worse Retention of evil wasting of good do both testifie the method of help Indications thus being so various it s no wonder if the cure be slow both in Church and State Purgations total and particular must attend diet rest and all due help Both the Patients care and all Assistants will be as needful as the Physitians skil Politick Physitians and Ecclesiastical had need look to Christ for skil strength success Choice and cordial Preservatives Alexipharmacks are often needed where malignity doth infest mens souls Industrious Care and painful attendance will be found herein of exceeding need The Ladies hand and the Eagles eye with the Lions heart will help very much in all such dressings Seek therefore and wait for that Soveraign Aid without which no means can find a Blessing Observe his Precepts taking what he gives carefully forbearing what he doth forbid Fear to displease Christ our Gospel Phoebus that must teach and prosper Aesculaps labours That Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing wings to all such as love and fear him above All. Neglect then no means appointed by him abuse not the means by resting thereon His All-sufficient Grace believe and expect for his own Glory in each of his Wayes If he make you smart it s for your good that you may be healed on the best account Here is an Antidote fitted to our Case the good Lord bless it to you and to me Be helpful to me that I may help you at the Throne of Grace so shall we find him our present help still His Grace will sure be sufficient for us and his strength shall be perfected in weakness I shall as heartily rejoyce in your good as if it were mine and shall design to be through the Renewed supplies of Christs Holy Spirit Your Affectionate Servant for his sake in all Gospel-work CLAUDIUS GILBERT From my study in Limrick 11. 11. Januar. 23. 1656. PREFACE Christian READER ERROR is the Epidemical disease of this Age exactly considerable in its Nature and Descent in its Species and Degrees in its Cause and Effects in its Symptoms and Cure We shall but touch those things which others have elaborately handled to usher in the Scope and Substance of the following discourse 1. The Nature and Idea thereof consists much in a sinfull straying of mans Judgement from the Truth of God into falshood 1. Mans Judgement is the proper Subject and Seat thereof we meddle not now the Angels Failures from whence it casts a malign Influence upon all other Powers and Parts 2. It s Genus is straying or wandring So the Greek properly imports a slipping and sliding from Truth into falshood and by-ways 3. It s difference lies in both the terms First From which it swerves i. e. The Terminus à quo from the Truth of God Secondly To which it leads the Terminus ad quem into falshood So it s distinguished from bare Ignorance both negative and privative Error being a soul-sickness an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disorderly Distemper disposing to evil positively both habitual and actual as it deprives of and indisposes to that good râ—specting the Souls health It differs also from Scruples and doubts which are but uncertain motives from Truth and weaker Inclinations to falshood as the grudgings and Rudiments of spiritual diseases It s likewise differenced thereby from Heart-Hypocrisie and verbal lies Secondly Errors Descent fetches its Extract from the Prince and Father of Lies who abode not in the Truth but drew thousands of glorious Angels who kept not their first state into Error and Apostacy His Serpentine spawn by dubâ—ous Queries was soon cast into our first Parents where it quickly bred Error and all sin That unhappy Breath so strongly infected them that this sinfull disease is become hereditary to all their natural Posterity This wofull Leprosie hath been thus propagated from our Head Adam to all his Issue through the loins of sinfull parents It cleavs to mans Nature and hath been in all ages successively communicated by a wofull Series in all sorts more or less As the Leprosie cleaving to the Wall could never be totally removed till the Wall it self was quite pulled down So doth this Plague cleave to mans soul till mans dissolution Adam received at once the seed of corporal and spiritual Diseases and death in the same moment that he began to sin he began to die according to Gods Word from whence the progress of a dying life in him and all his till Grace begin that spiritual Life below that Glory compleats above Israel had contracted their wofull Leprosie from that Aegypt that enslaved them so is our spiritual Leprosie contracted from that mystical Aegyt which hath poisoned us so desperately and infests still the Canaan-State of Christs militant Church As Truth is a most diffusive Good so is Error a most diffusive Evil. Error like a stone thrown into the water rises in Circles each Circle begetting another and growing still wider till they all quite lose themselves in the end Like Cadmus Brood they start up suddenly and as soon fall foul each on other 3. The Species and Sorts of Error are multiplicious like the diseases that trouble the body As there are various sorts and denominations of divine Truths so are there as many distinctions of Errors The specifical difference of each Error is measurable still by the dimension of that Truth it opposes and strayes from and of that falshood into which it slides The Truth