Right of Believers Infant-seed to Baptism you have altogether adventured it the second time with the consent of your Partizans upon the three Hypotheses which if I mistake not I have fully confuted and baffled in my first Answer But if my brevity occasioned any obscurity in that I hope you shall find it sufficiently done here Mean time you have given and I accordingly take it for granted that our Arguments for Infants Baptism stand in their full strength against you 'till you can better discharge and free your dangerous Assertions from the Errors and Absurdities in which they are now more involved and intricated than before The weaker any thing is the more querulous it is If Scripture-Argument and clear Reason will not support the Cause I undertake I am resolved never to call in passionate Invectives and weak Evasions for my Auxiliaries as you have here done The Lord give us all clearer Light tenderer Consciences exemplary Humility and Ingenuity Vindiciarum Vindex OR A REFUTATION OF THE Weak and Impertinent Rejoinder OF Mr. PHILIP CARY Wherein he vainly attempts the defence of his Absurd Thesis to the great abuse and injury of the Laws and Covenants of God AND must I be dipt once more in the Water-Controversy 't is time for me to think of undressing my self and making ready for my approaching Rest and employ those few moments I have to spend in more Practical and Beneficial Studies for my own and the Churches greater advantage And 't is time for Mr. C. to reflect upon his past Follies which have consumed too much of his own and others time without any advantage yea to the apparent loss and injury of the Cause he undertakes to defend When I received these Sheets from him in vindication of his Solemn Call I was at a stand in my own Resolutions whether to let it pass without any Animadversions upon it as a passionate Clamor for a desperate Cause or give a short and full Answer to his confused and impertinent Rejoinder But considering that I had under hand at the same time the foregoing Treatise of the Causes and Cures of Mental Errors and that though my honest Neighbour discovers much weakness in his way of Argumentation yet it was like to meet with some interested Readers to whom for that reason it would be the more suitable and how apt such Persons are to glory in the last word but especially considering that a little time and pains would suffice as the Case stands to end the unseasonable Controversy betwixtâ— us and both clear and confirm many great and weighty Points of Religion I was upon these Considerations prevailed with against my own Inclination to cast in these few Sheets as a Mantissa to the former seasonable and necessary Discourse of Errors resolving to fill them with what should be worth the Reader 's time and pains As for the rude Insults uncomely Reflections and passionate Expressions of my discontented Friend I shall not throw back the dirt upon him when I wipe it off from my self I can easily forgive and forget them too The best men have their Passions Iam. 5. 17. even Sweet-briers and Holy-Thistles have their offensive Prickles I consider my honest Neighbour under the strength of a Temptation It disquiets him to see the Labours of many years and the raised Expectations of so great a conquest and triumph over men of Renown all frustrated by his Friend and Neighbour who had done his utmost to prevent it and often foretold him of the folly and vanity of his Attempt Every thing will live as long as it can and natura vexat a prodit seipsam But certainly it had been more for Truth 's honour and Mr. C's comfort to have confessed his Follies humbly to God and have laid his hand upon his mouth The things in controversy betwixt us are great and weighty viz. The true nature of the Sinai Laws in their complex body the quality of God's Covenant with Abraham and the dispensation of the New Covenant we are now under These are things of great weight in themselves and their due Resolutions are at this time somewhat the more weighty because my Antagonist hath adventured the whole Controversy of Infants Baptism upon them I have in my Vindiciae Legis c. stated the several Questions clearly and distinctly Shewn Mr. C. what is no part of the Controversy and what is the very hinge upon which it turns desired him if he made any Reply to keep close to the just and necessary Rules of Disputation by distinguishing limiting or denying any of my Propositions that the matters in Controversy might be put to a fair and speedy issue But instead of that I meet with a flood of words rolling sometimes to this part and then to another part of my Answer and so back again without the steddy direction of Art or Reason There may for ought I know be some things of weight in Mr. Cary's Reply if a man could fee them for words but without scoff or vanity I must say of the rational part of it as the Poet said of the overdressed Woman Pars minima est ipsa Puella sui 't is the least part of it To follow him in his irregular and extravagant way of writing were to make my self guilty of the same folly I blame him for I am therefore necessitated to perstringe them and reduce all I have to say under three general Heads I. I shall clearly evince to the World That Mr. Cary hath not been able to discharge and free his own Theses from the horrid Consequents and gross Absurdities which I laid to their charge in my first Reply but instead thereof in this feeble and unsuccessful attempt to free the former he hath entangled himself in more and greater ones II. That he hath left my Arguments standing in their full strength against him III. And then I shall confirm and strengthen my three Positions which destroy the Cause he manages by some further Additions of Scripture Reason and Authorities which I hope will fully end this matter betwixt us But before I touch the Particulars two things must be premised for the Reader 's due information 1. That the Controversie about the true nature of the Sinai Laws both Moral and Ceremonial complexly considered is not that very Hinge upon which the Right of Believers Infants to Baptism depends that stands as it did before be the Sinai Laws what they will We do not derive the Right of Infants from any other Law or Covenant but that gracious Covenant which God made with Abraham which was in being 430 years before Moses his Law and was no way injured much less disannulled by the addition of it If Abraham's Covenant be the same Covenant of Grace we are now under the Right of Believers Infants to Baptism is secured whatever the Sinai Convenant prove to be Which I speak not out of the least jealousie that Mr. Cary hath or ever shall be able to prove it to be
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
