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mighty triumph upon? When Dureus accufed our famous Whitaker for one or two trivial, verbal mistakes, Whitaker returned him the fame answer I fhall give you, Bene habet, hic in rebus non vertuntur fortunæ ecclefia; It is well the case of the church depends not upon fuch trifles.

For a conclufion; I do feriously warn all men to beware of receiving doctrines fo deftructive to the great truths of the gofpel as these are. And I do folemnly profefs I have not defignedly ftrained them, to caft reproach upon him that published them; but the matters are fo plain, that if Mr. Cary will maintain his pofitions, not only myself, but every intelligent reader, will be eafily able to faften all thofe odious confequents upon him, after all his apologies.

Sir, in a word, I dare not fay, but you are a good man; but fince I read your two books, you have made me think, more than once, of what one faid of Jonah after he had read his hiftory, that he was a strange man of a good man: Yet as ftrange a good man as you are, I hope to meet you with a founder head, and better spirit in heaven.

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The Second APPENDIX: Giving a brief Account of the Rife and Growth of ANTINOMIANISM; the Deduction of the principal Errors of that Sect: With modest and feaíonable reflections upon them.

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HE defign of the following fheets, caft in as a Mantiffa to the foregoing difcourfe of Errors, is principally to discharge, and free the free grace of God from those dangerous errors, which fight against it under its own colours; partly to prevent the feduction of fome that ftagger; and, laftly, (though least of all) to vindicate my own doctrine, the scope and current whereof, hath always been, and fhall ever be, to exalt the free grace of God in Chrift, to draw the vileft of finners to him, and relieve the diftreffed confciences of fin-burthened Chriftians."

But, notwithstanding my utmost care and caution, fome have been apt to cenfure it, as if in fome things it had a tang of Antinomianifm: But if my public, or private difcourfes, be the faithful meffengers of my judgment and heart, (as I hope they are) nothing can be found in any of them cafting a friendly afpect upon any of their principles, which I here juftly cenfure,

as erroneous.

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Three things I principally aim at in this short Appendix. 1. To give the reader the molt probable rife of Antinomi anism.

2. An account of the principal errors of that fect.

3. To confirm and establish Chriftians against them, by found reasons, back'd with scripture-authority. And,

1. Of the rife of Antinomianifm.

The fcriptures foreseeing there would arise such a sort of men in the church, as would wax wanton against Christ, and turn his grace into lafciviousness; hath not only precautioned as in general, to beware of such opinions as corrupt the doctrine of free grace. Rom. vi. 1, 2. "Shall we continue in fin, that grace may abound? God forbid:" But hath particularly indigitat ed, and marked those very opinions, by which it would be abufed, and made abundant provifion against them; as namely,

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1. All flighting and vilifying opinions or expreffions of the holy law of God, Rom. vii. 7, 12.

2. All opinions and principles, inclining men to a careless difregard and neglect of the duties of obedience, under pretence of free grace, and liberty by Chrift, James ii. Matth. xxv.

3. All opinions neglecting or flighting fanctification, as the evidence of our juftification, and rendering it needlefs, or fin ful to try the state of our fouls, by the graces of the Spirit wrought in us, which is the principal fcope of the first epistle of John.

Notwithstanding, fuch is the wickedness of fome, and weaknefs of others, that in all ages, (efpecially the last past, and prefent), men have audaciously broken in upon the doctrine of free grace, and notoriously violated aud corrupted it, to the great reproach of Chrift, fcandal of the world, and hardening of the enemies of reformation. 'Behold, (faith Contzen the Jefuit, on Matth. xxiv.) the fruit of Protestantism, and their gofpel-preaching.'

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Nothing is more oppofite to looseness, than the free grace God, which teaches us, That denying all ungodliness and worldly lufts, we should live foberly, righteously and godly in this prefent world. Nor can it without manifeft violence, be made pliable to fuch wicked purposes; and therefore the apostle tells us, Jude 4. that this is done by turning the grace of our God into lafciviousness; alles, transferring it, fcil foeda interpretatione, by a corrupt, abufive interpretation, to fuch ufes and purposes as it abhors. No fuch wanton, licentious conclu fions can be inferred from the gofpel-doctrines of grace and li

berty, but by wrefting them against their true fcope and intent, by the wicked arts and practices of deceivers upon them.

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The gospel makes fin more odious than the law did, and discovers the punishment of it in a more fevere and dreadful manner, than ever it was difcovered before. Heb. ii. 2, 3. "For if the word spoken by angels was ftedfaft, and every tranfgreffion and difobedience, received a juft recompence of reward; how fhall we escape, if we neglect fo great falvati*on?" It fhews our obligations to duty to be ftronger than ever, and our encouragements to holiness greater than ever, 2 Cor. vii. 1. and yet corrupt nature will be still tempting men to corrupt and abuse it. The more luscious the food is, the more men are apt to furfeit upon it.

This prevention and abufe of free grace, and Chriftian liberty, is justly chargeable (though upon different accounts) both upon wicked and good men. Wicked men corrupt it defignedly, that by entitling God to their fins, they might fin the more quietly, and fecurely. So the devil inftigated the Heathens to fio against the light, and law of nature, by representing their Gods to them as drunken, and lafcivious deities. So the Nicolaitans, and fchool of Simon, and after them the Gnoftics, and other Heretics in the very dawning of gofpel-light and liberty, began prefently to loofe the bond of reftraint from their lufts, under pretence of grace and liberty. The * Etiani blushed not to teach, That fin, and perfeverance in fin, could hurt the falvation of none, fo that they would embrace their principles.

