Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	age_n	church_n	true_a	1,952	5	4.9061	4	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

when press'd in the service of Error than we now think due to it If Antiquity will not do Reason shall be press'd to serve Error 's turn at a dead lift and indeed the Pencil of Reason can lay curions Colours upon rotten Timber and varnish over erroneous Principles with fair and plausible pretences What expert Artists have the Socinians proved themselves in this matter But because men are bound to submit human Authority and Reason to Divine Revelation both must give way and strike sail to the Written Word Hence it comes to pass that the great Patrons and Factors for Error do above all things labour to gain countenance to their Errors from the Written Word and to this end they manifestly wrest and rack the Scriptures to make them subservient to their Opinions not impartially studying the Scriptures first and forming their notions and opinions according to them but they bring their Erroneous Opinions to the Scriptures and then with all imaginable art and sophistry wiredraw and force the Scriptures to countenance and legitimate their Opinions But because pretences of Piety and Reformation are the strokes that give life to the face of this Idol and give it the nearest resemblance unto Truth these therefore never fail to be made use of and zealously professed in the favour of Error though there be little of either many times to be found in their Persons and nothing at all in the Doctrines that lay claim to it Eleventh Observation God in all ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them As Providence is observed in every Climate and Island of the World to have provided Antidotes against the poisonous Plants and Animals of the Countrey and the one is never far from the other So is the care of his Providence much more conspicuous in the case now before us When or wheresoever venomous Errors and deadly Heresies do arise he hath his servants at hand with Antidotes against them When Arrius that cunning and deadly Enemy to the Deity of Christ struck at the very heart of our Religion Faith and Comfort a man of subtil Parts and Blameless Life which made his Heresie much the more spreading and taking the Lord had his well-furnished Athanasius in a readiness to resist and confound him And as he had his Athanasius to defend the Deity of Christ so he wanted not his Basil to defend the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit against Macedonius so when Pelagius was busily advancing Free-will into the Throne of Free-grace Providence wanted not its Mallet in Learned and Ingenious Augustin to break him and his Idol to pieces And it is highly remarkable as the Learned D r. Hill observes that Augustin was born in Africa the same day that Pelagius was born in Brittain When Gotteschalcus published his dangerous Doctrine about Predestination the Lord drew forth Hincmarus to detect and confute that Error by evincing clearly that God's Predestination forces no man to Sin So from the beginning and first rise of Popery that centre and sink of Errors we have a large Catalogue of the Learned and Famous Witnesses which in all Ages have faithfully resisted and opposed it and when notwithstanding all it had even over-run Europe like a rapid Torrent or rather Inundation of the Ocean And Germany was brought to that pass that if the Pope had but Commanded it they would have eaten Grass or Hay more pecudum Then did the Lord bring forth Invincible Luther and with him a troop of Learned Champions into the field against him since which time the Cause of Popery is become desperate Thus the care of Providence in all ages hath been as much displayed in protecting the Church against the dangers that arose from false Brethren within it as from avowed persecuting Enemies without it and had it not been so the rank Weeds of Heresies and Errors had long since overtopt and choaked the Corn and made the Church a barren●Field Twelfth Observation The want of a modest Suspition and just reflection gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions If matters of meer Opinion were kept in their proper place under the careful guard of Suspition they would not make that bustle and confusion in the Churches they have done and do at this day 'T is confessed that all Truths are not matters of meer Opinion neither are all Opinions of equal weight and value and therefore not to be left hanging in an equipendious Scepticisme And yet it is as true that matrers of Opinion o●ght carefully to be sorted from matters of Faith and to be kept in their own rank and class as things doubtful quibus potest subesse falsum whilst matters of Faith clearly revealed are to stand upon their own sure and firm Basis. The former viz. matters of meer Opinion we are so to hold as upon clearer light to be ready to part with them and give them up into the hands of Truth The other viz. matters of Faith we are to hold with resolutions to Live and Dye by them What is Opinion but the wavering of the understanding betwixt probable Arguments for and against a point of Doctrine So that it 's rather an inclination than an assertion as being accompanied with Fear Floating and Inconstancy In such cases there should be a due concession and allowance of other mens Opinions to them and why not whilst they offer as fair for the Truth as we And haply their Parts Helps and Industries arenot inferior to ours it may be beyond them and we may discern in them as much tenderness of Conscience and fear of Sin as in our selves In this case a little more modest Suspicion in our Opinions would do the Church a great deal of right and that which should prevail with all modest persons to exercise it is the just reflection they may make upon