condition they were in, and not caft away their fouls by false perfuafions and vain confidences.

Reafon 3. This doctrine cannot be true, because it fuppofes every perfuafion, or ftrong conceit of a man's own heart, to be as infallibly fure and certain, as the very fundamental doctrines of Christianity. No truth in the world can be surer than this, that Jefus Chrift died for finners. "This is a faithful fay"ing, and worthy of all acceptation," 1 Tim. i. 15. This is a foundation-ftone, a tried, precious corner-ftone, a fure foun dation laid by God himfelf, Ifa. xxviii. 16. and fhall the strong conceits and confidences of men's hearts vie and compare, in point of certainty, with it? As well may probable, and merely conjectural propofitions, compare with axioms that are selfevident, or demonftrative arguments that leave no doubts behind them. Know we not, that the heart is deceitful above all things, the most notorious cheat and impoftor in the world, Jer. xvii. 9. Does it not deceive all the formal hypocrites in the world, in this very point? And fhall every strong conceit and prefumptuous confidence, begotten of Satan by a deceitful heart, and nurfed up by felf-love, pafs without any examination or fufpicion for as infallible and affured a truth, as that Jefus Chrift came into the world to fave finners? The Lord fweep that doctrine out of the world by reformation, which is like to fweep fo many thousand fouls into hell by a remedilefs felfdeception.

Error. 4. The fourth Antinomian error before-mentioned, was this, That believers are not bound to confefs their fins, ́or pray for the pardon of them; because their fins were pardoned before they were committed; and pardoned fin is no fin.

Refutation. If this be true doctrine, then it will justify and make good fuch conclufions and inferences as thefe, which neceffarily flow from it: viz.

1. That there is no fin in believers.

2. Or if there be, the evil is very inconfiderable. Or,

3. Whatever evil is in it, it is not the will of God that they fhould either confefs it, mourn over it, or pray for the remiffion of it; whatever he requires of others, yet they need take no notice of it, fo as to afflict their hearts for it; God hath exempted. them from fuch concernments : There's nothing but joy to a believer, faith Mr. Eaton But neither of thefe conclufions are either true or tolera. ble; therefore neither is the principle fo which yieldeth

them.

VOL. IV.

Yy

(1.) It is not true or tolerable to affirm, that there is no fia in a Leliever, 1 John i. 18. “If we fay we have no fia, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. There is

not a just man upon earth, that doeth good and finneth not," Eccl. vi. 20." In many things we offend all," James iii. 2. The fcriptures plainly affirm it, and the univerfal experience of all the faints fadly confirms it. 'Tis true, the blood of Christ hath taken away the guilt of fin, fo that it fhall not condemn believers; and the fpirit of fanctification hath taken away the dominion of fin, fo that it doth not reign over believers; but nothing, except glorification, utterly deftroys the existence of fin in believers. The acts of fin are our acts, and not Chrift's; and the ftain and pollution of thofe finful acts, are the burthens and infelicities of believers, even in their juftified late. Dr. Crifp indeed in, p. 270, 271. calls that objection (I fuppofe he means diftinction betwixt the guilt of fin and fin itfelt) a fimple objection, and tells us, the very fin itfelf, as well as the guilt of it, paffed off from us, and was laid upon Chrift: So that fpeaking of the fins of blafphemy, murder, theft, adultery, lying, &c. From that time (laith he) that they were laid upon Chrift, thou ccafeft to be a tranfgreffor. If thou hast part in the Lord Chrift, all thefe tranfgreffions of thine become actually the tranfgreffions of Chrift. So that now thou art not an idolater, or perfecutor, a thief, a murderer, and an adulterer, thou art not a finful perfon; Chrift is made that very finfulness before God, &c. Such expreffions juftly offend and grieve the hearts of Chriftians, and expofe Chriftianity to fcorn and contempt. Was it not enough that the guilt of our fin was laid on him, but we muft imagine alfo, that the thing itself, fin, with all the deformity and pollution should be effentially transferred from us to Chrift? No, no. After we are juftified, fin dwelleth in us, Rom. vii. 17. warreth in us, and brings us into captivity, ver. 23. burthens and oppreffes our very fouls, ver. 24. Methinks I need not stand to prove what I fhould think no found experienced Chriftian dares to deny, that there is much fin ftill remaining in the perfons of the juftified. He that dares to deny it, hath little acquaintance with the nature of fin, and of his own heart.

