Take Up the Cross

Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.
— Psalm 110:3

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
— John 1:12-13

And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.
— Numbers 24:20

And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee.
— Matthew 11:23-24

And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.
— Matthew 13:6

And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
— 2 Kings 19:30

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
— Hebrews 2:3

The Usefulness of This Doctrine Concerning Temporary Believers to Many Holy Ends and Purposes, by Thomas Goodwin. The following contains an excerpt from Chapter Two of Book Seven of his work, “The Work of the Holy Ghost in our Salvation.”

CHAPTER II

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
— 2 Pet. I. 3, 4.

For if after they liave escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
— 2 Pet. II. 20, 21.

The apostle farther, in this Heb. 6, sets forth the high and great workings which are in the hearts of temporary believers that fall away, and the dreadful event and issue of their so falling, ver. 8. And as there were in those times the highest effusions of the Spirit and graces wrought in many true Christians in comparison of other times, so there were answerably the highest sort of temporaries (which verses 4, 5 doth speak of), and indeed the most sublimated that corrupt nature was capable of.

He adventures this doctrine among them, true believers that were weak and doubtful. And notwithstanding there might be very many souls entangled in fears that they were of that number, yet this doctrine is good and profitable to men, as the apostle speaks in another case.

Obs. The doctrine and knowledge that there is only a temporary work in many professors, is useful to sincere Christians for many holy ends. Peter declares it to those he wrote to: 2 Peter 2:20–22, ‘For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.’ Jude also, upon occasion of men that had once professed the doctrine of grace, ver. 4, turned it unto wantonness, doth the like at ver. 5, I will put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not.’ The meaning whereof is, he would have them consider that the Israelites’ coming out of Egypt was a type of our ‘common salvation’ (as he hath called it, ver. 3); yea, many of them came forth through a work of God upon them, for they believed: Exod. 4:31, And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.’ They had been in great distress, and man’s nature is apt to believe and embrace news of deliverance in such a case, which was a great ground of that faith in many of them; but however, this, together with the sense of their bondage, moved them to come out of Egypt. You read of the like faith upon the great visible deliverance at the Red Sea; Exod. 14:31, ‘And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.’ But, says Jude, I would have you withal remember, that though their faith served to bring them out of Egypt, yet it was but a temporary faith, such as lasted not, nor served to bear the condition of a wilderness; their faith failed them as to perseverance, cheerfully to go on into the good land. They would, if they could, have returned back into Egypt; and you know the sins they fell into; and concerning them Jude adds, that ‘God afterwards destroyed them that thus believed not.’ And this (saith he) though you know, yet I would have you remember and lay it to heart, as that which was God’s aim and intendment in this dispensation, in relation to those their times, and the professors of it. It is of special use to you all; for this is the case of multitudes of professors, that come out of a gross, sinful condition; they see their former estate to be a state of bondage and damnation (which is as a coming out of Egypt), but their own lusts, in their progress in the wilderness of this life, ruins them. And what befell the Israelites as types, is for our instruction. 1 Cor. 10:11, ‘Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.’

And Jude tells them, that when he set himself to write of our ‘common salvation,’ ver. 3, the Holy Ghost, who dictated this epistle, presented this caution and discourse about such temporary professors first unto him to present unto them.

The like to this also doth Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. 3 and 4, and 1 Cor. 9:24 to the end: ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’ He indeed in that chapter presents this under another scene, and similitudes of the Olympic games, in which many run, bat one obtains; and so in Christianity, many beat the air, and run but uncertainly.

And how much our Saviour insisted on this doctrine, you all know. How many parables did he spend upon it? That parable of parables (as himself indigitates it to be) do you not understand to be, of all other, of the most concernment to you and others? I mean that of the sower, and the several grounds; and the parable likewise of those that built their house on the sand, when others built upon a rock? Moreover, many speeches there are scattered up and down to this effect, that ‘many are called, but few are chosen.’ ‘Enter in at the strait gate, for many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able,’ Luke 13:24. The usefulness of this doctrine is,

1. To awaken dull professors, as our apostle terms those Hebrews, Heb. 5:11, to consider their estate. The wise virgins sleep, Mat. 25:4, as well as the foolish; and the noise of this doctrine rouseth up such sooner than any other.

