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
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
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
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
the Circle of a severe Uniformity Fires Prisons Pillories Stigmatizings c. are the Popish Topicks to confute Errors 'T is highly remarkable that the World long ago consented for the avoiding of dissenting judgment to enslave themselves and their Posterity to the most fatal and destructive Heresie that ever it groaned under 'T is a rational and proper Observation long since made by Lactantius Quis mihi imponat necessitatem credendi quod nolim vel non credendi quod velim Who can force me to believe what I will not or not to believe what I will The rational and gentle Spirit of the Gospel is the only proper and effectual method to cure the Diseases of the Mind Eighteenth Observation 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. They dissolve the lovely union of the Saints and thereby scare off the World from coming into the Church This is evidently implied in that Prayer of Christ Iohn 17. That all his People might be one that the World might believe the Father had sent him There is indeed no just cause for any to take offence at the Christian Reformed Religion because so many Errors and Heresies spring up among the Professors of it and divide them into so many Sects and Parties for in all this we find no more than what was predicted from the beginning 1 Cor. 11. 18 19. I hear there be divisions among you and I partly believe it for there must be also Heresies among you c. And again Acts 20. 30. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them The very same things strongly confirm the Christian Religion which wicked men improve to the reproach and prejudice of it When Celsus objected to the Christians the variety and contrariety of their Opinions saying Were we willing to turn Christians we know not of what Party to be seeing you all pretend to Christ and yet differ so much from one another Tertullian the Christian Apologist made him this wise and pertinent Reply Haereses non dolemus venisse quia novimus esse praedictas We are not troubled that Heresies are come seeing it was predicted that they must come These things destroy not the credibility of the Christian Religion but increase and confirm it by evidencing to the World the truth and certainty of Christ's Predictions which were quite beyond all human foresight that as soon as his Doctrine should be propagated and a Church raised by it Errors and Heresies should spring up among them for the tryal of their Faith and Constancy Nevertheless this no way excuses the sinfulness of Errors and Divisions in the Church Christ's Prediction neither infuses nor excuses the Evil predicted by him for what he elsewhere speaks of Scandals is as true in this case of Errors These things must come to pass but wo be to that man by whom they come Ninteenth Observation 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 Abetters at last Truth is a Rock the waves of Error that dash against evermore return in froth and foam yea they foam out their own shame saith the Apostle Iud. 13. What Tacitus spake of crafty Counsels I may as truly apply to crafty Errors Consilia callida primâ specie laeta tractatu dura eventu tristia They are pleasant in their beginnings difficult in their management and sad in their event and issue Suppose a man have union with Christ yet his Errors are but so much Hay Wood Straw Stubble built or rather endeavoured to be built upon a foundation of Gold this the fiery tryal burns up the Author of them suffers loss and though himself may be saved yet so as by fire 1 Cor. 3. 12 13 14 15. the meaning is he makes a narrow escape As a man that leaps out of an House on fire from a Window or Battlement with great difficulty saves his life just so Errorists shall be glad to quit their Erroneous Opinions which they have taken so much pains to build and draw others into and then oh what a shame must it be for a good man to think how many days and nights have I worse than wasted to defend and propagate an Error which might have been employed in a closer study of Christ and mine own heart Keckerman relates a Story of a vocal Statue which was thirty years a making by a cunning Artist which by the motion of its Tongue with little Wheels Wires c. could articulate the sound and pronounce an entire Sentence This Statue saluting Aquinas surprized him and at one stroke he utterly destroyed the curious Machin which exceedingly troubled the fond Owner of it and made him say with much concernment Vno ict◠opus trigint a annorum destruxisti thou hast at one stroke destroyed the study and labour of thirty years Beside What shame and trouble must it be to the zealous Promoters of Errors not only to cast away so vainly and unprofitably their own time and strength which is bad enough but also to ensnare and allure the Souls of others into the same or worse mischief for though God may save and recover you those that have been misled by you may perish Twentieth Observation If ever Errors be cured and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established men must be convinced of and acquainted with the Occasions 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 There is much difference betwixt an Occasion and a proper Cause these two are heedfully to be distinguished Critical and exact Historians as Polybius and Tacitus distinguish betwixt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning Occasions