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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	call_v	faith_n	justification_n	5,686	5	9.0220	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67842	A New-Years-gift for the Antinomians particularly Mr. Malebranch Crisp, or, as he foolishly, and yet often (but truly stiles himself the unworthy branch of Dr. Crisp who hath wickedly attempted to underprop a rotten cause of his father, by notorious forgeries, concerning Mr. Baxter, Mr. How, and Dr. Bates, as justifiers of Dr. Crisp as an orthodox man, and no Antinomian: in a rhapsody, intituled, Christ exalted, and Dr. Crisp defended; against the reverend Mr. Alsop, with whom he rudely, and ignorantly plays under the name of his dear Kratiste. By Calvin Anti-Crispian.	Trepidantium Malleus.; C. A.	1699 (1699)	Wing Y83A; ESTC R221087	21,128	48

would give so much for it rather than go without it Evang. Yes I do in another Book Christ made Sin he tells us the same Story but as I remember without the name for that might have spoil'd all when Mr. Cole was alive 1. I have heard him preach against Crispianism tho' I never heard him above Three times 2. I have enquired of the chief of his People who profess they believe not the Story That they heard him often declare against Dr. Crisp The like Story may be told of that Man of a sound Head and Heart Dr. Singleton when dead tho' so zealous a Preacher against Crispianism continually to his immortal honour because in the Face of great Difficulties I meddle not with Mr. Malebranch his honesty but much question his veracity Antin But why call you him Mr. Malebranch was not Malebranch a Wise man of France Evang. Judas the Traitor was not the better for bearing the Name of Judas who wrote an Epistle a part of the Canon of Scripture Evang. Malebranch is more admir'd now than perhaps he will be tho' so great a Man Acontius Stratagemmata Satanae said much his way and brought his Business to Lay-Mens preaching Mr. Lock hath since and brought his Business to Antin But you charged him but now for not proving Commutation of Persons In my mind he hath done it well and I wonder Mr. Alsop could not see it 17 John 21. That they may be One in us Evang. Why Man or rather Child doth that prove any more a change of Persons between Christ and Believers than between the Father and Believers Is the Cause come to this Antin I profess your are right You have caught him but I will desire you to hear his other Arguments and Places of Scripture Evang. I will stop my Ears at any more I thought it high time to lay down the Book when I read such stuff I own a change of Persons tho' not Crisp's wild and awkward way of managing that and every thing else Antin But doth he not gravely and wisely reprove Mr. Alsop for sharp dealing with Mr. L●●● from 2 Tim. 2.24 That the Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle towards all Men and when he adviseth him to learn of Christ who was meek and lowly 11 Mat. 29 Evang. They who thus talk and yet are Advocates for the Rascally Buskin-maker do but play with Scripture and make Atheists What is to Prevaricate to be Partial to be Inconsistent a Learned Man in a jeer c. That Mr. Malebranch mentions tho too bad causeless and provoking I confess what is this to Madman Dunce Devoid of Grace c. Ant. But no doubt Sam. Crisp is Serviteur de Dieu as he wrote himself in his Christ made Sin and says he was not Zealous for his Father but for Christ and that the Zeal of God's House had eaten him up And he tells the Gentlemen of Pinners-Hall in that Book That they were fed with the finest of the Wheat by Dr. Owen Mr. Collins Dr. Manton and others Evang. Poor Giddy-brains the Serviteur de Dieu was perhaps all the French he had Was it not fine to see almost all the Hebrew words in our common Letters Was not Dr. Owen a Calvinist Dr. Manton a Baxterian Sure I think the Man is almost galled out of his Senses if ever he had any Did any of them Preach Justification before and without Faith Antin If Mr. Malebranch as you call him in Vindicating Dr. Crisp's Works cannot please you I hope a Reverend Draper may Can you charge him with Lying in his Pulpit or Folly there I assure you Sir He is the most Gospel-Preacher I ever heard He Preacheth of late most Moving Sermons Evang. So I hear For his Hearers begin to leave him apace and not only they but he too must move from the Lecture-place And for those Congregational Divines to whom I was long since a true Prophet I may now say to them as Paul to the Mariners after the Shipwrack You should have hearkened to me 27 Acts 21. and not had this harm and loss Antin Oh! but he hath preached up imputed Sanctification at a most wonderful rate If you please I will read