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 â—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 〈…〉 Solomonâ— 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 â—â—stitution of particular Churches and greatly tends to their own
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
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
The knowledg of them is a good defensative against them Now there are two common Artifices of Seducers which it is not safe for Christians to be ignorant of First They usually seek to disgrace and blast the reputations of those Truths and Ministers set for their defence which they design afterwards to overthrow and ruin and to beget credit and reputation to those Errors which they have a mind to introduce How many precious truths of God are this day and with this design defamed as legal and carnal Doctrines and those that defend them as Men of an Old Testament spirit Humiliation for Sin Contrition of Spirit c fall under disgrace with many and indeed all qualifications and pre-requisites unto coming to Christ as things not only needless but pernicious unto the Souls of Men although they have not the least dependance upon them Yea Faith it self as a pre-requisite unto Justification as no better than a Condition pertaining to Adam's Covenant And so for the persons of Orthodox Ministers you see into what contempt the false Teachers would have brought both the Person and Preaching of Paul himself 2 Cor. 10. 10. His bodily presence say they is weak and his speech contemptible Secondly Their other common Artifice is to insinuate their false Doctrines among many acknowledged and precious Truths which only serve for a convenient vehicle to them and besides that to make their Errors as palatable and gustful as they can to the vitiated Appetite of corrupt Nature The forementioned Worthy hath judiciously observed how artificially Satan hath blended his baneful Doses to please the Palate of Carnal Reason Spiritual Pride and the desire of Fleshly Liberty Carnal Reason is that great Idol which the more intelligent part of the carnal World worships And are not the Socinian Heresies as pleasant to it as a well-mixt Iulep to a feverish Stomach Spiritual Pride is another Diana which obtains greatly in the World and no Doctrine like the Pelagian and Semipelagian Errors gratify it A Doctrine that sets fallen Nature upon its Legs again and persuades it it can go alone to Christ at least with a little external help of Moral suasion without any preventing or creating work in the Soul This goes down glib and grateful And then for Fleshly Liberty How do those that are fond of it rejoice in that Doctrine or Opinion which looses Nature from the yoke of restraint How does the poor deluded Papist hug himself to think he hath liberty by his Religion to let loose the reins of his Lust to all sensualities and quit himself from all that guilt by Auricular Confession to the Priest once a year How doth the Familist smile upon that Principle of his which tells him the Gospel allows more Liberty than severe Legal Teachers think fit to tell them of They press Repentance and Faith but Christ hath done all this to thy hands Cause XII Having considered the several Causes of Errors found in the evil dispositions of the seduced as also the impulsive and instrumental Causes namely Satan and false Teachers employed by him I shall next proceed to discover some special and most successful Methods frequently used by them to draw the minds of Men from the Truth Amongst which that which comes first to consideration is the great skill they have in representing the ABVSES of the Ordinances of God and Duties of Religion by wicked Men to scare tender and weak Consciences from the due use of them and all further attendance upon them The abuse of Christ's holy Appointments are so cunningly improved to serve this design that the minds of many well-meaning persons receive such deep disgust at them that they are scarce ever to be reconciled to them again A strong prejudice is apt to drive Men from one extream upon another as thinking they can never get far enough off from that which hath been so scaringly represented to them Thus making good the old Observation Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria currunt they run from the troublesome smoak of Superstition into the Fire of an irreligious contempt of God's Ordinances split themselves upon Charybdis to avoid Scylla Ex. gra The Papists having deeply abused the Ordinance of Baptism by their corruptive mixtures and additions of the superstitious Cross Chrism c. part whereof is not sufficiently purged to this day by the Reformation and finding also multitudes of carnal Protestants dangerously resting upon their supposed baptismal Regeneration to the great hazard of their Salvation which mistake is but too much countenanced by some of its Administrators They take from hence such deep offence at the administration of it to any Infants at all though the Seed of God's Covenanted People that they think they can never be sharp enough in their invectives against it nor have they patience to hear the most rational defences of that Practise So for that Scriptural Heavenly Duty of Singing What more commonly alledged against it than the abuse and ill effects of that precious Ordinance How often is the Nonsense and Error of the common Translation the rudeness and dulness of the Metre of some Psalms as Psal. 7. 