and the real Causes of a War and so we ought in this case of Errors carefully to distinguish them The most excellent and innocent things in the World such as the Scriptures of Truth the Liberty of Christians the Tranquility and Peace of the Church as you will hear anon may by the Subtilty of Satan working in conjunction with the Corruptions of mens hearts become the Occasions but can never be the proper culpable Causes of Errors Accordingly having made the twenty Remarks upon the Nature and Growth of Errors which cannot so well be brought within the following Rules of method I shall in the next place proceed in the discovery both of the mere Occasion as also of the proper culpable Causes of Errors together with the proper Preventives and most effectual Remedies placed together in the following order The Occasion The holy God who is a God of Truth Deut. 32. 4. and
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
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
make one assault How many wavering Professors at this day lie in Temptation's way and how great a harvest have Errorists and Hereticks had among them There 's not a Mountebank comes upon the Stage but he shall find ten times more Customers for his Druggs than the most Learned and Experienced Physician The giddy-headed Multitude have more regard to Novelty than Truth The Remedies How necessary and desirable are some effectual Rules and Remedies in this Case O what a mercy would it be to the Professors of these days to have their Minds fixed and their Judgments setled in the Truths of Christ Happy is that man whose Judgment is so guarded that no dangerous Error or Heresie can commit a Rape upon it To this end I shall here commend the four following Rules to prevent this vertigenous malady in the heads of Christians Rule I. Look warily to it that you get a real inward implantation into Christ and lay the foundation deep and firm in a due and serious deliberation of Religion whenever you engage in the publick profession of it To this sense sound the Apostle's words Col. 2. 6 7. As you have therefore received Christ Iesus the Lord so walk ye in him rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith as you have been taught Fertility and stability in Christ a pair of inestimable Blessings depend upon a good rooting of the Soul in him at first He that thrusts a dead stick into the ground may easily pull it up again but so he cannot do by a well-rooted Tree A colour raised by violent action or a great fire soon dies away but that which is natural or constitutional will hold Every thing is as its foundation is 'T was want of a good root and due depth of earth which soon turned the green Corn into dry stubble Matt. 13. 21. Rule II. Labour after an inward experimental taste of all those Truths which you profess This will preserve your minds from wavering and hesitation about the certainty and reality of them We will not easily part with those Truths which have sensibly shed down their sweet influences upon our hearts Heb. 10. 34. No Sophister can easily perswade a man that hath taâ—ted the sweetness of Honey that it is a bitter and unpleasant thing Non est disputandum de gustu you cannot easily perswade a man out of his Senses Rule III. Study hard and pray earnestly for satisfaction in the present Truths 2 Pet. 1. 12. That you may be established 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the truth that now is under opposition and controversie Be not ignorant of the Truths that lie in present hazard Antiquated Opinions that are more abstracted from our present Interest are no tryals of the soundness of our Judgments and integrity of our Hearts as the controversies and conflicts of the present Times are Every Truth hath its time to come upon the stage and enter the lists some in one Age and some in another but Providence seems to have cast the lot of your Nativity for the honour and defence of those Truths with which Error is struggling and conflicting in your time Rule IV. Lastly Be throughly sensible of the benefit and good of establishment and of the evil and danger of a wavering Mind and Judgment Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines saith the Apostle for it is a good thing that the heart be established c. Heb. 13. 9. Established Souls are the honour of Truth It was the honour of Religion in the primitive days that when the Heathens would proverbially express an Impossibility they used to say You may as soon turn a Christian from Christ as do it The Fickleness of Professors is a stumbling-block to the World They 'l say as Cato of the Civil Wars betwixt Caesar and Pompey quem fugiam video quem sequar non video they know whom to avoid but not whom to follow And as the honour of Truth so the flourishing of your own Souls depends on it A Tree often removed from one Soil to another can never be expected to be fruitful 't is well if it make a shift to live Fifth Cause Another inward Cause disposing men to receive Erroneous Impressions is an unreasonable EAGERNESS to snatch at any Doctrine or Opinion that promisesh ease to an anxious Conscience Men that are under the frights and terrours of Conscience are willing to listen to any thing that offers present relief Of all the Troubles in the World those of the Mind and Conscience are most intolerable And those that are in pain are glad of ease and readily catch at any thing that seems to offer it This seems to be the thing which led those poor distressed Wretches intimated Micah 6. 