his Arguments Evang. I have heard them and read them in Coffee Houses and every where He might as well have proved all from 1 Gen. 1 2 3. I am sorry to find a Man make himself like a Baboon But did you never hear of a Woman that said She could find in her heart to Prostitute her Body to any Man to testifie against that Idol called Sanctification Antin Sure he sets up as an Advocate for Dr. Crisp and Dr. Crisp taught People better Evang. I have been informed by a worthy Person That that good Man that succeeded Dr. Crisp at Brinksworth complain'd that he could not a long time after the Doctor 's Death bring the Parish into any tolerable Order the Women would hang out their Cloaths Lord's-days c. Antin Do you think the Doctor ever read the Book of Sports for Pastimes on Sabbath-days I believe he would rather lose his Place I know he liv'd at that time when King Charles and Bishop Laud contrary to the Law of God and Man did that Villany Evang. I am not of your Mind I sent lately to Brinksworth to know And the Answer I had was Hardly any are now alive can remember the Book of Sports but they are sure the Doctor never turn'd out at that time Antin Well well if he did read it that was no great matter that was only against the Law not a word against the Gospel Had there been any thing in the Book of Sports against Free Grace Dr. Crisp had never read it Evang. Did not the Draper say The Anabaptist in the Water might see the Womens fair Skins and know their way at another time Are not many once angry with the Apologist now borrowing the Book Antin I cannot deny it Evang. Did he not describe Mr. Baxter and say He said on his Death-bed he had done as much for God as others tho' he had no assurance No but the quite contrary For when one told him of his Good Works he said Talk not of Works God taketh as very a Dung hil-worm to Heaven in taking me as ever he took This had been such an Hypocritical Cant no more need be said The words in deed were odd enough but not so bad I had not those Transports some Men talk of yet I think I know as much as they and have as much rational satisfaction See his Life 1. If he thought he knew so much some think he did not 2. If he did was it Modesty to say so 3. Do Transports follow this Knowledge or this Rational Satisfaction Oh! Doth not God give or deny these as pleaseth him Let us do no Man wrong nor make a thing a Thousand times worse than it is Antin But do you think Mr. Baxter was a Man that made any

Conscience of what he said Evang. Why do you ask Antin Because among other Stories I have heard he told in this City he said That a Man not four Miles from Kidderminster riding on Packs of Cloath nigh a Cole-Pit fell in the Cloath under him in the Morning a Collier going down with a Light saw a Man lying there he went to rub him The Man began to open his Eyes The Collier ask'd him who he was The Man answer'd When I was in the Body I was call'd Father Simon Where do you think you are now said the Collier He looking about and staring and seeing such a dismal Place said In Hell I think Who take you me to be said the Collier The Devil I think said the Man But God bless your Worship Mr. Baxter you know in his Life tells us what Mr. Faldo and others said of him Evang. For my part I doubt not this nor other Stories of the like Nature he told And would as soon take his word as most Mens this way But Sir talk of some other thing Must a Hammon a Veil and others lie in Corners in this City that a Man may sometimes ride with a Horse and pair of Pannyers through the Alley in their Meeting and touch no body and an ignorant impudent Draper be so followed A Spiritual Quack that knows not Mens Spiritual Distempers nor way of Cure but may say as he Aegrotas morbo tuli sed nescio quali Accipias herbam sed qualem nescio nec quam Ponas nescio quo sanabere nescio quando Antin Oh how powerfully he confuted Mr. Mead lately reading some Passages out of a Book of his that smelt of Popery Evang. The Passages are good and sound if rightly understood There are Analogical Conditions tho' not proper in God's Covenant all Protestants grant Antin Why had not he vindicated himself in his Meeting against him as did another Famous Preacher lately Evang. If one Man plays the Fool must another do so too Did you never see a great Mastiff when a little Dog snarles not to return on him but piss on him Antin But you Legalists make a noise about Repentance when Repentance is Faith Evang. Ay Man Repentance hath Sin for its Object Faith Christ's Righteousness A Man cannot be said to Repent of Christ's Righteousness nor to believe in his Sins besides if Repentance and Faith be all one then Faith is Repentance and then you and Mr. Humphreys the Baxterian be agreed who