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A PREFATORY EPISTLE,

HUMBLY ADDRESSED TO THE TRUE PROTESTANTS

IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

Containing some remarks upon the distinguishing character of true Protestants, and upon the contrary disposition-True Protestants are chosen judges of the doctrines advanced in this book-A sketch of the author's plan-Observations upon the manner in which it is executed-General directions to the reader-True Protestants are encouraged to protest against religious absurdities, and unscriptural impositions-The author enters a double protest against the ANTINOMIAN and PHARISAIC gospels of the day, and continues to express his love and esteem for the good men, who, through the force of prejudice, espouse and defend those partial gospels.

BRETHREN AND FATHERS,-Ye know how hard the Romanists fought for their errors at the time of the reformation. They pleaded that antiquity, synods, councils, fathers, canons, tradition, and the Church were on their side: and they so obscured the truth by urging Scripture metaphors, and by quoting unguarded passages from the writings of the fathers, that thousands of simple people knew not which of the contending parties had the truth on its side. The great question debated in those days was, whether the host, that is, the bread consecrated by the priest in the Lord's Supper, was to be worshipped as the identical body of our Lord. The Romanists produced Christ's own words: "Take and eat, THIS is my body-this is my blood-drink of it. Except you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, ye have no life in you." The reformers answered, "That those expressions being figurative, it was absurd to take them in a literal sense;" and they proved their assertion by appeals to reason and to the Scriptures, where the consecrated bread is plainly called bread. The Romanists replied, "that in matters of faith we must set aside reason:" and some of them actually decried it as the greatest enemy to faith; while others continued to produce crude quotations from all the injudicious, inconsistent, overdoing fathers. The reformers seeing that at this rate there would be no end to the controversy, protested three things in general: (1.) That right reason has an important place in matters of faith. (2.) That all matters of faith may and must be decided by Scripture understood reasonably, and consistently with the context. And, (3.) That antiquity and fathers, traditions and councils, canons and the Church, lose their authority when they depart from sober reason and plain Scripture. These three protests are the very ground of our religion, when it is contradistinguished from popery. They who stand to them deserve, in my humble opinion, the title of true Protestants; they are, at least, the only persons to whom this epistle is inscribed.

If the preceding account be just, true Protestants are all candid Christian candour being nothing but a readiness to hear right reason an plain Scripture. Sincerely desirous to "prove all things, to hold fast tha which is good, and to approve things which are excellent," Protestan are then never afraid to bring their creed to a reasonable and Scriptur: test. And conscious that the mines of natural and revealed religion a not yet exhausted, they think, with the apostle, that if any man suppos he has learned all that he should know, "he is vainly puffed up in h fleshly mind, and knows nothing yet as he ought to know."

Hence it is, that of all the tempers which true Protestants abho none seems to them more detestable than that of those Gnostics,-thos pretenders to superior illumination, who, under the common pretence orthodoxy or infallibility, shut their eyes against the light, think pla Scripture beneath their notice, enter their protests against reason, ste their breasts against conviction, and are so rooted in blind obstinac that they had rather hug error in an old fantastic dress, than embra the pure truth, newly emerging from under the streams of prejudic Impetuous streams these, which "the dragon casts out of his mouth, th he may cause the celestial virgin to be carried away by the flood," Re xii, 15. Alas! how many professors are there, who, like St. Stepher opponents, judges, and executioners, are neither able to resist, nor willi to admit the truth; who make their defence by "stopping their ears, a crying out, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we who thrust the supposed heretic out of their sanhedrim; who, from t press, the pulpit, or the dictator's chair, send forth volleys of hard ins uations or soft assertions, in hope that they will pass for solid argument and who, when they have no more stones or snow balls to throw at t supposed Philistine, prudently avoid drawing "the sword of the Spiri retire behind the walls of their fancied orthodoxy, raise a rampart slanderous contempt against the truth that besieges them, and obstinate refuse either candidly to give up, or manfully to contend for the scriptural tenets which they would impose upon others as pure Gospe Whether some of my opponents, good men as they are, have not clined a little to the error of those sons of prejudice, I leave the can reader to decide. They have neither answered, nor yielded to the arg ments of my Checks. They are shut up in their own city. Strong a high are thy walls, O mystical Jericho! Thy battlements reach unto t clouds; but truth, the spiritual ark of God, is stronger, and shall p vail. The bearing of it patiently around thy ramparts, and the blowi of rams' horns in the name of the Lord, will yet shake the very found tion of thy towers. O that I had the honour of successfully mixing feeble voice with the blasts of the champions who encompass the devo city! O that the irresistible shout, "Reason and Scripture, Christ a the truth" were universal! If this were the case, how soon would Je cho and Babylon, Antinomianism and Pharisaism, fall together!

