but a change of the endeavours to please God whereas before selfe was our God and an endeavour to turne from dead works 2. True repentance is sorrow according to God and hath acts different from Faith 3. To repent is out of godly sorrow to endeavour new obedience and amendment of life Faith is an apprehension of Divine truth to which wee give credit or an heart-dependance and recumbence on God through Christ 4. Wee are justified by faith never by repentance Wee thinke not that teares wash away sinnes Protestants speake not so 2. Nor that they make peace with God by teares they make way to sense of peace or awake us to runne to a promise the formall bottome of our peace in regard that the Lord promiseth to revive the contrite Spirit to accept broken bones to comfort mourners in Zion and wee thinke neither repentance nor good works proper and formall conditions of the covenant of grace but rather conditions of the covenanted CHAP. XXXVII How good works are necessary FOr good works 1. We call not these good works that are extorted by the terrours of the Law as a captive keepeth the high way because his Keeper leadeth him in an iron chaine Nor 2. these which flow from the sole authority of God as Lawgiver Or 3. which issue from meere morall principles without saving grace but these we call good works in an Evangelicall sense that not onely are done from the authority of the Law-giver but also from a mediatory and Evangelike obligation from the sweet attractions and drawing coards of the secrets of Christs love And 2. from Evangelike faith that purifieth the heart 3. From Physicall principles and supernaturall habits of grace good works are this way necessary 1. That as grace and glory differ not in nature but gradually as the morning dawning of twy-light and the noone-day-light so the good works done by the grace of Christ and that perfect love of God and our brethren in heaven are of the same nature different in degrees and the one degrees and waies to the other especially when from Gods free promise of the blessings of this life and that which is to come the Lord hath made a passe betweene the one and the other and the Lord hath tyed himselfe to himselfe not to us to carry on grace out of meere grace Every branch that bringeth forth fruit in me saith Christ my Father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruit unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance He that soweth to the spirit shall of the Spirit reape life everlasting There is a harvest promised to this sowing as to a speciall furtherance of our reckoning in the day of Christ hee that soweth bountefully shall reape bountefully yea sent once and againe unto my necessitie not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account if ye through the spirit doe mortifie the deeds of the flesh yee shall live But being made free from sinne and become servants to God yee have your fruit unto holinesse and the end everlasting life Blessed are they that doe his commandements that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in thorow the gates into the city And lest we should think the commands are all but one only precept of beleeving hee addeth for without are Doggs and Sorcerers and Whoremongers and Murtherers c. He that hath my commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my selfe to him All these evidence to us that holy walking is a way to heaven as sowing is to harvest and that Christ maketh a promise of life eternall to him that doth his Commandements onely the question is in what tearmes the promise is made to the doer of Gods will as a doer or as a beleever whose faith is fruitfull and with childe of Evangelike doing But wee may say the formall promise of the covenant of grace is made to beleeving as the Law-promise is made to doing Legally and perfectly out of our own without grace and that the Gospel as it is larger then the covenant of grace and as it containeth the whole doctrine of grace taught by the Prophets and Apostles is a promise of life eternall made to Evangelike and unperfect doing through the strength of grace And that because 1. God commandeth good works through the whole New Testament 2. They are so necessary as without them our faith is a dead and vaine faith and cannot justifie us 3. They are the end for which Christ redeemed us that we should live to him bee redeemed from our vaine conversation from the present evill world that we should bee a purified peculiar people to him zealous of good works and in this title also they are commanded 4. They are conditions without which wee cannot bee saved For John Baptist taught this with the Gospel Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewen downe and cast into the fire What shall we doe to be saved receiveth this answer Repent and be baptized every one of you Except yee repent yee shall all likewise perish 5. They are commanded as acts of the new creature and partly as contrary to sinnefull fiery and mighty temptations of Satan and the flesh as mortification to fleshly lust faith to unbeliefe Partly as expressions of thankfulnesse for the free redemption in Christ and commanded in the Law in the great Commandement of the loving of God with all our heart just as this Law of loving God did oblige Abraham to offer his Sonne Isaak for God and Judah to be thankefull to God for redeeming them out of the Babylonish Captivity though the Law neither commanded any father to offer his Sonne nor the people to returne from Captivity yet the eternall Law of love commandeth both these and us to doe what ever God-Redeemer commands us as well as what ever God the Law-giver injoyneth onely we cannot say Good works doe merit salvation or purchase right to life eternall Christs bloud is onely so a ransome of life 2. Nor have they any proper condignity to such a high reward being so imperfect 3. Nor can they have any effective influence or proper causality thereunto nor are they causes or conditions of justification but that which Crispe saith is not of God But withall saith he I must tell you that all this sanctification of life is not a jot of the way of a justified person to heaven it is true they are not the meritorious the efficient cause or way nor the formall covenant-condition but a way they are as sowing is to harvest running to the garland wrestling to the victory CHAP. XXXVIII The Gospel is conditionall ANtinomians deny all conditions of the covenant
our or his owne lusts for us but in reall and personall acts of obedience to be deadned to to the world Gal. 6.14 To abstaine from fleshly lusts that warre against the soule from fornication uncleanesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and such sinnes for which the wrath of God commeth on the Children of disobedience to wit on the Gentiles that never heard the Gospel now in reason wrath cannot come on the heathen who never heard of Christ because they beleeve not that he of whom they never heard hath crucified those sinnes for them on the crosse CHAP. XL. Antinomians the perfectists of our time say wee and our works are compleatly perfect ANtinomians ascribe not onely an imputative perfection in that Christs perfect righteousnesse is made ours but also an inherent perfection to the Saints But wee judge our state and persons through Christ to be perfect but our duties and begunne sanctification are not perfect but is so in growing as the Moone as a vessell not full to the brime and banks of the soule it receives quarts and gallons more It s true justification removeth the evill of works as touching all guilt or obligation to eternally revenging justice But as Christs grace addeth to our good works no dignity and perfection of meriting as Papists say so doth it not remove the inherent blot of sinne that cleaveth to our good works so as it should give to these works inherent perfection and remove their sinnefull defects for as sinne dwelleth in our persons after wee are justified though it bee not imputed so doth sinne cleave to our most gracious acts but is not accounted on our score because the surety hath answered our bill and removed the sinnefull imperction from them but hath not made them