being in Christ and on that as well as on many accounts necessary The difference between him and other good men seems to lie not so much in the things which the one or other of them believe as about their order and reference to one another where 't is true there may be very material difference but we reckon That notwithstanding what is more controversible in these Writings there are much more material things wherein they cannot but agree and would have come much nearer each other even in these things if they did take some words or terms which come into use on the one or the other hand in the same sense but when one uses a word in one sense another uses the same word or understands it being used in quite another sense here seems a vast disagreement which proves at length to be verbal only and really none at all As let by Condition be meant a deserving Cause in which case 't is well known Civillians are not wont to take it and the one side would never use it concerning any good Act that can be done by us or good Habit that is wrought in us in order to our present acceptance with God or final Salvation Let be meant by it somewhat that by the constitution of the Gospel-Covenant and in the nature of the thing is requisite to our present and eternal well-being without the least notion of desert but utmost abhorrence of any such notion in this case and the other side would as little refuse it But what need is there for contending at all about a Law-term about the proper or present use whereof there is so little agreement between them it seems best to serve and them it offends Let it go and they will well enough understand one another Again Let Justification be taken for that which is compleat entire and full as it results at last from all its Causes and Concurrents and on the one hand it would never be denied Christ's righteousness justifies us at the Bar of God in the Day of Iudgment as the only deserving cause or affirmed that our Faith Repentance Sincerity do justifie us there as any cause at all Let Iustification be meant only of being justified in this or that particular respect As for instance against this particular Accusation of never having been a Believer and the honest mistaken Prefacer would never have said O horrid upon it s being said Christ's Righteousness doth not justify us in this case For he very well knows Christ's Righteousness will justifie no man that never was a Believer but that which must immediately justifie him against this particular Accusation must be proving that he did sincerely believe which shews his interest in Christ's Righteousness which then is the only deserving cause of his full entire Iustification There is an Expression in Vol. 1. p. 46. That Salvation is not the end of any good work we do which is like that of another we are to act from Life not for Life Neither of which are to be rigidly taken as 't is likely they were never meant in the strict sense For the former this Reverent Author gives us himself the handle for a gentle interpretation in what he presently subjoyns where he makes the end of our good works to be the manifestation of our Obedience and Subjection the setting forth the praise of the glory of the Grace of God which seems to imply that he meant the foregoing negation in a comparative not in an absolute sense understanding the glory of God to be more principal and so that by end he meant the very ultimate end so for the other 't is likely it was meant that we should not act or work for life only without aiming and endeavouring that we might come to work from life also For it is not with any tolerable charity supposable that one would deliberately say the one or the other of these in the rigid sense of the words or that he would not upon consideration presently unsay it being calmly reasoned with For it were in effect to abandon Humane Nature and to sin against a very Fundamental Law of our Creation not to intend our own felicity it were to make our first and most deeply Fundamental Duty in one great essential branch of it our sin viz. To take the Lord for our God For to take him for our God most essentially includes our taking him for our supream good which we all know is included in the notion of the last end it were to make it unlawful to strive against all sin and particularly against sinful oversion from God wherein lies the very death of the Soul or the sum of its misery or to strive after perfect conformity to God in holiness and the full fruition of him wherein its final blessedness doth principally conâ—ist It were to teach us to violate the great Precepts of the Gospel Repent that your sins may be blotted out Strive to enter in at the strait Gate Work out your salvation with fear and trembling To obliterate the Paterns and Precedents set before us in the Gospel We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified I beat down my body lest I should be a castaway That thou mayest save thy self and them that hear thee It were to suppose one bound to do more for the salvation of others than our own salvation We are required to save others with fear plucking them out of the fire Nay we were not by this rule strictly understood so much as to pray for our own salvation which is a doing of somewhat when no doubt we are to pray for the success of the Gospel to this purpose on behalf of other meâ— T were to make all the threatnings of Eternal Death and promises of Eternal Life we find in the Gospel of our Blesâ—ed Lord useless as motives to shun the one and obtain the other For they can be motives no way but as the escaping of the former and the attainment of the other have with us the places and consideration of an end It makes what is mentioned in the Scripture as the Character and commendation of the most eminent Saints a fault as of Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. That they sought the better and Heavenly Countrey and declared plainly that they did so which necessarily implies their making it their end But let none be so harsh as to think of any good man that he intended any thing of all this if every passage that falls from us be stretch'd and tortured with utmost severity we shall find little to do besides accusing others and defending our selves as long as we live A Spirit of meekness and love will do more to our Common Peace than all the Disputations in the World Vpon the whole We are so well assured of the peaceful healing temper of the present Author of these Treatises That we are persuaded he designed such a course of managing the Controversies wherein he hath concerned himself as
