God and highly dangerous to our selves they kindle the fire of his jealousie to the ruin and destruction of the presumptuous Sinner Lâ—vit 10. 1 2. So that if the beauty and excellency of the Will of God be not enough to allure us the danger of acting without the knowledg of it may justly terrify us Consideration III. In this Duty we tread in the Footsteps of the wisest and holiest Men that ever went to Heaven before us It is not only the Characteristical note of a good Man Psal. 1. 2. but it has been the constant practise of the most eminent believers in all Ages The greatest Prophets that had this advantage of us that they were the Organs or inspired instruments of discovering the Will of God to others yet were not excused from neither did they neglect to search it diligently themselves 1 Pet. 1. 10 11. Daniel that great favourite of Heaven who had the Visions and Revelations of God yet he himself diligently searched the written Word in order to the discovery of the Mind of God Dan. 9. 2. Consideration IV. Every discovery of the Will of God by fervent Prayer diligent and impartial search of the Scriptures and all other allowed helps gives the highest pleasure the mind of Man is capable of in this World If Archimedes upon the discovery of a Mathematical Truth was so transported and ravished that he cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it what pleasure then must the investigation and discovery of a Divine Truth give to a sanctified Soul Thy words were found of me saith Ieremiah and I did eat them and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Jer. 15. 16. as pleasant food to a Famished Man for now Conscience is quieted comforted and cheered in the way of Duty A Man walks not at adventure with God as that word signifies Levit. 26. 40 41. but hath the pleasant directive light of the Word and Will of God shining sweetly upon the path of his Duty Consideration V. By this means you shall find your Faith greatly confirmed in the truth of the Scriptures The sweet consent and beautiful harmony of all the parts of the written Word is a great Argument of its Divinity and this you will clearly discern when by a due search you shall find things that lye at the remotest distance to conspire and consent in one and one part casting light as well as adding strengh to another Thus you shall find Vetus Testamentum in novo revelatum novum in vetere velatum The New Testament veiled in the Old and the Old revealed in the New And that such a consent of things so distant in time and place can never be the project and invention of Man Consideration VI. The diligent and impartial search and inquiry after the Will of God out of no other design than to please him in the whole course of our Duties will turn to us for a testimony of the integrity and sincerity of our hearts Thy word said David have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee And God will not hide his Will from those that thus seek to know it If Men would apply themselves to search the Word by fervent Prayer and fixed Meditations upon so pure a design not bringing their prejudiced or prepossessed minds unto it the Spirit of the Lord would guide them into all Truth and keep them out of dangerous and destructive Errors Fourth Cause Besides the slothfulness of the mind there is found in many Persons another evil Disposition preparing them easily to receive Erroneous Impressions namely the INSTABILITY and Fickleness of the Judgment and Unsetledness of mind about the Truth of the Gospel Of this the Apostle warns us Eph. 4. 14. That we henceforth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in weight to deceive None are so constant and steddy in the profession of the Truth as those that are fully convinced of and well satisfied with the grounds of it Every Professor like every Ship at Sea should have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ballast and steddiness of his own 2 Pet. 3. 17. ready and prepared to render a reason of the hope that is in him 1 Pet. 3. 15. able upon all occasions to give an account of those inward motives which constrained his assent to the Truth He that professeth a Truth ignorantly cannot be rationally supposed to adhere to it constantly He that is but half convinced of a truth when he engages in the profession of it must needs be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a double-minded Man as the Apostle calls him Iam. 1. 8. half the mind hangs one way and half another and so it is easily moveable this way or that with the least breath of temptation And hence it comes to pass they are so often at a loss about their Duty and their Practise for Animi volutatio pendentem reddit vitam A doubtful Mind must needs make a staggering and uncertain Practice Erroneous Teachers are called wandring Stars Jude 13. which keep no certain course as the fixed Stars do but are sometimes nearer and sometimes remoter one from another Thus Errorists first imbibe unsetling Opinions and then discover them in their inconstant Practises Berâ—ius wrote a Book de Apostatià Sanctorum and soon after turned Papist The Socinians and Libertines teach That a Man of any Perswasion in Religion may be saved so that he walk not contrary to his own Light such Doctrine directly tends to Sceptecism in Religion And this Instability of the Judgment proceeds either from Hypocrisie or weakneâ—â— Sometimes from Hypocrisâ—e All Hypocrites are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 double-minded Men Iam. 4. 8. The double-minded man that is the Hypocrite is unstable in all his ways One of that number was not ashamed to say Se duas habere animas in eodem corpore unam Deo dicatam alteram unicuique illam vellet That he had two Souls in one Body one for God and another for whosoever would have it Sometimes Instability of the mind is the effect only of Weakness in the Judgment proceeding merely from want of age and growth in Christ not having as yet attained Senses exercised to discern both good and evil Heb. 5. 14. they are but Children in Christ and Children are easie and credulous Creatures Eph. 4. 14. presently taken with a new Toy and as soon weary of it such a wavering and instable temper invites temptation and falls an easie prey into its hands I confess some Cases may happen where the Pretences on both sides may be so fair as to put a judicious Christian to a stand what to chuse but then their deliberation will be answerable and then they will not change their Opinions every month as Scepticks do Wherever Error finds such a mutable disposition its work is half done before it
ΠΛΑÎΗΛΟΓΙΑ 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 Vindiciae Legis Foederis 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 IOHN FLAVELL Preacher of the Gospel at Dartmouth in Devon With an EPISTLE by several Divines Relating to Dr. CRISP's Works LONDON Printed by R. Roberts for Tho. Cockerill at the Three-Leggs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market 1691. THE Reverend Author of the ensuing Treatises having in them explained and defended several Gospel-Truths unto which divers things in the Writings of the Reverend Dr. Crisp deceased do seem very opposite Whereas some of us who subscribed a Paper the design whereof was only to testify That we believed certain Writings of the Doctor 's never before Published were faithfully transcribed by his Son the Publisher of them which Paper is now by the Bookseller prefixed to the whole Volume containing a large Preface which we never saw till after the publication together with all the Doctor 's former Works that were published many years before And are hereupon by some weak People misunderstood as if by that Certificate we intended an Approbation of all that is contained in that Volume We declare we had no such intention As the Paper we subscribed hath no word in it that gives any such intimation But are well pleased these later Writings are Publish'd in reference whereto We only certified our belief which we fixedly retain of the Publisher's fidelity as they contain many passages in them that may in some measure remedy the hard and hurtful construction that many expressions were more liable to in the former whereof the Doctor seem'd apprehensive himself when in the beginning of his Discourse on Tit. 2. 11 12. he speaks thus Beloved I am jealous of you with an holy jealousy 1 Cor. 11. 