inherently perfect so as there should remaine nothing in the works of the justified that is contrary to the Law of God But the truth is Antinomians with no face of truth can say that Christ removeth the sinnefull imperfections that adhere to our good works done by the Grace of Christ when we are in the state of justification because if nothing wee doe in the state of justification be sinne since pardoned sinnes to Antinomians are no sinnes and have lost the nature and being of sinne being remitted and pardoned before they be committed these sinnes that cleave to our good works are no sinnes and so the good works must be perfect as the person is perfect 1. Because Antinomians go upon this ground that nothing inherent in the persons not the in-dwelling corruption of nature nor the adherent sins that cleave to our works nor any thing a justified man can doe is sinne or contrary to the Law but that person or works being pardoned both are as perfect as the person and works of Christ. A most blaspemous ground for what we want of perfect sanctification and wee want much in this life so farre are we sinnefully imperfect 2. Paul acknowledgeth his sinnefull imperfection I find a Law in my members rebelling against the Law of my minde not as if I were already perfect 3. In many things we offend all If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man Hence the man that is perfect sinnes not but there is none in the earth that sinneth not and doth good 4. Wee crave pardon of sinnes as we seeke dayly our dayly bread It s contrary to Christian humility to say wee are perfectly cleane Object God can accept nothing that is unperfect and sinnefull because they are accursed Gal. 3.10 For God is veritie it selfe and will not suffer the losse of the least jot of the righteousnesse the Law requireth But all our best works are polluted with sinne Towne Answ. This proveth with the Papists that God cannot judge us righteous by faith because wee are sinners in our selves 2. God cannot accept sinnefull works as no sinnefull works at all he cannot accept of sinnes as no sinnes and of our good works as not polluted with sinne in themselves his judgement then should not be according to truth true but he can well accept our works though polluted with sinne as pardoned and washen not from their sinnefull imperfections inherent or adherent to them for then they should be intrinsecally perfect and God should judge amisse of them but as washen from their guilt and obligation to eternall wrath so he can well judge them perfect in Christ. 3. Legally cleane so as they shall never actually condemne us and 4. that of meere grace CHAP. XLI Antinomians say we are compleatly saved in this life as in heaven SO we thinke Antinomians faile wickedly with Libertines who say We are as actually saved and as perfectly as the glorified in heaven and not in hope onely or in reall beginning in regard of Christs sitting in heaven and therefore good workes can no more bee the way to heaven saith Towne then my walking in the Citie in which I am already can be my walking to the City But so while we are absent from the Lord in the body even in this life wee should be in heaven whereas the dissolution of our earthly tabernacle the raysing of us up at the last day are betweene us and the full redemption of our bodies And this is that which Libertines and Familists say that all the resurrection of the body and life eternall they know is our union with Christ in this life the Grammar of Hymeneus and Philetus who said the Resurrection was already past 3. We know but in part our love is not perfected in this life 1 Cor. 13.11 12 13. And we are not perfect men in Christ till we meet all in the unity of Faith Ephes. 4.13 3 The generall assembly of all the first borne is not yet convened we need a Temple and Ordinances and a Sunne and a Moone in the other life the Lambe shall be our Temple 4. The other life is such as in it wee can neither marry nor dye but are as the Angels Luk. 22.36 37. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Cor. 15.40.41 5. Antinomians say this dreaming that we are as cleane of sinne as Christ and so Christed and Goded with Christ as the Libertine Pocquius said Calvin in Opus pag. 463. and Nicholas the Libertine cap. 34. 6. Paul saith Wee are saved by hope and wee hope not for what wee have already Our life is hid with Christ in God 1. He that beleeveth hath life not in the compleat and full fruition yet really in the certaintie of faith and hope 2. In the right claime purchased by Christ. 3. In the beginning first fruits and the degrees of grace tending to glory CHAP. XLII Our happinesse is in sanctification as well as in justification OUr happinesse is not meerely passive as Towne saith and in being justified as if that were all for though our blessednesse be in justification as the cause and fountaine in that sinne
1. That they would have the Gospel a body and susteme of non-senses and foolish dreames and all Logick banished that the Gospel may be a fardell of phancies under the vaile of spirituall and supernaturall knowledge for the perfect like that piece called the Bright Starre and Theologiâ— Germanica and the Power of Love and the Tree of knowledge of good and evill 2. All reasonings and use of Logick which the Prophets and Apostles make a heavenly and spirituall use of in the Scripture to them are Legall and smell too much of the dead Letter the sowre and killing Law yea the Letter of written Gospel because written and because preached and opened in spirituall discourses to Cornwell and others is a humane thing and begets but a humane faith so that Faith commeth by hearing is to Saltmarsh not vocall Preaching but the very Spirit of grace working faith as I observed before 3. All expounding of Scripture by consequence is expounding of Scripture in the Letter saith Saltmarsh in the Letter to Towne is in a Law-way to Cornewell is in a humane not a Divine way Then Christ Matth. 22. must bee a Legall Preacher and must argue after a Law-way or a humane not a Divine and Gospel-way and must much darken the glory of the Gospel for he proveth the resurrection of the dead onely by a consequence I am the God of Abraham c. Ergo the dead shall rise and he sharply rebuketh the Sadduces as ignorant both of the Scripture and the power of God because they did not thus argue in the Letter and in the consequence to the darkening of the glory of the Gospel Libertines said also to reason against committing of Adultery as Joseph doth Shall I doe this and sinne against God Is a worke of Old Adam discerning good and evill as wee shall heare if the Lord will And Saltmarsh saith Exhortations perswasions conditionall promises and Gospel-commandements are natural and so conveyances carnall Legall and of the Letter Which to me is a foule aspesâ—ron laid on the Gospel and a mixing of Law and Gospel Works and Faith according to the Antinomians way and a rendering of the preaching of the Gospel which is the power of God and the wisdome of God as odious as the Jewes and Greeks made it of old that is to make it a meere naturall and humane thing But reasoning from Scripture is as Divine as to convince silence rebuke convert and open the heart though the Spirit bee the principall agent in these 4. If wee be meere patients and act nothing by any obligation but as the Spirit acteth on us and in us then not onely the morall Law but the very Law of nature and the dictats of a naturall conscience shall not of themselves oblige us as to honour our Parents to love our brethren to doe to all as we would that men should doe to us except the Spirit act us to these duties and then must either the Holy Ghost attend the suggestions and dictats of the law of nature to blow with and concurre with them and with the Word read and preached which were a fettering of the Holy Ghost to attend the inclinations and motions of our heart or then no man could sinne at all against either the Law of nature or written Scripture save onely these heathen and others who resisted the Spirit not to say that grace were not grace nor every way free if the will of the creature should be master and exercise a dominion over