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temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we! Who thrust the supposed heretic out of their sanhedrim. Who from the press, the pulpit, or the dictator's chair, send vollies of hard insinuations or soft assertions, in hope that they will pass for solid arguments. And who when they have no more stones or snow-balls to throw at the supposed Philistine, prudently avoid drawing the sword of the Spirit, retire behind the walls of their fancied orthodoxy, raise a rampart of slanderous contempt against the truth that besieges them, and obstinately refuse either candidly to give up, or manfully to contend for, the unscriptural tenets, which they impose upon others as pure gospel! Whether some of my opponents, good men as they are, have not inclined a little to the error of those sons of prejudice, I leave the candid reader to decide. They have neither answered, nor yielded to the arguments of my Checks. They are shut up in their own city. Strong and high are thy walls, O mystical Jericho; thy battlements reach unto the clouds; but truth, the spiritual ark of God, is stronger, and shall prevail. The bearing of it patiently around thy ramparts, and the blowing of ram's horns in the name of the Lord, will yet shake the very foundations of thy towers. O that I had the honour of successfully mixing my feeble voice with the blasts of the champions who encompass the devoted city that the irresistible shout, Reason and Scripture,-Christ and the Truth, was universal! If this were the case, how soon would Jericho and Babylon, Antinomianism and Pharisaism, fall together!

Those two antichristian fortresses are equally attacked in the following pages; and to you, true Protestants, I submit the inspection of the attack. Direct me where I am wrong, assist me where I am right, nor refuse to support my feebleness by your ardent prayers; for, next to the Captain of our Salvation, I look to you for help and comfort.

My opponents and I, equally pretend to Protestantism; who shall judge between us? Shall it be the men of the world? No: for St. Paul says, 66 I speak to your shame: Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge among his brethren ?"-There are wise men in our despised camp able to judge between us; and ye are the men, honoured brethren; for ye are all willing to hear Reason, and ready to weigh Scriptures; Therefore, on my part, I sincerely choose you as judges of the present dispute.

And that you may not look upon this office as unworthy of your acceptance, permit me to tell you, that our controversy is one of the most important which was ever set on foot. To convince you of it, I need only

remind you, that the grand enquiry "What shall I do to be saved?" is entirely suspended on this greater question, "Have I any thing to do, to be eternally saved?" A question this, which admits of three answers: 1. That of the mere Solifidian, who says, if we are elect, we have nothing to do in order to eternal salvation, unless it be to believe that Christ has done all for us, and then to sing finished salvation; and if we are not elect, whether we do nothing, little, or much, eternal ruin is our inevitable portion.-2. That of the mere Moralist, who is as great a stranger to the doctrine of free grace, as to that of free-wrath; and tells you, that there is no free, initial salvation for us; and that we must work ourselves into a state of initial salvation by dint of care, diligence, and faithfulness.-And 3. That of their Reconciler, whom I consider as a rational Bible-christian, and who asserts: 1. That Christ has done the part of a sacrificing Priest and teaching Prophet upon earth, and does still that of an interceding and royal Priest in heaven, whence he sends his Holy Spirit to act as an enlightener, sanctifier, comforter, and helper in our hearts-2. That the Free gift of initial salvation, and of one or more talents of saving grace, is come upon all through the Godman, CHRIST, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe : And 3. That our freewill, is enabled to work with God in a subordinate manner : so that we may freely [without necessity] do the part of penitent, obedient, and persevering believers, according to the gospel-dispensation we are under.

This is the plan of this work, in which I equally fight pro aris & focis, for faith and works, for gratuitous mercy and impartial justice, reconciling all along Christ our Saviour with Christ our Judge, heated Augustin with heated Pelagius, free-grace with free-will, divine goodness with human obedience, the faithfulness of God's promises with the veracity of his threatenings, first with second causes, the original merits of Christ with the derived worthiness of his members, and God's foreknowledge with our free-agency.

The plan, I think, is generous; standing at the utmost distance from the extremes of bigots. It is deep and extensive; taking in the most interesting subjects, about which professors generally divide, such as the origin of evil, liberty and necessity, the law of Moses and the gospel of Christ, general and particular redemption, the apostacy and perseverance of the saints, the election and reprobation maintained by St. Paul, &c. I entirely rest the cause upon protestant-ground that is, upon Reason and Scripture. Nevertheless to shew our antagonists that we are not afraid to meet them upon any ground

I prove by sufficient testimonies from the Fathers and the Reformers, that the most eminent divines in the primitive church and our own, have passed the straits which I point out; especially when they weighed the heavy anchor of prejudice, had a good gale of divine wisdom, and steered by the christian mariner's compass (the word of God) more than by the false lights hung out by party-men.

