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CHECKS 


TO 


^n^i^^mi^irioffi^ 


BY 


THE   REV.  JOHN    FLETCHER 


JJV  FOUR  VOLUMES. 


VOLUME  L 


CONTAINING, 


r.  FIRST  CHECK  TO  ANTINOMIANISM  ; 
OR,  A  VINDICATION  OF  THE  REV 
MR.  WESLEY'S    MINUTES. 

JL  SECOND  CHECK  TO  ANTINOMIAN- 
ISM, IN  THREE  LETTERS  TO  THE 
IfO]N.  AND  REV.  MR.  SHIRLEY. 


III.  THIRD  CHECK  TO  ANTINOMIAN- 
ISM, IN  ANSWER  TO  MR  HILL'S 
FIVE  LETTERS. 

IV.  FOURTH  CHECK,  IN  A  SERIES  OF 
LETTERS  TO  MESSRS.  RICHARD 
AND  ROWLAND  HILL. 


-««s»^es«»-- 


THIRD  AMERICAN  EDITION. 


•OOQ^'- 


Beto^^iorft: 


PUBLISHED   BY  J    SOULE   AND   T.    MASON,   FOR   THE   METHODIST  ,i 

EPISCOPAL   CHURCH    IN    THE    UKITED   STATES.  \ 


Airaham  Paul,  Printer. 


1820, 


CONTENTS  OF  VOLUME  I. 


I.  FIRST  CHECK  TO  ANTINOMIANISM. 

Copy  of  the  Circular  Letter,  &c , 7 

Extract  from  the  Minutes  of  the  Conference  of  1770 9 

Letter  L     A  general  View  of  Mr.  Wesley's  Doctrine 13 

n.  The  conamendable  Design  of  the  Minutes ..*•••  24 

in.  The  three  first  Propositions  considered 34 

IV.  The  remaining  Propositions  examined. . . .  * 49 

V.  Expostulations  with  Mr.  Shirley 76 

II.       SECOND   CHECK  TO  ANTINOMIANISM. 

Preface,  The  Publication  of  the  first  Check  justified 83 

Letter  I.  The  Doctrine  of  a  second  Justification  by  Works  defended 87 

II.  On  Mr.  Shirley's  Recantation  of  his  Sermons,  and  Free  Will  110 

III.  The  Prevalence  and  Evil  Consequences  of  Antinomianism . .    123 

III.  THIRD    CHECK    TO    ANTINOMIANISM. 

IjrTRODUCTiON  :  The  Use  of  Controversy  properly  managed 167 

remarks    civ    MR.    HILL'S    FIVE    LETTERS  : 

Letter   I.  On  Man's  Faithfulness 168 

II.  On  Working  for  Life 169 

III.  On  the  word  Merit,  and  the  Rewardableness  of  Good  Works  212 

IV.  On  Men's  Sins  displeasing  God,  but  not  their  Persons 217 

V.  Fmished  Salvation— Dr.  Crisp,  and  the  Rev.  W.  Sellon 236 

Conclusion  :  The  present  State  of  the  Controversy 238 

IV.  FOURTH    CHECK    TO    ANTINOMIANISM, 

IN   A   SERIES    OF    LETTERS     TO    MESSRS.    RICHARD   AND    ROWLAND    HILL. 

Letter    I.  The  Doctrine  of  Justification  by  Works  is  Scriptural 259 

II.  Established  by  the  Liturgy,  Articles,  &c.  of  the  Church 268 

III.  Maintained  by  the  sober  Puritan  Divines 276 

IV.  Flavel  and  other  Puritan  Writers  condemn  Dr.  Crisp's  Doc- 

trine  285 

V.  The  Minutes  and  St.  James's  pure  Religion  established  on  Mr. 

Hill's  Concessions 294 


IV  CONTENTS. 

Page 

Letter  VI.  The  Doctrine  of  Finished  Salvation  and  Imputed  Righteousness 

overthrown 303 

VII.  Mr.  Hill's  Arguments  in  their  Defence  answered 312 

VIII.  Good  Works  not  termed  Filthy  Rags,  &c.  in  Scripture, . . .  331 

IX.  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  answered 344 

X.  Messrs.  Richard  and  Rowland  Hill's  Remarks  on  the  Third 

Check  answered 357 

XI.  Final  Justification  by  Works  consistent  with  present  Justifica- 
tion by  Faith 373 

XII.  How  far  the  Calvinists  and  Remonstrants  agree 383 

XIII.  The  present  State  of  the  Controversy 406 

Postscript  :  The  Author's  Reasons  for  making  a  Stand  against  his  Opponents  416 


FIRST  CHECK 

TO 
OR,    A 

rmnicATioj^ 

OF   THE 
OF 

A  PUBLIC  CONFERENCE  HELD  IN  LONDON,  AUGUST  7,  1770; 

OCCASIONED    BY 

A  CIRCULAR  LETTER, 

INVITING 

PRINCIPAL    PERSONS,   BOTH    CLERGY  AND    LAITY, 

AS    WELL    OF 

THE  DISSENTERS  AS  OF  THE  ESTABLISHED  CHURCH, 

WHO    DISAPPROVED    OF   THOSE    MINUTES, 

TO  OPPOSE  THEM  IJV  A  BODY,  AS  A  DREADFUL  HERESY.' 

AND    DESIGNED 

To  remove  Prejudice,  check  Rashness,  promote  Forbearance,  defend  the  Character 
of  an  eminent  Minister  of  Christ,  and  prevent  some  important  scriptural  Trut)B 
from  being  hastily  branded  as  heretical. 

IN  FIVE  LETTERS, 

To  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Author  of  the  Circular  Letter. 
By  a  Lover  of  Quietness  and  Liberty  of  Conscience . 


A  COPY 


OF  THE 


WHICH    GAVE    OCCASION   TO    THIS   VINDICATION; 

TO  WHICH  IS  ANNEXED, 

A    COPY    OF 
THE  REV.  MR.  WESLErS  MIJ^TUTES. 

Sir, 

"Whereas  Mr.  Wesley's  Conference  is  to  be  held 
at  Bristol,  on  Tuesday  the  6th  of  August  next,  it  is  pro- 
posed by  Lady  Huntingdon,  and  many  other  Christian 
friends,  (real  Protestants,)  to  have  a  meeting  at  Bristol 
at  the  same  time,  of  such  principal  persons,  both  Clergy 
and  Laity,  who  disapprove  of  the  underwritten  Mi- 
nutes ;  and  as  the  same  are  thought  injurious  to  the 
very  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity,  it  is  further 
proposed,  that  they  go  in  a  body  to  the  said  Confer- 
ence, and  insist  upon  a  formal  recantation  of  the  said 
Minutes ;  and  in  case  of  a  refusal,  that  they  sign  and 
publish  their  Protest  against  them.    Your  presence. 


VIU  CIRCULAR  LETTER. 

Sir,  on  this  occasion,  is  particularly  requested:  but  if 
it  should  not  suit  your  convenience  to  be  there,  it  is 
desired  that  you  will  transmit  your  sentiments  on  the 
subject  to  such  persons  as  you  think  proper  to  produce 
them.  It  is  submitted  to  you,  whether  it  would  not  be 
right,  in  the  opposition  to  be  made  to  such  a  dreadful 
Heresy,  to  recommend  it  to  as  many  of  your  Christian 
friends,  as  well  of  the  Dissenters  as  of  the  established 
Church,  as  you  can  prevail  on  to  be  there,  the  cause 
being  of  so  public  a  nature. 

I  am.  Sir, 

Your  obedient  Servant, 

WALTER  SHIRLEF. 

P.  S.  Your  answer  is  desired,  directed  to  the  Count- 
ess of  Huntingdon,  or  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  or  John 
Lloyd,  Esq,  in  Bath;  or  Mr.  James  Ireland,  Merchant, 
Bristol;  or  to  Thomas  Powis,  Esq.  at  Berwick^  near 
Shrewsbury  ;  or  to  Richard  Hill,  Esq.  at  Hawkstone,  near 
Whitchurch^  Shropshire,  Lodgings  will  be  provided. 
Inquire  at  Mr.  Ireland's,  Bristol, 


(ix) 

EXTRACT  from  the  Minutes  of  some  late  Conversations 
between  the  Rev.  Mr,  Wesley  and  others^  at  a  Public 
Conference^  held  in  London^  August  7,  1770,  and  printed 
by  W,  Pine^  in  Bristol. 

1  AKE  heed  to  your  Doctrine. 

We  said  in  1744,  "We  have  leaned  too  much  to- 
wards Calvinism."  Wherein? 

1.  With  regard  to  Man's  Faithfulness.  Our  Lord 
himself  taught  us  to  use  the  expression.  And  we  ought 
never  to  be  ashamed  of  it.  We  ought  steadily  to 
assert,  on  his  authority,  that  if  a  man  is  not  faithful  in 
the  unrighteous  mammon^  God  will  not  give  him  the  true 
riches. 

2.  With  regard  to  working  for  life.  This  also  our 
Lord  has  expressly  commanded  us.  Labour^  ^'E^yx^io-k^ 
literally.  Work  for  the  meat  that  endureth  to  everlasting 
life.  And  in  fact,  every  believer,  till  he  comes  to  glory, 
works /or,  as  well  as  from  life. 

3.  We  have  received  it  as  a  maxim,  that  "  A  man 
is  to  do  nothing  in  order  to  justification."  Nothing 
can  be  more  false.  Whoever  desires  to  find  favour 
with  God,  should  cease  from  evil,  and  learn  to  do  well. 
Whoever  repents,  should  do  ivorks  meet  for  repentance. 
And  if  this  is  not  in  order  tafind  favour,  what  does  he 
do  them  for? 


at  EXTRACT  PROM  THE  MINUTES. 

Review  the  whole  affair. 

1.  Who  of  us  is  now  accepted  of  God? 

He  that  now  believes  in  Christ  with  a  loving,  obe*- 
dient  heart. 

2.  But  who  among  those  that  never  heard  of  Christ? 

He  that  feareth  God,  and  worketh  righteousness, 
according  to  the  light  he  has. 

3.  Is  this  the  same  with  "  He  that  is  sincere  ?'■ 
Nearly,  if  not  quite. 

4.  Is  not  this  "  Salvation  by  works  ?" 

Not  by  the  merit  of  works,  but  by  works  as  a  condt- 
Hon, 

5.  What  have  we  then  been  disputing  about  for 
these  thirty  years  ? 

I  am  afraid  about  words. 

6.  As  to  merit  itself,  of  which  we  have  been  so  dread- 
fully afraid;  we  are  rewarded  according  to  our  works, 
yea,  because  of  our  works.  How  does  this  differ  from 
for  the  sake  of  our  works  ?  And  how  differs  this  from' 
secundum  merita  operum?  As  our  works  deserve?  Can 
you  split  this- hair?  I  doubt  I  cannot. 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  MINUTES.  Xi 

7.  The  grand  objection  to  one  of  the  preceding  pro- 
positions, is  drawn  from  matter  of  fact.  God  does  in 
fact  justify  those  who,  by  their  own  confession,  neither 
feared  God  nor  wrought  righteousness.  Is  this  an  ex- 
ception to  the  general  rule  ? 

It  is  a  doubt  whether  God  makes  any  exception  at 
all.  But  how  are  we  sure  that  the  person  in  question 
never  did  fear  God  and  work  righteousness  ?  His  own 
saying  so  is  not  proof:  for  we  know,  how  all  that 
are  convinced  of  sin,  undervalue  themselves  in  every 
respect. 

8.  Does  not  talking  of  a  justified  or  a  sanctified  state 
tend  to  mislead  men  ?  Almost  naturally  leading  them 
to  trust  in  what  was  done  in  one  moment  ?  Whereas 
we  are  every  hour  and  every  moment  pleasing  or  dis- 
pleasing to  God,  according  to  our  works :  according  to 
the  whole  of  our  inward  tempers,  and  our  outward 
behaviour. 


FiYst  C\ieek  to  Antinoiwiauism, 


•^ViKiV.^- 


LETTER  I. 


Hon.  and  Rev,  Sir, 

XSeFORE  a  judge  passes  sentence  upon  a  person  accused  of  theft,  he 
hears  what  his  neighbours  have  to  say  for  his  character.  Mr.  Wesley, 
I  grant,  is  accused  of  what  is  worse  than  theft,  dreadful  heresy ;  and 
I  know  that  whosoever  maintains  a  dreadful  heresy  is  a  dreadful  he- 
retic, and  that  the  Church  of  Rome  shows  no  mercy  to  such :  but  may 
not  real  Protestants  indulge  with  the  privilege  of  a  felon  one  whom 
they  so  lately  respected  as  a  brother  ?  And  may  not  I,  an  old  friend 
and  acquaintance  of  his,  be  permitted  to  speak  a  word  in  his  favour, 
before  he  is  branded  in  the  forehead,  as  he  has  already  been  in  the 
back  ? 

This  step,  I  fear,  will  cost  me  my  reputation,  (if  I  have  any)  and 
involve  me  in  the  same  condemnation  with  him,  whose  cause,  together 
with  that  of  truth,  I  design  to  plead:  but  when  humanity  proirjpts, 
when  gratitude  calls,  when  friendship  excites,  when  reason  invites, 
when  justice  demands,  when  truth  requires,  and  conscience  sum- 
mons ;  he  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  a  Christian  friend,  who,  for 
any  consideration,  hesitates  to  vindicate  what  he  esteems  truth,  and  to 
stand  by  an  aggrieved  friend,  brother,  and  father.  Were  I  not,  Sir, 
on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  to  step  out  of  my  beloved  obscurity,  you 
might  deservedly  reproach  me  as  a  dastardly  wretch:  nay,  you  have 
already  done  it  in  general  terms  in  your  excellent  Sermon  on  the 
Fear  of  Man.  "  How  often,"  say  you,  "  do  men  sneakingly  forsake 
their  friends,  instead  of  gloriously  supporting  them  against  a  powerful 
adversary,  even  when  their  cause  is  just,  for  reasons  hastily  pruden- 
tial, for  fear  of  giving  umbrage  to  a  superior  party  or  interest." 

These  generous  words  of  yours.  Rev.  Si/,  together  with  the  leave 
you  give  both    churchmen  and  dissenters,   to  direct  to  you  their 

Vol.  r.  3 


14  FIRST  CHECK 

answers  to  your  circular  letter,  are  my  excuse  for  intruding  upon  you 
by  this  epistle,  and  my  apology  for  begging  your  candid  attention, 
while  I  attempt  to  convince  you  that  my  friend's  principles  and  Mi- 
nutes are  not  heretical :  in  order  to  this,  I  shall  lay  before  you,  and 
the  principal  persons,  both  clergy  and  laity,  whom  you  have  from 
all  parts  of  England  and  Wales  convened  at  Bristol,  by  printed 
letters, 

I.  A  general  view  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley's  doctrine  : 

II.  An  account  of  the  commendable  design  of  his  Minutes  : 

III.  A  vindication  of  the  propositions  which  they  contain,  by  argu- 
ments taken  from  Scripture,  reason,  and  experience  ;  and  by  quota- 
tions from  eminent  Galvinist  divines,  who  have  said  the  same  things 
in  different  words. 

And  suppose  you  yourself,  Sir,  in  particular,  should  appear  to  be 
a  strong  assertor  of  the  doctrines  which  you  call  a  dreadful  heresy 
in  Mr.  W.  I  hope  you  will  not  refuse  me  leave  to  conclude,  by  ex- 
postulating with  you  upon  your  conduct  in  this  affair,  and  recommend- 
ing to  you,  and  our  other  Christian  friends,  the  forbearance  which  you 
recommend  to  others  in  one  of  your  sermons,  Why  doth  the  narrow 
heart  of  man  pursue  with  malice^  or  rashness,  those  who  presume  to  differ 
from  him  ?  Yea,  and  what  is  more  extraordinary,  those  who  agree 
with  him  in  all  essential  points? 

I.  When,  in  an  intricate  case,  a  prudent  Judge  is  afraid  to  pass  an 
unjust  sentence,  he  inquires,  as  I  observed,  into  the  general  conduct 
of  the  person  accused,  and  by  that  means  frequently  finds  out  the 
truth  which  he  investigates.  As  that  method  may  be  of  service  in 
the  present  case,  permit  me.  Sir,  to  lay  before  you  a  general  view  of 
Mr.  W.'s  doctrine. 

1 .  For  above  these  sixteen  years  I  have  heard  him  frequently  in 
his  chapels,  and  sometimes  in  my  church  ;  I  have  famiharly  conversed 
and^corresponded  with  him,  and  have  often  perused  his  numerous 
works  m  verse  and  prose  ;  and  I  can  truly  say,  that  during  all  that 
time,  I  have  heard  him,  upon  every  proper  occasion,  steadily  main- 
tain the  total  fall  of  man  in  Adam,  and  his  utter  inability  to  recover 
himself,  or  take  any  one  step  towards  his  recovery,  without  the  grace  of 
God  preventing  him,  that  he  may  have  a  good  will,  and  working  with 
him  when  he  has  that  good  will. 

The  deepest  expression  that  ever  struck  my  ears,  on  the  melan- 
choly subject  of  our  natural  depravity  and  helplessness,  are  those 
which  dropped  from  his  lips  :  and  I  have  ever  observed  that  he  con- 
stantly ascribes  to  divine  grace,  not  only  the  good  works  and  holy  tem- 
pers of  behevers,  but  all  the  good  thoughts  of  upright  heathens,  and 


TO  AMINOMIANISM.  15 

the  good  desires  of  those  professors  whom  he  sees  begin  in  the  Spirit, 
and  end  in  the  flesh;  when,  to  my  great  surprise,  some  of  those  who 
accuse  him  of  "  robbing  God  of  the  glory  of  his  grace,  and  ascribing 
too  much  to  man's  power,"  directly  or  indirectly  maintain,  that  Demas 
and  his  fellow-apostates  never  had  any  grace  ;  and  that  if  once  they 
went  on  far  in  the  ways  of  God,  it  was  merely  by  the  for(je  of  fallen 
nature!  a  sentiment  which  Mr.  W.  looks  upon  as  diametrically  opposite 
to  the  humbling  assertion  of  our  Lord,  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing  : 
and  which  he  can  no  more  admit  than  the  rankest  Pelagianism. 

2.  I  must  likewise  testify,  that  he  faithfully  points  out  Christ  as  the 
only  way  of  salvation  ;  and  strongly  recommends  faith  as  the  only 
mean  of  receiving  him,  and  all  the  benefits  of  his  righteous  life  and 
meritorious  death  :  and  truth  obliges  me  to  declare,  that  he  frequent' 
ly  expresses  his  detestation  of  the  errors  of  modern  Pharisees,  who 
laugh  at  original  sin,  set  up  the  powers  of  fallen  man,  cry  down  the 
operations  of  God's  Spirit,  deny  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  blood 
and  righteousness  of  Christ,  and  refuse  him  the  glory  of  all  the  good 
that  may  be  found  in  Jew  or  Gentile.  And  you  will  not  without  dif- 
ficulty, Sir,  find  in  England,  and  perhaps  in  all  the  world,  a  minister 
who  hath  borne  more  frequent  testimonies,  either  from  the  pulpit  or 
the  press,  against  those  dangerous  errors.  All  his  works  confirm  my 
assertion,  especially  his  Sermons  on  Original  Sin,  and  Salvation  by 
Faith,  and  his  mastprly  rpfnfation  of  Dr.  Taylor,  the  wisest  Pe- 
lagian and  Socinian  of  our  age.  Nor  am  I  afraid  tn  have  this  testi- 
mony confronted  with  his  Minutes,  being  fully  persuaded  that,  when 
they  are  candidly  explained,  they  rather  confirm  than  overthrow  it. 

His  manner  of  preaching  the  fall  and  the  recovery  of  man  is  attended 
with  a  peculiar  advantage ;  for  it  is  close  and  experimental :  he  not 
only  points  out  the  truth  of  those  doctrines,  but  presses  his  hearers 
to  cry  to  God  that  they  may  feel  their  weight  upon  their  hearts.  Some 
open  those  great  truths  very  clearly,  but  let  their  congregations  rest, 
like  the  stony-ground  hearers,  in  the  first  emotions  of  sorrow  and  joy, 
which  the  word  frequently  excites.  Not  so  Mr.  Wesley :  he  will 
have  true  penitents /eeZ  the  plague  of  their  own  hearts,  travail,  be  heavy 
laden,  and  receive  the  sentence  of  death  in  themselves,  according  to  the 
glorious  ministration  of  condemnation ;  and  according  to  the  ministration 
of  righteousness,  and  of  the  Spirit,  which  exceeds  in  glory ;  he  insists  upon 
true  believers  knowing  for  themselves  that  Jesus  hath  power  on  earth 
to  forgive  sins,  and  asserts  that  they  taste  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come,  and  that  they  are  made  partakers  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  the  Divine  nature ;  the  Spirit  itself  bearing  witness  with 
their  spirits  that  they  are  the  children  of  God. 


16  FIRST  CHECK 

3.  The  next  fundamental  doctrine  in  Christianity,  is  that  of  holi- 
ness of  heart  and  life  ;  and  no  one  can  here  accuse  Mr.  W.  of  lean- 
ing to  the  Antinomian  delusion,  which  makes  void  the  law  through  a 
speculative  and  hnrrenfaith :  on  the  contrary,  he  appears  to  be  pe- 
culiarly set  for  the  defence  of  practical  religion  :  for,  instead  of  re- 
presenting jChrist  as  the  minister  of  sin^  with  Ranters,  to  the  great 
grief  and  offence  of  many,  he  sets  him  forth  as  a  complete  Saviour  from 
sin.  Not  satisfied  to  preach  holiness  begun,  he  preaches  finished  ho- 
liness, and  calls  believers  to  such  a  degree  of  heart-purifying  faith, 
as  may  enable  them  continually  to  triumph  in  Christy  as  being  made  to 
them  of  God,  sanctijication,  as  well  as  righteousness. 

It  is,  I  grant,  his  misfortune  (if  indeed  it  be  one)  to  preach  a  fuller 
salvation  than  most  professors  expect  to  enjoy  here  :  for  he  asserts 
that  Jesus  can  make  clean  the  inside,  as  well  as  the  outside  of  his  ves- 
sels unto  honour  ;  that  he  hath  power  on  earth  to  save  his  people  from 
their  sins,  and  that  his  blood  cleanseth  from  all  sin,  from  the  guilt  and 
defilement  both  of  original  and  actual  corruption.  He  is  bold  enough 
to  say  with  St.  John,  that  if  we  say  we  have  no  sin,  either  by  nature  or 
practice,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us  ;  but  if  we  con- 
fess our  sins,  God  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to 
CLEANSE  us  from  all  unrighteousness.  He  is  legal  enough  not  to  be 
ashamed  of  these  words  of  Moses,  Tlie  Lord  thy  God  will  circumcise 
thine  heart,  and  the  k^artofthy  seed,  to  Im^e  the.  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thine  heart,  and  vviih  all  thy  eou,l^  that  thou  mayest  live.  And  he  dares 
to  believe  that  the  Lord  can  perform  the  words  which  he  spoke  by 
Ezekiel,  /  will  sprinkle  clean  water  upon  you  and  you  shall  be  clean; 
from  ALL  your  flthiness  and  from  all  your  idols  will  I  cleanse  you^ 
A  new  heart  also  will  I  give  you  :  I  will  take  away  the  stony  heart  out  of 
your  flesh,  and  I  will  give  you  a  heart  of  flesh  ;  and  I  will  put  my  Spirit 
within  you,  and  cause  you  to  walk  in  my  statiUes ;  and  ye  shall  keep  my 
judgments,  and  do  them.  I  will  also  save  you  from  all  your  un- 
cleannesses. 

Hence  it  is  that  he  constantly  exhorts  his  hearers  to  grow  in  grac^^ 
and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Saviour ;  till  by  a  strong  and  lively  faith, 
they  can  continually  reckon  themselves  to  be  dead  indeed  unto  sin,  but 
alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  :  he  tells  them  that  he 
who  committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  sin. — That  our  old  man  is  crucified 
with  Christ,  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  destroyed,  that  henceforth  we 
should  not  serve  sin. — That  if  the  Son  shall  make  us  free,  we  shall  be 
free  indeed.— And  that,  although  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ 
Jesus  will  not  deliver  us  from  the  innocent  infirmities  incident  to 
flegh  and  blood,  it  will  nevertheless  make  us  free  from  the  law  of  sin 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  17 

und  death,  and  enable  us  to  say  with  holy  triumph,  How  shall  we 
that  are  dead  to  sin  live  any  longer  therein?  In  a  word,  he  thinks  that 
God  can  so  shed  abroad  his  love  in  our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given 
unto  us,  as  to  sanctify  us  wholly,  soul,  body,  and  spirit ;  and  enable  us 
to  rejoice  evermore,  pray  without  ceasing,  and  in  every  thing  give  thanks. 
And  he  is  persuaded  that  he  who  can  do  far  exceeding  abundantly  above 
all  we  can  ask  or  think,  is  able  to  fill  us  with  the  perfect  love  which 
casts  out  fear ;  that  we,  being  delivered  out  of  the  hands  of  our  enemies, 
may  han)e  the  mind  that  was  in  Christ,  be  righteous  as  the  man  Jesus  was 
righteous,  walk  as  he  also  walked,  and  be  in  our  measure,  as  he  was  in 
the  world;  he  as  the  stock  of  the  tree  of  righteousness,  and  we  as  the 
branches,  having  our  fruit  from  him  unto  holiness,  and  serving  God  with- 
out fear  in  true  holiness  and  righteousness  all  the  days  of  our  life. 

This  he  sometimes  calls  full  sanctifieation,  the  state  o{  fathers  in 
Christ,  or  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God;  sometimes  being 
strengthened,  stablished,  and  settled ;  or  being  rooted  and  grounded  in 
love:  but  most  commonly  he  calls  it  Christian  Perfection;  a  word 
which,  though  used  by  the  apostles  in  the  same  sense,  cannot  be  used 
by  him  without  raising  the  pity  or  indignation  of  one  half  of  the 
religious  world  ;  some  making  it  the  subject  of  their  pious  sneers,  and 
godly  lampoons  ;  while  others  tell  you  roundly,  "  They  abhor  it  above 
every  thing  in  the  creation." 

Tantcene  animis  cselestibus  irse  ! 

On  account  of  this  doctrine  it  is  that  he  is  traduced  as  a  Pharisee, 
a  Papist,  an  Antichrist ;  some  of  his  opposers  taking  it  for  granted 
that  he  makes  void  the  priestly  office  of  Christ,  by  affirming  that  his 
blood  can  so  completely  wash  us  here  from  our  sins,  that  at  death  we 
shall  be  found  of  him  in  peace,  without  spot,  wrinkle,  or  any  such 
thing ;  while  others,  to  colour  their  opposition  to  the  many  scriptures 
which  he  brings  to  support  this  unfashionable  doctrine,  give  it  out 
that  he  only  wants  the  old  man  to  be  so  refined  in  all  his  tempers,  and 
regulated  in  all  his  outward  behaviour,  as  to  appear  perfect  in  the 
flesh :  or,  in  other  terms,  that  he  sets  up  Pharisaic  self,  instead  of 
Christ  completely  formed  in  us  as  the  full  hope  of  glory.  But  I  must 
(for  one)  do  him  the  justice  to  say  he  is  misapprehended,  and  that 
what  he  calls  perfection,  is  nothing  but  the  rich  cluster  of  all  the 
spiritual  blessings  promised  to  believers  in  the  Gospel ;  and  among  the 
rest,  a  continual  sense  of  the  virtue  of  Christ's  atoning  and  purifying 
blood  preventing  both  old  guilt  from  returning,  and  new  guilt  from 
fastening  upon  the  conscience  ;  together  with  the  deepest  conscious- 


1§  FIRST    CHECK 

ness  of  our  helplessness  and  nothingness  in  our  best  estate,  the  most 
endearing  discoveries  of  the  Redeemer's  love,  and  the  most  hum- 
blmg,  and  yet  ravishing  views  of  his  glorious  fulness  ;  witness  these 
lines,  which  conclude  one  of  his  favourite  hymns  on  that  subject : 

Confound,  o'erpower  me  with  thy  grace ; 

I  would  be  by  myself  abhorr'd ; 
(All  might,  all  majesty,  all  praise, 

All  glory  be  to  Christ  my  Lord  !) 

Now  let  me  gain  perfection's  height, 

Now  let  me  into  nothing  fall, 
Be  less  than  nothing  in  my  sight. 

And  feel  that  Christ  is  all  in  all. 

4.  But  this  is  not  all ;  he  holds  also  general  redemption,  and  its 
necessary  consequences,  which  some  account  dreadful  heresies.  He 
asserts  with  St.  Paul,  that  Christ,  by  the  grace  of  God,  tasted  death 
for  EVERY  MAN  ;  and  this  grace  he  calls  free,  as  extending  itseU  freely 
to  all.  Nor  can  he  help  expressing  his  surprise  at  those  pious  minis- 
ters, who  maintain  that  the  Saviour  keeps  his  grace,  as  they  suppose 
he  kept  his  blond,  from  the  greatest  part  of  mankind,  and  yet  engross 
to  themselves  the  title  of  preachers  of  free  grace. 

He  frequently  oliserves  with  the  same  apostle,  that  Christ  is  the 
Saviour  of  all  men,  hut  especially  of  them  that  believe  ;  and  that  God 
will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  consistently  with  their  moral  agency, 
and  the  tenor  of  his  Gospel. 

With  St.  John  he  maintains,  that  God  is  love,  and  that  *'  Christ  is 
the  propitiation,  not  only  for  our  sins,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
WHOLE  world  :"  with  David  he  affirms,  that  "  The  Lord  is  loving  to 
every  man,  and  his  mercy  is  over  all  his  works  ;"  and  with  St.  Peter, 
that  "  The  Lord  is  not  wilhng  that  any  should  perish,  but  that  all 
should  come  to  repentance  ;"  yea,  that  God,  without  hypocrisy, 
"  Commandeth  all  men  every  where  to  repent."  Accordingly  he 
»ays  with  the  Son  of  God,  "  Whosoever  will,  let  him  come  and  take 
of  the  water  of  life  freely  ;"  and  after  his  blessed  example,  as  well 
as  by  his  gracious  command,  he  preaches  the  Gospel  to  every  creature, 
which  he  apprehends  would  be  inconsistent  with  common  honesty, 
if  there  were  not  a  Gospel  for  every  creature.  Nor  can  he  doubt  of  it 
in  the  least,  when  he  considers  that  Christ  is  a  king  as  well  as  a 
priest,  that  we  ore  under  a  law  to  him;  that  those  men  who  will  not  have 
him  to  reign  over  them,  shall  be  brought  and  slain  before  him ;  yea,  that 
he  will  judge  the  secrets  of  men,  according  to  St.  Paul's  Gospel,  and  take 
vengeance  on  all  them  that  obey  not  his  own  Gospel,  and  be  the  author 
of  eternal  salvation  to  none  but  them  that  obey  him.     With  this  prin- 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  Jt) 

ciple,  as  with  a  key  given  us  by  God  himself,  he  opens  those  things 
which  are  hard  to  be  understood  in  the  epistles  of  St.  Paul,  and 
zvhich  they  that  are  unlearned  and  unstable  wrest^  as  they  do  some 
other  Scriptures,  if  not  to  their  ozvn  destruction,  at  least  to  the  over- 
throwing  of  the  faith  of  some  weak  Christians,  and  the  hardening  of 
many,  very  many  infidels. 

As  a  true  son  of  the  Church  of  England,  he  believes  that  Chinst 
redeemed  him  and  all  mankind ;  that  for  us  men,  and  not  merely  for 
the  elect,  he  came  down  from  heaven,  and  made  upon  the  cross  a  full, 
perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction  for  the  sins 
of  the  WHOLE  world.  Like  an  honest  man,  and  yet  a  man  of  sense, 
he  so  subscribed  the  17th  Article  as  not  to  reject  the  31st,  which  he 
thinks  of  equal  force,  and  much  more  explicit;  and  therefore,  as  the 
17th  Article  authorizes  him,  he  receives  God'*s  promises  in  such  wise  as 
they  are  generally  set  forth  in  Holy  Scripture:  rejecting,  after  the 
example  of  our  governors  in  church  and  state,  the  Lambeth  Articles, 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  absolute,  unconditional  election  and  reproba- 
tion was  maintained,  and  which  some  Calvinist  Divines,  in  the  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  vainly  attempted  to  impose  upon  these  kinttdoms  by 
adding  them  to  the  39  Articles.  Far  therefore  from  thinkmg  he  does 
not  act  a  fair  part,  in  rejecting  the  doctrine  of  particular  redemption, 
he  cannot  conceive  by  what  salvo  the  consciences  of  those  ministers 
who  embrace  it,  can  permit  them  to  say  to  each  of  their  communi- 
cants, *'  The  blood  of  Christ  was  shed  for  thee  ;"  and  to  baptize 
promiscuously  all  children  within  their  respective  parishes,  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  when  all 
that  are  unredeemed  have  no  more  right  to  the  blood,  name,  and  Spirit, 
of  Christ,  than  Lucifer  himself. 

Thus  far  Mr.  W.  agrees  with  Arminius,  because  he  thinks  that 
illustrious  Divine  agreed  thus  far  with  the  Scriptures,  and  all  the 
early  Fathers  of  the  church.  But  if  Arminius  (as  the  author  of 
Pietas  Oxoniensis  affirms  in  his  letter  to  Dr.  Adams)  *'  denied  that 
man's  nature  is  totally  corrupt,  and  asserted  that  he  bath  *  still  a 
freedom  of  will  to  turn  to  God,  but  not  without  the  assistance  of  grace,'* 
Mr.  W.  is  no  Arminian,  for  he  strongly  asserts  the  total  fall  of  man, 
and  constantly  maintains  that  by  nature  man's  will  is  only  free  to  evil, 
and  that  divine  grace  must  first  prevent,  and  then  continually  farther 
him,  to  make  him  willing  and  able  to  turn  to  God. 

*  This  is  worded  in  so  ambiguous  a  manner,  as  to  give  readers  room  to  think,  that 
Arminius  hPild  man  hatb  a  will  to  turn  to  God  before  grace  prevents  him,  and  only  wants 
some  divine  assistance  to  finish  what  nature  has  power  to  begin.  In  this  sense  of  the 
words  it  is  I  deny  Mr.  W.  is  an  Armiuian. 


20  FIRST  CHECK 

I  must  however  confess,  that  he  does  not,  as  some  real  Protestants, 
continually  harp  upon  the  words /ree  grace,  and/rce  will ;  but  he  gives 
reasons  of  considerable  weight  for  this.  1.  Christ  and  his  apostles 
never  did  so  :  2.  He  knows  the  word  grace  necessarily  implies  the 
freeness  of  a  favour,  and  the  word  will  the  freedom  of  our  choice  ; 
and  he  has  too  much  sense  to  delight  in  perpetual  tautology.  3.  He 
finds,  by  blessed  experience,  that  when  the  will  is  touched  by  divine 
grace,  and  yields  to  the  touch,  it  is  as  free  to  good,  as  it  was  before 
to  evil.  He  dares  not  therefore  make  the  maintaining /rce  willy 
any  more  than  free  breath,  the  criterion  of  an  unconverted  man. 
On  the  contrary,  he  beUeves  none  are  converted  but  those  who  have 
a  free  will  to  follow  Jesus  ;  and  far  from  being  ashamed  to  be  called 
a  free-wilier,  he  affirms  it  as  essential  to  all  men  to  be  free-willing 
creatures,  as  to  be  rational  animals ;  and  he  supposes  he  can  as  soon 
find  a  diamond  or  a  flint  without  gravity,  as  a  good  or  bad  man  without 
free  will. 

Nor  will  I  conceal  that  I  never  heard  him  use  that  favourite  ex- 
pression of  some  good  men.  Why  me  ?  Why  me  ?  Though  he  is  not 
at  all  against  their  using  it,  if  they  can  do  it  to  edification.  But  as  he 
does  not  see  that  any  of  the  saints,  either  of  the  Old  or  New  Testa- 
ment, ever  used  it,  he  is  afraid  to  be  humble  and  wise  above  what  is 
written,  lest  voluntary  humility  should  introduce  refined  pride  before 
he  is  aware.  Doubting  therefore  whether  he  can  say,  Why  me  ?  Why 
me  ?  without  the  self-pleasing  idea  of  his  being  preferred  to  thou- 
sands, or  without  a  touch  of  the  secret  self-applause  that  tickles  the 
Pharisee's  heart,  when  he  thanks  God  he  is  not  as  other  men,  he 
leaves  the  fashionable  exclamation  to  others,  with  all  the  refinements 
of  modern  divinity  ;  and  chooses  to  keep  to  St.  Paul's  expression,  He 
loved  me,  which  implies  no  exclusion  of  his  poor  fellow-sinners ; 
or  to  that  of  the  royal  Psalmist,  Lord,  what  is  man  that  thou  art 
mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of  man  that  thou  visitesi  him ! 

5.  As  a  consequence  of  the  doctrine  of  general  redemption,  Mr. 
W.  lays  down  two  axioms,  of  which  he  never  loses  sight  in  his  preach- 
ing. The  first  is,  that  all  our  salvation  is  of  God  in  Christ,  and 
therefore  of  grace  ;  all  opportunities,  invitations,  inclination,  and 
power  to  believe,  being  bestowed  upon  us  of  mere  grace — grace  most 
absolutely  free  :  and  so  far  I  hope  that  all  who  are  called  Gospel 
ministers  agree  with  him  :  but  he  proceeds  farther ;  for  secondly,  he 
asserts  with  equal  confidence,  that  according  to  the  Gospel  dispensa- 
tion, all  our  damnation  is  of  ourselves,  by  our  obstinate  unbelief, 
and  avoidable  unfaithfulness  ;  as  we  may  neglect  so  great  salvation, 
desire  to  be  excused  from  coming  to  the  feast  of  the  Lamb,  make  light 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  21 

f)f  God's  gracious  offers,  refuse  to  occupy,  bury  our  talent,  and  act  the 
part  of  the  slothful  servant ;  or  in  other  words,  resist,  grieve,  do 
despite  to,  and  quench  the  Spirit  of  grace,  by  our  moral  agency. 

The  first  of  these  evangelical  axioms  he  builds  Upon  such  scrip- 
tures as  these  :  "  In  me  is  thy  help — Look  unto  me  and  be  saved — 
No  man  cometh  unto  me  except  the  Father  draw  him— What  hast 
thou  that  thou  hast  not  received  ? — We  are  not  sufficient  to  think 
aright  of  ourselves,  all  our  sufficiency  is  of  God — Christ  is  exalted  to 
give  repentance — Faith  is  the  gift  of  God — Without  me  ye  can  do 
nothing,  &c.  &.c." 

And  the  second  he  founds  upon  such  passages  as  these  :  *'  This  is 
the  condemnation,  that  light  is  come  into  the  world,  and  men  loved 
darkness  rather  than  light — Ye  always  resist  the  Holy  Ghost — They 
rejected  the  counsel  of  God  towards  themselves — Grieve  not  the 
Spirit— Quench  not  the  Spirit — My  Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with 
man — Turn,  why  will  ye  die  ?  Kiss  the  Son,  lest  ye  perish — I  gave 
Jezebel  time  to  repent,  and  she  repented  not — The  goodness  of  God 
leads,  (N.  B.  not  drags)  thee  to  repentance,  who  after  thy  hardness  and 
impenitent  heart  treasurest  up  wrath  unto  thyself-— Their  eyes  have 
they  closed,  lest  they  should  see  and  be  converted,  and  I  should  heal 
them — See  that  ye  refuse  not  him  that  speaketh  from  heaven — I  set 
before  you  life  and  death,  choose  life ! — Ye  will  not  come  unto  me 
that  ye  might  have  life — I  would  have  gathered  you,  and  ye  would 
NOT,  &,c.  &c." 

As  to  the  MORAL  AGENCY  of  man,  Mr.  W.  thinks  it  cannot  be  denied 
upon  the  principles  of  corntnon  sense,  and  civil  government;  rrtuch 
less  upon  those  of  natural  and  revealed  religion  :  as  nothing  would  be 
more  absurd  than  to  bind  us  by  laws  of  a  civil  or  spiritual  nature; 
nothing  more  foolish  than  to  propose  to  us  punishments  and  rewards; 
and  nothing  more  capricious  than  to  inflict  the  one  or  bestow  the 
other  upon  us,  if  we  were  not  moral  agents. 

He  is  therefore  persuaded,  the  most  complete  system  of  divinity  is 
that  in  which  neither  of  those  two  axioms  is  superseded  :  it  is  bold 
and  unscriptural  to  set  up  the  one  at  the  expense  of  the  other  ;  convin- 
ced that  the  prophets,  the  apostles, and  Jesus  Christ,  left  us  no  such  pre- 
cedent: and  that  to  avoid  what  is  termed  locality,  we  must  not  run  into 
refinements  which  they  knew  nothing  of,  and  make  them  perpetually 
contradict  themselves  ;  nor  can  we,  he  believes,  without  an  open  viola- 
tion of  thelawsof  can(bur  and  criticism,  lay  a  greater  stress  upon  a  few 
obscure  and  controverted  passages,  than  upon  a  hundred  plain  and  irre- 
fragable Scripture  proofs.  He  therefore  supposes  that  those  persons 
are  under  a  capital  mistake,  who  maintain  only  the  first  Gospel  axiom 

Vol.  I.  4 


22  FIRST  CHECK 

and  under  pretence  of  securing  to  God  all  the  glory  of  the  salvation 
of  one  elect,  give  to  perhaps  toewi^/ reprobates  full  room  to  lay  all  the 
blame  of  their  damnation,  either  upon  their  first  parents,  or  their 
Creator.  This  way  of  making  twenty  real  holes,  in  order  to  stop  a 
supposed  one,  he  cannot  see  consistent  either  with  wisdom  or  Scrip- 
ture. 

Thinking  it  therefore  safest  no^  to  put  asunder  the  truths  which  God 
has  joined  together,  he  makes  all  extremes  meet  in  one  blessed  Scrip- 
tural medium.  With  the  Antinomian  he  preaches,  God  worketh  in 
you  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure  ;  and  with  the  Legalist  he 
cries,  Work  out  therefore  your  own  salvation  xmthfear  and  trembling ; 
and  thus  he  comprises  all  St.  Paul's  doctrine.  With  the  Rnnter  he 
says,  God  has  chosen  you ;  you  are  elect ;  but  as  it  is  through  sanctijica- 
tion  of  the  Spirit^  and  belief  of  the  truth,  with  the  disciples  of  Moses 
he  infers,  Wherefore  give  all  diligence  to  make  your  calling  and  election 
sure,  for  if  ye  do  these  things,  ye  shall  never  fall.  Thus  he  presents 
his  hearers  with  all  St.  Peter's  system  of  truth,  which  the  others  had 
rent  in  pieces. 

Again,  according  to  the  first  axiom,  he  says,  with  the  perfect 
Preacher,  All  things  are  now  ready;  but  with  him  he  adds  also, 
according  to  the  second.  Come,  lest  you  never  taste  the  Gospel  feast. 
Thinking  it  extremely  dangerous  not  to  divide  the  word  of  God  aright, 
be  endeavours  to  give  to  every  one  the  portion  of  it  that  suits  him, 
cutting  according  to  times,  persons,  and  circumstances,  either  with 
the  smooth  or  rough  edge  of  his  two-edged  sword.  Therefore  when 
he  addresses  those  that  are  steady,  and  "  partakers  of  the  Gospel 
grace  from  the  first  day  until  now,"  as  the  Philippians,  he  makes 
use  of  the  first  principle,  and  testifies  his  "  confidence  that  he  who 
hath  begun  a  good  work  in  them,  will  perform  it  until  the  day  of 
Christ."  But  when  he  expostulates  with  persons  "  that  ran  well, 
and  do  not  now  obey  the  truth,"  according  to  his  second  axiom,  he 
says  to  them,  as  St.  Paul  did  to  the  Galatians,  "I  stand  in  doubt  of 
you  :  ye  are  fallen  from  grace." 

In  short,  he  would  think  that  he  mangled  the  Gospel,  and  forgot 
part  of  his  awful  commission,  if,  when  he  has  declared  that  he  who 
believeth  shall  be  saved,  he  did  not  also  add,  that  he  who  believeth  not 
shall  be  damned;  or,  which  is  the  same,  that  none  perish  merely  for 
Adam's  sin,  but  for  their  own  unbelief,  and  wilful  rejection  of  the 
Saviour's  grace.  Thus  he  advances  God's  glory  every  way,  entirely 
ascribing  to  his  mercy  and  grace  all  the  salvation  of  the  elect,  and 
completely  freeing  him  from  the  blame  of  directly  or  indirectly  hang- 
ing the  millstone  of  damnation  about  the  neck  of  the  reprobate. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  03 

And  this  he  eftectually  does  by  showing  that  the  former  owe  all  they 
are,  and  all  they  have,  to  creating,  preserving,  and  redeeming  love, 
whose  innumerable  bounties  they  freely  and  continually  receive; 
and  that  the  rejection  of  the  latter  has  absolutely  no  cause  but  their 
obstinate  rejecting  of  that  astonishing  mercy  which  wept  over  Jerusa- 
lem; and  prayed,  and  bled  even  for  those  that  shed  the  atoning  blood 
— the  blood  that  expiated  all  sin  but  that  of  final  unbelief. 

I  have  now  finished  my  sketch  of  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine,  so  far  as  it 
has  fallen  under  my  observation,  during  above  sixteen  years'  particu- 
lar acquaintance  with  him  and  his  works.  It  is  not  my  design,  Sir,  to 
inquire  into  the  truth  of  his  sentiments  ;  much  less  shall  I  attempt  to 
prove  them  orthodox,  according  to  the  ideas  that  some  real  Protest- 
ants entertain  of  orthodoxy.  This  only  I  beg  leave  to  observe, 
suppose  he  be  mistaken  in  all  the  Scriptures  on  which  he  founds  his 
doctrines  of  Christian  perfection  and  general  redemption,  yet  his 
mistakes  seem  rather  to  arise  from  a  regard  for  Christ's  glory,  than 
from  enmity  to  his  offices  ;  and  all  together  do  not  amount  to  any 
heresy  at  all ;  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christiatiity,  namely,  the 
fall  of  man,  justification  by  the  merits  of  Christ,  sanctification  by  the 
agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  the  worship  of  the  One  True  God,  in 
the  mysterious  distinction  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit,  as  it  is 
maintained  in  the  three  Creeds,  not  being  at  all  affected  by  any  of  his 
peculiar  sentiments. 

But  you  possibly  imagine,  Sir,  that  he  has  lately  changed  his  doc- 
trine, and  adopted  a  new  system.  If  you  do,  you  are  under  a  very 
great  mistake ;  and  to  convince  you  of  it,  permit  me  to  conclude 
this  letter  by  a  paragraph  of  one  which  I  received  from  him  last 
spring. 

*'  /  alzaays  did  (^for  between  these  thirty  and  forty  years)  clearly 
assert  the  total  fall  of  man  ^  and  his  utter  inability  to  do  any  good  of  him- 
self:  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  grace  and  Spirit  of  God  to  raise  even 
a  good  thought  or  desire  121  our  hearts  :  the  Lord's  rewarding  no  worksy 
and  accepting  of  none,  but  so  far  as  they  proceed  from  his  preventing, 
convincing,  and  converting  grace,  through  the  Beloved:  the  blood  and 
righteousness  of  Christ  being  the  sole  meritorious  cause  of  our  salvation. 
And  who  is  there  in  England  that  has  asserted  these  things  more  strongly 
and  steadily  than  I  have  done  ?^^  Leaving  you  to  answer  this  question, 
I  remain  with  due  respect,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir,  your  obedient  Servant, 
in  the  bond  of  a  peaceful  Gospel, 

Madeley,  .     J.  FLETCHER. 

July  29,  1771. 


24  FIRST  CHECK 


LETTER  II. 

Hon.  and  Rev.  5zr, 

Having  proved  that  Mr.  W.*s  doctrine  is  not  heretical,  permit 
me  to  consider  the  propositions  which  close  the  Minutes  of  his  last 
Conference,  on  which,  it  seems,  your  charge  of  dreadful  heresy  is 
founded. 

They  wear,  I  confess,  a  new  aspect ;  and  such  is  the  force  of 
prejudice,  and  attachment  to  particular  modes  of  expression, 
that  at  first  they  appeared  to  be  very  unguarded,  if  not  alto- 
gether erroneous.  But  when  the  din  of  the  severe  epithets,  be- 
stowed upon  them  by  some  warm  friends,  was  out  of  my  ears  ; 
when  I  had  prayed  to  the  Father  of  lights  for  meekness  of  wisdom, 
and  given  place  to  calm  reflection,  I  saw  them  in  quite  a  different 
light.  Our  Lord  commands  us  JVot  to  judge  according  to  the  appear- 
ance, but  to  judge  righteous  judgment ;  appearances,  therefore,  did  not 
seem  to  me  sufficient  to  condemn  any  man,  much  less  an  elder,  and 
such  an  elder  as  Mr.  W.  I  considered  besides,  that  the  circum- 
stances in  which  a  minister  sometimes  finds  himself  with  respect  to 
his  hearers,  and  particular  errors  spreading  among  them,  may  oblige 
him  to  do  or  say  things,  which,  though  very  right  according  to  the 
time,  place,  persons,  and  junctures,  may  yet  appear  very  wrong  to 
those  who  do  not  stand  just  where  he  does.  I  saw,  for  example,  that 
if  St.  Paul  had  been  in  St.  James's  circumstances,  he  would  have 
preached  justification  in  as  guarded  a  manner  as  St.  James  ;  and  that 
if  St.  James  had  been  in  St.  Paul's  place,  he  would  have  preached 
it  as  freely  as  St.  Paul;  and  I  recollected  that  in  some  places  St. 
Paul  himself  seems  even  more  legal  than  St.  James.  See  Rom.  ii.  7, 
10,  14.     Gal.  vi.  7,  &c.,  and  1  Tim.  vi.  19. 

These  reflections  made  me  not  only  suspend  my  judgment  con- 
cerning Mr.  W.'s  propositions,  but  consider  what  we  may  candidly 
suppose  was  his  design  in  writing  them  for,  and  recommending  them 
to,  the  preachers  in  connexion  with  him.  And  I  could  not  help 
seeing,  that  it  was  only  to  guard  them  and  their  hearers  against  Anti- 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  25 

^lomiati  principles  and  practices,  which  spread  like  wild-fire  in  some 
of  his  Societies  ;  where  persons  who  spoke  in  the  n)ost  glorious  man- 
ner of  Christ,  and  their  interest  in  his  complete  salvation,  have  been 
found  living  in  the  greatest  immoralities,  or  indulging  the  most  un- 
christian tempers.  Nor  need  I  go  far  for  a  proof  of  this  sad  asser- 
tion. In  one  of  his  Societies,  not  many  miles  from  my  parish,  a 
married  man,  who  professed  being  in  a  state  of  justification  and  sanc- 
tijication,  growing  wise  above  what  is  written,  despised  his  brethren 
as  legalists,  and  his  teachers  as  persons  not  clear  in  the  Gospel.  He 
instilled  his  principles  into  a  serious  young  woman  ;  and  what  was 
the  consequence  ?  Why,  they  talked  about  "  finished  salvation  in 
Christ,"  and  "  the  absurdity  of  perfection  in  the  flesh,"  till  a  perfect 
child  was  conceived  and  born  ;  and  to  save  appearances,  the  mother 
swore  it  to  a  travelling  man  that  cannot  be  heard  of.  Thus  to  avoid 
legality,  they  plunged  into  hypocrisy,  fornication,  adultery,  perjury, 
and  the  depth  of  Ranterism.  Is  it  not  hard  that  a  minister  should  be 
traduced  as  guilty  of  dreadful  heresy  for  trying  to  put  a  stop  to  such 
dreadful  practices  ?  And  is  it  not  high  time  that  he  should  cry  to  all 
that  regard  his  warnings,  take  heed  to  your  doctrine.  As  if  he 
had  said, 

Avoid  all  extremes.  While  on  the  one  hand  you  keep  clear  of 
the  Pharisaic  delusion  that  slights  Christ,  and  makes  the  pretended 
merit  of  an  imperfect  obedience  the  procuring  cause  of  eternal  life  ; 
see  that  on  the  other  hand,  you  do  not  lean  to  the  Antinomian  error, 
which,  under  pretence  of  exalting  Christ,  speaks  contemptuously  of 
obedience,  and  makes  void  the  law  through  a  faith  that  does  not  ■work 
by  love.  As  there  is  but  a  step  between  high  Arminianism  and  Self- 
righteousness,  so  there  is  but  one  between  high  Calvinism  and  Anti- 
nomianism.     I  charge  you  to  shun  both,  especially  the  latter. 

"  You  know  by  sad  experience  that  at  this  time  we  stand  particu- 
larly in  danger  of  splitting  upon  the  Antinomian  rock.  Many  smat- 
terers  in  Christian  experience  talk  of  finished  salvation  in  Christ,  or 
boast  of  being  in  a  state  of  justification  and  sanctification,  while  they 
know  little  of  themselves,  and  less  of  Christ.  Their  whole  beha- 
viour testifies,  that  their  hearts  are  void  of  humble  love,  and  full  of 
carnal  confidence.  They  cry  Lord,  Lord,  with  as  much  assurance, 
and  as  little  right,  as  the  foolish  virgins.  They  pass  for  sweet  Chris- 
tians, dear  children  of  God,  and  good  believers  :  but  their  secret  re- 
serves evidence  them  to  be  only  such  believers  as  Simon  Magus, 
Ananias,  and  Sapphira. 

"  Some,  with  Diotrephes,  love  to  have  the  pre-eminence,  and  prate 
malicious  words ;  and  not  content  therewith,  they  do  not  themselves  receive 


26  FIRST    CkECK 

the  hrethrcn^  and  forbid  them  that  would,  and  even  cast  them  out  of  the 
church  as  heretics.  Some  have  forsaken  the  right  way,  and  are  gone 
astray ,  following  the  way  of  Balaam,  who  loved  the  wages  of  unrigh- 
teousness;  they  are  wells  without  water,  clouds  without  rain,  and  trees 
without  fruit ;  with  Judas  they  try  to  load  themselves  with  thick  clay, 
endeavour  to  lay  up  treasures  on  earth,  and  make  provision  for  the  flesh 
to  fulfil  the  lusts  thereof  Some,  with  the  incestuous  Corinthian,  are 
led  captive  by  fleshly  lusts,  and  fall  into  the  greatest  enormities. 
Others,  with  the  language  of  the  awakened  publican  in  their  mouths, 
are  fast  asleep  in  their  spirits  :  you  hear  them  speak  of  the  corrup- 
tions of  their  hearts,  in  as  unaffected  and  airy  a  manner,  as  if  they 
talked  of  freckles  upon  their  faces  :  it  seems  they  run  down  their 
sinful  nature,  only  to  apologize  for  their  sinful  practices  ;  or  to  ap- 
pear great  proficients  in  self-knowledge,  and  court  the  praise  due  to 
genuine  humility. 

Others,  quietly  settled  on  the  lees  of  the  Laodicean  state,  by  the 
whole  tenor  of  their  life  say  they  are  rich,  and  increased  in  goods,  and 
have  need  of  nothing ;  utter  strangers  to  hunger  and  thirst  after  righ- 
teousness, they  never  importunately  beg,  never  wrestle  hard  for  the 
hidden  manna :  on  the  contrary,  they  sing  a  requiem  to  their  poor 
dead  souls,  and  say,  "  Soul,  take  thine  ease  ;  thou  hast  goods  laid  up  in 
Christ  for  many  years,  yea,  for  ever  and  ever,"  and  thus,  like  Demas, 
they  go  on  talking  of  Christ  and  heaven,  but  loving  their  ease,  and 
enjoying  this  present  world. 

"  Yet  many  of  these,  like  Herod,  hear  and  entertain  us  gladly  ; 
but  like  him  also,  they  keep  their  beloved  sin,  pleading  for  it  as  a 
right  eye,  and  saving  it  as  a  right  hand.  To  this  day  their  bosom  cor- 
ruption is  not  only  alive,  but  indulged ;  their  treacherous  Delilah  is 
hugged  ;  and  their  spiritual  Agag  walks  delicately,  and  boasts  that 
the  bitterness  of  death  is  past,  and  he  shall  never  be  hewed  in  pieces 
before  the  Lord ;  nay,  to  dare  so  much  as  to  talk  of  his  dying  before 
the  body,  becomes  an  almost  unpardonable  crime. 

*'  Forms  and  fair  shows  of  godliness  deceive  us  :  many,  whom  our 
Lord  might  well  compare  to  whited  sepulchres,  look  like  angels  of 
light  when  they  are  abroad,  and  prove  tormenting  fiends  at  home. 
We  see  them  weep  under  sermons  ;  we  hear  them  pray  and  sing  with 
the  tongues  of  men  and  angels  ;  they  even  profess  the  faith  that  re- 
moves mountains  ;  and  yet  by  and  by  we  discover  they  stumble  at 
every  mole-hill :  every  trifling  temptation  throws  them  into  peevish- 
ness, fretfulness,  impatience,  ill-humour,  discontent,  anger,  and  some- 
times into  loud  passion. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  ^H 

"  Relative  duties  are  by  many  grossly  neglected:  husbands  slight 
their  wives,  or  wives  neglect  and  plague  their  husbands  ;  children 
are  spoiled  ;  parents  disregarded  ;  and  masters  disobeyed  ;  yea,  so 
many  are  the  complaints  against  servants  professing  godliness  on  ac- 
count of  their  unfaithfulness,  indolence,  pert  answering  again,  forget- 
fulness  of  their  menial  condition,  or  insolent  expectations,  that  some 
serious  persons  prefer  those  who  have  no  knowledge  of  the  truth,  to 
those  who  make  a  high  profession  of  it. 

"  Knowledge  is  certainly  increased;  many  run  to  and  fro  after  it, 
but  it  is  seldom  experimental ;  the  power  of  God  is  frequently  talked 
of,  but  rarely  felt,  and  too  often  cried  down  under  the  despicable 
name  of  frames  and  feelings.  Numbers  seek  by  hearing  a  variety  of 
Gospel  ministers,  rending  all  the  religious  books  that  are  published, 
learning  the  best  tunes  to  our  hymns,  disputing  on  controverted  points 
of  doctrine,  telling  or  hearing  church  news,  and  listening  to,  or  retail- 
ing spiritual  scandal.  But  alas  !  few  strive  in  pangs  of  heartfelt  con- 
victions, few  deny  themselves^  and  take  up  their  cross  daily ;  few  take 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  by  the  holy  violence  of  wrestling  faith,  an4 
agonizing  prayer ;  few  see,  and  fewer  live  in,  the  kingdom  of  God, 
which  is  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  a  word, 
many  say,  Lo !  Christ  is  here  ;  and  lo !  he  is  there  !  but  few  can  con- 
sistently witness  that  the  kingdom  of  hea'ven  is  within  them. 

*'  Many  assert  that  the  clothing  of  the  king^s  daughter  is  of  wrought 
gold,  but  few,  very  few  experience  that  she  is  all  glorious  within  ;  and 
it  is  well,  if  many  are  not  bold  enough  to  maintain  that  she  is  '  all  full 
of  corruptions.'      With  more  truth  than  ever  we  may  say, 

Ye  different  sects,  who  all  declare, 
Lo  !  here  is  f  "hrist,  or  Christ  is  there  ; 
Your  stronger  proofs  divinely  give, 
And  show  us  where  the  Christians  live  : 
Your  claim,  alas  !  ye  cannot  prove, 
Ye  want  the  genuine  mark  of  love. 

'•  The  consequences  of  this  high,  and  yet  lifeless  profession,  are 
as  evident  as  they  are  deplorable.  Selfish  views,  sinister  designs, 
inveterate  prejudice,  pitiful  bigotry,  party  spirit,  self-sufficiency, 
contempt  of  others,  envy,  jealousy,  making  men  offenders  for  a  word 
— possibly  a  scriptural  word  too,  taking  advantage  of  each  other's  in- 
firmities, magnifying  innocent  mistakes,  putting  the  worst  construction 
upon  each  other's  words  and  actions,  false  accusations,  backbiting, 
malice,  revenge,  persecution,  and  a  hundred  such  evils  prevail 
among  religious  people,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the  children  of 


28  First  check 

the  world,  and  the  unspeakable  grief  of  the  true  Israelites  that  yet  re- 
main among  us. 

**  But  this  is  not  all.  Some  of  our  hearers  do  not  even  keep  to  the 
great  outlines  of  heathen  morality  :  not  satisfied  practically  to  reject 
Christ's  declaration,  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive, 
they  proceed  to  that  pitch  of  covetousness  and  daring  injustice,  as  not 
to  pay  their  just  debts  ;  yea,  and  to  cheat  and  extort,  whenever  they 
have  a  fair  opportunity.  How  few  of  our  societies  are  there,  where 
this  or  some  other  evil  has  not  broken  out,  and  given  such  shakes  to 
the  ark  of  the  Gospel,  that  had  not  the  Lord  wonderfully  interposed, 
it  must  long  ago  have  been  overset  ?  And  you  know  how  to  this  day 
the  name  and  truth  of  God  are  openly  blasphemed  among  the  baptized 
Heathens  through  the  Antinomian  lives  of  many,  who  say  they  are  Jews 
whenihey  are  not,  but  by  their  works  declare  they  are  of  the  synagogue 
of  Satan.  At  your  peril,  therefore,  my  Brethren,  countenance  them 
not :  I  know  you  would  not  do  it  designedly,  but  you  may  do  it  un- 
awares ;  therefore  take  heed — more  than  ever  take  heed  to  your 
doctrine.  Let  it  be  scripturally  evangelical :  give  not  the  children's 
bread  unto  dogs  :  comfort  not  people  that  do  not  mourn.  When 
you  should  give  emetics,  do  not  administer  cordials,  and  by  that  means 
strengthen  the  hands  of  the  slothful  and  unprofitable  servant.  I  re- 
peat it  once  more,  warp  not  to  Antinoniianism,  and  in  order  to  this, 
Take  heed,  0/  Take  heed  to  your  doctrine,''^ 

Surely,  Sir,  there  is  no  harm  in  this  word  of  exhortation  ;  it  is 
scriptural,  and  Mr.  VV.'s  pen  cannot  make  it  heretical.  Take  we  then 
heed  to  the  design  of  the  directions  which  follow. 

It  is  evident  that,  in  order  to  keep  his  fellow-labourers  clear  from 
Antinomianism,  he  directs  them,  first,  not  to  lean  too  much  tozvards 
Colvi/iism :  and  secondly,  not  to  talk  of  a  justified  and  sanctified  state 
so  unguardedly  as  some,  even  Arminians,  do ;  which  tends  to  miFsead 
men,  and  rtlax  their  watchful  attention  to  their  internal  and  external 
works,  that  is,  to  the  whole  of  their  inward  tempers,  and  ontzaard 
behaviour.     See  No.  8. 

He  produces  three  particulars,  wherein  he  thinks  that  both  he  and 
his  assistants  in  the  Lord's  vineyard  have  leaned  too  much  towards 
Calvii}i«m,  each  of  wliich  has  a  natural  and  strong  tendonry  to  coun- 
tenance the  Antinomian  delusion.  The  first,  being  atr.Jd  or  as-hamtJ  to 
maintain  that  every  man  is  faithfuily  to  employ  his  every  talent; 
tboiij^h  our  Lord  himself  goes  so  far  in  maintaining  this  doctrine  as  to 
declare,  that  if  a  man  be  not  faithful  in  the  unrighteous  mammon,  God 
will  not  give  him  the  true  riches. — The  second,  being  afra'd  to  use  the 
expression  working  for  life;  although  our  Lord,  who  must  be  allowed 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  29 

Jjerfectly  to  understand  his  own  Gospel,  uses  it  himself. — And  the 
third,  granting,  without  proper  distinction,  that  a  man  is  to  do  nothing 
in  order  to  justification,  than  which,  says  he,  nothing  can  be  more  false ; 
as  common  sense  dictates  that  a  rebel  must  lay  down  his  arms  before 
he  can  receive  a  pardon  from  his  prince. 

This  being  premised,  Mr.  W.  invites  his  fellow-labourers  to  re- 
view the  Xi^hole  affair;  and  while  he  does  it  he  saps  the  foundations  of 
the  Babels  built  by  those  who  call  Christ,  Lord  !  Lord  !  without  de- 
parting from  iniquity.  Who  among  Christians,  says  he,  is  now  ac- 
tepted  of  God?  Not  he,  that,  like  Hyuieneus,  formerly  believed,  and 
concerning  faith  hath  now  made  shipwreck :  Nor  he  that,  like  Simon 
Magus,  actually  believes  with  a  speculative,  Antinomian  faith  ;  but 
"  he  that  now  believes  in  Christ  with  a  loving  and  obedient  heart ;" 
or,  as  our  Lord  and  St.  Paul  express  it,  he  whose  "  faith  works  by 
love,  and  whose  love  keeps  God's  commandments."  This  must  at 
once  overthrow  the  pretensions  of  those  whose  feigned  faith,  instead 
of  producing  a  change  in  their  hearts,  only  adds  positiveness  to  their 
self-conceit,  bitterness  to  their  bad  tempers,  and  perhaps  licentious- 
ness to  their  worldly  lives. 

Still  carrying  on  his  point,  he  observes  next,  to  the  shame  of  loose 
Christians,  that  none  are  accepted  of  God^  even  among  the  heathens, 
but  those  that  fear  him  and  work  righteousness.  Nor  is  his  observa- 
tion improper,  (you,  Sir,  being  judge,)  for  you  tell  us  in  your  fifth  ser- 
mon, page  84,*  that  "  Cornelius  was  a  man  of  singular  probity,  hu- 
manity, and  morality,  and  that  a  view  of  his  character  may  perhaps 
convince  some,  who  consider  themselves  as  Christians,  how  far  short 
they  are  even  of  his  imperfect  righteousness." 

This  leads  him.  No.  4,,  to  touch  upon  an  important  objection,  that 
will  naturally  occur  to  the  mind  of  a  Protestant,  and  he  answers  it  by 
standing  for  the  necessity  of  works,  as  firmly  as  he  does  against  their 
merit  in  po'mi  of  salvation ;  thus  cutting  down  with  one  truly  evangeli- 
cal stroke,  the  arrogancy  of  self-righteous  Papists,  and  the  delusion 
of  licentious  Protestants.  And  lest  Antinoraians  should,  from  the 
Protestant  doctrine  that  good  works  have  absolutely  no  merit  in  point 
of  salvation,  take  occasion  to  slight  them  and  live  in  sin,  he  very 
properly  observes,  No.  6,  that  believers  shall  be  rewarded  in  heaven, 
and  are  even  often  rewarded  on  earth ;  because  of  their  works,  and  ac- 
cording to  their  works,  which  he  apprehends  does  not  so  widely  differ 
from  secundum  merita  operum,  as  Protestants,  in  the  heat  of  their  con- 
tentions with  the  Papists,  have  been  apt  to  conclude.     No.  7,  he 


London,  printed  for  J.  Johnson,  1762. 


OL 


r. 


30  FIRST   CHECK 

starts  another  objection,  which  Antinomians  will  naturally  make  to 
St.  Peter's  declaration,  that  God  accepts  those  who /ear  him  and 
work  righteousness. 

And  now,  Hon.  Sir,  reserving  for  another  place  the  consideration 
of  his  answer,  let  me  appeal  to,  your  candour.  From  the  general 
tenor  of  these  propositions,  is  it  not  evident,  that  Mr.  W.  (who  is 
now  among  Gospel-ministers  what  St.  James  formerly  was  among  the 
disciples,  and  Mr.  Baxter  among  the  Puritan  divines,  that  is,  the 
person  peculiarly  commissioned  by  the  Bishop  of  souls  to  defend  the 
Gospel  against  the  encroachments  of  Antinomians)  aims  at  stemnang 
the  torrent  of  their  delusions,  and  not  at  all  at  injuring  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  Christianity,  or  bringing  "  a  dreadful  heresy  into 
the  church  ?" 

You  may  reply,  that  you  do  not  so  much  consider  what  he  aims  at 
doing  as  what  he  has  actually  done.  Nay,  Sir,  the  intention  is  what 
a  candid  judge  (much  more  a  loving  brother)  should  particularly  con- 
sider. If  aiming  to  kill  a  wild  beast  that  attacks  my  friend,  I  unfor- 
tunately stab  him,  it  is  a  "  melancholy  accident ;"  but  he  wrongs 
me  much  who  represents  it  as  a  "  dreadful  barbarity."  In  hke  man- 
ner, if  Mr.  W.  has  unhappily  wounded  the  truth,  in  attempting  to 
give  the  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  a  killing  stroke,  his  mistake  should 
rather  be  called  "  well-meant  legality"  than  dreadful  heresy. 

You  possibly  reply  :  "  Let  any  one  look  at  these  Minutes,  and  say 
whether  all  the  unawakened  clergy  in  the  land  would  not  approve 
and  receive  them."  And  what  if  they  did  ?  Would  the  propositions 
be  the  worse  barely  for  this  ?  Is  nothing  Gospel  but  what  directly 
shocks  common  sense  ?  And  is  the  apostles'  creed  dreadfully  hereti- 
cal, because  all  the  carnal  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England,  yea, 
and  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  receive  it  ?  At  this  strange  rate  we  must 
give  up  the  Bible  itself,  for  all  the  Socinians  receive  it.  Ashamed 
of  taking  further  notice  of  an  argument  by  which  every  Papist  might 
attack  the  reasonable  simplicity  of  our  communion  service,  and 
defend  the  gross  absurdity  of  transubstantiation,  I  come  to  an  objec- 
tion of  greater  weight. 

*'  Mr.  W.  contradicts  himself  He  has  hitherto  preached  salvation 
by  faith,  and  now  he  talks  of  salvation  by  works  as  a  condition :  he 
has  a  thousand  times  offered  a  free  pardon  to  the  worst  of  sinners, 
and  now  he  has  the  assurance  to  declare,  that  a  man  is  to  do  something 
in  order  to  justification.     Where  will  you  find  such  inconsistencies  ?" 

Where !  In  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  and  especially  in  the 
epistles  of  the  great  preacher  of  free  justification,  and  salvation  by 
faith.     There  you  will  see  many  such  seeming  inconsistencies  as 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  31 

these.— Eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God^  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
"  Charge  the  rich  to  lay  up  in  store  for  themselves  a  good  founda- 
tion, that  they  may  lay  hold  on  eternal  life  ;  we  are  temperate,  to 
obtain  an  incorruptible  crown. — By  grace  ye  are  saved  through  faith. 
"  In  so  doing  thou  shalt  save  thyself.  Work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion."—  We  are  not  siifficient  of  ourselves  to  think  any  thing  as  of  our- 
selves.— "  The  Gentiles  do  by  nature  the  things  contained  in  the 
law." — God  justijieth  the  ungodly  and  him  that  worketh  not.  "  Hc 
sMl  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  works,  even  eternal  life 
to  them  who  by  patient  continuance  in  well  doing  seek  for  glory." 
— God  forbid  that  I  should  glory  in  any  thing  save  in  the  cross  of 
Christ.  "As  the  truth  of  God  is  in  me,  no  man  shall  stop  me  of  this 
glorying,"  that  I  have  kept  myself  from  being  burdensome.—/  am 
the  chief  of  sinners.  "  I  have  lived  in  all  good  conscience,  before 
God  until  this  day." — We  rejoice  in  Oirist  Jesiis,  and  have  no  confi- 
dence in  the  flesh.  "  Our  rejoicing  is  this,  the  testimony  of  our  con- 
science, that  in  simplicity  and  godly  sincerity  we  have  had  our  con- 
versation in  the  world. — "  JVot  by  works  of  righteousness  that  we  have 
done,  but  according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us :  not  of  works,  lest  any 
man  should  boast;  for  if  it  be  of  works,  then  it  is  no  more  grace, 
otherwise  work  is  no  more  work.  "  I  keep  under  my  body,  lest  I  my- 
self should  be  a  cast  away.  Be  not  deceived,  whatsoever  a  man 
soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap ;  he  that  soweth  little  shall  reap  little  ; 
he  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting." 
/  am.  persuaded  that  neither  death,  nor  life,  neither  things  present  nor 
things  to  come,  ^c.  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus. — Those  that  fall  away  "  crucify  to  themselves 
the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and  put  him  to  an  open  shame  :  for  the  earth 
which  beareth  thorns  and  briers  is  rejected,  and  is  nigh  unto  cursing, 
whose  end  is  to  be  burned."  "  Some  of  the  branches  were  broken  off 
by  unbelief;  thou  standest  by  faith ;  be  not  high-minded,  but  fear : 
continue  in  God's  goodness,  otherwise  thou  also  shalt  be  cut  off." 

Now,  Sir,  permit  me  to  beg  you  would  lay  your  hand  upon  your 
heart,  and  say,  whether  malicious  infidels  have  not  a  fairer  show  of 
reason  to  raise  wicked  men  against  St.  Paul,  than  you  have  to  raise  good 
men  against  Mr.  W.  ?  And  whether  a  grain  of  the  candour  with  which 
you  would  reconcile  the  seeming*  contradictions  of  the  great  apostle, 
would  not  be  more  than  sufficient  to  reconcile  the  seaming  inconsisten- 
cies of  the  great  minister  whom  you  have  so  warmly  attacked  ? 

*  Most  of  these  seeming  inconsistencies  of  St.  Paul,  and  those  which  are  charged  upon 
1^.  W.  will  be  reconciled  with  the  greatest  ease,  by  considering  the  tAvo  axioms  men- 


32  FIRST   CHECK 

Some  persons  indeed  complain  aloud,  that  "  Mr.  W.,  in  his  new 
scheme  of  saUntion  by  works  as  a  condition,  fairly  renounces  Christ's 
blood  and  righteousness.'"     I  grant  thil  the  words  "  blood  and  right- 
eousness" are  not  found  in  the  Minutes,  but  acceptance  hy  believing  in 
Christ  is  found  there,  and  he  must  be  a  caviller  indeed  who  asserts 
that  he  means  a  Christ  without  blood,  or  a  Christ  without  righteous- 
pess.     Besides,  w^hen  he  cuts  off  the  merit  of  rvorks,  from  having  any 
share  in  our  salvation,  far  from  forgetting  the  meritorious  life  and 
(Jeath  of  the   Redeemer,  he  effectually  guards  them,  and  the  Pro- 
testant ark,  sprinkled  with  the  atoning  blood,  from  the  rash  touches 
of  all  merit-mongers.*     Add  to  this,   that  Mr.  W.  has  sufficiently 
declared  his  faith  in  the   atonement,  in  thousands  of  sermons  and 
hymns,  some  of  \yhich  are  continually  sung  both  by  him  and  the  real 
Protestants,  so  that  out  of  their  own  mouth  their  groundless  charge  may 
be  refuted. 

Again,  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement  had  been  fully  discussed  in 
former  Conferences  and  Minutes,  and  Mr.  W.  is  too  methodical  to 
bring  the  same  thing  over  and  over  again,  nor  is  it  reasonable  to 
expect  it  should  be  peculiarly  insisted  upon  in  a  charge  against 
Antinomians,  who  rather  abuse  than  deny  it.  Once  more,  Mr.  W.'s 
extract  of  the  Minutes  is  a  memorandum  of  what  was  said  in  the 
latter  part  of  a  Conference,  or  conversation,  and  no  unprejudiced 
person  will  maintain,  that  those  who  do  not  expressly  mention  the 
atonement  in  every  conversation  do  actually  renounce  it. 

To  conclude,  if  the  author  of  the  Minutes  had  advanced  the  follow- 
ing propositions  which  you  have  dropped  in  your  second  sermon,  you 
might  have  had  some  reason  to  suspect  his  not  doing  the  atonement 
justice.  Page  36.  '*  Christ  only  did  that  to  the  human  nature,  which 
Adam  fhad  he  stood  upright)  would  have  done."  What!  Sir,  would 
Adam  have  died  for  his  posterity,  or  did  not  Christ  die  for  them? 
You  add,  "  See  the  true  reason  of  his  death  ;  that  he  might  subdue 
the  earthly  life  in  every  sense." — And  page  45,  "  He  certainly  died 
for  no  other  end,  but  that  we  might  receive  the  Spirit  of  holiness." 
Mr.  W.  is  of  a  very  different  sentiment.  Sir;  for,  poor  heretic! 
he  believes,  with  the  Papists,  that  "  Christ  died  to  maire  an  atone- 
ment for  us,"  and  with  St.  John,  that  "  he  is  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins,  and  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."     Nevertheless  he 

tioned  in  my  first  letter.  In  the  former  part  of  the  imaginary  contradictions,  those  servants 
of  God  make  use  of  the  first  Gospel  axiom,  in  the  latter  part  they  employ  the  second,  and 
thus  declare  the  whole  counsel  of  God. 

*  The  name  which  Bishop  Latimer  gives  to  the  Papists 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  33 

will  not  cry  out "  dreadful  heresy,"  though  he  will  probably  think  that 
you  were  once  a  little  too  deeply  in  Mr.  Law's  sentiments.  Leaving 
you  to  think  with  how  much  justice  I  might  descant  here  upon  this 
line  of  the  satyric  poet,  Dat  veniam  corvis,  vexat  censura  columbas. 
I  remain,  Rev.  and  dear  Sir,  yours,  &c. 

J.  FLETCHER. 


34  FIRST    CHECK 


LETTER  III. 

Hon,  and  Rev.  Sir, 

W  E  have  seen  how  exceedingly  commendable  was  Mr.  W.'s 
design  in  writing  what  you  have  extracted  from  his  last  Miautes  ;  and 
how  far  from  being  unanswerable  are  the  g-enera/ objections,  which 
some  have  moved  against  them.  Let  us  now  proceed  to  a  candid 
inquiry  into  the  true  meaning  of  the  propositions.  They  are  thus 
prefaced : 

We  said  in  1744,  "  We  have  leaned  too  much  towards  Galvanism.'* 
Wherein  ? 

This  single  sentence  is  enough,  I  grant,  to  make  some  persons 
account  Mr.  W.  a  heretic.  He  is  not  a  Calvinist !  And  what  is 
still  more  dreadful^  he  has  the  assurance  to  say,  that  he  has  leaned 
too  much  towards  Calvinism !  This  will  sound  like  a  double  heresy 
in  their  ears  ;  but  not  in  yours,  Sir,  who  seem  to  carry  your  anti- 
calvinistical  notions  farther  than  Mr.  W.  himself  He  never  spoke 
more  clearly  to  the  point  of  free  grace  than  you  do,  page  85,  of  your 
sermons  ;  "  God,"  say  you,  "  never  left  himself  without  witness,  not 
"  only  from  the  visible  things  of  the  creation,  but  likewise  from 
*'  the  inward  witness,  a  spiritual  seed  of  light  sown  in  the  soul  of 
"  every  son  of  man,  Jew,  Turk,  or  Pagan,  as  well  as  Christian, 
•'  whose  kindly  suscitations  whoever  follows,  will  gradually  perceive 
"  increasing  gleams  still  leading  farther  on  to  nearer  and  far  brighter 
"  advances,  till  at  length  a  full  and  perfect  day  bursts  forth  upon  his 
"  ravished  eyes."  In  this  single  sentence,  Sir,  you  bear  the  noblest 
testimony  to  all  the  doctrines  in  which  Mr.  W.  dissents  from  the 
Calvinists  :  you  begin  with  general  redemption^  and  end  with  perfec- 
tion, or  to  use  your  own  expression,  you  follow  him  from  the  spiritual 
seed  of  light  in  a  Turk,  quite  to  the  full  and  perfect  day,  bursting  forth 
upon  the  ravished  eyes  of  the  Pagan,  who  follows  the  kindly  suscitations 
of  divine  grace. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  35 

And  far  from  making  man  a  mere  machine,  you  tell  us,  page  140, 
"  It  is  true,  that  faith  is  the  gift  of  God,  but  the  exertions  of  that 
faith,  when  once  given,  lieth  in  ourselves.''^  Mr.  W.  grants  it,  Sir  ; 
but  permit  me  to  tell  you,  that  the  word  ourselves  being  printed  in 
italics,  seems  to  convey  rather  more  anti-calvinism  than  he  holds  ; 
for  he  is  persuaded  that  we  cannot  exert  faith  without  a  continual 
influence  of  the  same  divine  power  that  produced  it,  it  being  evident, 
upon  the  Gospel  plan,  that  without  Christ  we  can  do  nothing.  From 
these  and  the  like  passages  in  your  sermons,  I  conclude,  Sir,  that 
your  charge  of  dreadful  heresy  does  not  rest  upon  these  words,  "  We 
have  leaned  too  much  towards  Calvinism."  Pass  we  then  to  the 
next,  in  which  Mr.  W.  begins  to  show  wherein  he  has  consented  too 
much  to  the  Calvinists. 

I.  "  With  regard  to  ma7i's  faithfidness.  Our  Lord  himself  taught 
us  to  use  the  expression.  And  we  ought  never  to  be  ashamed  of  it. 
We  ought  steadily  to  assert,  on  his  authority,  that  if  a  man  is  not  faith- 
ful in  the  unrighteous  mammon^  God  will  not  give  him  the  true  riches.^* 

Now,  where  does  the  heresy  lie  here  ?  Is  it  in  the  word  ma/1'5 
faithfulness  ?  Is  there  so  much  faithfulness  to  God  and  man  among 
professors,  that  he  must  be  opposed  by  all  good  men,  who  dares  to 
use  the  bare  word  ?  Do  real  Protestants  account  man^s  faithfulness  a 
grace  of  supererogation,  and  quoting  Scripture  a  heresy  ?  Or  do  they 
slight  what  our  Lord  recommends  in  the  plainest  terms,  and  will  one 
day  reward  in  the  most  glorious  manner  ?  If  not,  why  are  they  going 
to  enter  a  protest  against  Mr.  W.  because  he  is  not  ashamed  of 
Christ  and  his  words  before  an  evil  and  adidterous  generation,  and 
will  not  keep  back  from  his  immense  flock  any  part  of  the  counsel  of 
God, — much  less  a  part  that  so  many  professors  overlook,  while 
some  are  daring  enough  to  lampoon  it,  and  others  wicked  enough  to 
trample  it  under  foot. 

O  Sir,  if  Mr.  W.  is  to  be  cast  out  of  your  synagogue  unless  he 
formally  recant  the  passage  he  has  quoted,  and  which  he  says  "  we 
are  not  to  be  ashamed  of;"  what  will  you  do  to  the  Son  of  God,  who 
spoke  it?  What  to  St.  Luke,  who  wrote  it?  And  what  to  good  Mr. 
Henry,  who  thus  comments  upon  it  ?  "  If  we  do  not  make  a  right 
"  use  of  the  gifts  of  God's  providence,  how  can  we  expect  from  him 
'*  those  present  and  future  comforts  which  are  the  gifts  of  his  spi- 
'' ritual  grace?  Our  Saviour  here  compares  these  ;  and  shows,  that 
*'  though  our  faithful  use  of  the  things  of  this  world  cannot  be  thought 
^'  to  merit  any  favour  at  the  hand  of  God,  yet  our  unfaithfulness  in 
"  the  use  of  them  may  be  justly  reckoned  a  forfeiture  of  that  grace 
■'  which  is  necessary  to  bring  us  to  glory.     And  that  is  it  which  our 


36  TiliST    CHECK 

"  Saviour  shows,  Luke  xvi.  10,  11,  12.  He  that  is  unjust,  unfaithful 
*'  in  the  least ;  is  unjust,  unfaithful  also  in  muck.  The  riches  of  thi^ 
"  world  are  the  less ;  grace  and  glory  are  the  greater.  Now  if  we 
"  be  unfaithful  in  the  less,  if  we  use  the  things  of  this  world  to  other 
"  purposes  than  those  to  which  they  were  given  us,  it  may  justly  be 
"  feared  we  shall  be  so  in  the  gifts  of  God's  grace,  that  we  will  re- 
"  ceive  them  also  in  vain,  and  therefore  they  will  be  denied  us.  He 
"  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least,  is  faithful  also  in  much.  He 
"  that  serves  God,  and  does  good  with  his  money,  will  serve  God  and 
"  do  good  with  the  more  noble  and  valuable  talents  of  wisdom  and 
"  grace,  and  spiritual  gifts,  and  the  earnests  of  heaven  :  but  he  that 
"  buries  the  one  talent  of  this  world's  wealth,  will  never  improve  the 
"  five  talents  of  spiritual  riches." 

Thus  speaks  the  honest  commentator :  and  whoever  charges  him 
with  legality  or  heresy  herein,  I  must  express  my  approbation 
by  a  shout  of  applause.  Hail  Henry  !  Hail  Wesley  !  Ye  faithful 
servants  of  the  most  high  God :  stand  it  out  against  an  Antinomian 
world.  Hail,  ye  followers  of  the  despised  Galilean  :  you  confess 
Him  and  his  words  before  a  perverse  generation^  he  will  confess  you 
before  his  Father  and  his  angels.  Let  not  the  scoffs,  let  not  the 
accusations,  even  of  good  people,  led  by  the  tempter,  appearing  as 
an  angel  of  light,  make  you  give  up  one  jot  or  tittle  of  your 
Lord's  Gospel.  Though  thousands  should  combine  to  brand  you 
as  Legalists,  Papists,  Heretics,  and  Antichrists,  stand  it  out :  Scrip- 
ture, conscience,  and  Jesus  are  on  your  side  ;  be  not  afraid  of  their  ter- 
ror, but  sanctify  the  Lord  God  in  your  hearts.  And  when  you  shall 
have  occupied  a  little  longer,  and  been  a  little  more  abused  by  your 
mistaken  companions,  your  Master  will  come  and  find  you  employed 
in  serving  his  family,  and  not  in  beating  your  fellow- servants.  And 
-while  the  unprofitable,  unfaithful,  quarrelsome  servant  is  cast  out,  he 
will  address  you,  with  a  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servants  :  ye  have 
been  faithful  over  a  few  things ;  I  will  make  you  rulers  over  many  things. 
Enter  into  the  joy  of  your  Lord. 

Excuse  the  length  of  this  address ;  it  dropped  from  me  before 
I  was  aware,  and  is  the  fruit  of  the  joy  I  feel  to  see  "the  John 
Goodwin  of  the  age,"  and  the  oracle  of  the  Calvinists,  so  fully  agree 
to  maintain  the  Christian  heresy  against  the  Antinomian  orthodoxy. 
Nay,  and  you  yourself  are  of  the  very  same  way  of  thinking.  For 
you  tell  us,  (page  89)  that  "  God  so  far  approved  of  the  advances 
**  Cornelius  had  made  towards  him  (by  praying  and  giving,  as  you  had 
''  observed  before,  much  alms  to  the  people)  under  the  slender  light 
'  offered  him,  of  his  earnest  desire  of  a  still  nearer  and  more  intimate 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  37 

*'  acquaintance  with  him,  and  of  the  improvements  he  had  made  of 
"  the  small  talent  he  had  committed  to  him,  that  he  was  now  about  to 
'♦  entrust  him  with  greater  and  far  better  treasures." 

In  the  mouth  of  two  such  witnesses  as  Mr.  Henry  and  yourself, 
Mr.  W.'s  doctrine  might  be  established  ;  but  as  I  fear  that  some  of 
pur  friends  will  soon  look  upon  you  both  as  tainted  with  his  heresy, 
I  shall  produce  some  plain  Scripture  instances,  to  prove  by  the  strong- 
est of  all  arguments,  matter  of  fact,  that  man's  mfaithfulness  in  the 
mammon  of  unrighteousness  is  attended  with  the  worst  of  consequences. 
You  know,  Sir,  what  destruction  this  sin  brought  upon  Achan,  and 
by  his  means  upon  Israel :  and  you  remember  how  Saul's  avarice, 
and  his  flying  upon  the  spoil  of  the  Amalekites,  cost  him  his  kingdom, 
together  with  the  divine  blessing.  You  will  perhaps  object  that 
"  they  forfeited  only  temporal  mercies  ;"  true,  if  they  repented  ;  but 
if  their  sin  sealed  up  the  hardness  of  their  heart,  then  they  lost  all. 

I  can  however  mention  two  who  indisputably  forfeited  both  spiri- 
tual and  eternal  blessings  ;  the  one  is,  the  moral  young  man,  whose 
fatal  attachment  to  wealth  is  mentioned  in  the  Gospel.  Go,  said 
our  Lord  to  him,  sell  all  that  thou  hast,  and  give  to  the  poor,  come,  fol- 
low me,  and  thou  shalt  have  treasure  in  heaven.  He  was  unfaith- 
ful in  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness :  he  would  not  comply  wiih 
the  proposal;  and  though  Jesus  loved  him,  yet  he  stood  firm  to  his 
word,  he  did  not  give  him  the  true  riches:  the  unhappy  wretch 
chose  to  have  his  good  things  in  this  world,  and  so  lost  them  in 
the  next. 

The  other  instance  is  that  of  Judas  :  he  left  all,  at  first,  to  fol- 
low Jesus ;  but  when  the  devil  placed  him  upon  the  high  mountain 
of  temptation,  and  showed  him  the  horrors  of  poverty  and  the  allur- 
ing wealth  of  this  world,  covetousness,  his  besetting  sin,  prevailed 
again ;  and  as  he  carried  the  bag,  he  turned  thief,  and  made  a  private 
purse.  You  know,  Sir,  that  the  love  of  money  proved  to  him 
the  root  of  all  evil,  and  that  on  account  of  his  unfaithfulness  in  the  mam- 
mon of  unrighteousness,  our  Lord  not  only  did  not  give  him  the  true 
riches,  hat  took  his  every  talent  from  him,  his  apostleship  on  earth, 
and  one  of  the  twelve  thrones,  which  he  had  promised  him  in  com- 
mon with  the  other  disciples. 

Some,  I  know,  will  excuse  Judas  by  fathering  his  crime  and  dam- 
nation upon  the  decrees  of  God.  But  we,  who  are  not  numbered 
among  real  Protestants,  think  that  sinners  are  reprobated  as  they  are 
elected,  that  is,  says  St.  Peter,  according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God : 
we  are  persuaded,  that  because  God's  knowledge  is  infinite,  he  fore= 
Vol.  I.  6 


38  FIRST    CHECK 

knows  future  contingencies  ;  and  we  think,  we  should  insult  both  his 
holiness  and  his  omniscience,  if  we  did  not  believe  that  he  could  both 
foresee  and  foretell  that  Judas  would  be  unfaithful,  without  necessitat- 
ing him  to  be  so,  that  the  Scriptures  might  be  fulfilled ;  we  assert 
then,  that  as  Jesus  loved  the  poor  covetous  young  man,  so  he  loved 
his  poor  covetous  disciple,  for  had  he  hated  him,  he  must  have  acted 
the  base  part  of  a  dissembler,  by  showing  him  for  years  as  much  love 
as  he  did  the  other  apostles  ;  an  idea  too  horrid  for  a  Christian  to  enter- 
tain, 1  shall  not  say  ofGodmadeJlesh,  but  even  of  a  man  that  has  any 
sincerity  or  truth.  Judas's  damnation,  therefore,  and  the  ruin  of  the 
young  man,  according  to  the  second  axiom  in  the  Gospel,  were  merely 
of  themselves,  by  their  unbelief  and  unfaithfulness  in  the  mammon  of 
unrighteousness ;  for  how  could  they  believe,  seeing  they  reposed  their 
trust  in  uncertain  riches ! 

Thus,  Sir,  both  the  express  declaration  of  our  Lord,  and  the  plain 
histories  of  the  Scripture,  agree  to  confirm  this  fundamental  principle 
in  Christianity,  that  when  God  works  upon  man,  he  expects  faithful- 
ness from  roan  ;  and  that  when  man,  as  a  moral  agent,  grieves  and 
quenches  the  Spirit,  that  strives  to  make  him  faithful,  temporal  and 
eternal  ruin  are  the  inevitable  consequence. 

Thus  far,  then,  the  Minutes  contain  a  great,  evangelical  truth,  and 
not  a  shadow  of  heresy.  Let  us  see  whether  the  dreadful  snake 
lurks  under  the  second  proposition. 

II.  '*  We  have  leaned  too  much  towards  Calvinism.  2.  With  re- 
gard to  working  for  life.  This  also  our  Lord  has  expressly  com- 
manded us.  Labour  [^E^yul^ec-B-i^  literally,  work) /or  the  meat  that 
endureth  to  everlasting  life.  And  in  fact  every  believer,  till  he  comes 
to  glory,  works  for,  as  well  as  froms  life. 

Mere  Mr.  W.  strikes  at  a  fatal  mistake  of  all  Antinomians,  many 
honest  Calvinists,  and  not  a  few  who  are  Arminians  in  sentiment  and 
Calvinists  in  practice.  All  these,  when  they  see  that  man  is  by 
nature  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  lie  easy  in  the  mire  of  iniquity, 
idly  waiting  till  by  an  irresistible  act  of  omnipotence,  God  pulls  them 
out  without  any  striving  on  their  part.  Multitudes  uncomfortably 
stick  here,  and  will  probably  continue  to  do  so,  till  they  receive  and 
heartily  embrace  that  part  of  the  Gospel  which  is  now,  alas!  called 
heresy.  Then  shall  these  poor  prisoners  in  Giant  Despair's  castle, 
find  the  key  of  their  dungeon  about  them,  and  perceive  that  the  word 
is  nigh  them,  yea,  in  their  mouth  and  in  their  heart ;  stirring  up  the 
gift  of  God  within  them,  and  in  hope  believing  against  hope,  they  will 
happily  lay  hold  on  eternal  life,  and  apprehend,  by  the  confidence  of 
faith,  him  that  has  apprehended  them  by  convictions  of  sin. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  39 

But  now,  instead  of  imitating  Lazarus,  who  when  the  Lord  had 
called  him,  and  restored  life  to  his  putrifying  body,  came  forth  out  of 
his  grave,  though  he  was  bound  hand  and  foot ;  these  mistaken  men 
indolently  wait  till  the  Lord  drags  them  out,  not  considering  that  it  is 
more  than  he  has  promised  to  do.  On  the  contrary,  he  reproves 
by  his  prophet,  those  that  do  not  stir  themselves  up  to  lay  hold  on  him ; 
and  deciding  the  point  himself,  says.  Turn  ye  at  my  reproof;  behold, 
I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  you;  because  I  called,  and  ye  refused^ 
I  stretched  out  my  hands  unto  you,  and  no  man  regarded,  I  will  mock 
isohen  your  fear  cometh. 

Should  you  object,  that ''  the  case  is  not  similar,  because  the  Lord 
gave  life  to  the  dead  body  of  Lazarus,  whereas  our  souls  are  dead  in 
sin  by  nature.''''  True,  Sir,  by  nature  ;  but  does  not  grace  reign  to 
control  nature  ?  And  as  by  the  offence  of  one,  judgment  came 
upon  all  men  to  condemnation  ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one, 
is  not  the  free  gift  come  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life  ?  Ac- 
cording to  the  promise  made  to  our  first  parents,  and  of  course  to 
all  men  then  contained  in  their  loins,  is  not  the  seed  of  the  woman 
always  nigh,  both  to  reveal  and  bruise  the  serpenVshead?  Is  not  Christ 
the  light  of  men — the  light  of  the  world  come  into  the  world  ?  Shineth 
he  not  in  the  darkness  of  our  nature,  even  when  the  darkness  compre- 
hends him  not  ?  And  is  not  this  light  the  life,  the  spiritual  life  of 
men?  Can  this  be  denied,  if  the  light  is  Christ,  and  if  Christ  is  the 
resurrection  and  the  life,  who  came  that  we  might  have  life,  and  that 
we  might  have  it  more  abundantly  ? 

In  this  scriptural  view  oi  free  grace,  what  room  is  there  for  the 
ridiculous  cavil,  that  "  Mr.  W.  wants  the  dead  to  work  for  life  ?" 
God,  of  his  infinite  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ,  g;ives  to  poor  sinners,  natu- 
rally dead  in  sin,  a  talent  of  free,  preventing,  quickening  grace, 
which  reproves  them  of  sin  ;  and  when  it  is  followed,  of  righteousness  and 
judgment.  This,  which  some  Calvinists  call  common  grace,  is  granted 
to  all,  without  any  respect  of  persons  :  so  that  even  the  poor  Jew 
Herod,  if  he  had  not  preferred  the  smiles  of  his  Herodias  to  the  con- 
vincing light  of  Christ,  which  shone  in  his  conscience,  would  have 
been  saved  as  well  as  John  the  Baptist ;  and  that  poor  Heathen  Felix, 
if  he  bad  not  hardened  his  heart  in  the  day  of  his  visitation,  would 
have  sweetly  experienced  that  Christ  had  as  much  tasted  death  for 
him  as  he  did  for  St.  Paul.  The  living  light  visited  them  :  but  they, 
not  working  while  it  was  day,  or  refusing  to  cut  off  the  right  hand 
which  the  Lord  called  for,  fell  at  last  into  that  night  wherein  no  man 
can  work :  their  candlestick  was  removed,  their  lamp  went  out :  they 
quenched  their  smoking  flax,  or  in  other  words,  their  talent  unimproved 


40  FIRST    CHECK 

was  justly  taken  from  them.  Thus,  though  once  through  grace  they 
could  work,  they  died  while  they  lived  ;  and  so  were,  as  says  St. 
Jude,  twice  dead,  dead  in  Adam  by  that  sentence,  in  the  day  that 
thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely  die;  and  dead  in  themselves, 
by  personally  renouncing  Christ  the  life,  or  rejecting  the  light  of  his 
convincing  Spirit. 

This  being  premised,  I  ask,  Where  is  the  heresy  in  this  paragraph 
of  the  Minutes  ?  Does  it  consist  in  quoting  a  plain  passage  out  of  one 
of  our  Lord's  sermons  ?  Or  in  daring  to  produce  in  the  original,  under 
the  horrible  form  of  the  decagrammaton  ^E^ya^evB-s,  that  dreadful 
tetragrammaton  work?  Surely,  Sir,  you  have  too  much  piety  to 
maintain  the  former,  and  too  much  good  sense  to  assert  the  latter. 
Does  it  consist  in  saying  that  hdievers  v^^ork  from  life  ?  (for  of  such 
only  Mr.  W.  here  speaks.)  Do  not  all  grant,  that  he  who  believeth 
hath  life,  yen,  everlasting  life,  and  therefore  can  v7ork?  And  have 
not  I  proved  from  Scripture,  that  the  very  Heathens  are  not  without 
some  light  and  grace  to  work  suitably  to  their  dispensation  ? 

The  heresy,  say  you,  does  not  consist  in  asserting  that  the  believer 
works  from,  but  for  life.  Does  it  indeed  ?  Then  the  Lord  Jesus  is 
the  heretic ;  for  Mr.  W.  only  repeats  what  he  spoke  above  1700 
years  ago  :  Labour,  says  he,  ('E^y«t^£c-5e)  work  for  the  meat  that 
cndureth  to  everlasting  life.  Enter  therefore  your  protest  against 
St.  John's  Gospei,  if  Christ  will  not  formally  recant  it;  and  not 
against  the  Minutes  of  his  servant,  who  dares  not  take  away  from 
his  Lord^s  zvords,  for  fear  God  should  take  army  his  part  out  of  the 
hook  of  life  ! 

But  if  the  Son  of  God  be  a  heretic  for  putting  the  unbelieving 
Jews  upon  working  by  that  dreadful  word,  ['Eoyu^ecrS-e)  St.  Paul  is 
undoubtedly  an  arch  heretic,  for  corroborating  it  by  a  strong  prepo- 
sition :  {KuT£pyu'(e(r.^e)  says  he  to  the  Philippians,  work  out — and 
what  is  most  astonishing,  zvork  out  your  own  salvation.  Your  own  sal- 
vation! Wh}',  Paul,  this  is  even  worse  than  working /or  Z/fe ;  for 
salvation  implies  a  deliverance  from  all  guilt,  sin,  and  misery  ;  together 
with  obtaining  the  life  of  grace  here,  and  the  life  of  glory  hereafter. 
Ah  !  poor  legal  apostle,  what  a  pity  is  it  thou  didst  not  live  in  our 
evangelical  age  !  Some,  by  explaining  to  thee  the  mystery  of  finished 
salvation,  or  by  protesting  in  a  body  against  thy  dreadful  heresy,  might 
have  saved  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Christianity ;  and  the  John 
Goodwin  of  the  age  would  not  have  had  thee  to  bear  him  out  in  his 
Pharisaical  and  Papistical  delusions  ! 

Here  you  reply,  that  "  St.  Paul  gives  God  all  the  glory  by  main- 
taining that  it  is  he  who  works  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  41 

pleasure.^'  And  does  not  Mr.  W.  do  the  same  ?  Has  he  not  for  near 
forty  years  steadily  asserted,  that  all  power  to  think  a  good  thought, 
much  more  to  will  or  do  a  good  work,  is  from  God,  hy  mere  grace, 
through  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  agency  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  ?  If  any  dare  to  deny  it,  myriads  of  witnesses  who  have  heard 
him  preach,  and  thousands  of  printed  sermons,  hymns,  and  tracts, 
dispersed  through  the  three  kingdoms,  will  prove  it. 

But  let  us  come  closer  to  the  point.  Is  not  Christ  the  bread  that 
came  down  from  heaven  to  give  life  to  the  world  ? — Is  he  not  the  meat 
that  endureth  to  everlasting  life  ?  The  meat  which  he  directs  even  the 
poor  Capernaites  to  work  for  ?  Must  we  not  come  to  him  for  that 
meat  ?  Is  not  coming  to  Christ  a  work  of  the  heart  ?  Yea,  the  work 
of  God  ?  The  work  that  God  peculiarly  calls  for  ?  John  vi.  28,  29. 
Does  not  our  Lord  complain  of  those  who  will  not  work  for  life  ? 
That  is,  come  unto  him  that  they  might  have  life,  or  that  they  might  have 
it  more  abundantly?  And  must  not  every  believer  do  this  work — 
come  to  Christ  for  life,  yea,  and  live  upon  him  every  day  and  every 
hour  ? 

Again,  Sir,  consider  these  Scriptures,  He  that  believeth  hath  ever- 
lasting life  ;  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life  ;  compare  them  with  the 
following  complaint.  None  stirreth  up  himself  to  lay  hold  on  God  ;  and 
with  the  charge  of  St.  Paul  to  Timothy,  Lay  hold  on  eternal  life ;  and 
let  us  know,  whether  stirring  up  oneself  to  lay  hold  on  the  God  of  our 
life,  and  actually  laying  hold  on  eternal  life,  are  not  works,  and  works 
for,  as  well  as  from  life  !  And  whether  believers  are  dispensed  from 
these  works  till  they  come  to  glory  ? 

Once  more  ;  please  to  tell  us,  if  praying,  using  ordinances,  running 
a  race,  taking  up  the  cross,  keeping  under  the  body,  wresthng,  6ght- 
ing  a  good  fight,  are  not  works  ;  and  if  all  believers  are  not  to  do 
them,  till  death  brings  them  a  discharge  ?  If  you  say,  that  "  they  do 
them  from  life,  and  not  for  life,^^  you  still  point-blank  oppose  our 
Lord's  express  declaration. 

A  similar  instance  will  make  you  sensible  of  it.  Lot  flies  out  of 
Sodom.  How  many  works  does  he  do  at  once  !  He  hearkens  to 
God's  messengers,  obeys  their  voice,  sacrifices  his  property,  forsakes 
all,  prays,  runs,  and  escapes  for  his  life.  "  No,"  says  one,  wiser  than 
seven  men  who  can  render  a  reason,  *'  You  should  not  say,  that  he 
escapes /or  life,  but  from  life  :  do  not  hint,  that  he  runs  '  to  preserve 
his  Ufe  ;'  you  should  say  that  he  does  it  '  because  he  is  alive.'  " 
What   an  admirable  distinction  is  this ! 

Again  ;  my  friend  is  consumptive.  I  send  for  a  physician  who  pre- 
scribes *'  he  must  ride  out  every  day  for  his  life."     Some  other  phy- 


42  FIRST  CHECK 

sicians  see  the  prescription,  and  by  printed  letters  raise  all  the  gen- 
tlemen of  the  faculty,  to  insist  in  a  body  on  a  formal  recantation  of 
this  dreadful  prescription  ;  declaring  the  health  of  thousands  is  at 
stake,  if  we  say  that  consumptive  people  are  to  ride/o»'  life,  as  well 
as  from  life.     Risum  teneatis  amici? 

But  they  who  protest  against  Mr.  VV.  for  maintaining  that  we  ought 
to  work  for^  as  well  as  from  life,  must  protest  also  against  a  body  of 
Puritan  Divines,  who,  in  the  last  century,  being  shocked  at  Dr. 
Crisp's  doctrine,  thus  bore  their  testimony  against  it.  "  To  say  salva- 
*'  tion  is  not  the  end  of  any  good  work  we  do,  or,  we  are  to  act  from 
"  life,  and  not  for  life,  were  to  abandon  the  human  nature  ;  it  were 
*'  to  teach  us  to  violate  the  great  precepts  of  the  Gospel ;  it  supposes 
**  one  bound  to  do  more  for  the  salvation  of  others,  than  our  own  ;  it 
"  were  to  make  all  the  threatenings  of  eternal  death,  and  promises  of 
«'  eternal  life  in  the  Gospel,  useless,  as  motives  to  shun  the  one,  or 
"  obtain  the  other  :  And  it  makes  the  scripture-characters  and  com- 
**  mendation  of  the  most  eminent  saints,  a  fault  :"  For  they  all  esca- 
ped out  of  Sodom  or  Babylon  for  their  lives ;  they  all  wrestled  for? 
and  "  laid  hold  on,  eternal  life."  Preface  to  Mr.  Flavel's  book 
against  Antinomianism.  Thus,  Sir,  the  very  Calvinists  were  ashamed, 
a  hundred  years  ago,  of  the  grand  Crispian  tenet  that  we  ought  not 
to  work  for  life. 

And  I  am  glad  to  find,  you  are  as  far  from  this  error  as  they  were ; 
for  you  tell  us  in  your  Sermons,  page  69,  that  "The  gracious  end  of 
"  Christ's  coming  into  the  world  was  to  give  eternal  life  to  those  who 
*'  were  dead  in  sins,  and  that  eternal  life  does  consist  in  knowing  the 
"  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  he  hath  sent :"  You  assure  us 
next,  that  this  life  begins  by  "an  exploring  desire,"  and  that  God, 
by  giving  it,  "  only  means  to  be  earnestly  sought,  that  he  may  be 
"  more  successfully  and  more  happily  found." 

Perhaps  some  suppose  the  expression  of  working /or  life,  implies 
the  working  in  order  to  merit  or  purchase  life.  But,  as  our  Lord's 
words  convey  no  such  idea,  so  Mr.  W.  takes  care  positively  to  ex- 
clude it,  by  those  words,  A^t  by  the  merit  of  works :  for  he  knows 
that  eternal  life  is  the  gift  of  God  ;  and  yet  with  St.  Paul  he  says, 
Labour  to  enter  into  rest^  lest  ye  fall  after  the  example  of  IsraeVs  un- 
belief:  and  with  the  great  anticrispian  Divine,  Jesus  Christ,  he  cries 
aloud,  Strive  to  walk  in  the  narrow  way ; — agonize  to  enter  in  at  the 
strait  gate  that  leads  to  life. 

I  pass  to  the  third  instance  which  he  produces  of  his  having  lean 
ed  too  much  towards  Calvinism. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  43 

HI.  **  We  have  received  it  as  a  maxim,  that  a  man  is  to  do  no- 
thing "in  order  to  justification  :"  Nothing  can  be  more  false  Who- 
ever desires  to  find  favour  with  God,  should  cease  from  evil  and 
learn  to  do  well.  Whoever  repents,  should  do  works  meet  for  repent- 
ance. And  if  this  be  not  m  order  to  find  favour,  what  does  he  do 
them  for?" 

To  do  Mr.  W.  justice,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  what  he  means 
by  justification.  And  first,  he  does  not  mean,  that  general  bene- 
volence of  our  merciful  God  towards  sinful  mankind,  whereby 
through  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  he  casts 
a  propitious  look  upon  them,  and  freely  makes  them  partakers  of 
ihe  light  that  enlightens  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  This 
general  loving-kindness  is  certainly  previous  to  any  thing  we  can 
do  to  find  it ;  for  it  always  prevents  us,  saying  to  us  in  our  very  in- 
fancy, live ;  and  when  we  turn  from  the  paths  of  life,  still  crying, 
Why  will  ye  die  ?  In  consequence  of  this  general  mercy,  our  Lord 
says.  Let  little  children  come  unto  me ;  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  Much  less  does  Mr.  W.  understand  what  Dr.  Crisp  calls 
eternal  justification ^  which,  because  I  do  not  see  it  in  the  Scripture, 
I  shall  say  nothing  of. 

But  the  justification  he  speaks  of,  as  something  that  we  must^nc?, 
and  in  order  to  which  something  must  be  done,  is  either  that  public, 
and  final  justification  which  our  Lord  mentions  in  the  Gospel,  By  thy 
words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned  • 
and  in  this  sense  no  man  in  his  wits  will  find  fault  with  Mr.  W.'s  as- 
sertion ;  as  it  is  evident  that  we  must  absolutely  do  something,  that  is, 
speak  good  words,  in  order  to  be  justified  by  our  words.  Or  he  means 
forgiveness,  and  the  witness  of  it ;  that  wonderful  transaction  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  in  a  returning  prodigal's  conscience,  by  which  the  for- 
giveness of  his  sin  is  proclaimed  to  him  through  the  blood  of  sprink- 
ling.— This  is  what  Mr.  W.  and  St.  Paul  generally  mean.  It  is  thus, 
that  Being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

And  now,  do  not  Scripture,  common  sense,  and  experience,  show, 
that  something  must  be  done  in  order  to  attain  or  find,  though  not  to 
merit  and  purchase  this  justification  ? 

Please  to  answer  the  following  questions,  fourjded  upon  the  express 
declarations  of  God's  word.  To  him  that  ordereth  his  conversation 
aright,  will  i  show  the  salvation  of  God.  Is  ordering  our  conversation 
aright,  doing  nothing  ? — Repent  ye,  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins  may 
be  blotted  out.  Are  repentance  and  coniiersion  nothing  ?  Come  unto  me^ 
all  ye  that  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  I  will  justify  you. 
Ts  coming  doing  nothing?  Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well:  Come  now. 


44  FIRST  CHECK 

let  us  reason  together^  and  though  your  sins  be  red  as  crimson,  they  shall 
he  white  as  snoxv — you  shall  be  justified.  Is  ceasing  to  do  evil,  and  learn- 
ing to  do  well,  doing  nothing  ?  Seek  the  Lord  while  he  may  he  found,  call 
upon  him  while  he  is  near.  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way,  and  the  un- 
righteous man  his  thoughts  ;  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he 
will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  par- 
don. Is  seeking,  calling,  forsaking  one^s  way,  and  returning  to  the  Lord, 
a  mere  nothing  ? — Ask,  and  you  shall  receive  ;  seek,  and  you  shall  find  ; 
knock,  and  it  shall  he  opened  unto  you.  Yea,  take  the  kingdom  of  hea- 
ven by  force.  Is  seeking,  asking,  knocking,  and  taking  by  force,  doing 
absolutely  nothing?  Please  to  answer  these  questions,  and  when  yoa 
have  done,  I  will  throw  one  or  two  hundred  more  of  the  like  kind  in 
your  way. 

Let  us  now  see  whether  Reason  is  not  for  Mr.  W.  as  well  as  Scrip- 
ture. Do  you  not  maintain,  that  "  believing  is  necessary  in  order  to  our 
justification  ?"  If  you  do,  you  subscribe  to  Mr.  W.'s  heresy  ;  for  be- 
lieving is  not  only  doing  something,  but  necessarily  supposes  a  variety 
of  things.  Faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  sometimes  by  reading,  which 
implies  attending  the  ministry  of  the  word,  and  searching  the  Scrip- 
tures, as  the  Bereans  did.  It  likewise  presupposes  at  least  the  at- 
tention of  the  mind,  and  consent  of  the  heart,  to  a  revealed  truth  ;  or 
the  consideration,  approbation,  and  receiving  of  an  object  proposed  to 
us  :  Nay,  it  implies  renouncing  worldly,  and  seeking  divine  honour  : 
For,  says  our  Lord,  How  can  you  believe  who  receive  honour  one  of 
another,  and  seek  not  the  honour  that  cometh  of  God  only.  And  if  none 
can  believe  in  Christ  unto  salvation,  but  those  who  give  up  seeking 
worldly  honours  ;  by  a  parity  of  reason,  they  must  give  up  following 
fleshly  lusts,  and  putting  their  trust  in  uncertain  riches  :  in  a  word, 
they  must  own  themselves  sick,  and  renounce  their  physicians  of  no 
value,  before  they  can  make  one  true  application  to  the  invaluable 
Physician.  What  a  variety  of  things  is  therefore  implied  in  believing, 
which  we  cannot  but  acknowledge  to  be  previous  to  justification  ! 
Who  can  then,  consistently  with  reason,  blame  Mr.  W.  for  saying 
Something  must  be  done  in  order  to  justification  ! 

Again,  if  nothing  be  required  of  us  in  order  to  justification,  who 
can  find  fault  with  those  that  die  in  a  state  of  condemnation  ?  They 
were  born  in  sin,  and  children  of  wrath,  and  nothing  was  required  of 
them  in  order  to  find  favour  :  it  remains,  therefore,  that  they  are 
damned,  through  an  absolute  decree,  made  thousands  of  years  before 
they  had  any  existence !  If  some  can  swallow  this  camel  with  the 
greatest  ease,  I  doubt.  Sir,  it  will  not  go  down  with  you,  without  bear- 
ing very  hard  upon  the  knowledge  you  have  of  the  God  of  Love,  and 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus. 


TO  ANTlNOMlANiSM.  45 

Once  more  :  Mr.  W.  concludes  his  proposition  with  a  very  pertinent 
question  :  "  When  a  man,  that  is  not  justified,  does  7s)orks  meet  for  re- 
pentante,  "svhat  does  he  do  them  for  ?'''  Permit  me  to  answer  it  according 
to  Scripture  and  common  sense.  If  he  do  them  in  order  to  purchase 
the  divine  favour,  he  is  under  a  self^ighteous  delusion  ;  but  if  he  dd 
them,  as  Mr.  W.  says,  in  order  to  find  what  Christ  hath  purchased  for 
him,  he  acts  the  part  of  a  wise  Protestant. 

Should  you  say  that  such  a  penitent  does  works  meet  for  repentance, 
from  a  sense  of  gratitude  for  redeeming  love  :  I  answer,  this  is  impos- 
sible ;  for  that  love  must  be  shed  abroad  in  his  heart,  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
given  untb  hdm,  in  consequence  of  his  justiticatioh,  before  he  can  act 
from  the  sense  of  that  love,  and  the  gratitude  which  it  excites.  I  hope 
it  is  no  heresy  to  maintain,  that  the  cause  must  go  before  the  effect. 
I  conclude  tben,  that  those  who  have  not  yet  found  the  pardoning  love 
of  God,  do  works  meet  for  repentance  in  order  to  find  it.  They  ab- 
stain from  those  outward  evils  which  once  they  pursued  ;  they  do  the 
outward  good  which  the  convincing  Spirit  prompts  them  to  ^  they  use 
the  means  of  grace,  confess  their  sins,  and  ask  pardon  for  them  ;  ia 
short,  they  seek  the  Lord,  encouraged  by  that  promise,  Thty  that  seek 
me  early  Ishall find  me.  And  Mr.  W.  supposes  they  seek  in  order  to 
find.    In  the  name  of  candour,  where  is  the  harm  of  that  supposition. 

When  the  poor  woman  has  tost  her  piece  of  silver,  she  lights  a  can- 
dle, says  our  Lord,  she  sweeps  the  house,  and  searches  diligently  till  she 
find  it.  Mr.  W.  asks.  If  she  do  not  do  all  this  in  order  to  find  it,  what 
does  she  do  it  for  ?  At  this  the  alarm  is  taken^  and  the  post  carries 
through  various  provinces,  printed  letters  against  old  Mordecai,  and 
Si  synod  is  called  together,  to  protest  against  the  dreadful  error ! 

This  reminds  me  of  a  little  anecdote.  Some  centuries  ago,  one 
Virgilius  (I  think)  a  German  Bishop,  was  bold  enough  to  look  over 
the  walls  of  ignorance  and  superstition,  which  then  enclosed  all  Eu- 
rope. And  he  saw,  that  if  the  earth  was  round,  there  must  be  anti- 
podes. Some  minutes  of  his  observations  were  sent  to  the  Pope. 
His  Holiness,  who  understood  geography  as  much  as  divinity,  took 
fright,  fancying  the  unheard-of  assertion  was  injurious  to  the  very 
fundamental  principles  of  Christianity.  He  directly  called  together 
the  Cardinals,  as  wise  as  himself,  and  by  their  advice,  issued  out  a  bull, 
condemning  the  heretical  doctrine,  and  the  poor  Bishop  was  obliged 
to  make  a  forma!  recantation  of  it,  under  pain  of  excommunication. 
Which  are  we  to  admire  most?  The  zeal  of  the  conclave,  or  that  of 
the  real  Protestants  ?  In  the  meantime  let  me  observe,  that  as  all  the 
Roman  Catholics  do  now  acknowledge,  that  there  are  antipodes,  so  all 
real  Protestants  will  one  day  acknowledge,  that  penitents  seek  the 
Vol.  h  7 


46  FIRST  CHECK 

favour  of  God  in  order  to  find  it ;  unless  some  rare  genius  should  be 
ablie  to  demonstrate  that  it  is  in  order  to  lose  it. 

Haying  defended  Mr.  W.'s  third  proposition  from  Scripture  and 
common  sense,  permit  me  to  do  it  also  from  experience.  And  here  I 
might  appeal  to  the  most  establi||hed  persons  in  Mr.  W.'s  Societies  ; 
but  as  their  testimony  may  have  little  weight  with  you,  I  waive  it,  and 
appeal  to  all  the  accounts  of  sound  conversions  that  have  been  published 
since  Calvin's  days.  Show  me  one,  Sir,  wherein  it  appears  that  a 
mourner  in  Sion  found  the  above-described  justification,  without  doing 
some  previous  works  meet  for  repentance.  If  you  cannot  produce  one 
such  instance,  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine  is  supported  by  the  printed  experi- 
ences of  all  the  converted  Calvinists,  as  well  as  of  all  the  believers  in 
his  own  Societies.  Nor  am  I  afraid  to  appeal  even  to  the  experience 
of  your  own  friends.  If  any  one  of  these  can  say  with  a  good  con- 
science, that  he  found  the  above-described  justification  without  first 
stopping  in  the  career  of  outward  sin,  without  praying,  seeking,  and 
confessing  his  guilt  and  misery,  I  promise  to  give  up  the  Minutes.  But 
if  none  can  make  such  a  declaration,  you  must  grant,  Sir,  that  expe- 
rience is  on  Mr.  W.'s  side,  as  much  as  reason,  revelation,  the  best 
Calvinists,  and  yourself.     I  say  yourself. 

Give  me  leave  to  produce  but  one  instance.  Page  76  of  your  Ser- 
mons, you  address  those  "  who  see  themselves  destitute  of  that  know- 
ledge of  God  which  is  eternal  life,"  the  very  same  thing  that  Mr.  W. 
calls  justification  :  and  which  you  define  *'A  home-felt  knowledge  of 
God  by  the  experience  of  his  love  being  shed  abroad  in  our  hearts  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  us  :  the  Spirit  of  God  bearing  witness  with 
our  spirits^  that  we  are  the  children  of  God ;"  and  you  recommend  to 
them  "  to  seek  and  press  after  it."  Now,  Sir,  seeking  and  pressing  af- 
ter it,  is  certainly  doing  something  in  order  to  find  it. 

I  must  not  conclude  my  Vindication  of  the  third  proposition,  with- 
out  answering  a  specious  objection.  "  If  we  must  do  something  in  order 
to  justification,  farewell /ree  justification  :  it  is  no  more  of  grace  but 
of  works,  and  consequently  of  debt.  The  middle  wall  of  partition 
between  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  Church  of  England  is  pulled 
down,  and  the  two  sticks  in  the  hands  of  that  heretical  juggler,  J.  W, 
are  become  one." 

I  reply,  1.  that  some  who  think  they  are  real  pillars  in  the  Protest- 
ant church,  may  be  nearer  the  Church  of  Rome  than  they  are  aware 
of:  for  Rome  is  far  more  remarkable  for  lording  it  over  God's  heri- 
tage, and  calling  the  most  faithful  servants  of  God  heretics,  than  even 
for  her  Pharisaic  exalting  of  good  works. — 2.  If  the  Church  of  Rome 
had  not  insisted  upon  the  necessity  of  unrequired^  unprofitable,  and 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  47 

foolish  works  ;  and  if  she  had  not  arrogantly  ascribed  saving  merit  to 
works,  yea,  to  merely  external  performances,  and  by  that  means 
clouded  the  merits  of  Christ,  no  reasonable  Protestant  would  have 
separated  from  her  on  account  of  her  regard  for  works.  3.  Nothing 
can  be  more  absurd  than  to  affirm  that  when  '"something  is  required 
to  be  done  in  order  to  receive  a  favour,  the  favour  loses  the  name  of 
a  free  gift,  and  directly  becomes  a  debt."  Long,  too  long,  persons 
who  have  more  honesty  than  wisdom,  have  been  frighted  from  the 
plain  path  of  duty  by  a  phantom  of  their  own  making.  O  may  the 
snare  break  at  last !  And  why  should  it  not  break  now  ?  Have  not 
sophisms  been  wire-drawn,  till  they  break  of  themselves  in  the 
sight  of  every  attentive  spectator  ? 

I  say  to  two  beggars.  Hold  out  your  hand  ;  here  is  an  alms  for  you. 
The  one  complies,  and  the  other  refuses.  Who  in  the  world  will 
dare  to  say  that  my  charity  is  no  more  a/ree  ^ifi^  because  1  bestow  it 
only  upon  the  man  that  held  out  his  hand  ?  Will  nothing  make  it/r«« 
but  my  wrenching  his  hand  open,  or  forcing  my  bounty  down  his 
throat  ?  Again,  the  king  says  to  four  rebels,  Throw  down  your  arms  ; 
surrender,  and  you  shall  have  a  place  both  in  my  favour  and  at  court. 
One  of  them  obeys  and  becomes  a  great  man  ;  the  others,  upon  refusal, 
are  caught  and  hanged  :  what  sophister  will  face  me  down,  that  the 
pardon  and  plaoe  of  the  former,  are  not  freely  bestowed  upon  him, 
because  he  did  something  in  order  to  obtain  them  ?  Once  more. 

The  God  of  providence  says,  If  you  plough,  sow,  harrow,  fence, 
and  weed  your  fields,  I  will  give  the  increase,  and  you  shall  have  a 
crop.  Farmers  obey  :  and  are  they  to  believe,  that  because  they  do 
so  many  things  towards  their  harvest,  it  is  not  the  free  gift  of  heaven  ? 
Do  not  all  those  who  fear  God,  know  that  their  ground,  seed,  cattle, 
strength,  yea,  and  their  very  life,  are  the  gifts  of  God  ?  Does  not  this 
prevent  their  claiming  a  crop  as  a  debt  ?  and  make  them  confess,  that 
though  it  was  suspended  on  their  ploughing,  kc.  it  is  the  unmerited 
bounty  of  heaven. 

Apply  this.  Sir,  to  the  present  case,  and  you  will  see  that  our  doing 
something  in  order  to  justification,  does  not  in  the  least  hinder  it  from 
being  a  free  gift ;  because  whatever  we  do  in  order  to  it,  we  do  it  by 
the  grace  of  God  preventing  us,  that  we  may  have  a  good  will,  and 
working  with  us  when  we  have  that  good  will  ;  all  being  of  free, 
most  absolutely  free  grace,  through  the  merits  of  Christ.  And 
nevertheless,  so  sure  as  a  farmer,  in  the  appointed  ways  of  Provi- 
dence, shall  have  no  harvest  if  he  do  nothing  towards  it,  a  professor 
in  the  appointed  ways  of  grace  (let  him  talk  of  finished  salvation  all 
the  year  round)  shall  go  without  justification  and  salvation,  unless  ye 


48  FIRST  CHECK 

do  something  towards  them.  He  that  now  goeth  on  his  way  weepings 
says  the  Psalmist,  and  beareth  forth  good  seed,  shall  doubtless  come 
again  with  joy,  and  bring  his  sheaves  with  him.  Be  not  deceived,  SRys 
the  apostle,  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap ;  and  he 
only  that  soweth  to  the  Spirit,  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting, 
David,  therefore,  and  St.  Paul,  must  be  proved  enemies  to  free  grace, 
before  Mr.  W.  can  be  represented  as  such  ;  for  they  both  sowed  in 
tears  before  they  reaped  in  joy ;  their  doctrine  and  experience  went 
hand  in  hand  together. 

Having  now  vindicated  the  three  first  propositions  of  the  Minutes, 
levelled  at  three  dangerous  tenets  of  Dr.  Crisp  ;  and  shown,  that  not 
only  yourself,  Sir,  but  moderate  Calvinists,  are  ("so  far)  entirely  of 
Mr.  W.'s  sentiment  ;  I  remain,  Hon.  and  Rev  Sir,  your  obedient 
servant,  in  the  bond  of  a  free  and  peaceful  Gospel, 

J.  FLETCHER. 


TO   ANTJNOMIANISM.  49 


LETTER  IV. 


— «j(^^:Kt- — 
Hon.  and  Rev.  Sivj 

XF  the  three  first  propositions  of  the  Minutes  are  Scriptural,  Mr. 
W,  may  well  begin  the  remaining  part,  by  desiring  the  preachers  in 
his  connexion  to  emerge,  along  with  him,  from  undei  the  noisy  bil- 
lows of  prejudice,  and  to  struggle  quite  out  of  the  muddy  streams  of 
Antinomian  delusions,  which  have  so  long  gone  ovrer  our  heads,  and 
carried  so  many  souls  down  the  chaooels  of  vice,  into  the  lake  that 
burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone.  Well  may  he  entreat  them  to  "  B.e- 
view  the  whole  affair." 

And  why  should  this  modest  request  alarm  any  one  ?     Though 
error  dreads  arevisal,  truth,  you  know,  cannot  but  gain  by  it. 

I.  Mr.  W.  says  in  this  review,  "  Who  is  now  accepted  of  God  ?  He 
that  now  believes  in  Christ  with  a  loving,  obedient  heart."  Ex-  ellent 
answer !  worthy  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  James  ;  for  it  sums  up  in  one  line 
the  epistles  of  both.  In  the  first  part  of  it,  {he  that  now  believes  in 
Christ)  you  see  St.  Paul's  Gospel  calculated  for  lost  sinners,  who 
now  flee  from  the  Babel  of  self- righteousness  and  sin,  and  find  all 
things  in  Christ  ready  for  their  reception.  And  in  the  second  part, 
(with  a  loving  and  obedient  heart)  you  see  the  strong  bulwark  raised 
by  St.  James,  to  guard  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  against  the  attacks  of 
Antinomian  and  Laodicean  professors.  Had  he  said,  "  he  that  shall 
beheve  the  next  hour  is  now  accepted,"  he  would  have  bestowed  upon 
present  unbelief  the  blessing  that  is  promised  to  present  faith.  Had  he 
said, "  he  that  believed  a  year  ago,  is  now  accepted  of  God,"  he  would 
have  opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  apostates,  contrary  to  St.  Paul's 
declarations  to  the  Hebrews.  He  therefore  very  properly  says, 
he  that  now  believes ;  for  it  is  written,  he  that  believeth,  (not  he  that 
shall  believe,  or  he  that  did  believe)  hath  everlasting  life. 

What  fault  can  you  find  with  Mr.  W.  here  ?  Surely  you  cannot 
blame  him  for  proposing  Christ  as  the  object  of  the  Christian's 
faith,  or  for  saying  that  the  believer  hath  a  loving  and  obedient 
heart ;  for  he  speaks  of  the  accepted  man^  and  not  of  him  who 
f^omesfor  acceptance.   Multitudes,  alas  I  rest  satisfied  with  an  unloving 


50  FIRST    CHECK 

disobedient  faith, — a  faith  that  engages  only  the  head,  but  has  nothing 
to  do  with  the  heart ; — a  faith  that  works  by  malice,  instead  of  work- 
ing by  love ; — a  faith  that  pleads  for  sin  in  the  heart,  instead  of  puri- 
fying the  heart  from  sin  ; — a  faith  that  St.  Paul  explodes,  1  Cor.  xiii.  2. 
and  that  St.  James  compares  to  a  carcass,  ch.  ii.  26.  There  is  no 
need  that  Mr.  W.  should  countenance  such  a  faith  by  his  Minutes. 
Too  many,  alas  !  do  it  by  their  lives  ;  and  God  grant  none  may  do  it 
by  their  sermons.  Whoever  does,  Sir,  it  is  not  you  ;  for  you  tell  us 
in  yours,  page  160,  that  "  Christ  is  to  be  found  only  by  living  faith ; 
even  a  faith  that  worketh  by  love  ;  even  a  faith  that  layeth  hold  on 
Christ  by  the  feei^  and  worshippeth  him  ;" — the  very  faith  of  Mary 
Magdalene,  who  certainly  had  a  loving  and  obedient  heart,  for  our 
Lord  testified  that.s^c  loved  much,  and  ardent  love  cannot  but  be  zeal- 
ously obedient.  There  is  not  then  the  least  shadow  of  heresy,  but 
the  very  marrow  of  the  Gospel  in  this  article.  Let  us  see  whether 
the  second  is  equally  defensible. 

n.  "  But  who  among  those  that  never  heard  of  Christ?  He  that 
feareth  God,  and  worketh  righteousness,  according  to  the  light  he 
has  ?" 

And  where  is  the  error  here  ?  Did  not  St.  Peter  begin  his  evan- 
gelical sermon  to  Cornelius  by  these  very  words,  prefaced  by  some 
others  that  make  them  remarkably  emphatical  ?  Of  a  truth  I  perceive 
that  God  is  no  respecter  of  persons  ;  but  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth 
Gody  and  worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  of  him.  Surely,  Sir,  you 
will  never  insist  upon  a  formal  recantation  of  a  plain  Scripture  ! 

But  perhaps  you  object  to  those  words  which  Mr.  W.  has  added  to 
St.  Peter's  declaration,  according  to  the  light  he  has.  What,  should 
it  be,  "according  to  the  light  he  has  not.^''  Are  not  there  people 
enow  among  us  who  follow  the  wicked  servant  that  intimated  his  Lord 
was  a  hard  and  austere  man,  reaping  where  he  had  not  sown,  and  ga- 
thering where  he  had  not  strewed  ?  Must  Mr.  W.  increase  the  number  1 
Or  would  you  have  him  insinuate  that  God  is  more  cruel  than  Pha- 
raoh, who  granted  the  poor  Israelites  daylight,  if  he  allowed  them  no 
straw  to  make  bricks  ; — that  he  requires  a  heathen  to  work  without 
any  degree  of  light,  without  a  day  of  visitation,  in  the  Egyptian  dark- 
ness of  a  merely  natural  state  ? — And  that  he  will  then  damn  and  tor- 
ment him  everlastingly,  either  for  not  doing,  or  for  marring  his  work  ? 
O  Sir,  like  yourself,  Mr.  W.  is  too  evangelical  to  entertain  such  no- 
tions of  the  God  of  love. 

*'  At  this  rale,"  say  some,  "  a  heathen  may  be  saved  without  a 
Saviour  ;  his  fearing  God  and  working  righteousness  will  go  for  the 
blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ.'*     Mr.  W.  has  no  such  thought  • 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  51 

whenever  a  heathen  is  accepted,  it  is  merely  through  the  merits  of 
Christ  :  although  it  is  in  consequence  of  his  fearing  God  and  -working 
righteousness.  *'  But  how  comes  he  to  see  that  God  is  to  be  feared, 
and  that  righteousness  is  his  delight?"  Because  a  beam  of  our 
Sun  of  Righteousness  shines  in  his  darkness.  All  is  therefore  of 
grace  ;  the  light,  the  works  of  righteousness  done  by  that  light,  and 
acceptance  in  consequence  of  them.  How  much  more  evangelical  is 
this  doctrine  of  St.  Peter,  than  that  of  some  divines,  who  consign  all 
the  heathens  by  millions  to  hell  torments,  because  they  cannot  ex- 
plicitly believe  in  a  Saviour,  whose  name  they  never  heard  ?  Nay, 
and  in  whom  it  would  be  the  greatest  arrogance  to  believe,  if  he 
never  died  for  them  ?  Is  it  not  possible  that  heathens  should,  by 
grace,  reap  some  blessings  through  Adam  the  second,  though  they 
know  nothing  of  his  name  and  obedience  unto  death  ;  when  they,  by 
nature,  reap  so  many  curses  through  Adam  the  first,  to  whose  name 
and  disobedience  they  are  equally  strangers  ?  If  this  be  a  heresy  it 
is  such  an  one  as  does  honour  to  Jesus  and  humanity. 

2d  Obj.  "Mr.  W.,  by  allowing  the  possibility  of  a  righteous  hea- 
then's salvation,  goes  point-blank  against  the  18th  Article  of  our 
Church,  which  he  has  solemnly  subscribed." 

Ans.  This  assertion  is  groundless.  Mr.  W.,  far  from  presuming  to 
say  that  a  heathen  "  can  be  saved  by  the  law,  or  sect,  that  he  pro- 
fesses, if  he  frame  his  life  according  to  the  light  of  nature,"  cordially 
believes  that  all  the  heathens  who  are  saved,  are  saved  through  the 
name,  that  is,  through  the  merit  and  Spirit  of  Christ ;  by  framing  their 
life,  not  according  to  I  know  not  what  light  naturally  received  from 
fallen  Adam,  but  according  to  the  supernatural  light  which  Christ  gra- 
ciously affords  them,  in  the  dispensation  they  are  under. 

3d  Obj.  "  However,  if  he  do  not  impugn  the  18th  Article,  he  does 
the  13th,  which  says,  that '  Works  done  before  justification,  or  before 
the  grace  of  Christ,  and  the  inspiration  of  his  Spirit,  forasmuch  as  they 
proceed  not  from  faith  in  Christ,  are  not  pleasant  to  God,  yea,  have 
the  nature  of  sin.'  " 

Nay,  this  Article  does  not  affect  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine  ;  for  he  con- 
stantly maintains,  that  if  the  works  of  a  Melchisedec,  a  Job,  a  Plato, 
a  Cornelius,  are  accepted,  it  is  only  because  they  follow  the  general 
justification  above-mentioned;  (which  is  possibly  what  St.  Paul  calls 
the  free  gift  that  comes  upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life,  Rom.  v.  1 8.) 
and  because  they  proceed  from  the  grace  of  Christ,  and  the  inspiration 
of  his  Spirit,  they  are  not  therefore  done  before  that  grace  and  inspi- 
ration, as  are  the  works  which  the  Article  condemns." 


52  FIRST  CHECK 

4th  Obj.  *'  But  all  that  is  not  of  faith  is  sin,  and  without  faith  li  it 
impossible  to  please  God.^^ 

Ans.  True  ;  therefore  He  that  cometh  to  God  must  believe  that  he  is, 
and  that  he  is  a  reivarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him.  Cornelius 
had  undoubtedly  this  faith,  and  a  degree  of  it  is  found  in  all  sincere 
heathens.  For  Christ,  the  light  of  men,  visits  all,  though  in  a  variety 
of  degrees  and  dispensations.  He  said  to  the  carnal  Jews,  that 
believed  not  on  him,  Yet  a  little  while  the  light  is  with  you  :  walk  zvhile 
ye  have  the  light,  lest  darkness  come  upon  you :  while  ye  have  the  light, 
believe  in  the  light,  that  ye  may  be  children  of  the  light.  All  the  hea- 
thens that  are  saved,  are  then  saved  by  an  implicit  faith  in  Jesus  the 
light  of  the  world ;  or,  to  use  our  Lord's  own  words,  by  believing  in 
the  light  of  their  dispensation,  before  the  day  of  their  visitation  is 
past,  before  total  darkness  comes  upon  them,  even  the  night  when  no 
man  can  work. 

5th  Obj.  "  But  if  heathens  can  be  saved  without  the  Gospel, 
what  need  is  there  of  the  Christian  dispensation  ?" 

Ans.  1.  None  of  them  were  ever  saved  without  a  beam  of  the 
internal  light  of  the  Gospel,  which  is  preached  in  (ev)  every  creature 
under  heaven.  Col.  i.  23.  2.  The  argument  may  be  retorted  :  if  sin- 
ners could  be  saved  under  the  patriarchal  dispensation,  what  need 
was  there  of  the  Mosaic  ?  If  under  the  Mosaic,  what  need  of  John's 
baptism  ?  If  under  the  baptism  of  John,  what  need  of  Christianity  ? 
Or  to  answer  by  a  comparison  :  If  we  can  see  our  way  by  star-light, 
what  need  is  there  of  moon-shine  ?  If  by  moon-shine,  what  need  of 
the  dawn  of  day  ?  If  by  the  dawn  of  day,  what  need  of  the  rising 
sun? 

The  brightness  of  divine  dispensations,  like  the  light  of  the 
righteous,  shines  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day.  And  though  a 
heathen  may  be  saved  in  his  low  dispensation,  and  attain  unto  a  low 
degree  of  glory,  which  the  apostle  compares  to  the  shining  of  a  star, 
(for  in  my  Father's  house,  says  Christ,  there  are  mtiny  mansions,) 
yet  it  is  an  unspeakable  advantage  to  be  saved  from  the  darkness  at- 
tending his  uncomfortable  dispensation,  into  the  full  enjoyment  of  the 
life  and  immortality  brought  to  light  by  the  explicit  Gospel.  Well  might 
then  the  angel  say  to  Cornelius,  who  was  already  accepted  according 
to  bis  dispensation,  that  Peter  should  tell  him  words  whereby  he 
should  be  saved : — saved  from  the  weakness,  darkness,  bondage,  and 
tormenting  fears  attending  his  present  state,  into  that  blessed  state  of 
light,  comfort,  liberty,  power,  and  glorious  joy,  in  which  he  that  is 
feeble  is  as  David,  and  the  house  of  David  as  God,  or  as  the  Angel  of  tk^ 
Lord. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  53 

Having  thus  briefly  answered  the  objections  that  are  advanced 
against  St.  Peter's  and  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine,  proceed  we  to  the  3d 
query,  in  the  review  of  the  whole  affair. 

MI.  "Is  this  the  same  with — he  that  is  siiicere?  Nearly,  if  not 
quite." 

In  the  name  of  charity  where  is  the  error  of  this  answer  ?  Where 
the  shadow  of  heresy  ?  Do  you  suppose,  by — he  that  is  sincere,  Mr. 
W.  means  a  carnal  unawakened  wretch,  who  boasts  of  his  imagined 
sincerity  ?  No,  Sir ;  he  means  one  who  in  God's  account,  and  not 
barely  in  his  own,  sincerely  and  uprightly  follows  the  light  of  his  dis- 
pensation. Now,  if  you  expose  Mr.  W.  as  guilty  of  heresy,  for 
using  this  word  once,  what  protests  will  yon  enter  against  St.  Paul, 
for  using  it  over  and  over  ?  How  will  you  blame  him  for  desiring  the 
Ephesians  (according  to  the  fine  reading  of  our  margin)  to  he  sincere 
in  love !  otyjj^efav???,  ff  ccya.'Tni', — Or,  for  wishing  nothing  greater  to 
his  dear  Philippians,  than  that  they  might  be  sincere  in  the  day  of 
Christ !  O  Sir,  to  fear,  and  much  more  to  love,  the  Lord  in  sincerity^ 
is  a  great  and  rare  thing,  Eph.  vi.  24.  We  find  every  where  too 
much  of  the  old  leaven  of  malice,  and  too  little  o{  the  unleavened  bread 
of  sincerity  and  truths  1  Cor.  v.  8.  Think  not  therefore  that  Mi*.  W. 
betrays  the  cause  of  God,  because  he  thinks  that  to  he  sincere^  and  to 
fear  God  and  work  righteousness,  are  expressions  nearly,  if  not  quite, 
synonymous. 

But  you  do  not  perhaps  find  fault  with  Mr.  W.  for  setting  accepted 
Heathens  too  low,  but  too  high,  by  giving  them  the  character  of  being 
sincere.  For  you  know  that  our  translators  render  the  Hebrew  word 
□"•on  sometimes  sincere,  at  other  times  upright,  undefiled,  and  most 
commonly  perfect.  As  in  these  sentences,  Noah  was  a  perfect  man. 
Job  'isoas  a  perfect  man,  &c.  May  not  then  Mr.  W.  secretly  bring  in 
his  abominable  doctrine  of  Perfection,  under  the  less  frightful  expres- 
sion of  sincerity  ?  Of  this  more  by  and  by. 

In  the  mean  time  I  shall  close  my  Vindication  of  the  2d  and  3d 
query,  by  the  sentiments  of  two  unquestionable  Protestants  on  the 
present  subject.  The  one  is  Mr.  Henry,  in  his  comment  on  St. 
Peter's  words,  "  God,"  says  he,  "  never  did,  nor  ever  will,  reject  an 
"  honest  Gentile,  who  fears  and  worships  him,  and  works  righte- 
"  outness,  i.  e.  is  just  and  charitable  towards  all  men,  who  lives  up 
*'  to  the  light  he  has,  in  a  sincere  devotion,  and  regular  conversation. 
"  — Wherever  God  finds  an  upright  man,  he  will  be  found  an  upright 
*'  God.  Psalm  xviii.  25.  And  those  that  have  not  the  knowledge  of 
'*  Christ,  and  therefore  cannot  have  an  explicit  regard  to  him,  may 
Vol..  I.  8 


54  FIRST  CHECK 

"  yet  receive  grace  for  his  sake,  io  fear  God^  and  work  righteousness  ; 
"  and  wherever  God  gives  grace  to  do  so,  as  he  did  to  Cornelius,  he 
*'  will  through  Christ  accept  the  work  of  his  own  hands."  Here, 
Sir,  you  have  the  very  doctrine  of  Mr.  W.  quite  down  to  the  heretical 
word  sincere. 

The  other  divine,  Sir,  is  yourself.  You  tell  us,  in  your  Sermon 
on  the  same  text,  that  '*  We  cannot  but  admire,  and  adore  God's  uni- 
"  versa]  tenderness,  and  pity  for  every  people  and  nation  under 
'*  heaven,  in  that  he  willeth  not  the  death  of  any  single  sinner,  but 
*'  accepteth  every  one  into  Gospel  covenant  with  him,  who  feareth 
*'  him  and  worketh  righteousness  according  to  the  light  imparted  to 
"him." 

Now,  Sir,  where  is  the  difference  between  your  orthodoxy  and  Mr. 
W.'s  heresy?  He  asserts,  God  accepts  "  him  that  fears  God  and  works 
righteousness  according  to  the  light  he  has  :"  And  you,  Sir,  "  him 
*'  who  feareth  God  and  worketh  righteousness  according  to  the  light 
"  imparted  to  him."  If  Mr.  W.  must  share  the  fate  of  Shadrach  for 
his  heresy,  I  doubt  Mr.  Henry  will  have  that  of  Meshach,  and  you 
of  Abednego  ;  for  you  are  all  three  in  the  same  honourable  con- 
demnation. 

But  Mr.  W.,  foreseeing  that  some  would  be  offended  at  St.  Peter's 
evangelical  declaration,  concerning  the  acceptance  of  sincere  Hea- 
thens who  work  righteousness,  proposes  and  answers  the  following 
objection. 

IV.  *'  Is  not  this  salvation  by  works  ?  Not  by  the  merit  of  works, 
but  by  works  as  a  condition  ;"  In  the  former  part  of  this  answer, 
Mr.  W.  freely  grants  all  you  can  require,  to  guard  the  Gospel 
against  the  Popish  doctrine  of  making  satisfaction  for  sin,  and  merit- 
ing salvation  by  works:  for  he  maintains  that  though  God  accepts 
the  Heathen  who  works  righteousness,  yet  it  is  not  through  the  merit 
of  his  works,  but  solely  through  that  of  Christ.  Is  not  this  the  very 
doctrine  of  our  church  in  the  11th  Article,  which  treats  of  Justifica- 
tion ?  *'  We  are  accounted  righteous  before  God  only  for  the  merit 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  by  faith,  and  not  for  our  own  works  or 
deservings.^^  Does  not  the  opposition  of  the  two  sentences,  and  the 
explanatory  word  deservings,  evidently  show  that  works  meet  for  rt' 
jientance  are  not  excluded  from  being  in  the  sinner  that  comes  to  be 
justitied,  but  from  having  any  merit  or  worth  to  purchase  his  justifi- 
cation ? 

Our  Church  expresses  herself  more  fully  on  this  head  in  the 
homily  on  salvation,  to  which  the  article  refers.  "  St.  Paul,"  says  she. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  55 

*  ■  declares  nothing  [necessary]  on  the  behalf  of  man  concerning  his 
justification,  but  only  a  true  and  lively  faith,  and  yet  (N.  B.)  that  faith 
does  not  shut  out  repentance,  hope,  love,  [of  desire  when  we  are 
coming,  love  of  delight  when  we  are  come,]  dread,  and  the  fear  of 
God,  to  be  joined  with  it  in  every  man  that  is  justified  ;  but  it  shut- 
teth  them  out  from  the  office  of  justifying ;  so  that  they  be  all  pre- 
sent together  in  him  that  is  justified,  yet  they  justify  not  altogether." 
This  is  agreeable  to  St.  Peter's  doctrine,  maintained  by  Mr.  W. 
Only  faith  in  Christ  for  Christians,  and  faith  in  the  light  of  their  dis- 
pensation for  Heathens,  is  necessary  in  order  to  acceptance.  But 
though  faith  orily  justifies,  yet  it  is  never  alone  ;  for  repentance, 
hope,  love  of  desire,  and  the  fear  of  God,  necessarily  accompany 
this  faith  if  it  be  living.  Our  Church  therefore  is  not  at  all  against 
works  proceeding  from,  or  accompanying  faith  in  all  its  stages.  She 
grants,  that  whether  faith  seeks  or  finds  its  object,  whether  it  longs 
for,  or  embraces  it,  it  is  still  a  lively,  active,  and  working  grace.  She 
is  only  against  the  vain  conceit  that  works  have  any  hand  in  meriting 
justification  or  purchasing  salvation,  which  is  what  Mr.  W.  likewise 
strongly  opposes. 

If  you  say,  That  his  heresy  does  not  consist  in  exploding  the  merit 
of  works  in  point  of  salvation,  but  in  using  that  legal  expression, 
salvation  by  works,  as  a  condition.  I  answer,  that  as  I  would  not  con- 
tend for  the  word  Trinity,  because  it  is  not  in  the  Bible,  no,  nor  yet 
for  the  word  Perfection,  though  it  is  there  ;  neither  would  I  contend 
for  the  expression,  salvation  by  works,  as  a  condition;  but  the  thing 
Mr.  W.  means  by  it,  is  there  in  a  hundred  different  turns  and  modes 
of  expression.  Therefore  it  is  highly  worth  contending  for  :  and  so 
much  the  more,  as  it  is,  next  to  the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  the 
most  important  part  of  the  faith  once  delivered  unto  the  saints. 

Any  candid  person,  acquainted  with  Mr.  W.'s  principles,  (and  for 
such  only  the  Minutes  were  written,)  cannot  but  see  that  he  meant 
absolutely  nothing,  but  what  our  Saviour  means  in  these  and  the  like 
Scriptures,  namely,  that  salvation  is  suspended  on  a  variety  of  things 
which  divines  call  by  various  names,  and  which  Mr.  W.,  with  a  ma- 
jority of  them,  chooses  to  call  conditions.  Except  ye  repent,  ye  shaU 
all  perish. — Except  ye  be  converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall 
not  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. — Here,  repentance  and  conversion, 
are  conditions  of  eternal  salvation. — If  ye  believe  not,  ye  shall  die  in 
your  sins ;  for  this  is  the  work  of  God,  [the  work  that  God  requires 
and  approves,]  that  ye  believe  on  him  whom  he  hath  sent. — Here,  the 
work  of  faith  is  the  condition. — /  am,  Alpha  and  Omega,  the  First  and 
the  Last.     Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  commandments,  that  they  may 


5b  FIRST  CHECK 

have  right  to  the  tree  of  life,  and  7nay  enter  in  through  the  gates  of  the 
city.     And  here  it  is,  doing  God^s  commandments, 

St.  Paul,  evangelical  Paul,  says  the  same  thing  in  a  variety  of  ex- 
pressions. If  any  man  love  not  the  Lord  Jesus,  let  him  be  anathema. 
If  love,  the  noblest  work  of  the  heart,  do  not  take  place,  the  fearful 
curse  will. — If  ye  live  after  the  flesh.,  ye  shall  die,  but  if  ye  through  the 
Spirit  mortify  the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live.  Spiritual  mortifica- 
tion is  here  the  condition. — Without  holiness  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord. 
Here  holiness  is  the  condition. — Be  not  deceived,  neither  fornicators, 
nor  covetous,  nor  drunkards,  nor  thieves,  nor  revilers,  shall  inherit  the 
kingdom  of  God.  Ceasing  from  fornication,  drunkenness,  &c.  is  the 
same  condition. 

St.  John  is  in  the  same  condemnation  as  Mr.  W.,  for  he  declares, 
There  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  the  A'e?.?'  Jerusalem  any  thing  that  de- 
fileth,  neither  whatsoever  worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie.  Here 
the  condition  is,  not  working  abomination,  &c.  Wliosoever  hateth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer,  and  ye  know  that  no  murderer  hath  eternal 
life.  Here  the  condition  is,  ceasing  from  hatred,  the  murder  of  the 
heart. 

St.  Peter  is  equally  deep  in  the  heresy.  In  a  variety  of  expres- 
sions he  describes  the  misery  and  fatal  latter  end  of  those,  who 
escape  the  pollutions  of  the  world,  through  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  Jesus,  and  are  again  entangled  therein,  through  the  non- 
performance of  this  condition.  If  ye  do  these  things,  ye  shall  never 
fall. 

As  for  St.  James,  I  need  not  quote  him.  You  know,  that  when 
Luther  was  in  his  heat  he  could  have  found  it  in  his  heart  to  tear  this 
precious  epistle  from  among  the  sacred  books,  and  burn  it  as  an 
epistle  of  straw.  He  thought  the  author  of  it  was  an  enemy  to  free 
grace,  an  abettor  of  popish  tenets,  an  antichrist.  It  is  true,  the 
scales  of  prejudice  fell  at  last  from  his  eyes,  but  alas  !  it  was  not  till 
he  had  seen  the  Antinomian  boar  lay  waste  the  Lord's  flourishing 
vineyard  all  over  protestant  Germany.  Then  was  he  glad  to  draw 
against  him  St.  James's  despised  sword;  and  I  shall  be  happily  mis- 
taken. Sir,  if  you  are  not  obliged  one  day  to  make  use  of  the  hereti- 
cal Minutes,  as  he  did  of  the  epistle  of  straw. 

If  any  still  urge,  "  I  do  not  love  the  word  condition,"  I  reply, 
It  is  no  wonder;  since  thousands  so  hate  the  thing,  that  they  even 
choose  to  go  to  hell,  rather  than  perform  it.  But  let  an  old  worthy 
divine,  approved  by  all  but  Crisp's  disciples,  tell  you  what  we  mean 
by  condition  :  *'  An  antecedent  condition,  (says  Mr.  Flavel  in  his  Dis- 
'  course  of  Errors,)  signifies  no  more  than  an  act  of  ours  ;  which, 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  57 

"  though  it  be  neither  perfect  in  any  degree,  nor  in  the  least  meri- 
*'  torious  of  the  benefit  conferred,  nor  performed  in  our  own  natural 
*'  strength  ;  is  yet,  according  to  the  constitution  of  the  covenant,  rc- 
<'  quired  of  us,  in  order  to  the  blessings  consequent  thereupon,  by 
*« virtue  of  the  promise;  and  consequently,  benefits  and  mercies 
"granted  in  this  order,  are  and  must  be  suspended  by  the  donor,  till 
<'it  be  performed."  Such  a  condition  we  affirm  faith  to  be,  with  all 
that  faith  necessarily  implies. 

When  Dr.  Crisp,  in  the  last  century,  represented  all  the  sober 
Puritan  Divines  as  legal,  they  answered,  *'  The  covenant,  though  con- 
**  ditional,  is  a  dispensation  of  grace.  There  is  grace  in  giving  ability 
*'  to  perform  the  condition,  as  well  as  in  bestowing  the  benefits  : 
"  God's  enjoining  the  one  in  order  to  the  other,  makes  not  the  benefit 
*'  to  be  less  of  grace ;  but  it  is  a  display  of  God's  wisdom,  in  con- 
*'  ferring  the  benefit  suitably  to  the  nature  and  condition  of  men  in 
"  this  life,  who  are  here  in  a  state  of  trial ;  yea,  the  conditions  are 
*'  but  a  meetness  to  receive  the  blessings." 

"  The  reason,"  added  they,  "  why  we  use  the  word  condition,  is 
"  because  it  best  suits  with  man's  relation  to  God,  in  his  present 
^'  deahngs  with  us,  as  his  subjects  on  trial  for  eternity.  Christ  as  a 
^-  priest  has  merited  all :  but  as  a  priestly  king  he  dispenseth  all  :  he 
^'  enjoins  the  conditions  in  order  to  the  benefits,  and  makes  the 
*'  benefits  motives  to  our  compliance  with  the  conditions.  He 
*'  treats  with  men  as  his  subjects,  whom  he  will  now  rule,  and  here- 
'*  after  judge.  Now  what  word  is  so  proper  to  express  the  duties  as 
^'  enjoined  means  of  benefits,  as  the  word  conditions  ?  The  word 
"  conditions  is  of  the  same  nature  as  terms  of  the  Gospel.  There 
"  are  few  authors  of  note,  even  of  any  persuasion,  that  scruple  using 
"  this  word  in  our  sense,  as  Ames,  Twiss,  Rutherford,  Hooker, 
*'  Norton,  Preston,  Owen,  Synod  of  New-England,  the  Assembly  of 
*'  Divines,  &c.  And  none  have  reason  to  scruple  it  except  such  as 
"  think  we  are  justified  before  we  are  born."  See  Gospel  Truth  Vin* 
dicated,  by  Williams,  against  Dr.  Crisp. 

If  all  the  Protestant  Divines  who  have  directly  or  indirectly  repre- 
sented repentance  and  faith  as  conditions  of  present  salvation ;  and 
holiness  of  heart  and  life  as  conditions  of  eternal  glory,  as  things  sine 
quibus  non,  without  which  salvation  and  glory  neither  can  nor  will 
follow  : — if  all  those  Divines,  I  say,  are  guilty  of  heresy,  ninety-nine 
out  of  a  hundred  are  heretics,  and  none  of  them  deeper  in  the  heresy 
than  yourself. 

Tn  your  Sermons,  page  39,  clearing  yourself  of  the  slander  that 
you  do  not  preach  np,  recommend^  and  insist  on  the  necessity  of  good 


58  FIRST    CHECK 

works;  you  add,  "  I  not  only  preach  this  or  that  part  of  the  moral 
*'  law,  bat  I  preach  the  whole  moral  law  ;  and  I  tell  you  plainly,  that 
"  if  you  do  not  perform  the  whole  will  of  God^  you  cannot  he  finally 
**  saved.''^  Then  you  add,  "  Surely  they  who  contend  for  the  doc- 
**  trine  of  works  will  be  satisfied  with  this,  or  they  are  very  unrea- 
"  sonable."  Indeed,  Sir  Mr.  W.  is  quite  satisfied  with  it ;  I  only 
wonder  what  in  the  world  can  make  you  so  dissatisfied  with  his 
Minutes ;  for  he  never  gave  Antinomianism  a  more  legal  thrust. 

And  as  vou  make  works  so  absolutely  necessary  to  eternal  salvation, 
so  do  jou  make  a  law  work  an  universal  prerequisite  of  present  sal- 
vation. Speaking  of  the  fear  and  dread  that  seize  a  sinner  under 
convictions  of  sin,  you  say,  page  111.  "  This  inward  shock  of  per- 
*'  turbation  must  pass  upon  the  soul  of  every  returning  sinner,  more 
"  or  less,  before  he  can  possibly  be  rendered  a  proper  object  of 
*'  divine  grace  and  mercy."  Hold,  Sir,  you  go  one  step  bejond  Mr. 
W.  for  he  steadily  maintains,  that  if  the  sinner  were  not  a  proper 
object  of  divine  grace,  before  he  feels  the  inward  shock  you  speak  of, 
he  would  never  be  shocked  and  return. 

Do  not  all  unprejudiced  persons  see,  that  what  Mr.  W.  calls  condi- 
tion, others  call  way,  means,  or  terms,  &c.  ?  And  that  you  have  as 
little  reason  to  pick  a  quarrel  with  him,  as  to  raise  a  body  of  men 
against  a  quiet  traveller,  for  calling  a  certain  sum  a  guinea,  whereas 
you  think  it  more  proper  to  call  it  one  pound  one, — twenty-one  shil- 
lings,— forty-two  sixpences, — or  sixty-three  groats.  O  Sir,  what  rea- 
son  have  we  to  be  ashamed  of  our  chicaneries ;  and  to  beseech  the 
Lord,  that  they  may  not  stumble  the  weak,  and  harden  infidels  ! 

O  how  justly  does  Mr.  W.  ask  next  ? 

V.  "  What  have  we  then  been  disputing  about  for  these  thirty 
years  ?    I  am  afraid  about  words." 

Pardon  me,  Sir,  if  here  also  I  cannot,  with  you,  cry  heresy!  Far 
from  doing  it,  I  admire  the  candour  of  an  old  man  of  God,  who, 
instead  of  stiffly  holding,  and  obstinately  maintaining  an  old  mistake, 
comes  down  as  a  little  child,  and  freely  acknowledges  it  before  a 
respectable  body  of  preachers,  whose  esteem  it  is  his  interest  to 
secure.  O  how  many  are  there  that  look  upon  Mr.  W.  as  a  rotten 
threshold,  and  themselves  as  pillars  in  the  temple  of  God,  wh© 
would  not  own  themselves  mistaken  for  the  world ! 

He  says,  "  I  am  afraid  we  have  disputed  about  words  ;"  perhaps 
be  might  have  said,  "  I  am  very  sure  of  it."  How  many  disputes 
have  been  raised  these  thirty  years  among  religious  people,  about 
those  works  of  the  heart,  which  St.  Paul  calls  Repentance  towards 
God,  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ?  Some  have  called  them  the 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  59 

only  way  or  method  of  receiving  salvation,  others  the  means  of  salva- 
tion, others  the  terms  of  it.  Some  have  named  them  duties  or  graces 
necessary  to  salvation,  others  conditions  of  salvation,  others  parts  of 
salvation,  or  privileges  annexed  to  it;  while  others  have  gone  fat 
round  about,  and  used  I  know  not  what  far-fetched  expressions,  and 
iimbiguoas  phrases,  to  convey  the  same  idea.  I  say  the  same  idea^  for 
if  all  maintain  that  although  repentance,  and  works  meet  for  it,  and  faith 
working  by  love,  are  not  meritorious,  they  are  nevertheless  absolutely 
necessary  ;  that  they  are  a  thing,  sine  qua  non,  all  are  agreed  ;  and  that 
if  they  dispute,  it  must  be,  as  Mr.  VV.  justly  intimates,  about  words. 

A  comparison  will  at  once  make  you  sensible  of  it.  A  physician 
tells  me,  that  the  way,  the  only  way,  or  method,  in  which  we  live,  is 
abstaining  from  poison,  and  taking  proper  food.  No,  says  another, 
you  should  say,  that  abstaining  from  poison  and  taking  proper  food, 
are  the  means  by  which  our  life  is  preserved.  You  are  qirite  mis- 
taken, says  a  third,  rejecting  poison  and  eating  are  the  terms  God 
hath  fixed  upon  for  our  preservation.  No,  says  a  fourth,  they  are 
duties,  without  the  performance,  or  blessings,  without  the  receiving  of 
which  we  must  absolutely  die.  I  believe,  for  my  part,  says  another, 
that  Providence  hath  engaged  to  preserve  our  life,  on  condition  that 
we  shall  forbear  taking  poison,  and  eat  proper  food.  You  are  all  in 
the  wrong,  you  know  nothing  at  all  of  the  matter  (says  another,  who 
applauds  himself  much  for  his  wonderful  discovery,)  turning  from 
poison,  and  receiving  nourishment,  are  the  exercises  of  a  living  man, 
therefore  they  must  absolutely  be  called  parts  of  his  life,  or  privileges 
annexed  to  it ;  you  quite  take  away  people's  appetite,  and  clog  their 
stomach,  by  calling  them  duties,  terms,  conditions;  only  call  them 
privileges,  and  you  will  see  nobody  will  touch  poison,  and  all  will  eat 
most  heartily. — While  they  are  all  neglecting  their  food,  and  taking  the 
poison  of  this  contention,  he  that  had  mentioned  the  word  condition, 
starts  up  and  says,  *'  Review  the  whole  affair ;  take  heed  to  your 
assertions  ;  I  am  afraid  we  dispute  about  words."  Upon  this  all  rise 
up  against  him,  all  accuse  him  of  robbing  the  Preserver  of  men  of 
his  glory,  or  holding  a  tenet  injurious  to  the  very  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  our  constitution. 

Let  us  leave  them  to  the  uneasy  workings  of  their  unaccountable 
panic,  to  consider  the  next  article  of  the  Minutes. 

VI.  "  As  to  merit  itself,  of  which  we  have  been  so  dreadfully 
afraid :  we  are  rewarded  according  to  our  works,  yea,  because  of  our 
works.  How  does  this  differ  from,  for  the  sake  of  our  works  ?  And 
how  differs  this  from  secundum  merita  operum?  as  our  works  deserve? 
Can  you  split  this  hair  ?  I  doubt  I  cannot." 


60  FIRST   CHECK 

If  Mr.  W.  ineaut,  that  we  are  saved  by  the  merit  of  works,  and 
not  entirely  by  that  of  Christ,  you  might  exclaim  against  this  propo- 
sition as  erroneous  ;  and  I  would  echo  back  your  exclamation.  But 
as  he  flatly  denies  it,  No.  4,  in  those  words,  "  Not  by  the  merit  of 
works,"  and  has  constantly  asserted  the  contrary  for  above  thirty 
years,  we  cannot,  without  monstrous  injustice,  fix  that  sense  upon  the 
word  merit  in  this  paragraph. 

Divesting  himself  of  bigotry  and  party-spirit,  he  generously  ac- 
knowledges truth  even  when  it  is  held  forth  by  his  adversaries.  An 
instance  of  candour  worthy  of  our  imitation!  He  sees  that  God 
offers  and  gives  his  children,  here  on  earth,  particular  rewards  for 
particular  instances  of  obedience.  He  knows  that  when  a  man  is 
saved  meritoriously  by  Christ,  and  conditionally  by  (or  if  you  please, 
upon  the  terms  of)  the  work  of  faith,  the  patience  of  hope,  and  the 
labour  of  love,  he  shall  particularly  be  rewarded  in  heaven  for  his 
works  :  and  he  observes,  that  the  Scriptures  steadily  maintain,  we  are 
recompensed  according  to  our  works,  yea,  because  of  our  znorks. 

The  former  of  these  assertions  is  plain  from  the  parable  of  the 
talents,  and  from  these  words  of  our  Lord,  Matt.  xvi.  27.  The  Son 
of  man  shall  come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  and  reward  every  man 
according  to  his  work ; — Unbelievers  according  to  the  various  degrees 
of  demerit  belonging  to  their  evil  works,  (for  some  of  them  shall 
comparatively  be  beaten  with  few  stripes ;)  and  believers  according  to 
the  various  degrees  of  excellence  found  in  their  good  works  ;  for  as 
one  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory,  so  also  is  the  resurrection 
of  the  righteous  dead. 

