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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74986	An antidote against heresy: or a preservative for Protestants against the poyson of Papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Arminians, &c. and their pestilent errours. Shewing the authors of those errours, their grounds and reasons, the time when and occasion how they did arise; with general answers to their arguments taken out of holy scripture and the ancient fathers. Written to stay the wandering and stablish the weak in these dangerous times of Apostasy. / By Richard Allen, M.A. sometime Fellow of Penbrooke [sic] Colledge in Oxford.	Allen, Richard, b. 1604 or 5.	1648 (1648)	Wing A1045A; Thomason E1168_2; ESTC R208803	57,457	159

the right hand of God Acts 3.21 Whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoring all things 1 Cor. 11.25 The Communion is a remembrance of his death till his coming again Object Our Saviour himself says Behold I am with you always even to the end of the world Sol. That is according to his Godhead grace and Spirit for according to his manhood he is altogether absent from us and locally in heaven So our Saviour says again Me ye have not always Mat. 26.11 CHAP. XI Of Predestination Truth SEeing the benefits of Christs death reach not to all but to a certain chosen number now follows the Decree of Gods Predestination chusing some to life eternal and rejecting others leaving them in their sins to be damned for the same Adversaries to this truth are 1. Errours Pelagians both old and new that scoff at this doctrine denying the same as there are at this day that say it is not sutable to God nor agreeable to his nature to pick and choose thus among men to chuse some and refuse others is partial and unjust 2. Libertines abuse this doctrine as of old the Predestinates did to all looseness thinking that now they are predestinated it is no matter how they live because nothing can help or hinder their salvation 3. Socinians and Arminians say That Predestination signifieth nothing else in holy Scripture but Gods decree and purpose to save those that shall beleeve and obey and dam● those that shall not denying the Independency of it 4. Denying the eternity of Predestination affirm That God doth elect none until they do beleeve 5. And deny the certainty and stability of it affirming that it is changeable so that the elect may become reprobates and the reprobates elect 6. The Papists in this point are contrary to themselves affirming both that God hath chosen freely of his meer grace and yet hath not chosen us but upon foresight of our good works Bellarm. l. 2. de Gra. et lib. arb c. 16. But the general opinion among them is That the Kingdom of Heaven is prepared for them that are worthy of it and deserve it by their well doing and that a man doth make himself eligible to life eternal by his good works Antidote There is a Predestination i. an election of some to eternal life and a reprobation of others to eternal destruction Rom. 9.22 23. There are vessels of wrath fitted for destruction vessels of mercy prepared for glory Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained to eternal life beleeved Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself yea the wicked for the day of evil Jude 4. Before of old ordained to this condemnation August De civit dei l. 15. c. 1. There are two Cities or Societies of men one predestinated to raign for ever with God the other to suffer eternal punishment with the Divel Secondly Predestination both election and reprobation is eternal Rom. 9.11 Before we are born or have done good or evil Ephes 1.4 Before the foundation of the world 2 Tim. 1.4 Before the world began Thirdly It is free and independent there is no moving cause of election to life in the persons predestinate either foresight of faith or good works but only the will and good pleasure of God And although sin be the cause of damnation being an act of Gods Justice yet of reprobation being an act of his absolute power there is no cause but the good pleasure of God Rom. 9.18 He hath mercy on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth Ephes 1.5 We are chosen according to the good plesure of his will Verse 7. According to the riches of his grace Verse 11. After the Councel of his own will 2 Tim. 1.9 Not according to works but according to his own purpose There can be no other cause beside the Wil of God because there is nothing before the Will of God which is it self the cause of all things that are August Faith and obedience are the effect of election and cannot be the cause because they follow after and do not go before it Acts 13.48 As many as were ordained unto eternal life beleeved 1 John 4.19 We love God because he loved us first Rom. 8.29.30 From Gods Purpose proceeds Predestination from Predestination Calling from Calling Justification Faith Obedience c. To say then we are predestinate in respect of our faith or works is not only to invert the words of the Apostle and falsifie his doctrine but even to alter the very course of nature by setting the effect