their own former confident mistakes Thirteenth Observation There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors one linking in and drawing another after it Amongst all Erroneous Sects there is still some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some Helena for whose sake the war against Truth is commenced and the other lesser Errors are press'd for the sake and service of this leading darling Error As we see the whole Troop of Indulgences Bulls Masses Pilgrimages Purgatory with multitudes more flow from and are press'd into the Service of the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility So in other Sects men are forc●d to entertain many other Errors which in themselves considered they have no great kindness for but they are necessitated to entertain them in defence of that great leading darling Opinion they first espoused Those that cry up and trumpet abroad the Soveraign power of Free-will even without the preventing Grace of God enabling men to supernatural works as if the Will alone had escaped all damage by the Fall

more apt to catch in low-built thatcht Cottages than in high-built Castles and Princely Palaces the higher we go still the more peace The highest Region is most sedate and calm Stars have the strongest influence when in conjunction Angels tho legions have no wars among them and as willingly go down as up the Ladder without justling each other And the Most High God is the God of Peace let us also be the Children of Peace And I do assure the Persons with whom I contend That whilst they hold the head and are tender of the Churches Peace I can live in charity with them here and hope to live in glory with them hereafter I remain Reader thine and the Truth 's Friend John Flavell THE CONTENTS OF THE Causes and Cures c. THE Etymology and definition of the word Error Introd p. 2 3. The difference between Heresy and Error Introd p. 4. Twenty general Observations Disc. p. 7. Obs. 1. Truth is the object and natural food of the Vnderstanding p. 7. Explain'd and confirm'd P. 8. Obs. 2. Several sorts of Knowledge amongst which the supernatural knowledge of saving Truths revealed in the Scriptures is the best 9. Obs. 3. Vnto the attainment of Divine Knowledge out of the Scripture some things are naturally yet less principally requisite in the subject and something absolutely and principally necessary 11. As the irradiation of the mind by the Spirit of God the benefits of which 12. Obs. 4. Among the manifold impediments to the obtaining of true Knowledge and setling the mind in the truth and faith of the Gospel these three are of special consideration viz. Ignorance Curiosity and Error p. 13. Obs. 5. Error is binding upon the Conscience as well as Truth and altogether as much and sometimes more influential upon the Affections and Passions than Truth is 14. Obs. 6. 'T is exceeding difficult to get out Error when once it is imbib ' d and hath rooted it self by an open profession 15. Obs. 7. Men are not so circumspect and jealous of the Corruptions of their Minds by Errors as they are of their Bodies in times of Contagion or of their Lives with respect to gross Immoralities 17. Obs. 8. 'T is a great Iudgment of God to be given up to an Erroneous Mind 19. Obs. 9. 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a mere Opinion into the place or seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point 21. Obs. 10. Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and secure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety 23. Obs. 11. God in all Ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them p. 25. Obs. 12. The want of a modest suspicion and just reflection gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions 27. Obs. 13. There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors one linking in and drawing another after it 29. Obs. 14. Errors abound most and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace Liberty and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Governors 31. Obs. 15. Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them are comparatively shy and modest to what they prove afterwards when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World 33. Obs. 16. Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Errors than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it 35. Obs. 17 Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force but by rational conviction and proper spiritual remedies 36. Obs. 18. Erroneous Doctrines producing Divisions and fierce Contentions amongst Christians prove a fatal Stumbling-block to the World fix their Prejudices and obstruct their conversion to Christ p. 38. Obs. 19. How specious and taking soever the pretences of Error be and how long soever they maintain themselves in esteem among men they are sure to end in the loss and shame of their Authors and Abettors at last 40. Obs. 20. If ever Errors be cured and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established men must be convinced of and acquainted with the occassions and causes both within and without themselves from whence their Errors do proceed and must both know and apply the proper rules and remedies for the prevention or cure of them 42. Divine Permission an occasion of Error 44. Which must be prevented by avoiding 1. A want of love to the Truth 45. 2. Pride and wantonness of the mind 46. 3. The neglect of Prayer ibid. Culpable Causes of Errors in men are 1. A wrangling humor at the pretended obscurity of the Scriptures p. 47. Cod's wisdom manifested in leaving some difficulties in the Scriptures 49. For the prevention of this cause these Rules following to be heeded and practis'd viz. R. 1. To expound all obscure Texts of Scripture according to the analogy and proportion of Faith p. 50. R. 2. Not to wrest Scripture from its general and common sense in favour of our preconceived Opinions 51. R. 3. When we meet with a difficult place of Scripture to search the Context throughly 52. R. 4. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other the Old on the New and the New on the Old ibid. R. 5. Observe the sense which the current of Expositors do agree in and which naturally agrees with the scope of the place 53 Cause 2. The abuse of the Liberty given by Christ to all his People to read the Scriptures and to judge of the sense of them by a private judgment of Discretion ibid. Remedy of it is to observe the limits which Christ hath set to this Liberty which Limitations are 1. A liberty to read and study but not publickly to expound and preach the Word 57. 2. Christians of different Abilities ought to study some parts of Scripture rather than others 59. Cause 3. Slothfulness in a due and serious search of the Scripture 61. How to find the institution of the Sabbath in the Scripture 64. How to find the institution of the Baptism of Infants there 65. Several Considerations to cure this slothfulness 67. Viz. A serious search of the Scriptures is our duty ibid. No action of ours that is not agreeable to God's will is acceptable to him 68. This is the path in which the wisest and best of men have gone before us 69. Every discovery of the Will of God obtain'd in this method is highly pleasant 70. Confirms our Faith 71. An impartial search into the Will of God will be a testimony of our Integrity and Sincerity ibid. Cause 4. Instability of judgment and unsetledness of mind about the truth

to Babylon against the very Grammar of the Text and the Truth of the History And so again that place Isa. 58. 8. The glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward through ignorance of the word read re-reward that is a double reward to his people But these are small matters compared with those grosser abuses of Scripture by the ignorant and unlearned which prejudice Truth and too much countenance Popish Reproaches The Remedies The proper way to prevent and remedy this mischief is not by depriving any Man of his just Liberty either to read or judge for himself what God speaks in his Word and think that way to cure Errors that were the same thing as to cut off the Head to cure an Head-ach Leave that sinful policy with the false Religion Let those only that know they do evil be afraid of coming to the light But the proper course of preventing the mischiefs that come this way is by labouring to bound and contain Christians within those limits Christ himself hath set unto this liberty which he hath granted them And these are such as follow Limitation I. Tho' Christ have indulged to the meanest and weakest Christian a liberty to read and judge of the Scriptures for himself yet he hath neither thereby nor therewith granted him a liberty publickly to Expound and Preach the Word to others That 's quite another thing Every Man that can read the Scriptures and judge of their sense is not thereby presently made Christ's Commission-Officer publickly and authoritatively to Preach and Inculcate the same to others Two things are requisite to such an employment viz. Proper Qualifications 1 Tim. 3. And a solemn Call or designation Rom. 10. 14 15. The Ministry is a distinct Office Acts 20. 17 28. 1 Thes. 5. 12. and none but qualified and ordained persons can Authoritatively Preach the Word 2 Tim. 1. 6. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 5. 22. Christians may privately edify one another by reading the Scriptures communicating their sense one to another of them admonishing counselling reproving one another in a private fraternal way at seasons wherein they interfere not with more publick Duties But for every one that hath confidence enough and the ignorant usually are best stock'd with it to assume a liberty without due Qualification or Call to Expound and give the Sense of Scriptures and pour forth his crude and unstudied Notions as the pure sense and meaning of God's Spirit in the Scriptures this is what Christ never allowed and through this Flood-gate Errors have broken in and overflowed the Church of God to the great scandal of Religion and confirmation of Popish Enemies Limitation II. Though there be no part of Scripture shut up or restrained from the knowledg or use of any Christian yet Jesus Christ hath recommended to Christians of different abilities the study of some parts of Scripture rather than others as more proper and agreeable to their Age and Stature in Religion Christians are by the Apostle rank'd into three Classes Fathers Young-men and Little Children 1 Iohn 2. 13. and accordingly the Wisdom of Christ hath directed to that sort of food which is proper to either For there is in the Word all sorts of Food suitable to all Ages in Christ there 's both Milk for Babes and strong Meat for grown Christians Heb. 5. 13 14. Those that are unskilful in the Word of Righteousnes should feed upon Milk that is the easie plain but most nutritive and pleasant practical Doctrines of the Gospel But strong Meat saith he that is the more abstruse deep and mysterious truths belongeth to them that are of full Age even those who by reason of use have their Senses exercised to discern both good and evil that is Truth and Error To the same purpose he speaks 1 Cor. 3. 