Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 2 · Chapter 31 – Chapter 36
CHAP. XXXI. God punisheth sinne in beleevers.
SO doth the Lord inflict temporary punishments, and spirituall, on unbeleevers, though David for his Adultery, felt not the stroak of revenging justice; yet sure it was Evangelike justice; that he who tooke another mans wife secretly, that lay in his bosome, and killed the innocent husband with the sword of strangers, that another should take his wives openly, and lye with them before the Sunne, and that the sword in his owne house should persue him; and the one brother kill the other: and it was just, that Peter who proudly trusted in his own strength, should fall on his own weight, and deny the Lord. And these that eat unworthyly, should eat judgement; and for a1 Cor. …1.30.this cause many among the Corinthians were weake, many sickely, many dead. Zachary was stricken with dumbnesse because hee beleeved not the Angels word, Luke 1. 2. The Covenant in which perseverance is promised, threatning the rod of men to beleevers that transgresse the Lords Law, bLev. 26.….4. Psal. 89.3…, 32, 33, 3….prove the same. 3. God was angry, and in a mercifull anger, punished cExod. 4.4.Moses, dDeu…. ….…0.Aaron, e2. Ch…. 1….9.Salomon, f2. …. 19.Jehoshaphat, Nor is it of weight, that God smote men to death in the Old Testament for light sinnes, but its not so in the New; he is not so severe now. But is not our God (even in the New Testament) a consuming fire? Were there ever more Hell-like vengeance that fell on any then on Jerusalem; so as Christ said, barren wombs should bee blessed, and they should cry, hills fall on us, and cover us. 2. Did beleevers in the Old Testament make satisfaction to revenging justice for their sins that Christ did beare? 3. Were there any halfe satisfactions made by men to infinite justice? 4. Were they their owne redeemers from Hell?
CHAP. XXXII. Beleevers are to mourne for sinne.
WEe judge the Spirit of grace to be a mourning spirit, aZach. 12.10.They shall looke on me whom they have pierced, and mourne. bEz…. 7.16.They that escape shall be on the mountaines, like the doves of the valleis, all of them mourning, every one for his iniquity. 2. As this is promised, so is it practised; cMat. 26.75Peter having denyed his Lord, remembred the words of Jesus — went out, and wept bitterly: and dLuk. 7.18.a woman that was a sinner stood at Jesus feet, behind him weeping, and beganne to wash his feet with teares. Wee roare eEsai. 59.11.all like Beares, and mourne like doues, —for our transgressions are multiplied. 3. It is commanded fIam. 4.8.Be afflicted, and mourne, and weepe. gIam. 4.9.Let your laughter be turned into mourning. 4. Mourners are hMath. 5, 4.blessed. Antinomians after Adultery, rapine, bid us beleeve, rejoyce; for God iHoney comb pag. 449.loveth not heavinesse, dulnesse, sorrowfull cogitations: there is nothing to a beleever kTowne as. 25.26.34. Honey combe, c. 16.446.447but joy, comfort, rejoycing; sorrow for, or sense of sinne, is sorrow for a shaddow, and sinfull unbeliefe, for pardoned sinne is no sinne. But (say wee) pardoned sinne is sinne, and sorrow for offending him whom we have pierced, is the Gospel-groaning of the Turtle, and sorrow according to l2 Cor. 7.10 1….God; and this is the Libertines mortification to sinne, without sorrow or sense; and to know and feele sinne after it is committed, said Da: Georgius, is an act of the flesh: and the taste of the apple that Evah did eat, say the Libertines.
CHAP. XXXIII. To crave pardon for sinne, or to have any sense of sinne denyed to beleevers by Antinomians.
VPonUpon this ground, its a worke of fleshly unbeliefe, (say they) aTowne asser. pag. 32.that a justified David crave pardon of sinnes committed after he is justified, 1. But why more of sinnes committed after, then before justification? for both sorts of sinnes are removed by the bloud of Christs Crosse, and cease to be sins, as Antinomians teach: and if we be justified ere we beleeve, a beleever having committed Adultery, must…ly, when he saith, out of the sense of sinne, Lord, in this, I have sinned against thee. These that call God Father, Mat. 6.12. pray for forgivenesse dayly.
Sense of sinne is an act of unbeliefe to Antinomians, if beleevers judge sinne pardoned to be sinne, or any thing but a slip in our conversation before men, not a breach of a Law in the sight of God, and if they judge of adulteries, and murthers committed after they beleeve pardon in Christ, as of sins to be mourned, or humbled for, they judge amisse, not by the light of Faith, but by the carnall feeling, and mis-apprehension of sense, reason, the flesh. bHoney comb cap. 5. pag. 87. cap. 9. pag. 95.So to be deadned to all sense of sinne, to have a conscience burnt with a hot yron, is mortification.Saltmarsh Free gr. par. 2. cap. 32. p. 142. A beleever in Christ hath perfectly obeyed the whole Law, perfectly suffered and satisfied for all his sinnes, is perfectly righteous, sitteth in heavenly places,—but if he live onelyonly by sense, reason, and experience of▪ himselfe, as hee liveth to men both under the power, and …o…ing of sinne, and the Law.
