Baxter - BT785 B39 1657

Spiritual Peace and Comfort. 113 ofSalvation,& that the want of this did keep them in the dark fo long, and partly from Satins policy,who troubleth people leaft, when they are in a way that pleafeth him : But when thefe people had lived a year or two in this comfortable condition,they fell at last into the fociety of force Libertines or Familifts, who believe that the Scriptures are all but a dream, fiáion, or Allegory : `I'hefe prefently perfwaded them, that they were fools to regardBapti1rn or fuck Ordinances, and that they might come to hear again in our Congregations, feeing all.tl ings were lawful, and therewas no Heaven or Hell-but within men.,and therefore they fhould look to their fafety and credit in the world, and take their pleafure. This leffon was quickly learned, and then they cried. down the Anabaptiíts.,and confeffed they Were deluded, and fo being grown loofe while they were Anabapffs, to mend the matter, they grewEpicures when they had been inftruE ed by the Libertines, and this was the end of their new gotten Corifort. Others I have known that have wanted Affurance , and falling among the Antinomians , were told by them that they undid themfelves by looking after Signs and Marks of Grace , and fo laying their comforts upon fomcthing in themfelves whereas they Mould look only to Chrift for Comfort, and not at any thing in themfelves at all : and for Affurfince, it is only the Witnefs of the Spirit without any Marks, that mull give it them ; and to fetch Com- fort from their ownGraces and Obedience, was to make it themfelvcs inl`tead of Chrift and the holy Glioft, and was a Legal way No fooner was this Doctrine Received, but the Receivers had Com- fort

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