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

a pure Adam's Covenant of Works but to prevent Mistakes in the Reader 2. It must be heedfully observed also that how free gracious and absolute soever the New Covenant be for God forbid that I should go about to eclipse the glory of Free-grace on which my Soul depends for Salvation yet that will never prove Abraham's Covenant to be an abolished Adam's Covenant of Works unless two things more be proved which I never expect to see viz. First That Abraham and his believing Posterity were bound by the very nature and act of Circumcision to keep the whole Law in their own persons in order to their Justification and Salvation as perfectly and perpetually and under the same penalty for the least failure as Adam was to keep the Law in Paradise Secondly It must be further proved That Abraham and all his believing Off-spring who stood with him under that Covenant whereof Circumcision was the initiating Sign were all saved in a different way from that in which Believers are now saved under the Gospel for so it must be if the addition of Circumcision made it unto them an Adam's Covenant of Works But this would be a direct contradiction to the words of the Apostle speaking of them who were under the Covenant of Circumcision Acts 15. 11. But we believe that through the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they If he say they stood indeed under that Covenant as a pure Covenant of Works but were saved by another Covenant and so for many Ages the Church of God stood absolutely under the Covenant of Works and at the same time under the pure Covenant of Grace the one altogether absolute and free the other wholly conditional and though these two be in their own natures inconsistent and destructive of each other yet so it was that all the Saints for many Ages were absolutely under the one and yet purely under the other shall I be then censured for saying he speaks pure contradiction Possibly my Reader will be tempted to think I abuse him and that no man of common sense can be guilty of such an horrid Absurdity I must whatever respect I have for Mr. C. once more tell him before the World that this is not only his own Doctrine but that very Doctrine upon which he hath adventured the whole Cause and Controversie of Infants Baptism which I therefore say is hereby become a desperate Cause And this brings me to my first general Head viz. I. First That Mr. Cary hath not been able to free his Thesis from this borrid absurdity but by strugling to do it hath according to the nature of Errors entangled himself in more and greater ones Mr. Cary in p. 174 175. of his Solemn Call was by me reduced to this Absurdity which he there owns in express words That Moses and the whole body of the People of Israel were absolutely under without the exception of any the severest penalties of a dreadful Curse and that the Sinai Covenant could be no other than a Covenant of Works a ministration of death and condemnation and yet at the same time both Moses and all the Elect were under a pure Covenant of Gospel-grace And if these were two contrary Covenants in themselves and just opposite the one to the other as indeed they were we have nothing to say but with the Apostle O the depth c. This Reader is the Position which must be made good by Mr. Cary or his Cause is lost Deformed Issues do not look as if they had beautiful Truth for their Mother No false or absurd Conclusion can regularly follow from true Premisses But hence naturally and necessarily follows this Absurdity I. That Abraham Moses and all the Believers under the Old Testament by standing absolutely under Adam's Covenant of Works as a ministration of death and condemnation and at the same time purely under the Covenant of Grace as Mr. C. affirms they did must necessarily during their lives hang mid-way betwixt Life and Death Justification and Condemnation and after death midway betwixt Heaven and Hell During life they could neither be justified nor condemned Justified they could not be for Justification is the Soul 's passing from death to life 1 Iohn 3. 14. Iohn 5. 24. Upon a man's justification his Covenant and State are changed but the Covenant and State of no man can be so changed as long as he remains absolutely under the severest Penalties and condemnation of the Law as Mr. C. affirms they did Again Condemned they could not be seeing all that are under the pure Covenant of Grace as he saith they were at the same time are certainly in Christ and to such there is no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. nor ever shall be Ioh. 5. 