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duty_n	christian_n	day_n	lord_n	1,759	5	4.1527	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39674	Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable discourse of the occasions, causes, nature, rise, growth, and remedies of mental errors written some months since, and now made publick, both for the healing and prevention of the sins and calamities which have broken in this way upon the churches of Christ, to the great scandal of religion, hardening of the wicked, and obstruction of Reformation : whereunto are subjoined by way of appendix : I. Vindiciarum vindex, being a succinct, but full answer to Mr. Philip Cary's weak and impertinent exceptions to my Vindiciæ legis & fæderis, II. a synopsis of ancient and modern Antinomian errors, with scriptural arguments and reasons against them, III. a sermon composed for the preventing and healing of rents and divisions in the churches of Christ / by John Flavell ... ; with an epistle by several divines, relating to Dr. Crisp's works.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing F1175; ESTC R21865	194,574	498

searched and all those parcels brought together to an interview Ex. Gr. If a Man would see the entire discovery that was made of Christ to the Fathers under the Old-Testament he shall not find it laid together in any one Prophet but shall find that one speaks to one part of it and another to another Moses gives the first general hint of it Gen. 3. 15. The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head But then if you would know more particularly of whose Seed according to the flesh he should come you must turn to Gen. 22. 18. In thy seed saith God to Abraham shall all nations of the earth be blessed And if you yet doubt what Seed God means there you must go to the Apostle Gal. 3. 16. To thy seed which is Christ. If you would further know the place of his Nativity the Prophet Micha must inform you of that Mic. 5. 2. it should be Bethlehem-Ephrata If you inquire of the quality of his Parent another Prophet gives you that Isa. 7. 14. Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel If the time of his Birth be inquired after Moses and Daniel must inform you of that Gen. 49. 10. Dan. 9. 24. So under the New-Testament If a Man inquire about the change of the Sabbath he must not expect to find a formal repeal of the Seventh day and an express institution of the first day in its room but he is to consider First What the Evangelist speaks Mark 2. 28. That Christ is Lord of the Sabbath and so had power not only to dispense with it but to change it Secondly That on the first day of the Week Christ rose from the dead Matt. 28. 1 2. And that this is that great day foretold to be the day to be solemnized upon that account Psal. 118. 24. Thirdly That accordingly the first day of the Week is emphatically styled the Lord's day Rev. 1. 10. where you find his own name written upon it Fourthly You shall find this was the day on which the Apostles and Primitive Christians assembled together for the stated and solemn performance of Publick Worship Iohn 20. 19. and other publick Church-Acts and Duties 1 Cor. 16. 1 2. And so by putting together and considering all these Particulars we draw a just Conclusion That it is the Will of God that since the Resurrection of Christ the first day of the week should be observed as the Christian-Sabbath In like manner as for the Baptizing of Believers Infants We are not to expect it in the express words of a New-Testament-Institution or Command that Infants under the Gospel should be Baptized but God hath left us to gather satisfaction about his Will and our Duty in that point by comparing and considering the several Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament which relate to that matter which if we be impartial and considerative we may do First By considering that by God's express Command Gen. 17. 9 10. the Infant Seed of his People were taken into Covenant with their Parents and the then Sign of that Covenant commanded to be applied to them Secondly That though the Sign be altered the Promise and Covenant is still the same and runs as it did before to Believers and their Children Acts 2. 38 39. Thirdly That the foederal holiness of our Children is plainly asserted under the New-Testament 1 Cor. 7. 14. Rom. 11. 16. Fourthly We shall further find that Baptism succeeds in the room of Circumcision and that by an Argument drawn from the compleatness of our Privileges under the New-Testament no way inferiour but rather more extensive than those of the Iews Col. 2. 10 11 12. Fifthly We shall find that upon the Conversion of any Master or Parent the whole Houshold were Bapized By puting all these things with some others together we may arrive to the desired satisfaction about the Will of God in this matter But some Men want abilities and others are too sluggish and lazy to gather together compare and weigh all these and many more hints and discoveries of the Mind of God which would give much light unto this point but they take an easier and cheaper way to satisfy themselves with what lies uppermost upon the surface of Scripture and so as it were by consent let go and lose their own and their Childrens blessed and invaluable Privileges for want of a little labour and patience to search the Scriptures a folly which few would be guilty of if but a small earthly inheritance were concerned therein The Remedies To cure this Spiritual sluggishness and awaken us to the most serious and diligent search after the Will of God in such controversal and doubtful points that we may not neglect the smallest hint given us about it the following Considerations will be found of great use and weight Consideration I. The most sedate impartial and diligent inquiries after the Will of God revealed in his Word is a Duty expresly enjoyned by his Soveraign Command which immediately and indispensibly binds the Conscience of every Christian to the practice of it Remarkable is that Text to this purpose Rom. 12. 