harmony with the Doctrine of this great and excellent Divine who hath substantially proved the Point I defend against you but 't is enough II. Let us next examine what execution his Reply hath done upon my second Position set up in direct opposition to him namely That God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. unto which Circumcision was annexed is for its substance the self-same Covenant of Grace with that which Gentile-believers and their Infant-seed are now under Here I have abundant cause again to complain that Mr. C. hath so formed his Answers as if he had never read the Book he undertakes a Reply to And I do verily believe the greatest part of his Reply was made at random before ever my printed Book was in his hands For he hath not at all considered the state of the Question as I there gave it him nor kept himself to the just and necessary Rules of Disputation as I earnestly desired he would However 't is not Complaints but confirmation and vindication of my Arguments which is my proper work I shall therefore recite them briefly and vindicate and confirm them strongly contracting all into as few words as can express the sense and Argument of the Point before me Argument I. If Circumcision be a part of the Ceremonial Law and the Ceremonial Law was dedicated by Blood and whatsoever is so dedicated is by you confessed to be no part of the Covenant of Works then Circumcision can be no part of the Covenant of Works even by your own confession But it is so Ergo. To this Mr. Cary returns a Tragical Complaint instead of a Rational Answer Insinuates my falsehood and gross abuse of him Appeals to his Reader Tells him I have taken a liberty to say what I please as if there were no future Iudgment to be regarded And that I can expect no comfort another day without repentance now For those things that have thus passed betwixt him and me shall again be revised and set in order before me That he is weary of noting my Miscarriages of this kind That there is hardly a Page or Paragraph in my whole Reply but abounds with Transgressions of this nature He begs the Lord to forgive me and wishes he could say Father forgive him for he knows not what he doth as if my Sin were greater than the Sin of those that stoned Stephen or crucified Christ. Either I am guilty or innocent in the matters here charged upon me by Mr. C. If guilty I promise him an ingenuous acknowledgment If innocent as both my Conscience and his own Book will prove me to be then I shall only say he knoweth not what spirit he is of The Case must be tried by his own Book and it will quickly be decided These are the very words in his Solemn Call p. 148. He that is Mr. Sedgwick makes no distinction betwixt the Ceremonial Covenant that was dedicated with blood and the Law written in stones that was not so dedicated How strangely doth he confound and obscure the word and truth of God which ought to have been cleared and distinctly declared to those he had preached or written to With much more p. 149 150 151. where he saith It 's plain that the Law written in Stones and the Book wherein the Statutes and Iudgments were contained were two distinct Covenants and delivered at distinct seasons and in a distinct method the one with the other without a Mediator the one dedicated with blood and sprinkling the other that we read of not so dedicated Now let the Reader judge whether I have deserved such Tragical Complaints and dreadful Charges for inferring from these words That the Ceremonial Law being by him pronounced a distinct Covenant from the Moral Law which he makes all one with Adam's Covenant delivered at a distinct season and in a distinct method the Ceremonial Law with a Mediator the Moral Law without a Mediator the Ceremonial Law dedicated with blood and sprinkling the Moral Law not so dedicated let him judge I say whether I have wronged him in saying that by his own confession Circumcision being a part of this Ceremonial Law it can therefore be no part of the Covenant of Works But Mr. Cary hath two things to say for himself 1. That in the same place he makes the Ceremonial Law no other than a Covenant of Works And the wrong I have done him is by not distinguishing as he did betwixt A Covenant of Works and The Covenant of Works Here it seems lies my guilt upon which this dreadful out-cry against me is made But if I should chance to prove that there never was is or can be any more than one Covenant of Works and that any other Covenant which is distinguished from it as he confesses the Ceremonial Law was by a Mediator and the blood of sprinkling can be no part of that Covenant of Works what then will become of Mr. C's distinction of A Covenant of Works and The Covenant of Works Now the matter is plain and evident That as there never were are or can be more than two common Heads appointed by God namely Adam and Christ 1 Cor. 15. 45 46 47 48. Rom. 5. 15 17 18 19. so it is impossible there should be more than two Covenants under which Mankind stands under these two common Heads And the First Covenant once broken it is utterly impossible that fallen Man should ever attain life that way or that ever God should set it up again with such an intention and scope unless as Mr. Charnock speaks he had reduced man's Body to the dust and his Soul to nothing and framed another man to have governed him by a Covenant of Works but that had not been the same man that had revolted and upon his revolt was stained and disabled If Mr. C. therefore be not able to prove more Covenants of Works with Mankind than one let him rather blush at his silly distinction betwixt aâ— Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Works For indeed he makes at least four distinct Covenants of Works one with Adam two with Moses one Moral the other Ceremonial and a fourth with Abraham at the institution of Circumcision Gen. 17. 2. If it appear as it clearly doth that as there never was is or can be any more than one Covenant of Works so whatsoever Covenant is distinguished from it by a Mediator and dedication by the sprinkling of blood as he saith the Ceremonial Law was cannot possibly for the Reasons he gives be any part or member of Adam's Covenant of Works then I hope I have done M. C. no wrong in my assumption from his own words for which he so reviles and abuses me But this will appear as plain as the Noon-day-light for a Covenant with a Mediator and dedicated by sprinkling of blood doth and necessarily must essentially difference such a Covenant from that Covenant that had no Mediator nor dedication by blood To deny this were
