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Hill had explained himself so clearly about his reason for declining the controversy, is it not surprising that he should suffer bis bookseller to get six-pence for a new pamphlet, "setting forth Mr. Hill's reasons for declining any farther controversy relative to Mr. Wesley's principles,"-i. e. to Mr. Wesley's anti-solifidian doctrine, of which I profess my self the Vindicator?

But another author vindicates those principles also. It is Mr. Olivers, whom Mr. Hill calls "one Thomas Oliver, alias Olivers." This author, was twenty-five years ago a mechanic, and [like "one" Peter, "alias" Simon, a fisherman; and "one" Saul "alias" Paul, a tent-maker] has had the honour of being promoted to the dignity of a preacher of the gospel; and his talents, as a writer, a logician, a poet, and a composer of sacred music, are known to those who have looked into his publications. Mr. Hill informs the public why he takes as little notice of this able opponent's arguments as he does of mine: and the "reason" he "sets forth," is worthy of the cause which he defends. En argumentum palmarium! I shall "not" says he, "take the least notice of him, or read a line of his composition, any more than, if I was traveling on the road, I would stop to lash, or even order my footman to lash, every impertinent little quadruped in a village, that should come out and bark at me; but would will ingly let the contemptible animal have the satisfaction of thinking he had driven me out of sight." How lordly is this speech! How surprising in the mouth of a good man, who says to the Carpenter, My Lord and My God! When the author of " Goliah Slain" dropped it from his victorious pen, had he forgotten the voluntary humility for which his doctrines of grace are so conspicuous? Or did he come off in triumph from the slaughter of the gigantic Philistine?-O ye English Protestants, shall such lordly arguments as these, make your submit to Geneva-sovereignty? Will you be "lashed" by such stately logic as this, to the foot of the great image, upon whose back you see absolute Preterition written in such large characters? Will you suffer reason and scripture to be whipped out of the field of controversy in this despotic manner? Shall such imperial cords as these, bind ye to the horns of an alter, where myrids of men are inten tionally slain before they are born and around which injudicious worshippers so sing their unscriptural songs about finished salvation as to drown the dismal cries of ensured destruction and finished damnation !

Mr. Hill's performance is closed by "a shocking, not to say blasphemous confession of faith," in Ten articles which he supposes "must inevitably be adopted, if not in express words yet in subtance, by every Arminian whatsoever," especially by Mr. Wesley, Mr. Sellon, and myself. As we desire to let

true Protestants see the depth of our doctrine, that they may side with us if we are right, or point out our errors if we are wrong, I design to produce that creed in the second part of this work; frankly adopted what is agreeable to our principles, and returning to Mr. Hill the errors which is inattention makes him consider as necessary consequences of our doctrines of grace.

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With respect to the three letters, which that gentleman has published to set forth his reasons for declining the controversy with me, what are they to the purpose? Does not the first of them bear date, July 31st, 1773 Now I beg any unprejudiced person to decide, if a private letter, written in July 31st, 1773, can contain a reasonable overture for declining the controversy, when the Finishing Stroke, which was given me publicly, and bears date January 1st, 1773, contains (page 40) this explicit and final declining of it. "So here the controversy must end, at least it shall end for me. You may misquote, and misrepresent whomsoever and whatsoever you please, and you may do it with impunity; I assure you, I shall give myself no trouble to detect you." If I had received this finishing stroke in January, the controversy was "declined" in January on the above-mentioned bitter reason. Mr. Hill cannot then reasonably pretend to have offered to decline it in July, six or seven months after this from sweet reasons of brotherly kindness, and love for peace. "But in July Mr. Hill wrote to his bookseller to sell no more of any of his pamphlets which relate to the Minutes." True but this was not declining the controversy; and here is the proof: Mr. Hill still professes "declining any farther controversy about the Minutes," and yet in this his last publication, page 11th, he adver. tises the sale of all the books which he has written against them, from the Paris Conversation to the Finishing Stroke. Therefore, Mr. Hill himself being judge, declining the controversy, and stopping the sale of his books, are different things.