2. I have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto ye were not able to bear it Art thou a weak unstudied Christian a Babe in Christ Then the easier and more nutritive Milk of plain Gospel-Doctrine is fitter for thee and will do thee more good than the stronger Meat of profound and more mysterious Points or the Bones of Controversy which are too hard for thee to deal with God hath blessed this Age with great variety of sound and allowed Expositors in our own Language by the diligent study of which and prayer for the illumination and guidance of the Spirit you may not only attain unto the true sense and meaning of the more plain and obvious but also unto gre●ter knowledg and clearer insight into the more obscure and controverted parts of Scripture Cause III. There is also another evil disposition in the Subject rendring it easily receptive of Errors and that is spiritual SLOTHFVLNESS and carelesness in a due and serious search of the whole Scripture with a sedate and rational consideration of every part and particle therein which may give us any though the least light to understand the mind of God in those obscure and difficult points we search after the knowledg of Truth lies deep as the rich Veins of Gold do Prov. 2. If we will get the treasure we must not only beg as he directs vers 3. but dig also vers 4. else as he speaks Prov. 14. 23. The talk of the lips tends only to poverty We are not to take up with that which lies uppermost and next at hand upon the surface of the Text but to search with the most sedate and considerative mind into all parts of the written Word examining every Text which hath any respect to the truth we are searching for heedfully to observe the Scope Antecedents and Consequents and to value every Apex Tittle and Iota for each of these are of Divine Authority Matt. 5. 18. and sometimes greater weight is laid upon a small word yea upon the addition or change of a Letter in a word as appears in the names of Abram and Sarai It will require some strength of mind and great sedulity to lay all parts of Scripture before us and to compare words with words and things with things as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 2. 13. comparing spiritual things with spiritual And though it be true that some important Doctrines as that of Iustification by Faith are methodically disposed and throughly clear'd and setled in one and the same Context yet it is as true that very many other points of Faith and Duty are not so digested but are delivered sparsinì here a little and there a little as he speaks Isa. 28. 10. You must not think to find all that belongs to one Head or Point of Faith or Duty lay'd together in a System or common place in Scripture but scattered abroad in several pieces some in the Old Testament and some in the New at a great distance one from another Now in our searches and inquiries after the full and satisfying knowledg of the Will of God in such Points it is necessary that the whole Word of God be throughly

make one assault How many wavering Professors at this day lie in Temptation's way and how great a harvest have Errorists and Hereticks had among them There 's not a Mountebank comes upon the Stage but he shall find ten times more Customers for his Druggs than the most Learned and Experienced Physician The giddy-headed Multitude have more regard to Novelty than Truth The Remedies How necessary and desirable are some effectual Rules and Remedies in this Case O what a mercy would it be to the Professors of these days to have their Minds fixed and their Judgments setled in the Truths of Christ Happy is that man whose Judgment is so guarded that no dangerous Error or Heresie can commit a Rape upon it To this end I shall here commend the four following Rules to prevent this vertigenous malady in the heads of Christians Rule I. Look warily to it that you get a real inward implantation into Christ and lay the foundation deep and firm in a due and serious deliberation of Religion whenever you engage in the publick profession of it To this sense sound the Apostle's words Col. 2. 6 7. As you have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as you have been taught Fertility and stability in Christ a pair of inestimable Blessings depend upon a good rooting of the Soul in him at first He that thrusts a dead stick into the ground may easily pull it up again but so he cannot do by a well-rooted Tree A colour raised by violent action or a great fire soon dies away but that which is natural or constitutional will hold Every thing is as its foundation is 'T was want of a good root and due depth of earth which soon turned the green Corn into dry stubble Matt. 13. 21. Rule II. Labour after an inward experimental taste of all those Truths which you profess This will preserve your minds from wavering and hesitation about the certainty and reality of them We will not easily part with those Truths which have sensibly shed down their sweet influences upon our hearts Heb. 10. 34. No Sophister can easily perswade a man that hath ta●ted the sweetness of Honey that it is a bitter and unpleasant thing Non est disputandum de gustu you cannot easily perswade a man out of his Senses Rule III. Study hard and pray earnestly for satisfaction in the present Truths 2 Pet. 1. 12. That you may be established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the truth that now is under opposition and controversie Be not ignorant of the Truths that lie in present hazard Antiquated Opinions that are more abstracted from our present Interest are no tryals of the soundness of our Judgments and integrity of our Hearts as the controversies and conflicts of the present Times are Every Truth hath its time to come upon the stage and enter the lists some in one Age and some in another but Providence seems to have cast the lot of your Nativity for the honour and defence of those Truths with which Error is struggling and conflicting in your time Rule IV. Lastly Be throughly sensible of the benefit and good of establishment and of the evil and danger of a wavering Mind and Judgment Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines saith the Apostle for it is a good thing that the heart be established c. Heb. 13. 