of God is the conforty of his Thoughts Words and Works to his own glorious Essence The Truth of man is the due conformity of man to that Truth of God whether mental verbal or practical Error is accordingly diversified in its general acceptation but properly to our purpose it is restrained to the Iudgement and distingushed from other sins which are verbal or practical Errors flowing from mans Will and affections more directly That Truth of God is especially considerable in matters of Religion either fundamental or juxta-fundamental or more superficial and circumstantial Error is accordingly discernable in its several wandrings from that Truth The Scripture of Truth declares the same in all their specifical variations Tue Fundamentals of Religion are summed up in the Articles of our Faith called the Apostles Creed because extracted out of their writtings which Symbol hath been successively explained by the several Confessions of the primitive Churches as the Nicene and Athanasian Creed as also of the Reformed in Germany and France Belgium and England c. As there are varieties of Weeds and poisons about the earth which peculiarly offend the several parts of the Body some being more hurtfull to the head some to the Stomach c. So do various Errors offend the several parts of Truth whence various designations are given to them 4. The Gradations and Degrees of Error admit also of a variable
of Impretation So by his Exaltation he works it out by power in a way of Application The many cavils objected against it Paul fully confuted over and over The Popish pretences for their Transubstantiation have been from Scripture sufficiently taken off by many choice Pens That Capernaitical conceit Christ himself took pains to refute It much wrongs the Glory of Christ to bring him again from Heaven to earth daily to mangle and abuse him by the hand of their Mass-Priests and expose him to shame and suffering again Though they call their Mass an unbloody Sacrifice yet do they make themselves the Butchers and Executioners of Christ in pretending to offer his corporal flesh and blood Scripture indeed cals the Bread and Wine his Body and Blood so doth it call Christ the Door the Vine c. by the like Metaphors yet is not Christ turned into a Door nor Vine no more are the Elements turned into his Body and Blood Christ explains the meaning of those phrases so doth his Apostle to the full As for the Vbiquitarians conceit to make Christs Body present corporally with the Elements and everywhere the absurdity thereof abuses grosly Christs Exaltation in his humane Nature and their Consubstantiation is refuted with that Scripture Reason that dispels the Popish Impanation Their straining of figurative speeches beyond their scope fetches Blood out of Scripture by dreadful violence and absurd consequence Yet will they admit figures in many other places not controverted 12 The Word of Christ suffers much likewise 1. From the forenamed Tenets 2. Formal Antiscripturists old and new quite denying the need and use thereof and questioning the purity sufficiency clearness and divineness of it 3. By Papists charging it with obscurity corruption insufficiency defectiveness and needlesness They keep it from the peoples common use unless licenced teaching that Ignorance is the Mother of Devotion They prefer their vulgar Latin version before both Originals They equalize their unwritten Traditions therewith and the Church commands yea prefer them often before it They bind all to receive its Interpretation only from their mouth They patch to the Canon many Apocrypha's and spurious books stored with lies and contradictions absurdities and fables ascribing thereto the like divine Authority 4. The Quakers join with them in slighting Scripture equaling their pretended Revelations therewith abusing the words thereof to contrary sences wresting it to the disguising of their gross Errors giving to their pretended Light within that Infallibility which the Papists give to their Pope and Council 5. The Behmenists and Notionists that turn it into Allegories and uncouth Eictions changing Realities into shadowes and the substance of Scripture into Chymical Fumes witness Paracelsus Wigelius Behmens several Books which are stored with non-sence and vile blasphemies bold Intrusions into hid Mysteries all under specious colours with bombastical words AGainst these woful Drugs the Knowledge of Christ will be successfully improved shewing us the Excellency and Necessity the sufficiency and purity the clarity and utility of Scripture It will take off all the mistakes objections and cavils made against the Divinity and right use thereof It will clear it to be the sole and sure Standard and Rule of Religion being the full Declaration of Gods Will and Mind the Fountain of all Goodness Truth It will shew the need that all have to study it day and night and observe it in all things It will detect their folly who add thereto their unwritten Traditions additions and Revelations besides above or against it as abominable to God It will discover their madness who pretend to speak and write as good Scripture and will not own the Bible to be the Word of God It will shew that all Scripture was written by Inspiration from God and is sufficient to compleat the Man of God to every good work That it came not by the will of man but that the men of God writ as they