The  latter  assertion  is  not  less  evident  from  the  repeated  declara- 
tions of  God  :  Because  thou  hast  kept  the  word  of  my  patience,  I  also 
will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  temptation  which  shall  come  upon  all 
the  world.  Rev.  iii.  10. — Because  Phinehas  was  zealous  for  his  God, 
(in  killing  Zimri  and  Cosbi)  behold,  I  give  unto  him  my  covenant  of 
peace,  and  he  shall  have  it,  and  his  seed  after  him,  even  the  covenant  of 
an  everlasting  priesthood. — And  again,  Because  thou  hast  done  this, 
and  hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  by  myself  have  I  sworn  that  in  blessing 
I  will  bless  thee,  because  thou  hast  obeyed  my  voice.  Now,  says  Mr. 
W.,  how  differs  this  from,  I  will  bless  thee,  for  the  sake  of  thy 
obedience  to  my  voice.  And  how  differs  this  from  secundum  merita 
obediential?  as  thy  obedience  deserves?  And  by  comparing  the 
difference  of  these  expressions  to  the  splitting  of  a  hair,  or  to  a 
metaphysicp.1  subtlpty,  he  very  justly  insinuates,  chat  we  have  been 
too  dreadfully  afraid  of  the  word  merit.  Surely,  Sir,  you  will  not 
divest  yourself  of  the  candour  that  belongs  to  a  Christian,  to  put  oa 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  Ql 

the  bitter  zeal  of  a  bigot.  You  fPill  not  run  for  fear  of  Popery  into 
the  very  spirit  of  it,  by  crying,  Heresy!  Heresy!  before  you  have 
maturely  considered  the  question  :  or  if  you  have  done  so  once, 
you  will  do  it  no  more.  And  if  Mr.  W,  should  ever  propose  again 
the  splitting  of  a  hair,  I  hope  you  will  remember  that  equity  (to  say 
nothing  of  brotherly  love)  requires  you  to  split  the  hair  first  your- 
self, before  you  can  with  decency  stir  up  people  far  and  near  against 
him,  for  modestly  doubting  whether  he  can  do  it  or  not. 

But  suppose  some  are  determined  to  cry  Heresy!  whenever  they 
see  the  word  merit;  I  hope  others  will  candidly  weigh  what  follows 
in  the  balance  of  unprejudiced  reason. 

If  we  detach  from  the  word  merit  the  idea  of  "  obligation  on  God's 
part  to  bestow  any  thing  upon  creatures,  who  have  a  thousand  times 
forfeited  their  comforts  and  existence  ;"  if  we  take  it  in  the  sense 
we  fix  to  it  in  a  hundred  cases  ;  for  instance  this  :  "  A  master  may 
reward  his  scholars  according  to  the  merit  of  their  exercises,  or  he 
may  not ;  for  the  merit  of  the  best  exercise  can  never  biiid  him  to  be- 
stow a  premium  for  it,  unless  he  has  promised  it  of  his  own  accord  :" 
if  we  take,  I  say,  the  word  merit  in  this  simple  sense,  it  may  be 
joined  to  the  word  ^ood  works,  and  bear  an  evangelical  meaning. 

To  be  convinced  of  it,  candid  reader,  consider,  with  Mr.  VV.,  that 
"  God  accepts  and  rewards  no  work  but  as  far  as  it  proceeds  from  his 
own  grace  through  the  Reloved."  Forget  not  that  Christ's  Spirit  is 
the  savour  of  each  believer's  salt,  and  that  he  puts  excellence  into 
the  good  works  of  his  people,  or  else  they  could  not  be  good.  Re- 
member, he  is  as  much  concerned  in  the  good  tempers,  words,  and 
actions  of  his  living  members,  as  a  tree  is  concerned  in  the  sap, 
leaves,  and  fruit  of  the  branches  it  bears,  John  xv.  5.  Consider, 
I  say,  all  this,  and  tell  us  whether  it  can  reflect  dishonour  upon 
Christ  and  his  grace,  to  affirm  that  as  his  personal  merit, — the  merit 
of  his  holy  life  and  painful  death,  opens  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all 
believers,  so  the  merit  of  those  works  which  he  enables  his  members 
to  do,  will  determine  the  peculiar  degrees  of  glory  graciously  allotted 
to  each  of  them. 

I  own,  I  believe  there  is  such  a  dignity  in  every  thing  in  which 
the  Son  of  God  has  a  hand,  that  the  Father,  who  is  always  well 
pleased  with  him  and  his  works,  cannot  but  look  upon  it  with  pecu- 
liar complacency.  Even  a  cup  of  water  given  in  his  dear  name,  that  is, 
by  the  efficacy  of  his  loving  Spirit,  hath  that  in  it  which  shall  in  nowise 
lose  its  reward :  for  it  has  something  of  the  love  of  the  God-man 
Jesus,  which  merits  aU  the  approbation  and  smiles  of  the  Father. 

Vol.  r.  9 


62  FIRST    CHEfcK 

In  our  well-meant  zeal  against  Popery  we  hare  been  driven  to  an 
extreme,  and  have  not  done  good  works  justice.  /  am  the  vine,  says 
Jesus,  and  ye  are  the  branches,  he  that  abideth  in  me  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit.  Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear  much  fruit.  What  I 
is  the  Father  glorified  in  the  fruit  of  believers ;  and  shall  this  fruit 
be  represented  to  us  always  grub-eaten,  and  rotten  at  the  core  ?  Do 
we  honour  either  the  Vine,  or  the  Husbandman,  while  one  hour 
we  speak  wonders  of  the  fruit  of  the  Vine,  and  the  next  represent  the 
branches  and  their  fruit  as  full  of  deadly  poison  ?  O  God  of  mercy 
and  patience,  forgive  us,  for  we  know  not  what  we  do!  we  even 
think  we  do  thee  service  :  O  give  us  genuine,  and  save  us  from  volun- 
tary humility ! 

Believer,  let  not  the  virtue  of  thy  Saviour's  righteousness,  the  onlj' 
good  thing  that  is  in  thee,  be  evil  spoken  of.  Thou  art  grafted  upon 
the  good  olive-tree ;  be  not  high-minded,  but  fear ;  fear  to  be  cut  off" 
like  the  branch  that  beareth  not  fruit ;  but  be  not  afraid  to  suck  the 
balmy  sap,  till  the  peaceful  olive  ripens  in  thy  soul,  and  drops  the  oil 
of  joy  that  makes  a  cheerful  countenance.  Thou  art  married  to 
Christ,  that  henceforth  thou  shouldest  bring  forth  fruit  unto  God.  O  let 
not  thy  mistaken  brethren  discourage  thee  from  doing  all  the  good 
that  thy  heart  and  hand  find  to  do,  and  that  with  all  thy  might. 

I  write  these  allusions  as  they  occur  to  my  mind,  to  raise  thy 
thoughts  above  spiritual  sloth  and  barrenness  of  heart,  by  showing 
thee,  through  a  scriptural  glass,  something  of  thy  Husband's  glory, 
and  of  the  excellence  o^  the  labour  of  love,  wherein  thou  hast  the 
honour  of  being  a  -worker  together  with  him.  Let  not  what  I  say  pufl' 
thee  up,  but  encourage  thee  to  be  steadfast,  unmoveable,  always  abound- 
in^  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  forasmuch  as  thou  knowest  thy  labour  shall 
not  be  in  vain  in  the  Lord.  Remember,  thou  hast  nothing  to  boast  of, 
but  much  reason  to  be  humbled.  If  thy  works  are  compared  to  a 
rose,  the  colour,  odour,  and  sweetness  are  Christ's ;  the  aptness  to 
fade,  and  the  thorns,  arc  thine.  If  to  a  burning  taper,  the  snuff  and 
smoke  come  from  thee,  the  bright  and  cheering  light  from  thy  Bride- 
groom. The  excellence  and  merit  of  the  performance  flow  from 
him  ;  the  flaws  and  imperfections  from  thee  ;  nevertheless  the  whole 
work  is  as  truly  thine,  as  grapes  are  truly  the  fruit  of  the  branch 
that  bore  them.  And  yet,  as  the  branch  cannot  bear  fruit  of  itself, 
except  it  abide  in  the  vine,  no  more  canst  thou,  except  thou  abide  in  Christ: 
for  without  him  thou  canst  do  nothing. 

Having  thus  cautioned  thee  against  the  Popish  abuse  of  Mr.  W.'s 
doctrine  of  the  excellence  of  works,  and  shown  thee  the  evangelical 
use  that  a  real  Protestant  should  make  of  it ;  I  return  to  the  word 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  63 

**  merity  of  which  we  have  been  so  dreadfully  afraid."  Let  a  com- 
parison help  thee  to  understand  how  a  believer  may  use  it  in  a  very 
harmless  sense. 

The  king  promises  rewards  for  good  pictures,  to  miserable  found- 
lings, whom  he  has  charitably  brought  up,  and  graciously  admitted 
into  his  royal  academy  of  painting :  far  from  being  masters  of  their 
art,  they  can  of  themselves  do  nothing  but  spoil  canvass,  and  waste 
colours  by  making  monstrous  figures  :  but  the  king's  son,  a  perfect 
painter,  by  his  father's  leave,  guides  their  hands,  and  by  that  mean 
good  pictures  are  produced,  though  not  so  excellent  as  they  would 
have  been,  had  not  he  made  them  by  their  stiff  and  clumsy  hands. 
The  king,  however,  approves  of  them,  and  fixes  the  reward  of  each 
picture  according  to  its  peculiar /ncn'i.  If  thou  say  that  the  poor 
foundlings,  owing  all  to  his  majesty,  and  the  prince's  having  freely 
guided  their  hands,  themselves  merit  nothing ;  because,  after  all 
they  have  done,  they  are  miserable  daubers  still,  and  nothing  is  pro- 
perly theirs  but  the  imperfections  of  the  pictures,  and  therefore  the 
king's  reward,  though  it  may  be  of  promise,  can  never  be  of  debt;  I 
grant,  I  assert  it.  But  if  thou  say  the  good  pictures  have  no  men^,  I 
beg  leave  to  dissent  from  thee,  and  tell  thee  thou  speakest  as  unad- 
visedly for  the  king,  as  Job's  friends  did  for  God.  For  if  the  pictures 
have  absolutely  no  merit,  dost  not  thou  greatly  reflect  upon  the  king's 
taste  and  wisdom  in  saying  that  he  rewards  them  ?  In  the  name  of 
common  sense,  what  is  it  he  rewards  ?  The  merit  or  demerit  of  the 
work? 

But  this  is  not  all  j  i(  the  pictures  have  no  merit,  what  hath  the 
king's  soo  been  doing  1  Hath  he  lost  all  his  trouble  in  helping  the 
novices  to  sketch  and  finish  them  ?  Shall  we  deny  the  excellence  of 
his  performance,  because  they  were  concerned  in  it  ?  Shall  we  be 
guilty  of  this  glaring  partiality  any  longer  ?  No,  some  Protestants 
will  dare  to  judge  righteous  judgment,  and  acknowledging  there  is 
merit  where  Christ  puts  it,  and  where  God  rewards  it,  they  will  give 
honour  to  whom  honour  is  due,  even  to  him  that  worketh  all  the  good 
in  all  his  creatures. 

For  my  part  I  entirely  agree  with  the  Author  of  the  Minutes,  and 
thank  him  for  daring  to  break  the  ice  of  prejudice  and  bigotry  among 
us,  by  restoring  works  of  righteousness  to  their  deserved  glory,  with- 
out detracting  from  the  glory  of  the  Lord  our  Righteousness.  I  am  as 
much  persuaded  that  the  grace  of  Christ  merits  in  the  works  of  his 
members,  though  they  themselves  merit  nothing  but  hell,  as  I  am 
persuaded  that  gold  in  the  ore  hath  its  intrinsic  worth,  though  it  is 
mixed  with  dust  and  dross,  which  are  good  for  nothing.     As  there  is 


64  FIRST    CHECK 

but  one  Mediator,  one  prevailing  Intercessor  between  God  and  ns, 
even  the  Alan  Christ  Jesus ;  and  nevertheless  his  Spirit  in  us  maketh 
intercession  for  us,  with  groanings  which  cannot  be  uttered:  so  there  is 
but  one  nnan  whose  works  are  truly  meritorious  ;  but  when  he  works 
in  us  by  his  Spirit,  our  works  cannot  (so  far  as  he  is  concerned  in 
them,)  hut  be  in  a  sense  meritorious  ;  because  they  are  his  works. 
Real  Protestant,  if  thou  deniest  this,  thou  maintainest  an  antichris- 
tian  proposition,  namely,  that  Christ  has  lost  his  power  of  merit- 
ing. Herem  I  must  dissent  from  thee,  nor  will  the  cry,  Heresy! 
Popery !  make  me  give  up  this  fundamental  truth  of  Christianity, 
that  Jesus  is  the  same,  the  very  same  deserving  Lord,  yesterday,  to-day. 
and  for  ever. 

In  this  evangelical  view  of  things,  the  Redeemer  is  much  exalted 
by  the  doctrine  of  the  merit  of  good  works  ;  and  believers  are  still 
left  in  their  native  dust  to  cry  out,  JVot  unto  us,  not  unto  us,  but  to  thy 
Kame  give  we  the  praise.  In  the  light  of  this  precious  truth,  we  see 
and  admire  the  endearing  contest  that  is  always  carried  on,  between 
God's  loving-kindness,  and  the  humble  gratitude  of  believers.  God 
says,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servants,  reap  what  ye  have  sown  : 
and  they  answer,  Lord,  Thy  pound  hath  gained  all ;  thou  hast  wrought 
all  our  works  in  us.  God  says,  They  shall  walk  with  me  in  white  ;  for 
they  are  avorthy  :  and  they  reply,  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  was 
slain,  and  hath  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  Christ 
crowns  faith  by  this  gracious  declaration.  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee. 
And  Relievers,  in  their  turn,  crown  Christ  by  this  true  confession, 
JVot  by  works  of  righteousness  that  we  have  done,  but  according  to  thy 
mercy  thou  hast  saved  us ;  for  thou  hast  quickened  us  by  thy  Spirit  when 
we  were  dead  in  sin ;  yea,  thou  didst  redeem  us  unto  God  by  thy  blood, 
hundreds  of  years  before  we  had  done  any  one  good  work.  In  a 
word,  they  justly  give  God  all  the  glory  of  their  salvation,  agreeable 
to  the  iirst  axiom  in  the  Gospel  plan,  and  God  graciously  gives  them 
all  the  reward,  according  to  the  second. 

And  now,  is  it  not  pity  that  any  good  men  should  be  so  far  biassed 
by  the  prejudices  of  their  education,  or  influenced  by  the  spirit  of 
their  party,  as  to  account  this  delightful,  harmonizing  view  of  evan- 
gelical truths,  a  dreadful  heresy?  Is  it  not  pity  that  by  so  doing  they 
should  expose  their  prepossession,  strengthen  the  hands  of  Antino- 
mians,  harden  the  hearts  of  Papists,  deprive  their  Saviour  of  part  of 
the  honour  due  to  him,  leave  seeming  contr«idictions  in  the  Scriptures 
unexplained,  and  trample  under  foot,  as  unworthy  of  their  Protestant 
orthodoxy,  a  powerful  motive  to  obedience,  by  which  neither  Moses 
nor  Jesus  were  above  being  influenced  ;  for  the  one  looked  to  the 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  QS 

recompense  of  reward^  and  the  other,  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before 
him^  both  despised  the  shame,  and  endured  the  cross. 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  illustrate  what  has  been  advanced  upon  the 
merit  or  rewardableness  of  works,  by  scriptural  instances  of  old  and 
modern  saints  who  have  pleaded  it  before  God.  David  speaks  thus 
in  the  18th  Psalm,  The  Lord  rewarded  me  according  to  my  righteous- 
ness, according  to  the  cleanness  of  my  hands  hath  he  recompensed  me  : — 
I  was  upright  before  him,  therefore  hath  he  recompensed  me  according  to 
my  righteousness,  &c.  And  in  the  119th  Psalm,  having  mentioned  his 
spiritual  comforts,  he  says,  Tliis  I  had  because  I  kept  thy  precepts. 
Another  instance,  no  less  remarkable,  is  that  of  Hezekiah,  who 
prayed  thus  in  his  sickness,  Remember  now,  O  Lord,  I  beseech  thee, 
how  I  have  walked  before  thee  in  truth,  and  with  a  perfect  heart,  and 
have  done  that  which  is  good  in  thy  sight. 

We  see  instances  of  this  boldness  in  the  New  Testament  also. 
We  have  left  all  to  follow  thee,  said  once  the  disciples  of  our  Lord, 
and  what  shall  we  have  for  this  sacrifice  ?  Jesus,  instead  of  blaming 
their  question,  simply  told  them  they  should  have  a  hundredfold 
for  all  they  had  left,  and  made  it  a  standing  rule  of  distribution  for 
all  the  church.  St.  John  exhorts  the  elect  lady,  to  look  to  herself 
thai  she  might  not  lose  the  things  that  she  had  wrought,  but  receive  a 
full  reward.  And  evangelical  Paul  desires  the  Hebrews  not  to  cost 
away  their  confidence,  which,  says  he,  hath  great  recompense  of  reward  ; 
and  charges  the  Colossians  to  see  that  none  beguiled  them  of  their 
reward,  in  a  voluntary  humility. 

From  these  and  the  like  scriptures  I  conclude,  that  those  who 
have  a  clear  witness  they  have  done  what  God  commanded,  may 
without  heresy,  humbly  demand  the  promised  reward  :  which  they 
can  never  do  without  this  idea,  that  according  to  the  tenor  of  the 
Gospel  covenant,  they  are  fit  subjects  for  it. 

I  know  some  will  take  the  alarm,  and  to  save  the  ark,  which  they 
think  totters  by  this  doctrine,  will  aflirm,  that  in  the  above-mentioned 
passages  David  personates  Christ :  and  Hezekiah  the  Pharisee.  But 
this  is  contradicting  the  whole  context,  to  say  nothing  of  all  sober 
commentators.  Mr.  Henry  tells  us,  that  David,  in  these  verses, 
"  reflects  with  comfort  upon  his  own  integrity,  and  rejoiceth,  like 
"  St.  Paul,  in  the  testimony  of  his  own  conscience,  that  he  had  had 
*'  his  conversation  in  godly  sincerity."  And  he  informs  us,  that  the 
Psalmist  lays  down  in  this  psalm,  "  the  rules  of  God's  government, 
"  that  we  may  know  not  only  what  God  expects  from  us,  but  what 
*•  we  may  expect  from  him."     With  regard  to  Hezekiah,  it  is  plain 


€6  FIRST    CHECK 

his  prayer  was  heard  ;  a  strong  proof  that  it  was  inspired  by  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus,  and  not  that  of  the  Pharisee. 

But  if  you  reject,  Sir,  the  testimony  of  Da?id  and  Hezekiab, 
because  they  were  Jews,  receive  at  least  that  of  real  Protestants  : 
for  which  we  only  need  go  as  far  as  Bath  or  Talgarth  parish  ;  there 
we  shall  find  chapels  where  the  Protestants  have  agreed  together,  to 
ask  rewards  as  solemnly  as  ever  David  and  Hezekiab  did.  In  the 
hymns  you.have  revised  for  another  edition,  and  by  that  means  made 
your  own  with  respect  to  the  doctrine,  one  is  calculated  to  *'  Welcome 
a  messenger  of  Jesu's  grace,"  and  all  the  congregation  sings, 

"  Give  reward  of  grace  and  glory 
To  thy  faithful  labourer  there." 

What,  Sir,  do  you  allow  the  labours  of  a  Minister  to  be  of  such 
dignity,  and  his  faithfulness  to  have  such  uncommon  merit,  that  a 
thousand  people  can  boldly  ask  God  a  reward  for  him,  and  that  not 
only  of  gifts  and  temporal  blessings,  but  of  grace  ;  and  not  of  grace 
only,  but  glory  too  !  You  have  in  those  two  lines  the  very  quintes- 
sence of  the  three  grand  heresies  of  the  Minutes,  faithfulness,  works, 
and  merit.  Permit  me  to  add  one  passage  more,  from  page  312  of 
Baxter's  Methodus  Theologies  Christiance. 

'*  The  word  merit,  rightly  explained,  is  not  amiss.  All  the  fathers 
"  of  the  primitive  church  have  made  use  of  it  without  opposition,  to 
"  the  best  of  my  remembrance. — It  may  be  used  by  believers  who 
"  do  not  make  a  cloak  for  error,  by  wise  men  who  will  not  be 
"  offended  at  it,  and  by  those  who  want  to  defend  the  truth,  and  con- 
*'  vey  clearer  ideas  in  the  explanation  of  things  intricate.  There  is 
"  no  word  that  fully  conveys  the  same  idea :  that  which  comes 
"  nearest  to  it  is  dignity,  and  suspicious  persons  will  not  like  it  much 
"  better.  We  have  three  words  in  the  New  Testament  that  come 
"  very  near  it,  «|/05,  f^ia-doi,  and  ^kxio^,  and  they  occur  pretty  fre- 
"^  quently  there.  We  render  them  worthy,  reward,  ^dA  just ;  and 
"  the  abuse  which  Papists  make  of  them  ought  not  to  make  us  reject 
"  their  use.  The  English  word  worthy  conveys  no  other  idea  than 
'*  that  of  the  Latin  werd  meritum,  taken  actively  :  nor  has  the  word 
''  reward  any  other  signification  than  the  word  meritum^  taken  pas- 
"  sively  ;  therefore  they  who  can  put  a  candid  sense  upon  the  words 
*'  worthy,  and  reward,  should  do  the  same  with  regard  to  the  word 
"  merit.'" 

Having  explained  and  vindicated  the  sixth  Article  of  the  Minutes, 
I  proceed  to  the 


T©    ANTINOMIANISM.  67 

VII.  "  The  grand  objection  to  one  of  the  preceding  propositions, 
is  drawn  from  matter  of  fact.  God  does,  in  fact,  justify  those,  who> 
by  their  own  confession,  neither  feared  God  nor  wrought  righteous- 
ness.    Is  this  an  exception  to  the  rule  ? 

"  It  is  a  doubt,  if  God  make  any  exception  at  all.  But  how  are 
we  sure,  that  the  person  in  question  never  did  fear  God  and  work 
righteousness?  His  own  saying  so  is  not  proof:  for  we  know,  how  all 
that  are  convinced  of  sin  undervalue  themselves  in  every  rfspect.'* 

Do  you  think,  Sir,  the  heresy  of  this  proposition  consists  in  inti- 
mating, that  God  does  in  fact  justify  those  who  fear  him,  and  not  those 
who  make  absolutely  no  stop  in  the  downward  road  of  open  sin  and 
flagrant  iniquity  ?  If  it  does,  I  am  sure  the  sacred  writers  are  heretics 
to  a  man.  See  the  account  vve  have  of  conversions  in  the  Scripture  ; 
please  to  remember  what  Mr.  W.  means  by  justification,  and  then 
answer  the  following  questions  : 

Did  not  the  prodigal  son  come  to  himself  repent,  and  return  to  his 
father,  before  he  received  the  kiss  of  peace  i  Did  not  the  woman 
that  was  a  sinner  forsake  her  wicked  course  of  life,  before  our  Lord 
said  to  her.  Go  in  peace^  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee  ? 

Again,  was  not  the  woman  of  Samaria  convinced  of  sin,  yea  of  all 
that  ever  she  did,  before  our  Lord  revealed  himself  to  her,  to  enable 
her  to  believe  unto  justification  ?  Did  not  Zaccheus  evidence  his 
fear  of  God,  yea,  and  work  righteousness^  by  hearty  offers  of  restitu- 
tion, before  Christ  testified  that  he  was  a  son  of  Abraham?  Did  not 
St.  Paul  express  his  fear  of  God,  and  readiness  to  work  righteousness, 
when  he  cried  out,  Lord,  what  wouldest  thou  have  me  to  do  ?  Yea,  did 
he  not  produce  fruits  meet  for  repentance^  by  praying  three  days  and 
three  nights,  before  Ananias  was  sent  to  direct  him  how  to  wash  away 
his  sins?  Did  not  the  Eunuch  and  Cornelius  fear  God  ?  Did  not  David 
himself,  whom  the  apostle  mentions  as  a  grand  instance  of  justifica- 
tion without  the  merit  of  works,  fear  God  from  his  youth  ?  And 
when  he  had  wrought  folly  in  Israel,  was  he  not  humbled  for  his  sin, 
before  he  was  washed  from  it  ?  Did  he  not  confess  his  crime  and  say, 
J  have  sinned,  before  Nathan  said.  The  Lord  hath  put  away  thy  sin? 

Does  not  St.  Paul  himself  carry  Mr.  W.'s  heresy  so  far  as  to  say. 
Whosoever  among  you  feareth  God,  to  you  is  the  word  of  this  salvation 
sent?  Acts  xiii.  26.  Must  we  so  understand  Rom.  iv.  5.  as  to  make 
him  contradict,  point  blank,  his  own  declarations,  his  own  experience, 
and  the  account  of  all  the  above-mentioned  conversions  ?  Certainly 
not.  Those  words,  God  justifies  the  ungodly,  and  him  that  workeih 
not,  but  believeth  in  Jesus,  when  candidly  explained,  agree  perfectly 
with  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine.     1.  By  the  ungodly,  the  apostle  does  not 


68  FIRST    CHECK 

mean  the  wicked  that  does  not  forsake  his  way :  but  the  man,  who 
before  he  beheved  to  justification,  was  wigodly,  and  still  remains 
ungodly  in  the  eye  of  the  law  of  works,  needing  daily  forgiveness  by 
grace,  even  after  he  is  made  godly  in  a  Gospel  sense.  2.  By  him 
that  worketh  not,  St.  Paul  does  not  mean  a  lazy,  indolent  wretch,  who, 
without  any  reluctance,  follows  the  stream  of  his  corrupt  nature  ; 
but  a  penitent,  who,  whatever  works  he  does  has  no  dependence 
upon  them,  esteems  them  as  nothing,  yea,  as  dung  and  dross,  in  com- 
parison of  the  excellency  of  Christ :  and  in  short,  one  who  does  not 
work  to  merit  or  purchase  his  justification,  but  comes  to  receive  that 
invaluable  blessing  as  a  free  gift.  3.  That  this  is  the  meaning  of  the 
apostle  is  evident  from  his  adding,  that  he  that  worketh  not,  yet  be- 
lieveth.  For  if  he  took  the  word  worketh  not  in  an  absolute  sense, 
he  could  never  make  it  agree  with  believing,  which  is  certainly  a 
work,  yea,  a  work  of  our  noblest  part ;  for  with  the  heart  man  believeth 
to  righteousness.  Add  to  this.  Sir,  that  justifying  faith,  as  I  observed 
before,  never  comes  without  her  forerunner,  conviction,  nor  con- 
viction of  sin,  without  suitable  tempers  or  inward  works.  *'  There 
"  is  nothing,"  says  Dr.  Owen,  "  that  I  will  more  firmly  adhere  to  in 
"  this  whole  doctrine,  than  the  necessity  of  convictions  previous  to 
"  true  believing  ; — as  also  displacency,  sorrow,  fear,  a  desire  of  de- 
"  liverance,  with  other  necessary  effects  of  true  convictions."  St. 
Paul  therefore  is  consistent  with  himself,  and  Mr.  W.  with  St.  Paul. 

Again ;  if  God  justify  sinners  merely  as  ungodly,  and  people  that 
work  not,  why  should  he  not  justify  all  sinners  ?  For  they  are  all 
ungodly,  and  there  is  none  of  them  that  does  good,  tio,  not  one !  Why 
did  not  the  Pharisee,  for  example,  go  to  his  house  justified  as  well  as 
the  Publican  ?  You  will  probably  answer,  that  he  was  not  convinced 
of  sin.  Why,  Sir,  this  is  just  what  Mr.  W.  maintains  :  express 
yourself  in  St.  Peter's  words,  he  did  not /ear  God; — or  in  those  of 
John  the  Baptist,  he  did  not  bring  forth  fruit  meet  for  repentance. 

Should  some  ask,  what  works  meet  for  repentance  did  the  woman 
caught  in  adultery  do,  before  our  Lord  justified  her?  I  would  ask, 
in  my  turn,  how  do  they  know  that  the  Lord  justified  her  ?  Do  they 
conclude  it  from  those  words.  Neither  do  I  condemn  thee  ?  Does  not 
the  context  show,  that  as  the  Pharisees  had  not  condemned  her  to  be 
stoned,  according  to  the  Mosaic  law,  neither  would  our  Lord  take 
upon  himself  to  pass  sentence  upon  her,  according  to  his  de- 
claration on  another  occasion,  /  am  not  sent  to  condemn  the  world,  but 
that  the  world  through  me  might  be  saved  ?  This  by  no  means  im- 
plies, that  the  world  is  justified  in  St.  Paul's  sense,  Rom.  v.  1.  But 
supposing  she  were  justified,  how  do  you  know   that  our  Lord's 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  69 

words,  writing,  looks,  and  grace,  had  not  brought  her  to  godly  shame 
and  sorrow,  that  is,  to  the  fear  of  God,  and  the  working  of  internal 
righteousness,  before  he  gave  her  the  peace  that  passes  all  under- 
standing ? 

After  all,  Mr.  W.  says,  with  modesty  and  wisdom,  "  It  is  a  doubt 
whether  God  makes  any  exceptions  at  all  :"  and  it  lies  upon  you, 
to  show  there  is  in  these  words  any  thing  contrary  to  the  humility  of 
the  true  Christian,  and  orthodoxy  of  the  sound  divine  :  but  please 
to  remember,  that  if  you  judge  of  orthodoxy  according  to  the  works 
of  Dr.  Crisp,  we  will  take  the  liberty  to  appeal  to  the  word  of  God. 

But  you  make  perhaps  Mr.  W.'s  heresy  in  this  proposition,  con- 
sist in  his  refusing  to  take  the  word  of  persons  convinced  of  sin, 
when  they  say  they  never  feared  God  nor  wrought  righteousness. 
*'  For  we  know,"  says  he,  "  how  all  that  are  convinced  of  sin,  under- 
value themselves  in  every  respect." 

Had  Mr.  W.  imagined,  that  some  Christian  friends,  (O  my  God  1 
save  me  from  such  friendship  !)  would  leave  no  stone  unturned  to 
procure  a  copy  of  his  Minutes,  in  order  to  find  some  Occasion  against 
him,  he  would  probably  have  worded  this  with  more  circumspection. 
But  he  wrote  for  real  friends;  and  he  knew  such  would  at  once  enter 
into  his  meaning,  which  is,  that  "  Persons  deeply  convinced  of  sin 
are  apt,  very  apt,  to  form  a  wrong  judgment  both  of  their  state  and 
performances,  and  to  think  the  worst  of  themselves  in  every  respect, 
that  is,  both  with  regard  to  what  divine  grace  does  in  thorn,  and 
by  them." 

And  this  is  so  obvious  a  truth,  that  he  must  be  a  novice  indeed  in 
Christian  experience,  who  doubts  of  it  for  a  moment  ;  and  a  great 
lover  of  disputing,  who  will  make  a  man  an  offender  for  so  true  an 
assertion.  Do  not  we  daily  see  some,  in  whom  the  arrows  of 
conviction  stick  fast,  who  think  they  are  as  much  past  recovery  as 
Satan  himself?  Do  not  we  hear  others  complain,  "  they  grow  worse 
and  worse,"  when  they  only  discover  more  and  more  how  bad  they 
are  by  nature  ?  And  are  there  not  some,  who  bind  upon  themselves 
heavy  burdens  of  their  own  making,  and  when  they  cannot  bear  them, 
are  tormented  in  their  consciences  with  imaginary  guilt :  while  others 
are  ready  to  go  distracted  through  groundless  fears  of  having  committed 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  In  a  word,  do  not  we  see  hundreds, 
who,  when  they  have  reason  to  hope  well  of  themselves,  think  there 
is  no  hope  for  them  ?  In  all  these  respects,  do  they  not  act  like  Jonah 
in  the  fish's  belly,  and  say,  /  am  cast  out  of  thy  sight  ?  And  have 
not  they  need  to  encourage  themselves  in  their  God,  and  say.  Why 
art  thou  cast  down,  O  my  soul  ? 

Vol.  I.  10 


1^0  FIRST    CHECK 

But  let  your  conscience  speak,  Sir,  on  this  matter.  When  some 
deep  mourners  have  complained  to  you  of  their  misery,  danger, 
and  desperate  state,  did  you  never  drop  a  word  of  comfort  to  this 
effect,  "  You  undervalue  yourselves  ;  you  write  too  bitter  things 
against  yourselves,  your  case  is  not  quite  so  bad  as  your  unbelieving 
fears  represent  it  :  God's  thoughts  are  not  as  your  thoughts  :  many, 
like  the  foolish  virgins  think  themselves  sure  of  heaven,  when  they 
stand  on  the  brink  of  hell ;  and  many  think  they  are  just  dropping 
into  it,  who  are  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God?^^ 

Yea,  and  as  it  is  with  real  seekers,  so  it  is  with  real  believers. 
Did  not  they  undervalue,  yea,  degrade  themselves,  by  the  remains  of 
their  unbelief;  or,  which  is  the  same,  did  they  live  up  to  their  dignity, 
and  every  where  consider  themselves  as  "  members  of  Christ,  chil- 
dren of  God,  and  inheritors  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  -what  manner 
of  persons,  yea,  what  angels  would  they  be  in  all  holy  conversation  ! 

Sometimes  their  light  shines  with  peculiar  lustre,  like  Moses's  face, 
and  they  know  it  not.  Thousands  see  their  good  works  and  glorify  their 
Father  who  is  in  heaven,  but  the  matter  is  hid  from  them  ;  they  com- 
plain, perhaps,  that  they  are  the  most  unprofitable  of  all  his  children. 
Let  me  instance  in  one  particular  ;  St.  Paul,  Mr.  Whitfield,  and  thou- 
sands of  the  brightest  stars  of  the  church,  have  called  themselves 
both  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  the  Uast  of  all  eaints.  Now,  as  in  a  chain 
there  is  but  one  link  that  can  be  called  the  first,  or  the  last ;  so,  in 
the  very  nature  of  things,  there  can  be  but  one  man  in  the  immense 
file  of  Christ's  soldiers,  that  is  actually  the  chief  of  sinners,  and  the 
least  of  all  sairits :  if  a  thousand  believers  therefore  say  those  two 
appellations  belong  to  themselves,  it  is  evident  that  999  undervalue 
themselves.  For  my  part,  I  cannot  but  think  they  suit  me  ten  thou- 
sand times  better  than  they  did  St.  Paul :  I  must  therefore  insolently 
think  myself  a  less  sinner  and  a  greater  saint  than  him  ;  or  of  neces- 
sity believe  that  he,  and  all  that  are  partakers  of  the  same  convincing 
grace,  undervalue  themselves  in  every  respect. 

One  more  article  remains,  and  if  it  do  not  contain  the  dreadful  heresy, 
which  hitherto  we  have  looked  for  in  vain,  the  Minutes  are  from  first 
to  last  scripturally  orthodox,  and  you  have  given  Churchmen  and 
Dissenters  a  false  alarm. 

Vlll.  "  Does  not  talking  of  a  justified  and  sanctified  state  tend  to 
mislead  men  ?  Almost  naturally  leading  them  to  trust  in  what  was 
done  in  one  moment  ?  Whereas  we  are  every  hour,  and  every  mo- 
ment, pleasing  or  displeasing  to  God,  according  to  our  works  :  accord- 
ing to  the  whole  of  our  iuM'ard  tempers  aod  outward  behaviour.'' 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  71 

To  do  this  proposition  justice,  and  prevent  misunderstandings,  I  must 
premise  some  observations. 

1.  Mr.  W.  is  not  against  persons  talking  of  justification  and  sancti- 
fication  in  a  scriptural  sense  :  for  when  he  knows  the  tree  by  the  fruits^ 
he  says  himself  to  his  flocks,  as  St.  Paul  did  to  the  Corinthians,  some 
of  you  are  sanctified  and  justified.  Nor  does  he  deny  that  God  justi- 
fies a  penitent  sinner  in  a  moment,  and  that  in  a  moment  he  can  mani- 
fest himself  unto  his  believing  people  as  he  does  not  to  the  world,  and 
give  them  an  inheritance  among  them  that  are  sanctified,  through  faith  in 
Jesus.  His  objection  respects  only  the  idea  entertained  by  some,  and 
countenanced  by  others,  that  when  God  forgives  us  our  sins,  he  in- 
troduces us  into  a  state  where  we  are  unalterably  fixed  in  his  blessed 
favour,  and  for  ever  stamped  with  his  holy  image  :  so  that  it  matters 
no  longer  whether  the  tree  is  barren  or  not ;  whether  it  produces 
good  or  bad  fruit ;  it  was  set  at  such  a  time,  and  therefore  it  must 
be  a  tree  of  righteousness  still :  a  conclusion  directly  contrary  to  the 
words  of  our  Lord  and  his  beloved  disciple  :  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them.  Every  branch  in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit,  [much  more 
that  beareth  evil  fruit]  my  Father  taketh  away. 

2.  Permit  me,  Sir,  to  observe  also,  that  Mr.  W.  has  many  persons 
in  his  Societies  (and  would  to  God  there  were  none  in  ours,)  who  pro- 
fess they  were  justified  or  sanctified  in  a  moment :  but  instead  of 
trusting  in  the  living  God,  so  trust  to  what  was  done  in  that  moment, 
as  to  give  over  taking  up  their  cross  daily,  and  watching  unto  prayer 
with  all  perseverance.  Tiie  consequences  are  deplorable  ;  they  slide 
back  into  the  spirit  of  the  world ;  and  their  tempers  are  no  more 
regulated  by  the  meek,  gentle,  humble  love  of  Jesus.  Some  inquire 
with  the  Heathens,  What  shall  we  eat,  and  what  shall  we  drink  to  please 
ourselves  ?  Others  evidently  love  the  world,  lay  up  treasures  on  earth, 
or  ask,  WJierewith  shall  we  be  fashionably  clothed?  Therefore  the  love 
of  the  Father  is  not  in  them. — And  not  a  few  are  led  captive  by  the  devil 
at  his  will:  influenced  by  his  unhappy  suggestions,  they  harbour 
bitterness,  malice,  and  revenge  :  none  is  in  the  right  but  themselves, 
and  wisdom  shall  die  with  them. 

Now,  Sir,  Mr.  W.  cannot  but  fear,  it  is  not  well  with  persons  who 
are  in  any  of  these  cases  :  though  every  body  should  join  to  extol 
them  as  "  dear  children  of  God,"  he  is  persuaded  that  Satan  has  be- 
guiled them  as  he  did  Eve,  and  he  addresses  them  as  our  Lord  did  the 
angel  of  the  church  of  Sardis,  I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  hast  a  name 
that  thou  livest,  and  art  dead,  [or  dying;]  Repent,  therefore,  and 
strengthen  the  things  which  remain,  that  are  ready  to  die ;  for  I  have 
notfound  thy  works  perfect  before  God.   Mr.  W.  hath  the  word  of  pre- 


72  FIRST    CHECK 

phecy,  which  he  thinks  more  sure  than  the  opinion  of  a  world  of 
professors  ;  and  according  to  that  word  he  sees,  that  they  who  are  led 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  are  the  so7is  of  God,  and  that  God's  Spirit  does 
not  lead  into  the  vanities  of  the  world,  or  indulgence  of  fleshly  lasts, 
any  more  than  into  the  pride  or  malice  of  Satan.  Nor  does  he  think 
that  those  are  not  under  the  lazv,  who  can  merrily  laugh  at  the  law, 
and  pass  jests  at  Moses  the  venerable  servant  of  God  :  but  with  St. 
Paul  he  asserts,  that  when  people  are  wider  grace,  and  not  under  the 
law,  sin  hath  no  dominion  over  them.  With  our  Lord  he  declares,  He 
zvho  committeth  sin  is  the  servant  of  siJi,  and  with  his  prophet,  that  God 
is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity,  with  the  least  degree  of  ap- 
probation. In  short,  he  believes,  that  God  being  unchangeable  in  his 
holiness,  cannot  but  always  love  righteousness  and  hate  iniquity  :  and 
that  as  the  heart  is  continually  working  either  iniquity  or  righteous- 
ness, and  as  God  cannot  but  be  pleased  at  the  one,  and  displeased  at 
the  other,  he  is  continually  pleased  or  displeased  with  us,  according 
to  the  workings  of  our  hearts,  and  the  fruits  which  they  outwardly 
produce. 

Perhaps,  you  object  to  the  word  every  moment.  But  why  should 
you.  Sir  ?  If  it  be  not  every  moment,  it  is  never.  If  God  do  not  ap- 
prove holiness  and  disapprove  sin  every  moment,  he  never  does  it, 
for  he  changes  not.  If  he  do  it  only  now  and  then,  he  is  such  an 
one  as  ourselves  ;  for  even  wicked  men  will  approve  righteousness 
and  condemn  unrighteousness  by  fits  and  starts.  I  may  every  moment 
harbour  malice  in  my  heart,  and  so  commit  internal  murder.  If  God 
wink  at  this  one  instant,  why  not  two  ;  and  so  on  to  days,  months,  and 
years  ?  Does  the  duration  of  moral  evil  constitute  sin  ?  May  not  I  be 
guilty  of  the  greatest  enormity  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  ?  And  is  it 
not  the  ordinary  property  of  the  most  horrid  crimes,  such  as  robbery 
and  adultery,  that  they  are  soon  finished  ? 

Do  not  say,  Sir,  that  this  doctrine  sets  aside  salvation  by  faith  ;  it  is 
highly  consistent  with  it.  He  that,  in  God's  account,  does  the  best 
works,  has  the  most  faith,  most  of  the  sap  of  eternal  life  that  flows 
from  the  heavenly  Vine  :  and  he  that  has  most  faith,  has  most  of 
Christ's  likeness,  and  is  of  course  most  pleasing  to  God,  who  cannot 
be  pleased  but  with  Christ  and  his  living  image.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  that  in  God's  account  does  the  worst  works,  and  has  the  worst  tem- 
pers, has  most  unbelief.  He  that  has  most  unbelief  is  most  like  his 
father  the  devil ;  and  must  consequently  be  most  displeasing  to  him  that 
accepts  us  in  the  Beloved,  and  not  in  the  wicked  one. 

Having  premised  these  observations,  I  come  closer  to  the  point, 
and  assert,  that  if  we  are  not  every  moment  pleasing  or  displeasing  to 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  73 

God,  according  to  the  works  of  our  hearts  and  hands,  you  must  set 
your  seal  to  the  following  absurdities  : 

1 .  God  is  angry  with  the  noicked  all  the  day,  and  yet  there  are  moments 
in  which  he  is  not  angry  at  them.  2.  Lot  pleased  God  as  much  in 
those  moments  in  which  he  got  drunk  and  committed  incest  with  his 
daughters,  as  in  the  day  he  exercised  hospitality  towards  the  disguised 
angels.  3.  David  did  not  displease  God  more  when  he  committed 
adultery  with  Bathsheba,  and  imbrued  his  heart  in  her  husband's 
blood,  than  when  he  danced  before  the  ark,  or  composed  the  103d 
Psalm.  4.  Solomon  was  as  acceptable  to  God  in  the  moment  when 
his  wives  turned  away  his  heart  after  other  gods,  as  when  he  chose  wis- 
dom, and  his  speech  pleased  the  Lord  ; — when  he  went  after  the  god- 
dess Ashtaroth,  and  built  a  high  place  to  bloody  Moloch  ;  as  when  he 
represented  our  Melchisedec,  and  dedicated  the  temple.  5.  Again, 
you  must  set  your  seal  to  these  propositions  of  Dr.  Crisp.  "  From 
"  the  time  thy  transgressions  were  laid  upon  Christ,  thou  ceasest 
"  to  be  a  transgressor  to  the  last  hour  of  thy  life  ;  so  that  now 
"  thou  art  not  an  idolater,  thou  art  not  a  thief,  &c.  thou  art 
-•  not  a  sinful  person,  whatsoever  sin  thou  committest." — Again, 
*'  God  does  no  longer  stand  oflfended  nor  displeased,  though  a  believ- 
"  er,  after  he  is  a  believer,  do  sin  often  :  except  he  will  be  offended 
"  where  there  is  no  cause  to  be  offended,  which  is  blasphemy  to 
"  speak."  Yet  again,  "  It  is  thought  that  elect  persons  are  in  a  damn- 
"  able  estate,  in  the  time  they  walk  in  excess  of  riot:  let  me  speak 
**  freely  to  you,  that  the  Lord  has  no  more  to  lay  to  the  charge  of  an 
"  elect  person,  yet  in  the  height  of  iniquity,  and  in  the  excess  of  riot, 
"  and  committing  all  the  abominations  that  can  be  committed." — 
*'  '  There  is  no  time  but  such  a  person  is  a  child  of  God.'  "  6.  In 
short,  Sir,  you  must  be  of  the  sentiment  of  the  wildest  Antinomian  I 
ever  knew,  who  because  he  had  once  a  bright  manifestation  of  par- 
don, not  only  concludes  that  he  is  safe,  though  he  lives  in  sin,  but  as- 
serts, God  would  no  more  be  displeased  with  him  for  whoring  and  steal- 
ing, than  for  praying  and  receiving  the  sacrament. 

Again,  It  is  an  important  truth,  that  we  may  please  God  for  a  time, 
and  yet  afterward  displease  him.  St.  Paul  mentions  those,  who,  by 
putting  away  a  good  conscience,  concerning  faith  made  shipwreck, 
and  therefore  pleased  God  no  longer,  seeing  ihut  without  faith  it  is  im- 
possible to  please  him. 

Of  this  the  Israelites  are  a  remarkable  instance.  They  did  all 
drink  of  that  spiritual  rock  that  followed  them,  and  that  rock  was  Christ, 
Yet  with  many  of  them  God  was  not  well  pleased  ;  then  comes  the  proof 
of  the  divine  displeasure  ;  for  they  ^ere  overthrown  in  the  wilderness ; 


74  FIRST  CHECK 

JVotn',  adds  the  Siposi\e,  these  things  happened  unto  ihem  for  examples, 
and  they  are  written  for  our  admonition,  that  zve  should  not  lust  after 
evil  things^  and  tempt  Christ  as  they  did.  Therefore  let  him  that  thinketh 
he  standeth  take  heed  lest,  after  their  example,  he  fall  into  wilful  sin, 
the  divine  displeasure,  and  utter  destruction. 

Our  Lord  teaches  the  same  doctrine,  both  by  parables  and  positive 
assertions.  He  gives  us  the  history  of  a  man  to  whom  his  Lord  and 
King  compassionately /or^are  a  debt  of  ten  thousand  talents :  this  un- 
grateful wretch,  by  not  forgiving  his  fellow-servant  who  owed  him  a 
hundred  pence,  forfeited  his  own  pardon,  and  drew  upon  himself  the 
king's  heaviest  displeasure, /or  he  was  wroth,  and  delivered  him  to  the 
tormentors,  till  he  should  pay  all  that  was  due  to  him  ;  and  to  the  eter- 
nal overthrow  of  Dr.  Crisp's  fashionable  tenets,  our  Lord  adds.  So 
likewise  shall  my  Father  do  unto  you,  if  ye  from  your  hearts  forgive  not 
every  one  his  brother  their  trespasses.  Agreeably  to  this  he  assured  his 
disciples  that  his  Father pruneth  every  branchin  him  that  beareth  fruit, 
and  taketh  away  every  one  that  beareth  not  fruit  ;  and  to  show  how  far 
his  dipleasure  may  proceed,  he  observes,  that  such  a  barren  branch 
is  cast  forth,  is  withered^  gathered,  cast  into  thejire,  and  burned. 

Here,  Sir,  I  might  add  all  those  Scriptures  that  testify  the  possibility 
ef  falling  away  from  the  divine  favour  :  I  might  bring  the  alarming 
instances  of  those  apostates,  who  once  tasted  the  good  word  of  God, 
and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  and  afterward  fell  from  their 
steadfastness,  lost  their  reward,  became  enemies  to  God  by  wicked  works, 
hated  the  light  which  once  they  rejoiced  in,  because  it  reproved 
their  evil  deeds  ;  trod  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  forgat  they  were 
washed  from  their  old  sins,  and  counted  the  blood  of  Christ,  wherewith 
they  were  sanctified,  an  unholy  thing.  But  I  refer  you,  Sir,  to  the 
two  John  Goodwins  of  the  age,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Wesley,  and  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Sellon,  who  have  so  cut  down  and  stripped  the  Crispian  ortho- 
doxy, that  some  people  think  it  actually  lies  without  either  root,  bark, 
or  branches,  exposed  to  the  view  of  those  who  have  courage  enough 
to  see  and  think  for  themselves. 

Should  all  they  have  advanced,  to  show  that  we  are  every  hour  and 
ever}'  moment  pleasing  or  displeasing  to  God,  according  to  our  inter- 
nal and  external  works,  have  no  weight  with  you  ;  let  me  conclude  by 
producing  the  testimony  of  two  respectable  divines,  against  whom  you 
will  not  enter  a  protest. 

The  one  is  the  Rector  of  Loughrea.  You  tell  us,  Sir,  in  your 
Sermons,  page  88,  that  the  acceptance  of  Cornelius  "  was  not  abso- 
lutely final  and  decisive  ;"  and  you  add,  "  So  long  as  we  continue  in 
the  flesh,  we  are  doubtless  in  a  probationary  state.     Even  after  Cor- 


^  TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  75 

nelius  had  been  endued  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  had  he  wilfully  done 
despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace,  he  might  have  (not  only  displeased  God, 
which  is  all  Mr.  W.  asserts  in  this  proposition,)  but  fallen  as  deep  in- 
to perdition  as  ever  Judas  did." 

I  know  one,  Sir,  who  was  burned  as  a  dreadful  heretic,  that  did  not 
go  farther  in  this  heresy  than  you  do.  And  that  is  good  bishop  Lati- 
mer ;  who  not  only  affirmed  that  "  Christ  shed  as  much  blood  for  Ju- 
"  das  as  he  did  for  Peter,"  but  roundly  asserted,  "  We  may  one  time 
*'  be  in  the  book  and  another  out,  as  it  appeareth  by  David,  who  was 
"  written  in  the  book  of  life ;  but  when  he  sinned,  (which  by  the  by 
*'  we  may  now  do  every  moment)  he,  at  the  same  time,  was  out  of 
"  the  favour  of  God,  until  he  had  repented  ;  out  of  Christ,  who  is  the 
**  book  in  which  all  believers  are  written."  Lat.  Serm.  on  the  3d 
Sunday  after  Epiph. 

Thus,  Sir,  have  I  looked  out  for  the  heresy,  the  dreadful  heresy  of 
Mr.  W.'s  Minutes,  by  bringing  all  the  propositions  they  contain  to 
the  touchstone  of  Scripture  and  Common  Sense  ;  but  instead  of  finding 
it,  I  have  found  the  very  marrow  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  so  far  as  it 
is  opposed  to  Dr.  Crisp's  Antinomian  Gospel ;  which  at  this  time 
would  overflow  our  little  Sion,  if  God  did  not  sit  above  the  water- 
floods,  and  say  to  the  proudest  billows  of  error.  Hitherto  shall  ye  come, 
and  no  farther.  I  have  showed  that  the  Minutes  contain  nothing  but 
what  is  truly  scriptural,  and  nothing  but  what  the  best  Calvinist  di- 
vines have  themselves  directly  or  indirectly  asserted  ;  except  per- 
haps the  sixth  proposition  concerning  the  merit  of  works  ;  and  with 
respect  to  this,  I  hope  I  have  demonstrated,  upon  rational  and  evan- 
gelical principles,  that  Mr.  W.  far  from  bringing  in  a  damnable  heresy, 
has  done  the  Gospel  justice,  and  Protestantism  service,  by  candidly 
giving  up  an  old  prejudice,  equally  contrary  to  Scripture  and  good 
sense,  a  piece  of  bigotry  which  hath  long  hardened  the  Papists 
against  the  doctrine  of  Salvation  by  the  merit  of  Christ,  and  hath 
added  inconceivable  strength  to  the  Antinomian  delusion  among  us. 
One  difficulty  remains,  and  that  is,  to  account  for  your  attacking  Mr. 
W.  though  you  could  not  wound  him  without  stabbing  yourself.  Re- 
serving my  reflections  upon  this  amazing  step  for  another  letter,  I 
remain,  your  astonished  servant  in  the  bonds  of  a  peaceful  Gospel. 

J.  FLETCHER. 


76  FIRST  CHECK 

LETTER  V. 

Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir^ 

JHlAVING  vindicated  both  some  important  doctrines  of  the  Gospel., 
and  an  eminent  servant  of  Christ  from  the  charge  of  dreadful  he- 
resy ;  I  will  now  take  the  liberty  of  a  friend  to  expostulate  a  little  with 
you. 

When  Brutus,  among  the  Senators,  rushed  upon  Cesar,  the  vene- 
rable General,  as  he  wrapped  himself  in  his  mantle,  just  said, 
"  And  art  thou  also  among  them  ?  Even  thou,  my  son  ?"  May  not 
Mr.  W.  address  you.  Sir,  in  the  same  words,  and  add,  ''  If  a  body  of 
men  must  be  raised  to  attack  me,  let  some  zealous  follower  of  Dr. 
Crisp,  some  hot-headed  vindicator  of  reprobation  and  eternal  justi- 
fication, blow  the  trumpet,  and  put  himself  at  their  head  ;  but  let 
it  not  be  you^  who  believe  with  me  that  we  are  moral  agents  ;  that 
God  is  love  ;  that  Jesus  tasted  death  for  every  man  ;  and  that  the 
Holy  Spirit  shall  not  always  strive  with  sinners.  If  you  do  not 
regard  my  reputation,  consider  at  least  your  own  ;  and  expose  me 
not  as  a  heretic  for  advancing  propositions,  the  substance  of  which 
you  have  avowed  before  the  sun." 

But  had  those  propositions  at  length  appeared  to  you  unsound, 
yea,  and  had  you  never  maintained  them  yourself,  should  you  not, 
as  a  Christian  and  a  brother,  have  written  to  him,  acquainted  him 
with  your  objections,  and  desired  him  to  solve  them  and  explain  him- 
self, or  you  should  be  obliged  publicly  to  expose  him  ? 

Was  this  condescension  more  than  was  due  from  you,  Sir,  and  our 
friends,  to  a  grey-headed  Minister  of  Christ,  an  old  General  in  the 
armies  of  Emmanuel,  a  Father  who  has  children  capable  of  instruct- 
ing even  masters  in  Israel ;  and  one  whom  God  made  the  first 
and  principal  instrument  of  the  late  revival  of  internal  religion  in 
our  church  ? 

Instead  of  this  friendly  method,  as  if  you  were  a  Barak,  command- 
ed by  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  you  call  together  the  children  of  Naphtali 
and  Zebulon:  you  convene  from  England  and  Wales,  Clergy  and 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  »7.7 

Laity,  Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  to  meet  you  at  Bristol,  nhere  they 
are,  it  seems,  to  be  entertained  in  good  and  free  quarters.  And  for 
what  grand  expedition  ?  Why,  on  a  day  appointed,  you  are  to  march 
xip  in  a  body ;  not  to  attack  Sisera  and  his  iron  chariots,  but  an  old 
Caleb,  who.  without  meddling  urith  you,  quietl}'^  goes  on  to  the  con- 
quest of  Canaan  :  not  to  desire  in  a  friendly  manner,  after  a  fair  de- 
bate of  every  proposition  that  appears  dangerous,  and  upon  previous 
conviction,  that  what  is  excepiionable  may  be  given  up  ;  but  to  do 
what  1  think  was  never  done  by  nominal,  much  less  by  real  Protes- 
tants: — O  let  it  not  be  told  in  Rome,  lest  the  sons  of  the  Inquisition 
rejoice  ! — This  mixed,  this  formidable  body  is  to  insist  upon  Mr.  W. 
and  the  Preachers  in  his  connexion, /onna%  recanting  their  Minutes, 
as  appearing  injurious  to  the  "very  fundamental  principles  of  Christianity ^ 
and  being  dreadfutiy  heretical.  And  this,  astonishing!  without  the 
least  inquiry  made  into  their  meaning  and  design  ; — without  a  shadow 
of  authority  from  our  superiors  in  church  or  state ; — without  an  ap- 
peal to  the  law  and  to  the  testimony ;— without  form  of  process  ;  with- 
out judge  or  jury  ; — without  so  much  as  allowing  the  poor  heretics^ 
(who  are  condemned  six  weeks  before  they  can  possibly  be  heard)  to 
answer  for  themselves ! 

As  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  stop,  some  months  ago,  such  rash  pro- 
ceedings in  Wales,  permit  me.  Sir,  to  bear  my  testimony  against 
them  in  England,  and  to  tell  you  they  exceed  the  late  transactions 
in  Edmund-Hall.  The  six  students,  against  whom  wrath  was  gone 
forth,  were  allowed  to  say  what  they  could  in  their  own  defence,  be- 
fore they  were  sentenced  as  unfit  members  of  a  literary  society. 
Likewise  the  Vice-Chancellor  had  the  statutes  of  the  University  of 
Oxford,  seeming  to  countenance  his  proce^ings :  but  what  statute  of 
the  University  of  Jesus  can  you  produce,  even  to  save  appearances  ? 
Surely  not  that  which  the  Papists  make  such  use  of.  Compel  them  to 
come  in ;  for  I  am  persuaded,  that  although  Clergy  and  Laity, 
Churchmen  and  Dissenters,  are  convened  to  go  in  a  body  to  Mr.  W.'s 
conference,  you  mean  no  external  compulsion.  Much  less  are  you 
authorized  to  insist  upon  his  owning  himself  a  heretic  by  these 
words  of  the  apostle,  As  much  as  lieth  in  you  live  peaceably  with 
all  men^  and  esteem  ministers  highly  in  love  for  their  works*  sake.-^ 
Neither  by  his  command,  A  heretic  after  the  first  and  second  admoni- 
lion,  kc.  for  you  have  neither  proved  Mr.  W.  a  heretic,  nor  once 
admonished  him  as  such. 

Surely  our  Lord  will  not  smile  upon  your  undertaking  ;  for  he  has 
left  his  sentiments  upon  record,  the  reverse  of  your  practice.  He 
had  said.  Whosoever  shall  receive  (not  provoke)  one  of  such  children 'in 

Vol.  L  II  ' 


FIRST   CHECK 


my  name,  receiveth  me.  But  John  answered  him  saying ,  Master,  we  sa&r 
one  casting  out  devils  in  thy  name,  and  we  forbade  him,  because  he  fol- 
loweth  not  us.  Forbid  him  not,  said  Jesus, /or  there  is  no  man  who  can 
do  a  miracle  in  my  name,  that  can  hghtly  speak  evil  of  me.  Festus  him- 
self, though  a  poor  heathen,  will  disappiorc  of  such  a  step.  It  is  not 
the  manner  of  the  Romans,  says  he,  to  deliver  any  man  to  die,  (or  to  in- 
sist on  his  publicly  giving  up  his  reputation,  which  in  some  cases  is 
worse  than  death,)  before  that  he  who  is  accused  harve  the  accusers 
face  to  face,  and  have  license  to  answer  for  himself  concerning  the  crim^ 
laid  against  him.  The  lordliness  of  your  procedure,  Sir,  even  ex- 
ceeds, in  one  respect,  the  severity  of  the  council  of  Constance  ;  where 
Jerom  of  Prague  had  leave  to  plead  his  own  cause,  before  he  was 
obhged  to  acknowledge  himself  a  heretic,  and  make  a  formal  re- 
cantation of  the  propositions  he  had  advanced.      • 

Besides,  how  could  you  suppose,  Sir,  that  Mr.  W.  and  the  preach- 
ers who  shall  assemble  with  him,  are  such  weak  men,  as  tamely  to 
acknowledge  themselves  heretics  upon  your  ipse  dixit?  Suppose  Mr. 
W.  took  it  in  his  head  to  convene  all  the  divines  that  disapprove  the 
extract  of  Zanchius,  to  go  with  him  in  a  body  to  Mr.  Toplady's  cha- 
pel, and  demand  a  formal  recantation  of  that  performance,  as  hereti- 
cal ;  yea,  to  insist  upon  it,  before  they  had  *'  measured  swords,  or 
broken  a  pike  together  ;"  would  not  the  translator  of  Zanchius,  from 
the  ramparts  of  common  sense,  deservedly  laugh  at  him,  and  ask 
whether  he  thought  to  frighten  him  by  his  protests,  and  bully  him  into 
orthodoxy  ? 

0  Sir,  have  we  not  fightings  enough  without  to  employ  all  our 
time  and  strength  ?  Must  we  also  declare  war  and  promote  fightings 
within?  Must  we  catch *at  every  opportunity  to  stab  one  another, 
because  the  livery  of  truth  which  we  wear  is  not  turned  up  in  the 
same  manner  ?  What  can  be  more  cruel  than  this  ?  What  can  be 
more  cutting  to  an  old  Minister  of  Christ,  than  to  be  traduced  as  a 
dreadful  heretic,  in  printed  letters  sent  to  the  best  men  in  the  land, 
yea,  through  all  England  and  Scotland,  and  signed  by  a  person  of  your 
rank  and  piety :  to  have  things  that  he  knows  not,  that  he  never 
meant,  laid  to  his  charge,  and  dispersed  far  and  near  ?  While  he  is 
gone  to  a  neighbouring  kingdom,  to  preach  Jesus  Clirist,  to  have  his 
friends  prejudiced,  his  foes  elevated,  and  the  fruit  of  his  extensive 
ministry  at  the  point  of  being  blasted  ?  Put  yourself  in  his  place, 
Sir,  and  you  will  see  that  the  wound  is  deep,  and  reaches  the  very 
heart. 

1  can  apologize  for  the  other  real  Protestants.  Some  are  utter 
strangers  to  polemic  divinity  ;  others  are  biassed  by  Calvinism ;  and 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  79 

ssne,  whose  name  is  used,  never  saw  your  circular  letter  till  it  was 
in  print.  But  what  can  I  say  for  you^  Sir  ?  Against  hope  1  must 
believe  in  hope,  that  an  unaccountable  panic  influenced  your  mind, 
and  deprived  you  for  a  time  of  the  calmness  and  candour  which  adorn 
your  natural  temper.  If  this  be  the  case,  may  you  act  with  less  pre- 
cipitancy for  the  future.  And  may  the  charity  that  hopeth  all  things, 
beUeveth  all  things^  and  does  not  provoke,  and  is  not  provoked,  rule  in 
our  hearts  and  lives.  So  shall  the  heathen  world  drop  their  just  ob- 
jections against  our  unhappy  divisions,  and  once  more  be  forced  to 
cry  out.  See  how  these  Christians  love !  And  so  shall  we  give  over 
trying  to  disturb,  or  pull  down,  a  part  of  the  church  of  Christ,  be- 
cause we  dishke  the  colour  of  the  stones  with  which  it  is  built ;  or 
because  our  fellow-builders  cannot  pronounce  Shibboleth  just  as  we 
do. 

One  word  more  about  Mr.  W.  and  I  have  done.  Of  the  two  great- 
est, and  most  useful  ministers  I  ever  knew,  one  is  no  more.  The 
other,  after  amazing  labours,  flies  still  with  unwearied  diligence 
through  the  three  kingdoms,  calling  sinners  to  repentance,  and  to  the 
healing  fountain  of  Jesus's  blood.  Though  oppressed  with  the  weight 
of  near  seventy  years,  and  the  care  of  near  thirty  thousand  souls,  he 
shames  still,  by  his  unabated  zeal  and  immense  labours,  all  the  young 
ministers  in  England,  perhaps  in  Christendom.  He  has  generally 
blown  the  gospel-trump,  and  rode  twenty  miles,  before  most  of  the 
professors  who  despise  his  labours  have  left  their  downy  pillow.  As 
he  begins  the  day,  the  week,  the  year,  so  he  concludes  them,  still  in- 
tent upon  extensive  services  for  the  glory  of  the  Redeemer,  and  the 
good  of  souls.  And  shall  we  lightly  lift  up  our  pens,  our  tongues, 
our  hands,  against  him  ?  No,  let  them  rather  forget  their  cunning.  If 
we  will  quarrel,  can  we  find  nobody  to  fall  out  with,  but  the  minister 
upon  whom  God  puts  the  greatest  honour  ? 

Our  Elijah  has  lately  been  translated  to  heaven.  Gray-headed 
Elisha  is  yet  awhile  continued  upon  earth.  And  shall  we  make  a 
hurry  and  noise,  to  bring  in  railing  accusations  against  him  with  more 
success  ?  While  we  pretend  to  a  peculiar  zeal  for  Christ's  glory,  shall 
the  very  same  spirit  be  found  in  us,  which  made  his  persecutors  say. 
He  hath  spoken  blasphemy,  (or  heresy)  what  need  we  any  farther  wit- 
nesses ?  Shall  the  sons  of  the  prophets,  shall  even  children  in  grace  and 
knowledge,  openly  traduce  the  venerable  seer  and  his  abundant  la- 
bours  ?  When  they  see  him  run  upon  his  Lord's  errands,  shall  they 
cry,  not,  Go  up,  thou  bald  head,  but  Go  up,  thou  heretic  ?  O  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  thou  rejected  of  men,  thou  who  wast  once  called  a  deceiver  of 
the  people^  suffer  it  not ;  lest  the  raging  bear  of  persecution  come  sud- 


§0  FIRST    CHECK 

denly  out  of  the  wood  upon  these  sons  of  discord,  and  tear  them  in 
pieces ! 

And  suppose  a  Noah,  an  old  preacher  of  righteousness,  should  have 
really  nodded  under  the  influence  of  an  honest  mistake,  shall  we  act 
a  worse  part  than  that  of  Canaan?  Shall  we  make  sport  of  the  naked- 
ness which,  we  say,  he  has  disclosed,  when  we  have  boldly  uncovered 
it  ourselves  ?  O  God,  do  not  thou  permit  it,  lest  a  curse  of  pride,  self- 
sufficiency,  bigotry,  Antinomianism,  and  bitter  zeal,  come  upon  us ; 
and  lest  the  children  begotten  by  our  unkind  preaching,  and  un- 
loving example,  walk  in  oiir  steps,  and  ir^ierit  our  propagated  punish- 
ment ! 

Rather  may  the  blessing  of  peace-makers  be  ours  :  may  the  meek, 
loving  Spirit  of  Jesus,  fill  our  hearts  !  May  streams,  not  of  the  bitter 
waters  which  cause  the  curse,  but  of  the  living  water  which  gladdens 
the  city  of  God,  flow  from  our  catholic  breasts,  and  put  out  the  fire  of 
wild  zeal  and  persecuting  malice.  May  we  know  when  Sion  is  really 
in  danger  ;  and  when  the  accuser  of  the  brethren  gives  a  false  alarm, 
to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  church,  and  turn  the  stream  of  undefiled, 
lovely,  and  loving  religion,  into  the  miry  channel  of  obstinate  preju- 
dice, imperious  bigotry,  and  noisy,  vain  jangling.  And  may  we  at  last 
unanimously  worship  together  in  the  temple  of  peace,  instead  of  stri- 
ving for  the  mastery  in  the  house  of  discord  I 

Should  this  public  attempt  to  stop  the  war  which  has  been  publicly 
declared,  be  in  any  degree  successful ; — should  it  check,  a  little,  the 
forwardness  that  has  lately  appeared  to  stir  up  contention,  under  pre- 
tence of  opposing  heresy  ; — should  it  make  warm  men  willing  to  let 
the  light  of  their  moderation  shine  before  others,  and  to  keep  a  con- 
science void  of  off^ence  towards  their  neighbours,  instead  of  openly  op- 
posing their  Hberty  of  conscience  ; — should  it  cause  the  good  that  is  in 
an  eminent  servant  of  Christ  to  be  less  evil  spoken  of: — And  above 
all,  should  it  convince  any  of  the  great  impropriety  of  exposing  pre- 
cious truths  as  dreadful  heresies ;  and  of  preferring  the  Gospel  of  Dr. 
Crisp  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus :— I  shall  be  less  grieved  at  having 
been  obliged  to  expostulate  with  you.  Sir,  in  this  public  manner. 

In  hopes  this  will  be  the  case,  and  with  a  heart  full  of  ardent  wishes 
that  all  our  unhappy  divisions  may  end  in  a  greater  union,  1  remain, 
Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir,  your  obedient  servant,  in  the  peaceable  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ, 

J.  FLETCHER. 

July  29,  nil. 


SECOND  CHECK 


THREE  LETTERS 

TO  THE 

HONOURABLE  AND  REVEREND  MR.  SHIRLEYo 

BT 

THE  riXDIC^TOIt 

OF  THE 


Reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long-suffering  and  [scriptural]  doctrine;  for  the  time  will 
come  when  they  -will  not  endure  sound  doctrine.  2  Tim.  iv.  2,  3. 

Wherefore  reiuke  them  sharply,  that  they  may  be  sound  in  the  faith.    But  let  brotherly  love 
continut.  TU.i.13.    Heb.Tui.l. 


PREFACE. 


X  HE  publication  of  the  Vindication  of  Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes  hav- 
ing been  represented  by  some  persons  as  an  act  of  injustice,  the  fol- 
lowing letter  is  made  public  to  throw  some  light  upon  that  little  event, 
and  serve  as  a  preface  to  the  Second  Check  to  Antinomianism. 

To  the  Rev.  Mr.  John  Wesley. 

Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 
As  I  love  open  dealing,  I  send  you  the  substance,  and  almost  the 
very  words  of  a  private  letter,  I  have  just  written  to  Mr.  Shirley,  in 
answer  to  one,  in  which  he  informs  me  he  is  going  to  publish  his  Nar- 
rative. He  is  exceedingly  welcome  to  make  use  of  any  part  of  my 
letters  to  Mr.  Ireland  concerning  the  publication  of  my  Vindication, 
and  you  are  equally  welcome  to  make  what  use  you  please  of  this. 
Among  friends  all  things  are,  or  should  be,  common. 

I  am,  Rev.  and  dear  Sir,  yours,  &c. 

J.  F. 
Madely,  Se^t.  11,  1771. 

To  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley. 

Rev.  and  dear  Sir, 
It  is  extremely  proper,  nay,  it  is  highly  necessary,  that  the  public 
should  be  informed,  how  much  like  a  minister  of  the  Prince  of  Peace, 
and  a  meek,  humble,  loving  brother  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  you  be- 
haved at  the  Conference.  Had  I  been  there,  I  would  gladly  have 
taken  upon  me  to  proclaim  these  tidings  of  joy  to  the  lovers  of  Zion's 
peace.  Your  conduct  at  that  time  of  love  is  certainly  the  best  ex- 
cuse for  the  hasty  step  you  had  taken,  as  my  desire  of  stopping  my 
Vindication,  upon  hearing  it,  is  the  best  apology  I  can  make  for  my  se- 
verity to  you. 


84  PREFACE. 

I  am  not  averse  at  all,  Sir,  to  your  publishing  the  passages  you 
mention  out  of  my  letters  to  Mr.  Ireland.  They  show  my  peculiar 
love  and  respect  for  you,  which  I  shall  at  all  times  think  an  honour, 
and  at  this  juncture  shall  feel  a  peculiar  pleasure,  to  see  proclaimed 
to  the  world.  They  apologize  for  my  calling  myself  a  lover  of  quiet- 
wess,  when  I  unfortunately  prove  a  son  of  contention  :  and  they  de- 
monstrate that  I  am  not  altogether  void  of  the  fear  that  becomes  an 
awkward,  unexperienced  surgeon,  when  he  ventures  to  open  a  vein, 
in  the  arm  of  a  person  for  whom  he  has  the  greatest  regard.  How 
natural  is  it  for  him  to  tremble,  lest  by  missing  the  intended  vein,  and 
pricking  an  unseen  artery,  he  should  have  done  irreparable  mischief, 
instead  of  an  useful  operation. 

But  while  you  do  me  the  kindness  of  publishing  those  passages, 
permit  me,  Sir,  to  do  Mr.  Wesley  the  justice  of  informing  him  I  had 
also  written  to  Mr.  Ireland,  that  "  whether  my  letters  were  sup- 
pressed or  not,  the  Minutes  must  be  vindicated, — that  Mr.  W. 
owed  it  to  the  Church,  to  the  real  Protestants,  to  all  his  societies,  and 
to  his  own  aspersed  character  ; — and  that  after  all,  the  controversy 
did  not  seem  to  me  to  be  so  much  whether  the  Minutes  should  stand, 
as  whether  the  Antinoraian  Gospel  of  Dr.  Crisp  should  prevail  over 
the  practical  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ." 

I  must  also.  Sir,  beg  leave  to  let  my  vindicated  friend  know,  that 
in  the  very  letter  where  I  so  earnestly  entreated  Mr.  Ireland  to  stop 
the  pubhcation  of  my  letters  to  you,  and  offered  to  take  the  whole  ex- 
pense of  the  impression  upon  myself,  though  I  should  be  obliged  to 
sell  my  last  shirt  to  defray  it,  I  added,  that  "  If  they  were  published, 
I  must  look  upon  it  as  a  necessary  evil  or  misfortune ;"  which  of  the 
two  words  I  used,  I  do  not  justly  recollect  :  a  misfortune  for  you  and 
me,  who  must  appear  inconsistent  to  the  world :  you,  Sir,  with  your 
sermons,  and  I  with  my  title-page  ;  and  nevertheless  necessary,  to  vin- 
dicate misrepresented  truth,  defend  an  eminent  minister  of  Christ, 
and  stem  the  torrent  of  Antinomianism. 

It  may  not  be  improper  also,  to  observe  to  you.  Sir,  that  when  I 
presented  Mr.  Wesley  with  my  Vindication,  I  begged  he  would  cor- 
rect it,  and  take  away  whatever  might  be  unkind  or  too  sharp  ;  urging 
that  though  I  meant  no  unkindness,  I  was  not  a  proper  judge  of  what 
1  had  written  under  peculiarly  delicate  and  trying  circumstances,  as 
well  as  in  a  great  hurry  ;  and  did  not  therefore  dare  to  trust  either 
my  pen,  my  head,  or  my  heart.  He  was  no  sooner  gone,  than  I  sent 
a  letter  after  him,  to  repeat  and  urge  the  same  request ;  and  he 
wrote  me  word,  he  had  "  expunged  every  tart  expression."  If  he 
has,  (for  I  have  not  yet  seen  what  alterations  his  friendly  pen  has 


PREFACE.  85 

made,)  I  am  reconciled  to  their  publication  ;  and  that  he  has,  I  have 
reason  io  hope  from  the  letters  of  two  judicious  London  friends, 
who  calmed  my  fears,  lest  I  should  have  treated  you  with  unkindness. 

One  of  them  says,  "  I  reverence  Mr.  Shirley  for  his  candid  ac- 
knowledgment of  his  hastiness  in  judging.  1  commend  the  Calvinists 
ait  the  Conference  for  their  justice  to  Mr.  Wesley,  and  their  acquies- 
cence in  the  declaration  of  the  Preachers  in  connexion  with  him. 
But  is  that  declaration,  however  dispersed,  a  remedy  adequate  to 
the  evil  done  not  only  to  Mr.  Wesley,  but  to  the  cause  and  work  of 
God  ?  Several  Calvinists,  in  eagerness  of  malice,  had  dispersed  their 
calumnies  through  the  three  kingdoms.  A  truly  excellent  person 
herself,  in  her  mistaken  zeal,  had  represented  him  as  a  Papist  un- 
masked, a  Heretic,  an  Apostate.  A  clergyman  of  the  first  reputation 
informs  me,  a  poem  on  his  apostacy  is  just  coming  out.  Letters  have 
been  sent  to  every  serious  Churchman  and  Dissenter  through  the 
land,  together  with  the  Gospel  Magazine.  Great  are  the  shoutings, 
and  now  that  he  lieth  let  him  rise  up  no  more  !  This  is  all  the  cry. 
His  dearest  friends  and  children  are  staggered,  and  scarce  know 
what  to  think.  You,  in  your  corner,  cannot  conceive  the  mischief 
that  has  been  done,  and  is  still  doing.  But  your  letters,  in  the  hand 
of  Providence,  may  answer  the  good  ends  you  proposed  by  writing 
them.  You  have  not  been  too  severe  to  dear  Mr.  Shirley,  moderate 
Calvinists  themselves  being  judges  ;  but  very  kind  and  friendly  to  set 
a  mistaken  man  right,  and  probably  to  preserve  him  from  the  hke 
rashness  as  long  as  he  lives.  Be  not  troubled  therefore,  but  cast 
your  care  upon  the  Lord." 

My  other  friend  says,  *'  Considering  what  harm  the  circular  letter 
has  dt)ne,  and  what  an  useless  satisfaction  Mr.  Shirley  has  given  by 
his  vague  acknowledgment,  it  is  no  more  than  just  and  equitable  that 
your  letters  should  be  published." 

Now,  Sir,  as  I  never  saw  ih^t  acknowledgment,  nor  the  softening  cor- 
rections made  by  Mr.  Wesley  in  my  Vindication  ;  as  I  was  not  in- 
formed of  some  of  the  above-mentioned  particulars  when  I  was  so 
eager  to  prevent  the  publication  of  my  letters,  and  as  I  have  reason 
to  think,  that  through  the  desire  of  an  immediate  peace,  the  fester- 
ing wound  was  rather  skinned  over  than  probed  to  the  bottom  ;  all  I 
can  say  about  this  publication  is,  what  I  wrote  to  our  common  friend, 
namely,  that  "  1  must  look  upon  it  as  a  necessary  ew7." 

I  am  glad.  Sir,  you  do  not  direct  your  letter  to  Mr.  Olivers,  who 
was  so  busy  in  publishing  my  Vindication  ;  for,  by  a  letter  1  have 
just  received  from  Bristol,  I  am  informed  he  did  not  hear  how  de- 
sirous I  was  to  call  it  in,  till  he  had  actually  given  out  before  a  whole 

Vol.  L  12 


86  PREFA.CC. 

congregatioD  it  would  be  sold.  Besides,  he  would  have  pleaded  with 
smartness,  that  he  nefer  approved  of  a  patched  up  peace,  that  he 
bore  his  testimony  against  it,  at  the  time  it  was  made,  and  had  a  per- 
sonal right  to  produce  my  arguments,  since  both  parties  refused  to 
hear  his  at  the  Conference. 

If  your  letter  be  friendly.  Sir,  and  you  print  it  in  the  same  size  with 
my  Vindication,  I  shall  gladly  buy  ten  pounds  worth  of  the  copies, 
and  order  them  to  be  stitched  with  my  Vindication,  and  given  gratis 
to  the  purchasers  of  it  ;  as  well  to  do  you  justice,  as  to  convince 
the  world  that  we  make  a  loving  war ;  and  also  to  demonstrate  how 
much  I  regard  your  respectable  character,  and  honour  your  dear 
person.  Mr.  Wesley's  heart  is,  I  am  persuaded,  too  full  of  brotherly 
love  to  deny  me  the  pleasure  of  thus  showing  how  sincerely  I  am, 
Rev.  Sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 
Madely,  IHhSept.mi 


Second  Clieck  to  AntinoTuiauism. 


LETTER  I. 


Hon.  and  Rev,  Sir, 

.1  CORDIALLY  thank  you  for  the  greatest  part  of  your  NarratiFC. 
It  confirms  me  in  my  hopes,  that  your  projected  opposition  to  Mr. 
Wesley's  Minutes  proceeded  in  general  from  zeal  for  the  Redeemer's 
glory  ;  and  as  such  a  zeal,  though  amazingly  mistaken,  had  cer- 
tainly something  very  commendable  in  it,  I  sincerely  desire  your 
Narrative  may  evidence  your  good  meaning,  as  some  think  my  Vin- 
dication does  your  mistake. 

In  my  last  private  letter  I  observed,  Rev.  Sir,  that  if  your  Nar- 
rative was  kindf  I  would  buy  a  number  of  copies,  and  give  them 
gratis  to  the  purchasers  of  my  book,  that  they  might  see  all  you 
can  possibly  produce  in  your  own  defence,  and  do  you  all  the  justice 
your  proper  behaviour  at  the  Conference  deserves.  But  as  it 
appears  to  me  there  are  some  important  mistakes  in  that  perform- 
ance, I  neither  dare  recommend  it  absolutely  to  my  friends,  nor  wish 
it  in  the  religious  world  the  full  success  you  desire. 

I  do  not  complain  of  its  severity  ;  on  the  contrary,  considering  the 
sharpness  of  my  fifth  letter,  I  gratefully  acknowledge  it  is  kinder 
than  I  had  reason  to  expect.  But  permit  me  to  tell  you.  Sir,  I  look 
for  justice  to  the  scriptural  arguments  I  advance  in  defence  of  truths 
before  I  look  for  kindness  to  my  insignificant  person,  and  could  much 
sooner  be  satisfied  with  the  former  than  with  the  latter  alone.  As  I 
do  not  admire  the  fashionable  method  of  advancing  general  charges 
without  supporting  them  by  particular  proofs,  I  shall  take  the  liberty 
of  pointing  out  some  mistakes  in  your  Narrative,  and  by  that  mean 
endeavour  to  do  justice  to  Mr.  Wesley's  Declarations,  your  own 
Sermons,  my  Vindication,  and  above  all,  to  the  cause  of  practical 
religion. 


88  SiKCOND  CHECK 

Waiving  the  repetition  of  what  I  said  in  my  last,  touching  the  pub- 
lication of  my  Five  Letters  to  you,  I  object  first  to  your  putting  a 
wrong  colour  upon  Mr.  Wesley's  Declaration.  You  insinuate,  or 
assert,  that  he,  and  fifty-three  of  the  Preachers  in  Conference  with 
him,  give  up  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  works  in  the  day  of 
judgment.  It  appears,  say  you,  from  their  subscribing  the  Declara- 
tion^ notwithstanding  Mr.  Oliver's  remonstrances,  that  they  do  not 
maintain  a  second  justification  by  works. 

Surely,  Sir,  you  wrong  them.  They  might  have  objected  to  some 
of  Mr.  Oliver's  expressions,  or  been  displeased  with  his  readiness  to 
enter  the  lists  of  dispute  ;  but  certainly  so  many  judicious  and  good 
men  could  never  so  betray  the  cause  of  practical  religion,  as  tamely 
to  renounce  a  truth  of  that  importance.  If  they  had,  one  step  more 
would  have  carried  them  full  into  Dr.  Crisp's  eternal  justification, 
which  is  the  very  centre  of  Antinomianism  ;  and  without  waiting  for 
the  return  of  the  next  Conference,  I  would  bear  my  legal  testimony 
against  their  Antinomian  error.  Mr.  Wesley  I  reverence  as  the 
greatest  Minister  I  know,  but  would  not  follow  him  one  step  farther 
than  he  follows  Christ.  Were  he  really  guilty  of  rejecting  the 
evangelical  doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by  works,- with  the 
plainness  and  honesty  of  a  Suisse,  I  would  address  him,  as  I  beg  you 
would  permit  me  to  address  you. 

I.  Neither  you.  Rev.  Sir,  nor  any  divine  in  the  world,  have,  1 
presume,  a  right  to  bolt  out  of  the  sacred  records  those  words  of 
Jesus  Christ,  St.  James,  and  St.  Paul :  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his 
commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree  of  life. — Not  every 
one  that  says  to  me.  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven, 
but  he  that  does  the  will  of  my  Father. — Be  ye  therefore  doers  of  the 
wordy  and  not  hearers  only,  deceiving  your  ownselves. — For  as  we  are 
under  the  law  to  Christ. — JVot  the  hearers  of  the  law  shall  be  just 
before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified. — Every  man's 
work  shall  be  made  manifest :  for  the  day  shall  declare  it,  because  it 
shall  be  revealed  by  fire,  and  the  fire  shall  try  every  man's  work  of 
what  sort  it  is :  His  very  words  shall  undergo  the  severest  scrutiny  : 
/  say  unto  you,  [O  how  many  will  insinuate  the  contrary  !]  that  every 
idle  word  that  men  shall  speak  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the  day 
of  judgment,  for  by  thy  words  shall  thou  [then]  be  justified^  and  by  thy 
words  shalt  thou  [then]  be  condemned. 

Can  you  say.  Sir,  that  the  justification  mentioned  by  our  Lord  iu 
this  passage,  is  the  same  as  that  which  St.  Paul  speaks  of  as  the  pre- 
sent privilege  of  all  believers,  and  has  no  particular  reference  to 
the  day  of  judgment  mentioned  in  the  preceding  sentence  ?  Or  will 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  89 

you  intimate  our  Lord  does  not  declare  we  shall  be  justified  in  the 
last  day  by  works,  but  by  zvords  ?  Would  this  evasion  be  judicious  ? 
Do  not  all  professors  know  that  -wot As  are  works  in  a  theological 
sense  ;  as  being  both  the  signs  of  the  workings  of  our  hearts,  and 
the  positive  works  of  our  tongues  ?  Will  you  expose  your  reputation 
as  a  divine,  by  trying  to  prove,  that  although  we  shall  be  justified  by 
the  works  of  our  tongues,  those  of  our  hands  and  feet  shall  never 
appear  for  nor  against  our  justification  ?  Or  will  you  insinuate  that 
our  Lord  recanted  the  legal  sermons  written  Matt.  v.  xii.  ?  If  you 
do,  his  particular  account  of  the  day  of  judgment,  chap.  xxv.  which 
strongly  confirms  and  clearly  explains  the  doctrine  of  our  second 
justification  by  works,  will  prove  you  greatly  mistaken,  as  will  also 
his  declaration  to  St.  John  above  forty  years  after,  Behold,  I  come 
quickly,  and  my  reward  is  with  me,  to  give  to  every  man  as  his  work 
[not  faith,]  shall  be. 

O  if  faith  alone  turn  the  scale  of  justifying  evidence  at  the  bar  of 
God,  how  many  bold  Antinomians  will  claim  relation  to  Christ,  and 
boast  they  are  interested  in  his  imputed  righteousness !  How  many 
will  say  with  the  foolish  virgins.  Lord!  Lord!  we  are  of  faith,  and 
Abraham's  children :  in  thy  name  we  publicly  exposed  all  legal  pro- 
fessors, traduced  their  teachers  as  enemies  to  thy  free  grace ;  and  to 
do  thee  service  made  it  our  business  to  expose  the  righteousness,  and 
cry  down  the  good  works  of  thy  people;  therefore.  Lord!  Lord! 
open  to  us!  But,  alas!  far  from  thanking  (hem  for  their  pains,  with- 
out looking  at  their  boasted  faith,  he  will  dismiss  them  with  a  Depart 
from  me,  ye  that  work  iniquity !  As  if  he  said  : 

"  Depart,  ye  that  made  the  doctrine  of  my  atonement  a  cloak  for 
your  sins,  or  sewed  it  as  a  pillow  under  the  arms  of  my  people,  to 
make  them  sleep  in  carnal  security,  when  they  should  have  worked 
out  their  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling.  You  profess  to  know 
me,  but  I  disown  you.  My  sheep  1  know  :  them  that  are  mine  I 
know  ;  the  seal  of  my  holiness  is  upon  them  all :  the  motto  of  it 
[let  him  that  nameth  the  name  of  Christ  depart  from  iniquity,)  is 
deeply  engraven  on  their  faithful  breasts, — Not  on  yours,  ye  carnal, 
ye  sold  under  sin. 

^^  And  why  called  ye  me — Lord!  Lord!  and  did  not  do  the  things 
which  I  said?  Why  did  ye  even  use  my  righteousness  as  a  breast- 
plate, to  stand  it  out  against  the  word  of  my  righteousness  ;  and  as  an 
engine  to  break  both  tables  of  my  law,  and  batter  down  my  holiness  ? 
Your  heart  condemns  you,  ye  sinners  in  Sion !  Ye  salt  without  savour ! 
Ye  believers  without  charity !  And  am  not  I  greater  than  your  heart  ? 
And  knox<o  I  not  your  works?  Yes,  /  know  that  the  love  of  God  is  not  in 


90  SECOND    CHECK 

yoUi  for  you  despised  one  of  these  my  brethren.  How  could  you 
think  to  deceive  me,  the  Searcher  of  hearts  and  Trier  of  reins  ?  And 
how  did  you  dare  to  call  yourselves  by  my  name  ?  As  if  you  were 
my  people  ?  my  dear  people  ?  mine  elect  ?  'Are  not  all  my  peculiar 
people  partakers  of  my  holiness,  and  zealous  of  good  works  ?  Have  not 
I  chosen  to  myself  the  man  that  is  godly,  and  protested  that  the  ungodly 
shall  not  stand  in  judgment,  nor  sinners  (though  in  sheep's  clothing) 
in  the  congregation  of  the  righteous  ?  And  say  I  not  to  the  wicked, 
ho  ammi,  though  he  should  have  been  one  of  my  people,  Thou  art 
none  of  my  people  now,  what  hast  thou  to  do  with  taking  my  covenant 
in  thy  mouth?  You  denied  me  in  works,  and  did  not  wash  your  hearts 
from  iniquity  in  my  blood  ;  therefore  according  to  my  word,  I  deny 
you  in  my  turn,  before  my  Father  and  his  holy  angels.  Perish  your 
hope,  ye  hypocrites !  And  utter  darkness  be  your  portion,  ye  double- 
minded  !  Let  fearfulness  surprise  you,  ye  tinkling  cymbals  !  Let  the 
fall  of  your  Babels  crush  you,  ye  towering  professors  of  my  humble 
faith!  Fly,  ye  clouds  without  water;  ye  chaff',  fly  before  the  blast  of 
my  righteous  indignation !  Ye  workers  of  iniquity !  Ye  Satans  trans- 
formed into  angels  of  light ! 

n.  Nor  is  our  Lord  singular  in  his  doctrine  of  justification,  or 
condemnation,  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment.  If  it  be  a  heresy, 
the  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apostles  are  as  great  heretics  as 
their  Master.  Enoch,  quoted  by  St.  Jude,  prophesied  that  when 
the  Lord  shall  come  to  execute  judgment  upon  all  men,  he  will  con- 
vince the  ungodly  among  them  of  all  their  ungodly  deeds  and  hard 
speeches.  This  conviction  will  no  doubt  be  in  order  to  condem- 
nation ;  and  this  condemnation  will  not  turn  upon  unbelief,  but  its 
eflfects,  ungodly  deeds  and  hard  speeches. — Solomon  confirms  the  joint 
testimony  of  Enoch  and  St.  Jude,  where  he  says.  He  that  knoweth 
the  heart,  shall  render  to  every  man  according  to  his  works  :  and 
again.  Know,  0  young  man,  that  for  all  these  things,  for  all  thy  ways^ 
God  shall  bring  thee  into  judgment. 

St.  Paul,  the  great  champion  for  faith,  is  peculiarly  express  upon 
this  anti-Crispian  doctrine.  The  Lord,  says  he,  in  the  day  of  wrath 
and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God,  will  render  to  every 
man  according  to  his  deeds  ;  to  them  that  continue  in  well  doing, — 
here  is  the  true  perseverence  of  the  saints !  Eternal  life !  Indigna- 
tion upon  every  soul  of  man  that  does  evil,  and  ^lory  to  every  man  who 
woRKETH  good ,'  for  there  is  no  respect  of  persons  with  God. — We  shall 
all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  that  every  one  may 
receive  the  things  done  in  the  body,  not  according  to  that  he  hath 
believed,  whether  it  be  true  or  false,  but  according  to  that  he  hath 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  91 

DONE.whetherit  be  good  or  bad, — St.  Peter  asserts  that  the  Father, 
without  respect  of  persons,  judgeth  according  to  every  man's  work. — - 
And  St.  John,  who  next  to  our  Lord  gives  us  the  most  particular 
description  of  the  day  of  judgment,  concludes  it  by  these  awful 
words,  And  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  the  things  written  in  the  books^ 
according  to  their  works.  It  is  not  once  said  according  to  their 
faith. 

Permit  me,  Sir,  to  sum  up  all  these  testimonies  in  the  words  of 
two  kings  and  two  apostles.  Let  us  hear  the  conclusion  of  the  whole 
matter f  says  the  king  who  chose  wisdom,  Fear  God  and  keep  his 
COMMANDMENTS,  for  this  IS  the  whole  duty  of  man ;  for  God  shall  bring 
every  work  into  judgment,  whether  it  be  good  or  evil.'— They  that  have 
DONE  good,  says  the  King  who  is  wisdom  itSelf,  (and  the  Athanasiati 
Creed  after  him,)  shall  go  into  everlasting  life ;  and  they  that  have  not 
DONE  good,  or  that  have  done  evil,  to  everlasting  punishment. — You  see 
then,  and  they  are  the  words  of  St.  James,  that  a  man  is  justified 
BY  WORKS,  and  not  by  faith  only.  By  faith  he  is  justified  at  his  con- 
version, and  when  his  backslidings  are  healed.  But  he  is  justified 
by  works,  1.  In  the  hour  of  trial,  as  Abraham  was  when  he  had 
offered  up  Isaac  :  2.  In  a  court  of  spiritual  or  civil  judicature,  as 
St.  Paul  at  the  bar  of  Festus ;  and  3.  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  as  every  one  will  be  whose  faith,  when  he  goes  hence,  is 
found  working  by  love  :  for  there,  [says  St.  Paul,  as  well  as  in  con- 
sistorial  courts,]  circumcision  is  nothing,  and  uncircumcision  is  nothing, 
but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God,   1  Cor.  vii.  19. 

III.  This  doctrine  is  so  obvious  in  the  Scripture,  so  generally 
received  in  all  the  churches  of  Christ,  and  so  deeply  engraven  on 
the  consciences  of  sincere  professors,  that  the  most  eminent  ministers 
of  all  denominations  perpetually  allude  to  it,  (Yourself,  Sir,  not 
excepted,  as  I  could  prove  from  your  sermons,  if  you  had  not 
recanted  them.)  How  often,  for  instance,  has  that  great  man  of  God, 
the  truly  reverend  Mr.  Whitefield,  said  to  his  immense  congregations, 
^'  You  are  warned,  I  am  clear  of  your  blood,  I  shall  rise  as  a  swift 
witness  against  you,  or  you  against  me,  in  the  terrible  day  of  the 
Lord  :  O  remember  to  clear  me  then :"  or  words  to  that  purpose. 
And  is  not  this  just  as  if  he  had  said,  "  We  shall  be  justified  or  con- 
demned in  the  day  of  judgment  by  what  we  are  now  doing  :  I  by  my 
preaching,  and  you  by  your  hearing  ?" 

And  say  not,  Sir,  that  *'  such  expressions  were  only  flights  of 
oratory,  and  prove  nothing."  If  you  do,  you  touch  the  apple  of  God's 
eye.     Mr.  Whitefield  was  not  z  flighty  orator,  but  spoke  the  words  of 


92  SECOND    CHECK 

soberness  and  truth  with  divine  pathos,  and  floods  of  tears  deelara 
tive  of  his  sincerity. 

Instead  of  swelling  this  letter  into  a  volume  (as  I  easily  might)  by 
producing  quotations  from  all  the  sober  Puritan  divines,  who  have 
directly  or  indirectly  asserted  a  second  justification  by  works,  1  shall 
present  you  only  with  two  passages  from  Mr.  Henry.  On  Matt.  xii. 
37,  he  says,  "  Consider  how  strict  the  judgment  will  be  on  account 
of  our  words.  By  thy  words  thou  shall  be  justified  or  condemned^ 
a  common  rule  in  men's  judgment,  and  here  applied  to  God's.  Note, 
the  constant  tenor  of  our  discourse,  according  as  it  is  gracious  or  not 
gracious,, will  be  an  evidence  for  us,  or  against  us  at  that  day.  Those 
that  seemed  to  be  religious,  but  bridled  not  their  tongues,  will  then  be 
found  to  have  put  a  cheat  upon  themselves  with  a  vain  religion. — It 
concerns  us  to  think  much  of  the  day  of  judgment,  that  it  may  be  a 
check  upon  our  tongues."     And  again. 

Upon  those  words,  Rom.  ii.  13,  Not  the  hearers  of  the  law  are  just 
before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified:  the  honest 
commentator  says,  "  The  Jewish  (Antinomian)  Doctors  bolstered  up 
their  followers  with  an  opi||ion  that  all  that  were  Jews  (the  elect 
people  of  God)  how  bad  soever  they  lived,  should  have  a  glorious 
place  in  the  world  to  come.  This  the  apostle  here  opposes.  It  was 
a  very  great  privilege  that  they  had  the  law,  but  not  a  saving  privilege, 
unless  they  lived  up  to  the  law  they  had. — We  may  apply  it  to  the  Gos- 
pel :  it  is  not  hearing  but  doitig  that  will  save  us,  John  xiii.  17.  James 
i.  22."  Who  does  not  perceive  that  Mr.  Henry  saw  the  truth,  and 
spoke  it  so  far  as  he  thought  his  Calvinist  readers  could  bear  it  ? 
Surely  if  that  good  man  dared  to  say  so  much,  we,  who  have  done 
"  leaning  too  much  towards  Calvinism,"  should  be  inexcusable  if  we 
did  not  say  all. 

IV.  These  testimonies  will,  I  hope,  make  you  weigh  with  an 
additional  degree  of  candour  the  following  arguments  : 

The  voice  that  St.  John  heard  in  heaven  did  not  say,  Blessed  are 
the  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord,  for  their  faith  follows  them  :  No,  but  their 
works.  Faith  is  the  hidden  root,  hope  the  rising  stalk,  and  love, 
together  with  good  works,  the  nourishing  corn  :  and  as  the  king's 
agents  who  fill  a  royal  granary,  do  not  take  in  the  roots  and  stalks, 
but  the  pure  wheat  alone  ;  so  Christ  takes  neither  faith  nor  hope  into 
heaven,  the  former  being  gloriously  absorbed  in  sight,  and  the  latter 
in  enjoyment. 

If  1  may  compare  faith  and  hope  to  the  chariot  of  Israel  and  the 
courser  thereof,  they  both  bring  believers  to  the  everlasting  doors  of 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  93 

of  glory,  but  do  not  enter  in  themselves.  Not  so  love  and  good  works, 
for  love  is  both  the  nature  and  element  of  saints  in  glory  ;  and  good 
works  necessarily /o/Zoay  them,  both  in  the  books  of  remembrance  which 
shall  then  be  opened,  and  in  the  objects  and  witnesses  of  those  works, 
who  shall  then  be  all  present ;  as  it  appears  from  the  words  of  our 
Lord,  You  have  done  it,  or  you  have  not  done  it,  to  one  of  the  least  of 
these  my  brethren;  and  those  of  St.  Paul  to  his  dear  converts,  Y^u 
shall  be  my  joy  and  my  crown  in  that  day.  Thus  it  is  evident  that 
although  faith  is  the  temporary  measure  according  to  which  God 
deals  out  his  mercy  and  grace  in  this  world,  as  we  may  gather  from 
that  sweet  saying  of  our  Lord,  Be  it  done  to  thee  according  to  thy  faith  : 
yet  love  and  good  works  are  the  eternal  measures,  according  to  which 
he  distributes  justification  and  glory  in  the  world  to  come.  On  these 
observations  I  argue, 

We  shall  be  justified  in  the  last  day  by  the  grace  and  evidences 
which  shall  then  remain. 

Love  and  good  works,  the  fruits  of  faith,  shall  then  remain. 

Therefore  we  shall  then  be  justified  by  love  and  good  works,  that 
is,  not  by  faith,  but  by  its  fruils. 

V.  This  doctrine,  so  agreeable  to  Scripture,  the  sentiments  of 
moderate  Calvinisls,  and  the  dictates  of  reason,  recommends  itself 
likewise  to  every  man's  conscience  in  the  sight  of  God.  Who,  but  Dr. 
Crisp,  could  (after  a  calm  review  of  the  whole  affair)  affirm,  that  in 
the  day  of  judgment,  if  I  am  accused  of  being  actually  a  hypocrite, 
Christ's  sincerity  will  justify  me,  whether  it  be  found  in  me  or  not  ? 

Again.  Suppose  I  am  charged  with  being  a  drunkard,  a' thief, 
a  whoremonger,  a  covetous  person  ;  or  a  fretful,  impatient,  ill-natured 
Elan  ;  or  if  you  please  a  proud  bigot,  an  implacable  zealot,  a  mali- 
cious persecutor,  who,  notwithstanding  fair  appearances  of  godliness, 
would  raise  disturbances  even  in  heaven  if  I  were  admitted  there  : 
will  Christ's  sobriety,  honesty,  chastity,  generosity  ;  or  will  his  gen- 
tleness, patience,  and  meekness,  justify  me  from  such  dreadful 
charges  ?  Must  I  not  be  found  really  sober,  honest,  chaste,  and 
charitable  ?  Must  I  not  be  inherently  gentle,  meek,  and  loving  ?  Can 
we  deny  this  without  flying  in  the  face  of  common  sense,  breaking  the 
strongest  bars  of  Scriptural  truth,  and  opening  the  floodgates  to  the 
foulest  waves  of  Antinomianism  ?  If  we  grant  it,  do  we  not  grant  a 
second  justification  by  works  ?  And  does  not  St.  Paul  grant,  or  rather 
insist  upon  as  much,  when  he  declares  that  Without  holiness  no  man 
shall  see  the  Lord  ? 

VI.  You  will  probably  ask,  what  advantage  the  Church  will  reap 
from  this  doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by  works  ?    I  answer  that. 

Vol.  I.  13 


94  SECOND    CHECK 

under  God,  it  will  rouse  Antinomians  out  of  their  carnal  security,  stir 
up  believers  to  follow  hard  after  holiness,  and  reconcile  fatal  dif- 
ferences among  Christians,  and  seeming  contradictions  in  the 
Scripture. 

1.  It  will  re-awaken  Antinomians,*  who  fancy  there  is  no  condem- 
nation to  them^  whether  they  walk  after  the  Spirit  in  love,  or  after  the 
flesh  in  malice:  whether  they  forsake  all  to  follow  Christ,  or,  like 
Judas  and  Sapphira,  keep  back  part  of  what  should  be  the  Lord's 
without  reserve.  Thousands  boldly  profess  justifying  faith,  and 
perhaps  eternal  justification,  who  reverence  the  commandments  of 
God  just  as  much  as  they  regard  the  scriptures  quoted  in  Mr. 
Wesley's  Minutes. 

Upon  their  doctrinal  systems  they  raise  a  tower  of  presumption, 
whence  they  bid  defiance  both  to  the  Law  and  Gospel  of  Jesus.  His 
Law  says.  Love  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself, 
that  thou  mayest  live  in  glory. — If  thou  wilt  enter  into  the  life  (of  glory,) 
keep  the  commandments.  But  this  raises  their  pity,  instead  of  com- 
manding their  respect,   and   exciting  their   diligence.     "  Moses  is 

*  I  beg  I  may  not  be  understood  to  level  the  following-  paragraphs,  or  any  part  of  these 
letters,  at  my  pious  Calvinist  brethren.  God  knows  how  deeply  I  reverence  many,  who 
are  immoveably  fixed  in  what  some  call  the  doctrines  of  grace;  how  gln.dly  (as  conscious 
of  their  genuine  conversion  and  eminent  usefulness)  I  would  lie  in  the  dust  at  their  {e.ei  to 
honour  our  Lord  in  his  dear  members ;  and  how  often  have  I  thought  it  a  peculiar  infelicity 
in  any  degree  to  dissent  from  such  excellent  men,  with  whom  I  wanted  both  to  live  and 
die,  and  with  whom  I  hope  soon  to  reign  for  ever. 

As  these  real  children  of  God  lament  the  bad  use  Antinomians  make  of  their  principles, 
I  hope  they  will  not  be  offended  if  I  bear  my  testimony  against  a  growing  evil,  which  they 
have  frequently  opposed  themselves.  While  the  Calvinists  guard  the  Foundation  against 
Pharisees,  for  which  I  return  them  my  sincere  thanks  ;  they  will,  I  hope,  allow  the  Remon- 
strants to  guard  the  superstructure  against  Antinomians.  If  in  doing  those  good  offices 
to  the  church,  we  find  ourselves  obliged  to  bear  a  little  hard  upon  the  peculiar  sentiments 
of  our  opposite  friends,  let  us  do  it  in  such  a  manner  as  not  to  break  the  bonds  of  peace  and 
brotherly  kindness  ;  so  shall  our  honest  reproofs  become  matter  of  useful  exercise  to  that 
love  which  thinketh  no  evil,  hopeth  all  things,  rejoiceth  even  in  the  galling  truth,  and  i» 
neither  quenched  by  many  waters,  nor  damped  by  any  opposition. 

I  have  long  wished  to  see,  on  both  sides  of  the  question  about  which  we  unhappily 
divide,  moderate  men  step  out  of  the  unthinking,  noisy  crowd  of  their  party,  to  look  each 
other  lovingly  in  the  face,  and  to  convince  tlie  world  that  with  impartial  zeal  they  will 
guard  both  the  foundation  and  the  superstructure  against  all  adversaries,  those  of  their  own 
party  not  excepted.  Whoever  does  this  omne  tulit  punctum,  he  is  a  real  friend  to  both 
parties,  and  to  the  whole  Gospel ;  for  he  cordially  embraces  all  the  people  of  God,  and 
joins  in  one  blessed  medium  the  seemingly  incompatible  extremes  of  ScHptural  truth.  Ye 
men  of  clear  heads,  honest  hearts,  and  humble  loving  spirits,  nature  and  grace  have  formed 
you  on  purpose  to  do  the  church  this  important  service.  Therefore  without  regarding  the 
bigots  of  your  own  party,  in  the  name  of  the  loving  Jesus,  and  by  his  catholic  Spirit,  give 
professors  public  lessons  of  moderation  and  consistency,  and  permit  me  to  learn  those  rare 
tirtues  vvith  thousands  at  vour  feet. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  95 

buried,"  say  they  :  "  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  law  !  We  are  not 
under  the  law  to  Christ!  Jesus  is  not  a  Lawgiver  to  control,  but  a 
Redeemer  to  save  us." 

The  Gospel  cries  to  them,  Repent  and  believe,  and,  just  as  if  God 
was  to  be  the  penitent,  believing  sinner,  they  carelessly  reply,  "  The 
Lord  must  do  all,  repentance  and  faith  are  his  works,  and  they  will  be 
done  in  the  day  of  his  power;"  and  so  without  resistance  they 
decently  follow  the  stream  of  worldly  vanities  and  fleshly  lusts. — St. 
Paul  cries,  If  ye  live  after  the  flesh  ye  shall  die :  "  We  know  better," 
answer  they,  "  there  are  neither  ifs  nor  conditions  in  all  the  Gospel." 
He  adds,  This  one  thing  I  do,  leaving  ihe  things  that  are  behind,  I  press 
towards  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  my  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus — the 
crown  of  life :  Be  ye  followers  of  me :  Run  also  the  race  that  is  set 
before  you.  "  What !"  say  they,  *'  would  you  have  us  run  and  work 
for  life  ?  Will  you  always  harp  upon  that  legal  string,  do  I  do  I  instead 
of  telling  us  that  we  have  nothiiTg  to  do,  but  to  believe  that  all  is 
done  ?" — St.  James  cries,  Show  your  faith  by  your  works;  faith  with- 
out works  is  dead  already,  much  more  that  which  is  accompanied  by 
bad  works.  "  What !"  say  they,  *'  do  you  think  the  lamp  of  faith  can 
be.  put  out  as  a  candle  can  be  extinguished,  by  not  being  suffered  to 
shine  ?  We  orthodox  hold  just  the  contrary  :  we  maintain  both  that 
faith  can  never  die,  and  that  living  faith  is  consistent  not  only  with  the 
omission  of  good  works,  but  with  the  commission  of  the  most  horrid 
crimes." — St>  Peter  bids  them  give  all  diligence  to  make  their  election 
sure,  by  adding  to  their  faith  virtue,  &lc,  "  Legal  stuff!"  say  they, 
"  the  covenant  is  well  ordered  in  all  things  and  sure  :  neither  will 
our  virtue  save  us,  nor  our  sins  damn  us." — St.  John  comes  next,  and 
declares.  He  that  sinneth  is  of  the  devil.  "What!"  say  they,  "  do 
you  think  to  make  us  converts  to  Arminianism,  by  thus  insinuating 
that  a  man  can  be  a  child  of  God  to-day,  and  a  child  of  the  devil 
to-morrow  ?" — St.  Jude  advances  last,  and  charges  them  to  keep  them- 
selves in  the  love  of  God,  and  they  supinely  reply,  *'  We  can  do 
nothing :  besides,  we  are  as  easy  and  as  safe  without  a  frame  as 
with  one." 

With  the  sevenfold  shield  of  their  Antinomian  faith,  they  would 
fight  the  twelve  Apostles  round,  and  come  off,  in  their  own  imagina- 
tion, more  than  conquerors.  Nay,  were  Christ  himself  to  come  to 
them  incognito,  as  he  did  to  the  disciples  that  went  to  Emmaus,  and 
say,  Be  ye  perfect,  as  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven  is  perfect :  it  would 
be  well  if,  while  they  measured  him  from  head  to  foot  with  looks  of 
pity  or  surprise,  some  were  not  bold  enough  to  say  with  a  sneer, 
''  You  are  a  perfectionist  it  seems,  a  follower  of  poor  John  Wp-^ley  [ 


96  Second  check 

Are  you  ?    For  our  part  we  are  for  Christ  and  free  ^mcc,  but  John 
Wesley  and  you  are  for  perfection  and  free  -will. 

Now,  Sir,  if  any  doctrine,  humanly  speaking,  can  rescue  these 
mistaken  persons  out  of  so  dreadful  a  snare,  it  is  that  which  I  contend 
for.  Antinomian  dreams  vanish  before  it,  as  the  noxious  damps  of 
the  night  before  the  rising  sun.  St.  Paul,  if  they  would  but  hear 
bim  out^  with  this  one  saying,  as  with  a  thousand  rams,  would  de- 
molish all  their  Babels  ;  Circumcision  is  nothings  uncircumcision  is 
nothing,  but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God:  or,  to  speak 
agreeable  to  our  times,  "  Before  the  tribunal  of  Christ,  forms  of  god- 
liness, Calvinian  and  Arminian" notions  are  nothing:  confessions  of 
faith  and  recantations  of  error,  past  manifestations  and  former  expe- 
riences are  nothings  but  the  keeping  of  the  commandments  of  God  ;^^ 
the  very  thing  which  Antinomians  ridicule  or  neglect! 

2.  This  doctrine  is  not  less  proper  to  animate  feeble  believers  in 
Iheir  pursuit  of  holiness.  O  if  it 'were  clearly  preached  and  stea- 
dily believed  : — if  we  were  fully  persuaded,  we  shall  soon  appear 
before  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  to  answer  for  every  thought,  * 
word,  and  work ;  for  every  business  we  enter  upon,  every  sum  df 
money  we  lay  out,  every  meal  we  eat,  every  pleasure  we  take, 
every  affliction  we  endure,  every  hour  we  spend,  every  idle  word 
we  speak,  yea,  and  every  temper  we  secretly  indulge  ;  if  we  knew 
we  shall  certainly  give  account  of  all  the  chapters  we  read,  of  all 
the  prayers  we  offer,  all  the  sermons  we  hear  or  preach,  all  the  sa- 
craments we  receive  ;  of  all  the  motions  of  divine  grace,  all  the  beams 
of  heavenly  light,  all  the  breathings  of  the  Spirit,  all  the  invitations 
of  Christ,  all  the  drawings  of  the  Father,  reproofs  of  our  friends,  and 
checks  of  our  own  consciences  : — And  if  we  were  deeply  conscious 
that  every  neglect  of  duty  will  rob  us  of  a  degree  of  glory,  and  every 
wilful  sin  of  a  jewel  in  our  crown,  if  not  of  our  crown  itself;  what 
humble,  watchful,  holy,  heavenly  persons  should  we  be  !  How  serious 
and  self-denying  !  How  diligent  and  faithful !  In  a  word,  how  angelical 
and  divine,  in  all  manner  of  conversation ! 

Did  the  Woman,  the  professing  church,  cordially  embrace  this 
doctrine,  she  would  no  more  stay  in  the  "wilderness,  idly  talking  of 
her  beloved;  but  actually  leaning  upon  him,  she  would  come  out  of  it, 
in  the  sight  of  all  her  enemies.  No  more  wrapped  up  in  the  showy 
cloud  of  ideal  perfection  or  imaginary  righteousness,  and  casting  away 
her  cold  garments,  her  moon-like  changes  of  merely  doctrinal  ap- 
parel, she  would  shine  with  the  dazzling  glory  of  her  Lord,  she 
would  burn  with  the  hallowing  fires  of  his  love  :  once  more  she 
would  be  clothed  with  the  sun,  and  have  the  moon  under  herfeet!^^ 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  97 

Ye  lukewarm  talkers  of  Jesus's  ardent  love,  if  you  were  deeply 
conscious  that  nothing  but  love  shall  enter  heaven,  instead  of  judging 
of  your  growth  in  grace,  by  the  warmth  with  which  you  espouse 
the  tenets  of  Calvin  or  Arminius,  would  you  not  instantly  try  your 
state  by  the  13th  chapter  of  the  first  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  and 
by  our  Lord's  alarming  messages  to  the  fViUing  or  fallen  churches  of 
Asia?  Springing  out  of  your  Laodicean  indifference,  would  you  not 
earnestly  pray  for  the  faith  of  the  Gospel,  the  faith  that  works  by  burn- 
ing love?  If  the  fire  be  kindled,  would  you  not  be  afraid  of  putting 
it  out  by  quenching  the  Spirit?  Would  not  you  even  dread  grieving 
him,  lest  your  love  should  grow  cold  ?  Far  from  accounting  the 
shedding  abroad  of  the  love  of  God  in  your  hearts  an  unnecessary yVa/ne, 
would  you  not  be  straitened  till  you  were  baptized,  every  one  of  you, 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  jire  ? 

Ye  who  hold  the  doctrine  of  perfection  without  going  on  to  perfec- 
tion i  and  ye  who  explode  it  as  a  pernicious  delusion,  and  inconsist- 
ently publish  hymns  of  solemn  prayer  for  it,  how  would  you  agree, 
from  the  bottom  of  your  re-awakened  hearts,  to  sing  together,  in 
days  of  peace  and  social  worship,  as  you  have  carelessly  5ung 
asunder, 

"  O  for  a  heart  to  praise  our  God  ! 
A  heart  from  sin  set  free  ! — 

"  A  heart  in  every  thought  renew'd, 

And  fiU'd  with  love  divine  ! 
*♦  Perfect,  and  right,  and  pure,  and  good, 

A  copy,  Lord,  of  thine. ■ 

**  Bigotry  from  us  remove, 
Perfect  all  our  souls  in  love,"  «&c. 

O  ye  halcyon  days !  Ye  days  of  brotherly  love  and  genuine 
holiness !  if  you  appeared  to  pacify  and  gladden  our  distracted 
Jerusalem,  how  soon  would  practical  Christianity  emerge  from  under 
the  frothy  billows  of  Antinomianism,  and  the  proud  waves  of  Phari- 
saism, which  continually  break  against  each  other,  and  openly  foam 
out  their  own  shame !  What  carefulness  would  godly  sorrow  work  in 
us  all!  What  clearing  of  ourselves  by  casting  away  our  dearest  idols  ! 
What  indignation  against  our  former  lukewarmness !  What  fear  of 
offending  either  God  or  man  !  What  vehement  desire  after  the  full 
image  of  Christ !  What  zeal  for  his  glory !  And  what  revenge  of  our 
sins  I  In  all  things  we  should  approve  ourselves,  for  the  time  to  come, 
to  be  clear  from  the  Antinomian  delusion  !  Then  would  we  see  what 
has  seldom  been  seen  in  our  age,  distinct  (not  opposed)  societies  of 
meek  professors  of  the  common  faith,  walking  in  humble  love,  and 


98  '^  SECOND   CHECK 

supporting  each  other  with  cheerful  readiness,  like  difl'erent  battalions 
of  the  same  invincible  army.  And  if  ever  we  perceived  any  conten- 
tion among  them,  it  would  be  only  about  the  lowest  plrxe  and  the 
most  dangerous  post.  Instead  of  striving  for  mastery,  they  would 
strive  only  who  should  stand  truest  to  the  standard  of  the  cross,  and 
best  answer  the  neglected  motto  of  the  primitive  Christians  :  Non 
magna  loquimur  sed  vivimus.  **  Our  religion  does  not  consist  in  high 
words  but  in  good  works." 

8.  1  observed  that  this  doctrine  will  likewise  reconcile  seeming  con- 
tradictions in  the  Scriptures,  and  fatal  differences  among  Christians  : 
take  one  instance  of  the  former:  What  can  those  who  reject  a 
second  justification  by  works,  make  of  the  solemn  words  of  our 
Lord,  already  quoted,  By  thy  words  thou  shalt  he  justified^  or  by  thy 
•words  thou  shalt  he  condemned,  Matt.  xii.  37.  ?  And  by  what  art  can 
they  possibly  reconcile  them  with  St.  Paul's  assertions,  Rom.  iv.  6. 
To  him  that  zvorketh  not,  hut  helieveth  on  him  that  justi/ieth  the  ungodly, 
his  faith  is  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness.  And  ver.  1 .  Being  jus- 
tified hy  faith,  rve  have  peace  with  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
Accept  an  example  of  the  latter.  In  the  Antinomian  days  of  Dr. 
Crisp,  arose  the  honest  people  we  call  Quakers.  Shocked  at  the 
general  abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  they  rashly 
inferred  it  could  never  be  from  God  ;  and  seeing  none  shall  he  jus- 
tified in  glory  but  the  doers  of  the  law,  they  hastily  concluded  there 
is  but  one  justification,  namely,  the  being  made  inherently  just,  or 
the  being  sanctified,  and  then  declared  holy.  Admit  our  doctrine, 
and  you  have  both  parts  of  the  truth,  that  which  the  Antinomians 
hold  against  the  Quakers,  and  that  which  the  Quakers  maintain 
against  the  Antinomians.  Each  alone  is  dangerous,  both  together 
mutually  defend  each  other,  and  make  up  the  scriptural  doctrine  of 
justification,  which  is  invincibly  guarded  on  the  one  hand  by  faith, 
against  Pharisees,  and  on  the  other  by  works  against  Antinomians. 
Reader,  may  both  be  thy  portion !  So  shalt  thou  be  eternally  rein- 
stated in  the  favour  and  image  of  God. 

VI.  But  while  I  enumerate  the  benefits  which  the  church  will 
reap  from  a  practical  knowledge  of  our  second  justification  by  works, 
an  honest  Protestant,  who  has  more  zeal  for,  than  acquaintance  with, 
the  truth,  advances  with  his  heart  full  of  holy  indignation  and  his 
mouth  of  objections  which  he  says  are  unanswerable.  Let  us  con- 
sider them  one  by  one. 

Obj.  1.  "Your  popish,  antichristiau  doctrine  I  abhor,  and  could 
even  burn  at  the  stake  as  a  witness  against  it.  Away  with  your 
new-fangled  Arminian  tenets !  I  am  for  old  Christianity,  and  with  St. 


,         *        TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  99 

Paul,  determined  to  know  nothing  for  justification  but  Christ  and  him 
critcijied.^* 

Ans.  Are  you  indeed!  Then  I  am  sure  you  will  not  deny  both 
Jesus  Christ  and  St.  Paul  in  this  old  Christian  doctrine,  for  Christ 
says,  By  thy  mords  shalt  thou  be  justified^  and  St.  Paul  declares,  Not 
the  hearers,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  (of  Christ)  shall  be  justified, 
Alas,  how  often  are  those,  who  say  they  will  know  and  have  nothing 
hut  Chnst,  the  first  to  set  him  at  nought,  as  a  Prophet,  by  railing  at  his 
holy  doctrine  ;  or  to  reject  him  as  a  King,  by  trampling  upon  his 
royal  proclamations!  But  I  wot  that  through  ignorance  they  do  ity  as 
do  also  their  rulers. 

Obj.  2.  "This  legal  doctrine  robs  God's  dear  children  of  their 
comforts  and  Gospel  liberty,  binds  Moses'  intolerable  burden  upon 
their  free  shoulders,  and  entangles  them  again  in  the  galling  yoke  of 
bondage." 

Ans.  If  God's  dear  children  have  got  into  a  false  liberty  of  doing 
the  devil's  works,  either  by  not  going  into  the  vineyard  when  they 
have  said,  Lord,  I  go,  by  beating  their  fellow-servants  there,  instead 
of  working  with  them :  the  sooner  they  are  robbed  of  it  the  better  : 
for  if  they  continue  thus  free,  they  will  ere  long  be  bound  hand  and 
foot,  and  cast  into  outer  darkness.  It  is  the  very  spirit  of  Antino- 
mianism  to  represent  God's  commandments  as  grievous,  and  the  keep- 
ing of  his  law  as  bondage.  Not  so  the  dutiful  children  of  God  : 
their  hearts  are  never  so  much  at  liberty,  as  when  they  run  the  way 
of  his  commandments,  and  so  fulfil  the  law  of  Christ.  Keep  them  from 
obedience,  and  you  keep  them  in  the  snare  of  the  devil,  promising 
liberty  to  others  while  they  themselves  are  the  servants  of  corruption. 

Again,  you  confound  the  heavy  yoke  of  the  circumcision  and  cere- 
monial bondage,  with  which  the  Galatians  once  entangled  themselves, 
with  the  easy  yoke  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  former  was  intolerable, 
the  latter  is  so  light  a  burden,  that  the  only  way  to  find  rest  unto  our 
souls,  is  to  take  it  upon  us.  St.  Paul  calls  a  dear  brother  his  yoke- 
fellow. You  know  the  word  Belial  in  the  original  signifies  without 
yoke  :  they  are  sons  of  Belial  who  shake  ofi"  the  Lord's  yoke  :  and 
though  they  should  boast  of  their  election  as  much  as  the  Jews  did, 
Christ  himself  will  say  concerning  them,  Those  mine  enemies  that 
refused  my  yoke,  and  would  not  that  I  should  reign  over  them,  bring 
hither,  and  slay  them  before  me.  So  inexpressibly  dreadful  is  the  end 
of  lawless  liberty ! 

Obj.  3.  ♦'  Vour  doctrine  is  the  damnable  error  of  the  Galatians, 
who  madly  left  Mount  Sion  for  Mount  Sinai,  made  Christ  the  Alpha, 
and  not  the  Omega,  and  after  having  begun  in  the  Spirit  WQuld  be 


iOO  SECOND    CHECK 

made  perfect  by  the  Jiesh,  This  is  the  other  Gospel  which  St.  Paul 
thought  so  diametrically  contrary  to  his  own,  that  he  wished  the 
teachers  of  it,  though  they  were  angels  of  God,  might  be  even 
accursed  and  cut  o^." 

Ans.  You  are  under  a  capital  mistake  ;  St.  Paul  could  never  be  so 
wild  as  to  curse  himself,  anathematize  St.  James,  and  wish  the 
Messiah  to  be  again  cut  off:  for  he  himself  taught  the  Romans,  that 
the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified ;  St.  James  evidently  maintains 
a  justification  by  works  ;  and  our  Lord  expressly  says,  by  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  justified.  Again,  the  apostle,  as  if  he  had  foreseen  how 
his  epistle  to  the  Galatians  would  be  abused  to  Antinomian  purposes, 
gives  us  in  it  the  most  powerful  antidotes  against  that  poison.  Take 
two  or  three  instances.  1.  He  exhorts  his  fallen  converts  to  the 
fulfilling  of  all  the  law  :  Love  one  another^  says  he,  for  all  the  law  is 
fulfilled  in  this  one  word^  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself; 
because  none  can  love  his  neighbour  as  himself,  but  he  that  loves 
God  with  all  his  heart.  How  different  is  this  doctrine  from  the  bold 
Antinomian  cry,  "  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  law !"  2.  He 
enumerates  the  works  of  the  flesh,  adultery^  hatred,  variance,  wrath, 
strife,  heresies,  envyings,  &;c.  of  which,  says  he,  /  tell  you  before,  as  I 
have  told  you  in  time  past,  that  they  who  do  such  things  shall  not  be 
justified  in  the  day  of  judgment,  or  which  is  the  same  thing,  shall  not 
inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  How  different  a  Gospel  is  this,  from 
that  which  insinuates,  "  impenitent  adulterers  may  be  dear  children 
of  God,  even  while  such,  and  in  a  very  safe  state,  and  quite  sure  of 
glory !"  And  3.  as  if  this  awful  warning  were  not  enough,  he  point- 
blank  cautions  his  reader  against  the  Crispian  error;  Be  not  deceived, 
says  he,  whatever  a  man  (not  whatever  Christ)  soweth,  that  shall  he 
also  reap  :  He  that  soweth  io  the  flesh  shall  reap  corruption,  and  he  that 
soweth  to  the  Spirit  shall  reap  life  everlasting.  How  amazingly  strong 
therefore  must  your  prejudice  be,  which  makes  you  produce  this 
epistle  to  thrust  love  and  good  works  out  of  the  important  place 
allotted  them  in  all  the  word  of  God !  And  nowhere  more  than  in 
this  very  epistle ! 

Obj.  4.  "  Notwithstanding  all  you  say,  I  am  persuaded  you  are  in 
the  dreadful  heresy  of  the  Galatians,  for  they  were,  like  you,  for 
justification  by  the  works  of  the  law ;  and  St.  Paul  resolutely  main* 
tained  against  them  the  fundamental  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith:' 

Ans.  If  you  once  read  over  the  epistle  to  the  Galatians  without 
prejudice,  and  without  comment,  you  will  see  that,  1.  They  had 
returned  to  the  beggarly  elements  of  this  world,  by  supersticiously 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  101 

observing  days,  months,  times,  and  years.  2.  Imagining  they  could  not 
he  saved  except  they  were  circumcised,  they  submitted  even  to  that 
grievous  and  bloody  injunction.  3.  Exact  in  their  useless  cere- 
monies, and  fondly  hoping  to  be  justified  by  their  partial  observance 
of  Moses's  law,  they  well  nigh  forgot  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  openly 
trampled  upon  his  law,  and  walked  after  the  Jlesh.  Stirred  up  to  con- 
tentious zeal  by  their  new  teachers,  they  despised  the  old  apostle's 
ministry,  hated  his  person,  and  devoured  one  another.  In  short,  they 
trusted  partly  in  the  merit  of  their  superstitious  performances,  and 
partly  in  Christ's  merits;  and  on  this  preposterous  foundation,  they 
built  the  hay  of  Jewish  ceremonies,  and  the  stubble  of  fleshly  lusts. 
With  great  propriety,  therefore,  the  apostle  called  them  back,  with 
sharpness,  to  the  only  sure  foundation,  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ  ; 
and  wanted  them  to  build  upon  it  gold  and  precious  stones,  all  the 
works  of  piety  and  mercy,  that  spring  from  faith  working  by  love. 

Now  which  of  these  errors  do  we  hold  ?  Do  we  not  preach  pre- 
sent justification  by  faith,  and  justification  at  the  bar  of  God  accord- 
i7ig  to  what  a  man  soweth,  the  very  doctrine  of  this  epistle  ?  And  do 
we  not  "  secure  the  foundation,"  by  insisting  that  both  these  justifi- 
cations are  equally  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  though  the  second, 
as  our  Church  intimates  in  her  12th  Article,  is  by  the  evidence  of 
works. 

Will  you  bear  with  me  if  I  tell  you  my  thoughts  ?  We  are  all  in 
general  condemned  by  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  for  we  have  too 
much  dependence  on  our  forms  of  piety,  speculative  knowledge,  or 
past  experience  ;  and  too  little  heartfelt  confidence  in  the  merits  of 
Christ :  we  sow  too  little  to  the  Spirit,  and  too  much  to  the  flesh.  But 
those,  in  the  next  place,  are  peculiarly  reproved  by  it,  who  return 
to  the  beggarly  elements,  the  idle  ways  and  vain  fashions  of  this 
world  : — Those  who  make  as  much  ado  about  the  beggarly  element 
of  water,  about  baptizing  infants  and  dipping  adults,  as  the  troublers 
of  the  church  of  Galatia  did  about  circumcising  their  converts,  that 
they  might  glory  in  their  flesh: — Those  who  zealously  affect  others, 
but  not  well: — Those  who  now  despise  their  spiritual  Fathers,  whom 
they  once  received  as  angels  of  God: — Those  who  turn  our  enemies 
when  we  tell  them  the  truth,  who  heap  to  themselves  teachers  smoother 
than  the  evangelically  legal  apostle,  and  would  call  us  blind,  if  we 
said  as  he  does.  Let  every  man  prove  his  own  work,  and  then  shall  he 
have  rejoicing  in  himself  alone,  and  not  in  another,  Gal.  vi.  4. — Those 
who  plead  for  spiritual  bondage  while  they  talk  of  Gospel  liberty, 
and  affirm  that  the  so7i  of  the  bond-woman  shall  always  live  with  the 
son   of  the  free ;    that  sin  can  never  be  cast   out  of  (he   heart  of 

Vol.  I.    '  14 


102  SECOND   CHECK 

believers,  and  that  Christ  and  corruption  shall  always  dwell  together 
in  this  world.  And  lastly,  those  who  say  there  is  no  falling  away 
from  grace,  when  they  are  already  fallen  like  the  Galatians.  and  boast 
of  their  stability  chiefly  because  they  are  ignorant  of  their  fall ! 

Obj.  5.  "  However,  your  Pharisaic  doctrine  flatly  contradicts  the 
Gospel  summed  up  by  our  Lord,  Mark  xvi.  16.  He  that  believeth 
shall  be  saved^  and  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damtied.  Here  is  not 
one  word  about  works ;  all  turns  upon  faith." 

Ans.  Instead  of  throwing  such  hints,  you  might  as  well  speak 
out  at  once,  and  say  that  Christ  in  these  words  flatly  contradicts  what 
he  had  said.  Matt.  xii.  37.  By  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified,  or  by 
thy  words  shalt  thou  be  condemned.  But  drop  your  prejudices,  and 
you  will  see  that  the  contradiction  is  only  in  your  own  ideas.  We 
steadily  assert,  as  our  Lord,  that  he  who  believeth,  or  endureth  unto 
the  end  believing  (for  the  word  implies  both  the  reality  and  con- 
tinuance of  the  action)  shall  infallibly  be  saved :  because  faith,  which 
continues  living,  works  to  the  last  by  love  and  good  works,  which  will 
infallibly  justify  us  in  the  day  of  judgment.  For  when  faith  is  no 
more,  love  and  good  works  will  evidence,  1.  That  we  were  grafted 
into  Christ  by  true  faith ;  2.  That  we  did  not  make  shipwreck  of  the 
faith  : — That  we  were  not  taken  away  as  branches  in  Him  which  bear 
not  fruit,  but  abode  fruitful  branches  in  the  true  Vine ;  and  3.  That 
we  are  still  in  Him  by  holy  love,  the  precious  and  eternal  fruit  of 
true  persevering  faith.  How  bad  is  that  cause  which  must  support 
itself  by  charging  an  imaginary  contradiction  upon  the  wisdom  of 
God,  Jesus  Christ  himself  !* 

»  This  is  frequently  the  stratagem  of  those  who  have  no  argaments  to  produce.  I  bore 
my  testimony  against  it  in  the  Vindication,  and  flattered  myself  that  serious  writers  would 
be  less  forward  to  oppose  the  truth,  and  expose  the  Ministers  of  Christ,  by  that  injudicious 
way  of  discussing  controverted  points.  Notwithstanding  this,  I  have  before  me  a  little 
pamphlet,  in  which  the  Editor  endeavours  to  answer  M.  W.'s  Minutes,  by  extracting 
from  his  writings  passages  supposed  to  stand  in  direct  opposition  to  the  Minutes.  Hence, 
in  a  burlesque  upon  the  Declaration,  he  tries  to  represent  Mr.  W.  as  a  knave. 

I  would  just  observe  upon  that  performance,  1.  That  by  this  method  of  raising  dust, 
and  avoiding  to  reason  the  case  fairly,  every  malicious  infidel  may  blind  injudicious 
readers,  and  make  triumphing  scoffers  cry  out,  Jesus  against  Christ!  Saul  against  St. 
Paul !  or  John  the  Divine  against  John  the  Evangelist !  as  well  as  Wesley  against  John  ! 
and  John  against  Wesley.  2.  Mr.  W.  having  acknowledged  in  the  beginning  of  the 
Minutes,  he  "  had  leaned  too  much  towards  Calvinism,"  we  may  naturally  expect  to  meet, 
in  his  voluminous  writings,  with  a  few  expressions  that  look  a  little  towards  Antinomian- 
ism :  and  with  some  paragraphs,  which  (when  detached  from  the  context,  and  not  con- 
sidered as  spoken  to  deep  mourners  in  Zion,  or  to  souls  of  undoubted  sincerity)  seem 
directly  to  favour  the  delusion  of  the  present  times.  3.  This  may  easily  be  accounted  for, 
without  flying  to  the  charges  of  knavery  or  contradiction.  When  after  working  long 
without  cheering  light,  we  discover  the  ravishing  day  of  luminous  faith,  we  are  a1! 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  1Q3 

Obj.  6.  "  Your  doctrine  exalts  man,  and,  by  giving  him  room  to 
boast,  robs  Christ  of  the  glory  of  his  grace.  The  top-stone  is 
no  more  brought  forth  with  shouting  Grace !  Grace !  but  Works ! 
Works!  unto  it;  and  the  burden  of  the  song  in  heaven  will  be, — 
Salvation  to  our  works!  and  no  more  salvation  to  the  Lamb  !" 

Ans.  I  no  less  approve  your  godly  jealousy,  than  I  wonder  at 
your  groundless  fears.  To  calm  them,  permit  me  once  more  to 
observe,  1.  That  this  doctrine  is  Christ's,  who  would  not  be  so 
unwise  as  to  side  with  our  self-righteous  pride,  and  teach  us  to  rob 
him  of  his  own  glory,  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  Christ  would  be 
thus  against  Christ,  for  even  Satan  is  too  wise  to  be  against  Satan. 
2.  Upon  our  plan,  as  well  as  upon  Crisp's  scheme,  free  grace  has 
absolutely  all  the  glory.  The  love  and  good  works  by  which  we 
shall  be  justified  in  the  day  of  judgment,  are  the  fruits  of  faith,  and 
faith  is  the  gift  of  God.  Christ,  the  great  object  of  faith,  the  Holy 
Ghost  called  the  Spirit  of  faith,  the  power  of  believing,  the  means, 
opportunities,  and  will,  to  use  that  power,  are  all  the  rich  presents 
of  God's  free  grace.  All  our  sins,  together  with  the  imperfections 
of  our  works,  are  mercifully  forgiven  through  the  blood  and  right- 
eousness of  Christ :  our  persons  and  services  are  graciously  accepted 
merely  for  his  sake,  and  through  his  merits  :  and  if  rewards  are 
granted  us  according  to  the  fruits  of  righteousness  we  bear,  it  is 
not  because  we  are  profitable  to  God,  but  because  the  meritorious 
sap  of  the  Root  of  David  produces  those  fruits,  and  the  meritorious 
beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  ripen  them.     Thus  you  see,  that 

apt,  in  the  sincerity  of  our  hearts,  to  speak  almost  as  unguardedly  of  wirorks,  as  Luther 
did  ;  but  when  the  fire  of  Antinomian  temptations  has  frequently  burned  uS,  and  consumed 
thousands  around  us,  we  justly  dread  it  at  last;  and,  ceasing  to  lean  towards  Crisp's 
divinity,  we  return  to  St.  James,  St.  John,  and  St.  Jude,  and  to  the  latter  part  of  St.  Paul's 
epistles,  which  he  too  often  overlooked,  and  to  which  hardly  two  Ministers  did,  upon  the 
whole,  ever  do  more  justice  than  Mr.  Baxter  and  Mr.  W.  4.  A  man  who  gives  to  dif- 
ferent people,  or  to  the  same  people  at  different  times,  directly  contrary  directions,  does 
not  always  contradict  himself.  I  have  a  fever,  and  my  physician,  under  God,  restores 
me  to  health  by  cooling  medicines ;  by  and  by  I  am  afflicted  with  the  cold  rheumatism, 
and  he  prescribes  fomentations  and  warming  remedies,  but  my  injudicious  apothecary 
opposes  him,  under  pretence  that  he  goes  by  no  certain  rule,  and  grossly  contradicts 
himself.  Let  us  apply  this  to  Mr.  W.  and  the  Versifier,  remembering  there  is  less 
difference  between  a  burning  fever  and  a  cold  rheumatism,  than  between  the  case  of  the 
trifling  Antinomian,  and  that  of  the  dejected  penitent.  5.  Whoever  considers  without 
prejudice  what  our  satiric  Poet  produces  as  contradictions,  will  find  some  of  them  do  not 
so  much  as  amount  to  an  opposition,  and  that  most  of  them  do  not  seem  so  contradictory, 
as  numbers  of  propositions  that  might  be  extracted  from  the  oracles  of  God. — If  the 
Editor  of  the  Answer  to  the  Minutes  will  compare  this  note  with  the  31st  page  of  the 
Vindication,  I  hope  he  will  find  his  performance  answered,  his  direct  attack  upon  the 
Minutes  frustrated,  and  Mr.  W.'s  honesty  fully  vindicated. 


104  SECOND   CHECK 

which  way  soever  you  look  at  our  justitication,  God  has  all  the  glory 
of  it,  but  that  of  turning  moral  agents  into  mere  machines,  a  glory 
which  we  apprehend  God  does  no  more  claim,  than  you  do  that  of 
turning  your  coach-horses  into  hobby-horses,  and  your  servants  into 
puppets. 

\i  faith  on  earth  gives  Christ  the  glory  of  all  our  salvation,  you  need 
not  fear  that  love  (a  superior  grace)  will  rob  him  in  heaven  ;  for 
*'  love  is  not  puffed  up,  seeketh  not  her  own,  and  does  not  behave 
herself  unseemly"  towards  a  beggar  on  earth  ;  much  less  will  she  do 
so  towards  the  Lord  of  glory,  when  she  has  attained  the  zenith  of 
heavenly  perfection.  Away  then  with  all  the  imaginary  lions  you 
place  in  your  way  to  truth !  Notwithstanding  Crisp's  prohibitions, 
like  the  Bereans,  receive  Christ  in  his  holy  doctrine,  and  be  persua- 
ded that  in  the  last  day  you  will  shout  as  loud  as  the  honest  Doctor, 
Grace !  Grace !  arid  salvation  to  the  Lamb  :  without  suggesting  with 
him  to  those  on  the  left  hand,  the  blasphemous  shouts  of  Partiality! 
Hypocrisy !  Barbarity !  and  damnation  to  the  Lamb  I  Thus  shall  you 
have  all  the  free  grace  he  justly  boasts  of,  without  any  of  his  hor- 
rid reprobating  doctrine. 

Obj.  7.  "  How  will  the  converted  thief,  that  did  no  good  works,  be 
justified  by  works  ?" 

Ans.  We  mean  by  works,  the  whole  of  our  inward  tempers  arid  out- 
ward behaviour  ;  and  how  do  you  know  the  outward  behaviour  of  the 
converted  thief?  Did  not  his  reproofs,  exhortations,  prayers,  pa- 
tience, and  resignation,  evidence  the  liveliness  of  his  faith,  as  there 
was  time  and  opportunity  ?  2.  Can  you  suppose  his  inward  temper 
was  not  love  (o  God  and  man  ?  Could  he  go  into  paradise  without 
being  born  again  ?  Or  could  he  be  born  again  and  not  love  ?  Is  it 
not  said,  he  that  loveth  is  born  of  God;  consequently  he  that  is  born  of 
God  loveth  ?  Again,  does  not  he  who  loveth  fulfil  all  the  law,  and  do, 
as  says  Augustin,  all  good  works  in  one  ?  And  is  not  the  fulfilling 
of  the  law  of  Christ,  work  enough  to  justify  the  converted  thief  by 
that  law  ? 

Obj.  8.  *'  You  say,  that  your  doctrine  will  make  us  zealous  of 
good  works,  but  I  fully  discharge  it  from  that  office  ;  for  the  love  of 
Christ  constraineth  us  to  abound  in  every  good  word  and  work." 

Ans.  1.  St.  Paul,  who  spoke  those  words  with  more  feeling  than 
you,  thought  the  contrary  ;  as  well  as  his  blessed  Master,  or  they 
would  never  have  taught  this  doctrine.  You  do  not,  I  fear,  evidence 
the  temper  of  a  babe,  when  you  are  so  exceedingly  wise  above  what 
Christ  preached,  and  prudent  above  what  the  apostle  wrote.  2.  If 
the  love  of  Christ  in  professors  is  so  constraining  as  you  say,  why 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  10^ 

do   good   works  and  good  tempers  bear  so  little  proportion  to  the 
great  talk  we  hear  of  its  irresistible  efficacy  ?  And  why  do  those 
who  hare  tasted  it  return  to  sin  as  dogs  to  their  vomit !  Why  can  they 
even  curse,  swear,  and  get  drunk  ?  Be  guilty  of  idolatry,  murder, 
and  incest  ?     3.  If  love  alone  is  always  sufficient,  why  did  our  Lord 
work  upon  his  disciples'  hearts  by  the  hope  of  thrones  and  a  kingdom, 
and  by  the  fear  of  a  worm  that  dieth  not  and  ^Jire  that  is  not  quenched  ? 
Why  does  the  apostle  stir  up  believers  to  serve  the  Lord  with  godly 
fear,  by  the  consideration  that  he  is  a  consuming  fire  ?    Illustrating  his 
assertion  by  this  awful  warning.  If  they  (Corah  and  his  company) 
escaped  not,  but  were  consumed  by  fire  from  heaven,  because  they 
refused  him  (Moses)  that  spake  on  earth;  much  more  shall  not  we  escape, 
if  we  turii  away  from  him  that  speaketh  from  heaven  ?  Why  did  St. 
Paul  himself,  who,  no  doubt,  understood  the  Gospel  as  well  as  Crisp 
and  Saltmarsh,  run  a  race  for  an  incorruptible  crown,  and  keep  his 
body  under,  lest  he  himself  should  be  a  castaway?   O  ye   orthodox 
divines,  and  thou  ludicrous  versifier  of  an  awful  Declaration,  instead 
of  attempting  to  set  Paul  against  Paul,  and  to  oppose  Wesley  to 
Wesley,  answer  these  Scriptural  questions  ;  and  if  you  cannot  do 
it  without  betraying  heterodoxy,  for  the  Lord's  sake,  for  the  sake  of 
thousands  in  Israel,  keep  no  more  from  the  feeble  of  the  flock  those 
necessary  helps,   which  the  very  chief  of  the  apostles,  evangelical 
Paul,  without  any  of  your  Crispian  refinements,  continually  recom- 
mended to  others,  and  daily  used  himself.     And  for  your  own  souls' 
sake,  never  more  prostitute  these  awful  words,  the  love  of  Christ  con- 
straineth  us;  never  more  apply  them  to  yourselves,  while  you  refuse 
to  treat  the  most  venerable  ambassador  of  Christ,  I  shall  not  say 
with  respectful  love,  but  with  common  decency. 

Obj.  9.  "  All  the  formal  and  Pharisaical  ministers,  who  are  sworn 
enemies  to  Christ  and  the  Gospel  of  his  grace,  preach  your  legal 
doctrine  of  "justification  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment." 

Ans.  And  what  do  you  infer  from  it  ?  That  the  doctrine  is  false  ? 
If  the  inference  be  just,  it  will  follow  there  is  neither  heaven  nor 
hell ;  for  they  publicly  maintain  the  existence  of  both.  But  suppose 
they  now  and  then  preach  our  doctrine  without  zeal,  without  living 
according  to  it,  or  without  previously  preaching  the  fall,  and  a  pre- 
sent justification  by^faith  in  Christ,  productive  of  peace  and  power, 
what  can  be  expected  from  it?  Would  not  the  doctrine  of  the 
atonement  itself  be  totally  useless,  if  it  were  preached  under  such 
disadvantages  ? — The  truth  is,  such  ministers  are  only  for  the  roof, 
and  you,  it  seems,  only  for  the  foundation  :  but  a  roof  unsupported 
bv  solid  walls  crushes  to  death,  and  a  foundation  without  a  roof  is 


106  SECOND    CHECK 

not  much  better  than  the  open  air.  Therefore  wise  master-builders ^ 
like  St.  Paul,  are  for  having  both  in  their  proper  places.  Like  him, 
when  the  foundation  is  well  laid,  leaving  the  first  principles  of  the 
doctrine  of  Christ,  they  go  on  to  perfection ;  nor  will  they  forget,  as 
they  work  out  their  salvation,  to  shout  grace,  grace,  to  the  last  slate 
that  covers  in  the  building ;  or  to  the  top-stone,  the  key  that  binds 
the  solid  arch. 

Obj.  10.  "  Should  I  receive  and  avow  such  a  doctrine,  the  gene- 
rality of  professors  would  rise  against  me  ;  and  while  the  warmest 
would  call  me  a  Papist,  an  Antichrist,  and  what  not ;  my  dearest 
Christian  friends  would  pity  me  as  an  unawakened  Pharisee,  and  fear 
me  as  a  blind  legalist." 

Ans.  Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  when  all  men  (the  godly  not 
excepted)  shall  say  all  manner  of  evil  of  you  falsely  for  ClirisVs  sake, 
— for  preferring  Qirisfs  holy  doctrine  to  the  loose  tenets  of  Dr.  Crisp  : 
and  remember,  that  in  our  Antinomian  days,  it  is  as  great  an  honour 
to  be  called  legal  by  fashionable  professors,  as  to  be  branded  with 
the  name  of  Methodist,  by  the  sots  who  glory  in  their  shame. 

VIL  As  I  would  hope  my  objector  is  either  satisfied  or  silenced, 
before  I  conclude,  permit  me  a  moment,  Rev.  Sir,  to  consider  the 
two  important  objections  which  you  directly,  or  indirectly,  make  in 
your  Narrative. 

1.  "  I  should  tremble  (say  you,  page  21.)  lest  some  bold  meta- 
physician should  affirm  that  a  second  justification  by  works  is  quite 
consistent  with  what  is  contained  in  Mr.  W.'s  Declaration  ;  but  that 
it  is  expressed  in  such  strong  and  absolute  terms,  as  must  for  ever 
put  the  most  exquisite  refinements  of  metaphysical  distinctions  at 
defiance.'*'* 

Ans.  "  For  ever  at  defiance  T^ — You  surprise  me,  Sir  :  I,  who  am 
as  perfect  a  stranger  to  exquisite  refinements  as  to  Crisp's  eternal  jus- 
tification, defy  you  (pardon  a  bold  expression  to  a  bold  metaphysician) 
ever  to  produce  out  of  Mr.  W.'s  Declaration,  I  shall  not  say  (as  you 
do)  strong  and  absolute  terms,  but  one  single  word  or  tittle  denying 
or  excluding  a  second  justification  by  works;  and  I  appeal  both  to 
your  second  thoughts  and  to  the  unprejudiced  world,  whether  these 
three  propositions  of  the  Declaration,  "  We  have  no  trust  or  con- 
fidence, but  in  the  alone  merits  of  Christ  for  justification  in  the  day 
of  judgment. — Works  have  no  part  in  meriting  or  purchasing  our 
justification  from  first  to  last,  either  in  whole  or  in  part: — He  is  not  a 
real  Christian  believer  (and  consequently  cannot  be  saved)  who  does 
not  good  works  where  there  is  time  and  opportunity :" — I  appeal,  I 
say,  to  the  unprejudiced  world,  whether  these  three  propositions  are 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  107 

not  highly  consistent  with  this  assertion  of  our  Lord,  "  By  thy  words 
thou  shalt  be  justified,"  that  is,  "  Although  from  first  to  last,  the 
merits  of  my  life  and  death  purchase,  or  deserve,  thy  justification  ; 
yet  in  the  day  of  judgment  thou  shalt  be  justified  by  thy  works ;  that 
is,  thy  justification,  which  is  purchased  by  my  merits,  will  entirely 
turn  upon  the  evidence  of  thy  works,  according  to  the  time  and 
opportunity  thou  hast  to  do  them." 

Who  does  not  see  that  to  be  justified  by  the  evidence  of  works, 
and  to  be  justified  by  the  merit  of  works,  are  no  more  phrases  of  the 
same  import,  than  Minutes  and  heresy  are  words  of  the  same  signi- 
fication ?  The  latter  proposition  contains  the  error  strongly  guarded 
against,  both  in  the  Declaration  and  in  the  Minutes  :  the  former  con- 
tains an  evangelical  doctrine,  as  agreeable  to  the  Declaration  and 
Minutes  as  to  the  Scriptures  ;  a  doctrine  of  which  we  were  too 
sparing  when  we  "  leaned  too  much  towards  Calvinism,"  but  to 
which,  after  the  example  of  Mr.  W.  we  are  now  determined  to  do 
justice. 

Whoever  is  ashamed  of  Christ's  words,  we  will  proclaim  them  to 
the  world.  Both  from  our  pulpits  and  the  press  we  will  say.  By  thy 
rvords  thou  shalt  be  condemned. — Yea,  Whoever  shall  say  to  his  brother. 
Thou  fool !  shall  be  in  danger  of  hell-fire ;  and  whosoever  maketh  a  lie 
shall  have  his  part  in  the  lake  which  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone ; 
for  as  with  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness,  or  disbelieveth 
to  unrighteousness,  so  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  to  salvation, 
or  hard  speeches  are  uttered  to  damnation.  Reserve,  therefore. 
Rev.  Sir,  your  pubhc  praises  for  a  more  proper  occasion  than  that 
which  caused  their  breaking  out  in  your  Narrative.  *'  Blessed  be  God, 
(say  you,  page  16.)  Mr.  Wesley  and  fifty-three  of  the  preachers  do 
not  agree  with  Mr.  Olivers  in  the  material  article  of  a  second  justi- 
fication by  works."  Indeed,  Sir,  you  are  greatly  mistaken,  for  we 
do  agree  with  him,  and  shall  continue  so  to  do,  till  you  have  proved 
he  does  not  agree  with  Jesus  Christ,  or  that  our  doctrine  is  not 
perfectly  consistent  both  with  the  Scriptures  and  the  Declaration. 

2.  Your  second  objection  is  not  so  formal  as  the  first ;  it  must  be 
made  up  of  broad  hints,  scattered  through  your  Narrative,  and  they 
amount  to  this,  •'  Your  pretended  difference  between  justification  by 
the  merit  of  works,  by  the  evidence  of  works,  and  between  a  first 
and  second  justification,  is  founded  upon  the  subtleties  of  metaphysical 
distinctions :  if  what  you  say  wears  the  aspect  of  truth,  it  is  because 
you  give  a  new  turn  to  error,  by  the  almost  magical  power  of  meta- 
physical distinctions. ""     Page  16,  20,  and  21. 


108  SECOND   CHECK 

Give  me  leave,  Sir,  to  answer  this  objection  by  two  appeals ;  one 
to  the  most  ignorant  collier  in  my  parish,  and  the  other  to  your  own 
sensible  child  ;  and  if  they  can  at  once  understand  my  meaning,  you 
will  see  that  my  metaphysical  distinctions^  as  you  are  pleased  to  call 
them,  are  nothing  but  the  dictates  of  common  sense.  I  begin  with 
the  collier. 

Thomas,  I  stand  here  before  the  judge,  accused  of  having  robbed 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  near  Bath,  last  month,  on  such  an  evening ; 
can  you  speak  a  word  for  me  ?  Thomas  turns  to  the  judge,  and 
says,  *'  Please  your  honour,  the  accusation  is  false,  for  our  parson 
was  in  Madely-wood,  and  I  can  make  oath  of  it,  for  he  even  re- 
proved me  for  swearing  at  our  pit's  mouth  that  very  evening." 
By  his  evidence  the  judge  acquits  me.  Now,  Sir,  ask  cursing  Tom, 
whether  I  am  acquitted  and  justified  by  his  merits,  or  by  the  simple 
evidence  he  has  given,  and  he  will  tell  you,  "  Ay,  to  be  sure,  by  the 
evidence :  though  I  am  no  scholar,  I  know  very  well  if  our  Metho- 
dist parson  is  not  hanged,  it  is  none  of  my  deservings."  Thus,  Sir, 
an  ignorant  collier,  as  great  a  stranger  to  your  metaphysics  as  you  are 
to  his  mandrelly  discovers  at  once  a  material  difference  between 
justification  by  the  evidence,  and  justification  by  the  merits  of  a 
witness. 

My  second  appeal  is  to  your  sensible  child.  By  a  plain  com- 
parison I  hope  to  make  him  at  once  understand  both  the  difference 
there  is  between  our  first  and  second  justification,  and  the  propriety 
of  that  difference.  The  lovely  boy  is  old  enough,  I  suppose,  to 
follow  the  gardener  and  me  to  yonder  nursery.  Having  shown  him 
the  operation  of  grafting,  and  pointing  at  the  crab-tree  newly 
grafted,  "  My  dear  child,"  would  I  say,  "  though  hitherto  this  tree 
has  produced  nothing  but  crabs,  yet  by  the  skill  of  the  gardener,  who 
has  just  fixed  in  it  that  good  little  branch,  it  is  now  made  an  apple- 
tree,  I  justify  and  warrant  it  such.  (Here  is  an  emblem  of  our  first 
justification  by  faith !)  In  three  or  four  years,  if  we  live,  we  will 
come  again  and  see  it:  if  it  thrive  and  bear  fruit,  well;  we  shall 
then,  by  that  mark,  justify  it  a  second  time,  we  shall  declare  that  it  is 
a  gooci  apple-tree  indeed,  and  fit  to  be  transplanted  from  this  wild 
nursery  into  a  delightful  orchard.  But  if  we  find  that  the  old  crab- 
stock,  instead  of  nourishing  the  graft,  spends  all  its  sap  in  producing 
wild  shoots  and  sour  crabs  ;  or  if  it  is  a  tree  whose  fruit  withereth, 
without  fruit,  twice  dead  (dead  in  the  graft  and  in  the  stock)  plucked 
up  by  the  root,  or  quite  cankered,  far  from  declaring  it  a  good 
free,  we  shall  pass  sentence  of  condemnation  upon  it,  and  say,  Cut  it 


ir 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.      *  lOS 

down ;  •nshy  cumbereth  it  the  ground  ?  For  every  tree  that  bringeth  not 
forth  good  fruit  is  hewn  down  and  cast  into  the  fire.'''*  Here  is  an 
emblem  of  our  second  justification  by  works,  or  of  the  condemnation 
that  will  infallibly  overtake  those  Laodicean  professors  and  wretched 
apostates,  whose  faith  is  not  shown  by  works,  where  there  is  time 
and  opportunity. 

Instead  of  offering  an  insult  to  your  superior  understanding,  in 
attempting  to  explain  by  metaphysical  distinctions  what  I  suppose  your 
sensible  child  has  already  understood  by  the  help  of  a  grafting-knife, 
I  shall  leave  you  to  consider  whether  Scripture,  reason,  and  candour, 
do  not  join  their  influence  to  make  you  acknowledge,  at  least  in  the 
court  of  your  own  conscience,  that  you  have  put  as  wrong  a  con- 
struction upon  Mr.  W.'s  Declaration  as  upon  his  Minutes,  and  by 
that  mean  inadvertently  given  another  rash  touch  to  the  ark  of  prac- 
tical religion,  and  to  the  character  of  one  of  the  greatest  ministers 
in  the  world.  1  am,  with  due  respect,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir,  your 
obedient  servant,  in  the  bond  of  the  practical  Gospel  of  Christ, 

THE  VINDICATORv 


Vol.  I 


110  SECOND    CHECK 

LETTER  II. 

Hon.  and  Rev,  Sir, 

XJ  AVING  endeavoured  in  my  last  to  do  justice  to  the  practical 
Gospel  of  Christ,  and  Mr.  W.'s  awful  Declaration  ;  1  pass  on  to  the 
other  mistakes  of  your  Narrative.  That  which  strikes  me  next  is — 
the  public  recantation  of  your  useful  sermons,  in  the  face  of  the  whole 
world.     Page  22. 

I.  O  Sir,  what  have  you  done  !  Do  you  not  know  that  your  Sermons 
contain  not  only  the  legally  evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Minutes,  but 
likewise  all  the  doctrines  which  moderate  Calvinists  esteem  the  mar- 
row of  the  Gospel  ?  And  shall  all  be  treated  alike  ?  "  Wilt  thou  also 
destroy  the  righteous  with  the  wicked  ?  That  be  far  from  thee  to  do 
after  this  manner !"  Thus  did  a  good  man  formerly  plead  the  cause 
of  a  wicked  city  ;  and  thus  I  plead  that  of  your  good  sermons,  those 
twelve  valuable,  though  unripe  fruits  of  your  ministerial  labours. 
Upon  this  plea  the  infamous  city  would  have  been  spared,  had  only 
ten  good  men  been  found  in  it.  Now,  Sir,  spare  a  valuable  book  for 
the  sake  of  a  thousand  excellent  things  it  contains.  But  if  you  are 
inflexible,  and  still  wish  it  "  burned,"  imitate  at  least  the  kind  angels 
who  sent  Lot  out  of  the  fiery  overthrow,  and  except  all  the  evangeli- 
cal pages  of  the  unfortunate  volume. 

Were  it  not  ridiculous  to  compare  wars,  which  cost  us  only  a  little 
ink,  and  our  friends  a  few  pence,  to  those  which  cost  armies  their 
blood,  and  kingdoms  their  treasures,  1  would  be  tempted  to  say  to 
you,  Imitate  the  Dutch  in  their  last  effort  to  balance  the  victory,  and 
secure  the  field.  When  they  are  pressed  by  the  French,  rather 
than  yield,  they  break  their  dykes,  let  in  the  sea  upon  themselves, 
and  lay  all  their  fine  gardens  and  rich  pastures  under  water  :  but 
before  they  have  recourse  to  that  strange  expedient,  they  prudently 
save  all  the  valuable  goods  they  can.  Why  should  you  not  follow 
them  io  their  prudential  care,  as  you  seem  to  do  in  their  bold  stra- 
tagem '  When  you  publicly  lay  your  useful  book  under  the  bitter 
waters  o.f  an  anathema,  why  do  you  save  absolutely  nothing  ?  Why 
must  Gospel  truths,  more  precious  than  the  wealth  of  Holland  and 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  Ill 

the  gold  of  Ophir,  lie  for  ever  under  the  severe  scourge  of  your  re- 
cantation ?  Suppose  you  had  recanted  your  third  sermon,  The  way 
to  eternal  life,  in  opposition  to  Mysticism  ;  and  burned  the  fourth,  Sal^ 
vation  by  Christ  for  Jews  and  GentileSy  in  honour  of  Calvinism,  could 
you  not  have  spared  the  rest  ? 

If  you  say,  you  may  do  what  you  please  with  your  own  :  I  answer  ; 
Your  book,  publicly  exposed  to  sale,  and  bought  perhaps  by  thou- 
sands, is,  in  one  sense,  no  more  your  own  ;  it  belongs  to  the  pur- 
chasers, before  whom  you  lay,  I  fear,  a  dangerous  example  ;  for 
when  they  shall  hear  that  the  author  has  publicly  recanted  it  in  the 
face  of  the  whole  worlds  it  will  be  a  temptation  to  them  to  slight  the 
Gospel  it  contains,  and  perhaps  to  ridicule  it  in  the  face  of  the  whole 
world. 

You  add,  "  It  savours  too  strongly  of  mysticism."  Some  passages 
are  a  little  tainted  with  Mr.  Law's  capital  error,  and  you  might  have 
pointed  them  out ;  but  if  you  think  mysticism  is  intrinsically  bad,  you 
are  under  a  mistake.  One  of  the  greatest  mystics^  next  to  Solomon, 
is  Thomas  a  Kempis,  and  a  few  errors  excepted,  I  would  no  more 
burn  his  Imitation  of  Jesus  Christ,  than  the  Song  of  Solomon,  and  Mr. 
Romaine's  edifying  paraphrase  of  the  107th  Psalm. 

You  urge  also,  Your  sermons  "  savour  too  much  of  free  will^ 
Alas  I  Sir,  can  you  recant  free  will  ?  Was  not  your  will  as  free  when 
you  recanted  your  sermons  as  when  you  composed  them  ?  Is  there 
not  as  much/ree  will  expressed  in  this  one  line  of  the  Gospel  as  in 
all  your  sermons,  /  would  have  gathered  yoUy  and  ye  would  not  ?  Do 
not  free-will  offerings  with  a  holy  worships  delight  the  Lord  more 
than  forced,  and  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression,  bound- will  ser- 
vices ?  Is  not  the  free  will  with  which  the  martyrs  went  to  the  stake 
as  worthy  of  our  highest  admiration,  as  the  mysticism  of  the  Canti- 
cles is  of  our  deepest  attention  ?  If  all  that  strongly  "  savours  of 
free  will"  must  be  *'  burned,"  Ye  heavens !  what  Smithfield  work 
will  there  be  in  your  lucid  plains  !  Wo  to  saints !  Wo  to  angels  !  for 
they  are  all  free-willing  beings,— all  full  of  free  will :  nor  can  you 
deny  it,  unless  you  suppose  they  are  bound  by  irresistible  decrees, 
as  the  heathens  fancied  their  deities  were  hampered  with  the  adaman- 
tine chains  of  an  imaginary  something  they  caWed  fate;  witness  their 
Fata  vetant^  and  Fata  jubent^  and  ineluctabile  Fatum. 

Pardon,  Rev.  Sir,  the  oddity  of  these  exclamations.  I  am  so 
grieved  at  the  great  advantage  we  give  infidels  against  the  Gospel, 
by  making  it  ridiculous,  that  I  could  try  even  the  method  of  Horace, 
to  bring  my  friends  back  from  the  fashionable  refinements  of  Grisp, 
to  the  plain  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 


112  SECOND    CHECK 

Ridiculum  acri 
Fortius  ac  melius  stultas  plerumque  secat  res. 

Nor  is  this  the  only  bad  tendency  of  your  new  doctrine :  for  by 
exploding  the  freedom  of  the  will,  you  rob  us  of  free  agency  ;  you 
aflford  the  wicked,  who  determine  to  continue  in  sin,  the  best  excuse 
in  the  world  to  do  it  without  either  shame  or  remorse;  you  make 
xis  mere  machines,  and  indirectly  reflect  upon  the  wisdom  of  our 
Lord  for  saying  to  a  set  of  Jewish  machines,  I  would,  and  ye  would 
not.  But  what  is  still  more  deplorable,  you  inadvertently  represent 
it  an  unwise  thing  in  God  to  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  ;  and 
your  new  glass  shows  his  vindictive  justice  in  the  same  unfavourable 
light,  in  which  England  saw  two  years  ago  the  behaviour  of  a  great 
monarch,  who  was  exposed  in  the  public  papers  for  unmercifully 
cutting  with  a  whip,  and  tearing  with  spurs,  the  horses  worked  in  a 
tapestry  of  his  royal  apartment,  because  they  did  not  prance  and 
gallop  at  his  nod. 

If  a  commendable,  but  immoderate  fear  of  Pelagius's  doctrine 
drove  you  into  that  of  Augustin,  the  oracle  of  all  the  Dominicans, 
Thomists,  Jansenists,  and  all  other  Roman  Catholic  predestinarians, 
you  need  not  go  so  far  beyond  him  as  to  recant  all  your  sermons,  be- 
cause you  mention,  perhaps  three  or  four  times,  the  freedom  of  our 
will  in  the  whole  volume.  "  Let  no  one,"  says  judicious  Melancthon, 
*'  be  offended  at  the  word  free  will,  (liberum  arhitrium)  for  Augustin 
himself  uses  it  in  many  volumes,  and  that  almost  in  every  page,  even 
to  the  surfeit  of  the  reader." 