more apt to catch in low-built thatcht Cottages than in high-built Castles and Princely Palaces the higher we go still the more peace The highest Region is most sedate and calm Stars have the strongest influence when in conjunction Angels tho legions have no wars among them and as willingly go down as up the Ladder without justling each other And the Most High God is the God of Peace let us also be the Children of Peace And I do assure the Persons with whom I contend That whilst they hold the head and are tender of the Churches Peace I can live in charity with them here and hope to live in glory with them hereafter I remain Reader thine and the Truth 's Friend John Flavell THE CONTENTS OF THE Causes and Cures c. THE Etymology and definition of the word Error Introd p. 2 3. The difference between Heresy and Error Introd p. 4. Twenty general Observations Disc. p. 7. Obs. 1. Truth is the object and natural food of the Vnderstanding p. 7. Explain'd and confirm'd P. 8. Obs. 2. Several sorts of Knowledge amongst which the supernatural knowledge of saving Truths revealed in the Scriptures is the best 9. Obs. 3. Vnto the attainment of Divine Knowledge out of the Scripture some things are naturally yet less principally requisite in the subject and something absolutely and principally necessary 11. As the irradiation of the mind by the Spirit of God the benefits of which 12. Obs. 4. Among the manifold impediments to the obtaining of true Knowledge and setling the mind in the truth and faith of the Gospel these three are of special consideration viz. Ignorance Curiosity and Error p. 13. Obs. 5. Error is binding upon the Conscience as well as Truth and altogether as much and sometimes more influential upon the Affections and Passions than Truth is 14. Obs. 6. 'T is exceeding difficult to get out Error when once it is imbib ' d and hath rooted it self by an open profession 15. Obs. 7. Men are not so circumspect and jealous of the Corruptions of their Minds by Errors as they are of their Bodies in times of Contagion or of their Lives with respect to gross Immoralities 17. Obs. 8. 'T is a great Iudgment of God to be given up to an Erroneous Mind 19. Obs. 9. 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a mere Opinion into the place or seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point 21. Obs. 10. Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and secure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety 23. Obs. 11. God in all Ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them p. 25. Obs. 12. The want of a modest suspicion and just reflection gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions 27. Obs. 13. There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors one linking in and drawing another after it 29. Obs. 14. Errors abound most and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace Liberty and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Governors 31. Obs. 15. Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them are comparatively shy and modest to what they prove afterwards when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World 33. Obs. 16. Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Errors than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it 35. Obs. 17 Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force but by rational conviction and proper spiritual remedies 36. Obs. 18. Erroneous Doctrines producing Divisions and fierce Contentions amongst Christians prove a fatal Stumbling-block to the World fix their Prejudices and obstruct their conversion to Christ p. 38. Obs. 19. How specious and taking soever the pretences of Error be and how long soever they maintain themselves in esteem among men they are sure to end in the loss and shame of their Authors and Abettors at last 40. Obs. 20. If ever Errors be cured and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established men must be convinced of and acquainted with the occassions and causes both within and without themselves from whence their Errors do proceed and must both know and apply the proper rules and remedies for the prevention or cure of them 42. Divine Permission an occasion of Error 44. Which must be prevented by avoiding 1. A want of love to the Truth 45. 2. Pride and wantonness of the mind 46. 3. The neglect of Prayer ibid. Culpable Causes of Errors in men are 1. A wrangling humor at the pretended obscurity of the Scriptures p. 47. Cod's wisdom manifested in leaving some difficulties in the Scriptures 49. For the prevention of this cause these Rules following to be heeded and practis'd viz. R. 1. To expound all obscure Texts of Scripture according to the analogy and proportion of Faith p. 50. R. 2. Not to wrest Scripture from its general and common sense in favour of our preconceived Opinions 51. R. 3. When we meet with a difficult place of Scripture to search the Context throughly 52. R. 4. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other the Old on the New and the New on the Old ibid. R. 5. Observe the sense which the current of Expositors do agree in and which naturally agrees with the scope of the place 53 Cause 2. The abuse of the Liberty given by Christ to all his People to read the Scriptures and to judge of the sense of them by a private judgment of Discretion ibid. Remedy of it is to observe the limits which Christ hath set to this Liberty which Limitations are 1. A liberty to read and study but not publickly to expound and preach the Word 57. 2. Christians of different Abilities ought to study some parts of Scripture rather than others 59. Cause 3. Slothfulness in a due and serious search of the Scripture 61. How to find the institution of the Sabbath in the Scripture 64. How to find the institution of the Baptism of Infants there 65. Several Considerations to cure this slothfulness 67. Viz. A serious search of the Scriptures is our duty ibid. No action of ours that is not agreeable to God's will is acceptable to him 68. This is the path in which the wisest and best of men have gone before us 69. Every discovery of the Will of God obtain'd in this method is highly pleasant 70. Confirms our Faith 71. An impartial search into the Will of God will be a testimony of our Integrity and Sincerity ibid. Cause 4. Instability of judgment and unsetledness of mind about the truth
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
