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nature_n	person_n	soul_n	union_n	4,231	5	9.6219	5	true

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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

hath purchased for them by his Blood and setled upon them in the Gospel-Charter A Liberty from Satan Sin and the rigour and Curse of the Law and yet you read 1 Pet. 2. 16. of them that used this Liberty for a cloak of maliciousness 'T is true Christ came to be a Sacrifice for Sin but not a Cloak for Sin to set us at Liberty from the Bondage of our Lusts not from the Ties and Duties of our Obedience Under the pretence of this Liberty it was that the Gnosticks Carpocratians and the Menandrians of old did not only connive at but openly taught and practised all manner of leudness and uncleanness St. Augustin in his Book of Heresy makes this sad complaint The Menandrians saith he do willingly embrace all uncleanness as the fruit of the Grace of God towards Men. And not only the Liberty purchased by Christ but the very Person and Gospel of Christ are liable to abuses and oftentimes through the corruptions of Mens hearts become Stones of stumbling and Rocks of offence What then Shall we renounce the Grace of God our Christian Liberty the very Gospel yea and Person of Christ himself because each of them have been thus vilely abused by wicked wretches At the peril of our eternal damnation be it if we do so Blessed is he saith our Lord that is not offended in me Beware lest by this means Satan at once wound the Lord Jesus Christ by scandal and thy Soul by prejudice Remedy II. Consider also that it is the nature and temper of a gracious Soul to raise his esteem and heighten his love to those Ordinances which are most abused and disgraced by Men. The more they are abused and opposed by others the higher they should be valued and honoured by us Psal. 119. 126 127. It is time for thee Lord to work for they have made void thy Law therefore I love thy Commandments above gold yea above fine gold q. d. The more they are disgraced and abused by wicked men the more do I honour and prize them A like spirit with David's was found in Elijah 1 King 19. 14. I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts because the Children of Israel have forsaken thy Covenant thrown down thine Altars and slain thy Prophets with the Sword A good Man will strive to honour and secure those Truths and Duties most which he finds under most disgrace or danger He loves the Truth sincerely who cleaves to it and stands by it under all opposition This is a good tryal of the soundness of thy heart and purity of thine ends in Religion Such a proof as the honour and reputation of Religion in the World can never give thee In Solomon's time the Iews were very cautious how they admitted and received Proselytes suspecting that by-ends and worldly respects may draw men to it but they were not so cautelous in times of disgrace and persecution Remedy III. Before you part with any Ordinance or practice in Religion bethink your selves whether you never found any spiritual blessings or advantages in that path which you are now tempted to forsake Had you never any spiritual meltings of your hearts and affections in that Heavenly Ordinance of Singing And may there not be now Thousands of Mercies in your possession in consequence to and as the fruit of your solemn dedication to God in Baptism by your Covenanted Parents For my own