If I have in any degree succeeded in the execution of this reconciling plan, I hope that my well meant attempt will provoke abler pens to exert themselves; and will excite more respectable divines to strike heavier blows, and to repeat them, till they have given the finishing stroke to divisions, which harden the world against Christianity, which have torn the bosom of the church for above twelve hundred years, and which have hurt or destroyed myriads of her injudicious children! driving some into Pharisaic obedience, Antinomian immorality, and not a few into open Infidelity, or fierce Uncharitable

ness.

If a tradesman is allowed to recommend his goods, when he does it in a manner consistent with modesty and truth, shall I be accused of self-conceit if I make some commendatory remarks upon the following papers?-I venture to do it in the fear of God. And,

1. They are plain. I deal in plain Reason and plain Scripture; and when the depth of my subject obliges me to produce arguments that require close attention, I endeavour so to manage them, that they do not rise above the reach of mechanics, nor sink beneath the attention of divines.

2. I have been charged with widening the breaches, which the demon of bigotry has made among religious people; but, if I have done it, I take the Searcher of hearts to witness, that it has been such a design as made our Lord bring fire upon earth, the fire of truth, to burn the stubble of error, and to rekindle the flame of love. However, have I in years past made a wound rashly (of which I am not yet conscious) in this book I bind it up, and bring the healing, though [to proud or relaxed flesh] painful balsam. This book is entirely written upon a pacific plan: If I sometimes give the contending parties a keen reproof, in obedience to the apostolic precept, Rebuke them sharply, it is only to make them ashamed of their contentious bigotry, that I may bring them to reason the sooner. And if prejudiced readers will infer from thence, that I am a bad man, and that my pen distills gall, I forgive their hasty conclusion: I once more send them back to the good men of old, who have reproved far less errors with far greater severity, than I allow myself in And I ask, if persons impatient ef control, do not always put wrong con.

structions upon the just reproofs, which the y are determined to disregard?

3. I hope, that notwithstanding the outcry raised against my former Checks, they have been of some service to such readers as are not steeled against Argument and Scripture; but I flatter myself that, through God's blessing, this tract will be more useful: J prefer it (at least,) far above the others, because it has far more of God's Word, far less of mine: The Scriptures having so large a place in the following sheets, that you will find whole Sections filled with balanced passages, to which, for brevity's sake, I have added nothing but a few illustrations in brackets []

4. My method, so far as I know, is new. I have seen several concordances, made of scripture words, but have not yet met with one of scripture doctrines, upon the delicate subjects handled in this book. And I flatter myself, that, as whatever throws light upon the Bible, has always met with appro-hation from true Protestants, you will not despise this attempt to make the seeming contradictions of that precious book vanish away; by demonstrating, that they are only wise oppositions, not less important in the world of grace, than the distinction of man and wife is in the world of nature.

5. I hope that you will see, in the follow. ing pages, many passages placed in such a light, as to have their force heightened, and their obscurity removed by the opposition of the scriptures with which they are balanced; the passages which belong to the doctrine of free-grace, illustrating those which belong to the doctrine of free-will, (and vice versa,) just as the lights and shades of a picture help to set off each other. I therefore earnestly intreat all my readers, especially those who read much, and think little, to take time, and not proceed to a new Pair of Scriptures, till they have found out the balance of the last pair which they have reviewed. If they deny me this request, my trouble will be lost with respect to them; and through their hurry, my Scales will degenerate into a dull collection of passages; the very life and spirit of my performance, consisting in the harmonious opposition of the scriptures, which prove my capital doctrine, that is, the Gospel-marriage of Freegrace and Free-will. And that the Reader may find out with ease, in every couple of texts, the hands by which they are joined, and see (if I may carry the allegory so far,) the ring by which their marriage is ascer tained, and their gender known, I have put, in different characters, the words on which the opposition or connection of the paired texts chiefly depends; hoping to help the reader's mind, by giving his eyes a silent call, and by meeting his attention half way. If he exert his powers, and

Si calida verbum Reddiderit junctura novum :* He will, through God's grace, profit by his labour and mine. But, I repeat it, he must find out the delicate connection, and harmonious opposition of the pared scriptures which I produce, or my Scales will be of as little service to him, as a pair of scale-bottoms without a beam, would be to a banker, who wants to weigh a thousand guineas.

