Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 2 · Chapter 69
CHAP. LXIX. The dead and bastard faith of Antinomians.
ANtinomians do obtrude a dead, vaine presumption to us, in lieu of saving faith.The doctrine of saving faith utterly corrupted by the Antinomians. 1. We follow Christs own fashion and order of beleeving; that sinners sick, pained, humbled, plowed by the terrors and the Law: who are onelyonly under such breakings, and rentings of preparations, should relie on Christ for salvation; not for these preparations, nor because they are thus prepared; but meerly in this order, lest they should say, aIer 2.3…. Antinomians teach presumption in stead of faith.Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turne away from me; and I have no neede of Christ, that same sense (Repentance I dare not call it in an Evangelicke sense) of sin, and pricking of heart, and feare of shutting up under an everlasting prison, may highten the price of an excellent Saviour. Antinomians will Pharises, as Pharises, obdured undaunted heifers, bIer. 31.8. Hosea 8.9.swift Dromedaries traversing their wayes, wild Asses used to the wildernesse, snuffing up the wind at their pleasure, all sinners as such,cIer. 2.23▪ 24. without any order of first breaking the iron sinnow in the neck: even while they think they are wholy righteous as Pharises, and count sin as knots of strawes, to own the blood of propitiation, immediately without any preparation; to beleeve and relie on Christ for Salvation. This we judge to bee presumption, and in regard of Gods order, simply impossible, that they that say dIoh. 9.41.they see, can see remaining such; but rather bee blind, and their sinne remaine: that the wearie and laden, and those that are judicially eIoh. 9 2.39.10. Math. 13.14.1….blinded, and hardened, remaining such, and as such should be invited without any preparatorie sense of their damnable condition, and of their neede of a Saviour; and that both are invited equally of Christ, to relie immediately on him for Salvation; and are as such forthwith, to cast themselves upon Christ, is unsound. For 1. Christ decreeth, and holdeth forth the very contrary order, and method of beleeving, not the merit thereof. 2. When he fIoh. 5 44.saith, How can ye beleeve that seeke honour one of another? He clearly intimateth, that there must bee some preparatory abating of that swelling lust, or then they cannot as such, beleeve in Christ.
2. To beleeve now (say gSaltmarsh Free grace, 192.they) is the onelyonly worke of the Gospel; and Saltmarsh proveth it to be the onelyonly worke, this is the worke (the onelyonly worke hee must meane, if he prove his conclusion) That yee beleeve on him whom hee hath sent, Joh. 6.29. This is the commandement, (that is, the onelyonly worke commanded in the Gospel) That yee beleeve in his Sonne Jesus Christ, Faith only and no other duty, commanded in the Gospel by the Antinomian way.1 Joh. 3.23. Then nothing falleth under a Gospel-commandement, but beleeving; now I would hold Antinomians at this, that nothing is a commandement, or a commanded dutie but that which if we contravene, it maketh us guilty of sin before God, and in his Court, if he would actually enter in judgement with us: so then the Gospel as the Gospel commandeth not brotherly love, meeknesse, patience, temperance, and forbideth not rebellion to Rulers; murther the hating of our brother, adulterie, robbing, stealing, lying, idolatrie, swearing; so as these should be acts of obedience, or of sinfull disobedience to God; but as acts arbitrary, and of meer courtesie, and simply free to beleevers, and to be done or omited, onelyonly as the immediate rapture of the Spirit, without any commandement obliging to obedience rewardable, or to sinne punishable by Law doth act and draw them, for the Law forbideth none of these to a beleever who is under no Law; if I mistake, I crave pardon, for I cannot make sense of their commandements; but in this sense: one thing I complaine of Antinomians, by any sect; They seeme to mee confused, and obscure, and to dissemble; because they have not yet set downe in right downe ingenuitie,Antinomians dissemble in that they say not downe right, that the beleever cannot sin, and the beleevers lying, and whoring, is not lying, and whoring. that which I perswade my self is their minde; that the beleever cannot sin, his adulterie, and his murther is no adulterie, no murther: except they difference between these two. The beleever is free of all sinne as Christ himselfe, and the beleever doth and can truly sinne, lie, murther, deceive, &c. And between these, sin is wholy removed out of the beleever, no sinne dwelleth in him, and the beleever daily sinneth; nor are they plaine whether the Gospel command chastitie, and forbid adultery, and command the loving of our brother, and forbid murthering, and hating of our brother; as acts arbitrary, and meerly free: or whether no Law command, or forbid, such things to beleevers; nor any Gospel at all, so as to contravene them were sin. Yea, nor so is beleeving the onelyonly worke commanded in the Gospel; for by their way, faith is not commanded as a cause, or merit of righteousnesse and life, which we also thinke, nor as a condition, or necessarie duty at all, more then other duties: For the Elects sinnes were all removed, either from eternity, or their first conception, or Christs suffering on the crosse (Antinomians fall out among themselves touching this poynt) so their unbeliefe, and finall impenitency cannot be sinnes.