2. And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Here you find this Duty not only associated with but made the very end of our Non-conformity to the World and renovation of our minds the very things which constitute a Christian And to sweeten our pains in this work that Will of God for the discovery whereof we search is presented to us under three illustrious and alluring properties viz. Good Acceptable and Perfect Good it must needs be because the Will and Essence of God the chief Good are not two things but one and the same And Perfect it must needs be because it is the Beam and Standard by which the Actions of all reasonable Creatures ought to be weighed and tryed as to the moral good or evil of them And being both good and perfect How can it chuse but upon both accounts be highly Acceptable and grateful to an upright Soul as that Epithete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there imports Search the Scriptures saith Christ Ioh. 5. 39. To the Law and to the Testimony faith the Prophet Isa. 8. 20. This is not matter of meer Christian Liberty but Commanded Duty and at our peril● be it if we neglect it Consideration II. No act of ours can be good and acceptable to the Lord further than it is agreeable to his Will revealed in the Word No Man can be a Rule to himself He can be no more his own Rule than his own End One Man cannot be a Rule to another The best of Men and their Actions and Examples are only so far a rule of imitation to us as they themselves are ruled by the Divine revealed Will 1 Cor. 11. 1. uncommanded acts of Worship are abominable to

live but understand not that they live are born to a great Inheritance but have no knowledge of it or present comfort in it 4. I will further grant That the Eye of a Christian may be too intently fixed upon his own gracious qualification and being wholly taken up in the reflex Acts of Faith may too much neglect the direct Acts of Faith upon Christ to the great detriment of his Soul But all this notwithstanding The examination of our Justification by our Sanctification is not only a lawful and possible but a very excellent and necessary work and duty 'T is the course that Christians have taken in all Ages And that which God hath abundantly blessed to the joy and encouragement of their Souls He hath furnished our Souls to this end with noble self-reflecting Powers and Abilities He hath answerably furnished his Word with variety of marks and signs for the same end and use Some of these marks are exclusive to detect and bar bold presumptuous Pretenders 1 Cor. 6. 9. Rev. 21. 8 27. Some are inclusive marks to measure the strength and growth of Grace by Rom. 4. 20. And others are positive signs flowing out of the very essence of Grace or the New-Creature 1 Iohn 4. 13. Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit He hath also expresly commanded us to examine and prove our selves upbraided the neglectors of that duty and enforced their duty upon them by a thundring Argument 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves know ye not your own selves how that Iesus Christ is in you except ye be Reprobates In a word For this end and purpose amongst others were the Scriptures written 1 Iohn 5. 13. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life And therefore to neglect this duty is exceeding dangerous but to deny and deride it intolerable It may justly be feared such men will be drown'd in perdition who fall into the waters by making a bridge over them with their own shadows For my own part I verily believe that the sweetest hours Christians enjoy in this World is when they retire into their Closets and sit there concealed from all eyes but him that made them looking now into the Bible then into their own Hearts and then up to God closely following the grand Debate about their Interest in Christ till they have brought it to the happy desired issue And now Reader for a close of all I call the Searcher of Hearts to witness That I have not intermedled with these Controversies of Antipaedobaptism and Antinomianism our of any delight I take in Polemical Studies or an unpeaceable contradicting Humour but out of pure zeal for the Glory and Truths of God for the vindication and defence whereof I have been necessarily ingaged therein And having discharged my duty thus far I now resolve to return if God will permit me to my much sweeter and more agreeable Studies Still maintaining my Christian Charity for those whom I oppose not doubting but I shall meet those in Heaven from whom I am forced in lesser things to dissent and differ upon Earth FINIS GOSPEL-UNITY Recommended to the CHURCHES OF CHRIST IN A SERMON Preached by I. F. Author of the Foregoing DISCOURSE FROM I COR. I. 10. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ That ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment WHEN I consider this Healing and Uniting Text and the scandalous Divisions of the Congregations to which I recommend it I could chuse rather to comment thereon with Tears than Words 'T is just matter of lamentation to think what feeble influences such Divine and Pathetical Exhortations have upon the minds and hearts of professed Christians But it is not Lamentations but proper Counsels and convictions obey'd must do the work The Primitive and Purest Churches of Christ consisted of imperfect Members who notwithstanding they were knit together by the same internal bond of the Spirit and the same external bonds of common Profession and common Danger and enjoyed extraordinary helps for uniting in the Presence and Doctrine of the Apostles among them yet quickly discovered a Schismatical Spirit dividing both in Judgment and Affection to the great Injury of Religion and Grief of the Apostle's Spirits To check and heal this growing-Evil in the Church at Corinth the Apostle addresses his Pathetical Exhortation to them and to all future Churches of Christ whom it equally concerns in the words of my Text. Now I beseech you brethren c. Where note 1. The Duty exhorted to 2. The Arguments enforcing the Duty 1. The Duty exhorted to namely Unity the Beauty Strength and Glory as well as the Duty of a Church This Unity he describes two ways 1. As it is Exclusive of its opposite Schism or Division All Rents and rash Separations are contrary to it and destructive of it I beseech you brethren that there be no Divisions or Schisms among you 2. As it is inclusive of all that belongs to it namely the Harmony and Agreement of their Judgments Hearts and Language 1. That ye all speak the same thing 2. That ye be perfectly joined together in one Mind And 3. In the same Judgment This threefold Union in Judgment Affection and Language includes all that belongs to Christian Concord makes the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men of one Heart and Soul the loveliest sight this World affords Acts 2. 46 47. 2. The Arguments enforcing this Duty upon them comes next under consideration And these are Three 1. I beseech you 2. I beesech you Brethren 3. I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ. These Arguments are not of equal Force and Efficacy The first is great The second greater The last the most efficacious and irresistible of all the rest But all together should come with such Power and irresistible Efficacy upon the Judgments Consciences and Hearts of Christians as should perfectly knit them together and defeat all the Designs of Satan and his Agents without them or of their own Corruptions within them to rend asunder their Affections or Communion And first he enforces the Duty of Unity by a solemn Apostolical Obsecration and Adjuration I beseech you saith he he had Power to command them to this Duty and threaten them for the neglect of it He had in readiness to revenge all Disobedience and might have shaken that Rod over them but he chuseth rather to intreat and beseech them Now I beseech you Brethren Here you have as it were the great Apostle upon his knees before them Meekly and Pathetically entreating them to be at perfect Unity among themselves 'T is the intreaty of their Spiritual

being in Christ and on that as well as on many accounts necessary The difference between him and other good men seems to lie not so much in the things which the one or other of them believe as about their order and reference to one another where 't is true there may be very material difference but we reckon That notwithstanding what is more controversible in these Writings there are much more material things wherein they cannot but agree and would have come much nearer each other even in these things if they did take some words or terms which come into use on the one or the other hand in the same sense but when one uses a word in one sense another uses the same word or understands it being used in quite another sense here seems a vast disagreement which proves at length to be verbal only and really none at all As let by Condition be meant a deserving Cause in which case 't is well known Civillians are not wont to take it and the one side would never use it concerning any good Act that can be done by us or good Habit that is wrought in us in order to our present acceptance with God or final Salvation Let be meant by it somewhat that by the constitution of the Gospel-Covenant and in the nature of the thing is requisite to our present and eternal well-being without the least notion of desert but utmost abhorrence of any such notion in this case and the other side would as little refuse it But what need is there for contending at all about a Law-term about the proper or present use whereof there is so little agreement between them it seems best to serve and them it offends Let it go and they will well enough understand one another Again Let Justification be taken for that which is compleat entire and full as it results at last from all its Causes and Concurrents and on the one hand it would never be denied Christ's righteousness justifies us at the Bar of God in the Day of Iudgment as the only deserving cause or affirmed that our Faith Repentance Sincerity do justifie us there as any cause at all Let Iustification be meant only of being justified in this or that particular respect As for instance against this particular Accusation of never having been a Believer and the honest mistaken Prefacer would never have said O horrid upon it s being said Christ's Righteousness doth not justify us in this case For he very well knows Christ's Righteousness will justifie no man that never was a Believer but that which must immediately justifie him against this particular Accusation must be proving that he did sincerely believe which shews his interest in Christ's Righteousness which then is the only deserving cause of his full entire Iustification There is an Expression in Vol. 1. p. 46. That Salvation is not the end of any good work we do which is like that of another we are to act from Life not for Life Neither of which are to be rigidly taken