2 3. Lest after the sweet wooing of you in Christ's Name that you might be espoused unto him I say I am jealous and fear lest as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty namely bewitching her to a presumptuous licentious adventuring on God's gentleness while she tasted the forbidden Fruit so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in him namely by presuming too much upon him and adventuring to continue in Sin in hope that Grace may abound For the preventing of which dangerous miscarriage which hath been the dangerous lot of many Thousands I thought good to step in with this Text which I am persuaded will prove a seasonable warning to some at least And this Pioâ—â— caution of the Author 〈◊〉 lest he should be misunderstood gives us some grounds to believe that be intended them not in the more exceptionable 〈◊〉 'T is best if any unwary Reader receive hurt that he receive his healing also from the same hand and whereas a Paper was Printed upon this occasion soon after the Publication of the Doctor 's Works We willingly adopt so much of it as is requisite to our present purpose which is to this effect Some who Subscribed this Certificate saw only the Paper it self to which subscription was desired never having perused the Works of Dr. Crisp. The Certificate only concerned the Son not the Father and certified only concerning the Son That they who should subscribe it believed him in this to deal truly that he was not a Falsarius that he would not say that was his Father's which was not so a Paper so sober so modest was taken by it self scarce refusable by a Friend The Son's Preface some that subscribed this Certificate saw not nor had any notice or the least imagination of its Contents otherwise the part of a Friend had certainly been done as well in advising against much of the Preface as in subseribing the Certificate For the Works of this Reverend Person themselves as it no way concern'd the subscribing this Certificate to know what they were so from the opinion that went of the Author among many good Men That he was a Learned Pious Good Man it was supposed they were likely to have in them many good and useful things to which it was only needful to think them his not to think them perfect We may in some respect judge of Books as of Men i. e. reckon that though divers very valuable Men have had remarkable failings yet that upon the whole 't is better they have lived and been known in the World than that they should not have lived or have lived obscure The truth is which we have often considered that though the great Doctrines of Christian Religion do make a most coherent comely Scheme which every one should labour to comprehend and digest in his mind yet when the Gospel first becomes effectual for the changing mens hearts 't is by God's blessing this or that passage which drops the most discern not the series and connection of Truths at first and too little afterwards Vpon that view of Dr. Crisp's Writings we have had since the Publication we find there are many things said in them with that good savour quickness and spirit as to be very apt to make good impressions upon mens hearts and do judge that being greatly affected with the Grace of God to Sinners himself his Sermons did thereupon run much in that strain All our minds are little and incomprehensive we cannot receive the weight and impression of all necessary things at once but with some inequality so that when the Seal goes deeper in some part 't is the shallower in some others If some parts of Dr. Crisp's Works be more liable to exception the danger of hurt thereby seems in some measure obviated in some other As when he says p. 46 vol. 1. Sanctification of Life is an inseparable Companion with the Justification of a Person by the Free-Grace of Christ. And Vol. 4. p. 93. That in respect of the Rules of Righteousness or the Matter of Obedience we are under the Law still or else we are Lawless to live every Man as seems good in his own eyes which I know no true Christian does so much as think In like manner whereas Vol. 2. Serm. 15. and perhaps elsewhere the Doctor seems to be against evidencing our Justification and Union to Christ by our Sanctification and new Obedience we have the truth of God in this matter plainly deliver'd by him Vol. 4. p. 36. when he teacheth that our Obedience is a comfortable evidence of our
my Judgment as if I leaned sometime to one side and sometime to another I speak not here ad idem as they do in that Contest but when I call it a Condition of Justification my meaning is that no Man is justified until he believe And when I call it an Instrument my meaning is that it is the Righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith which doth justify us when we believe And so I find the Generality of our Divines calling Faith sometimes a Condition and sometimes an Instrument of our Justification as here I do And if there be any Expression my Reader shall meet with which is less accurate and may be capable of another sense I crave that Candor from him that he interpret it according to this my declared Intention 5. Lastly I have added to the former a short plain practical Sermon to promote the Peace and Unity of the Churches of Christ and prevent their Relapse into past Follies In all the Parts of this Discourse I have sincerely aimed at the Purity and Peace of the Church of God and he greatly mistakes that takes me for a Man of Contention 'T is true I am here contending with my Brethren but pure necessity brought me in an unpleasing irksomeness hath attended me through it and an hearty desire and serious motion for Peace amongst all the professed Members of Christ shall close and finish it Let all Litigations of this nature at least in this Critical Juncture be suspended by common Consent since they waste our time hinder our Communion imbitter our Spirits impoverish practical Godliness grieve the Spirit of God and good Men make sport for our Common Enemies who warm their own Fingers at the Fire of our Contentions and place more Trust in our dividing Lusts than they do in their own feeble Arguments or castrated Penal Laws to effect our Ruin It is my grief the Lord knows to see the delightful Communion the Saints once enjoyed whilst they walked together under the same Ordinances of God now dissolved in such a sad and scandalous Degree by the Impressions of erroneous Opinions made both upon their Heads and Hearts I do therefore heartily joyn with Budaeus in his pious Wish That God would give his People as much Constancy in retaining the Truths they once received as they had Joy and Comfort at their first Reception of them I must in this occasion declare my just Jealousy that the Non-improvement of our Baptismal Covenant unto the great and solemn Ends thereof in our Mortification Vivification and regular Communion with the Church of Christ into which Society we were matriculated by it is at this day punished upon Professors in those fiery Heats and fierce Oppositions unto which God seemeth to have penally delivered us at this day For my own part it is my fixed Resolution to provoke no good man if I can help it But if their own intemperate Zeal shall provoke them in pursuit of their Errors to destroy the very nature of God's Covenant of Grace with Abraham and his Seed and I have a plain call as here I had at once to defend God's Truths and my Peoples Souls against them I will earnestly contend in the Cause of Truth whilst I can move my Tongue or make use of the Pen of the Scribe Reader I shall appeal to thee if thou be wise and impartial Whether any man that understands the Covenant of God renewed with Abraham which is the grand Charter by which we and our Children hold and enjoy the most invaluable Privileges can endure to see it dissolved and utterly destroyed by making it an abolished Adam's Covenant of Works and stand by as an unconcerned Spectator when challenged and provoked to speak in defence thereof Is there any thing found in God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. to make it an abolished Covenant of Works which doth not as injuriously bear upon and strike at the very life of the Covenant of Grace in the last and best Edition of it under which the whole Church of God now stands What is that thing I would fain know in God's Covenant with Abraham Is it the Promissory part of it I will be a God unto thee and to thy Seed after thee Gen. 17. 