The  most  ingenious  Calvinist  that  ever  wrote  against /rce  will,  is, 
I  think,  Mr.  Edwards  of  New  England.  And  his  fine  system  turns 
upon  a  comparison  by  which  it  may  be  overturned,  and  the  freedom 
of  the  will  demonstrated. 

The  will,  says  he,  (if  I  remember  right)  is  like  an  even  balance, 
which  can  never  turn  without  a  weight,  and  must  nece»sarily  turn 
with  one. — But  whence  comes  the  weight  that  necessarily  turns  it? 
From  the  understanding,  answers  he  ;  the  last  dictate  of  the  under- 
standing necessarily  turns  the  will. — And  is  the  understanding  also 
necessarily  determined  ?  Yes,  by  the  effect  which  the  objects  around 
us  necessarily  have  upon  us,  and  by  the  circumstances  in  which  we 
necessarily  find  ourselves  ;  so  that  from  first  to  last,  our  tempers, 
words,  and  actions,  necessarily  follow  each  other,  and  the  circum- 
stances that  give  them  birth,  as  the  2d,  3d,  and  4th  links  of  a  chain 
follow  the  first,  when  it  is  drawn  along.  Hence  the  eternal,  infalli- 
jjle,  irresistible,  universal  concatenation  of  events,  both  in  the  moral 


-w:;.'^*- 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  113 

and  material  world.  This  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  scheme  of  that 
o-reat  divine,  and  he  spends  no  less  than  414  large  pages  in  trying  to 
establish  it. 

I  would  just  observe  upon  it,  that  it  makes  the  first  Cause,  or  first 
Mover,  the  only  free  agent  in  the  world  :  all  others  being  necessarily 
bound  with  the  chain  of  his  decrees,  drawn  along  by  the  irresistible 
motion  of  his  arm,  or,  which  is  the  same,  entangled  in  forcible  cir- 
cumstances unalterably  fixed  by  his  immutable  counsel. 

And  yet,  even  upon  this  scheme,  you  needed  not,  Sir,  to  be  so  afraid 
of/ree  will ;  for  if  the  will  be  like  an  even  balance,  it  is  free  in  itself, 
though  it  is  only  with  what  I  beg  leave  to  call  a  mechanical  freedom  ; 
for  an  even  balance,  you  know,  is  free  to  turn  either  way. 

But  with  respect  to  our  ingenious  author's  assertion,  that  the  will 
cannot  turn  without  a  weight,  because  an  even  balance  cannot ;  I 
must  consider  it  as  a  mere  begging  the  question,  if  not  as  an  absurdity. 
What  is  a  balance,  but  lifeless  matter  ?  And  what  is  the  will,  but  the 
living,  active  soul  springing  up  in  its  willing  capacity,  and  self-exerting, 
self-determining  power?  O  how  tottering  is  the  mighty  fabric  raised,  I 
shall  not  say  upon  such  a  fine-spun  metaphysical  speculation,  but  upon 
so  weak  a  foundation  as  a  comparison,  which  supposes  that  two  things 
so  widely  different  as  spirit  and  matter,  a  living  soul  and  a  lifeless  ba- 
lance, are  exactly  alike  with  reference  to  self-determination  !  Just  as 
if  a  spirit  made  after  the  image  of  the  living,  free,  and  powerful  God, 
was  no  more  capable  of  determining  itself  than  a  horizontal  beam  sup- 
porting two  equal  copper  bowls  by  six  silken  strings  ! 

I  am  sorry.  Sir,  to  dissent  from  such  a  respectable  divine  as  your- 
self, but  as  I  have  no  taste  for  new  refinements,  and  cannot  even  con- 
ceive how  far  actions  can  be  morally  good  or  evil,  any  farther  than 
OUT  free  will  is  concerned  in  them  ;  I  must  follow  the  universal  expe- 
rience of  mankind,  and  side  with  the  author  of  the  Sermons  against 
the  author  of  the  Narrative,  concerning  the  freedom  of  the  will. 

Nor  is  this  freedom  derogatory  to  free  grace;  for  as  it  was  free 
grace  that  gave  an  upright/ree  will  to  Adam  at  his  creation,  so  when- 
ever his  fallen  children  think  or  act  aright,  it  is  because  their  free  will 
is  mercifully  prevented,  touched,  and  so  far  rectified  by  free  grace. 

However,  it  must  be  granted  that  many  fashionable  professors,  and 
the  large  book''  of  Mr.  Edwards,  are  for  you  :  but  when  you  main- 
tained the  freedom  of  the  will,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Gospel  were  on 
your  side.  To  the  end  of  the  world  this  plain,  peremptory  assertion 
of  our  Lord,  1  would,  and  ye  would  not,  will  alone  throw  down  the 
sophisms,  and  silence  the  objections  of  the  most  subtle  philosophers 
against /rcc  will.     When  I  consider  what  it  implies,  far  from  suppo- 


114  SECOND    CHECK 

?ing  that  the  will  is  a  lifeless  pair  of  scales,  necessarily  turned  by  the 
least  weight ;  I  see  it  is  such  a  strong,  self-determining  power,  that  it 
can  resist  the  effect  of  the  most  amazing  weights  ;  keep  itself  inflex- 
ible under  all  the  warnings,  threatenings,  miracles,  promises,  entrea- 
ties, and  tears  of  the  Son  of  God  ;  and  remain  obstinately  unmoved 
under  the  strivings  of  his  Holy  Spirit.  Yes,  put  in  one  scale  the  most 
stupendous  weights,  for  instance,  the  hopes  of  heavenly  joys,  and  the 
dread  of  hellish  torments  ;  and  only  the  gaudy  feather  of  honour,  or 
the  breaking  bubble  of  worldly  joy  in  the  other  ;  if  the  will  cast 
itself  into  the  light  scale,  the  feather  or  bubble  will  instantly  prepon- 
derate. Nor  is  the  power  of  the  rectified  will  less  wonderful  ;  for 
though  you  should  put  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  their  glory 
in  the  scale,  and  nothing  but  the  reproach  of  Christ  in  the  other  ;  yet 
if  the  will  freely  leap  into  the  infamous  scale,  a  crown  of  thorns 
easily  outweighs  a  thousand  golden  crowns,  and  a  devouring  flame 
makes  ten  thousand  thrones  kick  the  beam. 

Thus  it  appears  the  will  can  be  persuaded,  but  never  forced.  Yoa 
may  bend  it  by  moral  suasions,  but  if  you  do  this  farther  than  it  freely 
gives  way,  you  break,  you  absolutely  destroy  it,  A  will  forced  is  no 
more  a  "will ;  it  is  mere  compulsion ;  freedom  is  not  less  essential  to  it, 
than  moral  agency  to  man.  Nor  do  1  go,  in  these  observations  upon 
the  freedom  of  the  will,  one  step  farther  than  honest  John  Bunyan, 
whom  all  the  Calvinists  so  deservedly  admire.  In  his  Holy  War^  he 
tells  us  there  is  but  one  Lord  Will-be-Will  in  the  town  of  Man's-soul  : 
whether  he  serves  Diaholus  or  Shaddai^  he  is  Lord  Will-he-Will  stilly 
*'  a  man  of  great  strength,  resolution,  and  courage,  whom  in  his  oc- 
casion no  one  can  turn,"  if  he  do  not  freely  turn,  or  yield  to  be 
turned. 

I  hope.  Sir,  these  hints  upon  the  harmlessness  of  mysticism^  and 
the  important  doctrine  of  our  free  agency^  will  convince  you,  and  the 
purchasers  of  your  Sermons,  that  you  have  been  too  precipitate  in 
publicly  recanting  them  in  the  face  of  the  whole  worlds  especially  the 
ninth. 

If  you  ask  why  I  particularly  interest  myself  in  behalf  of  that  one 
discourse,  I  will  let  you  into  the  mystery.  At  the  first  reading,  1 
liked  and  adopted  it ;  I  cut  it  out  of  the  volume  in  which  it  was 
bound,  put  it  in  my  sermon  case,  and  preached  it  in  my  church.  The 
title  of  it  is,  you  know,  Justification  by  Faith^  and  among  several  stri- 
king things  on  the  subject,  you  quote  twice  this  excellent  passage 
out  of  our  homilies,  *' Justification  by  faith  implies  a  sure  trust  and 
confidence  which  a  man  hath  in  God,  that  by  the  merits  of  Christ  his 
sins  are  forgiven,  and  he  is  reconciled  to  the  favour  of  God.'*    O,  Sir, 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  HZi 

why  did  you  not  except  it  in  your  recantation,  both  for  the  honour  of 
our  church  and  your  own  ? 

Vf  ere  I  to  print  and  disperse  such  an  advertisement  as  this : 
•'  Eight  years  ago,  I  preacbe<l  in  my  church  a  sermon  entitled  Justi- 
fication by  Faithy  composed  by  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  to  con- 
vince Fapi!?cs  and  Pharisees  that  vie  are  accepted  through  the  alone 
merits  of  Christ ;  but  I  see  better  now  ;  I  wish  this  sermon  had  been 
burned y  and  I  publichj  recant  it  in  the  face  of  the  whole  world  ;*^  how 
would  the  popish  priest  of  Madely  rejoice  !  And  how  will  that  of 
Lovighrea  triuaiph,  when  he  hears  you  have  actually  done  it  in  your 
Narrative  !  What  will  your  Protestmt  parishioners,  to  whom  your 
book  is  dedici?ted,  say,  when  the  surprising  news  reaches  Ireland  ? 
And  what  will  the  world  think,  when  they  see  you  warmly  plead  in 
August,  for  justificntion  byfaith,  as  being  *'  the  fouadation  that  must  by 
all  means  be  secured  ;"  and  publicly  recant  in  September  your  own 
excellent  Sermon  on  Justification  by  Faith  ? 

Indeed,  Sir,  though  1  admire  your  candour  in  acknowledging  there 
are  some  exceptionable  passages  in  your  discourses,  and  your  humi- 
lity in  readily  giving  them  up,  I  can  no  more  approve  of  your  readi- 
ness in  making,  than  in  insisting  u\>on  formal  recantations.  We  can- 
not be  too  careful  in  dealing  in  that  kind  of  ware  :  and  it  is  extremely 
dangerous  to  do  it  by  wholesale  ;  as  by  that  mean  we  may  give  up,  or 
seem  to  give  sp,  before  the  whole  worlds  precious  truths  delivered  by 
Christ  himself,  and  brought  down  to  us  in  streams  of  the  blood  of 
martyrs. 

Among  some  blunt  expostulations  that  Mr.  Wesley  erased  in  my  fifth 
letter,  as  being  too  severe,  he  kindly  but  unhappily  struck  out  this  : 
**  Before  you  could  with  candour  insist  upon  a  recantation  of  Mr.  W.'s 
Minutes,  should  you  not  have  recanted  yourself  the  passages  of  your 
own  Sermons,  where  the  same  doctrines  are  maintained  ;  and  have 
sent  your  recantation  through  the  land,  together  with  your  circular 
letter?"  Had  this  been  published,  it  might  have  convinced  you  of 
the  unseasonableness  of  your  recantation  ;  thus  this  second  hasty  step 
would  have  been  prevented  ;  and  if  I  dwell  so  long  upon  it  now,  be- 
lieve me.  Sir  it  is  chiefly  to  prevent  a  third. 

And  now  your  Sermons  are  recanted,  is  the  Vindication  of  Mr. 
W.'s  Minutes  invalidated  ? — Not  at  all ;  for  you  have  not  yet  recanted 
the  Bath  Hyran-Book,  nor  can  you  ever  get  Mr.  Henry,  Mr.  Williams, 
and  a  tribe  of  other  anti-Crispian,  though  Calvinist  divines,  now  in 
glory,  to  recant  with  you  ;  much  less  the  Prophets,  Apostles,  and 
Christ  himself,  on  whose  irrefragable  testimony  we  chiefly  rest  oiu 
doctrine. 


116  SECOND  CHECK 

II.  As  I  have  pleaded  out  the  cause  o^  free  will  against  hourid  •witt^ 
or  that  of  your  Sermons  against  your  Narrative  ;  and  am  insensibly 
come  to  the  Vindication,  give  me  leave,  Sir,  to  speak  a  word  also  for 
that  performance,  and  the  author  of  it. 

You  say  he  has  "  attempted  a  Vindication  of  the  Minutes  ;"  but  do' 
not  some  people  think  he  has  likewise  executed  it  ?  And  have  you 
proved  he  has  not  ? 

You  reply,  "  There  would  be  a  great  impropriety  in  my  giving  a 
'*  full  and  particular  answer  to  those  letters,  because  the  author  did 
*'  all  he  could  to  revoke  them,  and  has  given  me  ample  satisfaction  in 
"  his  letter  of  submission."  Indeed,  Sir,  you  quite  mistook  the  nature 
of  that  submission:  it  had  absolutely  no  reference  to  the  arguments  of 
the  Vindication.  It  only  respected  the  polemic  dress  in  which  the 
Vindicator  had  put  them.  You  might  have  been  convinced  of  it  by 
this  paragraph  of  his  letter  of  submission.  "  I  was  going  to  preach 
when  I  had  the  news  of  your  happy  accommodation,  and  was  no 
sooner  out  of  church,  than  I  wrote  to  beg  my  Vindication  might  not 
appear  in  the  dress  in  which  I  had  put  it.  I  did  not  then,  nor  do  I 
yet,  repent  having  written  upon  the  Minutes  ;  but  as  matters  are  now^ 
I  am  very  sorry  I  did  not  write  in  a  general  manner,  without  taking 
notice  of  the  circular  letter,  and  mentioning  your  dear  name."  He 
begs  therefore  you  will  not  consider  his  letter  of  submission  as  a  rea- 
son for  not  giving  -a  full  or  particular  anszvtr  to  his  arguments.  On 
the  contrary,  if  you  can  prove  they  want  solidity,  a  letter  of  thanks 
shall  follow  his  letter  of  submission :  if  he  be  wrong  he  sincerely  de- 
sires to  be  set  right. 

You  add,  however,  that  he  has  "  broken  the  Minutes  into  sentences 
"  and  half  sentences,  and  by  refining  upon  each  of  the  detached  par- 
"  tides,  has  given  a  new  turn  to  the  whole."  But  he  appeals  to  every 
impartial  reader,  whether  he  has  not,  like  a  candid  man,  first  consi- 
dered them  all  together,  and  then  every  one  asunder.  He  begs  to  be 
informed  whether  an  artist  can  better  inquire  into  the  goodness  of  a 
watch,  than  by  making  first  his  observations  on  the  whole  movement 
in  general,  and  then  by  taking  it  to  pieces,  that  he  may  examine  every 
part  with  greater  attention.  And  he  desires  you  would  show  whether, 
what  you  are  pleased  to  call  a  new  turn,  is  not  preferable  to  the  he- 
retical turn  some  persons  give  them  ;  and  whether  it  is  not  equally, 
if  not  better  adapted  to  the  literal  meaning  of  the  word^,  as  well  as 
more  agreeable  to  the  Antinomian  state  of  the  church,  the  general 
tenor  of  the  propositions,  and  the  system  of  doctrine  maintained  by 
Mr,  Wesley  for  near  forty  years  ? 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  117 

The  Vindicator  objects  likewise  to  your  asserting,  page  21,  that 
•'  when  he  first  saw  the  Minutes,  he  expressed  to  Lady  Huntingdoa 
"  his  abhorrence  of  them  :"  had  you  said  surprise,  the  expression 
would  have  been  strictly  just ;  but  that  of  abhorrence  is  far  too  strong. 
Ber  Ladyship,  who  testified  her  detestation  of  them  in  the  strongest 
terms,  might  easily  mistake  his  abhorrence  of  the  sense  fixed  upon  the 
Minutes,  for  an  abhorrence  of  the  Minutes  themselves  ;  but  she  may 
recollect,  that  far  from  ever  granting  they  had  that  sense,  he  said 
again  and  again,  even  in  ther  first  conversation  upon  them,  "  Cer- 
"  tainly,  my  Lady,  Mr.  W.  can  mean  no  such  thing  :  he  will  explain 
"  himself." 

But  supposing  he  had  at  first  been  so  far  influenced  by  the  jealous 
fears  of  Lady  Huntingdon,  as  to  express  as  great  an  abhorrence  of  the 
Minutes,  as  the  mistaken  disciples  did  of  the  person  of  our  Lord> 
when  they  took  him  for  an  apparition,  and  cried  out  for  fear ;  would 
this  have  excused  either  him  or  you.  Sir,  for  resolutely  continuing 
in  a  mistake,  in  the  midst  of  a  variety  of  means  and  calls  to  escape 
from  it  ?  And  if  the  Vindicator,  before  he  had  weighed  the  Minutes 
in  the  balance  of  the  sanctuary,  had  even  taken  his  pen,  and  con- 
demned them  as  dangerously  legal,  what  could  you  fairly  have  conclu- 
ded from  it,  but  that  he  was  not  partial  to  Mr.  W.  and  had  also  ''  lean- 
ed so  much  towards  Calvinism,"  as  not  instantly  to  discover  and  re- 
joice in  the  truth  ? 

In  your  last  page  you  take  your  friendly  leave  of  the  Vindicator, 
by  saying  you  "  desire  in  love  to  cast  a  veil  over  all  apparent  mistakes 
of  his  judgment  on  this  occasion  ;"  but  as  he  is  not  conscious  of  all 
these  apparent  mistakes,  he  begs  you  would  in  love  take  off  the  veil 
you  have  cast  upon  them,  that  he  may  see,  and  rectify  at  least  those 
which  are  capital. 

III.  And  that  you  may  not  hastily  conclude  he  was  mistaken  in  his 
Vindication  of  that  article  that  touches  upon  Merit,  he  embraces  this 
opportunity  of  presenting  you  with  another  quotation  from  the  John 
Wesley  of  the  last  century  ;  he  means  Mr.  Baxter,  the  cxo^t  judicious 
divine,  as  well  as  the  greatest,  most  useful,  and  most  laborious  preacher 
of  his  age. 

In  his  Catholic  Tlieology,  answering  the  objections  of  an  Antinomian, 
he  says  :  '*  Alerit  is  a  word  I  perceive  you  are  af^ainst ;  you  may 
therefore  choose  any  other  of  the  same  signification,  and  we  will  fcr- 
hear  this,  rather  than  offend  you.  But  yet  tell  me,  1.  What  if  the 
words  c«|/«5  arid  x^iec  were  translated  deserving  and  merit,  would  it  not 
be  as  true  a  translation  as  worthy  and  worthiness,  when  it  is  the  same 
thing  that  is  meant?     2.  Do  not  all  the  ancient  teachers  of  the 

Vol.  I,  IS 


118  SECOND  CHECK 

churches,  since  the  apostles,  particularly  apply  the  names  «|tc«  and 
meriium  to  believers  ?  And  if  you  persuade  men  that  all  these  teachers 
were  Papists,  will  you  not  persuade  most  that  believe  you,  to  be  Pa- 
pists too  ?  3.  Are  not  reward  and  merit  or  desert^  relative  words,  as 
punishment  and  guilt,  master  and  servant,  husband  and  wife  ?  And  is 
there  any  reward  which  is  not  ineriti  prcemium,  the  reward  of  some 
merit  ?  Again, 

Is  it  not  the  second  article  of  our  faith,  and  next  to  believing  there 
is  a  God,  that  He  is  the  rezvarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him  ? 
When  you  thus  extirpate  faith  and  godliness,  on  pretence  of  crying 
down  merit ^  you  see  what  overdoing  tends  to.  And  indeed  by  the  same 
reason  that  men  deny  a  remard  to  duty,  (the  faultincss  being  pardoned 
through  Christ)  they  would  infer  there  is  no  punishment  for  sin  ;  for 
if  God  will  not  do  good  to  the  righteous,  neither  will  he  do  evil  to  the 
wicked  ;  he  becomes  like  the  god  of  Epicurus— he  does  not  trouble 
himself  about  us,  nor  about  the  merit  or  demerit  of  our  actions.  But 
David  knew  better,  The  Lord,  says  he,  plenieously  rewardeth  the  proud 
doers,  and  verily  there  is  a  reward  for  the  righteous,  for  there  is  a  God 
that  judgeth  the  earth,  that  sees  matter  of  praise  or  dispraise,  reward- 
ableness,  or  worthiness  of  punishment,  in  all  the  actions  of  men. 
This  is.  Sir,  all  Mr.  Baxter  and  Mr.  W.  mean  by  merit  or  demerit: 
and  if  the  Vindicator  be  wrong  in  thinking  they  are  both  in  the  right, 
please  to  remove  the  veil  that  conceals  his  mistake. 

IV.  As  one  of  his  correspondents  desires  him  to  explain  himself  a 
little  more  upon  the  article  of  the  Minutes  which  respects  under- 
valuing ourselves ;  and  as  you  probably  place  the  arguments  he  has 
advanced  upon  that  head  among  his  apparent  mistakes,  he  takes  like- 
wise this  opportunity  of  making  some  additional  observations  on  that 
delicate  subject. 

How  we  can  esteem  every  man  better  than  ourselves,  and  ourselves 
the  chief  of  sinners,  or  the  least  of  saints,  seems  not  so  much  a  calcu- 
lation for  the  understanding,  as  for  the  lowly,  contrite,  and  loving  heart. 
It  puzzles  the  former,  but  the  latter  at  once  makes  it  out.  Never- 
theless the  seeming  contradiction  may,  perhaps,  be  reconciled  to  rea- 
son, by  these  refl'^ctions. 

1.  If  friendship  brings  the  greatest  monarch  down  from  his  throne, 
and  makes  him  sit  on  the  same  couch  with  his  favourites ;  may  not 
brolherly  love,  much  more  powerful  than  natural  friendship,  may  not 
humility,  excited  by  the  example  of  Christ  washing  his  disciples'  feet, 
may  not  a  deep  regard  for  that  precept,  He  that  zvill  be  greatest  among 
you  let  him  be  the  least  of  all,  sink  the  true  Christian  to  the  dust,  and 
make  him  lie  in  spirit  at  the  feet  of  every  one  ? 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  119 

2.  A  well-bred  person  uncovers  himself,  bows,  and  declares  even 
to  his  inferiors,  thul  he  is  their  most  humble  servant.  This  affected 
civility  of  the  world  is  but  an  apish  imitation  of  the  genuine  hu- 
mility of  the  church ;  and  if  those,  who  customarily  speak  humble 
words  without  meaning,  may  yet  be  honest  men,  how  much  more  the 
saints,  who  have  truth  written  in  their  inward  parts y  and  speak  out  of 
the  abundance  of  their  humble  hearts! 

3.  He  who  walks  in  the  light  of  divine  love,  sees  something  of 
God's  spiritual,  moral,  or  natural  image  in  all  men,  the  worst  not 
excepted  ;  and  at  the  sight,  that  which  is  merely  creaturely  in  him 
(by  a  kind  of  spiritual  instinct  found  in  all  who  are  born  of  the  Spirit) 
directly  bows  to  that  which  is  of  God  in  another.  He  imitates  the 
captain  of  a  first-rate  man  of  war,  who,  upon  seeing  the  King  or 
Q,aeen  coming  up  in  a  small  boat,  forgetting  the  enormous  size  of  his 
ship,  or  considering  it  is  the  King's  own  ship,  immediately  strikes  his 
colours  ;  and  the  greater  vessel,  consistently  with  wisdom  and  truth, 
pays  respect  to  thy  less. 

4.  The  most  eminent  saint,  having  known  more  of  the  workings 
of  corruption  in  his  own  breast,  than  he  can  possibly  know  of  them 
in  that  of  any  other  man,  may  with  great  truth  (according  to  his  pre- 
sent views  and  former  feelings  of  the  internal  evil  he  has  overcome) 
call  himself  the  chief  of  sinners. 

5.  Nor  does  he  know  but  if  the  feeblest  believers  had  had  all  his 
talents  and  graces,  with  all  his  opportunities  of  doing  and  receiving 
good,  they  would  have  made  far  superior  advances  in  the  Christian 
life  ;  and  in  this  view  also,  without  hypocritical  humility,  he  prefers 
the  least  saint  to  himself.  Thus,  although  according  to  the  humble 
light  of  others,  all  true  believers  certainly  undervalue,  yet  according 
to  their  own  humble  light,  they  make  a  true  estimate  of  themselves. 

V.  The  Vindicator  having  thus  solved  a  problem  of  godliness, 
which  you  have  undoubtedly  ranked  among  his  apparent  mistakes,  he 
takes  the  liberty  of  presenting  you  with  a  list  of  some  of  your  own 
"  apparent  mistakes  on  this  occasion." 

1 .  In  the  very  letter  in  which  you  recant  your  circular  letter,  you 
desire  Mr.  W.  to  give  up  the  fatal  errors  of  the  Minutes,  though  you 
have  not  yet  proved  they  contain  one  ;  you  still  affirm,  ''  They 
appear  evidently  subversive  of  the  fundamentals  of  Christianity," 
that  is,  in  plain  English,  still  "  dreadfully  heretical ;"  and  you  produce 
a  letter  which  asserts  also,  without  shadow  of  proof,  that  the  "  Mi- 
nutes were  given  for  the  establishment  of  another  foundation  than 
that  which  is  laid," — that  they  are  "  repugnant  to  Scripture,  the 
whole  plan  of  man's  salvation  under  the  new  covenant  of  grace,  and 


120  SECOND  CHECK 

also  to  the  clear  meaning  of  our  established  church,  as  well  as  to  all 
other  Protestant  churches." 

2.  You  declare  in  your  Narrative,  that  "  when  you  cast  your  eye 
over  the  Minutes,  you  are  just  where  you  were,"  and  assure  the 
public  that  "  nothing  inferior  to  an  attack  upon  the  foundation  of  our 
hope,  through  the  all-sufficient  sacrifice  of  Christ,  could  have  been 
an  object  sufficient  to  engage  you  in  its  defence :"  Thus,  by  continu- 
ing to  insinuate  such  an  attack  was  really  made,  you  continue  to 
wound  Mr.  W.  in  the  tenderest  part. 

3.  Although  Mr.  W.  and  fifty-three  of  his  fellow-labourers,  have 
let  you  quietly  -secure  the  foundation  ^ which,  by  the  by,  had  been 
only  shaken  in  your  own  ideas,  and  was  perfectly  secured  by  these 
express  words  of  the  Minutes,  **  not  by  the  merit  of  works,"  but  by 
"  believing  in  Christ")  yet  far  from  allowing  them  to  secure  the  super- 
structure  in  their  turn,  which  would  be  nothing  but  just,  you  begin 
already  a  contest  with  them  about  "  our  second  justification  by  works 
in  the  day  of  judgment." 

4.  Instead  of  frankly  acknowledging  the  rashness  of  your  step, 
and  the  greatness  of  your  mistake,  with  respect  to  the  Minutes,  you 
make  a  bad  matter  worse,  by  treating  the  Declaration  as  you  have 
treated  them ;  forcing  upon  it  a  dangerous  sense,  no  less  contrary  to 
the  Scriptures,  than  to  Mr.  W.'s  meaning,  and  the  import  of  the 
words. 

6.  When  you  speak  of  the  dreadful  charges  you  have  brought 
against  the  Minutes,  you  softly  call  them  misconstructions  you  may  seem 
to  have  made  of  their  meaning,  page  22,  line  4.  Nor  is  your  acknow- 
ledgment much  stronger  than  your — may  seem;  at  least  it  does  not 
appear  to  many  adequate  to  the  hurt  done  by  your  circular  letter  to 
the  practical  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  the  reputation  of  his  eminent 
servant,  thousands  of  whose  friends  you  have  grieved,  offended,  or 
stumbled  ;  while  you  have  confirmed  thousands  of  his  enemies  in 
their  hard  thoughts  of  him,  and  in  their  unjust  contempt  of  his 
ministry. 

6.  And  lastly,  far  from  candidly  inquiring  into  the  merit  of  the 
arguments  advanced  in  the  Vindication,  you  represent  them  as  mere 
metaphysical  distinctions;  or  cast  as  a  veil  over  them  a  friendly  sub- 
missive letter  of  condolence,  which  was  never  intended  for  the  use  to 
which  you  have  put  it. 

Therefore  the  Vindicator,  who  does  not  admire  a  peace  founded 
upon  a  may  seem,  on  your  part,  and  on  Mr.  W.'s  part  upon  a  Declara- 
tion, to  which  you  have  already  fixed  a  wrong  unscriptural  sense  of 
your  own  ;— takes  this  public  method  to  inform  you,  he  thinks  his 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  121 

arguments  in  favour  of  Mr.  W.'s  anti-Crispian  propositions,  rational^ 
scriptural,  and  solid ;  and  once  more  he  begs  you  would  remove  the 
veil  you  have  hitherto  "  cast  over  all  the  apparent  mistakes  of  his 
judgment  on  this  occasion,"  that  he  may  see  whether  the  Antinomian 
Gospel  of  Dr.  Crisp,  is  preferable  to  the  practical  Gospel  which  Mr. 
W.  endeavours  to  restore  to  its  primitive  and  scriptural  lustre. 

VI.  Having  thus  finished  my  remarks  upon  the  mistakes  of  your 
Narrative,  I  gladly  take  my  leave  of  controversy  for  this  time: 
Would  to  God  it  were  for  ever !  I  no  more  like  it,  than  I  do  apply- 
ing a  caustic  to  the  back  of  my  friends  ;  it  is  disagreeable  to  me  and 
painful  to  them,  and  nevertheless,  it  must  be  done,  when  their  health 
and  mine  is  at  stake. 

I  assure  you,  Sir,  I  do  not  love  the  warlike  dress  of  the  Vindica- 
tor, any  more  than  David  did  the  heavy  armour  of  Saul.  With  glad- 
ness therefore  I  cast  it  aside  to  throw  myself  at  your  feet,  and  pro- 
test to  you,  that  although  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  write  to  you  with 
the  utmost  plainness,  frankness,  and  honesty,  yet  the  design  of  doing  it 
with  bitterness,  never  entered  my  heart.  However,  for  every  "  bitter 
expression'^  that  may  have  dropped  from  my  sharp  vindicating  pen,  I 
ask  your  pardon  ;  but  it  must  be  mi  general,  for  neither  friends  nor 
foes  have  yet  particularly  pointed  out  to  me  one  such  expression. 

You  have  accepted  of  a  letter  of  submission  from  me ;  let,  I  beseech 
you,  a  concluding  paragraph  of  submission  meet  also  with  your  favour- 
able acceptance.  You  condescend.  Rev.  Sir,  to  call  me  your  "  learn- 
ed friend."  Learning  is  an  accomplishment  I  never  pretended  to  ; 
but  your  friendship  is  an  honour  I  shall  always  highly  esteem,  and  do 
at  this  time  value  above  my  own  brother's  love.  Appearances  are  a 
little  against  me  :  I  feel  I  am  a  thorn  in  your  flesh ;  but  I  am  per- 
suaded it  is  a  necessary  one,  and  this  persuasion  reconciles  me  to  the 
thankless  and  disagreeable  part  I  act. 

If  Ephraim  must  vex  Judah,  let  Judah  bear  with  Ephraim,  till, 
happily  tired  of  their  contention,  they  feel  the  truth  of  Terence's 
words,  Amantium  (why  not  credentium?)  iroe  amoris  redintegratio  est.* 
I  can  assure  you,  my  dear  Sir,  without  metaphysical  distinction,  I  love 
and  honour  you,  as  truly  as  I  dishke  the  rashness  of  your  well-meant 
zeal.  The  motto  1  thought  myself  obliged  to  follow  was  E  bello  pax  ;t 
but  that  which  I  delight  in  is  In  bello  pax  ;|  may  we  make  them  har- 
monize till  we  learn  war  and  polemic  divinity  no  more  ! 

*  The  misunderstandings  of  lovers  (why  not  of  beliercrs?)  end  in  a  renewal  and 
increase  of  love. 

f  We  make  war  in  order  to  get  peace. 
t  W«  enjoy  peace  in  the  midst  of  war. 


122  SECOND    CHECK 

My  Vindication  cost  me  tears  of  fear,  lest  I  should  have  wounded 
you  too  deeply.  That  fear,  I  find,  was  groundless  ;  but  should  you 
feQl  a  little  for  the  great  truths  and  the  great  minister  I  vindicate, 
these  expostulations  will  wound  me,  and  probably  cost  me  tears 
again. 

If,  in  the  mean  time,  we  oflfend  our  weak  brethren,  let  us  do  some- 
thing in  order  to  lessen  the  offence  till  it  be  removed.  Let  us  show 
them  we  make  war  without  so  much  as  sh3mess.  Should  you  ever 
come  to  the  next  county,  as  you  did  last  summer,  honour  me  with  a 
line,  and  I  shall  gladly  wait  upon  you,  and  show  you  (if  you  permit 
me)  the  way  to  my  pulpit,  where  I  shall  think  myself  highly  favoured 
to  see  you  "  secure  the  foundation,"  and  hear  you  enforce  the  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith,  which  you  fear  we  attack.  And  should 
I  ever  be  within  thirty  miles  of  the  city  where  you  reside,  I« shall  go 
to  submit  myself  to  you,  and  beg  leave  to  assist  you  in  reading 
prayers  for  you,  or  giving  the  cup  with  you.  Thus  shall  we  con- 
vince the  world,  that  controversy  may  be  conscientiously  carried  on, 
without  interruption  of  brotherly  love  ;  and  I  shall  have  the  peculiar 
pleasure  of  testifying  to  you  in  person,  how  sincerely  I  am,  Hon.  and 
dear  Sir,  your  submissive  and  obedient  servant  in  the  bond  of  a 
practical  Gospel, 

J.  FLETCHER. 


TO  ANTINOMIANTSM.  123 


LETTER  III 


-^v\j^V^— - 


Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir^ 

X-F  I  mistake  not  the  workings  of  my  heart,  a  concern  for  St.  James's 
pure  and  undefiled  religion,  excites  me  to  take  the  pen  once  more, 
and  may  account  for  the  readiness  with  which  I  have  met  you  in  the 
dangerous  field  of  controversy.  You  may  possibly  think  mere  par- 
tiahty  to  Mr.  Wesley  has  inspired  me  with  that  boldness  ;  and  others 
may  be  ready  to  say  as  Eliab,  We  know  the  pride  and  naughtiness  of  thy 
heart :  Thou  art  come  down  that  thou  mightest  see  the  battle  :  But  may 
I  not  answer  with  David,  Is  there  not  a  cause? 

Is  it  not  highly  necessary  to  make  a  stand  against  Antinomianism  ? 
Is  not  that  gigantic  Man  of  Sin  a  more  dangerous  enemy  to  King 
Jesus,  than  the  champion  of  the  Philistines  was  to  king  Saul  ?  Has 
he  not  defied  more  than  forty  days  the  armies  and  arms,  the  peo- 
ple and  truths  of  the  living  God  ?  By  audaciously  daring  the  thou- 
sands in  Israel  ?  Has  he  not  made  all  the  faint-hearted  among  tbem 
ashamed  to  stand  in  the  whole  armour  of  God,  afraid  to  defend  the 
important  post  of  duty  ?  And  have  not  many  left  it  already,  openly 
running  away  ;  flying  into  the  dens  and  caves  of  earthly-mindedness, 
putting  their  light  under  a  bushel,  and  even  burying  themselves  alive 
in  the  noisome  grave  of  profaneness  ? 

Multitudes  indeed  still  keep  the  field,  still  make  an  open  profes- 
sion of  godliness.  But  how  few  of  these  endure  hardship  as  good 
soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ!  How  many  have  already  cast  away  the 
shield  of  Gospel  faith,  the  faith  which  works  by  love  7  What  numbers 
dread  the  cross,  the  heavenly  standard  they  should  steadily  bear,  or 
resolutely  follow  ?  While,  in  pompous  speeches,  they  extol  the 
cross  of  Jesus,  how  do  they  upon  the  most  frivolous  pretence,  refuse 
to  take  up  their  own  ?  Did  the  massy  staff  of  Goliah's  spear  seem 
more  terrible  to  the  frighted  Israelites  than  the  daily  cross  to 
those  dastardly  followers  of  the  Crucified  ?  What  Boanerges  can 
spirit  them  up,  and  lead  them  on  from  conquering  to  conquer?  Who 
can  even  make  them  look   the  enerov  in  the  face !     Alas  !  in  their 


1^4  SECOND   CHECK 

heart  they  are  already  gone  back  to  Egypt,  Their  faces  are  but  half 
Sion-wardf — They  give  way, — they  draw  back; — O  may  it  not  be  to 
perdition!  May  not  the  king  of  terrors  overtake  them  in  their 
retreat,  and  make  them  as  great  monumenis  of  God's  vengeance 
against  cowardly  soldiers,  as  Lot's  wife  was  of  his  indignation  against 
halting  racers ! 

But  setting  allegory  aside,  permit  me,  Sir,  to  pour  my  fears  into 
your  bosom,  and  tell  you  with  the  utmost  plainness  my  distressing 
thoughts  of  the  religious  world. 

For  some  years  I  have  suspected  there  is  more  imaginary  than 
unfeigned  faith,  in  most  of  those  who  pass  for  believers.  With  a 
mixture  of  indignation  and  grief  have  I  seen  them  carelessly  follow 
the  stream  of  corrupt  nature,  against  which  they  should  have  man- 
fully wrestled :  and  by  the  most  preposterous  mistake,  when  they 
should  have  exclaimed  against  their  Antinomianism*  I  have  heard 
them  cry  out  against  "  the  legality]  of  their  wicked  hearts  ;  which 
they  said,  still  suggested  they  were  to  do  something  in  order  to  salva- 
tion." Glad  was  I  therefore,  when  I  had  attentively  considered  Mr. 
W.'s  Minutes,  to  find  they  were  levelled  at  the  very  errors,  which 
gave  rise  to  an  evil  I  had  long  lamented  in  secret,  but  had  wanted 
courage  to  resist  and  attack. 

I.  This  evil  is  Antinomianism ;  that  is,  any  kind  of  doctrinal  or 
practical  opposition  to  God^s  law,  which  is  the  perfect  rule  of  right, 
and  the  moral  picture  of  the  God  of  love,  drawn  in  miniature  by 
our  Lord,  in  these  two  exquisite  precepts,  Thou  shah  love  God  with 
all  thy  heart,  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself 

As  the  law  is  good,  if  a  man  use  it  lawfully,  so  legality  is  excellent, 
if  it  be  evangelical.  The  external  respect  shown  by  Pharisees  te 
the  law,  is  but  feigned  and  hypocritical  legality.  Pharisees  are  no 
more  truly  legal,  than  Antinomians  are  truly  evangelical.  Had  ye  be- 
lieved Moses,  says  Jesus  to  people  of  that  stamp,  ye  would  have  be- 
lieved me :  but  in  your  heart  you  hate  his  law,  as  much  as  you  do 
my  Gospel. 

*  The  word  Antino7nianis?n  is  derived  from  tw«  Greek  words,  anti  and  nomos^  which 
signify  against  the  laiv;  and  the  word  legal,  from  the  Latin  legalis,  which  means  agree- 
able to  the  law. 

t  The  legality  contended  for  in  these  letters  is  not  a  stumbling  at  Christ,  and  a  going 
about  to  establish  our  oion  righteousness  by  faithless  works.  This  sin,  which  the  Scripture 
calls  unbelief,  I  would  no  more  countenance  than  murder.  The  evangelical  legality  I 
want  to  see  all  in  love  with,  is  a  cleaving  to  Christ  by  faith  which  works  righteousness  ;  a 
following  him  as  he  went  about  doing  good;  and  a  showing  by  St.  James's  works,  that  we 
bare  St.  Y2^^Yi  faith. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  |25 

We  see  no  less  Gospel  in  the  preface  of  the  ten  commandments,  / 
am  the  Lord  thy  God,  &c.  than  we  do  legality  in  the  middle  of  our 
Lord's  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  /  say,  whoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to 
lust  after  her,  hath  already  committed  adultery  in  his  heart.  Never- 
theless the  latter  ^a*  in  all  things  the  pre-eminence  over  the  former, 
for  if  the  lazv,  shortl}'  prefaced  by  the  Gospel,  came  by  Moses;  grace, 
the  gracious,  the  full  display  of  the  Gospel,  and  truth,  the  true  ex- 
planation and  fulfilling  of  the  law,  came  by  Jesus  Christ. 

This  evangelical  law  should  appear  to  us  sweeter  thfin  the  honey- 
comb, and  more  precious  than  fine  gold.  We  should  continually 
spread  the  tables  of  our  hearts  before  our  heavenly  Lawgiver,  be- 
seeching him  to  write  it  there  with  his  own  finger,  the  powerful 
Spirit  of  life  and  love :  But  alas  !  God's  commandments  are  disre- 
garded ;  they  are  represented  as  the  needless  or  impracticable  sanc- 
tions of  thnt  superannuated  legalist,  Moses ;  and  if  we  express  our 
veneration  for  them,  we  are  looked  upon  as  people  who  are  always 
strangers  to  the  Gospel,  or  are  fallen  into  the  Galatian  state. 

Not  so  David  :  he  was  so  great  an  admirer  of  God's  law,  that  he 
declares  the  godly  man  doth  meditate  therein  day  and  night ;  he  ex- 
presses his  transcendent  value  for  it,  under  the  synonymous  expres- 
sions of  law,  words,  statutes,  testimonies,  precepts,  and  commandments, 
in  almost  every  verse  of  the  11 9th  Psalm.  And  he  says  of  himself, 
O  how  I  love  thy  law  I  It  is  my  meditation  all  the  day. 

St.  Paul  was  as  evangelically  legal  as  David  ;  for  he  knew  the  law 
is  as  much  contained  in  the  Gospel,  as  the  tables  of  stone,  on  which 
the  moral  law  was  written,  were  contained  in  the  ark.  He  therefore 
assured  the  Corinthians,  that  though  he  had  all  faith,  even  that  which 
is  most  uncommon,  and  performed  the  greatest  wonders,  it  would 
profit  him  nothing,  unless  it  was  accompanied  by  charity,  unless  it 
worked  by  love,  which  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law ;  the  excellency  of 
faith  arising  from  the  excellent  end  it  answers  in  producing  and 
nourishing  love. 

Should  it  be  objected,  that  St.  Paul  says  to  the  Galatians,  /  through 
the  law  am  dead  to  the  law,  that  I  might  live  to  God;  and  to  the 
Romans,  Ye  are  become  dead  to  the  law  by  the  body  of  Christ;  I 
answer  ;  In  the  rpostle's  days  that  expression  the  law,  frequently 
meant  the  whole  Mosaic  dispensation ;  and  in  that  sense  every  be- 
liever is  dead  to  it,  dead  to  all  that  Girist  has  not  adopted.  For  L 
He  is  dead  to  the  Levitical  law,  Christ  having  abolished  in  himself  the 
law  of  ordinances  :  Touch  not,  taste  not,  handle  not.  2.  He  is  dead  to 
the  ceremonial  law,  which  was  only  a  shadow  of  good  things  to  come, 
a  typical  representation  of  Gbrist  and  the  blessings  flowing  from  his 

Vol.  L  17 


i2t>  SECOND    CHECK 

sacrifice.  3.  He  is  dead  to  the  curse  attending  his  past  violations  of 
the  moral  law,  for  Christ  hath  delivered  us  from  the  curse  of  the  law, 
being  made  a  curse  for  us.  And  lastly,  he  is  dead  to  the  hopes  of  re- 
commending himself  to  God,  by  the  merit  of  his  obedience  to  the 
moral  law ;  for  in  point  of  merit,  he  is  determined  to  know  nothing 
but  Christ  and  him  crucified. 

To  make  St.  Paul  mean  more  than  this,  is,  1.  To  make  him  main- 
tain that  no  believer  can  sin  ;  for  if  sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law, 
and  '*  the  law  is  dead  and  buried,"  it  is  plain,  no  believer  can  sin,  as 
nobody  can  transgress  a  law  which  is  abolished  ;  for  where  no  law  is, 
there  is  no  transgression.  2.  It  is  to  make  him  contradict  St.  James, 
who  exhorts  us  to  fulfil  the  royal  law,  according  to  the  Scripture, 
Tliou  shah  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself  And  3.  It  is  to  make  him  con- 
tradict himself :  for  he  charges  the  Galatians  by  love  to  serve  one 
another :  all  the  law  being  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this :  Thou 
shall  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself  And  he  assures  the  Hebrews,  that 
under  the  new  covenant,  believers,  far  from  being  without  God's  laws, 
have  them  written  in  their  hearts ;  God  himself  placing  them  in  their 
minds.  We  cannot,  therefore,  with  any  shadow  of  justice,  put  Dr. 
Crisp's  coat  upon  the  apostle,  and  press  him  into  the  service  of  the 
Antinomians. 

And  did  our  Lord  side  with  Antinomians  ?  Just  the  reverse.  Far 
from  repealing  the  two  above-mentioned  royal  precepts,  he  asserts, 
that  on  them  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets;  and  had  the  four  Gos- 
pels been  then  written,  he  would  no  doubt  have  represented  them  as 
subservient  to  the  establishing  of  the  law,  as  he  did  the  book  of 
Isaiah,  the  evangelical  prophet.  Such  high  thoughts  had  he  of  the 
law,  that  when  a  lawyer  expressed  his  veneration  for  it,  by  declaring 
that  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour  was  more  than  all  whole  burni- 
ifferings  and  sacrifices  :  Jesus,  seeing  that  he  had  answered  discreetly, 
said  unto  him.  Thou  art  not  far  from  the  kingdom  of  God. 

The  Gospel  itself  terminates  in  the  fulfilling  of  the  commandments  : 
For  as  the  curse  of  the  law,  like  the  scourge  of  a  severe  school- 
master, drives  ;  so  the  Gospel,  like  a  loving  guide,  brings  us  to  Christ, 
the  great  Law-fulfiller,  in  whom  we  ^nd  inexhaustible  treasures  of 
pardon  and  power ;  of  pardon  for  past  breaches  of  the  law,  and  of 
power  for  present  obedience  to  it.  Nor  are  we  sooner  come  to  him, 
than  he  magnifies  the  law  by  his  precepts,  as  he  formerly  did  by 
his  obedience  unto  death  ;  If  ye  love  me,  says  he,  keep  my  command- 
ments :  this  is  his  commandment,  that  we  should  love  one  another ;  and 
he  that  loveth  another  hath  fulfilled  the  law. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  127 

Again,  the  Gospel  displays  Jesus's  dying  love,  that  by  believing  it 
we  may  love  him  :  that  is,  have  everlasting  life,  the  life  of  love^  which 
ahideth  when  the  life  of  faith  is  no  more.  Hence  St.  John  8um3  up 
Christianity  in  these  words,  We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us  !  and 
what  is  it  to  love  Jesus,  but  to  fulfil  the  whole  law  at  once,  to  love 
God  and  man,  the  Creator  arid  the  creature,  united  in  one  divinely 
human  person  ! 

Did  the  Son  of  God  magnify  the  law,  that  we  might  vilify  it  ?  Did 
he  make  it  honourable,  that  we  might  make  it  contemptible  ?  Did  he 
come  to  fulfil  it,  that  we  might  be  discharged  from  fulfilling  it  according 
to  our  capacity?  that  is,  discharged  from  loving  God  and  our  neigh- 
bour? Discharged  from  the  employment  and  joys  of  heaven?  No  : 
the  Word  was  never  madefiesh  for  this  dreadful  end.  None  but  Sa- 
tan could  have  become  incarnate  to  go  upon  such  an  infernal  ;errand 
as  this !  Standing,  therefore,  upon  the  rock  of  evangelical  truth,  we 
ask  with  St,  Paul,  Do  we  then  make  void  the  law  through  faith  ?  God 
forbid !  Kay,  we  establish  the  law.  We  point  sinners  to  that  Saviour, 
in  and  from  whom  they  may  continually  have  the  law-fulfilling  power  ; 
that  the  righteousness  of  the  law  may  be  fulfilled  in  us  who  walk  not  after 
the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit. 

Such  are  the  glorious  and  delightful  views,  which  the  Scriptures 
give  us  of  the  law,  disarmed  of  its  curse  in  Christ :  the  law  of  holy, 
humble  love,  so  strongly  enforced  in  the  discourses,  and  sweetly  ex- 
emplified in  the  life  and  death  of  the  Prophet  like  unto  Moses ! — So 
amiable,  so  precious  is  the  book  of  the  law,  when  delivered  to  us  by 
Jesus,  sprinkled  with  his  atoning  blood,  and  explained  by  his  loving 
Spirit !  And  so  true  is  St.  Paal's  assertion,  We  are  not  without  law  to 
God,  but  under  the  law  to  Christ, 

Instead  then  of  dressing  up  the  law  as  a  scarecrow,  let  us  in  our 
degree  magnify  it,  arid  make  it  honourable,  as  did  our  Lord.  Instead 
of  representing  it  as  "  an  intolerable  yoke  of  bondage,"  let  us  call 
it,  with  St.  Paul,  the  law  of  Christ ;  and  with  St.  James,  the  perfect  law 
of  liberty.  And  let  every  true  believer  say  with  David,  Hove  thy  com- 
mandments above  gold  and  precious  stones :  1  shall  always  keep  thy  laWf 
yea,  for  ever  and  ever :  I  will  walk  at  liberty,  for  I  seek  thy  precepts. 

But  alas  !  how  few  give  us  these  evangelical  views  of  the  law,  and 
practical  views  of  the  Gospel !  How  many  intimate,  Christ  has  ftdfilled 
all  righteousness,  that  we  might  be  the  children  of  God  with  hearts  full 
of  unrighteousness !  If  some  insist  upon  our  fulfilling  all  righteousness 
also,  is  it  not  chiefly  when  they  want  to  draw  us  into  their  pecu- 
liarities, and  dip  us  into  their  narrow  denomination  ?  And  what  num- 
bers, under  the  fair  pretence  that  they  "  have  a  living  law  written  in 


128  SECOND  CHECK 

their  hearts,**  insinuate,  **  Thnre  is  no  need  of  preaching  the  law'^  to 
them,  either  to  show  them  more  of  God's  purity,  endear  the  atoning 
blood,  regulate  their  conduct,  or  con?ince  them  of  the  necessity  of 
perfecting  holiness. 

But  suppose  these  Objectors  love,  as  they  say,  the  law  written  in  their 
inn  0  rd  partSy  (vvhich  the  actions  and  tempers  of  some  make  rather 
doubtful : ;  is  the  wnting  so  perfectly Jinished,  that  no  one  stroke  need 
to  bp  added  to  it?  Is  not  the  law  an  important  part  of  the  work  of 
righteousness  ?  And  could  not  the  Holy  Ghost  retouch  the  writing,  or 
deepen  the  engraving,  by  the  ministry  of  the  word  of  righteousness  ? 
Again,  if  the  internal  teachings  of  the  Holy  Spirit  supersede  the  let- 
ter of  the  law,  mus«t  they  not,  by  the  same  reason,  supersede  the 
letter  of  the  Gospel?  Is  there  any  more  need  of  preaching  the  Gospel 
than  the  law  to  believers  ?  Or  have  they  not  the  Gospel  written  in  their 
hearts,  as  well  as  the  law  ? 

At  what  amazing  heights  of  unscriptural  perfection  must  our  ob- 
jector<»  -appose  them^ielves  to  have  arrived  !  What  palpable  errors 
do  fhey  run  into  that  they  may  have  the  honour  of  passing  for  evan- 
geii-  il !  And  who  will  envy  them  the  glory  of  countenancing  the  An- 
tinomian  delusion,  by  standing  in  direct  opposition  to  Christ,  who 
thus  decides  the  controversy  :  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the 
law  and  the  prophets  :  I  am  not  come  to  destroy  but  to  fulfd.  For  verily 
I  say  unto  you,  Till  heaven  and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or  tittle  shall 
in  nowise  pass  from  the  law,  till  all  be  fulfilled,  either  in  what  it  re- 
quires or  denounces  :  for  the  law  is  fulfilled  not  only  when  its  pre- 
cepts are  obeyed,  but  when  rewards  are  given  to  the  observers,  and 
punishments  inflicted  upon  the  violators,  of  it.  Whosoever,  thereforey 
shall  L»o  my  commandments,  and  teach  them,  shall  be  great  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 

Do  not  ima-^ne.  Rev.  Sir,  I  thus  cry  up  God's  law,  to  drown  the 
late  cries  of  Heresy  and  Jipostacy.  I  appeal  to  matter  of  fact  and  your 
own  ob'^ervations.  Consider  the  religious  world,  and  say,  if  Antino- 
mianism  is  not  in  general  a  motto  better  adapted  to  the  state  of  pro- 
fessJMg  congregations,  societies,  families,  and  individuals,  than  holiness: 
unto  the  Lord,  the  inscription  that  should  be  even  upon  our  Worses'  bells. 

II.  Begin  with  congregations,  and  cast  your  eyes  first  upon  the 
hearers.  In  general  they  have  curious  itching  ears,  and  will  not  en- 
dure  .<!0U7id  doctrine.  Many  of  them  are  armed  with  the  breastplate  of 
righteousness,  which  they  have  vainly  "^  imputed  to  themselves  :  they 

*  Our  imputauon  of  Christ's  righteoasnpss  to  ourselves,  is  a  trick  of  our  Antinonoian 
hearts,  aad  is  a  dreadful  delusion  :  but  God's  imputing  of  Christ's  righteousness  to  true 
believers  i«  a  most  blessed  reojity,  for  which  we  cannot  too  much  contend.    He  speaks  the 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  129 

have  on  the  showy  helmet  of  a  presumptuous  hope,  and  hold  fast  the 
impfne.trible  shield  of  stroug  pr^^judice.  With  these  they  quench 
the  fiery  darts  of  convinciog  truth,  and  stand  undaunted  under  voUies 
of  reproof. 

They  say,  they  *'  will  have  nothing  but  Christ :"  and  who  could 
blame  them,  if  they  would  have  Christ  in  all  his  oflBces  ?  Christ  with 
all  his  pambles  and  sermons,  cautions  and  precepts,  reproofs  and  ex- 
postulations, exhortations  and  threaten  in j^m  /  Christ  preaching  to  the 
multitudes  upon  a  mountain,  as  well  as  honourably  teaching:  in  the 
in  the  temple  ?  Christ  fasting  in  the  wilderness,  or  praying  in  Geth- 
semane  ;  as  well  js  Christ  making  the  multitudes  sit  down  upon  the 
grass  to  receive  loaves  and  fishes,  or  promising  thrones  to  his  disciples  ? 
Christ  constraining  them  to  get  into  a  ship,  and  toil  in  rowing  all  night 
with  a  contrary  wind ;  as  well  as  Chrht  coming  in  the  morning,  nnd 
causing  the  ship  to  be  immediately  at  the  land  whither  they  went  ?  Christ 
upon  Mount  Calvary,  as  well  as  Christ  upon  Mount  Tabor?  In  a 
word,  Who  would  find  fault  witii  them,  if  they  would  have  Christ 
with  his  poverty  and  self-denial,  his  reproach  and  cross,  his  spirit 
and  graces,  his  prophets  and  apostles,  his  plain  apparel  and  meaa 
followers  ? 

But  alas  !  It  is  not  so.  They  will  have  what  they  please  of  Christ, 
and  that  too  as  they  please.  If  he  come  accompanied  by  legal  Moses 
and  honest  Elijah,  who  talk  of  the  crucifixion  of  the  body,  and  decease 
of  the  tlesh,  they  can  do  very  well  without  him.  If  he  preach  free 
grace,  free  will,  faithfulness,  or  heavenly-mimiedness,  some  turn  to  the 
right,  some  wheel  about  to  the  left,  others  go  directly  back,  and  alt 
agree  to  say  or  think.  This  is  a  hard  saying,  who  can  hear  it  ? 

They  admire  him  in  one  chapter,  and  know  not  what  to  make  of 
him  in  another.  Some  of  his  words  they  extol  to  the  sky,  and  others 
they  seem  to  be  ashamed  of.  If  he  assert  his  authority  as  a  Law- 
giver, they  are  ready  to  treat  him  with  as  I' I  tie  ceremony  as  they  de 
Moses.     If  he  say,  Keep  my  commandments :  I  am  a  king :  like  the 


word,  and  it  is  done ;  bis  imputation  is  not  an  idea,  but  a  fiat,  wherever  it  takes  place, 
Jehovah  our  righteousness,  or  Christ  the  righteous,  dwells  in  the  heart  by  faith.  I  wisk 
that  with  respect  to  imputed  righteousness,  we  paid  more  regard  to  the  late  Mr.  Hart's 
sentiments.  This  experienced  and  sound  Calvinist,  in  the  account  of  his  conversion  pre- 
fixed to  his  hymns,  says,  with  great  truth  :  '«  As  much  as  Lazarus  coming  out  of  the  grave, 
and  feeling  himself  restored  to  life,  differed  from  those  who  only  saw  the  miracle,  or  be- 
lieved the  fact  told  them ;  so  great  is  the  diflference  between  a  soul's  real  coming  to  Christ 
out  of  himself,  and  having  the  righteousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  him  by  the  precious  faith 
of  God's  elect;  and  a  man's  bare  believing  the  doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness,  because 
ke  sees  it  contained  in  the  Scripture,  or  assenting  to  the  truth  of  it  whea  proposed  to  hfs 
undsrstanding  by  other?" 


130  SECOND   CHECK 

Jews  of  old  they  rise  against  the  awful  declaration  ;  or  they  croa;/* 
him  as  a  surety,  the  better  to  set  him  at  nought  as  a  monarch.  And  if 
he  add,  to  his  ministers,  I  am  the  Prophet  that  was  to  come;  go  in  my 
name,  and  teach  all  nations  to  observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  com- 
manded you;  they  complain,  "  This  is  the  law;  give  us  the  Gospel, 
we  can  relish  nothing  but  the  Gospel.'' 

They  have  no  idea  of  eating  the  paschal  lamb  whole,  his  head  with 
his  legs  and  the  purtenance  thereof;  nor  do  they  take  care  of  not  break- 
ing his  bones :  they  do  not  like  him  roast  with  fire  neither  ;  but  raw 
or  sodden  with  water  out  of  their  own  broken  cisterns:  if  you  present 
him  to  them  as  the  type  of  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world  J  and  maketh  an  end  of  it ;  their  hearts  heave  ;  they  say. 
Pray  have  me  excused  from  thus  feeding  upon  him  :  and  though  it  is 
said,  Ye  shall  let  nothi?ig  of  it  remain  until  the  morning,  you  shall  eat 
a  in  haste,  they  postpone,  they  beg  leave  to  keep  it  till  the  article  of 
death  :  and  if  in  the  mean  time  you  talk  to  them  o^  bitter  herbs,  they 
marvel  at  your  Jewish,  legal  taste,  and  complain  that  you  spoil  the 
Gospel  feast. 

They  do  not  consider  we  must  give  every  one  his  portion  of  meat,  or 
proper  medicine,  in  due  season;  and  that  sweet  things  are  not  always 
wholesome.  They  forget  we  must  leave  all  Antinomian  refinements 
to  follow  Christ,  who  sometimes  says  to  decent  Pharisees,  How  can 
you  escape  the  damnation  of  hell  ?  And  to  a  beloved  disciple  that  shuns 
the  cross,  Satan,  thou  savourest  not  the  things  of  God,  but  the  things  of 
men.  They  will  have  nothing  but  the  atonement.  Nor  do  they 
choose  to  remember  that  St.  Paul,  who  did  not  shun  to  declare  the 
whole  counsel  of  God,  preached  Christ  to  Felix,  by  reasoning  of  tem- 
perance, righteousness,  and  judgment  to  come. 

Hence  it  is  that  some  preachers  must  choose  comfortable  subjects 
to  please  their  hearers  ;  just  as  those  who  make  an  entert  anuient 
for  nice  persons,  are  obhged  to  study  what  will  suit  their  difficult 
taste.  A  multitude  of  important  Scriptures  may  be  produced,  on 
which  no  minister,  who  is  unwilling  to  lose  his  reputution  as  an 
evangelical  preacher,  must  dare  to  speak  in  some  pulpits  unless 
it  be  to  explain  away  or  enervate  their  meaning.  Take  some  in- 
stances. 

The  good  old  Cnlvinists  (Archbishop  Leighton  for  one)  questioned 
whether  a  man  was  truly  converted  who  did  not  sincerely  go  on  to 
perfection,  and  heartily  endeavour  to  perfect  holiness  in  the  fear  of 
God;  but  now,  if  we  only  quote  such  passages  with  an  emphasis,  and 
enforce  their  meaning  with  some  degree  of  earnestness,  the  truth  of 
our  conversion  is  suspected ;  we  even  pass  for  enemies  to  Christ's 
righteousness 


TO   ANTINOMIANI3M.  131 

If  we  have  courage  to  handle  such  scriptures  as  these,  To  do 

<rood  and  to  distribute  forget  not,  for  with  such  sacrifice  God  is  well 
pleased.— Show  me  thy  faith  by  thy  works. — Was  not  Rahab  justified 
by  works  ?  By  xeorks  was  Abraham? s  faith  made  perfect,  &c.  the  bare 
giving  out  of  our  text  prejudices  our  Antinomian  hearers  against  us, 
and  robs  us  of  their  candid  attention  ;  unless  they  expect  a  charity 
sermon  :  for  on  such  an  occasion  they  will  yet  allow  us,  at  the  close 
of  our  discourse,  to  speak  honourably  of  good  works  :  just  as  those 
who  run  to  the  opposite  extreme,  will  yet,  on  some  particular  days, 
such  as  Christmas  and  Good-Friday,  permit  us  to  make  honourable 
mention  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  evil  would  be  tolerable,  if  we  were  only  obliged  to  select 
smooth  texts  in  order  to  gratify  an  Antinomian  audience  ;  but  alas ! 
it  is  grown  so  desperate,  that  unless  we  adulterate  the  sincere  milk  of 
the  word,  many  reject  it  as  poison.  It  is  a  doubt  whether  we  could 
preach  in  some  celebrated  pulpits  on  the  good  man,  who  is  merciful 
and  lendeth,  who  hath  dispersed  abroad  and  given  to  the  poor,  and 
whose  righteousness  remaineth  for  ever ; — or  on  breaking  off'  our  sins 
by  righteousness,  and  our  iniquities  by  showing  mercy  toUhe  poor  : — or 
on  the  righteousness  which  exceeds  that  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees : — 
or  on  the  robes  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  without 
giving  general  disgust ;  unless,  to  keep  in  the  good  grace  of  our  Nico- 
laitan  hearers,  we  were  to  dissent  from  all  sober  commentators,  and 
offer  the  greatest  violence  to  the  context,  our  own  conscience,  and  com- 
mon sense,  by  saying  that  the  righteousness  and  robes  mentioned  in 
those  passages,  are  Christ's  imputed,  and  not  out  performed  obedience. 
How  few  of  our  evangelical  congregations  would  bear  from  the 
pulpit  an  honest  explanation  of  what  they  allow  us  to  read  in  the 
desk  ?  We  may  open  our  service  by  saying,  that  When  the  wicked  man 
iurneih  away  from  his  wickedness,  and  doth  that  which  is  lawful  and 
right,  he  shall  save  his  soul  alive ;  but  wo  to  us,  if  we  handle  the 
Scripture  in  the  pulpit,  unless  we  wrest  it  by  representing  Christ  as 
the  wicked  man  who  does  that  which  is  la'wful  and  right,  to  save  our 
souls  alive,  without  any  of  our  doings. 

Were  we  to  preach  upon  these  words  of  our  Lord,  This  do,  and 
thou  shall  live,  Luke  x.  25. ;  the  sense  of  which  is  fixed  by  the  37th 
verse,  Go,  and  do  thou  likewise ;  or  only  to  handle  without  deceit, 
those  common  words  of  the  Lord's  Prayer,  confirmed  by  a  plain 
parable,  Forgive  us  our  trespasses  as  we  forgive  them  that  trespass 
against  us;  our  reputation  as  Prostestants  would  be  in  as  much  dan- 
ger from  the  bulk  of  some  congregations,  as  our  persons  from  the 
fire  of  a  whole  regiment  in  the  day  of  battle.     How  would  such  a 


132  SECOND    CHECK 

discourse,  and  the  poor,  blind  man  that  preached  it,  be  pri?ately 
exclaimed  against ;  or  publicly*  exposed  in  a  magazine,  presented  to 
the  world  under  the  sacred  name  of  Gospel! 

In  short,  whoever  has  courage  enough  to  preach  as  St.  Paul  did  at 
Athens,  at  Lystra,  and  before  Felix,  rebuking  sin  without  respect  of 
persons :  whoever  will  imitate  St.  Peter,  and  exhort  all  his  hearers 
to  save  themselves  from  this  perverse  generation,  assuring  them  that  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  unto  theniy  and  their  children ;  roust 
expect  to  be  looked  upon  as  unsound,  if  not  as  an  enemy  of  free 
grace,  and  a  setter  forth  of  Pelagian  or  Popish  doctrines.  Moderate 
Calvinists  themselves  must  run  the  gauntlet,  if  they  preach  free  grace 
as  St.  Peter  did.  A  pious  clergyman,  noted  for  his  strong  attachment 
to  what  some  call  the  doctrines  of  grace,  was,  to  my  knowledge, 
highly  blamed  by  one  part  of  his  auditory,  for  having  preached  to 
the  other  repentance  towards  God,  and  exhorted  them  to  call  on  him 
for  mercy  :  and  I  remember  he  just  saved  his  sinking  reputation  as  a 
sound  divine,  by  pleading,  that  two  apostles  exhorted  even  Simon 
Magus  to  repent  of  his  wickedness,  and  pray  to  God,  if  perhaps  the 
thought  of  his  heart  might  he  forgiven  him. 

When  such  professors  will  not  bear  the  plainest  truth,  from  minis- 
ters whosp  sentiments  agree  tvith  theirs  ;  how  will  they  rise  against 
deeper  truths  advanced  by  those  who  are  of  a  different  opinion ! 
Some  will  »^ven  lose  all  decency.  Observing,  in  preaching  last  sum- 
mer, one  of  them  remarkably  busy  in  disturbing  all  around  him, 
when  the  service  ^vas  over  1  went  up  to  him,  and  inquired  into  the 
cause  of  tbe  dissatisfaction  he  had  so  indecently  expressed.  "  I  am 
not  afraid  to  tell  it  to  your  face,"  said  he  ;  "I  do  not  like  your  doc- 
trine :  you  are  a  free-wilier."  "  If  1  have  spoken  evil,"  replied  I, 
"  bear  witness  of  the  evil."  He  paused  a  while,  and  then  cnarged 
me  with  praying  before  the  sermon,  as  if  all  might  be  saved.  "  That 
is  false  doctrine,  added  he,  and  if  Christ  himself  came  down  from 
heaven  to  preach  it,  I  would  not  believe  him." 

I  wondered  at  first  at  the  positiveness  of  my  rigid  objector  ;  but 
tipon  second  thoughts,  I  thought  him  modest,  in  comparison  of  num- 
bers of  professors,  who  see  that  Christ  actually  came  down  from 
heaven,  and  preached  the  doctrine  of  perfection  in  his  Sermon  upon 
the  Mount,  and  yet  will  face  us  down  that  it  is  an  Antichristian 
doctrine. 

This  Antinomian  cavilling  of  hearers  against  preachers  is  deplo- 
rable ;  and  the  effects  of  it  will  be  dreadful.     If  the  Lord  do  not  put 

*  This  was  actually  the  case  some  months  ago,  with  respect  to  a  Sermon  preached 
by  Mr.  Wesley. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  133 

a  stop  to  this  growing  evil,  we  shall  soon  see  every  where,  what  we 
see  in  too  many  places,  self-conceited,  unhumbled  men,  rising  against 
the  truths  and  ministers  of  God  ; — men  who  are  not  meek  doers  of 
the  law,  but  insolent  judges^  preposterously  trying  that  law  by  which 
they  shall  soon  be  tried : — men  who,  instead  of  sitting  as  criminals 
before  all  the  messengers  of  their  Judge,  with  arrogancy  invade  the 
Judge's  tribunal,  and  arraign  even  his  most  venerable  ambassadors  ; — 
men  who  should  fall  on  their  faces  before  all,  and  give  glory  to  God^ 
by  confessing  that  He  is  with  his  ministers,  of  every  denomination,  of  a 
truth :  but  who,  far  from  doing  it,  boldly  condemn  the  word  that  con- 
demns them  ;  snatch  the  two-edged  sword  from  the  mouth  of  every 
faithful  messenger,  blunt  the  edge  of  it,  and  audaciously  thrust  at  him 
in  their  turn  ; — men  who,  when  they  see  a  servant  of  God  in  their 
pulpit,  suppose  he  stands  at  their  bar?  try  him  with  as  much  inso- 
lence as  Corah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  tried  Moses  ;  cast  him  with 
less  kindness  than  Pilate  did  Jesus  ;  force  a  fool's  coat  of  their  own 
making  upon  him  ;  and  then,  from  the  seat  of  the  scornful,  pronounce 
the  decisive  sentence  :  "  He  is  legal,  dark,  blind,  unconverted  ;  an 
enemy  to  free  grace  : — He  is  a  rank  Papist,  a  Jesuit,  a  false  prophet, 
or  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing." 

HI.  But  whence  springs  this  almost  general  Antinomianism  of  our 
congregations  ?  Shall  I  conceal  the  sore  because  it  festers  in  my  own 
breast  ?  Shall  I  be  partial  ?  No,  in  the  name  of  Him  who  is  no 
respecter  of  persons,  I  will  confess  my  sin,  and  that  of  many  of  my 
brethren.  Though  1  am  the  least,  and  (I  write  it  with  tears  of 
shame,)  the  most  unworthy  of  them  all,  I  will  follow  the  dictates  of 
my  conscience,  and  use  the  authority  of  a  minister  of  Christ.  If 
Balaam,  a  false  prophet,  took  in  good  part  the  reproof  of  his  ass,  I 
should  wrong  my  honoured  brethren  and  fathers,  the  true  prophets 
of  the  Lord,  if  I  feared  their  resenting  some  well-meant  reproofs, 
which  I  first  level  at  myself,  and  for  which  I  heartily  wish  there  was 
no  occasion. 

Is  not  the  Antinomianism  of  hearers  fomented  by  that  of  preachers? 
Does  it  not  become  us  to  take  the  greatest  part  of  the  blame  upon 
ourselves,  according  to  the  old  adage,  "  Like  priest,  like  people  ?" 
Is  it  surprising  that  some  of  us  should  have  an  Antinomian  audience  ? 
Do  we  not  make  or  keep  it  so  ?  When  did  we  preach  such  a  prac- 
tical sermon  as  that  of  our  Lord  on  the  mount,  or  write  such  close 
letters  as  the  epistles  of  iSt.  John  ?  Alas  !  I  doubt  it  is  but  seldom. 
Not  living  so  near  to  God  ourselves  as  we  should,  we  are  afraid  to 
come  near  to  the  consciences  of  our  people.  The  Jews  said  to  our 
Lord,  in  so  saijing  thou  reproachest  us;  but  now  the  case  is  altered  , 

Vol.  I.  18 


134  SECOND    CHECK 

and  our  auditors  might  say  to  many  of  us,  "  In  so  saying  you  would 
reproach  v ourselves." 

Soms  prefer  popularity  to  plain  dealing.  We  love  to  see  a  crowd 
of  worldly-minded  hearers,  rather  than  a  little  flock,  a  peculiar  people 
zealous  of  good  works.  We  dare  not  shake  our  congregations  to  pur- 
pose, lest  OUT  flve  thousand  should,  in  three  years  time,  be  reduced 
to  a  hundred  and  twenty. 

Luther's  advice  to  Melancthon,  Scandaliza  fortiter^  "  So  preach 
that  those  who  do  not  fall  out  with  their  sins,  may  fall  out  with  thee," 
is  more  and  more  unfashionable.  Under  pretence  of  drawing  our 
hearers  by  love,  some  of  us  softly  rock  the  cradle  of  carnal  security 
in  which  they  sleep.  For  fear  of  grieving  "  the  dear  children  of 
God,"  we  let  buyers  and  sellers,  sheep  and  oxen,  yea,  goats  and  lions, 
fill  the  temple  undisturbed.  And  because  "  the  bread  must  not  be 
kept  from  the  hungry  children,"  we  let  those  who  are  wanton  make 
shameful  waste  of  it,  and  even  allow  dogs,  which  we  should  beware  o/", 
and  noisy  parrots,  that  can  speak  shibboleth,  to  do  the  same.  We  for- 
get that  God's  children  are  led  by  his  Spirit,  who  is  the  Comforter 
himself:  that  they  are  all  afraid  of  being  deceived,  aW  jealous  for 
the  Lord  of  hosts;  and  therefore  prefer  a  preacher  who  searches  Je- 
rusalem with  candles,  and  cannot  suffer  God's  house  to  be  made  a  den 
of  thieves,  to  a  workman  who  white-washes  the  noisome  sepulchres  he 
should  open  ;  and  dnubs  over  with  untempered  mortar  the  bulging 
walls  he  should  demolish. 

The  old  Puritans  strongly  insisted  upon  personal  holiness^  and  the 
first  Methodists  upon  the  new  birth ;  but  these  doctrines  seem  to  grow 
out  of  date.  The  Gospel  is  cast  into  another  mould.  People,  it 
seems,  may  now  be  in  Christ  without  being  new  creatures,  or  new 
creatures  without  casting  old  things  away.  They  may  be  God's  chil- 
dren without  God's  image  ;  and  born  of  the  Spirit,  without  the  fruits 
of  the  Spirit.  If  our  unregenerate  hearers  get  orthodox  ideas  about 
the  way  of  salvation  in  their  heads,  evangelical  phrases  concerning 
Jesus's  love  in  their  mouths,  and  a  warm  zeal  for  our  party  and 
favourite  forms  in  their  hearts  :  without  any  more  ado  we  help  them 
to  rank  themselves  among  the  children  of  God.  But  alas !  this  self- 
adoption  into  the  family  of  Christ  will  no  more  pass  in  heaven,  than 
self-imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness.  The  work  of  the  Spirit 
will  stand  there,  and  that  alone.     Again, 

Some  of  us  often  give  our  congregations  particular  accounts  of  the 
covenant  between  the  persons  of  the  blessed  Trinity,  and  speak  of 
it  as  confidently  as  if  the  Kkig  of  kings  had  admitted  us  members  of 
his  privy  council ;  but  how  seldom  do  we  do  justice  to  the  Scripture? 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  135 

where  the  covenant  is  mentioned  in  a  practical  manner?  How 
rarely  do  the  ministers,  who  are  fond  of  preaching  upon  the  cove- 
nant between  God  and  David,  dwell  upon  such  scriptures  as  these? 
Because  they  continued  not  in  my  covenant^  I  regarded  them  not ;  because 
they  have  transgressed  the  law,  changed  the  ordinances,  and  broken  the 
everlasting  covenant,  therefore  hath  the  curse  devoured  the  earth,  and 
they  that  dwell  therein  are  desolate :  therefore  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
are  burned,  and  few  men  Left. — /  say  to  the  wicked.  What  hast  thou  to 
do  to  take  my  covenant  in  thy  mouth  ? — They  kept  not  the  covenant  of 
God,  and  refused  to  walk  in  his  low ;  they  would  not  be  evangelically 
legal,  therefore  a  fire  was  kindled  in  Jacob,  the  wrath  of  God  came 
upon  them;  he  slew  the  fattest  of  them,  and  smote  down  the  chosen,  [the 
elect]  of  Israel ! 

We  frequently  keep  hack  from  our  hearers  the  very  portions  that 
honest  Nathan,  or  blunt  John  the  Baptist,  would  have  particularly 
enforced.  The  taste  of  many  is  perverted,  they  loathe  the  manna  of 
the  word,  not  because  it  is  light,  but  heavy  food  :  they  must  have 
savoury  meat,  such  as  their  soul  loveth;  and  we  hunt  ^br  venison,  we 
minister  to  their  spiritual  luxury,  and  feast  with  them  on  our  own 
doctrinal  refinements.  Hence  many  are  weak  and  sickly  among  us  \ 
Some  that  might  be  fat  and  well-liking,  cry  out,  My  leanness !  my 
leanness !  And  many  sleep  in  a  spiritual  grave,  the  easy  prey  of  cor- 
ruption and  sin. 

How  few  Calebs,  how  few  Joshuas  are  found  among  the  many  spies 
who  bring  a  report  of  the  good  land !  The  cry  is  seldom,  Let  us  go 
up  and  possess  it,  unless  the  good  land  be  the  map  of  the  Gospel 
drawn  by  Dr.  Crisp.  On  the  contrary,  the  difficulties  attending  the 
noble  conquest  are  magnified  to  the  highest  degree  :  The  sons  of 
Anak  are  tall  and  strong,  and  their  cities  are  fenced  up  to  heaven. 
All  our  corruptions  are  gigantic,  the  castle  where  they  dwell  shall 
always  remain  a  den  of  thieves  ;  it  is  an  impregnable  citadel,  strongly 
garrisoned  by  Apollyon's  forces  ; — we  shall  never  love  God  here  with 
all  our  souls  ;  we  shall  always  have  desperately  wicked  hearts. 

How  few  of  our  celebrated  pulpits  are  there,  where  more  has  not 
been  said  at  times  for  sin  than  against  it !  With  what  an  air  of  positive- 
ness  and  assurance  has  that  Barabbas,  that  murderer  of  Christ  and 
souls,  been  pleaded  for  !  "  It  will  humble  us,  make  us  watchful,  stir  up 
our  diligence,  quicken  our  graces,  endear  Christ,"  &c.  that  is,  in  plain 
English,  pride  will  beget  humility,  sloth  will  spur  us  on  to  diligence, 
rust  will  brighten  our  armour,  and  unbelief,  the  very  soul  of  every 
sinful  temper,  is  to  do  the  work  of  faith  !  Sin  must  not  only  be  always 
lurking  about  the  walls  and  gates  of  the  town  of  Man's-Soul  (if  I  may 


136  SECOND   CHECK 

once  more  allude  to  Bunyan's  Holy  War)  but  it  shall  dwell  m  it,  in 
King's  palace,  in  the  inner  chamber,  the  inmost  recesses  of  the  heart : 
there  is  no  turning  it  out.  Jesus,  who  cleansed  the  lepers  with  a 
word  or  a  touch,  cannot,  with  all  the  force  of  his  Spirit  and  virtue  of 
his  blood,  expel  this  leprosy  :  it  is  too  inveterate.  Death,  that  foul 
monster,  the  offspring  of  sin,  shall  have  the  inaportant  honour  of 
killing  his  father.  He,  he  alone  is  to  give  the  great,  the  last,  the 
decisive  blow.  This  is  confidently  asserted  by  those  who  .cry,  JVo^Am^ 
but  Oirist!  They  allow  him  to  lop  off  the  branches  ;  but  Death,  the 
great  saviour  Death,  is  to  destroy  the  root  of  sin.  In  the  mean  ticae 
the  temple  of  God  shall  have  agreement  n'ith  idols,  and  Christ  concord 
with  Belial :  the  Lamb  of  God  shall  lie  down  with  the  roaring  lion  in 
our  hearts. 

Nor  does  the  preaching  of  this  internal  slavery,  this  bondage  of 
spiritual  corruption,  shock  our  hearers.  No  :  this  mixture  of  light 
and  darkness  passes  for  Gospel  in  our  days.  And  what  is  more  as- 
tonishing still,  by  making  much  ado  about  ^^finished  salvation,"  we 
can  even  put  it  off  as  "  the  only  pure,  genuine,  and  comfortable  Gos- 
pel." While  the  smoothness  of  our  doctnne  will  atone  for  our  most 
glaring  inconsistencies. 

We  have  so  whetted  the  Antinomian  appetite  of  our  hearers,  that 
they  swallow  down  almost  any  thing.  We  may  tell  them,  St.  Paul 
was  at  one  and  the  same  time  carnal,  sold  under  sin,  crying,  Who  shall 
deliver  me  from  this  body  of  death  ?  and  triumphing  that  he  did  not 
walk  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit,  rejoicing  in  the  testimony  of  a 
good  conscience,  [and  glorying  that]  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in 
Christ  Jesus  had  made  him  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death  !  This 
suits  their  experience  ;  therefore  they  readily  take  our  word,  and 
it  passes  for  the  word  of  God.  It  is  a  mercy  that  we  have  not  yet 
attempted  to  prove  by  the  same  argument,  that  lying  and  cursing  are 
quite  consistent  with  apostolic  faith  ;  for  St.  Paul  speaks  of  his  Zte, 
and  St.  James  says,  with  our  tongues  curse  we  men. 

We  may  make  them  believe,  that  though  adultery  and  murder  are 
damning  sins  in  poor  blind  Turks  and  Heathens,  yet  they  are  only  the 
spots  of  God's  children  in  enlightened  Jews  and  favoured  Christians  : 
— That  God  is  the  most  partial  of  all  judges  ;  some  being  accursed  to 
the  pit  of  hell  for  breaking  the  law  in  the  most  trifling  points  ;  while 
others,  who  actually  break  it  in  the  most  flagrant  instances,  are  richly 
blessed  with  all  heavenly  benedictions : — And  that  while  God  beholds 
no  iniquity  in  Jacob,  no  perverseness  in  Israel,  he  sees  nothing  but 
odious  sins  in  Ishmael,  and  devilish  wickedness  in  Esau  ;  although 
the  Lord  assures  us  the  wickedness  of  the  wicked  shall  be  upon  him,  and 


rO    ANTINOMIANISM.  137 

that  though  hand  join  in  hand,  the  wicked  shall  not  go  unpunished,  were 
he  as  great  in  Jacob  as  Corah,  and  as  famous  as  Zimri  in  Israel. 

We  may  tell  our  hearers  one  hour,  that  the  love  of  Oirist  sweetly 
constrains  all  believers  to  walk,  yea,  to  run  the  way  of  God^s  command- 
menis^  and  that  they  cannot  help  obeying  its  forcible  dictates  :  and  we 
may  persuade  them  the  next  hour,  that  "  how  to  perform  what  is 
good  they  find  not ;  that  they  fall  continually  into  sin  ;  for  that  which 
they  do  they  allow  not,  and  what  they  would,  that  do  they  not ;  but 
what  they  hate  that  do  they~"  And  that  these  inconsistencies  may 
not  shock  their  common  sense,  or  alarm  their  consciences,  we  again 
touch  the  sweet-sounding  string  o(  finished  salvation:  we  intimate  we 
have  the  key  of  evangelical  knowledge,  reflect  on  those  who  expect 
deliverance  from  sin  in  this  life,  and  build  up  our  congregations  in  a 
most  comfortable,  I  wish  I  could  say,  most  holy  faith. 

In  short,  we  have  so  used  our  people  to  strange  doctrines,  and  pre- 
posterous assertions,  that  if  we  were  to  intimate,  God  himself  sets  us 
a  pattern  of  Antinomianism,  by  disregarding  his  own  most  holy  and 
lovely  law  which  inculcates  perfect  love  ; — if  we  were  even  to  hint 
that  he  bears  a  secret  grudge,  or  an  immortal  enmity  to  those  very 
souls  whom  he  commands  us  to  love  as  Christ  has  loved  us;  that  he 
feeds  them  only  for  the  great  day  of  slaughter,  and  has  determined 
(so  inveterate  is  his  hatred  !)  before  the  foundation  of  the  world,  to  fit 
them  as  vessels  of  wrath,  that  he  might  eternally  fill  them  with  his 
fiery  vengeance,  merely  to  show  what  a  great  and  sovereign  God  he 
is  ;  I  doubt  not  whether  some  would  not  be  highly  pleased,  and  say, 
we  had  "  preached  a  sound  and  sweet  discourse."  This  would  pro- 
bably be  the  case  if  we  addressed  them  in  such  a  manner  as  to  make 
them  believe  they  are  elect :  not  indeed  of  those  ancient,  legal,  and 
wrestling  elect,  who  cry  to  God  day  and  night  to  be  avenged  of  their 
spiritual  adversary :  but  of  those  modern,  indolent  elect,  who  have 
found  out  a  short  way  to  heaven,  and  maintain,  "  we  are  absolutely 
to  do  nothing  in  order  to  salvation." 

With  joy  I  confess,  however,  that  glorious  and  rousing  truths  are 
frequently  delivered  in  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of  power. 
But,  alas  !  the  blow  is  seldom  followed.  You  have  seen  fond  mothers 
violently  correcting  their  children  one  instant,  and  the  next  dandling 
them  upon  their  knees  ;  and  by  foolishly  kissing  away  their  tears, 
spoiling  the  correction  they  had  given.  Just  so  it  is  with  several  of 
us  :  We  preach  a  close  discourse,  and  seem  determined  to  drive  the 
buyers  and  sellers  out  of  the  temple.  Our  Antinomian  hearers  begin 
mo  awake  and  look  about  them  ;  some  are  even  ready  to  cry  out,  Men 
and  brethren,  what  shall  we  do  ?  But,  alas  !  we  sound  a  retreat  when 


138  SECOND    CHECK 

we  should  shout  for  a  second  battle  :  by  an  unaccountable  weakness* 
before  we  conclude,  we  sooth  them  up,  and  make  a  way  for  their  es- 
cape ;  or,  which  is  not  much  better,  the  next  time  we  preach,  by 
setting  up  Dr.  Crisp's  doctrine  as  much  as  ever,  we  industriously  re- 
pair the  breach  we  had  made  in  the  Antinomian  Babel. 

And  suppose  some  of  us  preach  against  Antinomianism,  is  not  our 
practice  contrary  to  our  preaching  ?  We  are  under  a  dangerous  mis- 
take, if  we  think  ourselves  clear  from  Antinomianism,  merely  because 
we  thunder  against  Antinomian  principles  :  for  as  some,  who  zeal- 
ously maintain  such  principles,  by  the  happiest  inconsistency  in  the 
world,  pay  nevertheless  in  their  practice  a  proper  regard  to  the  law 
they  revile  ;  so  not  a  few^  who  profess  the  deepest  respect  for  it,  arc 
so  unhappily  inconsistent,  as  to  transgress  it  without  ceremony.  The 
God  of  holiness  says,  Go  and  work  in  my  vineyard ;  the  inconsistent 
Antinomian  answers,  "  I  will  not  be  bound  by  any  law  ;  I  scorn  the 
ties  of  duty  :  but  nevertheless  he  repents  and  goes  :  '■'■  The  inconsistent 
legalist  replies,  "  It  is  my  bounden  duty  to  obey,  Igo^  Lord,''''  never- 
theless he  does  not  go.  Which  of  the  two  is  the  greater  Antino- 
mian ?  The  latter,  no  doubt  :  his  practical  Antinomianism  is  much 
more  odious  to  God  and  man,  than  the  speculative  error  in  the 
former. 

The  Lord  God  help  us  to  avoid  both!  Whether  the  hellish  wolf 
comes  barefaced,  or  in  sheep's  clothing ;  or,  what  is  a  still  more  dan- 
gerous disguise,  in  Lamb's  clothing  ;  in  the  clothes  of  the  shepherd, 
covered  from  head  to  foot  with  a  righteousness  which  he  had  imputed 
to  himself,  and  sings  the  siren  song  of  finished  salvation. 

IV.  I  shall  close  these  reflections  upon  the  Antinomianism  of 
preachers,  by  presenting  you  with  sketches  of  two  very  opposite 
ways  of  preaching.  The  first  is  an  extract  from  Bishop  Hopkins's 
24th  Sermon,  entitled  Practical  Christianity  ;  upon  those  words  of 
St.  Paul,  Work  out  your  salvation  with  fear  and  tremblings  &c.  This 
testimony  will  weigh  so  much  the  more  with  you,  as  he  was  a  sound 
Calvinist,  and  a  truly  converted  man. 

"  To  work  out  our  salvation,"  says  the  godly  prelate,  "  is  to  perse- 
vere in  the  ways  of  obedience,  until,  through  them,  that  salvation  which 
is  begun  here  on  earth  be  perfected  in  heaven.  This  work  implies 
three  things  :  1.  Pains  and  labour.  Salvation  is  that  which  must  be 
wrought  out ;  it  is  that  which  will  make  the  soul  pant  and  breathe, 
yea,  run  down  with  sweat  to  obtain  it.  2.  It  implies  constancy  and 
diligence.  A  Christian  that  would  work  out  his  salvation,  must  be 
always  employed  about  it.  It  is  a  web,  into  which  we  must  wea\i# 
the  whole  thread  of  our  lives.     That  man  who  works  at  salvation 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  139 

only  by  gome  passionate  fits,  and  then  within  a  while  undoes  it  all 
again  by  fonl  apostacy,  and  notorious  sins,  will  never  work  salvation 
out.  3.  It  promises  success  -;  though  it  be  hard  work,  it  shall  not 
be  long  work  ;  continue  working,  it  shall  be  wrought  out ;  what 
before  was  your  work,  shall  be  your  reward  ;  and  this  salvation  that 
was  so  painful  in  working,  shall  be  most  blessed  in  the  enjoyment. 

"  Say  not,  "  We  have  no  strength  to  work  with."  What  God 
commands  us  to  do,  he  will  assist  us  in  doing.  We  are  impotent, 
but  God  is  omnij)Otent :  work  therefore,  for  this  omnipotent  God 
works  in  you  both  to  will  and  to  do. 

*'  The  proposition  I  shall  lay  down  from  the  text  is  this :  *  That 
it  is  the  duty  of  every  true  Christian  to  work  out  his  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling  :  or,  that  every  Christian,  .yea,  every  man, 
ought  to  work  for  his  living,  even  for  an  eternal  life.'  To  mention 
places  for  the  proof  of  this,  were  to  transcribe  the  Bible.  We  can 
nowhere  open  this  blessed  book,  but  we  find  this  truth  proved  to 
us,  either  directly  or  by  consequence.  And  yet  it  is  strange  in  these 
days  to  see  how  dubiously  some  men,  who  would  be  thought  admirers 
of  free  grace,  speak  of  obedience  and  working,  as  if  they  were  the 
badge  of  a  legal  spirit.  O  it  is  a  soft  and  easy  doctrine  to  bid  men 
sit  still  and  believe,  as  if  God  would  translate  them  to  heaven  upon 
their  couches.  Is  it  possible  that  these  notions  should  be  dispersed 
and  entertained  ?  Yes,  because  it  has  always  been  the  devil's  policy 
to  vent  those  doctrines  that  indulge  the  flesh,  under  the  patronage  of 
free  grace  and  Gospel  attainments  ! 

'*  Wherefore  is  it  that  we  are  commanded  to  strive  that  we  may 
enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  ?  So  to  run  that  we  may  obtain  ?  So  to  wrestle 
that  we  may  be  able  to  stand  ?  So  to  fight  that  x<oe  may  lay  hold  on 
eternal  life  ?  Can  you  strive  and  run,  and  wrestle  and  fight,  and  all 
this  by  doing  nothing  ? — If  God  would  save  you  without  working, 
why  has  he  given  you  grace,  an  operative  principle,  that  you  might 
work  ?  He  might  as  well  save  you  without  grace,  as  without  works  : 
for  that  is  not  grace  that  does  not  put  forth  itself  in  working.  God, 
rather  than  we  shall  not  work,  will  set  us  at  work.  He  gives  and 
promises  assistance,  only  that  we  might  work  out  our  own  salvation™ 
We  are  not  sujicient  to  think  any  thing :  What  then  ?  Must  we  there- 
fore sit  still  ?  No,  Says  the  apostle,  for  God,  who  finds  us  employ- 
ment, will  also  find  us  strength  : — Our  siifficiency  is  of  God. 

"  Wherefore  is  it  that  men  are  justly  damned  ?  Is  it  not  because 
they  will  not  do  what  they  are  able  to  do  ?  And  whence  have  they 
this  ability  ?    Is  it  not  from  the  grace  of  God's  Spirit  ? — What  is  it 


140  SECOND    CHECK 

that  men  expect?  Must  God  drive  them  to  heaven  by  force  and 
violence,  whether  they  will  or  no  ? 

'•  If  man  will,  he  may  work  out  his  salvation.  I  speak  nOt  this  to 
assert  the  power  of  man  to  work  out  salvation,  without  the  aid  of 
special  grace  to  incline  his  will.  Where  there  is  special  grace 
given  to  make  the  will  willing  to  convert,  there  is  nothing  more 
required  to  make  him  able,  because  conversion  chiefly  consists  in 
the  act  of  the  will  itself;  only  to  make  him  willing,  is  required 
special  grace  ;  which  they  that  favour  the  undue  liberty  of  the  will 
deny.  Our  impotency  lies  in  the  stubbornness  of  our  will.  The 
greatest  sinner  may  work  out  his  own  salvation  if  he  will.  If  he  be 
but  willing,  he  has  that  already  that  may  make  him  able.  God  puts 
no  new  powers  in  the  soul  when  he  converts  it ! 

"  Are  there  any  so  desperately  profane  as  not  to  have  prayed 
unto  God  in  their  whole  life?  Why,  now  to  what  end  have  you 
prayed?  Was  it  not  for  salvation  ?  And  did  you  work  for  salvation, 
and  at  the  same  time  believe  you  could  not  work  ?  Thou  art  inex- 
cusable, O  man,  whoever  thou  art,  that  wilt  not  work  ;  it  is  in  vain 
to  plead  thou  wantest  power  !  God  will  confute  thee  out  of  thy  own 
mouth."  ; 

"  Would  a  master,  when  he  commands  his  servant  to  work,  take 
this  as  a  suflicient  excuse  for  his  sloth  and  idleness,  that  he  has  no 
power  to  work  till  God  acts  and  moves  him  ?  Why,  this  is  a  truth, 
and  it  may  as  well  be  objected  by  your  servants  to  you,  as  by  you 
unto  God.  Though  it  is  impossible  that  men  should  stir  without 
God's  concurrence,  yet  this  hinders  not  their  endeavour,  no,  nor  is 
it  any  matter  of  discouragement  to  them.  They  put  these  things  to 
the  trial.  Now  why  should  we  not  do  so  in  spirituals  as  well  as  in 
temporals  ?  Are  they  not  of  greater  concernment  ?  It  is  not  inability, 
but  wilful  sloth,  that  destroys  men.  Sinners,  wherefore  will  you 
perish  ?  Why  will  you  sleep  away  your  souls  into  hell  ?  Is  it  more 
painful  for  you  to  work  than  to  be  damned  ?  Endeavour  therefore  to 
do  what  you  can  ;  labour  and  sweat  at  salvation's  work,  rather  than 
fail  of  it  for  a  wilful  neglect.  How  shall  you  escape  if  you  neglect  so 
great  salvation  ? 

*'  Obj.  '  Thus  to  press  men  to  working  is  derogatory  to  Christ's 
merits,  by  which  alone  we  are  saved,  and  not  by  our  works.  Christ 
has  done  all  for  us,  and  wrought  out  our  salvation  by  himself.  Shall 
we  piece  out  his  work  by  our  obedience ;  when  all  we  have  now  to 
do  is  to  believe  on  him  ?' 

*'  Ans.  There  is  the  sweetest  harmony  between  the  merits  of 
r'hrist,  and  our  -xxoTking  out  of  our  salvation.     To  make  it  evident,  I 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  141 

shall  show  what  Christ  has  done  for  us,  and  what  he  expects  we 
should  do  for  ourselves.  He  has  merited  grace,  and  purchased 
eternal  happiness.  And  why  did  Christ  merit  grace  ?  Was  it  not 
that  we  might  act  it  in  obedience  ?  If  he  merited  grace  that  we 
might  obey,  is  it  sense  to  object  that  our  obedience  is  derogatory  to 
his  merit?  If  one  end  of  his  doing  all  that  he  did  for  us,  was  to 
enable  us  to  do  for  ourselves  ;  will  any  man  say,  now  I  am  bound  to 
do  nothing,  because  Christ  has  done  all  1  How  lost  are  such  men 
both  to  reason  and  religion,  who  undertake  so  to  argue  !  No,  salva- 
tion was  purchased  and  grace  procured,  that  by  the  acting  and 
exercise  of  that  grace,  we  might  attain  to  that  salvation.  It  is  not 
by  way  of  merit  or  purchase,  that  we  exhort  men  to  work  out  their 
salvation.  Those  are  guilty  of  practical  blasphemy  against  the 
priestly  office  of  Christ,  who  think  to  merit  it  by  their  own  works. 

"  As  Christ  has  done  two  things  for  us,  so  he  requires  two  things 
from  us.  1.  That  we  should  put  forth  all  the  strength  of  nature  in 
labouring  after  grace :  and,  2.  That  we  siiould  put  forth  the  power 
of  grace  in  labouring  for  the  salvation  purchased  for  us.  1.  Let 
every  sinner  know  it  is  work  to  repent  and  return,  that  he  may  live. 
You  cannot  sit  down  and  say,  what  need  is  there  of  my  working? 
Christ  has  already  done  all  my  work  for  me  to  my  hands.  No, 
Christ  has  done  his  own  work,  the  work  of  a  Saviour  and  a  Surety  j 
but  he  never  did  the  work  of  a  sinner. 

"  If  Christ,  by  meriting  grace  had  bestowed  it  upon  thee,  and 
wrought  it  in  thee,  then  indeed  no  more  would  be  required  of  thee 
to  become  holy,  but  to  cast  back  a  lazy  look  at  the  purchase  of  Jesus 
Christ :  then  thy  sloth  would  have  some  pretence  not  to  labour. 
But  this  will  not  do.  Our  Saviour  commands  all  men  to  seek  first  the 
kingdom  of  God ;  and  the  apostle  exhorts  Simon  Magus  to  pray.  Do 
not  therefore  cheat  your  own  souls  into  perdition  by  lazy  notions 
about  Christ's  merits.  If  you  sit  still,  expecting  till  the  meriting 
grace  of  Christ  drop  down  into  your  souls,  and  change  your  hearts  ; 
truly,  it  may  be  before  that  time,  you  yourselves  may  drop  down 
into  hell,  with  your  old  unchanged  hearts ! 

'•  2.  Christ  expects  that  those  who  have  grace  should  put  forth  the 
utmost  power  thereof  in  labouring  after  the  salvation  he  has  pur- 
chased for  them.  He  has  merited  salvation  for  them,  but  it  is  to  be 
obtained  by  their  own  labour  and  industry.  Is  not  what  Christ  has 
done  sufficient?  Must  he  repent,  believe,  and  obey  for  them?  This 
is  not  to  make  him  a  Saviour,  but  a  drudge.  He  has  done  what  was 
fit  for  a  Mediator  to  do.  He  now  requires  of  us  what  is  meet  for  sin- 
ners to  do :  that  is,  to  repent,  &c.     He   now   bids  yoa  wash  and  be 

Vol.  I.  19 


142  SECOND  GHEQK 

clean.  Would  you  have  the  great  Prophet  come  and  strike  off  your 
leprosy,  and  you  do  nothing  towards  the  cure  ?  The  Wc<y  to  heaven 
is  made  possible,  but  if  you  do  not  walk  in  the  way  that  leads  to  it, 
you  may  still  be  as  far  from  heaven  as  ever.  Though  Christ's  bear- 
ing the  punishment  of  the  law  by  death  does  exempt  us  from  suf- 
fering, yet  his  obeying  of  the  law  does  not  excuse  our  obedience  to 
the  law.  Nor  is  our  obedience  derogatory  to  Christ's,  because  it  pro- 
ceeds from  other  grounds  than  Christ's  did.  He  obeyed  the  law  as  a 
covenant  of  works,  we  only  as  a  rule  of  righteousness. 

*' To  conclude  upon  this  point:  So  work  with  that  earnestness 
constancy,  and  unweariedness  in  well  doing,  as  if  thy  works  alone  were 
able  to  justify  and  save  thee  :  and  so  absolutely  depend  and  rely  upon 
the  merits  of  Christ,  for  justification  and  salvation,  as  if  thou  never 
hadst  performed  one  act  of  obedience  in  all  thy  life.  This  is  the 
right  Gospel  frame  of  obedience,  so  to  work,  as  if  we  were  only  to 
be  saved  by  our  own  merits  ;  and  withal  so  to  rest  on  the  merits  of 
Christ,  as  if  we  had  never  wrought  any  thing.  It  is  a  difficult  thing 
to  give  to  each  of  these  its  due  in  our  practice.  When  we  work  we 
are  too  apt  to  neglect  Christ ;  and  when  we  rely  on  Christ,  we  are 
too  apt  to  neglect  working.  But  that  Christian  has  got  the  right  art 
of  obedience  who  can  mingle  these  two  together  ;  who  can  with  one 
hand  vuork  the  works  of  God,  and  yet  at  the  same  time  lay  fast  hold  on 
the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  this  Antinomian  principle  be  for 
ever  rooted  out  of  the  minds  of  men,  that  our  working  is  derogatory 
to  Christ's  work.  Never  more  think  he  has  done  all  your  work  for 
you,  but  labour  for  that  salvation  which  he  has  purchased  and  merit- 
ed. Could  ever  such  senseless  objections  prevail  with  men  vi^ho  have 
seriously  read  this  Scripture  ?  He  gave  himself  for  us,  that  he  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity,  and  purify  to  himself  a  peculiar  people  zeal- 
ous of  good  works.  But  truly  when  sloth  and  ignorance  meet  together, 
if  you  tell  men  what  powers  their  nature,  assisted  by  preventing  grace, 
have  to  work,  and  how  necessary  obedience  is  to  salvation,  they,  with 
the  sluggard,  fold  ihcir  arms  in  their  bosom  doinij  nothing  ;  telling  us 
these  doctrines  are  Arminianism  and  (iixiPopery.  But  deceive  not  your- 
selves ;  whether  tl)is  doctrine  takes  hold  on  your  judgments  now,  1  know 
not;  but  this  I  know  assuredly,  it  shall  take  hold  on  your  consciences 
either  here  or  here:ifter  ;  and  then  it  will  not  suffice  you  to  say,  either 
that  you  had  no  power  to  do  any  thing,  or  that  Christ  has  already  done 
all  for  you." 

This  excellent  discourse  sliould  be  in  all  the  houses  of  professors.  It 
would  shame  the  careless  Remonstrants,  and  show  them  how  orthodox 
some  Calvinists  are  in  point  of  works  ;  and  it  would  confound  the  sloth- 
ful Calvinists,  and  make  them  see  how  they  have  left  Practical  Christie 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  143 

ttnity  for  Aniinomian  Crispianity.  For  east  cannot  be  farther  from  west, 
than  the  preceding  extract  of  Bishop  Hopkins's  sermon  is  from  the  fol- 
lowing propositions,  extracted  from  Dr.  Crisp's  works,  which  some 
make  the  standard  of  evangelical  preaching.  They  are  refuted  also  in 
Gospel  Truth  vindicated,  by  Mr.  Williams,  whose  excellent  refutation  if 
recommended  by  fifty-three  Calvinist  divines  of  the  last  century.  And 
Mr.  Wesley's  Propositions  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Conference  held  in 
1770,  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  ground  on  which  that  refutation  stands. 
"  Must  not  a  believer,  an  elect,  be  reckoned  to  be  a  sinner  while 
he  does  sin  ?  No.  Though  he  does  sin,  yet  he  is  not  to  be  reckoned 
as  a  sinner ;  his  sins  are  reckoned  to  be  taken  away  from  him. — A  man 
does  sin  against  God  ;  God  reckons  not  his  sin  to  be  his ;  he  reckons 
it  Christ's,  therefore  he  cannot  reckon  it  to  be  his. — There  is  no  con- 
dition in  the  covenant  of  grace  ;  man  has  no  tie  upon  him  to  perform 
any  thing  whatsoever,  as  a  condition  that  must  be  observed  on  his 
part  ;  and  there  is  not  one  bond  or  obligation  upon  man  to  the  fulfilling 
of  his  part  of  the  covenant,  or  partaking  of  the  benefits  of  it. — There 
is  no  better  way  to  know  your  portion  in  Christ,  than  upon  the  gene- 
ral tender  of  the  Gospel  to  conclude  absolutely  he  is  yours  :  say, 
*  my  part  is  as  good  as  any  man's  :'  Set  down  thy  rest  here  ;  ques- 
tion it  not,  but  believe  it. — Christ  belongs  to  sinners  as  sinners  ;  and 
if  there  be  no  worse  than  sinfulness,  rebellion  and  enmity  in  thee,  he 
belongs  to  thee,  as  well  as  to  any  in  the  world. — Christ  does  justify  a 
person  before  he  believes  ;  we  do  not  believe  that  we  may  be  justified, 
but  because  we  are  justified.  The  elect  are  justified  from  eternity  ; 
at  Christ's  death  ;  and  the  latest  time  is  before  they  are  born. — It  is 
a  received  conceit  among  persons,  that  our  obedience  is  the  way  to 
heaven  ;  and  though  it  be  not,  say  they,  the  cause  of  our  reign,  yet 
it  is  the  way  to  the  kingdom  :  but  I  must  tell  you,  all  this  sanctification 
of  life  is  not  a  jot  the  way  of  that  justified  person  to  heaven. — To 
what  purpose  do  we  propose  to  ourselves  the  gaining  of  that  by  our 
labour  and  industry,  that  is  already  become  ours  before  we  do  one 
jot  ? — Must  they  now  labour  to  gain  these  things,  as  if  it  were  referred 
to  their  well  or  evil  walking  ?  that  as  they  shall  walk  so  they  shall 
speed  ?  The  Lord  does  nothing  in  his  people  upon  conditions.  The 
Lord  intends  not  that  by  our  obedience  we  shall  gain  sonaething  which 
in  case  of  our  faihng  we  shall  miscarry  of. — While  you  labour  to  get 
by  duties,  you  provoke  God  as  much  as  in  you  lies. — We  must  work 
from  hfe  and  not  for  life. — There  is  nothing  you  can  do  from  whence 
you  ought  to  expect  any  gain  to  yourselves. — Love  to  the  brethren, 
universal  obedience,  and  all  other  inherent  qualifications,  are  no  signs 
by  which  we  should  judge  of  our  state. — Every  elect  vessel,  from  the 


144  SECOND    CHECK 

first  instant  of  his  being,  is  as  pure  in  the  eyes  of  God  from  the 
charge  of  sin,  as  he  shall  be  in  glory. — Though  such  persons  do  act 
rebellion,  yet  the  loathsomeness  and  hatefdlness  of  this  rebellion  is 
laid  on  the  back  of  Christ  ;  he  bears  the  sin,  as  well  as  the  blame, 
and  shame  !  And  God  can  dwell  with  persons  that  act  the  thing,  be- 
ciuse  all  the  filthiness  of  it  is  translated  from  them  upon  the  back  of 
Christ. — ^It  is  the  voice  of  a  lying  spirit  in  your  hearts  that  says, 
*  You  that  are  believers  (as  David)  have  yet  sin  wasting  your  con- 
science.' David  indeed  says,  my  sins  are  gone  over  my  head,  but  he 
speaks  from  himself,  and  all  that  he  speaks  from  himself  is  not  truth- 
There  is  as  much  ground  to  be  confident  of  the  pardon  of  sin  to  a  be- 
liever, as  soon  as  he  committed  it,  as  to  believe  it  after  he  has  per- 
formed all  the  humiliation  in  the  world.  A  believer  may  be  assured 
of  pardon  as  soon  as  he  commits  any  sin,  even  adultery  and  murder. — 
There  is  not  one  fit  of  sadness  in  a  believer  but  he  is  out  of  the  way 
of  Christ. — God  does  no  longer  stand  displeased  though  a  believer  do 
sin  often. — There  is  no  sin  that  ever  believers  commit,  that  can  pos^ 
sibly  do  them  any  hurt.  Therefore,  as  their  sins  cannot  hurt  them, 
so  there  is  no  cause  of  fear  in  their  sins  committed. — Sins  are  but 
scarecrows  and  bugbears  to  fright  ignorant  children,  but  men  of  un- 
derstanding see  they  are  counterfeit  things.  Sin  is  dead,  and  there  is 
no  more  terror  in  it  than  in  a  dead  lion. — If  we  tell  believers,  except 
they  walk  thus  and  thus  holily,  and  do  these  and  those  good  works, 
God  will  be  angry  with  them,  we  abuse  the  Scriptures,  undo  what 
Christ  has  done,  injure  believers,  and  tell  God  lies  to  his  face. — All  our 
righteousness  is  filthy,  full  of  menstruosity,  the  highest  kind  of  filthi- 
ness : — even  what  is  the  Spirit's  must  be  involved  within  that  which 
is  a  man's  own,  under  the  general  notion  of  dung.  God  has  done 
every  thing  in  Christ,  and  taken  away  all  things  that  can  disturb  our 
peace  ;  but  man  will  be  mincing  the  truth,  and  telling  you  that  if  you 
keep  close  to  God,  and  refrain  from  sin,  God  will  love  you. — Christ 
does  all  his  work  for  him  as  well  as  in  him  that  believes.  If  persons 
are  not  united  to  Christ,  and  do  not  partake  of  justification  before  they 
do  believe,  there  will  be  bringing  to  life  again  the  covenant  of  works  ; 
you  must  of  necessity  press  upon  yourselves  these  terms,  '  I  must 
do,  that  I  may  have  life  in  Chri?t :  I  must  believe.'  Now  if  there 
be  believing  first,  then  there  is  doing  before  living. —  To  what  pur- 
pose do  we  tell  men  of  wrath  and  damnation  ?  We  had  as  good  hold 
our  tongues,"  &c.  kc. 

"  I  observe,"  says  my  judicious  Calvinist  author,  "the  pretence  for 
these  opinions  is,  that  they  exalt  Christ  and  free  grace.  Under  this 
shadow  Antinomianism  set  up  in  Germany.     This   was  the  great 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  145 

«ry  in  England  above  fifty  years  ago.  The  Synod  of  New-England 
expose  this  as  one  of  the  speeches  of  them  whom  they  call 
Antinomians :  *  Here  is  a  great  stir  about  grace  and  looking  to 
hearts  :  but  give  me  Christ  :  1  seek  not  for  j2;races,  but  for  Christ : 
I  seek  not  for  sanctification,  but  for  Christ  :  Tell  me  not  of  medita- 
tion and  duties,  but  tell  me  of  Christ  ;'  Dr.  Crisp  very  often  bears 
upon  this  point,  as  if  all  he  said  was  to  advance  Christ  and  grace." 

You  will  perhaps  say  that  our  Gospel  ministers  are  far  more  guard- 
ed than  the  Doctor.  But  I  would  ask  whether  all  his  scheme  is 
not  collected,  and  made  to  centre  in  the  one  fashionable  expression 
oi  finished  salvation  ?     Which  seems  to  be  our  Shibboleth. 

If  the  salvation  of  the  elect  was  finished  upon  the  cross,  then 
was  ihe\r  justification  finished,  their  sanctification  finished,  their  glori- 
fication finished  :  for  justification,  sanctification,  and  glorification^nis/i- 
edf  are  but  the  various  parts  of  our  finished- salvation.  If  our  justifi- 
cation be  finished,  there  is  no  need  of  believing  in  order  to  be  justified. 
If  our  sanctification  he  finished,  there  is  no  need  of  mortifying  one  sin, 
praying  for  one  grace,  taking  up  one  cross,  parting  with  either  right 
eye  or  right  hand,  in  order  to  perfect  holiness.     Again, 

Suppose  our  salvation  be  finished,  it  follows,  Christ  has  done  all, 
and  we  are  to  do  nothing.  Obedience  and  good  works  are  no 
more  necessary  in  order  to  it,  than  cutting  and  carrying  stones  are 
necessary  to  the  completing  of  Westminster-bridge.  We  are  as 
perfect  in  Christ,  as  completely  blameless  and  holy  in  the  midst 
of  all  our  sins,  as  ever  we  shall  be  in  glory.  In  a  word,  if  salvation 
be  finished,  well  ordered  in  all  things  and  sure,  our  sins  cannot 
take  any  thing  from  it,  nor  our  righteousness  have  any  thing  to  do 
with  it.  The  little  flock  of  the  elect  shall  be  saved,  nay,  are  fully 
saved  now,  do  what  they  please;  and  the  multitudes  of  the 
reprobates  shall  be  damned,  do  what  they  can.  Give  me  only  the 
smooth  ring  of  finished  salvation,  and  without  offering  the  least  vio- 
lence to  common  sense,  I  shall  necessarily  draw  every  link  of  Dr. 
Crisp's  Antinomian  chain. 

I  have  often  wondered  how  so  tnany  excellent  men  can  be  so  fond 
of  an  expression,  which  is  the  stalking-horse  of  every  wild  Ranter. 
Is  it  scriptural  ?  Which  of  the  prophets  or  apostles  ever  used  it  on 
earth  ?  Do  even  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  ascribe  finished 
salvation  to  the  Lamb  ?  If  they  did,  would  not  their  uncollected  dust 
and  the  souls  crying  under  the  altar,  prove  their  praises  premature  ? 
Will  salvation  be  finished  till  the  last  enemy,  death,  is  fully  overcome 
by  the  general  resurrection  ?     Again, 


146  SECOND    CHECK 

Is  the  expression  offiiished  salvation  consistent  with  the  analogy  of 
faith  ?  Does  it  not  supersede  our  Lord's  intercession  at  the  rii^ht  hand 
of  God  ?  Whether  he  intercede  for  the  reprobate  or  the  elect,  acts 
he  not  a  most  'inwise  part  ?  Is  he  not  giving  himself  a  needless  trou- 
ble, whether  he  intercede  for  the  justi/icatio7i  of  those  whom  he  has 
himself  reprobated,  or  for  the  salvation  of  those  whose  salvation  is 
finished?  Is  it  right  to  offer  an  insult  to  our  High  Priest  upon  his  me- 
diatorial throne,  under  pretence  of  honouring  him  on  the  cross  ?  And 
may  not  I  say  with  judicious  Baxter,  "  See  what  this  overdoing  tends 
to  ?"  See  what  contempt  it  pours  upon  Him  who  is  the  Brightness  of 
his  Father's  glory  ! 

If  that  favourite  expression  be  neither  Scriptural,  nor  agreeable 
to  the  analogy  of  faith,  is  it  at  least  rational  ?  I  doubt  it  is  not. 
Finished  salvation  implies  both  deliverance  from  bodily  and  spiritual 
evils,  and  our  being  made  fully  partakers  of  heavenly  glory,  in  body 
and  in  soul.  But  waiving  the  consideration  of  glory  and  heaven,  and 
taking  the  word  salvation  in  its  negative  and  lower  sense,  I  ask  ;  Can 
it  he  said,  with  any  propriety,  that  bodily  salvation  \s  finished,  while 
innumerable  pains  and  diseases  surround  us,  to  drag  us  to  the  grave, 
and  deliver  us  to  putrefaction  ?  And  is  spiritual  salvation  finished  ? 
Is  the  body  of  sin  destroyed?  Do  not  those  very  ministers  who  preach 
finished  salvation  with  one  breath,  tell  us  in  the  next,  "  There  is  no 
deliverance,  (that  is,  no  finished  salvation,)  from  sin  in  this  life  ?" 

And  what  end  does  that  expression  answer  ?  I  know  of  none  but 
that  of  spreading  Dr.  Crisp's  doctrine,  and  making  thousands  of  de- 
luded souls  talk  as  if  the  tower  of  their  salvation  was  finished,  when 
they  have  not  so  much  as  counted  the  cost ;  or  when  they  have  just 
laid  the  foundation. 

Therefore,  with  all  due  deference  to  my  brethren  and  fathers  who 
^reAch finished  salvation,  I  ask,  Would  it  not  be  better  to  drop  that 
doctrine,  with  all  the  other  dangerous  refinements  of  Dr.  Crisp,  and 
preach  ?i finished  atonement,  a  present  sovereign  remedy,  completely  pre- 
pared to  heal  all  our  spiritual  infirmities,  assuage  all  our  miseries, 
and  fit  us  (orfinhhed  salvation  in  glory  ?  Would  not  this  be  as  well,  at 
least,  as  to  help  our  patients  to  compose  themselves  to  sleep  upon  the 
pillow  of  Antinoraianism  ;  by  making  them  believe  that  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  remedy  and  a  complete  cure  are  all  one  ;  so  that  now  they 
have  absolutely  nothing  to  do  in  order  to  saving  health,  and  (as  the 
apostles  concluded  about  Lazarus.)  if  they  sleep  they  shall  do  well? 
And  should  we  not,  even  in  speaking  of  redemption,  imitate  the  judi- 
cious Calvinists  of  (he  last  century,  who  carefully  distinguished  be 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  147 

tween  redernption^y  the  price  of  Jesus's  blood,  and  redemption  by  the 
power  of  his  Spirit?  "  The  former,"  said  they,  "  was  finished  upoa 
the  cross,  but  the  latter  is  not  so  nouch  as  begun  in  thousands  ;  even 
in  all  that  are  unborn  or  unconverted." 

V.  To  speak  the  melancholy  truth,  how  few  individuals  are  free 
from  practical  Antinomianisra  ?  Setting  aside  their  attendance  on  the 
ministry  of  the  word,  where  is  the  material  difference  between  seve- 
ral of  our  genteel  belie vrfs  and  other  people  ?  Do  not  we  see  the 
sumptuous  furniture  in  their  apartments,  and  fashionable  elegance  io 
their  dress  ?  What  sums  of  money  do  they  frequently  lay  out  in 
costly  superfluities  to  adorn  their  persons,  houses,  and  gardens  1 

Wise  heathens,  by  the  help  of  a  little  philosophy,  saw  the  impro- 
priety of  having  any  useless,  brittle  vessels  about  them  ;  they  broke 
them  on  purpose  that  they  might  be  consistent  with  the  profession 
they  made  of  seeking  wisdom.  But  we,  who  profess  to  have  found 
Christ  the  wisdom  of  God,  purchase  such  vessels  and  toys  at  a  high 
rate,  and  instead  of  hiding  them  for  shame,  as  Rachel  did  her  Tera- 
phim  for  fear,  we  write  our  motto  over  against  the  candlestick  upon  the 
plaster  of  the  wall,  and  any  man  that  fears  the  God  of  Daniel  may, 
upon  studying  the  Chinese  characters,  make  out  Antinomiamsm. 

Our  Lord,  whose  garment  does  not  appear  to  have  been  cut  in  the 
height  of  the  fashion,  as  it  was  made  without  seam,  informs  us,  that 
they  who  wear  so/7  clothing,  and  splendid  apparel,  areinkings''  houses. 
But  had  he  lived  in  our  days,  he  might  have  found  them  in  Gpd's 
houses  ;  in  our  fashionable  churches  or  chapels.  There  you  may 
find  people  professing  to  believe  the  Bible,  who  so  conform  to  this  pre- 
sent world,  as  to  wear  gold,  pearls,  and  precious  stones,  when  n» 
distinction  of  office  or  state  obliges  them  to  it :  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  words  of  two  apostle's :  Let  not  their  adorning,  says  St.  Peter,  be 
that  outward  adorning  of  plaiting  the  hair,  and  of  wearing  of  gold,  or  of 
putting  on  of  apparel.  Let  them  adorn  themselves  in  modest  apparel^ 
adds  St.  Paul,  not  with  curled  hair,  or  gold,  or  pearls,  or  costly  array. 

Multitudes  of  professors,  far  from  being  convinced  of  their  sin  in 
this  respect,  ridicule  Mr.  Wesley  for  bearing  his  testimony  against  it. 
The  opposition  he  dares  make  to  that  growing  branch  of  vanity,  affords 
matter  of  pious  mirth  to  a  thousand  Antinomians.  Isaiah  could  openly 
reprove  the  haughty  daughters  of  Zion,  who  walked  xvith  stretched  forth 
necks,  wanton  eyes,  and  tinkling  feet ;  he  could  expose  the  bravery  of 
their  fashionable  ornaments,  their  round  tires  like  the  moon,  their  chains^ 
bracelets,  head-bands,  rings,  and  earrings  :  But  some  of  our  humble 
Christian  ladies  will  not  bear  a  reproof  from  Mr.  W.  on  the  head  of 
dress.     They  even  laugh  at  him,  as  a  pitiful  legalist :  and  yet,  O  the 


148  Second  check 

inconsistency  of  the  Antinonaian  spirit !  they  call  Isaiah  the  evangelical 

prophet ! 

Finery  is  often  attended  with  an  extensive  table,  at  least  with  such 
delicacies  as  our  purse  can  reach.  St.  Paul  kept  his  body  under y  and 
was  in  fastings  often  :  and  our  Lord  gives  us  directions  about  the 
proper  manner  of  fasting.  But  the  apostle  did  not  know  the  easy 
way  to  heaven  taught  by  Dr.  Crisp  ;  and  our  Lord  did  not  approve  of 
it,  or  he  would  have  saved  himself  the  trouble  of  his  directions.  In 
general  we  look  upon  fasting,  much  as  we  do  upon  penitential  flagel- 
lation. Both  equally  raise  our  pity  :  we  leave  them  to  Popish  devo- 
tees. Some  of  our  good  old  church-people  will  yet  fast  on  Good 
Friday  ;  but  our  fashionable  believers  begin  to  cast  away  that  last  scrap 
of  self-denial.  Their  faith,  which  should  produce,  animate,  and  re- 
gulate works  of  mortitication,  goes  a  shorter  way  to  work — it  ex- 
plodes them  all. 

"  But  perhaps  we  zvresile  not  with  flesh  and  blood,  because  we  are 
entirely  taken  up  with  wrestling  against  principalities,  powers^  and 
spiritual  wickednesses  in  high  places.''^ 

Alas  !  I  fear  this  is  not  the  case.  Few  of  us  know  what  it  is  to  cry 
out  of  the  deep,  to  pray  and  believe,  till  in  the  name  of  Jesus  we  force 
our  way  beyond  flesh  and  blood,  come  within  the  reach  of  the  inter- 
nal world,  conflict  in  an  agony  with  the  powers  of  darkness,  vanquish 
Apollyon  in  all  his  attacks,  and  continue  wrestling  till  the  day  of  eter- 
nity break  upon  us,  and  the  God  of  Jacob  bless  us  with  all  spiritual 
benedictions  in  heavenly  places.  John  Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  the  old  Puri- 
tans, and  the  first  Quakers,  had  such  engagements,  and  gained  such 
victories  ;  but  they  soon  got  over  the  edge  of  internal  activity,  inte 
the  smooth  easy  path  of  Laodicean  formality.  Most  of  us,  called 
Methodists,  have  already  followed  them  ;  and  whyen  we  are  in  that 
snare,  Satan  scorns  to  conflict  with  us  ;  puny  flesh  and  blood  are  more 
than  a  match  for  us.  We  fall  asleep  under  their  bewitching  power, 
and  begin  to  dream  strange  dreams  :  "  Our  salvation  is  finished,  we 
have  got  above  legality,  we  live  without  frames  and  feelings,  we  have 
att.iined  Christian  liberty,  we  are  perfect  in  Christ,  we  have  nothing 
to  do,  our  covenant  is  sure,"  kc.  True  !  But  unhappily  it  is  a  cove- 
nant with  the  flesh  :  Satan,  who  is  too  wise  to  break  it  by  rousing  us 
in  the  spirit,  leaves  us  to  our  delusions  ;  and  we  think  ourselves  in 
the  kingdom  of  God  when  we  are  only  in  a  fool's  paradise. 

At  midnight  I  will  rise  and  praise  thee,  said  once  a  pious  Jew  :  but 
we,  pious  Christians,  who  enjoy  both  health  and  strength,  are  impri- 
soned within  our  bed-curtains,  long  after  the  sun  has  called  the  dili- 
gent to  their  labour.     When  the  fejar  of  the  Lord  was  in  us,  the  begin- 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  149 

hing  of  wisdorriy  we  durst  not  so  confer  with  flesh  and  blood  ?  We  had 
then  a  little  faith  ;  and  so  far  as  it  went,  it  showed  itself  by  our  works. 
Then  we  could,  without  hesitation,  and  from  our  hearts,  pray,  "  Stir 
up,  we  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  the  wills  of  thy  faithful  people,  that 
they,  plenteously  bringing  forth  the  fruit  of  good  works,  may  by  thee 
be  plenteously  rewarded,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  (Collect 
for  the  last  Sunday  in  Trinity.)  We  believed  there  was  some  truth  in 
these  words  of  our  Lord  :  Except  a  man  forsake  all  thai  he  hath,  deny 
himself  and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  He  that 
will  save  his  life  shall  lose  it^  and  he  that  will  lose  his  life  for  my  sake 
shall  find  it.  If  thine  eye  offend  thee,  pluck  it  out :  it  is  better  for  thee 
to  enter  into  life  with  one  eye,  than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  hell 
fire.  Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait  gate  :  for  I  say  unto  you  that  many 
shall  seek  to  enter  iuj  and  shall  not  be  able ;  because  they  will  seek  to 
enter  in  at  the  wide,  rather  than  the  strait  gate ;  the  Antinomian  or 
Pharisaic,  rather  than  the  evangelically  legal  gate  of  salvation.  But 
now,  "  We  know  better,  (say  some  of  us,)  we  have  got  over  our 
scruples  and  legality."  We  c^n  conform  to  this  present  ivorld :  cleave 
to,  instead  of  forsaking  all  we  have,  and  even  grasp  what  we  have  not. 
What  a  strange  way  this  of  growing  in  grace,  and  in  the  fijiowledge  of 
Christ  crucified. 

Daniel  informs  us  that  he  made  his  petition  three  times,  and  David 
that  he  ofi'ered  up  his  praises  seven  times  a  day.  Once  also,  like  them, 
we  had  fixed  hours  for  private  prayer  and  self-examination,  for  read- 
ing the  Scriptures,  and  meditating  upon  them,  peihaps  upon  our 
knees  ;  but  we  thought  this  was  legality  too,  and  under  the  specious 
pretence  of  going  beyond  forms,  and  learning  to  pray  always,  we  first 
threw  away  our  form,  and  soon  after  our  endeavours,  to  watch  unto 
prayer.  Now  we  scarcely  ever,  for  any  length  of  time,  solemnly 
bend  the  knee  before  our  Father  who  sees  in  secret.  And  instead  of 
leaning  on  Christ's  bosom  in  all  the  means  of  grace,  we  take  our 
graceless  rest  on  the  bosom  of  that  painted  Jezebel  Formality. 

If  we  are  backward  in  performing  that  leading  work  of  piety, 
secret  prayer ;  is  it  a  wonder  if,  in  general,  we  are  averse  to  every 
work  of  MERCY  that  costs  us  something,  besides  a  little  of  our  super- 
fluous money  ?  And  would  to  God  some  did  not  even  grudge  this, 
when  it  is  pressed  out  of  their  purses  by  the  importunate  addresses 
of  those  who  beg  for  the  poor  !  However,  we  give  yet  at  the  door  of 
a  church,  or  at  the  communion,  whether  with  indifference  or  joy, 
whether  out  of  custom,  shame,  or  love,  we  seldom  examine.  But 
that  important  branch  of  St.  James's  pure  and  undefiled  religion  before 

Vol.   L  20 


150  SECOND    CHECK 

Godf  even  the  Father ^  which  consists  in  visiting  the  fatherless  and 
widows  in  their  afflictions^  is  with  many  almost  as  much  out  of  date,  a» 
a  pilgrimage  to  our  Lady  of  Loretto. 

O  ye  forsaken  sons  of  poverty,  and  ancient  daughters  of  sorrow, 
who  pine  away  in  your  desolate  garrets  or  cellars,  without  fire  in 
winter,  destitute  of  food,  physic,  or  nurse  in  sickness  :  raise  a  mo- 
ment your  emaciated  bodies,  wrapt  up  in  threadbare  blankets,  if  you 
are  possessed  of  any  such  covering,  and  tell  me,  tell  the  World,  how 
many  of  our  gay  professors  of  religion  have  sought  and  found  you 
out  in  your  deplorable  circumstances  !  How  many  are  come  to  visit, 
in  you,  and  worship  with  you,  the  Man  of  Sorrows;  who  once  lay  on 
the  cold  ground  in  a  bloody  sweat  ?  When  did  they  make  your  bed 
in  your  sickness  ?  When  have  they  kindly  inquired  into  all  your 
wants,  sympathized  in  all  your  temptations,  supported  your  drooping 
heads  in  a  fainting  fit,  revived  your  sinking  spirits  with  suitable 
cordials,  gently  wiped  your  cold  sweats,  or  mixed  them  with  their 
tears  of  pity  ? 

Alas !  You  sometimes  find  more  compassion  and  assistance  in  your 
extremity,  from  those  who  never  name  the  name  of  Christy  than  from 
our  easy,  Antinomian,  Laodicean  believers.  Their  wants  are  richly 
supphed  ;  that  is  enough :  they  do  not  inquire  into  yours,  and  you 
are  ashamed  or  afraid  to  trouble  them  with  the  dismal  story.  Nor 
indeed  would  some  of  them  understand  you  if  you  did.  Their 
uninterrupted  abundance  makes  them  as  incapable  of  feeling  for 
you,  as  the  warm  inhabitants  of  Ethiopia  are  to  feel  for  the  frozen 
Icelanders. 

While  the  table  of  some  believers  (so  called,)  is  alternately  loaded 
with  a  variety  of  delicate  meats,  and  rich  wines,  what  have  ye  to 
sustain  sinking  nature  ?  Alas  !  One  can  soon  see  your  all  of  food  and 
physic.  A  pitcher  of  water  stands  by  your  bed-side  upon  a  stool,  the 
only  piece  of  furniture  left  in  your  wretched  apartment.  The  Lord 
God  bless  the  poor  widow  that  brought  it  you,  with  her  tzn-o  mites! 
Heaven  reward  a  thousand-fold  the  loving  creature  that  not  only 
shares  with  you,  but  freely  bestows  upon  you,  all  her  living,  even  all 
that  she  has;  when  they  forgot  to  inquire  after  you,  and  to  send  you 
something  out  of  their  luxurious  abundance  !  The  Son  of  man,  once 
forsaken  by  all  the  disciples,  and  comforted  by  an  angel,  make  her  bed 
in  the  time  of  sickness !  And  a  waiting  band  of  celestial  spirits  carry 
her  charitable  soul  into  Lazarus's  bosom  in  the  awful  hour  of  dissolu- 
tion t  !  hnd  r?ther  be  in  her  case,  though  she  should  not  confidently 
profess  the  faith,  than  in  yours^  O  ye  caressed  believers,  who  let 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  151 

your  affluence  overflow  to  those  that  have  more  need  to  learn  fru- 
gality in  the  school  of  scarceness,  than  to  receive  bounties  which  feed 
their  sensuahty,  and  indulge  their  pride. 

And  ye,  women  professing  godliness,  who  enjoy  the  comforts  of 
health  and  abundance,  in  whose  streets  there  is  no  complaining,  no 
decay ^  whose  daughters  are  as  the  polished  corners  of  the  temple ;  when 
did  you  ever  want  visiters  ?  Alas  !  Ye  have  too  many,  for  the  good 
they  do  you,  or  that  you  do  them.  Does  not  your  conversation, 
which  begins  with  the  love  of  Jesus,  terminate  in  religious  scandal ; 
as  naturally  as  your  soul,<  which  once  began  in  the  Spirit,  ends  now  in 
the  Jlesh?  O  that  your  visiters  were  as  ready  to  attend  work-houses, 
jails,  infirmaries,  and  hospitals,  as  they  are  to  wait  upon  you  !  O  that 
at  least,  like  the  Dorcases,  the  Phebes,  and  Priscillas  of  old,  you 
would  teach  them  cheerfully  to  work  for  the  poor,  to  be  the  free 
servants  of  the  church,  and  tender  nurses  of -the  sick!  O  that  they 
saw  in  you  all,  how  the  holy  women,  the  widows  who  were  widows 
indeed,  formerly  entertained  strangers,  washed  the  saints^  feet,  instructed 
the  younger  women,  and  continued  night  and  day  in  prayer !  But  alas  1 
The  love  of  many,  once  warm  as  the  smoking  flax,  is  waxed  cold, 
instead  of  taking  fire,  and  flaming.  They  who  once  began  to  seek  the 
profit  of  many,  now  seek  their  own  ease,  or  interest ;  their  own  ho- 
nour, or  indulgence. 

Almost  all,  when  they  come  to  the  foot  of  the  hill  Difficulty,  take 
their  leave  of  Jesus  as  a  guide,  because  he  leads  on  through  spiritual 
death  to  the  regeneration.  Some,  disliking  that  door,  li^e  thieves  and 
robbers,  climb  up  an  easier  way.  And  others,  leaving  the  highway  of 
the  cross,  under  the  fair  pretence  that  blind  Papists  walk  therein, 
make  for  themselves  and  others  broad  and  downward  roads,  to  ascend 
the  steep  Tiill  of  Zion  ! 

Those  easy  paths  are  innumerable,  like  the  people  that  walk  in 
them.  O  that  my  eyes,  like  David's,  did  run  down  like  water,  because 
men,  professing  godliness,  keep  not  God's  law,  and  are  even  ofieuded 
at  it !  Their  mouth  talketh  of  vanity,  they  dissemble  with  their  double 
heart,  and  their  right  hand  is  a  right  hand  of  sloth,  or  positive  iniquity, 
O  that  I  had  the  tenderness  of  St.  Paul  to  tell  you,  even  weeping,  of 
those  who  mind  earthly  things ;  those  who  have  sinned  and  have  not 
repented ;  those  who,  while  they  boast  they  are  made  free  by  the  Son 
of  God,  are  brought  under  the  power  of  many  things;  whom  foolish 
desires,  absurd  fears,  undue  attachments,  imported  superfluities,  and 
disagreeable  habits,  keep  in  the  most  ridiculous  bondage  I 

O  that  my  head  were  waters,  and  my  eyes  fountains  of  tears,  to 
deplore,  with  Jeremiah,  tht  dain  of  the  daughter  of  0od's  people ;  who 


152 


SECOND    CHECK 


live  in  pleasure,  and  are  dead  while  they  live !  And  to  lament  over 
S})iritaal  Pharisees  of  every  sort ;  those  who  say,  Stand  by,  I  am  holier 
than  thou;  and  those  who  fix  the  names  of  poor  creatures  !  blind! 
and  carnal !  upon  every  publican  they  see  in  the  temple  ;  and  boldly 
placing  themselves  among  the  elect,  thank  God  they  are  not  as  other 
men,  and  in  particular  as  the  reprobates  ! 

Who  can  number  the  adulterers  and  adulteresses :  who  know  not  that 
the  friendship  of  the  world  is  enmity  against  God?  The  concealed 
idolaters,  who  have  their  chamber's  of  imagery  within,  and  set  up  their 
idols  in  their  hearts?  The  envious  Carns,  who  carry  murder  in  their 
brea.>Jts !  Tiie  profane  Esaus,  who  give  up  their  birthright  for  a  sen- 
sual o;ratification  ;  and  covetous  Judases,  who  sell  the  truth  which  they 
should  buy,  and  part  with  Christ  for  filthy  lucre*  s  sake?  The  sons  of 
God,  who  look  at  the  fair  daughters  of  men,  and  take  to  themselves  wives 
of  all  whom  they  choose'?  The  gay  Dinahs,  who  visit  the  daughters  of 
the  land,  and  come  home  polluted  in  body  or  in  soul  ?  The  filthy 
Onans,  who  defile  the  temple  of  God?  The  prophets  of  Bethel,  who 
deceive  the  prophets  of  Judah,  entice  them  out  of  the  way  of  self- 
denial,  and  bring  the  roaring  lion,  and  death  upon  them  ?  The  fickle 
Marcuses,  who  depart  when  they  should  go  to  the  work?  The  self- 
made  prophets,  who  run  before  they  are  sent,  and  scatter  instead  of 
profiting  the  people?  The  spiritual  Absaloms,  who  rise  against  their 
fathers  in  the  Gospel ;  and  in  order  to  reign  without  them,  raise  a 
rebeHion  against  them  ?  The  furious  Zedekiahs,  who  make  themselves 
horns  of  iroiu  to  push  the  true  servants  of  the  Lord,  because  they 
will  not  prophesy  smooth  things  and  deceit,  as  they  do  ? 

Who  can  count  the  fretful  Jonahs,  who  are  angry  to  death  whea 
the  worm  of  disappointment  smites  the  gourd  of  their  creature  happi- 
ness ?  The  weak  Aarons,  who  dare  not  resist  a  multitude,  and  are 
carried  by  the  stream  into  the  greatest  absurdities  ?  The  jealous 
Miriams,  who  rise  against  the  ministers  that  God  honours  ?  The 
crafty  Zibas,  who  calumniate  and  supplant  their  brethren?  The 
treacherous  Joabs,  who  kiss  them,  to  get  an  opportunity  of  stabbing 
them  under  the  fifth  rib  ?  The  busy  sons  of  Zeruiah,  who  perpetually 
stir  up  resentment  and  wrath  ?  The  mischievous  Doegs,  who  carry 
about  poisonous  scandal,  and  blow  up  the  fire  of  discord  ?  The 
hypocritical  Gehezis,  who  look  like  saints  before  their  masters  and 
ministers,  and  yet  can  impudently  lie,  and  impiously  cheat?  The 
Gibeonites,  always  busy  in  hewing  wood  and  drawing  water,  in  going 
through  the  drudgery  of  outward  services,  without  ever  aspiring  at 
the  adoption  of  sons  ?  The  halting  Naamans,  who  serve  the  Lord, 
3iid  bow  to  Rimmon  :    the  backsliding  Solomons,  who  once  chose 


TO  ANTINOMIAWISM.  153 

wisdom,  but  now  pursue  folly  in  her  most  extravagant  and  impious 
forms  ?  The  apostatizing  Alexanders,  who  tread  under  foot  the  Son  of 
God^  and  count  the  blood  of  the  covenant  wherezvlth  they  were  sanctified^ 
an  unholy  thing?  And,  to  include  multitudes  in  one  class,  the  Sama- 
ritans, who,  by  a  common  mixture  of  truth  and  error,  of  heavenly 
and  earthly  mindedness,  worship  the  Lord,  and  serve  their  gods;  are 
one  day  for  God,  and  the  next  for  mammon  :  or  the  thousands  in 
Israel,  who  halt  between  two  opinions^  crying  out,  when  Elijah  prevails, 
The  Lord,  He  is  the  God !  and  when  Jezebel  triumphs,  returning  to 
the  old  soDg,  "O  Baal,  save  us!  O  trinity  of  the  world — Money, 
pleasure,  and  honour,  make  us  happy  !" 

VI.  Time  would  fail  to  describe  the  innumerable  branches  of 
Antinomionism,  with  all  the  fruits  they  bear.  It  may  be  compared 
to  the  astonishing  tree,  which  Nebuchadnezzar  saw  in  his  mysterious 
dream  :  a  strong  tree,  set  in  the  midst  of  the  church ;  the  heighth 
thereof  reaches  unto  heaven,  and  the  sight  thereof  unto  the  ends  of  the 
earth.  Its  leaves  are  fair,  and  its  fruit  much.  Thousands  sleep 
under  its  fatal  shadow,  and  myriads  feed  upon  its  pernicious  fruit. 
At  a  distance  it  looks  like  the  tree  of  life  planted  in  the  midst  of  Para- 
dise ;  but  it  only  proves  the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  The 
woman  (the  Antinomian  Church,)  is  deceived  by  the  appearance. 
She  sees  that  it  is  good  for  food,  pleasant  to  the  eye,  and  desirable  to 
make  one  wise :  she  eats  to  the  full,  and  flushed  with  fond  hopes  of 
heaven,  nay,  fancying  herself  as  God,  she  presents  of  the  poisonous 
fruit,  that  intoxicates  her,  to  the  nobler  part  of  the  church,  the 
obedient  members  of  the  second  Adam. 

O  ye  sons  of  God,  and  daughters  of  Abraham,  who,  in  compliance 
with  the  insinuation  of  this  deceived  Eve,  have  already  stretched 
forth  your  hands  to  receive  her  fatal  present,  instantly  draw  them 
back,  for  eternal  death  is  in  the  fruit.  Flee  from  the  tree  on  which 
she  banquets,  to  the  tree  of  life,  the  despised  cross  of  Jesus  ;  and 
there  feed  on  Him  crucified,  till  you  are  crucified  with  him ;  till  the 
body  of  sin  is  destroyed,  and  you  feel  eternal  life  abundantly  circu- 
lating through  all  your  sanctified  powers. 

And  ye,  uncorrupted,  self-denying  followers  of  Jesus,  whom  love 
and  duty  still  compel  to  bear  your  cross  after  him,  join  to  pray  that 
the  Watcher  and  his  holy  ones  may  come  down  from  heaven,  and  cry 
aloud.  Hew  down  the  tree  of  Antinomianism  ;  cut  off"  its  branches, 
shake  off  its  leaves,  scatter  its  fruit,  and  let  not  even  the  stump  of  its 
roots  be  left  in  the  earth.     Your  prayer  is  heard  : 

He  comes  !  he  eomes  !  the  Judge  severe  !, 
The  seventh  trumpet  speaks  bjm  near. 


154  SECOND    CHECK 

Behold,  he  appears  in  his  glory,  with  ten  thousand  of  his  saints^  to 
execute  judgment  upon  all.  The  thrones  are  cast  down ;  the  Ancient  of 
Days  doth  sit,  whose  garment  is  white  as  snow,  and  the  hair  of  his  head 
like  pure  wool :  his  throne  is  like  the  fiery  flame,  and  his  wheels  as 
burning  fire.  A  fiery  stream  issues,  and  comes  forth  from  before  him : 
thousand  thousands  minister  unto  him,  and  ten  thousand  times  ten 
thousand  stand  before  him.  The  trumpet  sounds :  the  sea  gives  up  the 
dead  which  are  in  it,  death  and  hades  deliver  up  the  dead  which  are  in 
them.  The  just  are  separated  from  the  unjust ;  and  while  the  earth 
and  the  heaven  flee  away  from  the  face  of  him  that  sits  on  the  great 
resplendent'  throne,  and  there  is  found  no  place  for  them ;  the  judg- 
ment is  set,  the  books  are  opened,  and  the  dead,  small  and  great,  are 
judged,  every  one  according  to  their  works.^^ 

Fear  not,  ye  righteous.  Te  are  in  the  hand  of  the  Lord,  and  there 
shall  no  torment  touch  you.  In  the  sight  of  the  unwise  ye  seemed  to  die  : 
they  laughed  at  your,  dying  daily:  hut  ye  are  in  peace,  and  your  joy 
is  full  of  immortality.  Having  been  a  little  chastised,  you  shall  be 
greatly  rewarded ;  for  God  proved  you  and  found  you  worthy  for 
himself.  And  now  that  the  time  of  your  visitation  is  come,  judge  the 
the  nations,  and  reign  with  your  Lord  for  ever;  for  such  as  are 
faithful  in  love  shall  abide  with  him ;  grace  and  mercy  are  to  his  saints, 
and  he  careth  for  his  elect :  he  sets  his  sheep  on  his  right  hand,  and 
stretching  it  towards  them  with  ravishing  looks  of  benignity  and 
love,  he  finally  justifies  by  works,  those  whom  he  freely  justified  by 
faith.     How  sublime  and  solemn  is  the  sentence  ! 

Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you 
from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  For  I  was  hungry  and  ye  gave  me 
meat ;  I  was  thirsty  and  ye  gave  me  drink ;  I  was  a  stranger  and  ye 
took  me  in ;  naked  and  ye  clothed  me :  I  was  sick  and  ye  visited  me ; 
1  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  to  me. — And  do  not  ask  with  astonishment 
when  you  gave  me  all  these  tokens  of  your  love  ;  for  whatever  you 
did  out  of  regard  to  me,  my  law,  and  my  people,  you  did  it  in  my 
name ;  and  whatever  you  did  in  my  name  to  the  least  of  my  crea- 
tures, and  in  particular  to  the  least  of  these  my  brethre7i,  you  did  it 
unto  me. 

As  if  he  said,  "  Think  not  that  I  am  biassed  by  lawless  partiality. 
No  :  I  am  the  Author  of  eternal  salvation  to  them  that  obeyed  me,  and 
made  a  right  use  of  my  sanctifying  blood.  Such  are  the  blessed  of  my 
Father;  and  such  are  ye.  Your  faith  unfeigned  produced  unfeigned 
love  :  you  loved  not  in  word  only,  but  in  deed  and  in  truth ;  witness 
the  works  of  mercy  that  adorned  your  lives,  or  the  fruits  of  the 
Spirit  that  now  replenish  your  souls.     You,  of  all  the  families  of  the 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  155 

earth,  have  I  known  with  approbation.  Ye  have  not  denied  me  in 
works;  or  if  ye  have,  bitter  repentance,  and  purifying,  renovating 
faith,  followed  your  denial ;  and  by  keeping  that  faith,  ye  continued  in 
my  covenant,  and  endured  unto  the  end. 

"  Thou  seest  it,  righteous  Father,  for  to  thee  the  books  are 
always  open.  Thou  readest  my  laws  in  their  minds,  and  beholdest 
my  loving  precepts  written  in  their  hearts  :  I  therefore  confess 
(hem  before  thee;  and  before  you,  my  angels,  who  have  seen  them 
agonize,  and  follow  me  through  the  regeneration.  I  take  the 
new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  to  witness,  that  I  am  to  them  a  God, 
and  they  are  to  me  a  people.  Tliey  walked  worthy  of  God,  who 
called  them  to  his  kingdom  and  glory ;  therefore  they  are  worthy  of 
me." 

*'  I  have  confessed  your  persons,  O  ye  just  men  made  perfect.-  Ye 
precious  jewels  of  my  mediatorial  crown;  let  me  next  reward  your 
works.  In  the  days  of  my  flesh  I  declared,  that  a  cup  of  water  given 
in  my  name  (and  my  name,  ye  know,  is  Mercy,  Goodness,  and  Love) 
should  in  nowise  lose  its  reward ;  and  that  whosoever  should  forsake 
earthly  friends  or  property  for  righteousness'  sake,  should  have  a 
hundred-fold,  and  everlasting  life.  The  pillars  of  heaven  have  given 
way  ;  but  my  promise  stands  firm  as  the  basis  of  my  throne.  Triumph 
in  ray  faithfulness,  as  you  have  in  my  forgiving  love.  I  bestow  on 
all  crowns  of  blissful  immortality;  I  appoint  unto  each  a  kingdom 
which  shall  not  be  destroyed.  Be  kings  and  priests  unto  God  for 
ever.  Prepare  to  follow  me  to  the  realms  of  glory,  and  there  whatso- 
ever is  right  (J'iKcttov)  that  shall  ye  receive;  in  just  proportion  to  the 
various  degrees  of  perfection,  with  which  you  have  obeyed  my  law, 
and  improved  your  talents.'* 

Thus  are  the  persons  of  the  righteous  accepted,  and  their  works 
praised  in  the  gate  of  heaven,  and  rewarded  in  the  kingdom  of  their 
Father.  Thus  they  receive  crowns  of  life  and  glory  ;  but  it  is  only 
to  cast  them,  to  all  eternity,  with  unutterable  transports,  grateful 
humble  love,  at  the  feet  of  him  who  was  crowned  with  pierc- 
ing thorns,  and  hung  bleeding  upon  the  cross,  to  purchase  their 
thrones. 

While  they  shout  Salvation  to  God  and  the  Lamb !  the  Judge  turns 
to  the  left  hand,  where  trembling  myriads  stand  waiting  for  their  fear- 
ful doom.  O  how  does  confusion  cover  their  faces,  and  guilty  horror 
rack  their  breasts,  while  he  says,  with  the  firmness  of  the  eternal 
Lawgiver,  and  the  majesty  of  the  Lord  of  Lords  ;  Depart  from  me, 
ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels  ! 
For  I  was  hungry,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat ;  /  was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave 


156  SECOND    CHECK 

me  no  drink :  I  was  a  stranger,  and  ye  took  me  not  in ;  naked,  and  ye 
clothed  me  not ;  sick  and  in  prison,  and  ye  visited  me  not  /* 

Some  are  not  yet  speechless  ; — they  only  falter.  With  the  trembling 
insolence  of  Adani,  not  yet  driven  out  of  Paradise,  they  even  dare  to 
plead  their  desperate  cause.  While  stubborn  sons  of  Belial  say, 
"  Lord,  thy  Father  is  merciful ;  and  if  thou  did^t  die  for  all,  why  not 
for  ws.^"  While  obstinate  Pharisees  plead  the  good  they  did  in  their 
own  name,  to  supersede  the  Redeemer's  merit ;  methinks  I  hear  a 
bold  Antinomian  addressing  thus  the  Lord  of  glory: 

"  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  hungry,  or  athirst,  or  a  stranger,  or  naked,  or 
sick,  or  in  prison,  and  did  not  minister  to  thee  ?  Had  we  seen  thee,  dear 
Lord,  in  any  distress,  how  gladly  would  we  have  relieved  thy  wants  I 
Numbers  can  witness  how  well  we  spoke  of  thee  and  thy  righteous- 
ness :  it  was  all  our  boast.  Bring  it  out  in  this  important  hour.  Hide 
not  the  Gospel  of  thy  free  grace.  We  always  delighted  in  pure  doc- 
trine— in  '  Salvation  without  any  condition  ;  especially  without  the 
condition  of  works.'  Stand,  gracious  Lord,  stand  by  us,  and  the 
preachers  of  thy  free  grace,  who  made  us  hope  thou  wouldest  con- 
firm their  word. 

"  While  they  taught  us  to  call  thee  Lord,  Lord,  they  assured  us 
that  love  would  constrain  us  to  do  good  works  ;  but  finding  no  inward 
constraint  to  entertain  strangers,  visit  the  sick,  and  relieve  prisoners, 
we  did  it  not ;  supposing  we  were  not  called  thereto.  They  contiually 
told  us,  '  human  righteousness  was  mere  filth   before  thee  ;  and   we 

*  Should  some  sincere  followers  of  Christ  read  these  lines,  and  be  convinced  they  never 
visited  Christ  in  prison,  never  entertained  him  as  a  stranger,  &c.  it  is  proper  they  should 
be  humbled  for  having  overlooked  this  important  part  of  pure  religion ;  and  consider  next 
how  far  it  is  in  their  power  literally  to  practise  it.  Some  live  at  a  great  distance  from 
prisons,  and  are  necessarily  detained  at  home.  Some  (as  women)  could  not,  in  many 
places,  visit  prisoners  with  decency.  Others  are  altogether  unable  to  do  good  to  the  souls 
or  bodies  of  the  sick  and  captives,  being  themselves  sick,  poor,  and  confined.  If  thou  art 
in  any  of  these  cases,  believer,  canst  not  thou  influence  others  to  do  what  is  out  of  thy 
power  ?  Canst  thou  not  send  the  relief  thou  art  unable  to  carry,  and  show  thy  good-wil)  by 
cutting  off  thy  superfluities,  sparing  some  of  thy  conveniencies,  and  at  times  a  little  of  thy 
necessaries,  for  thy  sick,  naked,  hungry,  or  imprisoned  Lord  ?  If  thou  art  so  indigent  and 
infirm,  that  thou  canst  absolutely  do  nothing  for  the  bodies  of  thy  fellow-creatiires,  endea- 
vour to  do  works  of  mercy  for  their  souls  ;  exhort,  reprove,  comfort,  instrutt,  as  thou  canst, 
all  around  thee,  in  meekness  of  wisdom.  If  thou  canst  do  works  of  mercy,  neither  with 
thy  tongue,  hands,  nor  feet,  then  be  the  more  diligent  to  do  them  with  thy  heart.  In 
spirit,  visit  prisons  and  sick  beds.  If  thou  hast  no  house  to  take  in  strangers,  open  to  them 
thy  heart ;  earnestly  recommend  them  to  God,  who  can  supply  all  their  wants,  and  open 
to  them  the  gate  of  heaven,  when  they  lie  under  a  hedge  ;  as  he  once  did  to  Jacob  in  the 
fields  of  Bethel.  Give  thy  heart  continually  to  the  Lord,  and  thou  givest  more  than  a 
mountain  of  gold  ;  and  the  moment  thou  canst  give  a  cup  of  water  in  his  name,  bestow  it 
as  freely  as  he  did  his  blood;  remembering,  "  God  loves  a  cheerful  giver,  and  that  it  i* 
accepted  according  to  what  a  man  hath,  and  not  according  to  what  he  hath  not." 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  157 

could  not  appear  but  to  our  everlasting  shame,  in  any  righteousness 
but  thine,  in  the  day  of  judgment.'  As  to  works,  we  were  afraid  of 
doing  them,  lest  we  should  have  worked  out  abomination  instead  of 
0U7'  salvation.  ^ 

«'  And  indeed.  Lord,  what  need  was  there  of  our  working  it  out? 
For  they  perpetually  assured  us,  it  was  finished ;  saying,  if  we  did 
any  thing  towards  it,  we  worked  for  life,  fell  from  grace  like  the  be- 
witched Galatians,  spoiled  thy  perfect  work ;  and  exposed  ourselves 
to  the  destruction  which  awaits  yonder  trembling  Pharisees. 

''  They  likewise  assured  us,  that  all  depended  on  thy  decrees  ;  and 
if  we  could  but  firmly  believe  our  election,  it  was  a  sure  sign  we  were 
interested  in  thy  salvation.  We  did  so,  and  now,  Lord,  for  the  sake 
of  a  few  dung-works  we  have  omitted,  let  not  our  hope  perish !  Let 
not  electing  and  everlasting  love  fail !  Visit  our  offences  with  a  rod, 
but  take  not  thy  loving  kindness  altogether  from  us  :  and  break  not 
David's  covenant,  ordered  in  all  things  and  sure,  of  which  we  have 
so  often  made  our  boast. 

"  May  it  please  thee  also  to  consider,  that  if  we  did  not  love  and 
assist  some  of  those  whom  thou  callest  thy  brethren,  it  was  because 
they  appeared  to  us  so  exceedingly  legal  ;  so  strongly  set  against  free 
grace,  that  we  judged  them  to  be  obstinate  Pharisees,  and  dangerous 
reprobates.  We  therefore  thought  that  in  hating  and  opposing  them, 
we  did  thee  service,  and  walked  in  thy  steps.  For  thou  hast  said.  It 
is  enough  if  the  servant  is  as  his  Lord;  and  supposing  thou  didst  hate 
them,as  thou  dost  Satan  ;  we  thought  we  need  not  be  more  righteous 
than  thou,  by  loving  them  more  than  thou  didst. 

"  O  suffer  us  to  speak  on,  and  tell  thee,  we  were  champions  for  thy 
free  grace.  Like  true  Protestants,  we  could  have  burned  against  the 
doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by  works.  Let  then  grace  justify 
us  freely  without  works.  Shut  those  books*  filled  with  the  account  of 
our  deeds,  open  the  arms  of  thy  mercy,  and  receive  us  just  as  we 
are. 

"  If  free  grace  cannot  justify  us  alone,  ]et  faith  do  it,  together  with 
free  grace.  We  do  believe  finished  salvation,  Lord  ;  we  can  join  in 
the  most  evangelical  creeds,  and  are  ready  to  confess  the  virtue  of 
thy  atoning  blood.  But  if  thou  say  est,  we  have  trampled  it  under 
foot,  and  made  it  a  common  thing,  grant  our  last  request,  and  it  is 
enough. 

*  This  plea  is  excellent  when  a  man  comes  to  Christ,  his  High-priest,  as  a  sinner  fov 
pardon  and  holiness,  or  for  his  first  justification  on  earth ;  but  it  will  be  absurd  when  he 
stands  before  the  throne  of  Christ  as  a  rebellious  subject,  or  before  his  judgment-seat,  as  a 
criminal  in  the  last  d*y. 

Vol.  I.  21 


158  SECOND  CHECK 

**  Cut  out  the  immaculate  garment  of  thy  righteousness  into  robes 
that  may  fit  us  all,  and  put  them  upon  us  by  imputation :  so  shall  our 
nakedness  be  gloriously  covered.  We  confess  we  have  not  dealt  our 
bread  to  the  hungry  ;  but  impute  to  us  thy  feeding  5000  people  with 
loaves  and  fishes.  We  have  seldom  given  drink  to  the  thirsty,  and 
often  put  our  bottle  to  those  who  were  not  athirst :  but  impute  to  us 
thy  turning  water  into  wine,  to  refresh  the  guests  at  the  marriage 
feast  in  Cana  ;  and  thy  loud  call,  in  the  last  day  of  the  feast  at  Jeru- 
salem ;  If  any  man  thirst,  let  him  come  to  me  and  drink  !  We  never 
supposed  it  was  our  duty  to  he  given  to  hospitality;  but  impute  to  us 
thy  loving  invitations  to  strangers,  thy  kind  assurances  of  receiving 
all  that  come  to  thee ;  thy  comfortable  promises  of  casting  out  none^  and 
of  feeding  them  even  with  thy  flesh  and  blood.  We  did  not  clothe 
the  naked  as  we  had  opportunity  and  ability  :  but  impute  to  us  thy 
patient  parting  with  thy  seamless  garment,  for  the  benefit  of  thy 
murderers.  We  did  not  visit  sick  beds  and  prisons,  we  were  afraid 
of  fevers,  and  especially  of  the  jail  distemper  :  but  compassionately 
impute  to  us  thy  visiting  Jairus's  daughter,  and  Peter's  wife's  mother, 
who  lay  sick  of  a  fever ;  and  put  to  our  account  thy  visiting  putrefy- 
ing Lazarus  in  the  offensive  prison  of  the  grave. 

"  Thy  imputed  righteousness,  Lord,  can  alone  answer  all  the 
demands  of  thy  law  and  Gospel.  We  did  not  dare  to  fast;  we  should 
have  been  called  legal  and  Papists  if  we  had  ;  but  thy  forty  days 
fasting  in  the  wilderness,  and  thy  continual  abstinence  imputed  to  us, 
will  be  self-denial  enough  to  justify  us  ten  times  over.  We  did  not 
take  up  our  cross;  but  impute  to  us  thy  carrying  thine  :  and  even 
fainting  under  the  oppressive  load.  We  did  not  mortify  the  deeds  of 
the  flesh,  that  we  might  live:  this  would  have  been  evidently  "  work- 
ing for  life  ;"  but  impute  to  us  the  crucifixion  of  thy  body  instead  of 
our  crucifying  our  flesh  with  its  affections  and  lusts.  We  hated  private 
prayer ;  but  impute  to  us  thy  love  of  that  duty,  and  the  prayer  thou 
didst  offer  upon  a  mountain  all  night.  We  have  been  rather  hard  to 
forgive,  but  that  defect  will  be  abundantly  made  up,  if  thou  impute 
to  us  thy  forgiving  of  the  dying  thief:  and  if  that  will  not  do,  add, 
we  beseech  thee,  the  merit  of  that  good  saying  of  thine.  Forgive,  and 
you  shall  be  forgiven.  We  have  cheated  the  king  of  his  customs  ; 
but  no  matter,  only  impute  to  us  thy  exact  paying  of  the  tribute 
money,  together  with  thy  good  advice,  Render  unto  Cesar  the  things 
which  are  Cesar^s. 

*'  It  is  true,  we  have  brought  up  our  children  in  vanity,  and  thou 
never  hadst  any  to  bring  up.  May  not  thy  mercy  find  out  an  expe- 
dient, and  impute  to  us  instead  of  it,  thy  obedience  to  thy  parents  ? 


TO    ANTIN0MIANI9M.  159 

And  it*  we  have  received  the  sacrament  unworthily,  and  thou  canst 
not  cover  that  sin  with  thy  worthy  receiving,  indulge  us  with  the 
imputation  of  thy  worthy  institution  of  it,  and  that  will  do  yet 
better. 

«'  In  short,  Lord,  own  us  freely  as  thy  children.  Impute  to  us  thy 
perfect  righteousness.  Cast  it  as  a  cloak  upon  us,  to  cover  our  filthy 
souls  and  polluted  bodies.  '  We  will  have  no  righteousness  but 
thine  :'  make  no  mention,  we  beseech  thee,  of  our  righteousness  and 
personal  holiness;  they  are  hni  filthy  rags,  which  thy  purity  forbids 
thee  to  fake  into  heaven  ;  therefore  accept  us  without,  and  we  shall 
shout  free  grace,  imputed  righteousness,  and  finished  salvation,  to 
eternity." 

While  the  bold  Antinomian  offers,  or  prepares  to  offer,  this  most 
impious  plea,  the  Lord,  who  is  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity, 
casts  a  flaming  look  upon  all  the  obstinate  violators  of  his  law.  It 
pierces  their  conscience,  rouses  all  its  drowsy  powers,  and  restores 
their  memory  to  its  original  perfection.  Not  one  wish  passed  their 
heart,  or  thought  their  brain,  but  is  instantly  brought  to  their  remem- 
brance :  the  books  are  opened  in  their  own  breast,  and  every  cha- 
racter has  a  voice  which  answers  to  the  voice  of  the  Lion  of  the  tribe 
of  Jndah. 

"  Shall  I  pervert  judgment,"  says  he,  '*  and  justify  the  wicked  for  a 
bribe  ?  The  bribe  of  your  abominable  praises  ?  Think  you,  by  your 
base  flatteries,  to  escape  the  righteous  judgment  of  God?  Is  not  my 
wrath  revealed  from  heaven  against  all  ungodliness,  and  unrighteous- 
ness of  men,  who  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness  ?  Much  more  against 
you,  ye  vessels  of  wrath;  who  hold  an  impious  absurdity  in  matchless 
insolence. 

"  Said  I  not  to  Cain  himself  at  the  beginning.  If  thou  doest  well, 
shall  thou  not  be  accepted?  Personal  hoHness,  which  ye  scorned,  is 
the  wedding  garment  I  now  look  for.  I  swear  in  my  wrath  that, 
without  it,  none  shall  taste  of  my  heavenly  supper.  Ye  have  rejected 
my  word  of  commandment,  and  /  reject  you  from  being  kings.  Ye 
cried  unto  me,  and  I  delivered  you.  Yet  have  ye  forsaken  me  and 
served  other  gods ;  therefore  I  will  deliver  you  no  more :  go  and  cry 
unto  the  gods  whom  ye  have  chosen.  I  wound  the  hairy  scalp  of  such  as 
have  gone  on  still  in  their  wickedness.  Whosoever  hath  sinned  against 
me  [to  the  last,]  him  do  I  blot  out  of  my  book :  and  this  have  you  done. 
Ye  serpents,  ye  generation  of  vipers,  awake  to  everlasting  shame! — Will 
ye  set  the  briers  and  thorns  against  me  in  battle,  and  make  them  pass 
for  roses  of  Sharon,  and  lilies  of  the  valleys  ?  I  will  go  through  them 
with  a  look,  and  consume  them  together.     The  day  is  come  that  burneth 


160  SECOND    CHECK 

like  an  oven:  all  that  have  done  wickedly  are  stubble,  and  must  be 
burnt  up  root  and  branch.  Upon  such  I  rain  snares,  fire  and  brimstone  ; 
storm  and  tempest:  this  is  the  portion  of  their  cup.  Drink  the  dregs 
of  it.  Ye  hypocrites,  depart !  And  wring  them  out  in  everlasting 
burnings. 