saith Man is justified by his Repentance and so his Brother Clark when in his Fit Antin But you press Men to means Evang. So doth God every where in Scripture We grant Man is dead in Trespasses and Sins not Sick only as some make him As no Natural Action can be done without a Principle of Natural Life so no Spiritual Action without a Principle of Spiritual Life Yet let them wait at the Pool for the Angel's stirring the Waters In the Use of means we are Agents in the Success Patients Acti agimus we grant Antin But we bid Men come to Christ Evang. What is Coming to Christ but Believing in him And what is this Believing but a living not a dead Faith And what is a living Faith but that which is never solitaria but is accompanied with all other Graces You know the old Cant Get into Christ and sin if thou canst Tho' you are secur'd from the Damning yet not the Commanding Power of the Law Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness a perfecting not destroying End Antin We are greatly afraid of Arminianism Evang. What Man by Calvinistical Doctrine Nothing makes me more to loath the Name of Van. Hermin for that was his Name we now call Arminius as his Just Man's Defence and thinking a perfect sinless state attainable in this Life c. Antin Mr. John Humphreys in his late Mediocria tells you you must embrace his Doctrine if not ours Evang. I wish I could say he had done his Mediocria Mediocriter He grants us several Points that some Baxterians do deny That Mr. Baxter did not Preach the same Doctrine for substance that Luther and Calvin did about Faith and Justification That Mr. Baxter did not understand what was meant by the Righteousness of Christ and wanted a distinction Here is your Eagle-ey'd Man for you by the way He Prints Sir Charles Worsly's Letter to him without Censure who says That Mr. Baxter by his Distinctions carried things into the dark a great Truth yet Mr. Sylvester and others say he brought them by his Distinctions out of the dark That Mr. Baxter meant the same thing with him tho' for fear of offending others Protestants he was shie Here is your plain Man for you Thus were these Babel-builders confounded in their Languages As for Mr. Clark he is the most unhappy Man that ever put Pen to Paper After all his Pleading Justification by Works he says he owns Justification by imputed Righteousness and this Righteousness the material Cause of Justification and that one Place of Scripture prove it 5 Rom. 19. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners which he says is meant by Imputation not Propagation So by the obedience of one many are made righteous That which offends him he says is mens naming places of Scripture which prove it not What ails the Man If one place prove Imputed Righteousness is it not as good as a Hundred Not only Dr. Crisp but Mr. Clark in this Book of Justification says All our Righteousness is as filthy Rags and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dogs meat 64 Isa 6. 3 Phil. 8. is not Hypocritical Pharisaical Righteousness but Sanctifying and Inherent Mr. Clark says the same in his Comment because our Righteousness answers not the exactness of the Law of God Antin I experience all your Draper-Man Preacheth Evang. Tell me not of Experience but Scripture The hearing you puts me in mind of the Monster Speed and others tell us of taken in the Reign of King John which was taken alive and much like a Man and kept half a Year and would eat all sorts of Meat When he got away from his Keeper he made towards the Sea ran into it leap'd up and look'd on them that followed him mocking at them Some look like Saints and are not come from a Sea of Wickedness and return to it again Tell your Experiences in Wickedness and what you feel there There are Pious Men call'd Crispians no Man doubts not such as mock at Repentance but as for you after Cheating Lying or a Night's Debauch do you not experience a hardened Heart The Sin is Christ not mine I will not sin as David did to be burdened with it Antin Oh! Oh! Evang. Why roar you so Antin Why did the Devil roar when Saint Dunstan as the Papists say caught him by the Nose with a pair of burning Tongs You are an unhappy Bird. Why did you ever hear of my Life Evang. Yes more than you think of But there