13. as also the cold formality with which that Ordinance is performed by many who do but Parrotize I say How often are these things buz'd into the ears of the people to alienate their hearts from so sweet and beneficial a Duty And very often we find it urged to the same end how unwarrantable and dangerous a thing it is for carnal and unregenerated persons to appropriate to themselves in Singing those Praises and Experiences which are peculiar to the Saints not understanding or considering that the singing of Psalms is an Ordinance of Christ appointed for teaching and admonition as well as praising Col. 3. 16. Teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and Hymns c. Thus Antinomianism took if not its rise yet its encouragement from the too rigorous pressing of the Law upon convinced sinners If Satan can prevail first with wicked Men to corrupt and abuse God's Ordinances by the superstitious mixtures and additions and then with good Men to renounce and slight them for the sake of those abuses he fully obtains his design and gives Christ a double wound at once one by the hand of his avowed Enemies the other by the hands of his Friends no less grievous than the first First wicked Men corrupt Christ's Ordinances and then good Men nauseate them The Remedies The proper Remedies against Errors insinuated by the abuses of Duties and Ordinances are such as follow Remedy I. Let Men consider that there is nothing in Religion so great so sacred and excellent but some or other have greatly corrupted or vilely abused them What is there in the whole World more precious and excellent than the Free-grace of God and yet you read Iude 4. of some that turned the Grace of our Lord into Lasciviousness What more desirable to Christians than the glorious Liberty Christ
it is to be kept sound in judgment stedfast and unmovable in the Truths and Ways of Christ. A sound and stedfast Christian is a blessing in his Generation and a glory to his Profession 'T was an high Encomium of Athanasius Sedem maluit mutare quam syllabam He would rather lose his Seat than a syllable of God's Truth Soundness of Judgment must needs be a choice Blessing because the understanding is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that leading-faculty which directs the Will and Conscience of Man and they his whole Life and Practice How often and how earnestly doth Christ pray for his people that they may be kept in the Truth 'T is true Orthodoxy in its self is not sufficient to any man's Salvation but the conjunction of an Orthodox head with an honest sincere heart does always constitute an excellent Christian Phil. 1. 10. Happy is the man that hath an head so hearted and an heart so headed Consectary IV. By this discourse we may further discover one great and special cause and reason of the lamentable decay of the spirit and power of Religion amongst the Professors of the present Age. 'T is a complaint more just than common That we do all fade as a leaf And what may be the Cause Nothing more probable than the wasting of our time and spirits in vain janglings and fruitless controversies which the Apostle tells us Heb. 13. 9. have not profited i. e. they have greatly damnified and injured them that have been occupied therein Many Controversies of these times grow up about Religion as Suckers from the Root and Limbs of a Fruit-tree which spend the vital Sap that should make it fruitful 'T is a great and sad Observation made upon the state of England by some judicious persons That after the greatest increase of Religion both intensively in the power of it and extensively in the number of Converts what a remarkable decay it suffered both ways when about the year Forty-four Controversies and Disputations grew fervent among Professors Since that time our strength and glory have very much abated Consectary V. From this Discourse we may also gather the true Grounds and Reasons of those frequent Persecutions which God lets in upon his Churches and People These rank Weeds call for Snowy and Frosty Weather to subdue and kill them I know the enemies of God's People aim at something else They strike at Profession yea at Religion it self and according to their wicked intention without timely Repentance will their reward