*'  Said  I  not.  He  that  does  good  is  of  God,  but  he  that  does  evil  is  not 
of  God :  be  faithfd  unto  death,  and  I  rvill  give  you  the  croztm  of  life ; 
for  he  that  overcometh  [and  he  only,]  shall  be  clothed  in  white  raimetit, 
and  I  will  not  blot  out  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life.  And  shall  I 
keep  your  name  in  that  book  for  having  continued  in  doing  evil  ?  Shall 
I  give  you  the  crown  of  life  for  having  been  unfaithful  unto  death  ; 
and  clothe  you  with  the  bright  robes  of  my  glory,  because  you  defiled 
your  garments  to  the  last  ?  Delusive  hope  !  Because  your  mind  was 
not  to  do  good,  be  ye  rather  clothed  with  cursing,  like  as  with  a  gar- 
ment !  Let  it  come  into  your  bowels  like  water,  and  like  oil  into  your 
bones  V^ 

VII.  If  these  shall  go  into  eternal  punishment;  if  such  will  be  the 
dreadful  end  of  all  the  impenitent  Nicolaitans ;  if  our  churches  and 
chapels  swarm  with  them  ;  if  they  crowd  our  communion-tables  ;  if 
they  are  found  in  most  of  our  houses,  and  too  many  of  our  pulpits  : 
if  the  seeds  of  their  fatal  disorder  are  in  all  our  breasts  ;  if  they 
produce  Antinomianism  around  us  in  all  its  forms  ;  if  we  see  bold 
Antinomians  in  principle,  barefaced  Antinomians  in  practice,  and  sly 
Pharisaical  Antinomians,  who  speak  well  of  the  law,  to  break  it  with 
greater  advantage  ;  should  not  every  one  examine  himself  whether  he 
be  in  the  faith,  and  whether  he  have  a  holy  Christ  in  his  heart,  as 
well  as  a  sweet  Jesus  upon  his  tongue  ;  lest  he  should  one  day  swell 
the  tribe  of  Antinomian  reprobates  ?  Does  it  not  become  every 
minister  of  Christ  to  drop  his  prejudices,  and  consider  whether  he 
ought  not  to  imitate  the  old  watchman,  who  fifteen  months  ago  gave 
a  legal  alarm  to  all  the  watchmen  that  are  in  connexion  with  him  ? 
And  should  we  not  do  the  church  excellent  service,  if  agreeing  to  lift 
up  our  voices  together  against  the  common  enemy,  we  gave  God  no 
rest  in  prayer,  and  our  hearts  in  preaching,  till  we  all  did  our  first 
works,  and  our  latter  end,  like  Job's,  exceeded  our  beginning? 

Near  forty  years  ago,  some  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  in  our 
ohurch,  were  called  out  of  the  extreme  of  self-righteousness.  Flee- 
ing from  it,  we  have  run  into  the  opposite,  with  equal  violence.  Now 
that  we  have  learned  wisdom  by  ivhat  we  have  suffered,  in  going 
beyoud  the  limhs  of  truth  both  ways,  let  us  return  to  a  just  scrip- 
tural medium.  Let  us  equally  maintain  the  two  evangelical  axioms 
on  which  the  Gospel  is  founded  ;  1.  *'  AH  our  salvation  is  of  God  by 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  161 

free  grace,  through  the  alone  merits  of  Christ."     And  2.  "  All  our 
damnation  is  of  ourselves,  through  our  avoidable  unfaithfulness." 

This  second  truth,  as  important  as  one  half  of  the  Bible,  on 
which  it  rests,  has  not  only  been  set  aside  as  useless  by  thousands, 
but  generally  exploded  as  unscriptural,  dangerous,  and  subversive  of 
true  Protestantism.  Thus  has  the  Gospel  balance  been  broken,  and 
St.  James's  pure  religion  despised.  What  we  owe  to  truth  in  a  state 
of  oppression,  hath  engaged  rae  to  cast  in  two  mites  into  the  scale  of 
truth,  which  Mr.  W.  has  the  courage  to  defend  against  multitudes  of 
good  men,  who  keep  one  another  in  countenance  under  their  com- 
mon mistake.  I  do  not  want  his  scale  to  preponderate  to  the  disad- 
vantage of  free  grace  :  if  it  did,  far  from  rejoicing  in  it,  I  would 
instantly  throw  the  insignificant  weight  of  my  pen  into  the  other  scale ; 
being  fully  persuaded  that  Christ  can  never  be  so  truly  honoured,  nor 
souls  so  well  edified,  when  we  overdo,  on  either  side  of  the  question, 
as  when  we  scripturally  maintain  the  whole  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus. 

"  But  are  we  not  in  as  much  danger  from  overdoing  in  Pharisaic 
works,  as  in  Antinomian  faith  '/" 

Not  at  present :  The  stream  runs  too  rapidly  on  the  side  of  law- 
less faith,  to  leave  any  just  room  to  fear  we  shall  be  immediately 
carried  into  excessive  working.  There  would  be  some  ground  for 
this  objection,  if  we  saw  most  professors  of  religion  obstinately 
refusing  to  drink  any  thing  but  water,  eat  any  thing  but  dry  bread 
or  cheap  vegetables :  fasting  themselves  into  mere  skeletons  ;  wear- 
ing sackcloth  instead  of  soft  linen  ;  lying  on  the  bare  ground,  with  a 
stone  for  their  pillow  ;  imitating  Origen,  by  literally  making  them- 
selves eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaveji^s  sake ;  turning  hermits, 
spending  whole  nights  in  contemplation  in  churches  and  church- 
yards ;  giving  away  all  their  goods,  the  necessaries  of  life  not  ex- 
cepted ;  allowing  themselves  only  three  or  four  hours'  sleep,  and 
even  breaking  that  short  rest  to  pray  or  praise  ;  overpowering  their 
bodies  the  next  day  with  hard  labour,  to  keep  them  under  ;  scourging 
their  backs  unto  blood  every  day ;  or  forgetting  themselves  ia 
prayer  for  hours  in  the  coldest  weather,  till  they  had  almost  lost  the 
use  of  their  limbs.  But  I  ask  any  unprejudiced  person,  who  knows 
what  is  now  called  "  Gospel  liberty,"  whether  we  are  in  danger  of 
being  thus  righteous  overmuch,  or  legal  to  such  an  extreme  ? 

I  grant,  however,  we  are  not  absolutely  safe  from  any  quarter :  Ie| 
us  therefore  continually  stand  on  our  guard.  The  right  wing  of 
Emmanuel's  army,  which  defends  living  faith,  is  partly  gone  over  to 
the  enemy,  and  fights  under  the  Nicolaitan  banner.  The  left  wing, 
which  defends  good  works,  is  far  from  being  out  of  the  reach  of 


162  SECOND  CHECK 

those  crafty  adversaries.  Therefore,  as  we  arc,  or  may  be  attacked 
on  every  side,  let  us  faithfully  use  the  word  of  truth,  the  power  of 
Godf  and  the  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left. 
Let  us  gallantly  fly  where  the  attack  is  the  hottest,  which  now,  in 
the  religious  worlds  is  evidently  where  gross  Crispianity  (if  I  may  use 
the  word)  is  continually  obtruded  upon  us  as  true  Christianity :  I  say, 
in  the  religious  world;  for^  in  this  controversy,  what  have  I  to  do  to 
judge  them  also  that  are  zmthout  ?  Do  not  ye  judge  them  thai  are  within^ 
and  represent  them  as  opposers  of  free  grace  ? 

Should  Pharisees,  while  we  are  engaged  in  repelling  the  Nico- 
laitans,  try  to  rob  us  of  present  and  free  justification  hy  faith,  under 
pretence  of  maintaining  justification  by  works  in  the  last  day ;  or 
should  they  set  us  upon  unnecessary  and  unscriptural  works,  we 
shall  be  glad  of  your  assistance  to  repel  them  also. 

If  you  grant  it  us,  and  do  not  despise  ours,  the  world  shall  admire 
in  the  Shulamite  (the  church  at  unity  in  herself)  the  company  of  two 
armies^  ready  mutually  to  support  each  other  against  the  opposite 
attacks  of  the  Pharisees  and  the  Nicolaitans  ;  the  Popish  workers 
who  exclude  the  Gospel,  and  the  modern  Gnostics,  the  Protestant 
Antinomians,  who  explode  the  law. 

May  the  Lord  God  help  us  to  sail  safely  through  these  opposite 
rocks,  keeping  at  an  equal  distance  from  both,  by  taking  Christ  for 
our  pilot,  and  the  Scripture  for  our  compass  !  So  shall  we  enter  full 
sail  the  double  haven  of  present  and  eternal  rest.  Once  we  were  in 
immediate  danger  of  splitting  upon  works^  without  faith :  now  we 
are  threatened  with  destruction  from  faith  without  works.  Mdiy  the 
merciful  Keeper  of  Israel  save  us  from  both,  by  a  living  faiths 
legally  productive  of  all  good  works,  or  by  good  works,  evangelically 
springing  from  a  living  faith !  • 

Should  the  divine  blessing  upon  these  sheets,  bring  one  single 
reader  a  step  towards  that  good  old  way,  or  only  confirm  one  single 
believer  in  it,  I  shall  be  rewarded  a  hundred  fold  for  this  little  labour 
of  love ;  and  I  shall  be  even  content  to  see  it  represented  as  the 
invidious  labour  of  malice  :  for  what  is  my  reputation  to  the  profit 
of  one  blood-bought  soul ! 

Beseeching  you,  dear  Sir,  for  whom  these  letters  are  first  intended, 
to  set  me  right  where  I  am  wrong;  and  hot  to  despise  what  may 
jrecommend  itself  in  them  to  reason  and  conscience,  on  account  of 
the  blunt  and  Helvetic  manner  in  which  they  are  written,  I  remain, 
with  sincere  respect,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Sir,  your  affectionate  and 
obedient  servant  in  the  practical  Gospel  of  Christ, 

J.  F. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  163 


POSTSCRIPT, 


JSlNCE  these  Letters  were  sent  to  press,  I  have  seen  a  pamphlet, 
entitled  *'  A  Conversation  between  Rischard  Hill,  Esq.,  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Madan,  and  Father  Walsh,"  a  Monk  at  Paris,  who  condemned 
Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes  as  "  too  near  Pelagianism,"  and  the  author  as 
**  a  Pelagian  ;"  adding,  that  '*  their  doctrine  was  a  great  deal  nearer 
that  of  the  Protestants."  Hence  the  editor  concludes,  that  "  the 
principles  in  the  extract  of  the  Minutes  are  too  rotten  even  for  a 
Papist  to  rest  upon,  and  supposes  that  Popery  is  about  the  midway 
between  Protestantism  and  Mr.  J.  Wesley."  I  shall  just  make  a  few 
strictures  upon  that  performance. 

1.  If  an  Arian  came  to  me,  and  said:  You  believe  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  God  over  all,  blessed  for  ever.  "  Pelagius,  that  heretic  who 
was  publicly  excommunicated  by  the  whole  Catholic  church,"  was 
of  your  sentiment ;  therefore  you  are  a  Pelagian ;  give  up  your 
heresy.  Should  I,  upon  such  an  assertion,  give  up  the  Godhead  of 
our  Saviour?  Certainly  not.  And  shall  I,  upon  a  similar  argument, 
advanced  by  the  help  of  a  French  Monk,  give  up  truths  with  which 
the  practical  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  must  stand  or  fall  ?    God  forbid ! 

2.  We  desire  to  be  confronted  with  all  the  pious  Protestant 
divines,  except  those  of  Dr.  Crisp's  class,  who  are  a  party.  But 
who  would  believe  it?  The  suffrage  of  a  Papist  ib  brought  against 
us!  Astonishing!  That  our  opposers  should  think  it  worth  their 
while  to  raise  one  recruit  against  us  in  the  immense  city  of  Paris, 
where  fifty  thousand  might  be  raised  against  the  Bible  itself! 

3.  So  long  as  Christ,  the  prophets,  and  apostles  are  for  us, 
together  with  the  multitude  of  the  Puritan  divines  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, we  shall  smile  at  an  army  of  Popish  Friars.  The  knotted 
whips  that  hang  by  their  sides,  will  no  more  frighten  us  from  our 
Bibles,  than  the  ipse  dixit  of  a  benedictine  Monk  will  make  us 
explode,  as  heretical,  propositions  which  are  demonstrated  to  be 
scriptural. 

4.  An  argument  which  has  been  frequently  used  of  late  against 
the  Anticalvinist  divines  is,  This  is  downright  Popery  !  This  is  worse 
than  Popery  itself!  And  honest  Protestants  have  been  driven  by  it  to 
embrace  doctrines  which  were  once  no  less  contrary  to  the  dictates  of 
their  consciences,  than  they  are  still  to  the  word  of  God.     It  is  pro- 


164  SECOND  CHECK 

per,  theiflefore,  such  persons  should  be  informed,  that  Augustin,  the 
Calvin  of  the  fourth  century,  is  one  of  the  saints  whom  the  Popes 
have  in  the  highest  veneration  ;  and  that  a  great  number  of  Friars 
in  the  church  of  Rome  are  champions  for  Calvinism,  and  oppose  St. 
Paul's  doctrine,  that  the  grace  of  God  bringing  salvation  has  appeared 
wito  all  men,  as  strenuously  as  some  real  Protestants  among  us.  Now, 
if  good  Father  Walsh  be  one  of  that  stamp,  what  wonder  is  it  that 
he  should  so  well  agree  with  the  gentlemen  who  consulted  him  !  If 
Calvinism  and  Protestantism  are  synonymous  terms,  as  some  divines 
would  make  us  believe,  many  Monks  may  well  say,  that  "  their  doc- 
trine is  a  great  deal  nearer  that  of  the  Protestants,"  than  the 
Minutes  ;  for  they  may  even  pass  for  real  Protestants. 

5.  But  whether  the  good  Friar  be  a  hot  Jansenist,  or  only  a  warm 
Thomist,  (so  they  call  the  Popish  Calvinists  in  France)  we  appeal 
from  his  bar  to  the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  from  the  published 
Conversation,  to  the  law  and  the  testimony.  What  is  the  decision  of  a 
Popish  Monk  to  the  express  declarations  of  the  Scripture,  the  dic- 
tates of  common  sense,  the  experience  of  regenerate  souls,  and  the 
writings  of  a  cloud  of  Protestant  divines  ?  No  more  than  a  grain  of 
loose  sand  to  the  soUd  rock  on  which  the  church  is  founded. 

I  hope  the  Gentlemen  concerned  in  the  Conversation  lately  pub- 
lished, will  excuse  the  liberty  of  this  Postscript.  I  reverence  their 
piety,  rejoice  in  their  labours,  and  honour  their  warm  zeal  for  the 
Protestant  cause.  But  that  very  zeal,  if  not  accompanied  with  a  close 
attention  to  every  part  of  the  Gospel  truth,  may  betray  them  into 
mistakes  which  may  spread  as  far  as  their  respectable  names  ;  I 
think  it  therefore  my  duty  to  publish  these  strictures,  lest  any  of  my 
readers  should  pay  more  attention  to  the  good-natured  Friar,  who  has 
been  pressed  into  the  service  of  Dr.  Crisp,  than  to  St.  John,  St.  Paul, 
St.  James,  and  Jesus  Christ,  on  whose  plain  declarations  I  have 
shown  that  the  Minutes  are  founded. 


THIRD  CHECK 


^iriiM^Mi  Asri^M  I 


IN 


.4  LETTER 


AUTHOR  OF  PIETAS  OXONIENSIS. 


THE  riJ^DICJ^TOR 


OF  THE 


mm^  sasj^  wmmM^^^  wmmsm-s 


-»®«r- 


Keprore,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  lon^sufferlng  and  [scriptural]  doctrine;  for  the  time  will 
come  when  they  will  not  endure  sound  doctrine.  ^  Tim.  iv.  2,  3. 

Wherefore  rebuke  them  sharply,  that  they  may  he  smmd  in  the  faith.    But  let  brotherly  love 
contiTnte.  Tit.  i.  13.    Heb.  xVn.  1. 


Vol.  1 


:1*^ 


Tlvwd  Cliec'k  to  AnUnoiin.\ai(ug\a. 


LETTER  I. 


Hofi.  and  dear  Sivy 

Accept  my  sincere  thanks  for  the  Christian  courtesy  with  which 
you  treat  me  in  your  Five  Letters.  The  title-page  informs  me 
that  a  concern-  for  "  mourning  backsliders,  and  such  as  have  been 
distressed  by  reading  Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes  or  the  Vindication  of 
them,"  has  procured  me  the  honour  of  being  called  to  a  public  cor- 
respondence with  you.  Permit  me,  dear  Sir,  to  inform  you  in  my 
turn,  that  a  fear  lest  Dr.  Crisp's  balm  should  be  applied  instead 
of  the  Balm  of  Gilead,  to  Laodicean  loiterers,  who  may  haply  have 
been  brought  to  penitential  distress,  obliges  me  to  answer  you  in  the 
same  public  manner  in  which  you  have  addressed  me. 

Some  of  our  friends  will  undoubtedly  blame  us  for  not  yet  drop- 
ping the  contested  point.  But  others  will  candidly  consider  that 
controversy,  though  not  desirable  in  itself,  yet  properly  managed, 
has  a  hundred  times  rescued  truth  groaning  under  the  lash  of  tri- 
umphant error.  We  are  indebted  to  our  Lord's  controversies  with 
the  Pharisees  and  scribes,  for  a  considerable  part  of  the  four  Gos- 
pels. And,  to  the  end  of  the  world,  the  church  will  bless  God,  for 
the  spirited  manner  in  which  St.  Paul,  in  his  epistles  to  the  Romans 
and  Galatians,  defended  the  controverted  point  of  a  believer's  pre- 
sent justification  by  faith;  as  well  as  for  the  steadiness  with  which 
St.  James,  St.  John,  St.  Peter,  and  St.  Jude,  carried  on  their  impor- 
tant controversy  with  the  Nicolaitans,  who  abused  St.  Paul's  doctrine 
to  Antinomian  purposes. 

Had  it  not  been  for  controversy,  Romish  priests  would  to  this  day 
have  fed  us  with  Latin  masses  and  a  wafer  god.  Some  bold  proposi- 
tions, advanced  by  Luther  against  the  doctrine  of  indulgencies,  unex- 
pectedly brought  on  the  Reformation.  They  were  so  irrationally 
attacked  by  the  infatuated  Papists,  and  so  scripturally  defended  by  the 


168  THIRD    CHECK 

resolute  Protestants,  that  these  kingdoms  opened  their  eyes,  and  saw 
thousands  of  images  and  errors  fall  before  the  ark  of  evangelical 
truth. 

From  what  I  have  advzmced  in  my  Second  Check,  it  appears,  if  I 
am  not  mistaken,  that  we  stand  now  as  much  in  need  of  a  reformation 
from  Antinomianism,  as  our  ancestors  did  of  a  reformation  from 
Popery ;  and  I  am  not  without  hope,  that  the  extraordinary  attack, 
which  has  lately  been  made  on  Mr.  Wesley's  anti-Crispian  proposi- 
tions, and  the  manner  in  which  they  are  defended,  will  open  the  eyes 
of  many,  and  check  the  rapid  progress  of  so  enchanting  and  perni- 
cious an  evil.  This  hope  inspires  me  with  fresh  courage  ;  and  turn- 
ing from  the  Hon.  and  Rev  Mr.  Shirley,  I  presume  to  face  (I  trust 
in  the  spirit  of  love  and  meekness)  my  new  respectable  opponent, 

I.  I  thank  you,  Sir,  fordoing  Mr.  Wesley  the  justice  in  your  first 
LETTER,  of  acknowledging,  "  that  man's  faithfulness  is  an  expression, 
which  may  be  used  in  a  sober.  Gospel  sense  of  the  words."  It  is 
just  in  such  a  sense  we  use  it ;  nor  have  you  advanced  any  proof  to 
the  contrary. 

We  never  supposed,  that  "  the  faithfulness  of  God,  and  the  stabi- 
lity of  the  covenant  of  grace,  are  affected  by  the  unfaithfulness  of 
man.  Our  Lord,  we  are  persuaded,  keeps  his  covenant,  when  he 
spews  a  lukewarm  unfaithful  Laodicean  out  of  his  mouth,  as  well  as 
when  he  says  to  the  good  and  faithful  servant,  Enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord.  For  the  same  covenant  of  grace  which  says,  He 
that  believeth  shall  he  saved; — he  that  abideth  in  me,  bringeth  forth 
much  fruit,  says  also,  He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned ; — every 
branch  in  me  that  beareth  not  fruit,  is  cast  forth  and  burned. 

Thanks  be  to  divine  grace,  we  make  our  boast  of  God''s  faithful- 
ness as  well  as  you,  though  we  take  care  not  to  charge  him,  even 
indirectly,  with  our  own  unfaithfulness.  But  from  the  words  which 
you  quote,  My  covenant  shall  stand  fast  with  his  seed,  &c.  we  see  no 
more  reason  to  conclude  that  the  obstinately  unfaithful  seed  of 
Christ,  such  as  Hymeneus,  Philetus,  and  those  who  to  the  last  tread 
under  foot  the  blood  of  the  covenant  wherewith  they  were  sanctified, 
shall  not  be  cast  off;  than  to  assert,  that  many  individuals  of  David's 
royal  family,  such  as  Absalom  and  Amnon,  were  not  cut  off  on  account 
of  their  flagrant  and  obstinate  wickedness. 

We  beseech  you,  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  a  thousand  careless 
Antinoraians,  to  remember  that  the  apostle  says  to  every  believer, 
Thou  standest  by  faith ;  behold  therefore  the  goodness  of  God  towards 
thee,  if  thou  continue  in  his  goodness ;  otherwise  thou  also  shalt  be  cut 
(ff.     We  entreat  you  to  consider,  that  even  those  who  admire  the 


^  TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  169 

point  of  your  epigram,  *•  Whenever  we  say  one  thing  we  mean 
quite  another,"  will  not  be  pleased  if  you  apply  it  to  St.  Paul,  as 
you  have  done  to  Mr.  Wesley.  And  when  we  see  God's  corenant 
with  David  grossly  abused  by  Autinomians,  we  beg  leave  to  put  them 
in  mind  of  God's  covenant  with  the  house  of  Eli.  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel,  I  chose  thy  father  out  of  all  the  tribes  of  Israel 
to  be  my  priest ;  [but  thou  art  unfaithful]  thou  honourest  thy  sons 
above  me. — /  said  indeed  that  thy  house,  and  the  house  of  thy  father, 
should  walk  before  me  for  ever :  but  now  be  it  far  from  me  ;  for  them 
that  honour  me  will  I  honour,  and  they  that  despise  me  shall  be  lightly 
esteemed.  Behold,  the  days  come  that  I  will  cut  off  thine  arm,  and 
the  arm  of  thy  house  ;  and  I  will  raise  me  up  a  faithful  priest,  that 
shall  do  according  to  that  which  is  in  my  heart."     1  Sam.  ii. 

II.  Your  SECOND  LETTER  Fespects  working  for  life.  You  maka 
the  best  of  a  bad  subject,  and  really  some  of  your  arguments  are  so 
plausible,  that  I  do  not  wonder  so  many  men  should  commence  Cal- 
Tinists,  rather  than  be  at  the  trouble  of  detecting  their  fallacy.  I 
am  sorry,  dear  Sir,  I  cannot  do  it  without  dwelling  upon  Calvinism. 
My  design  was  to  oppose  Antinomianism  alone ;  but  the  vigorous  stand 
which  you  make  for  it  upon  Calvinian  ground,  obliges  me  to  encounter 
you  there,  or  to  give  up  the  truth  which  I  am  called  to  defend.  I 
have  long  dreaded  the  alternative  of  displeasing  my  friends,  or 
wounding  my  conscience ;  but  I  must  yield  to  the  injunctions  of  the 
latter,  and  appeal  to  the  candour  of  the  former.  If  impetuous 
rivers  of  Geneva  Calvinism  have  so  long  been  permitted  to  flow 
through  England,  and  even  deluge  Scotland  ;  have  1  not  some  reason 
to  hope  that  a  rivulet  of  Geneva  Anti-Calvinism  will  be  suflered  to 
glide  through  some  of  Great  Britain's  plains  :  especially  if  its  little 
murmur  harraenizes  with  the  clearest  dictates  of  reason,  and  loudest 
declarations  of  Scripture  ? 

Before  I  weigh  your  arguments  against  working  for  life,  permit 
me  to  point  out  the  capital  mistake  upon  which  they  turn.  You 
suppose,  that  free  preventing  grace  does  not  visit  all  men,  and  that 
all  those,  in  whom  it  has  not  prevailed,  are  as  totally  dead  to  the 
things  of  God,  as  a  dead  body  is  to  the  things  of  this  life  :  and  from 
this  unscriptural  supposition  you  very  reasonably  conclude,  that  we 
can  no  more  turn  to  God,  than  corpses  can  turn  themselves  in  their 
graves ;  no  more  work  for  life,  than  putrid  carcases  can  help  them- 
selves to  a  resurrection. 

This  main  pillar  of  your  doctrine  will  appear  to  you  built  upon 
the  sand,  if  you  read  the  Scriptures  in  the  light  of  that  mercy  which 
js  over  all  God's  works.     There  you  will  discover  the  various  dis- 


170  THIRD    CHECK 

pensations  of  the  everlasting  Gospel ;  your  contracted  views  of 
divine  love  will  open  into  the  most  extensive  prospects ;  and  your 
exulting  soul  will  range  through  the  boundless  fields  of  that  grace, 
which  is  both  richly  free  in  all,  and  abundantly  free  for  all. 

Let  us  rejoice  with  reverence  while  we  read  such  Scriptures  as 
these  ;  The  Son  of  man  is  come  to  save  that  which  is  lost,  and  to  call 
sinners  to  repentance.  Tfiis  is  a  true  sayings  and  worthy  of  all  accepta- 
^on, — worthy  of  all  men  to  be  received,  that  Jesus  Christ  came  into 
the  world  to  save  sinners. — To  this  end  he  both  died  and  rose  again  that 
he  might  he  the  Lord  of  the  dead  and  living.  He  came  not  to  comdemn 
the  worlds  but  that  the  world  through  him  might  be  saved^  and  that  at 
the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow,  and  every  tongue  confess 
that  he  is  Lord. 

*'  Bound  every  heart,  and  every  bosom  burn,"  while  we  meditate 
on  these  ravishing  declarations  ;  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave 
his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  should  not  pe- 
rish, but  have  everlasting  life.  He  was  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem 
them  that  were  under  the  law,  that  is,  all  mankind;  unless  it  can  be 
proved  that  some  men  never  came  under  the  curse  of  the  law.  He 
is  the  friend  of  sinners,  the  Physician  of  the  sick,  and  the  Saviour  of 
the  world :  he  died  the  just  for  the  unjust ;  he  is  the  propitiation^  not 
for  our  sins  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  One  died 
for  ALL,  because  all  were  dead.  As  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in 
Christ,  [during  the  day  of  their  visitation,]  all  are  blessed  [with 
quickening  grace,  and  therefore  in  the  last  day]  all  shall  be  made 
alive,  to  give  an  account  of  their  blessing  or  talent.  He  is  the 
Saviour  of  all  men,  especially  of  them  that  believe :  and  the  news  of 
his  birth  are  tidings  of  great  joy  to  all  people.  As  by  the  offence  of 
one  judgment  came  upon  all  men,  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one, 
the  free  gift  came  upon  all  men  ;  for  Christ  by  the  grace  of  God 
tasted  death  for  every  man  ;  he  is  the  Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away 
the  sin  of  the  world  ;  —therefore  God  commandeth  all  men  every 
WHERE  to  repent; — to  look  unto  him  and  be  saved. 

Do  we  not  take  choice  jewels  from  Christ's  crown,  when  we  ex- 
plain away  these  bright  testimonies  given  by  his  free  grace :  It 
pleased  the  Father  by  him  to  reconcile  all  things  to  himself. — The 
kindness  and  pity  of  God  our  Saviour  towards  man  has  appeared. — / 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me. — God  was  in  him  reconciling  the  world 
itnto  himself.  Hence  he  says  to  the  most  obstinate  of  his  opposers, 
These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  ye  might  be  saved. — If  /  had 
not  come  and  spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not  had  sin,  [in  rejecting  me,] 
hut  now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin^  no  excuse  for  their  unbelief 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  171 

Once,  indeed,  when  the  apostles  were  on  the  brink  of  the  most 
dreadful  trial,  their  compassionate  Master  said,  /  pray  for  them,  I 
pray  not  for  the  world.  As  if  he  had  said,  their  immediate  danger 
makes  me  pray  as  if  there  were  but  these  eleven  men  in  the  world, 
Holy  Father,  keep  them.  But  having  given  them  this  seasonable  tes- 
timony of  a  just  preference,  he  adds,  Neither  pray  I  for  these  alone^ 
but /or  them  who  shall  believe^  that  they  all  may  be  one,  may  be  united 
in  brotherly  love  :  ;  nd  he  adds,  that  the  world  may  believe, — and 
may  know  that  thou  hast  sent  me. 

If  our  Lord's  not  praying,  for  a  moment,  on  a  particular  occasion^ 
for  the  world,  implies  that  the  world  is  absolutely  reprobated,  we 
should  be  glad  of  an  answer  to  the  two  following  queries.  1.  Why 
did  he  pray  the  next  day  for  Pilate  and  Herod,  Annas  and  Caiaphas, 
the  Priests  and  Pharisees,  the  Jewish  mob  and  Roman  soldiers  ;  in 
a  word,  for  the  countless  multitude  of  his  revilers  and  murderers  ? 
Were  they  all  elect,  or  was  this  ejaculation  no  prayer?  Father,  for- 
give them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do  I  2.  Why  did  he  commission 
St.  Paul  to  say,  /  exhort  first  of  all,  that  supplications,  prayers,  and 
intercessions  be  made  for  all  men,  for  this  is  acceptable  in  the  sight 
of  God  our  Saviour,  who  will  have  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  come  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  truth.  For  there  is  one  God  and  one  Mediator 
between  God  and  men,  the  man  Christ  Jesus ;  who  gave  himself  a  ransom 
FOR  all  ? 

Without  losing  time  in  proving,  that  none  but  artful  and  designing 
men  use  the  word  all  to  mean  the  less  number!  and  that  all,  in  some 
of  the  above-mentioned  passages,  must  absolutely  mean  all  mankind^ 
as  being  directly  opposed  to  all  that  are  condemned  and  die  in  Adam; 
and  without  stopping  to  expose  the  new  Calvinian  creation  of  "  a  whole 
world  of  elect ;"  upon  the  preceding  Scriptures  1  raise  the  following 
doctrine  of  free  grace.  If  Cfifrist  tasted  death  for  every  man,  there  is 
undoubtedly  a  Gospel  for  every  man,  even  for  those  who  perish  by 
rejecting  it. 

St.  Paul  says,  that  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men,  according 
to  his  Gospel.  St.  Peter  asks.  What  shall  be  the  end  of  those,  who  obey 
not  the  Gospel  of  God  ?  And  the  Apostle  answers,  Christ,  revealed 
in  flaming  fire,  will  take  vengeance  on  them  who  obey  not  the  Gospel, 
that  is,  all  the  ungodly  who  receive  the  grace  of  God  in  vain^  or  turn 
it  into  lasciviousness.  They  do  not  perish  because  the  Gospel  is  a 
lie  with  respect  to  them  :  but  because  they  receive  not  the  love  of  the 
truth,  that  they  might  be  saved.  God,  to  punish  their  rejecting  the 
t^ruth,  permits  that  they  should  believe  a  lie  ;  that  they  all  might  be 


17S  THIED    CHECK 

damned,  who,  to  the  last  hour  of  their  day  of  grace,  believed  met  the 
truthy  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteousness. 

The  latitude  of  our  Lord's  commission  to  his  ministers  demon- 
strates the  truth  of  this  doctrine.  Go  into  all  the  world,  and  teach 
ALL  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son, 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Hence  those  gracious  and  general  invita- 
tions, Ho  every  one  that  thirsteth  [after  happiness.]  come  ye  to  the 
waters;  if  any  man  thirst  [after  pleasure,]  let  him  come  to  me  and 
drink — Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labour  [for  want  of  rest,]  and  1  will 
give  it  to  you.  Whosoever  will,  lei  him  come  and  take  of  the  water  of 
life  freely — Ye  adulterers, — draw  nigh  unto  God,  and  he  will  draw  nigh 
unto  you. — Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock ;  if  any  man  open,  1 
will  come  in  and  sup  with  him.  Go  out  into  the  highways  and  hedges, 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature ;  and  lo,  I  am  with  you  to  the  end  of 
the  world. 

If  you  compare  all  the  preceding  Scriptures,  T  flatter  myself,  Hon. 
Sir,  you  will  perceive  that  as  the  redemption  of  Christ  is  general,  so 
there  is  a  general  Gospel,  which  is  more  or  less  clearly  revealed  to 
all,  according  to  the  clearer  or  more  obscure  dispensation  which  they 
are  outwardly  under. 

This  doctrine  may  appear  strange  to  those  who  call  nothing  Gospel 
but  the  last  dispensation  of  it.  Such  should  remember,  that  as  a 
little  seed  sown  in  the  spring,  is  one  with  the  large  plant  into  which 
it  expands  in  summer  ;  so  the  Gospel,  in  its  least  appearance,  is  one 
with  the  Gospel  grown  up  to  full  maturity.  Our  Lord,  considering  it 
both  as  sown  in  man's  heart,  and  sown  in  the  world,  speaks  of  it  under 
the  name  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  compares  it  to  corn,  and  consi- 
ders first  the  seed,  then  the  blade,  next  the  ear,  and  last  of  all  the  full 
corn  in  the  ear. 

1.  The  Gospel  was  sown  in  the  world  as  a  little  but  general  seed, 
when  God  began  to  quicken  mankind  in  Adam,  by  the  precious  pro- 
mise of  a  Saviour;  and  when  he  said  to  Noah,  the  second  general 
parent  of  men,  With  thee  will  1  establish  my  covenant;  blessing  him 
and  his  sons  after  the  deluge. 

2.  The  Gospel  appeared  as  corn  in  the  blade,  when  God  renewed 
the    promise   of  the    Messiah  to.  Abraham,  with  this  addition,  that 

I  though  the  Redeemer  should  be  born  of  his  elect  family,  divine  grace 
and  mercy  were  too  free  to  be  confined  within  the  narrow  bounds  of 
a  peculiar  election  :  therefore  in  his  seed,  that  is,  in  Christ  the  Sun 
of  Righteousness,  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed ;  as 
they  are  all  cheered  with  the   genial  influence  of  the  natural  sun. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  173 

whether  he  shines  above  or  below  theirhorizon,  whether  he  particu- 
larly enlightens  the  one  or  the  other  hemisphere. 

3.  The  Gospel  word  grew  much  in  the  days  of  Moses,  Samuel, 
and  Isaiah ;  for  the  Gospel^  says  St.  Paul,  was  preached  unto  them,  as 
wtll  as  unto  us,  though  not  so  explicitly.  But  when  John  the  Bap- 
tist, a  greater  prophet  than  any  of  them,  began  to  preach  the  Gospel 
of  repentance,  and  point  sinners  to  the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away 
the  sins  of  the  world,  then  the  ear  crowned  the  blade  which  had  long 
been  at  a  stand,  and  even  seemed  to  be  blasted. 

4.  The  great  Luminary  of  the  church  shining  warm  upon  the 
earth,  his  direct  beams  caused  a  rapid  growth.  The  favonian 
breathings  andsighs  which  attended  his  preaching  and  prayers,  the  ge- 
nial dews  which  distilled  on  Gethsemane,  during  his  agony,  the  fruit- 
ful showers  which  descended  on  Calvary,  while  the  blackest  storm 
of  divine  wrath  rent  the  rocks  around,  and  the  transcendent  radiance 
of  our  Sun,  rising  after  this  dreadful  eclipse  to  his  meridian  glory  ; — 
all  concurred  to  minister  fertile  influences  to  the  Plant  of  Renown. 
And  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  when  power  came  from  on  high,  when 
the  fire  of  the  Holy  Ghost  seconded  the  virtue  of  the  Redeemer's 
blood,  the  full  corn  was  seen  in  the  mystical  ear:  the  most  perfect  of 
the  Gospel  dispensations  came  to  maturity  :  and  Christians  began  to 
bring  forth  fruit  unto  the  perfection  of  their  own  economy. 

As  some  good  men  overlook  the  gradual  displays  of  the  manifold 
Gospel  grace  of  God,  so  others,  I  fear,  mistake  the  essence  of  the 
Gospel  itself.  Few  say,  with  St.  Paul,  The  Gospel  of  which  I  am  not 
ashamed,  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  believ- 
eth — with  the  heart  unto  righteousness,  according  to  the  light  of  his 
dispensation  :  and  many  are  afraid  of  his  catholic  doctrine  when  he 
sums  up  the  general  everlasting  Gospel  in  these  words  :  God  was  not 
the  God  of  the  Jews  only,  but  of  the  Gentiles  also ;  because  that  which 
may  be  known  of  God,  [under  their  dispensation]  is  manifest  in  them^ 
God  having  showed  it  unto  them.  For  the  grace  of  God  which  bringeth 
salvation,  [or  rather,  »  z»^ii  jj  rarmoq,  the  grace  emphatically  saving^ 
hath  appeared  unto  all  men ;  teaching  us  to  deny  all  ungodliness  and 
worldly  lusts,  and  to  live  soberly,  justly,  and  godly  in  this  present  world. 

"  But  how  does  this  saving  grace  teach  us  ?"  By  proposing  to  us 
the  saving  truths  of  our  dispensation,  and  helping  our  unbelief,  that 
we  may  cordially  embrace  them  ;  for  without  faith  it  is  impossible  to 
please  God.  Even  the  heathens,  who  come  to  God,  must  believe  that  he 
is,  and  that  he  is  the  rewarder  of  them  that  diligently  seek  him :  for 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  Jew  and  the  Greek,  the  same  Lord 
over  all,  being  rich  tinto  ell  them  that  call  upon  him. 

Vol.  I.  2B 


174  THIRD   CHECK 

Here  the  apostle  starts  the  great  Calvinian  objection :  But.  how 
shall  they  believe,  and  call  on  him  of  rvhom  they  have  not  heard,  kc.  V^ 
And  having  observed  that  the  Jews  had  heard,  though  tew  had  be- 
lieved, he  says,  5*0  then  faith  cometh  by  hearing,  and  hearing  by  the 
word  of  God,  which  is  nigh,  even  in  the  mouth  and  in  the  heart  of  all 
who  receive  the  truth  revealed  under  their  dipensation.  Then  re- 
suming his  answer  to  the  Calvinian  objection,  he  cries  out,  Have  not 
they  (Jews  and  Greeks)  all  heard  preachers,  who  invite  thetn  to  be- 
lieve that  God  is  good  and  powerful,  and  consequently  that  he  is  the 
rewarder  of  those  who  diligently  seek  him  ?  Yes,  verily,  replies  he, 
their  sound  went  into  all  the  earth,  and  their  zvords  unto  the  end  of  the 
world. 

If  you  ask,  "  Who  are  those  general  heralds  of  free  grace,  whose 
sound  goes  from  pole  to  pole  ?"  The  Scripture  answers  with  be» 
coming  dignity  :  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God^  and  the  firma- 
vnent  showeth  his  handy  work.  Day  unto  day  utter eth  speech,  and  night 
unto  night  showeth  knGis:ledge.  There  is  no  speech  or  language  [no 
country  or  kingdom,]  zchere  their  voice  is  not  heard.  Their  [instruct- 
ing^] line  went  through  the  earth,  [their  vast  parish]  and  their  words  to 
the  ends  of  the  world,  their  immense  diocese.  For  the  invisible  things 
of  God,  [that  is,  his  greatness  and  wisdom,  his  goodness  and  mercy,] 
his  eternal  pooier  and  Godhead,  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by 
the  things  that  are  made  [and  preserved,]  so  that  [the  very  heathens, 
wi)0  do  not  obey  their  striking  speech,]  are  without  excuse ;  because 
that  when  they  knew  God,  they  glorified  him  not  as  God,  neither  were 
thankful. 

This  is  the  Gospel  alphabet,  if  I  may  be  allowed  the  expression. 
The  apostle,  like  a  wise  instructer,  proceeded  upon  the  plan  of  thig 
free  grace,  when  he  addressed  himself  to  the  heathens.  We  preach 
nintoyou,  said  he  to  the  Lycaonians,  that  ye  should  turn  from  these  vani- 
ties f()  serve  the  living  God,  who  made  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  sea,  and 
all  things  therein;  who  [even  when  he]  suffered  all  tiationsto  walk  in 
their  own  ways^  left  not  himself  without  witness ;  that  is,  without 
preachers,  according  to  that  saying  of  our  Lord  to  his  disciples.  Ye 
shall  be  my  witnesses,  and  teach  all  nations.  And  these  witnesses 
were  the  good,  which  God  did,  the  rain  he  gave  us  from  heaven,  and 
fruitful  seasons,  and  the  food  and  gladness,  with  which  he  filled  our  hearts. 

St  Paul  preached  the  same  Gospel  to  the  Athenians,  wisely  coming 
down  to  the  level  of  their  inferior  dispensation.  Tfie  God  that  made 
the  world  dwells  not  [like  a  statue]  in  temples  made  with  hands,  nor  hath 
he  need  of  any  thing,  seeing  he  giveth  to  all  life,  and  breath,  and  all 
things.     He  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men,  to  dwell  on  aU 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  17a 

ikt/ace  of  the  earth,  [not  that  they  might  live  like  atheists,  and  perish 
like  reprobates,  but]  that  they  might  seek  the  Lorcl^  if  haply  they  might 
feel  after  him  and  find  him.  Nor  is  this  an  impossibility,  as  he  is  not 
far  from  every  one  of  us,  for  in  him  zve  live,  and  move,  and  have  our 
being,  as  certain  of  your  own  poets  have  taught,  just\y  asserting  that  we 
are  the  offspring  of  God.  Hence  he  proceeds  to  declare,  that  God 
calls  all  men  every  rvhere  to  repent,  intimating  that  upon  their  turning 
to  him,  he  will  receive  them  as  his  dear  children,  and  bless  them  as 
his  beloved  offspring. 

These,  and  the  like  Scriptures,  forced  Calvin  himself  into  a  happy 
inconsistency  with  Calvinism.  "  The  Lord,"  says  he,  in  an  epistle  pre- 
fixed to  the  French  New  Testament,  "  never  left  himself  without  a  wit- 
ness, even  towards  them  unto  whom  he  has  not  sent  any  knowledg;e  of 
his  word.  Forasmuch  as  all  creatures,  from  the  firmament  to  the  centre 
of  the  earth,  might  be  witnesses  and  messengers  of  his  glory  unto  all 
men,  to  draw  them  to  seek  him  ;  and  indeed  there  is  no  need  to  seek 
him  very  far,  for  every  one  might  find  him  in  his  ownself  " 

And  no  doubt  some  have  ;  for  although  the  n-orld  knew  not  God  by 
the  wisdom  that  is  earthly,  sensual,  and  devilish;  yet  many  have 
savingly  known  him  by  his  general  Vi'itnesses,  that  is,  the  wonderful 
•acorks  that  he  doth  for  the  children  of  men ;  for  that  which  may  he  known. 
of  God,  in  the  lowest  economy  of  Gospel  grace,  is  manifest  in  them, 
as  well  as  shown  unto  them. 

^' What  I  Is  there  something  of  God  inwardly  manifest  in,  as  well 
as  outwardly  shown  to,  all  men  ?"  Undoubtedly  ;  the  grace  of  God  is 
as  the  wind,  which  hloweth  where  it  listeth  ;  and  it  listeth  to  blow  with 
more  or  less  force,  successively  all  over  the  earth.  You  can  as  sooa 
meet  with  a  man  that  never  felt  the  wind,  or  heard  the  sound  thereof, 
as  with  one  that  never  felt  the  divine  breathing,  or  heard  the  still 
small  voice,  which  we  call  the  grace  of  God,  and  which  bids  us  tura 
from  sin  to  righteousness.  To  suppose  the  Lord  gives  us  a  thousand 
tokens  of  his  eternal  power  and  godhead,  without  giving  us  a  capacity 
to  consider,  and  grace  to  improve  them,  is  not  less  absurd,  than  to 
imagine,  that  when  he  bestowed  upon  Adam  all  the  trees  of  Paradise 
for  food,  he  gave  him  no  eyes  to  see,  no  hands  to  gather,  and  no 
mouth  to  eat  their  delicious  fruits. 

We  readily  grant  that  Adam,  and  we  in  him,  lost  all  by  the  fall  ; 
but  Christ.  The  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  Christ, 
the  Repairer  of  the  breach,  mightier  to  save  than  Adam  to  destroy, 
solemnly  gave  himself  to  Adam,  and  to  us  in  him,  by  the  free  ever- 
lasting Gospel  which  he  preached  in  Paradise.  And  when  he  preached 
it,  he  undoubtedly  gave  Adam,  and  us  in  him,  a  capacity  to  receive 
it,  that  is,  a  power  to  believe  and  repent :  if  he  had  not,  he  might  as 


176  THIRD    CHECK 

as  well  have  preached  to  stocks  and  stones,  to  beasts  and  devils.  Ic 
is  offering  an  insult  to  the  only  wise  God,  to  suppose  that  he  gave 
mankind  the  light,  without  giving  them  eyes  to  behold  it ;  or  which  is 
the  same,  to  suppose  that  he  gave  them  the  Gospel,  without  giving 
them  power  to  believe  it. 

As  it  is  with  Adam,  so  it  is  undoubtedly  with  all  his  posterity.  By 
what  argument  or  scripture  will  you  prove,  that  God  excluded  part  of 
Adam  (or  what  is  the  same  thing,  part  of  his  offspring,  which  was 
then  part  of  his  very  person)  from  the  promise  and  gift  which  he 
freely  made  him  of  the  seed  of  the  woman,  and  the  bruiser  of  the  ser- 
penfs  head?  Is  it  reasonable  to  deny  the  gift,  because  multitudes  of 
infidels  reject  it,  and  thousands  of  Antinomians  abuse  it  ?  May  not  a 
bounty  be  really  given  by  a  charitable  person,  though  it  is  despised  by 
a  proud,  or  squandered  away  by  a  loose  beggar  ? 

Waiving  the  case  of  infants  and  idiots,  was  there  ever  a  sinner  un- 
der no  obligation  to  repent  and  believe  in  a  merciful  God  ?  O  ye  op- 
posers  of  free  grace,  search  the  universe  with  Calvin's  candle,  and 
among  your  reprobated  millions,  find  out  the  person  that  never  had  a 
merciful  God  :  and  show  us  the  unfortunate  creature,  whom  a  sove- 
reign God  bound  over  to  absolute  despair  of  his  mercy  from  the 
womb.  If  there  be  no  such  person  in  the  world :  if  all  men  are 
bound  to  repent  and  believe  in  a  merciful  God,  there  is  an  end  of 
Calvinism.  And  unprejudiced  men  can  require  no  stronger  proof  that 
all  are  redeemed  from  the  curse  of  the  Adamic  law,  which  admitted 
of  no  repentance  ;  and  that  the  covenant  of  grace  which  admits  of, 
and  makes  provision  for  it,  freely  extends  to  all  mankind. 

Out  of  Chrisfs fulness  all  have  received  grace^  a  little  leaven  of  saving 
power,  an  inward  monitor,  a  divine  reprover,  a  ray  of  true  heavenly 
light,  which  manifests  first  moral,  and  then  spiritual  good  and  evil.  St. 
John  hears  witness  of  that  light,  and  declares  it  was  the  spiritual  life 
of  men,  the  true  light,  which  erdightens  not  only  every  man  that  comes 
into  the  church,  but  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world, — without 
excepting  those  who  are  yet  in  darkness.  For  the  light  shineth  in 
darkness,  even  when  the  darkness  comprehends  it  not.  The  Baptist 
bore  also  witness  of  that  light,  that  all  men  through  it,  not  through  him, 
might  believe,  (4»*'$»  light,  being  the  last  antecedent,  and  agreeing  per- 
fectly with  ^i  ccvTu.) 

Hence  appears  the  sufficiency  of  that  divine  light  to  make  all  men 
believe  in  Christ  the  light  of  the  world;  according  to  Christ's  own 
words  to  the  Jews,  While  ye  have  the  light,  believe  in  the  light,  that  ye 
may  he  the  children  of  light, — Walk  while  ye  have  the  light,  lest  dark- 
'Aess  come  upon  you,  even  that  total  night  of  nature  when  no  man,  can 
tuiork. 


TO    AN'riNOklANlSM,  l\^ 

those  who  resist  this  internal  light,  generally  reject  the  external 
Oospel,  or  receive  it  only  in  the  letter  and  history  :  and  too  many 
5uch  there  have  been  in  all  ages  ;  for  Christ  was  in  the  world,  evea 
when  the  world  knew  him  not :  therefore  he  was  manifest  in  the  fiesh. 
The  same  sun  which  had  shined  as  the  dawn,  arose  with  healing  in  his 
wings,  and  came  to  dehver  the  truth  which  was  held  in  unrighteous- 
ness, and  to  help  the  light  which  was  not  comprehended  by  the  dark-' 
ness.  But  alas  !  when  he  came  to  his  own,  even  then  his  own  received 
him  not.  Why  ?  Because  they  were  reprobates  ?  No  :  but  because 
they  were  moral  agents. 

This  is  the  condemnation,  says  he  himself,  that  light  came  into  the 
t&orld,  hut  men  shut  their  eyes  against  it.  They  loved  darkness  rather 
than  light,  because  their  works  were  evil.  They  would  go  on  in  the 
sins  which  the  light  reproved,  and  therefore  they  opposed  it  till  it  was 
quenched,  that  is,  till  it  totally  withdrew  from  their  hearts.  To  the 
same  purpose  our  Lord  says.  The  heart  of  this  people  is  waxed  gross, 
their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing,  and  their  eyes  have  they  closed  [against 
the  light]  lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  understand  with  their 
hearts,  and  should  be  converted,  and  Ishoidd  heal  them.  The  same  un- 
erring Teacher  informs  us,  that  the  devil  cometh  to  the  way-side  hear- 
ers, and  taketh  away  the  word  out  of  their  hearts,  lest  they  should  believe 
and  be  saved.  And  if  our  Gospel  be  hid,  says  St.  Paul,  it  is  to  them 
that  believe  not,  and  are  lost,  whose  minds  the  god  of  this  world  hath 
Minded,  lest  the  glorious  Gospel  of  Christ  should  shine  unto  them. 

From  these  scriptures  it  is  evident  that  Calvin  was  mistaken,  or 
that  the  devil  is  a  fool.  For  if  a  man  is  now  totally  blind,  why 
should  the  devil  bestir  himself  to  blind  him  ?  And  why  should  he 
fear  lest  the  Gospel  should  shine  to  them  that  are  lost,  if  there  be  abso- 
lutely no  Gospel  for  them,  or  they  have  no  eyes  to  see,  no  capacity 
to  receive  it  ? 

Whether  sinners  know  their  Gospel  day  or  not,  they  have  one. 
Read  the  history  of  Cain,  who  is  supposed  to  be  the  first  reprobate ; 
and  see  how  graciously  the  Lord  expostulated  with  him.  ConsidcF 
the  old  world  ;  St.  Peter,  speaking  of  them,  says,  Tlie  Gospel  was 
preached  to  them  also  that  are  dead;  for  Christ  we7it  by  the  Spirit,  and 
preached  even  to  those  who  were  disobedient,  when  once  the  long-suffering 
of  God  waited  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  in  the  days  of  Noah.  Nor 
did  the  Lord  wait  with  an  intention  of  having  them  completely  fat- 
tened for  the  day  of  slaughter :  far  be  the  unbecoming  thought  from 
those  who  worship  the  God  of  love !  Instead  of  entertaining  it,  let 
us  account  that  the  long-suffering  of  our  Lord  is  salvation,  that  is,  a 
beginning  of  salvation,  and  a  sure  pledge  of  it,  if  we  know  an4 


178  THIRD  CHECK 

redeem  the  accepted  time  :  for  the  Lord  is  long-sufering  to  us-ward, 
and  not  willing  that  any  should  perish^  but  that  all  should  come  to 
repentance. 

Nor  does  God's  long-suffering  extend  to  tbe  elect  only.  It  enibraces 
also  those  zvho  treasure  up  unto  themselves  wrath  against  the  day  of 
Txrath,  by  despising  the  riches  of  divine  goodness^  and  forbearance,  and 
lon<r-svff'ering,  not  knowing  that  the  goodness  of  God  leads  them  to 
repentance.  Of  this  the  Jews  are  a  remarkable  instance.  What  could 
God  have  done  more  to  his  Jewish  vineyard?  He  gathered  the  stones 
out  of  it,  and  planted  it  with  the  choicest  vine ;  and  yet  whe^i  he  looked 
that  it  shoxdd  have  brought  forth  grapes,  it  brought  forth  wild  grapes ; 
when  he  sent  his  servants  to  receive  the  fruits,  they  were  abused  and 
sent  away  empty.  Hence  it  is  evident  that  the  Jews  had  a  day  in 
which  they  could  have  brought  forth  fruit,  or  the  wise  God  would  no 
more  have  looked  for  it,  than  a  wise  man  expects  to  see  tbe  pine- 
apple grow  upon  the  hawthorn. 

Nay,  the  most  obstinate,  Pharisaic,  and  bloody  of  the  Jews  had  a 
day,  in  which  our  Lord  in  person,  would  have  gathered  them  with  as 
much  tenderness,  as  a  hen  gathers  her  brood  under  her  wings.  And 
where  he  saw  their  free  agency,  absolutely  set  against  his  loving-kind- 
ness, he  wept  over  them,  and  deplored  their  not  having  known  the 
things  belonging  unto  their  peace,  before  they  were  hid fromtheir  eyes. 

Our  gracious  God  freely  gives  one  or  more  talents  of  grace  to 
every  man  :  nor  was  ever  any  man  cast  into  outer  darkness,  where 
shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth,  but  for  the  not  using  his  talent 
aright,  as  our  Lord  suflSciently  declares,  Matt.  xxv.  30.  Alluding  to 
that  important  parable,  I  would  observe,  that  the  Christian  has  ^five 
talents  the  Jew  two,  and  the  Heathen  one.  If  he  that  has  two  talents 
lays  them  out  to  advantage,  he  shall  receive  a  reward  as  well  as  he 
that  has /t;e;  and  the  one  talent  is  as  capable  of  a  proportionable 
improvement  as  the  two  or  the  five.  The  equality  of  God's  ways 
does  not  consist  in  giving  just  the  same  number  of  gracious  talents  to 
all  •  but  first  in  not  desiring  to  gather  where  he  has  not  strewed,  or  to 
reap  above  a  proportion  of  his  seed ;  and  (2.)  in  graciously  dispensing 
rewards  according  to  ihe  number  of  talents  improved,  and  the  degrees 
of  that  improvement :  and  in  justly  inflicting  punishments,  according 
to  the  number  of  talents  buried,  and  the  aggravations  attending  men's 
unfaithfulness.  For  unto  whomsoever  much  is  given,  of  hint  shall  be 
much  required,  and  to  whom  men  have  committed  much,  of  him  they  will 
ask  the  more. 

We  frequently  speak  of  God's  secret  decrees,  the  knowledge  of 
which  is  as  useless  as  it  is  uncertain  :  but  seldom  consider  that  solemn 


TO  ANT5N0MIANISM.  170 

decree  so  often  revealed  in  the  Gospel.  To  him  that  has  grace  to 
purpose,  more  shall  be  given;  and  from  him  that  has  not^  that  has 
buried  his  talent,  and  therefore  in  one  sense  has  it  not,  shall  be  taken 
away  even  that  which  he  hath  to  no  purpose  :  according  to  our  Lord's 
awful  coKimand,  Take  the  talent  from  him  that  hath  buried  it,  and  give 
it  to  him  that  hath  ten,  for  the  good  and  the  faithful  servant  shall  have 
abundance.*  He  who  says,  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also 
reap,  is  too  just  to  look  for  an  increase  from  those  on  whom  he 
bestows  no  talent ;  and  as  he  calls  for  repentance  and  faith,  and  for 
a  daily  increase  of  both,  he  has  certainly  bestowed  upon  us  the  seed 
of  both,  for  be  gives  seed  to  the  sower,  and  does  not  desire  to  reap 
where  he  has  not  sown, 

Metbinks  my  honoured  opponent  cries  out  with  amazement  : 
What!  have  all  men  power  to  repent  and  believe  ?  And  in  the  mean 
time  a  Benedictine  Monk  comes  up  to  vouch  that  this  doctrine  is  rank 
Pelagianism.  But  permit  me  to  observe,  that  if  Pelagius  had  acknow- 
ledged, as  we  do,  the  total  fall  of  man,  and  ascribed  with  us  to  the  free 
grace  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  all  the  power  we  have  to  repent  and 
believe,  none  of  the  fathers  would  have  been  so  injudicious  and 
uncharitable  as  to  rank  him  among  heretics.  We  maintain,  that 
although  without  Christ  we  can  do  nothing,  yet  so  long  as  the  day  of 
salvation  lasts,  all  men,  the  chief  of  sinners  not  excepted,  can,  through 
his  free  preventing  grace,  cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well,  and  use 
those  means  which  will  infallibly  end  in  the  repentance,  and  faith, 
peculiar  to  the  dispensation  they  are  under,  whether  it  be  that  of  the 
Heathens,  Jews,  or  Christians. 

If  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  and  Father  Walsh,  deny  this, 
they  might  as  well  charge  Christ  with  the  absurdity  of  tasting  death 
for  every  man,  in  order  to  keep  most  men  from  the  very  possibility 
of  being  benefited  by  his  death.  They  might  as  well  assert,  that 
altliough  the  free  gift  came  upo7i  all  men,  yet  it  never  came  upon  a 
vast  majority  of  them  ;  and  openly  maintain  that  Christ  deserves  to 
be  called  the  destroyer,  rather  than  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  For 
if  the  greatest  part  of  mankind  may  be  considered  as  the  world,  if 
repentance  and  faith  are  absolutely  impossible  to  them,  and  Jesus 
came  to  denounce  destruction  to  all  who  do  not  repent  and  beheve, 
let  every  thinking  man  say,  whether  he  might  not  be  called  with 
greater  propriety  the  destroyer  than  the  Saviour  of  the  world ;  and 
whether  preaching  the  Grispian  Gospel,  is  not  hke  reading  the  war- 

*  I  must  do  the  Calvinists  the  justice  to  observe,  that  as  our  Lord  says,  ask  and  have ;  %ft 
Elisha  Coles  says,  use  grace  and  have  grace,  which  is  all  that  we  contend  for,  if  the 
inseparable  counterpart  of  the  axiom  be  admitted,  "  Abuse  grace  and  lose  grace." 


180  THIRD    CHECK 

rant  of  inevitable  damnation  to  millions  of  wretched  creatures.  But 
upon  the  scheme  of  what  you  call  the  "  Wesleyan  orthodoxy,"  Christ 
is  really  the  Saviour  of  all  men^  but  especially  of  them  that  believe :  for 
he  iadulges  all  with  a  day  of  salvation,  and  if  none  but  bolievers 
make  a  proper  use  of  it,  the  fault  is  not  in  his  partiality,  but  in  their 
own  obstinacy. 

In  what  a  pitiful  light  does  your  scheme  place  our  Lord  !  Why  did 
he  marvel  at  the  unbelief  of  the  Jews,  if  they  could  no  more  believe 
than  a  stone  can  swim  ?  And  say  not,  "  that  he  marvelled  as  a  man," 
for  the  assertion  absolutely  unmans  him.  What  man  ever  wondered, 
that  an  ass  does  not  bray  with  the  nightingale's  melodious  voice? 
Nay,  what  child  ever  marvelled  that  the  ox  does  not  fly  above  the 
clouds  with  the  soaring  eagle  ? 

The  same  observation  holds  with  regard  to  repentance.  Then  he 
began  (says  St.  Matthew)  to  upbraid  the  cities  wherein  most  of  his 
mighty  works  were  done,  because  they  repented  not.  Merciful  Saviour, 
forgive  us  1  We  have  insulted  thy  meek  wisdom,  by  representing 
thee  as  cruelly  upbraiding  the  lame  for  not  running,  the  blind  for  not 
seeing,  and  the  dumb  for  not  speaking ! 

But  this  is  not  all,  if  Capernaum  could  not  have  repented  at  our 
jLord's  preaching,  as  well  as  Nineveh  at  the  preaching  of  Jonas  ; 
how  do  we  reflect  upon  his  mild  equity,  and  adorable  goodness, 
when  we  represent  him  as  pronouncing  wo  upon  wo  over  the  impe- 
nitent city,  and  threatening  to  sink  it  into  a  deeper  hell  than  So- 
dom BECAUSE  it  repented  not!  And  how  ill  does  it  become  us  to 
exclaim  against  Deists  for  robbing  Christ  of  his  divinity,  when  we 
ourselves  divest  him  of  common  humanity. 

Suppose  a  schoolmaster  said  to  his  English  scholars,  "  Except  you 
instantly  speak  Greek,  you  shall  all  be  severely  whipped,"  you 
would  wonder  at  the  injustice  of  the  school  tyrant.  But  would  not 
the  wretch  be  merciful  in  comparison  with  a  saviour,  (so  called) 
who  is  supposed  to  say  to  myriads  of  men  that  can  no  more  repent 
than  ice  can  burn,  Except  ye  repent  ye  shall  all  perish?  I  confess 
then,  when  I  see  real  Protestants  calling  this  doctrine  "  the  pure 
Gospel,"  and  extolling  it  as  "  free  grace,"  I  no  more  wonder  that 
real  Papists  should  call  their  bloody  inquisition  the  house  of  mercy, 
and  their  burning  of  those  whom  they  call  heretics  an  auto  de  fe.* 

Obj.  At  this  rate  our  salvation  or  damnation  turns  upon  the  good 
or  bad  use  which  we  make  of  the  manifold  grace  of  God  !  And  we 
are  in  this  world  in  a  state  of  probation,  and  not  merely  upon  our 
passage   to  the   rewards  which   everlasting  love,  or  to  the  punish- 

*  An  act  of  failh. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  IgJ 

ments  which  everlasting  hatred  has  freely  allotted  as  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world ! 

Ans.  Undoubtedly  ;  for  what  man  of  sense  (I  except  those  who 
through  hurry  and  mistake  have  put  on  the  veil  of  prejudice)  could 
show  his  face  in  a  pulpit  to  exhort  a  multitude  of  reprobates  to  avoid 
a  damnation  absolutely  unavoidable  ;  and  invite  a  little  flock  of  elect 
to  lose  no  time  in  making  sure  an  election,  surer  than  the  pillars  of 
heaven  ? 

Again,  who  but  a  tyrant  will  make  the  life  of  his  subjects  turn 
upon  a  thing  that  is  not  at  all  at  their  option  ?  When  Nero  was 
determined  to  put  people  to  death,  had  he  not  humanity  and  honesty 
enough  not  to  tantalize  them  with  insulting  offers  of  life  ?  To  whom 
did  he  ever  say,  "  If  thou  pluckest  one  star  from  heaven  thou  shalt 
not  die  ;  but  if  thou  failest  in  the  attempt,  the  most  dreadful  and 
lingering  torments  shall  punish  thy  obstinacy  ?"  And  shall  I,  shall 
my  Christian  brethren,  represent  the  King  of  saints  as  guilty  of — 
what  my  pen  refuses  to  write,  that  which  Nero  himself  was  too  mer- 
ciful to  contrive  ? 

Obj.  "  You  do  not  state  the  case  fairly.  If  all  have  sinned  in 
Adam,  and  the  wages  of  sin  is  death,  God  did  the  reprobates  no 
wrong  when  he  condemned  them  to  eternal  torments,  before  they 
knew  their  right  hand  from  their  left  ;  yea,  before  the  foundation 
of  the  world." 

Ans.  The  plausibility  of  this  objection,  heightened  by  voluntary 
humility,  has  misled  thousands  of  pious  souls  :  God  give  them  un- 
derstanding to  weigh  the  following  reflections.  1.  If  an  uncondi- 
tional, absolute  decree  of  damnation  passed  upon  the  rcprobntes 
lefore  the  foundation  of  the  world  :  it  is  absurd  to  account  for  the 
justice  of  such  a  decree,  by  appealing  to  a  sin  committed  after  the 
foundation  of  the  world. 

2.  If  Adam  sinned  necessarily  according  to  the  secret  will  and  pur- 
pose  of  God,  as  you  intimate  in  your  fourth  letter,  many  do  not  see 
how  he,  much  more  his  posterity,  could  justly  be  condemned  to 
eternal  torments  for  doing  an  iniquity  which  God^s  hand  and  counsel 
determined  before  to  be  done. 

3.  As  we  sinned  only  seminally  in  Adam,  if  God  had  not  intended 
our  redemption,  his  goodness  would  have  engaged  him  to  destroy 
us  seminally  by  crushing  the  capital  oflfender  who  contained  us  all ; 
so  there  would  have  been  a  just  proportion  between  the  sin  and  the 
punishment ;  for  as  we  sinned  in  Adam  without  the  least  conscious- 
ness of  guilt,  so  in  him  we  should  have  been  punished  without  the 

Vol.  I.  24 


IS^  THIRD    CHECK 

least. consciousness  of  pain.  This  observation  may  be  illustrated 
bj  an  example.  If  I  catch  a  mischievous  animal,  a  viper  for 
instance,  I  have  undoubtedly  a  right  to  kill  her,  and  destroy  her 
dangerous  brood,  if  she  is  big  with  young.  But  if  instead  of  de- 
spatching her  as  soon  as  I  can,  I  feed  her  on  purpose  to  get  many 
broods  from  her,  and  torment  to  death  millions  of  her  offspring,  I 
can  hardly  pass  for  the  good  man  who  regards  the  life  of  a  beast. 
Leavini5  to  you  the  application  of  this  simile,  I  ask.  Do  we  honour 
God  when  we  break  the  equal  beams  of  his  perfections  ?  when  we 
blacken  his  goodness  and  mercy,  in  order  to  make  his  justice  and 
greatness  sh'iDe  with  exorbitant  lustre?  If  "  a  God  all  mercy  is  a 
God  unjust,"  may  we  not  say,  according  to  the  rule  of  proportion, 
that  "  a  God  all  justice  is  a  God  unkind,"  and  can  never  be  he 
whose  mercy  is  over  all  his  works  ? 

4.  But  the  moment  we  allow  that  the  blessing  of  the  second  Adam 
is  as  general  as  the  curse  of  the  first :  that  God  sets  again  life  and 
death  before  every  individual,  and  that  he  mercifully  restores  to  all 
a  capacity  of  choosing  life,  yea,  and  of  having  it  one  day  more 
abundantly  than  Adam  himself  had  before  the  fall,  we  see  his  goodness 
and  justice  shine  with  equal  radiance,  when  he  spares  guilty  Adam 
to  propagate  the  fallen  race,  that  they  may  share  the  blessings  of  a 
better  covenant.  For,  according  to  the  Adamic  law ^  judgment  was  by 
one  sin  to  condemnation ;  but  the  free  gift  of  the  Gospel  is  of  many 
(fences  to  justification.  For  if  through  the  qff'ence  of  one  the  many 
he  dead;  much  more  the  grace  of  God,  and  the  gift  by  grace,  which  is 
by  one  man^  Jesus  Christ,  hath  abounded  unto  the  many. 

6.  Rational  and  Scriptural  as  the  preceding  observations  are,  we 
could  spare  them,  and  answer  your  objection  thus.  You  think  God 
may  justly  decree,  that  millions  of  his  unborn  creatures  shall  be 
vessels  of  wrath  to  all  eternity,  overflowing  with  the  vengeance  due 
to  Adam's  preordained  sin  ;  but  you  are  not  nearer  the  mark :  for, 
granting  that  he  could  do  it  as  a  just,  good,  and  merciful  God  ;  yet 
he  cannot  do  it  as  the  God  of  faithfulness  and  truth.  His  word  and 
oath  are  gone  forth  together :  hear  both.  What  mean  ye  that  ye 
USE  this  proverb  ?  *  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour  grapes,  and  the 
children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge :'  as  I  live,  says  the  Lord  God,  ye  shall 
not  have  occasion  any  more  to  use  this  proverb.  The  soul  that  sinneth 
[personally]  it  shall  die  [eternally  ;]  every  one  shall  die  for  his  own 
[avoidable]  iniquity.  Every  man  that  eateih  sour  grapes,  when  he 
might  bave  eaten  the  sweet,  his  teeth  shall  justly  be  set  on  edge. 
When  God  has  thus  made  oath  of  his  equity  and  impartiality  before 
mankind,  it  is  rather  bold  to  charge  him  with  contriving  Calvin's 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  183 

election,  and  setting  up  the  Protestant  great  image,  before  which  a 
considerable  part  of  the  church  continually  falls  down  and  worships. 

O  ye  honest  Shadrachs,  who  gaze  upon  it  with  admiration,  see 
how  some  Calvinian  doctors  deify  it,  Decreta  Dei  sunt  ipse  Deus,  The 
decrees  of  God  are  God  himself.  See  Elisha  Coles  advancing  at  the 
head  of  thousands  of  his  admirers,  and  hear  how  he  exhorts  them 
to  worship:  "Let  us  make  election  our  all;  our  bread,  water, 
munition  of  rocks,  and  whatever  else  we  can  suppose  ourselves  to 
want," — that  is.  Let  us  make  the  great  image  our  God.  Ye  candid 
Meshachs,  ye  considerate  Abednegos,  follow  not  this  mistaken  multi- 
tude ;  before  you  cry  with  them,  "  Great  is  the  Diana  of  the  Cal- 
vinists  I"  walk  once  round  the  celebrated  image  :  and  I  am  per- 
suaded that  if  you  can  make  out  Free  Grace  written  in  running  hand 
upon  her  smihng  face,  you  will  see  Free  Wrath  written  in  black 
capitals  upon  her  deformed  back  ;  and  then,  far  from  being  angry  at 
the  liberty  I  take  to  expose  her,  you  will  wish  speed  to  the  little 
stone  which  I  level  at  her  iron-day  feet. 

Think  not,  honoured  Sir,  that  I  say  about  free  wrath,  what  I 
cannot  possibly  prove  :  for  you  help  me  yourself  to  a  striking 
demonstration.  I  suppose  you  are  still  upon  your  travels.  You 
come  to  the  borders  of  a  great  empire,  and  the  first  thing  that  strikes 
you,  is  a  man  in  an  easy  carriage  going  with  folded  arms  to  take 
possession  of  an  immense  estate,  freely  given  him  by  the  king  of  the 
country.  As  he  flies  along  j'ou  just  make  out  the  motto  of  the 
royal  chariot,  in  which  he  doses,  Free  Reward.  Soon  after  you 
meet  five  of  the  king's  carts,  containing  twenty  wretches  loaded  with 
irons  :  and  the  motto  of  every  cart  is.  Free  Punishment.  You 
inquire  into  the  meaning  of  this  extraordinary  procession,  and  the 
sheriff,  attending  the  execution,  answers :  Know,  curious  stranger, 
that  our  monarch  is  absolute ;  and  to  show  that  sovereignty  is  the  pre- 
rogative of  his  imperial  crown,  and  that  he  is  no  respecter  of  persons, 
he  distributes  every  day  free  rewards  and  free  punishments^  to  a 
certain  number  of  his  subjects. — "What!  without  any  regard  to 
merit  or  demerit,  by  mere  caprice!" — Not  altogether  so,  for  he 
pitches  upon  the  worst  of  men,  and  chief  of  sinners,  and  upon  such  to 
choose,  for  the  subjects  of  his  rewards.  (Elisha  Coles,  page  62.) 
And  that  his  punishments  may  do  as  much  honour  to  free,  sove- 
reign wrath,  as  his  bounty  does  to  free,  sovereign  grace,  he  pitches 
upon  those  that  shall  be  executed  before  they  are  born. — *'  What ! 
have  these  poor  creatures  in  chains  done  no  harm?"  0  yes,  says 
the  sheriff,  the  king  contrived  that  their  parents  should  let  them  fall, 


184  THIRD    CHECk 

and  break  their  legs,  before  they  had  any  knowledge ;  when  they 
came  to  the  years  of  discretion,  he  commanded  them  to  run  a  race 
with  broken  legs,  and  because  they  cannot  do  it,  I  am  going  to  see 
them  quartered.  Some  of  them,  besides  this,  have  been  obhged  to 
fulfil  the  king's  secret  will,  and  bring  about  his  purposes;  and  they 
shall  be  burned  in  yonder  deep  valley,  called  Tophet,  for  their 
trouble.  You  are  shocked  at  the  sheriff's  account,  and  begin  to 
expostulate  with  him  about  the  freeness  of  the  wrath  which  burns  a 
man  for  doing  the  king's  will ;  but  all  the  answer  you  can  get  from 
him  is,  that  which  you  give  me  in  your  fourth  letter,  page  23, 
where,  speaking  of  a  poor  reprobate,  you  say,  "  Such  an  one  is 
indeed  accomplishing"  the  king's,  you  say,  "  God's  decree,  but  he 
carries  a  dreadful  mark  in  his  forehead,  that  such  a  decree  is,  that  he 
shall  be  punished  with  everlasting  destruction  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord"  of  the  country.  You  cry  out,  "  God  deliver  me  from  the 
hands  of  a  monarch,  who  punishes  with  everlasting  destruction  such 
as  accomplish  bis  decree !"  and  while  the  magistrate  intimates  that 
your  exclamation  is  a  dreadful  mark,  if  not  in  your  forehead,  at 
least  upon  your  tongue,  that  you  yourself  shall  be  apprehended 
against  the  next  execution,  and  made  a  public  instance  of  the  king's 
free  wrath,  your  blood  runs  cold,  you  bid  the  postillion  turn  the 
horses  ;  they  gallop  for  your  life,  and  the  moment  you  get  out  of  the 
dreary  land,  you  bless  God  for  your  narrow  escape. 

May  reason  and  Scripture  draw  your  soul  with  equal  speed  from 
the  dismal  fields  of  Coles's  sovereignty,  to  the  smiling  plains  of 
primitive  Christianity.  Here  you  have  God's  election,  without  Cal- 
vin's reprobation.  Here  Christ  chooses  the  Jews,  without  rejecting 
the  Gentiles,  and  elects  Peter,  James,  and  John,  to  the  enjoyment  of 
peculiar  privileges,  without  reprobating  Matthew,  Thomas,  and 
Simon.  Here,  nobody  is  damned  for  not  doing  impossibilities,  or  for 
doing  what  he  could  not  possibly  help.  Here,  all  that  are  saved 
enjoy  rewards,  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  according  to  the  degrees 
of  evangelical  obedience  which  the  Lord  enables,  not  forces,  them 
to  perform.  Here  free  wrath  never  appeared  :  all  our  damnation  is 
of  ourselves,  when  we  neglect  such  great  salvation,  by  obstinately 
refusing  to  work  it  out  with  fear  and  trembling.  But  this  is  not  all ; 
here  free  grace  does  not  rejoice  over  stocks,  but  over  men,  who 
gladly  confess  that  their  salvation  is  all  of  God,  who  for  Christ's  sake 
rectities  their  free-agency,  helps  their  infirmities,  and  works  in  them 
both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.  And  from  the  tenor  of 
the  Scripture,  as  well  as  from  the  consent  of  all  nations,  and  the 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  18^ 

dictates  of  conscience,  it  appears,  that  part  of  God's  good  pleasure 
towards  man  is  that  he  shall  remain  invested  with  the  awful  power 
©f  choosing  life  or  death,  that  his  will  shall  never  he  forced,  and, 
consequently,  that  overbearing,  irresistible  grace,  shall  be  banished 
to  the  land  of  Coles's  sovereignty,  together  with  free,  absolute, 
unavoidable  wrath. 

Now,  honoured  Sir,  permit  me  to  ask.  Why  does  this  doctrine 
alarm  good  men  ?  Why  are  those  divines  deemed  heretics,  who 
dare  not  divest  God  of  his  essential  love,  Emmanuel  of  his  com- 
passionate humanity,  and  man  of  his  connatural  free-agency  ?  What 
are  Domioicus  and  Calvin,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against 
Moses  and  Jesus  Christ  ?  Hear  the  great  prophet  of  the  Jews  :  /  call 
heaven  and  earth  to  record  this  day  against  you^  that  I  have  set  before 
you  life  and  death,  blessing  and  cursing,  [heaven  and  hell]  therefore 
choose  life  that  ye  may  live.  And  he  that  hath  ears  not  yet  absolutely 
stopped  by  prejudice,  let  him  hear  what  the  great  Prophet  of  the 
Christians  says  upon  the  important  question  :  /  am  come  that  they 
might  have  life ; — all  things  are  now  ready ; — but  ye  will  not  come  unto 
me  that  ye  might  have  life. — /  would  have  gathered,  you,  and  ye  would 
not. — Because  I  have  called  and  ye  refused,  I  will  laugh  when  your 
destruction  cometh.  For  that  they  did  not  choose  the  fear  of  the  Lord, 
therefore  shall  they  eat,  not  the  fr%dt  of  my  decree,  or  of  Adam's  sin, 
but  of  their  own  perverse  way :  they  shall  be  filled  with  their  own 
doings. 

If  these  words  of  Moses  and  Jesus  Christ  are  overlooked,  should 
not  at  least  the  experience  of  near  six  thousand  years  teach  the 
world,  that  God  does  not  force  rational  beings,  and  that  when  he 
tries  their  loyalty,  he  does  not  obey  for  them,  but  gives  them  suflfi- 
cient  grace  to  obey  for  themselves  ?  Had  not  all  the  angels  sufl5cient 
grace  to  obey  ?  If  some  kept  not  their  first  estate,  was  it  not  through 
their  own  unfaithfulness  ?  What  evil  has  our  Creator  done  us,  or 
what  service  have  devils  rendered  us,  that  we  should  fix  the  blot  of 
Calvinian  reprobation  upon  the  former,  to  excuse  the  rebellion  of 
the  latter?  Did  not  Adam  and  Eve  stand  sometime  by  means  of 
God's  sufficient  grace,  and  might  they  not  have  stood  for  ever? 
Have  not  converted  men  sufficient  grace  to  forsake  or  complain  of 
some  evil  ?  To  perform,  or  attempt  some  good  ?  Had  not  David  suffi- 
cient grace  to  avoid  the  crimes  into  which  he  plunged  ?  Have  not 
believers  sufficient  power  to  do  more  good  than  they  do  ?  And  does 
not  the  Scripture  address  sinners  (Simon  Magus  not  excepted)  as 
having  sufficient  grace  to  pray  for  more  grace,  if  they  have  not 
yet  sinned  the  sin  onto  death  ? 


186  THIRD    CHECK 

In  opposition  to  the  above-stated  doctrine  of  grace  free  for  all, 
as  well  as  free  in  ally  our  Calvinian  brethren  assert,  that  God  binds  his 
free  grace,  and  keeps  it  from  visiting  millions  of  sinners,  whom  they 
call  reprobates. — They  teach  that  man  is  not  in  a  state  of  probation, 
that  his  lot  is  absolutely  cast,  a  certain  little  number  of  souls  being 
immoveably  fixed  in  God's  favour  in  the  midst  of  all  their  abomina- 
tions ;  and  a  certain  vast  number  under  his  eternal  wrath,  in  the 
midst  of  their  most  sincere  endeavours  to  secure  his  favour.  And 
their  teachers  maintain  that  the  names  of  the  former  were  written 
in  the  book  of  llfe^  without  any  respect  to  foreseen  repentance,  faith, 
and  obedience  ;  while  the  names  of  the  latter  were  put  in  the  book 
of  death,  (so  I  call  the  decree  of  reprobation)  merely  for  the  sin  of 
Adam,  without  any  regard  to  personal  impenitency,  unbelief,  and  dis- 
obedience. And  this  narrow  grace  and  free  wrath  they  recommend 
to  the  world  under  the  engaging  name  oi  free  grace. 

This  doctrine,  dear  Sir,  we  are  in  conscience  bound  to  oppose,  not 
only  because  it  is  the  reverse  of  the  other,  which  is  both  scriptural 
and  rational ;  but  because  it  is  inseparably  connected  with  doctrinal 
Antinomianism,  as  your  fourth  letter  abundantly  demonstrates  :  and 
above  all,  because  it  appears  to  us,  that  it  fixes  a  blot  upon  all  the 
divine  perfections.  Please,  honoured  Sir,  to  consider  the  following 
queries  : 

What  becomes  of  God's  goodness  if  the  tokens  of  it  which  he  gives 
to  millions,  be  only  intended  to  enhance  their  ruin,  or  cast  a  deceit- 
ful veil  over  his  everlasting  wrath  ? — What  becomes  of  his  mercy, 
which  is  over  all  his  works,  if  millions  were  for  ever  excluded  from 
the  least  interest  in  it,  by  an  absolute  decree  that  constitutes  them 
vessels  of  wrath  from  all  eternity  ? — What  becomes  of  his  justice,  if 
he  sentences  myriads  upon  myriads  to  everlasting  fire  because  they 
have  not  believed  on  the  name  of  his  only-begotten  Son;  when,  if  they 
had  beUeved  that  he  was  their  Jesus,  their  Saviour,  they  would  have 
believed  a  monstrous  lie,  and  claimed  what  they  have  no  more  right 
to  than  I  have  to  the  crown  of  England  ? — What  becomes  of  his 
veracity,  and  the  oath  he  swears,  that  he  willeth  not  the  death  of  a  sinner, 
if  he  never  afibrds  most  sinners  sufficient  means  of  escaping  eternal 
death  ?  If  he  sends  his  ambassadors  to  every  creature,  declaring 
that  all  things  are  now  ready  for  their  salvation,  when  nothing  but 
Tophet  is  prepared  of  old  for  the  inevitable  destruction  of  a  vast 
majority  of  them  ? — What  becomes  of  his  holiness,  if,  in  order  to  con- 
demn the  reprobates  with  some  show  of  justice,  and  secure  the  end 
of  his  decree  of  reprobation,  which  is,  that  "  milUons  shall  absolutely 
be  damned,"  he  absolutely  fixes  the  means  of  their  damnation,  that  is. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  187 

their  sins  and  wickedness  ? — What  becomes  of  his  wisdoniy  if  he  seri- 
ously expostulates  with  souls  as  dead  as  corpses,  and  gravely  urges 
to  repentance  and  faith  persons  that  can  no  more  repent  and  believe, 
than  fishes  can  speak  and  sing  ? — What  becomes  of  his  long-svfering^ 
if  he  waits  to  have  an  opportunity  of  sending  the  reprobates  into  a 
deeper  hell,  and  not  to  give  them  a  longer  time  to  save  themselves 
from  this  perverse  generation  I'' — What  of  his  equity,  if  there  was 
mercy  for  Adam  and  Eve,  who  personally  breaking  the  edge  of  duty, 
wantonly  rushed  out  of  Paradise  into  this  howling  wilderness  ;  and 
yet  there  is  no  mercy  for  millions  of  their  unfortunate  children,  who 
are  born  in  a  state  of  sin  and  misery,  without  any  personal  choice, 
and  consequently  without  any  personal  sin  ? — And  what  becomes  of 
his  omniscience,  if  he  cannot  foreknow  future  contingencies  ?  If  to 
foretell  without  a  mistake  that  such  a  thing  shall  happen,  he  must  do 
it  himself?  Was  not  Nero  as  wise  in  this  respect  ?  Could  he  not 
foretell  that  Phebe  should  not  continue  a  virgin  when  he  was  bent 
upon  ravishing  her?  That  Seneca  should  not  die  a  natural  death, 
when  he  had  determined  to  have  him  murdered  ?  And  that  Crispus 
should  fall  into  a  pit,  if  he  obliged  him  to  run  a  race  at  midnight  in  a 
place  full  of  pits  ?  And  what  old  woman  in  the  kingdom  cannot  pre- 
cisely foretell  that  a  silly  tale  shall  be  told  at  such  an  hour,  if  she  is 
resolved  to  tell  it  herself,  or  at  any  rate  to  engage  a  child  to  do  it 
for  her  ? 

Again,  What  becomes  of  God's  loving -kindnesses,  zvhich  have  been 
ever  of  old  towards  the  children  of  men  ?  And  what  of  his  impar- 
tiality, if  most  men,  absolutely  reprobated  for  the  sin  of  Adam,  are 
never  placed  in  a  state  of  personal  trial  and  probation  ?  Does  not 
God  use  them  far  less  kindly  than  devils,  who  were  tried  every  one 
for  himself,  and  remain  in  their  diabolical  state,  because  they  brought 
it  upon  themselves  by  a  personal  choice  ?  Astonishing !  That  the  Son 
of  God  should  have  been  flesh  of  the  flesh,  and  bone  of  the  bone  of 
millions  of  men,  whom,  upon  the  Calvinian  scheme,  he  never  indulged 
so  far  as  he  did  devils  !  What  a  hard-hearted  relation  to  myriads  of 
his  fellow-men,  does  Calvin  represent  our  Lord  ?  Suppose  Satan  had 
become  our  kinsman  by  incarnation,  and  had  by  that  means  got  the 
right  of  redemption ;  would  he  not  have  acted  like  himself,  if  he  had 
not  only  left  the  majority  of  them  in  the  depth  of  the  fall,  but 
enhanced  their  misery  by  the  sight  of  his  partiahty  to  the  little  flock 
of  the  elect  ? 

Once  more.  What  becomes  of  fair  dealing,  if  God  every  where 
rfipresents  sin  as  the  dreadful  evil  which  causes  damnation,  and  yet 
the  most  horrid  siijs  xa^ork  for  good  to  some,  and  as  you  intimate 


188  THIRD    CHECK 

**  accomplish  their  salvation  through  Christ?** — And  what  of  honesty, 
if  the  God  of  truth  himself  promises  that  all  (he  families  of  the  earth 
shall  be  blessed  in  Christ,  when  he  has  cursed  a  vast  majority  of  them, 
with  a  decree  of  absolute  reprobation,  which  excludes  them  from 
obtaining  an  interest  in  him,  even  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world  ? 

Nay,  what  becomes  of  his  sovereignty  itself,  if  it  be  torn  from  the 
mild  and  gracious  attributes  by  which  it  is  tempered?  If  it  be  held 
forth  in  such  a  light  as  renders  it  more  terrible  to  millions,  than  the 
sovereignty  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  appeared  to 
Daniel's  companions,  when  the  form  of  his  visage  was  changed  against 
them,  and  he  decreed  that  they  should  be  cast  into  the  burning  fiery 
furnace;  for  they  might  have  saved  their  bodily  lives  by  bowing  to 
the  golden  image,  which  was  a  thing  in  their  power  ;  but  poor  repro- 
bates can  escape  at  no  rate  :  the  horrible  decree  is  gone  forth  ;  they 
must,  in  spite  of  their  best  endeavours,  dwell  body  and  soul  with 
everlasting  burnings. 

And  let  none  say  that  we  wrong  the  Calvinian  decree  of  reproba- 
tion, when  we  call  it  a  horrible  decree,  for  Calvin  himself  is  honest 
enough  to  call  it  so.  "  Unde  factum  est,  tot  gentes,  una  cum  liberis 
eorura  infantibus  aeteroae  morti  involveret  lapsus  Adas  absque  reme- 
dio,  nisi  quia  Deo  ita  visum  est? — Decretum  quidem  horribile,  fateor  : 
inficiari  tamen  nemo  poterit,  quin  praesciverit  Deus  quem  exitum 
habiturus  esset  homo,  antequam  ipsum  conderet,  et  ideo  praesciverit 
quia  decreto  suo  sic  ordinaret."  That  is,  '*  How  comes  it  to  pass, 
that  so  many  nations,  together  with  their  infant  children,  are,  by  the 
fall  of  Adam,  involved  in  eternal  death  without  remedy,  unless  it  is 
because  God  would  have  it  so  ? — A  horrible  decree,  I  confess  !  Never- 
theless, nobody  can  deny  that  God  foreknew  what  would  be  man's 
end  before  he  created  him,  and  that  he  foreknew  it  because  he  had 
ordered  it  by  his  decree."    Calv.  Inst,  Book  iii.  Chap.  23.  Sect.  7. 

This  is  some  of  the  contempt  which  Calvinism  pours  upon  God's 
perfections  :  these  are  some  of  the  blots  which  it  fixes  upon  his 
word. — But  the  moment  man  is  cons-idered  as  a  candidate  for  heaven, 
a  probationer  for  a  blissful  immortality ; — the  moment  you  allow  him 
what  free  grace  bestows  upon  him,  that  is,  a  dty  of  salvation,  with  a 
talent  of  living:  light  and  rectified  free-agency,  to  enable  him  to  work 
for  life  faithfully  promised,  as  well  as  from  life  freely  imparted  ;— the 
moment,  I  say,  you  allow  this,  all  the  divine  perfections  shine  with 
unsullied  lustre  ;  and  as  reason  and  majesty  returned  to  Nebuchad- 
nezzar after  his  shameful  degradation,  so  consistency  and  native  dig- 
»ity  are  restored  to  the  abused  oracles  of  God. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  189 

Having  thus  shown  the  inconsistency  of  Calvinism,  ami  the  reason- 
ableness of  what  you  call  the  Wesleyan,  and  what  we  esteem  the 
Christian  orthodoxy,  (so  far  at  least  as  it  respects  the  gracious  power 
and  opportunity  that  oaan,  as  redeemed  and  prevented  by  Christ,  has 
to  *'  work  for  life,"  or  to  work  out  his  own  salvation'  it  is  but  just  I 
should  consider  some  of  the  most  plausible  objections  which  are 
urged  against  our  doctrine. 

1.  Obj.  *'  Your  Wesleyan  scheme  pours  more  contempt  upon  the 
divine  perfections  than  ours.  What  becomes  of  God's  wisdom,  if  he 
gave  his  Son  to  die  for  all  mankind,  when  he  foreknew  that  most  men 
would  never  be  benefited  by  his  death  ?" 

Ans.  1.  God  foreknew  just  the  contrary  :  all  men,  even  those  who 
perish,  are  benefited  by  Christ's  death  ;  for  all  enjoy  through  hira  a 
day  of  salvation^  and  a  thousand  blessings  both  spiritual  and  temporal  ; 
and  if  all  do  not  enjoy  heaven  for  ever,  they  may  still  thank  God  for 
his  gracious  offer,  and  take  the  blame  upon  themselves  for  their 
obstinate  refusal  of  it.  2.  God,  by  reinstating  all  mankind  in  a  state 
of  probation,  for  ever  shuts  the  mouths  of  those  who  choose  death  in 
the  error  of  their  ways,  and  clears  himself  of  their  blood  before  men 
and  angels.  If  he  cannot  eternally  benefit  unbelievers,  he  eternally 
vindicates  his  own  adorable  perfections.  He  can  say  to  the  most 
obstinate  of  all  the  reprobates,  O  Israel,  thou  hast  destroyed  thyself: 
in  me  was  thy  help ;  but  thou  wouldest  not  come  unto  me  that  thou 
mightest  have  life.  Thy  destruction  is  not  from  my  decree^  but  thine 
own  determination. 

2.  Ohj.  *'  If  God  wills  all  men  to  be  saved,  and  yet  many  are 
damned,  is  he  not  disappointed  ?  And  does  not  this  disappointment 
argue  that  he  wants  either  wisdom  to  contrive  the  means  of  some 
men's  salvation,  or  power  to  execute  his  gracious  design  ? 

Ans.  1.  God's  purpose  is,  that  all  men  should  have  sufficient  grace 
to  believe  according  to  their  dispensation ;  that,  he  who  believeth  shall 
be  saved,  and  he  who  believeth  not  shall  be  damned.  God  cannot  there- 
fore be  disappointed,  even  when  man's  free  agency  throws  in  the 
weight  of  final  unbelief,  and  turns  the  scale  of  probation  for  death. 
2.  Although  Christ  is  the  author  of  a  day  of  salvation  to  all,  yet  he  is 
the  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  none  but  to  such  as  obey  him,  by 
working  out  their  own  salvation  while  it  is  day. 

If  you  say,  that  "  Suppose  God  wills  the  salvation  of  all,  and  none 
can  be  saved  but  the  obedient,  he  should  make  all  obey  :"  I  reply, 
So  he  does,  by  a  variety  of  gracious  means,  which  persuade,  but  do 
not  force  them ;  for  he  says  himself.  What  could  I  have  done  rnore 
to  my  vineyard  than  I  have  done;  *«  O,  but  he  shon\d  force  all  hv 
Vor.   I.  ^5 


190  THIRD    CHECK 

the  sovereign  power  of  irresistible  grace."  ^ou  might  as  well  say 
that  he  should  tenounce  his  wisdom,  and  defeat  his  own  purpose  ; 
for  if  his  wisdom  places  men  in  a  state  of  probation ;  the  moment  he 
forces  them,  he  takes  them  out  of  that  state,  and  overturns  his  own 
counsel  ;  he  destroys  the  work  of  his  hands  ;  he  unmans  man,  and 
saves  him,  not  as  a  rational  creature,  but  as  a  stock  or  a  stone.  Add 
to  this,  that  forced  obedience  is  a  contradiction  in  terms  ;  it  is  but 
another  word  for  disobedience,  at  least  in  the  account  of  him  who  says, 
My  son,  give  me  thy  heart;  obey  me  with  an  unconstrained,  free,  and 
cheerful  will.  In  a  word,  this  many  are  willingly  ignorant  o/,  that 
when  God  says,  he  wills  all  men  to  be  saved,  he  wills  them  to  be  saved 
as  wm,  according  to  his  own  method  of  salvation  laid  down  in  the 
above-mentioned  Scriptures,  and  not  in  their  own  way  of  wilful  dis- 
obedience, or  after  Calvin's  scheme  of  irresistible  grace. 

3.  Obj.  "  You  may  speak  against  irresistible  grace,  but  we  are  per- 
suaded thafnothing  short  of  it  is  suflBcient  to  make  us  beHeve ;  for 
St.  John  informs  us  that  the  Jews,  towards  whom  it  was  not  exerted, 
could  wo^ftilieve." 

Ans.  1.  Joseph  said  to  his  mistress,  How  can  /  do  this  great  wicked- 
ness !  But  this  does  not  prove  that  he  was  not  able  to  comply  with  her 
request  if  he  had  been  so  minded.  The  truth  was,  that  some  of  the 
Pharisees  had  buried  their  talent,  and  therefore  could  not  improve  it ; 
while  others  had  so  provoked  God,  that  he  had  taken  it  from  them; 
they  had  sinned  unto  death.  But  most  of  them  obstinately  held  that 
efvil,  which  was  an  insurmountable  hinderance  to  faith  ;  and  to  them 
our  Lord  said,  How  can  ye  believe,  who  receive  honour  one  of  another  2 
2.  I  wonder  that  modern  Predestinarians  should  make  so  much  of 
this  scripture,  when  Augustin  their  father  solves  the  seeming  difficulty 
with  the  utmost  readiness.  *'  If  you  ask  me,  (says  he)  why  the  Jews 
could  not  believe  ?  I  quickly  answer.  Because  they  would  not ;  for 
God  foresaw  their  evil  will,  and  foretold  it  by  the  prophet ;  and  if 
he  blinded  their  eyes,  their  own  wills  deserved  this  also."  They 
obstinately  said,  "  We  will  not  see  ;  and  God  justly  said  at  last,  "Ye 
shall  not  see." 

4.  06;.  *'  You  frequently  mention  the  parable  of  the  talents,  but 
take  care  to  say  nothing  of  the  parable  of  the  dry  bones,  which  shows 
not  only  the  absurdity  of  supposing  that  man  can  work  for  life,  but 
the  propriety  of  expostulating  with  souls  as  void  of  all  spiritual  life, 
as  the  dry  bones  to  which  Ezekiel  prophesied." 

Ans.  If  you  read  that  parable  without  comment,  you  will  see  that 
it  is  not  descriptive  of  the  spiritual  state  of  souls,  but  of  the  political 
condition  of  the  Jews  during  their  captivity  in  Babylon.     They  were 


VO   ANTINOMIANISM.  191 

scattered  throughout  Chaldea  as  dry  bones  in  a  valley  ;  nof  was  there 
any  human  probability  of  their  being  collected  to  form  again  a  politi- 
cal body.  Therefore  God,  to  cheer  their  desponding  hearts,  favoured 
Ezekiel  with  the  vision  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dry  bones.  2. 
This  vision  proves  just  the  reverse  of  what  some  imagine.  For  the 
dry  bones  are  thus  described  by  the  Lord  himself,  These  bo/w.s  are  the 
rvhole  house  of  Israel.  Behold,  they  say  [this  was  the  language  of  iheir 
despairing  minds]  our  bones  are  dried,  our  hope  is  lost,  we  are  cut  off 
for  our  parts.  Here  these  Israelites,  (compared  to  dry  bones,)  even 
before  Ezekiel  prophesied,  and  the  Spirit  entered  into  them,  knew 
their  misery,  and  complained  of  it,  saying,  Our  hones  are  dried  up. 
How  far  then  were  they  from  being  as  insensible  as  corpses  ?  3.  The 
prophecy  to  the  dry  bones  did  not  consist  in  threatenings  and  exhor- 
tations ;  it  was  only  of  the  declarative  kind.  Nor  was  the  promise 
of  their  resurrection  fulfilled  in  the  Calvinian  way,  that  is,  irresisti- 
bly. For  although  God  had  said,  /  will  open  your  graves,  [that  is, 
your  prisons]  and  will  bring  you  out  of  them  into  your  own  land,  we 
find  that  multitudes,  when  their  graves  were  opened,  chose  to  con- 
tinue in  them.  For  when  Nehemiah  and  Ezra  breathed,  under  God, 
courage  into  the  dry  bones,  the  Jewish  captives  dispersed  through- 
out Chaldea,  many  preferred  the  land  of  their  captivity  to  their  own 
land,  and  refused  to  return  :  so  that  after  all,  their  political  resurrec- 
tion turned  upon  their  own  choice. 

5.  Obj.  "  We  do  not  altogether  go  by  the  parable  of  the  dry  bones, 
when  we  affirm  there  is  no  absurdity  in  preaching  to  souls  as  dead 
as  corpses.  We  have  the  example  of  our  Lord  as  well  as  that  of 
Ezekiel.  Did  he  not  say  to  Lazarus  when  he  was  dead  and  buried, 
Come  forth?'' 

Ans.  If  Christ  had  called  Lazarus  out  of  the  grave  without  giving 
him  power  to  come  forth,  his  friends  would  have  had  some  reason  to 
suspect  that  he  was  beside  himself  How  much  more,  if  they  had 
heard  him  call  a  thousand  corpses  out  of  their  graves,  denouncing  to 
all,  that  if  they  did  not  rise  they  should  be  cast  into  a  lake  of  fire,  and 
eaten  up  by  a  worm  that  dieth  not !  It  is  a  matter  of  fact,  that  Christ 
never  commanded  but  one  dead  man  to  come  out  of  the  grave  ;  and 
the  instant  he  gave  him  the  command,  he  gave  him  also  power  to  obey 
it.  Hence  we  conclude,  that  as  the  Lord  commands  all  men  every 
where  to  repent,  he  gives  them  all  power  so  to  do.  But  some  Calvin- 
ists  argue  just  the  reverse.  Christ,  say  they,  called  one  corpse 
without  using  any  entreaty,  threatening,  or  promise,  and  he  gave  it 
power  to  obey:  therefore  when  he  calls  a  hundred  dead  souls, 
and  enforces  his  call  with  the  greatest  variety  of  expostulationsj 


192  THIRD    CHECK 

threatenings,  or  promises,  he  gives  power  to  obey  only  to  two  or 
three.  What  an  inference  is  this !  How  worthy  of  the  cause  which 
it  supports ! 

In  how  contemptible  a  light  does  our  Lord  appear,  if  he  says  to 
souls  as  dead  as  Lazarus  in  the  grave,  All  the  day  long  have  I  stretched 
out  my  hands  unto  you.  Turn  ye :  why  will  ye  die  ?  Let  the  wicked 
forsake  ^is  way,  and  1  will  have  mercy  upon  him :  but  if  he  will  not 
turn,  I  will  whet  my  sword^  I  have  bent  my  bow  and  made  it  ready :  I 
have  also  prepared  for  him  the  instruments  of  death  ! 

I  once  saw  a  passionate  man  unmercifully  beating  and  damning 
a  blind  horse,  because  he  did  not  take  to  the  way  in  which  he  would 
have  him  go  ;  and  I  came  up  just  when  the  poor  animal  fell  a  lamed 
victim  to  its  driver's  madness.  How  did  I  upbraid  him  with  his 
cruelty,  and  charge  him  with  unparalleled  extravagance  !  But  I  now 
ask,  if  it  is  not  more  than  paralleled  by  the  conduct  of  the  ima- 
ginary being,  whom  some  recommend  to  the  world  as  a  wise  and 
merciful  God  ?  For  the  besotted  driver  for  some  minutes  expostu- 
lated, in  his  way,  with  a  living,  though  blind  horse;  but  the  sup- 
po.<!ed  maker  of  the  Calvinian  decrees,  expostulates  all  the  day  long 
with  souls  not  only  as  blind  as  beetles,  but  as  dead  as  corpses. 
Again,  the  former  had  some  hopes  of  prevailing  with  his  living  beast 
to  turn  ;  but  what  hopes  can  the  latter  have  to  prevail  with  dead 
corpses,  or  with  souls  as  dead  as  they  ?  What  man  in  his  senses  ever 
attempted  to  make  a  corpse  turn,  by  threatening  it  sword  in  hand, 
or  by  bending  the  bow  and  levelling  an  arrow  at  its  cold  and  putrid 
heart  ? 

But  suppose  the  resurrection  of  Lazarus,  and  that  of  the  dry 
bones,  did  not  overthrow  Calvinism,  would  it  be  reasonable  to  lay  so 
much  stress  upon  them  ?  Is  a  dead  soul  in  every  respect  like  a 
dead  body  ?  and  is  moral  death  absolutely  like  natural  death  ?  Can  a 
parabolical  vision,  wrested  from  its  obvious  meaning,  supersede  the 
plainest  declarations  of  Christ,  who  personally  addresses  sinners  as 
free  agents  ?  Should  not  metaphors,  comparisons,  and  parables,  be 
suffered  to  walk  erect  like  reasonable  men  ?  Is  it  right  to  make  them 
go  upon  all  four  like  the  stupid  ox  ?  What  loads  of  heterodoxy  have 
degraded  parables  brought  into  the  church?  And  how  successfully 
has  error  carried  on  her  trade,  by  dealing  in  figurative  expressions 
taken  in  a  literal  sense  ! 

This  is  my  body,  says  Christ,  "  Therefore  bread  is  flesh,"  says  the 
Papist,  "  and  transubstantiation  is  true." — These  dry  bones  are  the  house 
of  Israel,  says  the  Lord,  "  Therefore  Calvinism  is  true,"  says  my 
objector,  *'  and  we  can  do  no  more  towards  our  conversion,  than 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  193 

dry  bones  towards  their  resurrection :" — Lost  sinners  are  repre- 
sented in  the  Gospel  as  a  lost  piece  of  silver.  "  Therefore,"  says 
the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  *'  they  can  no  more  seek  God,  than 
the  piece  could  seek  the  woman  who  had  lost  it."  Christ  is  the  Son 
of  God,  says  St.  Peter,  "  Therefore,"  says  Arius,  *'  he  is  not  co- 
eternal  with  the  Father,  for  I  am  not  so  old  as  my  parents." — 
And  I,  who  have  a  right  to  be  as  wise  as  any  of  them,  hearing  our 
Lord  say,  that  the  seven  churches  are  seven  candlesticks,  prove  by  it 
that  the  seven  churches  can  no  more  repent,  than  three  pair  and 
a  half  of  candlesticks,  or  if  you  please,  seven  pair  of  snuffers. 
And  shall  we  pretend  to  overthrow  the  general  tenor  of  the  Scrip- 
ture by  such  conclusions  as  these?  Shall  not  rather  unprejudiced 
persons  of  every  denomination,  agree  to  turn  such  arguments  out  of 
the  Christian  church  with  as  much  indignation  as  Christ  turned  the 
oxen  out  of  the  Jewish  temple  ? 

Permit  me,  honoured  Sir,  to  give  you  two  or  three  instances 
more,  of  an  undue  stretching  of  some  particular  words,  for  the  sup- 
port of  some  Calvinian  errors.  According  to  the  oriental  style,  a 
follower  of  wisdom  is  called  a  son  of  wisdom,  and  one  that  deviates 
from  her  paths,  a  son  of  folly.  By  the  same  mode  of  speech,  a 
wicked  man,  considered  as  wicked,  is  called  Satan,  a  son  of  Belial,  a 
child  of  the  wicked  one,  and  a  child  of  the  devil.  On  the  other  hand, 
a  man  who  turns  from  the  devil's  works,  and  does  the  works  of  God, 
by  believing  in  him,  is  called  a  child,  or  a  son  of  God.  Hence,  the 
passing  from  the  ways  of  Satan  to  the  ways  of  God,  was  naturally 
called  conversion,  and  a  new  birth,  as  implying  a  turning  from  sin,  a 
passing  into  the  family  of  God,  and  being  numbered  among  the  godly. 

Hence  some  divines,  who,  like  Nicodemus,  carnalize  the  expres- 
sions of  new  birth,  child  of  God,  and  son  of  God,  assert,  that  if  men 
who  once  walked  in  God's  ways  turn  back  even  into  adultery,  mur- 
der,  and  incest,  they  are  still  God's  dear  people  and  pleasant  children, 
in  the  Gospel  sense  of  the  words.  They  ask,  "  Can  a  man  be  a 
child  of  God  to-day,  and  a  child  of  the  devil  to-morrow  ?  Can  he 
be  born  this  week,  and  unborn  the  next  ?"  And  with  these  ques- 
tions they  as  much  think  they  have  overthrown  the  doctrine  of 
holiness,  and  one  half  of  the  Bible,  as  honest  Nicodemus  sup- 
posed he  had  demolished  the  doctrine  of  regeneration,  an-i  stopped 
our  Lord's  mouth,  when  he  said,  Can  a  man  enter  a  second  time  into 
his  mother^s  womb,  and  be  born? 

The  questions  of  our  brethren  would  be  easily  answered,  if,  set- 
ting  aside  the  oriental  mode  of  speech,  they  simply  asked,  <'  May 
one  who  has  ceased  to  do  evil,  and  learned  to  do  well  to-day,  cease  to 


194  THIRD    CHECK 

do  zvell,  and  /earn  to  do  evil  to-morrow  ?"  To  this  we  could  di- 
rectly reply  :  If  the  dying  thief,  the  Philippian  jailer,  and  multi= 
tudes  of  Jews,  in  one  day,  went  over  from  the  sons  of  folly  to 
the  sons  of  wisdom,  where  is  the  absurdity  of  saying,  they  could 
measure  the  same  way  back  again  in  one  day ;  and  draw  back  into 
the  horrid  womb  of  sin  as  easily  as  Satan  drew  back  into  rebellion, 
Adam  into  disobedience,  David  into  adultery,  Solomon  into  idolatry, 
Judas  into  treason,  and  Ananias  and  Sapphira  into  covetousness  ? 
When  Peter  had  shown  himself  a  blessed  son  of  heavenly  wisdom,  by 
confessing  Jesus  Christ,  did  he  even  stay  till  the  next  day  to  become 
a  son  of  folly,  by  following  the  wisdom  which  is  earthly,  sensual^  and 
devilish  ?  Was  not  our  Lord  directly  obliged  to  rebuke  him  with 
the  utmost  severity,  by  saying,  Get  thee  behind  ine,  Satan? 

Multitudes  who  live  in  open  sin,  build  their  hopes  of  heaven  upon 
a  similar  mistake,  I  mean  upon  the  unscriptural  idea  which  they  fix 
to  the  scriptural  word  sheep.  "Once  I  heard  the  Shepherd's  voice,^ 
(says  one  of  these  Laodicean  souls  :)  "  I  followed  him,  and  therefore 
I  was  one  of  his  sheep ;  and  now,  though  I  follow  the  voice  of  a 
stranger,  who  leads  me  into  all  manner  of  sins,  into  adultery  and 
murder,  I  am  undoubtedly  a  sheep  still  ;  for  it  was  never  heard 
that  a  sheep  became  a  goat."  Such  persons  do  not  observe,  that 
our  Lord  calls  sheep,  those  who  hear  his  voice,  and  goats,  those 
who  follow  that  of  the  tempter.  Nor  do  they  consider  that  if 
Saul,  a  grievous  wolf,  breathing  slaughter  against  Christ's  sheep, 
and  making  havock  of  his  little  flock,  coold  in  a  short  time  be 
changed  both  into  a  sheep  and  a  shepherd  :  David,  a  harmless  sheep, 
could  in  as  short  a  time,  commence  a  goat  to  Bathsheba,  and  prove 
a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing  to  her  husband. 

Pardon  me,  honoured  Sir,  if,  to  make  my  mistaken  brethren 
ashamed  of  their  argument,  I  dedicate  to  them  the  following  so- 
liloquy, wherein  I  reason  upon  their  own  plan.  "  Those  very 
Jews  whom  the  Baptist  and  our  Lord  called  a  brood  of  vipers  and 
serpents,  were  soon  after  compared  to  chickens,  which  Christ  wanted 
to  gather  as  a  hen  does  her  brood.  What  a  wonderful  change  was 
here !  The  vipers  became  chickens  !  Now  as  it  was  never  heard 
that  chickens  became  vipers,  I  conclude  that  those  Jews,  even  when 
they  came  about  our  Lord  like  fat  bulls  of  Basan,  like  ramping  and 
roaring  lions,  were  true  chickens  still.  And  indeed,  why  should 
not  they  have  been  as  true  chickens,  as  David  was  a  true  sheep 
when  he  murdered  Uriah  ?  I  abhor  the  doctrine  which  maintains 
that  a  man  may  be  a  chick  or  a  sheep  to-day,  and  a  viper  or  a  goat 
fo-morrow. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  "  195 

*'  Bat  I  am  a  little  embarrassed.  If  none  go  to  hell  but  goaiSf 
and  none  to  heaven  but  sheep,  where  shall  the  chickens  go  ?  Where 
the  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing?  And  in  what  limbus  of  heaven 
or  hell  shall  we  put  that  fox,  Herod,  the  dogs  who  return  to  their 
vomit,  and  the  swine,  before  whom  we  must  riot  cast  our  pearls? 
Are  they  all  species  of  goats,  or  some  particular  kind  of  sheep  ? 

<'  My  difficulties  increase.  The  church  is  called  a  dove,  and 
Ephraim  a  silly  dove.  Shall  the  silly  dove  be  admitted  among  the 
sheep  ?  Her  case  seems  rather  doubtful.  The  hair  of  the  spouse 
in  the  Canticles  is  likewise  said  to  be  like  a  Jlock  of  goats,  and 
Christ's  shepherds  are  represented  as  feeding  kids,  or  young  goats, 
beside  their  tents.  I  wonder  if  those  young  goats  became  young 
sheep,  or  if  they  were  all  doomed  to  continue  reprobates !  But 
what  puzzles  me  most  is,  that  the  Babylonians  are  in  the  same  verse 
compared  to  rams,  lambs,  and  goats :  were  they  mongrel  elect,  or 
mongrel  reprobates,  or  some  of  Elisha  Coles's  spiritual  monsters?^' 

I  make  this  ridiculous  soliloquy  to  show  the  absurdity  and  danger 
of  resting  weighty  doctrines  upon  so  sandy  a  foundation,  as  the  par- 
ticular sense,  which  some  good  men  give  to  a  few  scriptural  expres- 
sions, stretched  and  abused  on  the  rack  of  my  countryman  Calvin ; 
especially  such  expressions  as  these,  a  child  of  God,  a  sheep,  a  goat, 
and  above  all,  the  dead  in  sin. 

Upon  this  last  expression  you  seem,  honoured  Sir,  chiefly  to  place 
the  merit  of  your  cause,  with  respect  to  "  working  for  life  ;"  witness 
the  following  words  :  "  That  we  are  to  work  for  life  is  an  assertion 
most  exceedingly  self-contradictory,  if  it  be  a  truth  that  man  is  dead 
in  trespasses  and  sms."  Had  you  given  yourself  the  trouble  of  read- 
ing, with  any  degree  of  attention,  the  42d  page  of  the  Vindication,* 
you  would  have  seen  your  difficulty  proposed  and  solved :  witness 
the  following  words  which  conclude  the  solution  :  "  In  this  scriptural 
view  of  free  grace,  what  room  is  there  for  the  ridiculous  cavil,  that 
Mr.  W.  wants  the  dead  to  work  for  Hfe  ?"  Had  I  been  in  your  place, 
I  confess^  honoured  Sir,  I  could  not  have  produced  that  cavil  again, 
without  attempting  at  least  to  wipe  off  the  ridicule  put  upon  it.  I 
should  think  truth  has  better  weapons  with  which  to  defend  herself 
than  a  vail.  I  grant  that  the  reverend  divine,  whose  second  you  are, 
has  publicly  cast  a  vail  over  all  my  arguments,  under  the  name  of 
mistakes :  but  could  you  possibly  think  that  his  vail  was  thick  enough 
to  cover  them  from  the  eyes  of  unprejudiced  readers,  and  palUate 
your  answering,  or  seeming  to  answer  me,  without  taking  notice  of 

S?e  page  39. 


J  96  THIRD    CHECK 

my  arguments  ?    But  if  you  cast  a  vail  over  them,  I  shall  now  endea- 
vour to  do  your's  justice,  and  clear  the  matter  a  little  farther. 

I.  Availing  yourself  of  St.  Paul's  words  to  the  Ephesians  and 
Colossians,  Yoii  hath  he  quickened  who  were  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins  : 
and  you  being  dead  in  your  sins  hath  he  quickened  together  zvith  him  ; 
you  dwell  upon  the  absurdity  of  "  expecting  hving  actions  from  a 
dead  corpse,"  or  living  works  from  a  dead  soul. 

1.  I  wonder  at  the  partiality  of  some  persons  :  if  we  assert  that 
strong  believers  are  dead  to  sin,  they  tell  us  very  properly  that  such 
are  not  so  dead  but  they  may  commit  sin  if  they  please,  or  if  they 
are  off  their  watch :  but  if  we  say  that  many  who  are  dead  in  sin, 
are  not  so  dead  but  in  the  strength  imparted,  together  with  the  light 
that  enlightens  every  man,  they  may  leave  off  some  of  their  sins  if 
they  please,  we  are  exclaimed  against  as  using  metaphysical  distinc- 
tions, and  dead  must  absolutely  mean  impotent  as  a  corpse. 

2.  The  word  dead,  &c.  is  frequently   used  in  the  Scriptures  to 
denote  a  particular  degree  of  helplessness  and  inactivity,  very  short 
of  the  total  helplessness  of  a  corpse.     We  read  of  the  deadness  of 
Sarah's  womb,  and  of  Abraham's  body  being  dead ;  and  he  must  be  a 
strong  Calvinist  indeed,  who,  from  such  expressions,  peremptorily 
asserts,  that  Sarah's  dead  womb  was  as  unfit  for  conception,  and 
Abraham's  dead  body  for  generation,  as  if  they  both  had  been  "  dead 
corpses."     Christ  writes  to  the  Church  of  Sardis,  I  know  thy  works; 
thou  hast  a  name  to  live,  and  art  dead :  but  it  is  evident  that  dead  as 
they  were,  something  remained  alive  in  them,  though,  like  the  smok- 
ing flax,  it  was  ready  to  die:  witness  the  words  that  follow,  be  watch- 
fid,  and  strengthen  the  things  which  remain,  that  are  ready  to  die.  Now, 
Sir,  if  the  dead  Sardians  could  "  work  for  life,"  by  strengthening  the 
things  belonging  to  the  Christian  which  remained  in  them  ;  is  it  modest 
to  decide  e  cathedra,  that  the  dead  Ephesians  and  Colossians  could 
not  as  well  work  for  life,  by  strengthening  the  things  that  remained  and 
were  ready  to  die,  under  their  own  dispensation  ?    Is  it  not  evident  that 
a  beam  of  the  Light  of  the  world  still  shone  in  their  hearts,  or  that  the 
Spirit  still  strove  with  them  ?    If  they  had  absolutely  quenched  him, 
would  he  have  helped  them  to  believe  ?   And  if  they  had  not,  was 
not  there  something  of  the  Light,  which  enlightens  every  man,  remain- 
ing in  them :  with  which  they  both  could,  and  did  work  for  life,  as 
well  as  the  dead  Sardians  ? 

3.  The  absurdity  of  always  measuring  the  meaning  of  the  word 
dead,  by  the  idea  of  a  dead  corpse,  appears  from  several  other  Scrip- 
tures. St.  Paul,  speaking  of  one  who  grows  wanton  against  Christ, 
says,  She  that  liveth  in  pleasure  is  dead  zvhile  she  liveth.     Now  if  this 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  197 

means  that  she  is  entirely  devoid  of  every  degree  of  spiritual  life, 
what  becomes  of  Calvinism  ?  Suppose  all  that  hve  in  pleasure  are 
as  dead  to  God  as  corpses,  what  becomes  of  the  everlasting  life  of 
Lot,  when  he  lived  in  pleasure  with  his  daughters  ?  Of  David  with 
Bathsheba,  and  Solomon  with  his  idolatrous  wives  ?  When  the  same 
apostle  observes  to  the  Romans,  that  their  body  was  dead  because  of 
sifiy  did  he  really  mean  they  were  already  dead  corpses  ?  And  when 
he  adds,  sin  revived^  and  I  died,  did  Calvinian  death  really  pass  upon 
him  ?  Dead  as  he  was,  could  not  he  complain  like  the  dry  bones,  and 
ask,  Who  {hall  deliver  me  from  this  body  of  death. ^  Again,  when  our 
Lord  says  to  Martha,  He  that  believeth  in  mc,  though  he  were  dend^  yet 
shall  he  live,  does  he  not  intimate  that  there  is  a  work  consistent  with 
the  degree  of  death  of  which  he  speaks  ?  A  believing  out  of  death 
into  life  ?  A  doing  the  work  of  God  for  life,  yea,  for  eternal  life  ? 

4.  From  these  and  the  like  Scriptures,  it  is  evident  that  there  are 
dififerent  degrees  of  spiritual  death,  which  you  perpetually  confound. 
1.  Total  death,  or  a  full  departure  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  This  passed 
upon  Adam,  and  all  mankind  in  him,  when  he  lost  God's  moral  image, 
fell  into  selfish  nature,  and  was  buried  in  sin,  guilt,  shame,  and 
horror.  2.  Death  freely  visited  with  a  seed  of  life  in  our  fallen 
representative,  and  of  course  in  all  his  posterity,  during  the  day  of 
their  visitation.  3.  Death  oppressing  this  living  seed,  and  holding  it 
in  unrighteousness,  which  was  the  death  of  the  Ephesians  and  Colos- 
sians.  4.  Death  prevailing  again  over  the  living  seed,  after  it  had 
been  powerfully  quickened,  and  burying  it  in  sin  and  wickedness. 
This  was  the  death  of  David  during  his  apostacy,  and  is  still  that  of 
all  who  once  believed,  but  now  live  in  Laodicean  ease,  or  Sardian 
pleasure.  And  5.  The  death  of  confirmed  apostates,  who,  by  abso- 
lutely quenching  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus,  the  second  Adam, 
are  fallen  into  the  miserable  state  of  nature,  and  total  helplessness, 
in  which  the  first  Adam  was,  when  God  preached  to  him  the  Gospel 
of  his  quickening  grace.  The«e  are  said  by  St.  Jude  to  be  twice 
dead;  dead  by  Adam's  total  apostacy  from  God,  and  dead  by  their 
own  personal  and  final  apostacy  from  the  Light  of  the  world. 

IL  The  foundation  of  the  Crispian  Babel  is  literally  laid  in  con- 
fusion. When  you  have  confounded  all  the  degrees  of  spiritual 
death,  we  may  naturally  expect  to  see  you  confound  all  the  degrees 
of  spiritual  life,  which  our  Lord  meant  when  he  said,  I  am  come  that 
(hey  may  have  life,  and  that  they  may  have  it  more  abundantly.  "  All 
that  are  quickened,"  do  you  say,  *'  are  pardoned  and  justified."  As 
if  a  man  could  not  be  quickened  to  see  his  sins  and  reform,  before  he 

Vol.  L  26 


198  THIRD  CUECK 

is  quickened  so  to  believe  in  Christ  as  to  receive  the  pardon  and 
justification  mentioned  Col.  ii.  13.  and  Rom.  v.  1. 

If  you  read  the  Scriptures  without  prejudice,  you  will  see  that 
there  are  several  degrees  of  spiritual  life,  or  quickening  power. 
1,  The  living  Lights  which  shines  171  the  darkness  of  ever}'  man  during 
the  day  of  his  visitation.  2.  The  life  of  the  returning  sinner, 
whether  he  has  always  lived  in  open  sin  as  the  Publican,  or  once 
walked  in  the  ways  of  God  as  David.  3.  The  life  of  the  heathen, 
who,  like  Cornelius,  fears  God  and  works  righteousness  according  to 
his  light,  and  is  accepted  in  his  dispensation.  4.  The  life  of  the 
pious  Jew,  who,  like  Samuel,  fears  God  from  his  youth.  This  degree 
of  life  is  far  superior  to  the  preceding,  being  cherished  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  patriarchs,  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  sacra- 
ments, priests,  prophets,  temple,  sabbaths,  sacrifices,  and  other 
means  of  grace  belonging  to  the  Jewish  economy.  5.  The  life  of 
the  feeble  Chri=:tiar),  or  disciple  of  John,  who  is  baptized  with  water 
•unto  repentance  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and  believing  in  the  Lamb 
of  God,  immediately  pointed  out  to  him,  enjoys  the  blessings  of  the 
primitive  Christians  before  the  day  of  Pentecost.  And  G.  The  still 
more  abundant  life,  the  life  of  the  adult  or  perfect  Christian,  imparted 
to  him  when  the  love  of  God,  or  power  from  on  high,  is  plentifully 
shed  abroad  in  his  believing  soul,  on  the  day  that  Christ  baptizes  him 
with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire,  to  sanctify  him  wholly  and  seal  him 
unto  the  day  of  redemption. 

III.  When  you  have  overlooked  all  the  degrees  of  spiritual  death 
and  life,  what  wonder  is  it  that  you  should  confound  all  the  degrees 
of  acceptance  and  divine  favour,  with  which  God  blesses  the  children 
of  men.  Permit  me,  honoured  Sir,  to  bring  also  this  article  of  the 
Christian  faith  out  of  the  Calvinian  tower  of  Babel,  where  it  has  too 
long  been  detained. 

1.  I  have  already  proved,  that,  in  consequence  of  the  love  of 
benevolence  and  pity,  with  which  God  loved  the  world,  and  through 
the  propitiation  which  Christ  made  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  worlds 
the  free  gift  of  an  accepted  time,  and  a  day  of  salvation  upon  all  men. 
In  this  sense  they  are  all  accepted,  and  sent  to  work  in  the  vineyard  of 
their  respective  dispensations.  This  degree  of  acceptance,  with  the 
seed  of  light,  life,  and  power  that  accompanies  it,  is  certainly  pre- 
vious to  any  work  ;  and  in  virtue  of  it  infants  and  complete  idiots  go 
to  heaven,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God.  As  they  are  not  capa- 
ble of  buryins;  or  improving  their  talent  of  inferior  acceptance,  they 
are  admitted  with  it  to  an  inferior  degree  of  glory. 


TO    ANTINOMiANISAI.  199 

2.  While  many  abandoned  heathens,  and  those  who  follow  their 
abominable  ways,  bury  their  talent  to  the  last,  and  lose  it,  together 
with  the  degree  of  acceptance  they  once  enjoyed  in  or  through  the 
Beloved;  some,  by  improving  it,  are  accepted  in  a  higher  manner, 
and,  like  Cornelius,  receive  tokens  of  increasing  favour.  The  love 
of  pity  and  benevolence  which  God  bore  them,  is  now  mixed  with 
iome  love  of  complacence  and  delight. 

3.  Faithful  Jews,  or  those  who  are  under  their  dispensation, 
improving  a  superior  number  of  talents,  are  accepted  in  a  superior 
manner,  and  as  a  token  of  it  they  are  made  rulers  over  Jive  cities, 
they  partake  of  greater  grace  here,  and  greater  glory  hereafter. 

4.  John  the  Baptist  and  his  disciples,  I  mean.  Christians  who  have 
not  yet  been  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with  Jire,  are  yet  more 
highly  accepted  ;  for  John,  and  the  souls  who  live  up  to  the  height 
of  his  dispensation,  are  great  in  the  sight  and  favour  of  the  Lord. 
They  exceed  all  those  who  attain  only  to  the  perfection  of  inferior 
economies. 

5.  But  those  Christians  who  live  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  which 
was  opened  to  believers  on  the  day  of  Pentecost,  whose  hearts  burn 
with  his  love,  and  flame  with  his  glory,  are  accepted  in  a  still  higher 
degree ;  for  our  Lord  informs  us,  that  great  as  John  himself  was,  the 
hast  in  the  kingdom  of  God  is  greater  than  he,  and  as  a  token  of 
superior  acceptance  he  shall  be  made  ruler  over  ten  cities  :  he  shall 
enter  more  deeply  into  the  joy  and  glory  of  his  Lord. 

Although  concurrence  with  grace  given  is  necessary,  in  order  to 
these  four  last  degrees  of  acceptance,  none  enjoy  them  but  in  and 
through  the  Beloved :  for  as  his  blood  is  the  meritorious  spring  of  all 
our  pardons,  so  his  Spirit  is  the  inexhaustible  fountain  of  all  our 
graces.  Nor  are  we  less  indebted  to  him  for  power  to  be  workers 
together  with  God  in  the  great  business  of  our  salvation,  than  for  all 
the  other  wonders  of  his  unmerited  goodness  and  redeeming  love. 

Let  nobody  say,  that  the  doctrine  of  these  degrees  of  acceptance  is 
founded  upon  metaphysical  distinctions,  and  exceeds  the  capacity  of 
simple  Christians  ;  for  a  child  of  ten  years  old  understands  that  he  may 
be  accepted  to  run  a  race,  before  he  is  accepted  to  receive  the  prize  ; 
and  that  a  man  may  be  accepted  as  a  day-labourer,  and  not  as  a  ser- 
vant ;  be  as  a  steward,  and  not  as  a  child  ;  as  a  friend,  and  not  as  a 
spouse.  All  these  degrees  of  acceptance  are.  very  distinct,  and  the 
confusion  of  them  evidently  belongs  to  the  Calvinian  Babel. 

IV.  As  we  have  considered  three  of  the  vvalls  of  your  tower,  it 
will  not  be  amiss  to  cast  a  look  upon  the  fourth,  which  is  the  utterly 
corilbunding  of  the  four  degrees  that  make  up  a  glorified   f^aint'?? 


200  THIRD  CHECK 

eternal  justification.  1.  That  which  passes  upon  all  infants  univer- 
sally, and  is  thus  described  by  St.  Paul,  As  by  the  offence  of  one  judg- 
ment came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation ;  even  so  by  the  righteousness 
of  one,  the  free  gift  came  upon  all  tnen  unto  [present]  justification^ 
[from  original  sin,  and  future  justitication]  of  life;  upon  their  repent- 
ing, and  believing  in  the  light,  during  the  day  of  their  visitation.  In 
consequence  of  this  degree  of  justification,  we  may,  without  im- 
peaching the  veracity  of  God,  say  to  every  creature,  God  so  loved 
the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  to  reconcile  them  unto 
himself,  not  .imputing  to  them  original  sin  unto  eternal  death,  and 
blotting  out  their  personal  transgressions  in  the  moment  they  believe 
with  the  heart  unto  righteousness. 

2.  The  justification  consequent  upon  such  believing,  is  thus 
described  by  St.  Paul.  This  blessing  of  faith  imputed  for  righteous- 
ness shall  be  ours,  if  rce  believe  on  him  that  was  raised  from  the  dead 

for  our  justification. —  We  have  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  -we  might 
be  justified  by  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  "works  of  the  law. — 
Therefore  being  justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  ^c. 

3.  i'he  justification  consequent  upon  bringing  forth  the  fruit  of  a 
lively  faith  in  the  truths  that  belong  to  our  dispensation  ;  this  justi- 
fication is  thus  mentioned  by  St.  James.  Rahab  the  harlot  was  jus- 
tified by  works. — Abraham  our  Father  was  justified  by  works. — Ye  see 
then  how  by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only. 

And  4.  Final  justification,  thus  asserted  by  our  Lord  and  St  Paul. 
In  the  day  of  judgment  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified,  and  by 
thy  words  shalt  thou  be  comdejp,ned. — Circumcisio7i  and  uncircumcision 
avail  nothing,  hut  the  keeping  of  the  commandments,  for  the  doers  of 
the  law  shall  be  justified.* 

All  these  degrees  of  justification  are  equally  merited  by  Christ. 
We  do  nothing  in  order  to  the  first,  because  it  finds  us  in  a  state  of 
total  death.  Towards  the  second,  we  believe  by  the  power  freely 
given  us  in  the  first,  and  by  the  additional  help  of  Christ's  word  and 


*  These  four  degrees  of  a  glorified  saint's  justification,  are  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
Checks,  though  not  so  distinctly  as  they  are  here.  If  treating  of  our  present  justification 
by  faith,  and  of  justification  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment,  I  have  called  them  "  our 
first  and  second  justification,"  it  was  not  to  exclude  the  other  two,  but  to  attack  gradually 
reigning  prejudice,  and  accommodate  myself  to  the  language  of  my  honoured  opponent, 
who  caWed  justification  in  the  day  of  judgment,  a  second  justijication.  I  should  have 
been  more  exact  at  first ;  but  I  was  so  intent  in  demonstrating  the  thing,  that  I  did  not 
think  then  of  contending  for  the  most  proper  name.  Nor  did  I  see  then  of  what  impor- 
tance it  is,  to  drag  the  monster  error  out  of  the  den  of  confusion  in  which  he  hide? 
Kimself 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  201 

the  Spirit's  agency.  We  work  by  faith  in  order  to  the  third.  And 
we  continue  believing  in  Christ  and  working  together  with  God,  aa 
we  have  opportunity,  in  order  to  the  fourth. 

The  preaching  distinctly  these  four  degrees  of  a  glorified  saint's 
justification,  is  attended  with  peculiar  advantages.  The  first  justifi- 
cation engages  the  sinner's  attention,  encourages  his  hope,  and 
draws  his  heart  by  love. — The  second,  wounds  the  self-righteous 
Pharisee,  who  works  without  believing,  while  it  binds  up  the  heart 
of  the  returning  Publican,  who  has  no  plea  but  God  be  merciful  to 
me  a  sinner. — The  third,  detects  the  hypocrisy,  and  blasts  the  vain 
hopes  of  all  Antinomians,  who,  instead  of  showing  their  faith  by  their 
tttorks,  deny  in  works  the  Lord  that  bought  thevdy  and  put  him  to  an 
open  shame. — And  while  the  fourth  makes  even  a  Felix  tremble,  it 
causes  believers  to  pass  the  time  of  their  sojourning  here,  in  humble 
fear  and  cheerful  watchfulness. 

Though  all  these  degrees  of  justification  meet  in  glorified  saints, 
we  offer  violence  to  Scripture,  if  we  think,  with  Dr.  Crisp,  that 
they  are  inseparable.  For  all  the  wicked  who  quench  the  convincing 
Spirit,  and  are  finally  given  up  to  a  reprobate  mind,  fall  from  the 
first,  as  well  as  Pharaoh.  All  who  receive  the  seed  among  thorns,  all 
who  do  not  forgive  their  fellow- servants,  all  who  begin  in  the  Spirit 
and  end  in  the  flesh,  and  all  who  draw  back,  and  become  sons  or  daugh- 
ters oi  perdition,  by  falling  from  the  third,  lose  the  second,  as  Viy- 
meneus,  Philetus,  and  Demas.  And  none  partake  of  the  fourth, 
but  those  who  bear  fruit  unto  perfection,  according  to  one  or  another 
of  the  divine  dispensations ;  some  producing  thirty-fold  like  heathens, 
some  sixty  fold  like  Jews,  and  some  a  hundredfold  like  Christians. 

From  the  whole  it  appears,  that  although  we  can  absolutely  do 
nothing  towards  our  first  justification,  yet  to  say,  that  neither  faith 
nor  works  are  required,  in  order  to  the  other  three,  is  one  of  the 
boldest,  most  unscriptural,  and  most  dangerous  assertions  in  the 
world  ;  which  sets  aside  the  best  half  of  the  Scriptures,  and  lets 
gross  Antinomianism  come  in  full  tide  upon  the  church. 

Having  thus  taken  a  view  of  the  confusion  in  which  Calvin  and 
Crisp  have  laid  the  foundation  of  their  schemes,  I  return  to  the 
arguments  by  which  you  support  their  mistakes. 

I.  "  If  you  suppose,"  you  say,  "  that  there  are  any  conditional 
works  before  justification,  these  works  must  either  be  the  works 
of  one  who  is  in  a  state  of  nature,  or  in  a  state  of  grace,  either 
condemned  by  the  law,  or  absolved  by  the  Gospel." 

A  new  sophism  this  !  No  works  are  previous  to  justification  from 
original  sin,  and  to  the  quickening  light  which  enlightens  every  man 


302  THIRB  CHECK 

that  comes  into  the  world.  And  the  works  that  a  penitent  does  in 
order  to  the  subsequent  justifications,  such  as  ceasing  to  do  ex>i7, 
learning  to  do  well,  repenting,  and  persevering  in  obedient  faith, 
are  all  done  in  a  state  of  initial,  progressive,  or  perfected  grace  ;  not 
under  the  Adamic  law,  which  did  not  admit  of  repentance,  but  under 
the  Gospel  of  Christ,  which  says,  Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way, 
and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return  unto  the 
Lord,  who  will  abundantly  pardon  his  sins,  cleanse  him  from  all  un- 
righteousness, and  even  Jill  him  with  the  fulness  of  God. 

II.  You  proceed :  "  If  a  man  in  a  state  of  nature  do  works  in 
order  to  justification,  they  cannot  please  God,  because  he  is  in  a 
state  of  utter  enmity  against  him."  What,  Sir!  do  you  think  that 
a  man  "  in  a  state  of  utter  enmity  against  God,"  will  do  any  thing 
in  order  to  recover  his  favour  ?  When  Adam  was  in  that  state,  did 
he  so  much  as  once  ask  pardon  ?  If  he  had,  would  he  not  have  evin- 
ced a  desire  of  reconciliation,  and  consequently  a  degree  of  apos- 
tacy  short  of  what  you  call  utter  enmity? 

III.  You  quote  Scripture  :•  "  He  that  does  something  in  order  to 
justification  cannot  please  God,  because  he  is  alienated  from  the  life 
of  God,  through  the  ignorance  that  is  in  him  because  of  the  blindness 
of  his  heart.'''*  An  unhappy  quotation  this  :  for  the  apostle  did  not 
«peak  these  words  of  those  honest  heathens,  who,  in  obedience  to 
the  Light  of  the  world,  did  something  in  order  to  justification  :  but 
of  those  abandoned  pagans,  who,  as  he  observes  in  the  next  verse, 
being  past  feeling,  had  given  themselves  over  unto  lasciviousness,  to 
Tssork  all  uncleanness  with  greediness.  Thus  to  prove  that  men  have 
not  a  talent  of  power  to  work  the  works  of  God,  you  produce  men 
who  have  buried  it,  that  they  might  work  all  uncleanness  without 
control,  yea,  with  greediness. 

You  would  have  avoided  this  mistake,  if  you  had  considered 
{hat  the  heathens  mentioned  there  by  St.  Paul,  were  of  the  stamp 
of  those  whom  he  describes,  Ilom.  i.  and  whom  he  represents  as 
given  up  bj'  God  to  a  reprobate  mind,  because  when  they  knew  God, 
they  glorified  him  7iot  as  God,  and  did  not  like  to  retain  him  in 
(heir  knowledge.  Here  we  may  observe,  1.  That  those  reprobate 
heathens  had  once  some  knowledge  of  God,  and  of  course  some 
life  ;  for  this  is  eternal  life,  to  know  God.  2.  That  if  they  were 
given  up,  because  they  did  not  use  that  talent  of  divine  knowledge, 
it  was  not  because  they  were  eternally  and  unconditionally  repro- 
bated :  whence  I  beg  leave  to  conclude,  that  if  eternal,  uncondi- 
tional reprobation  is  a  mere  chimera,  so  is  likewise  eternal,  uncondi- 
tional clectionc 


TO    AJJTIIJOMIANISM.  103 

You  might  have  objected  with  much  raore  plausibility,  that  when 
the  Ephesians  were  in  the    flesh    they  were   without  hope,   'without 
Christ,  and  without  God  in  the  world :  And  if  you  had,  I  would  have 
replied,   that   these  words   cannot   be   taken  in  their  full    latitude, 
for  the  following  reasons,  which  appear  to  me  unanswerable.   1.  The 
Ephesians  before  their  conversion  were  not  totally  without  hope,  but 
without  a  good  hope.     They  probably  had  as  presumptuous  a  hope, 
as  David  in  Uriah's  bed,  or  Agag  when  he  thought   the  bitterness 
of  death  was   past.     2.  They   were  without   Christ,  just  as   a  man 
who   has  buried  his   talent  is  without  it.     But  as  he  may  dig  it  up, 
and  use  it,   if  he   sees   bis  folly   in  time ;  so  could,  and  so  did  the 
Ephesians.     3.   If  they    were  in   every  sense  without   Christ,  what 
becomes  of  the  doctrine  maintained  in  your  fourth  letter,  that  they 
"  were  for  ever  and  for  ever  complete  in  Christ  ?"     4.  They  were 
not  entirely  without  God ;  for  in  him  they  lived,  moved,  and  had  their 
being ;  nor  were  they  without  him   as  absolute   reprobates,  for  they 
knew  the  day  of  their  visitation  before  it  was  over.     It  remains  then 
that  they  were  without  God,   as  the  prodigal   son  was  without   his 
father,   when  he  fed  swine  in  the  far  country ;  and  that  they  could 
and  did  return  to  their  heavenly  Father  as  well  as  he. 

IV.  You  go  on  :  "  He  who  does  something  in  order  to  justification, 
not  being  grafted  in  Christ  the  true  vine,  cannot  bring  forth  any 
good  fruit  ;  he  can  do  nothing  at  all."  I  beg.  Sir,  you  would  pro- 
duce one  man,  who  has  not  sinned  the  sin  unto  death,  that  can  abso- 
lutely do  nothing,  that  cannot  cease  from  one  sin,  and  take  up  the 
practice  of  one  duty  :  you  will  as  soon  find  a  saint  in  hell,  as  such 
a  man  upon  earth.  Even  those  who  in  their  voluntary  humihty  say 
perpetually,  that  **  they  can  do  nothing,"  refute  their  own  doctrine 
by  their  very  confessions  ;  for  he  who  confesses  his  helplessness, 
undoubtedly  does  something,  unless  by  some  new  rule  in  logic  it  can 
be  demonstrated,  that  confesr.ing  our  impotence,  and  complaining  of 
our  misery,  is  "  doing  nothing." 

When  our  Lord  says.  Without  me  ye  can  do  nothing,  does  he  say 
that  we  are  totally  without  him  ?  When  he  declares,  that  no  man 
Cometh  unto  him  unless  the  Father  draw  him,  does  he  insinuate  that 
the  Father  does  not  draw  all  ?  or  that  he  draws  irresistibly  ?  or  that 
those  who  are  drawn  at  one  time,  may  not  draw  back  at  any  other  ? 
Is  it  right  to  press  Scripture  into  the  service  of  a  system  by  straining 
its  meaning  so  far  beyond  the  import  of  the  words  ? 

Again,  though  a  man  may  not  be  "  grafted  in  Christ,"  according 
to  the  Jewish  or  Christian  dispensation,  may  he  not  partake  of  his 
quickening  ?ap,  according  to  the  more  general    dispensation  of  that 


204  THIRD  CHECK 

saving  grace  which  has  appeared  to  all  men  ?  May  not  the  branches 
in  which  that  saving  grace  appears^  have  some  connexion  with 
Christ,  the  heavenly  vine,  and  bring  forth  fruit  meet  for  repentance, 
as  well  as  Job  and  his  friends,  Melchisedec,  Plato,  the  wise  men, 
Cornelius,  some  of  his  soldiers,  and  many  more  who  brought  forth 
fruits  according  to  their  dispensation  ?  Does  not  the  first  general 
justification  so  graft  all  men  in  him,  that  if  they  bear  not  fruit  during 
their  accepted  time,  they  are  justly  taken  away,  cast  fcrriky  and 
burned  as  barren  branches  ? 

V.  Your  knowledge  of  the  Scripture  made  you  foresee  this  an- 
swer, and  to  obviate  it  you  say  :  ♦'  If  you  tell  me  that  I  mistake, 
that  although  we  must  cease  from  evil,  repent,  &c.  yet  you  are  far 
from  supposing  we  can  perform  these  things  in  our  own  natural 
strength.  I  ask  then,  in  whose  strength  they  are  performed  ?  You 
say  in  the  strength  of  Christ,  and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost^ 
according  to  these  Scriptures,  /  can  do  all  things  through  Christ 
strengthening  me,  being  strengthened  with  might  in  the  inner  man.^^ 

Permit  me  to  tell  you,  honoured  Sir,  that  1  do  not  admire  your 
quoting  Scripture  for  me.  You  take  care  to  keep  out  of  sight  the 
passages  I  have  quoted,  and  to  produce  those  which  are  foreign  to  the 
question.  To  show  that  even  a  sinful  heathen  may  work /or  as  well 
zsfrom  life,  I  could  never  be  so  destitute  of  common  sense  as  to 
urge  the  experience  of  St.  Paul,  a  father  in  Christ ;  and  that  of  the 
Ephesians,  who  were  Christians,  sealed  unto  the  day  of  redemption. 

To  do  justice  to  free  grace,  instead  of  the  above-mentioned  impro- 
per scriptures,  you  should  have  produced  those  which  I  have  quoted 
in  the  Vindication  : — Christ  is  the  Light  of  the  world,  which  enlightens 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world  :  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life  : 
Ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life  :  The  grace  of  God  which 
bringeth  salvation  hath  appeared  unto  all  men.  God's  Spirit  strives 
■with  man,  [even  with  those  who  perish.]  He  commands  all  men  every 
where  to  repent :  nor  does  he  desire  to  reap  where  he  has  not  sow7i^ 

VI.  Such  scriptures  as  these  would  have  been  to  the  purpose  ;  but 
I  excuse  your  producing  others  ;  for  if  these  had  appeared,  you 
would  have  raised  more  dust  in  six  lines,  than  you  could  have  laid  in 
sixty  pages  ;  and  every  attentive  reader  would  have  detected  the 
fallacy  of  your  grand  argument :  "  as  soon  may  we  expect  living  ac- 
tions from  a  dead  corpse  ;  light  out  of  darkness  ;  sight  out  of  blind- 
ness ;  love  out  of  enmity ;  wisdom  out  of  ignorance  ;  fruit  out  of 
barrenness,  &c.  &c.  &c.  as  look  for  any  one  good  work  or  thought 
from  a  soul  who  is  not  (in  some  degree)  quickened  by  the  Holy- 
Ghost,  and  who  has  not  yet  found  favour  with  God  :"  so  far  at  least 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  205 

as  to  be  blessed  with  a  day  of  salvation,  and  to  be  a  partaker  of  the 
free  gift  which  is  come  upon  all  men. 

But,  I  pray,  who  is  guilty  of  these  absurdities?  Who  expects  living 
actions  from  a  dead  corpse,  &c.  &c.  ?  You  or  we  ?  You  who  believe 
that  the  greatest  part  of  mankind  are  left  as  graceless  as  devils,  as 
helpless  as  corpses  ;  and  yet  gravely  go  and  preach  to  them  repent- 
ance and  faith,  threatening  them  with  an  aggravated  damnation  if  they 
do  not  turn  ?  Or  we,  who  beheve  that  Christ  by  the  grace  of  God 
tasted  death  for  every  man ;  and  that  his  saving,  quickening  grace  hath 
appeared  unto  all  men?  Who  puts  foohsh  speeches  in  the  mouth  of 
the  only  wise  God  ?  You,  who  make  him  expostulate  with  souls 
as  dead  as  corpses,  and  say,  ye  will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might 
have  life  ?  Or  we,  who  assert,  upon  the  testimony  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
that  God,  by  working  in  us  both  to  will  and  to  do,  puts  us  again  in  a 
capacity  of  working  out  our  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling  ?  Will 
not  our  impartial  readers  see  that  the  absurdity,  which  you  try  to  fix 
upon  us,  falls  at  your  own  door ;  and,  if  your  doctrine  be  true,  at  the 
door  of  the  sanctuary  itself? 

VII.  You  pursue  ;  "  It  is  most  clear  that  every  soul  who  works 
in  the  strength  of  Christ,  and  by  the  power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is 
already  a  pardoned  and  justified  soul :  he  already  has  everlasting  life." 
Here  is  some  truth  and  some  error  ;  let  us  endeavour  to  separate 
them.  Every  soul  who  works  in  the  strength  of  Christ's  preventing 
grace,  and  by  his  Spirit  convincing  the  world  of  sin,  is  undoubtedly 
interested  in  the  first  degree  of  justification  :  he  is  justified  from  the 
guilt  of  original  sin,  and,  when  he  believes,  from  the  guilt  of  his  own 
actual  sins  ;  but  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  he  is  justified  in  the  day  of 
judgment,  when  that  day  is  not  yet  come.  He  hath  a  seed  of  life,  or 
else  he  could  not  work ;  but  it  is  a  doubt  if  this  seed  will  take  root; 
and  in  case  it  does,  the  heavenly  plant  of  righteousness  maybe  choked 
by  the  cares  of  the  world,  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  or  the  desire  of 
other  things,  and  by  that  mean  become  unfruitful. 

As  many  barbarous  mothers  destroy  the  fruit  of  their  womb,  either 
before  or  after  it  comes  to  the  birth,  so  many  obstinate  sinners  ob- 
struct the  growth  of  the  spiritual  seed  that  bruisej  the  serpent's  head; 
and  many  flagrant  apostates,  in  whose  heart  Christ  was  once  formed^ 
crucify  him  afresh,  and  quench  the  Spirit  of  his  grace.  Hence  the 
many  miscarriages  and  apostacies,  for  which  Elisha  Coles  is  obliged  to 
account  thus.  There  are  "  monsters  in  spirituals,  in  whom  there  is 
something  begotten  in  their  wills,  by  the  common  strivings  and  en- 
lightenings  of  the  Spirit,  which  attains  to  a  kind  of  formality,  but 
proves  in  the  end  a  lump  of  dead  flesh."     Surely  that  great  Calvinian 

Vol.  T.  27 


206  THIRD  CHECK 

Divine  was  brought  to  a  strait,  when  he  thus  fathered  formality  and 
dead  flesh  upon  the  Holy  Ghost! 

yill.  I  follow  you  :  "  Therefore  all  talk  of  working  for  life,  and 
in  order  to  find  favour  with  God,  is  not  less  absurd,  than  if  you  were 
to  suppose,  that  a  man  could  at  the  same  moment  be  both  condemned 
and  absolved.'*  What,  Sir  I  may  not  a  man  be  justly  condemned,  and 
yet  graciously  reprieved  ?  Nay,  may  not  the  judge  give  him  an  op- 
portunity to  make  the  best  of  his  reprieve,  in  order  to  get  a  full  par- 
don and  a  place  at  court  ?  At  Geneva,  we  think  that  the  absurdity 
does  not  consist  in  asserting,  but  in  dealing  it. — '•  Awake  and  asleep." 
What,  Sir !  is  it  an  absurdity  to  think  that  a  man  may  be  in  the  same 
moment  awake  in  one  respect,  and  asleep  in  another  ?  Does  not  St. 
Paul  say.  Let  us  awake  out  of  sleep  ?  But  this  is  not  all,  even  in 
Geneva  people  can  be  drowsy,  that  is,  half  awake  and  half  asleep. — 
"  Dead  and  alive."  I  hope  you  will  not  fix  the  charge  of  absurdity 
upon  Christ  for  saying  that  a  certain  man  was  left  half  dead^  and  of 
course  half  alive ;  and  for  exhorting  the  people  of  Sardis  who  were 
dead,  to  strengthen  the  things  which  remained,  and  were  ready  to  die ; 
nor  yet  upon  St.  Paul,  for  saying  that  the  dead  body  of  Abraham 
begat  Isaac,  and  for  speaking  of  a  woman  who  was  dead  while  she  lived. 

IX.  You  go  on  and  say,  that  '•  it  is  as  absurd  to  talk  of  working  for 
life,  as  to  assert  that  we  can  be  at  the  same  time  loved  and  hated  of 
God."  But  you  forget,  Sir,  that  there  are  a  thousand  degrees  of  love 
and  hatred;  and  that,  in  the  Scripture  language,  loving  less,  is  called 
hating  :  Jacob  have  I  loved,  and  Esau  have  I  hated.  Except  a  man  hate 
his  father,  &.c.  he  cannot  be  my  disciple.  Yea,  and  we  can  without  ab- 
surdity say,  that  we  love  the  same  person  in  one  respect,  and  hate 
her  in  another.  I  may  love  a  woman  as  a  neighbour,  and  yet  loathe 
her  in  the  capacity  of  a  wife.  And  what  absurdity  is  there  in  assert- 
ing that  while  the  day  of  grace  lasts,  God  loves,  and  yet  hates  an  im- 
penitent sinner  ?  He  loves  him  as  his  redeemed  creature,  yet  bates 
him  as  his  rebellious  creature  :  or,  in  other  terms,  he  loves  him  with 
a  love  of  benevolence  ;  but  has  no  more  love  of  complacence  fpr  him, 
^han  for  the  devil  himself. 

X.  You  proceed :  *'  To  talk  of  working  for  life  is  not  less  absurd, 
than  if  you  were  to 'suppose,  that  a  man  can  be  at  the  same  moment 
one  with  Christ,  by  his  Spirit  dwelling  in  the  heart,  and  yet  not  have 
redemption,  peace,  and  reconciliation  by  the  blood  of  his  cross." 
Here  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  the  language  of  Babel. 

1.  You  confound  the  various  degrees  of  redemption.  Are  not 
thousands  of  souls  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  Christ's  cross,  who  are 
not  yet  redeemed  by  the  power  of  his  Spirit  ?  May  not  every  rebel- 


TO  ANTINOMIAmSM.  207 

iidus  sinner  out  of  hell  say,  God  recteemeth  my  life  from  destruction?^ 
Is  it  not  a  degree  of  redemption  to  be  kept  out  of  hell,  enjoying 
the  good  things  of  this  life,  and  called  to  secure  the  blessings  of 
the  next  ?  Did  not  Cain,  Esau,  Pharaoh,  Saul,  and  Judas,  the  five 
great  reprobates,  as  some  account  them,  enjoy  this  degree  of  re- 
demption for  many  years  ?  Have  not  believers  a  higher  degree  of  re- 
demption,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins  ?  And  do  they  not  wait  for  the 
highest  degree  of  it,  even  the  redemption  of  their  body,  when  the 
trump  of  God  will  sound,  and  wake  the  dead  ?  Rom.  viii.  23. 

2.  As  you  confound  all  the  degrees  of  redemption,  so  you  do  all 
the  degrees  of  the  manifestation  of  the  Spirit.  He  visits  all,  so  as  to 
strive  with  and  reprove  them,  as  he  did  mankind  in  the  days  of  Noah  ; 
but  this  is  no  mark  that  their  peace  is  made,  and  a  firm  reconciliation 
brought  about  ;  witness  the  deluge,  which  God  sent  upon  those  with 
whom  his  Spirit  had  striven  particularly  120  years  in  the  days  of 
Noah.  Again,  some  have  the  spirit  of  bondage  unto  fear ;  but  this, 
far  from  being  a  sign  that  they  have  full  reconciliation,  is  a  divine 
consciousness  that  they  have  it  not.  And  others  have  had  the  Spirit 
of  adoption,  and  after  having  begun  in  him,  so  grieve  or  quench  him, 
as  to  end  in  the  flesh.  But  in  the  Calvinian  Babel,  these  scriptural, 
experimental  distinctions,  are  exploded  as  metaphysical,  if  not  dread- 
fully heretical. 

XI.  You  proceed  :  "  You  will  not  assert  that  a  soul  who  is  quick- 
ened together  with  Christ,  and  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  dwells  by 
bis  gracious  influences,  can  be  in  a  state  of  enmity  with  God."  Still 
the  same  confounding  of  things  which  should  be  carefully  distin- 
guished !  May  not  a  sinner  "  be  quickened"  by  the  seed  of  life,  and 
yet  hold  it  in  unrighteousness  ?  May  not  a  backslider  crucify  Christ 
afresh,  in  "  the  gracious  influences  of  his  Spirit  ?"  And  are  not  such 
persons  "  in  a  state  of  enmity  with  God  ?"  But  if  by  a  soul,  "  quick- 
ened together  with  Christ,  and  in  whom  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  dwells," 
you  mean  a  believer  completely  baptized  with  the  Holy  Ghost  and  with 
fire,  in  whom  he,  that  once  visited  as  a  Monitor,  now  fully  resides  as 

a  Comforter,  you  are  right ;  the  enmity  ceases,  the  carnal  mind  and 
body  of  sin  are  destroyed,  and  God  is  all  in  all  to  that  just  man  made 
perfedt  in  love. 

XII.  You  add :  "  If  a  man  is  not  in  a  state  of  enmity,  then  he 
must  be  in  a  state  of  pardon  and  reconciliation."  What,  Sir !  is  there 
no  medium  between  these  extremes  ?  There  is,  as  surely  as  the 
mor'.iug  dawn  intervenes  between  midnight  and  noonday.  If  the  king 
Say  to  some  rebels,  "  Lay  down  your  arms,  surrender,  kiss  my  fson^ 


208  THIRD' CHECK 

and  you  shall  be  pardoned  ;"  the  reconciliation  on  the  king's  part  is 
undoubtedly  begun.  So  far  "was  God  in  Christ  reconciling  the  world 
unto  himself.  But  can  it  be  said  that  the  reconciliation  is  begun  on 
the  part  of  the  rebels,  who  have  not  yet  laid  down  any  of  their  arms  ? 
Does  not  the  reconciliation  gradually  take  place,  as  they  gradually 
comply  with  the  king's  terms  ?  If  they  are  long  in  coming  to  kiss  the 
king's  son,  is  not  their  full  reconciliation  suspended  till  they  have  ful- 
filled the  last  of  the  king's  terras  ?  And  though  the  king  made  the 
overtures  of  the  reconciliation,  is  there  the  least  absurdity  in  saying, 
that  they  surrender,  and  kiss  the  son,  in  order  to  find  reconciliation  ? 
Nay,  is  it  efther  sense  or  truth  to  assert,  that  they  are  absolutely  to 
do  nothing  towards  it  ? 

XIII.  What  you  say  about  the  13th  Article  of  our  Church  is 
answered  beforehand,  (Vindication,  page  126.)  But  what  follows 
deserves  some  notice  :  "  Whenever  God  puts  forth  his  quickening 
power  upon  a  soul,  it  is  in  conJ»equence  of  his  having  already  taken 
that  soul  into  covenant  with  himself,  and  having  washed  it  white  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb  slain."  This  is  very  true,  if  you  speak  of 
the  covenant  of  grace,  which  God  made  with  our  first  parent  and 
representative  after  the  fall ;  and  of  the  washing  of  all  mankind 
white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb  from  the  guilt  of  original  sin,  so  far 
as  to  remit  the  eternal  punishment  of  it.  But  you  are  dreadfully 
mistaken,  if  you  understand  it  of  the  three  subsequent  degrees  of 
justification  and  salvation,  which  do  not  take  place,  but  as  we  Ts:ork 
them  out  with  fear  and  trembling,  as  God  works  in  us  both  to  will  and 
to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. 

XIV.  In  the  next  page  you  ask  some  scriptural  questions,  which 
I  shall  scripturally  answer :  "  What  did  the  expiring  thief  do  ?" 
Some  hours  before  he  died  he  obeyed  this  precept,  To-day,  if  you 
will  hear  his  voice,  harden  not  your  heart;  he  confessed  his  sin,  and 
believed  in  Jesus.  "  What  did  Mary  Magdalene  do  ?"  She  forsook 
her  lovers  and  followed  Jesus  into  Simon's  house.  "  What  Lydia?" 
She  worshipped  God,  and  resorted  where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made. 
*'  What  the  Philippian  jailer  ?"  He  ceased  from  attempting  self-mur- 
der, and  falling  at  the  apostles''  feet,  inquired  what  he  must  do  to  be 
saved,  "  What  the  serpent-bitten  Israelites  ?"  They  looked  at  the 
brazen  serpent.  "  What  St.  Paul  himself?"  For  this  cause  I  obtained 
mercy,  (says  he,)  because  I  did  it  ignorantly  in  unbelief,  1  Tim.  i.  13. 
But  this  was  not  all,  for  he  continued  praying  three  days  and  three 
nights;  and  when  Ananias  came  to  him,  he  tarried  no  longer,  but  arose, 
and  washed  away  his  sins,  calling  on  the  name  of  the  Lord,     "  What 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  209 

ilid  the  Corinthians  do?"  They  heard  and  believed.  Ads  viii.  8. 
**  And  what  the  Ephesians  ?"  They  trusted  in  Christ  after  that  ikey 
heard  the  word  of  truth,  Eph.  i.  13. 

XV.  In  the  next  paragraph  (page  6,  line  28,)  you  gravely  propose 
the  very  objection  which  I  have  answered,  (Vindication,  p.  51.) 
without  taking  the  least  notice  of  my  answer.  And  in  the  next  page 
yon  advance  one  of  Dr.  Crisp's  paradoxes.  "  Wherever  God  puti 
forth  his  power  upon  a  soul,  (and  he  does  so  whenever  he  visits  it 
with  even  a  touch  of  preventing  grace,)  pardon  and  reconciliation 
are  already  obtained  by  such  a  one.  He  shall  never  come  into  con- 
demnation." 

Young  penitents,  beware !  If  you  admit  this  tenet,  you  will  pro- 
b4bly  stay  in  the  far  country,  vainly  fancying  you  are  in  your  Father^s 
house,  because  you  have  felt  a  desire  to  be  there.  Upon  this  scheme 
of  doctrine.  Lot's  wife  might  have  sat  down  at  the  gate  of  Sodom, 
concluding  that  because  the  angels  had  taken  her  by  the  hand,  she 
was  already  in  Zoar.  A  dangerous  delusion  this,  against  which  our 
Lord  himself  cautions  us  by  crying  aloud,  "  Remember  LoVs  wife.^^ 

I  would  take  the  liberty  to  expostulate  with  you,  honoured  Sir» 
about  this  paradox,  if  I  had  not  some  hope,  that  it  is  rather  owing 
to  the  printer's  mistake  than  your  own.  If  you  wrote  in  your  manu- 
script, "  pardon  is  already  obtained  /or,"  not  ^2/,  such  an  one,  we  are 
agreed ;  for  "  Christ  made  upon  the  cross  a  sufficient  sacrifice  and 
satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  But  what  he  procured 
for  us,  is  not  obtained  by  us,  till  the  Holy  Ghost  makes  the  applica- 
tir>n  by  faith.  "  If  I  had  a  mind,  (said  the  Rev.  Mr.  Whitefield,)  to 
hinder  the  progress  of  the  Gospel,  and  to  establish  the  kingdom  of 
darkness,  I  would  go  about  telling  the  people,  they  might  have  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  yet  not  feel  it ;"  or,  which  is  much  the  same,  that 
the  pardon  which  Christ  procured  for  them,  is  already  obtained  by 
them,  whether  they  enjoy  a  sense  of  it  or  not. 

XVI.  In  the  next  paragraph,  page  7,  (who  could  believe  it.')  you 
come  fully  into  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine  of  "  doing  something,  in  order  to 
obtain  justification."  You  was  reminded  (Vindication,  p.  46,)  that 
*'  St.  Paul  and  Mr.  W.  generally  mean  by  justification,  that  wonder- 
ful transaction  of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  a  returning  prodigal's  conscience, 
by  which  the  forgiveness  of  his  sins  is  proclaimed  to  him  through  the 
blood  of  sprinkling."  Nevertheless,  speaking  of  the  sense  of  pardon^ 
and  the  testifying  of  it  to  a  sinner's  conscience,  you  grant  that — "  this 
knowledge  of  our  interest  in  Christ,"  (this  experienced  justification,) 
"  is  certainly  to  be  sought  in  the  use  of  all  appointed  means  ;  we  are 
to  seek  that  we  may  find,  to  ask  that  we  may  have,  to  knock  that  it 


^^ 


210  "rtiiRD  cHfick 

might  be  opened  unto  us.  In  this  sense,"  (the  very  sense  we  gene- 
rally fix  to  the  word  justification,)  "  all  the  texts  you  have  brought 
to  prove  that  man  is  to  do  something  in  order  to  obtain  justification, 
and  to  find  favour  with  God,  admit  of  an  easy  salution.'"  That  is,  in 
plain  English,  easily  demonstrate  the  truth  of  Mr.  VV,*s  proposition j 
which  has  been  so  loudly  exclaimed  against  as  dreadfully  heretical! 

O  prejudice,  thou  mischievous  cause  of  discord,  why  dif!st  thotf 
cast  thy  black  vail  in  June,  and  the  following  months,  over  the  easy 
solution  which  has  been  found  out  in  December?  And  what  a  pit^  is 
it,  dear  Sir,  you  did  not  see  this  solution  before  you  had  attempted  to 
expose  our  gray-headed  Elisha,  by  the  publication  of  that  weak  and 
trifling  dialogue  With  the  Popish  Friar  at  Paris! 

XVII.  Page  10.  After  showing  that  you  confound  the  atonement 
with  the  application  of  it,  the  work  of  Christ  with  that  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  you  produce  one  of  my  arguments,  (the  first  you  have  pro- 
duced to  refute)  brought  to  prove  that  we  must  do  something  rn  order 
to  justification.  I  had  asserted  that  we  must  believe ;  faith  being  pre- 
vious to  justification.  You  say,  "  /  deny  the  assertion."  Do  you 
indeed,  honoured  Sir!  Upon  what  ground?  "The  Holy  Ghost 
teaches,"  say  you,  *'  that  all  who  believe  are  justified."  And  does  this 
prove  the  point?  The  king  says  to  a  deserter.  Bow  to  my  son,  and 
thou  sbalt  not  be  shot ;  Bow  to  the  prince,  adds  an  officer  ;  all  who 
bow  to  him  are  pardoned.  Must  the  soldier  conclude  from  the  words, 
are  pardoned,  that  the  pardon  is  previous  to  the  bow  ?  Again,  You  are 
sick,  and  your  physician  says.  Take  this  medicine ;  all  who  take  it 
are  cured.  Very  well,  answers  your  nurse,  you  need  not  then  dis* 
tress  and  perplex  my  master,  by  making  him  take  your  remedy.  The 
taking  of  it  cannot  possibly  be  previous  to  his  recovery,  for  you  say 
all  who  take  it  are  cured.  This  is  just  such  another  argument  as  that 
of  my  hoaoured  friend.  O  Sir,  hoW  tottering  is  that  system,  which 
even  such  a  writer  as  yourself  cannot  prop  up,  without  putting  so 
forced  a  construction  upon  the  apostle's  words,  All  that  believe  are 
justified. 

Now  we  have  seen  upon  what  scriptural  ground  yoB  maintain,  that 
believing  cannot  be  previous  to  justification,  permit  me,  honoured  Sjr^ 
to  quote  some  of  the  many  scriptures  which  induce  us  to  believe  just 
the  reverse.  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christy  and  thou  shalt  be  saved; 
that  is,  in  the  lowest  sense  of  the  word,  thou  shalt  be  justified;  for 
God  justifies  the  ungodly  that  believe  in  Jesus. — We  have  believed  in 
Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  he  justified  by  the  faith  of  Christ — whom  he 
hath  set  forth  to  be  a  prqpitiation,  through  faith  in  his  blood,  for  the  re- 
mission of  sins  that  are  past — As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent^  even  $^ 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  211 

must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up,  that  whosoever  believeth  in  him  should 
not  perish  ;  should  be  pardoned,  &c.  Faith  shall  be  imputed  to  us  for 
vi^^htenusness,  if  we  believe  on  him  who  raised  up  Jesus. — Being  there- 
fore justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with  God.  Without  faith  it  is  im- 
possible to  please  God.  He  that  believeth  not,  [far  from  being  justified, 
as  is  insinuated]  shall  be  damned  ;  the  wrath  of  God  abideth  on  him^  he 
is  condemned  already,  John  iii.  18.  Light  cannot  be  more  opposite 
to  darkness,  than  this  doctrine  of  Christ  to  that  which  my  honoured 
friend  thinks  it  his  duty  to  patronize. 

