Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	faith_n	revelation_n	3,045	5	9.5466	5	false

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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

to perishing can never truly and properly be said to be saved If it be said the Elect were not justified till the death of Christ I demand then what became of all them that died before the death of Christ If they were not justified they could not be glorified for this is sure from Rom. 8. 30. That the whole number of the glorified in Heaven is made up of such as were justified on Earth Let men take heed therefore lest under pretence of exalting Christ they bereave him of the glory of being the Saviour of his Elect. 2. It bereaves him of another glorious Royalty The Scripture every-where makes our Justification the result and fruit of the meritorious death of Christ Rom. 3. 24 25. Rom. 8. 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Gal. 3. 13 14. Eph. 1. 7. But if men were justified from Eterternity how is their Justification the fruit and result of the blood of the Cross as it plainly appears from these Scriptures to be Nay 3. This Opinion leaves no place for the satisfaction of Justice by the Blood of Christ for our Sins He did not die according to this Opinion to pay our debts And here Antinomianism and Socinianism meet and congratulate each other For if there were no debts owing to the Justice of God from Eternity Christ could not die to pay them and 't is manifest there were no debts due to God's Justice from Eternity on the account of his Elect if the Elect were from Eternity justified unless you will say a person may be justified and yet his debts not paid for all Justification dissolves the obligation to punishment If there were any debts for Christ to pay by his Blood they must either be his own debts or the Elect's To say they were his own is a blasphemous reproach to him and according to this Opinion we cannot say they were the Elect's for if they were justified from Eternity their debts were discharged and their bonds cancell'd from Eternity So that this Opinion leaves nothing to the Blood of Christ to discharge or make satisfaction for 2. And as it hath been proved to be highly injurious to the Lord Jesus so it is greatly injurious to the Souls of men as it naturally leads them into all those wild and licentious Opinions which naturally flow from it as from the radical prolifique Error whence most of the rest derive themselves as will immediately appear in the II. Error That Iustification by Faith is no more but the manifestation to us of what was really and actually done before Or a being persuaded more or less of Christ's love to us And that when persons do believe that which was hid before doth then only appear to them Refutation As the former Error dangerously corrupts the Doctrine of Justification so this corrupts the Doctrine of Faith and therefore deserves to be exploded by all Christians That there is a manifestation and discovery of the special love of God and our own saving concernment in the death of Christ to some Christians at some times cannot be denied St. Paul could say Gal. 2. 20 21. Christ loved him and gave himself for him but to say that this is the justifying act of Faith whereby a Sinner passeth from condemnation and death into the state of righteousness and life this I must look upon as a great Error and that for these following Reasons Reason I. Because there be multitudes of believing and justified Persons in the World who have no such manifestation evidence or assurance that God laid their Iniquities upon Christ and that he died to put away their Sins but daily conflict with strong fears and doubts whether it be so or no. There are but few among Believers that attain such a persuasion and manifestation as Antinomians make to be all that is meant in Scripture by Justification through Faith Many thousand new-born Christians live as the new-born Babe which neither knows its own Estate or Inheritance to which it is born Vivit est vitae nescius ipse suae A Soul may be in Christ and a justified state without any such persuasion or manifestation as they here speak of Isa. 50. 