edge of your own sword is again blunted, and the stroke given to the "aliens" easily parried, with the unbroken sword of the Spirit; I mean, the word of God illustrated by itself, and taken in connection with itself. However, you proceede:

X. P. 64. "The chosen vessel, Paul tells his beloved Timothy, that God hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling &c." Hence you conclude, that if we are elect our salvation is finished. I grant, that God hath saved us from hell, placed us in a state of salvation begun, and "called us with a holy calling, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling," under some dispensation of that "grace which was given us in Christ before the world began: according to God's own purpose." that Christ should be "The Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." But, alas! though many are thus called, yet but few chosen; because few walk worthy of their high vocation, few make their calling and elction sure. Numbers, like David and Solomon, Demas, and Sapphira, believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away ;-some of whom, instead of rising again, draw back unto perdition.

Hence "the chosen vessel, Paul," himself cries to halting believers, "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" So far was he from imagining that the salvation of some, and the damnation of others, 66 were as firmly secured," as if the one "were already in heaven," and the other in hell! So little did he think, that to preach the gospel was to present the elect with nothing but the cup of finished salvation, even when they take away the wives and lives of their neighbours; and to drench the reprobates with the cup of finished damnation, even while they ask, seek, knock, and endeavour to make their mock calling sure!

Certain it is, that if the apostle spoke of your finished salvation, when he said, "God hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling," reprobated myriads may reasonably give over wrestling with almighty, everlast ing wrath, and cry out, "He hath damned us, and called us with an unholy, hypocritical and lying calling according to his own purpose and wrath, which was given in Adam before the world began. O Sir, by this frightful doctrine, you give a desperate thrust to the hope which millions entertain, that God is not yet absolutely merciless towards them, and that they may yet repent and be saved; but happily for them, it is with the danger of error, and not with "the sword of the Spirit.'

XI. P. 65. “But farther. Believers are said to be saved by faith, and to be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now truth, faith, and salvation, are here inseparably linked by the Apostle.' Insep arably linked 1 Pray, Sir, where is the inseperable link! I see it not. Nay, when

I consult the apostles, on whose strained words you raise your argument, they rise with one consent against your doctrine. The one says, some branches in Christ "were broken off because of unbelief; thou standest by faith; [undoubtedly true faith] nesertheless, fear lest he also spare not thee. Behold his goodness towards thee, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. The other declares, "If after they [fallen believers, whom he does not call "pleasant," but cursed children] have escap. ed the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, [that is, through true faith] they are again entangled therein, and overcome; the latter end is worse with them than the beginning," 2 Pet. ii. 20. compared with 2 Pet. i. 2, 8, 9, 10. Thus, Sir, St. Paul and St. Peter, whom you call to your assistance, agree to wrench your sword out of your own hand. But you soon take it up again.

XII. P. 64. "Christ being styled not only the Author, but the Finisher of our faith, he must be, consequently the Finisher of our salvation." So he undoubtedly is, when we are workers together with him, that is, when using the gracious talent of will and power, which he freely gives us, we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. But if we bury that talent, do despite to the Spirit of grace, forget that we were washed from our sins, and wallow again in the mire of iniquity; Christ, the Author of the faith which we des troy, profiteth us nothing: we are fallen from grace.

Is it right to rock feeble believers in the cradle of carnal security, by telling them, they can never lose the faith; when part of St. Paul's triumphant song, just before he received the crown of martyrdom, was, "I have kept the faith?" What wonder was it, that he should have kept, what even the carnal, incestuous Corinthian could never lose! When the Scriptures mention, not only those who have kept the faith, but those who have made shipwreck of it, and of a good conscience, -those who believe for awhile, and in time of temptation fall away, and those who one day believe, another day have little faith, and by and by have no faith;-are we not wise above what is written, and sow we not antinomian tares, when we give lukewarm Laodiceans to understand, they can never lose what, alas! they have already lost.

If Christ was to believe in his own blood for us, I grant, that the work of faith and salvation could not miscarry. But what ground have we to imagine that this is the case? Did the apostles charge Christ, or sinners, to believe, under pain of damnation? If believing is entirely the work of Christ, why did he marvel at the unbelief of the Jews? Did you ever marvel, at the sessions, that the constables in waiting did not act as magis.

trates? Did you ever send them to jail for hot doing your work, as you suppose Christ sends unbelievers to hell for not believing, that is, upon your scheme, for not doing his own work?

