A39674:1099
Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable discourse of the occasions, causes, nature, rise, growth, and…
Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable discourse of the occasions, causes, nature, rise, growth, and remedies of mental errors written some months since, and now made public, both for the healing and prevention of the sins and calamities which have broken in this way upon the churches of Christ, to the great scandal of religion, hardening of the wicked, and obstruction of Reformation : whereunto are subjoined by way of appendix : I. Vindiciarum vindex, being a succinct, but full answer to Mr. Philip Cary's weak and impertinent exceptions to my Vindiciæ legis & fæderis, II. a synopsis of ancient and modern Antinomian errors, with scriptural arguments and reasons against them, III. a sermon composed for the preventing and healing of rents and divisions in the churches of Christ / by John Flavell ... ; with an epistle by several divines, relating to Dr. Crisp's works.Planelogia, a succinct and seasonable discourse of the occasions, causes, nature, rise, growth, and remedies of mental errors written some months since, and now made publick, both for the healing and prevention of the sins and calamities which have broken in this way upon the churches of Christ, to the great scandal of religion, hardening of the wicked, and obstruction of Reformation : whereunto are subjoined by way of appendix : I. Vindiciarum vindex, being a succinct, but full answer to Mr. Philip Cary's weak and impertinent exceptions to my Vindiciæ legis & fæderis, II. a synopsis of ancient and modern Antinomian errors, with scriptural arguments and reasons against them, III. a sermon composed for the preventing and healing of rents and divisions in the churches of Christ / by John Flavell ... ; with an epistle by several divines, relating to Dr. Crisp's works.
London: printed by R. Roberts for Tho. Cockerill, 1691
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Direction I.
The orderly gathering, and filling of particular Churches, is of great influence unto the peace and tranquillity of those Churches: and therefore it greatly concerns all that are interested therein, especially such as are vested with Office-power to beware whom they receive into their Communion.
The Scriptures do plainly discover to us, that Church-members ought to be visible Saints, 1 Cor. 1. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 1, 2. Acts 2. 41, to the end. Ephes. 2. 7. 1 Thes. 1. 2, 3. Rom. 1. 7. Col. 1. 2. Hence particular Churches are called the Churches of the Saints, 1 Cor. 14. 33. If admissions be lax and negligent, so much heterogeneous ⟨p. 438⟩matter fills the Church, that it can never be quiet. Christians and Christians may live together harmoniously and coalesce in one orderly and comfortable Society, as having one and the same Head, one Spirit, the same general Design and End; but godly and ungodly, spiritual and carnal are acted by contrary Principles, pursue opposite Designs, and can never heartily coalesce. There is a spirit of discerning, a judgment of discretion in the Saints, and it is especially desirable in a more eminent degree in those that have Office-power in the Church, to judge of mens fit qualifications for Church-communion. We all allow, that gross ignorance and profaneness are just bars to mens admission: and to deny this, were to take all power from the Church to preserve the purity of God's Ordinances, or to cast out notorious Offenders. None ought to be admitted into Church-communion, but such as do appear to the judgment of Charity (comparing their Professions and Conversations) to be Christians indeed, that is, men fearing God, and working Righteousness.