2. This doctrine is useful to quicken them to holiness, and to endeavour to make sure work. Thus it wrought with Paul himself, and Paul makes use thereof to quicken others. 1 Cor. 9:26, 27, ‘I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it unto subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’ He had this in his eye to the last, after he had done all: ver. 23, ‘And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.’ The like use he makes of it unto all, in 2 Tim. 2:19, &c.: ‘Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.’ It was upon the occasion of the examples of Hymeneus and Philetus, having gone so far, but now shipwrecked both in faith and conscience, that he thus wrote.

3. This doctrine exalts and magnifies unto us the grace of God towards us, as that which hath put so vast a difference between man and man in things that are so like to true grace, and that make men come so near to the kingdom of God. Who caused thee to differ (says the apostle) from another? And that other perhaps had a mighty work upon him, which caused him to profess more than ever thou hadst done. Judas had a work upon him as well as Peter or the rest of the apostles; what put the difference? God’s free grace. ‘Thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and I have lost none, but the son of perdition.’

4. As this doctrine is in these and many other respects useful to us, so God himself hath many holy and glorious ends in ordering such a dispensation to be found amongst professors.

(1.) It is for his greater honour and glory, as he is Lord over his church, which is his house, to have (as in great houses there use to be) ‘vessels not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour,’ 2 Tim. 2:20.

(2.) These dispensations of God, short of regenerating grace, do lay up matter for a great honour unto the man Christ Jesus, as he is to be the judge of all the world, and to give the exact account of every man’s condition and ways and heart, and to judge of them accordingly. One would think that such a work of the Spirit as hath so great a likeness, and that with a reality joined with it, in the hearts and spirits of men, should make a great puzzle and blind at the fatter day, how clearly to distinguish and discover to the men themselves, and all the world, that such professors as these were never truly regenerate, but this will turn to the greater glory to Christ: Heb. 4:12, speaking of Christ, ‘the Word’ (as the close of his speech, ver. 13, shews, before the eyes of him ‘with whom we have to do’); of him thus considered as the Word, he says, ‘He, the Word of God, is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.’ He speaks this of him, as he is to be the judge of all men. ‘All things are naked and open to the eyes of him,’ πρὸς ὃν ὁ λόγος, ‘to whom we must give the account.’ And as in the next verses he represents him as a great high priest in all his compassions, and power ‘to help in time of need,’ so in these 12th and 13th verses he sets him out as a judge, with ability to detect all men to themselves; and he speaks this in a way of admonition, especially to such as were in danger to fall from a work of God upon them, and to become apostates. This the verse before shews us. ‘Lest’ (saith he) ‘any man fall after the same example of unbelief,’ of whom the Israelites in the wilderness were types. And because the discovery of all men’s estates and conditions depends upon an exact dividing or differencing what is in the soul, what is in the spirit, and what are the joints all men’s actions turn upon, and what is the marrow and intimate meaning and mind of every man’s soul in his actions and ways and thoughts; and since such a discovery consists in laying open every man’s ends and intents in his heart and thoughts and principles, hence therefore he compares the power of this judge unto such things as are most quick and powerful, as among metals mercury or quicksilver is, when it is put to other metals by them that are refiners. And though metals are blended and mingled one with another, or with dross never so much, yet this is so quick and so active as it will make every metal run a several way, and sever one from the other, and shew which is which. Thus the light that Christ shall then bring with him will do into all men’s hearts, and all the thoughts and intents and principles, which are the foundations of men’s actions, and which do difference them and give them their several kinds; these will all be clearly discovered; and though the creatures of our hearts (for so he compares our thoughts and intents and purposes, and the like) are for their kind unknown to us, because so like sometimes to the true goodness, yet the apostle says they are all manifest in Christ’s sight, and all lie naked and open unto the eye of him; and he, when he comes to take the account, will lay them all open unto us, that let a man have never so fine-spun a work upon him, never so deep a counterfeit of what is true grace, the light that he will bring will make them all naked unto men themselves, as truly as they are to him. And it is certain that this manifestation and laying bare all men’s hearts could be performed by none but him, or his Spirit, when he comes powerfully upon men to discover their estates to them. But the greatest difficulty of all lying in the similitude of these workings with those that are true and perfect, and hence the greatest difficulty in judging must needs lie here; therefore herein especially will Christ shew his glory and skill, and will give every man his accounts perfectly, and set all right and straight unto the least minute.