deep corruptions by dangerous Errors Austin was a Manichee and fully recovered from it So have many more and yet multitudes hold them fast even to death and nothing but the Fire can reveal their work and discover what is Gold and what is Straw and Stubble Seventh Observation It deserves a Remark That men are not so circumspect and jealous of the corruption of their minds by Errors as they are of their bodies in times of Contagion or of their lives with respect to gross immoralities Spiritual dangers affect us less than corporeal and intellectual evils less than moral Whether this be the effect of Hypocrisie the Errors of the mind being more secret and invisible than those of the Conversation God only knows man cannot positively determine Or whether it be the effect of Ignorance that men think there is less sin and danger in the one than in the other not considering that an Apoplexy seizing the Head is every way as mortal as a Sword piercing the Body And that a Vertigo will as much unfit a man for service as an Ague or Feaver The Apostle in 2 Pet. 2. 1. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable Heresies or Heresies of Destruction An Error in the mind may be as damning and destructive to the Soul as an Error of Immorality or Profaneness in the Life Or whether it may come to pass from some remains of fear and tenderness in the Conscience which forbids men to reduce their erroneous Principles into Practice the relying under many confident Errors in the mind aâ— secret Jealousie which we call formido oppositi which will not suffer them to act to the full height of their professed opinions Austin gives this Character even of Pelagius himself Retract lib. 2. cap. 33. Nomen Pelagii non sine laude aliqua posui quia vita ejus a multis praedicabatur I have not mentioned saith he the name of that man without some praise because his life was famed by many And of Swinkfeldius it is said Caput regulatum illi defuit corbonum non defuit His Heart was much more regular than his Head Yet this falls out but rarely in the world for loose Principles naturally run into loose Practises and the Errors of the Head into the Immoralities of Life Eighth Observation It is a great Iudgment of God to be given over to an erroneous mind For the Understanding being the leading Faculty as that guides the other Powers and Affections of the Soul follow as Horses in a Teem follow the Fore-horse Now how sad and dangerous a thing is this for Satan to ride the Fore-horse and guide that that is to guide the life of man That 's a dreadful spiritual judicial stroke of God which we read of Rom. 1. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God by a penal Tradition suffered them to run into the dregs of Immorality and Pollutions of life and that because they abused their light and became came vain in their imaginations ver 21. Wild whimsies and fancies in the head usually mislead men into the puddle and mire of Prophaneness and then 't is commonly observed God sets some visible mark of his Displeasure upon them especially the Heresiarchs or Ring-leaders in Error Nestorius his Tongue was consumed by Worms Cerinthus his Brains Knock'd out by the Fall of an House Montanus hangâ—d himself It were easie to instance in multitudes of others whom the visible Hand of God hath marked for a warning to others but usually the spiritual Errors of the Mind are followed with a Consumption and Decay of Religion in the Soul If Grace be in the Heart where Error sways its Scepter in the Head yet usually there it languishes and withers They may mistake their Dropsie for growth and flourishing and think themselves to be more spiritual because more airy and notional but if men would judg themselves impartially they will certainly find that the Seeds of Grace thrive not in the Heart when shaded and over-dropt by an erroneous Head Ninth Observation 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a meer Opinion into the place and seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great a stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point To be as much concerned for a Tile upon the Roof as for the Corner-stone which unites the Walls and sustains the Building Opinion as one truly saith is but Reason's Projector and the Spy of Truth It makes in its fullest discovery no more than the dawning and twilight of Knowledg and yet I know not how it comes to pass but so it is that this Idol of the Mind holds such a sway and Empire over all we hold as if it were all the Day we had Matters of mere opinion are every where cried up by some Errorists for Mathematical Demonstration and Articles of Faith written with a Sun-beam worshipping the Fancies and Creatures of their own minds more than God and putting more trust in their ill-founded Opinions than in the surer word of Prophecy Much like that Humorist that would not trust day-light but kept his Candle still burning by him because said he this is not as subject to Eclipses as the Sun is And what more frequent when Controversies grow fervent than for those that maintain the Error to boast every silly Argument to be a Demonstration to upbraid and pity the blindness and dulness of their Opposers as men that shut their eyes against Sun-beams yea sometimes to draw their presumptuous Censures through the very hearts of their Opposers and to insinuate that they must needs hold the Truths of God in unrighteousness sin against their knowledg and that nothing keeps them from coming over to them but Pride Shame or some Worldly Interest What a complicated evil is here Here 's a proud exalting of our own opinions and an immodest imposing on the minds of others more clear and sound than our own and a dangerous Usurpation of God's Prerogative in judging the hearts and ends of our Brethren Tenth Observation Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and seeure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety Antiquity is a venerable word but ill used when made a cloak for Error Truth must needs be elder than Error as the Rule must necessarily be before the abâ—rration from it The gray hairs of Opinions are then only Beauty and a Crown when found in the way of Righteousness Copper saith Learned Dumoulin will never become Gold by Age. A Lye will be a Lye let it be never so ancient We dispute not by Years but by Reasons drawn from Scripture That which is now call'd an Ancient Opinion if it be not a true Opinion was once but a new Error When you can tell us how many years are required to turn an Error into Truth then we will give more heed to Antiquity