XV  III.  When  you  have  ineflfectually  endeavoured  to  defend  your 
sentiment  from  Scripture,  you  attempt  to  do  it  from  reason.  *'  Faith 
(say  you)  can  no  more  subsist  without  its  object,  than  there  can  be  a 
marriage  withQut  a  husband."  This  is  as  proper  an  argument  as  you 
could  advance,  had  you  intended  to  disprove  the  doctrine  you  seem 
studious  to  defend  ;  for  it  is  evident  that  a  woman  must  be  married, 
before  she  can  have  a  husband.  So  sure,  then,  as  marriage  is  pre- 
vious to  having  a  husband,  faith  is  previous  to  receiving  Christ :  for 
we  receive  him  by  faith. — John  i.  12. 

However,  from  this  extraordinary  argument,  you  conclude  that 
•**  the  doctrine  of  believing  before  justification  is  not  less  contrary  to 
reason  than  it  is  to  Scripture  ;"  but  I  flatter  myself  that  my  judicious 
readers  will  draw  a  conclusion  diametrically  opposite. 

XIX.  A  quotation  from  Augustin  appears  next,  and  secures  the  ruin 
of  your  scheme.  For  if  faith  be  compared  to  a  lantern,  and  Christ 
to  the  light  in  the  lantern,  common  sense  tells  as,  we  must  have  the 
lantern  before  we  can  receive  the  candle  which  is  to  give  us  light.  Or, 
in  other  words,  we  must  have  faith  before  we  can  receive  Christ : 
for  you  very  justly  observe,  that  faith  receiveth  Christ  who  is  the  true 
Light. 

XX.  Augustin's  lantern  makes  way  for  the  witticism  with  which 
you  conclude  your  second  epistle.  "  No  letters  (says  my  honoured 
friend)  were  sent  through  the  various  provinces  against  old  Mordecai 
for  supposing  that  the  woman,  (Luke  xv.)  lights  a  candle,  &c.  in  order 
to  find  her  lost  piece  ;  but  because  he  insists  upon  it,  that  the  piece 
lights  the  candle,  sweeps  the  house,  and  searches  diligently  in  order 
to  find  the  woman."  Permit  me  to  ask,  whether  your  wit  here  has 
not  for  a  moment  got  the  start  of  your  judgment?  I  introduced  the 
woman  seeking  the  piece  she  had  lost,  merely  to  show  that  it  is  nei- 
ther a  heresy  nor  an  absurdity  to  "  seek  something  in  order  to  find 
it;"  and  that  instance  proved  my  point  full  as  well  as  if  I  had 
fixed  upon  Saul  seeking  his  father's  asses,  or  Joseph  seeking  his 
brethren  in  Dothan.  _; 


212  THIRD  CHECK 

If  it  be  as  great  an  absurdity  to  say,  that  sinners  are  to  seek  the  Lord, 
as  it  is  to  say,  that  a  piece  seeks  the  woman  that  has  lost  it :  let  me 
tell  you,  that  Mr.  W.  has  the  good  fortune  to  be  countenanced  in 
his  folly,  tirst  by  yourself,  who  tells  us,  page  7,  that  the  knowledge  of 
Christ,  and  our  interest  in  him,  "  is  certainly  to  be  sought  in  the  use 
of  all  the  appointed  means  :"  and  secondly  by  Isaiah,  who  says.  Seek  ye 
the  Lord  while  he  may  be  found:  by  St.  Paul,  who  tells  the  Athenians, 
that  All  nations  of  men  are  to  seek  the  Lord:  and  by  Christ  himself, 
who  says.  They  that  seek  me  early  shall  find  me; — seek  that  you  may 
find,  <i:c. 

1  leave  you  to  judge,  whether  it  was  worth  your  while  to  impeach 
Mr.  W.'s  good  sense,  not  only  by  reflecting  upon  your  own,  but  by 
inevitably  involving  Isaiah,  St.  Paul,  and  our  Lord  himself,  in  the 
ridicule  cast  upon  my  vindicated  friend !  For  the  same  sinner,  who  is 
represented  by  the  lost  piece,  is,  a  few  verses  before,  represented  by 
the  lost  son  :  and  you  know  Jesus  Christ  tells  us  that  he  came  from 
far  to  seek  his  father's  pardon  and  assistance. 

Remarks  on  the  third  letter. — You  begin  this  letter  by  saying, 
"  How  God  may  deal  with  the  heathen  world,  is  not  for  us  to  pry 
into."  But  we  may  believe  what  God  has  revealed.  If  the  Holy 
Ghost  declares,  {hat  in  every  nation  he  that  feareth  God  and  worketh 
righteousness  is  accepted  of  him,  we  may  credit  what  he  says,  without 
being  wise  above  what  is  written. 

If  you  cannot  set  aside  that  apostolic  part  of  the  Minutes  ;  you  try, 
however,  to  press  it  into  the  service  of  your  doctrine.  "  There  is 
(say  you)  a  material  diflference  between  saying.  He  that  feareth  God  and 
worketh  righteousness  is  accepted,  and  shall  be  accepted ;  and  because 
"  the  verb  is  in  the  present  tense,"  you  conclude,  there  is  no  need 
of  fearing  God,  or  working  righteousness,  in  order  to  find  acceptance. 
This  is  exactly  such  another  argument  as  that  which  I  just  now  re- 
futed, "  we  need  not  believe  in  order  to  be  justified,  because  it  is 
said,  all  that  believe  AB.E.  justified,  and  not  shall  be  justified.''^  You 
can  no  more  prove  by  the  one,  that  Cornelius,  provokH:!g  God  and 
working  unrighteousness,  was  accepted  of  him ;  than  by^  the  other, 
■  hat  unbelievers  are  justified,  because  it  is  said  believers  are  so. 

A  similar  instance  may  convince  you  of  it :  Jill  run,  (says  St.  Paul) 
but  one  receiveth  the  prize.  I,  who  am  a  stranger  to  refinements,  im- 
mediately conclude  from  these  words,  that  running  is  previous  to  the 
receiving  of  the  prize,  and  in  order  to  it.  No,  says  a  friend,  "  there 
is  a  material  difference  between  saying,  one  receiveth  the  prize,  and 
one  shall  receive  the  prize.     The  verb  is  in  the  present  tease,  and 


TO    ANTINOMIAHISM.  213 

therefore  the  plain  sense  of  the  passage  is  (not  by  running  he  does 
any  thing  to  receive  the  prize,  but)  that  he  who  runs  is  possessed  of 
the  prize,  and  proves  himself  to  be  so.'*  Candid  reader,  if  such  an 
argument  proselytes  thee  to  Dr.  Crisp's  doctrine,  I  shall  suspect 
there  is  no  small  difference  between  English  and  Suisse  reason. 

However,  to  make  up  the  weight  of  your  argument,  you  add, 
*'  Cornelius  was  a  chosen  vessel."  True,  for  God  hath  chosen  to  him- 
self the  man  that  is  godly ;  and  such  was  Cornelius  ;  a  devout  rnan, 
(says  St  Luke,)  and  one  that  feared  God  with  all  his  house.  But  if  my 
honoured  opponent  speaks  of  an  election,  which  drags  after  it  the 
horrors  of  absolute  reprobation,  and  hangs  the  millstone  of  unavoid- 
ble  damnation  about  the  neck  of  millions  of  our  fellow-creatures,  I 
must  call  for  proof. 

Till  it  comes,  I  follow  you  in  your  observations  upon  the  merit  or 
rewardableness  of  good  works.  Most  of  them  are  answered.  Vin- 
dication, pp.  59, 60,  &c.  and  Second  Check,  pp.  1 17,  118.  The  rest  I 
answer  thus  : —  ^ 

1.  If  you  do  not  believe  Mr.  Henry  when  he  assures  us  David 
speaks  of  himself  The  Lord  rewarded  me  according  to  my  righteous- 
ness, &ic.  Psalm  xviii  believe  at  least  the  sacred  historian,  who  con- 
firms my  assertion,  2  Sam.  xxii.  and  consider  the  very  title  of  the 
Psalm,  "  David  spake  unto  the  Lord  the  words  of  this  song,  in  the 
day  that  the  Lord  delivered  him  from  the  hand  of  his  enemies,  and 
from  the  hand  of  Saul." 

2.  But  "■  when  David  speaks  in  his  own  person,  his  language  is 
very  different.     En'er  not  into  judgment  with  thy  servant,  (says   he,) 

for  in  thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified.''  The  Psalmist  does  not 
here  contradict  what  he  says  of  the  rewardableness  of  good  works, 
Psalm  xviii.  He  only  appeals  from  the  law  of  innocence  to  the  law 
of  grace,  and  only  disclaims  all  merit  in  point  of  justification  and  salva- 
tion, a  thing  which  Mr.  VV.  takes  care  to  do  when  he  says,  even  in  the 
Minutes,  "  Not  by  the  merit  of  works,"  but  by  "believing  in  Christ." 

3.  My  honoured  correspondent  asks  next,—"  Where  is  the  man 
who  has  the  witness  of  having  done  what  God  commanded  ?"  I  an- 
swer, Every  one  has  who  walks  in  the  light  as  God  is  in  the  light,  and 
can  say  with  St.  John,  Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  us  not,  then  have 
we  confidence  towards  God  :  and  whatsoever  we  ask  we  receive  of  him, 
because  we  keep  his  commandments,  and  do  those  things  which  are 
pleasing  in  his  sight. 

4.  But  Bishop  Beveridge  spoke  just  the  reverse;  for  he  said  in 
his  Private  Thoughts,  "  I  sin  in  my  best  duties,"  &c.  That  may  be  ; 
for  he  was  but  a  young  convert  when  he  wrote  his  Private  Thoughts. 

Vol.  I.  ■  '   2P 


214  THIRD    CHECK 

I  hope,  before  he  died,  he  enjoyed  more  Gospel  liberty.  But  whe- 
ther he  did  or  not,  we  appeal  from  his  Private  Thoughts  to  the 
above- raeotioned  public  declaration  and  evangelical  experience  of 
^t.  John. 

6.  If  many  Roman  Catholics  do  not  ascribe  merit  to  "  mere  exter- 
nal performances,"  I  have  done  them  great  injustice  ;  and  to  repair 
that  vprong,  I  declare  my  full  approbation  of  the  excellent  passage 
upon  merit,  which  you  quote  in  French  from  the  works  of  the  Bi- 
jhop  of  Meaux.  I  say,  in  French,  because  your  English  translation 
represents  him  as  looking  on  all  opinion  of  merit  as  presumptuous, 
whereas  he  blames  only  V  opinion  d'  un  merite  presomptueux,  the 
doctrine  of  a  presumptuous  merit, — of  a  merit  which  is  not  at  all 
derived  from  Christ,  and  does  not  terminate  in  the  glory  of  his  grace. 

The  dying  challenge  of  Alex.  Seton  is  answered  in  the  Second 
Check,  first  letter.  As  to  your  quotation  from  Bishop  Cooper,  it 
does  as  little  credit  to  his  learning  as  to  his  charity  ;  for  Augustin, 
who  had  no  more  "  th^  spirit  of  antichrist"  than  the  Bishop  himself, 
uses  perpetually  the  word  merit,  in  speaking  of  man  and  his  works. 

Let  us  now  see  how  you  "  split  the  hair,"  that  is,  fix  the  difference 
there  is  between  being  rewarded  according  to  our  works*  and  secun- 
dum merita  operum,  according  to  the  merit  or  rewardabhness  which 
Christ  gives  to  our  works.  "  The  difference,"  say  you,  "  by  no 
means  depends  upon  the  splitting  of  a  hair  ;  those  expressions  are 
as  wide  as  east  from  west."  Are  they  indeed  ?  Then  it  must  ha 
the  east  and  the  west  of  the  map  of  the  world,  which  meet  in  one 
common  line  upon  the  globe.  This  will  appear  if  we  consider  the 
manner  in  which  you  untie  the  Gordian  knot. 

*'  Good  works,"  say  you,  *'  are  rewarded,  because  God  of  his  own 
mere  favotir,  rich  grace,  and  undeserved  bounty,  has  promised  that 
he  will  freely  give  such  rewards  to  those  whom  he  has  chosen  in 
his  dear  Son."  Now,  Sir,  simplify  this  sentence,  and  you  tell  us 
just  that  "  good  works  are  rewarded,  because  God  freely  promised  t© 
reward  them." 

And  is  this  the  east  of  my  honoured  opponent's  orthodoxy  ?  Sur- 
prising !  It  just  meets  the  west  of  Popish  heterodoxy.  You  know. 
Sir,  that  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Scotus  are  as  great  divines  among  the 
Romanists,  as  Calvin  and  Luther  among  the  Protestants  :  and  in 
fleeing  from  Mr.  Wesley,  you  are  just  gone  over  to  Scotus  and 
Baxter;  for  Scotus,  and  Clara  his  disciple,  maintain,  that  if  God  gives 
rewards  to  the  godly,  non  oritur  obtigatio   ex  natura  actus,   sed  ex 

*  See  1  John  iii.  22.  and  Vind.  pp.  59,  60.  You  have  no  right  to  throw  out  th  s 
middU  term  till  you  have  proved  that  ray  quotations  are  false. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  215 

suppositione  decreti  et  promissU  "  the  obligation  does  not  arise  from 
the  nature  of  the  action  rewarded,  but  from  the  decree  and  free 
promise  of  the  re  warder."  '*  Though  so  much  be  given  in  Scrip- 
ture to  good  works,"  says  the  council  of  Trent,  "  yet  far  be  it  from 
a  Oiristian  to  glory  in  himself,  and  not  in  the  Lord,  whose  goodness 
is  so  great  to  all  men,  that  he  wills  those  things  to  be  their  merits, 
Yfhicb  sre  his  gifts. ^^     Can.  16.  De  Justif 

"  Most  Protestants,"  says  Baxter,  "  will  take  merit  to  signify 
something  which  profiteth  God,  and  which  is  our  own,  and  not  hig 
gift  and  graccy  but  they  are  mistaken  " 

Some,  however,  are  more  candid;  Bucer  says,  "  If,  by  meriting , 
the  holy  fathers  and  others,  mean  nothing  but  to  do  in  faith,  by  the 
grace  of  God,  good  works,  which  the  Lord  has  promised  to  reward, 
in  this  sense"  (which  is  that  which  Scotus,  Baxter,  and  Mr.  W.  fix 
to  merit)  "  we  shall  in  nowise  condemn  that  word." 

Hence  it  is,  that  whole  congregations  of  real  Protestants  have  not 
scrupled  at  times  to  use  the  words  we  merit,  in  their  humblest 
addresses  to  the  throne  of  grace.  "  Congregations  of  real  Pro- 
testants!" says  my  honoured  friend  "Popery  is  about  midway 'be- 
tween Protestantism  and  such  worshippers.  Who  are  they  ?"  I 
answer,  They  are  the  orthodox  opposers  of  the  Minutes,  the  truly 
honourable  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Madan,  and  all  the  congregations  that  use  their  hymns  ;  for 
all  they  agree  to  sing, 

"  Thou  hast  the  righteousness  supplied, 
♦By  which  we  merit  heavea." 

See  Lady  Huntingdon's  Hymns,  page  339  ;  and  Mr.  Madan's  Col- 
lection, which  you  frequently  use,  hymn  25,  page  27,  last  stanza. 
Come  then,  dear  Sir,  while  Mr.  M.  shakes  hands  with  his  vene- 
rable father  Mr.  W.,  permit  the  Vindicator  of  the  Minutes  to  do  the 
game  with  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  and  let  us  lovingly  fol- 
low Scotus  and  Baxter,  singing,  "Christ  hath  the  righteousness 
supplied,  by  which  me  merit  heaven." 

If  you  say,  True,  but  it  is  of  God's  own  mere  favour,  rich  grace,  and 
undeserved  bounty  in  his  dear  Son  ;  I  answer.  We  are  agreed,  and 
beforehand  1  subscribe  a  hundred  such  clauses,  being  fully  persuaded 
of  the  truth  of  Mr.  W.'s  proposition,  when  explained  according  to 
the  analogy  of  faith,  'There  is  no  original  merit  but  in  the  blood 
and  obedience  of  Christ ;  and  no  derived  merit,  or  (if  you  dislike 
that  word  out  of  the  Lock-chapel,)  no  derived  rewardableness,  but 
that  which  we  are  supplied  with  through  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and 


216  THIRD  eHECK 

the  blood  of  his  cross  :"  If  Mr.  W.  oxeant  any  more  by  the  saying 
we  have  quoted,  he  will  permit  me  to  use  his  own  words,  and  say 
that  he  *'  leaned  too  much*towards  Calvinism." 

I  cannot  better  close  the  subject  of  merit,  and  requite  your  quo- 
tation from  Dr.  Willet,  than  by  transcribing  a  third  passage  from  the 
pious  and  judicious  Mr.  Baxter. 

*'  We- are  agreed  on  the  negative  :  1.  That  no  man  or  angel  can 
merit  of  God  in  proper  commutative  justice,  giving  him  somewhat 
for  his  benetits  that  shall  profit  him,  or  to  which  he  had  no  absolute 
right.  2.  No  man  can  merit  any  thing  of  God  upon  the  terms  of 
the  law  of  innocency,  (but  punishment.)  3.  Nor  can  he  merit  any 
thing  of  God  by  the  law  of  grace,  unless  it  be  supposed  first  to  be 
a  free  gift,  and  merited  by  Christ. 

"And  affirmatively,  we  are,  i  think,  agreed  ;  1.  That  God  governs 
us  by  a  law  of  grace,  which  hath  a  promise,  and  gives  by  way  of 
reward.  2.  That  God  calls  it  his  justice  to  reward  men  according 
to  his  law  of  grace,  Heb.  vi.  10.  2  Tim.  iv,  8.  3.  That  this  sup- 
poses, that  such  works  as  God  rewards  have  a  moral  aptitude  for  that 
reward  which  chiefly  consists  in  these  thmgs,  that  they  spring  from 
the  Spirit  of  God,  that  their  faultiness  is  pardoned  through  the  blood 
and  merits  of  Christ,  that  they  are  done  in  the  love  and  to  the  glory 
of  God,  and  that  they  are  presented  to  God  by  Jesus  Christ.  4.  That 
this  moral  aptitude  is  called  in  Scripture  u^iec,  that  is,  worthiness  or 
merit;  so  that  thus  far  worthiiiess  or  merit  is,  a  Scripture  phrase. 
And  5.  that  this  worthiness  or  merit  is  only  in  point  of  paternal^ 
governing  justice,  according  to  the  law  of  grace,  ordering  that  which 
in  itself  is  a  free  gift  merited  by  Christ. 

"  All  orthodox  Christians  hold  the  fore-described  doctrine  of  merit 
in  sense,  though  not  in  words :  for  they  that  deny  merit,  confess  the 
rewardableness  of  our  obedience,  and  acknowledge  that  the  Scripture 
useth  the  term  worthy,  and  that  ec^to^  and  «|/ot,  may  be  translated 
meriting  and  merit,  as  well  as  worthy  and  zvorthiness.  This  is  the  same 
thing  in  other  words,  which  the  ancient  Christians  meant  by  rnerit. 
When  godly  persons  earnestly  extol  holiness,  saying  that  "  the  righte- 
ous is  more  excellent  than  his  neighbour,"  and  yet  deny  all  merits 
reviling  all  that  assert  it,  they  do  but  show  that  they  understand  not 
the  word,  and  think  others  also  misunderstand  it :  and  so  we  are 
reproaching  one  another,  where  we  are  agreed,  and  know  it  not : 
like  the  woman  who  turned  away  her  servant  upon  the  controversy, 
Whether  the  house  should  be  swept  with  a  hesom,  or  with  a  broom. 

"  The  partial  teachers  are  the  cause  of  this,  while  instead  of  open- 
ing the  doctrine,  ajd  showing  in  what  sense  we  have  or  have  not  any 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  217 

t3i)orthiness  or  merit,  they  without  distinction  cry  down  merit,  and 
reproach  those  that  do  otherwise.  And  if  they  do  but  say,  '  Such  a 
man  speaks  for  merit  and  free-will,'  they  think  that  they  sufficiently 
render  him  odious  to  their  followers ;  when  yet  all  sober  Christians 
in  all  ages  have  been  for  merit  and  free-isoill  in  a  sound  sense.  And 
is  not  this  to  be  adversaries  to  truth,  and  love,  and  peace? 

<'  I  formerly  thought,  that  though  we  agree  in  \\\q  thing,  it  is  best 
to  omit  the  name,  because  the  Papists  have  abused  it :  and  I  think  so 
still  in  such  companies,  where  the  use  of  it  is  not  under'itood,  and 
will  do  more  harm  than  good.  But  in  other  cases,  I  now  think  it 
better  to  keep  the  word,  1.  Lest  we  seem  to  the  ignorant  to  be  of 
another  religion  than  *  all  the  ancient  churches  were.  2.  Lest  we 
harden  the  Papists,  Greeks,  and  others,  by  denying  the  sound  doctrine 
in  terms,  which  they  will  think  we  deny  in  sense.  And  3.  Because 
our  penury  of  words  is  such,  that  for  my  part  I  remember  no  other 
word  so  fit  to  substitute  instead  of  merit,  desert,  or  worthiness.  The 
word  rewardableness  is  long  and  harsh.  But  it  is  nothing  else  that  we 
mean."     Baxter's  End  of  Doctrinal  Controversies,  page  294. 

Remarks  on  Mr.  Hill's  fourth  letter. — I  am  glad  that  my  ho- 
noured opponent,  in  the  beginning  of  his  Fourth  Letter,  does  Mr.  W. 
the  justice  to  admit  of  the  explanation  I  have  given  of  that  misunder- 
stood assertion,  "  All  who  are  convinced  of  sin  undervalue  them- 
selves." Had  you  done  otherwise,'  Sir,  you  would  have  shown  judg- 
ment without  mercy.  Nevertheless,  you  still  think  that  explanation 
forced;  while  many  believe  it  not  only  natural,  and  agreeable  to  Mr. 
W.'s  whole  plan  of  doctrine,  but  so  solid  that  no  arguments  caa 
overthrow  it.  If  you  turrt  to  the  Second  Check,  pp.  118,  119, 
you  will  see  more  clearly,  that  you  do  Mr.  W.  no  favour  in  "  dismiss- 
ing this  article  of  the  Minutes." 

But  you  prepare  to  attack  the  next  with  the  utmost  vigour.  A  part 
of  the  Minutes  which  you  esteem  most  contrary  to  sound  doctrine,  is,  say 
you,  that  "  We  are  every  hour,  and  every  moment,  pleasing  or  dis- 
pleasing to  God,  according  to  the  whole  of  our  inward  tempers  and 
outward  behaviour,"  &c.  And  it  is,  I  own,  diametrically  opposite  to 
the  favourite  sentiment  which  you  thus  express,  '•  Though  I  believe 

*  "  It  is  a  great  advantage  to  the  Papists,"  says  our  judicious  author,  "  that  many 
Protestants  wholly  disclaim  the  word  merit,  and  simply  deny  the  merit  of  Gospel  obe- 
dience. For  hereupon  the  teachers  show  their  scholars,  that  all  the  Fathers  speak  for 
merit,  and  do  tell  them,  that  the  Protestant  doctrine  is  new  and  heretical,  as  being  con- 
trary to  all  the  ancient  doctors:  and  when  their  scholars  see  it  with  their  eyes,  no  won- 
d^  if  they  beliere  it,  to  our  dishonour.'* 


218  TlilRl)    CHECK 

that  David's  sio  displeased  the  Lord,  must  I  therefore  believe  that 
David's  person  was  under  the  curse  of  the  law  ;"  (I  suppose  you 
mean  u?ider  God's  displeasure,  for  of  this  Mr.  W.  speaks,  nor  does  he 
mention  tlie  curse  of  the  law  in  all  the  Minutes  :)  you  boldly  answer 
"  Surely  do. — Like  Ephraim,  he  was  still  a  pleasant  child  :  though  he 
went  on  frowardly,"  in  adultery  and  murder,  "  he  did  not  lose  the 
character  of  the  roan  after  God  s  own  heart."  You  might  as  well 
have  advanced  at  once  that  unguarded  proposition  of  Dr.  Crisp, 
"  God  does  no  longer  stand  displeased,  though  a  believer  do  sin  often  : 
no  sin  can  possibly  do  him  any  hurt."  Is  this  what  you  call  '*  sound 
-doctrine  ?"  And  is  that  the  worst  part  of  the  Minutes,  which  opposes 
such  a  dangerous  tenet  ?  Then  how  excellent  must  the  other  parts  be  t 
Indeed,  Sir,  their  Vindicator  could  say  nothing  stronger  to  demon- 
strate their  soundness,  seasonableness,  and  importance.  But  let' us 
consider  your  arguments ;  and  that  with  such  care,  as  the  importance 
of  the  subject  requires. 

L  *'  David's  sin  displeased  the  Lord,"  but  not  "  his  person."  This 
is  what  you  must  mean,  if  you  oppose  Mr.  W.'s  proposition.  I  like 
your  shifting  the  terms ;  it  is  a  sign  that  you  are  a  little  ashamed  the 
world  should  see  the  good  Doctor's  scheme  without  some  covering. 
Erubuisti,  salva  res  est.  1.  Your  intimation  that  the  Lord  was  not 
displeased  at  David's  person;  bears  hard  upon  the  equity  and  veracity 
of  God.  David  commits  adultery  and  murder  in  Jerusalem,  and 
Claudius  in  Rome.  God  sees  them,  and  says,  agreeably  to  your 
scheme,  "  They  are  both  guilty  of  the  same  crimes,  and  both  impeni- 
tent :  but  David  is  a  Jew,  an  elect,  a  sheep,  and  therefore,  though  he 
sins  against  ten  times  more  light  than  the  other,  I  am  not  at  all  dis- 
pleased at  him.  But  Claudius  is  a  heathen,  a  reprobate,  a  goat,  and 
my  anger  smokes  against  him  ;  he  shall  surely  die." — If  this  be  God's 
method,  how  can  he  make  the  following  appeal!  '*  O  house  of  Israel, 
are  not  my  ways  equal  ?  Are  not  your  ways  unequal  ?— The  soul 
that  sinneth  it  shall  die  :  wherefore  turn  ye,  why  will  ye  die,  O  house 
of  Israel?"    See  Ezek.  xviii.  and  Second  Check,  pp.  136,  137. 

2.  Your  distinction  is  overthrown  by  Scripture;  for  we  read, 
Gen.  xxxviii.  10.  that  *'  The  thing  which  Onan  did,  displeased  the 
Lord."  "  True,"  might  you  say  upon  your  scheme,  **  this  is  the 
very  thing  1  assert ;  this  mode  of  speech  shows  that  God  w?as  angry 
at  Onan's  sin,  and  not  at  his  person.''^ — But  this  would  be  a  great  mis- 
take, honoured  Sir ;  for  the  sacred  historian  adds  immediately. 
Wherefore  God  slew  him  also.  He  showed  his  heavy  displeasure  at 
his  person,  by  punishing  him  with  death,  as  well  as  his  brother  Er 
who  was  wicked  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  21& 

3.  But  if  you  will  not  believe  Mr.  W.  when  he  declares  that  God 
is  displeased  at  the  persons  of  the  righteous,  the  moment  they  do  those 
things  which  displease  him,  believe  at  least  the  Oracles  of  God.  God's 
ano'er  was  kindled  against  Moses ^  Exod.  iv.  14. — Tlie  Lord  was  very 
angry  against  Aaron,  Deut.  ix.  20.  and  with  all  Israel,  witness  those 
awful  words,  Let  me  alone^  that  I  may  consume  them  in  a  moment. 
Isaiah,  whom  you  allow  to  be  an  elect,  says.  Thou  wast  angry  with 
me.  God  himself  says,  Isaiah  xlvii.  6.  /  was  angry  with  my  people; 
and  David,  who  frequently  deprecates  God's  wrath  in  his  penitential 
Psalms,  observes,  that  his  anger  smokes  against  the  sheep  of  his  pasture, 
when  they  go  astray.    Psalm  Ixxiv.  1. 

4.  The  New  Testament  inculcates  this  doctrine  as  wiell  as  the  Old. 
St.  Paul  having  reminded  the  believers  of  Ephesus,  that  no  whore- 
monger, or  covetous  person,  hath  an  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ 
and  of  God,  subjoins  this  seasonable  caution  :  Let  no  man  deceive 
you;  no,  not  those  good  men,  Dr.  Crisp,  and  the  author  of  Pietas 
Oxoniensis  :  For  because  of  these  things  the  wrath  of  God  cometh  upon 
the  children  of  disobedience. — Impossible!  say  those  orthodox  Pro- 
testants •  you  may  be  children  of  disobedience,  not  only  unto  whore- 
dom and  covetousness,  but  unto  adultery  and  murder,  without  fearing 
that  the  wrath  of  God  will  come  upon  you  for  these  things  :  No, 
no,  you  will  be  "  pleasant  children  still."  See  Vindication,  pp. 
74,  75. 

11.  You  proceed :  "  Shall  I  believe  that  because  David  was 
ungrateful,  God  (whose  gifts  and  callings  are  without  repentance)  was 
unfaithful  ?"  And  shall  I  believe,  that  God  is  not  as  faithfid  when  he 
accomplishes  his  threatenings  as  when  he  fulfils  his  promises  ?  You 
reply,  "  God's  gifts  and  callings  are  without  repentance.^'*  And  does 
this  prove  that  God's  warnings  are  without  meaning  ?  and  his  threaten- 
ings without  truth  ?  St.  Paul  spoke  those  words  of  the  election  of  the 
Jews  ;  and  it  is  certain  God  does  not  repent  that  he  formerly  called 
them,  and  gave  them  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  any  more  than  he  repents 
his  having  now  rejected  them,  and  taken  from  them  the  good  land 
which  he  gave  their  fathers  :  for  as  he  had  once  sufficient  reasons 
to  do  the  one,  so  he  has  now  to  do  the  other. 

But  if  you  will  make  this  passage  mean,  that  the  divine  favour  and 
blessings  can  never  be  forfeited  through  any  fall  into  sin  ;  I  beg  you 
will  answer  these  queries.  Had  not  God  given  all  angels  a  place  in 
his  favour  and  glory?  And  did  not  many  of  them  lose  it  by  their 
fall  ?  Was  not  innocent  Adam  interested  in  the  divine  favour  and 
image?  And  did  he  not  lose  both,  together  with  Paradise,! when  he 
fell  into  sin  ?    Did  not  king  Saul  forfeit  the  crown  which  God  had 


220  THIRD    CHECK 

given  bim,  and  the  throne  to  which  he  had  called  him  ?  Were  not 
Judas's  calling  and  aposileship  forfeit*  d  by  his  unfaithfulness,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  twelre  thrones  which  Cia-ist  had  promised  him  ?  What 
will  you  sa}*  of  the  unprofitable  servant,  from  whom  his  Lord  took 
the  talent  unimproved  ?  Lost  he  not  a  blessing  given^  and  his  calling 
to  occupy  with  it  ?  And  can  you  assert,  that  the  man  who  took  his 
fellow-servant  by  the  throat,  did  not  lose  the  forgiveness  of  a  debt  of 
ten  thousand  talents.^  Or  that  those  apostates,  who  tread  under  foot  the 
blood  of  the  covenant  wherewith  they  zvere  sanctified^  do  not  forfeit 
their  sanctification  by  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace?  U  it  right 
thus  to  set  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  against  the 
author  of  the,.Epi^tle  to  the  Hebrews? 

III.  Your  bringing  in  backsliding  Ephraim,  the  pleasant  child,  as  a 
witness  of  the  truth  of  your  doctrine,  is  a  most  unhappy  proof. 
Rejoice  not,  0  Israel,  as  other  people,  says  the  Lord,  Hosea  ix.  1.  for 
thou  hast  gone  a  whoring  from  thy  God  This  whoring  Israel  is 
called  Ephraim,  ver.  13.  Ephraim,  the  pleasant  child,  is  planted  as  a 
pleasant  plant.  Notwithstanding  Ephraim  shall  bring  forth  his  chil- 
dren for  the  murderer.  All  their  wickedness  is  in  Gilgal :  for  there  I 
hated  them.  For  the  wickedness  of  their  doings  I  will  drive  them  out  of 
mine  house  :  I  will  love  them  no  more.  Hence  the  prophet  observes 
immediately  after,  Ephraim  is  smitten,  my  God  will  cast  them  away, 
because  they  did  not  hearken  unto  him. 

IV.  However,  you  still  affirm,  that  "  David,  notwithstanding  his 
horrible  backslidings,  did  not  lose  the  character  of  the  man  after 
God's  own  heart."  But  you  will  permit  me  to  believe  the  contrary, 
1.  Upon  the  testimony  of  the  Psalmist  himself,  who  Q-ays  in  your 
favourite  Psalm,  Thou  hftst  cast  off  and  abhorred,  thou  hast  been  very 
wroth  with  thine  anointed;  thou  hast  made  void  the  covenant  of  thy 
servant;  thou  hast  profaned  his  crown  by  casting  it  to  the  ground.''^ 
Psalm  Ixxxix.  38. 

2.  Where  is  David  called  the  man  after  God^s  own  heart,  while  he 
continued  an  impenitent  adulterer?  How  much  more  guarded  is  the 
Scripture  than  your  letters?  David  did  that  which  was  right  in  the 
eyes  of  the  Lord,  and  turned  not  aside,  save  only  in  the  matter  of  Uriah, 
1  Kings  XV.  5.  Here  you  see  the  immoral  parenthesis  of  ten  months 
spent  in  adultery  and  murder,  expressly  pointed  at,  and  excepted  by 
the  Holy  Ghost. 

3.  David  himself,  far  from  thinking  that  sin  could  never  separate 
between  God  and  a  just  man  who  draws  back  into  wickedness, 
speaks  thus  in  the  last  charge  which  he  gave  to  Solomon  ;  And  thou 
Solomon,  my  son,  know  the  God  of  thy  father,  and  serve  him  with  a 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  221 

perfect  heart.  If  thou  seek  him,  he  will  he  found  of  thee  ;  hut  if  thou 
forsake  him,  he  will  cast  thee  off  for  ever,  1  Chron.  xxviii.  9.  Hence  it 
appears  that  the  God  of  Solomon's  father,  is  very  different  from 
the  picture  which  Dr.  Crisp  draws  of  David's  God.  The  former 
can  be  so  displeased  at  an  impenitent  backslider  as  io  cast  him  off  for 
ever;  while  the  latter  accounts  him  a  pleasant  child  still.  But  let  us 
come  to  matter  of  fact. 

4.  Displeasure,  anger,  or  wrath  in  God,  is  not  that  disturbing, 
boisterous  passion  so  natural  to  fallen  man  ;  but  an  invariable  disap- 
probation of  sin,  and  a  steady  design  to  punish  the  sinner.  Now  God 
severely  manifested  his  righteous  displeasure  at  David's  person, 
wheh  he  punished  him  by  not  restraining  any  longer  the  ambition  of 
his  rebellious  son.  How  remarkably  did  his  dreadful  punishments 
answer  his  heinous  crimes  !  He  wanted  the  fruit  of  his  adultery  to  live, 
but  inflexible  justice  destroys  it.  The  crown  of  righteousness  was 
fallen  from  his  head,  and  his  royal  crown  is  profaned  and  cast  to  the 
ground.  He  had  not  turned  out  the  hellish  tempter ;  and  he  is 
turned  out  of  his  own  palace  and  kingdom.  He  flees  beyond  Jordan 
for  his  life  ;  and  as  he  flees  Shimei  throws  stones  at  him ;  vollies  of 
curses  accompany  the  stones  ;  and  the  most  cutting  challenges  follow 
the  curses  :  '  Come  out ,  thou  bloody  man,'  said  he,  *  thou  man  of 
Belial !  the  Lord  hath  delivered  thy  kingdom  into  the  hand  of 
Absalom  thy  son  ;  and  behold,  thou  art  taken  in  thy  mischief,  because 
thou  art  a  bldody  man.  To  which  David  could  answer  nothing,  but 
Let  him  curse ;  for  the  Lord,  by  not  restraining  his  wickedness,  hath 
permissively  said  unto  him,  Curse  David.  I  see  the  impartial  justice 
of  a  sin-avenging  God,  through  the  cruel  abuse  of  this  raging  man.'* 
This  was  not  all :  He  had  secretly  committed  adultery  with  Uriah's 
wife,  and  his  son  publicly  commits  incest  with  his  wives.  And  to 
complete  the  horror  of  his  punishment,  he  leaves  the  most  dreadful 
eurse  upon  his  posterity.  Thou  hast  slain  Uriah  with  the  sword  of 
the  children  of  Ammon,  says  the  Lord,  now  therefore  the  sword  shall 
never  depart  from  thy  house,  and  thy  own  children  shall  murder  one 
another.  What  a  terrible  punishment  was  this !  And  how  strong 
must  be  the  prejudice  of  those,  who  maintain  that  God  was  not  dis- 
pleased at  David's /?crso».' 

V.  Pass  we  now  to  an  argument  which  you  seem  to  consider  as 
one  of  the  main  pillars  ef  your  doctrine.  "  If  one  believer  sin  by 
an  unclean  thought,  say  you,  and  another  by  an  unclean  act,  does  the 
former  continue  in  a  state  of  grace,  and  the  other  forfeit  his  sonship  ? 
Take  heed  lest  you  should  be  forced  to  go  to  Rome  for  an  answer  to 
this  query."    Without  going  even  to  the  Convent  of  the  Benedictine 

Vol.  L  29 


222  THIRD    CHECK 

Monks  in  Paris,  1  answer,  It  is  evident  from  Scripture,  that  an  adui- 
terous  thouzht,  delighted  in,  is  adultery.  He  that  entertains  such  a 
thought  is  an  adulterer,  one  who  is  absolutely  unfit  for  the  presence 
of  a  holy  God.  Be  not  deceived,  says  St.  Paul,  neither  fornicators, . 
nor  adulterers,  shall  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  Therefore  adultery 
of  heart  certainly  excludes  an  impenitent  backslider  out  of  heaven  ; 
though  it  will  not  sink  him  into  so  deep  a  hell,  as  if  he  had  drawn 
another  into  the  commission  of  his  intended  crime.     You  add, 

"  But  if  David  had  had  only  an  angry  thought,  he  had  still  been  a 
murderer  in  the  sight  of  God."  Not  so ;  for  there  is  a  righteous 
anger,  which  is  a  virtue  and  not  a  sin  ;  or  else  how  could  Christ  have 
looked  round  about  on  the  Pharisees  with  anger ,  and  continued  sinfess  ? 
You  mean  probably,  that  if  David  had  only  hated  Uriah  in  his  heart, 
he  would  have  been  a  murderer.  If  so  your  observation  is  very 
just,  for  he  that  hateth  his  brother,  says  St.  John,  is  a  murderer;  and 
you  know,  adds  he,  that  no  murderer^  though  he  were  a  royal  Psalmist, 
hath  eternal  life  abiding  in  him. 

But  what  do  you  get  by  these  arguments?  Nothing  at  all.  You 
only  make  it  easierto  prove  that  your  doctrine  is  erroneous.  For  if 
David  would  have  forfeited  heaven  by  looking  on  Uriah's  wife,  to  lust 
after  her  in  his  heart ;  or  by  intending  in  his  breast  to  murder  her 
husband  ;  how  much  more  did  he  forfeit  it  when  mental  sins  were 
fully  ripened  into  outward  enormities;  Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil, 
whose  works  ye  do,  said  Christ  to  some  of  the  chosen  nation  :  and  if 
adultery  and  murder  are  the  works  of  the  devil,  it  follows  from  those 
words  of  our  Lord,  that  while  David  continued  impenitent,  he  was 
not  a  man  after  God's  own  heart,  as  my  honoured  opponent  too  cha- 
ritably supposes  :  but  a  man  after  the  own  heart  of  him  who  abode  not 
in  the  truth,  and  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning. 

VI.  But  you  add,  ''  Sin  did  not  reign  in  him  as  a  king,  it  only  for  a 
time  usurped  as  a  tyrant."  Nay,  Sir,  sin  is  a  tyrant  wherever  he 
reigns,  and  he  reigns  wherever  he  usurps.  "  Where  will  you  draw 
the  line"  between  the  reign  and  tyranny  of  sin?  Are  not  both  included 
under  the  word  dominion?  Sin,  says  St.  Paul,  shall  not  have  dominion 
over  you  that  are  under  grace.  Had  I  made  such  a  distinction  as  this, 
some  Protestants  would  deservedly  have  called  it  iuetaphysical ;  but  as 
it  comes  from  the  orthodox  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  it  will  pro- 
bably pass  for  evangelical. 

Voi-y  different  however  is  St.  Peter's  orthodoxy.  Of  whom  a  man 
is  overcome,  says  he,  of  the  same  is  he  brought  into  bondage.  For  if 
after  they  have  escaped  the  pollutions  of  the  world  through  the  knowledge 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  they  are  again  entangled  therein  and  overcome^ 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  223 

the  latter  end  is  'i^orse  with  them  than  the  beginning.  Nevertheless, 
even  such  apostates,  so  Ions  as  the  day  of  their  visitation  lasteth,  may 
again  repent  and  believe  ;  for  as  you  justly  observe,  they  have  still 
an  Advocate  with  the  Father^  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous. 

VII.  You  try  to  prove  your  point  by  Scripture.  There  ts,  siy  you, 
no  condemnation  to  them  who  are  in  Christ.  True  !  but  it  is  white 
(hey  walk  not  after  the  fleshy  but  after  the  Spirit :  a  clause  which  you 
prudently  keep  ont  of  siffht.  And  surely  David  walked  after  the 
^esh,  when  in  the  act  of  adultery  and  murder.  You  proceed  :  Who 
shall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God'' s  elect  ?  Nobody,  if  God's  elect 
are  penitent  believers,  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh;  but  if  they  are 
impenitent  adulterers  and  hypocritical  murderers, — Jews  and  Gen^ 
tiles,  Liiw  and  Gospel,  prophets  and  apostles,  God  and  their  own  con- 
science, all  will  agree  to  lay  their  crimes  to  their  charge.  You  urge 
thnt  Christ  by  one  aff'ering  hath  for  ever  perfected  themthat  are  sanctified. 
Trn'^ !  but  not  those  who 'are  unsanctifled.  And  "certainly  such  are 
all  r^duUerers  and  murderers.  These  ought  rather  to  be  ranked  with 
thope  who  tread  underfoot  the  blood  of  the  covenant  wherewith  they  were 
sanctif.ed. 

It  is  said,  however,  ye  (believing,  loving,  fruitful  Colossians,  see 
chap.  i.  4,  6.)  are  complete  in  him.     It  is  so  ;   but  not  ye  impenitent 
backsliders,  ye  unclean  defilers  of  another's  bed. — Such  are  complete 
in  evil,  not  in  good,  in  Belial,  not  in  Christ.     Alas,  for  the  prostitution 
of  the  sacred  and  pure  word  of  God  !  Can  it  also  be  pressed  into -the 
service  of  profaneness  and  impurity !  To  rescue  at  least  one  sentence 
from  such  manifest  abuse,  I  might  observo,  tho  original  may,  with  the 
greatest  proprieiy,  be  rendered,  filled  with  (or  by)  him,  instead  of 
complete  in  him ;  and  1  think  the  context  fixeslhis  sense  upon  it.   The 
apostle  is  cautioning  the  Colossians  against  vain  philosophers,  whose 
doctrine  was  empty  and  deceitful.     Now  that  he  may  do  this  the  more 
effectually,  he  points  out  a  more  excellent  Teacher,  whose  character 
and  qualifications  he  describes  when  he  says,  in  him  dwelleth  the  ful- 
ness, TrXepaf^x,  of  the  Godhead.     He  immediately  adds  -xs-xTX-KiKif^tvoi  a 
otvra,  (a  verb  of  the  same  etymology  with  the; noun,  and  undoubtedly 
of  a  similar  import)  ye  are  filled  with  (or  by)  him.     As  if  he  had  said, 
**  Christ  is  filled  with  the  Godhead  of  the  Father,  and  ye  with  the 
Spirit  of  Christ,  the  Spirit  of  wisdom,  righteousness,  and  strength." 
Plenitudo  Christi  {says  the  learned  and  pious  Bengelius  on  the  passage) 
redundat  in  ecclesiam,  '*  the  fulness  of  God  dwelleth  in  the  Mediator, 
and  overflows  upon  his  church." — The  very  sense  our  translators 
hav2  given  the  very  same  two  words  in  Eph.  iii.  19.     Why  they  ren- 
dered them  differently  here  is  hard  to  say. 


224  THIRD    CHECK 

VIII.  You  go  on,  *'  No  falls  or  backslidings  in  God's  children  can 
ever  bring  them  again  under  condemnation,  because  the  law  of  the 
Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made  them  free  from  the  law  of  sin 
and  death.''''  A  most  dangerous  proposition,  exposed  Vindication,  pp. 
73,  74.  and  contrary  to  the  very  scripture  by  which  you  try  to 
support  it.  1.  To  the  context,  where  those  to  whom  there  is  no  con- 
demnation, are  said  to  be  persons  who  walk  not  after  the  flesh,  and  are 
therefore  rery  different  from  impenitent  adulterers  and  murdererSj 
who  bring  forth  the  most  execrable  fruits  of  the  flesh.  2.  To  the 
text  itself ;  for  if  the  law,  or  power  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus^ 
hath  made  the  belie ver/rec/ro//i  the  law  or  power  of  sin,  how  can  he 
be  represented  as  the  same  servant  of  sin ; — as  sold  under  sin ; — sold 
under  adultery  and  murder  for  ten  months  !  But  you  are  not  at  a  loss 
for  an  answer. 

IX.  "  We  are  very  apt  (say  you)  to  set  up  mountainous  distinctions 
concerning  the  various  degrees  of  sin,  especially  of  sins  after  con- 
version :" — This,  together  with  your  placing  "  an  angry  thought" 
upon  a  level  with  deliberate  murder,  seems  to  insinuate,  that  you 
make  very  httle  difference  between  an  atrocious  crime,  and  'u  sin  of 
surprise  ;  so  that,  upon  your  scheme,  a  bloody  murderer  may  plead 
that  he  is  not  more  guilty,  than  a  man  who  has  felt  a  motion  of  impa- 
tience ;  and  the  latter  may  be  hurried  out  of  his  wits,  as  if  he  had 
committed  murder.  To  remove  this  mistake,  I  need  only  observe, 
that  if  all  are  Papists  who  make  a  material  difference  between 
various  sins,  or  between  the  same  sins  variously  aggravated,  ray  worthy 
opponent  is  as  sound  a  Papiei  ae  myeelf ;  for  when  he  acts  as  a  ma- 
gistrate, he  does  not  promiscuously  pass  the  same  sentence  upon 
every  one.  He  commits  one  to  prison,  and  dismisses  another  with  a 
gentle  reprimand.  Our  Lord  himself  sets  you  the  example.  Phari- 
sees shall  receive  the  greater  damnation,  and  it  shall  be  more  tolera- 
BLE  for  Sodom,  than  for  Chorazin,  in  the  day  of  judgment :  whence  we 
may  justly  infer,  that  the  sin  of  some  is  more  "  mountainous"  than 
that  of  others. 

But  as  you  have  made  choice  of  David's  case,  permit  me  to  argue 
from  his  experience.  He  was  once,  you  know,  violently  angry  with 
Nabal ;  but  as  he  seasonably  restrained  his  anger,  and  meekly  con- 
fessed his  sin,  God  forgave  him  without  "  breaking  his  bones."  Not 
so,  when  the  unrestrained  evil  of  his  heart,  in  the  matter  of  Uriah, 
produced  llie  external  fruits  of  treachery  and  murder  ;  then  the  Lord 
inflicted  upon  him  all  the  dreadful  punishments  which  we  have 
already  considered.     Hear  the  rod,  therefore,  and  learn  what  vast  dif- 


TO   ANTIiJOMIANlSM.  225 

ference  the  Lord  makes  between  sins,  whether  committed  after,  or 
before  convergion. 

X.  What  follows  is  a  sweet  and  smooth  Antinomian  pill,  so  much 
the  more  dangerous  as  it  is  gilt  with  gold  taken  from  the  sanctuary, 
from  the  golden  altar  itself.  Hence  it  is  that  multitudes  swallow  it 
down  as  rich  grace^  without  the  least  scruple  or  suspicion.  Lord, 
dart  a  beam  of  thy  wisdom  into  the  mind  of  thy  servant,  that  I  may 
separate  the  precious  from  the  vile,  and  expose  the  dangerous  ingre- 
dient without  depreciating  the  gold  that  covers  it ! 

"  What  is  all  sin  (do  you  say)  before  the  infinitely  precious  atoning 
blood  of  Jesus  ?"  Nothing  at  all,  when  that  blood  is  humbly  appre- 
hended by  penitent  beUevers  who  depart  from  all  iniquity.  But  when 
it  is  accounted  a  common  thing,  and  trodden  under  foot  by  impenitent 
apostates  ;  or  wantonly  pleaded  in  defence  of  sin,  by  loose  Nico- 
laitans,  or  lukewarm  Laodiceans,  it  does  not  answer  its  gracious 
design.  On  the  contrary,  how  shall  we  escape^  says  St.  Paul,  if  we 
thus  neglect  such  great  salvation  ?  And  of  how  much  sorer  punishment, 
than  others,  shall  they  be  thought  worthy,  who  do  such  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace  ?     See  Hebrews  ii.  6.  and  x.  29.     You  go  on, 

"  If  Christ  has  fulfilled  the  whole  law,  and  borne  the  curse,  then 
all  debts  and  claims  against  his  people,  be  they  more  or  be  they  less, 
be  they  small  or  be  they  great,  be  they  before  or  be  they  after  con- 
version, are  for  ever  and  for  ever  cancelled.  All  trespasses  are  for- 
given them. — They  are  justified  from  all  things. — They  already  have 
everlasting  life."  W^hat!  before  they  repent  and  believe  ?  Ahold 
assertion  this !  which  sets  Jesus  against  Christ,— our  Priest  against 
our  Prophet.  For  Christ  himself  teaches  us,  that  many  for  whom 
his  fallings  are  killed, "and  all  things  are  now  ready,  through  an  obsti- 
nate refusal  of  his  sincere  (I  hope  nobody  will  say  hypocritical)  in- 
vitation, shall  never  taste  of  his  supper.  And  as  if  this  were  not 
enough  to  arm  us  against  your  doctrine,  he  commissioned  an  apostle 
to  assure  his  church,  that  some  who  have  tasted  of  his  Gospel  sup- 
per, that  is,  who  have  been  enlightened,  have  tasted  the  heavenly  gift, 
the  good  word  of  God,  and  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  do  crucify 
to  themselves  the  Son  of  God  afresh,  and  by  that  mean  so  totally  fall 
away,  that  it  is  impossible  to  renew  them  again  to  repentance.  A  clear 
proof  this,  that  those  who  once  truly  repented,  and  were  even  made 
partakers  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  may  quench  the  Spirit  and  sin  agaimi 
the  Holy  Ghost;  may  not  only  fall,  but  fall  finally,  Heb.  vi.  4. 

2.  Your  doctrine  sets  also  our  High  Priest  against  our  Heavenly 
King,  who  declares,  that  if  he  who  was  once  his  faithful  servant, 
begins  to  beat  his  fellow -servants,  much  more  to  murder  them,  he 


226  THIRD    CHECK 

will,  as  judge  of  all,  command  him  to  he  bound  hand  andfooiy  and 
delivered  to  the  tormentors.      See  Second  Check,  pp.  89,  90. 

3.  Your  doctrine  drags  after  it  all  the  absurdities  of  eternal,  abso- 
lute justification.  It  sets  aside  the  use  of  repentance  and  faith,  in 
order  to  pardon  and  acceptance.  It  represents  the  sins  of  the  elect 
as  forgiven,  not  only  before  they  are  confessed,  but  even  before 
they  are  committed  ;  a  notion  which  that  strong  Calvioist,  Dr.  Owen 
himself,  could  not  but  oppose.  It  supposes,  that  all  the  penitents 
who  have  believed  that  they  were  once  children. of  wrath,  and 
that  God  was  displeased  at  them  when  they  lived  in  sin,  have  be- 
lieved a  lie.  It  makes  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  one  of  the 
most  absurd,  wicked,  and  barbarous  things  in  the  world.  For  what 
can  be  more  absurd  than  to  say,  Repent  ye,  and  believe  the  Gospel : 
He  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned,  if  a  certain  number  can  never 
repent  or  believe,  and  a  certain  number  can  never  be  damned  ? 
And  what  can  be  more  wicked  than  to  distress  elect  sinners,  by 
bidding  them  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come",  if  there  is  absolutely  no 
wrath,  ne'itheT  past,  present,  nor  to  come,  for  them  ;  if  all  their  sins, 
"  be  they  more  or  less,  be  they  small  or  great,  are  for  ever  and  for 
ever  cancelled  ?"  As  for  the  reprobates,  how  barbarous  is  it  to  bid 
them  flee,"  if  adamatine  chains,  eternal  decrees  of  past  wrath,  per- 
petually bind  them  down,  that  they  may  never  escape  the  repeated, 
eternal  strokes  of  the  wrath  to  come  ! 

4.  But  what  shocks  me  most  in  your  scheme,  is  the  reproach  which 
it  unavoidably  fixes    upon  Christ.     It  says,  The  elect   are  justified 

from,  all  things,  even  before  they  believe.  In  all  their  sins  "  God 
views  them  without  spot,  wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing :  they  stand  always 
complete  in  the  everlasting  righteousness  of  the  Redeemer." — 
<*  Black  in  themselves,  they  are  comely  through  his  comeliness  :"  so 
that  when  they  commit  adultery  and  murder,  He  who  is  of  purer 
eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity,  can,  nevertheless,  address  them  with, 
Thou  art  all  fair,  my  love,  my  undefiled,  there  is  no  spot  in  thee. 

What  a  prostitution  of  the  word  of  God  is  here  !  We  blame  a  wild 
youth  for  dropping  some  bold  inuendoes  about  .Jupiter  in  a  play 
composed  by  a  poor  heathen.  But  I  acquit  thee  of  indecency,  O  Te- 
rence, if  a  vindicator  of  Christian  piety  has  a  right  to  represent  our 
holy  and  righteous  God,  as  saying  to  a  bloody  adulterer  in  flagranti 
delicto.  Thou  art  all  fair,  my  love,  my  undefiled,  there  is  no  spot  in  thee. 
And  are  these  the  fat  pastures  and  limpid  waters,  where  Gospel 
preachers  "  feed  the  sheep  ?"  Where  then  !  0  where  are  the  "  barren 
pastures  and  muddled  waters"  in  which  barefaced  Antinomians  feed 
the  goats  ?  Is  not  this  taking  the  children's  bread  to  cast  it  to  the  dogs  ? 

4k 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  227 

I  had  almost  asked,  Is  it  not  the  abomination  of  desolation  standing  in 
the  holy  place  ?  Sec  ye  not  the  Lord,  O  ye  mistaken  ChristiKns, 
looking  down  from  the  habitation  of  his  holiness  ?  And  do  ye  not 
hear  him  thunder  this  expostulation  from  heaven  ?  Ho'ia)  long  will 
ye  blaspheme  mine  honour^  and  have  such  pleasure  in  deceit !  Know  ye 
not  that  I  have  chosen  to  myself  the  man  that  is  godly  ^  and  that  him  who 
delighteth  in  iniquity  doth  my  soul  abhor  ? 

B.  And  plead  not  that  you  have  quoted  Scripture  in  defence  of 
your  point.  If  the  church  says,  in  a  mystical  song,  /  am  black  in 
the  eyes  of  the  world,  because  the  sun  of  affliction  and  persecution 
hath  looked  upon  me  while  1  kept  the  vineyq^^rds;  but  I  am  comely  in  the 
sight  of  God,  whose  Spirit  enables  me  mth  unwearied  patience  to 
bear  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  4ay ;  you  have  absolutely  no  right, 
either  from  divinity  or  criticism,  to  make  those  words  mean  as  they 
do  upon  your  scheme,  /  am  black  by  the  atrocious  crimes  which  I 
actually  commit,  black  by  the  horrors  of  adultery  and  murder ;  but 
no  matter  ;  I  am  comely  by  the  purity  and  chastity  of  my  Saviour  ; 
my  sins,  be  they  small  or  be  they  great,  are  for  ever  and  for  ever 
cancelled  ;  I  am  justified  from  all  things. — Again,  if  God  says  to  a 
soul  actually  washed,  walking  with  him  as  Enoch,  and  walking  in 
white,  as  the  few  names  in  Sardis,  who  had  not  defiled  their  gar- 
ments. Thou  art  all  fair,  my  undefiled :  is  it  right  to  take  those  gra- 
cious words,  and  apply  them  to  every  lukewarm  Laodicean  we  meet 
with  ;  and  to  every  apostate,  who  not  only  defiles  his  garments^  but 
wallows  in  the  mire,  like  the  sow  that  was  washed  ? 

6.  Another  great,  and  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  insurmountable  difl&- 
culty  attends  your  scheme.  You  tell  us  that  *' a  believer's  person 
stands  absolved  and  always  complete  in  the  everlasting  righteousness 
of  the  Redeemer."  But  I  ask.  Was  he  absolved  before  he  was  a 
believer?  If  you  answer,  *' No,  he  was  absolved  the  moment  he 
hegan  to  believe,"  it  follows  that  he  does  something,  that  is,  he  be- 
lieves towards  his  absolution.  And  thus  your  main  pillars,  *'  that 
faith  is  not  previous  to  justification,  that  there  is  no  wrath  in  God 
for  the  elect,  and  that  all  claims  against  his  people  before  or  after 
conversion  are  for  ever  cancelled,"  are  not  only  broken,  but  ground 
to  powder.  Add  to  this,  that  if  the  believer  be  justified  in  conse- 
quence of  his  faith,  it  is  evident  that  his  justification,  while  he  is  on 
«arth,  can  stand  no  longer  than  his  faith,  and  that  if  he  make  ship- 
wreck  of  faith  and  a  good  conscience,  as  Hymeneus,  he  must  again 
come  into  condemnation.  But  supposing  that  to  avoid  these  incon- 
sistencies you  boldly  say,  "He  was  justified  from  the  time  the 
Lamb  was  slain,  that  is,  from  the  beginning  of  the  world ;"  you  point- 


228  THIRD    CHEClt 

blank  contradict  Christ,  who  says,  that  he  who  believeih  not  is  con- 
demned already.  Thus,  either  the  veracitj  of  our  Lord,  or  the  truth 
of  your  doctrine,  must  go  to  the  bottom.  A  sad  dilemma  this,  for  those 
who  confound  Crispianity  with  Christianity ! 

XI.  You  reply,  *' As  soon  shall  Satan  pluck  Christ's  crown  from 
his  head,  as  his  purchase  from  his  hand."  Here  is  a  great  truth, 
making  way  for  a  palpable  error,  and  a  dreadful  insinuation.  Let 
us  first  see  the  great  truth.  It  is  most  certain,  that  nobody  sHall 
ever  be  able  to  pluck  Christ's  sheep,  that  is,  penitent  believers,  who 
hear  his  voice  and  follow  him,  (John  x.  27.)  out  of  his  protecting, 
almighty  hand.  But  if  the  minds  of  those  penitent  behevers  are 
corrupted  from  the  simplicity  that  is  in  Christ ;  if  they  wax  wanton 
against  him,  turn  after  Satan,  end  in  the  flesh,  and  draw  back  to  per- 
dition ;  if  growing  fat,  and  kicking  like  Jeshurun,  they  neigh  like 
high-fed  horses  after  their  neighbours^  wives:  we  demand  proof  that 
they  belong  to  the  fold  of  Christ,  and  are  not  rather  goats  and  wolves 
in  sheep^s  clothing,  who  cannot,  without  conversion,  enter  into  the  king- 
dom of  heaven.  Secondly,  The  palpable  error  is,  that  none  of  those 
for  whom  Christ  died  can  be  cast  away  and  destroyed  ;  that  no  vir- 
gin''s  lamp  can  go  out ;  no  promising  harvest  be  choaked  with  thorns ; 
no  branch  in  Christ  cut  off' for  unfruitfulness  ;  no  pardon  forfeited,  and 
no  name  blotted  out  of  God^s  book ; — That  no  salt  can  lose  its  savour, 
nobody  receive  the  grace  of  God  in  vain,  bury  his  talent,  neglect  such 
great  salvation,  trifle  away  a  day  of  visitation.,  look  back  after  setting 
his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  grieve  the  Spirit  till  he  is  quenched,  and 
strives  no  more.  This  error,  so  conducive  to  the  Laodicean  case,  is 
expressly  opposed  by  St.  Peter,  who  informs  us  that  some  deny  the 
Lord  that  bought  them,  and  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruction. 
Christ  himself,  far  from  desiring  to  keep  his  lukewarm  purchase  in  his 
hand,  declares  that  he  will  spew  it  out  of  his  mouth.  Rev.  iii.   16. 

Pass  we  on,  thirdly,  to  the  dreadful  insinuation.  While  you  per- 
petually try  to  comfort  a  few  elect,  some  of  whom,  for  aught  I  know, 
comfort  themselves  already  with  their  neighbours'  wives,  yea,  and 
the  wives  of  their  fathers  ;  please  to  tell  us  how  we  shall  comfort 
millions  of  reprobates,  who,  for  what  you  know,  try  to  save  them- 
selves from  this  adulterous  generation  ?  Do  ye  not  hear  how  Satan,  upon 
a  supposition  of  the  truth  of  your  doctrine,  triumphs  over  those  an- 
happy  victims  of  what  some  call  God's  sovereignty  ?  While  that  old 
murderer  shakes  his  bloody  hand  over  the  myriads  devoted  to  endless 
torments,  methinks  I  hear  him  say  to  his  fellow-executioners  of  di- 
vine vengeance,  "  As  soon  shall  Christ's  crown  be  plucked  from  his 
head,  as  this  his  free  gift  from  my  hand.    Let  yonder  little  flock  of 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  22^ 

the  elect  commit  adultery  and  incest  without  any  possibility  of  miss- 
ing heaven.  I  object  no  more.  See  what  crowds  of  reprobates  may 
pray,  and  reform,  and  strive,  without  any  possibility  of  escaping  hell. 
Let  those  gay  elect  shout  Everlasting  love!  Eternal  justification ^  and 
Finished: salvation !  I  consent!  See,  ye  tiends,  see  the  immense  prey 
that  awaits  us,  and  roar  with  me  beforehand,  Everlasting  wrath !  Eter- 
nal reprobation  !  and  Finished  damnation  ! 

XII.  "Our  12th  article%maintains,  that  good  works  necessarily 
spring  out  of  a  lively  faith,  insomtich,  that'by  them  a  lively  faith  may 
be  as  evidently  known,  as  a  tree  discerned  by  its  fruits."  "  This 
(you  say)  I  most  firmly  believe  :"  and,  nevertheless,  to  prove  just  the 
contrary  ;  to  show  that  when  David  committed  adultery  and  murder, 
he  had  a  lively  faith,  and  was  in  a  state  of  justification  and  sanctifica- 
tion,  you  quote  a  verse  of  a  hymn,  composed  by  Mr.  C.  Wesley, 
which  ouly  confirms  what  I  say  of  undervaluing^  Vindication,  pp.  70,  7L 
For  you  mistake  him,  if  you  suppose  that,  when  not  one  bud  of  grace 
appears  to  ourselves,  many  may  not  appear  to  others  ;  and  if  you  ap- 
ply to  outward  enormities  greedily  committed,  what  the  poet  means 
of  inward  motions  of  sin  cordially  lamented  and  steadily  opposed. 
Nevertheless,  as  some  expressions  in  this  hymn  are  not  properly 
guarded,  the  pious  author  will  forgive  me  if  I  transcribe  part  of  a 
letter  which  I  lately  received  from  him. 

"  I  was  once  on  the  brink  of  Antinoraianism,  by  unwarily  reading 
Orisp  and  Saltmarsh.  Just  then,  warm  in  my  first  love,  I  was  in  the 
utmost  danger,  when  Providence  threw  in  my  way  Baxter's  Treatise, 
entitled,  A  hundred  Errors  of  Dr.  Crisp  demonstrated.  My  brother 
was  sooner  apprehensive  of  the  dangerous  abuse  which  would  be 
made  of  our  unguarded  hymns  and  expressions,  Ihan  I  was.  Now  I 
also  see  and  feel  we  must  all  sink — unless  we  call  St.  James  to  our 
assistance.  Yet  let  us  still  insist  as  much,  or  more  than  ever,  on  St. 
Paul's  justification.  What  God  has  joined  together  let  no  man  put 
asunder.  The  great  Chillingworth  saw  clearly  the  danger  of  separa- 
ting St.  James  from  St.  Paul.  He  used  to  wish,  that  whenever  a 
chapter  of  St.  Paul's  justification  was  read,  another  of  Si.  James 
might  be  read  at  the  same  time." 

XIIT.  When  my  honoured  correspondent  has  endsavoured  to  prove, 
by  the  ab«ve-mentioned  Scriptures,  arguments,  and  quotations,  that  aa 
impenitent  adulterer  and  murderer,  instead  of  being  under  God's  dis- 
pleasure, is  *'  a  pleasant  child  still;"  to  complete  his  work,  he  pro- 
ceeds to  show  the  good  that  falls  into  sin  do  to  believers.  Never 
did  the  pious  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis  employ  his  pen  in  a  work 
;le  ss  conducive  to  piety  ! 

Vol.   I.  30 


230  THIRD    CHECK 

"  God  (says  he)  often  brings  about  his  purposes  by  those  very 
means,  which  to  the  human  eye  would  certainly  defeat  them.  He 
has  always  the  same  thing  in  ?iew,  his  own  glory  and  the  salvation  of 
his  elect  by  Jesus  Christ.  This  Adam  was  accomplishing  when  he 
put  the  whole  world  under  the  curse."  Hail,  Adam,  under  the  fatal 
tree  !  Pluck  and  eat  abundantly,  for  *'lhou  accoraplishest  the  salva- 
tion of  the  elect!"  O  the  inconsistency  of  your  doctrine  !  If  we  in- 
sist upon  doing  the  will  of  God  in  order  t«  enter  his  kingdom,  we  are 
boldly  exclaimed  against  as  proudly  Sharing  the  glory  of  our  redemp- 
tion with  Christ.  But  here  Adam  is  represented  as  his  partner  in  the 
work  of  salvation,  and  a  share  of  his  glory,  positively  assigned  to  the 
fall,  i.  e.  to  his  disobedience  to  the  divine  will.  St.  Paul  asserts,  that 
hy  one  man  (Adam)  came  death,  and  sin  the  sting  of  death ;  and  so  death 
(with  his  sting)  passed  upon  all  men.  But  you  inform  us,  that  Adam 
by  his  sin  '*  accomplished  the  salvation  of  the  elect."  If  this  is  not 
plucking  a  jewel  from  Christ's  crown,  to  adorn  the  most  improper 
head  in  the  world  next  to  that  of  Satan,  I  am  very  much  mistaken. 

But  if  God  "  brought  about  his  purpose"  concerning  the  salvation 
of  the  elect  by  the  fall  of  Adam  ;  tell  us,  I  pray,  who  brought  about 
the  purpose  concerning  the  damnation  of  the  reprobate  ?  Had  the  Lord 
"  always  this  thing  in  view"  also  ?  On  the  brink  of  what  a  dreadful 
abyss  hath  your  doctrine  brought  me  ? — Sir,  my  mind  recoils  ;  1  flee 
from  the  God  whose  unprovoked  wrath  rose  before  the  beginning  of  the 
world,  against  millions  of  his  unformed,  and  therefore  guiltless  crea- 
tures !  He  that  tasted  death  for  every  man  bids  me  flee,  and  he  points 
me  from  Dr.  Crisp  to  God,  whose  mercy  is  over  all  his  works,  till  they 
personally  forfeit  it  by  obstinately  trampling  upon  his  richest  grace. 

XIV.  As  if  it  were  not  enough  to  have  represented  our  salvation 
in  part  accomplished  by  the  transgression  of  our  first  parents,  you 
bring  in  Herod  and  Pontius  Pilate,  and  observe,  to  the  honour  of  the 
good  which  sin  does  to  the  elect,  that  those  unrighteous  judges  did 
whatsoever  God's  hand  and  counsel  determined  before  to  be  done.  If 
you  quote  this  passage  to  insinuate  that  God  predetermined  their  sin, 
you  reflect  upon  the  divine  holiness,  and  apologize  for  the  murder- 
ers of  our  Lord,  as  you  have  for  the  murderer  of  Uriah. 

I  grant,  that  wh?n  God  saw,  in  the  light  of  his  infinite  foreknowledge, 
that  Pilate  and  Caiaphas  would  absolutely  choose  injustice  and  cruelty ; 
he  detcrimned  that  they  should  have  the  awful  opportunity  of  exer- 
cising them  against  his  Anointed. — As  a  skilful  pilot,  without  prede- 
termining, and  raising  a  contrary  wind,  foresees  it  will  rise,  and  pre- 
determines so  to  manage  the  rudder  and  sails  of  his  ship,  as  to  make 
it  answer  a  good  purpose.     So  God  overruled  the   foreseen  wicked- 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  231 

ness  of  those  men,  and  made  it  subservient  to  his  merciful  justice  in 
offering  up  the  true  Paschal  Lamb. — But,  as  it  would  be  very  absurd 
to  ascribe  to  the  contrary  wind  the  praise  due  to  {\\e pilot's  skill ;  so  it 
is  very  unevangelical  to  ascribe  to  the  sin  of  Pilate,  or  of  Joseph's 
brethren,  the  good  which  God  drew  from  some  of  its  extraordinary 
circumstances. 

XV.  "  The  Lord  has  promised  to  make  all  things  work  for  good  to 
those  that  love  him — and  if  all  things,  then  their  very  sins  and  corrup- 
tions are  included  in  the  royal  promise."  A  siren  song  this!  which 
you  unhappily  try  to  support  by  Scripture.  But  1.  If  this  is  the  love 
of  God  that  we  keep  his  commandments,  how  will  you  prove  that  Da- 
vid loved  God,  when  he  left  his  own  wife  for  that  of  Uriah?  Does 
not  our  Lord  declare  that  those  who  will  not  forsake  husband,  "^'ifi, 
children^  and  all  things  for  his  sake,  are  not  worthy  of  him,  either  as 
believers  or  lovers  ?  And  are  those  worthy  of  him  who  break  his  com- 
mandment, and  take  their  neighbours'  wives  ?  Again,  if  St.  John, 
speaking  of  one  who  does  not  relieve  an  indigent  brother,  asks  with 
indignation,  How  dzvelleth  the  love  of  God  in  him  !  May  not  I  with 
greater  reason  say,  How  dwelt  the  love  of  God  in  David  !"  Who,  far 
from  assisting  Uriah,  murdered  his  soul  by  drunkentiess,  and  his  body 
with  the  sword  !  And  if  David  did  not  love  God,  how  can  you  believe 
that  a  promise  made  to  those  that  love  God,  respected  him  in  his  state 
of  impenitency  ?  2.  When  we  extol  free  grace,  and  declare  that  God^s 
mercy  is  over  all  his  works  you  directly  answer,  that  the  word  all 
must  be  taken  in  a  limited  sense  :  but  when  you  extol  the  profitable- 
ness of  sin,  ALL,  in  all  thi?igs  working  for  good,  must  be  taken  uni- 
versally, and  include   sin  and   corruption,   contrary  to   the  context. 

3.  1  say,  contrary  to  the  context ;  for  just  before  the  apostle  declares. 
If  ye  live  after  the  flesh,  ye  shall  die,  ye  shall  evidence  the  truth  of 
Ezekiel's  doctrine.  When  the  righteous  turneth  away  from  his  righteous- 
ness, in  his  sin  that  he  hath  sinned  shall  he  die ;  and  at  the  end  of  the 
chapter,  the  things  that  work  for  good  are  enumerated,  and  they  in- 
clude all  tribulations  and  creatur^iS,  but  not  our  own  sin,  unless  you 
can  prove  it  to  be  God's  creature,  and   not  the  devil's   production. 

4.  It  is  nowhere  promised  that  sin  shall  do  us  good.  On  the  con- 
trary, God  constantly  represents  it  as  the  greatest  evil  in  the  world, 
the  root  of  all  other  temporal  and  eternal  evils :  and  as  he  makes  it 
the  object  of  his  invariable  disapprobation,  so,  till  they  repent,  he 
levels  his  severest  threatenings  at  sinners  without  respect  of  persons. 
But  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis  has  made  a  new  discovery. 
Through  the  glass  of  Dr.  Crisp  he  sees  that  one  of  the  choicest  pro- 
mises in  Scripture  respects  the  commission  of  sin,  of  theft  and  incest. 


232  THIRD    CHECK 

adultery  and  murder!  So  grossly  are  threatenings  and  promises^ 
punishments  and  rewards,  confounded  together  by  this  fashionable 
divinity ! 

5.  I  grant  that,  in  some  cases,  the  punishment  inflicted  upon  a 
sinner  has  been  overruled  for  good  :  but  what  is  this  to  the  sin 
itself?  Is  it  reasonable  to  ascribe  to  sin  the  good  that  may  spring 
from  the  rod  with  which  sin  is  punished  ?  Some  robbers  have, 
perhaps,  been  brought  to  repentance  by  the  gallows,  and  others 
deterred  from  committing  robbery  by  the  terror  of  their  punishment; 
but  bv  what  rule  in  logic,  or  divinity,  can  we  infer  from  thence, 
either  that  any  robbers  love  God,  or  that  all  robberies  shall  work 
together  for  their  good  ? 

But  "  Onesimus  robbed  Philemon  his  master ;  and  fleeing  from 
justice,  was  brought  under  Paul's  preaching  and  converted."  Surely, 
Sir,  you  do  not  insinuate,  that  Onesimus's  conversion  depended  upon 
robbing  his  master !  Or  that  it  would  not  have  been  better  for  him 
to  have  served  his  master  faithfully,  and  staid  in  Asia  to  hear  the 
Gospel  with  Philemon,  than  to  have  rambled  to  Rome  for  it  in  con- 
sequence of  his  crime  !  The  heathens  said,  *'  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die."  It  will  be  well  if  some  do  not  say,  upon  a 
fairer  prospect  than  theirs,  "  Let  us  steal  and  rob,  for  to-morrow 
we  shall  be  converted  !" 

XVIL  You  add,  that  "  The  royal  and  holy  seed  was  continued  by 
the  incest  of  Judah  with  Tamar,  and  the  adultery  of  David  with 
Bathsheba."  And  do  you  really  think,  Sir,  God  made  choice  of  that 
line  to  show  how  incest  and  adultery  work  together  for  good  ?  For 
my  part,  I  rather  think  that  it  was  because  if  he  had  chosen  any 
other  hue,  he  would  have  met  with  more  such  blots.  You  know 
that  God  slew  David's  child  conceived  in  adultery  ;  and  if  he  chose 
Solomon  to  succeed  David,  it  was  not  because  the  adulterous  Bath- 
sheba was  his  mother,  but  because  he  was  then  the  best  of  David's 
children  :  for  I  may  say  of  God's  choosing  the  son,  what  Samuel  said 
of  his  choosing  the  father,  The  Lord  looketh  on  the  heart,  1  Sam. 
xvi.  7. 

XVIII.  You  proceed  in  your  enumeration  of  the  good  that  sin 
does  to  the  pleasant  children.  "  How  has  many  a  poor  soul,  who 
has  been  faithless  through  fear  of  man,  even  blessed  God  for  Peter's 
denial  1"  Surely,  Sir,  you  mistake  :  none  but  the  fiend  who  desired 
to  have  Peter  that  he  might  sift  him,  could  bless  God  for  the  apostle's 
crime  ;  nor  could  any  one,  on  such  a  horrid  account,  bless  any 
other  God  but  the  god  of  this  world.  David  said,  My  eyes  run  down 
with  water y  because  men  keep  not  thy  law;  but  the  author  of  Pietas 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  233 

Oxoniensis  tells  us,  that  "  many  a  poor  soul  has  blessed  God"  for 
the  most  horrid  breaches  of  his  law  !  ^Weep  no  more,  perfidious 
apostle  :  thou  hast  cast  the  net  on  the  right  side  of  the  snip  ;  thy  three 
surses  have  procured  God  multitudes  of  6/cssmors/  Surely,  Sir,  yoii 
cannot  mean  this  !  "  Many  a  poor  soul  has  blessed  God"  for  granting 
a  pardon  to  Peter,  but  never  for  Peter^s  denial.  It  is  extremely 
dangerous  thus  to  confound  a  crime,  with  the  pardon  granted  to  a 
penitent  criminal. 

XIX.  Upon  the  same  principle  you  add,  "  How  have  many  others 
been  raised  out  of  the  mire,  by  considering  the  tenderness  shown  to 
the  incestuous  Corinthian."  I  am  glad  you  do  not  say,  "  by  con- 
sidering the  incest  of  the  Corinthian."  The  good  received  by  many 
did  not  then  spring  from  his  horrid  crime,  but  from  the  tenderness  of 
the  apostle.  This  instance,  therefore,  by  your  own  confession,  does 
not  prove  that  sin  does  any  good  to  believers. 

And  as  you  tell  us  with  what  tenderness  the  apostle  restored  that 
man,  when  he  was  swallowed  up  in  godly  sorrow,  you  will  permit 
me  to  remind  you  of  the  severity  which  he  showed  him  while  he 
contmued  impenitent.  In  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  (said 
he)  when  ye  are  gathered  together,  deliver  such  an  one  unto  Satan  for 
the  destruction  of  the  flesh,  that  his  spirit  may  be  saved  in  the  day  of 
the  Lord.  Hence  it  appears,  the  aposlle  thought  his  case  so  despe- 
rate, that  his  body  must  be  solemnly  delivered  to  Satan,  in  order,  if 
possible,  to  bring  his  soul  to  repentance.  Now,  if  the  incestuous 
man's  sins  '*  had  been  for  ever  and  for  ever  cancelled  ;"  if  he  had 
not  forfeited  the  divine  favour,  and  cut  himself  oflf  from  the  general 
assembly  of  the  first-born  by  his  crime ;  what  power  could  the 
apostle,  who  acted  under  the  influence  of  the  Spirit,  have  had  to  cut 
him  off"  from  the  visible  church  as  a  corrupt  member  ?  What  right  to 
deliver  the  body  of  one  of  "  God's  pleasant  children"  to  destruction  ? 
Was  this  finished  salvation  ?  For  my  part,  as  I  do  not  believe  in  a 
twofold,  I  had  almost  said  Jesuitical,  will  in  God,  I  am  persuaded,  he 
would  have  us  consider  things  as  they  are  ;  an  impenitent  adulterer 
as  a  profligate  heathen,  and  a  penitent  believer  as  "  his  pleasant 
child." 

XX.  You  add,  1.  A  "  grievous  fall  serves  to  make  believers  know 
their  place."  No,  indeed,  it  serves  only  to  make  them  forget  their 
place  ;  witness  David,  who,  far  from  knowing  his  place,  wickedly 
took  that  of  Uriah  ;  and  Eve,  who,  by  falling, into  the  condemnation 
of  the  devil,  took  her  Maker's  place,  in  her  imagination,  and  esteemed 
herself  as  wise  as  God. — 2.  "  It  drives  them  nearer  to  Christ." 
Surely  you  mistake.  Sir  ;  you  mean  nearer  the  devil ;  for  a  fall  inta 


234  THIRD    CHECK 

pride  may  drive  me  nearer  Lucifer,  a  fall  into  adultery  and  murder 
may  drive  me  nearer  Belial  and  Moloch  ;  but  not  nearer  Jesus 
Christ. — 3.  **  It  mc-kes  them  more  dependent  on  his  strength."  No 
iuch  thing.  The  genuine  effect  of  a  f  dl  into  sin,  is  to  stupify  the 
conscience,  and  harden  the  heart;  witness  the  state  of  obduracy  in 
which  God  found  Adam,  and  the  state  of  carnal  security  in  which 
Nathan  found  David,  after  their  crimes. — 4.  "  It  keeps  them  more 
watchful  for  the  future."  Just  the  reverse  :  it  prevents  their  watch- 
ing for  the  future.  If  David  had  been  made  more  watchful  by 
falling  into  adultery,  would  he  have  fallen  into  treachery  and  mur- 
der ?  If  Peter  had  been  made  more  watchful  by  his  first  failing  into 
perjury,  would  he  have  fallen  three  times  successively  ?  *'  It  will 
cause  them  to  sympathize  with  others  in  the  like  situation."  By  no 
means.  A  fall  into  sin  will  naturally  make  us  desirous  of  drawing 
another  into  our  guilty  condition.  Witness  the  devil  and  Eve,  Eve 
and  Adam,  D  ivid  and  Bathstieba.  The  royal  adulterer  was  so  far 
from  sympathizing  with  the  man  who  had  unkindly  taken  his  neigh- 
bour's favourite  ewe  lamb,  that  he  directly  swore,  As  the  Lord  liveth 
ike  man  that  has  done  this  thing  shall  surely  die. 

6.  "  It  will  make  them  sing  louder  to  the  praise  of  restoring 
grace  throughout  all  the  ages  of  eternity."  I  demand  proof  of  this. 
I  greatly  question  whether  Demas,  Alexander  the  coppersmith, 
Hymeneus,  Philetus,  and  many  of  the  fallen  believers  mentioned  in 
the  Epistles  of  our  Lord  to  the  churches  of  Asia,  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews,  and  in  those  of  St.  Peter,  St.  James,  and  St.  Jude, 
shall  sing  restoring  grace  at  all.  The  apostle,  far  from  representing 
them  as  singing  louder,  gives  us  to  understand  that  many  of  them  shall 
be  thought  worthy  of  a  much  sorer  punishment  than  the  sinners  con- 
sumed by  fire  from  heaven  ;  and  that  there  remaineth  no  more  sacrifice 
for  their  sins ;  (a  sure  proof  that  Christ's  sacrifice  availed  for  them, 
till  they  accounted  the  blood  of  the  covenant  an  unholy  thing,)  for,  adds 
the  apostle.  The  Lord  will  judge  his  people;  and,  'notwithstanding  all 
that  Dr.  Crisp  says  to  the  contrary.  There  remaineth  (for  apostates) 
a  certain  fearful  looking  for  cf  judgment  and  fiery  indignation,  which 
shall  devour  the  adversaries.  Weeping,  zvailing,  gnashing  of  teeth,  and 
not  "  louder  songs,"  await  the  unprofitable  servant. 

But  supposing  some  are  renewed  to  repentance,  and  escape  out  of 
the  snare  of  the  devil;  can  you  imagine  they  will  be  upon  the  footing 
of  those,  who,  standing  steadfast  and  immovable,  always  abounded  in 
the  work  of  the  Lord?  Shall  then  the  labour  of  these  be  in  vain  in 
the  Lord?  Are  not  our  works  to  follow  us?  Shall  the  unprofitable 
servant,  if  restored,  receive  a  crown  of  glory  equal  to  his,  who,  from 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  235 

the  time  he  Hsted,  always  fought  the  good  fight^  and  kept  the  faith  ? 
The  doctrine  you  would  inculcate,  at  once  bears  hard  upon  the 
equity  of  the  divine  conduct,  and  strikes  a  fatal  blow  at  the  root  of 
all  diligence  and  faithfulness,  so  strongly  recommended  in  the  oracles 
of  God. 

You  will  be  sensible  of  your  error  if  you  observe,  that  all  the  fine 
things  which  you  tell  us  of  a  fall  into  sin,  belong  not  to  the  fall,  but 
io  ^  happy  recover])  from  it ;  and  my  honoured  correspondent  is  as 
much  mistaken,  when  he  ascribes  to  sin  the  effects  of  repentance 
and  faithy  as  if  he  ascribed  to  a  frost  the  effects  of  a  thaw,  or  to 
sickness  the  consequence  of  a  recovery. 

And  now  that  we  have  seen  how  you  have  done  a  pious  man's 
strange  works ;  permit  me,  Sir,  to  tell  you,  that,  through  the  preva- 
lence of  human  corruption,  a  word  spoken  for  sin  generally  goes 
farther  than  ten  thousand  spoken  against  it.  This  I  know,  that  if  a 
fall,  in  an  hour  of  temptation,  appear  only  half  so  profitable  as  you 
represent  it,  thousands  will  venture  after  David  into  the  whirlpool  of 
wickedness.  But,  alas !  facilis  descensus  averni,  &c.  it  is  easier  to 
follow  him  when  he  plunges  in,  than  when  he  struggles  out,  with  his 
eyes  wasted,  his  flesh  dried  up,  and  his  bones  broken, 

XXI.  1  gladly  do  you  the  justice  to  observe,  that  you  exclaim 
against  sin  in  the  next  page  ;  but  does  not  the  antidote  come  too 
late?  You  say,  "  Whatever  may  be  God's  secret  will,  we  are  to 
keep  close  to  the  declaration  of  his  own  written  word,  which  binds 
us  to  resist  sin."  But,  alas !  you  make  a  bad  matter  worse,  by 
representing  God  as  having  two  wills,  a  secret,  effectual  willf  that  we 
should  sm,  and  a  revealed  will,  or  written  word,  commanding  us  to 
resist  sin !  If  these  insinuations  are  just,  I  ask,  Why  should  we 
not  regard  God's  secret,  as  much  as  his  revealed  will  ?  Nay,  why 
should  we  not  regard  it  more,  since  it  is  the  more  efficacious,  and 
consequently  the  stronger  will  ? 

You  add,  "  He  would  be  mad  who  should  wilfully  fall  down,  and 
break  a  leg  or  an  arm,  because  he  knew  there  was  a  skilful  surgeon 
at  hand  to  set  it."  But  I  beg  leave  to  dissent  from  my  honoured 
opponent.  For,  supposing  I  had  a  crooked  leg,  appointed  to  be 
broken  for  good,  by  God's  secret  will  intimated  to  me  :  and  sup- 
posing a  dear  friend  strongly  argued,  not  only  that  the  surgeon  is  at 
hand,  but  that  he  would  render  my  leg  straighter,  handsomer,  and 
stronger  than  before  :  must  1  not  be  a  fool,  or  a  coward,  if  I  hesitate 
throwing  myself  down  ? 

O  Sir,  if  the  deceiifulness  of  sin  is  so  great,  that  thousands  greedily 
eommit  it,  when  the  gallows  on  earth,  and  horrible  torments  in  hell. 


236  THIRD   CHECK 

are  proposed  for  their  just  wages ;  how  will  they  be  able  to  escape 
in  the  hour  of  temptation,  if  they  are  encouraged  to  transgress  the 
divine  law,  by  assurances,  that  they  shall  reap  eternal  advantages 
from  their  sin  !  O  !  how  highly  necessary  was  it,  that  Mr.  W.  should 
warn  his  assistants  against  talking  of  a  state  of  justification  and  sancti- 
Jication,  in  so  unguarded  a  manner  as  you,  and  the  other  admirers  of 
Dr.  Crisp  so  frequently  do  ? 

You  conclude  this  letter  by  some  quotations  from  Mr.  Wesley, 
whom  you  vainly  try  to  press  into  the  Doctor's  service,  by  represent- 
ing him  as  saying  of  established  Christians  what  he  speaks  of  babes 
in  Christ,  and  of  the  commission  of  adultery  and  murder,  when  he 
only  means  of  evil  desire  resisted,  and  evil  tempers  restrained  :  but 
more  of  this  in  a  Treatise  on  Christian  Perfection. 

Remarks  on  the  fifth  letter. — This  Letter  begins  by  a  civil 
reproof  for  "  speaking  rather  in  a  sneering  manner  of  that  heart- 
cheering  expression  so  often  used  by  awakened  divines,  the  finished 
salvation  of  Christ:'"'  an  expression  which,  by  the  by,  you  will  not 
find  once  in  all  my  letters.  But  why  some  divines,  whom  you  look 
Hpon  as  unawakened,  do  not  admire  the  unscriptural  expression 
of  finished  salvation,  you  may  see  in  the  Second  Check,  pp. 
144,    145. 

I  am  thankful  for  your  second  reproof,  and  hope  it  will  make  me 
Hiore  careful  not  to  "  speak  as  a  man  of  the  world."  But  the  third 
I  really  cannot  thank  you  for.  "  You  are  not  very  sparing  of  hard 
names  against  Dr.  Crisp,"  says  my  honoured  correspondent;  and 
again,  "  The  hard  names,  and  heavy  censures  thrown  out  against  the 
Doctor,  are  by  far  more  unjustifiable  than  what  has  been  delivered 
against  Mr.  W."  The  hardest  names  I  give  to  your  favourite  divine 
are,  the  Doctor,  the  good  Doctor,  and  the  honest  Doctor,  whom,  not- 
withstanding all  his  mistakes,  1  represent,  (Second  Check,  page  103,) 
as  a  good  man  shouting  aloud  Salvation  to  the  Lamb  of  God.  Now, 
Sir,  1  should  be  glad  to  know  by  what  rule,  either  of  criticism  or 
charity,  you  can  prove  that  these  are  hard  names,  more  unjustifiable 
than  the  names  of  "  Papists  unmasked,  heretic,  apostate,  worse  than 
papists,"  &c.  which  have  been  of  late  so  liberally  bestowed  upon 
Mr.  W.  ? 

1  confess  that  those  branches  of  Dr.  Crisp's  doctrine  which  stand 
in  direct  opposition  to  the  practical  Gospel  of  Christ,  I  have  taken 
the  liberty  to  call  Crispianity ;  for  had  I  called  them  Christianity ^  my 
conscience  and  one  half  of  the  Bible  would  have  flown  in  my  face  : 
and  had  I  called  them  Calvinism^  Williams,  Flavel,  Allen,  Bishop 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  23"^ 

Hopkins,  and  numbers  of  sound  CaWinists,  would  have  proved  me 
mistaken  ;  for  they  agree  to  represent  the  peculiarities  of  the  Doctor, 
as  loose  Antinomian  tenets ;  and  if  any  man  can  prove  them  either 
legal  or  evangelical,  I  shall  gladly  recant  those  epithets,  which  I 
have  sometimes  given,  not  to  the  good  Doctor,  but  his  unscriptural 
notions. 

In  the  mean  time  permit  me  to  observe,  that  if  any  one  judges  of 
my  letters  by  the  36th  page  of  your  book,  he  will  readily  say  of  them 
what  you  say  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sellon's  works ;  "  I  have  never  read 
them,  and  from  the  accounts  I  hear  of  the  abusive,  unchristian  spirit 
with  which  they  are  written,  I  beheve  I  shall  never  give  myself  that 
trouble."  Now,  Sir,  I  have  read  Mr.  Sellon's  books,  and  have 
therefore  more  right  than  you,  who  never  read  them,  to  give  them 
a  public  character.  You  tell  us,  "  you  have  heard  of  the  imbe- 
cility of  the  performance,"*  &c.  and  I  assure  my  readers,  I  have 
found  it  a  masterly  mixture  of  the  skill  belonging  to  the  sensible 
scholar,  the  good  logician,  and  the  sound  anti-Crispian  divine. 

He  is  blunt,  I  confess,  and  sometimes  to  an  excess.  '*  Really," 
says  he  in  a  private  letter,  "  I  cannot  set  my  razor;  there  is  a  rough- 
ness about  me  I  cannot  get  rid  of.  If  honest  truth  will  not  excuse 
me,  I  must  bear  the  blame  of  those  whom  nothing  will  please  but 
smooth  things."  But  sharp,  (you  would  say  abusive)  as  he  is,  permit 
me  to  tell  you,  that  my  much-admired  countryman  Calvin,  was  much 
more  so. 

For  my  part,  though  I  would  no  more  plead  for  abuse  than  for 
adultery  and  murder^  yet,  like  a  true  Suisse,  I  love  blunt  honesty ;  and 
to  give  you  a  proof  of  it,  I  shall  take  the  liberty  to  observe.  It 
is  much  easier  to  say  a  book  is  full  of  hard  names,  and  heavy  cen- 
sures, written  in  an  abusive,  unchristian  spirit ;  and  to  insinuate  it  is 
*'  dangerous,  or  not  worth  reading  ;"  than  it  is  fairly  to  answer  one 
single  page  of  it.  And  how  far  a  late  publication  proves  the  truth  of 
this  observation,  I  leave  our  candid  readers  to  decide. 

Page  38,  you  "  assure  me  upon  honour,  that  Mr.  W.'s  pieces 
against  election  and  perseverance,  (Why  did  you  forget  reprobation  ?) 
have  greatly  tended  to  establish  your  belief  in  those  most  comfortable 
doctrines."  Hence  you  conclude,  that  ''  Mr.  W.'s  pen  has  done 
much  service  to  the  Calvinistic  cause,"  and  add,  that  "  some  very 

*  Some  of  Mr.  Sellon's  Works  are,  Arguments  against  the  Doctrine  of  General 
redemption  considered. — A  defence  of  God''s  sovereignty. — And  The  Church  of  England 
vindicated  from  the  charge  of  Calvinism.  All  these  are  well  worth  the  reading  of  everr 
sensible  and  pious  man. 

Vol.  F.  31 


238  THIRD   CHECK 

experienced  Christians  hope  he  will  write  again  upon  that  subject,  or 
publish  a  new  edition  of  his  former  Tracts." 

You  are  too  much  acquainted  with  the  world,  not  to  know  that 
most  Deists  declare,  they  were  established  in  their  sentiments  by  read- 
ing the  Old  and  New  Testament.  But  would  you  argue  conclusively, 
if  you  inferred  from  thence,  that  the  Sacred  writers  have  done  infi- 
delity much  service  ?  And  if  some  confident  infidels  expressed  their 
hopes,  that  our  Bishops  would  reprint  the  Bible  to  propagate  Deism, 
would  you  not  see  through  their  empty  boast,  and  pity  their  deistical 
flourish  ?  Permit  me  to  expose  by  a  smile  the  similar  wish  of  the 
persons  you  mention,  who  if  they  are  "  very  experienced  Chris- 
tians,"  will  hardly  pass  for  very  modest  logicians. 

The  gentleman  of  fortune  you  mention,  nevef  read  Mr.  Wesley's 
Tracts,  nor  one  of  Mr.  Sellon's  on  the  Crispian  orthodoxy  :  and  I  am 
no  more  surprised  to  see  you  both  dissent  from  those  divines,  than  I 
should  be  to  find  you  both  mistaken  upon  the  bench,  if  you  passed  a 
decisive  sentence,  before  you  had  so  much  as  heard  one  witness  out. 
The  clergyman  you  refer  to  has  probably  been  as  precipitate  as  the 
two  pious  magistrates  ;  therefore  you  will  permit  me  to  doubt  whether 
he,  any  more  than  my  honoured  opponent,  "  has  bad  courage  enough 
to  see  for  himself." 

CONCLUSION. 

Having  so  long  animadverted  upon  your  letters,  it  is  time  to  con- 
sider the  present  state  of  our  controversy.  Mr.  VV.  privately  advances 
among  his  own  friends  some  propositions,  designed  to  keep  them  from 
running  into  the  fashionable  errors  of  Dr.  Crisp.  These  propositions 
are  secretly  procured,  and  publicly  exposed  through  the  three  king- 
doms, as  dreadfully  heretical,  and  subversive  of  the  Protestant  doc- 
trine of  justification  by  faith.  In  Mr.  W.'s  absence  a  friend  writes 
in  defence  of  his  propositions.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  instead  of 
trying  to  defend  his  mistakes  by  argument,  publicly  recants  his  circu- 
lar letter,  and  his  volume  of  sermons  by  the  lump.  Some  of  the 
honest  souls,  who  had  been  carried  away  by  the  stream  of  fashion- 
able error,  begin  to  look  about  them,  and  ask  whether  narratives  and 
recantations  are  to  pass  for  scriptures  and  arguments?  The  author  of 
Pietas  Oxoniensis,  to  quiet  them,  enters  the  lists,  and  makes  a  stand 
against  the  Anti-Crispian  propositions  ;  but  what  a  stand ! 

1.  "  Mans  faithfulness  (says  he)  I  have  no  objection  to  in  a  sobers 
Gospel  sense  of  the  word."     So  Mr.  W.'s  first  proposition,  by  my  op 
ponent's  confession,  bears  a  sober,  Gospel  sense. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  239 

5.  He  attacks  the  doctrine  of  working  for  life,  by  proposing  some 
of  the  very  objections  answered  in  the  Vindication,  without  taking 
-the  least  notice  of  the  answers ; — by  producing  Scriptures  quite 
foreign  to  the  question,  and  keeping  out  of  sight  those  which  have 
been  advanced  ; — by  passing  over  in  silence  a  variety  of  rational 
arguments ;— jumbling  all  the  degrees  of  spiritual  life  and  death,  ac- 
ceptance and  justification,  mentioned  in  the  sacred  oracles  : — con- 
founding all  the  dispensations  of  divine  grace  towards  man  ; — and 
levelling  at  Mr.  W.  a  witticism,  which  wounds  Jesus  Christ  himself. 

3.  He  acknowledges  the  truth  of  the  doctrine,  that  we  must  do 
something  in  order  to  attain  justification  ;  and  after  this  candid  con- 
cession, fairly  gives  up  the  fundamental  Protestant  doctrine  of  Jm 
tif  cation  by  faith ; — the  very  doctrine  which  Luther  called  Articulus 
stantis  vel  cadentis  Ecclesice,  and  which  our  church  so  strongly  main- 
tains in  her  articles  and  homilies.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley  throws  his 
sermon  on  Justification  hy  faith  overboard  :  his  second  comes  up  to 
mend  the  matter,  and  does  it  so  unfortunately,  as  to  throw  the  handle 
after  the  axe.  He  renounces  the  doctrine  itself.  "  I  maintain,"  says 
he,  "  that  believing  cannot  be  previous  to  justification,  that  is,  to 
complete  justification."  As  dangerous  a  proposition  this  as  was  ever 
advanced  by  Crisp,  and  refuted  by  all  the  sober  Calvinists  of  the  last 
century  ! 

4.  He  opposes  St.  Peter's,  Mr.  Henry's,  and  Mr.  W.'s  doctrine,  that 
"■  Cornelius  was  accepted  of  God  in  consequence  of  his  fearing  God 
and  working  righteousness,^^  and  insinuates  that  Cornelius  was  com- 
pletely accepted  before  he  feared  God  and  wrought  righteousness. 
Upon  this  scheme,  the  words  of  St.  Peter,  He  that  feareth  God,  and 
•worketh  righteousness,  is  accepted  of  him,  may  mean,  he  that  dareth  God, 
and  worketh  unrighteousness,  is  completely  accepted  of  him ! 

5.  He  represents  Mr.  W.  as  a  Papist,  for  having  privately  observed 
among  his  friends,  that  we  have  been  too  much  afraid  of  the  word 
■merit,  while  he  allows  real  Protestants,  the  Countess  of  Huntingdon, 
and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  to  publish  and  sing,  We  merit  heaven  by  the 
righteousness  which  Christ  has  supplied.  Nay,  he  sings  the  same  bold 
words  at  the  Lock-Chapel.  Mr.  Madan's  we  merit  passes  for  Gospel ; 
his  hymns  are  every  where  recommended  as  evangelical;  but 
"  Popery  is  about  midway  between  Protestantism  and  Mr.  Wesley  !" 
What  strange  prejudice!  And  yet,  surprising!  my  honoured  corres- 
pondent accuses  me  of  betraying  "  no  small  degree  of  chicanery'* 
-upon  the  article  of  merit! 

6.  He  attempts  to  "  split  the  hair,"  which  Mr.  Shirley  is  wise 
'jinough  not  to  attempt.     But  how  ?  Without  ceremony  he  cuts  off  the 


240  THIRD    CHECK 

middle  term  between  being  rewarded  according  to  our  works^  and  as 
our  works  deserve ;  he  throws  out  of  the  question  this  proposition, 
that  we  are  rewarded  because  of  our  works,  though  it  is  supported  by 
the  plainest  scriptures. 

7.  Notwithstanding  this  unwarrantable  liberty,  when  he  confidently 
soars  upon  the  wings  of  orthodoxy,  to  find  his  broad  passage  between 
'*  East  and  West,"  he  directly  falls  into  Mr.  W.'s  sentiments  about  the 
rewardableness  of  works  ;  and,  before  he  is  aware,  shakes  hands  with 
the  good  Papist  Scotus,  and  the  good  Protestant  Baxter. 

8.  The  last  proposition  which  he  attacks  is,  that  "  we  are  continu- 
ally pleasing  or  displeasing  to  God,  according  to  the  whole  of  our  in- 
ward and  outward  behaviour."  And  what  does  he  advance  against  it? 
Assertions  and  distinctions,  contradicted  by  the  general  tenor  of  the 
Bible. — Scriptures  detached  from  the  context,  and  set  at  variance 
with  the  clearest  declarations  of  God,  and  loudest  dictates  of  con- 
science : — And,  what  is  worse  than  all,  dangerous  enumerations  of  the 
good  that  falling  into  adultery,  murder,  perjury,  and  incest,  does  to 
them  that  love  God  ! 

And  now,  Sir,  let  the  Christian  world  judge,  whether  you  have 
been  able  to  fix  the  mark  of  error  upon  one  of  the  propositions  so 
loudly  decried  as  heretical;  and  whether  the  letters  you  have 
honoured  me  with,  do  not  expose  the  cause  which  you  have  attempted 
to  defend,  and  demonstrate  the  absolute  necessity  of  erecting  and 
defending  such  a  seasonable  rampart  as  the  Minutes,  to  check  the 
rapid  progress  of  Crisp's  Gospel. 

Permit  me,  honoured  Sir,  to  conclude  by  assuring  you,  that,  although 
I  have  thought  myself  obliged  publicly  to  show  the  mistakes  in  the 
five  letters  which  you  have  publicly  directed  to  me,  I  gladly  do  you 
the  justice  to  acknowledge,  that  your  principles  have  not  that  effect 
upon  your  conduct,  which  they  naturally  have  upon  the  conversation  of 
hundreds  who  are  consistent  Antinomians.    See  Second  Check,  p.  138. 

If  I  have  addressed  my  Three  Checks  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley 
and  yourself,  God  is  my  witness,  that  it  was  not  to  reflect  upon  two 
of  the  most  eminent  characters  in  the  circle  of  my  religious  acquaint- 
ance. Forcible  circumstances  have  overruled  my  inclination.  De- 
cipimur  specie  recti. — Thinking  to  attack  error,  you  have  attacked  the 
very  truth  which  Providence  calls  me  to  defend  :  and  the  attack  ap- 
pears to  me  so  much  the  more  dangerous,  as  your  laborious  zeal  and 
eminent  piety  are  more  worthy  of  public  regard,  than  the  boisterous 
rant  and  loose  insinuations  of  twenty  practical  Antinomians.  The 
tempter  is  not  so  great  a  novice  in  Antichristian  politics,  as  to  engage 
only  such  to  plead  for  doctrinal  Antinomianism.     This  would  soon 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  241 

spoil  the  trade.  It  is  his  masterpiece  of  wisdom  to  get  good  men  to 
do  him  that  eminent  service.  He  knows  that  their  good  lives  will 
make  way  for  their  bad  principles.  Nor  does  he  ever  deceive  with 
more  decency  and  success,  than  under  the  respectable  cloak  of  their 
genuine  piety. 

If  a  wicked  man  plead  for  sin,/cewwm  habet  in  cormu,  he  carries  the 
mark  on  his  forehead  :  we  stand  on  our  guard.    But  when  a  good  man 
gives  us  to  understand,  that  "  there  are  no  lengths  God's  people  may 
not  run,  nor  any  depths  they  may  not  fall  into,  without  losing  the  cha 
racter  of  men  after  God's  own  heart — that  many  will  praise  God  for 

our  denial  of  Christ — that  sin  and  corruption  work  for  good that  a 

fall  into  adultery  will  drive  us  nearer  to  Christ,  and  make  us  sin«- 
louder  to  the  praise  of  free  grace  ;" — when  he  quotes  Scripture  too 
in  order  to  support  these  assertions,  calling  them  the  pure  Gospel, 
and  representing  the  opposite  doctrine  as  the  Pelagian  heresy  worse 
than  Popery  itself;  he  casts  the  Antinomian  net  on  the  right  side  of  the 
ship,  and  is  likely  to  enclose  a  great  multitude  of  unwary  men  ; 
especially  if  some  of  the  best  hands  in  the  kingdom  drive  the  frighted 
shoal  into  the  net,  and  help  to  drag  it  on  shore. 

This  is  what  I  apprehend  you  have  done,  not  designedly,  but  think- 
ing to  do  God  service  :  and  this  is  what  every  good  man,  who  does  not 
look  at  the  Gospel  through  Crisp's  glass,  must  resolutely  oppose. 
Hence  the  steadiness  with  which  I  have  looked  in  the  face  a  man 
of  God,  whose  feet  I  should  be  glad  to  wash  at  any  time,  under  a 
lively  sense  of  my  great  inferiority. 

And  now,  as  if  1  were  admitted  to  show  you  that  humble  mark  of 
brotherly  love,  I  beg  you  would  not  consider  the  unceremonious 
plainness  of  a  Suisse  (mountaineer,)  as  the  sarcastic  insolence  of  aa 
incorrigible  Arminian. 

I  beseech  you  to  make  some  difference  between  the  wisdom  and 
poison  of  the  serpent.  If  charity  forbids  to  meddle  with  the  latter, 
does  not  Christ  recommend  the  former  ?  Is  every  mild,  well-meant 
irony,  a  bitter  and  cruel  sarcasm?  Should  we  directly  insinuate  that 
it  is  the  sign  of  "  a  bad  spirit,"  the  mark  of  murder  in  the  heart  ; 
and  that  he  who  uses  it  to  sharpen  the  truth,*  scatteTs  Jirchrands, 
arrows,  and  death?  To  say  nothing  of  Elijah  and  the  priests  of  Baal, 
did  our  Lord  want  either  deep  seriousness  or  ardent  love,  when  com- 

*  This  assertion  is  the  grand  argument  of  a  writer  in  the  Gospel  Magazine,  and  of  a 
charitable  gentleman  (a  Baptist  minister,  I  think,)  in  a  printed  letter  dated  Bath.  If  this 
method  of  arguing  is  Calvinislically  evangelical,  my  readers  will  easily  perceive  it  is  verv 
hr  from  being  either  legal  or  scripturally  logicat 


24^  THIRD    CHECK 

ing  more  than  conqueror  from  bis  third  conflict  in  Gethsemane,  he 
roused  his  nodding  disciples  by  this  compassionate  irony,  Sleep  on 
now,  and  take  your  rest  ?  Did  not  the  usefulness  of  a  loud  call,  a  de- 
served reproof,  a  seasonable  expostulation,  and  a  solemn  warning, 
meet  in  that  well-timed  figure  of  speech  ?  And  was  it  not  more 
effectual  than  the  two  awful  charges  which  he  had  given  them 
before  ? 

I  entreat  you  to  consider,  that  when  the  meanest  of  God's  Minis- 
ters has  truth  and  conscience  on  his  side,  without  being  either  ahu- 
sive  or  uncharitable ^  he  may  say,  even  to  one  whom  the  Lord  has  ex- 
alted to  the  royal  dignity.  Thou  art  the  man !  God  has  exalted  you, 
not  only  among  the  gentlemen  of  fortune  in  this  kingdom,  but  what 
is  an  intinitely  greater  blessing,  among  the  converted  men  who  are 
translated  into  the  kingdom  of  his  dear  Son.  Yet  by  a  mistake,  fashion- 
able among  religious  people,  you  have  unhappily  paid  more  regard 
to  Dr.  Crisp  than  to  St.  James.  And  as  you  have  pleaded  the  dan- 
gerous cause  of  the  impenitent  monarch,  I  have  addressed  you  with 
the  honest  boldness  of  the  expostulating  prophet.  I  have  said  to 
my  honoured  opponent.  Thou  art  the  man  !  With  a  commendable 
design  of  comforting  "  mourning  backsliders,  you  have  inadvertently 
given  occasion  to  the  enemies  of  the  Lord  to  blaspheme,  and  unscriptur- 
^^.lly  assured  believers,  that  falls  even  into  enormous  sins  shall  work 
for  their  good,  and  accomplish  God's  purposes  for  his  glory  and  their 
€alvation."  And  as  I  have  supported  my  expostulations  about  your 
doctrinal  mistakes  with  plain  Scripture,  which  amounts  to  a  Thus 
soith  the  Lord,  I  beseech  you  to  take  them  in  as  good  part,  as  King 
David  did  the  prophet's  reproofs  about  his  practical  miscarriages. 

I  owe  much  respect  to  you,  but  more  to  truth,  to  conscience,  and 
to  God.  If,  in  trying  to  discharge  my  duty  towards  them,  I  have 
inadvertently  betrayed  any  want  of  respect  for  you,  I  humbly  ask 
your  pardon  ;  and  I  can  assure  you  in  the  face  of  the  whole  world, 
that,  notwithstanding  your  strong  attachment  to  the  peculiarities  of 
Dr.  Crisp,  as  there  is  no  family  in  the  world  to  which  I  am  under 
greater  obligation  than  yours,  so  there  are  few  gentlemen  for  whom 
1  have  so  peculiar  an  esteem,  as  for  the  respectable  author  of  Pietas 
Oxoniensis.  And  till  we  come  where  no  mistake  will  raise  prejudice, 
and  no  prejudice  will  foment  opposition  to  any  part  of  the  truth  ; — 
till  we  meet  where  all  that /ear  God  and  work  righteousness,  however 
jarring  together  now,  will  join  in  an  eternal  chorus,  and  with  perfect 
harmony  ascribe  a  common  salvation  to  the  Lamb  that  was  slain :  I 
declare  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  the  name  of  Jesus,  that  no  oppo- 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  243 

aite  views  of  the  same  truths,  no  clashing  diversity  of  contrary  senti- 
ments, no  plausible  insinuations  of  narrow-heaVted  bigotry,  shall 
hinder  me  from  remaining  with  the  greatest  sincerity,  honoured  and 
dear  Sir,  your  most  obedient  and  obliged  servant  in  the  bonds  of  a 
practical  Gospel, 

J.  F. 

Madely,  Feb.  3,  1772. 


344  THIRD   CHECK 


POSTSCRIPT. 


.As  I  have  cleared  my  conscience  with  respect  to  Aniinomianism,  a 
subject  which  at  this  time  appears  to  me  of  the  last  importance ;  I 
should  be  glad  to  employ  my  leisure  hours  in  writing  on  subjects 
more  suitable  to  my  taste  and  private  edification  :  it  is  by  no  means 
my  design  to  obtrude  my  sentiments  upon  my  Calvinian,  any  more 
than  upon  my  Arminian  brethren.  I  sincerely  wish  peace  to  both 
upon  the  terms  of  mutual  forbearance^  Feniam  petirnus  que,  damns 
que  vicissim. — Should,  therefore,  a  fourth  publication  call  for  a  Fourth 
Check ;  if  I  can  accomplish  it,  it  shall  be  short.  I  shall  just  thank 
my  antagonist  for  his  deserved  reproofs,  or  point  out  his  capital  mis- 
takes, and  quote  the  pages  in  the  Three  Checks  where  his  objections 
are  already  answered.  But  if  his  performance  is  merely  Calvinisti- 
cal,  1  shall  take  the  liberty  of  referring  him  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Sellon's 
"imbecile  performance,"  which,  I  apprehend,  every  unprejudiced 
person,  who  has  courage  to  see  and  read  for  himself,  will  find  strong 
enough  to  refute  the  strongest  arguments  of  Elisha  Coles  and  the 
Synod  of  Dort. 

Before  I  lay  by  my  pen,  I  beg  leave  to  address,  a  moment,  the 
true  believers  who  espouse  Calvin's  sentiments.  Think  not,  ho- 
noured brethren,  that  I  have  no  eyes  to  see  the  eminent  services^ 
which  many  of  you  render  to  the  church  of  Christ ;  no  heart  to 
bless  God  for  the  Christian  graces  which  shine  in  your  exemplary 
conduct ;  no  pen  to  testify,  that  by  letting  your  light  shine  before  meUy 
you  adorn  the  Gospel  of  God  our  Saviour,  as  many  of  your  predeces- 
sors have  done  before  you.  I  am  not  only  persuaded  that  your  opi- 
nions are  consistent  with  a  genuine  conversion,  but  I  take  heaven  to 
witness,  how  much  I  prefer  a  Calvinist  who  loves  God,  to  a  Remon- 
strant who  does  not.  Yes,  although  I  value  Christ  infinitely  above 
Calvin,  and  St.  James  above  that  well-meaning  man  Dr.  Crisp,  I  had 
a  thousand  times  rather  be  doctrinally  mistaken  with  the  latter,  than 
practically  deluded  with  those  who  speak  well  of  St.  James's  perfect 
law  of  liberty,  and  yet  remain  lukewarm  Laodiceans  in  heart,  and 
perhaps  gross  Antinomians  in  conduct. 

This  I  observe,  to  do  your  piety  justice,  and  prevent  the  men  of 
this  world,  into  whose  haods  these  sheets  may  fall,  from  falsely  accu- 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  245 

sing  your  good  conversation  in  Christ;  and  confounding  you  with 
practical  Autinomians,  some  of  whose  dangerous  notions  you  inad- 
vertently countenance.  If  I  have,  therefore,  taken  the  Hberty  of 
exposing  your  favourite  mistakes,  do  me  the  justice  to  beheve  that 
it  was  not  to  pour  contempt  upon  your  respectable  persons,  but  to  set 
your  peculiarities  in  such  a  light,  as  might  either  engage  you  to  re- 
nounce them,  or  check  the  forwardness  with  which  some  have  lately 
recommended  them  as  the  only  doctrines  of  grace,  and  the  pure  Gos- 
pel of  Jesus  Christ  :  unkindly  representing  their  Remonstrant  bre- 
thren as  enemies  to  free  grace,  and  abettors  of  a  dreadful  heresy. 

If  you  think  that  I  have  exceeded,  in  my  Checks,  the  bounds  which 
brotherly  love  prescribes  to  a  controversial  writer  ;  permit  me  to 
remind  you  and  myself,  that  we  are  parties,  and  therefore  pecuharly 
liable  to  think  the  worst  of  each  other's  intentions  and  performances. 
By  our  respective  publications  we  have  appealed  to  the  serious 
world  ;  let  us  not  then  take  the  matter  out  of  their  hands  ;  and  while 
we  leave  to  our  merciful  God  the  judging  of  our  spirits,  let  us  leave 
our  serious  readers  to  judge  of  our  arguments,  and  pass  sentence 
upon  the  manner  in  which  they  are  proposed. 

And  you,  my  Remonstrant  brethren,  who  attentively  look  at  our 
controversial  engagement  ;  while  a  Geneva  Anti-Calvinist  solicits  an 
interpst  in  your  prayers  for  meekness  of  wisdom^  permit  him  to  offer 
you  some  reasonable  advices,  which  he  wants  to  inculcate  upon  his 
own  mind  also. 

1.  More  than  ever  let  us  confirm  our  love  towards  our  Calvinist 
brethren.  If  our  arguments  gall  them,  let  us  not  envenom  the  sore 
by  maliciously  triumphing  over  them.  Nothing  is  more  likely  to 
provoke  their  displeasure,  and  drive  them  from  what  we  believe  to 
be  the  truth.  If  we,  that  immediately  bear  the  burden  and  heat  of 
this  controversial  day,  are  obliged  to  cut ;  help  us  to  act  the  part  of 
frieadly  opponents,  by  directly  pouring  into  the  wound  the  healing 
balsam  of  brotherly  love  :  and  if  you  see  us  carried  beyond  the 
bounds  of  moderation,  instantly  admonish  us,  and  check  our  Checks. 
Your  whispers  will  go  farther  than  the  clamours  of  our  opponents. 
The  former,  we  know,  must  proceed  from  truth  :  but  we  are  apt  to 
suspect  that  the  latter  spring  from  partiality,  or  a  mere  stratagem  not 
uncommon  in  controversial  wars.  Witness  the  clamour  of  the  Jews, 
and  those  of  the  Ephesians,  when  the  one  saw  that  their  temple,  the 
other  that  great  Diana  was  in  danger. 

2.  Do  not  rejoice  in  the  mistakes  of  our  opponents,  but  in  the  de- 
tection of  error.  Desire  not  that  we,  but  that  triith  may  prevail, 
Let  us  not  only  be  willing  that  our  brethren  should  win  the  day,  if 

Vol.  I  32 


246  THIRD  CHECK 

they  have  truth  ou  their  side  ;  but  let  us  make  it  matter  of  solemQ 
anil  constant  prayer.  While  we  decry  confined,  shackled  grace,  ob- 
truded upon  us  as  free  grace ;  let  not  bigotry  confine  our  affections, 
and  shackle  our  hearts.  Nothing  would  be  more  absurd  than  to  fall 
into  Calvinian  narrowness  of  spirit,  while  we  oppose  Calvin's  narrow 
system.  If  we  admit  the  temper,  we  might  as  well  be  quite  consist- 
ent, and  at  once  embrace  the  doctrine.  The  best  method  of  recom- 
mending God's  universal  love  to  mankind,  is  to  love  all  men  univer- 
sally. If  absolute  reprobation  has  no  place  in  our  principles,  let  it 
have  none  in  our  affections.  If  we  believe  that  all  share  in  the  di- 
vine mercy,  let  all  be  interested  in  our  brotherly-kindness.  Should 
such  practical  demonstrations  of  universal  love,  second  our  scriptural 
arguments  for  it,  by  God's  blessing,  bigotry  would  soon  return  to 
Rome,  and  narrow  grace  fly  back  to  Geneva. 

3.  Let  us  strictly  observe  the  rules  of  decency  and  kindness,  taking 
care  not  to  treat,  upon  any  provocation,  any  of  our  opponents,  in  the 
same  manner  that  they  have  treated  Mr.  Wesley.  The  men  of  the 
world  hint  sometimes  that  he  is  a  Papist  and  a  Jesuit :  but  good, 
mistaken  men  have  gone  much  farther  in  the  present  controversy. 
They  have  published  to  the  world,  that  they  "  do  verily  believe  his 
principles  are  too  rotten  for  even  a  Papist  to  rest  upon  ; — that  it  may 
be  supposed,  Popery  is  about  the  midway  between  Protestantiem  and 
him. — That  he  wades  through  the  quagmires  of  Pelagianism,  deals  in 
inconsistencies,  manifest  contradictions,  and  strange  prevarications  : 
— That,  if  a  contrast  were  drawn  from  his  various  assertions  upon 
the  doctrine  of  sinless  perfection,  a  little  piece  might  extend  into  a 
folio  volume  : — and  that  they  are  more  than  ever  convinced  of  his 
prevaricating  disposition."  Not  satisfied  with  going  to  a  Benedictine 
Monk  in  Paris  for  help  against  his  dreadful  heresy,  they  have  wittilj 
extracted  an  argument  ad  hominem,  from  the  comfortable  dish  of  tea 
which  he  drinks  with  Mrs.  Wesley  :  and  to  complete  the  demonstra- 
tion of  their  respect  for  that  gray-headed,  laborious  minister  of 
Christ,  they  have  brought  him  upon  the  stage  of  the  controversy  in 
a  dress  of  their  own  contriving,  and  made  him  declare  to  the  world 
that  "  whenever  he  and  fifty-three  of  his  fellow-labourers  say  one 
thing,  they  mean  quite  another,^^  And  what  has  he  done  to  deserve  this 
usage  at  their  hands  ?  Which  of  them  has  he  treated  unjustly  or  un- 
kindly ?  Even  in  the  course  of  this  controversy,  has  he  injured  any 
man?  May  he  not  say  to  this  hour,  tu  pugnas :  ego  vapulo  tantum? 
Let  us  avoid  this  warmth,  my  brethren  ;  remembering  that  personal 
reflections  will  never  pass  for  convincing  arguments  with  the  judi- 
cious and  humane. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  247 

I  have  endeavoured  to  follow  this  advice  with  regard  to  Crisp  : 
nevertheless,  lest  you  should  rank  him  with  practical  Antinomians, 
I  once  more  gladly  profess  my  belief  that  he  was  a  good  man  ;  and 
desire  that  none  of  you  would  condemn  all  his  Sermons,  much  less 
his  character,  on  account  of  his  unguarded  Antinomian  propositions, 
refuted  by  Williams  and  Baxter,  some  of  which  I  have  taken  the 
liberty  to  produce  in  the  preceding  Checks.  As  there  are  a  few 
things  exceptionable  in  good  Bishop  Hopkins,  so  there  are  many 
things  admirable  in  Crisp's  works  :  and  as  the  glorious  truths  ad- 
vanced by  the  former,  should  not  make  you  receive  his  Calvinian 
mistakes  as  Gospel  ;  so  the  illegal  tenets  of  the  latter,  should  by  no 
means  make  you  reject  his  evangelical  sayings  as  Antinomianism. 
Prove^  therefore,  all  things^  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good,  though 
it  should  be  advanced  by  the  warmest  of  our  opponents  ;  but  what- 
ever unadvised  step  their  zeal  for  what  they  believe  to  be  the  truth 
makes  them  take,  "  Put  ye  on  {as  the  elect  of  God,  holy  and  beloved) 
bowels  of  mercieSy  kindness^  humbleness  of  mind,  long- suffering,  for- 
giving one  another,  if  any  man  hath  a  quarrel  against  any :  even  as 
Christ  forgave  you,  so  also  do  ye. 

4.  If  you  would  help  us  to  remove  the  prejudices  of  our  brethren, 
not  only  grant  with  a  good  grace,  but  strongly  insist  upon  the  great 
truths  for  which  they  make  so  noble  a  stand.  Steadily  assert  with 
them,  that  the  scraps  of  morality  and  formality,  by  which  Pharisees 
and  Deists  pretend  to  merit  the  divine  favour,  are  only  filthy  rags  in 
the  sight  of  a  holy  God  ;  and  that  no  righteousness  is  current  in 
heaven  but  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith.  If  they  have 
iet  their  heart  upon  calling  it  the  imputed  righteousness  of  Christy 
though  the  expression  is  not  strictly  scriptural,  let  it  pass  ;  but  give 
them  to  understand,  that  as  divine  imputation  of  righteousness  is  a 
most  glorious  *  reality,  so  human  imputation  is  a  most  delusive 
dream :  and  that  of  this  sort  is  undoubtedly  the  Calvinian  imputation 
of  righteousness  to  a  man  who  actually  defiles  his  neighbour's  bed, 

*  God's  imputation  of  righteousness  is  dXwzys  according  to  truth.  As  all  sinful  men 
actually j9oWaA;e  of  Adam's  sinful  nature,  by  the  defiling  seed  of  his  corruption,  before 
God  accounts  them  g'Mt7/;y  together  with  him;  so  all  righteous  men  partake  of  Christ's 
holy  nature  by  the  seed  of  divine  grace,  before  God  accounts  them  righteous  together 
with  fJhrist.  This  dictate  of  reason  is  confirmed  by  Scripture.  Abraham  was  fully  per- 
suaded ibat  what  God  had  promised  he  was  able  also  to  perform  ;  and  therefore  it  was  im- 
puted to  him  for  righteousness  ;  and  it  shall  be  imputed  to  vs,  if  we  believe  on  him  that 
raised  up  Jesvafrom  the  dead,  Rom.  iv.  21,  &c.  From  this  passage  it  is  evident  that 
faith,  which  unites  to  Christ  and  purifies  the  hearty  is  previous  to  God's  impufatiou  of 
righteousness,  although  not  to  Crisp's  imputation,  which  by  a  little  mistake  of  only  5  or 
6000  years,  he  dates  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  One  is  sadly  out,  either  the 
good  Doctor  or  the  great  Apostle 


248  THIRD    CHECK 

and  betrays  innocent  blood.  A  dangerous  contrivance  this  !  not  less 
subversive  of  common  heathenish  morahty,  than  of  St.  James's  pure 
and  undefiled  religion. 

Again,  our  Calvinist  brethren  excel  in  setting  forth  a  fart  of 
Christ's  priestly  ofiBce  ;  I  mean  the  immaculate  purity  of  his  most 
holy  life,  and  the  all-atoning  all-meritorious  sacrifice  of  his  bloody 
death.  Here  imitate,  and,  if  possible,  surpass  them.  Shout  a  ^nts/i- 
ed  atonement  louder  than  they.  Behold,  with  raptures  of  joy,  and  bid 
all  around  you  behold  with  transports  of  gratitude,  the  Lamh  of  God 
that  taketh  azvay  the  sin  of  the  world.  If  they  call  this  complete 
atonement  finished  salvation,  or  the  finished  work  of  Christ,  indulge 
them  still  ;  for  peace's  sake,  let  those  expressions  pass  :  neverthe- 
less, at  proper  times  give  them  to  understand,  that  it  is  absolutely  con- 
trary to  reason,  Scripture,  and  Christian  experience,  to  think  that  all 
Christ's  mediatorial  work  is  finished.  Insinuate,  you  should  be  very 
miserable  if  he  had  nothing  more  to  do  for  you  and  in  you.  Tell 
them,  as  they  can  bear  it,  that  he  works  daily  as  a  Prophet  to  en- 
lighten you,  as  a  Priest  to  make  intercession  for  you,  as  a  Ki7ig  to 
subdue  your  enemies,  as  a  Redeemer  to  deliver  you  out  of  all  your 
troubles,  and  as  a  Saviour  to  help  you  to  work  out  your  own  salva- 
tion ;  and  hint  that  in  all  these  respects  Christ's  work  is  no  more 
finished,  than  the  working  of  our  own  salvation  is  completed. 

The  judicious  will  understand  you  ;  as  for  bigots  on  all  sides,  you 
know,  they  are  proof  against  Scripture  and  good  sense.  Neverthe- 
less, mild  irony  sharply  pointing  a  scriptural  argument,  may  yet  pass 
between  the  joints  of  their  impenetrable  armour,  and  make  them  feel 
— either  some  shame,  or  some  weariness  of  contention.  But  this  is 
a  dangerous  method,  which  1  would  recommend  to  very  few.  None 
should  dip  his  pen  in  the  wine  of  irony,  till  he  has  dipped  it  in  the 
oil  of  love  ;  and  even  then  he  should  not  use  it  without  constant 
prayer,  and  as  much  caution  as  a  surgeon  uses  in  lancing  an  impos- 
thume.  If  he  go  too  deep,  he  does  mischief;  if  not  deep  enough, 
he  loses  his  time  ;  the  virulent  humour  is  not  discharged,  but  irritated 
by  the  skin-deep  operation.  And  who  is  sufficient  for  these  things? 
Gracious  God  of  wisdom  and  love !  if  thou  callest  us  to  this  difficult 
and  thankless  office,  let  ail  our  sufficiency  be  of  thee;  and  should  the 
operation  succeed,  thine,  and  thine  alone,  shall  be  all  the  glory. 

5.  And  yet,  brethren,  /  show  you  a  more  excellent  way  tbap  that  of 
mild  irony  sharpening  a  strong  argument.  If  love  be  the  fulfilling  of 
the  lavv,  love,  after  all,  must  be  the  destruction  of  Antinomianism. 
We  shall  do  but  little  good  by  exposing  the  doctrinal  Antinomianism 
of  Crisp's  admirers,  if  our  own  tempers  and  conduct  are  inconsistent 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  249 

with  our  profession  of  evangelical  legality.  When  our  antagonists 
cannot  shake  our  arguments,  they  will  upbraid  us  with  our  practice. 
Let  us  then  take  care  not  to  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness :  let  our 
moderation  and  evangelical  legality  appear  even  to  our  candid  oppo- 
nents :  so  shall  the  righteousness  of  the  law  be  fulfilled  in  us  that  believe 
the  Anti-Crispian  truth  ;  so  shall  our  faith  establish  the  law  of  ardent 
love  to  God  and  man  ;  and  wherever  that  law  is  established,  Antino- 
mianism  is  no  more.  And  if,  when  we  truly  love  our  antagonists, 
they  still  look  upon  our  opposition  to  their  errors  as  an  abuse  of  their 
persons,  and  call  our  exposing  their  mistakes  "  sneering  at  the 
truth  ;"  let  us  wrap  our  souls  in  the  mantle  of  that  love  which  is  not 
provoked ;  remembering,  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  Master,  nor  the 
servant  above  his  Lord. 

6.  Above  all,  while  we  expostulate  with  our  brethren  for  going  to 
one  extreme,  let  us  not  go  to  another.  Many  in  the  last  century  so 
preached  what  Christ  did  for  us  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  as  to  over- 
look what  he  does  in  us  in  the  days  of  his  Spirit.  The  Quakers  saw 
their  error  ;  but  while  they  exposed  it,  they  ran  into  the  opposite. 
They  so  extolled  Christ  living  in  us,  as  to  say  but  little  of  Christ 
dying  for  us.  Let  us,  my  brethren,  learn  wisdom  by  their  contrary 
mistakes.  While  some  run  full  east,  and  others  full  west,  keep  we 
under  the  bright  meridian  line  of  evangelical  truth,  at  an  equal  dis- 
tance from  their  dangerous  extremes.  By  cordial  faith  let  us  daily 
receive  the  atonement;  and  making  our  perpetual  boast  of  Christ  cru- 
cified, let  us  recommend  his  inestimable  merits  to  all  convinced  sin- 
ners, cheerfully  commending  our  souls  to  him  in  well-doing,  and 
growing  in  his  knowledge,  till  we  experience  that  he  is  all  and  in  all. 
So  shall  we  adorn  the  Gospel  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things ;  nor 
will  our  opponents  have  any  occasion  to  reprove  us  for  Pharisaic 
unbelief y  when  we  reprove  them  for  Antinomian  faith. 


OR, 

A  FOURTH  CHECK 

TO 

IN  WHICH 

SAINT  JAMES'' S  PURE  RELIGION 

IS 

DEFENDED  AGAINST  THE  CHARGES, 


ESTABLISHED  UPON  THE  CONCESSIONS, 


MR.  RICHARD  AND  MR.   ROWLAND  HILL. 


IN  A  SERIES  OF  LETTERS   TO  THOSE  GENTLEMEN. 


Br  JOEJ^  FLETCHEB,  A.  M. 

VICAR  OE  MADELEY. 


Reprove,  rebuke,  exhort,  with  all  long-suffering  and  [scriptural]  do&trine ;  for  the  time  will 
come  when  they  will  not  endure  sound  doctrine.  2  Tim.  ir.  2,  3. 

Wherefore  rehvke  thtm  sharply,  that  they  77i»v  be  soimd  m  the  faith.    But  let  brotherly  lov* 
continue.  '  Tit.i.  i9.    Hei.xm.X. 


TO  ALL 
CA^BIB  CALVIJ^ISTS 

IN   THE 


Hon.  and  dear  Brethren, 

A  STUDENT  from  Geneva,  who  has  had  the  honour  of  being 
admitted  a  Minister  of  your  Church,  takes  the  Hberty  of  dedicating 
to  you  these  Strictures  on  Geneva  Logic,  which  were  written  both 
for  the  better  information  of  your  candid  judgment,  and  to  obtain 
k>lerable  terms  of  peace  from  his  worthy  opponents. 

Some,  who  mistake  blunt  truth  for  sneering  insolence,  and  mild 
ironies  for  bitter  sarcasms,  will  probably  dissuade  you  from  looking 
into  this  fourth  check  to  antinomianism.  They  will  tell  you  that 
•'  Logica  Genevensis  is  a  very  bad  book,"  full  of  "  calumny,  forgeries^ 
vile  slanders,  acrimonious  sneers,  and  horrid  misrepresentations.''^  But 
candour,  which  condemns  no  one  before  he  is  heard,  which  weighs 
both  sides  of  the  question  in  an  impartial  balance,  will  soon  convince 
you,  that  if  ever  irony  proceeds  from  spleen  and  acrimony  of  spirit, 
there  is  as  much  of  both  in  these  four  words  of  my  honoured  oppo- 
nent, Pietas  Oxoniensis  and  Goliah  slain*  as  in  all  the  Four  Checks : 
and  that  I  have  not  exceeded  the  apostolic  direction  of  my  motto, 
rebuke  them  sharply,  or  rather  ct7rolof4.ai,  cuttingly,  but  let  brotherly 
love  continue. 

I  do  not  deny  that  some  points  of  doctrine,  which  many  hold  in 
great  veneration,  excite  pity  or  laughter  in  my  Checks.  But  how 
can  I  help  it  ?  If  a  painter,  who  knows  not  how  to  flatter,  draws  to 
the  life  an  object  excessively  ridiculous  in  itself,  must  it  not  appear 

*  The  ironical  titles  of  two  books  written  by  ray  Opponent  to  expose  the  proceed- 
ings of  the  University  of  Ojiford  respecting  the  expulsion  of  six  Students  belonging-  to 
Edmund-Hall. 

Vol.  I.  33 


264  AN   ADDRESS 

excessively  ridiculous  in  his  picture  ?  Is  it  ri^ht  to  exclaim  against 
his  pencil  as  malicious,  and  his  colours  as  unfair,  because  he  impar- 
tially uses  them  according  to  the  rules  of  his  art  ■  And  can  any 
unprejudiced  person  expect  that  he  should  draw  the  picture  of  the 
night,  without  using  any  black  shades  at  all  ? 

If  the  charge  of  "  bitterness''  do  not  entirely  set  you  against  this 
book,  they  will  try  to  frighten  you  from  reading  it,  by  protesting,  that 
I  throw  down  the  foundation  of  Christianity,  and  help  Mr.  Wesley  to 
place  works  and  merit  on  the  Redeemer's  throne.  To  this  dreadful 
charge  I  answer,  1.  That  I  had  raiher  my  right  hand  should  lose  its 
cunning  to  all  eternity,  than  use  it  a  moment  to  detract  from  the 
Saviours  real  glory,  to  whom  I  am  more  indebted  than  any  other 
man  in  the  vvorld  :  2.  That  the  strongest  pleas  I  produce  for  holiness 
and  good  works,  are  quotations  from  the  homilies  of  our  own  church, 
as  well  as  from  the  Puritan  divines,  whom  I  cite  preferably  to  others., 
because  they  held  what  you  are  taught  to  call  the  doctrines  of  grace  : 
3.  That  what  I  have  said  of  those  doctrines  recommends  itself  to 
every  unprejudiced  person's  reason  and  conscience  :  4.  That  my 
capital  arguments  in  favour  of  practical  Christianity,  are  founded  upon 
our  second  justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  the  great  day  ; 
a  doctrine,  which  my  opponent  himself  cannot  help  assenting  to: 

5.  That  from  first  to  last,  when  the  meritorious  cause  of  our  justifica- 
tion is  considered,  we  set  works  aside  ;  praying  God  "  not  to  enter 
into  judgment  with  us,"  or  "  weigh  our  merits,  but  to  pardon  our 
offences"  for  Christ's  sake  ;  and  gladly  ascribing  the  whole  of  our 
salvation  to  his   alone  merits,  as  much  as  Calvin  or  Dr.  Crisp  does  : 

6.  That  when  the  word  meriting,  deserving,  or  worthy,  which  our 
Lord  himself  uses  again  and  again,  is  applied  to  good  works  or  good 
men,  we  mean  absolutely  nothing  but  rewardable,  or  qualified  for  the 
reception  of  a  gracious  reward.  And  7.  That  even  this  improper 
merit  or  rewardableness  of  good  works,  is  entirely  derived  from 
Christ's  proper  merit,  who  works  what  is  good  in  us  ;  and  from 
the  gracious  promise  of  God,  who  has  freely  engaged  himself  to 
recompense  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  which  his  own  grace  enable? 
us  to  produce. 

I  hope,  honoured  brethren,  that  these  hints  will  so  far  break  the 
waves  of  prejudice  which  beat  against  your  candour,  as  to  prt-vail 
npou  you  not  to  reject  this  little  mean  of  information.  If  you  con- 
descend to  peruse  it,  I  trust  it  wiil  minister  to  your  edification,  by 
enlarging  your  views  of  Christ's  prophetic  and  kingly  office  ;  by 
heightening  your  ideas  of  that  practical  religion,  which  the  Scrip 
tures  perpetually  enforce  ;  by  lessening  your  regard  for  some  wel^ 


TO  CANDID  CALVINISTS'  256 

meant  mistakes,  on  which  good  men  have  too  hastily  put  thp  stamp  of 
orthodoxy  ;  and  by  giving  you  a  more  favourable  opinion  of  the'  senti 
ments  of  your  Remonstrant  brethren,  who  would  rejoice  to  Hve  at 
peace  with  you  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  and  walk  in  love  with  you 
to  the  kingdom  of  glory.  But,  whether  you  consent  to  give  them  the 
right  hand  of  fellowship  or  not,  nobody,  1  think,  can  be  more  glad  to 
•ffentto  you,  than  he,  who  with  undissembled  respect,  remains 

Honoured  and  dear  Brethren, 

Your  affectionate  Brother,  and 

obedient  Servant  in  Christ, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 


CONTENTS. 


LETTER  I. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Introduction.  The  doctrine  of  justification  by  works  in  the  last  day,  is  truly  scrip- 
tural. It  is  essentially  diflferent  from  justification  by  faith  in  the  day  of  conversion.  Mr. 
Hill  fully  grants,  and  yet  warmly  opposes  such  a  justification. 

LETTER  II. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Justification  by  the  evidence  of  works,  and  St.  James's  undefiled  religion,  are  established 
upon  the  authority  of  the  liturgy,  articles,  and  homilies  of  the  Church  of  England 

LETTER  III. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

The  sober  Puritan  divines  directly  or  indirectly  maintain  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by 
works  in  th«  great  day,  which  Dr.  Owen  himself,  and  numbers  of  other  Calvinist  minis* 
ters,  do  not  scruple  calling  "  an  evangelical  justification  by  our  own  personal  obe- 
dience." 

LETTER  IV. 

TO  RICH  A  RD  HILL,  ESQ, 

Flavel,  and  many  other  Puritan  authors,  were  offended  at  Crisp's  doctrine.  An  important 
extract  from  Flavel's  Treatise  upon  Antinomianism. 

LETTER  V. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes,  and  St.  James's  pure  religion,  established  on  Mr.  Hill's  im- 
portant concession,  that  "  we  shall  be  justified  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  that  great 
day." 

LETTER  VI. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

If  we  shall  be  justified  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  the  last  day,  there  is  an  end  of  Crisp's 
finished  salvation,  and  Calvin's  imputed  righteoasHCSS :  those  two  main  pillars  of  Aatino- 
mianism  and  Calrmism  are  fairly  brokeft. 


258  CONTENTS. 

LETTER  Vn. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Hill's  arguments  in  defence  of  Dr.  Crisp's  finished  salvation,  are  answered. 

LETTER  VUL 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Mr.  Hill  is  mistaken  when  he  says,  "  we  have  Scripture  authority  to  call  good  worke 
dung,  dross,  and  filthy  rags." 

LETTER  IX. 

An  answer  to  Mr.  Rowland  Hill's  arguments  against  justification  by  works  in  the  day  of 
Judgment,  closed  by  some  strictures  upon  the  friendliness  of  his  friendly  remarks. 

LETTER  X. 

An  answer  to  Mr.  Richard  and  Mr.  Rowland  Hill's  remarks  upon  the  Third  Check,  in 
which  the  Scriptural  doctrine  of  Justification  in  its  several  branches  is  vindicated  from 
their  witticisms,  and  Mr.  Hill  cut  off  from  some  of  his  subterfuges. 

LETTER  XI. 

The  doctrine  of  a  believer's  justification  by  works,  is  reconciled  with  the  doctrine  of  a 
sinner's  justification  by  grace  ;  and  it  is  proved,  that  Calvinism  makes  way  for  barefaced 
Antinomianism,  absolutely  destroys  the  law  of  Christ,  and  casts  his  royal  crown  to  the 
^ound. 

LETTER  XII. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

In  which  the  autlior  shows  how  far  the  Calvinists  and  the  Remonstrants  agree,  wherein 
they  disagree,  and  what  makes  the  latter  dissent  from  the  former,  concerning  the  famous 
doctrine  of  imputed  righteousness. 

LETTER  XIIL 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Containing  a  view  of  the  present  state  of  the  controversy,  especially  with  regard  to  Free- 
will, and  a  Conclusion,  descriptive  of  the  loving,  apostolic  method  of  carrying  on  con- 
troversy;— expressive  of  brotherly  love  and  respect  for  all  pious  Calvinists; — and  de- 
clarative of  a  desire  to  live  with  them  upon  peaceable  and  friendly  terms. 

POSTSCRIPT. 

Containing  an  account  of  the  reasons,  which  engage  us  to  make  at  last  a  firm  stand  against 
our  pious  opponents ;  and  of  the  hope  we  entertain,  that  in  so  doing  our  labour  will  nof 
be  vain  in  the  Lord. 


LOGICA  GENEVENSIS : 

OR, 

A  TouxtU  Clieck  to  ^ntinomlanism. 

-^^^^,^iKj- — 

LETTER  I. 

TO    RICHARD    HILL,    ESQ. 

Hon.  and  Dear  Sir, 

IfxY  entering  the  field  of  controversy  to  defend  5"^  Jameses  pure 
religion,  procured  me  your  five  letters,  which  I  compare  to  a  shower 
of  rain  gently  descending  from  the  placid  heaven.  But  the  six 
which  have  followed,  resemble  a  storm  of  hail,  pouring  down 
from  the  lowering  sky,  ushered  by  some  harmless  flashes  of  lightning, 
and  accompanied  by  the  rumbling  of  distant  thunder.  If  my  com- 
parison is  just,  it  is  no  wonder  that  when  I  read  them  first,  I  was 
almost  thunderstruck,  and  began  to  fear,  lest  instead  of  adding  light, 
I  had  only  added  heat^  to  the  hasty  zeal  which  1  endeavoured  to 
check. 

But  at  the  second  perusal,  my  drooping  hopes  revive  :  the  dis- 
burdened douds  begin  to  break  :  the  air,  discharged  of  the  exhala- 
tions which  rendered  it  sultry  or  hazy,  seems  cooler  or  clearer  than 
before  ;  and  the  smiling  plains  of  evangelical  truth,  viewed  through 
that  defecated  medium,  appear  more  gay  after  the  unexpected  storm. 
Methinks  even  moderation,  the  phoenix  donsumed  by  our  polemic 
fires,  is  going  to  rise  out  of  its  ashes  :  and  that,  notwithstanding  the 
din  of  a  controversial  war,  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is  still  heard  in 
our  land. 

May  the  gentle  sound  approach  nearer  and  nearer,  and  tune  our 
listening  hearts  to  the  melodious  accents  of  divine  and  brotherly 


260  FOURTH  CHECK 

love !  And  thou,  Prince  of  Peace,  thou  true  Solomon,  thou  pacific 
Son  of  warlike  Da?id  ;  should  an  evil  spirit  come  upon  me,  as  it  did 
upon  Saul,  to  make  me  dip  my  pen  in  the  envenomed  gall  of  discord, 
or  turn  it  into  a  javelin  to  strike  my  dear  opponent  through  and 
through ;  mercifully  bow  the  heavens,  gently  touch  the  strings  of 
my  heart,  and  play  upon  them  the  melting  tune  of  forgiving  love ! 
Teach  me  to  check  the  rapid  growth  of  Antinomian  errors,  without 
hindering  the  slow  progress  of  thy  precious  truth  ;  and  graciously 
instruct  me  how  to  defend  an  insulted,  venerable  father,  without 
hurting  an  honoured,  though  alas !  prepossessed  brother.  If  the 
latter  has  offended,  suffer  me  not  to  fall  upon  him  with  the  whip  of 
merciless  revenge ;  and  if  I  must  use  the  rod  of  reproof,  teach  me 
to  weigh  every  stroke  in  the  balance  of  the  sanctuary  with  tender 
fear,  and  yet  with  honest  impartiality. 

Should  I,  in  this  encounter,  gracious  Lord,  overcome  b^  thy  •wis- 
dom my  worthy  antagonist,  help  me  by  thy  meekness  to  give  him  an 
example  of  Christian  moderation  ;  and  while  I  tie  him  with  the  cords 
of  a  man  and  a  believer,  while  I  bind  him  with  reason  and  Scripture 
to  the  left  wheel  of  thy  Gospel  chariot,  which  alas  !  he  mistakes  for 
a  wheel  of  Antichrist's  carriage  ;  let  me  rejoice  to  be  tied  by  him 
with  the  same  easy  bonds  to  the  right  wheel,  which  he,  without 
reason,  fears  I  am  determined  to  stop.  And  when  we  are  thus 
mutually  bound  to  thy  triumphant  car,  draw  us  with  double  swiftness 
to  the  happy  regions,  where  the  good,  as  well  as  the  wicked^  cease 
from  troubling^  and  those  who  are  weary  of  contention  are  at  rest. 
So  shall  we  leave  for  ever  behind  the  deep  and  noisy  waters  of  strife, 
in  which  so  many  bigots  miserably  perish ;  and  the  barren  mountains 
of  Gilboa,  where  hurried  Saul  falls  upon  the  point  of  his  own  con- 
troversial sword,  and  lovely  Jonathan  himself  receives  a  mortal 
wound. 

You  remember,  honoured  Sir,  that  I  opened  the  Second  Check  to 
Antinomianism,  by  demonstrating,  that  in  the  day  of  judgment  we 
shall  be  justified  by  works,  i.  e.  by  the  evidence  of  works.  A  person 
of  your  penetration  could  not  but  see,  that  if  this  legal  proposition 
stood,  your  favourite  doctrines  oi finished  salvation,  and  Calvinian 
imputation  of  righteousness  to  an  impenitent  adulterer,  would  lose 
their  exorbitant  influence.  You  design,  therefore,  to  bend  yourself 
with  Sampson's  might,  upon  this  adamantine  pillar  of  our  heretical 
doctrine.  Let  us  see  whether  your  redoubled  efforts  have  shaken  it, 
or  only  shown  that  it  stands  as  firm  as  the  pillars  of  heaven. 

You  enter  upon  the  arduous  labour  of  deciding,  in  your  first  para- 
i^raph,  that  1  deal  in  "  Sneer,  banter,  sarcasm,  notorious  falsehood. 


to  ANTINOMIANISM.  261 

calumny,  and  gross  perversions  ;"  and  to  confirm  this  charge,  you  pro- 
duce three  anonymous  letters,  one  of  which  deposes,  that  what  I  have 
written  upon  finished  salvation  "  is  enough  to  make  every  child 
of  God  shudder :"  while  another  pronounces,  that  my  '*  book  is 
full  of  groundless  and  false  arguments  :"  and  the  third,  that  I  am 
*'  infatuated,"  and  have  *'  advanced  pernicious  doctrines  in  bitter 
expressions."  Your  initial  charge,  supported  by  this  threefold 
authority,  will  probably  pass  for  a  demonstration  with  some  of  your 
readers  ;  but  as  I  consider  it  only  as  a  faint  imitation  of  Calvin's 
book,  called  Responsio  ad  calumnias  JVebulonis^  I  hasten  to  what  looks 
a  little  like  an  argument. 

Page  4,  you  say,  concerning  justification  by  works,  i.  e.  by  the 
evidence  of  works  in  the  last  day,  *'  I  may  safely  affirm  that  it  has  no 
existence  in  the  word  of  God."  So,  honoured  Sir,  the  plainest  and 
fullest  passages  of  the  sacred  oracles  are,  it  seems,  to  flee  like  chaff 
before  your  safe  affirmation;  for  you  have  not  supported  it  by  one 
single  text.  Near  twenty  have  I  produced,  which  declare  with  one 
consent,  that  we  shall  be  judged,  not  according  to  our  faith,  but 
according  to  our  works ;  and  that  the  doers  of  the  law,  and  they 
alone,  shall  be  justified  in  the  last  day  ;  but  in  your  "/m//  and  par- 
ticular answer  to  my  book/'  you  take  a  full  and  easy  leap  over  most 
of  these  texts.  Two,  however,  you  touch  upon  ;  let  us  see  if  you 
have  been  able  to  press  them  into  the  service  of  your  doctrine. 

1.  You  find  fault  with  our  translation  of  Rev.  xxii.  14.  Blessed 
are  they  that  do  his  commandments,  that  they  may  have  right  to  the  tree 
of  life.  You  say,  that  the  word  which  is  rendered  right,  properly 
signifies  privilege.  Granting  it,  for  peace's  sake,  1  ask,  What  do  you 
get  by  this  criticism?  Absolutely  nothing:  for  the  word  privilege 
proves  my  point  as  well  as  the  word  right ;  unless  you  can  demon- 
strate that  it  makes  a  material  difference  in  the  sense  of  the  following 
similar  sentence.  Blessed  was  the  son  of  Aaron,  whom  Moses 
anointed  high-priest,  that  he  might  have  the  right,  (or,  that  he  might 
have  the  privilege,)  of  entering  once  a  year  into  the  holy  of  holies. 
If  those  different  expressioas  convey  the  same  idea,  your  objection  is 
frivolous,  and  Rev.  xxii.  14.  even  according  to  yo^r  own  translation, 
still  evidently  confirms  the  words  of  our  Lord  and  his  favourite  disci- 
ple. If  thou  wilt  enter  into  life,  keep  the  commandments  : — And  this  is 
his  commandment,  that  c£'e  should  believe  on  the  name  of  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ,  and  love  one  another. 

2.  The  other  text  you  touch  upon  is  Matt.  xii.  36,  37.  In  the  day  of 
judgment,  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified.  Page  10,  you  thus 
comment  upon  it.     "  Our  Lord  points  out  the  danger  of  vain  and  idle 

Vol.  L  34 


^62  FOURTH  CHECK 

^ords  ;  and  affirms,  that  as  every  tree  is  known  by  its  fruit,  so  may^ 
the  true  state  of  the  heart  be  known  by  the  evil  or  good  things  which 
proceed  out  of  the  mouth;"  and  having  laid  down  this  rule  of  judg- 
7nent,  he  adds,  the  words  which  you  have  so  often  cited  in  defence  of 
your  doctrine,  By  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  &c.  i.  e.  As  words 
and  works  are  the  streams  which  flow  from  the  spring  of  the  heart, 
so  by  these  it  will  appear  whether  that  spring  was  ever''  (I  would  say 
with  more  propriety,  is  now)  "  purified  by  grace  ;  or  whether  it  still 
remains  in  its  natural  corrupt  state,  the  actions  of  a  man  being  the 
declarative  evidences,  both  here  and  at  the  great  day,  whether  or  no 
he  was''  (I  would  say,  he  is)  "  among  the  trees  of  righteousness 
which  the  Lord  hath  planted :  this  is  the  plain  easy  sense  of  this 
passage." 

Is  it  indeed,  honoured  Sir  ?  Well  then,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  in- 
forming you,  that  supposing  you  allow  of  my  little  alterations,  we  are 
exactly  of  the  same  sentiment ;  and  I  think  that,  upon  second  thoughts, 
you  will  not  reject  them  :  for  it  is  evident,  the  actions  of  to-day  show 
what  a  free-agent  is  to-day,  and  not  what  he  was  yesterday,  or  will 
be  six  months  hence.  By  what  argument  will  you  prove,  that  because 
Lucifer  was  once  a  bright  angel,  and  Adam  a  godlike  creature,  they 
continued  such  under  all  the  horrors  of  their  rebellion  ?  Or  that 
David's  repentance  after  Nathan's  expostulation,  evidenced  that  he 
was  a  penitent  before  ?  In  the  last  day  the  grand  inquiry  will  not  be, 
whether  Hymeneus,  Philetus,  and  Demas,  "  were  ever  purified  by 
grace  ;"  but  whether  they  were  so  at  death.  Because  our  last  works 
will  be  admitted  as  the  last,  and  consequently  the  most  important  and 
decisive  evidences,  for  as  the  tree  falls  so  it  lies.  Apostates,  far 
from  being  justified  for  having  been  once  "  purified  by  grace  ;"  will 
be  counted  worthy  of  a  sorer  punishment  for  having  turned  from  the 
way  of  righteousness.  Would  not  the  world  hiss  a  physician,  who 
should  publicly  maintain,  that  by  feeling  a  person's  pulse  now,  he  can 
tell  whether  he  was  ever  sick  or  well  ?  Or,  that  because  one  of  his 
patients  was  alive  ten  years  ago,  he  is  alive  now,  though  every 
symptom  of  death  and  corruption  is  actually  upon  him?  And  shall 
your  hint,  honoured  Sir,  persuade  your  readers,  that  what  would  be 
an  imposition  upon  common  sense  in  a  gentleman  of  the  faculty,  is 
genuine  orthodoxy  in  Mr.  Hill  ? 

But  1  have  too  high  an  opinion  of  your  good  sense  and  piety,  dear 
Sir,  to  think  that  you  will  persist  in  your  inaccuracy,  merely  for  the 
pleasure  of  maintaining  the  ridiculous  perseverance  of  Antinomian 
apostates,  and  contradicting  the  God  of  truth,  who  expressly  mentions 
the  righteous  turning  from  his  righteousness  ^  and  dying  in  the  sin  that  he 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  263 

hath  sinned.  My  hopes  that  you  will  give  it  up  are  the  more  sanguine, 
as  it  is  rectified  in  the  same  page,  by  two  quotations,  which  have  the 
full  stamp  of  your  approbation. 

*'  The  judicious  Dr.  Guise,'*  say  you,  "  paraphrases  thus  on  the 
place  :  '  Your  words,  as  well  as  actions,  shall  be  produced  in  evidence 
for  or  against  you,  to  prove  (not  whether  you  ever  were,  but)  '  whether 
you  are  a  saint  or  a  sinner,  a  true  believer  or  not ;  and,  according  to 
their  evidence,  you  shall  be  either  publicly  acquitted  or  condemned  in 
that  great  day,' "  And  as  it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  Christ  shall  inquire 
whether  men  are  believers  in  the  day  of  judgment,  because  faith  will 
then  be  lost  in  sight ;  Mr.  Wesley,  whom  you  quote  next,  as  if  he  con- 
tradicted me,  wisely  corrects  the  little  inaccuracy  of  the  Doctor,  and 
says,  "  Your  words  as  wellas  actions  shall  be  produced  in  evidence 
for  or  against  you,  to  prove  (not  whether  you  are,  but)  whether  you 
were  a  true  believer  or  not,  and  according  to  their  evidence  you  will 
either  be  acquitted  or  condemned  in  the  great  day."  The  very  doc- 
trine this  which  I  have  advanced  at  large  in  the  Second  Check 

However,  triumphing  as  if  you  had  won  the  day,  you  conclude  by 
saying,  "  In  the  mouth  of  these  two  witnesses  may  the  truth  be 
firmly  established."  To  this  pious  wish,  honoured  Sir,  my  soul 
breathes  out  a  cordial  amen !  I  rejoice  to  see  that  God  has  given  you 
candour  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the  truth  :  and  as  it  is  firmly  esta- 
blished in  the  mouth  of  Dr.  Guise  and  Mr.  Wesley,  may  it  be  for 
ever  confirmed  by  this  spontaneous  testimony  of  Mr.  Hill :  but  in 
the  name  of  brotherly  love,  if  you  thus  hold  the  truth  which  I 
contend  for,  i.  e.  Justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  the  last 
day,  why  do  you  oppose  me  ?  Why  do  you  represent  my  sentiment 
*'  as  full  of  rottenness  and  deadly  poison?"  Till  you  solve  this  prob- 
lem, permit  me  to  vent  my  surprise  by  a  sigh,  and  to  say,  Logica 
Genevenm ! 

Having  seen  how  fully  and  particularly  you  have  granted  the  fun- 
damental doctrine  of  the  book,  to  which  you  were  to  give  a  full  and 
particular  answer,  namely,  that  our  final  justification  will  turn  upon 
the  evidence  of  works  in  the  last  day  ;  I  go  back  to  page  4,  where, 
to  my  utter  astonishment  you  affirm,  "  that  as  this  doctrine  has  no 
existence  in  the  word  of  God,  so  neither  in  any  Protestant  church 
under  heaven  I"  Thus  to  unchurch  Mr.  Wesley  and  me,  you  un- 
church Dr.  Guise  and  yourself! 

T  o  support  your  assertion  you  quote  Bishop  Cowper,  Dr.  Fulke, 
and  Mr.  Hervey,  who  agree  to  maintain,  that  "justification  is  one 
single  act,  and  must  therefore  be  done  or  undone."  As  neither  you 
nor  they  have  supported  this  jproposition  by  one  single  argument,  I 


264  FOURTH  CHECK 

shall  just  observe,  that  a  thousand  Bishops  and  Doctors  are  lighter 
than  vanity,  when  weighed  in  the  balance  against  the  authority  of 
Christ  and  his  apostles. 

However,  if  you  forget  your  proofs,  I  shall  produce  mine ;  and  by 
the  following  syllogism  I  demonstrate,  that  justification  in  the  day  of 
our  conversion,  and  justification  in  the  last  day,  are  no  more  one  single 
act,  than  the  day  of  the  sinner's  conversion  and  that  of  judgment  are 
one  single  day. 

Two  acts,  which  differ  as  to  time,  place,  persons,  witnesses,  and 
circumstances,  &c.  cannot  be  one  single  act ;  (the  one  may  be  done, 
when  the  other  remains  undone.)  But  our  first  justification  at  con- 
version, thus  differs  from  our  second  justification  in  the  great  day. 
Therefore  our  first  and  *  second  justification  cannot  be  one  single 
act,  &;c. 

The  second  proposition,  which  alone  is  disputable,  may  be  thus 
abundantly  proved.  Our  first  and  second  justification  differ,  1.  With 
respect  to  time  :  the  time  of  the  one  is  the  hour  of  conversion  ;  and 
the  time  of  the  other  the  day  of  judgment.  2.  With  respect  to 
•place  :  the  place  of  the  former  is  this  earth  ;  and  the  place  of  the 
latter  the  awful  spot,  where  the  tribunal  of  Christ  shall  be  erected. 
3.  With  respect  to  the  witnesses :  the  witnesses  of  the  former  are  the 
Spirit  of  God  and  our  own  conscience ;  or,  to  speak  in  Scripture 
language,  The  Spirit  bearing  witness  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the 
children  of  God  :  but  the  witnesses  of  the  latter  will  be  the  countless 
myriads  of  men  and  angels  assembled  before  Christ.  4.  With  re- 
spect to  the  Justifier:  in  the  former  justification,  one  God  justifies  the 
circumcision  and  uncircumcision ;  and  in  the  latter,  one  Mediator 
between  God  and  man,  even  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  will  pronounce  the 
sentence  ;  for,  the  Father  judgeth  no  man,  but  has  committed  all  judg- 
ment to  the  Son.  5.  With  respect  to  the  justified  :  in  the  day  of  con- 
version, a  penitent  sinner  is  justified  :  in  the  day  of  judgment,  a  perse- 
vering saint.  6.  With  respect  to  the  article  upon  which  justification 
will  turn  :  although  the  meritorious  cause  of  both  our  justifications  is 
the  same,  that  is,  the  blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ,  yet  the  in- 
strumental cause  is  very  different,  by  faith  we  obtain  (not  purchase) 
ihe  first,  and  by  works  the  second.  7.  With  respect  to  the  act  of  the 
Justifier  :  at  our  conversion,  God  covers  and  pardons  our  sins  ;  but 
in  the  day  of  judgment,  Christ  uncovers  and  approves  our  right- 
eousness.    And  lastly,  With  regard  to  the  consequences  of  both  :  at  the 

*  I  still  call  them  Jirst  and  second,  not  only  to  accommodate  myself  to  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Shirley's  expression  in  his  narrative  ;  but  because  they  may  with  propriety  be  thus  distin- 
guished, when  c6nsidered  with  respect  to  each  other. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  2&B 

first  justification,  we  are  enlisted  by  the  Friend  of  sinners  io  fight  the 
goodjight  of  faith  in  the  church  oaiUtant ;  and  at  the  second,  we  are 
admitted  by  the  righteous  Judge  to  receive  a  crown  of  righteousness, 
and  shine  like  the  sun  in  the  church  triumphant. 

Is  it  not  strange,  that  the  enchanting  power  of  Calvinian  logic 
should  have  detained  us  so  long  in  Babel,  where  things  so  vastly  dif- 
ferent are  perpetually  confounded  ?  Is  it  not  deplorable,  that  when 
Mr.  Wesley  has  the  courage  to  call  us  out  of  mystic  Geneva,  so  many 
tongues  and  pens  should  be  sharpened  against  him  ?  Shall  foreign 
logic  for  ever  prevail  over  English  good  sense,  and  Christian  brotherly 
kindness  ?  Have  we  so  "  leaned  towards  Calvinism,"  as  to  be  totally 
past  recovery  ?  And  is  the  balance  between  St.  Paul's  and  St.  James's 
justification  lost  among  pious  Protestants  for  ever  ?  O  ye  regenerate 
Britons,  who  have  unhappily  fallen  in  love  with  the  Geneva  Delilah, 
awake!  awake!  put  on  strength,  and  leap  out  of  the  arms  of  that 
enchantress.  If  she  rock  you  asleep  in  her  bosom,  it  is  only  to  bind 
you  fast  with  cords  of  Antinomian  practices.  Has  she  not  already 
cut  off  the  locks,  and  put  out  the  eyes  of  thousands  ?  And  does  not 
Sampson  publicly  grind  for  the  Philistines  ?  Have  we  not  seen  Mr. 
Hill  himself  tell  the  world,  that  all  sins  work  for  good  to  the  pleasant 
children,  who  go  on  frowardly  from  adultery  to  treachery,  and  from 
treachery  to  murder  ? 

But  you  have  an  answer  ready.  Page  6,  you  insinuate,  that  it  is  I, 
who  have  erected  a  Babel,  by  denying  that  the  two  above-described 
justifications  are  one  and  the  same.  And  to  prove  it,  you  advance  a 
dilemma  which  is  already  obviated  in  the  Third  Check,  p.  200.  We 
readily  grant  you,  honoured  Sir,  that  if  a  man  die  the  moment  he  is 
justified  by  faith,  the  inward  labour  of  his  love,  (for  living  faith 
always  works  by  love)  will  justify  him  in  the  day  of  judgment.  But 
you  must  also  grant  us,  that  if  he  live,  and  turn  from  his  righteous- 
ness; or,  which  is  the  same,  if  his  faith,  instead  of  working  by  love 
and  obedience,  works  by  lust  and  malice,  by  adultery  and  murder,  it 
is  no  longer  a  living  faith  ;  it  is  the  dead  faith,  of  which  St.  James 
says,  What  does  it  profit,  though  a  man  say  he  hath  faith,  and  have  not 
works?  Can  that  faith  save  him?  Faith,  if  it  hath  not  works,  is 
dead.''' — You  see  then,  how  that,  in  what  you  call  "  (he  intermediate 
state,"  as  well  as  in  the  last  day,  hy  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not 
by  faith  only,  James  ii. 

Page  6,  you  assert,  that  my  "  favourite  scheme  is  rather  over- 
thrown than  supported  by  the  instance  of  the  ColUer,"  on  whose 
evidence  I  supposed  myself  acquitted  in  a  court  of  judicature.  "  His 
testimony,"  say  you,  "proves  indeed  your  innocence,  but  it  does  in 


266  FOURTH   CHECK 

no  degree  constitute  that  innocence."  Are  then  to  justify  a  ma»,  and 
to  constitute  him  innocent^  expressions  of  the  same  import?  Nay, 
seme  believe,  that  when  God  justifies  returning  prodigals  at  their 
conversion,  he  does  not  constitute  them  infiocent,  but  for  Christ's 
sake  mercifully  pardons  their  manifold  sins,  and  graciously  accepts 
their  guilty  persons  ;  and  that  when  Christ  shall  justify  persevering 
saints  in  the  last  day,  he  will  not  constitute  them  innocent,  but  only 
declare,  upon  the  evidence  of  their  last  works,  that  they  are  pure  in 
heart,  and  therefore  qualified  to  see  God,  and  worthy  to  obtain  that 
H'orld,  where  the  children  of  the  resurrection  are  equal  to  angels. 