part I do heartily and solemnly bless God for it upon this account and so I hope Thousands besides my self have cause to do However such a Practice may by no means be deserted by you because abused by others Cause XIII Another Method and Artifice by which false Teachers draw multitudes of Disciples after them is by granting to their Ignorant and Ambitious Followers the LIBERTY of PROPHESYING flattering them into a conceit of their excellent Gifts and Attainments when God knows they had more need to be Catechised and taught the Principles of Christianity than undertake to expound and apply those profound Mysteries unto others Satan hath filled the Church and World with Errors and Troubles this way When ignorant and unexperienced Persons begin to think it a low and a dull thing to sit from year to year under other mens teachings and to fancy that they are wiser than their Teachers their Pride will quickly tempt them to shew their Ignorance and that mischievous Ignorance will prove dangerous to the Truth and troublesome to the Church The Apostle forbids the Ordination of a Novice lest he be puffed up and fall into the condemnation of the Devil and in 1 Tim. 1. 7. he shews us the reason why some swerved and turned aside unto vain jangling and it was this That they desired to be Teachers of the Law neither understanding what they said nor whereof they affirmed That is They affected to be Preachers though not able to speak congrucusly with tolerable sense and reason I do not here censure and condemn the use and exercise of the Gifts of all private Christians There are to be found amongst them some Persons of raised parts and answerable modesty and humility who may be very useful when called to service in extraordinary Cases by the Voice of Providence or exercise their Gifts in a probationary way or in due subordination unto Christ's publick Officers and Ordinances by and with the consent of the Pastor and Congregation But when unqualified and uncalled Persons undertake such a work out of the conceit and pride of their own hearts or are allured to it by the crafty Designs of Erroneous Teachers partly to overthrow a publick regular and standing Ministry in the Church to which end the Scriptures are manifestly abused such as Ier. 31. 34. Rom. 12. 6. 1 Cor. 14. 1 Pet. 4. 10. with many others This is the practise I here censure which like a Trojan Horse hath sent forth multitudes of Erroneous Persons into the City of God to infest and defile it I cannot doubt but many a sincere Christian may be drawn into such employment whichputs him into a capacity of honouring God in a more eminent way which is a thing desirable to an honest and zealous heart and that the temptation may be greatly strengthened upon them by the plausible suggestions of cunning Seducers who tell them That those Ministers who oppose and condemn this practise do it as men concerned for their own Interest as desirous to monopolize the work to themselves and as envying the Lord's People and that Christ hath given them a greater liberty in this case than those men will allow them By this means they daw many after them and fix them in their Erroneous ways I have no mind at all here to expose the Follies and Mischiefs introduced this way as neither being willing to grieve the hearts of the Sincere on one side nor gratify scoffing Atheists and prophane Enemies to Religion upon the other side only this I will and must say That by this