the Sanction of the Law may and did pass from us to Christ by Legal Imputation but sin it self the very Transgression it self arising from the very Preceptive part of the Law cannot so pass from us to Christ For if we should once imagine that the very acts and habits of sin with the odious deformity thereof should pass from our Persons to Christ and subjectively to inhere in him as they do in us then it would follow First That our Salvation would thereby be rendred utterly impossible For such an inhesion of Sin in the Person of Christ is absolutely inconsistent with the Hypostatical Vnion which Union is the very Foundation of his Satisfaction and our Salvation Tho the Divine Nature can and doth dwell in Union with the pure and Sinless human Nature of Christ yet it cannot dwell in Union with Sin Secondly This Supposition would render the Blood of the Cross altogether unable to satisfie for us He could not have been the Lamb of God to take away the Sins of the World if he had not been perfectly pure and spotless 1 Pet. 1. 19. Thirdly Had our Sins thus been essentially transfus'd into Christ the Law had had a just and valid Exception against him for it accepts of nothing but what is absolutely pure and perfect I admire therefore how any good Man dares to call our Doctrine which teaches the Imputation of our Guilt and Punishment to Christ a simple Doctrine and assert that the Transgression it self became Christ's and that thereby Christ became as compleatly sinful as we And Fourthly If the way of making our Sins Christ's by imputation be thus rejected and derided and Christ asserted by some other way to become as compleatly sinful as we then I cannot see which way to avoid it but that the very same Acts and Habits of Sin must inhere both in Christ and in Believers also For I suppose our Adversaries will not deny that notwithstanding God's laying the Sins of Believers upon Christ there remain in all Believers after their Justification sinful Inclinations and Aversations a Law of Sin in their Members a Body of Sin and Death Did these things pass from them to Christ and yet do they still inhere in them Why do they complain and groan of in-dwelling Sin as Rom. 7. If Sin it self be so transferr'd from them to Christ Sure unless Men will dare to say the same Acts and Habits of Sin which they feel in themselves are as truly in Christ as in themselves they have no ground to say that by God's laying their Iniquities upon Christ he became as compleatly sinful as they are and if they should so affirm that Affirmation would undermine the very Foundation of their own Salvation I therefore heartily subscribe to that sound and holy Sentence of a clear and learned Divine Nothing is more absolutely true nothing more sacredly and assuredly believ'd by us than that nothing which Christ did or suffer'd nothing that he undertook or underwent did or could constitute him subjectively inherently and thereupon personally a Sinner or guilty of any Sin of his own To bear the Guilt or Blame of other Mens Faults to be alienae culpae reus makes no Man a Sinner unless he did unwisely or irregularly undertake it So then this Proposition that by God's laying our Sins upon Christ in some other way than by Imputation of Guilt and Punishment he became as compleatly sinful as we will not ought not to be receiv'd as the sound Doctrine of the Gospel Nor yet this Second Proposition That we are as compleatly Righteous as Christ is or that Christ is not more Righteous than a Believer I cannot imagine what should induce any Man so to express himself unless it be a groundless conceit and fancy that there is an essential Transfusion of Christ's justifying Righteousness into Believers whereby it becomes theirs by way of subjective inhesion and is in them in the very same manner it is in him And so every individual Believer becomes as compleatly Righteous as Christ. And this conceit they would fain establish upon that Text 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous But neither this expression nor any other like it in the Scriptures gives the least countenance to such a general and unwary Position It is far from the mind of this Scripture That the righteousness of Christ is formally and inherently ours as it is his Indeed it is ours relatively not formally and inherently not the same with his for quantity though it be the same for verity His Righteousness is not ours in its Vniversal value though it be ours as to our particular use and necessity Nor is it made ours to make us so many causes of Salvation to others but it is imputed to us as to the Subjects that are to be saved by it our selves 'T is true we are justified and saved by the very Righteousness of Christ and no other but that Righteousness is formally inherent in him only and is only materially imputed to us It was actively his but passively ours He wrought it though we wear it It was wrought in the person of God-man for the whole Church and is imputed not transfused to every single Believer for his own concernment only For 1. It is most absurd to imagine that the Righteousness of Christ should formally inhere in the person of all or any Believer as it doth in the person of the Mediator The impossibility hereof appears plainly from the incapacity of the Subject The Righteousness of Christ is an Infinite Righteousness because it is the Righteousness of God-man and can therefore be subjected in no other person beside him It is capable of being imputed to a finite creature and therefore in the way of imputation we are said to be made the righteousness of God in him but though it may be imputed to a finite creature it inheres only in the person of the Son of God as in its proper subject And indeed 2. If it should be inherent in us it could not be imputed to us as it is Rom. 4. 6 23. Nor need we go out of our selves for justification as now we must Phil. 3. 9. but may justify our selves by our own inherent Righteousness And 3 dly What should hinder if this Infinite Righteousness of Christ were infused into us and should make us as compleatly righteous as Christ but that we might justify others also as Christ doth and so we might be the Saviours of the Elect as Christ is Which is most absurd to imagine And 4 thly According to Antinomian Principles What need was there that we should be justified at all Or what place is left for the justification of any sinner in the World For according to their Opinion the justification of the Elect is an immanent act of God before the World was and that Eternal act of Justification making the Elect as compleatly Righteous as Christ himself there could not possibly be
not on the one hand to injure the memory of the Dead and on the other to prevent hurt or danger to the Living Nor do we say thus much of him as if he sought or did need any Letters of Recommendation from us but as counting this Testimony to Truth and this expression of respect to him a Debt to the spontaneous payment whereof nothing more was requisite besides such a fair occasion as the Providence of God hath now laid before us inviting us thereunto John Howe Vin. Alsop Nath. Mather Increase Mather John Turner Rich. Bures Tho. Powel AN EPISTLE TO THE READER Candid Reader CEnsure not this Treatise of ERRORS as an Error in my Prudentials in sending it forth at such an improper time as this I should never spontaneously have awakened sleeping Controversies after God's severe castigation of his people for them and in the most proper and hopeful season for their Redintegration And beside what I have formerly said I think fit here to add That if the attacque had been general and not so immediately and particularly upon that Post or Quarter I was set to defend I should with Elihu have modestly waited till some abler and more skilful hand had undertaken the defence of this Cause If ever I felt a temptation to envy the happiness of my Brethren it hath been whilst I saw them quietly feeding their Flocks and my self forced 〈◊〉 some part of my precious 〈…〉 time devoted to the 〈…〉 combating with unquiet and erring Brâ—thren But I see I must not be my own chuser Notwithstanding I hope and am in some measure persuaded That publick benefit will redound to the Church from this irksâ—me Labour of mine And that this strife will spread no further but the Malady be cured by an Antidote growing in the very place where it began And that the Christian Camp will not