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order_n	church_n	people_n	power_n	2,379	5	4.8524	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33961	Defensative armour, against four of Sathan's most fiery darts viz. temptations to atheistical and blasphemous impressions and thoughts, self-murther, despair, and presumption : wherein is discoursed the nature of these temptations, the several tempters to these sins, the arguments ordinarily used by the tempters in the inforcing of them, and some proper advice is offered to those who are exercised with them / by J.C. D.D. ...	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1680 (1680)	Wing C5312; ESTC R12985	145,095	356

upon which account they all have their Confessors depends upon this Doctrine of the Priests Absolution all the pretended necessity of it is in order to the receiving that benefit Then they further say That God doth onely Pardon the Eternal guilt of Sin and Christ hath onely satisfied for that So that for the removal of Temporary Punishments there must be also Satisfaction Hence their Priests have power to appoint People Pilgrimages Building of Churches Paying sums of Money for Satisfaction This Penance being undergone they do declare that any Priest being appointed thereto by the Church may in ordinary Causes not onely Declaratively but Judicially Pardon and Absolve the Sinner but if an higher Priest a Bishop or the Pope hath reserved some Cases in which he or they alone will have power to Absolve and to appoint to Penances and Satisfactions in those they onely can do it the more private Priests cannot This is their Doctrine Protestants now say that God alone can forgive Sins but by his Ministers in the Preaching of the Gospel he doth declare a Mans Sins are forgiven who have a true Contrition who truly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ fully forgive them so that he expecteth no further Satisfaction for the Sinner than that which was long since given by the Blood of Christ who hath Trod the Wine-press of his Fathers Wrath alone and finished all that Work They say indeed that Confession of Sins in most causes is sufficient to God alone It is he alone that can forgive them In some Causes indeed a more open Confession is necessary 1. When the Church hath been publikely Scandilized not that this is necessary in order to Gods Pardon but as an Act of Obedience to Gods Will and for a more Comfortable Brotherly Communion and the Churches Satisfaction that the Person ought not to be longer kept out of its Communion 2. They say further That in the case of great Horrors of Conscience and Terrors upon Peoples Spirits it may be of great advantage to particular Christians under such Terrors to confess some particular Sins unto their Judicious Brethren or unto their Faithful Ministers but not in order to their Pardon of them but in order to their Prayer to God for them and offering words in season unto them that are weary and being more knowing and mighty in the Scriptures than they are from the Scriptures declaring the Will of God in their case comforting them if their case will bear comfort from the Word of God or otherwise advising them what to do according to the Will of God that they may receive true and solid comfort and Peace They do also further say that Satisfaction where any hath wronged another is necessary if in our Power as in Cases of Theft c. but for any necessity of any other Confession or Satissaction in order to Gods Forgiveness of the Sin they do not understand it nor believe it And for Judicial Absolution they say it is Gods alone Act and that all that the Minister can do is to declare the Will of God to People in case they do truly Repent and Believe that God hath doth and will forgive them freely for Christs sake In the mean time they do not deny but God may concurr with the Minister as his Ordinance giving a sense of the Remission of Sins which Remission was before given them upon their Repentance and believing in Truth to them while the Minister faithfully declareth the Will of God for the pardoning such as truly Repent and Believe but if any person be Absolved by a Minister hath cheated him and pretended Repentance and true Faith having no such thing his heart Or if any Minister hath either through Ignorance or Passion declared a Persons Sins forgiven whose Sins while he is in those Circumstances God hath said he will not forgive he may have cheated his own Soul or the Minister may have cheated him but God is not mockt his sins remain notwithstanding his pretended Absolution God dispenseth out the Grace of forgiveness not according to the Ignorance and Passions of Men but according to the Rules of Holy Scripture which is the Revelation of his Divine Will 2. Trust not therefore to any such vain Imaginations no nor to the Receiving of the Sacrament either in thy life time or at thy death That the Lords Supper is an Ordinance of God by which God doth signify and seal the Remission of Sins and Eternal Life by the commemoration of Christs death to such as truly repent and believe is out of question but that God in that Ordinance doth give Remission of Sins or hath appointed it so signifie seal or convey the pardon of Sin to any unbelieving Impenitent Soul is a very great Errour Such Persons may Eat and Drink there but it can be nothing but Judgment