Concerning the three letters I shall only add, that I could wish Mr. Hill had published my answers to them, that his Readers might have seen. I have not been less ready to return his private civilities, than to ward off his public strokes. In one of them in particular, I offered to send him my answer to his Finishing Stroke before it went to the press, that he might let me know if in any thing I had misunderstood or misrepresented him; promising to alter my manuscript upon any just animadversion that he might make upon it; because after his Finishing Stroke, he could not make a public reply without breaking his word. And it is to this proposal, that he replies thus in his second letter, "As you intend to introduce my worthless name into your next publication, I must

beg to decline the obliging offer you make of my perusing your manuscript."

With respect to that gentleman's character, this after-clap does not alter my thoughts of it. I cannot but still love and honour him on many, very many accounts. Though his warm attachment to what he calls "The doctrines of grace," [and what we call "the doctrines of limited grace and free-wrath"] robs him, from time to time, of part of the moderation, patience, and meekness of wisdom, which adorn the complete christian cha. racter; I cannot but consider him as a very valuable person. I do not doubt but, when the paroxism of his calvinistic zeal shall be

over, he will be as great an ornament to the church of England in the capacity of a gentleman, as he is to civil society as a magistrate. And justice, as well as love obliges me to say, that in the mean time he is in several respects a pattern for all gentlemen of fortune; few equalling him in devoting a large fortune to the relief of the poor, and their leisure hours to the support of what they esteem the truth. Happy would it be for him and for the peace of the church, if to all his good qualities he always added "the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit;" and if he so far suspected his orthodoxy, as to condescend to weigh himself in the Scripture Scales.

AN

EQUAL CHECK, &c.

PART II.,

OR THE FIRST PART OF THE

SCRIPTURE SCALES.

SECTION I.

lotes and Honestus, who are invited to try their doctrines by the Scripture Scales:The manner of using them, and the need of them in our days.

2.

materials are divine; for they consist of plain Scriptures, chiefly placed under two heads of The cause of the misunderstandings of pious doctrine, which, for their justness and imProtestants:-The contrary mistakes of Ze-portance, may be called the WEIGHTS OF THE SANCTUARY. 1. Our salvation is of God. Our damnation is of ourselves. The first of these propositions is inseparably connected with the doctrine of Free-grace, nor can the second stand, but upon the doctrine of Freewill; two doctrines these, which the moralists and the solifidians have hitherto thought incompatible: and about which some of them have contended with the utmost acrimony of temper and language.

FIRST and second Causes, leading and subordinate Motives, may perfectly agree together. The hinder wheels of a chariot need not be taken off, because they are not the fore wheels. It would be absurd to pull down the left wing of a palace, merely because it is opposed to the right. And a man makes himself ridiculous, who destroys one of his scales, because it accidentally outweighs the other. For both scales may recover their equilibrium, and answer the best of purposes.

Such, if I mistake not, is the necessary distinction, and such the nice union, that subsist between those two opposite, and yet harmonizing; exploded, and yet capital doctrines of the gospel, which we call Free-grace and Free-will. To demonstrate that their due conjunction in our hearts, forms the spiritual marriage of faith, and gives birth to all good works, I have ventured upon the SCALES which the reader will find in these pages. If their composition is human, their

Even men of piety have rashly entered the lists, some against Free grace, others against Free-will; warmly opposing what they should have mutually defended. The cause of their misunderstanding is very singular. They are good men upon the whole, therefore they can never oppose Truth as Truth: And, as they are not destitute of charity, they cannot quarrel merely for quarreling's sake. Whence then springs their continual contest? Is it not from gross partiality, excessive jealousy, wilful inattention, and glaring prejudice ? They will not look gospel-truth full in the face: They are determined to stand on either side of her, and by that means, seldom see above half of her beauty.

But all protestants are not so partial: For

while the Solifidians gaze upon the side-face of Christianity on the right hand, and the Moralists on the left; her unprejudiced lovers, humbly sitting at her feet, and be holding her in full, admire the exquisite proportion of all her features; an advantage this, which the opposite rivals can never have in their present, unfavourable position. Therefore, while a mere moralist considers as "enthusiastic rant," the doctrine of free-grace extolled by the Solifidians; and while a bound-willer brands as "dreadful heresy," the doctrine of free-will espoused by the moralists; an unprejudiced christian equally embraces the pretended "enthusiasm" of the one, and the imaginary "heresy" of the other; being persuaded, that the different sentiments of those partial contenders for free-grace and free-will, are only the opposite truths, which form the complete beauty of genuine Protestantism.

