Survey of the Spiritual Antichrist, Part 2 · Chapter 77 – Chapter 79
CHAP. LXXVII. Antinomians and Libertines foule opinions touching God and the Author of sinne.
Paral. IX. LIbertines aCalv…n. Instruct. advers. Libert. ca. 11 pag. 443. Statuunt unicum tantum esse Spiritum Dei, qui sit a… vivat in omnibus creaturis -Animarum nostrarum loco aiunt Deum vivere in nobis, vegetare corpora nostra, nos sustinere, at que omnes vitales actiones efficere— quia unicus est tantum Deus qui verè sit.said, There was but one Spirit in the world, that lives, and moves, and acts all things in stead of our soules, yea and in all creatures. And that bBlesdikius Histor. Dav. Georgius, pag. 27. ar. 13.God was the Author of all good and ill, sinne and righteousnesse, because hee workes all our workes in us, and the Creature workes nothing, and that sinne was but an opinion, the Devils and Angels but motions. And so taught cBlesdikius Histor. de Geor. pag. 50.51. art. 24▪ in majore apologia, art. 24. & in libro mirabilium per totum.David Georgius, That Devils were but ill motions, and dRise, raigne, …r. 1.the good Angels are but qualities and motions of mens minds. And the same is like unto the minde of New England Familists, who say, That in conversion, the faculties and workings of the soule are destroyed, and eRise, raigne, er. 2instead of them the Holy Ghost; yea, and in place fEr. 7. …r. 8.of all love and graces, gEr. 11.Christ himselfe comes in, and Christ incarnate and made flesh is in every beleever.
Now Randell the Familist, and Antinomians hath prefixed a commendatory Preface to a peece, called Theologia Germanica, which hTheol German▪ ca. 4. p. 8saith, That all good is onelyonly God; and he maketh no difference betweene created and uncreated good: and hTheol German▪ ca. 4. p. 8God becommeth all things, in man, nor is there any thing that can challenge to it selfe being, or goodnesse, that iTheol. Ger. c. 55. pa. 158.159.true Christ is in man; and that the true and perfect God, and true and perfect man are one, and man doth so yeeld and give place unto God, that where God himself is, there is man, and that God also is there present, and works his alone, and does and leaves undone any thing without any I, to me, much or the like, where these things are and exist, there is true Christ, and no where else. And kTheol. Ger. cap. 22. p. 52, Ca. 22. p. 109he that is illuminated with the eternall love is a divine and deified man. And the Author of the Bright starre, set out by Randell also, lBright star. cap. 8. p. 70.71.72.Nothing is, or hath being, but God and his will. And God is all, the creature nothing, Man is nothing, because he is not good nor infinite; being, mPag. 78.9.and good are convertible. They say, The Devils and Angels also are nothing. If any say, that I cannot impute any such opinion to our Antinomians. But 1. Antinomians confute them not, but still come up to all that the Libertines of New England hold. 2. They never refused Randell the Familist to bee theirs, but Antinomians are his constant hearers and Disciples. 3. Archer and many Antinomians say, Sinne is nothing, and God cannot hate it. 4. I have proved, they hold that the personall acts of Sanctification, and sins of the justified are sins, onelyonly in the conversation, to the sense, to the flesh, to unbeliefe, and seeming to be so, not in conscience, not really, not before God, not truely, not to faith. 5. The Antinomians say, that the Spirit acteth in the Saints immediatly, and the Saints are meere patients in all their works; because nFree grace. 179.Saltmarsh saith, The Spirit of adoption works not freely, when men are in bondage to some outward circumstance of worship, as time, &c. and they cannot pray, but at such houres; no Protestant doth teach any such thing; but Antinomians thinke, We are holden to pray, at no certaine houre, nor at any time, oRise, raigne, er 49. Antinomians come neere to Famil…sts, who said, God wrought all in the Creature, the creature doth nothing good or ill, they say, the Spirit works all in us as in blocks.unlesse the Spirit stirre us thereunto; which is to make neither Law nor Gospel our rule of walking, as if the Commandements in the Letter held out not any obligation to us to doe good, or omit evill, but the immediate acting of the Spirit were our onelyonly rule: so pSaltmarsh free grace, 146.Saltmarsh, The Law is now (saith he) in the Spirit, and holynesse, and sanctification, is not now such as is fashioned by the Law, or outward Commandement, as if in the time of the Old Testament, not now, holynesse were wrought in us, by a meere outward Commandement without the Spirit; And yee may remember qCrispe vol. 1. ser. 6. pag. 161.162.D. Crispes Argument, to prove that Faith is no condition of the covenant of grace; because its God onelyonly who worketh Faith in us, and beleeves in us, (as M. Towne saith) We being meere patients, and if wee beleeve not, then God should breake the Covenant, not wee; because God doth not what is his part, rTowne asser. grace▪ pag. 51.52. Antinomians Principles make God the Author of sin.when he works not faith in us, which is a strong Argument to prove that