I.

down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, ver. 4.

II.

reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day, ver. 6.

From this remarkable parallel it is evident that the apostates described by St. Peter, and the backsliders painted by St. Jude, were one and the same kind of people: and by the following words it appears that all those backsliders really fell from the grace of God, and denied the Lord that bought them.

Even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction, &c, whose &c, damnation slumbereth not, 2 Pet. ii, 1.

Ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying [in works at least] the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ, [as Lord, Lawgiver, or Judge,] Jude 4.

St. Peter more or less directly describes these backsliders, in the same epistle, as people who have "forgotten that they WERE PURGED from their old sins"-who do not "give all diligence to add to their faith virtue"-who do not "make their calling and election sure"—who, "after they have ESCAPED the pollutions of the world through the KNOWLEDGE of our Lord Jesus Christ, [i. e. through a true and living faith,] are again entangled therein, and overcome; whose latter end is worse than the beginning-who, after they have KNOWN THE WAY of righteousness, turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them," and verify the proverb, "The sow that was WASHED is turned to her wallowing in the mire."

Here is not the least hint about the certain return of any of those backsliders, or about the good that their grievous falls will do either to others or to themselves. On the contrary, he represents them All as people that were in the high road to destruction: and, far from giving us an Antinomian innuendo about the final perseverance of all bloodbought souls, i. e. of the whole number of the redeemed, he begins his epistle by declaring that those self-destroyed backsliders "denied the Lord that BOUGHT them," and concludes it by this seasonable caution: "There are in our own beloved brother Paul's epistles things [it seems, about the election of grace, and about justification without the works of the law] which they that are unlearned (auabsis, untaught in the Scriptures) and unstable, wrest, &c, unto their own destruction. Ye, therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, [being thus fairly warned] beware lest YE ALSO, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ;" which is the best method not to fall from grace--the only way to inherit the blessing, with which God will crown the faithfulness and genuine perseverance of the saints.

I read the heart of Zelotes; and seeing the objection he is going to start, I oppose to it this quotation from Baxter: "To say that then their futh (which works by faithful love) does more than CHRIST did, or God's GRACE, is a putrid cavil. Their faith is no efficient cause at all of their pardon or justification; it is but necessary, receptive qualification. He that shuts the window, causeth darkness; but it is sottish to say that he who opens it, does more than the sun to cause light, which he causeth

not at all; but removeth the impediment of reception; and faith itself is God's gift,"—as all other talents are, whether we improve them or not. I should lose time, and offer an insult to the reader's understanding, were I to comment upon the preceding scriptures; so great is their perspicuity and number. But I hope I shall not insult his candour by proposing to him the following queries: (1.) Can Zelotes and Honestus be judicious Protestants, I mean consistent defenders of Bible religion, if the one throw away the weights of the second scale, while the other overlooks those of the first? (2.) Is it not evident that, according to the Scriptures, the perseverance of the saints has two causes: THE FIRST free grace and Divine faithfulness; and THE SECOND free will and human faithfulness produced, excited, assisted, and nourished, but not necessitated by free grace? (3.) With respect to the capital doctrine of perseverance also, does not the truth lie exactly between the extremes into which Zelotes and Honestus perpetually run? And (lastly) is it not clear that if Candidus will hold "the truth as it is in Jesus," he must stand upon the line of moderation, call back Zelotes from the east, Honestus from the west, and make them cordially embrace each other under the Scripture meridian? There the kind Father falls upon the neck of the returning prodigal, and the heavenly bridegroom meets the wise virgins. There free grace mercifully embraces free will, while free will humbly stoops at the footstool of free grace. There "the sun goes down no more by day, nor the moon by night;" that is, the two Gospel axioms, which are the great doctrinal lights of the Church, without eclipsing each other, shine in perpetual conjunction, and yet in continual opposition. There their conjugal, mysterious, powerful influence gladdens the New Jerusa. lem, fertilizes the garden of the Lord, promotes the spiritual vegetation of all the trees of righteousness which line the river of God, and gives a Divine relish to the fruits of the Spirit which they constantly bear. There, as often as free grace smiles upon free will, it says, "Be faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life;" and as often as free will sees that crown glitter at the end of the race, it shouts, Grace! free grace unto it! a great part of our faithfulness consisting in ascribing to grace all the honour that becomes the FIRST CAUSE of all good-the ORIGINAL of all visible and invisible excellence.