grace to command at its nod the spirations and breathings of the Holy Ghost then should it be in the power of free will to dispose of desertions absence and the ebbings of the joyfull out-goings and manifestations of the Holy Ghost so should wee command the North and South winde of the Spirit to blow upon the garden that the Spices may flow out and command the out-flowings of the river and the tyde that gladneth the soule Which sure we cannot admit or then our doubtings complaints love-jealousies should be free of all unbeliefe and disquieting doubts contrary to Scripture and experience yea and all our sinnes and darknesse and false apprehensions under sad desertions should bee counted on the Holy Ghosts score as his sin who did not act us to the declining of these sinnes and the performing the contrary duties and not be imputable to us for all sinne must bee contrary to some Law-obligation 5 We hence clearely see Antinomians must come fully up to New England Libertines that In the saving conversion of a sinner the faculties and workings of the soule in things pertaining to God are destroyed and made to cease and the holy Ghost commeth in place of them as the faculties of the humane nature of Christ whereas grace purgeth away the oare but destroyeth not the gold and doth not remove nor substantially change the soule and heart but maketh it new sanctifieth it reneweth the Spirit purgeth the conscienâ—e bringeth all things to our memory When Christ casteth the old heart in his furnace or putteth it on a new frame it loseth no substance but receiveth a new mould 6. It fomenteth the presumption of the Libertine who saith If Christ will let me sinne let him looke to it upon the perill of his honour bee it Which may have this good sense as to be a word of boldnesse of faith holding forth as much as it highly concerneth the honor of Christ his faithfulnesse and unchangeable grace who is intrusted with all the flocke young and old to suffer none to fall in such sinnes as may tend to or be a finall falling from Christ but that upon the perill of his glory He will lose none but raise them up at the last day but as Libertines sense carrieth the matter the justified cannot sinne Christs Spirit is ingaged to enact immediatly and to preserve the ransomed man from all sinne if the man fall Christs Spirit not inacting him to stand is the Author and cause of his fall Whereas we are commanded to keepe our selves in the love of God David kept himselfe from his iniquitie CHAP. XLVIII Antinomians hold that the beleever cannot sinne against God but against men in his conversation WEe beleeve that the Law or Commandement of Christ respecteth our salvation with God as well as our conversation with men contrary to Antinomians who will have us as compleatly saved being once justified as sinnlesse and perfectly holy as the glorified in heaven Yea wee have not so much as the blot of Papists venials or Protestants sinnes of infirmity or originall sinne dwelling in us So as I judge the man that said to a learned opposer of the Anninomians spoke right in the Antinomian way Sinne is nothing how then can Christ hate nothing If from eternity it was so pardoned and remitted before it was committed I see not how to Antinomians it must not bee meere nothing as concupiscence
is to Papists who make justification the expulsion of the habit of sinne and the bringing in of habituall righteousnesse which expelleth all sinne except venials which indeed are no sinnes for sinne pardoned to Antinomians and Papists who are harmonious in this point are no sinnes 2. Nothing be it adultery or parricide or any worke of the flesh committed after justification can bee sinne for it is against no Law by this way and doth not so much as prâ—judge salvation by demerit it onely scandalizeth men but cannot offend God My soule enter thou not into these mens secrets 3. Sinnes against Christian conversation such as the adulteries of the justified are no sinnes before God because all sinnes as sinnes stand in the way as contrary to salvation then aske Antinomians is a justified person obliged to eschew Adulterie they shall answer Yea hee is obliged but how There is a two fold obligation one of Law another of the free Spirit the former is removed the justified man by no Law or Law-obligation is to eschew Adultery as a sinne against God 1. Because hee is freed from the Law and all directing and obliging power of the Law 2. Because it involveth a contradiction that his Adultery should be sin when committed by him and pardoned before it be committed for so it should be sinne and no sinne How then is he obliged to forbeare Adultery Onely by an obligation Physicall and of the Spirit such as we call an obligation of naked courtesie if he forbeare it is an act of love and arbitrary freedome but if hee commit it it is not sinne because it is in him against no Law-obligation no more then an Englishman committing felony against the Lawes in England it is the Antinomians owne comparison or killing a Swan in Thames which is forbidden by the Lawes of England does faile against the Lawes of Spaine So his sin is against love not Law as if the Law commanded not all love and love with all the heart and as if these two were contrary and the Law and the Gospel did involve two contrary and contradictory wills in God and the Lord should be changeable and unconstant in Law and Gospel and his Adultery should bee contrary to men and Christian conversation onely not to God 4. All acts and personall duties of sanctification which we must persue and follow else wee cannot see God are but degrees and parts of the compleat Sanctification that wee hope for in heaven and the path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more till the perfect day therefore they must be commanded as the way to salvation and not as arbitrary acts of good conversation before men but I shall here answer M. Townes objections tending to prove that good works are not so much as the way to salvation 1. If good works bee such necessary conditions that without them happinesse is not attainable then 1. though the grace of God doe save as the alone cause yet it doth not freely for what God doth freely it is without all condition or consideration of mans workes or worthynesse Answ. It is good that Towne granteth though good works be commanded in the Gospel yet grace may for all that bee the onely cause of salvation but contradicting himselfe hee saith If good workes be commanded in the Gospel then grace is not the onely cause of salvation but grace and works Law and Gospel must be confounded We say not they are so necessary necessitate medii by necessity of meanes but that any savingly beleeving at the nick of the extremity of his twelfth and last houre God taking away all opportunity of good works is undoubtedly saved but in the worke of that faith there is a seed and supernaturall disposition to good works Now that this mother never bringeth forth the birth hindereth not but good works are necessary to salvation necessitate precepti in regard of Gods commandement but Antinomians deny good works to be necessary by any commandement of God 1. Because to omit them maketh the justifyed partie lyable to no guiltinesse or sinne before God say they Because he is under no Law and where there is no Law there is no transgression nor guilt saith Saltmarsh 2. Wee being justified are under no Commandement so as wee can violate this Commandement be it of Law or of Gospel for it is pardoned before it be committed 3. What God doth freely is without conditon as a meriting cause or as a cause or condition slowing from the strength of our nature without grace Without a perfect condition free of all sinnefull imperfection adhering to it such as the Law required it is true but now the assumption of the objection is false What hee doth freely is without all condition Evangelicke wrought by the strength of grace and mixed with sinnefull infirmities so the major is most false for Faith should not then be a condition of justification good works are so conditions as they be graces also How often said Augustine with Scripture God crowneth his owne free gifts in us