AN ANSWER

ΤΟ

THE FINISHING STROKE

OF

RICHARD HILL, ESQ.

HONOURED AND DEAR SIR,

66

I HAVE received your Finishing Stroke,” and return the following answer, to you; or, if you have quitted the field, to your pious second, the Rev. Mr. Berridge, who by a public attack upon sincere obedience, and upon the doctrine of a believer's justification by works, and not by faith only, has already entered the lists in your place.

SECTION I., page 6, you complain, that I represent you as fighting the battles of the rankest antinomians; "because," say you, "we firmly believe and unanimously assert, that the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin,' and that if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father,' &c., and that this advocacy prevails." Not so. dear sir; I apprehend you give your readers totally wrong ideas of the question. You know, I never opposed you for saying, that "the blood of Christ cleanses" a penitent believer "from all sin." On the contrary, this I insist upon in a fuller sense than you do, who, if I mistake not, suppose that death, and not the blood of Christ applied by the sanctifying Spirit, is to be our cleanser "from all sin." The point which we debate is not, then, whether Christ's blood "cleanses from all sin," but whether it actually cleanses from all guilt an impenitent backslider, a filthy apostate; and whether God says to the fallen believer, that commits adultery and murder, "Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled, there is no spot in thee." This you affirm in your fourth letter and this I expose, as the very

quintessence of ranterism, antinomianism, and Calvinistic perseverance.

The second part of your mistake is yet more glaring than the first. The question is not, as you inform your readers, whether, "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father," &c. You know, sir, that, far from denying this comfortable truth, I maintain it in full opposition to your narrow system, which declares, that if any man, who is passed by or non-elected, sinneth, there is no Advocate with the Father for him; and that there are thousands of absolutely reprobated wretches, born to have the devil for a tempter and an accuser, without any help from our Redeemer and Advocate.

Nor yet do we debate, whether Christ's advocacy prevails, in the fullest sense of the word, for all that know the day of their visitation. This is a point of doctrine in which I am as clear as yourself. But the question, about which we divide, is, 1. Whether Christ's advocacy never prevails, when he asks that barren fig-trees, which are at last cut down for persisting in their unfruitfulness, may be spared this year also? 2. Whether it prevails in such a manner for all those, who once made ever so weak an act of true faith, that they shall never make shipwreck of the faith, never" deny the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction?" 3. Whether Aaron and Korah, David and Demas, Solomon and Hymeneus, Peter and Judas, Philetus and Francis Spira, with all that fall from God, shall infallibly sing louder in heaven for their grievous falls on earth? In a word: whether the salvation of some, and the damnation of others, are so finished, that, during the day of their visitation, it is absolutely impossible for one of the former to draw back to perdition from a state of salvation, and for one of the latter to draw back to salvation from a state of perdition?

These important questions you should have laid before your readers as the very ground of our controversy. But, instead of this, you amuse them with two precious scriptures, which I hold in a fuller sense than yourself. This is a stroke of your logic; but it is not the "finishing" one, for

you say,

SECTION II., page 6, "We cannot admit the contrary doctrine," (that of the Checks,) "without at once undermining both law and gospel. For the law is certainly undermined by supposing, that any breach of it whatever is not attended with the curse of God." What law do I undermine? Is it the law of innocence? No: for I insist upon it as well as you, to convince unhumbled sinners that there can be no salvation but in and through a Mediator. Is it the Mediator's law, the law of liberty? Certainly not: for I defend it against the bold attacks you make upon it; and shall now ward off the dreadful blow you give it in this argument.

O sir, is it right to confound, as you do, the law of paradisiacal innocence, with the evangelical law of liberty, that in point of personal sincere obedience you may set both aside at one stroke? Is not this Calvinistic "stroke" as dangerous as it is unscriptural? "There is no law but one, which damns for want of absolute innocence. All those that are under any law, must be under this law, which curses for a wandering thought as well as for incest. But believers are not cursed for a wandering thought. Therefore they are under no law; they are not cursed even for incest; they may break their rule of life' by adultery, as David, or by incest, as the unchaste Corinthian, without falling under the curse of any divine law in force against them; in a word, without ceasing to be men after God's own heart."