While we readily grant you, that the talent of faith, like that of industry, is the free Gift of God, together with the time, opportunity, and power to use it; should you not grant us, that God treats us as rational, accountable creatures? That he does not use the gift of faith for us? That we may bury our talent of faith, and perish, as some bury their talent of industry, and starve? And that it is as absurd to say, the faith of every individual in the church is inadmissible, because Christ is the author and finisher of our faith; as to affirm that no indvidual ear of corn can be blasted, because Christ (who upholds all things by the word of his power) is the unchangeable author and finisher of all our harvests ?

Once more permit me, honoured Sir, to hang the millstone of reprobation about the neck of your Diana, to cast her back with that cumbrous weight into the sea of error, from whose scum she like another Venus, had her unnatural origin. If the salvation of the elect is finished, because" Christ is the author and finisher of their faith," it necessarily follows, that the damnation of the reprobates is also finished, because" Christ is the author and finisher of their unbelief." For he that absolutely withholds faith, causes unbelief, as effectually as he that absolutely with holds the light, causes darkness.

If, in direct opposition to the words of our Lord, John iii. 18, you say with some Calvinists, that "Christ does not damn men for unbelief, but for their sins;" I reply: that is mere trifling. If Christ absolutely refuses them power to believe in the light of their dispensation, how can they but sin? Does not St. Paul say, that "without faith it is imposssible to please God?" Is not unbelief at the root of every sin? Did not even Adam eat the forbidden fruit through unbelief? And is not this our only victory, even our faith?

An illustration will, I hope, expose the emptiness of the pleas which some urge in favour of unconditional reprobation, or, if you ́please, non-election. A mother conceives an unaccountable antipathy to her sucking child. She goes to the brink of a precipice, bends herself over with the passive infant in her bosom, and, withdrawing her arms from under him, drops him upon the craggy side of a rock, and thus he rolls down from rock to rock, till he lies at the bottom beaten to pieces, a bloody instance of finished destruction The judge asks the murderer, what she has to say in her own defence. The child was mine, replies she, and I have a right to do what I please with my own. Besides, I did

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neither throw him down, "nor "murder him: I only withdrew my arms from under him, and he fell of his own accord. In mystic Geneva, she is honourably acquitted; but in England, the executioner is ordered to rid the earth of the cruel monster. So may God give us commission to rid the church of your Diana, who teaches, that he, the Father of mercies, does by millions of his passive chil dren, what the barbarous mother did by ane of hers: affirming, that he unconditionally withholds grace from them: and that, by ab solutely refusing to be" the author and finisher of their faith," he is the absolute author and finisher of their unbelief, and conse quently of their sin and damnation.

XIII. However, without being frightened at these dreadful consequences, you conclude as if you had won the day : P. 65." Now I appeal to any candid judges, whether I have not brought sufficient authority, from the best of authorities, God's unerring word, for the use of that phrase finished salvation," which, P. 63, "in its full extent, I undertook to vindicate. " I cordially join in your appeal, Sir, and desire our unprejudiced readers to say if you have brought one solid proof from God's unerring word, in support of your favourite scheme, which centres in the doctrine of finished salvation: and if that expression, when taken "In its full extent,"is not the stalking horse of every wild Nicolaitan Ranter; and the dangerons bait, by which Satan, transformed into an angel of light, prevails upon unstable souls to swallow the silver hook of speculative,that he may draw them into all the depths of practical Antinomianism?

XIV. I do not think it worth while to dwell upon the lines you quote from Mr. Charles Wesley's Hymns. He is yet alive to tell us what he meant by, "It's finish'd; it's past," &c. And he informs me, that he meant, "The sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction, which Christ made upon the cross for the sins of the whole world, except doing despite to the Spirit of grace, or the sin against the Holy Ghost." The atonement which is a considerable part of the Redeemer's work, is undoubtedly finished; and if by a figure of poetry, that puts a part for the whole, you choose to give the name of finished salvation to a finished atonement, I have already observed in the Third Check, that we will not dispute about the expression. We only intreat you so to explain and guard it, as not to give sanction to "antinomian dotages," and charge the God of love with the blasphemy of finished damnation.