This contrary mistake of the moralists, and of the solifidians, is attended with the most fatal consequences: for, as they receive only one part of the truth, they think to do God service by attacking the other part, which they rashly take for a dangerous error: And so far as the influence of their contrary misconception reaches, the whole truth is destroyed. Primitive christianity, in their busy hands, seems to be in as much danger of losing her capital doctrines, as the elderly man in the fable was of losing his hair be tween his two wives: One was young, and could not bear his partly-silvered locks; the other, who was old, wanted him to be alto. gether as grey as herself. Both accordingly fell to work; and in a little time the young wife had so plucked out his white hairs, and the old woman his black ones, that he remained absolutely bald.

Will you see their ridiculous conduct exemplified in the religious world? Consider Honestus, the sedate moralist; and Zelotes, the warm solifidian. Honestus, who values the ten commandments far above the three creeds, seldom dwells upon Christ's redeeming love and atoning blood. Out of the church he rarely mentions the inspiration of God's Spirit, or the comforts of the Holy Ghost; and it is well if he does not think, that our addresses to the Mediator are remains of papistical idolatry. He piques himself much upon his honesty; and hoping that his free-will, best endeavours, and good works, are almost sufficient to save him, he leaves the doctrine of a sinner's justification by faith to Zelotes and St. Paul.-Zelotes flies to the other extreme. His creed is all; and, so far as decency permits, he insinuates, that believers may break the first and second commandment with Solomon, the third with Peter, the fifth with Absalom, the sixth and seventh with David, the eighth with Onesimus, and the two last with Ananias and

Sapphira; in short, that they may go any length in sin, without endangering in the least their title to a crown of glory. He thinks that the contrary doctrine is rank popery. Some of his favourite topics are: 1. God's unconditional election of some to finished salvation; an election this, which necessarily includes God's unconditional appointment of the rest of mankind to finished damnation.—2. An unchangeable fondness of God, and a partial atonement of Christ, for a comparatively small number of the children of men; a fondness and an atonement these, which include also an unchangeable wrath against, and an absolute reprobation of all the world besides :

And 3. a zealous decrying of free-will and sincere obedience, under the specious pretence of exalting Christ and free grace. As for the justification of a Believer by works, and not by faith only, he leaves it to Honestus, Bellarmine, and St. James.

If the sum of Christ's religion is, Cordially believe, and Sincerely obey; and if Honestus makes almost nothing of saving faith, while Zelotes makes next to nothing of sincere obedience, is it not evident that between them both, genuine Protestantism is almost destroyed? If I may compare Christianity to the woman, that St. John saw in one of his visions; how barbarously is she used by those two partial lovers? Both pretend to have the greatest regard for her: Both have publicly espoused her: Both perhaps, equally recommend her from the pulpit: But alas, both, though without any bad design, use her with the greatest unkindness; for, while Honestus divests her of her peculiar doctrines and mysteries, Zelotes robs her of her peculiar precepts and sanctions. Thus the one (if I may carry the allegory so far) put out her right; and the other, her left eye: The one stabs her in the right side; and the other, in the left: And this they do upon a supposition, that as soon as all their dreadful operation shall be performed, Christianity will shine in the perfection of her native beauty.

While the heavenly woman, mutilated by those partial lovers, lies thus bleeding and deformed in the midst of spiritual Egypt, Lorenzo casts his eyes upon her, and starting back at the sight, he wisely protests, that he cannot embrace so deformed a religion: and it is well, if, in this critical moment, a painted Jezebel, who courts his affections, does not ensnare his unwary soul. She calls herself Natural Religion, but her right name is Scepticism in infancy, Infidelity in youth, Fatalism in ripe years, and Abaddon in old age: Guilty, thrice guilty will Honestus and Zelotes be, if they continue to drive the hesi tating youth into the arms of that syren, by continuing to render Christianity monstrous in his eyes!

O mistaken men of God, before you have caused Lorenzo's ruin, be persuaded to re

view your doctrine; nor refuse to weigh it in the balance of the Sanctuary. If fine gold loses nothing in the fiercest fire, what can your sentiments lose in my Scripture Scales? Let cheats dread to have their weights tried by the royal standard; but do not you start from the trial. I acknowledge your honesty before band. If your weights should prove false, you reputation is safe. My readers will do you justice; they will perceive, that, far from having had any intention to deceive others, you yourselves have been the dupes of your own prejudice; thus will your mis takes be found out to your profit, and not to your shame.