10. And if any shall assert the contrary he will condemn the greatest part of the Generation of God's Children Now that cannot be the saving and justifying act of Faith which is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Persons But manifestation or a personal persuasion of the love of God to a Man's Soul or that Christ died for him and all his Iniquities are thereby forgiven him is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Souls Therefore such a persuasion or manifestation is not that saving justifying Faith which the Scripture speaks of That Faith which only justifies the person of a Sinner before God must necessarily be found in all justified Believers or else a man may be justified without the least degree of justifying Faith and consequently it is not Faith alone by which a man is justified before God Reason II. That cannot be the justifying act of Faith which is not constant and abiding with the justified Person but comes and goes is frequently lost and recovered the state of the Person still remaining the same And such contingent things are these persuasions and manifestations they come and go are won and lost the state of the Person still remaining the same Iob was as much a justified Believer when he complained that God was his Enemy as when he could say I know that my Redeemer liveth The same may be said of David Heman Asaph and the greatest number of justified Believers recorded in Scripture There be two things belonging to a justified state 1. That which is essential and inseparable to wit Faith uniting the Soul to Christ. 2. That which is contingent and separable to wit evidence and persuasion of our interest in him Those Believers that walk in darkness and have no light have yet a real special interest in God as their God Isa. 50. 10. Here then you find Believers without persuasion or manifestation of God's love to them which could never be if justifying Faith consisted in a personal persuasion manifestation or evidence of the love of God and pardon of Sin to a Man's Soul That cannot be the justifying Faith spoken of in Scripture which a justified Person may live in Christ without and be as much in a state of pardon and acceptation with God when he wants it as when he hath it But such is persuasion evidence or manifestation of a man's particular interest in the love of God or the pardon of his Sins Therefore this is not the justifying Faith the Scripture speaks of Reason III. That only is justifying saving Faith which gives the Soul Right and Title to Christ and the saving benefits which come by Christ upon all the Children of God Now it is not persuasion that Christ is ours but acceptance of him that gives us interest in Christ and the

saving benefits and privileges of the Children of God Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name So that unless the Antinomians can prove that receiving of Christ and personal persuasion of pardon be one and the same thing and consequently that all Believers in the World are persuaded or assured that their sins are pardoned and reject from the number of Believers all tempted deserted dark and doubting Christians this persuasion they speak of is not nor can it be the act of Faith which justifies the person of a Sinner before God That which I think led our Antinomians into this Error was an unfound and unwary definition of Faith which in their youth they had imbibed from their Catechisms and other Systems passing without contradiction or scruple in those days which though it were a mistake and hath abundantly been proved to be so in latter days yet our Antinomians will not part with a notion so serviceable to the support of their darling Opinion of Eternal Justification Reason IV. A Man may be strongly persuaded of the Love of God to his Soul and of the pardon of his Sin and yet have no interest in Christ nor be in a pardoned State This was the Case of the Pharisees and others Luke 18. 9. Rev. 3. 17. Therefore this persuasion cannot be justifying Faith If a persuasion be that that justifies the persuaded person then the Pharisees and the Laodiceans were justified Oh! How common and easie is it for the worst of Men to be strongly persuaded of their good condition whilst humble serious Christians doubt and stagger I know not what such Doctrine as this is useful for but to beget and strengthen that sin of presumption which sends down multitudes to Hell out of the professing World For what is more common amongst the most carnal and unsanctified part of the World not only such as are meerly moral but even the most flagitious and prophane than to support themselves by false persuasions of their good estate When they are asked in order to their conviction what hopes of Salvation they have and how they are founded Their common answer is Christ died for Sinners and that they are persuaded that whatever he hath done for any other he hath done it for them as well as others But such a persuasion cometh not of him that called them and is of dangerous consequence Reason V. This Doctrine is certainly unfound because it confounds the distinction betwixt Dogmatical and Saving Faith and makes it all one to believe an Axiom or Proposition and to believe savingly in Christ to Eternal Life What is it to believe that God lay'd our iniquities upon Christ more than the mere assent of the understanding to a Scripture Axiom or Proposition without any consent of the will to receive Jesus Christ as the Gospel offers him And this is no more than what any unregenerated person may do yea the very Devils themselves assent to the truth of Scripture Axioms and Propositions as well as Men Iam. 2. 