Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 2 · Chapter 54
CHAP. LIV. What peace we may fetch from gracious performances.
THe Spirit acteth Legally, say aSaltmarsh Free grace. 180.181.Antinomians, when men measure forgivenesse by their sinne and sanctification, and can beleeve no more then they have peace for, and that peace dependeth on some of their owne performances; in so doing (saith Towne) bTowne asser. grace, pag. …9.Legalists had rather gather peace and securitie from repentance and reformation of life, then from justification, which is onelyonly effectuall to make and cause true peace.
But our minde is this;
Asser. 1. We are not to measure forgivenesse so, by sinne and sanctification,How we g… ther peace from s…irituall performance. as the measure of pounds and talent-weights of pardon should arise from the like weight of pounds and talents of sinne and sanctification; because great sinfulnesse and drames, and halfe ounces of sanctification, and love to Christ, may argue to the beleever the pardon of tenne thousand talents. Christ argued, the woman loveth much, ergo, many sins are cL…k. 7.47.forgiven her; we read not, that this was the womans owne Logicke. 2. We draw peace and pardon not from so many yards, or ells of obedience, as merchants measure cloth; the Spirits consequence is not from the quantity, but from the quallity of sanctification; sparkles of gold may prove there is a gold mine in that ground, and that in abundance; nor draw we the consequence from sinnes simply, but from sinnes hated, subdued, resisted.
Asser. 2. Peace with God,Peace with God, not the same with peace from our selves. or the peace of faith is not every way the same, with peace with our selves, and of our owne spirituall sense and apprehension. Peace fundamentall, and with God, is solidly grounded on pardon; Being justified by faith dRom. 5.7.we have peace with God; its often so with the Saints, that they have faith for pardon, and yet no feeling for peace.
Asser. 3. We may have peace with God, when wee have not peace with our selves: as the covenant stands sure between God and us, when we have great disquietnesse of minde, either through some hainous transgression, or present unbeliefe, and it is not fit wee should have peace with our selves, under some great sinne, it is but carnall security; if Peter after the deniall of Christ, be quiet in Spirit, and have deepe peace: the disquietnesse of unbeliefe, apprehending eternall wrath is sinfull; but in regard of anxiety of godly sorrow, its kindly; there be stormes in winter, when there are causes of them, and faire Sommer-like weather is not so good for the season in Winter; because not so kindly and sutable to a right frame of nature.
Asser. 4. Peace with our selves may arise from the works of saving grace, but neither assurance,What qualified performance▪ can bottom our peace. nor peace can flow from naked acts of love, and sanctification, not quallified and goldned with Christ, and his grace, as eTowne asser. 1.9.120.Towne falsely slandereth us; because such bastard works as are but white and comely sinnes; and being in men out of Christ, can but produce sandy and rotten peace, but such acts of holynesse, as essentially flow from heightned principles of soule-saving grace, and are floured and crowned with Christs merits, may bee grounds of solid peace, though not causes, and though some of our drosse still accompany our best performances, yet may we difference in them Christs gold from our oare; his wine, from our dregs; this peace is a heart not smiting, but smiling, and saying. Our rejoycing is this, 2 C…r. 1.…2.the testimony of our conscience, &c. and where there is joy, there is peace, R…m. 14.17both are fruits growing in the same soile: so speaketh the Church, Esa. 26.9.with my soule I have desired thee in the night, — whence followeth, ver…. 1….Lord, thou wilt ordaine peace for us. Why, For thou hast wrought all our workes in us.