Nor can Christ as God, or Law-giver, command beleeving, for the notion of Law, or Law-giving under penalty of sinne, and curses, is contrarie to Christs Gospel-love; so Christ must renounce his office of Law-giving, and his authoritie, as God to command faith and forbid unbeliefe; and must onelyonly as Mediator put on love and counsell; and advise us to beleeve: as one friend doth another, so as wee have no command obliging us (except wee would sin) to beleeve, for a command of love, being contra-devided from a command of Law, to Antinomians obligeth neither to sinne nor to wrath, if it be disobeyed.
3. If beleeving voyd of all working, and such an empty faith be the onelyonly commanded worke in the Gospel; it is like John the Apostle, so often commanding love to the brethren, and forbiding hateing of our brother, doth not act an Evangelist, or Apostle; but speaketh as a Moses, and a Law-giver; and that amongst the Lords Apostles, who wrot canonick Scripture, in the New Testament; some were more legall preachers, and leaned more to a covenant of works as hRise, raigne, unsavo. speech er. ….Peter (the Familists of New England should take in John and James, for Saltmarsh saith, they speake more for marks, and signes) then Paul, who stood most for free grace: yet is Paul as much to command some other works then Faith, as Peter, James or John.
4. For the object of saving faith, Antinomians iSaltmarsh, Free grace▪ p. 185.looke beside the Gospel, for Saltmarsh proving that Christ is offered to sinners, as sinners saith, none can be such a sinner to whom Christ and his blood may not be tendred, and offered, his words may beare truth, that Christ and his blood may be offered to all within the visible Church, elect and reprobate;Antinomians faith is to beleeve the universall Election, and Redemption, all and every one and so say we, but consider his reasons. 1. From the order of Gods decree (saith he) He loved us, and gave Christ for us, when we were sinners Rom. 5.8. God commendeth his love &c. Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world. And this offer (saith he) is an offer of that love with which God loved us from everlasting. So then here is the Antinomian faith, that all and every one immediately, without sense of sin. or any sicknesse for Christ; be they Elect, or Reprobate, beleeve and be perswaded, that God decreed to give his Son for them in particular, loved them with the speciall love of Election from everlasting, and hath satisfied, and was crucified kSaltmarsh fr. gr. 1…2.for their sinnes. Sure this is not the object of Gospel faith; but is a transparent untruth, and a lie: there was never any such decree, nor such a love in God, nor is it revealed in the Gospel, that God decreed to give his Son to all, and for all, Elect and Reprobate; and that God loved all, so even the world of Elect, and Reprobate, as Christ speaketh, John 3.16. and yet to all Elect, and Reprobate, is Christ offered. Nor can Antinomians or Arminians say, that the tender, and offer of Christ, and his blood, to all and every one, Elect and Reprobate, within the visible Church, is an opening, and bringing forth of Gods eternall love of election to glory; of all and every one Elect, and Reprobate. Salmarsh should not speake of poynts of Divinity, of which he is as ignorant as a child; nor doe Antinomians know these poynts, of the dephs of eternall free grace, though they talke of them,Saltmarsh…s reasons for immediate beleeving without all preparations, removed. to abuse them to licentiousnesse.
But let us for the clearing of the Doctrine of Faith, wipe off Saltmarshs poore reasons, for immediate beleeving without all preparations, his 3. Argument to the other two, which yet are but one, is.
Saltmarsh fr. gr. 186.Object. It exalteth grace more to receive a sinner who hath no money, no price, no righteousnesse.
Answ. Adde an assumption. But he that cometh dry, empty, sinfull, and prepared with some sense of sinne, of the Physitian Christ, is the onelyonly man that hath no money, the Pharisie, as a Pharisie,Who invited immediatly to come. Esa. 55.1. is the man that hath money, and righteousness in himselfe; and is whole and needeth the Physitian in no sort; and in that he is thus undisposed for Christ, it should debase grace, if the Lord should sell his wine and milke, for the sinners money; and sure that. And hee that hath no money, is a restriction of those who are invited to come unto the waters, for all are not such as have no money: for though really all want money, and price to buy the waters, wine, and milk, really; because all are sinners, Pharises, or no Pharises; yet there bee none here invited, but onelyonly some certaine persons, who in their owne sense, and their selfe-humbled condition make objections against themselves; Oh! I am unworthy and unprepared for these waters, I have no money, nor prayer, and Christ meanes them not to me, but to some worthyer then I. Now, Pharisies, and all sinners, even these that are selfe-righteous never move such doubts, but take the Antinomian short cut, and thinke they have money, and presumptuously, and being whole and unbroken, come, and buy; that is, they beleeve, but in truth, they presume. This poore argument confoundeth preparations of sense and feeling, which are preparations not of causation or action, but of meere order, which we assert according to the Scripture, with preparations of merit, or with the market-preparations of Pharisees, Papists, and Arminians, which we detest and abhorre; and hee cannot frame an argument from Esay 55. against us.