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

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 accep●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 ●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

the Sanction of the Law may and did pass from us to Christ by Legal Imputation but sin it self the very Transgression it self arising from the very Preceptive part of the Law cannot so pass from us to Christ For if we should once imagine that the very acts and habits of sin with the odious deformity thereof should pass from our Persons to Christ and subjectively to inhere in him as they do in us then it would follow First That our Salvation would thereby be rendred utterly impossible For such an inhesion of Sin in the Person of Christ is absolutely inconsistent with the Hypostatical Vnion which Union is the very Foundation of his Satisfaction and our Salvation Tho the Divine Nature can and doth dwell in Union with the pure and Sinless human Nature of Christ yet it cannot dwell in Union with Sin Secondly This Supposition would render the Blood of the Cross altogether unable to satisfie for us He could not have been the Lamb of God to take away the Sins of the World if he had not been perfectly pure and spotless 1 Pet. 1. 19. Thirdly Had our Sins thus been essentially transfus'd into Christ the Law had had a just and valid Exception against him for it accepts of nothing but what is absolutely pure and perfect I admire therefore how any good Man dares to call our Doctrine which teaches the Imputation of our Guilt and Punishment to Christ a simple Doctrine and assert that the Transgression it self became Christ's and that thereby Christ became as compleatly sinful as we And Fourthly If the way of making our Sins Christ's by imputation be thus rejected and derided and Christ asserted by some other way to become as compleatly sinful as we then I cannot see which way to avoid it but that the very same Acts and Habits of Sin must inhere both in Christ and in Believers also For I suppose our Adversaries will not deny that notwithstanding God's laying the Sins of Believers upon Christ there remain in all Believers after their Justification sinful Inclinations and Aversations a Law of Sin in their Members a Body of Sin and Death Did these things pass from them to Christ and yet do they still inhere in them Why do they complain and groan of in-dwelling Sin as Rom. 7. If Sin it self be so transferr'd from them to Christ Sure unless Men will dare to say the same Acts and Habits of Sin which they feel in themselves are as truly in Christ as in themselves they have no ground to say that by God's laying their Iniquities upon Christ he became as compleatly sinful as they are and if they should so affirm that Affirmation would undermine the very Foundation of their own Salvation I therefore heartily subscribe to that sound and holy Sentence of a clear and learned Divine Nothing is more absolutely true nothing more sacredly and assuredly believ'd by us than that nothing which Christ did or suffer'd nothing that he undertook or underwent did or could constitute him subjectively inherently and thereupon personally a Sinner or guilty of any Sin of his own To bear the Guilt or Blame of other Mens Faults to be alienae culpae reus makes no Man a Sinner unless he did unwisely or irregularly undertake it So then this Proposition that by God's laying our Sins upon Christ in some other way than by Imputation of Guilt and Punishment he became as compleatly sinful as we will not ought not to be receiv'd as the sound Doctrine of the Gospel Nor yet this Second Proposition That we are as compleatly Righteous as Christ is or that Christ is not more Righteous than a Believer I cannot imagine what should induce any Man so to express himself unless it be a groundless conceit and fancy that there is an essential Transfusion of Christ's justifying Righteousness into Believers whereby it becomes theirs by way of subjective inhesion and is in them in the very same manner it is in him And so every individual Believer becomes as compleatly Righteous as Christ. And this conceit they would fain establish upon that Text 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous But neither this expression nor any other like it in the Scriptures gives the least countenance to such a general and unwary Position It is far from the mind of this Scripture That the righteousness of Christ is formally and inherently ours as it is his Indeed it is ours relatively not formally and inherently not the same with his for quantity though it be the same for verity His Righteousness is not ours in its Vniversal value though it be ours as to our particular use and necessity Nor is it made ours to make us so many causes of Salvation to others but it is imputed to us as to the Subjects that are to be saved by it our selves 'T is true we are justified and saved by the very Righteousness of Christ and no other but that Righteousness is formally inherent in him only and is only materially imputed to us It was actively his but passively ours He wrought it though we wear it It was wrought in the person of God-man for the whole Church and is imputed not transfused to every single Believer for his own concernment only For 1. It is most absurd to imagine that the Righteousness of Christ should formally inhere in the person of all or any Believer as it doth in the person of the Mediator The impossibility hereof appears plainly from the incapacity of the Subject The Righteousness of Christ is an Infinite Righteousness because it is the Righteousness of God-man and can therefore be subjected in no other person beside him It is capable of being imputed to a finite creature and therefore in the way of imputation we are said to be made the righteousness of God in him but though it may be imputed to a finite creature it inheres only in the person of the Son of God as in its proper subject And indeed 2. If it should be inherent in us it could not be imputed to us as it is Rom. 4. 6 23. Nor need we go out of our selves for justification as now we must Phil. 3. 9. but may justify our selves by our own inherent Righteousness And 3 dly What should hinder if this Infinite Righteousness of Christ were infused into us and should make us as compleatly righteous as Christ but that we might justify others also as Christ doth and so we might be the Saviours of the Elect as Christ is Which is most absurd to imagine And 4 thly According to Antinomian Principles What need was there that we should be justified at all Or what place is left for the justification of any sinner in the World For according to their Opinion the justification of the Elect is an immanent act of God before the World was and that Eternal act of Justification making the Elect as compleatly Righteous as Christ himself there could not possibly be