But wee had not rather draw our peace from walking with, nor from beleeving in God thorow Christ: nor did wee ever meane that faith, farre lesse holy walking should bee the cause of that fundamentall peace, of peace betweene God and the sinner, as kTowne … pag. ….Towne supposeth, works are not fellow-mediators with Christ, works had no bloud to interpose, as Christ the peace-maker had, (for he is our peace;) works, faith, nor any thing in us, were not actors, nor commissioners in the treaty of pacification: and the truth is, the peace we have in our conscience, and apprehension, even from faith is the result, the bloome that groweth on the stalke, the floure or rose of Jesse, rather then peace, and it hath the right hew and resplendencie of peace, because there is so much of Christ in either our faith or holy performances: the rosie, pleasant, and beautifull morning skie is not the Sunne, but the result and daughter of the Sunne, and the faire skie, together; and faith that acteth much upon the promises, as upon the report of credentiall letters, doth, and must apprehend more pardon then peace can beare witnesse to; sinne hath a bloudy tongue, and cryeth fury and vengeance aloud, faith must lye on the attonement of the bloud of Jesus, which our sense cannot reach: Faith is a starre of a greater magnitude, and higher el…vation then our poore low-creeping feeling. So wee thinke we had more of Christ, and the acting of the Spirit at our first conversion, then long after, because when our spirituall apprehension is young and tender, the acts of apprehension are more wanton, and fiery; but when experience and growth of grace commeth, the motions of sense are more stayed, and solid, and as spiritie and active and more, but to greene sense, little seemeth much. But that which Antinomians ayme at, is to blow away all peace that commeth from personall sanctification, because they are enemies to personall mortification, and make this to be our peace of repenting, and mortifying sinne, abstaining from fleshly lu…s; that Christ repented, mortified sinne and lusts on the Crosse for us; and we beleeve this, and there is an end. Hence they condemne a…l experience of the acting of God in, and on the soule, to comfort the lR…se, raigne, er. 5….soule, or helpe faith in times of desertion. For Saltmarsh, who in his cures of all our Legall and carnall agues, is silent of experience, and thinketh outward ordinances, and the promises written for our learning and comfort, because outward, and mSa…tm…rsh Free grace pag. 1…0.written, and vocall, to be old Testament, and Legall waies, though Peter call them, n1 Pet. ….2.sincere milke, o2 Pet ….….exceeding great and precious promises; and Paul, Thinke they were written pRom, …5.4.for our learning, that we, through patience, and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope; and Christ qIoh. 15.10,speaking of his Commandements, which were written and spoken by him, and so outward, saith, that they were a badge visible to all the world, that they were his Disciples, If yee keep my Commandements, yee shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Fathers Commandements, and abide in his love. And to rIob 23.12.Job, the words of the Lords mouth were more then his necessary food. And Christ giveth his judgement in a spirituall, not a Legall song of outward ordinances. Cant. 4.11.Thy lips, O my Spouse, drop as the honey combe: honey and milke are under thy tongue. To David tPsal. 19.10.they were sweeter then the honey or honey combe, uPsal. 119.103.sweet to his tast, yea, above gold, xVers. 127.or fine gold, as yVers, 14.all riches, better zVers. 72.then thousands of gold and silver, his aVers▪ 111.heritage for ever. To Saltmarsh the Word is a dead outward, legall thing; and all this to them must be spoken of the inward and spirituall word written in the heart, as Libertines taught; So Bulling. advers. Anabapti. It is true, it is for that soule-acting and Spirit-converting power so; but in the meane time, upon this ground, old Anabaptists rejected the Word, and the Ministery, and tooke th…m to … Law written in the inward parts, and the annoin…ing that … all things, abusing Jer. 31.…3. and 1 Joh. 2.27. So do… Antinomians upon this ground, reject all experiences, contrary to the Scripture, bRom. ….4.experience worketh hope; then it should cheere us in sad houres: thus the Church comforteth her selfe. cPsal. 77.…, 2, …, 4, 5, 6. vers. 11.I considered the dayes of old, and called to remembrance my songs in the night. So dPsal. 63 2.David looketh back to this longing, to see (saith he) thy power and thy glory, so as I have seene thee in the Sanctuary. 2. Peter puts it on the Saints, e1 Pet. 2.3.If so be ye have tasted, that the Lord is gracious. 3. Its a sinnefull neglect to look to no experience. fIob. 35.10.But none saith, where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night? saith Elihu. 4. Antinomians are angry at experiences;Antinomians reject experiences. 1. Because they teach, there is no difference gRise, raigne er. 16.betweene the graces of hypocrits, and beleevers in the kinds; and so no experiences betweene the one and the other can render any difference. 2. Experience is an outward ordinance of gathering from such and such a dispensation of God, such a tryed conclusion. Now Saltmarsh thinketh all outward ordinances, as outward hSaltmarsh Free grace, pag. 179 180.Legall things, and so it would appeare Christ in the New Testament-worship which is spirituall, and in nothing Legall, hath appointed neither preaching, nor praying, nor hearing, nor Sacraments, nor Christian Assemblies, nor conferences, nor admonishing, exhorting one another, nor writing, for all these are outward things; and I grant, if Christ joyne not his influence of grace, neither is Pauls i1 Cor. 4 7planting, nor Appollos his watering, any thing. Yet Apostles and Teachers are not Legall ordinances. 3. Antinomians offend at all inherent grace and created quallifications in us, as evidences, or helps, to testifie wee are in Christ, kSaltmarsh Free grace. 61.6….63.64. Towne asser. gr…ce, pag. 120. C…spe v…l. …. Ser. 15.4 2.433.3….435.4…6. R…se, raine, ruine, er. 33. To act by vertue of, or in obedience to a command, is Legall.for they are all deceiving differences, saith Crispe, and may be in hypocrits; and (say I) they can be no otherwise in hypocrites then deluding signes, then the voice and testimonie of the Spirit, for there is a thing like a voice in the Temporaries, and also a thing like faith, which is no faith. Now experiences remaine as inherent and habituall observations of the Spirits actings in the Soule.