is something within your Buttons tells you more Antin Talk of other things What talk you of Life and Works Talk of Free-Grace But have you heard how learnedly our Gospeller whom you call the Draper hath proved Infant-Baptism out of the Canticles and Ezekiel's Vision about the Form of the House Arguments that are not commonly thought of by others I doubt you therefore are displeas'd with him For some say you have renounced your Baptism and they can tell the Man who dip't you Evang. This Story as well as other things is a notorious Slander The learned Anabaptist and others of them of my Acquaintance know me to be a zealous tho' not a furious Contender for Infant-Baptism If I meet with any Opposers I own both the Subjects and Form in Infant Baptisin And to wipe off this Charge against me for ever I declare my Opinion about the Form That I believe not that any one Person was plunged in all the New Testament That 6 Rom. 4. Buried with him in Baptism only relates to the Confession the Party baptized made which compar'd with 3 Mat. 6. induceth me thus to think They were buptized in Jordan confessing their sins We often read of being buried with Christ and risen with Christ where no mention is made of Baptism Which answers the two good old Protestant words Mortification and Vivification When the Three Thousand Souls were baptized either they were baptized with their Cloaths on or with their Cloaths off If with their Cloaths off they were guilty of great Indecency and Immodesty among themselves If with their Cloaths on they expos'd the Ordinance to the Contempt of Jews and Pagans who should see them come home streaming as if out of a Ducking-stool I believe they were baptized neither in our way nor theirs I know no more how much Water was used in Baptism than how much Bread and Wine they used at the Lords Table If Men would Quarrel they might say in this Ordinance tasting or taking a little bit of Bread is not eating nor sipping drinking I think neither they nor we give our Forms of Baptism a right Name Washing or pouring Water on a Child s Face is not sprinkling nor plunging is not bare dipping Dip thy Morsal in the Vinegar 2 Ruth 14. To plunge it in many cases is unmannerly and lubberly Joseph's Coat was dipt in the Blood of a Kid of a Goat 37 Gen. 31. not plunged sure Not Blood enough for this neither had it then look'd as a Coat of one whom some evil Beast had devour'd As for the Subjects Children were Members of the Visible Church under the Law and are so still else they had not been circumcis'd and therefore now must be baptis'd Else 1. They are all without the Church and therefore Dogs and such as God judgeth 2. Else they are all of the Kingdom of Sathan if not of Christ One or the other they must be there is no middle and so must be rank'd with the Children of Jews and Pagans 3. Then were the believing Jews who first came into the Church by Baptism in this respect the worse for Christ's Coming or for this Change their Children being now left out of God's Church not before 4. Else of such is not the Kingdom of God else were they Unclean but now are they Holy 1 Cor. 7.14 that is with a Foederal Holiness Legitimate Holiness is Illegitimate Nonsence with me For if neither of the Parents were Believers and so not one sanctified to the other for to the Unclean nothing is sanctified his Conscience being defil'd they were Legitimate as the Children of Jews and Turks not Bastards There is no Sanctification or Holiness out of a Church State I know but one Covenant and that of Grace running throughout the Old and New Testament The Covenant of Peculiarity is but the Covenant of Grace in another Dress Antin I am pleas'd to the Heart to hear you thus talk What makes you then converse with so many of them Evang. I will tell you plainly The Learning and Piety the Loyalty and Orthodoxness of many of the Men I converse with and the Wisdom and Prudence of some not Scholars Antin But you preach Law and Duty But we as Paul desire to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified Evang. You will not stand by this Corrupt Gloss No nothing in the strictest Sence tho' we put Works in their proper place as fruits and signs of Justification yet you run away and say we are Legal and keep Men from coming to Christ You say you do all for Christ You know who shall say 7 Mat. 22. In thy Name in thy Name in thy Name yet be rejected as workers of Iniquity Antin Oh but some of our Preachers find out such Spiritual Sences of Text none of you do or can do Evang. I have sometimes thought according to their mad way of expounding I might make all Scripture an Allegory about Christ to begm 1. Gen. 1 2 3. In the Beginning that is Christ call'd the beginning of the Creation of God God made Heaven and Earth that is united the Humane and Divine Nature And the Earth was without form and void The Man Christ Jesus according to 53 Isaiah 2. had no Form nor Comliness nor Beauty why he should be desired And Darkness was upon the face of the Deep that is 1. He was a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs 2. He was led into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil 3. He was in Agonies in the Garden 4. He cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me When Darkness was from the sixth to the ninth Hour 24 Mat. 45. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the Waters God comforted him when he wept and sweat drops of Blood Or he said My God my God in the Waters of Affliction Sence spoke once Faith twice And God said Let there be Light and there was Light After he was in the Grave Three Days God raised Christ from the Dead and the Evening and the Morning were the First Day And now a Draper might from hence learn That the First Day was to be the Christian Sabbath O rare Discoveries But would not this be horrid playing with Scripture whatever pretences were made to Spiritual Sences and Discoveries from the Spirit Antin But they invite Men to come to Christ without a Change but you do not Evang. Coming to Christ is the same with Faith and therefore you had as good bid Men come to Christ without coming to Christ as to talk as you do It is a vital Spititual Act of the Soul Antin But all grant Dr. Crisp was a Holy Man whatever he preach'd Evang. I and others that have so said did amiss Some of us were decoy'd by Mr. How 's Paper who I have Reason to believe hath repented it since not having then read the Book as most believe and so knew not the Venom there I know some say they hope the Doctor did not

would have them is a Trick I have a Trick for to discover their Design Antin I crave leave to ask you a little Question not of the Nature of the former ones I and others wonder what makes you of late to Print only Groat Books when you know Socks and Buskins cost two Shillings Christ Exalted and Dr. Crisp defended is of the same Price Dr. Crisp's Works cost 8 s. and you censured that in a Book of such small Price Evang. 1. There is no need of many words where few will serve turn 2. I doubt not many wise Men that read those Books repent their lost Money as well as lost Time and think a Groat enough if not too much for any of them 3. They have laden their Books with the same things over and over so Dr. Crisp I not so in new Books Mr. Crisp tells us Christ made Sin how many Sons and Daughters Dr. Crisp had what were their Names and who eldest He Subscribes himself Serviteur de Dieu It may be that was all the French the poor Man had as before and they that have least Money gingle it most 4. It may be Antinomista you and others that thus talk can badly spare that one Groat perhaps the Good Woman in the Kitchen grudgeth that if of late when Money is so scarce we grow Frugal in other respects why not in this 5. Whatever Money you and the Objecters may have in your Purses you best know but others know you have but little Wit in your Heads Your Understanding will not reach large Discourses well if this though so short Antin But what I pray you makes you think Dr. Crisp would have read the Book of Sports had occasion been Is there any thing in his Book that induceth you thus to think Evang. In the Sermon for the Fast he calls King Charles the First The Physician of the Churches and State What Physician he was in the State is well known he gave the same Physick his Agents did in Ireland And what Physician he was in the Church is well known too when all Protestantism and Piety was almost gone I hope the Doctor was not so Squeamish as to refuse the Physick if offer'd that this Physician gave him What ailed thee Tobie Canst thou see nothing not in Scripture that expoundest that Text of Services coming from a pure Heart Your New Moons and Sabbaths I cannot away with it is an Abomination every one sees it spoken not of the Services of God's Faithful Servants but of Profane or Hypocritical Jews But of these things I have said enough in my Apology and Three Contending Brethren Let others do what they please I care not to write the same things twice My Citations are true only I find what I cite pag. 15. the Doctor said of the Wise Man was a mistake I shall not trouble the Reader with what occasion'd it but now Correct it Did the Sparrows mute in Tobies Eyes when he thus read Scripture If they did Naughty Birds they Then may his Writings stand as Apocryphal ones between the Old Testament and the New in the middle not of Participation indeed but Negation may I so allude Antin Some talk of what betides some Preachers of Free-Grace and they what betides you Opposers You lately were left almost dead Evang. Yes some are thus too conclusive without cause When Whitehall was burnt no doubt but many took it to be a Testimony from Heaven against the King in a time of Peace to fire his Palace who as an Usurper took it from a Lawful King as before he was perplex'd in War For my part I think ray Construction of that Providence was better than theirs when I said God had given us