pily mistaken, Sir, if you are not obliged one day to make use of the heretical Minutes, as he did of the epistle of straw. If any still, urge, "I do not love the word. condition." I reply; it is no wonder; since thousands so hate the thing, that they even choose to go to hell, rather than perform it. But let an old worthy divine, approved by all but Crisp's disciples, tell you what we mean by condition: "an antecedent condition, (says Mr. Flavel in his discourse of er. rors) signifies no more than an act of ours; which, though it be neither perfect in any degree, nor in the least meritorious of the benefit conferred, nor performed in our own natural strength; is yet, according to the constitution of the covenant, required of us, in order to the blessings consequent thereupon, by virtue of the promise and conse quently, benefits and mercies granted in this order, are and must be suspended by the donor, till it be performed.". Such a condition we affirm faith to be, with all that faith necessarily implies. When Dr. Crisp, in the last century, repre sented all the sober Puritan Divines, as legal, they answered, "The covenant though conditional, is a dispensation of grace. There is grace in giving ability to perform the condition, as well as bestowing the benefits : God's enjoining the one in order to the other, makes not the benefit to be less of grace; but it is a display of God's wisdom, in conferring the benefit suitably to the nature and condition of men in this life, who are here in a state of trial; yea, the conditions are but a meetness to receive the blessings." "The reason, added they, why we use the word condition, is because it best suits with man's relation to God in his present dealings with us, as his subjects on trial for eternity. Christ as a priest has merited all but as a priestly king he dispenseth all: he enjoins the conditions in order to the benefits, and makes the benefits motives to our compliance with the conditions. He treats with men as his subjects, whom he will now rule, and hereafter judge. Now what word is so proper to express the duties as enjoined means of benefits, as the word conditions? The word conditions is of the same nature as terms of the Gospel. There are few authors of note, even of any persuasion that scruple using this word in our sense, as Ames, Twiss, Katberford, Hooker, Norton, Preston, Ow en, synod of New-England, the assembly of Divines, &c. And none have reason to scruple it except such as think we are justified before we are born." See Gospel Truth vindicated by Williams, against Dr. Crisp. If all the Protestant Divines who have di rectly or indirectly represented repentance and faith as conditions of present salvation; and holiness of heart and life as conditions of eternal glory, as things fine quibus non, without which salvation and glory neither cau nor will follow:-if all those Divines, I say, are guilty of heresy, ninety-nine out of an hundred are heretics, and none of them deeper in the heresy than yourself. In your Sermon, page 39, clearing yourself of the shander that you do not preach up, recommend and insist on the necessity of good works; you add, "I not only preach this or that part of the moral law, but I preach the whole moral law; and I tell you plainly, that if you do not porform the whole will of God, you cannot be finally saved." Then you add, "Surely they who contend for the doctrine of works will be satisfied with this, or they are very unreasonable." Indeed, Sir, Mr. W. is quite satisfied with it; I only wonder what in the world can make you so dissatisfied with his Minutes; for he never gave Antinomianism a more legal thrust. And as you make works so absolutely necessary to eternal salvation, so do you make a law-work an universal prerequisite of present salvation. Speaking of the fear and dread that seize a sinner under convictions of sin, you say, page 111. "This inward shock of perturbation must pass upon the soul of every returning sinner more or less, before he can be possibly rendered a proper object of divine grace and mercy." Hold, Sir, you go one step beyond Mr. W. for he steadily maintains, that if the sinner was not a proper object of divine grace, before he feels the inward shock you speak of, he would never be shocked and return. Do not all unprejudiced persons see, that what Mr. W. calls condition, others call way, means, or terms? &c. And that you have as little reason to pick a quarrel with him, as to raise a body of men against a quiet traveller, for calling a certain sum, a guinea, whereas you think it more proper to call it one pound one,-twenty-one shillings,-forty-two sixpences,--or sixty-three groats. Oh, Sir, what reason have we to be ashamed of our chicaneries; and to beseech the Lord, that they may not stumble the weak, and harden infidels. O how justly does Mr. W. ask next? V. "What have we then been disputing about for these thirty years? I am afraid about words." Pardon me, Sir, if here also I cannot, with you, cry heresy! Far from doing it, I admire the candour of an old man of God, who instead of stiffly holding, and obstinately maintaining an old mistake, comes down as a little child, and freely acknowledges it before a respectable body of Preachers, whose esteem it is his interest to secure. O how many are there that look upon Mr. W. as a rotten threshold, and themselves as pillars in the temple of God, who would not own themselves mistaken for the world! He says, "I am afraid we have disputed about words;" perhaps