7 God forbid for the essential and sweetest part of the New Covenant is contained in that Promise Ier. 31. 33. Heb. 8. 10. Yet thou wilt find my Antagonist here forced to assert God may become a Peoples God in a special manner by virtue of the abolished Covenant of Works and such he makes this Covenant to be Or does the Restipulation Abraham and his were here required to make unto God even to walk before him and be perfect doth this make it an Adam's Covenant of Works Surely no. For as God there requires perfection of Abraham so Christ requires the same perfection of all New-covenant Foederates now Matth. 5. 48. Be ye perfect as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect which is altogether as much as ever God required of Abraham and his in Gen. 17. 1. Take Perfection in what sense you will either for a positive Perfection consisting in truth and sincerity or a comparative Perfection consisting in the growth and more eminent degrees of Grace or a superlative Perfection which all New-covenant Foederates strive after here Phil. 3. 12 13 and shall certainly attain in Heaven Heb. 12. 23. In this also the Covenant with Abraham and with us are truly and substantially one and the same Or doth my mistaken Friend imagine that God required this Perfection of Abraham and his as in the First Covenant he required it from Adam and all his viz. to be performed and maintained in his own strength under penalty of the Curse but now though Christ command perfection yet what duty lies in any command answerable strength for it lies in the Promise Very well and was it not so then compare the Command Deuter. 10. 16. Circumcise therefore the fore-skins of your hearts with the answerable gracious Promise to enable them so to do Deut. 30. 6. The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy Seed to love the Lord thy God Or lastly Did Circumcision the Sign and Seal added to Abraham's Covenant make it an Adam's Covenant of Works That 's equally impossible with the former for no man but such a daring Man as I am concerned with will dare to say that a Seal of the righteousness of Faith as Circumcision was Rom. 4. 11. can make the Covenant to which it is affixed and which I have shewn in all the other substantial parts the very same with that we are now under to become an Adam's Covenant of Works These things I have here superadded to leave as little as is possible behind me to be an occasion of further trouble and contention Let all strife therefore in so plain a case be ended Contentious Spirits are not the most excellent Spirits among Christians Fire and so Contention is
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. Acquâ—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. Hâ—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 â— 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 Pâ—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
Opinions or Judgments from the perfect Rule of the Divine Law And to this all men by nature are not only liable but inclinable Indeed man by Nature can do nothing else but Err Psal. 58. 3. he goeth astray as soon as born makes not one true step till renewed by Grace and many false ones after his Renovation The Life of the Holiest man is a Book with many Errata's but the whole Edition of a wicked man's Life is but one continued Error he that thinks he cannot Err manifestly Errs in so thinking The Pope's supposed and pretended Infallibility hath made him the great deceiver of the World A good man may Err but is willing to know his Error and will not obstinately maintain it when he once plainly discerns it Error and Heresy among other things differ in this Heresie is accompanied with pertinacy and therefore the Heretick is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sels-condemned his own Conscience condemns him whilst men labour in vain to convince him He doth not formally and in terms Condemn himself but he doth so equivalently whilst he continues to own and maintain Doctrines and Opinions which he finds himself unable to defend against the evidence of Truth Humane frailty may lead a man into the first but Devilish Pride fixes him in the last The word of God which is our rule must therefore be the only Test and Touchstone to try and discover Errors for Regula est index sui obliqui 'T is not enough to convince a man of Error that his Judgment differs from other mens you must bring it to the Word and try how it agrees or disagrees therewith else he that charges another with Error may be found in as great or greater an Error himself None are more disposed easily to receive and tenaciously to defend Errors than those who are the Antesignani Heads or Leaders of Erroneous Sects especially after they have fought in defence of bad Causes and deeply engaged their Reputation The following Discourse justly entitles it self A BLOW AT THE ROOT And though you will here find the Roots of many Errors laid bare and open which comparatively are of far different degrees of Danger and Malignity which I here mention together many of them springing from the same Root Yet I am far from censuring them alike nor would I have any that are concerned in lesser Errors be exasperated because their lesser Mistakes are mentioned with greater and more pernicious ones this Candor I not only intreat but justly challenge from my Reader And because there are many general and very useful Observations about Errors which will not so conveniently come under the Laws of that Method which governs the main part of this Discourse viz. the CAVSES and CVRES of Error I have therefore sorted them by themselves and premised them to the following Part in Twenty Observations next ensuing Twenty general Observations about the rise and increase of the Errors of the times First Observation TRuth is the proper Object the natural and pleasant food of the Understanding Iob 12. 11. Doth not the ear that is the understanding by the ear try words as the mouth tasteth meat Knowledg is the assimilation of the Understanding to the truths received by it Nothing is more natural to man than a desire to know Knowledg never cloys the Mind as food doth the natural Appetite but as the one increaseth the other is proportionably sharpened and provoked The Minds of all that are not wholly immers'd in Sensuality spend their Strength in the laborious search and pursuit of Truth Sometimes climbing up from the Effects to the Causes and then descending again from the Causes to the Effects and all to discover Truth Fervent Prayer sedulous Study fixed Meditations are the labours of inquisitive Souls after Truth All the Objections and Counter-arguments the mind meets in its way are but the pauses and hesitations of a bivious Soul not able to determine whether Truth lies upon this side or upon that Answerable to the sharpness of the Minds appetite is the fine edg of Pleasure and Delight it feels in the discovery and acquisition of Truth When it hath Rack'd and Tortured it self upon knotty Problems and at last discovered the Truth it sought for with what joy doth the Soul dilate it self and run as it were with open arms to clasp and welcome it The Understanding of man at first was perspicacious and clear all Truths lay obvious in their comely order and ravishing beauty before it God made man upright Eccl. 7. 29. this rectitude of his mind consisted in Light and Knowledg as appears by the prescribed method of his Recovery Col. 3. 10. Renewed in knowledg after the Image of him that created him Truth in the Mind or the Minds union with Truth being part of the Divine Image in man discovers to us the Sin and Mischief of Error which is a defacing so far as it prevails of the Image of God No sooner was man created but by the exercise of knowledg he soon discovered God's Image in him aâ—d by his Ambition after more lost what he had So that now there is an haziness or cloud spread over Truth by Ignorance and Error the sad effects of the Fall Second Observation Of Knowledg there are divers sorts and kinds some is Humane and some Divine some Speculative and some Practical some Ingrafted as the Notions of Morality and some Acquired by painful search and Study But of all knowledg none like that Divine and Supernatural knowledg of saving truths revealed by Christ in the Scriptures from whence ariseth the different degrees both of the Sinfulness and danger of Errors those Errors being always the worst which are committed against the most important Truths revealed in the Gospel These Truths lye infolded either in the plain words or evident and necessary consequences from the words of the Holy Scriptures Scripture-Consequences are of great use for the refutation of Errors it was by a Scripture-consequence that Christ successfully proved the Resurrection against the Sadduces Matth. 