more apt to catch in low-built thatcht Cottages than in high-built Castles and Princely Palaces the higher we go still the more peace The highest Region is most sedate and calm Stars have the strongest influence when in conjunction Angels tho legions have no wars among them and as willingly go down as up the Ladder without justling each other And the Most High God is the God of Peace let us also be the Children of Peace And I do assure the Persons with whom I contend That whilst they hold the head and are tender of the Churches Peace I can live in charity with them here and hope to live in glory with them hereafter I remain Reader thine and the Truth 's Friend John Flavell THE CONTENTS OF THE Causes and Cures c. THE Etymology and definition of the word Error Introd p. 2 3. The difference between Heresy and Error Introd p. 4. Twenty general Observations Disc. p. 7. Obs. 1. Truth is the object and natural food of the Vnderstanding p. 7. Explain'd and confirm'd P. 8. Obs. 2. Several sorts of Knowledge amongst which the supernatural knowledge of saving Truths revealed in the Scriptures is the best 9. Obs. 3. Vnto the attainment of Divine Knowledge out of the Scripture some things are naturally yet less principally requisite in the subject and something absolutely and principally necessary 11. As the irradiation of the mind by the Spirit of God the benefits of which 12. Obs. 4. Among the manifold impediments to the obtaining of true Knowledge and setling the mind in the truth and faith of the Gospel these three are of special consideration viz. Ignorance Curiosity and Error p. 13. Obs. 5. Error is binding upon the Conscience as well as Truth and altogether as much and sometimes more influential upon the Affections and Passions than Truth is 14. Obs. 6. 'T is exceeding difficult to get out Error when once it is imbib ' d and hath rooted it self by an open profession 15. Obs. 7. Men are not so circumspect and jealous of the Corruptions of their Minds by Errors as they are of their Bodies in times of Contagion or of their Lives with respect to gross Immoralities 17. Obs. 8. 'T is a great Iudgment of God to be given up to an Erroneous Mind 19. Obs. 9. 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a mere Opinion into the place or seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point 21. Obs. 10. Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and secure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety 23. Obs. 11. God in all Ages in his tender care for his Churches and Truths hath still qualified and excited his Servants for the defence of his precious Truths against the Errors and Heresies that have successively assaulted them p. 25. Obs. 12. The want of a modest suspicion and just reflection gives both confidence and growth to Erroneous Opinions 27. Obs. 13. There is a remarkable involution or concatenation of Errors one linking in and drawing another after it 29. Obs. 14. Errors abound most and spring fastest in the times of the Churches Peace Liberty and outward Prosperity under Indulgent Governors 31. Obs. 15. Errors in the tender bud and first spring of them are comparatively shy and modest to what they prove afterwards when they have spread and rooted themselves into the minds of multitudes and think it time to set up and justle for themselves in the World 33. Obs. 16. Nothing gives more countenance and increase to Errors than a weak and feeble defence of the Truth against it 35. Obs. 17 Errors of Iudgment are not cured by compulsion and external force but by rational conviction and proper spiritual remedies 36. Obs. 18. Erroneous Doctrines producing Divisions and fierce Contentions amongst Christians prove a fatal Stumbling-block to the World fix their Prejudices and obstruct their conversion to Christ p. 38. Obs. 19. How specious and taking soever the pretences of Error be and how long soever they maintain themselves in esteem among men they are sure to end in the loss and shame of their Authors and Abettors at last 40. Obs. 20. If ever Errors be cured and the Peace and Vnity of the Church established men must be convinced of and acquainted with the occassions and causes both within and without themselves from whence their Errors do proceed and must both know and apply the proper rules and remedies for the prevention or cure of them 42. Divine Permission an occasion of Error 44. Which must be prevented by avoiding 1. A want of love to the Truth 45. 2. Pride and wantonness of the mind 46. 3. The neglect of Prayer ibid. Culpable Causes of Errors in men are 1. A wrangling humor at the pretended obscurity of the Scriptures p. 47. Cod's wisdom manifested in leaving some difficulties in the Scriptures 49. For the prevention of this cause these Rules following to be heeded and practis'd viz. R. 1. To expound all obscure Texts of Scripture according to the analogy and proportion of Faith p. 50. R. 2. Not to wrest Scripture from its general and common sense in favour of our preconceived Opinions 51. R. 3. When we meet with a difficult place of Scripture to search the Context throughly 52. R. 4. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other the Old on the New and the New on the Old ibid. R. 5. Observe the sense which the current of Expositors do agree in and which naturally agrees with the scope of the place 53 Cause 2. The abuse of the Liberty given by Christ to all his People to read the Scriptures and to judge of the sense of them by a private judgment of Discretion ibid. Remedy of it is to observe the limits which Christ hath set to this Liberty which Limitations are 1. A liberty to read and study but not publickly to expound and preach the Word 57. 2. Christians of different Abilities ought to study some parts of Scripture rather than others 59. Cause 3. Slothfulness in a due and serious search of the Scripture 61. How to find the institution of the Sabbath in the Scripture 64. How to find the institution of the Baptism of Infants there 65. Several Considerations to cure this slothfulness 67. Viz. A serious search of the Scriptures is our duty ibid. No action of ours that is not agreeable to God's will is acceptable to him 68. This is the path in which the wisest and best of men have gone before us 69. Every discovery of the Will of God obtain'd in this method is highly pleasant 70. Confirms our Faith 71. An impartial search into the Will of God will be a testimony of our Integrity and Sincerity ibid. Cause 4. Instability of judgment and unsetledness of mind about the truth