19. Thou believest there is one God thou doest well the Devils also believe and tremble What is this more than a Scripture-Axiom or Proposition God lay'd the iniquity of us all upon Christ Isa. 53. 6 And yet saith Dr. Crisp p. 296. God cannot charge one Sin upon that Man that believes this Truth That God lay'd his iniquities upon Christ. The assent of the understanding may be and often is given to a Scripture Proposition whil'st the Heart and Will remain carnal and utterly averse to Jesus Christ. I may believe Dogmatically that the iniquities of Men were lay'd upon Christ and persuade my self presumptively that mine as well as other Mens were lay'd upon him and yet remain a perfect Stranger to all saving Union and Communion with him Reason VI. This Opinion cannot be true because it takes away the only support that bears up the Soul of a Believer in times of temptation and desertion For how will you comfort such a distressed Soul that saith and saith truly I have no persuasion that Christ is mine or that my sins are pardoned but I am heartily willing to cast my poor sin-burthened Soul upon him that he may be mine I do not certainly know that he died intentionally for me but I lye at his feet cleave to him wait at the door of hope I stay and trust upon him though I walk in darkness and have no light Now let such Doctrine as this be Preached to a Soul in this condition and we may be sure 't is the condition of many thousands belonging to Christ I say bring this Doctrine to them and tell them That unless they be persuaded of the Love of God and that God lay'd their iniquities on Christ except they have some manifestation that their persons were justified from eternity their accepting of Christ consent of their Wills waiting at his Feet c. signifies nothing if they believe not that their particular sins were lay'd upon Christ and are pardoned to them by him they are still unbelievers and have no part or portion in him Whatever pretences of spiritual comfort and relief the Antinomian Doctrine makes you see by this it really deprives a very great if not the greatest number of God's people of their best and sweetest relief in days of darkness and spiritual distress So that this Doctrine which makes manifestation and assurance the very essence of justifying faith appears hereby to be both a false and very dangerous Doctrine And yet there is as much or more danger to the Souls of Men in their III. Error That Men ought not to doubt of their Faith or question whether they believe or no. Nay That they ought no more to question their Faith than to question Christ. Refutation What an easie way to Heaven is the Antinomian way Were it but as true and safe to the Soul as it is easie and pleasing to the Flesh who would not embrace it What a charm of the Devil is prepared in these two Propositions Be but persuaded more or less of Christ's Love to thy Soul saith Mr. Saltmarsh and that 's justifying Faith Here 's a snare of the Devil lay'd for the Souls of Men. And then 2. to make it fast and sure upon the Soul and effectually to prevent the discovery of their Error tell them they need no more to doubt or question their Faith than to question Christ and the work is done to all intents Now that this is an Error and a very dangerous one will appear by the following Reasons Reason I. The questioning and examining of our Faith is a commanded Scripture-duty 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves c. And 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Let him that ●nketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. The second Epistle of

of the Gospel 72. This is the effect sometimes of Hypocrisie sometimes of weakness 74. To prevent which some Rules 76. viz. R. 1. To get a real inward implantation into Christ ibid. R. 2. To labour for an experimental Taste of the Truths professed p. 77. R. 3. To study hard and pray earnestly p. 77. R. 4. To be sensible of the benefit of a good establishment and the evil and danger of a wavering mind p. 78. Cause 5. Eagerness to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promiseth ease to an Anxious Conscience 79. For the cure of which some Queries propounded viz. Qu. 1. Whether a good trouble be not better than a false Peace 82. Qu. 2. Whether Troubles so laid asleep will not revive again with a double force 83. Q. 3. Whether the Saints in Scripture that have been under terrors have not found peace by those very methods which the Principles that quiet you exclude 84. Cause 6. An easy Credulity 85. The Remedies against this 1. The consideration that it is beneath a man 88. 