22. The Arrians and other Hereticks rejected consequential proofs and required the express words of Scripture only hoping that way to defend and secure their Errors against the arguments and assaults of the Orthodox Some think that reason and natural light is abundantly sufficient for the direction of life but certainly nothing is more necessary to us for that end than the written Word for though the remains of natural light have their place and use in directing us about natural and earthly things yet they are utterly insufficient to guide us in spiritual and heavenly things 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of God c. Eph. 5. 8. Once were ye darkness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now are ye light in the Lord i. e. by a beam of heavenly light shining from the Spirit of Christ through the written Word into you minds or understandings 'T is the written Word which shines upon the path of our Duty
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 excâ—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
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 greâ—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
as this how earnestly doth the Ear of a distressed Conscience listen how greedily doth it suck in such pleasing words Are all Sins that are pardoned pardoned before they are committed and does the Covenant of Grace require neither Repentance nor Faith antecedently to the application of the Promises how groundless then are all my Fears and Troubles This like a Dose of Opium quiets or rather stupifies the raging Conscience for even an Error in Judgment till it be detected and discovered to be so quiets and comforts the heart as well as principles of Truth but whenever the fallacy shall be detected whether here or hereafter the anguish of Conscience must be increased or which is worse left desperate The Remedies To prevent and cure this mistake and error in the Soul by which it is fitted and prepared to catch any Erroneous Principle which is but plausible for its present relief and ease I shall desire my Reader seriously to ponder and consider the following Queries upon this Case Query I. Whether by the vote of the whole Rational World a good Trouble be not better than a false Peace Present ease is desirable but eternal safety is much more so and if these two cannot consist under the present Circumstances of the Soul Whether it be not better to endure for a time these painful pangs than feel more acute and eternal ones by quieting Conscience with false Remedies before the time 'T is bad to lie tossing a few days under a laborious Fever but far worse to have that Fever turned into a Lethargy or fatal Apoplexy Erroneous Principles may rid the Soul of its present pain and eternal hopes and safety together Acute pains are better than a senseless stupidity Though the present rage of Conscience be not a right and kindly conviction yet it may lead to it and terminate in faith and union with Christ at last if Satan do not this way practice upon it and quench it before its time Query II. Bethink your selves seriously Whether Troubles so quieted and laid asleep will not revive and turn again upon thee with a double force as soon as the vertue of the Drug I mean the Erroneous Principle hath spent it self The efficacy of Truth is eternal and will maintain the peace it gives for ever but all delusions must vanish and the Troubles which they damm'd up for a time break out with a greater force Satan employs two sorts of Witches Some to torment the Bodies of Men with grievous pain and anguish but then he hath his White-Witches at hand to relieve and ease them And have these poor Wretches any great cause think you to boast of the cure who are eased of their pains at the price of their Souls Much like unto this are the cures of inward Troubles by Erroneous Principles I lament the Case of blinded Papists who by Pilgrimages and Offerings to the Shrines of Titular Saints attempt the cure of a lesser Sin by committing a greater Is it because there is not a God in Israel who is able in due season to pacify Conscience with proper and durable Gospel-Remedies that we suffer our Troubles thus to precipitate us into the Snares of Satan for the sake of present ease Query III. Read the Scriptures and inquire whether God's People who have lain long under sharp inward Terrors have not at last found settlement and inward peace by those very Methods which the Principles that quiet you do utterly exclude If you will fetch your Peace from a groundless Notion that your Sins were pardoned and your Persons justified from all eternity and therefore you may apply boldly and confidently to your selves the choicest Promises and Privileges in the Gospel without any regard to Faith or Repentance wrought by the Spirit in your Souls I am sure holy David took another Course for the settlement of his Conscience Psal. 51. 6 7 8 9 10. And it hath been the constant practise of the Saints in all Ages to clear their Title to the Righteousness of Christ wrought without them by the Works of his Spirit wrought within them Sixth Cause The next Evil Temper in the Subject preparing and disposing it for Error is an easie CREDVLITY or sequacious humour in men rendring them apt to receive things upon trust from others without due and thorough examination of the grounds and Reasons of them themselves This is a disposition fitted to receive any impression Seducers please to make upon them they are said to deceive the hearts of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. credulous but well-meaning People that suspect no harm 'T is said Prov. 14. 15. the simple believeth every word Through this Sluce or Floodgate what a multitude of Errors in Popery have overflowed the People They are told they are not able to judge for themselves but must take the matters of their Salvation upon trust from their Spiritual Guides and so the silly People are easily seduced and made easily receptive of the grossest Absurdities their ignorant Leaders please to impose upon them And it were to be wished That those two Points viz. Ministrorum mut a officia populi caeca oâ—sequia the dumb Services of their Ministers and the blind Obedience of the People had stay'd within the Popish Confines But alas alas how many simple Protestants be there who may be said to carry their Brains in other mens Heads and like silly Sheep follow the next in the tract before them especially if their Leaders have but wit and art enough to hide their Errors under specious and plausible Pretences How many poisonous Drugs hath Satan put off under the gilded Titles of Antiquity Zeal for God higher attainments in godliness new Lights c. How natural is it for men to follow in the Tract and be tenacious of the Principles and Practises of their Progenitors Multitudes seem to hold their Opinions Iure Haereditario by an Hereditary Right as if their Faith descended to them the same way their Estates do The Emperour of Morocco told King Iohn's Ambassadour That he had lately read St. Paul's Epistles And truly said he were I now to chuse my Religion I would embrace Christianity before any Religion in the World but every man ought to dye in that Religion he received from his Ancestors Many honest well-meaning but weak Christians are also easily beguiled by specious pretences of new Light and higher attainments in Reformation This makes the weaker sorts of Christians pliable to many dangerous Errors cunningly insinuated under such taking Titles What are most of the Erroneous Opinions now vogued in the World but old Errors under new Names and Titles The Remedies The Remedies and Preventions in this Case are such as follow Remedy I. 'T is beneath a man to profess any Opinion to be his own whilst the grounds and reasons of it are in other mens keeping and wholly unknown to himself If a man may tell Gold after his Father then sure he may and ought to try and examine
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 Râ—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
