destruction from "Faith without works" May the merciful Keeper of Ísrael save us from both, by a living faith, legally productive of all good works, or by good works, evangelically springing from a living faith! Should a divine Blessing upon these sheets, bring one single Reader a step towards that good old way, or only confirm one single believer in it, I shall be "rewarded a hundred fold" for this little labour of love;" and I shall be even content to see it represented as the invidious labour of malice for what is my reputation to the profit of one blood-bought soul? : Beseeching you, dear Sir, for whom these letters are first intended, to set me right where I am wrong; and not to despise what may recommeud itself in them to reason and conscience, on account of the blunt and Helvetic manner in which they are written, I remain, with sincere respect, Honoured and Reverend Sir, your affectionate and obedient servant in the practical gospel of Christ, J. FLETCHER. POSTCRIPT SINCE these Letters were sent to the press, I have seen a pamphlet, intitled, "A Conversation between Richard Hill, Esq. the Rev. Mr. Madan, and Father Walsh," a monk at Paris, who condemned Mr. Wesley's Minutes as "too near Pelagianism," and the author as a Pelagian ;' adding, that "their doctrine was a great deal nearer that of the Protestants. Hence the editor concludes, that "the principles in the extract of the Minutes are too rotten even for a Papist to rest upon, and supposes that Popery is about the mid-way between Protestantism and Mr. J. Wesley." I shall just make a few strictures upon that performance. 1. If an Arian came to me, and said: You believe that Jesus Christ is God over all, blessed for ever. Pelagius, that heretic who was publicly excommunicated by the whole Catholic church," was of your sentiment; therefore you are a Pelagian; give up your heresy: Should I, upon such an assertion, give up the Godhead of our Saviour? Certainly no. And shall I, upon a similar argument, advanced by the help of a French monk, give up truths with which the practical gospel of Jesus Christ must stand or fall? God forbid! 2. We desire to be confronted with all the pious Protestant divines, except those of Dr. Crisp's class, who are a party: But, who would believe it? The suffrage of a Papist is brought against us! Astonishing! That our opposers should think it worth their while to raise one recruit against us in the immense city of Paris, where fifty thousand might be raised against the bible itself! 3. So long as Christ, the Prophets, and Apostles are for us, together with the multitude of the Puritan divines of the last century, we shall smile at an army of Popish friars. The knotted whips that hang by their side, will no more frighten us from our bibles, than the ipse dirit of a Benedictine monk will make ùs explode, as heretical, propositions, which are demonstrated to be scriptural. 4. An argument which has been frequently used of late against the anticalvinist divines is, "This is downright popery! This is worse than Popery itself!" And honest Protestants have been driven by it to embrace doctrines, which were once no less contrary to the dictates of their conAcience, than they are still to the word of God. It is proper therefore, such persons should be informed, that Augustin, the Calvin of the fourth century, is one of the saints whom the popes have in the highest veneration; and that a great number of friars in the church of Rome are champions for Calvinism, and oppose St. Paul's doctrine, that "the grace of God bringeth salvation, has appeared unto al! men," as strenuously as some real Protestants do among us. Now, if good Father Walsh is one of that stamp, what wonder is it that he should so well agree with the gentlemen who consulted him? If Calvinism and Protestantism are synonymous terms, as some divines would make us believe, many monks may well say, that" their doctrine is a great deal nearer that of the Protestauts," than the Minutes; for they may even pass for "real Protestants." 5. But whether the good friar is a hot Jansenist, or only a warm Thomist, (so they call the Popish Calvinists in France) we appeal from his bar to the tribunal of Jesus Christ, and from the published conversation, 'to the law and the testimony." What is the decision of a Popish monk to the express declarations of the Scripture, the dictates of common sense, the experience of regenerate souls, and the writings of a cloud of Protestant divines? No more than a grain of loose sand to the solid rock on which the church is founded. I hope the gentlemen concerned in the Conversation Iately published, will excuse the liberty of this Postcript. I reverence their piety, rejoice in their labours, and honour their warm zeal, for the Protestant cause. But that very zeal, if not accompanied with a close attention to every part of the gospel-truth, may betray them into mistakes which may spread as far as their respectable names; I think it therefore my duty to publish these strictures, lest any of my readers should pay more regard to the good-natured friar, who has been pressed into the service of Dr. Crisp, than to St. John, St. Paul, St. James, and Jesus Christ, on whose plain declarations I have shewn that the Minutes are founded. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and [scriptural] doctrine; for the time will come, when they will not endure sound doctrine."-2 Tim. iv. 2, 3. "Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; but let brotherly love continue."-Tit. i. 13. Heb. xiii. 1. 2 G |