and Condemnation This hath made me frequently admire at some persons fondness of that Holy Ordinance when they apprehend themselves in danger of Death who never made Conscience of it in the time of their Health and Life especially considering that it cannot be administred in a right order viz. In the Communion of the Church where many who are joyned in one body eat of that one bread Upon which all Protestant Churches reject private Administrations of that Institution and upon just grounds Christ first gave it to the 12 at least to 11 of them we never read the Apostles Examples or Directions to or of any such Administrations upon this Account unless some particular Persons that have had long and lingring Sicknesses and of that nature as have not influenced their head nor so indisposed them but their minds could attend to the Action some of which I have known desiring a competent number of the Church with them privately to partake in the Ordinance from the publick Participation of which they have been long hindred I do not know that I ever knew any judicious Christian so much as desire such an Administration but many others I have which makes me think some more Ignorant People rest upon it and trust to it We know the Popish Notion of it and what a stir they make with the Host carrying it about in great state to dying Persons And I fear a tang of their Doctrine yet sticks in the minds of many who are professed Protestants We know what a trade the Papist make of their Doctrines of Auricular Confession Satisfactions and Private Masses Celebrated for the living and the dead and were it not for the gain came into their Purses by them they could not be so fond of such absurd Opinions and Practices But Christians take heed of these Notions which tend to nothing but to nourish Presumptions in your Souls and that you may take heed of them let me mind you of 2 Passages of our Saviours Mark 4. 24. Take heed what you hear and Luk. 8. 18. Take heed how you hear Take heed how you hear hear as those noble Bereans Acts 17.

any Incouragement to a departure from God in any thing much more in this Unbelief signifies a not agreement to the Propositions of the Word Revealing the Will of God Or a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises whether relating to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Study therfore to be Rooted and Grounded in the Faith that you may firmly Believe these things 1. That there is a God whose Right it is to Rule and Govern us to Order us and our Affairs and Conditions and to dispose of us and who will one day Judg us and deal with us according to what we have done Whosoever it is that liveth not under this Conviction must needs think himself in his own Power and that he may do with himself what he pleaseth his Tongue is his own and he may speak his Hands are his own and he may do what he list and his Life is his own and he may deny himself in it and throw it away as he pleaseth for to whom should he be accountable for it O therefore set God always before your Eyes possess your selves that you are not your own but Persons under Authority and upon whom a Superiour Being hath a Superintendancy you will fay Are we dead Doggs that we should think any thing contrary to this Thus we think But the Truth is we profess an assent and agreement to many Propositions which are not so fastned upon our Hearts so rivetted in our Souls as they ought to be For it must be a mighty inordinate Act and contrary to the Dictate of all Reason for a Man to undertake the disposal of that over which he hath no Dominion and for the disposal of which he must be accountable unto a Superiour Indeed there is something of Atheism in every Sin but there must be abundance of Atheism in this Sin It is impossible that while a Man entertaineth Thoughts to destroy himself he should fixedly believe that he is not at his own disposal as to this Life but at the disposal of God and he such a God as is to be his Judge and whom will one day call him to Account as well for what he hath done with the Life which he gave him as with the Estate Parts c. which he gave him I would therefore never have a man think that he sufficiently believeth this first Principle of all Duty and Religion but be ever whetting it upon his Heart That God is and what a God he is 2. That every Man and Woman hath a Spiritual Part an Immortal Soul that can no more be extinguished with the Body then Eat or Drink or Sleep with it but goeth to an Eternal Existence when it is seperated from the Body Where the Body raised up from the dust shall one day meet it and be united to it and with it either suffer Eternal Torment or enjoy Eternal Happiness according to what it hath done in this Life Certainly no Rational Being no Man could possibly entertain a Thought to Kill himself if he were firmly perswaded That it is a thing impossible for him to determine his own Being We cannot desire nor attempt to go about what we are fully perswaded is an impossible atchievement A thing impossible to be obtained our Reason will not suffer our Mind to run upon or our Hearts to run out after things which we clearly apprehend are not possible in Nature Now admitting these Principles That Man is something more then Flesh and Blood animated That he hath a Spiritual Part that this it is Immortal and cannot Perish with