as 't is likely they were never meant in the strict sense For the former this Reverent Author gives us himself the handle for a gentle interpretation in what he presently subjoyns where he makes the end of our good works to be the manifestation of our Obedience and Subjection the setting forth the praise of the glory of the Grace of God which seems to imply that he meant the foregoing negation in a comparative not in an absolute sense understanding the glory of God to be more principal and so that by end he meant the very ultimate end so for the other 't is likely it was meant that we should not act or work for life only without aiming and endeavouring that we might come to work from life also For it is not with any tolerable charity supposable that one would deliberately say the one or the other of these in the rigid sense of the words or that he would not upon consideration presently unsay it being calmly reasoned with For it were in effect to abandon Humane Nature and to sin against a very Fundamental Law of our Creation not to intend our own felicity it were to make our first and most deeply Fundamental Duty in one great essential branch of it our sin viz. To take the Lord for our God For to take him for our God most essentially includes our taking him for our supream good which we all know is included in the notion of the last end it were to make it unlawful to strive against all sin and particularly against sinful oversion from God wherein lies the very death of the Soul or the sum of its misery or to strive after perfect conformity to God in holiness and the full fruition of him wherein its final blessedness doth principally con●ist It were to teach us to violate the great Precepts of the Gospel Repent that your sins may be blotted out Strive to enter in at the strait Gate Work out your salvation with fear and trembling To obliterate the Paterns and Precedents set before us in the Gospel We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified I beat down my body lest I should be a castaway That thou mayest save thy self and them that hear thee It were to suppose one bound to do more for the salvation of others than our own salvation We are required to save others with fear plucking them out of the fire Nay we were not by this rule strictly understood so much as to pray for our own salvation which is a doing of somewhat when no doubt we are to pray for the success of the Gospel to this purpose on behalf of other me● T were to make all the threatnings of Eternal Death and promises of Eternal Life we find in the Gospel of our Bles●ed Lord useless as motives to shun the one and obtain the other For they can be motives no way but as the escaping of the former and the attainment of the other have with us the places and consideration of an end It makes what is mentioned in the Scripture as the Character and commendation of the most eminent Saints a fault as of Abraham Isaac and Jacob c. That they sought the better and Heavenly Countrey and declared plainly that they did so which necessarily implies their making it their end But let none be so harsh as to think of any good man that he intended any thing of all this if every passage that falls from us be stretch'd and tortured with utmost severity we shall find little to do besides accusing others and defending our selves as long as we live A Spirit of meekness and love will do more to our Common Peace than all the Disputations in the World Vpon the whole We are so well assured of the peaceful healing temper of the present Author of these Treatises That we are persuaded he designed such a course of managing the Controversies wherein he hath concerned himself as

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

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. ●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

and so great evils in them as makes them admire at his patience that they are not consumed in their Iniquities They find cause enough to suspect their own sincerity doubt the truth of their Faith and of their Graces and are therefore frequent and serious in the trial and examination of their own states by Scripture-marks and signs They urge the Commands and Threatnings as well as the Promises upon their own hearts to promote Sanctification Excite themselves to duty and watchfulness against Sin They also encourage themselves by the rewards of obedience knowing their labour is not in vain in the Lord. And all this while they look not for that in themselves which is only to be found in Christ nor for that in the Law which is only to be found in the Gospel nor for that on Earth which is only to be found in Heaven This is the way that they take And he that shall tell them their Sins can do them no hurt or their Duties do them no good speaks to them not only as a Barbarian in a Language they understand not but in such a Language as their Souls detest and abhor Moreover The zeal and love of Christ and his Glory being kindled in their Souls they have not patience to hear such Doctrines as so greatly derogate from his Glory under a pretence of honouring and exalting him It wounds and grieves their very hearts to see the World hardned in their prejudices against Reformation and a gap opened to all licentiousness But notwithstanding this double Antidote and Security we find by daily experience such Doctrines too much obtaining in the professing World For my own part He that searches my Heart and Reins is witness I would rather chuse to have my right hand wither and my tongue rot within my mouth than to speak one word or write one line to cloud or diminish the Free-grace of God Let it arise and shine in its