AN ANSWER

TO THE

REV. MR. TOPLADY'S "VINDICATION OF THE DECREES," &c.

SECTION I.

Showing that, upon the Calvinian scheme, it is an indubitable truth that some men shall be saved, do what they will, till the efficacious decree of Calvinian election necessitate them to repent and be saved: and that others shall be damned, do what they can, till the efficacious decree of Calvinian reprobation necessitate them to draw back, and be damned.

THE doctrinal part of the controversy between Mr. Wesley and Mr. Toplady may, in a great degree, be reduced to this question :-If God, from all eternity, absolutely predestinated a fixed number of men, called the elect, to eternal life, and absolutely predestinated a fixed number of men, called the reprobate, to eternal death, does it not unavoidably follow that "the elect shall be saved, do what they will ;" and that " the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can ?" Mr. Wesley thinks that the consequence is undeniably true: Mr. Toplady says that it is absolutely false, and charges Mr. Wesley with "coining blasphemous propositions," yea, with "hatching blasphemy, and then fathering it on others," pages 7, 8; and, in a note upon the word blasphemous, he says, "This epithet is not too strong." To say that any shall be saved, do what they will, and others damned, do what they can, is, in the first instance, blasphemy against the holiness of God; and, in the second, blasphemy against his goodness: and again, p. 34, after repeating the latter clause of the consequence, viz. "the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can," he expresses himself thus :-" One would imagine that none but a reprobate could be capable of advancing a position so execrably shocking. Surely it must have cost even Mr. Wesley much, both of time and pains, to invent the idea, &c. Few men's invention ever sunk deeper into the despicable, launched wider into the horrid, and went farther in the profane. The Satanic guilt of the person who could excogitate, and publish to the world a position like that, baffles all power of description, and is only to be exceeded (if exceedable) by the Satanic shamelessness which dares to lay the black position at the door of other men. Let us examine whether any thing occurring in Zanchius could justly furnish this wretched defamer with materials for a deduction so truly infernal." Agreeably to those spirited complaints, Mr. Toplady calls his book, not only "More Work for Mr. J. Wesley," but also "A Vindication of the Decrees and Providence of God, from the defamations of a late printed paper, entitled, The Consequence Proved.'" I side with Mr. Wesley for the consequence; guarding it against cavils by a clause, which his love of brevity made him think needless. And the guarded consequence, VOL. II.

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which I undertake to defend, runs thus :-From the doctrine of the abso lute and unconditional predestination of some men to eternal life, and of all others to eternal death, it necessarily follows, that some men shall be SAVED, do what they will, till the absolute and efficacious decree of election actually necessitate them to obey, and be saved; and that all the rest of mankind shall be DAMNED, do what they can, till the absolute and efficacious decree of reprobation necessitate them to sin, and be damned.

An illustration will at once show the justness of this consequence to an unprejudiced reader. Fifty fishes sport in a muddy pond, where they have received life. The skilful and almighty Owner of the pond has absolutely decreed that ten of these fishes, properly marked with a shining mark, called election, shall absolutely be caught in a certain net, called a Gospel net, on a certain day, called the day of his power; and that they shall, every one, be cast into a delightful river, where he has engaged himself, by an eternal covenant of particular redemption, to bring them without fail. The same omnipotent Proprietor of the pond has likewise absolutely decreed that all the rest of the fishes, namely, forty, which are properly distinguished by a black mark, called reprobation, shall never be caught in the Gospel net; or that if they are entangled in it at any time, they shall always be drawn out of it, and so shall necessarily continue in the muddy pond, till, on a certain day, called the day of his wrath, he shall sweep the pond with a certain net, called a law net, catch them all, and cast them into a lake of fire and brimstone, where he has engaged himself, by an everlasting covenant of non-redemption, to bring them all without fail, that they may answer the end of their predestination to death, which is to show the goodness of his law net, and to destroy them for having been bred in the muddy pond, and for not hav ing been caught in the Gospel net. The Owner of the pond is wise, as well as powerful. He knows that, absolutely to secure the end to which his fishes are absolutely predestinated, he must absolutely secure the means which conduced to that end; and therefore, that none may escape their happy or their unfortunate predestination, he keeps night and day his hold of them all, by a strong hook, called necessity, and by an invisible line, called Divine decrees. By means of this line and hook it happens, that if the fishes, which bear the mark election, are ever so loath to come into the Gospel net, or to stay therein, they are always drawn into it in a day of powerful love; and if the fishes which bear the mark of reprobation, are, for a time, ever so desirous to wrap themselves in the Gospel net, they are always drawn out of it in a day of powerful wrath. For, though the fishes seem to swim ever so freely, yet their motions are all absolutely fixed by the Owner of the pond, and determined by means of the above-mentioned line and hook. If this is the case, says Mr. Wesley, ten fishes shall go into the delightful river, let them do what they will, let them plunge in the mud of their pond ever so briskly, or leap toward the lake of fire ever so often, while they have any liberty to plunge or to leap. And all the rest of the fishes, forty in number, shall go into the lake of fire, let them do what they can, let them involve themselves ever so long in the Gospel net, and leap ever so often toward the fine river, before they are absolutely necessitated to go, through the mud of their own pond, into the sulphureous pool. The

consequence is undeniable, and I make no doubt that all unprejudiced persons see it as well as myself: as sure as two and two make four, or, if you please, as sure as ten and forty make fifty, so sure ten fishes shall be finally caught in the Gospel net, and forty in the law net.