he might have said, I am very sure of it. How many disputes have been raised these thirty years among religious people, about those works of the heart, which St. Panl calls repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ? Some have called them the only way or method of receiving salvation, others the means of salvation, others the terms of it. Some have named them duties or graces necessary to salvation, others conditions of salvation, others parts of salvation, or privileges annexed to it; while others have gone far round about, and used I know not what far fetched expressions, and ambiguous phrases to convey the same idea. I say the same idea, for if all maintain that although repentance and works meet for it, and faith working by love, are not meritorious, they are nevertheless absolutely necessary, that they are a thing. fine qua non, all are agreed; and that if they dispute, it must be, as Mr. W. justly intimates, about words. A comparison will at once make you sensible of it. A Physician tells me, that the way, the only way or method in which we live, is abstaining from poison, and taking proper food: no, says another, you should say, that abstaining from poison, and taking proper food; are the means, by which our life is preserved. You are quite mistaken, says the third, rejecting poison and eating are the terms God hath fixed upon for our preser vation; no, says a fourth,they are duties, without the performance, or blessings, with out the receiving of which we must absolutely die: I believe for my part says another, that Providence hath engaged to preserve our life, on condition that we shall forbear taking poison, and eat proper food. You are all in the wrong, you know nothing at all of the matter; (says another who applauds him. self much for his wonderful discovery) turning from poison, and receiving nourishment, are the exercises of a living man, therefore they must absolutely be called parts ofhis life, or privileges annexed to it; you quite take away people's appetite, and clog their stomach, by calling them duties, terms, conditions; only call them privileges and you will see no-body will touch poison, and all will eat most heartily.While they are all neglecting their food, and taking the poison of this contention, he that had mentioned the word condition, starts up and says, "Review the whole affair; take heed to your assertions; I am afraid we dispute about words." Upon this all rise against him, all accuse him of robbing the preserver of men of his glory, or holding a tenet injurious to the very fundamental principles of our constitution. Let us leave them to the uneasy workings of their unaccountable panic, to consider the next article of the Minutes. VI. “As to merit itself, of which we have been so dreadfully airaid: we are rewarded ac cording to our works, yea, because of our works. How does this differ from, for the sake of our Can If Mr. W. meant, that we are saved by the merit of works, and not entirely by that of Christ, you might exclaim against his proposition as erroneous; and I would echo back your exclamation. But as he flatly denies it No. 4. in those words, not by the merit of works, and has constantly asserted the con trary for above thirty years, we cannot without monstrous injustice, fix that sense upon the word merit in this paragraph. Divesting himself of bigotry and party spirit, he generously acknowledges truth even when it is held forth by his adversaries. An instance of candour worthy of our imitation! He sees that God offers and gives his children here on earth, particular rewards for particular instances of obedience. He knows that when a man is saved meritoriously by Christ, and continually by (or if you please, upon the terms of) the work of faith, the patience of hope, and the labour of love, he shall particularly be rewarded in heaven for his works: And he observes, that the Scriptures steadily maintain, we are recompensed according to our works, yea, because of our works. The former of these assertions is plain from the parable of the talents, and from these words of our Lord, Matt. xvi. 27. "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, and reward every man according to his work ;"-Unbelievers according to the various degrees of demerit belonging to their evil works, (for some of them shall comparatively be beaten with few stripes ;) and believers according to the various degrees of excellence found in their good works; for as 66 one star differeth from another star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the righteous dead." 66 The latter assertion is not less evident from the repeated declarations of God: "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world." Rev. iii. 10.-" Because Phineas was zea. lous for his God, [in killing Zimri and Cosbi,] behold I give unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood."-And again,- Because thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, by myself have I sworn that in blessing I will bless thee, because thou hast obeyed my voice." Now says Mr. W. how differs this from, I will bless thee for the sake of thy obedience to my voice? And how differs this from secunda merita obedientiæ ? As thy obedience deserves? And by comparing the difference of these expressions to the spliting of a hair, or to a metaphysical subtility, he very justly insinuates, that we have been too dreadfully afraid of the word merit. Surely, Sir, you will not divest yourself of the candour that belongs to a Christian, to put on the bitter zeal of a bigot. You will not run for fear of Popery into the very Spirit of it, by crying Heresy! Heresy! before you have maturely considered the question: Or if you have done so once, you will do it no more. And if Mr. W. should ever propose again the splitting of a hair, I hope, you will remember that equity (to say nothing of brotherly love) 'requires you to split the hair yourself, before you can with decency stir up people far and near against him, for modestly doubting, whether he can do it or no? But suppose some are determined to cry Heresy! whenever they see the word merit; I hope others will candidly weigh what follows, in the balance of unprejudiced Rea son. If we detach from the word merit the idea of" Obligation on God's part to bestow any thing upon creatures, who have a thousand times forfeited their comforts and existence;" If we take it in the sense we fix to it in an hundred cases; for instance this: "A master may reward his scholars according to the merit of their exercises, or he may not; for merit of the best exercise can never bind him to bestow a premium for it, unless he has promised it of his own accord:" if we take, I say, the word merit in this simple sense, it may be joined to the word good works, and bear an evangelical meaning. To be convinced of it, candid reader, consider, with Mr. W. that "God accepts and rewards no work but so far as it proceeds from his own grace through the Beloved." Forget not that Christ's Spirit is the savour of each believer's salt, and that he puts ex cellence into the good works of his people, or else they could not be good. Remember, he is as much concerned in the good tempers, words, and actions of his living members, as a tree is concerned in the sap, leaves, and fruit of the branches it bears. John xv. 5. Consider, I say, all this, and tell us, whether it can reflect dishonour upon Christ and his grace, to affirm, that as his personal merit, the merit of his holy life and painful death, opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers, so the merit of those works which he enables his members to do, will determine the peculiar degrees of glory graciously allotted to each of them. I own, I believe there is such a dignity in every thing in which the Son of God has an hand, that the Father, who is always well pleased with him and his works, cannot but look upon it with peculiar complacence. Even a cup of water given in his dear name, that is, by the efficacy of his loving Spirit, hath that in it which shall in no wise lose its reward; for it has something of the love of the God-man Jesus, which merits all the approbation and smiles of the Father. In our well meant zeal against Popery we have been driven to an extreme and have not done good works justice, "I am the Vine, says Jesus, and ye are the branches, he that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit: Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit." What! is the Father glorified in the fruit of believers; and shall this fruit be represented to us always grub-eaten, and rotten at the core? Do we honour either the Vine, or the Husbandman, while one hour we speak wonders of the Fruit of the Vine, and the next represent the branches and their fruit as full of deadly poison? O God of mercy and patience, forgive us, for we know not what we do! we even think we do thee service: O give us genuine, and save from voluntary humility. Believer, let not the virtue of thy Saviour's righteousness, the only good thing that is in thee, be evil spoken of. "Thou art grafted upon the good olive-tree; be not high minded but fear;" fear to be cut off like the branch that beareth not fruit; but be not afraid to suck the balmy sap, till the peaceful olive ripens in thy soul, and drops the oil of joy that makes a cheerful countenance. Thou art "married to Christ, that henceforth thon shouldst bring forth fruit unto God.” let not thy mistaken brethren discourage thee from doing all the good that thy heart and hand find to do, and that with all thy might. I write these allusions as they occur to my mind, to raise thy thoughts above spiritual sloth and barrenness of heart, by showing thee, through a Scriptural glass, something of thy husband's glory, and of the excellence of the labour of love, wherein thou hast the honour of being worker together with him. Let not what I say puff thee up, but encourage thee too" be stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as thou knowest thy labour is not in vain in the Lord " Remember thou hast nothing to boast of, but much reason to be humbled. If thy works are compared to a rose, the colour, odour, and sweetness are Christ's; the apiness to fade, and the thorns are thine. If to a burning taper, the snuff and smoke come from thee, the bright and cheering light from thy Bridegroom. The excellence and merit of the performance flow from him: the flaws and imperfections from thee; nevertheless the whole work is as truly thine, as grapes are truly the fruit of the branch that bore them. And yet, the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more canst thou, except thou abide in Christ: for without him thou canst do nothing." 