9. Established Souls are the honour of Truth It was the honour of Religion in the primitive days that when the Heathens would proverbially express an Impossibility they used to say You may as soon turn a Christian from Christ as do it The Fickleness of Professors is a stumbling-block to the World They 'l say as Cato of the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey quem fugiam video quem sequar non video they know whom to avoid but not whom to follow And as the honour of Truth so the flourishing of your own Souls depends on it A Tree often removed from one Soil to another can never be expected to be fruitful 't is well if it make a shift to live Fifth Cause Another inward Cause disposing men to receive Erroneous Impressions is an unreasonable EAGERNESS to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promisesh ease to an anxious Conscience Men that are under the frights and terrours of Conscience are willing to listen to any thing that offers present relief Of all the Troubles in the World those of the Mind and Conscience are most intolerable And those that are in pain are glad of ease and readily catch at any thing that seems to offer it This seems to be the thing which led those poor distressed Wretches intimated Micah 6. 6. into their gross Mistakes and Errors about the method of the remission of their Sins Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and ●ow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams or with ten thousand of Rivers of Oyl Shall I give my First-born for my Transgression the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul They were ready to purchase inward peace and buy out their pardon at any rate Nothing but the twinges of Conscience could have extorted these things from them Great is the efficacy and torment of a guilty Conscience Satan who feels more of this in himself than any other Creature in the World and knows how ready poor ignorant but distressed Sinners are to catch at any thing that looks like ease or comfort and being jealous what these troubles of Conscience may issue into prepares for them such Erroneous Doctrines and Opinions under the names of Anodines and quieting Recipe's by swallowing of which they feel some present ease but their Disease is thereby made so much the more incurable 'T is upon this account he hath found such vent in the World for his Penanees Pilgrimages and Indulgences among the Papists But seeing this Ware will not go off among the Reformed and more enlightned Professors of Christianity he changeth his hand and fitteth other Doses under other names to quiet sick and distressed Souls before ever their frights of Conscience come to settle into true Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ by dressing up and presenting to them such Opinions as these viz. That they may boldly apply to themselves all the Promises of pardon and peace without any respect at all to Repentance or Faith in themselves that it is not at all needful nay that it is illegal and sinful to have any respect to these things forasmuch as their Sins were pardoned and they justified from Eternity and that the Covenant of Grace is in all respects absolute and is made to Sinners as Sinners without any regard to their Faith or Repentance and whatever Sins there be in them God sees them not To such a Charm of Troubles

Doctrines and Points of Faith after him We are commanded to be ready to give an account of the hope that is in us and not to say this or that is my Judgment or Opinion but let others give an account of the ground and reason of it I confess if he that leads me into an Error were alone exposed to the hazard and I quit and free whatever become of him it were quite another thing But when our Saviour tells us Matth. 15. 14. that both that is the Follower as well as the Leader fall into the ditch at my peril be it if I follow without eyes of my own That 's but a weak building that is shored up by a prop from a Neighbour's Wall How many men have ruined their Estates by Suretiship for others but of all Suretiship none so dangerous as spiritual Suretiship We neither ought as a late Worthy speaks to defy the Iudgment of the weakest nor yet on the other side to deify the Iudgment of the strongest Christian. He that pins his Faith upon another man's Sleeve knows not whither he will cary it Remedy II. As you ought not to abuse your Christian Privilege and Liberty to try all things 1 Thess. 5. 21. so neither on the other side to undervalue or part with it See the things that so much concern your eternal peace with your own eyes I shewed you before this Liberty is abused by extending it too far and under the notion of proving all things many embolden themselves to innovate and entertain any thing yet beware of bartering such a precious Privilege for the fairest Promises others can make in lieu of it I would not slight nor undervalue the Piety and Learning of others nor yet put out my own eyes to see by theirs Remedy III. Before you adventure to espouse the Opinions of others diligently observe and mark the fruits and consequences of those Opinions in the Lives of the zealous Abettors and Propagators of them By their fruits saith Christ ye shall know them When the Opinion or Doctrine naturally tends to looseness or when it sucks and draws away all a man's zeal to maintain and diffuse it and practical Religion thereby visibly languishes in their Conversations 't is time for you to make a pause before you advance one step farther towards it Seventh Cause The next Evil Disposition that I shall note in the Subject is a vain CVRIOSITY of mind or an itching desire to pry into things unrevealed at least above our ability to search out and discover 'T is an Observation as true as ancient Pruritus aurium scabies Ecclesiae itching Ears come to a Scab upon the face of the Church The itch of Novelty produceth the Scab of Error Of this Disease the Apostle warns us 2 Tim. 4. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears Nothing will please them but new Notions and new modes of Language and Method Tone and Gesture Sound Doctrine is the only substantial and solid food that nourishes and strengthens the heart of the new Creature but vain Scepticks nauseate and despise this as trite vulgar cheap and low Nothing humours them but Novelties and Rarities their unsetled Brains must be wheel'd about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with divers and strange Doctrines Heb. 13. 9. Novelty and Variety are the only properties that commend Doctrines to wanton Palates Hence it is they so boldly intrude into things they have not seen Col. 2. 18. These Cyril fitly calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the domineerings or darings of bold Spirits The Schoolmen have filled the World with a thousand ungrounded Fancies as the distinct Offices and Orders of Angels and higher flights of fancy than these which seem to be invented for no other end or use but to please the itching Ears of the Curious There is not only a vesana temerit as Genethliacorum a wild and daring rashness of Astrologers presuming to foretel Futurities and the Fates of Kingdoms as well as particular Persons from the conjunctions and influences of the Stars but there is also found as high a presumption and boldness among men in matters of Religion Satan is well aware of this humour in men and how exceeding serviceable it is to his Design and therefore having the very knack of clawing and pleasing itching Ears with taking-Novelties he is never wanting to feed their minds with a pleasing variety and fresh succession of them new Opinions are still invented and minted in which the dangerous Hooks of Error are hid If men were once cured of this spiritual itch and their minds reduced to that temper and sobriety as to be pleased with and bless God for the plain revealed Truths of the Gospel Satan would drive but a poor Trade and find but few Customers for his Erroneous Novelties The Remedies The proper Remedies to cure this itch after Novelty or dangerous Curiosity of the mind are Remedy I. Due Reflection upon the manifold mischiefs that have entered into the World this way It was this Curiosity and desire to know that overthrew our first Parents Gen. 3. 6. When the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof The very same way by which he let in the first Error he hath let thousands into the World since that day Nothing is more common in the World than for an old Error to obtain afresh under the name of new Light Satan hath the very art of turkening stale Errors after the mode of the present times and make them currant and passable as new Discoveries and rare Novelties Thus he puts off Libertinism the old Sin of the World under the Title of Christian Liberty What a Troop of Pagan Idolatrous Rites were by this means introduced among the Papists A great part of Popery is but Ethnicismus redivivus Heathenism revived The Pagans Pontifex Maximus was revived under the new Title of Pope The Gentiles Lustrations in the Popish Holy-water Their Novendiale sacrum or Sacrifice nine days after the burial of the Party in the Popish Masses for the dead Their Alvarium Fratrum in Cloisters of Monks and Fryars Their Enchanters in Popish Exorcists Their Asyla in Popish Sanctuaries With multitudes more of Pagan Rites quite out of date in Christendom introduced again under new names in Popery as was intimated R●v 11. 2. and Rev. 13. 15. Remedy II. Be satisfied that God hath not left his People to seek their Salvation or spiritual subsistence among curious abstruse and doubtful Notions but in the great solid and plainly revealed Truths of the Gospel Iohn 17. 3. This is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent In facili absoluto stat aeternit as the great Concerns of our Salvation are plain

it is to be kept sound in judgment stedfast and unmovable in the Truths and Ways of Christ. A sound and stedfast Christian is a blessing in his Generation and a glory to his Profession 'T was an high Encomium of Athanasius Sedem maluit mutare quam syllabam He would rather lose his Seat than a syllable of God's Truth Soundness of Judgment must needs be a choice Blessing because the understanding is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that leading-faculty which directs the Will and Conscience of Man and they his whole Life and Practice How often and how earnestly doth Christ pray for his people that they may be kept in the Truth 'T is true Orthodoxy in its self is not sufficient to any man's Salvation but the conjunction of an Orthodox head with an honest sincere heart does always constitute an excellent Christian Phil. 1. 10. Happy is the man that hath an head so hearted and an heart so headed Consectary IV. By this discourse we may further discover one great and special cause and reason of the lamentable decay of the spirit and power of Religion amongst the Professors of the present Age. 'T is a complaint more just than common That we do all fade as a leaf And what may be the Cause Nothing more probable than the wasting of our time and spirits in vain janglings and fruitless controversies which the Apostle tells us Heb. 13. 