A36315:211
Captives bound in chains made free
Captives bound in chains made free by Christ their surety, or, The misery of graceless sinners and their recovery by Christ their saviour by T. Doolittle.
London: printed by A.H. for Tho. Parkhurst, 1674
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.
1. Negative holiness is not a ground of hope for future glory, nor a proof of a present good condition. Negatives in reference to affirmative Precepts will damn, but negatives in reference to forbidding Precepts will not save. There are commands of God enjoining you to repent, and believe, to pray and to forsake sin; your not repenting, not believing, will undo your souls; and there are commands enjoining you to be no drunkards, to be no swearers, not to defraud, nor over reach others in your dealings; now if you be no drunkards, yet if you are not believers you are still in Satan's bonds: you must not only not do evil, but you must also do that which is good. Isa. 1. 16, 17. Mat. 25. 42.
1. Negative holiness is not a ground of hope for future glory, nor a proof of a present good condition. Negatives in reference to affirmative Precepts will damn, but negatives in reference to forbidding Precepts will not save. There are commands of God enjoyning you to repent, and believe, to pray and to forsake sin; your not repenting, not believing, will undo your souls; and there are commands enjoyning you to be no drunkards, to be no swearers, not to defraud, nor over reach others in your dealings; now if you be no drunkards, yet if you are not believers you are still in Satans bonds: you must not only not do evil, but you must also do that which is good. Isa. 1. 16, 17. Mat. 25. 42.
2. If thou art of an unblameable life, yet thou hast a corrupt and sinful heart; if thou hadst been free all thy life-long from every actual sin, (as thou art not) yet there is sin enough in thy heart to sink thee to the lowest hell. There is heart-adultery, and heart-murder, pride of heart, and unbelief in thy heart; so that though thou sayest, fair is thy life, yet God