the Body but when it parteth from the Body goeth into Eternal Mansions either in Happiness or in Misery That the Body after Death shall revive again in the Resurrection and there both the Soul and Body of every Man and Woman shall be again united and make one Person and shall both together enter an happy or miserable Eternity I say admitting this it is impossible for a Man to determine his Being all he can possibly do is to determine his Being in this World He can neither by such Act determine his Being nor yet his Misery he may determine indeed his Misery as to this Life but his Soul will then but enter into a state of Ten thousand times more Misery in another World and there will be a time after the revolution of a few years when his Body shall return to Ten thousand times more Misery than it ever felt in this World Now certainly no Person under any command or conduct of Reason can possibly be induced to attempt a thing impossible to deliver himself from any Evil Nor yet throw himself into an infinitly worse state to deliver himself from a present bad estate All the Entertainment therefore which such Temptations have in our Hearts must be advantaged from Unbelief of these great Principles which indeed are the Foundations and Principles of all Religion Labour therefore for as much as in you lies to Root your selves in the belief of these things that you may not have the least doubt or haesitation of in your Hearts with relation to them Live in the daily Meditation of them suffer not your Souls to call them in Question be acquainted with those Portions of Holy Writ where the Revelation of these things is clearest to you Take heed of Unbelief as to these things 3. A Third thing as to which the Soul should be fully perswaded that will avoid the dint of this Temptation is as to the Truth of the Holy Scriptures in the general so of those Portions of them in particular which reveals the Will of God as to the preservation of our own Lives and the Lives of others and the Wrath of God against such as commit Sins of this Nature Such as those Gen. 9. 6. Num. 35. 32. Thou shalt not Kill No Murtherer hath Eternal Life and all such as express the greatness of the Sin of Murther for it is but an easie Conclusion of Reason from these Principles If I ought not to Kill another I ought much less to Kill my self If I ought to preserve the Life of my Neighbour surely I ought to preserve my own Life If I ought to preserve my Chastity to preserve my Vessel in Honour surely I ought not to dash it in pieces If I ought not to maime or dismember my self surely I ought not to destroy my self The truth is no Soul can possibly be guilty of this Sin who either doth not in whole disbelieve the Scriptures or in whose Heart the disbelief of them doth not prevail to a very high degree at that time when he is prevailed with by any Temptation to do such a thing But there is also another Unbelief which must be predominant in the Soul at that time when it is prevailed upon by this Temptation and that is a Distrust in God for the fulfilling of his Promises either with relation to special Providence or special Grace or Eternal Life Those who

there are many Trees of forbidden Fruit which we may not eat the Fruit of least we die God hath not said to any Thou shalt not Marry But he hath said Thou shalt not commit Adultery He hath not said Thou shalt not enjoy Silver or Gold Houses or Lands But he hath said Thou shalt not Covet thy Neighbours House nor Lands He hath said Thou shalt not Steal He hath not said Thou shalt not spend any day but in the solemn Worship of God But he hath said Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day Now our Lusts encline us to forbidden things Nitimur in vetitum and these desires of unlawful things or lawful things in an immoderate undue and unlawful manner are what we call Lusts yet Men living under the Revelations of Divine Truth and of the Divine Will and hearing of an immortal State of Souls and of an Eternity which waiteth for all Men after this Life and that either in Bliss or Misery we knowing that we must all die and after come to Judgement and receive an Eternal Reward or an Eternal Punishment cannot but desire an Eternal Happiness and our business I mean the business of a Natural Man resolved upon the Satisfaction of his Lust and yet desirous to shew himself one that believeth the Scriptures and to cherish in himself an hope of an Eternal Happiness is to close with such Notions and false Representations of the Divine Will as may serve to cherish his hopes for a Living with God for ever he in the mean time enjoying those Lusts and sensual Satisfactions to which he is most biassed and inclined Hence it is that he Presumeth that is he buildeth up unto himself Hopes and Confidences of Gods Favour to him as well as others and that he shall when he dies goe to Heaven whatever Ministers say who would put a Yoke upon Peoples Necks that no Flesh is able to bear Now it may be worth an enquiry what false Notion those are upon which Men build up these Presumptions and which the Devil the World or our own Lusts suggest and build upon as upon a sandy Foundation I shall name some and onely in this place shew you that if these Notions were true they might give a foundation for such Confidences at least some of them others not I shall reserve my demonstration