66 as Having thus cautioned thee against the Popish abuse of Mr. W's doctrine of the excellence of works, and shewn thee the evange lical use that a real Protestant should make of it; I return to the word merit, of which we have been so dreadfully afraid. Let a comparison help thee to understand how a believer may use it in a very harmless sense. The king promises rewards for good pic tures, to miserable foundlings, whom he has charitably brought up, and graciously admitted into his royal academy of painting: far from being masters of their art, they can of themselves do nothing but spoil canvas, and waste colours by making monstrous figures: but the king's son, a perfect painter, by his father's leave guides their hands, and by that mean good pictures are produced, though not so excellent as they would have been, had not he made them by their stiff and clumsy hands. The king however approves of them, and fixes the reward of each picture according to its peculiar merit. If thou sayest that the poor foundlings, owing all to his majesty, and the prince's having freely guided their hands, they themselves merit nothing; be cause after all they have done, they are miserable daubers still, and nothing is properly theirs but the imperfections of the pictures, and therefore the king's reward, though it may be of promise, can never be of debt; I grant, I assert it. But if tuou sayest the good pictures have no merit, I beg leave to dissent from thee, and tell thee thou speakest as unadvisedly for the king, as Job's friends did for God. For if the pictures have absolutely no merit, dost not thou greatly reflect upon the king's taste and wisdom in saying that he rewards them? In the name of common sense, what is it he rewards? The merit or demerit of the work? But this is not all, if the pictures have no merit, what hath the king's son been doing? Hath he lost all his trouble in helping the novices to sketch and finish them? Shall we deny the excellence of his performance because they were concerned in it? Shall we be guilty of this glaring partiality any longer? No, some Protestants will dare to judge righteous judgment, and acknowledging there is merit where Christ puts it, and where God rewards it, they will give honour to whom honour is due, even to him that worketh all the good in all his creatures. For my part I entirely agree with the author of the Minutes, and thank him for daring to break the ice of prejudice and bigotry among us, by restoring works of righteous ness to their deserved glory, without detract ing from the glory of the Lord our righteous ness. I am as much persuaded that the grace of Christ merits in the works of his members, though it is mixed with dust aud dross, which are good for nothing. As there is but one Mediator, one prevailing Intercessor between God and us, even the man Christ Jesus; and never heless his spirit in us, maketh intercession for us, with groaning which cannot be uttered: so there is but one man whose works are truly meritorious; but when he works in us by his Spirit, our works cannot (so far as he is concerned in them) but be in a sense meritorious; because they are his works. Real Protestant, if thou deniest this. thou maintainest an antichristian proposition, namely, that Christ has lost his power of meriting. Herein I must dissent from thee, nor will the cry Heresy! Popery! make me give up this fundamental Truth of Christianity, that Jesus is the same, the very same deserving Lord, yesterday, to-day and for ever. In this evengelical view of things, the Redeemer is much exalted by the doctrine of the merit of good works; and believers are still left in their native dust to cry out, "Not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name give we praise." In the light of this precious truth, we see and admire the endearing conduct that is always carried on, between God's loving-kindness, and the humble gratitude of believers. God says, 66 Well done good and faithful servants reap what ye have sown:" and they answer, Lord, Thy pound hath gained all; thou hast wrought all our work in us. God says they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy and they reply," Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath washed us from our sins in his own blood." Christ crowns faith by this gracious declaration, "Thy faith has saved thee :" and believers in their turn, crown, Christ by this true confession, "Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to thy mercy thou hast saved us; for thou hast quickened us by thy Spirit when we were dead in sin: yea, thou didst redeem us unto God by thy blood, hundreds of years before we had done any one good work. In a word, they justly give God all the glory of their salvation, agreeable to the first axiom in the Gospel-plan, and God graciously gives them all the reward, accord. ing to the second. And now, is it not pity that any good men should be so far biased by the prejudices of their education, or influenced by the spirit of their party, as to account this delightful harmonizing view of evangelical truths, a dreadful Heresy ? Is it not pity that by so doing they should expose their prepossession sirengthen the hands of Antinomians, harden the hearts of Papists, deprive their Saviour, of part of the honour due to him, leave seeming contradictions in the Scriptures unexplained, and trample under foot, as unworthy of their Protestant-orthodoxy, a powerful motive to obedience, by which neither Moses nor Jesus were above being influenced; for the one looked to the recompence of reward, and the other for joy that was set before him, both despised the shame, and endured the cross. It may not be amiss to illustrate what has been advanced upon the merit of the rewardableness of works, by scriptural