not our merits 4. The same way I distinguish the consideration of good works either Legall or Evangelike And 5. Towne doth conjoyne our worthinesse which is none at all with our good works which are something for they are conditions of meere grace Object 2 So saith he Yee make works the causes of salvation Answ. It followeth not that they are con-causes or joynt-causes with Christ but onely conditions just as a mans journeying on foot or horse to a City or a Kingdome to inherit it is the way condition of his entring the City But it is not his Charter or Law-title or right to enjoy the Crowne as his inheritance any effective influence to the title of the Crowne of heaven I dare not ascribe to any works in us or to any but to Christ but undeniably good works are not so much as conditions of justification they follow a man justified but goe not before justification no more then the Apple goeth before the tree or the cisterne before the fountaine nor are they the conditions of the Covenant of grace they are the conditions of covenanted ones not of the covenant Object 3. If salvation depended on condition of our good works or dignity it would be uncertaine and doubtfull Rom. 4.16 Answ. The Apostle Rom. 4.16 clearely is on the theame of Justification by faith and the condition of it which is faith onely 2. Wee say not that salvation dependeth on works as a condition but on the grace of God which worketh every good worke in us freely without hire or money neither works nor free will are our sure free hold of heaven Object 4. Yee confound Law and Gospel and runne on that common error that the Gospel is conditionall remission of sinnes dependeth not on works Answ. It is a new heresie of Antinomians to deny a conditionall Gospel it is all one as to bely
it Reader then judge how farre Antinomians differ in this from Libertines And M. Saltmarsh saith the same What ever promise there is which hath any condition into it it is ours in him in Christ who was the onely conditioned and qualified person for all promises And M. Towne Saltmarsh and all Antinomians in every page of their bookes say wee are freed from the Law as an obliging rule of holy walking and under grace that is under the Gospel because the Law is a killing dead Letter and can never give life nor Sanctification But the Gospel saith hee is like the Sunne caries along with it light and life But I pray is not the Gospel without the Spirit a killing Letter aswell as the Law and can it ever quicken or sanctifie without the Spirit more then the Law Then by this Argument the beleever is tyed to nothing as an obliging rule either of beleeving or holy walking but to that which doth effectually quicken and sanctifie so neither Commandement of Law nor Gospel without the Spirit is the beleevers rule but onely the Spirit and the Spirit effectually quickening and actually sanctifying then the Spirit must onely be our rule and we must onely be obliged to be ruled and to lye under the actings of the Spirit as dead creatures When then we neither beleeve nor repent nor abstaine from whooring robbing lying because the Spirit acteth not we sinne not for sinne is against some obligation Antinomians will not say we are obliged by any Law old or new to have the actuall breathings of the Holy Ghost when we omit good and commit evill then the holy Spirit must immediatly and onely act good in us and his non-acting immediatly must be the only cause of beleevers murthering whooring lying and is there not then a Spirit in all under the Gospel working in them all good and by no working causing all the sinnes they commit And what is sinne then but an opinion And can it be our worke or any thing but Gods worke in us CHAP. LXXVIII Libertines and Antinomians take away all sense or remorse of conscience for sinne Paral. X. LIbertines said We are to be troubled in conscience for no sinne because God worketh all in the creature and nothing is beside the will of God Libertines of our time say If God will let me sinne let him see to his owne honour And upon the same ground M. Archer saith Wee are not to bee troubled for our sinnes because they come from God and we may safely say that God is and hath a hand in and is the Author of the sinnefulnesse of his people So doe other Antinomians though they speake not out 2. Upon another ground Antinomians bury all conscience of beleevers sins 1. Because their sins are no sins being remitted before they be committed 2. Because say they it is against Faith and from unbeliefe the flesh and want of mortification to be moved or touched in conscience with sinne as I often have proved CHAP. LXXIX Libertines and Antinomians Parallel beleevers with Christ incarnate Paral. XI AS David Georgius and his cursed followers so Libertines said Christ in us dwelling was God manifested in the flesh or Christ is but a patterne type a representation or figure of patient suffering and of these vertues required in these that are to be saved So the Author of the Bright Starre makes Christ-man the patterne in the mount that in worship and conversation wee must follow And when this Author and Theologia Germanica take away God from us and say there is nothing in the creature but God they doe worse then Libertines Yea they fancie Christ incarnate to be a divine and holy man and so evert a principall Pillar of our faith that is that wee beleeve in the Sonne of God Christ-God made manifest in the flesh And the N. England Libertines teach That Christ is incarnate in every beleever So the English Antinomian saith I have nothing to doe with your Moses or the Law I am Christed and Goded And a late giddy phranticke Pamphlet which I should not honour to cite saith A man in Christ is baptized into a living active God and a dead passive creature And though Antinomians as yet seeme to grant that the Sonne of God was incarnate yet we know not how long for they equall a beleever most proudly with Christ making both his person and all his actions though Adultery Roberie Lying as cleane from sinne as Christ or his actions or as the glorified in heaven 2. Saltmarsh saith The Gospel commands rather by patterne then by precept and by imitation rather then command They deny all obligation either by Law or Gospel to lye on us 3. Because wee are in Christ they say all our sinnes all our sufferings are so drowned up swallowed and nothinged in Christ that we are neither to feare or be touched with the sense of either sinne or affliction and that the beleever is to remaine in Christ alwaies rejoycing triumphing being in heaven already and sorrow and sighing for evermore being banished away CHAP. LXXX To follow sense as a Law is our rule say Libertines and Antinomians Paral. XII LIbertines taught That any calling was lawfull and to follow callings was to follow their naturall inclination and to live as they pleased Quintinus the Libertine to one that asked how hee was in health said in wrath Can it be ill with Christ When hee was present at a solemne Masse with a Cardinall he said Hee saw the glory of God from this ground that Christians cannot sinne that their inclination and nature is their guide which they called the Spirit and they are loosed from all Law therefore with David Georgius they said A marriage-covenant tyed Christians no longer then the naturall temper and disposition of husband and wife would carry them on to agree to live together when inclinations of Christians did thwart they were free to marry another And so said they of goods that they might robbe and spoile calling inclination a calling as if it were their calling to robbe and oppresse So the same doe Antinomians teach in their beastly distinction in which Towne Eaton Denne and Saltmarsh say Beleevers are as cleane from sinne before God and as they live by faith as Jesus Christ himselfe but to men-ward declaratively and as they live by sense or seemingly as Saltmarsh meaneth or according to the flesh as Towne saith now the flesh is the Asse The beleevers sinne and may whoore kill but this following of the sense and the flesh is nothing but the Libertines following of his naturall inclination or calling Now the beleevers Adultery to Saltmarsh is but seeming Adultery then it is not in deed and before God Adultery and he followeth his sense and naturall inclination as the Libertine said in putting away his wife