6. As I make my appeal to true Protestants, I lay a particular stress upon the Scriptures. And there I find a doctrine, which, for a long succession of ages, has been partly buried in the rubbish of Popery and Calvinism: I mean the doctrine of the various dispensations of divine grace towards the children of men: or of the various talents of saving grace, which the father of lights gives to Heathens, Jews, and Christians. To the obscurity in which this doctrine has been kept, we may chiefly impute the self-electing narrowness, and the wide reprobating partiality of the Romish and Calvinian Churches. I make a constant use of this important doctrine. It is it chiefly which distinguishes this tract from most po femical writings on the same subject. It is my key and my sword. With it I open the mys teries of election and reprobation; and with it I attempt to cut the Gordian (should I not say, the Calvinian and Pelagian?) knot. How far I have succeeded, is your's to decide.

If these general observations, ye true Protestants, make you cast a favourable look upon my Scales; and, if after a close trial, you find that they contain the reconciling ruth, and the one complete gospel of Christ, rent by Zelotes and Honestus, to make the two partial gospels of the day; let me intreat you to shew what you are by boldly standing up for Reason and Scripture that is, for true Protestantism. Equally enter your protest against the antinomian innovations of Zelotes and the pharisaic mistakes of Honestus. These two champions have indeed their thousands and tens of thousands at their feet; and they may unite their adverse forces to oppose you, as Jews and Gentiles did to oppose the Prince of peace. But, resist them with the armour of righteousness on the right hand, and on the left, and you will in time, make them friends to each other, and to yourselves: I say in time, because when peaceful men rush between fierce combatants in order to

part them, they at first get nothing but blows; the confusion for a time increases; and idle spectators, who have not love and courage enough to rush into the danger, and to stop the mischief, say that the peace-makers only add fuel to the fire of discord. Thus are the courageous sons of peace hated of all men, but of true Protestants, for treading in the steps If a delicate connexion renders the word new to

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of the divine reconciler, whom the two rivals, Herod and Pilate, agreed to set at nought;whom Jews and Gentiles concurred to crucify, inveterate enemies as they were to each He died, the loving reconciler died! but by his death "he slew the enmity, broke down the middle wall of partition,—— of twain made one new man; so making peace," between Herod and Pilate, between Jews and Gentiles: And so will you, honourbetween the Calvinists and the Pelagians, ed brethren, between Zelotes and Honestus, between the Solifidians and the Moralists; if you lovingly and steadily try to reconcile them. You may, indeed, be numbered among transgressors, for attempting it. Your reputation may even die between that of the fool, and of the knave;-that of the enthusiast, and of the felon; But be not afraid; truth and the crucified are on your side. God will raise you secret friends. A Joseph, a Nicodemus will take down the hand-writing that is against you :-A Mary and a Salome willembalm your name; and if it is buried in obliyion and reproach, yet it will rise again the third day.

can say of you, or even do to you. Smile at If God is for you, fear not then what man antinomian preterition: Triumph in pharisaic reprobation: And when you are reviled for truth's sake, like blunt, resolute, loving Stephen, kneel down, and pray, that the sin of your mistaken opposers may not be laid to which animated confessors of old, carried their charge. O for the Protestant-spirit martyrs singing to the stake, and there helped them to clap their hands in the flames, kindled by the implacable abettors of error! O for a Shadrach's resolution! The rich, glittering image towers towards heaven, and vies with the meridian sun.

The

Nebuchadnezpoints at the burning fiery furnace. zar, the monarch of the kings of the earth, princes, governors, captains, judges, counsellors, sheriffs, and rulers of provinces, in all glory of his terror. The sound of the cornet, their dazzling magnificence, increase the flute, harp, sack but, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, recommends the pompous delusion: The enthusiastic multitudes are fired into universal applause: In Nebuchadnezzar's sense of the word, they are all orthodox; they all believe the gospel of the day.

Great is the Diana of the Babylonians.' before her. But the day is not lost: Sha. All people, nations, and languages, fall down drach has not yet bowed the knee to Baal: Nor have his two friends yet deserted him: "What three !"-Yes, three only. Nor are they unequally matched :-One Shadrach against all people! One Meshach against all nations! One Abednego against all languages !-One Luther, one Protestant against all the world! O ye iron pillars of the truth, -ye true Protestants of the day, my exulting

soul meets you in the plain of Dura. Next to him who witnessed alone a good confession before Pontius Pilate, of you I learn to protest against triumphant error. Truth and a furnace for us! The truth, the whole truth as it is in Jesus, and a burning fiery furnace for true Protestants!