instances of old and modern Saints who have pleaded it before God. David speaks thus in the 18th Psalm, "The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me -I was upright before him, therefore hath he recompensed me according to my righteousness," &c. And in the 119th Psalm, having mentioned his spiritual comforts he says, "This I had because, I kept thy precepts." Another instance, no less remarkable, is that of Hezekiah, who prayed thus in his sick ness, "Remember now, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight." We see instances of this boldness in the New Testament also. We have left all to follow thee, said once the Disciples to our Lord, and what shall we have for this sacrifice? Jesus instead of blaming their question, simply told them they should have an hundred fold for all they had left, and made it a standing rule of distribution for all the church. St. John exhorts the elect lady, to "look_to_herself that she lose not the things that she hath wrought, but receive a full re ward." And evangelical Paul desires the Hebrews "not to cast away their confidence, which hath great recompense of reward;" and charges the Colossians to "see that none beguile them of their reward, in a voluntary humility." From these and the like Scriptures, I conclude, that those who have a clear witness they have done what God commanded, may, without heresy, humbly demand the promised reward: which they can never do without this idea, that according to the tenor of the Gospel-covenant, they are fit subjects for it. I know some will take the alarm, and to save the ark which they think totters by this doctrine, will affirm, that in the above mentioned passages David personates Christ : and Hezekiah the Pharisee. But this is contradicting the whole context, to say nothing of all sober commentators. Mr. Henry tells us, that David, in these verses, "reflects with comfort upon his own integrity, and rejoiceth like St. Paul, in the testimony of his own conscience, that he had had his conversation in godly sincerity." And he informs us, that the Psalmist lays down in this psalm "the rules of God's government, that we may know not only what God expects from ns, but what we may expect from him. With regard to Hezekiah, it is plain his prayer was heard; a strong proof that it was inspired by the Sprit of Jesus, and not that of the Pharisee. But if you reject, Sir, the testimony of David, and Hezekiah, because they were Jews, receive at least that of real Protestants for which we only need go as far as Bath or Talgarath parish: there we shall find chapels where the Protestants have agreed together, to ask rewards as solemnly as ever David and Hezekiah did. In the hymns you have revised for another edition, and by that means made your own with respect to the doctrine one is calculated to "Welcome a messenger of Jesus's grace, and all the congregation sings. "Give reward of grace and glory To thy faithful labourers there.' What, Sir, do you allow the labours of a Minister to be of such dignity, and his faithfulness to have such uncommon merit, that a thousand people can boldly ask God a reward for him, and that not only of gifts and temporal blessings, but of grace; and not of grace only, but glory too! You have in those two lines the very quintessence of the three grand heresies of the Minutes, faithfulness, works, and merit. Permit me to add one passage more, from page 312, of Baxter's Methodus Theologia Christiana. We "The word merit rightly explained is not amiss. All the fathers of the primitive church have made use of it without opposition, to the best of my remembrance.-It may be used by believers who do not make a cloak for error, by wise men who will not be offended at it, and by those who want to defend the truth, and convey clearer ideas in the explanation of things intricate. There is no word that fully conveys the same idea that which comes nearest to it is dignity, and suspicious persons will not like it much better. have three words in the New Testament that come very near it, αξιος, μισθος and δικαιον, they occur pretty frequently there. We render them worthy, reward, and just; and the abuse Papists make of them ought not to make us reject their use. The English word worthy conveys no other idea than that of the Latin word meritum taken actively: nor has the word reward, any other signification than the word meritum, taken passively; therefore they who can put a candid sense upon the words worthy and reward, should do the same with regard to the word merit." Having explained and vindicated the sixth Article of the Minutes, I proceed to the VII. "The grand objection to one of the preceding propositions, is drawn from matter of fact. God does, in fact, justify those, who by their own confession, neither feared God nor wrought righteousness. Is this an exception to the rule? "It is a doubt, if God makes any exception at all. But how are we sure, that the person in question never did fear God and work righteousness? His own saying so is not proof: for we know, how all that are convinced of sin, undervalue themselves in every respect." Do you think, Sir, the heresy of this proposition consists in intimating, that God does in fact justify those who fear him, and not those who make absolutely no stop in the downward road of open sin and flagrant iniquity? If it does, I am sure the sacred writers are heretics to a man. See the account we have of conversions in the Scripture, please to remember what Mr. W. means |