Opinions or Judgments from the perfect Rule of the Divine Law And to this all men by nature are not only liable but inclinable Indeed man by Nature can do nothing else but Err Psal. 58. 3. he goeth astray as soon as born makes not one true step till renewed by Grace and many false ones after his Renovation The Life of the Holiest man is a Book with many Errata's but the whole Edition of a wicked man's Life is but one continued Error he that thinks he cannot Err manifestly Errs in so thinking The Pope's supposed and pretended Infallibility hath made him the great deceiver of the World A good man may Err but is willing to know his Error and will not obstinately maintain it when he once plainly discerns it Error and Heresy among other things differ in this Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy and therefore the Heretick is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sels-condemned his own Conscience condemns him whilst men labour in vain to convince him He doth not formally and in terms Condemn himself but he doth so equivalently whilst he continues to own and maintain Doctrines and Opinions which he finds himself unable to defend against the evidence of Truth Humane frailty may lead a man into the first but Devilish Pride fixes him in the last The word of God which is our rule must therefore be the only Test and Touchstone to try and discover Errors for Regula est index sui obliqui 'T is not enough to convince a man of Error that his Judgment differs from other mens you must bring it to the Word and try how it agrees or disagrees therewith else he that charges another with Error may be found in as great or greater an Error himself None are more disposed easily to receive and tenaciously to defend Errors than those who are the Antesignani Heads or Leaders of Erroneous Sects especially after they have fought in defence of bad Causes and deeply engaged their Reputation The following Discourse justly entitles it self A BLOW AT THE ROOT And though you will here find the Roots of many Errors laid bare and open which comparatively are of far different degrees of Danger and Malignity which I here mention together many of them springing from the same Root Yet I am far from censuring them alike nor would I have any that are concerned in lesser Errors be exasperated because their lesser Mistakes are mentioned with greater and more pernicious ones this Candor I not only intreat but justly challenge from my Reader And because there are many general and very useful Observations about Errors which will not so conveniently come under the Laws of that Method which governs the main part of this Discourse viz. the CAVSES and CVRES of Error I have therefore sorted them by themselves and premised them to the following Part in Twenty Observations next ensuing Twenty general Observations about the rise and increase of the Errors of the times First Observation TRuth is the proper Object the natural and pleasant food of the Understanding Iob 12. 11. Doth not the ear that is the understanding by the ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat Knowledg is the assimilation of the Understanding to the truths received by it Nothing is more natural to man than a desire to know Knowledg never cloys the Mind as food doth the natural Appetite but as the one increaseth the other is proportionably sharpened and provoked The Minds of all that are not wholly immers'd in Sensuality spend their Strength in the laborious search and pursuit of Truth Sometimes climbing up from the Effects to the Causes and then descending again from the Causes to the Effects and all to discover Truth Fervent Prayer sedulous Study fixed Meditations are the labours of inquisitive Souls after Truth All the Objections and Counter-arguments the mind meets in its way are but the pauses and hesitations of a bivious Soul not able to determine whether Truth lies upon this side or upon that Answerable to the sharpness of the Minds appetite is the fine edg of Pleasure and Delight it feels in the discovery and acquisition of Truth When it hath Rack'd and Tortured it self upon knotty Problems and at last discovered the Truth it sought for with what joy doth the Soul dilate it self and run as it were with open arms to clasp and welcome it The Understanding of man at first was perspicacious and clear all Truths lay obvious in their comely order and ravishing beauty before it God made man upright Eccl. 7. 29. this rectitude of his mind consisted in Light and Knowledg as appears by the prescribed method of his Recovery Col. 3. 10. Renewed in knowledg after the Image of him that created him Truth in the Mind or the Minds union with Truth being part of the Divine Image in man discovers to us the Sin and Mischief of Error which is a defacing so far as it prevails of the Image of God No sooner was man created but by the exercise of knowledg he soon discovered God's Image in him aâ—d by his Ambition after more lost what he had So that now there is an haziness or cloud spread over Truth by Ignorance and Error the sad effects of the Fall Second Observation Of Knowledg there are divers sorts and kinds some is Humane and some Divine some Speculative and some Practical some Ingrafted as the Notions of Morality and some Acquired by painful search and Study But of all knowledg none like that Divine and Supernatural knowledg of saving truths revealed by Christ in the Scriptures from whence ariseth the different degrees both of the Sinfulness and danger of Errors those Errors being always the worst which are committed against the most important Truths revealed in the Gospel These Truths lye infolded either in the plain words or evident and necessary consequences from the words of the Holy Scriptures Scripture-Consequences are of great use for the refutation of Errors it was by a Scripture-consequence that Christ successfully proved the Resurrection against the Sadduces Matth. 22. The Arrians and other Hereticks rejected consequential proofs and required the express words of Scripture only hoping that way to defend and secure their Errors against the arguments and assaults of the Orthodox Some think that reason and natural light is abundantly sufficient for the direction of life but certainly nothing is more necessary to us for that end than the written Word for though the remains of natural light have their place and use in directing us about natural and earthly things yet they are utterly insufficient to guide us in spiritual and heavenly things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of God c. Eph. 5. 8. Once were ye darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now are ye light in the Lord i. e. by a beam of heavenly light shining from the Spirit of Christ through the written Word into you minds or understandings 'T is the written Word which shines upon the path of our Duty
as this how earnestly doth the Ear of a distressed Conscience listen how greedily doth it suck in such pleasing words Are all Sins that are pardoned pardoned before they are committed and does the Covenant of Grace require neither Repentance nor Faith antecedently to the application of the Promises how groundless then are all my Fears and Troubles This like a Dose of Opium quiets or rather stupifies the raging Conscience for even an Error in Judgment till it be detected and discovered to be so quiets and comforts the heart as well as principles of Truth but whenever the fallacy shall be detected whether here or hereafter the anguish of Conscience must be increased or which is worse left desperate The Remedies To prevent and cure this mistake and error in the Soul by which it is fitted and prepared to catch any Erroneous Principle which is but plausible for its present relief and ease I shall desire my Reader seriously to ponder and consider the following Queries upon this Case Query I. Whether by the vote of the whole Rational World a good Trouble be not better than a false Peace Present ease is desirable but eternal safety is much more so and if these two cannot consist under the present Circumstances of the Soul Whether it be not better to endure for a time these painful pangs than feel more acute and eternal ones by quieting Conscience with false Remedies before the time 'T is bad to lie tossing a few days under a laborious Fever but far worse to have that Fever