be But whatever the intention of the Agents be the issues of Persecution are upon this account greatly beneficial to the Church the Wisdom of God makes them excellently useful both to prevent and cure the mischiefs and dangers of Errors If Enemies were not Friends and Brethren would be injurious to each other Persecution if it kills not yet at least it gives check to the rise and growth of Errors And if it do not perfectly redintigrate and unite the hearts of Christians yet to be sure it cools and allays their sinful heats and that two ways 1. By cutting out for them far better and more necessary work Now instead of racking their Brains about unnecessary Controversies they find it high time to be searching their hearts and examining the foundations of their Faith and Hope with respect to the other World 2. Moreover such times and straights discover the Sincerity Zeal and Constancy of them we were jealous of or prejudiced against before because they followed not us Consectary VI. Lastly Let us learn hence both the Duty and Necessity of Charity and mutual Forbearance We have all our mistakes and errors one way or other and therefore must maintain mutual Charity under dissents in judgment I do not say but an erring Brother must be reduced if possible and that by sharp rebukes too if gentler essays be ineffectual Tit. 1. 13. and the wounds of a Friend have more faithful love in them than the kisses of an Enemy And if God make us instrumental by that or any other method to recover a Brother from the error of his way he will have great cause both to bless God and thank the Instrument who thereby saves a Soul from death and hides a multitude of sins Iam. 5. 20. 'T is our Duty if we meet an Enemy's Ox or Ass going astray to bring him back again Exod. 23. 4. much more the Soul of a Friend Indeed we must not make those Errors that are none nor stretch every innocent expression to that purpose nor yet be too hasty in medling with contention till we cannot be both silent and innocent and then whatever the expence be Truth will repay it AN APPENDIX Containing a Full and Modest Reply to Mr. Philip Cary's Rejoinder to my Vindiciae Legis Foederis Manifesting the badness of his Cause in the feebleness and impertinency of his Defence And adding farther light and strength to the Arguments formerly produced in defence of God's gracious Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism grounded thereupon SIR NEXT to the not deserving a Reproof is the due reception and improvement of it You deserve a sharper reprehension for your timerity and obstinacy than I am willing to give you from the Press Yet in love to the Truth and your own Soul reprove you I must and I hope God will enable me to be both mild in the manner and convincingly clear in the matter and cause thereof 'T is better to lose the Smiles than the Souls of men I dare not neglect the duty of a Friend for fear of incurring the suspicion of an Enemy Several Learned and Eminent Divines who have seen what hath publickly passed betwixt you and me have returned me their thanks and think you ought to thank me too for the pains I have taken to set you right hoping you will evidence your self-denial and repentance by an ingenuous retractation of your Errors But how will you deceive their Expectations and unbecome the Character given you by your Friends when they shall find the true measure both of your ability and humility drawn by your own Pen in the following Rejoinder I have throughly considered your Reply in the Manuscript you sent me which I hear is now in the Press and in the following Sheets have given a full and I think a final Answer to whatsoever is material therein And it so falling out that my Discourse of Errors was just going under the Press whilst your Rejoinder was there also I thought it not convenient to delay my Reply any longer but to have my Antidote in as great readiness as might be to meet it One Inconvenience I easily foresee that the Pages of your Manuscript which I follow may not throughout exactly answer to the Print But every intelligent Reader will easily discern and rectify That if my Bookseller save him not that trouble as I have desired him to do As to the Controversy about the