in all things sinne excepted Luk 24.39 40. Ioh. 20.26 27. 18 The second birth is the Godhead and Gods true being obtaineth the victory beareth rule with God and bringeth forth the name of Israel or Christ it selfe sect 12. 19 Christ is not true man nor Abrahams seed after the flesh but God only in so far as he followeth Abrahams faith 20 H. Nicholas and all his illuminated Elders are Christ all not of his way the Antichrist so some Antinomians now at Oxford Say 1 That Iesus Christ is not God essentially but in name 2 That his nature was defiled with sin aswel as ours 3 It is as possible for Christ to sin as for any of us 4 The Trinity of the Persons is a fiction 5 The fulnesse of the Godhead doth dwell bodily in the Saints as in Christ and that when this Godhead shall be manifested in them they shall have divine honour and have more power then Christ and doe greater workes then hee 6 The scripture is but a shadow and a fiction now the word saith 1 The father and Christ are one and he thought it no robbery to be equal with the father Phi. 2 and maintained he was the consubstantiall sonne of God Ioh. 7. Ioh. 10 else the Iewes would never have said he blasphemed in calling himselfe the sonne of God by adoption for they knew Godly men to be so the sons of God 2 By him the word the heaven and earth were created Ioh. 1.1 2 3. Col. 1.16 17. now God onely created the World Ier. 10 11 12. Esay 44.24 Gen. 1.1 Psal. 33.6 7 8. 3 Hee was anoynted above his fellowes with grace Psal. 45.2.7 and wee receave out of his fulnesse and light our halfe-penny candles at this sunne of righteousnesse Ioh. 1.14.16 and he giveth the Holy Ghost Ioh. 16.14 And hath received a name above all names Phil. 2 9 10. and God said to none of the Angells farre lesse to any man save to the man Christ sit thou at my right hand Heb. 1. 21 The Familists are perfect in this life and so are Antinomians Towne as p 77 78. Saltm free grace 140. 22 To say the three persons are one God is a foolish making three Gods Antinomians professe that Antitrinitarians Arrians Socinians are their brethren so they beleeve and love God as they doe 23 There is but one Spirit in all creatures and that is essentially God Epist to the the two daughters of Warwicke 24 Love and well doing and good workes are the cause of our re-reconciliation and the very saviours that beares our sins whereas Christ bare our sinnes in his body on the tree Esay 53.6 7 8. 1 Pet. 2.23 24. 25 Christs dying on the Crosse is nothing but H.N. and his illuminated Elders their obeying constantly the doctrine of H. N. so as no suffering could cause them to forsake it 26 Then is Christ put to death when any of the Family of Love is no longer led by the Scripture but by the Spirit of revelation that is as sure as the Scripture so said Mrs. Hutchison Rise reigne p. 61. er 27. 27 Mortification is to H. N· justification and removing of sinnes so doe Antinomians confound these two 28 The resurrection of Christ was but a passing out of the flesh or letter of the law to the spirituall being of illuminated Elders 29 Christ sitteth not in our flesh at the right hand of God but in the spirit 30 The comming of the Holy Ghost in cloven tongues was the comming of Christ againe from heaven in the Spirit 31 Christs ascending to heaven was his comming to heavenly mindednesse and fulnesse of knowledge 32 The resurrection of the body is a rising in this life from sin and wickednesse 33 In H. N. God this present day judgeth the world the family of love are the many thousands of his saints that Judgeth with him even now and reigneth on the earth Evang. c. 1. sect 9.10 34 The Marriages of all not enlightened are unlawfull 35 Men shall marry and have wives at the resurrection 36 The illuminated Elders cannot sin nor pray for forgivenesse of sinnes so Antinomians hony-combe c. 3. pag 25. c. 7 pag. 139 forgiven sin is not or hath no being before God Saltm free grace pag. 44. 37 Heaven and Hell are in this world Antinomians say we are fully and compleatly not in hope onely saved in this life 38 The family of love is under no law 39 All things are the act of God 40 Angels and Devils and wicked men are acted immediately by the Spirit of God 41 The Scripture is a shadow 42 Ordinances are for babes in their family of love only 43 The perfect are to live above all ordinances 44 Jf temptations lay hold on us and force us to sin and we cry to God for helpe and finde no helpe we are as guiltlesse as the maid forced in the field who cryed and had no helpe and is not for that a whore H.N. documentall sentences sect 13. sect 8. It is true the beleever shal not be charged to eternal condemnation for sins of infirmities that are his burthen and affliction aswell as his sin but sins of infirmities are essentially his sinnes who acts them and make him lyable to wrath If God should contend with David for his adultery and murther displeased the Lord but God cannot charge the sinne of whoredome on a maid that is forced and doth cry out if she doe cry out and have no helpe it is no whoredome on the maids part 45 All the scriptures are to be exponed by allegories This makes 1 The Scripture a masse of contradictions and lyes 2 This turnes our faith and knowledg into a phancie for the scripture it selfe cannot be a rule of exponing scripture if the glosse destroy the text 3 The scripture shall not Judge all controversies as Christ referres the gravest question that ever was Whether he be the sonne of God or no to this tribunall Search the Scriptures for they testifie of me Ioh. 5. 4 All the articles touching Christ his birth life death buriall resurrection ascending to heaven sitting at Gods right hand his second comming c. Creation providence histories shall teach nothing an Allegory shall cause scripture say the contrary Antinomians call all their allegories the spirituall sense of Scripture Bread may in an allegory signifie comfort then the love of God dwells in a brother who seeth his poore brother famishing and gives him neither cloathing nor bread but onely faith in good words Brother goe in peace and be warmed and cloathed an◠feed for he gives the poore man allegorically bread and cloathing contrary to Iames 2.14 15 16 17. 1 Ioh. 3.17 18. yea so all scripture shall be turned over in lyes dreames and phancies all covenants violated all faith private and publike among Christins may be broken and yet truth kept in an allegoricall sense according to scripture A man may murther his brother and have life eternall Contrary to 1 Io. 3.15
all sins are taken away and are not to be rebuked nor are men renewed to be terryfied by the Law for Luther 1. speaks comparatively and denies not all subordinate activity to renewed free-will after conversion In every good work the Sons of God are rather acted upon then doe act In omni opere bono potius aguntur quam agunt filii Dei Then Luther meanes that they act but grace rather acts upon them for To. 3. in Gen. in cap. 28. fo 82. Luther saith there is a twofold holinesse in us one imputed by which we are sanctified by the Word and is perfect another by which wee are holy by our work and conversation which is unperfect The other holinesse is of works it is charity that makes us acceptable to God there not onely God speaks to me but I study to follow God speaking When I was a Monk often I desired that happinesse to see a godly man in life and conversation in the mean time I dreamed of an Eremite that abstained from meat and drink and fed on rootes and cold water but they are holy who are holy with a passive not an active holinesse if every man doe his duty by rule according to his calling and obey not the flesh and in the Spirit suppresse the desires and lusts thereof Altera sanctitas operum est charitas gratum faciens ibi non solum Deus loquitur sed studeo ego sequi loquentem Deum Ego Monachus saepe ex animo optabam eam faelicitatem mihi contingere ut possim videre conversationem vitam alicujus sancti bominis Interim somniabam talem sanctum qui in Eremo agens abstineret a cibo