(3.) God dispenseth such lower workings, though short of regenerating grace, to make way for a fuller conviction of all sorts of wicked men at the latter day, and to justify himself in his condemnation of them. The great design God doth drive all along in this world upon the sons of men, is to clear himself at that day, and to confound them who shall be condemned; at which day he will have a great deal to do with the hearts of men, to convince them, as ‘Enoch the seventh from Adam in his prophecy, saying,’ Jude 14, 15, ‘Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.’ The hardest speeches that men living under the gospel speak against him, are touching his ways and dispensations about grace; and by this proceeding, he prepares both to confound the deepest practical opinions and sayings in men’s hearts, and also the doctrinal opinions that men living under the gospel do take up hereabout.

1. As for the practical opinions in men’s hearts, the greatest thing that God hath to do withal in all men’s hearts, is this opinion, that they generally will not sec nor believe that corrupt nature in themselves is so corrupt and disabled, to the attainment of that grace which only and necessarily must save them; but on the contrary think, if they have anything that hath the appearance of good in them, that they can do and may do much to the salvation of themselves, especially if they shall be assisted and elevated by the Spirit of God, above what nature doth enable a man to do. God hath on the one hand, as much to do with men in this point, as he hath, on the other hand, to do with men in the breaking forth of their lusts into grosser sins. Men will not believe their own utter inability, and their dependence wholly upon free grace, and their total need of regenerating grace; and therefore, by lesser experiments the failure of lower and inferior workings of his upon them, God goes about to convince them of this their corruption and utter disability, and of the absolute necessity of their total dependence upon him, which yet they will not see; and therefore God justly leaves them here, and works no further, and thereby lays a foundation of justifying his condemnation of them in their several proportions, and the rest of mankind, by the example of those that are wrought upon the highest. And so God provides for nothing more than the conviction of men at the latter day, concerning the falsehood of their opinion of themselves in this respect.

(1.) Men’s opinionativeness herein did cause even heathens to set up what light or virtues they found in themselves, as sufficient to bring them unto happiness. We know the Stoics did set up recta ratio, right reason, for their rule, and their imagined perfection was, vivere secundum naturam, to live according to what seemed good in nature, either in light of conscience, or virtuous dispositions, or inclinations when acted and put in ure. Yea, so impudent hath the devil been, that he hath revived this, we see, in our days, in Quakers, yea, and caused them blasphemously to call this ‘Christ within them.’ Hereupon, says God, and he says it justly, there shall be instances of some of you in the issue, to confute all the rest, in whom this light and these dispositions shall be tried to the utmost how far they will reach (as in Socrates, and Cato, and Aristides, &c.), and yet in the exercises of all these he leaves them, and gives them up unto that which shall convince them of an unregenerate estate; as the apostle doth convince all, those philosophers,’ that whilst they professed themselves wise they became fools, and glorified not God as God, nor were thankful; and some of them were abandoned unto unnatural lusts, as Socrates to the love of Alcibiades, &c. And however, if God hath not left them unto some great sort of wickedness or other, thereby to convince them, yet the discovery of the deficiency of all the light of their consciences, and of all their virtues and virtuous practices, and of the ends, intents, thoughts, and principles of their hearts, which shall be laid open at the latter day, will abundantly detect them, and leave this further conviction upon them herewith, that God had made trial of them in their sphere, how far corrupt nature could go, and yet how infinitely it fell short of true religion and happiness.