before the cause Rom. 9.12 Before they had done either good or evil it is said Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Was it the foresight of their good or evil works to come that moved God hereunto That the Apostle denies in these words That the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth August lib. de Predest c. 7. Fourthly It is immutable and unchangeable the elect can never perish nor the reprobates be saved 2 Tim. 2.19 The foundation of God remaineth sure having this seal the Lord knoweth who are his Luke 10.20 Their names are written in the book of life John 10.3 He calleth his sheep by name 1 Pet. 1.5 They are kept by the power of God unto salvation They can never fall away and perish for whom he did predestinate them he also called c. Affording them in due time all those means that shall infallibly bring them unto glory If any man making a fair shew of holiness fall away it is no Argument that the elect may fall away but that those which fall away are not elect 1 John 2.19 They went out from us because they were not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us We see it plain now that God hath made a difference between men chusing some and refusing others Latet discretionis ratio non latet ipsa discretio Ambros de Vocat Gent. We see the effect we cannot perceive the cause the thing it self is manifest the reason of it is hidden and secret to us and yet though it be unknown we know it cannot be unjust because it is the good pleasure of his will who is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Doth any man yet complain Hear the Apostle Rom. 9.20 21. O man who art thou that repliest against God! Hath not the Potter power over the clay Do not dispute but fear and admire with the same Apostle Rom. 11. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom of God how unsearchable searchable are his Judgments But we are all by nature one mass of corruption one is chosen another is left God sheweth mercy upon one and not upon another how can any man complain now when all were alike corrupt and culpable and no desert in any Will every man dispose freely of his own and shall not God If any man

the god of this world hath blinded Their eyes c. 2 Cor. 4.3 The end of the Scriptures is the instruction of the Church Rom. 15.4 Whatsoever things were written were written for our learning and one necessary mean to attain this end is the perspicuity and plainness of the Scripture for if it were dark or doubtful how should it instruct us In vain is it called a Light if it be dark in it self and to no purpose are we sent to learn it if it be so to us The Scriptures are an instrument to beget Faith Joh. 20.31 Rom. 10.17 And the first step or degree of faith is knowledg which the Scriptures could not beget if they were dark difficult or obscure Object But S. Peter says there are many things in S. Pauls Epistles hard to be understood which unlearned men wrest to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 Sol. If any thing be hard in one place either it is such as the ignorance thereof will not hazard our salvation or else it is explained and made easie in another place And by unlearned men the Apostle understand not men wanting humane learning as the liberal arts and sciences c. but men unlearned in the Scriptures themselves such as most times the learned and wise men of the world are For it is known that men otherwise unlearned simple a●d ignorant coming in humility the fear of God and love of truth using prayer reading comparing of Scriptures c. have attained unto a sufficient measure of saving knowledg For the Scriptures discover themselves by their own proper light one place expounding and opening the meaning of another August de Doct. Christ .l 2. c. 2.9.24 all things are seen by the light but light by it self Lastly Those books that we commonly call Apocrypha are not of divine authority because they were not written by the Prophets or men divinely inspired as the other Scriptures were that are therefore called the Scriptures of the Prophets Rom. 12.26 Our Saviour divides all Canonical Scripture into Moses and the Prophets Luk. 16.29 But none of those books were written by Moses or any of the Prophets nor dictated by the Spirit of God but savour of a prophane and lying spirit as containing matter and stories both vain foolish and fabulous very often contradicting themselves and also the known Word of God as in the books of Tobit and the Maccabees the Stories of Bell and the Dragon are specially to be found The Jews received none of those books in their Canon neither by any of the primitive Christians or ancient Fathers were accounted for Canonical and what account the learned Papists themselves make of them may appear by Arias Montanus who in the front of his Bible hath these words There be added in this Edition the books written in Greek which the Catholick Church following the Canon of the Hebrew reckoneth amongst the Apocrypha CHAP. II. Of the Blessed Trinity Truth THere is but one living and true God everlasting and in the unity of this Godhead there be three persons of one