of receiving Doctriâ—es so destructive to the great Truths of the Gospel as these are And I do solemnly profess I have not designedly strained them to cast reproach upon him that publish'd them But the matters are so plain that if Mr. Cary will maintain his Positions not only my self but every intelligent Reader will be easily able to fasten all those odious Consequents upon him after all his Apologies Sir in a word I dare not say but you are a good Man but since I read your two Books you have made me Think more than once of what one said of Ionah after he had read his History that he was a strange Man of a good Man yet as strange a good Man as you are I hope to meet you with a sounder Head and better Spirit in Heaven The Second APPENDIX Giving a brief Account of the Rise and Growth of ANTINOMIANISM the deduction of the principal Errors of that Sect With modest and seasonable Reflections upon them THE Design of the following Sheets cast in as a Mantissa to the foregoing Discourse of Errors is principally to discharge and free the Free-grace of God from those dangerour Errors which fight against it under its own Colours partly to prevent the seduction of some that stagger and lastly though least of all to vindicate my own Doctrine the scope and current whereof hath always been and shall ever be to exalt the Free-grace of God in Christ to draw the vilest of Sinnersâ— to him and relieve the distressed Consciences of Sin-burthened Christians But notwithstanding my utmost care and caution some have been apt to censure it as if in some things it had a tang of Antinomianism But if my publick or private Discourses be the faithful Messengers of my Judgment and Heart as I hope they are nothing can be found in any of them casting a friendly aspect upon any of their Principles which I here justly censure as erroneous Three things I principally aim at in this short Appendix 1. To give the Reader the most probable Rise of Antinomianism 2. An Account of the principal Errors of that Sect. 3. To confirm and establish Christians against them by sound Reasons back'd with Scripture-authority And I. Of the Rise of Antinomianism The Scriptures foreseeing there would arise such a sort of Men in the Church as would wax wanton against Christ and turn his Grace into lasciviousness hath not only precautioned us in general to beware of such Opinions as corrupt the Doctrine of Free-grace Rom. 6. 1 2. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid but hath particularly indigitated and marked those very Opinions by which it would be abused and made abundant provision against them as namely 1. All slighting and vilifying Opinions or Expressions of the Holy Law of God Rom. 7. 7 12. 2. All Opinions and Principles inclining men to a careless disregard and neglect of the Duties of Obedience under pretence of Free-grace and Liberty by Christ Iam. 2. Matth. 25. 3. All Opinions neglecting or slighting Sanctification as the evidence of our Justification and rendring it needless or sinful to try the state of our Souls by the Graces of the Spirit wrought in us which is the principal scope of the First Epistle of Iohn Notwithstanding such is the wickedness of some and weakness of others that in all Ages especially the last past and present men have audaciously broken in upon the Doctrine of Free-grace and notoriously violated and corrupted it to the great reproach of Christ scandal of the World and hardning of the Enemies of Reformation Behold saith Contzen the Iesuit on Matth. 24. the fruit of Protestantism and their Gospel-preaching Nothing is more opposite to looseness than the Free-grace of God which teacheth us That denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Nor can it without manifest violence be made pliable to such wicked purposes And therefore the Apostle tells us Iude 4. That this is done by turning the Grace of our Lord into lasciviousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transferring it scil foedâ interpretatione by a corrupt abusive interpretation to such uses and purposes as it abhors No such wanton licentious Conclusions can be inferr'd from the Gospel-doctrines of Grace and Liberty but by wresting them against their true scope and intent by the wicked Arts and Practices of Deceivers upon them The Gospel makes Sin more odious than ever the Law did and discovers the punishment of it in a more severe and dreadful manner than ever it was discovered before Heb. 2. 2 3. For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation It shews our obligations to duty to be stronger than ever and our encouragements to holiness greater than ever 2 Cor. 7. 1. and yet corrupt Nature will be still tempting men to corrupt and abuse it The more luscious the Food is the more men are apt to surfeit upon it This perversion and abuse of Free-grace and Christian-liberty is justly chargeable though upon different accounts both upon wicked and good Men. Wicked Men corrupt it designedly that by entitling God to their Sins they might sin the more quietly and securely So the Devil instigated the Heathens to sin against the Light and Law of Nature by representing their gods to them as drunken and lascivious Deities So the Nicolaitans and School of Simon and after them the Gnosticks and other Hereticks in the very dawning of Gospel Light and Liberty began presently to loose the bond of restraint from their Lusts under pretence of Grace and Liberty The Aetiani blushed not to teach That Sin and