does not chastise any of his children for sin.

5. That if a man, by the Spirit, know himself to be in a state of
grace, though he should commit the greatest crimes, God sees no sin
in him.

Three leading Antinomian teachers were brought before a committee of
the House of Commons, for promulgating, in different ways, these and
similar opinions, which were justly regarded as subversive of all
morality.--_Gataker's _"God's Eye on his Israel",--preface, Lond.
1645.--_Ed._]

161 ["Antinomians, contending for faith of assurance, and leading men to
be persuaded that God loveth every one, whom he commandeth to
believe, with an everlasting love, and that 'no man ought to call in
question more whether he believe or no, than he ought to question
the gospel and Christ,' do with Libertines acknowledge a faith of
assurance, but deny all faith of dependence on God through Christ,
as if we were not justified by such a faith."--"A Survey of the
spiritual Antichrist, opening the secrets of Familisme and
Antinominianisme." by Samuel Rutherford, Professor of Divinity in
the University of St. Andrew's, part II. p. 235. London,
1648.--_Ed._]

162 [These observations discover an accurate knowledge of the philosophy
of the human mind, as well as of the doctrines of Scripture. It is
certainly one thing to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and another
thing to feel assured of one's salvation, or to be persuaded that we
are possessed of that true faith which is the gift of God, and by
which the just shall live. To identify, as is sometimes done, faith
in Christ and the assurance of salvation, is calculated, on the one
hand, to encourage presumption; and, on the other hand, to give rise
to despair, Prov. xxx. 12, Ezek. xiii. 22, 23. What an earlier
writer even than Binning says upon this subject, is not unworthy of
notice. "St. Paul, wishing well to the church of Rome, prayeth for
them after this sort. 'The God of hope fill you with all joy in
believing.' Hence an error groweth, when men in heaviness of spirit
suppose they lack faith, because they find not the sugared joy and
delight, which indeed doth accompany faith, but so as a separable
accident, as a thing that may be removed from it, viz. there is a
cause why it should be removed. T