Analogy or proportion of Faith which is St. Paul's own Rule Rom. 12. 6. Let him that prophesieth i. e. expoundeth the Scripture in the Church do it according to the proportion of faith The Analogy or proportion of Faith is what is taught plainly and uniformly in the whole Scriptures of Old and New Testament as the rule of our Faith and Obedience Whilst we carefully and sincerely attend hereunto we are secured from sinful corrupting the word of God Admit of no sense which interfereth with this proportion of Faith If men have no regard to this but take liberty to rend off a single Text from the body of Truth to which it belongs and put a peculiar interpretation upon it which is absonous and discordant to other Scriptures what woful work will they quickly make Give but a Papist liberty to take that Scripture Iam. 2. 24. out of the frame of Scripture A man is justified by works and not by faith only and expoâ—â—d it without regard to the Tenor of the Gospel-doctrine of Iustification in Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and a gross Error starts up immediately Give but a Socinian the like liberty to practise upon Iohn 14. 28. and a gross Hâ—resie shall presently look with an Orthodox face Rule II. Never put a new sense upon words of Scripture in favour of your preconceived Notions and Opinions nor wrest it from its general and common use and sense This is not to interpret but to rack the Scriptures as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies 2 Pet. 3. 16. Interpretis officium est non quid ipse velit sed quid censeat ille quem interpretatur exponere as Hieron against Ruff. speaks We are not to make the Scriptures speak what we think but what the Prophet or Apostle thought whom we interpret In 1 Cor. 7. 14. we meet with the word holy applied to the Children of Believers that word is above 500 times used for a state of separation to God Therefore to make it signify in that place nothing but Legitimacy is a bold and daring practising upon the Scripture Rule III. Whenever you meet with an obscure place of Scripture let the Context of that Scripture be diligently and throughly searched for 't is usual with God to set up some light there to guide us through the obscurity of a particular Text. And there is much truth in the Observation of the Rabbines Nulla est objectio in Lege quae non habet solutionem in lâ—tere There 's no scruple or objection in the Law but it hath a solution at the side of it Rule IV. Let one Testament freely cast its light upon the other and let not men undervalue or reject an Old Testament Text as no way useful to clear and establish a New-Testament Point of Faith or Duty Each Testament reflects light upon the other The Iews reject the New-Testament and many among us sinfully slight the Old But without the help of both we can never understand the mind of Godâ— in either 'T is a good Rule in the Civil-Law Turpe est de Lege judicare tota lege nondum inspectâ We must inspect the whole Law to know the sense of any particular Law Rule V. Have a due regard to that sense given of obscure places of Scripture which hath not only the current sense of Learned Expositors but also naturally agrees with the scope of the place A careless neglect and disregard to this is justly blamed by the Apostle 1 Tim. 1. 7. Cause II. A Second evil temper in the Subject disposing and inclining men to receive and suck in erroneous Doctrines and Opinions is the ABVSE of that just and due CHRISTIAN LIBERTY allowed by Christ to all his people to read examine and judge the sense of Scriptures with a private judgment of discretion This is a glorious acquisition and blessed fruit of Reformation to vindicate and recover that just Right and gracious Grant made to us by Christ and the Apostles out of the injurious hands of our Popish Enemies who had usurped and invaded it The exercise of this Liberty is at once a Duty commanded by Christ and commended in Scripture 'T is commanded by Christ Iohn 5. 39. Search the Scriptures saith Christ to the people 1 Cor. 10. 15. I speak as to wise men judge you what I say And the exercise of this private judgment of discretion by the people is highly commended by St. Paul in the Bereans Acts 17. 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the Word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so This Liberty is not allowed in that latitude in any Religion as it is in the Christian Religion nor enjoyed in its full liberty as it is in the Reformed Religion whose glory it is that it allows its Principles and Doctrines to be critically examined and tryed of all Men by the Rule of the Word as well knowing the more it is sifted and searched by its Professors the more they will be still confirmed and satisfied in the truth of it But yet this gracious and just liberty of Christians suffers a double abuse One from the Popish Enemies who injuriously restrain and deny it to the people Another by Protestants themselves who sinfully stretch and extend it beyond the just degree and measure in which Christ allows it to them The Pope injuriously restrains it discerning the danger that must necessarily follow the concession of such a liberty to the people to compare his superstitious and erroneous Doctrines with the Rule of the Word St. Peter in 2 Pet. 1. 19. tells the people they have a more sure Word of Prophecy whereunto they do well that they take heed Certainly the Pope forgot either that he was Peter's Successour or that ever St. Peter told the people they did well to make use of that liberty which he denies them Mr. Pool tells us of a Spaniard that used this expression to an English Merchant You people of England said he are happy you have liberty to see with your own eyes and to examine the Doctrines delivered to you upon which your everlasting Life depends but we dare not say our souls are our own but are commanded to believe whatever our Teachers tell us be it never so unreasonable or ridiculous This is a most injurious and sinful restraint upon it on the one side And then Secondly 'T is too frequently abused by stretching it beyond Christ's allowance and intendment upon the other side when every ignorant and confident person shall under pretence of liberty granted by Christ rudely break in upon the Sacred Text distort violate and abuse the Scriptures at pleasure by putting such strange and â—oreign senses upon them as the Spirit of God never meant or intended How often have I heard that Scripture Micha 4. 10. They shall be brought even to Babylon confidently interpreted for almost but not full hâ—me
to perishing can never truly and properly be said to be saved If it be said the Elect were not justified till the death of Christ I demand then what became of all them that died before the death of Christ If they were not justified they could not be glorified for this is sure from Rom. 8. 30. That the whole number of the glorified in Heaven is made up of such as were justified on Earth Let men take heed therefore lest under pretence of exalting Christ they bereave him of the glory of being the Saviour of his Elect. 2. It bereaves him of another glorious Royalty The Scripture every-where makes our Justification the result and fruit of the meritorious death of Christ Rom. 3. 24 25. Rom. 8. 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. Gal. 3. 13 14. Eph. 1. 