Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	head_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,566	5	10.6497	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39674	Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable discourse of the occasions, causes, nature, rise, growth, and remedies of mental errors written some months since, and now made publick, both for the healing and prevention of the sins and calamities which have broken in this way upon the churches of Christ, to the great scandal of religion, hardening of the wicked, and obstruction of Reformation : whereunto are subjoined by way of appendix : I. Vindiciarum vindex, being a succinct, but full answer to Mr. Philip Cary's weak and impertinent exceptions to my Vindiciæ legis & fæderis, II. a synopsis of ancient and modern Antinomian errors, with scriptural arguments and reasons against them, III. a sermon composed for the preventing and healing of rents and divisions in the churches of Christ / by John Flavell ... ; with an epistle by several divines, relating to Dr. Crisp's works.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing F1175; ESTC R21865	194,574	498

Father that had begotten them to Christ. Now I beseech you brethren I who was the Instrument in Christ's hand of your Conversion to him I that have planted you a Gospel-Church and assiduously watered you I beseech you by all the spiritual tyes and endearments betwixt me and you that there be no Divisions among you This is the first Argument wrapt up in a solemn Obsecration Next he enforces the Duty of Unity by the nearness of their Relation I beseech you Brethren Brotherhood is an endearing thing and naturally draws Affection and Unity with it 1 Pet. 3. 8. Be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous ye are the children of one Father joint-heirs of one and the same inheritance To see an Egyptian smiting an Israelite is no strange sight but to see one Israelite quarrelling another is most unnatural and uncomely The nearer the Relation the stronger the Affection How good and how pleasant is it saith the Psalmist for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity Psal. 133. 1. But the greatest Argument of all is the last viz. In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ. In this name he beseeches and intreats them to be at perfect Unity among themselves In the former he sweetly insinuated the duty by a loving compellation but here he sets it home by a solemn Adjuration I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ That is to say 1. For Christ's Sake or for the Love of Christ by all that Christ hath done suffered or purchased for you and as Christ is dear and precious to you let there be no Divisions If you have any Love for Christ don't grieve him and obstruct his great design in the world by your Scandalous Schisms Mr. Iohn Fox never denied a Beggar that asked an Alms of him for Christ ●esus Sake 2. In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that is in the Authority of Christ for so his Name also signifies 1 Cor. 5. 4. and it is as if he had said If you reverence the Supreme Authority and Soveraignty of Christ which is the Fountain out of which so many solemn Commands of Unity do flow then see as you will answer it to him at the Great Day that ye be perfectly joined together in one Mind and in one Judgment The Point will be this DOCT. Vnity amongst Believers especially in particular Church-Relation is as desirable a Mercy as it is a necessary and indispensable Duty How desirable a Mercy it is and how necessary a Duty let the same Apostle who presseth it upon the Corinthians in my Text be heard again enforcing the same Duty with the same warmth upon the Church at Philippi chap. 2. v. 1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind In handling this Point I will shew 1. What Unity among Believers is 2. How the necessity and desirableness of it may be evinced 3. And then lay down the Motives and Directions about it 1. What Unity amongst Believers is and more particularly such Believers as stand in particular Church-Relation to each other There is a twofold Union one Mystical betwixt Christ and Believers another Moral betwixt Believers themselves Faith knits them all to Christ and then Love knits them one to another Their common relation to Christ their Head endears them to each other as fellow-Fellow-Members in the same Body Hence they become Sanguine Christi conglutinati Glued together by the Blood of Christ. Union with Christ is fundamental to all Union among the Saints Perfect Union would flow from this their common Union with Christ their Head were they not here in an imperfect state where their corruptions disturb and hinder it and as soon as they shall attain unto compleat Sanctification they shall also attain unto perfect Unity How their Unity with one another comes by way of necessary resultancy from their Union with Christ and how this Unity among themselves shall at last arise to its just perfection that one Text plainly discovers Iohn 17. 