he stood upright) would have done." What! Sir, would Adam have " See died for his posterity, or did not Christ die for them? You add, the true reason of his death; that he might subdue the earthly life in every sense."---And page 45, "He certainly died for no other end, but that we might receive the spirit of holiness." Mr. W. is of a very different sentiment, Sir; for, poor heretic! he believes with the papists that Christ died to make an atonement for us, and with St. John, that "he is the propitiation for our sins and for the sins of the whole world." Nevertheless he will not cry out "dreadful heresy," though he will probably think that you was once a little too deeply in Mr. Law's sentiments. Leaving you to think with how much justice I might descant here upon this line of the satiric poet, "Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas." I remain, Rev. and dear Sir, your's, &c.

J. FLETCHER

Third Letter to the Rev. Mr. Shirley.

Hon. and Rev. Sir,

We have seen how exceedingly commendable was Mr. W.'s design in writing what you have extracted from his last Minutes; and how far from being unanswerable are the general objections, which some have moved against them. Let us now proceed to a candid inquiry into the true meaning of the propositions. They are thus prefaced:

We said in 1774, "We have leaned too much toward Calvinism." Wherein ?

This single sentence is enough, I grant, to make some persons account Mr. W. an heretic. He is no calvinist! And what is still more dreadful, he has the assurance to say that he has leaned too much towards calvinism! This will sound like a double heresy in their ear; but not in your's, Sir, who seem to carry your anti-calvinistical notions farther than Mr. W. himself. He never spoke more clearly to the point of free grace than you do, page 85, of your sermons ; God," say you, never left himself without witness, not only from the visible things of the creation, but likewise from the inward witness, a spiritual seed of light sown in the soul of every son of man, Jew, Turk, or Pagan, as well as Christian, whose kindly suscitations, whoever follows, will gradually perceive increasing gleams still leading farther on to nearer and far brighter advances, till at length a full and perfect day bursts forth upon his ravished eyes." In this single sentence, Sir, you bear the noblest testimony to all the doctrines in which Mr. W. dissents from the calvinists: you begin with general redemption, and end with perfection, or, to use your own expression, you follow him "from the spiritual seed of light in a Turk," quite to the "full and perfect day, bursting forth upon the ravished eyes of the pagan, who follows the kindly suscitations" of divine grace.

And far from making man a mere machine, you tell us, page 140, " It is true, that faith is the gift of God, but the exertions of that faith, when once given, lieth in ourselves." Mr. W. grants it, Sir! but permit me to tell you, that the word ourselv s being printed in 'talics, seems to convey rather more anti-calvinism than he holds; for he is persuaded that we cannot exert faith without a continual influence of the same divine power that produced it, it being evident upon the gospel plan, that without Christ we can do nothing. From these and the like passages in your sermons, I conclude, Sir, that your charge of dreadful heresy does not rest upon these words, “We

a

have leaned too much towards calvinism." Pass we then to the next, in which Mr. W. begins to shew wherein he has consented too much to the calvinists.

I." With regard to man's faithfulness. Our Lord himself taught us to use the expresion. And we ought never to be ashamed of it. We ought steadily to assert, on his authority, that if a man is not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, God will not give him the true riches."

Now, where does heresy lie here? Is it in the word man's faithfulness? Is there so much faithfulness to God and man among professors, that he must be opposed by all good men, who dare to use the bare word? Do real Protestants account man's faithfulness a grace of supererogation, and quoting scripture an heresy? Or do they slight what our Lord recommends in the plainest terms, and will one day reward in the most glorious manner? If not, why are they going to enter a protest against Mr. W. because "he is not ashamed of Christ and his words before an evil and adulterous generation, and will not keep back from his immense flock, any part of the counsel of God, "-much less a part that so many professors overlook, while some are daring enough to lampoon it, and others wicked enough to trample it under foot.

0, Sir, if Mr. W. is to be cast out of your synagogue unless he formally recants the passage he has quoted, and which he says we are not to be ashamed of;" what will you do to the Son of God, who spoke it? What to St. Luke who wrote it? And what to good Mr. Henry, who thus comments upon it?" If we do not make a right use of the gifts of God's providence, how can we expect from him those present and future comforts which are the gifts of his spiritual grace? Our Saviour here compares these; and shews, that though our faithful use of the things of this world cannot be thought to merit any favour at the hand of God, yet our unfaithfulness in the use of them may be justly reckoned a forfeiture of that grace which is necessary to bring us to glory. And that is it which our Saviour shews, Luke xvi. 10, 11, 12. He that is unjust, unfaithful in the least; is unjust, unfaithful also in much. The riches of this world are the less; grace and glory are the greater. Now if we be unfaithful in the less, if we use the things of this world to other purposes than those for which they were given us, it may justly be feared, we shall be so in the gifts of God's grace, that we will receive them also in vain, and therefore they will be denied us. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in much. He that serves God and does good with his money, will serve God, and do good with the more noble and valuable talents of wisdom and grace, and spiritual gifts, and the earnests of heaven; but he that buries the one talent of this world's wealth, will never improve the five talents of spiritual riches." Thus speaks the honest commentator: and whoever charges him with legality or heresy herein, I must express my entire approbation by a shout of applause. Hail Henry! Hail Wesley! Ye faithful servants of the most high God: stand it out against an Antinomian world: hail ye followers of the despised Galilean: you confess him and his words before a perverse generation, he will confess you before his Father and his angels. Let not the scoffs, let not the accusations, even of good people, led by the tempter, appearing as an angel of light, make you give up one jot or tittle of your Lord's gospel. Though thousands should combine to brand you as legalists, papists, heretics, and antichrists, stand it out: scripture, conscience, and Jesus are on your side: be not afraid of their terror, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And when you shall have occupied a little longer, and been a little more abused by your mistaken companions, your master will come and find you employed in serving his family, and not in beating your fellow-servants. And while the unprofitable, unfaithful, quarrelsome servant is cast out, he will address you with a Welcome, good and faithful servants Ye have been