7. But if men were justified from Eterternity how is their Justification the fruit and result of the blood of the Cross as it plainly appears from these Scriptures to be Nay 3. This Opinion leaves no place for the satisfaction of Justice by the Blood of Christ for our Sins He did not die according to this Opinion to pay our debts And here Antinomianism and Socinianism meet and congratulate each other For if there were no debts owing to the Justice of God from Eternity Christ could not die to pay them and 't is manifest there were no debts due to God's Justice from Eternity on the account of his Elect if the Elect were from Eternity justified unless you will say a person may be justified and yet his debts not paid for all Justification dissolves the obligation to punishment If there were any debts for Christ to pay by his Blood they must either be his own debts or the Elect's To say they were his own is a blasphemous reproach to him and according to this Opinion we cannot say they were the Elect's for if they were justified from Eternity their debts were discharged and their bonds cancell'd from Eternity So that this Opinion leaves nothing to the Blood of Christ to discharge or make satisfaction for 2. And as it hath been proved to be highly injurious to the Lord Jesus so it is greatly injurious to the Souls of men as it naturally leads them into all those wild and licentious Opinions which naturally flow from it as from the radical prolifique Error whence most of the rest derive themselves as will immediately appear in the II. Error That Iustification by Faith is no more but the manifestation to us of what was really and actually done before Or a being persuaded more or less of Christ's love to us And that when persons do believe that which was hid before doth then only appear to them Refutation As the former Error dangerously corrupts the Doctrine of Justification so this corrupts the Doctrine of Faith and therefore deserves to be exploded by all Christians That there is a manifestation and discovery of the special love of God and our own saving concernment in the death of Christ to some Christians at some times cannot be denied St. Paul could say Gal. 2. 20 21. Christ loved him and gave himself for him but to say that this is the justifying act of Faith whereby a Sinner passeth from condemnation and death into the state of righteousness and life this I must look upon as a great Error and that for these following Reasons Reason I. Because there be multitudes of believing and justified Persons in the World who have no such manifestation evidence or assurance that God laid their Iniquities upon Christ and that he died to put away their Sins but daily conflict with strong fears and doubts whether it be so or no. There are but few among Believers that attain such a persuasion and manifestation as Antinomians make to be all that is meant in Scripture by Justification through Faith Many thousand new-born Christians live as the new-born Babe which neither knows its own Estate or Inheritance to which it is born Vivit est vitae nescius ipse suae A Soul may be in Christ and a justified state without any such persuasion or manifestation as they here speak of Isa. 50. 10. And if any shall assert the contrary he will condemn the greatest part of the Generation of God's Children Now that cannot be the saving and justifying act of Faith which is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Persons But manifestation or a personal persuasion of the love of God to a Man's Soul or that Christ died for him and all his Iniquities are thereby forgiven him is not to be found in multitudes of believing and justified Souls Therefore such a persuasion or manifestation is not that saving justifying Faith which the Scripture speaks of That Faith which only justifies the person of a Sinner before God must necessarily be found in all justified Believers or else a man may be justified without the least degree of justifying Faith and consequently it is not Faith alone by which a man is justified before God Reason II. That cannot be the justifying act of Faith which is not constant and abiding with the justified Person but comes and goes is frequently lost and recovered the state of the Person still remaining the same And such contingent things are these persuasions and manifestations they come and go are won and lost the state of the Person still remaining the same Iob was as much a justified Believer when he complained that God was his Enemy as when he could say I know that my Redeemer liveth The same may be said of David Heman Asaph and the greatest number of justified Believers recorded in Scripture There be two things belonging to a justified state 1. That which is essential and inseparable to wit Faith uniting the Soul to Christ. 2. That which is contingent and separable to wit evidence and persuasion of our interest in him Those Believers that walk in darkness and have no light have yet a real special interest in God as their God Isa. 50. 10. Here then you find Believers without persuasion or manifestation of God's love to them which could never be if justifying Faith consisted in a personal persuasion manifestation or evidence of the love of God and pardon of Sin to a Man's Soul That cannot be the justifying Faith spoken of in Scripture which a justified Person may live in Christ without and be as much in a state of pardon and acceptation with God when he wants it as when he hath it But such is persuasion evidence or manifestation of a man's particular interest in the love of God or the pardon of his Sins Therefore this is not the justifying Faith the Scripture speaks of Reason III. That only is justifying saving Faith which gives the Soul Right and Title to Christ and the saving benefits which come by Christ upon all the Children of God Now it is not persuasion that Christ is ours but acceptance of him that gives us interest in Christ and the
saving benefits and privileges of the Children of God Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name So that unless the Antinomians can prove that receiving of Christ and personal persuasion of pardon be one and the same thing and consequently that all Believers in the World are persuaded or assured that their sins are pardoned and reject from the number of Believers all tempted deserted dark and doubting Christians this persuasion they speak of is not nor can it be the act of Faith which justifies the person of a Sinner before God That which I think led our Antinomians into this Error was an unfound and unwary definition of Faith which in their youth they had imbibed from their Catechisms and other Systems passing without contradiction or scruple in those days which though it were a mistake and hath abundantly been proved to be so in latter days yet our Antinomians will not part with a notion so serviceable to the support of their darling Opinion of Eternal Justification Reason IV. A Man may be strongly persuaded of the Love of God to his Soul and of the pardon of his Sin and yet have no interest in Christ nor be in a pardoned State This was the Case of the Pharisees and others Luke 18. 9. Rev. 3. 17. Therefore this persuasion cannot be justifying Faith If a persuasion be that that justifies the persuaded person then the Pharisees and the Laodiceans were justified Oh! How common and easie is it for the worst of Men to be strongly persuaded of their good condition whilst humble serious Christians doubt and stagger I know not what such Doctrine as this is useful for but to beget and strengthen that sin of presumption which sends down multitudes to Hell out of the professing World For what is more common amongst the most carnal and unsanctified part of the World not only such as are meerly moral but even the most flagitious and prophane than to support themselves by false persuasions of their good estate When they are asked in order to their conviction what hopes of Salvation they have and how they are founded Their common answer is Christ died for Sinners and that they are persuaded that whatever he hath done for any other he hath done it for them as well as others But such a persuasion cometh not of him that called them and is of dangerous consequence Reason V. This Doctrine is certainly unfound because it confounds the distinction betwixt Dogmatical and Saving Faith and makes it all one to believe an Axiom or Proposition and to believe savingly in Christ to Eternal Life What is it to believe that God lay'd our iniquities upon Christ more than the mere assent of the understanding to a Scripture Axiom or Proposition without any consent of the will to receive Jesus Christ as the Gospel offers him And this is no more than what any unregenerated person may do yea the very Devils themselves assent to the truth of Scripture Axioms and Propositions as well as Men Iam. 2. 