THE NINTH CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE WITH THE BANNER OF JUSTIFICATION DISPLAYED. BY JOHN GOODWIN, M. A., SOMETIME FELLOW OF QUEEN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; AND VICAR TO WHICH IS ADDED, EIPHNOMAXIA: THE AGREEMENT AND DISTANCE OF BRETHREN. WITH A PREFACE BY THOMAS JACKSON, AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF THE REV. RICHARD WATSON, &c. &c. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY BAYNES AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW: SOLD ALSO BY JOHN MASON, 14, CITY ROAD, AND 66, Paternoster row MDCCCXXXV. PREFACE. The JOHN GOODWIN, the learned author of the following tracts, lived in a stirring and eventful age. principles of government, both civil and ecclesiastical, the subjects and mode of baptism, religious toleration, the decrees of God, and the extent of human redemption, the personality and work of the Holy Spirit, were then subjects of eager controversy; and he took a distinguished part in the discussion of all these interesting topics. As a reasoner, few men have ever excelled him in clearness and strength, and in command of temper. The literary combatants who had the courage to assail him felt the keenness of his weapons, and the power of his arm. He was born in the year 1593; educated at the University of Cambridge; presented to the living of St. Stephen's, Coleman-street, London, in 1633; and died in 1665. Like the generality of his contemporaries, Mr. Goodwin was trained up in the belief of the doctrine of absolute predestination; and in the early part of his life he regarded this tenet as a truth of holy writ. Wishful to establish his parishioners in the same views, he undertook to deliver a course of lectures in defence of the Genevan theology, in opposition to the doctrine of Arminius, and of his disciples the Dutch Remonstrants. In the prosecution In the prosecution of this task, he advanced a principle which one of his hearers deemed at once Arminian and heretical; and for this misde meanour he was publicly censured in one of the pamphlets of the day. By this comparatively trifling incident he was led to a thorough investigation of the Calvinistic and Arminian controversy in all its bearings. The result was, an entire renunciation of his former opinions, and the adoption of the Arminian theory. A few years after he had undergone this revolution of sentiment he published the most elaborate and convincing defence of God's universal love that has ever appeared in the English language. Quaint titles of books were then fashionable; and, regarding the Christian doctrine of redemption by the death of Christ, as having been held in bondage by the arbitrary and unauthorized limitations of men, he denominated his great work, REDEMPTION REDeemed. Its leading design was, to prove that, in the full and proper sense of the expression, Jesus Christ, "by the grace of God, tasted death for every man.” As a metaphysician, a Divine, a biblical critic, and a logician, he put forth his full strength in this very remarkable publication. It displays very extensive reading, and contains passages of uncommon power and eloquence, which are scarcely equalled by any theological writer of that day, and would not even suffer from a comparison with the prose writings of his contemporary Milton. The volume is a thin folio, and bears the date of 1651. The author states that it was to be considered only as the first part of the entire work; and at the end he specifies the sublime and comprehensive questions which he intended to discuss in the further prosecution of his plan. He also adds, "And because, among other scriptures, the ninth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is fre |