substance power and eternity the Father the Son and the holy Ghost Errours This one point of Christian Religion is the very basis or foundation of all the rest and if this be shaken the rest must needs totter and fall to the ground and therefore the devil hath raised up such furious adversaries to oppugn it with strange and monstrous blasphemies as of old did Simon Magus Cerinthus Ebion Manes a Persian a man according to his name furious and mad and such like at this day the adversaries to this doctrine of the Trinity are all the enemies of Christ and his divinity as the unbeleeving Jews all Mahometans Turks Moors and such miscreants among Christians only such as have suckt their principles from the schools of those Infidels They stand marshalled all in two Regiments 1. The first is of those that deny all distinction of persons in the Godhead making the Father Son and Holy Ghost but several names only of one and the same person in regard of some distinct actions or offices This Heresie was commonly ascribed to Sabellius but Noetus a disciple of Montanus hatcht it and Simon Magus layd the egg long before at this day it is revived by one M. Erbury a late Chaplain of the Army who taught That there is but one person in the Godhead and when we read of the Father Son and Holy Ghost we must not take them for so many distinct persons but only as so many appearances of God unto men And truly if M. Erbury had been that Sorcerers own disciple he could not have devised a doctrine more like his as it is recorded by St. Augustin lib. de Haeres ad Quodvultdeum cap. 1. There be others that admit a distinction of these 3 persons but deny the equality of them That the Son and Holy Ghost are not God equal with the Father of one substance and eternity with the Father This was the Heresie of Arius whose chief undertaking was against the Son of God and his eternal generation and of Macedonius who denyed the Godhead of the holy Ghost They are both revived at this day among us that of Macedonius by one M. Biddle who not questioning the Godhead of the Son a point as he professeth wherein he is not yet so well resolved denies only the Godhead of the holy Ghost granting no more but that he is an excellent creature and chief of all the ministring spirits One M. Best not fearing that fearful judgment that befel Arius who burst asunder in the midst like Judas the traitor that his bowels gushed out hath notwithstanding revived his Heresie and in these times of general and desperate Apostacy hath found many favorors and followers Now the fountain of all these impure waters was Simon Magus an impious sorcerer and the conduit that conveyed them to our times almost was Mahomet an impudent impostour For about the year 630. or as others please 670. that vile and lewd Arabian began his cursed book called the Alcoran and therein amongst a multitude of other impure follies impious fables and lyes he raked also together cōmended to his barbarous followers all those Heresies and Blasphemies against the Trinity Out of this filthy puddle Michael Servertus a Spaniard a man better read in Mahomets cursed Law then in the holy Gospel of Jesus Christ suckt his Heresie about the year 1530. for denying the eternal Son of God he was burnt at Geneva and out of his ashes arose that monster Socinus But to pass by particular persons the first Country that made defection from this truth was Transylvania a Country bordering upon the Turks from whom they received this point of their Religion for to gratifie or comply with those barbarous neighbours they abjured their Faith in the holy Trinity about the year 1593. denying the Son and holy Ghost the contagion of this pest is now spread into most places of Christendom The devil hath devised

we have in Christ carnally thinking that now we are freed from all care of good works and may follow what course we please Antidote That we ought to follow good works for the Reasons before named is evident by those places of Scripture Ephes 2.10 We are created unto good works that God hath prepared for us that we should walk in them Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might purifie unto himself a people zealous of good works 2 Cor. 5.10 Rev. 20.12 We shall be judged at the last day according to our works therefore look to your works So 1 Pet. 2.12 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 Heb. 10.24 2 Cor. 9.2.3 And our best works have not that worthiness in them to deserve at Gods hand 1. Because they are imperfect Isai 64.6 They are a debt that we owe unto God Luke 17.10 When you have done all you can or are commanded to do say you are unprofitable servants for we do but our duty we must do them to serve not deserve 3. If they were perfect yet they are Gods not ours Phil. 2.13 He worketh in us both the will and the deed Joh. 15. Without me ye can do nothing 4. If we ascribe merit to our works we make the death and merits of Christ either unnecessary or insufficient Object But eternal life is called a reward Rom. 2.6 Rev. 20.12 et 22.12 Sol. There is a reward of debt and a reward of grace it is the Apostles own