19. Thou believest there is one God thou doest well the Devils also believe and tremble What is this more than a Scripture-Axiom or Proposition God lay'd the iniquity of us all upon Christ Isa. 53. 6 And yet saith Dr. Crisp p. 296. God cannot charge one Sin upon that Man that believes this Truth That God lay'd his iniquities upon Christ. The assent of the understanding may be and often is given to a Scripture Proposition whil'st the Heart and Will remain carnal and utterly averse to Jesus Christ. I may believe Dogmatically that the iniquities of Men were lay'd upon Christ and persuade my self presumptively that mine as well as other Mens were lay'd upon him and yet remain a perfect Stranger to all saving Union and Communion with him Reason VI. This Opinion cannot be true because it takes away the only support that bears up the Soul of a Believer in times of temptation and desertion For how will you comfort such a distressed Soul that saith and saith truly I have no persuasion that Christ is mine or that my sins are pardoned but I am heartily willing to cast my poor sin-burthened Soul upon him that he may be mine I do not certainly know that he died intentionally for me but I lye at his feet cleave to him wait at the door of hope I stay and trust upon him though I walk in darkness and have no light Now let such Doctrine as this be Preached to a Soul in this condition and we may be sure 't is the condition of many thousands belonging to Christ I say bring this Doctrine to them and tell them That unless they be persuaded of the Love of God and that God lay'd their iniquities on Christ except they have some manifestation that their persons were justified from eternity their accepting of Christ consent of their Wills waiting at his Feet c. signifies nothing if they believe not that their particular sins were lay'd upon Christ and are pardoned to them by him they are still unbelievers and have no part or portion in him Whatever pretences of spiritual comfort and relief the Antinomian Doctrine makes you see by this it really deprives a very great if not the greatest number of God's people of their best and sweetest relief in days of darkness and spiritual distress So that this Doctrine which makes manifestation and assurance the very essence of justifying faith appears hereby to be both a false and very dangerous Doctrine And yet there is as much or more danger to the Souls of Men in their III. Error That Men ought not to doubt of their Faith or question whether they believe or no. Nay That they ought no more to question their Faith than to question Christ. Refutation What an easie way to Heaven is the Antinomian way Were it but as true and safe to the Soul as it is easie and pleasing to the Flesh who would not embrace it What a charm of the Devil is prepared in these two Propositions Be but persuaded more or less of Christ's Love to thy Soul saith Mr. Saltmarsh and that 's justifying Faith Here 's a snare of the Devil lay'd for the Souls of Men. And then 2. to make it fast and sure upon the Soul and effectually to prevent the discovery of their Error tell them they need no more to doubt or question their Faith than to question Christ and the work is done to all intents Now that this is an Error and a very dangerous one will appear by the following Reasons Reason I. The questioning and examining of our Faith is a commanded Scripture-duty 2 Cor. 13. 5. Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves c. And 2 Pet. 1. 10. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Let him that â—nketh he standeth take heed lest he fall 1 Cor. 10. 12. The second Epistle of
deep corruptions by dangerous Errors Austin was a Manichee and fully recovered from it So have many more and yet multitudes hold them fast even to death and nothing but the Fire can reveal their work and discover what is Gold and what is Straw and Stubble Seventh Observation It deserves a Remark That men are not so circumspect and jealous of the corruption of their minds by Errors as they are of their bodies in times of Contagion or of their lives with respect to gross immoralities Spiritual dangers affect us less than corporeal and intellectual evils less than moral Whether this be the effect of Hypocrisie the Errors of the mind being more secret and invisible than those of the Conversation God only knows man cannot positively determine Or whether it be the effect of Ignorance that men think there is less sin and danger in the one than in the other not considering that an Apoplexy seizing the Head is every way as mortal as a Sword piercing the Body And that a Vertigo will as much unfit a man for service as an Ague or Feaver The Apostle in 2 Pet. 2. 1. calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 damnable Heresies or Heresies of Destruction An Error in the mind may be as damning and destructive to the Soul as an Error of Immorality or Profaneness in the Life Or whether it may come to pass from some remains of fear and tenderness in the Conscience which forbids men to reduce their erroneous Principles into Practice the relying under many confident Errors in the mind aâ— secret Jealousie which we call formido oppositi which will not suffer them to act to the full height of their professed opinions Austin gives this Character even of Pelagius himself Retract lib. 2. cap. 33. Nomen Pelagii non sine laude aliqua posui quia vita ejus a multis praedicabatur I have not mentioned saith he the name of that man without some praise because his life was famed by many And of Swinkfeldius it is said Caput regulatum illi defuit corbonum non defuit His Heart was much more regular than his Head Yet this falls out but rarely in the world for loose Principles naturally run into loose Practises and the Errors of the Head into the Immoralities of Life Eighth Observation It is a great Iudgment of God to be given over to an erroneous mind For the Understanding being the leading Faculty as that guides the other Powers and Affections of the Soul follow as Horses in a Teem follow the Fore-horse Now how sad and dangerous a thing is this for Satan to ride the Fore-horse and guide that that is to guide the life of man That 's a dreadful spiritual judicial stroke of God which we read of Rom. 1. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God by a penal Tradition suffered them to run into the dregs of Immorality and Pollutions of life and that because they abused their light and became came vain in their imaginations ver 21. Wild whimsies and fancies in the head usually mislead men into the puddle and mire of Prophaneness and then 't is commonly observed God sets some visible mark of his Displeasure upon them especially the Heresiarchs or Ring-leaders in Error Nestorius his Tongue was consumed by Worms Cerinthus his Brains Knock'd out by the Fall of an House Montanus hangâ—d himself It were easie to instance in multitudes of others whom the visible Hand of God hath marked for a warning to others but usually the spiritual Errors of the Mind are followed with a Consumption and Decay of Religion in the Soul If Grace be in the Heart where Error sways its Scepter in the Head yet usually there it languishes and withers They may mistake their Dropsie for growth and flourishing and think themselves to be more spiritual because more airy and notional but if men would judg themselves impartially they will certainly find that the Seeds of Grace thrive not in the Heart when shaded and over-dropt by an erroneous Head Ninth Observation 'T is a pernicious Evil to advance a meer Opinion into the place and seat of an Article of Faith and to lay as great a stress upon it as they ought to do upon the most clear and fundamental Point To be as much concerned for a Tile upon the Roof as for the Corner-stone which unites the Walls and sustains the Building Opinion as one truly saith is but Reason's Projector and the Spy of Truth It makes in its fullest discovery no more than the dawning and twilight of Knowledg and yet I know not how it comes to pass but so it is that this Idol of the Mind holds such a sway and Empire over all we hold as if it were all the Day we had Matters of mere opinion are every where cried up by some Errorists for Mathematical Demonstration and Articles of Faith written with a Sun-beam worshipping the Fancies and Creatures of their own minds more than God and putting more trust in their ill-founded Opinions than in the surer word of Prophecy Much like that Humorist that would not trust day-light but kept his Candle still burning by him because said he this is not as subject to Eclipses as the Sun is And what more frequent when Controversies grow fervent than for those that maintain the Error to boast every silly Argument to be a Demonstration to upbraid and pity the blindness and dulness of their Opposers as men that shut their eyes against Sun-beams yea sometimes to draw their presumptuous Censures through the very hearts of their Opposers and to insinuate that they must needs hold the Truths of God in unrighteousness sin against their knowledg and that nothing keeps them from coming over to them but Pride Shame or some Worldly Interest What a complicated evil is here Here 's a proud exalting of our own opinions and an immodest imposing on the minds of others more clear and sound than our own and a dangerous Usurpation of God's Prerogative in judging the hearts and ends of our Brethren Tenth Observation Error being conscious to it self of its own weakness and the strong assaults that will be made upon it evermore labours to defend and seeure it self under the wings of Antiquity Reason Scripture and high pretensions to Reformation and Piety Antiquity is a venerable word but ill used when made a cloak for Error Truth must needs be elder than Error as the Rule must necessarily be before the abâ—rration from it The gray hairs of Opinions are then only Beauty and a Crown when found in the way of Righteousness Copper saith Learned Dumoulin will never become Gold by Age. A Lye will be a Lye let it be never so ancient We dispute not by Years but by Reasons drawn from Scripture That which is now call'd an Ancient Opinion if it be not a true Opinion was once but a new Error When you can tell us how many years are required to turn an Error into Truth then we will give more heed to Antiquity
hateth Errors Rev. 2. 6. the God of Order and hates Confusions and Schisms in his Church 1 Cor. 14. 33. is yet pleased to permit Errors and Heresies to arise without whose permission they could never spring And this he doth for the tryal of his Peoples Faith and Constancy and for a spiritual punishment upon some men for the abuse of his known Truths and by the permission of these Evils he advanceth his own Glory and the good of his Church and People Augustine answers that Question Why doth not God since he hates Errors sweep them out of the World Because saith he it is an act of greater power to bring good out of evil than not to suffer Evils to be at all Satan's Design in Errors is to cloud and darken God's Name and precious Truths to destroy the Beauty Strength and Order of the Church But God's ends in permitting and sending Errors are 1. to plague and punish men for their abuse of Light 2 Thess. 2. 11. For this cause God shall send them strong Delusions c. 2. To prove and try the Sincerity and Constancy of our hearts Deut. 13. 1 3. I Cor. 11. 19. And lastly By these things the Saints are awakened to a more diligent search of the Scriptures which are the more critically read and examined upon the tryal of Spirits and Doctrines by them 1 Ioh. 4. 1. Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits And Rev. 2. 2. Thou hast tried them that say they are Apostles c. The Prevention Though Heresies and Errors must for the Reasons assigned break forth into the World and God will turn them eventually into his own glory and the benefit of his Church yet it is a dreadful judgment to be delivered over to a spirit Error to eb the Authors and Abetters of them this is a judicial stroke of God and as ever we hope to escape and stand clear out of the way of it let us carefully shun these three following Causes and Provocations thereof 1. Want of love to the Truth which God hath made to shine about us in the means or into us by actual illumination under the means of knowledge 2 Thess. 2. 10 11. Because they received not the love of Truth God gave them up to strong Delusions They are justly plagued with Error that slight Truth False Doctrines are fit Plagues for false Hearts 2. Beware of Pride and Wantonness of Mind 'T is not so much the Weakness as the Wantonness of the Mind which provokes God to inflict this Judgment None likelier to make Seducers than Boasters Iude 16. Arrius gloried that God had revealed some things to him which were hidden from the Apostles themselves Simon Magus boasted himself to be the mighty Power of God The erroneous Pharisees loved the praises of Men. When the Papist reproached Luther that he affected to have his Disciples called Lutherans he replyed Non sic ô fatue non sic oro ut nomen meum taceatur he disdain'd that the Children of Christ should be called by so vile a name as his 3. Beware you neglect not Prayer to be kept sound in your Judgments and guided by the Spirit into all Truth Psal. 119. 10. With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander or err from thy Commandments This do and you are safe from such a judicial Tradition The First Cause We shall next speak of the Causes of Error found in the evil Dispositions of the Subjects which prepare and incline them to receive Erroneous Doctrine and Opinions and even catch at the Occasions and least Sparkles of Temptation as dry Tinder and amongst these is found 1. A perverse wrangling Humour at the pretended OBSCURITY of the Scriptures The Romish Party snatch at this Occasion and make it the proper Cause when indeed it is but a pickt Occasion of the Errors and Mistakes among men They tell us the Scriptures are so difficult obscure and perplext that if private men will trust to them as their only Guide they will inevitably run into Errors and their only relief is to give up their Souls to the conduct of their Church whereas indeed the true Cause of Error is not so much in the Obscurity of the Word as in the corruption of the mind 1 Tim. 6. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 8. We do acknowledge there are in the Scriptures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some things hard to be understood 2 Pet. 3. 