were moved by the Holy Ghost That the abuse of it by some must not prejudice the right use thereof corruptio Optimi pessima that if he be hid it s to them that perish That the Word is Light and gives Light That the Spirit of Christ still speaks in his Word whether to Life or to Death being inseparable from it That its never a dead Letter though it be sometimes a killing Letter That Translations are but the Taps of Scripture to broach those full vessels which therefore should be fitted to the use of all and are so far to be owned as they agree with the original sense That the sense of Scripture is Scripture though it may be variously expressed That no mans Interpretation is to be received further then it agrees with the whole Scripture That all seeming contradictions therein are easily cleared by comparing of Scriptures minding the context and scope in a sober humble manner with studious diligence That the sense of Scripture Translations when dark must be brought to the Original Light That all things absolutely needful to Salvation are clearly laid down in Scripture That Scripture Consequence is Scripture That some things are obscure therein to exercise our sobriety industry That it s so fitted to every mans condition that the simplest may reap the benefit thereof That Christ bids all search the Scriptures and sends them to the Law and Testimony for decision and prediction stil That the wisest Christians are most studious of Scripture finding stil most need of it being most sensible of their remaining Ignorance That pride and blindness make men to conceive so highly of their knowledge as to think themselves wise enough without it or as wise as it That they are foolish self-seducers who thus think and say That God indeed spoke to our Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in divers parts and manners by piece-meal as it were but he hath now contracted all in speaking to us by his Son That therefore having closed the Canon and sealed up those Records by his Sons Apostles who ever adds to or detracts from it is liable to that sentence there denounced by the Lord himself That the Lords Will revealed in Scripture obliges all being the Beck and hint of our Soveraign who can becken us all into nothing at his Will That since the compleating of Scripture immediate Inspirations are expired being needless the divine Rule of all being perfectly given out That all pretended Enthusiasms not agreeing with the Word must be suspected to be from evil spirits The several Errors of the Apocrypha are discovered by Scripture Light and have been abundantly confuted by many worthy hands The abuse of Scripture by feigned Allegories is thereby detected also when men will be wise above what 's written giving heed to Jewish and Chymical Fables yea to Magical Notions and Fictions as Paracelsus Behmen c. they are justly given
force of the Comand but ratifies it He only could do it that is the Lord thereof There is no change made in the quamdiu and continuance nor in the quoties and frequency of the same The whole Precept being moral in part naturally in part positively is perpetual therefore and not to be altered by any Creature That some special time should be observed for Gods solemn worship is moral natural That it should be such a proportion in such a Revolution is moral positive That the duty should be moved from the seventh to the first day of the week makes no substantial change therein but only directs to the season thereof upon pregnant ground Paul clears this by a large demonstration The first day Sabbath was eminently typified in the most notable Providences of the old Testament On the first day Light was created Noahs Ark rested Circumcision was first ordained Israel was redeemed from Aegyptian Bondage on the same day Christs Law was first given by himself to Israel on mount Sinai the cloud of his special presence first rested on them the Tabernacle with his pertinances was rear'd Aaron and his Children first executed their Priesthood On that day his fire from Heaven first came down to consume the Sacrifices to make them acceptable in Christ by his Spirit The Israelites were first solemly by the Lord himself blessed their Princes first publiquely offered to the Lord. So for the new Testament Christ thereon first shewed his Miracles in Cana he first rose and appeared to his Disciples the Saints that slept then rose out of their Graves the holy Ghost came down upon the Apostles solemnly met and thereon still they met for divine worship When the Jewish Sabbath ended by reason of its Typicalness expiring with Christs death then began the first day to be the Christian Sabbath Christ sanctifying it to that end by his resurrection honouring it in a special manner which is the ground given by God himself for the keeping of a Sabbath So carefull were Christ and Christians of it that he bids them pray that their flight be not in the winter nor on the Sabbath lest it should distract their bodies and souls Prophaning of the Sabbath hath ever been threatned and punished signally as the due observance of it hath been choicely encouraged and rewarded in all Superiors and Inferiors It s the Lords court-day wherein he expects due Homage and Rents from all his Tenants It s his Muster-day for all his Christian Souldiers It s his solemn Feast-day to welcome all his friends It s his weekly Market for the