Meridian Glory None owes more to it or expects more from it than I do And what I shall write in this Controversy is to vindicate it from those Doctrines and Opinions which under pretence of exalting it do really militate against it To begin therefore with the first and leading Error Error I. That the Iustification of Sinners is an immanent and eternal act of God not only preceding all acts of sin but the very existence of the sinner himself and so perfectly abolishing sin in our persons that we are as clean from sin as Christ himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some of them have spoken To stop the progress of this Error I shall 1. Lay down the Sentence of the Orthodox about it 2. Offer some Reasons for the refutation of it 1. That which I take to be the truth agreed upon and asserted by sound reformed Divines touching Gospel-Justification is by them made clear to the World in these following Scriptural distinctions of it Justification may be considered under a twofold respect or habitude 1. According to God's Eternal Decree Or 2. According to the execution thereof in time 1. According to God's Eternal Decree and Purpose and in this respect Grace is said to be given us in Christ before the World began 2 Tim. 1. 9. And we are said to be predestinated to the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ Eph. 1. 5. 2. According to the execution thereof in time So they again distinguish it by considering it two ways 1. In its Impetration by Christ. 2. In its Application to us That very mercy or privilege of Justification which God from all Eternity purely out of his benevolent Love purposed and decreed for his Elect was also in time purchased for them by the death of Christ Rom. 5. 9 10. where we are said to be justified by his Blood and he is said to have made peace through the Blood of his Cross to reconcile all things to himself Col. 1. 20. to be delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Justification Rom. 4. 25. Once more That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses 2 Cor. 5. 19. God the Father had in the death of Christ a foundation of reconciliation whereby he became propitious to his Elect that he might absolve and justify them Again 2. It must be considered in its application to us which application is made in this Life at the time of our effectual Calling When an elect Sinner is united to Christ by Faith and so passeth from Death to Life from a state of Condemnation into a state of Absolution and Favour this is our actual Justification Rom. 5. 1. Acts 13. 39. Iohn 5. 24. which actual Justification is again considered two ways 1. Universally and in General as to the State of the Person 2. Specially and Particularly as to the Acts of Sin As soon as we are received into Communion with Christ and his Righteousness is imputed by God and received by Faith immediately we pass from a state of Death and Condemnation to a state of Life and Justification and all Sins already committed are remitted without Exception or Revocation and not only so but a Remedy is given us in the Righteousness of Christ against Sins to come and tho these special and particular Sins we afterward fall into do need particular Pardons yet by renewed Acts of Faith and Repentance the Believer applies to himself the Righteousness of Christ and they are pardoned Again they carefully distinguish betwixt 1. It 's Application by God to our Persons And 2. It 's Declaration or Manifestation in us and to us Which Manifestation or Declaration is either 1. Private in the Conscience of a Believer Or 2. Publick at the Bar of Judgment And thus Justification is many ways distinguished And notwithstanding all this it is still actus indivisus an undivided act not on our part for it is iterated in many acts but on God's part who at once decreed it and on Christ's part who by one Offering purchased it and at the time of our Vocation universally applied it as to the state of the Person justified and that so effectually as no future Sin shall bring that Person any more under Condemnation In this Sentence or Judgment the Generality of Reformed Orthodox Divines are agreed and the want of distinguishing as they according to Scripture have distinguished hath led the Antinomians into this first Error about Justification and that Error hath led them into most of the other Errors That this Doctrine of theirs which teaches that Men are justified actually and compleatly before they have a being is an Error and hath no solid Foundation to support it may be evidenced by these three Reasons 1. Because it is Irrational 2. Because it is Unscriptural 3. Because it is Injurious to Christ and the Souls of Men. It is Irrational to imagine that Men are actually justified before they have a Being by an immanent Act or Decree of God Many things have been urged upon this