(2.) The Jews had a further addition both of knowledge and impressions that accompanied it. They had the knowledge of the law, and God did not deal so with any nation; and they had a zeal of God according to this knowledge, and they thought themselves sure to attain salvation if they set up with this new stock. I need not tell you, out of Rom. 1:6, how whilst they sought after righteousness with all this new raised stock, they did not attain unto the law of righteousness, ver. 31. And Paul’s case, you know, Rom. 7, that what was ordained, as he thought, to life, he found to be unto death; and the conclusion which the apostle makes in Rom. 8 is this, ‘that the law was weak through the flesh,’ ver. 3; that is, all the assistance and energy which it could afford, through man’s heart continuing still corrupt and flesh, remained ineffectual, like physic in a dead man’s body; and the righteousness which they went about to establish, as the apostle says, they were not able to make it stand, though they attempted it again and again, no more than one is able to make a dead man stand, and to continue to do so, Rom. 10:3. So that we see that this addition also made unto the Jew would not do; and yet corrupt nature finding some assistance and strength come in thereby, they thought themselves sufficiently enabled for the attainment of salvation.

(3.) But then, thirdly, when Christ and the light of the gospel comes to be revealed to men, accompanied with divine enlightenings and tastes of the powers of the world to come, though still short of regenerating, men will presently be apt to say in their hearts, ‘Who shall ascend to heaven? that is, to bring Christ down from above. Who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring Christ again from the dead,’ and to bring him into my heart. For still men think, and therefore say thus in their hearts, that by that new strength they may attain it (I take this to be the meaning of the place), and God affords them all helps towards it, inward and outward, true regenerating grace and a new principle of faith only excepted. Still he prosecutes the same design, that corrupt nature may see that when it attains unto the eleventh step of the twelve, and that men* not far off; yet corrupt nature, being corrupt nature still, though never so much assisted, falls short, and is weak and utterly unable. And these things God works once and twice, in a tendency to ‘hide pride from man,’ as Elihu speaks, that man might be emptied of that opinion of himself, and adore and give himself up to the grace of him who hath said, ‘I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy;’ and therefore it is ‘not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that sheweth mercy,’ Rom. 9:15, 16. Paul, we see, there lays it upon that: God acts thus with men also, that they might see the absolute necessity of true regeneration and of a divine nature; but this men would not be brought to see, and therefore God justly leaves them to go on in their own way, and to enjoy their fond opinion to their destruction; because they would needs, against all these experiments, hold up this principle and self-opinion, in defiance of God’s grace, and would be saved upon such terms as would make grace to be no grace. For if this opinion of self-working, though never so much assisted, continues in the heart, the apostle tells us grace would be no more grace. And seeing that the glory of the grace of God would hereby be soiled, if God should save men upon such workings as these, though never so strict or high, he therefore justly, and with indignation, leaves them unto these their own counsels; and hereupon it is that God and they do break off, whilst they are in the midst of a treaty with him for salvation. For they will never come off to receive God and his grace upon his own terms, nor set up God’s banners of his free grace to them, and of sincere love to him, upon their turrets above self; and so by degrees the Lord withdraws his treaties from them, and they by degrees become revolters from him, and in the end return to some of their own rebellions, upon which God says, ‘Which covenant and treaty they brake, and I regarded them not.’

Moreover, God by his discovering such as these never to have had true grace, under so high and eminent workings and actings, needs make but a short work (as to point of conviction) of all the rest; for all those who have lower works than these, of what kind soever, are with ease discovered to have had no grace, when these for a deficiency and want of a wedding garment, or marriage affection to God and Christ, are sent speechless to hell; so then this design and dispensation of God is every way prepared for judging all men at the last day.

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