(2.) It is neither true nor tolerable to fay, there is no confiderable evil in the fius of believers, deferving a mournful confeffion or petition for pardon. The defert of fin is hell; 'tis an artifice of Satan to draw men to fin, by perfuading them there is no great evil in it; but none except fools will believe it. Fools, indeed, make a mock of fin; but all that understand

either the intrinfic e vil of it, or the fad and difmal effects produced by it, are far from thinking it a light or inconfiderable evil. The fins, even of believers, greatly wrong and offend their God, Pfal. li. 4. and is that a light thing with us? They interrupt and clog our communion with God, Rom. vii. 21. They grieve the good Spirit of God, Eph. iv. 30. Certainly these are no inconfiderable mifchiefs.

(3.) Now if there be fin in believers, and fo much evil in their fins (neither of which any fober Chriftian will deny) then undoubtedly it is their duty to confess it freely, moun for it bitterly, and pray for the pardon of it earnestly; unless God have any where difcharged them from thofe duties, and told them these are none of their concernments, and that he expects not these things from juftified perfons; but that these are duties properly and only belonging to other men. But on the contrary, you find the whole current of fcripture running ftrongly and conftantly in direct oppofition to fuch idle and fin ful notions, For,

(1.) He hath plainly declared it to be his will, that his people fhould confefs their fins before him, and ftrongly connected their confeffions with their pardons, 1.John v. 9. and frequently fufpends from them the comfortable fenfe of forgiveness, till their hearts be brought to this duty, Pfal. xxxii. 5. compared with verfe 3, 4. the more to engage them to this duty, by the fenfible cafe and comfort attending and following it.

(2.) He alfo enjoins it upon them, That they mourn for their fins, Ifa. xxii, 12. expreffes his great delight in contrition and brokenness of spirit for fin; Ifa. lxvi. 2. "To this man will I

look, even to him that is poor, and of a contrite fpirit." Christ himself pronounces a bleffing upon them that mourn, Mat. v. 4. Juftified Paul mournfully confeffes his former blafphemies, perfecutions, and injuries done againft Chrift, 1 Tim. i. 13. So did Ezra, Daniel, and other eximious faints.

Object. Yes, fay fome, they did indeed confefs their fins committed before their juftification, but not their after-fias.

Reply. According to Antinomian principles, I would demand, If all the elect were juftified from eternity, what fins any of them could confefs which they had committed before their juf tification? Or, if they were juftified from the time of Chrifl's death, what were the fins any of us have to confefs who had not a being, and therefore had not actually finned long after the death of Chrift? But I hope none will deny, that the mouru

ful complaints the apoftle makes for fin, Rom. vii. 23, 24. were after he was a fanctified and justified perfon.

(3.) It is not the will of Chrift to exempt any juftified perfon upon earth, from the duty of praying frequently and fervently for the remiffion of his fins. This the most eminent faints upon earth have done. The greatest favourites of heaven have freely confeffed, and heartily prayed for the remiffion of fin, Dan. ix. 4, 19. And that the golpel gives us no exemption from this duty, appears by Chrift's injunction of it upon all his people, Mat. vi. 12.