Should Mr. Toplady say that this is only an illustration, I drop it, and roundly assert that if two men, suppose Solomon and Absalom, are absolutely predestinated to eternal life; while two other men, suppose Mr. Baxter and Mr. Wesley, are absolutely predestinated to eternal death; the two elect shall be saved, do what they will, and the two reprobates shall be damned, do what they can. That is, let Solomon and Absalom worship the abomination of the Zidonians, and of the Moabites, in ever so public a manner; let them, for years, indulge themselves with heathenish women, collected from all countries; if they have a mind, let them murder their brothers, defile their sisters, and imitate the incestuous Corinthian, who took his own father's wife; yet they can never really endanger their finished salvation. The indelible mark of unconditional election to life is upon them; and forcible, victorious grace shall, in their last moments, if not before, draw them irresistibly and infallibly from iniquity to repentance. Death shall unavoidably make an end of their indwelling sin; and to heaven they shall unavoidably go. On the other hand, let a Baxter and a Wesley astonish the world by their ministerial labours: let them write, speak, and live in such a manner as to stem the torrent of iniquity, and turn thousands to righteousness: with St. Paul let them take up their cross daily, and preach and pray, not only with tears, but "with the demonstration of the Spirit and with power:" let unwearied patience and matchless diligence carry them with increasing fortitude through all the persecu tions, danger, and trials, which they meet with from the men of the world, and from false brethren: let them hold on this wonderful way to their dying day; yet, if the indelible mark of unconditional reprobation to death is upon them, necessitating, victorious wrath shall, in their last moments, if not before, make them necessarily turn from righteousness, and unavoidably draw back to perdition; so shall they be fitted for the lake of fire, the end to which, if God Calvinistically passed them by, they were absolutely ordained through the predestinated medium of remediless sin and final apostasy.

This is the true state of the case: to spend time in proving it would be offering the judicious reader as great an insult, as if I detained him to prove that the north is opposed to the south. But what does Mr. Toplady say against this consequence, "If Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall be damned, do what they can?" He advances the following warm argument :—

ARGUMENT I. Page 55. "Can Mr. Wesley produce a single instance of any one man, who did all he could to be saved, and yet was lost? If he can, let him tell us who that man was, where he lived, when he died, what he did, and how it came to pass he laboured in vain. If he cannot, let him either retract his consequences, or continue to be posted for a shameless traducer."

I answer: 1. To require Mr. Wesley to show a man who did all he could, and yet was lost, is requiring him to prove that Calvinian reprobation is true; a thing this, which he can no more do, than he can

prove that God is false. Mr. Wesley never said that any man was damned after doing his best to be saved: he only says that if Calvinism is true, the reprobates shall all be damned, though they should all do their best to be saved, till the efficacious decree of their absolute reprobation necessitates them to draw back and be damned.

2. As Mr. Toplady's bold request may impose upon his inattentive readers, I beg leave to point out its absurdity by a short illustration. Mr. Wesley says, If there is a mountain of gold, it is heavier than a handful of feathers; and his consequence passes for true in England. But a gentleman who teaches logic in mystic Geneva thinks that it is absolutely false, and that Mr. Wesley's "forehead must be petrified, and quite impervious to a blush," for advancing it. Can Mr. Wesley, says he, show us a mountain of gold, which is really heavier than a handful of feathers? If he can, let him tell us what mountain it is, where it lies, in what latitude, how high it is, and who did ever ascend to the top of it. If he cannot, let him either retract his consequences, or continue to be posted for a shameless traducer.

Equally conclusive is Mr. Toplady's challenge! By such cogent arguments as these, thousands of professors are bound to the chariot wheels of modern orthodoxy, and blindly follow the warm men, who "drive as furiously" over a part of the body of Scripture divinity, as the son of Nimshi did over the body of cursed Jezebel.

SECTION II.

Calvinism upon its legs, or a full view of the arguments by which Mr. Toplady attempts to reconcile Calvinism with God's holiness ;—a note upon a letter to an Arminian teacher.