24. He that believeth shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life What remains then but that during life they could neither be perfectly justified nor perfectly condemned and yet being absolutely under the severest Penalties of Adam's Covenant they were perfectly condemned and again being under the pure Covenant of Grace they must be perfectly justified And then after death they must neither go to Heaven nor Hell but either be annihilated or stick mid-way in Limbo Patrum as the Papists fancy betwixt both No condemned Person goes to Heaven nor any justified Person to Hell His Position therefore which necessarily infers this gross Absurdity is justly renounced and detested by Learned and Orthodox Divines The Learned and Acute Turrettine the late famous Professor of Divinity at Geneva proving that the Sinai Law could not be a pure Covenant of Works brings this very Medium to prove it as a known truth allowed by all men The Israelites saith he with whom God covenanted were already under Abraham's Covenant which was a Covenant of Grace and were saved in Christ by it therefore they could not be under the Legal Covenant Nemo enim simul potest duo●us foederibus totâ specie distinctis subesse because no man can be under two Covenants specifically different at the same time as these two are That Great and Renowned Divine Mr. William Strong gives four irrefragable Arguments to prove that no man can stand under both these Covenants at the same time which in co-ordination actually destroy and make void each other If the First Covenant stand there is no place for the Second and if the Second stand the first is made void And this saith he will fully appear if we consider the direct contrariety in the terms of those two Covenants For 1. the Righteousness of the first Covenant is in our selves but the Righteousness of the Second is the Righteousness of another 1 Ioh. 5. 11. 12. 2. In the Covenant of Works acceptation is first of the Works and afterwards of the Person Gen. 4. 7. but in the Covenant of Grace the acceptation is first of the Person and then of the Work Gen. 4. 4. 3. The First Covenant was a Covenant

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 ●aith to Abraham and I desired you before to prove that a Seal of the Covenant of Works i● 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

account to confute and destroy this Fancy and much more may be rationally urged against it Let the following Particulars be weighed in the Balance of Reason 1. Can we rationally suppose that Pardon and Acceptance can be affirmed or predicated of that which is not Reason tells us Non entis nulla sunt accidentia That which is not can neither be condemned nor justified But before the Creation or before a Man's particular Conception he was not and therefore could not in his own Person be the Subject of Justification Where there is no Law there is no Sin Where there is no Sin there is no Punishment Where there is neither Sin nor Punishment there can be no Guilt for Guilt is an Obligation to Punishment And where there 's neither Law nor Sin nor Obligation to Punishment there can be no Justification He that is not capable of a Charge is not capable of a Discharge What remains then but that either the Elect must exist from Eternity or be justified in time 'T is true future Beings may be considered as in the purpose and decree of God from Eternity or as in the Intention of Christ who died intentionally for the Sins of the Elect and rose again for their Justification But neither the Decree of God nor the Death of Christ takes place upon any Man for his actual Justification until he personally exist For the Object of Justification is a Sinner actually ungodly Rom. 4. 5. but so no Man is or can be from Eternity In Election men are considered without respect to Good or Evil done by them Rom. 9. 11. not so in actual Justification 2. In Justification there is a Change made upon the state of the Person Rom. 5. 8 9. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. By Justification men pass from a state of Death to a state of Life Ioh. 5. 24. But the Decree or Purpose of God in it self makes no such actual change upon the state of any person It hath indeed the nature of an Universal Cause but an Universal Cause produceth nothing without particulars If our state be changed it is not by an immanent act of God Hence no such thing doth transire A mere velle non punire or intention to justify us in due time and order makes no change on our state till that time come and the particular Causes have wrought A Prince may have a purpose or intention to pardon a Law-condemned Traitor and free him from that Condemnation in due time but whilst the Law that condemned him stands in its full force and power against him he is not justified or acquitted notwithstanding that gracious intention but stands still condemned So is it with us till by Faith we are implanted into Christ. 'T is true Christ is a surety for all his and hath satisfied the debt He is a common Head to all his as Adam was to all his Children Rom. 5. 19. But as the Sin of Adam condemns none but those that are in him so the Righteousness of Christ actually justifies none but those that are in him and none are actually in him but Believers Therefore till we believe no actual change passeth or can pass upon our state So that this Hypothesis is contrary to Reason As this Opinion is Irrational so it is Unscriptural For 1. The Scripture frequently speaks of Remission or Justification as a future act and therefore not from Eternity Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him c. And Gal. 3. 8. The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham The Gospel was preached many years before the Gentiles were justified but if they were justified from Eternity how was the Gospel preached before their Justification 2. The Scripture leaves all Unbelievers without distinction under condemnation and wrath The Curse of the Law lies upon them till they believe Iohn 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Eph. 2. 