Error 5. To give countenance to the former error, they say, That God fees no fin in believers, whatsoever fins they commit ; and feek a covert for this error from Numb. xxiii. 21. and Jer. 1. 20. In the former place it is faid by Balaam, "He hath not "beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor feen perverfeness in Ifrael.” And in the other place it is faid, "In those days, and in that time, "faith the Lord, the iniquity of Ifrael fhall be fought for, and "there fhall be none; and the fins of Judah, and they fhall "not be found: for I will pardon them, whom I reserve." Refutation. Now that this opinion of the Antinomians is erroneous, will appear four ways.

1. By its repugnancy to God's omniscience, 2. By its inconfiftency with his difpenfations. 3. By its want of a fcripture-foundation.

4. By its contradictorinefs to their other principles.

It is true, and we thankfully acknowlege it, that God fees no fin in believers, as a judge fees guilt in a malefactor, to condemn him for it; that is a fure and comfortable truth for us: but to fay he fees no fin in his children, as a displeased father, to correct and chaften them for it, is an affertion repugnant to fcripture, and very injurious to God. For,

(1.) It is injurious to God's omnifcience, Pfal, cxxxix. 2. "Thou, (faith holy David,) knoweft my down-fitting, and "my up-rifing, and understandeft my thoughts afar off, and "art acquainted with all my ways." Job xxviii. 24. "He "looketh to the ends of the earth, and feeth under the whole "heavens." Prov. xv. 3. "The eyes of the Lord are in every "place, beholding the evil and the good." Pfal. xxxiii. 14, 15. "From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth; he fashioneth their hearts alike, he "confidereth all their works." He that denies that God feeth his moft fecret fins, therein, confequentially, denies him to be God.

(2.) This affertion is inconfistent with God's providential dif

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penfations to his people. When David, a juftified believer had finned against him in the matter of Uriah, it is faid, 2 Sam. xi. 27. "the thing that David had done dipleased the Lord :" and, as the effect of that difpleasure, it is faid, chap. xii. 15. The Lord ftruck the child that Uriah's wife bare unto David, and it was very fick." Among the Corinthians fome that should not be condemned with the world, were judged and chaftened of the Lord for their undue approaches to his table, 1 Cor. xi. 32. Now, I would ask the Antinomians thefe two queftions. Queft. 1. Whether it can be denied, that David, under the Old Testament, and thefe Corinthians under the New, were juftified perfons; and yet the former ftricken by God in his child, with its fickness and death; and the latter in like manner fmitten by God in their own perfons; and both for their refpective fins committed against God; and yet God faw no fin in them? Did God' fmite them for fin, and yet beheld no fin in them? Beware left in afcribing such ftrokes to God, you strike at once both at his omnifciency and juftice. Queft. 2. How God, upon confeffion and repentance, can be faid to put away his peoples fins (as Nathan there affures David he had done) when in the mean time he faw no fin in him, either to chastise him for, or to pardon in him? Do you think that God's afflic tions, or pardons, are blindfold acts, done at random? How inconfiftent is this with divine difpenfations.

(3.) This opinion is altogether deflitute of a fcripture-foundation; it is evident it hath none in the only places alledged for it. It hath no footing at all in Numb. xxiii. 21. Grave and learned Gataker hath learnedly and industriously vindicated that fcripture from this abufe of it by Antinomians, in his treatise upon that text, entitled, God's eye upon his Ifrael; where, after a learned and critical fearch of the text, he telleth us, it foundeth word for word thus from the originial; "He hath "not beheld wrong against Jacob, nor hath he feen grievance "against Ifrael." So that the meaning is not, that God did not fee fin in Ifrael, but that he beheld not with approbation the wrongs and injuries done by others againft his Ifrael; and fhews at large, by divers folid reafons, why the Antinomian fenfe cannot be the proper fenfe of that place, it being cross to the main tenor of the ftory, and truth of God's word; which fhews, that God often complained of their fins, often threatened to avenge them; yea, did actually avenge them, by destroying them in the wildernefs; nay, Balaam himself, who uttered thefe words unto Balak, did not fo understand them, as appears by the advice he gave to Balak, to draw them into fin, that