SENSIBLE that Calvinism can never rank among the doctrines of holiness, if "the elect shall be saved, do what they will," and if the "reprobate shall be damned, do what they can ;" Mr. Toplady tries to throw off, from his doctrines of grace, the deadly weight of Mr. Wesley's consequence. In order to this, he proves that Calvinism insures the holiness of the elect, as the necessary means of their predestinated salvation: but he is too judicious to tell us that it insures also the wickedness of the reprobate as the necessary means of their predestinated damnation. To make us in love with his orthodoxy, he presents her to our view with one leg, on which she contrives to stand, by artfully leaning upon her faithful maid, Logica Genevensis. Her other leg is prudently kept out of sight, so long as the trial about her holiness lasts. This deserves explanation.

The most distinguishing and fundamental doctrines of Calvinism are two; and therefore they may with propriety be called the legs of that doctrinal system. The FIRST of these fundamental doctrines is, the personal, unconditional, absolute predestination, or election, of some men to eternal life; and the SECOND is, the personal, unconditional, absolute predestination, or reprobation, of some men to eternal death. Nor can Mr. Toplady find fault with my making his doctrine of grace stand upon her legs, Calvinian election and Calvinian reprobation: for, supposing

that our Church speaks in her seventeenth article of Calvinian, absolute predestination to eternal life, he says himself, in his Historic Proof, page 574, "The predestination of some to life, asserted in the seventeenth article, cannot be maintained without admitting the reprobation*

* Our opponents are greatly embarrassed about the doctrine of absolute, unconditional reprobation. Though in a happy moment, where candour prevailed over shame, Mr. Toplady stood up so boldly for Calvinian reprobation; the reader, as he goes on, will smile when he sees the variegated wisdom with which that gentleman disguises, exculpates, or conceals, what he so rationally and so candidly grants here.

The truth is, that as Scriptural election is necessarily attended with an answerable reprobation; so absolute, Calvinian election unavoidably drags after it absolute, Calvinian reprobation: a black reprobation this, which necessitates all who are personally written in the book of death to sin on, and to be damned. But some Calvinists are afraid to see this doctrine, and well they may, for it is horrible: others are ashamed to acknowledge it; and not a few, for want of rational sight, obstinately deny that it is the main pillar of their Gospel; and with the right leg of their system they unmercifully kick the left. Among the persons who are guily of this absurd conduct, we may rank the author of A Letter to an Arminian Teacher: an imperfect copy of which appeared in the Gospel Magazine of August, 1775, under the following title: A Predestinarian's real thoughts of Election and Reprobation, &c. This writer is so inconsistent as to attempt cutting off the left leg of Calvinism. He, at first, gives us reprobation. "The word reprobation," says he, "is never mentioned in all the Scripture, [no more is the word predestination,] nor is the Scriptural word reprobate ever mentioned as the continuance of election, or as [its] opposite." This is a great mistake, as appears from the two first passages quoted by this author, Jer. vi, 30, and Rom. i, 28, where reprobate silver is evidently opposed to choice silver, and where a reprobate mind is indubitably opposed to the mind which is after God's own heart—that is, to the mind which God approves and chooses to crown with evangelical praises and rewards. Our author goes on:

"There is no immediate connection between election to salvation, and reprobation to damnation." What an argument is this! Did we ever say that there is any immediate connection between two things which are as contrary as Christ and Belial? O! but we mean that "they have no necessary dependence on each other." The question is not whether they have a necessary dependence on each other; but whether they have not a necessary opposition to each other; and that they have, is as clear as that light is opposed to darkness. "They proceed from very different causes." True: for election proceeded from free grace, and Calvinian reprobation from free wrath. "The sole cause of election is God's free love, &c. The sole cause of damnation is only sin." Our author wants candour or attention. Had he argued like a candid logician, he would have said, "The sole cause of the reprobation which ends in unavoidable damnation, is only sin:" but if he had fairly argued thus, he would have given up Calvinism, which stands or falls with absolute reprobation; and therefore he thought proper to substitute the word damnation for the word reprobation, which the argument absolutely requires. These tricks may pass in Geneva; but in England they appear inconsistent with fair reasoning. It is a common stratagem of the Calvinists to say, "Election depends upon God's love only, but damnation depends upon our sin only" break the thin shell of this sophism, and you will find this bitter kernel: God's distinguishing love elects some to unavoidable holiness and finished salvation; and his distinguishing wrath reprobates all the rest of mankind to remediless sin and eternal damnation. For the moment the sin of reprobates is necessary, remediless, and insured by the decree of the means, it follows that absolute reprobation to necessary, remediless sin, is the same thing as absolute reprobation to eternal damnation; because such a damnation is the unavoidable consequence of remediless sin.

When the letter writer has absurdly denied Calvinian reprobation, he insinuates, p. 5, that everlasting torments and being unavoidably damned, are not the neces sary consequences of the decree of Calvinian election; "nor," says he, "can they be fairly deduced from the decree of reprobation." So now the secret is out!