The error of Honestus and that of Zelotes being opposite, so must be their method of using the Scripture Scales. Honestus who inclines to the neglect of Christ, and to the contempt of free-grace, must weigh himself against the Scriptures which follow No. 1, and batter down pharisaic dotages: That is, he must read those Scriptures over with attention; asking his conscience, if he honestly insists upon them as the primary truths of Christianity; and if he may not rank with modern pharisees, so far as he opposes or despises those Scriptures.-On the other hand, Zelotes, who leans to the disregard of sincere obedience, good works, and free-will, must weigh himself against No. II., under which he will find the Scriptures, that oppose the antinomian delusion; confessing that, so far as he sets them aside, he clips away the secondary truths of the gospel, mangles Bible-christianity, and strengthens the hands of immoral gospellers and flagitious antinomians.

If Zelotes and Honestus will not weigh their doctrine in the Scripture Scales, Candidus will do it for them. Prejudice has not yet captivated him, nor is he unacquainted with church history: He believes, that the Pope himself is not infallible: He knows all that glitters as gospel is not gospel-gold: He remembers, that for several hundred years, the worship of a consecrated wafer was esteemed a capital part of "orthodoxy" all England over; and he has observed, that the cautions of my motto are particularly given with respect to those, who say, I am Christ, i. e. "I represent him as his gospelminister, his faithful ambassador; I thank God that I am not like that Methodist ranter, or that dreadful heretic." In a word, Candidus is modest enough not to think any part of Scripture beneath his notice; and he is not such a bigot, as to suppose it a crime to compare spiritual things with spiritual; and to make the candle of truth burn brighter, by snuffing away the black excrescence of error. To you therefore, Candidus, I particularly dedicate my Scripture Scales, Despise them not at a time, when the gospel-gold, the coin current in the church, is far lighter in propor

tion, than the material gold was last year in these kingdoms at a time when the antinomians have so filed away the arms of the King of kings, that it is hard to distinguish whether they are quartered with a dove, a goose, or a hawk; a lamb, a lion, or a goat : At a time when the solifidians have so clipped the royal motto, that many instead of HOLINESS, inadvertently read FILTHINESS unto the Lord :-At a time when, on the other hand, pharisaic moralists make it their business so to deface the head of the king of saints, on the Gospel-coin, that you might take it for the head of Seneca, or that of M. Antonine-At a time when dealers in orthodoxy, publicly present you with one half of the golden truth, which they want to pass for the whole :-At a time, when some openly assert, that dung is gold,-that impure doctrines are the pure gospel; and that gold is "dung,"-that good works are "dross:"At such a time, I say, stand upon your guard, Candidus: Beware of men; beware of me; nor use my Scales till you have tried them by the Old and New Testament, those balances of the Sanctuary, which you have at home. But if upon close examination you find that they differ chiefly in cheapness, size, and conveniency, adopt the invention; and when you are going to read a religious book, or to hear a sermon, imitate the prudent trader, who goes to receive money: take your scales and use them according to the following directions.

1. Keep them even. Let not the strings of your entangled affections for this or that preacher, or your attachment to one or another party, give a hasty preponderance to either scale. Fairly suspend your judgment till it honestly turn by the full weight of truth and evidence. Consider, that "the Lord is a God of knowledge, by whom actions are weighed ;" and call upon him for impartiality; remembering, that, " with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again."

2. Please to observe, that preaching the doctrines which follows No. I, does not prove that a minister is an antinomiun; any more than preaching the doctrines which follow No. II, proves that he is a pharisee; but only preaching them in such a manner as directly or indirectly attacks, opposes, or explains away the doctrines in the other scale; in open defiance of one-half of the scriptures, which represent free-grace and holy free-will, as the flux and reflux of divine grace, by which alone the city of God flourishes, and through which only her commerce with heaven can be possibly carried on. If therefore you hear a man say, “I was by nature a child of wrath, and by practice the chief of sinners;-Not by works of righteousness which I have done, but by grace I am saved," &c. set him not down

:

for a son of voluntary humility and if he cries out, "I have lived in all good conscience unto this day.-Touching the righteousness which is in the law,-I am blameless:-Be followers of me :-Work out your own salvation :-In so doing you shall save yourself," &c. Do not rank him with the barefaced sons of pride: but look into both Scales, and if you find that he honestly uses all the weights of the sanctuary, and does the two gospel-axioms justice, as St. Paul; acknowledge him "a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."