Father that had begotten them to Christ. Now I beseech you brethren I who was the Instrument in Christ's hand of your Conversion to him I that have planted you a Gospel-Church and assiduously watered you I beseech you by all the spiritual tyes and endearments betwixt me and you that there be no Divisions among you This is the first Argument wrapt up in a solemn Obsecration Next he enforces the Duty of Unity by the nearness of their Relation I beseech you Brethren Brotherhood is an endearing thing and naturally draws Affection and Unity with it 1 Pet. 3. 8. Be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous ye are the children of one Father joint-heirs of one and the same inheritance To see an Egyptian smiting an Israelite is no strange sight but to see one Israelite quarrelling another is most unnatural and uncomely The nearer the Relation the stronger the Affection How good and how pleasant is it saith the Psalmist for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity Psal. 133. 1. But the greatest Argument of all is the last viz. In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ. In this name he beseeches and intreats them to be at perfect Unity among themselves In the former he sweetly insinuated the duty by a loving compellation but here he sets it home by a solemn Adjuration I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ That is to say 1. For Christ's Sake or for the Love of Christ by all that Christ hath done suffered or purchased for you and as Christ is dear and precious to you let there be no Divisions If you have any Love for Christ don't grieve him and obstruct his great design in the world by your Scandalous Schisms Mr. Iohn Fox never denied a Beggar that asked an Alms of him for Christ ●esus Sake 2. In the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that is in the Authority of Christ for so his Name also signifies 1 Cor. 5. 4. and it is as if he had said If you reverence the Supreme Authority and Soveraignty of Christ which is the Fountain out of which so many solemn Commands of Unity do flow then see as you will answer it to him at the Great Day that ye be perfectly joined together in one Mind and in one Judgment The Point will be this DOCT. Vnity amongst Believers especially in particular Church-Relation is as desirable a Mercy as it is a necessary and indispensable Duty How desirable a Mercy it is and how necessary a Duty let the same Apostle who presseth it upon the Corinthians in my Text be heard again enforcing the same Duty with the same warmth upon the Church at Philippi chap. 2. v. 1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels of mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind In handling this Point I will shew 1. What Unity among Believers is 2. How the necessity and desirableness of it may be evinced 3. And then lay down the Motives and Directions about it 1. What Unity amongst Believers is and more particularly such Believers as stand in particular Church-Relation to each other There is a twofold Union one Mystical betwixt Christ and Believers another Moral betwixt Believers themselves Faith knits them all to Christ and then Love knits them one to another Their common relation to Christ their Head endears them to each other as Fellow-Members in the same Body Hence they become Sanguine Christi conglutinati Glued together by the Blood of Christ. Union with Christ is fundamental to all Union among the Saints Perfect Union would flow from this their common Union with Christ their Head were they not here in an imperfect state where their corruptions disturb and hinder it and as soon as they shall attain unto compleat Sanctification they shall also attain unto perfect Unity How their Unity with one another comes by way of necessary resultancy from their Union with Christ and how this Unity among themselves shall at last arise to its just perfection that one Text plainly discovers Iohn 17. 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one c. Unity amongst those that hold not the Head is rather a Conspiracy than a Gospel-unity Believers and unbelievers may have a Political or Civil union but there 's no Spiritual unity but what flows from joint-membership in Christ. I will not deny but in particular Churches there may be and still are some Hypocrites who hold Communion with the Saints and pretend to belong unto Christ the same Head with them but as they have no real Union with Christ so neither have they any sincere affection to the Saints and these for the most part are they that raise tumults and divisions in the Church as disloyal Subjects do in the Commonwealth Of these the Apostle speaks 1 Ioh. 2. 19. They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that it might be made manifest that they were not all of us Sincere Christianity holds fast the Soul by a firm bond of Life to the truly Christian Community wherein they reap those spiritual pleasures and advantages which assure their continuance therein to a great degree But those that joyn with the Church upon carnal and external inducements make little conscience of rending from it and God permits their Schismatical Spirits thus to act for the discovering of their Hypocrisy or as the Text speaks that it might be made manifest they were not of us as also that they which are approved may by their constancy be also made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. It hath indeed been said That it 's never better with the Church than when there are most Hypocrites in it but then you must understand it only with respect to the external tranquillity and prosperity of the Church for as to its real spiritual advantage they add nothing And therefore it behoves Church-Officers and Members to be exceeding careful especially in times of Liberty and Prosperity how they admit Members as the 〈…〉 Solomon● time were of admitting Proselytes 'T is said Amos 3. 3. How can two walk together except they be agreed I deny not but persons that differ in some lesser points as to their Judgment may and ought to be one in Affection But of this I am sure that when Sanctified persons agreed in Judgments and Principles do walk together under pious and judicious Church-officers in tender affection and the exercise of all duties tending to mutual edification glorifying God with one mouth Rom. 15. 6. and cleaving together with oneness of heart Acts 2. 42. This is such a Church-unity as answers Christ's end in the ●●stitution of particular Churches and greatly tends to their own