Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

give us leave to look upon your controversial attempt as an evasive shew of defence, contrived to keep a defenceless, tottering error upon its legs, before an injudicious, bigotted populace.

If you will do us and the public justice, come to close quarters, and put an end to the Controversy, by candidly receiving our Scripture-Scales, or by plainly shewing that they are false. Our doctrine entirely depends upon the two gospel-axioms, and their necessary consequences, which now hang out to public view in our Gospel-balances. No thing therefore can be more easy than to point out our error, if our system is erroneous. But, if our Scales are just; if our doctrines of Grace and Justice,-of Freegrace and Free-will are true; it is evident, that the Solifidians and the Moralists are both in the wrong, and that we are upon the whole, in the right, I say, upon the whole, because insignificant mistakes can no more affect the strength of our cause, than a cracked slate or a broken pane can affect the solidity of a palace, which is firmly built upon a rock.

Therefore, if you are an admirer of Zelotes, and a Solifidian opposer of Free-will, of the law of liberty, and of the remunerative justification of a believer by the works of faith; raise no dust: candidly give up Antinomianism: break the two pillars on which it stands ; necessitating Free-grace, and forcible free-wrath or prove, if you can, that our Second Scale, which is directly contrary to your doctrines of grace, is irrational, and that we have forged or misquoted the passages which compose it.-But, if you are a follower of Honestus, and a neglecter of Free-grace and salvation by faith in Jesus Christ; be a candid and honest disputant. Come at once to the grand question, and terminate the Controversy, either by receiving our First Scale, which is directly contrary to your scheme of doctrine; or by proving that this Scale, is directly contrary to Reason and Scripture, and that we have misquoted or mistaken most of the passages which enter into its composition. I say most, though I could say all: For if only two passages properly taken in connection with the context, the avowed doctrine of a sacred writer, and the general drift of the scriptures ;-if only two such passages, I say, fairly and truly support each section of our Scripturescales, they hang firmly, and can no more upon the whole, be invalidated, than the scripture itself, which, as our Lord informs us, cannot be broken. John x. 35.

Í take the Searcher of hearts, and my judicious, unprejudiced readers to witness, that through the whole of this Controversy, far from concealing the most plausible objections, or avoiding the strongest arguments which are, or may be advanced against our reconciling doctrine, I have carefully

searched them out, and endeavoured to encounter them as openly as David did Goliah. Had our opponents followed this method, I doubt not but the Controversy would have ended long ago in the destruction of our prejudices, and in the rectifying our mistakes. Oh, if we all preferred the unspeakable pleasure of finding out the Truth, to the pitiful honour of pleasing a party, or of vindicating our own mistakes; how soon would the useful fan of scriptural, logical, and brotherly controversy, purge the floor of the church! How soon would the light of truth, and the flame of love, burn the chaff of error, and the thorns of prejudice with fire unquenchable! May the past triumphs of bigotry suffice! and, instead of sacrificing any more to that detestable idol, may we all henceforth do whatever lies in us, to hasten a general reconciliation, that we may all share together in the choicest blessings, which God can bestow upon his peculiar people;-the spirit of pure evangelical Truth; and of fervent, brotherly love! Madeley, March 23rd, 1775.

AN EXPLANATION

OF SOME TERMS USED IN THESE SHEETS.

THE word Solifidian is defined, and the characters of Zelotes, Honestus, and Lorenzo are drawn in the Advertisement prefixed to the First Part of this Work. It is proper to explain here a few more words or characters. Pharisaism is the Religion of a Pharisee. A Pharisee is a loose or strict professor of natural or revealed religion, who so depends upon the system of religion which he has adopted, or upon his attachment to the school or church he belongs to; (whether it be the school of Plato, Confucius, or Socinus ;whether it be the church of Jerusalem, Rome, England, or Scotland)-who lays such a stress on religious and moral duties, and has so good an opinion of his present harmlessness and obedience, or of his future reformation and good works, as to overlook his natural impotence and guilt, and to be insensible of the need and happiness of "being justified freely [as a sinner] by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ," Rom. iii. 24.-You may know him: 1. By his contempt of, or coldness for, the Redeemer and his free grace:-2. By the antichristian, unscriptural confidence, which he reposes in his best endeavours, and in the self-righteous exertions of his own free-will:-Or, 3. By the jests he passes upon, or the indifference he betrays for, the convincing, comforting, assisting, and sanctifying influences of God's Holy Spirit.