Analogy or proportion of Faith which is St. Paul's own Rule Rom. 12. 6. Let him that prophesieth i. e. expoundeth the Scripture in the Church do it according to the proportion of faith The Analogy or proportion of Faith is what is taught plainly and uniformly in the whole Scriptures of Old and New Testament as the rule of our Faith and Obedience Whilst we carefully and sincerely attend hereunto we are secured from sinful corrupting the word of God Admit of no sense which interfereth with this proportion of Faith If men have no regard to this but take liberty to rend off a single Text from the body of Truth to which it belongs and put a peculiar interpretation upon it which is absonous and discordant to other Scriptures what woful work will they quickly make Give but a Papist liberty to take that Scripture Iam. 2. 24. out of the frame of Scripture A man is justified by works and not by faith only and expoâ—â—d it without regard to the Tenor of the Gospel-doctrine of Iustification in Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and a gross Error starts up immediately Give but a Socinian the like liberty to practise upon Iohn 14. 28. and a gross Hâ—resie shall presently look with an Orthodox face Rule II. Never put a new sense upon words of Scripture in favour of your preconceived Notions and Opinions nor wrest it from its general and common use and sense This is not to interpret but to rack the Scriptures as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 2 Pet. 3. 16. Interpretis officium est non quid ipse velit sed quid censeat ille quem interpretatur exponere as Hieron against Ruff. speaks We are not to make the Scriptures speak what we think but what the Prophet or Apostle thought whom we interpret In 1 Cor. 7. 14. we meet with the word holy applied to the Children of Believers that word is above 500 times used for a state of separation to God Therefore to make it signify in that place nothing but Legitimacy is a bold and daring practising upon the Scripture Rule III. Whenever you meet with an obscure place of Scripture let the Context of that Scripture be diligently and throughly searched for 't is usual with God to set up some light there to guide us through the obscurity of a particular Text. And there is much truth in the Observation of the Rabbines Nulla est objectio in Lege quae non habet solutionem in lâ—tere There 's no scruple or objection in the Law but it hath a solution at the side of it Rule IV. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other and let not men undervalue or reject an Old Testament Text as no way useful to clear and establish a New-Testament Point of Faith or Duty Each Testament reflects light upon the other The Iews reject the New-Testament and many among us sinfully slight the Old But without the help of both we can never understand the mind of Godâ— in either 'T is a good Rule in the Civil-Law Turpe est de Lege judicare tota lege nondum inspectâ We must inspect the whole Law to know the sense of any particular Law Rule V. Have a due regard to that sense given of obscure places of Scripture which hath not only the current sense of Learned Expositors but also naturally agrees with the scope of the place A careless neglect and disregard to this is justly blamed by the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 7. Cause II. A Second evil temper in the Subject disposing and inclining men to receive and suck in erroneous Doctrines and Opinions is the ABVSE of that just and due CHRISTIAN LIBERTY allowed by Christ to all his people to read examine and judge the sense of Scriptures with a private judgment of discretion This is a glorious acquisition and blessed fruit of Reformation to vindicate and recover that just Right and gracious Grant made to us by Christ and the Apostles out of the injurious hands of our Popish Enemies who had usurped and invaded it The exercise of this Liberty is at once a Duty commanded by Christ and commended in Scripture 'T is commanded by Christ Iohn 5. 39. Search the Scriptures saith Christ to the people 1 Cor. 10. 15. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say And the exercise of this private judgment of discretion by the people is highly commended by St. Paul in the Bereans Acts 17. 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so This Liberty is not allowed in that latitude in any Religion as it is in the Christian Religion nor enjoyed in its full liberty as it is in the Reformed Religion whose glory it is that it allows its Principles and Doctrines to be critically examined and tryed of all Men by the Rule of the Word as well knowing the more it is sifted and searched by its Professors the more they will be still confirmed and satisfied in the truth of it But yet this gracious and just liberty of Christians suffers a double abuse One from the Popish Enemies who injuriously restrain and deny it to the people Another by Protestants themselves who sinfully stretch and extend it beyond the just degree and measure in which Christ allows it to them The Pope injuriously restrains it discerning the danger that must necessarily follow the concession of such a liberty to the people to compare his superstitious and erroneous Doctrines with the Rule of the Word St. Peter in 2 Pet. 1. 19. tells the people they have a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto they do well that they take heed Certainly the Pope forgot either that he was Peter's Successour or that ever St. Peter told the people they did well to make use of that liberty which he denies them Mr. Pool tells us of a Spaniard that used this expression to an English Merchant You people of England said he are happy you have liberty to see with your own eyes and to examine the Doctrines delivered to you upon which your everlasting Life depends but we dare not say our souls are our own but are commanded to believe whatever our Teachers tell us be it never so unreasonable or ridiculous This is a most injurious and sinful restraint upon it on the one side And then Secondly 'T is too frequently abused by stretching it beyond Christ's allowance and intendment upon the other side when every ignorant and confident person shall under pretence of liberty granted by Christ rudely break in upon the Sacred Text distort violate and abuse the Scriptures at pleasure by putting such strange and â—oreign senses upon them as the Spirit of God never meant or intended How often have I heard that Scripture Micha 4. 10. They shall be brought even to Babylon confidently interpreted for almost but not full hâ—me
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
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
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