To  show  that  the  instance  of  the  grafted  tree  overthrows  also  the 
doctrine  of  a  two-fold  justification,  yon  quote  that  great  and  good  man 
Mr.  Hervey.  But  you  forget  that  his  bare  assertion  is  no  better  thaa 
your  own.  I  appeal  from  both  your  assertions  to  the  common  sense 
of  any  impartial  man,  whether  there  is  not  a  material  difference 
between  declaring  that  a  crab-stock  is  properly  grafted;  and  pro- 
nouncing that  an  apple-tree  is  not  cankered  and  barren,  but  sound  and 
fruitful.  Mr.  Harvey's  mistake  appears  to  me  so  much  the  more 
surprising,  as  the  distinction  which  he  explodes,  is  every  where 
obvious. 

Look  into  your  orchards,  and  you  will  see  sooEie  trees  that  were 
once  properly  grafted,  but  are  now  blasted,  dead,  rotten,  and  perhaps 
torn  up  by  the  roots.  Consider  our  congregations,  and  you  will  cry 
«ut,  as  the  pious  *  divine  under  whose  ministry  you  sit  at  present. 
"  O  what  sad  instances  does  the  present  state  of  the  church  afford  us 
of  persons,  who  set  out  with  a  most  vehement  zeal  at  the  beginning, 
seemed  to  promise  great  things,  and  carry  all  before  them  ;  who  are 
now  like  the  snuff  of  an  extinguished  taper,  devoid  of  any  apparent 
life ! — We  swarm  with  slumbering  virgins  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left.  The  Delilah  of  this  world  has  shorn  their  locks,  their 
former  strength  is  gone,  their  frame  is  totally  enervated,  and  the 
Philistines  are  upon  them." 

But  above  all,  search  the  Oracles  of  God,  and  there  you  will  see 
various  descriptions  of  apostates,  that  is,  of  men  who,  to  the  last, 
tread  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  account  the  blood  of  the  covenant, 
'wherewith  they  were  sanctified,  and  consequently  justified,  a  common, 
despicable  thing.  These,  in  a  dying  hour,  have  no  right  to  say,  I  have 
kept  the  faith ;  for  alas  !  by  putting  away  a  good  conscience,  concerning 

*  The  Rev.  Mr.  De  Courcy,  in  his  "  Delineation  of  true  and  false  zeal,"  a  little  edifying 
•tract,  which  does  justice  to  St.  James's  pure  religion,  and  shows,  that  some  pious  Calvinists 
clearly  see  the  growth,  and  honestly  cheek  the  progress  of  Antinooiianisra,  so  far  as  their 
principles  will  allow. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  367 

faith  they  have  made  shipwreck.  These,  like  withered  branches  of  the 
heavenly  vine,  in  which  they  once  blossomed,  shall  be  taken  army, 
cast  forth,  and  burned,  in  the  last  day,  together  with  the  chaf,  for  not 
bearing  fruit,  and  ending  in  the  flesh :  agreeable  lo  that  awful  clause 
of  the  Gospel  charter  :  The  works  of  the  flesh  are  adultery,  fornica- 
tion, uncleanness,  idolatry,  hatred,  variance,  wrath,  strife,  envying, 
murder,  drunkenness,  revellings,  and  such  like :  of  which  I  tell  you, 
[justified  believers,]  as  I  have  told  you  in  time  past,  that  they  who  do 
such  things  shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Thus,  the 
numerous  tribe  of  apostates,  after  having  been  justified  by  faith  in 
the  day  of  their  conversion,  shall  be  condemned  by  works  in  the  day 
of  judgment.  So  real,  so  important  is  the  distinction,  which  Mr. 
Hervey  looks  upon  as  needless,  and  you,  Sir,  as  "  full  of  deadly 
poison !" 

However,  says  Bishop  Cowper,  *'  This  distinction  confounds  two 
benefits,  justification  and  sanctification."  To  this  assertion,  which, 
according  to  a  grand  rule  of  your  logic,  is  also  to  pass  for  proof,  I 
answer,  that  our  sanctification  will  no  more  be  confounded  with  our 
justification  in  the  last  day,  than  our  faith  is  confounded  with  our 
acceptance  in  the  day  of  our  conversion.  When  you  shall  demon- 
strate that  the  witnesses,  upon  whose  testimony  a  criminal  is  absolved, 
are  the  same  thing  as  the  sentence  of  absolution  pronounced  by  the 
judge,  you  will  be  able  to  make  it  appear,  that  sanctification  is  the 
same  thing  as  justification  in  the  last  day  ;  or  which  is  all  one,  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  an  instrumental  cause,  and  its  proper 
effect. — May  both  our  hearts  lie  open  to  the  bright  beams  of  con- 
vincing truth  !  And  may  you  believe,  that  my  pen  expresses  the  feel- 
ings of  my  heart,  when  I  subscribe  myself,  honoured  and  dear  Sir^ 
your  most  obedient  servant  in  Him,  who  will  justify  us  by  our 
words, 

JOHN  FLETCHER 


268  FOURTH  CHECK 


LETTER  II. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESq, 

Honoured  and  dear  Sir, 

xxN  assertion  of  yours  seems  to  me  of  greater  moment,  than  the 
quotation  from  Bishop  Cowper,  which  I  answered  in  my  last.  You 
maintain  (p.  11.)  "  that  the  doctrine  of  a  two-fold  justification  is  not 
to  be  found  in  any  part  of  the  Liturgy  of  our  Church." 

I.  Not  to  mention  again  the  latter  part  of  St.  Athanasius's  Creed  ; 
permit  me,  Sir,  to  ask  you,  if,  on  the  13th  and  14th  Sundays  after 
Trinity,  you  never  considered  what  is  implied  in  these  and  the  like 
petitions  ?  "  Grant  that  we  may  so  faithfully  serve  thee  in  this  life, 
that  we  fail  not  finally  to  attain  thy  heavenly  promises,  through  the 
merits  of  Jesus  Christ.  Make  us  to  love  that  which  thou  dost  com- 
mand^ that  we  may  obtain  that  which  thou  dost  promised  Again,  on 
St.  Peter's  day,  "  Make  all  pastors  diligently  to  preach  thy  holy 
word,  and  the  people  obediently  to  follow  the  same,  that  they  may  re- 
ceive the  crown  of  everlasting  glory  through  Jesus  Christ."  And  on 
the  third  Sunday  in  Advent,  *'  Grant  that  thy  ministers  may  so  pre- 
pare thy  way,  by  turning  the  hearts  of  the  disobedient,  that  at  thy 
second  conning  to  judge  the  worldy  we  may  be  found  an  acceptable  peo- 
ple in  thy  sight." 

St.  James's  justification  by  works,  consequent  upon  justification  by 
faith,  is  described  in  the  service  for  Ash- Wednesday  :  '' If  from 
henceforth  we  walk  in  his  ways  ;  if  we  follow  him  in  lowliness,  pa- 
tience, and  charity,  and  be  ordered  by  the  governance  of  his  Holy 
Spirit,  seeking  always  his  glory,  and  serving  him  duly  with  thanks- 
giving :" — Then  comes  the  description  of  our  final  justification, 
which  is  but  a  solemn  and  public  confirmation  of  St.  James's  justifi- 
cation by  works. — "  This  if  we  do,  Christ  will  deliver  us  from  the 
curse  of  the  law,  and  from  the  extreme  malediction  which  light 
upon  them  that  shall  be  set  on  the  left  hand  ;  and  he  will  set  us  on  hi? 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  269 

right  hand,  and  give  us  the  gracious  benediction  of  his  Father  com- 
manding us  to  take  possession  of  his  glorious  kingdom."  Commination. 

I  flatter  myself,  honoured  Sir,  that  you  will  not  set  these  quota- 
tions aside,  by  just  saying  what  you  do  on  another  occasion  ;  *'  As  to 
the  quotation  you  have  brought  from  Mr.  Henry  in  defence  of  this 
doctrine,  for  any  good  it  does  your  cause,  it  might  as  well  have  been 
urged  in  defence  of  extreme  unction."  I  hope  you  will  not  ob- 
ject, that  the  words,  second  justification  by  works,  are  not  in  our  Li- 
turgy ;  for  if  the  thing  be  evidently  there,  what  can  a  candid  in- 
quirer after  truth  require  more  ?  Should  you  have  recourse  to  such 
an  argument,  you  will  permit  me  to  ask  you  what  you  would  say  to 
those  who  assert  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is  not  found  in  the 
Scripture,  because  the  word  Trinity  is  not  read  there  ?  And  the 
same  answers  which  you  would  give  to  such  opponents,  I  now  before- 
hand return  to  yourself. 

II.  As  final  justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  is  clearly  as- 
serted in  our  Liturgy,  so  it  is  indirectly  maintained  in  our  Articles. 
You  know,  honoured  Sir,  that  the  eleventh  treats  of  Justification  by 
faith  at  our  conversion  ;  and  you  yourself  very  justly  observe,  (p. 
11.)  *'  That  our  Reformers  seemed  to  have  had  an  eye  to  the  words 
of  our  Lord, — The  tree  is  known  (i.  e.  is  evidenced,)  by  its  fruits, 
when  they  drew  up  our  twelfth  Article,  which  asserts,  that  a  lively 
faith  may  be  as  evidently  known  by  good  works,  as  a  tree  discerned 
by  its  fruit."  This,  honoured  Sir,  is  the  very  basis  of  Mr.  Wesley's 
*'  rotten"  doctrine  :  the  very  foundation  on  which  St.  James  builds 
his  pure  and  undefiled  religion.  This  being  granted,  it  necessarily 
follows,  to  the  overthrow  of  your  favourite  scheme,  that  a  living, 
justifying  faith,  may  degenerate  into  a  dead,  condemning  faith,  as 
surely  as  David's  faith,  once  productive  of  the  fruits  of  righteous- 
ness, degenerated  into  a  faith  productive  of  adultery  and  murder. 

You  are  aware  of  the  advantage  that  the  twelfth  Article  gives  us 
over  you  ;  therefore,  to  obviate  it,  you  insinuate  in  your  five  letters 
that  David's  faith,  when  he  committed  adultery,  was  the  same  as 
when  he  danced  before  the  ark.  It  was  justifying  faith  still,  only 
*'  in  a  winter  season."  This  argument,  which  will  pass  for  a  demon- 
stration in  Geneva,  will  appear  an  evasion  in  England,  if  our  readers 
consider,  that  it  is  founded  merely  upon  the  Calvinian  custom  of 
forcing  rational  comparisons  to  go  upon  all-four  like  brutes,  and  then 
driving  them  far  beyond  the  intention  of  those  by  whom  they  were 
first  produced.  We  know  that  a  tree  on  the  banks  of  the  Severn 
may  be  good  in  winter,  though  it  bear  no  good  fruit ;  because  no 
trees  bear  among  us  any  fruit,  good  or  bad.  in  January.  But  this 
Vol.  I.  .35 


::i70  FOURTH  CHECK 

cannot  be  the  case  either  of  believers  or  unbelievers;  they  bear 
fruit  all  the  year  round  ;  unless  you  can  prove,  that  like  men  in  an 
apoplectic  fit,  they  neither  think,  speak,  nor  act  "  in  a  winter  sea- 
son."    Again, 

Believers  who  commit  adultery  and  robbery  are  not  good  trees, 
even  in  a  negative  sense  ;  for  they  positively  bear  fruit  of  the  most 
poisonous  nature.  How  then  can  either  their  graces  or  persons  be  evi- 
denced, good  trees,  by  such  bad  fruit,  such  detestable  evidence  ? 
While  you  put  your  logic  to  the  rack  for  an  answer,  I  shall  take 
the  liberty  tt)  encounter  you  a  moment  with  your  own  weapons,  and 
making  the  degraded  comparison  of  our  twelfth  Article  walk  upon 
all-four  against  you,  I  promise  you,  that,  if  you  can  show  me  an 
apple-tree  which  bears  poisonous  crabs  in  summer,  much  more  one 
that  bears  them  "  in  a  winter  season,"  I  will  turn  Antinomian,  and 
believe  that  an  impenitent  murderer  has  justifying  faith,  and  is  com- 
plete in  Christ's  righteousness. 

III.  Having  thus,  I  hope,  rescued  our  twelfth  Article  from  the  vio- 
lence which  your  scheme  offers  to  its  holy  meaning,  I  presume  to 
ask,  Why  do  you  not  mention  the  Homilies,  when  you  say  that  the 
doctrine  of  a  twofold  justification  is  not  found  in  any  of  the  Offices 
and  Liturgy  of  our  Church  ?  Is  it  because  you  never  consulted  them 
upon  the  subject  of  our  controversy  ?  To  save  you  the  trouble  of 
turning  them  over,  and  to  undeceive  those  who  are  frighted  from  the 
pure  doctrine  of  their  own  church  by  the  late  cries  of  Arminianism ! 
Pelagianism!  and  Popery!  I  shall  present  you  with  the  following 
extracts  from  our  Homilies,  which  will  show  you  they  are  not  less 
opposite  to  Antinomianism  than  our  Liturgy  and  Articles. 

•'  The  first  coming  unto  God  is  through  faith,  whereby  we  are 
justified  before  God;  And,  lest  any  man  should  be  deceived,  it  is 
diligently  to  be  noted,  that  there  is  one  faith,  which  in  Scripture  is 
called  a  dead  faith,  which  bringeth  forth  no  good  works,  but  is  idle, 
barren,  and  unfruitful.  And  this  faith,  by  the  holy  apostle  St.  James 
is  compared  to  the  faith  of  devils.  And  such  faith  have  the  wicked, 
naughty  Christian  people,  who,  as  St.  Paul  saith,  confess  God  with 
their  mouth,  but  deny  him  in  their  deeds. — Forasmuch  as  faith  with- 
out  works  is  dead,  it  is  not  nozv  faith,  as  a  dead  man  is  not  a  man. 
The  true,  lively  Christian  faith  liveth  and  stirreth  inwardly  in  the 
heart.  It  is  not  without  the  love  of  God  and  our  neighbour,  nor 
without  the  desire  to  hear  God's  word,  and  follow  the  same,  in  es- 
chewing evil,  and  doing  gladly  all  good  works. — Of  this  faith  this  is 
first  to  be  noted,  that  it  does  not  lie  dead  in  the  heart,  but  is  lively 
and  fruitful  in  bringing   forth  good  works.     As  the  light  cannot  be 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  271 

hid,  so  a  true  faith  cannot  be  kept  secret,  but  shows  itself  by  good 
works  :  and  as  the  living  body  of  a  man  ever  exerciseth  such  things 
as  belong  to  a  living  body  ;  so  the  soul  that  has  a  lively  faith  in  it, 
will  be  doing  alway  sonrie  good  work,  which  shall  declare  that  it  is 
living.  For  he  is  like  a  tree  set  by  the  water-side,  his  leaf  will 
be  green,  and  he  will  not  cease  to  bring  forth  his  fruit."  Horn,  of 
Faith,  first  part.  Here  is  an  Antinomian  salvo;  no  "  winter  state" 
allowed  of,  to  bring  forth  the  dire  fruits  of  adultery  and  murder. 

"  There  is  one  work  in  which  are  all  good  works,  that  is,  faith 
which  worketh  by  charity.  If  you  have  it,  you  have  the  ground  of  all 
good  works  ;  for  wisdom,  temperance,  and  justice,  are  all  referred 
unto  this  faith :  without  it  we  have  not  virtues,  but  only  their  names 
and  shadows.  Many  have  no  fruit  of  their  works,  because  faith,  the 
chief  work,  lacketh.  Our  faith  in  Christ  must  go  before,  and  after  be 
nourished  by  good  works.  The  thief  did  believe  only,  and  the  most 
merciful  God  justified  him.  If  he  had  lived,  and  not  regarded  the 
'works  of  faith,  (N.  B.)  he  should  have  lost  his  salvation  again."  Horn. 
on  Good  Works,  first  part. 

"  The  third  thing  to  be  declared  unto  you  is,  what  manner  of  works 
they  are  which  spring  out  of  true  faith,  and  lead  faithful  men  to  ever- 
lasting life.  This  cannot  be  known  so  well  as  by  our  Saviour  himself, 
who  being  asked  of  a  certain  great  man  this  question.  What  works  shall 
I  do  to  come  to  everlasting  life?  Answered  him,  If  thou  wilt  come  to 
everlasting  life,-  keep  the  commandments :  thou  shalt  not  kill,  thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery,  &c.  By  which  words  Christ  declared,  that  the 
laws  of  God  are  the  very  way  which  leads  to  everlasting  life.  So  that 
this  is  to  be  taken  for  a  most  true  lesson,  taught  by  Christ's  own  mouthy 
that  the  works  of  the  moral  commandments  of  God  are  the  very  true 
works  of  faith,  which  lead  to  the  life  to  come.  But  the  blindness 
and  malice  of  men  hath  ever  been  ready  to  fall  from  God  and  his  law, 
and  to  invent  a  new  way  to  salvation  by  works  of  their  own  device. 
Therefore  Christ  said,  You  leave  the  commandments  of  God  to  keep 
your  own  traditions.  You  must  have  an  assured  faith  in  God,  love 
him,  and  dread  him  evermore  :  then  for  his  sake  love  all  men,  friends 
and  foes,  because  they  are  his  creation  and  image,  and  redeemed  by 
Christ  as  ye  are.  Kill  not ;  commit  no  manner  of  adultery,  in  will 
nor  in  deed,  &c.  Thus  in  keeping  the  commandments  of  God 
[wherein  standeth  his  pure  honour,  and  which,  wrought  in  faith,  he 
hath  ordained  to  be  the  right  trade  and  pathway  to  heaven]  you 
shall  not  fail  to  come  to  everlasting  life."  Horn,  on  Good  Works, 
third  part. 


272  FOURTH    CHECK 

"  Whereas  God  hath  showed  to  all  that  truly  believe  his  Gospel,  his 
face  of  mercy  in  Jesus  Christ,  which  does  so  enlighten  their  hearts, 
that,  if  they  behold  it  as  they  ought,  they  are  transformed  to  his 
image,  and  made  partakers  of  the  heavenly  light  and  of  his  Holy 
Spirit :  so,  if  they  after  do  neglect  the  same,  and  order  not  their  life 
according  to  his  example  and  doctrine,  he  will  take  away  from  them 
his  kingdom,  because  they  bring  not  forth  the  fruit  thereof. — And  if 
this  will  not  serve,  but  still  we  remain  disobedient,  behaving  our- 
selves uncharitably,  by  disdain,  envy,  malice,  or  by  committing  mur- 
der, adultery,  or  such  detestable  works  ;  then  he  threateneth  us  by 
terrible  comminations,  swearing  in  great  anger,  that  whosoever  does 
these  works  shall  never  enter  into  his  rest,  which  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."     Horn,  of  falling  from  God,  first  part. 

<♦  We  do  call  for  mercy  in  vain,  if  we  will  not  show  mercy  to  our 
neighbour.  For  if  we  do  not  put  wraih  and  displeasure  forth  out  of 
our  hearts  to  our  brother,  no  more  will  God  forgive  the  wrath  that  our 
sins  have  deserved  before  him.  For  under  this  condition  doth  God  for- 
give us,  if  we  forgive  others.  God  commands  us  to  forgive,  if  we 
will  have  any  part  of  the  pardon  which  Christ  purchased  by  shedding 
his  precious  blood.  Let  us,  then,  be  favourable  one  to  another,  &c. 
By  these  means  shall  we  move  God  to  be  merciful  to  our  sins.  He 
that  hateth  his  brother  *  is  the  child  of  damnation  and  of  the  devil, 
cursed  and  hated  of  God,  so  long  as  he  so  remaineth.  For  as  peace 
and  charity  make  us  the  blessed  children  of  God,  so  do  hatred  and 
malice  make  us  the  cursed  children  of  the  devil."  Horn,  for  Good 
Friday. 

The  Homily  on  dress  brings  to  my  mind  what  you  say,  p.  85,  upon 
that  head.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  you  quote  Mr.  Hervey  in  sup- 
port t  of  finery,  which  surprises  me  so  much  the  more,  as  the  plain- 
ness of  your  dress  is  a  practical  answer  to  what  can  be  advanced  in 
support  of  that  branch  of  Antinomianism.  Permit  me,  however,  to 
o-uard  your  ornamented  quotation  in  the  plain,  nervous  language  of 
our  church.     After  mentioning  the  round  attires  of  the  head,  exposed 

*  Did  not  David  once  hate  Uriah,  as  much  as  Jezebel  did  Naboth  ?  Was  not  innocent 
blood  shed  in  both  cases,  by  means  of  sanguinary  letters  ?  Is  it  to  the  honour  of  David, 
that  he  out-did  Jezebel  in  kindly  desiring  Uriah  to  carry  his  own  death-warrant  to  Joab  ? 

1 1  blame,  in  the  Second  Check,  only  such  professors  of  godliness  as  "  wear  gold,  pearl, 
and  precious  stones,  when  no  distinction  of  office  or  state  obliges  them  to  do  it."  As  you 
find  fault  with  this  guarded  doctrine,  and  insinuate  that  I  "  dwindle  the  noble  ideas  of  St. 
Paul  into  a  meanness  of  sense  befitting  the  superstitious  and  contracted  spirit  of  a  hermit;" 
»t  necessaiily  follows  that  you  plead  for  finery,  or  that  you  oppose  me  for  opposition's  ?ake. 
vhen  you  mean  exactly  the  same  thing  with  me. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  273 

by  Isaiah,  she  says :  "  No  less  truly  is  the  vanity  used  among  us. 
For  the  proud  and  haughty  stomachs  of  the  daughters  of  England  are 
so  maintained  with  divers  disguised  sorts  of  costly  apparel,  that,  as 
TertuUian  saith,  there  is  left  no  difference  of  apparel  between  an 
honest  matron  and  a  common  strumpet.  Yea,  many  care  not  what 
they  spend  in  disguising  themselves,  ever  desiring  new  toys,  and 
inventing  new  fashions.  Therefore  we  must  needs  look  for  God's 
fearful  vengeance  from  heaven,  to  overthrow  our  pride,  as  he  over- 
threw Herod,  who,  in  his  royal  apparel,  forgetting  God,  was  smitten 
of  an  angel,  and  eaten  up  of  worms." 

"  But  some  vain  women  will  object,  All  which  we  do,  in  decking 
ourselves  with  gay  apparel,  is  to  please  our  husbands.  O  most 
shameful  answer,  to  the  reproach  of  thy  husband !  What  couldest 
thou  say  more  to  set  out  his  foolishness,  than  to  charge  him  to  be 
.pleased  with  the  devil's  attire  ?  Nay,  nay,  this  is  but  a  vain  excuse 
of  such  as  go  about  to  please  (themselves  and)  others,  rather  than 
their  husbands. — She  does  but  deserve  scorn,  to  set  out  all  her  com- 
mendation in  Jewish  and  Heathenish  apparel,  and  yet  brag  of  her 
Christianity ;  and  sometimes  she  is  the  cause  of  much  deceit  in  her 
husband's  dealings,  that  she  may  be  the  more  gorgeously  set  out  to 
the  sight  of  the  vain  world.  O  thou  woman,  not  a  Christian,  but 
worse  than  a  Pagan,  thou  settest  out  thy  pride,  and  makest  of  thy 
indecent  apparel  the  devil's  net  to  catch  souls.  Howsoever  thou  per- 
fumest  thyself,  yet  cannot  thy  beastliness  be  hidden.  The  more  thou 
garnishest  thyself  with  these  outward  blazings,  the  less  thou  carest 
for  the  inward  garnishing  of  thy  mind.  Hear,  hear  what  Christ's 
holy  apostles  do  write."  Then  follow  those  passages  of  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul,  which  you  suppose  "  I  do  not  rightly  understand." 

To  covince  you,  however,  that  our  church  has  as  much  of  '*  the 
superstitious  and  contracted  spirit  of  a  hermit"  as  myself,  I  shall  plead 
a  moment  more  against  finery  in  her  own  words  :  *'  The  wife  of  a 
heathen  being  asked  why  she  wore  no  gold  ?  She  answered,  that  she 
thought  her  husband's  virtues  suflScient  ornaments.  How  much  more 
ought  every  Christian  to  think  himself  sufl5ciently  garnished  with  our 
Saviour  Christ's  heavenly  virtues !  But  perhaps  some  will  answer, 
that  they  must  do  something  to  show  their  birth  and  blood  :  as  though 
these  things  {jewels  and  finery)  were  not  common  to  those  who 
are  most  vile :  as  though  thy  husband's  riches  could  not  be  better 
bestowed  than  in  such  superfluities  :  as  though,  when  thou  wast 
christened,  thou  didst  not  renounce  the  pride  of  this  world,  and  the 
pomp  of  the  flesh.  If  thou  sayest,  that  the  custom  is  to  be  followed, 
1  ask  of  thee,  Whose  custom  should  be  followed  ?   Of  the  wise,  or 


274  FOURTH    CHECK 

of  fools  ?  If  thou  sayest,  of  the  wise  ;  then  I  say,  follow  them  ;  for 
fools'  customs,  who  should  follow  but  fools  ?  If  any  lewd  custom  be 
used,  be  thou  the  first  to  break  it :  labour  to  diminish  it,  and  lay  it 
down,  and  thou  shalt  have  more  praise  before  God  by  it,  than  by  all 
the  glory  of  such  superfluity.  I  speak  not  against  convenient  ap- 
parel, for  every  state  agreeable ;  but  against  the  superfluity,  whereby 
thou  and  thy  husband  are  compelled  to  rob  the  poor,  to  maintain  thy 
costliness.  Hear  how  holy  queen  Esther  setteth  out  these  goodly 
ornaments,  as  they  are  called,  when,  in  order  to  save  God's  people, 
she  put  them  on  :  *  Thou  knowest,  O  Lord,  the  necessity  which  I  am 
driven  to,  to  put  on  this  apparel,  and  that  I  abhor  this  sign  of  pride, 
and  that  1  defy  it  as  a  filthy  cloth.'  "    Horn,  against  excess  of  apparel. 

So  fir  is  our  Church  from  siding  with  Antinomian  Solifidianism 
which  perpetually  decries  good  works,  that  she  rather  leans  to  the 
other  extreme.  If  "  Popery  be  about  half-way  between  Protestantism 
and  the  Minutes,"  you  will  hardly  think  that  the  mass  itself  is  a  quar- 
ter of  the  way  between  Dr.  Crisp's  scheme,  and  the  following 
propositions  extracted  from  the  Hotidly  on  Alms-Deeds. 

"  Most  true  is  that  saying  of  St.  Augustin,  Fia  coeli  pauper  est,  re- 
lieving of  the  poor  is  the  right  way  to  heaven.  Christ  promiseth  a 
reward  to  those  who  give  but  a  cup  of  cold  water  in  his  name  to  them 
that  have  need  of  it ;  and  that  reward  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  No 
doubt  therefore  God  regardeth  highly,  that  which  he  rewardeth  so 
liberally.  He  that  hath  been  liberal  to  the  poor,  let  him  know  that  his 
godly  doings  are  accepted,  and  thankfully  taken  at  God's  hands,  which 
he  will  requite  with  double  and  treble  ;  for  so  says  the  wise  man : 
He  re:ho  showeth  mercy  to  the  poor,  doth  lay  his  money  in  bank  to  the  Lord 
for  a  large  interest  and  gain  ;  the  gain  being  chiefly  the  possession  of 
the  life  everlasting  through  the  merits  of  Christ." 

When  our  Church  has  given  us  this  strong  dose  of  legality,  that 
she  may  by  a  desperate  remedy  remove  a  desperate  disease,  and  kill 
or  cure  the  Antinomian  spirit  in  ail  her  children  ;  lest  the  violent 
medicine  should  hurt  us,  she,  like  a  prudent  mother,  instantly  admi- 
nisters the  following  balsamic  corrective. 

"  Some  will  say,  If  charitable  works  are  able  to  reconcile  us  to 
God,  and  deliver  us  from  damnation,  then  are  Christ's  merits  defaced  ; 
then  are  we  justified  by  works,  and  by  our  deeds  may  we  merit  hea- 
ven. But  understand,  dearly  beloved,  that  no  godly  men,  when  they, 
in  extolling  the  dignity,  profit,  and  e0*ect  of  virtuous  and  liberal  alms, 
do  say  that  it  bringeth  us  to  the  favour  of  God,  do  mean  that  our 
work  is  the  original  cause  of  our  acceptance  before  God,  &c.  for  that 
were  indeed  to  deface  Christ,  and  to-defraud  him  of  his  glory.     But 


TO   ANTIN0MIANI3M.  275 

they  mean,  that  the  Spirit  of  God  mightily  working  in  them,  who 
seemed  before  children  of  wrath,  they  declare  by  theiroutward  deeds, 
that  they  are  the  undoubted  children  of  God.—By  their  tender  pity, 
(wherein  they  show  themselves  to  be  like  unto  God)  they  declare 
openly  and  manifestly  unto  the  sight  of  all  men,  that  they  are  the  sons 
of  God.  For  as  the  good  fruit  does  argue  the  goodness  of  the  tree, 
so  doth  the  good  deed  of  a  man  prove  the  goodness  of  him  that  doeth 
it." 

In  justice  to  our  holy  Church,  whom  some  represent  as  a  patroness 
of  Antinomianism  ;  in  brotherly  love  to  you,  honoured  Sir,  who  seem 
to  judge  of  her  doctrines  by  a  few  expressions  which  custom  made 
her  use  after  St.  Augustin  ;  in  tender  compassion  to  many  of  her 
members  who  are  strangers  to  her  true  sentiments;  and  in  common 
humanity  to  Mr.  Wesley,  who  is  perpetually  accused  of  erecting 
Popery  upon  her  ru,ins  ;  I  have  presented  you  with  this  extract  from 
our  homilies.  If  you  lay  by  the  veil  of  prejudice,  which  keeps  the 
light  from  your  hi>nest  heart,  I  humbly  hope  it  will  convince  you, 
that  our  Church  nobly  contends  for  St.  James's  evangelical  legality  : 
that  she  pleads  for  the  renvardableness  (which  is  all  we  understand  by 
the  merit)  of  works,  in  far  stronger  terms  than  Mr.  Wesley  does  in 
the  Minutes.;  and  that  in  perpetually  making  our  justification,  merited 
by  Christ,  turn  upon  the  instrumentality  of  a  lively  faith,  and  the 
evidence  of  good  works,  as  there  is  opportunity  to  do  them,  she  tears 
up  Calvinism  and  Antinomian  delusions  by  the  very  roots. 

Leaving  you  to  consider,  how  you  shall  bring  about  a  reconciliation 
between  your  fourth  Letter,  and  our  godly  Homilies,  I  shall  just  take 
the  liberty  to  remind  you,  that  when  you  entered,  or  took  your  de- 
grees at  Oxford,  you  subscribed  to  the  39  Articles  ;  the  35th  of  which 
declares,  that  "  the  Homilies  contain  a  godly  and  wholesome  doctrine, 
necessary  for  these"  Papistical  and  Antinomian  "  times."  That  keep- 
ing clear  from  both  extremes,  we  may  evidence  the  godliness  of 
that  doctrine,  by  the  soundness  of  our  publications,  and  the  exem- 
plariness  of  our  conduct,  is  the  cordial  prayer  of,  honoured  and  dear 
Sir,  your  obedient  Servant  in  the  Liturgy,  Articles,  and  Homilies  of 
the  Church  of  England, 

J.  FLETCHER 


276  FOURTH  CHECK 


LETTER  III. 

-^»^^\?^ 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir, 

J.N  my  last,  I  endeavoured  to  show  you,  that  our  Church,  far  from 
warping  to  Crispianity,  strongly  enforces  St.  James's  undefiled  reli- 
gion :  let  us  now  see  what  modern  divines,  especially  the  Puritan, 
thought  about  the  important  subject  of  our  controversy. 

Page  13,  you  oppose  the  doctrine  which  you  have  (p.  11)  so 
heartily  wished  to  he  firmly  established  in  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses, 
"  If  Mr.  Whitefield  had  been  now  living,"  say  you,  "  I  doubt  not  but 
he  would  have  told  you,  that  if  need  should  be,  he  was  ready  to  offer 
himself  among  the  foremost  of  those  true  Protestants,  who,"  you  tell 
us,  "  could  have  burned  against  the  doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by 
works.  And  as  to  the  Puritan  divines,  there  is  not  one  of  the  many 
hundreds  of  them,  but  what  abhorred  the  doctrine  of  a  second  justifi- 
cation by  works,  as  full  of  rottenness  and  deadly  poison. — Surely  then 
it  is  not  without  justice  that  I  accuse  you  of  the  grossest  perversions, 
and  misrepresentations,  that  perhaps  ever  proceeded  from  any  author's 
pen.  The  ashes  of  that  laborious  man  of  God,  Mr.  Whitefield,  you 
have  raked  up,  in  order  to  bring  him  as  a  coadjutor  to  support  your 
tottering  doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by  works."     And  again,  pp„ 

91  and  92,  "  I  am  not  afraid  to  challenge  Mr.  F r,  to  fix  upon  one 

Protestant  minister,  either  Puritan  or  of  the  Church  of  England,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  Reformation  to  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Second, 
who  held  the  doctrines  he  has  been  contending  for." — ''  Sure  I  am,  that 
you  have  grieved  many  a  pious  heart  among  our  dissenting  brethren, 
by  fathering  upon  their  venerable  ancestors  such  a  spurious  offspring, 
as  can  only  trace  its  descent  from  the  loins  oi  the  man  of  sin,  by  whom 
it  was  begotten  out  of  the  mother  of  abominations,  the  scarlet  Baby- 
lonish whore,  which  sitteth  upon  many  waters.''^ 

Your  charges  and  challenge,  honoured  Sir,  deserve  an  answer,  not 
because    they   fix  the    blot  of  the   grossest  perversions  upon   my 


TO    ANTIN0MIANISM.  27^ 

insignificant  character  ;  but  because  they  represent  the  holy  apostle 
James,  whose  doctrines  I  vindicate,  as  the  man  of  sin,  begetting  his 
wndefiled  religion  out  of  the  scarlet  Babylonish  whore.  I  begin  with 
what  you  say  about  Mr.  Whitefield. 

I  never  thought  he  was  clear  in  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord,  In  the 
day  of  judgment  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified:  for  if  he  had 
seen  it  in  its  proper  light,  he  would  instantly  have  renounced  Cal- 
vinism. All  1  have  asserted  is,  that  the  most  eminent  ministers,  Mr. 
Whitefield  himself  not  excepted,  perpetually  allude  to  that  doctrine, 
when  their  enlarged  hearts  (under  a  full  gale  of  God's  free  Spirit) 
get  clear  of  the  shallows  of  bigotry,  or  the  narrow  channels  of  their 
favourite  systems  :  for  then,  sailing  in  deep  water,  and  regardless  of 
the  rocks  of  ofience,  they  cut  their  easy  way  through  the  raging  bil- 
lows of  opposition,  and  speak  all  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  :  or  at 
least  allude  (this  was  my  expression,  see  Second  Check,  p.  91.)  to 
what,  at  another  time,  they  would  perhaps  oppose  with  all  their 
might. 

And  do  you  not,  honoured  Sir,  allow  that  Mr.  Whitefield  did  this 
in  the  appUcation  of  his  sermons  with  regard  to  my  doctrine,  when 
you  say,  (p.  15.)  *'  All  that  can  be  gathered  from  his  expressions  is, 
that  he  believed  there  would  be  a  great  and  awful  day,  in  which  all 
who  sit  under  the  sound  of  the  Gospel,  shall  be  called  to  give  a  so- 
lemn account  of  what  they  hear,  and  every  minister  as  solemn  an 
account  of  the  doctrine  delivered  by  him."  To  convince  you  that 
you  grant  me  all  I  contended  for,  permit  me  to  ask,  whether  this  so- 
lemn account  will  be  in  order  to  a  mock  trial,  or  to  the  solemn  jus- 
tification or  condemnation  mentioned  by  our  Lord,  Matt.  xii.  37.? 
If  you  affirm  the*former,  you  traduce  heavenly  wisdom — you  blas- 
pheme Jesus  Christ:  if  the  latter,  you  give  up  the  point;  our 
hearing  and  speaking,  i.  e.  our  works,  will  turn  evidence  for  or 
against  us  in  the  day  of  judgment ;  and  according  to  their  deposition, 
the  scale  of  absolution  or  condemnation  will  turn  for  heaven  or  hell. 

Let  therefore  the  public  judge,  who  wrongs  Mr.  Whitefield  ;  I, 
who  represent  him  as  speaking  agreeably  to  the  plain  words  of  his 
heavenly  ^Master,  Matt.  xii.  37.  ;  or  you,  dear  Sir,  who  make  him 
advance  as  a  zealot,  at  the  head  of  a  body  of  prejudiced  men,  to 
burn  against  as  explicit  and  important  a  declaration  as  ever  dropped 
from  the  Redeemer's  lips.  I  say  important ;  because  the  moment 
you  strike  at  our  justification  by  works  in  the  last  day,  you  strike  at 
the  doctrine  of  a  day  of  judgment ;  and  the  moment  that  fundamental 
doctrine  is  overthrown,  natural  and  revealed  religion  sink  in  a  heap 
i)f  common  ruins. 

Vol    J.    '  3K 


278  FOURTH  CHECK 

Pass  we  on  now  to  the  other  reason,  for  which  you  **  accuse  me 
of  the  grossest  misrepresentations  and  perversions  that  perhaps 
ever  proceeded  from  any  author's  pen."  I  have  affirmed,  (Second 
Check,  p.  92.)  that  "  all  the  sober  Puritan  divines  have  directly  or 
indirectly*  asserted  a  second  justification  by  works  ;"  and  you  tell 
us,  p.  13.  "  There  is  not  one  of  them  but  what  abhorred  it,  as  full 
of  rottenness  and  deadly  poison."  One  of  us  is  undoubtedly  mis- 
taken ;  for  our  propositions  are  diametrically  opposite.  Let  us  see 
who  is  the  man. 

To  dispute  about  words  is  unbecoming  men  of  reason  and  reli- 
gion i  and  that  we  may  n»t  be  guilty  of  this  common  absurdity,  and 
oppose  one  another,  when  perhaps  we  mean  the  same  thing,  per- 
mit me  to  state  the  question  as  clearly  as  I  possibly  can.  Not  consi- 
dering the  meritorious^  but  the  instrumental  cause  of  our  justification, 
I  ask,  In  the  day  of  judgment,  shall  we  be  justified  or  condemned 
by  the  works  which  Christ  did  in  the  days  of  his  flesh,  or  by  the 
works  which  we  ourselves  do  in  the  days  of  our  flesh  ? — Or,  in  other 
terms.  Shall  we  be  justified  by  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  imputed 
to  us,  as  Calvin  supposes  it  was  imputed  to  David  in  Uriah's  bed  ? 
Or,  by  the  righteousness  of  Christ  implanted  in  us,  as  it  was  implant- 
ed in  David  when  his  eyes  ran  down  zvith  water  because  men  kept  not 
God^s  law  ? — Or,  if  you  please.  Shall  we  be  justified  by  Christ's 
loving  God  and  man  for  us  ?  Or,  by  our  loving  God  and  man  our- 
selves ?  The  former  of  those  sentiments  is  that  of  Dr.  Crisp,  and 
all  his  admirers  :  that  the  latter  was  the  sentiment  of  Dr.  Owen,  and 
all  the  sober  Puritan  divines,  when  they  regarded  Christ  more  than 
Calvin,  I  prove  thus  : 

Dr.  Owen,  (the  pious  and  learned  champion  of  the  Calvinists  in 
the  last  century,  whom  you  quote,  p.  93,)  speaking  in  his  Treatise 
on  Justification,  p.  222,  of  one  justified  at  his  conversion,  says, 
*'  That  God  does  indispensably  require  of  him  personal  obedience, 
which  may  be  called  his  evangelical  righteousness  ; — That  this  right- 
eousness is  pleadable  t  unto  an  acquitment  against  any  charge  from 
Satan,  the  world,  or  our  own  consciences  : — That  upon  it  we  shall 
be  declared  righteous  in  the  last  day  :  and  without  it  none  shall. 
And  if  any  shall  think  meet  from  hence  to  conclude  unto  an  evangeli- 
cal justificationy   or  call  God's  acceptance  of  our  righteousness  by 

*  These  were  my  limited  expressions. 

f  I  have  shown  in  the  Vindication,  how  David  and  Ezekiel  pleaded  this  righteousness 

before  God.     Another  instance  of  this  plea  I  lately  found  in  Nehemiah.     That  man  of 

God,  after  describing  his  royal  hospitality,  and  tender  regard  for  the  poor,  says,  '*  Think 

upon  me,  my  God,  for  good,  according  to  all  that  I  have  done  for  this  people."  Neh.  v.  19. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  279 

that  name,  I  shall  by  no  means  contend  with  them.*  Whenever  this 
inquiry  is  made,  how  a  man  that  professeth  evangelical  faith  in 
Christ,  shall  be  tried  and  judged  ;  and  whereon,  as  such,  he  shall 
he  justified ;  we  grant  that  it  is,  and  must  be,  by  his  own  personal  obe- 
dience'^ 

This  important  quotation  is  produced  by  D.  Williams,  in  his  Gos- 
•pel  Truth  Vindicated  against  Dr.  Crisp's  Opinions,  p.  149.  It  is  intro- 
duced to  confirm  the  following  Gospel  truth.  '*  The  Lord  Jesus  has 
of  grace,  for  his  own  merits,  promised  to  bring  to  heaven  such  as 
are  partakers  of  true  holiness,  and  do  good  works  perseveringly ;  and 
he  appoints  these,  as  the  way  and  means  of  a  believer's  obtaining 
salvation  ;  requiring  them  as  indispensable  duties,  and  qualifications 
of  all  such  whom  he  will  save  and  bless  ;  and  excluding  all  that 
want  and  neglect  them,  or  live  under  the  power  of  what  is  contrary 
thereto."  Here  is  evidently  the  pure  doctrine  of  the  Minutes  and 
the  undefiled  religion  of  St.  James. 

The  same  judicious  author,  in  his  preface,  speaks  thus  upon  the 
subject  of  our  controversy.  *'  The  revival  of  these  (Dr.  Crisp's) 
errors,  must  not  only  exclude  that  ministry  as  legal,  which  is  most 
apt  to  secure  the  practical  power  of  religion  :  but  also  render  unity 
among  Christians  impossible.  Mutual  censures  are  unavoidable  ; 
while  one  side,"  the  sober  Puritans,  "  press  the  terms  of  the  Gospel, 
under  its  promises  and  threats,  for  which  they  are  accused  as  ene= 
mies  to  Christ  and  grace  ;  and  the  other  side,"  the  followers  of  Dr. 
Crisp,  "  ignorantly  set  up  the  name  of  Christ  and  free  grace,  against 
the  government  of  Christ  and  the  rule  of  judgment.'''' 

'■'■  I  believe  many  abettors  of  these  mistakes  are  honestly  zealous 
for  the  honour  of  free  grace,  but  have  not  light  to  see  how  God  has 
provided  for  this.  By  this  pretence  Antinomianism  corrupted  Ger- 
many ;  it  bid  fair  to  overthrow  church  and  state  in  New-England  : 
and  by  its  stroke  at  the  vitals  of  religion,  it  alarmed  most  of  the  pul- 
pits in  England.  Many  of  our  ablest  pens  were  engaged  against 
these  errors ;  as  Mr.  Gataker,  Mr.  Rutherford,  Anthony  Burgess, 
the  provincial  Synod  at  London  ;  with  very  many  others,  whose  la- 
bours God  was  pleased  to  bless  to  the  stopping  the  attempts  of  Crisp, 
by  name  opposed  by  tke  aforesaid  divines,  Saltmarsh,  Eaton,  &c. 

"  To  the  grief  of  such  as  perceive  the  tendency  of  these  princi- 
ples, we  are  engaged  in  a  new  opposition,  or  must  betray  the 
truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  I  believe  many  abettors  of  these  notions, 
have  grace  to  preserve  their  minds  and  practices  from  their  influ- 

*  Who  indeed  would  contend  with  them,  but  such  as  are  not  afraid  of  fljing;  in  the  face 
of  St.  Paul  and  Jesus  Christ?    See  Rem,  ii.  13.  and  Matt  xii.  37. 


280  FOURTH   CHECK 

ence :  but  they  ought  to  consider,  that  the  generality  of  mankind 
have  no  such  antidote  ;  and  they  themselves  need  not  fortify  their 
own  temptations,  nor  lose  the  defence  which  the  wisdom  of  God  has 
provided  against  remissness  in  duty,  and  sinful  backslidings. 

"In  this  present  testimony  to  the  Truth  of  the  Gospel,  I  have 
studied  plainness.  To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  I  have  in  nothing 
misrepresented  Crisp's  opinions,  nor  mistaken  his  sense  ;  for  most 
of  them  he  oft  studiously  pleads ;  of  each  I  could  multiply  proofs, 
and  all  of  them  are  necessary  for  his  scheme,  although  not  consistent 
with  all  his  other  occasional  expressions." 

The  whole  works  of  D.  Williams,  and  consequently  the  prece- 
ding quotations,  have  the  remarkable  sanction  of  the  following  cer- 
tificate, "  We,  whose  names  are  subscribed,  do  judge  that  our  Rev. 
Brother  has,  in  all  that  is  material,  fully  and  rightly  stated  the  Truths 
and  Errors  mentioned  as  such  in  the  following  treatise.  And  do  ac- 
count he  has  in  this  work  done  considerable  service  to  the  Church 
of  Christ :  adding  our  prayers,  that  these  labours  of  his  may  be  a 
mean  for  reclaiming  those  who  have  been  misled  into  such  dangerous 
opinions;  and  for  establishing  those  that  waver  in  any  of  these 
truths."  Signed  by  near  fifty  Puritan  ministers,  the  first  of  whom 
is  William  Bates,  and  the  last  Edmund  Calamy,  two  of  the  greatest 
preachers  in  the  last  century. 

The  following  appendix  closes  the  certificate,  "  I  have  by  me 
near  as  many  worthy  names,  such  as  Mr.  Woodhouse,  Mr.  Hallet, 
Mr.  Boys,  kc.  who  have  approved  of  this  work.  But  I  think  this 
number  sufficient  to  convince  the  world,  that  the  Presbyterian  mi- 
nisters, at  least,  espouse  not  the  Antinomian  dotages  ;  yea,  I  am 
credibly  informed,  that  the  most  learned  country  ministers,  of  the 
congregational  persuasion,  disallow  the  errors  here  opposed,  and  are 
amazed  at  such  of  their  brethren  in  London,  as  are  displeased  with 
this  book." 

Now,  dear  Sir,  you  must  either  prove  that  what  Dr.  Owen,  D. 
Williams,  and  such  a  cloud  of  Puritan  divines,  consent  to  call  an 
evangelical  justification,  in  the  last  day,  by  our  own  personal  obedience. 
is  not  a  justification  ;  or  you  must  confess,  that  you  have  given  the 
world  a  true  specimen  of  Geneva  logic,  when  you  have  declared  that 
*'  there  is  not  one  Puritan  divine  but  what  abhorred  the  doctrine  of 
such  a  justification,  as  full  of  rottenness  aed  deadly  poison."  And 
you  must  do  me  the  justice  to  acknowledge  you  did  not  give  yourself 
time  to  weigh  your  words  in  the  balance  of  brotherly-kindness,  when 
you  accused  me  of"  calumny  and  the  grossest  perversions  that  perhaps 
ever  proceeded  from  any  author's  pen,"  for  asserting  what  I  thought 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  281 

my  quotations  from  Mr.  Henry  sufficiently  proved,  and  what  your 
groundless  charge  has  obliged  me  fully  to  demonstrate.  And  now 
permit  me  to  apologize  for  the  severity  of  your  conduct  towards  me, 
by  reminding  my  reader,  that  your  great  Diana  was  in  danger,  and 
that  on  such  a  trying  occasion,  even  a  good  man  may  be  put  into  a 
hurry,  and  act,  before  he  is  aware,  inconsistently  with  the  Christian 
virtues  which  blazon  his  character. 

D.  Williams's  Gospel  Truth  Vindicated^  might  be  confirmed  by  num- 
berless quotations  from  Puritan  authors,  who  directly  or  indirectly 
assert  a  second  justification  by  works.  Take  one  instance  out  of  a 
thousand  :  Anthony  Burgess,  Fellow  of  Emmanuel  College  in  Cam- 
bridge, (I  think,  one  of  the  ejected  ministers)  speaking  in  his  twelfth 
sermon  of  Obedience  as  a  sign  of  grace,  concludes  his  discourse  by 
this  truly  Anti-Crispian  paragraph  : 

*'  Art  thou  universal  in  thy  obedience  ?  Then  thou  mayest  take 
comfort.  Otherwise  know,  if  thou  hast  not  respect  to  all  the  ways 
and  duties  required  by  God,  thou  wilt  be  confounded  :  though  with 
Ahab  and  Herod  thou  do  many  things,  yet  if  not  all  things,  confusion 
will  be  upon  thee.  O  then  how  few  are  there,  who  may  claim  a 
right  to  grace  !*  Many  men  have  an  external  obedience  only,  and 
no  internal ;  but  most  have  a  partial,  and  not  entire,  complete  obe- 
dience ;  therefore  it  is,  that  many  are  called,  hut  few  chosen.  Consi- 
der that  terrible  expression  of  St.  James,  ch.  ii.  10,  11.  where  the 
apostle  informs  believers,  that  if  they  are  guilty  but  of  that  one  sin, 
accepting  of  persons,  they  are  the  transgressors  of  the  law  in  general, 
which  he  farther  urgeth  by  this  assertion.  He  that  keepeth  all,  and 
offendeth  in  one,  is  guilty  of  all ;  not  with  the  guilt  of  every  particular 
sin,  but  in  respect  of  the  authority  of  the  lawgiver,  according  to 
that,  Cursed  is  every  one  that  continueth  not  in  every  thing  commanded 
by  the  law.  Seeing,  therefore,  God  in  regeneration  does  write  his 
law  in  our  hearts,  which  does  seminally  contain  the  exercise  of  all 
holy  actions  ;  so  that  there  cannot  be  an  instance  of  any  godly  duty, 
of  which  God  does  not  infuse  a  principle  in  us  :  and  seeing  glorifica- 
tion will  be  universal  of  soul  and  body,  in  all  parts  and  faculties,  how 
necessary  is  it  that  sanctification  should  be  universal  ?  Take  heed, 
therefore,  that  the  works  of  grace  in  thee  be  not  abortive  or  mon- 
strous, wanting  essential  and  necessary  parts.  Let  not  thy  ship  be 
drowned  by  any  one  leak.-' 

*  Some  of  the  Puritans  understood  by  g'r a cr,  a  state  of  justiftration  and  sanctifica- 
tion. 


*82  FOURTH  CHECK 

From  this'al arming  quotation,  it  appears  holy  Calvinist  ministers 
saw,  a  hundred  years  ago,  that  if  behevers  did  not  secure  St.  James's 
justification  by  universal  obedience,  the  works  of  grace  in  them  would 
prove  abortive,  their  hopes  would  perish,  their  ship  would  sink  though 
by  one  leak  only  ;  and  consequently  they  would  be  condemned  as 
Hymeneus  and  Philetus  in  the  day  of  judgment.  And  let  none  com- 
plain of  the  legality  of  this  doctrine  ;  for  our  Lord  himself  fully 
preached  it,  when  he  said,  Except  a  man  forsake  all,  he  cannot  be  my 
disciple. 

Take  another  instance  of  a  later  date.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Haweis, 
that  has  distinguished  himself  among  the  zealous  ministers  of  our 
Church  who  have  espoused  Calvin's  sentiments,  speaks  thus  to  the 
point  in  his  comment  on  Matt.  xii.  37.  *'  Not  an  idle  word  passes 
without  the  divine  notice,  but  we  must  answer  for  it  at  the  day  of 
judgment.  With  what  circumspection  then  should  we  keep  the 
door  of  our  lips,  when  our  eternal  state  is  to  be  determined  thereby, 
and  our  words  must  all  be  produced  at  the  bar  of  God  as  evidences 
of  our  justificatiou  or  condemnation,  and  sentence  proceed  accord- 
ingly." If  this  be  not  maintaining,  at  least  indirectly,  justification 
by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment,  my  reason  fails,  and  I  can  no  more 
understand  how  two  and  two  make  four. 

Mr.  Madan  himself.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  grants  what  I  contend 
for  in  the  very  title  of  one  of  his  sermons,  Justification  by  works 
reconciled  with  justification  by  faith,  &c.  but  much  more  in  the  fol- 
lowing passages,  which  I  extract  from  it. 

'•  In  every  person  that  is  justified,  three  particulars  concur,  1.  The 
meritorious  cause  of  our  justification,  which  is  Christ.  2.  The  instru- 
mental cause,  which  is  faith — And  then  the  justification  in  the  text"  [Ye 
see  how  that  by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only]  "  which 
is  to  be  understood  in  a  declarative  sense — no  person  being  justified  in 
Paul's  sense,  that  is  not  also  in  the  sense  of  our  text,"  i.  e.  in  the 
sense  of  St.  James. 

The  truth  contained  in  this  last  sentence,  is  the  rampart  of  prac- 
tical Christianity,  and  the  ground  of  the  Minutes.  If  Mr.  Madan 
considers  what  his  proposition  necessarily  implies,  I  am  persuaded, 
he  will  not  only  side  with  Mr.  Wesley  against  the  Benedictine  Monk, 
but  also  give  up  Calvinism,  with  which  his  assertion  is  no  more  re- 
concileable,  than  it  is  with  what  you.  Sir,  call  a  winter  (and  I  beg 
leave  to  name  an  Antinomian)  state,  in  which  we  are  supposed  to  be 
justified  in  St.  Paul's  sense,  while  we  fly  in  the  face  of  St.  James,  by 
the  commission  of  adultery  and  murder. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  283 

The  same  eminent  Minister  asks  in  the  same  discourse,  **  What  dofes 
it  profit,  though  a  man  say  he  hath  faith,  and  have  not  works?  Can 
faith  save  him  ?"  (Can  faith  save  David  in  Uriah's  bed  ?  Can  it  save 
Solomon  worshipping  Ashtaroth,  perhaps  with  his  seven  hundred 
wives,  and  three  hundred  concubines !)  *'  i.  e.  Such  a  faith  as  has  not 
works,  as  is  not  productive  of  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit  in  the  heart  and 
life  ?  Is  this  saving  faith  ?  Certainly  not ;  for  such  a  faith  wants  the 
evidence  of  its  being  true  and  real,  and  nothing  but  true  faith  can 
save. — If  my  faith  does  not  produce  the  proper  fruits,  it  is  no  better 
than  the  deviVs  faith. — We  have  no  Scripture  testimony  of  our  being 
any  other  than  the  deviVs  children^  unless  we  evidence  the  truth  of 
our  fdith  by  showing  forth  genuine  fruits  and  works  of  faith.  All  this 
the  apostle  confirms,  v.  20,  26.  Faith  without  works  is  dead. — As  the 
body  without  the  spirit  is  dead,  so  faith  without  works  is  dead  also.^^ 

This  excellent  passage  is  the  demolition  of  Calvinism,  and  the  very 
doctrine  of  the  Minutes,  if  you  except  the  article  about  the  word 
merit,  which  I  do  not  read  in  our  author's  sermon.  However,  p.  12, 
I  find  the  word  deserve  in  the  following  important  question  j  ^'  How 
can  we  not  only  escape  the  penalty  threatened,  but  deserve  the  rewards 
promised  under  the  law  ?"  And  as  I  do  not  understand  "  splitting  a 
hair,"  I  think  that  the  two  expressions,  meriting  and  deserving,  when 
duly  considered,  are  not  as  wide  as  east  is  from  west :  and  I  fear,  that 
if  Mr.  Wesley  is  a  heretic,  for  using  the  former  at  a  conference 
among  friends  ;  Mr.  Madan  is  not  quite  orthodox,  for  using  the  latter 
in  St.  Vedast's  church  before  friends  and  enemies.  But  as  this 
question  may  turn  upon  some  nicety  of  the  English  language,  which, 
as  a  foreigner,  I  have  not  yet  observed,  I  drop  it,  to  obviate  an 
objection. 

You  will  perhaps  say,  that  all  the  above-mentioned  authors,  being 
sound  Calvinists,  hold  your  election,  and  that  you  could  produce 
passages  out  of  their  writings,  absolutely  irreconcileable  with  the 
preceding  quotations.  To  this  I  reply,  that  a  volume  of  such  passa 
ges,  instead  of  invalidating  the  doctrine  which  I  maintain,  would  only 
prove,  that  the  peculiarities  of  Calvin  are  absolutely  irreconcileahh 
with  St.  James's  undefiled  religion  ;  and  that  even  the  most  judicious 
Calvinists  cannot  make  their  scheme  hang  tolerably  together. 

I  hope,  hon.  Sir,  the  preceding  pages  will  convince  my  readers, 
that  you  have  spoken  unwarily,  when  you  have  asserted,  that  there  is 
not  one  of  the  many  hundred  Puritan  divines,  hut  what  abhorred  my 
doctrine  as  full  of  rottenness ;  and  that  the  author  of  Goliah  slain  has 
been  rather  too  forward  in  challenging  me  to  fix  upon  one  Protestani 


284  FOURTH    CHECK 

ministery  either  Puritan,  or  of  the  Church  of  Engiandj  who  to  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  Second  held  the  doctrine  I  have  been  contending  for. 

Your  challenge  provokes  me  to  imitation  :  and  I  conclude  this  let- 
ter by  challenging  you,  in  my  turn,  to  fix  upon  a  man  who  will  expose 
your  mistakes  more  bluntly,  and  yet  esteem  and  love  you  more 
cordially,  than,  honoured  and  dear  Sir,  your  most  obedient  servant  ia 
St.  James's  pure  religion, 

JOHN  FLETCHER 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  285 


LETTER  IT. 

TO    RICHARD    HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon,  and  dear  Sir, 

XJEFORE  I  take  my  leave  of  the  Puritan  writers,  you  will  permit 
aie  to  make  some  observations  upon  the  fault  you  find  with  my  quoting 
one  of  them.  Page  94,  you  introduce  a  judicious ^  worthy,  reverend 
friend,  charging  me  with  having  most  notoriously  perverted  the  quota- 
tion  which  I  produced  out  of  Flavel,  (page  42,)  and  you  stamp  with 
your  approbation  his  exclamation  on  the  subject,  Could  you  have 
expected  such  disingenuity  from  Madeley  ! 

Now,  Sir,  full  of  disingenuity  as  you  suppose  me  to  be,  I  can  yet 
act  with  frankness.  And  to  convince  you  of  it,  I  publicly  stand  to  my 
quotation,  and  charge  your  worthy  friend  with — what  shall  I  call  it? 
— A  gross  mistake.  My  quotation  1  had  from  that  judicious  Puritan 
divine,  D.  Williams,  who,  far  from  notoriously  perverting  the  sense  of 
the  ministers  that  drew  up  Flavel's  preface,  has  weakened  it  by  leav- 
ing out  some  excellent  Anti-Crispian  sentences.  Permit  me  to  punish 
your  friend  for  his  hasty  charge,  by  laying  the  whole  passage  before 
my  readers ;  reminding  them,  that  only  the  sentences  enclosed  in 
crotchets,  [         ]  are  quoted  in  the  Vindication. 

A  body  of  seven  eminent  divines,  all  friends,  it  seems,  to  Crisp, 
but  enemies  to  his  Antinomian  dotages,  charitably  endeavour  to  apolo- 
gize for  him,  at  the  same  time  that  they  recommend  Flayel's  treatise 
on  mental  errors  in  general,  and  on  Antinomianism  in  particular,  where 
Crisp  is  opposed  by  name.  Having  mentioned  two  similar  proposi- 
tions of  his,  viz.  ['  Salvation  is  not  the  end  of  any  thing  tt'e  do — And, 
We  are  to  act  from  life,  not  for  life,']  they  bear  this  full  testimony 
against  the  absurdity  which  they  contain. 

"  [It  were  in  efifect  to  abandon  human  nature,]  and  to  sin  against 
a  very  fundamental  law  of  our  creation,  not  to  intend  our  own  felicity  : 
it  were  to  make  our  first  and  most  deeply  fundRm€ntal  duty,  in  ooe 

Voih  I,  37         ' 


286  FOURTH    CHECK 

great  essential  branch  of  it,  our  sin,  viz.  To  take  the  Lord  for  our 
God  :  for  to  take  him  for  our  God,  most  essentially  includes  our 
taking  him  for  our  supreme  good,  which  we  all  know  is  included  in 
the  notion  of  the  last  end:  it  were  to  make  it  unlawful  to  strive 
against  all  sin,  and  particularly  against  sinful  aversion  from  God, 
wherein  lies  the  very  death  of  the  soul,  or  the  sum  of  its  misery  ; 
or  to  strive  after  perfect  conformity  to  God  in  holiness,  and  the  full 
frnition  of  him,  wherein  the  soul's  final  blessedness  does  principally 
consist. 

*'  [It  were  to  teach  us  to  violate  the  great  precepts  of  the  Gospel,] 
Repent,  that  your  sins  may  be  blotted  out — Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate, — Work  out  your  own  salvation  with  fear  and  trembling : — To 
obliterate  the  patterns  and  precedents  set  before  us  in  the  Gospel, 
We  have  believed  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  we  might  be  justified — I  keep 
under  my  body  lest  I  should  be  cast  away — Tliat  thou  mayest  save  thyself, 
and  them  that  hear  thee. 

"  [It  were  to  suppose  us  bound  to  do  more  for  the  salvation  of 
others,  than  our  own]  salvation.  We  are  required  to  save  others 
with  fear,  plucking  them  out  of  the  fire.  Nay,  we  were  not  (by  this 
Tule  strictly  understood)  so  much  as  to  pray  for  our  own  salvation, 
which  is  a  doing  somewhat;  when,  no  doubt,  we  are  to  pray  for  the 
success  of  the  Gospel,  to  this  purpose,  on  behalf  of  other  men. 

*'  [It  were  to  make  all  the  threatenings  of  eternal  death,  and  pro- 
mises of  eternal  life,  we  find  in  the  Gospel  of  our  blessed  Lord,  use- 
less, as  motives  to  shun  the  one,  and  obtain  the  other  :]  For  they  can 
be  motives  no  way,  but  as  the  escaping  of  the  former,  and  the  attain- 
ment of  the  other,  have  with  us  the  place  and  consideration  of  an 
end. 

*'  [It  makes  what  is  mentioned  in  the  Scripture,  as  the  character 
and  commendation  of  the  most  eminent  saints,  a  fault,]  as  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  that  they  sought  the  better  and  heavenly  country : 
and  plainly  declared  they  did  so,  which  necessarily  implies  their  ma- 
king it  their  end." 

Now,  honoured  Sir,  it  lies  upon  you  to  prove,  that  because  Mr. 
Williams  and  I  have  not  produced  all  that  makes  against  you,  we  are 
guilty  of  a  most  notorious  pefversion*  of  the  quotation.    If  you  affirm^ 

*  Want  of  argument  in  a  bad  cause,  which  people  will  defend  at  all  events,  (if  I  may 
use  the  words  which  Mr.  Hill  too  hastily  lends  me  in  his  book,  but  justly  claims  as  his  own 
in  the  errata,)  obliges  them  to  fly  to  personal  charges.  Zelus  arma  ministrat.  Their 
Diana  is  in  danger :  they  must  raise  dust,  and  make  a  noise,  to  divert  the  attention  of  the 
reader  from  the  point :  who  knows  but  she  may  escape  in  the  hurry  .-'  At  the  end  of  the 
above-mentioned  quotation,  I  had  added  three  lines,  to  throw  some  light  upon  the  last 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  2S7 

that  the  perversion  I  am  charged  with,  consists  in  saying,  that  the 
divines  who  wrote  Flavel's  preface  were  shocked  at  Crisp's  doctrine, 
when  they  nevertheless  apologize  for  his  person ;  I  reply,  that  their 
apology  confirms  my  assertion,  even  more  than  their  arguments  ;  for 
they  say,  ^^  It  is  likely  the  Doctor  meant,^^  [just  what  Mr.  Wesley 
does,]  "  that  he  shall  not  work  for  life  only,  without  aiming  at  work- 
ing FROM  life  ALSO.     For  it  is  not  only  tolerable  charity  to  suppose^  that 

clause,  which  D.  Williams  had  cut  off  too  short  As  I  did  not  enclose  them  in  commas, 
it  never  entered  into  my  mind,  that  any  body  would  charge  me  with  presenting  them  as  a 
quotation,  nor  do  they  in  the  least  misrepresent,  much  less  pervert  the  sense  of  the  author. 
Upon  this,  however,  my  opponent  brings  me  to  a  trial.  But  if,  at  p.  97,  he  lets  me  escape, 
without  condemning  me  point-blank  for  forging  quotations  ;  he  is  not  so  mild,  p.  27.  I 
have  observed  in  the  Second  Check,  p.  120.  that  Mr.  Wesley  in  his  Minutes  guards  the 
foundation  of  the  Gospel  by  the  two  clauses,  where  he  mentions  the  exclusion  of  the  merit 
of  works  in  point  of  salvation,  and  believing  in  Christ.  The  two  clauses  I  present  in  one 
point  of  view,  in  the  very  words  of  the  Minutes,  although  not  in  the  tense  of  the  verb  believ- 
ing, thus :  ^'JVotby  the  merit  of  works,''''  but  by  "  believing  in  Christ^  My  opponent  is 
pleased  here  to  overlook  the  commas,  which  show,  that  I  produce  two  diflferent  places  of 
the  Minutes;  and  then  he  improves  his  own  oversight  thus,  "Forgeries  of  this  kind  have 
long  passed  for  no  crime  with  Mr.  Wesley.  I  did  not  think  you  would  have  followed  him 
in  these  ungenerous  artifices,  which  must  unavoidably  sink  the  writer  in  our  esteem.  But  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  Sir,  that  this  is  not  the  only  stratagem  of  this  sort,  which  you  have  made 
use  of:  instance,  your  bringing  in  Mr.  Whitefield  as  a  maintainer  of  a  second  justification 
by  works,  &c.  &c." — The  bare  mention  of  such  groundless  accusations  being  a  sufficient 
refutation  of  them,  I  shall  close  this  note  by  observing,  that  the  pure  religion  which  I  vindi- 
cate, is  too  well  grounded  on  Scripture,  to  need  the  support,  either  of  the  pretended  forgeries 
which  my  opponent  contrives  for  me,  or  of  the  blackening  charges,  which  he  is  forced  to  pro- 
duce for  want  of  better  arguments. 

In  almost  any  other  bui  my  opponent,  I  should  think,  that  this  severity  proceeded  from 
palpable  disingenuity ;  but  my  respect  for  him  does  not  permit  me  to  entertain  such  a 
thought.  I  urge  for  his  excuse,  the  inconceivable  strength  of  prejudice,  and  the  fatal  ten- 
dency of  his  favourite  system.  Yes,  O  Calvinism,  upon  thee  I  charge  the  mistakes  of  my 
antagonist !  If  at  any  time  his  benevolent  temper  is  soured,  thy  leaven  has  done  it.  It  is  by 
thy  powerful  influence  that  he  discovers  a  forgery,  where  there  is  not  so  much  as  the 
printer's  omission  of  a  comma  to  countenance  his  discovery. — It  is  through  the  mists  which 
thou  raisest,  that  he  sees  in  the  woi-ks  of  one  of  our  most  correct  authors,  nothing  but  "  a 
regular  series  of  inconsistencies,  a  wheel  of  contradiction  running  round  and  round  again." 

Thou  lendest  him  thy  deceitful  glass,  when  he  looks  at  my  Second  Check,  and  cries  out, 

'•  Base  and  shocking  slander !  Acrimonious,  bitter,  and  low  sneers  !  Horrid  misrepresenta- 
tions, and  notorious  perversions !  Abominable  beyond  all  the  rest !  A  wretched  spirit  of  low 
sarcasm  and  slanderous  banter  runs  through  the  whole  book,"  which  contains  "  more  than 
a  hundred  close  pages,  as  totally  void  of  scriptural  argument,  as  they  are  replete  with 
calumny,  gross  perversions,  equivocations," — and  a  "  docti-ine  full  of  rottenness  and  deadly 
poison,  the  spurious  offspring  of  the  man  of  sin,  begotten  out  of  the  scarlet  whore." 

I  beg  my  readers  would  not  think  the  worse  of  my  opponent's  candour,  on  account  of 
these  severe  charges.  In  one  sense  they  appear  to  me  very  moderate  :  for  who  can  wonder, 
that  a  good,  mistaken  man,  who  finds  Calvin's  everlasting,  absolute,  and  unconditional 
reprobation  in  the  mild  oracles  of  the  God  of  love,  should  find  forgery,  vile  slander, 
calumny,  horrid  perversions,  deadly  poison,  Sfc.  in  my  sharp  Checks  ;  and  perpetual  con- 
tradictions in  Mr.  Wesley's  works  ?  Are  we  not  treated  with  remarkable  kindness,  in 
comparison  of  the  merciful  God  whom  we  serve  ^  Undoubtedly  :  for  neither  of  us  is  yet  so 


268 


FOURTH  CHECK 


one  would  deliberately  say^  that  salvation  is  not  the  end  of  any  good  work 
we  do,  or  that  we  are  7iot  to  work  for  life  in  the  rigid  sense  of  the 
words.'*  And  they  profess  their  hopes,  that,  upon  consideration^  he 
would  presently  unsay  it,  (namely,  the  absurd  proposition,  "  IVe  are 
not  to  work  for  life)  being  calmly  reasoned  with.'' 

Thus  hoped  those  pious  divines  concerning  Dr.  Crisp  ;  and  thus  I 
once  hoped  also  concerning  his  admirers.  But,  alas  1  experience  has 
damped  my  hoipe  ;  for,  when  they  have  been  "  calmly  reasoned 
with,"  they  have  shown  themselves  much  more  ready  to  unsay  what 
they  had  said  right,  than  what  the  Doctor  had  said  wrong :  and  to  this 
day  they  publicly  defend  those  Antinomian  dotages,  which  the  authors 
of  Flavel's  preface  could  not  believe  Dr.  Crisp  could  possibly  mean, 
even  when  he  preached  and  wrote  them. 

You  express,  Sir,  a  most  extraordinary  wish,  p.  94.  Speaking  of 
Flavel's  Discourse  upon  mental  errors,  which  is  also  called  A  blow  at 
the  root,  you  say,  *'  I  should  have  been  glad,  could  I  have  transcribed  the 
whole  discourse."  But  as  you  have  not  done  it,  I  shall  give  a  blow  at 
the  root  of  your  system,  by  presenting  you  with  an  extract  of  the 
second  Appendix,  which  is  a  pretty  large  treatise  full  against  Antino- 
mianism. 

*'  The  design  of  the  following  sheets,"  says  that  great  Puritan  divine, 
in  the  discourse  you  should  be  glad  wholly  to  transcribe,  "  is  to  free 
the  grace  of  God  from  the  dangerous  errors  which  fight  against  it 
under  its  own  colours  ;  to  prevent  the  seduction  of  some  that  stagger  ; 
and  to  vindicate  my  own  doctrine.  The  Scripture,  foreseeing  there 
would  arise  such  a  sort  of  men  in  the  church,  as  would  wax  wanton 
against  Christ,  and  turn  his  grace  into  lasciviousness,  has  not  only 
precautioned  us  in  general  to  beware  of  such  opinions,  as  corrupt  the 
doctrine  of  free  grace  :  Shall  we  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may  abound  ? 
God  forbid :  but  has  marked  those  very  opinions  by  which  it  would  be 
abused,  and  made  abundant  provision  against  them.  As,  namely,  I 
All  vilifying  expressions  of  God's  holy  law,  Rom.  vii.  2.  All  opinions 
inclining  men  to  the  neglect  of  the  duties  of  obedience,  under  the  pre- 
tence of  free  grace  and  liberty  by  Christ,  James  ii.  Matt.  xxv.  3.  All 
opinions  neglecting  sanctification  as  the  evidence  of  justification, 
which  is  the  principal  scope  of  St.  John's  first  epistle." 

much  as  indircctlr  charged  with  contriving  in  cool  blood,  the  murder  of  one  man ;  much 
less  with  forming,  from  all  eternity,  the  evangelical  plan  to  save  unconditionally  by  Jt'ee 
grace  the  little  flock  of  the  elect,  and  damn  unconditionally  by  Jree  wrath  the  immense 
herd  of  the  reprobates  !  and  with  spending  near  six  thousand  years  in  bringing  about  an 
irresistible  decree,  that  the  one  shall  absolutely  go  to  heaven,  let  them  do  what  they  please 
to  be  damned;  and  that  the  other  shall  absolutely  go  to  hell,  and  be  burnt  there  tea!! 
eternity,  let  them  do  what  they  can  to  be  saved  ! 


T0   ANTINOMIANISM.  289 

**  Notwithstanding,  such  is  the  wickedness  of  some,  and  weakness  of 
others,  that  in  all  ages  (especially  in  the  last  and  present)  men  have 
notoriously  corrupted  the  doctrine  of  free  grace,  to  the  great  reproach 
of  Christ,  scandal  of  the  world,  and  hardening  of  the  enemies  of  the 
Reformation.  '  Behold,  (says  Contzen  the  Jesuit)  the  fruit  of  Pro- 
testantism and  their  Gospel  preaching.' 

*'  The  Gospel  makes  sin  more  odious  than  the  law  did,  and  disco- 
vers the  punishment  of  it  in  a  more  dreadful  manner.  For  if  the 
word  spoken  by  angels  was  steadfast,  and  every  disobedience  received  a 
just  recompense  of  reward^  how  shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great 
salvation?  It  shows  us  our  encouragements  to  holiness  greater  than 
ever  ;  and  yet  corrupt  nature  will  still  abuse  it.  The  more  luscious 
the  food  is,  the  more  men  are  apt  to  surfeit  upon  it. 

"  This  perversion  of  free  grace  is  justly  chargeable  both  upon 
wicked  and  good  men.  Wicked  men  corrupt  it  designedly,  that  by 
entitling  God  to  their  sins,  they  might  sin  the  more  quietly.  So  the  Ni- 
colaitans  and  school  of  Simon  ;  the  Gnostics,  in  the  very  dawning  of 
Gospel  light ;  and  he  that  reads  the  preface  of  learned  Mr.  Gataker's 
book,  will  find  that  some  Antinomians  of  our  days  are  not  much  behind 
the  vilest  of  them.  One  of  them  cries  out,  '  Away  with  the  law,  it 
cuts  off  a  man's  legs,  and  then  bids  him  walk.'  Another  says,  '  That 
if  a  man,  by  the  Spirit,  knew  himself  to  be  in  a  state  of  grace,  though 
he  commit  murder,*  God  sees  no  sin  in  him.' 

"  But  others  t  there  are,  whose  judgments  are  unhappily  tainted 
with  those  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  Ihat  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  these  men 
were  charmed  into  these  opinions  upon  such  accounts  as  these. 

I.  *'  1.  Some  of  them  might  have  felt  in  themselves  the  anguish  of  a 
perplexed  conscience  under  sin,  and  not  being  able  to  live  under  the 
terrors  of  the  law,  might  too  hastily  snatch  at  such  doctrines  which 
promise  relief  and  ease.  2.  Others  have  been  induced  to  espouse 
these  opinions,  from  the  excess  of  their  zeal  against  the  errors  of 
the  Papists.  3.  Others  have  been  sucked  into  those  quicksands  of 
Antinomian  errors,  by  fathering  their  own  fancies  upon  the  Holy 

*  This  is,  I  fear,  the  very  doctrine  of  your  Fourth  Letter,  where  an  impenitent  murderer 
is  represented  as  complete  in  Christ,  ^c. 

7  Here  my  opponent  is  exactly  described  by  Flavel. 


^90.  IfOURTH    CHECK 

Spirit.  4.  And  it  is  not  unlike,  but  a  comparative  weakness  of  mind, 
meeting  with  a  fervent  zeal  for  Christ,  may  induce  others  to  espouse 
s'uch  taking  and  plausible,  though  pernicious  doctrines. 

*'  Let  all  good  men  beware  of  such  opinions,  and  expressions,  as 
give  a  handle  to  wicked  men  to  abuse  the  grace  of  God,  which 
haply  the  author  himself  dares  not  do,  and  may  strongly  hope  others 
may  not  do  :  but  if  the  principle  will  yield  it,  it  is  in  vain  to  think 
corrupt  nature  will  not  catch  at  it,  and  make  a  vile  use,  and  dan- 
gerous improvement  of  it ! 

*'  For  example  :  If  such  a  principle  as  this  be  asserted  before  the 
world,  '  That  men  need  not  fear  that  any,  or  all  the  sins  they  com- 
mit, shall  do  them  any  hurt  ;''*  let  the  author  warn  and  caution 
readers,  [as  the  Antinomian  t  author  of  that  expression  has  done]  not 
to  abuse  this  doctrine  :  it  is  to  no  purpose,  the  doctrine  itself  is  full 
of  dangerous  consequences,  and  wicked  men  have  the  best  skill  to 
draw  them  forth  to  cherish  their  lusts.  That  which  the  author 
might. design  for  the  relief  of  the  distressed,  quickly  turns  into  poison 
in  the  bowels  of  the  wicked.  Nor  can  we  excuse  it,  by  saying,  any 
Oospel  truth  may  be  thas  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  Anti- 
nomian errors." 

II.  "  Let  us  view  next,  some  of  the  chief  errors  of  Antinomians. 
I.  Some  make  justification  to  be  an  eternal  act  of  God,  and  affirm, 
that  the  elect  were  justified  before  the  world  had  a  being: — Others, 
that  they  were  justified  at  the  time  of  Christ's  death  :  with  these 
Crisp  harmonizes.  2.  That  justification  by  faith  is  no  more  than  a 
manifestation  to  us,  of  what  was  done  before  we  had  a  being. 
3.  That  men  ought  not  to  question  whether  they  believe  or  no. 
Saltmarsh  on  Free  Grace,  p.  92,  93.  4.  That  believers  are  not 
bound  to  mourn  for  sin,  because  it  was  pardoned  before  it  was  com- 
mitted ;  and  pardoned  sin  is  no  sin.  Eaton's  Honeycomb  of  Justifica- 
tion, p.  446.  5.  That  God  sees  no  sin  in  believers,  whatsoever  sins 
they  commit.  6.  That  God  is  not  angry  with  the  elect,  and  that 
to  say  he  smites  them  for  their  sins,  is  an  injurious  reflection 
upon  his  justice.  This  is  avouched  generally  in  all  their  writings. 
7.  That  by  God's  laying  our  iniquities  upon  Christ,  he  became  as 
completely  sinful  as  we,  and  we  as  completely  righteous  as  Christ. 

*  My  opponent  has  publicly  advanced,  not  only  that  sin,  even  adultery  and  murder, 
does  not  hurt  the  pleasant  children,  but  that  it  even  works  for  our  good. 

f  Crisp,  who  was  publicly  called  an  Antinomian  by  the  Puritans ;  and  his  tenets,  loose^ 
corrupt,  and  pernicious  doctrines ;  Antinomian  dotages,  4"c. 


TO  ANTINOxMiANISM.  ^2^i 

Crisp,  p.  270.  8.  That  no  sin  can  do  believers  any  hurt,  nor  must 
they  do  any  duty  for  their  own  salvation.  9.  That  the  new  covenant 
is  not  made  properly  with  us,  but  with  Christ  for  us  ;  and  that  this 
covenant  is  all  of  it  a  promise,  having  no  condition  on  our  part.  They 
do  not  absolutely  deny,  that  faith,  repentance,  and  obedience,  are 
conditions  in  the  new  covenant ;  but  say,  they  are  no  conditions  on 
our  side,  but  Christ's  ;.and  that  he  repented,  believed,  and  obeyed 
for  us.  Saltmarsh  on  Fj-ee  Grace^  p.  126.  10.  They  speak  very 
slightly  of  trying  ourselves  by  marks  and  signs  of  grace  ;  Saltmarsh 
©alls  it  a  low,  carnal  way  ;  but  the  New-England  Antinomians  call  it 
a  fundamental  error,  to  make  sanctification  an  evidence  of  justifica- 
tion :  they  say,  that  the  darker  our  sanctification  is,  the  brighter  is 
our  justification. 

"  I  look  upon  such  doctrines  to  be  of  a  very  dangerous  nature,  and 
their  malignity  and  contagion  would  certainly  spread  much  farther 
than  it  does,  had  not  God  provided  two  powerful  antidotes  : 

"  1.  The  scope  and  current  of  the  Scriptures.  They  speak  of 
the  elect  as  children  of  wrath  during  their  unregenerate  state.  They 
frequently  discover  God's  anger,  and  tell  us,  his  castigatory  rods  are 
laid  upon  them  for  their  sins.  They  represent  sin  as  the  greatest 
evil ;  most  opposite  to  the  glory  of  God  and  good  of  his  saints.  They 
call  the  saints  to  mourn  for  their  sins,  &,c.  They  put  the  people  of 
God  to  the  trial  of  their  interest  in  Christ,  by  signs  and  marks  from 
the  divers  branches  of  sanctification.  They  infer  duties  from  privi- 
leges ;  and  therefore  the  Antinomian  dialect  is  a  wild  note,  which  the 
generality  of  serious  Christians  do  easily  distinguish  from  the  Scrip- 
ture language. 

*'  2.  The  experience  and  practice  of  the  saints  greatly  secure  us 
from  the  spreading  malignity  of  Antinomianism.  They  acknowledge, 
that  before  their  conversion  they  were  equal  in  sin  and  misery  with 
the  vilest  wretches  in  the  world.  They  fear  nothing  more  than  sin. 
They  are  not  only  sensible  that  God  sees  sin  in  them,  but  they  admire 
his  patience,  that  they  are  not  consumed  for  it.  They  urge  his  com- 
mands and  threatenings,  as  well  as  promises,  upon  their  own  hearts, 
to  promote  sanctification.  They  excite  themselves  to  duty  and  watch- 
fulness against  sin.  They  encourage  themselves  by  the  rewards  of 
obedience,  knowing  their  labour  is  not  in  vain  in  the  Lord.  And  he 
that  shall  tell  them,  "  their  sins  can  do  them  no  hurt,  or  duties  no 
good,"  speaks  to  them  not  only  as  a.barbarian,  but  in  such  a  language 
as  their  souls  abhor.  The  zeal  and  love  of  Christ  being  kindled  in 
their  souls,  they  have  no  patience  to  hear  such  doctrines  as  so  greatly 
derogate  from  his  glory,  under  a  pretence  of  honouring  and  exalting 


292  FOURTH    CHECK 

him.  It  wounds  and  grievee  their  very  hearts  to  see  the  world  havi- 
ened  in  their  prejudices  against  reformation,  and  a  gap  opened  to  all 
licentiousness.  But  notwithstanding  this  double  antidote,  we  find,  by 
daily  experience,  such  doctrines  too  much  obtaining  in  the  professional 
world,  Tantum  religio  suadere  malorum, 

"  For  my  own  part,  he  that  searcheth  my  heart  is  witness,  I  would 
rather  choose  to  have  my  right  hand  wither,  and  my  tongue  rot  within 
my  mouth,  than  to  speak  one  word,  or  write  one  line  to  cloud  the  free 
grace  of  God.  Let  it  arise  and  shine  in  its  meridian  glory.  None 
owes  more  to  it,  or  expects  more  from  it,  than  1  do  ;  and  what  I  write 
in  this  controversy  is  to  vindicate  it  from  those  opinions,  which,  under 
pretence  of  exalting  it,  do  really  militate  against  it." 

Then  follows  a  prolix  refutation  of  the  above-mentioned  Antinomian 
errors,  most  of  which  necessarily  flow  from  your  second  and  fourth 
letters.  When  our  pious  author  attacks  them  as  a  disciple  of  St. 
James,  he  carries  all  before  him  :  but  when  he  encounters  them  as 
an  admirer  of  Calvin,  his  hands  hang  down,  Amalek  prevails,  and  a 
shrewd  logician  could,  without  any  magical  power,  force  him  to  con- 
fess, that  most  of  the  errors  which  he  so  justly  opposes,  are  the 
natural  consequences  of  unconditional  election,  particular  redemp- 
tion, irresistible  grace,  Calvinian  imputation  of  righteousness  to  im- 
penitent murderers,  the  infallible  perseverance  of  believers  who 
defile  their  fathers'  beds,  and,  in  a  word,  Salvation  finished  for  all 
the  "  pleasant  children,'*  who  go  on  frowardly  in  the  way  of  their 
own  heart.  Thus  it  would  appear  that  Calvinism  is  ''  the  ^§a>Tof 
•i^guJ^os,"  to  use  Mr.  Flavel's  words,  *'  the  radical  and  prolific  error 
fromra}hich  most  of  the  rest  are  spawned.'''* 

He  concludes  his  Anti-Crispian  treatise  by  the  following  truly 
Christian  paragraph:  "I  call  the  Searcher  of  hearts  to  witness, 
that  I  have  not  intermeddled  with  this  controversy  of  Antinomianism, 
out  of  any  delight  I  take  in  polemic  studies,  or  an  unpeaceable 
contradicting  humour,  but  out  of  pure  zeal  for  the  glory  and 
truths  of  God,  for  the  vindication  and  defence  whereof,  I  have  beerr 
necessarily  engaged  therein.  And  having  discharged  my  duty  thus 
far,  I  now  resolve  to  return,  if  God  permit  me,  to  my  much  more 
agreeable  studies ;  still  maintaining  my  Christian  charity  for  those 
whom  I  oppose ;  not  doubting  but  I  shall  meet  those  in  heaven, 
from  whom  I  am  forced  in  lesser  things  to  dissent  upon  earth." 

While  my  heart  is  warmed  by  the  love  which  breathes  through 
the  last  words  of  Mr.  Flavel's  book,  permit  me  to  tell  you,  that 
I  cordially  adopt  them  with  respect  to  Mr.  Shirley  and  yourself, 
hoping  that   if  you^  think  yourself  obliged   "  to  cut  oflf  all  inter 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  293 

course  and  friendship  with  me"  upon  earth,  on  account  of  what 
you  are  pleased  to  call  my  disingenuity  and  gross  perversions^  you 
will  gladly  ascribe  to  the  Lamb  of  God  a  common  salvation  truly 
finished  in  heaven,  together  with,  honoured  and  dear  Sir,  your 
most  obedient  servant  in  the  pure  Gospel  of  St.  James, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 


Vol.  I  3» 


294  i'OimTH   CHECK 


LETTER  V. 


-\)^^^^- 


TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir, 

X  HAVE  hitherf*  endeavoured  to  show,  that  the  exploded  doctrine 
of  a  second  justification  by  works,  [i.  e.  by  the  evidence,  or 
instrumentality,  of  works,]  in  the  day  of  judgment,  is  scriptural, 
consonant  to  the  doctrine  of  our  Church,  and  directly  or  indirectly 
maintained,  as  by  yourself,  so  by  all  Anti-Crispian  Puritan  divines, 
whenever  they  regard  St.  James's  holy  doctrine  more  than  Calvin's 
peculiar  opinions.  I  shall  now  answer  a  most  important  question, 
which  you  propose  about  it,  p.  149.  You  introduce  it  by  these 
words  : 

"  You  cannot  suppose  that  when  Mr.  Shirley  said.  Blessed  be  God, 
neither  Mr.  Wesley,  nor  any  of  his  Preachers  (Mr.  Olivers  excepted) 
hold  a  second  justification  by  works^  he  intended  to  exclude  good 
works  in  an  evidential  sense."  Indeed,  Sir,  /  did  suppose  it  ;  nor 
can  I  to  this  moment  conceive,  how  Mr.  Shirley  could  lean  towards 
Calvinism,  if  he  were  settled  in  St.  James's  doctrine  of  justification 
by  the  evidence  of  works.     You  proceed, 

<*  Neither  Mr.  Shirley  nor  I,  nor  any  Calvinist  that  I  ever  heard 
of,  deny  that  a  sinner  is  declaratively  justified  by  works,  both  here 
and  at  the  day  of  judgment."  You  astonish  me.  Sir  ;  why  then 
do  you,  at  the  end  of  this  very  paragraph,  find  fault  with  me  for 
saying,  that  it  will  be  absurd  in  a  man,  set  on  the  left  hand  as  a 
rebellious  subject  of  our  heavenly  King,  to  plead  the  works  of 
Christ,  when  his  own  works  are  called  for,  as  the  only  evidences 
according  to  which  he  must  be  justified  or  condemned  ?  Why  do 
you  cry  out,  in  the  fifth  letter  of  your  Review,  "  O  shocking  to  tell! 
Horresco  referens,"  &c.  Why  do  so  many  Calvinists  shudder  with 
horror,  because  I  have  represented  our  Lord  as  condemning  by 
the  evidence  of  works,  [agreeably  to  his  own  express  doctrine. 
Matt.  XXV.]  a  practical    Antinomian,   a  canting  apostate,   who  ha(^ 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  295 

no  good  works  to  be  declaratively  justified  by  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment ?  Why  do  you  maintain,  that  when  David  committed  adul- 
tery and  murder,  he  WdiS  jus  ified  from  all  things,  his  sins  past^  presentf 
and  to  come,  were  for  ever  and  for  ever  cancelled  ?  and  why  do  you 
(p.  70,)  call  me  a  snake  that  bites  the  Calvinist  Ministers,  because  I 
have  exposed  the  Antinomianism  of  those  Preachers,  who  setting 
aside  Christ's  doctrine  of  justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  in 
the  last  day,  give  thousands  to  understand,  that  they  shall  then  be 
abundantly  justified  by  righteousness  imputed  in  Calvin's  way,  and 
by  nothing  else  ?     You  go  on  : 

"  Therefore  I  say,  if  you  utterly  disclaim  all  human  works,  as 
the  procuring,  meritorious  cause  of  justification,  what  need  was 
there  of  addressing  Mr.  Shirley  as  you  have  done  ?  Yea,  what 
need  was  there  of  your  making  this  point  a  matter  of  controversy  at 
all  ?  We  are  quite  agreed,  both  as  to  the  expression,  and  as  to  the 
meaning  of  it." 

Are  we  indeed  quite  agreed,  both  as  to  the  expression  of  a  second 
justification  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment,  and  as  to  the  meaning  of 
it,  to  which  I  once  more  set  my  seal,  viz.  that  we  shall  be  justified, 
not  by  the  merit,  but  hy  the  evidence  of  works  ?  What  a  pity  is  it 
^then,  that  you  did  n^^t  find  this  out,  till  you  came  to  the  149th  page 
of  your  book  !  It  would  probably  have  saved  you  the  trouble  of 
writing  it,  and  rae  the  thankless  oflSce  of  exposing  it. 

However,  it  is  but  right  I  should  requite  your  candid  concession, 
by  answering  your  important  question  :  What  need  teas  there  of  ma- 
king  this  point,  (of  justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  the 
day  of  judgment)  a  matter  of  controversy  at  all  .^"  I  will  ingenuously 
tell  you  :  I  wanted  an  immoveable  point  to  fix  my  engine  upon,  in 
order  to  throw  down  your  great  Diana,  and  pull  up  by  the  roots  the 
immense  tree  of  Antinomian  knowledge.  And  now  you  have  so  fully 
and  repeatedly  granted  me  the  firm  point  which  I  desired,  permit 
me,  honoured  Sir,  to  throw  myself  at  your  feet,  to  return  you 
thanks,  and  tell  you,  that  you  are  the  happy  prisoner  of  the  truth 
which  I  vindicate. 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?" — What  you  little  expect,  dear  Sir,  and 
what  I  think  you  cannot  possibly  avoid.  Yes,  whether  you  will  or 
no,  I  must  serve  a  friendly  warrant,  and  "  young  ignorance"  arrests 
you  in  the  name  of  English  logic,  to  make  you  publicly  subscribe  to 
the  Anti-Crispian  propositions,  which  your  Benedictine  Monk  has 
rashly  traduced. — "  1  will  never  do  it :  I  am  ready  to  offer  myself 
among  the  foremost  of  those  true  Protestants  zvho  could  have  burned 
against  the  doctrine  of  a  second  justification  by  works.^^ — Well  then, 


396  FOURTH  CHECK 

Sir,  you  shall  go,  not  to  the  stake  near  Baliol  College,  but  to  the 
ground  and  pillar  of  truth  :  and  that  you  may  not  make  a  needless 
resistance,  I  humbly  presume  to  bind  you  before  all  the  candid  and 
judicious  Calvinists  in  England,  with  the  following  necessary  conse- 
quences, of  a  capital  doctrine,  which,  you  tell  us,  "  was  never  denied 
either  by  Mr.  Shirley  or  yourself,  or  any  Calvinist  you  ever  heard  of.^^ 
If  we  are  ^^  justified  by  works,  i.  e.  by  the  evidence  of  works,  both 
here  and  at  the  day  of  judgment,^'  it  follows,  1.  That  Mr.  Wesley's 
doctrine  with  respect  to  mail'' s faithfulness  in  good  works  is  true  ;  nnd 
that,  if  a  man  (Judas  for  instance)  is  not  faithful  in  the  unrighteous 
mammon,  God  will  not  give  him  the  true  riches  of  glory.  Though  he 
should  once  have  had  faith  enough  to  leave  all  and  follow  Oirist,  his 
shipwrecked  faith,  sunk  by  bad  works,  will  profit  him  nothing:  he 
shall  as  surely  be  condemned  by  the  evidence  of  his  unfaithfulness y 
as  ever  a  highwayman  was  condem«ed  upon  the  fullest  evidence,  that 
he  had  robbed  upon  the  highway. 

2.  The  second  proposition  of  the  Minutes  also  stands  now  upon 
an  immoveable  basis.     "  Every  believer  till  he  comes  to  glory  works 

for,  as  well  as  from  life,"  since  his  works  will  appear  as  witnesses /or 
or  against  him  at  thd  day  of  judgment,  and  life  or  death  will  be  the 
certain  consequence  of  their  deposition. 

3.  The  third  proposition  of  the  Minutes  now  shines  like  the  me- 
ridian sun  after  an  eclipse  :  "  Nothing  is  more  false  than  the  maxim, 
that  a  man  is  to  do  nothing  in  order  to  justification,"  either  at  con- 
version or  in  the  last  day.  For  the  work  of  faith  undoubtedly  takes 
place  in  the  day  of  conversion,  agreeable  to  those  words  of  St.  Paul, 
"  We  have  believed  that  we  might  be  justified."  And  if  even  Cal- 
vinists grant  that  a  sinner  is  "justified  by  the  evidence  of  works 
both  here  and  at  the  day  of  judgment,"  it  is  indubitable,  that  he 
must  provide  that  evidence,  as  there  is  opportunity  ;  and  that,  if 
even  an  apostle  provides  it  not,  he  shall,  notwithstanding  his  election, 
increase  the  number  of  those  practical  Antinomians,  whose  condemna- 
tion I  have  described  in  the  Second  Check.  Hence  appears  also  the 
error  couched  under  the  unguarded  proposition  which  you  advanc 
(p.  12.)  "  In  the  act  of  justification  we  affirm  good  works  have  n» 
place  :"  for  the  good  work  of  faith  has  the  important  place  of  an  in- 
strument, when  we  are  justified  at  our  conversion  :  and  the  good 
work  of  love  will  have  the  place  of  the  chief  witness,  by  whose  de- 
position we  shall  be  justified  in  the  great  day. 

You  indeed  produce  the  words  of  our  church.  *'  The  thief  did 
believe  only,  and  the  merciful  God  justified  him ;"  but  they  make 
against  you,  for  they  intimate,  that  the  work  of  faith  was  previous  to 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  29T 

his  justification.  And  that  he  was  not  saved  without  works  strictly 
speaking,  although  he  was  saved  without  the  merit  of  works,  I  prove 
by  your  quotation  from  Bishop  Cowper,  Justifying  faith,  whereby  we 
are  saved,  cannot  be  without  works ;  and  by  these  words  of  St.  James, 
and  Mr.  Madan  adapted  to  the  present  case.  Could  "  faith  save  him  ? 
i.  e.  such  a  faith  as  hath  not  works  ;  as  is  not  productive  of  the  fruits 
of  the  Spirit  in  the  heart  and  life  ?  Is  this  saving  faith  ?  Certainly 
not."  When  our  church  says,  that  he  went  to  heaven  without 
works,  she  means  without  the  outward  works  which  Pharisees  trust 
to,  such  as  receiving  the  sacraments,  goifig  to  the  temple,  and  giving 
alms  ;  or  she  grossly  contradicts  St.  James,  Bishop  Cowper,  Mr. 
Madan,  and  herself.  Therefore,  notwithstanding  all  you  have  ad- 
vanced, even  the  penitent  thief's  experience,  who,  as  our  Church 
says,  should  have  lost  his  salvation,  and  consequently  his  justification 
and  election,  if  he  had  lived  and  not  regarded  the  works  of  faith,  is 
"  a  formidable  rampart" /or,  not  against  St.  James's  undefiled  religion. 
Again, 

4.  When  in  the  Review  of  the  Whole  Affair,  Mr.  Wesley  says,  that 
"  he  who  now  believes  in  Christ  with  a  loving,  obedient  heart,  is 
now  accepted  of  God  ;"  what  does  he  say  more  than  you,  and  your 
favourite  bishop,  who  tell  us,  (p.  12.)  "  That  justifying  faith,  where- 
by we  are  saved,  cannot  be  without  good  works  ;  for  faith  worketh 
by  love  ?"  Does  it  not  evidently  follow,  from  your  own,  as  well  as 
Mr.  Wesley's  position,  that  while  the  incestuous  Corinthian  defiled 
his  father's  bed,  his  living  justifying  faith,  had  degenerated  into  a 
dead,  delivish  faith  ?  Agreeable  to  that  evangelically-legal  proposition 
of  Mr.  Madan,  ••  If  my  faith  does  not  produce  the  proper  fruits,  it 
is  no  better  than  the  devil's  faith  :"  whence  it  necessarily  follows, 
that  the  devil's  faith  is  justifying,  or  that  the  Corinthian  backslider 
was  condemned  ;  and  consequently,  that  Calvinism  and  Antinomian- 
ism,  the  grand  pillars  of  defiled  religion,  are  two  broken  reeds. 

5.  It  is  now  an  indubitable  truth,  that  a  sincere  heathen,  who  never 
heard  the  name  of  Christ,  and  nevertheless  feareth  God  and  work- 
eth rightemsness,  according  to  his  light,  is  accepted  of  him :  for  if  he 
perseveres,  he  will  be  justified  in  the  last  day  by  the  evidence  of  his 
works  of  righteousness  ;  and  he  is  now  justified  by  the  instrumenta- 
lity of  his  faith  in  the  light  of  his  dispensation  ;  for  this  light,  when 
we  receive  it  by  faith,  if  we  may  believe  those  excellent  Mystics* 

*  The  word  Mysticism,  like  the  word  Enthusiasm,  may  be  used  in  a  good  or  bad  sense. 
I  am  no  more  ashamed  of  the  true  Mystics,  i.  e.  those  who  fathom  the  deep  mysteries  of 
inward  religion,  than  of  the  true  Enthusiasts,  those  who  are  really  inspired  by  the  grace 
and  love  of  God.    When  I  said  that  Solomon  was  the  great  Jewish  Mystic,  I  took  the 


298  FeURTH  CHECK 

St.  John  and  St.  Paul,  is  Christ  in  us  the  hope  of  glory.     John  i.  5,  9. 
Col.  i.  27.    Eph.  iii.  17.  and  v.  14. 

6.  Nor  can  you  now  justly  refuse  to  clear  Mr.  Wesley  of  the 
charge  of  heresy^  because  he  says,  Salvation  is  not  by  the  merit  of 
works,  but  by  works  as  a  condition ;  for  in  the  present  case,  where 
is  the  difference  between  the  word  evidence,  which  you  use,  n  ith  Dr. 
Guise,  Mr.  Wesley,  and  me  ;  and  the  word  condition,  which  Mr. 
Wesley  uses,  and  our  church,  and  most  of  the  Puritan  divines  ?  An 
example  will  enforce  my  appeal  to  your  candour  :  You  sit  upon  the 
bench  as  a  magistrate,  and  a  prisoner  stands  at  the  bar ;  you  say  to 
him;  "  You  are  charged  with  caliimny,  forgery,  and  gross  perver- 
sions ;  but  you  shall  be  acquitted,  on  condition,  that  some  of  your 
reputable  neighbours  give  you  a  good  character."  A  lawyer  checks 
you  for  using  the  treasonable  word  condition,  insisting  you  must  say, 
that  the  prisoner  shall  be  acquitted  or  condemned,  according  to  the 
miidence  which  his  creditable  neighbours  will  give  of  his  good  beha- 
viour. You  turn  to  the  bar,  and  say,  "  Prisoner,  did  you  understand 
me?'*  Yes,  Sir,  replies  he,  as  well  as  the  gentleman  who  stops  your 
bonour.  That  is  enough,  say  you,  let  us  not  dispute  about  words:  I 
am  persuaded  the  court  understands  we  all  mean  that  the  acquittal 
or  condemnation  of  the  prisoner  will  entirely  turn  upon  the  deposi- 
tion of  proper  witnesses. 

7.  With  regard  to  the  word  merit,  I  hope  our  controversy  is  at  an 
end :  for  Mr.  Wesley  and  I,  or  to  speak  your  own  language.  Old 
Mordecai  and  Young  Ignorance,  freely  grant  what  Bishop  Hopkins  and 
you  assert,  (Review,  p.  42.)  namely,  that  "  In  all  proper  merit  there 
must  be  an  equivalence,  or  at  least  a  proportion  of  worth  between 


W(M:d  Mystic  in  a  good  sense ;  if  all  are  Mystics  who  preach  Christ  in  us,  and  Christ  the 
ft'gr^'  of  the  world,  (as  you  intimate  in  your  five  letters)  I  affirtn,  that  St.  Paul  and  St. 
John  are  two  of  the  greatest  mystics  in  the  world.  And  when  I  intimated  that  Solo- 
BQon's  Song  is  a  mystical  book,  and  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Romaine  has  given  us  a  mystical, 
and,  in  general,  edifying  explanation  of  the  107th  Psalm ;  I  no  more  insulted  those  good  men 
than  our  Church  reflects  upon  our  Lord,  when  she  says,  that  "  matrimony  represents  to 
as  the  mystical  union  between  Christ  and  his  Church."  If  Mr.  Weslej^has  spoken 
against  Mysticism,  it  is  undoubtedly  against  that  which  is  wild  and  unscriptural ;  for  he 
has  shown  us  his  approbation  of  rational  and  scriptural  Mysticism,  by  publishing  very  edi- 
fying extracts  from  the  works  of  the  great  German  and  English  Mystics,  Kempis  and 
Mr.  Law.  Permit  me  to  recommend  to  you,  what  Mr.  flartley,  a  Clergyman  whom 
you  have  quoted  with  honour,  has  written  in  defence  of  the  Mystics,  and  to  remind  you, 
that  abroad,  those  who  go  a  little  deeper  into  inward  Christianity  than  the  generality  of 
tljeir  neighbours,  are  called  Pietists  or  Mystics,  as  commonly  as  they  are  caHed  Methodists 
in  England.  On  the  preceding  accounts  I  hope,  that  when  Mr.  Wesley,  or  Mr.  Shirley, 
ahall  again  condemn  Mysticism,  they  will  particularly  observe,  that  it  is  only  unscriptural 
and  irrational  Mysticism  which  they  explode. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  299 

the  work  and  the  reward  ; — and  that  the  obedience  we  perform  can- 
not be  said,  without  a  grand  impropriety^  to  merit  any  reward  from 
God."  But,  you  must  also  grant  us,  that  if  our  Lord,  speaking  after 
the  manner  of  men,  by  a  grand  catachresis*  a  very  condescending 
impropriety,  frequently  uses  the  word  meriting  or  deserving,  we  may 
without  heresy  use  after  him. 

Should  you  ask  me,  how  I  can  prove  that  ear  Lord  ever  used  it ; 
I  reply,  that  if  he  used  again  and  again  words  answering  to  it,  as  face 
answers  to  face  in  a  glass,  it  is  just  as  if  he  had  used  the  English  word 
merit,  or  Mr.  Wesley's  Latin  word  meritum:  and  to  prove  that  he  did 
so,  I  appeal  to  the  first  Greek  lexicon  you  will  meet  with.  I  suppose 
it  is  that  of  Schrevelius,  because  it  is  the  most  common  all  Europe 
over.  Look  for  mereor  [to  merit  or  deserve]  and  you  will  find  that 
the  correspondent  Greek  is,  f^ta-^ov  (pepetv,  literally,  to  carry  a  reward^ 
and  «|<o5  «v*<,  to  be  worthy:  «|i«  answers  to  meritum,  merit:  and 
u^tui  to  merito,  deservedly,  or  according  to  one's  merit. 

To  prove,  therefore,  that  our  Lord  did  not  scruple  to  use  the  word 
merit  in  an  improper  sense,  (  need  only  prove  that  he  did  not  scruple 
applying  the  words  fjno-^oi  and  «|/05,  to  man.  Take  some  instances 
of  both. 

1.  Matt.  XX.  8.  Give  them  t«»  fc<(r3-«v,  their  hire,  or  reward.  And 
again.  Matt.  v.  12.  Your  reward  {f^i<rB-6<;)  is  great  in  heaven,  &c. 
Hence  the  apostle  calls  God  ifA^nrB-xTo^oTvii)  the  Rewarder ;  and  Moses 
is  said  to  look  to  [f^ia-B-x'roh'rictv)  the  recompense  of  reward,  Heb.  xi. 
6,  26.  And  the  word  fciTB-x-ro^oTtx,  the  bestowing  of  a  reward^  as  much 
answers  to  the  word  fAiTB-ecpoptx,  the  carrying  of  a  reward,  or  merits 
as  the  relative  words  which  necessarily  suppose  one  another.  He 
therefore,  that  uses  the  former  without  scruple,  makes  himself  quite 
ridiculous  before  unprejudiced  people,  if  he  scruples  using  the 
latter ;  much  more  if  he  thinks  the  doing  it  is  a  dreadful  heresy. 

2.  As  for  the  other  word  [ec^ioq]  meriting^  deserving,  or  worthy,  it 
is  as  scriptural  as  any  word  in  the  Bible.  You  find  it  used  both  in  a 
proper,  and  in  an  improper  sense  in  the  following  Scriptures  :  I.  la 
a  proper  sense  :  "The  labourer  is  worthy  of  or  merits  his  hire," 
Luke  X.  7.  '*  Worthy,  or  deserving,  stripes,"  Luke  xii  48.  "  Worthy 
of,  or  meriting  death,"  Acts  xxi.  11.  *'  They  have  shed  the  blood  of 
thy  saints,  and  thou  hast  given  them  blood  to  drink,  for  they  are 
worthy:''  that  is;  they  merit,  they  deserve  it,  Rev.  xvi.  6.  2.  In  an 
improper  sense,  which  you  represent  as  heretical.    '*  They  shall  walk 

*•  A  figure  of  speech  which  consists  in  using  a  word  in  an  irnproper  sense :  aa  whe» 
unfaithful  ministers  are  called  dogs  that  cannot  bark. 


300  FOURTH    CHECK 

ivith  me  in  white,  for  they  are  worthy^^^  Rev.  iii.  4,  "  Inquire  who  is 
worthy,''  Matt.  x.  1 1.  "  Worthy  of  me,"  Matt.  x.  37.  "  They  that  were 
bidden  were  not  worthy,''  Matt.  x\ii.  8.  "  Worthy  to  escape  these 
things,"  Luke  xxi.  36.  *'  Worthy  to  obtain  that  world,"  Luke  xx. 
35,  &c.  &c. 

In  all  these  passages  the  original  word  is  <«|<o$,  worthy,  meriting,  or 
deserving.  Bishop  Cowper,  therefore,  whom  you  quote  in  your  five 
letters,  p.  26,  spoke  with  uncommon  rashness  when  he  said,  '*No  man, 
led  by  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  did  ever  use  this  word  of  merit  [i.  e.  et^ie<; 
eivect]  as  applying  to  man  :  it  is  the  proud  spirit  of  Antichrist.  Search 
the  Scriptures,  and  ye  shall  see  that  none  of  all  those  who  speak  by 
divine  inspiration,  did  ever  use  it :  yea,  the  godly  fathers  always 
abhorred  it."  What!  the  sacred  writers  "never  used  the  word 
«!<«$  etvott  !"  "  The  godly  fathers  always  abhorred"  an  expression 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  so  frequently  makes  use  of!  Christ  himself 
"  spoke  by  the  proud  spirit  of  Antichrist !"  When  I  see  such  camels 
obtruded  upon  the  Church,  and  swallowed  down  by  thousands  as  glib 
truth,  I  am  cut  to  the  heart,  and  in  a  pang  of  sorrow  and  shame  groan, 
"  From  such  divinity,  good  Lord,  deliver  me,  my  worthy  opponent, 
and  all  real  Protestants." 

To  this  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  answers  beforehand,  in  his  Friendly 
Remarks,  p.  28.  This  is  "  a  bad  criticism  upon  the  word  cc^tog^ 
which  more  properly  means  meet  ot  Jit.''  Now,  Sir,  to  your  bare 
assertion  I  oppose,  1.  All  the  Greek  lexicons.  2.  The  testimony  of 
Beza,  Calvin's  successor,  who,  speaking  of  the  word  cc^tog,  says,  "  It 
is  properly  used  of  that  which  is  of  equal  weight  and  importance.'* 
3.  The  testimony  of  Leigh,  another  learned  Calvinist,  who,  in  his 
Critica  Sacra,  says,  *'  «|<e5  has  its  name  from  ciyeiv,  a  trahendo :  quce 
preponderant,  lancem  attrahunt ;  and  is  a  metaphor  taken  from  balan- 
ces, when  one  scale  doth  counterpoise  another.''  And  speaking  of 
«|<oft>,  a  word  derived  from  «|<05,  he  adds,  '*  It  signifieth  when  either 
reward  or  punishment  is  given  according  to  the  proportion  of  merit,'* 
And  this  he  proves,  by  1  Tim.  v.  17,  "  Let  the  elders  that  rule  well, 
be  counted  worthy  of  double  honour :  for  the  Scripture  says,  the 
labourer  is  worthy  of  his  reward." 

When  1  see  the  learned  Calvinists  forced  to  grant  all  we  contend 
for,  1  wish  that  no  Protestant  may  any  longer  expose  his  prejudice, 
in  denying  what  is  absolutely  undeniable,  viz.  That  Christ  and  his 
apostles  assert,  some  men  merit,  or  are  worthy  of  rewards.  Taking 
care,  therefore,  never  to  fix  to  those  scriptural  words  the  idea  of 
proper  worthiness,  or  merit  of  condignity,  let  us  no  longer  fight  ag^nst 
Christ,  by  saying,  they  are  in  no  sense  worthy,  whom  Christ  himself 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  301 

makes^  accounts,  and  calls  worthy ;  yea,  whom  I^e  gloriously  rewards 
as  such. 

8.  As  for  this  modest  proposition  of  the  Mintites,  *'  It  is  a  doubt, 
if  God  justifies  any  one  that  never  did  fear  him  and  work  righteous- 
ness," it  stands  now  established  by  your  concessions,  not  as  matter  of 
doubt,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact,  if  we  speak  of  justification  in  the  hour 
of  conversion,  or  in  the  day  of  judgment.  For,  with  respect  to  the 
former,  you  justly  observe,  (p.  12.)  that  "  the  faith  whereby  we  are 
saved,"  and  consequently  justified,  "  cannot  be  without  good  works  :" 
and  with  regard  to  the  latter,  you  say,  p.  149,  *'  What  need  is  there, 
of  making  our  justification  by  the  evidence  of  works  in  the  day  of 
judgment,  a  matter  of  controversy  at  all  ?  We  are  quite  agreed,  that 
a  sinner  is  declaratively  justified  by  works.''''  Now,  honoured  Sir, 
if  he  is  justified  by  zoorks,  it  is  undoubtedly  by  works  of  righteous- 
ness;  unless  it  could  be  proved,  that  he  may  be  justified  by  works  of 
unrighteousness,  by  adultery  and  murder. 

9.  It  is  likewise  evident  from  your  own  concessions,  that  "  talking 
,of  a  justified,  or  a  sanctified  state,"  without  paying  a  due  regard  to  good 
works,  tends  to  mislead  men,  and  actually  misleads  thousands.  If  Judas, 
for  instance,  when  he  neglected  good  works,  which  are  the  mark  of 
our  first,  and  the  instrument  of  our  second  justification,  trusted  to 
what  was  done  in  the  moment  in  which  he  was  effectually  called  to 
leave  all,  and  follow  Jesus,  he  grossly  deceived  himself:  or,  if  he 
depended  upon  imputed  righteousness,  when  he  neglected  personal 
holiness,  he  built  upon  the  loosest  sand. 

The  seasonableness  of  Mr.  Wesley's  caution  in  this  respect,  will 
strike  you,  if  you  cast  your  eyes  upon  the  numbers  of  fallen  believers, 
who  once,  like  obedient  Judas,  left  all  to  follow  Christ;  bat,  having 
resumed  their  besetting  sin,  like  the  apostolic  traitor,  now  sell  their 
Saviour  and  election,  perhaps  for  a  less  valuable  consideration  than 
he  did.  However,  they  were  once  in  a  justified  and  sanctified  state, 
and  Mr.  Hill  tells  them,  that  *'  in  the  act  of  justification  good  works 
have  no  place,"  and  insinuates,  that  adulterers  and  murderers  may  be 
in  the  winter  season  of  a  sanctified  state  ;  therefore  they  reasonably 
conclude,  that  they  are  still  justified  and  sanctified.  Thus  they  live, 
and  if  God  does  not  send  them  an  honest  Nathan,  or  if  when  he 
comes  they  stop  their  ears,  and  cry  out.  Heresy !  thus  like  Judas  they 
will  die. 

10.  With  respect  to  the  last  clause  of  the  Minutes,  you  must  ac- 
knowledge, that  ''  we  are  every  moment  pleasing  or  displeasing  to 
God,  according  to  the  whole  of  our  inward  tempers  and  outward  be- 
haviour :""  or,  to  clothe  Mr.  Wesley's  doctrine  in  words  in  which  you 

Vol.  r.  39 


302  ^  FOURTH    CHECK 

agree  with  me  ;  you  must  confess,  that  "As  we  may  die  any  houV: 
and  any  moment,  we  are  liable  to  be  every  hour  and  every  moment 
justified,  or  condemned,  by  the  evidence  of  our  works."^  This  is 
evident,  if  you  consider  St.  Paul's  words,  Without  faith  it  is  impossible 
to  please  God ;  and  if  you  do  not  recant  what  you  say,  Review,  p.  12, 
^*  Justifying  faith  [the  faith  by  which  we  please  God]  cannot  be  with- 
out good  works."  You  must  therefore  prove  that  adultery,  treachery, 
and  murder,  are  good  works,  and  by  that  mean  openly  plead  for  Belial, 
Baal,  and  Beelzebub  ;  or  you  must  grant  that  when  David  committed 
those  crimes,  he  had  not  justifying  faith,  and  consequently  could  not 
please  God.  And  the  moment  you  grant  this,  you  set  your  seal  to 
the  last  proposition  of  the  Minutes,  which  you  esteem  most  contrary, 
and  I  entirely  agreeable,  to  sound  doctrine. 

Having  thus,  by  the  help  of  your  own  concessions,  once  more  re- 
moved the  rock  of  offence,  under  which  you  try  to  crush  the  season- 
able rampart  of  St.  James's  undefiled  religion,  which  we  call  the  Mi- 
nutes, I  leave  you  to  consider  how  much  Mr.  Wesley  has  been  misun- 
derstood, and  how  much  the  truth  of  the  Gospel  has  been  set  at 
naught.     I  am,  honoured  and  dear  Sir, 

Yours,  &c. 

J.  FLETCHER. 

*  The  reader  ^  once  more  desired  to  remember,  that  by  works  we  understand  not  only 
the  works  of  the  tongue  and  hands,  i.  e.  words  and  actions ;  but  also,  and  chiefly,  the  works 
of  the  mind  and  heart,  that  is,  thoughts,  desires,  and  tempers. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM*  203 


LETTER  VI, 


-\»\^^ 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir, 

While  my  engine,  common  sense,  stands  yet  firm  upofl  the  point 
of  our  Justification  by  the  evidence  of  works,  which  you  have  so  fully 
granted  me,  permit  me  to  level  it  a  moment  at  the  basis  of  the  main 
pillars  which  support  Antinomianism  and  Calvinism. 

1.  If  righteous  Lot  had  died  when  he  repeated  the  crimes  of  drunk- 
enness and  incest,  his  justification  would  have  been  turned  into  con- 
demnation, according  to  St.  Paul's  plain  rule,  If  thou  be  a  breaker  of 
the  law^  thy  circumcision  is  made  uncircumcision :  for  neither  the  holy 
God,  nor  any  virtuous  man,  can  possibly  justify  a  sinner  upon  the 
evidence  of  drunkenness  and  incest. 

2.  If  old  Solomon,  doating  upon  heathenish  young  women,  and  led 
away  by  them  into  abominable  idolatries,  had  died  before  he  was 
brought  again  to  repentance,  he  could  never  have  seen  the  kingdom 
of  God  : — he  would  have  perished  in  his  sin  :  unless  Geneva  logic 
can  make  it  appear,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  word  of  God,  that  the 
impenitent  shall  not  perish,  and  that  idolaters  shall  inherit  the  kingdom 
of  God,  Luke  xiii.  3.   1  Cor.  vi.  "9. 

8.  If  the  incestuous  Corinthian  had  been  cut  off  while  he  defiled 
his  father's  bed,  the  justification  granted  him  at  his  first  conversion, 
far  from  saving  him  in  the  day  of  judgment,  would  have  aggravated 
his  condemnation,  and  caused  him  to  be  counted  worthy  of  a  muck 
severer  punishment,  than  if  he  never  had  known  the  way  of  righteous- 
ness, — never  been  justified  :  unless  you  can  prove  that  Christ  would 
have  acquitted  him  upon  the  horrid  evidence  of  apostacy  and  incest, 
which  appears  to  me  as  difficult  a  task,  as  to  prove  that  Christ  an4 
i^elial  are  one  and  the  same  filthy  god 


304  fOURTH    CHECK 

4.  If  David  and  Bathalheba  had  been  run  through  by  Uriah,  a« 
Zimri  and  Cosbi  were  by  Phinehas  :  and  if  they  had  died  in  their 
flagrant  wickedness  ;  no  previous  justification,  no  Calvinian  imputation 
of  righteousness,  would  have  secured  their  justification  in  the  last 
day.  For,  upon  the  evidence  of  adultery  and  premeditated  murder, 
they  would  infallibly  have  been  condemned  ;  according  to  those  awful 
words  of  our  Lord,  /  come  quickly^  to  give  every  man,  (here  is  no 
exception  for  the /7?easan<  children,)  according  as  his  rvork  shall  be, 
not  according  as  my  work  has  been  :  Blessed  are  they  that  do  his  com- 
mandments, that  they  may  enter  in  through  the  gates  into  the  city ;  for 
without  are  dogs,  whoremongers,  and  murderers.  Rev.  xxii.  12,  &c. 

Should  you  say.  It  is  provided  in  the  decree  of  absolute  election, 
that  adulterers,  who  once  walked  with  God,  shall  not  die  till  they 
have  repented  ;  1.  I  demand  proof  that  there  ever  was  such  a  decree. 
In  the  second  Psalm,  indeed,  I  read  about  God's  decree  respecting 
Christ  and  mankind  ;  but  it  is  the  very  reverse  of  Calvin's  decree, 
for  it  implies  general  redemption  and  conditional  election.  /  will  de- 
clare the  decree :  thou  art  my  Son ;  I  will  give  thee  the  heathen  for 
thine  inheritance,  and  the  utmost  parts  of  the  earth  for  thy  possession. — 
Kiss  the  Son,  lest  he  be  angry,  and  ye  perish  from  the  way. 

2.  This  evasion  is  founded  upon  a  most  absurd  proposition,  which 
sows  pillows  to  the  arms  of  backsliders  and  apostates,  by  promising 
them  immortality  if  they  persevere  in  sin.  But  setting  aside  the  ab- 
surdity of  supposing,  that  old  Solomon,  for  example,  might  have  kept 
himself  alive  till  now  by  assiduously  worshipping  Ashtaroth  ;  or, 
which  is  the  same,  that  he  might  have  put  off  death  by  putting  off  re- 
pentance, because  he  could  not  die  till  he  had  repented  :  I  ask, 
where  is  this  strange  Gospel  written  ?  Certainly  not  in  the  Old 
Testament  ;  for  God  asks  there  with  indignation,  When  the  righteous 
iurneth  away  from  his  righteousness,  and  committeth  iniquity,  shall  he 
LIVE  ?  No;  in  his  sin  that  he  hath  sinned  shall  he  die,  Ezek.  xviii. 
24.  Much  less  in  the  New,  where  Christ  protests  that  he  will  spew 
lukewarm  believers  out  of  his  mouth,  and  that  every  branch  in  him 
which  hears  not  fruit  shall  be  taken  away,  or  cut  off ;  an  awful  threaten- 
ing this,  which  was  executed  even  upon  one  of  the  twelve  apostles ; 
for  our  Lord  himself  says,  Tliose  that  thou  gavest  me,  I  have  kept, 
and  none  o/'them  is  lost  but  Judas,  who  feW  finally,  since  he  died  in 
the  very  act  of  self-murder,  and  is  particularly  called  the  son  of  per- 
dition. 

But  granting  you,  that  lest  Lot,  David,  and  Solomon,  should  be 
condemned  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment,  they  were  to  be  im 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  305 

mortal  till  they  reiJented  and  did  their  first  works  ;  this  very  suppo- 
sition indicates,  that  till  they  repented  they  were  sons  oi  perdition^ 
according  to  that  solemn  declaration  of  Truth  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all  perish. 

As  if  you  were  aware  of  this  difficulty,  p.  149,  you  have  recourse 
to  a  noted  distinction  in  Geneva  logic,  by  which  you  hope  to  secure 
your  favourite  doctrine,  as  well  as  fond  Rachel  once  secured  her 
favourite  teraphim.  You  say,  "  that  though  a  sinner,"  (David,  for 
instance,  or  Solomon,)  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  God  by  Christ  alone, 
he  is  declaratively  justified  by  works  both  here  and  at  the  day  of 
judgment." 

Now,  Sir,  this  necessarily  implies,  that  though  David  in  Uriah's 
bed,  and  Solomon  at  the  shrine  of  Ashtaroth,  were  justified  in  the 
sight  of  God  by  Christ's  chastity  and  piety  imputed  to  them  :  yet, 
before  men,  and  before  the  Judge  of  ^uick  and  dead,  they  are  justi- 
fied by  the  evidence  of  their  own  chastity  and  piety.  This  distinc- 
tion, one  of  the  main  supports  of  Calvinism,  is  big  with  absurdities  : 
for  if  it  be  just,  it  follows, 

1.  That  while  God  says  of  Solomon,  worshipping  the  goddess  ol 
the  Zidonians,  he  is  still  a  true  heVievev,  he  is  justified  from  all  things ; 
Christ  says,  By  his  fruit  ye  shall  know  him ;  he  is  an  impenitent,  un- 
justified idolater  ;  and  St.  James,  siding  with  his  Master,  says  ro^indiy 
that  Solomon's  faith,  being  now  without  works,  is  a  dead,  unjustifying 
fiiith,  by  which,  as  well  as  by  bis  bad  works,  he  is  condemned  already. 
Now,  Sir,  it  remains  that  you  should  give  up  Antinomian  Calvinism, 
or  tell  us  who  is  grossly  mistaken,  God  or  Christ :  for  upon  your 
scheme,  God  says  of  an  impenitent  idolater,  who  once  believed  in 
him,  "  He  is  fully  justified  by  the  perfect  law  of  liberty  :"  and  Christ 
says,  "  He  is  fully  condemned  by  the  same  law  !"  and  reason  dic- 
tates, that  both  parts  of  a  full  contradiction  cannot  be  true. 

Do  not  say,  that,  upon  the  Calvinian  plan,  the  Father  and  the  Son 
never  contradict  one  another  in  the  matter  of  a  sinner's  justification  : 
for  if  the  Father  justifies  by  the  imputation  of  an  external  righteous- 
ness, which  constitutes  a  sinner  righteous  while  he  commits  all  sorts 
of  crimes;  and  if  the  Son,  on  the  other  hand,  condemns  a  sinner 
for  his  words,  much  more  for  the  commission  of  adultery,  idolatry, 
and  murder ;  their  sentence  must  be  as  frequently  different,  as  a  be- 
liever acts  or  speaks,  contrary  to  the  law  of  liberty.  For  Christ, 
being  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever,  cannot  justify,  he  must 
condemn  now,  as  well  as  in  the  day  of  judgment,  every  man  who  now 
acts  or  speaks  wickedly. 


306  FOURTH    CHECK 

Should  you  attempt  to  account  for  the  Father's  imaginary  justifica- 
tion of  an  impenitent  idolater,  by  bringing  in  Calvin's  decrees,  and 
saying  that  God  reckoned  Solomon  a  converted  man  at  the  shrine  of 
Ashtaroth,  because  he  had  absolutely  decreed  to  give  him  restoring 
grace  ;  I  reply,  supposing  such  decrees  are  not  imaginary,  is  it  not 
absurd  to  say,  God  reckons  that  cold  is  heat,  and  confounds  January 
"with  July,  because  he  has  decreed  that  summer  shall  follow  winter? 
Therefore,  which  way  soever  you  turn,  absurdities  or  impieties  stare 
you  in  the  face. 

2.  The  unreasonableness  of  Calvinism  will  appear  to  you  more 
glaringly  still,  if  you  suppose  for  a  moment  that  David  died  in  Uriah's 
bed.  For  then,  according  to  Crisp's  justitication  by  the  imputation  of 
Christ's  chastity,  he  must  have  gone  straight  to  heaven  ;  and  accord' 
ing  to  our  Lord's  condemnation,  by  the  evidence  of  personal  adultery, 
he  must  have  gone  straight  id  hell.  Thus,  by  the  help  of  Geneva 
logic,  so  sure  rs  the  royal  adulterer  might  have  died  before  Nathan 
stirred  him  up  to  repentance,  I  can  demonstrate,  that  David  might 
have  been  saved  and  damned,  in  heaven  and  in  hell  at  the  same 
time! 

3.  Your  distinction  insinuates,  that  there  will  be  two  days  of  judg- 
ment ;  one  to  try  us  secretly  before  God,  by  imputed  sin  and  imputed 
righteousness  ;  and  the  other,  to  try  us  publicly  before  men  and  dn- 
gelSf  by  personal  sin  and  personal  righteousness  :  a  new  doctrine  this, 
which  every  Christian  is  bound  to  reject,  not  only  because  the  Scrip- 
ture is  silent  about  it,  but  because  it  fixes  a  shocking  duplicity  of 
conduct  upon  God ;  for  it  represents  him,  first,  as  absolutely  saving 
or  damning  the  children  of  men,  according  to  his  own  capricious 
imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness,  or  of  Adam's  sin  ;  and  then 
as  being  desirous  to  make  a  show  of  justice  before  men  and  angels, 
by  pretending  to  justify  or  condemn  people  according  to  their  works, 
when,  in  fact,  he  has  already  justified  or  condemned  them  without  the 
least  respect  to  their  works  ;  for,  say  Bishop  Cowper  and  Mr.  Hill, 
"  In  the  act  of  justification,  good  works  have  no  place  :"  and  indeed 
how  should  they,  if  free  grace  and  free  wrath  have  unalterably  cast 
the  lot  of  all  before  the  foundation  of  the  world  ! — or,  in  other  terms, 
if  finished  salvation  and  finished  damnation  have  the  stamp  of  God. 
as  well  as  that  of  Calvin  ? 

4.  According  to  your  imaginary  distinction,  Christ,  as  King  of 
saints,  frequently  condemns  for  inherent  wickedness,  those  whom  he 
justifies,  as  a  Priest,  by  imputed  righteousness  ;  and  so,  to  the  disgrace 
of  his  wisdom,  he  publicly  recants,  as  a  Judge,  the  sentence  of  com- 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  307 

piete  justification,  which  he  privately  passes  as  a  God.  Permit  me 
to  enforce  this  observation  by  the  example  of  Judas,  or  any  other 
apostate.  I  hope  nobody  will  charge  me  with  blasphemy,  for  saying 
that  our  Lord  called  Judas  with  the  same  sincerity  with  which  he 
called  his  other  disciples.  Heaven  forbid,  that  any  Christian  should 
suppose,  the  Lamb  of  God  called  Iscariot  to  get  him  into  the  pit  ot 
perdition,  as  the  fowler  does  an  unhappy  bird  which  he  wants  to  get 
into  a  decoy.  Judas  readily  answered  the  call,  and  undoubtedly  be- 
lieved in  Christ,  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  apostles  :  for  St.  John  saya. 
This  beginning  of  miracles  did  Jesus  in  Cana  of  Galilee^  and  manifested 
forth  his  glory ^  and  his  disciples  [of  whom  Judas  was  one]  believed  in 
him.  His  faith  was  true,  so  far  as  it  went ;  for  he  was  one  of  the 
little  flock  to  whom  it  was  God^s  good  pleasure  to  give  the  kingdom, 
Luke  xii.  32.  Our  Lord  pronounced  him  blessed  with  the  rest  of  his 
disciples.  Matt.  xiii.  16.  and  conditionally  promised  him  one  of  the 
twelve  apostolic  crowns  in  his  glory,  Matt    xix.  28. 

If  you  say,  that  "  he  was  always  a  traitor  and  a  hypocrite,  you 
run  into  endless  difficulties;  for,  1.  You  make  Christ  countenance, 
by  his  example,  all  bishops  who  knowingly  ordain  wicked  men  ;  all 
patrons,  who  give  them  livings  ;  and  all  kings  who  prefer  ungodly 
men  to  high  dignities  in  the  church.  2.  You  suppose  that  Christ, 
who  would  not  receive  an  occasional  testimony  from  an  evil  spirit, 
not  only  sent  a  devil  to  preach  and  baptize  in  his  name,  but  at  his  re~ 
turn  encouraged  him  in  his  horrid  dissimulation,  by  bidding  him  re- 
joice that  his  name  was  written  in  heaven.  3.  You  believe  that  the 
faithful  and  true  Witness,  in  whose  mouth  no  guile  was  ever  found, 
gave  this  absurd,  hypocritical  charge  to  a  goat,  an  arch-hypocrite,  a 
devil :  Behold,  I  send  you  forth  as  sheep  in  the  midst  of  wolves ;  but 
fear  not,  the  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered.  A  sparrow  shall  not 
fall  to  the  ground  without  your  Father,  and  ye  are  of  more  value  than 
many  sparrows.  Do  not  premeditate,  it  shall  be  given  you  what  you 
shall  speak :  for  it  is  not  you  that  speak,  but  the  Spirit  of  your  Father 
which  speaketh  in  you. 

When  our  Lord  spoke  thus  to  Judas,  he  was  a  sheep,  i.  e.  he  heard 
Oirist's  voice,  and  followed  him.  But,  alas  !  he  was  afterward  taken 
by  the  bright  shining  of  silver  and  gold,  as  David  was  by  the  striking 
beauty  of  Uriah's  wife.  And  when  he  had  admitted  the  base  tempta- 
tion, our  Lord,  with  the  honesty  of  a  Master,  and  tenderness  of  a 
Saviour,  said.  Have  not  I  chosen  you  twelve,  and  one  of  you  is  a  devil? 
He  has  let  the  tempter  into  his  heart.  This  severe,  though  indirect 
reproof,  reclaimed  Judas  for  a  time ;  as  a  similar  rebuke  checked 
Peter  on  another  occasion.    Nor  wgs  it,  probably,  till  near  the  end  of 


jU«  fourth  check 

our  Lord's  ministrj,  that  he  began  to  be  unfaithful  in  the  mammon 
of  unrighteousness :  and  even  then  Christ  kindly  warned,  without 
exposing  him. 

Some,  indeed,  think  that  our  Lord  was  partial  to  Peter ;  but  I  do 
not  see  it :  for  with  equal  love  and  faithfulness  he  warned  all  his  dis- 
ciples of  their  approaching  fall,  and  mentioned  the  peculiar  circum- 
stances of  Judas's  and  Peter's  apostacy. — "  Ay,  but  he  prayed  for 
Peter,  that  his  faith  might  not  fail." — And  is  this  a  proof,  that  he 
never  prayed  for  Judas  ?  That  he  always  excepted  him,  when  he 
prayed  for  his  disciples,  and  that  he  would  have  excepted  him,  if  he 
had  been  alive  when  he  interceded  for  all  his  murderers  ? — "  How- 
ever, he  looked  at  Peter,  to  cover  him  with  penitential  shame."  Nay, 
he  did  more  than  this  for  Judas ;  for  he  pointed  at  him,  first  indirectly, 
and  then  directly,  to  bring  him  to  a  sense  of  his  crime.  But  suppos- 
ing our  Lord  had  not  at  all  endeavoured  to  stop  him  in  his  dreadful 
career,  would  this  have  been  a  proof  of  his  reprobating  partiality  ? 
Is  it  not  said,  that  ike  Lord  weigheth  the  spirits?  As  such,  did  he  not 
see  that  Judas  offended  of  malicious  wickedness,  and  calm  delibera- 
tion :  and  that  Peter  would  offend  merely  through  fear  and  surprise  ? 
Supposing,  therefore,  he  had  made  a  diflference  between  them,  would 
it  be  right  to  account  for  it  by  Calvinian  election  and  reprobation, 
when  the  difference  might  so  naturally  be  accounted  for  from  the 
different  state  of  their  hearts,  and  nature  of  their  falls  ?  Was  it  not 
highly  agreeable  to  the  notions  we  have  of  justice,  and  the  declara- 
tions we  read  in  the  Scripture,  that  our  Lord  should  reprobate,  or 
give  up  Judas,  when  he  saw  him  immoveably  fixed  in  his  apostacy, 
and  found  that  the  last  hour  of  his  day  of  grace  was  now  expired  ? 

From  all  these  circumstances,  I  hope  I  may  conclude,  that  Judas 
was  not  always  a  hypocrite  ;  that  he  may  be  properly  ranked  among 
apostates,  that  is,  among  those  who  truly  fall  from  God,  and  therefore 
were  once  truly  in  him  ;  and  that  our  Lord  spoke  no  untruth,  when 
he  called  the  Spirit  of  God  the  Spirit  of  Judas's  Father,  without 
making  any  difference  between  him  and  the  other  disciples. 

ii  you  ask.  How  he  fell  ?  1  reply,  that,  overlooking  an  important 
part  of  our  Lord's  pastoral  charge  to  him,  He  that  endureth  unto  the 
end,  the  same  shall  be  saved,  he  dallied  with  worldly  temptations,  till 
ihe  evil  spirit,  which  was  gone  out  of  him,  entered  in  again,  with 
t^even  other  spirits  more  wicked  than  himself,  and  took  possession  of 
liis  heart,  which  was  once  swept  from  reigning  sin,  and  garnished 
with  the  graces  which  adorn  the  Christian  in  his  infant  state.  Thus, 
like  Hymeneus,  Philetus,  Demas,  and  other  apostates,  by  putting. 
urtay  a  good  conscience,  concerning  faith  he  made  shipwreck,  and  evx- 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  309^ 

denced  the  truth  of  God's  declaration,  When  the  righteous  iurnethaway 
from  his  righteousness,  all  his  righteousness  that  he  hath  done  shall  not  be 
mentioned :  in  his  sin  that  he  hath  sinned  he  shall  die. 

"  Nay,  Judas  kept  his  master's  money,  and  was  a  thief;  therefore 
he  was  always  a  hypocrite,  an  absolute  reprobate." 

To  show  the  weakness  of  this  objection,  I  need  only  retort  it  tl)us. 
David  set  his  heart  upon  his  neighbour's  wife,  as  Judas  did  upon  his 
Master's  money,  and  like  him  betrayed  innocent  blood  ;  therefore  he 
was  always  a  hypocrite,  an  absolute  reprobate.  If  the  inference  be 
just  in  one  case,  it  is  undoubtedly  so  in  the  other. 

*'  But  David  repented,  and  did  his  first  works.'*'' 

I  thank  my  objector  for  this  important  concession.  Did  Judas 
perish  ?  It  was  then  because  he  did  not  do  his  first  works,  though  he 
repented.  And  is  David  saved?  It  is  because  he  not  only  repented, 
but  did  also  his  first  works ;  or,  to  use  your  own  expressions,  because 
he  recovered  "justifying  faith,  which  cannot  be  without  good  works.'* 
Thus,  when  he  had  recovered  justifying  faith  before  God,  he  could 
again  be  justified  by  the  evidence  of  works,  both  before  his  fellow- 
mortals,  and  that  God  who  judges  the  world  in  righteousness,  and  who 
sentences  every  man  according  to  his  own  works,  and  not  merely 
according  to  works  done  by  another  near  6000  or  1800  years  before 
they  were  born.  Thus  the  royal  adulterer,  who  died  a  justified, 
chaste  penitent,  can,  through  the  merits  of  Christ,  stand  before  the 
throne  in  a  better  and  more  substantial  righteousness,  than  the  fan- 
tastic robe  in  which  you  imagine  he  was  clothed,  when  his  eyes  were 
full  of  adultery,  and  his  hands  full  of  blood  : — an  airy,  loose,  flimsy 
robe  this,  cut  out  at  Geneva  and  Dort,  not  at  Jerusalem  or  Antioch  ; — 
a  wretched  contrivance,  the  chief  use  of  which  is  to  cover  the  iron- 
clay  feet  of  the  Calvinian  Diana,  and  afford  a  safe  asylum,  a  decent 
canopy  to  the  pleasant  children,  while  they  debauch  their  neighbours' 
wives,  and  hypocritically  murder  them  out  of  the  way. 

O  ye  good  men,  how  long  will  ye  inadvertently  represent  our  God, 
who  is  glorious  in  holiness,  as  the  pander  of  vice  ?  Ar>d  Christ's 
immaculate  righteousness,  as  the  unseemly  cloak  of  such  wickedness 
as  is  not  so  much  as  named  among  the  Gentiles  ?  O  that  salvation 
from  this  evil  were  given  unto  Israel  out  of  Zion !  O  that  the  Lord 
would  deliver  his  people  from  this  preposterous  error !  O  that  the 
blast  of  divine  indignation,  and  the  sighs  of  thousands  of  good  men, 
lighting  at  once  on  the  great  image,  might  tear  away  the  loose  robe 
of  righteousness,  which  Calvin  put  upon  her  in  a  ^'•winter  season!''* 
Then  could  all  the  world  read  the  mark  of  the  beast  and  the  fiend, 
which  she  wears  on  her  naked  breast :  *'  Free  adultery,  free  murder, 

Vol.  L  40 


310  FOURTH   CHECK 

free  incest,  any  length  of  sin  for  the  pleasant  children,  the  little  flock 
of  the  elect :  Free  wrath,  free  vengeance,  free  damnation,  for  the 
immense  herd  of  the  reprobates  !" 

But  to  return  to  Judas,  the  first  of  all  Christian  apostates  :  waiving 
the  consideration  of  his  justification  in  his  infancy,  I  observe,  that  as 
he  had  once  true  faith,  he  undoubtedly  believed  to  righteousness,  and 
consequently  t^  teas  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness.  Now,  if  this 
mean  that  God  put  upon  him  a  loose  robe  of  righteousness,  which  for 
ever  screened  him  from  condemnation,  and  under  which  he  could 
conceal  a  bag  of  stolen  money,  as  easily  as  you  suppose  David  hid  the 
ewe-lamb  which  he  conveyed  away  from  Uriah's  pasture  ;  it  follows, 
upon  your  scheme,  that  *'  justification  being  one  single,  immutable 
act,  in  which  works  have  no  place,"  Judas  is  still  completely  justified 
before  God,  by  Calvinian  imputation  of  righteousness  ;  although 
Christians  have  hitherto  believed,  works  have  so  important  a  place 
in  justification,  that  the  apostate  is  no  less  condemned  before  God, 
than  before  men  and  angels,  by  his  avarice  and  treason. 

Let  those  who  can  split  a  hair,  as  easily  as  an  eagle  can  find  her 
passage  between  east  and  west,  take  the  chosen  apostle,  who  did  not 
make  his  election  sure  by  the  \vorks  of  faith  ;  and  let  them  split  him 
asunder :  so  shall  happy  Iscariot,  the  dear  elected  child  of  God, 
wrapped  in  imputed  righteousness,  and  carried  by  everlasting  love, 
infallibly  go  to  heaven  -without  works,  in  consequence  of  his  Calviniau 
justification  before  God  ;  while  poor  reprobated  Judas,  for  accona- 
plishing  God's  decree,  shall  infellibly  go  to  his  own  place,  in  conse-  , 
quence  of  his  condemnation  by  the  evidence  of  wicked  works.  f 

Thus,  honouretl  Sir,  by  fixing  my  plain  engine,  common  sense ^npoti 
the  immoveable  point  which  you  have  granted  me,  i.  e.  St.  James's 
justification  by  works,  I  hope  I  have  not  only  removed  the  rock  of 
ofience  from  off  Mr.  Wesley's  Anti-Crispian  propositions,  but  heaved 
also  your  great  Diana,  and  her  brother  Apollyon,  (I  mean  uncondi- 
tional Election  and  absolute  Reprobation)  from  off  the  basis  of  ortho- 
doxy, on  which  you  suppose  they  stand  firm  as  the  pillars  of  heaven. 
May  the  God  of  pure,  impartial  love,  whom  they  have  so  indirectly 
traduced,  as  a  God  of  blind  dotage  to  hundreds,  and  implacable  wrath 
to  millions  of  his  creatures,  in  the  very  same  circumstances  ; — the 
God  whom  those  unscriptural  doctrines  have  represented  as  fond  Eli, 
and  grim  Apollyon  :  may  He,  I  say,  arise,  for  his  name's  sake,  and 
touch  the  Geneva  Colossus  with  his  own  omnipotent  finger  :  so  shall 
it  in  a  moment  fall  from  the  amazing  height  of  reverence  to  which 
Calvin,  the  Synod  of  Dort,  and  EUsha  Coles,  have  raised  it;  and  its 
undeceived  votaries  shall  perceive,  they  had  do  more  reason  to  call 


TO   Aj^TINOMIANISM.  311 

Geneva  impositions  the  doctrines  of  grace^  than  good  Aaron  and  the 
mistaken  Israelites,  to  give  the  tremendous  name  of  Jehovah  to  the 
ridiculous  idol,  which  they  had  devoutly  set  up  in  the  absence  of  legal 
Moses  :  so,  giving  glory  to  God,  they  shall  confess  that  the  robe  of 
their  image,  with  which  some  so  officiously  cover  impenitent  adulter- 
ers and  murderers,  is  no  more  like  the  true  wedding-garment,  than 
the  imaginary  appearances  of  armed  men  in  the  clouds,  are  like  the 
multitude  of  the  heavenly  host. 

While  you  try  to  defend  this  robe,  and  I  to  tear  it  off  the  back  of 
Aotinomian  Jezebel,  let  us  not  neglect  pulling  off  the  old  man^  putting 
on  Christ  Jesits,  and  walking  in  him  as  St.  Paul,  or  taith  him  as  Enoch, 
arrayed  in  fine  linen^  clean  andwhiie^  which  is  the  righteousness  imparted 
to  the  saintSy  when  Christ  is  formed  in  their  hearts  by  faith,  and  imputed 
to  them  so  long  as  they  walk^  in  their  measure,  as  he  also  walked. 
That  notwithstanding  our  warm  controversy,  we  may  te.a/fc  in  love 
with  each  other,  and  all  the  people  of  God,  is  the  prayer  of,  honoured 
and  dear  Sir,  your  obedient  and  devoted  servant  in  St.  James's 
Gospel, 

JOHN  FLETCHER, 


312  rOTJRTH   CHECK 


LETTER  VII, 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir, 

X  HE  Fourth  Letter  of  your  Review^  you  produce  as  "  a  full  and 
particular  answer'^  to  what  I  have  advanced  against  Crisp's  scheme 
of  finished  salvation  and  finished  damnation.  But  to  my  great  surprise,- 
you  pass  in  profound  silence  over  my  strongest  arguments.  Had  I  been 
in  your  place,  I  would  have  paid  some  regard  to  my  word,  printed  in 
capitals  in  my  titlepage  :  I  would  have  tried  to  prove,  that,  upon 
Crisp's  scheme,  St.  Paul  might,  consistently  with  wisdom,  exhort  the 
Philippians  to  work  out  their  [finished]  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling. And  if  I  could  not  have  made  it  appear,  that  our  Lord  has 
finished  his  work,  as  an  interposing  Mediator,  a  teaching  Prophet,  and 
a  ruling  King,  I  would  either  have  given  up  the  point,  or  endea- 
voured to  show,  that  he  has  finished  it  at  least  as  a  Priest. 

But  even  this  you  could  not  do  without  setting  aside  two  important 
parts  of  his  priestly  office  :  for  the  same  Jesus,  who  offered  up  him- 
self as  the  true  paschal  Lamb,  is  now  exalted  at  the  right  hand  of  God, 
to  bless  us  as  our  Melchisedec,  and  make  intercession  for  us  as  our 
Aaron,  s^aying  daily  concerning  a  multitude  of  barren  fig-trees  in  his 
vineyard.  Let  them  alone  this  year  also,  till  I  shall  dig  about  them  :  and 
if  they  bear  fruit,  well:  and  if  not,  thou  shalt  cut  than  down.  Now  if  he 
daily  carries  on  his  own  personal  work  of  salvation,  not  only  as  a 
Prophet  and  a  King,  but  also  as  a  Mediator  and  a  priest ;  common 
sense  dictates,  that  "  his  personal  work''^  is  no  more  finished  than  our 
own;  and  that  the  doctrine  of  finished  salvation  is  founded  upon  a  heap 
of  palpable  mistakes,  if  by  that  expression  you  mean  any  thing  more 
than  di finished  atonement. 

But,  overlooking  these  insurmountable  difficulties,  you  open  your 
■^ full  and  particular  answer"  by  saying,  p.  62^,  63,  "  Finished  Salra- 


TO    ANTINOMIANISJt.  313 

tion  is  the  grand  fortress,  against  which  all  your  artillery  is  played,  and 
ait  which  your  heavy  bombs  of  bitter  sneer  and  cutting  sarcasm  are 
thrown  : — Yet  this  very  expression,  in  its  full  extent,  1  undertake  to 
vindicate,  and  in  so  doing  shall  fly  to  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  :  and  the 
Lord  enabling  me  to  wield  it  aright,  I  doubt  not  I  shall  put  to  flight 
the  armies  of  the  aliens."  Let  us  now  see  how  you  manage  your 
sword,  put  us  to  flight,  and  establish  finished  salvation. 

L  Page  63,  "  When  the  Lord  o(  Glory  gave  up  the  ghost,  he 
cried,  It  is  finished.  And  what  was  finished  ?  Not  merely  his  life  :  but 
the  work  which  was  given  him  to  do.'  And  what  was  this  work,  but  the 
salvation  of  his  people  ?  One  would  have  imagined,  that  the  Lord's 
own  use  of  this  expression  might  have  silenced  every  cavil." 

The  Lord's  own  use  of  this  contested  expression,  finished  salvation! 
Pray,  Sir,  where  does  he  use  it  ?  Certainly  not  in  the  two  passages 
you  quote,  /  have  finished  the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do,  previously  to 
my  entering  on  my  passion  :  and,  It  is  finished:  that  is,  All  the  pro- 
phecies relative  to  what  I  was  to  do,  teach,  and  sufi'er  before  my  death, 
are  accomplished.  These  scriptures  do  not  in  the  least  refer  to  the 
\Vork  of  salvation  on  our  part ;  nor  do  they  even  take  in  the  most  im- 
portant branches  of  salvation's  work  on  CJirist's  part.  To  assert  it. 
is  to  take  a  bold  stride  into  Socinianism,  and  maintain,  it  was  not  need- 
ful to  our  salvation  that  Christ  should  die^  and  rise  again.  For  when 
he  said,  I  have  finished  the  work  thou  gavest  me  to  do,  he  was  not  yet 
entered  upon  his  passion  :  nor  had  he  died  for  our  sins,  mux;h  less 
was  he  yet  risen  for  our  justification,  when  he  said  upon  the  cross,  It 
is  finished.  To  suppose  then,  that  salvation's  work  on  Christ's  part 
was  finished,  not  only  before  his  resurrection,  but  also  before  his 
death,  is  to  set  aside  some  of  his  most  important  works  ;  in  direct  op- 
position to  the  Scriptures,  which  testify,  that  he  died,  the  just  for  the 
unjust:  and  afl[irm  that  if  he  is  not  raised,  our  faith  is  vain,  we  are  yet 
in  our  sins.  Thus,  Sir,  you  have  so  unhappily  begun  to  "  wield  your 
sword,"  as  to  cut  down,  at  the  first  stroke,  the  two  grand  articles  of 
the  Christian  faith,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

IL  Page  33.  To  mend  the  matter,  you  have  recourse  to  the  mys- 
terious doctrine  of  the  decrees  ;  and  because  "  All  events  are  present 
unto  God,  and  were  so  from  eternity  to  eternity,"  you  aflirm,  that 
"  The  glorification  of  the  elect  is  as  much  finished  as  their  predestination.'' 
By  the  same  rule  of  Geneva  logic,  I  may  say,  that  because  God  has 
decreed,  the  world  shall  melt  with  fervent  heat,  the  general  conflagra- 
tron  is  as  much  finished  as  the  deluge.  Were  ever  more  strange  as- 
sertions obtruded  upon  mankind? 


314  FOURTH  CHECK 

If  this  illustration  does  not  convince  you  of  your  mistake,  I  turn  the 
tables,  and  make  your  blood  run  cold  with  the  dreadful  counterpart  of 
your  own  proposition.  *'  The  damnation  of  the  non-elect  [born  or  un- 
born] is  as  much  finished  as  their  predestination.^^  And  are  these  the 
good  tidings  of  great  joy  which  shall  be  to  all  people?  And  is  this  the 
comfortable  Gospel  of  free  grace,  which  we  are  to  preach  to  every 
creature  ?  Alas,  Sir,  you  wield  your  sword  so  unskilfully,  as  absolutely 
to  cut  down  all  hopes  and  possibility  of  mercy  for  millions  of  your 
fellow-creatures  ;  even  for  all  the  poor  reprobates  on  the  left  side  of 
the  ship,  who,  "  from  eternity  to  eternity,  were  irresistibly  enclosed 
in  the  net  of  finished  damnation  J''"' 

III.  P.  63.  To  support  your  unscriptural  assertion,  you  produce 
'*  Rom.  viii.  30.  Whom  he  did  predestinate,  them  he  also  called,  and 
whom  he  called,  them,  he  also  justified  ;  and  whom  he  justified,  them  he 
also  glorified.^^  Indeed,  Sir,  the  Apostle  no  more  meant  to  insinuate  by 
these  words,  that  David  wds  justified  and  glorified,  when  he  wallowed 
in  thefilth  of  adultery  and  murder  ;  than  that  Judas  was  condemned  and 
damned,  when  he  left  all  to  follow  Christ.  He  only  lays  before  us  an 
account  of  the  method,  which  God  follows  in  the  eternal  salvation  of 
obedient,  persevering  believers  :  who  are  the  persons  that,  as  such, 
he  predestinated  to  life,  according  to  his  foreknowledge,  and  the  counsel 
of  his  holy  will.  These  he  called,  but  not  these  alone.  When  they 
made  their  calling  sure,  by  believing  in  the  light  of  their  dispensation, 
these  he  also  justified.  And  when  they  made  their  justification  sure,  by 
adding  to  their  faith  virtue,  4'C.  these  he  also  glorified  ;  for  the  souls  of 
departed  saints  are  actually  glorified  in  Abraham's  bosom  ;  and  living 
saints  are  not  only  justified,  but  also  in  pnrt  glorified;  for,  by  the  Spirit 
of  glory  and  of  God,  which  rests  upon  them,  they  are  changed  into  the 
divine  image  from  glory  to  glory ;  yea,  they  are  already  all  glorious 
within. 

How  much  more  reasonable  and  scriptural  is  this  sense  of  the 
apostle's  words,  than  that  which  you  fix  upon  them,  by  which  you 
would  make  us  believe,  that,  on  the  one  hand,  Solomon's  salvation 
(including  his  justification  and  glorification)  v/as  finished  '*  in  the  full 
extent  of  the  expression,^^  when  he  worshipped  the  abomination  of  the 
Zidonians,  and  gloried  in  his  shame:  while,  on  the  other  hand,  De- 
mas's  damnation  was  finished,  when  he  was  St.  Paul's  zealous  com- 
panion in  the  kingdom  and  patience  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  O  Sir,  have  you 
not  here  also  inadvertently  used  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  to  oppose  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit,  and  make  way  for  barefaced  Antinoraianism?  Ypu 
proceed. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  315 

IV.  P.  63.  "  The  same  apostle,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians, 
speaking  to  believers,  addresses  them  as  already  (virtually)  seated  in 
heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesns.""  Hence  you  infer,  that  their  salvation 
was  Jlnishedy  **  iVi  the  full  extent  of  the  expression.''''  But  your  conclu- 
sion is  not  just ;  for  the  apostle,  instead  of  supposing  their  salvation 
finished,  exhorts  them  not  to  steal,  not  to  be  drunk  with  wine,  and  not  to 
give  place  to  the  devil,  by  fornication,  uncleanness,  filthiness,  or  covet- 
ousness ;  for  this  ye  know,  adds  he,  that  no  unclean  person,  &c.  hath 
any  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ ;  so  far  is  he  from  being 
"  already  virtually  seated  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus." 

What  need  is  there  of  darkening  counsel  by  a  word  without  know- 
ledge? By  the  dark  word  "  virtually  ?"  While  the  Ephesians  kept 
the  faith,  did  they  not  set  their  affections  on  things  above?  Were  not 
their  hearts  in  heaven  with  Christ,  agreeably  to  our  Lord's  doctrine, 
Where  your  treasure  is,  there  will  your  hearts  be  also  ?  And  by  a  lively 
faith,  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  did  they  not  already 
share  the  glory  of  their  exalted  Head  ?  Will  you  still  endeavour  to 
persuade  the  world,  that  when  David  defiled  his  neighbour's  bed,  he 
was  seated  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  ?  Is  it  not  evident,  that  these, 
and  the  like  expressions  of  St.  Paul,  must  not  be  understood  of  idle, 
Antinoraian  speculations  ;  but  of  such  a  real  change,  as  our  church 
mentions  in  her  collect  for  Ascension-day  ?  "  Grant,  that  as  Christ 
ascended  into  the  heavens  ;  so  we  may  also  in  heart  and  mind  thither 
ascend,  and  continually  dwell  .*"'  Such  powerful  exertions  of  faith, 
hope,  and  love,  as  are  described  in  the  77th  hymn  of  Mr.  Madan's 
collection  ? 


"  Uyjaith  we  are  come 

To  our  permanent  home, 
By  hope  we  the  rapture  improve  : 

By  love  we  still  rise, 

And  look  down  on  the  skies — 
For  the  heaven  of  heavens  is  /ore/" 


But  this  is  not  all  :  If  the  elect,  whether  they  be  drunk  or  sober, 
chaste  or  unclean,  "  are  already  virtually  seated  in  heavenly  places 
in  Christ,"  according  to  the  doctrine  oi  finished  salvation  ;  are  not 
poor  reprobates,  whether  they  pray  or  curse,  repent  or  sin,  already 
virtually  seated  in  hellish  places  in  the  devil,  according  to  the  doctrine  of 
finished  damnation?  O  Sir,  when  you  use  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  to 
storm  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  cut  the  way  through  Law  and  Gospel 
before  an  adulierer  in  Jlagrante  delicto,  that  he  may  virtually  [that  is, 
I  fear,  comfortably  and  securely]  sit  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ,  di> 


3W  FOURTH  CHjECK 

you  not  dreadfully  prostitute  God's  holy  word  ?  iDadvcrtently  fight  the 
battle  of  the  rankest  Antinomians,  and  secure  the  foundation  of  Sandi- 
man's  as  well  as  Crisp's  increasing  error*  ?  But  you  have  an  excuse 
ready  : 

V.  P.  63.  *'  Christ  has  purchased  the  Spirit,  to  work  mortification 
of  sin,  5ic.  in  the  hearts  of  his  children  :  and  in  this  respect  their 
sanctification  is  really  as  much  Jinished  as  their  justification."  I  re- 
ply, I.  If  their  justification  by  works  is  not  finished,  before  the  day 
of  judgment,  as  our  Lord  informs  us,  Matt.  xii.  37.  your  observation 
proves  just  nothing.  2.  The  Scriptures,  in  direct  opposition  to  your 
scheme  declare,  that  the  Spirit  strives  with,  and  consequently  was 
purchased  for  all ;  those  who  quench  it,  and  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost, 
not  excepted.  Therefore,  neither  the  sanctification  nor  salvation  of 
dinners,  is  absolutely  secured  by  the  purchase  you  mention.  If  it 
were,  all  the  world  would  be  saved.  But  alas  !  many  deny  the  Lord 
that  bought  them,  and  by  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace  purchased 
for  them,  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruction,  instead  oi  finished 
salvation.  Here  then,  the  sword  which  you  wield,  flies  again  to 
pieces,  by  clashing  with  the  real  sword  of  the  Spirit,  brandished  by 
St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul. 

VI.  P.  64.  You  bring  in  "  The  immutability  of  God's  counsel 
confirmed  by  an  oath,"  and  add,  "  The  will  and  testament  is  signed, 
sealed,  and  properly  attested. — The  "whole  affair  is  finished.  There 
remains  nothing  to  do  but  to  take  possession."  1  thank  you,  dear  Sir, 
for  this  concession  ;  something  then  "  remains  to  do  :"  we  must,  at 
least,  "  take  possession  :"  and  if  we  neglect  doing  it,  farewell  finished 
salvation:  we  shall  as  much  fall  short  of  the  heavenly,  as  the  Israelites, 
who  perished  in  the  wilderness,  because  they  refused  to  take  posses- 
sion, fell  short  of  the  earthly  Canaan. 

Again,  we  grant,  that  God's  "  Will  and  Testament  is  finished,  and 
sealed  by  Christ's  most  precious  blood  ;"  and  that  "  the  everlasting 
covenant  is  ordered  in  all  things,  and  sure  :"  But  if  part  of  that  will 
and  covenant  run  thus  :  Ye  are  saved  by  grace  through  faith  : — Ye  are 
kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  : — lfy€  continue  in  the  faith: — 
Faith  without  works  is  dead : — Wherefore  work  out  your  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling: — For  him  that  sinneth,  I  will  blot  out  of  my 
hook :  If  ye  walk  contrary  to  me,  I  will  walk  contrary  to  you  : — /  will 
cut  my  staff.  Beauty,  asunder,  that  I  may  break  my  covenant  w-hich  I  have 
made  with  all  the  people,  Zech.  xi.  10. — Jlnd  ye  shall  know  my  breach 
of  promise,  Numb.  xiv.  34.  I  will  therefore  put  you  in  remembrance, 
though  ye  once  knew  this,  how  that  the  Lord  having  saved  the  people  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt,  afterward  destroyed  them  that  believed  not:"^ 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  317 

Although  through  faith  they  kept  the  passover^  and  the  sprinkling  of 
bloody  lest  the  destroyer  should  touch  them :  and  did  all  drink  the  same 
spiritual  drink,  (for  they  drank  of  that  spiritual  rock  that  followed 
them:  and  that  rock  was  Christ  :) — JVow  all  these  things  happened  to 
them  for  examples;  and  they  are  written  for  our  admonition.  Where- 
fore let  him  that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he  fall : — If  part  of 
God's  will  and  covenant ,  I  say,  run  thu3  ;  is  it  not  absurd  to  suppose, 
that  any  man's  salvation  is  finished,  while  he  not  only  does  not  comply 
with  the  gracious  terms  of  God's  "  sure  covenant,"  but  notoriously 
incurs  the  dreadful  threatenings  recorded  in  his  unalterable  "  will  and 
testament."  Here  then,  instead  of  '•^turning  to  flight  the  armies  of 
the  aliens,^'  you  have  given  us  weapons  to  beat  you  out  of  the  field. 
But  you  soon  come  back  again  to  say, 

VII.  P.  64.  *'  Certain  it  is,  that  the  salvation  of  every  soul  given 
by  the  Father  to  the  Son,  in  the  eternal  covenant  of  redemption,  is 
as  firmly  secured,  as  if  those  souls  were  already  in  glory."  The 
certainty  which  you  speak  of,  exists  only  in  your  own  imagination. 
Judas  was  given  by  the  Father  to  the  Son  ;  and  yet  Judas  was  lost. 
If  the  salvation  of  some  people  "  was  as  firmly  secured  from  the 
beginning  as  if  they  had  already  been  in  glory,"  all  the  ministers  of 
the  Gospel  who  have  addressed  them  at  any  time  as  children  of  wrath, 
have  been  preachers  of  lies,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  witnesses  to  an  un- 
truth, when  he  testifies  to  th^  lanregenerate  elect,  that  they  are  in  dan- 
ger of  hell.  But  this  is  not  all ;  upon'your  dangerous  scheme,  the 
foundations  are  thrown  down  ;  man  is  no  more  in  a  state  of  trial : 
the  day  of  judgment  will  be  a  mere  farce  ;  and  the  Scriptures  are  a 
farrago  of  the  most  absurd  cautions,  and  the  most  scandalous  lies  : 
for  they  perpetually  speak  to  believers,  as  to  persons  in  danger  of 
falling,  and  being  cut  off",  if  they  do  not  walk  circumspectly ;  and  they 
assert  that  some  perish  for  whom  Christ  died ;  and  that  others,  by  deny- 
ing the  Lord  who  bought  them,  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruction. 

But  pray,  Sir,  when  you  tell  us,  "  The  salvation  of  every  soul 
given  by  the  Father  to  the  Son,  in  the  eternal  covenant  of  redemp- 
tion, is  as  firmly  secured,  as  if  those  souls  were  already  in  glory  ;" 
do  you  not  see  the  cloven  foot  on  which  your  doctrine  stalks  along? 
Permit  me  to  uncover  it  a  moment,  and  strike  my  readers  with  salu- 
tary dread,  by  holding  forth  the  inseparable  counterpart  of  your  dan- 
gerous opinion,  "  Certain  it  is,  that  the  damnation  of  every  soul  given 
by  the  Father  to  the  devil,  in  the  eternal  covenant  of  reprobation,  is 
as  firmly  secured,  as  if  those  souls  were  already  in  /le//."  Shame  on 
the  man  that  first  called  such  horrid  tenets  the  doctrines  o/"  grace,  and 
the  FREE  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ !  Confusion   on  the  lying  spirit,  who 

Vol.  I.  '  41 


318  FOURTH    CHECK 

broke  out  of  the  bottomless  pit,  thus  to  blaspheme  the  Father  of  mer- 
cies, delude  good  men,  and  sow  the  tares  of  Antinomianism !  O  Sir, 
when  you  plead  for  such  doctrines,  instead  of  wielding  aright  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit,  do  you  not  plunge  it  in  muddy,  Stygian  waters, 
till  it  is  covered  with  sordid  rust,  and  reeks  with  poisonous  errpr  ? 
But  you  pursue  : 

VIII.  P.  64.  *'  To  scruple  the  use  of  that  expression,  ^^ms/ied  sal- 
'dation,  argues  the  greatest  mistrust  of  the  Mediator's  power,  and 
casts  the  highest  reflection  upon  his  infinite  wisdom,  by  supposing 
that  he  did  not  count  the  cost  before  he  began  to  build,  and  therefore 
that  either  hir  own  personal  work,  or  that  which  he  does  in  his  mem- 
bers (for  they  are  only  parts  of  the  same  salvation)  is  left  unfinished.^' 
If  we  do  not  admit  your  doctrine,  it  is  not  because  we  mistrust  the 
Mediator's  "  power,"  and  have  low  thoughts  of  his  "  wisdom  ;"  but 
because  we  cannot  believe,  that  he  will  use  his  Power  in  opposition 
to  his  Wisdom  and  Truth,  in  taking  the  elect  by  main  force  into  heaven, 
as  a  strong  man  takes  a  sack  of  corn  into  his  granary ;  much  less  can 
we  think,  that  he  will  use  his  Omnipotence  in  opposition  to  his 
Mercy  and  Justice,  by  placing  millions  of  his  creatures  in  such  forcible 
circumstances,  as  absolutely  necessitate  them  to  sin  and  be  damned^ 
according  to  the  horrible  doctrine  of  finished  damnation. 