2. That the priviledge of trying all things is of too great a value to be thus slighted 89. 3. Observe the Practices and Lives of those men whose Opinions you are so ready to imbrace 90. Cause 7. A vain Curiosity 90. Remedies 1. A due consideration of the mischiefs that have entred into the World by this 92. 2. God hath not left his people to seek their Salvation among curious but solid and plainly revealed Truths 94. 3. 'T is a dangerous snare of Satan ibid. Cause 8. Pride and Arrogancy of Humane Reason 95. Remedies 1. 'T is the Will of God that Ratiocination should submit to Revelation and Reason to Faith 98. 2. A sense of the weakness and corruption of Natural Reason 99. 3. Consider the manifold mischiefs flowing from the pride of Reason Cause 9. Ignorant Zeal 101. Defensatives 1. A Reflection upon the mischiefs occasioned by it in all Places and Ages 104. 2. A consideration how hurtful it may prove to your own Soul 106. 3. How prejudicial is hath been to Human Society 107. 4. That Opinion is to be suspected which comes in by the Affections 108. Cause 10. Impulsive of spreading Errors Satan 110. Rules for Cure 1. Pray for a sound Conversion 113. 2. Acqu●int your selves with the Devices of Satan ibid. 3. Resign your Souls to the conduct of Christ and his Spirit 114. 4. Live in the practice of the truths and duties God hath revealed already 115. Cause 11. Instrumental the false Teacher ibid. Remedies 1. Pray for strength of Grace and solidity of Iudgment and use all means to obtain it 119. 2. Acquaint your selves with the Artifices of such as these 121. Such as are their endeavours to blast the reputation of faithful Teachers ibid. the mixing their Errors among solid Truths 122. Cause 12. The methods used by False Teachers to draw men from the truth among which the first is their representing the Abuses of the Ordinances of God in such a manner as to scare tender Consciences from the use of them 124. Remedies 1. Nothing so great and sacred in Religion but what hath been vilely corrupted and abused 127. 2. 'T is the temper of a gracious Soul to love those Ordinances which are most abused and disgraced 129. 3. Before you forsake any Ordinance consider whether you have found no advantage by it 130. Cause 13. Another method which they use is a granting to their Followers a Liberty of Prophesying 131. Remedies 1. Let all that incourage or undertake such a work as this consider the danger they cast on their own and other mens Souls 134. 2. How daring a presumption it is to intrude themselves into such an Office without a Call from Christ 136. 3. To vent our unsound Liberty is said in Scripture to be our greatest dishonour 137. 4. 'T is much more safe and advantageous for every one to fill their own places with their proper work ibid. Cause 14. Another method of theirs is a Spirit of Enthusiasm or a pretence to Revelations 138. Remed 1. Whatever Doctrine seeks credit to it self this way ought to be suspected of wanting a Scripture-foundation 141. 2. Consider how often the Devil hath abused the World by such ways as these 142. 3. H●w impossible it is to know whether such a Revelation be from God or the Devil 144. Cause 15. Another method they use is Timing their Assaults 145. Remed 1. Respects Ministers that they should look carefully after the Souls of young Converts 149. Remed 2. Young Converts should consider That they must not expect to find Christ in one way and not another that they are expos'd to the Snares of Satan and that it is a sad thing to grieve the hearts of those Ministers who have travelled in pain for them 150 151. Cause 16. Another Artifice of False Teachers is to press their Proselytes to declare speedily for them and their Opinions 152. Remedies Consider 1. That hasty ingagements in disputable matters have cost many Souls dear 155. 2. Weighty Actions require answerable deliberations ibid. 3. The only season wherein men have to consider is before their Affections are too far ingaged 156. 4. Consult with pious Ministers and trust not to your own Iudgment 157. 5. Suspect that Opinion that will not allow you a due time for consideration 158. Consectaries from the whole ibid. 1. The usefulness and necessity of ● standing Ministry ibid. 2. How little peace the Church must expect till a greater light be poured out upon it 159. 3. What a mercy it is to be kept sound in Iudgment and stedfast in the ways of Christ 161. 4. We may discover one cause of the great decay of serious P●ety in this Age 162. 5. One Reason of the frequent Persecutions God exercised his Church with 163. 