6. into their gross Mistakes and Errors about the method of the remission of their Sins Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and â—ow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams or with ten thousand of Rivers of Oyl Shall I give my First-born for my Transgression the Fruit of my Body for the Sin of my Soul They were ready to purchase inward peace and buy out their pardon at any rate Nothing but the twinges of Conscience could have extorted these things from them Great is the efficacy and torment of a guilty Conscience Satan who feels more of this in himself than any other Creature in the World and knows how ready poor ignorant but distressed Sinners are to catch at any thing that looks like ease or comfort and being jealous what these troubles of Conscience may issue into prepares for them such Erroneous Doctrines and Opinions under the names of Anodines and quieting Recipe's by swallowing of which they feel some present ease but their Disease is thereby made so much the more incurable 'T is upon this account he hath found such vent in the World for his Penanees Pilgrimages and Indulgences among the Papists But seeing this Ware will not go off among the Reformed and more enlightned Professors of Christianity he changeth his hand and fitteth other Doses under other names to quiet sick and distressed Souls before ever their frights of Conscience come to settle into true Repentance and Faith in the Blood of Christ by dressing up and presenting to them such Opinions as these viz. That they may boldly apply to themselves all the Promises of pardon and peace without any respect at all to Repentance or Faith in themselves that it is not at all needful nay that it is illegal and sinful to have any respect to these things forasmuch as their Sins were pardoned and they justified from Eternity and that the Covenant of Grace is in all respects absolute and is made to Sinners as Sinners without any regard to their Faith or Repentance and whatever Sins there be in them God sees them not To such a Charm of Troubles
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
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
that the want of a due observation of this plain Scripture-distinction betwixt God's free and absolute Covenant made with Sinners in Christ and our Covenants with God by way of return thereunto is the true reason of all our mistakes about the true nature of the Gospel-Covenant whilst we jumble and coâ—found together that which the Scriptures do so plainly distinguish To your first Answer I say It is true the Scriptures do distinguish betwixt Covenant and Covenant that of Works and that of Grace It also distinguishes the same Covenant of Grace for substance according to its various administrations into the Old and New Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt the promissory part of the same Covenant of Grace and the restipulatory part not as of two opposite Covenants as you distinguish them Gen. 17. but as the just and necessary parts of one and the same Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt Vows made by Men to God in some particular Cases and the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and them But what 's all this to your purpose Or in what point doth it touch my Argument You desire me to cast mine eye upon Ezek. 16. and Psal. 89. I have done so and that impartially and do assure you I admire why you produce them against my Argument That in Ezek. speaks of the enlargement of the Church by the accession of the Gentiles to it and the sense of those words seems to me to be this That this enlargement of the Church is a gracious addition or something beyond what God had ever done in his former dispensations of the Covenant to that People And for Psal. 89. I know not what you meant to produce it for unless it be to prove what I never denied That notwithstanding our failures in duty towards God God will still keep his Covenant with us though he will visit the Iniquities of his Covenant-pâ—ople with a Rod. To your second Answer That we are to deliberate the terms and count the cost with respect to those duties which are in order to the participation of the full end of the Covenant in glory by which I suppose you mean Self-denial Perseverance c. I have no Controversy with you about that Our Question is Whether there be no deliberations required of or to be performed by men who are not yet in Christ by justifying Faith but under some preparatory works towards Faith And whether at the very time of their closing with Christ there be not a consent of the Will unto those terms required of them If you say there be as by the places I alledged it evidently appears there are then you yield the point I contend for If you say they are not before or at the time of believing to consider any terms or give their consent to them by word or writing such an Answer would fly in the very face of those Scriptures I produced for then a man may be in covenant without his own consent he that deliberates not consents not non consentit qui non sentit And therefore you durst not speak it out for which modesty I commend you and so leave me with half an answer not touching that part viz. Antecedent deliberations which were concerned in this Argument And now let your most partial Friends judge Whether from this performance of yours you have any just ground for that vain boast which concludes your Answer viz. That the Covenants themselves which those Privileges are bottomed on are now repealed and that there is no room left for any other Argument to infer the Baptism of Infants at