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one c. Unity amongst those that hold not the Head is rather a Conspiracy than a Gospel-unity Believers and unbelievers may have a Political or Civil union but there 's no Spiritual unity but what flows from joint-membership in Christ. I will not deny but in particular Churches there may be and still are some Hypocrites who hold Communion with the Saints and pretend to belong unto Christ the same Head with them but as they have no real Union with Christ so neither have they any sincere affection to the Saints and these for the most part are they that raise tumults and divisions in the Church as disloyal Subjects do in the Commonwealth Of these the Apostle speaks 1 Ioh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us Sincere Christianity holds fast the Soul by a firm bond of Life to the truly Christian Community wherein they reap those spiritual pleasures and advantages which assure their continuance therein to a great degree But those that joyn with the Church upon carnal and external inducements make little conscience of rending from it and God permits their Schismatical Spirits thus to act for the discovering of their Hypocrisy or as the Text speaks that it might be made manifest they were not of us as also that they which are approved may by their constancy be also made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. It hath indeed been said That it 's never better with the Church than when there are most Hypocrites in it but then you must understand it only with respect to the external tranquillity and prosperity of the Church for as to its real spiritual advantage they add nothing And therefore it behoves Church-Officers and Members to be exceeding careful especially in times of Liberty and Prosperity how they admit Members as the 〈…〉 Solomon● time were of admitting Proselytes 'T is said Amos 3. 3. How can two walk together except they be agreed I deny not but persons that differ in some lesser points as to their Judgment may and ought to be one in Affection But of this I am sure that when Sanctified persons agreed in Judgments and Principles do walk together under pious and judicious Church-officers in tender affection and the exercise of all duties tending to mutual edification glorifying God with one mouth Rom. 15. 6. and cleaving together with oneness of heart Acts 2. 42. This is such a Church-unity as answers Christ's end in the ●●stitution of particular Churches and greatly tends to their own

deep corruptions by dangerous Errors Austin was a Manichee and fully recovered from it So have many more and yet multitudes hold them fast even to death and nothing but the Fire can reveal their work and discover what is Gold and what is Straw and Stubble Seventh Observation It deserves a Remark That men are not so circumspect and jealous of the corruption of their minds by Errors as they are of their bodies in times of Contagion or of their lives with respect to gross immoralities Spiritual dangers affect us less than corporeal and intellectual evils less than moral Whether this be the effect of Hypocrisie the Errors of the mind being more secret and invisible than those of the Conversation God only knows man cannot positively determine Or whether it be the effect of Ignorance that men think there is less sin and danger in the one than in the other not considering that an Apoplexy seizing the Head is every way as mortal as a Sword piercing the Body And that a Vertigo will as much unfit a man for service as an Ague or Feaver The Apostle in 2 Pet. 2. 1. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable Heresies or Heresies of Destruction An Error in the mind may be as damning and destructive to the Soul as an Error of Immorality or Profaneness in the Life Or whether it may come to pass from some remains of fear and tenderness in the Conscience which forbids men to reduce their erroneous Principles into Practice the relying under many confident Errors in the mind a● secret Jealousie which we call formido oppositi which will not suffer them to act to the full height of their professed opinions Austin gives this Character even of Pelagius himself Retract lib. 2. cap. 33. Nomen Pelagii non sine laude aliqua posui quia vita ejus a multis praedicabatur I have not mentioned saith he the name of that man without some praise because his life was famed by many And of Swinkfeldius it is said Caput regulatum illi defuit corbonum non defuit His Heart was much more regular than his Head Yet this falls out but rarely in the world for loose Principles naturally run into loose Practises and the Errors of the Head into the Immoralities of Life Eighth Observation It is a great Iudgment of God to be given over to an erroneous mind For the Understanding being the leading Faculty as that guides the other Powers and Affections of the Soul follow as Horses in a Teem follow the Fore-horse Now how sad and dangerous a thing is this for Satan to ride the Fore-horse and guide that that is to guide the life of man That 's a dreadful spiritual judicial stroke of God which we read of Rom. 1. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God by a penal Tradition suffered them to run into the dregs of Immorality and Pollutions of life and that because they abused their light and became came vain in their imaginations ver 21. Wild whimsies and fancies in the head usually mislead men into the puddle and mire of Prophaneness and then 't is commonly observed God sets some visible mark of his Displeasure upon them especially the Heresiarchs or Ring-leaders in Error Nestorius his Tongue was consumed by Worms Cerinthus his Brains Knock'd out by the Fall of an House Montanus hang●d himself It were easie to instance in multitudes of others whom the visible Hand of God hath marked for a warning to others but usually the spiritual Errors of the Mind are followed with a Consumption and Decay of Religion in the Soul If Grace be in the Heart where Error sways its Scepter in the Head yet usually there it languishes and withers They may mistake their Dropsie for growth and flourishing and think themselves to be more spiritual because more airy and notional but if men would judg themselves impartially they will certainly find that the Seeds of Grace thrive not in the Heart when shaded and over-dropt by an erroneous Head Ninth Observation 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a meer Opinion into the place and seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great a stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point To be as much concerned for a Tile upon the Roof as for the Corner-stone which unites the Walls and sustains the Building Opinion as one truly saith is but Reason's Projector and the Spy of Truth It makes in its fullest discovery no more than the dawning and twilight of Knowledg and yet I know not how it comes to pass but so it is that this Idol of the Mind holds such a sway and Empire over all we hold as if it were all the Day we had Matters of mere opinion are every where cried up by some Errorists for Mathematical Demonstration and Articles of Faith written with a Sun-beam worshipping the Fancies and Creatures of their own minds more than God and putting more trust in their ill-founded Opinions than in the surer word of Prophecy Much like that Humorist that would not trust day-light but kept his Candle still burning by him because said he this is not as subject to Eclipses as the Sun is And what more frequent when Controversies grow fervent than for those that maintain the Error to boast every silly Argument to be a Demonstration to upbraid and pity the blindness and dulness of their Opposers as men that shut their eyes against Sun-beams yea sometimes to draw their presumptuous Censures through the very hearts of their Opposers and to insinuate that they must needs hold the Truths of God in unrighteousness sin against their knowledg and that nothing keeps them from coming over to them but Pride Shame or some Worldly Interest What a complicated evil is here Here 's a proud exalting of our own opinions and an immodest imposing on the minds of others more clear and sound than our own and a dangerous Usurpation of God's Prerogative in judging the hearts and ends of our Brethren Tenth Observation Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and seeure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety Antiquity is a venerable word but ill used when made a cloak for Error Truth must needs be elder than Error as the Rule must necessarily be before the ab●rration from it The gray hairs of Opinions are then only Beauty and a Crown when found in the way of Righteousness Copper saith Learned Dumoulin will never become Gold by Age. A Lye will be a Lye let it be never so ancient We dispute not by Years but by Reasons drawn from Scripture That which is now call'd an Ancient Opinion if it be not a true Opinion was once but a new Error When you can tell us how many years are required to turn an Error into Truth then we will give more heed to Antiquity

harmony with the Doctrine of this great and excellent Divine who hath substantially proved the Point I defend against you but 't is enough II. Let us next examine what execution his Reply hath done upon my second Position set up in direct opposition to him namely That God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. unto which Circumcision was annexed is for its substance the self-same Covenant of Grace with that which Gentile-believers and their Infant-seed are now under Here I have abundant cause again to complain that Mr. C. hath so formed his Answers as if he had never read the Book he undertakes a Reply to And I do verily believe the greatest part of his Reply was made at random before ever my printed Book was in his hands For he hath not at all considered the state of the Question as I there gave it him nor kept himself to the just and necessary Rules of Disputation as I earnestly desired he would However 't is not Complaints but confirmation and vindication of my Arguments which is my proper work I shall therefore recite them briefly and vindicate and confirm them strongly contracting all into as few words as can express the sense and Argument of the Point before me Argument I. If Circumcision be a part of the Ceremonial Law and the Ceremonial Law was dedicated by Blood and whatsoever is so dedicated is by you confessed to be no part of the