6. We may learn the duty and necessity of mutual Charity and forbearance 164. The Contents of Vindiciarum Vindex or the First Appendix THE whole of the Answer reduced under three heads p. 175. Two things premised 176. Head 1. Mr. Cary hath not been able to free his Thesis from the horrid absurdity charged upon it viz. That Moses and the whole People of God were under a Covenant of Works and a Covenant of Grace at the same time 179. From whence follows Absurd 1. That all their lives they were in the mid-way between life and death and after death in the mid-way betwixt Heaven and Hell 180. Mr. Cary's First Reply 184. Answer'd 185. Mr. Cary's Second Reply 187. Answer'd ibid. The Ten Commandments complexly taken including the Ceremonial Law were added as an Appendix to the promise 192. Mr. Cary's Answer to it consider'd 194. A Promise of pardon in the Sinai Dispensation to penitent Sinners 198 199. The several Arguments that are left standing in their full force against Mr. Cary 200 201 202 203. The Law given at Sinai wrote of the chief Privileges which the Jews had 203. His Argument that the Law is not of

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

solid Scripture-foundation God hath not left his People to seek satisfaction in such uncertain ways as these but hath given them a surer word of Prophecy to which they do well to take heed 2 Pet. 1. 19. He hath tyed us to the standing Rule of the Word forbidding us to give heed to any other Voice or Spirit leading us another way Isa. 8. 19. 2 Thess. 2. 1 2. Gal. 1. 8. Scripture-light is a safe and sure Light a pleasant and sufficient Light The Scripture saith Luther is so full that as for Visions and Revelations nec curo nec desidero I neither regard nor desire them And when he himself had a Vision of Christ after a day of fasting and prayer he cried out Avoid Satan I know no Image of Christ but the Scripture An hankering mind after these things speaks a sickly and distempered state of Soul as longing after Trash in young distempered Persons doth a distempered state or ill habit of Body Mr. William Bridges somewhere tells us of a Religious Lady of the Empresses Bed-chamber whose name was Gregoria who being greatly troubled about her Salvation wrote to Gregory That she would never cease importuning him 'till he had sent her word that he had obtained a Revelation from Heaven that she should be saved to whom he returned this Answer Rem difficilem postulas inutilem Thou requirest of me that which is difficult to me and unprofitable for thee Remedy II. Consider how often the World hath been abused by the Tricks and Cheats of that officious Spirit the Devil in such ways as these What hath propagated Idolatry among Heathens and Christians more than this Hinc fluxerunt multae peregrinationnes Monasteria delubra dies festi alia saith Lavater in Iob 33. Pilgrimages Monasteries Shrines of Saints Holy-days c. have been introduced by this Trick 'T were endless to give Instances of it in the Histories of former Ages We have a notable late Account of it among our selves in a Book entitled A Discovery of the notorious Falsehood and Dissimulation contained in a Book stiled The Gospel-way confirmed by Miracles Licensed and published 1649. wherein is laid open to the World the free Confession of Ann Wells Matthe● Hall c. deluding the People of Whatfield in Suffolk with such pretended Voices Visions Prophecies and Revelations the like have scarcely been heard of in England since the Reformation Multitudes of People were deluded by them At length the Lord extorted from this Woman a full Confession of the notorious falseness of these things by a terrible Vision of Hell her Partizans laboured four days to suppress and stifle it but to no purpose for the Horrors of Conscience prevailed with her to confess the notorious Dissimulations contained in that Book before the People of Whatfield and a Justice of the Peace And thus the Lord out-shot Satan in his own Bow Remedy III. Consider how difficult yea and impossible it is for a man to determine that such a Voice Vision or Revelation is of God and that Satan cannot feign or counterfeit it seeing he hath left no certain marks by which we may distinguish one Spirit from another an albus an ater Sure we are Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and therefore abandoning all those unsafe and uncertain ways whereby Swarms of Errors have been conveyed into the World let us cleave inseparably to the sure Word of Prophecy the Rule and Standard of our Faith and Duty Cause XV. Another way in which False Teachers discover their Subtilty with great success is in TIMING their Assaults and nicking the proper Season when the minds of men are most apt and easy to be drawn away by their fair and specious Pretences Such a Season as this they find about the time of mens first Conversion or soon after their Implantation into Christ. Now it is that their Affections are most lively and vigorous though their Judgments be but weak They have now such strong and deep apprehensions of the Grace and Love of Christ and such transcendent zeal for him that they easily embrace any