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A75470
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An Antidote against some principal errors of the predestinarians a work designed for the information of the common people.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing A3494A; ESTC R42462
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23,735
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50
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a Doctrine proper to give Men Peace and Comfort in a Course of Wickedness and for that Reason ought to be rejected by all good Men. In the first place then the Scripture plainly forewarns good Men of the Danger which shews that 't is possible for good Men to fall from a State of saving Grace Beware saith the Scripture lest ye also being led away with the Error of the Wicked fall from your own Stedfastness 2 Pet. 3.17 Let us not be weary in well-doing for in due time we shall reap if we faint not Gal. 6.9 And you that were alienated and Enemies in your Minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled to present you blameless if ye continue in the Faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the Hope of the Gospel Col. 1.21 22 23. If a Man abide not in me he is cast forth as a Branch and is withered Joh. 15.6 Now the Just shall live by Faith but if any Man draw back my Soul shall have no Pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Let him therefore that thinks he standeth so fast as that no Sin shall move him take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10.12 Ye did run well saith St. Paul to the Galatians who did hinder you that ye should not obey the Truth Gal. 5.7 Secondly the Scripture expresly declares that righteous Men may become wicked and die in their Sins for 't is said thus that when the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity shall he live all the Righteousness he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them he shall die Ezek. 18.24 When a righteous Man turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity and dieth in them for his Iniquity that he hath done he shall die Ezek. 18.26 And agreeable hereunto are the Words of David to his Son Solomon And thou Solomon my Son saith he know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect Heart and with a willing Mind if thou seek him he will be found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever 1 Chron. 28.9 It is impossible saith the Author to the Hebrews for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly Gift and were made Partakers of the holy Ghost and the Powers of the World to come if they shall fall away to renew them again to Repentance Heb. 6.4 5 6. Hence 't is said of the younger Widows that were wanton that they have Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith 1 Tim. 5.12 Now these and such-like Scripture-Evidences are a plain and undeniable Proof that righteous Men may fall from a State of Salvation and die in their Sins and therefore the Doctrine which asserts the contrary is certainly an Error Yea 't is a foul Error because it gives Encouragement to Sin and Wickedness since it asserts that no Sin can provoke God to withdraw his saving Grace from them that are once Saints but such Presumption has doubtless ruined more Souls than deep Despair for how are bad Men as there are many of this Perswasion as well as of others hereby encouraged to do ill things when they shall be perswaded that no Sin can deprive them of God's Favour who are once inroll'd in the Book of Life And 't is evident that the Generality of both Good and Bad who believe this Doctrine are so foolish as to think that they are all certainly of this Number meerly because they profess themselves Predestinarians and therefore they comfort up themselves with this Consideration that tho they are guilty of some gross Sins yet their Salvation is still safe because their Names are written as they think in the Book of Life than which no Doctrine in the World can be more proper to encourage Wickedness nor can any thing be more contrary to Scripture which expresly affirms thus Whosoever sinneth against me him will I blot out of my Book Exod. 32.33 Which shews that a Man may be in God's Book and yet he may afterwards commit such Sins as shall blot him out of it 'T is not to be supposed that Men will much boggle at any Matter of worldly Advantage when they are really perswaded that good Works are not concern'd in Justification for they think that Justification is only the Fruit of Election and not the Fruit of Obedience to God's Law and that being elected they are by Consequence justified before they are sanctified or in a State of Grace before they are converted unto God none being converted they say but those who are before in God's Love by virtue of his Decree of eternal Election and that after Conversion which does only manifest their being elected if they do happen to sin and fall very foully as David did yet God still loves them as much under this their Relapse as he did before their first Conversion and tho such Sins may bring upon them temporal Miseries yet they shall never deprive them of eternal Glory for they shall not die till by an unresistible Power God has raised them up again by Repentance They confess they may fall for a time but their Fall shall not be final nor end in Death eternal Men I say that believe all this and believe withal that they themselves are of the Number of these elected Ones as great Numbers do who have no other ground for their so doing but Self-confidence and an erroneous Perswasion that so it is these I say have a great deal of Encouragement not to boggle at such Opportunities and Actions as others who really believe the contrary dare not either take or do for fear lest God should cut them off in their Sins and damn their Souls 't is plain that such have not those Advantages of doing ill afforded them from their Faith as the others have because they dare not do an ill thing lest they should lose the Favour of God they may sin by surprise but they dare not sin presumptuously But the other believes that there 's no eternal Danger in it because those whom God once loves he loves to the end and he will not so see Sin in his Elect as to damn them for it and this they call a Doctrine full of Comfort and Consolation and indeed it does in this respect equal that of the Papist for as a Papist's Sins do not much terrify him because he believes the Priest can forgive him upon Confession so neither can the other's because he believes God will not take away his Life till he has brought him to Repentance That there are wicked Men among those who believe contrary to these Predestinarian Doctrines I readily grant but they have no Encouragement to be wicked from any natural Consequences that may be drawn from the Doctrines they believe they are plainly self-condemned by their own Principles in all the Evils which they do allow themselves in Some