them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name Oh happy time Halcion days I my self remember the time when the Zeal of the Saints spent it self in provoking one another to Love and Good Works in joint and fervent Prayer in inward experimental and edifying Communion my Soul hath them still in remembrance and is cast down within me For alas alas how do I see every where Christian Communion turned into vain janglings Churches and Families into meer Cock-pits Mens Discoursings falling as naturally into contentions about trifles as they were wont to do into Heavenly and Experimental Subjects to the unspeakable disgrace and damage of Religion Fourth Defensative That Opinion is justly to be suspected for erroneous which comes in at the Postern-door of the Affections and not openly and fairly ar the right Gate of an enlightned and well-satisfied judgment 'T is a Thief that cometh in at the back-door at least strongly to be suspected for one Truth Courts the Mistriss makes its first and fair Addresses to the Understanding Error bribes the Handmaid and labours first to win the Affections that by their influence it may corrupt the Judgment And thus you see besides the innocent Occasion viz. God's Permission of Errors in the World for the tryal of his people Nine proper Causes of Errors found in the evil dispositions of the minds of Men which prepare them to receive erroneous Doctrines and Impressions viz. 1. A wrangling humour at the pretended Obscurity of Scripture 2. The Abuse of that Christian Liberty purchased by Christ. 3. Slothfulness in searching the whole Word of God 4. Fickleness and Instability of Judgment 5. Eagerness after Anodines to ease a distressed Conscience 6. An easy Credulity in following the Judgments and Examples of others 7. Vain Curiosity and prying into unrevealed Secrets 8. The Pride and Arrogancy of Human Reason 9. Blind Zeal which spurs on the Soul and runs it upon dangerous precipices We next come to consider the principal Impulsive Cause by which Errors are propagated and disseminated in the World Cause X. Come we next in the proper order to consider the Principal Impulsive Cause of Errors which is SATAN working upon the predisposed matter he finds in the corrupt Nature of Man The Centurists speaking of the strange and sudden growth of Errors and Heresies immediately after the planting of the Gospel by Christ and the Apostles ascribe it to Satan Satan is a Lyar from the beginning and abode not in the Truth He hates it with a deadly hatred and all the Children and Friends of Truth And this hatred he manifesteth sometimes by raising furious storms of persecution against the sincere Professors of it Rev. 3. 10. and sometimes by Clouds of Heresies and Errors with design to darken it In the former he acts as a roaring Lyon in the latter as a subtil Serpent 2 Cor. 11. ◠I fear lest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. He is exceeding skilful and dexterous in citing and wresting the Scriptures to serve his vile designs and purposes and as impudently daring as he is crafty and cunning as appears in the History of Christ's temptation in the desart Matt. 4. 6. where he cites one part of that promise Psal. 91. 11. and suppresseth the rest shows the encouragement viz. He shall give his Angels charge over thee but clips off the limitation of it viz. to keep thee in all thy ways In viis non in praecipitiis In our lawful ways not in rash and dangerous precipices as Bernard well glosseth And 't is worth observation that he introduceth multitudes of Errors into the World under the unsuspected notions of admirable Prophylacticks and approved Preservatives from all mischiefs and dangers from himself Under this notion he hath neatly and covertly slided into the World Holy-water Crossings Reliques of Saints and almost innumerable other superstitious Rites Erroneous Teachers are the Ministers of Satan however they transform themselves into Ministers of Righteousness 2 Cor. 11. 15. and the subtil dangerous Errors they broach are fitly stiled by the Spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the depths of Satan Rev. 2. 24. The corrupt Teachers the Gnosticks c. called them Depths i. e. great mysteries high and marvellous attainments in knowledg but the Spirit of God fits a very proper Epithete to them They are Satanical depths and Mysteries of Iniquity Now the level and design of Satan herein is double First He aims at the ruin and damnation of those that vent and propagate them upon which account the Apostle calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pet. 2. 1. destructive or as we render it damnable Heresies And because God will preserve the Souls of his own from this mortal Contagion therefore Secondly He endeavours by lesser Errors to busy the minds and check the growth of Grace in the Souls of the Saints by employing them about things so foreign to true godliness and the power thereof Heb. 13. 9. The Remedies The Rules for prevention and recovery are these that follow Rule I. Pray earnestly for a thorow change of the state and temper of thy Soul by sound Conversion and Regeneration Conversion turns us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God Acts 26. 18. They are his own slaves and vassals that are taken captive by him at his will 2 Tim. 2. 16. A Sanctified heart is a Soveraign defensative against Erroneous Doctrines it furnishes the Soul with spiritual eyes judicious ears and a distinguishing taste by which it may discern both good and evil truth and error Heb. 5. 14. yea it puts the Soul at once under the conduct of the Spirit and protection of the Promise Ioh. 16. 13. and though this doth not secure a Man from all lesser mistakes yet it effectually secures him from greater ones which are inconsistent with Christ and Salvation Rule II. Acquaint your selves with the wiles and methods of Satan and be not ignorant of his devices 2 Cor. 2. 11. When once you understand the wash and paint with which he sets off the ugly face of Error you will not easily be enamoured with it Pretences of Devotion upon one side and of Purity Zeal and Reformation upon the other though they be pleasant sounds to both ears yet the wary Soul will examine before it receive and admit Doctrinal Points under these gilded Titles Those that have made their Observations upon the stratagems of Satan will heedfully observe both the tendency of Doctrines and the Lives of their Teachers and if they find looseness pride wantonness in them it is not a glorious title or magnificent name that shall charm them They know Satan can transform himself into an Angel of Light and no wonder if his Ministers also be transformed into Ministers of Righteousness 2 Cor. 11. 14 15. Rule III. Resign your Minds and Judgments in fervent Prayer to the Government of Christ and
Conduct of the Spirit and in all your addresses to God pray that he would keep them chast and pure and not suffer Satan to commit a rape upon them Plead with God that part of Christ's Prayer Iohn 17. 17. Sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth Rule IV. Live in the conscientious and constant practice of all those Truths and Duties God hath already manifested to you This will bring you under that blessed Promise of Christ Iohn 7. 17. If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Satan's greatest successes are amongst idle notional and vain Professors not humble serious and practical Christians Caus◠XI Having considered and dispatched the several internal Causes of Error found in the evil dispositions of the seduced as also the Impulsive Cause viz. Satan who fits suitable baits to all these sinful humours and evil tempers of the heart we come next to consider the Instrumental Cause employed by Satan in this work viz. the FALSE TEACHER whom Satan makes use of as his Seeds-man to disseminate and scatter erroneous Doctrines and Principles into the minds of Men Ploughed up and prepared by those evil tempers forementioned as a fit Soil to receive them The choice of Instruments is a principal part of Satan's policy Every one is not fit to be employed in such a Service as this All are not fit to be of the Council of War who yet take their places of Service in the Field A Rustick carried out of the Field on Board a Ship at Sea though he never learned his Compass nor saw a Ship before can by another's direction tug lustily at a Rope but he had need be an expert Artist that sits at the Helm and steers the course The worst Causes need the smoothest Orators and bad Ware a cunning Merchant to put it off Deep-parted Men are coveted by Satan to manage this design None like an eloquent Tertullus to confront a Paul Acts 24. 