Antinomianism is the religion of an

Antinomian.

An Antinomian is a christian who is [anti nomon] against the law of Christ, as well as against the law of Moses: He allows Christ's law to be a rule of life, but not a rule of judgment for believers, and thus he destroys that law at a stroke, as a law; it being evident, that a rule, by the personal observance or nonobservance of which Christ's subjects can never be acquitted or condemned, is not a law for them. Hence, he asserts, that Christians shall no more be justified before God by their personal obedience to the law of Christ, than by their personal obedience to the ceremonial law of Moses. Nay, he believes, that the best christians perpetually break Christ's law; that nobody ever kept it but Christ himself; and that we shall be justified or condemned before God in the great Day, not as we shall personally be found to have finally kept or finally broken Christ's law, but as God shall be found to have, before the foundation of the world, arbitrarily laid or not laid to our account, the merit of Christ's keeping his own law. Thus he hopes to stand in the great day, merely by what he calls, "Christ's imputed righteousness;" excluding with abhorrence, from our final justification, the evangelical worthiness of our own personal, sincere obedience of repentance and faith;-a precious obedience this, which he calls dung, dross, and filthy rags; just as if it was the insincere obedience of self-righteous pride, and pharisaic hypocrisy! Nevertheless, though he thus excludes the evangelical, derived worthiness of the works of faith, from our eternal justification and salvation, he does good works, if he is in other respects a good man. Nay, in this case he piques himself to do them; thinking he is peculiarly obliged to make people believe, that, immoral as his sentiments are, they draw after them the greatest benevolence and the strictest morality; but Mr. Fulsome shows the contrary.

Fulsome represents a consistent Antinomian; -that is, one who is such in practice, as well as in theory. He warmly espouses Zelotes's doctrine of finished salvation; believing that, before the foundation of the world, we were all Calvinistically, i. e. personally ordained to eternal life in Christ, or to eternal death in Adam, without the least respect to our own works, that is, to our own tempers and conduct. Hence he draws this just inference: "If Christ never died for me, and I am calvinistically reprobated, my best endeavours to be finally justified and eternally saved, will never alter the decree of reprobation, which was made against me from all eternity. On the other hand, if I am calvinistically elected, and if Christ absolutely secured, yea, finished my eternal salvation on the cross; o sins

can ever blot my name out of the book of life. God in the day of his almighty power, will irresistibly convert, or reconvert my soul; and then, the greater my crimes shall have been, the more they will set off divine mercy and power in forgiving and turning such a sinner as me; and I shall only sing in heaven louder than less sinners shall have cause to do." Thus reasons Fulsome, and like a wise man, he is determined, if he is an absolute reprobate, to have what pleasure he can, before God pulls him down to hell in the day of his power: or, if he is an absolute elect, he thinks it reasonable, conformably to wait for the day of God's power, in which day he shall be irresistibly turned, and absolutely fitted to sing louder in heaven the praises of calvinistically distinguishing love:-a love this which (if the Antinomian gospel of the day be true) eternally justifies the chief of sinners, without any personal or inherent worthiness.

Initial salvation, is a phrase which sometimes occurs in these sheets. The plain reader is desired to understand by it, Salvation begun, or, an inferior state of acceptance and present salvation: In this state, sinners are actually saved from hell, admitted to a degree of favour, and graciously entrusted with one or more talents of grace; that is, of means, power, and abilities, to work out their own [eternal] salvation, in due subordination to God, who consistently with our liberty, works in us both to will and to do, according to the dispensation of the Heathens, Jews, or Christians, of his good pleasure.