a chast good King and lov'd him too well to let him live in an Old Bawdy-House Lying will be found to be an Omen bad enough of it self of the Divine Displeasure What if the Baxterians had reported and printed Seven Years after Dr. Crisp died that two days before his Death he said Mr. Baxter was an Orthodox Man and turn'd more Souls to Christ than he Would not this have been notorious Villany Not greater than this tho' we are told there 's no grain of doubting Well put it in the Gazette and New sLetters Mr. Baxter died a Crispian But no wonder from Men who mutato nomine tell us Luther lived and died one Calvin and Crisp were agreed What in Justification without Faith That the Church of England in her Homilies about Doctrine is theirs and therefore Mr. Kakiste often cites them Some of them say They own all in the Assembly's Confessions of Faith Any thing Dr. Owen is theirs Dr. Manton so and at last O wonderful Conversion Mr. Baxter himself Good Man there is now some hope left for him If his Tutissimum with Bellarmine's last words be not too late tho' by the way they are Bellarmine's last Thesis in his Dispute of Justification he had certainly gone to the Devil had it not been for this Blessed Change Words I know no Man ever us'd of him but this Tribe Mr. Alsop thinks so contemptible of Mr. Kakiste's Book that when we with other Ministers last Week waited on His Majesty at Kensington to Congratulate his Safe Return he told me he never saw the Book nor knew not what was in it and I suppose the Book hath been out too long to begin now I have one Request Mr. Antinomista to make to you as on my bended Knees Antin What is that I pray Evang. That you and your Brethren would never meddle with the Controversie now on foot Mr. Lobb is a Workman and neither needs your help nor I believe desires it but rather fears it For you spoil all by Ignorance and Falshood and Corrupt Principles If any of ours accept of your help in my Mind they do as foolishly as if any of us writing against the Church of England should call for or accept of the help of the Quakers You make such work as the Ape that imitated the Cobler in mending Shooes c. What woful work Mr. Malebraach hath made he that hath but half an Eye may see and what Work that Ingenious Gentleman now in the Press with his Baxterianism unmask'd will make who can tell He hath written for Dr. Crisp against his Name-sake of Cambridge that excellent sound Book Crispianism unmask'd Who hath not confuted Error by Error but by Truth in the Old Calvinistical Protestant strain Tell Untruths as fast as you will on me as That I should some Months since stand up in one of the greatest Congregational Meetings in the City and say aloud That they were all a Company of Antinomians I care not I am always at VVar with your Opinions I mean those of you that say David sinned in having Sin a Burden to him or charging it on himself but never with your Persons nor the Persons of any others for those called Crispians that understand not the depth of the wickedness of his

Therefore it is not the Ceremonial but Moral Law by which no Man can be justified I know Mr. Baxter was much the Occasion of endangering you to run so far as you did You perhaps know what Mr. Crandon in the Censure of his Aphorisms says in the Epistle of his Book That he had his Agents sent up and down to propagate his Doctrine and to return to their Master to give an Account of the Success Because this is a Story I never heard prov'd I never charged him with it And I think the Licenser Mr. Caryl did not without cause caution the Reader against Mr. Crandon's Bitterness I declare I never so charged him as he doth whether he wanted Sincerity I leave to his Judge His comparing his Doctrine with that of Trent Bellarmine p. 215 in 7 leaves 2. Book deserves Consideration I think Mr. Crandon was a great Man except in his own Eyes as some Men never had so much Learning as they thought said and printed so he had not half so little as he thought I know you grant the Law to be a Rule in a true proper Sence not like those Nomomachists as is said Luther would sometimes call them as well as by the name Antinomians It is safe speaking after the Apostle 3. Acts 19. Repent and be converted that your Sins may be blotted out What work doth Mr. Crisp alter his Father make of the Words of Bal●●am He beheld not iniquity in Jacob nor hath seen perver seness in Israel 23 Numbers 31 Was this spoken of Elect Persons only or not of the Congregation not so Did not many of these fall short of the Land of Promise against whom God swore in his Wrath they should never enter into his Rest A Type of Heaven I grant all of them perished not for ever for Moses and Aarm fell short of the Terrestial Canaan