Nor  do  we  suppose,  that  Christ  unwisely  forgot  to  "  count  the 
cost."  No :  from  the  beginning  he  knew,  that  some  would  abuse 
their  hberty,  and  bury  their  talent  of  good  will,  and  gracious  power 
to  come  unto  him,  that  they  might  have  more  abundant  life.'  But  far 
from  being  disappointed,  as  we  are  when  things  fall  out  contrary  to 
our  fond  expectation,  he  declared  beforehand,  /  have  laboured  in 
vaiuy  yet  surely  my  work  is  with  my  God,  Isa.  xlix.  4.  As  if  he  had 
said,  "  If  I  cannot  rejoice  over  the  obstinate  neglecters  of  my  great 
salvation  ;  if  my  kindly  dying  for  their  sins,  excepting  the  blasphemy 
against  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  my  sincerely  calling  upon  them  to  turn 
and  live,  prove  useless  to  them,  through  their  doi7ig  despite  to  the 
Spirit  of  grace,  and  committing  the  sin  unto  death;  yet  my  work  will 
not  be  lost  with  respect  to  my  God.  For  my  impartial,  redeeming 
love,*  will  eflfectually  stop  every  mouth,  and  abundantly  secure  the 
honour  of  all  the  divine  perfections,  which  would  be  dreadfully 
sullied,  if,  by  an  absolute  decree  that  all  should  necessarily  fall  ia 
Adam,  and  that  millions  should  never  have  it  in  their  power  to  rise 
by  Me,  I  had  set  my  seal  to  the  horrible  doctrine  of  finished  dajn- 
nation.'*^ 

Here  then,  in  flourishing  with  your  sword,  you  have  beaten  the  air, 
instead  of  turning  to  flight  the  armies  of — '  those  who  are  not  clear  in 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  315 

the  doctrine  of  absolute  predestination,  whom  you  cair — ^^ aliens;'** 
and  in  a  quotation,  p.  37,  *'  absolutely  place  among  the  numerous 
hosts  of  the  Diabolonians,  who,  by  the  best  of  laws,  must  die  as  elec- 
tion-doubters." 

IX.  P.  64.  *'  If  any  thing  be  left  unfinished,  Christ  would  never 
have  said,  He  that  believeth  hath  everlasting  life:  it  is  already  begxm  in 
his  soul."  Well,  if  it  is  but  begun,  it  is  not  yet  finished.  But  you 
add,  "  It  is  so  certain  in  reversion,  that  nothing  shall  deprive  him  of 
it." — True,  if  he  continue  in  the  faith,  and  abide  in  Christ,  hearing 
his  voice,  and  following  him:  For  who  shall  pluck  you  out  of  the  Re- 
deemer's hand? — Who  shall  harm  you  if  ye  be  followers  of  that  which 
is  good?  But  if  the  believer  make  shipwreck  of  his  faith,  and  end  in 
the  flesh,  after  having  begun  in  the  Spirit,  with  all  apostates  he  shall 
of  the  flesh  reap  destrucHoji,     Again, 

Everlasting  life,  in  the  passage  you  quote,  undoubtedly  signifies  a 
title  to  eternal  bliss,  as  it  appears  from  these  words  of  our  Lord,  He 
that  has  left  brethren,  &c.  for  my  sake,  shall  receive  in  the  world  to  come 
eternal  life ;  and  from  these  words  of  St.  Paul,  Ye  have  your  fruit  unto 
holifiess,  and  the  end  everlasting  life :  Now  if  we  give  over  following 
after  holiness,  and  do  not  continue  to  leave  all  for  Christ's  sake,  may 
we  not  forfeit  our  title  to  glory,  as  the  servant  who  had  ten  thousand 
talents  forgiven  him,  forfeited  his  pardon  and  the  privilege  annexed  to 
it,  by  taking  his  fellow-servant  by  the  throat,  and  arresting  him  for  a 
hundred  pence  ?  But  supposing  the  expression  everlasting  life  means, 
as  you  intimate,  *'  the  life  of  God  already  begun  in  the  soul," 
agreeably  to  these  scriptures  ;  The  life  that  Hive,  I  live  by  faith  in 
the  Son  of  God ;  for  the  just  shall  live  by  faith;  how  can  you  infer, 
that  the  life  of  faith  is  inamissible  ?  If  you  can  believe  that  every 
child  quickened  in  the  womb,  grows  up  to  be  a  man,  because  he  has 
human  life  in  embryo  ;  I  will  grant,  that  no  soul,  quickened  by  the 
seed  of  grace,  can  miscarry,  and  that  the  seed  of  the  word  brings 
forth  fruit  to  maturity  in  every  sort  of  ground. 

Should  you  reply,  "  That  the  life  of  faith,  or  spiritual  life,  cannot 
be  lost,  because  it  is  of  an  eternal  nature,"  I  deny  the  consequence. 
Suppose  I  have  lost  an  everlasting  jewel,  do  1  not  quibble  myself  out 
of  my  invaluable  property,  if  I  say,  "  I  have  not  lost  it,  for  it  is 
everlasting  ?"  Did  not  Satan  and  Adam  lose  their  spiritual  life  ?  Do 
not  all  apostates  lose  it  also  ?  Is  there  a  damned  soul  but  what  has 
lost  it  twice !  once  in  Adam,  and  the  second  time  by  his  own  per- 
sonal transgressions  ?  Are  not  all  men  who  burn  in  fire  unquenchable, 
trees  plucked  up  by  the  roots ;  not  because  they  died  in  Adam,  but 
because  they  are  tmice  dead ;  because  they  personally  destroyed  them* 


32Q  roURTH  CH£CK 

selves,  and  when  Christ  gave  them  a  degree  of  life,  would  not  come 
to  him  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly  ?  Thus,  by  resisting 
to  the  last  the  quickening  beams  of  the  Spirit  that  strove  with  them^ 
they  quenched  him  in  themselves,  and  became  apostates.  If  Christ  is 
the  light  and  the  life  of  men,  and  if  he  enlightens  every  man  that  comes 
into  the  rvorld,  are  not  all  the  damned  apostates  ?  Have  they  not 
all  fallen  from  some  degree  or  other  of  quickening  grace  ?  Have 
they  not  all  buried  one  or  more  talents?  And  is  it  not  Satan's 
masterpiece  of  policy,  to  make  good  men  assure  quickened. sinners 
that  they  cannot  lose  their  life,  no,  not  by  plunging  into  the  whirl- 
pools of  adultery,  murder,  and  incest?  The  ancient  serpent  deceived 
our  first  parents  by  saying,  Ye  shall  not  surely  die,  if  ye  eat  of  the 
forbidden  fruit ;  but  now,  it  seems,  he  may  take  his  rest ;  for,  O 
astonishing !  Gospel  ministers  do  his  work :  they  inadvertently 
deceive  the  very  elect,  and  overthrow  the  faith  of  some,  by  making 
them  the  very  same  false  promise. 

I  have  already  observed,  that  he  who  helieveth  is  said  to  have  ever- 
lasting life ;  not  only  because,  while  he  keeps  the  faith,  he  has  a 
title  to  glory,  but  because  living/ai7/i  always  works  by  love,  the  grace 
that  never  faileth,  the  grace  that  lives  and  abides  for  ever  ;  not  indeed 
in  this  or  that  individual  during  his  state  of  probation,  but  in  the  king- 
dom of  heaven,  among  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect  in  love,  and 
confirmed  in  glory.  However,  you  still  urge,  "  To  say  that  everlasting 
life  can  be  lost,  is  a  contradiction  in  terms  ;  if  it  be  everlasting,  how 
Oan  it  be  forfeited  or  lost  ?"  How  !  Just  as  the  Jews  forfeited,  the 
land  which  God  gave  to  Abraham  for  an  everlasting  possession,  Gen. 
xvii.  8.  Just  as  the  seed  of  Phinehas  lost  the  everlasting  priesthood, 
Num.  XXV.  13.  Just  as  the  Israelites  broke  the  everlasting  covenant, 
Isa.  xxiv.  5.  ^ust  as  Hymeneus  andPhiletus  forfeited  the  everlasting 
privileges  of  believers  ;  that  is,  by  making  shipwreck  of  faith  and  a 
good  conscience.  Here  then,  the  edge  of  your  own  sword  is  again 
blunted,  and  the  stroke  given  to  the  "  aliens"  easily  parried  with  the 
unbroken  sword  ef  the  Spirit ;  I  mean  the  word  of  God  illustrated  by 
itself,  and  taken  in  connexion  with  itself.     However,  you  proceed  : 

X.  P.  64.  "  The  ciiosen  vessel,  Paul,  tells  his  beloved  Timothy, 
that  God  hath  saved  us,  and  called  us  with  a  holy  calling,  &c."  Hence 
you  conclude,  that  if  we  are  elect,  our  salvation  \s  finished,  I  grant, 
that  God  hath  saved  us  from  hell,  placed  us  in  a  state  of  salvation 
hefrun,  and  called  us  wiih  a  holy  calling,  to  work  out  our  salvation  with 
fear  and  trembling;  under  some  dispensation  of  that  grace  which  was 
given  us  in  Christ  before  the  world  began;  according  to  God's  own pur- 
jiose  that  Christ  should  be  the  Saviour  of  aU  men,  especially  of  them 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  .321 

Utat  believe.  But  alas  !  though  many  are  thus  called,  yet  hut  /ctjv  arc 
chosen;  because  few  walk  worthy  of  their  high  vocation,  few  make 
their  calling  and  election  sure.  Numbers,  like  David  and  Solomon, 
Demas  and  Sapphira,  believe  for  a  while,  and  in  time  of  temptation, 
fall  away ;  some  of  whom,  instead  of  rising  again,  draw  back  unto 
perdition. 

Hence  "  the  chosen  vessel,  Paul,"  himself  cries  to  halting  be- 
lievers, How  shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation?  So 
far  was  he  from  imagining  that  the  salvation  of  some,  and  the  damna- 
tion of  others  "  were  as  firmly  secured,"  as  if  the  former  were 
already  in  heaven,  and  the  other  in  hell !  So  little  did  he  think,  that  to 
preach  the  Gospel  was  to  present  the  elect  with  nothing  but  the  cup 
of  finished  salvation,  even  when  they  take  away  the  wives  and  lives 
of  their  neighbours  ;  and  to  drench  the  reprobates  with  the  cup  of 
finished  damnation,  even  while  they  ask,  seek,  knock,  and  endeavour 
to  make  their  mock  calling  sure  ! 

Certain  it  is,  'that  if  the  apostle  spoke  o(  your  ^finished  salvation, 
when  he  said,  God  hath  saved  us,  and  called* us  with  a  holy  callinrr^ 
reprobated  myriads  nfay  reasonably  give  over  wrestling  with  almighty 
everlasting  wrath,  and  cry  out,  "  He  hath  damned  us,  and  called  us 
with  an  unholy,  hypocritical,  and  lying  calling,  according  to  his  own 
purpose  and  wrath,  which  was  given  in  Adam  before  the  world  be- 
gan." 0  Sir,  by  this  frightful  doctrine,  you  give  a  desperate  thrust 
to  the  hopes  which  millions  entertain,  that  God  is- not  yet  absolutely 
merciless  towards  them,  and  that  they  may  yet  repent  and  be  saved : 
but  happily  for  them,  it  is  with  the  dagger  of  error,  and  not  with  the 
sword  of  the  Spirit. 

XI.  P.  65.  "  But  farther.  Believers  are  said  to  be  saved  by  faith, 
and  to  be  kept  by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation.  Now 
true  faith  and  salvation  are  here  inseparably  linked  by  the  apostle." 
Inseparably  linked  !  Pray  Sir,  where  is  the  inseparable  link  ?  I  see 
it  not.  Nay,  when  I  consult  the  apostles,  on  whose  strained  words 
you  raise  your  argument,  they  rise  with  one  consent  against  your 
doctrine.  The  one  says,  some  branches  in  Christ  were  broken  off' 
because  of  unbelief ;  thou  standest  by  faith ;  [undoubtedly  true  fuith] 
nevertheless,  fear  lest  he  also  spare  not  thee.  Behold  his  goodness  to- 
wards thee,  IF  thou  continue  in  his  goodness  :  otherwise  thou  also  shall 
be  cut  off.  The  other  declares,  If  after  they,  [fallen  believers  whom 
he  does  not  call  "pleasant,"  but  cursed  children]  have  escaped  the 
pollutions  of  the  world,  through  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  [that  is,  through  true  faith]  they  are  again  entanMed 
therein,  and  overcome ;  the  latter  end  is  worse  with  them  than  the  begin- 


322  FOURTH  CHECK 

ning,  2  Pet.  ii.  20,  compared  with  2  Pet.  i.  2,  8,  9,  10.  Thus,  Sir, 
St.  Paul  and  St.  Peter,  whom  you  call  to  your  assistance,  agree  to 
wrench  your  sword  Out  of  your  own  hand.  But  you  soon  take  it  up 
again. 

XII.  P.  64.  "  Christ  being  styled,  not  only  the  author,  but  the 
finisher  of  our  faith,  he  nnust  be,  consequently,  tbe  finisher  of  our 
salvation.''^  So  he  undoubtedly  is,  when  we  are  workers  together  with 
him,  that  is,  when  using  the  gracious  talent  of  tvill  and  power,  which 
he  freely  gives  us,  we  work  out  our  own  salvation  tvithfear  and  trem- 
bling. But  if  we  bury  that  talent,  do  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace, 
forget  that  we  were  washed  from  our  sins,  and  wallow  again  in  the  mire 
of  iniquity  ;  Christ,  the  author  of  the  faith  which  we  destroy,  profit- 
eth  Its  nothing  :  we  are  fallen  from  grace. 

Is  it  right  to  rock  feeble  believers  in  the  cradle  of  carnal  security, 
by  telling  them  they  can  never  lose  the  faith  ;  when  part  of  St.  Paul's 
triumphant  song,  just  before  he  received  the  crown  of  martyrdom, 
was,  [have  kept  the  faith?  What  wonder  was  it,  that  he  should  have 
kejjt,  what  even  the  oarnal,  incestuous  Corinthian  could  «e2;er /ose  / 
When  the  Scriptures  mention^  not  only  those  vfho  have  kept  the  faith, 
but  those  who  have  made  shipwreck  of  it  and  of  a  good  conscience, — 
those  who  believe  for  a  while,  and  in  time  of  temptation  fall  away — 
and  those  who  one  day  believe,  another  day  have  little  faith,  and 
by  and  by  have  no  faith  ; — are  we  not  wise  above  what  i&  written, 
and  sow  we  not  Antinoraian  tares,  when  we  give  lukewarm  Laodi- 
ceans  to  understand,  they  can  never  lose  what,  alas !  they  have 
already  lost  ? 

If  it  were  the  office  of  Christ  to  believe  in  his  own  blood  for  us,  I 
grant,  that  the  work  of  faith  and  salvation  could  not  miscarry.  But 
what  ground  have  we  to  imagine  that  this  is  the  case  !  Did  the  apos- 
tles charge  Christ,  or  sinners,  to  believe  under  pain  of  damnation  ?  If 
believing  be  entirely  the  work  of  Christ,  why  did  he  marvelat  the 
unbelief  of  the  Jews  ?  Did  you  ever  marvel,  at  the  sessions,  that  the 
constables  in  waiting  did  not  act  as  magistrates  ?  Did  you  ever  send 
them  to  jail  for  not  doing  your  work,  as  you  suppose  Christ  sends  un- 
believers to  hell  for  not  believing,  that  is,  upon  your  scheme,  for  not 
doing  his  work  ? 

While  we  readily  grant  you,  that  the  talent  o{  faith,  like  that  of  in- 
dustry, is  the  free  gift  of  God,  together  with  the  time,  opportunity,  and 
power  to  use  it ;  should  you  not  grant  us,  that  God  treats  us  as  rational, 
accountable  creatures  ?  That  he  does  not  use  the  gift  of  faith  for  us  ? 
That  we  may  bury  our  talent  of  faith,  and  perish  •  as  some  bury  their 
talent  of  industry,  and  starve  ?  And  that  it  is  as  absurd  to  say,  the 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  323 

faith  of  every  individual  io  the  church  is  inamissible,  because  Christ 
is  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith  ;  as  to  affirm  that  do  individual 
ear  of  corn  can  be  blasted,  because  Christ  (who  upholds  all  things  by 
the  vs^ord  of  his  power)  is  the  unchangeable  author  Sindjinisher  of  all 
our  harvests  ? 

Once  more  permit  me,  honoured  Sir,  to  hang  the  millstone  of  re- 
probation about  the  neck  of  your  Diana,  to  cast  her  back  with  that 
cumbrous  weight  into  the  sea  of  error,  from  whose  scum  she,  like 
another  Venus,  had  her  unnatural  origin.  If  the  salvation  of  the 
elect  is  Jinished^  because  Christ  is  the  author  and  finisher  of  their 
/atiA,  it  necessarily  follows,  that  the  damnation  of  the  reprobates 
is  also  finished,  because  "  Christ  is  the  author  and  finisher  of  their 
unbelief"  For  he  that  absolutely  withholds  faith,  causes  unbelief, 
as  effectually  as  he  that  absolutely  withholds  the  light,  causes 
darkness. 

If,  in  direct  opposition  to  the  words  of  our  Lord,  John  iii.  18,  you 
say,  with  some  Calt^inists,  that  "  Christ  does  not  damn  men  for  un- 
helief,  but  for  their  sins  ;^^  I  reply  :  That  is  mere  trifling.  If  Christ 
absolutely  refuses  them  power  to  believe  in  the  light  of  their  dispen- 
sation, how  can  they,  but  sin  ?  Does  not  Paul  say,  that  without  faith  it 
is  impossible  to  please  God?  Is  not  unbelief  at  the  root  of  every  sin? 
Did  not  even  Adam  eat  the  forbidden  fruit  through  unbelief?  And  is 
not  this  our  only  victory,  even  our  faith  ? 

An  illustration  will,  I  hope,  expose  the  emptiness  of  the  pleas  which 
some  urge  in  fivour  of  unconditional  reprobation,  or,  if  you  please, 
non-election.  A  mother  conceives  an  unaccountable  antipathy  to  her 
sucking  child.  She  goes  to  the  brink  of  a  precipice,  bends  herself 
over  it  with  the  passive  infant  ia  her  bosom,  and,  withdrawing  her 
arms  from  under  him,  drops  him  upon  the  craggy  side  of  a  rock,  and 
thus  he  rolls  down  from  rock  to  rock,  till  he  lies  at  the  bottom  beaten 
to  pieces,  a  bloody  instance  of  finished  destruction.  The  judge  asks 
the  murderess,  what  she  has  to  say  in  her  own  defence.  The  child 
was  mine,  replies  she,  and  I  have  a  right  to  do  what  I  please  with  my 
own.  Besides,  I  did  neither  throw  him  down,  nor  murder  him  :  i 
only  withdrew  my  arms  from  under  him,  and  he  fell  of  his  owo 
accord.  In  mystic  Geneva,  she  is  honourably  acquitted  ;  but  in  Eng- 
land, the  executioner  is  ordered  to  rid  the  earth  of  the  cruel  monster. 
So  may  God  give  us  commission  to  rid  the  church  of  your  Diana,  who 
teaches,  that  he,  the  Father  of  mercies,  does  by  millions  of  his  passive 
children,  what  the  barbarous  mother  did  by  one  of  hers  :  affirming, 
that  he  unconditionally  withholds  grace  from  them  :  and  thatby  abso- 
solutely  refusing  to  be  the  author  and  finisher  of  their faithj  he  is  the 


324  FOURTH    CHECK 

absolute  author  and  finisher  of  their  unbelief,  and  consequently  of 
their  sin  and  damnation. 

XIII.  However,  without  being  frightened  at  these  dreadful  conse- 
quences, you  conclude  as  if  you  bad  won  the  day  :  P.  65.  *'  J^ow  I 
appeal  to  any  candid  judges,  whether  I  have  not  brought  sufficient 
authority,  frono  the  best  of  authorities,  God's  unerring  word,  for  the 
use  of  that  phrase,  finished  salvatimi,^^  which,  p.  63,  "  in  its  full  ex- 
tent, I  undertook  to  vindicate."  I  cordially  join  in  your  appeal,  Sir, 
and  desire  our  unprejudiced  readers  to  say,  whether  you  have  brought 
one  solid  proof  from  God's  unerring  word,  in  support  of  your  favour- 
ite scheme,  which  centres  in  the  doctrine  of  finished  salvation :  and 
whether  that  expression,  when  taken  "  in  its  full  extent,"  is  not  the 
stalking-horse  of  every  wild  Nicolaitan  Ranter;  and  the  dangerous 
bait,  by  which  Satan,  transformed  into  an  angel  of  light,  prevails 
upon  unstable  souls  to  swallow  the  silver  hook  of  speculative,  that  he 
may  draw  them  into  all  the  depths  o£  practical  Antinomianism. 

XIV.  I  do  not  think  it  worth  while  to  dwell  upon  the  lines  you 
quote  from  Mr.  Charles  Wesley's  Hymns.  He  is  yet  alive  to  tell  us 
what  he  meant  by  "  it's  finish'd  ;  it's  past,"  &c.  And  he  informs  me, 
that  he  meant  "  the  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satisfaction, 
which  Christ  made  upon  the  cross  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world, 
except  doing  despite  to  the  Spirit  of  grace,  or  the  blasphemy  against 
the  Holy  Ghost."  The  atonement,  which  is  a  considerable  part  of  the 
Redeemer's  work,  is  undoubtedly  finished ;  and  if  by  a  figure  of 
poetry,  that  puts  a  part  for  the  whole,  you  choose  to  give  the  name 
of  finished  salvation  to  a  finished  atonement,  I  have  already  observed 
in  the  Third  Check,  that  we  will  not  dispute  about  the  expression. 
We  only  entreat  you  so  to  explain  and  guard  it,  as  not  to  give  sanction 
to  *'  Antinomian  dotages,"  and  charge  the  God  of  love  with  the  blas- 
phemy of  finished  damnation. 

XV.  The  Calvinistical  passage  which  you  produce  from  the  Chris- 
tian Library  is  unguarded,  imd  escaped  Mr.  Wesley's  or  the  printer's 
attention.  One  sentence  of  it  is  worthy  a  place  in  the  Index  expur- 
gatorius,  which  he  designs  to  annex  to  that  valuable  collection.  Ne- 
vertheless, two  clauses  of  that  very  passage  are  not  at  all  to  your 
purpose.  *'  Christ  is  qow  thoroughly  furnished  for  the  carrying  on 
of  his  work ; — he  is  actually  at  work.''  Now  if  Christ  is  actually  at 
work,  and  carrying  on  his  rvoi^k,  that  work  is  not  yet  finished.  Thus, 
even  the  exceptionable  passage  which  you,  or  the  friends  who  gave 
you  their  assistance,  have  picked  out  of  a  work  of  fifty  volumes, 
shows  the  absurdity  of  taking  the  expression,  "  fit^ished  salvation,'* 
in  its  full  extent. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  325. 

Should  you  say,  "  Christ  is  thoroughly  furnished  for  his  work, 
(namely,  the  salvation  of  the  elect)  therefore  that  work  is  as  good  as 
finished  :"  I  once  more  present  you  with  the  frightful  head  of  the 
Geneva  Medusa,  and  reply,  "  Christ  is  thoroughly  furnished  for  his 
work  (namely,  the  damnation  of  the  reprobates,)  therefore  that  work 
is  as  good  as  finished."  Thus  all  terminates  still  in  uncovering  the 
two  iron-clay  feet  of  your  great  image,  absolute  election  and  absolute 
reprobation,  or,  which  is  all  one,  finished  salvation^  and  finished 
damnation. 

O  Sir,  the  more  you  fight  for  Crisp's  scheme  of  free  grace,  the 
more  you  expose  his  scheme  of  free  zvrath.  I  hope  my  judicious 
readers  are  shocked  at  it,  as  well  as  myself.  Your  *'  sword'*  really 
*'  puts  us  to  flight."  —We  start  back, — we  run  away  :  but  it  is  only  from 
the  depths  of  Satan,  which  you  help  us  to  discover  in  speculative  Anti- 
nomianism,  or  barefaced  Calvinism. 

XVI.  If  you  charge  me  with  "  calumny"  for  asserting  that  specu- 
lative Antinoraianism,  and  barefaced  Calvinism,  are  one  and  the 
same  thing ;  to  clear  myself,  I  present  you  with  the  Creed  of  aa 
honest,  consistent,  plain-spoken  Calvinist.  Read  it  without  prejudice, 
and  say,  if  it  will  not  suit  an  abettor  of  speculative  Antinomianism, 
and,  upon  occasion,  a  wild  Ranter,  wading  through  all  the  depths  of 
practical  Antinomianism,  as  well  as  an  admirer  of  "  the  doctrines  of 
grace  ?" 

Five  Letters,  1st  Edit.  p.  33,  34,  37.  <'  I  most  firmly  believe,  that 
the  grand  cause  of  so  much  lifeless  profession,  is  owing  to  the  sheep 
of  Christ  being  fed  in  the  barren  pastures  and  muddled  waters  of  a 
legalized  Gospel.  The  doctrines  of  grace  are  not  to  be  kept  out  of 
sight,  for  fear  men  of  corrupt  minds  should  abuse  them.  I  will  no 
more  be  so  fearful  to  trust  God  with  his  own  truths,  as  to  starve  his 
children  and  my  own  soul  :  1  will  make  an  open  confession  of  my 
faith." 

1.  *'I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Almighty,  who,  from  all  eternity, 
unconditionally  predestinated  me  to  life,  and  absolutely  chose  me  to 
eternal  salvation.  Whom  he  once  loved,  he  will  love  for  ever  ;  I  am 
therefore  persuaded  (p.  28,  31.)  that  as  he  did  not  set  his  love  on  me 
at  first  for  any  thing  in  me,  so  that  love,  which  is  not  at  all  dependent 
upon  any  thing  in  me,  can  never  vary  on  account  of  my  miscarriages  ; 
and  for  this  reason,  when  I  miscarry,  suppose  by  adultery  or  murder, 
God  ever  considers  me  as  one  with  his  own  Son,  who  has  fulfilled  all 
righteousness  for  me.  And  as  he  is  always  well  pleased  with  him,  so 
with  me,  who  am  absolutely  bone  of  his  bone,  and  flesh  of  his  flesh,  (p. 
26,  31.)     There  are  no  lengths,  then,  I  may  not  run,  nor  any  deptbd 

Vol.  I.  42 


326  FOURTH    CHECK 

I  may  not  fall  into,  without  displeasing  him  ;  as  1  see  in  David,  who. 
notwithstanding  his  repeated  backslidings,  did  not  lose  the  character 
of  the  man  after  God's  own  heart.  I  may  murder  with  him,  worship 
Ashtaroth  with  Solomon,  deny  Christ  with  Peter,  rob  with  Onesmius, 
and  commit  incest  with  the  Corinthian,  without  forfeiting  either  the 
divine  favour,  or  the  kingdom  of  glory.  U^o  shall  lay  any  thing  to 
the  charge  of  God's  elect?  to  the  charge  of  a  believer  ?  to  my  charge? 
For, 

2.  P.  26,  27,  32.  *'  I  believe  in  Jesus  Christ,  that  by  one  off^ering 
has  for  ever  perfected  me,  who  am  sanctified  in  all  my  sins: — In  him  I 
am  complete  in  all  my  iniquities.  What  is  all  sin  before  his  atoning 
blood  ?  Either  he  has  fulfilled  the  whole  law,  and  borne  the  curse,  or 
he  has  not.  If  he  has  not,  no  soul  can  be  saved  ;  if  he  has,  then  all 
debts  and  claims  against  his  people  and  me,  be  they  more  (suppose  a 
thousand  adulteries,  and  so  many  murders)  or  be  they  less,  (suppose 
only  one  robbery)  be  they  small  or  be  they  great,  be  they  before  or 
be  they  after  ray  conversion,  are  for  ever. and  for  ever  cancelled.  I 
set  up  no  more  mountainous  distinctions  of  sin,  especially  sins  after 
conversion.  Whether  I  am  dejected  with  Elijah  under  the  juniper- 
tree,  or  worshipping  Milcom  with  Solomon  ;  whether  I  mistake  the 
voice  of  the  Lord  for  that  of  his  priest,  as  Samuel,  or  defile  my  neigh- 
bour's bed  as  David  ;  I  am  equally  accepted  in  the  Beloved.  For  in 
Christ  I  am  chosen,  loved,  called,  and  unconditionally  preserved  to 
the  end. — All  trespasses  are  forgiven  me, — I  am  justified  from  all 
things, — I  already  have  everlasting  life.  Nay,  I  am  now  (virtually) 
set  down  in  heavenly  places  with  Christ  ;  and  as  soon  shall  Satan 
pluck  his  crown  from  his  head,  as  his  purchase  from  his  hand." 

P.  27,  28.  "  Yes,  I  avow  it  in  the  face  of  all  the  world  ;  no  falls 
or  backslidings  can  ever  bring  me  again  under  condemnation  :  for 
Christ  hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  Should  I 
out-sin  Manasses  himself,  I  should  not  be  a  less  pleasant  child;  be- 
cause God  always  views  me  in  Christ,  and  in  him  I  am  without  spot  or 
wrinkle,  or  any  such  thing.  Black  in  myself,  I  am  still  comely  through 
the  comeliness  put  upon  me  ;  And  therefore  he  who  is  of  purer  eyes 
than  to  behold  i7uquity,  can,  in  the  midst  of  adulteries,  murders,  and 
incests,  address  me  with,  Thou  art  all  fair^  ray  love,  my  undefiled;  there 
is  no  spot  in  thee !    And, 

3.  "  1  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  Spirit  of  grace,  against  whom 
I  can  never  sin,  (p.  26.)  whose  light  and  love  I  can  never  quench,  to 
whom  1  can  never  do  despite,  and  who,  in  his  good  time,  will  irresistibly 
and  infallibly  (Review,  p.  38.)  work  in  me  to  will  and  to  do.  In  the 
mean  time,  I  am  perfectly  secure  ;  for  I  can  never  perish,  my  w.lvit- 


rj3    ANTINOMIANISM.  32^ 

tion  being  already  finished  in  the  full  extent  of  the  expression."  Re- 
view, p.  63,  &c. 

**  Once,  indeed,  I  supposed,  that  the  rvraih  of  God  came,  at  least  for 
enormous  crimes,  upon  the  children  of  disobedience :  and  I  thought  it 
would  come  upon  me,  if  I  committed  adultery  and  murder  :  but  now 
I  discover  my  mistake,  and  believe,  (p.  25  and  28.)  it  is  a  capital 
error  to  confound  me  and  my  actions.  While  my  murders,  &c.  cer- 
tainly displease  God,  my  person  stands  always  absolved,  always  com- 
plete, always  pleasant  in  the  everlasting  righteousness  of  the  Re- 
deemer. I  repeat  it,  (2d  edit.  p.  37.)  it  is  a  most  pernicious  error 
of  the  schoolmen,  to  distinguish  sins  according  to  the  fact,  and  not 
according  to  the  person.  He  that  believeth  hath  as  great  sin  as  the 
unbeliever :  nay,  his  sins,  (p.  32.)  for  the  matter  of  them,  are  per- 
haps more  heinous  and  scandalous  than  those  of  the  unbeliever  ;  but 
although  he  daily  sinneth,  perhaps  as  David  and  the  Corinthian,  by 
adultery,  murder,  and  incest,  he  coniinueth  godly.^^ 

"  Before  I  was  acquainted  with  the  truth,  I  imagined,  that  sin 
would  dishonour  God,  and  injure  me  :  but  since  the  preachers  of 
finished  salvation  have  opened  my  eyes,  I  see  how  greatly  I  was  mis- 
taken. And  now  I  believe  that  God  will  overrule  my  sin  (whether 
it  be  adultery,  murder,  or  incest,)  for  his  glory  and  my  good." 

1.  "  For  his  glory.  P.  26,  30,  31,  32.  God  often  permits  his  own 
dearest  children  to  commit  adultery,  murder,  and  incest,  to  bring 
about  his  purposes.  He  has  always  the  same  thing  in  view,  namely, 
his  own  glory  and  my  salvation,  together  with  that  of  the  other  elect. 
This  Adam  was  accomplishing  when  he  put  the  whole  world  under 
the  curse  ;— Onesimus  when  he  robbed  Philemon  his  master  ; — Judah 
when  he  committed  incest  with  Tamar ; — and  David  when  he  com- 
mitted adultery  v^ith  Bathsheba. — How  has  many  a  poor,  faithless 
soul,  even  blessed  God  for  Peter's  denial  ? — As  for  the  incestuous 
Corinthian,  the  tenderness  shown  him  after  his  crime,  has  raised  many  • 
out  of  the  mire,  and  caused  them  to  recover  their  first  love." 

2.  "  For  my  good.  P.  32.  God  has  promised  to  make  all  things 
wo7^k  for  good  to  me ;  and  if  all  things^  then  my  very  sins  and  cor- 
rupti(ti6  are  included  in  the  royal  promise.  Should  I  be  asked.  What 
particular  good  sin  will  do  me  in  time  and  in  eternity  ?  I  answer  :  A 
grievous  fall  [suppose  into  adultery,  murder,  or  incest]  shall  serve 
to  make  me  know  my  place,  to  drive  me  near  to  Christ,  to  make  me 
more  dependent  upon  his  strength,  to  keep  me  more  watchful,  to 
cause  me  to  sympathize  with  the  fallen,  and  to  make  me  sing  louder 
to  the  praise  of  free,  sovereign,  restoring  grace,  throughout  all  the 
ages  of  eternity.     Thus,  although  I  highly  blame  (p.  33)  those  whn» 


328  FOURTH    CHECK 

roundly  say,  *'  Let  us  sin  that  grace  may  abound,"  I  do  not  legalize 
the  Gospel,  but  openly  declare,  (p.  27.)  that  if  I  commit  adultery, 
murder,  or  incest,  before  or  after  my  conversion,  grace  shall  irresis- 
tibly and  infaUihly  abound  over  these,  and  all  my  other  sins,  be  they 
small  or  be  they  great,  be  they  more  or  be  they  less.  My  foulest 
falls  will  only  drive  me  nearer  to  Christ,  and  make  me  sing  (p.  32.) 
his  praises  louder  than  if  1  had  not  fallen.  Thus  [to  say  nothing  of 
the  sweetness  and  profit  which  may  now  arise  from  sin]  adultery,  in- 
cest, and  murder,  shall,  upon  the  whole,  make  me  holier  upon  earth, 
and  merrier  in  heaven." 

I  need  not  tell  you.  Sir,  that  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  all  the 
doctrines,  and  most  of  the  expressions,  of  this  dangerous  confession 
of  faith.  If  any  one  doubt  of  it,  let  him  compare  this  Creed  and 
your  Letters  together.  Some  clauses  and  sentences  I  have  added, 
not  to  "  misrepresent  and  blacken,"  but  to  introduce,  connect,  and 
illustrate  your  sentiments.  You  speak,  indeed,  in  the  third  person, 
and  I  in  the  first,  but  this  alters  not  the  doctrine.  Besides,  if  the 
privileges  of  a  lean  believer  belong  to  me,  as  well  as  to  David  ;  I  do 
not  see  why  I  should  be  debarred  from  the  fat  pastures  you  recom- 
mend, (p.  34.)  which,  I  fear,  are  so  very  rich,  that  if  the  leanest 
sheep  of  Christ  do  but  range,  and  take  their  fill  in  them,  they  will, 
in  a  few  days,  wax  wanton  against  him,  hutt  at  the  sheep  which  do  not 
bleat  to  their  satisfaciion,  attack  the  under  shepherds,  and  grow  so 
excessively  fat  as  to  outkick  Jeshurun  himself. 

XVII.  Some  half-hearted  Calvinists,  who  are  ashamed  of  their 
principles,  and  desirous  to  conceal  their  Diana's  deformity,  will  pro» 
bably  blame  you  for  having  uncovered  the  less  frightful  of  her  feet, 
and  shewn  it  naked  to  the  wondering  world.  But  to  the  apology 
which  you  have  already  made  about  it,  I  hope  I  may,  without  imper- 
tinence, add  one  or  two  remarks. 

1.  Whoever  believes  either  the  doctrine  of  unconditional  election, 
or  that  of  righteousness  absolutely  imputed  to  apostatizing  believers,  or 
that  of  the  in/allible  perseverance  of  all  who  were  saints  yesterday,  and 
to-day  commit  adultery,  murder,  or  incest ;  and,,  in  a  word,  whoever 
believes  the  doctrine  of  finished  salvation,  implicitly  receiv^  two- 
thirds  of  the  Antinomian  Creed  which  you  have  helped  me  to.  And 
those  who  have  so  strong  a  faith,  and  so  large  a  conscience,  as  to 
swallow  so  much,  (together  with  the  doctrine  of  finished  damnation, 
eternal  wrath  flaming  against  myriads  of  unborn  creatures,  and  ever- 
lasting fire  prepared  for  millions  of  passive,  sensil»le  machines,  which 
have  only  fulfilled  God's  secret  and  irresistible  will,)  might,  one  would 
tbiok,  receive  the  whole  Creed,  without  any  difficulty.   For  why  should 


T©    ANTINOMIANISM.  32^ 

those  who  can  swallow  five  or  six  camels  as  a  glib  morsel,  strain  at 
three  or  four  gnats,  as  if  they  were  going  to  be  quite  choked.    Again, 

2.  If  Calvinism  be  true,  you  are  certainly,  Sir,  the  honest  and 
consistent  Calvinist,  so  far  as  consistency  is  compatible  with  the  most 
inconsistent  of  all  schemes.  Permit  mc  to  produce  one  instance, 
which,  I  hope,  will  abate  the  prejudices,  which  some  unsettled  Cal- 
vinists  have  conceived  against  you,  for  speaking  quite  out  with  respect 
to  the  excollent  effects  of  sin  in  believers. 

If  man  be  not  a  free  agent,  (and  undoubtedly  he  is  not,  if  from  all 
eternity  he  has  been  bound  by  ten  thousand  chains  of  irresistible  and 
absolute  decrees)  it  follows,  that  he  is  but  a  curious  machine,  superior 
to  a  brute,  as  a  brute  is  superior  to  a  watch,  and  a  watch  to  a  wheel- 
barrow. Upon  Calvin's  principles,  this  wonderful  machine  is  as  much 
guided  by  God's  invisible  hand,  or  rather  by  his  absolute  decrees,  as 
a  puppet  by  the  unseen  wire,  which  causes  its  seemingly  spontaneous 
motions.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  evident  that  God  is  as  much  the 
author  of  our  actions,  good  or  bad,  as  a  show-man  is  the  author  of 
the  motions  of  his  puppets,  whether  they  turn  to  the  right  or  to  the 
left.  Now,  as  God.  is  infinitely  wise,  and  supremely  good,  he  will  set 
his  machines  upon  doing  nothing  but  what,  upon  the  whole,  is  wisest 
and  best.  Hence  it  appears,  that  if  the  doctrine  of  absolute  decrees, 
which  is  the  fundamental  principle  of  Calvinism,  be  true,  whatever 
sin  we  commit,  we  only  fulfil  the  absolute  will  of  God,  and  do  that 
which,  upon  the  whole,  is  ijplsest  and  best;  and  therefore  that  you 
have  not  unadvisedly  pleaded  for  Baal,  but  rationally  spoken  for  God, 
when  you  have  told  us,  what  great  advantages  result  from  the  com- 
mission of  the  greatest  crimes.  In  doing  this  strange  work,  then, 
yon  have  acted  only  as  a  consistent  predestinarian  ;  and  though  some 
thoughtless  Calvinists  may,  yet  none  that  are  judicious  will  blame  you, 
for  having  spoken  agreeably  to  the  leading  principle  of  "  the  doctrines 
ef  grace. ''^ 

I  have  observed,  that  speculative  Antinomianism,  or  barefaced  Cal- 
vinism, stalks  along  upon  the  doctrine  oi  finished  salvation,  and  finished 
damnation,  which  we  may  consider  as  the  two  feet  of  your  great 
Diana ;  and  the  preceding  Creed,  which  is  drawn  up  for  an  electa 
uncovers  only  her  handsome  foot,  finished  salvation.  To  do  my  sub- 
ject justice,  I  should  now  make  an  open  show  of  her  cloven  foot,  by 
giving  the  world  the  creed  of  a  reprobate,  according  to  the  dreadful 
doctrine  of  finished  damnation.  But  as  I  flatter  myself,  that  my 
readers  are  already  as  tired  of  Calvinism  as  myself,  I  think  it  need- 
less to  raise  their  detestation  of  it,  by  drawing  before  their  eyes  a 


330  fOURTH  CHECK 

long  cliaiQ  of  blasphemous  positions,  capable  of  making  the  hair  of 
th^ir  heads  stand  up  with  horror.  I  shall,  therefore,  with  all  wise 
Calvinists,  draw  a  veil  over  the  hideous  sight,  and  conclude  by  assur- 
ing you,  few  people  more  heartily  wish  you  delivered  from  specula- 
tive Antinomianism,  and  possessed  of  salvation  truly  finished  in  glory, 
than,  honoured  and  dear  Sir,  your  affectionate  and  obedient  servant, 
in  the  bonds  of  what  you  call  the  "  legalized  Gospel^^ 

JOHN  FLETCHER, 


rO  ANTmOMIANlSjVI„  S?>} 


LETTER  Vlll. 

TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

it 

Honoured  and  dear  Sh\ 

xIaVING  endeavoured  in  my  last,  to  convince  you  out  of  your  own 
mouth  that  undisguised  Calvinism,  and  speculative  Antinomianism, 
exactly  coincide  ;  before  I  turn  from  you  to  face  your  brother,  I  beg 
leave  to  vindicate  good  works  from  an  aspersion  which  zealous  Cal- 
vinists  perpetually  cast  upon  them  :  for  as  practical  Antinomianism 
destroys  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  as  a  wild  boar  does  the  fruit  of 
the  vine  ;  so  speculative  Antinomianism  besprinkles  them  with  filth, 
as  an  unclean  bird  does  the  produce  of  our  orchards. 

Hence  it  is  that  you  charge  me,  (Review,  p.  69.)  with  "  vile  slan 
der,"  for  insinuating  that  our  free  grace  preachers  do  not  "  raise  the 
superstructure  in  good  works  :"  P.  41,  as  if  you  wanted  to  demon- 
strate the  truth  of  my  "  vile  slander,"  you  say,  *'  Though  we  render 
the  words  xccXec.  e^yoc,  good  works,  yet  the  exact  translation  is  orna- 
mental works ;  and  truly,  when  brought  to  the  strictness  of  the  law^ 
they  do  not  deserve  the  name  of  good.  But  however  grating  the  ex- 
pressions may  sound  to  those  who  hope  to  gain  a  second  justification 
by  their  works,  yet  we  have  Scripture  authority  to  call  them  dung, 
dross,  and  filthy  rags." 

Now,  Sir,  if  Scripture  authorizes  us  to  Call  them  thus,  they  are 
undoubtedly  very  useless,  loathsome,  and  abominable  ;  and  the  Mi- 
nutes, which  highly  recommend  them,  are  ceTVdin]y  dreadfully  here- 
tical. I  must  then  lose  all  my  controversial  labour,  or  once  more 
take  up  the  shield  of  truth,  and  quench  this  Jiery,  (should  I  not  say» 
this  "  filthy")  dart,  which  you  have  thrown  at  St.  James's  undefiled 
religion.     I  begin  with  your  criticism. 

I.  "  Though  we  render  the  words  Kc&^ce,  e^ya,,  good  works ^  yet  the 
exact  translation  is  ornamental  works. '^  I  apprehend.  Sir,  you  are 
mistaken  :  the  Greek  word  kccAas,  exactly  answers  to  the  Hebre^iT 


332  FOURTH  CHECK 

(did)  which  conveys  the  joint  ideas  of  goodness  and  beauty.  Before 
there  was  any  "  filthy  rag"  in  the  world,  God  saw  every  thing  that 
he  had  made;  and  behold  it  was  (IND  DID)  very  good.^^  which  the 
Septuagint  very  exactly  render  KxXa  Xietv.  Fully  to  overthrow 
your  criticism  I  need  only  to  observe,  that  good  works  are  called 
good,  with  the  very  same  word  by  which  the  goodness  of  the  law,  and 
the  excellence  of  the  lawgiver  are  expressed  :  for  St.  Paul,  speaking  of 
the  law,  Rom.  vii.  16.  says,  that  it  is  x««Ao$,  good:  And  our  Lord, 
speaking  of  himself,  saj'^s,  /  am  o  Trotf^.sv  o  kccXo^^  the  good  shepherd. 
Now,  Sir,  as  you  are  too  pious  to  infer  from  the  word  ««Ao5,  that 
neither  the  law  nor  Christ  "  deserve  to  be  called  good  ;^^  I  hope  you 
will  be  candid  enough  to  give  up  your  similar  inference  concerning 
good  works. 

Inconsistency  is  the  badge  of  error.  You  give  us,  if  I  mistake 
not,  a  proof  of  it,  by  telling  us  with  one  breath,  that  "  good  works 
do  not  deserve  the  name  of  good,^^  but  that  of  "  ornamental ;^^  and 
with  the  next,  that  Scripture  authorizes  us  to  call  them  "  dung^ 
dross f  'dndJiUhy  rags.^^  Are  then  dung,  dross,  and  Jilthy  rags,  orna- 
mental things  ?  or  did  you  try  to  render  Geneva  criticism  as 
famous  as  Geneva  logic  ?     But, 

II.  You  have  recourse  to  divinity  as  well  as  to  criticism  :  for 
you  say,  "  When  good  works  are  brought  to  the  strictness  of  the 
law,  they  do  not  deserve  the  name  of  good.'*^  I  answer :  If  our 
Lord  himself  called  them  good,  it  does  not  become  us  to  insinuate, 
that  in  so  doing  he  passed  a  wrong  judgment,  and  countenanced 
"  proud  justiciars"  in  their  legal  error.  With  respect  to  the  "  strict- 
ness of  the  law,"  which  you  so  frequently  urge,  your  frightful  notions 
ahout  it  cannot  drive  us  into  Antinomianism  ;  because  we  think  that 
Christ  and  St.  Paul  were  better  acquainted  with  the  law  than  Calvin 
and  yourself.  If  all  the  law  and  the  prophets  hang  on  the  grand  com- 
mandment of  love,  as  our  Lord  informs  us  ;  and  if  he  that  loveth  ano- 
ther hath  fulfilled  the  law,  as  the  apostle  declares  ;  we  see  no  reason 
to  believe,  that  the  law  condemns  as  "  dung'''  the  labour  of  that 
love  by  which  it  is  fulfilled  ;  and  rejects  as  ^''filthy  rags,'*  works 
which  Christ  himself  promises  to  crown  with  eternal  rewards.  You 
probably  reply : 

III.  Many  Pharisees  go  to  church  without  devotion,  and  many  for- 
nicators give  alms  without  charity,  fancying,  that  such  good  works 
make  amends  for  their  sins,  and  merit  heaven."  Good  works  do  you 
call  them  !  The  Scriptures  never  gave  them  that  honourable  name. 
They  are  the  hypocritical  righteousness  of  unbelief,  and  not  works 
meet  for  repentance,  or  the  fruits  of  the  righteousness  of  faith.     Treat 


TO    ANTINOMIANiSM.  333 

them  as  you  please,  but  spare  good  works.  It  is  as  unjust  to  asperse 
good  works  on  their  account,  as  to  hang  the  honest  men  who  duly 
tarry  on  the  king's  coinage  at  the  mint,  because  the  villains  who  coun- 
terfeit his  majesty's  coin,  evidently  deserve  the  gallows. 

IV.  Should  you  object,  that  "  the  best  works  have  flaws,  blemishes, 
slnd  imperfections  ;  and  therefore  may  properly  be  called  "  dungy 
dross,  and  ^filthy  rags ;'  ^^  I  deny  the  consequence.  The  best 
guineas  may  have  their  flaws  :  nay,  some  dust  or  dirt  may  accident- 
ally  cleave  to  them  ;  but  this  does  not  turn  them  into  dross.  As 
therefore  a  good  guinea  is  gold,  and  not  dross,  though  it  has  some  ac- 
cidental blemishes  ;  so,  God  himself  being  judge,  a  good  work  is  a 
good  work,  and  not  a  Jilthy  rag,  though  it  be  not  free  from:  all  im- 
perfections. 

V.  Not  so,  do  you  say  :  *'  We  have  Scripture  authority  to  call 
good  works  Jilthy  rags.^"*  You  build,  it  seems,  your  mistake  upon 
Isaiah  Ixiv.  6.  All  our  righteousness  are  as  Jilthy  rags :  a  passage 
which,  upon  mature  consideration,  I  beg  leave  to  rescue  from  the 
hands  of  the  Calvinists.  The  Jews  were  extremely  corrupted  in  the 
days  of  Isaiah  :  hence  he  opens  his  prophecy  by  calling  the  rich, 
Ye  rulers  oj  Sodom,  and  the  poor.  Ye  people  of  Gomorrah.  And  what 
says  he  to  them  ?  How  is  the  faithful  city  become  a  harlot  I  Righteous^ 
ness  lodged  in  it,  but  now  murderers !  Yet  these  murderers  hypocriti- 
cally went  on  keeping  their  Sabbaths  and  new  moons.  They  fasted^ 
but  it  was  foT  strife,  and  to  smite  with  the  fist  of  wickedness.  They 
made  many  prayers,  and  offered  multitudes  of  sacrifices,  but  their 
hands  were  full  of  blood.  Nor  did  they  consider,  that  he,  who,  under 
these  circumstances,  sacrifices  an  ox,  is  as  if  he  shw  a  man. 

The  corruption  of  the  Jews,  though  general,  was  not  universal :  for 
the  Lord  of  hosts  had  left  to  them  a  remnant,  though  very  small. 
Now  Isaiah,  one  of  that  very  little  flock,  being  humbled  at  the  sighf 
of  the  general  wickedness  of  his  people,  confesses  it  in  the  first 
person  {we,)  as  ministers,  always  do  on  such  occasions  :  and  he  uses 
the  word  all,  because  the  small  remnant  of  the  righteous  was  as  lost 
in  the  multitude  of  the  wicked.  The  verse,  taken  in  connexion  with 
the  context,  runs  thus  :  Thou  meetest  him  that  rejoiceth,  and  worketh 
righteousness,  those  that  remember  thee  in  thy  ways.  But,  alas  !  we 
are  not  the  people.  Behold,  thou  art  wroth,  for  we  have  sinned.  tVe 
Are  all  as  an  unclean  thing,  and  all  our  righteousnesses  are  as  Jilthy  rags. 
Therefore,  instead  of  meeting  us  as  thou  dost  the  righteous,  thou 
hast  hid  thy  face  from  us,  and  hast  consumed  us  because  of  out  ini- 
quities. We  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf;  and  our  iniquities,  like  the  wind.^ 
have  taken  us  away ;  so  far  are  we  from  resembling  the  righteo'^^v 

Vol.-  L  ^^"^ 


334  FOURTH  CHECK 

who  are  like  &  tree  planted  hij  the  water-side,  whose  leaf  does  not 
wither.^^  Who  does  not  see,  that  the  prophet  here  opppses  the  hap- 
piness of  the  righteous  to  the  misery  of  the  wicked  ?  And  that  it  is 
the  hypocritical  unrighteousness  of  the  ungodly,  and  not  the  precious 
obedience  of  believers,  which  he  compares  to  filthy  rags? 

VI.  However,  *'  We  have  Scripture  authority  to  call  good  works 
dross^  Your  mind,  I  suppose,  runs  upon  Isaiah  i.  22,  25.  where 
God  expostulates  with  the  obstinate  Jews,  by  saying,  Thy  silver  is 
become  dross,  thy  righteousness  is  all  hypocrisy  :  yet,  if  thou  return, 
/  will  purge  away  thy  dross,  I  will  make  thee  truly  righteous.  Is  it 
not  evident,  that  it  is  hypocrisy,  and  bad  works,  not  good  works,  which 
God  here  calls  dross  ?  Will  he,  think  you,  purge  away  good  works  from 
his  people  ?  Is  it  not  enough  that  armies  of  Antinomians  do  the  devil  that 
service  ?  Must  we  also  suppose,  that  God  promises  to  be  his  drudge  ? 

VII.  But,  *'  We  have  Scripture  authority  to  call  good  works  dung,^^ 
Not  at  all :  for  the  two  passages  you  probably  think  of,  are  against 
you.  In  the  first  God  speaks  to  the  disobedient  Jews,  and  says,  If  ye 
will  not  hear,  and  give  glory  unto  my  name,  I  will  send  a  curse  upon  you  : 
Yea,  I  have  cursed  your  blessings  already.    Behold,  Ixmll  spread  upon  your 

faces  the  dung  of  your  solemn  feasts,  Mai.  ii.  2,  3.  Now,  Sir,  who 
does  not  see  by  the  context,  that  festivals  kept  by  cursed  hypocrites 
are  called  dung,  and  not  the  solemn  worship  performed  by  penitent 
believers  ? 

If  you  quote  Phil.  iii.  8.  it  will  be  to  as.  little  purpose.  Do  you 
rightly  understand  that  passage  ?  /  count  all  things  as  loss,  for  the  excel- 
lency of  the  knowledge  of  Christ,  for  whom  1  have  suffered  the  loss  of  all 
things,  and  do  count  them  but  dung,  that  I  may  win  Christ,  and  be  found 
in  him,  not  having  mine  own  righteousness,  which  is  of  the  law,  but  that 
which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ.  You  know.  Sir,  that  the  apostle  once 
made  far  too  much  of  his  privileges  as  a  Jew,  his  morals  as  an  honest 
man,  and  his  observance  of  the  law  as  a  strict  disciple  of  Moses.  And 
you  remember,  that  when  he  wrapped  himself  up  in  that  kind  of  ex- 
ternal righteousness,  his  heart  breathed  nothing  but  contempt  towards 
Christ,  and  slaughter  against  his  people.  What  wonder  is  it  that  he 
should  count  such  a  righteousness,  together  with  all  earthly,  perish* 
ing  things,  loss,  and  dung,  for  Christ  ?  Who  does  not  see,  that  it  was 
not  the  precious  righteousness  of  faith  which  consists  in  pardon, 
acceptance,  and  power  to  do  good  works,  but  the  paltry  righteousness 
of  an  unbeliever,  a  blasphemer,  a  murderer  ?  ' 

Should  you  say,  that  when  the  apostle  declares,  he  counts  all  things 
but  dwtg,  that  he  may  be  found  in  Christ,  he  certainly  includes  good 
"itQrksp  and  counts  them  dung :  I  reply  :  You  have  as  good  reason  to 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM,  335 

«ay,  that  he  certainly  includes  repentance,  faith,  obedience,  grace,  and 
glory,  and  accounts  them  dung  also  ! 

Some  gentlemen  invite  you  to  go  a  hunting,  or  play  at  cards,  to  keep 
you  from  the  sessions  ;  and  you  answer,  *'  I  am  determined  to  do  my 
duty.  Once  your  sports  were  gain  to  me,  but  now  I  count  them  but 
loss  of  time  :  yea,  doubtless,  I  count  all  things,  that  stand  in  compe- 
tition with  my  office,  vile  and  contemptible  as  dung :  they  no  more 
tempt  me  to  pursue  them,  than  yonder  dunghill  tempts  me  to  take  my 
re'st ;  I  am  ready  to  trample  upon  them  as  filthy  dust,  rather  than  not 
be  found  upon  the  bench  doing  my  duty  as  a  magistrate  :  not  ac- 
cording to  my  own  former  mistaken  notions  of  justice,  but  according 
to  the  equitable  laws  of  my  country." 

Now,  Sir,  should  I  not  very  much  wrong  you,  if  I  inferred  from 
your  very  generous  answer,  that  you  call  doing  justice  dung  ?  And  do 
you  not  greatly  wrong  St.  Paul,  when,  upon  a  pretence  equally  frivo- 
lous, you  insinuate,  that  he  gave  to  good  works  such  an  injurious  name  ? 
That  he  called  the  will  of  God,  done  in  faith  by  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
dung  ? 

Again,  when  the  apostle  prayed  to  he  found  in  Christ,  not  having  his 
own  pharisaic  righteousness,  which  was  of  the  letter  of  the  law,  but  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith ;  is  it  not  evident,  that  (besides 
the  desire  of  being  pardoned  and  accepted  through  faith  in  Christ) 
he  wished  to  be  found  to  the  last,  a  branch,  grafted  in  the  true  vine,  by 
faith  ?  a  living  braneh,  filled  with  the  righteous  sap  of  the  root  that 
bore  him  ?  a  branch  made  fruitful  by  the  principle  of  all  acceptable 
righteousness,  which  is  Christ  in  us^  the  hope  of  glory  ?  and,  to  use  his 
own  words  in  this  very  epistle,  a  branch  ^//eci  with  the  fruits  of  right- 
eousness,  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the  glory  of  God?  Phil.  i.  11. 
compared  with  ch.  iii.  9. 

Let  men  of  reason  and  religion  say,  if  this  sense  is  not  more  agree- 
able to  the  letter  of  Scripture  in  general,  and  the  apostle's  words  in 
particular,  than  the  fantastic  imputation  of  righteousness,  which  Cal- 
yinists  build  upon  them  :  an  imputation  this,  which  constitutes  a  man 
righteous,  while  he  commits  adultery,  murder,  or  incest.  Is  it  not 
deplorable,  that  such  an  unscriptural  and  unnatural  idea  should  ever 
Have  entered  the  minds  of  pious  men  ?  Especially  when  St.  John  says, 
Little  children,  let  no  man  deceive  you :  he  thut  does  righteousness,  and 
not  barely  he  for  whom  Christ  hath  done  righteousness,  is  righteous? 
Is  it  not  lamentable,  that  good  men,  influenced  by  prejudice,  should 
be  able  to  persuade  thousands,  that  St.  John  meant,  "  Let  not  Mr. 
Wesley  deceive  you ;  he  that  actually  liveth  with  another  man's  wife, 
worships  abominable  idols,  and  commits  incest  with  his  father's  wife, 


33B  FOURTH   CHECK 

may  not  only  be  righteous^  but  complete  in  imputed  righteousness  ;r->iQ 
a  righteousness  which  exceeds,  not  only  the  righteou.  ness  of  the  Phari- 
sees, but  the  personal  righteousness  of  converted  Paul,  and  of  the 
brightest  angel  in  glory  ?" 

O  Sir,  if  you  have  told  it  in  Paris,  tell  it  not  in  Constantinople,  lest 
the  daughters  of  the  Mahometans  bless  God,  that  lewd  and  bloonv  as 
their  prophet  was,  he  never  so  far  lost  sight  of  morality  and  decency, 
as  to  give  Mussulmen  a  cloak,  under  the  specious  name  of  a  "  robe  of 
righteousness,^^  under  which  they  can  curse,  swear,  and  get  drunk ; 
commit  adultery,  robbery,  murder,  and  incest ;  without  being  less 
righteous,  than  if  they  had  kept  all  the  commandments  of  God — less 
in  favour  with  the  Most  High,  than  if  they  had  personally  abounded 
in  all  the  works  of  piety,  mercy,  and  self-denial,  which  adorned  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ — and  less  interested  in  finished  salvation,  than  if 
they  were  already  in  glory.  0  Sir,  is  not  this  doctrine  more  danger- 
ous than  that  of  transubstantjation  ?  is  it  not  more  dishonourable  to 
Christ,  more  immoral,  and  consequently  more  pernicious  to  society  ? 
And  would  it  not  absolutely  destroy  the  morals  of  all  those  who  re- 
ceive it,  if  onr  Lord,  for  his  name's  sake,  did  not  in  mercy  deny  to 
thousands  of  them,  sense  or  attention,  to  draw  a  dreadful  conclusion 
from  their  dreadful  premises  ;  while  he  graciously  gives  to  thousands 
more,  hearts  infinitely  better  than  their  immoral  principles  ! 

Having  thus  endeavoured  to  rescue  the  passages  on  which  you 
found  your  assertion  concerning  good  works,  and  proved,  that  there 
is  not  one  Scripture  which  gives  you  the  least  authority  to  call  them 
either  dung,  dross,  or  filthy  rags:  ^o  convince  you,  that  a  heap  of 
impious  absurdities  lies  concealed  under  that  doctrine,  permit  me  to 
produce  some  of  the  Scriptures  where  good  works  are  mentioned  ; 
and  to  substitute  to  that  phrase  the  hard  names,  which,  you  tell  us,  the 
Scripture  authorizes  you  to  call  them. 

Let  your  light  so  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good  works,  i.  e. 
your  DUNG,  and  glorify  your  Father  who  is  inheaven. — She  hath  wrought  a 
good  -work,  i.  e.  a  filthy  rag,  upon  me  against  my  burial. — Dorcas  was 
full  of  good  works,  i.  e.  of  dung  and  rags. — God  make  you  to  abound  in 
every  good  work,  i.  e.  in  every  sort  of  dung  and  dross. — We  are  created 
in  Christ  Jesus  to  good  works,  i.  e.  to  filthy  rags,  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  us  to  walk  in. — Walk  worthy  of  the  Lord,  being  fruitful  in 
every  good  work,  i.  e.  in  every  filthy  rag. — God  establish  you  in  every 
good  work,  i.  e.  in  dung  of  every  sort. — Provoke  one  another  to  love 
find  good  works,  i.  e.  to  dross  and  rags. — Be  zealous  of  good  works, 
1.  e.  of  FILTHY  rags. — Be  rich  in good  works ,  i.  e.  in  dross. — Be  care- 
Jul  to  Tnaintain  good  works,  i.  e.  puno. — Let  the  Gentiles  by  your  good 


TO  ANTIN0MUNI3M.  337 

p:iorks^  i.  e.  your  dung,  which  they  shall  behold,  glorify  God  in  the  day 
of  visitation. — Be  thoroughly  furnished  to  every  good  work :  Be  perfect 
in  every  good  work,  i.  e.  in  dung  and  dross  of  every  kind. — Blessed 
are  they  that  die  in  the  Lord,  for  their  works,  i.  e.  their  dung  and 
RAGS,  follow  them.— God  is  not  unrighteous,  to  forget  your  work,  i.  e. 
your  DUNG,  tha:t  proceedeth  of  love. — The  Gentiles  should  do  works,  i.  e. 
DUNG,  meet  for  repentance. — Esteem  ministers  highly  in  love  for  their 
works,  i.  e.  their  dung's  sake. — If  he  have  not  works,  i.  e.  dung,  can 
faith  save  him  ? — Faith  without  works,  i.  e.  without  filthy  rags,  is 
dead. — By  works,  i.  e.  dung,  was  Abraham's  faith  made  perfect.-^He 
and  Rahab  were  justified  by  works,  i.  e.  by  filthy  rags. — He  that 
believeth  in  me,  the  works  that  I  do  shall  he  do  also,  and  greater  works 
than  these,  i.  e.  filthier  rags,  and  more  ornamental  dung,  shall  he 
do. — This  is  the  work^  i.  e.  the  dung,  of  God,  that  you  believe,  &;c. 

Indeed,  Sir,  I  am  almost  ashamed  to  take  up  the  "  filthy  rag"  of  this 
bad  divinity,  though  it  is  only  with  the  point  of  my  pen,  to  hold  it 
out  a  moment  to  public  view,  that  the  world  may  be  sick  of  barefaced 
Antinomianisqi.  I  drop  it  again  into  the  sink  of  defiled  rehgion,  out 
of  which  Crisp  raked  it ;  and  beg,  for  the  honour  of  Christ  and  your 
own,  that  you  will  no  more  recommend  it  as  pure  Gospel. 

And  now,  Sir,  permit  me  to  expostulate  a  moment  with  you. 
Against  whom  have  you  employed  your  pen,  when  you  have  taught 
the  world  to  call  good  works  dung,  dross,  and  filthy  rags ;  pretending 
to  have  authority  from  the  Scripture  thus  to  revile  the  best  thing 
under  heaven  ?  Is  it  only  against  the  "  proud  justiciars  ?"  Is  it 
not  also  indirectly,  though  I  am  persuaded  undesignedly,  against  the 
adorable  Trinity  ?  .Has  not  the  Father  created  us  to  good  works  ?  Did 
not  the  Son  redeem  us,  that  we  might  be  a  people  zealous  of  good  works  ? 
And  does  not  the  Holy  Ghost  sanctify  us,  that  "  all  our  works  being 
begun,  continued,  and  ended  in  him,  we  may  glorify  God's  holy 
name,"  and  cause  it  to  be  glorified  by  all  around  us  ? 

What  harm  did  good  works  ever  do  you,  or  any  one,  that  you 
should  decry  them  in  so  public  a  manner  as  you  have  done  ?  Did  you 
ever  duly  consider  their  nature  and  excellence  ?  Or  have  you  con- 
demned them  in  a  hurry,  without  so  much  as  casting  an  attentive  look 
upon  them?  Permit  me  to  bring  them  to  you,  as  God  brought  the 
beasts  of  the  field  to  Adam,  that  he  might  give  them  names  according 
to  their  nature  ;  and  tell  me  which  of  them  you  will  call  dung^  which 
dross,  and  which  filthy  rags  ? 

First  then,  what  objection  have  you  against  Ae  good  works  of  the 
heart?  Against  the  awaking  out  of  sin,  returning  to  God,  repenting,, 
pffering  the  sacrifice  of  a  contrite  spirit,  and  believing  unto  righteous- 


338  FOURTH    CHECK 

ness  ?  What  objection  against  trusting  in  the  Lord  Jehovah,  in  whom 
is  everlasting  strength  ?  casting  the  anchor  of  our  hope  within  the 
vail  ?  loving  God  for  himself,  and  all  mankind  for  God's  sake  ?  Do 
you  see  any  of  these  good  works  of  the  heart,  that  look  like  a 
"filthy  rag?" 

Ne  sooner  is  the  inward  man  of  the  heart  truly  engaged  in  any  one 
of  the  preceding  works,  than  the  outward  man  is  all  in  motion.  The 
candle  of  the  Lord  is  not  lighted  in  the  soul  to  be  put  under  a  bushel^ 
and  extinguished  ;  but  to  be  set  as  on  the  candlestick  of  the  bodyy  that 
it  may  give  light  to  all  around,  and  that  men,  •seeing  our  lights  may 
glorify  our  heavenly  Father.  Hence  arise  several  classes  of  external 
good  works. 

Consider  the  man  of  God  as  he  is  clothed  with  a  corruptible  body, 
which  must  be  nourished  without  being  pampered.  He  keeps  it  under 
by  moderate  fasting  or  abstinence.  He  daily  denies  himself  and  takes 
up  his  cross.  He  works  with  cheerful  diligence.  He  eats,  drinks,  or 
sleeps,  with  gladness  and  singleness  of  heart ;  and  if  he  is  sick  he  bears 
bis  pain  with  joyful  resignation,  doing  or  sujQTering  all  to  the  glory  of 
God,  in  the  spirit  of  sacrifice,  and  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

View  him  in  his  family.  Not  satisfied  with  mental  prayer,  he  bends 
the  knee  to  his  Father  who  sees  in  secret ;  and  not  contented  with  pri- 
vate devotions,  he  reads  to  his  assembled  household  select  portions 
of  God's  word,  and  solemnly  worships  him  with  them  in  spirit  and  in 
truth.  Nor  does  he  think,  that  doing  his  duty  towards  God  excuses 
him  from  fulfilling  it  towards  his  neighbour.  Just  the  reverse.  Be- 
cause his  soul  is  all  reverence  to  his  heavenly  Father,  it  is  all  repect 
to  his  earthly  parents.  Because  he  ardently  loves  the  Bridegroom 
of  souls,  he  feels  the  warmest  regard  for  his  wife,  he  bears  the 
ienderest  and  yet  the  most  rational  affection  to  his  children.  Nor  is 
he  less  desirous  his  servants  should  serve  God  and  work  out  their  sal- 
vationy  than  he  is  that  they  should  serve  him  and  do  his  work. 
Hence  arise  his  familiar  instructions,  mild  reproofs,  earnest  entrea- 
ties, encouraging  exhortations.  His  strict  honesty  and  meekness  of 
wisdom,  his  moderation  and  love  of  peace,  are  km)wn  to  all  around 
him  ;  and  even  those  who  despise  his  piety,  are  forced  to  speak  well 
of  his  morals. 

Behold  his  works  as  a  member  of  society  in  general.  In  his  little 
sphere  of  action  he  makes  his  star  to  shine  upon  the  just  and  the  unjust; 
his  charity  is  universal.  To  the  utmost  of  his  ability  he  opposes  vice^ 
countenances  virtue,  promotes  industry,  and  patronizes  despised  piety. 
Humble  fiiith  kindles  him  into  a  burning  and  shining  light ;  he  is  a 
minister  of  the  God  of  all  mercies,  he  is  a  flaming  fire.     He  feeds 


TO    ANTINOMIAN«M.  339 

Christ  in  the  hungry,  gives  him  drink  in  the  thirsty,  clothes  him  in 
the  naked,  entertains  him  in  strangers,  attends  him  on  sick  beds,  visits 
him  in  prisons,  and  comforts  him  in  the  mournful  apartments,  where 
the  guilty  are  stretched  on  the  rack  of  despair,  or  where  the  godly, 
forsaken  of  their  friends,  pledge  their  dying  Lord  with  the  dregs  of 
the  cup  of  sorrow.  How  easily  does  he  overlook  the  unkindness  of 
his  neighbours  !  How  readily  does  he  forgive  injuries  !  How  cordially 
he  heaps  coals  of  melting  fire  upon  the  heads  of  his  enemies !  How 
sincerely  does  he  pray  for  all  his  slanderers  and  persecutors  !  And 
how  ardently  desire  to  grow  in  grace,  and  endeavour  to  adorn  more 
and  more  the  doctrine  of  God  our  Saviour  in  all  things ! 

Consider  him  as  a  member  of  a  religious  society.  How  excellent, 
how  divine  are  his  works  !  He  respectfully  holds  up  the  hands  of  his 
minister,  and  kindly  bears  the  burdens  of  his  brethren.  He  watches 
over  them  for  good,  rejoices  with  those  that  rejoice,  and  mourns  with 
those  that  mourn.  He  compassionately  sympathizes  with  the  tempted, 
impartially  reproves  sin,  meekly  restores  the  fallen,  and  cheerfully 
animates  the  dejected.  Like  undaunted  Caleb,  he  spirits  up  the  fear- 
ful ;  and,  like  valiant  Joshua,  he  leads  them  to  the  conquest  of  Ca- 
naan  ;  and  goes  on  from  conquering  to  conquer. 

And  suppose  he  went  on  even  unto  perfection,  and  took  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  by  violent  faith,  and  humble,  patient,  and  importunate 
prayer;  would  you  call  him  ?k  filthy  raa--man,  and  insinuate,  that  he 
had  only  done  a  dung-wovk  ?  O  Sir,  if  you  can  so  publicly  call  good 
works  dross,  dung,  and  filthy  rags ;  and  (what  is  worse  still)  assert, 
that  the  Holy  Ghost,  in  the  Scriptures,  authorizes  you  so  to  do  ;  who 
will  wonder  to  see  you  represent  the  doctrine  of  Christian  Perfection 
as  a  pernicious  popish  heresy,  which  turns  men  "  into  temporarif 
monsters?''^  Would  you  be  consistent,  if  you  did  not  rise  against  it 
with  the  collected  might  of  credulous  uncharitableness,  and  barefaced 
Antiiiomianism  ?     For, 

What  is,  after  all,  the  perfection  that  Mr.  Wesley  contends  for? 
Nothing  but  two  good  works,  productive  of  ten  thousand  more  ;  or^ 
if  you  please,  two  large  filthy  rags,  in  which  ten  thousand  other  filthy 
rags,  are  wrapped  ;  that  is,  loving  God  with  all  our  hearts,  and  our 
neighbour  as  ourselves.  It  is  nothing  but  perfect  love  shed  abroad  in 
our  hearts  by  the  Holy  Ghost  given  unto  us,  making  us  steadfast,  immove- 
able, always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the  Lord,  always  zealous  of  good 
works,  always  the  reverse  of  the  easy  elect,  who,  by  means  of  Calvin's 
contrivance,  are  "  all  fair  and  undefiled,'^  while  they  wallow  in  the 
adulterer's  mire,  and  the  murderer's  gore.  Or,  in  other  terms,  it  is 
nothing  but  Christ,  through  the  Holy  Spirit,  dwelling  in  our  hearts 


340  FOUftTH    CHECK 

hy  faithy  and  making  us  always  zealous  of  good  works.  Now  if  g06(2 
works  are  dung,  dross,  and  filthy  rags ;  it  is  evident  that  perfection 
is  a  rich  mine  of  dross ;  a  heap  of  dung,  as  immense  as  that  which 
Hercules  got  out  of  Augeas's  stables  ;  and  a  vast  storehouse  of  filthy 
rags,  spun  by  *'  proud  justiciars,"  as  cobwebs  are  by  venomous 
spiders . 

In  this  wrong  view  of  Christian  perfection,  I  no  more  wonder  to  see 
multitudes  of  careless  professors  agree,  like  Pilate  and  Herod,  to 
destroy  it  out  of  the  earth  ;  nor  am  I  surprised  to  hear  even  good, 
mistaken  people  cry  out,  Down  with  it !  Down  with  it !  While  I 
complain  of  their  want  of  candour,  I  commend  their  well  meant 
zeal,  and  wish  it  may  flame  out  against  objects  worthy  of  their  de- 
testation :  against  perfection  itself,  suppose  it  be  what  they  imagine. 
Yes,  if  it  be  a  mine  of  '*  dross,^^  let  them  drown  it ;  I  give  my  con- 
sent ;  but  let  them  do  it  with  the  floods  of  Scripture  and  argument. 
If  it  be  a  dunghill  in  the  Church,  let  them  carry  it  out,  and  permit 
even  the  swine,  which  come  from  wallowing  in  the  mire,  to  shake 
themselves  upon  it ;  I  will  not  say  it  is  improper.  If  it  be  a  repo- 
sitory of  filthy  rags,  more  infectious  than  those  which  convey  the 
jail  distemper  and  the  plague ;  let  them  agree  to  set  fire  to  it,  and' 
burn  it  down  to  the  ground:  but  let  them  do  it  with  ,^re /rom  the 
altar,  and  not  with  tongues  set  on  fire  of  prejudice  or  malice. 

But  if  Christian  perfection  be  (next  to  angelic  perfection)  the 
brightest  and  richest  jewel,  which  Chri«f  purchased  for  us  by  his 
blood  ;  if  it  be  the  internal  kingdom  of  God  ruling  over  all ;  if  it  be 
Christ  fully  formed  in  our  hearts,  the  full  hope  of  glory ;  if  it  be  the 
fulfilment  of  the  promise  of  the  Father,  i.  e.  the  Holy  Ghost  given 
unto  us,  to  make  us  abound  in  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy,  through 
"believing  ;  and  in  a  word,  if  it  be  the  Shekinah,  filling  the  Lord's 
human  temples  with  glory  ;  is  it  right,  Sir,  to  despise  it  as  some  do, 
or  to  expose  it  as  you  have  frequently  done  ? 

Should  you  apologize  for  your  conduct,  by  saying,  *'  I  have  only 
treated  your  perfection,  as  you  have  treated  our  finished  salvation, 
and  OUR  imputed  righteousness :"  I  reply  :  the  case  is  widely  difier- 
ent.  I  hope  I  have  made  it  appear,  that  you  have  not  one  smgle 
text  in  all  the  Bible,  to  prove  that  a  bloody  adulterer  {in flagrante 
delicto)  stands  complete  in  imputed  righteousness ;  or  that  the  salva- 
tion of  idolatrous  and  incestuous  apostates,  who  now  work  out  their 
damnation  with  both  hands,  is  aciudWy  flnished,  in  the  full  extent  of  the 
expression.  The  whole  stream  of  God's  word  runs  counter  to  these 
"  Antinomian  dotages."  Nor  are  they  less  repugnant  to  conscience 
and  common  sense  than  to  the  law  and  the  prophets.     But  yoi^ 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  341 

^^annot  find  one  word  in  all  the  Scriptures  against  the  pure  love 
of  God  and  our  neighbour,  against  perfect  love,  which  is  all  the 
perfection  we  encourage  believers  to  press  after.  The  Law  and  the 
Gospel,  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  are  equally  for  it.  All 
who  2ire  filled  with  the  Spirit^  sweetly  experience  it.  A  heathen  that 
fears  God  and  regards  man,  cannot  speak  evil  of  it,  but  through  mis- 
apprehension. And  even  while,  through  the  amazing  force  of  preju  • 
dice,  you  write  against  it  with  so  much  severity,  it  recommends  itself 
to  your  own  reason  and  conscience.  Are  you  not  then  under  a  mis- 
take, when  you  think  you  may  take  the  same  liberty  with  God's 
undeniable  truth  which  I  have  taken  with  Crisp's  indefensible 
error  ? 

Permit  me  to  state  the  case  more  fully  still.  Mr.  Wesley  cries  to 
believers,  •'  It  is  your  privilege  so  to  believe  in  Christ,  and  receive 
the  Spirit,  as  to  love  God  with  all  your  hearts^  and  your  neighbours  as 
yourselves.'"'  And  you  say  to  them  ;  *'  Mr,  Wesley  is  blinder  than 
a  Papist,  regard  not  his  heretical  words.  Your  salvation  is  finished. 
Whatever  lengths  you  go  in  sin,  you  are  as  sure  of  heaven  as  if  you 
were  already  there.  It  is  your  privilege  to  commit  adultery,  mur- 
der, and  incest,  not  only  without  fearing  that  the  Lord  will  be  dis- 
pleased with  you,  but  conscious  that,  black  as  ye  are  in  yourselves 
by  the  actual  commission  of  these  crimes,  through  Christ's  come- 
liness put  upon  you,  God  can  address  each  of  you  with  TIiou  art  all 
fairy  my  love,  my  undefiled,  there  is  no  spot  in  thee  !  (Five  Letters,  p. 
28.)  Now,  Sir,  are  not  you  a  partial  judge,  when  by  way  of  retalia- 
tion, you  serve  the  holy  doctrine  maintained  by  Mr.  Wesley,  as  I 
have  served  the  unholy  tenet  propagated  by  Calvin  and  yourself? 

Think  you  really,  that  because  a  judge,  after  a  fair  trial,  justly 
condemns  a  notorious  robber  to  be  hanged,  another  judge,  to  reta- 
liate, has  a  right  to  quarter  a  good  man,  after  a  mock  trial,  or  rather, 
without  any  trial  at  all  ?  And  do  you  suppose,  that  because  Jehu 
deservedly  made  the  house  of  Baal  a  draught  house  :  or  because 
Josiah  burned  dead  men's  bones  upon  the  unhallowed  altar  in  Bethel, 
to  render  it  detestable  to  idolaters ;  Antiochus  had  a  right  to  turn 
the  temple  of  the  Lord  into  a  sty,  and  to  pollute  the  altar  of  incense, 
by  burning  "  dung  and  filthy  rags"  upon  it,  that  true  worshippers 
might  abominate  the  offering  of  the  Lord,  and  loathe  the  holy  ot 
holies  ?  Thus  have  you,  (inadvertently  I  hope)  treated  good  works 
and  Christian  perfection,  which  are  ten  thousand  times  more  sacred 
wind  precious  in  the  sight  of  God,  than  the  holy,  and  the  most  holy  place 
in  the  temple  of  Jerusalem. 

Vol.  L  44 


342  FOURTH    GHECK 

And  now,  Sir,  please  to  look  at  the  preceding  list  ot  good  workffj 
which  adorn  the  Christian's  breast  or  blazon  his  shining  character ; 
and  tell  us  if  there  be  one,  which,  upon  second  thoughts,  you  object 
against  as  a  nuisance  :  one  which  you  would  put  away  like  "  dross  ;" 
one  which  you  would  have  carried  out  of  his  apartment  as  "dung," 
or  remove  from  his  pious  breast  as  a  "  filthy  rag." 

Methinks  I  hear  you  answer,  "Not  one:  may  they  all  abound 
more  and  more  in  my  heart  and  life,  and  in  the  hearts  and  Hves  of  all 
God's  people !"  Methinks  that  all  the  Church  militant  and  triumph- 
ant cry  out.  Amen!  A  divine  power  accompanies  their  general 
exclamation.  The  veil  of  prejudice  begins  to  rend.  Your  honest 
heart  relents.  You  acknowledge  that  Calvinism  has  deceived  you. 
You  retract  your  unguarded  expressions.  The  Spirit  of  holiness, 
whom  you  have  grieved,  returns.  The  heavenly  light  shines.  The 
Antinomian  charm  is  broken.  "  Dross^^  is  turned  into  Jine  gold : 
*'  dung^^  into  savoury  meat,  which  every  believer  loveth  next  to  the 
bread  of  life  ;  and  ^'filthy  rags^^  into  Jlne  linen  white  and  clean, 
which  is  the  righteousness  of  the  saints,  and  the  robe  made  white  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb.  Far  from  pouring  contempt,  through  voluntary 
humility,  upon  this  precious  garment,  you  give  praise  to  God,  and  in 
humble  triumph  put  it  on  together  with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

In  that  glorious  dress  you  walk  with  Christ  in  white,  and  in  love 
with  Mr.  Wesley.  Paris,  and  the  convent  of  Benedictine  monks, 
disappear.  The  New  Jerusalem,  and  the  Tabernacle  of  God,  come 
down  from  heaven.  Leaving  the  things  that  are  behind^  you  solemnly 
hasten  unto  the  day  of  the  Lord.  Following  peace  with  all  men,  and 
holiness,  without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord,  you  daily  perfect  it 
in  the  fear  of  God.  You  feel  the  amazing  difference  there  is 
between  a  real  and  an  imaginary  imputation  of  righteousness.  You 
tear  away,  with  honest  indignation,  the  pillow  of  finished  salvation 
from  under  the  head  of  Laodicean  backsliders  who  sleep  in  sin  ;  and 
of  bloody  murderers,  who  defile  their  neighbour's  bed.  You  set 
fire  to  the  fatal  canopy  under  which  you  have  inadvertently  taught 
them  to  fancy  that  the  holy  and  righteous  God  calls  them  My  love! 
my  undefded!  even  while  they  wallow  in  the  poisonous  mire  of  the 
most  atrocious  wickedness.  And  to  undo  the  harm  you  have  done, 
or  remove  the  offence  you  have  given  by  your  letters,  you  show 
yourself  reconciled  to  St.  James's  pw re  religion;  you  openly  give 
Mr.  Wesley  the  right-hand  of  fellowship,  and  gladly  help  him  t9 
provoke  believers  to  uninterrupted  love  and  good  xi-orks,  i.  e.  to 
Christian  Perfectio.v. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISJJit,  343 

Such  is  the  delightful  prospect  which  my  imagination  discovers 
through  the  clouds  of  our  controversy ;  and  such  are  the  pleasing 
hopes  that  sometimes  sooth  my  polemical  toil,  and  even  now  make 
me  subscribe  myself,  with  an  additional  pleasure,  Honoured  and  dear 
Sir,  your  affectionate  and  obedient  servant,  in  the  bonds  of  a  pure 
Gospel. 

JOHN  FLETCHER- 


344  FOURTH  CHECK 


LETTEK  IX. 


— Aj^j^\j*-^ 


TO  MR.  ROWLAND  HILLe 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir, 

JL  OUR  uncommon  zeal  for  God,  so  far  as  it  is  guided  by  knowledge.,, 
entitling  you  to  the  peculiar  love  and  reverence  of  all  that  fear  the 
Lord  ;  I  should  be  wanting  in  respect  to  you,  if  I  took  no  notice  of 
the  arguments  with  which  you  are  come  from  Cambridge  to  the  help 
of  your  pious  brother.  In  the  friendly  remarks  that  you  have 
directed  to  me,  you  say  with  great  truth,  p.  31.  "  The  principal 
cause  of  controversy  among  us,  is  the  doctrine  of  a  second  justifica- 
tion by  works.  Thus  much  you  vindicate  throughout,  that  a  man  is 
justified  before  the  bar  of  God  a  second  time  by  his  own  good  works.'* 

So  I  do,  Sir ;  and  I  wonder  how  any  Christian  can  deny  it,  when 
Christ  himself  declares,  In  the  day  of  judgment  by  thy  Tuords  shall  thou 
he  justified,  &c.  Had  he  said,  *'  By  my  words  imputed  to  thee  thou  shalt 
be  justified,"  you  might  indeed  complain.  But  now,  what  reason 
have  you  to  assert,  as  you  do,  that  I  "  have  grossly  misrepresented 
the  Scriptures,"  and  "  made  universal  havoc  of  every  truth  of  the 
Gospel  ?"  The  first  of  these  charges  is  heavy,  the  second  dreadful  i 
let  us  see  by  what  arguments  they  are  supported. 

After  throwing  away  a  good  part  of  your  book  in  passing  a  long, 
Calvinian,  juvenile  sentence  upon  my  spirit  as  a  writer,  you  come  at 
last  to  the  point,  and  attempt  to  explain  some  of  the  Scriptures  which 
you  suppose  I  have  "  misrepresented." 

I.  P.  32.  "  Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me,  Lord,  Lord,  shall  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my  Father, 
Matt.  vii.  21.  And  what  is  this  (say  you)  more  than  a  description  of 
those  who  are  to  be  saved  ?" 

What,  Sir,  is  it  nothing  but  a  description  ?  Is  it  not  a  solemn  decla- 
rz^tion  that  no  practical  Antinomian  shall  be  saved  by  faith  in  the  last 


■TO  antinomunism;.  343 

day?  And  that  Christ  is  really  a  Lord  and  a  King^  who  has  a  /aw, 
which  he  will  see  obeyed  ?  Had  he  not  just  before,  (verse  12)  ad- 
mitted the  law  and  the  prophets  into  his  Gospel  dispensation,  saying, 
Ml  things  which  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  do  ye  even  so  unto 
them,  for  this  is  the  law  and  the  prophets  ?  Are  we  not  under  this  law  to 
him  ?  And  will  he  not  command  his  subjects,  who  obstinately  violate 
it,  to  be  brought  and  slain  before  him  ? 

Again,  when  he  declares  that  they  who  hate  a  brother,  and  call  him 
THOU  FOOL  !  are  in  danger  of  hell  fire  as  murderers!  do  we  not  ex- 
pose his  legislative  wisdom,  as  well  as  his  paternal  goodness,  by  inti- 
mating, that,  without  having  an  eye  to  the  murder  of  the  heart  or  the 
tongue,  he  only  describes  certain  wretches  whom  he  unconditionally 
designs  for  everlasting  burnings  ? 

What  I  say  of  a  punishment  threatened^  is  equally  true  of  a  reward 
promised;  as  you  may  see  by  the  following  illustration  of  our  contro- 
verted text.  A  general  says  to  his  soldiers,  as  he  leads  them  to  the 
field  of  battle,  "  Not  every  one  that  calls  me.  Your  honour,  your 
honour,  shall  be  made  a  captain  :  but  he  that  fights  manfully  for  his 
king  and  country."  You  say,  "  What  is  this  more  than  a  descnption 
of  those  that  shall  be  promoted?''''  And  I  reply,  If  warlike  exploits 
have  absolutely  nothing  to  do  with  their  promotion  ;  and  if  the 
general's  declaration  is  only  a  description  of  some  favourites,  whom 
he  is  determined  to  raise  at  any  rate ;  could  he  not  as  well  have  de- 
scribed them  by  the  colour  of  their  hair,  or  height  of  their  stature  ? 
And  does  he  not  put  a  cheat  upon  all  the  soldiers,  whom  he  is  abso- 
lutely determined  not  to  raise  ;  when  he  excites  them  to  quit  them- 
selves like  men,  by  the  fond  hope  of  being  raised  ?  Apply  this  simile 
to  the  case  in  hand,  and  you  will  see,  dear  Sir,  how  frivolous,  and  in- 
jurious to  our  Lord,  is  your  intimation,  that  one  of  his  most  awful 
royal  proclamations  is  nothing  but  an  empty  description.  O  Calvin- 
ism !  is  this  thy  reverence  for  Jesus  Christ?  Hast  thou  no  way  of 
supporting  thyself  but  by  turning  the  Lord  of  glory  into  a  Virgil  ? 
The  supreme  Lawgiver  of  men  and  angels  into  a  maker  of  descrip- 
tions ?  ' 

H.  Much  of  the  same  nature  is  the  observation  which  you  make,  p. 
37.  upon  these  words  of  our  Lord,  They  thai  have  done  good,  shall  go 
into  life  everlasting ;  and  they  that  have  done  evil,  into  everlasting  pu- 
nishment. You  say,  "  What  does  this  text  prove  more  than  has  been 
granted  before  ?  What  does  it  more  than  characterize  those  that  shall 
be  sailed/"'  Nay,  Sir,  it  undoubtedly  characterizes  all  those  that  shall 
be  damned ;  and  this  too  by  as  essential  a  character,  as  that  according 
to  which  the  king  would  appoint  some  of  his  servants  for  a  gracious 


346  FOURTH  CHECK 

reward,  and  others  for  a  capital  punishment,  it  he  said  to  them. 
"  They  that  serve  me  faithfully,  shall  be  richly  provided  for  :  and  they 
that  rob  me,  shall  be  hanged."  If  such  characterizing  as  this  passes 
at  Geneva  for  a  bare  description  of  persons,  whom  royal  humour 
irrespectively  singles  out  for  reward,  I  hope  the  time  is  coming  when, 
at  Cambridge,  it  will  pass  for  a  clear  declaration  of  the  reason  why 
some  are  rewarded,  or  punished,  rather  than  others ;  and  for  ?l  proof 
that  the  king  is  no  more  a  capricious  dispenser  of  rewards,  than  a  ty- 
rannical inflicter  of  punishments. 

III.  P.  33.  After  mentioning  these  words  of  St.  Paul,  without  holi^ 
ness  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord;  and  those  words  which  St.  James  wrote 
to  believers,  Be  ye  doers  of  the  word,  and  not  hearers  only^  deceiving 
your  own  selves ;  you  say,  "  What  is  this  to  the  purpose,  respecting 
a  second  justification  !  Just  about  as  much  as,  JVow  an  omer  is  the  tenth 
part  of  an  ephah.^^  Now,  Sir,  although  I  do  not  imraediately  rest  the 
cause  upon  such  Scriptures,  I  maintain,  that  they  are  much  more  to 
the  purpose  of  our  second  justification  by  works,  than  Moses's  defi» 
nition  of  an  omer. 

Will  you  dare  to  say,  that  impious  Jezebel,  and  unconverted  Ma- 
nasses,  were  persons  "  Just  about  as"  properly  qualified  for  justifica- 
tion in  the  great  day,  because  they  had  an  "  omer"  in  their  palace,  as 
pious  Deborah,  and  holy  Samuel,  who  had  holiness  in  their  hearts, 
and  were  doers  of  the  word  in  their  lives  ?  And  when  the  apostle 
declares  that  Christ  is  the  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  them  that  obey 
him,  does  he  mean,  that  to  obey  is  a  thing  just  about  as  important  to 
eternal  salvation,  as  to  know  that  a  bushel  holds  four  pecks,  and  an 
ephah  ten  omers  ?  Were  ever  holiness  and  obedience  inadvertently 
set  in  a  more  contemptible  light  ?  For  my  part,  if  by  our  words  we 
shall  be  justified  in  the  day  of  judgment,  I  believe  it  shall  be  by  our 
words  springing  from  holiness  of  heart :  and  therefore  I  cannot  but 
think  that  holiness  will  be  more  to  the  purpose  of  our  justification  by 
works  in  the  great  day,  than  all  the  omers  and  ephahs,  with  all  the 
notions  about  imputed  righteousness  and  finished  salvation,  in  the 
world. 

IV.  P.  33.  After  quoting  that  capital  passage,  JVot  the  hearers  (^ the 
law  are  jnst  before  God,  but  the  doers  shall  be  justified,  Rom.  ii.  13. 
you  say,  "  This  certainly  proves  that  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be 
justified."  Well  then,  it  directly  proves  a  justification  by  works. 
But  you  immediately  insinuate  the  "  impossibility  of  salvation  by  the 
law."  I  readily  grant,  that  in  the  day  of  conversion  we  are  justified 
by  faith,  not  only  without  the  deeds  of  the  ceremonial  law,  but  even 
without  a  previous  observance  of  the  law  of  love  :  but  the  case  is 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  347 

widely  difierent  in  the  day  of  jixlgment ;  for  then,  by  thy  words  shall 
thou  he  justified.  Now,  Sir,  it  remains  for  you  to  prove,  that  the 
apostle  did  not  speak  of  the  text  under  consideration  with  an  eye  to 
our  final  justification  by  works. 

In  order  to  this,  p.  33.  you  appeal  to  *'  The  place  which  this 
text  stands  in,  and  the  connexion  in  which  the  words  are  found."  I 
answer, 

1.  This  text  stands  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans,  to  whom  the 
apostle  says.  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law : — He  that  loveth  another 
hath  fulfilled  the  law,  Rom.  xiii.  8,  10.  Now,  if  he  that  loveth  another 
hath  fulfilled  the  law,  you  must  show,  that  it  is  impossible  to  love 
another;  or  acknowledge,  that  there  are  persons  who  fulfil  the  law; 
and  consequently  persons  who  can  be  justified  as  dokrs  of  the  law. 
Nay,  in  the  very  chapter,  such  persons  are  thus  mentioned,  if  the 
uncircumcision  keep  the  righteousness  of  the  law,  and  fulfil  the  law, 
shall  it  not  judge  thee  who  dost  transgress  the  law  ?  That  is,  shall  not 
a  Cornelius,  an  honest  heathen  that  fears  God  and  works  righteousness. 
rise  in  judgment  against  thee  who  commiitest  adultery ;  vainly  suppo- 
sing that  Abraham's  chastity  is  imputed  to  thee  ?  Rom.  ii.  22,  27.  But, 

2.  Going  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  chapter  where  our  contro- 
verted text  stands,  I  affirm  that  "  the  connexion  in  which  it  is  found" 
establishes  also  justification  by  works  in  the  great  day :  and  to  prove 
it  I  only  lay  the  apostle's  words  before  my  judicious  readers.  Thou 
art  inexcusable,  0  Jew,  whosoever  thou  art  that  judgest,  or  condemnest 
the  heathens  who  do  such  things,  and  doest  them  thyself  The  judgment 
of  God  is  according  to  truth,  and  not  according  to  thy  Antinomian 
notions,  that  thou  wast  unconditionally  elected  in  Abraham  ;  that  thou 
standest  complete  in  his  righteousness  ;  and  that  thy  salvation  was 
finished  when  he  had  ofiered  up  Isaac.  Be  not  deceived,  God  will 
render  to  every  man  according  to  his  deeds,  [and  not  according  to  his 
notions  :]  To  them  who  by  patient  continuance  in  well  doing,  seek  for 
immortality,  he  will  render  eternal  life:  anguish  to  every  man  that  doeth 
evil ;  but  glory  to  every  inan  that  worketh  good  : — for  not  the  hearers 
of  the  law  are  just  before  God,  but  the  doers  of  the  law  shall  be  justified, 
— in  the  day  when  he  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men  by  Jesus  Christ, 
according  to  my  Gospel,  Rom.  ii.  1,16. 

Now,  Sir,  is  it  not  evident  from  "  the  connexion^'  to  which  you 
appeal,  that  Mr.  Henry  did  not  pervert  the  text,  when  he  had  the 
courage  to  say  upon  it,  "  It  is  not  hearing  but  doing  that  will  save  us" 
in  the  great  day  ?  Hearing  mixt  with  faith,  saves  us  indeed  instru- 
mentally  in  the  day  of  conversion  ;  but  in  the  day  of  judgment, 
neither  hearing  nor  faith  will  do  it ;  but  patient  continuance  in  well 


348  FOURTH    CHECK 

doing,  from  the  principle  of  a  living 'faith  in  Christ,  will  have  that 
honour. 

V.  P.  34.  After  criticising  in  the  same  frivolous  manner  as  your 
brother  on  Rev.  xxii.  14.  Blessed  are  they  that  keep  his  command' 
mentSf  kc.  you  add,  *'  This  ^>  his  commandment,  that  we  should  believe 
^n  the  name  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,^^  and  omitting  what  follows,  and 
love  one  another,  as  he  gave  us  commandment ;  you  ask,  *'  What  then 
is  the  conclusion  ?  To  believe  is  the  great  New  Testament  command 
of  God."  No,  Sir,  according  to  1  John  iii.  23.  the  text  you  have 
quoted  by  halves,  that  commandment  is  to  believe  and  to  love,  or  to 
believe  with  a  faith  working  by  love.  Our  Lord  informs  us,  that  on 
the  grand  commandment  of  love,  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets. 
St.  Paul  says.  Though  I  have  all  faith,  yet  if  I  have  not  love,  I  am 
nothing.  Devils  believe,  says  St.  James.  To  believe  then,  without 
loving,  is  not  doing  God^s  commandments,  but  doing  the  devil's  work. 
Because  the  word  commundments,  being  in  the  plural  number,  denotes 
more  than  one,  and  therefore  is  incompatible  with  Solifidianism. 

To  add,  as  you  do,  "  They  that  believe  will  and  must  obey,"  as  if 
they  could  not  help  it,  is  supporting  one  mistake  by  another.  That 
they  may,  can,  and  should  obey,  we  grant :  but  that  they  will  and  must, 
are  two  articles  of  Calvin's  creed,  to  which  we  cannot  subscribe ; 
for,  to  say  nothing  of  daily  experience,  we  read  in  the  Scripture 
dismal  accounts  of  those  fallen  believers,  who  instead  of  adding  to 
their  faith  virtue,  &c.  proceeded  so  far  in  wilful  disobedience,  as  to 
worship  the  abomination  of  the  Zidonians,  shed  innocent  blood,  for- 
swear themselves,  and  defile  their  father's  bed. 

It  follows  then  still  from  Rev.  xxii.  14.  that  although  *'  upon 
believing,  not  for  obeying,  we  are  initiated  into  all  the  new-covenant 
blessings"  in  the  day  of  conversion  ;  yet  in  the  great  day,  only  upon 
persevering  in  faith  and  obedience  shall  we  have  right,  or,  if  you 
please,  "  privilege,  power,  and  authority,  through  our  surety,  to 
partake  of  the  tree  of  life."  For  he  that  endureih  unto  the  end,  the 
same  shall  be  saved  ;  and  Christ  is  ihe  author  of  eternal  salvation  to  none 
but  them  that  obey  him. 

VI.  P.  36.  You  quote  against  yourself,  Rev.  xiv.  13.  "  Blessed  are 
ihe  dead  that  die  in  the  Lord.  Their  blessedness  arises  from  their 
dying  in  the  Lord."  Granted.  But  how  shall  it  be  known  they  died 
in  the  Lord  ?  The  Spirit  says,  their  works  [not  their  faith]  do  follow 
them,  namely,  in  order  to  their  final  justification.  To  this  you  reply, 
"  Their  works  do  not  go  before  them, — but  follow  after,  to  prove  that 
they  were  in  the  Lord,  whose  prerogative  alone  is  to  justify  the 
ungodly."     I  answer, 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  349 

1.  When  you  grant,  that  works  prove  that  we  are  in  the  Lord,  if 
they  are  good,  or  in  the  wicked  one  if  they  are  evil,  you  give  up 
the  point. 

2.  Do  you  not  confound  truth  and  error  ?  Because  in  the  day  of 
our  conversion  God  justifies  the  ungodly,  who  renounces  his  ungodli- 
ness to  believe  in  Jesus,  does  it  follow,  that  Jesus  will  justify  the 
ungodly  in  the  day  of  judgment?  Is  not  the  insinuation  as  unscrip- 
tural  as  it  is  dangerous  ?  Does  not  our  Lord  himself  say,  that  far 
from  justifying  them,  he  will  bid  them  Depart  from  him  into  ever- 
lasting fire  ? 

3.  Your  observation,  that  works  follow  the  righteous,  and  '*  do  not 
go  before  them,""  is  frivolous  :  for  what  matters  it,  whether  the  wit- 
nesses, by  whose  evidence  a  prisoner  is  to  be  acquitted,  follow  him 
to  the  bar,  or  are  there  before  him  ?  Is  their  following  him  a  proof 
that  he  is  not  justified  by  their  instrumentality  ?  To  support  your 
cause  by  such  arguments  will  do  it  no  service. 

VII.  P.  37.  You  think  to  set  aside  these  words  of  Solomon,  Keep 
God's  commandments,  for  this  is  the  whole  [duty]  of  man ;  for  God 
shall  bring  every  work  into  judgment,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad,  by  just 
saying,  "  T'his  passage  asserts,  that  we  are  to  be  accountable  for  our 
actions."  Then  it  asserts  the  very  thing  for  which  it  was  produced  : 
for  how  can  those  be  really  accountable  for  their  actions,  who  can 
never  be  justified  or  condemned  by  their  words,  never  be  rewarded  or 
punished  according  to  their  works  ?  Here  then  again  you  grant  what 
we  contend  for. 

VIII.  P.  38.  1  Cor.  vii.  19.  Circumcision  is  nothing — but  the 
keeping  the  commandments  of  God.  "  This  passage,"  say  you,  "  would 
equally  as  well  prove  the  supremacy  of  the  pope,  as  your  doctrine  of 
a  second  justification  by  works." 

I  answer,  1.  If  you  compare  this  text  with  Eccl.  xii.  13,  14.  Rev. 
xxii.  14.  and  Matt.  xii.  37.  you  will  see  it  is  very  much  to  the  pur- 
pose. 2.  Love  is  the  keeping  of  the  commandments.  If  1  have  not 
love,  which  is  the  keeping  of  the  commandments,  I  am  only  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  Now,  Sir,  you  must  prove,  that  God  will  justify  tinkling 
cymbals  by  imputed  righteousness  in  the  great  day  ;  or  acknowledge, 
that  the  keeping  of  the  commandments,  or,  which  is  the  same,  love, 
makes  more  towards  our  final  justification,  than  towards  placing  his 
holiness  the  pope  in  the  pretended  chair  of  St.  Peter.  3.  If  the 
doers  of  the  law  shall  be  finally  justified,  and  none  but  they  :  and  if 
keeping  the  commandments  is  the  same  thing  as  being  a  doer  of  the 
law ;  you  boldly  hoist  the  Geneva  flag,  when  you  insinuate,  that  the 
keeping  of  the  commandments  has  no  more  to  do  with  our  final  jus- 

Vol.  I.  45 


350  FOURTH  CHECK 

tificatioD,  than  with  the  supremacy  of  the  pope.  Lastly,  If  keeping 
the  commandments  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  our  justification  in 
the  last  day,  by  a  parity  of  reason,  breaking  of  them  will  have 
nothing  to  do  with  our  condemnation.  Thus  we  are  insensibly  come 
to  the  dreadful  counterpart  of  your  comfortable  doctrine,  that  is,  abso- 
lute reprobation,  free  wrath,  and  finished  damnation.  And  when 
the  apostle  says,  God  shall  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  should  he 
not  rather,  according  to  your  plan,  have  said  in  unris^hteousness  ? 

IX.  Instead  of  answering  such  passages  as  these,  Behold,  1  come 
quickly,  and  my  reward  is  with  me,  to  give  to  every  man  as  his  work 
shall  be  : — He  that  knoweth  the  heart,  shall  render  to  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  work. — We  shall  all  appear  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ,  that  every  one  may  receive  the  things  done  in  the  body,  according 
to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be  good  or  bad. — The  Father,  without 
respect  of  persons,  judgeth  according  to  every  man's  work  : — T%e  dead 
were  judged  out  of  the  things  written  in  the  books  according  to  their 
works  :^^ — Instead,  I  say,  of  answering  such  passages,  you  leap  over 
fifty  pages  of  my  book,  to  blame  me  (p.  35.)  for  saying  after  St, 
Peter,  Acts  ii.  40.  Save  yourselves  from  this  untoward  generation- 
Granting  you,  Sir,  that  the  Greek  word  means  litefally.  Be  ye 
saved  :  yet  you  wrong  our  translation  when  you  say,  that  its  language 
is  "  glaringly  inconsistent."  The  words  that  immediately  precede, 
He  EXHORTED  them,  saying.  Save  yourselves,  &c.  convinced  our  trans- 
lators of  the  absurdity  of  exhorting  people  to  be  saved,  that  could 
absolutely  do  nothing  in  order  to  salvation.  And  you  make  Calvin- 
ism ridiculous  before  all  Cambridge,  when,  (p.  36.)  you  make  <r<y^tjT£, 
Be  ye  saved :  or  when  spoken  in  a  way  of  exhortation,  Save  your- 
selvesy  to  mean,  *'  Know,  that  ye  cannot  save  yourselves." 

P.  36.  you  say,  *'  Let  the  context  illustrate  this  :  thousands  were 
pricked  to  the  heart :  they  ask,  what  they  shall  do  ?  doubtless  meaning, 
to  be  saved.  The  apostle  directs  them  immediately  to  Jesus  for 
salvation."  What !  Without  doing  any  thing  towards  it !  No  such 
thing.  To  the  overthrow  of  your  criticism,  and  of  Calvinism,  he 
sets  them  immediately  upon  doing.  Their  question  was,  Wliat  shall 
we  do  to  be  saved?  and  the  immediate  answer  is.  Repent,  and  be  bap. 
tized.  Just  as  if  he  had  said,  be  ye  saved,  or  save  yourselves  by  repent- 
ing and  coming  to  Christ:  Or,  to  use  the  words  of  Christ  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Capernaum,  and  those  of  St.  Paul  to  the  jailer  of  Philippi,  do 
the  work  of  God,  i.e.  the  work  which  God  first  calls  for  ;  believe  iit 
the  Lord  Jesus,  and  you  shall  be  saved. 

You  add,  "  This  language"  [Save  yourselves],  "  ill  becomes  the 
mouth  of  inspiration."     I  am  sorry,  Sir,  you  should  be  so  exceed- 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  351 

ingly  positive.  I  rather  think,  that  your  "  language  ill  becomes  the 
mouth  of"  modesty.  Does  not  St.  Jude  say,  Save  some  with  fear  ? 
Does  not  St.  Paul  mention  his  endeavours  to  save  some  of  his  own 
Jieshf  Rom.  xi.  14.  and  his  becoming  all  things  to  all  men,  that  he 
might  SAVE  SOME,  1  Cor.  ix.  22.  ? 

Does  he  not  speak  of  a  husband  saving  his  wife,  and  of  a  wife 
saving  her  husband,  1  Cor.  vii.  16.  ?  Does  he  not  write  to  the  Phi- 
lippians.  Work  out  your  own  salvation  ?  And  to  Timothy,  In  doing 
(his  thou  shalt  save  thyself,  and  them  that  hear  thee?  1  Tim.  iv.  16. 
You  are  too  good  a  scholar,  Sir,  to  say,  that  o-eio-et^  a-euvrov,  ♦'  is 
passive;"  and  too  modest  a  divine  to  insinuate,  upon  second  thoughts, 
that  r5i^.  Paul  speaks  like  a  heretic,  and  you  like  an  apostle. 

X.  After  opposing  our  doctrine  of  justification  by  the  evidence  of 
works  in  the  last  day,  as  warmly  as  your  pious  brother;  you  give 
your  public  assent  to  it  as  well  as  he.  P.  34.  speaking  of  the  day 
that  shall  declare  every  man's  work,  and  the  fire  that  shall  try  of 
what  sort  it  is,  you  say,  "  Who  that  reads  the  Bible  denies,  that 
every  man's  works  shall  be  examined  as  a  proof  of  his  faith,  and  that 
upon  their  evidence  the  judge  will  pass  sentence  ?"  Undoubtedly  you 
mean,  sentence  of  absolution  or  condemnation,  according  to  our  Lord's 
words,  By  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified  or  condemned.  Matt.  xii.  37, 

Now,  Sir,  this  is  the  very  doctrine  which  we  maintain, — as  you 
may  see,  Second  Check,  p.  102.  and  107. — the  very  doctrine  for 
which  you  represent  me  to  the  world  as  a  Papist,  and  fierce  enemy 
to  the  Gospel.  Gentle  reader,  take  notice  of  my  capital  crime.  I 
have  dared  to  vindicate  a  truth,  which,  my  opponent  himself  being 
judge,  "  no  man  that  reads  the  Bible  denies  !"  Is  this  a  dreadful 
heresy.  O  Sir,  when  this  shall  be  known  in  our  Universities,  will 
not  Oxford  cry  to  Cambridge,  and  Cambride  echo  back  to  Oxford, 
the  substance  of  your  book,  and  the  title  of  mine  ?  Logica  Genevensis! 

XI.  Now  that  you  have  granted  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
the  evidence  of  works  in  the  day  of  judgment  ;  let  us  see  how  you 
endeavour  to  keep  your  system  in  countenance.  P.  34.  you  say, 
contrary  to  your  own  concession,  "  Though  works  have  not  the 
least  to  do  in  justifying  our  persons,  yet  they  will  appear  to  the 
justifying  of  that  faith,  as  sound,  by  which  alone  we  are  to  be  saved.'* 

To  cut  you  off  from  this  last  subterfuge,  I  observe,  1.  That  works 
will  have  as  much  to  do  in  justifying  our  persons  in  the  last  day,  as 
faith  in  justifying  them  at  our  conversion.  2.  This  doctrine,  of  faith 
being  justified  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment  is  irrational  :  for 
faith  shall  then  be  no  more  ;  and  common  sense  dictates,  that  Christ, 
the  wisdom  of  God,  will  not  lose  time  in  justifying  or  condemniaga 


352  FOURTH  CHECK 

grace  which  shail  not  exist.  3.  It  is  quite  unscriptural :  our  Lord 
says,  By  thy  words  shall  thou  [not  thy  faith]  he  justified.  St.  Paul 
says,  The  doers  of  the  law  [not  their/ai7^]  shall  be  justified.  And  St. 
James  declares,  that  Rahab  [not  her  faith]  and  Abraham  [not  his 
faith]  were  justified  by  works  in  the  day  of  trial.  Your  scheme  fathers 
nonsense  upon  that  apostle ;  for  if  faith  is  justified  by  works,  and  not 
a  man,  it  follows,  that  when  St.  James  says,  Ye  see  then  how  that  by 
works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith  only,  it  is  just  as  if  he  said, 
"  Ye  see  then  how  that  by  works  faith  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith 
only."  6.  If  thebeliever's/au/i  be  justified  in  the  last  day,  and  not 
the  believer  himself;  by  a  parity  of  reason,  the  unbeliever's  unbelief 
will  be  condemned,  and  not  the  unbeliever  himself  6.  We  have  as 
good  ground  to  assert,  that  the  faith  of  believers  shall  be  saved  in  the 
last  day,  and  not  their  persons  ;  as  you  to  maintain,  that  the  faith  of 
believers  shall  be  justified,  and  not  their  persons.  Thus,  according 
to  your  curious  doctrine,  faith,  not  believers,  shall  go  to  heaven ; 
and  unbelief,  not  unbelievers,  shall  depart  into  hell. — Lastly,  if"  works 
have  not  the  least  to  do  in  justifying  our  persons"  in  the  great  day  ; 
it  follows  they  will  not  have  the  least  to  do  in  condemning  them. 
Thus  are  we  come  again  to  the  doctrine  of  finished  damnation ;  and 
thus  you  point-blank  contradict  your  own  scriptural  concession, 
*'  Upon  the  evidence  of  works  the  Judge  will  pass  sentence." 

From  the  preceding  pages  it  appears,  (if  I  am  not  mistaken) 
ih?^  justification  by  works;  i.  e.  by  the  works  of  faith,  in  the  last  day, 
is  a  solid  anvil,  which  the  twelve  strokes  of  your  hammer  have  set- 
tled more  than  ever  upon  its  firm  basis.  The  word  of  God,  that  abideth 
for  ever.  To  this  anvil  I  shall,  by  and  by,  bring  Calvinian  Anti- 
nomianism,  and  endeavour  to  work  it,  in  meekness  of  wisdom,  with 
B  hammer,  I  hope,  a  little  heavier  than  your  own. 

Having  answered  your  objections  to  what  you  justly  call  "the 
principal  cause  of  controversy  among  us,"  I  may  make  one  or 
two  observations  upon  the  friendliness  of  your  Friendly  Remarks. 

Candid  reader,  if  thou  hast  read  my  Checks  without  prejudice, 
and  attentively  compared  them  with  the  word  of  God  ;  wouldst  thou 
ever  think,  that  the  following  lines  contain  an  extract  from  the 
friendly  sentence,  which  my  young  opponent  passes  upon  them  ? 
"  Hard  names, — Banter, — Sarcasm, — Sneer, — Abuse, — Bravado, — 
Low  arts  of  slander, — Slanderous  accusations,— Opprobrious  names, 
-*-lllnatured  satire, — Odious,  deformed,  detestable  colours, — Unfair, 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  353 

and  ungenerous  treatment, — Terms  void  of  truth,— Unmerciful  con- 
demnations,— False  humility, — Irritating  spirit, — Provoking,  unchari- 
table style, — Continual  sneers, — Most  odious  appellations, — Abusive 
words, — Notorious  scandalizing, — Lines  too  dreadful  to  be  transcri- 
bed, unworthy  of  an  answer,  beneath  contempt, — Most  indecent  ridi- 
cule,—A  wretched  conclusion,  as  bitter  as  gall, — and^  Slanders 
which  ought  even  to  make  a  Turk  blush." 

If  thou  canst  not  yet  see,  gentle  reader,  into  the  nature  of  Mr. 
Rowland  Hill's  Remarksy  peruse  the  following  friendly  sentences  : 
"  In  regard  to  the  fopperies  of  religion,  you  certainly  differ  from 
the  popish  priest  of  Madeley : — You  have  made  universal  havoc  of 
every  truth  of  the  Gospel ; — You  have  invented  dreadful  slanders  : — 
You  plentifully  stigmatize  many  with  the  most  unkind  language  : — 
You  have  blackened  our  principles,  and  scandalized  our  practice  : — 
You  place  us  in  a  manner  among  murderers  : — It  shocks  me  to 
follow  you  :— Our  characters  lie  bleeding  under  the  cruelty  of  your 
pen,  and  complain  loudly  against  your  great  injustice  : — Blush  for 
the  characters  you  have  injured  by  the  rashness  and  bitterness  of 
your  pen  : — You  have  invented  a  set  of  monsters,  and  raised  a  hide- 
ous ghost  by  your  own  spells,  and  in  cantations  of  banter  and  contempt; 
— Numberless  sneers,  taunts,  and  sarcasms,  dreadfully  decorate  the 
whole  of  your  performance  ;  they  are  nothing  better  than  infer- 
nal terms  of  darkness  hateful  to  transcribe  : — Your  Second  Check,  I 
fear,  must  prove  the  concluding  bar  of  separation,"  i.  e.  oi  excommu- 
nication. 

When  I  cast  my  eye  upon  this  extract,  I  cannot  help  crying  out, 
If  this  be  my  antagonist's  friendliness,  alas !  what  will  be  his  dis 
pleasure?  And  what  have  I  done  to  deserve  these  tokens  of  Cal- 
vinian  benevolence  ?  Why  are  these  flowers  of  Geneva  rheto- 
ric so  plentifully  heaped  upon  my  head  ?  And  why — But  I  must  not 
complain  ;  for  my  friendly  opponent  has  patiently  staid  till  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Second  Check,  to  talk  of  a  "  concluding  bar  of  sepa- 
ration." But  if  I  am  a  reprobate,  upon  his  scheme  of  unconditional 
election,  and  gratuitous  rebrobation,  Calvin's  God  put  "the  con- 
cluding bar  of  separation  '  between  me  and  himself,  not  only  before 
I  wrote  the  Second  Check,  but  thousands  of  years  before  I  drew  my 
first  breath.  When  I  consider  this,  far  from  feeling  the  least  resent- 
ment against  Mr.  Hill,  I  see  it  my  duty  to  thank  him  for  showing 
much  greater  patience  towards  me  than  the  God  whom  he  worships  ; 
and  I  wonder,  that  his  severe  principles  should  not  be  productive  of 
more  unfriendly  Remarks,  than  those  which  he  is  pleased  to  call 
friendly. 


354  FOURTH   CHECK 

Yes,  Sir,  though  I  thought  at  first,  that  the  title  of  your  book  was 
ironical,  I  now  believe  it  literal,  and  am  persuaded  you  really  meant 
to  show  me  mnch  friendliness.  For  a  temporary  excommunication, 
yea,  a  "  concluding  bar  of  separation,"  must  appear  an  act  of  grace^ 
to  one  who  truly  relishes  the  doctrines  of  limited  grace  and  unpro- 
voked wrath. 

I  do  not  hereby  intimate,  that  I  have  done  nothing  displeasing  to 
you.  Far  from  insinuating  it,  I  shall  present  my  readers  with  a  list 
of  the  manifold,  but  well-meant  provocations,  which  have  procured 
me  your  public  correspondence.  I  say  well-meant  provocations :  for 
all  I  want  to  provoke  any  one  to,  is,  love  and  good  works.  And  may 
not  a  minister  use  even  the  rod  for  that  purpose  ?  If  you  think  not, 
please  to  inform  me  what  the  apostle  meant,  when  he  said.  What  will 
ye  ?  Shall  I  come  unto  you  with  the  rod,  or  in  love,  and  in  the  spirit  of 
meekness  ? 

1.  I  have  written  my  Checks  with  the  confidence  with  which  the 
clear  dictates  of  reason,  and  the  full  testimonies  of  Scripture,  usually 
inspire  those  who  love  what  they  esteem  truth  more  than  they  do 
their  dearest  friends, 

2.  After  speaking  most  honourably  of  many  Calvinists,  even  of  all 
that  are  piousy  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  insinuate,  that  the  schemes 
of  finished  salvation,  and  imputed  righteousness,  will  no  more  save  a 
Calvinist  guilty  of  practical  Antinomianism,  than  the  doctrine  of 
general  redemption  will  save  an  ungodly  Remonstrant.  Thus  I  have 
made  no  difference  between  the  backsliding  elect  of  the  Lock,  and  the 
apostates  of  the  Foundery,  when  death  overtakes  them  in  their  sins, 
and  in  their  blood. 

3.  I  have  maintained,  that  our  Lord  did  not  speak  an  untruth, 
when  he  said,  In  the  day  of  judgment,  by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justi- 

Jied;  and  that  St.  Paul  did  not  propagate  heresy,   when   he  wrote, 
Work  out  your  own  salvation. 

4.  I  have  sprinkled  with  the  salt  of  irony,*  your  favourite  doctrine, 
(Friendly  Remarks,  page  39,)  "  Salvation  wholly  depends  upon  the 

»  If  I  make  use  of  ir(my  in  my  Checks,  I  can  assure  thee,  reader,  it  is  not  from 
<*  spleen^''''  but  reason.  It  appears  to  me,  that  the  subject  requires  it,  and  that  ridiculous 
frror  is  to  be  turned  out  of  the  temple  of  Truth,  not  only  with  scriptural  arguments,  which 
is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit ;  but  also  with  mild  irony,  which  is  a  proper  scourge  for  a 
glaring  and  obstinate  mistake.  I  have  already  observed,  that  our  Lord  himself  used 
it  with  bis  apostles,  when  he  came  out  of  his  agony  and  bloody  sweat.  Some  other 
remarkable  instances  of  it  we  find  in  Scripture,  1  Kings,  xxii.  15.  Micaiah,  a  prophet  of  the 
Lord,  being  requested  by  king  Ahab,  and  pious  king  Jehoshaphat,  to  tell  them  whether 
Israel  should  go  against  Raraoth-Gilead  to  battle;  he  ironically  answered,  Go,  and 
prosper :  for  the  Lord  shall  deliver  it  into  the  hands  of  the  king.  Well  known  is  that 
solemn,  though  ironical,  or,  as  Mr.  Hill  would  call  it,  sarcastic  reproof  of  Solomon  to  a 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  355 

purpose  of  God  according  to  election,  without  any  respect  to  what 
may  be  in  them,"  i.  e.  the  elect.  Now,  Sir,  as  by  the  doctrine  of 
undeniable  consequences,  he  who  receives  a  guinea  with  the  king^s 
head  on  the  one  side,  cannot  but  receive  the  lion's  on  the  other  side  j 
so  he  that  admits  the  preceding  proposition,  cannot  but  admit  the 
inseparable  counterpart,  namely,  the  following  position,  which  every 
attentive  and  unprejudiced  person  sees  written  in  blood  upon  the 
side  of  Calvin's  standard,  which  is  generally  kept  out  of  sight,  "  Dam- 
nation wholly  depends  upon  the  purpose  of  God  according  to  repro- 
bation, without  respect  to  what  may  be  in  the  reprobates."  Here  is 
no  "  inventing  a  monstrous  creed,"  but  merely  turning  the  leaf  of 
your  own,  and  reading  what  is  written  there,  viz.  damnation  Jinished, 
evidently  answering  to  Jinished  salvation. 

5.  You  have  done  more,  says  my  opponent,  (p.  47.)  *'  You  scarce 
write  a  page  without  unjust  reflections  :  to  follow  you  through  all 
accusations  would  be  endless.  One  passage,  however,  which  seems 
to  me  to  shine  conspicuous  among  the  rest  for  calumny  and  falsehood^ 
as  the  moon  does  among  the  stars,  shall  be  the  last  we  will  notice." 

I  say,  in  the  Second  Check,  "  How  many  intimate,  that  Christ  has 
fulfilled  all  righteousness,  that  we  might  be  the  children  of  God  with 
hearts  full  of  unrighteousness  :"  And  you  reply,  "  How  many!  There 
are  a  generation^  it  seems,  of  these  black  blasphemer s.''^  (1  would  say, 
of  these  mistaken  Calvinists)  "  Produce  but  a  few  of  them.''* 

Well,  Sir,  1  produce  first  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  next 
yourself,  and  then  all  the  Calvinists  who  admire  your  brother's  fourth 
Letter,  where  he  not  only  insinuates,  but  openly  attempts,  to  prove, 
that  David  was  a  man  after  God''s  own  heart,  a  pleasant  child  of  God, 
and  that  he  stood  absolved  and  complete  in  the  everlasting  righteousness 
of  Christ,  while  his  eyes  were  full  of  adultery,  and  his  hands  full  of 
blood  :  consequently,  while  his  heart  was  full  of  all  unrighteousness. 
Now,  if  this  was  the  case  of  David,  it  may  not  only  be  that  of  many, 
but  of  all  the  elect.  They  may  all  be  the  children  of  God,  not  only 
with  hearts  full  of  unrighteousness,  but  even  while  they  cloak  adul- 
tery with  deliberate  murder. 

Now,  pray,  Sir,  do  you  not  show  yourself  completely  master  of 
Geneva  Logic,  when  you  assert,  that  what  is  so  abundantly  denwn- 
strated  by  your  brother's  Letters,  and  the  well  known  principles  of 

young  prodigal,  Rejoice,  O  young  man,  in  thy  youth,  let  thine  heart  cheer  thee,  and  walk 
in  the  way  of  thy  heart,  and  in  the  sight  of  thy  eyes,  Eccl.  xi.  9.  From  these  examples 
I  conclude,  that  an  irony  dictated  by  love,  not  only  is  no  sign  of  *'  a  bad  spirit,"  but  is  an 
useful  figure  of  speech,  especially  where  the  rapid  progress  of  a  preposterous  error  calls 
for  the  sharp  rebukes  mentioned  by  St.  Paul  in  roy  motto. 


356  FOURTH    CHECK 

all  sound  Calvinists,  is  a  calumny  and  a  falsehood  as  conspicuous  aa 
the  luminary  that  rules  the  night  ?  This  imaginary  moon  of  calumny^ 
which  you  discover  through  the  telescope  of  Calvinian  prejudice, 
will  help  my  judicious  readers  to  guess  at  the  magnitude  of  the  stars 
of  falsehood,  with  which,  you  say,  almost  all  the  pages  of  my  book 
are  bespangled. 

I  conclude,  by  entreating  you  not  to  put  any  longer  a  wrong  con- 
struction upon  the  Helvetic  bluntness  with  which  I  continue  to 
expose  barefaced  Antinomianism.  Do  not  account  me  an  enemy,  because 
I  tell  you  the  truth  as  it  is  in  the  Epistle  of  St.  James  :  and  deprive  me 
not  of  an  interest  in  your  valuable  friendship,  merely  because  I  follow 
the  word  of  God,  and  the  dictates  of  my  conscience. 

I  can  with  truth  assure  you,  that  your  groundless  charges  of  "  ca- 
lumny^ falsehood,  bitterness,  injustice,^''  &c.  instead  of  ^^  putting  a  con- 
cluding bar  of  separation.'^  between  us,  only  give  me  an  opportunity 
of  fulfilling  delightfully  that  precept  of  the  evangelical  law,  according 
to  which  we  shall  be  justified  in  the  great  day,  Forgive  one  another^ 
even  as  God  for  Chrisfs  sake  hath  forgiven  you,  I  confirm  my  love 
towards  you,  by  rejoicing  in  all  your  pious  labours,  and  sincerely  wish- 
ing you  the  most  unbounded  success,  whenever  you  do  not  give  up 
the  right  "  foundation,"  or  substitute  Crisp  to  St.  James,  and  Calvin's 
narrow  election  to  the  free  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  And  if  I  may 
trust  the  feelings  of  my  own  heart,  which  continues  quite  open 
towards  you,  I  remain  just  as  if  you  were  not  my  opponent,  dear 
Sir,  your  affectionate  friend,  and  obedient  servant  in  a  pure  Gospel, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 


^O    ANTINOMIANISM. 


LETTER  X. 


— ^^.^^^— 


to  MR.  RICHARD  AND  MR.  ROWLAND  HILL* 

Hon.  and  dear  Opponents, 

JL/O  you  hate  that  foul  monster  Antinomianism  ?  I  know  yoii  cbtr 
dially  hate  practical,  and  would  cheerfully  oppose  doctrinal  Antinomi- 
anism, if  it  were  not  inseparably  connected  with  the  favourite  doctrines 
you  have  embraced.  Yes,  your  true  regard  for  holiness  would  make 
you  wish  me  success,  if  [while  I  attack  sin,  our  common  adversary] 
Calvinism,  which  passes  with  you  for  Christianity,  did  not  justly  appear 
to  you  to  be  sapped  in  its  very  foundation.  For,  to  my  great  astonish- 
ment, I  find  that  Calvin's  doctrine  of  unconditional  election,  and  Crisp's 
doctrine  of  finished  salvation,  are  now  substituted  to  Jesus  Christ,  and 
openly  made  the  foundation  of  the  present  Calvinists.  "  Finished 
salvation  and  electing  love,  (says  Mr.  Hill,  Friendly  Remarks,  p.  19,) 
is  their  foundation." 

Is  it  indeed  ?  Alas !  I  really  thought  that  all  the  Calvinists  still 
maintained,  with  Mr.  Wesley,  that  other  foundation  can  no  man  lay 
than  that  is  laid,  which  is,  Jesus  Christ,  1  Cor.  iii.  11,;  but  I  now  fear 
the  breach  between  us  is  wider  than  1  imagined  :  for  it  seems  we  dis- 
agree no  less  about  ihe  foundation,  than  about  the  superstructure  ;  and 
my  younger  opponent  does  me  justice  when  he  adds,  "  Surely  you 
never  mean  to  praise  the  Calvinists  for  guarding  this  foundation.'^  No, 
indeed,  Sir,  no  more  than  I  would  praise  them  for  placing  two  of  Ra- 
chel's teraphim  upon  the  Mediator's  throne. 

You  are  both  conscious  that  your  two  favourite  doctrines  tvill  ap- 
pear empty  dreams,  if  the  doctrine   of  the  justification   of  all  infants 
without  faith  is  true  ;  much  more  if  the  doctrine  of  the  justificationt 
of  adult  persons  by  works,  both  in-the  day  of  trial  and  in  the  day  of 
judgment,  is  scriptural.     You  agree,  therefore,  to  bear  your  public 

Vol  I.  46 


358  FOURTH   CHECK 

testimony  against  the  Third  Check,  where  these  doctrines  are  set  in  a 
clearer  point  of  view  than  in  my  preceding  publications.  Permit  me 
to  remind  my  readers  of  the  reasonableness  of  the  assertions  which 
have  so  greatly  excited  your  surprise. 

In  the  Third  Check,  to  make  my  readers  sensible  that  Calvinism 
has  confusion,  and  not  Scripture,  for  its  foundation,  I  made  a  scriptu- 
ral distinction  between  the  four  degrees  that  constitute  a  saint's  eter- 
nal justification,  and  each  of  these  degrees  I  called  a  justification,  be- 
cause I  thought  I  could  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God,  without  exposing 
the  truth  of  the  Gospel  to  the  smiles  of  Christian  wits. 

I.  From  Rom.  v.  18.  I  proved  the  justification  of  infants  :  ^5  by  the 
offence  of  Adam,  (says  the  apostle,)  judgment  came  upon  all  men  to 
condemnation,  even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  the  free  gift  came 
upon  all  men  to  justification  of  life.  In  support  of  this  justification, 
which  comes  upon  all  men  in  their  infancy,  I  now  advance  the  follow- 
ing arguments  : 

1.  The  Scripture  tells  us,  that  Christ  in  all  things  hath  the  pre-emi- 
nence :  but  if  Adam  be  a  more  public  person,  a  more  general  repre- 
sentative of  mankind,  than  Jesus  Christ ;  it  is  plain,  that,  in  this  grand 
respect,  Adam  hath  the  pre-eminence  over  Christ.  Now,  as  this 
cannot  be,  as  Christ  is  at  least  equal  to  Adam,  it  follows,  that  as  Adam 
brought  a  general  condemnation,  and  an  universal  seed  of  death  upon 
all  infants  :  so  Christ  brings  upon  them  a  general  justification,  and  an 
universal  seed  of  life. 

2.  I  never  yet  saw  a  Calvinist  who  denied  that  Christ  died  for 
Adam.  Now  if  the  Redeemer  died  for  our  first  parent,  he  undoubt- 
edly expiated  the  original  sin,  the  first  transgression  of  Adam.  And 
if  Adam's  original  sin  was  atoned  for,  and  forgiven  to  him,  as  the 
Calvinists,  I  think,  generally  grant,  does  it  not  follow,  that  although 
all  infants  are  by  nature  children  of  wrath,  yet  through  the  redemp- 
tion of  Christ  they  are  in  a  state  of  favour  or  justification  ?  For  how 
could  God  damn  to  all  eternity  any  of  Adam's  children  for  a  sin  which 
Christ  expiated  ?  A  sin  which  was  forgiven  almost  6000  years  ago  to 
Adam,  who  commuted  it  in  person  ? 

3.  The  force  of  this  observation  would  strike'  our  Calvinist  bre- 
thren, if  they  considered  that  we  were  not  less  in  Adam's  loins  when 
God  gave  his  Son  to  Adam  in  the  grand,  original  Gospel  promise,  than 
when  Eve  prevailed  upon  him  to  eat  of  the  forbidden  fruit.  As  all  in 
him  were  included  in  the  covenant  of  perfect  obedience,  before  the 
fall ;  so  all  in  him  were  likewise  interested  in  the  covenant  of  grace 
and  mercy,  after  the  fall :  and  we  have  full  as  much  reason  to  believe, 
that  some  of  Adam's  children  never  fell  with  him  from  a  state  of  pro- 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  359 

bation,  according  to  the  old  covenant ;  as  to  suppose,  that  some  of 
them  never  rose  with  him  to  a  state  of  probation,  upon  the  terms  of 
the  new  covenant,  which  stands  upon  letter  promises. 

Thus  if  we  all  received  an  unspeakable  injury  by  being  scminally 
in  Adam  when  he  fell,  according  to  the  first  covenant ;  we  all  received 
also  an  unspeakable  blessing]by  being  in  his  loins  when  God  spirit- 
ually raised  him  up,  and  placed  him  upon  Gospel  ground.  Nay,  the 
blessing  which  we  have  in  Christ  is  far  superior  to  the  curse  which 
Adam  entailed  upon  us  ;  we  stand  our  trial  upon  much  more  advanta- 
geous terms  than  Adam  did  in  Paradise.  For  according  to  the  first 
covenant,  judgment  was  by  one  offence  to  condemnation.  One  sin  sunk 
the  transgressor.  But  according  to  the  free  gift^  or  second  covenant, 
provision  is  made  in  Christ  for  repenting  of,  and  rising  from  many 
ffences  unto  justification,  Rom.  v.  16. 

4.  Calvinists  are  now  ashamed  of  consigning  infants  to  the  torments 
of  hell ;  they  begin  to  extend  their  election  to  them  all.  Even  the 
translator  of  Zanchius  believes,  that  all  children  who  die  in  their  in- 
fancy are  saved.  Now,  Sir,  if  all  children,  or  any  of  them,  are 
saved,  they  are  unconditionally  justified  according  to  our  plan ; 
for  they  cannot  be  justified  hy  faith,  according  to  St  Paul's  doctrine^ 
Rom.  V.  1.  as  it  is  granted,  that  those  who  are  not  capable  of  under- 
standing are  not  capable  of  believing.  Nor  can  they  be  justified  by 
worksy  according  to  St.  James's  doctrine,  chap.  ii.  24.  for  they  are  not 
accountable  for  their  works  who  do  not  know  good  from  evil,  nor 
their  right  hand  from  their  left.  Nor  can  they  be  justified  by  words, 
according  to  our  Lord's  doctrine,  Matt.  xii.  37.  because  they  cannot 
yet  form  one  articulate  sound.  It  follows,  then,  that  all  infants  must 
be  damned,  or  justified  without  faith,  words,  or  works,  according  to 
our  first  distinction.  But  as  you  believe  they  are  saved,  the  first  de- 
gree of  an  adult  saint's  justification  is  not  less  founded  upon  your 
own  sentiments,  than  upon  reason  and  Scripture. 

II.  When  infants  grow  up,  they  are  called  to  believe  in  the  light  of 
their  dispensation  ;  and  till  they  do,  their  personal  sins  condemn  them. 
Here  appears  the  absolute  need  of  justification  by  the  instrumen- 
tality of  faith.  This  justification  we  preach  to  Jews  and  heathens, 
to  Pharisees  and  publicans.  Upon  it  we  chiefly  insist,  when  we  ad- 
dress penitent  prodigals,  and  mourning  backsliders.  This  the  apostle 
chiefly  defends  in  his  epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians.  Our 
church  strongly  maintains  it  in  her  xith  article  :  and  as  we  are  all 
agreed  about  it,  I  shall  only  refer  to  some  passages  where  it  is  evi- 
dently mentioned.     Rom.  v.  1.  Gal.  ii.  16.  Acts  xiii.  39. 


360  FOURTH    CHECK 

III.  Whoever  hath  present  access  unto  that  grace  wherein  they,  who 
are  justified  by  faith,  do  stand,  is  also  justified  by  works.  Tn^e  justifi- 
cation by  faith  is  tnen  inseparable   from  justification  by  works ;  for 

faith  works  by  love,  so  long  as  it  is  living ;  and  love  is  productive  of 
good  vForks.  In  the  apostolic  age,  as  well  as  in  ours,  the  love  of  many 
grew  cold,  and,  concerning  faith  they  made  shipwreck,  by  not  adding 
to  it  brotherly-kindness,  godliness,  and  charity.  But  as  they  still  pro- 
fessed the  saving  faith  of  God's  elect,  which  works  by  love,  St.  James 
was  directed  by  the  Holy  Ghost  to  enforce  the  justification  of  a  be- 
liever by  works. 

Now  before  you  can  reasonably  explode  this  justification,  you  must 
execute  the  Antinomian  wish  of  Luther,  and  tear  St.  James's  epistle 
out  of  your  Bible.  But,  as  we  can  never  give  you  leave  to  take  this 
liberty  with  ours,  we  shall  still  oppose  the  justification  of  evil  workers, 
or  practical  Antinomians,  in  the  day  of  trial,  by  such  scriptures  as 
these  :  Know,  0  vain  man,  that  faith  without  works  is  dead ; — Rahab 
was  justified  by  works, — Abraham  was  justified  by  works  ;  and  so  are  all 
his  legitimate  children  ;  for  by  works  a  man  is  justified,  and  not  by  faith 
only. 

IV.  As  for  the  last  degree  of  an  adult  saint's  justification,  it  is  so 
fully  established  upon  the  words  of  our  Lord,  In  the  day  of  judgment 
by  thy  words  shalt  thou  be  justified,  that  Dr.  Owen,  and  multitudes  of 
the  Puritan  Divines,  as  I  have  made  it  appear  from  their  own  wri- 
tings, avowed  it  as  the  Gospel  truth,  in  opposition  to  Crisp's  Antinomian 
error.  Nay,  during  our  controversy,  truth  has  prevailed  ;  for, 
notwithstanding  the  strong  resistance  you  have  made  against  it,  you 
have  both  granted  all  that  we  contend  for ;  witness  the  two  first 
letters  of  this  Check. 

Now,  instead  of  attempting  to  prove,  at  least  by  one  argument, 
that  th«se  distinctions  are  contrary  either  to  Scripture  or  reason, 
Mr.  Hill,  sen.  says,  in  his  Remarks,  p.  5,  6,  "  What  really  surprises 
me  beyond  all  the  rest,  is,  your  having  brought  out  two  new  justifica- 
tions since  the  Second  Check ; — no  apologies  can  excuse  you  for 
having  concealed  the  matter  so  long." — Mr.  Hill,  jun.  adds,  in  the 
postscript  to  his  Friendly  Remarks,  p.  65,  6G,  67,  "  Your  doctrine  is  a 
mysterious  jumble. — Your  three  publications  contain  a  farrago  : — You 
are  quite  become  unanswerable  : — In  your  First  Check,  we  hear  but 
of  one  justification  ;  in  your  Second,  you  treat  us  with  two  ;  two  more 
are  lately  invented,  and  shoved  in  among  the  rest : — These  four 
justifications  may  be  doubled  and  doubled,  till  they  amount  to  four- 
score:— Your  imagination  is  quite  fertile,  you  can  invent  them  by 
dozens." 


TO   ANTINOMIANiSM.  361 

1.  Before  I  answer  these  witticisms,  permit  to  trouble  you  with  a 
simile.  I  maintain,  that  the  age  of  man  in  general  may  properly,  and 
at  times  necessarily  must  be  considered  as  made  up  of  four  different 
stages ;  infancy,  youth,  ripe  years,  and  old  age.  Two  Masters  of 
Arts,  who  would  make  the  world  believe,  that  youth  and  old  age  are 
the  same,  smile  at  the  absurdity  of  this  fourfold  distinction.  ^'  How 
inconsistent  are  you,  say  they!  Some  time  ago  you  spoke  of  the 
age  of  man  in  general,  and  told  us  it  was  threescore  years  and  ten» 
Yesterday  you  treated  us  with  a  dissertation  upon  youth  and  old  age. 
To-day  two  more  ages,  infancy  and  ripe  years,  are  invented,  and 
shoved  in  among  the  rest.  Your  fertile  imagination  may  double  and 
double  these  four  ages  till  they  amount  to  fourscore  ;  nay,  you  can  in- 
vent them  by  dozens."  This  humorous  answer  highly  delights  thou- 
sands, and  in  mystic  Geneva  such  wit  passes  for  argument ;  but  some 
in  England  begin  to  ask,  shall  we  be  for  ever  the  dupes  of  Geneva 
logic  ? 

2.  It  is  a  very  great  mistake,  that,  *'  In  the  First  Check  we  hear 
but  of  one  justification  :"  for  though  I  there  treat  principally  of  jus- 
tification by  faith,  because  Mr.  Wesley  principally  meant  it  in  the  Mi- 
nutes ;  yet,  p.  43,  the  justification  of  infants  is  thus  described  :  It  is 
*'  that  general  benevolence  of  our  merciful  God  towards  sinful  man- 
kind, whereby,  through  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world,  he  casts  a  propitious  look  upon  us,  and  freely  makes  us  parta- 
kers of  the  light  that  enlightens  every  man  who  comes  into  the  world.  This 
general  loving-kindness  is  certainly  previous  to  any  thing  we  can  do 
to  find  it :  for  it  always  prevents  us,  saying  to  us  in  our  very  infancy^ 
Live,  (and)  in  consequence  of  it,  our  Lord  says,  Let  little  children 
come  unto  me,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven.'^  This  is  not  all. 
P.  43,  and  44.  I  particularly  describe  '*  Justification  hyfaiiW^  in  the 
day  of  conversion,  and  expressly  mention  "  Justifbcation  by  words, 
(or  works)  i«  the  day  of  judgment:''^  and  common  sense  dictates,  that 
none  can  be  justified  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment,  but  those  who, 
according  to  St.  James's  doctrine,  have  been  justified  by  works  in  this 
life.  How  rash,  then,  is  the  assertion,  that  I  have  invented  any  new 
justification  since  the  First  Check  !  How  weak  is  that  cause  which  a 
Master  of  Arts  cannot  support  but  by  witticism  founded  upon  as 
palpable  a  mistake  as  that  "  one  and  three  do  not  make  more  than  one/ 

And  is  the  doctrine  of  a  glorified  saint's  complete  justification 
changed  in  the  Second  Check  ?  No :  for  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoni  • 
ensis,  in  his  answer  to  that  book,  (Review  p.  12.)  upbraids  me  with 
sayini^  therein,  "  By  faith  a  man  is  justified  at  his  conversion,  but  by 
works  he  is  justified"  [on  earth]  "  in  the  hour  of  trial,  as  Abraham 


362  rOURTH    CHECK 

when  he  offered  up  Isaac,"  [or]  *'  in  a  court  of  judicature,  as  St.  Paul 
at  the  bar  of  Festus."  [And  again]  "  By  works  he  is  justified  before 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  as  every  one  will  be,  whose  faith  when 
he  goes  hence  is  found  working  by  love."  I  grant,  however,  that  I 
did  not  mention  the  justification  of  infants  in  the  Second  Check  ;  but 
this  does  not  prove  that  I  ^^  concealed  a  matter  of  such  importance. ^^ 
For  I  had  plainly  mentioned  it  in  the  Vindication,  and  Mr.  Shirley  not 
having  opposed  it  in  his  Narrative,  as  he  had  done  justification  hy  works 
in  the  great  day^  it  would  have  been  absurd  to  spend  time  in  estabhsh- 
ingit. 

If  you  ask,  why  I  have  distinguished  between  justification  by  works 
to-day,  and  justification  by  works  in  the  day  of  judgment :  I  answer. 
For  two  reasons,  1.  St.  James  and  Mr.  Hill,  jun.  do  so:  Rahab  was 
justified  by  works,  at  the  time  when  she  received  the  spies.  Friendly 
Remarks,  p.  38.  2.  The  propriety  and  importance  of  this  distinction, 
appear  from  the  following  consideration.  Many  may  be  justified 
by  works  to-day,  who  shall  be  condemned  by  works  in  the  day  of 
judgment. 

Take  an  instance.  When  St.  Paul  «?hose  Demas  to  be  his  fellow- 
labourer,  Demas  was  undoubtedly  justified  by  works,  and  not  by  faith 
only ;  for  the  apostle  would  not  have  been  unequally  yoked  with  an 
evil  worker,  any  more  than  with  an  unbeliever.  Nevertheless,  in  the 
day  of  judgment,  if  we  may  believe  John  Bunyan,  Demas  shall  be 
condemned  by  his  latter,  instead  of  being  justified  by  his  former 
works. 

But  I  have  said,  in  the  Second  Check,  that  "  a  man  is  justified  by 
faith  when  his  backslidings  are  healed,"  as  well  as  at  his  first  conver- 
sion. And  as  he  may  fall  from,  and  return  to  God  ten  times,  a  face- 
tious opponent  is  ready  to  charge  me  with  holding  ten,  perhaps 
"  threescore  justifications'^  by  faith.  Witty,  but  groundless  is  the 
charge  ;  for  supposing  I  lose  and  find  the  same  guinea  ten  times,  am 
I  not  mistaken  if  I  fancy  that  I  have  found  ten  guineas  ?  Or,  if  you 
draw  back  sixty  times  from  a  bright  sunshine  into  a  dark  cave,  and 
sixty  times  come  into  the  sunshine  again,  do  1  not  offer  violence  to  rea- 
son, if  I  maintain,  that  you  have  got  into  ^'threescore''  sunshines? 
Here  you  say,  ^'Illustrations  are  no  proofs  at  all."  I  grant  it: 
nevertheless,  when  the  proofs  are  gone  before,  just  illustrations 
wonderfully  help  many  readers  to  detect  the  fallacy  of  a  plausible 
idrgument. 

But  supposing  I  had  not  mentioned  the  different  degrees  of  an 
adult  saint's  justification  either  in  the  First  or  Second  Check,  would 
rod  not.  Gentlemen,  have  exposed  Geneva  Logic,  as  you  have  now 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  363 

done  your  inattention,  if  you  had  hoped  to  set  plain  Scripture  aside 
by  saying,  "  It  comes  too  late.  You  placed  it  in  the  Third  Check  ; 
it  should  have  been  produced  in  the  First  ?"  Does  not  such  an 
argument  hurt  your  cause  more  than  a  prudent  silence  would  have 
done  ? 

However,  if  you  cannot  put  out  the  candle  with  whish  we  search 
the  streets  of  mystic  Geneva,  and  examine  the  foundation  of  its 
towers,  you  both  agree  to  amuse  the  Calvioists,  by  bringing  Mr.  Wes- 
ley* upon  the  stage  of  controversy.  He  said,  above  twenty  years 
ago,  in  one  of  his  journals,  "  I  cannot  but  maintain,  at  least  till  I  have 
a  clearer  light,  that  the  justification  which  is  spoken  of  by  St.  Paul  to 
the  Romans,  and  in  our  articles,  is  not  twofold  ;  it  is  one,  and  no  more." 
Here  Mr.  Hill,  jun.  particularl}^  triumphs,  "  By  your  degrees  of  a 
glorified  saint's  justification,  you  have  thrown  your  own  friend  into 
the  dirt,'*  says  he,  *'  help  him  out  if  you  can." 

To  this  I  answer,  that  if  Mr.  Wesley,  by  the  justification  spoken 
of  by  St.  Paul  to  the  Romans,  meant  that  which  the  apostle  purposely 
maintains  in  that  epistle,  and  which  our  church  explicitly  asserts  in 
her  eleventh  article,  my  vindicated  friend  speaks  a  great  truth  when 
he  says,  that  i/iiV  justification  is  one,  and  no  more  ;  for  it  is  evidently 
justification  by  faith.  But  supposing  he  had  not  properly  considered 
either  the  justification  of  infants  without  faith  and  works,  or  the  justi- 
fication of  believers  by  works  in  the  day  of  trial,  and  in  the  day  of 

*  The  prejudice  of  my  opponents  against  Mr.  Wesley,  makes  them  catch  at  every 
shadow  of  opportunity  to  place  him  in  a  contemptible  light  before  the  world.  Witness 
their  exclaiming  against  him  for  having  suffered  me  to  make  an  honourable  mention  of  his 
labours  in  the  Vindication,  to  counterbalance,  a  little,  the  loads  of  contempt  poured  upon 
him  on  all  aides.  Those  Gentlemen  do  not  consider,  that  there  are  times,  when  a  gray- 
headed,  useful,  and  yet  slighted,  insulted  minister  of  Christ,  may  not  only  suffer  another 
to  speak  honourably  of  his  labours,  but  when  he  ought  to  magnify  his  own  office  in  person. 

St.  Paul  certainly  did  so,  when  he  said.  In  nothing  am  I  behind  the  very  chief  est  apostles, 
I  have  laboured  more  abundantly  than  they  all.  Are  they  ministers  of  Christ,  lam  more  • 
in  labours  more  abundant,  &c. — After  the  apostle's  example,  might  not  Mr.  Wesley  him- 
self say,  [giving,  like  him,  all  the  glory  to  divine  grace,]  "  I  am  nothing  behind  the  chief 
of  the  Gospel  ministers.  I  have  laboured  more  abundantly  than  they  all  ?"  Nay,  might  he 
not  add,  "  I  have  broken  the  ice,  and  stood  in  the  gap  for  them  all  ?"  Now  if,  instead  of 
answering  for  himself,  he  has  permitted  me  to  vindicate  his  aspersed  character,  and  despised 
ministry,  where  is  the  harm  ?  If  Timothy  was  to  let  no  man  despise  his  youth,  is  Mr.  Wes- 
ley guilty  of  an  unpardonable  crime  because  he  has  permitted  me  to  bear  my  testimony 
against  the  impropriety  of  despising  his  old  age?  And  does  not  even  young  Mr.  Hill  say 
much  more  for  himself,  than  I  have  done  for  Mr.  Wesley  the  aged!  The  whole  of  what  I 
have  advanced  in  his  favour,  centres  in  this  assertion,  "  He  has  done  much  for  God."  But 
my  opponent  addresses  me  thus  before  the  public.  Friendly  Remarks,  p.  69.  "  You  know 
my  character,  that  I  have  suffered  much,  very  much  for  God."  And  yet  this  very  gentle- 
man takes  Mr.  Wesley  to  task,  and  accuses  him  of  self-importance  !  O  Partiality,  how  long 
wilt  thou  blind  and  divide  us .?  And  how  long  wilt  thou  cause  the  astonished  world  to  say, 
See  how  these  sheep  bite  and  d^our  om  another  ^ 


364  i'OURTH  CHECK 

judgment ;  what  would  you  infer  from  thence  ?  That  the  Scnpldre^ 
which  speak  of  such  justifications  are  false?  The  conclusion  would 
be  worthy  of  Geneva  logic !  Weigh  your  argument  in  the  balance  of 
English  logic,  and  you  will  find  it  is  wanting.  Twenty-three,  or, 
if  you  please,  three  years  ago,  Mr.  Wesley  wanted  clearer  light,  to 
distinguish  between  the  justification  of  a  sinner  by  faith,  and  the  justi- 
fication of  a  believer  by  works :  but  two  years  ago  God  gave  him  this 
clearer  light,  and  he  immediately  called  his  friends  to  "  Review  the 
whole  affair,"  and  help  him  to  make  a  firm  stand  for  St.  James's  pure 
religion,  against  Crisp's  defiled  Gospel  :  therefore,  say  my  opponents, 
St.  James's  and  Jesus  Christ's  justification  of  a  believer  by  works,  is 
a  "  dreadful  heresy,"  and  Mr.  Wesley  is  "  thrown  in  iheidirt."  Is  the 
conclusion  worthy  of  two  Masters  of  Arts  ?  May  1  not  more  reason- 
ably draw  just  a  contrary  inference,  and  say,  therefore  Mr.  Wesley 
shakes  the  very  dust,  or,  if  you  please,  the  very  "  dirt'^  of  Geneva 
from  off  his  feet,  and  exhorts  his  flocks  to  do  the  same  through  the 
three  kingdoms  ? 

II.  As  .our  controversy  centres  in  the  point  of  justification  by 
works,  both  in  the  day  of  the  trial  of  faith,  and  in  the  day  of  judg- 
ment :  whatever  my  opponents  advance  agamst  this,  I  shall  endeavour 
to  answer. 

*' The  Scriptures  [says  Mr.  Hill,  sen.  Remarks,  ■p.  5.]  always  speak 
of  justification  as  perfect,  full,  and  complete."  For  an  answer  to  this 
bold,  unscriptural  assertion,  1  refer  the  reader  to  the  preceding  pages, 
where  he  will  easily  see,  that  although  God's  work  is  always  perfect, 
so  far  as  it  goes  ;  yet  as  final  justification  depends  upon  perseverance 
in  the  faith,  and  as  perseverance  in  the  faith  is  inseparably  connected 
with  paXient  continuance  in  well-doing,  it  is  unscriptural  and  absurd  to 
assert,  that  final  justification  is  complete,  before  we  can  say  with  St. 
Paul,  /  am  ready  to  be  offered  up  :  I  have  fought  the  gogd  fght,  I  have 
Jinished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith  :  or  rather,  before  Christ  him- 
self says  to  us,  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servants,  enter  into  the  joy 
of  your  Lord. 

III.  P.  4.  "You  do  us  great  injustice  in  supposing,  that  we  be- 
lieve, or  assert,  any  souls  may  strive,  reform,  and  pray,  without  any 
possibility  of  escaping  hell.  When  you  made  the  above  assertion, 
did  you  not  know,  in  your  own  conscience,  that  you  charged  us 
wrongfull}'  ?" 

In  the  presence  of  God,  I  answer  in  the  negative.  If  you  main- 
tain, that  Christ  never  died  for  a  certain,  fixed  number  of  men,  you 
must  of  consequence  believe,  that  those  whom  he  never  died  for, 
can  never  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come,  though  they  should  strive^ 
reform,  and  pray  ever  so  much. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  365 

If  you  are  consistent,  you  7iiust  be  persuaded  that  though  Mr- 
Wesley,  for  example,  has  prayed,  strove,  and  reformed  for  above 
forty  years,  yet  if  he  is  not  one  of  what  you  call  "  the  happy  nuin- 
ber^^^  he  shall  inevitably  be  damned. 

IV.  P.  8.  You  refer  me  to  your  *'  striking  quotation  of  Luther, 
concerning  the  distinction  between  a  believer  and  his  actions."  I 
answer,  1.  Luther's  bare  assertions  go  for  nothing  with  us,  when 
they  stand  in  direct  opposition  to  St.  James's  epistle,  which  in  one 
of  his  Antinomian  fits,  he  wanted  to  burn  out  of  the  way.  2.  This 
assertion  contradicts  common  sense  and  daily  experience,  which 
agree  to  depose,  that  excepting  the  case  of  lunatics  and  delirious 
persons,  men  are  like  their  actions,  when  those  actions  are  taken 
together  with  their  principle  and  design. 

V.  You  add  in  the  same  page,  "  It  was  happy  for  David  that 
when  he  fell  so  grossly,  he  had  a  merciful,  gracious,  promise-keeping 
God  to  deal  with,  and  that  he  fell  not  into  the  hands  of  Arminians 
and  Perfectionists."  I  retort,  "  It  was  happy  for  Clodius,  that  if  he 
turned  from  his  wicked  way,  he  had  not  an  unmerciful,  ungracious, 
and  promise-breaking  God  to  deal  with,  and  fell  not  into  the  hands 
of  an  inexorable  Moloch,  befbre  whom  poor  reprobated  heathens 
can  find  no  place  for  repentance,  though  they  should  seek  it  care- 
fully with  tears."  As  for  your  insinuation  that  Arminians  and  Per- 
fectionists (as  such)  are  merciless  to  backsliders,  it  is  groundless  : 
we  are  taught  to  restore  the  fallen  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  as  well  as 
you.  And  (to  the  praise  of  divine  wisdom  1  write  it)  we  are  enabled 
to  do  it  without  encouraging  them  to  return  to  their  wallowing  in  the 
mire  of  sin,  by  dangerous  insinuations,  that  relapses  into  it  will 
"  work  for  their  good." 

VI.  While  we  speak  of  David  and  Clodius,  it  may  be  proper  to 
dwell  a  moment  upon  their  case.  Clodius,  a  young  heathen,  forsakes 
his  one  wife,  and  David,  an  elderly  J.ew,  forsakes  his  seven  wives 
and  ten  concubines,  to  commit  the  crime  of  adultery  with  women 
whose  husbands  they  have  just  murdered.  I  maintain  that  David 
is  7nore  guilty  than  Clodius,  and  that  his  crime  is  so  much  the  more 
atrocious  than  that  of  the  noble  heathen,  as  he  commits  it  against 
greater  light  and  knowledge,  against  greater  mercies  and  more  so- 
lemn vows,  perhaps  with  more  deliberation,  and  certainly  with  less 
temptation  from  the  ferments  of  youthful  blood,  and  the  want  of 
variety. 

But  you  still  dissent  from  me,  and  persist  to  say,  (p.  9.)  that  "  Da- 
vid remained  absolved  from  the  curse  of  the  law,  whilst  Clodius 
lay  under  it."     And  how   can  you    prove  it  ?     "  David,"  say   you, 

Vor..   r.  47 


366  FOURTH    CHECK 

"  was  a  believer."  I  reply,  No,  he  was  an  impenitent  adulterer,  and  a 
treacherous  murderer  :  and  these  characters  are  as  incompatible 
with  that  of  a  believer,  as  heaven  is  irreconcileable  with  hell,  and 
Christ  with  Belial.  If  a  man  can  be  a  believer,  i.  e.  a  member  of 
Christ,  a  child  of  God,  and  an  inheritor  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
while  he  wallows  in  the  filth  of  adultery,  and  imbrues  his  hands  in 
innocent  blood,  farewell  Christianity,  farewell  heathen  morality, 
farewell  common  decency :  we  are  come  to  the  non  plus  ultra  of 
Antinomianism  :  truth  and  virtue,  law  and  Gospel,  natural  and  re- 
vealed religion  are  buried  in  a  common  grave.  Alas !  my  dear  Sir. 
what  can  the  wildest  Ranter,  what  can  Satan  himself  desire  more  ? 

A  deistical  gentleman  lately  observed,  that  all  religion  consisted  in 
morality,  and  that  nevertheless  Revelation  was  an  useful  contrivance 
of  wise  politicians,  to  keep  the  vulgar  in  awe,  and  enforce  the  prac- 
tice of  moral  duties  among  the  populace.  But  alas  !  the  unhappy 
turn  which  you  give  to  Revelation,  does  not  even  leave  it  the  poor 
use  which  a  deist  will  allow  it  to  have.  Nay,  your  scheme,  far 
from  enforcing  morality,  sets  it  aside  at  a  stroke.  For  if  a  man  that 
actually  commits  adultery,  treachery,  and  murder,  is  a  pleasant  child 
of  God  ;  why  should  not  a  drunkard,  a  swearer,  a  thief,  or  a  trai- 
tor, be  also  accomplishing  God's  holy  decrees  ?  Why  should  he  not 
prove  his  pleasant  child,  as  well  as  a  wanton  adulterer  and  a  perfidi- 
ous murderer  ?  Is  not  this  stripping  the  woman,  the  Christian  church, 
of  the  glorious  garment  of  holiness,  in  which  she  came  down  from 
heaven  ?  Is  it  not  exposing  her  to  a  horrid  derision,  without  so 
much  as  a  scrap,  I  shall  not  say  of  exalted  piety,  but  even  of  hea- 
then morality,  to  keep  herself  decent  before  a  world  of  mocking  in- 
fidels ?  Hath  not  this  doctrine  driven  Geneva  headlong  into  deism  ? 
And  is  it  not  likely  to  have  the  same  effect  upon  all  who  can  draw  a 
just  inference  from  your  dangerous  premises  ? 

Hitherto  Protestants  in  general  have  granted  to  the  Papists,  that 
although  .good  works  are  not  meritorious,  [if  any  higher  idea  than 
that  of  rewardable  is  fixed  to  that  word]  yet  they  are  necessary  to 
salvation  :  but  since  the  doctrine  o^ finished  salvation  pours  in  upon 
us  like  a  flood  ;  since  good  men  do  not  scruple  to  tell  the  world,  that 
the  salvation  of  a  bloody  adulterer,  in  flagrante  delicto,  is  finished, 
and  that  he  is  a  pleasant  child  of  God,  fully  accepted  and  com- 
pletely justified,  what  have  good  works  to  do  with  salvation  ?  We 
may  not  only  dispense  with  them,  but  do  the  most  horrid  works. 
Yea,  '*  the  wheeV  of  adultery,  treachery,  and  murder,  may  '*  run 
round,  and  round  again,''''  for  ten  months,  without  interrupting  the 
finished  salvation  of  the  elect  -;  any  more  than  praying,  weeping, 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  3g7 

and  reforming  for  ten  years,  will  prevent  the  finished  damnation  of 
the  reprobates. 

But  lest  you  should  say,  I  "  blind  the  eyes  of  the  readers  with  de- 
ceitful dust,"  I  meet  you  on  the  solid  ground  where  St.  James 
stood,  when  he  opposed  the  primitive  Antinomians  ;  and  taking  that 
holy  apostle's  Gospel  trumpet,  I  sound  an  alarm  in  Laodicea,  and  cry 
out  to  the  drowsy  world  of  Nicolaitan  professors,  whether  they  hear 
the  word  at  the  Lock-chapel,  or  at  the  Foundery,  Awake,  ye  that 
sleep,  and  arise  from  the  dead.  Show  your  faith  by  your  works.  Know 
ye  not,  0  vain  men,  that  faith  xmthout  zvorks  is  dead,  that  it  is  a  putre- 
fying, ill-smelling  corpse  ?  Help,  ye  men  of  God,  help  us  to  bury 
it  out  of  the  way  of  good  works.  Let  frighted  Morality  dig  a 
grave  ;  let  indignant  Piety  cast  the  horrid  nuisance  into  it.  And, 
while  we  commit  it  to  hell,  whence  it  came,  while  the  devils  who 
believe,  feed  upon  the  noisome  carcass,  let  Bishop  Cowper  himself, 
attended  by  the  author  of  Pietas  Oxoniensis,  say  over  the  grave, 
'Justifying  faith,  whereby  we  are  saved,  cannot  be  without  good 
works.  Dead  and  damnable  is  the  faith  which  is  consistent  with 
adultery  and  murder."  And  let  all  the  Church  say.  Amen,  and  con- 
tend for  the  faith  of  God''s  elect,  the  faith  maintained  by  St.  Paul  and 
St.  James,  the  faith  recommended  in  Mr.  Wesley's  Minutes,  the  living 
faith  that  woi^ks  by  obedient  love. 

VII.  P.  10.  In  defence  of  your  cause,  you  produce  those  words 
•of  our  Lord  to  the  proud  Pharisees,  Publicans  and  harlots  go  into 

the  kingdom  of  heaven  before  you.  Surely,  Sir,  you  would  not  insi- 
nuate that  God  takes  extortioners  and  strumpets  into  heaven  as  such, 
and  that  adultery  and  whoredom  are  a  ready  way  to  glory  !  I  know 
you  start  from  the  horrid  insinuation.  And,  nevertheless,  I  fear 
this  doctrine  naturally  flows  from  the  manner  in  which  the  passage  is 
quoted.  I  always  thought  those  words  of  our  Lord  meant  that  pub- 
licans and  harlots  could  sooner  be  reclaimed  from  their  execrable 
courses  of  Hfe,  thanse  If-hardened  Pharisees  from  their  diabolical 
.  pride ;  and  that  while  Christ  would  admit  a  penitent  Magdalen  into 
heaven,  he  would  thrust  an  impenitent  Pharisee  into  hell.  But  what 
is  this  to  the  purpose  ?  Does  this  make  the  case  of  David,  or  any 
other  sinner,  better,  while  they  remain  in  a  state  of  impenitency? 

VIII.  P.  9.  You  have  answered  this  question  :  "  David  in  Uriah's 
bed,  (you  say,)  in  a  sense  was  not  impenitent.  The  grace  of  repent- 
ance, <^c.  did  lie  like  a  spark  covered  with  ashes.'^    To  this  I  reply  : 

1.  If  by  a  spark  or  seed  of  repentance,  you  understand  a  ray  of 
that  quickening  light,  which  enlightens  every  man  that  comes  into  the 


368  POUKTH    CHECK 

world,  and  endues  him  with  a  gracious  capacity  of  repenting  during 
the  day  of  salvation,  we  are  agreed  :  supposing  you  grant  us,  ihat 
while  Clodius  defiled  his  neighbour's  bed  in  Rome,  he  was  surb  a 
penitent  as  David  when  he  committed  the  same  crime  in  Jerusalem. 