By the Election of Grace, understand the free, and merely gratuitous choice which (God as a wise and sovereign Benefactor) arbitrarily makes of this, that, or the other man, to bestow upon him one, two, or five talents of Free-grace.

Opposed to this Election, you have an absolute Reprobation, which does not draw damnation after it, but only rejection from a superior number of talents. In this sense God reprobated Enoch and David;- Enoch with respect to the peculiar blessings of Judaism; and David, with regard to the still more peculiar blessings of Christianity. But although neither of them had a share in the election of God's most peculiar grace; that is, although neither was chosen and called to the blessings of Christianity; their lot was never cast with those imaginary "poor creatures," whom Calvin and his followers affirm to have been from all eternity reprobated, with a reprobation which infallibly draws eternal damnation after it. For Enoch and David made their election to the rewards of their dispensations sure, by the timely and voluntary obedience of faith. And so might all those who obstinately bury their talent or talents to the last.

By Future Contingencies, understand those

things, which will, or will not be done; as the free unnecessitated will of man shall choose to do them or not.

By Seminal Existence, understand the ex

istence that we had in Adam's loins before Eve had conceived; or the kind of being which the Prince of Wales had in the loins of the King, before the Queen came to England.

THE

SECOND PART OF THE

SCRIPTURE SCALES.

SECTION XIII.

Containing the Scripture-doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints.

I PROMISED the reader, that Zelotes and Honestus should soon meet again, to fight their last battle; and that I may be as good as my word, I bring them a second time upon the stage of controversy. I have no pleasure in seeing them contend with each other; but I hope, that when they shall have shot all their arrows, and spent all their strength, they will quietly sit down, and listen to terms of reconciliation. They have had already many engagements, but they seem determined that this shall be the sharpest.

Their challenge is about the doctrine of Perseverance. Zelotes asserts, that the perseverance of believers depends entirely upon God's almighty grace, which nothing can frustrate; and that, of consequence, no believer can finally fall. Honestus, on the other hand maintains, that continuing in the faith depends chiefly, if not entirely, upon the believer's free-will; and that, of consequence, final perseverance is, partly, if not altogether, as uncertain as the fluctuations of the human heart. The reconciling truth lies between those two extremes, as appears from the following Propositions, in which I sum up the scripture-doctrine of Perseverance.

1. God makes us glorious promises to encourage us to persevere.

1. God, on his part, gives us his gracious help.

1. Free-grace always does its part.

1. Final perseverance depends, first, on the final, gracious concurrence of free-grace with free-will.

1. As free-grace has in all things the pre. eminence over free will, we must lay much more stress upon God's faithfulness than upon our own. The spouse comes out of the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved, and not upon herself.

1. The believer stands upon two legs (if I may so speak) God's faithfulness and his own. The one is always sound, nor can he rest too much upon it, if he does but walk straight as a wise Christian, and does not foolishly hop as an Antinomian, who goes only upon his right leg; or as a Pharisee, who moves entirely upon the left.

1. When the gospel ministers speak of our faithfulness, they chiefly mean,-1. Our faithfulness in repenting, that is, in renounc.

2. Those promises are neither compulsory, nor absolute.

2. We must, on our part, faithfully use the help of God.

2. Free-will does not always do its part. 2. Final perseverance depends, secondly, on the final, faithful concurrence of free-will with free-grace.

2. But to infer from thence, that the spouse is to be carried by her Beloved every step of the way, is unscriptural. He gently draws her, and she runs. He gives her his arm, and she leans. But far from dragging her by main force, he bids her remember Lot's wife.

