A23636:199
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession…
The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pennsylvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.The principles of the Protestant religion maintained, and churches of New-England, in the profession and exercise thereof defended against all the calumnies of one George Keith, a Quaker, in a book lately published at Pensilvania, to undermine them both / by the ministers of the Gospel in Boston.
printed by Richard Pierce, 1690
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sect. 1. Real and true beginnings of faith and Sanctification (saith he) may be fallen from: What means he by this? There are some previous and preparatory common works that are wrought in men; such as Conviction of sin and misery by the law, and the terrors of the Lord that make men afraid, and may put a stop to their lewd courses, yea, and work a reformation in many things, and make a natural Conscience to act more strongly than before: if he means these, we deny not but they may be lost; but then we deny them to be the beginnings of true justifying or saving faith, called the Faith of God's elect, to distinguish it from other faith, and those which he instanceth in Heb. 6.4, 5, 6. belong to this head; they had through these arrived to a Temporary Faith, but not to that which is saying; and therefore the Apostle charitably exempts his Hebrews from any such danger; as having other things in them, vers. 9. His instance from Rom. 11. relates only to a visible Church state, which ⟨p. 111⟩all that stand in are not true Believers. That of the Angels fall, is impertinent, for they were under a Covenant of Works. Their Faith in the thorny and stony ground was but a temporary Faith, it had not a saving rooting, and for that Reason abode but a while. And we must distinguish between a false faith and one that is not saying: it is therefore blame-worthy for men to lose some things, the keeping whereof will not save them; such are all the moral principles which men have imbibed, such as the young man had, Mat. 19. And it is to be observed, that the good ground is differenced from the other three, by the epithet good, to show that the other were not so in a spiritual sense: and though God's children feel many thorns & stones in their hearts after Conversion, yet their hearts being in saving measures softened and broke-up, they receive their Denomination from the better part, according to Scripture. Nor will the Parable of the Virgins, Mat. 25. begin. help him at all: we grant, the oil there signifies true saving grace; but then by Lamps we are to understand an outward profession: by Vessels, the heart; the foolish Virgins had oil in their Lamps; i. e. they pretended to, and made a profession and show of Grace, though they had none really; the