Covenant of Works then Circumcision can be no part of the Covenant of Works even by your own confession But it is so Ergo. To this Mr. Cary returns a Tragical Complaint instead of a Rational Answer Insinuates my falsehood and gross abuse of him Appeals to his Reader Tells him I have taken a liberty to say what I please as if there were no future Iudgment to be regarded And that I can expect no comfort another day without repentance now For those things that have thus passed betwixt him and me shall again be revised and set in order before me That he is weary of noting my Miscarriages of this kind That there is hardly a Page or Paragraph in my whole Reply but abounds with Transgressions of this nature He begs the Lord to forgive me and wishes he could say Father forgive him for he knows not what he doth as if my Sin were greater than the Sin of those that stoned Stephen or crucified Christ. Either I am guilty or innocent in the matters here charged upon me by Mr. C. If guilty I promise him an ingenuous acknowledgment If innocent as both my Conscience and his own Book will prove me to be then I shall only say he knoweth not what spirit he is of The Case must be tried by his own Book and it will quickly be decided These are the very words in his Solemn Call p. 148. He that is Mr. Sedgwick makes no distinction betwixt the Ceremonial Covenant that was dedicated with blood and the Law written in stones that was not so dedicated How strangely doth he confound and obscure the word and truth of God which ought to have been cleared and distinctly declared to those he had preached or written to With much more p. 149 150 151. where he saith It 's plain that the Law written in Stones and the Book wherein the Statutes and Iudgments were contained were two distinct Covenants and delivered at distinct seasons and in a distinct method the one with the other without a Mediator the one dedicated with blood and sprinkling the other that we read of not so dedicated Now let the Reader judge whether I have deserved such Tragical Complaints and dreadful Charges for inferring from these words That the Ceremonial Law being by him pronounced a distinct Covenant from the Moral Law which he makes all one with Adam's Covenant delivered at a distinct season and in a distinct method the Ceremonial Law with a Mediator the Moral Law without a Mediator the Ceremonial Law dedicated with blood and sprinkling the Moral Law not so dedicated let him judge I say whether I have wronged him in saying that by his own confession Circumcision being a part of this Ceremonial Law it can therefore be no part of the Covenant of Works But Mr. Cary hath two things to say for himself 1. That in the same place he makes the Ceremonial Law no other than a Covenant of Works And the wrong I have done him is by not distinguishing as he did betwixt A Covenant of Works and The Covenant of Works Here it seems lies my guilt upon which this dreadful out-cry against me is made But if I should chance to prove that there never was is or can be any more than one Covenant of Works and that any other Covenant which is distinguished from it as he confesses the Ceremonial Law was by a Mediator and the blood of sprinkling can be no part of that Covenant of Works what then will become of Mr. C's distinction of A Covenant of Works and The Covenant of Works Now the matter is plain and evident That as there never were are or can be more than two common Heads appointed by God namely Adam and Christ 1 Cor. 15. 45 46 47 48. Rom. 5. 15 17 18 19. so it is impossible there should be more than two Covenants under which Mankind stands under these two common Heads And the First Covenant once broken it is utterly impossible that fallen Man should ever attain life that way or that ever God should set it up again with such an intention and scope unless as Mr. Charnock speaks he had reduced man's Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man to have governed him by a Covenant of Works but that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stained and disabled If Mr. C. therefore be not able to prove more Covenants of Works with Mankind than one let him rather blush at his silly distinction betwixt a● Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Works For indeed he makes at least four distinct Covenants of Works one with Adam two with Moses one Moral the other Ceremonial and a fourth with Abraham at the institution of Circumcision Gen. 17. 2. If it appear as it clearly doth that as there never was is or can be any more than one Covenant of Works so whatsoever Covenant is distinguished from it by a Mediator and dedication by the sprinkling of blood as he saith the Ceremonial Law was cannot possibly for the Reasons he gives be any part or member of Adam's Covenant of Works then I hope I have done M. C. no wrong in my assumption from his own words for which he so reviles and abuses me But this will appear as plain as the Noon-day-light for a Covenant with a Mediator and dedicated by sprinkling of blood doth and necessarily must essentially difference such a Covenant from that Covenant that had no Mediator nor dedication by blood To deny this were