faithful over a few things; I will make you rulers over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord."

Excuse the length of this address: it dropped from me before I was aware, and is the fruit of the joy I feel to see, "the John Goodwin of the age," and the oracle of the calvinists, so fully agree to maintain the Christian heresy against the antinomian orthodoxy. Nay, and you yourself, are of the very same way of thinking. For you tell us (page 89) "that God so far approved of the advances Cornelius had made towards him (by praying and giving, as you had observed before, much alms to the people) under the slender light offered him; of his earnest desire of a still nearer and more intimate acquaintance with him, and of the improvements he had made of the small talent he had committed to him, that he was now about to entrust him with greater and far better treasures."

In the mouth of two such witnesses as Mr. Henry and yourself, Mr. W.'s doctrine might be established; but as I fear that some of our friends, will soon look upon you both as tainted with his heresy; I shall produce some plan scripture-instances, to prove by the strongest of all arguments, matter of fact, that man's unfaithfulness in the mammon of unrighteousness is attended with the worst of consequences.

You know, Sir, what destruction this sin brought upon Achan, and by his menus upon Israel: and you remember how Saul's avarice, and his flying upon the spoil of the Amalekites, cost him his kingdom, together with the divine blessing. You will perhaps object that "they forfeited only temporal mercies:" true, if they repented; but if their sin sealed up the hardness of their heart, then they lost all.

I can however mention two who indisputably forfeited both spiritual and eternal blessings: the one is, the moral young man, whose fatal attachment to wealth is mentioned in the gospel. Go," said our Lord to him, "sell all thou hast, give to the poor, come, follow me, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven." He was unfaithful in the mammon of unrighteousness; he would not comply with the proposal, and though Jesus loved him, yet he stood firm to his word, he did not give him the true riches the unhappy wretch chose to have his good things in this world, and so lost them in the next.

The other instance is that of Judas; he left all, at first, to follow Jesus ; but when the devil placed him upon the high mountain of temptation, and shewed him the horrors of poverty, and the alluring wealth of this world, covetousness his besetting sin prevailed again: and as he carried the bag, he turned thief, and made a private purse. You know, Sir, that the love of money proved to him the root of all evil, and that on account of his unfaithfulness in the mammon of unrighteousness, our Lord not only did not give him the true riches, but took his every talent from him, his apostleship on earth, and one of the twelve thrones which he had promised him in common with the other disciples.

Some, I know, will excuse Judas by fathering his crime and damnation upon the decrees of God. But we, who are not numbered among real Protestants, think that sinners are reprobated as they are elected, that is, says St. Peter," according to the foreknowledge of God:" we are persuaded, that because God's knowledge is infinite, he foreknows future contingencies; and we think, we should insult both his holiness and his omniscience, if we did not believe that he could both foresee and foretell that Judas would be unfaithful, without necessitating him to be so, that the scriptures might be fulfilled: we assert then that as Jesus loved the poor covetous young man, so he loved his poor covetous disciple: for had he hated him, he must have acted the base part of a dissembler, by shewing him for years as much love as he did the

other apostles; an idea too horrid for a Christian to entertain, I shall not say of God made flesh, but even of a man that has any sincerity or truth. Judas's damnation therefore, and the ruin of the young man, according to the second axiom in the gospel, were merely of themselves, by their unbelief and unfaithfulness of the mammon of unrighteousness; for how could they believe, seeing they reposed their trust in uncertain riches!

Thus, Sir, both the express declaration of our Lord, and the plain histories of the scripture, agree to confirm this fundamental principle in Christianity, that when God works upon man, he expects faithfulness from man; and that when man, as a moral agent, grieves and quenches the Spirit, that strives to make him faithful, temporal and eternal ruin are the inevitable consequence.

Thus far then, the Minutes contain a great, evangelical truth, and not a shadow of heresy. Let us see whether the dreadful snake lurks under the second proposition.

II. "We have leaned too much towards calvinism. 2. With regard to working for life. This also our Lord has expressly commanded us, Labour, ('Epyaleon, literally, work) for the meat that endureth to everlasting life. And in fact every believer, till he comes to glory, works for as well as from life."

