An Answer to Mr. Richard Hill's Finishing Stroke 205 Remarks on the Creed of an Antinomian......... III. The Conditionality of Perseverance... 262 IV. Unconditional Reprobation, and Fi- nished Salvation, false Doctrines V. AN EQUAL CHECK TO PHARISAISM AND PREFACE. The Design of the Work, and the Reasons I. An Historical Essay upon the Importance and Harmony of the two Gospel Precepts, Believe and Obey; and upon the fatal Consequences that flow from parting Faith and Works....... II. A Discourse preached at Madeley, April 18th, 1762, and May 9th, 1773, on the two Covenants, that of Works and that of Grace; showing that Salvation is only by the latter III. A Scriptural Essay on the astonishing Reward- AGAINST THE CHARGES, AND ESTABLISHED UPON THE CONCESSIONS, OF MR. RICHARD AND MR. ROWLAND HILL, IN A SERIES OF LETTERS TO THOSE GENTLEMEN, BY THE VINDICATOR OF THE MINUTES. "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."-Titus i. 13; Heb. xiii. 1. "Some, whose carnal hearts could not bear the reproofs they have met with in St. James's epistle, have endeavoured to dispute its authority. By reading this blessed scripture,' given by inspiration of God, we find how early Satan began to sow his tares among the wheat of God, and to bring the accursed weeds of antinomianism into the vineyard of the holy Jesus: one grand design of this epistle was to root these up, and to prevent the spreading of those libertine doctrines, which threatened the destruction of all practical godliness."-The Rev. Mr. Madan's Sermon on James ii. 24. TO ALL CANDID CALVINISTS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. HONOURED AND DEAR BRETHREN, A STUDENT from Geneva, who has had the honour of being admitted a minister of your church, takes the liberty of dedicating to you these strictures on Genevalogic, which were written both for the better information of your candid judgment, and to obtain tolerable terms of peace from his worthy opponents. Some, who mistake blunt truth for sneering insolence, and mild ironies for bitter sarcasms, will probably dissuade you from looking into this Fourth Check to Antinomianism. They will tell you, that Logica Genevensis is "a very bad book," full of "calumny, forgeries, vile slanders, acrimonious sneers, and horrid misrepresentations." But candour, which condemns no one before he is heard, which weighs both sides of the question in an impartial balance, will soon convince you, that if every irony proceeds from spleen and acrimony of spirit, there is as much of both in these four words of my honoured opponent, "Pietas Oxoniensis," and "Goliath slain,' as in all the four Checks; and that I have not exceeded the apostolic direction of my motto, "Rebuke them sharply," or rather aлOTOμs, cuttingly, but "let brotherly love continue." " I do not deny that some points of doctrine, which many hold in great veneration, excite pity or laughter in my Checks. But how can I help it? If a painter, who knows not how to flatter, draws to the life an object excessively ridiculous in itself, must it not appear excessively ridiculous in The ironical titles of two books written by my opponent, to expose the proceedings of the university of Oxford, respecting the expulsion of six students belonging to Edmund Hall. his picture? Is it right to exclaim against his pencil as malicious, and his colours as unfair, because he impartially uses them according to the rules of his art? And can any unprejudiced person expect that he should draw the picture of the night, without using any black shades at all? If the charge of bitterness does not entirely set you against this book, they will try to frighten you from reading it, by protesting that I throw down the foundation of Christianity, and help Mr. Wesley to place works and merit on the Redeemer's throne. To this dreadful charge I answer, 1. That I had rather my right hand should lose its cunning to all eternity, than use it a moment to detract from the Saviour's real glory, to whom I am more indebted than any other man in the world. 2. That the strongest pleas I produce for holiness and good works are quotations from the homilies of our own church, as well as from the puritan divines, whom I cite preferably to others, because they held what you are taught to call "the doctrines of grace." 3. That what I have said of those doctrines recommends itself to every unprejudiced person's reason and conscience. 4. That my capital arguments in favour of practical Christianity are founded upon our second justification by the evidence of works in the great day; a doctrine, which my opponent himself cannot help assenting to. 5. That from first to last, when the meritorious cause of our justification is considered, we set works aside; praying God "not to enter into judgment with us," or 'weigh our merits," but to "pardon our offences" for Christ's sake; and gladly ascribing the whole of our salvation to his alone merits, as much as Calvin or Dr. Crisp does. 6. That when the word "meriting," "deserving," or 66 worthy," which our Lord himself uses again and again, is applied to good works or good men, we mean absolutely nothing but "rewardable," or qualified for the reception of a gracious reward. And, 7, that even this improper merit or rewardableness of good works is entirely derived from Christ's proper merit, who works what is good in us; and from the gracious promise of God, who has freely engaged himself to recompense the fruits of righteousness, which his own grace enables us to produce. 66 |