take a general Alarm from such a â—ingle Duel The Book now in thy hands consisteth of Four parts viz. 1. A general Discourse of the Causes and Cures of Errors very necessary at all times especially at this time for the reduction and establishment of seduced and staggering Christians and nothing of that nature having occurred to my observation among the manifold Polemical Tracts that are extant I thought it might be of some use to the Churches of Christ in such a vertigenous Age as we live in and the blessing of the Lord go forth with it for benefit and establishment 2. Next thou hast here the Controversies moved by my Antagonist first about the Mosaick Law complexly taken which he boldly pronounces to be an Adam's Covenant of works And secondly about God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. which he also makes the same with that God made with Adam in Paradise and affirms Circumcision expresly called a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith to be the Seal of the said Covenant of Works first made with Adam 3. Finding my Adversary in the pursuit of his design running into many Antinomian delirations to the reproach and damage of the Cause he contends for I thought it necessary to take the principal Errors of Antinomianism into examination especially at such a time as this when they seem to spring afresh to the hazard of God's Truth and the Churches Peace wherein I have dealt with becoming-modesty and plainness if haply I might be any way instrumental in my plain and home way of Argumentation to detect the falsity and dangerous nature of those notions which some good men have vented and preserve the sounder part of the Church from so dangerous a contagion 4. In the next place I think it necessary to advertise the Reader That whereas in my first Appendix under that head of the Conditionality of the New Covenant I have asserted Faith to be the Condition of it and do acknowledg p. 246. that the word Condition is variously used among Iurists yet I do not use in any sense which implies or insinuates that there is any such condition in the New Covenant as that in Adam's Covenant was consisting in perfect personal and perpetual obedience or any thing in its own nature meritorious of the benefits promised or capable to be performed by us in our own strength but plainly that it be an act of ours tho' done in God's strength which must be necessarily done before we can be actually justified or saved and so there is found in it the true suspending nature of a condition which is the thing I contend for when I affirm Faith is the condition of the New Covenant How many senses soever may be given of this word Condition this is the determinate sense in which I use it throughout this Controversy And whosoever denies the suspending Nature of Faith with respect to actual Justification pleads according to my understanding for the actual Justification of Infidels And thus I find a Condition defined by Navar Iohan. Baptist. Petrus de Perus c. Conditio est Suspensio alicujus dispositionis tantisper dum aliquid futurum fiat And again Conditio est quidam futurus eventus in quem dispositio suspenditur Once more My Reader possibly may be stumbled at my calling Faith sometimes the Instrument and sometimes the Condition of our Justification when there is so great a Controversy depending among Learned Men with respect to the use of both those terms I therefore desire the Reader to take notice That I dive not into that Controversy here much less presume to determine it but finding both those Notions equally opposed by our Antinomians who reject our actual Justification by Faith either way and allow to Faith no other use in our actual Justification but only to manifest to us what was done from Eternity I do therefore use both those terms viz. the Conditionality and Instrumentality of Faith with respect unto our Justification and shew in what sense those terms are useful in this Controversy and are accommodate enough to the design and purpose for which I use them how repugnant soever they are in that particular wherein the Learned contend about the Use and Application of them To be plain when I say Faith justifies us as an Organ or Instrument my only meaning is that it receives or apprehends the Righteousness of Christ by which we are justified and so speaking to the Quomodo or manner of our Justification I say with the general Suffrage of Divines we are justified instrumentally by Faith But in our Controversy with the Antinomians where another different Question is moved about the Quando or time of our actual Justification there I affirm that we are actually justified at the time of our believing and not before and this being the Act upon which our Justification is suspended I call Faith the Condition of our Justification This I desire may be observed lest in my use of both those terms my Reader should think either that I am not aware of the Controversy depending about those terms or that I do herein manifest the vacillancy of
more apt to catch in low-built thatcht Cottages than in high-built Castles and Princely Palaces the higher we go still the more peace The highest Region is most sedate and calm Stars have the strongest influence when in conjunction Angels tho legions have no wars among them and as willingly go down as up the Ladder without justling each other And the Most High God is the God of Peace let us also be the Children of Peace And I do assure the Persons with whom I contend That whilst they hold the head and are tender of the Churches Peace I can live in charity with them here and hope to live in glory with them hereafter I remain Reader thine and the Truth 's Friend John Flavell THE CONTENTS OF THE Causes and Cures c. THE Etymology and definition of the word Error Introd p. 2 3. The difference between Heresy and Error Introd p. 4. Twenty general Observations Disc. p. 7. Obs. 1. Truth is the object and natural food of the Vnderstanding p. 7. Explain'd and confirm'd P. 8. Obs. 2. Several sorts of Knowledge amongst which the supernatural knowledge of saving Truths revealed in the Scriptures is the best 9. Obs. 3. Vnto the attainment of Divine Knowledge out of the Scripture some things are naturally yet less principally requisite in the subject and something absolutely and principally necessary 11. As the irradiation of the mind by the Spirit of God the benefits of which 12. Obs. 4. Among the manifold impediments to the obtaining of true Knowledge and setling the mind in the truth and faith of the Gospel these three are of special consideration viz. Ignorance Curiosity and Error p. 13. Obs. 5. Error is binding upon the Conscience as well as Truth and altogether as much and sometimes more influential upon the Affections and Passions than Truth is 14. Obs. 6. 'T is exceeding difficult to get out Error when once it is imbib ' d and hath rooted it self by an open profession 15. Obs. 7. Men are not so circumspect and jealous of the Corruptions of their Minds by Errors as they are of their Bodies in times of Contagion or of their Lives with respect to gross Immoralities 17. Obs. 8. 'T is a great Iudgment of God to be given up to an Erroneous Mind 19. Obs. 9. 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a mere Opinion into the place or seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point 21. Obs. 10. 