A23636:201
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.
That David is a clear instance of one that totally fell from grace, he proves not: the sins he committed were great, the Aggravation• heinous, but if he had totally lost his grace, why doth he pray, Psal. 51.11. take not thy holy Spirit from me! Nor doth it follow (as he intimates,) that because a justified man may fall into Murder and Adultery, therefore the worst of men may believe that they are true & real Saints; for they never had the work of Conversion past upon them, as David had: and besides, such horrid falls break their bones, defile their hearts, wound their grace, and consequently be-cloud their Evidences, what plea is there for such as never had any Evidence? Nor doth it follow that if these men die in their sins they shall go to heaven immediately: For tho' God suffer (for holy ends) His Children to fall far, yet as not to fall totally, so He will give them Repentance: tho' the just fall, yet he shall rise again: Nor will God suffer them to die, before He hath recovered them. Neither yet doth our Doctrine encourage to any hope of such who so defile themselves, and die without Repentance. I• •s therefore a vile Aspersion to call our Doctrine Poisonous. We believe that sin of its own nature kills the sinner, that its wages is ⟨p. 114⟩death; that the soul that sins shall d•: but w• believe that he may die in his surety, that God can pardon and justify him for Christ's sake; and that if He doth, He will sanctify him too; and what poison is there in all this? the foundation of a sinners hope is laid in this; and but for this hope, the least sin of thought is mortal; all the gall therefore that he vents in these three pages hurts us not, being mere false Aspersions, or deceitful insinuations; (and doth not he himself say, that if God suffers those whom he hath drawn, at any time to depart, they shall certainly be reclaimed, p. 46. nay, that they shall infallibly be called, & at last glorified, p. 76.) Nor could he have said, that this makes God a respectre of persons in the worst sense, if he had not been ignorant o• what that Respect of persons is: there is no respect of persons in gratuitis; for that i• only when Justice is perverted, for some sinister consideration: the owner may do it his own what he will. Besides there is in the bestowing of the Recompense of glory, a vas difference between them that receive it an such as miss of it. Mat.