potu victitaret tantum radiculis herborum aquâ frigidâ sancti sunt sanctitate passivâ non activâ si unusquisque ex praescripto verbi Dei faciat officium in vocatione suâ carni non obsequatur sed Spiritu reprimat desideria ejus And where ever Luther speaketh of inherent holinesse he calleth it imperfect and active then renewed freewill must be an Agent in it 2 The subjective power of doing good that Luther calleth a passive power and which was in man before the fall in the renewed man is not simply passive for in regard of it saith Luther Voluntas magis est impulsa quam impellens the will rather is drawen then it doth draw and act but inclineth more to bee drawen but it is passive because free will in pure naturalls before the fall or after regeneration is a subject receiving a holy sanctified rectitude of will and before the fall that rectitude was that concreated and naturall Image of God in the first Adam in regeneration it is the supernaturall image of the second Adam which wee call the new heart and before the fall Adam did not love and serve God by free will simply but by free-will gifted with that naturall accident of concreated sanctity and holinesse added to the will as a connaturall gift to make the will compleat in its operations Now the will is a mere patient in receiving a supernaturall active power to will according to Christ and in this regard the will is patient and must bee elevated in its naturall activity by receiving a new infused heart Ezeki 36.26 Zech. 12.10 Deut. 30.6 And because free-will acts according to Christ in beleeving hopeing loving out of faith all by the strength of new supernaturall habits therefore doth Luther call the renewed man a patient and his supernaturall workes like the drawing of a Saw which yet hath its own activity of cutting the tree and hath teeth by art for that effect yet t is called a patient in sawing the tree because it is moved in its motion by him that draweth the Saw 3 In the receiving the active determination of actuall assisting grace the will is a patient in the reception and subjective and passive lying under the actuall motion of him who workes in us to will and to doe for wee can doe nothing more than clay when God infuseth a spirit in it to move the predeterminating wind of the spirit to blow right on us in regard of both these though being acted by habituall grace and by actuall assisting grace being drawen Cant. 1.2 3. and Psal. 119.32 compared with Ezeki 36.26 27. we doe and have our own subordinate active influence in all the workes wee doe toward Heaven and life eternall yet Luther saith wee are patients Luther Heraeseos venenum est quod tribuit libero arbitrio virtutem disponendi se ad gratiam sive habitualem sive actualem recipiendam quale faciunt in illo Zech. 1. Convertimini ad me ego convertar ad vos Homo merè passivè se habet nec facit quidquam sed fit totus Luther Deus in materia privativa non positiva operatur It s a poyson of Heresie that giveth to free-will power to dispose it selfe to receive grace as they say from Zech. 1. Turne to me and I will turne to you Man is a meer patient he doth nothing but is acted or done upon God worketh on a privative not a positive matter 4. Luther holds men to be meere patients because grace and grace onely beginneth all supernaturall works Luther How shall free-will remaine and our doing what we can When we are taught that we are wrought upon and we work not but God works wee are the work not the workers so all the Divinity of proud men utterly perishes Faith is wrought in us not thinking not wisely understanding not willing but who-ever is gifted with faith is prevented by the incomprehensible hid work of the Spirit by the onely hearing of the Word without all work of us Vbi manebit liberum arbitrium ubi facere quod in se est cum hic fieri nos doceamur non facere non nos operemur sed Deus nos operetur facturae non factores simus funditus scilicet ruit omnis Theologia superborum Non nobis cogitantibus sapientibus volentibus sed incomprehensibili occulto opere Spiritus praevenitur quisquis fide donatur in Christo ad solum verbi auditum citra omnem nostram aliam operam 4. Luther is much as he cannot be enough in depressing the glory of nature and free-will and exalting God We are not good by working but by suffering when we suffer the actings of God on us and are quiet Whatever shall give thy â—elfe to thee and permit thee hold that in suspition for it will cause thee finde thy own will in fasting as Esa. 58. Whatever shall take thy self from thy self follow that Luther Non operando sed patiendo boni sumus cum patimuâ— divinas actiones quieti ipsis Quicquid tibi teipsum dederit permiserit tene suspectum quia facit ut inveniatur voluntas tua in Jejunio tuo ut dicitur Esa. 58. quicquid
God in hell Nay but if one rise from the dead they will heare and beleeve 2. Antinomians mistake our minde in this lying excuse to wit that we fancie that the prepared for Christ are pardoned and justified men this wee never teach they are guilty sinners and these are in their sinnes unworthy who are best qualified and fitted for Christ. Wee make not cleannesse a preparation for washing nor a sinnelesse innocent and guiltlesse condition a fitnesse preparatory to justification 3. Antinomians take not away by their way a stronger shift Lord if Christ had dyed for me by name and thou hadst drawne me as effectually to Christ as thou drewst Paul and Peter I should have received Christ but thou drewst me in a way that thou drewst Judas when I was guiltie and my heart rockie We make preparations Christs work as conversion is but a farre more common worke of an inferiour nature which may be in many sinners who are never converted Object 7. All that ever received Christ Corinthyans Ephesians Colossians received him in a sinnefull condition when they were unwashen darkenesse dead in sinnes enemies in their minds by wicked works Answ. Nothing followeth against us preparations removeth not a sinnefull condition nor deadnesse in sinne nor minde-enmity by evill works Christs bloud and saving grace onely removeth both the guilt and the staine of sinne but hence it followeth in no sort that we are not sinne-sick and selfe-condemned and lost before Christ remove our darkenesse and quicken the dead Object 8. God offereth Christ in time as God gave him God before all time gave him to us because we were sinners and now he is but offered as he was given Answ. God offereth Christ in time as hee gave him before time it is true in regard of the freedome of grace no cause condition qualification reason moved God to ordaine and decree either the sicke for the Physitian Christ or the Physitian for the sicke before time and neither preparations is the cause nor necessary condition or ground why he giveth Christ to us in time But it is not true in regard of the order of giving Christ bofore time or in time for in time God giveth Christ to these that heare the Gospel onely but I hope he decreed not to give Christ and salvation to men upon this condition and upon no other that they shall heare the Gospel because hee ordained men for glory of free grace and upon the same free grace ordained them to heare and beleeve and repent yet neither faith nor repentance were preparatory conditions to the decree of grace 1. God neither before time nor in time giveth Christ because we are sinners or because wee are thus and thus humbled and prepared but because he will bee gratious to whom he will be gratious sinne is onely the occasion and the matter and preparations are the meere order of his proceeding first he humbleth by the Law and then giveth Christ in the Gospel but not because the sinner is humbled nor for his humiliation nor because he hath made any Gospel-promise whoever is thus and thus fitted and prepared by the Spirit of the Law and terrors and broken and selfe-condemned with the burden and sense of sinne shall be converted we know no such Gospel-promise CHAP. LXX Faith not the onely worke of the Gospel as Antinomians say LEt us also try Saltmarsh his reasons to prove his short way to heaven and that its the onely Gospel-worke to beleeve Salvation saith he is not a