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 secure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety 23. Obs. 11. God in all Ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them p. 25. Obs. 12. The want of a modest suspicion and just reflection gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions 27. Obs. 13. There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors one linking in and drawing another after it 29. Obs. 14. Errors abound most and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace Liberty and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Governors 31. Obs. 15. Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them are comparatively shy and modest to what they prove afterwards when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World 33. Obs. 16. Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Errors than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it 35. Obs. 17 Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force but by rational conviction and proper spiritual remedies 36. Obs. 18. Erroneous Doctrines producing Divisions and fierce Contentions amongst Christians prove a fatal Stumbling-block to the World fix their Prejudices and obstruct their conversion to Christ p. 38. Obs. 19. How specious and taking soever the pretences of Error be and how long soever they maintain themselves in esteem among men they are sure to end in the loss and shame of their Authors and Abettors at last 40. Obs. 20. If ever Errors be cured and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established men must be convinced of and acquainted with the occassions and causes both within and without themselves from whence their Errors do proceed and must both know and apply the proper rules and remedies for the prevention or cure of them 42. Divine Permission an occasion of Error 44. Which must be prevented by avoiding 1. A want of love to the Truth 45. 2. Pride and wantonness of the mind 46. 3. The neglect of Prayer ibid. Culpable Causes of Errors in men are 1. A wrangling humor at the pretended obscurity of the Scriptures p. 47. Cod's wisdom manifested in leaving some difficulties in the Scriptures 49. For the prevention of this cause these Rules following to be heeded and practis'd viz. R. 1. To expound all obscure Texts of Scripture according to the analogy and proportion of Faith p. 50. R. 2. Not to wrest Scripture from its general and common sense in favour of our preconceived Opinions 51. R. 3. When we meet with a difficult place of Scripture to search the Context throughly 52. R. 4. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other the Old on the New and the New on the Old ibid. R. 5. Observe the sense which the current of Expositors do agree in and which naturally agrees with the scope of the place 53 Cause 2. The abuse of the Liberty given by Christ to all his People to read the Scriptures and to judge of the sense of them by a private judgment of Discretion ibid. Remedy of it is to observe the limits which Christ hath set to this Liberty which Limitations are 1. A liberty to read and study but not publickly to expound and preach the Word 57. 2. Christians of different Abilities ought to study some parts of Scripture rather than others 59. Cause 3. Slothfulness in a due and serious search of the Scripture 61. How to find the institution of the Sabbath in the Scripture 64. How to find the institution of the Baptism of Infants there 65. Several Considerations to cure this slothfulness 67. Viz. A serious search of the Scriptures is our duty ibid. No action of ours that is not agreeable to God's will is acceptable to him 68. This is the path in which the wisest and best of men have gone before us 69. Every discovery of the Will of God obtain'd in this method is highly pleasant 70. Confirms our Faith 71. An impartial search into the Will of God will be a testimony of our Integrity and Sincerity ibid. Cause 4. Instability of judgment and unsetledness of mind about the truth
of the Gospel 72. This is the effect sometimes of Hypocrisie sometimes of weakness 74. To prevent which some Rules 76. viz. R. 1. To get a real inward implantation into Christ ibid. R. 2. To labour for an experimental Taste of the Truths professed p. 77. R. 3. To study hard and pray earnestly p. 77. R. 4. To be sensible of the benefit of a good establishment and the evil and danger of a wavering mind p. 78. Cause 5. Eagerness to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promiseth ease to an Anxious Conscience 79. For the cure of which some Queries propounded viz. Qu. 1. Whether a good trouble be not better than a false Peace 82. Qu. 2. Whether Troubles so laid asleep will not revive again with a double force 83. Q. 3. Whether the Saints in Scripture that have been under terrors have not found peace by those very methods which the Principles that quiet you exclude 84. Cause 6. An easy Credulity 85. The Remedies against this 1. The consideration that it is beneath a man 88. 2. That the priviledge of trying all things is of too great a value to be thus slighted 89. 3. Observe the Practices and Lives of those men whose Opinions you are so ready to imbrace 90. Cause 7. A vain Curiosity 90. Remedies 1. A due consideration of the mischiefs that have entred into the World by this 92. 2. God hath not left his people to seek their Salvation among curious but solid and plainly revealed Truths 94. 3. 'T is a dangerous snare of Satan ibid. Cause 8. Pride and Arrogancy of Humane Reason 95. Remedies 1. 'T is the Will of God that Ratiocination should submit to Revelation and Reason to Faith 98. 2. A sense of the weakness and corruption of Natural Reason 99. 3. Consider the manifold mischiefs flowing from the pride of Reason Cause 9. Ignorant Zeal 101. Defensatives 1. A Reflection upon the mischiefs occasioned by it in all Places and Ages 104. 2. A consideration how hurtful it may prove to your own Soul 106. 3. How prejudicial is hath been to Human Society 107. 4. That Opinion is to be suspected which comes in by the Affections 108. Cause 10. Impulsive of spreading Errors Satan 110. Rules for Cure 1. Pray for a sound Conversion 113. 2. Acquâ—int your selves with the Devices of Satan ibid. 3. Resign your Souls to the conduct of Christ and his Spirit 114. 4. Live in the practice of the truths and duties God hath revealed already 115. Cause 11. Instrumental the false Teacher ibid. Remedies 1. Pray for strength of Grace and solidity of Iudgment and use all means to obtain it 119. 2. Acquaint your selves with the Artifices of such as these 121. Such as are their endeavours to blast the reputation of faithful Teachers ibid. the mixing their Errors among solid Truths 122. Cause 12. The methods used by False Teachers to draw men from the truth among which the first is their representing the Abuses of the Ordinances of God in such a manner as to scare tender Consciences from the use of them 124. Remedies 1. Nothing so great and sacred in Religion but what hath been vilely corrupted and abused 127. 2. 'T is the temper of a gracious Soul to love those Ordinances which are most abused and disgraced 129. 3. Before you forsake any Ordinance consider whether you have found no advantage by it 130. Cause 13. Another method which they use is a granting to their Followers a Liberty of Prophesying 131. Remedies 1. Let all that incourage or undertake such a work as this consider the danger they cast on their own and other mens Souls 134. 2. How daring a presumption it is to intrude themselves into such an Office without a Call from Christ 136. 3. To vent our unsound Liberty is said in Scripture to be our greatest dishonour 137. 