16. the sublime and mysterious nature of the matter rendering it so and some things hard to be interpreted from the manner of expression as indeed all mystical parts of Scripture and Prophetical predictions are and ought to be delivered The Spirit of God this way designedly casts a veil over them till the proper season of their revelation and accomplishment be come Besides as the Learned Glassius observes in Paul's style there are found some peculiar words and forms of speech which ordinary Rules of Grammar take no notice nor give any parallel Examples of as to be buried with Christ to be baptized into his death to which I may add to be circumcised in him c. There are also multitude of words found in Scripture of various and vastly different Significations and accordingly there is a diversity and sometimes a contrariety of senses given of them by Expositors which to an Humourist or quarrelsome Wit gives an occasion to vent his Errors with a plausible appearance of Scripture-consent And indeed Tertullian saith Non periclitor dicere ipsas Scripturas ità dispositas esse ut materiam subministrarent Haereticis The Scriptures are so disposed that Hereticks may pick Occasions and those that will not be satisfied may be hardened See Mark 4. 11 12. But all this notwithstanding the great and necessary things to our Salvation are so perspicuously and plainly revealed in the Scriptures that even Babes in Christ do apprehend and understand them Matth. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 27 28 29. And though there be difficulties in other points more remote from the foundation yet the Spirit of God is not to be accused but rather his Wisdom to be admired herein For 1. this serves to excite our most intense study and diligence which by this difficulty is made necessary Prov. 2. 3 4 5. the very Prophets yea the very Angels search into these things 1 Pet. 1. 11 12. 2. Hereby a standing Ministry in the Church is made necessary Nehem. 8. 8. Eph. 4. 11 12 13. So that to pretend Obscurity of Scripture to be the culpable cause of Error when indeed the fault is in our selves this is too much like our Father Adam which would implicitly accuse God to excâ—se himself he laid it upon the Woman which God gave him and we upon the Scriptures which God hath given us The Remedies The proper Remedies and Preventives in this case are an heedful attendance to and practice of these Rules Rule I. Let all obscure and difficult Texts of Scripture be constantly examined and expounded according to the
that the want of a due observation of this plain Scripture-distinction betwixt God's free and absolute Covenant made with Sinners in Christ and our Covenants with God by way of return thereunto is the true reason of all our mistakes about the true nature of the Gospel-Covenant whilst we jumble and coâ—found together that which the Scriptures do so plainly distinguish To your first Answer I say It is true the Scriptures do distinguish betwixt Covenant and Covenant that of Works and that of Grace It also distinguishes the same Covenant of Grace for substance according to its various administrations into the Old and New Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt the promissory part of the same Covenant of Grace and the restipulatory part not as of two opposite Covenants as you distinguish them Gen. 17. but as the just and necessary parts of one and the same Covenant It also distinguishes betwixt Vows made by Men to God in some particular Cases and the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and them But what 's all this to your purpose Or in what point doth it touch my Argument You desire me to cast mine eye upon Ezek. 16. and Psal. 89. I have done so and that impartially and do assure you I admire why you produce them against my Argument That in Ezek. speaks of the enlargement of the Church by the accession of the Gentiles to it and the sense of those words seems to me to be this That this enlargement of the Church is a gracious addition or something beyond what God had ever done in his former dispensations of the Covenant to that People And for Psal. 89. I know not what you meant to produce it for unless it be to prove what I never denied That notwithstanding our failures in duty towards God God will still keep his Covenant with us though he will visit the Iniquities of his Covenant-pâ—ople with a Rod. To your second Answer That we are to deliberate the terms and count the cost with respect to those duties which are in order to the participation of the full end of the Covenant in glory by which I suppose you mean Self-denial Perseverance c. I have no Controversy with you about that Our Question is Whether there be no deliberations required of or to be performed by men who are not yet in Christ by justifying Faith but under some preparatory works towards Faith And whether at the very time of their closing with Christ there be not a consent of the Will unto those terms required of them If you say there be as by the places I alledged it evidently appears there are then you yield the point I contend for If you say they are not before or at the time of believing to consider any terms or give their consent to them by word or writing such an Answer would fly in the very face of those Scriptures I produced for then a man may be in covenant without his own consent he that deliberates not consents not non consentit qui non sentit And therefore you durst not speak it out for which modesty I commend you and so leave me with half an answer not touching that part viz. Antecedent deliberations which were concerned in this Argument And now let your most partial Friends judge Whether from this performance of yours you have any just ground for that vain boast which concludes your Answer viz. That the Covenants themselves which those Privileges are bottomed on are now repealed and that there is no room left for any other Argument to infer the Baptism of Infants at least I shall willingly commit it to the judgment of all intelligent and impartial Readers Whether Mr. Cary hath any real ground in this performance of his for such a Thrasonical Conclusion such a vain and fulsome Boast I find that with like confidence he hath also attempted a Reply to Mr. Ioseph Whiston a Reverend Learned and Aged Divine who hath accurately and successfully defended God's Covenant with Abraham against Mr. Cox and doubt not if Mr. Cary and his Party have but confidence enough to expose it to the publick view and to adventure the Cause of Infant-baptism upon it the World will quickly see an end of this long-continued and unhappy Controversy which hath vexed the Church of God and alienated the Affections of good Men and that the Wisdom of Providence hath permitted and over-ruled this last Attempt to the singular advantage of the Truths of God and tranquillity of good Men whose concernment at this time especially is rather to strengthen their Faith and heighten their Encouragements from God's gracious Covenant than to undermine it when all things beside it are shaking and tottering round about them And now Sir for a Coronis to all those things that have been controverted betwixt us about the Covenants of God and the right of Believers Infants to Baptism resulting from one of them which I have asserted and argued against you in my first Answer and you have silently and wholly pass'd over in your Reply hoping to destroy them all at once by proving God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. to be a pure Adam's