businesse of our working and doing it was done by Christ with the Father All our worke is no worke of salvation but in salvation Wee here receive all not by doing any thing that we may receive more but doing because we receive so much because we doe not that wee may be saved And yet we are to doe as much as if we were to be saved by what we doe because we should doe as much for what is done already for us and to our hands as if wee were to receive it for what we did our selves Answ. 1. Here is no Argument Christ hath done all by way of merit and purchase of a perfect redemption therefore wee are not to worke out our salvation in feare and trembling it followeth not 2. It is most false That we are to doe nothing in the Gospel that we may receive more or that we may be saved but because we are saved for these are not contrary but sweetly subordinate We doe because we are saved and because wee are Redeemed by merit and Gospel-right by hope and begun possession therefore we are not to sow to the Spirit that we may reape life everlasting it followeth not Wee both worke because we have a crop and that we may receive a crop Servants are to serve their Masters not with eye-service both because they have a Master in heaven who hath saved them and also in hope to receive the reward of inheritance Elders are to feed the flocke because they are redeemed and love their Redeemer and because when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare they shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away and because we are redeemed we are to looke to our selves that wee lose not these things that we have wrought for but that wee may receive a full reward so our worke is both a worke of salvation and a worke in salvation 3. There is nothing falser then that Antinomians are to worke as much as if they were to be saved by their working for their working is arbitrary not obligatory by any commandement nor doe they sinne in not working Let them in their conscience say if they sinne or can sinne 1. being once justified for sin is as cleane removed in its nature and being from the beleever as from Christ say the Antinomians 2. If they sin in doing nothing after they are justified if the immediate acting of the Spirit of love stirre them not to it and therefore it is false that they should doe as much for what is done as if they were to receive life for doing because they should not non debent they are not obliged to doe when they doe not nor are under any guilt for not doing By this way for to Antinomians there is no obliging Law but God immediatly by his Spirit acting them to good is all their Law Object 2. This short worke beleeve and be saved Paul telleth you Say not in thine heart who shall ascend to heaven that is to bring Christ from above c. The word is nigh thee even in thy mouth c. Answ. We would not willingly make the way to heaven longer then Christ hath made it Paul speaketh Rom. 10.6 7 8. of a Law-way that is long wearisome unpassible as who would strive to climbe up to heaven or to goe downe to the grave to fetch Christ from either heaven or hell The Gospel-way sure is a sweet easie passible way
deliberation knowledge action from the soule in either supernaturall works of grace or sinne as if the soule were turned in a rock or a stone 5. All the sinnes of beleevers their Adulteries murthers lying cousening must be counted on the Lords score I tremble to speake it upon his honour be it if he will suffer perfect Angels to sinne more then he can suffer Angels and the glorified that stand before the throne to fall or transgresse CHAP. LXXII Glorifying of God in sanctification needfull ANntinomians tell us of a two fold glorifying of God one in the eyes of God primary immediate passive divine by faith in which God glorifieth himselfe in us justifying us Faith being the Creator as it were of a certaine divinitie as Rom. 4.20 Abraham gave glory to God whereas unbeliefe maketh him a lyar There is another glorifying of God that is outward more fleshly and humane secondary mediate in the eyes of men by good works in sanctification in which we are agents and glorifie God by the Spirit by which wee are partakers of the Divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 and it is done in a grosser manner by declaring God glorified before men by our good works Math. 5. and greatly inclineth to the glorifying of man by this Abraham hath to glory and rejoyce in holy works but not before God Answ. 1. We are not meere passive in beleeving for then should we not be commended for beleeving nor should wee know rely and trust in an all-sufficient Saviour in beleeving on him though there be a passion in beleeving 2. These enemies of Sanctification abase all holy walking and works of sanctification calling holy walking 1. glorifying of God outwardly and before men in a fleshly manner Whereas God seeeth it and acknowledgeth it in his owne sight sincere unfained perfect in its kind with perfection of parts not of degrees they would have all Sanctification finer hypocrisie I know thy works saith Christ to Smyrna and tribulation and poverty but thou art rich That wee might serve him without feare in holinesse and righteousnesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before him all the daies of our life And whatsoever yee Servants doe doe it heartily as to the Lord not to men Commending our selves to every mans conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the sight of God Abraham walke before mee and bee thou perfect saith the Lord. How many of the good Kings did right in the sight of the Lord It s true our best works are polluted with sinne and in the matter of justification cannot endure the strict Law-censure of the Judge of the world if God narrowly marke iniquity But Antinomians are so at odds with holy walking that they will have all the sincere works of the Saints wrought by the grace of God to bee in their substance before God plaistered hypocrisie and yet in the justified these hypocriticall works are no sinne there being no more sinne in the justified nor any thing contrary to a Law which the Lord can see as a sinne more then in Jesus Christ. So here is holy sanctified and lawfull sinne and an innocent hypocrisie and holy and harmlesse corruption and flesh 3. A declarative glorifying of God in the eyes of men not of God must argue the beleever to be lawlesse and a Libertine before men and that he needeth not before men and in his conversation with wife brother children neighbours in his words promises covenants buying selling works of his calling doe all as in the sight and presence of God for if he walke rightteously in his conversation with men hee is behinde Gods backe the Lord seeth him not if he walke unjustly in fornication uncleannesse cousening lying God seeth not these to be sins 4. Why doe Antinomians exclude from works of sanctification the worke of beleeving Are we not to doe all good works in faith as well as for the glory of God and are we not to eat and drinke in faith Rom. 14. vers 22.23 are they not bastard works that come not from such a root as faith As the fruit is ill if the tree be ill and so we must glorifie God primarily immediatly in the sight of God passively in this declarative and active and secondary glorifying of God 5. The Antinomians exclude a third sort of glorifying God to wit in private when neither God seeth them nor men but they are done in a secret closet as praying praysing meditating and soliloquies of the soule with God almes given in private that men see not nor doe the poore know of it this is neither passive nor active glorifying of God and so the division is lame except Antinomians will have us comming with our secret prayers and almes to the streets and cause a trumpet to be blowne as Pharisees doe 6. The gloryfying of God by men that see our good works incline of it self to no glorifying of man more then Abrahams giving glory to God but onely as we either trust to our good works or vainely conceit we are justified by our good works and then being abused they incline to glorifie men and make us vainely rejoyce and boast in them before God So if Abraham should thinke his act