least I shall willingly commit it to the judgment of all intelligent and impartial Readers Whether Mr. Cary hath any real ground in this performance of his for such a Thrasonical Conclusion such a vain and fulsome Boast I find that with like confidence he hath also attempted a Reply to Mr. Ioseph Whiston a Reverend Learned and Aged Divine who hath accurately and successfully defended God's Covenant with Abraham against Mr. Cox and doubt not if Mr. Cary and his Party have but confidence enough to expose it to the publick view and to adventure the Cause of Infant-baptism upon it the World will quickly see an end of this long-continued and unhappy Controversy which hath vexed the Church of God and alienated the Affections of good Men and that the Wisdom of Providence hath permitted and over-ruled this last Attempt to the singular advantage of the Truths of God and tranquillity of good Men whose concernment at this time especially is rather to strengthen their Faith and heighten their Encouragements from God's gracious Covenant than to undermine it when all things beside it are shaking and tottering round about them And now Sir for a Coronis to all those things that have been controverted betwixt us about the Covenants of God and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism resulting from one of them which I have asserted and argued against you in my first Answer and you have silently and wholly pass'd over in your Reply hoping to destroy them all at once by proving God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. to be a pure Adam's Covenant of Works I judge it necessary as matters now lie between us to give the Reader the grounds and reasons of my Faith and Practice with respect unto the Ordinance of Infant Baptism and that as succinctly and clearly as I can in the following Theses which being laid together by an unprejudiced and considerative Reader will I think amount to more than a strong probability That it is the will of God that the Infant-seed of Believers ought now to be baptized But here I must remind the Reader and beg him to review what I have said before in thâ— third Cause of Errors That to arrive to satisfaction in this point requires a due and serious search of the whole Word of God with a sedate rational and impartial mind comparing one thing with another though they lie scattered at a distance in the Scriptures some in the Old Testament and some in the New Bring but these things to an interview as we do in discovering the change of the Sabbath and we may arrive unto a due satisfaction of the Will of God herein This I confess calls for strength of mind great sedulity attention and impartiality and yet what man would think all this too much if it were but to clear his Childrens Title unto a small Earthly Inheritance I intend not to give the Reader here an account of all the Arguments drawn from several Scripture Topics by the strenuous Defenders of Infants Baptism but to keep only to the Arguments drawn from God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. which is the Scripture mainly controverted betwixt us You affirming boldly and dangerously that Covenant to be no other than an Adam's Covenant of Works and I justly denying and abhorring your Position upon the grounds and reasons before given which you neither have nor ever will be able to destroy Now
John verse 8. Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought With multitude of other Scriptures recommending holy jealousy serious self-trial and examination of our Faith as the unquestionable duties of the people of God But if we ought to question our Faith no more than we ought to question Christ away then with all self-examination and diligence to make our Calling and Election sure for where there is no doubt nor danger there 's no place nor room for examination or further endeavours to make it surer than it is How do you like this Doctrine Christians How many be there among you that find no more cause to question your own faith or interest in Christ than you do to question whether there be a Christ or whether he shed his Blood for the remission of any Man's sins Reason II. This is a very dangerous Error and it is the more dangerous because it leaves no way to recover a presumptuous Sinner out of his dangerous mistakes but confirms and fixes him in them to the great hazard of his eternal ruin It cuts off all means of conviction or better information and Nails them fast to the carnal state in which they are According to this Doctrine 't is impossible for a Man to think himself something when he is nothing or to be guilty of such a Paralogism and cheat put by himself upon his own Soul Iam. 1. 22. this in effect bids a Man keep on right or wrong he is sure enough of Heaven if he be but strongly persuaded that Christ died for him and he shall come thither at last Certainly this was not the Counsel Christ gave to the self-deceived Laodiceans Rev. 3. 17 18. but instead of dissuading them from self-jealously and suspition of their condition whether their Faith and State were safe or not he rather counsels them to buy Eye-salve that is to labour after better information of the true state and condition they were in and not cast away their Souls by false persuasions and vain confidences Reason III. This Doctrine cannot be true because it supposes every persuasion or strong conceit of a Man 's own heart to be as infallibly sure and certain as the very fundamental Doctrine of Christianity No truth in the World can be surer than this That Jesus Christ died for Sinners This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accepâ—ation 1 Tim. 1. 