Robert Baillie, Caution Against the Antinomians

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A third use is for caution: in our magnifying of Christ, beware of an old trick of the devil, which of late he has resumed, and by it done more mischief than ever. Grace and wantonness in themselves are most opposite, yet Satan strives to conjoin them, To turn the grace of God into wantonness (Jude 4). It is no new thing to adore Christ in show, while you buffet him in truth ([Matt. 26:27]; Matt. 27:29[–30]). There is a generation of people who under the color of magnifying the free grace of God, of setting Christ in his throne, of advancing a gospel way, of crying down nature, and legal righteousness, with these glorious shows, and pleasant words they are misled by a spirit of delusion to patronize profanity, to grieve and extinguish the Spirit of grace, to scoff at repentance and sorrow for sin, to foster the fruits of the flesh, to bring in the highest degree of all wickedness, a dedolence of mind, a reprobation of spirit; when a man has committed all wickedness with greediness to be nothing grieved for it, as if the Spirit of the just Lord were nothing offended with it. Among the many devils, who very boldly this day are walking up and down the land, this is one of the worst, albeit masked with the fairest shows of piety and reason. Who magnifies not the Lord Jesus, let him be Anathema maranatha [1 Cor. 16:22]; let Jesus be all in all to your soul, make him alone, thy righteousness, thy sanctification, thy redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

But for all that, beware to divide Christ from his Spirit, his death from his life, his blood from his grace. Separate not faith from repentance, dash out none of your Lord’s commandments so long as you live. Were you never so holy, you have need from your heart to beg pardon for your sins. Whoever will neglect repentance must perish, whoever will have true comfort must be a mourner. Christ curses them that laugh now, and no laughter more devilish than in the act of sin. He blesses them that mourn now, and no mourning in a child of God more pious than for the offending of God, and grieving of his Spirit by sin. Robert Baillie, “Satan the Leader in Chief of all who resist the reparation of Sion as is cleared in A Sermon to the Honorable House of Commons at their late solemn fast, February 28, 1643/44,” Sermons Preached before the English Houses of Parliament by the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly of Divines 1643–1645 (Naphtali Press, 2011) 207–208. Limited printing; now out of print.
 

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