Those two antichristian fortresses are equally attacked in the follo ing pages and to you, true Protestants, I submit the inspection of attack. Direct me where I am wrong, assist me where I am right, 1 refuse to support my feebleness by your ardent prayers; for, next the Captain of our salvation, I look to you for help and comfort.

My opponents and I equally pretend to Protestantism; and who st

judge between us? Shall it be the men of the world? No: for St. Paul says, "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 Scripture. 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 inquiry, 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 the 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 God-man Christ who "is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." And (3.) That our free will, assisted by that saving grace imparted to us in the free gift, 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 et focis, for faith and works, for gratuitous mercy and impartial justice; reconciling all along Christ our Saviour with Christ our Judge, heated Augusune with 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 apostasy 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 show our antagonists that we are not afraid to meet them upon any ground, I prove, by sufficient testimo

nies from the fathers and the reformers, that the most eminent divines, in the primitive Church and our own, have passed the straits that 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 tort 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, others into Antinomian immorality, and not a few into open infidelity or fierce uncharitableness.

If a tradesman be allowed to recommend his goods, when he does i 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; an when the depth of my subject obliges me to produce arguments that re quire close attention, I endeavour so to manage them, that they do no rise above the reach of mechanics, nor sink beneath the attention o divines.

2. I have been charged with widening the breaches, which the demo of bigotry has made among religious people; but, if I have done it, take the Searcher of hearts to witness, that it has been with such a de sign as made our Lord bring fire upon the earth, the fire of truth, to bur the stubble of error, and to rekindle the flame of love. However, if have, in years past, made a wound rashly, (of which I am not yet co scious,) in this book I bind it up, and bring the healing, though (to prot or relaxed flesh) painful balsam. This book is entirely written upon pacific plan. If I sometimes give the contending parties a keen repro in obedience to the apostolic precept, "Rebuke them sharply," it is on to make them ashamed of their contentious bigotry, that I may bri them to reason the sooner. And if prejudiced readers will infer fro thence that I am a bad man, and that my pen distils gall, I forgive the hasty conclusion: I once more send them back to the good men of o who have reproved far less errors with far greater severity than I all myself to use: and I ask, if persons, impatient of control, do not alwa put wrong constructions upon the just reproofs which they are dete mined to disregard ?

3. I hope that, notwithstanding the outcry raised against my form Checks, they have been of some service to such readers as are steeled against argument and Scripture; but I flatter myself that, throu God's blessing, this tract will be more useful: I prefer it, at least, before the others, because it has far more of God's word, far less mine; the Scriptures having so large a place in the following shee that you will find whole sections filled with balanced passages, which, for brevity's sake, I have added nothing but a few illustrations 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 approbation 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 following 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 entreat all my readers, especially those who read much and think little, to take time, and not to 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 texts; 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 free grace 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 ascertained, and their gender known, I have generally 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 exerts his powers, and

"Si callida verbum

Rediderit 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 paired 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 toward 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 polemical writings upon the same subject. It is my key and my

• If a delicate connection renders the word new to him.

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