9. have not profited i. e. they have greatly damnified and injured them that have been occupied therein Many Controversies of these times grow up about Religion as Suckers from the Root and Limbs of a Fruit-tree which spend the vital Sap that should make it fruitful 'T is a great and sad Observation made upon the state of England by some judicious persons That after the greatest increase of Religion both intensively in the power of it and extensively in the number of Converts what a remarkable decay it suffered both ways when about the year Forty-four Controversies and Disputations grew fervent among Professors Since that time our strength and glory have very much abated Consectary V. From this Discourse we may also gather the true Grounds and Reasons of those frequent Persecutions which God lets in upon his Churches and People These rank Weeds call for Snowy and Frosty Weather to subdue and kill them I know the enemies of God's People aim at something else They strike at Profession yea at Religion it self and according to their wicked intention without timely Repentance will their reward be But whatever the intention of the Agents be the issues of Persecution are upon this account greatly beneficial to the Church the Wisdom of God makes them excellently useful both to prevent and cure the mischiefs and dangers of Errors If Enemies were not Friends and Brethren would be injurious to each other Persecution if it kills not yet at least it gives check to the rise and growth of Errors And if it do not perfectly redintigrate and unite the hearts of Christians yet to be sure it cools and allays their sinful heats and that two ways 1. By cutting out for them far better and more necessary work Now instead of racking their Brains about unnecessary Controversies they find it high time to be searching their hearts and examining the foundations of their Faith and Hope with respect to the other World 2. Moreover such times and straights discover the Sincerity Zeal and Constancy of them we were jealous of or prejudiced against before because they followed not us Consectary VI. Lastly Let us learn hence both the Duty and Necessity of Charity and mutual Forbearance We have all our mistakes and errors one way or other and therefore must maintain mutual Charity under dissents in judgment I do not say but an erring Brother must be reduced if possible and that by sharp rebukes too if gentler essays be ineffectual Tit. 1. 13. and the wounds of a Friend have more faithful love in them than the kisses of an Enemy And if God make us instrumental by that or any other method to recover a Brother from the error of his way he will have great cause both to bless God and thank the Instrument who thereby saves a Soul from death and hides a multitude of sins Iam. 5. 20. 'T is our Duty if we meet an Enemy's Ox or Ass going astray to bring him back again Exod. 23. 4. much more the Soul of a Friend Indeed we must not make those Errors that are none nor stretch every innocent expression to that purpose nor yet be too hasty in medling with contention till we cannot be both silent and innocent and then whatever the expence be Truth will repay it AN APPENDIX Containing a Full and Modest Reply to Mr. Philip Cary's Rejoinder to my Vindiciae Legis Foederis Manifesting the badness of his Cause in the feebleness and impertinency of his Defence And adding farther light and strength to the Arguments formerly produced in defence of God's gracious Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism grounded thereupon SIR NEXT to the not deserving a Reproof is the due reception and improvement of it You deserve a sharper reprehension for your timerity and obstinacy than I am willing to give you from the Press Yet in love to the Truth and your own Soul reprove you I must and I hope God will enable me to be both mild in the manner and convincingly clear in the matter and cause thereof 'T is better to lose the Smiles than the Souls of men I dare not neglect the duty of a Friend for fear of incurring the suspicion of an Enemy Several Learned and Eminent Divines who have seen what hath publickly passed betwixt you and me have returned me their thanks and think you ought to thank me too for the pains I have taken to set you right hoping you will evidence your self-denial and repentance by an ingenuous retractation of your Errors But how will you deceive their Expectations and unbecome the Character given you by your Friends when they shall find the true measure both of your ability and humility drawn by your own Pen in the following Rejoinder I have throughly considered your Reply in the Manuscript you sent me which I hear is now in the Press and in the following Sheets have given a full and I think a final Answer to whatsoever is material therein And it so falling out that my Discourse of Errors was just going under the Press whilst your Rejoinder was there also I thought it not convenient to delay my Reply any longer but to have my Antidote in as great readiness as might be to meet it One Inconvenience I easily foresee that the Pages of your Manuscript which I follow may not throughout exactly answer to the Print But every intelligent Reader will easily discern and rectify That if my Bookseller save him not that trouble as I have desired him to do As to the Controversy about the

Right of Believers Infant-seed to Baptism you have altogether adventured it the second time with the consent of your Partizans upon the three Hypotheses which if I mistake not I have fully confuted and baffled in my first Answer But if my brevity occasioned any obscurity in that I hope you shall find it sufficiently done here Mean time you have given and I accordingly take it for granted that our Arguments for Infants Baptism stand in their full strength against you 'till you can better discharge and free your dangerous Assertions from the Errors and Absurdities in which they are now more involved and intricated than before The weaker any thing is the more querulous it is If Scripture-Argument and clear Reason will not support the Cause I undertake I am resolved never to call in passionate Invectives and weak Evasions for my Auxiliaries as you have here done The Lord give us all clearer Light tenderer