turned into a Lethargy or fatal Apoplexy Erroneous Principles may rid the Soul of its present pain and eternal hopes and safety together Acute pains are better than a senseless stupidity Though the present rage of Conscience be not a right and kindly conviction yet it may lead to it and terminate in faith and union with Christ at last if Satan do not this way practice upon it and quench it before its time Query II. Bethink your selves seriously Whether Troubles so quieted and laid asleep will not revive and turn again upon thee with a double force as soon as the vertue of the Drug I mean the Erroneous Principle hath spent it self The efficacy of Truth is eternal and will maintain the peace it gives for ever but all delusions must vanish and the Troubles which they damm'd up for a time break out with a greater force Satan employs two sorts of Witches Some to torment the Bodies of Men with grievous pain and anguish but then he hath his White-Witches at hand to relieve and ease them And have these poor Wretches any great cause think you to boast of the cure who are eased of their pains at the price of their Souls Much like unto this are the cures of inward Troubles by Erroneous Principles I lament the Case of blinded Papists who by Pilgrimages and Offerings to the Shrines of Titular Saints attempt the cure of a lesser Sin by committing a greater Is it because there is not a God in Israel who is able in due season to pacify Conscience with proper and durable Gospel-Remedies that we suffer our Troubles thus to precipitate us into the Snares of Satan for the sake of present ease Query III. Read the Scriptures and inquire whether God's People who have lain long under sharp inward Terrors have not at last found settlement and inward peace by those very Methods which the Principles that quiet you do utterly exclude If you will fetch your Peace from a groundless Notion that your Sins were pardoned and your Persons justified from all eternity and therefore you may apply boldly and confidently to your selves the choicest Promises and Privileges in the Gospel without any regard to Faith or Repentance wrought by the Spirit in your Souls I am sure holy David took another Course for the settlement of his Conscience Psal. 51. 6 7 8 9 10. And it hath been the constant practise of the Saints in all Ages to clear their Title to the Righteousness of Christ wrought without them by the Works of his Spirit wrought within them Sixth Cause The next Evil Temper in the Subject preparing and disposing it for Error is an easie CREDVLITY or sequacious humour in men rendring them apt to receive things upon trust from others without due and thorough examination of the grounds and Reasons of them themselves This is a disposition fitted to receive any impression Seducers please to make upon them they are said to deceive the hearts of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. credulous but well-meaning People that suspect no harm 'T is said Prov. 14. 15. the simple believeth every word Through this Sluce or Floodgate what a multitude of Errors in Popery have overflowed the People They are told they are not able to judge for themselves but must take the matters of their Salvation upon trust from their Spiritual Guides and so the silly People are easily seduced and made easily receptive of the grossest Absurdities their ignorant Leaders please to impose upon them And it were to be wished That those two Points viz. Ministrorum mut a officia populi caeca oâ—sequia the dumb Services of their Ministers and the blind Obedience of the People had stay'd within the Popish Confines But alas alas how many simple Protestants be there who may be said to carry their Brains in other mens Heads and like silly Sheep follow the next in the tract before them especially if their Leaders have but wit and art enough to hide their Errors under specious and plausible Pretences How many poisonous Drugs hath Satan put off under the gilded Titles of Antiquity Zeal for God higher attainments in godliness new Lights c. How natural is it for men to follow in the Tract and be tenacious of the Principles and Practises of their Progenitors Multitudes seem to hold their Opinions Iure Haereditario by an Hereditary Right as if their Faith descended to them the same way their Estates do The Emperour of Morocco told King Iohn's Ambassadour That he had lately read St. Paul's Epistles And truly said he were I now to chuse my Religion I would embrace Christianity before any Religion in the World but every man ought to dye in that Religion he received from his Ancestors Many honest well-meaning but weak Christians are also easily beguiled by specious pretences of new Light and higher attainments in Reformation This makes the weaker sorts of Christians pliable to many dangerous Errors cunningly insinuated under such taking Titles What are most of the Erroneous Opinions now vogued in the World but old Errors under new Names and Titles The Remedies The Remedies and Preventions in this Case are such as follow Remedy I. 'T is beneath a man to profess any Opinion to be his own whilst the grounds and reasons of it are in other mens keeping and wholly unknown to himself If a man may tell Gold after his Father then sure he may and ought to try and examine
and easie to be understood Remedy III. Vain Curiosity is a dangerous Snare of Satan By such trifles as these he devours our time eats up our strength and diverts our minds from the necessary and most important business of Religion Whilst we immerse our thoughts in these pleasing but barren Contemplations Heart-work Closet-work Family-work lie by neglected Whilst we are employed in garnishing the Dish with Flowers and curious Figures the cunning Cheat takes away the meat our Souls should subsist by Eighth Cause Pride and Arrogancy of HVMANE REASON is another Evil Disposition molding and preparing the mind for Errors When men are once conceited of the strength and perspicacity of their own carnal Reasons and Apprehensions nothing is more usual than for such men to run mad with Reason into a thousand Mistakes and Errors To this cause Ecclesiastical Historians ascribe the Errors that infest the Church Reason indeed is the highest natural excellency of man it exalts him above all Earthly Creatures and in its primitive perfection almost equalized him with Angels Heb. 2. 7. The Pleasures which result from its exercises and experiments transcend all the delights and pleasures of sense How common is it for men to dote upon their own intellectual beauty and glory in their victories over weaker Understandings And tho the reason of fallen Man is greatly wounded and weakened by Sin yet it conceits it self to be as strong and clear as ever and with Sampson when his Locks were shorn goes forth as before time being neither sensible of its own weakness or of the mysterious and unsearchable depths of Scripture Reason is our Arbiter and Guide by the institution and Law of Nature in civil and natural Affairs 't is the beam and standard at which we weigh them It is an home-born Judge and King in the Soul Faith comes in as a stranger to Nature and so it is dealt with even as an Intruder into Reason's Province just as the Sodomites dealt with Lot It refuseth to be an Underling to Faith Out of this Arrogancy of carnal Reason as from Pandorâ—â—'s Box swarms of Errors are flown abroad into the World By this means Socinianism first started and hath since propagated it self They look upon it as a ridiculous and unaccountable thing to reason that the Son should be co-equal and co-eternal with the Father that God should forgive sins freely and yet forgive none but upon full satisfaction That Christ should make that satisfaction by his Sufferings and yet be pars laesa the Party offended and so make satisfaction to himself with many more of the like stamp Yea Atheism as well as Socinianism are births from this Womb. 