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

Grave and learnned Gataker hath learnedly and industriously vindicated that Scripture from this abuse of it by Antinomians in his Treatise upon that Text entitled God's Eye upon his Israel where after a learned and critical search of the Text he telleth us it soundeth word for word thus from the Original He hath not beheld wrong against Jacob nor hath he seen grievance against Israel So that the meaning is not That God did not see sin in Israel but that he beheld not with approbation the wrongs and injuries done by others against his Israel and shews at large by divers solid Reasons why the Antinomian sense cannot be the proper sense of that place it being cross to the main tenour of the Story and truth of God's Word which shews that God often complained of their Sins often threatned to avenge them yea did actually avenge them by destroying them in the Wilderness nay Balaam himself who uttered these words unto Balak did not so understand them as appears by the advice he gave to Balak to draw them into sin that thereby God might be provoked to withdraw his protection from them And for Ier. 50. 20. it makes nothing to their purpose Many expound the sin there sought after and not found to be the Sin of Idolatry which Israel should be purged from by their Captivity according to Isa. 27. 9. But the generality of sound Expositors are agreed That by the not finding of Israel's and Iudah's Sin is meant no more but his not finding those Bonds or Obligations against them to eternal punishment which their Sins had put them under 4. In a word This Opinion clashes with their other Principles For they say That though there was pardon and remission under the Old Covenant which they allowed to be a Covenant of Grace yet it was but gradatim and successively as they offered Sacrifices If a man had sinned ignorantly until he brought a Sacrifice his sin lay upon him it may be a week a months distance between before they could have their pardon Vide Dr. Crisp of the two Covenants p. 256 257. Now I demand If this were the state and case of all God's Israel under the Old Testament Why do these men affirm that God can see no sin in a Believer and why do they expound the words of Balaam so contradictorily to this their other Opinion For they will not deny but God sees unpardoned Sins in all and here is a week or month or more time allowed between the commission and remission of their Sin And so much of the 5th Antinomian Error Error VI. That God is not angry with the Elect nor doth he smite them for their Sins and to say that he doth so is an injurious reflection upon the Iustice of God who hath received full satisfaction for all their Sins from the hand of Christ. There are several Mistakes and Errors in these Assertions and I suppose our Antinomians were led into them 1. By their abhorrence of the Popish Doctrine which errs more dangerously in the other extream for they wickedly assert our Sufferings to be satisfactory for our Sins which is the ground of Popish Penances and voluntary Self-castigations 2. From a groundless apprehension That God's Corrections of us for our Sins are inconsistent with the fulness of Christ's satisfaction for them Christ having paid all our Debts and dissolved our Obligations to all punishment it cannot consist with the Justice of God to lay any Rod upon us for our Sins after Christ hath born all that our Sins deserved This mistake of the end of Christ's death occasions them to stumble into the other Mistakes they imagine that Christ's Satisfaction abolished God's hatred of Sin in Believers But this cannot be God's antipathy to Sin can never be taken away by the Satisfaction of Christ though his hatred to the Persons of the redeemed be for the hatred of Sin is founded in the unchangeable Nature of God and he can as soon cease to be holy as cease to hate Sin Hab. 1. 13. Nor was Christ's death ever designed to this end though Christ hath satisfied for the Sins of Believers God still hates Sin in Believers His hatred to their Sins and love to their Persons are not inconsistent As a man may love his Leg or Arm as they are Members of his own Body and notwithstanding that love hate the Gangrene which hath taken them and lance or use painful corrosives for the cure of them Neither do our Antinomians distinguish as they ought betwixt vindictive Punishments from God the pure issues and effects of his Justice and Wrath against the Wicked and his Paternal Castigations the pure issues of the Care and Love of a displeased Father Great and manifold are the differences betwixt his vindictive Wrath upon his Enemies and the rebukes of the Rod upon his Children Those are Legal these Evangelical Those out of wrath and hatred these out of love Those unsanctified but these blessed and sanctified to happy ends and purposes to his People Those for destruction these for salvation To narrow the matter in Controversy as much as we can I shall lay down three Concessions about God's Corrections of his People Concession I. We chearfully and thankfully acknowledge the perfection and fulness of the satisfaction of Christ for all the Sins of Believers and with thankfulness do own that if God should cast all or any of them into an ocean of temporal Troubles and Distresses in all that sea of Sorrow there would not be found one drop of vindictive Wrath. Christ hath drunk the last drop of that Cup and left nothing for Believers to suffer by way of satisfaction Concession II. We grant also That all the Sufferings of Believers in this World are not for their Sins but some of them are for the prevention of Sin 2 Cor. 12. 7. some for the tryal of their Graces Iam. 1. 2 3. some for a confirming testimony to his Truths Act. 5. 41. Such Sufferings as these have much heavenly comfort concomitant with them Concession III. We do not say That God's displeasure with his People for Sin evidenced against them in the smartest rebukes of the Rod is any argument that God's love is turned into hatred against their Persons no no his love to his People is unchangeable Having loved his own he loved them to the end Iohn 13. 1. yet notwithstanding all this three things are undeniably clear and being throughly apprehended will end this Controversy 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World on the Persons of Believers 2. That this Rod of God is sometimes laid on them for their Sins 3. That these Fatherly Corrections of them for their Sins are reconcileable to and fully consistent with his Justice compleatly satisfied by the Blood of Christ for all their Sins 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World upon the persons of Believers This no man can have the face to deny that believes the Scriptures to be the Word of