perseverance in Sin could hurt the Salvation of none so that they would embrace their Principles How vile and abominable Inferences the Manichaeans Valentinians and Cerdonites drew from the Grace and Liberty of the Gospel in the following Ages I had rather mourn over than recite And if we come down to the 15 th Century we shall find the Libertines of those days as deeply drenched in this Sin as most that went before them Calvin mournfully observes That under pretence of Christian-liberty they trampled all Godliness under foot The vile Courses their loose Opinions soon carried them into plainly discovered for what intents and purposes they were projected and calculated and he that reads the Preface to that Grave and Learned Mr. Thomas Gataker's Book entituled God's Eye upon Israel will find That some Antinomians of our days are not much behind the worst and vilest of them One of them cries out Away with the Law away with the Law it cuts off a man's Legs and thâ—n bids him walk Another saith T is as possible for Christ himself to sin as for a Child of God to sin That if a man by the Spirit know himself to be in the state of grace though he be drunk
or commit murther God sees no sin in him with much more of the same Bran which I will not transcribe But others there be whose Judgments are unhappily tainted and leavened with these loose Doctrines yet being in the main godly persons they dare not take liberty to sin or live in the neglect of known duties though their Principles too much incline that way But though they dare not others will who imbibe corrupt notions from them and the renowned Piety of the Authors will be no antidote against the danger but make the Poison operate the more powerfully by receiving it in such a vehicle Now it is highly probable such men as these might be charmed into such dangerous Opinions upon such accounts as these 1. 'T is like some of them might have felt in themselves the anguish of a perplexed Conscience under sin and not being able to live with these terrors of the Law and dismal fears of Conscience might too hastily snatch at those Doctrines which promise them relief and ease as I noted before in the 5th Cause of my Treatise of Errors And that this is not a guess at random will appear from the very Title-page of Mr. Saltmarsh's marsh's Book of Free-grace where as an inducement to the Reader to swallow his Antinomian Doctrine he shews him this curious Bait. It is saith he an experiment of Iesus Christ upon one who hath been in the bondage of a troubled Conscience at times for the space of about twelve years till now upon a clearer discovery of Iesus Christ in the Gospel c. 2. Others have been induced to espouse these Opinions from the excess of their Zeal against the Errors of the Papists who have notoriously corrupted the Doctrine of Iustification by Free-grace decried imputed and exalted inberent Righteousness above it The Papists have designedly and industriously sealed up the Scriptures from the People lest they should there discover those sovereign and effectual Remedies which God hath provided for their distressed Consciences in the riches of his own Grace and the meritorious Death of Christ and so all their Masses Pilgrimages Auricular Confessions with all their dear Indulgences should lie upon their hands as stale and cheap Commodities Oh said Stephen Gardiner let not this gap of Free-grce be opâ—ned to the People But as soon as the Light of Reformation had discovered the Free-grace of God to Sinners which is indeed the only effectual remedy of distressed Consciences and by the same Light the horrid Cheats of the Man of Sin were discovered all good men who were enlightened by the Reformation justly and deeply abhorred Popery as the Enemy of the Grace of God and true Peace of Conscience and fixed themselves upon the sound and comfortable Doctrines of Justification by Faith through the alone Righteousness of Christ. Mean while thankfully acknowledging that they which believe ought also to maintain good Works But others there were transported by an indiscreet Zeal who have almost bended the Grace of God as far too much the other way and have both spoken and written many things very unbecoming the Grace of God and tending to looseness and neglect of Duty 3. 