1. A subtil Eccius to enter the List in defence of the Popish Cause against the Learned and Zealous Reformers When the Duke of Buckingham undertook to Plead the bad Cause of Richard the third the Londoners said They never thought it had been possible for any Man to deliver so much bad Matter in such good Words and quaint Phrases The first Instrument chosen by Satan to deceive Man was the Serpent because that Creature was more subtil than any Beast of the Field There is not a Man of eminent parts but Satan courts and sollicites him for this service St. Austin told an ingenious but unsanctified Scholar Cupit abs te ornari Diabolus The Devil covets thy Parts to adorn his Cause He surveys the World and where-ever he finds more than ordinary strength of Reason pregnancy of Wit depth of Learning and elegancy of Language that is the Man he looks for These are the Men that can almost indiscernably sprinkle their Errors among many precious Truths and wrap up their poisonous Drugs in Leaf-gold or Sugar Maresius notes of Crellius and his Accomplices That by the power of their Eloquence and sophistry of their Arguments they were able artificially to cloath horrible Blasphemies to allure the simple And like the Hyaena they can counterfeit the voices of the Shepherds to deceive and destroy the Sheep There is saith a late Worthy an erudita nequitia a Learned kind of wickedness a subtil art of deceiving the minds of others Upon which account the Spirit of God sometimes compares them 2 Pet. 2. 3. to cunning and cheating Tradesmen who have the very art to set a gloss upon their bad Wares with fine words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they buy and sell the people with their ensnaring and feigned words And sometimes he compares them to cunning Gamesters that have the art and sleight of hand to Cog the Die to deceive the unskilful and win their Game Eph. 4. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And sometimes the Spirit of God compares them to Witches themselves Gal. 3. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you How many strange feats have been done upon the bodies of Men and Women by Witchcraft But far more and stranger upon the Souls of Men by the Magick of Error Iannes and Iambres performed wonderful things in the sight of Pharoah by which they deceived and hardened him and unto these false Teachers are compared Such a Man was Elymas the Sorcerer who laboured to seduce the Deputy Sergius Paulus though a prudent Man Acts 13. 7 8 9 10. Oh full of all subtilty and all mischief thou Child of the Devil saith Paul unto him The Art of seduduction from the ways of truth and holiness discovers a Man to be both the Child and Scholar of the Devil But as the wise and painful Ministers of Christ who turn many to Righteousness shall have double Glory in Heaven so these subtil and most active Agents for the Devil who turn many from the ways of Righteousness will have a double portion of misery in Hell The Remedies The proper Remedies in this Case are principally two Remedy I. Pray fervently and labour diligently in the use of all God's appointed means to get more solidity of Judgment and strength of Grace to establish you in the Truth and secure your Souls against the cunning craftiness of Men that lye in to deceive 'T is the ignorance and weakness of the people which makes the Factors for Error so successful as they are Consult the Scriptures and you shall find these cunning Merchants drive the quickest and gainfullest trade among the weak and injudicious So speaks the Apostle With good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 harmless weak easie Souls who have a desire to do well but want wisdom to discern the subtilties of them that mean ill who are void both of fraud in themselves and suspition of others Oh! what success have the Deceivers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their fair words and sugared speeches sweet and taking expressions among such innocent ones And who are they among whom Satan's cunning Gamesters commonly win the Game and sweep the Stakes but weak Christians credulous Souls whom for that reason the Apostle calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children The word properly signifies an an Infant when 't is referred to the Age but unskilful and unlearned when referred as it is here to the Mind So again 2 Pet. 2. 14. They that is the False Teachers there spoken of beguile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unstable Souls Souls that are not confirmed and grounded in the Principles of Religion Whence by the way take notice of the unspeakable advantage and necessity of being well Catechized in our youth the more judicious the more secure Remedy II. Labour to acquaint your selves with the sleights and artifices Satan's Factors and Instruments generally make use of to seduce and draw Men from the Truth
The knowledg of them is a good defensative against them Now there are two common Artifices of Seducers which it is not safe for Christians to be ignorant of First They usually seek to disgrace and blast the reputations of those Truths and Ministers set for their defence which they design afterwards to overthrow and ruin and to beget credit and reputation to those Errors which they have a mind to introduce How many precious truths of God are this day and with this design defamed as legal and carnal Doctrines and those that defend them as Men of an Old Testament spirit Humiliation for Sin Contrition of Spirit c fall under disgrace with many and indeed all qualifications and pre-requisites unto coming to Christ as things not only needless but pernicious unto the Souls of Men although they have not the least dependance upon them Yea Faith it self as a pre-requisite unto Justification as no better than a Condition pertaining to Adam's Covenant And so for the persons of Orthodox Ministers you see into what contempt the false Teachers would have brought both the Person and Preaching of Paul himself 2 Cor. 10. 10. His bodily presence say they is weak and his speech contemptible Secondly Their other common Artifice is to insinuate their false Doctrines among many acknowledged and precious Truths which only serve for a convenient vehicle to them and besides that to make their Errors as palatable and gustful as they can to the vitiated Appetite of corrupt Nature The forementioned Worthy hath judiciously observed how artificially Satan hath blended his baneful Doses to please the Palate of Carnal Reason Spiritual Pride and the desire of Fleshly Liberty Carnal Reason is that great Idol which the more intelligent part of the carnal World worships And are not the Socinian Heresies as pleasant to it as a well-mixt Iulep to a feverish Stomach Spiritual Pride is another Diana which obtains greatly in the World and no Doctrine like the Pelagian and Semipelagian Errors gratify it A Doctrine that sets fallen Nature upon its Legs again and persuades it it can go alone to Christ at least with a little external help of Moral suasion without any preventing or creating work in the Soul This goes down glib and grateful And then for Fleshly Liberty How do those that are fond of it rejoice in that Doctrine or Opinion which looses Nature from the yoke of restraint How does the poor deluded Papist hug himself to think he hath liberty by his Religion to let loose the reins of his Lust to all sensualities and quit himself from all that guilt by Auricular Confession to the Priest once a year How doth the Familist smile upon that Principle of his which tells him the Gospel allows more Liberty than severe Legal Teachers think fit to tell them of They press Repentance and Faith but Christ hath done all this to thy hands Cause XII Having considered the several Causes of Errors found in the evil dispositions of the seduced as also the impulsive and instrumental Causes namely Satan and false Teachers employed by him I shall next proceed to discover some special and most successful Methods frequently used by them to draw the minds of Men from the Truth Amongst which that which comes first to