4. 'T is much more safe and advantageous for every one to fill their own places with their proper work ibid. Cause 14. Another method of theirs is a Spirit of Enthusiasm or a pretence to Revelations 138. Remed 1. Whatever Doctrine seeks credit to it self this way ought to be suspected of wanting a Scripture-foundation 141. 2. Consider how often the Devil hath abused the World by such ways as these 142. 3. Hâ—w impossible it is to know whether such a Revelation be from God or the Devil 144. Cause 15. Another method they use is Timing their Assaults 145. Remed 1. Respects Ministers that they should look carefully after the Souls of young Converts 149. Remed 2. Young Converts should consider That they must not expect to find Christ in one way and not another that they are expos'd to the Snares of Satan and that it is a sad thing to grieve the hearts of those Ministers who have travelled in pain for them 150 151. Cause 16. Another Artifice of False Teachers is to press their Proselytes to declare speedily for them and their Opinions 152. Remedies Consider 1. That hasty ingagements in disputable matters have cost many Souls dear 155. 2. Weighty Actions require answerable deliberations ibid. 3. The only season wherein men have to consider is before their Affections are too far ingaged 156. 4. Consult with pious Ministers and trust not to your own Iudgment 157. 5. Suspect that Opinion that will not allow you a due time for consideration 158. Consectaries from the whole ibid. 1. The usefulness and necessity of â— standing Ministry ibid. 2. How little peace the Church must expect till a greater light be poured out upon it 159. 3. What a mercy it is to be kept sound in Iudgment and stedfast in the ways of Christ 161. 4. We may discover one cause of the great decay of serious Pâ—ety in this Age 162. 5. One Reason of the frequent Persecutions God exercised his Church with 163. 6. We may learn the duty and necessity of mutual Charity and forbearance 164. The Contents of Vindiciarum Vindex or the First Appendix THE whole of the Answer reduced under three heads p. 175. Two things premised 176. Head 1. Mr. Cary hath not been able to free his Thesis from the horrid absurdity charged upon it viz. That Moses and the whole People of God were under a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace at the same time 179. From whence follows Absurd 1. That all their lives they were in the mid-way between life and death and after death in the mid-way betwixt Heaven and Hell 180. Mr. Cary's First Reply 184. Answer'd 185. Mr. Cary's Second Reply 187. Answer'd ibid. The Ten Commandments complexly taken including the Ceremonial Law were added as an Appendix to the promise 192. Mr. Cary's Answer to it consider'd 194. A Promise of pardon in the Sinai Dispensation to penitent Sinners 198 199. The several Arguments that are left standing in their full force against Mr. Cary 200 201 202 203. The Law given at Sinai wrote of the chief Privileges which the Jews had 203. His Argument that the Law is not of
and Adam had not sinned in that noble Virgin-faculty To defend this Idol which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are forced to oppugn and deny several other great and weighty Truths as particular eternal Election the certainty of the Saints Perseverance the necessity of preventing Grace in Conversion which Errors are but the outworks raised in defence of that Idol So in the Baptismal Controversie men would never have adventured to deny God's Covenant with Abraham to be a Covenant of Grace or to assert the Ceremonial Law so full of Christ to be an Adam's Covenant of works and Circumcision expresly called the seal of the Righteousness of Faith to be the condition of Adam's Covenant Much less would they place all the elect of God in Israel at one and the same time under the severest Curse and Rigor of the Law and under the pure Convenant of Grace were they not forced into these Errors and Absurdities by dint of Argument in defence of their darling Opinion Fourteenth Observation Errors abound most and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace Liberty and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Rulers Arrianism sprang up under Constantine's mild Government Christian benevolent Rulers are choice Mercies and Blessings to the Church Such as rule over men in the fear of God are to the Church as well as Civil State like the light of the morning when the Sun ariseth even a morning without Clouds as the tender Grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain 2 Sam. 23. 4. But this as well as other mercies is liable to abuse and under the influences of indulgent Governours Error as well as Truth springs up flowers and seeds Persecution gives check to the wantonness of mens Opinions and finds them other and better work to do Caterpillars and Locusts are swept away by the bitter East-winds but swarm in Halcyon days and fall upon every green thing So that the Church rides in this respect more safely in the stormy Sea than in the calm Harbour Peace and Prosperity is apt to cast its Watchmen into a sleep and whilst they sleep the envious one soweth Tares Matth. 13. 25. 'T was under Constantine's benign Government that Poison was poured out into the Churches The abuse of such an excellent mercy provokes the Lord to cut it short and cause the Clouds to gather again after the Rain We have found it so once and again alas that I must say again in this wanton and foolish Nation Professors could live quietly together Converse Fast and pray in a Christian manner together under common Calamities and Dangers differences in Opinion were suspended by consent But no sooner do we feel a warm Sun-blast of Liberty and Peace but it revives and heats our dividing Lusts and Corruptions instead of our Graces The Sheep of Christ fight with each other though their furious pushing one at another is known to presage a change of Weather Fifteenth Observation Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them are comparatively shy and modest to what they prove afterwards when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World They usually begin in modest Scruples conscientious Doubts and Queries But having once gotten many Abetters and amongst them some that have subtilty and ability to plead and dispute their Cause they ruffle it out at another rate glory in their numbers piety and ability of their Party boast and glory in the conceited Victories they have atchieved over their Opposers The Masque drops off its face and it appears with a brow of Brass becomes insolent and turbulent both in Church and State Of which it is easie to give many pregnant instances in the Arians of old and more recent Errors which I shall not at present be concerned with lest I exasperate whilst I seek to heal the Wound Should a man hear the Sermons or private Discourses of Errorists whilst the Design is but forming and projecting he should meet with little to raise his jealousie They speak in Generals and guard their Discourses with politick Reserves You shall not see tho you see to see the tendency of their Discourses Hence the Apostle saith 2 per. 2. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They shall privily or covertly bring in damnable Heresies As the Boy in Plutarch being asked by a Stranger what is that you carry so closely under your Cloak wittily answered You may well know that I intend you shall not know it by my so carrying it Sixteenth Observation Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Error than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it The strength of Error lieth much in the weakness of the Advocates and Defendants of Truth Every Friend of Truth is not fit to make a Champion for it Many love it and pray for it that cannot defend and dispute for it I can dye for the Truth said the Martyr but I cannot dispute for it Zuinglius blamed Carolostadius for undertaking the Controversie of that Age because said he non habuit satìs humerorum his shoulders were too weak for the burthen It can be said of few as Cicero speaks of one Nullam unquà m in disputationibus rem defendit quam non probârit nullum oppugnavit quem non everterit He undertook no Cause in disputation which he could not defend he opposed no Adversary but could overthrow him He is a rare and happy Disputant who can clear and carry every point of Truth of which he undertakes the defence 'T were happy for the Church if the abilities and prudence of all her Friends were commensurate and equal to their love and Zeal Every little foyl every weak or impertinent Answer of a Friend to Truth is quickly turned into a weapon to wound in the deeper Seventeenth Observation Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force but by rational conviction and proper spiritual Remedies Bodily sufferings rather spread than cure intellectual Errors I deny not but fundamental Heresies breaking forth into open Blasphemies against God and Seditions in the Civil State ought to be restrained 'T is no way fit men should be permitted to go up and down the World with Plague-sores running upon them Nor do I understand why men should be more cautious to preserve their Bodies than their Souls But I speak here of such Errors as may consist with the foundations of the Christian Faith and are not destructive to Civil Government They take the ready way to spread and perpetuate them that think to root them out of the World by such improper and unwarrantable means as external force and violence The Wind never causes and Earth-quake till it be pent in and restrained from motion We neither find nor can imagine That those Church or State Exorcists should ever be able to effect their end who think to confine all the Spirits of Error within
The knowledg of them is a good defensative against them Now there are two common Artifices of Seducers which it is not safe for Christians to be ignorant of First They usually seek to disgrace and blast the reputations of those Truths and Ministers set for their defence which they design afterwards to overthrow and ruin and to beget credit and reputation to those Errors which they have a mind to introduce How many precious truths of God are this day and with this design defamed as legal and carnal Doctrines and those that defend them as Men of an Old Testament spirit Humiliation for Sin Contrition of Spirit c fall under disgrace with many and indeed all qualifications and pre-requisites unto coming to Christ as things not only needless but pernicious unto the Souls of Men although they have not the least dependance upon them Yea Faith it self as a pre-requisite unto Justification as no better than a Condition pertaining to Adam's Covenant And so for the persons of Orthodox Ministers you see into what contempt the false Teachers would have brought both the Person and Preaching of Paul himself 2 Cor. 10. 10. His bodily presence say they is weak and his speech contemptible Secondly Their other common Artifice is to insinuate their false Doctrines among many acknowledged and precious Truths which only serve for a convenient vehicle to them and besides that to make their Errors as palatable and gustful as they can to the vitiated Appetite of corrupt Nature The forementioned Worthy hath judiciously observed how artificially Satan hath blended his baneful Doses to please the Palate of Carnal Reason Spiritual Pride and the desire of Fleshly Liberty Carnal Reason is that great Idol which the more intelligent part of the carnal World worships And are not the Socinian Heresies as pleasant to it as a well-mixt Iulep to a feverish Stomach Spiritual Pride is another Diana which obtains greatly in the World and no Doctrine like the Pelagian and Semipelagian Errors gratify it A Doctrine that sets fallen Nature upon its Legs again and persuades it it can go alone to Christ at least with a little external help of Moral suasion without any preventing or creating work in the Soul This goes down glib and grateful And then for Fleshly Liberty How do those that are fond of it rejoice in that Doctrine or Opinion which looses Nature from the yoke of restraint How does the poor deluded Papist hug himself to think he hath liberty by his Religion to let loose the reins of his Lust to all sensualities and quit himself from all that guilt by Auricular Confession to the Priest once a year How doth the Familist smile upon that Principle of his which tells him the Gospel allows more Liberty than severe Legal Teachers think fit to tell them of They press Repentance and Faith but Christ hath done all this to thy hands Cause XII Having considered the several Causes of Errors found in the evil dispositions of the seduced as also the impulsive and instrumental Causes namely Satan and false Teachers employed by him I shall next proceed to discover some special and most successful Methods frequently used by them to draw the minds of Men from the Truth Amongst which that which comes first to consideration is the great skill they have in representing the ABVSES of the Ordinances of God and Duties of Religion by wicked Men to scare tender and weak Consciences from the due use of them and all further attendance upon them The abuse of Christ's holy Appointments are so cunningly improved to serve this design that the minds of many well-meaning persons receive such deep disgust at them that they are scarce ever to be reconciled to them again A strong prejudice is apt to drive Men from one extream upon another as thinking they can never get far enough off from that which hath been so scaringly represented to them Thus making good the old Observation Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt they run from the troublesome smoak of Superstition into the Fire of an irreligious contempt of God's Ordinances split themselves upon Charybdis to avoid Scylla Ex. gra The Papists having deeply abused the Ordinance of Baptism by their corruptive mixtures and additions of the superstitious Cross Chrism c. part whereof is not sufficiently purged to this day by the Reformation and finding also multitudes of carnal Protestants dangerously resting upon their supposed baptismal Regeneration to the great hazard of their Salvation which mistake is but too much countenanced by some of its Administrators They take from hence such deep offence at the administration of it to any Infants at all though the Seed of God's Covenanted People that they think they can never be sharp enough in their invectives against it nor have they patience to hear the most rational defences of that Practise So for that Scriptural Heavenly Duty of Singing What more commonly alledged against it than the abuse and ill effects of that precious Ordinance How often is the Nonsense and Error of the common Translation the rudeness and dulness of the Metre of some Psalms as Psal. 7. 