Consciences exemplary Humility and Ingenuity Vindiciarum Vindex OR A REFUTATION OF THE Weak and Impertinent Rejoinder OF Mr. PHILIP CARY Wherein he vainly attempts the defence of his Absurd Thesis to the great abuse and injury of the Laws and Covenants of God AND must I be dipt once more in the Water-Controversy 't is time for me to think of undressing my self and making ready for my approaching Rest and employ those few moments I have to spend in more Practical and Beneficial Studies for my own and the Churches greater advantage And 't is time for Mr. C. to reflect upon his past Follies which have consumed too much of his own and others time without any advantage yea to the apparent loss and injury of the Cause he undertakes to defend When I received these Sheets from him in vindication of his Solemn Call I was at a stand in my own Resolutions whether to let it pass without any Animadversions upon it as a passionate Clamor for a desperate Cause or give a short and full Answer to his confused and impertinent Rejoinder But considering that I had under hand at the same time the foregoing Treatise of the Causes and Cures of Mental Errors and that though my honest Neighbour discovers much weakness in his way of Argumentation yet it was like to meet with some interested Readers to whom for that reason it would be the more suitable and how apt such Persons are to glory in the last word but especially considering that a little time and pains would suffice as the Case stands to end the unseasonable Controversy betwixt● us and both clear and confirm many great and weighty Points of Religion I was upon these Considerations prevailed with against my own Inclination to cast in these few Sheets as a Mantissa to the former seasonable and necessary Discourse of Errors resolving to fill them with what should be worth the Reader 's time and pains As for the rude Insults uncomely Reflections and passionate Expressions of my discontented Friend I shall not throw back the dirt upon him when I wipe it off from my self I can easily forgive and forget them too The best men have their Passions Iam. 5. 17. even Sweet-briers and Holy-Thistles have their offensive Prickles I consider my honest Neighbour under the strength of a Temptation It disquiets him to see the Labours of many years and the raised Expectations of so great a conquest and triumph over men of Renown all frustrated by his Friend and Neighbour who had done his utmost to prevent it and often foretold him of the folly and vanity of his Attempt Every thing will live as long as it can and natura vexat a prodit seipsam But certainly it had been more for Truth 's honour and Mr. C's comfort to have confessed his Follies humbly to God and have laid his hand upon his mouth The things in controversy betwixt us are great and weighty viz. The true nature of the Sinai Laws in their complex body the quality of God's Covenant with Abraham and the dispensation of the New Covenant we are now under These are things of great weight in themselves and their due Resolutions are at this time somewhat the more weighty because my Antagonist hath adventured the whole Controversy of Infants Baptism upon them I have in my Vindiciae Legis c. stated the several Questions clearly and distinctly Shewn Mr. C. what is no part of the Controversy and what is the very hinge upon which it turns desired him if he made any Reply to keep close to the just and necessary Rules of Disputation by distinguishing limiting or denying any of my Propositions that the matters in Controversy might be put to a fair and speedy issue But instead of that I meet with a flood of words rolling sometimes to this part and then to another part of my Answer and so back again without the steddy direction of Art or Reason There may for ought I know be some things of weight in Mr. Cary's Reply if a man could fee them for words but without scoff or vanity I must say of the rational part of it as the Poet said of the overdressed Woman Pars minima est ipsa Puella sui 't is the least part of it To follow him in his irregular and extravagant way of writing were to make my self guilty of the same folly I blame him for I am therefore necessitated to perstringe them and reduce all I have to say under three general Heads I. I shall clearly evince to the World That Mr. Cary hath not been able to discharge and free his own Theses from the horrid Consequents and gross Absurdities which I laid to their charge in my first Reply but instead thereof in this feeble and unsuccessful attempt to free the former he hath entangled himself in more and greater ones II. That he hath left my Arguments standing in their full strength against him III. And then I shall confirm and strengthen my three Positions which destroy the Cause he manages by some further Additions of Scripture Reason and Authorities which I hope will fully end this matter betwixt us But before I touch the Particulars two things must be premised for the Reader 's due information 1. That the Controversie about the true nature of the Sinai Laws both Moral and Ceremonial complexly considered is not that very Hinge upon which the Right of Believers Infants to Baptism depends that stands as it did before be the Sinai Laws what they will We do not derive the Right of Infants from any other Law or Covenant but that gracious Covenant which God made with Abraham which was in being 430 years before Moses his Law and was no way injured much less disannulled by the addition of it If Abraham's Covenant be the same Covenant of Grace we are now under the Right of Believers Infants to Baptism is secured whatever the Sinai Convenant prove to be Which I speak not out of the least jealousie that Mr. Cary hath or ever shall be able to prove it to be

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