getting in of all heavenly provisions It s his Chancery-day for the sealing and grant of his deeds of Favour What enemies are they to his honor and mans good who slight and abuse that Heaven upon earth It s the beginning of an eternal Sabbath All Cavils against it have been fully dispelled by many choice pieces When Paul condemns the distinction of days his meaning is cleared by the Context to speak of Jewish Ceremonials not of Christian Morals The neglect and abuse of the Christian Sabbath hath been observed formerly and lately to be still the Inlet to all other errors Englands prosperity began in Queen Elizabeths time when the Sabbath began to be duly maintained by Authority The troubles of England began afterwards when the Sabbath was publiquely by Authority profaned and by the same party * The famous Kings and Witagen Mots among the Saxons still renew'd strict Laws for due observance of the Christian Sabbath 15. The Law of Christ is variously abused 1. By the the foresaid Errors 2. By Antinomians denying the Obligation of a Christian to the moral Law 3. By Papists in mangling of it and dispencing therewith at pleasure many ways 4. By Quakers and other Innovators joining too much with Papists 5. By Socinians that rest thereon teaching people the like and so making it their satisfaction to justice and their Salvation AGainst such evils Scripture-knowledge of Christ will help us to see the need and use of that Law of Christ As he printed it on mans heart at first so doth he by his Grace renew it there gradually He published it himself from Mount Sina to his people adding the Ceremonials and Judicials afterwards as fit accommodations of that moral Law suited to the Jewish Church and State The Decalogue then is the sum of that Law which obliges all men without exception The sevetal Explications and Applications thereof we find through the Old and New Testament Christ ratified the same from Mount Zion also in taking away the Pharisaical Rubbish which their false Glosses had cast about it The Apostles further clear and confirm it in their several Epistles and Writings Where the Scripture seems to speak against the Law the sense is cleared by viewing the Context 1. They speak against the justifying Power of the Law through mans weakness since the fall none being able to keep it without fault or to make amends for his breach thereof Thus by the Law can none be justified and the regenerate are not under it to get pardon and salvation by a Law of works The Pharisees thus pressed and owned it and were confuted by Christ and his Apostles Thus also do they sin that do rest upon any Gospel-duty making it to themselves thereby a Law of Works Secondly They speak against the condemning effect of the Law which the regenerate are freed from by Christs Righteousness imputed to them They are not under the curse of it having their sins pardoned by Christs satisfaction made theirs actually through faith in his blood though their sin deserves the Curse yet that reatus and guilt doth not redound upon their persons being taken off by Christ Thirdly They speak often of the ceremonial Law as not obliging any Christian since Christ though it was used indifferently for a while to bear with tender Converts then unsatisfied about the abrogation thereof Fourthly They still own the royal Law of Liberty that moral Law which is the Transcript of Gods holy Will for the Rule of mans Duty in conformity to Gods Image It s called therefore the Law of Christ the perfect Law and the Law of Truth which men do well when they observe and ill so far as they neglect it God indeed writes his Law on his peoples heart but gradually and variously that is to them an internal Principle of Obedience which is still attended by the Law of their Members in opposition thereto This Principle moves them still to observe that Law which God hath given to be their standing Rule perfect and unchangeable Men are as far from his Grace as they are from observing his Law God never leaves his Children without Rule He
prophecy in Sackcloth the woman is fed in the wilderness Yet did not Christ forget his Interest but in the worst time maintained his Ministry Brittain Ireland Germany and France shew large Catalogues of undoubted Truth to verifie it Waldus and Wicklef John Hus and Jerom with many thousands testified the same The Reformation by Luther and Calvin was but a more solemn carrying on of the Work We have antiquities of approved credit shewing Successions of faithful Ministers from the Apostles time all along to this day as in other parts so in these Nations The Scriptures are not the worse nor the Ministry for passing through the hand of Romish Antichrist Gold loses not its worth for touching a leprous hand nor Gods Temple by the sitting of the man of sin when their pollutions are but once removed If any defilment be proved to attend our Ministry we are ready to yield and remove the same When the Wen is cut off and the body cured health being restored is to be improved If any will stil lord it over Brethren we shall disclame such usurpations Christs Ministry is to feed and teach to rule and to cure Ministerially Our weapons and work are spiritual not Political nor Monarchical As Nurses appointed for the Childrens good it s our desire to attend Christs house An orderly Call unto this office as he doth appoint so will he still bless How