'T is proud and carnal Reason which quarrels at the Creation of the World and seems to triumph in its uncontrolable Mâ—xim Ex nihilo nihil fit out of nothing comes nothing It looks upon the Doctrine of the Resurrection with a deriding smile as a thing incredible It thinks it hard and harsh that God should command men to turn themselves to him and threaten them with damnation in case of refusal and yet at the same time man should not have in himself a sufficient power and a free will to do this without the supernatural and preventing Grace of God It thinks it a ridiculous thing for such a great and solemn Ordinance of God as Baptism is to pass upon such a Subject as an Infant of a week old which is not capable to understand the Ends and Uses of it Hence it is some over-heated Zealots lots have not stuck to say That we have as good warrant and reason to baptize Cats Dogs and Horses as we have to babtize Infants Oh the madness of Carnal Reason The Remedies To take down the Arrogance and prevent the mischief of Carnal Reasonings let us be convinced Remedy I. That it is the will of God that Reason in all Believers should resign to Faith and all Ratiocination submit to Revelation Reason is no better than an Usurper when it presumes to arbitrate matters belonging to Faith and Revelation Reason's proper place is to sit at the feet of Faith and instead of searching the secret grounds and reasons to adore and admire the great and unsearchable Mysteries of the Gospel None of God's works are unreasonable but many of them are above Reason It was as truly as ingenuously said by one Never doth Reason shew it self more reasonable than when it ceaseth to reason about things that are above Reason Where is the Wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this World hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this World For after that in the wisdom of God the World by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 20 21. 'T is not Reason but Faith that must save us The Wisdom of God in the Gospel is wisdom in a Mystery even hidden wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our glory 1 Cor. 2. 7. Such wisdom as the most Eagle-eyed Rationalists and famed Philosophers of the World understood not Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him But God hath revealed them to us by his spirit ibid. vers 9 10. Remedy II. Be convinced of the weakness and deep corruption of natural Reason and this will restrain its Arrogance and make it modest and wary A convinced and renewed Soul is conscious to it self of its own weakness and blindness and therefore dares not pry audaciously into the Arcana Coeli nor summon the great God to its bar It finds it self posed by the Mysteries of Nature and therefore concludes it self an incompetent Judge of the Mysteries of Faith The Arrogancy of Reason is the reigning Sin of the Unregenerate though it be a Disease with which the Regenerate themselves are infected When Conviction shall do its work upon the Soul the Plumes of spiritual pride quickly fall and it saith with Iob Once have I spoken but I will speak no more yea twice but I will proceed no further q. d. I have done Father I have done I have uttered things that I understood not Job 42. 3. Spiritual Illumination cures this Ambition Remedy III. Consider the manifold Mischiefs and Evils flowing from the pride of Reason It doth not only fill the World with Errors and Distractions but it also invades the Rights of Heaven and casts a vile reflection upon the Wisdom Sovereignty and Veracity of God It lifts up it self against his Wisdom not considering that the foolishness of God is wiser than men 1 Cor. 1. 25. It spurns at his glorious Sovereignty not considering that he giveth no account of his matters Job 33. 13. It questions his Veracity in saying with Nicodemus How can these things be Joh. 3. 9. Cause IX The last Evil Disposition I shall here take notice of in the Subject is rash
Conduct of the Spirit and in all your addresses to God pray that he would keep them chast and pure and not suffer Satan to commit a rape upon them Plead with God that part of Christ's Prayer Iohn 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth Rule IV. Live in the conscientious and constant practice of all those Truths and Duties God hath already manifested to you This will bring you under that blessed Promise of Christ Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Satan's greatest successes are amongst idle notional and vain Professors not humble serious and practical Christians Caus◠XI Having considered and dispatched the several internal Causes of Error found in the evil dispositions of the seduced as also the Impulsive Cause viz. Satan who fits suitable baits to all these sinful humours and evil tempers of the heart we come next to consider the Instrumental Cause employed by Satan in this work viz. the FALSE TEACHER whom Satan makes use of as his Seeds-man to disseminate and scatter erroneous Doctrines and Principles into the minds of Men Ploughed up and prepared by those evil tempers forementioned as a fit Soil to receive them The choice of Instruments is a principal part of Satan's policy Every one is not fit to be employed in such a Service as this All are not fit to be of the Council of War who yet take their places of Service in the Field A Rustick carried out of the Field on Board a Ship at Sea though he never learned his Compass nor saw a Ship before can by another's direction tug lustily at a Rope but he had need be an expert Artist that sits at the Helm and steers the course The worst Causes need the smoothest Orators and bad Ware a cunning Merchant to put it off Deep-parted Men are coveted by Satan to manage this design None like an eloquent Tertullus to confront a Paul Acts 24. 1. A subtil Eccius to enter the List in defence of the Popish Cause against the Learned and Zealous Reformers When the Duke of Buckingham undertook to Plead the bad Cause of Richard the third the Londoners said They never thought it had been possible for any Man to deliver so much bad Matter in such good Words and quaint Phrases The first Instrument chosen by Satan to deceive Man was the Serpent because that Creature was more subtil than any Beast of the Field There is not a Man of eminent parts but Satan courts and sollicites him for this service St. Austin told an ingenious but unsanctified Scholar Cupit abs te ornari Diabolus The Devil covets thy Parts to adorn his Cause He surveys the World and where-ever he finds more than ordinary strength of Reason pregnancy of Wit depth of Learning and elegancy of Language that is the Man he looks for These are the Men that can almost indiscernably sprinkle their Errors among many precious Truths and wrap up their poisonous Drugs in Leaf-gold or Sugar Maresius notes of Crellius and his Accomplices That by the power of their Eloquence and sophistry of their Arguments they were able artificially to cloath horrible Blasphemies to allure the simple And like the Hyaena they can counterfeit the voices of the Shepherds to deceive and destroy the Sheep There is saith a late Worthy an erudita nequitia a Learned kind of wickedness a subtil art of deceiving the minds of others Upon which account the Spirit of God sometimes compares them 2 Pet. 2. 