Covenant of Works I judge it necessary as matters now lie between us to give the Reader the grounds and reasons of my Faith and Practice with respect unto the Ordinance of Infant Baptism and that as succinctly and clearly as I can in the following Theses which being laid together by an unprejudiced and considerative Reader will I think amount to more than a strong probability That it is the will of God that the Infant-seed of Believers ought now to be baptized But here I must remind the Reader and beg him to review what I have said before in thâ— third Cause of Errors That to arrive to satisfaction in this point requires a due and serious search of the whole Word of God with a sedate rational and impartial mind comparing one thing with another though they lie scattered at a distance in the Scriptures some in the Old Testament and some in the New Bring but these things to an interview as we do in discovering the change of the Sabbath and we may arrive unto a due satisfaction of the Will of God herein This I confess calls for strength of mind great sedulity attention and impartiality and yet what man would think all this too much if it were but to clear his Childrens Title unto a small Earthly Inheritance I intend not to give the Reader here an account of all the Arguments drawn from several Scripture Topics by the strenuous Defenders of Infants Baptism but to keep only to the Arguments drawn from God's Covenant with Abraham Gen. 17. which is the Scripture mainly controverted betwixt us You affirming boldly and dangerously that Covenant to be no other than an Adam's Covenant of Works and I justly denying and abhorring your Position upon the grounds and reasons before given which you neither have nor ever will be able to destroy Now
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
account to confute and destroy this Fancy and much more may be rationally urged against it Let the following Particulars be weighed in the Balance of Reason 1. Can we rationally suppose that Pardon and Acceptance can be affirmed or predicated of that which is not Reason tells us Non entis nulla sunt accidentia That which is not can neither be condemned nor justified But before the Creation or before a Man's particular Conception he was not and therefore could not in his own Person be the Subject of Justification Where there is no Law there is no Sin Where there is no Sin there is no Punishment Where there is neither Sin nor Punishment there can be no Guilt for Guilt is an Obligation to Punishment And where there 's neither Law nor Sin nor Obligation to Punishment there can be no Justification He that is not capable of a Charge is not capable of a Discharge What remains then but that either the Elect must exist from Eternity or be justified in time 'T is true future Beings may be considered as in the purpose and decree of God from Eternity or as in the Intention of Christ who died intentionally for the Sins of the Elect and rose again for their Justification But neither the Decree of God nor the Death of Christ takes place upon any Man for his actual Justification until he personally exist For the Object of Justification is a Sinner actually ungodly Rom. 4. 5. but so no Man is or can be from Eternity In Election men are considered without respect to Good or Evil done by them Rom. 9. 11. not so in actual Justification 2. In Justification there is a Change made upon the state of the Person Rom. 5. 8 9. 1 Cor. 6. 9 10 11. By Justification men pass from a state of Death to a state of Life Ioh. 5. 24. But the Decree or Purpose of God in it self makes no such actual change upon the state of any person It hath indeed the nature of an Universal Cause but an Universal Cause produceth nothing without particulars If our state be changed it is not by an immanent act of God Hence no such thing doth transire A mere velle non punire or intention to justify us in due time and order makes no change on our state till that time come and the particular Causes have wrought A Prince may have a purpose or intention to pardon a Law-condemned Traitor and free him from that Condemnation in due time but whilst the Law that condemned him stands in its full force and power against him he is not justified or acquitted notwithstanding that gracious intention but stands still condemned So is it with us till by Faith we are implanted into Christ. 'T is true Christ is a surety for all his and hath satisfied the debt He is a common Head to all his as Adam was to all his Children Rom. 5. 19. But as the Sin of Adam condemns none but those that are in him so the Righteousness of Christ actually justifies none but those that are in him and none are actually in him but Believers Therefore till we believe no actual change passeth or can pass upon our state So that this Hypothesis is contrary to Reason As this Opinion is Irrational so it is Unscriptural For 1. The Scripture frequently speaks of Remission or Justification as a future act and therefore not from Eternity Rom. 4. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him c. And Gal. 3. 8. The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justify the Heathen through faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham The Gospel was preached many years before the Gentiles were justified but if they were justified from Eternity how was the Gospel preached before their Justification 2. The Scripture leaves all Unbelievers without distinction under condemnation and wrath The Curse of the Law lies upon them till they believe Iohn 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Eph. 2. 3 12 13. The very Elect themselves were by nature the Children of wrath even as others They were at that time or during that state of nature which takes in all that whole space betwixt their conception and conversion without Christ without hope without God in the World But if this Opinion be true that the Elect were justified from Eternity or from the time of Christ's death then it cannot be true that the Elect by nature are Children of Wrath without Christ without Hope without God in the World except these two may consist together which is absolutely impossible that Children of Wrath without God Christ or Hope are actually discharged from their Sins and Dangers by a free and gracious act of Justification But doth not the Scripture say Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect If none can charge the Elect then God hath discharged them God hath not actually discharged them as they are Elect but as they are justified Elect for so runs that Text and clears it self in the very next words It is God that justifieth When God hath actually justified an Elect Person none can charge him 3. 'T is cross to the Scripture-order of Justification which places it not only after Christ's death in the place last cited Rom. 8. 33. but also after our actual vocation as is plain vers 30. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Is it absurd to place Vocation before Predestination or Glorification before Justification sure then it must be absurd also to place Justification before Vocation the one as well as the other confounds and breaks the Scripture-order You may as well say men shall be glorified that were never justified as say they may be justified before they believed or existed So that you see the notion of Justification from Eternity or before our actual existence and effectual Vocation is a notion as repugnant to sacred Scripture as it is to sound Reason And as it is found repugnant to Reason and Scripture so it is highly injurious to Jesus Christ and the Souls of Men. 1. It greatly injures the Lord Jesus Christ and robs him of the glory of being our Saviour For if the Elect be justified from Eternity Christ cannot be the Saviour of the Elect as most assuredly he is for if Christ save them he must save them as persons subject to perishing either de facto or de jure But if the Elect were justified from Eternity they could in neither respect be subject to perishing for he that was eternally justified was never condemned nor capable of condemnation and he that never was or could be condemned could never be subject to perishing and he that never was nor could be subject