3 12 13. The very Elect themselves were by nature the Children of wrath even as others They were at that time or during that state of nature which takes in all that whole space betwixt their conception and conversion without Christ without hope without God in the World But if this Opinion be true that the Elect were justified from Eternity or from the time of Christ's death then it cannot be true that the Elect by nature are Children of Wrath without Christ without Hope without God in the World except these two may consist together which is absolutely impossible that Children of Wrath without God Christ or Hope are actually discharged from their Sins and Dangers by a free and gracious act of Justification But doth not the Scripture say Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect If none can charge the Elect then God hath discharged them God hath not actually discharged them as they are Elect but as they are justified Elect for so runs that Text and clears it self in the very next words It is God that justifieth When God hath actually justified an Elect Person none can charge him 3. 'T is cross to the Scripture-order of Justification which places it not only after Christ's death in the place last cited Rom. 8. 33. but also after our actual vocation as is plain vers 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Is it absurd to place Vocation before Predestination or Glorification before Justification sure then it must be absurd also to place Justification before Vocation the one as well as the other confounds and breaks the Scripture-order You may as well say men shall be glorified that were never justified as say they may be justified before they believed or existed So that you see the notion of Justification from Eternity or before our actual existence and effectual Vocation is a notion as repugnant to sacred Scripture as it is to sound Reason And as it is found repugnant to Reason and Scripture so it is highly injurious to Jesus Christ and the Souls of Men. 1. It greatly injures the Lord Jesus Christ and robs him of the glory of being our Saviour For if the Elect be justified from Eternity Christ cannot be the Saviour of the Elect as most assuredly he is for if Christ save them he must save them as persons subject to perishing either de facto or de jure But if the Elect were justified from Eternity they could in neither respect be subject to perishing for he that was eternally justified was never condemned nor capable of condemnation and he that never was or could be condemned could never be subject to perishing and he that never was nor could be subject

hateth Errors Rev. 2. 6. the God of Order and hates Confusions and Schisms in his Church 1 Cor. 14. 33. is yet pleased to permit Errors and Heresies to arise without whose permission they could never spring And this he doth for the tryal of his Peoples Faith and Constancy and for a spiritual punishment upon some men for the abuse of his known Truths and by the permission of these Evils he advanceth his own Glory and the good of his Church and People Augustine answers that Question Why doth not God since he hates Errors sweep them out of the World Because saith he it is an act of greater power to bring good out of evil than not to suffer Evils to be at all Satan's Design in Errors is to cloud and darken God's Name and precious Truths to destroy the Beauty Strength and Order of the Church But God's ends in permitting and sending Errors are 1. to plague and punish men for their abuse of Light 2 Thess. 2. 11. For this cause God shall send them strong Delusions c. 2. To prove and try the Sincerity and Constancy of our hearts Deut. 13. 1 3. I Cor. 11. 19. And lastly By these things the Saints are awakened to a more diligent search of the Scriptures which are the more critically read and examined upon the tryal of Spirits and Doctrines by them 1 Ioh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits And Rev. 2. 2. Thou hast tried them that say they are Apostles c. The Prevention Though Heresies and Errors must for the Reasons assigned break forth into the World and God will turn them eventually into his own glory and the benefit of his Church yet it is a dreadful judgment to be delivered over to a spirit Error to eb the Authors and Abetters of them this is a judicial stroke of God and as ever we hope to escape and stand clear out of the way of it let us carefully shun these three following Causes and Provocations thereof 1. Want of love to the Truth which God hath made to shine about us in the means or into us by actual illumination under the means of knowledge 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. Because they received not the love of Truth God gave them up to strong Delusions They are justly plagued with Error that slight Truth False Doctrines are fit Plagues for false Hearts 2. Beware of Pride and Wantonness of Mind 'T is not so much the Weakness as the Wantonness of the Mind which provokes God to inflict this Judgment None likelier to make Seducers than Boasters Iude 16. Arrius gloried that God had revealed some things to him which were hidden from the Apostles themselves Simon Magus boasted himself to be the mighty Power of God The erroneous Pharisees loved the praises of Men. When the Papist reproached Luther that he affected to have his Disciples called Lutherans he replyed Non sic ô fatue non sic oro ut nomen meum taceatur he disdain'd that the Children of Christ should be called by so vile a name as his 3. Beware you neglect not Prayer to be kept sound in your Judgments and guided by the Spirit into all Truth Psal. 