13. as also the cold formality with which that Ordinance is performed by many who do but Parrotize I say How often are these things buz'd into the ears of the people to alienate their hearts from so sweet and beneficial a Duty And very often we find it urged to the same end how unwarrantable and dangerous a thing it is for carnal and unregenerated persons to appropriate to themselves in Singing those Praises and Experiences which are peculiar to the Saints not understanding or considering that the singing of Psalms is an Ordinance of Christ appointed for teaching and admonition as well as praising Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns c. Thus Antinomianism took if not its rise yet its encouragement from the too rigorous pressing of the Law upon convinced sinners If Satan can prevail first with wicked Men to corrupt and abuse God's Ordinances by the superstitious mixtures and additions and then with good Men to renounce and slight them for the sake of those abuses he fully obtains his design and gives Christ a double wound at once one by the hand of his avowed Enemies the other by the hands of his Friends no less grievous than the first First wicked Men corrupt Christ's Ordinances and then good Men nauseate them The Remedies The proper Remedies against Errors insinuated by the abuses of Duties and Ordinances are such as follow Remedy I. Let Men consider that there is nothing in Religion so great so sacred and excellent but some or other have greatly corrupted or vilely abused them What is there in the whole World more precious and excellent than the Free-grace of God and yet you read Iude 4. of some that turned the Grace of our Lord into Lasciviousness What more desirable to Christians than the glorious Liberty Christ
solid Scripture-foundation God hath not left his People to seek satisfaction in such uncertain ways as these but hath given them a surer word of Prophecy to which they do well to take heed 2 Pet. 1. 19. He hath tyed us to the standing Rule of the Word forbidding us to give heed to any other Voice or Spirit leading us another way Isa. 8. 19. 2 Thess. 2. 1 2. Gal. 1. 8. Scripture-light is a safe and sure Light a pleasant and sufficient Light The Scripture saith Luther is so full that as for Visions and Revelations nec curo nec desidero I neither regard nor desire them And when he himself had a Vision of Christ after a day of fasting and prayer he cried out Avoid Satan I know no Image of Christ but the Scripture An hankering mind after these things speaks a sickly and distempered state of Soul as longing after Trash in young distempered Persons doth a distempered state or ill habit of Body Mr. William Bridges somewhere tells us of a Religious Lady of the Empresses Bed-chamber whose name was Gregoria who being greatly troubled about her Salvation wrote to Gregory That she would never cease importuning him 'till he had sent her word that he had obtained a Revelation from Heaven that she should be saved to whom he returned this Answer Rem difficilem postulas inutilem Thou requirest of me that which is difficult to me and unprofitable for thee Remedy II. Consider how often the World hath been abused by the Tricks and Cheats of that officious Spirit the Devil in such ways as these What hath propagated Idolatry among Heathens and Christians more than this Hinc fluxerunt multae peregrinationnes Monasteria delubra dies festi alia saith Lavater in Iob 33. Pilgrimages Monasteries Shrines of Saints Holy-days c. have been introduced by this Trick 'T were endless to give Instances of it in the Histories of former Ages We have a notable late Account of it among our selves in a Book entitled A Discovery of the notorious Falsehood and Dissimulation contained in a Book stiled The Gospel-way confirmed by Miracles Licensed and published 1649. wherein is laid open to the World the free Confession of Ann Wells Mattheâ— Hall c. deluding the People of Whatfield in Suffolk with such pretended Voices Visions Prophecies and Revelations the like have scarcely been heard of in England since the Reformation Multitudes of People were deluded by them At length the Lord extorted from this Woman a full Confession of the notorious falseness of these things by a terrible Vision of Hell her Partizans laboured four days to suppress and stifle it but to no purpose for the Horrors of Conscience prevailed with her to confess the notorious Dissimulations contained in that Book before the People of Whatfield and a Justice of the Peace And thus the Lord out-shot Satan in his own Bow Remedy III. Consider how difficult yea and impossible it is for a man to determine that such a Voice Vision or Revelation is of God and that Satan cannot feign or counterfeit it seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another an albus an ater Sure we are Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and therefore abandoning all those unsafe and uncertain ways whereby Swarms of Errors have been conveyed into the World let us cleave inseparably to the sure Word of Prophecy the Rule and Standard of our Faith and Duty Cause XV. Another way in which False Teachers discover their Subtilty with great success is in TIMING their Assaults and nicking the proper Season when the minds of men are most apt and easy to be drawn away by their fair and specious Pretences Such a Season as this they find about the time of mens first Conversion or soon after their Implantation into Christ. Now it is that their Affections are most lively and vigorous though their Judgments be but weak They have now such strong and deep apprehensions of the Grace and Love of Christ and such transcendent zeal for him that they easily embrace any thing whereby they conceive he may be honoured and exalted They have also such deep Apprehensions and powerful Aversations as to Sin that they are in danger to fly even from Truth and Duty it felf when it shall be artificially represented to them as Sin For not only that which is malum per se Sin indeed but that which is male coloratum painted with Sin 's Colours is apt to scare and fright them Besides These young Converts or Novices have not had time to confirm and root themselves in the Truth and Trees newly planted are much more easily drawn up than those that have spread and fastened their Roots in the Earth 'T is observable what a swarm of false Teachers troubled the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Philippi at and newly after their first planting and what danger those young Christians were in abundantly appears in the Apostle's frequent Cautions and holy Jealousy over them he bids them beware of Dogs beware of Evil Workers beware of the Concision Phil. 3. 2. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his sâ—btilty so your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. he was afraid of the Galatians lest he had bestowed upon them labour in vain Gal. 4. 11. he would not give place to false Brethren no not for an hour Gal. 2. 5. charges the Romans to receive them that were weak in the faith but not to doubtful Disputations Rom. 14. 1. All which and many more Expressions discover his grounded jealousy and their extraordinary danger of seduction at their first plantation A Novice in Christianity is the Person Satan seeks for strong Believers are not in such apparent danger as little ones in Christ 1 Iohn 5. 21. Little Children keep your selves from Idols And the reason is because keen Affections match'd with weak Judgments give a mighty advantage to Seducers Children are apt to be taken with beautiful Appearances and fine shews and Erroneous Teachers have the very knack to set a gloâ—s of extraordinary sanctity upon their dangerous Opinions Hence those Persons that promoted the Sect of the Nicolaitans made use of a cunning Woman who for her skill in painting Errors with the Colours of Truth got the name of Iezebel Rev. 2. 20. That Queen was famous for the art of Painting 1 King 16. and so was this false Prophetess indeed there was scarce any eminent Sect of Errorists or Hereticks mentioned in Church-history but some curious feminine Artist hath been employed to lay the beautiful Colours upon it So we find Simon Magus had his Helena Carpocrates his Marcellina Montanus his Priscilla and Maximilla And the curious Colours of Holiness Zeal and Free-grace artificially laid upon the face of Error how wrinkled and ugly soever in it self sets it off temptingly and takingly to weak and injudicious Minds Moreover Erroneous Teachers