15. This is a Foundation stone a tried precious Corner-stone a sure foundation lay'd by God himself Isa. 28. 16. and shall the strong conceits and confidences of Men's hearts vye and compare in point of certainty with it As well may probable and meerly conjectural Propositions compare with Axioms that are self-evident or demonstrative Arguments that leave no doubts behind them Know we not that the heart is deceitful above all things the most notorious cheat and impostor in the World Ier. 17. 9 Does it not deceive all the formal hypocrites in the World in this very point And shall every strong conceit and presumptuous confidence begotten by Satan upon a deceitful heart and nursed up by self-love pass without any examination or suspition for as infallible and assured a truth as that Jesus Christ came into the World to save sinners The Lord sweep that Doctrine out of the World by Reformation which is like to sweep so many Thousand Souls into Hell by a remediless Self-deception Error IV. The fourth Antinomian Error before mentioned was this That Believers are not bound to confess their sins or pray for the pardon of them because their sins were pardoned before they were committed and pardoned sin is no sin Refutation If this be true Doctrine then it will justify and make good such Conclusions and Inferences as these which necessarily flow from it viz. 1. That there is no Sin in Believers 2. Or if there be the evil is very inconsiderable Or 3. Whatever evil is in it it is not the will of God that they should â—ither confess it mourn over it or pray for the remission of it Whatever he requires of others yet they need take no notice of it so as to afflict their hearts for it God hath exempted them from such concernments There 's nothing but joy to a Believer saith Mr. Eaton But neither of these conclusions are either true or tolerable therefore neither is the principle so which yields them 1. It is not true or tolerable to affirm that there is no Sin in a Believer 1 Ioh. 1. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us There 's not a just Man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not Eccles. 7. 20. In many things we offend all James 3. 2. The Scriptures plainly affirm it and the universal experience of all the Saints sadly confirms it 'T is true the Blood of Christ hath taken away the guilt of Sin so that it shall not condemn Believers and the spirit of Sanctification hath taken away the dominion of Sin so that it doth not reign over Believers but nothing except Glorification utterly destroys the existence of Sin in Believers The acts of sin are our acts and not Christ's and the stain and pollution of those sinful acts are the burthens and infelicities of Believers even in their justified State Dr. Crisp indeed p. 270 271. calls that objection I suppose he means distinction betwixt the guilt of Sin and Sin it self a simple objection and tells us the very Sin it self as well as the guilt of it passed off from us and was lay'd upon Christ So that speaking of the Sins of Blasphemy Murther Theft Adultery Lying c. From that time saith he that they were lay'd upon Christ thou ceasest to be a transgressor If thou hast part in the Lord Christ all these transgressions of thine become actually the transgressions of Christ. So that now thou are not an Idolater or Persecutor a Thief a Murtherer and an Adulterer thou art not a sinful person Christ is made that very sinfulness before God c. Such expressions justly offend and grieve the hearts of Christians and expose Christianity to scorn and contempt Was it not enough that the guilt of our sin was lay'd on him but we must imagine also that the thing it self Sin with all the deformity and pollution should be essentially transferred from us to Christ No no. After we are justified sin dwelleth in us Rom. 7. 17. warreth in us and brings us into captivity ver 23. Burthens and oppresseth our very Souls v. 24. Methinks I need not stand to prove what I should think no sound experienced Christian dares to deny that there is much sin still remaining in the persons of the justified He that dares to deny it hath little acquaintance with the nature of Sin and of his own Heart 2. It is neither true nor tolerable to say there is no considerable evil in the sins of Believers deserving a mournful confession or petition for
Grave and learnned Gataker hath learnedly and industriously vindicated that Scripture from this abuse of it by Antinomians in his Treatise upon that Text entitled God's Eye upon his Israel where after a learned and critical search of the Text he telleth us it soundeth word for word thus from the Original He hath not beheld wrong against Jacob nor hath he seen grievance against Israel So that the meaning is not That God did not see sin in Israel but that he beheld not with approbation the wrongs and injuries done by others against his Israel and shews at large by divers solid Reasons why the Antinomian sense cannot be the proper sense of that place it being cross to the main tenour of the Story and truth of God's Word which shews that God often complained of their Sins often threatned to avenge them yea did actually avenge them by destroying them in the Wilderness nay Balaam himself who uttered these words unto Balak did not so understand them as appears by the advice he gave to Balak to draw them into sin that thereby God might be provoked to withdraw his protection from them And for Ier. 50. 