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander or err from thy Commandments This do and you are safe from such a judicial Tradition The First Cause We shall next speak of the Causes of Error found in the evil Dispositions of the Subjects which prepare and incline them to receive Erroneous Doctrine and Opinions and even catch at the Occasions and least Sparkles of Temptation as dry Tinder and amongst these is found 1. A perverse wrangling Humour at the pretended OBSCURITY of the Scriptures The Romish Party snatch at this Occasion and make it the proper Cause when indeed it is but a pickt Occasion of the Errors and Mistakes among men They tell us the Scriptures are so difficult obscure and perplext that if private men will trust to them as their only Guide they will inevitably run into Errors and their only relief is to give up their Souls to the conduct of their Church whereas indeed the true Cause of Error is not so much in the Obscurity of the Word as in the corruption of the mind 1 Tim. 6. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 8. We do acknowledge there are in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. the sublime and mysterious nature of the matter rendering it so and some things hard to be interpreted from the manner of expression as indeed all mystical parts of Scripture and Prophetical predictions are and ought to be delivered The Spirit of God this way designedly casts a veil over them till the proper season of their revelation and accomplishment be come Besides as the Learned Glassius observes in Paul's style there are found some peculiar words and forms of speech which ordinary Rules of Grammar take no notice nor give any parallel Examples of as to be buried with Christ to be baptized into his death to which I may add to be circumcised in him c. There are also multitude of words found in Scripture of various and vastly different Significations and accordingly there is a diversity and sometimes a contrariety of senses given of them by Expositors which to an Humourist or quarrelsome Wit gives an occasion to vent his Errors with a plausible appearance of Scripture-consent And indeed Tertullian saith Non periclitor dicere ipsas Scripturas ità dispositas esse ut materiam subministrarent Haereticis The Scriptures are so disposed that Hereticks may pick Occasions and those that will not be satisfied may be hardened See Mark 4. 11 12. But all this notwithstanding the great and necessary things to our Salvation are so perspicuously and plainly revealed in the Scriptures that even Babes in Christ do apprehend and understand them Matth. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 27 28 29. And though there be difficulties in other points more remote from the foundation yet the Spirit of God is not to be accused but rather his Wisdom to be admired herein For 1. this serves to excite our most intense study and diligence which by this difficulty is made necessary Prov. 2. 3 4 5. the very Prophets yea the very Angels search into these things 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. 2. Hereby a standing Ministry in the Church is made necessary Nehem. 8. 8. Eph. 4. 11 12 13. So that to pretend Obscurity of Scripture to be the culpable cause of Error when indeed the fault is in our selves this is too much like our Father Adam which would implicitly accuse God to exc●se himself he laid it upon the Woman which God gave him and we upon the Scriptures which God hath given us The Remedies The proper Remedies and Preventives in this case are an heedful attendance to and practice of these Rules Rule I. Let all obscure and difficult Texts of Scripture be constantly examined and expounded according to the

Mr. Woodbridge have also done But alas what evidence is sufficient to satisfy ignorant and obstinate Men Sir it pities me to see the lamentable confusion you are in You are forced by the evidence of truth to yield and own the substance of what I contend for You have yielded the Covenant to be consequently Conditional in p. 84. of your Reply You have also as plainly yielded that the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of nature consequent unto believing p. 31. of your Reply From both which concessions in your own words recited this Conclusion is evident and unavoidable viz. That no adult person notwithstanding God's Eternal Election and Christ's meritorious death and satisfaction according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant can either be justified in this World or saved in the World to come unless he first believe For if the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of Nature consequent unto believing as you truly affirm it to be then according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant no application of pardoning Mercy can be made to our Souls before we believe And if it be evident as you say it is p. 84. that unto a full and compleat enjoyment of all the Promises of the Covenant Faith on our part is required then as no Man can be actually justified in this World