the Holy Ghost, is the immediate and onelyonly Author of sin in the beleever. Because the holy Ghost onelyonly, by this reason, without us works in us to will and to doe, and keeps the beleever from Adultery, Murther, sinnefull non-calling on God, not beleeving; when therefore the beleever whoores, murtherers, repents not, beleeveth not, God is the cause, and the onelyonly cause thereof: So Crisp sCr…spe vol. …. Ser. 6. p. 161.saith, The Covenant it selfe doth plainely shew that the whole performance of the Covenant lies onelyonly upon God himselfe, and that there is not one bond or obligation upon man, to the fulfilling of the Covenant, or partaking of the benefits of the Covenant. And tIbid. p. 163.must not (saith hee) the fault or failing to performe the Covenant be his, who is tyed and bound to every thing in the Covenant, and saith he will doe it? If there be a condition, and there be a failing in the condition, hee that undertakes all things in the Covenant, must needs bee in the fault. So he. Now this Argument hath no strength, but upon this Antinomian supposition, that there is no tye, no obligation lying on us to beleeve, and lay hold on the Covenant, as Esaiah saith, cap. 56. and by faith to subscribe and signe the Covenant, and to walke in the Lords Commandements; and it must suppose that we are patients in beleeving, and walking in Gods Commandements, and that God onelyonly worketh these in us, as in stones and blocks; and whether Faith bee a condition, or a duty, or no condition, it is all one, if God only worke faith in us, we being dead and passive. As Libertines uRise, raigne, er. 14.speake, and if God promise and undertake to put his Spirit in us, and to cause us walke in his Commandements, as hee undertaketh, Ezech. 36.26, 27. Jer. 32.39, 40. Deut. 30.6. Jer. 31.33, 34. Ezech. 11.19, 20. Hebr. 8.9, 10, 11, 12. And if Gods promise to worke in us, to will, to doe, to walke in his Commandements, to abstaine from fornication, bloudshed, lying, violence, oppression, unbeliefe, free us from all tye and obligation to these duties, as Crispe saith; then the Lord must bee the onelyonly and immediate Spirit that doth in us beleeve, mis-beleeve, walke in Gods wayes, or whoore, lye; for saith Crispe, Must not the fault, or failing to performe the Covenant be his, who is tyed and bound to every thing in the Covenant, and saith he will doe it? Reader, then judge how farre Antinomians differ in this, from Libertines. And M. xSaltmarsh Free grace. 105.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 onelyonly 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, (yS…ltmarsh Free grace, pag. 159. 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 onelyonly the Spirit, and the Spirit effectually quickening, and actually sanctifying, then the Spirit must onelyonly be our rule, and we must onelyonly 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 onelyonly 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 aCalvin. cap. 35. adv. Libert. p. 448. Nullius rei conscientia moveri.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 bRise, raigne, Vnsavoury speeches, er. 4.see to his owne honour. And upon the same ground, cArcher. Ser. comfort for beleevers, pag. 35.36.37.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 dRise, raigne, Er. 64. Towne assert. of grace, 115.116.129.130. Saltmarsh Free grace, pag. 140. Honey combe cap. 7 pag. 139. Denne Ser. Of the Man of sinne, pag. 9.10.11.12.(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 aBlesdikius hist…r Da. G. ar. …2. pag. 48Georgius, and his cursed followers; so bCalvin Instruct. adver. Libert. ca. 17▪ pag. 450. Componunt Christum ex Spiritu Dei, qui in nobis omnibus est, & ex eo quod opinationem ac mund…m vocant—Christum si…gunt veluti imaginem ac exemplar, in quo figurata sun… quae ad nostram salutem requiruntur.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 cBright Star, ca. 16.108.109.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 dBright Star. ca. 8. pag. 76.77.78.Author, and eTheolg. Ger. c. 22. p. 52.53.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 fRise, raigne, er. 11.N. England Libertines teach, That Christ is incarnate in every beleever. So the English Antinomian saith, I have nothing to doe with gTown asser. pag. 5.your Moses or the Law. I am Christed, and Goded. And a late giddy, phranticke Pamphlet, hThe life and light of a man in Christ, pa. 57.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 iEaton honey combe, cap. …. 2.with Christ, making both his person, and all his actions, kHoney Comb ….11. pa 313. &….though Adultery, Roberie, Lying, as cleane from sinne, as Christ, or his actions, or lSaltmarsh …ree grace, pag. 140.as the glorified in heaven. 2. Saltmarsh saith, mSaltmarsh Free gra 148.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 n… vol. 3. Ser. 1. … Se….sinne or o…oh. 14.1.affliction; and that the beleever is to remaine in Christ alwaies, rejoycing, triumphing, being in pTowne Asser. grace, …. 34.35.1…9.130. Towne asser. gr. pag. 156.157.158.heaven already, and qSaltmarsh Free gr. pag. 140.sorrow and sighing for evermore, being banished away.