Grave and learnned Gataker hath learnedly and industriously vindicated that Scripture from this abuse of it by Antinomians in his Treatise upon that Text entitled God's Eye upon his Israel where after a learned and critical search of the Text he telleth us it soundeth word for word thus from the Original He hath not beheld wrong against Jacob nor hath he seen grievance against Israel So that the meaning is not That God did not see sin in Israel but that he beheld not with approbation the wrongs and injuries done by others against his Israel and shews at large by divers solid Reasons why the Antinomian sense cannot be the proper sense of that place it being cross to the main tenour of the Story and truth of God's Word which shews that God often complained of their Sins often threatned to avenge them yea did actually avenge them by destroying them in the Wilderness nay Balaam himself who uttered these words unto Balak did not so understand them as appears by the advice he gave to Balak to draw them into sin that thereby God might be provoked to withdraw his protection from them And for Ier. 50. 20. it makes nothing to their purpose Many expound the sin there sought after and not found to be the Sin of Idolatry which Israel should be purged from by their Captivity according to Isa. 27. 9. But the generality of sound Expositors are agreed That by the not finding of Israel's and Iudah's Sin is meant no more but his not finding those Bonds or Obligations against them to eternal punishment which their Sins had put them under 4. In a word This Opinion clashes with their other Principles For they say That though there was pardon and remission under the Old Covenant which they allowed to be a Covenant of Grace yet it was but gradatim and successively as they offered Sacrifices If a man had sinned ignorantly until he brought a Sacrifice his sin lay upon him it may be a week a months distance between before they could have their pardon Vide Dr. Crisp of the two Covenants p. 256 257. Now I demand If this were the state and case of all God's Israel under the Old Testament Why do these men affirm that God can see no sin in a Believer and why do they expound the words of Balaam so contradictorily to this their other Opinion For they will not deny but God sees unpardoned Sins in all and here is a week or month or more time allowed between the commission and remission of their Sin And so much of the 5th Antinomian Error Error VI. That God is not angry with the Elect nor doth he smite them for their Sins and to say that he doth so is an injurious reflection upon the Iustice of God who hath received full satisfaction for all their Sins from the hand of Christ. There are several Mistakes and Errors in these Assertions and I suppose our Antinomians were led into them 1. By their abhorrence of the Popish Doctrine which errs more dangerously in the other extream for they wickedly assert our Sufferings to be satisfactory for our Sins which is the ground of Popish Penances and voluntary Self-castigations 2. From a groundless apprehension That God's Corrections of us for our Sins are inconsistent with the fulness of Christ's satisfaction for them Christ having paid all our Debts and dissolved our Obligations to all punishment it cannot consist with the Justice of God to lay any Rod upon us for our Sins after Christ hath born all that our Sins deserved This mistake of the end of Christ's death occasions them to stumble into the other Mistakes they imagine that Christ's Satisfaction abolished God's hatred of Sin in Believers But this cannot be God's antipathy to Sin can never be taken away by the Satisfaction of Christ though his hatred to the Persons of the redeemed be for the hatred of Sin is founded in the unchangeable Nature of God and he can as soon cease to be holy as cease to hate Sin Hab. 1. 13. Nor was Christ's death ever designed to this end though Christ hath satisfied for the Sins of Believers God still hates Sin in Believers His hatred to their Sins and love to their Persons are not inconsistent As a man may love his Leg or Arm as they are Members of his own Body and notwithstanding that love hate the Gangrene which hath taken them and lance or use painful corrosives for the cure of them Neither do our Antinomians distinguish as they ought betwixt vindictive Punishments from God the pure issues and effects of his Justice and Wrath against the Wicked and his Paternal Castigations the pure issues of the Care and Love of a displeased Father Great and manifold are the differences betwixt his vindictive Wrath upon his Enemies and the rebukes of the Rod upon his Children Those are Legal these Evangelical Those out of wrath and hatred these out of love Those unsanctified but these blessed and sanctified to happy ends and purposes to his People Those for destruction these for salvation To narrow the matter in Controversy as much as we can I shall lay down three Concessions about God's Corrections of his People Concession I. We chearfully and thankfully acknowledge the perfection and fulness of the satisfaction of Christ for all the Sins of Believers and with thankfulness do own that if God should cast all or any of them into an ocean of temporal Troubles and Distresses in all that sea of Sorrow there would not be found one drop of vindictive Wrath. Christ hath drunk the last drop of that Cup and left nothing for Believers to suffer by way of satisfaction Concession II. We grant also That all the Sufferings of Believers in this World are not for their Sins but some of them are for the prevention of Sin 2 Cor. 12. 7. some for the tryal of their Graces Iam. 1. 2 3. some for a confirming testimony to his Truths Act. 5. 41. Such Sufferings as these have much heavenly comfort concomitant with them Concession III. We do not say That God's displeasure with his People for Sin evidenced against them in the smartest rebukes of the Rod is any argument that God's love is turned into hatred against their Persons no no his love to his People is unchangeable Having loved his own he loved them to the end Iohn 13. 1. yet notwithstanding all this three things are undeniably clear and being throughly apprehended will end this Controversy 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World on the Persons of Believers 2. That this Rod of God is sometimes laid on them for their Sins 3. That these Fatherly Corrections of them for their Sins are reconcileable to and fully consistent with his Justice compleatly satisfied by the Blood of Christ for all their Sins 1. That God lays his correcting Rod in this World upon the persons of Believers This no man can have the face to deny that believes the Scriptures to be the Word of