so neither can he be saved before or without Faith in the World to come And if you did but see the true suspending nature of Faith which you plainly yield in these two concessions you would quickly grant the conditional nature of it For what is the proper nature and true notion of a Condition but to suspend the benefits and grants of that Covenant in which it is so inserted And thus the Controversy betwixt us is fairly issued But I doubt you understand not what you have here written or are troubled with a very bad memory Because I find you in a far different note from this in p. 103. of your Reply where you say That if Iesus Christ fulfilled the Law and purchased Heaven and Happiness for Men as all true Protestants hitherto have taught then nothing can remain but to declare this to them to incline them to believe and accept it and to prescribe in what way and by what means they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life To affirm therefore that Faith and Repentance are the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty antecedent to the benefit of the Promise doth necessarily suppose that Christ hath not done all for us nor purchased a right to Life for any but only made way that they may have it upon certain terms or as some say he hath merited that we might merit But the Conditions of the Covenant are not to be performed by the Head and Members both Gal. 4. 4. Christ therefore having in our stead performed the Conditions of Life there remains nothing but a Promise and the Obedience of Children as the fruit and effect thereof to them that believe in him together with means of obtaining the full possession which here we want Either these passages I have here cited and compared were fetched at a great distance of time out of Authors differing as much in judgment as you and I do and so the dissonancy of them is the meer effect of oblivion and incogitancy Or else your Intellectuals are more confused and weak than I am willing to suspect them to be For if the application of Pardoning Mercy to our Souls is in order of Nature consequent to Believing as you truly say it was then certainly notwithstanding Christ's fulfilling the Law and purchasing Heaven and Happiness for Men something else must remain to be done besides declaring this to them to incline them to believe and accept it or prescribing to them in what way they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life For besides those declarations and prescriptions you talk of Faith it self must be wrought in the Souls of Men or else Pardoning Mercy is not in order of Nature consequent unto believing as you said it was For all the external Declarations and Prescriptions in the World are not Faith it self but only the means to beget it which may or may not become effectual to that end Secondly Whereas you say that this senseless notion is consequent upon the Doctrine of all true Protestants you therein grosly abuse them and make all the true Protestants in the World guilty of worse than Arminian or Antinomian dotage The Antinomian indeed makes our actual justification to be nothing else but the manifestation or declaration of our Justification from Eternity or the time of Christ's death And the Arminian tells us That the Declaration of the Gospel to Men is sufficient to bring them to Faith by the assisting Grace of the Spirit But your notion is worse than the very dregs of both and yet you tack it as a just consequent to the Doctrine of all true Protestants Thirdly You say That to affirm Faith and Repentance to be the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty antecedent to the benefit of the Promise doth necessarily suppose that Christ hath not done all for us nor purchased a right to Life for any but only made way that they may have it upon certain terms or merited that we might merit Here Sir you vilely abuse all those worthy Divines before mentioned who have made Faith the Condition of the New Covenant pinning upon them both Popery and Iudaism Popery yea the dregs of Popery in supposing their Doctrine necessarily implies that Christ hath merited that we might merit And Iudaism to the height in saying their Doctrine necessarily supposes that Christ hath not purchased a right of Life to any What can a Iew say more Ah Mr. C. can you read the words I have recited out of blessed Burroughs Owen Pemble Perkins Davenant Downame yea the whole Assembly of Reverend and Holy Divines with multitudes more who have all with one mouth asserted Faith to be the Condition of the New Covenant required on Man's part in point of Duty and that Men must believe before they can be justified which is the very same thing with what I say That it is antecedent to the benefit of the Promise and not tremble to think of the direful charges you here draw against them The Lord forgive your rash presumption Fourthly Whereas you say Christ hath in our stead performed the Conditions of life and that there remains nothing but a Promise c. you therein speak at the highest dialect of Antinomianism Hath not Christ by his Life and Death performed the Conditions of Life in our stead yet you your self confess that pardoning Mercy is in order of nature consequent to our believing certainly then there is something more to be done beside the mere making or being of a Promise there must be the effect