the whole Law for Righteousness You may ponder this Argument at your leisure and not think to refute it at so cheap a rate as by calling it a corrupt gloss of my own And thus I hope I have sufficiently fortified and confirmed my Third Argument to prove Abraham's Covenant to be a Covenant of Grace My Fourth was this Argument IV. That which in its direct and primary end teacheth Man the corruption of his Nature by sin and the mortification of sin by the Spirit of Christ cannot be a condition of the Covenant of Works But so did Circumcision in the very direct and primary end of it Therefore c. Your Reply to this is That when I have substantially proved that the Sinai Covenant as it contained the Passeover Sacrifices Types and Appendages under which were vailed many spiritual Mysteries relating to Christ and mortification of sin by his Grace and Spirit to be no Covenant of Works but a Gospel-covenant you will then grant with me that the present Argument is convincing p. 96 97. of your Reply Sir I take you for an honest man and every honest man will be as good as his word Either I have fully proved against you that the Sinai Law taken in that latitude you here express it is not an Adam's Covenant of Works or I have not If I have not doubtless you have reserved your more pertinent and strong Replies in your own breast and trust not to those weak and silly ones which you see here baffled and have only served to involve you in greater Absurdities than before But if you have brought forth all your strength as in such a desperate strait no man can imagine but you would then I have fully proved the point against you And if I have I expect you to be ingenuous and candid in making good your word That you will then grant with me that this Argument is convincing to the end for which it was designed And so I hope we have fully issued the Controversy between us relating to God's Covenant with Abraham You have indeed four Arguments p. 59 60 61 62. of your Reply to prove Abraham's Covenant a Covenant of Works of the same nature with Adam's Covenant 1. Because as life was implicitly promised to Adam upon his obedience and death explicitly threatned in case of his disobedience which made that properly a Covenant of Works so it was in the Covenant of Circumcision Gen. 17. 7 8. compared with vers 10 14. This Argument or Reason can never conclude because as God never required of Abraham and his Children personal perfect and perpetual obedience to the whole Law for life as he did of Adam so the death or cutting off spoken of here seems to be another thing from that threatned to Adam Circumcision as I told you before was appointed to be the discriminating Sign betwixt Abraham's Seed and the Heathen World and the wilful neglect thereof is here threatned with cutting off by Civil or Ecclesiastical Excommunication from the Commonwealth and Church of Israel as Luther Calvin Paraeus Musculus c. expounds not by death of Body and Soul as was threatned to Adam without place for repentance or hope of mercy 2. You say Abraham's Covenant could not be a Covenant of Faith because Faith was not reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness in Circumcision but in Uncircumcision Rom. 4. 9 10. This is weak reasoning Circumcision could not belong to a Gospel-covenant because Abraham was a Believer before he was circumcised You may as well deny the Lord's Supper to be the Seal of a Gospel-Covenant because the Partakers of it are Believers before they partake of it Beside you cannot deny but it sealed the Righteousness of â—aith to Abraham and I desired you before to prove that a Seal of the Covenant of Works iâ— capable of being applied to such an use and service which you have not done nor ever will be able to do but politickly slided by it 3. You say it cannot be a Covenant of Grace because it is contra-distinguished to the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 13. The Law in that place is put strictly for the pure Law of Nature and Metaleptically signifies the Works of the Law which is a far different thing from the Law taken in that latitude wherein you take it And is not this a pretty Argument that because the promise to Abraham and his Seed was not through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith therefore the Covenant of God made with Abraham and his Seed Gen. 17. cannot be a gracious but a legal Covenant This Promise mentioned Rom. 4. 13. was made to Abraham long before the Law was given by Moses and Free-grace not Abraham's legal Righteousness was the impulsive cause moving God to make that Promise to Abraham and to his Seed and their enjoyment of the Mercies promised was not to be through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith By what rule of art this Scripture is alledged to prove God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. to be a Covenant of Works I am utterly to seek If it be only because Circumcision was added to it that 's answered over and over before and you neither have nor can reply to it 4. Lastly It cannot say you be a Covenant of Grace because it 's represented to us in Scripture as a Bondage-covenant Acts 15. 10 c. Gal. 5. 1. 'T is time I see to make an end Your discourse runs low and dreggy Do you think it is one and the same thing to say That the Ceremonial Law was a yoke of bondage to them that were under it and to say it was an Adam's Covenant Are these two parallel distinctions in your Logick Alas Sir there is a wide difference The difficulty variety and chargeableness of those Ceremonies made them indeed burthensome and tiresome to that People but they did not make the Covenant to which they were annexed to become an Adam's Covenant of Works for in the very next breath vers 11. the Apostle will tell you they were saved yea and tells us that we shall be saved even as they So that either they that were under this yoke were saved by Faith in the way of Free-grace as we now are or we must be saved in the way of legal Obedience as they were Take which you please for one of them you must take We shall be saved even as they Acts 15. 10 11. If you can make no stronger opposition to my Arguments than such as you have here made your Cause is lost though your confidence and obstinancy remain It were easy for me to fill more Paper than I have written on this Subject with Names of principal note in the Church of God who with one voice decry your groundless Position and constantly affirm that the Law in the complex sense you take it as it comprehends the Ceremonial Rites and Ordinances whereunto Circumcision pertains is and can be no other than the