that did not of the Heavenly one but this was the Case but of few They erred in their Hearts and had not known his ways Can any more therefore be meant That God saw not at that time Idolatry or any gross Sins or foul Practices among them for which he should let them fall before Balak Therefore Balaam taught him to draw them to Idolatry and Whoredoms which Josephus wonderfully tells us the manner of if we may believe him I ask did God see Iniquity in Jacob or behold Perverseness in Israel then Sure he did and plagued them severely Two and Twenty Thousand Suppose this were of the Children of God this is but a figurative or proverbial Expression I will not see or take notice God saw no Sin among them in comparison of what he saw among the Heathens round about them who committed the Mutum peccatum Sodomy and Conversing with Familiar Spirits These are my present Thoughts about it What I have read I cannot remember Whatever some among us talk of Terms Conditions they own irresistible Grace in Conversion Perseverance and the Covenant of Grace to be ordered in all things most sure And what Paul says is ever so to the Romans The Election hath obtain'd it If they fall they rise again and we perswade them not to call all in Question Much sorrow ought they to have whether much fear or no. Any hope that may encourage them to return to God we are not against but that which encourageth to lie in the Dirt is a hope that will make ashamed It is dangerous Doctrine that many of our Tradesmen who are not only indocti but indociles talk of Renew your Assurance Go not to Humiliations nor Prayers but to Christ. I pray when did Christ give those Duties a Bill of Divorce that you may not go to Christ and them too It hath been a Trouble to me I confess many a time to hear some Famous Divines talk of Terrors and that David had them and such fears about his State and Relation to God that were almost on the brink of Despair And they urge he oft says Why art thou cast down O my Soul Why art thou disquieted within me Trust in God for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my Countenance and my God When I declare nothing with me proves the contrary more than this Text That David doubted not If I should be sent for to a Man said to be in Despair and he should say God is my God I shall yet praise him They are the words of Assurance more than Despair Therefore Dr. Sibbs bottom'd his Excellent Book on an unfit Text to name no more David was then driven from the Place of God's Publick Worship and remembred with whom he once went there that kept Holy Days Whether he then fled from Saul or Absolom I know not I find not David calling his State God-ward in question Once Heman indeed seems to do it Thus we run on one after another without Consideration of Scripture as some that tell us that to tell a Truth on a malicious Design is a Lye and urge that of David against Doeg thou false Tongue Now they say Doeg told right to Saul that David came to Abimelech But I say he added Lyes to that Truth and Abimelech denies his Charge to Saul and that truly Did I enquire of God for him Thy Servant knew nothing more or less of this matter So how many Preachers from the Press and Pulpit Tell us thus far Men may go in the Duties of Religion and Christianity and yet fall short of Heaven from Ahab 's humbling himself before God So the Great Sanderson who was an Idolater before and after And so about Agrippa who never entred on the Profession of Christianity What are these Instances to Men making a great and credible Profession of Religion and Christianity some Twenty Years and more and not be saved What Religion did Ahab own or What Christianity Agrippa Pardon this Digression These are the result not of readding nor hearing any Man but free Thoughts Let no hatred of Mr. Baxter's Followers or their Doctrine encline you to the other Extream That our London ones are more Sober much less Popish about Justification than in some Counties where I have been I do averr Speak Honourably of the means of Grace not with Contempt as God and Scripture doth If others place too much in them that is their fault slight them not They are such in which God often meets with the worst of Men and doth that for them Means cannot nor they for themselves I know your Corrupt Notions have not corrupted your Conversation but that you yet shine in all Good Works of Piety and Charity Ad Reverendos fandi dulcissimos D. Singleton Dom. Mead Dom. Gouge Dom. R. Taylor quosdam alios vulgo vocatos Independentes QUID nunc temporis prius dicam quid posterius ego nescius Ventorum vesania procellarum impetus pulsus intemperatus sic jactant Ecclesias vestras quod cum Poeta repetendum est O Navis referent in Mare te novi Fluctus c.