XV. The calvinistical passage which you produce from the Christian Library, is unguarded, and escaped Mr. Wesley's or the Printer's attention. One sentence of it is worthy of a place in the Index expurgatorius which he designs to annex to that valuable

damnation, eternal wrath flaming against my riads of unborn creatures, and everlasting fire prepared for millions of passive, sensible machines, which have only fulfilled God's secret and irresistible will,) might, one would think, receive the whole Creed, without any difficulty. For why should those who could swallow five or six camels as a glib morsel, strain at three or four gnats, as if they were going to be quite choaked. Again,

2. If Calvinism is true, you are certainly, Sir, the honest and consistent Calvinist, so far as consistency is compatible with the most inconsistent of all schemes. Permit me to produce one instance, which, I hope, will abate the prejudices, which some unsettled Calvinists have conceived against you, for speaking quite out with respect to the excellent effects of sin in believers.

If man is not a free agent, (and undoubtedly he is not, if from all eternity he has been bound by ten thousand chains of irresistible and absolute decrees) it follows that he is but a curious machine, superior to a brute, as a brute is superior to a watch, and a watch to a wheel-barrow. Upon Calvin's principles, this wonderful machine is as much guided by God's invisible hand, or rather by his absolute decrees, as a puppet by the unseen wire, which causes its seemingly spontaneous motions. This being the case, it is evident, that God is as much the Author of our actions, good or bad, as a showman is the author of the motions of his puppets, whether, they turn to the right or to the left. Now, as God is infinitely wise, and supremely good, he will set his machines upon doing nothing but what, upon the whole, is wisest and best. Hence it appears, that if the doctrine of absolute decrees, which is the fundamental principle of Calvinism, is true, what ever sin we commit, we only fulfil the absolute will of God, and do that which, upon the whole, is wisest and best, and that you have not unadvisedly pleaded for Baal, but rationally spoken for God, when you have told us, what great advantages result from the commission of the greatest crimes. In doing this strange work, then you have acted only as a consistent predestinarian; and though some thoughtless Calvinists may, yet none that are judicious will blame you, for having spoken agreeably to the leading principle of "the doctrines of grace."

I have observed, that speculative Antinomianism, or barefaced Calvinism, stalks along upon the doctrines of finished salvation, and finished damnation, which we may consider as the two feet of your great Diana; and the preseding Creed, which is drawn up for an elect, uncovers only her handsome foot, finished salvation. To do my subject justice, I should now make an open show of her cloven foot, by giving the world the creed of a reprobate according to the dreadful

doctrine of finished damnation. But as I fatter myself, that my readers are already as tired of Calvinism as myself, I think it needless to raise their detestation of it, by drawing before their eyes a long chain of blasphemous positions, capable of making the hair of their heads stand up with horror. I shall, therefore, with all wise Calvinists, draw a veil over the hideous sight, and conclude by assuring you, few people more heartily wish you delivered from speculative Antinomianism, and possessed of salvation truly finished in glory, than, Honoured and dear Sir, your affectionate and obedient Servant, in the bonds of what you call the "legalized gospel." JOHN FLETCHER.

Letter VIII. To Richard Hill, Esq. HONOURED AND DEAR SIR,

HAVING endeavoured in my last, to convince you out of your own mouth, that undisguised Calvinism, and speculative Antinomianism, exactly coincide; before I turn from you to face your brother, I beg leave to vindicate good works from an aspersion which zealous Calvinists perpetually cast upon them: For as practical Antinomianism destroys the fruits of righteousness, as a wild boar does the fruit of the vine; so speculative Antinomianism besprinkles them with filth, as an unclean bird does the produce of our orchards.

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Hence it is, that you charge me, (Review, p. 69,) with "vile slander," for insinuating that our free-grace preachers do not "raise the superstructure in good works!" P. 41, as if you wanted to demonstrate the truth of my "vile slander," you say, Though we render the words kaλa ɛpya, gord works, yet the exact translation is, ornamental works; and truly, when brought to the strictness of the law, they do not deserve the name of good. But however grating the expression may sound, to those who hope to gain a second justification by their works, yet we have Scripture authority to call them dung, dross, and filthy rags."

Now, Sir, if Scripture authorizes us to call them thus, they are undoubtedly very useless, loathsome, and abominable; and the Minutes, which highly recommend them, are cer◄ tainly dreadfully heretical. I must then lose all my controversial labour, or once more take up the shield of truth, and quench this fiery (should I not say, this "filthy”) dart, which you have thrown at St. James's undefiled religion. I begin with your criticism.

I. "Though we render the words κaλa ɛpya, good works, yet the exact translation is, ornamental works." I apprehend, Sir, you are mistaken: The Greek word kaλos exactly answers to the Hebrew () which conveys the joint ideas of goodness and beauty. Before there was any "filthy rag" in the