3. to cunning and cheating Tradesmen who have the very art to set a gloss upon their bad Wares with fine words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they buy and sell the people with their ensnaring and feigned words And sometimes he compares them to cunning Gamesters that have the art and sleight of hand to Cog the Die to deceive the unskilful and win their Game Eph. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And sometimes the Spirit of God compares them to Witches themselves Gal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you How many strange feats have been done upon the bodies of Men and Women by Witchcraft But far more and stranger upon the Souls of Men by the Magick of Error Iannes and Iambres performed wonderful things in the sight of Pharoah by which they deceived and hardened him and unto these false Teachers are compared Such a Man was Elymas the Sorcerer who laboured to seduce the Deputy Sergius Paulus though a prudent Man Acts 13. 7 8 9 10. Oh full of all subtilty and all mischief thou Child of the Devil saith Paul unto him The Art of seduduction from the ways of truth and holiness discovers a Man to be both the Child and Scholar of the Devil But as the wise and painful Ministers of Christ who turn many to Righteousness shall have double Glory in Heaven so these subtil and most active Agents for the Devil who turn many from the ways of Righteousness will have a double portion of misery in Hell The Remedies The proper Remedies in this Case are principally two Remedy I. Pray fervently and labour diligently in the use of all God's appointed means to get more solidity of Judgment and strength of Grace to establish you in the Truth and secure your Souls against the cunning craftiness of Men that lye in to deceive 'T is the ignorance and weakness of the people which makes the Factors for Error so successful as they are Consult the Scriptures and you shall find these cunning Merchants drive the quickest and gainfullest trade among the weak and injudicious So speaks the Apostle With good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 harmless weak easie Souls who have a desire to do well but want wisdom to discern the subtilties of them that mean ill who are void both of fraud in themselves and suspition of others Oh! what success have the Deceivers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fair words and sugared speeches sweet and taking expressions among such innocent ones And who are they among whom Satan's cunning Gamesters commonly win the Game and sweep the Stakes but weak Christians credulous Souls whom for that reason the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children The word properly signifies an an Infant when 't is referred to the Age but unskilful and unlearned when referred as it is here to the Mind So again 2 Pet. 2. 14. They that is the False Teachers there spoken of beguile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unstable Souls Souls that are not confirmed and grounded in the Principles of Religion Whence by the way take notice of the unspeakable advantage and necessity of being well Catechized in our youth the more judicious the more secure Remedy II. Labour to acquaint your selves with the sleights and artifices Satan's Factors and Instruments generally make use of to seduce and draw Men from the Truth
it is to be kept sound in judgment stedfast and unmovable in the Truths and Ways of Christ. A sound and stedfast Christian is a blessing in his Generation and a glory to his Profession 'T was an high Encomium of Athanasius Sedem maluit mutare quam syllabam He would rather lose his Seat than a syllable of God's Truth Soundness of Judgment must needs be a choice Blessing because the understanding is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that leading-faculty which directs the Will and Conscience of Man and they his whole Life and Practice How often and how earnestly doth Christ pray for his people that they may be kept in the Truth 'T is true Orthodoxy in its self is not sufficient to any man's Salvation but the conjunction of an Orthodox head with an honest sincere heart does always constitute an excellent Christian Phil. 1. 10. Happy is the man that hath an head so hearted and an heart so headed Consectary IV. By this discourse we may further discover one great and special cause and reason of the lamentable decay of the spirit and power of Religion amongst the Professors of the present Age. 'T is a complaint more just than common That we do all fade as a leaf And what may be the Cause Nothing more probable than the wasting of our time and spirits in vain janglings and fruitless controversies which the Apostle tells us Heb. 13. 9. have not profited i. e. they have greatly damnified and injured them that have been occupied therein Many Controversies of these times grow up about Religion as Suckers from the Root and Limbs of a Fruit-tree which spend the vital Sap that should make it fruitful 'T is a great and sad Observation made upon the state of England by some judicious persons That after the greatest increase of Religion both intensively in the power of it and extensively in the number of Converts what a remarkable decay it suffered both ways when about the year Forty-four Controversies and Disputations grew fervent among Professors Since that time our strength and glory have very much abated Consectary V. From this Discourse we may also gather the true Grounds and Reasons of those frequent Persecutions which God lets in upon his Churches and People These rank Weeds call for Snowy and Frosty Weather to subdue and kill them I know the enemies of God's People aim at something else They strike at Profession yea at Religion it self and according to their wicked intention without timely Repentance will their reward be But whatever the intention of the Agents be the issues of Persecution are upon this account greatly beneficial to the Church the Wisdom of God makes them excellently useful both to prevent and cure the mischiefs and dangers of Errors If Enemies were not Friends and Brethren would be injurious to each other Persecution if it kills not yet at least it gives check to the rise and growth of Errors And if it do not perfectly redintigrate and unite the hearts of Christians yet to be sure it cools and allays their sinful heats and that two ways 1. By cutting out for them far better and more necessary work Now instead of racking their Brains about unnecessary Controversies they find it high time to be searching their hearts and examining the foundations of their Faith and Hope with respect to the other World 2. Moreover such times and straights discover the Sincerity Zeal and Constancy of them we were jealous of or prejudiced against before because they followed not us Consectary VI. Lastly Let us learn hence both the Duty and Necessity of Charity and mutual Forbearance We have all our mistakes and errors one way or other and therefore must maintain mutual Charity under dissents in judgment I do not say but an erring Brother must be reduced if possible and that by sharp rebukes too if gentler essays be ineffectual Tit. 1. 13. and the wounds of a Friend have more faithful love in them than the kisses of an Enemy And if God make us instrumental by that or any other method to recover a Brother from the error of his way he will have great cause both to bless God and thank the Instrument who thereby saves a Soul from death and hides a multitude of sins Iam. 5. 