to confound Law and Gospel Adam's and Christ's Covenant but the distinction betwixt them is his own therefore my assumption was just That this blood was typically the blood of Christ and that the Holy Ghost signified the one by the other is plain from Heb. 9. 7 8. And I never met with that man that scrupled it before Mr. Cary. So then my first Argument to prove Abraham's Covenant of Circumcision to be the Covenant of Grace and not an Adam's Covenant or any part thereof stands firm after Mr. C's passionate Reply which I hope the Lord will pardon to him though he had scarce Charity enough left to desire a pardon for his Friend who had neither wronged the Truth nor him Argument II. My second Argument was this If Circumcision was the seal of the Righteousness of Faith it did not pertain to the Covenant of Works for the Righteousness of Faith and Works are opposite But Circumcision was the Seal of the Righteousness of Faith Rom. 4. 11. Ergo. The sum of what he answers to this p. 72 73 c. as far as I can pick his true sense out of a multitude of needless words is this He confesses this Argument seems very plausible but however Abraham was a Believer before Circumcision and tho indeed it sealed the Righteousness of Faith to him yet it sealed it to him only as the Father of Believers and denies that ever Jacob or Isaac or any other enrolled in that Covenant were sealed by it but to all the rest beside Abraham it was rather a token of servitude and bondage This is the sum and substance of his Reply But Sir let me ask you two or three plain Questions 1. What is the reason you silently slide over the Question I asked you p. 41. of my Vindiciae c Did you find it an hot Iron which you durst not touch 'T is like you did My Question was this Had Adam 's Covenant a seal of the righteousness of faith annexed to it as this had Rom. 4. 11 The righteousness of faith is evangelical righteousness and this Circumcision sealed Say not it was to Abraham only that it sealed it for 't is an injurious restriction put upon the Seal of a Covenant which extended to the Fathers as well as to Abraham however you admit that it sealed evangelical righteousness to Abraham but I hope you will not say that a Seal of the Covenant of Works for so you make Circumcision to be ever did or could seal evangelical righteousness to any individual person in the World I find you a man of great confidence but certainly here it failed you not one word in Reply to this 2. I told you your distinction was invented by Bellarmine and shew'd you where it was confuted by Dr. Ames but not a word to that 3. I show'd That the extending of that Seal to all Believers as well as Abraham is most agreeable to the drift and scope of the Apostle's Argument which is to prove that both Iews and Gentiles are justified by Faith as Abraham was and that the ground of â—ustification is common to both and that how great soever Abraham was yet in this case he hath found nothing whereof to glory And is not your Exposition a notable one to prove the community of the priviledge of Justification because the Seal of it was peculiar to Abraham alone p. 47 48. Sir You have spent words enough upon this Head to tire your Reader But why can I not meet with one word among them that fairly advances to grapple with my Argument or answer the important Questions before you upon which the matter depends If this be all you have to say I must tell you You are a weak manager of a bad Cause which is the less hazard to Truth Argument III. In the Covenant of Circumcision Gen. 17. God makes over himself to Abraham and his Seed to be their God or gives them a special interest in himself But in the Covenant of Works God doth not since the Fall make over himself to any to be their God by way of special interest Therefore the Covenant of Circumcision cannot be the Covenant of Works The sum of your Reply in p. 76. is under two Heads 1. You boldly tell me That God doth in the Covenant of Works make over himself to Sinners to be their God by way of special interest but it being upon such hard terms that it 's utterly impossible for Sinners that way to attain unto life he hath therefore been pleased to abolish that and make a new Covenant and bring Exod. 20. 2. to prove it This is new and strange Divinity with me 1. That God should become a People's God by way of special interest by vertue of the broken Covenant of Works This wholly alters the nature of that Covenant for then it was a Law that could give life contrary to Gal. 3. 21. unless you can suppose a Soul that 's totally dead in Sin to have a special interest in God as his God 2. This Answer of yours yields the Controversy about the nature of the Sinai Law for this very Concession of yours is the Medium by which our Divines prove it to be a Covenant of Grace 3. This Concession of yours confounds the two Covenants by communicating the essential property and prime privilege of the Covenant of Grace to Adam's Covenant of Works Either therefore expunge Ier. 31. 33. as a Covenant of Grace I will be their God and they shall be my people or allow that in Gen. 17. 7. to be specifically the same and that Exod. 20. though more obscurely delivered 4. You assert That God may actually become a Peoples God by way of special interest and yet the salvation of that People be suspended upon impossible terms You sent them before to Purgatory but by this you must send them directly to Hell for if the salvation of God's peculiar People be upon impossible terms 't is certain they cannot be saved And lastly It is an horrid reflection upon the Wisdom and Goodness of God who never did or will make any Covenant wherein he takes fallen Men to be his peculiar People and make over himself to be their God and yet not make provision for their Salvation in the same Covenant but leave their Salvation for many Ages upon hard and impossible terms i. e. leave them under damnation 2. I told you in my Vindiciae c. p. 49. that you were fain to cut Abraham's Covenant Gen. 17. into two parts and make the first to be the pure Covenant of Grace which is the promisory part to the 9th verse and the Restipulation as you call it p. 205. to be as pure a Covenant of Works Which I truly said was a bold Action and in so calling it I gave it a softer name than the nature of it deserved The sum of what you reply to this is 1. By denying the matter of fact and charging me with misrepresentation and in
