident in experience, except Mr. Goodwin, shall produce that naturall man, which comprehends this light.
2 The Power it self is otherwhere, and that very clearly denied, as we have but now seen, in our discourse of naturall corruption, and the naturall mans subjection, to the powers of darknesse in consent with which Scriptures this must be interpreted.
As for your following Discourse it is not worth a deafe nut, though you flourish it as much as you can: an ill face needs a good dresse; triviall matter must have words to set it off; the sum of your Rhetorication is, that if there be that naturall darknesse and impotency upon all men, it was impertinent for the Evangelist to charge it upon the Iewes, especially when he was entring upon Gospell-doctrine, beginning with that high and maine doctrine, the Divinity of Christ. But 1. His charge is here upon all men as we have seen, not upon the Iewes alone, 2. Is it such a wonder, that he that is about to set forth Christ, as mans redeemer, should teach the doctrine of natural impotency and corruption, without which all other doctrines of Christ were in vaine? you may doe well upon the account of your proper reasoning, here to strike out the two first, and halfe the third chapter of the Epistle to the Ro…ant, your selfe, and brethren in error with you, are proofe sufficient how necessary that doctrine is, when notwithstanding it is so plainly and frequently taught, yet it is so strange to you; and now what was your drift in your former plausible discourse against errour is manifest, namely, that which we there mentioned to undermine the true doctrine of naturall darknesse, and impotency. You conclude this Section, That you feare the Reader, hath more then his burthen of an Epistle: you need not doubt it, except there had been more truth and worth in it.