Here Mr. W. strikes at a fatal mistake of all antinomians, many honest calvinists, and not a few who are arminians in sentiment, and calvinists in practice. All these, when they see that man is by nature dead in trespass es and sins, lie easy in the mire of iniquity, idly waiting till by an irresistible act of omnipotence, God pulls them out without any striving on their part. Multitudes uncomfortably stick here, and will probably continue to do so, till they receive and heartily embrace that part of the gospel which is now alas! called heresy. Then shall these poor prisoners in giant Despair's castle, find the key of their dungeon about them, and perceive that "the word is nigh them, yea, in their mouth and in their heart; stirring up the gift of God within them, and in hope believing against hope, they will happily lay hold of eternal life, and apprehend by the confidence of faith, him that has apprehended them by convictions of sin.”

But now, instead of imitating Lazarus, who when the Lord had called him, and restored life to his putrifying body, came forth out of his grave, though he was bound hand and foot; these mistaken men indolently wait till the Lord' drags them out, not considering that it is more than he has promised to do. On the contrary, he reproves by his prophet, those that "do not stir themselves up to lay hold on him;" and deciding the point himself, says, " Turn ye at my reproof; behold I will pour out my Spirit upon you; because I called and ye refused, I stretched out my hands unto you and no man regarded, I will mock when your fear cometh."

Should you object, that the case is not similar, because the Lord gave life to the dead body of Lazarus, whereas our souls are dead in sin by nature. True, Sir, by nature; but does not grace reign to controul nature? And" as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, is not the free gift come upon all men to justification of life?" According to the promise made to our first parents, and of course to all men then contained in their loins, is not the seed of the woman always migh, both to reveal and bruise the serpent's head? Is not Christ the light of men,---the light of the world,--- come into the world? Shineth he not in the darkness of our nature, even when the darkness comprehends him not? And is not this fight the life, the spiritual life of men? Can this be denied, if the light is

Christ, and if "Christ is the resurrection and the life," who came that we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly?”

In this scriptural view of free grace, what room is there for the ridicilous cavil, that" Mr. W. wants the dead to work for life?" God of his infinite mercy in Jesus Christ, gives to poor sinners naturally dead in sin, a talent of free, preventing, quickening grace, which reproves them of six; and when it is followed, "of righteousness and judgment." This, which some calvinists call common grace, is granted to all without any respect of persons; so that even the poor Jew Herod, if he had not preferred the smiles of his Herodias to the convincing light of Christ, which shone in his conscience, would have been saved as well as John the Baptist; and that poor heathen Felix, if he had not hardened his heart in the day of his visitation, would have sweetly experienced that Christ had as much tasted death for him as he did for St. Paul. The living light visited them; but they not working while it was day, or refusing to "cut off the right hand" which the Lord called for, fell at last into that night wherein no man can work ; "their candlestick was removed, their lamp went out." They quenched their smoking flar, or in other words their talent unimproved was justly taken from them. Thus, though once through grace they could work, they died while they lived; and so were, as says St. Jude, twice dead, dead in Adam by that sentence, "in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;" and dead in themselves, by personally renouncing Christ the life, or rejecting the light of his convincing Spirit.

This being premised, I ask, where is the heresy in this paragraph of the Minutes? Does it consist in quoting a plain passage out of one of our Lord's sermons? Or in daring to produce in the original, under the horible form of the decagrammaton Epy Zoe, that dreadful tetragrammaton work? Surely, Sir, you have too much piety to maintain the former, and too much good sense to assert the latter. Does it consist in saying that believers work from life? (for of such only Mr. W. here speaks) Does not all grant that he who believeth hath life, yea, everlasting life, and therefore can work? And have not I proved from Scripture, that the very heathens are not without some light and grace to work suitable to their dispensation?

The heresy, say you, does not consist in asserting that the believer works from, but for life. Does it indeed? Then the Lord Jesus is the heretic; for Mr. W. only repeats what he spoke above 1700 years ago: Labour, says he, ('Eoyažeσ0e)“ work for the meat that endureth to everlasting life." Enter therefore "your protest against" St. John's gospel, if Christ will not" formally recant" it; and not " against the minutes of his servant, who dares not "take away from his Lord's words," for fear "God should take away his part out of the book of life!"

But if the Son of God is an heretie for putting the unbelieving Jews upon working by that dreadful word ('Eoyager) St. Paul is undoubtedly an arch heretic, for corroborating it by a strong preposition: (KarepуαEOE) says he to the Philippians, work out---and what is most astonishing, "work out your own salvation." Your own salvation! Why, Paul, this is even worse than working for life; for salvation implies a deliverance from all guilt, sin, and misery; together with obtaining the life of grace here, and the life of glory hereafter. Ah! poor legal apostle, what a pity is it, thou didst not live in our evangelical age! Some by explaining to thee the mystery of finished salvation, or by protesting in a body against thy dreadful heresy, might have saved the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; and the John Goodwin of the age would not have had thee to bear him out in his pharisaica!, and papistical delusions!

Here you reply, that "St. Paul gives God all the glory by maintaining,