And shall we forget thee, O thou man greatly beloved?-Thou pattern of undaunted Protestants ? Shall we silently pass over the bold protest against the foolish, absolute irreversible decree of the day? No, Daniel: We come to pay our tribute of admiration to thy blessed memory, and to learn of thee also a lesson of true protestantism. Consider him, my brethren. His sworn enemies watch him from the surrounding palaces; but he believes in the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and his fearless soul has already vanquished their common lions. He opens his window, he looks towards desolate Jerusalem, with bended knees he presents his daily supplication for her prosperity, with uplifted hands he enters his Jewish, protest against the Persian statute; and, animated by his example, I enter my Christian protest against the Calvinian decree,

"If Daniel in sight of the lions, durst testify his contempt of an absurd and cruel decree, wantonly imposed upon his king; by which decree the king hindered his subjects from offering any true prayer for a month, under pretence of asserting his own absolute sovereignty; shall I be ashamed to enter my protest against a worse decree, absurdly imposed upon the Almighty, on the very same ab. surd pretence?-A decree which hinders the Saviour of the world from praying for the world?-A decree which Calvin himself had the candour to call “horribile decretum?" O how much better is it to impose upon an earthly king, a decree, restraining the Persians from praying aright for thirty days, than to impose upon the King of kings, a decree, hindering the majority of men, in all countries and ages, from praying once aright in all their life! And if Darius stained his goodness by eracting, that those who disobeyed his unforcible decree, should be cast into the den of lions, and devoured in a moment; how do they stain God's goodness, who teach us as openly as they dare, that he will cast into the den of devils, and cause to be devoured by flames unquenchable, all those whom his forcible decree binds either not to pray at all, or to offer up only hypocritical prayers? I PROTEST against doctrines of grace, which cannot stand without such doctrines of wrath. -I PROTEST against an exalting of Christ, which so horribly debases God.-I PROTEST against a new-fangled gospel, which holds forth a robe of finished salvation, lined with such irreversible and finished damnation.”

Again: "If Moses had courage enough in a heathen country, and in the midst of his

enemies, to enter his PROTEST against the oppressive decree, by which Pharoah' requir ed of the Israelites their usual tale of bricks, when he refused them fuel to burn them with. Shall I be afraid in this Protestant kingdom, and in the midst of my friends, to bear also my testimony against the error of Honestus? -An error this, which consists in asserting, that our gracious God has decreed, that we shall work out our own "salvation, without having first life and strength to work, imparted to us in a state of initial salvation?— Without being first helped by his free grace, to do whatever he requires of us, in order to our eternal salvation? Shall such a supposed decree as this, be countenanced by a silence that gives consent? No: I must, I do also enter my protest against it, as being contrary to divine goodness, derogatory to Christ's merits, subversive of the penitent's hope, destructive of the believer's joy, unscriptural, irrational. And, agreeable to our tenth Article, I protest: 1. In opposition to pharisaic pride, that we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will. And 2. In opposition to pharisaic Bigotry, I protest upon the proofs which follow, that God's saving grace has appeared, in different degrees, to all men; preventing (not forcing) them, that they may have a good will, and working with, [Note: our church does not say, doing all for] them, when they have that good will. And I hope, that when my, protestant brethren, are acquainted with the merits of the cause, they will equally approve of my anti-solifidian and of my anti-pharisaic protest.

But, shall a blind zeal for truth carry me beyond the bounds of love? Shall I hate Zelotes and Honestus, because I think it my duty to bear my full testimony against their errors? God forbid! I have entered two protests as a divine, and now permit me, my Protestant-brethren, to enter a third, as a plain christian. Before the searcher of hearts, I once more protest, that I make a great difference between the persons of good men, and their opinions, be these ever so pernicious. The God who loves me,-the God whom I love,-the God of love and truth teaches me to give error no quarter, and to confirm my love towards the men who propagate it; not knowing what they do, or believ ing that they do God service. And I humbly hope, that their good intentions will, in some degree, excuse the mischief done by their bad tenets.

But in the mean time mischief, unspeakable mischief is done, and the spread. ing plague must be stopped. If in trying to do it as soon and as effectually as possible I press hard upon Zelotes and Honestus, and without ceremony drive them to a corner, I

protest, it is only to disarm them, that I may make them submit to Christ's easy yoke of evangelical moderation, and brotherly kind

ness.