3. Consider times, persons, 'places, circumstances, and subjects: nor imitate the unreasonable scrupulosity of the man, who will make no more allowance for the fair wear of a good old guinea, than for the felonious diminishing of the coin that was delivered last week at the mint. Do not make a man an offender for a word, or a phrase: No not for such unscriptural phrases as "the imputed righteousness of Christ," and "Sin. less perfection." Nor forget, that, although error is never to be propogated, yet all the branches of truth can never be displayed at once; and grant a man time to unfold his sentiments, before you accuse him of countenancing pharisaic and antinomian dotages: Otherwise you might charge St. Paul with Solifidianism, and Christ himself with pharisaical errors.

4. Above all, remember, that although you have all orthodoxy and all faith, you are nothing without humility and love: therefore, when you weigh a preacher's doctrine throw into his scale two or three grains of the charity that is not puffed up, thinketh no evil, and hopeth all things consistently with scripture and reason. If you neglect this caution, you will slide into the severity of a lordly inquisitor; or at least into the implicit faith of a tame papist: and the moment this is the case, throwing one scale away, and casting all your weights into the other, you will become a blind follower of the first warm preacher, that shall hit your fancy, work upon your passions, foment your prejudices, tickle your itching ears, or encourage your party-spirit; whether he be Ho nestus or Gallio, Elymas or Zelotes.

SECTION II,

Containing some general observations upon God's Free-Grace, and our personal FreeWill, which are represented as the original causes of Salvation and Damnation.

CICERO, heathen as he was, asserted, that there is no great, and consequently no good man, [sine aliquo afflatu divino] without some influence from the Deity. This influence our church calls inspiration; ["Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of

thy Holy Spirit,"] and St. Paul calls it Grace, giving that name, sometimes to the fountain of divine goodness, and sometimes to the innumerable streams, which flow from that eternal fountain. A man must then be darker than a thoughtful heathen, and as blind as an atheist, if he absolutely denies the existence of divine Grace. And on the other hand, if we deny, that there is in man a power to will or to choose, the words I will, I choose, I will not, I refuse, which are in every body's mouth, will prove us perverse. Now, if there is such a thing as grace in God, and will or power of choosing in man; both that grace and that will are free. The nature of the thing, and the well-known meaning of the words, imply as much. A bounty which we are obliged to bestow, hardly deserves the name of grace or favour; and a choice to which we are forced,-a choice, which is not accompanied with an alternative, deserves the name of necessity or compulsion, better than that of will, choice, or liberty.

Again Are not God's graces and man's will perpetually mentioned, or alluded to by the sacred writers? Nay, does not Honestus himself sometimes indirectly set his seal to the doctrine of free-grace, when he implores divine mercy at the foot of the throne of grace? And warmly as Zelotes exclaims against the doctrine of free-will, does he not frequently grant that there is such a thing as choice, liberty, or free-will in the world? And if there be, is not this choice, liberty, or free-will, the reverse of necessity, as well as of unwillingness? If I freely choose to blow my brains out, is it not evident that I have a liberty not to commit that crime, as well as a willingness to do it? Would not Zelotes expose his good sense by seriously asserting, that if he were in prison, a willingness to continue there would make him free; unless, together with that willingness, he had a power to go out if he pleased? And is it right in him to impose the doctrine of necessity upon the simple, by playing upon the double meaning of the word free? I beg leave to explain this a little more.

According the full meaning of the word Free, can it be said with any propriety, that Judas went freely to hell, if he never had power to go to heaven? Or that David went freely to heaven, if he was always hindered by an absolute, irresistable decree from going to hell? And alluding to mechanical freedom, I ask, Was the motion of those scales ever free, which never were as free to ascend as descend? Does not experience convince us, that, when one scale is kept from freely descending, the opposite scale is by the same means kept from ascending freely? Is it not evident, from the same rational principles, that no sinner can freely choose death in the error of his ways, who has not power to choose life; a free choice of death, neces

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