2. The believer's left leg, (I mean his own faithfulness) is subject to many humours, sores, and bad accidents; especially when he does not use it at all; or when he lays too much stress upon it, to save his other leg. If it is broken, he is already fallen; and if he is already fallen; and if he is out of hell, he must lean as much as he can upon his right leg, till the left begins to heal, and he can again run the way of God's commande

ments.

2. To aim chiefly at being faithful in external works, means of grace, and forms of godliness, is the high road to pharisaism

ing our sins and pharisaic righteousness; and in improving the talent of light, which shows us our natural depravity, daily imperfections, total helplessness, and constant need of a humble recourse to, and dependance, on divine grace.-And 2. Our faithfulness in beleving (even in hope against hope) God's redeeming love to sinners in Christ; in humbly apprehending, as returning prodigals, the gratuitous forgiveness of sins through the blood of the Lamb: In cheerfully claiming, as impotent creatures, the help that is laid on the Saviour for us; and in constantly coming at his word, to take of the water of life freely. And so far as Zelotes recommends this evangelical disposition of mind, without opening a backdoor to Antinomianism, by covertly pleading for sin, and dealing about his imaginary decrees of forcible grace and sovereign wrath, he cannot be too highly recommended.

r. If Zelotes will do justice to the doctrine of perseverance, he must speak of the obedi ence of faith, that is, of genuine, sincere obedience, as the Oracles of God do. He must not blush to display the glorious rewards, with which God has promised to crown it. He must boldly declare, that for want of it the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience,-upon fallen believers, who have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, Eph. v. 5 In a word, instead of emasculating" Sergeant If, who violently guards the doctrine of perseverance," he should shew all the respect, that Christ himself does in the gospel.

-

and insincere obedience. I grant, that he who is humbly faithful in little things, is faithful also in much; and that he, who slothfully neglects little helps, will soon fall into great sins: But the professors of christianity, cannot be too frequently told, that if they are not first faithful in maintaining true poverty of spirit, deep self-humiliation before God, and high thoughts of Christ's blood and righteousness; they will soon slide into Laodicean pharisaism; and Jehulike they will make more of their own partial, external, selfish faithfulness, than of divine grace, and the Spirit's power: A most dangerous and common error this, into which the followers of Honestus are very prone to run, and so far as he leads them into it, he deserves to be highly blamed; and Zelotes, in this respect, hath undoubtedly the advantage over him.

2. Would Honestus kindly meet Zelotes half way, he must speak of free-grace, and of Christ's obedience unto death as the scriptures do. He must glory in displaying divine faithfulness, and placing it in the most conspicuous and engaging light. He must not be ashamed to point out the great rewards of the faith which inherits promises, gives glory to God, and out of weakness makes us strong to take up our cross, and to run the race of obedience.-In a word, he must teach his willing hearers to depend every day more and more upon Christ; and to lay as much stress upon his promises as they ever did upon his threatenings.

To sum up all in two propositions.

1. The infallible perseverance of obedient believers, is a most sweet and evangelical doctrine, which cannot be pressed with too much earnestness and constancy upon sincere Christians, for their comfort, encouragement, and establishment.

To see the truth of these Propositions, we need only throw with candour into the Scripture-Scales, the weights which Zelotes and Honestus unmercifully throw at each other;

2. The infallible perseverance of disobedient believers, is a most dangerous and unscriptural doctrine, which cannot be pressed with too much assiduity and tenderness upon antinomian professors, for their re-awakening and sanctification.

taking particular care not to break, as they do, the golden beam of evangelical harmony, by means of which, the opposite Scales and Weights exactly balance each other.

I The WEIGHTS of FREE-GRACE, thrown 2. The WEIGHTS of FREE-WILL thrown by by Zelotes.

1. The Lord shall establish thee an holy people to himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, Deut. xxviii. 9.

1. Know therefore the Lord thy God; he is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant, Deut. vii. 9.

I. He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure: For

Honestus.

2. If thou shalt keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in his ways. Ibid.

2. But they, &c. have transgressed the covenant,―They continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, Hosea vi. 7. Heb. viii. 9.