Perseverance must close our race, if ever we receive the prize; let then the Scriptural account of it close my Scales. But before I lay them by, I must throw in two more grains of Scriptural truth; lest the reader should think that I have not made good weight. If I thought Zelotes to be a gross Antinomian, and Honestus an immoral moralist; and that they maliciously tear the oracles of God in pieces; I would make them full weight by the two following scriptures:—

I.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth [or a part of it] in unrighteousness, Rom. i, 18.

II.

I testify, &c, that if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy [much more if he take away from the words of every book in the Old and New Testament] God shall take

his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book, Rev. xxii, 18, 19.

But considering Zelotes and Honestus as two good men, who sincerely fear and serve God in their way, and being persuaded that an injudicious fear of a Gospel axiom, and not a wilful aversion to the truth, makes them cast a veil over one half of the body of Bible divinity; I dare not admit the thought that those severe strictures are adapted to their case. I shall therefore only ask, whether they cannot find a suitable reproof in the following texts:

I.

I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my word [contained No. 2.] every one from his neighbour, Jer. xxiii, 30.

II.

Ye have have made the word of God [contained No. 1.] of none effect by your tradition, Matt. xv, 6. [Equally dismembering Christianity, ye still help the adversaries of the Gospel to put in practice their pernicious maxim, Divide and conquer. And who requires this at your hands? Who will give you thanks for such services as these?]

SECTION IV.

A Scriptural plan of reconciliation between Zelotes and Honestus; being a double declaration to guard equally the two Gospel axioms, or the doctrines of free grace and free obedience-Bishop Beveridge saw the need of guarding them both-Gospel ministers ought equally to defend them-An answer to Zelotes' objections against the declaration which guards the doctrine of free obedience-An important distinction between a primary and secondary trust in causes and means—Some observations upon the importance of the second Gospel axiom-Which extreme appeared greater to Mr. Baxter, that of Zelotes, or that of Honestus-The author's thoughts upon that delicate subject.

I HAVE hitherto pointed out the opposite errors of Zelotes and Honestus, and shown that they consist in so maintaining one part of the truth as to reject the other; in so holding out the glory of one of the Gospel axioms as to eclipse the other. I now present the reader with what appears to me a fair, Scriptural, and guarded plan of reconciliation between themselves, and between all good men, who disagree about the doctrines of faith and works-of free grace and obedience. The declaration which the Rev. Mr. Shirley desired the Rev. Mr. Wesley to sign at the Bristol conference, (in 1770,) gives me the idea of this plan; nay, the first part of it is nothing but that declaration itself, guarded and strengthened by some additions in brackets.

I.

IT IS PROPOSED:

That the preachers who are supposed to countenance the Pharisaic error of Honestus shall sign the following anti-Pharisaic declaration, which guards the doctrine of faith and free grace without bearing hard

II.

That the preachers who are supposed to countenance the Antinomian error of Zelotes, shall sign the following anti-Solifidian declaration, which guards the doctrine of obe. dience and free will, without bear.

I.

upon the doctrine of obedience and free will; and asserts the free, gratuitous justification of a sinner in the day of conversion and afterward, without denying the gracious, remunerative justification of a believer, who, in the day of trial, and afterward, keeps the faith that works by love.

Whereas the doctrinal points in the Minutes of a conference, held in London, August 7, 1770, have been understood to favour [the Pharisaic] justification [of a sinner] by works; now the Rev. John Wesley, and others assembled in conference, do declare that we had no such meaning; and that we abhor the doctrine of [a sinner's] justification by works, as a most perilous and abominable doctrine: and as the said Minutes are not [or do not appear to some people] sufficiently guarded in the way they are expressed, we hereby solemnly declare, in the sight of God, that [as sinners-before God's throne-according to the doctrine of first causes-and with respect to the first covenant or the law of innocence, which sentences all sinners to destruction] we have no trust or confidence but in the [mere mercy of God, through the sole righteousness and] alone merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for justification, or salvation, either in life, death, or the day of judgment: and though no one is a real Christian-believer, (and consequently, though no one can be saved [as a believer] who does not good works where there is time and opportunity,) yet our

II.

ing hard upon the doctrine of faith
and free grace; and asserts the
gracious, remunerative justification
of a believer in the day of trial, and
afterward, without denying the free,
gratuitous justification of a sinner
in the day of conversion, and after-
ward.