thing whereby they conceive he may be honoured and exalted They have also such deep Apprehensions and powerful Aversations as to Sin that they are in danger to fly even from Truth and Duty it felf when it shall be artificially represented to them as Sin For not only that which is malum per se Sin indeed but that which is male coloratum painted with Sin 's Colours is apt to scare and fright them Besides These young Converts or Novices have not had time to confirm and root themselves in the Truth and Trees newly planted are much more easily drawn up than those that have spread and fastened their Roots in the Earth 'T is observable what a swarm of false Teachers troubled the Churches of Corinth Galatia and Philippi at and newly after their first planting and what danger those young Christians were in abundantly appears in the Apostle's frequent Cautions and holy Jealousy over them he bids them beware of Dogs beware of Evil Workers beware of the Concision Phil. 3. 2. I fear lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his s●btilty so your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. 11. 3. he was afraid of the Galatians lest he had bestowed upon them labour in vain Gal. 4. 11. he would not give place to false Brethren no not for an hour Gal. 2. 5. charges the Romans to receive them that were weak in the faith but not to doubtful Disputations Rom. 14. 1. All which and many more Expressions discover his grounded jealousy and their extraordinary danger of seduction at their first plantation A Novice in Christianity is the Person Satan seeks for strong Believers are not in such apparent danger as little ones in Christ 1 Iohn 5. 21. Little Children keep your selves from Idols And the reason is because keen Affections match'd with weak Judgments give a mighty advantage to Seducers Children are apt to be taken with beautiful Appearances and fine shews and Erroneous Teachers have the very knack to set a glo●s of extraordinary sanctity upon their dangerous Opinions Hence those Persons that promoted the Sect of the Nicolaitans made use of a cunning Woman who for her skill in painting Errors with the Colours of Truth got the name of Iezebel Rev. 2. 20. That Queen was famous for the art of Painting 1 King 16. and so was this false Prophetess indeed there was scarce any eminent Sect of Errorists or Hereticks mentioned in Church-history but some curious feminine Artist hath been employed to lay the beautiful Colours upon it So we find Simon Magus had his Helena Carpocrates his Marcellina Montanus his Priscilla and Maximilla And the curious Colours of Holiness Zeal and Free-grace artificially laid upon the face of Error how wrinkled and ugly soever in it self sets it off temptingly and takingly to weak and injudicious Minds Moreover Erroneous Teachers

that the want of a due observation of this plain Scripture-distinction betwixt God's free and absolute Covenant made with Sinners in Christ and our Covenants with God by way of return thereunto is the true reason of all our mistakes about the true nature of the Gospel-Covenant whilst we jumble and co●found together that which the Scriptures do so plainly distinguish To your first Answer I say It is true the Scriptures do distinguish betwixt Covenant and Covenant that of Works and that of Grace It also distinguishes the same Covenant of Grace for substance according to its various administrations into the Old and New Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt the promissory part of the same Covenant of Grace and the restipulatory part not as of two opposite Covenants as you distinguish them Gen. 17. but as the just and necessary parts of one and the same Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt Vows made by Men to God in some particular Cases and the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and them But what 's all this to your purpose Or in what point doth it touch my Argument You desire me to cast mine eye upon Ezek. 16. and Psal. 89. I have done so and that impartially and do assure you I admire why you produce them against my Argument That in Ezek. speaks of the enlargement of the Church by the accession of the Gentiles to it and the sense of those words seems to me to be this That this enlargement of the Church is a gracious addition or something beyond what God had ever done in his former dispensations of the Covenant to that People And for Psal. 89. I know not what you meant to produce it for unless it be to prove what I never denied That notwithstanding our failures in duty towards God God will still keep his Covenant with us though he will visit the Iniquities of his Covenant-p●ople with a Rod. To your second Answer That we are to deliberate the terms and count the cost with respect to those duties which are in order to the participation of the full