of beleeving were his onely righteousnesse before God his beleeving in God should be as fleshly a glorifying of man as any his works of Sanctification CHAP. LXXIII Sanctification concurs as well as Justification to make Saints THough Sanctification say Antinomians make men Saints declaratively to men-ward yet the true cause that makes them Saints in the sight of God is justification To this wee say 1. Take Sanctification as Eaton and Saltmarsh and Denne say Protestant Divines whom they are pleased to call Legalists doe for such holinesse as they say is in Anchorits Eremits and Monks for externall works done without faith it makes men neither Saints before God nor men but meere faireded hypocrites such a sanctification wee disclaime But take Sanctification for holy walking in the strength of the grace of justification and grace inherent in us so we say Justification and Sanctification ought not to bee separated but both concurre to make us Saints the one as the cause the other as the unseparable effect And most false it is that Eaton saith That Sanctification is so farre from being the cause of making us Saints to God-ward that properly it doth but declare that we are Saints to man-ward for so Antinomians make Sanctification nothing but a poore shaddow like an Yvie bush that is no cause of wine but a meere signe to declare and shew in this there is wine Now sure by Sanctification we are partakers of the Divine nature and the Spouses beauty not onely in regard of imputed righteousnesse but also a holy and sincere walking and blamelesse profession of the truth in a chaine of the Spouses necke and in her personall acts of praying and praysing and the sweet ministery of the Gospel in regard of
way of grace And its poverty of Spirit when we see we have no grace and Saltmarsh Denne Crispe Eaton Towne and the Antinomians reject all comforts assurance or rejoycing from acts of Sanctification and works in the regenerate and say that its a seeking of righteousnesse in our selves and sure then it must bee a worke of the flesh to exercise our knowledge that way to discerne our selves to be sonnes because wee walke in love and after the Spirit Paral. II. Libertines said All sinne was but an opinion that we sinne and under opinion they comprehend conscience scruples remorse sense of judgement That Christs worke of Redemption was to destroy opinion and sense of sinne and then are men new creatures And there is no Devill no sinne no world that are our spirituall enemies David Georgius placed the spirituall life of his in committing Adulteries without sense of sinne and that publickely without shame and that faith in Jesus Christ was the way to abolish this shame in acting this filthinesse which shame was the fruit of the first Adams disobedience And that they should confesse all their sins to their shame again and again in the publike assembly till all pride and glorification of the flesh bee crucified that grace and mercy may be seene to be more glorious And they must goe in this selfe-denyall while they be deaden or to the opinion of any propriety of goods or possessions or wives or Marriages and then they come naked to the new Kingdome of David Georgius where they are to live above all lawes of marriage c. or consanguinity or the like Antinomans doe well neere border with this way onely that which Libertines doe call opinion or discerning of sinne Saltmarsh Eaton and Den call sense Towne calleth it sense or unbeliefe all call it sinning not before God but before men and in the conversation So they say the Adulteries Murthers committed by the justified are seeming sinnes sinnes in mens account saith Saltmarsh but not so before God and to the eye of Faith Now to live by faith is Antinomian Sanctification or Mortification or these sinnes saith Towne before God are no sinnes to faith they are meere nullities but to our sense and flesh they are sinnes So Saltmarsh and Eaton to sense reason experience or to unbeliefe that can but lye and deceive they are sinnes to faith and before God who seeth no sinne in us they are no sinnes Or as Master Denne saith They are sinnes in the conversation before men not in the conscience and before God and all come from this the Justified are under no Law of God and so cannot sinne if then they thinke their adulteries to be sinne that is sense unbeliefe ignorance of their Christian liberty and the erronious opinion of the old Adam Faith beleeveth Adultery to bee no sinne at all It s true to the beleever it is no condemning sinne no sinne such as actually bindeth them over to eternall wrath say we but not a nullity for that not for that an exorbitancie against no Law of God as the Libertine and his brother Antinomian say Then no sense of sinne no trouble of minde for sinne as good Saltmarsh saith can be in beleevers because where there is no transgression there is no Law and no trouble of minde for a breach of the Law This is an opinion of faith that Christ hath purchased a power to beleeve sinne to be no sinne and this is with David Georgius not to thinke shame of sinne but to be deadned to all sense of sinne and so Faith pulleth the conscience out of the justified man hee may sinne with ease CHAP. LXXV Libertines Familists and Antinomians free us from all Law and that we neither sinne nor are to be rebuked for sinne Paral. III. LIbertines said Wee were freed from all Law either directing commanding or condemning And so did David Georgius and so teach the Libertines of New England These that are in Christ are under no Law and Antinomians as Towne Saltmarsh Crisp Denne say We are freed from all the Law of God in all its offices to direct give light rule binde oblige or command as well as to threaten and condemne Paral. IV. Libertines taught That when we are once regenerate we can sinne no more but are as Angels So Libertines of New England and Antinomians say A beleever is as free from Hell Law and bondage on earth as if he were in heaven nor wants he any thing to make him so but to beleeve he is so And Hee that beleeveth saith Eaton that Christ hath taken away his sinnes is as cleane from sinne as Christ himselfe And to Faith there is no sinne and the beleevers person and works are perfect before God and free of sinne and sinfull imperfections Paral. V. When Libertines were rebuked for sin they said It s not I that sinne but my Asse or sinne dwelling in me and they cited that text 1 Joh. 3. He that is born of God sinneth not It s true Paul saith Rom. 7. Not I but sin dwelling in me but his meaning was it s not I as regenerate who sinne because I make not sinne my taske and worke nor doe I evill with the whole bensell of my soule the whole strength of my mind affections and will in regard the unrenewed part protesteth against sinne but I as unrenewed and as fleshly in part as halfe a sufferer I sinne being as a captive sighing in my fetters and complaining that I am wretched through necessitie of sinning I doe the evill I would not doe Rom. 7.17.18.22.23 But the Antinomians conspire with Libertines in the same sense for Towne saith That the old Adam and all his works are shut up under the Law and wrath of God So it is but the Old Adam the flesh the Law of the members that doth sin but it was never the Apostles minde to deny that a beleever once justified can sinne any more For in many things we sinne all Jam. 3.2 And if wee say we have not sinne we are lyars 1 Joh. 1. But Antinomians deny that beleevers can more sin then Christ himselfe or then the gloryfied in heaven and to a beleever there is no sinne God can see no sinne in them Now sure Libertines who said the state of the regenerate was an Angelike puritie did thinke sinnes acted by their Asse the flesh were no sinnes as Antinomians deny Adulteries and cousening and robbing done by the justified to be sinnes but seeming sinnes as Saltmarsh and no sinnes before God as Eaton saith CHAP. LXXVI Libertines and Antinomians destroy Scripture and make the Spirit all and some Paral. VI. LIbertines saith Calvin are so spirituall in their owne fancie that they count no more of the sacred word of God then of Fables except when it serves their turnes The places of Scripture