of the falshood of them until I come to the Applicatory part of my Discourse 1. That God will not Eternally Condemn any Man or Woman that he hath made especially not any within the bosome of the Church This hath not been the avowed Opinion of many who have published their Sentiments to the World We Read of Huberus and Paccius and some two or three more who have adventured to publish such Sentiments to the World but by the lives of too many it is proclaimed that there are too many such Atheists in the World for they wallow in such prodigious Filthiness as it is impossible but that they must conclude that if there be an Hell and it be not to stand empty they are like to goe to it for none can live more prodigiously lewd and profane lives than they do Now indeed if this Notion were true if Men could but perswade themselves that they are Gods Creatures it were enough for them to be confident of Gods Favour and their going at last to Heaven 2. A Second Notion which some have taken up is That Christ hath dyed for all and all those for whom he dyed shall be Saved The latter part of this is held by no learned Man that I know though if I could admit the former I should not be very difficult as to the latter There are as I have formerly told you three Opinions concerning Redemption as to the Objects of it Some saying he died equally for all as much for Judas as Peter Thus say the Arminians others that he died for all but not equally He purchased a certainty of Salvation for some a possibility for all Thus the Methedists or those that are for the middle way Others say he died for no more than the Elect. I intend not to meddle with this great Question onely I say no judicious and learned Man that hath held either of the two first Opinions hath said or will say That all those for whom Christ died shall be Saved All agree in the Negative of that but I fear abundance of less judicious People are of that Mind and here build up their Presumptuous Hopes 3. A Third Notion is That Sin is washed away in Baptism There are some learned and great Men indeed who have thought that the Guilt of Adams Sin yea all Original Sin is washed away in Baptism and Men Justified in it but they add If by Actual Sins they put not a barr so as all the Relief that Opinion affords if it be true as to Persons dying in their Infancy as to whom they are as gentle as Augustine was judged an hard Father but I shall not enlarge on this for there can be no other Pretence for this as to grown Persons than their Admission into the Catholick Church by that Ordinance and so it in part falleth in with the first Notion I named 4. A Fourth Notion is That Men and Women have their lives in their own hands a Power in themselves to believe and do whatsoever God hath required of them in order to their Salvation so as they shall not need look after their Salvation till they come within sight of the Grave Upon this they build up Presumptuous Hopes all their Life hoping to have time before their Death to bethink themselves and to turn unto God 5. Under a fifth Head may come Mens false Notions of Faith Repentance and Holiness They are told by Papists that Faith is nothing else but an Agreement to the proposition of the Word and that they think they do That Repentance is nothing else but some sorrow for Sin and a turning from some flagitious Courses unto God That Holiness is nothing but a performance of some good Works Commanded in Gods Word or a Resolution to do them if they have time so as if they do upon their Death-bed profess they die in the Faith and declare they are sorry for their mispent Life and their Resolution if God spare their lives to live a better Life This is enough to carry them to Heaven 6. A Sixth is this That if they do but receive the Sacrament and receive Absolution from a Minister before they Die This is enough to secure their Eternal Salvation For whose Sins they Remitt are Remitted 7. A Seventh is and that is perfectly Popish That if they happen to die under the Guilt of Sin if it be not one of the seven Mortal Sins and that without Repentance it is but lying some years in Purgatory and they shall come out and go to Heaven nor would those Teachers of Presumption put that necessity upon them if it were not to get money for Masses to be said

I before said gives us Comfort as to Children dying in their Infancy others maintain The Regeneration of Elect Infants by Baptism I shall freely tell you what I judge is all in this Cause The most of those Baptized in the time of the Apostles were Persons grown up who had first made a visible Profession of their Repentance and Faith in Christ to these Baptism was a Seal of the Forgiveness of Sins and an Engagement to an Holy Conversation as you read Rom. 6. 4 c. To Infants it is a Seal of the Covenant of Grace as exhibited to Mankind That in case they do Repent and Believe their Sins shall be washed away with the Blood of Christ To these it is an Ordinance of Admission into the Church To these it is an Engagement to be the Lords an Avouchment of God for their God and Christ for their Saviour To these if when they grow up they shall Repent and Believe it shall be as a Fountain of Living Water springing up in the Soul to Eternal Life they shall as the Apostle instructeth the Romans Rom. 6. 