20. 'T is our Duty if we meet an Enemy's Ox or Ass going astray to bring him back again Exod. 23. 4. much more the Soul of a Friend Indeed we must not make those Errors that are none nor stretch every innocent expression to that purpose nor yet be too hasty in medling with contention till we cannot be both silent and innocent and then whatever the expence be Truth will repay it AN APPENDIX Containing a Full and Modest Reply to Mr. Philip Cary's Rejoinder to my Vindiciae Legis Foederis Manifesting the badness of his Cause in the feebleness and impertinency of his Defence And adding farther light and strength to the Arguments formerly produced in defence of God's gracious Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism grounded thereupon SIR NEXT to the not deserving a Reproof is the due reception and improvement of it You deserve a sharper reprehension for your timerity and obstinacy than I am willing to give you from the Press Yet in love to the Truth and your own Soul reprove you I must and I hope God will enable me to be both mild in the manner and convincingly clear in the matter and cause thereof 'T is better to lose the Smiles than the Souls of men I dare not neglect the duty of a Friend for fear of incurring the suspicion of an Enemy Several Learned and Eminent Divines who have seen what hath publickly passed betwixt you and me have returned me their thanks and think you ought to thank me too for the pains I have taken to set you right hoping you will evidence your self-denial and repentance by an ingenuous retractation of your Errors But how will you deceive their Expectations and unbecome the Character given you by your Friends when they shall find the true measure both of your ability and humility drawn by your own Pen in the following Rejoinder I have throughly considered your Reply in the Manuscript you sent me which I hear is now in the Press and in the following Sheets have given a full and I think a final Answer to whatsoever is material therein And it so falling out that my Discourse of Errors was just going under the Press whilst your Rejoinder was there also I thought it not convenient to delay my Reply any longer but to have my Antidote in as great readiness as might be to meet it One Inconvenience I easily foresee that the Pages of your Manuscript which I follow may not throughout exactly answer to the Print But every intelligent Reader will easily discern and rectify That if my Bookseller save him not that trouble as I have desired him to do As to the Controversy about the
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
of the Promise in our hearts yea the effects of those absolute Promises of the first Grace Ezek. 36. Ier. 32. Or else notwithstanding Christ's performance of Redemption on his part we can neither be justified nor saved For I don't think you intend to lay the Conditions of Repentance or believing upon Christ who in the New Covenant hath laid them upon us tho in the same Covenant he graciously undertakes to work them in us and yet your words sound in that wild Antinomian Note But I suppose you take my Notion to be as self-repugnant as your own when I say Faith is an antecedent Condition to Justification because I also say this Grace is also supernaturally wrought in us and is not of our selves This staggers you and is the very stone you stumble at all along this Controversie for in your sense p. 34. every Condition is meritorious by condignity or congruity First What do I say more in all this than what those Worthies before-mentioned do expresly affirm Doth not Dr. Owen the man whom you deservedly value make Conditions both in Adam's Covenant and the New with this difference that Adam's Covenant required them but the New Covenant effects them in all the Foederates Sir We take it for no contradiction to assert That the planting of the Principle and the assisting and exciting of the Acts of Faith are the proper Works of the Spirit of God and are also contained in the absolute Promises of the New Covenant Ezek. 36. 26 27. Ier. 32. 39 40. And yet Faith notwithstanding this is truly and properly our work and duty and that upon our believing or not believing we have or have not an actual interest in Christ Righteousness and Life For though the Author of Faith be the Spirit of God yet believing is properly our Act and an Act required of us by a plain Command 1 Iohn 3. 23. This is the Command of God That ye believe And if its being wrought in God's strength makes it cease to be our Work I would fain know what Exposition you would give of that place Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your own Salvation c. for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do And as this Faith is truly and properly our work though wrought in God's strength for it is not God but we that do believe so it is wrought in us by him by your own confession before the application of pardoning Mercy which is consequent in order of nature thereunto and therefore hath the true nature of an antecedent Condition which is that I contend for and did you but understand your own words you would not contend against Oh but say you p. 34. every Condition is meritorious either by way of congruity or condignity This is your ignorance of the nature of a Condition with which I find you as unacquainted as with the nature of a Covenant A Condition whilst unperformed only suspends the act of the Law or Testament it being the will of the Testator Legislator or Donor that his Law or Testament should act or effect when the Condition is performed and not before but it is not essential to a Condition to be a meritorious or impulsive cause moving him to bestow the benefit for the sake thereof A man freely gives another out of his love and bounty such an Estate or Sum of Money which he shall enjoy if he live to such a year or day and not before is this quando dies veniet this appointed time the meritorious or impulsive cause of the gift surely no man will say it but that it is a causa sine quâ non or a Condition suspending the enjoyment of the gift no man will deny that knows what the nature of a Condition is An act meritorious by way of Congruity is that to which a reward is not due out of strict justice but out of decency or some kind of meetness Merit of condignity is a voluntary action for which a reward is due to a man out of justice and cannot be denied him without injustice Our Faith is truly the Condition of the New Covenant and yet we detest the meritoriousness of it in either sense But you object my words to me in my Method of Grace where I assert the impossibility of believing without the efficacy of supernatural Grace p. 102 103. Sir I own the words you quote and am bold to challenge the most envious Eye that shall read those lines to shew me the least repugnancy betwixt what I said there and what I have said in my Vindiciae Legis c. p. 9. of the Prolegomena and p. 61. of that Book You shew your good-will to make an advantagious thrust but your Weapon is too short and can draw no blood But leaving these weak and impertinent Cavils let us come to your Solution of my Arguments p. 98. by which I proved the Conditionality of the New Covenant My first Argument was this If we cannot be justified or saved till we believe and are justified when we believe Then Faith is the Condition on which those consequent Benefits are suspended c. The sum of your Answer without denying distinguishing or limiting one Proposition is this