Whereas the books published against the said Minutes have been understood to favour the present, inamissible, and eternal justification of all fallen believers before God, that is, of all those who, hav. ing made shipwreck of the faith that works by obedient love, live in Laodicean ease; and, if they please, in adultery, murder, or incest; now the Rev. Mr. **** and others do declare that we renounce such meaning, and that we abhor the doctrine of the Solifidians or Antinomians as a most perilous and abominable doctrine and as the said books are not [or do not appear to some people] sufficiently guarded, we hereby solemnly declare, in the sight of God, that [as penitent, obedient and persevering believers-be. fore the Mediator's throne-according to the doctrine of second causes

*

and with respect to the second covenant, or the law of Christ, which sentences all his impenitent, disobe. dient, apostatizing subjects to destruction] we have no trust or confidence, but in the truth of our repentance toward God, and in the sincerity of our faith in Christ for justification or salvation in the day of conversion and afterward-no trust, or confidence, but in our final

I beg the reader would pay a peculiar attention to what precedes and follows this clause. I myself would condemn it, as subversive of the doctrine of grace, and Pharisaical, if I considered it as detached from the context, and not guarded or explained by the words in Italics, upon which the greatest stress is to be laid. If Zelotes has patience to read on he will soon see how the secondary trust in the obedience of faith, which I here contend for, is reconcilable with our primary trust in Christ.

I.

works have no part in [properly] meriting or purchasing our salvation from first to last, either in whole or part; [the best of men, when they are considered as sinners, being justified freely by God's grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, Rom. iii, 24.]

IL.

perseverance in the obedience of faith, for justification, or salvation in death, and in the day of judg ment; because no one is a real believer under any dispensation of Gospel grace, and of consequence no one can be saved who does not good works, i. e. who does not truly repent, believe, and obey, as there is time, light, and opportunity. Nevertheless, our works, that is, our repentance, faith, and obedience, have no part in properly meriting or purchasing our salvation from first to last, either in whole or in part; the properly meritorious cause of our eternal, as well as intermediate and initial salvation, being only the merits, or the blood and righteousness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The preceding declaration, which defends the doctrine of free grace, and the gratuitous justification and salvation of a sinner, is founded on such scriptures as these:

I.

If Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to boast. To him that worketh not, but bebeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is imputed, &c. God imputeth righteousness without works. Not by works of righteous. ness which we have done, but of his mercy he saved us. By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified, &c.

The preceding declaration, which

defends the doctrine of free obedience, and the remunerative justification and salvation of a believer, is founded on such scriptures as these :

II. Was not Abraham our father justified by works? Ye see how by works a man is justified and not by faith only. We are saved by hope. In doing this thou shalt save thyself. He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. He became the author of eternal sal. vation to them that obey him. This shall turn to my salvation through your prayer.

With the mouth confession is made to salvation. By thy words thou shalt be justified. The doers of the law [of Christ] shall be justified, &c.

And let none say that this doctrine has not the sanction of good men. Of a hundred, whom Zelotes himself considers as orthodox, I shall only tention the learned and pious Bishop Beveridge, who, though a rigid Calvinist in his youth, came, in his riper years, to the line of moderation, which I recommend, and stood upon it when he wrote what follows, in his Thoughts upon our Call and Election." (Third Edition, page 297.)

What then should be the reason that so many should be called and invited to the chiefest good, and the highest happiness their natures are capable of; yet so few of them should mind and prosecute it so as to be chosen or admitted to the participation of it? What shall we ascribe it to? The will and pleasure of almighty God, as if he delighted in the Jum of his creatures, and therefore although he calls them, he would VOL. II.

11