CHAP. XXXIV. Antinomians hold, wee are in the boyling of our lusts, without any foregoing humiliation, immediately to beleeve on Christ.
VPonUpon this ground, that we are justified by Christs bearing our sinnes on the Crosse, and before that of unbeleevers, by the grace of Christ, wee be made beleevers, without any reall change of our state and condition before God; or any humiliation of soule, or sicknesse for the want of Christ, we are immediatly to beleeve in Christ, though remaining Adulterers, Murtherers, Paricides, &c. pChrists counsell to Laodice…. pag. 35.Yea, nor is salvation tyed to beliefe, nor is Faith a condition, without which no man can bee saved. And a man may be the greatest sinner bPower of love. p. 29 30 Crispe vol. 1. ser. 6. pag, 159 In the covenant of grace man is tyed to no condition, that he must performe, that if he d…e not performe, the covenant is made void by him.imaginable, and Christ may be his Christ. So that Christ may bee the Saviour of a beleever, and he truely united unto him; Christ may dwell in his heart dC…ispe vol. 1▪ ser. 7. pag. 190.by faith; and in that same state and time he be kept captive in the eRyse, ra…gne, err.snare of the Devill at his will; and hee walke according fEphes. 3.17.to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the ayre, that now worketh in the children of disobedience; which clearely stateth, a communion between Christ and Belial, God and the Devill, the enemy of God, in one and the same soule.g2 Tim. 2.26.hEphes. 2.2.
CHAP. XXXV. Of spirituall poverty and how its mistaken by Antinomians.
TRue poverty of spirit doth not kill and destroy all sight of grace in our selves, as Antinomians aRise, raigne, er. 17.say, and when we have grace, to see we have no bRise, raigne er. 50.grace. its grace (saith cTown ass. Pag. 66.Town.) But it is true, to know that we are poore, wretched, blinde, and of our selves miserable, dRev. 3.19.20.is spirituall povertie: and the more we find our nothingness, money-lesse, and beggarly condition, the more eMatth. 8. v. 9, 10.grace: because the poverty of humility is riches; he is neerest to Christ, who findeth he cannot buy him. 2. Its true, that not to bee too quick-eyed in a reflect knowledge, to know our graces, and not to rest on them; nor make bigge undertakings, as Peter did, that wee can doe all, is also spirituall poverty. A beleever cannot lay a sowme and a great wodfie on himselfe; but grace doth not undervalue grace, and belie the Spirit in it selfe.Ephes. 3 8. 1 C…r. 15.9. 1. The Saints give judgement of their owne graces; fMark. 9.…4.Lord I beleeve I am black, but comly as the tents of Kedar, gCant. 1.5.I slept but my heart waked; hCant. 5.1.for I am i1 Cor. 15.9, 10.the least of the Apostles, and am not meet to bee called an Apostle, — but by the grace of God I am that I am. In which the Saints doe lay low themselves, yet not slander the holy Spirit in themselves. If I may not slander another, then may I not slander Christ in my selfe. 2. The office of the Spirit is to know iCor. 2.12.the things that are freely given us of God. 3, The Spirit of Christ doth not counter-worke himselfe, Now his light lets us see the worke of grace in us, for our own comfort, grounds of rejoycing, k2 Cor. 1.12.and that wee may see our debts, and wee may praise Christ, because wee cannot pay him.
CHAP XXXVI. Repentance mistaken by Antinomians.
REpentance is not (as Denne aDenne conference with a si…ke mar. pag. 31.32.33.saith) a part of Faith, or a change of the mind, to looke no longer for righteousnesse from the Law, but from Christ; but a change of the endeavours to please God, whereas before, selfe was our God, and an endeavour to turne from dead bHeb▪ 6.….works. 2. True repentance is sorrow according c2 Cor 7.10 11, 1…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, R…m. 3. Gal. 3.never by repentance. Wee thinke not that teares wash away sinnes; Protestants ▪ speake not so.
Repentance not a formall bottome and ground of peace.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, eEs…i. 57.15.to accept broken bones, fPsal. 51.7.to comfort mourners in Zion gEsai. 61.1, 2, 3.; and wee thinke neither repentance, nor good works, proper and formall conditions of the covenant of grace, but rather conditions of the covenanted.