Mr. Woodbridge have also done But alas what evidence is sufficient to satisfy ignorant and obstinate Men Sir it pities me to see the lamentable confusion you are in You are forced by the evidence of truth to yield and own the substance of what I contend for You have yielded the Covenant to be consequently Conditional in p. 84. of your Reply You have also as plainly yielded that the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of nature consequent unto believing p. 31. of your Reply From both which concessions in your own words recited this Conclusion is evident and unavoidable viz. That no adult person notwithstanding God's Eternal Election and Christ's meritorious death and satisfaction according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant can either be justified in this World or saved in the World to come unless he first believe For if the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls is in order of Nature consequent unto believing as you truly affirm it to be then according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant no application of pardoning Mercy can be made to our Souls before we believe And if it be evident as you say it is p. 84. that unto a full and compleat enjoyment of all the Promises of the Covenant Faith on our part is required then as no Man can be actually justified in this World so neither can he be saved before or without Faith in the World to come And if you did but see the true suspending nature of Faith which you plainly yield in these two concessions you would quickly grant the conditional nature of it For what is the proper nature and true notion of a Condition but to suspend the benefits and grants of that Covenant in which it is so inserted And thus the Controversy betwixt us is fairly issued But I doubt you understand not what you have here written or are troubled with a very bad memory Because I find you in a far different note from this in p. 103. of your Reply where you say That if Iesus Christ fulfilled the Law and purchased Heaven and Happiness for Men as all true Protestants hitherto have taught then nothing can remain but to declare this to them to incline them to believe and accept it and to prescribe in what way and by what means they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life To affirm therefore that Faith and Repentance are the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty antecedent to the benefit of the Promise doth necessarily suppose that Christ hath not done all for us nor purchased a right to Life for any but only made way that they may have it upon certain terms or as some say he hath merited that we might merit But the Conditions of the Covenant are not to be performed by the Head and Members both Gal. 4. 4. Christ therefore having in our stead performed the Conditions of Life there remains nothing but a Promise and the Obedience of Children as the fruit and effect thereof to them that believe in him together with means of obtaining the full possession which here we want Either these passages I have here cited and compared were fetched at a great distance of time out of Authors differing as much in judgment as you and I do and so the dissonancy of them is the meer effect of oblivion and incogitancy Or else your Intellectuals are more confused and weak than I am willing to suspect them to be For if the application of Pardoning Mercy to our Souls is in order of Nature consequent to Believing as you truly say it was then certainly notwithstanding Christ's fulfilling the Law and purchasing Heaven and Happiness for Men something else must remain to be done besides declaring this to them to incline them to believe and accept it or prescribing to them in what way they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life For besides those declarations and prescriptions you talk of Faith it self must be wrought in the Souls of Men or else Pardoning Mercy is not in order of Nature consequent unto believing as you said it was For all the external Declarations and Prescriptions in the World are not Faith it self but only the means to beget it which may or may not become effectual to that end Secondly Whereas you say that this senseless notion is consequent upon the Doctrine of all true Protestants you therein grosly abuse them and make all the true Protestants in the World guilty of worse than Arminian or Antinomian dotage The Antinomian indeed makes our actual justification to be nothing else but the manifestation or declaration of our Justification from Eternity or the time of Christ's death And the Arminian tells us That the Declaration of the Gospel to Men is sufficient to bring them to Faith by the assisting Grace of the Spirit But your notion is worse than the very dregs of both and yet you tack it as a just consequent to the Doctrine of all true Protestants Thirdly You say That to affirm Faith and Repentance to be the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty antecedent to the benefit of the Promise doth necessarily suppose that Christ hath not done all for us nor purchased a right to Life for any but only made way that they may have it upon certain terms or merited that we might merit Here Sir you vilely abuse all those worthy Divines before mentioned who have made Faith the Condition of the New Covenant pinning upon them both Popery and Iudaism Popery yea the dregs of Popery in supposing their Doctrine necessarily implies that Christ hath merited that we might merit And Iudaism to the height in saying their Doctrine necessarily supposes that Christ hath not purchased a right of Life to any What can a Iew say more Ah Mr. C. can you read the words I have recited out of blessed Burroughs Owen Pemble Perkins Davenant Downame yea the whole Assembly of Reverend and Holy Divines with multitudes more who have all with one mouth asserted Faith to be the Condition of the New Covenant required on Man's part in point of Duty and that Men must believe before they can be justified which is the very same thing with what I say That it is antecedent to the benefit of the Promise and not tremble to think of the direful charges you here draw against them The Lord forgive your rash presumption Fourthly Whereas you say Christ hath in our stead performed the Conditions of life and that there remains nothing but a Promise c. you therein speak at the highest dialect of Antinomianism Hath not Christ by his Life and Death performed the Conditions of Life in our stead yet you your self confess that pardoning Mercy is in order of nature consequent to our believing certainly then there is something more to be done beside the mere making or being of a Promise there must be the effect