Now whence arises the fallacy of this argument? Is it not from overlooking the Mediator's law, the law of Christ? Can you see no medium between being under "a rule of life," the breaking of which shall "work for our good;" and being under a law that curses to the pit of hell for the least want of absolute innocence ? Betwixt those two extremes, is there not the evangelical "law of liberty?"

O sir, be not mistaken: the gospel has its law. Hear St. Paul: "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” Rom. ii. 16. Hear St. James: "So speak ye," (believers,) "and so do, as they that shall be judred by the law of liberty: for he" (the

believer) "shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy." James ii. 12, 13, illustrated by Matt. xviii. 23-35.

Christ is neither an Eli, nor a Nero; neither a dolt, nor a tyrant; but a priestly king, a Melchisedec. If he is a king, he has a law; his subjects may, and the disobedient shall, be condemned by it. If he is a priestly king, he has a gracious law; and if he has a gracious law, he requires no absolute impossibilities. Thus the covenant of grace keeps a just medium between the relentless severity of the first covenant, and the antinomian softness, or the covenant trumpeted by some Calvinists.

Be not then frightened, O Sion, from meditating in Christ's law day and night: for it is the law of thy gracious king, who "cometh unto thee meek, and sitting upon the foal of" a mild, pacific animal; and not of thy fierce and fond monarch, O Geneva, who comes riding upon the wings of storms and tempests, to damn the reprobates for the pre-ordained, unavoidable consequences of Adam's pre-ordained unavoidable sin; and to encourage fallen believers, that climb up into their neighbour's beds, by saying to each of them, "Thou art all fair, my love, my undefiled; there is no spot in thee." But more of this to Mr. Berridge. When you have given us a wrong idea of the Mediator's law, you proceed to do the same by the gospel, with which that law is so closely connected for you say,

Page 6, "The gospel is certainly undermined, by supposing, that there is provision made in it for some sins, and not for others." Well then, sir, Christ and the four evangelists have "certainly undermined the gospel ;" for they all mention "the sin against the Holy Ghost, the sin unto death," or the sin of final impenitency and unbelief; and they not only suppose, but expressly declare, that it is a sin for which "no provision is made," and the punishment of which obstinate unbelievers and apostates must personally bear. Is it not strange, that the capital doctrine, by which our Lord guards his own gospel, should be represented as a capital error, by which "the gospel is certainly undermined?"

SECTION III., page 6, to show that your scheme is different from speculative antinomianism, you ask, “Is the experience of David, Lot, and Solomon, that of all those who abide by those doctrines?"-I answer: It may be that of thousands for aught you know: and if it is not that of myriads, no thanks to you, sir; for you have given them encouragement enough: (though I still do you the justice to say, you have done it undesignedly :) and, lest they should forget your former innuendo, in this very page you say, that " the covenant of grace"-including, no doubt, "finished salvation"- -"standeth sure in behalf of the elect, under every trial, state, and circumstance they can possibly be in;" which, if I mistake not, implies, that they may be in the impenitent "state" of drunken Lot, and adulterous David, or in the dangerous "circumstance" of idolatrous Solomon and the incestuous Corinthian, without being less interested in "finished salvation," than if they served God with Noah, Job, and Daniel. To this answer I add Flavel's judicious observation: "If the principle will yield it, it is in vain to think corrupt nature will not catch at it, and make a vile use and dangerous improvement of it." But you say,

page 7, "You know in your conscience, that we detest and abhor that damnable doctrine and position of real antinomians, 'Let us sin, that grace may abound." I believe, dear sir, that all pious Calvinists, and consequently you, abhor that horrible tenet practically, so far as you are saved from sin. And yet, to the great encouragement of practical antinomianism, you have made an enumeration of the good that sin, yea, any length in sin, unto adultery, robbery, murder, and incest, does to the "pleasant children." You have assured them that "sin shall work for their good;" and you have closed the strange plea by saying that "a grievous fall will make them sing louder the praises of free, restoring grace to all eternity in heaven." Now, honoured sir, pardon me if I tell you my whole mind really to this day I think, that if I wanted to make Christ publicly "the minister of sin," and to poison the minds of my hearers by preaching an antinomian sermon from these words, "Let us sin, that grace may