20. it makes nothing to their purpose Many expound the sin there sought after and not found to be the Sin of Idolatry which Israel should be purged from by their Captivity according to Isa. 27. 9. But the generality of sound Expositors are agreed That by the not finding of Israel's and Iudah's Sin is meant no more but his not finding those Bonds or Obligations against them to eternal punishment which their Sins had put them under 4. In a word This Opinion clashes with their other Principles For they say That though there was pardon and remission under the Old Covenant which they allowed to be a Covenant of Grace yet it was but gradatim and successively as they offered Sacrifices If a man had sinned ignorantly until he brought a Sacrifice his sin lay upon him it may be a week a months distance between before they could have their pardon Vide Dr. Crisp of the two Covenants p. 256 257. Now I demand If this were the state and case of all God's Israel under the Old Testament Why do these men affirm that God can see no sin in a Believer and why do they expound the words of Balaam so contradictorily to this their other Opinion For they will not deny but God sees unpardoned Sins in all and here is a week or month or more time allowed between the commission and remission of their Sin And so much of the 5th Antinomian Error Error VI. That God is not angry with the Elect nor doth he smite them for their Sins and to say that he doth so is an injurious reflection upon the Iustice of God who hath received full satisfaction for all their Sins from the hand of Christ. There are several Mistakes and Errors in these Assertions and I suppose our Antinomians were led into them 1. By their abhorrence of the Popish Doctrine which errs more dangerously in the other extream for they wickedly assert our Sufferings to be satisfactory for our Sins which is the ground of Popish Penances and voluntary Self-castigations 2. From a groundless apprehension That God's Corrections of us for our Sins are inconsistent with the fulness of Christ's satisfaction for them Christ having paid all our Debts and dissolved our Obligations to all punishment it cannot consist with the Justice of God to lay any Rod upon us for our Sins after Christ hath born all that our Sins deserved This mistake of the end of Christ's death occasions them to stumble into the other Mistakes they imagine that Christ's Satisfaction abolished God's hatred of Sin in Believers But this cannot be God's antipathy to Sin can never be taken away by the Satisfaction of Christ though his hatred to the Persons of the redeemed be for the hatred of Sin is founded in the unchangeable Nature of God and he can as soon cease to be holy as cease to hate Sin Hab. 1. 13. Nor was Christ's death ever designed to this end though Christ hath satisfied for the Sins of Believers God still hates Sin in Believers His hatred to their Sins and love to their Persons are not inconsistent As a man may love his Leg or Arm as they are Members of his own Body and notwithstanding that love hate the Gangrene which hath taken them and lance or use painful corrosives for the cure of them Neither do our Antinomians distinguish as they ought betwixt vindictive Punishments from God the pure issues and effects of his Justice and Wrath against the Wicked and his Paternal Castigations the pure issues of the Care and Love of a displeased Father Great and manifold are the differences betwixt his vindictive Wrath upon his Enemies and the rebukes of the Rod upon his Children Those are Legal these Evangelical Those out of wrath and hatred these out of love Those unsanctified but these blessed and sanctified to happy ends and purposes to his People Those for destruction these for salvation To narrow the matter in Controversy as much as we can I shall lay down three Concessions about God's Corrections of his People Concession I. We chearfully and thankfully acknowledge the perfection and fulness of the satisfaction of Christ for all the Sins of Believers and with thankfulness do own that if God should cast all or any of them into an ocean of temporal Troubles and Distresses in all that sea of Sorrow there would not be found one drop of vindictive Wrath. Christ hath drunk the last drop of that Cup and left nothing for Believers to suffer by way of satisfaction Concession II. We grant also That all the Sufferings of Believers in this World are not for their Sins but some of them are for the prevention of Sin 2 Cor. 12. 7. some for the tryal of their Graces Iam. 1. 2 3. some for a confirming testimony to his Truths Act. 5. 41. Such Sufferings as these have much heavenly comfort concomitant with them Concession III. We do not say That God's displeasure with his People for Sin evidenced against them in the smartest rebukes of the Rod is any argument that God's love is turned into hatred against their Persons no no his love to his People is unchangeable Having loved his own he loved them to the end Iohn 13. 1. yet notwithstanding all this three things are undeniably clear and being throughly apprehended will end this Controversy 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World on the Persons of Believers 2. That this Rod of God is sometimes laid on them for their Sins 3. That these Fatherly Corrections of them for their Sins are reconcileable to and fully consistent with his Justice compleatly satisfied by the Blood of Christ for all their Sins 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World upon the persons of Believers This no man can have the face to deny that believes the Scriptures to be the Word of