that the Reader who hath neither time nor ability to reade the Larger and more elaborate Treatises on this Subject may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one short view see the deduction of Believers Infants right to Baptism from this Gospel-covenant of God with Abraham I shall gather the substance of what I contend for and lay it as clearly as I can before the Eyes of my Reader in the following Theses which being distinctly considered as to the evident truth of each and then rationally compared one with the other he will see how each fortifies other and how all together do strongly confirm this Conclusion That the Infants of Believers under the Gospel as they naturally descend from Abraham's Spiritual Seed are therefore Partakers at least of the External Privileges of the visible Church and therefore ought now to be baptized Thesis I. It hath pleased God in all Ages of the World since man was created to deal with his Church and People by way of Covenant and in the same way he will still deal with them unto the end of the World God might have dealt with us in a supream way of mere Sovereignty and Dominion commanding what Duties he pleased and establishing his Commands by what Penalties he had pleased and never have brought himself under the tye and obligation of a Covenant to his own Creatures but he chuses to deal familiarly with his People the way of Covenanting being a familiar way 2 Sam. 7. 19. Is this the manner of men O Lord God! or as Iunius renders it and that after the manner of men O Lord God! 'T is a way full of condescending grace and goodness he is willing hereby his People should know what they may certainly expect from their God as well as what their God requires of them Hereby also he will furnish them with mighty Pleas and Arguments in Prayer succour their Faith against Temptations strengthen their hands in duties of Obedience sweeten their Obedience to them and discriminate his own People from the World As soon therefore as man was created and placed in Paradise being made upright and throughly furnished with Abilities lities perfectly and compleatly to obey all the Commands of his Maker the Lord immediately entred into the Covenant of Works with him and with all his natural Posterity in him and in this Covenant his standing or falling was according to the perfection and constancy of his personal Obedience Gen. 2. 17. Gal. 3. 10. But in this First Covenant of Works no provision at all was made for his recovery in case of the least failure by his repentance or better obedience but the Curse immediately seized both Soul and Body and Sin by the Fall entring into Man's nature totally disabled him to the perfect performance of any one Duty as that Covenant required it to be done Rom. 8. 3. nor would God accept any Repentance or after-endeavours in lieu of that perfect Obedience due by Law So that from the Fall of Adam to the end of the World this Covenant ceaseth as a Covenant of Life or a Covenant able to give Righteousness and Life unto all Mankind for evermore Rom. 3. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no stesh be justified in his sight Gal. 2. 16. â—y the works of the Law shall no 〈◊〉 justified Gal. 3. 11. But that no Man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident And it being so evident that Righteousness and Life being for ever impossible to be obtained upon the terms of Adam's Covenant it must therefore be a self-evident truth That since the Fall God never did and to the end of the World he never will open that way or door to Life thus block'd up by an absolute impossibility for the justification and salvation of any Man Thesis II. Soon after the violation and cessation of this first Covenant as a Covenant of Life it pleased the Lord to open and publish the second Covenant of Grace by Iesus Christ the first dawning whereof we find in Gen. 3. 15. where the Seed is promised which shall bruise the Serpent's head And though this be but a very short and somewhat obscure discovery of Man's Remedy and Salvation by Christ yet was it a joyful sound to the ears of God's people it was even life from the dead to the Believers of those times For we may rationally conclude That that space of time betwixt the breaking of the first and making of the second Covenant was the most dismal period of time that ever the World did or shall see This Covenant of Grace now took place of the Covenant of Works comprehended all Believers in the bosom of it The Covenant of Works took place from the time it was made until the fall of Adam and then was abolished as a Life-giving Covenant The second Covenant took place from the time it was made soon after the fall and is to continue to the end of the World And these only are the two Covenants God hath made with Men the latter succeeding the former and commencing from its expiration but both cannot possibly be in force together at the same time and upon the same persons as co-ordinate Covenants of Life and Salvation For in co-ordination they expel and destroy each other Gal. 5. 4. Whosoever of you are justified by the Law ye are fallen from Grace The first Covenant was a Covenant without a Mediator the second is a Covenant with a Mediator Place a Believer under both at once or put these two Covenants in co-ordination and that which results will be a pure contradiction viz. That a Man is saved without a Mediator and yet by a Mediator Moreover if there be a way to Life without a Mediator there was no need to make a Covenant in and with a Mediator nor can those words of Christ be true Ioh. 4. 6. I am the way the truth and the life no man cometh to the Father but by me The Righteousness of the first Covenant was within Man himself the Righteousness of the second Covenant is without Man in Christ. Put these two in co-ordination and that which results is as pure a contradiction as the former viz. That a Man is justified by a Righteousness within him and yet is justified by a Righteousness without him expresly contrary to the Apostle's conclusion Rom. 3. 20. Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight It is therefore an intolerable absurdity to place believers under both these Covenants at the same time under the Curse of the first and Blessing of the second For whensoever the state of any person is changed by Justification his Covenant is changed with his State Col. 1. 13. 'T is as unimaginable that a Believer should thus stand under both Covenants as it is to imagine that a Man may be born of two Mothers Gal. 4. 22 23 24 25. or a Woman lawfully Married to two Husbands Rom. 7. 1 2 3