2.  We  deny,  that  a  capacity  of  repentance  is  in  a  sense  rejpentance, 
any  more  than  a  capacity  of  obeying  is  in  a  sense  obedience.  Accord- 
ing to  your  idea  of  that  sort  of  repentance  which  David  had  when 
he  committed  murder,  the  most  abandoned  profligates,  who  have  not 
yet  filled  up  the  measure  of  their  iniquities,  are  all  in  a  sort  penitent ; 
and  Adam  when  he  ate  the  forbidden  fruit  was  171  a  sort  obedient. 

3.  Your  assertion  is  unscriptural.  You  cannot  produce  one  pas- 
sage to  prove,  that  a  murderer,  or  an  adulterer,  in  flagrante  delictOy 
is  a  penitent  in  any  sense.  If  David  was  a  penitent,  because  repent- 
ance lay  in  his  heart  as  a  spark  buried  under  ashes  ;  I  may  say,  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  words  of  our  Lord,  that  the  wicked  and  slothful 
servant  was  in  some  sense  good  and  diligent,  because  his  master's 
talent  lay  buried  in  his  napkin. 

4.  You  insinuate,  that  the  ashes  which  covered  the  spark  of  David's 
repentance  were  "  his  sin.^^  The  comparison  is  not  very  fortunate  ; 
for  ashes  frequently  preserve  the  spark  which  they  cover ;  but  the 
commission  of  murder  always  tends  to  quench  the  Spirit.  If  you 
say,  that  David  repented  in  some  sort  while  he  sinned,  because  he 
undoubtedly  sinaed  with  remorse  of  conscience :  I  reply,  1.  That 
he  seems  to  have  enjoyed  his  crimes  at  least,  with  as  much  carnal 
security  as  Clodius  could  possibly  do.  2.  If  remorse  be  confounded 
with  repentance,  hell  is  filled  with  penitents  ;  and  most  drunkards  and 
murderers  are  in  a  sort  penitent ;  for  when  they  sin,  they  do  it  fre- 
quently with  much  reluctance. 

5.  This  scheme  of  a  sort  of  repentance,  covered  as  a  spark  in  the 
hearts  of  those  whose  eyes  are  full  of  adultery,  and  hands  full  of 
blood,  is  attended  with  the  most  fatal  consequences.  It  tends  to  breed 
negligence  in  the  hearts  of  believers,  and  carnal  security  in  the 
breasts  of  apostates  ;  for  how  can  the  former  be  careful  not  to  lose 
what  is  inamissible  ?  And  how  can  the  latter  endeavour  to  recover 
what  they  have  not  lost?  Again,  it  supersedes  the  distinction  there 
is  between  the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and  opens  the  door  to  the 
most  horrid  confusion  in  the  moral  world.  Has  not  a  traitor  as  much 
right  to  plead  the  spark  of  loyalty,  a  drunkard  the  spark  of  sobriety, 
and  a  highwayman  the  spark  of  honesty,  covered  under  the  ashes  of 
his  sin ;  as  you  have  to  plead  the  spark  of  repentance,  chastity,  and 
brotherly  love,  that  lay  covered  in  the  heiirt  of  David  during  his  Jong 
apostacy  ? 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  369 

6.  But  this  is  not  all :  if  your  doctrine  be  true,  that  of  Christ  and 
his  apostles  is  evidently  false.  For  St.  Paul  says  to  the  Corinthians, 
Examine  yourselves  whether  you  be  in  the  faith.  And  he  gives  them 
this  rule  of  examination,  Be  not  deceived;  neither  fornicators^  nor 
adulterers y  <^c.  have  any  inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  Now, 
if  a  man  who  commits  adultery  and  murder  may  have  a  spark  of  grace 
and  repentance,  which  actually  constitutes  him  a  pleasant  child  of 
God,  how  can  he  know,  by  the  apostle's  rule,  whether  he  is  in  the 
fiiith  or  not?  St.  John  says,  with  apostolic  bluntness,  He  that  com- 
mitteth  sin  is  of  the  devil:  yes,  in  Rome,  replies  one  who  is  versed  in 
your  divinity ;  but  in  Jerusalem,  he  that  committeth  adultery  and 
nKirder  may  be  in  a  sort  penitent^  consequently  a  man  after  God's  own 
heart.  Again,  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,  says  our  Lord,  when 
he  speaks  of  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing.  Now,  it  is  clear,  that  if 
your  doctrine  be  true,  even  when  they  commit  adultery  and  murder, 
it  cannot  be  known  whether  they  are  wolves,  because  the  spark  of 
chastity  and  charity  that  constituted  David  a  pleasant  child  daring 
his  dreadful  fall,  may  be  concealed  under  all  their  debaucheries  and 
barbarities. 

IX.  P.  13.  To  enforce  your  doctrine  of  a  twofold,  and,  as  it 
appears  to  me,  Jesuitical  will  in  God,  you  again  produce  God's  forbid- 
ding murder  to  free  agents  :  and  to  this  prohibition  you  oppose  the 
murder  which  the  Jews  committed  as  free  agents,  when  by  wicked 
hands  they  crucified  Christ,  who  was  delivered  to  them.by  the  determinate 
counsel  and  foreknowledge  of  God.  I  hope.  Sir,  you  would  not  in- 
sinuate, that  God  solemnly  forbids  murder  by  revealed,  and  forcibly 
enjoins  it  by  his  secret  will !  To  what  I  have  already  said  on  the 
point  in  the  Third  Check,  (p.  231.)  I  now  add,  1.  God  never  insti- 
gated the  Jews  to  murder  Christ.  On  the  contrary,  he  frequently 
restrained  them  from  the  commission  of  their  intended  crime.  Ye 
seek  to  kill  me,  said  Jesus  to  them  many  months  before  they  actually 
did  it.  They  even  made  open  attempts  to  stone  him,  and  cast  him 
down  a  precipice,  before  the  time  foretold.  2.  When  that  time  was 
come,  God  being  about  to  give  his  Son  a  ransom  for  the  many,  by  his 
determinate  counsel,  that  one  should  die  for  all ;  and  seeing  by  his  fore- 
knowledge, that  the  Jews,  who  thirsted  for  his  blood,  would  put  him 
to  death,  he  no  longer  hindered  them  from  taking  him.  Thus  Jesus 
went  to  meet  their  malicious  band,  in  the  garden  of  Gethsemane,  and 
said,  I  am  he  whom  ye  seek.  3.  This  only  shows  that  divine  Provi- 
dence sometimes  suffers  moral  agents  to  commit  outwardly,  the  sins 
which  they  have  already  committed  in  their  own  breasts  :  and  he 
suffers  it  that  they  may  come  to  condign  punishment,  or  that  other 


370  FOURTH  CHECK 

wicked  men  may  be  punished  :  sometimes  also,  that  good  men  may 
be  tried,  hypocrites  detected,  and  the  godly  made  perfect  by  suffer- 
ings, like  their  Lord. 

X.  P.  13.  In  support  of  the  same  mistake,  you  add,  "  You  believe 
it  to  be  God*s  revealed  willy  that  every  man  should  love  his  brother  as 
himself;  yefc  it  was  certainly  according  to  the  secret  will  of  God,  that 
Joseph's  brethren  should  se/Z,"  [why  do  you  not  say,  should  hate'] 
*'  him,  and  that  he  should  go  into  Egypt ;  otherwise  Joseph  must  have 
told  a  gross  untruth,  when  he  said,  God  did  send  me  to  preserve  life: — 
it  was  not  you  that  sent  me  hither,  but  God.^^ 

To  vindicate  what  I  beg  leave  to  call  God^s  honesty,  permit  me  to 
observe,  1.  That  I  had  rather  believe,  Joseph  told  once  a  gross 
untruth,  than  suppose  that  God  perpetually  equivocates.  2.  You 
must  not  raise  a  doctrine  upon  two  sentences  which  Joseph  spake  as 
a  fond  brother,  rather  than  as  a  judicious  divine.  When  he  saw  his 
brethren  confounded,  and  when,  in  a  cordial  embrace,  he  mixed  his 
tears  of  joy  with  their  tears  of  shame  and  repentance,  how  natural 
was  it  for  him  to  draw  a  veil  over  their  crime,  and  to  comfort  them 
by  observing  with  what  providential  wisdom  God  had  overruled  a 
circumstance  which  attended  their  sin  ?  3.  All  that  you  can  therefore 
infer  from  Joseph's  case  is,  that  God  would  have  his  brothers  love 
him  as  free  agents ;  and  that  when,  as  free  agents,  they  chose  to  hate 
and  murder  him,  the  Lord,  to  save  his  life  and  bring  about  his  deep 
designs,  excited  some  compassion  in  their  breasts  :  hence  they  thought 
it  less  cruel,  while  the  providential  appearance  of  the  Ishmaelites  made 
it  appear  more  profitable,  to  sell  him  as  a  slave,  than  to  starve  him  to 
death  in  a  pit.  Thus  God,  contrary  to  their  intention,  but  not  con- 
trary to  his  own  law,  sent  him  into  Egypt  to  preserve  life.  But  what 
is  this  to  the  purpose?  Was  it 'God's  secret,  effectual  will,  that 
■Joseph's  brethren  should  hate  him,  while  his  revealed  will  com- 
manded them  to  love  him,  under  pain  of  eternal  damnation  ?  Before 
you  can  establish  this  doctrine,  you  must  prove,  that  man  is  a  mere 
machine,  and  God  a  mere  Moloch. 

XI.  But  to  excuse  yourself,  you  ask,  p.  12,  '<  By  speaking  of  the 
secret  and  revealed  will  of  God,  do  I  suppose  that  God  has  two  con- 
trary wills  ?"  Undoubtedly  you  do,  Sir,  if  you  are  consistent.  God's 
revealed  will,  for  example,  is,  that  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should 
be  blessed  in  Christ,  with  the  grace  that  bringcth  salvation  to  all  men  ; 
but  by  his  secret  will,  if  we  may  believe  Calvin,  most  families  of 
the  earth  are  absolutely  cursed  :  a  decree  of  preterition  eternally 
excludes  them  from  an  interest  in  Christ,  and  from  the  least  degree 
of  savins  grace. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  371 

Again,  it  is  God^s  revealed  will  that  all  men  every  where  should  repent^ 
under  penalty  of  destruction :  but  upon  your  plan  of  doctrine,  it  is 
his  secret,  efectual  will,  that  most  men,  even  all  the  reprobates,  shall 
never  repent.  And,  indeed,  how  should  they,  if  he  harden  them 
either  from  their  mother's  womb,  or  from  the  loins  of  their 
first  parent  ?  Once  more,  it  is  God's  revealed  will  that  all  men  should 
believe  the  Gospel,  and  he  saved  as  free  agents,  if  they  submit  to  his 
gracious  and  easy  terms  :  but  according  to  your  scheme,  it  is  his 
secret,  indefectible  will,  either  that  there  shall  be  no  Gospel,  or 
only  a  lying  Gospel  for  most  men  ;  and  that  there  shall  be  no  con- 
ditions or  terms  in  the  Gospel.  Hence  we  are  openly  told,  that 
God  does  not  treat  with  the  sons  of  men  in  a  way  of  condition  ; 
his  language  being  absolute,  hke  himself,  /  will,  and  you  shall  : 
that  is,  *'  Ye  elect,  /  will  that  ye  believe  and  be  saved,  and  you 
SHALL  believe  and  be  saved  :  and  ye  reprobates,  /will  that  you 
sin  and  be  damned,  and  you  shall  sin  and  be  damned."  If  you 
do  not  hold  those  propositions,  you  are  with  reason  ashamed  of 
Calvinism;  if  you  hold  them,  you  certainly  maintain  that  there 
are  two  contrary  wills  in  God,  whether  you  suppose  that  you  do  so 
or  not. 

XII.  One  more  observation,  and  I  have  done.  In  your  Five 
Letters  you  have  opposed  this  proposition,  "  Believing  is  previous 
to  justification,"  and  said,  "  I  deny  that  believing  precedes  justifica- 
tion" in  the  day  of  conversion.  I  have  observed  in  my  reply,  that 
this  assertion  sets  aside  justification  hy  faith;  because  if  believing 
do  not  precede  justification,  there  is  no  need  of  believing  in  order 
to  be  justified.  "  This  is  disingenuous,  (say  you,  Remarks,  p.  10.) 
Where  do  I  assert  that  justification  precedes  believing  ?  I  believe 
that  true  faith  and  justification  are  as  inseparable  as  fire  and 
heat." 

To  this  I  answer,  1.  Your  comparison  is  not  just.  Fire  is  not 
the  instrument  by  which  heat  is  apprehended,  but  the  very  fountain  of 
heat  itself:  whereas  faith  justifies,  not  as  being  the  very  fountain  of 
justification,  but  merely  as  an  instrument  that  apprehends  the  truth 
of  him  who  justifies  the  ungodly  that  believe  in  Jesus.  Here,  then, 
you  indirectly  give  to  justifying  faith  the  honour  due  to  none  but 
the  heavenly  Justifier. 

2.  We  grant  you,  that  as,  in  the  very  instant  in  which  we  open 
our  eyes,  we  receive  the  light,  and  see  :  so  in  the  very  moment 
in  which  we  believe,  we  receive  Christ  the  truth,  and  are  justified. 
But  still  you  must  grant  us,  that  believing  is  as  much  previous  to 
justification,  as  opening  the  eyes  is  previous  to  seeing.     We  are  jus- 


372  FOURTH   CHECK 

tified  by  faith,  and  common  sense  dictates,  that  the  instrument  by 
which  a  thing  is  apprehended,  must  exist  before  it  can  be  appre- 
hended.* 

Having  thus  endeavoured  to  follow  you  in  your  retreat,  to  cut 
you  off  from  your  various  subterfuges  ;  and  having  exposed,  with 
my  usual  bluntness,  the  hard  shifts  you  have  been  obliged  to  make, 
in  order  to  keep  your  doctrine  the  least  in  countenance,  permit  me 
to  assure  you  that  I  still  remain,  with  brotherly  love  and  respect 
Gentlemen,  your  obedient  servant  in  the  whole  Gospel  of  Christ, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 


TO  ANTINOMXANISM.  373 


LETTER  XI. 

TO  MR.  RICHARD  AND  MR.  ROWLAND  HILL. 

Hon.  and  dear  Sirs, 

JLlAVING  answered  the  arguments  which  you  have  advanced 
against  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  works  in  the  great  day, 
permit  me  to  consider  what  may  farther  be  advanced  against  it. 

I.  We  cry  to  sinners,  By  grace  shall  ye  be  saved  through  faith,  in 
the  day  of  your  conversion  ;  but  to  believers  we  say,  By  grace  shall 
ye  be  saved,  through  works,  in  the  day  of  judgment.  Turn,  there- 
fore, ye  sinners  :  and  ye  saints,  work  out  your  own  salvation  with 
fear  and  trembling. 

*'  Saved  by  grace,  through  works,  in  the  day  of  judgment!  What 
a  farrago  of  Popery  and  Gospel !  Faith  and  works,  what  a  shock- 
ing mixture !  Geminantur  tigribus  agni.  You  have  undoubtedly 
the  full  consent  of  '  Bellarmine  and  the  scarlet  whore'  for  such  a 
match.  But  with  what  detestation  would  St.  Paul  enter  his  protest 
against  it?  Does  he  not  declare,  that  faith  and  works  reciprocally 
exclude  each  other?  Says  he  not,  If  by  grace,  then  it  is  no  more  of 
WORKS,  otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace  :  but  if  it  be  of  works,  the7i 
it  is  no  more  grace,  otherwise  work  is  no  more  work. —  If  Abraham  was 
justified  by  works  he  hath  whereof  to  glory  ;  for  to  him  that  worketh  is  the 
reward  not  reckoned  of  grace  but  of  debt :  but  Abrahain  believed  God, 
and  it  was  accounted  to  him  for  righteousness.  And  David  also  describ- 
eth  the  blessedness  of  the  man  to  whom  God  imputeth  righteousness  with- 
out works.  Hence  the  apostle  concludes,  By  grace  are  ye  saved, 
through  faith :  not  of  works,  lest  any  man  should  boast.  And  again, 
JVot  by  works  of  righteousness  zvhich  we  hove  done,  but  of  his  mercy 
he  saved  m,S^c.  Now,  how  does  this  doctrine  of  justification  and 
salvation  without  works,  agree  with  your  doctrine  of  justification  or 

Vol.  I.  48 


374  FOURTH    CHECK 

salvation  by  works,  in  the  last  day?     And  how  can  you  reconcile  St 
Paul,  with  Bellarmine,  Mr.  Wesley,  and  yourself?" 

Ans.  I.  Should  you  not  rather  ask,  how  we  can  reconcile  St. 
Paul  with  Jesus  Christ,  St.  James,  and  himself?  Is  not  the  second 
chapter  to  the  Romans  as  strong  for  works  as  the  Minutes,  the  Epistle 
of  St.  James,  and  our  Lord's  Sermon  on  the  Mount  ?  Have  we  not 
observed  that  even  in  the  Epistles,  where  the  apostle  purposely 
maintains  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  in  the  day  of  conver- 
sion, he  writes  of  works  in  such  a  manner  as  flatly  to  contradict  him- 
self, if  they  have  nothing  to  do  with  ©ur  final  justification  in  the  last 
day? 

Says  he  not  to  the  believers  at  Rome,  If  ye  live  after  the  flesh,  or, 
if  ye  do  not  cast  off'  the  works  of  darkness,  rioting  and  drunkenness, 
strife  and  envying,  &lc.  ye  shall  die :  but  if  ye  through  the  Spirit  mor- 
tify the  deeds  of  the  body,  ye  shall  live  ?  And  again.  Be  subject  to  the 
higher  powers :  for  they  that  resist  them  shall  receive  to  themselves 
damnation  ? 

And  says  he  not  to  the  Galatians,  Jill  the  law  is  fulfilled  in  one 
word,  even  in  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself?  And  let 
no  Antinomian  persuade  you  that  the  law  of  obedient  love  is  only 
a  rule  of  life.  No,  it  is  also  a  rule  of  punishment ;  for,  I  tell  you 
before,  says  he,  as  I  have  also  told  you  in  time  past,  [see  how  plainly 
and  constantly  the  Apostle  preached  the  law  of  Christ !]  that  they 
who  do  such  things,  [they  who  are  guilty  of]  adultery,  fornication, 
hatred,  wrath,  strife,  envying,  murder,  drunkenness,  and  such  like, 
shall  not  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God.  Fulfil  therefore  the  law  of 
Christ,  Let  every  man  prove  his  own  work ;  for  every  man  shall 
bear  his  own  burden.  Be  not  deceived;  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap  ;  for  he  that  sozveth  to  the  flesh,  shall  of  the  flesh 
reap  corruption,  [or  rather,  (pB-o^ecv,  perdition:]  but  he  that  soweth  to 
the  Spirit  shall  of  the  Spirit  reap  life  everlasting. 

When  St.  Paul,  even  in  his  Epistles  to  the  Romans  and  Galatians, 
preaches  so  evidently  justification  and  condemnation  by  works  in 
the  great  day,  do  we  not  suppose  him  deprived  of  common  sense, 
when  we  represent  him  as  perpetually  saying  and  unsaying,  as  build- 
ing up  one  hour  what  he  pulls  down  the  next  ? 

But  as  this  general  answer,  though  it  vindicates  our  doctrine,  does 
not  vindicate  the  apostle  from  the  charge  of  contradiction,  1  beg 
leave  once  more  to  carry  the  candle  of  the  Lord  into  the  tower  of 
Calvinian  confusion  ;  thus  shall  we  see  the  farrago  made  at  Geneva 
with  the  words  justification,  salvation,  works,  righteousness  of  the  law, 
and  righteousness  of  faith. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  375 

It  is  evident  that  every  degree  of  justification  is  attended  with  a 
degree  of  salvation.  Hence,  when  St.  Paul  preached  to  the  Jews 
justification  by  faith,  he  said,  To  you  is  the  word  of  this  salvation 
sent ;  and  when  he  wrote  to  those  who  were  justified,  he  says,  By 
grace  are  ye  saved  through  faith.  This  holds  with  regard  to  the 
justification  of  infants,  for,  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  and  by 
the  same  rule  eternal  salvation  answers  to  final  justification. 

This  being  premised,  we  may  observe,  that  when  the  apostle 
excludes  tvorks  from  having  any  hand  in  our  justification  or  salvation, 
it  is  only  when  he  speaks  of  the  justification  of  sinners,  whether  we 
consider  them  as  infants  or  adults.  For  if  he  excluded  works  from 
the  justification  of  believers,  either  in  the  day  of  trial,  or  in  the 
day  of  judgment,  he  would  grossly  contradict  himself:  but  now  he 
is  quite  consistent.  Mr.  Wesley  and  I,  through  grace,  gladly  join 
him  and  Titus,  when  they  say,  JVot  by  works  of  righteousness  which 
we  have  done,  [either  in  our  infancy,  or  before  the  day  of  our  con- 
version,] but  according  to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  re- 
generation;— that  being  justified  by  his  grace,  we  should  be  made  heirs 
according  to  the  hope  of  eternal  life. 

But  what  does  the  apostle  mean  here  by  the  hope  of  eternal  life  ? 
Is  it  the  hope  of  a  Laodicean  believer,  who  makes  his  boast  of 
'*  imputed  righteousness  and  finished  salvation,"  while  he  goes  on 
in  strife  and  envying,  perhaps  in  adultery  ^nd  murder?  Certainly 
no  :  this  is  the  hope  of  the  hypocrite,  which  shall  perish.  The  hope 
according  to  which  we  are  made  heirs  of  eternal  life  in  glory,  is  a 
hope  which,  if  any  man  hath,  he  will  purify  himself  even  as  God  is 
pure :  and  this  hope,  far  from  being  contrary  to  our  doctrine  of 
justification  by  works  in  the  last  day,  is  inseparably  connected  with 
the  labour  of  love,  by  which  persevering  believers  shall  then  be  jus- 
tified. 

Inquire  we  now,  what  are  those  works  which  St.  Paul  opposes  to 
faith  and  free  grace  ;  and  I  observe, 

1.  That  it  is  not  absolutely  every  work  ;  or  else  he  would  oppose 
faith  to  itself:  for  believing  is  as  much  a  work  of  the  heart,  as 
walking  to  church  is  a  work  of  the  feet. 

2.  Neither  does  the  apostle  oppose  to  faith  works  meet  for  repent- 
ance; for  he  strongly  recommended  them  himself,  Acts  xxvi.  20. 
Nor  the  works  of  upright  Gentiles  that  fear  God,  and  believe  he  is 
a  rewarder  of  those  who  diligently  seek  him.  if  St.  Paul  represented 
these  works  as  "  dung  and  filthy  rags,"  he  would  contradict  the  angel 
who  said  to  Cornelius,  Thy  prayers  and  alms,  [far  from  being  re- 
jected,]  are  come  up  for  a  memorial  before  God. 


376  FOURTH  CHECK 

3.  Much  less  did  it  ever  come  into  the  apostle's  mind  to  oppose 
the  work  of  faith,  and  the  labour  of  love,  to  faith  and  free  grace  ;  for 
they  are  no  more  contrary  to  each  other,  than  the  stalk  and  the  ear 
are  contrary  to  the  root  that  bears  them.  Far  from  despising  these 
works,  see  how  honourably  he  speaks  of  them,  We  give  thanks 
always  for  you,  remembering  without  ceasing  your  work  of  faith,  and 
labour  of  love  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. — God  is  not  unrighteous  to 
forget  your  work  and  labour  that  proceedeth  of  love.  Always  abound 
in  the  work  of  the  Lord. — Charge  the  rich  that  they  be  rich  in  good 
works,  laying  up  for  themselves  a  good  foundation,  that  they  may  lay 
hold  on  eternal  life. 

For  want  of  attending  to  this  some  have  preposterously  opposed 
the  righteousness  of  faith  to  personal  holiness.  The  latter  they 
look  upon  as  the  righteousness  which  is  of  the  law,  and  which  the 
apostle  explodes,  Phil.  iii.  9.  Thus  they  suppose  that  St.  Paul 
formad  the  horrid  wish  of  not  being  found  clothed  with  holiness, 
without  which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord;  not  considering,  that  the 
pardon  of  sins,  and  true  holiness,  the  two  inseparable  fruits  of  a 
living  faith,  constitute  the  righteousness  which  is  through  the  faith  of 
Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith  :  a  righteousness  this 
that  far  exceeds  the  outside  righteousness  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees, 
with  which  the  apostle  had  too  long  been  satisfied,  and  which  he  so 
justly  despised  after  his  conversion. 

One  mistake  makes  way  for  another  :  those  who  imagine  that  the 
apostle  would  not  be  found  in  his  own  inherent  righteousness,  flowing 
from  Christ  formed  in  his  heart  by  faith,  insinuate,  that  he  desired 
to  he  found  clothed  with  the  personal  actions  of  our  Lord,  put  upon 
his  soul  by  as  ifrational  and  unscriptural  an  imputation,  as  if  God  had 
fed  Peter,  when  he  was  hungry,  by  imputing  to  his  empty  stomach  the 
meals  which  Christ  ate  in  the  days  of  his  flesh  ;  or  as  if  he  had  clothed 
St.  Paul  when  he  was  naked,  by  laying  to  his  account  our  Lord's 
being  wrapt  up  in  swaddling  clothes  in  the  stable  at  Bethlehem. 

But  to  return  :  The  works  which  St.  Paul  excludes,  are, 

1.  The  works  of  the  ceremonial  law  of  Moses,  generally  called 
the  works  of  the  law.  On  these  works  most  Jewish  converts  still 
laid  a  very  great  stress,  and  some  of  them  went  so  far  in  this  error, 
as  to  say  to  their  Gentile  brethren,  Except  ye  be  circumcised  after  the 
man7ier  of  Moses,  ye  cannot  be  saved.  Acts  xv.  1.  Hence  the  apostles 
wrote,  verse  24,  Certain  men,  subverting  your  souls,  have  troubled  you, 
saying,  Ye  must  be  circumcised,  and  keep  the  law.  Hence  also  it 
is  said,  that  when  St.  Paul  shaved,  and  was  at  charges  to  purify  him- 
self in  the  temple,  he  walked  orderly  and  kept  the  law,  Actsxxi.  24 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  377 

2.  The  apostle  likewise  opposed  to  faith  those  hypocritical  deeds 
of  the  moral  law,  those  external  works  of  partial  piety  and  ostenta. 
tious  mercy  by  which  proud  Pharisees  think  to  atone  for  their  sins, 
and  purchase  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  Such  works  of  unbelief  and 
spiritual  pride  cannot  be  too  much  decried.  They  do  infinite  mis- 
chief; they  draw  a  veil  over  our  apostacy  ;  they  breed  self-compla- 
cence, generate  self-conceit,  and  feed  the  opposition  of  Pharisees 
against  the  Gospel.  Hence  their  contempt  of  Christ,  their  enmity 
against  his  people,  their  ridiculing  the  atonement,  despising  others, 
and  boasting  of  their  own  goodness.  St.  Paul  was  the  more  zealous 
in  bearing  his  testimony  against  these  fruits  of  self-righteousness,  as 
he  knew,  by  fatal  experience,  that  they  are  the  reverse  of  fruits  meet 

for  repentance^  and  of  the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith ;  and 
that  they  stood  yet  in  the  way  of  the  Jews,  as  much  as  they  once  did 
in  his  own. 

3.  The  apostle  excludes  also  all  the  works  of  impious  moralists, 
who  make  no  scruple  of  robbing  God,  because  they  are  just  to  man  ; 
all  the  works  of  Antinomian  believers,  who,  like  the  Galatians,  pray 
to  the  Lord,  and  devour  their  neighbours ;  or,  hkethe  Jews,/as^  to- 
day, and  to-morrow  strike  with  the  fist  of  wickedness ;  all  the  works 
which  are  not  ultimately  referred  to  the  glory  of  God  through  Jesus 
Christ;  and  all  the  works  whose  gracious  rewardableness  is  not  ac- 
knowledged to  flow  from  the  original  and  proper  merit  of  the  Re- 
deemer. Those  works  the  apostle  justly  discards,  as  contrary  to  the 
doctrine  of  grace^  because  they  do  not  spring  from  the  grace  of  God, 
but  from  the  pride  of  man.  He  explodes  them  as  opposite  to  the  right- 
eousness of  faith  f  because  they  are  not  the  works  of  humble  faith,  but 
of  conceited  unbelief;  the  constant  language  of  faith  being,  JVot  unto 
us,  O  Lord,  not  unto  us,  but  unto  thy  name  give  glory,  for  thy  mercy  and 
truth's  sake. 

Let  the  judicious  reader  say,  if  by  thus  distinguishing  between  the 
justification  of  a  sinner,  in  the  day  of  conversion,  and  the  justification 
of  a  saint  in  the  great  day ;  and  by  making  a  proper  difi*erence  be- 
tween the  works  of  an  humble  believer,  which  the  apostle  justly  ex- 
tols ;  and  the  works  of  a  proud  Pharisee,  which  he  justly  decries  ; 
we  do  not  perfectly  reconcile  him  to  himself,  and  sufficiently  secure 
the  honour  of  free  grace  ? 

Is  it  possible  to  make  larger  concessions,  without  sacrificing  St. 
James's  Epistle  to  Geneva  logic,  and  our  Lord's  invaluable  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  to  Antinomian  obstinacy  ?  If  we  continue  to  assert  that  no 
sort  of  works  have  any  thing  to  do  with  any  sort  of  justification  and 
salvation,  shall  we  not  justly  shock  the  moral  and  rational  part  of  man- 


378  FOURTH    CHECK 

kind  ?  Is  it  not  of  the  Lord,  that  the  contempt  which  unconverted  men 
show  to  religious  people,  rises  no  higher  than  it  does  ?  And  do  we  not 
deserve  that  our  candour  or  good  sense  should  be  suspected,  when 
we  go  about  to  persuade  the  world,  that  half  a  dozen  strained  verses 
of  St.  Paul,  put  in  the  favourite  scale  of  a  Geneva  balance,  are  suffi- 
cient to  outweigh  fifty  plain  texts  of  the  apostle,  and  the  best  half  of 
the  Bible,  which  testifies,  directly  or  indirectly,  that  though  the  final 
justification  and  eternal  salvation  of  adult  persons  are  not  by  the 
merits  yet  they  are  by  the  evidence  or  instrumentality  of  good 
works  ? 

II.  Obj.  There  is  some  plausibility  in  your  answer,  but  we  are 
still  afraid  that  this  doctrine  of  justification,  or  salvation,  by  works  in 
the  last  day,  robs  the  Lord  Jesns  Christ  of  his  glory. 

Ans.  Just  the  reverse.  It  delivers  him  from  the  shame  of  saving 
men  by  unaccountable  humour,  or  damning  them  with  unparalleled 
cruelty. — But  how  do  you  prove  your  assertion?  Of  what  glory  does 
our  doctrine  rob  the  Redeemer  ?  Does  it  rob  him  of  the  glory  of 
atoning  for  our  sins,  as  our  High  Priest  ?  Or  of  leading  us  into  all  the 
truth  necessary  to  salvation,  as  o\xv  great  Prophet  ?  Does  it  rob  him  of 
the  glory  of  pardoning  our  sins,  and  esteeming  us  righteous,  when  we 
believe,  as  the  hord  our  righteousness?  Does  it  rob  him  of  the  glory 
of  making  us  fruitful  branches  in  him  as  the  true  Vine  ?  Or  o£  render- 
ing to  every  one  according  to  his  works^  as  an  impartial  Judge  ?  On  the 
contrary,  is  it  not  the  opposite  doctrine,  which  refuses  him  the  glory 
of  maintaining  the  honour  of  his  crown,  as  the  King  of  kings,  and 
Lord  of  lords  ? 

Yes,  we  affirm,  that  to  reject  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  works 
in  the  great  day,  is  to  set  Christ  at  nought,  in  the  most  glorious  of  his 
offices.  Is  it  not  enough,  that  in  the  days  of  his  flesh  he  was  chiefly 
derided  and  crucified  as  the  King  of  the  Jews  ?  Must  he  also,  in  the 
days  of  his  Spirit,  be  every  where  put  to  open  shame  in  his  regal  office  ? 
How  useless  is  his  sceptre,  and  contemptible  his  government,  if  he 
gives  his  subjects  only  shadows  of  laws,  which  amount  to  no  laws  at 
all?  And  if,  leaving  his  immense  dominions  in  a  lawless  condition,  he 
saves  the  happy  number  of  his  favourites,  and  damns  the  rest  of  man- 
kind, merely  according  to  Calvin's  notions  of  free  grace^  and  free 
wrath?  or,  according  to  Dr.  Crisp's  scheme  of  salvation  and  damna- 
tion finished  ? 

To  this  Mr.  Rowland  Hill  answers  beforehand,  [Friendly  Remarks, 
p.  45,  46.]  "  You  slander  the  Calvinists. — We  grant,  that  in  the  point 
of  justification,  [and  of  course  condemnation]  we  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  law  :  [But]  though  we  boldly  say,  we  are  not  under  the  law 


tim^^*iMr 


TO   ANTINOMlANISil.  370 

as  a  covenant  of  works,  yet  we  never  were  so  ignorant  and  daring  as 
to  say,  we  are  not  under  the  law  to  Christ  as  a  rule  of  life." 

Pardon  my  freedom,  if  I  tell  you,  without  ceremony,  that  like  thou- 
sands more,  you  have  learned  to  say  Shibboleth,  before  you  have  pro- 
perly considered  the  sense  of  the  expression.  If  you  mean  any 
thing  by  being  under  the  law  to  Christ  only  as  a  rule  of  life,  you  proba- 
bly mean,  with  Crisp,  that  Christ  has  indeed  a  law  ;  but  that,  with  re- 
gard to  believers,  who  are  the  subjects  of  his  kingdom,  this  law  has 
no  more  the  divine  sanction  of  a  blessing  for  those  who  observe  it,  and 
of  a  curse  for  its  violators.  And  is  not  this  saying,  in  ambiguous 
words,  that  Christ's  subjects  are  absolutely  lawless?  Let  little  children 
pompously  give  the  name  of  laws  to  rules  of  play,  or  rules  of  gram- 
mar; but  let  not  men  of  sense  imitate  their  mistake,  by  giving  that 
name  to  directions  of  conduct,  or  rules  of  life,  which  are  no  longer 
enforced  by  rewards  and  penalties. 

You  decry  *'  illustrations,"  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it ;  for  they 
carry  light  into  Babel,  where  it  is  not  desired.  The  father  of  errors 
begets  darkness  and  confusion.  From  darkness  and  confusion  springs 
Calvinism,  who,  wrapping  himself  up  in  some  garments  which  he  has 
stolen  from  the  truth,  deceives  the  nations,  and  gets  himself  reve- 
renced in  a  dark  temple,  as  if  he  were  the  pure  and  free  Gospel. 

To  bring  him  to  a  shameful  end,  we  need  not  stab  him  with  the  dag- 
ger of  "  calumny,''''  or  put  him  upon  the  rack  of  persecution.  Let  him 
only  be  dragged  out  of  his  obscurity,  and  brought  unmasked  to  open 
light,  and  the  silent  beams  of  truth  will  pierce  him  through !  Light 
alone  will  torture  him  to  death,  as  the  meridian  sun  does  a  bird  of 
night,  that  cannot  fly  from  the  gentle  operations  of  its  beams. 

May  the  following  illustration  dart  at  least  one  luminous  beam  into 
the  profound  darkness  in  which  your  venerable  Diana  delights  to 
dwell?  And  may  it  show  the  Christian  world  that  we  do  not  "  slan- 
der you,^"*  when  we  assert,  you  inadvertently  destroy  God's  law,  and 
cast  the  Redeemer's  crown  to  the  ground  :  and  that  when  you  say, 
•'  in  point  of  justification,"  [and  consequently  of  condemnation]  "  we 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  law.  We  are  under  the  law  as  a  rule  of 
life,"  but  not  as  a  rule  of  judgment;  you  might  as  well  say,  "we 
are  under  no  law,  and  consequently  no  longer  accountable  for  our 
actions." 

"  The  king,  whom  I  will  suppose  is  in  love  with  your  doctrines  of 
free  grace  and  free  wrath,  by  the  advice  of  a  predestinarian  council 
and  parliament,  issues  out  a  Gospel  proclamation,  directed  *'  to  all  his 
dear  subjects,  and  elect  people,  the  English.'''  By  this  evangelical 
manifesto  thev  are  informed.  "  that  in  consequence  of  the  Prince  of 


380  FOURTH  CHECK  ' 

Wales's  meritorious  intercession,  and  perfect  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
England,  all  the  penalties  annexed  to  the  breaking  of  those  laws  are 
now  abolished  with  respect  to  Englishmen ;  that  his  majesty  freely 
pardons  all  his  subjects,  who  have  been,  are,  or  shall  be  guilty  of 
adultery,  murder,  or  treason  :  that  all  their  crimes  '  pastj  present,  and 
to  come,  are  for  ever  and  for  ever  cancelled  :'  that  nevertheless,  his 
loving  subjects,  who  remain  strangers  to  their  privileges,  shall  still  be 
served  with  sham  warrants  according  to  law,  and  frightened  out  of 
their  wits,  till  they  have  learned  to  plead,  they  are  Englishmen^  [i.  e. 
elect :]  and  then  they  shall  also  set  at  defiance  all  legalists  ;  that  is, 
all  those  who  shall  dare  to  deal  with  them  according  to  law  :  and  that, 
excepting  the  case  of  the  above-mentioned  false  prosecution  of  his 
chosen  people,  none  of  them  shall  ever  be  molested  for  the  breach 
of  any  law. 

"  By  the  same  supreme  authority  it  is  likewise  enacted,  that  all  the 
laws  shall  continue  in  force  against  foreigners,  [i.  e.  reprobates]  whom 
the  king  and  the  prince  hate  with  everlasting  hatred,  and  to  whom 
they  have  agreed  never  to  show  mercy  :  that  accordingly  they  shall  be 
prosecuted  to  the  utmost  rigour  of  every  statute,  till  they  are  all 
hanged  or  burned  out  of  the  way  :  and  that  supposing  no  personal 
offence  can  be  proved  against  them,  it  shall  be  lawful  to  hang  them 
in  chains  for  the  crimes  of  one  of  their  forefathers,  to  set  forth  the 
king's  wonderful  justice,  display  his  glorious  sovereignty,  and  make 
his  chosen  people  relish  the  better  their  sweet  distinguishing  privi- 
leges as  Englishmen. 

*'  Moreover,  his  majesty,  who  loves  order  and  harmony,  charges 
his  loving  subjects  to  consider  still  the  statutes  of  England  which  are 
in  force  against  foreigners,  as  very  good  rules  of  life^  for  the  English, 
which  they  shall  do  well  to  follow,  but  better  to  break ;  because 
every  breach  of  those  rules  will  work  for  their  goody  and  make  them 
sing  louder  the  faithfulness  of  the  king,  the  goodness  of  the  prince, 
and  the  sweetness  of  this  gospel  proclamation. 

'*  Again,  as  nothing  is  so  displeasing  to  the  king  as  legality^  which 
he  hates  even  more  than  extortion  and  whoredom  ;  lest  any  of  his 
dear  people,  who  have  acted  the  part  of  a  strumpet,  robber,  mur- 
derer, or  traitor,  should,  through  the  remains  of  their  inbred  cor- 
ruption, and  ridiculous  legality,  mourn  too  deeply  for  breaking  some 
of  their  rules  of  life,  our  gracious  monarch  solemnly  assures  them, 
that  though  he  highly  disapproves  of  adultery  and  murder,  yet  these 
breaches  of  rules  are  not  worse  in  his  sight  than  a  wandering  thought 
in  speaking  to  him,  or  a  moment's  dulness  in  his  service  :  that  rob- 
bers, therefore,  and  traitors,  adulterers    and  murderers,  who  are 


%0  ANtlNOMIANiSJyi,  3^;^ 

fiTeeborn  Englishmen,  need  not  at  all  be  uneasy  about  losing  his  royal 
favour  ;  this  being  utterly  impossible,  because  they  always  stand  com- 
plete in  the  honesty,  loyalty,  chastity,  and  chafity  of  the  prince. 

*'  Moreover,  because  the  king  changes  not,  whatever  lengths  the 
English  go  on  in  immorality,  he  will  always  look  upon  them  as 
his  pleasant  children,  his  dear  people,  and  men  after  his  own  heart ; 
and  that,  on  the  other  hand,  whatsoever  lengths  foreigners  go  in 
pious  morality,  hiiS  gracious  majesty  is  determined  still  to  consider 
them  as  hypoctiles,  vessels  of  wrath,  and  cursed  children,  for  whom  is 
reserved  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  tiver ;  becau3e  he  always  views 
them  completely  guilty,  and  absolutely  condemned  in  a  certain  robe 
of  righteousness,  woven  thousands  of  years  ago  by  one  6f  their  ances- 
tors. This  dreadful  sanbenetto^  his  majesty  hath  thought  fit  to  put 
upon  them  by  imputation  ;  and  rn  it  it  is  his  good  pleasure  that  they 
shall  hang  in  adamantine  chains,  or  burn  in  fire  unquenchable. 

♦'  Finally,  as  foreigners  are  dangerous  people,  and  may  stir  up  his 
majesty's  subjects  to  rebellion,  the  English  are  informed,  that  if  any 
one  of  them,  were  he  to  Come  over  from  Geneva  itself,  shall  dare  to 
insinuate  that  his  most  gracious  Gospel  proclamation  is  not  according 
to  equity,  morality,  and  godliness,  the  first  Englishman  that  meets 
him  shall  have  full  leave  to  brand  him  as  a  Papist,  without  judg^  or 
jury,  in  the  forehead  or  on  the  back,  as  he  thinks  best ;  and  that,  till 
he  is  farther  proceeded  with  according  to  the  utmost  severity  of  the 
law,  the  chosen  people  shall  be  informed,  in  the  Gospel  Magazine,  to 
beware  of  him  as  a  man  "  who  scatters  firebrands,  arrows,  arrd 
deaths,"  and  makes  universal  havock  of  every  article  of  this  sweet 
Gospel  proclamation.  Given  at  Geneva,  and  signed  by  four  of 
his  majesty's  principal  secretaries  of  state  for  the  predestinariaur 
department." 

John  Calvin.  f)r.  Crisps 

The  Author  of  P.  0.  Rowland  Hill. 

What  would  wise  men  think  of  such  a  manifesto  ?  Who  does  not 
see  his  majesty  might  as  well  have  informed  us  at  once,  that  all  the 
laws  of  the  land  are  now  repealed  ;  that  instead  of  being  tares,  they 
shall  be  only  moral  finger-posts,  directing  men  in  the  narrow  Way  of 
righteousness,  or  in  the  broad  way  of  iniquity,  if  the  one  pleases 
them  better  than  the  other  ? 

Suppose  a  courtier  asserted,  That  we  ^t^  i\\\\  under  the  lanas  oi 
the  land  as  rules  of  life ;  would  not  thinking  men  answer,  No  :  we 

*•  A  frock,  painted  with  flames  and  dbvils,  in  which  heretics  are  hurned  bj  \h<^ 
Inqaisition. 

Vol.  r  fg 


382  f OURTH  CHECK 

are  now  absolutely  lawless  :  for  statutes,  according  to  which  no 
Eoglishtnen  can  be  prosecuted,  much  less  executed,  are  no  lams  at  all 
for  Englishmen  ;  they  are  only  directions  which  every  one  is  at  full 
liberty  to  follow  or  not,  as  he  pleases.  It  is  not  less  absurd  to  give 
the  name  of  laws  to  rules,  which  are  not  enforced  with  the  sanction 
of  proper  rewards  or  penalties,  than  to  call  Baxter's  Directory  a  code 
of  laws,  because  it  contains  excellent  rules  of  life, 

O  ye  abettors  of  Crisp's  mistakes,  how  long  will  you  regard  vain 
words,  and  inadvertently  pour  contempt  upon  the  King  of  kings  ? 
how  long  will  you  rashly  charge  us  with  robbing  him  of  his  glory, 
because  we  cannot  join  you,  when,  under  the  plausible  pretence  of 
advancing  the  honour  of  his  priesthood^  you  explain  away  the  most 
awful  protestations  which  he  made  as  a  prophet;  and  rob  him  of  the 
royal  glory  of  punishing  his  rebellious,  and  rewarding  his  faithful 
subjects  according  to  law,  as  a  righteous  King? 

Alas !  even  while  you  seem  zealous  for  God's  sovereignty,  do  you 
not  unawares  represent  Jesus  as  the  weakest  of  princes,  or  fiercest 
of  tyrants  ?  Do  you  not  inadvertently,  (for  I  know  you  would  not  do 
it  deliberately  for  the  world  ;)  do  you  not,  I  say,  inadvertently,  crown 
him  with  the  sharpest  thorns  that  ever  grew  in  the  territory  of  mystic 
Geneva?  Instead  of  the  sceptre  of  his  kingdom,  which  is  a  right 
sceptre,  do  you  not  at  one  time  put  in  his  hand  a  reed,  which  the 
Antinomian  elect  may  insult  with  more  impunity,  than  the  frog  in  the 
fable  did  the  royal  log  sent  by  Jupiter  to  reign  over  them  ?  And  at 
another  time,  while  you  give  him  Nimrod's  iron  sceptre,  do  you  not 
put  upon  him  Nero's  purple  robe ;  and  even  slip  into  his  loving  bosom 
a  black  book  of  horrible  decrees,  more  full  of  the  names  of  unborn 
REPROBATES  than  the  emperor  Domitian's  fatal  pocket-book  was  full 
of  the  names  of  the*  poor  wretches,  to  whom,  in  a  gloomy  day,  he 
took  an  unaccountable  dislike,  and  whom,  on  this  account,  as  well  as 
to  maintain  his  dreadful  sovereignty,  he  tyrannically  appointed  for  the 
slaughter  ?  Never,  no  never,  shall  you  be  able  to  do  justice  to  the 
Scripture,  and  our  Lord's  kingly  office,  till  you  allow,  that,  agreeable 
to  his  evangelical  law,  he  will  one  day  reward  every  man  according  to 
his  works;  and  the  moment  you  allow  this,  you  give  up  what  you 
unhappily  call  your  foundation,  i.  e.  unconditional  election,  and 
finished  salvation :  in  a  word,  you  allow  justification  by  works  in  the 
great  day,  and  are  as  heretical  (should  I  not  say,  as  o?'f/iocZox  .^)  as 
ourselves.     I  am,  honoured  and  dear  Sirs,  Yours,  kc. 

JOHN  FLETCHEPx 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  383 


LETTER  XII, 


TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ. 

Hon.   Sir, 

jtIlLTHOUGH  I  reserve  for  two  separate  Tr^''-,:'^..  or/ Answer  to 
your  objections  against  "  the  monstrous  doctrine  ?f  perfection,'''  and 
niy  reply  to  the  argument  which  you  draw  from  our  17th  Article,  in 
favour  of  the  doctrine  of  \mconditional  election;  the  alread}'  exor- 
bitant length  of  this  Check  calls  for  a  speedy  conclusion  ;  and  I 
hasten  towards  it,  by  laying  before  my  readers  the  present  state  of 
our  controversy  ;  enlarging  chiefly  upon  imputed  righteousness  and 
free-will,  two  points  which  I  have  not  yet  particularly  discussed  in 
this  piece. 

Imputed  RroHTEOusNEss,  as  it  is  held  by  the  Calvinists,  I  have 
endeavoured  to  expose  in  the  Second  Check,  by  {he  most  absurd, 
and  yet  (upon  your  plan)  most  reasonable  plea  of  a  barefaced  Anti- 
nomian,  who  expects  to  be  justified  in  the  great  day  by  Christ's  im- 
puted righteousness,  without  works.  To  this  you  have  answered, 
(Review,  p.  68,  &lc.)  by  exclaiming  "  Shocking  slander,  slanderous 
banter,^''  &c.  and  I  might  reply  only  by  crying  out,  Logica  Genevensis  i 
But,  as  honest  inquirers  after  truth  would  not  be  benefitted,  for 
their  sakes,  I  shall  in  this  letter  show  how  far  we  agree,  wherein 
we  disagree,  and  what  makes  us  dissent  from  you  about  the  doc- 
trine of  imputed  righteousness. 

We  agree,  that  all  the  righteousness  wlych  is  in  the  spiritual  world, 
is  as  much  Christ's  righteousness,  as  all  the  light  that  shines  in  the 
natural  world  at  noon,  is  the  light  of  the  sun.  And  we  equally 
assert,  that  when  God  justifies  a  sinner  who  believes  in  Christ,  he 
freely  pardons  his  past  sins,  graciously  accounts  him  righteous,  and 
as  such,  admits  him  to  his  favour  only  through  faith  in  the  Redeemer's 
meritorious  blood  and  personal  risrhtoousneas- 


384  FOURTH  CHECK 

To  sec  clearly  wherein  we  disagree^  let  us  consider  both  youi 
jdoctrine  and  ours  ;  touching,  as  we  go  al^ong,  upon  the  capital  argu- 
ments by  which  they  are  supported. 

Consistent  Calvinists  believe,  that  if  a  m^n  be  elected,  God  abso° 
lutely  imputes  to  him  Christ's  personal  righteousness,  i.  e.  the  per- 
fect obedience  unto  death  which  Christ  performed  upon  earth.  This 
is  reckoned  to  him  for  obedience  and  righteousness,  even  while  he 
is  actually  disobedient,  and  before  he  has  a  grain  of  inherent  righte- 
ousness. They  consider  this  imputation  as  an  unconditional  and 
eternal  act  of  grace,  by  which,  not  only  a  sinner's  past  sins,  but  his 
crimes,  present  and  to  covue,  be  they  more  or  be  they  less,  be  they 
small  or  be  they  great,  are  for  ever  and  for  ever  covered.  He  is 
eternally  justified  from  all  things.  And  therefore,  under  this  impu- 
tation, be  is  perfectly  righteous  before  God,  even  while  he  commits 
adultery  and  murder.  Or,  to  use  your  own  expressions,  whatever 
lengths  he  runs,  whatever  depths  he  falls  into,  '^  he  always  stands 
absolved,  always  complete,  in  the  everlasting  righteousness  of  the 
Redeemer.'*  Five  Letters,  p.  26,  27,  29.  In  point  of  justification 
therefore,  it  matters  not  how  unrighteous  a  believer  actJially  is  in 
himself:  because  the  robe  of  Christ's  personal  righteousness,  which, 
at  his  peril,  he  must  not  attempt  to  patch  up  with  any  personal 
righteousness  of  his  own,  is  more  than  sufficient  to  adorn  him  from 
head  to  foot :  and  he  must  be  sure  to  appear  before  God  in  no  other. 
In  this  rich  garment  oi finished  salvation  the  greatest  apostates  shine 
brighter  than  angels,  though  they  are  "  in  themselves  black"  as  the 
old  murderer,  and  filthy  as  the  brute  that  actually  wallows  in  the 
mire.  This  "  best  robe,"  a«  it  is  called,  is  full-trimmed  with  such 
phylacteries  as  these,  "  Once  in  grace,  always  in  grace  : — Once  jus- 
tified, eternally  justified  : — Once  washed,  always  fair,  undefiled,  and 
without  spot."  And  so  great  are  the  privileges  of  those  who  have 
it  on,  that  they  can  range  through  all  the  bogs  of  sin,  wade  through 
all  the  puddles  of  iniquity,  and  roll  themselves  in  the  thickest  mire 
of  wickedness  without  contracting  the  least  spot  of  guilt,  or  speck  of 
defilement. 

This  scheme  of  imputation  is  supported,  1.  By  scriptural  meta- 
phors, understood  in  a  forced,  unscriptural  sense.  Thus  when  a 
sound  Calvinist  reads  about  the  breastplate  of  righteousness,  and  the 
garment  of  salvation ;  or  about  putting  on  Christ,  -walking  in  him^ 
being  in  him,  being  found  in  him,  or  being  clothed  with  righteousness, 
his  prepossessed  mind  directly  runs  upon  his  imputation.  And  if  he 
read  in  the  Psalms,  /  will  make  mention  of  thy  righteousness,  and  thine 
only,  he  immediately  concludes  that  the  Psalmist  meant  the  personal 


%0   ANTINOMIANISM.  385 

rijE^teousness  of  the  man  Christ :  as  if  David  really  made  mention 
of  no  other  righteousness  but  that  in  all  the  Psalms  !  Or  God  had 
had  no  righteousness  before  the  Virgin  Mary  brought  forth  her  Jirst- 
born  Son  ! 

2.  By  the  parable  of  the  man  who  -was  hound  hand  and  foot,  and 
cast  into  outer  darkness,  because  he  had  not  on  a  wedding  garment ; 
i.  e.  upon  your  scheme,  because  Christ's  personal  righteousness  was 
not  imputed  to  him  :  as  if  the  Prince  of  peace,  the  mild  Jesus,  who 
says,  Learn  of  me,  for  I  am  meek,  had  kindly  invited  a  man  to  a  feast, 
and  then  commanded  him  to  be  thrust  into  hell,  merely  because  he 
had  not  a  garment  which  he  never  could  procure  ;  a  robe  which 
none  but  God  could  clothe  him  with,  and  which  God  determined 
should  never  be  for  him,  when  he  decreed  that  Christ  should  ne- 
ver work  out  an  inch  of  righteousness  for  one  single  reprobate- 
Does  not  this  exceed  Ovid's  description  of  the  iron  age?  JVon  hospes 
ab  hospite  tutus.  The  bare  mention  of  such  a  dreadful  reflection  cast 
upon  God's  goodness  and  our  Lord's  hospitality,  will  amount  to  a  strong 
argument  against  your  imputation,  with  those  who  are  yet  concern- 
ed  for  God's  adorable  perfections,  and  our  Lord's  amiable  character. 

3.  By  the  parable  of  the  prodigal  son,  who,  it  is  supposed,  was 
clothed  with  the  ''  best  robe^^  of  Christ's  personal  righteousness.  But 
this  notion  is  overturned  by  the  context  itself:  for  the  Father  had 
met,  forgiven,  and  embraced  his  returning  son  in  his  own  ragged 
garment,  before  the  "  best  robe^^  was  called  for  and  put  upon  him. 
Whence  it  would  follow,  that  a  sinner  may  be  forgiven  without  the 
garment  of  righteousness  ;  and  as  completely  accepted  out  of  Christ 
as  the  prodigal  was  without  the  "  best  robe.'''' 

4.  By  the  goodly  raiment  of  Esau,  in  which  Jacob  got  his  father's 
blessing.  But  Moses's  account  of  the  cheat  put  upon  short-sighted 
Isaac  entirely  overthrows  the  scheme  of  the  Calvinists.  The  robe 
which  they  recommend  is  made  up  of  Christ's  complete  and  personal 
righteousness ;  it  is  long  and  wide  enough  perfectly  to  cover  even 
a  giant  in  sin  :  nor  must  it  be  patched  with  any  thing  else.  But 
Jacob's  dress  far  from  being  all  of  a  piece,  was  a  mongrel  sort  of 
human  and  beastly  garment.  For  when  Rebekah  had  clothed  his 
body  with  Esau's  raiment,  she  put  goat  skins  upon  his  hands,  and  upon 
the  smooth  of  his  neck,  to  make  them  feel  like  Esau's  hairy  hands  and 
shaggy  neck.  And  the  worst  is,  that  the  goat-skins,  and  not  Esau's 
borrowed  dress,  deceived  the  aged  patriarch,  and  got  the  blessing. 
Hear  the  historian.  Jacob  went  near  to  his  father,  and  he  felt  him,  and 
said.  The  voice  is  Jacob's  voice,  but  the  hands  are  the  hands  of  Esau  ; 
find  he  discerned  himnot  because  his  hands  were  hairy:  so   he  blessed 


386  FOURTH  CHECK 

/im,  Gen.  xxvii.  22.  Thus  the  skin  of  a  goat,  the  emblem  of  a  re- 
probate, unfortunately  comes  in  to  patch  up  your  best  robe.  And  I 
doubt  not  but,  as  the  typical  garment  was  too  scanty  to  cover  Jacob's 
hands  and  neck,  so  the  fancied  antitype  will  prove  too  short  to  cover 
the  hands  of  those,  who,  like  "  Onesmius,  rob  their  masters  ;"  and 
the  neck  and  heels  of  those,  who,  like  David,  are  swift  to  shed  bloody 
and  climb  up  into  their  neighbour's  bed;  if  they  do  not  get  a  more 
subs^^antial  righteousness  than  that  in  which  you  suppose  they  stand 
complete,  while  they  commit  their  enormous  crimes. 

5.  Plain  Scripture  is  also  brought  to  support  this  imputation. 
David  says,  Psalm  xxxii.  1,  2.  Blessed  is  he  whose  sin  is  covered: 
blessed  is  the  man  to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  not  inigiiity.  But,  alas 
for  your  scheme  !  it  is  thrown  down  by  the  very  next  works,^nrf  in, 
whose  spirit  there  is  no  guile.  Thus,  although  you  would  make  us  be- 
lieve the  contrary,  David's  own  doctrine  shows,  that  he  was  not  the 
blessed  man  whose  sins  arc  covered  by  non-imputation  of  iniquity,  when 
his  spirit  vvas  full  of  guile,  adultery,  and  murder.  And  indeed  he 
tells  us  so  himself  in  this  very  Psalm  :  When  I  kept  silence,  says  he, 
when  I  harboured  guile  and  impenitency,  day  and  night  thy  hand  wasi 
heavy  upon  me  :  but  xsdien  I  acknowledgedriny  sin  unto  thee,  when  I  parted 
with  my  guile,  thou  for gav^^tihe -iniquity  of  my  sin, 

6.  However,  if  David's  words  are  flatly  against  your  imputation,  it 
is  supposed,  that  as  prefaced  by  St.  Paul,  Rom.  iv.  6.  they  make 
greatly  for  it,  David  describeth  the  blessedness  of  the  man  to  whojn  God 
imputeth  righteousness  without  works.  I  have  already  observed,  that  as 
the  apostle  cannot  contradict  David  and  himself,  he  only  means,  with- 
out the  works  of  the  law,  as  opposed  to  faith  and  to  the  work  of  faith. 
That  this  is  the  true  meaning  of  St.  Paul's  words  is  evident  by  those 
which  introduce  them,  To  him  that  worketh  not,  but  believeth,  his  faith 
is  counted  for  righteousness.  Who  does  not  see  here,  that  believing^ 
which  is  the  good  work  that  begets  all  others,  is  opposed  to  the  faith- 
less works,  about  which  the  Pharisees  made  so  much  ado  to  so  little 
purpose  ?  Who  does  not  perceive  that  a  man  must  believe,  i.  e.  do  the 
work  of  God,  before  his  faith  can  be  counted  for  righteousness  ?  and 
consequently,  that  righteousness  is  imputed  to  him  who  believes,  not 
absolutely  without  any  sort  of  works  ;  but  only  without  the  works  of 
the  law,  emphatically  called  by  the  apostle,  works,  or  deeds  of  the  law, 
when  he  contradistinguishes  them  from  faith,  and  the  work  of  faith  F 

7.  To  the  preceding  Scriptures  our  Calvinist  brethren  add  a  plausi- 
ble argument.  "  God,"  say  they,  '*  may  as  well  impute  to  us  Christ's 
perfect  righteousness  in  all  our  sins,  and  account  us  completely  right- 
eous without  one  grain  of  inherent  righteousness,  as  he  imputed  the 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  387 

horrid  crimes  of  the  elect  to  Christ  in  all  his  obedience,  and  accounted 
him  completely  guilty  without  one  single  grain  of  inherent  sin.  To 
deny,  therefore,  that  God  imputes  righteousness  to  an  elect  person, 
while  he  is  full  of  unrighteousness  ;  or  to  suppose  that  he  imputes  sin 
to  an  apostate,  who  is  sold  under  sm,  is  but  a  decent  way  of  denying 
the  imputation  of  our  personal  sins  to  Christ,  and  the  vicarious  satis- 
faction which  he  made  on  the  cross." 

To  detect  the  fallacy  of  this  argument,  we  need  only  observe,  1. 
That  God  never  accounted  Christ  "  completely  guilty. ^^  Such  expres- 
sions as  these.  He  made  him  sin  for  us :  he  laid  upon  him  the  iniquities 
of  us  alU  &c.  are  only  Hebrew  idioms,  which  signify,  that  God  ap- 
pointed Christ  a  sacrifice  for  sin  ;  and  that  the  chastisement  of  our  for- 
feited jocace  was  upon  him;  which  no  more  implies,  that  God  put  on 
his  back,  by  an  absohite  imputation,  a  robe  of  unrighteousness,  wo- 
ven with  all  the  sins  of  the  elect,  to  make  him  completely  guilty  ; 
than  St.  Luke,  when  he  informs  us  that  the  Virgin  Mary  offered  two 
young  pigeons  for  her  purification,  supposes  her  ceremonial  unclean- 
ness  was,  somehow,  woven  into  a  couple  of  little  garments,  and  put 
upon  the  back  of  the  two  young  pigeons,  which,  by  that  mean,  were 
made  completely  unclean. 

1  hope  the  following  illustration  will  convince  you.  Sir,  that  such  re- 
finements as  these  are  as  contrary  to  sober  reason,  as  to  Scripture  duly 
compared  with  itself.  Gallio  gets  drunk,  and  as  he  reels  home  from 
his  midnight  revels,  he  breaks  thirty-six  lamps  in  the  streets,  and 
sends  out  vollies  of  curses  to  the  number  of  two  hundred.  He  is 
brought  before  you,  and  you  insist  on  his  going  to  the  house  of  cor- 
rection, or  paying  so  much  money  to  buy  three  dozen  of  lamps,  be- 
side the  usual  fine  for  his  profane  language.  As  he  is  not  worth  a 
groat,  his  sober  brother  Mitio  kindly  offers  to  lay  down  the  sum  for 
him.  You  accept  of  the  "  vicarious  satisfaction y^^  and  binding  the 
rake  to  his  good  behaviour,  you  release  him  at  his  brother's  request. 
Now,  Sir,  would  you  be  reasonable,  if  you  reckoned  Mitio  completely 
guilty  of  getting  drunk,  swearing  two  hundred  oaths,  and  breaking 
thirty-six  lamps  ?  Far  from  supposing  him  guilty  of  breaking  one 
lamp,  or  swearing  one  oath,  even  while  he  makes  satisfaction  for  his 
brother's  wildness,  do  you  not  esteem  him  according  to  his  own  excel- 
lent character? 

And  will  you  defend  a  doctrine  which  charges  God  with  a  mistake 
ten  thousand  times  more  glaring"!  than  that  you  would  be  guilty  of  if 
you  really  reckoned  Mitio  an  abandoned  rake,  and  Gallio  a  man  of  an 
exemplary  conduct  ?  Will  you  indeed  recommend  still  as  Gospel,  an 
opinion  which  supposes  that  the  God  of  everlasting,  unchangeable 


388  FOURTH   CHECK 

love,  once  loathed  and  abhorred  his  beloved  Son  ?  and  that  the  God  of 
invariable  Truth  could  once  say  to  the  holy  Jesus,  "  Thou  art  all 
foul,  O  thou  defiled  object  of  my  hatred,  there  is  no  purity  in  thee ;" 
while  he  addresses  a  bloody  adulterer  with,  Thou  art  all  fair,  mylove^ 
my  u?idejiledf  there  is  no  spot  in  thee  ? 

A  variety  of  scriptural  and  rational  arguments  have  been,  directly 
or  indirectly,  advanced  in  every  Check,  against  that  capital  doctrine  of 
your's,  "  the  absolute  imputation  of  Christ's  personal  righteousness 
to  believers  5"  whether  they  live  chastely  with  their  own  wives,  or 
entice  away  other  men's  wives  ;  whether  they  charitably  assist  their 
neighbours,  or  get  them  treacherously  murdered.  All  those  argu- 
ments centre  in  this;  If  that  doctrine  be  true,  the  divine  perfections 
sufifer  a  general  eclipse  ;  one  half  of  the  Bible  is  erased  :  St.  James's 
epistle  is  made  void  ;  defiled  religion  justly  passes  for  "  pure  Gospel ;" 
the  Calvinian  doctrine  of  perseverance  is  true ;  and  barefaced  Anti- 
nomianism  is  properly  recommended  as  *'  the  doctrine  of  graced 

Having  thus  considered  your  doctrine  oi  imputed  righteousness,  per= 
mit  me  to  submit  to  your  inspection  the  harmonizing  views  that  we 
have  of  God's  perfections  ;  while  we  see  him  impute  righteousness  to 
a  man  [i.  e.  reckon  a  man  righteous]  so  loog  as  he  actually  believes 
with  a  faith  working  by  obedient  love ;  and  impute  iniquity  to  an  apos- 
tate [i.  e.  reckon  him  unrighteous]  as  soon  as  he  departs  from  the  faith, 
to  work  iniquity,  and  walk  in  the  ways  of  unrighteousness. 

We  firmly  believe,  that  God's  imputation,  whether  of  sin  or  right- 
eousness, is  not  founded  upon  sovereign  caprice,  but  upon  indubita- 
ble truth.  As  we  are  partakers  by  generation  of  Adam's  original  pol- 
lution, before  God  imputes  it  to  us,  that  is,  before  he  accounts  us  really 
polluted  :  so  are  we  partakers  by  regeneration  of  Christ's  origi- 
nal righteousness,  before  God  imputes  righteousness  to  us,  that  is,  be- 
fore he  accounts  us  really  righteous.  And,  therefore,  a  positive  and 
substantial  communication  of  Christ's  righteousness  apprehended  by 
faith,  no  less  precedes  God's  imputation  of  righteousness  to  a  believer, 
than  Bartimeus's  receiving  his  sight,  and  admitting  the  light,  were  pre- 
vious to  God's  reckoning  that  he  actually  saw. 

Although  we  grant,  that  the  Almighty  calls  the  things  that  are  not,  as 
though  they  were ;  and  that  according  to  his  foreknowledge,  he  frequently 
speaks  of  them  in  the  prophetic  style,  as  if  they  were  now,  or  had 
been  already  ;  yet,  when  he  reckons  what  is,  in  order  to  pass  sentence 
of  absolution  or  condemnation,  he  cannot  deny  his  truth,  and  reckoEt 
a  man  actually  chaste  and  charitable,  that  actually  commits  adultery 
and  murder.  We  dare  not  impute  this  flagrant  unrighteousness  to 
God.     And  as  no  guile  was  found  in  the  Lord^s  mouth  while  he  was 


'DO  Al^TlNOMIANISM.  JgJI 

iipon  earth,  we  cannot  admit  the  most  distant  thought  of  his  heingfull 
of^  guile  in  heaven  :  which  we  apprehend  would  be  the  case,  if  he 
reckoned  that  a  man,  who  actually  falls  from  adultery  into  murder,  is 
actually  undefiled,  and  completely  righteous. 

Again,  as  Christ  bore  no  manner  of  vicarious  punishment  for  us  j 
or,  which  is  the  same,  as  our  iniquities  were  not  actually  laid  upon 
him,  till  he  partook  of  our  frail  nature,  and  was  positively  interested 
in  our  corruptible  blood  :  so,  by  a  parity  of  reason,  we  are  not 
indulged  with  the  pardon  and  acceptance  which  he  merited  for  us, 
till  we  partake  of  his  light  and  righteousness.  Hence  appears  the 
weakness  of  that  argument,  "  Righteousness  may  as  well  be  imputed 
to  us,  without  any  participation  of  the  divine  nature,  as  sin  was 
imputed  to  Christ  without  any  participation  of  our  fallen  nature." 
We  absolutely  deny  the  fact  on  which  thi^  argument  is  founded,  and 
assert,  with  St.  Paul,  that  Christ  was  made  sin  for  «s,  [i.  e.  a  proper 
sacrifice  for  our  sins]  not  by  an  imaginary  robe  of  unrighteousness 
put  upon  him  according  to  your  imputation  ;  but  by  being  really  jnade 
of  a  fallen  mortal  wom,an,  and  sent  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  that 
he  might  siiffer  and  die  for  u's  ;  which  he  could  not  have  done  if  he 
had  not  assumed  our  fallen  nature,  unfallen  man  being  quite  above 
the  reach  of  pain  and  death.  It  is  not  less  certain,  therefore,  that 
he  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  than  it  is  indubitable  that 
he  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin. 

As  sure  then  as  Christ  was  no^  made  sifi  [i.  e.  a  sin-offering]  for 
•us,  by  a  speculative  imputation  of  our  personal  sins  ;  but  by  being 
actually  made  flesh,  clothed  with  our  mortality,  and  sent  in  the  likeness 
of  sinful  flesh ;  so  sure  are  we  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him; 
not  by  a  speculative  imputation  of  his  personal  good  works,  but  by 
bi'^ing  made  partakers  of  the  divine  nature,  begotten  of  God,  and  clothed 
with  essential  righteousness ;  which  is  the  case  when  we  put  on  the  nero 
man,  who  after  God  is  created  in  righteousness  and  true  holiness.  Thus 
it  appears  to  us  that  your  imputation  may  be  demolished,  only  by 
retorting,  2  Cor.  v.  21.  the  scripture  with  which  it  is  chiefly  sup- 
ported :  and,  if  we  are  not  mistaken,  the  venerable  fabric  raised  upon 
that  passage,  like  Mahomet's  venerable  tomb,  hangs  in  the  air  with- 
out one  single  prop. 

That  the  seed  of  righteousness,  by  which  we  are  first  interested 
in  Christ,  is  universal  in  all  infants,  appears  to  us  evident  from  St. 
Paul's  words,  As  by  one  mans  [Adam's]  disobedience,  the  many,  the 
multitudes  of  mankind,  were  made  sinners,  by  a  seed  of  sin  ;  so  by  the 
obedience  nf  one  [Christ]  shall  the  many,  the  multitude^  of  mankind, 
be  made  righteous^  by  a  seed  of  righteousness,  to  the  end  of  the  worhk 

Vol.  I.  50 


390  FOURTH    CHECK 

Rom.  V.  19.  Hence  it  is  that  righteousness  is  imputed  to  all  infants- 
and  that,  as  I  have  proved,  Letter  X.  they  stand  justified  before  God, 
according  to  the  inferior  dispensation  they  are  under. 

When  they  grow  up,  and  hold  the  truth  in  unrighteousness,  by  sin- 
ning against  their  light,  personal  iniquity  is  imputed  to  them ;  and 
till  they  believe  again  in  the  light,  and  renounce  the  evil  deeds  which 
it  reproves,  they  are  condemned  already.  But  the  moment  they  truly 
repent,  and  unfeignedly  beheve  the  Gospel  belonging  to  their  dis- 
pensation, condemnation  vanishes,  God  again  imputes  righteousness  to 
them;  that  is,  for  Christ's  sake  he  again  pardons  their  sins,  accepts 
their  persons,  and  considers  them  as  branches  that  admit  the  righteous 
sap  of  the  true  Fine,  and  bear  the  fruits  of  righteousness. 

Once  more  ;  if  these  branches  do  not  believingly  abide  'in  Christ 
the  Fine,  they  become  such  branches  in  him  as  bear  not  fruit.  Nay, 
they  bear  the  poison  of  unrighteousness ;  iniquity  therefore  is  again 
imputed  to  them  ;  and  so  long  as  they  continue  in  their  sin  and  unbe- 
lief, they  are  every  moment  liable  to  be  taken  away,  cast  into  the  fire, 
and  burned,  John  xv.  Nevertheless,  through  the  Redeemer's  inter- 
cession, God  bears  long  with  them ;  and,  if  they  despise  not  to  the  last 
the  riches  of  his  forbearance  and  long-sufferings  duly  considering  how 
his  goodness  leadeth  them  to  repentance,  their  backslidings  are  healed  : 
they  believe  again  with  the  heart  unto  righteousness :  the  righteous  sap 
of  the  true  Vine  has  again  a  free  course  in  their  hearts  :  they  again 
receive  Christ,  who  is  the  end  of  the  laxa,  and  the  sum  of  the  Gospel, 
for  righteousness  to  every  one  that  lelieveth  :  and  their  faith,  which  once 
more  admits  the  beams  of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  is  once  more 
imputed  to  them  for  righteousness. 

This  is  the  holy  imputation  of  righteousness  which  we  read  of  in 
the  oracles  of  God  ;  and  we  prefer  it  to  yours  for  three  reasons : 
I.  It  hath  truth  for  its  foundation  ;  but  your  imputation  stands  upon  a 
preposterous  supposition,  that  Christ,  the  righteous,  was  an  execrable 
sinner,  and  that  an  elect  is  perfectly  righteous,  while  he  commit? 
execrable  iniquity.  2.  Because  it  perfectly  agrees  with  St.  Jameses 
undefled  religion,  which  your  scheme  entirely  overthrows.  And,  3. 
Because  it  is  supported  by  the  plainest  scriptures. 

The  Popes  have  at  least  the  letter  of  one  passage  to  countenance 
their  monstrous  doctrine  of  transubstantiation.  They  save  appear- 
ances, when  they  make  their  dupes  believe,  that  a  bit  of  bread  is 
really  the  body  of  Christ :  for,  say  they,  Christ  took  bread,  and 
declared,  this  is  my  body.  But  (O  tell  it  not  in  Paris,  lest  the  advo- 
cates of  the  triple  crown  triumph  over  us  in  their  turn!)  the  per- 
sonal righteousness  of  Christ  is  not  so  much  as  ojice  mentioned  in  all 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  391 

the  Bible,  with  the  doctrine  of  imputation :  and  yet  some  divines  can 
make  whole  congregations  of  men,  who  protest  against  the  impious 
absurdities  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  believe,  that  the  imputation  of 
Christ's  personal  righteousness  is  a  scriptural  doctrine,  and  the  very 
marrow  of  the  Gospel !  This  garment  of  their  own  weaving  they  cast 
over  adulterers  and  murderers,  and  then  represent  the  filthy,  bloody 
wretches,  as  complete  in  Christ's  obedience,  perfect  in  righteousness, 
and  "  unde/ded^'  before  God! 

If  I  had  a  thousand  tongues,  could  I  employ  them  more  to  the  glory 
of  Christ,  and  the  good  of  souls,  than  by  crying  to  the  thousands  who 
are  still  sold  under  sin,  and  still  take  their  carnal  ease  in  that  imaginary 
garment  of  righteousness,  ^iiyaA;e  ^o  true  righteousness,  and  sin  not? 
Search  the  Scriptures.  Where  is  it  said  that  Christ's  personal  righte- 
ousness was  ever  imputed  to  either  man  or  angel  ?  And  where  is  it 
written  that  righteousness  was  ever  imputed  to  any  one,  farther  than 
he  was  possessed  of,  and  actuated  by,  a  living,  powerful,  inherent 
principle  of  righteous  faith  ? 

To  the  law  and  to  the  testimony!  Can  any  thing  be  plainer  than  the 
two  following  positions,  on  which  all  our  doctrine  of  imputation  is 
founded?  1.  Faith  is  a  powerful,  quickening,  justifying,  sanctifying, 
working,  victorious,  saving  grace.  2.  This  faith,  as  it  springs  from, 
and  receives  Christ,  and  his  righteous  power,  is  imputed  to  us  for 
righteousness. 

Does  not  the  first  of  these  propositions  stand  unshaken  upon  such 
scriptures  as  these  ?  Faith  is  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen,  and  the 
substance  of  things  hoped  for: — All  things  are  possible  to  him  that 
believeth : — Whosoever  believeth  is  born  of  God  : — All  that  believe  are 
justified: — Purifying  their  hearts  by  faith  :— Sanctified  through  faith 
that  is  in  me : — This  is  the  victory  that  overcometh  the  world,  even  our 
FAiTft : — Ye  are  saved  through  faith  : — Faith  worketh  by  love  : — Remetn- 
bemng  your  work  of  faith  : — Faith  without  works  is  dead: — He  that 
believeth  hath  everlasting  life  : — Holding  the  mystery  of  faith  in  a  pure 
conscience,  which  some  having  put  away,  concerning  faith  have  nrutde 
shipwreck,  kc.  Is  it  not  evident  from  these  scriptures  that  all  who 
have  a  living  faith,  have  not  only  a  pardon,  but  works,  especially  love, 
which  is  the  fidfilling  of  the  law  ;—love,  the  most  excellent  fruit  of 
righteousness,  in  which  all  others  are  contained  ?  And  surely,  if  they 
have  a  pardon,  and  true,  inherent  righteousness,  in  their  Christ- 
accepting,  loving,  and  obedient  faith  ;  that  faith  may  well  be  imputed 
to  them  for  righteousness,  or  God  may  well  account  them  righteous. 

Nor  is  the  second  proposition  upon  which  our  imputation  stands, 
less  clearly  laid  down  in  the  Scriptures.     Abraham  believed  in  the 


3®2  FOURTH    CHECK 

Lord^  and  he  counted,^  or  imputed  it  to  him  for  righteousness^  GeB, 
X7.  6.  What  says  the  Scripture  ?  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was 
imputed  unto  him  for  righteousness,  i.  e.  for  preceding  righteousness, 
through  the  remission  of  his  past  sins  ;  for  present  acceptance  in  the 
Beloved,  whom  he  received  ;  and  for  present  righteousness  through 
the  righteous  exertions  of  a  faith  that  worketh  by  love.  Again,  To 
him  that  believeth,  his  faith  is  imputed  for  righteousness : — We  say  that 
faith  was  imputed  to  Abraham  for  righteousness : — That  he  might  be  the 
father  of  all  them  that  believe^  that  righteousness  might  be  imputed  to 
them  also : — He  was  strong  in  faith,  giving  glory  to  God ;  and  therefore 
it  was  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness  : — JVow  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,  Gal.  iii.  6.      Rom.  iv.  5,  &c. 

As  Moses  has  led  the  van  of  these  testimonies  in  favour  of  our 
scriptural  imputation,  and  St.  Paul  the  main  body,  permit  St.  James 
to  bring  up  the  rear.  Seest  thou,  says  he,  how  faith  wrought  with 
Abraham's  works,  and  by  works  was  faith  made  perfect,  and  the  Scrip- 
ture was  fulfilled  which  says,  Abraham  believed  God,  and  it  was 
imputed  to  him  for  righteousness,  James  ii.  23.  The  vt'hole  is  thus 
summed  up  by  the  great  defender  of  free  grace  ;  The  Gentiles  which 
followed  not  after  righteousness,  have  attained  to  righteousness,  even 
the  righteousness  which  is  of  faith.  But  Israel,  zvhich  followed  after 
the  law  of  righteousness,  hath  not  attained  to  it.  Wherefore  ?  Because 
they  sought  it  not  by  faith  ;  but  as  it  were,  by  [the  faithless]  works,^*^ 
which  they  did  in  self-righteous  obedience  to  the  letter  of  the  law; 
trampling  under  foot  the  righteousness  of  faith  which  speaketh  ia 
this  wise  :  If  thou  shalt  confess  with  thy  mouth  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  shall 
believe  in  thy  heart  that  God  hath  raised  him  from  the  dead,  thou  shalt 
be  saved :  for  with  the  heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness,  and  with 
the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto  salvation,  Rom.  ix.  and  x.         * 

Who  does  not  see,  in  reading  these  words,  that  we  must  do  some- 
thing unto  righteousness,  as  well  as  unto  salvation  ?  Is  it  not  evident 
that  we  must  now  believe  with  the  heart,  in  order  to  the  former,  and 
make  confession  with  the  mouth,  as  we  have  opportunity,  in  order  to 
the  latter  ;  and  consequently  that  righteousness  imputed,  as  well  as 
salvation  finished,  without  any  thing  done  on  our  part,  is  a  doctrine, 
that  is  not  less  contrary,  even  to  St.  Paul's  epistle  to  the  Romans, 
fairly  taken  together,  than  to  that  strong  rampart  of  «nc?e/zZec?  religion, 
the  epistle  of  St.  James. 

*  There  is  but  one  word  in  the  original,  which  oar  translators  indifferently  render 
im^ut€y  count,  or  reckon. 


X©  ANTINOMIANISM.  393 

However,  a  cloud  ef  objections  arises,  to  keep  the  li2;ht  from  a 
fprejudiced  reader  :  and  as  he  thinks  that  three  of  them  are  remark- 
ably strong,  I  beg  leave  to  consider  them  with  some  degree  of  atten- 
tion. 

[.  Obj.  "Your  doctrine  of  justifying,  sanctifying,  and  working 
faith  imputed  to  us  for  righteousness,  I  bear  my  loud  testimony  against ; 
because  it  confounds  righteousness  with  sanctijication,  two  Gospel- 
blessings,  which  are  clearly  distinguished,   1  Cor.  i,  30." 

Ans.  It  would  be  much  better  to  confound,  than  to  destroy  them 
both  ;  as  I  fear  you  do  when  you  cast  a  robe  o{  finished  salvation, 
i.  e.  of  complete  righteousness  and  finished  holiness,  over  impenitent 
adulterers  and  murderers.  But  be  that  as  it  will,  your  objection  is 
groundless.  I  have  already  observed,  and  I  once  more  declare,  that 
when  we  speak  of  the  righteousness  of  faith,  we  understand  three 
things:  L  The  non-imputatioti,  ot  forgiveness  of  the  sins  that  are 
PAST,  Rom.  iii.  25.     2.  Present  acceptance  in  the  Beloved,  Eph.   i.  7. 

And,  3.  Faith,  implying  a  principle  of  universal  righteousness,  by 
which  we  are  interested  in  Christ's  righteousness  ;  just  as  a  branch 
is  interested  in  the  excellence  of  the  vine  by  receiving  the  generous 
sap  communicated  from  it  ;  and  not  by  an  imaginary  imputation  of 
the  fine  grapes  which  the  vine  bore  1700  years  ago.  Let  no  man 
deceive  you  :  he  that  does  righteousness  is  a  righteous  branch ;  even 
as  Christ  is  a  righteous  vine.      1  John  iii.  7.  John  xv.  v. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  we  speak  of  sanctification,  we  understand 
the  wonderful  change,  wrought  in  us  by  the  working  of  the  above- 
mentioned  faith  as  a  principle  of  righteousness ;  and  the  internal 
fruits  which  it  produces,  till,  by  growing  up  into  Christ  in  all  things, 
we  come  in  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of 
God,  unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness 
of  Christ.  It  is  evident  therefore,  that,  considering  righteousness  and 
sanctifiation,  even  in  their  most  intimate  union,  we  do  not  confound 
them  at  all  ;  but  maintain  as  clear  a  distinction  between  them,  as 
that  which  subsists  between  the  derivation  of  sap  by  a  wild  branch 
from  the  good  olive-tree,  and  the  change  produced  in  that  branch 
upon  such  a  derivation. 

II.  Opj.  *'  Your  doctrine  is  Popery  refined.  By  paying  saving 
honours  to  a  Christian  grace,  and  taking  the  crown  from  Christ,  to 
set  it  upon  faith,  you  shake  the  very  foundation  of  the  Mediator's 
throne.  If  this  be  not  high  treason  against  him,  what  crime  deserves 
that  name?" 

Ans.  Your  fears  are  laudable,  though  absolutely  groundless.  1. 
J^aith,  the  humble  grace  that  will  know  nothing  but  Christ,  for  wisdom. 


394  FOURTH   CHECK 

righteousness,  sanctification,  and  redemption,  can  never  dishonour  his 
person,  claim  his  crown,  or  shake  the  foundation  of  his  throne.  Is 
it  not  ridiculous  to  make  so  much  ado  about  faith  robbing  Christ  of 
saving  honours,  when  Christ  himself  says,  Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee,  and  when  the  apostle  cries  out,  Believe,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved? 
Were  then  Christ  and  St.  Paul  two  refined  Papists,  and  guilty  of  high 
treason  against  the  Redeemer  ? 

2.  If  some  will  be  wise  above  what  is  written,  we  dare  not.  If 
they  are  ashamed  of  the  oracles  of  God,  we  are  not ;  therefore, 
whatever  they  think  of  us,  we  must  say  with  the  evangelical  apostle. 
Faith  was  imputed  to  Abraham  for  righteousness  ;  and  to  him  that  be- 
lieveth,  his  faith  is  imputed  for  righteousness, 

3.  Should  you  say,  that  Abraham's  faith,  or  his  believing  God, 
signifies  either  Christ's  person,  or  his  personal  righteousness  ;  we 
reply,  Credat  judeus  Apella  !  There  was  indeed  a  time  when  Calvinist 
divines  could  make  simple  Protestants  believe  it,  as  easy  as  the  Pope 
can  make  credulous  Papists  believe,  that  a  wafer  of  the  size  of  half  a 
crown  is  the  identical  body  of  our  Lord :  but  as  many  Romanists  be- 
gin to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Popish  absurdities  ;  so  many  Protestants 
will  cast  away  that  of  Calvinian  impositions.  And  as  our  fathers 
taught  us  to  protest,  that  the  hocus  pocus  of  a  Popish  priest,  cannot 
turn  bread  into  flesh  ;  so  will  we  teach  our  children  to  protest,  that 
the  bare  assertion  of  a  Calvinist  minister  cannot  turn  Abraham's 
faith  into  Christ's  person,  or  into  his  personal  righteousness  ;  which 
must  however  be  the  case,  if  these  words,  Ahraham''s  faith,  or  his 
believing  God,  was  imputed  for  righteousness,  do  only  mean,  as  we  are 
confidently  told,  that  "  Christ,  or  his  personal  righteousness,  was  im- 
puted to  Abraham  for  righteousness." 

4.  Does  it  reflect  any  dishonour  upon  Christ,  to  say  with  St.  Paul, 
that  FAITH  is  imputed  to  us  for  righteousness  ;  when  believing  includes 
its  object,  [Christ,  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life,]  as  necessarily  as 
eating  supposes  food  ;  and  drinking,  liquor  ?  Is  it  not  as  impossible 
to  believe  in  the  light,  without  Christ  the  light ;  or  to  believe  in  the 
truth,  without  Christ  the  truth ;  as  it  is  to  breathe  without  air,  and 
hear  without  sounds  ?  Again,  if  you  affirm  "  that  we  warm  our- 
selves by  going  to  the  fire,"  do  you  sap  the  foundation  of  natural 
philosophy,  because  you  do  not  say  ten  times  over,  that  the  warming 
power  comes  from  the  fire,  and  not  from  our  motion  towards  it  ?  And 
do  we  destroy  the  foundation  of  Christianity,  when  we  assert,  that 
faith  working  by  love,  instrumentally  saves  us,  because  we  do  not  spend 
so  much  time  as  you  in  saying  over  and  over,  that  the  saving  merit 
and*  the  saving  power  flow  from  the  Saviour,  and  not  /?'om  our  own 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  395 

act  of  believing?  Is  not  this  as  clear,  as  it  is  that  the  light  flows  in 
upon  us  from  the  sun,  and  not  from  [though  it  is  through]  the  opening 
of  our  eyes  ? 

Lastly,  would  not  physicians  make  themselves  appear  very  ridicu- 
lous, if  they  distressed  their  patients,  when  they  were  goino-  to  take 
a  medicine,  with  the  fear  of  ascribing  their  recovery  to  their  takioo- 
the  remedy,  i.  e.  to  "  their  own  doing,"  rather  than  to  the  virtue  of 
the  remedy  itself?  And  are  those  divines  alone  partakers  of  heavenly 
wisdom,  who  puzzle  sinners  who  are  coming  to  Christ,  and  place  a 
lion  in  their  way,  by  perpetually  injecting  into  their  minds  a  fear 
lest  they  should  ascribe  their  salvation  io  faith,  rather  than  te  the  Sa- 
viour  whom  faith  receives  ?  Where  does  the  apostle,  whose  evan- 
gelical sentiments  they  so  deservedly  extol,  set  them  the  example  of 
such  refinements  ?  Is  it  Rom.  iv.  where  he  says,  directly  or  indirectly, 
seven  times,  that  faith  is  imputed  for  righteousness  ?  Is  it  not  strange, 
that  at  last  "  orthodoxy"  should  consist  in  fairly  setting  aside,  or 
explaining  away,  the  doctrine  of  St.  Paul,  as  well  as  that  of  St. 
James  ? 

III.  Obj.  *'  Your  mind  is  full  of  carnal  reasonings.  You  do  not 
know  either  Christ  or  yourself.  If  you  did,  you  would  never  set  up 
the  inherent  righteousness  of  faith,  which  is  nothing  but  our  own 
righteousness,  in  opposition  to  imputed  righteousness.  If  you  were 
not  quite  blind,  or  '  very  dark,'  you  would  see,  that  all  our  righteous- 
nesses are  as  filthy  rags  :  and  you  would  humbly  acknowledge,  that 
the  holy  breastplate  and  rohe  of  righteousness,  which  we  may  with 
safety  and  honour  appear  in  before  God,  are  the  breastplate  and  robe 
of  Christ's  personal  righteousness  freely  imputed  to  us,  without  any 
of  our  doings.  This  best  robe,  which  you  so  horribly  bespatter,  we 
must  defend  against  all  the  Arminians,  Pelagians,  and  Papists  in  the 
world." 

Ans.  To  do  this  grand  objection  justice,  it  will  be  proper  to  con- 
sider it  in  its  various  parts,  and  give  each  a  full  answer. 

1.  We  acknowledge  that  we  cannot  think  nonsense  is  any  more  com- 
patible with  the  wisdom  of  God,  nnd  flat  contradiction  with  his  sacred 
oracles,  than  adultery  is  compatible  with  his  undefiled  religion,  and 
murder  with  common  morality.  If  these  sentiments  are  "  carnal 
reasonings,"  we  beg  leave  to  continue  carnal  reasoners,  till  you  can 
recommend  your  spiritual  reasonings  either  by  common  sense  or 
plain  Scripture. 

2.  You  confound,  without  reason,  the  inhereni  righteousness  of  faith 
with  Pharisaic  self- righteousness.     I  have  already  proved,  that  the 


306  POVKtti  CHECK 

latter,  which  is  the  partial,  external,  and  hypocritical  rightdousoeig^ 
of  unbelievina:  formalists,  is  the  only  righteousness  which  the  prophet 
compares  to  Jilfhy  rags.  With  respect  to  the  former,  i.  e.  our  ovvn: 
righteousness  of  faith,  far  from  setting  it  up  in  opposition  to  imputed 
righteousness  rightly  understood,  we  assert,  that  it  is  the  righteousness 
of  God,  the  very  thing  which  God  imputes  to  us  for  righteousness ;  the 
very  righteousness  which  has  now  the  stamp  of  his  approbation,  and 
will  one  day  have  the  crown  of  his  rewards. 

3.  You  affirm,  that  the  breastplate  of  righteousness  which  St. 
Paul  charges  the  Ephesians  to  have  on,  is  Christ's /?ersona/  righteous- 
ness imputed  to  us;  and  we  prove  the  contrary  by  the  following  ar- 
guments. The  apostle,  who  is  the  best  illustrator  of  his  own 
expressions,  exhorts  the  Thessalonians  to  put  on  the  breqstplate  of 
faith  and  love.  Now,  as  we  never  heard  of  soldiers  having  two  breast- 
plates on  ;  the  imaginary  breastplate  of  their  general,  which  they 
wear  by  imputation;  and  the  solid  plate  of  metal,  which  actually  co- 
vers their  breasts  ;  we  conclude,  that  the  breastplate  of  righteousness, 
which  St.  Paul  recommends  to  the  Ephesians,  together  with  the  shield 
of  faith,  is  nothing  but  the  breastplate  of  faith  and  love,  which  he  re- 
commends to  the  Thessalonians. 

To  help  my  readers  to  see  your  doctrine  in  a  proper  light,  I  might 
say.  If  the  breastplate  of  our  Lord's  personal  obedience  has  no  more 
to  do  with  our  breasts,  than  the  personal  dinner  which  he  took  in  the 
Pharisee's  house,  has  to  do  with  our  empty  stomachs ;  and  the  personal 
garment  in  which  he  shone  upon  Mount  Tabor,  has  to  do  with  our  naked 
shoulders  ;  the  judicious  apostle  would  probably  have  called  it  a  brain- 
plate,  rather  than  a  breastplate,  as  having  far  less  to  do  with  the  breast 
and  heart,  than  with  the  brain  and  imagination.  Bntasthis  argument 
would  rather  turn  upon  our  translation,  than  upon  tae  original,  I  drop 
it,  and  present  you  vvith  one  that  has  more  solidity. 

If  the  breastplate  of  a  Christian  warrior  is  as  far  from  him  in 
time  and  place,  as  the  personal  righteousness  wrought  by  our  Lord  iti 
Judea  1760  years  ago  ;  his  shield  may  be  at  the  same  distance;  and 
so  undoubtedly  may  his  helmet  and  sandals,  his  belt  and  sword.  Thus, 
by  Calvin's  contrivance,  you  have  a  soldier  of  Christ  armed  cap-a-pee, 
without  one  single  piece  of  armour  from  head  to  foot.  And  will  you 
say  of  these  imaginary  accoutrements,  in  which  the  elect  can  with  all 
ease  commit  adultery  and  incest,  that  they  are  the  armour  of  right- 
eousness on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  in  which  St,  Paul  fought 
his  battles,  and  subdued  so  many  kindreds  and  nations  to  his  Lord's 
triuraphant  cross  ?  Oh  !  if  that  champion  were  yet  alive,  who  said  in 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  397 

the  midst  of  Corinth,  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  inward,  hutin  power  ^ 
how  would  he  cry  in  the  midst  of  mystic  Geneva,  "  The  armour  of 
God  is  not  a  Calvinian  notion,  but  a  divine  reahty !" 

What  we  are  persuaded  he  would  thunder  out  through  the  world, 
we  are  at  last  determined  to  proclaim  on  the  walls  of  Jerusalem. 
"  Soldiers  of  Christ,  have  on  the  true  breastplate  of  righteousness. 
Put  on  the  solid  breastplate  of  inherent  faith  and  love.  If  Satan's 
temptations  are  not  idle  imputations  of  his  dreadful  assaults  upon 
Christ  ;  if  his  darts  are  really^ery  and  terrible,  throw  away  Calvin- 
ian imputation  :  Cast  qff^  the  works  of  darkness ;  and  put  on  the  real  ar- 
mour  of  righteousness,  the  armour  of  light,  the  whole  armour  of  God : 
so  shall  you  be  able  to  stand  in  the  evil  day ;  and  having  done  all  to 
stand  with  safety  in  judgment,  and  with  honour  in  the  congregation  of 
the  righteous. 

4.  We  apprehend  that  you  are  not  less  mistaken  about  the  robe, 
than  about  the  breastplate  of  righteousness.  And  we  think,  we  can 
prove  it  by  the  testimony  of  the  three  most  competent  judges  in  the 
universe,  an  apostle,  an  elder  before  the  throne,  and  the  Lamb  in 
the  midst  of  it.     Hear  we  the  apostle  first. 

1.  If  all  the  saints  were  clothed  with  the  robe  o{  ChrisVs  personal 
righteousness,  they  would  all  be  clothed  exactly  like  Christ.  But 
when  St.  John  had  a  vision  of  the  Redeemer's  glory,  he  saw  him 
clothed  with  a  vesture  dipt  in  blood  :  and  the  armies  which  were  in 
heaven,  followed  him  clothed  in  fine  linen,  white  and  clean,  Rev.  xix. 
13,  15.  Now,  as  the  white  robes  worn  by  the  soldiers  that  compose 
an  army,  cannot  be  the  red  robe  worn  by  the  general  at  the  head  of 
the  army,  we  so  far  give  place  to  what  you  call  "  carnal  reasonings,'* 
as  to  conclude,  that  so  sure  as  white  is  not  red,  the  robes  of  the  saints, 
are  not  the  robes  of  our  Lord's  personal  righteousness.  Nay,  we 
who  throw  off  the  veil  of  prejudice,  would  be  guilty  of  the  very 
crime  you  charge  us  with,  were  we  to  entertain  that  daring  idea. 
Christ's  personal  righteousness,  is  the  obedience  of  the  Son  of  God, 
who  by  living  and  dying  for  us,  became  the  propitiation  for  the  sins  of 
the  whole  world;  now,  if  we  pretended,  that  this  identical  all-merito- 
rious obedience  of  Christ  unto  death,  this  active  and  passive  righteous- 
ness, which  made  an  atonement  for  all  mankind,  is  fairly  made  over 
to,  and  put  upon  us  :  would  it  not  be  pretending  to  merit  with  Christ, 
not  only  our  own  salvation,  but  the  salvation  of  all  mankind  ?  O  Sir, 
it  is  you,  we  are  afraid,  who  affect  the  Saviour  ;  for  by  presuming  to 
put  on  his  robes,  you  claim  his  mediatorial  honours  :  for,  after  all 
your  fears,  lest  we  should  make  humh]e  faith  share  the  Saviour's 
glory,  oThis  glorious  apparel, you  not  only  put  it  on  yourself  without. 

Vol..  r  51 


393  FOURTH  CHECK 

ceremony,  but  throw  it  also  over  the  shoulders  of  ten  thousand  eleci^ 
without  excepting  even  those  who  add  drunkenness  to  thirst,  and  cru- 
elty to  lust. 

You  will,  I  hope,  see  the  great  impropriety  of  this  conduct,  if  you 
consider,  that  the  Redeemer's  personal  and  peculiar  righteousness,  is 
his  personal  and  peculiar  glory  ;  and  that  those  who  fancy  themselves 
clad  with  it,  (if  they  do  not  sin  ignorantly)  are  as  guiUy  of  ridiculous, 
not  to  say  treasonable  presumption,  before  God,  as  country  clergymen 
would  be  before  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and  the  king,  if  they 
seriously  gave  it  out,  that  the  sleeves  of  their  surplices  are  the  very 
lawn  sleeves  of  his  grace  ;  and  their  gowns  and  cassocks,  the  identi- 
cal coronation  robes  of  his  majesty. 

The  fanciful  parsons  would  no  doubt  be  pitied  by  all  men  of  sense  ; 
and  so  are  we  by  all  our  Calvinist  brethren  ;  but,  alas !  for  a  very 
different  reason.  They  wonder  at,  and  kindly  pity  us,  because  we 
cannot  fancy  ourselves  clothed  with  robes  a  thousand  times  more 
sacred  than  those  which  Aaron  wore  on  the  great  day  of  atonement : 
— With  robes  ten  thousand  times  more  incommunicable  than  the 
king's  coronation  robes: — With  a  divine  garment,  that,  in  the  very 
nature  of  things,  can  absolutely  suit  none  but  Him,  on  whose  head  are 
many  crowns,  and  rvho  hath  on  his  vesture,  and  on  his  thigh,  a  name 
written,  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords ; — the  child  born  unto  us  of  a 
virgin,  the  only  begotten  Son  of  the  Father,  given  to  put  away  sin  by  the 
sacrifice  of  himself: — the  wonderful  Counsellor,  the  mighty  God,  the 
everlasting  Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace. 

O  ye  sons  of  men,  how  long  will  you  become  so  vain  in  your 
imagination,  as  to  put  on  robes  on  which  the  very  finger  of  God  has 
embroidered  such  incommunicable  names  with  adamant  and  gold !  If 
you  are  Saviours  of  the  world,  and  Mediators  between  God  and  man ; 
if  you  are  Emmanueh  and  Gods  over  all  blessed  for  ever,  wear  them ; 
they  fit  you,  and  they  are  your  right.  But  if  ye  all  shall  die  like  men, 
who  cannot  atone  for  one  sin  ;  and  if  the  flesh  of  every  one  of  you 
shall  see  corruption,  touch  them  not,  unless  it  be  with  the  reverential 
faith  of  the  infirm  woman  :  hke  her  you  may  indeed  steal  a  cure 
through  them  :  but  O !  do  not  steal  them,  as  those  who  come  in  the 
Redeemer''s  dress,  and  say,  I  am  Christ;  or  those  who  tell  you,  /  am 
carnal,  sold  under  sin,  but  no  matter !  I  am  safe  :  in  the  robes  of 
Christ's  righteousness,  I  am  as  righteous  as  Christ  himself.  If  never- 
theless you  are  bent  upon  putting  them  on  by  self-imputation,  at  the 
peril  of  your  souls  throw  them  not  over  the  shoulders  of  impenitent 
sinners  ;  lest  you  turn  the  truth  of  God  into  a  flagrant  lie  ;  lest,  profess- 
ing yourselves  wise  to  salvation,  you  become  fools,  and  change  the  glory 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  399 

[the  glorious  robe]  of  the  incorruptible  God-man,   into  the  infamous 
cloak  of  an  incestuous  adulterer ! 

2.  Suppose  that  still  despising  the  white  robes,  i.  e.  the  evangelical 
righteousness  of  the  saints,  you  aspire  at  being  clothed  with  the  Re- 
deenoer's  vesture  dipt  in  blood :  permit  me  to  oppose  to  your  error  the 
testimony  of  one  of  the  twenty-four  elders  who  stand  nearest  the 
throne,  and  therefore  know  best  in  what  robes  the  saints  can  stand 
before  it  with  safety  and  honour. 

Ibehdd,  (says  the  beloved  disciple,)  and  lo,  a  great  multitude  which 
no  ma7i  can  number ^  of  all  nations,  people,  and  tongues,  stood  before  the 
thronCy  and  before  the  Lamb,  clothed  with  white  robes,  Rev.  vii.  9. 
By  comparing  this  verse  with  Rev.  xix.  7,  8.  it  is  evident,  that  great 
multitude  was  the  church  triumphant,  the  wife  of  the  Lamb,  who  has 
made  herself  ready.  She  is  composed  of  souls,  who  have  fulfilled 
those  awful  commands,  0  Jerusalem,  wash  thy  heart  from  iniquity,  that 
thou  mayest  be  saved : — Wash  you,  make  you  clean,  put  away  the  evil  of 
your  doings  from  before  my  eyes:  come,  and  let  us  reason  together; 
though  your  sins  be  red  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as  white  as  snow.  They 
continued  instant  in  prayer,  that  God  would  wash  them  thoroughly  from 
their  iniquity,  and  cleanse  them  from  their  sins  :  nor  did  they  give  over 
pleading  his  gracious  promises,  till  the  living  water,  the  cleansing 
hlood,  the  fuller^ s  soap,  and  the  refiner'* s  fire,  had  had  their  full  effect 
upon  them.  Therefore,  to  them  it  was  granted,  that  they  should  be 
arrayed  in  fine  linen,  clean  and  white ;  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righte- 
ousness of  the  saints. 

Now  the  question  between  us  is,  whether  the  fine  linen  clean  and 
white,  and  the  white  robes  mentioned  by  St.  John,  are  the  evangelical, 
personal  righteousness  of  the  saints,  or  the  mediatorial,  personal 
righteousness  of  their  Lord  :  But  who  shall  help  us  to  decide  it  ? 
One  of  the  elders  before  the  throne,  who  advances  and  says  unto 
John,  These,  who  are  arrayed  in  white  robes,  are  they  who  came  out  of 
great  tribulation,  and  have  washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in 
the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  Rev.  vii.  14.  Does  not  this  information,  given 
by  one  to  whom  the  beloved  disciple  had  just  said,  Sir,  thou  knowest, 
make  it  indubitable,  that  the  righteousness  which  the  saints  appear 
in  before  God,  is  a  righteousness  which  was  once  defiled,  and  there- 
fore stood  in  need  of  washing?  Now,  what  Christian  will  assert,  that 
the  personal  righteousness  of  the  immaculate  Lamb  of  God  had  ever 
one  spot  of  defilement  ? 

Again,  those  robes  were  washed,  and  made  white  by  the  saints  : 
TiiEV  have  washed  their  robes.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  if  those 
robes  were  the  personal  righteousness  of  Christ,  the   saints  had 


400  FOURTH    CHECK 

washed  it.  And  who  is  the  good  man,  that  upon  second  thoughts, 
will  dare  to  countenance  a  preposterous  doctrine,  which  supposes, 
that  the  saints  have  washed  the  defiled  righteousness  of  the  Lord,  and 
made  it  white  ? 

Once  more  :  These  robes  are  washed  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb, 
that  is,  in  the  fountain  opened  for  sin^  and  for  uncleanness.  Now,  if 
they  were  the  robes  of  Christ's  personal  righteousness,  does  it  not 
necessarily  follow,  that  Christ  opened  a  fountain  to  prash  his  own 
spotted  and  sinful  righteousness  ?  Is  it  not  strange,  that  those  who 
pretend  to  a  peculiar  regard  for  the  Redeen)er's  glory,  should  be 
such  great  sticklers  for  an  opinion,  which  pours  such  contempt  upon 
him,  and  his  glorious  apparel  ? 

3.  If  the  testimony  of  St.  John,  and  that  of  one  of  the  twenty-four 
ciders,  is  not  regarded  ;  let  our  Lord's  repeated  declaration,  at  least, 
be  thought  worthy  of  consideration.  All  our  righteousness  flows 
from  him,  as  all  the  sap  of  the  branch  flows  from  the  vine.  There- 
fore, speaking  of  righteousness,  he  says.  Buy  of  me  white  raiment, 
that  thou  may  est  be  clothed,  and  that  the  shame  of  thy  nakedness  do  not 
appear.  Rev.  iii.  18.  But  that  this  white  raiment  cannot  be  his  per- 
sonal righteousness,  we  prove,  first,  from  his  own  words  mentioned 
in  the  same  chapter.  Thou  hast  a  few  names  in  Sardis,  which  have  not 
defiled  their  garments.  Rev.  iii.  4.  Now  if  these  garments  were  the 
robes  of  Christ's  personal  obedience,  which  neither  man  nor  devil 
can  defile,  how  came  our  Lord  to  make  it  matter  of  praise  to  a  few 
names,  that  they  had  not  defiled  them  ?  If  David  could  not  in  the 
least  bespatter  them  by  all  his  crimes,  was  it  a  wonder  that  some 
persons  should  have  kept  them  clean  ?  Is  it  not  rather  surprising, 
that  ajiy  names  in  Sardis  should  have  had  defiled  garments,  which 
remain  "  undefled,  and  without  spot,''''  even  while  those  who  wear 
them,  welter  in  the  mire  of  adultery,  murder,  and  incest? 

Once  more  :  Our  Lord  says.  Behold  1  come  as  a  thief.  Blessed  is  he 
that  watcheth  and  keepeth  his  garments ;  lest  he  walk  naked  and  they  see 
his  shame.  Rev.  xvi.  5.  Who  does  not  see  here,  that  the  garments, 
which  we  are  to  keep  with  ixatchfulness,  are  garments  which  may  be 
spotted  or  stolen  ?  Garments  of  which  we  may  be  so  totally  stript, 
as  to  be  seen  walking  naked?  Two  particulars,  that  perfectly  suit 
our  personal  righteousness  of  faith,  but  can  never  suit  the  personal 
righteousness  of  Christ ;  that  "  best  robe,^'  which  neither  man  nor 
devil  can  steal,  neither  adultery  nor  murder  defile. 

Having  spent  so  much  time  with  my  Objector,  I  beg  leave  to  return 
to  you,  honoured  Sir,  and  to  conclude  this  Essay  upon  imputed  righte- 
cumess^  by  summing  up  the  diflference  which  subsists  between  us  on 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  401 

that  important  subject ;  and  inviting  men  of  candour  to  determine, 
who  of  us  have  reason,  conscience,  and  Scripture  on  their  side. 

You  believe,  that  the  uninterrupted  good  works  and  the  atoning 
sufferings  of  Christ,  which  made  up  his  personal  righteousness  while 
he  was  upon  earth,  are  imputed  to  the  elect  for  complete  and  eternal 
righteousness,  be  their  own  personal  righteousness  what  it  will  : 
insomuch  that,  as  you  express  it,  [Five  Letters,  p.  27,  and  29.]  ''  All 
debts  and  claims  against  them,  be  they  more  or  be  they  less,  be  they 
small  or  be  they  great,  be  they  before  or  be  they  after  conversion,  are 
for  ever  and  for  ever  cancelled  :  they  always  stand  absolved,  always 
complete  in  the  everlasting  righteousness  of  the  Redeemer."  And 
you  think,  that  this  imputed  righteousness  composes  the  robes  of  righ- 
teousness, in  which  they  stand  before  God,  both  in  the  day  of  con- 
version and  in  the  day  of  judgment. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  believe,  that  for  the  alone  sake  of  Christ's 
atoning  blood  and  personal  righteousness,  our  personal  faith,  working 
by  obedient  love,  is  imputed  to  us  for  righteousness.  And  we  assert, 
that  this  living  faith,  working  by  obedient  love,  together  with  the 
privileges  annexed  to  it,  [such  as  pardon  through,  and  acceptance  in 
the  beloved,]  makes  up  the  robe  of  righteousness  washed  in  the 
blood  of  the  Lamb,  in  which  true  believers  now  walk  humbly  with 
their  God,  and  will  one  day  triumphantly  enter  into  the  glory  of 
their  Lord. 

I  hope.  Sir,  that  when  we  speak  of  personal  faith,  love,  and  righte- 
ousness, you  will  do  us  the  justice  to  believe,  we  do  not  mean  that 
we  can  have  either  faith,  love,  or  righteousness,  of  ourselves,  or 
from  ourselves.  No :  they  all  as  much  flow  to  us  from  Christ,  the 
true  Vine,  and  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  ;  as  the  sap  and  fruit  of  a 
branch  come  from  the  tree  that  bears  it,  and  from  the  sun  that 
freely  shines  upon  it.  Without  Him  we  have  nothing  but  helpless- 
ness ;  we  can  do  nothing  but  sin  :  but  with  him  we  can  do  all  things. 
If  we  call  any  graces  personal  or  inherent,  it  is  not  then  to  take  the 
honour  of  them  to  ourselves  ;  but  merely  to  distinguish  them  from 
imputed  righteousness,  which  is  nothing  but  the  imputed  assemblage  of 
all  the  graces  that  were  in  our  Lord's  breast  1750  years  ago. 

As  some  of  my  readers  may  desire  to  know  exactly  wherein  the 
difiference  between  personal  and  imputed  graces  consists  ;  I  shall  just 
help  their  conception  by  three  or  four  Scriptural  examples.  Joseph 
struggling  out  of  the  arms  of  his  tempting  mistress,  has  personal 
chastity,  a  considerable  branch  of  personal  righteousness  :  and  David 
sparing  his  own  flock,  and  taking  the  ewe  lamb,  that  lay  in  Uriah's 


405  FOURTH  CHECK 

bosom,  is  complete  in  imputed  chastity,  which  is  a  considerable  part 
of  imputed  righteousness.  Solomon  choosing  wisdom,  and  dedicating 
the  temple,  hn?  .ijiherent  wisdom  and  piety  :  but  when  he  chooses 
pagan  wives,  and  with  them  worships  deformed  idols,  he  has  imputed 
wisdom  and  piety.  Again,  when  Peter  confesses  that  Jesus  is  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,  he  personally  wears  the  girdle  of 
truth :  but  when  he  denies  his  Lord  with  oaths  and  curses,  saying, 
"  I  know  not  the  man,"  he  wears  it  only  by  imputation.  Once  more  : 
When  David  killed  proud  Goliah  with  his  own  sword,  he  stood  com- 
plete in  the  personal  righteousness  we  plead  for  :  but  when  he  killed 
brave  Uriah  with  the  sword  of  the  children  of  Ammon,  he  stood  com- 
plete in  what  our  opponents  extol  as  the  "  best  robe." 

And  now,  ye  unprejudiced  servants  of  the  most  high  God,  ye  men 
of  candour  and  piety,  scattered  through  the  three  kingdoms,  to  you, 
under  God,  we  submit  our  cause.  Impartially  weigh  the  arguments 
on  both  sides  ;  and  judge  whether  the  robe  recommended  by  our  bre- 
thren deserves  to  be  called  "  zAe  best  robe,"  because  it  is  really 
better  than  the  robes  of  righteousness  and  true  holiness^  which  we  re- 
commend ;  or  only  because  it  is  best  calculated  to  pervert  the  Gospel, 
dishonour  Christ,  disgrace  undefiled  religion,  throw  a  decent  cloak 
over  the  works  of  darkness,  render  Antinomianism  respectable  to  in- 
judicious Protestants,  and  frighten  moral  men  from  Christianity,  as 
from  the  most  immoral  system  of  religion  in  the  world. 

By  this  time  you  are,  perhaps,  ready  to  turn  objector  yourself, 
and  say,  "  You  slander  our  principles.  '  The  doctrines  of  grace,* 
are  doctrines  according  to  godliness.  Far  from  opposing  inJiereni 
righteousness  in  its  place,  we  follow  after  it  ourselves  :  and  fre- 
quently recommend  it  to  others.  Imputed  righteousness  is  highly 
Consistent  w'lih  personal  holiness.'''' 

To  this  I  answer,  1  know  a  mistaken  man  who  believes,  that  he 
has  a  right  to  all  his  neighbour's  property,  because  St.  Paul  says, 
All  things  are  yours ;  and  nevertheless  he  is  so  honest  that  you  may 
trust  him  with  untold  gold.  Just  so  it  is  with  you,  Sir.  You  not 
onlj'  believe,  but  publicly  maintain,  that  an  elect  person  who  sedu- 
ces his  neighbour's  wife,  stands  complete  in  the  everlasting  personal 
chastity  of  Christ ;  and  that  a  fall  into  adultery  will  work  for  his  good  : 
and  yet  I  am  persuaded  that  if  you  were  married,  you  would  be 
as  true  to  your  wife  as  Adam  was  to  Eve  before  fhe  fall.  But  can 
you  in  conscience  apologize  for  your  errors,  and  desire  us  to  em- 
brace them,  merely  because  your  conduct  is  better  than  your  bad 
principles  ? 


TO   ANTINOMIAKISM.  403 

Again,  "  You  frequently  recommend  holiness,"  and  perhaps  give 
it  out,  that  the  shortest  way  to  it,  is  to  believe  your  doctrines  of 
imputed  righteousness  ^i\i\ finished  salvation.  But  this,  flir  from  mend- 
ing the  matter,  makes  it  worse.  As  fishes  would  hardly  swallow  the 
hook,  if  a  tempting  bait  did  not  cover  it,  and  entice  them  :  so  the 
honest  hearts  of  the  simple,  would  hardly  jump  at  imputed  rifchte- 
ousness^  if  they  were  not  deceived  by  fair  speeches  dihout  personal 
holiness;  thus  good  food  makes  way  for  poison,  and  the  right  robe 
decently  wraps  fig-leaves  and  cobwebs. 

Once  more  :  Every  body  knows,  that  bad  guineas  are  never  so 
successfully  put  oflf,  as  when  they  are  mixed  with  a  great  deal  of 
good  gold  ;  but  suppose  I  made  it  my  business  to  pass  them,  either 
ignorantly  or  on  purpose,  would  the  public  not  be  my  dupes,  if  they 
sufiered  me  to  carry  on  that  dangerous  trade  upon  such  a  plea  as 
this,  "  I  am  not  against  good  gold  :  I  pass  a  great  deal  of  it  niyself: 
I  have  even  some  about  me  now  :  I  frequently  recommend  it  to 
others  ;  neither  did  I  ever  decry  his  majesty's  coin  ?"  Would  not 
every  body  see  through  such  a  poor  defence  as  this  ?  And  yet,  poor 
as  it  is,  you  could  not  with  any  show  of  truth,  urge  the  last  plea  :  for, 
in  order  to  pass  your  notions  about  imputed  righteousness  you  have 
publicly  spoken  against  inherent  righteousness,  and  all  its  fruits.  In 
the  face  of  the  whole  world  you  have  decried  the  coin  that 
bears  the  genuine  stamp  of  the  Lord's  goodness  :  you  have  called 
good  worliS  "  dung,  dross,  and  filthy  rags ;^^  and  what  is  still  worse, 
you  have  given  it  out  that  you  had  *'  Scripture  authority"  so  to  do. 

Should  you,  to  the  preceding  objection,  add  the  following  ques- 
tion ;  "  If  you  were  now  dying,  in  which  robe  would  you  desire  to 
appear  before  God  ?  That  of  Christ's  personal  righteousness  imputed 
to  you  without  any  of  your  good  works  ?  Or,  that  of  your  own  self- 
righteousness  and  good  works,  v?ithout  the  blood  and  righteousness 
of  Christ?"     My  answer  is  ready. 

I  would  be  found  in  neither,  because  both  would  be  equally  fatal  to 
me ;  for  the  robe  of  an  Antinomian  is  not  better  than  that  of  a  Pha- 
risee ;  and  all  are  foolish  virgins  who  stand  only  in  the  one  or  in  the 
other.  Were  1  then  come  to  the  awful  moment  you  speak  of,  I 
would  beg  of  God  to  keep  me  from  all  delusions,  and  to  strengthen 
my  heartfelt  faith  in  Christ ;  that  I  might  be  found  clothed  hke  a 
wise  virgin,  with  a  robe  washed  and  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb ;  that  is,  with  the  righteousness  of  a  living  faith  working  by 
love  :  for  such  a  faith  is  the  blessed  reality,  that  stands  at  an  equal 
distance  from  the  Antinomian  and  Pharisaic  delusion.     And,  I  say  it 


404  FOURTH   CHECK 

again,*  this  righteousness  of  faith  includes,  1.  A  pardon  through  the 
blood  and  righteousness  of  Christ :  2.  Acceptance  in  the  Beloved  : 
and  3.  Faith  working  by  love,  an  universal  principle  of  inherent 
righteousness  :  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  much 
less  whim  and  delusion  ;  but  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy,  in  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

But  perhaps  you  ask  :  Which  would  you  depend  upon  for  pardon 
and  acceptance  in  a  dying  hour  :  your  own  inherent  righteousness  of 
faith,  or  the  atoning  blood  and  meritorious  righteousness  of  Jesus 
Christ?"  If  this  be  your  question,  1  reply,  that  it  carries  its  own 
weight  along  with  it.  For  if  I  have  the  inherent  righteousness  of  a 
living  faith,  and  if  the  very  nature  of  such  a  faith  is  [as  1  have  already 
observed]  to  depend  upon  nothing  but  Christ  for  wisdom,  righteous- 
ness, sanctijication  and  redemption;  is  it  not  absurd  to  ask,  whether  I 
would  depend  on  any  thing  else  ?  Suppose  I  have  faith  working  by 
humble  love,  do  not  I  know,  that  the  moment  I  rely  upon  myself,  or 
my  works,  as  the  meritorious  cause  of  my  acceptance,  1  put  off  the 
robe  made  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb,  and  put  on  the  spotted  robe 
of  a  proud  Pharisee  ? 

However,  it  is  by  such  self  contradictory  objections,  and  false  di- 
lemmas, that  the  hearts  of  the  simple  are  daily  deceived  :  as  well  as 
by /air  speeches,  which  carry  an  appearance  of  great  self-abasement, 
and  of  a  peculiar  regard  for  the  Redeemer's  glory.  Who  can  tell 
how  many  pious  souls  are  driven  by  the  tempter  upon  one  rock, 
through  an  excessive  fear  of  dasbing  against  the  other  ?  Every  judi 
cious  moderate  man, 

Auream  quisquis  mediocritatem 
Diligit, 

sees  their  well-meant  error,  and  can  say  to  each  of  them — 

*  I  have  on  purpose  been  guilty  of  several  such  repetitions,  not  only  because  the  sam*. 
answers  frequently  solve  diflferent  objections ;  but  because  I  should  be  glad  to  stop  the 
mouths  of  some  of  ray  readers,  if  I  may  give  that  name  to  prejudiced  pei  sons,  who  cast 
a  careless,  and  perhaps  a  malignant,  look  over  here  and  there  a  page ;  and  without  one 
grain  of  candour  condemn  me  for  not  saying  in  one  Letter,  what  I  have  perhaps  already 
said  in  half  a  dozen.  In  these  perilous  times  we  must  run  the  risk  of  passing  for  fooU 
with  men  of  unbiassed  judgment,  that  we  may  not  pass  for  heretics  with  some  of  our 
brethren.  And  it  is  well  if,  after  all  our  repetitions,  we  are  not  still  chai-ged  with  not 
holding  what  we  have  so  frequently  asserted.  For  alas !  what  repetitions,  what  scrip- 
tures, what  expostulations  can  reach  breasts,  covered  with  a  shield  of  prejudice,  which 
bears  such  a  common  motto  as  this,  ^'^JVon  per.ntadebis  etiamsi  permaseris  ?^*  I  could 
wish  that  such  readers  as  will  not  do  justice  to  the  arguments  of  our  opponents,  as  wel? 
as  to  otir  own,  would  never  trouble  themselTes  with  our  books. 


TO    ANTINOMIANISM.  405 

Procellas 
Cautiis  horrescis,  nemium  premendo 
Littus  iniquura  : 

Lest  you  should  be  found  in  the  odious  apparel  of  a  Pharisee,  you 
put  on,  unawares,  the  modish  dress  of  an  Antinomian. 

But,  O  thou  man  of  God,  whosoever  thou  art,  have  nothing  to  do 
with  the  one  or  the  other  ;  except  it  be  to  decry  and  tear  them  both. 
In  the  mean  time,  be  thou  reaWy  found  in  Christ,  not  having  thine  own 
Pharisaic  righteousness,  which  is  of  the  letter  of  the  law ;  nor  yet  no- 
tions about  righteousness  imputed  to  thee  in  the  Antinomian  way  ;  but 
the  substantial,  evangelical  righteousness  which  is  through  the  faith  of 
Christ; — the  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by  faith; — the  true  armour 
of  righteousness,  with  which  St.  Paul  cut  in  pieces  the  forces  of 
Pharisaism  on  the  right  hand,  and  St.  James  those  of  Antinomianism  on 
the  left. 

Rejoicing,  dear  Sir,  that  if  our  arguments  should  strip  you  of  what 
appears  to  us  an  imaginary  garment,  you  shall  not  be  found  naked ; 
and  thanking  the  God  of  all  grace,  for  giving  you  and  thousands  of 
pious  Calvinists,  a  more  substantial  robe  than  that  for  which  you  so 
zealously  plead  ;  in  the  midst  of  chimerical  imputations  of  "  calumny,'' 
I  remain,  with  personal  and  inherent  truths  honoured  and  dear  Sir, 
your  affectionate  brother,  and  obedient  servant  in  our  common  Lord, 

JOHN  FLETCHER. 


Vol.  !. 


4(Hr  FOURTH  CUECK 


LETTER  XIII. 


TO  RICHARD  HILL,  ESQ, 

Hon.  and  dear  Sir^ 

JlIaVING  so  fully  considered  in  my  last  the  state  of  our  contro- 
versy with  respect  to  imputed  righteousness ^  I  proceed  to  the  doctrine 
of  Free  mil,  which  I  have  not  discussed  in  this  Check,  because  yoo 
seem  satisfied  with  what  we  grant  you,  and  we  are  entirely  so  with 
what  you  grant  us  concerning  it.  Let  us,  however,  just  cast  three 
looks,  one  upon  our  concessions,  another  upon  yours,  and  a  third 
upon  the  difference  still  remaining  between  us,  with  regard  to  that 
capital  article  of  our  controversy. 

1.  We  never  supposed,  that  the  natural  will  of  fallen  man  is  free 
to  good,  before  it  is  more  or  less  touched  or  rectified  by  grace.  All 
we  assert  is,  that  whether  a  man  chooses  good  or  evil,  his  will  is  free, 
or  it  does  not  deserve  the  name  of  -will.  It  is  as  far  from  us  to  think, 
that  man,  unassisted  by  divine  grace,  is  sufficient  to  will  spiritual  good ; 
as  to  suppose,  that  when  he  wills  it  by  grace,  he  does  not  will  \i  freely. 
And  therefore,  agreeable  to  our  Xth  article,  which  you  quote  against 
uis  without  the  least  reason,  we  steadily  assert,  that "  we  have  no  power 
to  do  good  without  the  grace  of  God  preventing  us,"  not  that  we 
may  have  a  free  will,  for  this  we  always  had  in  the  above-mentioned 
sense,  but  that  we  may  have  a  good  iisill :  believing  that  as  confirmed 
saints  and  angels  have  a/ree  will  ;  though  they  have  no  evil  will  ;  so 
abandoned  reprobates  and  devils  have  a  free  willj  though  they  have 
no  GOOD  will. 

Again  :  We  always  maintain,  that  the  liberty  of  our  will  is  highly 
consistent  with  the  operations  of  divine  grace,  by  which  it  is  put  in  a 
capacity  of  choosing  life.  We  are  therefore  surprised  to  see  you 
quote  in  triumph,  Review,  p.  83,  the  following  paragraph  out  of  the 
Second  Check,  "  Nor  is  this  freedom  derogatory  to  free  grace  :  for  as 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  407 

it  was  free  grace  that  gave  an  upright  free  will  to  Adam  at  his  crea- 
tion ;  so,  whenever  his  fallen  children  think  or  act  aright,  it  is  because 
their  free  will  is  mercifully  prevented,  touched,  and  so  far  rectified 
by  free  grace." 

At  the  sight  of  these  concessions,  you  cry  out,  "  Amazing  !  Here  is 
all  that  the  most  rigid  Calvinist  ever  contended  for,  granted  in  a  mo- 
ment. Your  words,  Sir,  are  purely  evangelical."  Are  they  indeed  ? 
Well  then.  Sir,  I  have  the  pleasure  to  inform  you,  that,  if  this  "  is  all 
you  ever  contended  for,"  you  need  not  contend  any  more  with  us ; 
since  Mr.  Wesley,  Mr.  Sellon,  J.  Goodwin,  and  Arminius  himself, 
never  advanced  any  other  doctrine  concerning  free  will.  For  they 
all  agree  to  ascribe  to  the  free  grace  of  God  through  the  Redeemer, 
all  the  freedom  of  man's  will  to  good.  Therefore,  you  yourself 
being  judge,  their  sentiments,  as  well  as  my  "  words,  are  purely 
evangelical." 

II.  You  cannot  be  more  satisfied  with  our  concessions  than  we  are 
with  yours  :  for  you  grant  us  as  much  freedom  of  will  as  constitutes 
us  free  willers,  or  moral  agents ;  and  in  so  doing,  you  expose  the  igno- 
rance and  injustice  of  those  who  think,  that  when  they  have  called 
us  free  willers,  they  have  put  upon  us  one  of  the  most  odious  badges 
of  heresy. 

We  are  particularly  pleased  with  the  following  concessions.  Review, 
p.  38.  •'  Grace  may  not  violate  the  liberty  of  the  will — God  forceth 
not  a  man's  will  to  do  good  or  ill. — He  useth  no  violence. — The  free- 
dom of  the  regenerate  is  such,  that  they  may  draw  back  to  perdition 
if  they  will." 

We  are  yet  better  satisfied  with  what  you  say,  p.  33.  "  Still  it  is 
your  own  opinion,  that,  to  the  end  of  the  world,  this  plain  peremptory 
assertion  of  our  Lord,  I  would,  and  ye  would  not,  will  throw  down  and 
silence  all  the  objections  which  can  be  raised  against  free  will — it 
proves  that  those  to  whom  it  was  addressed  might  have  come,  if  they 
would.  Granted."  And,  p.  43,  you  add,  "  I  have  granted  Mr. 
Fletcher  his  own  interpretation  of  that  text,  /  would,  and  ye  would 
noty  Now,  Sir,  if  you  stand  to  your  concession,  you  have  granted 
me.  That  Christ  had  eternal  hfe  for  the  Jews,  who  rejected  it :  that 
he  had  a  strong  desire  to  bestow  it  upon  them ;  that  he  had  made 
them  so  far  willing  and  able  to  come  to  him  for  it,  as  to  leave  them 
inexcusable  if  they  did  not  :  and  that  his  saving  grace,  which  they 
resisted,  is  by  no  means  irresistible.  Four  propositions  that  sap  the 
foundation  of  your  system,  and  add  new  solidity  K>  ours. 

However,  you  try  to  make  your  readers  believe,  that  "Still  we  are 
but  just  where  we  were.     The  fault  yet  remains  in  the  corruption  of 


408  FOURTH    CHECK 

the  will:"  giving  us  to  understand,  that,  because  the  Jews  would  not 
be  gathered  by  Christ,  he  had  never  touched  and  rectified  their  will. 
Thus  you  suppose,  that  their  choosing  death  is  a  demonstration,  that 
they  could  not  have  chosen  life  :  that  is,  you  suppose  just  what  you 
should  have  proved. 

You  imagine,  that  a  tiyro^i^  choice  always  demonstrates  the  previous 
perverseness  of  the  will  that  makes  it  ;  but  we  show  the  contrary  by 
matter  of  fact.  Satan  and  his  legions,  as  well  as  our  first  parents, 
were  created  perfisctly  upright.  Their  will  was  once  as  free  from 
corruption  as  the  will  of  God  himself.  Nevertheless,  with  a  will  per- 
fectly capable  of  making  a  right  choice  ;  with  a  will  that  a  few  mo- 
ments before  had  chosen  life,  they  all  chose  the  ways  of  death. 
Hence  appears  the  absurdity  of  concluding,  that  a  wrong  choice 
always  proves  the  will  was  so  corrupted  previously  to  that  choice, 
that  a  better  choice  was  morally  impossible.  Take  us  right,  however. 
We  do  not  suppose  that  the  will  of  the  obstinate  Jews  had  .not  been 
totally  corrupted  in  Adam.  We  only  maintain  that  they  made  as  free 
and  fatal  a  choice,  with  their  free  will,  which  free  grace  had  rectified; 
as  Adam,  Eve,  and  all  the  fallen  angels  once  made  with  the  upright 
free  will  with  which  free  grace  had  created  them. 

But  I  return  to  your  concessions.  That  which  pleases  us  most  of 
all,  I  find,  Review,  p.  39.  *'  For  my  own  part,  [say  you]  I  have  not 
the  least  objection  to  the  expression /ree  t£,i/Z,  and  find  it  used  in  a  very 
sound  sense  by  St.  Augustin,  Luther,  and  Calvin,  the  great  patrons  for 
the  doctrine  of  man's  natural  inability  to  do  that  which  is  good  since 
the  fall.  God  does  not  force  any  man  to  will  either  good  or  evil ;  but 
man,  through  the  corruption  of  his  understanding,  naturally  and  freely 
zaills  that  which  is  evil  ;  but  by  being  wrought  upon  and  enlightened 
by  converting  grace,  he  a&  freely  wills  that  which  is  good,  as  before  be 
freely  willed  the  evil. — In  this  sense  the  Assembly  of  Divines  speak 
of  the  natural  liberty  of  the  will,  and  affirm,  that  it  is  not  forced.'" 

These  Sir,  are  our  very  sentiments  concerning  free  will.  How 
strange  is  it  then,  when  you  hare  so  fully  granted  us  the  natural  and 
necessary  freedom  of  the  will,  to  see  you  as  flushed  with  an  ima- 
ginary victory,  as  if  you  had  driven  us  out  of  the  field  !  How  astonish- 
ing to  hear  you  cry  out,  p.  34.  "  Jesus  Christ  on  the  side  of  free 
will !  What !— T-be  Gospel  on  the  side  of  free  will !  What !"  Yes, 
Sir,  Jesus  Christ  and  the  Gospel  on  the  side  of  free  will!  And  if  that  be 
not  enough  ;  appeal  to  the  34th  page  of  your  Review,  to  show, 
that  the  Assembly  of  Divines,  and  yourself  arc  on  the  side  of  free  will 
also. 


TO    ANTINOMIAWISM.  400 

in.  Consider  we  now  the  difference  still  remaining  between  us. 
From  our  mutual  concessions  it  is  evident  we  agree,  1.  That  the 
will  is  always  free :  2.  That  the  will  of  man,  considered  as  fallen  in 
Adam,  and  unassisted  by  the  grace  of  God,  is  only  free  to  evil  ;-~hee 
to  live  in  the  element  of  sin,  as  a  sea-fish  is  only  free  to  live  in  salt 
water.  And  3.  That  when  he  is  free  to  good,  free  to  choose  life,  he 
has  this  freedom  from  redeeming  grace. 

But  although  we  agree  in  these  material  points,  the  diflference 
between  us  is  still  very  considerable  ;  for  we  assert,  that,  through 
the  Mediator  promised  to  all  mankind  in  Adam,  God,  by  his  free 
grace,  restores  to  all  mankind  a  talent  of  free  will  to  good,  by  which 
they  are  put  in  a  capacity  of  choosing  life  or  death,  that  irs,  of  acquit- 
ting themselves  well  or  ill,  at  their  option,  in  their  present  state 
of  trial. 

This  you  utterly  deny,  maintaining  that  man  is  not  in  a  state  of 
probation  ;  and  that,  as  Christ  died  for  none  but  the  elect,  none  but 
they  can  ever  have  any  degree  of  saving  grace,  i.  e.  any  will  free  to 
good.  Hence  you  conclude,  that  all  the  elect  are  in  a  state  of  finished 
salvation :  and  necessarily,  infallibly,  and  irresistibly  choose  life  :  while 
all  the  reprobates  are  shut  up  in  a  state  of  finished  damnation;  and 
necessarily,  infallibly,  and  irresistibly  choose  death.  For,  say  your 
divines,  God  has  not  decreed  the  infallible  end,  either  of  the  elect  or 
the  reprobates,  without  decreeing  also  the  infallible  means  conducing 
to  that  end.  Therefore,  in  the  day  of  his  irresistible  power,  the 
fortunate  elect  are  absolutely  made  willing  to  believe  and  be  saved ; 
and  the  poor  reprobates  to  disbelieve,  and  be  damned. 

1  shall  conclude  this  article  by  just  observing,  that  we  are  obliged 
to  oppose  this  doctrine,  because  it  appears  to  us  a  doctrine  of  wrath, 
rather  than  a  doctrine  of  grace.  If  we  are  not  mistaken,  it  is  oppo- 
site to  the  general  tenor  of  the  Scriptures,  injurious  to  all  the  divine 
perfections,  and  subversive  of  this  fundamental  truth  of  natural  and 
revealed  religion,  God  shall  judge  the  world  in  ri<^hteousness.  It  is 
calculated  to  strengthen  the  carnal  security  of  Laodicean  professors, 
raise  horrid  anxieties  in  the  minds  of  doubting  Christians,  and  give 
damned  spirits  just  ground  to  blaspheme  to  all  eternity.  Again  :  It 
withdraws  from  thinking  sinners,  and  judicious  saints,  the  helps  which 
God  has  given  them,  by  multitudes  of  conditional  promises  and 
threatenings,  designed  to  work  upon  their  hopes  and  fears.  And, 
while  it  unnecessarily  stumbles  men  of  sense,  and  hardens  infidels,  it 
affords  wicked  men  rational  excuses  to  continue  in  their  sins  ;  and 
gives  desperate  offenders  full  room  to  charge  not  only  Adam,  but  God 
himself,  with  all  their  enormities. 


410  FOURTH    CHECK 

I  shaU  now  be  shorter  in  the  review  of  the  state  of  our  contro' 
versy.  Free  will  to  do  good  is  founded  upon  general  free  grace, 
and  general  free  grace  upon  the  perfect  oblation  which  Christ  made 
upon  the  cross  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  General  Redemption^ 
therefore,  I  have  endeavoured  to  establish  upon  a  variety  of  argu- 
ments, which  you  decline  answering. 

Justification  by  (the  evidence  of)  works  in  the  last  day,  is  the  doc- 
trine, which  you  and  your  brother  have  most  vehemently  attacked.' 
You  have  raised  against  it  a  great  deal  of  dust,  and  some  objections, 
which  I  hope  you  will  find  abundantly  answered  in  the  three  first 
letters  of  this  Check,  and  in  the  ninth.  But  suppose  I  had  not 
answered  them  at  all,  you  could  not  have  won  the  day ;  because, 
after  all  your  joint  opposition  against  our  doctrine,  both  you  and  your 
brother  bear  your  honest  testimony  to  the  indubitable  truth  of  it,  as 
our  readers  may  see  in  our  first,  fifth,  and  ninth  letters. 

I  need  not  remind  you.  Sir,  that  upon  this  capital  doctrine,  the 
Minutes  in  general  stand  as  upon  a  rock.  If  you  doubt  it,  I  refer 
you  to  the  fifth  and  sixth  letters. 

The  doctrine  of  a  fourfold  justification  appears  monstrous  to  your 
orthodoxy.  Both  you  and  your  brother,  therefore,  have  endeavoured 
to  overturn  it.  But  as  you  had  neither  Scripture  nor  argument  to 
attack  it  with,  you  have  done  it  by  some  witticisms,  which  are 
answered  in  the  tenth  letter. 

Calvinian  everlasting  love,  according  to  which  the  elect  were 
never  children  of  wrath,  and  apostates  may  go  any  length  in  sin  with- 
out displeasing  God,  is  a  doctrine,  which  1  have  attacked  in  all  the 
Checks.  You  cannot  defend  it,  and  yet  you  will  not  give  it  up.  You 
just  intimate,  that  when  the  elect  commit  adultery  and  murder,  they 
are  in  a  sense  penitent.  This  frivolous  plea,  this  last  shift,  is  exposed, 
Let.  X. 

Finished  salvation,  which  you  call  your  *'  grand  fortress,''''  and 
which  your  brother  styles  '' the  foundation  of  the  Calvinists,''  yon 
jiave  endeavoured  to  support  by  a  variety  of  arguments,  answered, 
I  trust,  Letter  VIL  in  such  a  manner,  that  our  impartial  readers  will 
be  convinced,  your  foundation  is  sandy,  and  your  grand  fortress  by  no 
means  impregnable. 

The  oneness  of  speculative  Antinomianism  and  of  barefaced  Calvin- 
ism, is  the  point  in  which  our  controversy  insensibly  terminates.  I 
will  not  say,  that  what  we  have  advanced  upon  this  subject  is  unan- 
swerable ;  but  1  shall  wonder  to  see  it  answered  to  the  satisfaction  of 
unprejudiced  readers.  In  the  mean  time  1  confess,  that  1  cannot  cast 
my  eyes  upon  tho  Calvinian  Creed  in  the  VUth  letter,  and  the  Gospel 


TO    ANTINOMIAmSM.  41  J 

f)roclamation  in  the  Xlth,  without  being  astonished  at  myself  for  not 
seeing  sooner  that  there  is  no  more  difference  between  Calvinism 
and  speculative  Antinomianism,  than  there  was  between  the  disciple 
who  betrayed  our  Lord,  and  Judas  surnamed  Iscariot. 

Such  is,  I  think,  the  present  state  of  our  controversy  ;  but  what  is 
that  of  our  hearts  ?  Do  we  love  one  another  the  better,  and  pray 
for  each  other  the  oftener,  on  account  of  our  theological  contest  ? 
Alas  !  if  we  sell  love,  to  buy  the  truth,  we  shall  be  no  gainers  in  the 
end  ;  witness  these  awful  words  of  St.  Paul,  Tliough  I  havt  all  know- 
ledge, and  all  faith :  if  I  have  not  charity,  I  am  nothing  but  a  tinkling 
cymbal.  O  Sir,  we  stand  in  great  danger  of  being  carried  away  by 
our  own  spirits  beyond  the  sacred  lines  of  truth  and  love,  which 
should  bound  the  field  of  Christian  controversy.  Permit  me,  then, 
to  propose  "to  our  common  consideration,  and  future  imitation,  the 
most  perfect  patterns  in  the  world. 

Let  us  consider  Him  first,  iii)ho  in  all  things  has  the  pre-eminence. 
With  what  wisdom  and  fortitude,  with  what  a  happy  mixture  of 
rational  and  scriptural  arguments,  does  Christ  carry  on  his  important 
controversy  with  the  Pharisees !  He  stands  firm  as  a  rock  against  all 
the  frothy  billows  of  their  cavils  and  invectives.  With  astonishing 
impartiality  he  persists  in  telling  them  the  most  galling  truths  :  and 
condemning  them  out  of  their  own  mouths,  consciences,  and  sacred 
records.  In  so  doing,  he  loses  indeed  their  love  and  applause  ;  but 
he  maintains  a  good  conscience,  and  secures  the  praise  which  comes 
from  God.  Nor  does  he  give  over  bearing  his  testimony  against  them 
by  day,  and  praying  for  them  by  night,  till  they  shed  his  innocent 
blood  :  and  when  they  had  done  it,  he  revenges  himself  by  sending 
them  the  Jirst  news  of  his  pardoning  love  :  Go,  says  he  to  the  heralds 
of  his  grace,  preach  forgiveness  of  sins  among  all  nations,  beginning 
at  Jerusalem,  the  city  of  my  murderers.  O  Sir,  if  the  Lord  of  glory 
was  so  ready  to  forgive  those,  who,  for  want  of  better  arguments;, 
betook  themselves  first  to  pitiful  sophisms,  and  groundless  accusations 
and  then  to  the  nails,  the  hammer,  and  the  spear  ;  how  readily  ought 
we  to  forgive  each  other  the  insigaificant  strokes  of  our  pens  ! 

Let  St.  Paul  be  our  pattern  next  to  Jesus  Christ.  Consider  we 
with  what  undaunted  courage,  and  unwearied  patience,  he  encounters 
his  brethren  the  Jews,  who  engrossed  the  election  to  themselves,  and 
threw  dust  into  the  air  when  they  heard  that  there  was  salvation  for 
the  Gentiles.  In  every  city  he  mightily  convinces  them  out  of  the 
Scriptures.  They  revile  him,  and  he  entreats  them  ;  they  cast  him 
out  of  the  temple,  and  he  wishes  himself  accursed  from  Christ  for 
their  sake.    And  yet,  when  they  charge  hira  with  crimes  of  which  he 


412  FOURTH    CHECK 

is  perfectly  innocent,  he  scruples  not  to  appeal  to  the  GentHes,  from 
whose  candour  he  expected  more  justice  than  from  their  bigotry. 

Fix  we  our  eyes  also  upon  the  two  greatest  apostles,  encountering 
each  other  in  the  field  of  controversy.  Because  St.  Peter  is  to  blarney 
St.  Paul  Tn'ithstands  him  to  the  face,  with  all  the  boldness  that  belongs 
to  truth.  He  does  not  give  place  to  him  for  a  moment,  although 
Peter  is  his  superior  in  many  respects  ;  and  he  sends  to  the  churches 
of  Galatia,  for  their  edification,  a  public  account  of  his  elder  brother's 
mistakes.  But  does  Peter  resent  it  ?  Does  he  write  disrespectfully 
of  his  opponent  ?  Does  he  not,  on  the  contrary,  call  him  his  beloved 
brother  Paul,  and  make  honourable  mention  of  his  wisdom  ? 

When  I  behold  these  great  patterns  of  Christian  moderation  and 
brotherly  love,  I  rejoice  to  have  another  opportunity  of  recommend- 
ing to  the  love  and  esteem  of  my  readers,  the  two  pious  brothers, 
whom  I  now  encounter,  and  all  those  who  were  more  or  less  con- 
cerned in  the  circular  letter  ;  in  particular  the  Countess  of  Hunting- 
don, and  my  former  opponent  the  Rev.  Mr.  Shirley,  who  are  less 
honourable  and  right  honourable  by  the  noble  blood  that  flows  in  their 
veins,  than  by  the  love  of  Christ  which  glows  in  their  hearts,  and  the 
zeal  for  God's  glory  which  burns  in  their  breasts  :  being  persuaded 
t>liat  their  hasty  step  was  intended  to  defend  the  Jirst  Gospel  axiom, 
which,  for  want  of  proper  attention  to  every  part  of  the  Gospel, 
they  imagined  Mr.  Wesley  had  a  mind  to  set  aside,  when  he  only 
wanted  to  secure  the  second  Gospel  axiom. 

Once  more,  I  profess  also  my  sincere  love  and  unfeigned  respect 
for  all  pious  Calvinists  ;  protesting  I  had  a  thousand  times  rather  be 
an  inconsistent  Antinomian  with  them,  than  an  inconsistent  legalist 
with  many,  who  hold  the  truth  in  practical  unrighteousness.  I  abhor, 
therefore,  the  very  idea  of  "dressing  them  up  in  devil's  clothes  as 
the  Papists  did  John  Huss  ;  and  burning  them  for  heretics  in  the 
flames  of  hell."  Review,  p.  92.  If  I  have  represented  an  Anti- 
nomian in  practice,  as  standing  on  the  left  hand  with  wicked  Armini- 
ans  ;  it  was  not  to  condemn  the  mistaken  persons  who  lead  truly 
Christian  lives,  though  their  heads  are  full  of  Antinomian  opinions  : 
but  to  convince  my  readers,  that  it  is  much  better  to  be  really  a 
sheep,  than  to  have  barely  a  sheep^s  clothing  ;  and  that  our  Lord  will 
not  be  deceived  either  by  a  goat,  who  imputes  to  himself  the  clothing 
of  a  sheep  ;  or  by  ct  wolf^  who  tries  to  make  his  escape,  by  insolently 
wrapping  himself  up  in  the  shepherd's  garment. 

Should  it  be  objected,  that,  after  all  the  severe  things  which  I  have 
said  against  the  sentiments  of  the  Cjilvinists,  my  professions  of  love 
and   respect  for  them   cannot  possibly  be  sincere  :   1  answer,  that 


T«  ANTINOMIANISM.  413 

though  we  eannot  in  conscience  make  a  diflference  between  a  man 
and  his  actions,  candour  and  brotherly  kindness  allow  and  command 
us  to  make  a  difference  between  a  man  and  his  opinions,  especially 
when  his  exemplary  conduct  is  a  full  refutation  of  his  erroneous 
sentiments. 

This,  I  apprehend,  is  the  case  with  all  pious  Calvinists.  They  talk 
much,  I  grant,  about  finished  salvation ;  but  consider  them  wiih  at- 
tention, and  you  will  find  a  happy  inconsistency  between  their  words 
and  their  actions  ;  for  they  still  work  out  their  own  salvation  with  fear 
and  trembling.  Again,  they  make  mucl^  rido  about  a  robe  of  impu- 
ted righteousness  :  but  slill  they  go  on  washing  their  own  robesy  aiid 
making  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb.  Therefore  their  errors, 
which  they  practically  renounce,  do  not  endanger  their  salvation  j 
and  it  would  be  the  highest  degree  of  injustice  to  confound  them  with 
abandoned  Nicolaitans. 

Fantasticus  tells  you,  he  is  possessed  of  an  immense  estate  in  the 
territories  of  Geneva  ;  where,  by  the  by,  he  has  not  an  inch  of 
ground.  But  though  he  talks  much  about  his  fine  estate  abroad,  he 
wisely  considers  that  he  stands  in  need  of  food  and  raiment ;  that  he 
cannot  live  upon  a  chimera;  and  that  he  must  work  or  starve  at 
home.  To  work  therefore  he  goes,  though  much  against  his  will. 
In  a  little  time,  by  the  divine  blessing  upon  his  lahour  and  industry,  he 
gets  a  good  estate,  and  lives  comfortably  upon  it.  And  though  he 
frequently  entertains  you  with  descriptions  of  the  rich  robes  which 
he  has  at  r«eneva,  he  takes  care  to  have  always  a  good  decent  coat 
upon  his  back.  Now,  is  it  not  plain  that,  though  Fantasticus  would 
be  a  mere  beggar,  for  all  his  great  estate  near  Geneva  ;  yet  as 
matters  are  at  present,  you  cannot  justly  consider  him  as  burthen- 
some  to  his  parish,  unless  you  can  make  it  appear,  that  his  trusting 
to  his  imaginary  property  abroad,  has  lately  made  him  squander  away 
his  goods  personal,  and  real  estate,  in  England. 

This  simile  needs  very  little  explanation.  A  pious  Calvinist  does 
not  so  dream  about  his  imaginary  imputation  of  Christ's  personal 
obedience  and  good  works,  as  to  forget  that  he  must  personally  be- 
lieve, or  be  damned  :  yea,  and  believe  too  with  the  heart  unto  personal 
righteousness,  and  good  works.  Therefore,  he  cries  to  God,  for  the 
living  faith  which  works  by  love.  He  receives  it  ;  Christ  dwells  in  his 
heart  by  faith,  and  this  faith  is  imputed  to  him  for  righteousness,  be- 
cause it  really  makes  him  righteous.  Thus  while  he  talks  about  the 
false  imputation  of  righteousness,  he  really  enjoys  the  true ;  he  has 
inherent  righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  When  he 
speaks  about  good  works,  he  is  so  happily  inconsistent  as  to  do  them. 

Vol.  I.  53 


414  FOURTH    CHECK 

If  he  ignorantly  build  up  the  Antinomian  Babel  with  one  hand,  he 
sincerely  tries  to  pull  it  down  with  the  other  :  and  while  he  decries 
the  perfection  of  holiness,  he  goes  on  perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of 
God.  Thus  his  doctrinal  mistakes  are  happily  refuted  by  his  godly 
conversation. 

Hence  it  is  that,  although  we  severely  expose  the  mistakes  of 
godly  Calvinists,  we  sincerely  love  their  persons,  truly  reverence 
their  piety,  and  cordially  rejoice  in  the  success  which  attends  their 
evangelical  labours.  And  although  we  cannot  admit  their  logic, 
while  they  defend  a  bad  cause  with  bad  arguments,  we  should  do 
them  great  injustice,  if  we  did  not  acknowledge,  that  there  have 
been,  and  still  are  among  them,  men  eminent  for  good  sense  and  good 
learning ;  men  as  remarkable  for  their  skill  in  the  art  of  logic,  as 
for  their  deep  acquaintance  with  the  oracles  of  God.  How  they 
came  to  embrace  doctrines,  which  appear  to  us  so  unscriptural  and 
irrational,  will  be  the  subject  of  a  peculiar  dissertation. 

In  the  mean  time,  I  observe  again,  that  as  many,  who  have  right 
opinions  concerning  faith,  holiness,  and  good  works,  go  great  lengths 
in  practical  Antinomianisra  :  so  man}'  Antinomians  in  principle  dis- 
tinguish themselves  by  the  peculiar  strictness,  and  happy  legality  of 
their  conduct.  Both  are  to  be  wondered  at :  the  one^  for  doing  the 
works  of  darkness  in  the  clearest  light ;  and  the  other  for  walking  as 
children  of  light  under  the  darkest  cloud.  The  former  we  may  com- 
pare to  green  wood,  that  is  always  upon  the  altar,  and  never  takes 
the  hallowed  fire.  The  latter  to  the  bush  which  Moses  saw  in  the 
wilderness.  The  flames  of  Antinomianism  surround  them,  and  as- 
cend from  them  ;  and  yet  they  are  not  consumed  !  Would  to  God  I 
could  say,  they  are  not  singed  ! 

Nay,  what  is  a  greater  miracle  still,  the  love  of  Christ  burns  in 
their  breasts,  and  shines  in  their  lives.  They  preach  him,  and  they 
do  it  with  success.  Some  indeed,  preach  him  of  envy  and  contention, 
and  some  of  love  and  good-will.  What  then  ?  notwithstanding  every 
way,  whether  in  pretence  or  in  truth,  Christ  is  preached ;  and  we 
therein  do  rejoice ;  yea,  and  will  rejoice.  Add  to  this,,  that  some  are 
prudent  enough  to  keep  their  opinions  to  themselves.  You  may 
hear  them  preach  most  excellent  sermons,  without  one  word  about 
their  peculiarities  ;  or,  if  they  touch  upon  them,  it  is  in  so  slight  a 
manner  as  not  to  endanger  either  the  foundation  or  superstructure  of 
undefiled  religion.  Nay,  what  is  a  greater  blessing  still,  sometimes 
their  hearts  are  so  enlarged,  and  their  views  of  the  Gospel  so  bright- 
ened, that  they  preach  free  grace  as  well  as  we  :  and  in  the  name  of 
God,  seriously  command  all  men  evlry  where  to  repent. 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  416 

Far  be  it  from  us,  therefore,  to  "  cut  off  all  intercourse  and  friend- 
ship'* with  such  favoured  servants  of  the  Lord.  On  the  contrary, 
we  thank  them  for  their  pious  labours  ;  we  ask  the  continuance,  or 
the  renewal  of  their  valuable  love.  Whereinsoever  we  have  given 
Ihem  any  just  cause  of  offence,  we  entreat  them  to  forgive  us.  Upon 
the  reasonable  terms  of  mutual  forbearance,  we  offer  them  the  right 
hand  of  fellowship,  together  with  our  brotherly  assistance.  We  in- 
vite them  to  our  pulpits  ;  and  assure  them,  that  if  they  admit  us  into 
theirs,  we  shall  do  by  them  as  we  would  be  done  by  ;  avoiding  to 
touch  there,  or  among  their  own  people  occasionally  committed  to  our 
charge,  upon  the  points  of  doctrine  debated  between  us ;  and  reser- 
ving to  ourselves  the  liberty  of  bearing  our  full  testimony  in  our  own 
pulpits,  and  from  the  press,  against  Antinomianism  and  Pharisaism  in 
all  their  shapes. 

With  these  pacific  sentiments  towards  all  pious  Calvinists,  and  in 
particular  towards  your  brother  and  yourself ;  and  with  my  best  thanks 
for  the  condescending  manner  in  which  you  have  closed  your  remarks 
upon  the  Third  Check,  I  conclude  this  ;  assuring  you,  that,  [notwith* 
standing  the  repeated  proofs,  which  I  find  in  your  Review,  of  your  un- 
common prejudice  against  the  second  Gospel  axiom,  and  against  Mr. 
Wesley,  who  is  set  for  the  defence  of  it]  I  remain,  with  all  my  former 
love,  and  a  considerable  degree  of  my  former  esteem,  honoured  and 
dear  Sir,  your  affectionate  companion  in  tribulation,  and  obedient 
servant  in  Christ, 

Madeley,  JOHN  FLETCHER. 

NoY.  15,  1772. 


416  FOURTH    CHECK 


POSTSCRIPT 


— «ss®e«*- 


&OME  persons  think  our  Controversy  will  offend  the  world  ;  and, 
indeed,  we  were  once  afraid  of  it  ourselves.  Of  this  ill-judged  fear, 
and  of  the  voluntary  humility,  which  made  us  reverence  the  very 
errors  of  the  good  men  from  whom  we  dissent,  the  crafty,  diligent 
tempter  has  so  availed  himself,  as  to  sow  his  Antinomian  tares  with 
the  greatest  success.  Messrs.  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  and  Mr.  Sel- 
lon,  have  indeed  made  a  noble  stand  against  him  :  but  an  impetuous 
torrent  of  trii  mphant  opposition  still  rolls  and  foams  through  the  king- 
dom, bent  upon  drowning  their  works  and  reputation  in  fldods  of  con- 
tempt and  reproach.  And  some  good,  mistaken  men,  warmly  carry 
on  still  the  rash  design  of  publicly  turning  the  second  Gospel  axiom  out 
of  our  Bibles,  and  out  of  the  Church  of  England,  under  the  frightful 
names  of  '^  Arminianism  and  Popery.''^  The  question  with  us,  then, 
is  not  so  much,  whether  Mr.  Wesley  shall  be  ranked  with  heretics  ; 
as,  whether  the  undefiled  religion  particularly  described  in  the  epis- 
tle of  St.  James,  and  in  our  Lord's  sermon  on  the  mount,  shall 
pass  for  a  dreadful  heresy,  while  barefaced  Antinomianism  passes/or 
pure  Gospel. 

Now,  we  apprehend,  that  to  debate  such  a  question  in  a  fair  and 
friendly  manner,  will  rather  edify  than  offend,  either  the  religious  or 
the  moral  world.  Fair  arguments,  plain  scriptures,  honest  appeals  to 
conscience,  and  a  close  pursuit  of  ridiculous  error,  hunted  down  to  its 
last  recesses,  will  never  displease  inquirers  after  Truth  :  and  among 
the  by-standers,  few  besides  these,  will  trouble  themselves  with  our 
publications.  If  we  offend  our  readers,  it  is  only  when  we  take  our 
leave  of  Scripture  and  argument,  to  cry  out,  without  rhyme  or  rea- 
son, "  Disingenuity !  Slander!  Falsehood!  Calumny!  Forgery  I 
Heresy  1  Popery !" 

Bad  as  we  are,  the  moral  world  regards  yet  a  good  argument,  and 
the  religious  world  still  shows  some  respect  for  Scripture,  quoted  con- 
sistently with  the  context.    Fight  we  then  lovingly  with  such  weapons. 


TO  ANTINOMIANISM.  417 

for  what  we  esteem  to  be  the  Truth  ;  and  be  the  edge  of  our  contro- 
versial swords  ever  so  keen,  we  shall  be  sure  to  wound  nobody  but 
th€  bigots  of  the  opposite  party  ;  and  such  as  are  so  great  a  disgrace 
to  Christianity,  that  we  shall  do  the  cause  of  religion  service  by 
stumbling  them  out  of  their  profession  of  it,  if  they  are  above  learn- 
ing the  lessons  of  moderation. 

Undoubtedly  we  are  severely  condemned  by  some  good  people, 
who  forget  that  Moses  was  once  obliged  to  oppose  not  only  Korah, 
Dathan,  and  Abiram,  who  styled  themselves  the  Lord's  people  ;  but 
his  own  dear  elect  brother  Aaron  himself:  and  that  St.  Paul  w;is 
forced  by  peculiar  circumstances,  at  all  hazards,  to  withstand  St.  Peter 
himself.  Well-meaning  Elis  also,  who  do  not  consider  consequences, 
and  love  to  enjoy  their  own  ease,  rather  than  to  make  a  vigorous  re- 
sistance against  error  and  sin,  will  be  very  apt  to  conclude,  that  our 
opposition  springs  from  mere  obstinacy  and  party  spirit.  But  should 
such  hasty  judges  read  attentively  the  epistle  of  St.  Jude,  that  of  St. 
James,  the  first  of  St.  John,  and  the  second  of  St.  Peter,  which  are 
all  levelled  at  Antinomianism,  they  will  think  more  favourably  of  the 
stand  we  make  against  our  pious  brethren,  who  inadvertently  counte- 
nance the  Antinomian  delusion. 

However,  it  is  objected,  "This  controversy  will  hurt  the  men  of 
the  world,  and  set  them  against  all  religion."  Just  the  contrary. 
There  are,  indeed,  Gallios,  men  that  care  for  no  religion  at  all, 
who,  upon  hearing  of  our  controversy,  will  triumph,  and  cry  out,  "  If 
these  men  do  not  agree  among  themselves,  how  can  they  desire  that 
we  should  agree  with  them  ?"  As  if  we  had  ever  desired  them  to 
agree  with  us,  any  farther  than  the  plain  letter  of  Scripture,  and  the 
loud  dictates  of  conscience,  invite  them  so  to  do !  But  such  prepos- 
sessed judges  will  not  be  hurt  by  our  controversy,  though  they  should 
pretend  they  are  :  for  they  have  their  stumbling-bock  in  their  own 
breasts.  They  would  not  have  wanted  pretences  to  ridicule  religion, 
if  our  controversy  had  never  been  set  on  foot :  nor  ivould  they  en- 
tertain more  favourable  thoughts  of  it,  if  we  dropped  it  without  com- 
ing to  a  proper  ecclaircissetnent. 

But  these,  however  numerous,  are  not  all  the  world.  There  are 
in  our  universities,  and  throughout  the  kingdom,  hundreds,  and  we 
hope,  thousands,  of  judicious  and  candid  men,  who  truly  fear  God,  and 
sincerely  desire  to  love  him.  These,  we  apprehend,  are  offended  at 
the  first  Gospel  axiom,  and  driven  farther  and  farther  from  it  by  the 
mixture  of  "  Antinomian  dotages,"  which  renders  it  ridiculous. 
They  are  tempted  to  throw  away  the  marrow  of  the  Gospel,  on  ac- 
count of  the  luscious,  fulsome  additions  made  to  it,  to  make  it  richer. 


418  FOURTH  CHECK 

And  to  these,  we  flatter  ourselves,  that  our  controversy  will  prove 
useful,  as  well  as  to  our  candid  brethren. 

We  hope  it  will  open  to  the  view  of  these  Gamaliels  and  Obadiahs, 
the  confused  heap  of  truth  and  error,  at  which  they  so  justly  stumble ; 
and  help  them  precisely  to  separate  the  precious  from  the  vile  ;  that 
while  they  abhor  that  which  is  evil^  they  may  cleave  to  that  which  is 
good.  This  is  not  all :  When  they  shall  see,  that  some  of  those  men, 
whom  they  accounted  wild  enthusiasts,  candidly  take  their  part,  where 
they  are  in  the  right ;  and  fight  their  battles  in  a  rational  and  scrip- 
tural manner,  their  prejudices  will  be  softened,  the  light  will  imper- 
ceptibly steal  in  upon  them,  and,  by  divine  grace,  convince  them,  that 
they  go  as  far  out  of  the  way  to  the  left  hand,  as  our  opponents  do  to 
the  right. 

The  truth  which  we  maintain,  lies  between  all  extremes  ;  or  rather 
it  embraces  and  connects  them  all.  The  Calvinists  fairly  receive 
only  the  first  Gospel  axiom,  and  the  Moralists  the  second.  U  I  may 
compare  the  Gospel  truth  to  the  child  contended  for  in  the  days  of 
Solomon ;  both  parties,  while  they  divide,  inadvertently  destroy  it. 
We,  like  the  true  mother,  are  for  no  division.  Standing  upon  the 
middle  scriptural  line,  we  embrace  and  hold  fast  both  Gospel  axioms. 
With  the  Calvinists,  we  give  God  in  Christ  all  the  glory  of  our  salva- 
tion :  and  with  the  Moralists,  we  take  care  not  to  give  him  in  Adam 
any  of  the  shame  of  our  damnation.  We  have  need  of  patience  with 
both,  for  they  both  highly  blame  us,  because  we  follow  the  poet's 
direction, 

Inter  utrumque  tene,  medio  tutissimus  ibis : 

Both  think  hardly  of  us,  because  we  do  not  so  maintain  the  particular 
Gospel  axiom  which  they  have  justly  espoused,  as  to  exclude  that 
which  they  rashly  explode.  But  if  we  can  use  with  meekness  of  wis- 
dom, the  armour  of  righteousness  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  lefty  and 
give  our  opposite  adversaries  on  every  side,  a  scriptural  and  rational 
account  of  the  hope  that  is  in  us ;  moderate  Calvinists  and  evangelical 
Moralists,  will  at  last  kindly  give  us  the  right  hand  of  fellowship.  Dis- 
covering that  the  advantages  of  both  their  doctrines  join  in  ours,  they 
will  acknowledge,  that  the  faith  working  by  love,  which  we  preach,  in- 
cludes all  the  privileges  of  Solifidianism  and  Morality;  that  we  do 
justice  to  the  Gospel,  without  making  void  the  law  through  faith ;  that 
we  establish  the  Law,  without  superseding/rec  grace :  and  that  we  extol 
our  High  Priest's  cross,  without  pouring  contempt  upon  his  throne. 
In  a  word,  they  will  perceive,  that  we  perfectly  reconcile  St.  Paul 


TO   ANTINOMIANISM.  419 

with  St.  James,  and  both  with  reason,  conscience,  and  all  the  oracles 
of  God. 

Thus  shall  all  good  men  of  all  denominations  agree  at  last  among 
themselves,  and  bend  all  their  collected  force  against  Pharisaic  unbe- 
lief, which  continually  attacks  the  first  Gospel  axiom  ;  and  against  Jlnti- 
nomian  contempt  of  good  works,  which  perpetually  militates  against  the 
second.  The  Father  of  lights  grant,  that  this  may  be  the  happy  effect 
of  our  controversy  !  So  shall  we  bless  the  hour  when  a  variety  of 
singular  circumstances  obliged  us  to  come  to  a  full  ecclaircissement  ,•  and 
to  lay,  by  that  mean,  the  foundation  of  a  solid  union,  not  only  with 
each  other,  but  also  with  all  good  and  judicious  men,  both  in  the 
^religious  and  in  the  moral  world. 


END  OF  VOLUME  ONE. 


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