distinction Rom. 4.4 Heaven and eternal life is a reward of grace not of debt God hath made himself a debter to us not by receiving any thing from us but by promising all things to us August in Psalm 132.2 It is said we shall be rewarded not for but according to our works the merit of works is plainly set aside and when God doth crown our works he doth but crown his own gifts August Enarr in Psalm 102.3 The Apostle calls the reward of sin wages because it is of due debt but eternal life he calls a gift because it is not of debt but grace Rom. 6.23 4. The Kingdom of Heaven is called not the wages of servants but the inheritance of Saints or those whom God hath chosen for his children 5. The good man of the house i. Christ Mat. 20. payed at night all his labourers equal wages to shew that they received a gift of grace not a reward of works CHAP. XVII Of Death and Burial Truth THere is no man living that shal not see death for our life is but a race that will come to an end and when we have finisht our course here our body shall turn to dust in the earth and our soul return to God that gave it Errours Enemies to this truth were 1. The old Hereticks called Nazarens affirming That the soul of man and the soul of a beast were both of a like nature and substance from whence sprang up those Hereticks in Arabia the stony called therefore Arabici who affirmed That the soul of man dyes with the body even as the soul of a bruit beast doth 2. Others affirmed That the soul did not dye but sleep in the grave untill the day of Judgment Both these Errours are revived at this day by those that affirm The whole man is mortal And books are written of the mortality of the soul Pope John the 23. was of this opinion That the soul should not see God till the day of Judgment 3. Familists say They ought not to bury the dead because it is said let the dead bury the dead 4. And those are greatly to be blamed that despise Christian buriall and though not guilty of Heresie yet of inhumanity that expose their dead friends undecently or irreverently 5. The Papists account burial of the dead a meritorious work borrowing their authority from the book of Tobit The Reason why the Arabians were so easily taken with this Errour of the souls mortality was because they were Antidote and are at this day a very lewd dissolute and theevish people and this doctrine doth fit such peoples turn very well and the same may be the Reason it is received by many at this day happy were it for them if the soul dye or if it but sleep till the day of Judgment it cannot but be a little refreshing to the thoughts of wicked men that seeing their life so uncertain yet they shall not go presently into torment But Eccles 3.19 20. is to be understood of the state of the body after death for of the soul it is said v. 21. That the soul of man goes upward and the soul of a beast goes downward towards the earth Eccl. 12.7 The dust shall return to the earth as it was and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it Acts 7.59 Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Luk. 23.43 This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That answer of our Saviour to the Sadducees Mat 22.32 puts the Adversary to silence for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Lastly The exceeding joys and hopes of good men and the fears and terrours of wicked men at their departures are sufficient Arguments that the soul sleeps not but goes presently to a place of joy or sorrow whereof the soul hath some secret inklings instinct or divine assurance and whereunto those hopes and fears seem to invite or usher it Secondly After the departure of the soul the body ought to be carryed to the grave and layed up in decent burial if not out of any regard to the party deceased yet out of reverence to the common nature of mankind or of pure shame of that frailty weakness and deformity that our selves are subject to The holy Patriarks and all Gods people of old were very careful of their Sepulchers or burying places as you may read and the Jews used many Ceremonies of comliness at their burials not out of any superstition but in a godly consideration of the Resurrection in the hope whereof those Ceremonies did seem to confirm them and as that doctrine grew clearer so these Ceremonies grew fewer as Tabitha her body was only washed Acts 9.37 And therefore we condemn those numerous superstitious and impious Ceremonies used by the Papists at their burials but yet still we should consider that the dead bodies of our godly and Christian friends are precious things and were the Members of Christ Temples of the Holy Ghost and shall at the last day be raised again and made like unto Christs glorious body in hope whereof in mean space we should lay them up with decency and reverence It is no matter to the dead but 1. It is an honor done to the common nature of mankind 2. A comfort to surviving friends 3. Many ways useful to all that are present CHAP. XVIII Of the Resurrection Truth ALthough our bodies when we are dead shall be turned to dust and ashes yet at the last day they shall be raised again