Saltmarsh 186.Object. 4. Its right lifting up of Jesus on the Crosse, as Moses lift up the Serpent in the wildernesse, not for the healed to looke upon, but the wounded; the sixt Objection saith no other, Object. 6.but that its most agreeable to the Gospel-way of dispensation, the whole need not a Physitian, but the sicke. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Answ. These places are much for us, for the stung and wounded Israelites, did not typifie sinners, as sinners, not all sinners without exception. 1. All the heathen in the Wildernesse that were stinged with Serpents, and all the Israelites ignorant of the vertue of the Serpent, were not cured by looking on the brazen Serpent, Numb. 21.9, 10, 11. but onelyonly such as were sensible of their paine, and looked to the Serpent; then that the type may not halt in this. 1. Saltmarsh must presume that all, who were stinged, Heathen or Israelites who looked up were cured as sinners; as sinners have Christ offered to them as sinners, and so all sinners; now the Text saith the contrary, only the people of Israel had the benefit of the cure. 2. OnelyOnly such as knew the vertue of the Serpent of brasse. 3. I confesse, Antinomians with Pelagians, and Arminians, take ever the easiest way, and the shortest cut to heaven;How Christ calleth not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. that as many as are sinners, are sinners spiritually stung, and sinne-sick, and sinners in their owne sense and feeling, as sinners in the Texts alledged, are opposed to these that neede not the Physitian, and to the righteous, who sure are not the sinners, and the sicke that the Physitian Christ came to cure, and to call to repentance. Saltmarsh cannot cull out a Text in all the Scripture, so contrarie to his tenent as these, for the Title of his Chapter, or Article which is L I. is this. Jesus Christ offered to sinners, as sinners, that is, to all sinners, and to men, because they are sinners, under the reduplication of sinners, then the Text must beare. Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, that is, in the Antinomian glosse, Christ came not to call sinners, but sinners to Repentance, for sure the Righteous, that is, the selfe-righteous and proud Pharisees, who thought themselves no sinners, but righteous, and whole; were sinners, and obstinate, and proud, and malicious sinners, and truely needed the Physitian no lesse then Publicans; but in their owne apprehension and swelling conceit, they were neither sinners, nor sicke, nor unrighteous. Then whether Saltmarsh, will or no, by the sick and sinners, and the stung and wounded, Christ must meane some inherent qualification, and preparation for the Physitian Christ, which was onelyonly in such and such sinners; to wit, who were lost in their owne eyes, and sinners in their owne feeling; for really and truely Pharisees were sinners sick, and dead in sinnes, and trespasses; and yet the Lord Jesus denyeth that hee came to call the Pharisees, and selfe-righteous sinners, he came to call his owne sinners onelyonly, not all sinners. This then is no Gospel-way, nor way of grace, but the Antinomian licentious way. That Christ is offered to sinners as sinners,Christ calleth not sinners, as sinners, nor all sinners to repentance. and Christ came to call sinners as sinners to repentance; for Christ is offered to sinners, as such and so qualified sinners, and Christ came to call to repentance not sinners as sinners, no not Pharisees; not the righteous, not the whole, but sinners, as such sinners, as sick, as self-lost, as self-sinners, and self-condemned, and qualified with the sense of their owne wretched and sinnefull condition; otherwise, how will they answer Christs Apologie giving a reason, why hee conversed with Publicanes and sinners, with Mathew, cap. 9. and Zacheus, Luke 19. and other sinners, Luk. 15. Math. 11. and not with Scribes and Pharisees; for, Christ expressely saith, that he did it, because the fittest place the Physitian can be in, is to sit at the sicke mans bed-side?
Object. 5. It leaves men (saith he) under greater condemnation, when Christ is brought home to the soule, for then there can be no objecting; Lord, had I beene thus and thus fit and prepared, then I should have received thee, but I was a foule sinner at that same very time, and so guilty. O will the Lord answer, I come therefore to pardon thee, and to wash thee in my bloud, because thou art foule, and that is no excuse.
Answ. 1. Nothing can be concluded against the truth from a lye; ex veris non nisi verum; there is no greater lye then this excuse, had I been thus and thus fit and prepared, I should have received thee, but I was a foule sinner, at that very time guilty. For, 1. wee teach not, that preparations doe infallibly, yea or necessarily produce faith, and the receiving of Christ. Many are sick, and pained with storme of conscience, whom Christ never cureth. It is like the rich gluttons challenge of God in hell; Nay, but if one rise from the dead they will heare and beleeve. We teach not that men are converted, because they are in their apprehension sinners.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 onelyonly 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, Pag. 187.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,OnelyOnly free grace, preparations neither before time, nor in time, are the cause, or condition, or reason, for which sinners are converted, or ordained for conversion. 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 onelyonly; 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 onelyonly 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.