that are his mystically considered and is properly made with all Believers in Christ and therefore it is called their Covenant Zech. 9. 11. As for thee also by the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy Prisoners out of the Pit wherein is no water So when God entred into the Covenant of Grace with Abraham Gen. 17. 7. I will establish my Covenant saith he between me and thee thy Seed after thee So when he took the People of Israel into this Covenant Ezek. 16. 8. I sware unto thee saith he and entred into a Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine This Covenant of Grace made with Believers in Christ is not the same nor must it be confounded with the Covenant of Redemption made with Christ before the World began They are two distinct Covenants for in the Covenant of Grace into which Believers are taken there is a Mediator and this Mediator is Christ himself but in the other Covenant of Redemption there neither was nor could be any Mediator which manifestly distinguishes them Besides In the Covenant of Grace Christ bequeaths manifold and rich Legacies as he is the Testator but no man gives a Legacy to himself This Covenant is really and properly made with every Believer as he is a Member of Jesus Christ the Head and they are truly and properly federates with God the Covenant binds them to their Duties and encourages them therein by promises of strength to be deriv'd from Christ to enable them thereunto 2. We thankfully acknowledge That the glory of the New Covenant is chiefly discovered in the Promises thereof upon the best Promises it is established And all the Promises are reducible to the Covenant They meet and center in it as the Rivers in the Sea or Beams in the Sun But yet we cannot say that nothing but Promises is contain'd in this Covenant for there are Duties required by it as well as Mercies promised in it Nor may we say That those Duties required by it are required only to be performed by Christ and not by us but they are required to be performed by us in his strength Nor is it Christ that repents and believes for us but we our selves are to believe and repent in the strength of his Grace And till we do so actually in our own persons we have no part or portion in the Blessings and Mercies of this Covenant If Christ by believing for us give us an actual Right and Title to the Promises and Blessings of the New Covenant then it will unavoidably follow 1. That men who never repented for one sin in all their lives may be nay certainly are pardoned as much as the greatest Penitents in the World because though they never repented themselves yet Christ repented for them expresly contrary to his own words Luke 13. 3. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And contrary to his own established Order Luke 29. 47. Acts 3. 19. 2. It will also follow That Unbelievers who never had union with Christ by one vital act of Faith in all their lives may be nay certainly shall be saved as well as those that are actual Believers because though they be Unbelievers in themselves yet Christ believed for them expresly contrary to Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned John 3. 36. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And Luke 12. 46. He will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with unbelievers 3. It will also follow from hence That men may continue in a state of disobedience all their days and yet may be sav'd as well as the most obedient Souls in the World expresly contrary to Eph. 5. 6. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience And Rom. 2. 8. But unto them that are contentioâ—s and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath And 1 Pet. 4. 17. What shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel of God! This Language sounds strange and harsh to the Ears of Christians a repenting Christ saving the impenitent Sinner A believing Christ saving Unbelievers An obeying Christ saving obstinate and disobedient Wretches Whither doth such Doctrine tend but to encourage and fix men in their impenitence unbelief and disobedience But the Lord grant no poor Sinner in the World may trust to this or build his hopes of Eternal Life upon such a loose sandy foundation as this is Reader All that Christ hath done without thee will not cannot be effectual to thy Salvation unless Repentance Faith and Obedience be wrought by the Spirit in thy Soul 'T is Christ in thee that is the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. Beware therefore on what ground thou buildest for Eternity Error X. They deny Sanctification to be the evidence of Iustification and deridingly tell us This is to light a Candle to the Sun and the darker our Sanctification is the brighter our Iustification is Refutation I am not at all surprized at this strange and absonous Language 'T is a false and dangerous Conclusion yet such as naturally results from and by a kind of necessity follows out of their other Errors For if the Elect be all justified from Eternity and that neither Repentance Faith or Obedience be required of us in the Covenant of Grace but were all required of and performed by Christ who repented believed and obeyed for us then indeed I cannot understand what relation our Sanctification hath to our Justification or how it should be an evidence mark or sign thereof or what regard is due from Christians to any Grace or Work of the Spirit wrought in them to clear up their Interest in Christ to them For we being in Christ and in state of Justification before we were naturally born we must necessarily be so before we be regenerated or new-born and consequently no work of Grace wrought in us or holy Duties performed by us can be evidential of that which from Eternity was done before them and without them 1. I grant indeed That many vain Professors do cheat and deceive themselves by false unscriptural signs and evidences as well as by true ones misapplied 2. I grant also That by reason of the deceitfulness of the Heart instability of the Thoughts similar works of common Grace in Hypocrites Distractions of the World Wiles of Satan weakness of Grace and prevalency of Corruptions the clearing up of our Justification by our Sanctification is a work that meets with great and manifold Difficulties which are the things that most Christians complain of 3. I also grant That the evidence of our Sanctification in this or any other method is not essential and absolutely necessary to the being of a Christian. A man may live in Christ and yet not know his interest in him or relation to him Isa. 50. 10. Some Christians like Children in the Cradle