In answer to one infected
with some Pelagian Errours.
Written by Benjamin Cox
when he was first Prisoner in Coventrie.
Now Published by the Author for the clearing of the truth.
I Cor. 2. 14.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God,
for they are foolishnesse unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned,
Licensed and entered according to Order.
London,
Printed by Tho. Paine,
living in Red-crosse-Street
in Gold-Smiths Alley,
over against the Suger loafe. 1646.
Benjamin Cox (sometimes Coxe or Cockes)
was trained for divinity in the scholastical methodology of his day to minister in the
National or Anglican Church. He eventually changed some basic theological perspectives and
therefrom aligned himself with the Particular Baptists.
In 1643 he was sent to confirm a small group of Particular Baptists in Coventry. While in
the town, Richard Baxter challenged him to a public theological debate on the topic of
baptism. As a result of this exchange, Cox was imprisoned. While incarcerated, Cox wrote Some
Mistaken Scripture Sincerely Explained. Three years later, for the "clearing of
truth," this work was published with the permission of the authorities. In the same
year this work was made public, Cox, along with fifteen other pastors and elders from
seven Particular Baptist Churches in and around London, signed what has been called in our
day, the 1646 or First London Baptist Confession. These men wanted to
display before the watching world the theological unanimity between their beliefs and the
Reformed and Puritan thinking of their day. This was especially true with a view to the
work of the Westminster Divines then assembled in London. This small work by Cox gives
insight into one of the mature minds involved in the formulation of that 1646 Confession.
It becomes clear that Cox did not hold a neo-Marcion view that put the New Covenant
against the Old. But, rather, he assumes a divine unity between God's self-disclosure to
ancient Israel and the fuller disclosure of Himself in Christ in the New. In his
methodology and exegesis we see that Cox, as regards the Old Testament, believed it to be
authoritative and binding for Christian faith and practice.
We do not know who the "one infected with some Pelagian Errours" was, but we do
know there are many of his theological kin and doctrinal cousins alive today. In an age
when there is the ever-growing weed of man-centeredness in the professing Church, we do
well to consider the balanced Calvinism of men like Benjamin Cox. In our own self-absorbed
way, we tend to remove one weed only to let another grow in its place. May God use these
things to hone our faith and sharpen our dull minds that we might love Christ as our first
and best.
The editor shares Benjamin Cox's concern as we pray that our gracious God might use this
small work for a "clearing of his truth." We also pray this little piece might
be a pole to balance us all on truth's razors edge so we don't fall into the abyss
Pelagianism on the one hand nor the entangling net of hyper-Calvinism on the other. For
the most part, the text is as it appears in the original edition. Some of the spelling has
been brought up to date and two antiquated words have been replaced. I am confident these
do not affect Cox's original intended meaning.
May God be glorified and your soul edified through the reading of this little work.
Brought to the Internet by
Reformed Baptist Heritage Webpage
Edited by
Mike Renihan