That here Faith is properly put into the room of perfect Obedience and is to do what perfect Obedience was to do under the Law whereas say you Faith is only appointed as an Instrument to receive and apply the Righteousness of Christ which is the alone matter of our Justification before God and Faith it self is not our Righteousness as it would be if it were a Condition p. 105 106. Not to note the weakness and impertinence of this Answer I shall only take notice of what you here allow and grant That Faith is appointed as an Instrument to receive and apply the Righteousness of Christ which is the alone matter of our Iustification before God Whence I infer three Conclusions First That we cannot be justified before God till we believe except you can prove that the unaccepted and unapplied Righteousness of Christ doth actually justify our persons before God Secondly That the justification of our persons before God is and must be suspended as by a non-performed Condition untill we actually believe Which two Conclusions yield up your Cause to my Argument which you here seem to oppose Thirdly That hereby you perfectly renounce and destroy your Antinomian Fancy before-mentioned That if Christ have fulfilled the Law and purchased Heaven for men nothing can remain but to declare this to them c. for it seems by this they must receive and apply Christ's Righteousness by Faith or they cannot be justified you say not declaratively in their own Consciences but before God And thus instead of answering you have confirmed and yielded my first Argument and only oppose your own Mistakes not the sense or force of my Arguments in all that you say to it or the Scriptures
or commit murther God sees no sin in him with much more of the same Bran which I will not transcribe But others there be whose Judgments are unhappily tainted and leavened with these loose Doctrines yet being in the main godly persons they dare not take liberty to sin or live in the neglect of known duties though their Principles too much incline that way But though they dare not others will who imbibe corrupt notions from them and the renowned Piety of the Authors will be no antidote against the danger but make the Poison operate the more powerfully by receiving it in such a vehicle Now it is highly probable such men as these might be charmed into such dangerous Opinions upon such accounts as these 1. 'T is like some of them might have felt in themselves the anguish of a perplexed Conscience under sin and not being able to live with these terrors of the Law and dismal fears of Conscience might too hastily snatch at those Doctrines which promise them relief and ease as I noted before in the 5th Cause of my Treatise of Errors And that this is not a guess at random will appear from the very Title-page of Mr. Saltmarsh's marsh's Book of Free-grace where as an inducement to the Reader to swallow his Antinomian Doctrine he shews him this curious Bait. It is saith he an experiment of Iesus Christ upon one who hath been in the bondage of a troubled Conscience at times for the space of about twelve years till now upon a clearer discovery of Iesus Christ in the Gospel c. 2. Others have been induced to espouse these Opinions from the excess of their Zeal against the Errors of the Papists who have notoriously corrupted the Doctrine of Iustification by Free-grace decried imputed and exalted inberent Righteousness above it The Papists have designedly and industriously sealed up the Scriptures from the People lest they should there discover those sovereign and effectual Remedies which God hath provided for their distressed Consciences in the riches of his own Grace and the meritorious Death of Christ and so all their Masses Pilgrimages Auricular Confessions with all their dear Indulgences should lie upon their hands as stale and cheap Commodities Oh said Stephen Gardiner let not this gap of Free-grce be opâ—ned to the People But as soon as the Light of Reformation had discovered the Free-grace of God to Sinners which is indeed the only effectual remedy of distressed Consciences and by the same Light the horrid Cheats of the Man of Sin were discovered all good men who were enlightened by the Reformation justly and deeply abhorred Popery as the Enemy of the Grace of God and true Peace of Conscience and fixed themselves upon the sound and comfortable Doctrines of Justification by Faith through the alone Righteousness of Christ. Mean while thankfully acknowledging that they which believe ought also to maintain good Works But others there were transported by an indiscreet Zeal who have almost bended the Grace of God as far too much the other way and have both spoken and written many things very unbecoming the Grace of God and tending to looseness and neglect of Duty 3. 'T is manifest that others of them have been ingulphed and suckt into those dangerous Quick-sands of Antinomian Errors by separating the Spirit from the written Word If once a man pretend the Spirit without the Scriptures to be his Rule whither will not his own deluding Fancies carry him under a vain and sinful pretence of the Spirit In the Year 1528. when Helsar Traier and Seekler were confuted by Hallerus and their Errors about Oaths Magistrates and Paedo-baptism were detected by him and by Colvius at Bern that which they had to say for themselves was That the Spirit taught them otherwise than the letter of the Scriptures speaks So dangerous it is to separate what God hath conjoined and father our own Fancies upon the Holy Spirit 4. And it is not unlike but a comparative weakness and injudiciousness of mind meeting with a fervent zeal for Christ and his Glory may induce others to espouse such taking and plausible tho pernicious Doctrines They are not aware of the dangerous Consequences of the Opinions they embrace and what looseness may be occasioned by them I speak not of Occasions taken but given by such Opinions and Expressions A good Man will draw excellent Inferences of duty from the very same Doctrine Instance that of the shortness of time from whence the Apostle infers abstinence strictness and diligence 1 Cor. 7. 29. but the Epicure infers all manner of dissolute and licentious practices Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15 22. The best Doctrines are this way liable to abuse But let all good men beware of such Opinions and Expressions as give an handle to wicked men to abuse the Grace of God which haply the Author himself dare not do and may strongly hope others may not do but if the Principle will yield it 't is in vain to think corrupt Nature will not catch at it and make a vile use and dangerous improvement of it For example If such a Principle as this be asserted for a truth before the World That men need not fear that any or all the Sins they commit shall do them any hurt let the Author or any man in the World warn and caution Readers as the Antinomian Author of that Expression hath done not to abuse this Doctrine 't is to no purpose The Doctrine it self is full of dangerous Consequents and wicked men have the best skill to infer and draw them forth to cherish and countenance their Lusts that which the Author might design for the relief of the distressed quickly turns it self into poison in the bowels of the wicked nor can we excuse it by saying any Gospel-truth may be thus abused for this is none of that number but a Principle that gives offence to the godly and encouragement to the ungodly And so much as to the rise and occasion of Antinomian Errors II. In the next place let us view some of the chief Doctrines commonly called Antinomian amongst which there will be found a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the radical and most prolifique Error from which most of the rest are spawned and procreated Error I. I shall begin with the dangerous mistake of the Antinomians in the Doctrine of Iustification The Article of Justification is deservedly stiled by our Divines Articulus stantis vel cadentis Religionis the very Pillar of the Christian Religion In two things however I must do the Antinomians right 1. In acknowledging that though their Errors about Justification be great and dangerous yet they are not so much about the substance as about the mode of a Sinner's Justification An Error far inferior to the Error of the Papists who depress the Righteousness of Christ and exalt their own inherent Righteousness in the business of Justification â— I am bound in charity to believe that some