'T is manifest that others of them have been ingulphed and suckt into those dangerous Quick-sands of Antinomian Errors by separating the Spirit from the written Word If once a man pretend the Spirit without the Scriptures to be his Rule whither will not his own deluding Fancies carry him under a vain and sinful pretence of the Spirit In the Year 1528. when Helsar Traier and Seekler were confuted by Hallerus and their Errors about Oaths Magistrates and Paedo-baptism were detected by him and by Colvius at Bern that which they had to say for themselves was That the Spirit taught them otherwise than the letter of the Scriptures speaks So dangerous it is to separate what God hath conjoined and father our own Fancies upon the Holy Spirit 4. And it is not unlike but a comparative weakness and injudiciousness of mind meeting with a fervent zeal for Christ and his Glory may induce others to espouse such taking and plausible tho pernicious Doctrines They are not aware of the dangerous Consequences of the Opinions they embrace and what looseness may be occasioned by them I speak not of Occasions taken but given by such Opinions and Expressions A good Man will draw excellent Inferences of duty from the very same Doctrine Instance that of the shortness of time from whence the Apostle infers abstinence strictness and diligence 1 Cor. 7. 29. but the Epicure infers all manner of dissolute and licentious practices Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die 1 Cor. 15 22. The best Doctrines are this way liable to abuse But let all good men beware of such Opinions and Expressions as give an handle to wicked men to abuse the Grace of God which haply the Author himself dare not do and may strongly hope others may not do but if the Principle will yield it 't is in vain to think corrupt Nature will not catch at it and make a vile use and dangerous improvement of it For example If such a Principle as this be asserted for a truth before the World That men need not fear that any or all the Sins they commit shall do them any hurt let the Author or any man in the World warn and caution Readers as the Antinomian Author of that Expression hath done not to abuse this Doctrine 't is to no purpose The Doctrine it self is full of dangerous Consequents and wicked men have the best skill to infer and draw them forth to cherish and countenance their Lusts that which the Author might design for the relief of the distressed quickly turns it self into poison in the bowels of the wicked nor can we excuse it by saying any Gospel-truth may be thus abused for this is none of that number but a Principle that gives offence to the godly and encouragement to the ungodly And so much as to the rise and occasion of Antinomian Errors II. In the next place let us view some of the chief Doctrines commonly called Antinomian amongst which there will be found a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the radical and most prolifique Error from which most of the rest are spawned and procreated Error I. I shall begin with the dangerous mistake of the Antinomians in the Doctrine of Iustification The Article of Justification is deservedly stiled by our Divines Articulus stantis vel cadentis Religionis the very Pillar of the Christian Religion In two things however I must do the Antinomians right 1. In acknowledging that though their Errors about Justification be great and dangerous yet they are not so much about the substance as about the mode of a Sinner's Justification An Error far inferior to the Error of the Papists who depress the Righteousness of Christ and exalt their own inherent Righteousness in the business of Justification â— I am bound in charity to believe that some
pardon The desert of Sin is Hell 't is an artifice of Satan to draw men to Sin by persuading them there is no great evil in it but none except Fools will believe it Fools indeed make a mock of Sin but all that understand either the intrinsick evil of it or the sad and dismal effects produced by it are far from thinking it a light or inconsiderable evil The sins even of Believers greatly wrong and offend their God Psal. 51. 4. and is that a light thing with us They interrupt and clog our Communion with God Rom. 7. 21. They grieve the good Spirit of God Ephes. 4. 30. Certainly these are no inconsiderable mischiefs 3. Now if there be sin in Believers and so much evil in their sins neither of which any sober Christian will deny then undoubtedly it is their duty to confess it freely mourn for it bitterly and pray for the pardon of it earnestly unless God have any where discharged them from those Duties and told them these are none of their concernments and that he expects not these things from justified persons but that these are Duties properly and only belonging to other Men. But on the contrary you find the whole current of Scripture running strongly and constantly in direct opposition to such idle and sinful notions For first 1. He hath plainly declared it to be his will that his people should confess their sins before him and strongly connected their Confessions with their Pardons 1 Iohn 5. 9. and frequently suspends from them the comfortable sense of forgiveness till their Hearts be brought to this duty Psal. 32. 5. compared with vers 3. 4. the more to engage them to this duty by the sensible ease and comfort attending and following it 2. He also enjoyns it upon them That they mourn for their Sins Isa. 22. 