shall men believe if not preached to How shall men preach right if they be not sent Internal gifts are very needfull yet not sufficient to make out this Call No man self-called is owned by God no more then Corah and Jeroboams Priests A Souldier though able without Commission shall never be owned for an Officer A person of Parts without Authority cannot act the part of Justice or Judge Every Christian is to improve Gifts but within his place and fit relation Gods word doth appoint an orderly way of Calling persons into the Ministry They must be well proved and approved of then chosen and ordained to a proper charge He that hears and receives persons so called in the name of Christ hears and receives Jesus Christ himself by his own witness He that abuses and rejects such abuses and rejects the Lord Christ thereby If any be bad let them be questioned and reap their deserts We pretend to no Infallibility but would be tried still in Doctrine and Life by the word of Truth Christs work its we are sent about the devil would marr it by slandering tongues False Christs false Prophets are now very rife Sick brains are heaping Teachers to themselves to please itching ears They that thus run before they are sent shall not profit but deceive the people The chief rage of Foxes and Wolves disguised will stil be bent against the Shepherds Jeroboams Priests with his Golden Calves brought in division deceit and ruin If the Lords Mercy do not prevent it our sin and sorrow will be too like theirs The Cavils pleaded against this clear Truth have been fully dissolved again and again It was Julians attempt to starve the Ministry and Schools as the sure way to ruin Christianity The like design is revived of late to the same end The Laws of Nature and of Nations as well as Gods positive Laws are brought in by Paul to prove the just Rights of Ministers maintenance The Corinthiane are blamed for putting him to shift and work with his hands He commends them highly that had been free towards his relief 25. Christ suffers also in his Providence as by the former Errors So first By Atheists Stoicks Epicures that ascribe events to fortune fate or chance Secondly By Divers Jesuits and Arminians charging his purpose and execution with Contingency and Dependency Thirdly By Star-gazers and Astrologers who pretend to divine of humane Events by their judicial Prognostications AGainst this Malady the gracious Knowledge of Christ improved will give us still a Soveraing Remedy It shews by Scripture Light that the hand of Christ who first made the world doth uphold it still with Rule and Order by the word of his power His eternal purpose he still executes in doing of good and over-ruling evil What evil of sorrow that the Lord sends not What evil of sin that he limits not What good temporal or spiritual that comes not still from his Providence His Rule is so sweet and so soveraign that all fulfill his Will in fulfilling theirs what ever opposes his revealed Will is still over-ruled by his secret Will The Will of his purpose men do then fulfill when they disobey the Will of his precept The Instance of Joseph and Jesus suffice to demonstrate Christs Soveraign Rule Things most contingent as to men and means do yet come to pass by a necessary and sure providence The very Sparrows fall not to the earth nor the hairs of man without Gods special hand Astrologers sin is so much condemned by Scripture Reason and Experience that they should not proceed any further seeing their folly is made so manifest Some use we grant of Astronomy if modestly handled natural Astrology may hint at some things though very uncertainly But that judicial Astrology which pretends to foretel the success of affairs acted among men is an Errand cheat and dreadfull Imposture such an Art descends from old Magicians that learned of Satan among the Nations Caldeans and Diviners with all South-sayers are noted in Scripture with Aegypts Magicians Indian Gymnosophists Brachmans and Pawawes the Druids of Gaul the Bards of Brittain the Dervis's of Turkie are of the like school The rules of this Art are certainly known to be most absurd vain and uncertain Mirandula and Perkins who searched into their depths discovered fully their juggling Impostures as their Writings testifie Some profound Scholars who had curiously pryed into their secrets came off with remorse and abhorrings thereof This Profession hath been in all ages justly detested by the wise and good Such Affinity it hath had still with Satanical Oracles that its unsufferable in a Christian State There is vertue indeed in heavenly bodies But who can find out the same distinctly An Apollonius Faustus or Hildebrand may pretend somewhat from Satans teaching in this black study But shall Christians go to the devils school to learn Christs mind Starry Constellations have their Influence on sublunary bodies but they cannot reach the souls and Acts of men How far they may affect this earth none can know but that our Reason and humane Events are beyond their reach is easily known The Constellations of Christs Providence compared with his word are the proper Rules of our Prognosticks personal and publique Thence should Christians cast a divine figure to find out a true scheme of their State and Acts. Learn we to calculate our spiritual birth and observe the positure of souls under Chris thence all conjunctions and