OBJECTIONS TO THE CONTRARY ANSWERED.
It was the excellent care of the apostle Paul to deliver his gospel to the churches in its own simplicity because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. And if it was his care to deliver it to us, it should be ours to seek to continue it; and instead, because of the unaptness of the minds, even of the saints themselves, to retain it without commixture. To say nothing of the projects of hell and of the cunning craftiness of some that lie in wait to deceive even the godly themselves, as they are dull of hearing, so much more boring in receiving and holding fast the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. From their sense, reason, unbelief, and darkness arise many imaginations and high thoughts, which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and the obedience of Jesus Christ, wherefore they have much ado to stand complete in all the will of God. And were they not concerned in electing love, by which they are bound up in the bundle of life, and blessed with the enjoyment of saving grace, which enlighteneth their souls and maintaineth their faith and hope, they would not only be assaulted and afflicted with their own corruptions but, as others, overcome thereby.
Alas! How ordinary a thing is it for professors to fall from the knowledge they have had of the glorious gospel of the blessed God and to be turned unto fables, seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils through the intoxications of delusions and the witchcraft of false preachers.
Now, this their swerving from the gospel ariseth, 1. Either from their not having, or having, not retaining, the proper knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ; or
2. From their not believing the true causes of his coming into the world and his doing and suffering there. Upon one or both these accounts, I say, it is that they everlastingly perish; for if they have not, and do not also retain the knowledge of his person, they want the HE, on whom, if they believe not, they must die in their sins; and if they know not the reason of his coming, doing, and suffering, they are in the same condition also.
Now, those professors that have had some knowledge of these things and yet have lost them, it hath come thus to pass with them because they first lost the knowledge of themselves and their sins. They know not themselves to be such nothing ones as the Scriptures reporteth them to be, nor their sins to be so heinous as the law hath concluded; therefore, they either turn again with the dog to his vomit or adhere to a few of the rags of their own fleshly righteousness, and so become pure in their own eyes, yet are not purged by blood from their filthiness.
For the person and doings of Jesus Christ are only precious to them that get and retain the proper knowledge of themselves and the due reward of their sins by the law. These are desolate, being driven out of all; these embrace the rock instead of a shelter. The sensible sinner receiveth him joyfully.
And because a miscarriage in this great truth is the most dangerous and damning miscarriage, therefore, should professors be more fearful of swerving aside from that place. The man that rejecteth the proper knowledge of the person of the Lord Jesus, and the causes of his doing and suffering in the world, take the following way to be guilty of that transgression that is not to be purged with sacrifice forever; that fearful transgression for which is left no offer at all, nor anything to be expected by the person transgressing but fearful judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversary.
Now, for their sakes that have not sinned this sin, for their sakes that are in danger thereof, but yet not overcome, for their sakes have I written this little book, wherein is essentially, and yet with few words, discovered the doctrine of the person, and doings, and sufferings of Christ, with the actual cause thereof, also removal of those objections that the crafty children of darkness have framed against the same.
And I have been the more plain and simple in my writing because the sin against the Holy Ghost is these days more common than formerly, and the way unto it more beautified with color and pretense of truth. I may say that the way to this sin is, as was once the way to Jerusalem, strewed with boughs and branches, and by some, there is a kind of hosanna to them that are treading these steps to hell. O the plausible pretenses, the golden names, the feigned holiness, the demure behaviors, mixed with damnable hypocrisy, that attend the persons that have forsaken the Lord Jesus, that have despised his person, trampled upon him, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing! They have crucified him to themselves and think that they can go to heaven without him; yea, pretend they love him when they hate him; pretend they have him when they have cast him off; pretend they trust in him when they bid defiance to his undertakings for the world.
Let me beseech thee to hear me patiently; read, consider, and judge. I have presented thee with what I have received from God, and the holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, bear me witness. Thou wilt say, All pretend to this. Well, give me the hearing, take me to the Bible, and let me find in thy heart no favor if thou find me to swerve from the standard.
I say again, receive my doctrine; I beseech thee, in Christ’s stead, accept it; I know it to be the way of salvation. I have ventured my soul thereon with gladness, and if all the souls in the world were mine, as my own soul is, I would, through God’s grace, venture everyone there. I have not written at a venture nor borrowed my doctrine from libraries. I depend upon the sayings of no man. I found it in the Scriptures of truth, among the true sayings of God.
I have done when I have exhorted thee to pray and heed God’s words as revealed in the Holy Writ. The Lord Jesus Christ provides thee with light and life by faith in him; to whom, with the Father and the good Spirit of grace, be glory and dominion, now and forever. Amen.
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