12. expresses his great delight in contrition and brokenness of spirit for sin Isa. 66. 2. To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit Christ himself pronounces a blessing upon them that mourn Matt. 5. 4. Justified Paul mournfully confesses his former blasphemies persecutions and injuries done against Christ 1 Tim. 1. 13. So did Ezra Daniel and other eximious Saints Yes say some they did indeed confess their sins committed before their justification but not their after-sins According to Antinomian Principles I would demand If all the Elect were justified from Eternity what sins any of them could confess which they had committed before their Justification Or if they were justified from the time of Christ's death what were the Sins any of us have to confess who had not a being and therefore had not actually sinned long after the death of Christ But I hope none will deny that the mournful complaints the Apostle makes for Sin Rom. 7. 23 24. were after he was a sanctified and justified person 3. It is not the Will of Christ to exempt any justified person upon Earth from the Duty of Praying frequently and fervently for the remission of his sins This the most eminent Saints upon Earth have done The greatest favourites of Heaven have freely confessed and heartily prayed for the remission of sin Dan. 9. 4 19. And that the Gospel gives us no exemption from this Duty appears by Christ's injunction of it upon all his people Matt. 6. 12. Error V. To give countenance to the former Error they say That God sees no sin in Believers whatsoever sins they commit and seek a covert for this Error from Numb 23. 21. and Ier. 50. 20. In the former place it is said by Balaam He hath not beheld inquity in Iacob nor seen perverseness in Israel And in the other place it is said In those days and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Iudah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve Refutation Now that this Opinion of our Antinomians is Erroneous will appear four ways 1. By its repugnancy to God's Omniscience 2. By its inconsistency with his Dispensations 3. By its want of a Scripture-foundation 4. By its contradictoriness to their other Principles 'T is true and we thankfully acknowledge it that God sees no Sin in Believers as a Judge sees Guilt in a Malefactor to condemn him for it that 's a sure and comfortable truth for us but to say he sees no Sin in his Children as a displeased Father to correct and chasten them for it is an Assertion repugnant to Scripture and very injurious to God For 1. 'T is injurious to God's Omniscience Psal. 139. 2. Thou saith holy David knowest my down-sitting and my uprising and understandest my thoughts of afar off and art acquainted with all my ways Job 28. 24. He looketh to the ends of the Earth and seeth under the whole Heavens Prov. 15. 3. The Eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Psal. 33. 14 15. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the Inhabitants of the Earth he fashioneth their hearts alike he considereth all their works He that denies that God seeth his most secret Sins therein in consequentially denies him to be God 2. This Assertion is inconsistent with God's Providential Dispensations to his People When David a justified Believer had sinned against him in the matter of Vriah it is said 2 Sam. 11. 27. The thing that David had done displeased the Lord and as the effect of that displeasure it 's said Chap. 12. 15. The Lord struck the Child that Uriah's Wife bare unto David and it was very sick Among the Corinthians some that should not be condemned with the World were judged and chastened of the Lord for their undue approaches to his Table 1 Cor. 11. 32. Now I would ask the Antinomian these two Questions 1. Qu. Whether it can be denied that David under the Old Testament and these Corinthians under the New were justified Persons and yet the former stricken by God in his Child with its sickness and death and the latter in like manner smitten by God in their own persons and both for their respective sins committed against God and yet God saw no sin in them Did God smite them for sin and yet beheld no sin them Beware lest in ascribing such strokes to god you strike at once both at his Omnisciency and Justice 2. Qu. How God upon Confession and Repentance can be said to put away his People's sins as Nathan there assures David he had done when in the mean time he saw no sin in him either to chastise him for or to pardon in him Do you think that God's Aâ—flictions or Pardons are blind-fold Acts done at random how inconsistent is this with Divine Dispensations 3. This Opinion is altogether destitute of a Scripture-foundation 't is evident it hath none in the only places alledged for it It hath no footing at all in Numb 23. 21.
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