John verse 8. Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought With multitude of other Scriptures recommending holy jealousy serious self-trial and examination of our Faith as the unquestionable duties of the people of God But if we ought to question our Faith no more than we ought to question Christ away then with all self-examination and diligence to make our Calling and Election sure for where there is no doubt nor danger there 's no place nor room for examination or further endeavours to make it surer than it is How do you like this Doctrine Christians How many be there among you that find no more cause to question your own faith or interest in Christ than you do to question whether there be a Christ or whether he shed his Blood for the remission of any Man's sins Reason II. This is a very dangerous Error and it is the more dangerous because it leaves no way to recover a presumptuous Sinner out of his dangerous mistakes but confirms and fixes him in them to the great hazard of his eternal ruin It cuts off all means of conviction or better information and Nails them fast to the carnal state in which they are According to this Doctrine 't is impossible for a Man to think himself something when he is nothing or to be guilty of such a Paralogism and cheat put by himself upon his own Soul Iam. 1. 22. this in effect bids a Man keep on right or wrong he is sure enough of Heaven if he be but strongly persuaded that Christ died for him and he shall come thither at last Certainly this was not the Counsel Christ gave to the self-deceived Laodiceans Rev. 3. 17 18. but instead of dissuading them from self-jealously and suspition of their condition whether their Faith and State were safe or not he rather counsels them to buy Eye-salve that is to labour after better information of the true state and condition they were in and not cast away their Souls by false persuasions and vain confidences Reason III. This Doctrine cannot be true because it supposes every persuasion or strong conceit of a Man 's own heart to be as infallibly sure and certain as the very fundamental Doctrine of Christianity No truth in the World can be surer than this That Jesus Christ died for Sinners This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepâ—ation 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a Foundation stone a tried precious Corner-stone a sure foundation lay'd by God himself Isa. 28. 16. and shall the strong conceits and confidences of Men's hearts vye and compare in point of certainty with it As well may probable and meerly conjectural Propositions compare with Axioms that are self-evident or demonstrative Arguments that leave no doubts behind them Know we not that the heart is deceitful above all things the most notorious cheat and impostor in the World Ier. 17. 9 Does it not deceive all the formal hypocrites in the World in this very point And shall every strong conceit and presumptuous confidence begotten by Satan upon a deceitful heart and nursed up by self-love pass without any examination or suspition for as infallible and assured a truth as that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners The Lord sweep that Doctrine out of the World by Reformation which is like to sweep so many Thousand Souls into Hell by a remediless Self-deception Error IV. The fourth Antinomian Error before mentioned was this That Believers are not bound to confess their sins or pray for the pardon of them because their sins were pardoned before they were committed and pardoned sin is no sin Refutation If this be true Doctrine then it will justify and make good such Conclusions and Inferences as these which necessarily flow from it viz. 1. That there is no Sin in Believers 2. Or if there be the evil is very inconsiderable Or 3. Whatever evil is in it it is not the will of God that they should â—ither confess it mourn over it or pray for the remission of it Whatever he requires of others yet they need take no notice of it so as to afflict their hearts for it God hath exempted them from such concernments There 's nothing but joy to a Believer saith Mr. Eaton But neither of these conclusions are either true or tolerable therefore neither is the principle so which yields them 1. It is not true or tolerable to affirm that there is no Sin in a Believer 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There 's not a just Man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. In many things we offend all James 3. 2. The Scriptures plainly affirm it and the universal experience of all the Saints sadly confirms it 'T is true the Blood of Christ hath taken away the guilt of Sin so that it shall not condemn Believers and the spirit of Sanctification hath taken away the dominion of Sin so that it doth not reign over Believers but nothing except Glorification utterly destroys the existence of Sin in Believers The acts of sin are our acts and not Christ's and the stain and pollution of those sinful acts are the burthens and infelicities of Believers even in their justified State Dr. Crisp indeed p. 270 271. calls that objection I suppose he means distinction betwixt the guilt of Sin and Sin it self a simple objection and tells us the very Sin it self as well as the guilt of it passed off from us and was lay'd upon Christ So that speaking of the Sins of Blasphemy Murther Theft Adultery Lying c. From that time saith he that they were lay'd upon Christ thou ceasest to be a transgressor If thou hast part in the Lord Christ all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. So that now thou are not an Idolater or Persecutor a Thief a Murtherer and an Adulterer thou art not a sinful person Christ is made that very sinfulness before God c. Such expressions justly offend and grieve the hearts of Christians and expose Christianity to scorn and contempt Was it not enough that the guilt of our sin was lay'd on him but we must imagine also that the thing it self Sin with all the deformity and pollution should be essentially transferred from us to Christ No no. After we are justified sin dwelleth in us Rom. 7. 17. warreth in us and brings us into captivity ver 23. Burthens and oppresseth our very Souls v. 24. Methinks I need not stand to prove what I should think no sound experienced Christian dares to deny that there is much sin still remaining in the persons of the justified He that dares to deny it hath little acquaintance with the nature of Sin and of his own Heart 2. It is neither true nor tolerable to say there is no considerable evil in the sins of Believers deserving a mournful confession or petition for