consideration is the great skill they have in representing the ABVSES of the Ordinances of God and Duties of Religion by wicked Men to scare tender and weak Consciences from the due use of them and all further attendance upon them The abuse of Christ's holy Appointments are so cunningly improved to serve this design that the minds of many well-meaning persons receive such deep disgust at them that they are scarce ever to be reconciled to them again A strong prejudice is apt to drive Men from one extream upon another as thinking they can never get far enough off from that which hath been so scaringly represented to them Thus making good the old Observation Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt they run from the troublesome smoak of Superstition into the Fire of an irreligious contempt of God's Ordinances split themselves upon Charybdis to avoid Scylla Ex. gra The Papists having deeply abused the Ordinance of Baptism by their corruptive mixtures and additions of the superstitious Cross Chrism c. part whereof is not sufficiently purged to this day by the Reformation and finding also multitudes of carnal Protestants dangerously resting upon their supposed baptismal Regeneration to the great hazard of their Salvation which mistake is but too much countenanced by some of its Administrators They take from hence such deep offence at the administration of it to any Infants at all though the Seed of God's Covenanted People that they think they can never be sharp enough in their invectives against it nor have they patience to hear the most rational defences of that Practise So for that Scriptural Heavenly Duty of Singing What more commonly alledged against it than the abuse and ill effects of that precious Ordinance How often is the Nonsense and Error of the common Translation the rudeness and dulness of the Metre of some Psalms as Psal. 7. 13. as also the cold formality with which that Ordinance is performed by many who do but Parrotize I say How often are these things buz'd into the ears of the people to alienate their hearts from so sweet and beneficial a Duty And very often we find it urged to the same end how unwarrantable and dangerous a thing it is for carnal and unregenerated persons to appropriate to themselves in Singing those Praises and Experiences which are peculiar to the Saints not understanding or considering that the singing of Psalms is an Ordinance of Christ appointed for teaching and admonition as well as praising Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns c. Thus Antinomianism took if not its rise yet its encouragement from the too rigorous pressing of the Law upon convinced sinners If Satan can prevail first with wicked Men to corrupt and abuse God's Ordinances by the superstitious mixtures and additions and then with good Men to renounce and slight them for the sake of those abuses he fully obtains his design and gives Christ a double wound at once one by the hand of his avowed Enemies the other by the hands of his Friends no less grievous than the first First wicked Men corrupt Christ's Ordinances and then good Men nauseate them The Remedies The proper Remedies against Errors insinuated by the abuses of Duties and Ordinances are such as follow Remedy I. Let Men consider that there is nothing in Religion so great so sacred and excellent but some or other have greatly corrupted or vilely abused them What is there in the whole World more precious and excellent than the Free-grace of God and yet you read Iude 4. of some that turned the Grace of our Lord into Lasciviousness What more desirable to Christians than the glorious Liberty Christ
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 betwixtâ— 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
any the least guilt in the Elect to be pardoned and consequently no place or room could be left for any Justification in time And then it must follow that seeing Christ died in time for sin according to the Scriptures It must be for his own sins that he died and not for the sins of the Elect Diametrically opposite to Rom. 4. 25. and the whole current of Scripture and faith of Christians 'T is therefore very unbecoming and unworthy of a justified person after Christ hath taken all his guilt upon himself and suffer'd all the punishment due thereunto in his place and room Instead of an humble and thankful admiration of his unparallel'd grace therein to throw more than the guilt and punishment of his sins upon Christ even the transgression it self and comparing his own Righteousness with Christ's to say he is as compleatly Righteous as Christ himself This is as if a company of Bankrupt Debtors Arrested for their own Debts ready to be cast into Prison and not having one Farthing to satisfy after their Debts have been freely and fully discharg'd by another out of his immense treasure should now compare with him yea and think they honour'd him by telling him that now they are as compleatly Rich as himself I am well assur'd no good Man would embrace an Opinion so derogatory to Christ's Honour as this is did he but see the odious consequences of it doubtless he would abhor them as much as we And as for those now in Heaven who fell into such mistakes in the way thither were they now acquainted with what is transacted here below they would exceedingly rejoyce in the detection of those mistakes and Bless God for the refutation of them Error VIII They affirm That Believers need not fear their own sins nor the sins of others for as much as neither their own or others sins can do them any hurt nor must they do any duty for their own good or salvation or for eternal rewards That we need fear no hurt from sin or may not aim at our own good in Duty are two Propositions that sound harsh in the ears of Believers I shall consider them severally and refute them as briefly as I can Proposition I. Believers need not fear their own sins or the sins of others because neither our own or others sins can do us any hurt They seem to be induced into this Error by misunderstanding the Apostle in Rom. 8. 28. as if the scope of that Text were to assert the benefits of sin to justified persons whereas he speaks there of Adversities and Afflictions befalling the Saints in this Life Vniversalis restringenda est ad materiam subjectam loquitur enim de afflictionibus piorum The subject matter saith Pareus on the place restrains the Universal expression of the Apostle For when he there saith All things shall work together for good he principally intends the afflictions of the Godly of which he treats there in that context It may be extended also to all providential events Omnia quaecunque eis accedunt forinsecus tam adversa quà m prospera All adverse and prosperous events of things without us as Estius upon the place notes Nothing is spoken of sin in this Text. And the Apostle distributing this General into Particulars verse 38. plainly shews what are the things he intended by his Universal expression verse 28. as also in what respect no creature can do the Saints any hurt namely that they shall never be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. And in this respect it is true that the Sins of the Elect shall not hurt them by frustrating the purpose of God concerning their Eternal Salvation or totally and finally to separate them from his Love This we grant and yet we think it a very unwary and unsound expression That Believers need not fear their own sins because they can do them no hurt 'T is too general and unguarded a Proposition to be received for truth What if their sins cannot do them that hurt to frustrate the purpose of God and Damn them to Eternity in the World to come Can it therefore do them no hurt at all in their present state of conflict with it in this World For my part I think the greatest fear of caution is due to sin the greatest evil and that Chrysostome spake more like a Christian when he said Nil nisi peccatum timeo I fear nothing but sin Though sin cannot finally ruine the Believer yet it can many ways hurt and injure the Believer and therefore ought not to be misrepresented as such an innocent and harmless thing to them In vain are so many terrible threatnings in the Scriptures against it if it can do us no hurt and it is certain nothing can do us good but that which makes us better and more Holy But Sin can never pretend to that of all things in the World But to come to an issue Sin may be consider'd three ways 1. Formally 2. Effectively 3. Reductively First Formally as a transgression of the Preceptive part of the Law of God and under that consideration it is the most formidable evil in the whole World The evil of evils at which every gracious heart trembles and ought rather to chuse Banishment Prison and Death it self in the most terrible form than Sin or that which is most tempting in Sin the pleasures of it as Moses did Heb. 11. 