A39674:733
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.
Sir, it pities me to see the lamentable confusion you are in. You are forced by the evidence of truth to yield and own the substance of what I contend for. You have yielded the Covenant to be consequently Conditional in p. 84. of your Reply. You have also as plainly yielded, that the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls, is in order of nature consequent unto believing; p. 31. of your Reply. From both which concessions in your own words recited, this Conclusion is evident and unavoidable, viz.
That no adult person, notwithstanding God's Eternal Election, and Christ's meritorious death and satisfaction, according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant, can either be justified in this World, or saved in the World to come, unless he first believe.
For if the Application of Pardoning Mercy unto our Souls, is in order of Nature consequent unto believing (as you truly affirm it to be) then according to the Constitution and Order of the New Covenant, no application of pardoning Mercy can be made to our Souls before we believe. And if it be evident (as you say it is, p. 84.) that unto a full and complete enjoyment of all the Promises of the Covenant, Faith on our part is required; then as no Man can be actually justified in this World, so neither can he be saved before, or without Faith in the World to come. And if you did but see the true suspending nature of Faith, which you plainly yield in these two concessions; you would quickly grant the conditional nature of it: For what is the proper nature and true notion of a Condition, but to suspend the benefits and grants of that Covenant in which it is so inserted? And thus the Controversy betwixt us is fairly ⟨p. 258⟩issued. But I doubt you understand not what you have here written, or are troubled with a very bad memory: Because I find you in a far different note from this in p. 103. of your Reply, where you say, That if Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law, and purchased Heaven and Happiness for Men (as all true Protestants hitherto have taught) then nothing can remain, but to declare this to them, to incline them to believe and accept it; and to prescribe in what way, and by what means they shall finally come to inherit Eternal Life. To affirm therefore, that Faith and Repentance are the Conditions of the New Covenant required of us in point of Duty, antecedent to the benefit of the Promise, doth necessarily suppose, that Christ hath not done all for us, nor purchased a right to Life for any; but only made way that they may have it upon certain terms, or (as some say) he hath merited that we might merit: But the Conditions of the Covenant are not to be performed by the Head and Members both,