2. They have broken the everlasting covenant; therefore hath the curse devoured the

this is all my salvation and all my desire 2 Sam. xxiii. 5.

1. With him [the Father of Lights,] is no, variableness, neither shadow of turning. James i. 17.—I am the Lord, I change not: [I still bear with sinners during the day of their visitation ;] therefore, ye sons of Jacob, are not consumed, Mal. iii. 6.

earth, Isa. xxiv. 5.—They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law, &c. So a fire was kindled in Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel; because they believed not in God, and trusted not in his salvation, &c. The wrath of God came upon them, &c. and smote down the chosen of Israel, Psalm 1xxviii. 10, 21, 22, 31.

[Hence it appears, that part of the everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure is, that those who break it presumptuously, and do not repent, as David did, before it is too late, shall surely be smitten down and destroyed.]

2. The angel of his presence saved them: In his love and pity he remembered them. But they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spi rit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy. Isa. lxiii. 9, 10.-The Lord God of Israel saith I said, indeed, that thy house, [Observe here, that, although God's es- and the house of thy father, should walk sence, and the principles of his conduct before me for ever : But now, be it far from towards man, never change; yet, as he loves me: for, &c. they that despise me shall be righteousness and hates iniquity; and as he lightly esteemed, 1 Sam. ii. 30.-And the is the Rewarder of the righteous, and the word of the Lord came to Jonah, saying, Punisher of the wicked; he must shew him- Preach unto Nineveh the preaching that I self pleased or displeased, a Rewarder or a bid thee;-and Jonah cried, and said, Yet punisher, as moral-agents turn from sin to forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. righteousness, or from righteousness to sin. So the people of Nineveh believed God, &c. Without this kind of change ad extra, he For the king sat in ashes, and caused it to could not be holy and just :-He could not be proclaimed, &c. Cry mightily to God, be the Judge of all the earth ;-he could not yea, let every one turn from his evil way, &c. be God.] Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, that we perish not. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way: And God repented of the evil which he had said, that he would do unto them, and he did it not, Jonah iii. 1, &c. [From the preceding remarkable passages, it is evident that, except in a few cases, the promises and the threatenings of God, so long as the day of grace and trial lasts, are conditional; and that, even when they wear the most absolute aspect, the condition is generally implied.]

1. The gifts and calling of God are without Repentance, Rom. xi. 29.-[The apostle evidently speaks these words of God's gifts to, and calling of the Jewish nation.-The Lord is so far from repenting (properly speaking) of his once having called the Jews to the Mosaic covenant of peculiarity, that he is ready nationally to re-admit them to his peculiar favour, when they shall nationally repent, embrace the gospel of Christ, and so make their sincere calling to the christian covenant sure by believing. But does this prove, that God forces repentance upon every Jew, and that when the Jews will nationally repent, God will absolutely and irresistibly work out their salvation for them? If Zelotes thinks so, I desire him to look into the scale of Honestus.]

1. We-[who hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.]-are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul, Heb. x. 32. We believe, that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, Acts xv. 11.

2. I gave her time to repent, and she repented not, Rev. ii. 21.-Because I have called, and ye refused, &c. I also will mock -when your destruction cometh as a whirlwind, Prov. i. 24, &c.-The Lord [to speak figuratively and after the manner of men] repented that he had made Saul king over Israel, 1 Sam. xv. 35. [That is, when Saul proved unfaithful, the Lord rejected him in as positive a manner as a king would reject a minister, or break a general, when he repents of his having raised them to offices, of which they now shew themselves absolutely unworthy.]

2. If that, which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, 1 John ii. 24.

If ye continue in the faith, Col. i. 23.—If ye continue in his goodness, Rom. xi. 22.If ye do these things, 2 Pet i. 10.-If we hold fast the confidence firm unto the end, Heb. iii. 6.-For he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved, Matt. xxiv,

« ZurückWeiter »