25. Secondly Sin may be consider'd Effectively with respect to the manifold mischiefs and calamities it produceth in the World and the Spiritual and Corporeal Evils it infers upon Believers themselves Though it cannot Damn their Souls yet it makes War against their Souls and brings them into miserable Bondage and Captivity Rom. 7. 23. It wounds their Souls under which wounds they are feeble and sore broken yea they roar by reason of the disquietness of their hearts Psal. 38. 5 8. Is War Captivity Festering painful Wounds causing them to roar no hurt to Believers It breaks their very Bones Ps. 51. 8. And is that no hurt It draws off their Minds from God interrupts their Prayers and Meditations Rom. 7. 18 19 20 21. And is there no hurt in that It causeth their Graces to decline wither and languish to that degree that the things which are in them are ready to die Rev. 3. 1. and Rev. 2. 4. And is the loss of Grace and Spiritual strength no hurt to a Believer It hides the Face of God from them Isa. 59. 2. And is there no hurt in spiritual withdrawments of God from their Souls Why then do deserted Saints so bitterly lament and bemoan it It provokes innumerable afflictions and miseries which fall upon our Bodies Relations Estates and if Sin be the cause of all these inward and outward miseries to the People of God sure then there is some hurt in Sin for which the Saints ought to be afraid of it Thirdly Sin may be consider'd Reductively
comfort and the propagation of Christianity in the World Tongue-unity flows from Heart-unity Heart-unity in a great measure from Head-unity and all three from Union with the Lord â—esus Christ. The divisions of our Tongues come mostly from the divisions of our Hearts were Hearts agreed Tongues would quickly be agreed And then what bleâ—â—ed times might be expected And so much briefly for the nature of Unity Next 2. Let us evince both the necessity and desirableness of this Unity among Believers and this will appear in a threefold respect viz. 1. With respect to the Glory of God 2. The Comfort and Benefit of our own Souls 3. The Conversion and Salvation of the World 1. With respect to the Glory of God The manifestative Glory of God which is all the Glory we are capable of giving him is the very end of our Being and should be dearer to us than our Lives is exceedingly advanced by the Unity of his people Hence is the Apostle's Prayer Rom. 15. 5 6. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Iesus that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God 'T is highly remarkable That the Apostle in this Petition for the Unity of the Saints doth not only describe that Unity he prays for one Mouth and one Mind and shews how much God would be glorified by such an Union but he also addresses himself to God for it under these two remarkable Titles the God of patience and consolation thereby intimating two things 1. How great need and exercise there is of patience in maintaining Unity among the Saints They must bear one another's burthens they must give allowance for mutual infirmities For the Church here is not an Assembly of Spirits of just Men made perfect The Unity of the Saints therefore greatly depends upon the exercise of Patience one towards another and this he begs the God of Patience to give them And to endear this Grace of Patience to them He 2. joyns with it another Title of God viz. the God of Consolation wherein he points them to that abundant comfort which would result unto themselves from such a blessed Unity continued and maintained by the mutual exercises of patience and forbearance one towards another And to set home all he lays before them the pattern and example of Christ The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded according to Christ. How many Thousand infirmities and failures in Duty doth Christ find in all his people Notwithstanding which he maintaineth Union and Communion with them and if they after his example shall do so likewise with one another God will be eminently glorified therein This will evidence both the Truth and Excellency of the Christian Religion which so firmly knits the hearts of its Professors together 2. Secondly The necessity and desirableness of this Unity farther appears by the deep interest that the comfort and benefit of our Souls have in it A great example hereof we have in Acts 2. 46 47. Oh! what cheeriness strength and pleasure did the Primitive Christians reap from the Unity of their Hearts in the ways and worship of God Next unto the pleasure and delight of immediate Communion with God himself and the shedding abroad of his Love into our Hearts by the Holy-Ghost none like that which ariseth from the harmonious exercises of the graces of the Saints in their mutual Duties and Communions one with another How are their Spirits dilated and refreshed by it What a lively emblem is here of Heaven the Courts of Princes afford no such delights Whereas on the other side when Schisms have rent Churches a-sunder they go away from each other exasperated grieved and wounded crying out Oh that I had a Cottage in the Wilderness or oh that I had the Wings of a Dove that I might flee away and be at rest 3. Lastly The necessity and desireableness of this Union further appears with respect unto the World who are allured to Christ by it and scared off from Religion by the feuds and divisions of Professors To this the Prayer of Christ hath respect Ioh. 17. 23. That they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou hast sent me q. d. This O Father will be a convincing evidence to the World of the Divinity both of my Person and Doctrine and a great ordinance for their conversion to me when they shall see my people cleaving inseparably unto me by Faith and to one another by Love And on the other side it will be a fatal stumbling-block in the way of their conversion to observe my followers biting and devouring rending and tearing one another A Learned and Judicious Divine Commenting upon those words Cant. 2. 7. I charge you O ye daughters of Ierusalem by the Roes and by the Hinds of the field that ye stir not up nor awake my love till â—e please gives the sense thus By Roes and Hinds of the Field saith he understand weak comers on towards Christ persons under some preparatory works towards Conversion who are as shy and as timorous as Roes and Hinds of the Field and as they will be scared by the yelp of a Dog or sound of a Gun so will these at any offensive miscarriages in the Churches of Christ. Alexander Severus finding two Christians contending with one another commanded them that they should not presume to take the name of Christ upon them any longer for saith he you greatly dishonour your Master whose Disciples you profess your selves to be And thus briefly of the nature of Church-unity and the necessity and desirableness thereof among all that stand in that Relation VSE The only improvement I shall make of this point shall be for 1. Exhortation to Unity 2. Directions for the maintaining of it The first Vse for Exhortation And first having briefly discoursed the nature necessity and desireableness of Unity among all Christians and especially of those in particular Church-relation I do in the Bowels of Christ and in the words of his Apostle Phil. 2. 1 2. earnestly and humbly intreat all my Brethren That if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind He speaketh not as one doubting but as one disputing when he saith If there be any consolation in Christ And 't is as if he had said I passionately and earnestly intreat you by all that comfort and joy you have found in your mutual Communion from Christ and his Ordinances wherein you have comfortably walked together by all that comfort resulting from the mutual exercises and fruits of Christian Love by the unspeakable joys and delights the Spirit of God hath shed down upon you whilst you walked in Unity in the ways of your Duty by all the bowels of