4 5 6. fetch Arguments obliging them to die unto Sin and to live unto God Whether it hath any such immediate Effect as to all to justifie them from the guilt of Original Sin or to Regenerate them that is to make a change in their Heart I shall not dispute but cannot prove it nor do understand how possibly it should have any further effect of this Nature than Circumcision had to the Jews I am sure the Holy Scripture makes Pardon of Sin and Justification not the necessary or ordinary Effect of Baptism but of Confession of Sin True Repentance and forsaking of Sin and True Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ Flatter not your selves therefore if there be any Soul that liveth in any known course of Sin that never confessed his Sins and forsook them nor knew what godly Sorrow for Sin meant nor what it was to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him onely knoweth he was Baptized and he liveth in the Church and is called a Christian and here he resteth not doubting but being confident that he shall be saved Let me tell him or her he presumeth and trusts his Soul upon a Lie and that which no weighed Divine of any Perswasion would ever say was a sufficient bottom to rest his Soul upon None ever said that Baptism washed away Sins past and to come and those that do ascribe Justification to Baptism make it such a state as may be lost and is lost by a course of Actual Sinning CHAP. V. The Notion of a Power in Man to Repent and Believe agreed by few if true no ground of hopes for Eternal Life Why Mistakes about the Nature of Regeneration Conversion Saving Repentance Faith Holiness great Occasions of Presumption The Truth as to those Notions enquired and proved What Regeneration Repentance Conversion Faith Holiness is necessary to Salvation and to the raising any Hopes in us with Relation to it 4. A Fourth Notion which I instanced in as a cause of Presumption was this That every Man and Woman hath his Life in his hands I mean a power in and of himself supposing the Common Grace of God denied to none to do all that God requireth of him in order to Salvation is a power to Repent to Believe to Love God c. Hence many think that there is no haste for Men to deny themselves or to take up the Cross or to follow Christ they may stay till they are old and their Eyes can be no longer pleased with Seeing nor their Ears with Hearing if then they do but Repent and Believe all is well enough As to which give me leave to speak two or three things 1. As brisk as this Opinion seemeth to be in the World I could never yet meet with any so hardy as to affirm That these things were within the Power of Man without the Assistance of Special Grace I have met with many that have talked high for the Power of Mans Will but when they have been brought to a close Discourse they would assert it no farther than either as to Moral Actions or Acts of Moral Discipline They would affirm indeed that a Man hath a power to go to Church instead of going to the Tavern to turn away his Foot from the House of an Harlot to do Justly and an hundred such things to read to hear the Word to pray to consider his Sins Now these are things which none denieth onely we say his power as to these is much weakened by the fall So as we doubt whether by Common Grace and all the Natural Power Man hath he can do these materially good Actions when he is pressed with a vehement Temptation But I say I could never yet meet with any that would say It is in the power of Man to Believe to Repent savingly to Love God c. 2. If any doth say so He saith what is contradicted by a multitude of Scriptures But it is not my work to enlarge here on that Discourse 3. In the next place Those Divines that do hold the greatest Natural Power in the Will of Man yet do say Time may be past that a Man may have sinned away this Natural Power and have his Heart so hardened in a Course of Sinning that he may have lost this Power and so be concluded to an Eternal Misery which alone to considerate Souls is enough to spoil its Presumption from this Head For how shall I who go on in a Course of Sin knowingly presume because I have a power in my self to turn when I will if it be possible that I may by a Course of Sinning have so provoked God as he may have given me up to a judicial blindness of Mind and hardness of Heart 4. Admitting thou hast such a Power if it still remaineth established that this Power must be produced into Act and that before thou canst enter into Heaven thou must actually Repent and Believe how dost thou know thou shalt have time for it May not God take away thy Soul with a stroke May he not come upon thee on the sudden and say This Night thy Soul shall be taken from thee and then what doth thy Power signifie Doest thou not see Men and Women die suddenly So that a pretence of such a Power in thee signifies nothing but that thou art more inexcusable by it if indeed thou hadst such a Power that thou didst not use it for the end for which thou hadst it 5. I proceed now to the great grounds of Mens Presumption viz. Mistakes as to the Nature of Regeneration Faith and Holiness The Scripture makes all these so necessary to Salvation that altho some ignorant Persons may build up to themselves idle and presumptuous Hopes because God made them and Christ died for all Men and they are Christians and Baptized c. yet considerate Persons plainly must see That unless a Man be