A polemical writer ought to be a champion for the truth; and a champion for the truth who draws only a wooden sword, or is afraid lovingly to use a steel one, should, I think, be hissed out of the field of controversy, as well as the disputant, who goes to Billingsgate for dust, mud, and a dirty knife; and the wretch who purposely misses his opponent's arguments, that he may basely stab his character. I beg, therefore, that the reader would not impute to "a had spirit," the keenness which I indulge for conscience sake assuring him, that severe as I am some times upon the error of my antagonists, I not only love, but also truly esteem them; Zelotes on account of his zeal for Christ, Honestus on account of his attachment to sincere obedience, and both on account of their genuine, though mistaken piety.

Do not think, however, that I would purchase their friendship, by giving up one of my Scales, that is, one half of the Bible. Far be the mean compliance from a true Pro testant. I hope that I shall cease to breathe, before I cease to enter protests against antinomian faith and pharisaic works, and against the mistakes of good men, who for want of Scripture-scales, honestly weigh the truth in a false balance, by which they are deceived first and with which they afterwards inadvertently deceive others.

But although I would no more yield to their base assertions or inconclusive arguments, than to hard names or soft speeches: I hope, my honoured brethren, that they and you will always find me open to, and thankful for every reproof, admonition, and direction, which is properly supported by the two pillars of protestantism,-sound Reason* and plain Scripture: For, if I may depend upon the settled sentiments of my mind, and the warm feelings of my heart, 1 am determined as well as you, to live and die a constant Bible Christian. And, so long as I shall continue in that resolution, I hope you will permit me to claim the honour of ranking with you, and of subscribing myself,

Brethren and Fathers,
Your affectionate Brother, and obedient
Son in the whole Gospel of Christ,
A TRUE PRTESTANT.

POSTSCRIPT.

Containing some strictures upon a new publication of Richard Hill, Esq.

SOME time after I had sent this epistle to the press, one of my neighbour's favoured me

By sound reason I mean the light of the world, the true light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world.

with the sight of a pamphlet, which had been hawked about my parish by the news-man. It is entitled, "Three Letters, written by Richard Hill, Esq. to the Rev. John Fletcher," &c. It is a second Finishing Stroke, in which that gentleman gives his "reasons for declining any farther controversy relative to Mr. Wesley's principles." He quits the field, but it is like a brave Parthian. He not only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows all those of two persons, whom he calls, "a very eminent minister in the church of England," and "a lay gentleman of great learning and abilities." As I see neither argument nor scripture in the performance of those two new auxiliaries, I shall take no notice of their ingrafted productions.

With respect to Mr. Hill's arguments, they are the same which he advanced in his Finishing Stroke: Nor need we wonder at his not scrupling to produce them over again, just as if they had been overlooked by his opponent; for, in the first page of this book, he says, "I have not read a single page, which treats on the subject, since I wrote my Finishing Stroke." But, if Mr. Hill has not read my answer to that piece, some of our readers have; and they may remember, that the crambe repetita,-I mean, his supposition, that St. Paul and St. John held Dr. Crisp's doctrinal peculiarities, is answered in the Fifth Check, Part I, from p. 191, to p.193. As for his common plea taken from the objection, Who had resisted his will? it is answered in this book

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As Mr. Hill's argument are the same, so are also his personal charges. After passing some compliments upon me as an "able defender" of Mr. Wesley's principles, he continues to represent me as prostituting noble endowments to the advancing of a party.' affirms [still without shadow of proof,] that he has detected many misreprensentations of facts throughout my publications." He accuses me of using "unbecoming artifices, much declamation, chicanery, and evasion,' and says, "Upon these accounts, I really cannot, with any degree of satisfication, &c. read the works of one, who, I am in continual suspicion, is endeavouring to mislead me by false glosses, and pious frauds." -If I were permitted to put this argument in plain English, it would run thus: I bespatter my opponent's character, therefore, his arguments are dangerous, and not worth

"

y notice: I do not find it easy to overthrow one of the many Scriptures, which he has set them all aside at a Finishing Stroke; for produced against Antinomianism, but I can I can say, "The shocking misrepresentations and calumnies you have been guilty of, will, for the future, prevent me from looking into any of your books, if you should write a thousand volumes. So here the controversy must end." Fin. Stroke, p. 40,-When Ma

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