How vile and abominable inferences the Manichaeans, Valentinians, and Cerdonites drew from the grace and liberty of the gospel, in the following ages, I had rather mourn over, than recite; and if we come down to the fifteenth century, we fhall find the Libertines of those days as deeply drenched in this fin, as most that went before them. † Calvin mournfully obferves, That under pretence of Chriftian liberty, they trampled all godliness under foot; the vile courses their loose opinions foon carried them into, plainly discovered for what intents and purposes they were projected and calculated: and he that reads the preface to that grave and learned Mr. Thomas Gataker's book, intituled, God's eye upon Ifrael, will find, That fome Antinomians, of our days, are not much behind the worst a nd vileft of them. One of them cries out, Away with the law,

*Auguft, de. Hæref. Tom. 6. Hæref. 54. + Galv. adverfus Libert. c. 8,

away with the law, it cuts off a man's legs, and then bids him walk. Another faith, It is as possible for Chrift himself to fin, as for a child of God to fin. That if a man, by the Spirit, know himfelf to be in the fate of grace, though he be drunk, or commit murder, God fees no fin in him: With much more of the fame bran, which I will not tranfcribe.

But others there are, whofe judgments are unhappily tainted, and leavened with thofe loofe doctrines; yet being, in the main, godly perfons, they dare not take liberty to fin, or live in the neglect of known duties, though their principles too much incline that way; but though they dare not, others will, who imbibe corrupt notions from them; and the renowned piety of the authors will be no antidote against the danger, but make the poifon operate the more powerfully, by receiving it in fuch a vehicle. Now it is highly probable, fuch men as thefe might be charmed into fuch dangerous opinions, upon fuch accounts as thefe:

1. It is like fome of them might have felt in themselves the anguish of a perplexed confcience under fin, and not being able to live with thefe terrors of the law, and dismal fears of conscience, might too haftily fnatch at thofe doctrines which promise them relief and eafe, as I noted before in the fifth Caufe of my Treatife of Errors. And that this is not a guess at random, will appear from the very title page of Mr. Saltmarth's book of free grace, where (as an inducement to the reader to swallow his Antinomian doctrine) he fhews him this curious bait.

It is (faith he) an experiment of Jefus Chrift upon one who hath been in the bondage of a troubled confcience, at times, for the space of about twelve years, till now upon a clearer difcovery of Jefus Chrift in the gospel, &c.

2. Others have been induced to espouse these opinions from the excess of their zeal against the errors of the Papists, who have notoriously corrupted the doctrine of juftification by free grace; decried imputent, and exalted inherent righteousness above it. The Papifts have defignedly, and industriouly fealed up the fcriptures from the people, left they fhould there difcover those fovereign, and effectual remedies, which God hath provided for their diftreffed confciences, in the riches of his own grace, and the meritorious death of Chrift; and fo all their maffes, pilgrimages, auricular confeffions, with all their dear indulgences, fhould lie upon their hands as ftale and cheap commodities. Oh, (faid Stephen Gardiner) let not this gap of free grace be opened to the people.

But as foon as the light of reformation had discovered the

free grace of God to finners, (which is, indeed, the only effectual remedy of diftreffed confciences) and by the fame light the horrid cheats of the man of fin were discovered; all good men, who were enlightened by the reformation, juftly and deeply abhorred Popery, as the enemy of the grace of God, and true peace of confcience, and fixed themselves upon the found and comfortable doctrines of juftification by faith thro' the alone righteousness of Christ. Mean while, thankfully acknowledging, that they which believe, ought alfo to maintain good works. But others there were, tranfported by an indifcrect zeal, who have almost bended the grace of God as far too much the other way, and have both spoken and written many things very unbecoming the grace of God, and tending to loofenefs and neglect of duty.

3. It is manifeft, that others of them have been ingulphed, and fucked into those dangerous quickfands of Antinomian errors, by feparating the fpirit from the written word; if once a man pretend the spirit without the fcriptures to be his rule, whither will not his own deluding fancies carry him, under a vain and finful pretence of the Spirit?

In the year 1528, when Helfar, Traier, and Seekler, were confuted by Hallerus; and their errors about oaths, magistrates, and paedo-baptifm,. were detected by him, and by Colveus at Bern, that which they had to fay for themselves, was, That the Spirit taught them otherwife than the letters of the Scriptures Speak. So dangerous it is to feparate what God hath conjoined, and father our own fancies upon the holy Spirit.

4. And it is not unlike, but a comparative weakness, and injudiciousness of mind, meeting with a fervent zeal for Chrift, and his glory, may induce others to efpoufe fuch taking, and plaufible, though pernicious doctrines; they are not aware of the dangerous confequents of the opinions they embrace, and what looseness may be occafioned by them: I fpeak not of occafions taken, but given, by fuch opinions and expreffions; a good man will draw excellent inferences of duty from the very fame doctrine. Inftance that of the fhortnefs of time, from whence the apostle infers abftinence, ftrictness, and diligence, 1 Cor. vii. 29. but the Epicure infers all manner of diffolute, and licentious practices. "Let us eat and drink, for to-mor⚫ 66 row we shall die," 1 Cor. xv. 22. The best doctrines are this way liable to abuse.

But let all good men beware of fuch opinions and expreffions, as give an handle to wicked men to abuse the grace of God, VOL. IV.

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