In considering the theology of the Puritans, we ought carefully to notice differences amongst them, and I shall therefore subdivide them into three classes—the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and the Intermediate. I begin with the Calvinists, and shall select Thomas Goodwin and John Owen.
The influence exerted by Perkins and other Puritan teachers and friends in the University of Cambridge upon the mind of Goodwin when a student, his remarkable conversion, the effect of his residence in Holland, and of his association there, with Dutch Divines, and with “English Dissenting brethren,” are visible in his opinions. Three main stand-points come out sharply in the phases of Goodwin’s theology.
The first is Faith. In his treatise on that subject he discusses (1) the object of faith, including the mercies in God’s nature, the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the riches of free grace as declared and proposed in the Gospel covenant; (2) the acts of faith in the understanding, the affections and the will, respecting which he distinguishes between justifying faith in general, and the faith of assurance; and (3) the properties of faith, its excellence and use—good works, he says, so far from being slighted by the exaltation of belief, are really promoted in a pre-eminent degree by the influence of that principle. It is apparent at once, that in this way a complete scheme of theology is arranged with faith for a pivot on which the entire circle of thought is made to move. Accordingly, we find introduced into this elaborate treatise, nearly, if not quite, all the doctrines comprised within the writer’s evangelical creed. There are abundant descriptions of faith, of what it is, and of what it does, but we do not discover any compact definition of it in any part of the volume. Goodwin alludes to it as sealed in the understanding, in the heart, and in the will,—a description which might seem comprehensive enough to take in all which Thorndike or Bull has advanced on the subject; but Goodwin’s way of working out the idea is very different from theirs, and whilst they are chiefly intent upon preserving the interests of Christian morality, he, although not neglectful of them, is principally engaged in exalting the glories of sovereign grace. According to his theology, faith is commanded by God, it influences all the graces—but it is the meanest and lowest of them all, and it is merely and altogether a passive principle. It should be carefully noticed, as amongst the marked features of Goodwin’s teaching:—not, however, peculiar to him, but common to Puritan Divines—that although he enumerates many objects of faith, by far the most prominent one is Christ Himself, as the great propitiation for sin.[519]
GOODWIN.
Another stand-point of Goodwin’s is Election. He argues for the necessity of this—saying, that without it “Christ had died in vain, and not saved a man,” and had been in heaven alone to lament that He had come short in this work. Goodwin dwells upon the order of God’s decrees touching election and reprobation, and upon the end to which the elect are ordained, even a supernatural union with God, and the communication of Himself to their souls. The infinity of God’s electing grace is a special theme of this writer’s meditations, in which, amongst other points most repulsive to moderate Calvinists, he insists upon a vast disproportion between the elect and the rest—rejoicing not, as one would suppose, in the thought, that the saved immensely outnumber the lost, but in the thought, that the paucity of men who enjoy any privilege magnifies it the more. He speaks of the infinite number of those laid aside in a fallen condition, in comparison with the very few elected out of them, as enhancing the grace of election. He contends for the perfect freedom of election, and the absence in it of all reference to merit or worthiness; for its intimate connection with effectual calling, which he unfolds at length; and for the doctrine of final perseverance, which follows from the doctrine he has previously laid down. It is remarkable that he employs a whole book in showing that election in its ordinary course runs from believing parents to their posterity; that the covenant of grace is entailed upon the children of believers, and that God most usually makes them His choice. He is careful practically to apply his views to Christian parents on the one hand, and to their children on the other.[520]
The doctrine of reprobation is connected by Goodwin with the doctrine of election; it is described as being its dark shadow. If Goodwin was not a supralapsarian, he was, next to that, the highest predestinarian a man could be.[521] It is marvellous how, with all his thoughtfulness, he could have overlooked the question of moral government and human responsibility, in connection with some of his speculations; and it is distressing to find that one so zealous for what he deemed the glory of Divine grace, could lay his scheme of theology open to the charge of its robbing God of the attributes of justice and righteousness.
Goodwin does not, in his treatise on election, or in his other writings, give prominence to the dogma of particular redemption; but he distinctly affirms in one place that the elect alone are redeemed;[522] and his whole system of theology proceeds on the principle, that the death of Christ was a ransom for the salvation of the elect. He presses to the utmost extreme the ideas of suretyship, and of debt-paying; and refers to the sinner’s liability as met by the sufferings of the Saviour, and to the sinner’s bonds as for ever cancelled by the Redeemer’s resurrection. To such an extent does the author carry his notion of the identification of the Lord with His people as their surety, that he positively declares Christ by imputation was made the greatest sinner that ever was—for the sins of all God’s chosen met in Him![523]
The last stand-point of Goodwin, which I have space to notice, is Regeneration. In his treatise, entitled The Work of the Holy Ghost in our Salvation, Regeneration is the theme throughout the volume. Its necessity, its nature, and its cause are illustrated in every variety of form and phrase; and it is noteworthy that no allusion is made to the ordinance of baptism in connection with it, nor is any opportunity lost of placing this spiritual change in relation to the Divine decrees and electing love.[524]
JOHN OWEN.
Were it not that my proper business is to present, as succinctly as possible, the doctrinal views of the Puritans, I should most earnestly combat some of Goodwin’s theological positions, and point out the tremendous consequences which they involve—admitting, at the same time, the redeeming elements, which may be found in his ofttimes wearisome method of instruction. I will only say, that when he wandered into what appear to me not only perilous but pernicious regions of thought, he did but stumble in the midst of fields into which Augustine had gone before, and where Jonathan Edwards followed afterwards. Happily, such men are inconsistent, and whilst sacrificing the righteousness of God in one way, they contend for it most zealously in another.