end of the Covenant in glory by which I suppose you mean Self-denial Perseverance c. I have no Controversy with you about that Our Question is Whether there be no deliberations required of or to be performed by men who are not yet in Christ by justifying Faith but under some preparatory works towards Faith And whether at the very time of their closing with Christ there be not a consent of the Will unto those terms required of them If you say there be as by the places I alledged it evidently appears there are then you yield the point I contend for If you say they are not before or at the time of believing to consider any terms or give their consent to them by word or writing such an Answer would fly in the very face of those Scriptures I produced for then a man may be in covenant without his own consent he that deliberates not consents not non consentit qui non sentit And therefore you durst not speak it out for which modesty I commend you and so leave me with half an answer not touching that part viz. Antecedent deliberations which were concerned in this Argument And now let your most partial Friends judge Whether from this performance of yours you have any just ground for that vain boast which concludes your Answer viz. That the Covenants themselves which those Privileges are bottomed on are now repealed and that there is no room left for any other Argument to infer the Baptism of Infants at least I shall willingly commit it to the judgment of all intelligent and impartial Readers Whether Mr. Cary hath any real ground in this performance of his for such a Thrasonical Conclusion such a vain and fulsome Boast I find that with like confidence he hath also attempted a Reply to Mr. Ioseph Whiston a Reverend Learned and Aged Divine who hath accurately and successfully defended God's Covenant with Abraham against Mr. Cox and doubt not if Mr. Cary and his Party have but confidence enough to expose it to the publick view and to adventure the Cause of Infant-baptism upon it the World will quickly see an end of this long-continued and unhappy Controversy which hath vexed the Church of God and alienated the Affections of good Men and that the Wisdom of Providence hath permitted and over-ruled this last Attempt to the singular advantage of the Truths of God and tranquillity of good Men whose concernment at this time especially is rather to strengthen their Faith and heighten their Encouragements from God's gracious Covenant than to undermine it when all things beside it are shaking and tottering round about them And now Sir for a Coronis to all those things that have been controverted betwixt us about the Covenants of God and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism resulting from one of them which I have asserted and argued against you in my first Answer and you have silently and wholly pass'd over in your Reply hoping to destroy them all at once by proving God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. to be a pure Adam's Covenant of Works I judge it necessary as matters now lie between us to give the Reader the grounds and reasons of my Faith and Practice with respect unto the Ordinance of Infant Baptism and that as succinctly and clearly as I can in the following Theses which being laid together by an unprejudiced and considerative Reader will I think amount to more than a strong probability That it is the will of God that the Infant-seed of Believers ought now to be baptized But here I must remind the Reader and beg him to review what I have said before in th● third Cause of Errors That to arrive to satisfaction in this point requires a due and serious search of the whole Word of God with a sedate rational and impartial mind comparing one thing with another though they lie scattered at a distance in the Scriptures some in the Old Testament and some in the New Bring but these things to an interview as we do in discovering the change of the Sabbath and we may arrive unto a due satisfaction of the Will of God herein This I confess calls for strength of mind great sedulity attention and impartiality and yet what man would think all this too much if it were but to clear his Childrens Title unto a small Earthly Inheritance I intend not to give the Reader here an account of all the Arguments drawn from several Scripture Topics by the strenuous Defenders of Infants Baptism but to keep only to the Arguments drawn from God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. which is the Scripture mainly controverted betwixt us You affirming boldly and dangerously that Covenant to be no other than an Adam's Covenant of Works and I justly denying and abhorring your Position upon the grounds and reasons before given which you neither have nor ever will be able to destroy Now

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